43. Chapter 43
Chapter 43
Gage
“Are you sure it’s safe for you to fly?” Abby had her hands wrapped around my bicep, trying to slow me as I rolled our suitcase across the tarmac to Silver Bullet Security’s private flight accommodations.
For some reason, having a single suitcase to carry both our belongings filled me with a sense of pride. Maybe because I knew I was lucky she liked me enough to make “my stuff” into “our stuff.”
With the exception of that girly blue couch. That was hers. I wouldn’t get caught dead sitting on it.
My wolf, on the other hand, had no problem sprawling out on it so he could lay his head on Abby’s lap while she studied.
I’d only been in Doctor Singh’s care for three weeks, and Abby was already preparing to start her private investigator certification process and replace me.
“Don’t worry,” she said as she packed her laptop bag this morning. “You can sit next to my desk and look pretty.”
I made sure to remind her which one of us was the eye candy in this relationship.
Singh was stunned by my recovery. Everyone was. That wasn’t to say I was fully healed. My chest still felt tight, and shifting left a burning sensation that lasted for hours.
But how could I not heal with Abby fortifying me with her presence? She literally gave me life. I couldn’t remember how I made it this far without her.
“You didn’t seem too concerned about my recovery this morning.”
Abby blushed, glancing over her shoulder to see how closely Ezra and Kai were following behind us. “I was concerned about it this morning. If you’ll recall, I made you lie on your back, so you didn’t hurt yourself.”
“You didn’t make me do anything. If you will recall, I had my hand around your—”
“Gage!” She clapped a hand over my mouth. “You are so not joining the mile high club today.”
I snaked my free arm around her waist, pulling her to me in a stumbling kiss. “We’ll see how you feel about that when I’ve got my hand inside those tight leggings.”
“Get a room!” Kai shouted from behind us. To Ezra he said, “I hope they stock parachutes on this bad boy, or I’m taking a mile high dive into Canada.”
“What does it say about you, that you’re disgusted by love?” Ezra countered, wrapping a thick arm around Kai’s neck in a chokehold. “I think it’s cute.”
Kai ducked Ezra’s hold, punctuating his words with two quick punches to Ezra’s gut. “It’s not the love that disgusts me. It’s all the pheromones. Gross.” He hurried ahead of Abby and me, pinching his nose shut.
Ezra chuckled. “What’s he going to do in a pack full of happily mated couples?”
“Go live in the mountains with the Wildlings,” Kai called over his shoulder. “They might hump wildlife but at least they’re discreet about it.”
“You’re surprisingly modest for someone that purrs for anything with tits,” Ezra called back.
Kai lifted his hand over his head in a middle finger salute, yanking his suitcase up the stairs of the waiting jet.
Levi was already on board when we followed Kai in, still wearing one of his suffocating button-ups with a sleek pair of slacks. His golden watch gleamed in the afternoon sun pouring through an open window, catching the glowing blue of his eyes. When he saw me looking, he blinked away, staring down at a manila folder in his hand until the glow faded from his eyes.
He wasn’t excited to go home, and I didn’t really blame him.
For Levi, home carried two weights with it: Grief and responsibility.
There was no way to go home to Alaska without remembering the fathers he’d lost, and there was no way he was going to avoid the inevitable conversation with Mom about taking over the pack.
I’d heard her hinting at it more than once during her brief visit, and I got the feeling it wasn’t a new discussion.
There wasn’t much I could do for my brother. Being alpha was a weight that had to be carried alone. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t have me at his back. If it was time for Levi to return to Alaska and take on his father’s role, I would go with him.
We all would.
But Mom understood we couldn’t leave Seattle yet. We had unfinished business here. As much as I wanted to jet off into the mountains, answering the call of the wilderness and setting roots there, I couldn’t forget Mackenna. I couldn’t forget the look on her sister’s face when we told her the trail was cold.
I couldn’t forget Dallas’s scars or the cold brutality of Manchini’s pack as they went after my mate.
Whether Abby’s theories about Joseph Cargill were right or not, we had to find him and we had to stop him. Our work on The Initiative was useless if someone was using shifters like attack dogs.
Cargill couldn’t hide from us forever. I would find him, I would find the missing shifters, and I would get justice for them and for us.
Later.
First, I had to heal. I had to be so indestructible and unbeatable that no one would even think about coming for my mate.
