It wasn’t the easiest and I’ll admit that Bri punched Gearden at least twice, but it was almost finished come dinner time and when Bri and Gearden both looked towards the window, Gearden jumped up to peer outside first.
Turning he said, “Someone’s here.” It was the concerned look on his face that had Bri and I leaping out of our seats at the same time that Gearden held his hand out for me to take. Clasping it, we rushed downstairs to see who it was.
When we reached the foyer, a man stood just inside the doorway talking to Liam. He looked to be slightly younger but still sported lines around his eyes and lips. I would have said laugh lines, but something told me they were more from stress and worry than happiness.
“It’s Jerry,” Gearden informed me. “He owns a diner outside of town. Rogue, no pack affiliation.”
I looked on as Liam said something to Jerry. Where Liam was tall and muscular, this man seemed to have more of a lean physique. Still, he spoke so fast and it looked like he was out of breath the way his words were rushed, which made it hard to catch anything he was saying, too.
Jerry stopped mid-sentence suddenly, as if just noticing my arrival in the small gathered group near the door.
“Who’s this?” It wasn’t that he asked, it was the look in his eyes that told me he already suspected who I was. Which kind of creeped me out since I’d never met the man in my life.
I think.
Caught off guard, himself, Liam turned, eyes landing on me. Frowning, he held an arm out for me in gesture to come closer and be a part of the conversation, meet the guest.
He looked at me when he said, “This is Maeleigh.” That’s all he said, and I got the feeling he was purposefully vague.
I frowned at him oddly then quickly put on a welcoming smile when I looked at Jerry. I looked at Liam again, waiting.
“This is Jerry.”
I stuck my hand out to shake his hand, but Gearden snatched it quickly. Surprised, I jerked back to look up at him, spotting the telltale gray flash in his eyes for a split second before returning to his natural- human- green.
Alright, then. No touching Jerry. Got it.
I glanced back at Jerry and nodded. It appeared he understood Gearden’s reaction because he didn’t bat an eye at the whole display of mated male.
He nodded back, then turned to Liam again. “We need to talk.”
Liam nodded and directed him to proceed him down the main hallway to the small living room area. There were enough chairs for everyone, but Gearden and I remained standing anyways. Ro was absent, I noticed, but Jolleen was present, which told me he was probably hanging out with Rowen.
Gearden tried to relay for me, but it sucked not having an interpreter.
“Dad’s asking Jerry why he’s here.”
I walked around the room so I could see both of their faces better. I may not make out every word, but at least I could read their body language. All the while, Gearden stuck by my side and told me what was being said.
Chapter Twenty-One
Gearden
I knew it had to be isolating for Maeleigh to have to rely on me telling her what they both were saying. I tried to catch everything, but I knew my thoughts were my own interpretation. I followed her around the room as she took position with the best view of both Dad and Jerry.
“What’s this about, Jerry?” Dad asked. He sat perched on the small couch while Jerry sat in the cushioned chair opposite of him. I was curious as well. Jerry stayed to his diner with his family, away from pack life, just the way he wanted it. Though it was nearly a month ago that Danny and I paid him a visit to feel him out after the dead rabbit incident at McIntire, it had been months before then that I’d seen him. He was weary of anything to do with pack. One might think he was paranoid, but Dad had told me he had a right to be. His old pack had done him wrong in the worst of ways. I just wish Dad would tell me what that was. No one ever spoke of it.
Jerry licked his lips and rubbed his hands on his pants. Something was definitely up. “I uh…had a visitor— or, well, visitors, rather— at the diner today.”
Dad just waited him out.
“Vic,” he said finally. And the bomb was felt around the room. Well, save for Maeleigh, that is. “AJ, too, of course. They had a kid with them. I’ve seen him before, but I don’t know his name.”
Dad sat forward, anxious but patiently waiting for Jerry to get it all out.
“From your pack,” Jerry told him.
“Derrek,” Bri guessed.
When Jerry lifted a questioning brow to Dad, he answered, “He was exiled a few weeks ago.”
Jerry nodded. “That would explain why he was with them, then.”
“Why were they there?”
He jumped up to pace around and Maeleigh eagerly watched his face, trying not to miss anything he might say while he was on the move.
“They met another man there. A hunter,” he said, still pacing.
I glanced at Bri, who was looking at me with round eyes and Dad stood up.
“A hunter?” He got in his way, making him stop. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m sure,” Jer said and blew out a shaky breath.
“Do you know what they were meeting about?”
Jerry shook his head. “Not everything.”
Dad looked disappointed, putting a hand on his hip and the other to his chin, thinking.
“But I think they made some sort of agreement. They shook hands.” He looked at Dad and then me, gauging our reactions. I tried to keep it cool because that’s what Dad seems to want. He didn’t want to spook Jerry. Him being here was a first ever. He’d always kept to the neutral ground along the highway, the diner and his home. For him to be here meant that whatever happened today at the diner with Vic and this hunter guy had to have shook him up.
Dad stares at him for a moment, to the point it made Jerry glance around at the rest of us and switch his weight from foot to foot.
Finally, he said, “Why come to us, Jerry? You’ve always kept to yourself. Why now?”
