SPENCER
The moment we walked into Finn’s and Alister’s room, Liam glared at Mom.
“Look at her like that again and I’ll punch a hole through those tightly clenched teeth,” I said in an icy voice.
“She lied to us.” He turned his dark eyes at me.
“I didn’t lie,” Mom said calmly. “I just didn’t tell you the truth. I knew how it would make you feel, and in my defense, when I met first Marcus, I had no idea who he was. We discovered the truth about each other later.” She turned to Finn. “His father killed your parents, and I understand how you feel. But look at this from a different perspective. Now that you know Spencer is his daughter, do you hate her? Are you going to turn your back on her?”
“Never. And that’s why I’m not angry with you, Clare.”
“I thought I could trust him,” Mom interlocked her fingers and nervously squeezed her hands. “But the more I got to know him, the more I realized how wrong I was. When I saw how devoted he was to his pack and his father, I realized he would never break the rules and stay with me. Daryl was about to retire. It was only a matter of a few years as Marcus told me, and I knew that the moment Marcus became the alpha, he would be as cruel as his father. So I ran. It was the only way to protect my future child.”
“And that only proves that you’re a strong woman,” said Alister. “It’s not easy to leave the one you love. You could’ve chosen not to have the baby, stay with him as long as you could, and then go back to your coven and stay with your kind. Sometimes it takes courage to do the right thing.”
Liam gazed at me. “I know this was a hell of a day. You just met your father and . . .” His jaw tightened again. “But I need you to know, the moment I get a chance, I’ll kill him.”
I scoffed. “Get in line.” I ran my eyes from one to another. “I know who I am now, and I’m ready to embrace my destiny and fight for my powers. Liam, if you have anything else to say, say it. We won’t be able to trust each other if you let your anger cloud your mind. You’re with me or against me. Make your choice now.”
I wasn’t going to let him screw everything up because of his hatred and hunger for vengeance.
“That was never a question,” barked Liam. “Of course I’m with you.”
“Then let’s stop wasting time and think of the best way to get what we need. Believe me, what we all learned today . . . it hurts me more than it hurts any of you. But we don’t have time to vent our emotions. If we want to fix this, to undo all those curses our ancestors created to take away our right to a normal life, we need to put aside our differences and act now.”
“Right,” James shifted in his seat. “So what’s next? What do we do?”
“We’ll need a detailed map of Aaron’s pack area, check out all the ways in and out.” I glanced at Alister. “The kind you made for Tallahassee's pack.”
Alister nodded. “I’ll make one.”
“Also, we need to figure out how to open a safe.”
“That would be a problem,” said Liam, “which could only be solved with magic.”
“You mean compulsion,” Mom nodded. “To do that, we would need to catch Aaron alone.”
“That’s too risky. And who knows, maybe Aaron wouldn’t keep it in a safe,” suggested Finn. “It could be some secret drawer that would open with a key or some hidden button.”
“I hope so. That’ll make things a bit easier. I suppose we wouldn’t know until we get inside his house.” I sighed, realizing that this task was more complicated than we thought. “Do any of you have other suggestions?”
“Spencer, I still don’t think it’s a good idea for you to get close to that pack yourself,” said Finn. “Cloak or no cloak—Eric knows your scent.”
“We don’t have a choice. We’ll disguise the scent. We’ll do the best we can.” I said, faking my confidence. “How about we get some rest and take off early in the morning?”
“There’s a printer downstairs.” Alister headed to the door. “First, I need to prepare that map.”
Finn put his arm around my waist and pulled me toward the door too. “We’re going for a run.”
Liam, James, and Mom followed us into the hallway.
“Don’t go too far.” Mom gave the two of us a flitting glance before walking into our room.
James watched Mom close the door behind her, then chuckled. “For a run, huh?”
“Mind your own business.” Liam unlocked their door and pushed James inside.
