Page 4

ELIAS

I was annoyed it had taken them an extra hour to get ready.

“My hair needed to dry, anyway,”

Marlowe explained, trying to redirect my ire from our newest pack mate.

I huffed and glowered slightly at Julian in the rear-view mirror. “Sure.”

Logically, I knew she had probably been the lead instigator in whatever they’d been up to, so I couldn’t blame him.

Illogically, I was upset that she’d washed away all of our scents from the previous night, and we were going into the station with only Julian’s on her. I wanted every one of those alphas to know she was my omega, not just my client.

I also hadn’t begun to really process what having another pack mate meant when it came to splitting Marlowe’s limited time even further. After what happened last night, I’d begrudgingly accepted her tie-breaker vote to let him in, and I had to admit he’d more than proved his worth as Marlowe’s alpha. I mean, hell, if it weren’t for him…

The thought of Marlowe disappearing with that piece of shit vamp made me want to simultaneously cry, throw up, and punch a hole in a wall.

She sensed my unease and placed her hand on my knee, giving it a slight squeeze. “Anything else we should know before we go in?”

I thought for a moment before answering. I tried to think of what this experience would be like for someone new to our world, and since I’d just dealt with the MHPD to deal with those alpha farmers not too long ago, my knowledge of them was pretty fresh. “Cops are mostly alphas,”

I started, and then she gave a short, derisive laugh.

“Yeah, no surprise there,”

she replied. Julian snorted in agreement from the back.

I was sure whatever interactions I’d had with the police in the past were likely different from these two, but we were almost there and didn’t have time to go into a lengthy discussion.

“Be prepared for a lot of sniffing,”

I continued, the building now in sight. “And maybe some posturing. When you meet with the detective, there’s nothing to lie about. Just speak as truthfully to your memory as you can. If either of you get rattled, look at me.”

Marlowe left her hand where it was, staring out the window as we pulled into the parking lot. Julian’s face appeared calm, but his knee was bouncing.

It was time for me to take the lead, and I sent calm down the bonds to help ease their nerves.

“It’s going to be okay,”

I assured them as we entered the building.

Inside, I gave our names to the officer at the front desk, and within a few minutes, a familiar voice called from down the hall.

“Elias, back so soon?”

I should have anticipated we’d be working with the same detective from the incident at the alpha farm.

Like most alpha females, she was quite tall, nearly six feet herself. She wore skinny jeans with a blousy top and oversized blazer, her chestnut brown hair cut into a smart bob. Her badge was clipped to her belt, and she held a large travel mug full of coffee.

“I hope you aren’t planning on making a habit out of this,”

she said with a slightly condescending smirk, taking a sip. “We might be able to overlook a deadly feud between packs here and there, but reigniting wars with vamps is another thing entirely.”

I knew she was trying to get me on the defensive, but I declined to let it affect me. “Detective Linda Oakley, these are my pack mates, Marlowe Linden and Julian Ramos.”

She shook Julian’s hand and then moved on to do the same with Marlowe, but as she got closer her pupils dilated and her nostrils flared. “You really are an omega. May I?”

Before Marlowe could say anything, Linda lowered her head right into the crook of her neck and breathed in deeply. Marlowe reached behind her and grabbed my hand, and I let out a small warning growl.

Linda snapped her head back up. “Sorry, I know she’s bonded to you and your pack, I just… I’ve never smelled anything like it.”

She smiled at Marlowe like she was looking at a puppy. “You’re so cute.”

Marlowe furrowed her brows, which only made the detective laugh. “Oh my goodness, I just want to pinch your cheeks!”

The officer at the front desk coughed and Linda shook her head quickly, trying to rid herself of the intoxicating effect of Marlowe’s perfume. I’d had no idea how an alpha female might react to an omega, but I certainly hadn’t been expecting that. “Wow, I… never mind. Um, where was I? Ah, yes, the vampyrs. The interrogation room is this way.”

Julian, being a young, newly bonded alpha with a lot to prove, had his fists clenched at his side, clearly rattled at watching the detective’s reaction to Marlowe. Even I felt my composure dangling by a thin thread. He wrapped his arm around her possessively as we walked through the bullpen.

