by CJ Cooke
I’d sent Marie an email yesterday to see if she had any information, but she hadn’t sent me anything back. She was impossible to get a hold of at the best of times, and it wasn’t that long since she checked in with us last. It could be weeks before we heard from her again.
A knock at the front door had me climbing to my feet and heading in that direction. Grey probably wouldn’t have been able to hear it if he was down in the basement, and the alpha power already starting to seep through the house meant it could only be one person.
“Calli bear!” Sean cried as I opened the door, making me cringe at the old pet name he’d given me as a kid.
“Is that really necessary?” I sighed. “If Tanner was here right now, I’d never live that name down.”
He laughed in glee, no doubt that had been his intention all along.
Inviting him in, we headed back to the library because it seemed like the best place to be having a conversation like this, and hopefully, Sean would be some help in our research effort.
“How’s life treating you, Calli? How’s the pack dealing with Davion’s bombshell?”
“How’s life treating me? Are you having a laugh!”
I could feel the anger boiling up inside me all of a sudden. Was Sean the person responsible for my current position? No. Was I about to unreasonably take it out on him? You bet your fucking ass I was!
“Some fucking psycho Councilman wants to kidnap me and knock me up, demons and wraiths and fuck knows what else want to come and suck out the souls of people I care about, another mate has just popped up out of nowhere, and we have some major trust issues going on. Then, to top it all off, I live in a house filled with boys! And no one goes grocery shopping, or cleans, and I don’t want to become everyone’s mother because I want…”
I knew my eyes were wild as I ranted, and my breaths were coming out in pants. I must have looked totally crazy, but weirdly this rant was throwing up some feelings I didn’t even realise I was having.
“What do you want?” Grey asked quietly.
I whipped around in the direction of his voice and found him standing in the hallway holding a couple of old dining chairs.
“Grey…”
He placed the chairs down on the ground and then slowly walked over to me before he gently pulled me against his front.
“Calli, you can tell me. I’m not going to be angry or upset. You have a right to want things for yourself.”
Sean slipped past us into the kitchen, giving us the illusion of privacy even though I knew he’d be able to hear every word we said. It was the thought that counted, though.
“I want… I want to have my own life too,” I said, feeling slightly ashamed now I was actually saying it to one of my mates.
Grey’s arms tightened around me, and he crushed me against him. I knew he wasn’t angry, but I was surprised when I felt his chest hitching in laughter. Pulling back in surprise, the grin I found on his face made me shove him in frustration.
“Were you seriously worried about telling me you didn’t want to become our keepers?” His head tipped back, and his carefree laughter actually warmed something inside me. It had been too long since I’d heard that sound.
“Well, now you're just being mean about it,” I grumbled when his laughter didn’t immediately stop.
Grey turned us towards the kitchen to follow Sean and slipped his arm around my waist as we walked.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I think I’m getting a bit slap-happy with everything we have going on right now. Never be afraid to want to be your own person, though, Calli. You may be our mate and part of our pack, but that doesn’t mean your identity stops there. You’re allowed to want things for yourself as well.”
“I suppose I just feel like someone has to be here for the kids, and there’s so much that needs doing. None of us has the time to really be doing anything outside of dealing with the problems we’re currently facing. I shouldn’t be complaining, the rest of you aren’t.”
“Calli, the rest of us also have jobs and other things to do. You’ve been tossed into this new life, and it’s okay to feel a bit lost. The pups will be cared for whether you’re here or not, and yes, we have a lot of things going on right now. But that doesn’t mean you have to devote your every waking minute to everyone else. It might be a bit chaotic right now, but it’ll calm down, and when it does, I don’t want you to feel like you don’t have a life outside of this house.”
“I knew there was a reason why I liked you,” Sean said as we walked into the kitchen and found him making coffee. Yak!
Grey did that awkward half-smile shuffle people do when they didn’t know what to do about a compliment they just received, and this time it was my turn to laugh at him. Sean had been around me since I was born, and I didn’t get why the guys were so hung up on him.
“Now, Grey, you asked me to come here for a reason. Do you need me to get rid of the squirt so we can do like a manly talk thing? Is this one of those intentions conversations because I’m really not ready for that?”
Grey spluttered out something that amounted to no and I could stay, much to Sean’s amusement. He could be so mean when he wanted to be.
“I… what? No… but I suppose…”
I took pity on him as Grey’s eyes started to widen in panic.
“He’s teasing,” I told him, glaring at Sean, who was just smirking in amusement. “He asked you to come here today to see if you could help with a personal issue he’s been having.” I quickly added, “Don’t even start!” when I realised how that sounded.
Sean deflated in disappointment, and I just shook my head. Sometimes it was like he was barely a grown-up. I had no idea how old he really was, but I’ve a feeling he’d been around a lot longer than any of us would be able to wrap our minds around.
“Fine,” he sighed before he moved to sit at the kitchen table. “Tell me how I can help.”
