by Christa Wick
And why she hadn't come back.
Forcing her attention to the witch, Iris tilted her chin up to keep at bay the tears that threatened. "That sounds like it could have just been personal. Why do you think she would have done something to me a dozen years ago?"
"There were Hunter artifacts hidden in her home. Some writings and energy crystals to assist her in communicating with them, I think. I can feel the passage of time in her handling the stones and see it in the notes she wrote in the margins. I think she joined them before I was even born." Esme moved from standing by her mate to sitting on the couch. Her hands captured Iris's arm, one thumb rubbing against the sleeve and flesh below in a comforting gesture. "I've never felt a she-wolf with energy anything like yours, even without the magic. If she was working with Hunters and sensed what was waiting to bloom inside you--"
"Why did you leave?" Cade interrupted. "It can't be coincidence that she visited and two weeks later you were gone."
Iris closed her eyes. Images swelled inside her head as pain and fear clawed a familiar pattern through her gut.
Hank Mercer.
She had fled the clan because of Cade's father, but she couldn't tell Cade that. Couldn't tell him what his father had tried to do or that he'd had a gang of two other wolves from outside the clan helping him.
Shaking her head, she extracted her arm from Esme's light grip and stood. She didn't want to remember that day, not alone, not with the too sympathetic witch next to her and definitely not under the accusing stare of her childhood sweetheart.
Standing, she wanted to head for the door but knew they wouldn't allow her to leave. She had nowhere to go if they did. She snorted, angry at the rock and the hard place she was stuck between. Spinning on one heel, she glared at Dana.
"You said Hunters took out my partner?" Ignoring Cade's soft growl at her calling Harper her partner and the way the vibration in his throat made the fine hairs on her arms stand up, she waited for Dana to nod.
"Give me the Hunters," she continued. "I can turn them over to my superiors. I don't need to expose the clan."
Dana offered his own snort, its tone derisive. "If we had them to turn over, they'd be dead already. And who's to say any captured Hunter won't talk about the clan? We already know they kill any of their own in danger of being taken. The bastards have no sense of loyalty."
Lifting a hand from where he cradled the cub, Dana scratched the stubble on his cheek. "But you do have methods of finding them that we don't. Help us locate the Hunters that shot this other cop of yours, and I'll see what I can do about you leav--"
Cade jumped to his feet. Just as fast, Dana stood and pushed the cub he held into Cade's arms. Dana’s move shocked Iris, but an instant later and most of the fury had vanished from Cade’s face. Cubs were too precious to the clan -- that would never change. The little boy's presence had a calming effect on everyone but Iris.
Dana put his hands on Cade's shoulders and forced him down onto the couch. Smirking, he settled on the armrest next to Cade, one hand remaining on the subdued wolf’s shoulder.
Eyes flashing murder, Cade glared up at him. "We should discuss this outside, you and I."
Dana grinned at him before shaking his head. "It's much more fun to stay inside and cock block you than to shred your ass outside." Poking his chin in Esme’s direction, he chuckled. "And less distressing for the ladies and Oscar."
Closing his eyes, Cade slowed his breathing. Watching him, Iris knew he was searching out the energy of the warm bundle of cub Dana had so purposefully placed in his arms. Somehow, the boy had remained calm throughout the exchange. Iris glanced at Esme, her suspicions confirmed as she saw the witch's lips wordlessly moving.
Finished with her spell, Esme met Iris's gaze. Her mouth turned down, the expression sad and seeking forgiveness as she shook her head. "Even if we found the Hunters responsible for today's death, we couldn't let you go. You don't understand the energy you're giving off. It's like pointing a laser the size of a baseball diamond at the sky. And it will get worse with each unfulfilled heat cycle you go through. More Hunters will come. They'll kill you, but only after they torture you and steal your energy to fuel their magic--"
Iris stopped the witch with a raised hand. "What do you mean, fuel their magic?"
Esme's gaze sharpened and she stood. This time, when she sought Iris's arm, there was nothing light or gentle in the way she captured it.
