by L Ann
“Cormac? Mac, are you in here?” The door opened, and Asher’s head appeared. “Oh … I didn’t realise.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You’re needed.”
Cormac rose to his feet. “What’s happening?”
“The girl we brought back. She managed to find something sharp and cut her wrists. Chase is with her now, but there’s enough blood to cause problems for the younger wolves.”
“Who found her?” Cormac was moving toward the door.
“Isabella. I sent Roxy up with food, and Izzy took the tray.”
Cormac stopped, frowned. “Where’s Isabella now?”
“Helping Chase. The girl went crazy when he tried to stop the bleeding. Isabella calmed her down.”
“Wonderful,” was the dry response. “Deacon, find out what that key opens.”
Silence fell in the room once Cormac and Asher disappeared. Gemma looked down at her hands, clasped loosely on her legs, acutely aware of the man sprawled in the seat beside her. When he stood, she flinched then caught herself.
“Where’s your head at?” he asked her, coming to stand in front of her. “Did you expect to find something to do with you in that envelope?”
“Not me, no. About dad, maybe. I don’t know, I just thought I might feel better.” She looked up, meeting his eyes. “He is dead, right?”
Deacon crouched down, bringing his face level with hers. “There’s no coming back from his kind of dead, sweetheart.”
“I’m sorry Shaun feels so bad about it, but I’m glad. Glad he’s dead,” she said, her voice fierce.
“He was never going to survive coming here. If Shaun hadn’t killed him, I would have.” He covered her hands with his, entwined their fingers. “Come on, Starshine.” He pulled her to her feet.
“Where are we going?”
Deacon picked up the page with the locker key attached. “We have a new mystery to solve.”
Cassie stood by the lake,looking out over the still water.
“Are you nearby?” she asked out loud. Silence answered her. “I wish you were here, that you didn’t feel like you had to run and hide from me.”
She turned and moved over to the rocks, spread out the blanket she held over one arm and settled down onto it. “You don’t have to come back to the house. You could just come and sit with me here. We don’t even have to talk if you don’t want to.” She paused again, waiting.
“I miss you.” Her legs bent, knees tucked up against her chest, and she wrapped her arms around them. “Such an odd thing to say when we haven’t even been together that long. But it’s the truth. And I don’t just mean you being here beside me, I mean in here,” she lifted a hand and tapped the side of her head with a finger. “I’ve gotten used to feeling you there. Knowing that, no matter where you are or what I’m doing, you’re nearby and even if we’re not in the same room, I can feel your presence.”
She pulled a white envelope out of her pocket. “Deacon went back to Gemma’s house and found the package Damien said he’d left. There was also a letter addressed to you. I’m going to leave it here, in the hopes that Deacon was right and you are watching over me. It’s up to you whether you read it or not. No one has opened it.” She placed it on the rocks behind her. “I hope it helps with what you’re going through.”
Cassie sat on her blanket for a while longer, watching the sun set across the water, then rose and went back to the house.
As her figure moved through the trees, a dark brown wolf padded out from the opposite side.
“Have you read it yet?”
Shaun turned his head and watched his twin’s approach. “Does Gemma know you’ve sloped out?”
Deacon’s teeth flashed in the moonlight. “She won’t be waking up for a while. I left her too exhausted to move.” He leaned against the rocks beside Shaun. “So, have you?”
Shaun looked down at the envelope in his hand. “Not yet.”
“What’s stopping you?”
“Nothing … everything.” He flipped it end over end.
“Are you ready to come inside?”
“The mother hen routine is going to ruin your reputation.”
Deacon laughed. “Who would believe you? Everyone knows I’m the asshole.”
“True.”
“Would you like me to open it?”
Shaun shook his head. “I’ll read it. I just need to work up to it.”
“Scared it’ll say something you don’t want to know about?”
“Scared it’ll say something I could have avoided to stop all this from happening.”
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing.” Deacon patted Shaun’s shoulder. “Read it, and then get indoors to your mate. She misses you.”
“I know,” Shaun replied quietly.
“Don’t leave her alone too long. She might seem the sweeter of the two, but she can’t be that much of an angel with a sister like Gemma. And I know she’d skin me alive for walking out the way you did.”
Shaun chuckled. “Yeah, you picked yourself a live one there.”
“Her crazy suits my crazy,” Deacon shrugged. “Do you want me to stay out here?”
“No.” He tapped the envelope against his thigh.
Deacon nodded, and pushed himself away from the rocks, sauntering back toward the house whistling under his breath.
Shaun sighed, then ripped the envelope open.
Cormac stood outside his bedroom door. He could smell the blood, could feel how restless the youngest and most troubled shifters in his Pack were getting. He had hoped moving the Pack away from Los Angeles and out to a more rural area would have been good for them, good for Shaun. And, in some ways, it had been. Both his brothers had found mates, women who understood them and loved them, flaws included. They had enough land to shift and hunt without being seen or mistaken for wild wolves. And they had discovered the truth about the Draydon Pack.
Any other Alpha would have looked at the past few weeks and taken his Pack and run elsewhere. But not him. There was something about Greene Valley that called to him, even if their arrival there had been planned by outside forces who wished them nothing good.
He’d known when he stepped up and took on the mantle of Alpha of the Midnight Pack that it wouldn’t be easy. He was the youngest Alpha recorded and was strong enough to keep two other Alphas as his seconds. It didn’t matter they were his brothers, Alpha wolves were Alpha wolves – they were rarely comfortable staying close together. The general rule was one Alpha for one Pack.
