Page 98 of Hunted

“Yes. But combining such powerful bloodlines sometimes comes with terrible consequences. Nicoletta recognized immediately that she wouldn’t be able to control Matteo. He’d been prone to dark mood swings and bouts of aggression as a child, which only grew more violent as he entered adolescence. He killed animals. Tormented his brother. The local children wanted nothing to do with him. When he manifested as such a powerful magic user,” Guillermo shook his head, “I’m sure you’re not surprised to learn there was talk among the pack leaders of destroying him before he could hurt anyone else.”

“And his pack in Italy called on you to do it.”

“Yes. I was furious that Nicoletta had kept the boys’ existence a secret from me for over a decade, incensed that I had been manipulated with the intention of creating powerful offspring. Nicoletta begged me to work with Matteo, to teach him rather than destroy him. She believed, perhaps blindly, that if he learned to harness his power, the bouts of aggression would stop. Foolishly, in hindsight, I agreed to try.”

“I’m assuming things didn’t go well.”

“No.” Guillermo pinched the bridge of his nose. “At first, Matteo was receptive to our lessons. Nicoletta had been adamant I was not to reveal the true nature of our relationship to either of her sons, though I felt sure Matteo already suspected. I made frequent trips to Italy that first year. But learning to focus and control his power did nothing to center his anger or subdue the wild rage poisoning his wolf. When I learned of the police reports detailing attacks in the area, I refused to train him anymore.”

“You just let him go on killing?” I couldn’t keep the edge from my tone. “You knew he was psychically torturing people, even back then. I’ve read the reports out of Italy. You could have stopped him, prevented all of this.”

“Matteo is my son.” Guillermo shook his head, voice tired. “Whatever else he’s become, he’s my blood. You’ll understand one day, River, when you first hold a child of yours and Ellie’s in your arms. I could no sooner have destroyed Matteo, no matter what he had done, than I could have ordered the deaths of you, Brody or August.”

“So why didn’t you tell us who he really was when he first applied to be a Tracer four years ago?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Guillermo shook his head. “I was ashamed that I had let things go on as long as they had. And naively, I suppose I still hoped I could get Matteo to see reason. His family had been exiled from their pack by that point, told they’d be killed if they returned. I arranged for a place for Lorenzo to stay and finish his schooling on the west coast at Nicoletta’s request. She was staying in Scotland with the Davies pack at the time, but they wouldn’t take her sons in. They were too much of a liability.”

“And so Matteo showed up here.”

“Yes. He claimed he wanted to join the Tracers. I tried to be gentle as I told him that I couldn’t accept his application. I told him that I wanted him to get help, that he had been overextending his neural manipulator abilities, and that if he didn’t stop, he would cause irreversible damage. Matteo laughed at me, told me I was afraid of him, which I’m sure he could correctly sense was the case, and threatened to reveal the truth of who I was to all of you. I told him to do what he must, but that my answer remained the same. He walked out, and apparently went to the U.S. military with an offer to take down the Tracers in exchange for them forming a black ops werewolf team under his command.”

“There have been no more attacks on shifter or vampire targets in the past forty-eight hours.”

“Which could mean anything,” my uncle countered. “You’re assuming Matteo didn’t survive his fall from the dam. That’s one possibility.”

“You think he’s gone dark.”

“His handlers could have rescued him and secreted him back to a military base. Ellie Crowe injected him with a dose of Blackout. Based on the deployment of that drug in the ventilation systems on our base, it could be anywhere from nine to twelve months before he regains full use of his powers. Or even longer. If he did survive, they would be smart to hide him while he’s vulnerable. It’s what I would do.”

“It’s what I’d do, too. And that’s why we have to hunt him down now while he’s vulnerable. We hunt him down while he can’t take out Cal or Mom or the twenty other Tracers we send after him.” I stared my uncle down. “If you aren’t capable of giving that order because you’re compromised, then I get it and I don’t blame you, but you need to step down as Alpha of this pack and let someone who can give that order lead the hunt for Rossi. Too many lives are at stake.”

Guillermo bared his teeth. “Is that a formal challenge?”

“That’s up to you.” I faced down the man who had been at my birthday parties as a kid, who made time to come to Blood Moon for video game and pizza night with West and August at least once a month despite arguably having the busiest job of any shifter in North America. Guillermo had trained me to be the best soldier and fighter in our wolf pack, and who for the past six months he had put me and the rest of my team in danger because he couldn’t give the orders necessary to treat Matteo Rossi like the deadly killer he was.

The truth was, I understood. Guillermo had been put in an impossible position. No way in hell would I have been able to pull the trigger if it had been West or August. But I also hoped that I would have had the wherewithal to know when it was time to step down before the soldiers serving under my command were injured or killed in the line of duty. We’d had too many lives lost and near misses in this hunt already. Me. Fallon. Quinn. Cris. Rowan. Jori. Vlad. The vampire soldiers we’d lost at the safehouse. We were just lucky our losses hadn’t been greater.

“This isn’t about you and me,” I said evenly. “One day I hope I will command the Tracers, but for now, I like leading my team out in the field. Until Rossi is confirmed killed or captured, you need to step aside. Let Alek take over command for a while. It’s the right thing to do. And I think you know that.”

My uncle shook his head. “His faction wants to unite with the vampire hardliners who want war. They have no interest in compromise or peace. They want to stand up to the militants in the government with deadly force if necessary. That will never end well.”

“Then you’ll have to talk him down. The answer has always been somewhere in the middle.” My phone buzzed. I checked the screen and saw that it was the hospital. “I have to go.” I hesitated. “Promise me you’ll tell me if Rossi tries to contact you.”

Guillermo laughed bitterly. “I think we both know the only reason he’d contact me is to pinpoint my location to arrange a hit.”

* * *

SOFT MORNING LIGHT FILTERED IN THROUGH the large window overlooking the garden in Piper and Meera’s kitchen. I stood at the range, stirring a huge saucepan of buttery scrambled eggs with sharp cheddar cheese.

“I didn’t mean to put you to work,” I informed Cal for the fourth time. “This is supposed to be my thank you breakfast for the detail.” We’d both borrowed aprons from Piper’s pantry. Mine was printed with brightly colored whisks. Cal had gotten the one with cats baking Christmas cookies.

“No harm in letting me flip a few pancakes,” my brother said mildly.

Translate: We all know yours always come out burned on the outside and raw in the middle. Which Cal was far too nice to ever say out loud.

I gave up. Besides, Cal made the best blueberry pancakes in Lindley County. Even Dallas couldn’t get his pancakes that fluffy, which according to Lacey, drove him absolutely crazy.

“We have fruit, granola and yogurt.” Meera set down a tray of fresh cut pineapple, honeydew, strawberries and bananas on the bar. “There’s fresh squeezed orange juice, bagels and cream cheese.” She tapped her lip. “What am I forgetting? Oh yes. Bacon for the meat eaters and the good vegetarian sausage from Central Market.”