“Phoenix, I would like to talk with Alex alone. Will you please join the others until I am finished?”
Phoenix’s scowl didn’t change as he glared at Alex.
Alex’s eyebrows lifted when Phoenix continued to look at him. There was something—something he couldn’t put his finger on about the guy, but he didn’t like him. He usually had a reason when he didn’t like someone. Maybe it was the interested vibe in Mena he was getting from him that rubbed him wrong. He didn’t know, nor did he really care; he just wished the bastard would go away. “You need something else?”
Phoenix glared at him for a moment, and then kicked off the wall. “Just know that not everyone wants you here, Rhodes.” He turned on his heel and stormed into the house, slamming the door behind him.
The chains holding the swing clinked together, making a back and forth tink-tink-tink sound, letting Alex know that Mena had stood from her seat, but he wasn’t ready to look at her yet. He wasn’t sure what he would say now that they were alone. He wouldn’t do what she had asked of him, so the only way this night was going to end was badly. Maybe he could pass the whole case over to Thompson. He would just tell the chief that he felt too close to the victims, and then they would have no choice but to remove him without further questioning.
“Alex,” Mena whispered from right beside him.
His eyes drifted shut as a chill passed over his skin. The strong need to protect her washed over him once again and he nearly blurted out that he would do it. His sanity was at risk. Would he be able to keep from losing his mind when the chief called to tell him that Mena was dead? Bile rose to the back of this throat as the thought sickened his stomach. No—no, he would most definitely go crazy, and it would be his fault entirely for giving the case away.
Soft fingers touched his cheek and he jerked back in surprise, his eyes shooting open to reveal to Mena the hell she was putting him through. If she touched him again he would cave. Shit! What the hell was he thinking? He was already caving.
Alex backed away from her until the heel of his boot began to tilt over the first step. There were only five steps down to the sidewalk, and if he ran to his Jeep, he could be gone in less than a minute.
Those sultry lips of hers parted and he forced his foot to take that first step down.
“Alex—”
“I can’t, Mena—”
“What can I say to get you to stay long enough to at least listen—?”
He closed his eyes and let his other boot fall to the next step. “There is nothing you can say. I’m going to give the case to Thompson first thing in the morning.”
There was a heartbeat of silence, and then, “That’s probably best.”
“Yeah,” Alex said as if trying to convince himself just as much as he was her.
He took another step down. Only two more to go. He was convinced once he got to the sidewalk he would have won; it would be easy after that, to walk away from her, stroll to his Jeep and drive out of her life forever. Damn it! He could already feel the insomnia seeping into his body. Maybe he could start a dark-circles trend: the less sleep you get and the shittier you look, the cooler you are. His boot somehow found the next to last step.
“May I hug you before you go?”
Jesus, woman, don’t ask me that!
“This may be the last time I ever see you. I assume our lunch date for tomorrow is canceled now.”
He meant to tell her this definitely would be the last time they ever saw one another and that the lunch date was indeed canceled, but as he looked back to where she stood on the porch, he sucked in a breath and stumbled down the remaining steps to the sidewalk. She was right in front of him.
His frame went completely rigid as her arms came up to wrap around his neck, and then the dam of emotions he’d been struggling to hold in broke free. He pulled her to him and hugged her fiercely.
“Mena, don’t do this. I’ll pass the case to Thompson and take a leave of absence. I’ll take you somewhere until the killer is caught and put behind bars. Nobody will find you. I swear it,” he said in a tortured whisper.
She pulled away and looked up at him. “I can’t, Alex. I know you don’t understand. It’s okay that you don’t. It is safer for you to be ignorant.” Cupping his face in her hands, she smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Tell me goodbye, Alex. Give the case to someone else and never look back.”
Goodbye? His heart raced and pounded beneath his breast, threatening to throw him into an anxiety attack. He couldn’t tell her goodbye. Ripping the beating muscle from his chest with his bare hands and handing it to her would have been easier than telling her goodbye.
