“RHONDA.” I BEAMED AT HER, FEELING FIERCE BEHIND THE SMILE, AND took a seat opposite. Zach stood at my back. The rest of the pack waited outside the windowless room she’d been stashed in. “So good to see you.”
She glared at me through narrowed eyes. The phrase
mad as a wet cat
went through my mind. She’d had time to dry off after the dunking she’d gotten, but she still looked pissed.
“So I have you to thank for this.” Rhonda nodded at her body, which was thoroughly tied to a chair. It might not keep her from shifting, but it would at least slow her down.
“You mean your stunning new look?” I eyed the rope. “That wasn’t my idea, but you know, a lot of guys are really into the bondage thing. If you want to try it out at home, you can keep the props.”
She hissed at me, “Bitch.”
“That’s right.” I nodded, smiling. “I never did answer your question at the mall, although you actually asked Zach, not me. But just to be clear, yes, I am his bitch.”
“You’re going to be sorry you did this.” She jerked sideways, trying to loosen the knots, but whoever tied her knew how to do it right and it was a wasted effort.
I wondered if David had done it. If so, there was a game I wanted to play with him later. But for now, no happy distractions. Focus.
“I doubt it.” I leaned back and crossed one knee over the other, letting my top lower leg swing in a deliberately careless pose. “See, I was thinking, we female shape-shifters are rare. And you showed such an interest in me. I thought I should give us girls a chance to talk. It seemed only right.”
“We have nothing to talk about.” Rhonda glared at me, and I wondered at the depth of her animosity. I mean, really, was I the one who’d been causing trouble?
“Are you sure? Because I have to believe you want something.” I tapped my chin. “I wonder what it could be? I don’t think it’s about real estate. Until the rogue werewolves confused things, our two groups had a relatively peaceable history. Maybe the occasional fight, but you know, boys will be boys.”
“I’m not playing this game with you.”
I shook my head. “Oh, Rhonda. It isn’t a game. If you didn’t know that before, watching me disembowel Ray should’ve given you a clue.”
Something flashed in her eyes. What, I wasn’t sure. Not fear, but something.
Acting on instinct, I went on, “Speaking of Ray, I was rude to run off this morning without saying thank you. You kept your cats from interfering in a pack matter.” I put my feet flat on the floor and leaned forward a little. “I do have you to thank for that, don’t I?”
She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t tell me I was wrong, either.
Hmm.
I tilted my head to look up at Zach. “Can you give us a minute alone?”
He didn’t like it. I saw it in his eyes, the tight muscle in his jaw, the firm line of his lips, and the set of his shoulders. But he nodded. “I’ll be right outside.”
I smiled, just for him, loving that he trusted me to handle this and to take care of myself. “Thank you.”
Zach left the room and the door closed behind him. I watched him go, then turned back to my guest. “Now it’s just us girls,” I said. “You want something. So do we. We want to get on with our lives without cats dropping out of trees unexpectedly. We want our territory undisturbed. Your turn to share. What do you want, Rhonda?”
She gave me a long look. Finally she said, “You’re serious.”
“Serious as a heart attack. I want a truce. If we can accommodate what you want in exchange, it’s yours.”
Rhonda’s eyes took on an interesting mix of lust and fear. Whatever she wanted, she wanted it bad and she didn’t think I’d give it to her. Her next words confirmed that. “You won’t give us this.”
After a long silence, Rhonda gave me a thoughtful look. “Okay. You want me to ask? I’ll ask. We want the red wolf. Not you. The other one.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “Now that I didn’t expect,” I said. “If you wanted Jack, why were you after me?”
“We weren’t. The wolves wanted you. They wanted to take back your pack.” Rhonda shrugged. “What’s it to us how you work out your internal problems? But if we got you for the renegades, they promised to give us the red wolf in exchange.”
“Ah.” That made a certain sort of sense. But still, why Jack? “I can’t give you Jack. He’s my friend. He’s my packmate. He’s also my baby daddy, so he’s really not replaceable.”
Her face froze and for a moment genuine hatred showed in her eyes. Oh. I hit a hot button there.
“Why do you want him?” I leaned forward, looking for clues in her reactions. “Do you want to kill him? Keep him? Or did you maybe just need to borrow him?”