Alister was downstairs, printing the map, and Finn and I lingered in the hallway waiting for him to come back so he wouldn’t see us getting another room. The moment we heard his footsteps, we headed to the first floor.
“Have fun,” Alister said without looking at us as he passed by.
Finn and I exchanged an annoyed glance.
Everybody knows, I said to Finn through our mind connection.
And they’re all jealous, Finn chuckled.
He got us a room on the first floor on the other end of the building, and the moment we walked inside, I didn’t care about who knew what.
We were finally alone. He closed the door, and before I could turn to him, he pulled me to his chest. His hands snuck under my arms and made their way down my belly. Every inch of my body reacted to his presence, felt a hunger for his touch.
I turned around and pulled off his shirt. His hands sat tight around my thighs, and as he pushed me up, I locked my legs around him.
Kissing me, he took me to the bed and laid me down. He unzipped my pants and pulled them off, and as I watched him take off his, I could see that he wanted me just as badly as I wanted him.
The second our naked bodies collided, I left everything that had happened and was going to happen outside this door.
I couldn’t get enough of those lips wandering all over my body. My breathing got deeper from every touch of his strong hands and his warm fingers finding their way to all the right places. And when his body crashed against mine in mutual satisfaction, I smiled at the sound of his deep moan.
“And just like that,” I said, my heart still pounding, “the bomb is defused.”
He glanced at me, grinning. “Already? I thought it would take at least a couple of attempts.”
Lying on his back, he pushed his hand behind his neck.
“Oh, I’m not going anywhere.” I drew closer and rested my head on his chest. “I said the bomb; I didn’t say my thirst for you.” I caught his hand gliding up my hip and pressed it to my lips. “I will always want you, and I will always need you in my life.”
“Well, I’m not going anywhere either.” He turned me on my back and bowed his head. “Not now, not ever.”
“I love you,” I whispered, running my thumb over his lips.
He kissed it. “And that’s all I need to know.”
* * *
The next morning, our three cars drove out from the motel’s parking lot one after another, with Finn and me in the lead.
With my eyes fixed on the road, I sat wondering if going with the same plan Mom and I came up with to get the relics from my father’s house was the right thing to do. Even if we manage to get into Aaron’s office safely and detect the relics, there was no guarantee that we would be able to get them. Who the hell knew how they would be protected? It may take hours, or god knows how long, to get our hands on the scroll and the compass.
I felt Finn’s eyes on me just as I bit my lip.
“What is it?” he asked, looking back at the road.
“Nothing.” He didn’t want me close to Eric’s pack at all, and it was better not to share my doubts with him. Not until I had a better solution to this dilemma. “We haven’t decided where we’re going to stay tonight.” I grabbed his phone from the dashboard. “Let’s see what we got here.” I opened the internet. “Have you stayed anywhere in Tennessee before?”
“Not close to the pack, no.” He glanced at me again, then pulled the phone out of my hands and put it back on the dashboard. “It’s still 9 am., Spencer. We’ll do it as we did before. We’ll pick one when we get there.” He glanced at me again. “Just tell me what it is. What’s really bothering you?”
I still didn’t want to talk about it, and I changed the subject, turning the conversation into a completely different route.
“I was just thinking that there are still so many things I don’t know about werewolves. Say this mind connection. Back at home, when you told me who I was, I tried to learn about our kind as much as I could, and I remember reading somewhere that mind connection is a pack thing. That only the wolves of the same pack can link to each other, and that connection breaks if they leave their pack. We are not a pack. How come we can still hear each other’s thoughts?”
“Years ago, I asked Alister the same question. He thinks it’s because we’re different. Magic is deeply rooted in our kind, and somehow it makes it much easier for us to break through the barrier. But only with permission. We let someone into our mind if we want to, and if we don’t, we can just as easily block that person. In a pack, it’s different. They’re all connected to each other through their alpha. It happens after they submit to him.”
“Okay, then, how do I ask for permission? With you, it just happened. If I want to talk to someone else, how do I do it?”
