But I didn’t care.
I wanted him.
Before I could put my need into words, Rourke nodded toward my passenger window, pulling the car over slowly. “Looks like our chat about stopping at the Safe House was a little premature after all.”
I turned and followed his gaze.
Outside, standing on the street corner in front of us, were my brother and Danny.
Wearing only their underwear.
5
Rourke eased the Porsche to the curb, and Tyler and Danny strode up to the window.
“Tyler, I can’t get out of the car,” I told him through the glass. “It’s keeping me cloaked. The sorcerers tracked us back to the Coven … But more importantly, why are the two of you standing on a street corner in your underwear?” I stifled a giggle. It was just so unexpected.
“Someone spelled the outside of the Safe House,” he answered, hearing me perfectly. “The moment we set foot into the parking lot, we were covered in a slimy gel. We had to strip down to fight off the spell. Everything but our boxers came in contact with the toxic mess, and when we changed back to human, our clothes had disintegrated.”
I bit my lip. “Well, I’m happy you’re both still in one piece.”
“Don’t worry, my important bits weren’t affected, in case you were wondering. If they had been, it would’ve been quite a different story.” Danny grinned. “Where are you off to, then?” He bobbed his head toward our new ride. “It’s not safe to linger here any longer. We’ll meet up with you soon, but you should get out of town immediately.” Danny was in charge of Pack security for a reason. He was always on alert and he was good at his job.
“We found out Marcy is safe for now. Rourke thinks we should head to the Ozarks,” I answered. “He’s got supplies there and knows the mountains. The sorcerers need a network, and they won’t have one outside the city limits. You two can meet us there in a few weeks, once things cool down.” I directed my next question at Tyler and tried not to sound too hopeful. “Did you get ahold of Dad?”
“Yes, but it was disjointed,” he replied. I sat up straighter. That was good news. “He was too far away to get a clear signal—I think he said they were still somewhere in the Everglades. They’re tracking the fracture group, and Redman and the rest of the Southern wolves are with him.” Redman Martin was the Alpha of the U.S. Southern Territories, and my father was not a fan. It was unprecedented that he had gone down there to try and work as a team to eradicate the fracture pack. “He was glad to hear we were all safe and was a little frustrated he couldn’t get through to you on his own.”
I shook my head. I internally blocked my father’s natural communication as Alpha, but I had no idea how I was doing it. Or how to fix it. “Did he say anything about James?” My father thought his second had gone rogue. “Did you tell him we figured out he went after Marcy?”
Tyler cleared his throat. “I did, but it didn’t make him happy. I told him we’d fill him in when we knew more.”
Going rogue meant a wolf willfully defied his Alpha’s command. It wasn’t a small thing. No matter James’s reasons, my father could choose not to forgive him, which meant James would be exiled from Pack. And if James didn’t assimilate into a new Pack quickly, he’d have a bounty on his head.
Rourke put his hand on mine and I turned to him. He and James had fought together long ago, and I knew they had a grudging respect for each other. “If James went after your secretary, and left his Pack willingly in a time of war, that can mean only one thing,” he said, his voice firm. “Irish found his mate.”
The same thought had crossed my mind the moment we’d found out he’d gone after Marcy, but there hadn’t been any time to put the pieces together in a way that made sense. “If they were mated, it would certainly explain a lot.” I thought about it for a moment. “And it would definitely explain his reaction to her at the Pack meeting. He pretty much carried her out of the room when she’d tried to bring me water. I think that was the first time they’d ever met face-to-face.” I shook my head in wonderment. “That’s big news. I don’t know much about bonding, but finding your mate outside your Sect is rare, correct?” I looked to Danny, who was older than Tyler and I. He was also English. Maybe Europeans had a bunch of interspecies relationships we knew nothing about?
“I’ve never heard of it before,” Danny answered. “But the two of you are quite an unlikely pairing as well, even though you’re both shifters. Something must be tainting the well we’ve been drinking from, eh? Or a major tide is shifting for supernaturals everywhere, but either way it’s unprecedented as far as I know.”
Cats and dogs were definitely not the norm. Shifters mated with human women, since there were no females born. It had always been that way. If a Sect had males and females, they found their mates among their own kind. A pairing of two supernaturals of different gene pools had the potential to be explosive, their offspring being a rare mix of powers. Danny was right. It felt like a tectonic shift was happening in the supernatural world—and the only one who had any answers was fate. “But the two of them together is good,” I said, nodding once as I made up my mind. “It means Marcy will remain safe. James will protect her ferociously. My father will have to find a way to understand, and if he doesn’t, we’ll have to make him understand.”
Tyler turned away from the window as he glanced down the street. “Something smells different all of a sudden.” He had an uncanny knack for scenting, so it meant it was farther away than the rest of us could detect. Tyler was talented enough to smell an aura, picking up on the subtle layers of someone’s personal magic. Smells still overwhelmed me. Parceling them away took skill and practice, and I hadn’t had enough time to figure it out since I’d made my first change.
Danny’s head went up, too, but he shook his head. “I don’t smell anything, mate.”
“Time to go.” Rourke revved the engine, his eyes scanning the road behind us.
