Page 16

Chapter

Fifteen

I lurched across the kitchen and into the living area. A Mexican-American woman stood at the door, flanked by Kale and Denzel.

She was tall—at least six foot—with a fit, muscular build. Her waist-length hair was the shade of perfectly balanced soil and her large eyes were half-hidden behind a pair of mirrored sunglasses. She was younger than me by a couple years, at least, and there was an aura of natural power surrounding her that I’d never felt around Alpha Floyd.

She reminded me of Ronan.

“Hello, Betty. I’m Lydia. The cat opened the door, but I didn’t want to enter without your express permission.” She gave me what I took to be a genuine smile.

“Please, come in.” I came forward, escorting her inside.

Kale and Denzel remained outside on either side of the door. Someone must’ve told them they were to guard their alpha, and they were taking that duty seriously.

“Will you be comfortable if I close the door? The guys are welcome to come inside. ”

She shook her head, her hair flowing over her shoulders. “That’s not necessary. I was told by trusted sources that I could expect to be treated fairly by you.”

“I give you my word that you will be,” I said.

She shut the door, and I escorted her into the kitchen. The radio was still on and “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” by Vicki Lawrence was halfway over. It was my favorite version of the song, but the part about small town corruption hit too close to home for comfort. I turned down the volume.

“Please have a seat, Alpha Vincent. May I offer you coffee? Tea?” I’d gotten used to having visitors in the kitchen when I had the Airstream because there’d been nowhere else for them to sit except my bed. Now, it felt like the right room in which to congregate. It was warm from the oven and filled with good scents.

“Coffee would be nice, thanks.” She took the chair closest to the door. “And it’s Lydia. Alpha Lydia if you can’t stop yourself from using my title.” Her smile was easy. Kind.

“Got it.” I poured her a cup and set cream and sugar on the table. Poured myself a cup of peppermint tea.

“Is the omega here?” She looked around.

“Yes.” I peered around the room, finally spotting the white rat on the mantel again. “Maya’s been through a lot in a short amount of time. Maybe we should have a cup of coffee and some cookies and let her come out on her own. When she’s ready.”

I said it so calmly, when all I wanted to do was grab Maya, hand her to the rat alpha, and demand any information she had on my missing people.

But that would make me no better, and maybe even worse, than Desmond Mace. So I gritted my teeth and waited for her to work up the courage to come into the room on her own.

Lydia took off her sunglasses and set them on the table. Her eyes were a soft green. “My apologies if I was too direct. It’s my way, I’m afraid. I’ve never been a fan of beating around the bush.” She nodded at the plate of cookies. “Someone told you I like strawberries. ”

“Yes.”

“Smart of you to use the information. I appreciate smart people. May I?”

“Please do. Otherwise, my partners and I’ll eat them all.”

Fennel hopped onto the chair to the right of the alpha. She stared at him, not rudely, but longer than comfortable. I had no idea what was happening. Fennel could handle himself in an attack, but I didn’t want him to have to.

I really, really needed this to go well.

“You’re not a shifter. Familiar?” She casually grabbed one of the tiny cookies and popped it into her mouth.

“No,” I said. “He’s one of my partners. This is Fennel.”

“Nice to meet you, Fennel.” She didn’t try to pet him, which I’m sure he appreciated. He was funny about who he allowed to touch him. “As I mentioned, I have two cats at home—one black, one white. They’re more like my deadbeat roommates than my partners.” She grinned. “I love Salt and Pepa ridiculously, though.”

Dang it, she was so likable it was distracting. I was going to have to press her for information, and I might not be able to be nice about it, which sucked.

“Alpha Lydia, I did invite you here, at your request, to meet Maya. But I had another reason, too. I need information. Desperately.”

I gave her the highlights—lowlights?—of the situation in which I found myself. I played up the missing friends angle, though from her expression, she wasn’t buying it.

“You aren’t friends with Margaux Ramirez,” she said when I was finished. “The other witch, Bronwyn Jonas, yes, and you’re sleeping with the third alpha, but I don’t understand why you’d want to find the coven mother.”

“Ex-coven mother,” I said, brushing over everything else. It was hardly the time to clarify my relationship with Ronan, plus, I had actually slept with him once. Nothing had happened except sleep, but still. “And yes, I did hate Margaux. To be honest, I still don’t hundred percent trust her, but I believe she’s trying to do the right thing now, which puts us on the same side. Enemy of my enemy and all that.”

The alpha ate four more cookies, and I topped off her coffee. She said nothing for a few moments, merely looked from Fennel to me and into the living room, chewed and sipped. Finally, she spoke. “I’ll want a favor.”

“No certain-death situations, nothing I’d have to compromise my morality for,” I said.

“Deal. You can’t refuse on any other grounds.”

“Deal,” I said. “What’s more, if your information takes me directly to my friends, you’ll have my loyalty. That’s no small thing.”

She took a sip of coffee. Set the mug down. Tapped her fingernails against the tabletop. “This goes no further than this room.”

Hope unfurled in me like a sunlit rose. “Understood. Maya, we need your word, too,” I called out. She wasn’t on the mantel anymore, and I couldn’t see her anywhere.

