Heir To The Pack (The Cursed Pack Book 1) (18 page)

“If you two work it out, please
tell me immediately,” Joel said.

Annie broke away from
Dash’s gaze to look at Joel. He knew something had passed between them, she
could tell. His lips pressed into a hard white line.

“We will,” Dash said,
beside her. “For now, we must break the news to everyone. I’ll call them
together in the dining hall and make the announcement.”

“Dash,” Annie said, “We
should watch the crowd during the announcement, very carefully, and I want to
know who doesn’t turn up to the meeting.”

“Good thinking,” Joel
said, the tension in his face fading. “You could have been a lawyer.”

“I’m a scientist,” she
said.

He laughed. “I’m a former
district attorney,” he said, “But now I'm an alpha, and I have a different set
of problems. I’ll see you both in the dining hall – in an hour, Dash?”

Dash nodded and rose. “In
an hour.”

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

After Joel’s departure,
Dash waited for Annie to say something. Her eyes were focused on a point in
space, and he had no idea what she was thinking. She’d probably never been
exposed to such horrors in her life, and he felt a surge of guilt at destroying
her innocence.

She’d thought she was
human her entire life, and to have the behavior of a tribe of savage wolves so
forcibly thrust in front of her eyes...well, he was proud of her. Proud that
she hadn’t fainted or thrown up or cried. She was strong. She’d survive these
horrors.

Regardless of her
strength, she probably needed some comfort, a hug. He could do with one
himself. He stepped over and reached out his arms.

She stood and accepted his
touch, resting her head on one side of his chest, a hand over his heart. It
beat more strongly in response to her touch. He tightened his arms around her. The
mother of his son. An amazing, strong woman.

As they stood close, he
was reminded that she was, in fact, a woman. Her scent, clean, light, and
enticing, tickled his nostrils. Her breasts pressed softly against him. She let
out a little hmm-hmm sound, intended to comfort him, he thought.

Blood roared through his
ears, through his body, and came to rest in his now rock-hard cock. He pressed
against her closer.

“Dash,” she said, and her
voice was breathy against his chest, “When you called Michael’s wolf earlier...”

“Mmm,” he said, not really
listening to her words, just the breathy tone of her voice, but she’d stopped. He
concentrated, trying to process what she’d said.

“Do you have that effect
on all women?”

“What effect?” he
murmured, burying his nose in her hair, drawing in her scent, enjoying the way the
silky strands rubbed across his lips.

“I guess that means no,”
she said.

“What effect?” He drew
back to look at her face. She was blushing. Sweet. It made him want her even
more. “Oh. You mean...?”

She nodded, once, not
making eye contact. He put his hand to her chin, gently lifted it so she looked
him in the eye.

“No.”

“No?” She looked confused.
Her mouth twisted into a pout. Gods, but he needed to taste her. But he’d
answer her question first.

“No. That only happens to
mated wolves.” Enough talking. He lowered his face to hers, reveling in that
first touch of their lips. Electric. A surge of life and energy roared through
him.

She broke away from him,
leaving him wanting more. “Annie...”

“What do you mean, mated
wolves?”

He stared at her lips. She
licked them, once, and pressed them together. Gods, but it was hard to
concentrate when she did stuff like that. He wanted her so badly.

Struggling to focus, he
said, “Mated. Like, their wolves have decided they want to be together. It’s
separate from marriage. An extra step.” A step he couldn’t imagine taking with
Irina, even if they had gotten married.

Her light brown eyebrows
drew together, and her lower lip puffed out. He wanted to kiss away the lines
between her eyes, nibble on that lower lip.

“I’m confused.”

“You’re not the only one,”
he muttered. “Can I help you figure it out?”
So we can go back to kissing
?

“There are two things here
that are confusing me.” Her voice had taken on that slightly distant tone she
got when she was being all rational and scientific. He loved it. Settling in to
listen, he put lust aside. For now. “So, the Oracle said I’m part of this Lost
Pack. She said they had lost their wolves, meaning I don’t have a wolf form. Second,
I think I would know if we were mated, wouldn’t I?”

