But unfortunately that was not the case today. Not only had the incredibly handsome Marten Shaleback come through the door, making her blush and stammer, but now she had someone else to deal with, too.
Her attention was distracted by Dr. Evans exiting the conference room.
“Millie, can you make a copy of this, please? Oh, what do have you there, chocolates?”
Millie held up the box, offering it. She liked Dr. Evans. She did. Mostly. The woman had given her a job and didn’t mind that Millie wasn’t particularly good with people. Ha! What an understatement. But sometimes the good doctor was a little hard to take. Like now for example.
Dr. Evans always dressed like she was trying to out naughty-librarian a naughty librarian, but today she had the sex appeal cranked up to stun. Which only made Millie more painfully aware of how lacking she was by comparison.
But Millie couldn’t really blame her. It was all in honor of Mr. Shaleback’s visit. The man was divine. All smoky dark looks and gruff, hard-bodied masculinity. Talk about tall, dark and handsome. With a generous helping of seriously bad boy thrown in. Even Millie had put on her most flattering outfit this morning, a black blouse and pencil skirt. But then she’d chickened out and covered it with a big bulky sweater. Millie was sure he could tell just by looking at her how attractive she found him. The idea made her cringe. What a joke.
Marten’s type never give Millie a second glance. Actually, almost nobody gave her a second glance, which was mostly how she liked it. Oh, who was she kidding? It was definitely how she liked it. She wouldn’t have the first clue what to say to a man like Marten. To any man.
That was why the box of chocolates—and the note attached—was such a surprise. She’d read it over a dozen times, and her heart rate shot up every time. Not that it was particularly intimate, of course, but a girl could dream. From the safety of inside her head, anyway.
Dear Ms. Griffin,
Thank you for your help in getting a spot on Dr. Evans’ calendar on such short notice. It means a lot to me. Please accept this token of my appreciation.
— Marten
He’d signed it Marten. It didn’t mean anything, of course. It couldn’t. But Millie had spent the morning running all kinds of fantasies through her head anyway. Just for fun.
“They’re from Mr. Shaleback,” Millie said with a nervous smile, holding up the box again. After all this time, she was pretty comfortable with Dr. Evans. “He wanted to thank me for getting on your calendar so quickly.”
Dr. Evans smirked. They both knew that for Mr. Shaleback, Dr. Evans would clear her calendar. Who wouldn’t?
“Be careful with that one, Millie,” Dr. Evans said, her smile turning condescending.
Okay, this was the part of Dr. Evans that she didn’t like. It often felt like she was acknowledging all Millie’s failings and graciously ignoring them. Which—okay—that should have been a good thing. But somehow it made Millie feel worse.
Millie glanced away as the woman who had just entered the reception area suddenly turned and rushed out the door. Odd.
Dr. Evans popped a chocolate in her mouth, drawing Millie’s attention. “He’s a handsome devil, I’ll give you that. But he’d chew up a sweet little morsel like you and spit you out.”
Eww. What a horrible metaphor. Dr. Evans turned on her elegant heel and was just about to march away when the man himself burst from the conference room and brushed by her without a glance, racing for the door.
Dr. Evans stood there gaping. Millie couldn’t quite suppress her smile. Dr. Evans stood there for another minute, staring at the door. Millie selected one of the chocolates and bit down, letting the rich flavor melt on her tongue. As Dr. Evans headed back to the conference room, Millie let herself imagine a brief, torrid, passionate affair.
It would never happen. She knew that. But Millie could handle a lot more than people like Dr. Evans would guess. At least in her imagination.
A few minutes later, Millie got up and made the copies. Mr. Shaleback still hadn’t returned when she laid them on the conference room table. Forty-five minutes later, Dr. Evans finally gathered her things and left the office.
“If Mr. Shaleback returns, let him know I couldn’t wait any longer,” she said airily as she went out the door. “We’ll just have to reschedule.”
