“That was one time,” I protested.
“Umm-hmm.” Cam replaced Isaac’s grip with hers, and alpha magic poured over me in a drugging wave that left my eyes heavy and erased any hint of discomfort. “Is that necklace getting any looser?”
I gave it a tug. “Nope.”
“I spoke to Thierry about it. She knows Branwen—”
“—of course she does.” Thierry knew all the players and was related to half of them through her short-lived marriage.
Cam gave me a patient sigh. She understood why the pack reacted the way we did to Thierry, but she trusted the marshal and hoped exposing us to our liaison might take the edge off our visceral response to her presence. No luck so far. Right now, that experiment was a failure. I had seen firsthand how her magic worked, and I would never shake hands with her again. Ever.
“As I was saying…” She waited to make sure she wouldn’t be interrupted again. “Branwen was married to the chieftain of a selkie pod, Dónal O’Leary. He’s passed on, but Branwen still prefers sticking to the coasts and warmer waters.”
Unsure where this was headed, I leaned back. “What about the half-blood army encampment?”
“Thierry says it’s more of a commune for half-blood fae relocated from Faerie. When the king took his throne, one of his first acts as sovereign was to barter with the conclave for use of the remaining tether. Since it anchors on his property instead of neutral ground, it was his to control.”
I sank back against the pillows. “What did he want in exchange?”
“Permission to relocate nonviolent half-bloods he purchased from slavers. Apparently, Thierry was the conduit. He located the half-bloods, and she evaluated them. Her recommendation went to the magistrates, who chose which ones presented the least risk to our realm. Those were given sanctuary with Branwen. Most were so abused or broken at that point, they weren’t fit to integrate into society.”
“You’re saying when Rook told me he had an army, what he meant was he had a collective of pissed-off ex-slaves who are eager to stick it to their former masters?”
That type of simmering hatred would make up for any lack of experience.
“They call themselves the Bloodless.”
“Not that this isn’t fascinating,” Isaac interrupted. “But why are you telling us?”
“The conclave is sending an envoy to examine the rift, the park, our procedures, all of it. They’ve requested full access and accommodations on-site. That means Stone’s Throw is about to be crawling with fae, several who are familiar enough with our pack history to identify Dell on sight.”
That was not good news. “So I need to make myself scarce.”
“How will we sneak her out without drawing attention?” Isaac had paranoia down to an art form.
“I’ve ordered the delivery of six RVs,” Cord explained. “One will suffer engine trouble on arrival and be towed into town. Once the repairs are made, we’ll decide we don’t need it after all, and that RV will cut a path back to the rental agency.”
Moore ran an auto body repair shop on the fringes of Butler. Zed’s junkyard backed up to the main building. There was enough room to fit the RV in the new add-on. I doubted we could hope for water hookups or sewage, but we could count on power. For one night, that was good enough.
Isaac appeared less enthused about leaving the protective safety of pack land. “Where exactly do you see us going?”
“The inspection is supposed to last a week. That’s how long they requested we accommodate them.”
“It’s dangerous for Dell to be outside the pack’s protection in her condition,” Isaac argued.
His cousin was hearing none of it. “It’s more dangerous if she stays.”
Too bad Villanow was off the itinerary. Meemaw had been so close, and yet I hadn’t gotten to see her, the real her. The sound of her voice softened by the lullabies from my childhood and her chicken noodle soup had been the two things I’d longed for most the past few weeks.
“We could head down to the coast,” I suggested, all sweetness and innocence. “Warm waters… White sand beaches…”
“No,” Isaac snapped. “You’re not going on a hunt in your condition.”
The alphas exchanged a weighted glance before Cord said, “Actually, we were hoping you two wouldn’t mind checking a few of Branwen’s known haunts.”
“Dell can barely walk one loop at the track, and you want to send her out on an assignment?”
