Blaze, page 30
More footsteps and ceramics and glass clanking against each other are the only hints as to what is happening.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Alden.” The man’s voice who had threatened to call the cops apologizes to Cade. “Please, sit down. We will handle everything.”
It’s not until Cade sits at the table that Finn turns back toward me, his hand never leaving mine.
He sits down, pulling my hand back into his lap. Finn swaps hands, never losing the physical connection between us, and wraps his arm around the back of my chair. His proximity sends warmth all the way across my shoulders. Finn gently strokes where his hand rests on my back.
“Well, that was eventful.” Darren picks up his coffee cup and goes back to business as usual.
Thalia reaches her hand across the table to me. “Unfortunately, you get used to it. Even if you don’t want to.”
I extend my free hand to hers, and she squeezes mine twice before we let go.
We’re being watched. My wolf panics, directing my attention back over my shoulder. I look quickly, no longer caring if it seems peculiar for someone to be so on edge in such a high-end restaurant.
This time when I look, there are, in fact, two new people behind us, watching us. Millie and Adam of Corinth Security are sitting at a nearby table. Adam gives an untrained wave. Millie smacks his hand and rolls her eyes at me.
“Why do I let the tech guys into the field?” Cade asks rhetorically, evidently seeing the exchange.
“Because you can’t actually lock them in dark basements, they need sunlight?” Thalia questions.
“Because it’s against the laws of the Geneva Convention?” Finn offers.
I sigh and give the most logical answer. “Because Millie likes him, and you’ll do anything to keep Millie happy.”
Cade nods with my answer.
“Tell me about my next-door neighbors? My little cabin down the hill and floor mate at the apartment building?” Darren is quick to change the subject.
I explain that Nikki moved into the city apartment, and Thalia explains the updates on his cabin down the hill from the house, including his new neighbor there, Miss Gertie. Darren is excited to hear more about her as she’s the woman who gave the directions on how to find Thalia when she was abducted.
Knowing about her, I stop listening and find myself leaning closer to Finn. Done with our meal, he wraps his arm around me again.
“I love you, faolan,” he whispers.
“I love you too.” The words practically fall out of my mouth with how easy they are to say. It’s ridiculous that here, now, after all this fucking time, it happens so effortlessly.
The restaurant manager insists our meals are covered, and despite Cade giving his best Midwestern argument, he can’t get the final word. He goes into his wallet and pulls out a stack of cash, and we squint back and forth as he tries to calculate it out.
Darren asks at a whisper level, “Are you going to tip the cost of the entire tab?”
Thalia rolls her eyes at him.
Cade shrugs. “Least I can do for the trouble we caused.”
On the other side of the large windows surrounding the restaurant, people with cameras and cell phones are waiting at the front.
My toes squirm in my shoes, and I cling to Finn’s arm.
“Easy, faolan,” he murmurs, the softest Alpha command soothing me.
But we’re scared, my wolf whines, and I let it out for him to hear.
“Cade, this place has to have another door?” Finn asks quietly while pretending not to watch the entrance.
Cade turns away from the main entrance to look at us. “Yeah. Maybe the three of us out the front with Millie and Adam, you out the back with Michael, and we’ll regroup down the block.”
Finn picks up my hand and kisses it. “Let’s go, faolan.”
I follow Finn through the restaurant to what looks like a second exit. While Finn flags the manager, I lean back to see through the front glass windows. Cade and Thalia step out into the small crowd of reporters. They part barely enough for them and Darren to walk through. It looks like hell. Fuck that.
Finn gets permission to take the fire door to a hallway that leads out back into an alley.
Something about being outside is calming. I squeeze Finn’s hand, and he trades it for wrapping his arm around me. It’s warmer here than back home in Minnesota, but I still wish I’d brought a jacket to breakfast. But with his arm around me, I’m warm enough.
“Lena!” An Alpha command hits me hard. “Look over here.”
My wolf whines as I fight the command, but it’s pointless. I turn to look over my shoulder, back toward my name being called, and a flash of a camera goes off.
Finn snarls, stepping between me and the asshole with the camera.
Heart thundering in my chest, I reach into my purse and pull out my phone.
“I knew it.” The reporter, a wolf, laughs. “How long have you two been pretending to be mates? Is it just an arranged mating? Why isn’t there any formal intention placed?”
The way he rattles off questions . . .
The connecting call rings and rings.
Finn is snarling. His fingers twitch as he fights for self-control against the urge to fully protect me from another wolf. “Back off, it’s none of your damn business.”
I hold onto the back of his suit coat, trying to keep him close to me.
Pick up, pick up, pick up. Cade’s not answering his phone.
“You okay, Lena?” The reporter asks the strangest question.
I angle my head only far enough to see the top of his head around Finn’s arm before pulling myself behind Finn again.
“That’s what it is, isn’t it? Cade’s sold you to Ireland,” he accuses.
Finn stands between us still. He’s snarling but not making any further moves. I hang up my phone and shove it back into my purse.
My wolf growls.
“Magnus making money selling women now that Finn’s not there? Or is it just that they started the business with you?” The reporter taunts.
