Lucy must have felt it, too, because she cut her crystal blue eyes down at him like she was looking to him for an explanation.
Releasing her in an instant, he stammered to say, “Quinn Security is taking all of this werewolf business seriously. I’d really like to talk to you. Now.”
She glanced around the diner, probably debating how much trouble she’d get into if anyone reported back to Angel that she’d sat across from a customer during her shift.
“Please,” he pressed.
“Fine,” she told him. “But I don’t have much time.”
“A few minutes is all I need,” he promised, which was enough to get her to slide into the booth across from him. “Out in Yellowstone the other evening—”
“On Eagle’s Pass,” she clarified.
“You saw the wolf that you think—”
“Wolf-man,” she corrected him.
“I’ll just let you tell it, then,” he prompted her, and she did, going over the incident from start to finish.
When she finally stopped talking, Kaleb took a moment to wrap his mind around everything that he’d heard, and tried not to get preoccupied with the fact that it seemed this wolf-man had penetrated Lucy’s mind to plant a vision of Sally-Mae Abernathy and her husband that would ultimately serve to validate Lucy’s claim in Rick’s eyes.
“Have you remembered anything else since?” he asked her. “Any other important details come to mind?”
“If I had, I would’ve told the sheriff.”
Kaleb narrowed his eyes at her and questioned, “Would you have?”
She let out a little sigh that showed her extreme vulnerability and admitted, “Maybe, maybe not. Rick’s a difficult man to trust.”
“So…? Has anything else come to mind? Lucy, this is important.”
“Well, what’s Quinn Security even going to do about it?”
“Find the wolf, ah, I mean the wolf-man,” he allowed, using her own terminology.
“And you guys think you can do that better than the sheriff?” she questioned skeptically.
Kaleb straightened his spine, broadening his shoulders proudly and stated, “I do.”
“Oh boy, you’re full of yourself, aren’t you?”
“Feels good,” he said with a grin. “You should try it some time.”
“Being full of you?” she confronted with sass, having clearly caught the sexually suggestive nature of his comment. “You never quit, do you?”
He chuckled, feeling his cheeks flush pink, and admitted, “No, I guess I don’t.”
“How’s that working out for ya?”
He sobered up and told her in all honesty, “Not great. I should probably settle down with a nice girl.”
“Yeah, that’ll be the day.”
“You mean to tell me that a nice girl like you wouldn’t give me a chance?”
He saw the slightest hint of a smile tug at the corner of her mouth, but Lucy was determined to suppress it.
Changing the subject, she let out a little sigh, leaned in as far as the table between them would allow, and said, “The only other thing that happened, and I’d never go to the sheriff with this, there’d be no point knowing the way that man’s investigative mind works…”
“What? Tell me.”
Again, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I had a dream about him. About the wolf-man. I think I got a glimpse of what he really looks like.”
Kaleb felt his eyes widen round as saucers and he leaned towards her as far as physically possible.
“But it was only a dream—”
“That’s okay,” he said urgently. “What did he look like in your dream?”
***
It had been a long, grueling day of searching the various areas of interest that Conor and Dean had drawn red circles around on the map. All five Quinns had covered as much of Yellowstone as they could tackle within daylight hours—Eagles Pass as well as every trail that spanned the eastern edge of the national park, the corral stables and trail office building areas. Though the borderlines were poorly marked, they expanded their search to the wooded forests directly south of Yellowstone. Technically, it was private land owned by a man with the surname Halsey, though the Quinns were certain he didn’t live in the Fist—they’d have known of him. Surprisingly, Halsey owned over one hundred acres, a circular plot of forested land, which was far too great an area to cover. The brothers stuck to the northern-most edge of the man’s land, arcing southeast until they realized the acreage ran flush along Sheriff Rick Abernathy’s modest plot. Rick lived in a mansion that dwarfed that plot of land. To Troy’s eye, at one point in time the home had probably been a simple cabin, but as the years unfolded, Rick had built and built, adding extensions and a second floor, then a third, until the structure had swelled to nearly the size of the acre that held it.
