So I hadn’t blown it after all.
Breathing easily for the first time in hours, I pushed open the car door even as the professor accepted our truce with equal willingness. He hefted our stolen rifle onto his shoulder and slipped out the opposite side of the SUV, mouth remaining blissfully shut in the process.
Sebastien was ready for anything and was willing to follow my lead even when lacking the explanations he so roundly deserved. Perhaps that meant I should trust him with information about our mate bond, if nothing else. After all, how could the Tribunal possibly expect me to keep secret a physical connection Sebastien and I already shared, one that impacted every step we took and every thought that filtered through our brains?
Later, I decided, acknowledging my own cowardice even as I succumbed to it. Then I led my mate out of the darkness and into the light, entering a building where the nation’s strongest werewolves forged deals and stabbed each other in the backs.
Our safe haven was, perhaps, not so entirely safe after all.
Chapter 4
The building was abandoned, of course. That’s what I’d been counting on when I plotted our course eighteen hours earlier, knowing the Pinnacle was used only once a year and remained vacant in the interim. So I barely sniff-tested the entranceway before sliding with Sebastien onto a leather sofa not far inside the front door. Together, we fell soundly asleep.
Only when sunlight crept in a large bay of south-facing windows late the next morning did I stir and check the messages on my burner phone once again. Sure enough, my father had not only sent a second text, he’d also come through with information that cleared the haze of sleep away from my mind with alacrity.
“Derek’s encrypted data was a phone number,” Dad’s newest message read. After that came a string of eleven digits that my brother had taken such lengths to hide from everyone in the outside world. It was the key to his well-hidden location, and I had to force myself to take a breath.
Padding away from my still somnolent mate, I peered down at the simple string of numbers on the face of the phone. After years of precarious contact involving long chains of redirected ISPs then weeks of complete radio silence, my brother was a mere tap of a button away. And, okay, so that button might as well have been surrounded by big red caution lights and blaring sirens warning that I was about to make a stupid move. But I was seriously considering pushing it anyway.
Because this was my little brother we were talking about. He needed me. I had no choice but to follow the trail Derek had provided.
“I’ve set up an automatic cutoff if you absolutely have to make this call,” my father had added, throwing cold water on both my excitement and my relief. “Don’t tamper with the coding. Don’t bypass the program. I need you to stay safe.”
Safe. Glancing down at my mate one last time before slipping out the front door, I had to admit that Dad was right. Yes, my brother needed me...but so did my human partner. And I had a sinking suspicion I couldn’t contact one without drawing the other into danger.
“This is hazardous, Ember,” my father had warned at the bottom of the message, his understanding of my family-focused nature making it easy for him to guess where my thoughts would lead. “Let me make the call for you. Don’t risk yourself for a brother you’ve never met.”
Dad was right, as always. And yet, despite certain knowledge that waiting was the smartest course of action...I just couldn’t do it. Not when Derek lacked anyone else willing and able to watch his back. Not when my brother had been packless and alone for nearly half of his life.
I possessed a big sprawling family ready and willing to assist me in any way they possibly could while Derek had no one. Well...no one except me.
So, ignoring the shiver that raced down my spine, I clicked on Dad’s fail-safe to add a thin layer of protection to the stupid decision I was about to make. Then I pressed the button and placed the call.
FOR A LONG MOMENT, the screen remained blank. Then my brother’s face filled the small rectangle, and I breathed out his name in a sigh of relief. “Derek....”
Pulling the device closer to my nose, I attempted to pick out familiar details through an unfamiliar haze of tears. My brother was alive. Was walking down an open city street amidst a congested mass of humanity with no obvious chains or prison guards to pin him down. Had he really been wandering through his life without a care in the world the entire time I’d risked unfriendly alphas and scary government agents to find him? Was all of my worry and effort just a big sister’s overprotective streak?
