by Christa Wick
"How close are we?" Iris asked, hoping to divert his attention.
Taking the tablet Navarro studied, Cade pulled up the location feed. Checking his watch, he growled toward the front of the vehicle. He returned the tablet to Navarro then scooted toward the back of the driver's seat.
"I don't care if it's past midnight," he snarled. "Slow the fuck down."
Tanner glanced in the mirror, his gaze landing first on Cade before locking on Iris. Her chest tightened and she shook her head, her gesture a warning or maybe a plea. Tanner had been quiet during the briefing, but nothing had suggested he wasn't focused on the mission. He'd gone through the checks as competently as Remus and Navarro, only without their banter.
She hadn't thought anything about it, but she hadn't looked him in the eyes until that moment, fifteen minutes out of Zanesville when they should have had half an hour to go. So she hadn't noticed the shadows haunting his gaze. Apparently no one else had, either.
Iris thought of the source of those shadows -- Michelle. Lovely, young, fragile, broken and genetically matched to a man old enough to be her father, a veteran who wore the scars of battle when other wolves remained whole.
Cade lowered his voice, his hand landing on Tanner's shoulder and squeezing. "I need you here, in this van, on this mission."
"I am," Tanner answered, his voice steady.
"You're not," Iris challenged, worried she was the only one who recognized exactly what was wrong. He loved a woman he didn't feel worthy of. Some ridiculous, chivalrous portion of him wanted to let her go, but he didn't know how. At least not directly, not while he was alive.
"He fucking said he's fine," Remus barked from the front passenger seat. He hadn't stopped facing the side window, but his eyes remained on Iris. "I don't care what you came back as, you're not in charge and you've got no fucking say. So let it go!"
Cade's hand closed around the big wolf's throat and applied an ever increasing amount of pressure. Navarro jumped toward the front, his hand on Cade's arm and his lips less than an inch from the lead wolf's ear.
"We're turning around," Navarro insisted.
Cade glared at him from the side of one eye, his grip on his team member's throat tightening.
Navarro shook his head. "You may have lead on this, but I have final authority to abort. We're going home."
"It's too late," Esme whispered, hands still protectively clutching her stomach. Her skin had turned almost translucent except for two bright dots of red flushing her cheeks. She looked at Cade then Iris before explaining. "We're not alone anymore."
********************
"Not alone" was an understatement Cade thought as he low crawled along the rear exterior wall of the Stony Academy. Unable to turn back on the highway, he had pushed his team into Zanesville, driving silently with the lights out through residential neighborhoods, looping slow circles, creeping along, parking for minutes at a time where they couldn't be seen.
Waiting for an enemy that never presented itself.
Deciding Esme was wrong, he took Remus and Tanner into the museum, with Iris and Navarro in the van to protect the witch and act as lookout. Bypassing the security system had been easy. Locating the desk and secret panel, the papers still inside, proved even less challenging.
Then a silver shrapnel grenade had landed two feet in front of them as they exited the building with Tanner running point.
Cade knew he should be dead. Tanner should be dead, too. But they weren't because of Remus. The man whose neck he had almost snapped a few hours before had cast one apologetic glance over his shoulder then threw himself forward and down. The explosive lifted his body two feet off the ground before scattering it in pieces in a circle almost fifteen yards in diameter.
Witch light had erupted a second later, missing Cade and Tanner but herding them away from the van where Cade had left Iris and Esme with Navarro. Breaking a window, Cade dragged a stunned Tanner back into the museum.
Somewhere, an alarm would be sounding. Maybe at a security center, maybe at the police station itself. In a town of only twenty-five thousand people, in the pre-dawn hours, the cops would be there in just a few minutes. That was all the time Cade had to reach the van, save his mate and evade the police.
Twenty seconds to reach the rear exit, five to push his wolf outside in search of the enemy, one to open the door and pull Tanner with him, throwing his team mate onto the ground and commanding him to follow...and to keep his fucking head down because the old wolf did not have permission to die on Cade's mission.
No one was allowed to die unless they were Hunters.
