“What about your mother?”
“My mother was in no condition to help me. She was sick and getting treatment.”
Tiffani checked her notes. “For drug and alcohol abuse, is that correct?”
Anger hardened his features. “That is correct.”
Maria swallowed a sudden lump in her throat. How brave Ryan had been. And, clearly, he’d done the right thing.
“Pretty amazing that you were able to do all this without any help.” Tiffani chirped, echoing Maria’s thoughts.
“If you say so. Determination and hard work got me where I am,” he said, looking directly at the camera.
“And maybe a bit of luck?” Tiffani chimed in, still smiling.
“No luck came into it.”
“Okay.” Clearly not believing him, Tiffani took a deep breath. “And what about your parents? Did your mother recover? And what about your father? Are you still estranged from him today? Or did you kiss and make up once you became a billionaire?”
Instead of answering, Ryan pushed to his feet. “This interview is over,” he said, still polite, even though clearly he was seething. “Thank you for your time.”
“No, thank you,” Tiffani gushed, watching Ryan stride off the set. When he’d gone, she turned to face the camera her expression satisfied. “Even though he didn’t answer, our producers did some research. While Ryan Howard is not close to his mother and father, who are now divorced, he did purchase his mother a lovely home in a retirement community in Florida, where she lives this very day.”
The woman babbled on, glossing over Ryan’s humanitarian efforts, and began showing photos of his various toys, as she’d put it.
Maria grabbed the remote and turned the television off, more than a bit stunned. While she—like most of the country, apparently—had taken Ryan as a superficial, conceited billionaire playboy, learning just this kernel of his past made her want to know more.
But then, why? She had no future with him, no matter how badly she wanted one.
Which she didn’t, she told herself fiercely. The sooner she found her true mate, the better.
* * *
After dealing with the insurance adjuster and talking with both the Galveston Police Department and the arson investigator for the fire department, Ryan considered trying to find a hotel room instead of driving back to Austin. But with tourist season in full swing, he wasn’t in the mood for dealing with so many people, so he left the crowded island and decided to keep driving until he made it home to Austin.
Meanwhile, he called Timothy and asked him to locate any and all material he could find on the Drakkor and have it sent to Ryan’s house. Timothy, who was also Pack, at first had no idea what his boss meant, but after Ryan filled him in, Tim promised to get to work on it right away.
Satisfied, Ryan drove and considered his next move. Maria wanted to find a mate, and for whatever reason, Ryan had offered to help her. Part of him wanted to parade as many horrible men in front of her, so she could see none of them were fit to father her baby.
And this brought another dilemma. What did Ryan want from her? Did he really want her to agree to have a kid with him? Especially since she’d made it clear she wouldn’t sign any legal papers?
When he finally pulled up to his gate and typed the code so it would swing open, he felt energized. Parking in his house garage—the four-car garage that faced the twelve-car garage on the other side of the driveway—he jumped out of his Jeep and bounded inside.
Timothy had already been by. And he’d certainly been busy. The small stack of books on the entryway table made Ryan smile.
Upon closer examination, he realized several of the books were very old and possibly rare. Which meant Timothy had spared no expense to locate what his boss had asked for.
In the kitchen, he popped open a beer and made himself a sandwich. Then, carrying everything over to his kitchen table, he sat down to eat and to read.
The first few books he picked up seemed more like history books. While he enjoyed those, with their heavy, crackling pages and beautiful color illustrations of the dragons in flight, they told him little other than their history. King Arthur and his knights had hunted them nearly to extinction, and the Drakkor had been forced to go into hiding in order to survive.
Which was definitely interesting. But he needed to know about the Drakkor now so he could find out why Maria believed her destiny was to have a child and why it had to be with another type of being other than a Drakkor.
But sadly, there wasn’t much. History, history and more history. He got it. The Drakkor were a proud people with a long and colorful past.
