by Lauren Dawes
“It shouldn’t have happened,” he replied coolly.
“It’s in the past now,” Neve replied, sounding tired. “The side effect is that she doesn’t trust anyone of the opposite sex.” She turned her body to face him. “What do you think happened last night?”
“Her text was vague, so I’m really not sure. All I do know is that we need to speak with her to see what she remembers.”
Neve gave him directions when they got into town, cruising through the nicer neighborhoods until they reached Pippa’s house. It was a well-maintained detached house with pristine white siding and a sprawling lush lawn, despite the plummeting nighttime temperatures. The midday sun hadn’t quite reached full strength yet, but the flowers in the garden beds turned their faces toward it.
Drake parked the car on the street, not quite in front of the house in case her mother came home early. Neve opened her door, but Drake stopped her.
“Stay there. Wait until I come around.”
Before she could protest, he got out and jogged around to her side. There was no way in hell he was going to leave her even slightly exposed to an attack. It was the male jaguar in him…well, the male jaguar and the bonded male. Holding open her door, he scanned the environment.
She muttered something under her breath as she got out and walked up the sidewalk toward Pippa’s house.
Neve tried to ignore the dangerous Shadow at her back, but when he growled at the mailman three houses down, she whirled around to face him.
“You need to back off on the dark and deadly routine.”
His eyebrow quirked up. “Dark and deadly?” he asked.
She gestured to all of him. “This. Whatever you’re doing right now. Knock it off. If Pippa sees you crowding me, your lip curled up in a snarl, your fangs bared, she’s never going to talk to us.”
She turned back around, not giving him the chance to defend his actions. She wasn’t an idiot, though. For all her grumbling about Drake hovering over her, she understood the whys of it all. He was her mate, and he was functioning mostly on instinct right now.
When she reached the door, she peered over her shoulder to find Drake’s expression bland and as non-threatening as she’d ever seen him. It was like saying a hungry bear was bland and non-threatening. Turning back, she knocked on the door and waited. A few moments passed before the door opened a sliver and Neve saw Pippa’s pale blue eyes peering out at her.
“Neve?” she asked, opening the door a little wider. “What are you doing here?”
“How are you, Pippa?” She shifted a little to the right, letting her see Drake behind her. “This is Drake. He’s…” Telling her he was one of the Revenant was not a good idea. “He’s a friend of mine.”
Pippa edged back from the door. “What does he want?” The panic was evident in her voice.
“He’s here to protect me,” she replied softly. “I just wanted to talk to you. Would that be okay?” Neve held her breath, then added, “He’ll stay out here if that’s what you want.”
“Neve,” Drake warned, but she ignored him, focusing on Pippa instead. She had to get this female to trust her. She wondered whether she’d done enough to reassure her, but smiled when the other female nodded.
“Okay, but my mom will be home from her night shift soon.”
“Okay.” Glancing at Drake over her shoulder, she told him, “Wait out here for me.”
She slipped inside, banking on Pippa shutting the door firmly behind her. She did not disappoint, cutting off his angry snarl. Turning to take in the house, she blinked at the dim lighting. All the drapes were closed, blocking out almost all the light, and Neve waited for her cat’s sight to kick in. Pippa stood in the center of the room, hugging her upper body.
“How are you, Pippa?”
The other female nodded, the movement jerky like she was a marionette puppet. “Fine. Good.” Her gaze swept the floor. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“I’m fine, thank you.” Knowing she needed to tread carefully, she turned to the photos hanging on the entryway wall. In them, she saw the Pippa she’d known at school, the bright, bubbly, vivacious female who was the life of the party. She found it so hard to connect that girl that she knew with the young woman in front of her.
She came across a photo of Pippa when she was just starting high school. She was wearing jaguar paw print knee-high socks with a short pleated skirt—her signature outfit.
“I remember those socks,” she said with a smile.
Pippa barely glanced at the photograph, only tightened her arms around her torso and waited. Clearing her throat, Neve walked into the living room and lowered herself onto the couch. It smelled of Pippa and another female who had the same kind of base scent. It must’ve been her mom.
“I came to talk to you about the text you sent to the check-in number.”
If she hadn’t been watching, Neve would’ve missed the slight tightening in Pippa’s shoulders.
“I shouldn’t have sent that. I should’ve kept my mouth shut—”
“No, Pippa,” Never interrupted. “You did the right thing.” She shuffled closer to the edge of the couch, clasping her hands in front of her. “Can you tell me what happened?”
Pippa drew in a deep breath through her nose then let it go, a visible tremor going through her.
“You can tell me. It will help us to find whoever’s behind this.”
She eased onto the couch on the opposite wall, making herself look smaller by tucking her feet beneath her body and rolling her shoulders forward. “It was stupid. I shouldn’t have gone out there so late, but the light from the security light just reached the curb.”
“Gone out where?”
Her arms tightened around her knees. “To put out the trash. I don’t normally do it, but my mom asked me to when she left for work…” She shrugged slightly. “She said I have to contribute more to the household, that I can’t become a recluse even though I suffer from agoraphobia. My therapist and I have been working on some stress management techniques but…” She finished with another shrug.
