CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE

Waiting in the front yard while Vinnie said his goodbyes to the Alpha pair, Luke curled an arm around Blair’s shoulders and pulled her close. Restlessness buzzed beneath his skin, making his muscles tight. Talking of the danger that lingered around her had left him as edgy as his pacing cat.

Luke scanned the entire cul-de-sac. One of the pride whistled as he washed his car. Another tended to her flowerbeds while chatting with her neighbor, who was drinking coffee. Although there was nothing out of the ordinary to note, Luke’s unease remained. It probably wouldn’t leave his system until the threat to Blair was gone.

“Well, that was intense,” she said, her voice low.

He glanced down at her. “The things River said spooked you?”

“I wouldn’t say they spooked me. But I guess I was guilty of branding my harasser a sick and pathetic—albeit dangerous—loser. I didn’t see that there was so much more to the gift sending and prank calling than simply getting my attention. I didn’t consider all the angles of the situation.”

“And so you’ll be sure to follow River’s advice?”

“Yes, I will. Starting with changing my number.”

Luke pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Good girl.”

“Well, it’s common sense to—” She cut off as her cell began to chime. Blair whipped her phone out of her pocket. “It’s Embry,” she told Luke before answering, “Hello.”

“I wish you’d told me about the email sooner,” said the Alpha, the cell’s volume setting loud enough for Luke’s enhanced hearing to pick up the words.

“I only received it the night before last,” said Blair. “And I genuinely did mean to come to you about it once I’d brought Luke up to speed on everything. Though I was worried you’d have insisted someone was either pranking me or merely trying to poke at Luke.”

“I would not have ignored or attempted to downplay this, Blair. Be very assured that I willlook into it. I don’t believe that the email was written by one of the pack, but I’ll question everyone in any case.”

She narrowed her eyes, no doubt annoyed that he wasn’t open to the idea of his pack mates having some involvement. “You think they’d admit to it?” she asked.

“No. But I’m good at making people slip up.”

Blair didn’t dispute that, so Luke figured it had to be true.

“I hope you’ll call your mother at some point.”

“We’re not doing this, Embry,” Blair firmly stated. “Let it alone.”

A loud sigh. “All right, fine. Just let me say one last thing—she might have a funny way of showing it at times, but she loves you more than life, Blair. That’s one thing I can say with complete certainty.” With that, he hung up.

Blair returned her cell to her pocket as she looked up at Luke. “I take it you heard all that.”

He nodded. “Embry sounded edgy and tense. Maybe the email whipped off his blinders, or maybe …”

“My mother’s pressuring him to insist I return, and he knows that he has to first sort out the present situation and prove it’s safe for me to go back there,” Blair finished. “Yeah, I had the same thought.”

“But you’re not going anywhere, are you?” It came out sounding like more of a statement than a question.

“No, I’m not. Lucky you.”

His lips canted up. “Oh, I’m definitely lucky.” He dropped a soft kiss on her mouth.

“On a darker note, you need to be careful. Like you said, whoever’s harassing me will feel like I betrayed them. They’ll be angry with you for claiming me. They might target you. And yes, I know you’d prefer that than for them to focus on me. But I need you to be safe. Don’t makeyourself a target to protect me. You’d ask the same of me.”

He sighed, unable to claim that she’d gotten it all wrong and he’d never intended to somehow goad the son of a bitch. His mate would know it for the lie that it was. “I’ll be careful.”

Just then, his father approached and announced he was ready to leave. Luke kept Blair’s hand in his as the three of them exited the cul-de-sac. As they walked along the street of stores, he kept a close eye on their surroundings; noted every pedestrian, checked every rooftop, glanced at the drivers of each car that passed.

He noticed that Blair was doing the same. She didn’t seem worried or nervous. There was a determined set to her jaw that told him she was resolute on identifying her stalker as opposed to allowing him to terrorize her.

Vinnie split off at one point, heading to the antique shop above which he lived. Luke and all three of his siblings had once lived there with him, but only Damian hadn’t yet moved out.

As Luke and Blair strolled through the parking lot outside their complex, he remained on high alert, taking in everything. Other than Camden and Luke’s cousin Alex, who were stood outside the main doors talking, no one was in sight.

“I don’t recognize the dude with Alex,” said Blair. “Is he a new member?”

“That’s Camden, the tiger shifter I mentioned,” Luke replied. “He’s also Aspen’s mate.”

“Really? I sensed she was mated, but I didn’t know …”

Blair’s words were lost on Luke as a dark-blue van caught his eye. The unfamiliar vehicle was slowing as it neared the parking lot. Instinct made his scalp prickle in unease.

Luke sensed his mate tense. He knew she’d either picked up on his discomfort or that something about the situation must have put her on high alert.

The van slowed a little more. The front passenger window lowered. Metal glinted as something poked out of it.

Luke was on the move even before tranquilizer darts zipped through the air. Camden quickly dived to the side, dodging many of the darts, but two buried themselves in his arm. He managed to get back on his feet, but it was clear that his equilibrium was shot to shit.

