Caged, page 14
The frost in Emma’s voice caught me off guard. She didn’t sound anything like the woman I’d met earlier that year. And as my eyes took in the woman standing in the doorway, I realized she didn’t look the same either.
Emma had saved my life once, when she’d shown up in the nick of time to help me escape a dream shard a sorceress had sent after me. She’d also figured out her lover and her coworkers were Otherworldly beings long before they’d thought she could handle the information. Even though she’d been crying the first time I met her—upset over the near-death of someone else’s dog—I had never doubted for a second that Officer Emma Morison was a force to be reckoned with. An ally anyone would be grateful to have on their side.
She didn’t look like an ally now. Now the ranger’s dark eyes were hard, and her brown skin pinched around her mouth and eyes. She looked like a woman who’d been broken into a million jagged pieces, a woman who’d taken those pieces and soldered them back together with nothing but the heat of her own fury.
As if she felt the weight of my attention, Emma turned to look at me. The glitter of amber in her irises indicated her wolf was close to the surface. She was still new, her control wouldn’t be that good yet.
“Ms. Renard,” she said, in that same icy tone. “This is an unpleasant surprise. Have you come to collar someone else? Ruin another life?”
I jerked back as if she’d slapped me. “My choices aren’t the ones that led to Stephen being collared. And as far as I can tell, his life is far from ruined.”
Emma’s mouth twisted, baring white teeth that looked too pointed for a human mouth. “Just following orders?”
A flash of pink caught my eye as Kristine crept into view behind Emma, her hands clasped in front of her and worry tracing a deep crease between her eyebrows. She shrugged helplessly.
“No one is poisoning anyone.” Liam took the last page of the report from the printer and shuffled the papers together. “You’re perfectly safe here, Emma.”
Emma tensed at the sound of her name, as if he’d insulted her. “Kristine says you think Stephen is up to no good. As usual, you’ve misjudged him. If you don’t believe me, you can search our room. We have nothing to hide.”
“I’m not accusing Stephen of anything.” Liam’s face was a perfect mask of composure, but the wrinkles on the pages in his hands betrayed his death grip on the paper.
“Kristine told me you have some concerns about Stephen’s plans to start his own pack,” Emma said, taking another step inside the room. “I can understand why that bothers you. You’re mad we’re leaving, and you’re furious because no one told you.” She took another step, and her voice lowered until she was almost hissing at him. “You won’t be able to boss Stephen around anymore, or try to force him to be something he’s not just to satisfy your own standards. And you can’t stand losing control.”
Liam took a long, slow breath. A gold shine passed over his eyes like a gauzy curtain. My stomach twisted. Liam’s control was usually a lot better than that.
“Emma,” he started, fighting to keep his voice calm. “Stephen will be a strong alpha someday. But that day is a long way off. Starting a pack is not the same as leading a pack. He’s not ready, and if he doesn’t realize that soon, then he’ll learn the hard way. Like you did.”
Oh, that was the wrong thing to say.
Emma’s eyes widened and her hands closed into fists at her sides. Her spine ratcheted tighter, pushing her upright in a motion that lifted her chin an inch higher.
“You are so smug,” she hissed. “But if you were half as good a judge of character as you thought you were, then you’d know where your sister was. You’d know what she was going through.”
Liam’s skin rippled. My breath caught in my throat, and for a second I didn’t breathe. He rolled his shoulders and took a slow, deliberate step toward Emma. “Do you know where Brenna is?”
Emma looked down her nose at him, an impressive feat considering their height difference. “If I did, I wouldn’t tell you. Brenna is an adult woman, and if she doesn’t want to talk to you, then it’s her right not to. I’ve seen how you treat your pseudo-son, I can only imagine what it’s like to be your kid sister.”
I never saw him move. One minute, Liam was standing by the printer, facing Emma with the forced calm of a brave man before a firing squad. The next he was in front of her, the reports in a chaotic paper trail on the floor behind him, one hand closed around Emma’s thin wrist.
