“You’re right, of course.” Tristan nodded as he considered what he said. Looking over his shoulder, Az watched Tristan narrow his eyes. “Rex, come here.”
The look of surprise that crossed Rex’s face almost made Az laugh. Their youngest brother had been out of favor recently after running away from the island and nearly getting killed by Kendrick during the fiasco with fire demons. Tristan very rarely addressed him directly.
“How would you like a job?” Az turned to give Rex and Tristan some privacy but Tristan growled and pointed a finger to stop Az from leaving. Raising an eyebrow, Az had no idea what Tristan wanted at this particular moment.
After a moment, Rex answered. “I would be honored by any job you wanted to give me, my Alpha. Do you want me to kill him?” Rex pointed at the man on the floor.
Az interrupted. “I’m going to kill him.”
“No one is killing him.” Tristan’s tone gave no room for rebuttal. Az wanted to howl in anger. It was his right to eliminate the threat to his mate. Anger surged through his veins so strongly that Az had to close his eyes to resist screaming at Tristan.
“Before you get yourself into a frenzy, hear me out. Rex, we’re going to be taking a little pack trip out to Dad’s.” Tristan raised his finger again in a gesture he was obviously using more and more to stop people from interrupting. “Yes, Cullen, I will be going too. I know you were going to object. Don’t think I’m not aware that you are standing over there listening to every word I say.”
Cullen muttered an apology and Tristan laughed. “Rex, when we get where we’re going, you are going to have the job of capturing us a witch. This might not be so easy. It is highly likely they will get away. We haven’t even seen one in person since we killed the one who cursed us. If they so much as get wind of our arrival, they will vanish. Your job is to bring one back. If they run, you chase. Got it?”
“Yes, my Alpha.” Az noted the glint of happiness that filled Rex’s eyes before he pushed it down. Compared to the rest of them, Rex was very young. They all needed their Alpha’s approval. It looked as if right now Rex needed it a lot more.
“Good.” Tristan turned all of his attention to Az now. He was going to get Tristan to let him deal with Nathan St. James, too bad if Tristan didn’t want to be argued with.
“We need information from him. Let Cullen get it.”
“No.” Az said his last words through gritted teeth. What he really wanted to do was shift and tear Senator St. James to pieces.
“Why? Why does it have to be you?” Az shrugged. “Why can’t it be me?”
Something glimmered in Tristan’s eyes and Az couldn’t make out what it was. “Because you have to be able to look at her when this is over. She has to stare you in the eyes and not see your guilt at handling this written all over your face. Notice,” Tristan indicated the room. “Ashlee isn’t here but Summer and Faith are. Ash knows I have to do things as Alpha…yet, if I was the man to handle this she would be horrified. Faith and Summer have the stomach for interrogation. Jana’s not here either or any of the other women. Go find your mate—comfort her. I need you to work on that compound you thought up to stop the wolves from making the shift, the vaccine. I need that before we can leave and I need to leave tomorrow.”
Az couldn’t help the growl that escaped his throat. “I have the same instincts as everyone else. I don’t need to be protected from my mate’s displeasure. She’s not here because this is her father. However, that does not mean she is under any illusions about what is going to go on in here. Cullen isn’t going to be able to get what he needs from him.” Az walked over to the cabinet that stood on the left side of the interrogation room. He opened the top drawer and finding what he needed, pulled out the syringe and vial he knew he’d hidden in there. After a second, he inserted the syringe into the vial and filled it with the liquid he’d created. “Only I can.” Az looked at Cullen and Theo. “Could you guys put him on that table and strap him down for me?”
Tristan sniffed the air looking at the syringe Az held. “I can only detect the metallic taste of medicine, nothing more distinct. What is that?”
“Amobarbital. I mixed it myself, took some time. These days, it’s illegal to use— considered a form of torture. Of course, I’m old enough to remember when it was all but recreational in certain circles.” Az couldn’t help smiling at the memory. Regular humans did the oddest things. “It’s derived from barbiturates. When given from an IV, slowly, and over time, the person has no choice but to tell you things they might otherwise not tell you. Doctors first thought they could use it to help psychologically blocked patients open up about—“
“Az. I don’t want the history of Amobarbital. I’m enough impressed that you made some up. When did you do this?”
When had he done it? Time frequently slipped away from Az. “Um…maybe five years ago.”
“And you put it in the interrogation room?”
“I thought there might come a time when we might use it. I have a whole bunch of it in here actually. Good thing it wasn’t in the lab, huh?”
“Almost like it was predestined for you to do that?”
Az took a deep breath. “Tristan, as happy as I am to be in the land of the magical creatures again, I really don’t want to start talking about fate. I’m grateful beyond belief for Leah. Can we leave it at that?”
Tristan laughed. “Alright, fair enough. You use your drug, get the info I need and I’m sending Leah back in here. Anything you do, she needs to be able to know about it. You’ll have to do it in front of her.”
“Hey Trip, when you were getting those degrees in architecture and engineering all those years ago did you also pick up a doctorate I don’t know about in human psychology?”
