one of them to be us discussing who you’ll put your life on the line for in the future, since you’ll be mine first.”
Mine first…the words echoed in my mind. I knew I had wanted things, important things, but for the life of me, at that moment, I couldn’t think of anything I’d ever wanted more than to belong to Avery Rhine.
“I would like to see you before dinner this evening,” I told him, realizing that it was very early in the morning at this point, and neither of us had been to bed.
“Dinner?”
“Your family and mine are convening for cocktails at seven and dinner at eight, to make arrangements for our mating ceremony—our wedding—but also to meet.”
“Oh no, we can’t do that until the investigation is––”
“I must insist,” I broke in quickly, wanting to make certain the next time I slept in my bed he was with me. “While I appreciate the fact the police must investigate all crime, we both know when you find the murderer, that person will be punished by their alpha. This won’t be a matter for the human courts. The attack was perpetrated by one lupine on another.”
“Yeah, I know, but––”
“Then there’s no reason for us not to move forward.”
“We should wait.”
“For what?” I asked gently. “Truly? For what?”
He had no answer.
“Avery,” I said hoarsely, “I want my mark on you.”
“Yes,” he rasped, and I knew I had him.
“Now tell me, if Remy has a master list of the omegas he mistreated, would you want that? Would that be of help to you?”
“That would be amazing,” he breathed out.
“Hold on,” I said, and walked quickly back to Remy’s room, my phone pressed to my chest. One of the officers held the door open for me, and I was at his bedside in moments. “Do you have all the names of the omegas? Is there a master list?”
“Yes,” Remy whispered, his face ashen. “It’s in my safety deposit box with the hard drive.”
“Which bank?”
He told me.
“There is a list,” I reported to Avery, crossing the room to the window. “I’ll send my brother for it when the bank opens and have the list and hard drive delivered to you.”
“But it’s Remy’s box, how will––”
“I’m a cyne,” I reminded him. “I have access to the possessions of everyone in my holt.”
He chuckled. “Privacy laws will catch up with the wolves, mark my words.”
“Perhaps,” I agreed. “But not today.”
“No,” he conceded, and I heard the smile in his voice. “Not today.”
I got his email address, stressed how much I was looking forward to seeing him later, and then, even though I didn’t want to, I let him go. I then called my brother back.
“You scared us,” he told me. “You never hang up. You always make us aware of your anger, and it takes weeks to––”
“I’m sorry,” I muttered. “I’ll work on changing that.”
Long silence.
“Stone?”
“I’m here, and I need you to tell me, what were you doing the nine or ten times I tried to call you back?”
“I called Avery, and he had an excellent idea.”
“You…you called your mate and—Gigi,” he yelled, thankfully not into the phone, “he called his new mate.”
“Stone,” I barked.
“You should see her,” he mused, and there was a trace of pain in his voice. “She’s been scrunched up on the couch, waiting, certain that when you did call back you would hit her with both barrels.”
“I…” What did I want to say?
“Yes?”
“I don’t want to attack her.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Well, I’m terribly glad to hear it,” he announced dryly.
“I hate you,” I assured him.
“Yes, I’m aware.” He sounded thoroughly smug, but somehow, from him, it wasn’t annoying. “So let me see if I understand. This new mate of yours, this omega, has a terribly calming effect on you that resulted in you and Gigi not clashing, me not being thrown in the middle of it, and he had an idea you seem partial to. Are those the facts in evidence?”
He was a lawyer, so he got a bit high-handed on occasion, but he was right. I was the leader of my family, what I said became law, and Gigi, who belonged to my holt through her mating, did not always agree with me. Our rows were epic, we were both alphas after all, and Stone almost always ended up stuck in the middle of a ruthless game of tug-of-war. It had to be exceedingly difficult on him, and while I loved him, it was in my nature to win. That same need was instilled in