Rain’s feet barely obeyed to follow her. He was still so floored by the fact that he hadn’t even considered Fate might be involved. How could he be such an idiot?
They walked down the steps and Maggie pointed. “We go this way.”
All he could do was follow.
She led him through a crush of people, then into an alley. Maggie had out her phone-flashlight before Rain even realized how dark it was.
He was in a bad state.
With the hum of the city behind them, he cleared his throat. “Are you bonded? I don’t see your tattoos.”
Maggie shook her head and aimed the flashlight across their path as a black dog scurried past them. “I’ve felt Fate before, though. It uses magick to guide you.”
“Wait. You felt Fate push you toward someone, but you didn’t bond with them?”
Her slight shoulders went up and down in the shadow of her flashlight. “Fate speaks to us on different levels, nudging us in one direction or another. It doesn’t always have to do with a Fated match that you can’t escape.”
They passed a raised porch and Maggie shone her light on the rise. Was she actually looking for a real yellow dog?
“Not everyone gets a Fated match, but that doesn’t make other relationships outside of magickal influence. Plenty of people have good mates that they choose for themselves.” She dropped her light to the map when they reached the end of the street.
“Where are we?” Rain asked, coming over her shoulder.
“We’re almost directly behind the hotel.” She pointed behind them. “That’s the roof garden.”
“Our hotel has a roof garden?” Rain wanted to roll his eyes. What a waste of money when they would only be using the beds.
“A roof garden and a piano bar.” A hint of laughter came to her voice. “Just when we thought we were done with the glitz of Vegas.”
They crossed the street and kept walking, still in an alley that required Maggie’s light. High above them, Rain heard someone arguing and the crash of a dish. Were they in residential neighborhoods now?
“Haven’t you ever felt Fate guide you to someone before?” Maggie ventured. She sounded barely interested—like she’d just as soon talk about fish or the Middle East, but she had to have a reason. If he’d learned anything about women, he’d learned that they always asked questions for a reason.
“I haven’t.”
“But you’ve had sex before?”
He chuckled. “Yes.”
“And you’re not gay?”
“Nope.”
“But you’ve never been guided? Like… never?” Her hair bounced as though she shook her head. “How old are you?”
“Old enough.” Rain laughed. “I’m thirty.”
“I’ve had like half a dozen relationships that magick had a hand in.” She moved the light to their feet when Rain heard a splash.
Maggie must’ve stepped in something, but he still couldn’t see it. He looked up. The buildings here were shorter, and the sky closer.
“But you never actually bonded with any of them?” he asked.
“That’s not why we were matched.”
“Why else would you be matched?”
Maggie stopped in the middle of the alley and turned on him. Instead of being angry, she gave the biggest belly laugh, and it echoed through the whole enclosed area where they stood. “Rain, there are all kinds of reasons you might be matched with someone.” She turned her arm around. “I had these made for each man that Fate brought me to.”
On the soft inner flesh of her arm was a cluster of hearts, running down toward her wrist. Or up from her wrist, along her arm, he couldn’t tell. Each one was a slightly different shade of red—either from wear, or intention. No names, no initials, no years. Just hearts.
“I will always have a piece of their hearts, and they will have a piece of mine. But we were not Fated for eternity. None of us.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “I know you haven’t felt it before, so you don’t understand. But just listen to your heart. If it’s this intense, that you can’t stop having sex in public places and at…let’s say…inappropriate times, then embrace it.”
She turned back to the dark alley and kept shining her flashlight out in front of them. Rain stood for a moment.
Fated?
He had to admit, for the briefest of moments when Maggie had said Fated, he went to the white-picket-fence place. He’d seen Nora sitting in his lap in Walker’s backyard, with the rest of the company wives and mates, laughing under the hot summer North Carolina sun.
It was a fantasy he didn’t even know had been lurking in the back of his mind, but it wouldn’t go away. He couldn’t shake his head enough to get it to leave him be.
And as much as he felt like his dick was always getting hard whenever Nora’s scent was in the air, he now had the additional responsibility of guarding his thoughts.
She had made it crystal clear that she intended to ignore the magick, and not even speak of it. The fact that he had to talk about it with Maggie…it pissed him off. He should’ve been talking about it with Nora. But she only seemed to want to fuck him.
No. No more.
Rain was done fucking her. They had to address this thing growing between them, because he could already feel himself going over the edge for her, and this was one jump he wasn’t prepared to make.
* * *
Nora glanced at Tomás’ ass. He’d kept two paces ahead the entire two hours they’d been searching and had done his best not to speak to her at all. His ass was nice enough, but she couldn’t shake the image of Rain from her mind. Every time she looked at Tomás she saw Rain…even though the Hispanic man looked nothing like her New Orleans army ranger.
Damn. When had Rain become hers?
She knew exactly what was happening between them and it only ended one way —her leaving and going back home without Rain. Fate could whine and complain all it wanted, but she wasn’t going to subject herself to another life-shattering loss.
Fuck Fate.
It’d given her the love, branded her, and then everything had been stolen away. Now she had a second chance within her grasp with a man she couldn’t stop dreaming about, but the only thing she could accept from Rain was another amazing lay. More would be too hard to walk away from. She couldn’t let herself get too attached, and she was already being possessive.
