“Y e a h.” He’d dragged the word out, looking at Ethan as if to say ‘duh’
Ethan’s tone was harsh. “You need to get over yourself about Sinc. She’s going to be doing most of the on-scene investigative work while we’re in Los Altos. In fact Garrett has put her pretty much in charge during the day when he and the vamps aren’t around. You’re going to be working under her in the lab. So are you in or not?” Kyle just glared and stayed quiet, annoying Ethan even more. “Maybe you’d feel better staying home.”
“Garrett won’t leave me behind. He needs me on the case.”
“Garrett will kick your ass off the project if I tell him that you’re not willing to work with Sinc.”
“Leave him alone, Ethan.” Sinc had slumped down in the arm chair, staring at Kyle. “He’s your friend and he doesn’t want you to get hurt again. He was there for you when you needed him—when I fucked up—so just leave him alone. I deserve whatever he has to say.” She crossed her arms. “Go ahead Kyle, I won’t fight back.”
Kyle looked at her closely for the first time, really noticing her weight loss and the bags under her eyes from lack of sleep. He sighed and shook his head. “I’m being an ass. Peter would be the first person to tell you that I’m no prize. I’ve got your back tonight. I’m sorry, Sinclair.” He smiled at her and winked. She hated being called Sinclair. “Anyway if you don’t fight back, it’s no fun.” A throw pillow flew at him and he caught it laughing. “That’s a start.”
“Sinc, what’s the plan for tonight?” I tried to change the subject.
“I’ve made arrangements for half of us to meet privately with the Alpha, Quentin, and Jake, Quentin’s second. Jake is, was my dad. They’ll have a couple more bodyguard types from the pack there as well. I decided we’d get more done than in a formal meeting, plus I’d get the worst part for me over with fast. Then the next evening there’ll be a formal meeting with the entire pack and our team, including our fae guards.
She stood up and paced in front of the TV. “It’s important for us to show our strength, so they don’t think we’re pushovers. They may try to bully us into bringing down our fee. Or they might suggest some kind of competition between us. Werewolf society is militaristic and if you’re considered weak, you end up on the bottom of the pecking order. Believe me, for the weaker male wolves, death would be better.” I looked at her in shock, thinking about Aaron’s pack and how happy the ones I’d met had seemed.
“In this pack, females are property. There are two females who are valued by the entire pack. The Alpha’s mate, Katrina, and the Beta’s mate—my mom, Sharon. The rest are assigned mates and, although they aren’t sold or passed around like whores, the females from the weaker families have only a small amount of choice in who they’re matched up with. Quentin is always going to give the smarter, more attractive females to the strongest males to keep them happy. After the mating ritual, the males are supposed to remain monogamous but some of them mess around and nothing's said about it. The females are almost always monogamous. It would be extremely dangerous for them and their lover if they weren’t. They’d be made an example of in front of the entire pack. I saw what happened once. It was brutal.
I shuddered. “It sounds pretty awful, for a woman or a weaker male.”
“I’d already been chosen by someone, before I transitioned to a shifter. He was a nice guy and I thought at the time that I might have been happy with him. I would have been mated to him, actually given to him, on my seventeenth birthday. When I think back on everything, I realize how lucky I was to get out when I did.” She looked grim. “Sometimes a choice is challenged and the males fight to the death over a female. It’s hard to watch your friends tear each other to pieces.” She shivered, then sat back down on the couch and leaned against Ethan, taking in a lungful of his eucalyptus scent.
Ethan was about to ask a question when Garrett suddenly appeared next to my chair, having run up the stairs in a sweet blur. I jumped up to wrap my arms around him and kiss him gently, all the while enjoying his delicious scent. He was dressed in a dark brown Italian suit cut to fit perfectly over his lean muscles. His cream colored button down shirt was open at the neck and he looked so good I was tempted to suggest a very private diversion before we left for Los Altos. Just as I was leaning in to share my idea, I caught a whiff of sweet cherries and turned to see Sasha stroll into the room.
