Unconditional

breathy, so not authoritative.

He smiled. A slight tip upward at the corner of his mouth where his dimple showed. She wanted to lick it. The moment stretched between them in a way she couldn’t find the energy to disentangle herself from.

Allie.

She sat back, getting some distance, and his hand shot out, far quicker than she’d anticipated, latching on to her knee. She gulped, her heart thundering as she licked her lips.

“Allie,” she said out loud, and he nodded, but kept his hand on her knee.

“The mages have been working with turned witches. In an increasingly organized fashion. All across the country—hell, Canada too—witches have gone missing, only to be found a few days later.” He shut up and she shook her head.

“I need to know the details. I’m a cop, Josh. I can’t find her…I can’t protect my people if I don’t know what’s going on.”

“They’re found dead. Totally drained. The numbers have been increasing and they’ve recently begun kidnapping Weres too.”

She knew she’d paled, could feel the blood rush away from her face as shock smacked her. “Good God.”

“Yes. Since you’ve spoken with Gage, you know we’ve got some contacts with them and Clan Gennessee to the south. The witches are aware and working on a unified defense. Back east where this all first started, we’ve created a coordinated effort with the de La Vega Jamboree. Jaguar shifters,” he added when she looked confused. “And of course with National. That’s the sort of united governing pack for all wolves in the United States. Anyway, Cascadia, that’s the big pack in Seattle, they’ve recently lost two of their wolves. The cats have had similar losses in the major cities. We’ve had some stalking, but so far our people have been safe. We think they might be working with human anti-Other hate groups.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

He started and then laughed. “Grown-up, gorgeous woman and she’s got a potty mouth? Be still my heart.”

She sniffed in his direction. “If anything deserved all the big bad cuss words, Josh, it’s this. How long? I mean, I know the longer we don’t find her, the lower our chances are that she’s alive. But tell me what the odds are.”

He swallowed hard and she knew he did not want to say anything.

“The longest case that I know of was five days. And when they found her, she was in very bad shape and spent two weeks in the hospital.”

She stood and began to pace. “Well then, we need to get going.”

“There’s no way I can convince you to stay at your hotel while we track, is there?”

“No. Which would be dumb anyway. I can see the mage energy and you can’t. The last place I saw it was at a rest stop in Aurora, Baldock, northbound.”

“Are the state police looking for the vehicle?”

She nodded. “I sent out an alert yesterday afternoon. Though I had to do some fancy footwork with just why I knew that particular car was of interest. Can’t very well say I followed my othersight up the freeway.”

“Witches really need to come out. It’s awfully hard to hide what you are in the modern world.”

She shrugged. “I’m not in charge of any of that. I only know ten other witches. Well, eleven if you count Gage, and I only know him from one phone call. All those decisions are made far above my pay grade.”

He sighed. “Yeah. I get that too. With these disappearances, well I can’t see how it can go on much longer. It’s come out on your own or get outed.”

“Easy for you to say. I guess you’re part of that pay grade I’m not in. So? We gonna get on this or what?”

“Step one is to go to that rest stop. You said you saw their energy at two stops?”

“I pulled off at every single one between Roseburg and here. There may be more north of Portland but I wanted to come here first.”

“Good idea. Let’s go to the first one so I can get a good scent, and we’ll head to the second one so I can compare. I just need to stop by my apartment so I can get changed, and we’ll get moving.”

“Don’t you have minions to do this sort of thing?”

He snorted. “Yes. But I don’t want to assign this to anyone else.”

“Josh, it’s just a job.” She needed him to know there was nothing beyond this. He’d wrecked her heart already, she wasn’t about to give him another shot.

He paused, going very still, the pupils of his eyes nearly swallowing all the green. She sucked in a breath and got pine and loam. “Oh my God, I just smelled your wolf, didn’t I? That’s so cool.”

The flash in his gaze sent a shiver through her, and she had to ball her fists to keep from touching him. Damn it, she had to not be fascinated. No. She needed to remember two things. One, he left her life without even a word, and two, her best friend was missing and in grave danger.

“I’ll help you, but I have a price.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Are you serious? Never mind.” She grabbed her bag. He took her hand and turned her to face him.

“You don’t even want to hear my offer?”

Sighing, she gave him the get on with it hand sign.

“Dinner. After we go to the rest stops. Let me take you to dinner. Let me get to know you again. Catch up. It’s been…”

“Twelve years. It’s been twelve years. And there’s no catching up. That’s over.”

She knew him well enough to understand the set of his shoulders meant the discussion was not closed. But whatever.

“We’ll see. Come on. I’m going to have one of my people come along with us so more than one of us has the scent. Then I can send them north.” He began to gather his things with one hand while he shoved another sandwich into his face. On most men it would have made her cringe a little. But this one managed to make it look sexy.

Figures.

Why couldn’t he have lost all his hair or gotten a huge beer belly? Why did he have to look so damned good?

He escorted her out, his hand at the small of her back. She quickened her pace but he did as well, keeping contact. “Hold up a moment. I need to speak to my people.”

She could have suggested she meet him downstairs, but in truth she wanted to see how his operation worked. It wasn’t as if she had regular dealings with the werewolf pack structure. Or werewolves at all.

They had a sort of magick too, she noticed as they entered a large room with several desks occupied by large men. Lots of large when it came to werewolves, apparently. They all came to attention when Josh entered the space, gazes straight to him, waiting.

“Who has some open time to help me with a tracking project?”

“I’ve got some.” Tall, dark and gorgeous stood, tipping his chin in Josh’s direction.

“Great. Damon, this is Michelle Slattery, she’s an old friend and a cop from Roseburg. She’s here tracking a missing woman, a witch we think has been taken by mages.”

He took her hand, engulfing it in his, and she wasn’t a tiny woman by any means. “I’m happy to help however I can.”

“Bring GiGi with you. I want everyone working with a partner until we’re clear of this mage business.”

A tall blonde approached, smiling at Michelle as she thrust a hand in her direction. “Nice to meet you.”

“Meet me at my place in forty-five minutes. We’ll leave from there.”

He spoke quietly with another guy for a bit and then turned back. “Ready?”

Once they got to the elevator she spoke again. “I have a car.”

“Why don’t I follow you to your hotel and you can drop it off and we can drive together?”

“I don’t have a hotel yet. I came straight here. I might go north after we go to those rest stops today. I need to keep moving.”