by JJ King
“Come on,” Quinn moved up next to Katherine, slipping his hand into hers, “let’s get this out of the way so we go upstairs and sleep.”
Katherine squeezed his hand tightly and held back a grin. Wolves lived long lives and believed sexuality was natural, so she knew Quinn didn’t think her a saint, but having an abstract and meeting a wolf she’d slept with, were two very different things. He was probably having all kinds of wicked thoughts about her and Liam, but he hadn’t asked for clarification, so she hadn’t offered it. Besides, she was just tired enough to find this situation hilarious.
They walked into the dark pub and stood inside, blinking, until their eyes adjusted enough to see. Katherine scanned the customers looking for a familiar face and found it sitting in the corner of the room nursing a pint of beer with a sexy grin on his face. She grinned back and took a step forward, pulling Quinn along by their joined hands.
Liam Dougherty stood and opened his arms wide, gesturing for them to take the seats around his table. “Welcome to Ireland,” his lilting accent was as delightful as when she’d first heard it and his eyes as welcoming, so Katherine stepped forward and slid into the seat next to him with Quinn at her left.
“You’re looking as lovely as the day we met,” Liam flirted unabashedly, letting his gaze travel over Katherine’s face. Then he turned to Quinn and thrust out a hand, “And you must be the lucky son-of-a-bitch who won her heart.” He pumped Quinn’s hand enthusiastically and turned to each of their group in turn.
“Friendly guy,” Quinn murmured in Katherine’s ear while Liam laughed at something Keme said.
She chuckled quietly and turned her head so her mouth was pressed against Quinn’s ear. “Not as friendly as I’m going to be once we find a room.”
She felt his body rumble in satisfaction and male ego, and settled back in her chair, confident that her mate would be fine from here on out.
When Liam received only a curt response from Ronan, he nodded and turned back to Katherine with a raised eyebrow. “So then, let’s get on with it. I doubt you’re here for reminiscing.” He leaned forward on the table, giving them his full attention. “How can I be of assistance?”
“We need a tour guide,” Katherine started, not sure how much of what she had to say should be said in public. She dropped her voice, “There’s a person of interest, a wolf, on this island and he’s holding twenty-two women captive. We need help finding him.”
Liam frowned then offered a cheeky grin, “Well, that’s vague as fuck, but I’ll help as much as I can. I’m thinking the specifics on this fellow are a tad too hush-hush to be spilt in the likes of this place, so why don’t we get you some rooms upstairs and we can finish this conversation in privacy.”
“Rose will have that done by now, actually,” Katherine pulled out her cell to text Rose and found a text from her already. She read it quickly, “We’re in rooms seven, eight, and nine. She’d got number six for herself.”
“Aw, lovely,” Liam pushed up from the table with the rest of them and started towards the stairs, “and who is Rose?”
Katherine paused, “Well… that’s a bit of a long story. Let’s get upstairs.”
They decided to hold the meeting in Katherine’s and Quinn’s room, since it was a bit larger than the other two. Instead of leaving the group, Katherine sent a quick text to Rose to meet them and settled onto the comfortable couch in the corner of their room. The others took whatever seating they could find.
No one spoke for a moment as they sank into seats and let their bodies relax, finally. Katherine leaned into Quinn’s side as he moved his arm to cover her shoulders, and thought she could close her eyes right now and fade off to sleep. But, she fought the exhaustion and prepared to tell Liam a story that would shame the Bard.
Liam’s face showed his emotions plain as day as Katherine wove her way through the events since her father’s murder, at which his eyes went dark and he offered his sincere condolences. Unable to cope with that right now, Katherine ploughed on and spilled the big news with the others chiming in at times to fill in details from their point of view.
“Which is why we’re here, now, looking for your help. We figure,” Quinn paused and nodded toward Keme, “or hope, rather, that he’s still on the island since he has so many girls in tow.” Quinn scrubbed a hand through his hair and sighed, “Though, we have no idea where he could be and very little clues to go on.”
“So, you’re telling me that this Rose is a test tube baby made by an insane man named Raphael who happens to be a fucking Geliget and that this twat used Pierre’s little soldiers, which he stole when the man was laid up in hospital healing from burns, and kidnapped women to impregnate them all in the hopes of creating this woman Quinn here saw in a prophecy when he was a lad? And that you tracked the fucker to Classiebawn, fucking Classiebawn no less, but he’s fled with the girls and you want my help tracking them down in the whole of Ireland.” Liam sucked in a huge breath then blew it out dramatically, looking around with raised eyebrows and an incredulous expression.
Keme looked impressed, “Shit, that was the most succinct rendering of the situation that I’ve heard yet,” he elbowed Daphne gently, “you should write that down.” Daphne chuckled and shook her head.
Katherine didn’t feel like laughing, not when it was laid out like that, all bare bones, cut and dry. There was nothing cut and dry about Raphael, they’d seen that at Classiebawn. He was as ruthless and evil as they came and she wouldn’t stop until he was put back in prison or dead. She nodded gravely, “That’s about right, yes. Will you help us?”