“Uh-oh,” Peasblossom whispered, cowering behind my neck.
“When did you last speak to Brenna?” Liam asked, his voice strained with the effort not to snap the delicate wrist bones like a couple of matchsticks.
The righteous anger that had protected Emma a second ago flickered, the quickening of the pulse in her throat revealing a flash of fear. She hesitated, but when she spoke, her voice was strong. “Two weeks ago. Monday. She was having a hard time after having a fight with St. John, so I sat with her.”
Liam blinked, and for a split second his mask fell, his pain bared for all to see. “She told you about St. John. About finding the pills, making the connection to Kevin?”
His moment of vulnerability gave Emma’s bravado the opening it needed. She jerked her wrist out of his hand and he let her go. “Yes. Brenna was there for me when I got here—when you ripped Stephen and me apart—and she listened to me cry about leaving my dogs behind. My dogs that were my family, the dogs you wouldn’t let me bring with me.”
Liam’s mouth twisted into a snarl, and he leaned closer to Emma, fury sparking in his eyes in specks of gold. “Fine. You want your dogs here? I’ll have them brought over now. You can take them to your room, let them visit with werewolves still mastering their control. I’m sure they’ll be fine. Ask St. John.”
Emma’s jaw tightened. “You could have let me stay at home with them. Brenna would have stayed with me if I really needed someone there.”
Liam nodded, the movement too fast, the look in his eyes too wild. “All right. Go then. Go home and I’ll have your dogs sent over. I’ll have the person I personally arranged to care for them—so you could have them back when you were ready—bring them over.” He stepped closer, moving into Emma’s personal space until a harsh word would have made their bodies touch. “And when you wake up in the morning sitting in a pile of furry, bloodied limbs and wondering why you have a full belly, you can cry to Stephen about how much you wish you’d stayed away, and how you’d give anything to have them back.”
Emma’s eyes were wider now, her lips parted in horror. She swallowed hard, then gagged, as if Liam’s words had triggered a vision she’d had before. As if she could taste what he’d suggested.
“Which one do you think you’d eat first?” he whispered. “Nova? Crash? Aro?”
I didn’t realize my mouth was hanging open until I looked at Kristine and found my horror mirrored in her own expression. St. John was right. Liam wasn’t behaving like himself. No wonder Ruth had told him to hide. If he was this cruel to Emma for sniping at him, then what would he have done to the man he blamed for his sister’s disappearance?
“Emma?” I said gently.
The ranger tried twice before she managed to look away from Liam, stepping back slowly, as if suddenly afraid he’d attack if she moved too fast.
“Emma, becoming a werewolf probably seemed very different when it meant staying with the man you loved,” I said, keeping my voice calm. “I have no doubt that the reality was very different. Scarier. Harder.”
Emma looked at me, scrabbling for a lifeline. “It wouldn’t have been like that if he’d let Stephen stay with me. It would have been different.”
“It wouldn’t have been easier,” Kristine spoke up. “I’ve counseled many, many new shifters, and whether or not they had a loved one there to help them through, the adjustment is always difficult.”
Confusion creased the skin between Emma’s brows as she stared at Kristine. “I thought if he’d just let Stephen stay…”
Kristine shook her head. “No.”
Emma’s shoulders fell. “I wouldn’t have hurt them,” she murmured finally.
“You aren’t human anymore,” I said firmly. “They wouldn’t have recognized you at first. They’d have smelled wolf, and thought you were a danger. And for a new werewolf, it would only take them growling once, or even showing weakness. You’d have eaten them.”
Emma looked like she was going to throw up. The abrupt slump in her posture seemed to have appeased Liam somewhat, and his eyes were once again an unimpeded blue, the veins no longer bulging in his temples.
“Emma,” Liam tried again. “Has Stephen ever mentioned Adrian Varca? To you, or to St. John?”
“Why don’t you go ask Stephen?” Emma asked, her voice sullen. “Or is it too hard for you to treat him like a person? Is he just a criminal to you now, a big disappointment?”
