Alpha Curves (Paranormal BBW Shifter Romance): Wolf Clan Book 3 (6 page)

All it took was a single whiff of Iris by Jet and Colt before Dana had as much difficulty controlling them as Cade had with Mathis. The she-wolf was a walking aphrodisiac -- and she was his. He'd be damned if he let another male wolf guard her. It wasn't just about protection, either. With the power running through her, only an alpha wolf would stand a chance of stopping her from walking off clan lands if she put her mind to it.

Craning his neck to look straight up at Esme from where he sat, Cade summoned a pleading expression. Esme was a soft touch and she loved love. He hoped the wounded cub look he was working hard would win her over to his side. "I'm begging you, Ems. Can't you just keep spelling me like you did in the van?"

"I'm one witch," she scowled. "Not ten. Your wolf is too strong, especially with your mate around. And I have cubs and latents to cast for. Charms to keep the teams protected when they are out on runs."

She opened her mouth to continue, but the silver bells on her front porch began to dance, the magic on them triggered by a vehicle pulling onto the tree-lined drive. "That's them. Iris won't let you stay if you don't drink it. We went over this at least a dozen times on the drive."

Huffing, Cade followed Esme to the stove, his hand wrapping around the silver cup that would heighten the potion's effect on his body. Offering a dry smile he only half felt, he moved to the coffee maker and filled the cup. "Does silver's potency work on shifters with any old substance?"

He was slamming back the last of the caffeine when Iris walked through the door ahead of Dana. Her gaze landed on the cup in his hand and the bob of his throat as he swallowed before bouncing to Esme standing over the simmering pot, a silver ladle poised in her hand.

"Well?" Iris asked, her attention locked on Cade.

Exerting all his will to avoid even looking at Iris, Cade nodded at Dana. "Quite an accomplished witch you're about to marry."

Putting the cup on the counter, he slid it toward Esme and lightly kissed her cheek. "Thank you, Ems. I know you only want to do what is right."

Scrutinizing Iris's expression from the side of one eye, Cade waited to see if she bought the lie or if Esme would expose him. Iris shrugged, the gesture feigning an indifference he didn't smell on her. Angling his head ever so slightly, he looked closer at her face, his body relaxing when he saw a glimmer of what looked like disappointment in the violet-colored eyes.

Crossing to where Iris stood, he took the heavy file box she had brought from the van and carried it to the coffee table in the front room.

"You take the cub to Angelica's?" he asked Dana, his gaze on the box and the file he pulled from it.

Placing a second box on the table, Dana nodded. His tawny gaze, usually arctic when he looked Cade's way, thawed a little as he pushed the box to the center of the table.

"It's hell losing a mate," Dana said. "Having Oscar and the other cubs around is a comfort for her now that Coop is gone."

With nothing more than amped up coffee in his system, Cade felt Iris hesitantly move toward the kitchen island. He heard her inhale deeply and pictured her leaning over the pot as she sniffed at Esme's ingredients. The image was confirmed by her whispered question a second later.

"Does he need to drink regular doses?"

"Yes, and the excess I made won't keep," Esme answered. "I'll be back in a couple of days with more."

"But you'll be back before then, right?"

Cade suppressed a growl at the nervous tension running through Iris's last question. The last thing in the world his mate should worry about was being alone with him. She should crave the opportunity as much as he did.

"Tomorrow morning," Esme answered. "With more files, I imagine."

Cade listened, a small grin playing at one corner of his mouth as he heard Esme dump the potion. With his senses full of his mate, he forced his body to stay relaxed as the women moved into the front room. Esme took a seat next to Dana, her soft form instinctively curling against him.

Iris remained behind Cade, out of sight but so close he could feel the warmth of her body against the back of his shoulders. His eyes fluttered shut for half a second before Esme snapped a file open. He looked at the witch, her accusatory gaze sharp on him for an instant before she smiled up at Iris.

"We've tried to be methodical about the files."

