Gamma No More - Book 3
Unmasking Tane

As Cage opens the lock, a male scream rips past the ears of the assembled wolves and the faint smell of unwashed humans wafts up the stairs to greet their wrinkling noses.

Without thinking or speaking, Toni jumps down, Tane will not ruin another life, it doesn’t matter which life it is, behind her Cage, Dimitri and Lance follow, leaving Raine stumbling slowly by comparison, cursing the speed of the wolves in front of her.

As she gets into the cellar, she ignores the rooms off it, letting her nose follow the faint smell of blood that is now mixed with the stronger unwashed human smell, down another set of stairs until she gets into a cell block, closely followed by the others.

Their rapid descent was anything but quiet. The sound of their feet pounding against the metal stairs echoed through the abandoned warehouse. As they reached the bottom, they met with a man stood before them, Tane, his weapon aimed directly at them. The glint of metal reflected off the gun’s barrel in the dimly lit room as he held it steady in her direction. The tension in the air was palpable, and she could feel her heart racing as she braced herself for whatever may come next.

“You!” Lance is the first to speak.

Toni stares at the wolf in front of her. She can feel her anger rising as she fights to hold back her Lycan side.

“I’ll admit, this is not how I expected this to end, but at least you saved me a search.”

There’s something about the cockiness of the wolf in front of her that reminds her far too much of the ex-King. Even now, he feels he has an advantage and as he hasn’t taken the first move; he cannot of known she was a Lycan.

Any other wolf, knowing what she was, would have shot first in this situation, or showed more nerves.

As his eyes burned into her, trying to work out why hers shone back with a depth of blue he had never seen in a wolf before, she sifted back through her memories, linking the man in front of her, with the actions he’d taken, her suspicions after talking to Killian had been wrong, but as she stared at this wolf, she knew, deep down that he was responsible.

Before she can speak, he waves the gun at the wolves behind her threateningly.

“Tell them to back off slowly, or I kill you all.

This should be between us don’t you think” he pauses smirking

“For old times’ sake.”

“Everyone out” Her voice lacks any element of command, but the other Alphas slowly back out, knowing if she were to shift, she’d need all the space they could afford her and staying just left him able to use them as targets.

Except for Cage, he stepped to the side, standing by Toni’s side. He will not leave his mate. Even when logic tells him she can protect herself, he feels drawn to stay when someone is threatening his mate.

“You, whoever you are,” He motions to Cage with disgust in his voice

“You need to get out too unless you want to die first.”

Toni growled and takes a step forward

“Do not threaten my mate.”

‘Tane’ laughed.

“Figures you end up with some nobody, but you forget I am an Alpha. I am the one in control, even if you brought ‘friends’.

But let him stay. One of you will witness the other’s death this day.” The mocking tone he uses as he emphasises the word friends grates on Toni.

“If you follow my instructions, I’ll give the other a quick death,”

His mocking riles her, but she is trying to hold fast, trying to remain calm as she answered, planning her next move

“You only have the illusion of control. You are not now, and never will be an Alpha to any wolf.

Your hold on the werewolf world is over. Time to give up and accept you are a pathetic excuse for a wolf. Your time hiding here is over.”

She can feel the darkness rising inside her, getting ready to unleash it on the man in front of her, shattering his illusions of holding the superior hand.

In her mind, she replays all the times they have interacted, the innocent ways in which he was part of her life, all the while weaving hidden threads of control.

Cage moved, getting ready to defend his mate, the slight movement spooking Tane. She unleashed her command aura, forcing him to submit fractionally too late. Instinctively, his gun moves tracking Cage and he shoots.

The deafening sound of the bullet piercing Cage’s flesh and his body hitting the ground etches into her mind like a brand, igniting a fury unlike anything she’s ever felt. With a guttural roar, her Lycan form emerges, fuelled by rage and vengeance. She didn’t even register when Lance and Dimitri burst through the door for a second time after hearing a gunshot.

In a matter of seconds, she has Tane in her grasp, his neck clenched tightly in her powerful grip as she lifts him off the floor. His wide eyes stare helplessly at the monstrous being before him, his face contorted in terror. With a slow and deliberate squeeze, Toni relishes in every moment of revenge, remembering each time he had betrayed her for his own selfish gain. Only the quiet groans of Cage stop her from instantly ripping him to shreds.

“For conspiring to send me back to the Nightshade pack,”

Her hand tightens slightly around his neck as her rough voice echoes in the room.

“For watching me whipped as a pup without stopping it.”

She slowly tightens her hand more

“The nod of approval to promote a pup to the Gamma position knowing what it meant.”

She can feel her hands sinking into the flesh of his neck

“Not stopping Louise from being taken from Blue Water Pack, knowing it would break my spirit a little more and give you a way in with Alpha Knight.”

His face is going a deep red as he struggles for breath as she puts it all together.

Throughout her pain, he had been there in the background, orchestrating her life and always approving Vincent’s treatment of her.

“Each death you paid Vincent for. ”

His eyes bulging as his body fights for air

“It was all about control for you, wasn’t it? Every time you were involved in my life, it was to spin your web to control me more, to get me into the position you needed me to be in.

All to gain power. It makes me sick and you don’t deserve to live when other’s lives mean that little.”

Her eyes go back to the wolf she still held aloft as she realises that Tane Badeil is an anagram of Beta Daniel, or as he used to be known, Beta Dan, and she hadn’t seen it, the missing link.

A dispassionate closed-off part of her is wondering whether if she squeezes hard enough, she could sever his head from his body with a single hand.

