At seven-thirty, Derek made his way to the Maple Inn and found Grace leaning against the wall beside the door in the same position he’d been on Friday when he’d waited for her. Her legs were crossed at the ankles as she reclined, and his eyes trailed up her body. She was wearing a pair of durable looking work boots similar to his own, and he was impressed she was dressing for the occasion. Her slender yet muscular legs looked particularly appealing in skinny jeans that hugged her every curve. Her top half was clad in a deep burgundy crew neck jumper with a leather jacket over the top, and her strawberry blond hair was pulled up into a ponytail.
He wanted to run to her and pull her into his arms claiming her as his own.
I can’t be thinking like this, he commanded himself.
It didn’t matter how attractive he found her lithe, lean body, and hair that made him think of a soft sunset. It didn’t matter how the heat had risen in his body when he’d thought about claiming her. He did want to claim her. He wanted to devour her and possess her, and claim her as his own.
I will not repeat the mistakes of Ben and Josh. I will not fall for a human.
It didn’t matter what he felt, it was purely physical anyway and he could repress those animalistic, primal, and carnal urges. He’d been suppressing urges for the last ten years.
“Hey,” he greeted, his voice coming out more huskily than he’d intended.
For a moment Grace’s eyes widened, and he caught her scent, hot and aroused. If his senses were correct - and they hadn’t been wrong yet - she wanted him almost as badly as he wanted her.
A growl almost rippled from his lips, but he controlled the impulse and focused on looking at her face, and nothing but her face.
Cheeks flushed, Grace lifted her eyes to meet his. “Hey,” she replied.
“Ready to get going?” he asked, trying to keep them focused on the case and nothing else.
Did he see a hint of disappointment in Grace’s eyes at his words? If he did, she covered it quickly and offered him a smile. “Absolutely. Let’s go.”
They walked through town and to Mountain View Cemetery, and then as they had when they’d searched for Madison Holloway, Grace produced a ziplock bag from her purse. She handed it to Derek, and from inside he pulled out a Boston Red Sox baseball cap. He lifted it to his nose, inhaling Ethan Miller’s scent. and then sniffed the air.
“I have his scent, but I can track it better in my wolf form. I need to shift.”
Grace’s cheeks reddened again, and Derek smirked. “Don’t worry, I’ll go around the side of the building. Can you go grab my clothes once I’ve transformed?”
“Sure thing,” Grace replied.
Derek walked around the cemetery building so that he was out of view of not just Grace, but any other human’s that might be around, and stripped off his clothes. He folded them into a neat pile before he shifted into his wolf form.
He raised his head and howled, bounding around the building to Grace’s side.
She smiled to see him in his wolf form and then walked around the building to retrieve his clothes. Clutching them in her arms, she said, “Lead the way.”
Wolf-Derek charged through the cemetery, ignoring the scents of dead and decaying bodies, instead focusing only on the scent of Ethan Miller. The trail led him past graves old and new until they reached the far end of the cemetery. As it had with Madison Holloway, the scent just stopped. He walked back and forth, sniffing the ground, following Ethan’s scent, and hunting for anything else unusual.
“What did you find?” Grace asked.
Wolf-Derek raised his head and stared in the direction that’d come, back towards the building he’d changed behind.
“Got it,” Grace said, easily picking up his meaning and turning back the way they’d come.
After Grace had placed his clothing behind the building, Derek vanished from her view and transformed back into a human. He dressed hurriedly, eager to tell her what he’d smelled.
“It was the same as with Madison,” he said when he reached Grace’s side. “His scent crosses the cemetery, as though he was using it as a shortcut. But over on the other side, where it leads to Willow Creek Road, his scent just ends, as though Ethan either turned around and went back the way he came, or he-”
“Vanished,” Grace finished for him. “No one takes a shortcut halfway and then turns back. So why was he out there and where did he go? Did you pick up any other scents?”
“No, and that’s what’s got me perplexed. Where Ethan’s scent ends, there’s nothing. No smell of bodies or graveyard soil. No other human scents, and no scents of animals or plants that should be there. It’s like someone tried to remove or conceal their scent.”
Grace’s eyes widened. “What does that even mean?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. Something weird is going on here. I’d like to search the other areas the teens went missing from to see if I can sense anything unusual. I also think we should mark each location on a map and see if we can make a connection.”
“I have a map with all the locations marked back at my place. We could look it over now if you haven’t got to rush off?”
Derek hesitated for a moment. While following Ethan’s scent had distracted him from his attraction to Grace, now they were standing face to face, discussing going to her apartment, it came flooding back. Could he be alone with her in her apartment?
You’re not entirely an animal, you can control yourself. This could help find the kids.
“Okay, sounds good.”
Derek thought he saw Grace’s cheeks color again, but he said nothing and averted his gaze, focusing on the walk back to the Maple Inn. When they reached the pub-come-bed-and-breakfast, Grace said, “Do you fancy a drink? I could pop in and grab a six-pack.”
Derek contemplated her offer. He was already wondering if being alone with her was a good idea, let alone adding alcohol to the mix. But then he wondered, would it help him relax? Maybe he’d be able to find a connection between the locations the kids had done missing from if he wasn’t so on edge.
