The same girl who’d checked me in was working tonight. She worked most nightshifts, so we’d gotten to know each other a little.
“Heather, do you know if housekeeping was in my room while I was out?” I asked her while glancing around to make sure I didn’t see anything suspicious.
“No way, Grace,” she replied. “We don’t have many rooms in use right now, so they were done before my shift even started. Why? Did you need more towels or something? I can grab them for you.”
My heart dropped at her words. I could think of no reason why anyone else would be in my room. Which meant Sam really could have found me. I shook my head wildly, and Heather was looking at me strangely. I couldn’t seem to get any air in my lungs.
“Grace,” Heather said as she quickly came around the counter and nudged me into a chair. Her hands pushed on my back until my head was between my knees and I was gasping for air. “Take deep, slow breaths. Whatever’s going on, it’s going to be okay.”
When I finally lifted my head, I noticed that she was holding her cell phone in her hands and typing out a message.
“I’m sorry for scaring you,” I whispered since she was looking at me with a furrowed brow and her lips tilted down in a frown.
“No worries as long as you’re okay,” she reassured me.
Breathing deeply, I pushed up and out of the chair and swayed for a moment as I saw spots. “I need to go.”
“No, you need to sit back down before you pass out,” she disagreed. “Besides, Hunter will be pissed at me if you’re gone when he gets here. You don’t want to get me into trouble, do you?”
“You texted Hunter?” I asked, surprised since I’d expected that she would have contacted Spencer instead.
Hunter’s other brother was the town’s sheriff, after all. I hadn’t spent much time around him since men in uniform made me uneasy, but I’d seen him talking to Heather several times in the last month when I was coming or going.
“Yeah,” she replied in a tone that clearly indicated I was an idiot for even asking such a question.
“Hunter? Not Spencer?” I reiterated.
“I’m sure Hunter will call Spencer to get him over here so they can figure out whatever it was about your room that has you so spooked,” she explained.
“But it’s Spencer’s job to come out, not Hunter’s.”
“Oh, sweetie. If you think wild horses could keep him away from you when you need help, then you’re just plain crazy!” she argued. “Besides which, Spencer might be sheriff, but we all know who’s the boss in this town.”
Before I had a chance to ask Heather what she meant by that comment, Hunter came storming into the motel with Spencer and Parker trailing behind him. His dark gaze surveyed the room almost as if he were looking for danger before it rested on me. Then he scanned up and down my body and his relief at finding me unharmed crossed his face, leaving me with a strange feeling in my chest at the visual proof of his concern for me.
“I’m okay,” I promised as he strode towards me.
He didn’t pause and instead lifted me up into his arms and carried me out to the truck waiting outside. After depositing me gently into the passenger’s seat, he reached across to buckle me in. When I turned my head so I could look up at him, Hunter’s lips swept down and captured mine in a brutal kiss. His palms cradled my face as his fingers clenched in my hair, holding me in place while he plundered my mouth. I gasped at the sensation his harsh gentleness evoked in me, and he used that opportunity to his full advantage. His tongue swept inside, tangling with mine as he practically inhaled me.
Time seemed to stand still as we kissed. When Hunter pulled away from me, I blinked my eyes, hazily trying to regain my focus.
“What happened?” he asked huskily.
“Someone was in my room while I was gone. When Heather confirmed that it couldn’t have been the housekeeping staff, I freaked out,” I said, explaining the bare facts, unwilling to talk about Sam yet.
Hunter searched my eyes, and I saw disappointment flare in his momentarily before he masked it from me. His gaze lifted over my shoulder, and I finally noticed that Parker had climbed into the driver’s seat. The engine was running, so he must have already started it while I had been distracted by Hunter’s kiss.
“Take her to the big house,” Hunter instructed him. “Get her settled for the night. You know which room.”
“But, Hunter—” I complained, not understanding why he was sending me with his brother and staying behind.
His face softened as he looked down at me once again. I shivered at the feel of his fingertips gently swiping across my swollen lips.
“You’ll be safe with Parker. I promise.”
“Come with me,” I pleaded. “I want you to be safe too.”
Hunter chuckled darkly at my request and his face hardened into a mask of fury, but it wasn’t directed towards me. “Don’t worry about me, Gracie-mine. There’s nothing here that can harm me.”
“You don’t know that, Hunter. Please.”
“One of these days, we’ll have a long talk and you’ll understand what I mean when I swear to you that I’m not in any danger. For now, just know that I have Spencer with me and he’ll make sure I come back to you unharmed,” he promised. “After all, I’ve trusted my brother with something far more precious than my life these last few weeks.”
“And what’s that?” I asked.
“Yours,” he replied.
Three
Hunter
I held my hand up and Spencer waited silently in the hallway behind me as I entered Grace’s room. He understood the command in my action. I needed a moment alone in her private space. Her scent permeated the air and without Spencer to distract me, I was able to narrow in on the barest whiff of something that did not belong. Several hours must have passed since they had invaded Grace’s domain, because it had dissipated to the barest hint of a smell, but it was still one I recognized instantly. She was one of my own, after all—a pack mate I never would have expected had I not scented this myself.
