Connell’s mouth turned down, and Mara laughed. “Did you really fly with her?”
Oh, that. “It’s not flying. It’s disintegrating and getting pushed along by the winds at supersonic speeds. And you wouldn’t like it either. It hurts like a son of a bitch.”
Her eyes widened. “Actually, that sounds fucking cool. I didn’t think Elementals could take on passengers.”
He wanted to tell her that he was special, but he didn’t know for sure. Maybe Logan could pick up anyone at will and whip them through the clouds. Which got him considering something else. He wanted to tell the entire pack that Logan was his mate, but there was still a chance it wouldn’t happen. Not if he didn’t get his wolf back…but he could tell Mara. He told her things he didn’t share with anyone else.
Connell’s position as pack enforcer didn’t encourage close friendships. He had plenty of friends and several brothers in arms he trusted with his life in battle, but no one he could talk with about his hopes and fears. No one but Mara. She was his sister and closest confidant despite the supercharged form of sibling rivalry that was common in Were families.
“There’s something else,” he said, looking around before leaning in and lowering his voice to just above a whisper. “Logan is mine.”
Mara squinted at him. “What the hell does that mean?”
He took a deep breath. “I think she’s my mate. We’re together. Well, sort of. She’s dragging her feet a bit, and I wasn’t able to claim her—but I will once I get my wolf back.”
Mara huffed a laugh and rolled her eyes to the heavens. “Only you would lose your wolf and still manage to score with an Elemental.”
Irritated, he grunted at her. “It’s not like that. She’s mine. And she doesn’t do casual. In fact, I don’t think she’s very experienced at all,” he added, wondering again how many lovers had preceded him.
Not many, he decided. And if I ever find out their names I’ll make them regret they ever touched what is mine.
He was so busy plotting deep dark revenge that he didn’t notice Mara was frowning until she kicked him.
“Ow.”
“Connell, how old is Logan?”
“You know her kind doesn’t age,” he said dismissively. “She’s probably older than me.”
His sister frowned. “That doesn’t feel right.” Her expression cleared, and then darkened once more. “Also, there’s something you should know—”
A step on the other side of the door alerted them to the presence of another wolf, but the intruder’s scent preceded them.
Connell resisted the urge to snarl when Riley pushed open the screen door and joined them on the porch. Had his ex-girlfriend been listening to his private conversation?
Good. The bitch should know she no longer had a place in his life. “What the hell are you doing here?” he growled.
Riley straightened up, a wounded expression flitting across her face. “I’m here for my family, or did you forget that Sammy is my cousin?”
He suppressed a snort. Like you ever gave a shit about him before. Unfortunately, the family tie was there. So long as the Kane family was okay with her presence, Riley could come and go as she pleased. Pack rules. But he didn’t have to pretend to be happy to see her.
“Sammy is in my father’s care and is now in Logan’s as well. You’re not needed.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice to a flat and more menacing register. “Don’t overstay your welcome.”
He inclined his head meaningfully at Mara, gesturing that she should follow him inside, but Riley stepped up to him and put her hand on his arm.
“Connell, we need to talk,” she said, her large blue eyes filled with tears that didn’t fall.
It was an artful display, one he might have fallen for once upon a time. Not going to work now.
“We have nothing to say to each other,” he said, shaking off her hand.
A lightning-fast smile flashed across Mara’s face, but it was gone in a blink. He pushed past his ex and made his way into the mudroom, his sister at his heels. Bypassing the main entrance, he pulled her to the side door, the one that led to his father’s office.
“Did Logan meet Riley?” he asked worriedly.
Mara nodded. “Salome introduced them…and no one but Malcolm and me knows you’re not together anymore.”
His sister’s eyes tightened slightly at the mention of his father’s third, but it was the only thing that gave her away.
“Have you two talked lately?” he asked softly.
Mara straightened. “No, why would we?” she said nonchalantly.
Her attempt at casual didn’t fool him. Connell wasn’t the only one hurt by Riley’s infidelity with the other alpha.
His instinct was to comfort his sister, but there was little he could say that would be welcome. Mara would see the sympathy as an admission that he thought her weak, and she would despise it. Besides, Mara and Malcolm hadn’t happened yet—and now they probably never would.
And you have a much bigger problem now.
Logan thought he had a mate. He needed to tell her the truth—even if it meant admitting how he felt about her. There was no way he could risk losing her over something like this. Riley was a cheat. She had shown her true colors when he’d lost his wolf, but the flaws in her character had always been there. He knew that now.
“I need to get to Logan. She’s going to be pissed I didn’t warn her about this. But Riley was supposed to be back East.”
His ex had run after he’d tore into her about Malcolm. Riley always took off when things got sticky for her. Connell had expected her to waltz back a few months after he returned. If he had managed to get his wolf back, she’d have had her tail between her legs. And if he didn’t, she would have resumed pursuing Malcolm. Either way, she’d continue to chase the top alpha in the pack—whoever it might be.
Mara hesitated. “As much as I dislike Riley, do you really think you should pursue Logan? I mean she’s an Air Elemental. You spent months chasing her all over the world. Should you go for someone who won’t be able to settle down?”
