The Rogue Hunter's Mate [Paranormal Protection Unit 10] (Siren Publishing Classic) (18 page)

Stopping Bethany turned to look at him and with a saucy grin simply said, “And you love it when I wear nothing but that pretty coat and those fancy heels. Try to tell me otherwise.” Her Wolf loved her dressing up in nothing but the fancy heels.

“You really should stop using what I say while sporting an erection against me in later conversations. You know I only have enough blood for one organ at a time and it’s not my brain in such situations,” he muttered.

“Yeah, I know.” Bethany’s wink was saucy and happy when she shot it to him. “But you are the one who brought up the coat and heels so I just had to remind you why you love them as much as I do, darling.”

Growling at her he moved closer and caught the tail of the shirt to pull her to a stop. “No more teasing me,” he warned softly, the Wolf agitated. He had a limited patience for teasing. His mate got away with more than any other ever could. But that didn’t mean he’d allow it nonstop.

“Good. I like it when he gets worked up.” She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him close. “Just keep growling, darling, and remember how agitated you are right now for as soon as we get in the air. That’s when I want you to pounce on me, because I will be more than ready for you then, too.”

“Pissing off a Wolf right before you lock him in a small space that he can’t get out of is just not smart,” he said to her. “I have a shorter fuse than most, darling, which you know, so stop messing with me and the Wolf.” He hoped he’d never hurt her like that but honestly, if the Wolf was that agitated and then confined, Zaidu honestly didn’t know what the beast would do. Especially since both he and the Wolf fucking hated to fly.

“I love you, Zaidu, and I know that you love me as well. I just want your mind to be on me and only me when we get onto that flight, honey. That’s what I want more than anything in the world. I know that you typically focus on me and only me but even more that’s what I want because I know you don’t like flying.”

“No, many people don’t like flying. I hate flying,” he said, wrapping his arms around her tightly. Walking her backward slowly toward their bedroom, he let out a breath. “The Wolf hates the confinement and motion. The man hates not having control over my own demise.”

“That’s why I really think that you should only focus on me. If you are only focusing on me, love, then you will hopefully not think about flying as much as I know you will anyway,” she smiled.

“I am always focused on you, Bethany,” Zaidu told her, backing her to the middle of the room. Stopping, he leaned in to kiss her softly. “Get dressed while I start to pack and then you need to grab a few things before we go beef up your winter wear.”

“Sounds good.” She moved to her closet and began to pull on clothes, layering as she did so. She then began to grab a couple of things from her closet that she wanted. Taking them to his suitcase she placed them beside it. “I think I should take an empty case with me as well so that we can just put my new things in the case. Thoughts?”

Nodding, he moved to collect a second case and set it by the door. “Not a bad plan.” So much for one bag. Traveling with a woman always made things interesting. “Grab your toothbrush and whatever other goo you need.” He didn’t ask and he prayed she’d never tell, though the trip to the drug store had been scarily enlightening.

Grabbing all that she needed, Bethany tossed the toiletries into a baggie and then into Zaidu’s bag. “All right, love, I’m as ready to go as I possibly can be at the moment. We should go and get the winter things for me from a place without any distractions like exceptionally hot high heels and sexy-as-hell coats.”

Shutting the case he lifted it off the bed and carried it to the door, grabbing the empty one as he passed. “Can you set the internal heat down five degrees?” he asked over his shoulder just as he passed the control on the wall. Taking the stairs quickly he set the bags by the front door and grabbed his boots. He didn’t worry about weapons. They would be supplied on site by the Hunter there. They all kept a cache of their own personal weapons in all the major cities the Hunters frequented. Only when they had to travel to odd spots did they carry their own gear.

Stopping to turn down the internal heat, Bethany looked around the home and smiled. “It’s going to be good to come back home,” she whispered with a grin. “But I’m going to enjoy being able to be here with you as well, darling. I really and truly think that it’s going to be a great deal of fun to be able to spend time on the road with you.” As long as he didn’t get hurt. That would be bad. Very bad.

“I don’t intend to get hurt,” he said, grabbing his jacket to shrug into. “Getting sideswiped by some drunk hick was not part of the plan.” A drunk hick Zaidu still had to find. He’d remembered more of the accident, or what he believed wasn’t an accident, but Quincy was only able to run the facial recognition on off hours since it wasn’t an active case, so it was taking time to narrow down who it might have been.

