Once Upon a Shifter (67 page)

Pressing his lips together, he tried for another question because he honestly believed touching her in any way would cause her go off on him, something she had never dared do. "Tell me what the problem is, Lea. I will make it right."

Her eyes flicked to his, then quickly away again.

Against his better judgment, Phoenix reached out to touch her shoulder and was relieved when she didn't shy away or run screaming from the room. Whatever it was, it couldn't be that bad. She already appeared to be calming under his touch, though her body was still trembling.

A loud noise from the other side of the door had Phoenix's head jerking up in alarm, and then he heard a male shouting, followed by a door slamming and the person shouting his name.

"What the hell?" Phoenix muttered, and strode toward the door, but just as he reached out to take the knob, the door burst open and Jaxon practically fell into the room on top of him.

"Jaxon—" Phoenix started, but stopped the instant he saw the horrified expression on the guy's face as he stared wide-eyed at Lea. She didn't move. She only stood there, with her head down and her hands clasped loosely in front of her.

"Why, Lea?" Jaxon demanded from the girl, and Phoenix was still stunned speechless, not knowing what to say because he still didn't know what had happened. "I could have done something! I thought you were okay," he pleaded, but she acted as if she hadn't heard him at all.

Shock. She was in shock, Phoenix thought.

Phoenix strode across the room to her and guided her to a chair. "Sit down."

Her knees buckled and she landed on the soft cushion of the chair.

Turning his head to look at Jaxon, he waited for an explanation, but with all the recent events and the look on the other guy's face, he finally came to the conclusion of what might have happened. "Santino," he mouthed, and Jaxon closed his eyes as he nodded once. "Christ," he muttered on a long sigh.

The room became small all of a sudden. There was no sense in asking Lea why she had killed one of his vampires, because he already knew the answer: vengeance. He scolded himself inwardly for not handling what Santino had done to her brother better.

Any of his vampires would have done the same that Santino had, but he should have dealt with it, made him leave the city or transfer to another clan until… until what? Lea died from old age? That wouldn't happen as long as she was taking vampire blood—it slowed the aging process of a human by seventy-five percent. Lea had only been his assistant for a little over twelve years, but she didn't look a day over twenty-two, only two years older than she had been when he had approached her about the position. She had told him then that she didn't have any living relatives, and he had needed someone to do daytime things for him, so he had taken her at her word.

Now that this had happened, he doubted she would feel safe staying here, at the compound. Santino was a well-liked vampire, and Lea was only human; it was possible that she wouldn't trust anyone for a while.

It was clear the girl needed help, someone to talk to, another female perhaps. The Lord knew he wasn't cut out for such tasks. Mena was the first person to enter his mind, but he doubted the wolf would let her out long enough for Mena to talk to her. Screw it, he thought; it was his only option.

"I'm going to get you some help, Lea," he said, but she didn't move as he stood and retrieved the cell from his pocket.

Bringing up Mena's number, he just stared at it a moment, trying to figure out what to say. Sending her a text saying that Lea had killed Santino wouldn't be wise. What if the cop saw the message as he was handing her the phone? Calling her would be better, but he didn't want to talk to the wolf, and he was almost sure she was the one in charge at the moment.

"Want me to take her to a hotel?" Jaxon quietly said. "I can stay with her until you figure out something else."

"It could be days, Jaxon. You can't stay with her during the day."

"I'll cover the windows. I'll be fine. She's been staying in my room since…" his eyes fell on Lea, "…since the other night. I thought she was getting better, Phoenix, honestly, I did, or I would have said something to you."

Waving a hand through the air, he dismissed Jaxon's apology. "You are not at fault here. I appreciate you letting her stay with you. She needed someone. I don't know how to be that someone, nor have I been thinking about anyone except myself or Mena for over a week now. If anyone is at fault, it is me." After a moment's thought, Phoenix nodded. "Yes, get a hotel. I'm not sure I trust anyone else to stay with her for long periods of time without feeding from her. I'll have Brad, Heath or Roel relieve you at night so you can hunt. Keep me up to date with her condition."

"What about the wolf?" Jaxon said. "What are we going to do to help Mena since the witches bailed on us?"

With the spell that had been over Jaxon in Brad's Suburban earlier, Phoenix didn't feel comfortable discussing the plan with him.
What if whatever had control of him then still has control of him now?
He shook his head. "Let me worry about the wolf."

Jaxon averted his gaze, as if he knew his master no longer trusted him. "I'll text you with our location after I get the room," he said sadly as he picked Lea up in his arms, like a small child, and then started for the door.

"Jaxon?" Phoenix said, and Jaxon turned back to look at him, but Phoenix was suddenly torn with the decision to reinstate him as second in command or leave it for later. If he couldn't trust him with news about how to save them all, then what could he trust him with? Lea, for one, but if something supernatural was taking over his body and mind, he couldn't risk all of them. "Never mind. Text me with your location. I'll have Roel relieve you tomorrow night."

After Jaxon left with Lea, Phoenix fell onto his bed, letting exhaustion and worry over what to do about Mena's wolf consume him.

Chapter 42

Roel

He'd been racking his brain for hours, but had come up with absolutely no solution about how to save them, and what was even more important, how to kill that damn high vampire without them all losing their lives.

Neither Brad nor Heath had been much help. Well, they'd actually been no help at all, if you vetoed their only suggestion of going back and begging the witches to change their minds. That wasn't going to happen, and neither was killing Mena to keep the wolf from taking over, not now since the vampire had tied them all to her. If Heather or Tracy found out their husbands were linked to not only a moonrising wolf, but also their Alpha's vampire lover… Roel shook his head at the thought. He couldn't even imagine what a catastrophe that might be.

