Three’s a Clan (7 page)

The Hart Clan all exchanged a meaningful glance. Then Amber stood. She met me in the middle of the broken circle. She was taller than me. I hated being short most of the time, but among all in the woods that night, I didn’t mind looking up to any of them. Especially Amber. She had changed since I last saw her. She found something important while she was gone. Perhaps the tiny heartbeat inside her had something to do with it. I know it affected me in ways I didn’t think I could be affected anymore.

“Ever had someone invade your dreams, Barbie?” Amber wasn’t insulting me with the name anymore. It was laced with sugar when she spoke it now. “I had a witch walk into my head a couple days ago. We…” Amber reached and pulled Mary beside her. “We know what is being done. Kari showed us enough to feed my nightmares for the rest of my supernatural existence. You’re right that it’s close. It’s the mansion. Beneath the ground. Too bad my wonderful father-in-law doesn’t know enough about witches, the powerful ones anyway, to understand that they can draw from the earth. Kari showed us the way in.”

Mary stood tall beside her Alpha female. “It takes a lot of strength to reach that plane, Shelly. We don’t know if Kari is still alive after the shot to the brain she gave us both. Between the blood loss, the restraints, well, we just don’t know for sure how much of her is left to find. But I am headed in to get her one way or another.”

Amber grabbed onto Mary’s hand even though it was balled tight into a fist. “
We
are headed in. Kari might have the information we need. She said something in the dreams that I don’t think I have right, and we need to figure it out.”

“I heard it too. No mistakes.” Mary raised her chin toward me. “She said Amber was the one to bring it all down. Amber would lead us.”

“So we’re dealing with a prophet now, Mary?” Really? We were making epic predictions here? I nearly sighed at the
Mayan apocalypse
of it all. “We aren’t headed into an election here, where everybody is going to civilly appoint the new magistrate of the non-human world. Don’t be naïve. We are fighting an army. We need soldiers, not magic.”

Amber got that look that told me nothing I said would sink into her thick skull. Jake stepped up. It was bittersweet to see him as an Alpha’s mate. If I were being deep and reflective, I’d realize calling forth his wolf was exactly what needed to happen. On the shallow level I felt more comfortable in, I wanted my little brother back.

“We are going in tonight for Kari.” Amber didn’t look like she would fit through a door if she tried to sneak. And she was going on a recon mission?

Jake noticed my horror at the idea, yet he agreed with this cockamamie plan. “Mary has a knack with a drawing. This is the night we can get her out. So we are going now. We just wanted to see if you could keep the Matheo busy, or at least out of the way. Just in case. The rest of our mission we will work out later.”

The rest of the mission. The death of my father and evisceration of anyone in my Family who stood in the way. Yup. I could wait to discuss that. “Let’s split up then. You get your witch through whatever entryway she made you dream about. I’ll be distracting, and then you will no doubt text me from some non-number.”

Craig waved a phone from his hand to show where the non-number would originate. Man of many words, that one. Then he wrapped an arm around Mary’s waist right before her nose lifted to the breeze. I took a breath to see what had her muzzle twitching. I didn’t know what she smelled. All I got was that tasty fragrance from earlier, and even with the miasma, I wasn’t able to push through the fog of lust.

“What is that smell?” Mary followed her nose around the clearing. Right up to Rick’s chest. “Did you roll in something?”

Craig laughed. Richard growled. Did he smell this too? I breathed in. Was that coming from me or him? Or was it Trevor? Whoever it was, they smelled great and I needed to stop sniffing it.

“I’ll explain it later, Mary. Right now, we need to get going. Light won’t be with us for long.” Craig went up to the man who had welcomed him into a Pack when his own parents had rejected him. It was fascinating to watch.

Amber bit her lip and stared down her father. “You’re coming with us, right?”

In our world, Rick held no real ties to her anymore, but so much of his humanity and hers still existed, he wanted to be with his child. And even though it was not being discussed, his grandchild. “I’m coming.”

I watched Trevor shift the odd gun off his shoulder. The trigger snagged his waistband as he pushed the butt of the barrel into the ground and leaned on it. Brown bunched leather peeked out of his waistband before he adjusted the athletic shorts he was wearing to cover. The strategic planning continued around us, but my eyes darted to Amber. The pouch around her neck was identical to the leather bundle that was making a peek-a-boo appearance from the waist band of a certain Beta. Doc met my gaze and moved his head from left to right. The movement was slow and disjointed, but I got the meaning. He didn’t want me to bring it up in current company. So many secrets among people who were supposed to be so close. This is why humanity sucks.

