“Sounds like it. Garrett Durand is your next one.”
She connected her phone charger and began her search. It started out like all the others but this time it was different. “Durand is from Quebec.”
“What?”
“He’s from Quebec. Find out who he’s with.”
Fingers flew over his phone as he texted Alex back. There were several long, painful minutes until the phone chirped.
“He doesn’t know the other guy’s name but says he remembers him being in last night.”
“Bingo, motherfucker,” she breathed. Sitting up straight, she hunched over her phone and ran one search after another, pulling every last piece of information she could.
His phone chirped. “Shit!”
His sudden expletive made her jump. She dropped the phone on her lap. “What is it?”
“We have company. Quick, put some clothes on.”
She hightailed it into the bedroom and jerked on her jeans before throwing a bra on underneath the t-shirt she wore. When she came back out into the living room, there was a knock on the door. Kaleb looked at her, his mouth moving slowly but without sound, so she could understand.
Enforcer.
Ooooh crap. She fell back to the couch and pulled the phone into her lap. Eyes on the door, she sat on the edge of her seat while Kaleb opened it, not knowing what to expect. Were they just going to come in here and talk to him? Arrest him?
She didn’t know what to think but when he did open the door and she saw the person on the other side, she let out a yelp.
11
The last thing Kaleb expected was for Beth to yelp, jump off the sofa, and launch herself into the arms of Benjamin St John, lead werewolf enforcer, who was currently standing at his door. The werewolf caught her easily and wrapped into a tight hug, but those light brown eyes never left Kaleb as if he was the threat there.
“Ben!”
He put his hand up to keep Beth from forcing him into another suffocating hug again. “Jesus Christ, Beth, what are you doing here?”
“I’m sorry,” Kaleb said in disbelief, closing the door behind Ben, “but how do you two know each other?”
Both of them stared at him as if he were the stranger in the room. He’d known Ben for years but he’d never seen him cross paths with Beth.
“Ben and I are friends,” she said, embracing the enforcer once more. “We’ve been close since high school. Hey, he’s the one I mentioned yesterday. The one who moved to Massachusetts.”
“I didn’t know that.” What in the hell…
Ben shook his head. “You wouldn’t. We never had a very public friendship for many different reasons,” he said to Kaleb before turning his attention back to Beth. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m staying here. What are you doing here?”
Ben held her shoulders and stared down at her, eyes narrowed as he evaluated her responses. “Why are you staying here?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Tell it,” he said with a slight smile as Beth stepped back and closer to Kaleb.
It was easy to see what Ben was doing. Make her feel safe so that she’ll tell him everything he wants to know. They were friends after all but Kaleb wasn’t ignorant of the tactics. He put his hand on her shoulder, keeping close to her side. She might be friendly with Ben but at the end of the day he was still an enforcer. It made Kaleb feel better to force some distance between the two of them.
“I trust him,” she said, her voice low as she looked up at Kaleb. He didn’t like her blind trust but knew enough about Beth that he wasn’t going to be able to stop her once she got an idea in her head. Beth’s muscles tensed under his palm when she turned back to the man shadowing his doorway. “Ben, I’m not going to lie to you but I’m trusting that you keep everything I say to you between us.”
There was a momentary hesitation on Ben’s face but finally, he agreed with a simple nod. Beth may trust Ben, but Kaleb did not.
“Swear it on a blood oath,” he demanded before Beth could start laying everything out there. The enforcer may flat out refuse but then at least he’d know where they stood. Hell, he may agree and lie about it but he doubted it. Werewolves didn’t swear blood oaths if they didn’t mean to carry them out. It was a matter of honor.
Shock registered on the enforcer’s face. “A blood oath?”
“Yes.”
“Blood oath?” Beth asked him. “What’s—”
Kaleb squeezed her shoulder, hoping she’d take the hint to let the two men hash it out before telling Ben more than he ever needed to know.
“What have you done?” Ben demanded, his face reddening with anger. There was a strength to him Kaleb hadn’t seen in him until that moment. This was one werewolf he didn’t want to fight but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t if it meant protecting Beth.
He waited quietly for Ben to either agree or disagree, watching each muscle twitch and refusing to give a single piece of information to the enforcer without a sworn oath. He already knew too much, he wouldn’t freely give more incriminating evidence to a man who could use it to destroy them, but for Beth’s sake – and for Beth’s sake only – he’d attempt to trust him.
When Ben’s shoulders slumped, he knew the enforcer actually cared about Beth.
“I swear on my blood and that of my ancestors that the words spoken to me shall never be repeated either through voice or action to another soul,” Ben muttered, glaring at Kaleb as he did.
“Thank you,” he said, stroking Beth’s shoulder and standing back so she could fill him in on what had been plaguing them the past several days.
“Kaleb saved my ass,” she told him after taking a deep breath. “Everyone seems to think I’m a witch, thanks to Carey, and I got warlocks after me. And now we have Slayers after us on top of it all. That’s what’s new here, anyway. Oh yeah! And I got into a bar fight the other night with a nasty werewolf woman who cut the crap out of me with her claws.”
