by Carmen Fox
She patted my hand, yanked me into a tight lavender-soaked embrace, and then let me and Drake head out into the sunshine.
We headed to the truck and got in.
“Did you know my grandfather wasn’t the alpha of the traveling pack? He was only a spokesperson. It was exactly like you said. Each family lived their own life, each with their own alpha. Like real wolves.”
Drake turned to me. “What do you mean, like real wolves?”
“You know, like real wolves in the wild. They live in families and only get together to hunt and stuff. You knew that having one leader for a large number of people is a human concept, right?”
“No. I didn’t. But that makes sense. It all fits together.”
“In what way?”
He turned the key and drove off. “Patience, princess. My research is coming along, but history can’t be rushed.”
“Tease.” I settled into a comfortable position and closed my eyes against the perfectly aimed flow of air. “Any news from your cop friend?”
“No. We’re a small community. I’m not even sure we have our own lab. This isn’t the city.”
“No, it’s not.” I smiled a private smile.
Everything was different here. The pace, the people, the burgers. And dammit, if I wasn’t getting used to it.
“Good, honest living.” Drake set his jaw. “You can go hiking, kayaking, fishing, mountain biking, climbing, horseback riding. Let’s not mention you can run free whenever you want. You don’t have those luxuries in Chicago.”
“I’m sold. You forget I come from a small place myself. Chicago is great, but I do miss the woods.”
“So why do you live there?”
He steered away from the smooth town roads onto a stretch of crumbly asphalt. His gaze was locked on the road before him, but every so often, he directed it at me.
What did he see? The spoiled brat he met a few days ago, or his lover?
I rolled my head away from him. “I have to live somewhere. Being a cop wasn’t my thing. I’m not good at taking orders.”
“No kidding.”
“But I do like mysteries and solving crime. I took a course and hooked up with a P.I. in Chicago, and two years ago, I set up for myself.”
“You could have moved to a smaller place.”
“You have much work for P.I.s around your parts?”
He turned onto the unpaved trail that led to his house in the woods. “Vegetable theft, vandalism, the occasional break-ins. But if that’s too tame for you, I could rob the bank or start a protection racket with the human shops.”
“Shoot. Now you’ve told me who committed, um, will commit, the robbery and the protection racket. Not much of a mystery left.” The pickup jetted across a dip in the road, and I slammed my hand against the door for support.
He maneuvered around another hole and pulled up in front of his house. “You’d have to arrest me.”
“I couldn’t turn you in.” I fluttered my lashes.
He placed his left arm on the steering wheel and leaned over. “How do you feel about handcuffs?”
“I feel very positive about them, but I must warn you.”
“Yeah?” He casually brushed a finger across my collar bone.
“I might not let you take them off.” My voice was hoarse, the words barely a whisper.
He kissed me, long and hard.
Somehow we made it into the house. Somehow we found the bedroom. The rest became a blur. Hands begot moans that turned into screams, and each time I rode him harder than the time before, and each time I came more spectacularly than the time before.
We finally came up for air at five in the afternoon, when our phones rang and vibrated in alternation.
Drake gave in first. “Hello.”
I lay sprawled across his body, wet, breathing hard, and satisfied to my core. The bed’s blanket was nowhere in sight. Maybe it had dropped to the floor on his side, maybe on mine, or maybe it cowered under the bed, sticky with our fluids and in fear of the ferocity with which Drake and I had fed off each other.
“Nothing.” Drake tiptoed the fingers of his free hand down my spine toward my ass.
Who cared about blankets? The last vestiges of insecurity had left me hours ago, after we’d included a few acrobatic moves into our routine I wouldn’t have attempted with another lover, but with Drake... I don’t know. It was fun.
More amazingly, I came every time. The first one should have been a fluke, like beginner’s luck, but nope, Drake knew what got me going and what he didn’t know, he took the time to learn. He’d mapped out my hot spots in his brain and wasn’t too shy to exploit them.
