“There’s one more thing,” Cam added. “We want you to bring Tiberius with you.”
“Right now, he’s safe because no one can confirm his location.” Cord grinned, proud of that fact. “Thanks to your tip about the assassination attempt, his parents are on lockdown in a secure facility. Thierry is being very careful to handle the situation so that Dell comes out smelling like a rose in the end.”
Roses I didn’t mind so much. It was Thierry’s thorns that worried me.
“If it makes you feel any better,” Cam added, “we’re having Enzo complete a working over the exterior of the RV. We don’t want anyone able to see it, track it or enter it without authorization. Keep Tiberius indoors, and he’ll be safe.”
“I don’t know how much experience you have with teens.” Being raised in a pack, I had spent a good bit of time around kids of all ages. “But they’re hellions. Particularly princely ones who are nursing heartache, worried about their parents and missing their girlfriend. He’s not going to stay in the RV just because we tell him to.”
“Okay.” She considered it with the seriousness of a person who had no idea how bad teenage rebellion could get. “We’ll have Enzo ward the RV so he can’t leave it either.”
Cord looked tempted to argue, but then a thoughtful expression settled over his features. “That’s not a bad idea. No one can snatch him if he can’t leave. They’d have to take the entire RV.”
Cam picked up his train of thought and rode it hard, colliding with her cousin right in his soft spot for gadgetry. “Isaac, could you rig it with a kill switch to disable the ignition if the interior wards are breached? What about a GPS tracker? That way we could keep tabs on you and track the RV in the event it is compromised.”
Isaac’s voice came out soft in the way it did when his mind was working through a puzzle that had piqued his interest. “It will require some finesse. I’ll have to protect the electronics from the magic, or they’ll fry since they’ll be at cross-purposes.”
“How long do we have?” I suppressed the urge to bounce.
“Twenty-four hours,” Cam said. “The conclave didn’t give us much warning. They’re paranoid right now and taking every precaution.”
“Can you make it happen in a day?” Cord wanted to know. “We’ve already checked with Enzo. He said it’s no problem, but you’ll both have to fit your work within that same time frame.”
“I can handle my end as long as the witch doesn’t slow me down.” Isaac patted his pants for the phablet he usually kept there, but he had left it by the sink, a fact I didn’t share because his distracted befuddlement was adorable. “We need a contingency plan. A few of them wouldn’t hurt.”
Cord, who took over for Cam, dosing me with his own brand of alpha magic, wrapped his wide palm around my ankle. His wolf prowled close to his skin, wary of the coming battle, and mine responded. Sensing my anxiety, his wolf pressed on my consciousness until mine obeyed, and I slept on my alpha’s orders.
Chapter 14
“What did I miss?” I asked a few hours later when I woke refreshed and surrounded by tablets of varying size covered in doodles, and textbooks as thick as my forearm. “And what is all this?”
“Hmm?” He busied himself sketching a doohickey on a stick with a neon-green stylus.
I tried a different tack. “You’re working on the GPS thing?”
“Yes. Sorry.” He set down his supplies and rubbed his eyes. “Time got away from me.”
The organized chaos and utter absorption reminded me of Enzo when he was taming new magic. I didn’t draw the comparison, partly because it would irritate Isaac when he was about to be working in close quarters with the witch, and partly because it caused me to examine my taste in men.
What was it about the brainy set that appealed to me? The cute facial scrunches when they concentrated? The rumpled hair? The wrinkled clothes? The I never made it to bed last night look? The fevered light of inspiration? The rush as they teetered on the cusp of discovery? The pride in their accomplishments? The glow of inspiration that rubbed off a little on me?
Deep down I worried I had decided to be attracted to men so absorbed in their own lives they didn’t dig too far into mine. I had spent so much of my youth cultivating invisibility that I worried not even my partner would really see me.
“Should I have moved to the kitchen table?” He began gathering his things. “I didn’t mean to box you in, it just makes me nervous when my cousin goes all alpha and your wolf conks out because of it.”
