Alpha Curves (Paranormal BBW Shifter Romance): Wolf Clan Book 3 (14 page)

Her hands twisted against one another, magic sparking from the tips.

"And that is without addressing what protective spells Quentin has placed on the crystals. If he sacrificed pure magic to place the crystals and keep them undetected, it may take an equal sacrifice to get them out."

Esme stopped talking, her lips remaining slightly parted as she took shallow breaths and her skin turned milky white.

"Baby..." Dana cradled his mate's face, his lips lightly dusting one cheek before he forced her gaze up to meet his. "I need you to hold it together, love. You have to feel a little less. Can you do that? For Oscar and all the other boys?"

He kissed her lips, kissed her tears. She nodded but her expression remained unconvinced.

"We have to disperse the cubs," Dana said, still holding Esme but directing his words at Cade. "Off clan lands, no cubs together and as many wolves and charms protecting each boy as we can spare."

Standing, Cade pulled his cellphone out. "I'll call Oram and get the West Virginia wolves mobilized."

Pausing, he looked at Iris, his gaze asking permission to leave her alone for a few minutes or longer despite the grief visible on her face.

She nodded. "I'll stay with Esme while you and Dana make your calls."

Slower to leave his mate, Dana stood, his hands lingering around Esme's tear-stained face.

"I'm okay," the witch sniffed. She pointed her chin in Iris's direction. "We can try to come up with some solutions while you're on the phone with the other clan leaders."

She drew a breath in, her hesitation stalling Dana a few more seconds before she added, "The Witches Council must be notified."

Iris watched as Dana's expression slowly changed from tender to something less pliant than steel. "After I've talked to the other clan leaders."

Esme offered a small blink of acquiescence, the downward curve of her mouth indicating that she would only keep the information from the council for a short time.

Satisfied, Dana followed Cade from the room. Esme immediately moved from the couch to sit by Iris. She wrapped her fingers around those of the she-wolf and gazed into Iris's eyes.

"I need you to do something for me before they get back."

Iris swallowed a small lump in her throat, relatively certain what Esme wanted her to do. "Check for crystals?"

"Yes," Esme whispered. Releasing her grip on Iris, she turned and presented her back to the she-wolf. "If they've been with me since childhood..."

"Right, you might not sense them. And your mother would have been involved in placing them, refreshing the anti-detection spells." Iris ran her hands down Esme's spine, starting high and working toward the waist. Reaching the middle, she hesitated.

"Anything?"

Iris felt the quiver in Esme's voice stab at her own chest. The witch was afraid of being betrayed by her own body -- a feeling Iris knew all too well. For Esme, it was a new fear, its grip tighter than any vise because of the novelty.

"Not on your spine," Iris answered. Her hands spread further apart, encompassing the witch's broad hips for a moment before Iris leaned closer and placed her palms against Esme's lower stomach.

"No," Esme said, her voice so soft that only Iris's wolf could make sense of the sound. "Not there--"

"I'm sorry, sweetie." Iris choked the words out. "I wish--"

Esme shook her head, the thick wavy strands bouncing violently. She placed her hands over Iris's, her energy seeking out the objects the she-wolf had detected. "Why would they do that?"

"Maybe because you're the most powerful witch--"

Another hard shake, blonde curls flying in every direction. "Not anymore. You are."

Moving down the couch, Esme wiped at her tears and drew a ragged breath in. "I have to get this under control, I can't have Dana distracted by my feelings."

Iris closed the distance between them and wrapped an arm around Esme. "He's your mate," she whispered in the witch's ear. "You're never going to be able to hide your feelings from him. And you shouldn't try. He loves you on a deeply crazy level..."

A small hiccup interrupted the smile forming on Esme's lips. She gave another sniff and nodded before peeking at Iris from beneath lashes still wet with tears.

"Just like Cade is crazy about you."

Iris held her hand up, the fingers splayed for emphasis.

"Slow down, witch," she said with a lighthearted tenderness that stretched Esme's smile a little wider. "Maybe when we have a handle on this cub situation--"

"Nuh-uh." Capturing Iris's hand, Esme wove her fingers through the she-wolf's and softly tugged. "Mates draw strength from one another. We're stronger together. That's one thing I don't think the Hunters have counted on because they turn on each other at the first sign of danger. And with all the latents we've discovered, there are more mates now than..."

Esme tightened her grip on Iris. The witch's lips and brows moved as if she hadn't stopped talking. Her head tilted to the side, and then she gave it a slight shake before her brows knitted.

"What's going on in that head of yours?" Iris asked. "Because it appears to be really entertaining and I could use a laugh right about now."

Esme chewed at her bottom lip a few more seconds before she nodded. "We need to check some of the other latents to make sure they aren't carrying any crystals, but I don't think they will be. They don't come to us at all like the cubs. They remember their families and childhood."

"Okay, I agree we need to check them, but what..." Iris stopped and twirled a few circles with one finger in front of Esme's face. "Was that all about?"

"Maybe nothing," Esme admitted. "But I feel like it's really important the Hunters haven't picked up on how much strength we gain every time we find another latent. Both from having mated pairs and the extra magic the women bring. Leah took straight to casting and healing and so have some of the others. A few even worked carnivals as psychics."

Releasing her hold on Iris, the witch stood and stared at the door through which Dana and Cade had left. Her hands found her ample hips and her right foot stamped the ground once as she blew a hot puff of air.

"I really need to talk to the Witches Council."

"We need a little more time," Iris said, patting the cushion next to her to draw Esme back to the couch.

"We?" Esme asked, one dark blond brow arching toward the ceiling.