“We’re not asking her to intervene. She’s got a keen nose and a good head on her shoulders. She’s an excellent tracker who’s bored out of her mind. Why not put her to use?” Cord attempted to soften his rebuke. “She’s a wolf, Isaac. Wolves don’t do well in confinement. She needs to stretch her legs, and this will kill two birds with one stone.”
“Does anyone care what I think?” I raised my hand like a kid in a classroom.
Isaac mashed his lips into a bloodless line to keep from commenting.
“Well?” Cam prompted. “What does the invalid think?”
“That she doesn’t want to be called an invalid, and that she’s ready to see more than these four walls all day, every day.”
“Dell—” Isaac grated from between clenched teeth.
“Ninety percent of the time I’ll be co-piloting from right next to you, safe inside the RV. The other ten percent I’ll be sticking my head into abandoned buildings for a sniff to confirm zero occupation before we jet to the next location.”
“There’s one more thing,” Cam added. “We want you to bring Tiberius with you.”
“Right now, he’s safe because no one can confirm his location.” Cord grinned, proud of that fact. “Thanks to your tip about the assassination attempt, his parents are on lockdown in a secure facility. Thierry is being very careful to handle the situation so that Dell comes out smelling like a rose in the end.”
Roses I didn’t mind so much. It was Thierry’s thorns that worried me.
“If it makes you feel any better,” Cam added, “we’re having Enzo complete a working over the exterior of the RV. We don’t want anyone able to see it, track it or enter it without authorization. Keep Tiberius indoors, and he’ll be safe.”
“I don’t know how much experience you have with teens.” Being raised in a pack, I had spent a good bit of time around kids of all ages. “But they’re hellions. Particularly princely ones who are nursing heartache, worried about their parents and missing their girlfriend. He’s not going to stay in the RV just because we tell him to.”
“Okay.” She considered it with the seriousness of a person who had no idea how bad teenage rebellion could get. “We’ll have Enzo ward the RV so he can’t leave it either.”
Cord looked tempted to argue, but then a thoughtful expression settled over his features. “That’s not a bad idea. No one can snatch him if he can’t leave. They’d have to take the entire RV.”
Cam picked up his train of thought and rode it hard, colliding with her cousin right in his soft spot for gadgetry. “Isaac, could you rig it with a kill switch to disable the ignition if the interior wards are breached? What about a GPS tracker? That way we could keep tabs on you and track the RV in the event it is compromised.”
Isaac’s voice came out soft in the way it did when his mind was working through a puzzle that had piqued his interest. “It will require some finesse. I’ll have to protect the electronics from the magic, or they’ll fry since they’ll be at cross-purposes.”
“How long do we have?” I suppressed the urge to bounce.
“Twenty-four hours,” Cam said. “The conclave didn’t give us much warning. They’re paranoid right now and taking every precaution.”
“Can you make it happen in a day?” Cord wanted to know. “We’ve already checked with Enzo. He said it’s no problem, but you’ll both have to fit your work within that same time frame.”
“I can handle my end as long as the witch doesn’t slow me down.” Isaac patted his pants for the phablet he usually ke
pt there, but he had left it by the sink, a fact I didn’t share because his distracted befuddlement was adorable. “We need a contingency plan. A few of them wouldn’t hurt.”
Cord, who took over for Cam, dosing me with his own brand of alpha magic, wrapped his wide palm around my ankle. His wolf prowled close to his skin, wary of the coming battle, and mine responded. Sensing my anxiety, his wolf pressed on my consciousness until mine obeyed, and I slept on my alpha’s orders.
Chapter 14
“What did I miss?” I asked a few hours later when I woke refreshed and surrounded by tablets of varying size covered in doodles, and textbooks as thick as my forearm. “And what is all this?”
“Hmm?” He busied himself sketching a doohickey on a stick with a neon-green stylus.
I tried a different tack. “You’re working on the GPS thing?”
“Yes. Sorry.” He set down his supplies and rubbed his eyes. “Time got away from me.”
