This Weakness For You (Entangled Select Otherworld) (Taming the Pack) (19 page)

They all went silent.

“He hasn’t slept very much,” Travis volunteered.

Blinking, Christa turned to Jordan and patted his thigh. “It’s going to be fine, Jordan.”

“I can’t believe I—like a damn fool—led him to a poacher. This is all on me.”

Christa slugged him in the arm. “Yes, because you knew some sadistic freak was listening in and felt like killing a lot of people.”

“He would have found them eventually,” Travis said. “He’d already been looking. Do you want to hear the rest?”

Jordan sighed. “Sure. How bad can the rest of it be?”

“Well, Ross is more masochistic than we gave him credit for. He’d yanked his tracking chip out and left it behind so we’d think he was here all this time. Also, he was about as sadistic as we assumed, because the scent of blood led us to the freezer where there is indeed a bag of guts that he must have been smearing all over himself in order to leave trails.”

“Ew,” Christa said.

“Oh, right, I forgot you were listening. Sorry about that.”

“Still not as gross as him knowing I ate ice cream naked.”

“Having seen the freezer, I’m going to have to disagree,” Travis said.

“Wait…you don’t seem surprised by the ice cream thing…you were listening, too!”

“You talk very loud.”

Jordan broke in, snarling, “I can’t believe I fell for it as long as I did. I’ve been there, chasing my damn tail, and the bastard’s been here this whole time.”

She rubbed her hand up and down his leg again, and the scowl on his face faded to a serious frown.

“I was still falling for it,” Travis said. “And I think if you hadn’t been anxious to get home to your mate, you would have too.”

Jordan shrugged. “You might be right. I was rushing everything to get back here, and I was looking for an excuse to come back.”

Christa bit her lip to avoid smiling. He’d
really
wanted to come home to her. He wasn’t just saying that.

“Besides, you left Dane in charge—you didn’t just abandon your pack.”

Jordan sighed. “He’s been here for three days, Travis. Three days that I should have been here, too.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Christa and Travis said at the same time.

Jordan glanced over at her, bemused. “We’re almost to our pack’s gathering. I’ll call you when I have a handle on how many are dead and what our weaknesses are.”

“How many are dead? People are dead?” She’d screeched again.

Jordan winced, and she heard a moaned, “Damn, that was loud. I told you that you’re loud,” from Travis.

“I’m sorry, but…people are dead! I’m not used to dead people. Maybe you guys have people dying all the time, but…”

“You should count prime numbers,” Travis said. “In your head. I do that. So, Jordan, when you know the score, some of my pack wants to come up on hunting parties—especially if it gives them the chance to hunt poachers. If it gives us the chance to hunt poachers, that’d make this worth it.”

“I doubt Colby would agree,” Jordan.

“Hell yeah he would. If there’s a heaven, he’s just pissed he died before he could go on a poacher hunt.”

Jordan visibly relaxed. His clenched grip on the steering wheel loosened so his knuckles were no longer white.

“Well, and that he ended up in someone’s freezer. I’m not sure if we should stuff his guts back in his body before we bury it or what. They’re kind of a mess. If I’d done this, I’d have double-bagged them.”

“I think we’re done talking about this,” Christa said.

“Yup. It puts you eating ice cream naked into perspective, doesn’t it?”

“Travis, so help me…” But she was talking to dead air.

“He’s an ass.” Jordan shrugged.

She set the phone in her lap. Okay, she could handle this. After so many years of dealing with minor emergencies over the phone, you’d think she’d be better equipped to handle this…but she was days into a marriage and rulership of werewolves. And someone had listened in on her first filthy conversation. That was just so wrong. But she could do this.

“Hill’s Contracting and Construction? This is your work?” she asked as they approached the building.

“Most of the pack works here, but I own it. They work for me.” Jordan parked in the full parking lot, but didn’t get out. “There are a lot of cars here—that’s good. I see Ethan’s car.” His gaze flew from car to car. “In fact, if I’m counting right…we have someone from nearly every family.” He took a deep breath. “Though I don’t think I’d count that as a good thing if I lost my mate.”

Christa unbuckled and scooted closer to him. “Well, from your mate’s perspective, I think
that
is a good thing.”

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Jordan?”

He finally looked at her.

