The Enchanted: Council of Seven Shifter Romance Collection

by Juniper Hart

  They stared at one another for a long moment.

  “I think we need to find John or Jim,” Orion sighed.

  “Should I call Abram?” Vera suggested, and he snorted.

  “For what? More lies? No. We’ll find him ourselves.”

  Assuming he really exists.

  When they returned to the hotel, Grace was nowhere to be found, but neither of the New Yorkers were surprised. They hadn’t expected to be greeted.

  “I think we should go knock on doors in the west wing,” Orion said as they entered the second floor. “Maybe it’s a squatter situation.” He didn’t know why he kept coming up with logical explanations for an illogical situation. The truth wouldn’t be anything he’d ever seen before, he was sure.

  “That still doesn’t make any sense based on the numbers,” Vera muttered. “And if it is, I don’t think making them aware we’re onto them is a safe idea.”

  They were at an impasse.

  “This is ridiculous!” Orion exclaimed suddenly, throwing his hands in the air. “Forget it. I’m not doing this deal. Call the pilot and tell him we’re getting out of here. This is too much crazy for me.”

  Speaking the words, though, he felt his gut churn in protest. No. Enough was enough. They were getting out of there. He had other responsibilities, other obligations. He couldn’t let this monopolize his time and energy.

  “I think that’s for the best,” Vera replied, sighing. Orion felt a stab of sympathy for her, but he knew they were already too wrapped up in something they should have walked away from days earlier.

  I’ve already put my business on hold too long on this wild goose chase, Orion thought angrily, even though he was mad at himself—mostly because he still wanted to stay.

  “Let’s go pack,” he told her. “We’ll be back in New York tonight.”

  They retreated to the east wing and their separate rooms, and Orion felt Vera’s wistful stare as they parted ways. So it had been her first time trying. They all failed the first time. He was not going to hold this against her, and she would learn from her mistakes.

  Except Orion wasn’t sure that she’d done anything wrong at all. He couldn’t think of a single way Vera had failed. If anything, he was failing her by letting it go.

  Instead of pulling his suitcase from the armoire, Orion wandered to the window and peered into the ocean, gritting his teeth.

  What a waste, he thought wistfully. Such a beautiful property with so much potential.

  There was a knock at the door.

  “Come in, Vera,” he called, turning slightly. He had half-expected that she would try to talk him out of it.

  And she might still succeed, he thought, feeling spineless. Slowly, the door swung inward, and Orion started, surprised to see Grace in the threshold.

  “Grace! What are you doing here?” he asked, fully turning from the window. She was the last person he had anticipated seeing there, but the fact that she had come filled him with an unexpected hope.

  “I…” She trailed off. “I’m not sure what I’m doing here.”

  His brow knitted, concern filling his face. “Is everything all right? Did something happen?”

  She stared at him, and he was consumed with the same sense of sadness he had felt the night before when he had seen her. Tentatively, she entered the room toward him, biting on her lower lip.

  “Why have you come here?” she asked him. “The truth, please.”

  Orion cocked his head to the side and peered at her, slightly perplexed by the question. Hadn’t Stanger warned the staff about the impending sale? It wouldn’t be the first time that an owner kept his intentions hush-hush, but Orion hadn’t been instructed to keep it secret.

  “I was thinking about buying this hotel,” he told her honestly. “But I don’t think that is going to happen.”

  A dozen emotions seemed to cross over Grace’s face, each one overlapping with the last.

  “I don’t understand,” she said, and he could see that it was true; she had no idea what he was talking about. He wondered if she had bigger stakes in this hotel than he had originally realized.

  “Grace, come inside and sit down,” he encouraged, but she shook her head nervously, glancing behind her into the corridor.

  “No,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t be here.” She turned to leave.

  “Grace, what is going on here?” Orion called out, frustration lacing his words. “What is this place?”

  Grace turned to him, her jade eyes darkening. “Find out what you can about Harmony Jagger.”