The organized chaos and utter absorption reminded me of Enzo when he was taming new magic. I didn’t draw the comparison, partly because it would irritate Isaac when he was about to be working in close quarters with the witch, and partly because it caused me to examine my taste in men.
What was it about the brainy set that appealed to me? The cute facial scrunches when they concentrated? The rumpled hair? The wrinkled clothes? The I never made it to bed last night look? The fevered light of inspiration? The rush as they teetered on the cusp of discovery? The pride in their accomplishments? The glow of inspiration that rubbed off a little on me?
Deep down I worried I had decided to be attracted to men so absorbed in their own lives they didn’t dig too far into mine. I had spent so much of my youth cultivating invisibility that I worried not even my partner would really see me.
“Should I have moved to the kitchen table?” He began gathering his things. “I didn’t mean to box you in, it just makes me nervous when my cousin goes all alpha and your wolf conks out because of it.”
“How could you tell I wasn’t just tired?” I was genuinely curious.
“Promise you won’t hit me?” He scooted out of swatting range.
“I promise not to assault you with your own textbooks. That’s about it.”
“When you fall asleep naturally, you make these little growly sounds. Your feet and hands twitch like a puppy dreaming about chasing rabbits.” He maintained a safe distance. “When Cam or Cord put you down, you’re out cold. You don’t move, you don’t growl. You barely breathe.” He shrugged, sheepish. “I don’t like leaving you when you’re like that. I’d rather be here where I can keep an eye on your breathing.”
And here I had worried he wouldn’t see me when he had been watching over me, my own personal guardian angel.
Rolling onto my side with care, I traced the planes of his face with my gaze since my fingers couldn’t reach. “Have you always been this sweet on me?”
“Let’s just say that first time we met up with Cam so she could practice her aspects, it wasn’t her I was trying to impress.”
I propped my cheek on my fist. “You resisted my charms.”
Heat sparked in his pale-blue eyes. “You kissed me, that wasn’t resistance.”
“Exactly.” I toyed with the comforter. “I kissed you.”
“You were Cammie’s friend, and I had never met one of those.” He cleared off the bed until he had room to sprawl beside me. “I knew myself, and I didn’t want to wreck your friendship by adding sex with me into the mix.”
In other words, he’d panicked when he realized he actually liked me, and tried to run, but I had given chase.
“You know what I think?” I scooched closer, emboldened by his earlier gift. “You knew I was different, and that’s what scared you.”
“Until I met you, I can’t remember wanting to make love to a woman. Sex was always a game, a means of getting what I was after.”
“Blood.”
“Blood.”
“How is that going to work moving forward?” I wriggled even closer.
“You need me at my best, and that means loaded with aspects.” He caught my wrist before I could withdraw. “I’ll be paying or trading tech going forward. I can’t promise that means I won’t be dealing with other women. I’m in it for the aspect, not the package. Does that work for you?”
“You’re cool with my best friend being a guy, so yeah. I can deal with this.”
He leaned in, eased his lips over mine and sighed a happy sound. Relief. He must have been worried about how I would take his continued need for donors. He palmed my hip, kneading the dense muscle, and warmth spiraled between my thighs.
The exterior door banged open, and we sprang apart like scalded cats. Abram took one sniff of the air and honed his glare. “No hanky-panky for at least another week.” He pointed at Isaac and then the bathroom. “You, cold shower.” After the door shut behind him, Abram pointed at me. “You, stop whatever you were doing. You can’t seduce that boy in your condition, and he’s a damn waste of oxygen if he’s pushing you for more.”
Me? A seductress? Hmm. I liked the sound of that. “We were cuddling.”
“Cuddling doesn’t leave the air so thick with pheromones you need a box fan set in a window prior to inviting in polite company.”
“Is that what you are? Polite company?”
I pulled my shirt over my head, and the girls bounced free. Being told by a medical professional not to wear a bra for the duration of my recovery had been a liberating, if awkward, experience. Sure, I spent a lot of time naked between shifts, but going starkers as a human wasn’t the same. I was too top heavy not to wear a bra under clothes outside the RV. As a consequence, going on braless walks with Isaac felt more risqué than communal nudity.
