by Alisa Woods
“Yeah, we’re done for now.” Noah gave Kaden a nod. “Anytime you have questions, my friend, you know where to find me.”
Noah headed off back to the main house.
“What’s up, baby?” Kaden asked her.
Terra’s dark eyes were on fire. “I have a way to find out more about white wolves.”
Terra didn’t like the tension rolling off Kaden’s body in the driver’s seat next to her. They were headed to the north side of Seattle to meet Julius.
“You know, I really don’t like that guy,” Kaden said, giving her a sideways look.
“I know.” She’d already told him about Julius having new information about white wolves. “I just want to see if he knows anything, you know, relevant to us.” Terra was partially concerned he had somehow figured out Kaden’s secret, but mostly she wanted any and all information that might help him sort things out about himself.
“Fair enough.” His expression softened. “I’m glad it’s not in public. And I love that you told me this time, instead of sneaking out.”
She pretended to pout. “I’ll have to think of something else you’ll need to punish me for.”
“Jesus, Terra,” he said, subtly adjusting himself. “I’d be more than happy to do whatever you’d like… at the safehouse.”
She grinned and reached across the barrier to squeeze his thigh—it was so strong and muscular, and her hand was so relatively small, she could barely get a grip on it. And there were definitely other parts she’d rather wrap her hand around. She slid her hand closer to the prize, but Kaden snatched her wrist off his leg.
“Oh no, none of that.” He scowled at her. “We need to have a few rules about the level of teasing permissible when I’m operating a motor vehicle.”
She laughed—and she loved the dangerous smile that brought out on his face—but she knew exactly how he felt. She would be just as happy to pull over and make love to him again. The sexual tension between them was off the charts—like she was in a constant state of heat around him. And that endless horniness was insanely distracting.
She really shouldn’t make it worse, so she pulled her hand back to her own side of the car. Besides, they were arriving at their destination.
It was like no storage facility Terra had ever seen. She double-checked the GPS coordinates Julius had given them, but this was the place. Kaden tapped in the security code at the gate, which was twelve feet high and topped with barbed wire all around. Inside the fence, the facility was all stately brick-and-stone buildings, like a gentrified part of downtown hidden away in an industrial area.
The gate rattled and slid open, allowing them entrance to the neatly paved streets where rows upon rows of high-end buildings looked like mini apartments for upscale residents. Julius told her these private storage facilities were designed for the perfect climate-controlled archival of works of art and other valuables, and he wanted to show her his private collection while they talked.
Kaden wove through the streets of the miniature city, and eventually they found the address for the storage facility/apartment that belonged to Julius. He was standing outside, dressed in trim gray pants and a casual, long-sleeved black polo. Terra felt underdressed in her t-shirt and jeans. Plus she hadn’t told Julius that Kaden would be along for the ride.
A brief scowl bloomed on Julius’s face as they exited the car, but he was all smiles by the time they reached him.
Julius reached a hand out to shake Kaden’s. “Delightful to see you again, Officer Grant.”
Kaden shook his hand, but just nodded in return.
“Has Ms. Wilding explained the delicate nature of our meeting?” The tension in Julius’s shoulders held them stiff and arched up.
Terra rushed to apologize before this got any worse. “Julius, I’m sorry, but Officer Grant had to come—he is my security detail, after all.” It felt strange to refer to Kaden that way, given he was so much more to her, but she needed to reassure Julius, or it felt like he would call the whole thing off. Besides, he didn’t need to know the rest, especially the part about Kaden being a white wolf himself. “I haven’t told Officer Grant the nature of our previous discussion,” she lied. “And he understands that we need to talk privately.”
Julius’s eyes brightened. “Excellent. I greatly appreciate that you’ve respected my privacy, Terra. I do hope you understand, Officer Grant. This way, please.” Julius gestured to the stately wood-carved door that served as an entrance to his storage facility. They all took the three steps up to the landing, then Julius tapped in the security code.
The door opened to a foyer that was more palatial estate than storage facility, between the granite floors and the chandelier hanging above them, sparkling with crystal. A decorative plant was tucked in a corner, but the foyer was otherwise empty. It opened to a long hallway lined with doors—four on each side.
“If you don’t mind, Officer Grant,” Julius said, “you could wait here while I take Terra back to the far room, unit number four. That’s where my private art collection is housed, and it will be a sufficiently private location for our little discussion as well.” He gave Terra a wink.
Kaden’s eyes narrowed. “How about I escort you to the door? I can wait just outside.”
Julius held his hands out with what looked like a forced smile. “Of course.” He led Terra and Kaden down the hall to the last door at the end, then keyed in the unlock code. The door clicked but remained closed. “If you wouldn’t mind?” Julius waved Kaden back a step or two.
Terra cringed. Apparently, Julius was ridiculously possessive of his collection and didn’t want Kaden to see any part of it, not even a glimpse through the open door. Kaden scowled but stepped back one deliberate pace, just enough that Julius might be able to slip in without Kaden seeing inside.
Julius’s smile grew, then he turned to Terra. “Close your eyes, my dear.” His eyes lit up. “I want to surprise you with the full effect once you’re inside.”