  She was gone before he could question her further. Orion’s heart was hammering in his chest.

  Did she just say the name I think she did, or am I losing my mind? Did she just say, “Harmony Jagger”?

  The probability of that was so miniscule, so slim, that Orion couldn’t accept it, but the more he thought about his inherent connection to the hotel, the more Lane Aldwin’s warning echoed through his mind. What did that mean? Was that a cry for help, or her way of telling him to go away? Was it a warning?

  “Was that Grace I just saw leaving here?” Vera asked, poking her head from across the hall. Orion nodded. “What did she say?”

  He stared at his assistant, unsure of how much he should tell her. She might think he was crazy if it turned out to be nothing. Still, his gut screamed as loudly as the voice in his head that his mate was the one looking for him, calling out to him, just like Lane had predicted.

  He shrugged nonchalantly.

  “Nothing,” he muttered, pivoting. “She didn’t say anything. Did you get in touch with the pilot?”

  “Yes. The plane will be ready in two hours.”

  Orion nodded, a deep sense of loss and regret filling him.

  The best thing you can do is leave this town and forget you ever came, he told himself, but even then, he knew things were just getting started.

  Orion didn’t see Grace again before they left. When the driver pulled up outside the hotel, there was no one left to see them off.

  “This place is the set for a horror flick,” Vera murmured, and Orion knew she was only thinking aloud.

  As they pulled away from the front, he found his head turning toward the lobby windows, where a face peered out at him with intense fury.

  Who is that now? he asked himself, taking in the inky eyes of an older man. Although he told himself it didn’t matter, as they drove to meet his private plane, Grace’s words echoed in his mind.

  “Father. Father allows us to stay here.”

  The man in the window, though, was just that—a man. He wasn’t a Lycan like Grace or any other Enchanted being, Orion was sure. He was only a mortal man.

  “Find out what you can about Harmony Jagger.”

  “We’ll be at the plane in five minutes, Mr. Tanner,” the driver told them.

  “Thank you, Tom.”

  Vera turned to face him, her eyes bright with contrition.

  “I can’t tell you how sorry I am about this, Orion,” she told him, her words catching in her throat. “I should have done my due diligence on this hotel.”

  Orion regarded her for a long moment.

  “You did,” he reminded her. “Better than I could have done.”

  “Obviously not good enough,” Vera muttered, sinking back against the leather seat.

  “Vera, you found a beautiful location with a lot of potential. The numbers were unbelievable, and the investment would have been sound. You could not have foreseen the problems. No one could.”

  She hung her head, his words not placating her. “Have you ever encountered anything like this before?”

  “I have not,” he laughed shortly. “Because I have no idea what that was.”

  Vera chewed on her lower lip.

  “Do you think that Grace is in trouble?” she asked, addressing the elephant in the room.

  Orion inhaled sharply, watching the plane come into view.

  “I don’t know what to think,” he answered truthfully. “An
d I don’t think it matters how much time we spend there, she will never tell us. I think we stumbled into a very close-knit community who wanted us to leave.”

  “Like a cult?” Vera asked. Her words hit him like a ton of bricks.

  A cult. Of course.

  He suddenly felt very sad, and he shook his head. “If it is a cult, then we would never break through their exterior. Walking away is the best thing we could do for ourselves. I don’t think that Grace even realizes she’s a Lycan.”

  Vera did not seem convinced, but she made no comment.

  “Vera, despite how this turned out, I’d like to honor our deal,” he told her as the limousine stopped.

  She jerked her head up. “What do you mean?”

  “I would like to make you a member of the board.” Her light blue eyes sparkled in shock.

  “But-but—” she sputtered. “I didn’t do anything!”

  Orion laughed, genuinely amused for the first time in forty-eight hours. “It’s a good thing you’re not a lawyer. You make a very poor case for yourself.”