“One last thing before we leave,” I said through the glass. “You guys need to pick up Nick. He’s still at the Coven with the witches and the baby oracle. It’s a long story, but it’s how we found out Marcy was okay. We had to leave him there, but the sorcerers have likely bailed now that I’ve left, so it shouldn’t be an issue. I’ll be in touch as soon as I can. But if you don’t hear from me before then, meet us in the Ozarks in two weeks.”
Tyler’s mouth opened and closed. “You lost me at ‘baby oracle.’”
“Too much to go into, but he’s in the huge stone mansion on the northern peninsula of Lake of the Isles. You will know which one once you arrive. My scent will be all over the yard.” Rourke put the car in gear. It was time to move. “Oh, and you might want to think about finding some pants before you head over. If the witches get a gander at the two of you in your Calvin’s, they may never let you leave.” I grinned.
“That’s hilarious, Jess.” He bent over the window. His face changed to pensive in the next beat and his emotions ran through me, a mixture of worry and love. “Just make sure you stay safe. That’s the only thing that matters. Stay alive. And, cat, make sure she doesn’t hurt herself. We’ll see you in a few weeks.”
Rourke responded, “That’s my prime objective.”
A few blocks up a grumbling noise shook the street.
Tyler slapped his hand on the top of the car. “Go! Get out of here. We’ll take care of this.”
Rourke took off from the curb, tires squealing. I glanced back to see Tyler and Danny running toward the disturbance. You can’t fight the threat in your underwear! I yelled at my brother.
I’m not planning on staying in my underwear for long.
They dropped to the ground to shift right as Rourke turned the corner.
We drove all day, stopping only for sustenance, which Rourke went in and bought. This car was truly spelled. It didn’t need any gas and there was a never-ending supply of loose twenties in the glove box, which replenished as soon as we used them. There were also insurance papers and drive
r’s licenses with our names and pictures on them.
Witches were freaky.
I’d slept some, but most of the hours had been spent staring at Rourke with naked longing.
His delicious scent was driving me out of my mind. The small sports car was crawling with pheromones, and because we couldn’t risk opening the windows, we couldn’t escape them. No matter how many times I’d tried to convince him to pull over, he wouldn’t, and it was clearly taking its toll on both of us. Nothing had convinced him to stop—save hunger, and that had required threatening to eat the dashboard.
I hadn’t allowed myself to physically touch him in any way.
Because once it started, it wasn’t going to end without a powerful climax. The adrenaline raging through my system from escaping the sorcerers had no place to go, which made his scent all the more intoxicating.
And of course we’d gotten a car without a backseat.
Tally probably had an arsenal of vehicles, and we were lucky enough to get the one with no room to do anything fun. My wolf continued to pace back and forth in my mind like a caged animal, as she had for the past fourteen hours. “So,” I asked, affecting another causal conversation, “when we finally reach the Ozarks, do you think it will finally be safe enough to ditch the car?” The sun had set a few hours ago and we were close to our destination.
“Nothing has followed us thus far, so it should be okay. If not, there’s no real choice but to keep moving forward,” he replied. “I’ve taken all the back roads I can, and when we’re on my turf, we have a chance to fight or outrun anyone. I have supplies all over the area. I’m not risking anything less than full armament at this point.” His voice was strained as he caught me up in a look. His eyes were filled with a deep craving. “You know, this is not easy for me either. You sitting so close to me, within my reach. It’s making my head pound in agony and my beast is beyond reasoning with.”
My wolf howled in frustration. “Once we finally step outside this car, I’m ripping your clothes off. Enough is enough.”
The steering wheel cracked and Rourke shot a glance at me, his irises radiating a beautiful emerald fire. Through clenched teeth he managed, “We’re not doing anything until we get to the cabin.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, like that’s happening.”
“Jessica—”
I sprang forward in my seat. No more reasoning. It had left the building thirteen hours ago. “Listen,” I said, barely resisting shaking my finger in his face. “Our mate bond is all but choking us to death in this godforsaken car. I’m a newborn wolf in every sense, and my rationale left a long time ago. I need to finally be connected to you, and it’s overpowering any good judgment I’ve ever had.” I ran my hands through my hair and leaned over and plucked a bag of pretzels off the floor. Dry convenience-store food was a sorry substitute for sex, but it’s all I had. I grumbled as I popped a handful in my mouth. “Honestly,” I said around a mouthful, “I’m surprised I haven’t straddled you while you’re driving.”
The car swerved as Rourke made a strangled sound. “You have to stop saying things like that!” His voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “Like you, my control is hanging on by a single thread. Do you know how much I want that? Want you? But our first time isn’t going to be hurried like a couple of teenagers in the front seat of a car.” He snarled his frustration. “I will take my time with you. Our first bonding means something.”
“Fine,” I grumbled like a petulant child, tossing the bag by my feet. “But I’m hiking to the cabin naked.” I crossed my arms in front of me.
“Jessica!” The car bumped wildly off the road.
He straightened it with effort as I craned my neck behind us, recognizing the area. “Isn’t this near the place you stored your motorcycle last time?” It was dark as night outside, but the area looked familiar. My arms prickled in anticipation—not only at the thought of being with Rourke, but I was excited because I’d fallen in love with this place once before and I thought I’d never see it again.
