Falling into the White (The Ancients Series) (17 page)

“I can vouch for Avery Daniels. He would never align himself with the likes of Zach, nor would he ever need to. I worry that there may a witch involved though, since one found Jess not too long ago at the school.”

“Yeah, I heard about that. Okay, who do you want going with me?” Jack smiled, “I assume I’m going, since you called me here.”

“Yes, I need you to lead. Take Andy and Tom with you. They’ll serve you well. Tom’s a little green and overzealous sometimes, so make sure you keep an eye on him. Andy’s a great tracker, so he’ll be a definite asset.”

“Yes sir, I will make sure everything is taken care of.” Jack got up and bowed his head slightly to my father.

“I’m going to need you to check in periodically with me, Jack. Not only do I need updates for how the search is going, but how well Avery’s men are cooperating. If Zach has help, it very well could be from members of another pack. Not Avery, but we’ve clearly learned here, that you never truly know the minds of your own people if they don’t want you to.”

“Yes, sir. If Jess gets any more clues from her visions, let me know too. You never know, the little details could definitely help.” With that, Jack walked back over to me and gave me another hug. “I’m sorry for earlier,” he whispered into my ear “I was out of line.”

“You were being a brother, Jack. Don’t ever apologize for loving your sister.” I kissed him on the cheek after saying it.

“My sisters, Jess. I love you too! I always will. And since I will be gone, and wont’ get to say my peace, you let Mikael know if I ever find out he mistreats you in anyway, I will be there, to make his life a living hell.”

“I absolutely will let him know that for you.” Jack smiled at me, and walked toward the front door. “Jack?”

He turned to look over his shoulder at me, “yeah, Jess?”

“Please, be careful. No matter what happens with Zach, we need you to come home in one piece.”

“Now, you know you never have to worry about me. I always was tougher than that son of a bitch! Hell, I think I was tougher when I was a scrawny human boy!” He winked at me then. “How about we bring his head back on a pike?”

“Brute!” I teased him. “Just bring yourself back, and if he finds his way into lock up too, we’ll call it an added bonus.”

“Tell Ashley, I said to be good while I’m gone!” With that Jack was left, and shut the door behind him.

“He’ll be okay, Jess.” My father came up and put his arm around my shoulder.

“Sometimes, it’s hard for me to remember that he’s such a badass werewolf. I think back on the boy who accidently pulled that trigger, and he was such a different person then. It’s hard to imagine him being one of the strongest here among the pack.”

“One of the smartest too, which is why I don’t want you worrying. I am tasking Jack with this, because I trust him, and because he has a personal interest in getting the job done.”

“I know. I still reserve the right to worry.”

“I can’t argue with you there. Do what you need to, Jess. I am going to go grab a few things from the truck. Let me know when Mikael gets here.”

“How did you know he was coming this morning?”

“Even you should know by now, when a man marks a woman, he doesn’t stay away from her for long.” As my dad finished his sentence, I heard the tell-tale rumbling of a motorcycle engine pulling up in front of the house. “As if on cue, there he is now.”

“Okay, I bow down to your deductive reasoning, Sherlock!”

“That’s Dad to you!”

I laughed at him as I re-filled my mug and took another out of the cabinet and poured coffee in it. My mom had left us to our own devices this morning. She had been hanging out in the living room, no doubt eavesdropping, while pretending to crochet a new blanket. When the knock sounded on the door, she was already there, pulling it open. “They’re in the kitchen, Mikael. Go on back.” She said to him.

When Mikael stepped in the room he looked between me, over by the counter holding two mugs, and then to my father who was standing there waiting. “Mr. St. Marks,” Mikael said as he tossed his hand out to shake my fathers.

Dad just looked at him for a minute, and then put his hand in Mikael’s and shook. “My daughter has made her choice, and I will stand by her decision, especially after seeing how you’ve handled yourself lately.” My dad stepped in closer, so their shoulders were a hairs’ breath away from touching. “Don’t make me regret liking you.”

“No sir, I won’t.” My dad let go of Mikael’s hand then, and stepped back.

“I have to go take care of some things. Jess, let me know, right away, if you see anything new. Jack was right, if they are true visions, knowing anything in advance will help.”