Sasha plopped himself down on the armchair that Sinc had vacated without being invited. He smiled at all of us, his eyes lingering a little too long on Sinc. “So you two are back together?” He looked from her to Ethan who’d gone out to the small balcony, putting in a call to Rob.
“Ethan is being supportive, Sasha, and I don’t think it’s any of your business.” Sinc scowled at him.
“You made it my business when you used me to break up with him.”
“I know it was a real sacrifice: forcing you to drink my blood.” Her eyes flashed with anger.
“I was wondering if you had any to spare today. It was spectacular.” He smiled his sexiest smile, letting his eyes travel over her body and then locking with hers. I shook my head watching him flirt.
Garrett intervened before Ethan came back inside and trouble started. “Sasha go out and feed from one of your donors. Sinc is off limits.”
Sasha shrugged. “Sure boss, but what are we doing while we’re in Los Altos? I can’t imagine the weres will be providing females for us to feed from.”
“We’re coming back here to rest everyday, and that fact is to be kept a secret from the weres. You’ll feed from your usual donors when you wake and then we’ll return to Los Altos. I’ve told them that we’ve brought a supply of bagged blood and that we won’t need to feed for the few days we’ll be there. Meetings won’t begin until 8 PM so we’ll have plenty of time to get back. We’ll have Liam, Jackie and two other fae with us in Los Altos , so traveling won’t be a problem. Plus I seem to have developed a new skill, so I won’t need help.” Everyone looked at him as he grinned at us. “When I woke up in bed this afternoon I thought about taking a shower and suddenly I was standing in the shower. I’ve been playing with it for the last hour.”
He dematerialized and was instantly standing beside Ethan on the patio. Poor Ethan almost dropped his phone, but just as quickly Garrett flashed back to me. “Eleanor’s energy is making itself more useful. Francois said it would take some time for her full powers to manifest. She was able to do this within the villa if she concentrated, but she never liked to travel anywhere alone and so didn’t want to have to arrive and then wait for the rest of us. I don’t believe that she could carry anyone with her, like Jackie or the fae can. I’ll have to experiment with that.” Kyle and Sinc looked a little nervous. “Maybe not today.”
Sasha got up to leave, saying, “As I recall, she’d use it to spy on us inside the villa. She’d pop in secretly when you thought you were having a private conversation with someone and then….” He shuddered. “I’ll be back in an hour.”
I sent mentally to Garrett, “We’ll have to keep him away from Sinc. I think he’s genuinely attracted to her.”
“He’ll follow my orders.” He pulled me closer and whispered. “What do you think about my new skill?” He was excited, like a kid with a new toy, and his warm breath on my neck sent happy shivers dancing around my body.
“Very cool, Monsieur Cuvier. What else could Eleanor do?”
“Blend into shadow to make herself invisible. Liam would still see me, but weres and shifters would only scent me, I believe. I have a sneaking suspicion that you’d still see me, my lovely demon.” He grinned and then leaned in to kiss my cheek, aware that we were not exactly alone.”But I'm afraid that ability hasn’t made an appearance just yet.
“So when do Will and Rick wake up? I’d like to get going.” Kyle was bored, never a good thing for the rest of us who’d have to listen to him complain.
“Why don’t you, Ethan and Sinc go shoot some pool? When Liam gets here I’ll be going out to
feed and then when Will and Rick wake up they’ll have to feed. We should be able to leave at 6:00.”
“Jeez…you vampires are so high maintenance.” Kyle practically whined getting up and moving toward the stairs. Ethan, laughing, whacked him on the back of the head as Sinc followed them out.
Garrett shook his head and smiled, pulling me over to the couch. “Because we’re all traveling to Los Altos through the lines, the pack has made arrangements for two cars to be at our disposal while we’re there. Rob already drove over the portable lab." Sinc insisted on having a lab at her disposal.
"So who's taking who through the lines?"
The three fae can take two people each which covers the team and the nest. We can get ourselves there. Is there anything else that I’m not thinking of?”
“I’ve packed for us, but you should check my work to see if it meets with your approval.” I ran my hand down his arm and twined my fingers through his. “Meanwhile I’ll take a shower and you can pick out what you want me to wear and leave it on the bed.” Garrett loved to buy me beautiful clothes and then see me in his outfits. I brought his hand up to my lips and gave it a gentle kiss.
