Exploring Alaska (The Juneau Packs Book 3)

by Katherine Rhodes

  Hanging his head, he nodded as he fastened himself back up. “That’s so mortifying.”

  “What? Your father howling his orgasm, or yours all over the picnic table?”

  He looked doubly horrified.

  * * *

  I found Brandy in the not-all-that-secret swimming hole about a hundred yards back from the cabin. She had stuffed her hair in a swim cap and looked miserable.

  I sat on the rock above the water. “What’s up, buttercup?”

  She screamed and spun around. I giggled and kicked some water at her.

  “Could you not see that I’m thinking?”

  “You’re swimming, not thinking.”

  “Do you know how awesome this warm water is for doing both? Honest, this is great.”

  “Stalling.”

  Her hand emerged from the water, middle finger up.

  “Seriously. What’s up?” I dangled my legs in the water. “You’re not yourself.”

  She paddled a bit before finally turning back to me. “I think I’m going crazy. Everything this summer has just been…so nuts. I can’t get my head on straight. Look on the rock next to you.”

  I glanced down and realized I was nearly sitting on a massive black feather. I picked it up and twirled it in the sunlight, watching blue highlights come and go on the strands. “It’s pretty. A crow? Raven?”

  She stopped and sat on a ledge just below the waterline. “Me.”

  “I’m sorry. What?”

  She tapped her chest. “Me. Mine. I’ve been finding them on my pillow, or in my hair for the past four weeks. No crows, no ravens, no fucking idea where they are coming from.” She sighed.

  “You’re telling me these feathers are yours?”

  “Maybe someone is fucking with me? But I found that in my hair today.” Shrugging, I could see her kicking her legs under the water. “Add in that our best friend is now mated to a wolf shifter—which I still have trouble even saying, never mind believing—and you’re dating one who had a secret kid, and I’ve got this weird ass unique bisexual attraction to the damn man-bear, and Zanna’s…”

  I straightened. “Zanna what?”

  “The Vitaz people are after her again. They are going to bankrupt her. I swear it. They’ll be her ruin. I know her parents were trying to do right, but oh my God to leave her with the bill.”

  “They’re back again? How much this time?”

  “Thirty.”

  “Oh, ouch.”

  Brandy just nodded.

  “It’s been a really weird summer. Are you and Zanna at least on decent terms?”

  “I guess so.” She sighed. “It’s hard to be around her and Rick.”

  “Rick is the man-bear?”

  She nodded. “His name is Hercule Debrossier.”

  “That’s a goddamn mouthful.”

  She peered at me. “So I hear.”

  The laugh escaped me. “Every night?”

  “And usually at least once during the day.” She sighed. “I don’t know where Ric lives, but I kind of wish she’d go there. It’s exhausting to hear them. I even unsubtly moved my bedroom away from them.”

  “Which is why your stuff was upstairs.”

  “Did you know that even being a floor above two sexually overactive adults doesn’t stop the sound of the bed hitting the wall?”

  “Yes. Yes, I did.” I grimaced. Brandy quirked an eyebrow, and I cleared my throat. “So there’s this thing called the Alpha effect. If Martin or Garrett has to pull out their Alpha, anyone who is a Beta or an enforce reacts to this. Martin had to deal with Bart after the incident with Jess. Garrett and Patrick were there.”

  “And you were…”

  “Swept up in the fervor. Yes. I hadn’t planned on that before I sorted my thoughts on Patrick and what was going on, but… He was there, I was there. And so were Martin and Olga. And. Well. I just pray you never hear people who could potentially be your in-laws going at it.”

  “Ooh, ouch.” She cocked her head. “Going at it or just getting it.”

  “Did you know that you can hear a bed hitting a wall outside the house? And that I seriously think that Garrett and Jess should soundproof their house in case they almost scar their children?”

  “Oh, damn!” Brandy couldn’t stop chuckling. “That’s bad.”

  I knew my cheeks were flaming red and I needed to take back the conversation. “Back to you, missy. Do you think Zanna and her man-bear are pulling a trick on you?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “She’s cranky around me, but not mean.”

