Chapter 4
Darrell stood in the doorway to Avery’s bedroom, though it was more like a suite than your basic place to rest your head at night. Her father’s private words bounced around in his mind, haunting him.
I want you and Avery to stay here with us until we can break this spell. Stick by her side. You’re both going to need each other.
Had he been able to control his imprinting, he wouldn’t be responsible for her pending doom.
“Shut the door,” Avery called as she dumped her bag on a chair by a sliding glass door that led to a patio overlooking the pool.
Growing up, he hadn’t been poor by any means, but he had never lived like this.
“This room is bigger than my entire apartment,” she said, pushing open the doors, letting a cool breeze float across the curtains.
“I’m living in a hotel until I find something between the city and where the majority of my pack lives.” He ran his fingers across the back of the coastal-blue fabric of the sofa.
“Did you reach your mom?” Avery asked.
He nodded. “Everything is the same. No one seems to be getting any worse, yet.”
“My dad is wicked smart and a great warlock, he’ll have no problem figuring all this out.” She pulled out a laptop and situated herself on the sofa. “Come sit. You’re making me nuts, and we can’t do anything until we hear back from Gabe.”
“There are only a few names on that list that I even remember.” He rested his feet on the coffee table, keeping his hands in his lap, ignoring the deep-seated desire boiling in his stomach. “What are you doing?”
She tapped away on the keyboard. “Googling the names on the list Miss Tammy gave us. I’m sure they all have some sort of social media presence, except the one who did this.”
He leaned over her shoulder, sucking in her peach scent. It reminded him of a dry, white wine on a summer night at the beach with a salty breeze rolling in from the ocean. “I remember that one,” he said, tapping on the screen. “She was pretty good.”
“Looks like she’s working on Broadway as a choreographer.”
“In that class, there were only a couple of solid dancers who had a promising career, but most were at best, good teachers in the making.”
“Except Regan Wilcox. She was a snot and a half.”
“Who was she?”
“She was the oldest girl in the class, and it was her last shot, and I took the spot.” Avery shifted the screen, showing an archived image from the dance studio. She pointed to a tall girl standing in the back. “That’s Regan.”
“I remember her. We took classes together when I first came to the studio. That day, when I left, she was in the bushes. No idea why, figured maybe she was smoking or something and thought she could hide it. That girl was weird.”
“Wait. What?” Avery’s fingers paused, hovering over the computer. “She was where?”
“Remember those big, purple bushes in the back parking lot?”
Avery nodded.
“I’d seen her hide back there a few times over the years and once or twice, I’d see a puff of smoke. I thought it was one of those e-cigs. Gross habit.”
“Did you see it that day?”
“I don’t recall. I remember waving good-bye to you, noticing her, which gave me a sudden chill, and then I got into my parents’ car.”
“I got a chill that day, too,” she whispered as she pressed a button. “It was Regan.”
“How can you be so sure?”
She turned the computer screen. “Because there is nothing about her anywhere. No social media. Nothing except one mention from the studio archives.”
He reached for his phone. “Let’s call Miss Tammy and see if she knows what happened to her.” Tammy had been gracious enough to give them a list of students from that year, so he hoped she’d be willing to share whatever she could about Regan.
“Hi, Darrell,” Miss Tammy said as he hit the speaker button. “Twice in one day. I’m flattered. Does this mean you’ve given some thought to making an appearance and have you talked to Avery about it?”
“I’m sure we can arrange something in the future,” he said, lacing his fingers around Avery’s, caving to his desire to feel her smooth skin. “I was hoping you could tell me whatever came of Regan Wilcox.”
“Regan? That’s a name I haven’t heard in years. Why do you want to know about her?”
“I can’t really get into that, but I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important, and we can’t find anything on the internet about her.”
“The only thing I can tell you is that she quit when she didn’t make the company. Her parents showed up a few days after the audition and informed me that Regan, nor her sister, would be returning. I haven’t heard from or seen any of them since.”
“Thank you, Miss Tammy. Avery and I will get back to you with a couple of dates that might work for us.”
“Thank you so much. I was thrilled to see you’d taken the job with the Los Angeles City Ballet and working with Avery. I wish we had videotaped that audition. It was so moving.”
“In more ways than one.” He smiled as he pulled Avery closer. “Talk soon.” He ended the call and tossed his cell to the cushion next to him. Tracing her lower lip with his finger, he leaned closer.
“Darrell,” she said in that soft, sweet voice that started a fire deep in his gut.
“Shhhh. We’re alone, and I want one kiss.”
She pressed her hand on the center of his chest, her fingers grazing his skin with the kind of heat only lovers shared. Her strawberry-blond hair bounced over her shoulder, curling at the ends.
He cupped her chin as her long lashes fluttered over her eyes. When their mouths met, his pulse raced as if he’d been running in the woods for hours. She tasted like cinnamon and sugar. He wanted to savor her sweetness for as long as he could.
One kiss.
For now.
“We need to call my father,” she whispered, resting her forehead against his, letting out a long sigh.
“I know.” Selfishness had been something he struggled with most of his life. He wanted to be a dancer and a choreographer, and sometimes he felt like he’d put his family out because of it.
Now he’d stolen a kiss when they should be racing to tell her father what they’d uncovered.
“I don’t know how I feel about this.” She rubbed her thumb across his cheek, and then dropped her hand to her lap. “To be honest, you imprinting on me when I was five is not only weird, but what would have happened if I had fallen in love with someone else?”
“You could still be with someone other than me. It’s not like I own you or anything.”
“But you claimed me as your mate.”
