by D T Strange
“I suggest you get the hell out of here before I decide burn your ass where you stand Cameron.”
Cam’s wolf was no longer pacing within him and Cam could feel the wolf regarding both the stone and Fianna. That’s when it hit him. She shouldn’t have been able to touch the stone without feeling a sense of unease and dread. Neither emotion seeming to be what Fianna was feeling just then.
“Fianna, please, let me apologize and try to explain. That stone. It belongs to my pack. It’s one of four our pack was given over a century ago. It was gifted to my pack to provide protection and it did until three of the four stones were stolen almost fifty years ago by a traitor within our pack. My mother and I have been searching for them for as long as I can remember. Please Fianna, I need that stone. I have to track where it came from and see if it will lead me to the other two that are still out there somewhere!”
“I’m sorry Cameron, but you can’t have this stone. It means too much to me. Even though I believe you think you’re telling the truth, I’m not willing to part with this stone. Now leave. Before I do something we’ll both end up regretting.”
Cam knew she wasn’t bluffing, he could scent her determination to keep possession of the stone. He was also scenting excitement coming from her. That had his head cocking to the side, confusion creasing his forehead. By the gods, was she somehow linked to the one that had stolen the stones all those years ago? Was that why she was able to hold them without apparently being affected by their power to protect and hide those of his pack?
Damn it, there was too much he didn’t know about what was going on and he’d just destroyed his best chance to get answers by going all brute wolf on her. He watched as her hand came up a little higher, a brow arched in challenge. Holding his hands up in an I surrender gesture, he edged his way around her to the door.
With one hand on the door handle, he slowly reached with his other into his back pocket for his wallet. He thumbed out a business card and set it on the little table by the door where her keys lay. “My number is on the card. Please Anna, I know you have every reason to be weary of me, but I’m begging you to think about calling me, so I can explain.”
“I’m not going to say get out again Cameron.” With a sigh, Cam opened the door and stepped outside. A blast of power had the door slamming shut and he knew without a doubt if he tried the handle, at the very least it would be locked. At the worst, he could find himself on his ass halfway down the sidewalk. It was very clear that Fianna wasn’t human. Nope. If Cam had to guess, he’d say she was a witch and a powerful one at that.
Cam scrubbed the back of his neck as he headed toward his mother’s SUV. He had important business to handle, but this wasn’t over with him and Fianna. He’d get that stone back and if he was lucky, he might be able to get Fianna to like him again in the process. There was too much at stake to think otherwise.
Climbing into the SUV, Cam started it up and backed out of her drive, heading home to shower, change and briefly discuss the situation concerning Asad with Zep and Madison. Zep was the pack Alpha and Madison was his mate. They’d need to know something had thrown a wrench in the deal that had been all but sealed with the lion pride. He’d also have to tell them about the stone now in Fianna’s possession. That part of the conversation, wasn’t something he was looking forward to.
Thirteen
What Was Lost… May Have Been Found?
Fianna looked around the floor for the box that the stone had just come in. It had fallen when Cameron had snatched it out of her hands. She recognized her grandfather’s hand writing on the address label and hoped that there was a letter, or card or...anything that could tell her where he was. It was the first real clue she’d had to support her belief that he wasn’t dead.
Fi had only been thirteen when Joseph, her guardian and her grandfather’s best friend, had come to her, his face crestfallen, to tell her that her grandfather had gone missing. He’d sat her down and explained that the small, twin-engine airplane he’d been flying had disappeared from radar and never made it to his destination. A few days after Joseph had told Fi about the plane disappearing, they had received word that they had found the wreckage and there was so much damage that they couldn’t determine at that time what had caused the crash or if there were any survivors.
Fianna had never even entertained the idea that her grandfather was dead. No matter what Joseph told her, she believed that she would just know that he was, that she’d feel it somehow. She and her grandfather were that close, and he had taught her everything he knew whether one on one with him or through his journals. She would know if he were gone. Somehow, she’d feel it.
