by Maeve Hart
Everyone was handsome, both the men and the women. I wondered how I fit in with them.
One of the couples were in the kitchen already preparing a meal and one man was behind the bar pouring drinks. They were one big extended family. I figured it would be a while before I found my place. The Alpha was the boss and that was Jacques so I hoped that didn’t mean I’d have to be dominating too. That wasn’t in me. I’d always preferred to walk away from conflict rather than face it head on.
“White or red wine?” a man asked me.
“Oh, do you have sparkling white?”
“Yes. Coming up.” He put out his hand. “I’m Byron.”
“Destiny.” I shook his hand. He was a big man and I hoped I’d stay on his good side. Byron walked around taking everyone’s drink order. There was no note pad or anything and I wondered how he could keep it all in his head.
“Let’s sit,” Jacques said, leading me by the hand to a couch.
Once seated, I asked, “Why did you bring everyone back so soon?”
“It’s not good to be out late on a full moon. Haven’t you heard about all the crazy people who come out at this time?”
“I’ve heard it does things to people’s brains. My grandmother always said spells work better if they’re performed on the full moon.”
He lowered his voice and leaned in. “I wouldn’t say too much about your grandmother and who she is around here.”
I glanced over at the others. “They don’t know? I thought you said they knew.”
“You’re here as my new mate.”
I stared at him, wondering what to say. How did he suddenly decide that I was to be his mate, and did I have any say in it? Not that I was complaining—it just would have been nice to know I had a choice.
“And that’s what they’ll need to think if you’re to be safe,” he added.
Ah, now I understood. “Okay.”
He pulled me closer and whispered, “We’re in danger at this time of the lunar cycle. There are people who are looking for us and they think we only change on the full moon.”
“What people?”
“I will tell you, Destiny. When you’re fully here with me and fully committed.”
I knew he meant when I was ready to leave my family and my life behind and I figured that was fair enough.
We ate the evening meal with the pack at one big long table in a room adjacent to the living room where we’d been. There I got to know some of the girls. I got along the best with Celia. Kylie seemed friendly on the surface, but I had a feeling she either didn’t like me or didn’t trust me. The other girl near me at the table was Melinda who was preoccupied hand-feeding her mate, Paul.
Later in Jacques’ bedroom
He’d taken me up to his bedroom right after the meal was over. We sat with glasses of scotch on the couch. The lights in the room were dimmed and being surrounded by glass windows it felt like we were sitting under the moonlight in the middle of the forest.
“I hope you trust me, Destiny.”
“I do. You haven’t given me a reason not to.”
He traced his finger along my arm.
“Do you trust me?” I asked.
“It’s not a matter of trust,” he said. “It’s a matter of keeping you safe.”
“So if I remembered what my grandmother said exactly, I wouldn’t be safe. Is that it?”
He sighed and again, he traced his finger up and down my arm. “I want to keep you safe, Destiny.”
That’s all he said and that’s all he needed to say. His finger gently caressing my arm was the most sensuous thing I’d ever felt. He seemed to truly desire me and I enjoyed the way he made me feel.
“I asked you before, but it’s important you tell me if you know anything else about my grandfather.”
“What do you mean?”
“When your grandmother killed him, did she say that he said anything?”
“No, not directly. Only what I told you before, but she didn’t say your grandfather said it. She mumbled something when I was asking her about the shifter. I think she mentioned it when I was at her place asking her about the jar.”
“Is that exactly what she said?”
“Maybe something about the evening. I can’t think of what it was. It was something on the ninth week… The full moon and the ninth week. It was something that didn’t make sense.”
“It’s important you remember.”
“What’s it all about?”
“I told you, I can’t tell you. All I can tell you is that it’s a key.”
The reality hit me that the shifter Granny killed was an actual person. My grandmother openly admitted to killing a person. Before, it’d just been a story about a shifter who I imagined being a creature, but now the creature had became real to me.
“I just can’t believe my grandmother killed him. It’s one thing to dislike somebody, but it’s another thing entirely to murder another human being.”
“Are you forgetting my grandfather?”
“I’m talking about your grandfather, not Don. I still can’t believe—I don’t know that she killed Don. She doesn’t admit to it so openly. Maybe she just did a spell on Don.”
Chapter 22
“I never thought of the Alpha shifter as a human. I always thought it to be some creature.”
He nodded. “I understand. It’s a lot to take in.”
I held my head in my hands.
“Perhaps your grandmother didn’t kill Don.”
I looked up at him.
“Did she admit it?” he asked.
“Not so much, but she certainly didn’t seem upset that he was dead.”
“Perhaps it was someone else.”
“I’m not sure anybody else had a key to the apartment, although Don might have made a copy. Maybe someone else was there and they put something in his drink. Do you know if he had any enemies at work?”
“I didn’t work that closely with him. I haven’t heard of him having any enemies in particular.”
