Hunting Ground (Alpha & Omega 2)

"Dana didn't know who she was messing with," he murmured, charmed and awed at the same time.

"Damned right," Anna said. "She was hunting tonight. I don't know who was her initial prey... it might be like when a dominant comes into a new pack and looks for the nastiest brute around to fight and so establish his place. I don't know if it was a planned thing or if it just happened."

Charles caught a scent and turned his head. "Angus," he said, as the other wolf walked up to them.

"Let you scent me," Angus said, a little defensively.

"Thank you." Charles decided that wasn't enough as Angus still looked uneasy about interrupting them. "I appreciate it. What do you know?" Because the wolf had been there a little while, and likely would have ghosted back up the hill without saying anything if he didn't have something to contribute.

"I heard a bit of that," said Angus. "Anna's right. I tasted fae magic at work, but I didn't realize what she'd done until you attacked Chastel. She attempted to make you kill Chastel."

"I thought they couldn't do that," Anna said.

"Obviously it's not impossible," said Charles. "And I don't know why they don't. Just that they don't. Ever. They don't break their word, and they don't lie. Can't is how I've always heard it. Always. But she did."

"Ask the Marrok," suggested Angus.

Charles reached for his cell phone, then stopped. "No cell phone," he told them.

Anna giggled. "All those red T-shirts and no cell phone? I don't have mine either, left it in the car."

Angus handed his over to Charles. "Red T-shirts? Do I want to know?"

"Probably not," Charles told him as he dialed and put the phone to his ear. Then his da answered and he busied himself laying the whole story before the old bard. Bran listened all the way through without comment. When Charles was done, there was a small pause as his father sorted out what he wanted to discuss.

"Six vampires hunting together," he said finally.

It wasn't a question, but Charles answered it anyway. "Yes."

"I'll look into it. There've been a few stories-I'll check them out more thoroughly. They sound like mercenaries to me: assassins for hire. Angus hasn't had trouble with the Seattle vampires for a good long while-and Tom would have recognized them if they were local. Vampires in a minivan says rental to me-"

"I have the plate numbers," said Anna. "But it looked like a rental car to me, too. American minivan less than five years old." She rattled off three letters and three numbers.

The joy of phone calls with sharp-eared werewolves was that all phone calls ended up being conference calls whether he wanted them to or not. At least Charles didn't have to repeat everything anyone said.

He could hear pen running across paper as his da wrote the license-plate number on a piece of paper. "I'll check it out," he said when he was finished writing, "but I suspect she's right. We'll find them faster by other methods. You think they're trained by a werewolf?"

"They fought like a pack," Anna said. "Made their choices like a wolf pack would. Brought in magic that felt just like pack magic."

"That was Tom's assessment, too," Angus said. "Tom's been in a few fights-and can wield pack magic with the best of us."

There was another pause, then the Marrok said in that light pleasant tone that warned everyone who knew him that all hell was about to break loose. "Can you prove Dana caused the fight?"

Charles looked at Anna.

She shook her head. "No. You had to have been there."

"That's so," said Angus. "I saw it, but I doubt anyone else was looking who would recognize what they saw. She would have sent me after Charles, you know, after I refused to go. Bespelled me with my true name. I haven't answered to that name for nigh on a hundred years-and a hundred years ago I was no one. Not Alpha at the time, not even in this country. Be interesting to know how she found out what my birth name was. I doubt there are ten people who'd know after all this time."

"True-named, and you didn't follow orders?"

Angus threw his head back and laughed. " 'For God Almighty himself, Bran. I got my first look at the shivering little thing that is your daughter-in-law quaking in her boots in an auditorium filled with predators and thought your son had found a wererabbit."

"Thank you," said Anna with a nasty edge to her voice.

Not intimidated in the least, Angus grinned at her. But when he talked it was directed at Bran. "I thought she wasn't up to his weight. But that was before she killed a vampire and set that old fairy on her heel. Here's me bespelled by that fae-'Stop,' Anna told me. And damned if I didn't have to listen to her, fae compulsion or no fae compulsion. Broke Dana's hold just as certain as if you had broken it your own self."

"You should have seen her kill the witch a couple of weeks ago," Bran said affably. "Asil had been fleeing from this one for two hundred years, and my son's little 'rabbit' killed her while in human form and armed with nothing more than a knife."

"Asil?" asked Angus, suitably taken aback. "Asil the Moor?"

"That's the one," said Charles.

"Suddenly I don't feel so bad at being rescued by a rabbit," Angus said cheerfully.

Anna narrowed her eyes at him. "One more rabbit comment, and you'll regret it."

The Marrok spoke into the silence that followed Anna's threat. "If I come now-"

"No," said Charles in instant rejection.

His father sighed. "You did note the 'if,' didn't you?"

There was no good answer to that, so Charles just waited.

Satisfied that his son had been properly brought to order, Bran said, "I do not think it would help at this stage. It certainly wouldn't make any difference to the negotiations. Chastel did exactly as he intended-and we'll work around him."

"I am sorry, sir," said Charles.

"Not at all. It would not have mattered if I had been there. Until one of the Europeans decides to rid the world of Chastel, we'll all have to work around him. It would have been... very unexpected had he played ball with us."

"He's not an anti-Omega," said Anna. "He's an anti-Marrok."

Charles explained the reference, and his father laughed easily. Some people might think that would mean he wasn't angry-they'd be wrong. "I suppose both are correct."

"Why don't you take him out?" asked Angus suddenly.

"Not my place," Bran answered. And then said, proving he'd thought of it, "And then I'd have Europe to take care of, too. I can assure you that my plate is more than full. I do not need anything more to do. Are you looking for a job, Angus?"