Nicole cleared her throat. “Richard.”
Lisa grumbled something under her breath, lowered her gaze to the asphalt, and muttered, “I apologize.”
Dismissing the issue with a wave of his hand, Gerald replied, “You didn’t do anything wrong. I want to know is if Melanie was a part of their little trick or not.”
Lisa’s cheek twitched. “She was. After Nirliq called Sven, they got together and decided they had a chance to get some good, old-fashioned revenge. From my understanding, Nirliq had asked them to cooperate. They didn’t listen. You are all right, aren’t you, Jackson? How about you, Evelyn?”
I frowned, looking around. My mate was gone. Blinking at the spot she had occupied minutes before, I tried to piece together when she had disappeared.
Slender arms wrapped around my waist. “I’m fine.” Evelyn rested her cheek against my back.
I smiled, covering her hands with mine. “You changed back.”
“How amazing, I did! I’m all better now. It doesn’t hurt at all.” Slipping free of my hold on her, she started digging around in my pockets. With a triumphant cry, she found her watch. After putting it back on, she resumed her search, locating her phone next. Richard arched his brows as Evelyn patted me down. “Where is it?” she demanded.
“Where’s what?” I asked, lifting my arms so she could search the pockets of my jacket again.
She growled and nipped my neck. “Where’s my ring?”
“Ring? Was there a ring?” I covered my mouth with my hand. “Oh, my.”
“Jackson!” She resumed searching my pockets, eliciting laughter from everyone as I wiggled my pinky finger for their benefit.
Taking the ring off, I waited until she made frustrating huffing noises before capturing her left hand and slipping it onto her finger. “Mine.”
I was rewarded with a kiss on my neck followed by a nip. “Yours,” she agreed. “Even if you’re a terrible tease.”
“Are you all right, Jackson?” Lisa demanded.
“I’m fine. Tired, but fine.”
Laughing, Richard clapped my shoulder. “You should be tired after bullying a pack of Fenerec. You get the room with the jacuzzi and a choice of having Alex and Lisa or Nicole and I for roommates.”
“Evelyn, Gerald, and Amber,” I grumbled.
“What’s wrong with me?” Lisa and Nicole demanded.
“Ladies, please. Jackson, of course Evelyn will be sharing with you, but you’re not sharing with Gerald and Amber,” Richard replied.
Narrowing my eyes, I considered the Alpha, wondering what his problem was. “Why not?”
Bursting out laughing, Richard prodded my shoulder with a finger. “You’d end up trying to sleep with one eye open, Jackson. You’re still tense. The last thing you need is to be rooming with people you feel you need to protect.”
I glared at him, batting his hand away. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“He really doesn’t,” Evelyn said, hugging me. “It’s cute.”
“No, it’s not. All he’s going to do is make himself sick—sicker, as the case is. We’ve talked about this before, Jackson. You’re dominant.”
“And what does that have to do with anything?”
Nicole slid between Richard and me, clicking her tongue. “Let me, darling. Jackson, you’re you. You protect those you cherish. Gerald’s one of your closest friends. He’s a Normal, and you know it. Lisa would flatten you in a fight, by the way. Yet there you were. Lisa got a little cranky and raised her voice to him, and you were ready to get involved. Dominant is just a fancy word for overprotective idiot.”
Snorting, Richard backed off, shaking his head. “You’re terrible, Nicolina.”
“What? It’s true. Look, Jackson. You’ve always been dominant, but you’re also a sensor. Because you’re Evelyn’s mate, her instincts are brushing off on you. If we put them in the same room with you, you wouldn’t sleep a wink. You’d toss and turn trying to sleep with one eye open. Alex and Richard are both overprotective idiots. By being with you, you’d actually get some rest because there are other overprotective idiots nearby. It’s how pack works. You’ll get used to it, eventually.”
Evelyn hugged me tightly. “She’s right, you know. Just give in. You won’t win.”
Nicole grinned at me. “I could just zap you. It’s been a long time since Richard’s let me zap anyone.”
“You actually let him tell you what you can and can’t do?” I blurted.
“Well, not really,” she admitted. “I might on principle. How could you trick us like that? You lied to us!”
Richard wrinkled his nose. “And he got away with it, that’s what astonishes me. He actually got away with it. Gerald, you I can understand. You’re a slimy government worker. But you, Jackson?”
I wrinkled my nose back at him. “I didn’t tell a single lie. I’ve been hired to handle some business for the Canadian government. That business brought me here.”