“You call their name.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. They’ll feel the tug. But as I said, it only works among our kind.”
I glanced into the side mirror. Alister and Mom were right behind us. I decided to give it a shot and concentrated on Alister.
Alister? I glanced back at him through the rear window. Alister, can you hear me?
Spencer?
I beamed at Finn, and he chuckled. I could tell by the look on his face he knew what I was so excited about.
What is it, Spencer? Alister asked. Is everything okay?
Everything is fine. It’s shifter 101. Still learning, you know? Say hi to Mom for me.
As I glanced back again, I saw him say something to Mom, and they both smiled.
********************
ERIC
Fury washed over me as I watched the same unknown shifters drive Spencer away from me. I wished I could chase them, but I had to return to the meeting. As an heir, it was my duty to accompany my father, escort him back home, and safely deliver the relics to the pack.
On my way back to the meeting, I collected the largest pieces left of Spencer’s clothes, and later, I put them in a plastic bag so that her scent wouldn’t air out. I was planning to give them to our pack’s guard. The more of our wolves knew her scent, the easier it would be to find her.
Following the tradition, Marcus invited the members of the secret meeting to dinner in his house, and it was nearly 11 p.m. when we hit the road.
We drove the whole night, but since my father and I weren’t alone in the car, we couldn't discuss the meeting or the dinner. We exchanged a few words about Marcus’s pack, then about the alphas, but most of the time we drove in silence, which I used to try to make sense of what Spencer and those wolves were doing in Marcus's pack. Did they plan on arriving the same day we did, or was it just a coincidence?
After nearly twenty-four sleepless hours, all I wanted was to get some rest. When my father got the relics safely to his office, I headed back to my cabin, dropped on my bed, and blacked out.
A few hours of sleep were all I needed. It was almost eleven when I got up and headed to the bathroom. I took a warm shower first, then at the end, I closed the hot tap and let the refreshing cold water run over me.
I rubbed my head with a towel, then wrapped it around my hips. When I came out into the living room, I found Tessa sitting on the couch. Her arms spread on its back, and her legs folded; she eyed me from the top of my still wet head and down my naked torso until her look hit the edge of the towel.
She raised a brow with a sly smirk.
“You look tasty.”
“What are you doing here?” I threw her an askance look and moved to the kitchen area where I left my phone. “Next time, ask before showing up.”
“I haven’t seen you in days. I missed you.”
I picked up the phone from the table and opened the friend finder, hoping to see Spencer’s dot on it. But her phone was still off.
“Are you going to tell me what’ve you been up to?” she asked.
“Mind your own business.”
Tessa was a year older than me, and she didn’t have a mate. She thought that whatever we had was a relationship, and she tried to get involved in my business to make the bond stronger, even though I’d shown no sign of commitment.
She snuck up on me from behind. Her hands slid under my arms and glided down my front, slithering under the towel. The towel loosened and fell. I grabbed her arm, pulled her around, and pushed her against the table. I could hear her rising heartbeat as she glanced down my naked body. She drew her face closer.
“I see you missed me too,” she murmured next to my ear before running her tongue along its edge. The tips of her black, shoulder-length hair brushed against my neck.
At first, I wanted to tell her to get lost, but as she took off her t-shirt, I changed my mind. Why not? The last few days have been nerve-wracking, and she could help me relax.
I unzipped her short skirt, and the second she took it off, I grabbed her and sat her on the table. She was right, I was ready. But not because I missed her, as she thought, but because I was a man, and it was my normal reaction to an inviting woman’s body. She glanced at me with lust in her eyes, and as my look slid down, her legs parted.
* * *
I walked into my parents’ house and headed to the kitchen.
“Eric?” Mom called right before I showed up in the doorway. “You’re awake.” Her blonde hair was tied in a loose bun, and she was standing at the kitchen island cutting some meat.
“Hi, Mom.” I kissed her on the cheek.
“You must be hungry.” She eyed me with a smile.
