Tess stared out over the sea, watching the sun gently ascending over the water. It looked as though it was emerging from it, like a butterfly from a cocoon. Slithering up from the water and spreading out tendrils of orange and pink that smeared the sky and made the ocean radiate with an almost unearthly glow, like some undiscovered jewel.
Shay was stirring. Slowly, he raised his head, and stared at her.
“What happened?” he whispered, his eyes blinking slowly.
Tess smiled gently. “You feel asleep,” she said. “When you were the wolf. You sat beside me and laid your head in my lap, and then I feel asleep, too.”
He sat up, still staring at her. “So, you saw everything. You know.”
“Yes,” she whispered, gazing back at him. “I know.”
They were silent for a moment as they both stared out over the sea, watching the sunrise.
“It’s beautiful,” he said roughly. “I don’t think that I’ve ever watched the sun rise over the sea before.” He shrugged. “I’ve always meant to but never gotten around to it.”
“Neither have I,” whispered Tess, her eyes drinking in the vista. “And I live so close to the sea, too. I have less excuse than you.”
He turned to her. “Tess. I never meant to desert you, that night. Do you understand now?”
She nodded. “I understand. And I forgive you.” She took a deep breath. “There is nothing to forgive, anyway. You were only trying to protect me the whole time. And you changed into the wolf against your will. Tell me, was it terribly frightening when it first started happening?”
He nodded. “Yeah, it was crazy, going through it along with all the other stuff of adolescence. I thought I was a freak for a while, even though I had been told to expect it. It runs in my family.” He laughed. “Some kind of genetic mutation, who knows?”
She inhaled quickly. “So, you don’t know why? Or how?”
He shook his head. “We are what we are,” he said slowly. “And we have to be protective of it. We have learnt to hide it and seek out others like us. If the world knew, we would all be dragged away to labs to be prodded at by men in white coats. Spend our lives in cages, trotted out to be experimented on.”
Tess felt her eyes fill with tears at the thought. She could still see the wolf running free and wild along the beach. He could never live in a cage like a lab rat.
“How did you find your pack?” she whispered, staring at him.
Shay smiled. “They found me,” he said. “I was at a loose end after school. Drifting. And then one day I got a summons from the alpha leader.”
She raised an eyebrow. “The alpha leader?”
He laughed. “Yeah. We have positions in the pack, just like a regular wolf pack. The alpha, who decides everything. The beta, or second in command. That’s me now. And then so on, until the last. That’s the omega, the lowest ranked member.”
“Wow.” She stared over the sea again. “This is just…amazing. A whole other parallel world that has existed the whole time, running alongside the normal world, and I had no idea.”
“Most people don’t.” He stared out over the sea. “And we only tell people that we trust, Tess. I didn’t want to tell you, but I had no choice. Do you believe me now when I tell you that we are on the same side?”
Her eyes grew round as saucers. “I think so,” she said slowly. “There’s something else, Shay. You said that you are battling demons?”
He nodded, staring at her.
“Well, I think I found one.” She took a deep breath. “Your attacker on the pier. He wasn’t…normal. Not in any way.”
Shay kept looking at the sky. “Describe him.”
“He had grey, almost leathery skin,” she said, shuddering. “Like a snake or a lizard. At first, I thought it was a Halloween mask, but it wasn’t. The skin was real. And eyes like dark stones…I felt like I had touched evil in some way.”
Shay tensed. “And it let you go?”
“Yes.” She shuddered again. “I sprang back from it in horror, and it just scuttled away. It jumped into the boat along with Mr. Gee and the other man, speeding off.”
Shay paled. “That’s odd behaviour for them. They usually go on the attack.” He frowned. “The fact that you walked away alive from that is amazing, Tess. There must be a reason. They want you alive.”
She gulped. “So, it was definitely one of your demons?”
