He trailed his fingers lightly along her arm.
She stifled a moan of desire. He stopped instantly.
“Am I hurting you?”
“Not at all.” She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “I’m torn between wanting to rip your clothes off and wanting to curl up in pain.”
He lay down next to her and wrapped his arms around her. “We can just lie here together,” he said. “We’ve got all the time in the world to be together.”
“So what happens now?” she asked.
“Well, the humans are going to figure out pretty quickly that Rhona is missing, but there’s nothing tying it to us,” he said. “The final hearing is just a formality at this point. The judge will give us full custody of Jeffrey, and we’ll hightail it back to Hidden Hills. You guys will be safe there. We’ll keep searching for Talbot until we find him. He’s been burned. He can’t go back to his pack, and now that we’ve got most of the werewolf packs signing up to the database, everyone will know what he looks like. He won’t be able to take refuge anywhere. He’s been used to a life of luxury and privilege for a long time now; he’s not your typical feral rogue who’s happy squatting in the woods. He’ll screw up.”
“He’s a computer security expert,” Celeste mused. “He was going to help design the database. He was really gung-ho about it.”
“Yes, he was,” Grant said. “And when we were meeting at the lodge and it seemed as if the database was never going to happen, we think that Talbot took action. Anthony Craddock said he’d never go along with the database, and the next day, that very public lone wolf attack happened in upstate New York. It was an attack so obvious that it seemed as if the werewolf wanted to be noticed. After that, most of the packs that had been resisting felt like they had no choice but to sign up. We think Talbot staged that attack, and most of the other lone wolf attacks that happened in the months leading up to our meeting at the lodge, and we think he sent those men to attack us.”
Celeste lay there quietly for a minute, deep in thought. “He wanted to have access to information on every werewolf in existence. What was he looking for?”
“Good question. He’ll never have access to it now, though. Our pack and Ford Blackwood will be starting from scratch to design the software for the database to ensure that he can’t get access to it. Don’t worry about it right now. You’re safe, Jeffrey’s safe. Get some rest.”
He wrapped himself around her, reveling in her warmth and softness, and gradually, her breathing slowed and she dozed off. He put the ice on the night stand and fell asleep next to her.
A knock on the door woke them up. They sat up, yawning, and saw Mandy standing in the doorway. Grant glanced at the wall clock; they’d been asleep for three hours.
“Hey, I hate to bother you, but I’ve come up with some interesting information,” she said. She walked in. “What gives? You’ve both got all your clothes on. Has the magic died already?”
“I just got the tar kicked out of me a few hours ago,” Celeste grumbled. “I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t put me in an exceptionally randy mood.”
“It doesn’t?” Mandy looked at her questioningly. “Humans are strange.”
“You came in here to annoy us for a reason?” Grant said, exasperated.
“Well, other than the fact that I genuinely enjoy annoying you, yes, I did.” Mandy sat down on the bed next to them.
“Please, make yourself comfortable,” Grant growled. “It’ll be just like old times when you’re on my bed not having sex with me.”
“And to think, you paid me for that. Weirdo. Anyway, if you’d just let me talk, I could let you get back to not having sex with your mate,” Mandy said impatiently. “I’ve done some asking around. An interesting thing happened about fifteen years ago. A lone wolf disappeared. He was a rarity. Like Jeffrey. His mother was actually human when she gave birth to him. He was kidnapped by a man who shot him with a tranquilizer gun. He was with another lone wolf at the time, who managed to escape, but there was no way to safely report it. As a lone wolf, he would have risked being killed on sight if he tried to approach an official pack.”
“So how did you find out about this?” Grant asked her.
Mandy shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. It’s important information. And here’s another thing. The year that lone wolf disappeared…it was the same year Talbot came out of nowhere and took over a small pack, then started building his way up. I heard Austin and Reynaldo talking about it a little while ago. Apparently Talbot had some story about coming from a really small, completely isolated pack in Canada, but Cliff started making some inquiries. It seems pretty clear that the pack doesn’t exist. He literally came from nowhere. I can’t quite wrap my head around what’s going on, but this is somehow connected to why he wants Jeffrey.”
Celeste sat up. “Are you a lone wolf?” Then she looked at Grant. “Because if she is, you can’t kill her. No matter how annoying she is. She risked her life to save us.”
“She’s not a lone wolf,” Grant said. “I know her pack.” His eyes narrowed. “She’s a member of the Network. And all those people who came to save us when those men tried to kidnap Jeffrey, and the people who came to rescue us when we were in upstate New York and then vanished? You called them, Mandy. They were lone wolves.”
Mandy quirked an eyebrow. “The hell you say.”
Grant nodded to himself. “That explains a lot. Like why you were free to just ditch everything and come hang out with me whenever. And why you agreed to come to this meeting at the lodge. You wanted to know what we were up to, and how it would affect the Network.”
Mandy shrugged. “Well, it wasn’t your boyish charm or your stunning good looks. Nothing personal, but you’ve never been my type.”
“That’s because Truman is your True Mate,” Celeste said. “And that’s why you never made a move. Because you had this whole secret life going on, and you were forced to deny yourself the wolf you love the most. It’s so romantic!”
“Yeah, it’s been a real joy,” Mandy said glumly. She sighed and stood up, moving away from them. “So, Grant, not that I am confirming or denying, but what’s your next move?”
“Listen,” Grant said to her. “This central database doesn’t have to be a bad thing for lone wolves. I’ll talk to Cliff about it. We could start working with the Network to find placement for lone wolves who have legitimate reasons for wanting to leave their packs.”