Jerry looked like he was surprised himself for a moment. “You’ve been good to me and my family. You helped me start up the diner and get me that house.”
I eyed Dad with surprise. I never knew that.
“I was just helping a friend, Jerry. You don’t owe me anything.”
“I do, though.” He stepped closer to Dad.
“I know we aren’t a part of your pack and you gave us what we wanted, peace and to be away from the politics of it. But I don’t think for a moment that Vic would have left me alone as long as he did just because he gave me his word.”
Caught, Dad looked around awkwardly. I wondered why he never told us. The pack, sure, it was taboo to get involved with an unaffiliated wolf. If the rest of the pack were to find out, it caused some speculation on Dad’s way of doing things. But I wouldn’t have judged him so.
He cleared his throat. “What do you think he’s up to?”
Jer shrugged and strode around the room again. “I honestly have no idea.”
Dad watched him for a moment. Jer was unaware of his speculating gaze. After a moment though, he glanced around the room before turning back.
“We might,” he told him.
Jer frowned, stilling all his nervous movements and lifted a brow in question.
“Why don’t you sit down?”
When he did, Dad proceeded to tell him all about what had happened with the hunters a few weeks back. What Derrek had done and how he was exiled. Then he dropped the real bomb about the prophecy theory. If the hunters believed Maeleigh was this one, then we could deduce that Vic’s business with them had to do with her. And, therefore, the whole McIntire pack.
Jerry listened intently, shooting curious and surprised glances at Maeleigh now and then. I couldn’t help it. His perusal of her made my wolf edgy. He didn’t want her touching him earlier because he wasn’t pack. Now he just didn’t like the way he was looking at her because it made her nervous. She didn’t
want to be this person the hunters were after. She wanted to be safe and it was obvious that wasn’t happening so long as they wanted her.
When Dad finished, Jerry stood up, looking wary of Maeleigh now instead of Dad. I could see the way he tried not to look her way as if he knew if he did, he would stare. “I should, uh, get home. My wife will be wondering where I am.”
“Yes, how is Mary and the kids?” Dad asked, standing to walk him out.
“They’re good. We’ve found a good life. A better one, at least.” He smiled at Dad, a silent thanks behind his words and Dad nodded.
“Thank you, Jerry,” Dad said, clapping the other man on the back. I thought I caught a flash of admiration on the other man’s face, but it was gone too quickly.
I followed them down the hall to the foyer and heard Maeleigh behind me. I tried my best to tell her everything and will probably have to fill in some blanks later when we’re alone.
After he left, Dad looked at me and we took a mutual moment of silence to collect ourselves. I sighed and raised my brows at him. He gave a halfhearted smile and then turned away. On his way by her, he reached out and briefly squeeze Maeleigh’s shoulder.
“Who exactly was that?” She asked before Dad was even out of sight.
“Jerry defected from a West Coast pack a while back, taking his family with him. He’s been staying in neutral territory since then.” I walked over to her.
“You said that. But why show up tonight.” Her eyes shown a little brighter than usual when she looked up at me. It was starting to get dark, and the soft light seemed to enhance her features, which seemed to pull at something deep inside of me.
“He and Dad have been in contact since his separation, but he never wanted to rejoin a pack after what he and his family went through with the last one.” Dad never spoke much about it, but I got the impression it didn’t have much to do with Jerry as it did his kids, his daughter specifically.
“So, what, now Derrek is in leagues with these Westboro jerks and they’ve gotten involved with the hunters?” She was pissed, which I preferred over the anxiousness that was radiating from her earlier. Carefully I brushed at her mind with mine.
Instead of her thoughts though, I got her wolf’s and they were instantly aware of what I was doing. “Not without permission, mate,” she growled at me.
Right away, Maeleigh’s eyes snapped wide up to mine. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing! I— “
Quickly she cut me off, switching to our mental communication, “Were you trying to read my thoughts just now?” She raged, taking a step back. Though one might consider it a sign of retreat, I knew she was actually trying to get a better view of my face.
“Well, yes, but— “
“That’s not fair. I asked you not to do that.” And right then, the hurt in her words drove an imaginary knife in my gut.
“I just wanted to see how you’re doing with all this. I know it’s been a lot to take in.”
“Then ask me. Don’t try to steal the information. That’s not how this works.” She growled. I’m not sure she even realized it, she was in another place right now, but her wolf was making it clear she didn’t appreciate the invasion. Which reminds me…
“Your wolf just spoke to me,” I told her.
Blinking, Maeleigh shook her head to clear her thoughts. “She’s, um, not really happy with you. And she really likes you, so yeah, she’s pissed.”
I frowned at her. “You talk to her often?”
At first, she shrugged, and I thought that was the only answer I was going to get. Then, she said, “She talks when she’s really riled up about something. You, a threat, Rowen.”
“My sister?”
She turned to walk ahead of me to the stairs, I was a few feet behind.
“She really likes her,” she told me, climbing up the steps.
I shelved that for the moment, but I couldn’t help the pleased feeling I got from the idea of her wolf having a soft spot for my baby sister.
