Air: The Elementals Book Two

by L. B. Gilbert

  Despite that, Logan was still suspicious. Either Jordan had something to do with the theft of the artifacts, or he knew something about it. It was the reason he had disappeared.

  If he’d betrayed them, he was hiding. But if Jordan had stumbled on some knowledge of the robbery, then he was probably dead.

  Whatever the truth was, she felt terrible for Serin. Her sister’s brittle silence on the whole matter of her mate had been painful to witness. Logan suspected she was in the first stages of grief, but Serin hadn’t wanted to talk about it.

  Though the Mother’s rules dictated they couldn’t all be in the same room at the same time, she and her sisters had divided into teams to look over all the evidence. Alec had been amused by the game of musical rooms—up until Diana had punched him in the arm with a fist like a hammer. Then the quips had stopped, and he’d helped them decide which clues should be a priority. After that, they had split up and left the island, each pursuing their own lead. But hers had dried up, and she’d decided it was time to do what she could for Sammy…and to get back to Connell.

  Lost in thought, she was surprised when Douglas spoke to her again. “Riley told us about the man she saw Bishop with. She said you were looking into it. Did you find anything out?”

  Oh, that. She didn’t have good news to share. “I’m afraid the car was a rental, and the name on the reservation an alias. To make matters worse, the rental place was a dive with no cameras.”

  “So it was a dead end?” Mara asked

  “For now,” she conceded. “Gia and my sister Serin are still running down some leads, so we may still find Bishop’s supplier and the witch who has Malcolm’s wolf.”

  She paused, unsure what else to say. Deciding it was better not to make any promises she might not be able to keep, she asked about her furry idiot instead. “I don’t suppose Connell mentioned where he was the last time he called?”

  Douglas almost smiled. “He said he was tired of chasing his tail, so he decided to wait for you at your home.”

  What the hell? “Home? I don’t have a home,” she said, starting to get a headache.

  Logan lived on the road, in a manner of speaking. Her home was the nearest safe house. Crap, was she going to have to go all the way back to Provence to find Connell? Was that where he thought she lived?

  For some reason, the two Weres in front of her were smirking. “When he called, he mentioned that he’d eaten all of your cake—twice. Your mother said if you weren’t going to show up for your own birthday celebration, your aunt wasn’t going to make you anymore from now on.”

  “My mother?” He was with her mother? Logan groaned. If he had tracked her mom and Aunt Mai back to their house in San Diego, she was in deep shit.

  She had intended on having that serious discussion with Connell about their relationship. Yes, he was her mate, and yes, they were together. However, Logan wasn’t going to give up her job for him. She doubted he would ask that of her, but she had no idea what his expectations were.

  Knowing Aunt Mai, she was already planning the wedding. “I gotta go,” she said, sick to her stomach.

  She was airborne in the next second—although why she was hurrying to deal with the hot mess waiting in California was beyond her.

  From the ground, the wolves’ laughter carried an unnaturally long distance after her.

  47

  Logan did a few circuits around the block before she went through the kitchen skylight of the Li family home, a two-story bungalow not far from Balboa Park. Her mom and aunt always left the skylight open for her in good weather, and the weather was mostly good in San Diego.

  All looked normal in the kitchen. There were several pots cooking on the stove, and rows of dumplings lay out on the counter ready to be steamed. Grabbing an egg tart, she munched while taking a good look around.

  Logan snagged another tart and went out to the living room. It was quiet. Everything seemed in order…or at least in the normal amount of disorder.

  Books were stacked in piles halfway up the walls at random intervals. They would be stacked higher, except California was earthquake country. Years ago, Logan had put her foot down and painted a line all the way around the room. It marked the maximum height her mom and aunt were allowed to stack books. There were also notepads, pens, brushes, paints, and the occasional musical instrument scattered all over the place. Her mom and aunt liked to dabble.

  “Mom?” she called out in Mandarin. No answer…from anyone. Maybe Connell left, she thought cheerfully.