Rhonda stayed stubbornly silent. My brain kept racing, trying to solve the puzzle. Turning pieces this way and that. What fit?
Red wolves were special, but the panthers didn’t want just any red wolf. They wanted Jack, who could diagnose and heal with a touch. Rhonda had started to warm up to me . . . until I called Jack my baby daddy. She was the queen, she had no shortage of strong, virile males around her, and unlike wolves, cats did not mate for life.
So why weren’t there any little kittens tumbling around?
“You’re infertile,” I said as the pieces fell into place. “And human fertility experts can’t help you. But Jack can. At least, you think he can. I can’t promise his abilities work on your species.”
Her face told me I’d nailed it.
I shook my head. “No wonder you were all willing to invade our territory in force. No wonder you were willing to hand me over to Ray.” I stood up. “I can’t promise he’ll solve your problem, but I can promise he’ll try. For whatever it’s worth, I conceived right after he used his healing touch on me. If you’ll give your word to declare a truce with us, I’ll go get him.”
“My word.” Rhonda gave me an unreadable look.
“Yes. Your word.” I stared back at her and waited for her answer.
She finally nodded. “Okay. If your red wolf agrees to help me, we’ll declare a truce.”
“Try,” I clarified. “He’ll try to help. If he can’t, it’s because his gift doesn’t cover everything. And if he can’t give you what you want, further attacks against us serve no purpose.”
Rhonda looked at me, then down at the rope and back up. “Done. And since you offered, I do want to keep the props.”
“Okay,” I said, once I’d gotten out of the room without cracking up over the visual of a naked Rhonda trussed up to play naughty kitty. “Here’s the deal. Rhonda needs a supernatural fertility clinic. Since no such thing exists, she’s desperate. The panthers know about Jack. They were never after me, except as a means to getting Jack. The renegade wolves wanted me and agreed to trade.”
While everybody absorbed that, I waited, then searched out Jack’s eyes. “I promised you’d try to help her, in exchange for a truce. I did make it clear that your gift might have limits and we couldn’t promise success. Jack, will you?”
He studied my face. “She stood by while Ray tried to rape you.”
“She also stood by while I tore him apart,” I pointed out. “And she told the other panthers not to interfere.”
“So you think this is fair?”
I blew out a breath. “What’s fair? We want a truce. She wants help only you can give her. Am I tempted to hold a grudge? Hell, yes, but I want peace more than I want revenge.”
Jack grinned at me. “I think you’re going to be a good queen. Lead me to my patient.”
I grinned back at him and took his arm to introduce him to the newly cooperative panther queen.
“Rhonda, Jack. Jack, Rhonda.” They looked at each other. I let go of Jack’s arm and took my chair again.
“Chandra explained the situation,” Jack said. “I’ll need to touch you. That’s how it works.”
Rhonda nodded. Now that she had what she wanted, she looked tense.
“It doesn’t hurt,” I volunteered. “He’s done it twice to me. It feels hot, and then it just feels good.”
“I’m not afraid,” she snapped.
“She’s afraid to get her hopes up again,” Jack said.
His insight made my brows raise. He really did clown to cover a serious core.
I watched while he untied her. She didn’t try anything. In fact, she seemed unnaturally still, as if she feared any wrong move would make Jack back off. Once the rope was out of the way, he crouched in front of her and placed his hand over her abdomen.
Rhonda sucked in a sharp breath, and I guessed she’d just experienced that penetrating heat I remembered. I watched him work and saw the concentration it took.
That made me wonder if I could get better at controlling my prescient ability. It would make my new life easier if I could focus and learn to do it on purpose instead of falling into it by accident, when it might not be convenient. Maybe Jack could help me practice. We had different abilities, but it seemed likely that the way they worked might have something in common.
Rhonda’s face relaxed, softening as Jack’s healing warmth spread through her. When he finished, he moved his hand from side to side as if checking to be sure there was nothing more, then looked into her eyes.
“Your fertile cycle is coming up. I’d recommend you have sex as often as possible, with as many partners as possible, for the next two weeks.”
I blinked. “Geez, Jack.”
