by RJ Blain
Part of me was secretly still daddy’s little girl, and she grieved. For Sanders, for my puppy, and for my mother, I would help murder my own father. How many more lives would I have to take before I could put the past behind me and really start a new life with my mate?
“There are many ways we can lure out the perpetrators without exposing Mrs. Sanders or your mate to them. When you come up with a proposal that doesn’t involve either one of them, call me.” The Shadow Pope hung up.
“He is an infuriating man sometimes,” Desmond snarled, snatching up his phone. For a moment, I thought he was going to fling the device at the wall, but he slipped it into his pocket instead. “I’d tell him to get his head out of his ass, but he’d probably put us all on house arrest until he’s satisfied we’ve learned our lesson.”
“You’d let him?” Richard asked, arching a brow.
“His Eminence is not above sleazy tactics to prove a point,” Wendy muttered, wrinkling her nose. “It’s better not to find out what sort of punishment he has in mind this time.”
“So, come up with a proposal that doesn’t include us. We’ll come up with a proposal that does include us, and we won’t tell you what it is,” I muttered.
“That’s a terrible idea, darling,” my mate murmured, nudging me with his elbow. “I can’t protect you if I don’t know what you’ll be doing.”
“Agreed,” Desmond replied. “There will be no secret plans destined to blow up in our faces.”
“Fine. Just accept we’re going to follow on our own and do what we want,” I growled.
“What she said.” Wendy rose from her chair to pace the room. “If we don’t take the offensive, they will. How many times do they have to show us that before we get a clue? If it weren’t for Sara, they would have gotten both of them in New York. What happened at the greenhouse proved how serious they are about getting their hands on her—they would have left me alone if Charles wasn’t standing in as Alpha for the pack. The only way we’re going to win is if we’re the ones making the first move, and gathering intelligence isn’t going to cut it.”
“However much I hate saying this, they’re right, Dad,” Lisa said, holding her hands up in surrender when her father glared at her. “The best defense is a good offense, and we’ve been about as offensive as field mice. It almost cost Sara and Mom their puppies. Fuck the Shadow Pope. Tell him a nice story he wants to hear, sound grumpy about it, and we’ll figure out how to deal with Seattle’s pack problem on our own. Between Amber and I, we know enough about Inquisition operations to pull one off without needing help from the uppers.”
“Don’t forget Nicole,” Amber pointed out. “Those little stones of hers pack almost as much of a punch as she does, and she’s frighteningly creative in how she uses them.”
“You can blame Richard for that,” Desmond grumbled. “Their pranks were elaborate from the beginning and have only gotten worse over the years. I’m convinced they’re making up for lost time. Do I need to remind you two you no longer have to pretend you are not madly in love with each other?”
Nicolina scowled, turning her head and refusing to meet her father’s gaze.
Smirking, Richard nuzzled his mate’s throat. “But it’s so much fun watching her bristle, Desmond. And she’s so enthusiastic when hunting me for her revenge.”
“She really is going to kill you one of these days, Puppy,” Desmond growled.
“Dad, stop taunting them,” Lisa ordered, and with a motion too fast for me to follow, she pulled her gun and pointed it at her father. “Maybe if Mom’s kept busy nursing you back to health, she won’t get into anymore trouble—and you’ll leave them alone for a change.”
Scowling at his younger daughter, Desmond narrowed his eyes. “Don’t forget I know all of your dark, dirty little secrets from when you were a little puppy. I’m sure Alex and Richard would love to hear some of them. If you shoot me, I’ll have nothing else to do with my time. I’ll be forced to fawn over both of my sons, driving them to the brink of insanity.”
“Asshole,” Lisa growled, stowing the weapon back in its holster. “You like our mates more than you like us, don’t you?”
While there was a wicked, teasing edge to Desmond’s smile, the hard, yellow gleam in his eye softened to a warm brown. “I am merely proud of my little girls for finding such lovely puppies to seduce and claim for their own.”
Richard groaned and slumped against Nicolina. “Can we talk business, please?”