The men slapped palms, and Amber and Mary hugged Trevor before the Clan left the clearing. Rick started to follow, but he glanced back at Trevor. He looked to me as well.

“I’ll cover for you. Everyone knows you didn’t want to play tonight. Just go with your daughter.” Doc pushed his Alpha, and I watched as the Alpha took orders from his Beta and sprinted after the last remainder of his human life. We both stood there as feet trampled detritus and palms pushed aside saplings and vines.

Then Trevor turned his attention my way.
Oh boy.

He wasn’t very Beta when he said, “You didn’t see anything around my waist.”

“Are you trying to compel me, Doc? Cause I must say that would be a new trick.” The miasma agreed.

“I saw you notice. Just let it go.” He picked up his gun and started back toward where he and Alpha had first come upon the impromptu meeting space. Did he really think I was going to follow orders like a good girl? I had been a lot of things over the years. Good wasn’t any of them.

“I know Rick gave his daughter that leather pouch.” I pushed. “I know she hasn’t opened it. What’s so important about a little leather sack that a hybrid guards like the crown jewels?”

I didn’t see him move as much as I felt the air shift before he had me by the arms. I would have said ouch, but—you know, vampire and all—my pain tolerance was a bit elevated.

“I didn’t know he had it.” Trevor fiddled with the gun around his back. “I thought it was buried with her. But either way, it is not something that needs to come to light. She wouldn’t have wanted it that way. She would have wanted her daughter to know that Lily loved her husband. Lily was a good woman, and she deserved to have a family.”

“A family you wouldn’t give her.” I wasn’t letting this man be a martyr. He didn’t give the girl what she wanted. Plain and simple in my eyes.

“I couldn’t watch her die!” Trevor slammed me against a tree. The bark skittered from the trunk, and I heard a creak. He almost broke the thing.

“You watched her die anyway, didn’t you? What difference did you stepping aside make?” I expected him to hit me again. I would have hit me, but Trevor backed off.

“Shelly, I get that you have an analytical mind right now. I get that you put the pieces together. Yeah. I was the other man in Lily Paulson’s life. I loved her enough to not have her degraded by the masses. I loved her enough to not have to have children of the moon.” His eyes pleaded with me to understand.

“You loved her enough to take away her choice.” He could spin the facts anyway he wanted. I inhaled the scent that still clung to the air. Damn if I wasn’t just as drunk on it as his Lily must have been. “You didn’t allow her to make a decision. You thought you would take care of things. Men always seem to have that inclination. It’s not until the shit hits the fan that they see the chick has the right idea all along.”

Doc walked away from me trying to just end the conversation. I wasn’t cool with that.

“You protected her?” I laughed. “Please…you protected yourself. You didn’t want to watch her grow old and you couldn’t ask her to change. So instead you convinced yourself that you were a noble guy. Well, Lily can’t tell you what she really wanted, so I will. If I want both of you, you can’t make my feelings go away just because you leave!”

He flinched like I’d slapped him. Sometimes guys need a little verbal lashing. This was the first time I’d ever felt I might have been a bit harsh.

Rather than running farther from me, his body came at me in a frustrated rage. “So you want us both as well, Shelly?”

“What?” It was that fucking smell that had me loopy. I didn’t mean to say that. Out loud. “No…her. Lily. Lily wanted you both.”

He came closer and closer, and suddenly the anger I felt from him turned to something different, but no less powerful. “And you know how she feels?”

This was not going as I planned. The scent filled me again. I didn’t even have to breathe. The air around me thickened, electrified, and forced its way into my lungs.

“I was speaking as a woman.”

“You were speaking as
our
woman.”

“No.”

Wait. Did he say ours?

His lips touched mine and my mega-brain melted out my ears.

Chapter Twelve

Trevor

I knew what that smell was, and there was no way I could be in her presence and not touch her. The pheromones had been with us when I’d thrust inside of her. I should have just claimed her in Chicago.

Shelly was a prickly woman. She was strong. Strong people sometimes thought that they could run from their mates. But running away was making us all crazy. It amplified the pheromones.