Millie smiled and ate another chocolate. She wasn’t happy that Dr. Evans had her afternoon wasted. Not really. But it was nice to know that sometimes even women like her could be completely ignored by the Shalebacks of the world.
And he had signed the card Marten…
Chapter 11
There is no clear delineation between the opening moves and the middle game, but generally speaking it refers to when both players have completed their development and the King’s defense has been deployed. Control of the center is a main goal of the middle game.
— From the Journals of Aster Ardennes
Mari watched the way Lucas’s strong forearms bunched as he lifted the shovel of dirt from the ground, his light blue shirt rolled up past his elbows to put them on prime display. They were a burnished tan color with a sprinkling of dark hair along the top—the epitome of benign masculine power. She never thought she’d look at such a thing with enjoyment again—not after Jerry—but that part of her brain seemed to be waking up again. And the vision of leashed male power no longer sent shivers of fear through her body.
Well, at least not with Lucas anyway. Part of her mind had accepted that Lucas would never use his strength against her.
She watched the muscles of his thigh flex under his jeans as he stepped on the shovel and felt a different kind of shiver. Lucas paused and glanced up into her eyes. She held his gaze for a split second before swallowing and turning away, fumbling for one of the azalea bushes they were planting.
He didn’t say anything though, and she let out a relieved breath when she heard him continue. She couldn’t be thinking those thoughts about Lucas! He was—what he was. A werewolf. She couldn’t fight another shiver, this one a combination of fear and awareness.
Behind her, Lucas cleared his throat. “This hole is ready, Mari. Come and place the bush.” He stepped back away from the hole.
Mari knelt beside it, carefully turning the plant on its side and extracting the roots from its container. Last night at dinner, she mentioned missing the azaleas planted in front of the trailer she’d grown up in. Each spring they put on a glorious display of color, and for that season, their doublewide outshone every other trailer in the park. She’d been thinking of her sister and feeling a little homesick. Lauren still lived in the trailer with her three children.
This morning Lucas had presented her with twenty-seven azalea bushes. Twenty-seven! She smiled reluctantly down at the bright pink blossoms as she placed the bush gently into the hole and patted soil around its roots. She still got a warm feeling in her chest at the hopeful, anxious expression on his face as he presented them. Lucas. Anxious. For some reason, the very idea made her smile.
They’d been planting bushes on and off pretty much all day. The azaleas were various shades of pink, from a deep dark fuchsia to a bright rose, with a couple of lavender and white bushes sprinkled in. It had been fun to place them so the colors played off against each other. When they ran out of places around the house, they’d moved here, down by the river. They would be gorgeous blooming along the border of the lawn, against the backdrop of the wild brambles that grew along the river.
Mari looked up as the front door opened and Cray stepped out onto the porch. Her stomach tightened in that strange mixture of fondness, gratitude, and—well, not quite fear, more like nervousness—that she always felt when she saw Cray. The image of him as a giant black wolf, teeth bared, and flying toward her over the kitchen island was forever etched in her mind. As well as the way he’d held her and rubbed her back while she cried—and apologized for all the blood—after solving her Jerry problems for good.
Lucas came to attention behind her. She could just see
the movement out of the corner of her eye.
“Excuse me for a moment, Mari. Please. Wait for me to dig the next hole, okay?”
And then he was striding away across the lawn, his broad shoulders erect, his steps sure and firm as he met Cray halfway to the house.
The two of them turned and went back to the porch, but didn’t sit down. She could see just from his body language that Lucas was agitated by something. The sense of leashed power he carried with him seemed to grow. To expand. Mari’s belly tightened involuntarily, as if waiting for an explosion.
This was the reason she could never think of Lucas that way. Why she should never think of him that way. One of the reasons, anyway. That much explosive power was way beyond anything she could handle.
Mari shaded her eyes with her hand, watching as the two men turned and disappeared into the house. A strange feeling of emptiness seemed to settle in the pit of her stomach.
