Chapter 38: Isabelle

Isabelle would have offered to sit up all night and keep an eye on Damon but none of the shifters thought that was a wise choice. Tara had woken up after Joey came into the house and shouted at the sight of a rival pack member bound on the couch. When she rushed into the living room and saw them all standing there, she crossed herself.

“Tara,” Cormac said, palms facing her, “trust me that this is not what I wanted to happen.”

“This is Damon, yes?” Tara asked, pointing at the kid who had started crying again and was hiding it as well as he could by shoving his face into the cushions.

Isabelle’s head turned towards Tara. “You know him? Cormac wasn’t even sure who he was.”

“Pack member of Maxine. Not related to ‘er by blood though.”

“But Wes is,” Damon muttered through his prostrate position. “And her family blames everyone here for what happened to her.”

“How do you know him, Tara?” Joey asked. Isabelle wouldn’t take her eyes off of him. He made her nervous, and the fact that he was nearly naked didn’t put her at ease. He kept pacing back and forth, staring down at Damon with angry, hungry eyes. It was the look she had seen on Cormac’s face before he pushed her to the ground and fucked her like an animal in the dust but on him, it made her weak in the knees. On Joey, it reminded her that she was at the mercy of everyone else there.

“I take care of ‘im when ‘e was a little boy,” Tara explained, coming closer to Damon’s side. She crouched down. “When Cormac and Maxine first got together.” She laughed. “I liked ‘im because ‘e always liked my cooking.”

Joey circled around to the back of the couch so he could loom over Damon without looming over Tara. She might have been small and old but he wouldn’t dare be disrespectful to her. “He’s got information we need, Tara. We gotta do what we gotta do to get it.”

For the second time that night, a finger flew into Joey’s face. Tara’s jaw was set in a tight little line. “Not in my ‘ome,” she ordered, sharply. “No one gets beaten or tortured in ‘ere.”

Isabelle sank into the shadow of the hallway and slipped into her bedroom. The entire night had put her on edge more than she had anticipated. It was one thing to be in danger; it was another to wrestle with the fact that she was being set up and manipulated by a man in charge of her career. She had suspected for some time that he hated her but she never thought he would go so far as to try to get her killed. If nothing else, she had to be ready to bolt. She had to be ready to take off at a moment’s notice.

As she packed the rest of her clothes and equipment, she became aware of a soft, earthy scent, almost like leather. She lifted her head to see Cormac standing in the doorway watching her.

“I can smell you,” she said softly, touching the tips of her fingers to her nose. “I knew you were there.”

“You’re leavin’?”

Isabelle looked down at the half stuffed suitcase. “I’m getting ready in case I have to.” She brought her sights up to him. “Aren’t you the one who said that I should run if you say run?”

“I’m worried there’s no place safe for you to run to.”

Isabelle zipped her bag up then sighed and sat next to it on the bed. “I’m not going anywhere, Cormac. I...I want to see how this ends.”

“What if it’s not a happy ending?”

Isabelle didn’t miss a beat. “There’s no happy ending if I run either. If Wes is out to kill us all, he’s not going to let me just go about living my life. I’ll have to leave Denver, find a new job.” She rubbed her temples and leaned forward on her knees. “Jesus Christ, I’m about to freak out.”

“If you think you should leave-”

“I don’t.” Isabelle sat back up. “No, I don’t. I’m a journalist. I can’t just walk away from a story.”

Cormac sat next to her, rested his hand on the top of her thigh. Isabelle wanted to sink against him, the two of them relaxing into the bed and drifting off to sleep so they could wake up next to each other in the cool gray of dawn and pretend they didn’t have a care in the world. She was tired but couldn’t sleep; she was frightened but had no other options but to sit and wait.

“The kid says Wes is on his way here,” Cormac told her, his hand tightening on her thigh. “We don’t know if he’s coming to the ranch or not but we gotta be ready.”

“How do we get ready?”

The way Cormac looked at her, she knew what he was about to say. She tried to stop him before he could but it didn’t work. “You and Tara gotta get outta here.”

“Cormac, no. We’re in this together.”

“I can’t risk one of ya gettin’ hurt.”

Isabelle slinked closer to him. She let one leg fall over his, and turned his face towards her. “We’re not going anywhere,” she said, softly. Their lips touched just barely. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“If something happens to you…”

Isabelle quieted him by kissing him again. His hands clutched at the side of her shirt, desperate and worried but happily succumbing to the embrace. The pads of his fingers moved to her skin, made marks on her back.

“We’re bonded, right?” Isabelle breathed as Cormac’s hands traversed her body.

His mouth contacted and bit into the side of her neck. “Yeah. We’re mates now. A pair.”

“So I can’t leave anyway.”

Cormac pressed his weight to her and pinned her against the mattress. He hovered over her for a second then exhaled and kissed her gently. “I need to keep you safe, Isabelle. Because we’re mated.”

“That’s all it took, huh? One hard fuck in the dust and we’re linked for life?”

“There’s more to it than that but now’s not the time.” Cormac lowered himself so their faces were lined up. The light in the room was off but Isabelle could see how deep the worry in his eyes ran. “We’ll have time after this. I promise we will.”

