“But you know where he fell off the grid.” The chips should have made this an obvious murder to solve.
“Just outside the lodge where we were meeting. The satellite is sketchy in that area, but he dropped off and never reappeared until two days later. We had a meeting five days ago, so that fits with Alanna’s window for time of death. He might have been killed just as he left.”
Alanna cleared her throat. “Anyway, in my professional opinion, either this poacher was new to the field…”
“Or it wasn’t a poacher,” Jordan finished.
She shot him a glare. Finishing off a submissive’s sentence was another ploy of dominance. If he’d been at all interested in her, this conversation would have gone much differently, and she recognized that.
Jordan turned to Travis. “I have some questions for you, but I think we’re done here.”
“Yes, you’re done,” Alanna said irritably. “I have patients to see. Live patients.” She jerked her lab coat back on and stalked out of the room, slamming through the door.
Travis grinned at him and shook his head. “So, this is a bad time for you to come here, is it?”
Jordan nodded toward the door. “Like I said, we can sit here discussing my love life, maybe braid each other’s hair and sing songs, or we can go track a killer.”
Travis didn’t stop smiling, but he did walk back toward Jordan’s Bronco. They climbed in and left the veterinary clinic behind. Jordan waited until they were out of earshot to say, “I’d appreciate it if my mate didn’t become a target. It’s a match, but she’s not been recognized as pack yet.”
Travis didn’t smile this time—just nodded.
Jordan rubbed a hand down his face. “Look, if you want Alanna as your alpha female, you need to establish dominance and stop letting her force you into submission. Don’t ask her questions. Make statements and force her to contradict you. Don’t approach her—make her approach you. If she doesn’t show deference, refuse to acknowledge her. Treat her like an enemy you need to subdue. Give her commands—the same as you would Troy. In fact, treat her like a male.”
“That sounds like a nice courtship.”
“That’s step one. Step two follows two weeks later—no sooner because she’s already labeled you as someone she can manipulate. Step two is to ignore her entirely—for an entire week. Don’t make it obvious. Don’t go out of your way to ignore her, but give her as minimal attention as you can, even if it pisses her off, and it should piss her off. If she starts glaring at you, you’re doing it right…but ignore that, too.
“Step three is hers. She’ll come to you. She’ll be feeling you out—trying to see how to get in your good graces again, trying to see if this is all a game. This is where you get aggressive. Tell her you’re tired of her games. Tell her to stop wasting your time. She should get aggressive right back…she’s the type. When she does, you get right in her space. You should be able to inhale her exhale—that’s how close you are—and then hold it right there and wait. She’ll do one of two things. Either she’ll finally show submission, which you don’t want because it means she doesn’t want you as a mate, or she’ll just attack you, either sexually or physically, and if it’s physically, you make it sexually. Then, that’s it. You’ve got yourself an alpha female.”
“And that’ll work?”
“It’s how you court an alpha female. If you indulge her too much in the beginning, she’ll see you as soft and not enough of a challenge. That’s what you’ve done. She wants the chase and the fight. She doesn’t want things easy. If it’s easy, it’s not worth it.”
“She was attracted to you.”
“Because I was disinterested and refused to play her games.”
“Is that how you and your current mate…?”
“No, but I’ve discovered that emotional attachment isn’t about keeping score or dominance.” He smiled. “And I am weak for her. But that is a scent-match, and the rules are all different. If you want to hold out for a scent-match, then ignore everything I’ve said and let Alanna go—because you’ll know a scent-match the first time their true scent brushes by you.”
“Is it worth it?”
“I hope so, but instead of finding out, I’m here tracking someone who likes to play with Lycan organs.” He gave Travis a long look. “And I’ve got to tell you, Travis, something about this stinks. I hope you went back and tracked all your pack’s movements to see if any of them did this.”
“I did. None of them got anywhere near where I’m taking you.” He pointed at a side road. “Take that road.”
“And you don’t have any guests visiting from other packs or know of any lone Lycans in the area?” That might fit with the forum’s part in this. Colby might have been sold out by someone who knew him before and stopped through to help kill him.
“No. Though if they were careful, they could stay out of our surveillance.”
“You’re probably running established patterns, correct?”
“Our patrols are on certain routes—but it’s the only way to cover our territory effectively.”
“Yes, it is. And I think it’s what cost us our second death two years ago, and I think it’s how the poacher and…Sammy were able to work in between our patrols and get to Vanessa over and over again. We may have increased the patrols, but there was still a pattern to them. That’s why you need someone to come in who knows nothing of your patrols to run like crazy all over everywhere and try to catch a whiff of something that doesn’t belong.”
“It doesn’t hurt that you’re almost twice the size of some of the pack, and apparently you like to piss off the females.”
Jordan grinned. “Males, too. You saw me and Dane.”
“Yes, but he saw you as competition for Vanessa.
Jordan just shrugged rather than tell Travis that he’d found a whole new way to piss off Dane.
“Here it is up here. The body was in between those boulders.”
“Tire tracks?”