He was a delicacy to be enjoyed in Mexico and forgotten afterward. Not that she expected the forgetting part to be easy, but it was doable. As long as they didn’t say the spell to bond their souls, they could survive away from each other without dying of loneliness.
She glanced across the street and her breath caught in her throat. Toca un lobo was printed in faded ink vertically on the front doorway of a large building. Lobo was wolf in Spanish, she knew that much at least.
“Rivera!”
“What?” He growled and turned to face her, a look of annoyance painted across his features. He hated being stuck with her as much as she hated not being with Rain.
Her wolf bristled and Nora stomped forward. She kept coming until they were breathing the same air, almost nose to nose. Her heels gave her enough height to be at eye level with the male. “Just because I’m fucking Rain doesn’t mean you get to ignore me or be rude. You don’t know a damn thing about me or what I live with or without every day of my life. So just keep your attitude to yourself.” Without turning her head, she pointed to the worn down building across the street. “Read the words on that fucking door.”
He raised his eyebrows, but didn’t respond to her tirade. Instead, he took a step backward and turned to face the building. “Toca un lobo. Shit! Touch a wolf.”
“The bastard was advertising it to anyone who walked by. What kind of idiot does that?”
“A soon to be dead one.” Tomás pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed.
Nora crossed the street toward the gray building. Even weather-beaten and old, it still seemed cared for. No graffiti, no t
rash on the sidewalks. Even the bars on the windows had a fresh coat of paint and none of the glass was broken either. Still, the building looked deserted. She couldn’t hear any heartbeats inside. She ran her hand along the solid door and jangled the padlock connected to a heavy-duty latch on the front.
“Cavanaugh, Rain says not to go in until everyone gets here,” he shouted.
She yanked her hand away from the lock and crossed her arms over her chest. Good. At least Rain would be close by again. Today, it’d been torture being away from him. Her panties were wet with longing and she was cranky from not being able to touch him since they’d split up this morning.
One thing was for sure, she was sick of being stuck with this wolf from Vegas. Rain had split the groups to separate himself from her, and she was more than a little peeved.
Sure, they’d gotten a little distracted earlier, but everything had worked out just fine. They’d found the marker, and now she and Tomás had found the place where Mary had been kept all those years ago.
Gooseflesh pimpled her skin —thinking about what Mary and those other women had gone through. It made her stomach turn. The man running this organization would give her father a run for the title of heartless bastard.
Right now, pretty much any man was a asshole. Tomás was being a jerk because he was stuck with her. She wanted to be with Rain and he was pushing her away, choosing instead to spend time with that snarky-flirty-know-it-all she-wolf from Colorado.
Nora rolled her neck from side to side, and sighed. Jealousy wasn’t part of her typical emotional rainbow. In the past, she’d moved from one man to another to avoid feeling attachment to any. Now she was attached to Rain whether she wanted to be or not. Fate didn’t really take requests or listen to complaints.
She and Rain were stuck in Mexico for a while, safe from her father’s prying eyes and he was wasting it. Wasting precious memories she would carry in her heart forever, because they could never be realized. Her bastard of a father would make sure of that. She and her sisters were all doomed to be married off to whomever he deemed appropriate and beneficial to the family.
The moment when the thing between her and Rain morphed into something more had snuck past her and wrapped itself around her heart. Leaving him after this mission was over would be like tearing out her heart with her bare hands.
“Are you okay?” Tomás joined her on the front stoop of the locked up building.
“Fine,” Nora snapped.
“He’s your mate isn’t he? You feel the pull?”
“None of your business.” Nora swallowed and shifted uncomfortably. Rain hadn’t said anything about feeling the pull of Fate and she needed him to let her leave after this trip was over. She couldn’t—strike that she wouldn’t—have him risking his life to be with her. And if he hadn’t already figured out it was a mate pull between them, she sure as hell didn’t want the group informing him of the reason behind their supernatural attraction.
She rubbed a wrist where her long sleeve knit dress hid the tattoos left behind from her previous mate—the one her father had almost certainly murdered. Short sleeves were a thing of the past. The sight of the matching green-knotted tattoos only reminded her of what she’d lost. Plus, there wasn’t a wolf alive that would sleep with her after seeing her ink. Telling a potential lay that her father had probably murdered her mate never boded well for a second sleepover.
“You shouldn’t ignore it.”
“Leave me alone. I didn’t ask for your advice and you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Tomás growled. “I know a strong mate bond when I see one. The way you two can’t keep your hands off of each other isn’t exactly subtle.” He chucked as the sound of an approaching car caught his focus.
They both turned toward the car, and Nora tried to put his words from her mind.
Rain, Maggie, Dani, and what’s his name from Kentucky climbed out of the first taxi. Another car pulled up right behind them. The rest of the group joined Nora and Tomás at the front entrance of the suspicious building.
“What makes you think this is it?” Maggie stepped up beside Tomás, tapping away at the tablet in her hand.
“The fact that it’s in the right general area and says ‘Touch a Wolf’ on the door.”