“If Amber and Lisa come with me, we can keep Mom and Sara safe. They’d need to bring a lot more than a handful of Fenerec and an Alpha with more money than sense.” Shoving her mate upright, Nicolina straightened, pulling out a pearlescent sphere from her pocket. She set the stone on the carpet in front of her and stared at it. “Richard had a good idea; if we say we’re going to a resort or some such to stay out of the way while you men deal with the problems in Seattle, the Shadow Pope should have no reason to complain. If you trust Joseph, stage a fight between him and Sara—give this Arnold a reason to believe Joseph’s intel is good. Better yet, stage a fight between Sanders and Sara with Joseph as a witness. If we tell Joseph he’s to play double agent, we can feed Arnold the exact information we want him to learn.”
My mate growled. “You’ll be putting yourselves directly in harm’s way.”
“That’s the idea, Sanders. While you males feed the Shadow Pope a lovely pile of shit about the operation he’d like to run, we’ll be running an op of our own. We’ll split the pack; half with you, half with us. It shouldn’t be an issue to have Frank and Alex with us, although His Eminence will keep you on a short leash, Richard.” Smirking, Nicolina kissed his cheek. “You’ll just have to leave the real work to us ladies.”
Richard scowled at his mate. “I don’t suppose you can pick a resort within walking distance, can you?”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“Short driving distance?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Somewhere on the same continent?”
“Don’t get cheap on me, Richard,” Nicolina growled. “It’s more fun if we can cause an international incident.”
“Daughters, you will run a quiet operation within the continental United States,” Desmond ordered.
Both Nicolina and Lisa sighed.
“Alaska,” I suggested. Everyone stared at me. I shrugged. “Ignoring the fact it’s divided from the main forty-eight states by Canada, it’s technically on the same continent. It’s remote. If there are wolves on the prowl, will anyone really notice them? Lots of space to draw out our prey and put an end to this once and for all.”
Sanders laughed, caught me in a hug, and kissed me. “You’re such a clever beast. It’s perfect. I can make an easy excuse about giving the pack room to run and blow off steam. If I claim I’m sending the low-ranking Fenerec to be safely out of the way for the firefight while protecting our precious bitches, the Shadow Pope won’t be able to complain. What sort of operation do we pull off as a distraction?”
Sucking in a breath, Desmond sat straighter. “We can kill two birds with one stone. We know who some of the traitors are. If we lure the ones wanting your rank to us, we can deal with them. If the ladies lure the ones who might be loyal to the traitors and her father, we can divide and conquer. Alaska’s a big place… and we don’t have to tell the Shadow Pope their resort happens to be near where we’re hunting traitors. If we say we don’t want to give the details of the locations to prevent leaks, he’ll buy it.”
Richard grinned. “I like it. The question is how do we determine who is loyal and who isn’t?”
There was something worrying about the way my mate smiled. “Leave that to me.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
I couldn’t tell if our exclusion from the remainder of the males’ planning session was to spite us or to protect the secrecy of their operation. Annoyance burned in the eyes of Desmond’s daughters, and Wendy growled with each breath.
Amber remained c
alm and quiet, and I took shelter behind her.
“They’re scary, aren’t they?” She smiled at me.
“They’re worse than Dustin’s sharks. With them, I had some hope they wouldn’t bite me,” I whispered.
Laughing, Amber patted my shoulder. “I’ll protect you. Don’t worry. Nicolina, at least, knows better than to cross me.”
Nicolina turned to us. “What?”
“I was about to tell Sara how I would run you and Lisa into the ground at the obstacle course if you keep frightening her with your enthusiasm to outwit His Eminence.”
Both women winced.
“That’s just cruel, Amber,” Nicolina complained.
“Tone down the bloodlust a bit, then. Wendy I can understand, but you two ladies are not pregnant with a puppy, thus you lack a good excuse. Yes, you’re irritated your mates are having all of the fun planning covert operations, but we have plans of our own to make. Behave.” Shaking her head, Amber opened the door to the room I had been sharing with Sanders and herded us all inside. “If we want to lure Mr. Watson and his cohorts out for a firefight, we need to make sure our offensive is better than theirs.”