“I can’t,” he choked out.
Mena nodded in understanding, and then she did something that instantly changed his mind about everything; she rose up on her toes and touched her lips to his.
The world stopped spinning.
Chapter 18
Phoenix
It was all he could do not to throw the door open and break that cop’s neck. But that would solve only one problem and create a hundred more.
“I told you not to watch them, bloodsucker,” Daryn snapped.
As Phoenix’s head whipped around, he knew by the look on the young wolf’s face that he was having just as much trouble knowing Mena was kissing the cop as he was.
“Shut up,” Phoenix grumbled as he pushed the drapes aside to look through the window once again. He’d wanted to say more, but he was afraid Mena’s pack didn’t know the problem she was having with her wolf, and he didn’t want to make her appear weak to them. He still had faith that he would be able to help her tame the wild beast. So, as far as they knew, it was Mena who was now kissing Rhodes, not her wolf doing the lip-locking.
“Leave him alone, brown-noser,” Roel quipped, with an eye roll. “Mena is way out of your league, and frankly, we are all getting a little tired of watching you grovel at her feet. It’s a sign of weakness. She will never pick you as her Beta. I hope you’re not expecting her to. You might as well go ahead and drop out while you’re behind.”
“So, you agree that she is better off with a vampire and a human than one of her own?”
Roel shrugged as he plopped down on the couch with a beer in his hand. “You want my honest opinion? Yeah, I do. Phoenix is God only knows how many centuries old…”
Phoenix turned his head to give Roel a go to hell look, but he chuckled before looking back out the window.
“…and he’s been the leader over his clan for over a century. Mena listens to him, and I don’t think he would advise her to do anything except what is good for our pack and his clan. Marc would have never considered what she is doing, and that’s why he is dead, because he sent us to kill one of Phoenix’s vamps. He didn’t care about us or making the pack better. He only cared about one thing, himself. I’m glad he’s gone, and I’m glad his wife was the one to take him out. I think she deserves to be with whoever makes her happy, and if that means the guy is a vampire or a human or both… well,” he shrugged, “I’ll stand behind her in whatever decisions she makes.”
Despite the scene with Rhodes and Mena’s wolf outside, Phoenix had to smile. He liked this Roel guy.
He let the drapes fall back into place and gave the cop his moment alone with Mena. It was killing him on the inside, but the main reason was because he knew Mena was in there somewhere and experiencing it all. He could only imagine how livid she was with him for pulling out her wolf to agree to something she herself had disagreed with.
Her safety was more important to him than whatever this was that was blooming between them. Waiting to take her to his bed wouldn’t be impossible—irritating as hell, but not impossible—and he would never be able to have sex with her if she was dead, so he could and would keep his word about not touching her when she came to his compound.
Once she saw things his way, she would get over her mad spell. Hopefully. He hated to think that he was doing all this just so the wolf could get her man.
/> Something had to be done to get the ball on the roll, though. If Mena thought her wolf was joking around about not allowing them to be together unless she could have the cop, then Mena was slower than he gave her credit for. From just the few brief minutes he’d spent plotting out a plan with Mena’s wolf to help her get Rhodes, he’d known three things right away: the wolf was extremely intelligent, she was a conniving bitch and she would stop at nothing to get what she wanted.
Working with her was his only option, because the bitch had complete control; she’d proven more than once that she could take over Mena’s body whenever she wanted to. It wouldn’t kill any of them if the wolf got her way, but he wasn’t born yesterday; he had every intention of getting his way, too.
That’s where the negotiations had come into play: the cop gets the wolf during the day and he got Mena at night. Everybody’s happy and Mena stays safe.
At the sound of Katie’s name, Phoenix blinked out of his daydream. Nearly a quarter of Mena’s pack were sitting or standing around the living room, and trying to strategize a plan to find some wolf named Jessica.
