Apparently Ryder had decided the best way to deal with his mate was to focus on something else. Jackson didn’t answer right away.
“I bet it was at Gage’s instigation,” Carisma said.
Ryder looked at her. “I thought so too. See? We do go well together.” He smiled. “And I think I have an idea why but they aren’t going to answer. Not with you here.”
“What? Why not?” Carisma asked.
Jackson didn’t say a word. Neither did he, Summer, or Chloe. Ryder finally answered. “They aren’t sure if they can trust you.”
“Excuse me?” she sputtered, completely ignoring everyone but Ryder. “And they can trust you?”
Ryder met Jackson’s then his gaze before focusing on Chloe. Billy stiffened.
“I want to know what Nolan French’s daughter thinks,” he said.
“I think I have no idea what you’re talking about and I’m way out of my depth,” she said lightly.
It was a good act but Billy could see the other werewolf didn’t buy it. Finally he smiled and leaned back.
“I doubt that. Gage has been consolidating power here since he was a teenager, and he’s pushing hard for Nolan to head the new pack, if it’s formed. Everyone is aware of his friendships with you two and Darius, Eric, and Trey. It isn’t unusual to have friends in other packs,” Patrick interjected. “But we’ve wondered about the loyalty Gage has from other alphas. That is unusual.”
Billy studied him, thought about how to reply or if he even should, and wished Carisma wasn’t here so they could talk a little more openly.
“Friends are often loyal to each other, Ryder. There’s nothing odd about that,” Chloe said, a coolness in her voice Billy hadn’t heard since his late night visits to the diner.
“Relatively speaking, our territories aren’t far from each other. You never know when you might need the assistance of another alpha or his pack. The Society is getting more blatant and harder to track, as an example,” Jackson said into the silence.
“True,” Ryder conceded. “We’ve heard some disturbing things from the last couple we caught in our area. They’re actively seeking woman who are descended from werewolves. Especially if it’s just a generation or two removed. They claim there are female shifters.”
Carisma tensed up and stared at Ryder with a horrified expression. “You heard that from rogues? Society members?”she whispered.
He nodded.
“Do the other alphas know about this? Does my father?”
Carisma knew something and for the first time Billy thought those damned rumors might be true. She was too afraid of the speculation. Were they having dinner with a female werewolf or did she know of one? Ryder reached out and squeezed her hand, never taking his gaze from hers.
“He knows. We all discussed it yesterday. What do you know, darlin’?”
She hesitated a moment before answering. “We were contacted by a lone werewolf whose daughter ran away. He thought maybe she’d come to Vegas but we couldn’t find any sign of her. I’d hoped she went home.”
Billy smelled her deceit and could tell by the way he narrowed his eyes that Ryder did too, but Billy didn’t say anything. She wasn’t his mate or in his pack, but he’d make damned sure he got a few minutes alone with another member of her pack soon.
*
“Why hasn’t your father shared this information with the council?” Chloe asked.
“I’m sure he did…” Carisma ignored the two alphas at the table shaking their heads and focused on Chloe. “How do you know he didn’t?”
Chloe hesitated over how much to share. She’d always liked Carisma, who was smart and snarky, but if she was going to turn around and report everything she heard here to her father while he withheld information all the other packs and lone groups needed for their own protection, Chloe had to seriously question not just his motives, but his trustworthiness in the entire werewolf community.
“Other women have disappeared,” Chloe answered. That much should be general knowledge pretty soon if it wasn’t already, but Carisma paled. “What was her name? The girl who might have gone to Vegas,” Chloe asked.
Carisma twisted her fingers in her lap and stared at them. She was obviously shaken and letting it show was so out of character Chloe had a nasty suspicion.
“She was from your pack, wasn’t she? And she isn’t the only one.”
She didn’t need to hear Carisma’s answer to know she’d guessed right. It explained why Isaac was pushing his daughter at Ryder—to get her into a safer pack—but why had he kept it secret?
“Who, Carisma?”
The others stayed quiet while Carisma collected herself. She didn’t look as shaken when she looked at Chloe and she recognized the determined tilt of her chin.
“Holly, Tamzin, and Leigh.”
“Oh my god.”
She’d expected to know the missing women, but she hadn’t expected this. She didn’t need a second to realize what connected them, and she wondered if Isaac had done the same. She stood and floundered. They would know something was wrong if she ran out. Did she care? After all, Carisma had just dropped a bomb on them and Chloe had the perfect excuse to leave early.
“I promised my parents we’d stop by.”
Billy rose with her, looking worried. “Chloe?”
“I forgot to tell you Dad’s expecting us. I’m sorry.” She had to tell Gage. And her dad. And explain to Billy and Jackson why she was freaking out now.
“What? You’ll explain what the fuck is going on first,” Ryder snarled.
He clearly wasn’t buying her excuse, but Billy was the one she was worried about. He turned slowly, the coldest look she’d ever seen on his face, and spoke very softly. “You want to be very careful how you speak to my mate, Ryder.”
The other wolf backed down, but only a little. “I need to know if my mate is in danger.”