“She might be fertile with some partners, but not with others,” he explained. “Since there’s no way to know which, that’s the best way to maximize the odds. And don’t bathe or urinate directly afterward.”
Too much information. I wanted to cover my face or maybe my ears, but Rhonda didn’t blanch over his icky medical advice. “Will you check me again after that?”
Jack nodded. “I can tell you if it succeeded and, if not, when the best time will be to try again.”
“Thank you.” Rhonda stood and gathered up the rope. Jack shot me a questioning look and I mouthed,
Later.
We all walked out, and David escorted Rhonda to a phone so she could inform the werepanthers we now had a truce, and possibly tell them to get ready for a kinky sex marathon.
I shot Jack a look after they left the room. “As many as possible, as often as possible?”
He shrugged. “It’s true that she’ll be more likely to conceive with some partners than others.”
“Also a very convenient way to keep them all busy and out of our hair.”
He grinned. “Make love, not war. So what was the deal with the rope?”
“I told her some guys were into that, and offered to let her keep it for immoral purposes.”
We both laughed, and then I went to Zach to see if there’d been any developments on the rogue-wolf front. He watched me come to him with a gleam in his amber eyes that made my breath hitch.
“Hi,” I said, trying not to drool at the sight of him. The unbelievable truth that he was mine hit me all over again. I wanted to fling myself into his arms, so I stopped about a foot away from him. That seemed like a safe distance. “How goes the war?”
Zach gave me a crooked smile. “So far you’ve cooked up a plan to negotiate a truce with the werepanthers, pulled it off, and given us advance warning of the rogue-wolf invasion. I should be asking you.”
“I figured I should handle the girl talk while you focused on the other side of things.” I gave him a shy smile and added, “Thank you for trusting me to do that.”
He reached out to cup my cheek. “You knew what you were doing.”
The open admiration in his voice made me want to blush and scuff my toes. I cleared my throat. “So no sign of them yet?”
“Not yet. We’re ready for them, though.” His face grew serious. “I want you to stay out of this fight. They’ll be focused on you, and I don’t want to give them a target.”
“You don’t want the good guys distracted by trying to protect me instead of fighting, either.”
“True,” Zach agreed. “Keeping you safe is our priority. Let us finish this.”
I nodded. The logic was sound. “I’ll stay inside like a good girl.”
“I thought you’d be harder to persuade.” He arched a brow at me. “I was prepared to offer you bribes.”
“The last thing I want to do is lower our odds in a fight. I want this over.” I gave him my best attempt at a sultry look. “I’m open to bribes, though.”
“Good to know.” Zach slipped his hand around to the back of my head, stepped closer, and claimed my lips in a heated kiss that promised many naughty things later. Before either of us could be tempted to take it further, before he could tell me what sort of bribe I could look forward to as my reward for cooperation, an alarm sounded.
Zach broke away and produced a gun from behind his back. He pressed it into my hand. “Go to your suite; lock the door; stay there until one of us comes for you. Do you know how to use this?”
I looked down and saw I was holding a .357 SIG. I aimed the gun at the floor, thumbed off the safety, checked the slide, and found a bullet ready in the chamber. I popped out the clip, found it full, pushed it back in. “Point and click,” I said.
“I’d kiss you again for that, but I have to take a rain check. It’s got jacketed hollow points, so you can aim to wound and he’ll stop and drop.” He waved me toward the stairs. “Go.”
I went, running in a low crouch, heart thumping. I didn’t slow down until I’d locked the door behind me. Then I went through the suite, checking for unwanted guests. Behind doors. Under furniture. Any place big enough for a dog to hide, because they might not be in human form.
Once I was sure it was clear, I picked the walk-in closet as the most protected spot and the easiest to defend. I took a position that let me cover the door.
Then I waited. This was the worst part, and it wore on my nerves from two directions. I didn’t know where the enemy was or what was happening. I didn’t know where my people were, if they were safe. I didn’t know what David and Zach were doing.
Zach had trusted me to do my part. Now it was my turn and I had to do the same. Stay out of the way and let him prove that alpha was more than a title.
Still, a tiny corner of my mind chanted over and over again,
Be safe. Be safe. Be safe.