“I probably could,” Anna admitted ruefully, acknowledging the additional strength being a shifter gave her.
“Besides you,” Trent corrected. “You’re an exception.” None of us missed the way he’d said it, or Anna’s flushed cheeks at his admiring tone. “You only traced the scent at the parking spot. Maybe the woman was in the car?”
“So, two kidnappers,” Anna verified, eyeing us for confirmation.
But why? I didn’t pay attention, blasting the thought along both Pack links as I tried to figure out who would want to take her. The Hanleys would never allow a woman to participate. I knew this without a doubt. Unless they had used the woman to lure Jess but we were pretty sure she’d been drugged and carried to the car.
“Not the Hanleys,” Liam agreed, shaking his head. “This shit is way too high tech for them. They wouldn’t bother drugging her. They’d just knock her out with a punch,” he stated matter of fact, leaving Anna staring at him open mouthed.
“I’d have to agree,” Trent answered. “We’re missing something. Another player.”
Anna stared at both of them, her gaze flickering between them as if she was trying to figure something out. “Has anything happened lately? Anything suspicious?”
It was Jess’ Dad who answered as he came in the room, and I watched as Monster stubbornly trailed behind him. He’d tried to get Monster to go to bed, reassuring him that Jess would be home when he woke up, but the kid was way too smart for that. “Her mom showed up this morning,” he stated grimly, clearly believing her arrival fell into the suspicious category.
Monster came toward me hesitantly and I stopped pacing as he settled a small hand on my side, burying his fingers into my fur as he braced himself against me.
Her mom? Anna’s voice betrayed her shock at the idea that Jess’ mother could somehow be involved. I agreed that it seemed farfetched. Her mother had essentially abandoned Jess, leaving her in the dark about what she was, but the timing was suspicious.
“Have you uncovered anything else?” Thomas, Jess’ Dad, asked as he propped himself against the couch. His face was drawn and looked as if he’d aged ten years in the past hour.
“She was roofied, carried out to a car,” Trent stated baldly and Thomas blanched, his mind no doubt thinking the worst based on the few facts we had. “There may have been a woman in the car,” Trent added, motioning to Anna. “Wearing perfume, maybe?”
She nodded. “That’s my impression from the scent signature Dom imprinted. A flowery scent, probably lilac.”
Thomas stilled and my head came up as I realized that meant something to him. It was Monster who said it though in a soft whisper almost lost against my fur, “Mother. She always smelled like flowers.”
The keen ears in the room caught his words though and it was Trent who finally said what we were thinking, “Her mother kidnapped her?”
Thomas shook his head in disbelief, “I don’t see why.” He slumped lower, his gaze unfocused. “Jess is an adult. There’s no reason why she would want to take her.”
Her mother is a breeding female, raised Pack. I informed the others over the Pack bond. She may have reasons he knows nothing about. She’s clearly kept it a secret what she was and what her kids could be.
“Could she have kidnapped her to take her back to her Pack?” Trent theorized.
“I just….I’m sorry, I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that Vivian was Pack or a breeding female,” Thomas denied, yanking on his hair and causing it to stand upright.
“It seems unlikely,” Anna said, glancing at Trent. “Why keep it a secret all these years and then kidnap her and take her to a Pack? She’s part of our Pack.”
Anna’s easy acceptance of Jess as a Pack mate warmed me even as guilt flared once again inside of me. She didn’t know that Jess was not part of the Navarre Pack, not really. She was mine and I’d somehow created my own separate Pack, a fact I’d have to admit to eventually. Trent shot me a look, his thoughts taking a similar track as mine, as Liam crossed his arms stubbornly.
We’re a Pack, I reassured them, even if it hadn’t been exactly my plan.
A soft knock on the door startled us and I raised my nose to sniff, but Monster beat me to it. “It’s Wren,” he whispered, impressing me with his quick accuracy. “She always knocks like that,” he added, putting more of his weight against me as he grew tired. I sat on my hunches so he could lean against me more fully.
