17. Zeke

Chapter seventeen

Zeke

D ressed for comfort to fly to Mexico in a few hours, Fabian sat with me at a table in the back of the reception hall. We nibbled pastries and sipped mimosas as we finally got the chance to really talk about everything that had happened.

"How long have you known about Matt?" I had to ask.

Fabian leaned back in his chair with his hands laced on his stomach as he grinned. "Since about ten minutes after meeting him."

"No," I said, aghast. "Seriously? Right there in the club?" I'd known they met after a show when Matt snuck backstage and sparks flew, but Matt had revealed himself right away?

Fabian giggled. "It was the first time a man ever got all possessive and aggressive and I was totally into it. Like, si, papi , pin me to that wall!" He threw his hands up and laughed again, more wickedly this time. "Do the wolves have a sort of in-between form?"

"Wolf-man, yeah." I blushed as I said it.

Fabian waggled a finger at me. "That was Matt right there backstage. Dios mio , his fur was so soft…"

Well, it was good to know I wasn't the only one who couldn't resist my mate when he went beastly. And since we were going there already, I asked, "Do cougars have a, um, knot?"

"A knot? What's that?"

That was a no, obviously, but it would be ridiculous not to explain now. "A part of his cock that swells and locks you together for a while."

Fabian's eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open before he cackled loud enough to have people across the room look over at us. I flapped at him to shush because we'd have to stop talking if people came over to see what was so funny.

"Oh, that's good," he said breathlessly. "No, Matt doesn't have that. What he has are these nubby bumpy things that play my rim like fingers on guitar strings." He made a humming noise that had me twitching in my seat. "I can't wait to be a big kitty, too."

I cocked my head at him, staring. "Excuse me?"

He blinked at me. "Matt's going to turn me while we're on our honeymoon?"

"He can do that?!"

Now it was Fabian flapping his hands at me to shut up. "Shhh! Yes, he said all shifters can. Hasn't Sacha offered? Oh, well, it's only been a week, so why would he? It's a serious decision and really painful, so it makes sense that you don't know that yet."

Okay, his logic seemed sound. Letting someone turn you into something else did seem like a monumental decision to make. It was life-changing, right? I wouldn't be the same if I agreed to become a lycan.

"And you've… You've thought it through?"

Fabian smiled indulgently at me. "Yeah. I want to understand every aspect of his world and be a part of it fully. They tend to live longer than we do, and I want to stay with him for as long as possible, too."

I nodded. Those were good reasons. Wow, that was a lot to take in.

"Is it by invitation? Or because you're mates and that's just—"

"No, he explained it all in details that nearly had me saying no way." He pulled a disgusted face. "But then he asked me to really think about it for at least three days. So I knew how serious it was. And if he wasn't going to do it, no one else would, so I guess that means it's by invitation only."

My mind was reeling. Would Sacha someday make such an offer? Would I accept? Matt and Fabian had waited two years, so it felt like it was on the same level importance as discussing whether to become parents. I could appreciate that.

Suddenly, Sacha rushed in, and I looked over, startled. My heart sank with dread at the look on his face as he said, "They've found my mother."

Though they'd been in contact with human law enforcement about finding her and reopening the cases, it had been a member of the pack who'd spotted Elise in the next town over. She'd been at a gas station trying to steal a car because hers had run out of gas. Always remember to fill up before attempting to flee the country, kids.

"Hey," Sacha said quietly before we went into the office. "There are cops and a detective in the room down the hall there who're going to watch and listen to everything that's about to happen."

"Are you sure that's wise? What if—"

He held up a hand. "They're all lycans from a neighboring pack, so it's fine. They're hoping she'll confess to me because she wouldn't say a word to them."

I nodded. "Should I wait somewhere else?"

"If you're okay with it," he said with a wince, "I'm hoping your presence will make her mad enough to forget to be guarded."

