Once Upon a Shifter (63 page)

"Was she okay after, you know… what happened today with Dana?" Roel said.

Phoenix smiled as the memory of their evening played through his mind. "Yeah, she was real good after that. We were both doing swell, Roel." Phoenix winked at him.

Roel rubbed the back of his neck, blushing a little as a sheepish grin spread across his face. "I was wondering why I had a raging hard-on earlier. Guess that explains it. But, uh… y'all don't seem to be fine now. What happened?"

Phoenix frowned. "I fucked up, and then her wolf came out to play."

Roel's eyes bugged out. "No shit? Did she try to attack—?"

"Shhh…" Phoenix said, when Daryn glanced over at them. "She didn't turn, asshat. She just took over. That's her in Mena's body now."

"Are you serious?" Roel whisper-shouted. "That's her? How long has she been in control?"

Phoenix shrugged. "Twenty minutes or so. She took over right after Mena and I got into an argument because I made her second in command over my pack and she found my closet half-stocked with women's clothing in her size."

Roel blinked at him a few times. "Damn, and I thought Daryn was dumb. You should win an award for 'Biggest Douchecanoe of the Year' or something. What the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I care about her and I wanted to do something nice for her, Roel. I'm not good at this sort of thing."

"What the hell is wrong with flowers?" Roel piped back. "You've only known her a freaking week—less, even. I know what you need. You need a night out with the guys. We'll help you out, bro."

Phoenix rolled his eyes. "Aren't you single?"

"Pfft! Yeah, but only because I wanna be. I'm immortal. Chicks don't get that, ya know. They either think I'm crazy when I tell them or they get all clingy and freak me out." Roel shuddered. "I do okay. I'm not lookin' for anything permanent. Picking out drapes ain't exactly my thing."

"It wasn't my thing last week," Phoenix mumbled as he shouldered the sling of a rifle.

Roel snickered. "You're falling for her, aren't you?"

Phoenix's head shot up and he glared at the werepup. "Shut up, Roel. I'm not falling for her. I just like her… a lot," he said, and then started walking toward the others.

Phoenix heard Jaxon's motorcycle before he saw the headlight and rider. Mena had been right, demoting Jaxon and putting her in his place had royally pissed the guy off, but it hadn't stopped him from showing up and having his back. Mena didn't want the position anyway, but Jaxon had had a few too many mishaps of late. It was something Phoenix needed to think about for longer than five minutes, and it wouldn't hurt the guy to brood a while, so he shoved it to the back of his mind.

Jaxon nodded to the others as he dismounted his bike, and Phoenix passed around introductions.

"We're just going to talk to the witches tonight. If we luck out and get a location, we're only going to scout and see what we're up against, so think before you act. Do not do anything unless Mena or I okay it. Everyone should pair up, so find your buddy now in case we need to split up later." Phoenix's gaze fell on each person present, skipping over Rhodes and Mena's wolf, to make sure they were all doing as he'd instructed. When he got to Daryn he pressed his lips into a hard line. He didn't know who had told Daryn of their plans, but he did know that he wasn't letting the little shit out of his sight. "You're my buddy."

Daryn opened his mouth to protest, but Phoenix shot him a disgruntled look that said 'disagree and you go home'.

Ignoring Daryn's malicious glare, Phoenix opened the passenger door of Brad's Suburban and got in. There weren't enough seats for everyone, and Phoenix knew from the sound of approval coming from the cop's throat exactly where that bitch wolf was sitting.

Alex was keeping up small talk with Mena and, every once in a while, she would giggle or whisper or sigh. He didn't know if the wolf was doing it on purpose, but it was grinding him in a bad way. If it wasn't for looking at Mena's face when he did it, he would choke that bitch until her face turned blue, let her get a breath and then commence to repeat the process of strangulation until he forced the mutt out of Mena's skin.

Interrupting one of those irritating giggles, Phoenix cleared his throat. "Mena, if we have to split up, you need to take Jaxon and Roel with you," Phoenix said, and the cab of the vehicle went totally quiet except for the low hum of the Chevy's engine.

"Alex is my partner," she said matter-of-factly. Phoenix looked over his shoulder, shooting her a death glare. She smirked at him. "He's coming with me."