“I would be honored to pick out Madame’s attire for this evening. I’ll make sure that it shows off all of her many assets.” He looked me up and down with a flirty gleam in his eye.
“We’re meeting with a bunch of weres. It might not be a good idea to show off too many of my so-called assets.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Duly noted. I’ll lean more toward ‘professional powerhouse’ rather than ‘sexy kick-ass’.
“How about professional kick ass?”
“As you wish, my lady.” He grinned wickedly.
“Thank you, Jeeves. You’ve been so helpful.” I loved to play along.
“Is there anything else that you require, Madame?”
I smiled mischievously so he pulled me closer, his eyes popping with silver, and whispered, “I think that you should get in the shower now before I get carried away with this little fantasy and it turns into an all night reenactment of a bad romance novel.”
“Would that be so wrong?” I laughed with him and spoke with an aristocratic air, “We’ll continue this conversation in a few days, Jeeves.”
He lifted my hand to his mouth and grazed his fangs across my wrist, sending serious shivers down my spine. ”Comme madame souhaite. As my lady wishes.” I forced myself to pull away because we could not be late for our first meeting with the Los Altos Alpha.
CHAPTER FOUR
Materializing at the agreed upon destination at precisely 6:15 PM, we were quite an eclectic group of supernaturals, sure to raise a few eyebrows among the wolves we’d be meeting. The usual suspects included my shifter team, Garrett and his nest of three and our fae trio, which included Liam, Brina and Kaera. We felt that bringing the two fae sisters would put the weres at ease, since they tended to believe that females were much less powerful than males. Well, at least the wolves who didn’t know the fae well. These two sisters could probably each take out two werewolves a minute and not even break a sweat.
As we walked up to the door of the house we’d be sharing, I could feel Sinc’s tension. Sharon, her mother, was standing in the doorway with a welcoming expression. Her eyes darted across our group until they came to rest on her daughter. She couldn't disguise her shock as she saw a lovely adult shifter moving toward her and not the confused fifteen year old she’d seen last.
As Garrett and I came face to face with Sharon, she smiled. “Welcome to Los Altos. I hope that you’ll find this house to your liking, Mr. Cuvier.”
Garrett returned the smile and took her hand. “I’m sure it’s lovely Mrs. Blakefield, and please call me Garrett. This is my mate, Jackie.”
“Sharon.” She responded as she shook his hand and then mine. She was tall, probably 5’10”, with long wavy brown hair and large hazel eyes. She’d adopted Sinc so I didn’t expect them to look alike, but there was something about the reserved way she spoke that reminded me of Sinc in one of her more serious moods.
After she'd ushered us inside, Garrett introduced the rest of our team and she introduced the three weres who were flanking her and acting as her backup in case there was a problem. She told us that Craig, the tallest of the three weres, was one of the parents of one of the missing teens and so we offered him our assurances that we would do our best for him and his family. The other two wolves were strictly there as Sharon’s bodyguards, since neither group was taking any chances with security.
We watched when Sharon gave Sinc a hug which Sinc returned unenthusiastically. They pulled apart and simply stared at each other for a moment and then Sharon said, her voice catching on her daughter’s name, “Sinclair, I’m so glad that you’re here. Your father and I have missed you very much.” She reached out to touch her daughter’s face but Sinc backed away, never taking her eyes off of Sharon. “You’re quite lovely.”
“Please call me Sinc, Sharon.” Her voice was cold.
“Sinc, yes of course.” The depth of pain in the woman’s eyes cut through my heart. Her aura was a muddy mess, another obvious sign of her distress.
“You knew where I was, didn’t you?” Sinc had decided to get the worst part over with as quickly as possible, even as we all stood quietly, watching,
Sharon let out a resigned sigh, probably expecting this question. “Yes. You live in Crescent City.”
“But you didn’t come to see me. It’s been ten years.” Sinc’s voice held no emotion; she could have been talking to the mail carrier. But those of us who knew her well, knew how close to the edge she stood.
