I sat next to him, my leg pressing against his, and relished his warmth. I stared at our boots, both laces stained with red dust and nodded.

  “Let’s go out with a bang, huh?”

  Chaser grinned and knocked his boot into mine. “I was planning on it.”

  Chapter 21

  Sloane

  I woke the next morning to an empty bed.

  Rolling over, I smiled as I saw a hastily scrawled note from Chaser on the bedside table. Talking with Gasket. He really did have horrible handwriting.

  After a hot shower, I found my way to the garage in search of the two most important men in my life. Glancing around the dark space, I couldn’t spy them, but I found another crew instead.

  “Sloane!”

  I grinned as Ratchet waved me over. A whole bunch of familiar faces had gathered around the motorcycles that Chaser and I had stolen from the Hollow Riders. It still felt weird calling them that, kind of pathetic, actually. I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing—it really wasn’t something to joke about—and went to stand with the guys.

  “Hey,” I said, punching Spike on the arm. “Long time.”

  “Couple of weeks,” he replied. “You good?”

  “It depends on your definition of good.” I made a face and glanced around at the others.

  Stewie, Hopper, Ratchet, Spike, and Watts each had a beer in their hands and seemed happy enough to see me despite all the shit I’d gotten them into.

  “How’s Rhodes?” I asked, remembering he got shot at the cottage. That night and everything before it seemed as if it were covered in a haze—as if it had happened to someone else. I wondered why that was.

  “Butcher patched him up,” Hopper said. “He’s in Wagga Wagga with DeLuca lookin’ after the girls.”

  “Don’t let Shondra hear you refer to her as a girl,” Spike said with a chuckle.

  “She’s my woman,” the wolf immediately shot back and flipped the younger man the bird.

  I frowned, knowing the guys missed their other halves. I hoped whatever Chaser and Gasket were discussing would help bring a swift end to this. If I were separated from Chaser… Well, hell had nothing on it.

  “Wanna beer, Sloane?” Ratchet asked.

  “It’s a bit early for that,” I replied, raising my eyebrows.

  “Dark days call for partyin’ when we can,” Watts quipped.

  I tensed and looked at the two motorcycles. “Anything we can do with these? Scratch off the serial numbers? Strip them down?”

  “You want to strip down a Harley Davidson?” Spike’s mouth fell open. “Have we taught you nothing?”

  “That was Rocket’s bike,” Ratchet said with a snicker. “Bet he’s madder than a bee all shook up in a jar.”

  “A bee in a jar?” Watts scoffed. “Who’s a girl now?”

  “Don’t say derogatory things about the fairer sex,” I declared.

  “Don’t worry about that,” Spike said with a wink. “You’re not a girl, Sloane. You’re a woman.”

  The wolves burst out into laughter, the sound echoing off the walls. I snorted and shook my head.

  “Thanks,” I thumped him on the shoulder, “but I’m taken.”

  The laughter increased, and a couple of the guys began roughing one another up. The alcohol was starting to get to them, and I wondered if they’d have poor old Monroe run off his feet later. He was a vampire, but he looked like he was constantly on the edge of a heart attack.

  Turning, I surveyed the garage, my gaze raking over the racks of tools, tires, and equipment. Apart from us and a few motorcycles, the place was empty. No cars were being worked on, no customers were knocking on the door, the music was off, and the telephone sat unplugged. The walls still bore the marks of the car bomb the Hollow Men had sent flying through the roller doors, and I felt the ghostly hands of Harley around my neck.

  I shivered and rubbed my hands up and down my arms.

  “Someone walk over your grave?” Spike asked, standing beside me.

  “Yeah, I reckon.” The usually noisy shop was so quiet, it was eerie. If I closed my eyes and listened hard enough, I was sure I could hear the ghosts of Fortitude wolves past coming out to play.

  Taking another turn, I spotted Chaser’s sleek, black motorcycle in the back corner, and I smiled.

  “So that’s what happened to Chaser’s bike,” I said. “I was wondering if he’d lost it for good.”

