Red (6 page)

Grif stopped speaking mid-sentence when Steve walked into the front parlor of the Pack house. Not a good sign. The tension in the room escalated to a peak level and some of the younger and lower-ranked wolves started to fidget. The Clan Alpha wasn’t pleased.

“We’ll finish this in a few minutes. For now, lay low and avoid the humans as much as possible until we figure this all out,” Grif told the gathered wolves.

It looked like all the folks currently living or serving at the Pack house and the two werewolf Alphas had been gathered into the room. With a nod from Grif, all the wolves but the Alphas got up and left on quiet feet, passing Steve with nervous smiles as they made their way out the door. When the last was gone, Steve closed the door and moved farther into the room.

“What were you thinking bringing them here, Steve?” Grif asked, clearly exasperated.

“Grif—” Steve tried to get a word in edgewise, but his older brother was clearly working up a good head of steam.

“With all the trouble we’ve had lately, you bring not one but
seven
complete strangers into the heart of our territory. And one of them is fey!” Grif cursed not completely under his breath. “Those damn fey bastards. You never know what side they’re on.”

“I didn’t know about the fey girl until later,” Steve admitted, knowing he wasn’t helping his own case, but it was the simple truth.

“That’s even worse. Dammit, Steve! You know better than this.” Grif ran a hand through his hair in an impatient gesture. He’d let his golden locks grow pretty long since leaving the service, unlike Steve, who kept his military short. “I heard one of them is a friend’s sister. Which one?”

“Do you remember Derek Morrow?”

“Deke? Shit. He asked you to keep an eye on his baby sister? He must trust you more than I realized. That guy used to go ape shit if anyone even mentioned his sister. Have you called him?”

“And have him and whoever he can scramble storm our territory with murder on his mind?” Steve laid out what they both knew would happen if he called Deke and told him his baby sister had been roofied. “No, thanks. And it just got more complicated.”

“How could this get any more complicated?” Grif wanted to know.

“She took a shower.” Steve didn’t know how to say this, so he edged around it as best he could.

“Fuck man, you didn’t jump her in the shower did you? No way you had enough time for that.”

“Give me a little credit,” Steve scoffed. Though if he was honest, if he’d known she was in the shower, he might’ve been tempted. “The problem is, the chemical scent washed off. And then I got a good whiff of her real scent. Bro, she’s…” He didn’t know how to say it.

“Oh, no. What?” Grif’s eyes narrowed.

Steve sank to the couch and put his head in his hands. “She’s my mate.”

He had whispered his confession, but he knew the three Alphas in the room—Grif and the werewolf couple—heard him.

Silence greeted his words and Steve felt every moment of it. Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore and looked up to see the strangest expression on his older brother’s face. It was a mix of happiness and concern. Steve understood that reaction all too well. He stood, moving restlessly.

“Deke is gonna serve your balls on a platter,” Grif said finally, whistling between his teeth.

“Surely not,” Bebe scoffed, coming closer. “Congratulations, Stevie. I’m so happy for you.” She put her arms around him and pulled him downward so she could place a motherly kiss on his cheek and give him a squeeze. Steve let the diminutive form of his name roll over him. Nobody had called him that in a long time. Nobody but those who’d had a hand in raising him would dare. Bebe was one of the few. She was like an aunt to him and he felt a small pang for what his mother’s reaction would have been had she still been around to offer her love and advice at this pivotal moment in his life.

“Congratulations, lad,” Pete offered, shaking Steve’s hand once Bebe let him go. “Does your lady know? Does she realize what it all means?”

And there was the crux of the problem. Steve had to shake his head in dismay. “She’s human. She doesn’t know about our world and I don’t think she has any feelings for me one way or the other. If anything, she’s either embarrassed that I saw her in a vulnerable moment or grateful that I was there to help her out. I have no idea if she’s even attracted to me.”