And I had to give her a break. Take her to a family Christmas party, serve her hot chocolate as we watched the darkest night of winter roll in, and make her feel safe again. I couldn’t do that if I had a head full of death and revenge.
Abby settled into the seat across from Levi, smiling softly at him. He returned her smile briefly, gaze flitting back to me to make sure I wasn’t going to attack him for looking at my mate. We were beyond that phase in the bond—mostly—and it was a relief for both of us.
The whole possessive thing was novel, but I think Abby was getting sick of me clicking off the TV anytime a marginally attractive man under the age of sixty appeared on screen.
“Ready for your first pack holiday?” Levi stuffed the folder back into his leather bag, slipping it under his seat.
“Yeah. Super excited.” Abby crossed her ankles, clasping her hands together in her lap so tightly her fingers turned white.
I took the seat beside her, unlacing her fingers so I could hold her hand. “It’s like a big party with a bunch of people that keep drunk hugging strangers even though they’re stone cold sober.”
“Sounds fun.” She smiled stiffly, shrugging her shoulders in a gesture that was more scared animal than anything else. “It’s been forever since I’ve been to a good party.”
“Hey.” I stood, taking her with me. “Come see if there’s anything you need out of the suitcase before I put it in the back.”
I led Abby to the back of the plane, where a small door opened up to a storage room for suitcases and supplies. There were no windows in the room, and the small strip of LED lights overhead barely illuminated the space.
Abby gasped when I yanked her inside, pushing the door shut by pressing her against it.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she lied.
I tapped my chest, where I felt her discomfort blooming through the bond. “I thought we agreed we weren’t lying to each other.”
She slanted her head down, making eye contact with her toes. “What if your pack doesn’t like me because I’m human? You didn’t.”
“I did like you. That was the whole problem.” I tilted her chin up. “I’m the world’s biggest asshole and they like me—mostly. How could they not love you?”
“Why would they?”
“Because I love you.”
Her eyes glittered. “You do?”
“Of course, I love you.” I lifted her off her feet, tucking her legs around my hips and pressing my mouth to hers. “Now, about that mile high club.”
“We haven’t even left the ground yet!”
“I really don’t care.”
She squirmed when I kissed her again, laughing and swatting my hand away from the waistband of her leggings.
I set her gently back on her feet with a final, soft kiss. “You don’t have to worry about the pack. If it’s too much and you get overwhelmed, we’ll leave.”
“I’m not going to make you leave your family Christmas party!”
“It could be nice. There are some unused cabins on the edge of the territory. Like a vacation, just you and me.”
“A honeymoon. Do shifters go on honeymoons?” She smiled that sunshine smile and for a second my breath caught. She was mine . This beautiful, bright woman was mine from now until forever.
“They do now.” I laced my fingers with hers, opening the storage door and guiding her back to our seats.
“Thank fuck. I thought they were going to delay take off because you two were banging,” Kai groaned from across the aisle. He had his legs propped up, leaning back with a baseball cap over his face.
“We’re waiting for Mason, dickhead.” I kicked his feet off the neighboring seat so that he had to scramble to keep from falling.
“Not anymore,” Levi said, tucking his phone into the front pocket of his shirt as he strolled back to his seat from the front of the plane.
“Where is he?” Ezra lowered the book that was covering his face and blocking his view of Kai. Cat shifters were not morning people, and Kai was making that known.
“He has some unfinished business in Seattle. He’ll meet us there.” Levi sat, buckling his seatbelt, and signaling for the flight attendant to let the pilot know we were ready.
“Is that a good idea?” I asked. “I don’t feel right leaving him alone with Dallas and Cargill off the radar.”
“It’s important,” Levi said cryptically. “I’ve got him covered.”
I eyed my brother peripherally, meeting his gaze quick enough to come across as curious and not challenging. Levi nodded once, a firm command to let it go.
Whatever Mason was doing, it was either extremely personal, or extremely dangerous.
Maybe both.
Mason didn’t have the family problems that Kai did, or a history he was trying to make up for like Ezra, but there was something going on with him. He’d been distracted and distant since we took the Cargill job—before that, even.
Whatever it was, I could only hope he knew what he was doing.
“Hey,” Abby murmured, resting her cheek on my shoulder. “He’s okay.”
I nodded my agreement, though internally my wolf was alive with instinct. For some reason, I didn’t believe that was true.
“Yeah,” I answered, “I’m sure everything is going to be fine.”