I waved Spencer into the room, and he inhaled deeply. His eyes widened in shock as he quickly recognized the scent. A flash of betrayal crossed his face when he comprehended the meaning behind it. The scent was quite familiar to him since the woman who’d invaded Grace’s space was the she-wolf he was currently involved with.
“Why would she do such a thing?” I asked him. I didn’t expect him to have an answer since the distress on his face already told me that he had no idea why she would target Grace.
My brother’s eyes swept the room wildly as though searching for the reason in the empty space. “She wouldn’t. Eliza has nothing to gain from hurting Grace.”
“And yet the proof is right here under both of our noses,” I growled. “There is no reason for Eliza to come to Grace’s room. She has no connection to the motel. She’s only met Grace in passing at the bar.”
“Everyone in the pack knows she is yours. We all know you would protect her with your life. Our pack mates know Parker and I would protect her with ours as well,” Spencer reasoned aloud. “Maybe Eliza was here in an attempt to protect Grace from something else?”
“What danger could there be to Grace that I wouldn’t already know about?” I retorted. “When I’m not near, either you or Parker are watching over her for me. The only time she isn’t within one of our sights is when she’s here in this damn room at night, and even then we have someone stationed outside to safeguard her.”
“I don’t know, dammit!” Spencer countered, clearly struggling with the idea that the woman he’d grown close to might have betrayed my mate.
“There’s only one way to be certain,” I reasoned with him.
Spencer pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and typed out a quick message. Then his phone beeped within seconds to let him know that she had replied.
“She’s at home,” he told me before he swiveled on his heel and stalked out of the room.
I gathered Grace’s
belongings and packed them into the suitcase in the closet. It didn’t take me very long since she didn’t have much to pack. I was stunned to see how little she owned and felt ashamed at the knowledge that my mate was struggling while I lived comfortably in my home, able to buy myself anything I needed or wanted. I wasn’t going to allow the distance between us any longer.
The fear that had gripped me upon learning of her distress was the last straw. I wasn’t going to fully mate her until she was ready, but I was going to do everything in my power to ensure that that day came sooner rather than later. Starting with keeping her in my house after I’d resolved this situation. She wasn’t coming back to this motel room to live when I had more than enough room for her in my home.
I did one last sweep of Grace’s space to make sure I wasn’t leaving anything behind. I didn’t want to give her any excuse to come back here. Knowing her as well as I already did, I figured she would jump at any excuse to leave my home since living with me wouldn’t allow her to ignore what was happening between us. It was shocking to think that Eliza’s actions might have solved that problem for me.
Spencer’s eyes widened when he saw me toss Grace’s suitcase in the back of his truck. “You’re moving her in with you, then?”
“I’m not going to let this opportunity pass me by,” I reasoned. “There’s no place safer in all of Wolf’s Point for her to be. And one thing that was made clear tonight is she’s in danger of some kind.”
“Her reaction was a bit unusual,” he agreed.
“She shouldn’t have had anything to react to in the first place. There’s no way Grace should have known that Eliza had been in her room. She couldn’t have smelled anything out of place like we did. Her senses aren’t strong enough for that.”
Spencer quickly caught onto the point I was trying to make. “Then she must have had a warning system of some kind in place to let her know when someone invaded her space.”
“Why would she do that unless she’s guarding against something? Parker and I both sensed that she was in trouble when she first arrived in town,” I reminded him.
“And we’ve made sure she was safe right from the start,” he assured me. “Every wolf in town knows she falls under your protection.”
“Then why did one of my own risk my wrath tonight?” I asked him. It was the one question that was burning in both of our minds.
Eliza had only joined our pack a couple of years ago, but she knew the rules just as well as anyone else did. Any harm to my mate would never go unpunished regardless of who the culprit was. Even if she was sleeping with my brother.
Spencer drove swiftly to Eliza’s small house on the outskirts of town. The porch lights were on and she was waiting for us in the rocking chair. She stood as soon as we exited the truck, and there was no smile on her face as we walked towards her. Her eyes held sadness as she looked at my brother, but she seemed to shake it off as her gaze turned to me. There was no mistaking my anger, but she didn’t look scared. I didn’t scent any fear coming from her. Either she was being very stupid and didn’t realize the danger of her actions or she really did have a reason for entering Grace’s room without permission.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I hissed as I towered over her.
The dominant waves of my alpha wolf were pouring off me, and she lowered her eyes and bared her neck in an instinctual submissive response. The beast inside me wanted to tear into her soft flesh and make her pay for hurting my woman, but the man in me knew I needed answers first.
The fear that entered her eyes as she raised them to me didn’t surprise me, but her answer certainly did. “She’s in danger and I needed to get closer so I could try to figure out where it was coming from.”
“And how would you know of a risk to my mate when I didn’t?” I growled disbelievingly.
Eliza’s gaze briefly darted to Spencer before returning to me. “I dreamed of her last night.”
“Your nightmare,” my brother gasped from behind me. “The one that woke you up screaming? The one you refused to discuss with me? It was about Grace?”
