Broken Wheel Wolves: Boxed Set (The Complete Collection, Books 1-6) (Werewolf Romance - Paranormal Romance)

by Melissa F. Hart

  Jade was in no mood for the two men to get in a pissing match, especially when Conall was, apparently, not even on the market. Jade rubbed her forehead. “Look, I’m freezing. What’s going on?”

  Sadness crept across Conall’s face, an expression that seemed to be his default mode these days. Conall shook himself in a subtle gesture that reminded her of the way a dog—or perhaps a wolf—tries to rid itself of something unpleasant that it has suddenly encountered.

  “Aoife’s been kidnapped.”

  Boomer’s face screwed up. “Who the hell is Aoife?”

  “Aoife is Conall’s…” Jade stopped. What could she say to Boomer? She couldn’t exactly tell him that Aoife was Conall’s ‘mate-for-life-to-be’ or a member of his wolf clan. Perhaps she could tell Boomer that she was Conall’s sister-in-law?”

  “Me dead wife’s sister,” Conall answered bluntly.

  “So what makes you think she’s been kidnapped?” Boomer immediately went into investigative mode. “Has there been a ransom demand, some kind of threat?”

  “Officer Harkness, take no offense, but I came here to discuss this with Jade, not with ye.” Conall’s eyes flicked over to Jade, as if to punctuate his point.

  “Well, if you’re trying to get her to do something off the book, I won’t allow it as either Jade’s friend or as an officer of the law. If it’s really a kidnapping, the situation could be extremely tricky, if you want everyone to come out of it alive.”

  Boomer slid a protective arm around Jade’s waist and pulled her close as he held Conall’s gaze. Boomer was marking his turf, Jade mentally noted, and she had to admit that his desire to keep her safe coupled with the feel of his muscular body was quite a turn on. She leaned in to Boomer, patting the front of his shoulder with a mittened hand as she looked up into his face. “It’s okay, I’m not going to do anything stupid. Let me go in and talk to Conall and figure out what is going on. If it’s warranted, my first call will be to the Feds.” She tried to smile and recall the normalcy they had shared only a few moments earlier. “I had a wonderful evening. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  Without saying another word, Boomer pulled Jade tight against his body and gave her a slow, luxurious kiss as their lower bodies pressed together. It was the kind of kiss women fantasize about, a kiss designed to make a woman’s entire being swoon. When Boomer released her, Jade felt dazed and a little breathless. She rested her hands flat against his chest as she tried to steady herself, the Irishman standing behind her momentarily forgotten.

  Boomer’s eyes narrowed slightly; Jade could tell he was rather pleased with the effect his kiss had had on her. “Alright then, we’ll talk tomorrow.” He cast a glance toward Conall as he rattled his car keys in one hand, clearly signaling that Jade was now off limits.

  Jade fumbled in her purse for her house key as Boomer drove away. Her voice held a note of irritation as she cast a sideways glance at Conall. “Last time you were here and I wasn’t, you broke in and laid a fire. Any particular reason you think we should be freezing our arses off tonight?” She pushed the door open and clicked on the light.

  Conall seemed confused by Jade’s annoyance. “I…didn’t want to take…liberties.”

  “Liberties? For god’s sake, I let you into my bed—not to mention my heart—after which you totally disappear. Then you show up out of nowhere announcing that a dead wolf is your daughter and kiss me over two dead bodies before some strange chick shows up at my door to tell me you never want to see me again. Damn straight, liberties.”

  Jade pulled her mittens off and threw them indignantly onto a chair. She picked up an andiron and poked at the coals in the fireplace, checking for life. Seeing a few faint sparks, she knelt down, blowing on them, trying to get them to leap into little flames as she fed them dry splinters of wood. Try as she would, the embers refused to revive, and simply faded into cold, black lumps. Tears sprang into her eyes; apparently whatever she had shared with Conall was destined to do the same. When she rubbed at her tears with the back of one hand, she managed to smudge soot across her face.

  Conall knelt down beside her, cupping her face with one cool hand. He produced a soft linen handkerchief from a pocket inside his wax jacket and tenderly wiped the soot away. “I’ve hurt ye.” His voice was soft and gentle, but his intonation inferred neither a question nor an apology. Jade pushed his hand away from her face and hastily stood up.