I cried, not wanting my grandmother to be a killer.
Jacques said, “He wasn’t the most popular person, I can tell you that.”
Looking up at him, I asked, “He wasn’t’?”
“No.”
“Don had a lot of people at his engagement party. I should say our engagement party.”
“That might have had something to do with the free liquor.”
I laughed.
“I’m glad you don’t think I did it,” he said quietly.
“No, I don’t think you’re capable of doing such a thing,” I said. “How did you get me out of jail? You didn’t bail me out because the courts weren’t even open. Did you pay someone?”
“Let’s just say I knew someone in a place of influence and leave it at that.”
I knew there was no use asking him anything further. He was never going to tell me and I really didn’t blame him for keeping quiet. “Maybe I should talk to Granny.”
“I think you should stay away from her for a while. At least until after the full moon.”
“I can’t stay here forever.”
“You can stay here forever. I want you to.”
“I don’t know.” I stood up, suddenly feeling awkward.
“If you don’t want to stay here then I’ll see how long until the loft is finished, or you could stay at the penthouse.”
“You don’t have to do this for me—find me a place to live. I could stay with Abbie for a while, or move in with my mother.”
“Sit down.”
I obeyed.
“Tell me this: do you sense there’s something remarkable between us?”
I looked into his eyes and nodded. I sensed we belonged together.
“We are destined for each other.”
“I can feel it,” I admitted.
“Good. Then I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe and keep you comfortable until you fully realize your place is here with me. I’m not going to force you int
o anything.”
That explained why we hadn’t acted on our feelings. He wanted me to be ready and wanted me to fully come to him. I respected that. We talked longer about what I wanted to do and he told me to sleep on it and let him know in the morning. I was a little disappointed that he took the couch and let me have the bed to myself. The couch was too far away and I wanted to be close to him.
When I awoke, I sat up and looked over at the couch to see Jacques sleeping. It gave me a sense of comfort to have him close by.
He opened his eyes and after a moment he saw me staring at him. He smiled. “Good morning,” he said in a slow, croaky voice.
“Good morning,” I said back. I threw caution to the wind and stood up, walked over, and lay down on the couch next to him. As I approached he’d lifted up the blanket for me to slip under.
Why hadn’t I been wearing something seductive instead of a T-shirt and panties?
As I nestled into his muscled chest, he whispered, “This feels good.”
His words sent shots like electricity through me and I realized he was naked.
I was facing out toward the bed and he was hugging me from behind, kissing my neck and my shoulders as far as he could with the constraints of my tee.
He’d wanted to wait until I was ready. I sure as hell was ready now and I didn’t care what my good girl said. I blocked the voices of reason in my head completely—deliberately.
With his large hands, he turned me to face him and his lips met mine with raw intensity.
My phone interrupted us.
“Damn! Who could that be?” Why hadn’t I turned it off? “Ignore it,” I said.
“You better answer it.”
“No.” I kissed him again, glad the phone was now quiet. He pulled me closer to him. When he licked my ear, I giggled and wanted him more.
And then the blasted phone rang again.
“You better answer it,” he said. “It might be something important.”
I stood up and retrieved the phone from my bag and saw from the caller ID it was Detective Andrews. “It’s the detective,” I said to Jacques before I answered the phone.
His eyes flickered.
“Ms. Stephens.”
“Yes?”
“This is Detective Andrews.”
“Yes, I know.” So he didn’t think I was psychic or mixed up in witchcraft, I added, “I have you in my phone.”
“Very good. We need you to come down to the station sometime today.”
I glanced over at Jacques. I’d had plans for the day. Well, for the first few hours of the day at least. “I’m far away at the moment.”
“It’s important.”
Jacques said quietly, “I’ll drive you in today.”
“What time would you like me to be there?” I asked the detective.
“Could you make it by eleven?”
“Okay,” I agreed, not knowing what the time was. It seemed fairly early in the morning because the sun was only low in the sky. “Is there anything wrong?”
“We’ve got some more questions.”
“Okay, I’ll see you at eleven.”
When I hung up the phone, I was disappointed to see Jacques pulling on shorts. If I’d looked over a few seconds earlier, I would’ve gotten a different view.
The mood had been ruined.
He said, “We should have something to eat and then we’ll make a move.”
“I really should line up an appointment with the Devereaus. I’ve just landed their job.”
“Sure. I’m at your disposal today. I’ll drive you wherever you need to go.”
“Thank you.” I wondered why he never had to work long hours. He must’ve built up a fortune and then invested it and lived on the returns.
“Why don’t you have a shower and I’ll get things organized downstairs?”
“Okay. Jacques, I think I should stay at Abbie’s tonight. There are some things I need to tidy up.”
“Okay, you just let me know what you want to do. I have to warn you, though, you’ll soon find humans no longer interest you and it’ll become harder for you to be around them.”
