Deceived By the Others

by Jess Haines

  What could go wrong?

  I pondered these things while I stared at the contract. Screw it. I tucked the papers away in my bag and followed Jen’s example, amusing myself with a card game while I waited for the clock to tick by and Chaz to come pick me up.

  Chapter 2

  I wasn’t pleased when a familiar face showed up at the office an hour before Chaz was expected to arrive. Though I’d been strenuously ignoring anything going on beyond the haven of my office, I couldn’t help but overhear Jen arguing with someone outside. I figured if it was that important, Sara could handle it.

  Then Jen’s voice rose, loud enough that I couldn’t mistake who she was speaking to, or who he was here to see.

  “Mr. Pradiz, I’m afraid you’re going to have to come back next week. Nothing has changed since I told you over the phone an hour ago that she isn’t available. Now would you please leave?”

  Oh, for fuck’s sake. “Mr. Pradiz” was the tabloid reporter who had splashed my personal life across every newspaper in town while I was busy trying to stay alive. He’d been following me from a distance ever since Royce scared off one of Max Carlyle’s minions who’d come to kidnap me. We had an uneasy understanding that I’d give him the scoop behind the supernatural hoopla that always seemed to blow up around me as long as he left me the hell alone and let me come to him when I had a story. I didn’t like him following me around, but all he’d agreed to was keeping his distance and not approaching me or my friends in public. For him to show up here, now, couldn’t be good news. Whatever he wanted, it could wait until I got back to town.

  I groaned and heaved myself out of the squeaky office chair, cracking my office door open and peering out. Jim’s clothing was neat, but nondescript, his skin bronzed by hours in the sun and blond hair fashionably tousled. Aside from the tiny digital camera peeking out of his shirt pocket, he didn’t seem to be armed with anything other than a complete inability to take a hint. The avid interest gleaming in the reporter’s hazel eyes when he spotted me instantly put me on my toes.

  He grinned, showing whiter than white teeth in a practiced look that might have been attractive had I not been overexposed to the charms of far greater predators—such as Max Carlyle and Alec Royce.

  “Ah, so you are here! Ms. Waynest, just a few quick questions—”

  “No.”

  “It won’t take but a minute—”

  “No.”

  His eyes glittered with impatience and something else I didn’t want to explore too deeply, that ingratiating smile wilting around the edges. “Don’t be so quick to turn me away. You haven’t even heard me out yet.”

  “I don’t need to. You’ve been shadowing me for over a month—so if you haven’t found whatever the hell it is you want from me yet, I’m sure it can wait a few more days. I’ll get back to you after my vacation. Hell, I’ll even give you an exclusive if you can promise to stay the fuck away from me until then.”

  “An exclusive?” he said, one bleached blond eyebrow arching high. “My, my. You must be desperate to hide something from me.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Thanks, you’re not my type,” was his deadpan reply. I frowned, and his smile returned, brighter than ever. “All I’m interested in is a story. I hear things are heating up around you. I want to know why.”

  “Tough. You can wait ’til I’m back. Please, Jim, I promise I’ll talk to you if you just leave me the hell alone until Monday.”

  “Tempting as the offer is, I’m not sure I can take it. But I’ll tell you what—here’s my card. Call me when you figure out you’re in over your head.”

  He gave me a shit-eating grin as he flicked the card at Jen and sauntered out of the office. She muttered something uncomplimentary under her breath about his theatrics and slid the square of paper off her desk and into the trash. I was tempted to call out for him to stop and explain himself, but the idea of souring my vacation worrying about whatever he was after was deterrent enough to keep my mouth shut.

  Jen tapped her nails lightly on the desktop, scowling after his retreating form in the beveled glass. “Shia, I know it’s none of my business, but you should really figure out what’s going on and get these people to leave you alone. They all seem like bad news.”

  “No kidding.”

  “He’s not the first one to stop by.”

  That put a chill down my spine. “Who else was here?”

  “Some other reporters. A girl with blond hair who looked like she was packing some weapons, and who was wearing a White Hat pin. She tried to trick me into telling her where you were vacationing, but I got her out of here without letting anything slip. Oh, and some guy named Devon said he’d swing by once you got back into town. That one was cute.” The hopeful way she looked at me at the mention of the ex-White Hat didn’t ease the frown from my features. Not one bit. “Anyway, they all wanted to see you, but none of them wanted to leave a message or wait around. I told them all you’d left already so they wouldn’t keep bothering us.”

  “Thanks, Jen,” I said, retreating back into my office. “You did the right thing. Don’t worry about it; I’ll handle whatever it is they’re so worked up about next week.”

  I shut the door and leaned against it, closing my eyes. Something big must be going down, but whatever it was could happen without me. I wasn’t going to put my vacation on hold—not for reporters, not for vampires, and definitely not for White Hats—even if said White Hats weren’t card-carrying, pin-wearing members anymore.

  The world wasn’t going to end if I put this on ice. Royce and Jack would’ve had more to say in their messages if they thought some big bad thing was coming to town. I’d just put it all out of my mind for the weekend.