I chuckled at that and hopped from foot to foot like a boxer getting ready for a fight. "Bring it."

Sacha grinned at me and leaned in to give me a peck, but I caught him close and hugged him hard. This wasn't going to be easy for him in any way, but I'd have his back from now on.

It was pretty clear to me when I walked into the woman's former office that she'd never been on the run before and hadn't had a clue how to make it work for her. Dressed like she'd been on her way to a corporate meeting, she now looked like she'd spent time rolling down a hill into a mud puddle.

Her attitude was still regal as all hell, though.

"Let me go right now , or so help me I'll have every last one of you banned from the pack!"

I couldn't help sort of snort-laughing at that. Like anyone was going to take orders from her ever again. But in doing that, I brought her irate focus onto myself.

"Oh, you think this is funny?" she said with a sneer. "They won't accept you. You're nothing but a hole."

I rolled my eyes. "Honey, I've done more for this pack in the last twenty-four hours than you ever did."

She might not be a lycan, but she could still growl.

"Alright, enough," Sacha said, getting between us. "You talk to me , Mother, not him."

"You have to get them to let me go," she said with a scared sort of urgency. "They're accusing me of horrible things and threatening to kill me!"

I settled onto the couch opposite her, ready for the show she was putting on while also wishing I could spare Sacha from having to watch it, let alone participate in it.

"Like you killed my father?" Sacha asked as he sat beside me.

She recoiled. "That was an accident. We were hiking."

"You accidentally pushed him?"

"No!"

"So it was deliberate?"

"I didn't kill Cosmin," she said with a lot of venom in her tone.

Liar. I hardly knew her, but it was clear to me that Elise Lupescu had herself one hell of a temper. Get her mad enough and boom! I could see her shoving a man twice her size off of a cliff in a fit of rage.

Sacha was maybe changing tactics when he suddenly asked, "Was he your mate?"

She shrugged. "He said I was, but I never felt anything."

Ouch. Would Fate really saddle someone with a person who didn't particularly like them? Or was Elise lying? I wanted to believe she was lying, that she'd loved Sacha's father once. What could've pushed her to hate him?

Sacha must've been thinking along those same lines, because he asked, "Why did you come to hate him so much?"

She stomped her foot, the heel of her boot sounding like a gunshot. "He refused to turn me!"

Oh, now we were getting somewhere. I found myself leaning toward her and sat back instead.

Sacha was squinting at her like he didn't believe that. "My father refused to turn you, so you killed him?"

"I begged him to do it. To make me one of you. But he wouldn't! He said there was no reason to do it, like it wasn't necessary. But it was necessary to me!"

"And then Alek wouldn't do it either," Sacha said quietly.

"He said I didn't deserve to be turned. That's why I didn't even hesitate to k—" she cut herself off, but it was pretty obvious to me what she'd been about to say.

"To kill him," Sacha finished for her.

She sat up straight and looked down her nose at him. "I didn't say that."

"It's what you were about to say, though."

"You're not listening to me," she practically growled at him. "You never listen to me."

"I am listening, Mother, and I'm hearing a woman who was so consumed with the need to be powerful admit that she eliminated two men who wouldn't give her what she wanted."

"You make me sound childish and petty."

"You were."

"I wasn't! And I wasn't about to sit around doing nothing but getting fat by having their babies when there was an empire to run and people to lead. When you didn't become alpha after I killed Cosmin—"

Oh god, there it was…

"—I thought I'd lead then, but there was Alek being alpha all of a sudden. At least I'd already been having an affair with him, so marrying another one was easy to do. But then he wouldn't even consider turning me, that son of a bitch, and—"

A woman I'd never seen before opened the door and stood in the doorway.

"Was that enough?" Sacha asked him.

The woman nodded. "It was."

They'd heard her, and it was over.

Sacha got up and held his hand out to me. I took it and walked with him out the door. There were two uniformed officers waiting in the hall.

"She's all yours," Sacha said.