  She let out a breath and kicked her feet again. That was a sure sign something else was brewing in her mind. I didn’t ask again. I just raised an eyebrow.

  “So, I’ve been having these dreams. I mean, I’ve had them most of my life, but lately they’ve gotten incredibly intense. Like, I don’t want to sleep intense. They’ve gone from murky and muddy to clear as fucking day and terrifying. And every time I have one…another feather.”

  Nodding, I didn’t want to say anything so I didn’t break her spell.

  “They all start with my grandfather, at the beginning of the 1900s. He’s young. Really young, like five or six, it’s just dream-knowing that he’s Grandpa Xavier. There are dozens of black birds around him—the dream tells me they’re ravens. One by one they fall from the sky, shot either by a gun or a bow and arrow, and the coyotes come and eat them. Rip them apart and destroy them. It’s a long time, but someone who looks like Martin comes and takes my grandfather—and someone who looks like his brother—away from the death and destruction. But the feathers follow him. Everywhere he goes, more feathers. More feathers. I finally wake after a while.”

  “Has it ever gone further?”

  She nodded. “Each time a little more. But it’s so hard to get past the death of all those beautiful birds. Once I do, the dream gets longer every time. I’m all the way up to when my mother meets my father. Everyone in my grandfather’s adopted family hates my dad because he’s black. And my dad’s family doesn’t like her.”

  “You’re dreaming your family’s history?”

  “Seems like it.” She sighed. “And feathers. Dreams and feathers.”

  “You need to talk to Delia,” I said. “You have to tell her about these dreams. You know that she’s the most mystical of all of us. She might be able to help you. I can’t. I suck at dream interpretation.”

  “I’ve been scared to say anything, to anyone. My dad’s family just doesn’t like that mystical shit because they are all about Jesus. And the only person left on Mom’s side is Harrison and he’s an asshole I want nothing to do with.”

  “Wait.” I looked at the feather. “What about Tomasina? Grandmother? She might be able to help you. According to Jess, she likes company and doesn’t get enough of it.”

  “The lady up by the glacier?”

  “Yes.” I put the feather down. “If you want to know more, maybe she can at least tell you the history of the land around here. Everyone calls it the Yéil land and everyone calls us the Yéil women. I’ll bet money Grandmother knows more about this land than anyone else, and that she can answer the feathers thing.”

  Brandy’s face relaxed. “That…actually sounds like a great idea. Someone who knows more than I’m gonna screw you out of every penny if you want this land.”

  “Definitely.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  I stared at Delia sitting at the table, utterly flabbergasted.

  She had been paying for everything for us. All this time, she was the one who had been making sure we had enough food, gas, power, extremely expensive medical care.

  Delia had footed the bill for Zanna’s treatment. The one that put her leukemia in remission. And she was now setting up a lawsuit for the shithole she nearly died in.

  She’d helped Brandy get the house.

  She’d helped Jess with her car.

  She’d helped me with all the plastic surgery I’d needed.

  How the hell had this woman
managed it?

  “You see, I’m really quite wealthy, and I like to help my friends. Zanna needed her SCT—the stem cell transplant—to keep the leukemia in remission. I never want to hear from Vitaz again. Ever. Not ever.”

  I swore. “You paid for the stem cell transplant!”

  Delia grinned as the lawyer shot to his feet and started pumping Delia’s hand. I just stared. I had a million questions, but she just shook her head and motioned for me to wait until we were in the car again.

  God damn. She was wealthy. Apparently like really rich. I didn’t remember much of the meeting after that, but we were finally on our way out.

  “Delia.”

  “Let’s just get to the car.” She grinned.

  We crossed the street and headed into the parking lot. I was trying to line up my questions in some kind of logical order so I didn’t overwhelm her or myself.

  “Hello, Madeline.”

  We both whirled around at that voice, but a club came down and smashed Delia on the side of the head.

  I almost screamed until there was a gun in my face.