As for the future, what little he could find seemed deliberately vague. Except one statement jumped out at him, repeated in every single article he read.
There were very few Drakkor remaining. Their people, despite hiding from the knights of old, were still close to extinction. Which might explain why Maria felt the need to have a baby. But the more he read, the more he wanted to know the Drakkor’s secrets. Clearly, they were hiding something. He needed to find out what.
Beyond the one statement and the endless history, he realized that, due to their secrecy and dwindling numbers, little was known of the dragon Shifters. Some believed they had magic—which Ryan knew to be true—while others mentioned they could only fly after a ritual sacrifice—something patently false since Ryan had personally witnessed two Drakkor flights and there had been no sacrifice.
One other item mentioned in all the books caught Ryan’s attention. Drakkor women were known for being uncommonly beautiful. Which fit Maria to a T.
Still, he knew it wasn’t only her beauty that drew him to her. Her unique outlook on things and the self-confidence that grew stronger each and every day attracted him, too.
He’d promised to help her find a mate. Because he cared about her, he’d make good on that promise.
In Austin, he felt too far away. Once he’d learned it could take up to a year before the insurance company would settle, he instructed Timothy to find him another beach house. He still intended to have his summer vacation on Galveston Island, even if he’d be spending his time finding some other man to be with the woman he still wanted. He had Timothy make a cash offer, contingent upon the closing being pushed up to next week.
He read so much about the Drakkor that when he went to sleep at night, he started seeing dragons in his dreams. The first time it happened, he wasn’t surprised. He’d been studying hard, trying to learn everything he could about Maria’s people.
But now the dreams came with increasing frequency. He didn’t feel in danger, and had no fear of closing his eyes. He simply didn’t understand the reason. It seemed almost as if his subconscious might be trying to tell him something. It would be up to him to figure out what that might be.
He didn’t have time to worry about it, though. He had to get busy and fulfill his promise to Maria.
He made a list of all his friends and employees who weren’t married, eliminating those who were already involved in personal relationships. Several he knew wouldn’t be good fits, personality wise. Those that might, he circled and then tried to compare them to the more realistic aspects of Maria’s list.
Finally, he ended up with four candidates he thought might be suitable. None of them had current girlfriends, they weren’t gay and when he showed them Maria’s picture on his phone, each and every one of them expressed interest in meeting her, of course. When the first guy, his friend Tom, gushed over how beautiful she was, Ryan had to physically restrain himself from snarling mine.
It took him a few seconds to get himself back under control. As he listened to his friend marvel over Maria’s exquisite beauty, every primal instinct inside him woke. Even his wolf self, dozing until that instant, sprang awake and alert, ready to do battle. If Tom had been Pack, he would have sensed this and reacted. Luckily, he was human and had no idea.
After his friend left, Ryan had to take a few minutes and calm himself. The other
potential men all worked for him. If he hadn’t already scheduled the other interviews back-to-back and had the three men already waiting in the reception area, he would have taken off, driven to his favorite wooded area and changed. Letting his wolf hunt felt like the only thing that would make him feel better.
But he couldn’t. And Ryan hadn’t succeeded in business so well without being able to put a game face on and proceed under duress.
So that was exactly what he did.
Somehow, he made it through the rest of the afternoon without losing his cool. Two of the men were Shifters—one was Pack and the other was part of the Lion Pride. Both of them immediately detected his inner beast’s agitation. Ryan brushed it off by saying he’d waited too long since his last change. They both understood this, as everyone knew too much time in between shape-shifting could make one unstable.
The instant the last guy left his office, Ryan grabbed his files and, barely pausing for a quick word with his secretary, hurried out to head toward the woods to set his wolf free.
* * *
Despite her best intentions of staying busy, with work and wedding season in full swing, many nights Maria got off work too exhausted to exercise or dance or do much of anything other than sit in front of her TV.
Her father had taken to texting her every single night with status updates on the search for Doug Polacek and Tracey. So far, neither the Pack Protectors nor the Council had had any luck.