Bethany frowned. Stepping up at his side she linked her arm with his after taking the empty case from him and looked up at him. “What was that?” She had only been able to find a glimpse of what he had been thinking and it bugged her. A lot. “Why isn’t it an active case? If someone tried to hurt you, Zaidu, that to me is definitely something that needs to be active.”

“Because everyone else seems to think that it was an accident,” he told her as they walked out to the truck. Tossing everything into the backseat he opened her door for her. “It was the middle of a blizzard, I was on a bike, road conditions were beyond horrible, and they figure he didn’t see me. I saw the look on his face. It wasn’t shock or surprise or even horror at knowing what was going to happen, it was determination. Besides, if it was an accident, why didn’t he stop? Even if he had been drunk I’m betting he would have stopped to assist because of the blizzard. On top of that, I was nearly a hundred feet off the highway. He was moving hard and fast and plowed me off the road. My bike was in tiny pieces, Bethany. That spells intent to me, but until I have something, I can’t get it as an active case.”

“Damn,” she muttered. “Well, then I think that we will just simply have to gain the information that you need and I will do whatever I need to in order to help you,” she told him softly. “So you can tell me what it is that I can do in order to help you, darling.”

“At this moment and time, nothing,” he told her with a sigh. “Right now we have a Rogue to go and find and ensure is stopped. I don’t want anyone else hurt by a Rogue while I’m trying to figure out my own shit.”

“Can you tell me just what a Rogue is? Are Rogues like the ones who had chased me up the tree?” Yeah, she still wasn’t proud of that, but it had been what brought her and Z together so she was all right with it.

Getting behind the wheel, he got them moving. “Those were Rogues, but in actuality, there are three kinds. There are born Rogues, traumatic Rogues, and sadistic Rogues. Born Rogues are those that are born with something out of place, but until they hit puberty, which for most Changers is in the late teens or early twenties, it doesn’t manifest. And then, after puberty, it’s like they go off the rails. Traumatic Rogues are those that suffered some devastation in their lives like the loss of a loved one, their mate, a child, and so forth. Something inside of them snaps, like in humans, and they kill to dull the pain of their own loss. Sadistic Rogues are ones that, like human serial killers, started early with small animals, pets, neighborhood kids, and then, when they got older, continued to hurt others to feel the euphoria of it. For the sadistics, they get off on the high of the kill and are the most dangerous of them all because they have absolutely no morals at all.”

“But there was a whole group of them, Zaidu. They all wanted to tear me apart and kill me and from the way they worked they have done it before, often.” Which scared the hell out of her. What if they decided to come looking for her again as the “one that got away”?

“They were all contained and detained.” Those he hadn’t killed on the spot. “Their leader was a sadistic Rogue and, like any good little cult leader, found those not completely abhorrent to the idea of showing the little humans who was boss. He likely had a great little spiel about how they are the superior race and yet we live in secrecy to ensure the humans never feel threatened and so forth. Gets them all amped up, juices them, and then they find a victim. In that case it was you.” Z looked over at her. “Climbing the tree was a smart move. The Wolf Changer is like wild wolves. Trees aren’t our friends.”

“I just kinda went with my gut,” she admitted to him. “And my gut told me to climb. Funny thing though.” Chewing her lip, it was clear that she was hesitating in telling him what she was about to tell him. “I’ve never climbed a tree in all my life but as soon as the thought hit me it was like instinct. I climbed that tree as if I had been climbing them for years and years, all my life, but I’ve never once climbed one.”

“Fear and adrenaline,” he told her as he did a shoulder check as he sped up to get onto one of the main roads leading to the city. “We all have the same basic knowledge deep inside from the days man first crawled out of the swamp. When we are chased we instinctively run. When we are threatened we either fight or retreat.” Zaidu glanced over. “You assessed the situation, saw your options, and your primitive brain, no insult intended, told you what to do. I still wish it had been a smaller tree though, for the record.”

She laughed and nodded. “Yeah me, too. Have I mentioned that I’m terrified of heights?” she asked with a grin. “But once I started to climb I didn’t stop until the top swayed. I had to be as far from them as possible and I didn’t care if I had to stay up there until I lost consciousness and fell to my death. There was no way in hell I was going to come down when that idiot tried to make me come down.” She rolled her eyes. “And he was a moron, by the way.”

