Lunar Mates Volume Two: Books 4-6

by Loribelle Hunt

  Cooper was damned tempted to throw in an except for now. She was close. He could feel her but he couldn’t see her, and it made him nervous. And that pissed him off.

  Jackson picked up a pen and rolled it over his fingers, looking at the other twins in the room. Rule and Lawe.

  “We’ll let it go for now. What do the hunters know about this rogue?”

  “Greg was the fifth victim. This rogue wolf always attacks at night, never the mates, and when only one twin is present. We have no idea how he picks which one. Probably just opportunity.”

  “And you don’t know who he is. So what led you here? You got here before the storm, before the attack.”

  The other twin took over in giving the report. Both looked nervous as hell, as if they didn’t want to give that explanation.

  “Except for the Thompsons, their mates are all connected to this pack. We weren’t sure if that was a coincidence or if he was targeting women in this pack. Or if it’s just that y’all have a slightly higher percentage of twins here. And they were spread out enough no one made the connection. We didn’t realize the cases were connected until last week after the Charleston attack when we reviewed them all.”

  Jackson arched both eyebrows. “I should have been notified, don’t you think? Word should have gone out.”

  “We agree. But these attacks have been spread out over the last three years, until the last two. The hunters didn’t suspect they were connected until Charleston when we found the other connection and it isn’t your pack. All of the mates are descended from the Regis’s pack. From his inner circle no less.”

  That old cliché about blood running cold? Cooper discovered it could definitely happen. Aaron sent him a sharp look and an even sharper mental what the fuck? But they couldn’t actually talk in words and he couldn’t convey the emotions that would explain it, other than a sense that this meant danger for their mate. Besides, he didn’t want to risk trying to explain that way with all the witches in the house. Aaron’s eyes glowed for a couple of seconds before he got himself under control.

  “And what do you know about him?” Jackson asked.

  For the first time the Sanders twins showed irritation, both fidgeting. Cooper wondered if he and Aaron mirrored each other so closely.

  “Nothing. Greg is the first surviving witness we’ve had. Other than the rogue was a standard grey wolf and he didn’t recognize it, he hasn’t been able to provide any information.”

  Jackson tossed the pen, the first sign of his irritation. “Well, that’s just great. Maybe Ellen will be able to help.”

  No one responded to that, but the air grew heavy with tension. The thought of bringing a woman into the hunt for a rogue didn’t set well with any of them.

  “She’ll be here soon.” He sighed. “I need to find a guard.”

  “Already done,” Trey said. “Clint’s handling it.”

  Jackson cocked an eyebrow at Trey and grinned. “That right? And here I thought you were a member of Darius’s pack.”

  “I serve where needed,” Trey intoned in a mocking voice, and the older werewolves in the room, his friends and Clint, laughed. Even Billy cracked a smile.

  But the four of them, Cooper, Aaron and the hunters, were struck dumb. They’d all spent time with Trey. Training. Working. Cooper had never seen the man smile tough, never seen a break in the severe mask he always wore. Sure as hell never saw him crack a joke. Maybe this is what finding a mate did for you. Not softened, but dulled the edges, tempered the beast that lived in every hunter, that had to live there so they could do the job. Maybe finding a mate for someone like him made it easier to reenter the fold, return to the pack. It seemed to have worked that way for Trey at least. Cooper could live with that. Wanted to try at least. Before the conversation could continue, someone knocked on the door.

  “Come,” Jackson said, and Billy stood to open the door.

  Cooper was watching Clint when Ellen came in. His reaction was controlled, covered so fast Cooper wouldn’t have caught it if he hadn’t been watching. The other man’s eyes widened, his nostrils flared, and his hands fisted for half a second. If he didn’t know better, Cooper would think the woman was Clint’s mate. But that wasn’t possible, was it? They’d known each other for years. If that were the case, Clint would have made his claim by now, wouldn’t he?