I frowned, put off by what he’d said. It was disturbing. “Thank you.” As soon as he left the room, I pulled out some clothes to change into before I headed for the shower.
Chapter 23
“Have a seat.” The detective pointed to the seat behind his desk.
I was relieved we weren’t in an interview room. Instead we were in his office.
“Have you made any inroads into finding out who killed Don?”
“The fingerprints we obtained were unusable and we have no new leads. The poison could’ve been administered in the last few hours before his death. And it seems no one knew his exact whereabouts. You last saw him in the apartment, but he could’ve gone somewhere and come back.”
“But the poison was in the apartment.”
“We need to look at all angles and possibilities.”
“I don’t know what he did. As you know, we had an argument, so I hadn’t kept in contact with him. Did any of the neighbors see him coming or going?”
“They didn’t see anything. They only heard your argument.”
My argument? It wasn’t exactly mine, but I stopped myself pointing that out to him.
“I wanted to touch base with you and see if you had thought of anything else that might help us. Have you given some thought to whether he might have had any enemies?”
I looked away from him, thinking about my grandmother. He probably wouldn’t believe me anyway if I told him my grandmother was a witch and had put some sort of spell on Don which caused him to get poisoned in some way. That is, if she wasn’t the one who gave him the poison directly because apparently he’d met with her without me knowing.
“Ms. Stephens?” The detective lowered his head and stared at me.
“I’m just trying to think hard, that’s all. No, I still can’t think of any enemies. I didn’t really know his work colleagues very well.”
“What about his family?”
“There’s only his mother and his sister.”
“What about the brother-in-law?”
“Peter?”
The detective nodded.
“Peter gets along well with everybody. He’s the peacemaker in the family.”
The detective raised his eyebrows. “Tell me about the times he’s had cause to be the peacemaker.”
“It’s nothing really. It’s just that Don’s mother, Maggie, gets a bit hard to handle sometimes. She plays on being frail and helpless when in reality it’s all just an act. I think Peter knows it but Jennifer, Don’s sister, is oblivious to it. That’s all I meant. There hadn’t been any arguments between any of us.”
“I see.” He made me nervous when he scribbled something on his notes.
I hadn’t said anything note-taking worthy, in my opinion. “Have the family contacted you yet regarding the will?”
I shook my head. “Should they have?”
“I believe you’re one of the beneficiaries.”
“No, I’m sure I’m not.”
He picked up a sheet of paper on the desk. “According to this you are.”
“A beneficiary?”
He nodded.
“We hadn’t even gotten married.”
“He left you a letter to open in the event of his death with the stipulation you open it when you’re by yourself. Of course, we’d like to know what’s in that sealed letter.”
“If there’s anything you should know, I’ll bring it in so you can see it.” I wondered what was in the letter.
The detective continued, “We could have the letter subpoenaed.”
We were locked in a staring competition. Neither one of us spoke.
I broke first. “Is that your way of asking if you can read it?”
“Yes. It would save us a lot of time if you volunteered it.”
“Okay. I can’t imagine what it would be, but I’ll bring it by when I’ve read
it.”
“Thank you. And there’s one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“I would like you to open the letter in one of our interview rooms.”
“Do you think I would switch the letter?”
“We still haven’t found the killer.”
I nodded. “I understand.” If I’d refused, they might look closer at me and then closer at my family.
“I’m sure Donald’s family will be in touch with you soon regarding the reading of the will.”
“I guess so. I haven’t heard anything about it yet, but I hadn’t expected to get anything. I haven’t seen or heard from them since the funeral.”
“We’ll be waiting to hear from you, then.”
“I’ll call you as soon as I have the letter in my hands.”
He stood up and when I stood, he extended his hand.
“Thank you for coming in, Destiny.”
I smiled at him. Although I’d found him to be cold when he arrested me, and even though he still seemed suspicious of me, I decided that I liked him. After I had shaken his hand, I walked out of his office with him right behind me.
“Do you know your way out?”
“Yes. I’ll be fine.”
When I stepped outside the building, my phone rang. I hoped it was Jacques saying he was coming to get me because he missed me already. The caller ID, however, told me it was Mom. “Hi, Mom.”
“You are coming to Frizelle’s opening tonight, aren’t you?”
I racked my brain and remembered Frizelle was a local artist my mother had discovered. He made strange sculptures out of paper and wire and also did large abstracts with collage elements in them.
“What time is it?”
“It starts at six. There’ll be champagne and food. Bring your friends, bring everyone you know.”
I was tempted to point out she hadn’t come to my engagement party or Don’s funeral so why would I go to the opening night of Frizelle’s exhibition? Instead, I played nice and even smiled at the desperation in my mother’s voice. She always panicked there wouldn’t be any people at her opening nights and they were always packed. “I will. I’ll be there.”
“I’ll see you there.”