Ariel (13 page)

Kissing her in anger was wrong, but if he’d known how good she tasted, he would have done it the first time he slid inside her. “I know. I broke your no kissing rule, but you scared me to death when you screamed. I needed the reassurance you were out of the spirit world and back with me.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, Gareth. I’ve had bad dreams plenty of times. It’s going to take a lot more than that to spook me,” Brandi whispered, her mouth covering his gently in thanks.

Gareth quivered with relief after she kissed him. The thing he’d feared most from the first moment he’d laid eyes on her was already happening. After Brandi pushed gently away, he insistently gathered her closer and held her while she fell back into a restless sleep.

Hearing the nightmares chase her once more, he frowned and wondered what werewolf magic was visiting her. There hadn’t been a visionary born in the Gray Wolf pack in a couple centuries. He’d been a whelp of less than twenty years when the last one died.

Chapter 10

Matt frowned at his crowded kitchen. He usually used the lodge when he entertained so he’d had no motivation to expand his home. Today Ariel, Reed, Brandi and Heidi sat around his four-seat table. It left no room for him or the two men he didn’t have the heart to order to leave. So the three of them leaned against the counters and listened.

“My great-uncle, Nicolai, was excommunicated from his pack in Russia. Before he found our pack, he travelled over many miles of the Bering Strait and Greenland, staying in wolf form most of the time so he wouldn’t freeze to death. He liked the Black Wolf pack though, which is why he ended up mating and staying with us. He was what werewolves call a visionary, which is a fancy way of saying he had a lot of dreams that seem to mean something. They were not always pleasant. His previous pack used to blame him for causing the things he warned them about. They were not very enlightened about intuition. My grandfather was. He and Nicolai became good friends, as well as family.”

Brandi nodded and stared at a spot on the table. “So what I saw could be something that really happened, or is going to happen?”

Reed nodded. “Yes. I hate to burden you with more than you’ve already endured, but yes. It could be either of those.”

“If someone is trying to make sure you get dead, it’s a safe bet he’s going to be unhappy to find you not only alive, but thriving. He’s also not going to be too thrilled with us either. I’m betting he knows Crane had you—and us,” Brandi declared.

Reed crossed his arms. “That is a good point. Okay. My gene pool is very strong. In over three hundred years, I’ve taken several mates. Children have blessed all my unions. My children are good, but in my grandchildren, I have not been so lucky. My grandson, Hanuk, carries my closest likeness. He is the current alpha in my pack. Another grandson, Travis, also favors me greatly. If anyone is trying to kill me, it is likely Hanuk. He is a lazy fighter, so he settles disputes by having dissidents torn to shreds in public displays.”

Brandi snorted. “It’s going to be his turn one day. Men who rule by intimidation draw others of like kind to compete with them. Destiny becomes a question of which asshole kills the other one first. I know what I’m talking about because my job used to be hanging around to collect the winner of those bad guy fights.”

“No wonder you can’t sleep,” Gareth declared.

“I sleep fine when I’m alone,” Brandi declared back.

“No you don’t. You wrestle nightmares all night long. I know because I have watched you try to sleep,” Gareth corrected.

Brandi glared at him for telling a truth very few people knew about her.

Ariel looked at Reed. “So you gave up being the Black Wolf pack alpha and Hanuk took your place. Why would he want you out of the picture entirely if you’re already gone? Seems like he has everything he wants already.”

Reed shrugged. “Perhaps he wants me dead because he is not well liked. If I were to return and question him, other alphas might rise up and compete for his place. Alone—he is not capable of running the pack. He surrounds himself with wolves who have weak minds and strong bloodlust, then he manipulates them to enforce his will.”

“Isn’t leaving someone like Hanuk in power like condemning your pack to a slow destruction of their society?”

Reed sighed at the question, and then nodded at its validity. “Yes. This is true. Travis should be running the pack, but he doesn’t seem to want the responsibility. In his wolf form, he is almost as big as me, but he lacks the desire an alpha needs to rule.”

Ariel crossed her arms and said the obvious. “If your children don’t want the position, and your grandchildren can’t handle it, maybe it’s time for an alpha to be chosen outside your family tree, Reed.”

“The thought saddens me greatly, but has much merit,” Reed declared.

Ariel drummed fingers on the table. “I think it’s time we check in town and see what happened at Feldspar. Brandi, I think this is a job best suited for you. Matt and I were going to do it, but maybe Gareth can go with you. I think it’s best we have a local with us when we travel and you probably want to disguise yourself somehow. Keep an eye out for men who look like Reed wandering around.”

“I’d like to go back to the healing house and work,” Heidi said. “If that’s okay with everyone.”

Ariel reached over and patted her arm. “Sure. Just stay with Eva and don’t wander around on your own. Contact Ryan or me if you need to go somewhere. Some of Matt’s people are still not happy we’re here. I see them watching us wherever we go.”

“They will not harm you while you are under my protection,” Matt said firmly.

Ariel turned to him. “You may believe that, but Heidi is not a fighter. I’m not willing to risk her. She doesn’t have Brandi’s skills or my urge to kill things. She will have an escort if one of us isn’t here.”

“Remember our lesson about trust?” Matt asked.

Ariel snorted, listening to her gut instead of her private parts. “I trust you, Reed, Gareth, and Ryan. Beyond that, no one in your pack has my trust.”

Matt didn’t like her argument, but it was valid, so he nodded.

***

“I hate your hair. The color is far too dark for you,” Gareth said, wheeling his pickup down the road leaving Anchorage.