“I will.”

My father left Mikael and me standing there alone in the kitchen then. It only took Mikael a moment to cross the space between us. When he reached me, he took the two mugs out of my hands, and put them on the counter. “I don’t want you to spill on yourself,” he said to me as he did.

“Why would I…” Before I could finish what I was saying, his lips were on mine. His right hand fisted into my hair, while the left was wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer. As soon as I really started getting into the kiss, Mikael pulled away though.

“We need to get the important stuff out of the way first, or I’m going to lose track and continue doing what feels good instead.”

“I vote for the second thing. Feeling good is important.” I said to him, as I tried to pull him closer. “Yup, definitely a good thing.”

“Jess, your father mentioned your vision. Apparently, you had more than a couple strange dreams.” He grabbed the mug he thought was his, and took it to the kitchen table and sat down. “Come on, tell me about it.” He patted the chair next to him, and I grabbed my coffee and went to sit down like a good little girl. Hopefully, there would be a reward later. I told Mikael about the dreams I had, both of them. He sat, listening for a while, and never once interrupted me. When I was done explaining what happened in both dreams, visions, whatever they were, he finally started in with the questions.

“What did the witch look like again?”

“Okay, that was definitely not the first question I expected you to ask. I was thinking, the ever-shifting woman-wolf would be the first question.”

Mikael smiled at me. “That one is self-evident. She’s a manifestation of all the white wolves before you. So, about the witch…”

“Her eyes were odd. They were so light, almost like ice. They had a slightly bluish tint to them, but they were so very light that they almost looked completely white, aside from the contrast of the pupil in the middles. Her hair was reddish-brown.” I stopped there, because Mikael was lost in thought already. “What’s so important about that?”

“Sophia, the witch who removed my parents’ bond has dark hair, black actually, and dark eyes.”

“How do you know? I mean, you were a kid when it happened, right?”

“Yes, but she came to see my father. The other day when he called us to meet at De’ Lune’s. He dismissed Evan and me. When we were leaving Sophia was coming in to speak to him.” Mikael was thinking again, and this time I didn’t interrupt, because I was trying to wrap my head around everything that was going on. “The woman who came to see you at the school, did she also look like she did in your dream?”

“Yes, not quite as dramatic, but she had really light eyes and reddish-brown hair.” I looked up to see the worry written all over Mikael’s face. “She’s not Estella Sophia, is she?”

“No, she’s not. I think it’s best we find out who exactly we’re dealing with too.”

“She winced last night, when I called her Estella. I didn’t think a lot about it then, but I it was weird that she flinched at me using her name, as if it left a bad taste in her mouth to hear it, you know?”

“I know you can’t control the visions, but you need to be careful. I’m not sure what’s going on around here, but something is brewing. I really don’t like the fact that my dad has a witch around either. They can influence a lot without others knowing.” He grabbed my hand and held it gently, “Maybe you should wait on making any decisions until we get this all sorted.”

“What do you mean?” Now, I was the one worried.

“Well, it’s possible that a witch was affecting the way you feel, or the way Evan behaved.”

“Or the way you feel?” I asked, not able to look Mikael in the eye as I did.

“No, not that. Jess,” He tipped my chin up gently with his fingers, “Jess, look at me. I was falling for you from the moment I met you, and long before my father inserted himself in the picture. No one’s been messing with me.” He leaned in and kissed the tip of my nose. “I just worry that maybe there was influence on Evan, or you.”

“Mikael, I promise you, there’s no going back or changing my mind at this point. What’s done is done. Evan already had a track record with me for walking away and doing stupid shit, besides magical influence or not, I couldn’t just get over the whole cheating thing anyway. As for you…” I smiled at him then. “You’ve worked all the magic on me that you needed to. So, don’t even think about it like that, ok?” I thought about what both the wolves, and the witch said in my dreams last night. “Besides, the wolves seem to think I made the right decision, anyway, so there’s no arguing with that.” It was my turn to lean forward and kiss Mikael, only I wasn’t going for his nose.