  “You’re my insurance. Don’t make me hurt you. We’re going to that large, beige vehicle over there”—he waved with the gun in a general direction—“and you’re going to get in and stay quiet. I don’t want to shoot you or Madeline, but I will if you need convincing.”

  I didn’t argue. I just walked to the car and waited for him to open the door. I wasn’t leaving Delia with this guy.

  Climbing in, I sat and he threw Delia in the back and across my lap. “Don’t let her get hurt. I need both you bitches for now.” He slammed the door.

  Waiting for him to walk around and climb in, my brain started to kick in. I realized I had just basically acquiesced to being kidnapped. I clamped down on my panicked response. This wasn’t the time for me to freak out and freeze. I didn’t know what was going on and I needed to.

  He jerked the car into drive and pulled out of the lot. Not only did he smell like a whiskey bottle, I was pretty sure he had drunk Juneau out of most of its booze.

  “Who are you?”

  Grunting as he jerked his car out of the collision course he was on with the parked traffic, he didn’t answer me right away. “Ain’t she said nothing about her family? I’m her uncle. Uncle Charles Hoengaard. Her father’s only brother.”

  Liar. Delia’s last name was LaPlage. “What do you want?”

  “Her money. Every last penny of it.”

  Oh, that was a problem. I had only just found that she had money. I didn’t know how much. “So you’re holding her for ransom?”

  “You’re the prisoner, sweetheart. She’s gonna sign every penny over or you get a bullet in the brain.” Yanking the wheel again, he barely avoided oncoming traffic this time.

  This was Juneau, Alaska at two in the afternoon—the man was drunk and determined to murder all of us before he could clear the city limits.

  “Why don’t you just ask her for a loan? Or a gift?”

  “Please. Those cheap ass people? They would never, ever give me even a whiff of their money. So I’m taking it.”

  I just watched him in the rearview as he wound us through the straight streets, to the south end of the city. He jerked the car over to the side and pulled to a stop.

  “Gotta piss,” he said. “Don’t move, or I’ll shoot you.”

  I opted not to move. He might be drunk, and staggering, but those bullets flew straight. Wandering down the alley, he did the usual public piss dance.

  Delia wiggled on my lap and her eyes fluttered open.

  “Don’t move,” I whispered.

  * * *

  “Addi and Delia are missing.”

  The words froze my blood, but not my feet and I had been to Garrett’s house in less time than it took to hang up my phone. Jess, Jason, Garrett, and I all piled into the truck and shot down the highway to the bank, where Quentin was waiting for us.

  It was right about the time he pulled us to the side of the building that my blood finally started to run again.

  “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t get out here fast enough. They were gone the instant I saw it happen and the damn customer wouldn’t let me run even after I stood and walked away from them.”

  “Why would he take them?” I asked.

  My heart was now in my throat for Addi. Jess was a mess too, but holding it in. Kidnapping a former kidnapped victim was not a good way to support her mental health.

  “I just had this camera fixed on the side, and I’m calling up the footage, but I doubt we’ll get anything. I sent a few of the cops to ask at the strip mall if anyone had security. But I think the lot is too big for good coverage.”

  This felt utterly surreal. Addi and Delia had been kidnapped in broad daylight and no one knew a thing. We had to find them.

  I raked a hand through my hair and stared around. Garrett, totally Alpha and totally in control, stared at me, then lifted an eyebrow.

  “Bro…you need to take it down a notch.”

  “I can’t, Gar. That girl has been through hell and this isn’t going to help her. I’m supposed to be protecting her, keeping her safe. And I fucked that up too.”

  “Is this about Addi or Cassie?” he asked.

  “Maybe both. Maybe it’s about Addi because of Cassie. Or because I’m a coward. Or because you all will never forgive me for screwing up with Cassie and I’ve just tossed away my mate.”

  “Hold up, hold up,” Garrett said, grabbing my arms. “No one is holding Cassie against you, man. Maybe we can’t get the whole story about her, and maybe we feel a little cheated out of her childhood, but that’s because we wanted to share it with her. We wanted the chance to love her. And yes, we live incredibly long lives, but those formative years…you always remember those. I’m a hundred and nineteen, man. I remember everything about my childhood. Who loved me, who tortured me, who pinned me to a scarecrow on Halloween when I was ten. We just wanted to be a part of that.”