  “So why are you here? What’s happened to Aoife?” Swallowing her mixed up feelings, Jade reverted back to deputy mode.

  Conall turned toward the fireplace and began carefully laying a fire. “Aoife told you about the Carey clan, yes?”

  “A little. She basically said that they were evil, and that they won’t share the National Park with your clan.” Jade hesitated. “She also said they were responsible for killing your…for killing Riona.” Jade found it impossible to say the word ‘mate.’

  “Aye, they murdered my love. I think they are the ones who murdered me sweet girl Claire. And now they are using Aoife to get to me before they kill her.”

  “But if your clan has abandoned trying to live in the National Park, why would they bother you in the BLM land?

  “Because they want to eradicate the O’Faolán clan from the face of the earth.” A tongue of flame leapt up from the stack of kindling Conall had arranged in the fireplace. He leaned in and blew at it, and the fire grew larger. “But the O’Faolán’s have always survived. We will not let the Careys destroy us.” He sat back on his heels, staring at the fire. “I’m sorry to involve you, Jade, I truly am. I’m sorry I put hands on you when I knew that soon I belonged to another.”

  “Then why did you?”

  Conall stood and turned to Jade. “We are, from the beginning of creation, without old age, and needing little. Our gods are the sun and moon, our saints, the forest and streams, our psalms, the sounds of nature. The only sins are to intentionally hurt another, to misuse the gifts of earth and sky, or to place selfish interests before the clan. For me, making love to ye was like going to church. I saw no transgression, only virtue in that act, but now I see that I was wrong.”

  Unprepared for a poetic speech, Jade didn’t know how to respond. Then, perhaps unconsciously, Conall dusted off the soot clinging to his hands and the gesture made her feel as if he was dismissing her—permanently. A flash of anger broke her silence.

  “Well, I’m from Broken Wheel, Wyoming and misleading someone in order to have sex with them is pretty much a sin in my book.” Jade caught herself; why was she letting him see that she was upset with him? Why not just follow the old adage that ‘a good life is the best revenge?’ Boomer wanted to be with her, and so far, the bomb tech was making all the right moves. Why was she wasting time crying over someone who wasn’t even entirely human? “Look, Conall, if you need my help as an officer of the law, then let’s get to business. Otherwise, I want to go to bed—alone.”

  Conall nodded, more to indicate that he had heard the subtext of what Jade was saying, than to acknowledge he agreed with her. “Fair enough. So the Carey clan—the females and young are imprisoned in the park, under the control of their Taoiseach.” Jade had no idea what a ‘Tee-shock’ was, and Conall quickly came to her aid. “The Taoiseach is the chieftain.”

  “Are you the Tee...” Jade couldn’t quite replicate the Gaelic pronunciation. “Are you the Chieftain of the O’Faolán clan?”

  “Aye, but because of its wicked deeds, the Carey clan has grown larger and more powerful. The females are little more than slaves to the males; they are never allowed to become the mates to males of other clans. Sometimes the Careys even impregnate their own daughters—they say it’s to keep their clan’s bloodlines “pure,” but it is no more than perversion.”

  It was clear to Jade that the very thought of the Careys sickened Conall.

  “With real wolves, the subservient males usually leave the pack when they reach maturity, find a mate, and start their own pack. We are like humans, though, we maintain ou
r bonds, and all born into a pack stay as members for life—unless a female chooses a mate in a different pack. That prevents inbreeding, and strengthens the bonds between the democratic packs. My Rionna…she was a member of the O’Hara clan as was Aoife. The Carey clan, though, has true Omega wolves: subservient males that must do the bidding of the Alphas. They live away from the pack in order to earn money for the clan and they help carry out the clan’s criminal activities in the human world. In exchange, they can dabble all they want with human females, drink to excess, carouse and fight—all favorite activities of any Carey male.” He expelled a small sigh.

  Jade shook her head a little. “That sounds like the stereotype of an Irish immigrant from the 19th century—when there was so much prejudice that shopkeepers used to put up ‘help wanted’ signs that carried the disclaimer that ‘no Irish need apply.’”