That wasn’t the only way his Pack was different, though, and he felt having three Alphas might also account for the way troubled wolves, lone wolves and the rejects from other Packs found their way to him. Midnight offered them all a home, security and safety and, for those who struggled, a place to learn the ways of their kind without fear of being killed for their weaknesses.
But on days like today, Cormac occasionally wished he had a more normal Pack under his control.
Taking a breath, he reached out to open the door only for it to swing open. Roxie dashed through the opening, then recoiled in surprise finding him there.
“Oh!” She dipped her head, her eyes automatically lowering in deference to his rank.
“Careful,” he reached out, steadied the tray she was holding before everything slid off. “Asher has taken all the weaker wolves into one of the other buildings. Don’t leave the house until we have the blood lust under control,” he told her.
“Yes, sir,” she dipped her head again, and scurried off down the hallway.
Cormac slid through the gap she left, let the door swing shut behind him and took in the scene. Chase and Isabella knelt on opposite sides of the girl, who was either dead or unconscious.
Part of him hoped she was dead. It would make things easier. Dump her body somewhere close to where they’d found her for the Hunters to find, no connection to them. Another part of him questioned the monster he’d become to be so callously thinking her death would be useful.
His sil
ver eyes swept over the room. They’d moved her from where she’d attempted to take her own life. He could see where the blood had pooled before they found her, and he mourned the ruination of the cream carpet. Had she spilled all her blood? There seemed to be a lot for someone so slight. He lifted his gaze to the bed. No blood there, so that was something, he supposed.
He stepped over to where Chase kneeled, wrapping gauze around one fragile wrist. One careless move and the fine bones would be crushed beyond repair, but Chase was nothing if not careful.
“I assume she’s still alive if you’re taking the time to wrap the wounds,” he commented.
Chase glanced up at him, not quite meeting his eyes. “I had to sedate her. She kept screaming that he wasn’t taking her back. Do you have any idea what she meant?”
“Did she see Damien when we brought him in?” He heard Isabella’s sharp intake of breath and turned his head to focus on her. “Is there something you’d like to add to this conversation?”
“No, nothing,” she responded and he arched a brow.
Liar. Isabella always had something to add.
“How would she know Damien?” she asked and Cormac resisted the urge to smile.
There it was.
“She’s from his Sect. Interesting that she thought he was coming to take her back.”
“Scared her enough to try to take her own life,” Chase added.
“And yet she’s the spawn of a Hunter. You’d think she would be desperate to return,” Cormac mused. A thought struck him and he crouched down, reaching out to turn the girl’s face toward him. “I wonder … I assumed she was trying to trap me when I came across her. What if she was trying to leave and I interrupted her escape?”
“It would explain her fear of Damien’s arrival.” Chase handed the roll of gauze to Isabella and examined his work. “That should hold, unless she tries to pull it off.”
“Did no one tell her Damien was dead?”
“I did, while she was screaming. I thought it might calm her, but I think she was too far gone to hear me,” Chase replied.
“How long will she be out for?”
“Not long. I didn’t dare give her too much. If I had to guess, I’d say she’s malnourished and dehydrated. I didn’t want to take a chance of overdosing her.” He rose to his feet. “Do you want me to send someone up to watch over her?”
Cormac considered it, then discarded the idea. “No. I’ll stay. I want to talk to her when she wakes.”
Isabella snorted from where she still crouched beside the girl and Cormac raised a brow. “You clearly have something to say about that.”
“What makes you think she’ll fear you any less than Damien?”
“She doesn’t fear me … not yet, anyway.”
He left unspoken that that would change. It was only a matter of time.
They all feared him in the end.
The Midnight Pack series follows the story of three wolf shifter brothers. The first book focuses on Shaun, the second Deacon, and the third about Cormac (the Pack’s primary Alpha).
Midnight Touch
Trouble always finds Shaun Jacobs…
So, really, the sizzling hot alpha male shouldn’t have been surprised when a move to a new town and a fresh start doesn’t go according to plan - especially when Shaun’s wolf lays claim to the beauty he unexpectedly finds on his property.
Passion soars, but Cassie comes with her own brand of trouble in the form of an ex who can't take no for an answer.
To make matters worse, there’s a hunter on Shaun’s tail. One who will stop at nothing to take down the Midnight pack once and for all. The stakes are high but Shaun won't be going down without a fight.
Midnight Temptation
Lead me not into temptation…
Easier said than done when your name is Deacon Jacobs and temptation is your drug of choice.
The woman with a broken soul shouldn’t even have registered on his radar, but a wolf wants what a wolf wants.
Sparks fly between the feisty female and the arrogant wolf, but Gemma got caught in the Midnight Pack’s crossfire once before, and now all she wants is to forget. A familiar enemy re-surfaces but all is not as it seems and the pack closes ranks to face what could be their toughest challenge yet.
The risks are daunting but Deacon will gamble everything, including his life, to ensure Gemma’s safety.
Midnight Torment
Coming Soon!
I hope you enjoyed Deacon and Gemma’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Midnight Temptation is the second book in a trilogy – focusing on all three Jacobs brothers. Cormac’s story is up next and, being the Midnight Pack’s Alpha, you can be sure his story is not going to be a easy ride.
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Midnight Pack Series
Midnight Touch
Midnight Temptation
Midnight Torment (Coming Soon)
The Dark Legacy Series
(co-authored with L. Gene Brown)
Bonded In Blood
Blood Carousel
Bad Blood (Coming Soon)