  “Who pinned you to the scarecrow when you were ten?” Why had I never heard this story?

  “Bella and Bertrand Buckleberry, two raven shifters. They were horrible, horrible children. They ran amuck all the time, terrorizing anyone smaller and younger than they were.”

  Raven shifters. Which meant they were dead.

  “You really all forgive me?”

  “You’re an idiot. There’s nothing to forgive. Just to get used to. You’re a father and that’s fucking mind-blowing right now. Even more, you’re apparently a good father by the way Cassie natters on about you all the time and defends you.”

  I smiled. “That’s my girl.”

  “Well, let’s work on getting your other girl. And you need to take a deep breath and stay in control. It’s not going to do to have a Beta who can’t keep his head in a crazy situation.”

  I nodded. “I’m still going to be quietly freaking out here.”

  “Well, duh.”

  Standing on the side of the bank, we quickly ran through all the possible scenarios that could keep the kidnapper here or allow them to escape. Planes, boats, cars, on foot…there weren’t a lot of ways in and out of Juneau.

  Just as we were about to head over to the parking lot and the stores to start our own canvas, Garrett’s phone rang. We didn’t need the speaker.

  “Garrett, it’s Fergus.”

  My brother grumbled. He’d been dealing with Fergus and the assholes his pack had expelled since the attack on Jess. “This isn’t the time—”

  “No, this isn’t about the cabin, Beta.”

  Oh. Fergus used the formal title. That was interesting. Garrett cleared his throat. “Go on.”

  “You’re missing two women from the cabin, aren’t you? Patrick’s and Jason’s women, specifically.”

  “Yes.” Garrett stared at us.

  “Wendell saw them. He’s here with me, and I’m going to let him tell you what he saw.”

  The phone was passed to Wendell. I hated Wendell. He was an ass and a fool, and h
e’d been suckered in by the damn exiles when he was exiled for something a thousand times less serious. Now he was desperately trying to make amends, because he saw what those other coyotes really were.

  “Beta. I didn’t know who to talk to and figured my own Alpha would be best. I saw the women this morning. They were in the back seat with no driver. I pulled ahead and parked. A minute later, a human emerged from the alleyway, zipping his fly. He climbed in and pulled away from the curb. Sort of. He appeared to be totally shitfaced behind the wheel. I followed for just about half a mile, until he got to the turn off for the mountain. I couldn’t go farther without suspicion.”

  “You’re sure it was them?”

  “Yes. I’d know them anywhere.” He paused and cleared his throat. “I’d circled that cabin a thousand times.”

  I growled at the phone. The fucker just had to remind us that he was part of those exiles, didn’t he? Garrett’s eyes flashed at me to back it down.

  Jason rubbed his forehead, missing the look from my brother. “But we can’t pick up their scents. There’s too much—”

  “He pissed in the alley.”

  Jess looked disgusted, but Jason and I stared at each other. I leaned into the phone. “He pissed.”

  “You’re sure?” Jason asked.

  “In the alley,” Wendell repeated. “He was pickled. Fetid. Cheap tequila, some beer. Gin? Skunked. I stayed three cars behind and it was overpowering. It was just about noon when he made the turn off for the mountain. I’d put money on still being able to smell him if you got to that intersection.”

  “At Thane?” Jason asked.

  “Sheep’s Creek, yes.”

  “Good, put Fergus on.” Garrett held up a finger as the phone shifted back to the Alpha. “That’s twice, Ferg. Does he need one more?”

  “He’s been with the pack for about a week now. No trouble. He’s regaining footing.”

  “Good. We’re going to Thane right now. Tell the other packs to keep an eye open?”

  “Done.”

  The connection closed, and Jason and I headed for his truck. Jess and Garrett got in the truck and we headed down the road.

  “How are you hanging on?” I asked Jason.