He turned to her. “Yes, it was. That’s what they look like, although there are sometimes minor differences.” He leaned back. “Thad, my alpha leader, was right. This whole thing is being run by demons. But they are playing with us in some way I don’t understand yet.”
“Shay,” she began, turning to him. “You are the prime suspect in this. I copied files off Mr. Gee’s laptop, and on it was a list of companies the corporation owns. You are the only common thread in all of them.”
“What?” His frown deepened. “Is that why you thought I was the mysterious employer?”
She nodded. “It was on his computer. Apparently, you are on the boards of all these companies. The FBI are after you now. They believe you are the leader of the whole thing.”
He exhaled softly. “Mr. Gee and the rest are setting me up. But why then did they call me here and try to kill me?”
She shrugged, staring at him. “I don’t know, Shay. And I am officially off the case now. That’s why I’m back in Mallion Cove. My superior thinks I am at risk…from you.”
He stared at her gently. “You would never be at risk from me, Tess. Not in a million years. But you are at risk from them. We both are. They are playing some game with us.”
“Why?” Her voice was so low he had to lean forward to hear her.
“I don’t know,” he said slowly. “Not yet. But the Vilgath do this. They play with people, and cause havoc, just because they enjoy it. They like to see people suffer.” He took a deep breath. “At least I know what I am dealing with now.”
“What we are dealing with,” said Tess. “Because I will be beside you every step of the way. I don’t care if I am officially off the case. We are going to catch them together.”
He stared at her, swallowing. Their eyes met and held, and she felt the pull of the connection between them again, threatening to overwhelm her. Suddenly, she noticed him shivering.
“You should get some clothes on,” she said softly, reddening. She stared straight ahead, trying not to look at him. She was suddenly extremely conscious of how close he was sitting beside her.
Had he heard her? It didn’t seem like it. Because suddenly he was reaching towards her, gently cupping her face in his hands. She could feel herself trembling all over.
“Tess,” he whispered, his eyes devouring her face.
She turned and pressed her lips into his hand. He hissed softly, as if he had been scalded.
Then they were kissing. Ardently. Hopelessly. Tess felt him push her back onto the sand, and she arched her back against him, deepening the kiss.
His hands touched her everywhere, feverishly. She had simply never felt desire like it in her life. It was so intense, so fierce, that she felt that she would die if they couldn’t be together.
He broke off the kiss, abruptly, and stared hard into her eyes. “I want you so bad. Do you want me?”
In response she simply sat up, slowly taking her clothes off. His eyes widened, staring at her as if she were a vision that had appeared like magic before him. As if she were a goddess. His face twisted with desire. She saw it and felt like she might swoon with the reciprocal need.
“It’s cold,” she said slowly. Her voice was thick. “And there’s two of us naked now. I think we’d better find a way to warm each other up.”
His eyes glistening with desire, he pulled her roughly onto the ground next to him. She thought that he was about to say something, then he seemed to change his mind. He grabbed her head, kissing her again so thoroughly she felt dizzy with it.
Shay. She had thought that she would never see him again.
And now he had swept back into her life and taken it over like a freight train at midnight. Nothing would ever be the same again. She knew that with a certainty that hit her like a vow.
He rolled her onto her back. It was coming. His face looked black against the vivid colours of the newly risen sun behind them, and all she could hear as they fell into one another was the soft hiss of the waves breaking against the shoreline.
Chapter Fifteen
Shay watched her lips moving as she spoke. She was frowning. He shook his head slightly, trying to force himself to concentrate on what she was saying. But it appeared like it was simply impossible at the moment.
Tess, sitting across her kitchen table from him. Her long auburn hair hung loose down her back, glinting gold and red in the early morning sun that streamed through her kitchen windows. She was animated. He watched her hands emphasising what she was saying. Her large hazel eyes—neither green nor brown but a perfect mixture of both—stared at him earnestly. What she was saying was important and he needed to listen, but he seemed to be in some kind of a stunned trance. Swooning over her.