Two men jumped out of the van’s side door and made a grab for the staggering tiger shifter, but Luke’s yell had them freezing. One male swore and dragged the other back into the van before it sped away with a screech of tires.

Alex pursued the vehicle just as Camden fell to his knees, his eyes glazed. Luke caught the guy just before he landed face first on the ground.

“Let’s get him inside,” said Blair, all business even as a sense of urgency laced her voice, and keyed the code into the entrance’s security pad. She shoved open the door and indicated for Luke to enter first.

He tossed the tiger over his shoulder and retreated into the building.

One of the pride members in the lobby came rushing toward them. “What happened?”

Luke felt his jaw harden. “Some shitheads tried to kidnap Camden. That’s what happened.” Striding toward the elevator with Blair at his side, he noticed she was texting someone.

“I gave Tate a heads-up,” she said.

Luke went to nod in satisfaction, but then she thrust her hand into Camden’s pocket. “What are you doing?”

Dangling a set of keys, she replied, “It’ll be best to take him straight to his apartment so he’ll wake in his own bed. There’s a chance his tiger could push for supremacy while Camden’s beginning to come round. If the pissed-off-cat isn’t entirely sure where he is, he could go AWOL.”

She was right. Luke should have thought of that himself. Proud of her for remaining so clear-headed, he would have smiled if he wasn’t grinding his teeth at what had been done to his pride mate.

Inside the apartment that Camden shared with Aspen, Luke placed the unconscious tiger on the bed. He was just exiting the bedroom when Aspen came charging into the apartment like a damn Valkyrie in a fury. Without a word, she disappeared into the bedroom.

The Alphas, Bailey, Farrell, and one of the pride’s healers Sam walked through the open front door, closing it behind them.

“What in the motherfucking hell happened?” demanded Havana.

While Sam checked on Camden, Luke gave the others a detailed account of what went down. He kept a surreptitious eye on a silent Blair, alert for signs of delayed shock. She was generally cool under pressure—it was one of the things that would make her a good Beta female—but he nonetheless needed to feel sure she was okay.

“I don’t believe this shit,” said Bailey. “Did you get a good look at the assholes?” Her eyes danced from Luke to Blair.

“They wore masks,” he told her.

“I got a text from Alex,” announced Tate, his phone in hand. “He wasn’t able to track the van for long, it eventually left him in the dust. He did memorize the number plate, though. He called River to pass it on”—Tate looked at Blair—“but River said you’d already texted it to him.”

Luke blinked at her. “You did?”

She nodded. “He gave me his cell number in case my harasser strikes again, remember? I asked him to run the plates. He’ll hopefully get back to us soon.”

Just then, Sam exited the bedroom and confirmed what they’d suspected—the darts weren’t poisonous, they simply aimed to sedate. It was a relief, but it didn’t lessen anyone’s anger. Tate thanked the healer for coming, and Sam then left.

“Personally,” began Havana, “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a human was asking questions about Camden a few days before he was almost taken.”

“Neither do I,” said Tate. “We need to speak with the human.”

Blair tensed at the deadly note in the Alpha male’s voice. It was clear that by speak, he meant torture. And each person in the room nodded in bloodthirsty approval. “You’ll have to be careful how you go about it.”

“In what sense?” asked Tate.

“You can’t approach him as a pride unless you’re comfortable exposing what you are,” said Blair. “Sure, it may be that he’s connected to the attempted kidnapping—if that’s the case, you can kill him, and then he can’t pass on that you’re not human. But you don’t yet know for certain that you’ll have a reason to kill him. He might not be involved.”

Havana licked her front teeth. “She’s right. I suppose we can have Camden do the questioning. We’ll act as if we’re simply there to have his back. If it turns out that the human is guilty of anything—”

“I can let out my snake so she can bite him, yes?” asked Bailey, her hands joined as if in prayer.

It was Tate who answered. “I don’t see why not.”

The black mamba shifter pumped her fist.

“We still have the human’s address, right?” asked Tate.

“I have the info that River sent us in my phone,” Luke told him.

“Then as soon as Camden is ready to leave, we’ll go have a nice, long talk with the human,” said Tate. “His name is Davis Regent, if I remember correctly.”

Luke nodded. “That’s him.”

Hearing her phone beep, Blair slipped it out of her pocket and peeked at the screen. A message from her brother read: If you don’t take my next call I’m gonna haul ass to Luke’s building and hunt you down.

Blair silently swore. He’d tried calling her several times in the past fifteen minutes but—considering the severity of the current pride situation—she’d ignored each call with the intention of contacting him later. Knowing he’d live up to his promise, she looked at Luke. “I need to speak with Mitch or he’s going to come find me. My guess is he’s heard about the email.” She gave Luke’s arm a brief squeeze and then headed to the kitchen. She called her brother, who answered after two rings.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about that goddamn email,” Mitch complained without so much as a hello.

“I take it Embry debriefed you,” she said.

“He told a few of us just now. Kiesha’s gonna lose her mind. Why didn’t you say anything to me about it?”

She rubbed at her forehead. “Mitch—”

“Hey, I get why you didn’t bother taking the matter to Embry. He’s been a condescending ass toward you lately, treating you like you’re being dramatic. But I would have taken the email seriously. You know that.”