Neve slipped from the couch and settled in beside Pippa, keeping a good foot between them. “What happened?”
Pippa swallowed visibly. “I’d just closed the lid on the trash can when I saw a man walking toward me. He smiled at me, but…there was something off about the smile.”
“Off how?”
She looked at Neve. “Like he was thinking of hurting me.” She turned her head, her dark hair falling to cover her face. “I’ll always know that kind of smile.”
Damn. Very slowly, so she didn’t startle Pippa, she reached out and took her hand. “I never told you how sorry I was that happened to you, Pippa.” She wasn’t surprised when the other female took back her hand and tucked it under her knee.
“Thank you.”
Neve blew out a breath. “So this guy you saw? Was he human or jaguar? Could you tell?”
“H-human,” she whispered. “But it didn’t mean he was less dangerous.”
“You’re right,” she replied carefully. “Did he say anything to you?”
Pippa shook her head, the ends of her hair slapping her face softly. “He didn’t say anything—he just grabbed me, pinning my arms to my sides.” She took in a shuddering breath and licked her lips. “I was too shocked to act until a black van pulled up and he tried to shove me inside.”
“How did you get away?”
A smile pulled up the corner of Pippa’s mouth, a curling of her lip that made Neve shiver. “We were about the same height,” she said softly.
Neve said nothing, letting the other female talk at her own pace. She had a feeling if she pushed too hard, she’d shut down.
“I broke his nose.”
“Oh?” The word was spoken with calm detachment in the hopes it would help encourage Pippa further.
Uncurling her legs, Pippa placed her feet on the carpet and stared at them. “After…after what happened in high school, my mother suggested I take self-de
fense classes. I did for a little while, until the female instructor I started with went on maternity leave. Her replacement was a man.” She peered at Neve from the corner of her eye. “I never went back after that. But I did learn something.”
“How did you do it?” Neve absently wiped off the knee of her jeans, giving Pippa the mental breathing space she needed.
“He had me pinned so my back was to his front. I threw my head back. I heard the crunch. Then I stomped on his foot. He let me go, and I ran into the house, locking the door. I heard the tires of the van screeching as they drove off, then I texted the check-in number.”
Her words came out in a long stream, punctuated only by gasping breaths.
“You were very brave,” Neve murmured. “Thank you for being able to think clearly enough to text the Leo’s emergency number.”
Pippa shrugged. “Please don’t tell my mom. She’ll only worry.”
“She loves you. She just wants to keep you safe.”
Pippa’s nod was that same jerky movement as before. “Do you have any other questions? My mom will be home in ten minutes.”
“I just need a description of the man. Hair color, eye color—that kind of thing.”
“Both dark. Average build. My height, like I said.”
“What was he wearing?”
Her eyes focused on the clock on the mantel. “Jeans. Construction boots. Black T-shirt. Is that all?”
“Yes.” Neve stood up. “Thank you, Pippa. I appreciate you speaking to me.”
The female wouldn’t meet her eyes. “You should go.”
Neve walked to the front door and pulled it open. “You’ll get in contact if you see the man again?” But Pippa didn’t answer. She was staring at the clock, flinching with every movement of the second hand as it made its revolutions around the face.
Neve turned around to find Drake standing with his arms crossed and a thunderous look on his face. Brushing past him, she was brought to a stop when his hand shot out. He gripped her other arm just as tightly, turning her to face him, his yellow eyes more piercing with the power of his cat. His gaze skimmed every inch of her face before dropping down her body.
“I’m safe,” she told him, swallowing a lump in her throat. “Nothing happened to me in there.” There was a part of her that understood she was talking to his cat rather than Drake.
He didn’t loosen his grip, so she got up onto her tiptoes and rubbed her cheek against him. This close, he’d be able to smell her and know she was safe. The feline gesture broke the spell, and his fingers loosened. He let her go and stepped back, still staring at her.
“What did you find out?” he asked in a rough voice.
“I’ll tell you on the way back to your house.” Without waiting for his reply, she walked to the Escalade and waited for him to unlock the car. When they were both strapped in and Drake was easing out from the curb, he reached out and laid his hand on her knee. The heat was immediate.
“What did you find out?”
“She was attacked last night while taking out the trash.”
Her statement was met by a rush of anger that flooded the car and made her shoulders stiffen. She wasn’t usually able to sense things like that, but with Drake, it was like he was hooked up to a nuclear reactor, making every emotion he had unavoidable.
“How did she get away?”
“She’d taken some self-defense classes, so she used some of those skills. She broke the guy’s nose. When he let her go, she ran and got away.”
Drake flipped on the directional signal with an angry jerk of his hand. “Then what happened?”
“She heard them leave in the black van they’d come in.”
Turning back onto the main road that would get them back onto the highway, Drake turned to her. “Did she get a good look at the man? And was he human or a cat?”
“She was quite sure he was human.” Neve repeated the description Pippa had given her.
