Once Upon a Shifter (45 page)

"Stay down!" he shouted, when I tried to move him off me.

"The hell with that!" I shoved him hard with my palm and knocked him against the footboard of the bed. "Sorry," I said as I jumped to my feet, "I have to make sure everyone is okay."

Phoenix reached the bedroom door before me, but he didn't try to hold me hostage so that I wouldn't be in danger; he opened it and grabbed my hand before running out into the hallway and down the grand staircase.

Shouts from my pack members issued from outside the open front door, and Phoenix slowed before cautiously leading me outside.

With so much going on, I couldn't make out what the guys were shouting as they ran toward the fire-engulfed car. My heart stopped beating in my chest, and then kicked into overdrive once I realized what they were trying to do. There was someone in the car, but the heat was too intense for them to get any closer than twenty feet of the wreckage.

"Oh, my God! No!" I gasped and tried to run toward the blazing vehicle, but Phoenix grabbed me around the waist and pulled me to him, his arms tightening when I tried to kick free of the embrace. I reached toward the burning pile of metal, but couldn't see anything except blinding light through my tears. Finally getting enough oxygen into my lungs so I could speak, I opened my mouth and screamed, "Katie!"

V''''V

Alex

"Rhodes, where are you?" Alex heard through the receiving end of his cell phone.

He jogged up the remaining steps of the precinct and nodded a thank you at the smiling woman holding the door open for him. "I'm on my way up to talk to you, Chief."

"Don't bother. We just had a call come in. Someone set off a bomb in a vehicle at a residence. There was a fatality."

The phone in Alex's hands cracked under the sudden pressure of his fingers gripping it a bit too tightly. "I've got enough on my plate right now. Give it to Thompson."

There was a brief pause before the Chief replied quietly. "It's Marc Hoke's address."

Alex's brain stopped functioning properly and, for a second, he wasn't quite sure why he was standing in the middle of the staircase at the police department. "Excuse me? What?" he managed to get out, and turned back for the door, breaking into a full-out run after he got his mind and his feet on the same page. "I just left Mena's house. There has to be a mistake."

"Dispatch called it in six minutes ago. This is your case. It looks like whoever was out to get Marc, has it in for his pretty little wife, too."

"Was it her?" Alex shouted into the phone as he jumped in the Jeep and started the engine. "Chief, please tell me it wasn't Mena in the car," he said, and let his head fall against the steering wheel as his heart threatened to burst in his chest. If it was her, he wouldn't physically be able to drive to her home, much less continue with the case. He'd known better than to leave her there!

"I'm not sure," the Chief replied. "A neighbor made the call; said there was a crowd of people around, trying to get someone out of her neighbor's car that had just blown up. Whoever was in it didn't make it."

"Damn it!" Alex shouted as he threw his back against the seat and punched the steering column, and then he shoved the gearshift in first and stomped the gas pedal to the floorboard.

Chapter 15

Mena

"Mena?" Phoenix said in a low voice. "Mena, the cell phone in your pocket is ringing. Would you like me to take the call for you?" He didn't wait for me to reply. Phoenix reached in and took my cell from my pocket then walked away as he answered it.

Sirens blared as emergency vehicles approached at a rapid pace, but I couldn't seem to pull myself out of shock long enough to realize that they were coming to my home because someone had blown my car up with one of my friends in it.

What would I tell the police? What would I tell the other pack members? What was my wolf plotting to do to the people who did this?

I could feel her rage beneath my skin, and could sense she wanted to shift into her werewolf form. I was guessing the only reason she hadn't was because she knew the cops would need to talk with me.

All the worry that I hadn't felt in the last few days suddenly crashed down on me like a ton of bricks. I assumed that was because she was upset and couldn't even contain her own fear of what was to come.

Tears spilled from my eyes and I felt two arms pull me into a tight embrace. He didn't smell sweet, like Phoenix did, but his strong arms were inviting, and my energy was depleted. I clung to the man and went ahead and fell apart.