And maybe it was the saltwater messing with my vision, but for a split second I didn’t think Derek recognized me. The younger male’s eyebrows drew together while his nostrils flared in a wolf-like show of agitation...then his mouth quirked up into that tiny hint of a smile that passed for affection in my brother’s world. “Big sister,” he responded, slipping into a vacant alley and leaving the chatter of people behind.
It was then that I noted the wolf-like alertness that sat heavily upon my brother’s shoulders. His eyes flitted from side to side, checking out the surroundings rather than focusing on my face, and his steps seemed to be chosen more carefully than was truly necessary as he padded deeper into the paved and enclosed lane.
As I took in the vein throbbing at the corner of his jaw, in fact, I realized that the ease with which Derek had slipped between the streams of innocent humans was all for show. My kid brother was in serious trouble...and I had approximately thirty seconds left to reel him in before the countdown timer Dad had set for me went off and cut through this connection I’d worked so hard to create.
“Where are you?” I asked, knowing even as I spoke that I was messing this up. At the best of times, Derek required gentle handling, like a once-feral cat that continued to startle away from sudden movements years after being installed in a loving home. I wasn’t going to win my brother over with a demand for details....but I might just manage to save his life.
I’d only be able to rescue my brother if he actually coughed up his location though. Predictably, Derek balked at the intrusive question, tossing it back at me like a hot potato. “Where are you, sis?” he countered. “I left my contact info at the college weeks ago. I’ve been worried about you alone in the big city ever since....”
“Is that where you are?” Counting up the hours my mate and I had traveled away from that very location the day before, I had to stifle a sigh. If we left now, we’d reach the college campus again a few hours after midnight...at which point we’d walk directly into the hands of angry werewolves who wanted my head. Slithering back out of that particular trap would prove difficult. But I’d willingly dive into far hotter water if that’s what it took to bring Derek in out of the cold.
Only, my frantic planning screeched to an abrupt halt as my little brother shook his head, artfully sculpted locks remaining perfectly in place despite the erratic movement of his neck. Current fashion might dictate a just-tumbled-out-of-bed approach, but Derek didn’t leave anything about his appearance to chance.
“No, I haven’t been there for weeks,” my brother answered. “I....”
Then his voice trailed off as his eyes cut back in the direction from which he’d come. A thunder of approaching footsteps, a curt shout. Even if my lupine ears hadn’t been able to pick up on the signs of imminent attack, the expression on Derek’s face would have been enough to clue me in.
We’d run out of time.
Chapter 5
Or rather, Derek had run out of time. Because danger hadn’t descended upon me as a result of this ill-fated phone call. No, our enemies had used the connection to track down my brother instead. And Derek lacked the resources to bust himself back out of custody once he was caught.
The only other option was.... “Run!” I demanded, pushing every ounce of alpha dominance I possessed into the plea.
The effort really shouldn’t have worked long distance, as I would have realized if I’d given the issue even an iota of rational thought. Bu
t my brother’s phone clattered to the ground anyway as he leapt to obey, the device bouncing before landing screen up. And rather than broadcasting a view of the cloudless sky overhead, an irregularity of the pavement angled the screen perfectly so I was given a front-row seat to my brother’s cat-like retreat.
I’d thought myself a pro at roof running, but Derek’s dash for freedom left my best efforts in the dust. Using a concrete planter as a launching pad, the long-legged twenty-one-year-old leapt for a window ledge and proceeded to swarm his way up the side of the building so capably I had to assume he’d plotted this retreat the moment he first turned into the alley. Apparently my brother’s feral-cat personality was paying off at last.
In contrast, my own upbringing had been more pampered pet than alley cat. So, even though my finger hovered above the end button, I found myself holding my breath and maintaining the connection on the off chance Derek might provide another clue before he left his pursuers behind. Because it went without saying that this hard-won connection—cobbled together through my own sleuthing, my pack’s fast action, and Dad’s coding skills—wouldn’t be accessible after today. Surely my brother wouldn’t disappear without offering me another way of getting in touch?