** *
Lucas could not believe what he was hearing. “Jesse found her last night?”
“Yes, that’s what Dean said.”
“And he didn’t tell me?” Lucas was aware that his voice was rising.
Cray shrugged. “He dropped off the samples to Dean this morning. Not sure what happened after that.”
“And Dean didn’t feel it necessary to tell me either.” He narrowed his eyes. When he got his hands on the little Lore Master…
But he wasn’t Dean’s Alpha. He was Jesse’s though.
“Jesse!”
His roar filled the great room, echoing off the cathedral ceilings.
A bedroom door opened at the top of the stairs and Jesse appeared over the balcony, looking bleary-eyed and disheveled. He took one look at Lucas’s face and vaulted over the balcony railing, landing lightly on his feet in the center of the great room. Lucas took two steps and wrapped his hand around Jesse’s throat.
“Is it true?”
Jesse glanced at Cray.
“Aster,” Cray said.
Jesse closed his eyes briefly and nodded. “Yes,” he said, looking bleak.
“Tell me everything.”
Jesse swallowed. Lucas could feel the movement of his throat under his hand. He had to resist the urge to squeeze.
Boaz emerged from hallway, drawn from the basement by the noise, but Lucas ignored him.
Boaz wisely kept silent.
“Well, um… I caught her scent the night we went to check out that lab. I followed her to another facility. Aster was inside, but they’d set a trap for her, so I, ah… helped her avoid it and collect some samples and data from that facility. There were also some… members of Mont-Tremblant who showed up, so we took care of them—
“How many? What do you mean took care of?”
“Three. We left them tied up in the back yard.”
“Marten’s loners?”
Jesse lifted his chin in agreement.
Lucas grimaced. That rabble was always turning up looking for Aster. This was the first time they’d caught up with her though. That he knew of.
Three of them. Lucas closed his eyes briefly. It was undeniably a good thing Jesse had turned up. He might have mentioned it though. Lucas felt his mouth tighten into a grim line, but he resisted the urge to tighten his hold on Jesse’s throat. “Continue.”
“So… we took the samples back to Aster’s motel. When we got there, she told me the scientists seemed to be targeting a family by the name of Tyler.” Jesse paused, seeming to gather himself. “Specifically, one A. Tyler.”
Merde. That was Jesse’s uncle’s family. Annabelle was just a kid.
Jesse swallowed again. “She showed me the files. Weird stuff about using her as a test subject or a… donor. And I, um… left to check it out. It took me a while to get there and make contact, but it’s them. I warned them and was making my way back to Aster when Dean texted me to pick up the samples from her. She, ah, refused to come with me though.” Jesse held his gaze. “Didn’t want to endanger the pack.”
“And you didn’t call?”
Jesse’s gaze was steady. “I thought it best to report in person. You never ordered me to bring her in against her will.”
Beside him, Cray shifted his weight. Lucas glanced at him. “You have something to add?”
Cray glanced at Jesse. “Dean said he thought Jesse had been exposed to a fertility treatment based on the female mating scent. While he was in the lab with Aster.”
Lucas swore under his breath. “And that’s why you didn’t report?”
Jesse licked his lips. “I came to report. But you weren’t here this morning.”
Lucas made a face. No, he’d been at the garden center getting flowers for Mari. “Go on.”
“So I went to take a shower and just, um, lay down until you came back, but I guess I crashed. I’d been up for almost forty-eight hours.”
Lucas relaxed his hold on Jesse’s throat slightly. “She was okay when you left her?”
“She was fine. She’d changed hotels again and there was no sign of any trouble.”
Lucas let out a breath. Releasing his hold on the man’s throat, he put a hand on Jesse’s chest and shoved him, hard, toward the couches.
Jesse’s lanky form sprawled half on and half off the couch. He righted himself slowly.
“I understand if you, ah… don’t want me around anymore.” Jesse’s face was impassive, chin raised not quite high enough to signal disrespect— but not submissive either. He smelled miserable though.