“I’ve been having some problems with my alpha powers. They, well, they seem to be increasing, and I’ve been having trouble keeping it under control,” Grey flushed in embarrassment as he spoke, and I realised maybe I should’ve let them have this conversation alone. A man to man kind of thing, or rather alpha to alpha. “I was hoping you might be able to help,” Grey added with a cringe.
Sean cocked his head to one side and squinted his eyes as he looked Grey over. “I’ve never heard of them increasing before,” he said thoughtfully. “But I suppose that could make sense.”
We all fell silent as Sean silently observed Grey. He was clearly working something through in his head, and to be honest, I didn’t really have anything to add to this conversation. I felt completely out of my depth with most of the stuff we were facing at the moment; this wasn’t an exception to that.
When Sean’s eyes turned to me, though, I was surprised, to say the least.
“You’re doing it,” Sean finally said.
“What? No, I’m not!” I huffed, almost like a child being caught doing something they weren’t supposed to. “Well, not on purpose at least,” I tagged on because, let’s face it, I kept doing stuff with my magic I had no intention of doing, and it wouldn’t be surprising if this were one more thing.
“I’ll give it to you that it isn’t intentional, but you’re doing it nonetheless.” Sean turned back to Grey before saying, “Calli isn’t just a shifter, and she isn’t just a witch. She’s something more than both of those put together. I’d wager when you brought her into your pack bond she changed it in some way?”
“Yes,” Grey answered suspiciously, not clarifying just what change I’d made.
“And you have a… mating bond with her as well,” Sean pointed out awkwardly.
Grey flushed in embarrassment, and I decided that this, right here, was my new favourite hobby. I all but rested my chin in my hands as I watched these two grown men dance around the fact I’d had sex with Grey.
“So, does it not follow to reason that bond would be different from any usual mating bond? That Ca
lli’s magic would also change it in some way?”
“It’s a good theory,” I cut in, “but it doesn’t help with the immediate problem.”
Sean nodded his head thoughtfully, still staring at Grey quizzically.
“Your dragon is strong,” Grey said. “Never thought that would be anything I ever said,” he mumbled after. “How do you deal with the emotions, with the power pushback?”
“My dragon has always been strong because of what he is. It’s always been like this for me, so it’s not like I got used to a lower power level, and then that suddenly increased in adulthood. I think that’s more likely your problem.” The sudden smirk on Sean’s face warned me Grey wasn’t going to like the quip that was about to come. “Think of it like going through puberty again. You’re going to be all hormonal and shit and popping a boner at inappropriate times.”
Grey reared back like he’d been slapped, and his face took on a shade of red I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen on a person before.
“So what you’re basically saying,” I started, desperately trying to suppress the laugh that wanted to explode out of me, “is to just ride it out because you have no helpful advice.”
“I’m not some kind of miracle worker, you know, I’m just a bloke. But yes, keep a close bond with your wolf, and it’s probably just a point of getting used to the difference,” Sean shrugged. “Now that weirdly awkward instalment of the Calli and Grey Show is over, shall we talk about the demons who want to suck out your soul.”
Sean leant back in his chair, looking far too relaxed for a man who was talking about soul-sucking demons.
“We’ve relocated the library here and started research into the subject. We found something about channelling moonlight to dispel the darkness. We’re wondering if it could be something, but apart from that, everything we’ve found has just been brief snippets that add nothing to what we already know. I need the help of a seasoned witch, but I can’t get hold of Marie.”
“She came on the grid to help us out last week. We won’t hear from her for at least a month now. You know how she works,” Sean said, looking concerned.
“Calli, you made contacts in your travels. Are there any other witches you could ask for help?” Grey added in.
“Think of it this way, some humans identify as a religion, but they don’t go to church or temple or wherever it is they congregate. Some will go just for religious festivals, and others will go routinely, study their texts and truly adopt them into their everyday life. Witches are the same. Most are witches because that’s just what they are, but if they don’t practice and study, their magic doesn’t grow, and they have poor control over it. Witches like Marie are rare. The number of them that have gotten away from the Coven Council? I think you can take a guess,” Sean filled in.
“One,” Grey sighed
“No, two.” Sean looked at me sadly. It didn’t take a genius to realise he was talking about my mother. She was even more inaccessible to us than Marie was right now. “They’re the most tightly controlled of all of them. Getting them out of the Coven Council’s grasp is nearly impossible.”
“So, you have no one in your whole network who can help us?” Grey asked, looking like he thought Sean was talking out of his ass.
“You understand what the underground is, right? It’s scared people who are hiding from those in power. It isn’t a think tank, and it isn’t a super-secret spy organisation or an army of guerilla warriors. It’s a collection of people who are constantly running for their lives, most of them while desperately trying to protect the people they love.”
Grey looked chastised by Sean’s rant, and the tension levels in the room were rising.
“I’m sorry,” Sean said uneasily. “But you’re not the only one thinking the underground can solve all your problems, and without Calli’s parents around, well, we’ve lost two of our leaders, and it feels like it’s falling apart without them.”
