The drive passed with little fanfare, one refueling, which was tricky considering the RV was invisible, and one too many close calls on the interstate for my comfort. Again, because the RV was invisible. Kudos to Enzo for providing our safety bubble, but couldn’t he have given us a wider buffer? One driver almost sideswiped us, her focus on her rearview mirror, veering so close I could appreciate her steady hand with an eyeliner pencil at seventy miles per hour.
Isaac and I split the drive into six-hour chunks so that we each got a chance to nap prior to reaching our destination. The prince didn’t budge the whole time. Had I not been raised in a pack, which meant I’d spent substantial time around teenagers, I would have been concerned that he hadn’t eaten, drank or blinked much since our departure.
There was a reason why people called tablets, televisions and such babysitters. Plop a kid or teen down in front of one, and it was like they had a cord you plugged in or something. Total absorption. Witnessing Tiberius fall in love with technology got me thinking about Isaac as a kid. I wondered if our children, if we had any, would glom on to electronics like their father or if they would prefer the weight of a hammer to that of a tablet.
Kids.
Twins.
Gemini came in pairs. Signing up for motherhood with Isaac meant our family would double overnight. Scary. As terrified as I was of becoming my mother, I had Meemaw as an example of what a mom should be, and I’d have Aunt Dot—Dot? Mom?—to lean on too. Gemini family groups were close. There was even a chance she’d move to Butler for a while, or at least orbit our town, for the first several years when I would need the most help.
A flash of Momma sprawled on the floor, covered in blood, all those names carved into her skin, blinded me to the road, and the RV bumped over the center line, jarring Isaac awake.
“What?” He clutched his armrests and perched on the edge of his seat. “Dell?”
“I was dodging roadkill.” Or, you know, avoiding memories that made me want to curl in a ball in the floorboard.
“Do you want me to take over?” He rubbed his eyes. “It got dark fast. Where are we?”
“Gulf Shores, Alabamie.” I reached over and patted his leg, ignoring his original question. “Do you have the first address we’re supposed to check?”
After watching me a minute to make sure I was holding steady, he pulled out his phone and cued up his GPS app. “Splash Zone is an abandoned water park within walking distance of the beach.”
“Weird place to hide an army, but okay.”
“You remember how, back in Faerie, the Black Dog’s house was larger on the inside than outside?” He was staring out the window, thinking through the possibilities. “Thierry is a prime example that sometimes half-blood fae hit the genetic lottery in terms of inheriting power. If the Bloodless have someone with that skill set, they can create a haven anywhere.”
“You’re right.” I wasn’t used to thinking in those terms, an adjustment made easier after having seen Faerie. Now I possessed a nascent understanding of what we were up against. “How are we going to handle disembarking unseen?”
We could drive right up to the place, it was late enough, but our cover would be blown the second we stepped out of thin air onto the sidewalk. This time of year, even at this hour, the beaches would be crowded. We had to have a plan to avoid causing a panic.
“I can help with that” came a mumble from the backseat.
Isaac twisted sideways. “Oh?”
“Have you forgotten our first meeting?”
The brutal skirmish with Tiberius. Isaac plummeting from the sky. The snap of his bones on impact. The stillness after.
“Maybe you shouldn’t bring that up in front of Dell again,” Isaac cautioned.
That’s when I heard the steady growling of the wolf as she fought to choke down her bloodlust.
“I only meant to point out the witch isn’t the only one who can shroud himself,” the prince said, head bent over his game.
Shroud. I had never heard that particular talent given a specific name, but it fit.
Thinking on Enzo’s talent caused a bubble of concern to breach the surface of my thoughts. “Isn’t personal invisibility illegal?”
“There are exceptions to the law where dignitaries, noblemen and magistrates are concerned, but for the general fae public, yes.” Isaac rolled his shoulder. “Unless it’s an inborn power, it’s forbidden. Glamour can be cast to conceal objects or locations but not people.”