She finally saw the box laying halfway under her sofa and snatched it up, rummaging through the packing material. Her fingers felt the envelope and she pulled it out, her heart pounding so hard it took her breath away. Her hands shook as she opened the small envelope and pulled the letter out. Unfolding it, she nearly cried when she saw the bold strokes of her grandfather’s handwriting.
My beautiful girl,
I’m writing this hastily because I don't have much time. The stone in this package is the cosanta stone which in Gaelic means protection. It was stolen from a wolf pack in Ireland many years ago and has been bartered and sold many times since. It was this stone I was looking for when my plane went down. There are four of these stones and when used together can render whatever is within their perimeters invisible, hence protected. Guard this stone with your life, Fi. I will be in touch soon.
All my love,
Papa
Fianna didn’t know how long she had stared at the note, willing it to reveal more and tell her where she could find her grandfather. In the end she put the note back in the envelope and sat and stared at the beautiful amethyst stone in her hands. It was smooth, about the size of a tennis ball and felt heavy in her hand. She could feel the power emanating from it sending little pin pricks of electricity up her arm. If there were four stones in all, Fi figured that they were set at the four corners of an area that needed their protection, or quite possibly in the east, west, north and south positions of an area. But how did these little stones protect something?
Cameron had said that it was one of four stones that had been given to his pack...his WOLF pack...over a century ago. Could he be right? Was this really one of the stones that had been stolen and almost cost her grandfather his life?
Bolting from the sofa she hurried and showered then dressed before heading out. She needed to see some of her grandfather’s journals. If he had been heading out in search of this stone, then he must have kept some record of it somewhere. He would have written down all information he’d gathered on it. Patrick Arden was meticulous that way. He never made a move without researching and finding out all he could.
Fi hurried into her bedroom, already pulling the t-shirt over her head and dropping it to the floor. She looked at the bed, the blanket and sheets messed up, and the night spent tangled with Cameron came back to her in a rush. No one had ever touched her the way he had and not just physically. There had been a connection between the two of them she hadn’t expected and was even difficult for her to acknowledge in the light of day.
The whole evening hadn’t gone as planned and she was trying to decide if that was a good or bad thing. Fi hadn’t planned on liking the man she had been set up with. In her mind, it wasn’t supposed to really be a date, but research. Cameron Bishop was not supposed to be funny and charming and sexy as hell. His touch was not supposed set her body on fire and make her crave him after one night.
Once Fianna had decided to throw all her caution and inhibitions to the wind, the night had been incredible. After a couple of rounds in her bed, they had gotten the last of her Chunky Monkey ice cream and a couple of spoons and sat on the floor in front of the refrigerator feeding each other ice cream, accidently dripping it on each other’s bodies and licking it off. From there, they’d gone back to her bedroom. Cameron had been gentle and giving one minute and demand
ing and dominate the next.
It wasn’t until this morning when the sound of his phone and him falling out of bed woke her, that she’d realized he had spent the entire night with her. They hadn’t been asleep long when his phone had rung but when she realized that he was still there she didn’t know what to do. Now, she may have pushed him out of her life completely.
Shaking her head to try and get all thoughts of Cameron Bishop out of her mind, she finished stripping out of her shorts and top before taking a quick shower, then dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. She hurried into the kitchen and turned the coffee pot off then grabs her leather jacket from the coat closet by the front door. Looking down, she sees the card the Cameron had left there. Regret fills her as she grabbed the card and slipped it into her pocket. She should have listened to him, but she didn’t know what her grandfather had sent her.
Fi put the stone back in the package it had come and slipped into one of the pockets of her jacket, zipping it up then headed outside and to the garage for her bike. The ride would help clear her mind of Cameron and help her focus on the task ahead. She would read through her grandfather’s journals and see if she could find any clues as to where he had gone. She’d tried before but now, she had concrete evidence that he was alive because of the stone in her pocket.
