by Lori Drake
The three women put their heads together to discuss who should or shouldn’t tag along, completely ignoring Chris. It was a given that they wouldn’t want Chris to go in his condition. So, he listened quietly and kept his own counsel.
They weren’t going to like it, but he had no intention of being left behind.
19
Sara labored late into the morning, but a little after 10:15 a.m., an infant’s squall ripped through the house. It was a welcome relief to the sound of Sara’s painful cries, and it seemed to Joey that the whole pack breathed a collective sigh of relief when it was finally over. Smiles abounded as they waited for someone to come tell them the news.
When Jon brought the little bundle downstairs to the ground floor about fifteen minutes later, everyone was on their feet in a flash, eager to get a look at the newest member of the pack. But Jon walked straight to Joey and Chris where they stood by one of the sofas in the living room. The new father had faint smudges under his eyes and moisture on his cheeks. His hair was sticking up every which way—it was the least put together Joey’d seen him in years, but a smile of such pure unbridled joy lit his face that it was hard not to smile back.
He cleared his throat before speaking. “Alphas, I present to you my daughter. Adelaide Eleanor Grant.”
“Yes!” Lucy exclaimed, turning to her twin and holding out her hand. Adam groaned and reached for his wallet.
Joey didn’t see any more of the exchange, because Jon had pulled back the edge of the blanket and her attention turned fully toward the infant in his arms. She was so tiny, all pink and mottled, her eyes tightly closed. A tiny cap hugged her skull, so Joey couldn’t tell if she’d been born with any hair, but it didn’t matter, really.
“She’s beautiful,” Joey said, a little choked up as the fact that they’d named their child after her mother sank in. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the perfect little face. “Welcome to the pack, little Addie. I’m your Aunt Joey, and I’m going to spoil you rotten.”
Chuckling, Chris laced his fingers with hers and squeezed gently. “You might have to get in line.”
Jon made the rounds, showing off the baby to everyone before heading back upstairs to return her to her mother. The champagne was broken out, and even Quinn and the witches got caught up in the jovial air in the house.
“That’s gonna be us, one day,” Chris said.
For the first time, even after having listened to Sara labor for the better part of six hours, the thought didn’t fill Joey with anxiety. “Yeah, I know. And our baby is gonna be way cuter than their baby.”
He laughed. “Leave it to you to turn procreation into a competition, love.”
Melinda wandered downstairs to join the party once mother and child were all cleaned up, settled, and resting. Joey introduced Sara’s cousin around, finding that she didn’t dislike the woman quite as much in light of the way she’d stuck by Sara all through her ordeal.
Their circuit of the room eventually brought them to the breakfast bar, where Adam sat with his laptop, digging up everything he could find about the Underground for their upcoming scouting mission. The beta wanted to go along, and though Joey had reservations, she wasn’t inclined to order him to remain behind. Dawn sat beside him with her own laptop, helping out with the research. It’d struck Joey as odd at first, but then she remembered that Dawn ran an underground railroad of sorts for cult survivors and knew her way around the dark web. There was way more to her witchy friend than met the eye.
“Hey you two, have you met Melinda?” Joey asked.
Dawn twisted on her stool to look behind her, then smiled and scooted around to face them. Adam didn’t react at all until she nudged him with an elbow, and when she did he glanced at her in confusion before turning with a sheepish smile.
“Oh hey, sorry. I was in the zone.” He plucked his horn-rimmed glasses from where they hung on the neck of his T-shirt and put them on. “You must be Sara’s cousin. I can see the resemblance.”
Melinda stared at Adam a little too long before offering him a handshake and a coy smile belied by the way her wolf’s power welled up, a predator in sheep’s clothing. “Melinda.”
Warning bells went off in Joey’s head. She watched Adam carefully, willing to step in if the she-wolf crossed any lines with her pack brother. Adam’s wolf was far too submissive to fend off a dominant female’s unwanted advances.
Adam shook the offered hand, though his friendly smile grew thin. He reclaimed his hand quickly and took Dawn’s hand. “This is Dawn.”