“Wren, come in,” Thomas said, opening the door to allow her in. “We were just,” he stopped, not knowing how to describe our conversation, and she nodded in sympathy, understanding how upset we were.
“I hate to interrupt, but I might know something,” she revealed, grabbing all of our attention. “I don’t know if it has anything to do with Jess’ disappearance, but I would hate to not say anything and find out later it did.” She fiddled with something in her hand, a crumpled piece of paper? I guessed, when Trent came striding across the room toward her. He yanked the paper from her hand, smoothing it.
“This was in Jess’ room earlier,” he snarled, his tone accusing as he held it up and I realized it was a photograph. “What are you doing with it?”
She flinched at his aggression, but Trent rarely lost his temper without cause. Monster lifted his head from my side, his wide eyes watching everything. Anna came over, resting her hand on Trent’s arm as she wiggled between the two.
“Maybe you should let her speak,” she mentioned carefully, using her body to push Trent back a few steps. A fact made possible only because he allowed it. Her superior strength was still no match against him.
Wren glanced over at Thomas shamefaced, as she confessed, “I took it from her room.”
Thomas kept his face blank as he asked, “Why?”
Wren sucked in a shaky breath, her nervousness flooding the air, as she fought for the composure to explain. Trent stood poised behind Anna, ready to take action if Wren confessed to anything that would implicate her in Jess’ disappearance.
“I went to speak to Jess earlier, after dinner,” Wren began, her fingers flickering in the direction of the photo still in Trent’s grasp, “I saw the picture on her nightstand.”
“And you took it?” Trent blasted, barely wincing when Anna’s elbow made contact with him.
“Not then,” Wren denied, lifting her chin. “It shocked me.”
Trent gave her a puzzled frown, holding up the photo, but I couldn’t tell who or what was in the picture. “It’s a picture of Jess, Monster, her Dad and her Mom,” he explained, staring at her. “What’s shocking about that?”
Anna’s expression shuttered and I suspected she had an idea of what Wren knew. Anna? I questioned mentally and she gave a tiny shake of her head. Let her say, she implored. I suspect I know what she’s going to say, but I’d rather hear it from her.
Trent, let her speak, I ordered, and Trent’s mouth snapped shut, whatever he was about to say silenced.
Wren glanced around the room, and when no one spoke, she continued. “I left the room, no doubt confusing Jess, but I couldn’t believe what I saw. I thought I was mistaken.” She fiddled with her sleeves, tugging them down over her hands, her next words shocking us. “I thought she was dead all these years. Seeing her in that photo….it was like seeing a ghost.”
Trent sank back against the couch, his hands snagging on Anna’s waist as he used her as an anchor, the photo falling to the ground. Liam leaned forward, picking it up, his forehead furrowed as he studied it.
Wren glanced at Thomas, who had gone pale. “Jess’ mom, your wife –”
“Ex,” Thomas corrected automatically, “Ex-wife.”
“Ex-wife,” Wren rectified, “I knew her when we were girls. She was a few years older than me. Her name was Lucy Hanley and she died when she was fifteen.”
“Clearly, she didn’t,” Thomas stated flatly and Wren looked down. “So, you went in my daughter’s room, saw the picture and decided it was your long lost dead friend?”
&n
bsp; She flinched at his words and I felt an involuntary surge of sympathy for her. “No,” she whispered. “I told myself it wasn’t possible, that I was mistaken, it had just been a brief glimpse, but I couldn’t forget about it. I went back to her room and knocked, but she didn’t answer.” Wren bit her lip, sucking it in as she admitted, “I opened her door and went inside without her permission.” My legs stiffened at her invasion of my mate’s space and I forced back an instinctive growl. “I just wanted to peek at the photo again, convince myself I was wrong,” she said in a rush. “But it wasn’t on the nightstand.” She glanced at Trent, who continued to glare at her. “I heard the shower and figured I had a minute. I needed to see the picture again,” she confessed, her expression beseeching, but she wasn’t getting any sympathy from the wolves. We were territorial over our space and this was an admission of invasion, and not Wren’s first time. She’d crossed our lands without permission trying to save her brother, Dylan, and we’d forgiven it, but I was less inclined to forgive her for this transgression. “I spotted it on the dresser mirror, folded and stuck in the corner, her mother hidden from view. I was reaching for it when I heard the shower cut off. I panicked and took it when I left her room.”