He and Tanner took another fifteen seconds to reach the end of the wall, two to hit the trees, three before the van was fully in view.
Seeing the side door open, the interior pitch black, Cade's heart sank.
Then another bolt of witch light almost took his head off.
"There!" Tanner whispered urgently as he tapped Cade's right shoulder.
Turning his head, Cade saw a navy blue van, three men and one woman sheltering behind it.
The woman was Camille Foster. And, if Cade had to guess, he would say the black haired man beside her was Quentin. But no Iris, no Esme, no Navarro.
The question of where his mate had disappeared to was answered a second later as twin blasts of opposing magic hit the blue van. Taking cover behind a heavy dumpster, the two women unleashed on their attackers. Crouching next to Esme, Navarro aimed the business end of a high-powered rifle a few feet to the right of the van.
He fired. The bullet hit a fourth man previously unseen by Cade or Tanner as he returned from the direction of the building. The back of the Hunter's head exploded, the momentum of the bullet forcing him backwards where he fell into the bushes through which he had just crawled.
Sirens pricked Cade's ears, their faint wail telling him his team had maybe two minutes left. He pushed his wolf at Iris, capturing her attention. He felt a flood of relief and joy burst from her. He cautioned her back and then his hand did a small twirl, alerting her to the sirens.
Next to him, Tanner started to crawl forward. Cade grabbed his collar and Tanner tried to shrug it off.
"Let me draw their fire," the older wolf pleaded.
"Hold," Cade snarled, his grip on Tanner's shirt unrelenting. "Remus didn't die so you could turn around and commit suicide."
Cade gave another push of his wolf, this time at Navarro. The younger man's reaction was only slightly less exuberant than Iris's had been at discovering him alive and Cade grinned at the wolf despite the dire circumstances.
Discreetly gesturing to Navarro that he should turn his rifle on the men hiding next to the blue van, Cade released his hold on Tanner.
"Go," he whispered.
Tanner moved forward. One of the Hunters, his gaze locked on Tanner, pulled a pin on another silver shrapnel grenade. He missed noticing the rifle pointed in his direction. The bullet tore through his eye socket. The pin dropped from his hand and then the grenade bounced next to it.
The explosion took out the Hunter standing next to him, nothing remaining of either man but meaty red splotches on the van and ground. Quentin staggered toward Camille. Blood seeped from his chest. Half falling, he lunged toward the old witch. His hands found the sides of her face. He yanked her close, his mouth opening, sucking at air until blue light flowed from the woman into his body and he started to heal.
Another bolt of magic erupted from the dumpster and then Esme ran toward her mother. Quentin hesitated a second, his mind calculating the chance of catching the young witch and draining her before escaping. Another bullet from Navarro ricocheted off the vehicle, changing the Hunter's mind.
Or maybe it was the sirens and the barely detectible flash of blue and red as the first police cruiser turned onto the street that made Quentin run. Cade didn't care. Tossing the bag with the papers to Tanner, he screamed for the rest of his team to get into their vehicle. Not waiting to see if they obeyed, he raced toward Camille, hoping to inte
rcept her before she could harm Esme or Iris. The woman raised her hand. The blue glow at the end of her fingertips told Cade that Quentin hadn't consumed all of the witch's magic. He only hoped she didn't have enough left to fry his ass at such close distance.
Red fur flashed in front of him and then Camille's hand disappeared down the throat of the loveliest, deadliest she-wolf he could ever imagine. The van, Navarro driving, screeched to a halt beside the old woman. Iris jumped in next to Esme and Tanner, turned swiftly and clamped her jaws on Camille's shoulder as Cade lifted the traitorous witch toward the van.
His mate hauled the woman in. Cade followed Iris, slamming the van door shut as Navarro hit the gas and what was left of his team got the hell out of Ohio.
Chapter Nineteen
Finding herself in the same room at the community center in which she had interviewed the cubs, Iris stared at Camille Foster. She had to give the witch credit. Minus a hand and after several hours of similar questioning by Navarro and Oram, the woman still sat with her chin held high, her icy blue gaze alight with the sneer hidden beneath the gag she wore.