"You and me," Iris snorted. "Not the clan, if you thought that's what I meant. I know wolves have a hard time trusting anyone who can wield magic, more so now that we've learned that the Hunters have been using it against us."

"Okay." Esme plopped down next to Iris. "Why do 'we' need more time before I talk to the Witches Council?"

"For starters, to check a few of the latents, like you suggested." Iris twisted her hands together, the motion audible from how roughly she rubbed. Fighting the urge to light up one of her fingertips with witch light and carve a fresh ward into her skin, she shoved a hand under each armpit.

"Okay," Esme joked, one finger twirling a circle just as Iris had done a few minutes before. "You want to tell me what that's all about? And, for the record, it's not entertaining. I'm stressed as hell!"

Trying to shape an explanation, Iris bounced lightly against the back cushion. "I've been gone twelve years..."

Flooded with the threat of tears, she buried her face in her hands, her elbows propped against the top of her thighs. She felt the soft drape of Esme's arm across her back and then the warm push of the witch's breath against her hair.

She lifted her head for a second, but the room was a blur of tears and she retreated. "I have a few weeks, starting with the attack, that I can barely remember. I would say I can't remember any of it at all, but there are these little flashes, bits and bobs of nightmares that are always the same."

Her hands dropped to her stomach, her arms protectively curling around her flesh. Her chest ached as if a fiery blade had been buried deep inside and still smoldered.

"I've tried to see into your memories," Esme confessed. "But your walls are too thick for a gentle poking around."

Iris turned toward the witch and allowed Esme to wrap her in a gentle embrace. The image of little Oscar in Dana's arms flashed through her head and then she buried her face against Esme's shoulder.

Voice muffled by the witch's flesh, Iris finally found the strength to make the request that had weighed on her mind since she interviewed the cubs.

"I need you to poke harder, to find out exactly what happened the day I left the clan and those few weeks after," she whispered as Esme soothingly stroked her hair and cooed comforting words of nonsense.

With her body knotting even tighter, she pushed the last words out, uncertain which way they would fall until they passed her lips.

"And I want Cade there when you do it."

Chapter Fifteen

"When I said I wanted someplace private to talk," Iris protested, half jokingly, as Cade guided her onto the corner edge of the mattress, "I didn't mean your bedroom."

He didn't follow her onto the bed. Instead he rested his ass against the dresser, his strong hands curled around its top lip as he patiently waited for her to start. She would have preferred the diversion of an argument, especially given the location. She could smell two weeks' worth of Cade's scent layered around Dana's guest bedroom. While the mint and pine odors that clung to his presence usually made her crisp minded, a third odor, one of fresh grass dipped in dew, seemed to inhabit his sleeping area.

Right where her body perched, the scent, like fingertips, curling over her thighs.

Keep it together, North!

Cade leaned forward, his ass still against the dresser, but his height sufficient that he loomed over her from two feet away. "Dana needs all the other rooms, baby. It's about to turn into mobilization central out there."

He stopped, one ear perking toward the ceiling as the sound of a vehicle in the drive became audible. "So what did you want to tell me?"

Her mouth flattened. His time was important. Oram, his clan leader, needed him ready to take orders. Dana needed him as much as any of the Tennessee pack leaders at his disposal. She should just cut to the chase and tell him what he wanted, not deflect the issue by talking about things he already knew -- Esme's crystals, how the handful of other latents she and Iris had checked were clear, or Leah making the rounds to check the other women on Dana's lands.

Or maybe she shouldn't say anything at all. Maybe she shouldn't have him present when Leah returned and she and Esme worked on restoring Iris's lost weeks.

"Iris..." Cade eased his way onto the bed next to her, his tone a jumble of frustration, tenderness and impatience.

She drew a shaky breath. He had every right to be impatient. She had made him wait for twelve years. His hand curled around hers and she released the breath she had been holding.

Start small, she thought.

"Esme and Leah are going to regress my memory this afternoon."

His gaze widened and he gave a small nod. "I wondered why she didn't argue with Dana about delaying a while longer before contacting the Witches Council."

"Exactly," Iris answered. "That and making sure the other latents are clear."

"Yeah." A harsh laugh punctuated his agreement as his mind turned toward the crystals in Esme. "Camille better hope someone other than Dana gets to her first."

Pulling Iris's hand onto his lap, Cade tilted his head down so he could see her face and she could see his. He waited for her to say something more. She let him wait, her brain still turning over which was the wiser course -- have him present or lie and say that was all she wanted to tell him.

Hell, "wise" wasn't even part of her calculations. She wanted what was less painful, for both of them. Only she hurt at the idea of him being absent during the regression every bit as much as his being present cut at her. Different pains, but equal. Smothering both was the fear of the unknown. What would she remember? What horrible, terrifying things would come out of her mouth?

"I suppose you don't want me there when it happens?" He said at last.

She didn't listen to the words so much as their tone, at the fierce quiver of need to protect her and at the undercurrent of hurt because he thought she didn't want him with her. She turned toward him, tears filling her eyes and shook her head.

"I absolutely want you with me when they do it."

There! The decision was made, no turning back. So why didn't she feel any relief?

Cade pulled her close, one arm behind her back and his big hand curled around her other hip. "Why?"

A silent, slightly hysterical laugh rang inside her head. She hadn't felt relief because a decision made is not a decision executed. He wanted to know why. More than one reason clamored in her thoughts. Scared shitless, she felt afraid, vulnerable, unable to protect herself. Cade would keep her safe. And if she shifted again, just as she had done while trapped in Oscar's memories, who would protect Esme and Leah?