“If you were in there when Jess was in the shower, then her water wasn’t drugged then,” Anna said slowly, piecing things together while I still bristled over Wren being in Jess’ space without her permission.
“It must have been done earlier,” Trent concluded. None of us bothered with the idea that it might have been Wren. She would have confessed if that was the case and I didn’t get the impression she was hiding anything.
There’s always water on Jess’ nightstand, I acknowledged over the Pack link, having seen a bottle sitting there often enough. It was her habit to keep a bottle there.
“Jess keeps water by her bed,” Thomas stated, repeating my words, though he didn’t realize it. “It’s something she’s done since she was a little girl.”
“So, something her mother would know,” Trent reasoned and Thomas nodded.
“Yes, her mother would remember that,” he agreed.
“And use it to her advantage,” Trent responded with a scowl. I was ready to rip her mother apart the second we found her, the only problem was we had no idea why she’d taken her or where.
“Are you sure?” Thomas demanded, turning on Wren. “Are you sure my ex-wife is the same Lucy Hanley you knew as a girl?”
Wren opened her mouth, but Liam answered for her as he held up the photo he’d been studying. “She’s the Alpha’s sister.”
Chapter Nine
Jess
“I have to pee,” I said, unable to keep the hint of a whine from my voice. We’d been riding in silence after her startling admission. She’d managed to shock me into muteness at the realization that she cared enough to try and protect me, even if it was misguided in the extreme.
“Can’t you hold it?” She grumbled, her hands tightening around the steering wheel as she resisted my request to stop.
“I’ve been holding it,” I bit out. “For hours,” I added, unable to keep the bitterness from my tone. “Any longer and I’m going to pee on myself.”
“You always did that,” she muttered. “Drink water before bed and then have to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve been cured of that,” I informed her and she actually had the grace to flush at my dig. “But seriously Mother, you have to stop at some point.”
“Fine,” she declared, miffed. “But don’t try to escape from me. They’ve brainwashed you. I’ve seen it before. You don’t want to be tied down forever to a man, Jess. Not like this.”
I didn’t bother to point out that she was talking about me escaping her in the same breath she accused Dom of brainwashing me. I rubbed my temple, still feeling my link to Dom, the normally solid connection felt almost ethereal, but it hadn’t disappeared even as the distance between us increased. It was the only thing keeping me from leaping from the car and taking my chances. That and the fact that leaping from the car would definitely hurt and I wasn’t ready to add any more pain to my already aching head.
“At the moment all I care about is not pissing on myself,” I responded, being intentionally crude, knowing she’d noticed when she sent me a sharp glance.
“I know I haven’t been the best mother, but I did raise you better than that,” she retorted, shocking me as she admitted to being less than perfect, but it was the slight quaver in her voice that held my attention. “You may not thank me now, but you’ll understand one day when you have a daughter of your own. I had to protect you.” Her next words should have been impossible for me to hear and I tried not to question my newfound super hearing as she murmured under her breath, “They would have strangled your dreams, taken everything that was you and twisted it until you prayed for death.”
Her words killed any further arguments I might have made as I considered everything she must have went through to drive her to these extremes. What little I knew of the Hanleys was enough to make me shudder in revulsion at the idea of sharing blood with them. My mother’s whispered words brought the picture further into focus, along with Liam’s admission that he’d never been to school. I wondered then how my mother had found the courage to leave considering the risk of what they would have done to her if they’d caught her.