Although it’s unlikely Dawn could sense Melinda’s wolf the way Joey could, she gave Melinda a tight-lipped nod and a quietly murmured greeting.
Melinda gave Dawn an absent nod, but the lion’s share of her focus remained on poor Adam. She stepped closer to the breakfast bar and leaned toward Adam as she peered at his laptop screen. “What are you up to?”
Adam leaned away from her a little bit. “Just doing some research.”
“Pack business.” Dawn reached over and shut the lid on Adam’s laptop. The unspoken ‘none of yours’ hung heavy in the air.
Adam yelped. “Hey! I was running a query…”
Melinda and Dawn studied each other with narrowed eyes.
Joey cleared her throat, stepping in to de-escalate the situation. “They’re helping me out. We’re closing in on the killer.”
Melinda glanced at Joey as if she were an inconvenient annoyance. “Killer? What killer?”
“Shit, did we forget to tell you?” Joey asked. “One of the witches that was missing… her body was found a few days ago.”
“Oh dear.” Melinda’s hand flew to her throat. “That’s just awful. But you’re closing in? Thank the goddess for that.”
“Can’t sneak anything past my Alphas,” Adam said, pride in his voice—unwarranted pride, as far as Joey was concerned. But she was touched, nonetheless, by his loyalty.
“I wouldn’t dare try.” Melinda gave a solemn shake of her head. “Who do you think is behind these horrific events?”
Dawn was still giving Melinda the hairy eyeball from her stool-top perch, leaning an elbow on the counter. “A witch.”
“Really? What makes you think that?”
“There were physical deformities that are difficult to explain without some sort of magic being involved,” Joey explained. “Anyway, there’s nothing to worry about. You’re quite safe here.”
Melinda shook her head, frowning. “Forgive me, but I don’t really feel like it. I mean… you’re all going to clear out of here at some point and where will that leave me?”
“Securely behind locked doors in a multi-million dollar house with state of the art security in a low-crime neighborhood with three full-grown lycanthropes?” Dawn’s mild tone bordered on droll.
Joey bit back a laugh. She’d never seen her mousy friend quite like this. “We can spare a wolf or two, if it’d make you feel better.” Lord knew they had plenty to spare.
“Oh, that would make me feel much better.” Melinda put a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “What about this one? Is he available?”
“No,” Adam and Dawn said simultaneously.
Joey’s lip stung from biting it in an effort not to smile. “Unfortunately, Adam and Dawn are both coming on the scouting mission.” Joey hadn’t been entirely sold on Adam going along, but leaving him behind with Melinda seemed like a worse option at this point. “How about Maria and Ben?”
Melinda sighed. “Sure, they’ll do. I’d better go check on my cousin. Excuse me.”
Joey managed to contain herself until Melinda was out of sight, but then burst out laughing. She laughed harder when Adam sighed and started shaking his head.
“What’s so funny?” Ben asked, wandering over in response to the commotion.
“Adam was just objectified,” Joey said, wiping tears from her eyes.
Dawn scoffed. “I don’t see why that’s funny.”
“Oh come on, it was a little funny…” Joey shook her head and
glanced at Ben. “Puppy love stole her sense of humor.”
Adam kept his eyes forward, opening his laptop, but his cheeks flamed red. Dawn leaned over and whispered something to him, which Joey politely tuned out of since it was none of her business whatsoever.
Turning to face her brother fully, she said, “You mind hanging around here tonight?”
“The land of screaming newborn and poopy diapers?” He curled a lip. “I’d be delighted.”
“The sarcasm is strong with you.” Joey chuckled. “But at least you should be safe from Mrs. Robinson’s unwelcome advances.”
20
Chris bided his time in the back seat all the way to the safe house. Amber drove Cathy’s car, with Dawn sitting up front. The two witches had been thick as thieves from the moment they put their heads together. It probably helped that they’d met before, as Dawn wasn’t—to Chris’s experience—a particularly trusting person.
