We stayed that way for a few minutes, both of our hearts beating madly as he held me.
When he pulled back and out of me, I collapsed onto the bed and he wrapped his arms around me, cradling my sated body against his.
Papan kissed my cheek. “I knew before you told me.”
“How?” I didn’t need to ask. I knew what he was talking about.
“Saying the words tells me you’re ready to admit it to yourself, but your actions—our mutual actions towards each other—showed me how you felt a long time ago.” He kissed my ear. “I’ve been in love with you for a long time, Sierra. I’m talking years, not just during the months we’ve been together.”
The warmth spilling from my heart filtered into my chest, causing a flutter of butterfly wings so intense it took my breath away. I’d never been this in love with someone, and it felt amazing.
“I love you, Jason,” I whispered, and it sounded so good.
He held me close, and before either one of us could fight it, we fell asleep in each other’s arms. I eventually opened my eyes to find the slant of the sun coming in through the blinds had shifted, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going into the office today, and Ebony had offered to collect the money owed to us from the warehouse owner. I was grateful because I didn’t want to deal with any of the fallout. Something about getting payment after what happened with Juliet didn’t sit well with me.
A yawn escaped me and I felt Papan stir behind me.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” he murmured in my ear.
I rolled onto my side to face him. “Papan, when you said that I was your mate, what did you mean?”
“I’m never going to let you go.” He ran the backs of his fingers over my cheek and it felt like butterfly wings mimicked the action inside my stomach. “That’s what it means.”
“Have you marked me as mate?”
His eyebrows knotted slightly. “What makes you ask that?”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I’d decided there were a few things I had to tell him and I was going to start with this one. “Your father came here yesterday.”
His smiled faded. “He came
here
?”
I placed a hand on his arm. “Yes. He was looking for you.”
His green eyes darkened. “He’s not supposed to know about you.”
“Well, he did and he also knew you’d marked me as mate.”
Papan rolled onto his back and ran a hand over his longish hair, resting it behind his head. “He wasn’t supposed to know.”
“And I wasn’t either?”
He turned his head to look at me. “Fox, I’ve never kept it a secret. It’s why I can shift around you and enjoy your touch even when I’m a wolf. You satisfy the man and the wolf. That’s what makes a real mate.”
“Okay,” I said, licking my lips. “But how could he smell it on me?”
“It’s a wolf thing.” Papan didn’t take his eyes off mine. “I marked you the night you were attacked by the black dog. We weren’t together yet, but marking you as mine sends a message to anyone else who wants you. Dogs, wolves, cats, pookas—they’d all understand, and smell me on you.”
“So you marked me as your property?”
“No, never! You don’t belong to me, but you
are
a part of me.” He looked away. “I hope you’re not angry—”
“I’m not angry. You saved my life, tried to protect me from other shifters.” Somehow, deep down inside I’d known when he’d marked me, because it was then that everything had shifted between us. “I remember you once told me you considered me pack, but didn’t realize there was a physical way to show it.” I sighed. “I don’t want you to hide anything about your nature, even though you constantly do.”
“It’s not intentional. The less you know about the pack I left behind, the better. Werewolves are complicated and territorial, but I’m nowhere near their expansive area so I have no idea why my father wanted to see me.” He looked thoughtful. “Which reminds me, when I came in last night, I thought I smelled an animal inside the house. I checked the backyard because it seemed to be coming from there, but didn’t find anything.”
“Ah, I forgot to tell you about the dog Willow found.”
“What dog?”
“A black dog,” I said. “Yeah, I know, out of all the dogs that can follow her home, it had to be a
black
one.”
“Where is it now?”
“At the vet, but she’s bringing him home later. Why?”
He shook his head. “Nothing, it just smells…different, that’s all.”
“Uh-oh, the last time you said that there was a demon involved—”
“Nah, that’s not it. Don’t worry about it, it’s probably nothing.” He shook his head, a sly smirk twisting his mouth. “Though, I can smell the cop. Is he still coming around when I’m not here?”
I nodded. No point in lying. “He came over yesterday, and he’s acting weirder than usual.”
Papan frowned. “That better not mean he’s trying to make a move on you.”
“Well,” I said, biting down on my lip. “He kinda did—”
“I knew he wanted you.” Papan’s eyes had darkened, and his jaw clenched.
“I told him nothing can ever happen between us because I’m with you.” I looked him in the eye. “Besides, that’s probably not the reason why you can smell him. Last night, when I took the girls spook catching, something happened. We had to call the police, and I called Gareth.”
“What happened?”
“Juliet died.”
His eyes widened. “I’m so sorry, Fox. I didn’t know.”
I sighed. “It all went wrong, and I think I know why.”
“Are you going to tell me?”
“After we captured the phantasms and were waiting for the cops, I noticed something strange,” I said, taking a shallow breath and letting it out very slowly. “It was Mace.”
“What?” He sat up and the sheet slid down to his hips.
“Turns out Mace is alive, and a phantom. He reckons he’s become one because of me.” I paused for a second, but continued before he could say anything. “Yeah, he’s the one who attacked you at Willow’s house.”
“Shit, Fox, just when we thought we’d gotten rid of those bastards.”
I shrugged. “I knew it was only a matter of time.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No, I think he just wanted me to know what he was.” Phantoms were the bodybuilders of spooks and could pack quite a punch. My knowledge of them was limited. I knew they could manipulate their surroundings with their shifting energy, and that none had ever been captured, but hadn’t known phantoms could travel through electrical currents like phantasms.