"Yes, Dana explained the, uh,
system
as we ran photocopies." Iris took a seat in the only armchair. She rifled through the files, pulling out the thickest sheath and three of the thinnest. "I thought I'd go over Oscar's file because it is the most developed and also the files for the newest rescues because their evidence will be freshest."

Iris pressed her hand to her mouth, the fingers rubbing hard at her lips before she stopped and shook her head. "I understand that recovery of the cubs began after you discovered the Hunter manuscripts, but something about that doesn't feel right."

"How?" Dana asked.

Dana's gaze hadn't moved off the thick file Iris held since she had removed it from the box. Cade understood the reason. The cub had become Dana's -- not just a foster child but as much his flesh and blood as the cubs Esme would one day bear. Judging by the dark glitter in Dana's eyes, he had no interest in finding Oscar's parents.

"I can't pretend to understand how casting works." Iris dropped the file on the coffee table then clasped both hands together in her lap. "But from what Esme has told me so far, it sounds like a curtain being pulled back each time one of the cubs is located. No parents are found, but they haven't been abandoned or lost long enough to get pulled into the human world. No police, no Child Protective Services, no Good Samaritan or, the likeliest scenario of all for a child left on the streets..."

Iris paused, the pulse at her throat accelerating as she closed her eyes and spit out the distasteful words. "A sexual predator."

"If you're suggesting that all the rescues were meant to be ambushes, they failed." Dana gestured at the first box with a little over two dozen files, all of them male cubs that had been found in the last few months.

"Maybe I only found them because Hunters were casting for the cubs at the same time?" Esme's mouth corkscrewed in concentration. "Like the beacon boost I seem to have had in locating you?"

"That's ignoring the possibility that I was also being used as bait." Iris shook her head. "Even if I wasn't bait and some kind of beacon boost explains the curtain effect, it doesn't explain the rest. I mean -- the cubs are only more vulnerable without their parents, not more discoverable."

Esme rubbed at her eyes. "So you think the cubs are bait of some kind, even though there were no Hunter attacks during their rescue?"

"I think it's a strong possibility." Iris placed a hand on Esme's knee.

Cade stared at the point where the women's flesh made contact. It was the first time he had seen Iris voluntarily reach out to anyone since her capture. He gently probed the energy emanating from her, trying to determine if she was merely playing cop and developing a rapport with a witness or was actually bonding with the witch.

He licked his lips, uncertain. He wanted them to bond, wanted it hard. Esme's immediate empathy with the clan's new latents had accelerated their acceptance of a life among shifters. Any reason, however small, that coaxed Iris into staying had to be cultivated.

Pulling her hand back, Iris looked at Dana. "I'd like to interview the children."

"You mean interrogate," Dana snapped. Esme placed a palm against his chest, her touch appearing to instantly soothe the wolf inside him. A smile that looked forced surfaced and died on his lips in the space of a heartbeat. "They've been questioned."

"I thought you wanted a cop -- someone with different methods?" Pushing the files away, Iris leaned back in the chair. "How many child abuse cases have you worked? How many kids have you interviewed with their mother's dead body in the next room? How many--"

Dana's growl cut the rest of her question short.

"She's right," Cade said. "And if the cubs are being used as bait, we need to know. We're risking lives each time we leave the protection of our lands."

Esme nodded, Dana's assent signaled only by a small drop in his gaze. When he lifted it, he looked at the dark sky through the windows. His hand sought his mate's, his long, thick fingers curling around Esme's and giving a squeeze.

"We need to go," he said. "I have to talk with the other clan leaders about this."

A wave of anxiety rolled off Iris and flashed in her eyes. Cade saw it the instant before Iris pushed it down.

"Just one more question." The barely noticeable pleading tone in Iris's voice suggested to Cade that she wanted to manufacture as many questions as would keep Dana and Esme there the entire night. "Have any of the other witches been able to locate the cubs?"

Esme shook her head. "They've found latents, but I'm the only one who has found any cubs."

"So all the cubs are here?" Iris asked.

