Chapter Twelve

I felt good about that spell. It felt as if it had some real power as I said the words, and best of all, it wouldn’t hurt anyone who wasn’t already gone. Mr. Bolagi was beyond all that now. All I had left to do was to take the box to the crossroads at Leroy’s house where Willie had buried the other one and retrieve the satchel of money to replace it with my mirror box. Then I could contact Rolf and give him the money, and this whole ordeal would finally be over.

I decided to leave Nugget at home this time. He looked a little worn out and ready for his bedtime treat and his bed—which also meant my bed. I left him to it and locked the door of my apartment behind me. Everything seemed quiet at my gran’s, and it wasn’t too late yet, though it felt as if it should be. It was still only about ten o’clock, so I went down to climb back in the truck and head over toward Leroy’s. I took the shovel with me, along with my mirrored box, of course. I was ready for this whole ordeal to be over.

The streets weren’t busy, so I made good time getting to Leroy’s house, or I should say what remained of it after the explosion. There were only some burnt out ruins that hadn’t been cleared away yet. I parked the truck the driveway and walked over to the side yard to find where Willie had buried the bag.

I finally found it after a good fifteen minutes of searching, buried up under some leaves. At least something had been buried there. I figured Willie must have put the leaves on to disguise where he buried it until he could come back for it later when he thought the coast was clear.

I began to dig and was down around four feet when I hit the bag. I quickly uncovered it and pulled it out, checking inside. It was the bag of money, all right. I dropped the mirrored box in its place and recovered the hole.

But before I had it finished and filled the hole back in, headlights went on from across the street and a large, dark sedan came out from where it was parked on a side street and careened toward me. I jumped in alarm and fell down on my backside, watching in amazement as the car swerved up onto the grass and came to a shuddering stop right in front of me. I watched as a man jumped out. A man I’d never seen before.

But the alarming thing was that he was pointing a long-barreled pistol at me. “Give me that bag!” he shouted. “Toss it over here!”

I knew two things in that moment. This guy must be someone who had been involved in that long ago robbery—and he was going to kill me as soon as I handed over the money. No discussion, no talking things over, and no begging for my life—there was nothing of pity or mercy in his eyes. I was so sure of what was about to happen—I could literally see it in my mind’s eye—I froze in place and couldn’t move.

“I said, hand it over!” he shouted at me, and shook the gun at me again as if to make sure I noticed what he had in his hand. Believe me, I noticed. He must have panicked then, or got tired of waiting, because he aimed the gun again and pulled the trigger.

I was shocked at the crushing pain that hit me and bloomed in my shoulder. I screamed in pain and that was when I heard the noise behind me, a sound that was half roar, half hoarse shout. The shooter jerked his gaze around to face it and yelled out something in horror at whatever he saw coming toward him. He screamed bloody murder as a huge fur-covered body leaped past me and slammed into him. The gunman was firing again wildly as he hit the ground.

I wanted to watch what happened next, but it was getting harder to see. Everything was growing darker, and I wondered vaguely if the moon had gone behind a cloud. I was aware of a vicious struggle taking place beside me in the dark. Lights were coming on all over the neighborhood as the shots and the screaming woke everyone up.

I was fading fast, and all I wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep. The next thing I remembered was somebody pulling me up into their arms and kissing my face again and again and growling madly, right next to my ear, though it wasn’t frightening at all. In fact, it comforted me. I tried to get my eyes open, but they weren’t working well anymore, and the last thing I remembered was a voice—a human-sounding one this time, though deep and rough and not like it usually was—yelling at me to open my eyes. It was Rolf, of course, begging me to stay awake and stay with him.

I tried to, but I couldn’t. All the noise seemed to get very far away. I had a feeling I wanted to just curl up and go to sleep so I gave into it, and that was the last thing I remembered for a long time.

I woke up in a hospital—Valleywood General, I later learned. It was a large room, though not one of their famous VIP suites. Still nicer than any room I’d ever been inside. And what a sad commentary that was. Sitting beside me, looking grouchy and gloomy and unshaven, his clothes all rumpled, as if he’d slept in them—but still the handsomest man I’d ever seen—was none other than my Alpha.

He must have been watching me like a hawk, because the moment he saw my eyes open, he leaned toward me until his face was almost touching mine.

“You scared me half to death. You have some serious explaining to do about all this.”

“W-water…” I croaked at him, and he quickly got me some and held it to my lips. His face didn’t soften—well it softened a little—he at least didn’t let me die of dehydration, and his hand sweetly brushed my cheek a couple of times before he pulled it away. I leaned into it like a cat.

When I’d drunk my fill and enjoyed the petting for a while, he said it again. “Explain yourself.”

“About what? Oh, the money bag?”

“Yes, the money bag. Did you mean to keep the money for yourself? I need to know so I can protect you. Honey, why didn’t you tell me that you needed money? Surely you know I would have helped you. You didn’t have to get Watusi to take it for you.”

“Wait, slow down, please. I didn’t take than money and I don’t care about it! It’s stolen money, and I know better than that. I was going to bring the bag to you.”

He frowned and looked unsure and skeptical, but I shook my head at him. “I was going to get the money and bring it to you. I swear it, Rolf. Do you believe me?”

“If you say it, I do. But you have to admit, it looked pretty bad.”

“I guess so. But I didn’t want you to get the curse on you. It was too late for me, so I had to do a spell to send the curse back to the one who sent it. I didn’t want it to follow you too.”

