Luna's Sokjan (Book one) (17 page)

“Get glasses out of the
kitchen and see if there are any napkins in there.” I ordered
them.

After we all had eaten a
couple pieces of pizza, I asked, “What are ya’ll doing here in the
house of doom?”

Jennifer giggled, “We had
our first practice with Angus this afternoon and he told us that
you were up here working. So we thought we’d see if you needed any
help.”

“Are any of you good with
computers?” I asked.

I had finished placing all
my orders on Amazon. Now, what I needed to do was the plot the dump
sites against the known territories’ of the clans and print off
copies of my standard contract for Gabriel and Tiberius.

“Ryan is good with
computers. He can hack anything that you want.” Ben answered for
the boy
.

I gave Ryan a
smile.

“All right,
Ryan
,
ready to
work off that pizza?” He nodded to the floor. He was too shy to
look at me directly
.
I continued, “I want to plot the known clan territories vs.
the dump sites and then compare that data against the last know
locations of the girls. We can use the desk top unit for this.
Jennifer I need you to help me find a stupid dress, for a dumb-ass
party I’m being forced to attend.”

That last bit, Gabriel
dropped on me before he left on “pack business”. While we were
getting dressed, he informed me that part of being his mate meant
that I’d have to attend social functions and events with him. I
tried to explain to him that I would always be too busy to go any
of his social events and functions. It didn’t go over particularly
well.

“Cool.” Ryan
said.

I decided that I liked
Ryan. He asked no questions and was already moving to the
desk.

“Wipe your hands before
touching that computer.” I called out to him.

“You’re going to a party?
When is it?” Jennifer asked in anticipation.

Why do girls always get
excited over going to parties? I always found them to be tedious
and uninteresting. What did I care about the latest fashions or who
was dating who. I genuinely hated parties.

“I don’t know. I didn’t
think to ask.” I had been so mad at him, that I didn’t think to ask
Gabriel when the party would be. Now, I had a reason to call him.
For the past few hours, I’d been trying to think of a valid reason
to call Gabriel. I just wanted to hear his voice.

“Look
,
we’ll just order something and
have it delivered tomorrow. That way if it doesn’t fit right we can
get it resized if we have the time or we could just go to the mall
and buy something.” I choked on tea and Jennifer laughed out
loud.

I hated malls. I hated
crowds, and the smells.

“Hate going to malls?” She
teased me.

Apparently I was one of
them now.

“Okay
,
I got this up and running. Where
is the information that you want plugged in?” Ryan
asked.

I took a flash drive out
of my laptop bag and handed it to him.

“Just go to the file
marked ‘clans’ and then open the sub file ‘territory’. I have hard
copies of the dump sites and last known places,” I told
him.

He began opening the
requested areas.

“WOW!” he breathed, “Where
did you get all this stuff?” as he scrolled down the
files.

“I have my ways.” I
smiled.

“Do want me to add the
territories of witches and vampires also?” He asked me.

“Not at the moment. I want
to see how things fall together first.” I answered him.

I had to admit that I
liked being with the kids. They laughed easily at each other and
didn't look at me as competition. It was nice. I put everyone to
work, and that’s how Gabriel found us. He stood in the doorway
looking menacing and sexy
.

“McKenna what is going
on?” His tone was mild.

I sat on the floor reading
over files. Jennifer was on the couch with the laptop looking for
dresses. Ryan was happily typing in the information that Michael,
Ethan, and Ben were giving him.

“We are working on the
missing girls.” I said and tilted my head up to look at
him.

The kids had stopped what
they were doing as if they were scared.

“Did your “pack business”
go well?” I asked him mildly.

“We need to talk.” There
was just an edge to that timber voice.

Hmmm, he was
mad.

“What do we need to talk
about?” I asked innocently.

It was too early to have
received a call from the cat clan. It could take up to seven to ten
business days for the hundred catnip filled toys to be delivered.
It was the largest order the pet store had ever received. Well
that’s what they told me in the email that I received when they
confirmed the order. I stared at him blankly.

Could it have been the
rats? I had called all the pet stores in town last night and
requested that they send their entire stock of frozen rats to the
cat clan’s den this morning. Could Tiberius have called Gabriel
already? I’d used the fake name from the dummy credit card that
Adam had given me and it couldn’t be traced. Well, that’s what Adam
had told me anyway.

“Alone.” He said walking
in the room.

“Okay, you want to go up
to the roof? The kids can keep working while we talk.” I said
getting up.

I took his offered hand,
and he led the way. Once we reached the roof he pulled me to him
and kissed me.

“You could have kissed me
downstairs.” I told him against his mouth. “I am sure the kids have
seen their parents kiss before.”

“I will kiss you where and
when I want too.” I grinned up at him, nice to know.

“Mary went missing some
time tonight.” He said grimly. “Her friends can't find her and no
one can get in touch with her.”

“And what has that got to
do with me? You told me I couldn’t hurt her, and I haven’t.” I
examined his face.

Did he believe
me?

The bouquet of black roses
I had sent to her yesterday evening didn’t have a card. So she
could hardly prove that I did it.

“I have been in that room
since you left. Ask Sarah the kitchen droid or the kids if you
don’t believe me. I have more pressing things to do at the moment
than worry about Mary.”

“Apparently she told
anyone who would listen that you threatened to kill
her.”