Besides, what could one drink hurt? His alcohol tolerance was higher than non-shifters, and he knew he’d been able to keep his head around Grace.
“Sure. Why not?” he replied with a shrug.
Grace nipped into the Maple Inn and emerged a short time later carrying a six-pack under one arm, and a bag of potato chips under the other.
“Can’t have a drink without a snack,” she said with a grin.
Derek couldn’t help but smile. She made an excellent point.
Grace led the way to her apartment, which was just a couple of blocks from the police station. It was situated in a residential area with a number of other apartment blocks all gathered around a shared courtyard. It was a nice space, quiet and peaceful. If he didn’t have Shadowbrook to call home, he could imagine himself living in a place like this.
“This is me,” Grace said, pulling out a keychain from her purse. She shuffled through the keys until she found a plastic token attached to the ring. She pressed it to an access device reader on the wall next to the door, and the door clicked open with a small beep. She led him up a set of stairs to the second floor, and then searched through her keyring again until she found the key to her individual unit. She unlocked the door, holding it open for Derek, and said, “Please come in.”
Derek entered to find a neat hallway with a coat and shoe rack by the door, and a small end table with a mirror above it. Grace locked the door and dropped her keys into the ceramic dish on the center of the end table. She opened a door that led through to the living room, Derek trailing behind her, taking in every little detail. Grace’s scent filled the apartment, a mixture of leather and a soft feminine perfume that smelled like springtime flowers. It suited her perfectly, highlighting the contrast between the dedicated police officer and the soft woman he was beginning to know.
“Make yourself at home,” Grace said, placing the pack of beer and potato chips on the coffee table
between the couch and TV. Then she kicked off her boots and removed her leather jacket, scooping them all up in her arms, and staring at Derek expectantly.
Taking the hint, Derek removed his own shoes and coat, and handed them to her. As Grace moved back into the hallway to put away their shoes and coats, Derek took a moment to compose himself. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been alone in an apartment with a woman, especially one he found as attractive as Grace. He thought he’d be more bothered by the fact she wasn’t a shifter, he always imagined any woman he’d give himself to would be a wolf too, but as he looked around Grace’s apartment, drinking in every detail of her life, he found he didn’t care.
There was a little nook in the corner of the room that housed a bookcase and a small computer desk with a closed laptop on top of it. Above the desk was a number of family pictures, and curious, Derek strolled over to take a look. The centermost photo was an old family portrait. He recognized Captain Alcott almost instantly. Although she looked around ten years younger, everything else remained the same, she still had the same recognizable auburn hair and steely gaze. Standing beside her was a man of the same age with light blond hair, who Derek assumed was Captain Alcott’s husband. Standing next to Mr. Alcott was a teen who could only be Grace. Her light copper hair was instantly recognizable, and she was wearing a massive grin on her face. For a moment, Derek remembered himself at that age. A killer, living in the woods in his animal form. He was about to turn away from the picture and even considered leaving the apartment when a figure besides Captain Alcott caught his attention. He was a young man about the same age as Grace in the photo, and undoubtedly her brother. Aside from the gender differences, they were almost identical, with the same strawberry blonde hair.
Derek’s attention snapped back around when he sensed Grace’s presence behind him, and he turned to see her staring at him as he studied the picture, with tears shimmering in her eyes.
53
Grace
The main reason Grace had even offered to take their coats and shoes into the hall was to put some distance between her and Derek. She’d thought at first asking him back to her place to study the locations of the disappearances was a good idea. They’d made no progress by searching the location Ethan had disappeared from, in fact, Derek’s assessment that there were no scents there disturbed her. Something beyond a usual missing persons case was going on, and she needed all the help she could get to find out what had happened to the teens.
Of course, in the back of her mind, Alicia’s suggestion to sleep with Derek to get him out of her system echoed in her mind. That’s why she’d suggested grabbing some beers. Maybe after they’d studied the map, they could hang out and who knows where that could lead. But then he’d been there in her apartment, seeming larger than life, his masculine scent filling every space, the idea of being alone with him overwhelming her.
Her brain bombarded her with a million questions. What if he wasn’t into her and she made a fool of herself? What if he wasn’t attracted to her because she was human? What if he found out about Will? It had been that thought that had caused her to panic and pushed her out of the room, only for her to return moments later and see Derek staring at her family portrait, her worst fears coming true.
Derek’s eyes widened as he stared at Grace, and she could feel the tears welling.
I will not cry in front of him, she commanded herself, but even acknowledging the possibility broke the dam and tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Hey, hey. What’s wrong?” Derek asked, approaching her cautiously, his arms moving up as though he wasn’t sure if he wanted to embrace her or push her away.
“It’s my fault,” she sniffled, the words leaving her mouth before her brain had a chance to stop them.
Derek frowned. “What’s your fault? The missing kids? Of course, that isn’t your fault, something unnatural is going on there.”
Grace’s tears came harder. He was being so sweet... but that would soon change, once he knew the truth.
“It’s not the kids. Well, not entirely. If Will was an officer instead of me, he’d have found them already, even if there is something unnatural about the case. He should be here, not me.”