Thinking of what Polacek must be doing to that poor woman made Maria feel sick. Since his captive apparently consumed all his time, the Council didn’t feel as if he was an immediate threat to Maria or the other women.
Despite that, Maria felt better learning each woman had traveled to Eyrie to learn how to use their magic to defend themselves. Especially since she knew there might come a day when Polacek tired of Tracey or—heaven forbid, killed her—and went looking for fresh meat.
When a week went by and she hadn’t heard from Ryan, she told herself she didn’t care. She really hadn’t expected him to follow up on his promise to help her find her mate. She couldn’t blame him for putting as much distance between them as possible.
Still, when her doorbell rang at eight o’clock on Friday night, her heart skipped a beat. Peeking through the peephole, she saw her friend Lourdes on her front porch.
Yanking open the door, she went to hug her old friend. “I thought you were in Mexico City,” she began.
Lourdes stepped back with an elegant move and motioned with her hand. Instantly, bright lights came on, blinding Maria.
“What the...?” Shielding her eyes with her hand, she realized Lourdes had brought a camera crew.
“I’m sorry,” Lourdes said, her brilliant smile anything but as she turned and spoke to the camera. “This is Maria Miranda, who has recently been spotted with Ryan Howard. Miss Miranda and I grew up together, and when she wanted to tell her story, I was, of course, her first choice.”
Stunned and hurt, Maria shook her head. “Get off my property,” she said. “Leave now before I call the police.”
When Lourdes stepped down off the stoop, Maria closed the door in her face and locked it.
A few minutes later, her cell phone rang. Lourdes. Whether calling to apologize or to explain, Maria had nothing to say to the woman she’d once considered her friend. She declined four calls before finally blocking the number.
Her inner dragon roared, wanting out, but Maria pushed her beast back down and got on the treadmill instead. She ran until her clothes were drenched in sweat, until she could no longer tell the difference between perspiration and the tears streaming down her face. No, not tears, since she didn’t cry.
Exhausted, she took a quick shower and settled down to watch the local news at ten.
A few minutes in, the brief video with Lourdes attempting to interview her came on. Stunned, Maria watched as the two anchor people dissected it.
“Clearly, Ryan Howard’s new woman wants her privacy,” the woman said.
“I, for one, can certainly see how a woman who looks like that could attract a billionaire,” the man responded, whistling. “I just can’t believe we have a local woman as gorgeous as her and no one has noticed.”
“Clearly, Ryan Howard has.” The woman laughed. “We’ll put the call out there. Since she lives in Galveston, if anyone captures a picture of Ryan and her, send it in to us and we’ll put in on our Facebook page.”
Swallowing hard, Maria punched the remote and turned the news off.
Almost immediately, her cell phone rang. This time, the caller was her friend Rhonda. For one awful second, Maria caught herself wondering how this friend would turn on her. Then, realizing she was being ridiculous, she answered.
“Are you all right?” Rhonda asked, worry coloring her voice. “I just saw that segment on the news. I can’t believe Lourdes did that to you.”
Maria sighed. “Me, either. I’m guessing she figured she had a chance to get some sort of scoop. If she’d only asked me first, I could have told her she was wasting her time. I’m no longer seeing Ryan Howard at all.”
“What? Why not? What happened?”
“Nothing happened.” Maria tried to keep the tension out of her tone. “I told you we just got together for a casual type of thing. No commitment. As far as I know, he’s gone back to Austin.”
“You sound sad.” Of course her best friend picked up on this.
“Maybe a little,” Maria allowed. “But you know how busy work is with so many summer weddings, and I’ve been super busy. Even if he was still on the island, I wouldn’t have time to date him.”
Rhonda laughed. “Oh, that’s a lie! You can’t tell me you wouldn’t have made time for him.”
They talked for a few more minutes. Rhonda ended the call with a vague promise to get together, the way she always did.