It was obvious she’d heard and said the words before, many times. They smacked of a mantra, an emotional conviction she’d no doubt learned from Stephen. She squared her shoulders, and the glint of defiance returned to her brown eyes.
Liam shoved a hand through his hair, tightening it into a fist before releasing it. “I’m sorry the circumstances around your turning were what they were. And I’m sorry you don’t understand my methods. I will sit down, and I will explain them to you, if that’s what you want. But it will have to wait until I know my sister’s okay. Until I know why she was at the murder scene.”
“I don’t want your explanations,” Emma snapped. “Stephen has already answered my questions, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s all bullshit. I’m sick of hearing about hierarchy. I’m sick of hearing about how Stephen was punished—beaten—because he dared to lie to his alpha and no one is allowed to lie to the alpha. And I’m sick of hearing he had no right to turn me. That was our choice, his and mine, no one else’s.” She straightened her spine. “Shifters aren’t just animals, they’re human, and they should act like it. Stop using a dual nature as an excuse to live in the Dark Ages.”
Rage lit Liam’s eyes, and his muscles tensed. But before he moved, before I could even form the coherent thought to stop him from doing something he’d regret, Blake’s growl trickled into the room.
“Ignorant woman.”
I blinked as Blake stepped into view in the doorway. Sonar followed at his side, her German Shepherd eyes on Emma. I wouldn’t have thought a dog could look disgusted, but Sonar pulled it off.
“When this is over, you and I are going to take a little trip,” Blake said, his voice low and unmistakably menacing. “I’m done listening to you whine. You want to see what other alphas are like? I can show you what they’re like. We’ll go see the Northern Pines pack. See what happens when the alpha isn’t dominant enough, when they don’t control their pack. Or maybe we can see the Blackhill pack, see what happens when the alpha really embraces dominance.” He shook his head, halting a few feet away from Emma as if he didn’t trust himself to come any closer. “You have no idea how lucky you are to have Liam as an alpha. An alpha who actually takes the time to fight for balance.”
“I should be grateful, is that it?” Emma snapped.
Sonar growled. Blake shook his head, but his eyes didn’t waver, didn’t move from Emma. “You’ll see. I’ll show you. When Brenna is safe at home, I promise you, I will show you.”
Uncertainty stole some of the confidence from Emma’s stance, and she shifted her weight to her other foot. “Dominance and exerting control aren’t the only ways to maintain order. Building strong relationships works too. Mutual respect works.” She glared at Liam. “But maybe that’s too time-consuming for you. Maybe it takes too much effort.”
“Emma,” Kristine warned, her voice higher with a hint of panic. “Now’s not the time.”
“I know this has been hard for you,” Liam said, trying one last time. “You’re a strong, independent woman who hasn’t had to rely on anyone but herself in a long time. These last few months you’ve felt out of control, and I know you hate that. I know you hate answering to a hierarchy in your personal life.”
“Don’t,” Emma warned, her voice a raspy and thin.
Liam leaned closer. “That desire you feel to submit, to find someone stronger to lean on? That’s normal for a new wolf. That’s your instinct telling you you’re not strong enough to defend yourself—yet. It will pass. You’ll find your strength again, it will just take time.”
A tremble worked its way through Emma’s body. It was hard to tell if it was anger or if Liam’s words were hitting their mark. Probably both.
“I had someone to protect me,” she whispered. “And you took him away.”
“Stephen isn’t your alpha,” Liam said, his voice quiet, but firm. “I am.”
The slap of Emma’s palm against Liam’s cheek cracked through the silence, sounding so much louder with the tension thickening the air.
Peasblossom’s grip tightened on my shirt, and I instinctively raised a protective hand to cover her. A surge of heat rolled over the room, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe.
Liam’s power exploded. One minute he was standing in front of Emma, his eyes wide, his body shaking as he fought to control his temper. Then suddenly his aura flexed, tearing apart and spilling all that hot energy onto Emma. Emma opened her mouth to scream, but the sound was lost as her body changed. The shift was violent and sudden, not a natural change from human to wolf, but a vicious turning inside out.