"Yes, their magic. We've known about Hunters as long as they have tried to kill us." She pushed Iris's sleeve up. "But only since you've been gone have we discovered how they find us and some of the things they do when they catch a wolf...or a witch. These are Hunter wards you're carving into your skin. I recognize them from documents we've only recently discovered."
A rustle of clothing and light snarls erupted from the couch. Iris risked a glance in Cade's direction to find Dana pushing a little more forcefully on his shoulder.
"Steady," Dana warned.
The warning came too late as the cub stirred and opened his eyes. He looked at Cade's face, his own expression narrowing in apprehension. Esme began to whisper, but the boy crawled off Cade's lap and approached both women. Releasing Iris, Esme extended her arms in the boy's direction but he bypassed her to tug at Iris's hand.
She tried to pull away. He stubbornly fisted the edge of her shirt and placed his head against her shoulder.
"Please," Esme whispered. "I don't want to send Oscar back to the van with Jet and Colt. They swear too much and talk about all the gory details of their worst runs..."
Sighing, Iris let Oscar crawl onto her lap, finally understanding why the cub had made her skin itch and burn. Where she was at in her cycle, the presence of a cub would trigger her den instinct.
She shook her head. The motion caught everyone's attention but she was not about to explain herself. If she tried, Cade would argue with her. But, regardless of what he claimed, she didn't have a den instinct. Wolves did and she wasn't one, had never shifted. No fangs or claws or hair had ever sprouted from her flesh. Whatever was going on with her body since Cade's arrival at the strip club didn't involve dens or mating or the ridiculous notion that she was in heat.
"Cubs are drawn to it," Dana said, intuitively grasping the argument raging inside her head. "They know you're fiercely protective when you're in heat."
"At least when you're not fucking," Cade interrupted.
His eyes bored into her skull. Lowering her gaze, she saw his fists pressing down on his thighs, the knuckles white with the force he exerted to control whatever urges ran through him.
"I'm not--"
"Just stop," Esme pleaded. She gave Iris's shoulder a squeeze as she looked at Cade and Dana. "The three of you!"
"We don't have to deal with why you left tonight," she told Iris while pausing to glare at Cade the second his lips parted to disagree. "But it will be a long time before you can leave the clan's protection."
Esme’s gaze dropped to Oscar before she lifted it to Iris and nailed the she-wolf in place with the tears shimmering in her eyes. "And, since you're here, you should know that there are lost cubs that need your help."
Iris looked at Cade, her grip around Oscar reflexively tightening. Victory glittered in Cade's dark brown gaze as he saw her hug the cub tighter. A smile crept up one side his mouth, only to die a second later when Esme continued.
"That's why I want you to come back to Tennessee with us. It's lost cub central." Esme raised a calming hand toward Cade at the same time Dana put a restraining one against his chest. "You know I'm right, Cade. There aren't enough resources here to protect her--"
"She only needs one resource," he growled. "Me."
Fresh heat and need washed over Iris. Cade may have been talking at the witch and her mate, but Iris knew he had meant the growl for her alone. He had pushed his wolf at her, warming her belly and thighs with its dominance.
Warning bells ringing in her ears, she slid the cub onto Esme's lap.
"I won't sta
y here," she said, looking at no one. "But I'll go with you."
Chapter Six
"I don't need your potions or charms, Ems." Sitting at the kitchen table in Esme Foster's former home, Cade glared as the witch stirred more ingredients into a boiling pot. "Didn't I behave the entire drive?"
She rolled her eyes at him then shook her head. "Cade Mercer, don't think for a single second you weren't spelled on the ride here."
Shock spread across his face before he dismissed the assertion with a wet snort. "You didn't. I could feel her through each and every mile, Ems, smell her...taste..."
His eyes drifted shut and he drew a deep breath as if reliving the drive to Dana's lands in Tennessee, Iris's flavor coating his tongue so that he grew hard all over again.
