Grave Origins

by Lori Drake

  “Yeah. We found her phone in a trash can. Ben thinks she cut and run.”

  Chris rubbed a hand down his face. This was bad. This was really bad. Maria was a member of his pack, and he’d be concerned about any of them going missing, but with her background… there was a lot more than a missing person to worry about. Had she really spent all this time just waiting for the right opportunity to bolt? He’d thought spending time with his pack would change her mind about wolves, thought he’d witnessed a transformation in her in the time she’d been with them. Had it all been an act?

  “What do you think?” he asked.

  Joey was quiet for a few seconds. “I don’t know. I thought she’d come around a bit, you know? But she’s far from helpless, and if she was taken against her will… there were hundreds of people there. Someone should’ve seen something. Plus, when we got back to the motel, her shit was gone.”

  “Why would someone want to take her against her will?”

  “I don’t know. All I know is that Heidi warned me she was in danger. Told me to get her out of town. Then she vanished.”

  “Heidi… that’s the Alpha’s mate, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What does he think?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve been hesitant to say anything to him. He interrupted my chat with Heidi, and she clammed up. I don’t know why, but she all but begged me with her eyes not to say anything to him. There’s only one reason I can think why she might want that…”

  “Because he’s the threat,” Chris concluded, getting to his feet. “I’ll leave now. I can be there in… How long did it take you to get there?”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “What else am I supposed to do? One of my pack is missing. I have to come look for her. And then there’s Lewis. Shit, whether he’s involved or not, we’re gonna have to tell him about her past.”

  “Chris, there’s nowhere else to look. We searched the carnival. I even went back to sniff around, but I couldn’t catch her trail. As for reading Lewis in… are you sure?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be? If Maria’s gone back to hunting, no wolf in that region is safe. If his people start dropping dead…”

  “Remember what happened when we found out Abby brought a hunter into our territory?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m worried about.”

  “Not the killing. Our relationship with Abby. It pissed us off, and with good reason. Fortunately, we don’t have to deal with her often, but these are our neighbors.”

  Chris dropped back onto the bench and sighed. “It’ll be even worse if Maria hurts someone. But the reason we’re barely on speaking terms with Abby is because you used her as bait to catch Maria and her brother. We have to tell him. You need to tell him.”

  She paused, then asked carefully, “Is that an order?”

  Rubbing his temples, Chris swallowed another sigh. Was it? He’d never had to order Joey to do something, never thought of her as anything but his partner in all things. In their short time working together as Alpha and second, they had yet to truly butt heads, but if there was one thing he knew about his fiancée, it was that she didn’t respond well to being ordered around. “Does it need to be? Come on, babe. This isn’t about saving face. It’s about saving lives.”

  “Maybe,” she said softly. “But every instinct I have tells me that there’s more to this than meets the eye. I don’t believe Maria went back to hunting. I can’t shake the feeling that something else is going on. If she kills someone, I’ll eat my shirt.”

  “Let’s hope that’s not necessary,” he said, well aware that she hadn’t committed to telling Lewis anything. “But about Lewis…”

  She blew out a gusty breath. “I’ll tell him.”

  Relief flowed through him, and he nodded before remembering she couldn’t see him. “Okay. But be careful. If he really is involved in her disappearance, you could still be in danger.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’ll take Ben. We’ll be fine.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come face the firing squad with you? I will.”

  “Don’t you have a shitstorm of your own to deal with?”

  “Eh. It’s quieted down a bit.”

  “Or maybe it’s the eye of the hurricane.”

  Chris thought back to Leta’s ominous words. “It might be, at that. Maybe I ought to get Cathy working on tracking charms so I can find my people when they go missing.”

  She chuckled. “Hopefully it doesn’t become common enough for that to be necessary. But a wolf LoJack could be one of those things you regret not having more than the reverse.”

  “Could be.” Chris’s eyes fell on the remains of his sandwich, but his appetite had fled. He leaned his elbows on the table. “Check in again after you talk to Lewis, okay? And tell him that he can call me if he wants to speak directly. I’ll take full responsibility for the decision to keep him in the dark.”

