Chapter Eleven

“Easy,” Damon said when Grace backed away. She had the face of a girl who planned to run, and while they could catch her, chasing her down and grabbing her wouldn’t calm her at all.

A tremble started in Grace’s bottom lip, her eyes wide and frightened.

“Bran sent us.” Reese stood in the doorway of her bathroom. “He was worried something had happened to you.”

Grace’s backtracking halted as she drew her eyebrows toward one another. “Bran did?”

Damon pulled out his phone, found the number he needed and pressed Call. One more tap put it on speaker phone, and when a male’s voice answered, relief swamped Grace’s face. “We’ve found Grace,” Damon said, his voice soft. “Would you assure her we’re here on your behalf?”

“Grace?” The male’s voice came out frantic. “Oh, god, Grace, are you okay? I’ve been so worried.”

Grace opened her mouth, but the sound that came out was little more than a squeak at first. She swallowed hard then tried again. “I’m okay, Bran. You shouldn’t have sent them, though.”

“You ran off. I had no idea what happened to you. You took my gun, Grace—what was I supposed to think?” Even with the tone the alpha on the phone used, it seemed to Damon that he wasn’t aggressive. At least, no more aggressive than their protective instincts made them.

And Grace didn’t appear frightened of Bran.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, though she came no closer to Damon, didn’t attempt to take the phone. She seemed too hesitant about the alphas to venture closer. “I’ll explain everything when I get home.”

The back and forth went on until Grace made an awkward goodbye and Damon promised Bran to call him that evening.

It left Grace, Kara, Cullen, Reese and Damon in the dim, dirty motel room with far more questions than answers.

Grace sure didn’t seem the sort who would run off for no reason. In fact, she looked a lot like the kind of person who might get frightened by an especially menacing shadow. What could have sent her off on her own, breaking into labs and carrying a gun?

She wrapped her arms around her sides before meeting Cullen’s gaze. “I need your help,” she said.

What was it about an omega in need that never failed to land alphas in trouble?

Reese sat across from Grace in their hotel suite. They had a conversation that needed to happen, and the best place for it probably wasn’t in that filthy motel room. Her plane would leave in another four hours, giving them just enough time to get the full story before getting her back to Bran and out of danger.

She had her hands in her lap and wore a flowy skirt that reached her ankles, paired with an understated white blouse. Her blonde hair was French-braided back, then brought forward to rest over her left shoulder, making her seem perfect and demure. She looked just like she had in the photo Bran had given them, down to those eyes so amber they were almost yellow in the light. What he could see of them, at least, since she rarely met any of their gazes directly.

Kara sat in the background, on the kitchen counter with her legs folded, in perfect contrast to Grace.

“I’m looking for my friend,” Grace finally said, the words reluctant, as though she didn’t really want to tell the story.

“Who?”

She sighed, wringing her hands as she sat there. “Kash is Bran’s brother. He went missing about two years ago.”

“And you think he’s here? Why?” Reese sat beside Grace, though a large swath of space remained between them.

Finally, Grace met his gaze directly. “I worked at the small lab for Hythen Pharmaceuticals as an intern. The company is on the cutting edge of most omega and alpha hormone research. I was studying research on one of their newest concepts, the pheromone that’s been in the news, the one that can make omegas go into heat.”

Reese nodded as he recalled the drug, the one that in small doses could help alphas recognize omegas. It also had been used in the murder of a few omegas. While Reese understood the need for research into omega and alpha hormone regulation, he didn’t see much good coming from that particular drug.

At his lifted eyebrow, Grace continued. “The drug smelled like Kash.”

“How can you be sure?” Damon asked.

A flush on Grace’s cheeks answered that. So, even though she moved around like an innocent little doe, she at least had some feelings for the missing alpha. She traced the seams on her skirt as she answered. “He and Bran were my best friends—are my best friends, I mean. I’d never forget either of their scents.”

“Could it be a mistake?”

“No. As soon as I got close enough to actually smell the drug, I knew it. I got everything I could about it, well, everything an intern could access. They never talked about who their ‘donor’ was, but the files mentioned the drug having been created from live samples from an alpha with unique properties. It has to be Kash. Even the timelines match up. They started testing two weeks after he disappeared.”

“Unique properties?”

The question pulled Grace from her nerves, as though talking about facts and science gave her confidence. “Kash is what’s called a prime alpha. Alphas and omegas occur on scales, like anything else. There are always outliers. The few alphas who have higher levels of certain hormones and pheromones are called primes. They happen in about one in a million, maybe. For the drug to work, it requires a concentrated dose of a prime’s pheromones. Basically? Without Kash, they can’t make that drug.”

“Why haven’t we heard about primes before?” Damon asked.

“Because we didn’t have a name for them before. They’re still alphas—they’ll still show as alpha on tests. It’s only been in the last few years we’ve been able to quantify the hormones enough to identify them, to realize they are different on a medical level.”

He supposed it made sense. There were ranges to everything, so while some alphas fell low on those traits, there had to be some who ranked exceptionally high.

“Why didn’t you tell Bran? Wouldn’t he want to help if he thought his brother was being held against his will?” Cullen asked.

“He would, but he’d never have let me help. He needed me, because I understand the science, understand the labs. I know what I’m looking for, but he’d have made me stay home because he thought it was too dangerous.”

Which Reese understood. He didn’t want Grace within a state of this mess, either. The lab already knew she was onto something or they wouldn’t have removed her exam information. She must have sent up flags while at the lab, and that added some credence to her claims. She’d worried someone.

