He kissed me. I can punch him later....
My fingers wandered into his hair as I opened my lips. His left hand fisted in my top as a deep growl sounded in the back of his throat. His tongue brushed against mine and I melted against him. Sweet Jesus. He tasted wild and sweet; like nature and honey. I suddenly felt ravenous. My throat felt so dry and my senses were intoxicated by him. My nails dug into his scalp as I clutched him to me, wanting more. I was thirsty and he tasted good, really good. My gums began to ache. I needed more of him.
Damn it! Why does he have to taste so good?
If I just nipped his bottom lip, one harmless little bite, I could see how sweet he actually tasted.
“Shit.” He broke the kiss. His grip loosened. His eyes widened. “I shouldn’t...for fuck....”
He pulled my hands from his hair and gently pushed me away.
I couldn’t speak. My heart felt like it had lodged itself in my throat. The heat of him faded quickly, but I could smell him, and taste him...I stood awkwardly for a moment, staring at his impressive back, half waiting for him to explain himself, half waiting to get my breath back. Mostly wondering what the hell had just happened and why it had stopped.
“For fuck’s sake. I...I wasn’t thinking.”
Yeah, well, that makes the two of us.
“Nothing new there,” I managed to mumble.
“I shouldn’t—”
“I...I....” I took a deep breath. “I hope to God you don’t do that to any of the Pack when you get into arguments.”
His shoulders relaxed slightly. “It’s the spontaneous kiss that starts the argument,” he said, a faint smile in his voice.
“Warn me next time.” I bit my tongue. Not that I think there will be a next time. There won’t be. There can’t. “And I will make sure I have some silver on me,” I added to be safe.
“Yeah, I will be sure to give you that opportunity,” he said, finally turning to face me. “We should get back.”
I nodded and turned, thankful to have a reason to move away from him. “Two of the Wolves managed to stop one of the vans. Maybe they found the research.”
“No, the research wasn’t in the van. I asked before I changed.” He fell in step beside me.
I nodded, not wanting to look at him.
“Alcander and Chris killed all the Leeches in that van, but they have kept one alive so Carter can question him.”
“You knew they had taken someone?”
“I saw the blood on the doorstep,” I said. “Who did they take?”
“Phil, Flynn, and Eve.”
“Jesus.” I thought they had taken one Werewolf. Not three. Three wasn’t good.
“Scott is a mess.”
“Scott?”
“The larger black Wolf who came with us. His Wolf has ash grey eyes, not white like Dabria’s.”
“I didn’t even realize Eve was married.”
“It’s not like you’ve had the time to sit and chat with everyone.”
“I know—”
“Scott will want to look for her.”
I couldn’t blame him. If my partner went missing, I would be searching high and low, 24/7. “Joey will have to stay with Carter.”
“Joey?” Man, I felt like a broken record.
“Eve and Scott’s son. He’s twelve, almost thirteen. Almost time—”
If I had been a cartoon, a light would have appeared above my head...and I would have smashed it to pieces. I grabbed his right wrist and stopped. “Eve isn’t a Werewolf?”
“No, she is Loup-Garou.” His brow creased, causing his slanted scar to zig-zag. “Why?”
My mind seemed to explode and the shredded piece fell into a sickening picture. I suddenly couldn’t breathe. “Oh, God.”
“Heather?” He cupped my chin. “What?”
“A—A female...with the Were-gene...who is able to breed?”
“Loups can’t pass the Were-gene on. Joey will become a Werewolf, but that is because his father is one.”
“But Loups can pass on the heightened sense to their children, can’t they?”
I knew I had read it somewhere. If a Loup-Garou mated with a human, the child would have heightened senses and strength. The children’s immune system would be higher and they would age well.
Brendan’s shoulders tensed, realization flooded his eyes. “Yes.”
“They will think she is a Werewolf.”
His hand dropped from my face.
“It won’t take them long to figure out what she is and what she could do for them.” I felt sick. So sick. “We need to speak to Carter.”
He nodded and we jogged toward the house.
“We will find them,” he said firmly. “We will get them all back.”
* * * * *
The remaining Leech knew nothing. Or, he wouldn’t tell Carter anything, so the Alpha killed him.
It took a while, but finally Scott agreed to go back to Solomon and Dabria’s house with Joey so they could rest.
Carter, Dante, and Owen had the daggers removed and were patched up by Graham, the Pack doctor and Flynn’s uncle.
Brendan and I had stood quietly to one side, watching all of it, waiting for an opportune moment to speak to Carter, but after a while, I decided I couldn’t. I couldn’t speculate about his daughter’s fate, especially after everything that had just happened. Reluctantly, Brendan agreed, with the promise he would inform Carter tomorrow.
The fire brigade arrived shortly after 3 a.m.
When they finished, the house was nothing more than a blackened skeleton.
Chapter Twenty
I awoke the following afternoon in a small hotel room. The wallpaper was pale gold with even paler flowers crawling all over it. The bedding was a dark champagne colour, matching the curtains and the chair, which Carter sat on at the foot of my bed; strange in itself, since Brendan had been the one who had fallen asleep there early this morning.
