Wolf Marked (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 1)

by Veronica Douglas

  Then a cascade of sensations overwhelmed my senses. The rich scent of moss and pine. The taste of fresh snow and smoke. And I could almost hear a brook running over smooth stones. It felt like my heart was trying to leap out of my chest.

  What the shit was happening to me?

  A part of me was suddenly certain that everything was going to be okay. I was safe, the cops were here. I was probably the safest I’d ever been. But the other part of my mind knew something wasn’t quite right. “The city’s not on the map.”

  Jaxson pulled out his cellphone and opened Waze. “It’s on my map. You might need an update.”

  I wasn’t sure if my bargain-basement cellphone could even be updated.

  Reality sank in, and blood rushed to my face. I’d let Alma’s paranoia make an ass out of me. Again. Shit like this was why high school had nearly driven me crazy and I didn’t have friends.

  I channeled my embarrassment into anger. “Then why are you here, stalking me? And why is there an alert on my plates?”

  “Beside the fact that you stole my truck keys?” he growled, releasing a spark of restrained fury.

  I blushed deeper. “If I had, which I didn’t, that’s not the reason why you’re after me.”

  Jaxson gave a deep, God-give-me-patience sigh. “You’re a witness. We need your help. You’ve been targeted. You could be in danger. All of which I explained when I told you not to leave town.”

  “But why me?”

  “As for why you were targeted, I don’t know. As for why we need you, you’re the only person who can identify the assailants.”

  “So you tracked me all the way to Magic Side?”

  He looked me up and down with a stony gaze. “I think the bigger question, Ms. Caine, is what are you doing here?”

  Suspicion made the hair on my neck stand on end. There was a question beneath the question, but I didn’t understand it.

  This man seemed adept at discerning lies, so I hedged. “I’m visiting family. For the first time.”

  “Who?”

  “None of your business,” I snapped.

  His eyes turned a deeper gold. “I have many friends here in Magic Side, Ms. Caine. Who are you visiting?”

  I considered that for a moment as those eyes of his pulled me in. Alma had said my family was extremely dangerous, but it might be good to have a second opinion. He might know of them.

  “I’m visiting my aunt, Laurel LaSalle.”

  Jaxson jerked back as if I’d slapped him in the face, and I yelped as the car tilted slightly. His eyes dilated and blazed like twin suns, and I could practically taste his emotion.

  Abject hatred.

  Jaxson

  Of course.

  In the twenty-four hours since I’d laid eyes on Savannah Caine, she’d killed a werewolf, disobeyed every request I’d made, stolen my keys, and led me on a two-hundred-mile wild-goose chase.

  Of course she was a LaSalle.

  I should have known just from the bittersweet-orange hair. To think that I’d found it beautiful at first sight. Now the only thing I could see in it were the flames that had consumed my sister as she’d choked to death on wolfsbane.

  Fucking LaSalles.

  “Is everything okay?” the bridge cop began, approaching.

  I sucked in a sharp breath and looked at where my hands rested on the edge of the roof. They’d shifted to claws, and I was pushing so hard against the car that I’d inadvertently tilted the driver’s side so that the wheels were three inches off the ground.

  “We’re fine,” I growled out of the corner of my mouth.

  She halted and averted her eyes in submission. She was from my pack and would do exactly as ordered.

  Unlike the LaSalle woman.

  Savannah stared up at me with wide eyes. She couldn’t have seen my claws on the roof, but she knew something was up…probably because I had the car tilted off the ground. I fought to rein in my emotions, relaxed my arms, and let it settle.

  “What was that?” Savannah gasped.

  I looked deep into her eyes. “Nothing to worry about. Just a gust of wind.”

  “A gust of wind?” she asked incredulously.

  I intensified my signature. “We’re on a bridge over Lake Michigan. The wind hits hard. No buildings to stop it.”

  It was the best I could come up with in the moment. Also, the winds could be hell.

  She nodded slowly, her mind finally submitting to my intentions. “I guess that’s why they call Chicago the Windy City.”

  Wrong.

