Lycan Contempt

Chapter Fifteen

Did the little fuckers think that he was born yesterday? It was completely obvious that they’d set up an ambush for him, and the smartest and quickest way to end this charade was to walk right into it. Kish smiled. Wouldn’t they be surprised when they realized he was an ancient and that they were about to get their asses handed to them on plates?

If they thought they’d waltz in on his land and threaten his female, they were about to get a dose of reality. He watched the young rogue lying by the tree.

Every once in a while he’d give off a yelp of pain.

Fake pain. Hel, the blood they’d used for the fake injury wasn’t even lycan. It was rabbit blood. He wondered if the second rogue, the one hiding, no doubt waiting for Kish to take the bait, honestly thought Kish wouldn’t scent his closeness.

They’d done some half-assed attempts at concealing the scent of the second rogue, but Kish wondered how any of these rogues survived if they thought these poorly executed, il though out ambushes worked. A split second before he revealed himself, another scent hit him.

Brady.

Anger engulfed him. Why hadn’t he stayed with Georgia? Had something happened to her? The fear slid over the anger at the thought of her being hurt. He backed away with the silent ease of an ancient predator. The young rogues never knew he was close or that he’d just retreated.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

“It’s a trap.”

“No fucking shit. You think I’m an idiot?”

“There’s more. I was in on it.”

The claws grew even longer from his fingertips and curled against his palms, and his fangs ached to pierce Brady’s throat. Instead, he punched him in the nose hard enough to enjoy the satisfying crunch of cartilage.

“What the fuck are you talking about? And you better explain quick before I kil you.” Kish clenched and unclenched his fists, aching to take another shot at Brady.

He couldn’t deny that the determined and quiet way Brady had taken the punch that had been hard enough to knock him back a couple of steps had effectively conveyed Brady’s sincerity in making amends.

“Those bastards took my sister. They told me they’d trade her for Georgia.” Brady raised his hands and stepped back when Kish came toward him. “I won’t lie. I was going to folow through with it until only a while ago.”

“And why should I believe you? If you fucking hurt her—”

“I didn’t. She’s safe in the shelter. She’s the one that made me change my mind. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let her get hurt. She told me if I saved you, she’d wilingly give her life to save my sister. No matter how bad I want to save my sister, I can’t let Georgia die because of me. She has a lot of faith in you. She swears up and down that you can help me save my sister without trading her.”

Georgia had faith in him? Now that was a new one for him. No woman had had faith in him before, and it felt damn good. This was the first time in his life he felt like puffing out his chest with pride. His woman had faith in him. Was it possible that Georgia realy could love him for him? Was it possible that she could be the one he’d waited for his entire life, the one that looked at him and saw him not a bunch of scars?

“Do you know where your sister is?”

“No. But if we contain those two rogues, I’m sure we can come up with some creative ways to make at least one of them squeal. I’m fairly certain that they are the only two involved in this fucking charade, but I can’t be one hundred percent sure. If there are more, we can’t risk letting one of them get away to raise a warning. They want Georgia. They’l be pissed when they figure out they aren’t getting her. They wil kil Krista if they make it back to her.”

“Won’t happen. But I might just kil you when this is al over with.”

“I wouldn’t blame you,” Brady muttered.

“If you fucking double-cross me—”

“I won’t. I know that doesn’t mean much at the moment, but I won’t.”

Kish looked down at Brady’s injured leg and frowned.

“Yeah. I’m an asshole, but I was scared they’d kil Krista. I was injured. Just not as bad as I let on.”

“I’l deal with you after this. But right now, here’s how this is going to go down.” Kish explained his plan to Brady, and Brady nodded in agreement.

“Let’s go kick some ass.”

“Don’t mind if we do.”

Kish walked into the clearing and stood about thirty feet from the rogue. The silver fur of the wolf was matted with blood on the side to make a good show of the fake injury. Kish stuck to the plan and went closer, playing right into their hands. Or so they thought. When he reached the silver rogue, he bent to get a closer look.

“What the fuck happened to you?” He reached out, knowing ful wel what would happen next, knowing that the pain was going to piss him off more than he already was, but he did it nonetheless. If for some reason Brady fucked with him again, he was confident he could take al three of them if it came to it. He was sure Brady was aware of that fact as wel, which brought him some measure of comfort that the man was not going to double-cross him, or would it be triple-cross him?

Just before he touched the silver fur, the rogue leapt up and clamped onto his arm. He screamed out in fury and pain. This little fucker was going to get a serious ass-kicking as soon as his sidekick was under control. He could have easily tossed the weaker rogue aside, but he put on a show of struggle to lure the other rogue in with a false sense of confidence.

He didn’t want the asshole to run, didn’t want to risk him getting away. Smal risk it was, but stil a risk.

Within moments, the other rogue came into the clearing just as planned. This rogue was stil in human form. A smug smile lifted the corner of his lips, and Kish couldn’t wait to see that smugness turn to pain.

They took Brady’s sister and wanted Georgia in trade? Yeah. He was going to kil them both. He wondered if Brady truly understood the nature of rogues. Obviously not, for if he did, he’d realize there was little chance that the rogues would have kept to their end of the bargain.

There was even lesser of a chance that when they found Krista, she’d be unscathed. Rogues were notorious abusers of women, and Kish hoped that they hadn’t had time to do much damage to Brady’s sister since they’d captured her.

Kish let the silver wolf take him to the ground and maintain the ilusion that he had overpowered him. He panted heavily as if in distress. Distress was the furthest thing on his mind. He counted the seconds until he could take his anger out on the little prick standing over him. That opportunity came only moments later when Brady stepped up behind the other rogue and put him in a choke hold.