I yawned. “Carter?” I checked for my sword, happy to feel it beneath my pillow.
“Afternoon,” he said blankly. He wore a black polo neck which clung tightly to his arms and chest. His dark hair had been combed back, and stubble had sprouted on his jaw. He was expressionless, his dark eyes troubled as he studied me.
“Is everything okay?” I checked that I still wore my top from the night before, then sat up, leaving the duvet on my bare legs.
“Brendan told me what happened at the facility. He told me you found the way out.” His hands clasped tightly and rested on his lap.
“That’s right.”
“He said you had dreamt it.”
I nodded.
“So, you share your Grandmother’s gift?”
“No.” I shook my head. “My Gran could see the future. She described it like watching a movie; she could see everything, see all the possibilities. Every path. What I have are visions. If I can even call them that. I see only snips and I see those snips only when I am asleep. They come in dreams, and I can only see things that are going to affect me. It’s a rubbish, weaker version of what my Gran could do.”
“Brendan said the dreams started when your Gran died?”
“Yes, but I could never remember what I had seen once I woke up. When Lance took me around the facility for the first time, I had an odd feeling of familiarity, which I didn’t understand until we went back to destroy the labs. I just followed my gut feeling. I had to.”
“You never told either of us about this.” His tone became clipped. “Even though you knew you would go back there with my Pack. You knew what would happen and you didn’t—”
“No,” I said firmly. “I didn’t know we would get trapped, Carter. I didn’t even know what to do until I found myself standing in a corridor choking to death.”
His face remained cold. His gaze hardened as he looked at me.
“Your house. You think I knew about your house, don’t you?”
His knuckles turned white. “Did you?”
“No. I swear to you, Car
ter, I knew nothing. I am not my Grandmother. If I knew anything, I would have told you. I would have told you everything.”
“No matter the consequences?” His tone dripped with sarcasm. “Sofia was very careful when it came to—”
“The fucking consequences? What could be worse than what has happened? Three of your Pack have been taken. Your home has been destroyed—”
“I am aware of what has happened,” he growled, sitting forward in the chair.
“If I had seen your house burning, seen your Pack harmed, I. Would. Have. Told. You.”
He stared at me.
“I am not my Grandmother, Carter. Even if I seem similar, I am not her,” I snapped. “What was the point of her having the gift of second sight when she refused to do anything about it? People have gifts for a reason. She could have warned us, let us stop everything from happening, but she didn’t want to stop any of it. She didn’t tell me about the facility, Carter. Even though she knew there was one. She knew what was going on down there. She had seen it. She knew the Vampires wanted to create a Hybrid. About the fires. She could have told you. She could have told me, but she didn’t. Hell, she didn’t even tell me that Brendan would be showing up in my kitchen. I would have said something. I would have stopped it.”
He dropped his head to his chest and sighed. “I know, pet.”
“I know nothing, Carter. She said she was doing this to protect me. All she has done is get innocent people hurt and I—I hate her for it.” I wiped away the stray tears that had dropped onto my cheeks and looked at Carter as he rubbed his hand across his face. “I tried to stop the vans but—”
“I know.”
He stood up and walked over to me. “I had to ask,” he said sitting before me. “I had to be sure about what you knew. They have my daughter.”
“I know.”
He looked at the wall behind me. “I’m not happy with Sofia, either.”
“I’m sorry, Carter. I’m sorry about your house—”
“Bricks and fancy trinkets, wee lassie. The lives and safety of my Pack are more important.” His face fell flat at the remark. A brief moment of realized failure flashed in his eyes.
My stomach twisted. “Brendan spoke to you about the facility?”
“Yes, he said the patients were identical to the attackers they found with the last group of victims two months ago.”
“Lance had mentioned he sent out distractions in the hope of catching a Werewolf.”
“Aye, and it almost worked.”
“Did Brendan also speak to you about...about Eve?”
A metallic sheen of silver rolled across his irises. His neck tensed. “Yes.”
“I could be wrong.” God, I hope I am wrong.
“But it is a possibility?” He sounded like he had glass in his mouth.
“Yes.”
“They would need others. Other Loup-Garous if they wanted an army—”
“They might not have thought that far ahead.” I took a deep breath. “They might already know that Loups can conceive, but they might think that Eve is a Werewolf. And if she was, they would experiment on her like they did Brendan, like they will do on Phil and Flynn.”
“What you are speculating is a million times worse.”
“I know, but I had to bring it to your attention.”
His jaw tensed, but he gave me a hard nod.
“When they figure she is a Loup—”
“They will let their bastard experiments rape her in the hope of breeding pure offspring.”
My focus dropped to his hand and I noticed it rested gently on mine. The air had caught in my throat; I could only nod. I hated myself for not seeing this possibility sooner. I thought Eve was a Werewolf. If they had tried before and Eve had been taken to join many other Loups.... My stomach clenched tighter than a fist. It could all be a theory. Just speculating. But if the creation of Hybrids had already been a thought-out plan; a plan that had been in development for the last decade.... What could be better then breeding a new species, rather than creating one?
