The only way I’d truly hurt them would be to take the power from them and put myself in charge. I couldn’t deny that seeing them meet a bloody end wouldn’t be a nice addition, but I knew what I had to do. I was going to fight for the pack that refused to fight for me. There was always going to be someone weak they’d try to break and I couldn’t let it keep happening. I had to stop them. And I had to make sure they couldn’t ever hurt anyone else again.
I stood. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. You’re the one who’s doing all the work,” she said.
I smiled and gave her a nod before making my way out of the tent. Kyle was standing outside, waiting for me. He tensed like a soldier standing at attention. Having him around was going to take a lot of getting used to.
Trusting Kyle was going to be damn near impossible, but I was going to need help. I needed to know if he really had my back. There had to be a way to test him, at least a little. Kyle was still a mystery to me. He’d been a fixture of my childhood, but he was quieter than others. I didn’t even know of any skeletons in his closet. Everyone in Wolf Creek had skeletons.
Then I remembered, he’d been short on details about how he’d gotten us out of Wolf Creek. He’d also hinted at some rather unsavory things. Was he hiding something? I had to know. If nothing more than to make sure I knew what I was getting into with our alliance.
“I need to know what you did when you got Alec out.”
“You don’t want to know,” he said. “If you don’t know, they can’t punish you if we get caught.”
I shook my head. “We’re so far beyond that and you know it. If we’re going to do this, we have two options: succeed and free our pack from the tyrant that is Ace Grant; or we get caught trying and we’re both killed.”
“So you’ve decided to go for it?” He lifted a surprised brow.
“Someone has to. Might as well be me,” I said with a shrug.
“Loving the confidence,” he deadpanned.
“I’ll work on it. But seriously, Kyle, tell me what happened,” I said.
He took a deep breath and looked down for a moment before looking back up. “I wasn’t on guard duty. Nobody was, honestly. They had him so drugged and bound, there wasn’t any risk of him getting out.”
I winced, hating the visuals in my mind. Imagining Alec dosed with toxin and tied up made my heart ache. I forgot how bad it must have been for him. Despite all he’d been through, all I did was worry about myself. I never even asked him if he was alright. Now I knew why only Kyle shifted on our way out of there.
“So what did you do?” I asked.
“I told someone I had intel on a break out. Convinced him that if he was the one to catch it, he’d get a boost in the inner circle.” Kyle cleared his throat. I could tell he didn’t want to talk about this.
“So when that person went to check, you made the switch?” I offered.
He nodded. “I killed him. Fast. As painless as I could. Then I got Alec out and dragged his body in.”
“Who?” I asked.
He swallowed. “I need you to know something.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“That I will not betray you. You are the rightful alpha,” he said.
My heart raced and I sucked in a little breath as fear clawed at my chest. With the comments in the car, I didn’t think it was possible, but my mind went right to the one person I shouldn’t give a shit about.
“Tyler?” The word came out breathy and small and I hated how much I cared. The bond had to be driving me. There was no other explanation but knowing that didn’t make my concern any less.
“Julian,” Kyle said.
My shoulders dropped in relief and I turned away from Kyle, hoping to hide some of the emotion in my expression. I ran a hand through my hair.Get a hold of yourself.I knew that mating bonds got stronger over time, and faded if a mate died, which meant Tyler wasn’t dead. He’d simply been the one person my mind decided to worry about in that moment.Stupid bond.
The momentary connection to Tyler passed and Kyle’s words sunk in. I turned around slowly. “Julian is dead.”
“He was a threat,” Kyle said. “You should have heard the things he said about you. And that was after Tyler told us he wanted to honor his claim on you. He had no respect for the bond. If he ever got you alone…”
All the terrible things Julian did to me over the years crashed in around me. I saw myself pinned on the floor in my mom’s trailer. I remembered when he pushed me down a flight of stairs at school. All the comments and snide remarks flooded in. Julian was a sadist. He enjoyed every second of being Tyler’s henchman. While Tyler had the mating bond as a reason - not an excuse, mind you - but a reason for being drawn to me, Julian’s reason was nothing more than enjoying causing pain.