“No, but since I became what essentially amounts as the father of the entire pack, I have to concern myself with the well being and emotional health of all of you douche bags. It’s a good thing my mate knows a thing or two about feelings.”
Az laughed. “Tristan, did you just call me a douche bag?”
“What? Ashlee says it’s important that I use the vernacular of ‘now’ and not sound like an old man when I talk since I’m going to look thirty forever, even after all of you start to finally age. Did I say it wrong?”
“No, I believe you said it perfectly.”
Tristan addressed the room. “Let’s go. Az has work to do.”
The crowd that entered started to disperse. Faith grabbed him by the arm on her way out. “Are you really not going to tell him that douche bag is an insult?”
“Nope, I’m going to let him go out in public and say that to someone. I think it’ll be very amusing.”
“Azriel, who knew you had the Kane sense of humor?”
“I did. Well I didn’t know it was Kane-esque but I knew Kendrick’s got a wicked sense of humor.” Leah entered the room around the crowd that exited. Faith let go of his arm immediately. For a second he was confused and then he realized that his sister-in-law was concerned that Leah wouldn’t approve of her touching him.
“Sorry, I know you guys are newly mated. It’s too soon for me to touch him. I think of Az as my little brother.” Faith threw her hands up in the air in a conciliatory gesture. Az actually had to cover his mouth with his hand to stop from grinning. Had Leah sent out some kind of signal that he missed that made Faith nervous?
Leah smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m sure Theo is waiting for you.”
Faith whistled. “Nothing like the hormones of those first months. You’ll both come down from this craziness eventually.”
As Faith exited, Leah exhaled. “I thought I was going to rip off her head.” Leah grabbed Az and pulled him into her arms. “I know its nuts, I just can’t help it.”
“In the past,” Azriel kissed the top of her head losing himself in the scent of home that was pure Leah. “Mates used to go away for a time. Actually, it was odd because you never knew when two people were suddenly going to awaken to the fact that they wer
e mates. One day they were just Jon and Jane wolf-shifter, going about their lives, the next they’d gotten some indication from their wolves that they were supposed to be together and—boom—they’d mate, drop everything, and disappear for several months. When they reemerged, usually the female was pregnant.”
“Are you saying this craziness that we are going through is nature’s way of making sure we procreate?”
“I’m probably the only shifter who would say that but, yes, that’s what I think.” “And that’s why Ashlee and Summer had babies so quickly? I can do the math; I know she’s had three babies in five years.” Leah squeezed him tighter, her nails digging slightly in his back. His groin, which had already hardened, jumped to attention.
“How good is your nose?”
“I’m picking up more and more senses every hour. At least I think I am. Why?” “Because Ash is pregnant again. I can smell it. They haven’t told anyone. I always
know weeks before the other shifters become aware of the change in scent. I think it comes from all the time I spend sniffing out odors in the labs. I’m very attuned to subtlety.” Az let go of Leah, forcing himself to get to work hooking up the IV in her father’s arm. He needed to start the medicine drip or her father would never be ready for questioning when he woke up. “That’s why I know that Jana and Faith are also in the early stages of pregnancy.”
“Is that what you want? A baby?”
Az looked up into the unfathomable depths of Leah’s sharp gaze. “I want you. Do you want kids?”
“I didn’t.” She swallowed, he could see her neck muscles strain. “Didn’t or don’t?”
“I do. I want them with you. Is that just the mating talking?”
Leah was so smart. He’d never heard anyone else ever question what happened to him or her during this time. “I have no idea because I’m afraid I’m too under the influence myself to be non-partial. I want babies with you too.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “But not four in six years.” She held up her index and middle fingers. “Two, at most. I’m an only child. Two seems like a lot.”
Having set up the IV, he turned back to her. “Ashlee had been told she couldn’t have kids, couple that with the fact that Tristan is Alpha and wants to add numbers to the pack, and you have two people who think nothing of getting pregnant every year. Plus, we have a lot of extra hands around here. Everyone wants to be called Uncle or Aunt to everyone else’s children. Ashlee sneezes and five people rush over to grab her kids.”
“It takes a village…”
He nodded. “Or in this case, a pack.”
Leah’s father groaned. Az took her hand and pulled her close, gesturing to Senator St. James. “He’s going to be groggy and ticked off. He’s not going to be happy he can’t resist telling me what I want to know. Tristan thought you had to be here. If you want to leave, that’s fine with me.”
She shook her head. “I know you didn’t want me here. I had to come anyway.
Whatever you have to do, I want to be with you for it. Even this.”
“I’m only going to question him. I wanted to beat him, to tear out his throat. Tristan objected to that…on your behalf and then I remembered I had this stuff stored up. It was a compromise, of sorts.”
As Az watched, Nathan St. James became aware of his surroundings all at once. He raised a finger like he wanted to magically attack Az again. It didn’t work and he shook his finger again.
“Not going to happen.” Az shook his head and tried not to laugh. “We’ve put a magic dampener in this room. Anything short of shifting isn’t possible in here right now. Guess you’re out of luck in that respect.”