Terra frowned a little and threw a glance to Kaden, whose scowl was growing darker by the second.
“Oh, please do indulge me in this small drama!” Julius said with a pleading smile. “This is a little fantasy of mine, sharing my collection with you. But if it makes you uncomfortable, my dear…”
Terra shook her head. “No, no. It’s fine.” She closed her eyes and reached out with her hands. “Lead the way.”
Julius grasped one of her hands. “You won’t be disappointed, my dear.” He gently tugged her forward. She kept one hand along the wall to feel her way. He pulled the door open and then ushered her through.
“Keep them closed now!” Julius chastised lightly. “Until I tell you to open up.”
She heard the door click closed behind her, and she dutifully kept her eyes closed, but she could sense the change in pressure and temperature and humidity inside the room. It was definitely a climate-controlled facility. The anticipation in her grew as Julius scuffed around behind her for a moment.
“Just one second while I find the lights,” he said, and then he was behind her, his hands resting gently on her shoulders. “Now! Open your eyes, Terra.”
She blinked them open, and it took her second to focus.
What she saw didn’t make any sense.
The room was large—two stories tall—and its walls were plastered with photographs and papers and screens and what looked like string tying them all together. The string connected one image to another. Some radiated out from a central photograph. As she peered closer, she saw one photograph was hers—the wolf pup from the shifter gang that she gave Julius. She glanced at the screens, which were playing videos… the Wolf Hunter’s videos.
“What is this?” she asked, horrified.
“This is you,” Julius whispered in her ear, his hands gripping harder on her shoulders.
He was surprisingly strong.
Panic zoomed through her system—but before she could shift out of his grasp, he grabbed the back of her neck, and something sharp pinche
d her.
He had injected her with something.
The room swam in front of her eyes, and her knees buckled.
Julius caught her under the arms and kept her from hitting the floor.
“Do you like my collection, Terra?” He turned her toward the nearest wall, but she was so woozy, she could barely focus. When she did, she saw the entire wall was covered with pictures of her. “I made it especially for you,” he said in her ear.
Her stomach heaved. She opened her mouth to scream, but Julius’s hand was over it, suffocating her. She tried to shift again, but her wolf was gone… absent… banished deep into her mind.
The room started to dim around her.
Julius dragged her limp form across the floor. The last thing she saw was the Wolf Hunter video restarting.
It was the one where he had dismembered a wolf.
When Terra came to, she was in a completely different place. Her stomach was still heaving from whatever Julius had injected her with, and her body felt like it had been completely drained of energy. She blearily opened her eyes.
She was in a small room, sitting in a chair, with Julius standing in front of her. When she tried to move, it was clear her arms and legs were tied to the chair. Her first instinct was to shift out of the restraints, but she couldn’t. Just like before, her wolf was simply… gone.
A shiver ran through her.
“No, you won’t be able to shift,” Julius said with a smirk. His arms were crossed, and he was leaning against a closed door. “At least not for a while. The drug will see to that. A little gift, courtesy of my dearly departed friend—the one you called Agent Smith. I figured it would make the interrogation a little easier if I weren't chasing you all over the room.”
God, what was happening? “Why are you doing this?”
“I thought that would be obvious by now,” Julius sneered. “I guess the brainy part of the gene pool didn’t land on your side.” All the gentility was gone.
A cold shudder shook her body, ending in an icy trickle that landed in her stomach. She was alone in this. Kaden may not even know she was gone… he certainly wouldn’t know where to find her. Her mate wasn’t going to save her.
Death had finally caught up with her, after all.
“What do you want to know?” she spat at Julius. He mentioned something about interrogation; there had to be something he was after.
“I want to know who the white wolf is.” Julius said this like it was completely obvious what he was talking about, not some vague nonsense. He opened his mouth to say more, but he was interrupted by a knock at the door behind him.
He scowled and turned to open it. A rough-looking man in black tactical gear stood outside the doorway. He toted a massive gun, plus he had several more weapons strapped to his sides.
“Sir, the mayor is on the line,” the man said.
“I’ll call him back,” Julius said sharply. “Don’t interrupt me again unless we’re actually being assaulted.”
The man ducked his head and quickly closed the door.
Julius trained his hungry gaze on her again.
Oh God. What was he going to do to her?
“Nothing’s going to distract us now, Terra. I almost didn’t think we’d get here today… your handler from the Seattle Police Department was unusually competent at his job. Which could end up being very unfortunate… for him.”
“Leave Kaden alone!” The words just gushed out of her, but she wished she hadn’t said anything, not with the way Julius’s eyebrows lifted.
“Is that right? I see… you’ve been banging the security guard. Typical. Little sexy wolf vixen seducing every human that comes along her path.” He sauntered closer to her.
She leaned back in her chair to get away from him, but she had nowhere to go. Her face wrinkled up in disgust, but she didn’t say anything more—Julius still thought Kaden was a human, and it was better for him if it stayed that way.
But she prayed he would come for her. He was her mate, or at least he was supposed to be. But her fuzzed-out brain couldn’t imagine how he could find her.
