Chapter One Hundred
The soft murmur of voices slowly woke her from exhaustion. She smelled apples, cloves and the conditioned leather of Graham’s Mustang. She felt soft denim against her cheek.
“How have things been tonight?” Graham whispered somewhere above her head.
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” a soft, male voice answered.
“When is the next patrol expected through?”
There was a pause. “Seven minutes and thirty-two seconds, Sir.”
“Good, good. Keep me updated,” Graham continued to whisper.
“Luna Rebecca and Alpha Jensen came through a little while ago,” the man said. Graham’s thighs tightened beneath her head. “Alpha looked a bit worse for
wear.”
Was that a chuckle she heard? What had happened to Jensen?
“Are you talking about Alpha?” a second voice asked.
“Yeah.”
“Is it true, Beta Graham? Did our future luna get the drop on the alpha?”
Graham’s fingers brushed gently through her hair. “I’m not sure what you heard. She and Jensen got into a tussle, but it’ll be resolved. Just a family matter. Not to worry.”
She heard a low whistle. “You got yourself a fiery woman there, Beta.”
“I sure do. Have a good night, Gentlemen. Stay vigilant,” Graham told them. She heard the engine rev and she fought nausea as he drove forward. “Careful if you try to sit up, Baby. You might hit the steering wheel.”
“How did you know I was awake?”
He chuckled softly. “How many times do you have to ask the same question? I know your breathing by heart.” His free hand continued to brush through her hair. She sighed and closed her eyes to relish the sensation.
“What happened to Jensen?”
His hand stilled for a moment before continuing. He worked at a knot he found near the nape of her neck. “What is the last thing you remember?”
Catherine tried to think but her mind was muddled. She attributed it to the trauma of the day. Her mind was trying to protect itself.
“You took me into the kitchen and sat me on the counter and… Um…” Catherine shrugged. “I suppose the adrenaline finally wore off.”
Graham chuckled. “No, I believe it was the exact opposite.”
“What do you mean?”
“You went into a haze, Baby. You shifted, attacked, and nearly killed your father.”
Catherine let out a harsh, sarcastic laugh. “Right. Little ole wolfy-me nearly killed a century-old Lycan Alpha. I never really noticed just how funny you can
be.”
“You’re right, wolfy-you might not have been able to touch him. But in your lycan form, you almost tore his arms off his body.”
“What?!” Catherine jerked up and knocked her forehead into the steering wheel.
“Ohh,” Graham hissed through his teeth in sympathy. “You okay?”
“Lycan?!” she shrieked, as she rubbed the bump forming on her head. “Did you say I shifted into a lycan?!”
Graham grinned. “Yeah!”
“That’s not funny, Graham.”
“No it wasn’t. It was a bit terrifying at first, but it happened.”
Catherine glanced out the window at the dark night passing them by. “How is that possible?” she whispered at her reflection.
“Lucien seems to think it’s because of your genetics and your gift. Because you’re half lycan, mated to a lycan and going into a haze is a lycan trait… Well, when you were faced with such weighted emotions after reliving the trauma with Dominic, you shifted into the form that could best handle the situation.”
“I guess that makes sense? No, actually it doesn’t.”
“As much as anything else does when it comes to you, Baby. I’ve learned very quickly to roll with the punches when it comes to your talent,” Graham chuckled.
“Does this mean I can shift into both forms?”
Graham raised his shoulders. “No idea. We can experiment if you want…”
“No,” Catherine interrupted. She rubbed her temples. “No, not right now I just…” She took a deep breath. “Goddess, this is too much.”
Graham reached over and took her hand in his. He brought their entwined hands to his lips and kissed the back of hers. “It’s going to be okay.”
A comfortable silence enveloped them as Graham allowed her time to sort through her emotions. Catherine was too shocked and worn out from the days’ activities to try to solve all her problems before dawn.
“I forgot to check on Juno,” Catherine whispered. She gasped. “And Toma! Oh my Goddess, I just remembered. He’s mated to Chloe. Chloe. Where is she? Has someone found her yet?”
Graham sighed and his hand tightened on the steering wheel. “You can call Juno in the morning if you’d like. You can invite her to stay with us if you think it may help. Toma is riding with Lucas. He’s going to stay in Blackmoore lands and try to help us fight Dominic. We don’t need to rely on the magical council to intervene. With the stunt he just pulled, we have every right now to retaliate on our own without risking any treaties. As for Chloe…” He sighed again. “She’s a smart, strong witch. She won’t let herself be corrupted. I just know it. She’ll wait for us to come get her, just like you would.”
“What’s going to happen now?”
“We don’t need to talk about it now if you don’t want to. There will be plenty of time tom…”
“Graham, please?”
He ran his hand through his hair. “Well, to start, you’ll need to pick your training back up. Every day.” He gave her a look as if there was no arguing the matter. “I asked Rebecca to hold off on your luna training for now. That can wait. Muriel will be here in a few days and he’ll probably want to meet with you every day too. Plus…”
“What about my work?” Catherine interrupted.
Graham gave her a nervous look. “Baby, look…”
“No.”
“I think you should take some time off, just until…”
*No. I need to work. Unless you want me to lose my mind, I need normalcy, Graham. If all I’m doing is beating up your friends and fine-tuning my gift I’ll lose my mind,” she warned.
10
Chapter One Hundred
Graham took his hand from hers. Both hands now white-knuckled the steering wheel. “I need you to be safe, Catherine.”
“So are you going to put off doing your Beta duties to help me prepare?”
“Well, I can’t do that.”
“Mhmm.” Catherine folded her arms and glared out the window.
Graham sighed. “Okay. Fine. But you can’t be doing twelve hour days anymore. Maybe you could just work up until the dinner prep at 2? Then you can do training in the afternoon. Does that work?”
Catherine thought about it for a moment. The new wolves she’d hired were doing an excellent job. But Mable was potentially moving with her mate, leaving a huge gap in the supervisory department. Betty could manage a lot of it but not every single afternoon. Mary could help but she was supposed to be retired, she couldn’t lean on her forever. Catherine groaned and leaned her head back against the headrest. She couldn’t think properly. There was too much whirling around her mind.
“Fine, I’ll figure it out tomorrow,” Catherine relented.
“You sure you don’t want to take a day or two to rest and…” Graham glanced over and shut his mouth when he saw her glare of warning. “Nevermind. Don’t go all Lycan on me,” he added with a laugh to break the tension.
Catherine sighed. “Don’t test me. So I guess I’ll talk to the girls in the kitchen tomorrow morning and get back to beating Theo up by 2:30.”
Graham chuckled. “That’s my girl.”
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