Nick glanced at his watch. "We should be heading inside the meeting room. And immediately after, I'll be giving Alexandria the boot. Okay?"
I nodded. "Okay."
"I won't be accepting any stalling or excuses from her. You can even hang around nearby while I'm telling her the news if you want to listen."
I nodded again. "All right."
We both headed into the meeting room together, having no clue what a shock we were soon to receive.
*
As Nick had said it would be, the council meeting was very brief. Damien sat sullenly, occasionally throwing me a few troubled-looking glances, while Nick, Sam, Uncle Marshall, and the other council members discussed guard schedules and recent threats from Ezra's spies.
Immediately after the meeting was adjourned, when everyone got up and began milling around the coffeepot, Nick quietly asked Alexandria if he could speak to her for a moment and steered her over to a dimly-lit corner of the room.
With his gaze on them, Damien sidled over to me with a cup of coffee and a cookie. "Not quite sure what's going on, but something tells me this should be good."
I moved my shoulders in a slight shrug, but other than that, I ignored him, not wanting to look too deeply into his charcoal gray eyes. Not wanting to recall the night of passion we'd shared.
I busied myself sipping my coffee while pretending to be engrossed in a conversation that Katie was having with Uncle Marshall just to my left. But soon, it became impossible to pretend anymore. Over in the corner with Nick, Alexandria had raised her voice and was now actually nearly shouting at Nick. Within moments, all conversation in the meeting room hushed, and all dozen or so people remaining in the room turned their gazes to Nick and Alexandria.
Like a child, she actually stomped her foot, icy blue eyes narrowing. "You won't dare do this to me, not after all the help I gave you using my magic, and-"
"My decision is final." Nick narrowed his green eyes at her in return, clenching his strong, square jaw. "I want you gone immediately. And in fact, this is something I should have absolutely insisted upon the very hour that saving you from the wolves prevented me from protecting Daisy, the woman I love."
For a long moment or two, the only sound in the room was the crackling of a fire in a gilded hearth along one of the oak-paneled walls.
But then, Alexandria threw her head back and laughed, a harsh, bitter sound, before returning her gaze to Nick. "Oh. You want to talk about your precious Daisy and the wolves, do you? Well, sure. Let's talk about them. Right now, while everyone's listening, let's talk about what an absolute fool you've been. See, I've never liked the wolves, simply because they've always been against you, and as you've probably figured out by now, I've always carried a torch for you.
“However, a week or two ago, I did count a couple of them as my friends. Just a couple of them I became acquainted with under different odd circumstances over the years. And with them, not long after I arrived here in Crystal Falls, I orchestrated a plan that would allow you and me to rekindle what we once had.
“Me getting attacked by the wolves so that you'd have to come back and save me? All planned. Those were my friends. They were supposed to get away before you killed them all, and oops on my part that they didn't, but I just chalked them up as collateral damage in my plan to get what I wanted.
“Because meanwhile, Daisy was supposed to have been getting kidnapped by Ezra, who didn't even have a clue about my plan and my little wolf helpers. After that, with Daisy gone, you were supposed to have been mine for the taking. Or the taking-back, rather.
“Do you understand what I'm saying, Nick? I completely set you up. It was only Damien's love or lust or whatever it is he feels for Daisy that wrecked everything. It was only his protection that prevented her from being kidnapped, as I'd intended her to be."
Beside me, Damien made some faint little grunt that sounded like a grunt of satisfaction.
Alexandria continued on, practically spitting her words at Nick. "And now...now everything's ruined forever between us; I get it. And it was even ruined before I told you my little secret; I get that, too. I now understand your love for Daisy is more genuine than anything you ever felt for me. Though, I have to admit, that absolutely baffles me, because she's clearly not up to my level in the looks department."
As if to underscore her words, Alexandria tossed her gorgeous, shimmering pale blonde hair over one shoulder, smirking at Nick. "So, why did I just tell you all this? Mm, just because I could. Just because I hate you now. And maybe I just wanted to humiliate you a little in front of all your council members on my way out. And you should be humiliated, you know.
“You had a spy of sorts right under your nose for over a week, planning to help have your own girlfriend kidnapped. And you didn't even know it. Pathetic. You're no kind of a chief or a leader. You couldn't even protect your own girlfriend; you're barely even a man."
Nick, whose lightly tanned skin had turned chalk white while Alexandria had been speaking, spoke through gritted teeth. "Leave. Now. You have exactly thirty minutes to be beyond the borders of this town. And you only reenter at any time while I'm alive at your own grave peril."
Alexandria snorted. "Consider me gone, and glad to be. Trying to get you to fall for me again has just about been the most boring, pointless endeavor I've ever undertaken in my life. But if I were you, Nick, I'd take a lesson from what you've just heard, and it's this. A man dumb enough to be fooled once is usually dumb enough to be fooled again. So, just hold onto that little gem while you go through life."