The guy held me to him and ran his hand lightly over my hair. "Oh, God, Mena, I thought it was you. I couldn't get back here fast enough."

"Alex?"

"You're staying with me until all of this is over—"

"She already has a place to stay," Phoenix interrupted. "At my place." He held out my phone and I shook my head as I took it from him.

"I'm not staying with either of you. I will be just fine here."

"Mena," Alex started, and I noticed that Phoenix was smiling. He knew me well enough to know that arguing with me after I make a decision is a waste of time and breath. Alex didn't know me that well.

"Forget it, Alex. It's not happening."

Phoenix's smile grew wider. I rolled my eyes.

"Well, then I am staying here."

My jaw dropped and Phoenix's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. "What?" we both shouted simultaneously.

"Hell yes!"
my wolf shouted over the mess of thoughts getting tangled in my mind.

"Hell no!"
I shouted back.
"There are werewolves staying here! Someone is bound to let something slip. Stay where you are and let me handle him."

"I'm not letting you out of my sight, Mena." He pointed to what was left of the smoking vehicle. "That right there is proof that someone wants to kill you. It's not just threats and it's not a game. If you won't stay at my apartment, I am staying here. I let you have your way earlier and not ten minutes later somebody set off a bomb in your car!"

"What about your cases, Alex? You can't—"

"You are my case, Mena. I'll work on anything else that needs my attention while I'm here."

I was stunned into silence. Phoenix was seething. Dear God, this was not going to end well.

"You want to move in with Mena?" Daryn said to Alex as he walked up to us. His eyes were red from crying and his hair was a disheveled mess of sweat and smoke from fighting his way to Katie. He looked at me. "I'm not trying to tell you what to do, Mena, but the—the group won't like this."

"He's right," Phoenix said.

Alex's head whipped around and he looked at Phoenix, as did the rest of us. "He is?"

"I am?" Daryn said.

"Well, yeah, but you are right, too," Phoenix said to Alex. "I think it's a good idea to get her as much protection as possible, but you can't do it all by yourself. Mena will have to go places and do things, and it's not possible for you to do your job and she do what she has to do as leader of her—her group. I'll put some extra men of mine on night detail to watch over her, and she has her own protection during the day, so you will be free to work on your cases and can check in when you have the time. We need to find out who this is before someone else gets hurt or killed. That's where you come in, detective. I thought you liked solving mysteries… like this one?"

Alex studied Phoenix for a moment then finally nodded, but I wasn't sure he was in total agreement with everything he'd said. He'd actually just rearranged some words of the plan that was already in place. Maybe Alex was dumber than I gave him credit for. I crossed my fingers behind my back and prayed that Alex would concede to it all. It really wasn't possible for him to stay at my house twenty-four-seven.

"I also agree with you that she needs to stay somewhere besides here, at least at night, when most people sleep. My men and I are night creatures," he said with a wink. "She will be safe at my residence."

"That's not happening, Mena,"
my wolf said.
"If you won't go to Alex's apartment, then we sure as hell aren't going to Phoenix's. We have to find Jessica. My way, not their way."

Oh. My. God!

I growled in frustration as I glared at Phoenix. "I'm not going with either of you!" My scowl didn't change as I looked to Alex. "And you are not staying here!" I then turned and stomped back into my house, slamming the door in my wake. I was not about to let two men and a wolf tell me what I was and was not going to do. I could take care of myself just fine.

V''''V

Phoenix

Phoenix knew Mena wasn't coming back outside, but as he looked at Alex, the guy's face a mix between shock and stupefaction and his eyes full of expectation, he realized he still thought she might—at some point.

Phoenix sighed. "That was her way of saying goodnight, in case you were wondering."

The fingers of Alex's hands curled into fists as the muscles around his jaw flexed. Without turning to look at Phoenix, he spoke. "Who are you to her?"