But Derek had more important matters on his mind than a worried older sister. Shiny black shoes and dark dress pants filled the screen as pursuers clustered around the spot my brother had inhabited only seconds earlier. There was grumbling, swearing, then a hand descended toward me—or rather, toward the front of Derek’s discarded phone.
The images on the screen shifted—brick walls, a dumpster, and grimy windows flickering in and out of view as the phone swung upwards. For an instant, I caught a glimpse of brilliant blue sky, my brother’s lanky form silhouetted against the rooftop. Surely Derek was safe now? Mere humans shouldn’t be able to catch up to an agile werewolf who possessed the literal high ground.
Sighing with relief, I watched the countdown timer on Dad’s defensive program descend toward zero. Three seconds, two seconds, one second. I might have lost the thread of this particular lead, but at least Derek was okay. At least I hadn’t harmed the sibling I’d set out to protect.
But then, just before the connection automatically cut itself off, the phone completed its arc from ground to sky. And a face came into view that shocked me with its familiarity.
Man in Black. The same government agent who had kidnapped my mate and secreted him away in a hidden bunker. This was the person who had been so tight on my brother’s trail that he’d nearly managed to snatch Derek off the street as a result of my call?
“Who...?” Man in Black demanded. Because while I’d seen the agent in question from a distance, we’d never officially met. He should recognize neither my name nor my face.
But before the male could complete his question, Dad’s safeguards kicked in. The phone dinged, the app crashed, and any tracers that might have been feeling through the darkness of the internet in search of my location were severed as the screen went abruptly black.
For my part, I was left with a hole in the pit of my stomach that no chocolate cake donut could fill. Instead, as I ripped the battery out of the burner phone, dread coiled at the base of my spine. I’d confirmed that my brother was alive and kicking. But it appeared that Derek had gotten in over his head in the process...while leaving me no way to pull him back to safety.
Chapter 6
Find him. Help him, my inner wolf demanded. Unfortunately, Derek had sidestepped my questions just as ably as he’d evaded the agents’ approach, so I had no idea where to begin hunting this time around. Meanwhile, I didn’t particularly want to wake my human partner and fall prey to questions I’d once again have to evade. So I fell back on the one task that never let me down. When in doubt—I bake.
To that end, I slipped past the slumbering professor and into a hallway that appeared both narrower and dustier than when I’d visited the Alphas’ Pinnacle as a child. If memory served, the center of culinary operations was down this corridor, past the rooms where part-time staff resided during annual gatherings, then through the secret door that looked like just another section of wall....
Aha. Sunlight streamed in large windows while my bare feet relaxed against the supportive chill of a well-maintained tile floor. Despite having been abandoned for approximately nine months prior to this point, the Pinnacle’s kitchen came remarkably well-stocked with every ingredient that could be stashed away in air-tight canisters or stacked within a huge chest freezer.
Cold air nipped at my fingers as I reached into the latter and drew out ingredient after ingredient to set on the counter nearby. Frozen peas, chicken stock, even beef cubes for dinner. Sebastien and I definitely wouldn’t starve while hiding out in this abandoned mansion. But could I also assemble a dessert delicious enough to overcome the wall I’d built between us...while lacking perishables like eggs and milk?
A challenge. Just what I needed to take my mind off the danger breathing down all of our necks.
To that end, I pushed Derek and both sets of pursuers out of my mind then lost a couple of hours to poking and prodding, chopping and mixing. A vegetable-rich soup went on the back burner, then I got down to the more important matter of dessert. Applesauce could take the place of eggs. A packet of powdered milk was likely still good despite the exceeded expiration date. There was plenty of flour and baker’s chocolate on hand along with salt and leavening. Perhaps when Sebastien sampled the resulting concoction, he’d go further than forgiving me. Maybe he’d even solidify the mating tether he didn’t yet know existed....
