Moonlight Whispers: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 8)

by K. R. Alexander

Chapter 44

  Gabriel stood in the threshold, breathless, in a long, black overcoat, the rainy Pairs night bleak behind him, a pistol in his hand.

  “Gabriel!”

  “Cassia—”

  Something exploded upstairs. Not something directed at us. Something in a fit of rage as an old man yelled about all the noise.

  Someone was running down the stairs. Jason shouted my name.

  André was screaming and screaming—then stopped like Milo.

  What was it? That last thing?

  All in a flash and Jason had me by the shoulder. “Cassia! Passports!”

  I spun around.

  Gabriel had been saying something.

  “They’re trying to kill us!” Andrew shouted.

  As two young mages, neither of which I’d seen before, came charging down the stairs at us, throwing out their hands, Gabriel swung the gun up and shot into the stairs, sending another blast of noise through the echoing foyer. The two men shouted and leapt back, stunned, clearly thinking this was a spell at first. Gabriel shot again, into risers of the stairs below their feet, sending them dashing back, casting energy blocks that had absolutely no effect on bullets.

  I threw that same certainty out there again: the knowing, needing, demanding. This was what was going to happen, and I was making it happen like this: magic.

  I saw the items in my mind. The ones I actually had seen—my purse with my phone, my belt, the wallet, the necklace—with the ones I had to call from nothing. Jewelry, phones, wallets, cards, a plastic dingo, but, mostly: passports.

  The wolves staggered away from André, both battered from the fight, shaking their heads from something concussive he’d done to them.

  The mages at the top of the stairs kept scrambling back, yet trying to block, yelling at us.

  “Go on!” Gabriel shouted, at the bottom of the stairs now, the gun aimed. “What are you doing?”

  We couldn’t go. Not until we’d brought in the net.

  Isaac and Zar flanked Gabriel and started up the steps a little, snarling, menacing, threatening the mages above while all their fur bristled. It was a spectacle that brought fear to the hearts even of wild mages, it turned out.

  The two men withdrew even more, staring down at the man in the black overcoat, aiming a gun at them, his two large wolves, one pure white, one classic, both with bloody jaws, snarled and crept closer. The mages looked about, asking the old man what to do. In that moment, the magic from their side lulled, faded, and mine took over.

  I yanked the net.

  A mess of items, a tangle of our own energies, shot from the room and down the stairs to shower us, crashing into the wolves and scattering through the foyer.

  While the three of them covered us, we moved in a flash, throwing the odds and ends into Isaac’s shoes, bundling the rest into the jacket that Jason held ready. But the smallest things? A gold moon pendant? A ring?

  There, Andrew grabbed the gold chain with the moon charm. Time was up. I didn’t see Nana’s ring. Could it be in my purse? It didn’t matter.

  The gun burst in my ear two more times.

  The old mage himself had to dodge, screaming at us as we ran, sending a hailstorm of vicious energy so hard it smashed into the door as Andrew slammed it shut just after Isaac’s tail and made the whole building rattle.

  “Here!” Gabriel called as we ran, taking off across the street instead of following the sidewalk back toward the Seine. “I have my bike!”

  “We need to get to our hotel and the Jeep!” I shouted. Rain struck my face and pavement flashed under my shoes.

  “Where is it?”

  “Across the bridge!”

  “Get on—”

  “Take Jason! He’s hurt—”

  “No, Cassia—” Jason shoved me at the bike as Gabriel was jumping onto it.

  He had the thing started in a flash, roaring to life.

  “Go, Jason!”

  “Get on the bloody bike!” He pushed me onto it behind Gabriel.

  Gabriel sat forward. “Both get on!”

  “Run!” I shouted.

  The three others were stopping to make sure of us. They didn’t wait anymore.

  Andrew ran like an Olympic sprinter. The two wolves ran with him, Zar almost blending in with the night and streetlights and rain—but not really. Isaac looked exactly like a blood-spattered Arctic wolf running through Paris. The three of them together, tearing down the sidewalk and across the street, against the light, was like some sort of modern-day Jungle Book horror story. Or maybe our lives were just feeling like an endless horror story lately.