I now paid for every orgasm with muscles that had turned to custard. Christ. Anyone who still had the strength to hold a cigarette after sex had never had sex with Drake. Of that I was damn sure.
“Okay.” Drake lifted his head to kiss my hair. “I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”
And every time, he’d let me be on top without making a fuss.
He finished the call and put the cell back on his nightstand. “That was my brother.”
“Does he need you?”
“Just checking in.”
“That’s nice. So, what’s next for us?”
“Hell, princess. Give me a minute.”
I slapped his chest and laughed. “I was referring to the case. What’s our next step? It feels weird to lay around with nothing to do.”
“Sable will be in town tomorrow. Until then, we have to find other ways of keeping busy.”
Once I’d finally left a message for Raven’s friend, she’d called me back while I’d been wrapped around Drake’s body. Luckily, she’d spoken onto my messaging service.
“Aw, look at you.” I patted his face. “Every day you think more like a real detective.”
“Yeah? Could I cut it in big bad Chicago?”
I lifted my head so he could see me roll my eyes.
“A yokel like you?” I waved him off and returned my head to its spot on his chest, right over his heart. “You don’t want to live there. It’s loud and dirty, and full of humans.”
His fingers stopped their march across my skin.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He rolled me onto my back and lay on his side, head propped up on his elbow. “What is this to you? Us. What does this mean to you?”
More than you’ll ever know.
I softened my voice. “I enjoy being with you. You make me laugh.”
He exhaled sharply. “That’s it?”
“What do you want to hear?”
“The truth. For once, will you drop your defenses and let me in?”
How could I bare my soul when doing so would see him running for the hills? “I’m not lying. I admit, some things are difficult for me to talk about, and there are things I can’t tell you at all, but I’m not lying. I like you. A lot.”
He opened his mouth, maybe to speak, maybe to snap for air, but I squeezed his lips shut before he’d uttered a sound. “Let’s not ruin this.”
He swiped away my hand. “I want more. This isn’t a fling for me. I want you.”
I sat. “That’s a pretty thought, but it’s not practical. My business is in Chicago, and you belong with Jonah.”
“If I have to, I’ll follow you to Chicago, even all the way to Germany.”
I twisted away from him and pulled my knees to my chest. “I’m destined to rule a pack that can’t stand me. The backstabbing and machinations at court never cease. Why would I want to wish that kind of future on anyone, most of all you?”
“I didn’t know you felt so...lost about your future.” He traced my spine with his fingers. “Here I thought you had it all figured out.”
“That’s what I want you to think.” I chuckled grimly.
“I’ll be by your side.”
“You want to be king?”
Drake had the power to rule a royal pack, no doubt, but did he have the stomach for it? Until now, he’d chosen the ea
sy lane by allowing Jonah to bear the burden of leadership.
“I don’t want to be king.” He splayed his palm against my back. “But if that’s what I have to do to be with you, it’s a small price to pay.”
Was he serious? Were we really talking about this? While I’d been pushing away thoughts of a future without him, he’d been working on ways we could be together.
But then there was this insurmountable obstacle, the reason this would never work. I wasn’t a real werewolf, not like he deserved. Maybe one day that would change, maybe it wouldn’t, but I couldn’t string along a guy like him on a maybe.
My skin went cold, and not because of the AC. I lay back down and found my spot on his chest as easily as I’d find the off key on my remote control.
He wrapped his arms tightly around me and kissed my head. “What are you thinking?”
“Way too much to answer that question.”
“Don’t you want to be with me?”
“Want? Yes. Should I? There’s much you don’t know about me, or me about you. How do I know that once we’re mated, you won’t go all alpha on me and start pushing me around?”
“You think I’d do that?”
“Not a bit. But my point is, I don’t know.”
He dropped his arms onto the mattress, taking his warmth from me. “Is that why you’ve been holding back? Because you don’t trust me?”
I lifted my head. “When have I not trusted you?”