The healer harrumphed in his way and ordered me facedown on the mattress. I counted the number of E’s in the titles of all the books stacked in mountains around the bed while he conducted his examination.
“How’s the pain?” He tested a sore spot, and I flinched. “Better or worse today?”
“Better. I’m stiff, but I’m getting around okay. When Isaac lets me get out of bed.”
On second thought, that sounded bad.
Abram flushed scarlet to his hairline. “You’re ready for more light activity.” His gentle but firm hands tested the base of my skull. “I’m not sure if you’re ready for the cockamamie scheme the alphas are running, but I’m just the healer.”
On reflex, I rose to their defense. “They don’t have much choice. They can’t risk me or Tiberius being found.”
“Sending you off alone while you’re in this condition…” a growl laced his voice, “…it’s not right.”
“Isaac will be with me.”
“Isaac’s the one who dropped you in the first place.” His teeth snapped together with an audible click. “I didn’t mean that. I’m just worried. Had your mother been pack at the time, I would have delivered you. I’ve watched you mature into a damn fine woman, but you’re reckless. You wield your heart like it’s a shield that can stop bullets. I worry what will happen the day you find out you aren’t bulletproof, if I’m not there to sew you back together again.”
Sensing the exam was over, I pushed into a sitting position and shrugged back into my shirt. “It’s not your job to hold me together.” I took his hand in mine. His palms were smooth and his fingers delicate. Mine were calloused and scarred from repeated abuse. “I did get reckless when Isaac left. I broke when the pack needed me most. I was following in Momma’s footsteps until Zed nipped some sense into me.”
“Don’t give Isaac so much credit.” He tightened his fingers on mine. “That boy didn’t break you. You lost him, and it hurt, but you kept going. Then the alphas left, and you shouldered the sole responsibility for the pack. It’s not like you were sitting around mediating the usual dominance bullshit between hotheaded rung-climbers. You were fighting battles every night to stave off a war, and all of that eventually caught up to you. You might have
fixated on Isaac as the root cause, but he was one symptom of the disease.”
I had never looked at my situation that way. Perspective, I suppose, is a vantage gained from the outside. “You’re still worried.” I could tell. “You think that I think having him back is the cure.”
“You have Zed to lean on now, and the alphas have no choice but to remain in Butler. You’ll have a support structure here, waiting on you when you get back. And, if you’re dead set on Isaac, well, you’ll have him too.” He released my hand and stood. “The things that make you a great beta are also the things that will burn you out over and over, the things that will get you killed. You’ve got to let people in, Dell, all the way. It’s not enough to open your heart, you’ve got to award them trust. Think of it as delegation. Not every tall building must be leapt in a single bound.”
“Trust is hard.” I curled in on myself. “I trust Cord and Cam, and you and Zed.”
“But not Isaac?” the healer asked.
“I trust him with my life.”
“Just not with your heart.”
“I want to.”
“Your momma did a number on you.” He sighed. “Just think about what I said, and remember. You might look like Blanche, but that’s where the similarities stop.”
“Thanks for the pep talk.”
“I had to get in my speech before you left.” He passed me a few pieces of paper. Prescriptions. “I’m clearing you for this excursion, and I expect you to be responsible while you’re out there.”
“I’ll be on my best behavior,” I promised.
“That’s what worries me.”
Fresh from the shower, Isaac exited the bathroom on a puff of steam. Sadly, he had taken his time and fully dressed before emerging. Oh, well. Maybe next time I could swap his bath towel out with one of the rags from the kitchen.
“How’s the patient?” Isaac crossed to me—not that he had to go far given the dimensions of the RV—and took my prescriptions so I didn’t have to worry about losing them. “Her walk got interrupted by the sirens earlier, but she was barely panting when we got back.”
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