The men had gathered no intelligence from Camille. And they hadn't been gentle in their interrogation. Iris had reset the witch's bones more than once in the last six hours. But no words had escaped her lips, only screams.
Now it was time to try magic, the she-wolf and the young witch ready to double team Camille.
Dana had, of course, objected to any further contact between his mate and her mother. All of the other clan leaders, Oram acting as their representative, had overrode Dana's command. They left it to Cade, Esme and Iris to convince him, however. Cade had used muscle, Iris magic and Esme...
Well, the sweet witch was the only one who would ever be able to control her mate.
Iris smiled over Camille's shoulder where Esme waited with her back to the wall. Between mother and daughter were Cade, Oram and Navarro. Somewhere just outside the building, Iris felt Dana prowling.
"Remove her gag," Iris ordered with a jerk of her head at Navarro.
The young wolf quickly obeyed and Iris saw the sneer she expected as Camille's lips twisted in an ugly, thin line. Iris opened her mouth to ask the first question, but Camille interrupted her, speaking for the first time since her capture.
"He never would have hurt you," the old witch said as she looked over her shoulder to where her daughter waited behind the thick barrier of three wolves. "Why would he hurt his own child -- his first born?"
Esme's mouth twitch in argument, but she otherwise ignored her mother.
"Just how does that work, anyway?" Iris asked, her tone that of a fawning student in the presence of her favorite professor.
Arrogance lifted the right side of Camille's nose and the corner of the lip beneath it.
"Two witches fucking," Camille answered, one eye rolling in Cade's direction before she returned her attention to Iris. "I would have thought you understood the mechanics by now."
"Right." Iris's hand did a little dance of understanding. "That explains Esme's birth -- but not her twin's."
For the first time since she had lost her hand, the old witch looked shocked.
"Yeah," Iris poked. "We know about that. And I know this piece of shit you're protecting already tried to kill the daughter you claim you love once before. You know, when he tied her up and tried to brand his initial in her flesh."
Camille turned her head, her gaze narrowing to penetrate the body of wolves and find her daughter. But Esme evaded her.
"We had to make sure you would be able to find the cubs, honey." Camille soothed. "It was all a charade to get the papers in your hands. Only that false friend Leah was in danger."
Esme moved from behind Cade to stare at her mother. Iris had arranged the maneuver as a signal with Esme for when Iris should use her magic to probe Camille's mind.
"Is that why you put the crystals in me?" Esme asked softly.
Camille dipped her head. Her tongue looked, for a second, like Q might have spelled it from working if she started to reveal too much. Lips twisting like a possessed demon, the old witch pushed out a strangled grunt before she answered. "I wanted to be able to find you -- always."
Camille blinked. The release of tears that came with the motion surprised Iris.
"And I wanted to save you from birthing any monsters."
Camille's tears had no effect on the younger witch. Iris felt a pang of sympathy for both women. While Iris had never known her own mother, her grandmother had more than made up for the loss. Esme, isolated as a plump witch among sleek wolves, had been denied even that comfort growing up.
Esme took another step closer to Camille. Her foot moved as if she would take another but Cade's hand came to a gentle stop against her stomach. Not only did he have orders from the witch's mate to protect Esme, but he loved the witch as if she were his own sister. He didn't want her in touching distance of her mother, whether or not Camille was bound and gagged.
Dipping her head, Esme looked at her mother through a veil of thick lashes. "You killed babies to put those crystals in me."
Camille slowly swung her head from side to side as if patiently explaining why she wouldn't buy Esme a much desired toy. "Not babies, honey, cubs--"
Growling, Navarro took a step toward the old witch.
Iris pushed her wolf at him in warning.
Control yourself or get the hell out of my interrogation room!
Fist's clenched, claws digging into his flesh, Navarro retreated.
"You killed my nephews to put crystals in the cubs," Esme continued.
Camille tried to wave the accusation away. The cuffs and chains binding her hands against her sides made the gesture impossible. "Don't think of it like that."
"You murdered your grandchildren. Ripped them from my sister -- my twin."