  “You got a taste now?” Spike asked with a grin.

  “I felt the wind in my hair and a wave of bullets at my back,” I declared. “The rush was—”

  Chaser grunted, signalling his presence, and I looked up at him. He was so stealthy.

  “I’ll trade you a Harley Sportster for it,” I said, pointing at his sexy, black motorcycle.

  “It’s stolen.”

  “So?”

  “I like my motorcycle,” he declared. “Get your own.”

  “I’ve never seen you ride it.” I made a face and turned to Spike. “And he says he loves me.”

  The poor guy choked on his beer, causing the others to laugh again.

  “Gasket’s calling a meeting,” Chaser said to the assembled wolves. The smiles faded and hands tightened around their beer cans. “Common room, now.”

  His tone suggested talk was going to get serious, and they knew exactly what that meant. A fight was on the horizon, and it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. It was surreal watching them turn from big teddy bears into the frightening werewolves I knew they embodied. We could laugh and joke and talk nonsense, but when it came down to it, these were wolves who’d committed crimes beyond comprehension under Marini. At least they had the chops to attempt to turn their lives around. Some people were destined to get stuck in the cycle…like Rocket and his pack.

  I grasped Chaser’s hand as we followed the wolves into the compound. This was it. Speeches would be made, the plan set out, and Fortitude would unite…or it would all fall apart. Obviously, we were counting on it sticking together. One last battle to win the war for forever. Everyone’s forever.

  The common room was packed as we entered. Forty burly wolves were arranged on every available surface and leaning against the walls. The air was thick with cigarette smoke and tension, causing me to cough slightly. Chaser glanced at me, then tugged me forwards through the mass of bodies.

  “This is big,” I heard someone say. “Something’s going down.”

  “Yeah, it ain’t good,” another man replied.

  “You think Gasket found the renegades?”

  “Don’t know, but Chaser and Sloane are back.”

  “Ringer said they had a shootout with Rocket.”

  “Seriously?”

  Spotting Wren lingering in the back, I lifted a hand. She smiled as I sat on the arm of a couch next to Spike.

  “You find the strangest people,” the wolf said, following my gaze. “Never thought I’d see a witch helping a pack of wolves.”

  “I’ve seen a lot of strange things,” I told him.

  “Watchin’ her cast spells… It puts the fear of God in me, Sloane.” He shivered, his gaze locking on the witch across the room.

  I looked him over. “You like her?”

  “She’s pretty, hey?”

  I grinned and ruffled his hair.

  “Listen up!” Gasket bellowed, breaking up our conversation.

  Chaser leaned against the wall, half in the shadows, surveying the room.

  “I know I’ve asked a lot of you these past weeks,” Gasket went on. “More than I should. We’ve been split down the middle, forced into a civil war with wolves we once called brothers, lost good guys to their bullets, forced apart from our women… I know it’s tough, but we have one last thing to do.”

  The room filled with angry murmurs, the tension in the air thickening.

  “The Hollow Men and their Hollow Riders are a threat to us all,” Gasket went on. “We need to be in this together, or we have no chance of beating them.”

  “Why should we take our fight to the Hollow Men?” Bones asked. “Our fight is with the renegades.”

  “Because they threatened Sloane,” Gasket stated. “They threatened her, and they destroyed Chaser. Now they’ve got their sights on us.”

  “No thanks to them!” a wolf in the back shouted.

  “Yeah!” someone else chimed in. “Things were fine until she showed up!”

  “Screw this.” Chaser stood and looked at each wolf in turn. “You all know me,” he said, glaring at Bones. “You know what I did for the pack. You know what I was to Marini. But you don’t know who I was…or who I am.” The room was so silent, I could hear each man breathe. “The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. We face an organisation so dark, they put the things Marini did to shame. If we’re going to trust and fight alongside each other, then you should know my story.”

  “Just what we need,” someone muttered, “another secret past.”

  “Fortitude is a family,” Chaser stated. “This Fortitude. And true family doesn’t keep secrets.”

