Chapter Four
The Plan
The Defenders Agency, Moonlight, Florida, Monday 8:00 a.m.
“Derek, you want a refill on that cup?”
He grunted and Laurel assumed he meant yes. She picked up his cup on the way to the coffee machine, made two cups of coffee from the Keurig, and returned to her desk, dropping off his fresh-brewed refill on the way.
“Mind if I ask why you sent Rand after Ty?” She didn’t want to be disrespectful to the alpha, but sending the pack enforcer after Ty didn’t bode well for her partner.
The pack alpha stared her down as if he could read her mind and see her misgivings.
She’d been the one assigned to guard Grace on Friday, the night she allegedly disappeared, but Ty had been with the missing woman later that night. Laurel’s new job with the agency and her life in Moonlight were working out for her. She didn’t want to screw up. If she’d misread her partner’s intensions, Derek would never trust her again. Then what would she do with her life?
“After the MacDugal called to check on his daughter, I had Ty come over. He admitted he was the last one with Grace Friday night. We called her from here and confirmed she was gone, but then he went wild and took off. He’s holding something back. Something he isn’t sharing.”
“Like what? They were totally into each other, and he’s pretty macho, the heroic type.” Laurel figured everyone knew it, so she wasn’t giving away any secrets.
“When I say he lost it, I mean he lost it big time. He shifted before we finished talking, went totally out of control. I thought if you got a chance to question him, you could tell me.”
“The boyfriend’s always the prime suspect….”
“But?” Derek frowned as soon as she paused. “You think they had a fight?”
“No, not a fight,” Laurel said. “Besides, if she shifted, she could take care of herself with any of the locals.”
If Derek knew, what was his real motive for sending his enforcer after her partner? “You think Ty should know Grace’s big bad wolf brother is on his way, don’t you?”
“That’s not the only reason I sent Rand after him. Ty’s not a flight risk, but his reaction…? I don’t want anything to happen to him. If we work together, we stand a better chance of finding Grace before something goes wrong.”
“What are you worried about?”
“If someone discovers what she is…well, with the way the genetic lines in the packs are weakening, I can think of plenty of ways a female of her line would be useful.”
Forced blooding—the act of biting—and cold genetic labs, even vivisection images popped into Laurel’s mind. The distasteful visions unnerved Laurel, sending an icy shiver up her spine. She crossed her arms and ran her hands over them to ward off the chill. Now she was frightened for Grace. Because no way in hell was Ty involved in the woman’s disappearance, and if he even imagined what Derek suspected, god help the wolves who had taken her. It was no wonder he’d flipped out. Laurel knew how it felt to lose the people who mattered most.
After the Homeland pack in Georgia had been destroyed, she took a while searching for her old pack members. Fortunately, her parents had sent her to stay with an aunt before the tragedy. Later, she found nothing as she searched for survivors. It took months to locate Alexis online. The remaining pack members needed Laurel and her intuitive gifts. So she found her way to Moonlight, and Derek hired her for the security position with The Defenders Agency. The new pack accepted her as if she’d never been away, and The Defenders treated her with respect as a valued member of their team.
Ty had suffered a fate similar to Laurel’s. The former Ranger’s pack near Jacksonville was decimated while he’d been in Afghanistan, and after he returned, he searched for packs with other orphaned wolf shifters like him. Later, like Laurel, he became one of the agency’s trusted security guards and investigators. Derek convinced him to take advantage of his GI Bill benefits and finish his masters. That was where he met Grace…at New College in Sarasota.
“What can you tell me about Friday night?” Derek’s impatience grew as he waited for Ty to report to the office. “After the call from Grace’s father, I was doubly concerned about the young woman.”
“The two of them, Ty and Grace, go out running together whenever they get a chance. Friday, I was her guard on duty, but they planned to meet, later. Grace and I encountered the Fort Myers group you invited to the pack meeting. She’d investigated an internship with Slater Hall’s company. I got the feeling he expected her to earn it. If you get what I mean. She blew him off, and I stepped in to back up her decision if I had to.”
“What’s up with Grace and Daniels?” Derek asked.
“They’ve been running out in the acreage beyond the lake to avoid detection. I didn’t leave the area until she shifted and ran off to join him. In her wolf form, she claimed it would take something other than Slater Hall and his band of misfits to take her down. I know she met with Ty because his howling stopped. But Hall’s group made me uncomfortable so I stayed and scouted the area where Ty and Grace have been running.”
“Should I be concerned about what Ty could do?”
