“Then keep your eyes and ears open, and ask questions of those you can trust.”
“Can I trust you, Luther?”
“With your life, Alpha.” His face never changed, but she knew he was telling the truth. He smelled and felt…solid. Cassidy had no other way to explain it, but she knew he would lay down his life for her if that was what the situation required.
“Hopefully it won’t come to that.” She thought her voice was a match for his in dryness. One corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
“Right now we need to be careful, concentrate on rebuilding and stay under the radar. If MacTavish finds out we’re regrouping, he’ll do a much better job of wiping us out the next time.”
“That’s not going to happen.” The idea of all the points of light that accompanied her going dark was more than Cassidy would contemplate. “I won’t allow it.”
“And you say you’re not cut out to be Alpha.” Luther shook his head at her. “Only an Alpha would have the temerity to try rolling back the tide and the strength to accomplish it.”
“We’ll see about the strength.”
“Indeed we will.” He smiled at her again, the corners of his eyes crinkling adorably.
Unable to stop herself, Cassidy leaned forward and laid a light kiss along the line of his jaw.
“Alpha?” Luther held himself still as if worried he might spook her. “Do you understand what you’re doing?”
He smelled so good, like dark loam and old growth. The skin of his neck beckoned her and she ran the tip of her tongue over it; then sank her teeth lightly around the pounding point of his pulse.
“Cassidy.” He stepped back. “You’re too new.”
“I’m too nothing,” she said, matching his steps until he was trapped against the kitchen cabinets. “And you don’t tell me what to do.”
He looked away and lifted his chin, offering his neck to her. His silent submission was the most erotic gesture she’d ever experienced. This time the bite at his neck was anything but light. She pushed him to the floor and he went without protest. He was ready for her and she for him.
“What the hell was that?” Cassidy asked thirty minutes later. She gathered the torn shreds of her clothes to her before stopping ruefully. The shirt was never going to be much more than a holey tank top, and the pants were beyond saving.
“You don’t know?” Luther’s clothes weren’t in any better condition, but he didn’t seem to mind lounging nude on the kitchen floor. “I thought Ruri would have passed that along.”
“She passed on the important stuff. Things have been…complicated.”
“Very well.” He sat up and regarded her levelly. “That was your heat. Your wolf drives you to mate every moon when you’re at your most fertile. You’re bound to find a wolven and mate with them.”
“Heat? Like an animal.”
“Yes.”
His simple answer took Cassidy aback. She wasn’t sure what to make of someone who was so sanguine about being compared to a beast. Her head whipped around to stare at him when the rest of what he’d said sank in. “Most fertile? Am I pregnant?”
Luther shrugged and tucked a strand of hair back behind his ear. “Maybe. You won’t know for a few weeks. It’s unlikely, though. We’re not the most fertile bunch. Natural wolven births do happen, but it seems to take a lot for one of our women to catch. Without you being mated, I’d be surprised if you had.”
“Thank god.” Like many women, Cassidy had always assumed that eventually she’d get married and have kids. The events of the past couple week were not at all what she’d had in mind for her life, and adding a kid to the mix seemed like a really bad idea. “If I’m going to have to do this every month, how do I keep from getting pregnant?”
“You could mate with a female wolven.” At her shrug, Luther went on quickly. “If you mate with a wolven who is much more submissive than you are, chances are better you won’t conceive. Even Alphas don’t tend to breed successfully unless they’ve found themselves a mate. Until that happens, your chances are very low.”
“But it could still happen.”
“Yes.”
“Well, that’s just great.”
“There’s always the standard protection. Only don’t bother with birth control pills, they won’t work for you.”
Two wolven padded quietly into the kitchen. Lewis didn’t bat an eye at the two of them sitting on the floor surrounded by the ruins of their clothing. He gave them a wide berth and pulled open the refrigerator instead. Lewis had to stoop to look inside; Cassidy marveled that she’d been able to fight him to a standstill. Her wolf disagreed. They hadn’t fought him to a draw; they’d demolished him. Reluctantly, Cassidy agreed, which assuaged the wolf somewhat. She continued to be on her guard with Lewis, however. If the wolven decided he wanted to be Alpha again, who knew when he might attack next. The wolf seemed much less worried and was confident he would stay in his place.
