Chapter 6 - Mark

Walking into Jameson’s mansion and being assaulted by the scents of half a dozen virtual strangers caused me to momentarily stiffen, my entire body coiled and ready for a fight, until I forced myself to relax, remembering that the Gold Wolves were crashing at Jameson’s. They were using his house as an impromptu headquarters while they set up the new plan against Inara.

Still, I didn’t relax entirely. I had been trying to avoid Declan for the last few days, ever since I’d taken Lorelei to my house. I knew I couldn’t avoid him forever, and the couple of times I had spoken to him since then, I had waited for him to ask about Lorelei. So far, he hadn’t brought her up, but I had caught him glancing in my direction more than once.

But Jameson wanted a meeting with everyone from both groups, so there was no avoiding him today.

Sure enough, when I moved into the hall, Declan’s head popped out from around the corner. “Mark,” he said. “Come on in.” He jerked his head into the living room.

I followed, my trepidation growing. If he was about to confront me about Lorelei, I wouldn’t back down without a fight.

Instead, when I walked in, I saw all of his crew lounging in the living room.

“What’s up?” I asked, glancing around, taking each of the shifters in. In some of their eyes, I saw the same interested scrutiny.

“I don’t think you’ve had the chance to meet anyone properly,” Declan said, nodding to the cluster. “Figured I might as well change that since it seems like we’re gonna be sticking around. At least for a little bit.”

Some of the tension in my shoulders eased. “Yeah, might as well.”

“Glad you agree. In that case, might as well get started.” He gestured at the broad-shouldered one with light brown hair, who looked bored as he played with a knife. “That’s Jackson, my second.”

Jackson jerked his head in acknowledgment, eyes not moving from the knife twirling between his fingers.

“You always play with knives?” I asked.

Jackson cracked a grin, finally looking at me as he flipped the knife in the air. “Do it when I need to think,” he said.

“You actually think?” the one with short-cropped red hair quipped. He snickered as Jackson mimed, throwing his knife at him.

“You’re lucky we’re guests,” Jackson said without any real malice. “I can’t throw knives at you.”

“That’s Nolan,” Declan said, rolling his eyes. “Ignore him being obnoxious. We do. Granted, that means ignoring him most of the time. But he’s good in a fight, so we keep him around.”

“You say obnoxious, I say underappreciated comedian,” Nolan fired back.

“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” Declan said. He nodded at a guy with salt and pepper hair, clearly the oldest of the group. “That’s—”

“I prefer to introduce myself,” he grunted. He got to his feet and held out his hand. “Chris.”

“Mark,” I said, clasping his hand. He had a tight grip, and his hands were calloused.

Chris snorted. “Trust me, I remember. I don’t think I’ve seen a woman that angry at a guy for a long time.”

I kept my face impassive even as the words made me wince inside. I didn’t need a reminder of what Lorelei really thought about me.

As if sensing that he needed to change topics, Declan took over again. “Trent is the one on the laptop over there,” he said, gesturing at a lanky guy with shaggy brown hair. Trent glanced up, gave a brief nod, then went back to the laptop without a single word.

“And we’ve got Will over there. The only one who can tolerate Nolan on a consistent basis.”

Will looked up at the sound of his name. He met my gaze and gave a short wave of the hand before returning to his conversation with Nolan. With his stocky stature, broad shoulders, and long blond hair and beard, Will made me immediately think of a Viking.

“Sounds like you’ve got a pretty good crew,” I remarked.

Declan gave a soft smirk that might have been something like pride. “At least when we aren’t getting captured by witches,” he joked. “But we try.”

Before I could respond, Jameson popped his head in and glanced at Declan. A sort of silent communication went between them, and Declan nodded. Turning back to his crew, Declan made a motion with his hands, and every Gold Wolf shifter got to their feet.

“Come on,” Declan said. “Meeting’s about to start.”

***

“Inara’s been quiet,” Declan said, frowning. “I don’t like it. I’ve been studying her for years, and when she goes underground like this, it usually means she’s planning something big.”

“It can’t just be because she’s frightened?” Alex asked.

Jackson snorted, folding his arms. “No way. If anything, we pissed her off.”

“Does she have any way of knowing where we are?” Jameson asked. “Do we need to be worried?”

“If she doesn’t know yet, then she will soon enough,” Declan said. “She’ll have made it her mission. And she’ll just follow us if we move, burning Brixton to the ground out of spite.”

“Okay, so moving is useless,” Luke said. “What’s the solution?”

“The only way to stop her is to put her in the ground,” Declan growled. He turned to me, folding his arms. “And the best way to do that is with Lorelei.”

I tried to study his expression to discern if he suspected something. His face remained inscrutable.

“She’s still making her decision,” I said. “She’s also resting. Being in that cell did a number on her. She needs her strength before she starts doing anything.”

Declan’s gaze lingered on me for another moment before turning back.

“Have we found any other options that don’t involve her?” Jameson asked. “Just in case she decides she doesn’t want to help?”

“We’re still looking into it,” Jackson said. “I’m chasing down a few sources. But as far as I can tell, Inara is powerful enough and has enough firepower behind her through her followers that going head-first against her would at best turn us all into frogs and at worst vaporize us all, depending on her mood.”

“Even with the amulets?” I asked.

Rand and Jameson shook their heads in unison, but it was Jameson who spoke. “The amulets help, but they aren’t a catch-all. They’re designed for specific things, which means the right spell can get around it.”

“So you’re saying we still don’t know much of anything,” I said.

Declan gave me a slightly exasperated look. “We have systems in place that should alert us when she starts showing herself. But the fact that she’s this quiet doesn’t sit right with me. I think she’s planning something. I don’t think it will be long until she finds out where we are.”

“But we can only do so much with the information we’ve got,” Jackson said.