At Wendy’s silent gesture, I took the armchair while she sat on the couch with her daughters. Amber made herself comfortable sitting on the floor at Nicolina’s feet and watched me. “So, let’s go over the basics first. Why Alaska?”
“It’s remote, difficult to reach in the winter, and just seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Remote and difficult to reach are selling points. You’ll have to do better than it seemed like a good idea, though. Why would five women want to go to Alaska in the winter?”
“Dog sledding?” I suggested.
Lisa choked, and after a puzzled moment, I realized she was trying not to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“The first and last time we tried that, Nicolina bit one of the dogs,” she replied.
Sighing, Wendy shook her head. “Why can’t I have normal girls? One is an assassin and the other is a wizard who bites dogs when they are too friendly with her mate.”
“She should’ve respected my territory, Mom,” Nicolina growled. “He’s mine.”
“He was feeding her treats, Nicolina.”
“I don’t care.”
Amber cleared her throat. “Dog sledding is a possibility. Any other ideas?”
“Skiing? Watching the aurora?” I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never been to Alaska.”
“Going to new places on Desmond’s dime is a legitimate excuse,” Amber announced. “How are we going to get there?”
“Road trip,” Nicolina replied. “We’ll fly into Canada, get a good car, pile in, and off we go.”
Arching a brow, Amber elbowed Nicolina’s leg. “You’re insane. Who would want to drive to Alaska?”
I raised my hand.
“No. We are not driving from California to Alaska. We’re not flying to Canada to drive to Alaska, either.”
Pulling out her phone, Nicolina tapped something onto the screen, and with a thoughtful hum, she turned the display so we could see it. “It’s only sixty hours from here. If we go on a road trip, moving targets are a lot harder to hit—we just tell the Shadow Pope we’re going to drive around to stay off the radar. We go to Alaska by car.”
“Your Porsche is not suitable for five people,” Wendy said.
“Isn’t my little car okay for five?” I asked. “I haven’t even seen it yet.”
Nicolina narrowed her eyes. “What little car?”
“His Eminence was in a mood and decided to get her an Alfa Romeo so she would not feel left out of the car games. It’s actually parked in our garage right now to make certain nothing happens to it. I even have the keys,” Wendy murmured, and her eyes brightened to yellow. Her smile chilled me. “How better to teach her to drive than during a long road trip?”
“This is a disaster in the making,” Amber groaned, covering her face with her hands. “Yet here I am, intrigued by the possibility of being stuck in the same car with four bitches.”
“You’re the adult supervision,” Lisa said, her tone light with amusement.
“I know. It’s terrifying.”
Sucking in a breath, Wendy pulled out her phone. When she giggled, I worried. “What’s so funny, Wendy?”
“Let’s play with them all. I’ll get us a rental, we’ll head to my place, grab the Alfa Romeo, and go to Alaska—and we won’t tell them we’re leaving now.”
Lisa groaned. “Mom, that’s an even worse idea than road tripping to Alaska in the winter in the first place. What happened to our mission? You just want to taunt Dad and worry him at the same time.”
“Admit it, Lisa. You know you want to see Alex’s face when he finds you after you’ve vanished from under his nose. And don’t you even attempt to tell me you’re not eager, Nicolina. I’m gift wrapping your next prank on your Richard. The best part? It’s a legitimate strategy. It’ll be a lot harder for anyone to corner us or launch an offensive when we’re on the move. No reservations—we’ll hit hotels and motels as we find them. They’ll only know where we’ve been, not where we’re going. If our mates can’t find us, no one can.”
“They know we’ve talked about Alaska, Mom,” Nicolina pointed out.
“They do not know how we plan on getting there, darling. Alaska is a big place. When we’re ready to flush out Mr. Watson, Sara can call him.” Hopping to her feet, Wendy paced the room, her grin widening with every step. “It’s perfect. If Sara calls him sounding distressed, he probably won’t even think about trying to organize an actual hit. We can catch him that way.”