He hadn’t wanted to think about that yet, but of course, Mara forced him to. “I will make it work.”
He had to. There wasn’t a choice. Not since he’d laid eyes on his sprite. Once you get your wolf back, he promised himself.
Mara looked skeptical. He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, willing her to have some faith in him, before making a move to leave.
“Father will want your report,” she reminded him.
“It will have to wait,” he decided, his mind on finding Logan. “Besides, Malcolm will have already given his. He’ll have told him what we found.”
His sister’s brittle nod when he mentioned Malcolm again made him ache with sympathy, but he didn’t say anything. The devil take it. He was crap at all this emotional stuff.
“So did you find something?” she asked.
“Yes. Ask the others about it. I have to run.” The need was urgent now. Every second that he was away from Logan felt wrong.
And there was always the chance she’d be pissed enough to leave now that there was a second Elemental who could take over for her here.
Not wasting another second, he turned on his heel and ran out the door. He headed for the garage and climbed on his little-used motorcycle. Next to his wolf, it was his fastest means of transportation in the woods.
Mara watched her brother leave with mixed feelings. Despite his overbearing nature, she loved Connell with all her heart. She had thought the mess with Riley had hurt him, but it seemed like he was setting himself up for a much bigger fall.
Maybe it will be all right.
The Air Elemental might have real feelings for him. Women fell like bowling pins around Connell. What if one of them happened to be able to fly? Was that so outside the realm of possibility?
Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t hear the heavy footsteps coming up behind her.
Mara spun around when she realized she was
n’t alone. Annoyed at being caught off guard, she was ready to bite the head off the person intruding on her solitude.
Seeing Malcolm, she closed her mouth, lips forming a tight seam. She gave him a curt nod and fixed her eyes on the distant tree line. When he just stood there like an ass, she cleared her throat. “I need to speak to my father. Excuse me,” she said, moving away.
It was the longest sentence they’d exchanged in months. She didn’t intend to make it any longer, but his hand shot out, grabbing her arm.
“Mara…I…”
“What?” she bit out when he didn’t say anything more.
“I made a mistake.”
“Yeah, no shit.” She snorted, shrugging his hand off. “But that’s between you and Connell. It has nothing to do with me.”
“Mara, I was drunk—”
She rolled her eyes. That was a piss-poor excuse for a Were, and he knew it. They metabolized alcohol too quickly for it to be a viable reason for that level of screw-up.
“Well, I had been drinking,” he amended, a little more honestly. “But it’s no excuse for what I did. I…I don’t even like Riley.”
Then why did you fuck her? she thought, her vision darkening
Her temper had always been close to the surface. It had taken her years to gain control over her emotions, but at the moment, Mara felt like she was going to explode. Taking a deep breath, she counted to ten. She wasn’t about to humiliate herself by making a scene.
She and Malcolm had never even been on a date. That didn’t seem to matter, though. She was raw, stuffed to the brim with feelings she could barely justify.
Neck corded, Mara spoke as calmly as she could. “Again, I don’t know why you’re telling me this,” she muttered from behind gritted teeth. “It’s my brother you need to make amends to. Riley was his girlfriend.”
Malcolm shuffled on his feet. It was a disconcerting gesture for someone so large. “Maybe we could have dinner sometime?”
Is he fucking kidding? After almost two years of half-hidden glances and built-up expectations that went absolutely nowhere, he was finally asking her out? Now, after he’d slept with her brother’s girlfriend?
If it had been anyone but Riley.
“No, thank you.” She spun on her heel, ready to get the hell out of there.
Malcolm stepped in front of her, his hands up. “I don’t mean now,” he said. “I mean later…maybe next month?”
Mara closed her eyes. Her head was spinning, and her stomach hurt.
“Or the month after?” he asked, a pleading note in his voice.
She cracked an eyelid and squinted at him. Would she ever be able to look at him and not feel betrayed?
You’re not the one he betrayed. He owed you nothing, she reminded herself. But the knot in her throat wouldn’t let her get the words out.
“I have to go,” she whispered hoarsely, breaking past him without looking back.
She hurried inside, eager to find a place to be alone. But that was easier said than done. No sooner had she reached the landing than she was intercepted by her father.
Mara surreptitiously wiped at the moisture in her eyes. The wind outside made them run.
It didn’t matter. Her father was too preoccupied to notice. “Where is your brother?” he asked.
“He left again,” she said, unsure of what to tell him. Connell wouldn’t want the chief to know about this idea that Logan was his mate, would he?
“To go to the Air Elemental.”
She nodded, wondering vaguely why he didn’t mention the second Elemental.
Gia had made an immediate and lasting impression on her. Earth had the gravitas that came with true power, and though Mara had little to justify her opinion, Gia struck her as wise. She was a soothing and calming presence.
I wish she were here, she thought, surprising herself. Or Logan. Right then, she would have welcomed either Elemental. I guess I like them. Go figure.
When her father didn’t say anything, she started to become concerned. The chief looked tense, more brooding than usual.
“What’s wrong?”
“I think your brother is in trouble.”
