Page 35 of Stolen

Chapter 17

Gregor and Ariana drove in silence. She had nothing to say, and she knew the old alpha had no interest in comforting her.

She supposed she was lucky he was with her at all. The thought of facing down her brother terrified her. All her life, she had been trained to obey the men in her family without question—and even in childhood, Rico had usually made her hurt if she didn’t do what he said.

But sometimes… sometimes she’d been able to talk to him. Charm or flatter him out of his rage; calm him down.

Surely this time she could do the same. After all, if he had her, there was no reason to attack the town.

They rounded a curve in the road, and saw the convoy. Gregor slowed the truck to a crawl.

The convoy had stopped, though the trucks were still idling. A knot of men stood beside the lead vehicle, and she could see Rico at their center.

Ariana felt like she was in an elevator dropping out of control, no knowing when it would hit the bottom.

Rico was already angry. He was screaming at one of the men, who appeared to be a scout. “What do you mean they’re all gone?” he yelled. “The whole town? What the hell happened? How did they know we were coming?”

She couldn’t hear the man’s reply, but she heard the wet crunch as Rico smashed the scout across the face with the butt of his rifle, spinning him to his knees.

He didn’t stop—and no one tried to stop him. He’d gotten in three more blows before one of the men noticed Gregor’s truck and got Rico’s attention.

Immediately, half-a-dozen guns were trained on the truck. Gregor rolled slowly forward, and then came to a stop.

The world seemed to go silent. Ariana sat frozen in her seat. I can’t do this, she thought. I can’t.

But she had to. She’d made her choice, and she had to follow it through.

She took a deep breath, opened the door of the truck, and stepped out. “Rico,” she said. “We need to talk.”

He gazed at her, shocked to see her, and then his face twisted in a mad parody of a smile. “The time for talking is past, little sister.”

She could sense the waves of furious anger coming off him. Worse than that, she could see the insanity in his eyes.

She feared he was right; she never had been able to talk to him when he was in this mood. Still, she had to try.

Ariana walked slowly toward him, her hand held out in a placating gesture. “I’m sorry I left without speaking to you.”

“You had no right to leave at all.”

“You’re right,” she said gently. “I see that now. I was wrong. But that’s between you and me. The people in the town have nothing to do with it.”

“They gave you shelter,” he snarled. “They hid you from me.”

She shook her head. “I hid among them. They didn’t even know I was here.”

She kept walking slowly and carefully, the way one would approach a wild animal.

Rico said, “You lie. And you will pay. You and that traitor Hawk.”

He took a step forward, his eyes boring into hers, wild and tinged with the gold of his wolf.

“You dared to leave my pack? I am the head of the family now. I am your alpha. Everything in our territory belongs to me. Me, do you hear? You belong to me. Everyone does what I say. I finally have my due. It is all mine. No one is permitted to take what belongs to me, without retribution.”

With each word, the full force of his madness pounded at her. He was beyond sense, consumed with the dark, twisted desires that had grown in him since childhood.

To take what he wanted, to never be wrong or made to feel less than. He had to reign supreme in all ways, at all costs.

And anything or anyone who stood in his way had to be annihilated—in such a way that no one doubted his supremacy.