“How could you tell I wasn’t just tired?” I was genuinely curious.
“Promise you won’t hit me?” He scooted out of swatting range.
“I promise not to assault you with your own textbooks. That’s about it.”
“When you fall asleep naturally, you make these little growly sounds. Your feet and hands twitch like a puppy dreaming about chasing rabbits.” He maintained a safe distance. “When Cam or Cord put you down, you’re out cold. You don’t move, you don’t growl. You barely breathe.” He shrugged, sheepish. “I don’t like leaving you when you’re like that. I’d rather be here where I can keep an eye on your breathing.”
And here I had worried he wouldn’t see me when he had been watching over me, my own personal guardian angel.
Rolling onto my side with care, I traced the planes of his face with my gaze since my fingers couldn’t reach. “Have you always been this sweet on me?”
“Let’s just say that first time we met up with Cam so she could practice her aspects, it wasn’t her I was trying to impress.”
I propped my cheek on my fist. “You resisted my charms.”
Heat sparked in his pale-blue eyes. “You kissed me, that wasn’t resistance.”
“Exactly.” I toyed with the comforter. “I kissed you.”
“You were Cammie’s friend, and I had never met one of those.” He cleared off the bed until he had room to sprawl beside me. “I knew myself, and I didn’t want to wreck your friendship by adding sex with me into the mix.”
In other words, he’d panicked when he realized he actually liked me, and tried to run, but I had given chase.
“You know what I think?” I scooched closer, emboldened by his earlier gift. “You knew I was different, and that’s what scared you.”
“Until I met you, I can’t remember wanting to make love to a woman. Sex was always a game, a means of getting what I was after.”
“Blood.”
“Blood.”
“How is that going to work moving forward?” I wriggled even closer.
“You need me at my best, and that means loaded with aspects.” He caught my wrist before I could withdraw. “I’ll be paying or trading tech going forward. I can’t promise that means I won’t be dealing with other women. I’m in it for the aspect, not the package. Does that work for you?”
“You’re cool with my best friend being a guy, so yeah. I can deal with this.”
He leaned in, eased his lips over mine and sighed a happy sound. Relief. He must have been worried about how I would take his continued need for donors. He palmed my hip, kneading the dense muscle, and warmth spiraled between my thighs.
The exterior door banged open, and we sprang apart like scalded cats. Abram took one sniff of the air and honed his glare. “No hanky-panky for at least another week.” He pointed at Isaac and then the bathroom. “You, cold shower.” After the door shut behind him, Abram pointed at me. “You, stop whatever you were doing. You can’t seduce that boy in your condition, and he’s a damn waste of oxygen if he’s pushing you for more.”
Me? A seductress? Hmm. I liked the sound of that. “We were cuddling.”
“Cuddling doesn’t leave the air so thick with pheromones you need a box fan set in a window prior to inviting in polite company.”
“Is that what you are? Polite company?”
I pulled my shirt over my head, and the girls bounced free. Being told by a medical professional not to wear a bra for the duration of my re
covery had been a liberating, if awkward, experience. Sure, I spent a lot of time naked between shifts, but going starkers as a human wasn’t the same. I was too top heavy not to wear a bra under clothes outside the RV. As a consequence, going on braless walks with Isaac felt more risqué than communal nudity.
The healer harrumphed in his way and ordered me facedown on the mattress. I counted the number of E’s in the titles of all the books stacked in mountains around the bed while he conducted his examination.
“How’s the pain?” He tested a sore spot, and I flinched. “Better or worse today?”
“Better. I’m stiff, but I’m getting around okay. When Isaac lets me get out of bed.”
On second thought, that sounded bad.
Abram flushed scarlet to his hairline. “You’re ready for more light activity.” His gentle but firm hands tested the base of my skull. “I’m not sure if you’re ready for the cockamamie scheme the alphas are running, but I’m just the healer.”