“Alkonosts are born this way.” Tiberius met my gaze in the rearview mirror, a bold move considering the wolf’s agitated state. “The gift is tied into our affinity for atmospheric conditions, and it’s not flawless. Clouds will gather over your location. Someone who knows what they’re looking for can use the disturbances to track our movements.”
Isaac was born to his abilities too. Hopefully this was a one-plus-one-equals-two equation in terms of culpability if we got caught.
“Pop-up thunderstorms are normal down here in the summer.” We had encountered two stretches of road with sprinkles and flash lightning already. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Will the coverage extend to Dell?” Isaac must be remembering how Tiberius had wrapped Leandra in his magic and disappeared her. “Or will it only hold for me? Assuming I can tap into that skill at all.”
“Coverage diminishes if you share, and it cuts your reserves in half. Since you’re borrowing magic to become an alkonost, and then using the borrowed magic of that form, I’m not sure it will work at all.”
“Assuming I can master the trick, I might have to go in alone.”
“No.” He wasn’t going in without backup. “Besides, I have the king’s pendant. There’s a chance Branwen will respond to its proximity. It might pique her curiosity enough to lure her out of hiding.”
“She can’t maintain a glamour I can’t see through,” Isaac argued. “There are always seams, even in flawless work.”
The point was hard to argue, since he had puzzled out the Black Dog’s tree in Autumn, and I figured it didn’t get more complex than that. But I wasn’t going to let him go in solo. That’s not how pack worked, and as my mate, he was most definitely pack and mine to protect. The wolf would allow nothing less.
“We’re a team. You’re not going in there alone.” I used my best snarly beta tone. “End of discussion.”
“I’m not a warg, Dell.” He swung his head back toward me. “You can’t order me to do what you want. I don’t fit into your hierarchy.” I muttered about his wolf being more agreeable than the man. “And if you think I’m going to shift so that you can win all our arguments through dominance, lover, you’re in for a disappointment.”
The endearment zinged down my nerve endings, and I squirmed on my seat. “I don’t want a submissive mate. I want a partner.” While I respected the gentler members of our pack, I had no taste for them. I saw too much of my past in them to ever feel comfortable engaging in any type of romantic relationship with anyone less bullheaded than me. “Would you let me go in there by my lonesome?”
“No,” he clipped out. “You’re still healing.”
“Come on.” I scoffed. “You’re sitting there telling me that if I was hale and hearty you’d let me waltz in there without you?” He got real quiet, the kind of silence that warned he was thinking. Dangerous thing, that. “The answer you’re searching for is no. You’d never let me venture off alone, and I’m returning the favor.”
“Except I have let you,” he corrected me. “In Faerie.”
I mashed my lips together in consideration. “Okay, you got me there.”
“Good.” He sounded relieved. “Then it’s settled. I’ll scout the location and then report back.”
This was a pivotal moment in our relationship, and I grasped that. I couldn’t say that he had let me off the chain in Faerie because our lives had been in danger. They were in danger here too. They were in danger a lot, actually. And I couldn’t ask him to make an exception for me this
one time, or I would nudge and nudge and nudge until I bulldozed him every time. It was my nature. My wolf was a protector, a nurturer, and Isaac was her moon in the sky. Roll over once, and he would never stop spinning.
Framed that way… No. I still didn’t like it. Not at all. Not a bit.
But I had to respect that if I wanted a true partner, I had to act like one. “Okay.” A low growl of fear-tinged annoyance rumbled from between my teeth. “I’ll wait in the RV with Tiberius.”
For all that he’d been the one to smack down an ultimatum, Isaac almost fell out of his seat when I agreed with nothing more than a flash of teeth. After composing himself, he cupped my thigh, kneading the muscle like a contented cat, and his mood brightened.
Had I known showing a little faith would put the sparkle back in his eyes and get me felt up, I would have let him indulge his adventurous side sooner. Okay, probably not. But extending him trust didn’t ache half as much as I expected. I would have to try it again once I recovered. Trust, I was finding, hurt like a pulled muscle when overextended. Performing a few small stretches before attempting such a large expenditure next time might be wise.
