Werewulf Journals 4: Sated Pleasures (14 page)

He froze, stilled until she couldn’t even detect the thump, thump of his heartbeat.

Finally, after what seemed eons, his desperate thoughts touched hers. I can’t.

His anguish bit at her heart, bitter, deep, and unrelenting, the sheer intensity of it frightening her. Don’t you know you can tell me anything…everything?

He closed his eyes and his mind against her, refusing to let her see into his soul. Please don’t make me show you…

My God, Pavel, nothing could be all that bad. What are you hiding?

He buried his face in her neck, curling into her like a little boy seeking shelter from a nightmare. A monster.

A monster…? Where?

Here!

His world shattered when Kaila screamed.

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“You’ve been catering to that lazy puss long enough. Want me to take her off your hands, Prince Rickard?”

Rickard shifted his body, angling his burden away from Aricles’s reaching hands. “She’s fine staying with me.”

Aricles hid his smile, not surprised at the prince’s blunt refusal of his offer.

“I’ve arranged a bed for her in my rooms and the chefs have a rivalry going, tempting her with the freshest fish fillets. She is playing them for all she’s worth, the little flirt.” He smiled down at the large cat draped over his forearm. The smile disappeared when he ventured an underbrowed glance at Aricles. “I am concerned that she hasn’t shifted back, though.”

Aricles reached out a gloved finger and stroked the purring tabby behind the ears. “She will shift back when she’s good and ready, not a minute before. Don’t worry, Indigo reverts to this form for relaxation or” -- he favored the prince with an arch look -- “whenever she feels threatened. What on earth could have upset her so?”

Rickard remained silent, mouth tightening.

Aricles slanted an amused glance at the tight-lipped Rickard. “Never mind, I think I can follow the logical sequence of events.”

Indigo reared up in Rickard’s hold, laid her ears back, and hissed at Aricles. He withdrew his fingers from striking range just before she tried to sink her teeth in them. “You know better,” he admonished, slanting a pointed frown at the cat once again blinking indolently back at him from the prince’s embrace. That little wretch was enjoying the present situation entirely too much. “You’re spoiling her.”

“You’re upsetting her,” Rickard accused, keeping his voice soft. His arctic blue eyes, however, spoke volumes.

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The poor fool had it bad, but then, so did Indi by the looks of it. Aricles decided to have pity on them and stop teasing. “Much as I have enjoyed this tropical paradise the last day or so while reading through the evidence, I suppose I should move on to the fieldwork portion of finding out who your killer is.”

“We already know who he is. We need to know where he is. This island is large and heavily forested. Finding a wulf determined to hide in all this space requires more manpower than I can afford to bring in. Not in terms of monetary spending,” Rickard added, noting Aricles’s raised eyebrow, “but I dare not expose the clients to this fuck’s craziness. Since his preferred targets are the humans, I’ve surrounded them with a wall of wulves. Once he realizes we’ve protected them too well for him to get at, his priority will change to escaping, getting off this island. We can’t allow that.”

“How many ways off this island are there? Are those exiting points guarded? And lastly, what steps are you taking to prevent him from slipping past your watchdogs?”

Rickard automatically shifted Indigo into a more comfortable position, attention firmly with Aricles. His answers were terse. “Transportation is by boat and air. I’ve ordered all boats to stay clear of the island until further notice and have changed the daily deliveries to helicopter drops. There isn’t a skiff or rowboat left anywhere on the entire island.

“The two docks and the more accessible stretches of beach are under surveillance by my agents. I also have men in hiding around the landing strip, which is Delin’s best bet for a speedy escape.”

Aricles nodded. “The only aircraft on the ground is ours and the pilots have worked with us before. They know better than to open that hatch except under the conditions we’ve outlined to them.”

This time, Rickard nodded. “We’ve got him trapped, then, which means that, sooner or later, he’ll return here to the complex in search of a hostage.”

A thoughtful frown creased Aricles’s forehead. “If we wait for that, we’ll give him the advantage. We need to flush him out, need him dancing to our tune, not vice versa.”

“What would you suggest?”