  Her face exploded in a huge grin, and impulsively, she hugged him. “Thank you, Ri! Oh, I promise the next deal won’t be such a flop!”

  He chuckled and set her back.

  “I’m not convinced that this one is a flop,” he confessed.

  “You can’t be serious,” she breathed, gaping at him. “After all that…”

  “I’m just saying that this might have been a learning experience,” he explained quickly, but in his mind, Orion knew that was not what he meant at all.

  They stepped from the car to board the plane, Vera casting him an appreciative look. Orion barely noticed. He could not shake the echo of Grace’s words from his mind.

  I have work to do when we get back to New York. I think I need to call on Lane Aldwin for help.

  10

  Grace sat in the shadows outside the worship room, listening to the whispers, her heart pounding as she understood the tension amassing among them.

  “He hit her ruthlessly!” Rachel cried. “She is a treasure, and he beat her so badly. He knows he cannot touch her before she is wed, and yet—”

  “Shh!” Jack hissed. “Grace will hear you.”

  “Grace is Eve’s Aunt. She is sworn to protect her, and she did nothing! She watched it happen.”

  “What was she supposed to do?” Camila murmured. “She is as defenseless as any of us.”

  “And yet she fraternized with the devil’s minions!” Joseph snapped. “I saw her myself! She’s being influenced by them.”

  A strange pang hit Grace then, and she felt a tug inside her mouth, her gums swelling as a flash of anger consumed her.

  “Keep your voice down!” Jack urged. “Don’t forget that it was Father who allowed for the outsiders to enter our sanctuary. It isn’t Grace’s fault that the devil’s scouts tarnished Eden.”

  There was a mutter of consensus, and Grace kept her ear pressed to the door, her heart fluttering.

  It is not just me, she realized. They are beginning to question Father, too.

  The pain in her gums subsided slightly, and she pushed her way inside the room. All eyes moved to her guiltily.

  “Grace!” Camila called nervously. “Where have you been?”

  “Where is Father?” she asked, ignoring the question. If they turned on him, would they also turn on her? What would he do if there was a crisis of faith in the group?

  Immediately, her mind went to Harmony and what she had told Mr. Tanner on his way out. She needed to go to her. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. She had done what Father had asked of her, and the devil’s minions were gone—if they had even been such demons in the first place. Grace had her doubts.

  The way he looked at me was with such compassion. There was no evil in Mr. Tanner’s face. Father is lying to us. He’s been lying to all of us. Harmony opened my eyes to the truth.

  “We haven’t seen him this evening,” Jack told her. “He and Mark have not come for services.”

  Grace turned to leave without responding, but the group seemed to sense her newfound determination.

  “Grace…”

  She glanced back, steeling herself for a lecture of sorts. “Yes?”

  “Have the demons gone back to Hell?”

  She stared at them, unsure of how to respond to such a question. They aren’t demons. The only evil is already inside this house.

  “The outsiders are gone,” she replied, suppressing the rest of her sentiments. She couldn’t trust the others with what she knew, not yet. Perhaps not ever.

  “Thank you,” Camila whispered. “Thank you for keeping us safe.”

  Bile bubbled in her stomach. She hadn’t kept anyone safe. She whirled and disappeared into the hall as tears sprung into her eyes.

  She had to find Father and see Harmony. She needed to get them out of Eden before the night of the wedding. Father couldn’t marry her, and she needed to know she was not alone.

  Grace stole through the dim shadows of the hallway, listening for sounds in the eerily quiet hotel.

  What did Mr. Tanner mean when he said he wanted to buy the hotel? Eden isn’t for sale. It’s our sanctuary. It can’t be bought nor sold. Father has told us that many times. This is God’s land. It belongs only to Him. And yet there had been talks of a business deal. She had heard it clearly.

  It was all so far beyond her comprehension, but Grace knew she was closer to enlightenment than she’d ever been.

