: Chapter 5

Jaxson

I checked my watch and knotted my fists. One p.m.

The she-wolf was out there hunting, while I was stuck in my hotel room, renegotiating every single deal we had with the scattered Great Lakes packs. They were using the abductions and rumors to damage our reputation and to squeeze me for concessions.

I growled at the werewolf on the laptop screen. “We’ve had the same right-of-passage deal with your pack for thirty years. The deal should stay. Nothing’s changed.”

Mac, the alpha of the Upper Peninsula pack, stroked his grizzled beard. “But it has. We don’t want your city wolves anywhere near our territory, not until these abductions stop. Sorry, Jax, but that’s the way it is.”

“We have nothing to do with the abductions.”

Mac leaned forward. “From what I hear, CCTV caught the license plate of the abductors’ truck after an attack last month. It was registered to one of your wolves.”

Fuck. The Order leaked information like a sieve. Was that detail what had initially started all the rumors about our pack?

Regina shifted uncomfortably beside me. She could smell my rage. “It was a stolen vehicle belonging to an ex-member of the pack. Nothing to do with us,” she interjected.

Mac ignored the comment and moved closer to the camera. “Then, I hear that three days ago, a trio of wolves killed a witch while trying to abduct him. Two were shifters, but one was wolfborn. That sort of cooperation doesn’t happen up here. But in Dockside…yuh guys are a bit of a mixed breed.”

And I’m pretty sure that that wolfborn was Dane.

I had to restrain my claws and keep calm. Mac couldn’t smell me lying, though Regina would. “These are rumors and speculations. No one from Dockside is involved. But clearly, you want to renegotiate deals. Fine. Good luck getting your fucking product distributed in Magic Side without us.”

Did he really expect me to roll over? I would cripple his pack first and watch them come begging on their bellies.

My old friend raised his hands. “Hold on, Jax. Are you serious? I’m just talking concessions, here.”

My phone rang. Tony.

“I have to take this.” I slammed the laptop shut and strode out onto the concrete balcony of the shitty motel—the only one in Belmont—then answered the call. “What do you have?”

“The woman is on the move,” Tony said. “We assume she’s going to check on her car. Should we pursue?”

More trouble. “Don’t pursue,” I replied. “I should be the main point of contact. Is she in a vehicle? On foot?”

Tony paused. “Rollerblades.”

My eyebrows shot up. “What?”

“Skates. Moving fast.”

I shook my head. Rollerblades? Who was this woman?

“Okay, I’ll go after her. You swing by the Taphouse. See if anyone shows up.” I hung up and summoned Regina. “We need to go. Now.”

She locked the door behind us. “What’s up?”

I pulled my keys from my pocket as we walked to the truck. “Caine seems to be going for her car. We need to make sure it’s not fixed for a while, not until the she-wolf shows up again.”

“Can’t you send someone else? That was an important meeting you just shut down.”

The Upper Peninsula assholes were the least of my worries, and I growled as I unlocked the F-250. “This is important. Stopping the abductions is important. Caine’s attackers probably know that you and I are in town. Word travels fast in places like this. I don’t want anyone else on our team breaking cover.”

We loaded up and rumbled out of the parking lot. My palms itched. Something told me the woman was going to be a problem.

Once we turned onto the county road, we overtook her quickly. Between our truck and her bright blue rollerblades, it was no contest. Still, I stared in fascination as we approached. She bent low and thrust her long, lean legs side to side as she glided down the road with a pair of white sneakers slung over her shoulder. Her motions were so fluid and elegant, it was like a dance, and the way her ass flexed beneath those cut-off shorts stoked a heat deep within me.

I slowed as we drove around her. For safety.

Regina glared at the woman as we passed. “That wolf killer should be standing trial before pack law, not skating around town.”

Disgust tinged her words, but I understood. Savannah had killed a pack member. I’d kicked Dane out, but once pack, always pack. Self-defense or not, there needed to be some sort of justice for his family.

Regina’s eyes seemed to say, Your sister wouldn’t have hesitated to drag Savannah in by her long red hair. Stephanie had believed in the Old Ways, just as plenty of the pack did.

She would have been the alpha one day.

I tightened my grip on the wheel. “The seer told me the woman will lead us to answers. We need her for now, and we’ll protect her until we don’t.”

Regina stiffened. “You shouldn’t have gone to that fortune teller. Divination is one of the dark arts.”

I said nothing.

“Only the moon-mother knows the future,” Regina pressed. “You should have at least warned me.”

Our pack forbid the perverse practices of the occult. My sister would never have gone to a seer. But Stephanie was dead, I was in charge, and we were desperate.

Fuck the old rules.