“You’re a hunk,” Bebe said with smiling confidence. “Of course she’s attracted to you. And even better, she’s your mate. If she doesn’t realize it yet, don’t worry, she’ll come around.”

“I wish I had your confidence,” Steve admitted. “Trisha’s human, Bebe. She probably doesn’t feel the mating bond the way we do.”

“She’s more than that, actually.” Slade’s voice came to them from the open doorway.

Steve had been so caught up in his own problems that he hadn’t really registered the slight click as the door opened. He was losing his edge and it was all because of the startling developments with Trisha.

“Sit rep?” Grif prompted Slade for the situation report as he came into the room and shut the door behind himself.

“She’s magical. Very magical. In a way I’ve never really seen before. I think maybe she’s got some nymph in her ancestry somewhere, but I can’t be sure,” Slade reported. “Kate’s with her, helping her check on her friends and observing. I don’t think she’s dangerous to us, and she seems completely unaware of her nature—or at least unaware of the magical aura around her.”

“You’re kidding.” Steve was surprised, to say the least.

“Certain kinds of nymphs are known for attracting the opposite sex. Is it possible she’s not really Steve’s mate?” Grif asked sharply.

“Good question,” Slade said thoughtfully as all eyes turned to Steve.

“Look…” Grif paused and sat down on the edge of the couch, defusing a lot of the tension in the room. His motions invited everyone else to do the same. “Let’s start at the beginning. Tell me exactly what happened tonight and don’t leave anything out.”

Steve couldn’t sit. He paced while everyone else listened to his recital of what had taken place that night. He started with the covert surveillance on the bachelorette party group. He’d picked up their trail from their hotel and followed them down the strip to the club where they’d been drinking steadily.

“They started out calmly enough. A few mixed drinks, a lot of laughter and jokes. I kept to the wall, far enough away that I couldn’t smell them, but close enough to see what went down at their table.” Steve ran a hand over the inch-long fuzz of hair he kept on top of his head. “After about twenty minutes, they started to attract the wrong sort of attention. Jorge, the new vamp in town, slithered in. I caught his attention and warned him off, but while I was having a little talk with him in the corner, the wolf pups moved in. Sometime during all this, the alcohol consumption had increased five-fold, at least. The girls suddenly had rows of test tube shots lined up. Each of them had a rack of the things. The tubes looked colorful and festive. Just like something a bunch of girls would order. I didn’t think much of it except to realize that they’d probably be really drunk, very soon.”

“So the pups moved in on the girls independently?” Pete wanted to know. “They had no idea you were watching that group, right?”

“That’s the way it looked to me. They seemed surprised to see me when I left Jorge and moved toward them. About that time, a fight broke out, delaying me. When I finally got to the girls, I realized something was seriously wrong with those shots. The chemical scent was overpowering and their reactions were way over the top. I signaled one of yours…” Steve nodded toward the werewolf Alphas, “… and they called in the cavalry. They met us outside, where they’d foiled an ambush that was waiting by the door. My guess is that the fight was started to delay me and force the women out of the bar, where the trap would have been sprung.”

“Somebody was targeting them,” Bebe surmised with a frown. “Maybe the fey was attracting the wrong sort of attention? Or maybe your mate’s magic attracted it, Stevie. I hate to say it, but we all know firsthand that there are evil folk out there who would easily prey upon such easy targets.”

“Because there were so many wolves involved, it seemed right to bring the ladies here when you suggested it, Pete,” Steve addressed the wolf Alpha with respect. “I’m sorry I’ve brought trouble to your door. I just didn’t see any alternative. Yours is one of the few places equipped to take in so many strays. I’ll reimburse you for whatever costs they incur and I’ll reinforce your security with the Clan’s, if you’ll allow it.”

“Done and done,” Pete agreed with a serious nod. “And I understand why you brought them. I don’t really blame you for it. Sometimes things just work out the way they work out.” The older man shook his head.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was supposed to work out this way,” his wife agreed. “We’ll help however we can, Steve. The security of your mate is important to all of us. We want to see you both happy and safe.”