  Hopping down the two stairs to the den that doubled as her mother’s office, she found her distracted parent bent over her computer, typing quickly with two fingers.

  “Hi, Mom.” Nothing. She walked over and waved in her mother’s face. “Mom. I’m home.”

  Hope finally looked up. “Oh, hello, Baobei. When did you get in?”

  “Just now,” she said, hugging her mother tightly. She leaned away and grimaced. “So I heard you’ve had company for a little while. I’m really sorry about that.”

  “Don’t worry about that, Qingaide. Connell is a nice boy. Mai and I have agreed to give him our approval to be your mate.”

  Logan’s mouth dropped open. “You did?”

  “Yes.” Her mother waved, a little distractedly. “He made a good case.”

  She sat down on her mother’s desk with an audible thump. Her mother approved of Connell.

  “What did he say?” she asked, her eyes so wide they hurt.

  Her mother reached up to fix her hair and seemed surprised to find a pen tucked behind her ear. “He told us once you are officially his mate, you would be pack. It seems like a sound proposition given your work, darling. And I will sleep better knowing that big man is at your back.”

  She stared at her mother as if she’d grown an antennae and a tail. “Who are you and what have you done with my mother? Because that does not sound like you at all. Was it not you that told me men are nice but fundamentally unnecessary?”

  That was something she had heard many times from both her mom and aunt.

  Her mother shrugged philosophically. “It’s one thing to be a feminist, but it’s another to be stupid,” Hope said reasonably. “You’re an Elemental now. You have many enemies. Allies are a sound strategy. Although if Connell is going to be visiting much longer, we’ll need to increase our visits to the grocery store. I had no idea how much those wolves could put away.”

  “Oh…sorry,” Logan said weakly.

  She was hard enough to feed as an Elemental. Add a wolf to that and the grocery bills would be astronomical.

  “It’s about time you got home,” Aunt Mai clucked, bustling in with a spoon in hand. “That dog has been eating us out of house and home.”

  Mai’s diaphanous batwing shirt floated around her like an elegant butterfly as she moved in to give her a kiss.

  “Hi, Aunt Mai. I apologize for the extra houseguest.”

  “What you should be sorry about is missing your own birthday party. I made Nian Gao twice. Since you couldn’t be bothered to come home to eat it, I suppose it was good there was a hungry dog around to eat the leftovers.” She sniffed.

  “Sorry about that too,” Logan said, trying to look appropriately chastised. “Things have been a little crazy at work.”

  Her aunt softened and hugged her again. “Of course they have. You know we are very proud of you. How could we not be? You are upholding the proud legacy of Feng Po Po. Why don’t you tell us all about the latest news?”

  “Um, maybe later?’ Logan asked hopefully. She had to talk her mate. “Did Connell leave?”

  Her aunt huffed. “You didn’t see him crawling around in the backyard?”

  “Oh my God! Is he wolfed-out back there?” Logan asked in a panic.

  She ran to the kitchen to peek out the window. Her aunt and mother followed. “If the neighbors see him, they’ll call animal control,” she said, craning her head to check the whole backyard.

  Where was he? A wolf his size sho
uld have been glaringly obvious. It was a small backyard.

  “I said crawling. He’s practicing his other forms,” Mai said, sounding grudgingly impressed.

  Logan’s head whipped back to her. “His other forms?” She ran outside and spotted the big snake lying in the grass. It wasn’t quite a python, but it was pretty damn close.

  “Holy shit!”

  There was a shimmer. Suddenly, there was a very naked Connell in front of her. Blushing madly, she looked behind her, but thankfully, her parental units hadn’t followed her outside.

  Connell hugged her close. Frantically, she pushed him away. “Get some pants on before you do that! They’re probably watching out the window.”

  “So what?” he said with a grin and moved in to hug her again. At least, she thought that was what he was going to do… up until he grabbed her and bit her at the base of her neck—hard.

  “Hey,” she protested, putting a hand to the bite.