His lips were incredibly soft as I pressed mine to them. His facial hair had grown a step past just day old stubble now, and the contrast of his rough whiskers on my face and his soft lips on mine was a delicious and heady mix. Without warning, Mikael reached forward, grabbed the chair I was sitting in, and slid it closer to him, so neither of us was having to stretch to reach the other. My hands found their way to the sides of his face, and traced their way around, one wrapping fingers around the longer hair at the top of his head, the other gliding across the short cropped hairs toward the nape of his neck. Mikael was full of those simple contrasts that pulled at things deep inside of me. I wanted more of him, all of him, and my wolf couldn’t have agreed more. I was coming out of my chair, and leaning into him, before I realized what I was doing. A low rumble of a primal, heated growl from Mikael, and my heat flooded my through my entire body. I was lost to the sensations, forgetting where I was, and that there were other things that needed to be attended to today. As quickly as the thought poured through me it was burned out by the passion that flared up between Mikael and me.

A loud clearing of a throat brought us both back down to Earth. “I have to go see Jack, Tom, and Andy off. I thought you might want to come with.” Mikael’s back was to my dad, so I had a full view of both his mortified face, and my dad’s amused one. Contrast, it sure was a kick in the ass this morning.

“Yup,” I cleared my own throat then, “be right there.” My dad was snickering. Seriously, shoulders shaking, trying to hold back his laughter as he left the room kind of snickering. “That was a little awkward.” I groaned out loud.

“Yeah, I guess I’m still not winning points with the family.” Mikael stood, and held his hand out to me. As I joined him, and brushed up against Mikael, I realized he was still very affected by our little kitchen make out session. When I glanced down, and then up, he smirked. “Yeah, I’m going to need a minute, maybe some cold water, and a little distance.” He stepped back then, so our bodies were no longer touching. Then he walked around me to the sink to splash some water on his face. I didn’t help things out any, because I just stood there biting my lip, watching him, thinking about how absolutely sexy he’d look standing there splashing water on his naked body. And with that thought my hormones ramped up a notch again, heat pooling in places that were not going to help the situation one little bit. Mikael went completely still. “Jess,” he growled out my name. “You are not helping the situation.” His eyes fell on me then, and I swear I couldn’t have moved if I wanted to. The smoldering look in his eyes at that moment had me pinned in place, as he began stalking toward me. He walked right up to me, not leaving an inch of space between us. I noticed, because splashing cold water on his face hadn’t helped at all. He turned my body then, so that my back was flush against his chest, and he leaned down, so that we were cheek to cheek, “you’re going to wait outside, and stop thinking dirty thoughts. His hand moved down the length of my torso, coming around and forward when he reached my thighs, “because I can smell your arousal right now, feel the heat coming off of you in waves, and if we don’t get a little distance right now, you’re parents are never going to like me again or want to use that table of theirs. Understand?” His hand stopped short of falling between my legs as he asked his question.

I couldn’t speak, hell my whole body was trembling with anticipation. A very huge part of me wanted to tell him to hell with my parents, and their table, but then he gave me a little push, and smacked my ass when I stumbled forward. The distance, once I made it out to the living room, helped. Unfortunately, it also made things painfully clear for me. I was absolutely sure I smelled like a bitch in heat, because all the men who were now standing in the living room turned to me at once, and either looked away quickly, or were assessing me appreciatively. “Where are my parents?” I asked, directing the question to Jack, who was purposely not meeting my gaze.

“They went out to get us some supplies from the service shed.” Jack was still looking away as he moved to the opposite side of the room. Tom and Andy weren’t looking away. They were both staring right at me, and coming closer.

“I need to, um, I’ll be right back.” I ran upstairs, and heard Mikael growl behind me as he walked into the living room.

I could have sworn I heard him growl out, “mine!” I grabbed some clothes from my closet, a towel, and jumped in a very cold shower long enough to rinse off, and dress in something that wouldn’t smell like I wanted to mate with every available male in the damn pack. Sometimes, being an unmated female werewolf was a horrible feeling. Our kind very rarely knew shame. We were used to being nude in front of people. It was second nature, but the whole, ‘I’m ready to get down and dirty and have some babies’ hormone trip my body just went on, was not cool. Not at all. A part of me wanted to hide upstairs, and not show my face again, but that wasn’t going to be an option.