And as if my thoughts had drawn the human into existence, I looked up from the half-baked pound cake in the oven and found Sebastien leaning against the doorway as silently as any wolf. “Hey,” he greeted me, all rumpled clothing, bleary eyes, and smile that took away my breath.
A nap on the sofa hadn’t entirely wiped away the effects of overexertion, but the professor’s presence still flowed through the air as sweetly as the batter I’d recently licked off the bottom of the mixing bowl. Sebastien was tall and well-formed, his features more pleasing every time I gazed upon them. Still, it was his calm strength that drew me forward without conscious volition and bade me to slip beneath his arm in an uninvited embrace.
“Feeling better?” I asked my mate’s broad chest, not quite willing to relinquish contact long enough to peer up into his eyes.
“Much,” Sebastien answered, pulling me in tighter despite his human immunity to the lupine urge for skin-on-skin contact. He smelled of ancient books and spicy danger, the aromas overwhelming even amidst the haze of chocolate permeating the humid kitchen air. This male hadn’t yet officially accepted me as a mate, but our proximity felt like partnership nonetheless. It also felt remarkably similar to connections I’d once shared with a werewolf pack recently left behind.
Unfortunately, my companion’s scientific brain kicked in and dissipated the warm haze before I’d refilled even half of the packless pit in my stomach. “I’m awake enough to realize this isn’t your average abandoned mansion,” he prodded. “Who exactly owns this place?”
And the questions begin yet again, I thought, taking an unconscious step backwards until I was only loosely held within my mate’s encircling arms. “Nobody owns this place,” I replied. Then, backpedaling as tiny lines of displeasure formed at the corners of Sebastien’s eyes, I changed my tune. “Or maybe everybody does.”
I hadn’t realized how much our invisible tether was buoying me up until the connection sagged and drew me down along with it. Limbs that had formerly been infused with enough energy to dance across the kitchen floor now succumbed to gravity and dragged me earthward. Abruptly, it was all I could do not to sink onto the cool tiles and draw up my knees to protect my soft underbelly from attack.
Vagueness hadn’t worked, so I made yet another stab at replying to Sebastien’s initial question. “The Pinnacle is a shifter gathering place,” I simplified. “A bit like the human Supreme Court.” Which wa
s literally true...if the chief justices’ decisions had been based on whims and if those judgments were secondary to scheming ways to catch their compatriots alone behind the wood shed so throats could be torn out. “They only meet once a year though, so we’re safe here,” I finished. For now. Or at least so I hoped.
This time, my mate responded more physically than anticipated. Hands encircled my upper arms, pushing me yet further away until we each possessed an unhindered view of the other’s countenance. And even though the afternoon was hot and my skin was sweaty from the nearby heat of the oven, losing contact with Sebastien’s warmth affected me like a knife to the gut.
“That’s all you want to say?” the professor asked after one long moment. “This is a gathering place, we’re safe here, end of story?” As he spoke, emotions rolled across his face like a summer storm, proof that each refused explanation was a wedge driving my mate further and further away from the partnership I hoped to build.
He was right, of course. There was much more to the story than what I’d presented. But the very real possibility that Sebastien might one day be killed for my loose lips hovered relentlessly at the back of my mind. So I forced a smile and responded with purely human logic. “That’s everything...except that dinner will be ready in half an hour. Think you can find some plates and a clean table to put them on?”
For a moment, the two of us rested on the balance between interrogation and acceptance. Some day soon, Sebastien would stop asking and start demanding. Some day soon, he’d discover the difficulties of being a shifter’s mate and would make a decision about whether he could stomach being bonded to a woman who spent half of her days as a wolf.
But not today. Instead, Sebastien’s eyes narrowed in consideration. Then he shrugged and accepted my change of subject as the reprieve it was. “Consider the table set,” he answered, fingers skimming lower to caress bare skin before he released me entirely from his grasp.
Rogue Huntress Page 2