“You’ve never run with me. I don’t just ask anyone, you know, but every time, you find an excuse.”
“I don’t like running, so what?”
“You don’t like running, you don’t use your dominance. It’s like you try so hard to be human.” He pushed me aside and sat up. “Is that why you don’t want to be with me? Because I’m not human?”
“What?” I shook my head. “That’s idiotic.”
“Then why?”
Was I ready to tell him the truth? The future of my kingdom rested on my secret. If word got out that I was a dud, challengers from far and wide would petition my dad and the Council to set aside my claim.
Drake might handle the secret. Maybe he didn’t even mind that I was a poor excuse for an alpha-to-be. But his loyalty was to Jonah, and this wasn’t something he could keep from his alpha.
And then Jonah would have my dad by the balls.
I liked Jonah, I really did. And as for Drake, it was too late to deny my feelings for him. But my dad was all I had. As sparse as he was in terms of affection, he believed in me, trusted me, and in his own way, he loved me.
“This is pointless.” I scooted to the edge of the bed and picked up my clothes. “I need to get home.”
“Away from me, you mean.”
“Yes.” I stuffed my head through the T-shirt’s neck hole and buttoned up my jeans. Whatever Drake’s expression, I didn’t want to see it.
“I’m not taking you home. We need to talk about this.”
Drake’s phone rang.
“Kensi, don’t over analyze—”
“Answer the damn phone.” I shot to my feet and left the room to find my boots.
I returned a minute later to a thunder-faced reception. Even with his cell glued to his ears, he’d somehow put his clothes on.
“You can’t be serious.” Drake stared daggers at me. “No, I get it. Thanks, buddy. I owe you.”
He hung up.
“Was that you cop friend?” I pointed with my chin at the phone.
“What?” He glanced up. “No. That was Jonah. The cops found Raven’s body.”
A bitter taste crossed my tongue, and I grimaced. “What happened? How?”
“Buck told them.” Drake took two steps to the side, glanced around, then took a deep breath. “He texted Jonah, apologized. He said he felt Raven deserved a funeral.”
I frowned. “How did he even know we’d found her? He didn’t turn up to the search, did he?”
Drake stared at me for a second. “Shit. Did he kill her?”
My heartbeat picked up. Had we solved it? Had Raven’s killer finally made a mistake?
Drake pressed my phone into my hand and twirled me around. “Let’s go.”
“To question Buck?”
“He’s dropped off the face of the Earth.” Drake looked at me. “I’ll find him, either way.”
“Not without me.”
He held my head between his hands. “If Buck’s gone into hiding, I’ll find him. I used to hunt drifters, remember? You have things to do here. Talk to Sable. Find out everything you can about Buck’s movements. Leo will help, if you need him.”
Damn, his plan made sense. Drake knew the area and had experience finding people who didn’t want to be found.
I slowly nodded. “Fine.”
“Good.” He angled my head so as to trap my gaze. “Just don’t get too comfortable around Leo. You and I aren’t done by a long way.”
Twenty
The outside temperature had dropped, at least in part due to the wall of trees flanking Drake’s home. A more peaceful surrounding was hard to imagine, yet its tranquility had been disturbed by our fight.
Drake fumbled with his steering wheel, put the truck in gear and guided the pickup along the path. Despite his words, our fling was over. It’s what I wanted, what I needed to happen, yet nothing had prepared me for the dull ache inside.
We skipped and rolled over bumps and holes in the dirt road, until ten minutes later, Drake pulled up outside my home.
He turned off the truck and sat silently.
“Keep me informed, will you?” I mellowed my tone to make it sound less like an order.
“You too.” Then he leaned over, face up, and kissed me.
I was in no position to deny him. His pull on me was too damn strong.
He held my face tenderly, stroking my nerve endings which fired in my brain, my spine, and deep in my core. I wiggled to diffuse the building tension inside while his large hands, not nearly as rough as one would have guessed, caressed my waist under the T-shirt.
