by Jana Leigh
“Quin, yeah, sorry. I have it under control. It's okay,” Brin said and nodded. “I kinda got that, never ask an Alpha to show you her underbelly. Got it. Shit, okay, at least I have an answer for you though. While I was holding on for dear life, I got a good look. No, she has no markings; she's all white.”
Dante looked at the wolf with curiosity. He could feel the air around them sizzle. Her Alpha magic and his Vampire were flowing, connecting, and seeming to join. What the hell? Even the human seemed to notice it. The wolf went to Brin and rubbed against his leg as if it were reassuring him of something.
“She won’t shift,” Brin said tightly into the phone and put his hand on her head and stroked. Dante was suddenly a little jealous of the contact he was witnessing. He wanted to be stroking the smooth head.
“Really? I can’t ask; she's in wolf form!” Brin ground out. “Fine.”
“Jax, can you shift or are you choosing not to?” the human asked, and the wolf shook its head.
“She can't,” Brin relayed and Dante rolled his eyes; the wolf growled at him again. Then the human turned fast and glared at him.
He held up his hands; everyone was way too fucking touchy. This would be funny if it were in any other situation. This was taking too long. He stood up and the wolf's hair bristled, and he held up his hands.
“Brin, give me the phone,” Dante ordered and the human turned to him and raised an eyebrow at him. Dante sighed and motioned with his hand for him to give him the phone.
Finally, he handed it to him, and then the human knelt on the floor next to the wolf and petted her soothingly and whispered in her ear.
“Alpha, we seem to have a problem. Tell me how to make her shift, we have a plane to catch and don’t really have the time for this,” Dante said with an exasperated tone.
The Alpha chuckled in his ear. “I hate to tell you, if a wolf doesn’t want to shift, she won't. I'm calling Orfeo and talking to him; I have never heard of another White Wolf anywhere. Either they were hiding the fact, or they didn’t know she was special.”
Dante ran a hand through his hair in frustration, great, what the fuck was he going to do? The Alpha continued, “We have also heard some chatter about the surviving child of the Alpha trying to make it to Italy. I don’t know if the Rogues are watching the airports or not. I think you're going to have to find another mode of transportation.”
“Shit, do you know how far that is from here? It will take five days or more to make it back to the new compound. We have to make it on the ferry to the mainland and then drive all the way to Italy?” Dante yelled in the phone, and the wolf barked and Brin shook his head again at him.
“That will give us time to find out what the hell is going on,” Quin said smoothly.
“Not a good answer,” Dante said and hung up the phone only to dial his Sire.
“Orfeo?” he said into the phone briskly. “We have an issue.”
It took about an hour on the phone with his Sire to make arrangements to drive to the compound. Dante was pissed; he had a lot of stuff waiting for him back at home for him to do. His Guards needed his guidance. By the time he hung up the phone, his irritation was showing, and he wasn't really giving two shits about it.
“Listen here, you need to shift. We can’t drive all the way to fucking Italy with a wolf in the back of our car; it would be a little conspicuous. Besides the fact that I would have to pay extra for all the wolf hair that you're shedding.”
Brin stood up with his arms at his sides and his hands fisted and yelled, “Can you cut us some slack here? She is obviously stressed for some reason, and you are not making this any easier with your snide ass comments.”
Dante laughed at the boldness of the human and then said, “This is no longer your concern. You can leave; I will take her from here.”
It would be best to get him the hell out of here so he could have a little one on one time with the wolf. He was going to lay down the law, and that was the way it was going to be.
“Sorry,” Brin grinned at him. “I'm going as well. Jax here said I was her mate, so that means I'm with you until she makes up her mind about what we are going to do.”
FUCK! Dante thought and rubbed a hand over his face. This was totally going to suck. How the hell had he gotten into this mess? The day started out so promising. Come to England pick up a chick and go back, that was it. Now it turned into an old-fashioned road trip.