The blood in my brain rushed south so fast under her touch that thinking wasn’t easy at the moment. So when her nails dug into my chest and drew blood, I hissed, but I wasn’t surprised. I thought she might push me away, but instead, she was pulling me, gripping me. My body was against hers. My blood smeared against her satin top. My scent was on her, but my wolf kept telling me that there was a much more enticing way to accomplish this.

Shelly’s tongue thrust past my lips. I growled and grabbed that lush blonde hair. My fingers wound around the golden strands. A few follicles gave way under the pressure, but her neck just relaxed into my pull. I licked around her collarbone. Vampires didn’t have the heartbeat we did, but I could feel the tingle of blood that had pushed her veins open to nourish the body I couldn’t keep my hands off of.

I didn’t dare release her hair, but I had two hands. We were against the tree. I was grateful it stood strong. I wasn’t gentle as I held her in place by the throbbing between my legs.

“Doc…”

She wasn’t going to get away with calling me that now. It was what she called me to put distance between us.

“No.” I wasn’t just the Doc to her. “Call me Trevor. My name is Trevor.” When her voice didn’t pass through the throat I couldn’t stop licking, I yanked her hair again and gripped her ear between my teeth. “Tell me…tell Trevor, you want this.”

“Oh gods yes, Trevor. I want this. I need this.” Her hands reached between our bodies. A nail of hers sliced the thin fabric of her top. I pulled back enough to yank it aside, which gave that clever hand just enough room to push past the waist band of my pants. She wrapped her cool little fingers around my cock and squeezed. I thought I might shoot my load right then, but felt ice water drown me as the thread that held that little leather pouch snapped.

Shelly stopped as well and we both watched the faded soft brown satchel hit the ground like a bomb. It wasn’t a loud noise, but it was one I never thought I would hear. I felt like a traitor. It was all I had left of Lily, and I just let it hit the ground. I backed up and picked up the pouch.

The glorious scent that wafted around us didn’t go away, but I could feel the walls Shelly kept herself behind raise another hundred feet.

“We all lose people, Doc. Not everything works out the way we plan.” She didn’t bother to cover herself. The soft shirt gaped around the petite nude lace that hugged her breasts. Her nipples were points of ice. They matched the frigid pain she thrust at me dipped in sarcasm. “But I guess I should feel lucky that I never had to make a choice like yours. I get to be the girl and have people make choices for me. You would think the planet would have advanced a bit after all this time.”

“Shelly…”

“Save it. I have to go distract my father.” She looked down at herself. “Ripped shirt dappled in werewolf blood. Should work all right.”

Then she was gone. Just me and my raging hard on and whatever wildlife we shook out of that tree remained. I held Lily’s pouch and retied the broken string around my thigh. It would hold until I got home. A fake smile would have to hide what went down. I ran back to the paintball fight. The guys would be finishing up at any moment. I’d laugh and live through the beers that would follow. Then I got to live with what Shelly had said.

Damn alcohol tolerance. I wished werewolves didn’t process the drinks so efficiently. I didn’t need to think right now. Didn’t want to at any rate.

Chapter Thirteen

Kari

The water woke me. I don’t know how long I was out. They didn’t bother to heat it. They didn’t mind getting splashed with it.

They’d only heated the water so it warmed my blood enough to make it palatable. Now that they weren’t drinking from the tubes anymore, there was no point in keeping me warm. They didn’t change the needles any longer either. They just pinched off the tube to stop the flow.

My arms prickled with old track marks from collapsed veins. Painful from blood vessel collapse and lack of movement, my arms were just another part of my physical body that was essential to escape. I tried. The magic was gone. The gardens. Someone had destroyed the gardens. The plants, the herbs—it wasn’t there.

I still had the earth. I felt the life. The worms, the ants, the beetles, all were life forces. Water. I swallowed. Who was to say how long it had been since I had eaten? I didn’t have the strength to walk the planes.

I simply called with my inner voice.
“Tonight. I won’t make it past tonight.”

The statement left my mind, but I couldn’t say who it might reach. I hoped it was Amber. She was who it had to be. I could feel her. Even if she didn’t hear me, she would feel me. I would give her what I could. I didn’t have any physical strength left, but it wasn’t the physical plane where I was strong.

A path blazed. The drip from my veins began, but I was smiling as they drained what little I had left. Because I gave
her
a part of me that they couldn’t get from my blood. It would be what she needed. My strength was hers. She had opened herself. She believed. She would save me. I would be there to help with what was to come.