“This is my first meeting. Is there anything I absolutely
shouldn’t
do? Like anything that’ll get me tossed out—my throat ripped out—or do only you do that?”

He blinked. “Your throat ripped out?”

She shrugged. “Vanessa said some things were that serious.”

He shook his head and leaned to press a kiss on her mouth. “No one will do that, I promise. Most of the Lycans will keep their heads down unless they want to be recognized to speak. You’ll be forgiven for speaking out of turn, though, since you’re Alpha—plus you’re new, small, and cute.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’ve always wanted to have new, small, and cute on my side.”

“Wait, there is one thing…” He glanced around before turning the key on in the ignition, flipping on the radio, and cranking up the volume. Dragging her close, he said in her ear, “You absolutely shouldn’t mention that I scent-matched before you or that Dane killed her. As far as you know, that didn’t happen. It might be very bad for your brother if you did. You don’t even know the Lycan was a female. Don’t talk to me about it. Don’t talk to your brother about it. Don’t mention it out loud. Ever. You understand?”

She nodded.

“Say that you understand—I need you to understand how serious this is.”

“I understand.”

Jordan trailed his mouth along her jaw and pressed a quick kiss on her mouth. “I missed you,” he said again before turning off the radio and grabbing the keys from the ignition.

Jordan finally opened the car door, but gestured for her to wait as he inhaled deeply. Then he lifted her out, and rather than setting her down, he ran toward the building. The door opened as he approached, and Ethan let them in. Ethan smiled at her, without meeting her gaze.

“Good to see you, Ethan,” Jordan said, setting her on her feet.

“Good to be seen,” Ethan said.

“Are we watching our backs in here?”

Ethan nodded to a side room. “Cramer is monitoring those cameras we added two years ago. I think you’ve made your point that they weren’t just paranoid nonsense.”

“You were the one who said they were,” Jordan commented.

“I know. That’s what I’m saying.”

Jordan turned away and then swung back around. “My landline at home is bugged.”

Ethan shot him a bewildered look. “You mean you don’t check that?”

Jordan blinked once and then asked, “Can you take care of it for me?”

“Sure. I’ll sweep all the rooms, too.”

“You have the equipment for that?”

“Of course.” His tone was so matter-of-fact it made Christa smile. Old guys were awesome.

“Are you a vet, Ethan?” Christa asked.

Ethan stood a little straighter. “Yes, I am. Marine.
Semper fi
.” And he’d bowed his head while talking to her. Amazing. Her dad would love Ethan.

Jordan grabbed her hand and pulled her through into a big meeting room that had a two-foot-high platform spanning one end. There was a crowd of over fifty people there, and they stepped back with their heads down as Jordan dragged her through. Dane was already on the platform with Vanessa near him. She was rocking Nathanial in her arms while staring out over the group with pinched features. Once they were on the platform, Jordan squeezed her hand and nodded toward Vanessa…then he let go and turned to scan the group. Christa went around Dane and Jordan to stand by Vanessa.

“How bad is it?” she whispered to Vanessa.

Vanessa whispered back, “You remember we have great hearing, right?”

“Oh, right.” She cleared her throat and waited on Jordan, who was scanning the group again.

Jordan turned to Dane with a puzzled look. “Three?”

Dane nodded with a grimace. “One missing, and when Rosemary and Boyd left to come here, their car was sprayed with bullets. If you hadn’t called when you did… Anyway, they’re en route to the hospital. Rosemary says nothing life-threatening—though with his heart, they aren’t taking any chances. Several of the others from that area thought they were followed as far as town. But we’ve got one confirmed; they got Aggie Christensen.”

“We’re sure she’s not in the hospital again?” Jordan asked.

“Rosemary said they saw her car in the driveway when they drove through, and she was at her home at around three this morning, and I spoke to her great-niece ten minutes ago—she’s with a northern pack, and she would know if Aggie was in the hospital. She’s going to call around and get back to me, but she’s asked to come and look for her great-aunt. I told her to wait until we’d ascertained the danger level. Rosemary wanted to stop to check, but…” He shook his head.

“She was there this morning,” Jordan repeated, raising his eyebrows.

“Max said he heard her talking to…uhh…Muffin when he patrolled by at three. Apparently, Muffin is her imaginary dog.”

