We both laughed and sniffled, and I opened my arms while wrestling with my blanket to give my bestie a hug.
‘I need a fucking drink after that shit,’Cass told me.
‘Make it a double,’I answered, before remembering I was pregnant.
Damn crotch goblin.
10Pissing Contest
After all the drama,Brock and I met up with Ray and the rest of his wolves to put Nathan’s body to rest. The entire pack, save the most badly injured wolves, gathered to pay its respects. As part of the pack, it seemed only right that I do the same, especially since Nathan had basically saved my life; it didn’t much matter that he did so after his death.
After the burial, Brock encouraged me to lie down for a bit. Boy, that sounded like heaven. I was dead on my feet.
He’d finished his phone conference with the council, who’d determined that a site visit wasn’t needed. The older wolves had decided that because Croft, who was now the local seethe leader, wasn’t filing a dispute, they were able to accept Brock’s claim based on his word alone. There would be no investigation.
Thank you, Croft.I owed my vamp lawyer tenfold.
I really wanted to nap for a little bit. I was beyond exhausted—cooking a bun in the oven really took it out of you—but my ex-boyfriend Jack and his partner Kenzie would be here within the hour, and they’d be expecting a full report on the siren. It was time to hunt this bitch down, so tired or not I was going to buck up and give it my all. Maybe I could sneak half a cup of coffee when Cass or Brock wasn’t looking. I’d googled it and one small cup a day was deemed safe from what I’d read.
“I want every single box opened.” I pointed to Molly, who was hovering by the police files we’d gotten on Calista. “Look for anything new or unusual.”
“Cass, start a board,” I said, and my bestie started to clear space along a wall in the dining room for us to pin things on it. He dragged Gran’s old-school chalkboard out from the garage and leaned it up against the wall, sticking a piece of chalk in the waistband of his fanny pack.
I started to pace, hoping to encourage a burst of energy, picking up files and peering through them as I went. “Things we know,” I said aloud so Cass would know to write what came next on the board. We’d done this hundreds of times; he knew the drill. “The siren is killing humans, probably tied to a witch, and wants to open the gates of the underworld.” I paused. “But don’t add the underworld bit. I don’t want Jack or Kenzie to see it.” Best to keep everyone on a need-to-know basis.
Cass nodded while jotting notes with a scrape-y chalk sound. “And the siren’s powerful.”
Molly, who was grabbing file after file and tearing through them, squealed, prompting Haru and Reo to move so they could look over her shoulder. The warriors had pretty much moved into Gran’s cabin under the guise that they needed to protect me. But the more I saw them fawn over Molly, the more I wondered if there were other motives for the rooming arrangement.
“What is it?” I asked.
Molly looked up, wide-eyed, like she’d won the lottery. “All her victims go to the same gym. That’s where she’s scouting her prey.”
“Does that gym have a pool?” I asked, hurrying over to consult the files.
Molly passed me the folders. “Yep. Olympic sized. I’ve been there before.”
Gotcha!
Gravel crunched outside, and Cass, the warriors, and I moved toward the large window by the dining room. Haru and Reo twitched their hands over the hilts of their katanas, their muscles tense.
“It’s okay,” I said to them, sharing a wide-eyed holy-fuck look with Cass.
Jack’s SUV was coming to a stop right outside.
Oh God. Exhaustion fled and my whole body tingled like a live wire.
‘Well, this is going to be interesting,’Cass said, and I giggled as if I’d just escaped a madhouse.
‘Interestingis not the word I would have chosen,’I said.
My werewolf ex-boyfriend was on my alpha baby daddy’s land.
‘Would it have been better if I’d said this is going to be a clusterfuck?’
‘Better? No. But more accurate,’I told my bestie.
‘I wish T were here. She’s not going to want to miss the show.’Cass sifted through his fanny pack for his cell phone. Tianna had offered to take Willemena to rent a car so she could drive home since the cantankerous old witch said that traveling the way she did to get here was reserved for emergencies only. When Brock had told her to put the car rental on his credit card, Willemena had demanded a convertible. The witch was comical. The crone left with a vial of Brock’s blood as payment for her help. Though the vial was small, Willemena had clutched it like it was a treasure. In the world of spell casting, alpha blood was.