Shaking her head, Maria got up and began turning off the lights. Time to go to bed and get some sleep. Tomorrow would be another busy day.
When her cell rang yet again, just after she’d finished brushing her teeth, she checked the caller ID. Since she didn’t recognize the number, she let the call go to voice mail. At least she knew Lourdes wouldn’t have given her number to any other reporters—she wouldn’t want to take a chance of someone else getting the story.
Right before getting into bed, Maria decided to listen to her message. When a man’s voice began speaking in a flat, menacing tone, she froze.
“By now I’m sure you’ve heard of me. Doug. Doug Polacek.” He spoke his name as if announcing royalty. “I have a visitor named Tracey and she isn’t happy.”
In the background, Maria heard a woman scream. Her blood ran cold.
“I think maybe some company might cheer her up,” he continued. “Would you like to volunteer?”
Panicked, Maria pushed stop. She wanted to instantly erase the message, but knew she’d better let someone—her father, the council—hear it.
Pacing, she checked caller ID, wrote down the number and phoned her dad. When she relayed the information to him, he cursed. “That’s it. I’m asking that you be put under heavy guard.”
“Not necessary,” she shot back, pacing her room to try and relieve the tension. “I have magic now.”
“Don’t argue. They’ll be there tomorrow.”
“As long as they understand that I have a business to run and a life to lead,” she told him. “I can’t have them interfering.”
“You’ll hardly even notice they’re there.”
Shaking her head, she finally agreed. Not knowing what else to do, she climbed into her bed and slid beneath the sheets. Her hand trembled as she reached for her lamp and clicked it off.
Alone in the total darkness, she told herself she had no reason to be afraid. Still, she couldn’t help but wish Ryan was lying next to her so she could let him hold her and banish her fears with his body.
Chapter 11
Somehow, she must have fallen asleep. When she opened her eyes again, the sun had alrea
dy risen, which meant she’d overslept.
She rushed through her usual morning preparations, then grabbed a bagel and slathered it with cream cheese before jumping into her car. Backing from her garage, she saw no sign of any guards or reporters or anything different than any other morning.
Which was good, she thought. Hopefully she could have a productive day and put all this craziness behind her.
Kathleen had already begun answering the phones by the time Maria hurried in.
“What did you do now?” Kathleen asked breathlessly, putting her caller on hold. “Every gossip mag and TV show has called and requested an interview. I thought you and Ryan were over.”
Accepting the sheaf of pink messages, Maria frowned. “We are. One of my former friends must have stirred things up with her attempt to corral me into an interview last night. If anyone else calls, just tell them no outright.”
“Even Oprah?” Eyes huge, Kathleen watched her.
“Has Oprah called?”
“Well, no, but she might. What do you want me to do if she does?”
Hiding her sigh, Maria shrugged. “You do know this is not a big enough story to catch Oprah’s eye, right?”
“Maybe, maybe not. But you never know.”
“Well, if Oprah calls, just put her on hold and let me know.”
This appeared to satisfy Kathleen. And since Maria knew good and well Oprah wouldn’t be beating down her door anytime soon, she went on into her office.
Her guards showed up exactly one hour later.
There were four of them, dressed in military-style fatigues. Their auras proclaimed them Pack, and their muscular bodies and soldierly demeanor declared them efficient.
A thoroughly flustered Kathleen rushed into Maria’s office to tell her she had visitors.
“Thanks.” Maria cut her off. “Send them back. I’ve been expecting them.”
Though Kathleen’s mouth fell open in surprise, she spun around and did exactly as Maria asked.
The leader, a tall man named Colton Richards, explained two men would be stationed at the wedding chapel and two at her home. “This is nonnegotiable,” he said, giving her a flat stare. “We’ve been completely briefed on Polacek, and are well aware of what to expect.”
Billionaire Wolf (The Pack 17) (Nocturne) Page 14