“Who asked you for your opinion? Besides, this was the only temporary color your general store had in stock. It’s supposed to wash out in twenty-six washings. That’s better than something permanent,” Brandi said back, titling down the mirror to check her black locks. It looked great to her. She didn’t recognize herself. With sunglasses on and the black jacket she’d found in the bin in Matt’s office, she disappeared totally.

Her gaze went to the main entrance, which was roped off now. A ‘For Sale’ sign was hanging off the rope with a number to call. “Drive by this entrance and veer left at the fork. I know another way into the building site.”

Snorting, Gareth glanced at the lock on the rope which could have held a passenger ship securely at any dock. The twisted rope was larger in circumference than his leg. He followed Brandi’s instructions until they came to a dirt road that wove through the woods behind their destination.

“Turn here? Are you sure?”

Getting a chastising look for his question, Gareth sighed and eased off the roadway onto the dirt path. They drove slowly for about ten minutes until they emerged into what looked like a bombsite from an old World War II movie. Only rubble remained. The outline of the building foundation was all that was left.

When he pulled up and stopped, Brandi jumped from the truck and stalked to the edge of where the building once stood. Whipping off her sunglasses, her eyes took in everything all at once. He wondered what her mind was doing with the information. She walked around the site partway and then came back to him.

“Do you have a phone that takes pictures?” she asked.

Walking to meet her, Gareth pulled his phone from his pocket and keyed in the security code to unlock it before handing it over. Brandi pulled up the camera app and took shot after shot, even though he could see nothing of value in getting photos of cinders and ash. The ground couldn’t have been more level if a wrecking crew had hauled all the debris away.

“It stinks of chemicals here. What do you see?” Gareth asked.

“Nothing. That’s the problem,” Brandi replied. “There’s not a glass beaker, a metal cage bar, or any evidence at all of what was going on here. Someone’s cleaned this place up already. There should have been a lot more debris left, even if the building exploded and burned.”

Gareth nodded. “Think that company is done here?”

Brandi shrugged. “The ‘For Sale’ sign gives that impression. Maybe Matt can get someone to call and check to see what they’re asking for the land and lot. Here—I wanted pictures to show Ariel and Reed. Maybe we can get them off the camera later.”

“I’ll call for the sale price, when we’re safely away from here,” Gareth replied, taking the phone back when she handed it over.

“I’m going to walk up into the woods a bit, see if I can remember anything more about the day I got abducted. My ID and personal carry weapon were confiscated by the men that took me down. They either went up in smoke when the building did or were used to fake my death more convincingly. I’d like to know which. That’s going to be tricky to find out, unless I decide to become alive again.”

Gareth frowned and wondered how heavy her internal burdens were about what had happened to her. “How much does all this shit bother you?”

Brandi laughed at his question as she turned her face to him. “Gareth—as surreal as this seems, it’s not the first time someone has tried to fake my death. Last time was in Zimbabwe. Maybe one day we’ll get drunk together and I’ll tell you about it.”

“Werewolves process alcohol too fast to get drunk, unless you drink like a keg. Then you’re too busying urinating to enjoy the buzz. It’s a no win situation. I gave it up.”

Brandi grinned at his complaining. “Hang back and keep a watch out while I take a walk with my gut. Make sure you have a good story made up in case someone shows up to investigate why we’re here.”

Not waiting for his answer, Brandi headed to the woods. Something strong was driving her there. She veered left, then right, then following some instinct she couldn’t name she walked to a grove of trees growing close together. Near the base of one of them were some shiny silver shell casings. One burned her palm when she picked it up. It was like the chain around Reed’s wolf.

Closing her fingers around the shell casing, she felt her eyelids closing. An image of a younger version of Reed shooting a long-range rifle appeared immediately and very clearly in her mind. She opened her eyes, swore, and dropped the casing before it burned through her palm. She pulled off her jacket, gathered all the casings into it, and used it to carry them back to Gareth.

“I found several leftover silver shell casings by some trees. I think Reed got taken down just a couple days before I did. From what I recall, I was tracking Reed because he was a giant wolf who kept coming around Feldspar without digging through the trash for food or attacking any of the people coming and going each day. I knew someone was capturing the wolves, but they had never been able to catch Reed up until then. The guy who shot him is the reason it finally worked out the way it did.”

Gareth ejected the coin tray from the truck dash and held it out for Brandi to empty the shells into it from her coat. “That’s a lot more than six casings here.”

She had counted nine casings, but said nothing about the number. The only ones which mattered were the six that almost killed Reed. “Guy must have been a lousy shot. Or he took down more than one wolf. I would have thought Reed would have said something if there had been other werewolves trapped with him.”

Gareth nodded and set the casings in the back floorboard, a good distance away from both of them. They had residue from the silver bullets on them because Brandi shook her hand as she shrugged back into her black jacket. He wasn’t sure that was a good idea either.

“You need to see Eva about that hand…and we may need to replace your coat,” he said, a muscle ticking in his jaw at the thought of Brandi in pain and not admitting it.

Brandi looked at her hand, barked out a laugh, and then showed it to him. “Nope. Look—already healing. Got to admit I’m growing to love those little robots they put inside me.”

“Hearing about your creation only makes me want to kill those who did this to you. I’m trying my best not to think about what you have going on inside you.”

Brandi slid her sunglasses back on and smiled. “Too late. Ariel killed both the bastards by herself…and loved every minute of it from what I could tell. I only wish it had been me.”

Gareth shook his head as they climbed back into his truck. Brandi was certainly not like any woman he’d ever known.

***

“Damn it. You said they don’t actually disappear completely. So where the hell do my clothes go?”

Reed held out the blanket for Ariel to walk into it. Her frustration made him want to laugh, but her cold shivers held him back. “They don’t usually go far. They could be on the ground nearby or the last place they were before you put them on.”