  Conall raised an eyebrow. “They say there is a bit of truth in every stereotype. Well, the Careys are our truth—and now, they are going to be your problem too.”

  Jade realized they were standing in her living room wearing their coats. She peeled off her jacket and motioned to Conall to do the same. Maybe he was appealing to her sensibilities as a deputy, or maybe it was her natural tendency to want to defend an underdog, but his story was making her want to help, whether or not a sexy shapeshifter was making the request, and in spite of the fact that the person in trouble was a big part of why she couldn’t be intimate with Conall.

  “Have a seat, I’ll put the kettle on for tea.”

  When Jade returned with the tea tray, she saw that Conall had wisely chosen to sit in the wingback chair, rather than on Jade’s small sofa where they would have been temptingly close to one another. His face was serious, and she couldn’t quite tell if he was concentrating or brooding as he stared into the fire. The china teacups and spoons clinked softly as she set the tray down on her coffee table, and the noise seemed to rouse him from his reverie. Jade wordlessly poured the steaming brew into the cups, and he tried to make a feeble joke to break the awkward silence.

  “Just tell me that it’s not English breakfast tea.”

  Jade extended the sugar bowl. “No, it’s Russian caravan tea. You don’t have a beef with the Russians, do you?” she asked pugnaciously.

  “No.” Conall smiled wanly as he took a sip.

  Jade absently stirred sugar into her cup for a moment before speaking. “So these Omegas, when you say that they are my problem now, do you mean they might have had something to do with Duke Minton getting killed?”

  Conall nodded gravely. “Aye. I’m certain they were after Claire, and Mr. Minton was, as they say, ‘collateral damage.’

  “Wrong place, wrong time.” Jade shook her head sympathetically as an image of Rosie comforting Duke’s widow, Evelyn, made her throat thicken with emotion.

  “The thing you have to understand about the Omegas: they engage in all kinds of criminal activity, but never murder. It draws too much attention, and speaking plainly, most of them don’t have the balls for it. Now the Carey Alphas—they will kill for no other reason than it amuses them.”

  “There’s a term for people like that—any good cop knows it’s the first sign of a sociopath.”

  “Well, I for one am beyond sick of these chancers, but I need your help if we are going to put an end to their evil. I must bring Aoife home and have justice for Claire and Rionna.”

  “I hope that also means we can catch whomever killed Duke Minton. That’s in your interest too, because Duke Jr. just wants to blame his father’s death on you and the wolves.”

  Conall nodded in agreement. “Aye. We all need to get rid of these blaggards.”

  “And you have an idea about how we’re going to do that?”

  “You’ve got two Omegas right here in town; they don’t use the Carey name, though, to keep any suspicion from falling to the Alphas. Too many people with the same last name, people start to take notice. They go by Lemmons.”

  “Lemmons? You mean those two-bit hoodlums, Biggy and Frank? They’re wolf—whatever, shapeshifters?”

  “Aye. Biggy’s real name is Doolin.”

  Jade rubbed her forehead. “Are there any more Careys running around Broken Wheel that I ought to know about?”

  “I think the other Omegas are in bigger cities, like Bozeman and Cheyenne.”

  “Does this mean there are O’Faolán’s around here too?” It was clear to Jade from Conall’s expression that he wasn’t happy about answering that question. “If you want me to help, you’ve got to be transparent.”

  “Some. Since I moved the pack to the BLM land, we’ve been slowly working our way into the surrounding communities. We have various occupations, like anyone else. Of course, they don’t use the O’Faolán name.”

  “So you’re telling me the cashier at the grocery, or my dental hygienist, or the guy who sold me my car insurance could be…an O’Faolán?”

  Conall nodded in resignation. “Most of us prefer outdoor occupations, but in theory, yes. They usually abandon their Irish accents in public.”

  Jade set her teacup down before she spilled it. Accepting one shapeshifter had been quite enough and, with Aoife’s appearance, she had almost absorbed the notion of an entire shapeshifting clan, but living in the midst of two hidden—and hostile—societies was a little much to take in. “That is un-friggin’ believable.”