She felt an adrenaline rush of excitement run through her as she started her bike and pulled out of her driveway. Her stomach fluttered with anticipation to think that maybe, finally, she could put all the pieces of the puzzle together and find her grandfather after all these years.
Fourteen
Mom’s Walk of Happiness is Cam’s Shame
Driving the twenty some miles out of town, Cam’s mind was barely taking in the road and what could have been upon it. If a deer had stepped out onto the road a mile ahead even, he most likely wouldn’t have been able to avoid hitting it, so wrapped up in his thoughts of what had happened between he and Fianna as he was.
“Damn it! I can’t even remember the last fucking time I spent the whole night with a female and not wanted to sneak out the next morning. Hell, normally I leave the female sometime after the second, maybe the third round of sex. They’re always well satisfied.”
This was all grumbled out as the miles rolled by, the forest thickening as Cam got further away from the city. Coming to the turn that would take him onto pack lands, Cam eased the SUV off the main highway, his thumb tapping on the steering wheel as he followed the drive.
It was unmarked and wouldn’t have been thought to lead anywhere in particular, but the further down the dirt road you went, the more the forest gave way to pack territory and houses started appearing along the way.
Pulling up in front of his mother's place, he started to get out of the SUV as another vehicle came into view from the track leading from the highway. Cam’s hackles went up at the unidentified truck that was heading his way. As it got close enough for him to make out not only the driver, but the passenger as well, Cam’s eyes felt like they bugged out of his head.
Zeke pulled his truck to a stop before his mother’s driveway. Cam watched as his mother leaned in and gave Zeke a long, far too intimate kiss before sliding out the passenger side. Cam was already stalking over to the truck when Zeke met his snarling gaze and winked, then pulled away.
The growl that tore past Cam’s lips was a challenge that he thought would go unanswered. The answering growl that came from his mother was accompanied by a smile that was filled with far too much smugness for Cam’s liking.
“What the hell mother?! You don’t even know him, yet you spent the night with him?!”
Caitlin O’Hara-Bishop stomped right up to Cam, her 5’6 height merely bringing her to just beneath his chin. That didn’t stop her from seeming far bigger than she really was though. Cam was all male, but the look his mother shot his way took him out at the knees and if he’d been in wolf form, his tail would have been tucked between his legs.
Swallowing hard, Cam ducked his head in deference to his mother and stepped back a pace. This earned him an ear cuffing before she walked past him toward her front door. When he didn’t fall in behind her, she stopped and glanced back at him.
“You’d best get that rump of yours inside, so we can discuss your attitude, Cameron Jeremy Bishop.”
Caitlin opened her front door and disappeared inside without a glance back to make sure he was following her. Follow he did though, because he knew to do otherwise would be not only disrespectful to his mother, but more shameful than his outburst had been in the first place.
“Cameron, why is it that what’s good for the goose, isn’t good for the gander with Zeke and I?” Cam’s mother had stopped once she’d reached the kitchen island and had finally turned to face him. Cam could see disappointment in her eyes, could scent that, along with sadness coming from her.
“Mom, it’s not like that. Shit, I hope it’s not like that! I trusted Zeke to respect you!”
Caitlin’s hand slapped down on the island tiles, causing Cam to wince. “Don’t you dare try to lay any blame onto Zeke! He was a perfect gentleman. It was me that told him I wanted to spend the night with him! Something, as a grown adult, I’m more than capable of deciding for myself.”
Cam snapped his mouth closed as he blinked slowly then tried to focus on his mother once more. “Y… Y.. You… mother, why now? Why after all this time would you suddenly want to start dating and… and then jump into bed with… with the first man you have a blind date with?!?”
Caitlin was in front of Cam before he could blink, the flat of her palm cracked against the skin of his stubbled cheek loud enough have his ears ringing. Time seemed to stand still for several long heartbeats, then Cam saw it. A lone tear trickled from the corner of his mother’s eye, sliding silently down her furiously reddened cheek.
