Forbidden (20 page)

After dipping a fry into catsup and taking a bite, she sighed and said, “The smells. Absolutely the scents. Everything is so intense up here. It must be the thinner air. It can be overwhelming. It's why I had a hard time tracking you. I'm actually a pretty good tracker.”

He felt warm. “Yeah. Again, my bad.”

She waved off his embarrassment. “No, I'm over that. I figured out that the stars are aligned wrong or something. I would have wound up the Omega some way. It was destined. But I will need to practice tracking before the next challenge. I can't afford to lose. I don't know how long I can burn the candle at both ends.”

Paula walked back over and asked, “Will there be anything else?”

He glanced at Claire, who shrugged. “No, I think we're good. Just the check.” He touched Claire's hand again. “I'd be happy to give you some tracking practice after our duties are done tomorrow.”

“That would work. It might be better to learn when I'm tired. I don't think that will be changing anytime soon.”

The door chime rang and a familiar scent caught his nose. He looked up to see Denis striding toward them, anger etched in his face. “There you are!” he said as he reached the table. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Hey!” Alek snapped. “Watch your mouth. What's the problem?”

Claire pretended not to notice the interaction, focusing her entire attention on her plate of french fries and reading the back of the menu about how the diner's owner, Aiden, came to America years before.

“You promised last week that you were going to help me get my science project finished tonight. It's due in the morning and it's locked in your apartment. I can't finish it without your help.”

Claire started scooting out of the booth, even as he reached to stop her. “Hey, I need to get some sleep anyway. I'll take off to the house and you guys do what you need to do.”

He reached out past Denis's arm and grabbed her wrist. “Claire, wait. You don't need to go. I'm sure Denis wouldn't mind if you helped.”

“Actually, Denis would mind a lot,” his younger brother said. “I can only have one person help. You know the teacher can smell lies. I'd get an F.”

Claire gently removed his fingers from around her wrist with her other hand. “It's okay, Alek. Go help your brother. I'm sure we'll run into each other again another day.”

She carefully walked out of the diner, putting only a little weight on her leg. Was it insane that he wanted to toss his apartment key at Denis and chase after her? Support her on the way back to the house? Probably. And it wouldn't do any good. She'd said she was over his screwup, but hadn't yet said she forgave him.

He'd work on that. He had to be sure she forgave him. It was vitally important, but damned if he could figure out why. “C'mon, Denis. Let's pay the check and go.”

 

CHAPTER 16

The chief and the mayor were waiting in the front room of the police station the next morning. Claire had been determined to be on time. She hadn't waited for Rachel to wake her up. She couldn't rely on anyone but herself. In fact, she was outside ten minutes early waiting for Rachel, just to be safe.

The mayor, dressed in suit pants and a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, looked like he'd just stepped away from a meeting. The chief wasn't in uniform, but was dressed all in black, similar to some enforcers she'd met in Texas, visitors from other packs.

Wolven agents weren't supposed to be a pack leader's enforcers; they were supposed to keep the pack leader in check. The chief was the Second of the Luna Lake pack, using his Wolven status to raise the fear factor. Wolven had the power to decide life and death, while a Second had to obey the rules laid down by the Council.

She could smell that Alek and Scott had already been here—and that something unpleasant had happened. Carefully, so that the two men wouldn't know what she was doing, Claire took a deep, slow breath. The scent of the bleach-based cleaner that had been used couldn't completely erase the odors of pain, fear, and blood—blood that had been spilled recently.

The minute the women stepped into the room, Rachel dropped her gaze to the floor and her scent and body language turned passive. It was a struggle for Claire to do the same, but she managed, remembering Alpha Cara's reminder when she was a child:
There will always be someone in our world who is a bigger dog. There's no shame in giving credit and honor to that power. You don't have to like the person, but you should respect the authority they have earned.

