Page 53

Grey

“So what’ll we do to him?” Jase asks.

“Take him back to Silver Hills and let the folks he fucked over decide.”

We’re sitting in my car in the red-light district on the fringe of the industrial section of a shitty small city that doesn’t smell all that much better than the Silver Hills scrapyard.

“Yeah?” Jase checks.

I know he’d like nothing more right now than to know we can dispose of this asshole ourselves.

“Think so. Those people have had their power stripped, no autonomy over any of their lives, not even their own bodies. All that shit. I think they should get to vote on what happens and I think a fair, balanced process is a good way for them to start on their new path.”

“Hm,” is Jase’s reaction.

“Unless he makes it so I have no choice but to end him,” I add through gritted teeth, knowing that what I’ve just said is the right thing and also knowing I won’t hesitate to end this fucker’s life if I’m facing a situation that makes it so I have to. Once he’s in my grasp, he’s not getting out of it to do more damage. That’s for damn sure.

“The fuck is all this shit gonna do to my sister?”

I look at Jase and feel for him. Not many people like Sherry Creed, but regardless of what a shitty person she is, there are people who love her. And if this jackhole is her fated mate, she’ll feel the loss. And whether he is or isn’t her fated mate, he’s an abusive asshole and it’s highly doubtful he’s been a prince to her for the last few days.

Both Jase and I have eyes trained on the massage parlor across the street from the corner of a strip joint parking lot where we’re parked.

We weren’t expecting the place to be open to the public just one night after Brody took someone out and injured four others as well as took three quarters of the “talent”, but the pink and green neon OPEN and MASSAGE signs are lit and we’ve watched the door for forty-five minutes, seeing it seems like it’s business as usual. Brody said nobody stood guard out here last night, though there was a built male receptionist slash bouncer type at the front desk who Brody had knocked unconscious and locked in a closet. Tonight, there’s a petite female receptionist instead, with two large, heavy guards outside.

Me and Jase watched the two guys frisk Jared. Jared is built of stone where they’re large but not made of the same stuff – he makes them look like marshmallows.

He says something that makes one of them laugh and then they let him in.

Using the small case of common potions Dani gave me, most of which I don’t have the barest notion of their purpose, Jase and I used the masking cologne. I need to read the material she sent me, but checked with her about using the scent mask and she gave me the green light to use it before doing any reading. She told me to apply it to pulse points and said this particular formulation would last between two and three hours. Of course Jared doesn’t need it what with his scentlessness.

I told Jared earlier that I owe him for all the help, that I’ll be there if he needs me to return the favor. He corrected me, telling me he’s more than happy to help considering we let him park his Airstream on our land.

“Why don’t you come on in once in a while, see how it suits you?” Jase asked. “Consider joining the pack officially.”

Jared clammed up and Linc was quick to speak up.

“Already told him that. He knows if he changes his mind to let us know. In the meantime, we won’t pressure him, and he can consider himself an extended member of the pack.”

It has me curious. Jared seems well-adjusted. I can’t wrap my mind around being an alpha without the need to take care of some people, be around folks, go for runs with others in wolf form. Ty has talked a lot about living as a lone wolf and has made it plain that the way he lives now is how he was meant to live. He can’t imagine going back.

Though I guess Jared’s doing his bit to pay us back now, lending a hand without the long-term commitment so I imagine it must scratch the alpha itch somewhat. Still, I’d like to know more about his situation and though he’s been a huge help, I can’t say I’m 100% comfortable with him, because not only is he scentless, which throws my wolf off, but unlike most alphas, betas, or omegas… I don’t understand what makes him tick.

***

Brody described the two-story building as having a large upstairs apartment with five bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen. The ground level has a lobby with a reception area and ten small “treatment” rooms along with an office and two bathrooms. There’s no basement.

Twenty-five minutes have taken forever to pass and Jase is increasingly fidgety.

“Might take a bit of time for him to suss it all out. Relax,” I suggest.

“Yeah, like you’re relaxed?” Jase scoffs. “You’re just as amped as I am. You just think you hide it better.”

Yeah, I want this shit over with. My wolf is pacing back and forth in a cage right now. Having this over with tonight would be ideal. Put Meadows where he can’t hurt anybody. After the drama is over with, I’ll be ready to celebrate by taking my good girl in the woods, on her hands and knees again for me – that sweet little ass tipped up and waiting for more of my teeth marks.