“According to my species, we were destined to be together. That our souls are connected on a deeper level, but I’ve met wolves who have imprinted, and it didn’t work out. Also, you have to remember that we know when we imprint, but when it happens that young, it fades as if it were a dream, until our mate is put in front of us and we realize the connection again.”
“Why wouldn’t it work out?” Her nose wrinkled.
He fought the urge to bat it with his thumb. “Sometimes when it’s with a non-wolf, and the other creature doesn’t believe in fated mates, or is prejudice, there could be too much to overcome.”
“Can the wolf find love, if that were to happen?”
That wasn’t a question he wanted to answer truthfully. He didn’t want to pressure her that way, but lying wouldn’t be a good way to start things, considering everything else that was going on. “It’s not ideal, but once the imprinting is rejected, they can find a suitable mate in other ways.”
“You make it sound like the wolf would be settling.”
He shook his head. “You can’t make someone else be with you forever, and that is true for everyone, regardless of what you believe in.”
“True,” she said as she pulled out her phone.
“Shouldn’t we go see your father? This seems kind of important.”
“He said he was going out to meet with a couple other council members, so I doubt he’s even here.” She set the phone on her lap, tapping the speaker function.
“Is everything alright?” her father asked right off.
“I think we know who cast the spell,” she said with a tinge of excitement in her voice. “Have Gabe and the council look into Regan Wilcox. I can’t find anything on her on the internet, including what coven she belonged to.”
“I’m with Gabe now. We’re gathering everyone tonight, so we’ll have the witches’ register find the family name.”
“Do you want Darrell and me to come out there?”
“No. Nothing you can do tonight but get a good night’s sleep.”
“That reminds me,” she said, untucking her hair from her ear, letting the curls fall, covering her face. “What room do you want Darrell to have?”
“Yours,” her father said.
Darrell covered his mouth, biting back a cough. While he’d like nothing more than to spend the night with Avery, he never expected her father to offer up her bedroom.
“You and Darrell are soulmates. You need to get reacquainted. It’s not like you’re the same little girl who lined your bedroom with his pictures and dreamed of being his—”
“Dad,” she said with a stern voice.
Darrell bit down on his tongue. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh, gasp, howl, or run for the hills.
“Oh, I’m sorry, is he listening right now? If so, I can go tell Mom to get the box filled with all those things because she kept—”
“I’m hanging up now.”
“I love you, little girl.”
“Yeah, yeah, love you too, Dad.” She tossed her phone on the other chair and dropped her head back, covering her eyes with her arm.
“I don’t know what is more embarrassing. The fact that my father just gave a perfect stranger permission to spend the night in my bedroom, or that he thought it funny to make sure you knew about my crush.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I have a box filled with pictures of you from ballet magazines, newspapers, and even kept the DVR of your live performance last year.”
She lowered her arm, catching his gaze, sucker-punching his heart. Everything about her made him breathless.
“That just makes you look like a stalker-creep. You’re a grown man. I was twelve.”
He let out a short laugh. “A grown man who admired a fellow dancer and knew he was destined to love you forever.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
She cleared her throat. “Can I ask you a really crazy question?”
“Sure.” He shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t think any question at this point could be wilder than what had happened so far.
“I’ve seen pictures and interviews with you and various girlfriends over the years. How does that work? I mean if I was your fated mate and you claimed me or whatever?” Her voice raised up a notch.
He swallowed. “Are you asking me if I’ve had sex with other women?”
She nodded as her cheeks turned red.
“I’m going to go out a limb and assume you’ve had sex with men, so not sure how that would be any different.”
Her eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “You knew, or believed, we would end up together. I didn’t have that knowledge.”
Staring into her dark-blue eyes, he searched for the right words, figuring nothing he said would be the right response.
“I told you I talked to my father about what had happened that day, but as time went on, and I become engrossed with my career, the imprinting feeling faded.”
“Are you saying you forgot? That’s convenient.”
“I didn’t forget. But I didn’t lay eyes on you again until you were seventeen and I was twenty-three. We locked gazes from across the foyer of the auditorium, but before I could come say hello, remember me, you scurried off. From that day on, I couldn’t think about anyone but you. Want to talk about creepy, stalker, old-man shit? The age difference means nothing now, but then, yeah, not sure your father would be offering to allow me to spend the night, even if he did believe in fated mates.” The feeling he’d had the day he’d dance with her had been intense, but it was nothing like how his heart pounded out of his chest when he’d seen her that day. It had been his last performance and a week later, he was on a plane to New York City and his first choreography job.
The next seven years had been torture.
“I saw you dance so many times,” she said quietly. “When I found out you took the job on the other coast, I went home and boxed up the posters.” She closed her eyes, shaking her head. “I don’t know why I felt like you were abandoning me, and God, I resented that feeling, so I tried to block you out of my mind.”
“I did the same thing.” He tilted her chin. “Look at me, please.”
Her chest rose as she took in a breath, her fluttering lashes giving way to the orbs that let him into her soul.
“I can’t tell you how many times I flew back here just to watch you dance.”
“Why didn’t you reach out when I turned eighteen?”
His pulse sped up. Their bond was growing stronger the more time they spent together. “I knew we’d be together some day, but I didn’t want to be a distraction from your career. You’re too good and too special, and I know what it means to you.”
“Why now? Is it just because your pack is sick?”
“No,” he said behind gritted teeth. “I could have reached out to your father without you.”
“Then why? I really want to know.” She shifted on the sofa, tucking her feet under her butt.
“I couldn’t live without you anymore.”