"I assumed that already," he said shortly. "The extra protection was for him." He let the 'not you' go unsaid.

"I can take care of myself," Alex said, frowning as his focus moved back to Mena, "and you."

Mena grinned as she looked back at the cop. Phoenix groaned silently as he turned back to look out the windshield. "I know you can, baby," she said, "but maybe an extra person or two wouldn't hurt. It could get really dangerous tonight."

"It's one person trying to kill you, Mena. I've been trained to take down more," Phoenix heard Rhodes say.

"Uh, well…" Mena began, "…eight members of the group I run cut all contact and went missing after Marc was murdered and I became their leader. One of the girls was dating a guy that died in a car accident that same night. We think it's possible she may have gone a little crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the one who murdered Marc and caused Chris's accident to happen. We think the other seven are siding with her and are out for revenge."

"Revenge?" Rhodes said, stunned. "But why? I wish somebody would tell me something. Let me in, Mena. I'm here, and giving up everything I know for you and this insane hunt."

A breath of air expelled from Mena, and Phoenix knew what the wolf was doing; she was baiting Rhodes. "I would, Alex, honestly, I would, but it is still too soon for you to know everything. You have to be one-hundred percent committed to the group to get in, and you aren't even close. If I told you everything now, you would leave, and possibly turn us all in, but that would only be because you wouldn't understand. I promise when you understand, you will stay. It's worth waiting for. In the meantime, we at least have a lead on Katie's killer. Hopefully these witches know what they're doing."

Alex nodded once, seeming to buy every lie that escaped her mouth. "You should think about becoming an investigator, Mena. You really have a nose for this kind of stuff."

"You have no idea just how big that snout is," Phoenix muttered to himself, but thankfully no one was paying him any attention.

Phoenix pulled the cell phone from his pocket and typed out a quick text then sent it to Mena's phone. He smiled when he heard her phone ding, alerting her of a text message.

Very smooth. You keeping up with all these lies or are you making Mena do that for you, Wolf? Is that your real name or would you rather I call you Bitch?

He waited for her reply with a stupid grin on his face, knowing she wouldn't be able to let him get the last word in. His phone vibrated in his hand a full minute later, and he looked down at the screen, instantly seeing red. Damn, he wanted to be rid of her.

Call me whatever you like, but nothing will stop me from moving in with Alex after the meeting with the witches is over. You screwed with the wrong alpha wolf, Bloodsucker.

Phoenix tossed his phone on the dash then balled his hands into tight fists. Brad shot him a nervous look from the driver's seat, but didn't bother asking what his problem was; he already knew.

Mena

I was actually relieved to have my wolf take over for a while. It gave me time to think, and I prayed she was distracted enough by the detective that she wouldn't listen in on my mental vomit.

Privacy was a luxury I no longer had, and damn, did I miss it.

The wolf avoided looking at Phoenix. The good thing about that was it gave me the space I needed to think without the distraction of his presence that always seemed to keep my head in the clouds, but the bad thing was I was being forced to look at Alex Rhodes. However handsome he may be, I wasn't interested, though I supposed that was a good thing, since I had my own issues to work through.

My wolf was relentless as she flirted and chatted cheerfully with Alex. It was a bit humiliating to see, first hand, her flaunt my body shamelessly in front of the others, but I knew she was only doing it to get under Phoenix's skin.

The text she had sent back to Phoenix bothered me. Moving in with Alex was an even worse idea than moving in with Phoenix. I understood that I was in danger, and that my house wasn't safe, but I was really tired of everyone making my decisions for me. Staying with Phoenix wasn't really even a big deal to me anymore. It was just a shock seeing that he had moved me in with him without asking what I thought about it first. Who does that? Definitely not men who claim they will never love you. It had to be a control thing. Phoenix had been in control of his clan for over a century. If an order was spoken from his mouth, they did it without question. What did I have to do or say to get it through his thick head that I wasn't beneath him? A little respect was all I wanted. Was it really too much to ask that he communicate with me, ask my opinion on things instead of doing what he thought was best?

