by RJ Blain
I was amazed, too. It wasn’t Richard’s fault I reacted to dogs, wolves, and Fenerec. I didn’t need a strong sense of smell to tell when a dominant Fenerec came close; my throat constricted, my lungs and eyes burned, and my face itched within minutes of exposure. “Me, too.”
“If you start having a reaction, you let me know, okay?”
I nodded.
“Is the water warm enough?”
“I’m turning into a prune, Richard. Let me out.”
“Not until your hair’s fixed. If you leave it, I’ll have to get scissors, and I draw the line at having to cut a woman’s hair because of knots.” Richard growled, attacking the tangles with his comb. “If it’s too long, I can give it a trim, but if I cut it like this, you really will look like you stuck your head in a blender.”
I lifted my hand and picked up a matted mess of hair, glaring at it. “How the hell did it get so long, anyway? This isn’t my hair, Richard.”
“I think Dante’s somehow responsible. When I first came into Elliot’s house, I about had a heart attack. I could’ve sworn I smelled Dante, but then I caught a faint hint of you, followed my nose to Elliot’s room, and found you nestled against your mate as a squirrel. I couldn’t believe it, but when I finally got to hold you, I was certain. Your presence was all but gone in the pack bonds until I touched you. What I pick up varies from individual to individual, but I kept getting the feeling you weren’t all there, so to speak.”
I blushed again at the memory of how I had viewed Elliot as my two-legger. “I wasn’t. I didn’t remember much. I just…”
“You had a feeling you needed to go a certain direction, be it a tug or just an odd feeling you weren’t where you belonged. Right?”
One day, Richard and the other Fenerec in our pack would stop surprising me with how much they understood without me having to say a word. In so many ways, things had been easier when I had been a rogue hiding from the Inquisition. “Yes.”
“All mated pairs get that to a certain degree. My bond with Nicole is erratic. Sometimes, I know exactly where she is, what she’s doing, and how to find her—and if she’s in trouble. Right now, I can’t sense anything from her. Amber swears she’s alive out there somewhere, but I can’t find her.”
The pain in Richard’s voice stabbed at me, and my guilt surged. “I’m so sorry.”
“Do you remember what Elliot said, Vicky? What I said? We all looked over your idea. None of us had a single reason to think anything would go wrong. Elliot would never willingly put you, his brother, or Nicole at risk. You’re—we’re—his family. His twin vanishing without a trace was bad enough, but to lose you and Nicole at the same time? I kept flinching when the phone rang from a Georgia number. I feared the worst.” Richard sighed, pausing in his combing. “I still do.”
“I don’t know what happened to them. I—”
“Vicky, listen to me.”
I shut my mouth, my teeth clacking together.
“We’ll find them. They’re pack. I know you’re having trouble adapting to pack life. I know your situation isn’t helping matters for you. We’re all in this together. No matter what, Basin will pay. If they think they can get away with hurting you, Dante, and Nicole, they’re about to learn how wrong they are. If Elliot hadn’t approved the kill order on Basin, I was going to do it anyway, to hell with what anyone thought. Every last one of them dies.”
I believed him, and because I did, I worried.
When Richard finally relented and let me escape the bathtub, I’d regained enough of my strength to stand without help. Despite my protests, Richard insisted on hovering until I relented and allowed him to help dry my hair after bundling me in a bathrobe.
“Elliot’s probably going to wake up soon.”
I grimaced, remembering the torrents of water flooding his kitchen. “He’s not going to be happy you seda—”
“Where the fuck is my squirrel?”
I covered my face with my hands and whimpered.
“Speak of the devil.” Richard poked his head out of the bathroom. “Good evening, Elliot. Feeling better?”
“Where’s my squirrel?”
“If you even think about losing your temper and manifesting more water, I’ll come over there and bite you.”
I wobbled towards Richard, but before I could squeeze by him, he reached out and put his hand on my shoulder to stop me. Confused, I halted. After trying to convince me I should climb into bed with Elliot, why didn’t Richard want me to leave the bathroom?