The corner of Phoenix's lip twitched, but his face was completely solemn when Alex turned his heated gaze on him. He held his hands up. "We're just friends, man. Her safety is just as important to me as it is to you."

Backing toward the emergency responders and the growing crowd of people, Alex shook his head as he glared at Phoenix. "I seriously doubt that."

Phoenix watched him go and wondered exactly which part of what he'd said did the cop not believe: that they were only friends or that her safety was important to him. Coming to the conclusion that it didn't really matter, and knowing that Mena wasn't going to let him in, he grabbed his cell phone and dialed Jaxon's number.

It rang only once before Phoenix heard Jaxon's voice. "We're looking for the dagger. How's Mena holding up?"

"I think she'll be fine. It's a little hard to tell right now with her aggravated at me. Look, start a detail of four men outside Mena's house, starting tonight."

"You got it."

"Where are you now?"

"Santino and Jobe are on a stakeout outside the morgue waiting for that mutt to show back up. Daniel and Morgan are with me down by the old ferry. We caught a scent earlier, but they must have jumped in the water or taken a boat or something, because now it's gone."

Phoenix swore under his breath as he walked to his car. "Stay there. I'm on my way. We need to find this—" Something moving in a tree on the north side of Mena's house caught his attention and he stopped talking. It was Mena, dressed in the leather and weapons he'd given her the first night they'd met. She had crawled out of her bedroom window and was now stealthily descending the limbs of the tree, like a ninja. "What the hell are you up to, Lupacchiotto?" he whispered.

"Phoenix?" Jaxon said.

Phoenix smiled. "Go on without me. I have another mission that requires my immediate attention."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Call me if you find anything else. And, Jaxon…"

"Yeah?"

"You know what to do with them when you find them."

Phoenix could hear the smile stretch across Jaxon's face before he answered. "Yes, I know exactly what to do with them."

Without saying goodbye, Phoenix ended the call and followed Mena.

V''''V

Chapter 16

Mena

I'm not going to say it was a good idea, but it was the only one my wolf could come up with, and I didn't even have one. We just couldn't sit in that house, watching the emergency crew pick Katie piece by piece out of what was left of my Audi. We'd both go crazy. So, we had to find Jessica before she found me.

As the pack leader, I had something in me the others didn't: I could sense each of my wolves as if they were a part of me. I had noticed it the first night after I was bitten, before I had the privilege of meeting any of my pack. I had sensed them coming long before Lea told Phoenix that she needed to get me away from his compound. And I had known they were in the woods, on each side of the road Lea was driving down, just waiting for her to stop, so they could claim me.

I could sense Jess and, if my wolf was right, she didn't know that I knew how to find her.

The element of surprise. Finally, Karma was on my side.

Going by myself was risky, but I didn't know whom I could trust. I finally got a chance to read the text messages Phoenix had sent a few nights earlier. With the eight that had rebelled against me and left the pack, Phoenix still believed there could be more traitors staying in so they could get close enough to take me out when the time was right. That would be a clever plan, so I didn't want to chance that Jessica hadn't thought of that.

Knowing that made me want to change my mind about staying in my home with round-the-clock werewolf bodyguard detail.

Whom could I really trust? Phoenix for one. Alex for another, even though he was human and would probably get killed. I knew my wolf didn't like me thinking like that, but it was the God's honest truth. I suppose I trusted Jaxon, Daryn, Roel, Brad and Heath, but literally any one of my pack members could be on Jess' side, and I wouldn't know it until it was too late.

My built-in werewolf radar led me east, and I glanced over my shoulder often. I felt like I was being watched, but the members of the pack had been in a huddle talking about Katie and Jess, Alex had been accessing the crime scene and Phoenix had been on the phone and headed toward his car right before I jumped from my window to a maple tree limb, so it wouldn't be any of their eyes, if there were any on me. I palmed the hilt of the dagger on my right thigh and took it from its scabbard. I couldn't afford to be careless. This bitch wanted me dead.