"I spelled your reactions, not your ability to sense her." She tapped the side of the pot with her silver spoon, her nose crinkling as she offered a wry glance at his crotch then rolled her eyes. "This will hopefully remove, or at least dull, what you can detect of Iris as your mate."
His hands rubbed against the denim covering his thighs, the tendons on his arms raised from the pressure he exerted. "I don't want dulled. I want to smell her, feel her wolf running just beneath the surface of her skin."
"It's not about what you want, Romeo." Leaving the pot to simmer, Esme came around the kitchen island and placed her palm against the back of Cade's neck. "You're just lucky Jet and Colt went a little crazy or your fine ass would still be in West Virginia."
A growl surfaced with the memory of the two wolflings pushing and snarling at one another the second they stepped from the van to greet Iris. Whatever she had done with the silver piercings and the marks she had made in her arm to ward herself, the protection lost most of its power over an unmated male within touching distance, especially younger males stuck somewhere between feeling her pull as a potential mate and as the mother figure all alpha females presented.
All it took was a single whiff of Iris by Jet and Colt before Dana had as much difficulty controlling them as Cade had with Mathis. The she-wolf was a walking aphrodisiac -- and she was his. He'd be damned if he let another male wolf guard her. It wasn't just about protection, either. With the power running through her, only an alpha wolf would stand a chance of stopping her from walking off clan lands if she put her mind to it.
Craning his neck to look straight up at Esme from where he sat, Cade summoned a pleading expression. Esme was a soft touch and she loved love. He hoped the wounded cub look he was working hard would win her over to his side. "I'm begging you, Ems. Can't you just keep spelling me like you did in the van?"
"I'm one witch," she scowled. "Not ten. Your wolf is too strong, especially with your mate around. And I have cubs and latents to cast for. Charms to keep the teams protected when they are out on runs."
She opened her mouth to continue, but the silver bells on her front porch began to dance, the magic on them triggered by a vehicle pulling onto the tree-lined drive. "That's them. Iris won't let you stay if you don't drink it. We went over this at least a dozen times on the drive."
Huffing, Cade followed Esme to the stove, his hand wrapping around the silver cup that would heighten the potion's effect on his body. Offering a dry smile he only half felt, he moved to the coffee maker and filled the cup. "Does silver's potency work on shifters with any old substance?"
He was slamming back the last of the caffeine when Iris walked through the door ahead of Dana. Her gaze landed on the cup in his hand and the bob of his throat as he swallowed before bouncing to Esme standing over the simmering pot, a silver ladle poised in her hand.
"Well?" Iris asked, her attention locked on Cade.
Exerting all his will to avoid even looking at Iris, Cade nodded at Dana. "Quite an accomplished witch you're about to marry."
Putting the cup on the counter, he slid it toward Esme and lightly kissed her cheek. "Thank you, Ems. I know you only want to do what is right."
Scrutinizing Iris's expression from the side of one eye, Cade waited to see if she bought the lie or if Esme would expose him. Iris shrugged, the gesture feigning an indifference he didn't smell on her. Angling his head ever so slightly, he looked closer at her face, his body relaxing when he saw a glimmer of what looked like disappointment in the violet-colored eyes.
Crossing to where Iris stood, he took the heavy file box she had brought from the van and carried it to the coffee table in the front room.
"You take the cub to Angelica's?" he asked Dana, his gaze on the box and the file he pulled from it.
Placing a second box on the table, Dana nodded. His tawny gaze, usually arctic when he looked Cade's way, thawed a little as he pushed the box to the center of the table.
"It's hell losing a mate," Dana said. "Having Oscar and the other cubs around is a comfort for her now that Coop is gone."
With nothing more than amped up coffee in his system, Cade felt Iris hesitantly move toward the kitchen island. He heard her inhale deeply and pictured her leaning over the pot as she sniffed at Esme's ingredients. The image was confirmed by her whispered question a second later.
"Does he need to drink regular doses?"
"Yes, and the excess I made won't keep," Esme answered. "I'll be back in a couple of days with more."
"But you'll be back before then, right?"