He picked up the mug sitting on the table, taking a deep gulp of the coffee she had made. It was strong, and a bit bitter. So, she wasn’t perfect; coffee making was obviously not her strong point. Still it was doing the job; he felt the caffeine hitting his bloodstream, awakening him. In fact, he had never felt more awake in this life than he did in this moment.
He still couldn’t believe it—he had finally made love to her, after all this time. Finally fulfilled the desire that had stretched tight and taut through the years like a cord. And it had been everything that he had dared to imagine. No, scratch that. It had been better than anything that he had dared to imagine.
As if he had been waiting for her, and she had been waiting for him. As if their bodies recognised each other. As if they had finally come home.
He could see his hand shaking slightly as he held the mug. His body had been through a lot in the past twenty-four hours. An assault. A transformation into the wolf. And lastly, a frenzied lovemaking. No wonder it was pulsing with tremors, not knowing how to pull itself together. The wound on his head still throbbed slightly, and he could feel the usual residual sickness that always occurred in the aftermath of the change into the wolf.
But despite all that, he felt elated. Tess was his, now. He stared at her deeply, trying to ascertain how she felt about what had happened between them. He frowned, taking another sip of his coffee, the elation ebbing slightly. No, he still couldn’t be confident that she was entirely his. Yes, they had made love. But he hadn’t told her yet how much he loved her—had always loved her. He didn’t want to scare her. And even in the depths of their desire she hadn’t whispered words of love to him.
He had to tell her. The need was overwhelming him. He needed to lay his cards on the table once and for all.
“Tess,” he said, cutting her off. “There’s something I need to tell you…”
She frowned, slightly, irritated that he had interrupted her. At that moment, her cell phone started vibrating on the table. She picked it up, glancing at him apologetically.
“It’s Paul Hopkins,” she whispered. “I need to take this.”
Standing up, she walked quickly onto the deck, overlooking the sea. She closed the door firmly behind her. He watched her pacing the deck as she spoke into the phone. The moment had gone. Disappointment flooded through him. He would just have to wait for another time. She was raring to go, eager that they throw themselves back into the case, even though she had been officially taken off it. And he had to admit that time was pressing, and that he needed to focus on it, as well.
He stood up, taking his coffee cup to the kitchen and placing it into the sink. He glanced out the window, seeing her motorcycle in the driveway. He grinned. Tess had bought herself a beauty – a Harley Davidson 500. It was a smaller bike than other Harleys; perfectly suited to Tess. He could just imagine her roaring down the highway on it. Would he be by her side when that happened?
His own bike was parked next to hers; they had picked it up on the way back here this morning. Yes, he could see them heading off on a trip together. The open road and miles to burn. A longing for all of this to be done with consumed him. He took a deep breath. Not yet. He had to crack this case and keep her safe. Then they would have their time.
Shay heard the opening of the doors to the deck. He looked around, staring at her. She smiled, walking over to him and standing beside him at the sink.
“I did it,” she said, staring up at him. “I finally persuaded Paul Hopkins that I had urgent information about the case. I’ve got a meeting with him this afternoon.”
Shay stared at her. “What happened?”
Tess sighed. “He was angry with me at first,” she said. “He kept interrupting me, asking why and how I had more information when I was officially off the case. They take that seriously, you know.”
He smiled, raising an eyebrow at her. “Yeah, I imagine they would! It’s a bureaucracy, Tess. If you’ve been taken off the case,you have to follow rules. They can’t have agents turning rogue. They wouldn’t be able to control what happened.”
She sighed again. “I know, I know,” she said, a thread of irritation in her voice. “I’ve been trained, okay? But it doesn’t sit well with me.” She stared up at him. “All if it is strange. Why would Frank Walker abruptly order me not to return to the studio? Stings like this take time. Even if they think they have the culprit, they still need to catch him. Amass evidence. Taking me off undercover alerts the organisation that something is up.”
