“Well, I guess you know my secret now,” he teased.
“Which one?”
“That I don’t really do anything.”
She swatted his chest and laughed. “I’m sure that’s not true. Dave handled everything else. Those were just the few things he asked me to step in on.”
“Dave does well. He’s been in need of a promotion for a while. I think maybe I’ll see to that tomorrow. I’d rather focus my energy elsewhere.”
“Elsewhere, huh?” she said, sliding her body over his.
A growl emitted from his chest as he slid his hands up her body. It felt good to feel her weight on top of him. Her ample breasts pressed against his chest. The way her back dipped just before her round bottom. Rick dug his fingers into her butt and pulled her legs wide to straddle him. He groaned when her slick womanhood nestled against his growing erection.
“You’re always so ready for me, mate,” he murmured.
She moaned in response, and captured his lips for a soul-crushing kiss. Rick lifted her hips and positioned himself. When he brought her back down, she slid down the length of him, squeezing him tight. He watched as her eyes pooled with pleasure, and her head dropped to her chest. She rode him up and down slowly and greedily. Rick loved the feel of her, and the way she looked setting their pace. His hands roamed her body, teasing her nipples and grazing her clit. Each time, he felt her squeeze him just a bit tighter.
“Rick,” she said breathlessly.
He felt himself surge to the edge of his climax at the sound of his name on her lips. He quickly turned them so he was on top. He rose up on his knees and lifted her ass. Driving himself home, he took her clit between his thumb and finger. They both cried out in pleasure together as they rode the waves of their ecstasy.
As they snuggled together afterwards, Rick tried to ward off the thoughts of their situation. He desperately wanted to know the man’s name.
“I know you want to know. I just can’t say. Not yet,” Stella whispered before drifting off to sleep.
Chapter Twenty
Stella
When the sun rose the next morning, Stella knew she needed to leave. Rick was sound asleep next to her so she gently wiggled away from his side. He stirred for a minute and then rolled over, still sound asleep. Stella hurried and dressed, then grabbed her bag full of clothes she had packed several days ago.
She went out the door and hurried to walk down the street to Austin’s house. It took a few minutes of light knocking to bring Kate to the door. Stella motioned her inside.
“Is Austin home?”
“No, he went somewhere with Jasper this morning. Is everything okay?”
“Yes and no. I need a favor, but you can’t tell anybody. I mean that, Kate. I’m trusting you with the safety of the pack that you not tell a single soul where I am.”
Kate nodded nervously.
“Are you sure you can do that? If not, I need to know now so I can figure something else out.”
“Yes, I’m sure. You’re scaring me, though, Stella.”
“I need to stay in the apartment over the bar for a bit. Nobody must know I’m up there, and you can’t let anybody up there while I’m there.”
“Okay. Are you leaving Rick?”
“No, but I need to be close by, yet distanced for a while, if that makes any sense.”
“Does this have to do with what Rachel told you yesterday?”
“It does. I’m sorry I can’t tell you more. I need to get to the store, and then get over there. Is that going to be a problem?”
“No, nobody goes up there, and even if you were to be moving around up there, no one can hear anything down in the bar.”
“Great. Thank you, Kate.”
“You’re welcome. Good luck, Stella,” Kate said, hugging her before she left.
Stella turned and opened the door, and then had a thought.
“Kate, keep the baby away from the bar from now on. Understand?”
“Why?”
“I can’t say, but trust me. The baby is safest away from the bar. Don’t take her there for any reason.”
“Okay, I won’t.”
Stella nodded and then took off to Jasper’s to get her car. A quick stop at her home allowed her to get the things she needed from Grandma’s healer supplies. Then she drove to the grocery store and picked up essentials she would need for the following days. Three miles from The Kamp there was a park. Stella pulled in, and left her car there with the keys inside. If she was lucky, a local thug would steal it to help keep Rick off her trail for a bit longer.
Using an oil, Stella cloaked her scent and took off on the long, hot walk over to The Kamp. As she got closer, she dipped into the wooded area that ran behind the bar in case Austin had decided to stop by. The parking lot was empty, making Stella’s mad dash up to the apartment easy. She finally rid her arms of all the bags she had been carrying and put her groceries away.
She wondered if Rick had woken up yet as she spread her herbs and oils out on the table. As angry as he would be, she knew it was best that she keep everyone in the dark until she absolutely needed them to know more. A burst of anger rang through her mate bond with Rick. He had apparently realized she was gone. Stella winced at his anger and pain, and then quickly tried to shut the mate bond down. A healer’s bond with a shifter was stronger because of the healer’s special magic. She and Rick could do more than just feel the other’s emotions. They could communicate.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, mate.” Rick’s voice pushed through her weak barrier.
“Rick, you must let me do what I need to do. Know that I am safe.”
“Stella, I’m your mate. We’re supposed to do this together.”
“We will, but first I need to protect us.”