"No," Camille shook her head violently. "She's afterbirth, a placenta with arms and legs and a barely functioning brain. You're my daughter, my only child, and I have no grandchildren. You have no nephews."
Camille squirmed within her restrains, Iris and the other wolves slow to detect the motion as their brains retreated in horror and their guts danced with revulsion at all the things Camille had done to assist the Hunters.
Esme took another step forward, her magic brushing away Cade's attempt to stop her. Witch light leaked from the tips of her fingers with a deadly electric hiss.
"You're going to tell me, mother," Esme warned on her slow approach. "You're going to tell me everything."
"No," Camille smiled, her expression serene, even saintly, as her fingers sank into her own flesh, her fists twisting in her stomach then jerking out. Blood-coated crystals dropped to the floor as more of the thick, red liquid began to drip onto the old witch's clothing. "I won't betray him, baby. Not even for you."
Chapter Twenty
Sitting on the edge of the bed in Esme Foster's former cabin, Iris watched as Cade moved his clothes from a duffel bag to what had become, in the space of a few hours, his side of the dresser and closet. After his insubordination with Oram over retrieving the papers from the museum, Cade had lost his status as a pack leader in the West Virginia clan, but gained a position, however temporary, as Dana's second in command.
Finished storing his clothes, he turned to Iris and grinned. The tentative nature of his smile seemed more suited to a lamb than a wolf. She understood why. She had shocked Cade by offering him a place to stay and a spot in the slightly larger master bedroom in which she slept instead of the guest room.
Even though she considered her offer more than enough evidence that she was ready to commit, he had remained slightly distant upon leaving the clan leader's house. That, too, Iris understood -- at least a little. The last few days had been one hell of a roller coaster ride. Iris shifting, the discovery of the crystals in the cubs and Esme, battling his clan leader, the sacrifice Remus had made to save the mission, the danger everyone on the team had been exposed to, and then Camille's suicide, her bloody hands holding c
rystals she had pulled from her own body shortly before dying.
Iris could forgive Cade for not whooping and hollering at her suggestion that they share the cabin while working on removing the threat to the clan. Okay, maybe that hadn't been a clear signal, but directing him here, into her room...
"I'm hungry, baby." Cade looked at her, his gaze burning as the wolf replaced the lamb.
Studying him, the cant of his hips and the way the wintergreen and pine of his scent had mellowed to fresh, wet grass, Iris bit at her bottom lip. She inhaled more deeply, her nipples hardening as he took his first step toward her.
They had made love before Esme regressed Iris's memory, but not since. Cade had held Iris, comforted her, fought shoulder to shoulder with her, but he hadn't touched her sexually after she had recounted the horror of Hank's attack.
His steps slowed. "I'm sorry, love. If you're not ready..."
Stretching forward, she managed to snag two of his belt loops with her fingers. She reeled him in, purple gaze looking up at him as a smile eased across her face. Yes, the memories hurt, but having his arms around her would ease, maybe even erase, them.
"I will always be ready for you," she promised as she tugged his shirt from his jeans then slowly teased her wolf by unthreading Cade's belt from the loops.
He stopped her. Hands cupping her face, Cade coaxed Iris into meeting his gaze. "I love you."
Eyes drifting shut, she rolled her lips then nodded. Swallowing, she brought her hands to his hips and looked up at him. "I love you, too."
She sucked her bottom lip in, hesitating. He shushed her before she could say anything stupid. Gently, Cade pushed her onto her back and then his big body straddled her. He softly kissed each cheek. Each fall of his lips voiced a promise for their future.
"Esme says she can remove the crystals from the cubs," he reminded Iris. "The clan will be stronger and safer, especially now that we can unwind some of the damage Camille and the Hunters created."
Iris offered another small nod and slowed the speed at which she breathed. A panic attack wasn't her idea of sexy -- she doubted Cade would disagree. And, no matter how badly the interrogation had ended, she and Esme had been successful in penetrating Camille's memories. Hope glimmered on the horizon. Things would start getting better. The clan would be able to move from defending against the Hunters to finding them and eliminating the threat.