As for himself, he felt recharged after spending the day with his pack and family. He’d snatched a little sleep here and there, but being in the presence of his pack did for him what all the sleep the previous day hadn’t. It made him feel almost like himself again. Even his wolf was a stronger presence in his mind, and his senses were sharper—if not as sharp as usual. While the witches talked magic shop up front, Chris basked in the moon’s resurgent influence and thought about his next course of action.
They’d left Jon’s house a little after 8 p.m. Joey’s team was going to head downtown around nine. Amber and Dawn were, ostensibly, going to round up some support from the coven to meet them at Pioneer Square for magic backup. Chris planned to crash the party with the coven group, figuring it would be easier to insist upon joining them than it would’ve been Joey’s group.
Joey wasn’t going to be happy, of course, but he wouldn’t have been able to stand knowing she was walking into a dangerous situation without him. He belonged at her side, and she at his. Sure, he wasn’t in tip-top shape, but he figured he had at least a few hours in him before the leak in his aura drained away too much of his energy. He’d put those hours to good use, and hopefully save a life.
Parking near the coven’s safe house hadn’t gotten any better. They circled the block a few times before Amber caught Chris’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
“I’m going to have to range farther out. You want us to drop you off?” she asked.
Chris debated it for a few seconds, then reluctantly agreed. He wanted to save all the energy he could for whatever was to come.
Unfortunately, that meant having to face Cathy on his own after running off in the middle of the night with her car. He’d texted her, of course, but he still felt like he had some explaining to do.
He found Cathy in the dining room, paging through one of the spell books they’d brought to help figure out a solution to Chris’s problem. His guilt instantly ratcheted up, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t consider walking back out again. But she noticed him before he could commit such an act of cowardice, looking up from her book and over the tops of her reading glasses.
“Hovering in doorways, now?” she said, smiling faintly.
Accepting this gentle rebuke, Chris wandered into the room and over to the table. “I’m sorry for taking off in the middle of the night with your car.”
She chuckled, eyes returning to the old pages inked with flowery script and intricate runes. “No, you’re not. How’s Sara doing?”
When she was right, she was right. Chris pulled out a chair and sat. “Good, really good. It was a long labor, but she and the baby are healthy and resting. They named her Adelaide.”
“Did they?” Cathy looked up again, her smile warming. “Addie would’ve loved that.”
“Yeah. She’s got big shoes to fill, but we’ll try not to let her grow up too fast.”
Cathy nodded, removing her glasses and sitting back in her chair. “Where are your cohorts?”
“Parking the car. They dropped me off so I wouldn’t have to walk so far.”
Cathy’s response to that was to study his aura for a long moment. “You look better. How do you feel?”
“Much better.” He paused, uncertain if he wanted to know what she saw when she looked at his aura. Deciding information was ammunition, he bit the bullet. “How does it look?”
“About the same. Maybe a little better. It’s difficult to say. I think I found a spell that may stem the tide. It’s an aura shield, meant to contain psychic phenomena. To keep untrained telepaths from hearing every stray thought in a room, that sort of thing. It’s not a cure but… it may prevent leakage.”
The prospect was appealing, but he wondered if it’d cut him off from his wolf even more. “Will it prevent me from shifting?”
“I don’t know, child. I’m sorry. But it’s something.”
Chris nodded. “Yes, yes it is. Thank you. I really appreciate all you’ve done for me. If my actions have made me seem ungrateful—”
She flapped a hand dismissively. “Sara was in labor. Of course you went to her. I understand, child. I only wish you’d woken me up to tell me.”
“I’ll keep that in mind if there are any other late-night emergencies.”
“Thank you. Now, do you want to try that spell?”
“Yes, please.” It was worth a shot, and if it had unintended side effects, it could be removed. Theoretically. Regardless, Chris was willing to take the risk—eager, even, if it meant a return to something resembling normal.
Cathy stood and grabbed a book from the top of the nearby stack. A blue ribbon hung out of it, which turned out to be a placeholder for the spell in question. Holding the book open in one hand, she put her reading glasses back on, then walked around the corner of the table to stand beside him.
