Page 12 of Deadly Reckoning (Broken Ashes #7)

Neith

I smile sheepishly and nod, “Yeah, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, you’re fucking amazing,” he replies softly.

Before I can ask him if he’s lost his damn mind, his lips meet mine, and I practically melt into him. My hands fist in his shirt as I pull him closer, and his chest rumbles with a growl.

It may well be one of the most sexiest sounds I have ever heard.

He deepens the kiss, his tongue moving with mine as his hands skim my waist, brushing against the outside of my boobs, before coming to rest on either side of my neck, his thumbs gently running across my jaw.

He slows the kiss before he pulls back.

I pull a disgruntled face, “Stupid public places, you’ve really got to kiss me like that when we’re somewhere that isn’t public.”

He chuckles his gold eyes like molten pools, “Deal, Neith.”

“From the way that you kissed me, I’m going to assume that you are feeling okay now?” I double-check.

“More than okay,” he says as he leans down and kisses me once again, “thank you.”

“Don’t make me full name you again,” I reply, trying to be stern and failing. Mostly because my clit is still pulsing with need, and I want him really fucking bad.

“I like it when you full name me,” he replies and then frowns, “okay, maybe not in that situation.”

I chuckle, “Come on, let’s go and see if there’s anything else that we can help with.”

He nods and steps back. His fingers thread through mine as we walk back to the guys, and they’re all watching us, smiling, even Rana is grinning.

When we’re in earshot, Doc points at Reed and Coen.

“Cowards,” he accuses, “you abandoned me to my fate. Our woman was mad as hell, and you ran.”

Coen chuckles, “Mad at you, brother. That’s not an ‘us’ problem.”

“Besides, you didn’t look like you were minding being left to your fate that much,” Reed points out with a smirk. “But hey, I mean if you’d rather we stayed next time and reap the rewards with you, I’m more than happy too.”

Coen’s eyes heat as he studies me, and I try not to show just how fucking turned on I am by what they’re suggesting. I also try to push away the images of Coen and Dimitri and the delicious things that they used to do to me.

“Good point, Reed. I think next time we should all stay,” Coen says, his lips ticking up into a smirk.

The clearing of a throat distracts us all, and Rana grins, looking extremely amused.

“You guys were starting to gain the attention of the others,” she grins, pointing to some of the wolves that are milling around within earshot. She shrugs, “Wolves are notoriously nosey.”

Calia chooses that moment to walk up to our group. She smiles at Rana, but doesn’t hold her hand out or anything as she introduces herself, “I’m Calia. I’m sure that Van has filled you in on everything by now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Rana replies with a slightly nervous frown. “Thank you so much.”

“There’s no need to thank me. I’ve left a little note with some information in it at the cabin, and for as long as you want it, that cabin is yours,” Calia says.

Rana’s eyes are huge. Her voice is hushed as she mutters, “Thank you.”

Calia smiles ‘her mom smile’, “Of course.” Looking at the rest of us, she says, “We’re just helping to unload all of the vehicles with supplies, and then we’re heading back to the compound. Asher and Amari know that they can call on us whenever they need to.”

“Great, that sounds good,” Van says. “I think we’re pretty much finished here.”

Van looks around at all of us, and we nod. I don’t think that there is anything else that we need to do.

Calia nods and fishes some keys out of her pocket. She hands them to Rana, “This is the only set of keys to the cabin. No one else has a set. You are completely safe there.”

Rana’s expression fills with relief, and she nods as she takes them off of Calia and clutches them to her chest.

“We’ll show Rana where the cabin is,” I offer.

Rana’s tense shoulders drop, and I curse myself for not realizing sooner that she was probably worrying about a stranger taking her.

I mean, anyone would probably worry about a stranger taking them to an isolated cabin in the woods, but as someone who has experienced extreme abuse, she’s going to not just worry, but panic as well.

I reach out my hand to her, and she takes it. I squeeze it gently.

“Let’s get going then,” Doc says.

“It’s really late, but if it’s okay, we’ll meet you back at the compound after we’ve made sure that Rana has settled in. There are a couple of things that we need to discuss,” Evander says to Calia.

She nods, “Of course it is. I’ll get some supper ready just in case.”

“You don’t have to,” Ransom immediately replies.

Calia just shakes her head like he’s being ridiculous, and replies, “Don’t be silly.