A little pang went through Steve’s heart at the love Bebe displayed so casually in her words and her attitude. He missed his mother. She’d been ripped from his life by violence only a short while ago. He hadn’t really healed from the loss yet. He’d moved on with his life, but there was a gaping hole where his mother used to be in his heart.

Bebe reminded him of that endless, boundless, unconditional, maternal love. She reminded him of his mother. His greatest champion no matter how old he got. His mother had understood him and counseled him and filled the role of wise elder for not only him, but the entire Clan. She was sorely missed.

“If she really is his mate,” Grif reminded them.

In his heart, Steve had no doubts. His inner cat knew its mate. It wouldn’t be fooled by nymph magic. It knew its heart’s desire. And so did Steve. Even though it was going to cause problems for him with one of his best friends, Steve knew Trisha was meant to be his.

The question was, did she realize it? And if she didn’t now, would she ever? She wasn’t a shifter. She didn’t have the same mating imperative wired into her DNA. Would she leave him and sentence him to a miserable life alone?

The sad truth was, he thought just maybe, she would.

She wouldn’t mean to hurt him, but she didn’t understand what mating among
weres
was all about. Hell, at this point, she didn’t even know he
was
a shifter.

And to top it all off, she was probably still in danger from whatever or whomever had targeted her little group of friends. Once something evil got the scent of unprotected, naïve magic, it didn’t easily let it go.

Whether it was the fey or Trisha herself that had attracted the evil, he didn’t know. He didn’t think it really mattered at this point, because all seven women—the humans too—were clearly in the crosshairs.

“Regardless, we must protect them all,” Slade put in. “Kate’s still upstairs with them, but I had a chance to talk over a few things with her. All of them will require a few days recuperation. They’re not going to come out of the stupor any time soon. It’s a magical as well as a mundane drug they’ve been given. The two who got sick—your woman, Steve, and the half-fey girl—reacted to some ingredient in the potion. Kate thinks it might’ve been silver, but she hasn’t told Trisha that. Better to let her go to the lab and find out for herself. She’s very intent on analyzing the substance they’ve been drugged with, so I suggest you take her to the lab at your earliest opportunity. She’ll find out what happened on the physiological level while Kate and I will try to figure out what’s going on magically. The half-fey woman agreed to help us there. Better to get Trisha out of the way for now. Let her do her doctor thing. Then figure out what we need to tell her as it comes.” Slade sighed and ran one hand through his shoulder-length black hair. “If she really is your mate, Steve, we’ll have to let her in on our secrets. If it’s the drug—or her magic—then maybe we can skate.”

Steve saw red but reined in his temper. “While I understand your caution, she
is
my mate, no matter what you think. I’ll deal with her and I’ll thank you all—” he paused to look around the room and eyeball each person in it, “—to leave her to me. She is my business. Not yours.”

Everybody looked at Grif, wondering how the Clan leader would handle Steve’s ultimatum. Slade bristled, as did Pete, but they both deferred to Grif, as it should be. Grif’s jaw clenched visibly a few times before he spoke, a sign Steve recognized as his older brother’s attempt to manage his own anger. Too bad. Steve wasn’t backing down. Not about Trisha.

“If she poses a threat to the Clan, the wolf Pack or any of our people, she becomes our business, Steve. For now, I’ll leave her to you.
For now
,” Grif repeated, emphasizing his words and his forbearance.

Fine. Steve would take that and run with it. He nodded toward his brother and headed for the door. He wanted to be with his mate. The cat wouldn’t put off seeing her, basking in her scent, for another minute.

Chapter Four

The lab Steve took her to wasn’t far. It was housed in the corporate offices of Redstone Construction, which contrary to popular belief was housed in a two-story structure—nothing higher than a shifter could safely jump from—that resembled a house more than an office building. It was on the outskirts of the city on a wide parcel of land owned outright by the Redstone family.