I knew Nick would never hit a woman, ever, but his fists were balled so tightly he appeared to be possibly struggling against doing so.
Seeming to realize this, too, Alexandria suddenly sidestepped him and began heading for the door with a snort. "I would never have wanted to live in this town in the long-term anyway. Too many boring museum-type places going up and not enough bars."
I glared at her, wanting to knock her lights out, a feeling that had been building the entire time she'd been speaking, but she didn't even look at me. On her way out of the room, she slammed the heavy oak door behind her.
Sam immediately looked at Nick with firelight reflected in his chocolate brown eyes. "Maybe we shouldn't let her go. Maybe we should keep her as a prisoner for life, so that she can't ever go back to the wolves and-"
"No. Let her go. We can't keep her a prisoner here forever, and she hasn't heard anything that's top secret in the meetings she's attended. So, we'll just let her go back to Coldwater on foot or even make the trek to the wolves if that's what she wants. And good riddance."
Many of the council members began talking at once, most of them agreeing with Nick.
With a little smirk, Damien turned to me and spoke in a low voice. "I knew that was going to be good, and I was not disappointed. It was even a better show than I thought it would be, actually. Wish I'd brought some popcorn."
Irritated, I turned my face to look at him, narrowing my eyes, and spoke in a low voice to match his own. "This isn't funny, you know. This isn't any kind of fun and games. Despite how angry he looks, I'm sure deep down Nick is really hurting and embarrassed right now because of what that evil little witch did to him."
Damien lowered his voice to a near-whisper. "Oh, poor Nick. And here I thought I might get some sympathy from you this evening, considering that I still have a few excruciatingly painful bruises on the small of my back from where you wailed on me with your mighty little fists of fury the other night."
Though injuries shifters received while in shifter form healed rapidly, injuries received while in human form were a different story and could take as long to heal as injuries received by regular non-shifter humans. And I felt bad that I'd given Damien bruises, though I seriously doubted they were anywhere as severe as he was claiming they were. And I wasn't in the mood to spare any sympathy for a man with a faint mark or two.
"Please leave me alone."
He scoffed. "As you wish. But I
'll be around. Just waiting for you to realize which man you love for him, and not because you feel sorry for him because he's been duped by an ex."
Damien then drained the last of his coffee, tossed the cup in a wastebasket, and left the meeting room. Others soon left as well, until finally it was just me and Nick. He walked me back to my cabin, though we didn't speak along the way. And when we stood on my front porch, saying goodnight, a small light by the door revealed his troubled expression.
And suddenly, frowning, he spoke. "I have to admit I'm...I guess I might just feel a little emasculated by what just happened back there. And as much as I want us to reconnect...maybe it's now my turn to need a few days to myself."
I nodded. "I understand."
He gave me a pained little smile, followed by a kiss on the cheek. "Goodnight, Daisy."
I could not have possibly felt worse for him. And I could not have possibly been any more enraged at Alexandria and disgusted about what she'd done.
The next three days poured rain. Wind lashed the orange and yellow leaves from the trees. I helped Katie in her boutique some, and I worked on the museum a lot, preparing for a grand opening in four or five weeks. I didn't see Nick; I didn't see Damien. My heart ached for missing them both.
At the end of a long day at the museum, I'd just made up my mind to check in with Nick and see how he was doing when Katie came tearing in through the double doors, a few of her red curls wet from rain and plastered to her face.
She came to a stop in the middle of the lobby and sucked in a great lungful of air before speaking. "Something really strange is happening. Nick seems to be missing."
CHAPTER 13
I stared at Katie, uncomprehending, but alarmed. "What? What do you mean Nick is missing?"
She took another great lungful of air, hands on her knees. "Just what I said. He just seems to be missing. No one has seen him since yesterday morning. And he's not doing patrols with the guards; he didn't tell anyone he was going on any sort of scouting mission or a trip, he's just...missing. Everyone's meeting in the council room right now to try to come up with a plan to find him."
Nick. Missing. I could barely wrap my mind around the idea. I couldn't fathom how someone so strong and powerful could just be missing. How that person could just disappear. I felt like I'd been punched in the gut.
Katie and I flew out of the museum and began running down the street toward the lane where the council lodge was located. It seemed as if word had already spread, because in the fading light, little clusters of people lined the street, murmuring. I thought I heard Nick's name a time or two. And when Katie and I began down the lane, an older woman carrying a basket of apples called out to us, frowning.
"What's happened to our chief?"
Katie glanced back over her shoulder. "That's what we're trying to find out!"
By the time we made it into the council meeting room, everyone was present except Sam, who was still out consulting with the guards on patrol around the town. Heart pounding, I took a seat next to Damien, who immediately took my hand beneath the table and gave it a little squeeze.