Pointing an admonishing finger, Aricles indicated the now sleeping cat. “I would suggest waking up my team leader and asking her.”

“Are you serious? Indigo is your leader?”

The look of startled surprise on Rickard’s face was priceless. Aricles had a hard time reminding himself the prince was not his new toy. He shouldn’t jerk him around like a pliable G.I. Joe doll.

Aricles actually liked the prince. Orloffberg appeared a bit of a stuffed shirt, but that was normal for ruling heads of state and could -- which was more likely the case -- be blamed on this horrific situation. Overall, Rickard seemed a decent sort of fellow, genuinely interested in Indigo beyond a shallow desire to fuck the nearest and prettiest female around.

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Besides, Indigo more than liked him, and that was a huge plus in Aricles’s book as his heart-sister was a keen judge of character. The man might have come onto her hard enough to drive her into hiding, but Aricles figured that had more to do with the shifter’s inexperience with male/female relationships than it did with any threatening sexual overtures. Had he truly offended, he’d be wearing the marks of the cat’s claws, not the cat.

Speaking of cats… “About Indigo being the leader, yes, I’m serious. She’s Hunter’s second in command. About needing to wake her up and ask her, no.” He cast a disgruntled glare toward the drowsing feline. “And I’m totally serious when I say she needs to stop fucking around and do her job.”

He saw the prince’s jaw clench. He’d bristled at Aricles’s comment about Indigo, definitely not down with hearing another man criticize her. The two of them were going to have problems if Rickard was going to take exception to everything Aricles said regarding the wildcat. He wondered if the man even realized how fast and how far he’d fallen for the enigma Indigo presented.

Rickard didn’t comment. Instead, he asked, “Does she do this often? Sleep on the job, I mean.”

Aricles gazed into Rickard’s eyes, let the other man see the depth of his fondness for the little cat. “No, she doesn’t. She’s usually conscientious and so work oriented, I often have the unenviable task of trying to convince her that she doesn’t have to be the one performing the lion’s share of our tasks.”

“It sounds like she could use the rest, then. We’ll let her sleep a bit more.”

Aricles watched as Rickard continued to stroke the cat gently, a smile tugging his full lips. He wondered what the prince’s lineage was. The man was too damned beautiful for a human. Standing at his side, he realized they were almost total opposites. Rickard’s thick, silvery blond hair fell from an off center part in a shining swatch straight as the wind, while his own Hades black curls rioted wildly over his brow and down to his shoulders. Rickard looked like a sculpture in ice and snow while he looked like someone had carved his image from a block of granite. Perhaps that was what had attracted Indigo: the fact she couldn’t find a being more different from him if she’d tried.

Aricles decided to offer his friendship to this intrepid prince. He was going to need it.

“If I could make a suggestion…?”

Rickard’s brows lifted. “That’s why you’re here, correct? Please, I am quite willing to hear anything you have to say.”

“As you pointed out, finding this wulf will be difficult in all this space. He has numerous places to hide and can simply move from place to place avoiding us, then return to his usual haunt once we’d finished searching that area.”

Rickard nodded, clearly following Aricles’s line of reasoning. “An exercise in futility.”

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“If we could gain an idea of where he’d been, it should be easier to extrapolate where he might go to lair.”

“That’s been our problem. We haven’t even been able to find the original site of Anita’s murder. We know he didn’t kill her on the cliffs where we found her remains. However, no matter how long we’ve searched, we’ve found nothing.”

“I believe I can locate that site for you once I discover where he’s hidden in the past.

I’ll require a wulf that can be trusted implicitly, one who will report to me, and no other…not even you, Rickard.”

“I can supply all but the last. No amount of coercion can subvert the men of my personal guard. They were handpicked by the man I trust foremost in all the world. If I command them, they will obey. You may have the implicit trust, but the loyalty remains mine.”

Centuries of commanding instant obedience made it difficult for Aricles to resist blasting the mortal with a jolt of power. Reminding himself that Indigo held this man in her affections helped him maintain a benevolent manner. This situation was an example of why he rarely did these assignments on his own, choosing to work in tandem as one of a paired unit.