Peasblossom whimpered and I hushed her, making those nonsensical soothing sounds mothers made for small children.
Emma lay on the floor in wolf form. Her fur was a dark grey dusted with black over her back and muzzle. Her sides heaved as she fought to breathe through the pain, her eyes glassy, her tongue lolling out of her mouth. I watched her struggle to move, seeming as if she were pinned in place by the wild-eyed stare Liam had fixed on her. After a few feeble attempts to roll over, she finally gave up. Instead, she lifted her muzzle, baring her throat to Liam.
No one moved. No one breathed. Kristine clutched the doorway as if fighting the same urge to run that I felt, her eyes wide, shoulders hunched. Even Blake and Sonar held absolutely still.
“Blake,” Liam said finally, his voice hoarse.
“Alpha?” Blake responded immediately.
“Go with Emma. Search her and Stephen’s room for wolfsbane.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
Blake looked down at Emma, waiting to see if she could get up on her own. Emma huffed out a breath, then heaved herself onto her belly. Still trembling, she got to all fours, swayed, then took a step forward. Sonar came to her aid, offering support for Emma to lean on as she walked. Together, they followed Blake out of the room and down the hall.
“I’m going to go with them,” Kristine whispered. “Make sure she’s okay.” She didn’t wait for a response before bolting out of the room after the others.
Liam didn’t move for a long minute. I tried to look away, to give him privacy so he could pull himself together. But then that gold stare fixed on me, and I couldn’t have moved if I wanted to.
Chapter 14
My phone rang. Peasblossom had changed my ring tone again, so Irish rock blasted into the silent room. I didn’t answer it right away. Mostly because Liam was still staring at me, pinning me in place. I didn’t often get to see wolf eyes in his human face—his control was usually much better than that.
Usually.
My phone rang again. I still couldn’t look at it. Some instinct in the back of my brain warned me not to, warned me that you should never look away from a predator staring at you with that intensity. Not until you were ready to run.
“Hello?” Peasblossom said.
“Peasblossom?” Andy’s voice asked, his voice loud over the speakerphone.
“Of course it’s me. Don’t you recognize my voice?”
There was a pause. “May I speak to Shade?”
Peasblossom shifted, probably looking at Liam. “I don’t know.”
A shiver ran through Liam’s body, and he dragged in a breath with the effort of a man with his chest caught in a vice. I watched him gather the tatters of his self-control, forcing the gold from his eyes as he pushed his beast deeper inside him.
“You should answer that.”
His voice held the memory of a growl, a rumbling undertone that made my spine vibrate with little electric shocks. I thought my mouth moved, but no sound came out.
“Peasblossom? What’s going on? Is Shade all right?”
“Hard to tell,” Peasblossom answered slowly.
“What is going on?” Andy’s voice sharpened into the tone a cop used to get through to a panicking witness.
Liam turned away from me, his gait stiff as he walked back to the counter that held the printer. As soon as he looked away, the breath whooshed back into my lungs. I squeezed my eyes shut and counted to ten. When I thought I could speak again, I took the phone from Peasblossom, careful not to jostle her too much where she’d squeezed herself into the side pocket of my pouch to answer the phone. I fumbled to turn off the speakerphone before putting the phone to my ear. “Andy?”
“Shade? What’s going on?”
“I’ll catch you up when you get here. Did you find out anything?”
“I’ll catch you up when I get there too,” he answered. “Any luck finding Liam’s sister?”
“I need a food order sent to the conference room,” Liam said.
I glanced over to see him holding the phone from the counter beside the printer. He pulled it away from his mouth and looked at me. “Steak and fries okay with you?”
“Perfect,” I said.
“And honey!” Peasblossom added.
Liam nodded, then turned his back to us to finish ordering.
“Unfortunately, no, we haven’t found Brenna. Liam and I were just about to get something to eat. You want me to get you anything?”
“No, I’ll grab something on the way.”
“Okay. See you in an hour or so?”
