Operation Saving Daniel (Entangled Covet) (10 page)

She reached out a hand to him. He stared at it for a moment, before turning away. After crossing the room, he poured them both a drink, placed hers on the desk next to her, and swallowed his in one mouthful.

He put down the glass, proud that his hand was steady, then sank into his seat.

Sanity returned to her face. Hopping down from the desk, she smoothed her clothes, picked up her glass, and retreated to the other side. She sat in one of the chairs facing him, sipped her drink, and studied him.

“So,” she said, “where do we go from here?”

Straight to hell, he was guessing.

Chapter Ten

Lissa lay on her bed, wrapped in a black, fluffy robe, staring at the ceiling and contemplating buying a vibrator. A big one. A Daniel-sized one, XXL.

She squeezed her thighs together and wondered what the chances were of getting one delivered in the next five minutes. Two cold showers and her body still ached with need. She wanted him so badly it hurt, like an ache in her belly that wouldn’t go away. With a little luck, Daniel was feeling as bad right now.

Today, she’d gone to see him to clear things up between them. Instead, she found herself flailing around in increasingly muddy water.

In some ways, the whole marriage-of-convenience thing made sense, but she couldn’t shake the feeling there was more to it than that. Her instincts screamed that Sophia had some sort of hold over him. Maybe she was blackmailing him. But what could he have done that was so bad?

He’d told her he needed to think and that he would get back to her. Would he? Or had they been meaningless words to get her to go away?

It was nine o’clock and the sun was low in the sky when her cell phone rang. She picked it up, her heart thudding loud in her ears. It was a message from Daniel, and she frowned as she read it. Apparently, they needed to meet and talk, but somewhere private—Lissa presumed he meant away from Sophia but maybe that was wishful thinking. He told her to wear something sexy, so maybe this was it and he was going to admit he really wanted
her
,
not Sophia. And he’d given her directions to a park outside London where apparently he had a cottage and that he’d meet her at ten thirty.

Excitement warred with caution. Why did he want to meet in such an out-of-the-way location? Was it to make sure no one would find out? “No one” as in Sophia. Or was there something specific he wanted to show her, maybe the real reason he had to marry Sophia.

She leaped to her feet and scrabbled in the drawer until she found some black lace panties, like she’d worn that first night with him, though she wasn’t sure he’d remember. Over those, she pulled on cropped jeans and a cut off pink halter top that revealed her midriff and added heeled sandals that showed off her gold toenails. A touch of mascara and a little bit of lipstick and she was ready to go.

How would she get there? Maybe head for the main road and pick up a taxi?

She was running down the stairs when Julia came through the front door.

“Hi,” Julia said. “I thought I’d order us some pizza.”

“Can’t,” Lissa answered. “I’m going out.” She waved her cell at Julia. “I got a message from Daniel. He wants to meet me out of town.”

Julia frowned. “Out of town? Why?”

“He says he wants to show me something, but I have no clue what. I went to see him today. We talked. He said he had a lot to think about but he’d be in touch. And he was.” She couldn’t hold back the grin.

“Hurray,” Julia said. “So where are you meeting him?”

Lissa flicked on her phone and read the directions aloud.

“That’s miles away. How are you getting there?”

“Taxi, I thought.”

“They won’t drive you that far unless you order one. You can take Buffy if you like. So if you argue with Daniel, you won’t be stranded or have to beg a lift home.”

“Buffy?”

“My car.”

“Ah. You named your car after a vampire slayer?”

“Yeah.” She pulled the keys out of her bag and tossed them to Lissa. “Here, just be careful with her—she’s my baby and I love her.”

…

Daniel sat in the booth at the back of the bar and sipped on his beer. He’d arranged to meet Joe and wondered whether it wasn’t a huge mistake.

He hadn’t gotten to know any of the pack well, hadn’t wanted to like them, or identify with them. But the truth was he was one of them, and if that meant he was inherently evil, he’d just have to suck it up.

After the change, he’d waited, expecting that he was going to turn bad. Everything he’d seen of the pack at those first meetings had led him to believe they were evil. Then they had killed Babs, and he’d known it for sure.

But there were good people in the pack as well, some changed by accident, some because they were needed for a scheme of Ethan’s, others for revenge. There were even a few who had risked the change because they loved a werewolf.