The. Audacity. Of. This. Bitch. Releasing Finn’s coat, I move to step around him. “Listen here, you slimy mother fucker.”
I’m too slow. Finn moves faster, and in a series of quick motions, the jerk’s phone is knocked to the ground, and his camera strap is used like a noose around his neck, holding him slightly off the ground.
“To quote my mate, listen here, you slimy fuck.” Finn misquotes me, but I’ll forgive him. It sounds more intimidating coming from him anyway. “You’re going to forget you ever saw us in this alleyway. You’re going to forget everything you’ve come to know about us. You’ll go home, have yourself a nice day off, and then tomorrow, you can come and chat with us at the interview event with all your reporter buddies.”
What will that solve? I bite my tongue.
“Did I make myself clear?” Finn arguably lets him down to stand on his toes with a very small threat.
The imbecile keeps smiling. “Awfully touchy on that subject. Must be true.”
The camera strap tightens again around his throat, this time lifting him completely off the ground. With the upward trajectory, Finn snarls and shakes him. I see worry cross the paparazzo’s eyes.
He can and will kill you, asshole.
“Finn!” Cade’s voice echoes in the alleyway. Then, with a growl, he adds, “Put him down.”
With a snarl in the reporter’s face, Finn drops the camera strap. The wolf and the camera attached to it land on the dirty pavement.
Cade runs his hand back through his hair before approaching. Thalia and Darren aren’t with him.
“You go the long way out of the building, manage to lose Michael, and find a reporter,” Cade observes, The Leviathan lighting up behind his eyes.
“I know everything. I know her secret.” The reporter gasps for air.
“You know what you have assumed,” Cade says. He picks up the cell phone that had previously been dropped and pockets it. He ignores the reporter and addresses us. “Unfortunately for him, no matter what he publishes under his own assumptions, it won’t matter.”
Finn growls.
“I know,” Cade answers his growl and sighs. “But even being a wolf and even though threatening my Second and my Alpha Female are capital offenses, I’m not in the mood to defend us against whatever storm his newspaper, blog, media, bullshit, whatever it is he works for, will bring for killing one of their lapdogs.”
I’m frozen in place while my wolf is frantic inside. Afraid if I move, she’ll take over. The reality of what just happened seeps in.
“You okay, Lena?” Cade asks.
He’s not looking at me but rather looking at the reporter struggling.
“I have Finn, I’m fine.” I don’t feel fine. I feel dirty and violated having someone else command me like that. But I choke down those emotions. It wouldn’t have happened without the broken bond.
“Well, that settles it.” Cade takes the camera from the reporter and opens the memory card slot. He dumps it into his hand before flipping through the settings on the camera. “G. Nelson, it’s nice to meet your acquaintance. Tomorrow, if you’d like the physical phone back, you can pick it up from Corinth Security. If not, have a good life. You’re not invited to any Ardelean events, so I wouldn’t bother trying.”
The camera makes a beeping noise and powers down.
Cade hands it to him and looks at Finn. “I don’t care what Magnus’s people need to do to defend her honor. But that’s our official stance on it.”
Finn huffs. He turns to me and shakes his head, frustration written in the tight muscles of his neck and shoulders.
I pull out my phone and dial. Today, I don’t want to be an Ardelean. I want to be an O’Brien.
“Hello, next Mrs. O’Leary,” O’Connel’s voice answers.
“Hey, O’Connel, The Hellhound has a problem. I’ll send you some details.” I smile at Finn.
He runs his tongue across his teeth but draws a big sigh and tries to let it go.
Chapter 54
Finn
I’ve never walked away from a threat like this before. That arse implied that my mate is a victim of trafficking. My. Mate. For everyone’s sake, I’m holding it together as best I can, and sitting in the backseat of the Corinth Security SUV, I try to let it go.
It’s been nearly twenty minutes and my wolf is still pacing inside me. Go back and kill him.
“Hey. Michael?” Lena asks from next to me.
She’s still on edge but Magnus had called her shortly after she sent a message to O’Connel and that soothed her nerves quite a bit. While she’s remaining hypervigilant there seems to be less fear coming from her.
“Hey, Lena?” the man, who is mostly silent, answers her with a smile.
She looks at me and then back at him. “Can you get clearance from Peter for us to do an unsanctioned activity?”
“You want me to go over Cade’s head?” Michael asks.
Lena swallows hard before forcing out the words. “Yup, we need to go mini-golfing.”
I look at the clock on my phone, and there is actually time for it, it’s probably for the best since she’s going to be crammed in a room full of people this evening.
Michael presses a button on the steering wheel, and in one ring, Peter picks up. “Go.”
“I need special dispensation to take Lena and Finn to an unapproved secondary location,” Michael says quickly.
“Reason?” Peter prompts.
“Preventing murder?” Lena talks over Michael.
“Cade’s gonna be pissed you’re going mini-golfing,” Peter says knowingly.
“What Cade doesn’t know won’t hurt him?” Lena offers. She rolls her eyes at me.
There’s a groan from Michael in the driver’s seat.
It takes Peter a moment, but he does eventually give in. “Fine. One game. I’ll send another team in plain clothes.”