  Connell held up his hands in a victorious V. “It’s official. We’re mated. Let’s celebrate.”

  That was it? Seriously? No ritual or anything like that?

  “It is not official until you put on some pants,” she hissed. “The neighbors are going to think we’re nudists.”

  Laughing, he walked over to one of the lawn chairs on the deck and slipped on his pants. “I don’t think the nudity bothers your mother or aunt. At least, it didn’t when my dad shifted in front of them.”

  “Your dad? When did they see your dad shift?”

  “He was here last weekend—you know, when you were supposed to be home to celebrate your birthday? Happy birthday, by the way.”

  “Thank you,” she said dryly. “So he visited. Why did he shift in front of them?”

  He paused and cocked his head. “Honestly, I’ve forgotten his excuse. But I think he was just showing off.”

  Her head was starting to spin. “Are you being serious right now?” Douglas didn’t strike her as the type for that kind of display.

  “Yes, because—and you’ll never believe this—he likes your mom. She’s a lot younger than I thought by the way. She looks, well, I can’t tell how old she is, but she’s in great shape.”

  Connell put his hand on his hips and smiled, temporarily blinding her with his toothy white grin. “And the chief definitely noticed,” he continued. “He keeps calling her now. They spent over two hours on the phone last night. I think he’s planning to invite her out to Colorado for a visit. Mara thinks he’s smitten.”

  Logan lowered her head and looked at him from beneath her lashes “He’s smitten?”

  “Mara’s choice of words. Apparently, he even got a haircut. That can only mean one thing. He’s interested.”

  “Ugh,” Logan said, tempted to cover her ears before she heard any more disturbing news. She had thought Douglas’ hair had seemed a bit shorter and neater at the neck. “I don’t want to hear more.”

  She rounded on him and held up a finger. “Wait, yes I do, but not about all that grossness. Why is Aunt Mai so annoyed with you? I thought she’d be measuring me for a wedding dress as soon as I landed.”

  Connell avoided her eyes. “I may have accidentally eaten the last pork bun at dinner last night…”

  Logan was aghast. “You ate the last pork bun? Oh my God, you are dead to her!” She waved a hand dramatically in the air. “You are never coming back from this.”

  “I’ll win her back,” he said with lazy confidence. “I always do…”

  She hated that he was probably right. What woman could resist his charm?

  Connell nudged her with his hip. “So what does your mother do for a living? I’ve been here for a week and a half, and I haven’t been able to figure it out.”

  Logan rolled her eyes. “She’s a college professor.”

  “When does she teach? Cause she’s around the house a lot.”

  “She’s on sabbatical this semester writing her latest book.”

  “What’s it about?”

  “War,” Logan said gleefully.

  “War?”

  “Of course. It’s her subject matter. She teaches history on the world’s greatest tacticians. It’s a very popular series. Active military personnel fight to audit her course.”

  Connell’s chin drew up. “That…makes a lot of sense once you stop to think about it. It certainly explains a lot about you,” he said musingly. “And Aunt Mai? Is she a chef?”

  “No, she just likes to cook. She’s an executive at a Fortune 500 company.”

  He stopped short. “Really?”

  Logan resisted the urge to kick the sexist alpha male out of him. “Stop acting surprised or I’m going to punch you in the nuts.”

  He grinned. “But you need those.”

  Logan blushed like the devil. “Hey! Do not say anything remotely dirty like that in front of my mom.”

  Connell grinned, refusing to agree in order to torture her. He threw an arm over her shoulder. “So did you see our house?”

  “Our what?”

  He gave her an exasperated look. “Well, we can’t live at my dad’s house. We’d never have any privacy.”

  She stopped moving. It felt like her feet were nailed down to the floor. “Wait…is that house being constructed on the hills supposed to be ours?”

  “Don’t worry,” he said, patting her back. “It will have lots of windows and skylights.”

  After a minute, she realized her mouth was open. “Look, Connell, I do want to be with you…but I’m not going to give up my job.”