Caitlin’s eyes closed as her hand lowered back to her side. Stepping away, she turned from him. “Leave my house Cameron. Leave before I say something more that will make what I just did even worse.” Cam didn’t have a chance to respond. His mother simply walked out. Cam couldn’t do as she’d asked him to though.
Feeling just as bad as he had earlier that morning for his behavior with Fianna, he trailed after his mother. “Mom, please… I’m sorry, that. Shit I seem to be saying all the wrong things today. Please I’ve already caused Fianna to hate me, please don’t walk away hating me as well.
Cam watched as his mother stopped and turned to him once more. No joy was felt from the fact that she had though. No, there was far too much sadness in his mother’s gaze for him to feel even remotely relieved that she had turned.
“Cameron, I can sense that something happened between you and Fianna, it’s why I asked Zeke to bring me home. I’m not very happy with you right now, but I won’t ever hate you my son. If you’ve caused Fianna to do so though, you truly are a fool. Don’t you even listen to your wolf anymore?”
Cam’s brows scrunched together in confusion at the question. “Of course, I do mother. He’s a part of me as I am of him when I shift.” His mother gave him a sad smile while shaking her head.
“If that were the case Cameron, you wouldn’t be standing here right now thinking about how Fianna might hate you. Instead, you’d be admitting that your wolf found his mate and be doing whatever it took to win her over.”
Cam couldn’t have been more shocked then if he’d been struck by a bolt of lightning, blowing him into a million pieces upon impact. “How do you... There’s no way… My wolf can’t want Fianna, she’s not even a wolf shifter.”
Even as he said it, Cam knew that Fianna not being a shifter meant nothing to him, nor would mean anything to his wolf. Like with most other shifters, the animal within seemed to know on some deeper level than the human side did, who would make a compatible mate. It mattered not whether the one chosen was a shifter, human, or even a witch. The right one would always be known.
That’s when Cam finally accepted that his wolf had been trying to tell him Fianna was their mate this whol
e time. He just hadn’t wanted to hear or accept it. “I can’t mate her mother. I won’t tie myself to one person, only to lose them and live a life of misery and sadness. I’m not willing to take the chance of going through what I watched you go through when my actions killed your mate and my father.”
Cameron’s mother closed her eyes and tipped her head back, but that didn’t stop the tears from trailing down her cheeks. When she lowered her head once more and looked at Cam, it was with far more sorrow than he’d seen in her eyes even when she’d learned Cam’s father hadn’t survived the car crash all those years ago. “Cameron, do you even know why I stayed single all these years?” Cam started to reply, but his mother wasn’t through. Her words pressed in on him, wrapping around him as she spoke.
“It was because I didn’t want to dishonor your father's memory in your eyes. You’re a grown man now though and I felt it was about time I see if there was another out there for me to spend the rest of my years with. I will tell you this. I believe Zeke is the one I wish to spend the rest of my years with, as his mate. Our wolves have claimed each other, and I will be marrying Zeke. I hope you can accept this. Whether you can or can’t isn’t something I’m willing to discuss at this time.”
Stunned to the point of being unable to move, Cam felt his jaw drop open. Blinking slowly, he closed his mouth, but couldn’t for a coherent thought. Good thing, since his mother wasn’t done talking. “Go to Fianna and undo whatever you’ve done to cause a rift between you. I like her, your wolf wants to claim her, trust us if you can’t trust yourself my son.”
With a heart heavier than the world itself, Cam watched his mother turn and head deeper into the house. Not quite sure what he’d just done to the one person that meant the world to him, he felt his feet carry him away from her door. Even though she’d said she didn’t hate him, she’d still managed to put him in his place when all was said and done. In a daze, Cam made his way down the block to his own place. Letting himself in, he stripped as he made his way to the shower.