Joe was one of the oldest in the pack. He survived by keeping a low profile and showing no sign of strength, though Daniel suspected that like him, Joe was far stronger than he appeared. Ethan had an unfortunate habit of slaying any who showed signs of strength—he claimed it was pack law—there was only room for one Alpha.

Two men entered the bar, and a hush ran through the clientele. There was nothing obvious, but an aura hung about them. He presumed the same aura hung about him, too. They went to the bar first, got drinks before heading his way, and he studied the second man.

Pete was tall, slender, with short dark hair and a scar that pulled up the corner of his mouth in a perpetual sneer. He’d gotten it from a silver knife wielded by Daniel’s very own fiancée, Sophia. Punishment for some perceived wrongdoing.

Joe was medium height, with light brown hair and brown eyes and unassuming in appearance. He was by far the scarier of the two, and his power coiled around Daniel’s, tasting, testing. Finally, Joe nodded and sat down. Pete slid onto the bench beside him and around them the conversations restarted, if a little more subdued than before.

“So, how does it feel to be engaged?” Joe asked.

“Fucking crappy,” Daniel replied.

“Well, I don’t envy you your choice,” Pete replied with a grin, his hand coming up to stroke the scar on his cheek.

“Choice? I don’t believe there was any choice involved.” Daniel took a gulp of his beer and wondered how to approach the subject. “Thanks for coming.”

“You said you needed some information.”

“I want to understand a few things…things about the pack. About being like we are.”

“Werewolves you mean? Don’t tell me you still can’t say the word. No wonder you have problems accepting your wolf.”

Daniel shifted in his seat. “I’m getting there.”

“Good, we need people like you. People who will stand up to Ethan.”

“You have to be joking. Stand up to Ethan? If I did that, I wouldn’t be engaged to marry The Evil One.” He grinned as he remembered Lissa’s name for Sophia, but his grin faded quickly. Part of him wished he could open up and divulge his plans for eventually “standing up” to Ethan, but he wasn’t quite ready to extend that level of trust.

“Maybe not, but Ethan lets you get away with far more than the rest of us.”

Daniel could feel a frown forming on his face. “He does? I don’t see either of you engaged to the sweet and lovely Sophia.”

“That’s Ethan keeping an eye on you. He doesn’t trust you and believe me, with anyone else that would have been a death warrant. There’s some reason he keeps you alive.”

“I’m doing valuable work for him.”

“You are? Maybe we need to talk about that sometime.”

“We?”

“There are a few of us who get together occasionally, talk about things. How they are, how they could be. Maybe you’d like to join us.”

So there were others unhappy with the way the pack was run. For the first time in an age, Daniel felt a flicker of hope. Maybe he wouldn’t have to take any more of the drug, turn himself into more of a monster. With the help of others in the pack, perhaps they could take down Ethan and Sophia. “I’d like that.”

“Good, so what can we tell you?”

“I want to know about the mating thing.”

“The mating thing?” Pete asked and the amusement was clear in his voice.

“Shit,” Joe said. “Don’t tell me you actually think you’re mated to Sophia?”

“No.”

“Thank God for that. Not that it’s any better if you’re mated to someone else right now. Sophia will slaughter them. I take it, it’s someone from the pack.”

“No. A human.”

Joe gave him a long, searching look. “Man, you are in shitloads of trouble.”

Daniel tried to appear unworried. “Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps this is a figment of my imagination and this mating stuff is a myth.”

“It’s no myth. It’s real all right, but I’ve never heard of it happening with a human before. So what do you want to know?”

He shrugged. “Just what happens, I guess. How does a wolf know he’s mated?”

“Well, it’s never happened to me, thank God.”

“Why thank God? Is it such a bad thing?”

“Maybe not in certain situations but I reckon it would be one more thing for Ethan to hold against you. I’ve seen wolves who have lost their mates, and it’s not pretty. So what’s happening with you?”

Daniel thought about the question. “This is going to sound a little…” He couldn’t decide on the word, silly, stupid, fucking crazy. “Freaky,” he finally settled on.

Joe’s lips curled into a wry grin. “And has anything that’s happened to you since you were bitten not been ‘freaky’?”

“Maybe not. But except for the first few months, I’ve always felt in control.”