***
“Why the hell won't she shift?” Dante yelled and flung an arm at the wolf that was eyeing him like he was a fat, juicy meal. “And why is she looking at me like that? She is creeping me out!”
Brin laughed. “Really, you want to know why a wolf is looking at you strangely? Hmm, let me think, could it possibly be because you are being an asshole and she doesn’t really like you?”
Dante snorted. “The feeling is mutual. She needs to shift so we can get moving. We have already been here too long.”
Jax had remained shifted for the last three hours; Brin was trying to soothe her, but so far she had not been able to shift. They were waiting for a call back from Quin. The Alpha had called several times already and suggested things, but nothing was working. Jax was beginning to get frustrated, he could feel her.
The phone rang, and Brin jumped for it. “Hello?”
“Brin? Quin and Orfeo on a conference call. We have talked amongst ourselves; we agree there's something strange going on. Jo is the only White Wolf supposedly in existence, now we have another one. She would technically be on the Senate, as her father was the one; we chose to sit for the Wolves. Dante is apparently the Seer of the Senate also,” Quin said and Brin whipped around and stared at the arrogant Vampire who was looking at him intensely.
“What?” Dante asked.
“Seer?” Brin asked and then laughed. “Just before Jax shifted, she said something I had no clue what it meant. But she said 'Vampire mate'. I thought it was a question, but what if she was acknowledging Dante as her mate?”
“Impossible,” Orfeo said. “Dante will be a member of the Senate; Blaine has already told us the Senate members will have two mates. Dante is a Vampire, in order for him to have two mates; they would have to be a shifter and human. It is the only way for him to be able to take the seat. I have not spoken to him yet, but I assumed he would have his own Clan. Dante’s guards are very loyal to him. They will want to follow. I was going to give him my permission when he returned to begin his own Clan.”
Brin raised an eyebrow and then said, “Jax told me I was her mate already. I am the human; Jax is the shifter.”
“Well shit,” Quin said and Orfeo began to laugh.
Brin frowned and repeated what the Alpha and Vampire had said, and Dante stood up and looked between Jax and him with a panicked look. “What the fuck, no way. She will drive me crazy. And you're a guy.” Right, when he said the words, Dante knew he had fucked up. Jax barked, and Brin looked pissed. It came out wrong. Hell, he was not good at relationships. He also never thought he would actually meet his mates. Dante convinced himself after so long being alone, if he had a mate, he would have found them by now.
Brin rolled his eyes this time and said dryly, “Oh good, this will be fun.”
“Orfeo, I'm having Jordan and her mates research what she can find from the old Seer’s notes. We have been trying to translate them for a long time, some make sense, and some don’t. But we will get there. I will have them start looking for references to a White Wolf again; they had been putting that aside because Jo was supposed to be the only one, or so we thought,” Quin said.
“Fine, I will prepare the compound for the arrival of Dante, Jax, and Brin. They will have to have their own quarters and also a place for their Clan and Pack. I will get it organized,” Orfeo said and Brin sighed.
“Great, I will referee between these two for the next five days and hope we arrive alive,” Brin said. “I guess I'm moving my practice also. Can you please let the magical community know I will be moving to Italy?”<
br />
“I will have Argus tell everyone.” Quin promised. They made arrangements for a few minutes while Dante paced back and forth, looking like he was trying to figure out how to fix the cluster fuck he seemed to have made with his mates.
When Brin hung up the phone, Dante turned to him and said briskly, “I didn’t mean it like it sounded. Fuck, I don’t know what I meant, but I was just shocked. Why didn’t you tell me before now?”
“When should I have done that? When you were calling her a bitch, no wait, I bet it was when she tried to bite your hand off. You two are acting like children. Jax, look at me!” Brin said firmly. “I don’t know why the hell you can't change, but you need to figure it out and change back. We have to get out of here and start the five days of hell, so I can have a vacation when we get there. Dante, call for the cars, Jax will be ready soon. I’m serious and warning both of you right now; I am not putting up with this the whole way there. And I am driving. I refuse to get into an accident because you two can’t make up your minds about anything. I will map our route with stops every day. Let's get moving, I want to be out of here in less than an hour.”