She’d been so foolish.
“But let’s get right to the point, shall we?” Julius said. “How about you simply tell me the truth—who is the white wolf?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” And that was mostly true. Julius couldn’t know about Kaden being a white wolf—was he talking about Noah? She didn’t think anyone knew about that, either, at least outside of the packs. Julius was chasing some kind of rumor or ghost about this mythical white wolf he was obsessed with…
Except now she knew who Julius was—the Wolf Hunter. Or at least, one of the Wolf Hunter’s followers. Julius had practically made a shrine to the Wolf Hunter in that crazy-obsessive room filled with her pictures and pictures of her family.
“Come on, Terra,” Julius said, his voice rising in anger. “You’re not that stupid.”
She frowned, but she was genuinely confused. “You want the white wolf, but I don’t even know what that is. I was coming to you to find out!”
He drew back and frowned at her. “You were rather eager to come by and find out more about the white wolf, weren’t you? But then again that’s part of your family lore, isn’t it? Or should I say, the family shame?”
He was talking about her grandfather’s brother—the white wolf that broke up the Wilding pack.
“What do you know about that?” she asked, eyes wide. If he knew that, what else did he know?
“As you saw from my wall, I know quite a bit about you and your family,” he sneered. “I kept thinking that the white wolf would come to the rescue of his darling children and grandchildren as I blew them up one by one… but no. Apparently, he’s just as much of a bastard as I suspected. So in the absence of some kind of flushing out, as was my original intention, I’m having to resort to this.” He gestured to her, tied up in the chair.
“You think I know where my grandfather’s brother is?” she asked like he was crazy. Because he clearly was. “He broke up the family two generations ago. We haven’t seen him since.”
Julius rushed forward and braced his hands on the chair arms on either side of her. She jerked in her chair with surprise, but there wasn’t anywhere she could go with her hands and legs firmly tied down.
Julius’s face was far too close to hers. “Yes, do tell me about how he broke up your family.” She could feel his hot breath on her face. “Permit me a little schadenfreude at the Wilding family’s dysfunctional mess. But what can you expect from a man—or should I say wolf—who broke the basic covenant of the pack by sleeping with his alpha’s mate? It’s a beautiful irony, I must admit.” He eased back from her, looking amused again. “Tell me what you know, Terra Wilding, and I’ll consider letting you live.”
She gave him another look like he was crazy, but she couldn’t see any reason not to tell him something that he clearly already knew. She just couldn’t say anything about Noah or Kaden or any of her family who were alive now. “You seem to know the story already. My grandfather’s brother slept with his mate. It broke up the pack. As far as I’m concerned, that’s all in the past.”
Julius’s eyes narrowed. “But it’s not all in the past, is it? There are more white wolves, alive today… not least, the determined Grace Krepky. She was the one who, shall we say, awakened my understanding of the situation.”
Terra drew back again. “I don’t understand.”
Julius’s dark blue eyes lit up. “It’s really quite simple when you connect all the dots. There’s a white wolf roaming our city. He’s extremely powerful. And he likes to fuck around with human women. It’s possible that he’s not simply a wolf, but also a witch—which only means that his powers are even more extensive. And he’s been sleeping with them for a long time. Decades to be precise.”
Terra pressed her lips tight—she wasn’t saying anything more, nothing that might lead him to Kaden.
“Grace was my first clue that he was still aroun
d,” Julius said. “You see, she’s rather young. Much younger than my thirty-two years, which means that the white wolf was still fucking around Seattle as recently as twenty years ago. The only question is—is he still here, and if so, where?”
Terra frowned. What did he mean, younger than his thirty-two years? “Are you saying… wait, you knew about the white wolf before Grace came out?” Was he saying what she thought?
“Maybe you’re not so stupid after all,” Julius sniffed. “Yes, I was aware of the white wolf’s antics before our representative-hopeful came on the scene.” He stepped back…
…and then he shifted. Into a white wolf.
“Holy shit.” Terra’s mouth hung open.
Julius shifted human again, suddenly standing before her, completely naked. His trim, tailored clothes were lying in a heap on the floor. She didn’t miss the way his erection was slowly growing… and it made her throat suddenly run dry.
Julius sauntered over to her, not hiding his nakedness at all. In fact, he seemed to want to flaunt it in her face. He leaned his hands on the chair again, coming sickeningly close. “Holy shit, indeed.” His voice was a restrained laugh.
She leaned away, disgusted, and prayed he didn’t plan to do anything repulsive with that body of his. Like touch her with it.
“I’m not interested in fucking you, Terra, if that’s what you’re thinking.” His words were belied by his oily and lecherous voice. “Although maybe there’ll be time for that before were done. What I want is something much more exciting—revenge.”
“Revenge on who?” She couldn’t keep the disgust out of her voice… or the fear.
“On my father.”
His father? Maybe his father was actually her grandfather. Maybe he was Kaden’s father. Either way, it didn’t matter. Because she didn’t have any answers for Julius.
And, because of that, she was sure that this time… death would finally catch up to her.
Kaden was tired of waiting.