  “We both know that isn’t true.” Her voice softened, though, like she appreciated the sentiment.

  “Yeah, but I’d rather have him irate with me from afar than irate with you in the same room. I don’t have to tell you how unpredictable angry alphas can be.”

  Another quiet chuckle rumbled across the line. “Truth. Okay, I’m gonna go get this done. Like yanking off a bandage, right?”

  “One quick tug. You’ve got this.” After hanging up, Chris dropped his phone on the table and put his head in his hands. He didn’t like sending Joey in to face Lewis on her own—Ben’s presence notwithstanding. Chris belonged at her side.

  Never should’ve let them go without me.

  He didn’t have long to wallow in self-pity, because his phone rang less than a minute later. Seeing Lucas’s name on the display brought a scowl to his lips, but he answered anyway.

  “What?”

  “Hey, Chris… how’s it going?” Lucas sounded casual, but Chris picked up what sounded like a scuffle going on in the background.

  “I’ve had better days.”

  “Ha! Haven’t we—” A noisy crash sounded in the background. “Right. Hey. Can you come over?”

  “Over? Uh… why?”

  “I’ve got a, um, situation here.” There was another crash, louder this time. “With Vince.”

  Chris smirked, but there was no time—yet—for gloating. “On my way.”

  Joey sat on the couch in the living room at Lewis’s ranch, waiting for the Alpha to grace them with his presence. Ben—who had agreed to this little mission surprisingly swiftly—put a hand on her knee and pressed down, calling her attention to its bouncing. She pushed his hand away and grumbled but made an effort to still her leg.

  She checked the mantel clock again. Thirty minutes had passed since Amanda had left them to find Lewis. The house wasn’t that big, so Joey had to assume he was out in the field somewhere.

  It was another fifteen minutes before the sound of the front door opening and closing brought Joey’s eyes to the archway that led into the foyer. Lewis strode into the room a moment later, with Owen at his back.

  Joey popped to her feet. “Hey, sorry to pull you away from your work.”

  Lewis grunted but waved off the apology. “What’s up? Did you find your friend?”

  “Unfortunately, no. That’s why I’m here. There’s something you should know about Maria. Is there, um, somewhere we could speak privately?”

  Lewis pushed his fingers through his hair, which was flattened a bit on top as if it’d been under a hat for a while. “I don’t keep secrets from my second. Whatever you have to say to me, he can hear.”

  Joey glanced at Owen, who stood beside his Alpha with a curious expression on his face and his thumbs tucked behind his belt. A handgun was clipped to his belt, and Joey briefly wondered why he’d need such a thing while out in the field but abandoned the thought in favor of the matter at hand. “Okay, well… Maria has a bit of a checkered past.” Beside her, Ben snorted, and Joey shot him a look before continuing. “She was a hunter
.”

  The big Alpha’s eyes narrowed, and his nostrils flared. His wolf stirred beneath his skin, a whisper of power that radiated from him. Owen glanced at him and put a hand on his shoulder.

  Joey rushed on. “I take full responsibility for the decision to keep you in the dark. I didn’t expect it to be an issue. She’s been with us for months, and we’ve all witnessed the change in her since then. But now she’s gone, so… I guess all bets are off.”

  Lewis strode forward to stand toe to toe with Joey, staring down at her with hard eyes. She met his gaze, unflinching, even as his power rolled over her. Her wolf stirred in response, but Joey held her in check easily. There was no sense in aggravating the big guy further.

  “You brought a hunter into my territory,” Lewis growled.

  “Ex-hunter,” Joey said, wincing.

  Lewis bent down, hulking over her with his wolf still riding shotgun. “I ought to gut you.”

  Owen stepped up behind his Alpha and put a hand on his shoulder again. “Perhaps we should hear the rest of the story.”

  Lewis’s jaw twitched, but after a moment his wolf retreated and he took a step back, composing himself somewhat. He nodded.