  He turned to look at Ellen. To him, Delilah was perfect. Beautiful and his. But this woman looked as if she’d just walked off the cover of a high fashion magazine. To be her mate would be to constantly deal with unwanted male attention. She was gorgeous. Slim and tall, with long, straight, red hair that fell to the middle of her back. Rule and Lawe definitely noticed too. He saw their eyes flare with hot interest.

  “Ellen, come here,” Clint said.

  He had been off to the side of the room, but he stepped into the center as he spoke. She hadn’t seen him when she walked in and at his words, her head swung around, flaring her hair around her upper body. It blazed like a fiery fan. Cooper suddenly understood why Aaron was so pissed off Delilah cut her hair. Ellen glared at Clint, but she didn’t speak or move.

  “Now, Ellen.”

  There was a growl in his voice, warning and territorial possession in his tone. Cooper wondered if he spoke to Delilah that way, and he knew she was Clint’s mate. Why he hadn’t claimed her was the curiosity. She glared. Cooper was sure she would refuse him, but she didn’t. She walked over and let Clint yank her close. He wrapped his arms around her waist and glared at Rule and Lawe. It was as obvious a claiming as the bite on her neck that would no doubt come soon.

  Trey grinned at the couple. “Well, it’s about time.”

  Jackson answered dryly, “Do you know everyone’s secrets, Trey? Darius, I’m stealing him back.”

  Darius snorted. “I don’t think so. Even if you could convince him, you’d never get Tara to agree to give up her bakery and move here.”

  Trey nodded. “Tara is a force to be reckoned with, and I, for one, am not taking her on. Sorry, man.” He wasn’t at all repentant.

  “Don’t worry, Jackson. You’ll break Aaron and Cooper in soon, and they’ll end up being just as sneaky and as big a pain in the ass as Trey is.” Eric grinned as he shot a droll look at Trey.

  Cooper met Aaron’s gaze then looked at Rule and Lawe, noticing they were just as off balance at witnessing the four old friends so open and easy. Billy seemed to take it in stride, which struck Cooper as odd, since he was the same age as all the twins. Cooper figured that was from exposure. Must be like getting vaccinated.

  Jackson, Darius, Eric, and Trey had reached legendary status in his mind years ago, and he wasn’t the only one. It was like those four were particularly blessed. He cocked his head to the side as he watched them continue to joke and wondered about it. Cooper had joined the hunters because he’d always known he’d never be alpha. It was damned obvious to everyone that that would fall to either Jackson or Darius from the time they’d been young boys.

  He and Aaron were about five years younger than them, so they’d grown up watching, idolizing. Wondering if they’d ever compare. Cooper understood now that they weren’t so different. There was just an incredible amount of talent focused into one group friendship. He and his brother, along with Billy and a couple of others, had run in a similar group once. He hadn’t the chance to catch up with Billy yet, much less talk to the others. Would they end up a force in the pack? A group that younger werewolves looked up to? Emulated? He’d never thought of himself, of them, like that. It was damned strange and something he wanted to talk to his fathers about later.

  He sighed and thanked god that Aaron was the only one who caught it. He sensed this was a shared concern. Their younger brother and sister would arrive tomorrow, to spend part of their college winter breaks at home. But their parents, all three of them, would be home tonight after a year spent travelling the world. They planned to visit for the holidays then head back out again, but Delilah hadn’t heard anything about them yet. She was in f
or one hell of a shock.

  “Ellen. It’s good to see you again, but the last time you were much shorter,” Jackson joked.

  She laughed. “I was fourteen, and I’m sure I was at least five-seven then. So, not much shorter.”

  That might explain why Clint hadn’t claimed her. At fourteen, he probably hadn’t realized she was his mate. There had to be more to it, though. He was sure Clint knew before she walked in that she was his mate. Clint was friends with all the senior hunters who lived at headquarters. He’d have seen Ellen before now, but after she was grown. Clint had to let go enough so she could face Jackson and speak, but the wolf still held her close, tucked up under his considerably taller shoulder.

  “Can you help with this? Know who we’re looking for?”