“Wait,” Ben said, holding his hand up in front of him and pinching the bridge of his nose. “Wait a minute. What?”
“You should sit down,” Kaleb said, gesturing to the kitchen table. “This is going to be a long story.”
Ben didn’t sit but he listened carefully as Beth described what had gone down from the time of the party and the spell cast with Carey to their encounter with the slayers the day before. There was very little for Kaleb to add to her story so he remained quiet, leaning against the wall as they talked. Ben shot glances in his direction every time Beth mentioned his name but otherwise, he absorbed what she told him.
Ben was rubbing his temples by the time Beth finished bringing him up to date. “Let me get this straight,” he said. “Carey started this?”
She nodded.
“And where is Carey now?”
“At home, entertaining a vampire.”
“What in the holy fuck—”
“I know!”
He let out a long sigh and turned to Kaleb. “I know about the Slayers, that’s why I’m here. Declan sent me.”
“I figured,” Kaleb said.
“Freddie Novak was found dead about two hours ago. I’m guessing Lacey was the one who you got into the fight with?”
Beth nodded to answer his question. “Freddie’s dead? Seriously?”
“Yes.”
If Freddie was dead, there was one person who would be next, if they hadn’t gotten to her already. “What about Lacey?”
“She’s disappeared for now. No one can find her. You think Slayers were in the Wolf’s Den last night?”
“That’s the thought we had. Lacey partially transformed in front of God and everyone before we got her and her brother out. Kind of confirms it now that Freddie’s dead.”
“It does. It also means that most likely the Slayers will be back, watching who comes and goes from here.”
Beth scurried to the couch and back again, her phone in hand. “They’re already downstairs. They’re there now.”
&
nbsp; “How do you know?” Ben asked.
“Because we’re playing ‘guess-the-slayer’,” she said, rolling her eyes as if Ben should already know what she was talking about. “Garrett Durand is the first name. He’s sitting downstairs right now with a buddy of his, whose name we don’t know.”
“Let me see that,” Ben said, taking the phone from Beth’s hand. He scrolled through her search results and stopped on a picture. He screenshotted it. “I’m going to send this to myself.”
“You going after him?” Kaleb asked.
“It’s definitely worth looking into.” Ben handed Beth back her phone and shoved his hands into the pocket of his cargo pants. “We need to discuss this before I go anywhere.”
“This what?” Beth asked him.
“You and Azarov. You realize you can’t have a relationship, right? There’s zero future here. None. You shouldn’t even be sleeping together.”
“How do you—”
“I have a nose, Beth. This place reeks of sex,” he said. “I swore the oath and you’re my friend but if you continue with this, there’s nothing I’m going to be able to do to stop the CE from taking you in.”
“Take us to the council you mean?”
“Yes. Once this magic wears off, you have to go home and forget all this. Promise me,” he demanded.
“No.”
“No?”
“I’m not going to promise you that.”
“Beth—”
“No. I won’t. Screw your council.”
Ben shook his head and turned to Kaleb. “Maybe you’ll at least listen to sense, Azarov, since she’s as stubborn as a mule. You realize you absolutely cannot mate her, correct?”
“I know it,” he ground out.
“Well, I wanted to make sure since you’ve committed just about every other crime already.”
Kaleb wanted to knock the enforcer on his ass for his smart-ass comments but he controlled himself.
“I’m going to go. I’ll let you know what I find out about Durand,” Ben said before hugging Beth once and heading to the door. “Text me Alex’s number. I’m going to need his help.”
Beth continued her internet searches that afternoon, evening, and late into the night. Tired of doing nothing, they’d eventually went to bed only to spend the time cuddled in Kaleb’s arms since he’d been too worried about sleeping with her especially after Ben had issued his warning about mating.
The next day was the same thing. They spent the morning on the couch, watching television with Beth googling every person that came into the door downstairs. She began sending screenshots to the most questionable people she found and sent them to Ben. He’d texted her a thumbs-up emoji a few times. They kept the television low and did minimal moving around. Occasionally Kaleb’s phone would chirp, updating them on what was going on downstairs and sending her a new name.
Alex relayed that he was communicating with Ben, providing him names and reporting anything that seemed suspicious, but otherwise the hunt was dying down. Patience was never one of Beth’s virtues. She was frustrated that she hadn’t heard whether or not Ben had found Durand. Frustrated that they were stuck inside with no end in sight. Frustrated that Kaleb looked sexy as all hell sitting on the couch with his feet propped on the coffee table, looking bored out of his mind.
“Now you know what it felt like those first few days when I was stuck up here and you were downstairs.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said with half a grin.
She dropped her cellphone into her lap. “Do you think he’ll be okay?”
“Who? Ben?”
“Yes. I mean, he’s going after Slayers. It’s dangerous.”
“We don’t know exactly what he’s doing. For all we know, he could be on his way to Boston relaying the information to the council.”
His words were a punch to her gut. She didn’t believe Ben would ever do something like that to them, but it hurt to hear and it made their situation even more real. “You don’t believe that.”
He shrugged.
“He swore a blood oath which I can only assume is a big deal.” Kaleb still hadn’t explained it to her, but it seemed straightforward. Swear or…I’ll do whatever a werewolf does when you break one of those things. They both seemed to take it pretty damn seriously.