  Savannah was unusually resistant to my power. It still worked, but not as well, and not nearly as long as it should have. Maybe it was her accursed bloodline.

  I drowned the hatred in my chest and forced my claws to retract. I couldn’t let my disgust cloud my vision.

  It wasn’t her fault my sister was dead. She hadn’t poisoned Stephanie with wolfsbane or caused the fire that burned her alive. Savannah wasn’t truly a LaSalle, just a woman related to the monsters. I couldn’t hold that against her.

  She bit her lip in a way that made my heart miss a beat. “You looked like you knew my family. I don’t. Can you tell me anything about them?”

  They’re murderers. Monsters and practitioners of the dark arts.

  What was I going to do with this woman? Simple truths were best. “They’re dangerous.”

  She turned forward and glared at the city ahead. “I’ve heard that. What does dangerous mean?”

  “Do the names Dillinger or Capone mean anything to you?”

  One eyebrow inched upward as she looked at me again. “You mean the gangsters?”

  “That’s what the name LaSalle means around here.”

  She swallowed. Trepidation, but not surprise. That was interesting.

  Why Savannah was trying to get in touch with the LaSalles, if she already knew they were dangerous, was anyone’s guess. But I couldn’t let her meet with them—not before I’d had a chance to talk to her first. Not ever, if I could help it. They would twist her mind and turn her against my kind. They’d teach her hate and mistrust.

  The moment Laurel LaSalle got her hooks in Savannah would be the moment she would never work with me again. She’d disappear into the Indies—the neighborhood the LaSalles controlled—and she’d be out of my reach for good.

  I needed to convince Savannah to help me before she looked up her family. And I’d need leverage in case she refused.

  “You have to be very careful here, Ms. Caine. Those people might be your relations, but you’re not their family. They’ll use you. Reaching out to them would put you in far more danger than you’re already in. They’re wrapped up in a very bad line of business.”

  She studied my face, probably searching for any sign of a lie. She wouldn’t find one, because I believed every word I’d said.

  It was possible that the werewolves were hunting her simply because they’d discovered she was a LaSalle. Every pack around the Great Lakes region hated the family. It didn’t explain the other abductions, but it could explain why she was targeted.

  Savannah crossed her arms and slouched down in the seat. “Well, I’m not going back to Belmont. Not with those freaks running around hunting me.”

  I nodded in assent. I’d given up that plan the moment she’d split town. Not many had the power to resist me like she had, and apparently, she was very invested in being in Magic Side. I shouldn’t be surprised. Magic Side was one of the largest supernatural cities in the world, and it called to its lost children with a siren song that few could resist. That might explain everything.

  Maybe the fates wanted her here. With any luck, the wolves would come for her next, and I could spring a trap. I could control the entire situation. All I had to do was keep her in pack territory, out of the Indies, and away from her family.

  The problem would be getting her to play along. So far, my power had worked on her when I pushed her in a direction she wanted to go. As a last resort, I could threaten to prosecute her for Dane�
��s death under pack law. But that would make everything public, and I’d cede control of the situation to the elders. That, and she’d never trust me again. Three things I couldn’t afford right now.

  I leaned close to the window and drew her in with my eyes. “I have no intention of preventing you from being here, Ms. Caine, but it’s late. If you don’t know the LaSalles, you definitely don’t want to look in on them at night. A tow truck is already on the way. I’ll set you up with a good mechanic and a decent motel in a safe part of town. It’s a big city.”

  She considered my words. Her eyes were weary, and I could sense her exhaustion. Finally, she nodded, submitting at last.

  I’d put her up in the Full Moon Motel on pack land and send her car to the pack repair shop, Savage Body. The truck was already on the way.

  I took my hands off the car and leaned back. “It’s been a hell of a day. How about I buy you dinner? You must be starving.”

  “I’m fine, thanks,” she muttered, but her stomach grumbled, betraying her lie, and she blushed.

  Gods. How obstinate could one person be? She didn’t trust me—that much was clear—but she might trust a female cop. I turned to the patrolwoman and gave her a look. “Hey, what’s the best place to eat in Magic Side?”