An instant later, Kish had the silver wolf by the neck. The wolf struggled and yelped in fear. He warred with himself about kiling the rogue. Maybe he could be saved. Maybe he should render him unconscious and send him to Sanctuary, but then he shifted to human form. He tightened the choke hold to accommodate the smaler human neck, and the rogue lashed out over and over.

“I’m going to fucking take my time with that little bitch of yours when I get my hands on her. I’m going to ride her until she’s broken.” The rogue spit the hateful words at him.

He gave him a good smack to the head and puled him up to face him. “Do you have any idea what you’ve gotten yourself into, pup?”

Kish barely noticed the struggle going on between Brady and the other rogue, knowing Brady would never let the rogue escape with his sister at stake. He watched the change of emotions flicker over the pup’s face. Anger, hatred, realization, fear. He didn’t miss the way the pup’s eyes widened when he finaly realized Kish was partialy changed, when he finaly realized exactly how fucked he was.

“Yeah. You’re fuckity fuck fucked. Too bad you didn’t realize who you were messing with before you put this pathetic attempt at a trade in motion.”

“Your rules mean nothing to us. They are ridiculous.”

“They aren’t just my rules.” Kish gave the pup a good shake. “They are lycan rules. And lycan rules say you are supposed to protect our women, not hurt them. You are a lycan. Whether you like it or not, those rules apply to you.”

“I don’t go by your rules,” the pup sneered.

“You have two choices, son. Reformation at Sanctuary or die.”

“I wil never folow your rules. And I wil do as I please to any woman I find. It’s my right as a predator. Al humans should fear us. We are superior to them. Especialy women.”

The pup bit down hard on Kish’s hand and caught him off guard. When the rogue broke loose from his hold and ran, Kish knew the outcome was going to be dire. Before the rogue got ten feet away, Kish leapt into the air and kicked him in the lower back, sending him sprawling to the ground with a loud thud.

He placed his knee between the center of his shoulders and wrapped his arm around his throat once again.

Kish was saddened by what he had to do next, but he had no choice. He snapped the rogue’s neck and let his limp body fal back to the ground. He’d given him a chance, but he’d heard the truth in the pup’s words. The souless, black eyes that had stared at him in defiance were devoid of emotion, devoid of compassion, devoid of any trace of humanity. Yet the loss of one of his own was hard, especialy with their already-dwindling numbers.

He turned to face the other rogue stil being held by Brady.

“How about you? You have a change of heart on your outlook of our laws?” Kish looked down at the dead rogue’s body and back with a raised brow.

“You fucking asshole!”

Kish smacked the rogue hard. “Where’s the girl?”

The rogue spit on him, and Kish returned the insult with a fist to the nose. The rogue yelped in pain.

“You have one more chance to do this the easy way, and then things are going to get messy, bloody, and painful real fast for you.” Kish stared down into the pup’s face, hoping beyond hope that he could save this one.

He didn’t detect the complete lack of soul and compassion in these eyes like he had in the other pup.

This one stil had a chance to change. But would he choose to do so?

For several moments, the rogue stared back defiantly, but finaly, that glimmer of hope shined brighter. “Fine! I didn’t want to do this to begin with.

I only did it because my brother wanted to.”

“Son of a bitch,” Kish muttered.

“Christ,” Brady said.

Kish felt bad for the pup. He’d obviously had a very bad role model. Hel, it wouldn’t have taken much longer until this rogue would have been as lost as his brother.

“We have to bury him,” the pup whispered.

“After we get some things settled, I’l take care of your brother,” Kish said.

“Wait,” Brady said. “I want to know if either of you pricks touched my sister.”

Fury burned in Brady’s eyes, and for the pup’s sake, Kish hoped he had the right answer because if this one had touched Krista, he would meet the same fate as his brother had only at Brady’s hands. While Kish would be saddened by yet another loss to his species, he’d alow Brady to take his rightful vengeance.

The pup swalowed hard, looked at his brother’s body, Kish, then Brady. “Mike. H-he did some stuff to her, but he didn’t rape her. There wasn’t time.”

Brady punched the pup in the face, and he dropped to his knees. Brady bent and covered the pup’s throat with one hand and began squeezing.

“What did you do?” Brady said through gritted teeth.

“I didn’t do anything. I swear it.” The pup choked.

“I’ve done a lot of stuff, but I’ve never harmed a woman. I just couldn’t do it. Mike said I was a weak fag for it.”

The pup’s face started to turn blue and tears ran down his cheeks. Finaly, Brady released him, and he gulped for air over and over, reminding Kish of a fish out of water.

“Are you and your brother the only two involved in this pathetic scheme?” Kish asked.

“Yes,” he said hoarsely while rubbing his throat.

“What do you want to do with him?” Brady asked Kish.

“If he’s wiling to reform, we can take him to the shelter. We’l get Georgia and leave him in there until we can arrange for someone to pick him up from Sanctuary. Of course, this is al riding on if he’l give us your sister’s location, and that she’s recovered unharmed.”

“I’m wiling.”

“What is your name, pup?” Kish looked at the rogue and doubted he was much more than eighteen or nineteen years old.

“Wade.”

“Wel, Wade, today might be your one chance at a decent life.” Kish motioned in front of him. “Start walking.”

“What about my brother?”

“I told you he’d be taken care of. I keep my word.

If you ever learn one thing in life, boy, learn that a man’s word is worth its weight in gold.”

Wade seemed as if he wanted to argue, but after a few moments, his shoulders sagged in defeat and he started walking in the direction Kish had motioned.

“Once we get to the shelter, you go and get your sister. Let me know when you have her. If she’s safe, the pup lives and gets to go to Sanctuary as promised. Otherwise . . . wel, let’s hope for Wade’s sake there is no otherwise.”

“There isn’t! I swear. When we left her, she was fine.”

Brady cuffed him on the back of the head none too gently. “You better fucking hope so.”