“Mena knows how to find her,” Phoenix said, and every tongue in the room stopped wagging. He brushed over the red stain on his shirt. “Yeah, um… Mena can feel each and every one of you. She snuck out of the house earlier while you were consumed with what happened to Katie. I followed her for a mile or so, and then I grabbed her. I was only trying to scare her enough so that she would know how stupid her plan was, going off on her own like that to find eight werewolves, but she stabbed me before I could say anything. If any of you doubt that she is the right leader for your pack, you will be the one surprised in the end.”
Phoenix shifted toward the window when the engine of the Jeep roared to life. The front door opened and his head jerked around to see Mena walk in the house, with a glowing smile, her eyes twinkling and her cheeks rosy. He’d seen her look that way before, every time he’d kissed her. It was obvious what Mena’s wolf thought, but he wondered what Mena thought about the kiss with Rhodes.
The jealousy was eating at him, but he pushed it away and tried to think of something to say besides how much he wanted to kill that asshole for putting his hands on Mena’s body. What came out sounded a bit strangled and desperate. “Well?”
Mena nodded, that smile getting wider and tearing his heart to pieces. “He’s going to help us.”
Cheers erupted throughout the large room, but all Phoenix could do was stare at her with pleading eyes. He wanted to tell Mena he was sorry, but the others wouldn’t understand and they would start asking questions. So, instead, he only nodded.
Chapter 19
Mena
Bastard!
I couldn’t believe he even had the balls to look at me after doing that. What the hell was he thinking? That I couldn’t handle any of this on my own? Yes, it was obvious from the conversation he’d had with my wolf that they both thought I was incompetent.
“Let me out, bitch! I’m not going to Phoenix’s compound! I’ll kill him if you make me!” I screamed at my wolf, but she only smiled and ascended the grand staircase to pack a bag for the night.
“Ugh! Please, don’t do this.”
“Everything is going according to plan, Mena—”
“Yeah, your plan and his plan, but not mine!”
“You never had a plan, and now I can’t sense where the rogue wolves are anymore. You need to trust me.”
I wanted to argue with her about that, but she was right. All I knew was going to Phoenix’s bed at night and Alex’s during the day was not in any plan I would have ever had. I felt betrayed and—and used.
“Calm down, Mena. You can’t stay here. Jessica blew up your car. Do you really think she will stop there? Phoenix and I are helping you, whether you want to see that or not.”
“Helping me?” I said, aghast.
“Yes, now be quiet so I can pack. I’ll give you back control over your body once we get to Phoenix’s home. Don’t bother trying to leave once we arrive; I will take back over if you do.”
My nonliteral eyes narrowed as I stewed in my anger. I wanted to punch her in the face, but that would only hurt me.
Why did I have to be the one to end up with a crazy wolf? I rolled my eyes at my inner monologue as the answer came to me: Karma. Great! I hoped I was entertaining enough for her. The bitch had been playing with me for days!
“How mad is she?” I heard Phoenix say from the door of my bedroom.
“I’m pissed, asshole!” I shouted, and was delighted when my wolf winced.
She sighed as she glanced over at him. He really was beautiful, and that look of alarm on his face was damn right comical, but he wasn’t getting out of this unscathed. I had every intention of hurting him bad.
“She will be fine once she realizes we are trying to help her instead of hurt her,” my wolf said through a clenched jaw. I had a feeling she was talking to me more than she was to him.
“I don’t need your help!”
“Yes, you do, Mena! I’m not going to let you get us killed. Whether you like it or not, this is my body, too, and I aim to keep it alive and out of prison!” she shouted back as she flung a small suitcase onto the bed.
“Your body is hairy and has four legs, bitch!”
“Screw you—”
A rush of anger surged through my body and my hand came up swiftly to slap myself across the face. Had I done that? I was so stunned that I didn’t know what to say or do. Better yet, neither did she.