Luckily, they had all managed to keep the news about the nexus spell from any of the pack, and even though telling them could be more dangerous to Mena, since there were possibly still more traitors amongst them, Roel felt he needed to tell them. They were a pack. They were family.

Startled by the sudden screeching of the cell phone on the pillow by his head, Roel jerked then immediately grabbed it and put it to his ear.

"What the hell went on up there, Phoenix? Did you think pissing off those bitches would help or have you lived so long that you're ready to die?" he barked into the phone.

"They are going to help us as much as they can," came Phoenix's reply, and Roel swiftly sat up.

"You went back up there? Alone? Are you insane? Need I remind you that all our lives are at stake here?"

"When you were unconscious, Mena and I were not. Meridia needed to make it appear that she was angry with me, and that she knocked all of us out so we could tell Mena about the moonrising wolf and what has to be done to stop the wolf from completely taking over by the next full moon."

"She knows how to get her name?"

"Yes."

Roel blinked then huffed when Phoenix didn't cheerfully elaborate on the good news. "Don't make me come over there and choke it out of you. I was nearly ready to do that before you called."

"How many packs are there in the United States?"

"Werewolf packs?" he said, confused by the question.

"No, bunny rabbit packs," Phoenix said, sarcastically. "Yes, werewolf packs, moron."

Roel ran a hand through his hair as he thought. "I'm not sure. A hundred, maybe more."

"Call a meeting with your pack and get me a list with phone numbers of every Alpha wolf you can…" He paused. "Then come see me."

"What's this about, Phoenix? Are you trying to start a war? And how am I supposed to call a meeting? I'm not the Alpha or Beta. Nobody is going to listen to me."

"Make them listen," Phoenix said, and then the call dropped.

Roel threw the phone on the mattress. "Damn vampire," he said as he scowled at the electronic device, and then he pointed at it, like Phoenix was still on the line. "This had better fucking work or I'm going to beat your ass!"

He tossed the comforter off his legs then went to the bathroom to shower. Maybe the heat and steam would clear his head enough so he could think about how to get the pack to listen to orders given by a bloodsucker.

v''''v

The shower didn't help, damn it all to hell!

With only a towel wrapped around his hips, he stomped to the bed and snatched up his phone. He could call Heath and Brad. Together the three of them could come up with a plan. It might end in a vampire hunt, but that would still be a damn plan.

Then it hit him. Brad's wife was the pack's bookkeeper. She might have all the information they would need about the other alphas of the country.

"Yeah?" Heath said groggily over the other end of the call, and then he yawned.

"Get your ass up and get over here. I need the support of you and Brad to get the pack to listen to me."

"Are you for real, man?" Heath whined. "Tracy's been riding my ass for days about what I'm doing out all hours of the night. She's pissed that I can't tell her anything. Dude, she accused me of cheating on her—"

"Bring her with you, and call Brad, too. Tell him to bring Heather and all the information she has on the other packs in the United States. We're going to need everybody we can get."

A long silence filled the line, like Heath was trying to come up with another excuse why he couldn't come, and then he huffed. Roel could hear muffled voices, like Heath had covered the microphone and was talking to Tracy.

"We'll be there in twenty."

Roel beamed. "Oh, hey, do you mind swinging through Taco Bell and—"

"Go get your own damn burrito, dick!" Heath snapped.

"I'll get tacos for everyone," Roel said. "Hot or mild sauce? Never mind, I'll get both."

"Whatever," Heath said, and then the line went dead.

Rushing to his closet, he grabbed the first shirt and jeans he saw and hastily threw them on. He was damn near giddy after he slipped on his boots and grabbed his keys, and it wasn't because Heath had agreed to come—he knew the guy would, eventually. It was because they could finally let someone else in on their secret.

He hated keeping secrets.

v''''v

Mena

I couldn't do this with Alex. I couldn't let a man I didn't love touch my body for three more weeks without going bat-shit crazy. It wasn't sexy, it wasn't sweet or romantic, and it wasn't Alex's fault. I just couldn't keep up the farce. Alex was all in. He meant every touch, every caress, every kiss. And they all made me internally scream
no!
I felt violated. There was no way I could let my wolf continue raping me this way.

Chapter 43

Roel

The girls listened—not without interrupting at least a hundred times with questions, mind you—to everything Roel and their husbands told them.

It wasn't the time—not that there would ever be a
good
time—to let them know the three of them were linked to the moonrising wolf, a human and two vampires. But if nobody died, there was no real harm done, right? And if one of them died, they all would, so none of them would have to listen to the bitching that would surely come after.

Phoenix had better be damn glad he linked himself to us
, Roel thought,
because there was no worse wrath like a pissed off wife's.
He shuddered as he thought about that and was glad he didn't have a permanent female in his life. One woman for eternity?

Ha! Not me. Not ever.

"So, what did you need these for?" Heather asked as she slapped the stack of three-ring binders on the table beside her.

Roel shrugged as he rubbed his chin and studied the pile. "Hell if I know. Phoenix told me to write down all the Alphas and their digits, then go see him."

Heather opened the binder on top. "I have them all alphabetized by state and city, with personal details on each one. Why do we need to write them down again? Can't we just take him the binders?"

"Wait!" Brad said. "Nobody said anything about the two of you going into the vampire's lair. You're not supposed to know any of this."

Heather gave him a look that very subtly told him they would talk more about this in private and that he need not expect to win, but Tracy spoke up.

"Mena is our Alpha, too. If there's something we can do to help, we're going to do it. To hear you three, it sounds like y'all are runnin' around blind. I don't think two extra intelligent minds would be a bad thing in this situation, and if Phoenix has a problem with it, I'll kick him in the balls."

Loud groaning and air being sucked through teeth echoed off the walls of Roel's small kitchen as all three men grabbed their most precious assets.