Chloe stared at Carisma a moment, quickly running through genealogies in her mind, and shook her head. “I don’t think she is. Not more than the average mate at least.”
But Ryder needed to watch out for his own pack and she was aware of that too. “All of the women she mentioned had grandfathers from the disbanded Atlanta pack. So were the others I know about.”
Patrick pulled his phone out and moved a few feet away, probably to warn the soldiers on guard back home.
“Why target descendents of a pack that no longer exists? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Shit,” Summer muttered. She nodded when Chloe met her gaze. Permission from her alpha’s mate. From her Regis’s advisor.
“It does if you want to draw someone out,” Chloe said.
It made a fucked up kind of sense. Whether those women knew it or not, they were part of Gage’s pack and he was nothing if not protective. Which meant someone out there knew there was a living Regis and didn’t want him reinstated. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise.
“Who?”
Nope. She wasn’t about to give him that information without being damned sure of his loyalty first. And Carisma’s allegiance was to her father. Chloe took a steadying breath, put on her blandest expression, and lied to him and his beta.
“I have no idea.” She nodded at Michelle Derry. “It was nice to see you again. Thank you for dinner, but we really should get going. I promised my parents we’d stop by and Dad should hear about this.”
Part of that was another lie but they didn’t need to know that. She didn’t even think about it. She was worried about Billy who still wore that frigid expression and seemed…removed somehow. But maybe this was his true self. The Appalachian beta. Cold and controlled. She’d never really seen this side of him and she hoped she wouldn’t again. He said the right things, smiled, kept his hand on the small of her back and crowded close as he walked her out of the suite and to the elevator. He didn’t say a word, even when they got in the car and were definitely alone, unobserved and unheard. He started the engine but made no other movement.
Eleven
<
br /> “You’re freaking me out a little,” she whispered.
Wyatt had been loud and a world class asshole when he was mad so she always had plenty of warning, but most of the wolves she knew were pretty vocal when they were angry or very worried. It didn’t bother her. Billy was the complete opposite and it scared her a whole lot more than she would admit. He turned his head, twisted his torso, to look at her and somehow she kept the fear off her face. He could smell it though. He grimaced and then he glared.
“You’re my mate. You’re supposed to trust me enough to not be afraid of me,” he snapped. “It’s not right.”
She got why he might say that, think that, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t the cause of that coldness she’d felt earlier. Or the hot anger now. She sighed dramatically. He narrowed his eyes at her, and she bit back a grin.
“What’s really bothering you, baby?” she taunted.
She had no idea where the sassiness came from but it was the old Chloe and she liked it. Especially when he gave her an intrigued, assessing look. She smiled sweetly back and arched her eyebrows.
“Well?”
He ground his teeth together, put the car in gear, and backed out of the parking space. He didn’t speak until they were on the road.
“This means it wasn’t easy targets the Society is after.” He paused. “Assuming it’s the Society. And that means you are in more danger than I thought. A bigger target than we’d normally think. And do not try to argue about that because you know you are.” He took a deep breath. “Werewolves’ mates always have to be careful and a beta’s mate is under bigger threat. You know that. This is…”
She stared. He was practically rambling, something she’d never expected to see. He pulled himself together, shook his head, his jaw clenched hard, and she resisted the urge to reach out to him. She needed to hear this, whatever it was, and he needed to say it. He took the turn that would take them back to pack lands silently.
“I know what that bastard did to you,” he said in a low, vibrating voice. “I understand why you came here and I respect the hell out of Gage, but I had no idea how at risk you were.”
His knuckles were white on the steering wheel and she realized this wasn’t a little fear. This was terror, and she even understood why. As long as he didn’t bite her and force those little enzymes in his saliva to mix with her blood they would not be mated. She’d be able to go on. Distance herself from werewolves. Disappear and have a family. He would never do that, though. Oh, at some point he’d probably have sex with other women, maybe have children if he wanted, but once a wolf met his mate that rarely happened.
“No one knew about this. We thought they were going after unaffiliated women. I was not one of those women. The house I live in backs up to Hector’s. I’m in the middle of the community. I doubt that’s on accident. I’ve been perfectly safe, Billy.”
They stopped at a red light and the look he turned on her was so conflicted she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be angry or rip his clothes off.
“That house backs up to Hector’s. It’s in the middle of the community. And for the last seven months, I haven’t been here. Do you even understand how important you are to me? This is about more than you being my mate, Chloe. You’re…everything.”
Oh, he was definitely pissed and afraid and a little frightening but at least he was letting her see it now. Nothing cold in his gaze. He didn’t make threats or demands. She figured that would come at the end of the week if she didn’t agree to go home with him. And then she turned his words over in her mind. The light changed and he drove on, but she thought about what he’d said. Agonized over his phrasing. Everything, he’d said and had hesitated like he’d wanted to say something else but held back. She was dying to know what and yet reluctant to ask.
“Call Gage and Nolan. Tell them we need to talk at your place now,” he said.
Professional. Cool and calm and business-like. There was a time he used that voice with her because he thought she was fragile, and as much as she wanted to argue with his assessment of her, she knew she had to figure it out for herself, but suddenly she was really pissed off.