The sound of the phone ringing in the kitchen caused them both to jump. Cormac sat upright, and Isabelle got to her feet, staring straight ahead, not moving. They listened as Tara picked up then called down the hall for Isabelle.

“The phone’s for me?” she asked, her eyes meeting Cormac’s.

“Yes, and ‘e says it’s important.”

Isabelle went to the kitchen where Tara was standing, her hand over the bottom piece of the phone. She held it out slowly for Isabelle to take, and Isabelle stared at it for a long time as if she didn’t dare touch it. Finally, she cupped the phone between her hands, holding it awkwardly away from her like it was toxic; like it was a bomb threatening to explode at any minute.

“Wes?” Isabelle asked into the mouthpiece.

“What a good guesser you’ve become, Isabelle.”

“You’ve got something else to say to me? Or are you just calling to fuck with me?”

She heard Wes laugh. It froze every part of her, turned her blood to lead. “Listen to me, Isabelle,” Wes started, his voice pure gravel, “I’ve got a message for you little boyfriend Cormac. Would you be a doll and pass it along for me?”

“What is it, Wes? Just tell me then leave me alone.”

“Naturally, sweet heart. That was the plan.” He hacked until his voice sounded moderately more clear. “Tell your lover boy that I’ll do him the favor and meet him somewhere away from that shit hole ranch of his. You and the old lady can sit around there, safe and secure, until my pack has won and head over to rip you apart. Sound alright to you?”

“You don’t stand a chance against him,” Isabelle said though even she heard the weakness in each word. She was tired and faltering; Wes was needling her to make it all the worse.

“Pass the message along, Isabelle,” Wes said before he hung up and she was faced with the piercing repetition of the disconnected tone. “And make sure he’s there first thing in the morning.”

As Isabelle hung up, she smelled the scent of leather and knew Cormac was in the kitchen. She didn’t face him; she just sighed, her shoulders slouching forward.

“What did he say?” Cormac asked.

“He says he wants you to meet him at that cave. First thing tomorrow.” Reluctantly, she turned. Joey and Tara had joined him too, waiting to hear from her mouth the conversation they had all been able to listen to. “He says me and Tara can stay here-”

“And ‘e called me old,” Tara muttered.

“But you’ve got to go meet him.” Isabelle slumped against the wall, her hand resting over her eyes. “Then he says they’ll come to the ranch after they beat you and tear me apart.”

“We won’t let that happen,” Joey said.

Isabelle was surprised that he was suddenly so kind to her but she figured he could tell that Cormac had mated with her, and decided that now he had to be nice. He went back to the living room and stood alongside Damon.

“So now you can let me go,” Damon whimpered. “I don’t know anymore than what I told ya. There’s no reason to keep me like this.”

“Collateral, kid,” Joey said.

“What?!”

“You’re what we hang onto in case something goes wrong.”

Damon made a soft crying noise. Isabelle almost felt bad enough to let him up but then she remembered what was at stake: herself and Cormac and this entire world that managed to stay alive below the surface.

“We have to get ready,” Cormac said from the kitchen. Joey’s head slowly lifted; Isabelle could see when they made eye contact, locked and communicating like animals in the wild.

“What else can we do right now except sleep?” Joey asked, then he motioned to Damon. “And keep an eye on this one.”

“I can do that,” Isabelle said.

Joey snorted. “We’ll keep watch in shifts.”

“No, Joey, she’s right.” Cormac stood between the two rooms, his hand resting on Isabelle’s arm so gently she hardly felt it. “We need to be rested for tomorrow. We can trust Isabelle to do this.”

“It’s not a matter of trust,” Joey shot back. Isabelle could tell he was avoiding looking at her.

“I can ‘elp,” Tara offered. “The two of us can watch ‘im together.”

“It’ll be a long night for the both of ya,” Joey said but he didn’t argue further. He started towards the door to head back out to his cabin, stopping in front of Cormac as he went. “We’ll crush ‘em, cuz. I promise you we will.”

“We’ve gotta,” Cormac responded.

Joey gave a cursory nod to Isabelle before stepping outside. A howl followed soon after his exit, and Isabelle’s eyes searched for the source of the noise.

“That was him, right?”

She wanted to be strong and brave in the face of danger. There were plenty of situations where she had had to think fast and keep her wits about her. Each time she had lived to tell about it but this was worse, much worse. She didn’t want to be helpless; she didn’t want to be someone at the mercy of the circumstances but she had no other option.

“Let’s get ‘im comfortable and secure,” Tara said, pulling Isabelle out of losing herself in thought and towards the tied up kid in the living room. “We ‘ave to make sure ‘e’s not in pain but also not able to escape.”

“Just point the way, Tara,” Isabelle told her, trying to sound like this was all the most normal thing in the world. She followed her into the living room, glancing over her shoulder at Cormac just once as they got to work untying and retying Damon. The sound of the screen door swinging open yanked her attention away from the task at hand but when she looked up, the only difference was that Cormac was gone, and it was just her and Tara and their unlikely hostage waiting for what the next day would bring.