“No. Ty cares for her. A lot.” She wiggled her eyebrows to make her point. “Besides, he’s one of the good guys. Like I said, real hero material. His aura is troubled, but it’s free of evil.”
Derek usually trusted her opinions. Laurel hoped this was one of those times. She had inherited her grandmother’s talent for reading people. Some claimed she was part witch, but Alexis and Derek understood Laurel and her mother were sensitives, a rare breed of shifters in touch with the earth and all things organic. If something was elemental, Laurel could read it.
“Some of the Fort Myers pack members’ auras are questionable.” When she’d touched Slater in order to keep him away from Grace, she’d felt…dirty.
“Really? Others besides that asshole, Hall? Give me a list.” Derek tapped a pen on his desk. He ran a hand down his face and rubbed his thumb across his chin.
“Mostly Hall. He was the only one I touched, and believe me, that was enough.” Laurel shuddered in disgust then went back to her list while Derek leaned back in his chair and focused on the ceiling. He did that a lot when he was frustrated.
“You don’t think Daniels’s tour of duty in Afghanistan had anything to do with him…being a little off?” His question surprised her.
She paused mid-thought and stopped studying the maps on her computer screen. “Off? If you’re worried about anyone being a little off, you’d have to reevaluate everybody in the pack. We’re all damaged to some extent.”
“Point taken.” Derek almost chuckled and cracked a little smile.
The door slammed open, and Rand Molina, co-owner and partner in The Defenders Agency, entered in front of Ty. Rand took a seat at his desk, and Ty pulled up a chair next to Derek.
Derek jumped right to the point. “Listen up, Daniels, Grace’s brother is on his way.” He checked the time on the wall clock and added, “I promised her father we’ll help with the investigation.”
“No problem.” He sat straighter. “I won’t be left out. I’m going to be involved one way or another.”
Rand raised an eyebrow and cleared his throat. “No one talks to the alpha that way.”
But Derek let it go. Ty was visibly upset, and Laurel understood why. Hell, she was furious it happened on her watch, but he had to feel even worse. He’d been with her and let her go. As an Army Ranger, he would take Grace’s disappearance personally, no matter what, but since he’d been the last one to see Grace…. Well, even he knew the implications of that.
“Talk to us,” Laurel pleaded.
“I drove her back to Sarasota and offered to walk her to her apartment. She refused. I haven’t seen or heard from her since I dropped her off. When she didn’t respond to my calls yesterday, I thought she was just mad…. Today I called her phone at 0700 hours, but again it went to voice mail. I contacted her roommate and asked her to check on her. She’s missing.”
Laurel didn’t buy his story. “What really happened?”
“Nothing.” He squirmed under her scrutiny. “Everything. You know.”
“Actually, we don’t know.” Rand interrupted Laurel’s interrogation. “Humor us.”
“After, after we had a”—he glanced around then looked uncomfortable saying anything further—“great evening, we argued on the way back to her apartment.” He dropped his head in his hands and slumped, looking like a broken man.
“About?” Rand asked.
“D’ya know why she’s here? She’s independent. Won’t conform to the old ways. And because of her family heritage, which she declared off-limits for discussion, she refuses to consider marriage.”
“There’s something else you’re not telling us,” Laurel said.
“Yeah, that dude from down in South Florida, the CEO of that company. She told me what happened earlier. He’s always all over her, but even after we…she insisted she was going to take the research internship if she got it—”
“So you were jealous?” Derek asked.
“No. Hell, yeah, okay. And worried. I have the right to be—” He snapped his mouth shut and raked his fingers through the stubble on his head. “I was jealous. But actually, I was more worried about her. I warned her last week that Hall was a sleaze.” He pointed at Laurel then Derek. “Laurel, tell him. The guy is up to something.”
“I agree, he’s some kind of conman.” Laurel watched Ty’s aura as his emotions fluctuated. “But what happened between you and Grace?”
“We…. Things got out of hand before I took her home. Then, afterward, she told me to back off…. Like I could.” He muttered the last words under his breath. “We argued. She said she had three brothers, she didn’t need another one. I was pissed. Told her no way was I thinking of being her brother—”
“So you backed off, right?” Laurel asked, brotherly argument aside. Grace and Ty were life mates whether they accepted it or not. She had seen the way their auras reached for one another’s.
“Yeah, because I know how she needs to feel in control of her life. But I shouldn’t have. Not this time. I should’ve followed up, made sure she was okay.” His aura gave off signs of fear. Laurel’s gift identified his sincerity, and his anxiety centered on Grace’s well-being.
