Chapter 16
Gavin
A strange sense of relief hit me now that I had Billie. The moment when I’d stood in the clearing and announced, “I claim Billie as part of the Grandbay Pack,” had swept a weight off of my shoulders.
But what surprised me most was how at ease I felt with her here, now. It was like having Aislin in the cabin but … a gentler one, with none of the sharp edges. Well, maybe not none. The anger in Billie’s expression, as she stared into the flames and thought about David Hexen, had hardened her face. Her high cheekbones and the soft feminine curve of her jawline looked fierce in the firelight as she stared into the flames.
Speaking of which, the fire was beginning to die and needed another log. I got up and went to the basket by the hearth, picking up a log from the top. Chucking it onto the fire, the movement made me wince as I’d forgotten about my still-mending shoulder.
Billie’s voice sounded, “The injury’s still giving you pain?”
I shrugged. “It doesn’t hurt when I’m in wolf form,” I said. The evening my wolf had broken out of my control and gone for that dragon—the wound had been deep. It was taking a while to heal completely.
As my gaze landed on her, and I saw the compassion in her soft eyes, I was touched, especially given how much she had on her mind and how badly injured she’d been tonight. A pressure started behind my sternum, and suddenly, my chest felt too full. Protectiveness stole through me, and my heart lurched at the thought of what David and Catrina had put her through.
The memory of her silken skin beneath my palm in the clearing tonight and how good it had felt to lay my hand on her in such a dominant way sang through me. My wolf rose up, the temptation to claim what was his bristling over him. Heat stirred in my stare as I thought of how pretty she’d looked in the clearing tonight, too. I may have been engrossed in defending Billie and claiming her as part of my pack, but I’d have to have been blind not to have noticed her graceful, slender figure. Combing my fingers through my hair, I pulled my gaze away from her and shook away the heat stirring in my cock.
“I have a few files on the Rathbones’ disappearance,” I said gruffly, returning to the armchair by the fire. I met her green eyes again, which were filled with drive. “I’m going to go through them again and see if I find any new avenues to pursue.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Gavin.”
My gaze slipped to her mouth as I realized that was the first time I’d heard her say my name. My unruly thoughts went back to imagining her saying it more. Except her tone was needy and wanting as my lips and tongue traveled down that soft, silken neck, and she begged for more.
Realizing it was time to shift my attention to work, I said, “You should get some rest.” Then, worry whipped through me. Was I supposed to put her up? In one of the guest bedrooms, of course.
But once again, my thoughts wandered into the gutter, playing out how good her smooth, naked body would look laid out on my bed. Another roil of heat shot straight to my groin.
Thankfully, Billie said, “You’re right, I’m knackered. I’ve been fantasizing about Gretel’s guest bed since she mentioned it.”
A smile spread over my face as I thanked Vana that she didn’t know where my fantasies had been over the last few minutes. I showed her out, wishing her a good night’s sleep and watching until she’d got safely into the Mundy’s place before I closed the door.
Opting to ignore whatever had been going on with my chaotic emotions, I turned my attention to my pack’s issues instead. I revisited evidence gathered from when my parents were murdered, as well as evidence gathered from the recent dragon attacks.
As I poured over the evidence, I hunted for any links that could tie the Rathbones to the Dalesbloomers. I wanted to find a link between the Rathbones’ disappearance and David. But as time wore on and my hunt produced no new leads, I frustratedly switched my focus to examining the accounts from the night my parents died.
As well as the reports from the pack that night, I read through my own and the packs’ accounts of the fights with the dragons we’d had recently. I perused the accounts written by my packmates about the night we’d rescued Muriel and Billie, as well as my own summary of the evening I’d first encountered the dragons at Pine Creek.
At least as I lost myself in the files, my thoughts were so absorbed in the task at hand that Billie’s green eyes and soft curves didn’t invade my thoughts. Finally, the one success I had was in finding a link. A description of two of the dragons in the pack’s reports from the night of my parent’s death tied with my own description of the female and male I’d fought in the clearing the night we’d protected Billie and Muriel.
Triumph beat through me as I read the report of an eyewitness, Oslo, my Beta, from the night my parents died. He detailed glimpsing three dragons fleeing the scene. A prickle of confidence stole through me as I read about the large female with pinky lilac-hued scales and a male with green scales. My heart started to hammer as the intuition that this clan now in the Gunnison area, whom Muriel had identified as the Inkscales, was the same one who had been here four years ago … and was responsible for my parents’ death.
Hope beat through me. If they were back in the area and they were hunting Muriel, it couldn’t be long before our paths crossed again. For the sake of my pack, I didn’t want to come up against the Inkscales again, but the thought of getting answers about my parents’ deaths, which had so far been denied me, made me wish to see those dragons again.
Finally, when exhaustion swept over me, I collapsed for the night. But the descriptions of the dragons meant my dreams were uneasy and full of beating wings and blinding fire.
It felt as if I’d just fallen asleep, but I woke to light streaming through my bedroom window. Someone was banging on my cabin door. I hauled my weary bones out of bed and opened the door.
I blinked in the harsh light, realizing I’d slept in much later than usual. Then again, I had been up reading through reports until who knew what ungodly hour.
Aislin stood there, dressed in running gear. Her jaw was gritted, and her whiskey-hued eyes hard.
“What’s happened?” My thoughts hurtled to Billie. “Is Billie okay?” I demanded, my pulse rocketing.
She quirked a brow but assured me, “She’s fine. Still in bed.”
And just like that, my mind was full of feverish thoughts, picturing her lying on my bed again.
But Aislin very much knocked me back into the present as she announced, “Dad wanted me to tell you he had word of a Dalesbloom packmate turning up dead this morning.” She locked her gaze with mine. “Joseph turned up dead in the woods.”
Catrina’s sadistic voice echoed through my head. “I told him that if he ever came near me again or told anyone about me featuring in his Moondream, I’d kill him on that stump.”
Shock crashed through me. She’d followed through on her threat. Catrina had taken her fated mate’s life. My jaw locked with rage. But the thought of Billie tucked up in the Mundy’s cabin soothed me. Tension unwound as I thought of her so close, and a wave of need pitched through me: to keep her safe and … close to me.