“Right,” Jameson agreed. “Seems like we’re still in a holding pattern while we wait and see what happens next. In the meantime, we should up security measures and continue doing some research into potential ways to get into The Trove. I’m sure there are others who have tried, so there have to be records.”

“Brilliant,” grunted Chris. “Waiting and research, my favorite type of plan.”

“Can’t help it sometimes,” Declan said, shrugging. “But I think that’s our play for the time being. Once we figure out Inara’s next move, or figure out how to get into The Trove, that’s really all we can do.”

We spoke for a few more minutes, but it seemed we had reached a holding pattern, with nothing new coming to light and circling around the same topics over and over again. As the meeting came to an end, Declan came up to me, something unreadable in his eyes.

“Mark,” he said. “I want a word.”

Unease crawled up my spine, but I kept my expression neutral. Nodding, I followed him into one of the many empty rooms.

“What is it?” I asked when we were alone, though I already knew.

Declan closed the door behind him. He came to stand in front of me, folding his arms. “I know you aren’t letting Lorelei talk to me,” he growled. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied. “You’re being ridiculous.”

Declan stared me down. Like Jameson, he didn’t need to force his authority down anyone’s throat. You could see it in the way he stood, the hard, unyielding look in his eyes.

“I haven’t seen or heard from her since we rescued her,” he said. “I’d expected her to get in touch with me by now.”

I shrugged. “That’s a pretty bold assumption.”

His jaw clenched as his eyes flashed with his wolf. Still, he didn’t lash out or show any bravado, just annoyance.

“You were the last one to see her,” he said. “Where’d you take her?”

“Somewhere safe,” I said. “I told you I’d look after her and she would get in touch when she was ready.”

“It’s been a week. Last I spoke to her, she seemed pretty keen on helping. The only person who had a problem with her helping was you. I have a hard time believing that she’s had to mull over it for a week.”

My mind raced. Declan wasn’t an idiot. He was perceptive and could smell something was off. The smart thing would be, to be honest, to tell him she was ready to help, which she had made perfectly clear to me over the last few days.

Deep down, I knew what I was doing to Lorelei could be considered controlling. That had always been a thing I’d struggled with. Truly, all of this should be her choice to make. It was her life, after all, and I hadn’t been a part of it for years. I knew all of this. But Lorelei putting herself in danger was something I couldn’t let her do, either. Sometimes, being controlling to keep someone safe was what you had to do.

So, I kept on with the lie.

“She doesn’t want to help anymore,” I told him. “She changed her mind. I took her somewhere so she didn’t have to deal with you and Jameson pestering her about it.”

“I don’t believe that for a second,” he said dismissively.

“Believe it or don’t. It doesn’t change the fact that she isn’t going to help.”

Declan snarled, his fingers flexing. I had no doubt he wanted to wrap them around my throat and shake me until I told him what he wanted.

“Even if she has changed her mind, I want to talk to her.”

I folded my arms, flashing teeth that had lengthened into fangs. Just the idea of Declan talking to her set my wolf on edge. At the moment, despite how inadvisable it would be, he wanted nothing more than to tear Declan to shreds for even considering putting her in danger.

“No,” I said. “You’re not getting to her.”

He squeezed his eyes shut, jaw clenching. When he opened them again, he had his frustration back under control.

“Listen,” he said. “We have sources keeping an eye on the situation, but Inara isn’t going to give up, and she’s smart enough to work around our defenses. I can promise you that Inara’s already preparing her coven for their next move. They haven’t given up on Lorelei or The Trove. They’re going to come after her again, and it’s going to be a lot messier the second time around. Inara’s clever,” he added. “She’ll have learned from her mistakes. Whatever her next step is, we’re going to have a world of shit on our hands. Training Lorelei is our best chance at stopping her.”

“Then find another way,” I said. “Don’t you think she’s been through enough already? Did you know Inara starved her?”

“I guessed as much,” he admitted. “She had signs of malnourishment. But that’s going to be a vacation compared to whatever Inara will do if she gets her hands on Lorelei again. We need her to find out how to access The Trove if we’re to have any chance of stopping her.”

The worst part was, I knew he had a point. If it had been anyone else, anyone other than Lorelei, I would have been with him one hundred percent.

“They won’t just go after Lorelei,” Declan said. “They’ll go after the whole town. Do you have kids?”

“No,” I answered.

“I’ve got one. Her mom and I are split.” He stared at me. “If we don’t stop Inara soon, or she doesn’t get her way, there’s a chance she’ll go after my daughter along with this entire town and any other family members she can get her hands on. There’s no way in hell I’m going to let that happen.”

The conviction in his eyes told me he wasn’t going to back down, no matter what I said.

“She’s safe,” I growled, then reluctantly added, “She’s at my house. Before you ask, I’m not going to let you talk to her, and I have no intention of letting her out of my sight. I’m not going to let her put herself in danger.”

“Even if it’s her choice?”

“Yes.”

He took a deep breath and kept his gaze on mine. “I hope she—or you—decide otherwise soon. Because without that diadem, we have nothing to use against Inara. She’ll steamroll right over us.”

“Find another option,” I insisted. “One that doesn’t involve putting Lorelei in danger.”

“We’re looking into it,” Declan growled. “And so far, destroying the diadem and using the magic in that hoard is our best chance against Inara.”

“You’ve made that perfectly clear,” I said.

“Then let me make it clearer,” he said. “Lorelei not wanting to help is one thing. You keeping her from helping is something else altogether. And if you keep this up and Inara gets what she wants because you were too selfish to let Lorelei make her own decisions, that’s on you. By trying to shelter her, you might be condemning Lorelei to death instead. Think about it.”

He walked away without another word, leaving me to mull over his words. For the first time, a real nugget of hesitation began to nestle in my stomach.