“Wow,” I whispered.
He chuckled. “Yeah?”
I slowly pushed back from him. At this point, we were only torturing ourselves.
“Try not to get into trouble.” He raked some of my hair behind my ear and kissed my neck.
“I haven’t so far.”
“Because I’ve been by your side.”
I got out the truck and laughed. “You keep telling yourself that.”
He honked and drove off, while I watched his pickup turn into another road. The cloudless sky was a blue too artificial to be real, as if someone had scrambled to finish a painting with whatever materials they had at hand. Despite the heat, I clutched my jacket tightly against my chest, then marched up the path and opened the door.
Inside, nothing ticked or rustled. Not even the AC made its presence known, even though its flow of cooling air gave me shivers. I picked up a yoghurt and entered the living-room, where Raven’s case file mocked me from the table.
The sharp lines of the furniture lacked the lived-in comfort of Drake’s place, but without much persuasion from me, my legs carried me to the angular chair that stood in the corner, the forgotten orphan of the living room.
I sat. Leaned forward, arms pressed against my stomach. Had I made a mistake? I’d advised Jonah to keep Raven’s death a secret. No one even suspected we’d found her before the cops did, but that only made me look incompetent. Of course I could argue that my advances had forced the discovery, but nothing about the case had been clean. Jonah’s gratitude, which I’d built my future on, might no longer materialize. How could he possibly support me now? Either he admitted he’d denied Raven a timely funeral, or he’d hired an incompetent investigator.
All that paled, however, in light of the real issue. One of their own, one of Jonah’s trusted people, had done the unthinkable.
Had I done my due diligence on Buck? His troubles with young women were well documented, but I didn’t even mention t
hem to Drake. Never pushed him on the truth about his pack member. Too focused had I been on Drake’s eyes, his mouth, his everything, to follow the breadcrumbs. Now Buck was in the wind.
Maybe I could salvage this. If I did as Drake had asked, tracked Buck’s movements, I’d find the proof Jonah needed. He’d be redeemed in his pack’s eyes, and maybe I’d redeem myself in the process.
Although my motivation for finding the truth was personal, my staff, both permanent and contracted, required money to get their butts in gear, and I dipped deep into my own pocket to get the best out of them. While I dissected Buck’s friendships and pestered Andy and the other POOF members for more information, my hackers hacked, my police contacts dug, and my assistant followed leads at her end. Soon, a disappointing picture formed.
No one had heard from or seen Buck since he’d sent the message to Jonah. No credit card transactions, video footage or witness statements nudged my investigation forward. He’d been at POOF HQ when he got Jonah’s message to help with the search. After that—not to be glib—poof. He’d disappeared. Jonah assured me the entire community had been asked to keep an eye out for Buck’s truck. Again, the results were a disappointing squat.
***
By morning, nothing had changed, except I’d discovered that waking up without Drake by my side sucked big time. But we both had our roles to play. Mine was going to involve a face-to-face with Sable. If she knew Raven as well as I hoped, she could provide insight into Buck’s motives.
Because I had no idea why he’d killed Raven, or why he’d tell the police where to find her, or even why he’d confess to tipping off the cops. Buck hadn’t struck me as stupid. Had overwhelming guilt driven him to come clean? In that case, Raven’s death might have been an accident to begin with.
Despite the sad news, Sable agreed to keep our appointment. She was keen to help in any way, she assured me, so around noon, with my USB recorder fully charged, I entered the BBQ joint where I’d previously met up with Natalie.
Once again, the summer heat failed to spoil anyone’s appetites, and lots of hungry mouths had turned up to be fed.
Sable wasn’t what I expected. Instead of meeting Leo’s Lolita, I found myself shaking the hand of a sophisticated woman with the confidence that came from having achieved a certain modicum of success. Her suit was tailored for the season, with a light fabric that flattered her figure. Her makeup complemented her subtle chic.