“So, Ms. Sanchez, you're late again. It seems we need to have a little chat.” The tone said there was likely an evil smile on the chief's face. His scent was anticipatory.

But she
wasn't
late. What did they mean? “I apologize for being late yesterday. Rachel tried to wake me, but I hadn't set my alarm. I thought I was on time today. Please tell me the expected time I should be here so it won't happen again.” She kept her tone mild and tried to convey shame in posture and scent. All she could do was try to keep Rachel out of it, because even if this had happened in her own pack, in Texas, she would have gotten some sort of punishment. She should have asked the details, rather than going straight upstairs to bed. “Too tired” was no excuse.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the mayor stand and walk out from behind the big wooden desk. His tone was neutral. “Normally, Claire, I would accept your apology and let this go. You're new to the pack and haven't been trained in how we work. I was surprised when I talked to your Alphas today and learned your pack has no formal Omega.” That made her flinch. He'd called her pack leaders. “The chief wasn't nice to Alek because he
does
know better. And I know you can smell that he bled. Lenny is a little sensitive about people being on time. I just don't know how he'll react to two tardy Omegas, two days in a row.”

Rachel's head snapped up. “Van, no. Please. It's not her fault. If you need to take a strip of hide, take mine. I should have told her what time.”

The chief touched Rachel's shoulder and shook his head. Claire kept her chin down, but raised her eyes to watch their interaction. An odd mix of emotions flashed over Rachel's face and through her scent as the young woman flinched away from his touch. Father/daughter? Ex-lovers? Torturer/victim? Claire couldn't quite figure it out, but it was well beyond Second/pack member. He rubbed Rachel's arm lightly, seeming to enjoy touching her. She struggled not to move, twitching and grimacing. “This isn't about what you did or didn't do, Rachel. This is about what Claire withheld from us.”

He turned his attention to her, lifted her chin to force her to look him straight in the eyes. She knew better than to fall for that trick. She kept her gaze firmly on his neck, no matter how high he tilted her head. He chuckled. “So, you've been disciplined before. I'm not surprised. What's your
real
rank in your pack, Ms. Sanchez? Fifth in line couldn't hold a struggling rabbit in place with magic, much less hold two adults in midair for … how long? Five minutes? More?”

Oh. They'd found out about that. “I didn't count.” That was the absolute truth. She was in defense mode now. She wouldn't lie, couldn't afford to have him smell that. “Until rescuers could get to them.”

“And your rank?”

“We don't have them.” Again, it was the truth. They had a fluid pack of various animals, like this town. It was difficult to figure out how to rank a wolf against an owl or an eagle. There were so many alphas in the pack that everyone decided there was no need. “Nearly all the females are alphic. I'm in the middle.”

Claire could see Rachel's jaw drop beside her. “
All
the women are alphic? How are you all
alive
?”

She shrugged. “We fight enemies. We don't need to fight among ourselves.”

There was a long pause while Chief Gabriel turned her face from side to side, studying her.
Watch the neck, focus on his scent, on his pulse. Wait. Wait. Don't move.
Her Alpha's voice came into her mind, a memory rather than a current mental attachment. In fact, she hadn't felt her Alphas in her mind for nearly a day. That worried her a little.

“That's because I'm blocking them.” The chief's voice startled her and she raised her eyes to meet his. The chief immediately backhanded her across the face. The pain of the blow nearly dropped her to her knees. Rachel let out a small sound but didn't move. Claire didn't raise her hand to touch her jaw, but could feel it beginning to swell. She had heard of alphas that could block another alpha's power. It took a powerful Sazi to pull it off.

“Let me explain how things work up here, Ms. Sanchez.” The chief's voice grew rough, his scent angry to the point of fury. “You're the Omega. You're
nothing
. You have no rank, no prestige, no standing until you earn some. You will swear your allegiance to Mayor Monk, as your Alpha, for the remainder of your stay here and will have no contact with your old pack.” She felt a moment of panic, did her best to suppress it. “You will not meet the eyes of any other pack member, regardless of their gender, rank, age, or species.” In a blur of motion, her head rocked to the opposite side from a second vicious slap, and white flowers erupted in her brain. This time she did fall, her knees slamming into the floor with a shock of pain. “You don't seem to understand your station. You looked at the principal, the secretary, nearly every teacher in school today, along with the waitress in the restaurant.”