“You would. It’s a choice.
Not like in a romance novel, Annie. Fate doesn’t predestine mates for us.”

Her mouth turned up at one
corner. “
You
read romance novels.”

 
“When werewolves got to be the hottest
thing in the bookstore, Gaelan and I passed a couple around. Read them to each
other over a couple beers.” The memory made him grin. “I never knew those
things were so, you know, R-rated.”

She punched him lightly in
the arm. “Stop thinking about sex for one minute, Dash.”

Now she’d said that, it was
all he could think about. Not that he hadn’t been thinking about it since she’d
turned up on his doorstep, but it had gradually been taking up more and more of
his thoughts. Much as he wanted her, this was a horrible time to be distracted.
He had to focus.

“To answer your question,
I don’t know why you felt what you felt. Let’s talk about this more later. I
want to figure it out. For now, I need to focus on breaking the news to the packs.”

Annie nodded, her face
scrunched into a frown. “What will they do?”

“They’ll want to find out
who did this. And they’ll want blood.” He took Annie by the arms. “I need to
find the killer, and quickly, because if I can’t it will hurt their faith in me
as a potential leader. I already have the Russians pissed at me. I can’t afford
to lose anyone else’s support.”

“The Russians?”

He cursed inwardly. He hadn’t
meant to tell her about that. She had enough to worry about. And he really
didn’t want to discuss Irina with her. “I’ll fill you in later. For now, I need
you, Annie. I need you to apply that incredible brain of yours to working out
who did this. Can you help me?”

“Of course. We’ll work
this out. Together.”

He pulled her into him to
give her an impulsive hug. Everything about this situation sucked except for
having her on his side. She hugged him back, hard.

“Shall we go see the
ravening hordes?” she quipped, using his own words against him.

“Yeah,” he said. “I expect
them to be more ravening this time. Be careful. Don’t show weakness.” He felt
bad even as he said it, because she’d been a rock to date, and he didn’t want
her to think he doubted her. He gave her one last squeeze before letting her
go, reluctantly.

She took his hand and kept
it, and they went out together. He didn’t know quite when he’d started thinking
of them as a team, but it was a good feeling, one that he wanted to hold on to
for a while. He just had to solve all the world’s problems first.

*
         
*
         
*

Dash looked out at the
assembled werewolves. They were restless, shuffling in their seats. A good
number of them stood against the walls instead of sitting. They didn’t know
what was up, but they knew there was something. The pack vibe told them it was
something bad.

He walked to the front of
the podium, wanting nothing more than to take a deep breath, scratch himself,
twitch somehow, but he knew he couldn’t afford to appear anything less than
calm and in charge. He did allow himself to sneak a glance at Annie, standing
on the floor to his left, with Gaelan beside her. Her face was stoic. He
couldn’t have been prouder.

“Wolves,” he said, his
voice projecting to every corner of the room, as grave as he could make it, “I
have solemn news.” He paused to give them time to prepare themselves. “The
Oracle has died.”

A flurry of whispers shot
through the room, punctuated by gasps and growls and a single sob. People were
upset, but she had been very old, and no doubt most of them thought she’d died
of old age.

“She was murdered.”

The words hung in the air
before the room erupted. Wolves jumped to their feet, howling and growling. A
chair fell aside. Someone in the back shrieked.

He waited, knowing they
would turn back to him, and they did, the sound levels lowering as they waited
for his next words.

“I believe the killer is
amongst us. I will find the person responsible. To do that, I need your cooperation.”

The room was quiet for a
few moments. A few wolves at the table closest to the front lifted their heads
to howl. The next table followed suit, and the next, until the gathered packs
united in a show of grief and support. The sound buoyed him and brought him
strength.

Across the room, against
the wall by the window, stood Ivan. He, too, howled, but he met Dash’s gaze,
unblinking. They stared each other down as the pack song continued, until
finally Ivan gave him the smallest of nods.