Those first months had been hard, physically and mentally. The first shift had been agony as though his very self was being torn apart. Ethan had told him it was because he fought the change; if he would accept it, the change would become easier. And it had. He wouldn’t exactly say he’d accepted, but he no longer fought and the shift to wolf had become second nature, as natural as breathing. Unlike many of the weaker pack members, he wasn’t at the mercy of his wolf, could change at will, and except for when he was driven by the full moon, he could keep Wolf locked tight inside.

“And you don’t feel in control now?” Joe asked.

“No. Usually I can ignore my wolf, but lately he’s always there, as though he wants something.”

“What else.”

“This woman—I can’t leave her alone. I’m aware I’m risking her life but there’s something inside me that whispers that she’s mine. Ours,” he amended. “Wolf wants her, too. He growls when I send her away, howls when I kiss her.” He grinned. “He snarls whenever Sophia is around.”

“Clever Wolf,” Pete said.

“I know when Lissa’s near, sometimes I feel her awaken when I’m lying in the darkness. I dream of her and her scent fills my sleep and she smells so good.” Shit, had he really said that? He looked up from his examination of the tabletop to find the other two watching him. “It’s not good is it?”

“Well, you’ve got the symptoms.” Joe shook his head. “I never thought it could happen with a normal. How does she feel about you?”

“I think she loves me.”

They sat in silence for long minutes.

“There are people who say that for some the wolf exists inside even before the bite. The bite wakens something sleeping inside you. That’s why not everyone survives.”

“So what you’re saying is that in effect werewolves are born, not made.”

“A bit of both, I suppose. I’ve never heard of anyone who became wolf without being bitten, but legend has it that it’s happened. In times of great stress or need, the wolf will waken and come to your aid. Sounds like a fucking fairy tale doesn’t it?”

It did and the last thing he needed in his life was more fairy tales. “What has this got to do with me?”

Joe shrugged. “Maybe you recognize the latent wolf in this woman.”

Maybe. He took a pull of his beer, while he decided on his next question. But Pete spoke before he got a chance. “I’m surprised Sophia didn’t call you to the meeting tonight.”

“What meeting?”

“I’m not surprised,” Joe answered. “The only ones she called were her cronies.”

There was a small group of wolves loyal to Sophia, because she gave them what they wanted—violence. They were the ones who had killed Babs, and a wave of foreboding washed through him.

Sophia had been in to see him after Lissa had left earlier today. She hadn’t mentioned Lissa, which was strange. Sophia must have known she’d been in his office with her scent all over the room.

Instead as she left, she’d cast him a look of malevolent gloating. He’d been so relieved to see her go without causing trouble he’d thought no more about it. That had been a drastic mistake.

He pulled out his cell phone and called Lissa’s number. He got voice mail, stabbed it off, and called Julia instead. She picked up on the second ring.

“Where’s Lissa?” he asked.

“No ‘hello’? And don’t be so impatient, she’s on her way.”

Dread rose like nausea in the back of his throat. “On her way where?”

“To meet you, of course.” Now, she sounded vaguely worried.

“When and where?”

“About half an hour ago and where you told her to.”

“Where Julia? It’s important.”

“What’s going on?”

“Just tell me.”

“Fairston Forest. The car park at the visitors’ entrance. Don’t you have a cottage there? What’s happening, Daniel? Who sent that message?”

“Sophia.” As soon as he mentioned the name, he wished he could take it back. He didn’t want Julia worrying or getting involved. “It was just a misunderstanding,” he said. “But don’t worry. I’m on my way over there.” He ended the call and was already rising to his feet as he shoved the phone in his pocket.

“What’s going on?” Joe asked.

“Sophia sent a message to Lissa pretending to be me. Lissa’s on her way to Fairston.”

“Lissa is your woman?”

Daniel nodded.

“Shit,” Joe said. “The meeting. Sophia is going to kill her.”

“I know. I have to get out there. She’s half an hour ahead. There’s no time.”

Joe and Pete rose to their feet as one. “We’ll come with you.”

“You’re sure?”

Daniel curbed his impatience as a glance passed between the two men—their help might make the difference between Lissa’s survival or death. They both nodded.

“We’re sure. It’s time to put a stop to the killing,” Joe said.

“Time to put a stop to Sophia,” Pete added.

“Then let’s go.”