“I think that may be the nicest thing Gordon’s been called in a very long time,” he told her honestly. “He’s definitely never been the brightest of lads from the background we had on him, but nobody saw him actually snatching someone up coming. We were all a little surprised it was him to be frank. He was always more a follower than a leader.” Zaidu fell silent and frowned in thought. “He’s always been a follower,” he muttered to himself.

She frowned and tilted her head. “There was another man.” She only just remembered that in that moment in time. “He didn’t chase after me. Instead he was the one who was there, in the shadows. It was like he was watching what was happening. I know how weird that sounds but it was like he was sizing Gordon up for a job, if that makes sense.” She had shadowed prospective employees before, knew what it looked like, and that’s how it felt to her now.

“Gordon’s puppet master,” he said, knowing the truth already. “Son of a—” He growled and dug around in the console to find his earpiece. Tucking it into place he activated his phone. “Quincy, I need you to let Talon know that Gordon wasn’t the ringleader. We missed someone at the site. He obviously bailed right before or as soon as he saw me. Slipped right through the damned net.” He paused and listened for a time. “No, he won’t tell you anything, but get one of his lackeys. They’ll sell him out faster than you can say ‘mother.’”

“I’m sorry, honey. I just forgot all about it.” The trauma from that day still lived inside of her. From time to time she caught glimpses that she had forgotten. “Honestly I was so angry that they had taken my three-thousand-dollar shoes that I didn’t think much about anything else at all,” she admitted.

“Hush,” he said, dropping the earpiece into the console again after hanging up. Reaching out for her hand he kissed her fingers when she let him lift it. “It’s not your fault, Beth. It was a rather traumatic night for you. I’m unhappy with myself that I didn’t remember that particular portion of Gordon’s personality,” he whispered softly against her skin.

“If I recall it was rather traumatic for you as well,” Bethany whispered to him softly. “So it’s not just you, honey. It really isn’t. Neither of us even came close to thinking about it. You know now, you have your Teams working on it. I’m sure that he will be found.”

“Talon’s Teams,” he corrected her softly. He didn’t work with the Teams. They worked with him on very, very rare occasions. “Quincy will ferret the info out if he can and pass it along to those that need to know to make them squirm and get more info. Unfortunately Hunters aren’t permitted in the Chambers of the Council without an invitation and escort or I’d go and get the info out of them myself.”

“What are the Chambers of the Council?” Bethany asked then. “I’m just curious. You talk about it like it’s a place that very few people can go to, so what is it?” Looking out the side window Bethany watched as the fog thickened and shivered. “I’m seriously going to hate how cold it’s going to be, aren’t I?” She turned to him once more and smiled and added, “But you are going to keep me so very nice and warm aren’t you?”

“The winters can be rough if you aren’t properly acclimated,” he told her honestly. “The Chambers are where the Council meets to make, uphold, and alter the laws that govern all changers, Fae, and magic users like the Mage and Sorcerers. They are the peacemakers, lawmakers, judge, jury, and sometimes executioners. The Chambers are on a different plane of existence and only the Kings and Queens of the Council can enter with permission of Gaia, our Goddess. There are also a few Guards from the higher-ranked Kings and Queens that have special permissions for things like prisoner transports. Other than that, if someone wants or needs to go there, they have to be escorted.”

“So in other words, it’s one of the most guarded places for your people, right?” At his nod, she reached out and touched her hand to his once again. Smiling, she said, “I happen to really enjoy you so very much, Zaidu. I know that you think you have no family or friends, but you do. You have me, Zaidu, and you have your friends as well, know it or not.”

He really wished she’d stop saying that. “Bethany, you need to stop saying that. Hunters do not have friends,” he said and at a red light he looked to her as he stopped. “Friends of Hunters die. Friends of Hunters die horrible, painful, and very lengthy deaths. They are not quick, they are not merciful, they are the worst way you can imagine to die and multiply it by a hundred, you’ll be close. Hunters. Do. Not. Have. Friends.” Z stared at her for a long time and prayed she’d understand every time she claimed he had friends she was endangering the support network of men and women the Hunters relied on.