  Joey told him the story of how Maria had been orphaned and raised by a man who’d convinced her wolves were the spawn of Satan and that her own gift was a curse. She glossed over a lot of the details, especially the ones about Maria being from Cincinnati and the existence of her supposed twin brother who was not a wolf.

  By the time she was finished, Lewis seemed calmer, but anger simmered in his eyes as they remained locked on Joey. “If any of my people come to harm…”

  “It seems to me like her people have more to fear,” Owen remarked.

  Joey glanced at the auburn-haired wolf, having nearly forgotten he was there. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, if there’s anyone she’s going to be pissed off at… it’d be your people, wouldn’t it? What beef would she have with us?” He spread his hands.

  Lewis tilted his head, then nodded. Joey nodded too but remained unconvinced. Maria had plenty of reason to want to kill the Wenatchee wolves. Or four of them, anyway. Owen, Heidi, Kyle, and Gerald… the four of them they’d identified as having been in Cincinnati when Meghan Rochester and Paul Evans were murdered. She debated whether to say anything about that but decided against it. She still didn’t know why Heidi had clammed up in front of Lewis. She needed to talk to Heidi.

  “I want you gone,” Lewis said. “Take your problems back across the Cascades, and don’t come back.”

  Joey’s stomach sank. But what could she do? “Understood. Again… I’m sorry, Lewis. Chris said if you want to speak with him directly, you can call him. Let me get his number for you.”

  Her fingers had barely entered her pocket when Lewis said, “That won’t be necessary. The only thing I want is you, in your car, driving away.” He turned to Owen. “Gather the others and conduct a head count. I want everyone on alert and paired up. No one outside the house alone.”

  Joey exchanged a glance with Ben and headed for the exit. They slipped out the front door and closed it quietly behind them.

  When Joey stepped off the front porch and began walking along the front side of the house instead of heading for the car, Ben asked, “Where are you going?”

  “Back door,” Joey said.

  Ben’s footsteps pattered behind her as he hastened to catch up with her. “Um, I think Lewis was pretty clear about wanting us gone.”

  “He was.”

  “So why are we heading for the back door?”

  Joey gave him a steady look. “Because I’m not leaving without talking to Heidi again.”

  19

  Chris expected to have to call up to the house to get Lucas to open the gate, but instead found it standing wide open when he got there. That defeated the purpose of having a security gate, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth as he pulled into the driveway.

  After ringing the front bell, Chris stepped back from the door to wait. No one answered. That, coupled with the open security gate, nibbled at the back of his mind. He was about to ring again when the door finally opened. Nicole stood on the other side, shirtless but in a tight pink lace bra. She held her left arm against her generous chest, with what Chris suspected was her shirt wrapped around it. Blood seeped through the fabric. Nicole’s face was flushed, eyes bloodshot, and cheeks damp with tear tracks.

  Suddenly alert, Chris stepped forward automatically. “Are you okay?”

  “No,” she half growled and half spat. “The motherfucker bit me.”

  Crossing the threshold, Chris reached for his phone before remembering that his pocket EMT was on the other side of the mountains with Joey. “Vince, I assume?”

  She nodded, pushing the door closed behind him with her good arm. “They’re in the family room. You know the way? I need to take care of this.”

  Chris nodded, and Nicole strode off in the direction of the kitchen. He watched her go, wondering what would’ve made Vince bite her. A noisy crash from the direction of the family room spurred him into action.

  Long strides carried him across the foyer and down the hall to the family room. A yelp followed by another noisy crash made him pick up the pace. He jogged the last few steps and swung through the doorway. The room looked like a twister had blown through it. Furniture was overturned, and cushions had been slashed, their guts spilling out in a white froth. Broken glass littered the floor, and the scent of sweat, alcohol, and wolf hung heavy in the air.

  Chris’s wolf stirred uneasily as he took in the destruction, at the heart of which stood a shirtless Vince. He was in the process of ripping apart a sofa pillow, but froze and looked up, nostrils flaring as his golden eyes locked on Chris. A growl rumbled from his narrow chest.

  Chris avoided locking eyes with the man, not wanting to appear as a threat. He held his hands out at his sides in a non-threatening manner and kept his wolf on a short leash. “Hey, Vince. Having a rough day?”