The other wolven had left the room but came back quickly. She padded over to where Cassidy and Luther sat and handed them a small stack of clothing.
“Thank you,” Cassidy said quietly. The wolven smiled shyly at her, and then moved to the sink to pour herself a glass of water.
Cassidy pulled on the T-shirt and sweatpants. Her nudity didn’t bother her so much as remind her that she was at a disadvantage with Lewis. He hadn’t noticed, not that she could tell, but she felt more vulnerable naked.
“There’s not much food left,” Lewis said, removing a Styrofoam carton and peering dubiously inside it. He shut the door with a little more force than was necessary.
“Lewis.” Luther’s voice overflowed with warning. He said nothing further, but apparently he didn’t have to. Lewis flushed angry red and sulked over to the counter where he stood and gobbled his way through the contents of the box. He might have complained about how much food was left, but from where Cassidy stood, it appeared the carton was almost completely full. With the way he chowed through it, however, the rest of the food wasn’t likely to last long, maybe through dinner, if they were lucky.
Cassidy wondered if she should do something to show her dominance over Lewis, but Luther wasn’t giving her any kind of sign, and her wolf continued to lounge.
“Someone comes,” Luther said suddenly, head snapping up. His eyes glowed silver and he shifted to face the door.
Cassidy felt it also, like a pressure along the side of her body, almost but not quite pushing into her skin. It was a pressure that felt familiar. “It’s Ruri.”
“That’s just what we need,” Lewis said around a mouthful of food. He didn’t move toward the door, but his eyes glowed also. Luther said nothing to reprimand him this time around, and Cassidy wondered what their problem was with Ruri.
The back door swung open to reveal Ruri silhouetted against the late afternoon sky. Fall sunlight filtered around her, somehow weaker than that of the summer, but without the chill edge of winter.
“Oh good, you’re here,” Ruri said. She grinned at the group, not seeming to notice the wolven who regarded her with glowing stares. “Boy, do I have some good news!”
“You’re leaving town, never to return?”
The growl that erupted from Cassidy’s chest surprised them all, even her. Lewis turned surprised eyes upon her. He seemed shocked at the rebuke but subsided, the light in his eyes dimming slightly.
“What are you talking about?” Cassidy asked once Lewis was back in his place.
“MacTavish.” Ruri’s grin widened until she looked maniacally gleeful. “I know where he’s holed up. I also know that he’s going to be away from his den soon. It’s perfect.”
“How do you know that?” Luther demanded.
“What’s perfect?” Cassidy asked at the same time.
“Apologies, Alpha,” Luther said. He gave her a significant look, though Cassidy wasn’t sure what he was getting at. His scent had softened, but not in a pleasant manner. It seemed shifty, as if he had problems trusting Ruri.
/> “What’s perfect?” she asked again.
“Taking back the pack.”
A shattering of glass on the linoleum floor caused them to turn as one and regard the other wolven. She’d dropped her water glass and a puddle of water widened at her feet. “I’m sorry,” she murmured and bent to pick up shards of broken glass with trembling fingers. It wasn’t long before she cut herself, though she didn’t seem to notice.
“Beth, let me give you a hand,” Lewis said. He bent down and gathered up the remaining pieces before throwing them in the small trash can under the sink. “I’ll just take her out, if you don’t mind.” He stood there waiting until Cassidy belatedly realized he’d been talking to her.
“Of course,” she said. He drew the female wolven out the door and into the living room. Cassidy could barely hear what he said to her, but his hushed tones seemed to be having the desired effect. Beth’s fear was flattening out, to be replaced by the unpredictable peaks and valleys of anxiety.