  A touch of paranoia made me scribble down a list of who had tried to reach me before I settled with grim determination in front of my computer again. Contacting those people would be my to-do list—as soon as I got back.

  Luckily, Chaz arrived early, only fifteen minutes or so after I’d immersed myself in the shiny distractions of the Internet. Jen eyed him appreciatively over the rims of her glasses while he examined some of our new brochures. She gave me thumbs up as I lugged my suitcase out of my office. Eager to get out of town and brimming with excitement now that I could leave all my worries behind for a few days, I grinned and winked back.

  Chaz is a personal trainer, so his schedule is fairly flexible. Handy for when he needs to handle pack business. It also means he has a delightfully ripped physique that only hints at the incredible strength he has as a Were. His baby blue eyes sparkled with laughter when he saw me struggling with the suitcase I’d packed. He immediately came over to give me a distressingly chaste hug and to take up the handle in one hand, lifting the heavy bag with ease.

  “Hey, love, let me get that. Ready to go?”

  I smiled and got up on tiptoe to give him a peck on the cheek. “Of course. I’ve been dying to get out of here.”

  “Don’t forget to leave me your keys,” Sara called from her office.

  I slapped my forehead and dug around in my purse while she tore herself away from the skip-tracing program she was running to see us off.

  “Thanks for watching my stuff while I’m gone. No road trips to California while I’m out.” I grinned as I tossed her my car keys.

  “No worries of that,” she said, laughing as she caught them. She slid her hands into the pockets of her jeans, following us out of the office and down the stairs. “Too much work to do. I can’t wait ’til Thanksgiving rolls around. Your mom cooking again this year?”

  “Heck yeah. Hopefully my dad’s lightened up by then. Mom’s finally talking to me again.”

  My parents had both nearly had heart attacks when they found out I was associating with Others. After my stint in the hospital from being beaten to crap by a Were, they’d given me ten kinds of hell about how I was living my life. When they found out I’d contracted myself to Alec Royce, they’d come within inches of disowning me. Thankfully, my mo
m was coming around and had decided I wasn’t about to sprout horns and a tail or drag the minions of the Devil to the dinner table with me on family outings. The jury was still out with my dad.

  “You’re his only daughter,” Chaz said, frowning. “I don’t think he’ll be able to stay mad at you too much longer. Besides, you’re alive and unhurt. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

  “Not where Others are concerned. He’s not very liberal about that sort of thing.”

  Sara clapped me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it; he’ll get over it Remember that time he bailed us out after the party at NYU? He was only pissed off for about two weeks, then he was laughing over it with us. This can’t be that different.”

  “I don’t know,” I muttered, flushing under Chaz’s sudden, intense scrutiny. “Maybe you’re right. I’m probably reading too much into it.”

  “That’s the spirit!”

  I mustered up a smile and climbed into the Jeep as Chaz tossed my bag in the back and slid into the driver’s side. Sara cheerfully waved us off as we pulled into traffic.

  “Have a great trip! Don’t get into trouble, ’cause I’m not driving out into the boondocks to get you.”

  Laughing, Chaz and I shared a look. The day was full of promise. We’d hit traffic until we got well past the Jersey Turnpike, but after that it should be smooth sailing. We’d taken road trips a handful of times before, but we’d never had so much time together without worry or responsibility. True, his pack would be hanging around, but I was thinking more about the time we’d be spending together—just the two of us.

  He shot me a glance. I thought I detected a shadow of doubt in his eyes, but before I could ask about it he spoke. “Have you been looking forward to this as much as I have?”

  “You bet. I couldn’t think about anything else all day.”

  His expression eased into a wide smile. “I’m glad to hear it. I was a little worried you might get cold feet. Not everyone would be willing to hang around a bunch of Weres when we’re shifted.”

  I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve come a long way since the first time we met.”

  There was an understatement if ever I’d made one. I still felt a twinge when I recalled some of the unthinking things I’d said in front of Chaz before I found out he was a Were. He’d been persistent in sticking by my side through some tough times, and his loyalty and bravery had shown me that I’d been plenty stupid for breaking up with him after he revealed his true nature. We got back together after I figured out that not all Others are unthinking, violent monsters, and that I had unnecessarily given up a good thing. He had stood by my side and protected me while I fought some pretty scary crap over the last year; that, too, showed he was a keeper.

  It had taken me a long time to set aside my misgivings and come to the decision to commit. Signing the contract meant, legally, I could be turned into a werewolf. Though Chaz knew me well enough to know I’d never forgive him if he did such a thing, my life would be in his hands. Putting that kind of trust in him would hopefully close the rift that had come between us when Royce bound me by blood.

  On the bright side, after we signed that contract, we could do a lot more than hold hands. That might ease some of the tension—in more than one sense—that had been building between us over the last month or so. Considering I hadn’t let things get intimate since I found out he was a werewolf—had it really been almost a year ago?—it was a wonder he wasn’t pushing me harder to jump in the sack, contract or no. The man had the patience and fortitude of a saint. I wasn’t about to risk letting him slip through my fingers again. Once everything was sorted out between us, I could figure out the other, harder issues raised by signing the contract.