  Vince sank into a crouch and snarled, spittle flying from his lips. Dominance rolled off him in waves, the same sort Chris had experienced at the bar the night they’d met, only this time it was amped up to eleven.

  A flicker of movement caught Chris’s attention, and he glanced over to see Lucas step out from the shadow of the entertainment center, which had so far escaped Vince’s feral wrath.

  “It’s no use,” Lucas said, edging toward Chris. “He checked out about twenty minutes before I called you.”

  “What the hell happened?” Chris kept a wary eye on Vince, whose eyes swung back and forth between him and Lucas.

  “He broke into the liquor cabinet, I think.” Lucas motioned toward said cabinet. The doors’ glass panes were shattered, and the floor around it was littered with bottles. Some empty, some broken. “It’s harder for him to hold it together when he drinks, so… I cut him off.”

  “This has happened before?”

  Lucas reached Chris’s side and stopped, shaking his head. “Not this bad. I think his wolf is completely in the driver’s seat.”

  “Why hasn’t he shifted?”

  “No idea. I thought maybe a woman might calm him down, but…”

  Chris winced. “You sent Nicole in there? Jeez, man.”

  “If you’ve got a better idea, I’m open to suggestions.” Lucas gave him a narrow-eyed glare.

  Chris snorted. “Finally willing to admit you can’t handle this by yourself?”

  “You’re the one that insisted on helping.” Lucas flailed his hands. “So, help.”

  Chris pinched the bridge of his nose automatically, but the sudden movement set Vince to growling again, his form rigid as he crouched amidst the destruction. Chris eased his hand back down again. “Help. Right. Okay.”

  He shifted his attention deliberately away from Vince, looking off toward a corner of the room, where he could still see Vince in his peripheral vision but wasn’t gazing directly at him anymore. Then he ambled a
long the wall, repositioning himself so he was at a diagonal to Vince rather than directly in front of him. Although Dawn’s late wife, Cheryl, had made her nut photographing weddings and other special events, nature photography had been a hobby. He was grateful, now, that he’d at least half listened to her talk about a trip to Africa and how the guides had instructed her to approach wild animals. Everything he knew about wolf body language was useless when it came to two-legged wolves, and he couldn’t risk shifting because there was no telling how Vince’s wolf would react to his own.

  Chris glanced at Vince again. This time, he met the other man’s wolflike eyes but lowered his in a deliberate show of submission that went against his nature as an alpha but… he could fake it, at least.

  Vince cocked his head and shifted his position, turning toward Chris. He puffed his chest out and shifted his weight forward onto his hands.

  Chris slowly lowered himself into a crouch, then onto his hands and knees. Cautiously, he began to crawl toward Vince, keeping his gaze lowered.

  “What are you doing?” Lucas asked.

  Vince’s head swiveled, and he growled again as his eyes locked on Lucas.

  “Would you just shut up for one minute?” Chris asked through gritted teeth.

  Lucas did, and Chris waited for Vince’s attention to return to him before he took another crawling step closer. When he got within a few feet, he lowered his chest to the floor and stuck his ass in the air in some approximation of the playful posture a wolf might adopt.

  Vince responded in kind, wiggling his hindquarters before pouncing at Chris. He wasn’t a big man, but his landing on Chris's back still forced Chris to the ground and knocked the breath out of his lungs.

  “All hail the mighty wolf whisperer,” came a sarcastic mutter from Lucas’s direction.

  But Chris would take a playful wolf controlling a human body over a pissed-off, aggressive one any day.

  Chris was still “playing” with Vince when Sam arrived. Apparently, Lucas had put out a thorough SOS. Feeding Vince was Sam’s idea, and Lucas produced a rather large steak in relatively short order. Vince feasted on the raw meat, the sight of which turned Chris’s stomach but made his wolf salivate. He liked a nice rare steak, but completely raw was a horse of another color, as far as his human half was concerned. Vince even offered him some of his “kill,” but Chris declined as politely and submissively as possible.