Wait. What? How was she supposed to serve food if she could only stare at the floor? “You are forbidden to interact with any town resident for the next week other than the mayor, me, and Rachel, who will be your guide during your training. You will listen and do as you're told, when you're told, and how you're told. You are forbidden to refuse or disobey direct orders and will do whatever you're instructed to do by your superiors.”

Within reason, surely,
she thought. The chief was in her mind in an instant; she screamed and raised her hands to her ears, feeling that her brain was going to explode. The chief kicked her backward sharply, sending her sprawling on the floor, and pulled out of her head at the same time. She remained where she landed, mostly because his foot came down on her throat.

She fought to breathe and tried to turn her head so she could get air. He ground his foot on her neck in response. “You breathe when I let you, Claire. You think what your Alpha allows you to think. There is no
within reason
in this town. Do you understand?”

Claire didn't answer, wasn't sure if it was another trick. How had the chief known what had been in her mind? Who was the Alpha here? She held her breath until she couldn't anymore, keeping her eyes on the ceiling, not meeting his eyes.

He lifted his foot, seeming to be satisfied. “You may answer.”

It took two tries to get her jaw to work. When she spoke, she made sure there was no fear in her voice, only anger. That seemed to both amuse and excite him. “Yes.”

“You understand?”

“Yes.”

“You're fortunate that we're feeling reasonable today. I'm tempering my normal reaction because you didn't understand. You do now. Any further breaches will mean a strip of hide. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” No emotion. No reaction.

He put a beefy hand around her neck and pulled, using both magic and muscle to raise her to her feet. He left her enough room to breathe, but dug fingernails into her skin until she bled. The chief leaned in, close enough that she could feel puffs of air against her face when he spoke. “You are part of our pack now, Claire. But because those who are now above you would fear your power, you can no longer be alpha. Until you earn your place back, your glow must be dimmed.”

She was frozen, just as surely as she had frozen Alek and Tammy earlier. She couldn't move a muscle, couldn't stop the alpha from pulling her power out from her very pores. Without ever moving, the chief siphoned off what little power she still had and she knew then that he had the ability to do it for the whole time she was here. She would be completely helpless.

That thought made him smile. “Yes. You will be. You are an Omega now.”

Rachel looked confused, not understanding the interaction. Claire resolved not to think about it anymore. She couldn't afford to. How were they reading her thoughts?

She risked a glance at the window, where a clock was on the wall above the panes of glass, as though checking the time. It was nearly five. The chief followed her gaze, looking far too pleased with what he'd done. That the mayor hadn't stopped him told her all she needed to know about this pack, this town. “It is getting late. We should probably let them get started, Van. If you're done, of course.” The last was almost an afterthought, as though it didn't really matter what the mayor thought.

Mayor Monk checked his watch and then stood, moving from behind the desk as though this was any normal business meeting. “True. Rachel, I gave Alek and Scott the south side of town. You'll take the north. You'll meet up with them at the grocery store at ten. We have supplies coming in today.”

Rachel raised her hand. He nodded at her and she spoke. “May I ask a question?”

Oh, a double layer of submission. Good to know. Claire appreciated any hints about the proper etiquette.

“Go ahead.” Chief Gabriel said.

“It's rare to have so many hands to us to help people. It might give us the chance to do some real good.”

That changed the chief's whole attitude. He transformed back into a smooth politician. “Such as?”

Rachel shrugged, trying to seem casual, but it was obvious to Claire that she'd been thinking about this for some time. That the chief apparently didn't realize that was telling.