This was the first I’d heard of it.
“You should have reached out if you needed help,” I said in concern.
Sean just shook his head. “There isn’t anything you could do about this, Calli. People are scared. They think your parents were murdered, and they’re going further off the grid. A lot of our old contacts aren’t responding, and without them, we just don’t have the means to help anyone. We’re dead in the water.”
I frowned as his words played on repeat in my head. Maybe it was selfish of me, but I was only fixating on one part of them.
“It was an accident,” I said quietly. My eyes squeezed closed as I dreaded the next words that came out of his mouth. It was like all the sound dropped out the room, and the whole world turned to look at this one moment happening.
“It wasn’t an accident, Calli.” Sean’s voice seemed to echo around the room, or maybe it was my head. I didn’t know, and at the moment, I didn’t care. I couldn’t process what he was trying to say to me. If it hadn’t been an accident, then that had to mean…
“The papers reported it as a drunk driver colliding with their vehicle,” I heard Grey say as a set of hands wrapped around mine. The warmth seemed to soak into my skin, and it was like the room slowly came back into focus as I reluctantly opened my eyes.
“And that’s what the police report says,” Sean said gently, holding my gaze. So much sorrow was in his eyes, and I could tell he’d never wanted me to have to know this. “But when I looked into it, I couldn’t find the details of another driver or another vehicle. I went out to the scene, and there was just one set of tyre marks on the road, even though the report had the details for two.”
“You think the police were influenced with magic?” Grey asked cautiously.
“There’s no way to know. They could’ve easily been paid off or blackmailed. The investigating officer is gone, disappeared without a trace. I doubt anyone will see him alive again.”
“So, what does this mean?” I asked quietly. “What does this mean for Jacob?”
“For now, nothing,” Sean told me. “No one knows about this place. All they can do is track you into the US. All of the accounts you have now are new and untraceable. Your parents made sure of that.”
“How are your accounts untraceable?” Grey asked, surprised.
“They’re offshore,” I said. I could hear how empty my voice sounded, and I knew it would be from the shock, but that felt right at the moment. This was supposed to be something that shocked me, right?
“But I’ve seen your bank card, and it’s for a US bank.” Grey was obviously confused, and I couldn’t blame him. I just couldn’t concentrate on the details right now.
“It’s a fake,” Sean shrugged. “The card that is, not the account. The chip and the details on the card all trace back to the offshore accounts. The card is just printed to look like it’s from a US bank.”
“That’s really clever,” Grey said, sounding impressed.
“Calli, look at me sweetheart.” Sean’s soft voice filtered through to me, and I turned to look at him. I think I’d been staring at the wall, but I wasn’t exactly registering it right now.
“I didn’t want you to find out like this. I never wanted you to find out at all. You’re safe here. You have a pack now, people around you who love and care for you. I’ll find out who did this, and I’ll keep you safe.” Sean’s eyes flashed with fire, and I recognised the look of his dragon pushing to the surface. He’d done it so many times when I was little, because I always found it so funny.
I felt my head nodding even though I wasn’t really registering what I was doing. Sean’s eyes flickered across to Grey beside me, and I felt hands, which must have been his, squeeze mine tighter.
“You should rest, Calli. I’ve got a meeting I need to get to, but I’m going to check up on you later tonight, okay?”
I nodded in agreement with Sean, and he got up from the table, walking out of my eye line. I heard him murmuring something to Grey, but then it was silent again. Grey’s hands still held onto mine, so I knew I was
n’t alone. Not that it mattered. All I could think about right now was that my parents had been murdered.
33
Tanner
Watching Maverick not only have to try and understand Grey’s weird way of doing the paperwork, but also have to pick up the telephone and actually speak to people, had been the greatest form of entertainment I’d ever had. But now, I was starting to feel bad about silently laughing at my baby brother.
Knocking on the door frame of the office, I leant against the door, ready to say something, anything, to try and make his day a little bit easier.
“It’s disconcerting having you standing there and not saying anything,” Maverick told me without lifting his eyes from the papers he was looking at.
“I was trying to think of something inspiring and all wise and shit to say to you,” I said as seriously as I could.
“Somehow, I get the impression wise isn’t a word that’s used to describe you all that often,” he retorted. I’d be pissed, but then he followed it up with a grin I didn’t think I’d ever seen on his face before. At least I knew he was joking—probably.
Striding the whole two steps it took to cross the tiny office, I dropped down into the free chair on the other side of the desk.
“I bet you never saw your life looking like this,” I sighed, looking around the garage that had up until recently been a home from home. Now though, it was a reminder that my mate was at home without me, and I could feel my wolf silently pining for her in the back of my mind.
“To be honest, I assumed I’d be dead in a couple of years. The future was never really something I thought about,” he shrugged, pretending he was concentrating on the papers in front of him.
The thought of my baby brother alone in that packhouse, enduring my father for all those years, it hurt. It really fucking hurt.