“I can pay you,” she said, voice desperate. “On top of whatever Bran paid you, I’ll hire you to find Kash.”

“You could be wrong,” Cullen warned. “What if he isn’t there? Or what if he’s there because he’s working with them willingly?”

Grace reached for her purse, which had been thrown on the couch beside her. With shaking hands, she pulled out a small picture and gave it to Cullen.

Reese caught a glimpse as it passed between them. Grace between two alphas, all of them a few years younger, all smiling.

“He and Bran were all I had, and he wouldn’t have left me without a word, not if he had a choice.”

Reese went to argue, to explain that people—men especially—could be unreliable even when people didn’t want to think they were. Except his gaze drifted to Kara as she sat on the counter.

He wouldn’t just leave her. Already, even after such a short amount of time, he wouldn’t have walked away without a goodbye, without explanation.

If that alpha felt even a fraction of what Reese already did, maybe Grace was right. Maybe something had happened to him.

Before he got the chance to answer, Kara spoke up from her spot. “We’ll take the job,” she said.

Cullen was glad Kara had no weapons, with the way she stared daggers at him after Reese and Damon had left to take Grace to the airport.

“What is your problem?” Cullen crossed his arms as he met the annoyed gaze of the blue-haired imp who was impossible to ignore.

“Problem? Me?” She flashed him a smile that was more teeth and snark than humor. “No idea what you mean.”

“You’re the one who just volunteered us for a job,” he groused. “I don’t think you get to complain about anything right now.”

“In case it has escaped your attention, the current job isn’t done yet.”

“The job was to find Grace. We found her.”

“I found her. And I still have a price on my head, thanks to you all.”

Which was true. It wasn’t as if they’d planned to run out on her after getting her into trouble. Still, it was the same as everything else with her.

She acted without thinking. She didn’t discuss anything with him, didn’t stop to figure out a good plan. She jumped in with both feet, having no idea how deep the waters might be.

She’d drown in those waters if she kept that up, and the idea tightened his chest.

Instead of focusing on that, Cullen stayed on topic. “None of that explains why you’re pissed.” Though maybe it wasn’t anger? She seemed to get worked up often, and Cullen’s gaze dropped to her tempting body as he considered the ways they could work off all that tension.

“Don’t even think about it,” she snapped. “If you’re hard up, why don’t you go pay Miss Perfect another visit before she takes off?” Kara waved at the connecting wall between the rooms.

Jealousy? The fact hit him so fast, he nearly lost the battle against laughing at the very idea. Kara didn’t seem to like him most of the time, so her being jealous tickled him in a way he doubted she’d find as funny as he did, and Kara had a mean streak if he pissed her off.

Cullen didn’t bother to fight the grin that spread across his lips. “Maybe I will.”

“Good,” she bit out. “I’m sure she’ll find you charming, and given she’s useless and so are you, you seem like a perfect match.” Kara turned to storm out, though where she was going, he had no clue.

Cullen caught her arm first. “You can’t be jealous.”

“Of course not. Why would I be jealous of her? What, just because she’s perfect and pretty and perfect and—”

“You said perfect twice.”

Her cheeks flushed and it stood out against the blue of her hair. “Just pointing out facts.”

“Is that all?”

She cast him a look so full of malice, he might consider locking his door when he went to sleep that night. He wouldn’t be shocked to wake up and find she’d cut pieces off him to sell out of spite. “Yep. Don’t flatter yourself, because it’s not like alphas are all that hard to come by.”

She was lying through her teeth and he damned well knew it. Even though he couldn’t spot her lies, her body couldn’t keep secrets.

“So why do you keep looking at us like you can’t wait for another shot? Like you’re starving for another taste?”

“Because you’re convenient.”

“Is that what all the other men were? Just convenient?”

Her gaze narrowed, as sharp as her tongue. “Yes.”

Cullen inhaled slowly, drawing her deep inside him. Her scent was even stronger, as though it called out, as if her jealousy had made it grow until she could claim him with it.

And despite how he told himself not to get attached, he still wanted to roll around in it. He wanted to walk away knowing her smell coated him, that anyone would know he had a mate.

Mate. The second the word entered his head, he yanked away from it as though it were a fire and might burn him.

He wanted a mate, yes, but not her. She’d never fit into the life he had planned out, never willingly remain safe and out of the way. She would push him constantly, fight with him over everything. He’d never have a moment of peace in his life.

It took him back for a moment, back to the horrors he’d seen overseas. How many times had innocents paid the price for others’ actions? How many bodies had he seen, where he had to face the reality of how evil people could be? If people who tried to stay out of trouble got killed, what chance did a woman like Kara have?

How could he live with himself if he couldn’t keep his own mate safe?

That meant no matter the pull between them, this went no further than whatever fun they could have until they finished the case. This had a time limit, and they all knew it.

That’s fine with me. The lie was ash on his tongue, but he still told it to himself. Maybe if he repeated it enough, if he remembered the corpses he’d seen in his life, he’d start to believe it.

Kara stared at him, her gaze too smart, studying him as though she could pick up each thought that passed through his head. “Let go.” The words were less a request and more a threat. He’d almost think his comments might have wounded her if he thought that even possible.

Cullen did as she said, not because he was afraid of her, but because each moment he touched her, it was more difficult to let go.

And he would let her go.

I have to.