by Camryn Rhys
Marco waited for Carl and Teresa to finish their deep, longing look into each other’s eyes. He only hoped that he could get to his mother first and get her away from the other wolves’ prying eyes and questions. The one promise he’d made her had been that he would never again visit her, but she would rather have him knocking at her door than Aria.
He hoped.
Chapter Seven
Teresa came forward with a cell phone and opened a mapping app. “I met her and her children at this market here on the corner. So she’s probably in one of the surrounding neighborhoods.”
Aria studied the cross streets, locking them into her memory. “Thank you.”
The alpha female nodded. “Tread carefully.”
“We will be respectful, but we need to know why she isn’t bonded and didn’t bond her son to your pack.”
“Just be careful. There is much pain where you plan to dig.”
Aria bowed her head, nodded to the alpha male, and tugged Marco out of the barn.
He had a mother. In town. Why would she be here and not in contact with Marco? What the fuck was going on? Unless…
She slammed the door on the rental car and waited. He sat next to her and she glared. “You knew she was here.”
No answer. But his heart rate doubled.
“Dammit. Why did you lie?”
“I haven’t spoken to her since I was seventeen.”
Her mouth opened and air fled her lungs.
“She’s not my mother anymore.” His eyes glistened with pain and he turned away to stare out the windshield at the men watching them from the barn entrance.
The music had started again and the pulse of the beat amped her already hungry libido. He smelled like sex. And the comment Carl made about her being Marco’s woman… Totally caught her off guard. It shouldn’t have, but she’d been so focused on her anger about Reyna finding her mate and Francis giving the head enforcer position to Rain instead of her.
Then Marco happened.
Then the orgasm with Marco happened.
Hell, she’d just wanted sex. She’d just wanted to forget about life for a few fucking minutes and the man had stripped her soul until she’d wept. She never cried.
He’d fucking made her cry and she was pissed.
Now she was pissed that he’d lied. It would make her look even more incompetent in front of Francis. On top of everything else, what she wanted more than anything at this very moment—to strip naked and fuck Marco’s brains out.
If this is what Reyna had been feeling every time Allan came round, gods, no wonder her best friend had chosen him over her. Just the notion of being away from Marco, out of his presence, made her stomach clench.
The thought of losing him when she went back to New Orleans pushed her mind back into the present. Back to the problem at hand. She had a job to do. She would worry about her growing link to Marco later.
Right now they had to find his mother and convince her to speak to the alphas.
Something unbearably terrible happened to Marco’s mother. No wolf—no mother—would banish her seventeen-year-old son to a life of loneliness without a damn good reason.
“I’m sorry,” she said, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence.
“I’m fine.”
Sure you are. Aria put the car in reverse and backed around until she could pull onto the road again. She drove until the compound was out of sight. A few minutes later they passed the old singlewide that acted as a sentry and then it was empty highway on the way back into town.
The tension in the car was thicker than the chocolate sauce he’d drizzled all over her body. Even after washing, the scent still clung to her. Heady. Rich. She was drunk on him and unsatisfied.
About halfway back to Vegas proper, Aria pulled off the road and turned the car off.
“What’s wrong?” Marco’s voice was drawn and tight.
“Before we do anything else. We need to relax.” She unzipped and toed off her boots before unzipping her pants. Aria flashed him a smile and his eyes widened.
“Relax?”
“Unless you’d rather get out of the car and do this over the hood.” She lifted her hips from the seat and shimmied out of her jeans and panties. “Which I’m fine with, just FYI.”
“No.” He swallowed audibly and stared at her naked pussy. His hunger matched hers, but it was mixed with fear. Why?
“In the car then.” She crawled over the armrest between them and reached for the hem of his pants. “Gods I can’t wait to feel you inside me.”
“No,” he growled. His eyes glowed yellow for a second. Aria froze, her hand a few inches from his body. “I can’t. I’ll lose control.”
His magick pulsed around her, sporadic and definitely out of control.
“Trust me,” Aria whispered. “You asked for my trust. Now I’m asking for yours.” She moved over the armrest, but before she could slide across his lap he’d opened the car door and jumped out. The sudden movement threw her off and she landed sideways in the seat with a grunt.
“Dammit, Marco. What the hell?”
“I don’t have sex.”
She gazed up at him through the open car door, dumbfounded. “You what?”
“I don’t… I’ll shift.”
Oh shit. “Did that…” She didn’t finish the sentence.
“Almost.”
No wonder the man was acting like a cat being threatened with a bath. Aria righted herself in the car and crawled back to her side. They both needed this, but if he was dealing with baggage like that, she was going to have to take this much more slowly. She slipped into her clothes, depressed that once again she’d have to soldier on, unfulfilled and needy.
“Get in the car, Marco.”
He sat down and she tugged her boots on. “I think I should go look for my mother alone.”
“Oh hell no,” Aria growled. “And let you lead us on a merry chase through the city? We are doing this together or I’m going to call for Rain to join us. Your choice.” She zipped up her boots and started the car. “And don’t think I’ve given up on having sex with you, either. It’s like Carl said, we are connected. We are supposed to be together.”