  I clung to Gabriel, giving Jason as much room as I could while he held onto me, the bundle clutched between us.

  We roared away. A flash of yellow light, it seemed like shouting, but I couldn’t hear for the roar, and we were gone. We whipped past the three as they cut the corner to run by the front gates to the pet cemetery. Then we were all crossing the bridge, me shouting directions one moment, asking Jason about the others the next.

  We paused on the next block, made sure, then sped to the hotel.

  I raced to the front desk in a panic to pay, get our things, and find out about the Jeep. Yes: they had it.

  I scrambled with our things, shaking as if in a blizzard, while Gabriel stepped past me to hand the man a credit card. Bags back, clothes for Isaac, run to the private lot. Just starting to panic that they weren’t there yet, to scry, when Isaac came running into view.

  He dashed to the vehicle. Jason and Gabriel surrounded him while I got his clothes.

  Then the others were running up, Andrew gasping.

  “Stay in front of us,” I snapped to Gabriel. “We don’t want to lose track of you on the bike alone. Straight for Calais.”

  Zar into the back. Isaac and I up front. Jason slumping on his side across the bench seat, head on Andrew’s lap, holding his stomach. Andrew ripping free the cap of a water bottle from under the seat, drinking and drinking while we pulled out.

  Then away, the Jeep and motorcycle flying from Paris, speeding out of the city and north toward the English Channel.

  Chapter 45

  Jason’s body was carefully deconstructed by mechanical crows while a circle of wild mages nodded sagely, taking notes. Milo screamed. A gunshot—

  I jerked awake, gasping, hanging onto Jason, telling him in my mind we were getting him out—begging him to believe me.

  I wasn’t on a tile floor. I wasn’t cold. It wasn’t pitch dark.

  I was in a very warm full-body cast, lying on my side in a bed with sheets and a pillow, others breathing against me. I pulled Jason in tight. That really was him, face to face, holding each other. Everything else had changed. It was a full cast of wolves wrapped around me.

  Zar stirred and squeezed my arm. I must have woken him, though Jason slept on. Andrew was at his back, all of us crammed in like sardines. It was a large bed, but no one was trying to spread out.

  The room was pale with defused morning light. I lifted my face to kiss Jason, needing to move as I was sweating in their embraces. Zar shifted to stroke back my hair and kiss my neck. His lips were rough, yet already felt better than last night. No … night before last. Last night we had slept. Last afternoon we’d been here, together, in Gabriel’s flat: food and showers and hanging onto each other.

  I pressed back into Zar even more to get him to move.

  We had to talk to Gabriel. We still hardly knew anything. Only that Jed had called after he couldn’t reach us and Gabriel wanted to talk to us in the morning, but we needed to pull ourselves together first. As if that could happen in one afternoon and night.

  We’d all had normal dinners—nothing more than that for fear of being sick, letting our systems catch up—and discussed Jason needing a real doctor. He said no, give him a couple days, he’d be fine. Isaac sat with him, asking about the nature and location of the abdominal pain, and finally agreed—with reservations. Twenty-four hours to wait and see.

  I got up wi
th Zar, dressed in all the spare clothes I had, including a couple of tops that weren’t supposed to be layered, but I couldn’t warm up once I’d left the bed.

  Out of the bathroom, Zar was dressed. He wrapped a down blanket from the wardrobe around my shoulders. I leaned into him at the window where we could watch London streets far below, already crammed with rush hour scarlet buses, black cabs, bikes, and pedestrians.

  I tucked my head into his chest and watched with one eye. My headache was gone. My right arm only achy. None of that important. Were we pulled together? Would I ever be again?

  Andrew was talking to Jason behind us. Andrew asking about him, Jason asking about Kage.

  “We spoke to Jed last night, mate. Remember? He said Kage was tops. How about you?”

  Jason mumbled about needing bone broth, and when could he see Kage?

  “How’s your bloody middle?” Andrew was losing patience. “We’ll get you eats. Don’t dig circles.”