“How did you find the courage to leave?” The question slipped out before I could stop myself and for a full minute she didn’t answer.
“When I held a razor against my wrist, ready to kill myself rather than continue to be abused by them.” She swallowed and my breath caught, the pain in her voice bringing hot tears springing to my eyes, even as hers remained dry. “But I didn’t want to die, I wanted to live and to live meant I had to escape. So I did,” she finished simply, turning to look at me.
I nodded, unable to speak, and a few minutes later she turned off the road, bumping into the parking lot of an ancient convenience store.
“I’ll get us something to eat,” she said as she put the car in park, her voice perky as she asked, “What would you like?”
The sudden shift in tone made my head spin, but for the first time I thought maybe it was how she survived, how she faced the world when she wasn’t sure how she’d be received.
I licked my dry lips before replying, “Anything is fine,” I said honestly. “Water would be good,” I added and she gave me a look.
“Then you’ll have to go to the bathroom again,” she argued and I almost snapped at her before I caught a glint in her eyes and realized she was teasing me.
“I’ll steal a roll of toilet paper out the bathroom,” I told her dryly. “That way we can just stop on the side of the road.”
Her nose crinkled, highlighting the bruising I suddenly regretted, as she shook her head. “I think not. Animals pee in the woods,” she declared and her lifelong aversion to camping or having a dog began to make more sense to me. She would do anything to avoid any resemblance to the way she’d grown up.
“Fine, but I’m still thirsty,” I told her as we stepped into the store. An old man stood at the counter, a black and white television playing next to him and I stopped to admire it.
“They don’t make’em like they used to,” he told me and I shook my head. No they didn’t, I thought as the picture scrolled rapidly, the sight dizzying.
“You have a bathroom I can use?” I asked and he jerked his head.
“Out back, next to the pay phone,” he told me, his attention sneaking back to the television. “Key’s on the wall there.”
I noticed a large key hanging next to a door and headed toward it. After grabbing it, I opened the door, expecting to see the bathroom, but instead I was looking at the back of the building. I went outside, the only light a bare bulb hanging by the back door, and almost bumped into a glass box. It took a second before I realized it was the pay phone. I studied it curiously for a second and then went around, finding the bathr
oom.
I did my business quickly, surprised to find the soap and towels stocked, and then stepped back out. I had to go around the pay phone again but this time I paused, my eyes catching sight of the phone. I’d assumed it didn’t work since no one used pay phones anymore since everyone had a cell phone, but a glance at the back door and a reminder of the man’s black and white television had me reconsidering.
“It wouldn’t hurt to try,” I whispered to myself, darting to the phone before I changed my mind. I lifted the receiver and heard, “Please insert $.50.”
“Shit,” I uttered succinctly. My pajamas inconveniently didn’t have pockets and I couldn’t exactly go inside and ask for change.
A cup sitting on the ledge caught my eye and I grabbed it, hearing the distinct rattle of coins when I did. “Hell yeah,” I muttered, fishing out two quarters and depositing them in the machine. I stared at the numbers, my heart dropping as I realized I had no idea what Dom’s number was. “I swear to God, I’m fucking memorizing that number when I get back home,” I promised myself, as I punched in Dad’s number instead.
The phone started to ring and I prayed he’d answer it. He was the only person I knew who would actually bother to answer an unknown number on his phone and I hoped he continued that trend.
A click and then, “Hello?” His voice sounded exhausted and tears once again threatened.
“Dad,” I replied, my voice cracking as my hand tightened around the receiver.
“Jess?” He answered, stunned.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
Chapter Ten
Dom
Thomas’ phone rang, startling all of us as we glanced over at him. When he muttered, “Unknown number,” I disregarded it, figuring he wouldn’t answer. I was still stunned by Liam’s revelation that Jess was the Hanley Alpha’s niece. That her mother was his sister and had escaped their grasp decades before.
The Alpha (The Pack Book 3) Page 9