* * *
Marco found himself wishing he’d taken Aria up on her sex request. Even just head—something to distract them from the search they were about to undertake. He knew the search would have to be unproductive. He couldn’t let Aria find his mother, and if he led her on a wild enough goose chase, maybe she would let Mary alone and pretend she never found any more unbonded wolves.
They reached an empty street corner where Aria decided to park. She ground her hands into the steering wheel. “I don’t feel anything.” She glanced up at him. “Do you feel anything?”
“Not here. Let’s keep driving.”
“This is the place Teresa said she met your mother.” Aria moved from the car with hunched shoulders. It was after two a.m. and the streets were dark, except for low lighting from high streetlamps and the residual glow of the strip off to the south.
Marco hadn’t been this far from home in years.
He followed Aria out into the night, reluctant to commit. Staying near the car, he watched her do a short circle of the street corner.
“I think it would be best for us to stay together,” she said. “You should be able to sense her, as we get closer.”
“Fine.” Marco reached out, tentative, his eyes closed. He wasn’t sure how to do this thing, but he imagined sending his wolf out in front of him, looking for companion energy. He turned in a circle. When there was a hint of something, he kept turning, and opened his eyes when he was facing away from it. He wasn’t certain it was his mother, but if it was, they needed to be going in the opposite direction.
“That way,” he said, raising an arm.
“Great.” Aria grabbed his hand and whipped around in the opposite direction. “We’ll go this way.”
“What?” Marco sputtered as she dragged him toward his mother’s energy. “I told you, it�
��s the other direction.”
“I assumed you lied.” She had an iron grip on his hand and he couldn’t pry himself away. The binding sensation around his lungs intensified.
“Why would you—”
“Oh, come on. I can tell you don’t want to find her.” She yanked him along, down a dark sidewalk where there were two streetlights out. The street seemed lopsided, and no houses were lit, other than a random porch light. They were trespassing.
He kept following, feeling the light, energetic sensation grow with each step. The presence of his mother, closing in.
“It’s not that I don’t want to find her.” Marco stopped his progress and Aria kept going. Their hands slipped out of contact and she turned around.
“Well, you’re not helping.” Hands on her hips, she narrowed her eyes. “I told you, I’ll go get Rain if you don’t help me.”
Marco matched her stance with an angry sigh. “You’re too worked up about this. My mom won’t be able to help you.”
Aria shook her head in a quick, angry jerk. “You, who admittedly knows nothing about packs, are going to tell me, the pack enforcer, what will and won’t help, when it comes to pack politics?”
“My mom has never had a pack, and neither have I. We can’t help you.”
“That’s bullshit. Everyone has a pack.”
“If I tell you what I know, will you… Will you leave her alone?” He tried not to be overwhelmed by the tightness inside. He had promised his mother. Promised her. And Aria wasn’t the type to let things go.
Aria looked at the sky. “That depends on what you tell me.”
“Fine.” His heartbeat quickened as he took himself back to that day his new life started. “I shifted for the first time and I hid in the desert for days after. My mother found me, holed up in some cave somewhere, and she told me I had a wolf trapped inside me, bound by the moon.”
“Trapped inside you?” The incredulous note in her voice did not encourage him, but Marco tried to focus on the memory of his mother’s voice.
“Isn’t that what it is?” Marco clawed at his chest. “It’s inside, and I can feel it sometimes, on the surface, like it breaks out of jail.”
“That’s a little melodramatic, don’t you think?”
Marco took a breath in deep and held it. “It’s how it feels for me.”
“Fine.” Aria crossed her arms. “Your mother told you about the moons, and then what?”
“She told me that every time there was a full moon, the wolf would get out, and I had to be somewhere it couldn’t hurt any people.” A burn crept up his chest and into his throat. “She said she didn’t have a pack, and that my father was a dangerous man who, if he ever found me, would kill me, and use me to find her.”
The sarcasm left Aria’s voice. “You believed her. I can feel it.”
“She called him the devil, Aria.” Marco could feel the tears rising in his eyes. “My own mother tells me that having a wolf inside means a devil can find and torture and kill her… The only woman I’ve ever…” He stopped before the emotion took him completely.
Aria didn’t speak. Concern brushed over her features and she drew her body into his, curling around him like a cat seeking warmth. She put her ear to his chest and held him. Marco couldn’t handle the warring emotions. Part of him wanted to push her away, part of him wanted to take solace in her. But he had to finish his story. He had to protect his mother.
“Wolves are a danger to her. If we find her, if we draw attention to her, we could be putting her life in danger.” Marco pulled at Aria’s shoulders. “I can’t find her for you, Aria. Tell me you understand that.”
Her eyes drew together and a sad sheen licked across them, sending a jolt of emotion straight to his heart. He knew that he and Aria were connected somehow. Like her orgasm had connected them—one so powerful, it ate through them. Or maybe they really were connected on some deeper level, like Carl and Teresa said. He couldn’t be sure.
“I understand that you don’t want to find her. I’m sorry.” She touched his cheek and reached for the back of his head. With a strong hand, she pulled his head down and pushed his lips against hers.