“Can you see well enough?” I grumbled, not quite willing to let him know he’d won yet. “I don’t want you stumbling around in the debris.”
“I packed night vision goggles.” He shrugged at my slow blink. “What’s with that look? I believe in emergency preparedness.”
“Just wondering how many MacGyver rerun marathons you watched as a kid to end up this way.” His mom was addicted to daytime soaps. Mac was as good a male role model as any for a budding technophile. “Or does this stem from the childhood trauma of her not allowing you to join the Boy Scouts?”
“MacGyver was too implausible. I gave up after the second episode.” He unfastened his seat belt and turned so he faced me. “And I never wanted to be a Boy Scout. All that hiking and camping and fresh air? Not my style. All I wanted as a kid was my own room, privacy, and more RAM.”
“And yet you mated a warg,” I marveled.
“Tastes can mature,” he protested. “For example, all I want now is my own room, privacy…and you.”
I had to admit, “I like the way you think.”
“I’m going to go make nice with the prince. Who knows? I may not be able to tap a gift that subtle while borrowing his magic.” His hand slid higher, his fingertips brushing the seam of my jeans at the juncture of my thighs. “We might be arguing for nothing.”
“Isaac.” I trapped a gasp in my throat. “There’s a kid on the couch.”
“Actually, he’s in the bathroom. Besides the fact we’re talking about a kid who lived with his girlfriend for however many weeks it took his family to come looking for him. I’m thinking he’s current on sex ed and what happens when a boy fae loves a girl warg very, very much.”
Hard not to glow under his praise, so I didn’t even try not to beam my joy back at him. His subtle intake of breath, like my smiles still held the power to stun him, was gratifying in its own way. Maybe we’d figure this couple thing out after all.
“Go practice.” I shooed him. “Just leave your phone in the seat.”
Isaac didn’t move, and neither did his hand.
Pretending interest in our coordinates, he began rubbing a slow, circular pattern over my core, which had gone molten at the attention, with the pad of his thumb. I checked on Tiberius in the rearview mirror, but sure enough, the seating area was vacant. Worries dissolving like sugar in a glass of tea, I let Isaac take control.
His insistent hand kept pushing me toward a precipice I wasn’t sure how I felt about reaching while hurtling down the interstate, but I didn’t stop him. I bucked my hips against his palm and bit my lower lip to keep from moaning. Isaac stood, keeping that intimate contact with me going, and leaned over as though he meant to whisper in my ear. Except his teeth closed over my pulse, and I shattered on a strangled gasp he muffled by giving me his hand to bite down on, and I did, drawing blood I licked away, because even this part of my mate’s taste appealed to my inner predator.
“Call out if you need me.” Reaching over the dash, he gripped the folder with our mission notes from where they rested in the crack made between plastic and glass. “I’m always happy to lend a helping hand.”
“Oh, ha-ha.”
Holding the folder in front of the tented material of his pants, he walked stiffly back to wait on Tiberius.
Poor Isaac. I’m not sure he grasped how competitive—or sneaky—I was, but he was about to find out. I might not be able to go the distance yet, but I was up for making pit stops along the way. Pleasure wasn’t, as Abram had intimated, a thing I owed Isaac or that he expected from me in my current condition. That’s what would make ambushing him so much fun. The wolf excelled at stalking her prey, and I had hours before we parked for the night to plan my revenge.
We hit the main drag, lit up like Christmas with flashing signs in every window, and the navigation app took me on a turn-by-turn tour of the zany town comprised of hotels, fast food joints, souvenir stands and mini attractions. A gift shop with an entrance flowing through the maw of a giant plaster shark caught my eye, and I smiled, wishing Zed was here to pose in the jaws with me. Light traffic—and herds of darting pedestrians with no concept of jaywalking—kept my eyes glued on the road. So when the weight of a hand pressed on my shoulder without me registering any movement from the corner of my eye, I squeaked like a mouse and bounced in my seat.