Dan was beyond answering her now, fighting to stay alive. Each laboured breath didn’t give him enough oxygen to survive.

She growls in pleasure as she watches his face turning almost purple, his eyes bulging and the panicked clawing at her arms was nothing more than a mild irritation. He had shot her Erasthai, and he would die.

“Toni don’t,”

Lance’s voice calls out urgently

“It needs to be done publicly. Remember what you told us.”

There’s a pleading quality to Lance’s voice, but she ignores it, not even hearing him calling for Dimitri and Raine’s help. She has blocked out everything except her anger and building rage for the wolf in front of her.

Until Dominic speaks up

“Toni, don’t kill him. Remember what you told me you wanted to be known for?

Make him sit through a trial, and admit his crimes.

Show our world that there is another way that an Alpha, even you, doesn’t have the ultimate power to kill without question anymore.

That everyone deserves a fair trial.

That’s what you told us you wanted, to show that everyone will be accountable for their actions, that ordinary wolves no longer have to suffer alone.

That even the worst of us deserve justice.

Show them a new way. Let it start with him.”

Toni growls in acknowledgement, shifting slowly back from her Lycan form. dropping him, leaving him broken and gasping for air on the floor. She turns her focus solely on Cage; rushing to his side.

In the background, Lance organises for Dan to be bound and taken away and for the two humans in the cell to be unbound and treated, but all Toni has eyes for is Dominic.

The smell of his blood is almost enough to send her back into the darkness until she feels his hand on her face.

Looking up, he smiled at her, filling her heart with love. This wolf was all she needed in her life, the balancing force to the darkness she had inside her. His bright light shone forth, pushing her anger away.

She felt warm as she basked in the feelings she had for this wolf once more. His light jovial manner balanced her perfectly, and his voice could reach her in the darkest of places, a truly balancing power.

He smiled once more, breaking the warm silence of the room, making her realise the other wolves had left them to their intimate, yet very public moment, as they removed the prisoner and dragged Dan out of the room.

“The bullet went all the way through, stings like a bitch, but I’ll be fine.

You may have to get me naked to bathe the wound, though.” He winked slyly at her.

A full search of his building by Dimitri and Lance revealed not only Rowena and Jasper, but three other human maids, all tied to the Beta by blood bonds.

Raine took the time to break magically every bond and the Dimitri’s wolves formed the escort to the humans and prisoner back to the Neutral Zone.

Toni agreed, once she had calmed, that the trial would be in the Neutral Zone, to make it easy for the human and witch witnesses to attend, so Dimitri had offered his Pack land for the trial ground.

At the public trial, the council had invited any Alpha or their representatives to attend.

Only eight Alphas outside of the council attended, two of which were from the smaller Neutral Zone packs, and the other six from werewolf territory packs.

Iron Claw, Nightshade, Lowlands, Blood Moon, Eventide and Westmoor.

Many of those he had paid were hesitant to attend, fearing that they would be associated with the rebellion. The remaining few were still recovering from their injuries and were hesitant to trust in the fragile peace that now held sway over their kingdom.

Interestingly, the ex-king had also declined to attend the trial, Toni wondered deep down if she had missed something with that wolf, or whether the embarrassment of his incompetence in not recognising the traitor he had in his midst kept him away, either way, she decided she needed to keep a close eye on him.

Both she and Cage attended, for now, Cage had not yet joined the council, aware that the numbers needed to remain uneven and for this trial, she had excused herself, not able to be unbiased to the wolf that shot her Erasthai, in her place, Raine would take a vote, representing both the Human and Witch interests, to keep numbers uneven.

During the trial, her eyes had never left Dan binding him in place with a small portion of her dominance alone, reminding him of just how insignificant he was.

That didn’t mean she didn’t still want to rip his head clean off his body for what he had done to their world.

But while her Erasthai hadn’t yet shifted, his Lycan nature was already coming through, wanting retribution for what the Beta had put his mate through, which meant she sadly accepted that she would not be delivering the killing blow if that was his sentence.

His treason had been against the ex-King, who was no longer in power. There was a loophole in the law, meaning he technically couldn’t be guilty if they prosecuted him for that reason.

Instead, they were going with inciting civil war and imprisoning humans and witches. If it was required, Toni would present the evidence that he had paid Alpha Vincent to kill innocent wolves, but her council was sure it wouldn’t come to that.

Each of the visiting Alphas had a place on the jury, with Dimitri presenting the facts calmly and logically, while Toni sat with gritted teeth at not killing him sooner. They had opened the trial to all species, to show they were making changes, and the clearing they had used was at capacity, so for now, she had to remain calm on the outside.

Acting Alpha Dan, although Toni will always think of him as Beta Dan, had put up no defence to the charges as if finally accepting his actions and realising he couldn’t win, the final illusion of control and superiority had shattered in his mind as she had almost choked him to death.

The only interesting fact to come out had been his wealth, partially inherited from one Anna Harrisson. His human grandmother on his mother’s side had increased from siphoning off the Royal Pack Tithes that came in.

Toni cursed herself for not following up on the Anna Harrisson from Jenna’s list, but it had seemed unimportant, but it was a lesson that she shouldn’t overlook even the most insignificant detail.

It took less than five minutes for the jury to replace him guilty, and Cage carried out his sentence, breaking his neck. A quick and clean death that he didn’t deserve, but served justice all the same.

The message was simple: there would be consequences in the werewolf community. No one would escape accountability, as new leaders emerged who were not afraid to administer swift and fair justice.

It was time for a new era.