"No, just most of them," Esme answered. "There are three in California and five in Washington State. Maybe if I went--"

Dana stopped his mate with a low growl. She dropped her head, her lips tightly sealed but her eyebrows shooting high in visible frustration. Cade had heard the argument between them more than once. Dana was willing to let Esme go to other clan lands, but not without him and not while he had just stepped into Jack Cooper's place as clan leader.

"Who knows how many cubs are being left unprotected on the streets." Esme lifted her head and looked straight at Iris. "I'd like to teach you to cast -- and soon."

When Iris hesitated to respond, Cade snorted. "Neither wolf nor witch, is that your story?"

She shot him a glance that would have withered his bones and burned his balls to bacon crisps if she weren't his mate. Instead, the look only made him want her more, especially her submission. He pushed his wolf at her, saw the slight flaring of her nostrils and rapid dilation of her pupils in response. Her lips parted. She snapped them shut before she shot a second glance -- this one at Esme.

"I thought the potion..." Iris frowned. "I mean, he's not supposed to be able..."

Cade gave another little push, this one carnal, and watched in satisfaction as Iris's cheeks turned pink.

Esme gave the coffee table a shove in his direction with her foot. She raised a finger, the blue glow at its tip an order for him to behave. Turning to Iris, she tried to explain. "His drinking it only hides you from him, not the other way around."

Iris rolled her lips, her brow furrowing as she processed the information. "Then I should drink some, too."

Cade snorted before the full import of her request sank in. Sure, the request was an admission that feeling him had an effect on her she didn't want, but if Esme relented, he might never get Iris back.

"You said in the van you've never shifted. The potion won't work on you if that's true." She paused, her gaze probing Iris for any hint of a lie. After another long second, she shrugged her shoulders. "We could try more wards or silver, but I doubt it will work. The whole time I blocked Dana from sensing my latency, I could still sense his presence when he was nearby."

Cade suppressed a flash of surprise. Esme had just lied. He knew that the charms she fashioned for the wolves to shield them when they left clan lands had at least muted Dana’s presence around Esme, if not hidden it entirely.

"But you're a latent..." Iris started, then snapped her mouth shut.

Cade's brows lifted. He could feel his eyes burning, the question at the tip of his tongue too searingly hot to be held back. "You mean she's not a wolf like you?"

A fresh layer of pink colored Iris's cheeks. Rising, Cade walked to the front door and opened it. He looked at Dana, knowing the tender-hearted witch was ready to cave and offer Iris relief if any was available -- particularly by forcing him to take the potion she had just dumped or making him wear the damn wards the wolves used when they went off clan lands.

He looked at Dana, hoping for an unexpected ally in getting Esme to leave. "You said you needed to call the other clan leaders?"

Dana nodded, but Cade hadn't moved quickly enough to get them out. Esme dipped her head to capture Iris's attention. When the she-wolf looked at her, Esme softly smiled.

"I can consult with some of the other healers--"

"No." Iris dismissively chopped her hand in the air, the motion almost violent. Another roll of her lips and she closed her eyes. "Please, don't spend the time on my account. There are bigger problems to deal with than Cade being a pain in the ass."

Grinning ear to ear, Cade pulled the front door open a little wider.

Chapter Seven

Iris bolted upright in bed. It took a full two seconds for her nose to remind her that she was in Esme Foster's former house, the scent of the woman faintly clinging to the room despite the fresh linen and the witch's extended absence. Iris's ears were less than helpful, the familiar screams of her nightmare chasing her from sleep to wakefulness so that she didn’t know which sounds were phantoms and which were real.

She forced her heart to slow. The retreating pound of bloodsurf assured her that the screams were only old memories. Collapsing against the mattress, she fought to keep her eyes open as she silently cursed her acquiescing to Cade guarding her. With Esme's potion in him, he had undoubtedly slept like a newborn wolf while she had tossed restlessly after their late night turn in, alternately haunted by old nightmares and fresh images of Cade and the wolf he had become.