Dante looked at Brin with his mouth open. Brin was sure no one had ever talked to the scary man like that before, but damn it, he was not going to put up with this shit for the rest of his life.
“Gosh Brin, I'm sorry; I didn’t mean to upset you,” Jax said and both men turned to stare at the naked woman putting on the shirt he had brought out earlier. Shit, her body was perfection. Brin looked at Dante whose eyes widened and then narrowed. “I promise to be nice to the arrogant asshole.”
Chapter 5
“We're watching the airports,” the Rogue panther said into the phone to Diavolo.
“Do that. If they get by you, I would disappear before I find you, or you will be like the others who let me down,” Diavolo said and threw the phone in the corner and looked around at the small hotel he was renting for now. He needed to get back to Europe. Roarke thought he could handle it here, fine, let him. He wanted the European community anyway.
He told that bastard yesterday he was leaving the country again. He wanted to see if Orfeo was doing well in his new surroundings. No matter what Roarke said, it was not over for him and Orfeo, they had unfinished business to attend to.
Making his reservations online, he began his search. It wasn’t that hard, even though the Ambrosetti Clan were Vampires, they were still well-off for being rich fuckers in Italy. It amazed and surprised him how stupid humans really were. Like generation after generation of men would all look the same? DUH, same man, dipshits. Orfeo’s father had retired from public life a few years ago; Orfeo had taken over. The stuff in the papers was about how he was expanding the family winery and had bought several adjoining farms to his.
It must be nice to be the richest man in Italy. Diavolo searched more and saw where his new ‘wife’ was having a party. Hmm, could be a way in.
The columnist wrote: ‘The Ambrosetti Family is welcoming a new addition. Orfeo, the new CEO of Ambrosetti INC. has brought home a bride from the Americas. Of course, he will be introducing her in style in a few weeks with a no holds barred extravaganza. The high rollers better be checking their mail for an invitation. Everyone who is anyone is sure to be invited.’
Diavolo swore out loud. Everyone who was anyone, well that would be him. Diavolo was still from one of the richest families in Italy. They were surely invited. All he had to do was sneak in.
He began to make plans; it would be a night the happy trio would never forget.
Chapter 6
Once Jax got dressed fully, both of the men could concentrate. It was not as if she had done it on purpose. But when she stood there naked trying to get into the shirt, Brin had given her, they had been silent. Jax had felt the heat of their stare, and she was sure they would be able to scent her arousal. She could herself.
After making preparations for their travel, Dante was speaking to someone who was apparently on the street below about what they were going to have to do. She studied him closely; he was her mate, as was Brin. Both were extremely sexy, she was going to have a hard time keeping her hands off of Brin, but Dante would not be a problem.
Although he was handsome and sexy, he was also an arrogant shithead. He probably had a million little Vampire women back in Italy waiting to warm his bed. She refused to take a man-whore as a mate. And that was surely what he was. His long, black hair itched to have someone run their hands through it. Not her, of course, but someone.
Brin was just as handsome, and sexy. But he was more stable. The kind of man you would bring home to your father and be proud of. His calm, soothing voice is what calmed her down enough to shift. That had never happened to her before, she had always been in control of her wolf, but when both of her mates were presented to her at the same time, her wolf had taken over, demanding that they acknowledge their mate. She was pissed.
It took her an hour to calm her wolf down and to listen to her. If the big oaf had not pissed her off, she would have been able to shift a lot sooner. But no, he had to make smart ass comments. But he had smelled so good; she had almost been unable to resist. It was only when she promised her wolf that she would not mate with the Vampire that she had allowed her to shift back to her human side.
Jax blamed the whole thing on her parent’s death and the stress of taking over as Alpha before she wanted to. That had to be the only reason she didn't have control of her wolf. Sighing, she went into the small bedroom where Brin was packing his belongings quickly. A small duffle to carry some clothes and a few books was all he was taking.