Derek’s frown deepened. “Who is Will?”
“My twin. The guy standing beside my mom in the picture you were looking at.”
Derek nodded as though this wasn’t a huge revelation to him, which of course, it wouldn’t be, they looked so alike. The real bombshell was still to come.
“What happened to him?” Derek asked tentatively.
Grace studied Derek carefully, wondering if she should tell him the whole story. Maybe she could just tell him the same thing everyone else knew, that her brother had been paralyzed in an accident when he was fifteen, and remain silent about the dark secret she’d kept to herself for the past ten years.
Steeling herself so that Derek would never see her as the monster she knew deep down she was, Grace wiped the tears from her eyes, and said, “He was paralyzed in an accident when he was fifteen. He’s quadriplegic and confined to a wheelchair. It was his dream to join the police force like Mom, so I joined instead to honor him.”
Derek gave her a sad smile. “That’s a very brave thing to do,” he said.
He wouldn’t think I was brave if he knew the truth.
“And you feel like if it was him on the case, not you, he’d have found the missing kids by now?” he asked.
Grace flopped down on the couch, opening a bottle of beer for herself and Derek, then handing one to him. He sat on the armchair facing her, and accepted the beer gratefully, waiting for Grace to answer his question.
“Yeah, something like that. My therapist said it’s survivor’s guilt.”
Derek’s eyes darkened and he took a long pull from his beer. “Yeah, I know a thing or two about that myself.”
Grace wanted to know more, but Derek’s body language told her not to push the issue. Instead, she thought she’d distract them both, and get out the map. Taking her bottle of beer with her, Grace retrieved the map from her desk and laid it out on the coffee table. Five different locations were ringed in red Sharpie, the two they’d already visited were Hallowell Meadow Reserve and Mountain View Cemetery. Even though Grace had searched the other three locations - Kennedy Park, Schermerhorn Park, and Tillotson Park - she hadn’t been there with Derek yet and wondered if he’d sense anything strange when they did.
Derek left the chair and came to kneel beside Grace on the floor in front of the coffee table so that he too could study the map. Aside from the fact they were all routes from Lenox Memorial High that could be used as shortcuts, he couldn’t see any other connection. Unless of course, you factored in that they were all slightly secluded, wooded areas where it would be easy to kidnap someone from. But if someone had taken the missing kids, why hadn’t he been able to smell their scent?
“Are you available tomorrow after work?” he asked. “I want to go to the other sites.”
“Absolutely. There’s got to be something we’re missing.”
Grace rolled up the map and they settled back on the couch, this time Derek sitting next to her instead of on the armchair.
She reached across to clink her bottle against his, saying, “Here’s to finding the missing kids.”
Derek nodded and said, “We’ll find them, no matter what it takes, I promise.”
Grace didn’t doubt his words. Not only did his tone convey that he meant what he said, but as she’d gotten to know him, she realized he wasn’t as arrogant as she’d first assumed.
A small giggle escaped her lips, and Derek raised an eyebrow. “What’s so funny?”
Grace tilted her head to one side. “I think I was wrong about you. You’re not as much of an arrogant, cocky, full of himself jerk as I’d thought.”
Derek smirked. “Are you sure about that?”
“Yes. You’re actually kind of sweet when you want to be, and I really appreciate your help finding the ki
ds.”
“I couldn’t walk away knowing innocents are in danger.”
“You’ve got a good heart,” she said, placing her hand on top of his.
Derek let out a hollow laugh. “I wouldn’t go that far, but I appreciate the compliment.”
Now it was Grace’s turn to frown. “Why don’t you think you’ve got a good heart? Is it because of some people’s prejudice against shifters?”
Derek moved uncomfortably. “Sort of, yeah.”
Grace put her bottle down on the coffee table and placed her other hand on top of Derek’s. “Well, I don’t think that. I think you’re an asset to our community. You’re brave and dedicated. Strong and handsome, too.” The words tumbled from her mouth before she could stop them.
Derek chuckled. “I thought you said our relationship was purely professional?”
Grace gazed at him through her lashes, deciding the time was now or never. She wanted to take Alicia’s advice. She wanted to be certain she hadn’t imagined this spark between her and Derek.
“What if I don’t want our relationship to be purely professional anymore. What if I want more?”
“You don’t know what you’re asking for,” Derek said, removing his hands from hers and shifting back slightly.
“I do. I know who you are, Derek, and you’re a good man. A good man that I want.”
Derek hesitated only a moment longer, before closing the space between them and crushing his lips against hers. Grace’s breath caught in her throat. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around his neck, as his hands gripped her waist. Unlike with the random guy in the club, all Grace was focused on was the here and now, and the feel of Derek’s mouth moving against hers. His kiss was surprisingly tender and he took his time, gently kissing Grace until she was breathless. They paused for breath for a moment, and when Derek resumed his ministrations, his actions became more intent, his desire for her, his hunger for her, evident as he used his tongue to part her lips, and then claimed her mouth in an act of dominance.
Firefighter Wolves Shifters (A Paranormal Romance Series Boxset) Page 25