“Catch?” Amber asked.
“Catch,” Wendy confirmed. “If we kill him right away, we won’t learn what happened to Sara’s mother—and who changed him into a Fenerec. Let’s save killing him as a last resort.”
While I worried how my mate would react, my wolf was thrilled and delighted by the idea of playing a game against our males and taking the offensive at the same time. Her desire to hunt burned bright, but the opportunity to take control of our situation appealed to her most of all.
“They’re going to kill us,” I muttered. My partners-in-crime ignored me, hovering around Wendy while she filled out information for the rental car and went through the tedious process of adding each of us as extra drivers. Giving me the option to drive the car seemed like a terrible idea to me, but I kept my mouth shut.
Wendy was enjoying herself far too much, which was a far cry better than her growling.
“We’re only running away a little,” Lisa replied, flashing a grin at me. “Come on, Sara. It’ll be fun.”
“It’ll be fun right up until they catch us.”
“Nonsense.” Turning to me, Nicolina matched her twin’s grin. “Are you kidding? They’re all going to be so worked up by the time they catch us they’ll only have one thing on their minds. When we present our prize, we’ll emerge the ultimate victors. Their expressions are going to be priceless.”
“Assuming we pull this crazy stunt off,” I muttered.
Nicolina laughed. “Have a little faith, Sara. You’ll be in the same car with some of the most dangerous women alive. It’s the worst club on Earth, and you get a free pass to join. If you want to worry about someone, worry about those who get in our way. Lisa and I are a force to be reckoned with. Add in Amber, and we’re a three-woman army. With Mom acting like a nuclear bomb ready to detonate at any moment, I pity anyone who doesn’t get out of our way fast enough. Richard likes telling me it brushes off on anyone we come into contact with. We’ll have you as bad as us by the time your mate rescues you from us.”
I sighed and kept quiet. Leaving our cell phones in my room bothered me almost as much as abandoning my mate did. There was merit to the plan, which is why I went along with it, but the thought of worrying Sanders in turn worried me.
In their enthusiasm for the hunt, they hadn’t let me even leave a note.
When Wendy
finished with the paperwork, she herded us to the SUV she had rented for the first leg of our trip, tossing the keys to Amber. “Take the front, Sara.”
Amber caught the keys and sighed. “Lucky me. At least our chance of reaching our destination without a crash has gone up substantially.”
“Funny, Amber,” Nicolina grumbled.
“I still think this is a bad idea.” I took the front passenger seat and buckled in. “I guess I should be grateful you let me keep my wallet. Did you really have to take my phone?”
“We’ll get new ones on the way. Those phones were too easy to track. It wouldn’t be much fun if our mates could just call the Inquisition and get our coordinates—and if there are still traitors working with the Inquisition, they could do the same,” Amber replied.
“Has it occurred to any of you we might be getting a little carried away with this?” I demanded, twisting around in my seat to glare at Wendy and her daughters.
All three grinned at me.
“Definitely,” Nicolina replied.
“It’s part of our charm,” Lisa agreed. “And Mom’s usually all reserved and quiet. This is great. We’re basically pulling a heist, and our Mom even gave us the okay to do it this time.”
“We have never pulled a heist, Lisa,” Nicolina grumbled.
“We are not starting bank robbing careers this road trip, girls,” Wendy murmured. “Relax, Sara. Wolves love games, and I was nice enough to text my mate we were going shopping and wouldn’t be back until later tonight. They won’t even notice we’re gone for at least a few hours.”
I turned back around, hung my head, and sighed. “How are you going to explain not answering our cells?”
I didn’t think the situation was funny, but Wendy laughed. “They’re all turned off and under the bed. Stop worrying. We have at least a few hours until they notice anything. My Charles will be arguing with Richard for at least two hours over plans, then they’ll get on the phone with the Shadow Pope, which will surely fill a couple of hours. Perhaps your Sanders will worry, but he’ll ultimately get caught up in the bickering.”