With that, Stella focused all of her energy on blocking Rick’s continued attempts to communicate with her. When he finally quit his attempts, she moved on to her reason for being in the apartment. Stella had brought Grandma’s book where she had written down all the spells and chants she had done over the years. Running her fingers over the old pages, she let her grief take hold of her for a while. Living in a world without Grandma was something Stella had never imagined. Grandma wouldn’t want her tears, though. She would want Stella to keep her memory alive by using the powers Grandma had given her to keep their pack safe and alive.
Chapter Twenty-One
Rick
The door to Rick’s office slowly opened. He had been at the casino for several hours, and word of his bad mood had apparently spread. Everyone was now approaching him with extreme caution. He didn’t blame them. Stella taking off on him and then shutting down their mate bond had his stomach in knots. He didn’t like her out there fighting evil without him.
Jasper’s head poked through the door.
“Can we come in?” Jasper asked.
“Looks like you already are,” Rick snapped.
Jasper, Austin, and Justin stepped into Rick’s office. The men all took seats and waited for Rick to speak. He figured they thought that Stella had been an obedient mate, and had told Rick the name of the man last night. Now he had to tell them that not only had she refused to give up the name, she was now gone.
“Stella took off this morning. I’m not sure where she is, nor did she tell me the name of the man,” Rick finally blurted out.
Austin was the first one to start laughing. Jasper and Justin soon joined in. Rick looked at them wide-eyed, and a bit annoyed.
“I’m glad you assholes find it funny,” he said, trying to keep the smile from touching his lips.
“It sounds like something my mate would do,” Jasper said.
“She comes by it honestly, then, I see,” Justin added.
That caused them all to laugh harder. Rick finally joined in their laughter. It had been a while since he had fully laughed, and he had forgotten how good it felt.
“The situation isn’t funny. Your mate acting like a typical mate is. I don’t know what get
s into these women, but we’ve all been there.”
“For whatever reason, she feels it’s safer for us to not know what’s going on.”
“She’s our healer. We have to trust that she knows what she’s doing,” Austin said.
“What if she’s in trouble?” Rick said, throwing his hands up in frustration.
“Then trust that she will tell you. Stella didn’t fight like hell to bring you back just to go off and get herself killed,” Justin said.
“Dark magic isn’t something to mess around with. I know she’s our healer now, but she hasn’t been for long. Dark magic is strong, let alone someone practicing old dark magic,” Rick said.
“Have faith, Rick. Also, why don’t you come have a drink?” Austin said.
“It’s been a while since we’ve all been to The Kamp,” Justin said, making his way to the door.
Rick looked around at the work he still had laid out on his desk. After a quick internal battle, he decided it could all wait.
As they filed into the bar, Greg greeted them with a wave.
“Hey, there’s the whole crew. Where ya been, Rick?” Greg asked, handing Rick his usual drink.
“Here and there. How ya been, Greg?”
“Doing good, Rick.”
Greg handed the rest of the guys their drinks and they all went back to their usual table. They made small talk for a while. Rick listened and tried to respond genuinely, but his mind kept going to Stella. He could feel her alive and safe through their mate bond, but she still had their communication shut down. Then he tried to think of what Rachel had said. She had been sent to seduce Rick. The story Stella had told him was that because she had been with Rick she had met the man who dabbled with black magic, and then the man fell in love with her. It seemed to be a contradiction.
The age-old question about the chicken or the egg came to mind. It seemed important to figure out whether Rachel really had been sent to him, or had ended up in her situation because of him. Rick’s mind wandered back to the night they had first met.
She had been beautiful. When she looked over her shoulder, blonde hair blowing in the wind, he was hooked. His eyes roamed her body, and then met back up with her knowing eyes. She knew she was beautiful as well.
“Come with me, shifter,” she said, her voice low and sultry.
“Wherever you want me to go, I’ll gladly follow,” he said, taking her hand.
She led him down Bourbon Street and then up a back alley. He noticed briefly that his usually tense bear was subdued. Obviously, Rick hadn’t felt the mate bond before, but maybe this woman was his mate. The woman to finally subdue his beast. He followed as she led him down another block and into an older French-style Louisiana home nestled in the heart of New Orleans.
His alpha would argue he should have let someone know where he was. Rick had yet to encounter anyone, shifter or human, that could best his bear. The need to participate in the buddy system seemed ridiculous. His alpha’s reasoning was directed more towards the younger men just coming of age to mate. It made them hotter-headed. Rick would agree with that. He was definitely hot-headed, but now in the presence of this woman his bear had yet to rumble to life at all.
Austin hadn’t been his alpha back then. A man named George had been his alpha. Soon after Rick’s encounter with Rachel, he had left the pack, and been alone for several years. When he stumbled into a bar in old Metairie one night, Rick had met Austin. Austin had been alone as well. Rick couldn’t even remember when they had grown into the pack they were now. It all seemed to happen overnight, even though he knew it had taken time.
He drifted back to the night with Rachel.
“Welcome to my home, shifter,” she said, turning and sweeping her arms out around her in the middle of her living room.
Her scent swirled around him, and he hummed with pleasure.
Now, he tried to remember anything about her apartment. Where had they been? They had walked from Bourbon street, but what street had he gone down? Had there been a house number on the front door? What was it about her that made him think she was his mate?