“It was done during a slushy rain. There was a scent of diesel exhaust…”
“But no way to tell if it was from a semi or something smaller. I wonder if that’s why they held on to the body. If they wanted the weather to cover their tracks.”
“It’s the rainy season,” Travis said. “A good rain is never more than two days away.”
They both got out. Dusk had fallen, and it’d be a cold night with a waxing half moon. The moon had some pull on them as Lycans, and he could feel the impulse to change and to run, but it was less intense than when the moon was full.
“Have you seen any semitrucks like the one the poacher was using two years ago?”
“Not here, and it’d be unusual to see them this time of year since a whole lot of roads are closed. Maybe they don’t always use semitrucks for the organ harvesting—perhaps that’s why this one was done poorly.”
“Maybe.” He didn’t believe it. Somehow, someway, this wasn’t a poacher. It was meant to look like a poacher, but it wasn’t. But he’d need proof and a method before he had Travis start a witch hunt among his pack or the locals. “Did you take time off from work?”
Travis’s eyes dropped to half mast, and he said slowly, “Yup.”
Jordan snorted and shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re pulling that ‘I’m quiet and dim’ thing here, too. You know, that almost cost you the acting Alpha spot. If you hadn’t slipped out of character every so often, I wouldn’t have gotten the votes I needed.”
Travis grinned. “Yeah, but everyone trusts an idiot. They don’t trust the guy with an IQ thirty points above theirs.”
“Thirty points, huh?”
“Yup.”
“Okay, Einstein, I’m going to chase my tail for a little bit—we’ll meet back here in about two hours.” When he got back, he’d call Christa. It would be late enough then that he could catch her before bed. If only he’d be joining her. With any luck, this hunt would provide him with enough information to end this trip fast. And then he let
the pull of the night and the moon take him and left his clothes beside the Bronco as he ran out into the woods to hunt its secrets.
…
The phone startled her, and she slapped it away before remembering she’d brought it to bed just in case Jordan called. She dived over the side and answered it.
“Hello?”
“You answered.” That sounded like genuine pleasure in his voice.
“You called.” She pushed herself up off the floor and scrambled back into bed and under the covers.
“You’re in bed. My bed.” His obvious satisfaction sent a shiver along her spine.
“Maybe it’s not your bed.”
“It is.”
“Mmm. It was the biggest. I tried them all—like Goldilocks—and this one was just right.”
“For your size?”
“It will be when I drag the Big Bad Wolf in here too.”
“That’s not Goldilocks.”
“Yes, well, I don’t have blond hair so I’m stealing what I like from the stories.” She took a deep breath. “My brother stopped by.”
“Oh?” The wariness in his voice made her smile.
“He told me if I wasn’t serious about you and the scent-match, I should run to Mexico because we were basically married—and cheating would get me killed. He tried to drag me out of here.”
Jordan was quiet, but she could hear him breathing. He was there. He just wasn’t saying anything. The silence dragged and she was tempted to fill it with words, no matter what they were. The smile slowly dropped from her face.
“What did you say?” Jordan asked…finally.
“I stayed.”
She waited. Nothing. Her heart sped up. Maybe distance had given him perspective. He probably thought she was weak. Hell, maybe he’d found someone better in this pack he was visiting. He was seeing her somewhat at her worst. She’d forced herself into his house before collapsing periodically and then threatening to kill his lamp.
“Say something,” she said. Anything was better than this silence.
“Mexico is nice this time of year.”
“Are you saying you want me to leave?” Her heart clenched at that. Her brother had said Jordan felt the same way she did, but…
“No.”
She waited. And waited. Finally, she sighed. “Dammit, Jordan, this is where you actually give me reasons to stay because it’s a lot easier to believe something crazy when you’re here and less so when I’m in this huge, empty house. I went looking for a picture of you just so I could convince myself you’re real…and I couldn’t find a single one.”
“Why would I keep pictures of myself in my house?” He sounded amused.
“Is that what it is? I was beginning to wonder if maybe you were like a vampire, because you also don’t have mirrors other than in the bathrooms.”
“When I get back, I will drag you into a photo studio, and we will take pictures together so that you can remember what we look like together in case I ever leave again.”
Her mouth went dry. Okay, that was better. Taking pictures together was definitely something couples did.
“Or I’ll just never leave again.”
She swallowed. “I like that option.”
“Well, that’s good, because I do, too.” He sighed. “This has to be your decision, Christa. You’ve essentially accepted the scent-match by staying at my place, and our scent-matches are sacred.”
“My brother wasn’t kidding when he mentioned Mexico?”
“No, but we can discuss it if you…want out.” A heartbeat later, he asked. “How many reasons do you need?”
“Reasons?”
“How many reasons do you need to stay there, in my bed, waiting for me to return?”
She must be easy, because he’d already given her enough, but she said, “Nine.”
“Nine?”
“I hear it’s nice in Mexico right now.”
He laughed softly. “One, you’ll never find anyone who enjoys carrying you around as much as I do.”
“That’s possibly true.”
“Two, I’ll be absurdly faithful. Apparently, other females have ceased to exist. I was downright rude to a female Lycan today.”
“Is being faithful ever absurd?”