  She waited, stomach in knots, for the bomb to drop.

  Connell’s brow raised, and the corner of his mouth lifted up. “That’s not what I’m asking. I know how important being an Elemental is to you. Believe me, I get it. And your mom and aunt took turns lecturing me to make sure I would support you.”

  He leaned against the deck railing. “They didn’t have to say anything. I always planned on having your back. You and I belong together. Only a few tiny things have to change. Like having a home base. It should be in Colorado—with me. And when you need to go off and do your business, go ahead and do it.”

  That was exactly what she wanted—what she had been afraid he was going to deny her.

  Connell put his big hands on her shoulders. “I do want to come with you sometimes. If you have a particularly big job, I want in. Especially if it has anything to do with tracking down the witches that sold Bishop all that magic crap.”

  This was the hard part. “What about your job? You’re the chief’s second, an enforcer. And what does your father have to say about all this? What does he want? Aside from getting into my mom’s pants, that is,” she added with a scowl.

  “Dad and I worked it out. Mara will serve as enforcer when I’m away—provisionally anyway. She’s thrilled to do it, and my dad has promised to give her a fair shot.”

  “Wow.” That was staggering news. “But Connell, think about it. Do you really want to spend your life zipping all over the world?”

  Wolves tended to be homebodies. Except Connell was nodding enthusiastically. Well, maybe not this one…

  “Except for the army, I haven’t gotten much of a chance to travel. My duties at home always took precedent.”

  She shook her head at him. “Connell, we’re not going to be sightseeing. We can’t just stop at the Eiffel Tower or the Roman Colosseum whenever we want.”

  He shook his head at her sadly as if he couldn’t believe how obtuse she was being. “As long as we’re together, I don’t care. If you’re heading into the middle of buttfuck nowhere, I want to be with you. Now…do we have a deal?”

  He held out his hand. Logan stared at it for a long time. She hadn’t considered how dramatically her life would change when she knocked a werewolf on his ass outside the safe house in Provence.

  Logan was used to calling the shots. She answered only to herself, her family, and the Mother. Fitting a massive werewolf into her life was going to require some dramatic changes.

&nbs
p; “Logan.”

  Her eyes snapped up to his. He was watching her with an expression of benign frustration.

  “I love you,” she blurted out.

  “I know.” He cocked his head at her, a little confused. “I love you too.”

  He kept staring at her like she was acting crazy…and then it dawned on her that to him, she was.

  “You never doubted that this was going to work out in your favor, did you?”

  “Nope.” He laughed. “Well, okay. Maybe once or twice, I wondered, but it was only a passing thought. I knew you’d come around.” He squeezed her against him before herding her to the back door.

  Logan shook her head. God, he was arrogant. But it probably took someone with that kind of self-confidence to mate with an Elemental.

  They walked inside. Her mom and aunt were setting the third Nian Gao cake on the table. She and Connell sat down at the table while her mom started adding candles to the top of it.

  “I was relieved to find out you just turned twenty-one,” he said, leaning over and nudging her. “Mara kept making jailbait jokes.”

  Logan frowned at him. “Who told you I was twenty-one?”

  “The candles. There are twenty-one of them.”

  Her mother cleared her throat. “Connell, in China, you are one year old when you are born. In American years, Logan turned twenty.”

  Connell paled dramatically beneath his tan. “You mean, you were nineteen when we met?” he asked, twisting to face her.

  She shrugged, wondering what was wrong with him. “We met the day before my birthday, so technically, yes.”

  He sat frozen. “How long have you been in the Mother’s service?” he asked.

  Logan helped her mother hand out the dessert plates. “Since my seventeenth birthday.”

  Connell groaned and put his face in his hands.

  “What’s wrong?” her mother asked.

  “My sister was right. I’m a cradle robber.”

  Aunt Mai tsked dismissively. Giving Connell’s distress the attention it deserved, Logan blew out her candles and happily accepted a piece of cake.