“Do you want me to stand?” he asked.
“No, you’re fine.”
A warm golden glow sprang to life around Cathy, and she began to chant in a language Chris didn’t understand. He held perfectly still and quiet, barely daring to breathe while she worked her magic. Even when she reached a glowing hand out to touch his shoulder, he didn’t move a bit. He expected to feel warmth spreading from her touch, the way it did when she used her healing magic. But instead, this time he felt nothing at all. However, when he glanced down he found that a golden glow now surrounded him as well. It wasn’t quite as bright as the glow around Cathy and was shallower, like a thin veneer of magic coating him. It felt… like nothing. He couldn’t sense it at all, not that he’d expected to.
Cathy lifted her hand, but the golden glow lingered around Chris for a few more seconds before disappearing. Then the brighter glow around Cathy winked out too. She snapped the book shut, giving him a start, and tucked it against her chest.
“Feel any different?” Her eyes took on that unfocused quality as she used her aura sight on him.
Chris closed his eyes and thought about it a moment. “No, not really. Should I?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Her eyes refocused on him, and she smiled. “I can’t see it leaking anymore, so we’ll take that as a good sign.”
Chris surged to his feet and wrapped his arms around Cathy, book and all, hugging her tightly. “Thank you. I really appreciate this. And not just this, but… everything. I probably don’t show enough gratitude for everything you’ve done for me. For us.”
“That’s what we do for people we love, child. Now, let me go before you break something. My bones aren’t as strong as they used to be.”
Chuckling, Chris released her and stepped back, then glanced at his watch and frowned. It’d been nearly fifteen minutes since Amber and Dawn had dropped him off in front of the house.
“I wouldn’t have expected it to take them this long to park,” he said, taking out his phone to give Dawn a ring. The call rang and rang until her voicemail picked up. His frown deepened, and he met Cathy’s eyes, giving a minute shake of his head. “Dawn’s not picking up.”
Forehead pinched with worry, she unpinned the ladybug pi
n from the collar of her dress and pinned it to his shirt. He barely had time to register the coolness of the pin’s fastening against his skin before a tingling awareness came to life, like he could sense something off to his left, but it was some distance away.
His confused eyes met Cathy’s and she sighed. “Look, I’m an old woman and sometimes I forget where I parked my car. Let’s not dwell on it. Go make sure they’re okay.”
Chris didn’t need to be told twice. Pivoting smartly, he headed for the front door and let himself out, stopping on the sidewalk in front of the house to peer in the direction the spelled pin was indicating the car was. The sidewalk was clear as far as he could see. He set off down the sidewalk, but worry for his friend overrode his desire to conserve his energy and his steps grew quicker until he was jogging toward the car.
One block passed, then two. His keen eyes spotted someone on the ground up ahead, half on the sidewalk and half on the adjacent lawn. He broke out into a run, legs pumping and heart racing. If something had happened to them, he’d never forgive himself.
Chris skidded to a stop and took a knee beside the prone form on the ground. It was Amber. She was out cold but her pulse was steady. He scanned the surroundings, nostrils flaring to take in the scents lingering in the air. He caught a whiff of Dawn’s scent, and followed it to a smartphone lying face-down on the sidewalk. The screen was shattered, and when he thumbed the button nothing happened.
Dread tied his stomach in knots as he scanned for any other clues about where she might’ve gone. He picked up another trail of her scent crossing the patch of grass between the sidewalk and the curb and followed it out into the street, where it disappeared. She’d gotten in a car, or someone had put her in a car.
His fingers tightened around the broken phone in his hand. Dammit. If only he hadn’t agreed to let them drop him off at the house, he would’ve been with them, could have done something—or at least been a deterrent. He backtracked to Amber’s prone form, berating himself all the way, and tucked Dawn’s phone in his pocket. Then he scooped up Amber carefully, cradling her in his arms as he started the trek back to the safe house.