  She tried to shrug out from under Clint’s grasp, but he didn’t release her until she dug her elbow into his lower belly. Walking forward, she sank into one of the two empty chairs in front of the desk.

  “No. But I have theories.”

  “Go on.”

  “This guy always goes after one twin of a mated pair. I think that tells us something. Maybe he’s a twin and his brother died. Maybe he’s a twin and his mate died. Or maybe he’s not a twin and the woman he wanted went to twins.”

  No one responded, but he could see they were all thinking it over, cataloguing the twins they knew in their minds. The problem was that you couldn’t know the ins and outs of every pack. Unless you had access to hunter resources.

  “I’m working on a database of every known living twin set. Well, where at least one is living. Actually, I’m to the verifying point now.”

  She grew animated, warming to her subject, and he could see the single werewolves in the room were charmed. Hell, he knew there was no other woman, never would be, for him but Delilah, but even he was charmed.

  “And then, there is my batshit crazy theory,” she said.

  There were a few chuckles at that and Jackson arched an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”

  “So far all of these women are granddaughters of the men who were in the inner circle of the last Regis. They were the most powerful werewolves of their time. We’ve all heard the rumors about female werewolves and we’ve all heard the Society is looking for them. We know they’re targets but I think they’re looking for someone in particular and going through a list of people they can identify hoping it will lead them where they want.”

  “Looking for who?”

  “Ultimately? The Regis. And in the meantime, after women he’d consider his to protect, the women most likely to evolve into shifters first.”

  It was Jackson’s complete lack of reaction that made him suspicious. Was there a living king? Did his alpha know who it was? Did his mate?

  “Why the twins then?”

  Ellen sighed. “Well, this is where it gets more than a little batshit crazy.” She clasped her hands and leaned forward. “He had second sight, did you know? The last Regis, I mean. The night before he died he said the throne would be reborn from twins. So you could interpret that to mean the next Regis will have twin fathers. And if you wanted to stop that, well, you kill the twins mated to women who might carry that Regis gene. And pretty much every woman mated to twins.”

  It took every ounce of control he had not to run from the room and find Delilah. They’d already come for her once. They’d do it again. He needed a few minutes alone with Aaron and together they could decide how much to tell the alpha and beta, but one way or another they’d protect their mate.

  The door swung open and Summer poked her head in, glaring at Jackson who was totally focused on another woman. Cooper was damned glad Delilah wasn’t with her.

  “Lunch,” she said, sauntering into the room. “And you might as well come down ’cause y’all are all gonna spill all your secrets tonight anyway.”

  He and Aaron exchanged a look. There were a lot of secrets that needed to be shared tonight, and some of them were going to be damned hard to deal with. Summer walked around the desk and sat in Jackson’s lap, turning her head to watch Ellen. Cooper wondered what the hell she saw because, after a few seconds, she nodded and smiled, and it wasn’t fake. It was a welcome. It didn’t look like he was going to find out either. In seconds, Jackson had the room cleared, and Cooper was in the kitchen before he realized the alpha and his mate hadn’t joined the pack for lunch.

  Twelve

  Delilah watched them come into the kitchen. Her men. Cooper and Aaron. She still didn’t quite believe it, wasn’t sure if she should let herself believe it, but she couldn’t help herself. She felt as if she’d landed in the twilight zone. She hadn’t ended up with one, but two gorgeous men. Werewolves. She kept expecting to wake up from a dream, but two hot looks, one from each, and she knew she was lost.

  She hadn’t interacted much from the women she’d ended up with—Summer, Chloe, Meg, Tara, and Mary—just listened. She knew facts but not the nuances of being part of a pack and needed all the information she could get. They’d been chatty and welcoming as Summer showed her around the house, but it was obvious there were things being intentionally left unsaid.

  She couldn’t blame them. Gage had kept his word; they didn’t have a clue who she was. She was dying to know what was being said in that little private meeting upstairs. Who was the man that had been attacked? Did it have something to do with the twins who’d come after her? She wouldn’t get any information about that until she was alone with Aaron and Cooper and it was making her antsy. She hated not being informed, knew that made this very different world a more dangerous one.