“It’s still just words.”
“Ben wouldn’t betray us.”
Kaleb put his phone down on the arm of the couch and met her eyes. “I hope not for both of our sakes.”
She huffed. “Well, I hope he finds something.”
“I do too,” he said, stroking her calf through her pants where she sat next to him. “Maybe then you’ll relax a little bit.”
“I don’t know about that.” Relax? Her? Never.
“That’s true. I’ve never seen you relaxed unless my mouth is on your clit or I’m all balls-deep inside you.”
She reached forward and slapped his arm, a grin on her face. “Hush.”
“Or what?” he asked, his grin mischievous
“Or nothing. Just hush.” Her cheeks burned.
“Did I just embarrass you?”
“No,” she said too quickly.
“You’re adorable when you’re all pink like that.”
“Shut up!”
He grabbed her ankle and pulled her across the couch until she was laying on her back. Climbing over her, he nipped her belly through the t-shirt she wore. “Maybe adorable isn’t the right word.”
She raked her fingers over his shoulders as he inched toward her mouth. “What word would you use?”
“Mmm…sexy? Gorgeous?”
Laughing, she stroked her hand through his hair. His mouth covered hers, quieting her. One kiss and her heart was fluttering in her chest, her stomach clenching with need. It amazed her how readily she responded to him. It was so natural, so perfect.
When he pulled back, he whispered, “Mine. That’s the word.”
“I’m yours,” she breathed in agreement, her head falling back as he bent to kiss her neck. The nip on the tender flesh of her shoulder made her jump, heat searing through her veins.
His breath was hot on her skin, his voice low and rumbling when he said, “You’re mine.”
Teeth scraped down the flesh of her neck to her shoulder. “Kaleb,” she squeaked, suddenly very aware of the sharp points of his elongated canines. “Let’s make dinner.”
He sucked in a deep breath and moved off her, sitting up and putting some space between them. “Good idea.”
Dinner consisted of a frozen pizza which left her feeling tired and bloated. She took a shower after eating and met him back in the living room wearing a fresh pair of underwear and a t-shirt. He kissed the tip of her nose before disappearing into the bathroom. Paging through the channels, she finally settled on a sitcom rerun while she waited for him to get out of the shower.
“It amazes me how tired I am considering we did next to nothing today and nothing yesterday,” she commented when he came back into the living room, a towel slung around his hips.
“Go to bed. I’ll lay down with you.”
She smiled at him. “I think I will.”
Leaving her phone on the charger in the living room, she went into the bedroom. Kaleb followed, dropping the towel as soon as he was in the room and pulling on a pair of clean black basketball shorts. He laid down next to her and wrapped her in his warm, strong arms.
She could sleep like that for days – no, years – on end. Utterly content, warm, and loved. Marveling at the security, she fell asleep after he pressed a chaste kiss to the top of her head.
The clock on his bedside table said ten when she woke up. She laid there for a few minutes, watching him sleep. It was dark in the room but the small amount of moonlight shining in through the window was enough for her to make out the rise and fall of his chest.
He snored softly, the blankets low on his hips. She hadn’t cared that he’d laid down with the shorts on, but now she hated he was
wearing them. The itch to reach down and touch him was nearly overwhelming. The outline of his semi-erect dick was visible through the fabric of his shorts and she salivated at the thought of taking him into her mouth.
She wanted to see his reaction, the desire on his face.
Her belly tightened and the oh so familiar heat pooled between her legs. They’d spent the day careful to keep their distance. He’d held her the night before but he’d been careful to keep a few inches between them.
Beth wanted him. She’d wanted him earlier when they were on the couch together but the thought of him sinking his teeth into her flesh had snapped her back to reality. Ben had warned them but it was hard to keep her hands to herself. She didn’t want to.
There was always the threat of that pesky mating bite now. She’d have to be careful. His words from the other day came back to her like a flash.
Short of tying him down.
A mischievous grin crossed her face as she slipped from the bed. She was almost sure he would wake up but to her surprise, he didn’t. Soft snores sounded in the otherwise quiet room just as they had before.
Tiptoeing to the bedside table, she held her breath as she opened the drawer. She froze when the drawer creaked, glancing up at him. He looked the same, not waking at the noise. He must be exhausted, she thought.
The handcuffs were right where she'd left them. Realizing she'd have to move fast if she wanted him restrained before he woke up, she opened the cuffs. How lucky was she that his arms were almost at the top of the mattress already? Slowly, she squeezed one around his wrist, careful not to make too much noise or to jostle him too much.
He stopped snoring but didn't move. Glancing at his face, his eyes remained closed, still asleep but she didn’t have much time. She moved quickly then, realizing she was about to wake him up. She laced the cuffs through the pole of the headboard before grabbing his other wrist and slapping the cuff around it.
Kaleb roared, ready to spring from the bed. The headboard shook violently as he tried to figure out what was going on.
“Beth!”
“I'm here,” she said, standing next to the bed.
Wild and Untamed (Netherworld Series Book 4) Page 19