“I am. But first I need to talk to Dad.”
“He just woke up. He’s in the backyard having coffee. The pot is full,” she nodded toward the coffeemaker, “if you want some.”
“Thanks.”
I grabbed a mug from the dishwasher, filled it with coffee, and made my way to the backyard.
All this time, I've been trying to make sense of everything that had happened after the day I saw Spencer at that wolf's house, which I was sure now was the day she turned for the first time. Who were those wolves? How was she connected to them? They protected her as if she was someone very important, which was strange. Women were never important members of any pack. But then, it didn’t seem like they belonged to any pack at all.
Our backyard faced the woods, and it was always quiet and calm.
“Eric.” My father looked up at me as I approached him. “Join me, son.” He pointed at the wicker chair across from him.
“Thanks.” I sank into the soft seat.
“You look rested. But the frown on your forehead tells me something is bothering you. If you’re worried about your mate, don’t be. We’ll catch her.”
“Of course I’m worried. They keep getting away from us. Now her phone is always off. How’re we going to find them?”
“For starters, we could send a few men to check their house?”
“No. I don’t think they’ll be going back just yet.” I took a sip of coffee.
“I think it’s pretty obvious now that they don’t belong to any pack.”
“Yeah. Maybe they’re trying to get into one.” I shrugged. “Being a lone wolf is not safe.”
“Then why would they run? No,” my father shook his head thoughtfully. “There’s something else going on here.”
I had an idea that I knew my father wouldn’t approve of, but I decided to try anyway.
“I was thinking.” I put my mug on the table between us, “I have some pieces of her clothes. We could ask witches to do a locator spell.”
“What?” He frowned at me. “You know we can’t do that. It’s against our rules to use magic.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time. Alphas have asked them for help in the past.”
“Yes.” He barked. “For something much more serious. When it was a question of life or death. And it always came with a price.”
“You said it yourself— there’s something going on here. They might be up to something.”
“We would need more proof for that theory before taking such extreme actions. We can deal with them ourselves. What kind of danger could a bunch of wolves present to a pack? We don’t need witches. Those two at the meeting were already suspicious. They said they could sense magic. Like if someone used it nearby. Complete nonsense, of course. Marcus can be ruthless, but he would never risk his pack’s reputation by bringing witches there on the day of the meeting.”
“Then why would they say that?”
“Who the hell knows? To convince us that they know things we don’t. Or accuse us of breaking the rules. As a future alpha, you should learn patience, Eric. And remember, you can do whatever you want in your pack as an alpha, but you can’t break the rules set up by the council to make your job easier. Have you done everything you can to find Spencer? You haven’t even begun.”
“Sorry, Father.” He was right. I haven’t done my best. “Spencer is my mate, and it’s my job to find her.”
“And I will do everything to help you,” he said in a much calmer voice.
“I’ll need men. To send them on a hunt. Those wolves . . . hell knows why, but they seem to be lurking around packs. They’ve already been to Chicago and Tallahassee. So there are only two left—us and Georgia.”
“Take as many men as you need. I’ll help you with the tracking. We’ll take a map and mark territories you should search on your way from here to Georgia. You know? They could be from one of the packs just trying to mess things up. I’ll give the order to increase the security around the borders.” He pulled himself up. “But first, let’s go eat something.”
I spent the rest of the day preparing everything I needed to hunt down Spencer. I gathered the best trackers in our pack, divided them into groups of two to three men, then gave them a copy of the map prepared by my father and me.
I put my best friend Max on the second important route. He was my father’s beta’s son and was well trained. Plus, he had seen Spencer once. He was with me that day at the gas station where I saw her for the first time.
I gave each group a piece of Spencer’s clothes to get familiar with her scent.
“Keep it with you in case you need to double-check. If you find her, don’t act. Call me. That’s an order.” My gaze moved from one to another. “Keep an eye on them until we get to you.”
After I gave them a few more instructions on not attracting attention and being careful, we all got in the cars and took off.