Read Online Deadly Pack (Deadly Trilogy Book 3) by Ashley Stoyanoff - Free Book Online Page B

crept in last night, or I guess technically it was this morning, right after we’d left the pack to deal with the dead cougars.  While I’d cleaned out the deep gouges that the cougar had left in his shoulder and watched as it healed, Aidan explained why he didn’t want me to call Beck, which was basically that they should have been there to start with.  He then told me he was exhausted, walked me to bed, pulled me into his arms, and promptly went back to sleep.  Surprisingly enough, I fell asleep with him.  I didn’t know what to make of that, but I thought that it probably had something to do with the fact that I was emotionally tapped out and couldn’t bring myself to feel anything about the attack one way or another.
    When he woke me up for the second time this morning, he’d been all business, laying out exactly how he felt about the team.  He’d explained again why we hadn’t called them about the little cougar hiccup that had happened on our front deck last night.  I tried to reason with him, telling him that the guys were probably sleeping when Luken had tried them the first time, but Aidan had managed to poke holes in that logic.  They were werewolves.  They had awesome hearing.  The phone ringing would have woken them up.  When I tried to say that maybe they’d turned off their phones or at least turned off the ringers, I only managed to make matters worse for the guys.  The enforcers always needed to be reachable, so turning off their phones was just as bad as not answering the call.
    And not answering the call last night had made Aidan’s doubt grow.  He needed to be sure about them.  Sure that they were loyal.  So I’d listened to him, and argued my points, but in the end, he stood firm and I’d relented, agreeing that the meeting was probably a good idea.
    Aidan took my hand in his and threaded our fingers together.  “We’ve been over this, Jade,” he said, sounding more than a little exasperated.  “We’re just going to talk to them.”  He tugged on my hand, pulling me with him as he started across the parking lot.
    Dragging my heels, I followed, dreading every single step we took closer to the doors.  Talk to them was code for deciding whether or not the team still had a future within the pack.  Okay, maybe that wasn’t entirely right.  They would always have a place here in Dog Mountain with the pack, just maybe not as enforcers.
    I hadn’t told Aidan outright, but there was a chance (a teeny, tiny chance) that his concerns were valid.  Even though, in the end, the guys had stepped up and done the right thing, they’d also played us.  They’d helped Jared.  They’d wanted revenge.  And if it weren’t for the fact that they’d found out that Jared had known where the cougars were, I was pretty sure they would have helped him further, or at least continued to turn a blind eye to what he’d been doing.  And yeah, it really didn’t look good that they’d been called last night and had been unreachable.  So I completely got where Aidan was coming from on this issue.
    But still, they’d turned over their brother.  Their own flesh and blood.  Even though they knew that he would die for his crimes against the pack.
    The sun was bright this morning, almost too bright, after the dreary day yesterday.  The parking lot shimmered, still wet from the storm.  In some places the rain had frozen, leaving a slippery ultra-thin layer of ice on the concrete.
    I glanced up at him, squinting against the glare.  “Aidan,” I said, and paused, waiting a beat, before asking, “Why are you pushing this?  They’ve proven their loyalty to you — to us.  What’s talking to them going to change?”
    Aidan gave me a long, serious look.  “I need to be sure.  There’s too much at stake here.  We can’t move on your dad without knowing if they’ll turn on us again.”  He paused and let out a slow breath.  “I can’t trust your judgment when it comes to them,