“It’s true,” Gerald said, pulling out his phone. After several moments of fussing, he read, “And I quote, ‘Offer him a blank check. I want this resolved now.’ Because Suzanne is involved with our business, we came here.”
“You should have told me,” Richard chided.
“Why? So you could stop me from coming?” I snapped.
“I’m not that stupid. Do you have any idea how dangerous a pack without an Alpha is?”
I sighed. “Richard, it’s not like I knew there were Fenerec here. I didn’t.”
“In my defense, while I knew that Nirliq was a Fenerec, I had no idea about the others or their hostility towards Jackson,” Gerald said, holding his hands up in surrender.
“Well, I hadn’t known Russell and Janet were dead either,” Richard admitted. “They have always been quiet. It’s not uncommon for them to drop off the radar for years at a time. What amazes me is that the pack hasn’t run wild yet.”
“Omega,” Evelyn whispered.
“Likely. They’re lucky. None of them are very old. Without Nirliq, there would be a lot more bodies—theirs included. Omegas make it easier for Fenerec to stay calm. It gives the others someone to focus on and protect. Omegas add cohesion to a pack. But they aren’t a substitute for an Alpha. I’ll make some phone calls tonight and find some candidates. None of them are capable, not if Jackson can stare them down like he did.”
“What I want to know is why that pack didn’t run wild tonight.” Nicole shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense. Jackson was a threat to them. There wasn’t anyone around to control them. Their wolves should have run wild.”
Pulling away from me, Evelyn leaned against Gerald’s rental beside Lisa. “Jackson wouldn’t let them change.”
“What?” I wasn’t the only one to blurt the question. All of us stared at Evelyn. My mouth hung open. Was such a thing even possible?
Amber nodded. “I can see that. Once he isn’t completely lacking control, he’ll be a damned good witch.”
“I don’t understand,” I admitted.
“I tried to change after Sven hit me. I couldn’t. You wouldn’t let me,” Evelyn whispered.
I sucked in a breath. “What do you mean?”
“I mean exactly what I said. I couldn’t change, not until you told me I could. Stubborn witch,” my mate grumbled. “You need to learn control, Mister.”
Amber smiled, stepping to me. Standing on her toes, she reached up and patted my cheek. “She’s right. I’ll see if I can reach someone I know who might be able to teach you.”
“You can’t teach him?” Evelyn asked.
“Not a chance, Evelyn. Sorry. I’m a fire witch, and I don’t know of a single earth witch who causes earthquakes when threatened or pissed off. So far as I know, he’s unique. That’s probably a good thing.”
“That’s just great. First we’re saddled with Nicolina the Witch Desmond. Now we have Jackson? They’re going to accuse me of starting the supernatural version of an arms race,” Richard grumbled.
Pursing her lips, Nicole stepped close to her husband and prodded him in the chest. “Care to repeat that?”
“I’ll take the couple least likely to kill me in my sleep,” I announced, backing away from the feuding Alphas.
Before I could make my escape, Richard reached out, hooked his arm around my neck, and pulled me down so he could grind his knuckles against my head. “Maybe if you didn’t cause so much trouble, you wouldn’t have to worry about us coming after you. Do you want him, Alex?”
“And lose sleep? Forget it, Richard. He’s all yours.”
“It’s decided,” Richard announced. “You’re with me, Jackson. Now, there is one last thing I want to know.”
Breaking free of Richard’s grip, I scrambled out of his reach. “What?” I asked warily.
“Aren’t you a gemstone sensor?”
“I plead the Fifth Amendment and the Eleventh of the Canadian Charter of Rights,” I replied.
He growled at me. “Jackson.”
“Look, I don’t want to end up as some research project, okay?”
“Why would you think that?” Nicole blurted.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t worried about it happening to you,” I snapped. When she flinched, I felt the blood drain out of my face. “Jesus. I’m sorry, Nicole.”
She hesitated, but nodded. “Okay. Fine. Fair point. I forgive you. But start talking. What are you hiding? If we don’t know, we can’t protect you.”
“Nirliq already told you,” I muttered.
“The spirits speak?” Richard asked.
I nodded.
Amber’s eyes widened. “You can talk to the dead?”
A lump formed in my throat. I swallowed, turning to Evelyn. How would their view of me change once they learned what I could do? All of my life, I had lived with the fear of how others would react. If my witchcraft was disconcerting enough to worry my brother, how would others feel?