“No, I told her that it
was a lesson,” I told him. Then at his hard gaze, “Oh, okay I did
tell her if she touched one of the kids again I would kill her, but
she hasn’t, I asked them. Besides the fight happened yesterday
afternoon and I haven’t had the time to kill her or make her
disappear. You know that Gabriel.”

“True, but I had to make
sure, and someone did send her dozen black roses. Know anything
about that?” He asked me and rubbed his thumb against my chin. I
laughed out loud. It should have pissed me off that he would even
think that I had something to do with her disappearance, oddly I
wasn’t.

“McKenna, my mate doesn’t
play childish pranks on people.” He growled at me.

“Perhaps the one in your
head doesn’t, but this one does.” I told him in a laugh.

“McKenna.” He growled out
my name. “What do you have the kids working on?”

“The boys are compiling
data on the clan territories vs. the drop sites. Jennifer is
helping me find a dress.” I told him sliding my hands up his chest
to link them around his neck. “When is this awful event going to
take place anyway?”

“The party is this
weekend.” He told me.

I stared at him. That only
gave me two days I would have to go to the mall. My knees went
weak, and all the blood drained from my face. I might have fallen
if Gabriel’s arms weren’t holding me up
.

“Are you kidding me? In
two days?” Panic filled my voice.

“It will be okay. I’ll
take you to the mall tomorrow and help you pick something out.” He
was amused.

The bloody
bastard.

“We have to take
Jennifer.” I said quickly.

“Why?” He asked as his
hand cupped the back of my neck.

“She won’t be biased.
You’ll tell me anything looks good
,
and she won’t.” I replied.

At least, I hoped that she
wouldn’t.

“I have been giving this
matter some thought.” He told me and pulled us closer together, “I
know what I want you to wear.”

I was intrigued,
“What?”

“Something small, tight,
and black,” his kiss told me just how much thought he’d given this
matter.

We sent the kids home when
we returned to the apartment. Gabriel showed me how much fun he was
going to have undressing me after the party. Maybe I would get a
short, tight black dress. Every girl needed a little black dress,
right?

I stood in a dark pit, but
not the pit of hell. I could hear munching and crunching sounds
coming from in front of me. I smelled the damp, moist air and
gagged on the smell of decaying flesh. In the darkness, I silently
drew my sword from my back as I moved towards the munching,
crunching sounds. The sounds stopped, I stopped and I waited for
something to happen, anything to happen.

“McKenna.” I heard my
name.

I jerked awake and looked
over at Gabriel, he was asleep. I heard my name whispered again. I
got up and walked out on the balcony. The frosty air felt good
against my skin. I looked out into the night.

“McKenna, come to me.” I
couldn’t tell where the whisper was coming from.

I sniffed the air. Yup
that’s right, all wolf, but I could feel someone watching
me.

Where are you? Show
yourself.

“McKenna
,
what are you doing?” Gabriel asked from behind me.

I looked over my shoulder
at him. He didn’t hear the voice. I turned back and waited for a
moment, nothing.

“What?” he
asked.

He was standing behind me.
I shook my head.

“I don’t know. I thought I
heard something in the forest, but I guess it’s gone now.” I said
with a shrug.

“You are so beautiful,
standing here naked in the moon light.” He said softly to me as his
arms gently enfolded me.

I rubbed back against
him.

“Do you have any more
games you want to play tonight?” I asked.

I gave the darkness one
last searching look, before I turned to Gabriel and wrapped my arms
around his strong neck
.

“I think I can come up
with a few.” He assured me and I laughed in delight.

Whatever, had been in the
darkness, was momentarily forgotten
.

Jennifer found me sitting
on the back porch staring into the woods the next afternoon. My
ears were still ringing from Gabriel’s latest lecture. Tiberius had
called first thing that morning to yell at Gabriel. Apparently he
didn’t see the humor in my present and neither did
Gabriel.

“McKenna
,
you can’t play pranks on our allies!” He yelled at
me.

“Your fucking allies not
mine!” I yelled back at him.

“You sent them almost a
hundred frozen rats!” He roared at me.

“Yes I know. They’re cats
and cats like rats!” I hollered back at him.

Then Gabriel started the
whole you’re my mate blah, blah.

After fleeing the house, I
had scouted out the woods looking for any sign of an intruder. Now
I was watching a group of people just inside the tree
line.

“What are you doing?” she
asked.

Jenifer sat down on the
step next to me.

I’d been sitting on the
steps of the back porch for the past couple of hours. I couldn’t
figure out which of my enemies was strong enough to invade my
dreams. Willow would have been the most logical answer, but she
didn’t know how to project her power like that. Then my attention
was drawn to the tree line where a group of people had gathered to
talk.

“Watching possible prey,”
I answered. “What are you doing?”

I had been watching them
for the past ten minutes. She sucked in air when she recognized the
group.

“What do you see?” I asked
her softly.

“That’s Estella Warren.
She is considered to be the female alpha of the pack. It had been
thought that Gabriel and she would mate. She is also the best
female hunter the pack has.” Jennifer told me. “She is very bad
news. She’s a bully to everyone, and is tough in a fight. She is
also Mary’s sister.”

Now that got my
attention.

“So
,
she wasn’t here the other night?
When I got here, I mean.” I said glancing at Jennifer.