Aricles took a deep breath and calmed his temper. He was here to help, not jockey for position with this regional ruler. He bowed his head, a curt acknowledgement. “I can live with that. But could you live with the consequences?”

Rickard raised his head and stiffened his spine, the lines of his patrician face sharpening into an expression of hauteur, becoming every inch the ruling monarch. His brown brows -- such a dramatic contrast to the silvery light strands of his shoulder-length hair -- arched in disbelief. “How can you think I would give even one of my men over to you if you would threaten me with harm to them?”

“That came out wrong. Your concern is admirable --”Aricles began.

“I am their overlord, their liege. My concern is my duty, one I will not shirk.”

“-- but misplaced,” he finished, patiently overlooking the prince’s interruption. “Let me explain…”

A muscle twitched in Rickard’s cheek. His voice, though he kept it low and even to avoid disturbing his sleeping burden, dripped icicles. “No, we are done here. Save your explanations for someone interested in hearing them.” Without waiting for a response, he turned to walk away. His action was the nail in the coffin of Aricles’s patience.

“Stop,” Aricles cried, flinging up a hand, the gesture sharp and authoritative. In response, power roared from him, freezing Rickard in midstride, statue still. Unable to talk, unable to move, shards of icy anger flashed in the mortal’s pale blue eyes. Aricles was surprised he could do even that little, held under the stasis spell he had employed.

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Moving closer to confront his arrested audience of one, Aricles let go all his restraint, allowed the lightning to play in his own gaze. The echo of it flashed across the heavens, while storm clouds boiled up, turning once bright skies a dull gray. He gloried in the freedom, in the heady rush of using his inherent powers. He tired of hiding what he was, what he could do. Unable to resist the temptation, Aricles took to the sky, hair twisting in an invisible gale. It was time for this mortal prince to understand the magnitude of the insult he’d offered this elemental being. With a flick of his wrist, he lifted Rickard up, left him suspended in mid air.

Drifting close enough to Rickard that his chest brushed Indigo’s fur, he noted the other man more than matched him in height. Too angry to do more than file that away for further contemplation, he smiled into the prince’s face while he did the one thing he calculated would totally infuriate Rickard. Holding his helpless gaze, Aricles plucked Indigo out of Rickard’s unresponsive arms and flitted away.

The cat started, coming half-awake with a sleepy meow, and he quickly settled her more securely in his embrace. Crooning and stroking her fur, he used long, even swipes to soothe her. With a rumbling purr, she slipped back into dreams, snuggled against his chest.

He turned and faced the mortal, his lips turned up in a superior smirk. In response, the light blue of Rickard’s pupils leached to a flat, silvery pewter shot through with fury.

Aricles chuckled. Rocking Indigo in his arms, he taunted Rickard, “While I would never harm Indigo, you couldn’t stop me if I chose to and that galls you. Being helpless --

unable to help your own self, let alone keep a loved one safe -- bothers you doesn’t it, Rickard?”

He stopped smiling. “Are you beginning to garner some idea of who you are dealing with?” He pretended to wait for the other male to respond. “I forgot! You can’t speak, can you? Allow me to rectify that.” A casual wave of his hand freed Rickard’s mouth, and he was instantly sorry for it.

“Give her back!” Rickard spat, his arms still positioned as they were when he’d held her, his eyes wild.

Aricles cocked his head. “Strange, I would’ve expected complaints about me binding you against your will. Telling, how the first words out of your mouth were that particular demand. Nevertheless, no, I won’t give her back to you. Not until you listen to me. And pay attention, because this is important.”

“Then don’t touch her like that, you cur.”

Aricles had no idea what Rickard was going on about. “Don’t touch her, how?”

His face livid, Rickard snarled, “Just…move your hand from there, damn you!”

Still bewildered, Aricles gazed down to where his left hand curved under Indigo’s belly, holding her securely, very close to where her privates would be in this form. He grinned. “What naughty thoughts you have, prince!”

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Rickard snarled. “You’re going to pay for this.”

Aricles just looked at him.

Hard gaze promising retribution, Rickard gave in. “If getting out of whatever hold you have on me means listening to you, then I’m all ears. Start talking.”