I shuffle in my seat with impatience. Jase scoffs.

Jared was planning to order a massage and said he’d then scope the place out for signs of the jackhole, of the missing little girl, or any other shifters. It’s after nine o’clock and the strip joint we’re parked at is hopping, so we’re not likely to be noticed. We’ve watched two cars pull up behind the massage parlor, two other men walk over from the strip joint on foot, but one car pulls out now, driven by a middle-aged guy driving off looking a whole lot less tense than he looked when he went in after Jared.

“Quickdraw McGraw?” Jase muses.

This time it’s me that scoffs.

“How weird is it?” Jase asks. “Mating.”

“How weird is it?” I parrot. “How weird is what part of it?”

“One minute you don’t know her, the next minute you’re out of your mind with love?” He screws his face up.

“It’s not weird at all,” I respond. “It’s fuckin’ awesome. Something snaps into place, and you just know it’s how it’s supposed to be.” I sip my take-out coffee.

Jase lets out a grunt.

“I know how you’re feelin’, Jase. I started to wig out a bit right after Mase because it felt like the clock was tickin’ for me and I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, we all know what to expect but we don’t fully know until it’s happening to us. Trust me, bro. When you smell her, you’ll know it’s how it’s supposed to be. Considering I thought I wanted one more kick at the can and the one I wanted it with turned out to be the one for me is probably not a coincidence.”

“Hm. But… you don’t think you’ll miss being single? Being able to play the field?”

“Nope,” I say immediately. “ This is how we’re built.”

“I know I’ve said it before but serious… more than the monogamy, what flips me out the most is worrying about someone’s safety 24/7. Even more than I worry now about the whole pack?”

“Yeah. Their safety, their peace of mind. Whether they’ve had enough to eat. Whether they’re happy. What they’re thinking about when you feel tension or worry coming from them. But wanting to do nothing but fuck them and make them happy. Believe me, Jason, it’s the best.”

“I look around at the women in the pack and can’t imagine feeling that way about any of them,” he says. “Including the ones I’ve had a good time with.”

“I hear you. Maybe you’ll suddenly know it about someone you already know, or maybe it’ll be someone you’ve never met. Like with me and the others all mating outside the pack.”

“Yeah, and that’s a point of contention at home. Heard Cicely, Audrey, Leona, Bailey, and Roxy all bitchin’ at the bar about that right after you mated. All the super alphas being taken by women outside the pack like the girls at home are chopped liver or somethin’. Said at least you mated with a shifter, which pissed Bailey off, but me and Joel made the mistake of walkin’ right into that. Leona pointing in my face and sayin’ if I wind up mated to an outsider too they’re gonna picket in protest outside Roxy’s. Worried that you’re the middle of the council and you and all three before you didn’t mate with a local woman so now they’re stressin’ about Linc, me and Joel goin’ the same route.”

“It’s not up to you who you mate with, brother. There was concern it’d be someone in Silver Hills. Wouldn’t have surprised me at all.”

“Same,” Jase says. “Wondered if that’d happen. Some sweethearts in there. But there’s definite baggage with the girls Brody rescued from this joint last night and the rest of them are too old or too young. Be fun if it was Danica Young, but obviously that’s not happenin’, or it probably would’ve by now.”

“You never know what’ll happen until it does, my brother. But man, my mate has baggage and it doesn’t matter a lick to me. She’s mine, baggage and all, and that’s all that I give a shit about. That she’s mine, that she’s happy, fed, safe, satisfied, and smells like me. Baggage or no baggage.”

“No offense,” Jase says.

I shrug and sip my coffee again.

He goes on, “Don’t like to be a broken record, but just hate the fuckin’ suspense of it all. When is it gonna happen? Who’s it gonna be? Drivin’ me bananas.”

“Time will tell. Probably soon given the pace.”

“Yeah,” Jase mutters. “Wanna find my sister and know she’s all right, so if mating cuts me off at the knees I won’t feel torn between finding Sher and looking after my mate.”

He’s been jiggling his legs with impatience, but now his pace has ramped up to where the whole car is shaking with it.

“Maybe I oughta go in,” Jase straightens up. “I got the scent mask on, so…”

“But Meadows has seen you, knows who you are. There’s surveillance cameras. Be patient, bro. Jared’s capable.”

He grumbles under his breath and fidgets in the passenger seat some more.