No wonder the phantasms could be dragged into the dark patch—they’d been touched by Mace.
“I won’t let him get you,” Papan whispered, caressing my face.
“Thanks.” It was sweet of him to say, but the phantom had knocked him unconscious before and if Mace couldn’t grab me via brute force, he always managed to use some other way of manipulation—like taking Ebony.
“Tell me about my father,” Papan said. “What did he want to see you about?”
I was glad to concentrate on something else. “Actually, he wanted to see you.” I pushed myself off the bed and headed for the dresser. I snatched the thin envelope and returned to the bed. “He gave me something to give you. He said it was important that you read it.”
Papan considered the envelope I held out in front of him before taking it and dumping it on the bedside table.
“You’re not going to open it?”
“Not now.”
“It could be something important—”
“I don’t want any part of his pack.”
“So he is the alpha, then?”
Papan snorted. “Oh, so he told you while he was here? What an arrogant bastard, can’t keep himself from flaunting what he is to everyone.”
“Actually, Oren told me.”
He didn’t say anything for a few moments.
“Papan, there’s something else.”
“This better not be more bad news.”
“I was looking for something yesterday and stumbled upon a hidden room.” I decided not to tell him what I was looking for at the time.
That got his attention. “A hidden room, where?”
“You’ve got to see this to believe it.” I grabbed a long T-shirt draped over the armchair in the corner and put it on, before throwing Papan his boxer briefs.
He stood up and put them on, which made my insides stir with desire. I really couldn’t get enough of him.
“Lead the way.”
I nodded and pulled the key from my top drawer, before heading for the archive closet. Once the door was unlocked, I pushed the clothes out of the way, stepped in and pushed the haphazardly placed piece of cracked wood to the side. A gush of cool air wafted up instantly, causing goose bumps to spread along my body.
“Can you grab the box of lightbulbs on the desk?”
“I was wondering why they were there,” Papan said. A few seconds later, he was back in the doorway with bulbs in hand.
“Are you ready?”
“We’re going
into
the closet?”
“That’s right.”
“Is this like the time I pulled you into the janitor’s closet?” He wriggled his eyebrows.
I laughed, grabbed his hand and stepped into the dark. I waited while he ducked under the doorframe and into the tight area that led onto the top of the concrete stairs. He was a lot bigger than me, so he took up most of the space.
“It’s dark in here,” he said.
“I know. That’s why we’ve got the bulbs.” I squeezed his hand. “Can you see enough to put them in?” My eyesight was pretty good and I knew his was too. “Or do you want me to point a flashlight?”
“I’ve got it.” He made his way down the concrete stairs, stopping long enough to replace each lightbulb, before saying, “Done! Flick the switch.”
I did, and the row of bare bulbs lit up. “It worked!” I didn’t know how long this place had been concealed, so I’d wondered if changing the lightbulbs would be enough. I descended the concrete stairs and with every step my bare feet felt colder.
Papan was already looking around. “Fox, what did you stumble on?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it was my grandmother’s spook catching room.” I pointed at the ground, toeing the circle surrounding a triangle. “Roe showed us his Vault and although his is bigger and has more features, this symbol was carved into the floor. Apparently it’s what catchers used to banish spooks before the whole canister and holding-cell thing was introduced by Professor Spooker.”
“And you didn’t know it was here?”
“I had no clue. Actually, I reckon no one but Grandma knew about it.” The coolness sweeping around me made me turn around, wondering if Penny would materialize like she had yesterday. “Well, what do you think?”
He whistled. “I think this is very interesting.”
“Sure is. I found her journal too, so I plan to read some of that and hopefully find out what she was up to with this hidden room.”
Papan ran his hands over the wall niches. “These look handmade, like she took mud or something and made these recesses herself.”
“I thought the same thing, and can’t wait to see what it looks like with all the candles on.”
“I can’t wait to fuck you in here.”
A laugh tore out of me as I took my time getting to him. “Well, what’s stopping you? Wanna do it in the only room in the house we haven’t yet?” We’d made a habit out of doing it just about everywhere—in both of our places. And with the condoms still in the bedroom, maybe we could finally do it without protection.
“I love how you think,” he said, dumping the box he was still carrying and lifting me into his arms. He pressed his mouth against mine. When his tongue delved into my mouth and I was about to suggest we pull his briefs off, a screeching sound erupted around us.
“What the hell?” Papan lowered me to the ground.
I spun around and found Penny standing at the foot of the stairs. She was brighter than yesterday and her feet were hovering several inches off the concrete. Her arms were rigid at her sides and hands balled into fists. Her mouth was open in an O. The alarming sound was coming from her—she was screaming like a banshee.
“Fox, get rid of her.”
“I can’t.”
“She’s a bloody ghost, sure you can.”
I approached her, cautiously. “What’s wrong?” The sound was grating on my nerves and made my eardrums feel like they were about to burst, but she had to be doing it for a reason. “Stop!”
The sound came to an abrupt halt, leaving us in total silence.
My ears were still buzzing. “Penny, what’s going on?”
“You know her?” Papan asked.
I nodded, taking a deep breath. In all the time I’d known Penny, I’d never seen her act like anything remotely ghostly. Sure, sometimes I’d make her go through walls just so I could get a good laugh, but the screeching was something new. “What happened?”
“This is a sacred place, Sierra,” she snapped.
My cheeks warmed. “I’m sorry, we were just fooling around.”
“I know what you were doing.” Her pretty face was set in a frown and she’d dimmed, but her stance remained rigid. “And this is not the place for it.”