Lastly, the Quinns doubled back and as the sun began lowering in the wide, Wyoming sky, pulling dusk down into a twinkling night, they reached the elegant, moss-covered cave of a home where their mother, Nikita and grandmother, Sasha lived.
The entire search had been fruitless. They hadn’t picked up a reliable scent they could go on. They hadn’t come across a single broken tree branch or paw print in the mud or crushed pinecone to indicate evidence of a trail they could track.
But the description of the rogue wolf that Kaleb had obtained from Lucy Cooper gave them hope. A lot of hope. Even though it was the product of her dreams.
A slick-looking man. Gelled-back hair—dark hair. Darker eyes. A polished suit. Wing-tipped, patent leather loafers.
The man should’ve stuck out in the Fist like a sore thumb.
“I need to talk to Sasha,” Troy told his brothers as they walked to their respective trucks that had been parked in a line outside of the park trail that led directly to the corral stables in Yellowstone. Since Nikita and Sasha lived a solid ten-minute walk from there, he figured there would be no downside to paying her another visit, if for no other reason than to pressure her about Reece.
Troy had done a soldierly job all day long of wrangling his erratic emotions.
It had just been a stupid phone call, hadn’t it? Why was he so bothered that she’d hung up?
When he tried to stay rational about it, he couldn’t justify why he’d gotten so bent out of shape over it.
But when he listened to his heart, which he had to admit was famously tangled up in his own pride and ego, he had to conclude that her stubborn assertion to do as she pleased was the tip of an iceberg that he’d never be able to live with.
Troy knew he was controlling. When he barked orders, he expected them to be followed. It had served him in every war he’d fought, and that personality quality had also primed him to be an excellent leader of his pack. But when it came to women, he knew it would be his Achille’s heel, plain and simple, which was perhaps why he’d avoided real relationships his entire life.
Shane broke away from his brothers in the parking area as well, mentioning, “I ought to have another run at Whitney.”
Shane had attempted to talk to the sheriff’s daughter, but she’d brushed him off, focusing on tending to the horses in her stable. She would be getting off from work soon, so Troy gave him a permissive wave then reminded all of them to keep their eyes peeled for a professionally-suited man, before cutting up through the side of Yellowstone that would take him to Nikita and Sasha.
When he arrived at their home, nestled into the side of a mountain, Nikita was crouching in front of the blooming flowers she’d planted outside. Her long, white hair caught the light. She was wearing a periwinkle blue dress that came down to her ankles, and she’d kicked off her sandals to feel the earth beneath her bare feet.
“Mother,” he greeted her and she stood and gave him a hug. “Things have been heating up in town and I need to speak with Sasha again.”
“Why would you think you’d get any further with her now than you did the last time you were here?” she questioned.
“
Because I have a description of the rogue wolf. Because I have reason to believe it’s a Royal.”
Nikita widened her eyes at his second statement. “A Royal?”
“Given the wolf’s abilities, it was no Younger, I’ll tell you that much.”
“Come,” said Nikita, inviting him into the little home.
Sasha was seated in her rocker in front of the cooling fireplace as always. She kneeled in front of her mother-in-law, placing her hands over Sasha’s in the elderly woman’s lap, and said, “Troy’s here to speak with you again. Mother, he believes it’s a Royal.”
“I have no other hope but you,” Troy insisted as he kept a respectful distance. “There are only seven living Royals that I know of. My four brothers and myself, my mother and you. The werewolf I’m after has the ability to enter a mortal’s mind, control them to some degree if not fully, and also to plant visions in their head. My brothers and I don’t have that ability, and we’re a century old. I believe I’m looking for someone who’s at least my mother’s generation, maybe older. You’re the only living Royal who would know.”