Maya popped into the room like she’d been hovering around the corner, waiting to do just that. “You have it. Bronwyn is my friend. I’ll do anything to help her.”

She’d shifted back to human and was dressed in some of the clothes from the suitcase I’d snatched from Desmond’s closet. Her choppy hair was pulled into a ponytail, and though she still looked a few meals short of healthy, at least she seemed more at peace with herself.

The alpha stood, seeming mesmerized by Maya’s sudden appearance. “It’s true. You are an omega.” Her eyes lit up. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Maya gave her a wary but sincere smile. “Likewise.”

She took the chair across the table from Fennel and accepted a mug of coffee. “Alpha, if you can help us find our people, you will have my eternal gratitude.”

Alpha Lydia leaned back in her chair. “Gratitude is nice, and I appreciate it, but I deal in information. I request a favor.”

I frowned. “I already told you?— ”

“That was from you, Betty. I’m talking to the omega.”

Maya wrapped shaking hands around her mug. “Okay. Yes. Anything.”

“Not anything, Maya,” I said. “You’re vulnerable right now. Don’t agree to something you don’t understand.”

My diplomatic way of saying, “You just got out of an abusive situation, don’t be so quick to dive headfirst into another.”

The alpha sat up in her chair and placed both hands palms down on the table. “Let me be straightforward. The favor I want from you, Maya, is a twenty-four-hour run with the pack. No obligation beyond that. You don’t have to join us, you don’t have to help anyone—just be with us for an entire day. That’s it.”

“Why?” Maya asked.

“Because you’re an omega.” Alpha Lydia said. “You’re special. Hasn’t anyone told you what you can do?”

“Well, I know my presence can help a pack feel more peaceful.”

“You can do far more than that. An omega makes a pack feel strong and connected. If a member is troubled, you can bring them peace. If a pack is fractured, your presence can help repair it. An omega is the second most powerful rat—only the alpha leader has a higher standing.”

Maya blinked several times in rapid succession. “No one ever—I mean, I wasn’t told—I never knew that.”

“A smart leader values an omega above all else.” One corner of her mouth tugged up. “And I’m one hell of a smart leader.”

“Damn it, stop making me like you,” I said, “we’re trying to do business here.”

She laughed. “No can do. I’m irresistible.”

“I agree to your deal, Alpha Vincent. I’ll go on a run with the pack and spend an entire day with you all,” Maya said. “However, before I can do that, I need to find my friend. Will you please help Betty and me?”

“Once again, my sharing of this information stays in this room.” Lydia took a slip of paper from her back pocket and slid it across the table. “The witches are being held here. As far as we can tell, there’s no ward on the place but use caution all the same. One of the witches is hurt but still alive. They saw her brought in this morning. The other, my contacts weren’t sure about. They couldn’t get close enough.”

I took the paper. “You knew the story before I told you?”

“I’m a rat.” She shrugged. “Information is my superpower. You did give me some additional insight, if it makes you feel better.”

“What about Ronan Pallás? Do you know anything about him?” I asked.

“Some.” She cocked her head, made a so-so gesture. “Tell me what you know.”

“He went on his usual run, which he normally does after the bar closes. So, around two, two-thirty in the morning. According to reliable sources, he takes his phone and leaves it with his clothes when he changes.” I thought it over. “I should add that he runs in human form to the pack path and shifts there.”

“A lot of the wolves do,” she said, and I didn’t ask how she knew that. I was pretty sure she’d just chalk it up to her superpower again.

“So, nothing about this was unusual until it was. This morning, one of the wolves tracked his scent to a dirt road where it died out. Beyond that, there’s no trace of him and his things are gone. We believe someone grabbed him.”

“That wouldn’t have been easy. Ronan Pallás is a powerful wolf.” The way she said it, as if it were a fact rather than an educated guess, told me she knew him. Maybe not well, but she’d definitely been in his presence.

“No. They would’ve had to hurt him.” My voice started to shake, so I made myself take a drink of tea before continuing. “Probably with magic.”

“Yes. Magic is my guess.”

“You know something,” I said. “Tell me. Please .”

The alpha tapped the table with her index fingernail. “I know the La Paloma coven accosted the Pallás pack third on his run this morning. My informant tells me there were two males and a female present—Desmond Mace, Aldrich Redding, and Carolina Foster. They got out of the car chanting, so my informant hung back.”

Holy hell, she knew a lot more than something.

“Ronan also tried to back away but collapsed before he was able to. The three witches tried to put him in the trunk, but none had the strength to lift him. They were only able to drag him into the back seat. One of them wielded a blade.”

A knife? Anger welled up in me.

“There’s more, but I don’t know how helpful it will be,” she said. “My informant saw the car the witches were driving brake for an SUV a mile or so up the road. They weren’t able to get a good look at it, though they said it was either gray or silver. At first, they assumed the vehicles had stopped at a four-way-intersection—there’s one up the road another mile or so—but a closer look told them otherwise.”

“Did anyone get out?”

“They didn’t say, which means they didn’t see.”

How in the world does the rat alpha know these things? Was she involved?

Alpha Lydia popped another cookie into her mouth. “Your silence tells me you’re wondering how I know this.”