He was innocent of any wrongdoing. She gave Derek a long hard stare and nodded slightly. Satisfied Ty had nothing to do with Grace’s abduction, Laurel sensed he still held back an important point.
“Okay, we’re good for now.” Derek’s words calmed the mood. “I want a plan to present to her brother. What do we know about dire wolves?”
Laurel spoke up. “There are rumors that plenty of families have dire wolf blood mixed in with their own wolf heritage.”
“Kinda like having royal blood?” Rand speculated.
Ty stood and paced. “Since I met Grace, I’ve been researching the MacDugal clan. It appears the island packs are the last of the pure bred dires.”
“Grace told me she was the only female born in her litter,” Laurel added. “Apparently, it’s difficult for female dire wolves to give birth. The pups are unusually large, and the females have to give birth to them in wolf form. Grace’s mother never had another litter after that because her husband refused to risk her life. As soon as those pack members are gone, there’ll be no more purebred dire wolves. And the reason Grace left was because she had no intention of being part of a matched marriage with the remaining ones on the island.”
“Stubborn, that one.” Ty almost smiled.
Rand scratched his head. “What I don’t know is, other than their size, what’s the difference?”
Laurel keyed the question into the computer but came up with no facts, merely myths. “Says here, there’s not much known about them, other than they’re highly susceptible to the full moon and exceedingly sexual….”She didn’t want to go there.
Derek glanced around the room and settled his gaze on Laurel. “Because of that, I really don’t want you or the other females around her brother when he gets here.”
“It’s pure speculation,” Laurel protested, but Derek held up his hand.
“If I didn’t need your ability to read his aura, I wouldn’t send you at all, but I need you to vet the brother, and you need to be careful.”
“Lucas is also their pack enforcer, so you will need protection,” Rand spoke up then turned to Derek. “What do you think?”
“According to everything I’ve got on him, he’s a lone wolf, aggressive, the second son, yet with alpha tendencies. Above all, he’s honorable. He’s no pup. So I’m not concerned about him getting out of control.”
Derek still appeared uncomfortable then looked at Laurel and shook his head. “If he’s as powerful and large as I’ve heard, we need to warn off our females. They should stay away from him at the time of the next full moon.”
“But a few of the females are already looking outside the pack for new blood,” Laurel said.
“If he sets his sights on one he likes, she probably wouldn’t survive a mating. His mother was purebred and barely lived through the births.” Rand kept his attention on Ty while he grew increasingly restless.
“Well, it’s not always about breeding.” Laurel gave a nervous chuckle. “If you want to take his temperature, for some reason I’m still your best chance to vet him. So far, none of you boys have tickled my fancy. And precisely, as a reminder, like Grace, I ‘don’t need no stinkin’ brothers’ to protect me either.”
The three men didn’t exactly growl, but Laurel was certain she heard the low rumbles begin.
Ty shook his head then pointed a finger at her. “Everybody thinks they’re immune, that they’re in control, until it hits them. Then, suddenly, you’re walking around with stars in your eyes and can’t put two coherent sentences together, let alone fight the urges within you.”
“Listen to Mr. Romance!” Laurel giggled.
“Don’t laugh, missy.” Derek gestured to Ty. “Look at him. Neither of them, Grace or Ty, wanted to be involved, and he couldn’t stay away from her, even knowing what she is. Her disappearance has made him as crazy as if they’d been—”
The room went dead quiet, the word mated hanging in the air. Derek turned in his chair, and his eyes flashed a warning.
Laurel’s gaze swung to Ty. “You didn’t…did you?”
Unfortunately, the expression on his face answered for him.
“Oh fuck no,” Derek and Rand shouted in unison.
“Her brother’s gonna kill you,” Laurel sang under her breath.
Ty groaned. “If anything happens to her, you won’t have to worry about that. I can’t survive without her now anyway.”
“Oh my god! Did you…?” Stunned, Laurel stood and took a step in his direction, her heart full of empathy for the former Ranger as his aura faded and turned muddy brown.
He shrugged and hung his head. “Yes. We’re mated. And we should have been happy about it.”
Rand growled.
Ty spoke up in his defense. “Oh, and for the record, everyone, she started it.”
“What is this, kindergarten?” Derek shouted and slammed his hand on the desk. “Goddammit, she’s under my protection…and you’re her bodyguard.”
“Well, last night I was her date.” Ty tugged at his short hair.
Their alpha gave Ty the talk-to-me-like-that-again-and-I’m-gonna-kill-you look.
“Hell, Derek, you know what it’s like when you feel the calling.”