  “Eclipse! Best food I’ve ever had,” the cop shouted back. She’d known the answer I wanted. Eclipse was my restaurant, after all.

  I looked back at the skeptical woman in the car. “How about Eclipse for dinner? It’s the least I can do. Usually, it’s impossible to get a table, but I can pull a few strings.”

  She gritted her teeth. “Fine, but only if you give me answers about the case. And tell me what you know about my family.”

  I nodded. “Not much about the case. But I’ll tell you about your kin. And more. Far more than you ever imagined possible.”

  Her eyes blazed with hunger. Starving for information, not food. I could use that.

  “Deal?” I asked. I didn’t even have to use my power. She was hooked on the promise of answers.

  It took a second, but she finally nodded. “Doesn’t look like I’m going anywhere else.”

  Well, that was close enough to a yes. She was as prickly as a hedgehog and as stubborn as a badger.

  I was glad I’d left Regina back in Belmont. This was a risky game, and she’d have been pissed that I was taking a LaSalle out to dinner in the heart of pack territory. If anyone found out, things could get violent. I leaned on the car. “Just a word of advice, Ms. Caine. Don’t mention your family’s name to anyone in this city. There’d be consequences, none of them good.”

  She tensed, and the scent of fear rose off her.

  The Savage Body tow truck arrived, lights flashing. I walked away to make arrangements with the driver, but I had keen ears and could hear the LaSalle woman chatting with the patrolwoman.

  “Look, I don’t know anyone around here. Is Mr. Laurent, you know, to be trusted?” Savannah whispered.

  The cop pitched her voice low and conspiratorial, but she knew that I’d hear. “I’d trust him more than any other man in Magic Side. If he says you’ll be okay, you’ll be okay. But I can give you a lift somewhere else if you need it.”

  There was a long pause, and I held my breath.

  “I think I’ll be okay,” Savannah said at last.

  “I know you will,” the patrolwoman said.

  I turned and nodded thanks to the cop, though I was certain she’d meant every word.

  She started to walk away, but Savannah leaned out the window and hissed after her, “Hey! Is the food at Eclipse really that good?”

  The patrolwoman winked. “It’ll make you howl at the moon.”

  9

  Savannah

  Jaxson effortlessly heaved my suitcases into the back of his black SUV.

  So much for running from my troubles. Now they were giving me a lift.

  I gave a last forlorn glance at my Gran Fury as the tow truck driver loaded it onto his rig. He handed me a card. “Don’t worry, ma’am. We’re taking it to Savage Body, one of the best repair shops in Magic Side. It’ll be up and running before you know it.”

  I thanked him and gave my poor car one last miserable look. I’d come so close, halfway over the bridge, with only a few more blocks to go. I’d pushed the car over its limit to cross the finish line, and it wasn’t any wonder that it had conked out.

  Sometimes you ran so fast, you wound up tripping over your own feet and landing on your face. That was me in a nutshell.

  I sighed and hopped into Jaxson’s vehicle. I didn’t dare ask him about his keys, or where he’d gotten an SUV to chase me with. A sliver of guilt tugged at me. He could get new keys made, right?

  He climbed in the vehicle and fired up the engine, and we rumbled across the bridge to Magic Side.

  I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. Was I really driving off into the middle of the night with a perfect stranger? The cop had vouched for him. Still, I kept my hand on the mace in my pocket, though something about Jaxson’s demeanor told me I wasn’t going to need it.

  He brooded as he drove, clearly lost in thought, and didn’t even glance at me. When I tried pressing him for information, he dodged at first, but finally, I wore him down.

  “It seems like I’m being targeted,” I said. “Do you know why?”

  He kept his eyes on the road, avoiding my stare. “No. There’s been no pattern in the abductions. We assume that those who were killed were the ones who fought back.”

  “How do you know?

  “A woman witnessed an attack three days ago, but she didn’t get a good enough look to identify the attackers. You did. Would you be willing to work with a sketch artist tomorrow?”