“I am,” I admitted.

“We rats have developed group bonds that allow us to share information. Much as the wolves share information about each wolf, we share information about all sorts of things. Honestly, it can be a bit overwhelming at times.” She shook herself like a wet dog trying to dry itself. “An omega in the pack would help a lot with this.” She smiled at Maya. “No pressure.”

“Okay.” Maya smiled nervously.

I thought about Kale and Denzel and Felicia. All rats. All with secrets. “Is it possible you don’t know everything your rats know?”

She nodded. “As I mentioned, we share information. It is entirely possible for rats to keep secrets from the pack. Otherwise, Christmas morning would be a total bore.” Her smile was self-deprecating and brief. “You’re referring to how I didn’t know Kale and Denzel were part of a Mictlantecuhtli cult.”

And Felicia being able to keep her collusion with Alpha Floyd a secret, but, “Yeah.”

“The short answer is every rat has their own lives. I’m their alpha leader, not their mom. The long answer is, as in the case of my two Aztec-god-of-death-worshipping rats, I did know they were involved and chose to let them figure it out on their own. I would’ve interceded had it gone too far.”

The situation had seemed way past “too far” to me, but Alpha Lydia seemed to have a higher tolerance for risk than I did.

“Also, and you might not appreciate this, but sometimes I’ll allow things to play out. I find more is revealed by the things people hide rather than what they choose to share.”

“Is anyone pointedly hiding information about Ronan Pallás?”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I know he’s important to you.”

“Very,” I replied softly.

The news about Ronan was grim, but I couldn’t allow myself to wallow in misery when I had a new lead on Bronwyn and Margaux.

I picked up my mug of tea, threw it back like a shot of tequila, and stood. “Come on, Fennel. Let’s get Cecil and check this out.”

He stretched, his back doing that Halloween, humped-back thing. He’d curled into a ball on the chair sometime while we were talking and taken a snooze, yet I would’ve bet he’d caught every word of what we’d said.

“Alpha Lydia, you’re welcome to stay and talk with Maya.” I glanced at the half-empty plate of cookies. “And eat.”

The alpha turned to Maya. “Is that all right with you? If not, we can speak another time. I understand you’ve been through a lot.”

I liked that she’d picked up on the other woman’s state of mind and was being careful with her. It made me feel better about leaving.

“Would you stay? I can make another pot of coffee and maybe you can explain more about what an omega does for a pack? I have questions.” The second she finished saying this, her face fell. “What am I saying? I shouldn’t be thinking about myself at a time like this. Betty, I should go with you to find Bronwyn. This is a situation where I might come in handy.”

I couldn’t imagine a worse idea, though Ida had come up with a few over the years.

“Having a rat on board would be great, but remember, Desmond is looking for you. And with the way your whiskers have been cut, I’m worried you might not be able to find your way home if we were separated.”

“The motherfucker cut your whiskers ?”

The room went dead still. My heartbeat pounded in my ears. Alpha Lydia’s voice had punch. She was great at playing the part of a regular pack leader, but that voice told me she was anything but.

“He told me not to shift, but I couldn’t help it.” Maya sounded sad and small. “So he cut off my whiskers so I couldn’t go far.”

Alpha Lydia’s hands squeezed into fists, but she said nothing. She didn’t have to. Her rage was all over her face.

I bent down beside Maya’s chair. “Don’t worry, okay? I’ve got my partners. Cecil can squeeze into the smaller places, and Fennel has a way of opening doors that even I don’t understand. We’ll be fine.” I gave her the burner phone I’d used to communicate with Bronwyn and Margaux. “Keep this close. Don’t give out any information on it. It’s strictly a yes/no/thumbs-up emoji device. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“I’d like more coffee,” Alpha Lydia said stiffly. “Would you please make us some? I’ll share all that I know of omegas while we wait for Betty to bring your friend home.”

Maya tucked the phone into her pocket and got up to make a fresh pot. “Thank you. That sounds nice.”

“I’ll walk you to the door,” the alpha leader said. “I need to speak with my rats for a moment.”

We walked out onto the porch. Kale stood to the right of the doorway, Denzel to the left of the porch steps. Both gave a slight bow to their alpha .

“This witch, the one who cut the omega’s whiskers,” she said, staring into the distance. “You plan to kill him like you killed your stalker?”

Holy shit, the woman really did know everything. It made the fact that she didn’t know where Ronan was even more chilling.

“I never plan to hurt or kill anyone,” I said. “I only plan to survive, and sometimes that’s how it works out.”

“Understand this. No one harms a rat in my territory and gets away with it.” She glanced from Kale to Denzel and muttered, “Unless they do something so stupid they deserve it.”

“They attacked me first,” I said hurriedly.

“I know,” she said before lapsing back into the sightless stare into the distance. “You will take some of my people with you tonight. They will assist you.”

Kale jerked stiffly. Denzel’s head whipped around, and the fury in his eyes was startling. It made him seem less like a goofball than he normally did. It made him seem downright dangerous.

“I sent a message to the pack. They now know what that bastard did to the omega. They all know,” Alpha Lydia said. “And they want retribution.”