Force of the Dark Wolf (Force of Nature Series) (9 page)

“She needs this. Let her go.
You’ve taken her blood so if she gets into trouble
,
you’ll know it.”
Phil looked around the room.
“You should see if there is anything in here that you can get a clue about your mate.”

“What do you mean?
Snoop?”
Gordon shook his head. “I can’t do that to her. She already doesn’t trust me not to hurt her. If she figures out that I’ve gone through her things it’ll make matters worse.”

Phil looked around the room that was so much a part of the girl outside that he could see why she loved it here. He sighed heavily.
He’d been a vampire for nearly four hundred years and still couldn’t understand the human p
syche
.
Even this wolf seemed to have no clue about women.
Not that he was having any luck with his own mate
,
but that was another story.

“What do you see in this room?
Take away the fact that you’re a cop and look at this room as if you’re looking through her eyes.”
Phil did the same.
“The windows, the sheer size of them, what does that tell you?’

Phil looked out the large wall of windows. They’d been specially made for this room, he knew. There were three of them and they didn’t just come together as much as they blended to give the room the natural setting.
He didn’t doubt that the woman who designed this room was as in love with nature as the man she’d been fated to be mated to.

The first window was nearly ten feet at its widest width.
At the top it was about four feet and then
got larger
as it went to the floor.
The trim around it was an old oak log.
The wood had been cut in a way that the glass looked like it was there naturally. The next pane of glass was nearly fifteen feet
in width
.
It was only a few feet smaller at the top and it too fit into a log of dark cherry.
Phil could actually smell the wood now that he was in here.
The last panel of glass was over thirty feet and overlapped the next wall, which was stone from the mountain the house rested against.
The masonry work alone to put the wall together had cost Alexis a fortune
,
but she could well afford it.

“She likes the outdoors.
She has a lot of it in here as well as outside.”
Gordon was looking at the room from the window.
“She said her bedroom had a view. The one time I was there
,
I don’t…she and I got distracted and I can’t remember what it looked like.”

“Yes. When the house was being renovated I was onsite.
Her room, the master suite
,
is below us.
Much more below us.
She can not only see what’s behind you
,
but more. Most of the room
’
s view is of the waterfalls and the stream goes right past her windows. When she purchased this house she did it because of the way it sat. The builders told her that she’d never get what she had in the house
,
but she told them to…well
,
they built it to her specs
,
but made fun of her ideas while they did it.
I think once the house was finished they were the ones eating crow.”

Gordon nodded.
“She spends a lot of time in here. So do the children.
She has a lot of wood worked into the room. Almost as if she was trying to keep the world that’s just out there at her fingertips.
She…she’s going to be a beautiful wolf.”

Phil thought so too.
Not only did he think she would be a more beautiful wolf than CJ
,
but he thought she’d be a bigger gift to the pack now forming.
There was something about Alexis that made him think she wasn’t simply a woman with a great deal of brains. He’d bet anything she was a woman with a little magic too.

Gordon spoke and brought him from his musings.
“She doesn’t trust me.
Not at all
,
and I’m not sure what to do about that.
She’s been hurt, hurt more than what the other wolf
did
to her the other day
,
hasn’t she?
And more than…more than her sister’s death.
What happened, do you know?”

He did
,
but he didn’t feel it was his story to tell. He also knew that the little girl
,
Darcy
,
was hiding behind more than her not speaking.
The little girl was suffering in ways that no one could really see. He just hoped that someone reached her before it was too late.

“I can’t tell you that.
That tale is going to have to come from her.”
Phil saw her coming across the field.
“Gordon, you know that she took this all very well
,
but I doubt that it will help you overly much in what you want from her.
You should simply mate with her and then try to make her understand what you’re trying to do.”

