“Mercer.” I gripped Dane’s arm, but he didn’t slow until we cleared the trees. “You’re here too?”
Air rushed into my lungs, but I smelled nothing. Not wolf. Not man. Not truth or lie.Nothing. Our fears about him relying on witches’ charms had proven true. And he wasn’t alone in his bipedal form.
Zoe stood behind him, wearing the exact outfit as Jael, the nocturnal resident who raised my hackles.
Just what had her role in our recent misfortunes been? Nothing good, I was sure. Even when the acts she committed made her hesitate, she always pushed through her unease. Eager to prove herself and climb the ranks.
“Where else would I be?” A cold smile framed his mouth. “I didn’t let your father go for free.”
Dread pulled in my stomach as Dane set me on my feet beside him. “What do you mean?”
“The pack is divided, as I’m sure you’ve heard. I want my people back. I want my families reunited. I want dragons out of our lives for good. The only way that happens is to take out Sartori, and the best way to ensure no one gets any ideas about aligning with the Walshes is to make sure everyone knows they’re the ones who killed himaftermy show of mercy.”
A brutal tactic guaranteeing the pack was too afraid to ask for asylum from Mercer with the Walshes.
“I couldn’t make up my mind if you were playing us,” I admitted. “I almost convinced myself you and Carmichael agreed to this dustup to give him freedom from pack law to hunt me without dragging the rest of the pack down with him. But that’s not enough for either of you, is it?” I took a risk and pinned the blame on him. “That’s why you’ve been bombing Brentwood and poisoning its residents.”
“No innocents were killed,” Zoe blurted, stepping forward with her fists clenching at her sides. “No one was seriously wounded either.”
“Don’t sound so proud of your failures,” Mercer growled at her. “The other explosions should have gone as smoothly as taking out the Sartori spy, but you couldn’t even do that right. You picked a hell of a time to have a crisis of conscience. One body or ten doesn’t change the fact you’re a killer.”
Neither rushed to take credit for the poisonings. Did that mean Sartori wasn’t behind those?
The scent on the door at GSG had been wolf but not Sartori. That was hardly definitive proof Carmichael was innocent. He often hired pros to keep his hands clean and his pack out of his shadier business.
If only I had listened to my gut that day. “What about Jael?”
“She’s fine,” Zoe answered when Mercer remained silent. “I only borrowed her clothes.”
“These measures weren’t taken out of malice. There are those among us who believe we should ally with you.” Mercer gestured Zoe back. “The same people who refused to speak to you or even be in a room with you alone want to crawl on their bellies and begyouto protectusfrom your new clan. All because Sartori had to air his dirty laundry on his way out the door.”
Ah.
Now they all knew. That I wasn’t his daughter, or a latent. As much as I wanted to be upset at him about outing me, one final betrayal, I was glad he told them the truth. Without those lies tangling around me, I felt…free. Of him. Of them. Of my past.
“Allies is a bit much, but Rían and I had hoped to forge a truce with you.” The odds of that plummeted with his confirmation he had people setting off bombs in our territory. “I don’t want anything to do with you or the pack. I’m happy where I am, with who I’m with. I only kept the pack bond to find Carmichael. I have no ambitions where the Sartori pack is concerned. I want them out of our lives as much as you want us out of yours.” I drew in a long breath. “For the sake of theWalshes and the Sartoris, I don’t see why you and I can’t come to an agreement without spilling blood.”
“Except your father’s, of course.”
“You know him better than anyone else, and you’re of the opinion he won’t stop until he gets what he wants. You’re poised to kill him now. You almost did during the challenge. So, you’ll have to forgive me if your attempts at guilting me don’t hold water. Especially when we both know clanandpack law state he should be executed for his crimes against my parents, yet he never got so much as a slap on the wrist.”
“That’s the beauty of being an alpha,” he mused. “If you beat down your people enough, physically or mentally, they won’t care what you do as long as you don’t do it to them.”
“You were okay with that?”
“Brainwashing takes time. Reversing it? Can take a lifetime.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
Try as I might, I still fought against the biases and lies drummed into me, and I worried part of me would always react first before I self-corrected and shut down those old habits.
“I couldn’t act until I had a solid base of followers I could trust to stand with me against Sartori. I knew he had his hooks in the pack, but I didn’t realize he had sunk them in so deep with so many that they would leave their homes and extended families behind to follow him when he left with nothing.”
Egotistical as he was, Carmichael would never allow his pride to put his goals at risk. He would have had money tucked away, deeds to properties and homes too. I doubt he expected to use them to pad his fall from alphadom, but there was every reason to believe he hoarded funds and safe houses in case he ever had to run with me.
A fact Mercer should know, or at least suspect, given the depths of Carmichael’s obsession.
Yet Carmichael ended up out here, in the middle of nowhere.