“She’s in there with you?”
“She’s in here with me. Relax, please. How are you feeling?”
“Like some son of a bitch slipped me sleeping pills.”
Richard chuckled. “You’re cranky.”
“I want my squirrel.”
“So, let me see if I understand this correctly. You know we sedated you, but you’re mad because you didn’t wake up snuggling with your squirrel?”
“I haven’t had any coffee yet, Richard.”
“Trust me, I can tell. Why don’t you get dressed? You’re wrinkled.”
“Why is there women’s clothing in here?”
I backed away from Richard, and he grabbed my wrist, holding me in place. “I’ll wait.”
“For what?”
“You to figure it out.”
“Figure what out?”
“Stop taunting him,” I hissed through clenched teeth.
“There’s women’s clothes because there’s a woman here who needs to wear them. I thought that was an obvious reason for women’s clothing in our room.”
“Wait, what?” The puzzlement in Elliot’s voice made me smile. I enjoyed catching him by surprise, and I could imagine his baffled expression, something I didn’t see often.
“Before you take your pants off, come here.”
“The witches are making you test my patience to see if I manifest again, aren’t they?”
“If you manifest, I’m not letting you come in the bathroom. Trust me when I say I have what you want in this bathroom.”
“Like my squirrel?”
“Something even better.”
I ran my tongue over my upper teeth so I wouldn’t grind them. Tired of Richard toying with Elliot, I yanked free of his grip. My Alpha turned, stared at me, and smirked.
The soft thuds of footfalls drew closer, and torn between wanting to see Elliot and retreating, I hunted for a place to regroup. While the bathroom was large, the only place for even the illusion of privacy was behind the shower’s frosted glass walls.
“You were right. She’s shy,” Richard announced before grabbing hold of my elbow and jerking me forward. With my legs so unsteady beneath me, I lost my balance and fell forward. Taking advantage of my clumsiness, Richard shoved me through the doorway into Elliot.
Elliot’s arms wrapped around me, and the scent of his astonishment overwhelmed my nose. Trembling, I squeezed my eyes close and froze. I wanted to stay near his warmth, but my horror at being responsible for his twin’s disappearance clawed at me from the inside until I wanted nothing more than run away and find somewhere to take shelter from my own emotions.
His chest was bare, although the soft cotton of his opened dress shirt brushed against my cheek.
“There’s your squirrel. She needs to be fed, warmed up, and put to bed. There’s soup somewhere in here. You might want to dress her, too, if you can convince her to change out of that robe. I recommend these pajamas. Before you start asking questions, she doesn’t know what happened to Dante and Nicole. Her memory is patchy in places, so—”
“Vicky?” Elliot’s breath warmed my ear. “Are you all right? What happened? Where have you been?”
“Or you can ignore me and start asking questions.”
“It’s my fault,” I whispered.
Richard sighed. “I tried to convince her it wasn’t, but I didn’t have any luck.”
The last thing I expected Elliot to do was knock my feet out from under me. He caught me as
I fell, carried me the few steps to the nearest bed, and tossed me on it. I gasped, landing in a sprawl. “Elliot!”
“Stay,” he ordered.
I bristled, scrambling to sit up. “Anderson!”
Ignoring me, Elliot turned to Richard. “Has a doctor seen her yet?”
“I had three fire witches in here earlier. After they knocked you out, I broke the magic binding her shape to a squirrel so she could shift. You were fixated on your squirrel because of your mating bond. Please don’t faint. Your brother faints enough for the both of you.”
Elliot sat down on the edge of the bed. “Jesus.”
“Get yourself together. You need to watch over her while I take a shower. She needs you.”
After Richard vanished into the bathroom and shut the door behind him, Elliot turned to me. “Are you all right? Do you need anything?”
Too embarrassed to look him in the eyes, I shook my head. “I’m just tired.”