Lucas resisted the urge to rub the back of his neck. He stared hard into Jesse’s eyes until the other man dropped his gaze, that stubborn chin coming down at the same time.
“Just keep your mouth shut, Jesse, until I ask you something.”
Jesse nodded without raising his eyes, the misery in his scent intensifying.
This right here was why he’d never wanted to be Alpha. How was he supposed to balance this man’s need to find acceptance against the needs of the pack? And weigh that against his own need to find his sister and make certain she was safe? His sister—who was probably just fine on her own—and who would definitely bring danger to the pack when she joined them.
Lucas held back a sigh and turned to pace the length of the great room. Having been kicked out of his birth-pack in his early twenties, Jesse would naturally expect exile. And probably most Alphas would kick him out. This had been the pack’s prime objective from the day it was formed.
And yet, Jesse was correct. Lucas had never issued the order. Which was a complete technicality since they both knew Jesse should have called immediately after finding her. But that mating scent thing was a definite complication. Only for a mate would a pack member ignore his Alpha.
Lucas turned back, eyeing Jesse thoughtfully. The man was an excellent tracker. And except for this one occasion, had been a reliable member of the pack. A valued member. Even now, one could argue that his decision might have benefited the pack. Lucas himself wasn’t prepared to make that argument, but…
If Aster were mated, any danger she posed to the pack would be eliminated. He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. This was not the kind of Alpha he wanted to be. Manipulating people. His own sister. At least considering it, anyway.
“Boaz,” he said, turning to Aaron’s oldest brother, wishing Aaron himself were here to help with this. “You and Jesse are going after her.”
Jesse’s head came up. Lucas shifted to face him directly. “Find her. And this time, Jesse, bring her back. Are we clear?”
“Clear,” Jesse said, his mouth tight. He got to his feet and wiped his hands on his jeans. “Sorry, Lucas.”
Lucas stepped forward and grabbed him by his scruffy chin, staring directly into his eyes. “Don’t fuck up, Jesse.”
Jesse nodded, and Lucas released him, stepping back.
“I’ll get my keys,” Jesse said and bounded up the stairs, his scent a heady mixture of hope, anxiety and shame.
Boaz lifted his chin in acknowledgement as he follow
ed Jesse up the stairs. Silent as usual.
Cray stood there for a moment, saying nothing. “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything from Dean,” he said finally, before heading outside. Through the front windows, Lucas could see Elizabeth had taken over planting bushes with Mari. Cray bumped a shoulder against his on the way past. But Lucas still felt like shit. He hated this.
He should be going too. He should be out there right now looking for his sister. But he couldn’t bring himself to leave Mari. Not being there when Jerry attacked had shaken him. For a while, he’d convinced himself that the danger to Mari was over. But Lucas was well aware that Marten could gather his loners and strike at any moment. Declare an all-out war. At least Elizabeth and Lyla were mated. That offered them some protection. But Mari was completely vulnerable.
Lucas had no doubt that Marten would be coming. Once he found them anyway. And he had to be getting close.
Chapter 12
A Desperado refers to a piece that is going to be captured no matter what move it makes, so it must sacrifice itself at the highest-possible cost.
— From the Journals of Aster Ardennes
Aster leaned against the wall of the ancient pumping station, panting. At least that’s what she thought the abandoned brick building had once been. It was quiet down here by the river, about half a story down from street level and shaded by thick foliage and an arching canopy of scrub trees. Albany was crisscrossed by hundreds of little tributaries off the Hudson and the Mohawk Rivers, and she had splashed through almost all of them in an effort to shake Marten.
Or at least it seemed that way. Right now she was pretty sure she was on one of the major ones leading back up to the Mohawk, because the water was pretty deep. She was considering heading back the other way, toward the heart of the city, to try to lose herself among the crowds of people leaving work on a Friday evening, but her clothes were soaked past her waist, and she had a feeling people would notice that.
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