“And the rest of you? If I was banished? You would be in danger also?”
“Not as long as we broke off ties with you. If we chose not to … yes. Potentially.”
“But don’t you see, Cass?” Zar said, pressing my hand. “We’ll stay a step ahead of them because Jed knows how some are feeling about following Zacharias. You don’t fight the pack. If you have to, you outthink it.”
“Leave on my own,” I said quietly. “Before a showdown.”
“If you come here, and we don’t say where,” Zar said, “only that you’ve found a room and are attending to your own business, everyone will sit back, rest their hackles, wait and see. Come home with us now, just like planned. You can pack your bags, we’ll talk with Diana and Atarah. Someone can mention to Zacharias that you’re done hanging about and moving on. No challenge, no show of fangs, and we’ll bring you back here for the evening. A couple to stay as well—like Gabe says. But we can explain that. Not like our whole pack being out with you again. I’m sorry, Cass. Really sorry this is happening. I didn’t think—”
“No.” I also squeezed his hand. “None of this is your fault, Zar.”
“I’ll talk to Zacharias,” Isaac said.
“And I’ll stay with you,” Andrew said. “Unemployed anyway, so—” He shrugged. “Might as well let Jason take over the place. You wolves all need to work this weekend, eh? Hannah will have your hides if you don’t finish more orders.”
Zar nodded. “I’m afraid we do. Sorry—”
“And Kage,” Andrew went on before Zar could get farther with his regrets to me. “Better yet, bring Jason and Kage both up here for a couple days and let me get some sleep.” He gave me a pointed look. “And Gabriel, make sure the louts get a room with one bed. Jay’s a bloody skiver, driving me mad, and he’s only been home one night.” Back to me. “They could run with you this weekend and spend quality time together. Get Kage in to see a real optometrist for his birthday while you’re at it if he still needs it. By then, maybe we’ll know what we’re doing next.”
Gabriel nodded. “Cassia? You’re welcome to my guest room. You have your own bath, room service, kitchen, laundry, WiFi, café downstairs. And I’ll see to it we have one extra room set aside for the next several nights.”
“You all don’t have to—” I looked around at them and let out a breath, my gaze returning to Jed and the fierce expression there. I finished only with, “Okay.”
Chapter 37
By the time we got back to the mobile home park for dinner, I’d decided they were overreacting. Zacharias, all the pack, for that matter, had done nothing to me. Jed obviously had a reason to hold a grudge. That didn’t mean Zacharias, who was, after all, a silver approved by Diana, would go against her to lash out at me when surely he wasn’t so blind as to think I was working against them.
Then we parked the bikes and there was gray-bearded, limping Zacharias, walking out to meet us—along with several others hanging about. My heart leapt to my throat. Goddess, they were right. So right we shouldn’t even have come back.
My four companions, bless them, did not seem alarmed.
Helmets under their arms or dangling from their hands, Zar and Jed stepped in to flank me, heading for Atarah’s home. While Andrew whispered to Isaac, “Operation ‘nothing up my sleeve.’” And he and Isaac strolled off to intercept Zacharias.
“Evening, elder,” Isaac said amicably behind us before Zacharias could start.
“Interesting news from our fox friends, elder,” Andrew said. “Ever met them? Cheeky sods. The rumors are true and then some.”
“That’s enough, Andrew,” Isaac said. “They’re quicker than him and he didn’t like it, elder. We’re actually going back out. Cassia is wanting to stay in town. Only back to tell our cataja about our latest findings, and gather her things. Then she has her own affairs to see to while still in the country.”
“Is that so?” Zacharias’s voice faded behind as we passed homes for Atarah’s near the middle of the park.
Zar, one hand on my shoulder, knocked, then pushed open the door. “Elder?”
Atarah was not home.
Both males stepped inside with me and shut the door. Zar leaned back against it, letting out a breath.
My hands were trembling as I looked through the window, blinded, though, by evening sun.
Zar hugged me. “You’re all right. Zacharias doesn’t want to hurt you. He just doesn’t want humans around. We’ll oblige him and look after you at the same time. That slum of Gabe’s can’t compare to us putting you up here. But it’ll do in a pinch, right?” He pulled back and looked at me. Grinning.
I had to laugh, but it was shaky, like the rest of me. I’d been around the wolves so much lately, I hadn’t really thought I was afraid of them anymore. Yet, seeing a pack gunning for me? Yes … that could never stop being scary.
“I’m sure I’ll manage.” I embraced Zar again. Then Jed because he was standing right there and I couldn’t help it, even though he only stood like a tree. “Thank you.” I sighed and turned for the kitchen for water. “He didn’t need to offer that at all.”
“He wanted to help the investigation,” Zar said. “He asked us about it. Jed and I talked about what was happening this morning and that’s what came to mind. I think he was glad to be able to do something without … you know…”
“Without it being anything to get him involved with the pack itself?”
Zar nodded. “I’ll find Diana and Atarah for us. Why don’t you pack your bags? Then … dinner before you go? Come over to our place?”
“Thank you, Zar.”