The front door of the massage parlor opens and Jared strolls out, cracks a joke with the bouncers who laugh, and rounds the building. He’s getting in his truck in their back parking lot. A minute later, he’s pulling out onto the street, so I start my car and follow.

***

We’re in a twenty-four-hour supermarket parking lot six blocks away, the three of us outside.

“No new shifter scents,” Jared tells us. “I could smell the lingering scents from the girls from yesterday. Got a massage from some human who didn’t have the first fucking clue how to do a massage and declined the happy ending while giving her a good tip, so she skipped out happy, big smile on her fake lips, fake tits not even bouncing. While I was gettin’ dressed I slipped into the hall. Halls were quiet. I managed to scope the place out and no way he’s been there tonight and he ain’t coming, I suspect. Reason? Stepped up to an office door and heard the owner on the phone, leaving a message for Meadows.”

My phone rings and it’s Bailey calling. Jared stops speaking. I reject the call and gesture for him to keep talking.

He goes on, “I could tell by his message it’s not the first message he’s left. He’s pissed. Clear Meadows hasn’t called him back. And the animosity from the message… this guy wants to hear from him immediately. Said he had to take care of some things because of his deal with Meadows and Meadows owes him for it. If that guy planned to come pick up more dough, he might not do that now given he knows some guy came in, knocked out the desk guy and shoved him in a closet, beat up two patrons, ended another patron permanently, and took all those new girls with him, leaving behind only the girls that already worked there.”

“Good point,” Jase says. “Clearly the owner got rid of the body of the guy Brody pulled off his mate.”

“Yep,” Jared agrees. “Got the impression from hearing the message the owner of this place is no stranger to the human crime underworld. Don’t get the sense he knows anything about Wyatt Meadows or those girls being supernatural.”

Maybe this explains the reaction in the locator spell. Meadows planned to come but won’t now that he knows the pimp is pissed at him.

Bailey is calling again.

“One sec,” I say to them and answer the phone. “Not a good time if this is a social call.”

“I’m at the hospital in town. M-Mom’s here. She’s unconscious. It’s…” She makes a choking sound. “We don’t know what’s wrong with her, Greyson. I’m scared.”

“Where’s Dad?” I ask.

I hear my sister smoking. Bailey smokes cigarettes when she’s upset.

“He’s on a fishing trip with Ace and Andy. I can’t get ahold of them.”

“Where’d they go?”

“Andy’s cabin.”

“Cell service up there is always shit.”

“Lorenzo is driving up there now to get Dad,” Bailey says.

“Tell me what’s wrong with her.”

“She dropped. She just literally dropped in the kitchen while we were gabbing about nothing, and I couldn’t wake her up. Cat’s there with you, so Amie rushed over and did CPR but called an ambulance when Mom wouldn’t wake up. She said Mom’s not responding to stimuli, her breathing is irregular, and one of her pupils is larger than the other.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“I don’t know. Mase and Amie are here with me, Amie’s talking to the doctors. She says they’ll run some tests and let us know what they think it is. I’m really, really scared, Grey. Dad won’t be here for at least six hours and Mom smells really funny. I… I…”

“Smells like what?”

“I don’t know, but nobody here smells it. Just me. It’s like… I dunno… like… some flower I’ve never smelled, I think. It’s faint but I can kind of taste it… cloying and I… I don’t know.”

“I’m on my way,” I say.

“Okay.”

“Call me if anything changes.”

“Uh huh.” She sniffles.

I call Linc and tell him, asking him to let Stacy know.

Linc phones me back two minutes later.

“Linc?”

“It’s me,” my mate says. “Lincoln just told me. What happened?”

“Sorry to pass that as a message, Blossom. Hang on, I’ll put you on speaker.” I put her on speaker and put the phone on the dash. “There. Bailey said they don’t know what’s wrong with her. They’re at the hospital in town. My father’s hours away on a fishing trip somewhere with no service. I would’ve come back and got you first but didn’t want to lose an hour driving back to you and heading back out again. They’re running tests. She just dropped in the kitchen a few hours ago.”

“I truly hope she’s okay,” she says.

“Gonna try and get to the bottom of it. Dani said earlier I could use her gifts to assess what sort of healing someone needs, so I need to get there. Gonna call Dani now and run this by her. Why don’t you try and get some sleep? I’ll get a message to Linc or Jase when I know more. Jase and Jared should be back soon. No sign of your brother at that massage parlor.”

“Drive carefully.”

“Always do, babe. Later.”