Sliding off the bed, Elliot approached, and I fought against the urge to flinch as he drew close. Why couldn’t my faulty memory have erased everything that had happened while a squirrel?
I remembered everything Elliot had said with painful clarity.
“Vicky.”
Why couldn’t I just ignore him? I shivered, swallowed, and looked up. Sitting on the bed beside me, he lifted his hand and touched the side of my throat. I recognized him checking my pulse. Instead of pulling away like I expected, he slid his hand to my cheek.
“Did they hurt you?”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember what happened. I’m sor—”
Unlike Richard, who usually growled to get someone to stop talking when he didn’t want to hear what he was being told, Elliot’s method was a lot more direct. He silenced me by pressing his mouth to mine.
His lips were soft, warm, and gentle.
Taking advantage of my astonishment, he pressed closer. My sleeping wolf stirred enough to infect me with her winter-driven desires. He left me breathless, and she wanted more.
I had no idea what I wanted. My face flushed, and I gaped at Elliot.
When he smiled, I recognized the calculating gleam in his eyes. “I swore when I got you back, I wasn’t going to let you go. Richard’s right. If I want to win you, I can’t just stand around and wait patiently. No matter what Dupree offers you, I’ll more than match him. I won’t lose. If being a gentleman won’t work, I’ll hunt you down any way I must. Consider yourself warned.”
Every time I tried to apologize to Elliot for being responsible for his twin’s disappearance, he found some way to silence me. After his shower, Richard ordered pizza. The second time I tried to apologize, Elliot shoved his half-eaten slice into my mouth, forcing me to either chew or choke.
The third time, he kissed me again to shut me up, and Richard applauded Elliot’s efforts.
I spluttered, grabbed an empty paper plate, and threw it at my Alpha. It fell short, and Richard clapped again. “I’m so intimidated by your attempted assault.”
“You taste like pizza,” Elliot murmured. “Vicky, if I thought you were responsible, you would know it. I would tell you. I want to find Dante and Nicole, but they volunteered. They thought your idea had merit. We all did. You did nothing wrong. There’s plenty of blame to share. You got out alive. I don’t know how, I don’t really understand why you were a squirrel, but you came to me.”
Elliot inhaled, held his breath for a long moment, and let it out in a sigh. When he said nothing, I grabbed a new plate and another slice of pizza. My body craved sleep almost as much as my stomach demanded sustenance.
Three pizzas had already fallen victim to my appetite, and I worried about how many more I’d consume before my hunger subsided.
“Elliot’s right. Until we piece together what actually happened out there, we know nothing. The idea was yours, but we all agreed the Basin outpost needed to be scoped out, and you three had the skills needed to do it. With Dante’s ability to sense the blood diamonds better than anyone else—and record the names of the victims—his presence on the team was mandatory. Nicole was packing enough firepower, magical and mundane, to take on a battleship.”
I grimaced. “I was the third wheel of the operation.”
Snorting, Richard rolled up his empty plate and smacked me with it. “Bullshit. You’re smart, and you’re good at thinking on your feet—and you work well with Nicole. That’s amazing right there. Nicole respects you, and few people earn her respect enough for her to work with her like you do. You three make an excellent team. Whatever happened took all three of you by surprise, which means it was something far worse than we anticipated.”
Elliot leaned over me and grabbed another slice of pizza. “There’s a protocol for investigating failed ops, but it didn’t result in any solid information. Of course, under normal circumstances, you’d be in for questioning to try to put together the timeline, but fuck that shit.”
“Maybe I should notify headquarters you’re not yet willing to let anyone near your mate,” Richard muttered. “Hand me a phone. I’ll do that now, so they can continue having anxiety attacks in the office. Then again, they could question her all day long and learn nothing. If you remember anything, Vicky, make sure you tell one of us right away.”
“I will.”
Elliot tossed one of the phone boxes on the nightstand to Richard. “Ask when we’re getting secured phones. Did you check to see if our old ones still worked?”