“Damn straight I will.”
A quiet knock at the door announced Rose. Daphne got up from her chair and crossed the room, unlocking the door before pulling it open.
“Sorry I took so long,” Rose murmured, “but I needed a shower.” She stepped into the room with her eyes resting on the floor, and twitched when she smelled Liam. Rose lifted her gaze and looked across the room at Liam, freezing in place for a long moment, before blinking and turning her face away to look at Katherine.
She’d been covered in her sisters’ blood the entire trip back from Classiebawn, Katherine knew, so she understood the need to clean off the stench of death. She offered her half-sister an understanding smile and gestured to the chair beside her and Quinn. “This is Liam Dougherty, youngest son of the Irish Alpha Aengus Dougherty. Liam, this is Rose,” Katherine froze, wracking her brain for a last name, then swallowed and went with what felt right, “LaFlamme.”
Chapter Eight
Rose felt Katherine’s introduction like a blow to the chest.
LaFlamme. Katherine was giving her Pierre’s name, her name, the name of the Alpha family of North America. Sure, their DNA tests had come back positive, but they didn’t even know her. Yet, they’d flown across the Atlantic Ocean and gone with her to Classiebawn, ready and willing to fight beside her, bleed with her, for her and the others, because they were related by blood.
Rose reeled, but she kept her face absolutely stock-still. It took all of her strength to keep a tight hold on her emotions, to hold back the confused tears that threatened to spill, to not cross the room and tell Katherine how much her words meant.
It was too much, so she shut down, choosing to ignore everything for now and deal with it when she had the strength to keep herself in check. Rose commanded her feet to move and her body to follow as she crossed the room to sit beside the couch. Knowing Katherine was expecting something, she caught her gaze and let an ounce of what she felt seep through. It was enough. Katherine’s eyes misted over ever so slightly, then she blinked and it was gone. Katherine nodded and turned her head back to Liam.
Liam, who was staring at Rose as if she was the second coming. Liam, who was unlike any man she’d ever met before. Liam, who was, apparently, the one fate and the Old Ones had in mind for her.
Damn it.
It was as if her center of gravity had shifted, come to occupy the space inside of him, and everythin
g inside her kept pulling her towards the chair across the room where he sat perched, leaning forward with a glazed expression and a slack jaw. While she was trying her best to keep their instant and powerful connection on the down low, he had no such consideration. All anyone in the room had to do was look at him and they would know…
“Liam, are you alright?” Keme leaned forward and smacked Liam on the back when his breath stopped for a moment, leading to a coughing fit that tore his gaze from her for a few blessed seconds.
Ronan, who had been silent until now, stood and retrieved a plastic cup from the desk and disappeared into the bathroom to fill it with water. He passed the cup to Liam then went to the mini fridge while the Irish man drank the water down in one gulp. Ronan grabbed a few bottles of tiny liquor bottles and, without a word, unscrewed the top of a mini whiskey and handed it to Liam.
He drank greedily while everyone watched with looks of wonder and confusion. Only Ronan looked on with a wry smile and a pitying shrug. He patted Liam on the back and muttered under his breath, “You’re fucked now, brother.”
“Did I miss something?” Katherine looked around the room, staring at Liam who opened another bottle and drank, then pushed to his feet and crossed the room towards Rose. Katherine followed his movements then shifted her gaze to Rose, who could feel her cheeks burning with a keen mixture of embarrassment and excitement, and gasped. “No! Really?”
“Well, this is inconvenient,” Keme murmured to Daphne who offered Rose a quiet smile of sympathy.
“Finding your mate is never an inconvenience,” Daphne admonished Keme gently, patting his face with the palm of her hand.
Rose saw all of this and more, because she refused to look at Liam directly. She stole glances, then darted her gaze away, because the urge to just stare only grew when she allowed herself to look.
It was strange, this tugging inside of her, strange and utterly seductive. Her body and mind, and, she supposed her soul, yearned to touch her mate’s skin, to taste him, to connect with him in every way humanly and wolfly possible. But, she could tell that giving into the urges would amplify everything she felt and there was no time for such distractions. Her family needed to take priority, not a mate that she’d never even considered possible.
The thought of her murdered sisters brought a fresh wave of grief and pain, centering Rose. She stood, careful not to touch Liam who stayed where he’d been standing, too close to her for comfort, and walked across the room, taking the chair next to Daphne. “We need to focus,” her voice cracked slightly but she managed to push the words out without rushing into Liam’s embrace, so Rose considered that a win. “This,” she flicked her hand between herself and Liam, “can wait.”
Liam cleared his throat and nodded, never taking his gaze off of her, “Right, yes. Well, then let’s get to it, shall we?”
♀♀♀
“She’s like a cyborg,” Daphne marveled, detaching her bra and sliding the straps down her arms to pull it free from under her tank top.
“Who? Rose?” Keme called out from the small bathroom, his voice muffled by the sound of the shower.