Shay stared down at her. “And I am the culprit under suspicion. They think they have the case sewn up, for sure. You will be hard pressed to convince them otherwise.” He took a deep breath. “Especially considering you have no evidence but my word that the information on that flash drive you gave them is false.”
Tess frowned. “I saw with my own eyes that you were attacked on that pier, and that Mr. Gee was a part of it. That’s something I can bring to the table. It will at least make them question whether the information is right.”
Shay nodded, but he didn’t think it would be enough. He knew how these things worked. If the solution to a hard and complex case was suddenly given to them like a gift, it would take a lot of persuasion to make them believe that they had it wrong. Tess was going to be up against it.
“Tess,” he said softly. “Maybe you shouldn’t tell them. I’m almost a hundred percent sure they won’t believe you, and then you discredit yourself in their eyes. They will think you are crazy.” He took a deep breath. “Maybe I should face this on my own. I know how to take care of myself.”
She stared up at him fiercely. “Don’t be stupid, Shay. I don’t care what they think of me! Justice must prevail, and I know that you aren’t the one behind all this. If they think I’m crazy, then let them. Eventually we will find the proof we need, and then they will be thanking me for being the sting in their tails.”
He gazed at her, almost overwhelmed with admiration. Tess was tough. She was also stubborn and tenacious. The truth was her holy grail, and she didn’t care one iota if her career was compromised by this. That took a lot of guts.
“Shay,” she said, suddenly, blinking rapidly. “There’s something else I forgot to tell you about last night. Just before you were attacked I got a text message on my phone. It was from an unknown number.”
He stared at her. “What did it say?”
“I’ll show you.” She picked up her phone from the bench, opening a message and handing it to him.
Shay stared down at it. It was only three words. You’d better run.
“You got this just before the attack?” He looked up at her.
She nodded. “I was walking on the beach, and I saw you all on the pier. Then my phone beeped. I barely had time to read the message and take it in before I saw the man approaching you with the bat.” She took a deep breath. “I forgot all about it and just ran to save you
. Not knowing it was you, of course.”
He shook his head, frowning deeply. “This makes no sense at all. You had no idea that the meeting was taking place, did you?”
“No,” she said. “None at all. In fact, it was a spur of the moment decision to even come to Mallion Cove last night. I could have waited for today, or anytime. How on earth could anyone have known that I was here, and close to where that meeting was?”
“Obviously someone did,” he said, slowly, his frown deepening. “You are being followed. But that doesn’t explain why they would warn you off approaching us on the pier. Unless they wanted to save you from witnessing what was about to happen or be hurt yourself in the scuffle.”
Tess raised her eyebrows. “A guardian angel? But that makes little sense, either. If whoever is running this whole show knows who I am now, then why would they try to save me?”
Shay shook his head, deeply disturbed. This was becoming increasingly strange.
He stared out the kitchen window, trying to get a grasp on all the threads. Whoever ran this organisation knew Tess was not who she said she was. She had told him this morning in detail how she had managed to get the information, and he had known straight away that they had set her up. An organisation of this calibre didn’t make mistakes like leaving laptops with vital information on kitchen benches. Especially laptops that weren’t password controlled. They had wanted her to access it and take the false information back to her superiors.
So…they obviously knew she wasn’t an art forger. That she was an agent of some kind. They wanted her to disseminate the wrong information and set him up as the patsy. Which meant that they knew he wasn’t who he said he was, either. How much did they know about him? Did they assume he was an agent like her and they were working together, or did they know who he really was?
He shifted uneasily, staring out the window. Then he turned back to her, still standing by his side. His heart contracted violently. He would kill them all—tear them apart with his bare hands—if they dared to harm her.
But were they trying to harm her? Whoever had sent that text message had been trying to warn her to stay away. To save her in some way. Why would they do that? And why would they bother to set him up in such an elaborate way only to abruptly decide to kill him and be done with it?
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