Well, at least Dustin understood the plan better now. Axton had been pretty damn vague when he’d ordered him to apply for the Blackwing Crew. Honestly, Dustin had been on this little suicide mission thinking he was just supposed to kill the dragons, not get information about Harper from them first.
“You said you almost killed them,” Axton said, standing and slinking closer, insanity in his bright silver eyes.
“Yeah, when the A-Team came after them. I almost had a chance. Kane and Rowan were pumped full of drugs and their dragons were suppressed.”
“Who’s the A-Team?” Jace asked.
“Oh, that’s what me and the D-Team named the asshole shoo-ins for the crew. Except they weren’t really there to join. Somebody sent them after the Blackwing Dragons.”
“You ain’t no D-Team, you dumbass!” Axton barked out. “Don’t lump yourself with them. You’re pack. You’re Valdoro. You’re mine. Don’t you grow sympathy for those shifters. They’re cannon fodder. They’re already dead.”
Dustin dipped his gaze to Axton’s work boots as the faces of the D-Team flashed across his mind. Logan, Winter, Beast…Emma. She was just a helpless human. He didn’t like Axton’s threat. “What did they do wrong?”
“Weak!” Axton yelled, spittle flying from his lips. “You’re so fuckin’ weak. You stink of it. Dad was right. Fucking submissive werewolf, what good are you? No good to me. You fail and fail and fail. Where were you when we tried to kill that Bloodrunner bitch, Lexi? Huh? I didn’t see you hunting. I looked around and, poof, my own flesh-and-blood brother has tucked tail and run like a coward.”
The heat of fury blasted up Dustin’s cheeks. He hadn’t run away. He just hadn’t hunted the human because Axton had been wrong to order the pack to murder her. Axton had brought the wrath of the Bloodrunners on himself, but Dustin could never, ever say that out loud if he wanted to stay alive.
Jace stepped closer and ran his hands through his spiked hair. “Look, Dustin, you said they were looking for paired-up shifters. I can get you a female.”
“Won’t work. They closed down applications.”
“Okay,” Jace said, “then pair up with a female already up for consideration.”
“Emma is the only girl, and she’s human.”
“Perfect. Manipulate her. Use her. Fuck her, I don’t care. Get in the fucking crew so we can move onto the next step of this plan. Look at your brother.” Jace gestured to where Axton had wandered off to the edge of the tree line. He was taking a piss and talking to himself. “Losing the pack was hard on him. The loss is too much on his wolf. If he’s going to be okay, he has to have vengeance. His wolf needs it to steady out so we can start rebuilding Valdoro.”
Dustin didn’t like this at all. He’d always gone along with his brother’s decisions because he was the dominant sibling. And when Axton took alpha of one of the biggest packs in North America, Dustin had been there to watch him rise, backing him every step of the way. But this? Going against the dragons to get to another equally lethal dragon? And it wasn’t Jace or Axton taking the risk. They’d put it all on his shoulders.
“Brother,” Axton said, suddenly blurring to a stop in front of him. His eyes were almost lucid and had darkened to the color of storm clouds. When he cupped Dustin’s head and rested his own forehead against Dustin’s, it almost felt like when they were kids again. When they were friends. His eyes were full of desperation when he pleaded, “Save me, brother.” A long snarl rattled Axton’s throat, and he closed his eyes tightly. “Save us,” he said in a monstrous voice.
And what else could he do? Axton was all Dustin had in this world. He was family. He was pack. “Okay,” he murmured.
“Swear on Mom,” Axton said, like when they were kids.
Dustin swallowed hard at the pain in his chest. “I swear on Mom.”
Axton slapped the back of his head a couple times—too hard. “Good boy. Now Change. I need to bleed something.”
“What?” Dustin asked. He looked from Axton to Jace, but the Second only shrugged.
Axton walked a few paces away and then turned, his eyes blazing white. “Give me your wolf.” A cruel smile twisted his face. “First you failed, and then you questioned me. I can’t let that slide, and you know it.” Power rippled through the air as his brother gave the order. “Change. Now.”
Dustin fell to his knees and tried to fight it, but this was part of being submissive, the part he hated the most about himself. It was part of being at the bottom of the pack. He was eternally stuck following the order of monsters. His head snapped back, and a whimper of pain wrenched through his throat as he fought with all his strength. His wolf was being dragged from his skin, though, his bones breaking slowly. Axton was watching with a satisfied smile that said he got pleasure out of watching him hurt. He always had.
Dustin hated and loved him. Hated and loved.
A gray wolf exploded from Axton’s body, and Dustin yelled as his own black wolf ripped out of his skin.
And then there was pain.
Chapter Two
Emma stopped sketching the dark, sleek lines of a panther in her journal and narrowed her eyes at the window. A set of headlights had just drifted over, briefly casting a line of bright light through the small opening between the thick black-out curtains.
She slipped off the bed, padded over to the window, and lightly brushed the curtain aside in case it was Beast returning late. He was terrifying at nights, as if his animal was ready to hunt. Nocturnal carnivores even set off her dull human senses.