“Why does my head feel foggy?”
Az moved and sat at the end of the table. “We drugged you.”
Looking up at the clock, he decided it had been in St. James’ IV long enough. He could probably start to ask questions soon.
“What are you going to do with me?”
“I’m going to ask you some questions. You’re going to answer them. I’m not all that clear what will happen to you then. My inclination is to give you back to Kendrick after you’ve spilled all of his secrets.”
The man tried to rear up on the table, stopped by the restraints. “You can’t do that.
Kill me first. Don’t give me back to Kendrick.”
“Not so in love with my dear old dad now, are you? It’s really not up to me. You’ll have to take it up with Tristan and see what kind of compassionate mood he is in.”
“Leah, baby, I tried to get you out of here. That must count for something.” Az growled. “You don’t get to address her.”
Leah laughed. “This is Azriel’s show, Dad, I’m just here as a witness.”
Her faith temporarily blindsided him. Realizing he was still on a precipice in this makeshift interrogation, he couldn’t allow himself to analyze just how fantastic it was to have someone who believed in him wholeheartedly.
He needed to focus. “Tell me how you kept Leah’s mother from her mate for all of those years.”
“There are simple ways…spells, if you will, to separate a shifter from their mate.” Nathan’s head swung back and forth on the table as he tried to resist the compulsion the drugs put on him. “Any time I thought she was starting to go back to him, I would give her another dose of the spell. As for my brother, he was easy enough to manipulate knowing that at any time I could and would turn his daughter over to Kendrick Kane.”
“How did Kendrick find you?”
“Right after his expulsion from Westervelt, he spent some time searching for the missing women. He found my brother and his mate. I managed to convince him to let me have them for a while. I kept hoping I could find a way to take her wolf as my own. Unfortunately, she died right as I perfected the spell.”
Az’s blood boiled at the thought. Despite what Tristan felt, he knew he was more than capable of ending this man’s life right at this very moment. Leah’s cool hand touched his arm, dousing his enraged mood to a simmer.
“Did Kendrick send you here now?”
He shook his head. “He’d be furious if he knew I had come. He was angry that I’d even filed a missing persons report on Leah. I had no choice. Too many people came around asking where she was.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at Az’s mate. “She’s always been so damn social.”
Asking Nathan about the nature of the magic he used would be useless for Az. He probably wouldn’t understand it even if he managed to get the other man to answer his queries. Looking down at the man who had raised Leah but destroyed her family, he noticed the sweat forming on the older man’s brow. Tristan and the others could ask their magical questions. He just had one of his own. “Tell me, where is Kendrick now?”
11
The interrogation of the man who she once believed was her father and now had become something out of her worst nightmare took almost the entire night. Azriel had finally gotten the location of his father’s compound out of Nathan—and she was determined to think of him that way now as ‘Nathan’ and not as ‘Dad’—which had brought Tristan and the others back into the room to question him about his magic use and the intricacies of his coven.
Leah didn’t particularly care about the magical end of things. She knew they would be going on a trip to Texas where Kendrick had made his new home and where it was more than likely the place where he had imprisoned her turning her into a wolf. Other than that, her head simply hurt. It wasn’t the kind of thing taking a pain medication would cure. It was a tired headache telling her she had just done too much over the last…well who even knew how much time it had really been?
Excusing herself from the interrogation without a word to Az, she had found her way back to his rooms using scent alone. A feat she might not have been able to do earlier that day. Her wolf was definitely finding her mojo. Opening the door, she barely spared a glance to the ill-kept room before stumbling into the adjacent bedroom and, still dressed, collapsing into a deep sleep on his bed.
Sometime later, she was vaguely aware of Az entering the room and undressing her. The sensation of clothes being taken off and then placed on her body stirred her briefly but his assurances that she should stay asleep resonated with her exhausted brain and within seconds she sank again into slumber.
She did not dream that night—a strange occurrence for Leah who, as an artist, found that most nights were filled with color, images, and stories that usually let her awaken feeling motivated to paint in the morning. She could only attribute it to her utter need of deep sleep. Opening her eyes, she became aware of two things very quickly. It was very early, there was barely any light coming through the window and Az’s strong arms were around her pulling her snug up against his chest.
His breathing was even and if the movement of his eyes beneath his lids were any indication he was deep in REM sleep. Not wanting to disturb him but desperate to pee and use the shower, she dislodged herself from his embrace and made her way to the bathroom. Moments later she stood under the warm water of Az’s shower and tried to straighten out her thoughts.
Did she feel more refreshed? Sort of.
Did she feel like she could go back to sleep? No. Was she aching for her mate? Yes.
Closing her eyes she tried and failed to make her need for him diminish. There was no helping it. Her body practically burned from her need for Az. Was this part of the early stages of their relationship that Az had mentioned earlier? The part where the couple reappeared months later with a baby on the way or would she wake up this way needing him every morning?
Turning off the spray, she shrugged not really caring either way. If she woke up this way every morning it would only add a bonus to their relationship. Assuming Az was game for being awoken by her sexual attentions.
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