“Vanquish fear? Good luck with that.”
Jinx thought about purgatory opening, how he’d dropped to his knees when he’d seen the freaks—the monsters, as humans liked calling them—circling the air above him. If he’d concentrated more at the time, he might’ve noticed them watching him intently.
“Hey, at least we can’t be possessed for long. Well, except for Vice, but he likes it,” Rogue said absently.
“I’m glad you’re awake, brother.”
Rogue looked at him and smiled. “I wasn’t so sure I was, but now I am.”
Chapter 16
In the dead of night, after she’d had twenty-four hours to try to process what Jinx told her, Gillian found herself inside a truck with blackout window tints on the way to the Dire mansion. She sat in the back, Jez driving and Jinx in the passenger’s seat.
She was nervous about going back there—maybe more so since she wasn’t sure if Jinx was going to try to leave her there again for her own good.
After a night in his bed—the roof—his arms—she wasn’t ready to give him up. Heard herself say, “Are you leaving me at the house?”
“Do you want me to?” he asked, the surprise evident in his tone, which was guarded.
“No.”
“Good, because I’m not. But we can run in the woods there—we should be safe,” he told her.
“Really?” She heard the eagerness in her own voice. “We’ll be safe?”
“We’ll have guards.”
The thought of being able to run—really run—without being thought of as crazy—made her smile. She leaned back and let the Grateful Dead music Jez played envelope her as they pulled up a long, winding driveway and into the garage she’d escaped through. The house was sprawling, the land surrounding it more so and she rubbed her hands together in anticipation of seeing all of Jinx’s family again.
“I’ve got stuff to do, so I’ll meet you back here in a couple of hours. Call if you need me sooner,” Jez said. Jinx looked as though he wanted to say something but held his tongue, nodding instead.
“Keep out of trouble, vamp.”
“You know me, wolf.”
“That’s why I said it, dipshit,” Jinx muttered as he led her from the garage to the house.
Once inside, they bypassed the basement room where she’d been held originally in favor of the first floor, the kitchen, specifically. She was greeted by Gwen.
“I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t get you in trouble when I left,” she told the young doctor—wolf. Looked at her to see if she could tell anything and noted she had the same long-limbed figure that she did.
“I’m just glad you’re okay.” Gwen’s smile was warm and genuine. Jinx had told her that Gwen was also a new wolf—and mated to the alpha king, Rifter. She remembered that dark-haired male as well, and when he introduced himself to her again, she wondered if she was supposed to bow and settled for a handshake instead.
In short order, she saw Rogue and was reintroduced to Vice with the silver eyes, tattoos and piercings and Stray and Killian, the brothers with the dark hair and the close relation with her.
“Tell me everything you know about me,” she couldn’t help but ask after they shook her hand solemnly. They couldn’t deny her that and to her relief, they didn’t.
“I guess we’re getting right down to brass tacks,” Stray said with a nod, motioned for her to sit down.
“You’ve got the markings of the Greenland pack. Your family’s surname is Arrow,” Killian started. “You’re from my and Stray’s extended pack.”
“So you two are like family.”
Stray flinched and she wondered if she’d offended him, said something wrong. Kill continued, “Yes, like family. All Dires are connected. And while Weres often mate with humans, a Dire can’t. Couldn’t, before recently. Dires are insular. I can’t believe they would’ve given you up.”
“I can believe it, because they were horrible to both of you. Jinx told me your history.” He’d actually filled her in on it before they got in the truck, giving her only the sketchiest details, but she knew that Stray and Killian had been innocent. That their pack—her pack—had tortured them for little more than having abilities.
Stray was watching her carefully. “I guess we don’t know for sure, but it’s the only thing that made sense.”
“Can you contact them?” she asked, and the mood at the table went somber again.
“We could. I don’t know if we’re going to,” Rifter said. “We can try to get the information more covertly. But as of now, they don’t know that we realize they exist. We’d like to keep it that way until it suits our purpose otherwise.”
“Your pack doesn’t get along with them . . . because of what they did to Stray and Killian?”
“That’s a large part of it.” Rifter didn’t elaborate. “But just because we don’t contact them doesn’t mean you can’t. Just not yet. We need a little time to figure things out.”
“Take all the time you need. I don’t want to go back to them.”
“Gillian, the Blackwells have plastered the world with your photo. The Greenland pack has the isolation you need. You might not have a choice.”
“I don’t want isolation,” she told Rifter. He growled at her, but she didn’t have the sense yet as a new wolf to care. She was still heady from the taste of freedom.
And then she realized that everyone had stilled but the growling she’d attributed only to Rifter continued, but Rifter wasn’t making the sound.
It was Jinx. His eyes had turned to the wolf, his chair pushed back and the growl was low and menacing . . . and directed at Rifter.
“Stand down, wolf.”
When Jinx didn’t, Gillian stood and moved nearly in front of him. “Leave him alone. He’s worried about me.”
And every eye turned to her. Vice’s eyebrows raised but no one said a word. Gwen put her hand on Rifter’s arm and Gillian wondered how badly she’d just stepped out of line. But she’d never been much for social etiquette and figured pack etiquette wasn’t for her either.
“I think we should leave Jinx and Gillian alone,” Vice suggested. “Or else there’s going to be a brawl.”
“I think you should stay out of it.” An order masked in suggestion, but there was no mistaking Rifter’s tone.
“Jinx, you gotta stop challenging him. You know what he’s going through—mated alpha equals fucking nuts,” Vice continued, even as he backed away from Rifter and Gwen pushed the wolf behind her.
But Jinx couldn’t, not if his life depended on it. Rifter was challenging him by calling out his mate—and this was much worse than when he’d had to make Rifter kick him out of the house. “You don’t make decisions for her,” he told his king now.
“I make decisions for the pack. You all gave me that title, that respect—”
“I withdrew my respect, remember?”
“Ah, Jinx,” Vice groaned as Jinx heard himself actually snarl as he pushed Gillian behind him, keeping a hand on her arm. Like he was prepared to fight to the death for her—which he was—and then drag her out of here, caveman style.
He guessed the old ways were still very much ingrained in him after all. And as Rifter moved closer, Gillian was struggling against Jinx’s grasp. Like she was trying to help him.
She broke free because he was afraid of hurting her if he held her wrist too tightly and she jumped in front of him, onto the table, stared down at Rifter. And she growled.
The entire room went silent.
“Wolves, we have bigger problems. Something other is surrounding the house.” Vice’s eyes glowed silver,