“Hmm. No. I guess not. Three—are you lying down in my bed?”
“Yes.”
“On which side?”
She actually sat up to look because the question took her completely by surprise. “Uhh, left side.”
“Three, I’m willing to take the right side of my bed as long as you’re in it.”
“Your bed is really big.”
She could hear a smile in his voice as he said, “Yes, but as you’ve established, it’s not because I have a complex.”
No, he didn’t.
“No, but I’m willing to share the left side—since it’s so very massive—the bed, I mean.”
“Three, I’m willing to take whatever you give—in bed, I mean.”
“Okay, six more or I’m walking.” Instead, she wriggled deeper into the bed. It was the most comfortable bed she’d ever slept in. She didn’t need to Goldilocks all the beds—a more comfortable bed couldn’t exist. She’d tried this one and called the great search off. Yeah, she sucked as Goldilocks. She didn’t even like porridge.
“Four, I’m willing to put up with your cat—the cat I can hear in my bedroom and in my bed.” Wow, he had crazy good hearing. Apparently, so did Lucifer, because when he said, “Off the bed, Lucifer,” Lucifer jumped off the bed quickly and went to sit in front of the gas fireplace in the room.
She sighed. “I don’t like that.”
“The cat off the bed?”
“The way you’ve trained him. It’s like I have a robot cat now.”
“You mean a well-behaved cat?”
“Clearly, we have a different opinion of the words ‘enslaved minion.’”
“I’m not exactly forcing him to do my bidding.”
She sat up and looked at her cat…on the floor…where he’d sent him.
Her silence must have said it all, because he said, “Okay, point taken, go get your cat, put it on the bed, and hold the phone up to its head.”
She scrambled off the bed, grabbed Lucifer, and set him on the bed, despite Lucifer’s resisting her. Then she held the phone up to Lucifer’s ears. She was tempted to lean in and listen, but with how good Jordan’s hearing was, he’d know—and he was talking quietly on purpose, she suspected.
Lucifer listened intently and then stood up, walked to the base of the bed, and curled up there.
She put the receiver back up to her ear. “You’re like the cat whisperer.”
“Five, I miss you…and I’ve never actually said those words in my life before. And I’m sure I’d miss you more if you were in Mexico. I’d probably follow you down to Mexico, even though I want you to have a choice in this.”
“Six, I miss you too…which should be impossible since we barely know each other, but I still miss you.”
“Seven,” he said softly. It reminded her of how he might speak right before they went to bed, and she reached out and turned off the light. “You have a small mole on your upper lip—and your lips have defined peaks, and they’re the color of Gala apples, and you smell like vanilla and brown sugar.”
“I sound tasty.” Her cheeks were flushed hot with embarrassment.
“You are.”
Her mouth dropped open, and she felt hot for an entirely different reason.
“I like how you narrow your green eyes at me just before you’re about to dig in your heels on something—and I love how you dig in your heels on everything. Your obstinacy is sexy as hell, but don’t tell anyone in the pack I said that.”
“Why are you saying this?” she whispered. It was embarrassing, intriguing, and arousing all at once. No one ever said this stuff about her. She was just…her.
“Because, eight, I can close my eyes and see you from the top of your brown hair to the tips of t
hose beat-up running shoes hiding cute feet with orange nail polish on them. You’re burned into my memory. And even though it’s crazy, I feel like I’ve known you for years—sat across the breakfast table for years. So it doesn’t feel impossible that I miss you—it feels impossible that I haven’t always missed you.”
“Nine?” She swallowed. Could he really outdo eight? Probably not.
“Nine, I gave Travis the keys to my Bronco so I’d stay here and work instead of driving home to be with you.”
Her heart was pounding so hard he could probably hear it.
“Ten, I’d meet you halfway if I felt comfortable driving.”
He laughed softly. “How are you tonight? Do I need to come home, anyway?”
She liked how he kept using the word “home.” “I’m okay. Better, actually. I think tomorrow I might try to find my way to a grocery store and pick up some food.”
“Are you sure? I could have someone deliver if you’re not up for it. I might be able to talk Lucifer into going out and getting it.” She almost believed it.
“No, it’ll be good to get out of this echoing, empty house.”
“Do you need cash?”
“No, I have money.”
“If you need money…”
“Jordan, I have money.”
He exhaled in a huff. He clearly wasn’t used to anyone opposing his decisions—he should get used to it. “Look, if anything happens, I want you to know there is money in my safe. It’s behind the Monet in the library. The combination is…” He rattled off six numbers.
“I’ll never remember that.”
“Sure you will. It’s the day we met. I changed it—because I’m stupidly sentimental.”
“Eleven—you’re stupidly sentimental.”
“Twelve, I want to know what you’re wearing before I head back out into the cold to track a murderer. Our last hunt turned up nothing, but I’m hoping this one…hell, this is frustrating. Anyway, so what are you wearing?”
“My brother brought me my clothes so I’m wearing a camisole with pink and red hearts all over it and matching underwear. Thirteen, what are you wearing?”
He laughed.
This Weakness For You (Entangled Select Otherworld) (Taming the Pack) Page 11