I could see the regret in Eliza’s eyes as she held my stare. “Answer him,” I demanded.
“Yes,” she replied. “Grace was in my nightmare. I couldn’t tell who it was, but she was being chased through the forest at night. The moon was full in the sky, and the pack raced to try to catch up with her.”
“And when we found her?” I asked.
She lowered her eyes again, but not before I saw the deep sadness in them. “She was dead.”
My head reeled at her words since it was the last thing I had expected her to say. “And you expect me to believe that this dream sent you to her motel room today?”
“Yes, alpha. I expect you to believe me because it’s the truth.”
I inhaled deeply, smelling no lies from her. Only fear. “Why didn’t you simply tell my brother about this dream when he asked you last night?”
“I’ve learned the hard way that most people aren’t willing to believe.”
“I’ve never given you any reason to doubt me,” Spencer muttered.
“Not now,” I barked at him. “Focus on what’s important first—my mate’s safety. You can deal with your hurt feelings later.”
I could feel my brother’s frustration through our bond, but I didn’t have time to spare for his situation right now. I needed to get to the bottom of what was going on and return to my home and Grace as quickly as possible. My wolf paced inside, impatient to be with his mate so he could see for himself that she was safe.
“Why would you hide this dream from me and sneak into Grace’s room?” he asked her.
“Because it wasn’t just a dream. It was a premonition of what’s coming for her.”
Her answer startled me, but not in the way she’d expected. Our grandmother had the second sight, so my brothers and I weren’t uncomfortable with the psychic world. She had encountered her fair share of disbelievers throughout the years, which had always struck me as odd considering we were werewolves. That should have been proof enough for anyone that there was more to this world than many understood. How any wolf could doubt the possibility of psychic powers escaped me, but I knew it happened often.
What truly disconcerted me was the realization that Eliza was almost definitely the dream-walker our grandmother had spoken of so many years ago with a faraway look in her eye. She had taken us in when our parents had died in an attack against our pack. Our numbers had been smaller back then, and the alpha from the pack closest to us had wanted to claim our land as his. He killed my mother in an effort to weaken my father, whose response was a swift attack that resulted in both of their deaths. His second, the pack enforcer, stepped up to lead us until I was old enough to take my father’s place.
The other pack retreated, the alpha’s brother promising to stay out of our business when he took control of them. They were still closer to us than I liked, but we had left each other alone throughout the years. The loss of both of our parents so close to each other had sent my brothers and me reeling until our grandmother took us aside one day and explained the mating bond and how much pain they would have felt if only one of them had lived. We still missed them each and every day, but we were less angry that they had died together. She also gave us something else to focus on—the idea that we would find our own mates one day.
The mate who was stalked by danger would be mine.
The mate who walked in dreams would be Spencer’s.
And the mate who was discarded by her family would be Parker’s.
“I didn’t come here a lone wolf because I wanted to be one. People don’t like hearing bad news, and my dreams always make me the bearer of it,” she continued, unaware of the turmoil her words had caused. “What happens in them – it doesn’t have to be reality. There’s still time to change the outcome so I keep trying to make a difference even though it makes people hate me when they come true.”
It was obvious to me that Spencer hadn’t
truly considered the possibility that Eliza was his mate before this very moment. He’d been drawn to her when they had met, but he’d kept their relationship casual. Now that I’d met my own mate, I had no idea how he couldn’t have known before now except that he was the one who had taken our grandmother’s words to heart the most. He very well could have closed himself off so much to any woman who didn’t fit her criteria that he hadn’t seen what had been staring him in the face all this time. It could have been a mistake that made him lose his mate, but I intended to make no similar missteps with my own.
“The loyalty you swore to me when you joined my pack goes both ways, Eliza. You have no need to hide your gifts from us,” I assured her.
“You believe me?” she gasped. “Just like that?”
“I’m sure you and Spencer will have much to talk about soon, including the reasons why I don’t doubt that you see things in your dreams that come true. But if you’ve seen my mate’s death, then I need you to focus on what you can tell me to help me stop that from becoming her reality.”
“Yes, of course,” she agreed before describing her nightmare in detail. “I went to her room in the hope I would be able to recreate the dream again. I didn’t see enough to keep her safe, and I wanted to see if I could nudge my dreams in her direction when surrounded by her things.”
“And did it work?” I asked.
She shook her head sadly. “No. I don’t have control over them, and it could be months again before I have another. I’m sorry.”
I sighed in frustration, but it wasn’t her fault. “I understand, but next time something like this happens, you will come to me or Spencer. If not, you’ll be punished.”
“Yes, alpha. I swear I won’t keep anything like this from you in the future,” she promised.
“Or from me,” Spencer growled.
“I’m sorry, Spencer. I know there are things that need to be said between the two of you, but I need you with me until the danger to Grace has passed,” I told him as I gripped his shoulder before walking past him to the truck.
[Black River Pack 01.0 - 03.0] Crying Wolf, Shoot for the Moon, Thrown to the Wolves Page 3