Nothing came to mind at first. He turned his focus back on the first time he had seen her. She had been at the bar ordering a drink.
As he approached her she looked back at him over her shoulder. Had she been expecting him? She looked pleased with herself that he had approached her. He hadn’t noticed that before. He bought her a drink, and they danced afterwards. Then she had led him out of the bar and to her house.
Rick needed to figure out where she had taken him. He strained his mind.
“Rick, you okay?” Austin asked, pulling Rick from his thoughts.
“I was just trying to think back to the night I met Rachel,” he admitted.
“How did I not realize when I hired her that she had been touched by dark magic? It makes me sick that she’s sat right outside my office all these years,” Jasper said, slamming his fist down on the table.
“She’s a chameleon. You couldn’t have known. I wonder what she hoped to gain from working for you, though.”
The men all thought on it for a while. Justin perked up then.
“When Veronica and I were having trouble, you handpicked the guys to come and work for me. That way we knew they couldn’t have had any dealings with my brothers. My brothers would have loved to have had someone close to me. To any of us, really. I wonder if Rachel isn’t the only one working for one of us that’s linked to whoever our mysterious man is.”
“Shit,” Austin breathed.
They all looked around the bar with untrusting eyes. If Jasper hadn’t realized Rachel’s true identity, the possibility that all of them had a chameleon on their payroll was highly likely. Rick had no idea where to even start to weed them out.
“Let’s ask her,” Jasper said, standing up.
“It’s almost five o’clock. We’ll never catch her at the office in time,” Justin said, glancing at his watch.
“Maybe not, but Emma’s still at the office. She can tail her.”
Jasper yanked his phone out of his pocket and sent Emma a text. His phone immediately pinged back her confirmation.
“Let’s wait and see where she goes. There’s no point in getting out in traffic headed one way, when she could just as easily come back this way.”
The men all waited rather impatiently. Rick was itching with the need to be productive. Wherever Stella was, she was fighting for him. While he was sitting in a bar, drinking beer with his buddies. Jasper’s phone pinged twenty minutes later.
“She’s down in the quarters. Let’s go.”
They all stood and filed outside and into Rick’s truck. He sped down to the quarters, following Jasper’s directions to the exact place Rachel had gone. When they finally found a public parking lot that wasn’t full, Rick pulled his giant truck in and filled two spaces. As they rounded the corner to where Emma was waiting for them, Rick suddenly realized where he was.
“This is it!” he said, walking faster.
“Wait, what is it?” Austin asked, grabbing Rick’s arm to stop him.
“This is the bar where I first met Rachel. We need to follow her when she leaves here, see where she goes.”
“Okay, but it’s going to be awfully hard for five shifters to blend in,” Justin scoffed.
Rick shot him a glare, but he had to agree. He searched the crowds until he found who he had been looking for. A young boy was performing for money just down the street. The panhandlers in New Orleans were infamous. They’d do anything for a buck. Rick walked up to the young man and interrupted his performance.
“Hey, man, bug off. Unless you’ve got money to cover all the heads you’re costing me,” the young boy sneered.
“I’ve got double. Half upfront, and half when you’re done,” Rick said.
The young man eyed him warily. He’d probably been propositioned before without proper payment.
“Here,” Rick said, pulling out his wallet and handing the kid two crisp hundred-do
llar bills.
“This is half?” the kid said with wide eyes.
“Yup. Come with me. I’ll show you what I need you to do.”
Rick led the kid back to where the rest of the group was standing. He told the kid what Rachel looked like and told him once he got inside of the bar to text Rick a picture to make sure he had the right woman. Then to just follow her whenever she left, and send Rick the address of where she went. The kid agreed, and then disappeared into the bar.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Stella
She felt him walk into the bar. Every fiber of her being wanted to go down and greet him. Stella stayed her course, though. She had just finished mixing the herbs that she needed. Now she had to gather the correct oils. Oils were tricky. Just one drop too many could corrupt the entire chant. She couldn’t risk everything going bad now. There was too much on the line.
Stella worked well into the evening. Finally, her stomach wouldn’t let her go any further without nourishment. She grabbed a Coke and a yogurt from the fridge, scarfing them down in record time, then settled back into what she had been doing.
Grandma stayed on her mind the entire time she worked. It was as if she was there with Stella, encouraging and reminding her. She missed the old woman fiercely, and wished there had been a way to save her. Emma hadn’t had enough time with her, and Stella wasn’t sure she could face her demons without the woman’s easy confidence and support.
As Stella stood back to admire her work she realized she was done preparing. Her first attack was ready to be carried out. She took a long drink from her Coke, hoping to ward off her hunger a bit longer. Then she started to chant. Once her chants were done she gathered her mixture and sprinkled it all over the floor of the apartment. There was more to the chant that she recited.
A quick look out the window told her it was dark, and the bar would be in full swing. She hurried down, cloaked by the night, and sprinkled her mixture all along the perimeter of the bar as well. Then she raced back to the apartment. Rick’s truck hadn’t been in the parking lot, but she knew that didn’t mean he wasn’t there.
Saving the Bear (Bear Kamp Book 4) Page 6