Knitting his bushy gray brows together, Uncle Marshall began speaking right away. "No matter what's happened to Nick, no matter if he's been attacked by the wolves on the outskirts or whether something less sinister has happened, I have the feeling that time is of the essence, here. And so, I recommend an immediate mobilization of every single shifter in town, and I recommend everyone be divided up into search parties and then set out with all haste. One search party should be dispatched to investigate the area around Howler's Creek and do a little spying."
He shifted his gaze from the group at large to Damien. "However, this is just my thinking about what should be done. With Nick missing, and with you as second-in-command, now first-in-command, Damien, it's up to you to give the orders."
Damien opened his mouth to speak, but before he even could, a noise seeming to be coming from the hallway, made everyone shift their attention to the heavy oak door, which was cracked open. The noise sounded like a baby crying.
And within moments, to everyone's astonishment, Sam flung open the door and ushered a young woman holding a baby into the meeting room. "She says she knows where Nick is, and what's happened to him."
With my gaze flitting from Sam to the young woman and her baby and then back to Sam again, I gasped. "Where is he? Where's Nick?"
The young woman, who was quite thin and dressed in what could only be described as rags, even though the October evening was very chilly, scanned everyone's faces. "Please. Who's in charge?"
Damien looked at her, frowning. "I am. What's your name, and where have you come from?"
"I'm Claire, and my daughter is named Lucy. We've come from Howler's Creek, and I've been running all day for our lives...."
With a sob suddenly shaking her bony shoulders, Claire cringed, sending tears streaming down her gaunt face. But, after wiping her eyes with a sleeve of her tattered sweater, she recovered immediately and returned her focus to Damien. "If you can promise my daughter and me protection, I'll tell you everything about where your chief is and how you can save him."
Damien dipped his head in a nod. "All right. I can guarantee you both protection."
"Thank you." Claire glanced from Damien to the fire in the gilded hearth, then to Lucy, whose cries had faded to a feeble whimper, then back at Damien. "Lucy's really cold. Can we sit by the fire?"
Damien nodded again. "Of course."
Feeling terrible that I hadn't thought to offer her and her baby a spot by the fire immediately, I sprang up from my seat, pulled a chair around to the fire, and gestured for her to sit down. She did, thanking me, and I noticed that Lucy was only wrapped in a thin jacket that I recognized as Sam's. I was wearing a thick cardigan sweater over a long-sleeved shirt, and I tore off the sweater and handed it to her.
"Here. To wrap Lucy with."
She took it from me, tears welling in her eyes again, and began quickly wrapping Lucy in it. "Thank you."
Once Lucy was warmly covered, Katie handed Claire a mug of coffee with lots of cream in it so that it was just warm, not hot, so that if she accidentally spilled it on Lucy it wouldn't burn her. After taking a long, thirsty drink of it, Claire thanked both Katie and me, and the two of us took our seats around the circular oak council table.
With the firelight behind her making sort of a halo around her head, Claire cleared her throat, sweeping her gaze across everyone at the table.
"I know you're all anxious, and time is very, very much of the essence, so I'll get right to it, and I'll try to give the most condensed version of events. Your chief, Nick, is being held in a shack on the edge of Howler's Creek. How this came about is that a woman named Alexandria came to our town several days ago and befriended our alpha and leader, Ezra.
“She revealed that she wants to hurt Nick badly, because she hates him for some reason and wants revenge, and Ezra revealed that he wants to claim Nick's woman, Daisy, because she's a woman of the star, and mating with her can increase his power."
Claire paused, shifting her gaze to me. "And because of the star mark on your hand, I'm assuming that's you, isn't it?"
I nodded, my heartbeat still racing, and she continued.
"So, Ezra and Alexandria realized they could work together to accomplish their goals. They formulated a plan, but first, Alexandria had to greatly increase her power as a sorceress. Ezra had some sort of special ancient gemstones that they crushed, and then she ate them, literally ate them, and then she did a bunch of spells, and she gained some new powers.
“And one of them is the ability to shape-shift into the form of other women just by thinking about them. So, then, while Nick was on guard patrol just outside of your town yesterday morning, Alexandria shifted into the form of Daisy and did some acting with some of the wolves, pretending they were attacking her or something. The wolves then dragged her back to Howler's Creek, knowing Nick would follow without even trying to get any other help f
irst, and he did.
“It was then that Alexandria shifted back into her own physical form and did her other new sorcery trick on Nick. She cast a spell on him that shifted him into human form, and the spell also prevents him from shifting back into dragon form until she lifts the spell or dies. So, at this point, Nick became powerless, and Ezra and his men took him as a prisoner.
“And then, beginning yesterday afternoon, they...." Claire paused, swallowing, looking directly at me, but seeming to be having difficulty maintaining eye contact. "They've been...."
I was suddenly having a hard time getting enough air.
I looked at her while gripping Damien's hand beneath the table hard enough to break it. "What have they been doing to him, Claire? Please tell me. What have they been doing to Nick?"
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