“Hmm, that doesn’t give us a lot to go on.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Drake put his foot down when they got onto the highway, the speed limit increasing as they got out of the town. “Do you want to know what I don’t understand?”
“What’s that?”
“She got away. Why did she get away when nobody else did?”
Neve shrugged, but it was something she’d thought about too. It didn’t make sense. In order for a human to subdue a cat, they’d have to knock the cat out. So why hadn’t Pippa been on the receiving end of a tranquilizer or something similar? “From what she said, they just tried to muscle her into the van.”
“Which is, I assume, how they got the other females. But trying to get a hissing and spitting shifter to do anything they don’t want to do while still fully conscious? It just seems moronic.”
“All right, so they would’ve had to tranquilize the females before they put them into the van to transport wherever the hell they’re taking them, so why didn’t it happen with Pippa?”
His jaw tightened, the muscle pulsing as he thought. “Either they’ve gotten cocky and their MO has changed, or I return to my aforementioned statement of them being morons.”
She turned her body toward him in her seat, readjusting the seat belt so it didn’t cut into the side of her neck. “What if Pippa wasn’t the real target?”
Drake’s eyes narrowed, but stayed on the road. “What do you mean?”
"I mean, what if they weren’t looking for females, but they happened to stumble upon Pippa?” Drake didn’t say anything, clearly letting her speak. “All the other attacks have been premeditated, or that’s what we assume. They’d have to at least be familiar with members of the pride and know something about their routine. Pippa has agoraphobia. She doesn’t normally venture outside, so really, she shouldn’t have been on their radar at all.”
“It was an opportunistic attack.”
“Right. I think she was very lucky to have even gotten away from them, and
I’m even more stunned that she overcame her fear to text the Shadows.”
“We owe her a lot,” Drake said softly.
"Yes, we do. She gave us a lot of information. She’s also the only female who’s been close to one of the abductors and gotten away.”
“I’ll have Grayson or Jett swing by a few times every night to keep an eye on things.”
“Good idea.”
Drake slowed the car as he turned onto the private road that led to their house. Neve leaned back against the headrest, closing her eyes briefly as they went through the security checkpoints. She opened them to check the time on the dash. It was well after lunch time now, and she wondered how much longer the meeting her dad was in was going to go for. He said he’d call afterward, but she decided if she hadn’t heard from him by five, she would call him.
When they reached the top parking lot, he shut off the engine and sat there for a moment.
“You were right to leave me outside like that. I didn’t like it, my cat certainly didn’t like it, but I realize my presence there would’ve made her shut down.”
She tried not to let him see how much his praise meant to her. “Thank you for respecting her wishes and mine.” She opened up her car door and stepped out. She started toward the door, but movement in the front garden caught her attention, and she stiffened at the sight of a female.
“That’s Sasha—one of the Revenant,” Drake murmured into her ear as he placed his palm against her back. “She created all the gardens around the property.”
“She tends them too?” Neve asked, still focused on Sasha.
Drake bobbed his head. “It’s…therapeutic for her.”
He didn’t introduce them as they walked past, but the female’s quicksilver gaze fixed on Neve’s face.
“Drake,” Sasha said, and Neve felt him stiffen. She shivered, the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly standing on end. It felt like her blood had turned to ice in her veins.
“Not now, Sash,” Drake warned.
“The sapling needs protection from the oak,” she whispered, her eyes liquid mercury. “Trust in the unbreakable, even when you fear it will shatter,” she added, looking at Neve this time.
Drake hurried her inside, but Neve still felt cold. “What did she mean?”
“Nothing,” he replied. “Sasha was just relaying a message to me.”
29
Jett paused outside the door of his mother’s hospital room, indecision playing on his mind. On the one hand, he didn’t want to go in there and see his mother laid out from her drug habit. Yes, he’d seen her stretched out on her mattress, her body numb, her mind checked out before, but this was different. This time, she’d gone too far, taken too much, let herself slip into an unconsciousness that usually ended with a body bag.
On the other hand, she was his mom. She was the female who gave birth to him, who had loved him—at least at one point. She was the one who had read to him before he went to sleep, and sang to him when he was scared or sick. But when he looked at her now, all he saw was the empty shell of who she used to be.
Her body was worn down by life, her veins collapsed under the onslaught of drugs that she willingly pumped into her body—all in the pursuit of peace. Inhaling deeply through his nose, he smelled the sharp bite of antiseptic and knew the floor he was loitering on got cleaned at least twice a day.
He glanced to the left and right, seeing more rooms identical to his mom’s, but they probably didn’t hold the kind of desolate sadness and hopelessness that hers harbored. Behind him was the nurses’ station, two RNs working shoulder-to-shoulder with Doctor Winchester heading the charge against illness and mental health issues among shifters.
The building was new—built a few years back for this exact reason. If his mom had been admitted to a human hospital, treatment would have ended with her in a lab being poked and prodded. They had the Leo of the Black Claw pride to thank for that. The clinic serviced Wyoming and most of Montana, and there were plans for two more in Idaho and Utah.