Phil winced when he thought about the advice he was giving the wolf.
His own mate,
Gordon’s
sister
,
was driving him crazy right now.
And if he could just get her in a room for more than five minutes without her taking a strip of
f
his hid
e
he’d do the same thing and take her.
She was his mate and damn it
,
he was tired of waiting on her. He frowned when he thought about where she was.
He wasn’t thrilled about her not telling anyone where she was all the time either.
He wasn’t even sure that Austin knew and he was her alpha.

Alexis came in the door just as her office door opened.
Sis walked in
,
took one look around
,
and started for Gordon.
No one said anything as she took his hand and led him to the couch.
When she pointed to it he sat down and she crawled up into his lap.
Phil wasn’t sure who was more shocked by the move, Alexis or Gordon.
Phil decided they didn’t really need him anymore and slipped out of the room.

~~~

Gordon looked down at the little blond bundle in his lap. She was sucking her thumb and her eyes were closed.
He could see her lashes as they fanned across her cheeks.
He leaned down and buried his nose in her hair.
Sunshine and warmth was all he could think about. He looked up at Alexis when she sat down across from him.

“She’s never done that before.
Not since my sister…she doesn’t trust others since Judith died.”
Gordon had a moment to wonder if the child was more like her aunt than either of them realized.
“When she died they were so lost.
Darcy most of all
,
but Sis seemed to bounce back. At least during the day.
She still screams in her sleep.”

“Were they there?
The children, were they there when it happened?”
He knew that the boys hadn’t been
there. T
hey’d been away at camp he’d read in the report from Dallas.

“Darcy was home from school for a doctor’s appointment.
Sis isn’t old enough to go to school yet and Judith couldn’t manage day care on what little she’d get from the state. I told her that I’d pay
,
but she was very prideful and wouldn’t let me.”
Alexis stood to take the baby from him
. H
e stood with her and she led him out of the room.

They put her into her little bed. Gordon could see that the two girls shared a room. He could even tell which sibling shared what part of the room. The side that held the bed that Sis now occupied was covered in dolls and books, pink stuffed animals
,
and a bright pink spread.
The room looked like a child played here. The other was in deep contrast to this one.

The spread was a dark purple. That, as far as he could see, was the only color on that side of the room. It wasn’t as though the room was done in black
,
but it was devoid of color of any other kind. The walls were white
,
the dresser and the desk as well. There were no books on the shelf and the bed was neatly made and nothing was out of place. He looked at Alexis when she cleared her throat.

“She didn’t want it any other way.” She looked at the bed.
“Nothing I could do could make her chose a color. The spread was picked out by Sis or she’d have
a
white comforter too.”
She nodded toward the door.
“Let me show you out.
Sis will sleep better if we leave her be.”

Gordon followed her out without a word. He wasn’t leaving her. Not tonight or any other night if he could help it.
She was his and he needed to claim her before Patrick Booth hurt her.
And he would once the pack started to come down on him.
He’d do whatever he could to hurt her more than she’d already been hurt by him.

When they were in the hall leading to the front of the house he pulled her to him gently.
When she started to protest
,
he kissed her.
He didn’t kiss her hard or even with as much passion as he wanted
,
but simply brushed his mouth over hers.

His body screamed for him to take her.
His wolf, nearly at the breaking point
,
seemed to claw at him from the inside out.
Gordon was careful this time to keep it slow.
He didn’t want to frighten her and he didn’t want her to knee him again.
He moved to take another taste of her mouth when he felt her stiffen. He didn’t let her go as much as moved her behind him.

“Paddy, what the fuck are you doing here
?
” she practically snarled at the man in front of him.
“You’re not supposed to be within five miles of me and the kids. Get out before I call the—
”

Paddy roared at her when she came around
Gordon
to get to the other wolf.
It was all Gordon could do not to shift and take the man.
He had his scent now and he’d pay for upsetting Alexis.

“It’s time you left.
Now.”
Gordon let a little of his humanity go to let the other wolf see that he meant business.
He knew that this was the man who’d hurt his mate and also the man who was terrorizing the children and it was now his job to protect them as much as he could.