Vanessa said under her breath to Christa, “She’s not imaginary. Muffin has just been dead. Since the eighties. I tell you…the amount of times I’ve heard Muffin get in trouble for peeing on the rug is just disturbing, though.”

Jordan shot Vanessa a quelling look before saying to Dane, “I’m glad you did that route last night.”

“We did every route every night.”

Jordan frowned.

Dane looked a bit smug. “I improved on your routes, cutting out unnecessary terrain obstacles, which I suspect were remnants from a younger group who needed exercise. I also cut out some routes that I felt weren’t necessary for the welfare of the pack during a time when we were down one Alpha.”

There was absolute silence. Christa looked from Jordan to Dane. Her brother had taken a big chance on messing with things while Jordan was gone.

Jordan nodded. “I knew I’d made the right choice. I’d thought it would be because you liked to shoot things, not because you’re more familiar with maps of our land than running through it.” He turned back to the group. “I assume the added patrols helped, because I expected the devastation we’ve seen in other packs. While we’ll start a search for Aggie, we need to work on sheltering those less capable of fighting and finding out where our enemies are. I’m not going to be caught unaware like other packs have been. So fortification and reconnaissance are our first goals. Many of the Rainier pack have pledged to come help with the hunt, but I want to know more and have our own pack settled before we bring in more Lycans.” He stared hard at the group and said firmly, “We will invite them if it becomes necessary. Our honor does not preclude ending this for everyone or taking care of our own in the best way possible. I would rather have our offspring safe than feel like my pride has been satisfied.”

Christa looked through the group when he spoke. It looked like a family get-together. Young kids. A couple teens. Parents. Grandparents. Family. And they were her pack now—and they were being hunted…and someone had already grabbed one of their elderly members. Holy hell. No vendetta was worth this. None of these children had done anything. In fact, it sounded like the only two people involved were Dane and Jordan. This guy was a sick bastard. Even before you got to bagged guts in the freezer. And listening in on super-private, personal dirty talk.

“Now, ideas for how we’re going to keep everyone safe,” Jordan said.

“I don’t think patrols will be enough,” Dane said.

Jordan turned to Dane and made pointed eye contact with him. She almost snorted. Like Dane would ever show deference to anyone when he had an opinion.

“Oh, right,” Dane said, shrugging his shoulders. “I stand by that, though. The nightly patrols would be taxing on our strength, and we can’t be everywhere at once. The frequency of the modified routes was a short-term solution. I’d thought of asking Christa to do some phone calls to our outlying members if you were gone longer than a week just so we wouldn’t tire everyone out.”

“Phone calls,” Jordan repeated.

Dane nodded at her. “It’s her job. She’s good at it. She’s been calling veterans for over two years doing verbal triage of their situation. This might be a different situation, but after this crisis is over, I think that can be a long-term solution. Patrols and having Christa call around.”

As uncomfortable as it was to be the focus of attention, it gave her some worth in the pack that he’d brought it up. Plus, Dane had said she was good at it. This might be the first time he’d ever implied her job was more than charming old men into talking about their bowel movements.

“Calling veterans.” Jordan turned to look at her with a slight smile. “That’s what you do.”

She frowned. “What did you think I did?”

He just shook his head and turned back to the group. “I agree with Dane. We’ll need our most able-bodied doing reconnaissance rather than protective detail.”

Able-bodied. Well, that struck her out. If only she could help with something—from the safety of Jordan’s house, because there was no way he’d let her leave. Wait…

Stepping forward, Christa touched Jordan’s arm. She motioned him to lean down so she could whisper, but he said, “They’d all hear you, anyway.”

She looked out to see everyone smiling, even though they kept their heads bowed. Okay, she could work the cute and small angle.

“I was just thinking you have a huge house.”

“
We
have a huge house,” he corrected.

“If you…I mean, if
we
took in some of the people farther away or with young kids, that’d make things easier.”

Jordan stared at her for an extra second and then turned to the group. “I have an extra six bedrooms and five large rooms which will hold more if you bring sleeping bags. I’d appreciate if anyone with offspring stayed with us. Additionally, anyone living alone or not up to patrols. Hell, you can all come stay with me, but those people get rooms first. It’ll be easier to protect everyone if we’re all in a group.”