I’m happy to, and dinner was interrupted anyway, so you could probably do with a little something extra.

You have all expended a lot of magic and need to keep your calories up as well.

Now, off you go, you can take the bus, it’s the only one that you will all fit in anyway, and I’m assuming that none of you want to split up right now. ”

“You assume correctly,” Coen confirms with a smile.

Van steps forward and pulls his mom into his arms for a quick hug, “Thanks, Mom, you’re the best.”

She grins as they part, “I know. Now, off with you.”

We’re all smiling as we make our way through the crowd of wolves that are all surrounding the table, talking and eating. There’s an air of celebration around them all, making me smile.

As we weave our way past the wolves helping Calia and Eamon’s people unload the vans of supplies that they’ve brought with them, I spot the frowns and looks that are being thrown in Rana’s direction, and I become even more sure that she has absolutely made the right decision to leave.

I’m also incredibly proud of her and the way she handles it. She doesn’t cower under their gazes, but stands tall without becoming confrontational.

I wouldn’t feel good about leaving her here.

No one should ever be anywhere where they feel unwanted, and she would feel that way really quickly here. Scratch that, she already feels unwanted here.

It’s not necessarily the wolves fault. They’ve been through some pretty horrific stuff at the hands of Derek, and although they know what, or at least some of what Rana has been through, she was still the wolf that stood by his side, and most likely spouted all the shit that Derek forced her to say.

They all understand that she had no choice, but some of them will find the old Rana difficult to reconcile with the new one especially since she wasn’t a part of their pack before Derek brought her in as his mate.

They don’t know her, not the real her, and all of that is going to create some distrust.

It’s shitty, but it would be worse if she stayed and they started to treat her badly because of it. If they’re already giving her looks now, then it wouldn’t be too long until someone escalated the situation.

That’s not even taking into account that her wolf is incredibly strong, which would put her quite high up in the pack hierarchy, and the other wolves definitely wouldn’t like that.

As we get to the bus, I ask, “Is there anyone here that you want to say goodbye to?”

Rana shakes her head, “No. I didn’t know anyone here, not really.

He kept me in isolation as much as he could.

Which was quite a lot considering I couldn’t shift, so he never had to let me go on the pack runs.

The only reason that I was in the cave with the others was because he wanted me to spy on them and tell him what they said about him.

” She looks around at the compound, “I’ll never be coming back here again, and I’m fucking ecstatic about it. ”

I nod, “That’s understandable. Let's get the fuck out of here then and get you to your new home.”

She smiles, “Home. I like the sound of that. I don’t think I have ever had a home.”

I frown as we all get onto the bus, and take seats, the guys talking quietly among themselves, as Van hops into the driver's seat and we start to back out.

“You don’t think?” I ask curiously, hoping that it's not a question that’s going to cause her to lock up.

She nods, “Yeah, I’ve been in the wolf sales for as long as I can remember. No one wanted me because I was broken and couldn’t shift. I made sure to make them think that I couldn’t anyway. Which was a blessing in disguise actually, until Derek came along.”

“Fucking hell,” I mutter.

She nods, and then her expression fills with hope, “I can help them now though, can’t I?”

I nod, and then continue cautiously, since some people don’t like the law, “Actually, we’re SID agents . . .”

Her eyes widen, and she squeezes my hand, “You can help them. That’s fucking perfect.”

I grin, “Yeah, it is, and we will help them. When you’re ready, call me and tell me any information that you can, and we will shut it down.”

“You will?” she asks.

My intuition stirs, and the Voices mutter, I have no idea how the fuck I’m going to fit this in around everything else, but it looks like our first job back isn’t going to be the Blue Fucker case at all, but this one.

To be honest, we don’t have any leads for the Blue Fucker right now anyway, and until we do, we’re stuck. We may as well work on another case while we’re waiting for leads.

“Yeah, we will get the she-wolves and shut it down for good,” I reply to Rana.

“We will?” Coen asks curiously, the others all watching me closely as well.

I nod, “Yep.”

They just shrug, and that’s the end of that. I love that they trust me enough to just go with it. I’m sure that we will have a discussion about it, but for now, they’re just trusting me and my instincts. It feels really good.

Rana smiles, “Thank you. You know it’s not just she-wolves though? There are males as well. They didn’t discriminate. If they could make money off you, then they would. It was as simple as that.”

“Fuck,” River growls. “We’re absolutely looking into this.”