“I do know that.”

“So why didn’t you tell me?”

“Two reasons.” She leaned back against the counter. “One, I wanted to tell Luke first—God knows I kept him in the dark long enough. Two … Let me ask you a question. Who would you say is responsible for all of this?”

“Probably some stranger who saw you in the street, developed all sorts of messed-up fantasies in his head, and is now acting as if you belong to him.”

“And that’swhy I said nothing to you about it. You’re determined to believe it’s an outsider. I understand why. But I’m not quite as trusting as you. Way too many things point at the probability that my so-called admirer is from the pack. You would have argued against that. You would have hated that I felt unsafe in the pack, so you’d have gone above my head to Embry, wanting him to back you up on it in the hope that I’d then feel better.”

Moments of silence ticked by. “Okay, so maybe I would have told him but—”

“You’d have meant well, I know. You’d have thought you were looking out for me. And I couldn’t have been mad at you for it, especially when I knew you would have been uncomfortable with keeping a secret from your Alpha. But I still would have hated that you’d told him.”

Mitch muttered something beneath his breath. “I can see why you might suspect that it’s someone from our pack, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t—I want you to be careful who you trust right now. It’s just that … we’ve grown up around these people. I feel like we’d know if one of them was so damn twisted inside.”

“I thought that at first but, as Luke pointed out, people like that wear masks. They’re often very good at blending. We can’t say for sure that that isn’t the case here.”

He sighed. “I guess I can’t deny that.” He paused. “Mom and Dad will find out about it soon, so expect a phone call from them.”

“I haven’t heard from Mom at all since I left.”

“She isn’t talking much to anyone. She seems … stunned. Like it never occurred to her that you’d truly ever leave.”

“She’d convinced herself that her plan to stop me from one day joining the Olympus Pride would pay off. She wouldn’t have allowed herself to consider that it might fail.”

Mitch puffed out a breath. “I’ve tried talking to her about it, but she shuts me down every time I bring it up. She’s taking the admirer situation seriously now, though. She told Embry that he’d better ID him fast. She’s convinced that it can only be Gabriel. Embry’s next move is to find and question him. She could be right, you know.”

“Yes, she could. She’d just better not pin it all on him so she can say ‘case closed’ and pressure me to return to the pack.”

“You keep saying the pack, not our pack. You’re really not coming back, are you?” The question held no judgement.

“No. I’m where I need to be.” Where she wanted to be.

“Has Luke claimed you yet?”

Memories of this morning flashed to the forefront of her mind. “Not yet, but he will.”

“Why the delay?”

“Involuntary cockblockers.”

Mitch made a weird sound. “I don’t want to hear my sister say ‘cock.’ As far as I’m concerned, you don’t know what one is, you’ll forever remain a virgin, and any children you may bear will be immaculate conceptions. Misogynistic, yeah, but whatever.”

She snickered. “You’re an idiot.” Her pulse skittered as Luke stalked into the kitchen, stirring up her hormones with all that natural smolder. “I gotta go.”

“Keep me posted, Blair. Don’t hold anything else back from me. I want to be kept in the loop—you’re my sister, I sort of love you.”

A snort popped out of her. “Sort of love me?”

“Well, I can’t be certain.”

She rolled her eyes. “Like I said, you’re an idiot.” She promised to keep him updated and then ended the call. Studying Luke’s grim expression, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

He moved to stand between her legs. “I just heard from River. The plates on the van were false.”

She sighed. “Of course they were. It can never be that easy, can it?”

“A group of us are going to grab Davis Regent from his house later on this evening so that Camden can question him.”

“Question him where?”

“We usually hold interrogations at my dad’s apartment. But we don’t want to take the human there, so we’re going to use the pack’s small motorhome. We can haul him inside, question him, and then … well, what happens next will depend on what he has to say.”

“Sounds like a plan. You know I’m coming with you, right?” Blair narrowed her eyes when she sensed he’d object. “Don’t. This particular plan is not fraught with peril. There’ll be a bunch of us. I will be fine. And if you try to dispute that, you’ll just be lying your ass off.” And yet, he still seemed about to argue. “Pick your battles wisely. You won’t win many of them and you know it.”

His jaw went tight. “It could get ugly.”

“I know all about ‘ugly.’ Bush dogs take it to the extreme, and I’ve been present for plenty of interrogations. It was all part of my enforcer training. You know that. So quit being difficult, we have things to do. Regent ain’t gonna question himself.”

Luke drew in a long breath through his nose. “All right, we’ll both go.”

She pursed her lips. “Not sure why you thought I needed your consent, but okay.”

Humor briefly flickered in his eyes. “Brat.” Luke skimmed a hand over her hair. “Before we leave, how did your conversation with Mitch go?”

Shoving her phone back in her pocket, she replied, “He isn’t happy that he learned about the email from Embry, and he struggles with the idea that someone from the pack could have sent it. But he’s not dismissing the idea out of turn. He’s going to be open-minded.”

“Good. Because it might be that he’s the only person in the pack who will be.”