  I smiled up at him, proud of his strength and resolve to stand up to these men. This story wasn’t about me—it never was—it was about Chaser. I was just lucky to be a part of it.

  “Before I came to Fortitude, I was with the Hollow Men.”

  The room erupted, and several guys stood, including Ratchet.

  “What?” he exclaimed. “Are you bloody serious?”

  “I was with the Hollow Men,” Chaser repeated, holding up his hand. “I was recruited into their ranks, but I didn’t know it was King himself who’d turned me. He left me to fend for myself, to learn how to be a vampire, which was a bloody disaster. By the time he came back, I was begging him to take me in. He turned me into a monster to manipulate me into following him…and I did until I met Loretta, my wife. The woman they murdered because I went against them.” Several men sat down at this, their faces turning white, and several pairs of eyes glanced at me. “I stood before King and pleaded for her life, but he killed her anyway. That’s when I came out the pack, but instead of helping me, the alpha bound me to Fortitude for eternity while the Hollow Men only grew in power. For a hundred years, I killed for every alpha. I killed for Marini. I had no choice, everything was taken away from me…” Chaser glanced at me. “Until I met Sloane.”

  I flushed as I felt the entire pack turn and stare.

  Chaser swallowed hard before he continued, “After I came to Fortitude, I let go of my humanity. I forgot about the revenge I wanted for my wife. I forgot what it felt like to have someone care. I relished the kill. I liked not being able to feel the pain anymore. I was broken…until Sloane put me back together.” He lifted his head. “But what I do know is how to fight, so that’s what I’m going to do. Now I fight for Sloane. I fight for Fortitude. And I fight, not only for her life but yours, too. The Hollow Men are going down. Rocket and the renegades are going down. And I’m going to make King suffer for what he did to my wife and for what he’s threatened to do to Sloane. He’s going choke on his blood, just like Loretta did.”

  The room was silent for so long, I couldn’t tell which way things were going to fall. The mention of his affiliation with the Hollow Men had put everyone on edge, but the fire in Chaser’s eyes when he vowed the ultimate revenge was chilling. I knew what he was capable of, but these men didn’t. He’d kept himself apart for years, hiding his true nature, but now it was all coming out. Now they understood his magical bond with the pack…and his feelings for me.

  No more secrets.

  “We’ve tried to do it on our own, but we failed. That’s why I’m asking,” he went on. “We can’t take the vampires down without you.”

  The wolves glanced at each other as if they were deliberating telepathically. There was so much I still didn’t understand about werewolf code of conduct. Fortitude was a democracy now, even though they still had an alpha, but that didn’t mean they would help us because just Gasket said so.

  Please, please, please… I crossed my fingers and my toes.

  “Then let him choke,” Hopper said, rising to his feet. “No one threatens our alpha and gets away with it.”

  “Let him choke,” Spike said, adding his voice.

  “Let the bastard choke!” Ratchet shouted.

  One by one, the Fortitude Wolves stood, adding their consent, thumping their feet on the ground. I slipped my hand into Chaser’s as I rose.

  “Alpha?” I murmured into his ear.

  He grunted and leaned into me. “That’s what you are, Sloane. You may have deferred leadership, but you’re alpha by rights.”

  I bit my bottom lip and began worrying it. I’d been hoping the wolves had forgotten about that, but it seemed no one had.

  “This is the job to end all jobs,” Gasket said. “The Hollow Men and their Hollow Riders are our enemies. They threaten not only our lives but the lives of those we love. That doesn’t fly in our pack.”

  “I’ll say,” Ratchet drawled.

  “So how are we going to take them down?” Watts asked. “They’re out of our league.”

  “We’ve got an ex-Hollow Man on our crew,” Hopper said, glancing at Chaser. “He’s got the info, right?”

  “I hope it counts for something,” Chaser said. “It’s been a hundred years, but I do know King is the target.”

  “If King is gone, someone else will take his place,” Gasket said. “Then we’ll be stuck in an endless war.”