  As she walked quietly through the long corridor on the main floor, she heard loud voices from the library: Father’s and another man’s, one she did not recognize.

  “What do you mean, it fell through?” Father raged. “It was a done deal! What changed?”

  “You screwed up, that’s what!” the stranger snorted. “He was completely put off by whatever it is you did here when they came. No amount of cajoling could make up for your ineptitude. This is Orion Tanner we’re talking about. What did you think? You could pull the wool over his eyes? You should have been better prepared for this!”

  Grace crept alongside of the wall and gazed upon them. I know that man!

  He was tall and stately, dressed in a modern suit and shiny, black shoes. His dark brown hair was swept stylishly back from his face, and Grace tried desperately to remember who he was. It had been many years since she had seen him. He had once been a member of the flock, but Grace could barely remember his name.

  She had never met him directly; it was during her time in the glass room. She had seen him passing through the lobby with the others, and he had been at the wedding before he had suddenly disappeared.

  “How? Why?” Father demanded, a note of sheepish understanding creeping into his voice. Grace was taken aback by his tone. She had never heard him sound contrite before. “What did they say?” Father insisted when the man didn’t speak. He only glowered at Father, the muscles in his jaw twitching as he spoke.

  “They don’t know what is happening here, and you explicitly defied my directions. I told you to make this place look normal, and what did you do? Now I am stuck with this worthless property, and you are about to be outed, my friend. If you were smart, I would pick up and move bases.”

  “Move bases?” Father shrieked. “To where? We’ve been here for thirty years, Greg! How the hell am I going to explain that to the group?”

  “All I know is that if the one buyer in six months is weirded out by what’s going on here, it’s pretty much guaranteed anyone else who ventures this way is going to feel the same. Too bad; Tanner would have made this place a palace for you guys if you had been smart enough to act the part. All you had to do was act normal for a couple days, the guy would have bought the place, and you never would have seen him again, but you never were really good at following directions, were you, Randall?”

  Randall. The sound of the name sent fusions of alarm and unease through Grace. He’s just a regular man. He’s not a god. He’s a person.

  Her hands curled int
o a fist, and she closed her eyes, feeling her nails dig into her palms. They seemed sharper, somehow, and blood trickled down her arm.

  Father released a groan of frustration. “Jesus Christ, Greg. No, we’re not going anywhere. Just find another buyer. We’ll do it right next time.”

  Greg. That wasn’t his name when he was here. He was… Daniel. Dizziness began to consume Grace, but she didn’t let it distract from the conversation. She needed to hear it all.

  “No, you don’t seem to understand,” Greg snapped. “This isn’t a request. It is only a matter of time before the police come knocking, Randall, and when they do, they aren’t going to be scared off by a bad feeling. Get your shit packed and get out.”

  Grace’s hand flew to her mouth, trying to understand what was happening. Father was swearing. Father was being told they had to leave. Father’s name was Randall.

  It was so much to absorb at once, and Grace was beginning to feel dizzy.

  “Rachel is pregnant again, Greg. And the new one is finally ready to be married. She’s broken down, at my command. You know what that means.”

  “It means you better work fast,” Greg retorted, rising from his chair. “Because my trial starts in two weeks, and that detective has a real hard-on for me. It’s only a matter of time before he clues into the fact that I own this place, too, and comes poking around.”

  “He’ll need a warrant.”

  “Randy, are you kidding me? Are you going to argue semantics, or save your own skin? This mad scientist shit that you’re pulling isn’t going to fly. You tried. You failed. Now get out.”

  “My skin?” he chortled. “It’s your skin you’re worried about.”

  The men locked gazes, and even from the distance between them, Grace could feel the intensity of their anger.

  “Fine,” Father relented. “I will take care of it, but Rachel is due in three months. What about her baby?”

  “It’s taken care of,” Greg replied. “But that’s the last one for a while. Just until things settle down. No more babies. You’ll have to figure out another way to make money.”