The intimacy of the act—even though he had put his tongue inside her only hours before—shocked him. A wild, rough thing unfurled inside like a flag. He could feel it stretching him, pushing him.
Maybe she had been right to suggest sex as a method of relaxation. He angled his head over hers and kissed her longer, deeper. The electric spark of her beneath him. He wanted her.
Aria took his hands and bent her body, kissing him, holding him. He panted into her mouth. He wanted her.
“You weren’t kidding about the distraction,” he whispered, flicking his tongue inside her mouth. “Maybe I could be persuaded.”
She smiled and gripped his hands tighter. In a low voice, she said, “Chun tú Geallaim mo chroí agus anam go deo.”
Something moved inside him and a burning sensation on his wrists made him try to pull his hands away, but she had hold of them so tightly. Aria’s ice-blue eyes bored into his.
“I’m sorry, Marco.” She closed her eyes and repeated, “Chun tú Geallaim mo chroí agus anam go deo.”
The fire soon took his whole body and Aria released his hands, apologizing again, and running down the street in the direction of his mother’s house.
Chapter Eight
The second the spell took hold, she could feel Marco’s familial bond to his mother. Unlike an alpha or mate bond that could be homed in on from anywhere in the world, a familial bond could only be recognized from short distances—maybe a mile at most.
She gritted her teeth and continued to jog down the sidewalk away from Marco. What she’d done was wrong, but the pack came first. Her alpha’s orders were to find Marco’s mother. Starting the mating bond was the only way. Aria prayed he wouldn’t hate her for what she’d done when he realized the significance.
The bond was only half formed. Physical only. Marco’s racing heart. His out-of-breath shock from the power of the spell washing over them. She could feel all of it as if it were her own heart. Her own lungs burning for oxygen.
Once she and Marco slept together—for real—the second band of tattoos would appear and the bond would solidify between them. Then and only then would they share an emotional connection as well as physical.
Aria stopped in front of one house and took a deep breath. The magick was stronger. But still a little farther. This was definitely the right street.
Her feet vibrated. Marco was pursuing her now. She could feel each step he took as if it were her own. The dual sensations—hers mixed with his—was confusing, but necessary. If she let go of the focus she had on him, she’d lose the connection to his mom.
Aria leaped forward, she had to stay ahead of Marco. His feet pounded on the pavement behind her.
“What did you do to me?” he growled, quickly closing the gap.
She was only a few strides ahead now.
A sudden wash of magick flowed over her and she pivoted, avoiding his long arms by a hairsbreadth and dashed up the driveway she’d just passed. It had to be his mother. The bond tugged at her the same way her bond to her mother used to.
Aria knocked on the door and braced for impact.
Marco’s hands closed around her upper arms. “What is wrong with me? I can feel…you…what you feel.” He let go of her and held up both arms. “And what the fuck is up with this insta-ink Celtic-looking shit?”
“I’ll explain everything, I promise. But we had to find your mother.”
His eyes widened and he looked at the front door they were standing next to. She could hear footsteps inside the house. “No. I said, no.” He grabbed her hand and yanked her of the front stoop.
She wrenched her hand from his grasp and winced. “This isn’t a choice you get to make. My alpha ordered me to—”
“I don’t know who you are, but get the fuck off my lawn or I’m calling the cops.”
Aria turned. A s
mall female stood in the doorway aiming a shotgun straight at them.
A moment later the gun muzzle lowered. “Marco?”
“Ma’am.” Aria took a step forward. “Please. We need to speak with you.”
His mother’s eyes widened and her nostrils flared. “No. I told you never to come here. Ever. He’ll come. You can’t do this to me. To my family. I found peace.”
Aria glared. “You don’t look like you found peace.” She pointed to the shotgun. “I need you to come with us. My alpha needs to speak with you.”
“It’s not safe,” she hissed at Aria. “I’ve stayed hidden from him all these years because I abandoned anything that had to do with being a wolf. I won’t go back into that world now. Tell your friend I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”
“Leave it alone, Aria,” Marco growled. “Let’s go.” His voice shook with pain, and anger. She was almost thankful she couldn’t feel his emotions yet. If she could, this moment would be tearing her apart from the inside out.
“Mrs. DiSanti, I don’t think you understand the severity of the situation. There are a lot of frustrated alpha wolves here in Vegas with their best enforcers all trying to figure out where Elise Blanchard came from and now—”
“Elise is alive?” The words were barely a whisper.
“Wait. You know Elise? Blanchard? From New Orleans?”
“Lupe took the name Blanchard, to hide from him. Her baby’s name was Elise. Is she alive?”
Shit. There’s a hell of a lot more going on here than anyone realizes. “She is alive. I need you to come with me, now, Mrs. DiSanti.”
“It’s Mary Foster, now, not DiSanti, and I can’t come with you, my children are asleep in the back of the house. My husband won’t be home for another hour. He works the night shift at the plant”
“I know this has to be hard and I can’t even imagine what you’re going through, but please call someone to sit with them. We need to go now. My alphas will have my hide if I let you out of my sight and something happened.”
“I’ll call my neighbor, give me a moment.”