More than he was already in? Oh, shit. He knew… “Because he likes Logan?” she asked quietly.
“No, because he thinks he’s in love with her.”
18
Gia turned her attention to the southwest a split second before Logan did. Someone was coming. A motorcycle was approaching at top speed. Instinct told her it was the wolf-less Were long before the shape of the man came into view, and Logan’s shoulders tensed.
Concern for her sister was paramount, but Gia bit her tongue as a muscular young man—one uncomfortably close to Douglas in appearance—pulled off his helmet and climbed off the bike.
As much as she wanted to guide her sisters and protect them from harm, life’s lessons had to be learned firsthand. Whatever happened next, however Logan chose to deal with this situation, Gia couldn’t interfere. It wasn’t her place.
It was difficult to remain silent as she read the pain in her sister’s eyes as she watched the damaged Were approach. However, Connell didn’t seem to have that problem.
“Logan, I can explain,” he called out, hurrying up to them.
Logan had been kneeling, looking for trace evidence on the ground, but she stood straight and narrowed her eyes at Connell. And then Gia saw something that made her proud and reminded her why the Mother had chosen Logan as her sister.
The Air Elemental fisted one hand, her expression wiping clean. There was no hint of the pain she had been feeling moments before—Logan had always been exceptionally good at compartmentalizing.
“Explain what?” her sister asked in a perfectly neutral voice.
The Were’s reaction was telling. He looked hurt. And very worried…
Maybe this isn’t what I thought it was, Gia considered before the Were opened his mouth again.
“About Riley—”
He didn’t get another word out. Logan didn’t flinch, but her fist tightened. With a flick of her fingers, the Were was gone—his molecules dancing in the air like dust in the wind.
It was Gia who flinched as the aether filled with Connell’s shouts and the occasional howl.
Well, that answered that question. When push came to shove, Logan wasn’t the type to wallow in hurt. She was the type to get even.
The aether reverberated with another howl, and she winced. “Um, Logan, sweet, I don’t think he likes that.”
A slow, wicked smile appeared like the dawn on her sister’s face.
“I know.”
Gia bit her lip to keep from laughing, although she wanted to point out that Connell’s ability to travel in the winds was significant. Perhaps he is something to her after all…
If this ability only extended to Connell and his family, then perhaps Gia had misread the situation. Or it was part of Logan’s natural ability to take a non-mate into the currents. It wasn’t a common gift, but the youngest Elemental had always been advanced.
Only time would tell. Deciding to leave the two to talk, she wandered close to the stream. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too long before Logan tired of tormenting the Were—even if he did deserve it.
She’d hate to have to explain to Douglas that his son had acquired a raging case of post-traumatic stress at her sister’s hands.
The anger Logan was feeling cooled with the breeze. She was in control—now that she’d proved Connell’s fate was literally in her hands.
It was a reminder they both needed. Getting involved with him had been a mistake, but she had committed to helping him. And she was going to do it if it killed him.
Her mental balance restored, Logan let Connell come together. He collapsed in a heap next to a large fir tree. Whatever hurt she had felt at learning that Connell had a mate was locked away. She would do her job and leave him to the blonde if that was what he wanted. And if it wasn’t, it didn’t matter. His personal life was no longer her concern.
“I don’t need an explanation,” she said coldly. “What’s between you and your mate is your business. I’m here to do a job, one that you temporarily distracted me from. That’s over with now. It’s time to find out what the hell is going on with these attacks.”
It felt good to lay down the law, but Connell didn’t appear to appreciate the return of her professionalism.
“Riley isn’t my mate,” he gasped, rushing the words as if he was worried she would blast him again. He paused, wheezing slightly. “She’s my ex, but not everyone knows we broke up yet.”
Logan held up a hand. “I don’t care,” she said, and it really sounded as if she meant it.
Connell scowled. “You should. You’re my mate. That woman is not! She’s a cheating whore.”
Her head drew back. He did think she was his mate? Somehow, that superseded the fact Riley had cheated on him.
The wind filled with sound, the spirits of air and earth weighing in on Connell’s truthfulness. Ignoring the contradictory hisses and whispers, she blinked, clearing her head.
“I’m not your mate. It’s not real, what you’re feeling,” she said, somehow managing to keep the wistfulness out of her voice.
Connell’s expression turned thunderous as he got to his feet. “I know what I feel, and it is real. You are mine.”
A tiny, weak part of her thrilled at the words, but Logan couldn’t accept them. “Once this is over and I’m gone, you’ll go back to feeling normal again. Whether that includes feelings for your former mate—”
“I will never want her back,” Connell broke in. “She’s faithless. The second my wolf was gone, she was playing up to the next alpha in line. Malcolm felt terrible about it, but he confessed to me that she’d seduced him. And I could still smell a lie. She didn’t know that. But what Riley did doesn’t matter. Not anymore. Besides, the problems were there before. I never loved her, and I never claimed her.”
What the hell was she supposed to say to that?
“Not really my business,” Logan said slowly.
Connell looked like he wanted to put her over his knee, but he didn’t make the mistake of touching her. “Stop talking like that,” he said, his voice a low rumble.
The Elementals Collection Page 42