  I smiled. Which felt almost painful, like my muscles had frozen without one. Turning more into Zar, I felt him shift, bending his face to me. I obliged, head back to kiss his lips. I slid my fingers into his, both hands, no sling, Nana’s ring pressing into my knuckle.

  Zar had grabbed it on his tongue on his way out the door, sniffing it on the wood floor, then run all the way to the Jeep with it in his mouth.

  We leaned into each other for a long time, lips together, bodies lined up, fingers twined. Pulse slow, feelings like ocean tides against him. Too much to say, to feel. I kissed his chin, newly shaven last night, and into the hollow of his throat. I wished I could creep into his shirt; climb in his pocket like a gerbil and be safe there. At least for a vacation. Maybe forever.

  My blanket was slipping down my shoulders. I pulled it tighter around me, sighed, and returned to sit on the bed, Zar moving with me.

  “Hey…” I pushed my fingers through Jason’s black hair. He’d also showered and shaved last evening, getting around all right, though still in pain. He’d been asleep by 7:00 p.m. “Do you need breakfast? Or a CAT scan?”

  Jason lay on his back, Andrew sitting up beside him and rubbing his own neck. Jason blinked, focused on me, seemed to be thinking about that.

  “Cassia…”

  “I know,” I said, stroking back his hair again. “You want to see Kage. Let’s go first thing in the morning. We’ll spend one day here, one more night. Get our laundry done, food for the road, all of us eat and have plenty of fluids and make sure we’re okay. Then we’ll go up and get them. I don’t know how long it’s been, but Kage can probably change in another week or so. And, today, you can talk to Kage on the phone. He’d love that.”

  Jason nodded.

  I bent over to kiss his forehead, whispering, “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s all right. We’ll be there soon.” He didn’t look all right.

  “No…” Sitting back slowly, watching his dark eyes. “I’m sorry you … came with us.”

  The other two also looked at me.

  “He saved all our lives,” Zar said quietly. “We had no clue how to get out.”

  “I know,” I repeated. “I’m still sorry.”

  Jason only looked back into my eyes, lifting his good left hand from the covers to squeeze mine as I touched his face.

  “Tomorrow’s fine,” he said again. “And the phone … you’re right. He’d like that.”

  We remained still for another minute, watching one another’s eyes. Something so intimate hung in the gesture that both Andrew and Zar looked away, as if waiting for us to end a private conversation. Which it was.

  After a long, silent talk, I whispered, “Thank you.”

  Jason answered just as softly, “You too.”

  Down blanket still pulled around my shoulders like a huge toga, I soon headed out for the living room with Zar.

  The snowdrift form of Isaac raised his head from the couch when Zar opened the bedroom door. Isaac thumped his tail against the couch arm, his ears easing down.

  I returned his smile. “Morning. I would ask is Gabriel up, but I smell coffee.”

  Isaac oozed off the couch, stretching as he went, yawning, then shaking himself. This sent a halo of white fur puffing off him to settle on the carpet and furniture. In the enclosed space and beside modest-sized furnishings, he looked like a polar bear. His fur had been singed around cheeks and ruff, but nothing bad.

  He padded up and I hugged his head. “Do you want to sit down with us? It’s time we all compare notes over some hot tea and food while Gabriel is still here this morning. He wanted to talk about something also.”

  Zar and I went on while the others got themselves up and dressed.

  Gabriel was reading on a tablet in the kitchen. He set it aside, asked after us, and got us tea and coffee—weak and decaf, since I’d decided this would be a fine time to cut back.

  “I know they don’t usually make a habit of breakfast, but I asked for a tray since everyone seems to need it.” Gabriel was tense, obviously anxious, flitting from one thing to another and not settling with us at the table. He’d hinted he had news for us yesterday, but everything had been a blur—and he’d known it.

  “This might be a silly question,” I said as Gabriel finished telling us about breakfast as if needing to make excuses, “but you don’t have bone broth, do you?”

  “In the fridge. Care for some?” He turned back through the kitchen.

  “Please. Just a mug. For Jason. I think he’s going to join us at the table. If we do need a hospital, what do you recommend?”

  Gabriel seemed relieved to have something else to talk about. “And I’ll turn the heat up.”