“It’s in the right place, plus we found the yellow dog, that was really a wolf, only a quarter mile from here. The progression of her recalled flight makes sense,” said the man from Kentucky.
His sweeter-than-molasses voice would’ve made Nora instantly interested in him, but the only thing on her mind was the way Rain smelled and how close he was still standing in relationship to Maggie and Dani. Images of ripping their hair out by the roots flashed through her mind and she took a deep breath, attempting to calm her flustered nerves.
Rain turned and caught her gaze, momentarily allowing her to glimpse the hunger burning brightly in his turquoise blue irises. Nora stepped closer to him and he countered her movement by backing away and mouthing ‘no’.
Damn him. He seemed to be in complete control while she was about to come out of her skin.
The rough-looking tatted guy from Chicago stepped forward, messed with the lock for a few seconds, and then moved away holding the padlock in his hand. A broad grin spread across his face as he gestured for the rest of them to enter first. “After you, boss.”
Nora frowned. She hated that they were making him feel badly because of their relationship, but there wasn’t much to be done at this point. The damage was done. All they could do now was try to behave like they had control of their impulses. Of course, she didn’t really want to control her impulses around Rain.
Maggie pulled her backpack off and set it at her feet. She pulled out a flashlight and tossed it to Rain, then handed everyone else a light as well.
Nora took one and followed the Chicago male who’d introduced himself as Niko on the plane.
“Don’t let him discourage you, sweetheart. He’s a soldier. Having feelings for someone on a mission is probably his worst nightmare.” Niko nudged her shoulder as they entered the building’s large foyer. “The best things, you have to fight for.”
More advice? Did everyone just feel the need to tell her what they thought she should do?
“Thanks,” she whispered. She might not want to hear his opinion, but she’d been bitchy enough to Tomás earlier. It would be nice if the rest of the group didn’t hate her more. She was already a Cavanaugh, and that alone put her on most people’s shit list.
The group moved through the lower level of the building, clearing room after room. The only things left behind by Mary’s captors were sheet-covered furniture and dust. No one had been inside this building for years.
“Rivera… Mobster… and Miami, you go upstairs and make sure we’re not overlooking anything,” Rain called out from down the hall. “Nora, stay in the foyer with…Seattle…to watch the entrance.”
Niko, whom Rain still called Mobster, left to follow Rain’s order and the little Asian wolf from Seattle entered the foyer and leaned against the wall.
“Can you imagine being stuck in a place like this? The rooms down the hall all have padlocks on the outside and the doors are made of steel. This guy wasn’t playing around.”
Nora shuddered. Nightmares were made of stories like this. She didn’t want to consider the reality of how many women had been raped, tortured, and killed here. The building was clean, but it still held the stench of pain and death. Maybe it was the way their magick let them experience the world, but Nora could’ve done without the extra senses at that moment.
Maggie returned shortly before everyone else. But it was only Rain that Nora noticed. The way he stood taller than almost everyone. The way his blue eyes were dark and hungry. His scent filled her lungs even though he stood on the opposite side of the room. Their magick reached for each other and her body ached to touch him.
“Nothing.” He ran his hands through his hair and frowned. “Miami…”
An ang
ry snarl came from the Cuban wolf’s lips. “My fucking name is Alex, okay?”
Rain continued, as though he hadn’t just been interrupted, a masterful calm on his face. “I want you to watch the building from across the street. It’s empty, but cared for. So if someone shows up, we need to know. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“In the meantime, once I get back to the hotel I’ll start researching who owns this building,” Maggie added. “The signal out here is crappy, so I need to get on the hotel bandwidth to make a dent.”
Rain nodded. “Alex, you good?”
“Si, no problem.”
Chapter Seven
“What do you mean you fucked up?” Francis’ voice was loud enough that Rain was pretty certain Tomás had heard it next door. And Niko on the other side. As if those two didn’t mistrust him enough without hearing his alpha berate him live via sat phone.
Rain hung his head and thought of Nora. They had fucked up by royal proportions. The team was falling apart. They were missing clues, and they’d probably just hit a dead end. But instead of that litany, Rain chose to focus on the one thing his alpha could control. “We need some more information from Mary. The building was a dead end.”
“No, I hear something else under there, Rainier. What’s going on? Is it you and that Boston wolf I found showering-but-not-showering in your hotel room?”
Rain’s mouth opened, but no words came out. There was no possible way Francis could read his mind from a thousand miles away. The phone didn’t give away that much tone—it was a shitty phone.
“I’m handling it,” he said, hoping for an end to the conversation. “I need you to get some more information from Mary. Something about the guy who was holding her that we can track.”
Francis sighed. “We tried everything. She gave us all she could remember. So if you’ve hit a dead end, then the mission is done and you should come home.”
Something rebelled inside Rain. They couldn’t go back yet. He needed a few more hours… Hell no, he wasn’t about to say that out loud. Francis would hear the admission in that sentence from a million miles away. “Maggie is following up on the building owner information, but given how long it’s taken her, I’m not hopeful.”
The Werewolf Ranger (Moonbound Book 3) Page 5
