And not a single trace of the woman I was looking for. Perfect.
My cell phone buzzed in my pocket, a respite from the failure of my search.
“This is Aren.”
“Where are you?”
The corner of my mouth tilted up slightly at the sound of her voice. I sat on a stool in front of a slot machine. “Looking for you.”
“I told you not to worry about me. I can take care of myself.”
“So you say.” I circled my foot slowly in an attempt to loosen my stiff ankle. “But this is the second call from you in two days. What’s going on?”
Damn, it was good to hear her voice.
“I know there’s no reason in the world for you to help me, but my sister is in trouble. I need to get her someplace safe before he finds her.”
“Is it Sebastian? Is he after you?” I frowned, gripping the phone tighter. In my mind, I imagined the slick jaguar bastard with her, and the wolf inside of me growled, distracting me for a second.
Wait, did she just tell me she had a sister?
“I don’t know who is threatening me yet,” she went on. “But I need time to figure it out, and I need to know Nadya is safe.”
“So you called me?” I ran my fingers through my hair and got up.
“Sebastian told me about your Pack taking Lana in. He also told me she had twins.” She paused and added softly, “babies who aren’t being used as lab rats for experiments.”
I closed my eyes, shaking my head.
She cleared her throat. “You’re the only person with the ability to protect her. Nadya is innocent in all this. She doesn’t know I’m a monster. She doesn’t even know shape-shifters exist. She’s a college student.” She paused, her matter-of-fact tone softening. “I haven’t seen her in almost a year. She thinks I’m on a classified undercover case. I can’t let her get mixed up in all of this shifter stuff because of me.”
“Sending her to stay with a bunch of werewolves isn’t exactly going to help keep her out of all the ‘shifter stuff,’ you know.” I ground my teeth to keep from saying something about her “monster” comment. Scaring her off wouldn’t help my cause, but hearing her refer to shifters as monsters rubbed me the wrong way.
“I know, but I need someone who knows about them to protect her. The guy after her…is a werewolf.” If I hadn’t had enhanced hearing I never would have caught the end of her sentence.
I frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I don’t have time to discuss it with you. Will your Pack protect her or not?”
How could I explain any of this to the Pack? Adam would not bring an outsider in, especially an outsider who also happened to be the sister of the woman who kidnapped Lana, shot me, and indirectly led to the death of our father.
Before I replied, she jumped back in with a cold professional edge to her voice. “I’m going to get her a plane ticket to Reno. I just need someone to pick her up and hide her for a few days. Can you make that happen? I’ll pay you. Please. She needs to stay safe.”
“If I agree to this, you have to let me do it my way.”
“As long as she’s protected.”
“Where are you?” I walked toward the elevators.
“I can’t tell you that.”
I ground my teeth together. “You agreed to do this my way. I’ll have the Pack watch out for your sister, but I’ll be coming to watch out for you.”
“What?”
She sounded frustrated, but I wasn’t going to budge. Not on this.
Sasha sighed. “No way. No. I don’t want to pull you any further into this, wolf.”
“My way or no deal.” I clenched my fist and waited. Negotiations were my specialty.
“Damn it, I don’t have time for this.”
I shrugged. “So tell me where you are.”
“And you’ll help Nadya?”
“You know I will, or you never would have called me.”
I waited.
Finally she said, “Los Angeles.”
“On my way.”
I stepped in an elevator and hustled to my room. After tossing my few belongings back into my bag, I left the hotel and headed for Los Angeles. I’d only packed to be away for a couple of days, but I could buy more clothes when I got to LA.
Sasha was all that mattered to the wolf inside of me. She was worried, and she had reached out to me. Hearing her voice again made the wolf anxious, eager to hunt for its mate. But it wasn’t that simple.
First I had to figure out the best way to get my stubborn brother to agree to help Nadya. He wouldn’t want to risk bringing Nero back to Reno, whether Sasha’s sister was an innocent in this or not.
Then it hit me.
Lana would.
…
I called Lana while I sped across the Mojave Desert. Interstate 15 was lonely this early in the morning, and the Lotus ate up the road. Lana arranged for Jason to pick up Nadya from the airport. Although she wasn’t thrilled about helping the sister of the woman who abducted her, after I explained that Nadya had no idea her sister was a jaguar, Lana agreed to help her stay away from Nero.
Jason was a good choice to pick her up. He was a doctor who could’ve just walked off the set of General Hospital. She’d never suspect that he was more than human, and out of all of our Pack, he was probably the tamest.
But with our Pack, that might not be saying much.
Not that it mattered to me. I’d be with Sasha soon, too bad she only agreed because she wanted the Pack to protect her sister. I really was fucking pathetic.
But no amount of pride stood a chance against the overwhelming instinct that drove me to keep her safe.
My phone buzzed, interrupting my thoughts. The address for Sasha’s hotel was in the text window, along with “I’ll meet you in the movie room.”
Movie room? What kind of hotel was she staying in? I didn’t care. Instead, I shrugged it off and gave the Lotus more gas.
I started to smile until my phone rang and Adam’s name flashed on the screen.
“Shit.” I clicked “answer.” “Yeah?”
“What the hell, Aren?” He yelled. “Are you certifiable? How can you ask me to do this for her?”
I gripped the wheel tighter. “Do it for me.”
“What am I supposed to tell the Pack? We should all risk our lives to protect Sasha’s sister? Sasha, who led us into an ambush at Lake Tahoe, the ambush that killed our father.”
“Jesus, Adam.” I struggled to keep from raising my voice. “Do you think I’ve forgotten how Dad died? None of this is easy for me either.”
“So you went behind my back and arranged it with Lana.”
My brother had every reason to be pissed. Hell, I’d be pissed if he’d done this to me, but I didn’t have any other choice. Sasha needed me. And everything inside of me needed her.
“I’m sorry, bro. What I did sucked, but none of this is Nadya’s fault. Lana understood that. This guy working for Nero could scoop her up to use her as leverage against Sasha in a heartbeat.”
“And they’ll come straight for us to get her.”
I passed another car while I talked into my Bluetooth. “No, that’s the beauty of this. They’d never expect us to help Sasha. Reno will be the last place they’ll look for her sister.”
Adam was quiet for a minute, and I took a slow breath, waiting him out. Finally he cleared his throat.
“Shit.” He grumbled, probably kicking the dirt at the barn. “Fine, but the less everyone in the Pack knows the better. We won’t have her very long anyway, right?”
“Maybe a week or two?”
“Okay. I’ll talk to Lana. Maybe Nadya could work as a nanny to help her out with the twins or something.”
I started to smile. My brother could be a huge pain in the ass, but when he was on your team you couldn’t lose. “Sounds perfect. Let me know the cover story, and I’ll be sure we stick to it.”