Laurel hadn’t experienced it, but she’d heard enough to know resistance never worked. Grace had insisted she’d never belong to anyone. That had to be hard on Ty. Look where it had gotten both of them.
“As much as I wanted her, I didn’t want her to resent me. I tried to fight it. I swear. I was exhausted from resisting. Not to mention I was doing a damn fine job of keeping my feelings under control. But hell, I couldn’t prevent my wolf’s natural instincts from kickin’ in when she bit me.”
Derek’s eyes widened. “She…bit…you?”
Ty nodded, and Rand gasped. Laurel sucked in a breath, and slapped a hand to her mouth.
Her partner, looking devastated, continued to pace. “She must have lost control. I never expected that.” He lifted his face and stared at the ceiling. “I swore I wouldn’t, but then she….”
“She bit you,” Laurel repeated incredulously. “She took control?” Female wolves didn’t do that.
Ty snapped his attention to the people in the room and scowled at her. “I know. Believe me, I was surprised, too. Later, once she realized what she’d done, she must have hated the idea of being bound…to me. But what were we supposed to do? There is no going back. So when she said she wanted her space, I gave it to her.”
Ty slammed his hand through the wall, and though Laurel jumped, Derek merely narrowed his eyes, and Rand barely raised an eyebrow. She guessed they were cutting the jilted groom some slack.
She ran her fingers through her ponytail, a habit that helped her think. She wasn’t clear why Grace would change her mind about staying free and then begin the mating ritual since she clearly never wanted to be claimed. “I don’t understand.”
“I thought…giving her space was the least I could do in exchange for her giving up everything.”
“She wasn’t giving up anything, Ty,” Laurel argued. “Grace wanted you. Even you had to know that. But she’d fought the pack rituals for years. Why give in last night?”
“Why doesn’t matter.” Rand cleared his throat. “Where she would go does.”
“We need to make certain she’s safe.” Derek tapped a pencil on the desk. “I think our plan should include going into town and meeting with the sheriff. We need to let the humans know we’ll have another wolf in the area, and that Grace is missing.” Derek gestured toward Ty. “You ride with Laurel in the truck and stick with her.”
Rand slapped Derek on the shoulder. “So how would you like to ride shotgun with me in my new Hummer?”
Derek grinned at his friend. “If you let me drive back.”
Rand stretched and cracked his neck. He wasn’t going to refuse the alpha.
“Works for me,” Laurel said, preoccupied and still confused about Grace’s motivation. She was a few years older, but what Laurel knew about dire wolves could fit in a thimble. The Highland female had many of the same elemental qualities Laurel often sensed in her grandmother. Were dire wolves related to the western packs?
“Laurel?” Ty’s voice drew her focus. “Somethin’ botherin’ you?”
“Nothin’. Just remember, everyone, I need to meet with the brother alone. I don’t want any macho aggression interfering with what I read in his aura because y’all are around. I’ll go inside first to meet him.” She held up her hand when Rand began to object. “I’m sure I’ll be safe in an airport full of humans and security guards. Then you get your turn in the parking garage afterward.”
“Bossy little thing, isn’t she?” Derek stood, his snide grin broadening. He popped Ty lightly on the shoulder. “Congratulations by the way, and good luck.” Then he checked his watch and gave the order, “Time to get going.”
He motioned everyone to the door as Rand picked up the phone. With his hand over the speaker, he told Derek, “I’ll call Alexa so she knows what’s going on. Why don’t you let Jesse and Charlie know we’re stopping by their office?”
The Palmetto County Sheriff’s wife, also the member who originally set up Moonlight, was a member of the Moonlight pack. Jesse Farrell and Charlie Aquino, both human detectives, had fallen in love and married members of the pack. Laurel thought their stories were romantic. Although the pack kept a low profile around humans, Ty, aka Mr. Romance, had it right. If love ignited the relationship, nothing stood in the way of their inner wolves.
Once again, Laurel wondered what was wrong with her and why she’d never experienced the mating pull at the time of the full moon the way others did. The run, the hunt, the scent of the woods and the streams, those things and the earth itself called to her, but so far, never a man. Her grandmother once had told her she would always long for the elements, but, eventually, she’d find a mate, a wolf who would recognize the elements in her, too.
At one time, Laurel sensed an elemental side to Ty, but they’d never experienced any sexual link. She’d also felt strangely in tune with Grace, but the dire wolf never acknowledged an elemental connection.
Without guidance from her relatives, and there was no hope for that since they’d all been killed, Laurel would always be looking for answers alone. She would stick with her independent life and wait. There must be other elemental wolves out there somewhere.