  Like telling my parents about him. That could wait, for sure. Maybe I’d put off that little surprise until sometime around Christmas. My mom really liked him, but she thought he was human. Considering she’d only just come around to speaking to me after several weeks of being incommunicado, there was no telling how she’d react once I told her Chaz’s little secret.

  My mom and dad had listened to my explanation of why I’d been spending time around Weres, magi, and vampires with horror and incredulity once I’d discovered there was no way of hiding it from them. What with reporters and cops following me all over the place, and all the new bumps, bruises, stitches, and scars, hiding what was going on in my life wasn’t an option anymore. The only details I hadn’t mentioned were that Chaz was a Were and Sara’s boyfriend Arnold was a mage. Fortunately, whenever they were around my parents or brothers, Arnold and Chaz minded their manners and kept any hints of their nature as Others carefully hidden. So far, none of my family seemed to have guessed. However, I suspected that my dad knew more than he was telling and was biding his time before confronting me about my “alternative lifestyle.”

  “What’s the name of this place we’re going to, again?”

  Chaz pulled his hand out of mine to open the glove compartment and pass me a colorful trifold brochure.

  “It’s called the Pine Cone Lodge. The owner’s name is Bruce Cassidy. He’s been out there for years. He uses the place as a retreat and hideaway for Weres in the off-season. Dillon says he’s run the place since Columbus spotted land.”

  “Yeesh, he’s that ancient? Are you sure he’s a Were, not a vamp?”

  He laughed. “No, no. Nothing like that. It’s just a joke. He is a Were, just an old one. From what I was told, he’s in his early seventies.”

  “You haven’t been there before?” I asked, perusing the brochure. It had scenic pictures of the forest, snowcapped mountains in the background, and some close-ups of tiny, rustic log and stone cabins nestled into the trees. Oh, they all had fireplaces! That had romantic evenings written all over it. At least until moonrise tomorrow night, when Chaz would have no choice but to shift and hunt with the rest of his pack.

  “Not me personally, no. Dillon met him when he was part of the Firepaw pack. I’ve talked to Moonwalker, Ravenwood, and Timber Falls werewolves, and a few of the independent Were-cats,” he said. “All of them reassured me the place is the best Were-friendly deal you can get on a budget without driving across the country.”

  My brows arched in surprise as I reached up to tie my unruly curls out of my face. “Were-cats? I didn’t know we had any in the U.S. I thought they were all over in Africa and South America.”

  “Nah. There are a few natives here.” He paused, navigating around some jerk who cut him off before continuing. “They’re much more low-key than Rohrik Donovan and the Moonwalker pack.”

  “You could say that of any Weres compared to them. I’ve never seen anyone but the Moonwalkers take their pack pride so far as to put bumper stickers of their symbol on their cars.”

  “They have good reason to be proud. They did some great things in their time. If not for Rohrik, I’d still be human to you.”

  That made me laugh. “Yeah, I guess you would.”

  “The Sunstrikers are proud of who they are, too. Almost everyone has the pack symbol tattoo by now.”

  I reached out to brush my fingers over the hint of his pack tattoo on the upper portion of his right bicep, partially hidden by the sleeve of his T-shirt. It was a simple drawing of the sun pierced by a spear, nothing terribly elaborate. All of the Sunstrikers had this symbol. The part hidden under the sleeve was something a little different from what the rest of the pack had: a pair of crossed spears above the sun, just big enough to tell anyone who might look for it that Chaz was the leader of his pack.

  Though I’d seen the tattoo hundreds of times before, I hadn’t understood that it was a pack symbol until Chaz spelled it out for me. It hadn’t struck me as out of the ordinary until then, especially since he had a couple of others, usually hidden under his clothes. The warmth and coiled steel muscles bunching under his skin were a fascinating diversion for me, too.

  I was distracting him from driving, and stopped teasing him once he came within in
ches of creaming someone’s bumper. He gave me a mock scowl, and I reddened, giving him an apologetic grin.

  “So what should I know before meeting everybody? I don’t want to make any dumb mistakes and make an ass of myself in front of all your friends.”

  Chaz gave me an amused glance out of the corner of his eye. “You? Come on.”

  I socked him lightly on the arm, grinning. “Yes, me. Seriously, what do I need to know? I’d like to make nice with these guys.”

  He soberly considered my question. After a long moment, he spoke.

  “Mostly, just be yourself. Avoid staring them in the eyes. That’s considered a challenge, and at this time of the month they may take it too personally to let it slide. Otherwise, they’ll most likely end up playing human for you as much as they can. Until it becomes unavoidable, anyway.”

  “By unavoidable, you mean when they shift, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So you don’t do any weird stuff in private?” I teased. “Nothing you wouldn’t want me to see?”

  He chuckled. “That’s a matter of personal preference. We’re just like anybody else, you know. We’ve all got our bad habits and dirty secrets, just like any human might.” I didn’t totally get the significance of the look he gave me, but flushed uncomfortably anyway. His words brought to mind a desire I once had for another man, another time, for blood instead of sex.

  Or maybe a bit of both. At the same time.

  I quite suddenly had to roll down the window a crack to get some air.