Cade suppressed a growl at the nervous tension running through Iris's last question. The last thing in the world his mate should worry about was being alone with him. She should crave the opportunity as much as he did.
"Tomorrow morning," Esme answered. "With more files, I imagine."
Cade listened, a small grin playing at one corner of his mouth as he heard Esme dump the potion. With his senses full of his mate, he forced his body to stay relaxed as the women moved into the front room. Esme took a seat next to Dana, her soft form instinctively curling against him.
Iris remained behind Cade, out of sight but so close he could feel the warmth of her body against the back of his shoulders. His eyes fluttered shut for half a second before Esme snapped a file open. He looked at the witch, her accusatory gaze sharp on him for an instant before she smiled up at Iris.
"We've tried to be methodical about the files."
"Yes, Dana explained the, uh, system as we ran photocopies." Iris took a seat in the only armchair. She rifled through the files, pulling out the thickest sheath and three of the thinnest. "I thought I'd go over Oscar's file because it is the most developed and also the files for the newest rescues because their evidence will be freshest."
Iris pressed her hand to her mouth, the fingers rubbing hard at her lips before she stopped and shook her head. "I understand that recovery of the cubs began after you discovered the Hunter manuscripts, but something about that doesn't feel right."
"How?" Dana asked.
Dana's gaze hadn't moved off the thick file Iris held since she had removed it from the box. Cade understood the reason. The cub had become Dana's -- not just a foster child but as much his flesh and blood as the cubs Esme would one day bear. Judging by the dark glitter in Dana's eyes, he had no interest in finding Oscar's parents.
"I can't pretend to understand how casting works." Iris dropped the file on the coffee table then clasped both hands together in her lap. "But from what Esme has told me so far, it sounds like a curtain being pulled back each time one of the cubs is located. No parents are found, but they haven't been abandoned or lost long enough to get pulled into the human world. No police, no Child Protective Services, no Good Samaritan or, the likeliest scenario of all for a child left on the streets..."
Iris paused, the pulse at her throat accelerating as she closed her eyes and spit out the distasteful words. "A sexual predator."
"If you're suggesting that all the rescues were meant to be ambushes, they failed." Dana gestured at the first box with a little over two dozen files, all of them male cubs that had been found in the last few months.
"Maybe I only found them because Hunters were casting for the cubs
at the same time?" Esme's mouth corkscrewed in concentration. "Like the beacon boost I seem to have had in locating you?"
"That's ignoring the possibility that I was also being used as bait." Iris shook her head. "Even if I wasn't bait and some kind of beacon boost explains the curtain effect, it doesn't explain the rest. I mean -- the cubs are only more vulnerable without their parents, not more discoverable."
Esme rubbed at her eyes. "So you think the cubs are bait of some kind, even though there were no Hunter attacks during their rescue?"
"I think it's a strong possibility." Iris placed a hand on Esme's knee.
Cade stared at the point where the women's flesh made contact. It was the first time he had seen Iris voluntarily reach out to anyone since her capture. He gently probed the energy emanating from her, trying to determine if she was merely playing cop and developing a rapport with a witness or was actually bonding with the witch.
He licked his lips, uncertain. He wanted them to bond, wanted it hard. Esme's immediate empathy with the clan's new latents had accelerated their acceptance of a life among shifters. Any reason, however small, that coaxed Iris into staying had to be cultivated.
Pulling her hand back, Iris looked at Dana. "I'd like to interview the children."
"You mean interrogate," Dana snapped. Esme placed a palm against his chest, her touch appearing to instantly soothe the wolf inside him. A smile that looked forced surfaced and died on his lips in the space of a heartbeat. "They've been questioned."
"I thought you wanted a cop -- someone with different methods?" Pushing the files away, Iris leaned back in the chair. "How many child abuse cases have you worked? How many kids have you interviewed with their mother's dead body in the next room? How many--"
Dana's growl cut the rest of her question short.
"She's right," Cade said. "And if the cubs are being used as bait, we need to know. We're risking lives each time we leave the protection of our lands."