“MacTavish is no good for those wolven, Cassidy.” The ragged edge of Ruri’s voice tugged at her. The anguish in her voice was echoed by the miasma of despair her scent exuded. “He may think he’s a criminal mastermind, but most of the rest of them aren’t that way. These are people I’ve lived with for a long time, most of them. All they want is someone who will take care of them, who will keep the pack strong. I thought all that mattered was killing MacTavish, but it’s not. Someone has to draw the rest of our people away from him. That’s more important than getting to be the one to kill him.”
Lewis reappeared in the doorway. Arms folded, he leaned against it and watched them closely.
“How do you know he’s going to be away?” Luther pressed back in with his original question.
Ruri’s eyes shifted left before looking back at them. “Malice is setting it up.”
“Malice?” Luther slammed both hands down on the edge of the counter. The chipped laminate caved in under his fists. “The Hunter? You’d trust her enough to work with her on this? Ruri, she kills us for sport.”
“Actually, she kills us for her job.” Ruri ran both hands through her hair. “I know you don’t like her, but she’s not the way you think.”
“A job. Hunting down our packmates is her job, so that makes it all right.” Luther vaulted over the counter to stand toe-to-toe with Ruri. She didn’t flinch and looked right at him, even when he thrust his face so close to hers that if she’d shifted a bit, their noses would have touched.
“Enough!” Cassidy leaped over the counter before she realized what she was doing. Her wolf was fully engaged, all sign of complacence gone. Ruri was the closest thing she had to a sire, and she would be damned if another wolf was going to take her out. She grabbed Luther by the elbow and hauled him back. He grunted with the effort of resisting her, and she shook him sharply.
“Why are you protecting her?” Luther’s eyes glowed even brighter. His teeth were pointed and his jaw was shifting to make room for them. Cassidy looked down to see claws sprouting from his fingertips. “She didn’t protect us! She ran. MacTavish killed Dean and she ran. How many more of us would have survived if she’d stuck around? Would Beth be jumping at every sound because that bastard took her mate out in front of her? Mouse and Skippy might still be alive instead of being slaughtered in each other’s arms. And now…Now she wants us to go along with her on the plan of someone else who wouldn’t mind seeing us all dead. Someone who preys upon us the way the humans think we stalk them. Whose job—” an ugly grimace split his face “—is to wipe out as many of us as possible, then she can go home and put her feet up.”
“That someone is my sister.” Cassidy dragged him close to her and wrapped her other hand around his throat. She was dimly aware of the claws that now adorned her own fingertips as well as the ache in her jaw as it flexed to make room for more teeth. “And this woman is the only reason I’m standing here. Without her, I’d be a drooling vegetable or worse. You will apologize to her.”
“It’s all right, Cassidy.” Ruri placed a hand on her shoulder. As it had back in the box in Mary Alice’s loft, the touch calmed her, allowing her to think straight. “He’s right, as far as it goes. I did run. I was injured and Dean had just been killed in front of me. I thought I could draw MacTavish and some of the others after me, but it wasn’t enough.”
“They did go after her,” Lewis said. “If Ruri had stayed to fight, I don’t know if any of us would’ve gotten out.” He shrugged. “Sorry, Luther, but she’s here now and it sounds like there’s a plan to get at least some of our packmates back. We should listen to her.”
“It isn’t prudent,” Luther said. His eyes rolled as he tried to get a look at the hand around his windpipe. Both hands were wrapped around Cassidy’s arm now, but it felt to her more like he was steadying himself than trying to pull her hand away. “We need to keep a low profile and rebuild.”
“I tried that, remember?” Lewis said. “We were living in the sewer, Luther. Besides, if MacTavish is out of the picture, we don’t need to keep our heads down, we just need to reclaim our old den before someone else moves in on it. I think we should hear out her plan.”
“So do I.” Cassidy released her hold on Luther. “What does my sister have in mind?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Have you seen my phone?” Stiletto asked immediately upon their return to the loft. “I need to let Uncle Ralph know about the plan.”