Conversations around us suddenly stopped and phones rang unanswered as cops stood at their desks, sniffing the air as we walked by.

All it would take was one whispered comment or random catcall and I might end up under arrest myself for assaulting an officer, especially with Marlowe’s unease and apprehension reaching towards me for support through the bond. I slowed my pace to match hers, taking her hand in mine while Julian still had a firm grip around her shoulders.

Linda opened the door to one of the rooms and then gestured to a chair outside. “Ms. Linden, why don’t you wait out here, I’d like to get a statement from Mr. Ramos first.”

“No,”

Julian barked.

Linda sneered at him, straightening to her full height as she rolled back her shoulders. “Excuse me?”

He pulled Marlowe in closer and bared his teeth. “I’m not leaving her out here alone.”

Thank the Moon for Julian verbalizing my thoughts. My wolf was growling, refusing to leave her unprotected with so many curious alphas sniffing around her. Yet as their attorney, their legal buffer and shield, I needed to put my ego and instincts aside to make sure these interviews went smoothly. Because things could get very difficult and ugly if we didn’t play along.

Linda stepped up to Julian and narrowed her eyes. “Are you insinuating these officers can’t be trusted around your omega?”

I could feel Marlowe’s own annoyance now peeking through. I knew her well enough by now that she disliked being treated as though she couldn’t speak for herself.

“Insinuating? No, I thought I was clearly saying they can’t be trusted.”

He gestured towards the alphas at full attention, staring at us. “The air is so thick with pheromones I could choke on it.”

It was hard not to agree with him, but snapping would make things worse. I had to defend them in my own way. “Please excuse Julian, Detective Oakley. He’s newly bonded to our pack and is feeling quite protective over Marlowe, especially after the attack.”

After a few beats she sighed, tilting her head. “I can’t deny I feel my own strange urge to defend this little omega at all costs, so I’ll forgive the insult to this department for now. But trust me, she’ll be fine. Won’t you, sweetie?”

Marlowe’s head jerked back an inch, taken aback by the pet name. “Uh, I guess?”

“Of course you will. As soon as I’m done with your alpha here, I’ll bring you in.”

Marlowe blew a piece of hair out of her face and rolled her eyes, slumping down in the chair and taking out her phone. “Whatever.”

She certainly wasn’t doing herself any favors by acting like a cute little brat. My cock twitched at the thought of teaching her a lesson, but I tried to focus on the meeting at hand instead, and not Marlowe laying down over my lap with her pants pulled down, my hand print on her perfect little ass…

I cleared my throat and followed Julian and Linda into the small interrogation room, not letting the sound of the heavy door closing and separating us from Marlowe distract me.

“Okay, if you two gentlemen would have a seat, we can get this started.”

Julian slouched in his chair, his arms crossed and foot tapping. Linda opened a thick file on the table, taking a few minutes to silently skim over the first few pages. It was an obvious attempt to piss off Julian even more, but I couldn’t let him take the bait.

I glanced at him and shook my head nearly imperceptibly, and he nodded his understanding, sitting up a little straighter.

After Linda had thoroughly displayed her dominance, she began speaking. “Alright Mr. Ramos, let’s get this wrapped up. I just need to run through a few things here with you and then with Ms. Linden, and after that you can all be on your way.”

Julian sighed. “I was defending myself and Marlowe. That’s it.”

“Yes, I got the gist of it from your pack and some eyewitnesses that drove by the attack. I just want to hear the whole story from your mouth. From the start.”

Scratching his chin, Julian began to recount how he had seen a woman being attacked in a car by a vampyr and he’d decided to follow, forcing them off the road to confront them.

“The driver went after me with a knife, and I defeated him with my bare hands.”

Linda grunted her approval. “And the other vampyr?”

“He was attacking Marlowe, and we fought. Fucker flew like ten feet in the air and dropped on me, and then…”

“Wait.”

Linda held up her hand to stop him. “He flew?”

My eyes widened. I probably should have had them go over the story in detail with me first, but I hadn’t thought anything like that had happened.

“Yeah.”