Maybe I could talk to my wolf about the living arrangements. We seemed to be getting along a lot better the last few days. She hadn't even barged in on my sexual encounter with Mr. Fabulous earlier.

I laughed when she rolled her eyes—or my eyes, rather; they were part of
my
body, not hers. I assumed the only reason she hadn't interrupted Phoenix and me was because she didn't want me to interrupt her when she finally got a chance to nail Alex. I really needed to figure out a way to sleep or turn my mental voice off when she was doing inappropriate things with my body. Being present when Alex was feeling me up or deep inside me wasn't something I looked forward to.

I suppose I had come to terms with the fact that she would always be a part of me. Friend? Yeah, that may be pushing it a bit, but I honestly didn't mind the company most of the time. She negotiated and compromised most things with me.

The sound of a throat clearing had my wolf's ears perking up in interest. As she glanced over my shoulder, I realized the sound had come from Jaxon. He was looking at me, expression wiped clean of any clue as to what he was about to say; I did have a hunch, though. He didn't have to come out and say it for me to know he was upset with his master for demoting him and promoting me—and that was pretty sad considering I wasn't even a vampire.

"How was your afternoon, Mena?" Jaxon said, the corner of his mouth rising into a cocky, mischievous smirk.

My eyes narrowed of my wolf's accord as we speculated what the vampire was plotting to do. It was going to get really ugly really fast if he outed that I and three of the other vehicle's occupants were of the canine species. Okay, we weren't exactly wolves, but we were closer to being one of those than the human sitting beneath me, now turning his full attention to Jaxon.

"I trust everything went well with Dana today? I saw her come in, but don't recall her leaving." He stared at me, eyes shimmering with amusement, making it bluntly obvious to me that he was about to reveal a large piece of the supernatural puzzle to my wolf's favorite human. I couldn't let that happen. Alex would bolt if he knew everything this early, and possibly try to have me committed. Jaxon had to know that. Phoenix would kill him—I gasped as I realized that he knew he was untouchable, to me or to Phoenix. He was linked to the seven of us, Alex's link being quite a bit weaker than the rest of ours was; he wouldn't actually die if the rest of us did. I didn't think he would, anyway.

"Dana?" Daryn said. "You saw Dana today? Did she try to hurt you, Mena? Why didn't you call me?"

Ignoring Daryn's unhelpful questions, the wolf kept her murderous glare locked on Jaxon's devilish grin. "She didn't stay long," my wolf challenged. "I'm sure you just missed seeing her leave."

"Are you kidding me?"
I shouted through my thoughts. If she thought she could win a battle of intelligence with a three century old vampire with that comeback, we were all fucking doomed.

"Jaxon," Phoenix said in a low voice from the front seat, but he didn't turn around as Alex glanced toward him. This was about to get nasty. "That's enough."

"She left with Heath and me," Brad said, the lie sliding off his tongue so easily that, if I hadn't already known better, I would have believed it myself.
"I could kiss you, Brad!"
I thought, triumphant, but the feeling of joy didn't last long.

Jaxon's brow drew down in false confusion, and then his expression seemed to shift to an 'a-ha' moment. "You're absolutely right, Mena! She must have left during the length of time I was in my room. You see, I was suddenly overwhelmed with sexual frustration—"

"Enough!" Phoenix shouted, and my wolf didn't have to turn and look to know he was turned in his seat and eyeing Jaxon, with that beautiful, chiseled jaw working under the skin in irritation at the other vampire.

"Well," Jaxon said, his tone turning softer, "I'm sure you can guess that I was a bit distracted for a while. It's quite possible she slipped out without my knowing. Do tell her I look forward to seeing her again soon."

My wolf and I both drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, relief flooding through our racing veins and easily keeping time with a heart that was beating way too fast. "I doubt any of us will ever see her again. Dana wanted to leave town. The recent events have made her feel unsafe, so she came to speak to me, hoping I would give her permission to leave the city. She didn't mention where she was headed, but she did say that she wanted to cease all contact with the… the group, until all of this blew over. She left her cell phone with me before she left." My attention shifted left, and the wolf briefly made eye contact with Daryn before seeing Jaxon's slow nod out of our peripheral.