At the door, he hesitated and glanced at his brother. “They won’t come storming over to Atarah’s … or anything … only…”
“I’ll stay here,” Jed said.
Another nod, then Zar offered me a fleeting smile and hurried to find the silvers.
“Do you want something to drink?” I asked Jed.
He only flapped a hand at me, squinting out the window. “Fill your bags. Powder your nose. Whatever it is you do.”
For once, I didn’t take offense at the sarcasm. If anything, Jed injected a little reality to the moment. I hurried off with my water glass to pack and follow Zar’s plan.
But there was one other thing besides Diana and dinner I would have to address before dashing back to Brighton Station. I was reminded of this other thing by the Fossil gift bag that I set on my bed as I reached it.
Chapter 38
I was distracted all through the meeting with Diana: grateful that Isaac told her about our conversation with the fox twins, and Zar had the presence of mind to ask her the important questions about her own recommendations and next steps.
Both Atarah and Zacharias were there with us, out on a wide porch and meeting space at Diana’s home in the hot evening sun while smells of grilling meat reached us from the communal kitchens and private homes alike. Zacharias had attended such meetings with the silvers and myself previously, of course. Before, though, it had never seemed like anything to write home about.
I managed to take away what I hoped were the key points:
Diana had contacts to offer us in this country and a few on the Continent.
She had never heard of Irish-American wolves forming their own packs, recording shifter history, or living anywhere in particular in the States.
Atarah agreed with Zar about the existence and locations of shamanic shifters. In fact, she was so keen on the subject her own enthusiasm caught my attention. If this really was a family affair—shifters killing shifters—the shamans should be able to tell, or know.
So, perfect. Find the all-knowing shamans and the Irish-American descendants of the record-keepers, check, check, and check. Case closed. Great. Only we couldn’t. They were across the world and, even if we could beam ourselves over, we still had only the vaguest idea where shamans might be and none at all where the historians might be.
Back to needing advice.
Diana told us
she would reach out through the small network she did have. One pack would ask the next and we might eventually find ourselves with some American shifter’s phone number. But we’d better not hold our breaths.
Then Atarah informed me they’d made every effort with the kindred. No one in the Aspens had seen one in many months, it turned out. Atarah herself had tried summoning them as Zar and I had. Nothing. No hint of a kindred in any of the South Coast packs for seasons now.
I told them of our own sighting, not in details, but in the message I believed they had conveyed, all these links, all the matching pieces. Only a missing perpetrator.
Which led us back to focus: England. Plus a few deaths that we knew of in France. Not the States, not oceans away. Here. The problem was here, so solve it here.
Although this was discussed, I did not feel I could start a suggestion like going door to door with all the known packs in the British Isles while Zacharias sat there suspecting that I may, in fact, be a plant and finding out more about all the local packs was all part of my master plan.
Zacharias then asked who else we were investigating. One did not usually solve murder cases by reading history books, surely?
Zar again answered for me, assuring them we weren’t discounting the idea this could be humans, casters or otherwise, but it was looking more unlikely the more pieces we put together. We also couldn’t be everywhere at once. While signs pointed to shifters, we would follow shifters.
Diana was the one who proposed a door-to-door. She didn’t get into details with me, but asked Zacharias to see her after dinner with Peter and Hannah. While we tried to figure out ways to contact wolves farther afield, they would put their own party together to question the packs within a day’s journey.
Goddess, I hoped she’d send Zacharias off to head the team.
They would do what they could. We would do what we could. No one banished.
The meeting broke up—not a moment too soon—with their own plans to think about and stay off my case. While my meditations and scrying for a way to reach out to American shifters, or any alternative next step, was something to look forward to.
Dinner with Zar, Jed, and their mother, Keziah, was a quick affair—big shock. But the matriarch of the house had been kind enough to get core to provide me with a suitable meal along with hers and her sons’ chicken dinners. While they had half a chicken each, the core cooks brought me a stir fry bowl with carrots, snow peas, and strips of grilled chicken in a sweet ginger sesame glaze over brown rice. Very good too—no hostility they may or may not feel for me showing in dinner—and I marveled at my second delicious meal of the day cooked by wolves.
Then time for the journey back to Brighton Station. But, first, more difficulties to solve.
They couldn’t take my bag on the motorcycle. Isaac didn’t have a four-wheel himself, but could borrow Kage’s family’s old sedan to take us to the station. Zar would come with him so Isaac had a companion on the way home since no one was permitted out alone.
That left who was actually going back to London with me.
I steeled myself: focusing on my breathing and what I would say as I walked to Kage and Jason’s place.
The grill was still hot from dinner, front door into the kitchen standing open, and Kage was nowhere in sight.
“Kage?” I tapped at the door as I stepped inside.
“What?” he snapped from the bedroom.
I looked through the little living room to see him standing at the foot of the bed, shoving a change of clothes and wallet into his rucksack.
“I wanted to… Are you packing to come with us?”
“No, packing to go to bed.” He snatched up the bag and stalked to the bathroom, never glancing my way, though seeming to see fine as he moved about.
“Oh… Thank you. I was coming to talk to you about it. I guess you already know what’s going on?”