“We weren’t permitted. You know what Quentin’s decision was regarding you.” Sharon’s voice shook with emotions locked away for far too long. “Your father would have been removed as Beta.”
“I have a hard time believing that. If you missed me, as you say, you could have come to Crescent City to see me or you could have called. You chose not to. Quentin would never have forced Jake to step down. He's been loyal for fifty years.”
Sinc was no longer a scared and vulnerable teen. Her anger was an icy weapon that she directed toward her mother, a woman who’d been put between a rock and a hard place and had chosen to back her mate and not her daughter. I found it hard to judge her too harshly, but I couldn't put myself in Sinc's shoes.
Sharon looked at the rest of us, who were all watching the drama unfold, then back at her daughter. “Sinclair, Sinc, perhaps we could discuss this privately. I’m taking Garrett and Jackie and those directly involved in the investigation to meet Quentin. We could have lunch tomorrow, if you’d like.”
Garrett stepped over and placed a hand on Sinc’s shoulder to show his support. “Sinc is taking a leading role in the investigation and will be coming to the meeting.”
Sharon looked shocked as Sinc continued. “I’ll be collecting evidence still left at the scenes of the kidnappings and then running all the tests in my own lab, so we’ll get the results quickly. I don’t think I’ll have time for lunch tomorrow. Perhaps another time, Sharon.”
Ouch. Couldn’t really blame Sinc, but Sharon looked hurt and then worried. “You know Quentin. He may not respond well to you speaking for the group.”
“She won’t be speaking for the group, Sharon. I’ll introduce everyone and then we’ll all be discussing the situation together, the way a team usually functions.” Garrett was trying to get a feel for how Quentin ran things.
“That isn’t how a pack functions, Garrett, and Quentin is very definitely the one who speaks for our group.” She pulled herself up and stood stiffly.
“We have no desire to interfere with your procedures. We just want to help you find those boys.”
“Of course, forgive me. Would you like to go now, or would you like to freshen up?” Her demeanor was strictly professional.
Garrett looked around at the excited faces. “I think we’d like to meet your alpha now, if he’s ready for us.”
“Of course, p
lease follow me. It’s just a short walk.” We left William, Heinrich and Kyle to set up our travel laboratory and then our two interview rooms since we’d been advised by Liam to interview the entire pack regarding the boy’s disappearances. Three teens missing from the same pack smelled of an inside accomplice. The two fae sisters stayed behind to assist and keep an eye out for trouble. The rest of us followed Sharon out the door, excited to meet Quentin.
As we walked through the property, various family groups moved closer so they could get a good look at us. I smiled and said hello when I saw a friendly face, but most of them looked wary. Two of the werewolf bodyguards walked in front, followed by Garrett and Sharon who chatted together pleasantly. I walked beside Liam, with Sasha, Ethan and Sinc silently bringing up the rear along with the last wolf guard. Once in awhile one of the wolves would greet Sinc, always calling her Sinclair of course, and she’d smile or wave and then keep walking. I noticed that some of the females were checking out our males, and I caught Sasha winking back at a couple of them. I gave him a look and he shrugged with a sexy smile.
Liam sent to me, “I think this will be another one of those meetings where you’ll have to watch your temper. I know how well you do around testosterone-driven discussions.”
“Ha, ha. I’ll control myself if you will, Liam. Your human side likes to make an unexpected appearance.”
He grinned. “We’ll watch their auras to discern the truth of what they say. Speaking of which, have you noticed that your aura has changed slightly? I don’t know if it’s a permanent change or if it’s temporary.”
“Changed how?”
“The green is slightly richer, like green velvet.”
“My grandmother mentioned it too. I think it’s probably only temporary. I could use a few more nights of sleep.” I never seemed to get enough these days. He nodded as we walked up to the door of a lovely three story home professionally landscaped to look like something from a magazine. There was no sign of a family actually living there. No bike in the driveway, no throw-away newspaper on the porch, not even a stray rose petal on the ground. Everything was pristine and perfect, and so somehow sterile.
Blown Away (Rogues Shifter Series Book 4) Page 6