He looked at me for confirmation and I leaned towards the table, placing my hand on top.

“Just to clarify, my client is explaining what he perceived at the time. This doesn’t change the fact this was clearly an act of self-defense.”

Linda clicked her pen. “Of course. It’s just… look,”

she turned to me. “I went over your statements from the attack at Mr. Wolcott’s house, and the eyewitness accounts and security camera footage from city hall. By now, all of Maiingan Hollow knows your pack can shift. Flying is the vampyr equivalent to shifting—a trait that’s been lost to their kind for many generations. There must be some sort of catalyst that’s behind these abilities coming back to us.”

We all instinctively looked towards the door, behind which Marlowe sat alone.

“It won’t take long at all for everyone to figure out your omega is the common denominator here. Is she… reawakening these abilities through sex?”

I held out my arm to stop Julian from leaping over the table, growling my response. “We are not answering that question.”

Linda didn’t even flinch at Julian’s snarling, she was too occupied with unraveling the mystery to really notice. “Fair enough, but you’re going to have to prepare yourselves once it starts getting asked. The people here are going to realize that she’s the connection, if they haven’t already, and they’re going to be wondering the same things—how can Ms. Linden bring out a shifter’s wolf, and can she do it for me?”

And with Marlowe being an omega, shifters were likely to jump to the same conclusion that the answer lay in sex. We were already dealing with alphas frothing at the mouth over thoughts of knotting her, but add in gaining the ability to shift, and Marlowe would be in serious danger.

We needed to come up with a plausible explanation as to why we could shift and others couldn’t that didn’t involve Marlowe. Fast.

I shot a quick text to Archer, since this sort of thing seemed more in his wheelhouse, then put my phone back in my pocket. Julian tapped his foot, his eyes darting to the door, while Linda remained silent. She stared at some spot on the table, her mind clearly working quickly behind her static eyes. “It’s blood, isn’t it?”

She looked up at us, my ticked-off expression likely confirming her theory. She was smart, and seemed to be asking more from curiosity than desire, but all I could see was a threat. I bared my teeth and sucked in a breath. “I think you’ve said enough on the subject, Detective. Let’s not speculate…”

“You all bonded with her,”

she said, more interested in following her own threads than acknowledging my display of dominance. “Ingesting her blood through the bite. And then the vampyr drank her blood and could fly again.”

I got up. “Julian, I think we’re done here. Unless you’re planning on charging my clients, we’re leaving.”

“Don’t worry,”

she replied calmly, holding out her open palms. “No other vamps were around to see, right? I won’t write that part down. The Vampyric Council is already asking for a copy of my report, and the last thing I want to do is give them another reason to come after your pack and Ms. Linden.”

I slowly sat back down, waiting for her to finish.

“I can’t explain it, but I feel this overwhelming urge to just take her home with me, brush her hair, wrap her up in blankets and paint her toenails…”

Julian and I didn’t even need to growl for Linda to realize she had majorly overstepped. “I’m sorry, I would never do anything like that. And it’s not even sexual, I’m straight. Married, even. But I guess this is the power omegas have over us, huh? So interesting.”

She shook her head and sighed, clicking her pen again. “Okay, I think I have enough here. Once I get Ms. Linden’s statement, you all are free to go.”

Julian leaped out of his seat and made it to the door before I could, ripping it open to check on Marlowe.

But she wasn’t where we’d left her.

Panic seized my chest, and I noticed a significant portion of the officers were missing now, too.

“WHERE IS SHE?”

bellowed Julian.

“Kitchen,”

someone called out flatly, unaffected by Julian’s rage.

Linda dashed ahead of us and we followed. I guess she didn’t trust her colleagues nearly as much as she claimed.

I reached through our bond and didn’t feel any fear or pain from her, but it didn’t stop my imagination from running wild, going over the myriad of the worst horrors that could be falling over her.

We burst through the kitchen door and found Marlowe sitting happily at a table with a box of donuts, surrounded by cops who watched her dreamily while she ate.

Her eyes lit up as we entered. “Hey guys!”

she greeted, her cheeks stuffed and a spot of powdered sugar on her nose. “Do you want some?”