“Thank you!” Lena beams and relaxes back into her seat in the SUV.
I don’t question her. I just loop my fingers into hers and hold her hand. Michael diverts, and we’re two blocks in the opposite direction when my phone pings.
Cade Alden:
Have fun mini-golfing. Lena doesn’t know I know. Let her get away with it.
The indoor mini-golf course, like the one she took me to in Minnesota, is . . . interesting. While there’s no overchlorinated water scent, the optical illusion paint makes my wolf question reality, and it’s not my favorite. We’re on the ninth hole, and I’ve either vastly improved or this course is easier than back home.
“You feeling better?” Lena asks after I make the putt, and it goes in the white cup.
Pulling the ball out of the cup, I look up at her. “Me?”
She nods, raising an eyebrow. “I know going to visit the pack and your people is kind of the thing that puts your weird, calm Finn-ness back in place. But it’s not like I could bring the pack to you. So . . . I just went with what works for me.”
Lena rolls her red golf ball around in her hand.
When it comes to taking care of me sexually, Lena has always been dedicated. She has that deep rooted submissive nature that ensures it. But here in this moment, when it comes to us as a mated pair, all previous doubts are gone. Lena is actively choosing me in her plans but further than that is making plans to take care of me as her partner.
“It wasn’t you preventing yourself from murdering anyone.” I nod, now understanding.
Lena smiles. “Precisely.”
“Him commanding you . . .” I don’t even have the words for it. “Fuck Kathleen. I’d taken advantage of the protection my mark gave you. I didn’t even —”
“Yeah.” Lena interrupts me, “When you were trying to sell me on this whole idea of us together. You could have led with that.”
“Faolan, you expect me to believe that you would have accepted us so easily if I would have said that?” I raise an eyebrow questioning her.
“Oh, absolutely not. But . . . it would have been a better selling point than ‘safe place’ was.” She rolls her eyes. Her wolf rises and after biting her bottom lip she changes the subject, “Let someone else be the big bad scary for a little bit. I don’t know, are you old enough to retire?”
The cheeky look on her face has me stalking toward her. With a yip, she darts down the little stairs to the starting point of the next hole.
I catch her and wrap my arm around her waist, pulling her closer to me. Nipping along the side of her neck makes her shiver in my arm.
Lena draws deep, ragged breaths, and I give her a little growl. “I don’t know. If I retire, it just gives me more time to run your life. I might like that.”
Her body presses back against mine, and her heart beats faster. I spin her in my arms to look at her beautiful face. Her pupils are dilated, and she wets her bottom lip.
“Good girl, faolan.”
The praise has her cheeks flushing.
“Make your putt, Kathleen.” I indicate with my club toward the hole.
Deviously, she bites her bottom lip. “Yes, Sir.”
Self-control is quickly becoming scarce today. My cock twitches in my jeans, but I force back the delicious thoughts of how I want to take her right here and now and give her a minute.
Lena is right. I trained O’Connel well. He can handle the reporter. Today doesn’t have to be spoiled by one man’s actions.
Our little mate knows us well. My wolf nods in agreement, settling inside me for the first time since the reporter at the restaurant.
Chapter 55
Lena
I’m standing in the gallery of the Smithsonian. The. Smithsonian. And three of my canvases are hanging on the wall. My name is hanging on the wall of THE Smithsonian. I squeeze my hands into fists to stop myself from touching it. It’s been two weeks, over a hundred hours of work, and four short days of nerves waiting for this moment. And now I’m standing here looking at a big white wall with three frames hanging next to each other. My family — Cade and Thalia, Me and Finn, and Deacon — immortalized in their frames. The feeling is overwhelming.
“Do these look right, Ms. Alden?” the curator asks.
I should remember his name. I’ve been introduced to him twice, but my brain is fried, and I’m a little overemotional.
“They look fantastic. No damage from transit.” I nod, looking at the edges one last time.
“Excellent. Well, I’ll give you another couple of minutes, and then the gallery will open.” He gives me a brief nod before heading back to the cocktail party.
And I’m left standing in the gallery, seeing the entire room of shifter-created artwork put together for the first time. Alone with all the art, I turn and let my eyes roam the room. The rest of the paintings, sculptures, lithographs, intricate beadworks, and photographs hang on walls and are set in cases around me. I can’t believe this is happening. In less than two hours, hundreds of people are going to be coming and walking through here. They’re going to look at all of this art and, hopefully, see that we’re not all that different after all.
The door to the gallery clicks again. And I don’t have to turn to look.
Finn. My wolf and I recognize the familiar feel immediately.
“They look beautiful, faolan.” Finn’s footsteps draw nearer.
Spinning on the balls of my feet, I turn back to look at my trio again. The perfectionist in me wonders if I could have cleaned up some of the lines better.
“Thank you,” I answer as a lump forms in my throat.
His strong hand comes to rest just below the mid-point of my back.
“I lied to you, Kathleen,” Finn says softly as he plants a kiss on the top of my head.
My wolf whines. No. You can’t be right. He can’t be rejecting us. You’ve done everything right.
Her panic matches my own. I tried to prepare her for this, but evidently, I’ve failed. I step away from him.