Dash hoped it meant that
Ivan would at least help with the investigation, even if he planned to
undermine Dash’s leadership. He was not a stupid wolf by any means, and the
Oracle’s death was bad for everyone. She was the spiritual leader of the packs.
Until a new Oracle emerged they were missing part of their souls. And only the
Gods knew who she would be, and when she would come into her powers.

He scanned the room
carefully, thinking of Annie’s words. The only people he noticed missing were the
ones he knew to be in his suite—Daisy and Jack, his aunts, the guards,
and Michael. Of course, he didn’t know exactly who was in each entourage, but
he saw the alphas he expected to see. Annie was right. He’d have to dig.

The howling died down, and
eyes turned to him, awaiting his next move.

“Alphas. I need to know
where each of your pack members was this afternoon, and who cannot account for
their whereabouts.”

He expected some
rebellion, and there was a murmur through the room, but as he made eye contact
with each alpha in turn, each one nodded. They’d comply. They might lie to him,
he supposed, but it was a start.

His own father had been
able to smell a lie at a hundred paces, but it was a skill he himself had not
yet mastered. Now would be a good time to learn.

Dash continued, “We will
meet at dinner. Until that time, be careful. There is one amongst us who means
us harm.” He raised his hand to dismiss the gathering.

A long keening wail broke
out across the room. Heads turned to look, and it took Dash a few minutes to
locate the source of the sound.

It was a teenage girl,
standing among Joel’s pack, the Jersey wolves, the only truly urban pack of werewolves
among the bunch.

Dash’s first thought that
teenagers were always so damn melodramatic quickly turned to concern as the
girl fell to the floor. He jumped from the stage and made his way across the
room, people parting to make a path for him through the crowd.

Joel had fallen to his
knees and cradled the girl’s head in his lap. The resemblance between them was
strong. This must be his daughter.

“What’s wrong?” Dash said,
crouching beside them.

“I don’t know. She
fainted, I think.” Joel’s voice was low and steady. If Dash hadn’t seen his
hand shake as he stroked her black hair back from her face, he would have
thought the other wolf cold. But this, this was something he now understood. The
naked terror of something being wrong with a man’s child. Nothing could be
worse.

The girl’s eyes opened,
rolling around in her head, unseeing. They were a vivid pale green in her pale face.
Her mouth opened, gasping for breath.

Those sea-green eyes
locked on to Dash’s face, and the girl spoke, her voice husky and deep.

“She
must change. She must change. She must kill the witch who walks among us. The
witch is still among us. She must kill the witch or the boy dies. The boy dies.
The boy dies.”

The girl fell silent, her
eerie words burned into Dash’s brain. She closed her eyes, and lay still.

A hand came down on his
shoulder, and he knew without looking, from the scent alone, that Annie had
followed and stood beside him. She’d heard. He wished he could have done
something to stop her from hearing those words.
The boy dies.
Gods.

“Shoshanna,” Joel said, “Come
back to us.”

The girl’s eyes fluttered.
“I’m tired, Dad,” she said, her New Jersey accent totally different from the
voice she’d used only moments ago, the voice Dash would never forget.

Joel looked up at him, and
their gazes locked.

Dash knew Joel’s daughter
was the pack witch, but most witches did not have strong visions. Could she be
the new Oracle? He didn’t know much about the selection process. It had always
been Rosa since long before he’d been born. But he knew there was always an
Oracle among the packs, in all the legends and recorded history. He suddenly
wished he’d paid more attention to those stories on the endless Sunday
afternoons when his aunts had tried to drum pack lore into him.

“Do you need help to get
her back to your quarters?” Dash asked.

Joel shook his head,
gestured at the bevy of large men in suits who surrounded them. “I have an
escort,” he said. “I’d like to take her up now.”

Dash gave a brief nod,
stood, and turned to the gathering. He didn’t need to summon their attention. All
eyes were on their little group. On Annie, on Shoshanna, on the drama that had
played out. Great. “We will meet again at the usual time,” he said, dismissing
the group.

People filtered from the
room, murmuring as they went, their voices hurried. Gods knew he’d given them
plenty to talk about.