  “No, don’t worry about that. It’s comfortable in here. I’m just … chilled this morning.”

  Zar frowned at him as Gabriel moved to heat the broth in the microwave.

  I’d never seen him agitated either. Gabriel was too deeply depressed to be flitting about, talking fast, or behaving like he was about to host a first date. In my previous dealings with him, he’d been a one-trick pony: so melancholy his affect hardly fluctuated and it was like a little bereavement just to be around him.

  After the subject of London hospitals ran its course, I thanked Gabriel for having us all in here. And apologized. He had a regular hotel room with two double beds ready and waiting for us downstairs. This was supposed to be “my” room but, somehow, no one had left—and it had never crossed my mind that any of them should.

  Gabriel looked a bit confused at my thanks, but he shrugged. “Not a problem. The key’s there if anyone wants the room.” Indicating the entry table in the little foyer.

  “Gabe?” Zar spoke tentatively. “How did you get a gun?”

  Gabriel came to sit with us at the far end of the table from Zar and myself. This was saying something since the polished mahogany dining table could seat eight—though there were six chairs at it now.

  He wrapped both hands around his tea mug, looking into it instead of at us. His circle beard was neat as ever, his black hair—showing a few premature hints of gray—combed but falling forward onto his brow as he looked down. He wore black slacks and a dark blue dress shirt. Glossy black shoes, watch on, but no tie or jacket yet.

  “I’ve been a member of a shooting club for a couple of years,” he said to his tea. “It’s my intention to try sport shooting. Birds … country air… I haven’t got round to it yet. Only shooting at a local range. I did not, however, own a gun until three days ago, when I purchased that weapon illegally.”

  It was funny how he didn’t look like Jed or Zar, and they didn’t look like each other, yet you could see the resemblance between all, almost like Gabriel bridged the gap: Jed taking after his powerful father, Zar his willowy mother, and Gabriel both.

  “How did you know?” Zar asked. “Jed rang you? But everything else?”

  “We had more reason to believe you were in danger than simply that you didn’t pick up your phones for a couple of days. He said you were looking for casters w
ho could be dangerous. That he knew where, but he couldn’t leave Kage and his hostess alone in case there was also danger up north. He’s in the Lake District? I said I would go, started to make arrangements, wondered about a gun, then … we had more news. More happening here. I’ll tell you all…”

  He was trailing off when there was a brisk tap at the door. Breakfast.

  Gabriel and I stood—him for the door, me to remove my blanket and check on Jason.

  He and Andrew were just coming through the living room and I watched how Jason moved. He didn’t look frisky, but he didn’t look bad either.

  “There’s broth. Waiting for you to finish heating it right now.” I touched his shoulder. “How do you feel? Really?”

  “Bit off… Head hurts. Stomach… Not sure…”

  “No sharp pains, though?”

  He shook his head.

  “How about broth and a bit of toast or egg? Minimal solid food at first and see how you feel?”

  I went on to find Isaac finishing dressing, coming from the bathroom to sit on the bed and pull on his socks. He looked exhausted but smiled at me.

  I sat beside him, shrugging back the blanket onto the bed.

  He wrapped his arms around me, kissing my head, murmuring, “Neä amaus Vinu, arä.”

  Like we were in the middle of something. Like we were back to … us, how things were, how they went on: Isaac answering my question from the night in the Paris hotel room. He’d never been able to that morning when we’d been with Zar.

  “You three all right?” I asked, nestling into his shoulder. “I suppose you had a little too much together time in the catacombs.”

  “We’re all right. I feel as if I shall be dry-mouthed for the rest of my life, but I couldn’t have asked for better prison mates. That was something.”

  “I’m glad.” I smiled, eyes shut. “I don’t envy what you went through.”

  “Nor I you.”

  “They didn’t do anything to me. Jason wouldn’t let them. It was all him.”

  “Was it?” Isaac stroked my hair, tucking behind my ear, kissing again and running his hand up my back with the other.

  We remained still for a minute more, holding on, before I had to force myself to pull away, saying Gabriel had breakfast for us.