  “So, it’s not just a drive-by we’re planning?” Spike groaned and rubbed his temples.

  “No, it’s a full-scale dismantle job,” Hopper said. “Strip the shell, disconnect the battery, remove the wires and filters, drain the coolant and oil, then take out the engine.”

  I shot a look at Chaser, my lips curving into a grin. Good analogy.

  “King is the key,” he said, silencing the wolves. “He turned all the vampires in the Hollow Men’s ranks. They’re bound to him by more than blood. If he dies, then they’ll do ninety-five percent of the dismantling for us.”

  “Like an alpha bond?” Spike asked.

  I straightened up. “What’s that?”

  “It’s a pack thing,” the wolf explained. “The alpha is in control of the wolves in the pack, transferring their will onto the other wolves.”

  “Oh…” I murmured, understanding why everyone had seemed to be more chill now that Marini was gone. His lust for crime and violence had influenced the others and their personalities to the point they were complacent…even if they disagreed. King had created the Hollow Men with the vampire equivalent.

  “We do it concurrently,” Chaser said. “Go for King and hit the Halcyon at the same time.”

  “Once we start, we can’t stop,” Gasket said. “There’s only one way to finish this for good, and it’s a crap shot, but we have no other option but to dive into shark-infested waters and go for broke.”

  The assembled wolves muttered among one another, but at least no one got up and left. Several men looked shaken up by the prospect but they didn’t lose their cool.

  “What’s the plan?” Watts asked. “Where do you want us?”

  “Mayhem detail,” Chaser said, his eyes shining with mischief I’d never seen before. Man, it was hot.

  “Hell yeah,” Spike said, fist-pumping the air.

  “We need a crew to engage the Hollow Riders,” Gasket said. “And a team to create chaos in the Halcyon.”

  “The casino?” Hopper asked. “That place is going to be tighter than a vir—”

  “Yeah,” I said, jabbing a finger at him. “It’s going to be tight, you might get a taste of blood, but we need a distraction to get inside.”

  Gasket narrowed his eyes.

  “Chaser and I are going after King,” I declared. “You guys are going to strip the engine for us.”

  “You’re going into that hole?” Stewie asked, looking shocked. He hadn’t said a word until now, which showed how much he cared. It was sweet, but unnecessary.

  I nodded. “Like Spike said earlier, I’m not a girl, I’m a woman. I want to see that son of a bitch choke.”

  The mood in the room lightened, but there was still heaviness on all our shoulders. A lot of blood was going to be shed in the upcoming days, and they were going forward with it, knowing they might never come home. There was no payment, no spoils to plunder, so why were they still here? Chaser said it earlier. Under Gasket, Fortitude had become a true family.

  “Right,” Gasket boomed, rising to his feet. “Get yourselves together and your head in the fight. We head out in two days.”

  “Two days?” I asked Chaser. “I know you said you’d need ten, but—”

  “We need to hit them before they realise we’re coming,” he replied. “It has to be sooner rather than later.”

  “But the full moon—”

  “Sloane, the pack’s got this, okay?”

  Gasket approached Chaser once all the wolves had dispersed. “I knew, but I…” He shook his head. “Thanks.”

  Chaser tilted his head to the side. “For?”

  “Telling the truth to the pack. About who you are.”

  Chaser looked slightly uncomfortable as the older werewolf grasped his shoulders, but luckily, there wasn’t a hug involved. I wasn’t sure Chaser could handle it.

  I watched the two men’s bromance ignite, and I hoped to God the plan would work. For all our sakes.

  Chapter 22

  Chaser

  “It’s a decent plan,” Gasket said as we stood to the side of the common room.

  Sloane had moved off towards Wren as the wolves began talking amongst themselves.

  “It’s a long shot, is what it is,” I drawled, crossing my arms over my chest. “The odds are against us.”

  “They’ve always been against us.”

  Voices began to rise around us, and I knew the pack was coming to the same conclusion. We’d been backed into a corner with little chance of escaping, and the only path we could take was the one that included bloodshed.