  Hell, I had enough talent to draw them myself, but that probably wouldn’t be official enough. “Sure.”

  Biting my lip, I silently watched the city lights roll by—illuminated old storefronts, artsy shops, restaurants, and blocks of tightly packed red brick walk-up apartments. I racked my brain as to why those monsters might be after me.

  The answer I kept coming back to was my parents.

  “You said my family—the LaSalles—are dangerous and wrapped up in bad business.”

  “Yeah, they deal in illegal arms and materials.”

  Crap. Were my parents gun runners?

  They sure as hell had made certain I could shoot. Mostly rifles, shotguns, and pistols, nothing heavy. Mainly, they’d hunted deer. My mother had spent a lot of time alone, hunting in the woods. She’d said it reminded her of who she was.

  Then they’d died in an explosion. What if it had been ammo? Had I spent my childhood sleeping on a powder keg?

  “My family…could that be why people are after me?”

  He nodded. “Quite possibly. None of the other victims were related to the LaSalles, but there might be a connection. Your family is…not well liked in the region. You definitely shouldn’t reach out to them, not until this is over.”

  Maybe I had gotten very, very lucky that my car gave out. I brooded silently, trying to imagine how badly things could’ve gone.

  Ten minutes later, we pulled up in front of Eclipse. There was no parking, and the street was hopping and filled with all sorts of colorful people.

  I slipped out of the SUV into the strangely dressed crowd. A woman with pointy ears slung her arm around a man who was wearing contact lenses that made his eyes look catlike. I’d always heard Chicago was wild, but this wasn’t what I was expecting. Was there some sort of costume party going on?

  “Do people in Chicago normally dress up like this?” I asked as Jaxson stepped around the front of the car.

  He passed his keys to a valet. “Only in Magic Side. We tend to draw the most interesting people.”

  Great. He’d taken me to dinner in the middle of crazy town.

  I followed Jaxson toward a solitary black door marked with the restaurant’s name in bold white letters. We cut in front of the line of waiting patrons, and a handsome bouncer wi
th rippling muscles opened the door for us. He tipped his head as we entered. What did Jaxson do around here to command so much respect?

  The sound of jazz and the aroma of amber and spice overwhelmed my senses. Cocktail waitresses in red wove between candlelit tables occupied by people sipping fancy drinks. Waiters flitted around with trays of delicious-looking food, and my stomach groaned.

  Toward the back of the room, several people were swinging their hips and twirling to the beat of the live band that I couldn’t quite see on the stage. The pulse of the music was hypnotic. A sweet riff from the horns sent shivers down my spine. I’d never seen anything like it in my whole life, nor been anywhere even close.

  Certainly not in Belmont.

  The people were out of this world as well. Absolutely gorgeous, but to be fair, there were quite a few with strange costumes. I had to shimmy out of the way of a weirdo wearing a headband with horns. He’d gone so far as to paint his skin a pale shade of blue. Completely nuts.

  I caught the eyes of a man dressed like a vampire, and suddenly, it all made sense: there had to be some kind of Comic Con going on. I knew they held a few big comic and gaming conventions in the city every year, but I wasn’t a big enough fangirl to shell out the money to attend one.

  I followed Jaxson to a dark marble bar illuminated with blue lights.

  “How about a drink, Ms. Caine?” His smoky voice wrapped around me, whispering of mystery and power.

  I nodded because my voice failed. I knew I should run from him—he was dangerous. But somehow, when he looked at me, I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

  He moved like he owned the place. People melted away around us until we were isolated at the bar.

  Who was this man?

  A tough-looking brunette bartender swung over. “What can I get you, hon?”

  I tended to drink like my folks had: whiskey, add one glass. Panicking, I tried to think of a fancy alternative and managed, “A Manhattan?”

  “Two,” Jaxson echoed.

  She nodded and grabbed a lowball glass, eying Jaxson with a raised brow.

  I caught my reflection in the mirror behind the liquor bottles. I was grossly underdressed in my wrinkled sundress, and my hair had seen better days. I was obviously small town in the big city, all the while standing next to the hottest guy in the bar.