Chapter 279

I leaped backward and dodged the wolf’s teeth. Fear and anger flared through my brain. I badly wanted to kick these wolves butts and make them wish they would have stayed away from me.

The new moves I’d learned that morning came to mind. I learned two kicks in my new self-defense class, and the instructor said I did them well. Would they help me?

It was worth a try. When the wolf lunged again, I turned and kicked it in the head.

It yipped and backed away. But it didn’t deter it for long. The pair began circling me again, trying to attack me from behind.

When one wolf was behind me and the other in front, maybe I could dash to the side and get into my car. The fob had been in my hand since I got out of my car.

But the wolves must have seen me eyeing my Mercedes. Any hope for that plan working was dashed when the wolves began pushing me into the alley again.

Keeping my eye on my attackers, I felt the buttons on the key fob. One button would produce an ear-splitting alarm and flashing lights from my car.

It may frighten them away or immobilize them long enough for me to get into the car. Or someone might help me and call for help.

If it didn’t work, I had to shift, and Diana and I would fight them as long as possible. Victor would come looking for me when I didn’t show up at Gilded.

As I was about to press the button, the fob slipped in my fingers, and I had to waste precious seconds finding the right button on the fob again.

When I was sure I had my thumb on the alarm button once more, I braced myself for the noise and whatever reaction came from the red wolves and pushed it.

The alarm came to life, shattering the peace and stillness of the quiet street. All of the Mercedes’ lights flashed while the high-pitched alarm whooped over and over.

At first, the rogue wolves whined and backed away. But when nobody showed up in the street, they came at me again, angrier and more aggressively than before.

I had to shift and fight them.

There was no time to remove the silk dress I was wearing. It would be destroyed. But trying to save my life was more important than a designer dress.

I began to call for my wolf. “Diana ….”

Suddenly, the red wolves backed away as something was sprayed into their faces. Someone was behind me yelling something I couldn't hear over the alarm.

Pushing the alarm button again, the racket stopped, and I heard Andrew Archer screaming threats peppered with a few obscenities at the wolves.

“I always suspected it was you, Mother, who took my darling Deirdre from me,” he shouted. “But Amelia, how could you? Deirdre trusted you. She loved you like a sister!”

When the wolves snarled at him, Andrew gave them another shot of pepper spray. They whined and rubbed at their faces with their paws.

“Shift human and put these on,” he demanded as he threw two gray robes at the red wolves. “Stop being such cowards. I know who you are. Show yourselves right now!”

In the next second, the gray-tinged red wolf morphed into Pat Archer. She wrapped herself in a robe and faced her son.

“You disloyal punk!” she raged. “You never side with the family. We should have officially abjured you years ago. Maybe if you spent time living in squalor with your little Omega tramp, you would have come to appreciate us.”

“Why would I be loyal to you?” Andrew sneered. “You don’t care about anyone but yourself. You’ll hurt anyone to stay ahead or avoid a scandal so you can keep telling yourself that you're better than everyone else.”

Andrew got in her face. “Guess what, mother. Deirdre was a better person than you ever tried to be.”

Andrew ran at the other wolf as it tried to back into the alley. “Don’t try to run away, Amelia!” he roared. “It’s over.”

“I found Deirdre’s suitcase in your room. It’s the one she had with her in the hospital, and I called the police. They’ll be here any second. Spare your dignity. Shift human and put on the robe before they arrive.”

I blinked, and Amelia stood where the second red wolf had been. She really was one of the rogue red wolves. She had me completely fooled.

“I know Deirdre didn’t leave town and abandon me and the baby,” Andrew told his sister as she put on the robe. “All of her things were in the suitcase along with the money we were taking with us. You killed her, didn’t you?”

Amelia and Pat stood next to my car in the robes. They glared at me and Andrew, but they refused to say a word.

“Tell me!” Andrew demanded. “What did you do to Deirdre? Where is she?”

Tears ran down Andrew’s face, and I put my arm around his shoulders. He was innocent of his sister and mother’s crimes.

I felt sympathy for him. He felt like he was losing Deirdre all over again, and these two selfish women refused to give him any closure.

The police arrived a moment before Victor. The same two officers that were at Alex’s mansion were there. After speaking to Andrew and me, they handcuffed Amelia and Pat before placing them into two squad cars.

“How did you find me?” I asked Victor.

“I sensed you were in danger,” he replied. “After I left the restaurant to find you, Andrew called me. I called the two detectives from yesterday as I rushed here.”

Amelia and Pat were placed under arrest and transported to the police station. The police were going to question the mother and daughter separately, and they invited Andrew, Victor, and I to watch and listen through one-way mirrors.

We accepted. Like Andrew, I wanted to know what happened to Deirdre, and I needed to know those evil wolves would be behind bars for the rest of their lives.

Andrew insisted he was okay to drive, and he followed us to the police station. As we watched two of his family members being questioned, he shook from grief and rage.

All Pat would say was, “Ask my daughter what you want to know.”

The worst was Amelia. She sat at a table, handcuffed and shackled, with a smug smile on her face

The first cop sat next to her. “We know you and your mother used your wolves to attack Elliot Gray and his daughter, and you attacked Daisy Wilson twice.”

The other cop stood across the table. “Even worse for you is we have a witness who filmed a video of you with their phone when you went into your grandmother’s hospital room and smothered her with a pillow.”

“That’s not possible,” Amelia said, but the smug smile had faded away.

“You didn’t see the witness because she was in the bathroom,” the second cop said. “But she recorded every second of you in your grandmother’s room.”

The first cop spoke again. “You’re already going to prison for murder, attempted murder, and using your wolf as a lethal weapon. Tell us about Deirdre Brady. Is she alive or dead?”

“I’ll tell you everything you want to know,” Amelia said. “But only if I get a good deal. I’m not going to prison for the rest of my life.”