Sasha had grown visibly tense hearing Troy’s plea and logic. Her lips had begun moving as though she’d fallen into a chanting spell, but no sound came out.
“Grandmother Sasha, please,” he begged. “This Royal has turned a mortal.”
Sasha’s eyes widened and the mile-long stare that had come over her sharpened as she raised her gaze to lock with his.
“He’s gone outside of our code of eternal bonds. The woman he turned couldn’t have been his one true mate, because I didn’t see it or approve it. He must be stopped.”
Sasha’s eyes filled with tears, but she maintained her vow of silence.
Troy wanted to curse and scream at her, but he controlled his temper, and argued, “If I had the gift of foresight, if I had my father’s abilities, I wouldn’t need your help. I can respect your vow, on one condition.”
She seemed receptive to that, her aged eyes brightening as the tears that had welled spilled down her cheeks. Nikita looked pained for her anguish, but didn’t defend Sasha to her son. If anything, with this new information, Nikita’s energy seemed firmly grounded on Troy’s side.
Troy continued, explaining, “I need to know who my one true mate is. If I can bond with her, if I can unite to her and gain the gift of foresight, then I have a chance at stopping this Royal before he destroys the town and exposes all of us.”
When she said nothing, when she didn’t move a muscle, Troy informed her with great pressure, “The sheriff knows about us.”
“What?” gasped Nikita, horrified as she rose to her feet.
“That’s right,” he affirmed. “The Royal indicated himself to two other mortals, young women. They reported it. One of them was emphatic that she was nearly attacked by a ‘wolf-man’. The Royal had planted a vision of the past in her head, a vision of the sheriff and his wife from long ago. It completely validated the claim in Abernathy’s mind. Do you understand how serious this is?”
Now it was Nikita’s turn to pressure her mother-in-law. She kneeled in front of Sasha once again and demanded, “This has gone on long enough, Sasha. This vow of silence of yours… You may not disobey your king!”
Finally, quietly, almost imperceptibly, Sasha breathed, “He was a mistake.”
“He was a mistake?” Troy questioned, needing to know he’d heard her correctly. He dropped to his knees at Sasha’s feet next to his mother and pleaded, “A mistake? Who is he?”
“The devil. He was my mistake.”
Troy and Nikita exchanged a look of confusion.
When Troy returned his wide eyes to his grandmother, the intensity of her stare bore straight through to his soul. He could feel the heat of its penetration, and it felt hotter than hell.
Sasha went on cryptically, “This day was fated from the very beginning. The war to come. It couldn’t have been avoided, and it cannot be stopped.”
“War?” he asked with grave trepidation.
Again, she advised, “The girl with red glasses will light your way.”
“There’s only one girl with red glasses. Her name is Reece Gladstone. Is she my one true mate? Am I destined to be with her? Should I bond with her immediately?”
“Whether you do or do not,” said Sasha with ice in her aged voice, “he cannot be stopped.”
“What?” Troy exclaimed, furious. “What have you done?! What mistake have you made that has fated this?” When again, she refused to respond, he shouted, “You’ve damned all of us! All of us! Even yourself!”
“You think I don’t know that?” she yelled right back. “Push the girl with red glasses and she will push back.”
“Yeah,” he snorted, “I noticed.”
“Pounding rain will not help a flower to bloom,” she went on. “Only the gentle rays of the sun—”
“I’ve had enough of this crap!” he blurted, turning on his heel and stomping out.
Nikita caught him outside, took hold of his arm, and whipped him around.
Angrily gesticulating his hand towards the house, he complained, “She’s acting like this is some kind of game! I’m not here to solve her riddles! I’m her king, for Christ’s sake!”
“Make her,” Nikita said firmly.
“There’s no getting through to her!”
“No,” said Nikita. He had misunderstood her. “Reece. Make her.”
“Make her?”
Nikita nodded with the conviction of a downtrodden army of men who were determined to make it out of this alive.