“So now that you think it might actually work it’s the plan and not my plan?” Malice shook her head. The grousing was all show, of course. She would be happy when this was all over. “I haven’t seen it. You probably lost it when we had our…disagreement.”
“Maybe.” Stiletto seemed unconvinced, but she headed toward the living room anyway.
“I’ll call Uncle Ralph,” Malice called after her. There was no response and Malice waited a second before heading over to the bag of rice. With deliberate care, she dug into the bag, exposing the components inside. The rice around them was damp. She poured the rest of the bottle of water in her hand over the laptop pieces, and then covered them back up.
When Stiletto came back into the kitchen, Malice was seated at the island waiting on hold. Uncle Ralph hadn’t been immediately available, but apparently he wanted to talk to them badly enough that he’d set someone to answer the line. Malice had been informed in no uncertain terms that she was to wait to talk to him.
Stiletto held up her phone and Malice nodded with approval. I’m on hold, she mouthed, pointing at her own phone.
Okay, Stiletto mouthed back before becoming quickly involved in checking something on her phone.
That was fine with Malice. The less she had to interact with the woman, the better. It would all be over soon. The mantra was supposed to reassure her, to get her to relax, but it had the opposite effect. It might all be over soon, but would it be over because things had gone the way she hoped? With so many moving pieces, so many things could go wrong. She wasn’t used to having to rely on others as part of her operations. Usually the only other one who was involved was Uncle Ralph, and he only because he was giving her the target.
“What’s going on, kiddo?” When her handler finally came to the phone, Malice had already contemplated hanging up three times. She’d been stuck cooling her feet for thirty minutes. At least there had been no sign that Carla or her people had tried calling. She would have dropped him like a four-day-dead fish for that. Stiletto still sat across from her, the pieces of her laptop spread across the table.
“Nothing much. Just checking in to let you know that Sissy and I will be making a move soon.”
Across the island, Stiletto wrinkled her nose at Malice’s mocking nickname for her. Ralph laughed unpleasantly.
“Good, and I’m glad to hear she’s been helpful. I knew you could use the hand.”
“Yes, well. I’m forever grateful.” The sarcasm was obvious. She made no attempt to hide it. He didn’t care. In fact, he would be less suspicious if sh
e continued to be bitter than if she suddenly changed her tune.
“So when is this all going down?”
“In the next day or so. A few things need to fall into place, then we’re golden.”
“Do you need any backup or cleaners?”
“Keep the cleaners on standby. I think Sissy and I can handle anything that comes our way until mop-up.”
“Exactly right,” Stiletto said without looking up from the components she worked on with a cotton ball and rag. She’d been irked to find out the pieces weren’t as dry as she’d expected and was methodically working them over by hand again.
“We’ll let you know when we head out,” Malice said. “If we need the cleaners…”
“Give me a call when everything’s squared away,” Uncle Ralph said. “I’m glad you finally came to your senses, Malice. I have to say, I have no idea what the hell you were thinking with this one.”
“Just trying to do my job.”
“So long as you keep doing it. Let me know when you’re heading out. Just leave me a message.” Without any kind of pleasantries from either of them, her handler ended the call.
“What did he say?” Stiletto still didn’t pull any attention from the work in front of her.
“You heard.” It was unlikely Stiletto hadn’t been able to hear his side of the conversation as well as her own. “He’s pleased, or as much as he ever is.”
“Fine.” Finished with the component in her hand, Stiletto laid it down on the table and looked up at Malice. “You didn’t say anything about your sister.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Regs, if nothing else. Because it’s a bad idea to keep this to yourself.”
“It’s not going to happen. I don’t care if Jesus himself comes down out of the clouds to tell me to do it, I’m not telling Uncle Ralph or those asswipes at the CIA about my sister.”
Looking slightly pained at her choice of language, Stiletto shrugged. “That’s certainly your decision, but they need to know. Your MacTavish probably had more innocents corrupted. Your sister isn’t the only one, but she’s part of it.”
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