“I’m calling this experiment a success.” Isaac chuckled from behind me as a light drizzle splatted the windshield. “Looks like Tiberius was right about the impact on the weather.”
Considering we were invisible, I imagined a tiny poof of dark cloud zooming down the interstate, taking exits and rumbling at cars that got in its path, maybe zinging a few with lightning bolts. The mental picture made me smile.
“Does that mean you forgive me?” The invisible man nuzzled me, and fresh heat throbbed low in response.
“For scaring the crap out of me?” I shrugged off his hand. “Nope. You owe me for this.” I let my smile widen. “I’ll explain, in great detail, how you can pay me back later.”
That must have revved his engine. He popped back into view with flushed cheeks and a hungry cast to his features.
“You’ll have to focus better than that,” Tiberius chastised him.
“Let’s go over it again.” Isaac trudged to the back, and they delved into a conversation I couldn’t follow.
I veered into the final turn and parked in front of a now-defunct water park that must have been a huge hit in its day. Lit by neighboring attractions, I spotted a few insanely high slides, several fountains, three pools of varying sizes and a lazy river that meandered along the park’s perimeter.
Gone was the rush of water and squeal of excited children. Paint had faded and chipped under the relentless sun. Metal rusted in the briny air. The remaining awning covers fluttered in the coastal breeze. It must have been abandoned for years.
I leaned forward and surveyed the area. Slick attractions hemmed it in on all sides. A mini golf course, a trampoline park, one of those laser tag places. They were all bright, glossy and ready to separate parents from their kids…and their wallets. Yet this place sat here, neglected and forgotten, on prime real estate.
I called bullshit.
Isaac sank into the seat next to me and took in the sights while fiddling with a set of high-tech goggles. “Sloppy work. This would have stood out even if we didn’t know it was one of their former haunts. They should have used glamour to conceal it or at least to repel people.”
“You were onto something when you drew the comparison between these hidey-holes and Faerie.” They must have someone capable of maintaining a complex glamour in addition to whatever space-bending magic pulled square footage out of ether. Suddenly, I felt a whole lot better about letting Isaac handle this first stop alone. “They burned this place. That’s why we can see it for what it is, why there’s no pu
shback from wards or other protective magics. They aren’t coming back.”
He looked inclined to agree with me. “We still have to clear the area. They might have left clues behind, so I’ll need to search whatever private areas I can access.” A grin overcame his mouth. “It’s a big park.”
“Yeah, yeah. I get the message. Loud and clear.” I huffed at him in mock affront. “I have to give you more than five minutes to explore before mounting a rescue mission.”
“How do you always make me sound like an aimless adventurer about to stroll through a lost temple even when I’m on a mission?”
I studied him and processed his tone. “It really bothers you, doesn’t it?”
“I care about how you see me, and that you think I’m distracted by shiny objects isn’t flattering.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll do better. I promise.” Sure, I might imagine him in a pith helmet for my own amusement upon occasion, but I had known going into this relationship that his was a wanderer’s soul. I just hadn’t realized I had twisted what should have been acceptance into a bitterness unconcealed by my comments. “I guess I do imagine you as a nomadic explorer who drifts from one adventure to the next. The way Cam talked about your lifestyle growing up painted a picture in my head. When you were so eager to hit the road again once she mated Cord, I thought I had you figured out.”
“This early into our mating, I would hope you don’t know all of me, or all my secrets.”
I quirked an eyebrow at him.
“Wolves are inquisitive creatures, yours in particular. Gotta stay mysterious to keep her coming back for more.”
The mention of hidden facets in his personality, in his past, whetted my appetite, just as he’d known it would.
This time he didn’t remind me of his promise to earn my trust. Determination straightened his shoulders, and he appeared to settle under the mantle of my doubt as though testing its balance so that he might cast it off at the first sign of an imbalance that favored him.
Wolf at the Door (Lorimar Pack) (Gemini Book 5) Page 21