Troy snorted a lap and paced away from his mother. “Making women do that sort of thing isn’t exactly my style, Mom.”
“You don’t think so? You’re a werewolf, not a man.”
“You’re crazy.”
“You think your father didn’t make me?” She slammed the point into him and it hit harder than an iron fist to his chest. “He took me. He made me his. And deep down, I didn’t fight it because I knew he was right.”
“Would you wake up?! Did you hear her in there? Earth to Nikita, the mistake she was referring to was having a baby outside of the code! The Royal that’s behind all of this is some kind of illegitimate son who probably thinks he has a right to inherit the throne! She had Xavier and I doubt she cheated on Grandpop, so we’ve got an elder, a Royal older than my father out there, who’s decided to turn the whole town in order to usurp the pack from me. That’s what we’re dealing with. That’s her mistake. And you want me to potentially make the same exact mistake? I can’t bond to anyone other than my one true mate, Mom.”
“If she’s not your one true mate,” Nikita reasoned, “then all it will amount to is you sleeping with some girl from the Fist. Has any consequence befallen Kaleb for all of his conquests? Or to Dean or any of your brothers? How many girls have you slept with over the years?”
“She’s different!”
He stopped short of telling Nikita that Reece was a virgin. Special. Someone who wasn’t going to go to bed with a man who she wasn’t certain cared about her, loved her, and was prepared to spend the rest of his life with her. Sure, Troy could hit it and quit it like Kaleb, start going to bed with every girl in town until he found his one true mate, but he would never do that to Reece. Never. And here his mother was, suggesting that Troy ought to make Reece sleep with him. It was sickening.
“That woman in there,” he went on, “has the eternal mother-son bond with the son-of-a…” He couldn’t say it. “She has the bond. You have the bond. Don’t you get it? She knows where he is. She can feel it.”
“Now, you don’t know that for sure.”
“Don’t I?”
“No, you don’t. If she did have an illegitimate son, if he truly was illegitimate because she birthed a child who belonged to a man who was a mere mortal and never meant to be her one true mate, then no, I don’t think that bond exists. I don’t think she can feel where he is at all times. I don’t see how she can know that kind of thing.”
> “You don’t know what she feels and what she doesn’t,” he countered. “Neither of us do. This is so fucking far off the reservation, we aren’t even playing by the same rules anymore. The code has been completely violated.”
Nikita had nothing to say to that.
Sarcastically, Troy told her as he started off, “I guess I’ll go rape my girlfriend now.”
“Troy!”
“Thanks for the advice,” he snorted dryly.
Ridiculous.
***
By the time Troy had reached the library, he’d barely calmed down.
Shane hadn’t called him with any new details based on his second talk with Whitney Abernathy, and Troy would’ve given his younger brother a call except that he knew he’d never be able to contain his anger and reveal the wildly unhelpful advice he’d gotten from his mother.
He came to a screeching stop along the curb and jumped out of his truck, slammed the door.
Forcing a girl that was precious to him—precious!—was never, ever going to happen.
He knew what he was. A wolf. A beast. An animal. He wasn’t naïve to how things were done in the olden days, between werewolf and mortal. But times had changed, and quite frankly, even if they hadn’t, Troy just wasn’t that kind of man, or animal. He just wasn’t. Period.
It disturbed him to learn that, according to his own mother, his father had been that kind of man. He couldn’t let himself think about that very deeply. It was too much.
Deep down, though, the fact remained in his heart that whether or not Reece was destined to be his, he wanted her to be. He wanted to be with her now and forever. And he definitely wanted to take her to bed. Love and lust were all tangled up in a hot ball of confused emotions inside of him. Was it love? He was starting to think that, yes, it really was. He wouldn’t have volunteered to protect Reece via Quinn Security, at absolutely no charge, if love hadn’t come into play.
And with that in mind, he had new plans for Reece tonight. Plans he hoped she’d like.
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