“I—I shouldn’t have—”
“I needed to know.” He patted my hand reassuringly. “The thought wouldn’t have passed my mind any time soon. It is better we know all the possibilities.”
I nodded.
“I want you to stay with us.”
I looked up at him.
The silver had started to slither from his eyes. “I don’t think it is safe for you to be on your own.”
“It isn’t safe for me, full stop.”
“I have no one I can send with you, despite the promise I made to your Grandmother. I need my Pack, and they wish to find their brothers and sister.”
“I understand that. And I appreciate that. I have brought this to your doorstep, Carter, and all I want to do is help you. The way you have helped me, but—”
“Brendan informed me you have business of your own you must continue with.”
Marie. I had to find Marie. I was so close to finding Marko, I could feel it.
“I want to help, Carter—”
“This is now Pack business, pet. I appreciate you want to help, but I don’t expect you to.” He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a small white card. “But if you really want to, I shall make a deal with you. Help us by listening. Call me if you hear anything or see anything.”
“I will.”
“And call if you need help. And please, if you do hear anything, don’t go running in and attempting to sort everything out yourself. If something happened to you—”
“I will call,” I agreed, taking the card from him.
“If you have business to take care of, then take care of it,” he said, standing up. “Now, I have asked Thomas to take you back. He owns his own plane. He makes deliveries to the neighbouring islands. He can have you back in London within under an hour.”
“Thank you.”
He gave me a faint smile and walked to the door. “I hope you will forgive Brendan for not being able to see you off. He has gone with Scott.”
“Of course. He needs to be helping the others.”
He opened the door and looked at me. “You call me. For any reason, wee lassie. I’m here.”
“I will.”
* * * * *
The sky looked bleak and the wind had turned bitter. Thomas’s small red and white plane sat in the field across the way from the secluded hotel.
Thomas was a tall man, dressed in faded jeans and a brown leather jacket. Clean-shaven, he had a tall forehead and light brown hair.
“It is nice to finally meet you,” he said with a polite smile.
He held the door open for me as I walked up the small stepladder and sat in the front passenger’s seat. I took my sword and crossbow off my back and placed them at my feet so I could fasten my seatbelt.
“Ever been in one of these beauties?” he asked, climbing in beside me and shutting his door.
“No.” I forced a smile. “Only ever been in a plane twice.” Although, my first trip didn’t count since I had been a baby at the time.
“I promise not to do any fancy tricks, then.” He chuckled, fastening his belt.
“Much appreciated.” I glanced back at the hotel, to see Carter standing at the fence of the field. “Is everyone okay?” I asked as I raised my hand and nodded.
“Dante and Owen are all healed and out with the others. I’m afraid Scott is completely beside himself.”
“If I were in his position, I would be, too.” Carter waved casually at us. “How is Joey?”
“I’m not sure. He is with Dabria and Solomon at the moment.” He checked random buttons. “You got anyone meeting you when we land?”
I shook my head.
“I would have rung Alcander for you if he wasn’t out helping the others. He lives in London. He could have brought your car to the airport for you.”
I sighed as I remembered leaving my car in an empty car park in London. “My car is probably a giant metal cube by now.”
“No, Brendan had Alcander take it back to your house.”
“He did?”
“Soon as he brought you back, he phoned Al, told him where you had left your coat, said your keys were in the pocket. Gave him instructions that if the car had been towed, he had to collect it and take it to your house.”
“That was nice of him.”
The plane shuddered and began rolling forward. Unexpected laughter slipped from my lips.
“What’s so funny?” he asked. His coal grey eyes studied me.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that he gets roped into helping me. I get him wounded, kidnapped, poisoned, almost killed a couple of times, and he saves my car from becoming scrap metal.”
“That’s Brendan for you. He’s not such a bad guy, once you learn to get used to his odd mood swings,” he said with a slight smile in his voice.
“No, he’s not.”
Thomas steered the plane to the edge of the field, then turned it, giving us a nice little runway.
“Has he always been like that, you know, the mood swings?”
Mad, crazy mood swings. Hot headed one minute, then all charm and smiles the next.
“Yeah. Brendan is, by nature, a nice, upbeat guy. Gideon was the moody one, completely unable to control his temper. Trait of the shared gene, I’m afraid. Owen and Eve have the same little traits as their father.” His voice suddenly became strained. “Just like my Clare has mine.”
My stomach clenched. “Has Carter—?”
“Carter has spoken to me,” he said. “I have spoken to Clare.”
My stomach turned as Thomas pulled back on the lever. The plane dipped before rising off the ground. Awkwardness filled the small plane far too quickly.
“Brendan hasn’t actually told me about his father or any of his family,” I said, wanting to break the silence.
“He hasn’t?”
“No.” In fact, he hadn’t really told me anything. “Are Gideon and he alike? I don’t think I would be able to be in a room with them both if they are. Brendan is enough.”
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