  The women were interesting, she had to admit. They’d all had introduced themselves as being someone’s mate. She knew who they were, of course. Gage had been thorough. She’d never spent so much time around so many mates though, and their attitude disturbed Delilah. They acted like they belonged to their men, and she wondered if that was a two-way street. It better be. She couldn’t handle it if it wasn’t.

  She’d been amused to be carefully and deftly questioned about Cooper and Aaron and tried to be noncommittal, neutral in her answers. She didn’t want anyone to think she was complaining about them, but she wasn’t ready to think about that relationship, much less discuss it, with a bunch of people she didn’t know. Not even Chloe, who was the closest friend she had here and who’d given her a wounded look when she’d stonewalled their questions.

  So, when Aaron approached and pulled her into his arms, she accepted the embrace, hid her face in his chest, and took the strength he offered. She was so far out of her depth here she didn’t know how to find her footing, and she welcomed his comfort.

  “You okay, baby?” he whispered close to her ear. She just shook her head. How could she answer that? She’d come here for a job. Come here thinking she’d be safe, or safer at least. What she got was something else entirely. She needed time and space to regroup, and she got a sinking feeling in her gut she wasn’t going to get either.

  Aaron lifted her chin and stared into her eyes for a full minute. She could get lost there and wanted to kick herself. The twins were a big part of her confusion. She couldn’t afford to get lost in one of them, and Aaron was too calm. Cooper obviously hadn’t had the chance to tell him who she was yet.

  “After lunch we’ll head home.”

  What did he see in her gaze that brought on that decision? She felt bad. She was usually so together, and she didn’t want the fact she was off balance affecting him negatively. He obviously had a job to do here, but she didn’t say no, didn’t prod for any answers. Didn’t think it was a good idea in a crowd of unfamiliar people and couldn’t have framed the questions anyway, since she went from Aaron’s arms right into Cooper’s. Cooper wasn’t as circumspect as his brother and he kissed her, full and hard, right in front of everyone.

  No one noticed, but she was still thankful he had some control because she was more than willing to lose herself in the mysteries of his mouth, in the way his lips commanded hers. He kept it short, but when h
e lifted his head he didn’t let her go. She saw the concern in his eyes, and he kept her at his side while Aaron filled three plates and led them to chairs at the long table in the dining room next door.

  She sat and picked at her food. The last thing she was interested in was eating. She wanted answers, wanted to know what the hell had been discussed in that gathering earlier and the tension that hung heavy in the house. The worry clinging to Cooper and Aaron was too much to just be about her and one rogue attack.

  There was a lot going on here that was unsaid and it pissed her off to be kept in the dark. She’d been tempted to blurt out stop it, you don’t know who I am, on the tour, but had bit her tongue. If it had been just her and Chloe, she might have said something, probably would have peppered her with questions, but she didn’t know the others. They seemed trustworthy enough but she’d learned appearances could be deceiving.

  “You need to eat, baby.”

  She smiled, knowing it was Aaron, based on the endearment, before she looked up. Lifting the fork, she took a bite of the chicken salad and glanced around the table. The kitchen had been set up buffet style, and the other couples were drifting in and out.

  The other twins she’d met earlier came in and sat a few chairs down. They were the only men in the two rooms that didn’t have a woman with them. Mate, she reminded herself. She hadn’t met them before today, but she recognized their names. Rule and Lawe Sanders. They made her nervous. Tall, thickly muscled, with cold eyes and closed faces. That didn’t bother her, was typical of hunters, but Gage was unsure of them.

  Another couple came in and sat across from her. She looked up and found herself pinned under Trey’s gaze. Cooper squeezed her hand, feeding her strength and support. Good thing, too, because while the twins scared her a little, this one made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. The stories about him were just this side of terrifying. How did Tara deal with that? She broke the gaze and looked at his mate. To be fair, she didn’t look the least bit cowed.