“I’m not broke, ya know? I had an awful experience and I may not want to take that kind of risk again, but that doesn’t mean I’m fucking broke.”
He threw her a startled look. “I didn’t say that.”
“Then what’s with the tone?”
The worst part was she wasn’t sure if he was wrong, and hell, maybe he dealt with everyone that way. Somehow that made it worse. He was silent while she called her parents and then Gage.
“You’d rather I rant and rave?” he asked when she finished.
Well, that had to be a trick question. “Um. Most werewolves are pretty loud when they get pissed, and without mentioning the one we don’t talk about, I’d like to remind you that loud usually doesn’t mean violent.”
He reached for her hand, twined their fingers together and pressed them against his thigh.
“My father was a yeller. I didn’t find it helpful.” He paused. “He never hit anyone, that I saw.”
She stared at his profile while he clung to her hand, and she realized he’d never talked to her about his parents. He had an older who’d moved to another pack when he met his mate, but his brother had raised him in their pack and his parents…She searched her memory. She knew everyone in the pack, knew most of their stories.
“I don’t remember your parents.”
“They died in a hotel fire. You were five. I doubt you’d remember them.”
“And your brother raised you?”
He flashed her a smile. “Alec was twenty, working security for the pack and doing college online. I was sixteen when he met Rose, and by then I’d started working with Eric so when I asked to stay in the pack Brant let me.”
She felt like she was missing a whole lot in this conversation. “Do you ever feel like you missed out? Like you should have gone?”
She couldn’t imagine that and was relieved when he grinned. “You were in our pack.”
She laughed. “You didn’t know I existed,” she reminded him.
He went so quiet and still she braced herself. “What if I did?” he asked softly. “Not consciously. I never would have let him near you then, but what if some part of me knew? I was easily able to rationalize not leaving with Alec, but even if hadn’t, I would have found another way to stay. Leaving felt wrong.”
She didn’t have his senses but damn it, she heard the guilt, remembered she’d told him last night that she’d known he was her mate when she was a teenager. How long had he been beating himself up over it? She twisted in her seat to face him as they pulled onto her street.
“Billy, if any of it’s your fault, then it’s just as much mine.”
He wasn’t holding back when he turned to glare at her.
“Don’t you dare blame yourself,” he snarled, but she wasn’t the least bit be scared or intimated. She might be a little in love.
“Then you aren’t to blame either.”
He didn’t respond and his expression was stubborn. She didn’t like that one bit. “If we’re doing this, we both have to go into it guilt-free and blameless.”
He pulled into her parking area and glanced at the porch where her parents and Gage were waiting before turning to her.
“Guilt-free and blameless?”
She nodded, though something in his tone made her wary.
“Does that mean when I make decisions about your safety you’re not going to fight with me?”
“Didn’t we just establish that I’m safe?”
“No, we established there’s a threat to you we didn’t know about,” he said calmly. Much too calmly. She glanced to the porch to find everyone staring at them.
“We should talk about this later. After they leave,” she tacked on hastily.
She did not want him bringing it up with the others. They’d probably agree.
He cocked an eyebrow. “Whatever you say, baby.
Let’s get this over with.”
He was out of the car before she could say anything and she scrambled after him. She knew better than to trust that quick agreement. Jackson and Summer pulled in as she rushed over the foot bridge. Great, just what she needed. Billy had already led the others inside and was playing host, getting drinks, when Summer joined her.
“You okay?” she asked softly. The question startled her until Summer squeezed her hand and added drily, “They can be pretty overwhelming at this stage.”
She laughed, shook her head when Billy joined them with a questioning look and handed her a beer.
“This is about the meeting with Ryder?” Gage asked as Nicholas slipped in the back door. No one seemed surprised to see him. “I take it things didn’t go well?”
Jackson and Billy took turns relating the events of the evening and as she watched all the men in the room got tenser. Unfortunately, that tension was focused on her.
“We’ll need a second database, one that lists all the survivors from the Atlanta pack,” Nicholas said. “All of those women need to be warned, and we’ll have to put Anthony on the alert.”
Anthony was the leader of the hunters. At one time the group answered directly to the king but they’d been autonomous since the last Regis’s death. Gage was adamant Anthony not be told about who he was. She gathered there was some kind of history there.
“Kyle and I already have databases like that. We’ll get a copy to Anthony. In the meantime, especially this week with so many unknowns in the city, there are a few women who should have a guard anytime they’re outside your lands here,” her father said.
Damn it. That was exactly what she’d been trying to avoid. She could have argued with her father, brought him around. Jackson too probably. But Gage nodded, looked all too determined, and Billy, damn him, just looked smug.
“I don’t need a guard,” she said reasonably anyway. “It’s not like I’m going to be alone much at any point for the rest of the week.”
“Don’t even try to argue about it, Chloe,” Gage said. There was nothing threatening in his tone but she had to fight against flinching from the dominance he’d unleashed. He turned to Nicholas. “Eli?”
Lunar Mates Volume Two: Books 4-6 Page 6