“Wait,” she said suddenly, stopping at the top of the stairs to turn to me. From a couple steps below, I was able to meet her eye-to-eye. And suddenly, my wolf itched to touch her. “Was that Vic who attacked me yesterday?”
Ro hadn’t said anything to her, but we speculated it could have been. The idea of them trespassing at the time was inconceivable but, knowing what we do now, it was a whole lot more plausible.
“It could have been. Him or AJ. It was definitely Westboro’s scent, but we were hoping it was some younger wolves.”
“No. This was—“ She stopped as if remembering her fight with the other wolf. “It was definitely a full-grown male. I don’t think Luna would have reacted the way she did if she thought it was an adolescent.” I held back a grin. The idea that her wolf would consider others as adolescents when she herself was one, was a little entertaining. Then, in the next second, I realized that maybe that was another indication as to how much her wolf felt she was dominant, the way she deemed others as “younger” in comparison to herself.
She broke me from my thoughts when she announced, “I just want a shower.”
Before she could turn away again, I snapped a hand out to cup the back of her head and brought her forward, pressing my lips to her. It wasn’t aggressive, but it definitely wasn’t soft either. I coaxed her lips apart so I could thrust my tongue against hers and she eagerly met me.
She moaned deliciously, making my wolf hum. Some part of my brain remembered where we stood and I slowly pulled back, kissing her lips one more time. Then another, before I pulled away. It was a new kind of satisfaction that thrummed through me when she didn’t open her eyes right away. When they finally fluttered open, they were unfocused.
“Go on, take your shower. I’ve got to talk to Dad and then I’ll be up.” She nodded slowly, and I could tell she wanted to be a part of that conversation, but I think she picked up on me wanting to go in alone.
I took my time watching her turn and walk up the rest of the way and around the corner, her butt was prime.
When I finally walked into Dad’s office, Danny was sitting on the other side of his desk, Dad must have called him. Bri was there too, doing something on the tablet from the small leather couch against the wall. Danny turned to give me a cursory glance and half smile. It wasn’t exactly happy times right now.
“What do we think?” I asked the room.
Dad was on the phone talking to someone in Gaelic. Danny turned and looked at Bri. “What do you got?”
“He says they are definitely moving out,” she told him, setting the tablet aside. “Not sure where they’re headed yet, but he said he’d keep in touch.”
She spoke about our contact living near the hunter’s headquarters.
Danny looked up at me. “That’s all we’ve got so far.”
I nodded towards Dad, “Who’s that?”
“He’s been trying to find someone who might be able to back-up what Alistahr told us about the prophecy.”
“You don’t believe him?” I cocked my head to the side and then went to sit next to Bri, she handed me the tablet, so I could read the exchange of messages. I glanced at it briefly.
“It’s not about what I believe. It’s your dad. You know he has to be sure.” Danny said.
I got it. Dad had accepted Maeleigh completely into the pack now that she was wolf. We didn’t have to wait on our mating being official anymore for that to happen. Not to mention I think he was growing a soft spot for her. Which made me love her all the more. Damn. There’s that word again. I can’t believe how hard I fell and how fast. I didn’t think finding my mate would be in the cards for me. My life revolved so much around training with Dad and Danny that girls were always on the back burner.
I guess my mind drifted off for a minute because the next thing I knew, Bri was nudging me in the side. Jerking around I looked at her, but she nodded towards Dad. He was off the phone now and talking to Danny.
“They confirmed it. Everything,” he sa
id, then looked at me. I could sense the foreboding dread from him. It only meant more danger for Maeleigh and it solidified any theories we had on the reasons Vic was meeting with the hunters.
“What do the hunters want with her though?” Bri asked.
“He couldn’t say. This is all new.”
Damn. I hated not knowing, just as much as I knew Maeleigh was scared of it. The unknown was scary stuff.
“Let’s focus on what we do know: That Vic is up to something that involves the hunters and Maeleigh,” Danny suggested.
“Good idea.” Dad stood up and walks around the desk to approach me. “I think it’s time Maeleigh spoke with her father again. She’s going to need to learn her Druid side, if might help her with what’s to come.”
Though I nodded, I was totally unsure about how to approach Maeleigh with the idea. I wasn’t sure she was completely ready to take that step with her dad, but Dad was right, we still had no idea what Druid powers she possessed. Having her in control of all the possible arsenal she could, would help our chances of getting through this.
“I know it might be uncomfortable for her, but Vic is not one to underestimate. He didn’t just win position as alpha of the Westboro pack. He slaughtered anyone else who might be in a position to challenge him after putting down the old alpha.
Travis was his name, the old Westboro alpha. He and Dad were friends, leading their packs separately but in a peaceful manner, with an alliance that went back before Dad’s time as alpha. I was just a kid when the rogues, Vic and AJ attacked the leaders of the neighboring pack. It devastated Dad. When he finally traveled to introduce himself to the new alpha, to get a feel for the newcomer, he was met with blatant animosity. It had been just a few short months since he’d taken over, but already Dad saw the strain in the weary faces of the families living there. Those who got out were lucky, and few. Too few.
The Chase: Book 2 in The Hunt Series Page 11