“What about the rest of this load?” she asked, her Irish accent coming out thick, since she felt the pull towards him.
“No worries love; I will send for the rest, or the scavengers can have it.” He laughed and turned back to her. She was frowning and looking around. “I was joking, my neighbor from my apartment said she would take care of packing things up here and there. She would send them to whatever address I gave her.”
Jax stiffened, a woman? Pawing through her man's things? Where the hell had that come from? Jax wondered, but still she didn’t like it. She could feel her wolf getting pissed again.
“Whoa, what happened?” Brin said, coming to stand before her putting his hands on her arms. Her wolf settled instantly. He had that effect on her. Amazing, she felt his comfort and his worry about her. “Your eyes went bright blue again. I can call Jo and see if she knows why this is happening. Maybe you can talk to her. I hear Cami and she are best friends. They may know something more by now.”
“No, it was..." she started and then paused. How the hell did you tell a man you just met, a human no less, that you were jealous of another woman touching his things? Shit, it was not like she had staked a claim on him yet, although her wolf was ready to. She could see the pulse in his neck beating. Her teeth began to stretch, and she shook her head. What the fuck was going on with her?
“Love, all you have to do is tell me,” Brin said softly.
Jax folded her arms over her chest in between them. She did not have a lot of experience with dating. In fact, none. Her father had made sure she was busy twenty-four seven learning how to be an Alpha; she would be the first female. Her father assured her many male wolves would come to challenge, so she had trained, and trained, then trained some more. Her father hired the best wolves in Europe to come and help her. She knew every single trick there was, to taking down male wolves larger than her.
Her wolf had not needed any tricks though. She was large, even for a normal male wolf. Her mother had been happy to see that her wolf was there to protect her. As a female, she was going to be a target. Her family knew it. One time, she had asked her father if he was sorry she had not been born a male. Her parent’s reaction had been instantaneous and very loud; she thought. Both of them exclaimed that she had been a gift, their gift from the Gods.
Although her mother had known she was lacking in social skills with men. She also en
couraged her to date. As did her father, but really? Who wanted to date a wolf that was more Alpha than they would ever be? So her dates were awkward and uncomfortable. Her only experience kissing was her grabbing her date and laying one on him. The poor guy ran like the wind.
So here she was a seventy-two-year-old virgin Alpha female who is now the head of one of the most powerful Packs in Ireland, scared to talk to her mate. Pathetic and sad.
“Jax? Brin?” Dante yelled, and she stiffened. Damn it, his voice just pissed her off.
The Vampire in question arrived in the doorway, just as she pulled away from Brin.
Dante’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the pair. “Sorry to disturb you,” he drawled.
It made her wolf growl inside. Well, it must have come out also, because Dante laughed at her. At her? The largest female White Wolf in Europe, her wolf barked.
Jax stepped forward, ready to tell the idiot where the hell he could shove his apology, when Brin grabbed her from behind and held on to her two arms, making her chest stick out. Dante looked down at her straining breasts and grinned. Her nipples were pebbled and hard, ready for some action; her mates were close. “Fuckers,” she muttered to herself. She was referring to her body, but she could feel Brin’s laughter behind her.
“She was referring to you, not me. I happen to be on her good side,” Brin said proudly and Dante scowled deeper than he had already been doing.
“Whatever, we need to be ready to leave in the next thirty minutes. Wrap it up,” Dante said.
“What about my Pack?” Jax said. She could feel they were close, and she wanted to see them before she left. They needed to know where to make their way. Her Pack was moving; they would not be happy, but her father had talked about it when he received the invitation from the Senate. Now she would take his spot.
“I have arranged for them to take a later transport, separately, so we won't overcrowd certain high profile areas. Some will take the Chunnel and then catch a plane in Paris. Others will take the later ferry, and do what we are doing and drive. While even others will fly. Orfeo is ready for them,” Dante said commandingly.