On reflex, I rose to their defense. “They don’t have much choice. They can’t risk me or Tiberius being found.”
“Sending you off alone while you’re in this condition…” a growl laced his voice, “…it’s not right.”
“Isaac will be with me.”
“Isaac’s the one who dropped you in the first place.” His teeth snapped together with an audible click. “I didn’t mean that. I’m just worried. Had your mother been pack at the time, I would have delivered you. I’ve watched you mature into a damn fine woman, but you’re reckless. You wield your heart like it’s a shield that can stop bullets. I worry what will happen the day you find out you aren’t bulletproof, if I’m not there to sew you back together again.”
Sensing the exam was over, I pushed into a sitting position and shrugged back into my shirt. “It’s not your job to hold me together.” I took his hand in mine. His palms were smooth and his fingers delicate. Mine were calloused and scarred from repeated abuse. “I did get reckless when Isaac left. I broke when the pack needed me most. I was following in Momma’s footsteps until Zed nipped some sense into me.”
“Don’t give Isaac so much credit.” He tightened his fingers on mine. “That boy didn’t break you. You lost him, and it hurt, but you kept going. Then the alphas left, and you shouldered the sole responsibility for the pack. It’s not like you were sitting around mediating the usual dominance bullshit between hotheaded rung-climbers. You were fighting battles every night to stave off a war, and all of that eventually caught up to you. You might have fixated on Isaac as the root cause, but he was one symptom of the disease.”
I had never looked at my situation that way. Perspective, I suppose, is a vantage gained from the outside. “You’re still worried.” I could tell. “You think that I think having him back is the cure.”
“You have Zed to lean on now, and the alphas have no choice but to remain in Butler. You’ll have a support structure here, waiting on you when you get back. And, if you’re dead set on Isaac, well, you’ll have him too.” He released my hand and stood. “The things that make you a great beta are also the things that will burn you out over and over, the things that will get you killed. You’ve got to let people in, Dell, all the way. It’s not enough to open your heart, you’ve got to award them trust. Think of it as delegation. Not every tall building must be leapt in a single bound.”
“Trust is hard.” I curled in on myself. “I trust Cord and Cam, and you and Zed.”
“But not Isaac?” the healer asked.
“I trust him with my life.”
“Just not with your heart.”
“I want to.”
“Your momma did a number on you.” He sighed. “Just think about what I said, and remember. You might look like Blanche, but that’s where the similarities stop.”
“Thanks for the pep talk.”
“I had to get in my speech before you left.” He passed me a few pieces of paper. Prescriptions. “I’m clearing you for this excursion, and I expect you to be responsible while you’re out there.”
“I’ll be on my best behavior,” I promised.
“That’s what worries me.”
Fresh from the shower, Isaac exited the bathroom on a puff of steam. Sadly, he had taken his time and fully dressed before emerging. Oh, well. Maybe next time I could swap his bath towel out with one of the rags from the kitchen.
“How’s the patient?” Isaac crossed to me—not that he had to go far given the dimensions of the RV—and took my prescriptions so I didn’t have to worry about losing them. “Her walk got interrupted by the sirens earlier, but she was barely panting when we got back.”
I saluted him with a cheeky smile. “The patient has been cleared for active duty.”
Abram pinched the bridge of his nose. “You are a braver man than I.”
He made it sound like mating me ought to come with a free bulletproof vest. “I’m not that bad.”
“Yes,” they said in unison. “You are.”
The healer let himself out while Isaac answered a text. His eyes crinkled at the corners, and he reached for me. “Your chariot awaits, madam.”
“The RVs are here?” I didn’t wait for his confirmation before standing and scooting past. “Let’s go call dibs.”
Leading the way outside, I charged down to the lot near the entrance of the park. It was a longer walk than I was used to, but I wasn’t winded, and I wasn’t about to turn down the opportunity to snoop in each and every one. Isaac kept watch but left me to sate my curiosity without a chaperone.