“Mena?” Phoenix whispered, and my head rose up so I could see him approaching cautiously.
I giggled and, before long, the teeters turned into full-blown manic laughter.
My wolf huffed as she threw the suitcase open and started for the closet. “Your girlfriend is mad, Phoenix—crazy mad.”
I heard him chuckle. “That’s one of her finest qualities.”
I could feel his eyes on me as my wolf loaded the overnight luggage with clothes and personal hygiene items, but she avoided looking at him. That was fine; I had no interest in seeing him until I had full control of my body, so I could do some real damage. He had a magic way of calming me down before the bomb in me exploded and I didn’t want that. I wanted him to know how angry I was with him.
I felt my lips curl up.
“What the hell are you smiling about?” I said to her. “I’m not done with you, either.”
She didn’t respond, but the grin faded as she took the handle of the suitcase and met Phoenix at the door. She looked up at him and spoke quietly. “You might want to consider keeping your private chamber locked once we get to your home and I give Mena back her body. I won’t help her hurt you, but I’m not sure she would need me to.”
Those dark eyebrows popped up in dismay. “Noted. Thank you.”
She nodded once. “I can’t sense the location of the rogue shifters anymore. It’s like they’ve fallen off the grid or something. I’d feel it if they had died, so that isn’t it. I think going to your home is the best thing for us right now, at least until I can feel them again.” The wolf didn’t wait for a response from him, before closing the bedroom door and leading the way down the staircase.
The number of heads in my house had at least tripled since we left them to pack my bag. It appeared the whole pack was present. Some were crying and some were hugging, but all of them seemed to be angry about what had happened to Katie and what had almost happened to me.
One by one, each head in the room looked up to me as I descended the staircase, and then they fell to one knee, their right fists coming up to cover their sternums.
I was never going to get used to it. “Please, stand up,” my wolf said with the use of my mouth, and waited until the shuffling ceased. “What has happened to Katie has indeed hit us where it hurts and caused us much grief. We won’t let this weaken us, though. They will pay dearly for taking her life and they will regret having ever chosen to mess with me or any of my pack. Go home. Grieve for your friend. Find
the strength they have attempted to steal from you, because we are going to find them, and when we do, we are going to unleash hell on them!”
I was surprised the windows of my home stayed intact as cheers and shouting erupted from every man and woman in the foyer of the house.
I let my eyes drift out across the riled crowd. I felt safe to have these people surrounding me. Even if one or two of them were conspiring against me, I found I trusted the others to watch my back and help me weed them out.
Chapter 20
Jaxon
Pushing against the garage door that led into Phoenix’s compound, Jaxon walked into the house to hear an obscene amount of cursing and shouting.
Someone wasn’t happy, he thought, and he rounded the corner to see Santino’s fangs bared and his hands balled into tight fists. The guy was doing a whole lot of huffing and puffing through those clenched teeth as Lea screamed at him, spittle flying from her lips as she stomped her foot and poked at his unyielding chest with the tip of her pointer finger.
What the hell had he done or said to cause her to be so outraged? Jaxon had never seen her so upset before.
They were so consumed by their argument that they didn’t even notice Jaxon in the room. He had to do something or that big Latino would have Phoenix’s vampire assistant as a midnight snack, and that would be strike three for Santino. Not that Phoenix wouldn’t kill anything that breathed for hurting Lea on even a first offense; the girl knew exactly what the high vampire of the city wanted her to do before he knew it himself. Finding skills like that in a personal assistant to a vampire didn’t happen every day, and Jaxon knew that Santino was aware of that, too, or else the guy would have already tasted her sweet blood on his tongue.
“Lea?” Jaxon said calmly, and when she didn’t acknowledge that he’d spoken, he raised the volume of his voice to a level that wouldn’t go unheard by anyone in the huge house. “Lea! Back the hell up! Have you lost your damn mind?”
Midnight Moonrising Page 10