  Shrugging, Conall responded, “I’m sure you understand how crucial it is for you to keep our secret—not that people are likely to believe you.”

  The mix of hope, love, and dismay in Conall’s face made it clear to Jade that it was not easy for him to humble himself to the circumstances, but that he would do anything to protect his clan. “Yes, of course,” she answered, but as she looked into his deep amber eyes, she felt a stirring of the carnal attraction between them. Conall’s eyes grew liquid and, as his full lips parted slightly, Jade knew that the same erotic charge was flowing through the Irishman as well. Standing up abruptly, Jade broke away from Conall’s mesmerizing gaze and paced a little in order to dispel the unwanted tension in the air.

  “Okay, tell me how Biggy and Frank are mixed up in all of this.”

  Conall’s attention had shifted from Biggy and Frank, though. His eyes lingered first on Jade’s face, then he studied her body appreciatively, her knit dress managing to accent each of her curves in a way he found enticing. He reached out and caught her hand as he rose from his chair to face her. “Ye feel it, I know ye do.”

  Jade ducked her head a little, trying to escape his eyes, but Conall swept back the locks of hair hiding her face with the back of one hand as he pulled her to him with the other. His jeans did little to disguise the swelling between his legs as he tugged at her, and the thin fabric of her dress ensured she felt him against her like a lock finding its key. She could feel his body sinking into hers, and she wanted to give herself to him, to open up completely. Her pelvis, seemingly with a mind of its own, pushed at the hardness pressed against her and every nerve in her body felt as if it was on fire. Jade swallowed, trying to find both her voice and her backbone as she did her best to pull away. She tried to summon Boomer’s kind eyes and amorous kiss in order to push back the flood of sensation threatening to drown her.

  “What I feel apparently doesn’t matter. You belong to Aoife and Aoife’s in danger. As her chieftain and as her future mate, you don’t need any pointless distractions.”

  A little bolt of either anger or embarrassment, or perhaps a mixture of both, shot through Conall. Jade wasn’t quite sure which it was, but it was clear he was uncomfortable. He dropped her hand and turned from her as he stepped away. “I don’t need ye to school me in my duties as Taoiseach.”

  “Then let’s get to work. Put the kettle back on. I’m going to go change.”

  It was all Jade could do to not run to her bedroom and scream into a pillow. Every fiber of her being wanted to take Conall to her bed. Woman to woman, though, she couldn’t imagine the terror that Aoife must
be feeling as a prisoner of the malevolent Carey clan. The first mission was to make sure Aoife was safe, and the second was to solve Duke Minton’s murder and to put as many of these Carey ‘blaggards’ in jail as possible. Truly, Jade reminded herself, when it came to life and death, her own feelings didn’t matter.

  ***

  “So you’re certain that the Careys want to kill you?” Jade rubbed at her tired eyes. The sun would be coming up in an hour, but at least they had the beginnings of a plan. Biggy and Frank were the keys to finding Aoife, and to discovering who had killed both Claire and Duke Minton. Conall believed that if the Sheriff’s Department could put pressure on the Lemmons, they’d do something stupid enough to give away the Carey Alphas. The clock was ticking though; Conall was convinced the Careys would issue some kind of challenge to him as the O’Faolán Taoiseach before the day was out.

  “Aye, they want me and every other adult male in my pack dead. They will enslave the females and the young, to expand the strength of their pack. And the treatment the O’Faoláns will receive will be even worse than what they do to their own.” Conall’s face was grim.

  “Okay, I’ve really got to sleep for an hour or two, if I’m going to be any good to anyone today. Then I’ll go in and tell Wilson that I’ve had an anonymous tip that the Lemmons might know something about the Minton murder. I’ll bring them in for questioning and do my best to make things as uncomfortable for them as the law will allow.”

  “Give me a heads up before you release them, and I’ll track them.”

  “Don’t do this alone. Can’t some of your other wolves—I mean, clan members help?”

  “I’ll have to involve the next in line, as if something happens to me, he must be prepared to take over. His name is Donal, but in your world he goes by Don Redmond.”

  The name sounded familiar to Jade and then she realized why; she’d read it in a recent town government memo. “Don Redmond—he’s the new paramedic Broken Wheel just hired.”