Once I had exhausted myself poking around, I rejoined Isaac and allowed him to settle me into a lawn chair for a rest. “Do I really get to pick which one I want, or has it already been chosen?”
“As far as I know, it doesn’t matter.” His gaze fixated on a point over my shoulder, and he gave a halfhearted wave. “The witch is here.”
Turning my neck was one on a list of many no-nos for me, so I vacillated between my options while he approached. Enzo took a position at my elbow and whistled. “These are nice. The pack spared no expense.”
“They’re loaners,” Isaac reminded him.
In Enzo World, he bought what he wanted, not borrowed. One of the tightest strings that would take the longest to snap if he ever hoped for true independence from Miguel would be making peace with losing a big chunk of his income. Enzo wasn’t vain, but he dressed to impress and drove cars to match.
The one exception was he’d rented a gorgeous sporty car to use while he was here. I suspected its primary purpose was in making him more difficult to track since his brother didn’t exactly know where he was or what he was doing. The secondary was all flash. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn Thierry Thackeray had signed the rental agreement to further muddy the waters. That girl had fingers in all the pies.
“Dell was about to pick the lucky winner we get to overhaul.” Isaac cupped my nape, his thumb sending delicious shivers down my spine where he stroked my carotid. “Which looks like a good place for a weeklong vacation?”
After much debating, I had to confess there was one clear winner. “The one with the purple stripe. The bedroom’s purple too.” Isaac’s face puckered like he’d been sucking on a lemon. “Don’t give me that look. We’ve been living in your man cave, one end of which is wall-to-wall computer monitors, and I haven’t complained even once. Besides, purple looks good on you.”
Sheepish, he set off to examine our new digs and fit his ideas to the RV’s specs.
Beside me, Enzo chuckled. “I almost feel sorry for him.”
After elbowing him in the ribs, I crossed my ankles to wait on Isaac’s return. “You almost were him.”
“No.” Enzo’s voice carried fondness instead of the tenderness such comparisons used to garner. “If you had wanted me, you would have had me ten times over before you two ever met.”
Asking him outright left me squirming in my chair, but as beta, I couldn’t abide someone under my care hurting. “Are you…okay?”
“Isaac isn’t the only one who’s been navel-gazing lately.” He removed a pack of gum from his shirt pocket and offered me a stick, which I declined, before taking one for himself. “I’d have to be blind not to see the parallels between me and you and Isabella and Miguel.” He popped a second stick into his mouth and punished it between his teeth. “Your incarceration gave me time to think and space to do it in. I watched Isaac fraying at the edges, and it hit me between the eyes that if I loved you, really loved you, I would have come unglued too. But the panic never hit. I feared for you, and I worked toward a solution. It’s one of the reasons why I agreed to our trip to Faerie. But I never came close to breaking like he did.”
“I had no idea that so many of my good friends considered love to be on par with a cancer diagnosis.”
“The work I do now is atonement for my brother’s sins. For mine.” He fell silent for a moment. “He loves Isabella, but it’s her illness that receives all his time and attention. After the sickness, after she stopped being able to shift and started losing her mind to the caged wolf in her middle, he became fixated, obsessed. He searches for a method of suppressing warg genes in an attempt to save her, but the end doesn’t always justify the means.”
Miguel had used the Chandler wargs as test subjects for so long it seemed like they had never been free of the threat of experimentation. Isabella’s plight struck me in the gut. It spoke to a warg’s worst fear. Losing the wolf. Forever. But Miguel should have let her go when the sickness peaked. He shouldn’t hold on to her, caging her degrading mind in a failing body while he desperately searched for a cure that didn’t exist. You could no more remove the wolf from a warg than you could remove the nerve center from a human. Both were fundamental parts required for the body and mind to function.
“You wanted to rewrite the past, correct Miguel’s behavior through example,” I realized. “You wanted to show him the right way for a witch to be mated to a warg.”
Wolf at the Door (Lorimar Pack) (Gemini Book 5) Page 17