Daphne ran a comb through her wet hair, then rubbed it with a dry towel. “No, Katherine b’y.” Her Newfoundland accent bubbled to the surface. “Yes, Rose. She’s like that one from Star Trek Voyager…” she frowned and tried to remember, then called out “Seven of Nine!” just as Keme said the same name.
The shower turned off and Keme appeared, wrapping a large towel around his narrow hips. His body gleamed with drops of water that coursed south over his deeply defined ab muscles, making Daphne’s mouth water, but the look of exhaustion in his eyes and her own fatigue put her errant sexy thoughts to bed. “I don’t know,” he used another towel to rub his body dry then tackled his hair, “I think she’s doing pretty good considering her upbringing. I can’t imagine she or any of those women were allowed much emotional reactions. I’d say she’s pretty used to playing things close to the chest.”
Daphne sighed, “True. Stop being so reasonable. It’s making me feel bad.” She tossed her discarded towel at him.
Keme grinned and grabbed the towel in midair, “Although the comparison isn’t bad. Seven of Nine had to relearn how to live with humans after being assimilated. Rose has spent her entire life under Raphael’s thumb, and now she had to learn to be normal.”
“And what’s that? Normal.” Daphne pulled back the blankets and slipped into the queen size bed, groaning as her body sunk into the comfortable mattress. This wasn’t a crazy expensive inn so she hadn’t been sure of the mattress quality they’d get, but this was pure heaven. “I used to have a pretty normal life, work, friends, play, until someone called me up in the middle of the night and changed my life forever.”
Keme chuckled, draping his towels over hooks on the bathroom door, and pulled on a pair of underwear, then climbed into bed next to her. “And do you regret a single moment of it?” He lifted an arm and tilted his head, motioning for her to snuggle in.
She snuggled and pressed a kiss to the side of his pecs, wondering again at how funny fate was to have gifted her such an amazing mate. She tilted her face up for a kiss and whispered, “Not a single second.”
♀♀♀
Rose stared at the ceiling and commanded her brain to go to sleep. Nothing happened.
She sighed. This was going to be a long night if she couldn’t turn off the endless cycle of information, emotions, and images of Liam’s perfect face running on repeat through her head.
Why now, she thought. Why in the midst of all this shit, would the Old Ones let me find my soul mate? It was baffling, all these connections. From the way Quinn had been acting as they approached the pub, it was pretty clear Katherine had been physically involved with Liam at some point, but Katherine was way older than her own thirty-one years, so it wasn’t surprising that they’d run into one of her past lovers from time to time.
She didn’t care, she had no plans of following through with the whole mate thing, after all. Liam seemed nice, from what she’d seen, and must be a decent wolf if Katherine had asked him for help, but she wasn’t the type to settle down and mate for life. After they found the girls and put that psychotic motherfucker down for good, she had plans to see the world, to explore other cultures and just be free. There was no place in her life for a soul mate.
I wonder what Liam feels about all this.
A car driving past the inn splashed through a puddle of freshly fallen rainwater and her room filled with light. Rose turned away from the street, wishing she’d taken one of the rooms away from the road. She needed to sleep soon, or else the horror of the past day would start to have a more significant effect on her psyche. If they were going to find the girls, she’d need to be on her game.
The image of Skyla’s broken body draped over the chair filled her mind. Rose closed her eyes and grimaced, trying to push it down, but, this time, it refused to be ignored.
Alright then, she thought, letting the barrage come, I’m ready.
But she wasn’t. The flood of emotions that poured through her, rising to the surface to break, was overwhelming. Rose wrapped her arms around herself, curled her body into a tight ball, and let the tears come.
They wracked her body, wrenching out as if someone was tearing parts of her from the inside out. She sobbed, turning her face into the pillow to muffle the sounds, not wanting the others to hear her.
She could still smell the scent of her sisters’ blood on her skin, it had been impossible to scrub away, but part of her was relieved. At least some part of them still existed, still felt tangible. They deserved to be remembered.
So, she remembered them. She remembered stories and housework, laughter and tears, and everything in between. They’d all been close, there had been little choice of that when your entire world consisted of twenty-six women and girls. They’d been a family, a community, and each loss had been shared. Together they’d made it through the horrors. Well, most of them had made it through.
/>
Rose let her emotions run the entire gamut, feeling the edge of madness that came with them. She smiled into the darkness at memories that would never be forgotten and wept for the loss and pain that would be a part of her from now on.
A soft knock at the door startled her. Rose rolled out of bed and onto her feet in an instant, ready to attack or defend, but no one burst through the door. Waiting a moment for her heart to stop beating wildly inside her chest, she crossed the room and peered through the peep hole to see Liam standing in the hallway, wearing an expression she couldn’t place.
Holy shit.
Rose touched her hand to the door but didn’t unlock the deadbolt to let him in. Instead, she took a deep breath, rested her cheek above her hand and spoke softly, “What do you want, Liam?”