“Andrew stopped by. He and I can come with you. We’re not doing anything else useful anyway.” He said it with as much vehemence as he was showing his shaving kit and shower gel that he slammed into his bag.
“Yes … well, I’m glad you don’t mind coming. You don’t have to. If you’d rather be home and spend some time with your family right now—”
“And stay here with these sterk-faced, Moon-cursed, carrion-eating verus arseholes?” He rounded on me from the bathroom doorway. “They’re bloody lucky to have us. They’re fucking blessed we’re out there risking our necks to save theirs. We’re the ones actually doing something. The ones following you. Do those sniveling sods care?” He grabbed something else for his bag, then struggled violently with the zipper that seemed to be caught. “You think they’re your family until they betray you. Just like Jed. Just like…”
Finally, he wrenched the bag closed, grabbed a jacket, and stalked toward me at the front door.
“Kage, I’m—”
“Stay away from me.”
I retreated out the door.
“Are you ready?” He slammed it after us.
“Yes. Isaac is driving us to the station.”
We headed west across the park, toward the rough road, broken rail fence, field, and wood. The setting sun was just down among the treetops.
We said nothing until we got there to find Zar already in the car. Plus Jason, with a messenger bag that I knew to be Andrew’s, there talking to Isaac by the hood.
Kage knew him so well he didn’t need to be close to recognize him, or else it was his voice. Either way, Kage stopped so abruptly when he saw Jason I walked on several steps before noticing.
The others looked around.
“He’s going?” Kage asked, voice no longer raised, but hostile and bitter cold. “Where’s Andrew? He said he and I would go.”
“He wanted me to go,” Jason said softly, looking at the ground. “I don’t mind—”
“Fine.” Kage turned around. “You two go.”
“No—” Jason started after him. “Andrew meant to stay here. We need two.”
“Then get him and tell him to go with you.”
“Kage, wait.” I followed him while Jason stopped.
“Why don’t you all three come along? We have so much to decide about what we’re doing next. Not to mention safety in numbers and not being overly split up for journeys to the city. I’m sure there’s room. I’ll talk to Andrew and we can all go.”
Kage stopped, undecided, and I headed for Andrew’s place at a jog before he could make up his mind.
Andrew stuck his head out the unscreened front window of his bedroom when I knocked at the yellow front door. He did not look pleased to see me. But he didn’t look surprised either.
“Trouble in paradise, Belle? It didn’t work, did it?”
“No. Kage is saying he won’t go with Jason and I proposed we all four go.”
“How magnanimous of you.”
“Andrew, please. We can’t just let Kage stay here all weekend and suffer. He’s miserable. He needs to get out. He’ll enjoy the hotel. He wouldn’t admit he likes stuff like that, but I’m sure he does.”
“King of beasts needs some pampering?”
“I think so, yes. A room-service steak and cable TV for his birthday? I’m sorry you’re also stuck in the middle of this, but I’d really appreciate you coming with us.”
He rubbed his eyes, then chuckled.
“What?”
“Just imagine it. Who’d ever have thought you’d have trouble getting a bloke to join you in a hotel.” Giving me a pointed look. “I’ll be right out, darling. And I’ll bring my bike to park overnight at the station so we have room. Jay can join me.” He slammed the window.
Chapter 39
By the time we were shown our rooms and settled in at The Abyssinian under Gabriel’s care it was, thankfully, time for bed.
Kage, Jason, and Andrew shared a room which Gabriel changed to a two-bed once he found three guests would be sharing. We did not linger, Gabriel clearly keen not to visit with old friends—or, in the case o
f Kage, his cousin—but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be Andrew who got the solo bed.
My own quarters were in the guest suite of the lavish top-story flat that served as Gabriel’s residence as part of his compensation package. Gabriel distractedly showed me around, invited me to order anything I liked from room service, gave me the WiFi password, and retired.
The guest suite, complete with luxurious bathroom, fluffy white bathrobe, slippers, chocolates, mints, desk and stationary, TV, and reproduction period furnishings, was nothing short of the most opulent hotel room I’d ever stayed in. For free. By the kindness of strangers and grace of Goddess.
So why couldn’t I enjoy it?
I should be meditating and scrying before bed. Having a long, quiet think. I needed it. Time with nothing but my third eye journeys and my notebook and plenty of space to roam, sketch, consider past and present, seek answers.
Instead, I sat on the bed with a buzzing noise in my ears and a knot in my stomach.
I couldn’t think about the room, or the foxes, or America, or Irish wolves, or even murders and saving innocent lives.
The TV sounded softly in the living room. Weirdly soft—so I could hardly catch the noise, much less the voices. Wolf ears. On a wolf who pretended not to be one at all.
Wolf ways and wolf habits. A wolf world, culture, expectations, judgements, lifestyles, fights, wars, families, and loves. And a witch. Helping them or hurting them? Loving them or betraying them?
I unpacked a few things, hung up a few clothes in the wardrobe, set out toiletries in the bathroom, then sat down at the desk with the card and gift bag for Kage.
Moonlight Betrayal: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 5) Page 22