“Mine worked long enough to call for help. I didn’t bother checking it afterwards, but considering it hasn’t rung once in over eight hours, I’m convinced it’s dead. Yours is in here somewhere, too, and it hasn’t rung, either.”
“I need a phone,” I mumbled.
“I’ll ask for one for you, too. Do you want me to have them enable active tracking on hers, Elliot?”
“Damn fucking straight I want active tracking enabled.”
I grimaced at the thought of having someone monitoring my location at all times, but I didn’t argue. If active tracking had been enabled on my phone, would the Inquisition have been able to chart what had happened? “Were you able to track our phones?”
Elliot sighed. “We haven’t found them, and they stopped sending signals at the same time. The last known signal was twenty miles from your target. We weren’t able to pull any information from our records beyond that. According to the signal data, they were turned off rather than destroyed. The devices may have been destroyed later, but we have no way of knowing.”
Richard unboxed his phone, dialed a number, and held the device to his ear. “Richard Murphy. I don’t know if I’m on my temporary or His Eminence’s, but he has a request. First, Victoria Hanover will need a secure phone, and Mr. Anderson requests active tracking be enabled on the device. She’s in our custody, and we’re taking care of the questioning. I’m recommending against sending any investigators; neither of us are willing to have anyone around her right now. She’s suffering from amnesia. We know more than she does, and unless that changes, questioning is futile.”
While listening to the person on the other line, Richard shook his head and flexed his hands, curling his fingers into an imitation of claws. “Mr. Anderson is fine. Bring the secure phones and verify it for yourself if you must.”
Richard hung up and tossed the phone on the bed. “I give it thirty minutes before we have hysterical company. You might want to get dressed, Vicky. While I suspect Elliot likes you in that bathrobe, I don’t think he’d like it if you showed that much leg to anyone else.”
Instead of answering, I took a bite of my pizza and stared at him.
“Just get dressed, please.”
“But I’m eating my pizza.” I glanced at the two boxes we had left. “You’ll eat the rest.”
“I can’t deny that. I should’ve just ordered steak for ten. That would take the edge off.” Richard sighed. “Maybe I should call them back and ask them to bring enough for both of us. That shift was harder on you than it was on me,
and I still feel like I’ve been run over by a steamroller.”
“What’s wrong?” Elliot straightened, abandoning his pizza to focus his complete attention on Richard.
“Nothing is wrong. It just took a lot out of me. Food and sleep will help. Vicky’ll have an easier time, since you’ll be nearby to stand guard while she rests.” Richard chuckled, gathered the empty pizza boxes, and set them aside. When he finished, he picked up the phone and dialed. “Richard again. Can you please arrange a large dinner for me and Vicky? We’re both peckish. Mr. Anderson could use a proper meal, too. Thanks.”
“There are two whole pizzas left,” Elliot muttered.
“Quiet, witch. We all need to eat extra. Ask Amber if you don’t believe me. If I don’t stuff you silly, you’re going to start losing weight. If you start losing weight, Vicky will worry. We don’t want Vicky to worry, do we?”
I frowned, wondering what point Richard was trying to make. “I’m right here, you know.”
Elliot sighed. “Now I understand why Dante complained so much. You really are a devil, Richard.”
Smiling his best smile, Richard hopped off the bed and headed for the bags of clothing piled on the floor. “It’s my job. I love this. Because you’re part of my pack, no one dares to gainsay me right now. They know I’ll bite their heads off if they even think about invading my territory. You two are mine.”
While my wolf remained a quiet, detached part of me, I was faintly aware of her acceptance of the Alpha’s claim. Without her, I had no hope of defying Richard’s wishes, so I submitted in the only way I knew how: I ignored the entire situation and said nothing at all, leaving Elliot to argue with the stubborn Alpha male determined to protect his pack.
Chapter Seven
Exhaustion hit me hard and fast, and I struggled to remain awake. While aware of someone knocking, I couldn’t dredge up the energy to check who was at the door.