“The seer got us this far,” I muttered.

She snorted. “And what, are you going to start breaking all our taboos? Will you try scrying next?”

It was impossible for our kind to use that kind of magic, but I gave her a warning growl. “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect the pack.”

Regret tinged her eyes. “Which is why I worry, Jaxson. There will be a hidden cost. The fates take as much as they give.”

“I know.”

While I hadn’t told Regina, the seer had already warned me. If you find the woman, you will find the answers you seek. But those answers will destroy you.

That didn’t matter—the pack did, and I’d deal with my own destruction when the time came. For now, I needed to end this madness.

Regina checked her side mirror and crossed her arms. “So, what are we going to do with the woman, then? Just sit around and watch her skate?”

That would be a good view.

Regina would smell my arousal at that thought, so I growled and took control of the conversation. “If you want to string her up for what she did to Dane, you can bet that his she-wolf partner will want to rip Caine to shreds.”

“It’s a good thing those two abductors weren’t a mated pair.”

She was right. If they’d been true mates, the she-wolf wouldn’t have run. She’d have ripped her way through the car doors and torn Savannah limb from limb or died trying. I’d seen it happen before: Billy, my brother-in-law, had gone berserk when my sister died. It had taken all my strength—and my father’s—to stop him from starting a war with the fucking sorcerers who’d killed her.

But even if those two weren’t mates, the missing abductor was a wolf, and she would come looking for vengeance.

“Then what’s our plan?” Regina asked, stirring me from the echoes of Stephanie’s death.

“I’ll make sure the mechanic doesn’t fix Caine’s car. Then you and I will pretend to head out of town this evening and circle back through the woods. I’m hoping the she-wolf will return as soon as we’re gone, and the rest of the team can jump her and beat some answers out of her.”

It didn’t take long to pass through Belmont. The town was insignificant, and you could miss it if you blinked. I pulled into Randy’s Auto Body and parked in front of one of the open bay doors. Savannah Caine’s car sat in the second bay.

No one was in the dingy little office. I didn’t have the time or patience to wait, so I ducked into the dark garage. My eyes adjusted after a second, and I saw a mechanic with his head down behind the open hood of Caine’s Gran Fury. “Are you Randy?” I asked.

The man stood straight and grabbed a stained towel. “Yep. How can I help you?”

“My truck needs an oil change.” It didn’t need a thing, but humans couldn’t smell lies like werewolves could.

Randy started wiping grime off his fingers. “How about this afternoon?”

“I’m in a hurry. I’ll pay extra.” It wasn’t a request.

The mechanic glanced back at the woman’s battered car, weighing his priorities. It was the perfect opening. “Hell, that thing looks like it’s in pretty bad shape.”

He nodded. “You can say that again. Poor girl ran over a wolf last night. Look at these claw marks—it’s like the damn thing attacked the car. Thank the Lord that monster is dead. They should shoot them all.”

Instead of ramming my claws into Randy’s eyes, I forced my fist to relax. “How bad is it?”

“Well, that depends.” The mechanic scratched his head with still-greasy fingers. “The owner wants it back pronto, and it’s technically running. I just had to reconnect a few radiator hoses. How the radiator isn’t cracked in half, I don’t know. A surprising amount of the damage is cosmetic.”

I stepped close and let my alpha presence wash over the man. “It seems like the damage is a lot worse. Are you comfortable sending the woman out on the road in a vehicle that isn’t roadworthy? Does your insurance cover that?”

The reek of the mechanic’s rising shame and guilt flooded my senses. He rubbed his chin. “I guess I hadn’t really thought of it that way. I’ve known Savannah for a few years. Nice girl. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to her because I didn’t fix her car right.”

I nodded. My alpha presence worked best if I led people to conclusions that matched their beliefs. The sheriff hadn’t wanted to believe that monsters could be in his Podunk town, so he’d readily accepted that everything was a wolf attack. The mechanic, on the other hand, probably prided himself on his work and reputation.

I fished a coil of bills out of my pocket and started counting hundreds. Randy’s eyes widened as I thrust the wad of cash into his hand. “I’m sure it will take weeks if you’re going to fix it right. This is a down payment. I’ll pay the entire bill at twice the normal price, just make sure you take your time. And don’t tell the woman about our arrangement.”

He nodded slowly and took the money.

I tossed him the keys. “First, my oil change.”

Randy caught them in cupped hands and headed out front to pull my F-250 into the empty bay, leaving me alone with the Gran Fury.

I checked over my shoulder and extended my claws, preparing to sabotage a few important components of the engine, but Regina gave a low whistle, and I froze.

Retracting my claws, I stepped to the edge of the garage just as Savannah came zipping down the street.