Not everyone would be as accepting as my mate.
She smiled at me. “Go ahead, Jackson. It’s okay. They’re pack.”
I sighed, staring at the ground so I wouldn’t have to look anyone in the eye. “Normally I just know their names, okay? Elliot asks me to identify bodies. All I need to see is a photograph. It happens at places of death and burial, too.”
“Holy Mother of God,” Gerald whispered. “That’s how you built that list?”
“From those red stones.” A shudder ran through me. “They’re haunting me.”
My friend grabbed my shoulders. “Even Suzanne?”
I flinched. “Yes.”
Letting me go, Gerald backed away from me. “Your little girl.
That’s
how you learned about her?” At the horror in my friend’s voice, I looked up at him.
Drawing a deep breath, I exhaled slowly and nodded. “That’s how I knew.”
It was Richard who broke the silence by clearing his throat. “We’ll talk more tomorrow. One way or another, we’ll find out what happened to her, and why. So do I swear.”
I believed him.
~~*~~
Someone was poking my nose. I rolled over to escape, ending up sprawled across Evelyn, who laughed. The cinnamon scent of her hair filled my nose, and I snuggled closer to her. “Morning,” I mumbled.
“It’s afternoon, Layabout.”
I bolted upright, scrambling for my watch.
It was after two. “Melanie,” I choked out.
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed to slits. “The second word out of your mouth in the morning should never be another woman’s name.”
Stiffening, I gawked at her, my face burning. “I’m sorry.”
Reaching out, she tugged on my ear. “I’m just teasing you. They’re talking to her. I’ve been banned from the interview. My duty is to stay up here and watch you sleep. Amber says that you’re to stay in here with me until told otherwise. Apparently, they’re all convinced you’re at a high risk of a breakdown.”
“They’re probably right.” I set my watch back down, flopped onto the bed, and draped my arm over my eyes. Evelyn settled in beside me. “What did I do, Evelyn? Why would she go to such lengths to be rid of me?”
“We’ll never know for sure. I wish I had the answers, but I don’t. But I do know this: she didn’t deserve you. Now that I have you, I’m not going to let you go, so get used to the idea.”
When I didn’t say anything, she sighed. “Jackson, I can’t even imagine what you possibly could have done wrong. Since I’ve met you, you’ve been kind and considerate. You helped me when you didn’t have to—when it could have cost you so much. It did cost you. Take a look around you. Consider Richard. You’re like a brother to him. You didn’t see him after the crash when he thought you were going to die. I did. Look at Elliot.”
“Thanks, Evelyn.” While her words couldn’t erase my doubts, it helped a little. “I care about all of you.”
“I know. We all do. Maybe she just couldn’t accept that she wasn’t your entire world. Maybe she resented that. I’m not so stupid. That’s who you are, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. So, because Amber and Richard asked me so nicely, I am to keep you contained in here while they speak with Melanie, pretending I’m your psychologist.”
“Maybe I do need one,” I muttered.
“This must be so hard on you.”
“I’ll live. I really should talk to Melanie, though.”
Evelyn snorted. “Let them handle it. Trust them. They’ll find out everything you need to know. Together, we’ll find Jacqueline’s killer. For now, you need to rest and relax.”
“But what if—“
“Trust them, Jackson. Let us help. And anyway, if I’m not allowed to talk to her, you’re not allowed to talk to her.” Something about her tone warned me something was amiss. Removing my arm from over my eyes, I watched her.
Evelyn was frowning, and the green of her eyes was rimmed with yellow.
“You don’t want to talk to her. You want to hit her, don’t you?” I accused.
“You told me I could hit the women.”
“Why do you want to hit Melanie?”
“For the same exact reason you wanted to hit that Sven bastard,” she grumbled, wrinkling her nose at me.
“I didn’t want to hit him. I wanted to kill him,” I corrected. “If you hadn’t stopped me, I might have.”
That caught her attention. Sitting up, she gazed down at me, making thoughtful noises. “Maybe, maybe not. You didn’t kill them, and that’s what really matters. I know you wanted to kill them. I did too. They hurt you.”
“You were the one who was hurt. They didn’t touch me.”
“No. All he did to me was leave a bruise and some broken bones. Those heal quickly. What they did to you is far, far worse. Maybe no one will see your scars, but you’ll carry them with you for a long time. They had no right. Suzanne had no right. You didn’t deserve that.”