“Yes,” Rourke said grimly. “And it couldn’t have come at a better moment.” He ran a slightly shaky hand over his face as he took his foot off the accelerator.
“Where are you going to park?” He’d stowed his bike behind the brush in a shallow indent of rock. “The car won’t fit with your bike.”
“There’s a place up ahead, closer to the sulfur stream, which means less walking in the water.”
“Do we have to douse ourselves again? It didn’t really work out for us last time.”
“The pool is mandatory.”
I turned, resting my head against the seat, my eyes blazing. “You don’t say?”
He gave a strangled cough. “We need to do it because it will give us an advantage if we have any unwanted visitors. They won’t scent us as easily, and I want to know who’s on my mountain before we hit the cabin.”
“Hmm, yes, that sounds like a perfectly good explanation to get all wet.”
“Jessica”—he turned to me, his face set—“if we do anything in that pool, we’re never getting out.”
“And I don’t see anything wrong with that scenario.” He shouldn’t be surprised at my reaction. I’d told him five seconds ago there was nothing rational left rolling around in my brain. He shook his head and I sighed. “Okay. Fine,” I conceded. “I get it. We swim, we splash, we hike, we investigate, and then we—”
He slammed on the brakes so hard the car skidded to a stop, gravel from the shoulder fanning in an arc around us, alarm all over his face. “I just saw a flash of something in the trees.” His arm went up, pointing directly into the forest next to the passenger side of the car.
“Where?” I asked, immediately at attention, scanning the trees. The moon was out, but it was cloudy, which made it harder to see.
“It looked like two people, but then they were gone before I could see what they were doing.”
I squinted. “I don’t see anything.”
“The only reason I haven’t sped off in the other direction is because they weren’t focused on us, and it could’ve been two humans.”
“If they were humans, we’d still see them bumbling around.” I leaned forward in my seat, still searching.
“Maybe they were apparitions.”
I raised my eyebrows, turning to him. “Are you talking about ghosts? I’ve never seen one, but that seems highly unlikely. You know, all we need to do is open a window and scent the area.” I was sick of this hermetically sealed car. It was time to make a break. “We’re getting out anyway. Let’s see who’s here and then we can decide what to do.”
“Let me straighten the wheels out first,” Rourke answered, resigned.
The hairs on my arms started to rise to attention. “Hurry,” I said. “I’m starting to feel something.” Otherness was seeping through the witch’s spell on the car. Every supernatural had the ability to detect the other. I had no idea how it worked, I was just happy it did.
“I can feel it, too, but it’s muddled in here.”
“I’m cracking the window,” I said as Rourke put the car into park. “You ready?”
He’d angled us into a semisheltered place on the side of the road. “Fine, but I’m keeping my foot on the gas pedal, so don’t get any ideas about leaving until we find out what’s going—”
My window went down less than a centimeter and I knew who was out there and so did Rourke.
I flung my door open before anything else could register.
“Naomi! We’re here!” I yelled as I ran headlong into the forest.
6
I slowed to a jog, turning my head from side to side trying to search for Naomi’s scent trail.
“Jesus Christ, you can’t keep doing that,” Rourke growled, running up alongside me. “In the future, I’m going to have to shackle you to my wrist with some spelled handcuffs.”
My wolf barked at the word “handcuffs,” but I was too preoccupied. I stopped and inhaled as I spun in a slow circle. “Why isn’t she
here?” Then I picked up a new scent. It was familiar, yet changed. I grabbed on to Rourke’s sleeve. “Do you smell that?” I started running again. “Naomi!” I called. “Where are you?”
Rourke moved behind me, keeping pace with me easily. “He smells pissed off.”
“I know.” Ray’s signature had changed, but he still smelled like his usual malice. But I guess that was to be expected. At least we knew he had survived the transformation. Ray was going to be angry whether he lived or died. He always smelled pissed off. Now he just smelled like a pissed-off vampire.
We both jogged farther into the forest, into thicker tree cover, our noses finally leading us in the right direction. We covered a mile in a few minutes, running parallel to the river, heading toward the sulfur. Their scents were stronger here, even though the sulfur was doing its best to interfere.
“There’s a break in the trees.” Rourke pointed. “Let me go first.”
“Let’s go together.” I slowed next to him. “I’m not breakable china.”
Rourke snorted as his hand shot around my wrist, bringing us to a stop. “Just be prepared for the worst. He smells lethal.”
I tried to steel myself. Get ready, I told my wolf. This is going to be ugly. “If Naomi was forced to bring him here early, there must have been major complications. It’s lucky we arrived when we did.”
“There’s a possibility something went wrong with the transformation process,” Rourke said.
I didn’t want to think about that.
I was ultimately responsible. I’d made a split-second decision to let Naomi try to save Ray’s life. My logic had been if Ray didn’t want to be a vampire, we could end his life again. But this way he had a choice. In the end, I felt I owed him something. For all his orneriness, he had begun to accept us, to understand there was something different in the world. He had tried to help me and had his throat torn out for his efforts.
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