He started to open his mouth, and I interrupted him again. “The curse was real, whether or not you believed in it. The first spell I did obviously didn’t work. That’s why Willie and Leroy are dead. So I had to redo my spell to get rid of it.”

“What do you mean, you redid it? How did you do that?”

“You’re not going to like this…”

“I already don’t like it. It couldn’t get any worse.”

“Okay, I’ll tell you. I went back to the graveyard and dug up Ben Bolagi’s grave and cut off some of his hair for my spell.”

He fell back in his chair, looking astounded. His mouth literally fell open. I gave him a few moments to recover.

“I stand corrected,” he finally said. “It did get worse.” He took my hand in his. “Baby, are you telling me you went to that graveyard by yourself in the middle of the night?”

“Nugget was with me.”

“Oh, well then, that’s okay, if Nugget was with you!” he said, way too loud, his face red and his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“It was okay. I was a little scared, but nothing happened. Not then, anyway. And I fixed everything back the way I found it at the gravesite. Almost. There might be a teensy bit of damage to the coffin lid, but I tried to fix it and covered it with dirt again.”

He sighed deeply and rubbed his hand over his face. “Okay. Tell me why you did something so dangerous.”

“I thought that the reason the spell I did before for Willie didn’t work was because I didn’t have anything personal from the one who originally sent the curse. And Willie told me that person was Ben Bolagi, who knew a lot about curses and all that. And he’d have no reason to lie. So, I had to go get a piece of Bolagi’s hair.”

Rolf put his head in his hands and groaned. “Of course you did. Okay, why didn’t you call me to help you?”

“Because, like I just said, I was trying to keep you safe. And would you have come to help me if I’d called? Really?”

“Maybe.”

“That’s a big old lie and you know it.”

He looked at me in surprise. “Breaking into a grave is wrong. But it’s up to me to keep you safe.”

“It’s not, really, you know. I’m not your omega.”

“Yes, you are. You’re my mate and I was going to talk to you about it once all this was settled. Before you pulled this stunt and almost got yourself killed. I have to tell you that it’s aged me ten years. When I saw that gun on you, and then he shot you…” He leaned over and kissed my hand, his eyes suspiciously wet. “I-I thought for a moment that he’d killed you.”

“But he didn’t kill me…”

“I’ve never been so scared before in my life, Levi. What if I’d lost you?”

“I know. I feel the same way about you. It was you then who attacked that man who shot me, right? Who was he anyway?”

“A guy who worked for me. And yeah, I attacked him. I wanted to kill him for what he did. His name is Alex Conroy.”

“Why did he try to shoot me?”

“He’s not talking. Even though I think I could make him talk if the police would give me five minutes alone in a cell with him.”

“That’s not the right thing to do, and you know it.”

He shrugged, and I remembered this was an Alpha wolf I was talking to.

“I shifted into my wolf and went after him without even thinking when I saw what he’d done. I don’t have any conscious memory of it. It was pure instinct. Everything happened so fast.”

“Did you…?”

“Kill him? No, I managed not to do that. But it was a close thing. All I could think about was that he’d hurt my mate, and that I’d almost lost you. I can’t ever go through that again, Levi.”

“Y-you really think I’m your mate?”

“Yes,” he said, his tone fierce. “I keep telling you that. And you know it too. I want you to go back to New York with me.”

“I don’t think I can do that. I love you, but I don’t think New York would suit me at all.”

“We can make this work, baby. I’ll quit my job if I have to and move to Valleywood. I’ll do anything you want. Whatever you say. But I’m not leaving you.”

“But you don’t really love me.”

“Who said I don’t? And the doctor says you’re having my baby. Don’t even think about trying to get rid of me now. I’m not going anywhere.”

“The doctor said that?”

“Yes. They discovered it during their examination when you were brought in.” He kissed my hand again. “Weren’t you going to tell me?”

“Probably not.” He looked up at me and the look of hurt in his eyes almost killed me.

“Don’t look like that. Please, Rolf. I wouldn’t want to trap you. I still don’t want to. You wouldn’t be happy in a loveless marriage.”

“Then you don’t have to worry, because it wouldn’t be loveless. Like I just told you. And I hope you have the same feelings for me.”

“I do. But are you sure? You said it hurt to see me shot and you called me your omega, but…”

“I love you, Levi. Since the first time I saw you in that café. I admit I’ve been confused, but nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I can’t lose you. And I’ll do whatever it takes to convince you to spend the rest of your life with me.”

He wrapped his arms around me then, and we stopped talking for a while. And he kissed me over and over until the nurses came in to see why my blood pressure was going up so much. When they finally left us alone again, he sat beside me a little more quietly. He was restless though.

“Are you going to give me a chance, Levi?” he asked me softly.

“Well, I…”

“Tell me, because I have to go out soon and let Nugget out of my truck to use the bathroom. I guess I better get him something else to eat too, before he does something crazy. He’s already eaten his breakfast, along with a few hot dogs, and he tried to eat an entire carton of eggs from the refrigerator while I was cleaning up after breakfast.”

I laughed and pulled his head down for another kiss. How could I say no to a man who made breakfast for my crazy dog? I thought maybe he really must love me if he was willing to take on Nugget. And before I let him leave the room, I made him crawl up on the bed to hold me for a while and tell me how he felt about me in greater detail. If he was going to be my Alpha, then he had some responsibilities to handle. And I was beginning to realize he was the only man for the job.