Recovering the Siren Read online

  “I did pretty good,” I defended before meeting his eyes. “I messed with Jimmy to be a jerk back, but he didn’t push me away. You deserve a brother more loyal than that, Bri. His jealousy makes him act out, and that’s not okay. He should love you more than envy you.”

  “I hear you, I do.” He moved closer and squatted down. “We good?”

  “No, you’re a jerk,” I grumbled, reaching for my cake. “You invited more people and trouble for my party, then you get drunk and announce to everyone I’m a hot, naughty, dirty, and sexy werewolf and you want sex over your Ferrari.”

  “And on that note, I’m heading for the slides,” Dain chuckled.

  “Me too.” I didn’t want to fight or get upset. I wanted fun before the next round of crazy and crap. I stood and finished my cake on the walk, feeling Brian’s sadness. I didn’t mean to make him sad, and all I had wanted was fun and even hot sex in the forest, but he talked of forever and being with me always, and sometimes he was more closed off than I was.

  No, that wasn’t confusing.

  After we did a few runs, I saw a group of kids hounding Axel again. I went over and cheered to see the tiger as well. The look of retribution he gave me was priceless.

  “Fine, but I’m not getting naked in front of human kiddies and scaring them,” he said to them as he took my hand.

  I let him lead me off, trying not to chuckle. He moved me up against the back of the ice cream vendor so we were away from other eyes. He kissed me deeply and pressed his lips to my ear.

  “Someday soon I’m going to lick you all over and watch you squirm and orgasm from my tiger tongue. Then I’m going to thrust my leaking cock into your tight, perfect body, and then sink my teeth into your shoulder and fuck you like you’ve never been fucked before. I’ll torture your nipples and hit every spot inside of you while I do everything you never knew you wanted.”

  “What is with all the blunt dirty talk this full moon?” I whispered, staring up at him with wide eyes, wanting the picture he painted. “What brought this on?”

  “You promised you wouldn’t sleep with anyone council before me,” he said instead.

  I flinched, about to lose my temper. “So it’s about getting to screw me before Eugene? Well, he’s been making sure we have dates, not just plans for sex.”

  “Hey, that’s not what I meant,” he argued, reaching for me, and for the first time I smacked his hand away. “Sera, that’s not what I was saying. I want you. That’s what I’m saying.”

  “You want me first,” I whispered, my emotions swirling out on me between what he just said and Brian and just my fun day getting messed up. I was trying so hard, and still things were getting messed up. He reached for me again, and I pulled away. “Leave me alone.”

  “No, I can feel you spinning out,” he worried. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Sera. I missed you and I’m having—”

  I darted off. It was a brat move, but I didn’t want to hear he was having trouble adjusting to life past the council or whatever. I didn’t want to hear any more issues. I was drowning in issues half of the time, and all I had wanted was for smiles and fun.

  Was that really too much to ask?

  “It’s not my place, but I like you and you are a hard nut to crack,” Grammy Havers said as she sat next to me. “I didn’t catch all that happened, but you seemed to get extra upset after hearing Joan’s news.”

  I blinked at her a moment and shook my head. “No, that’s not it. Truly I’m happy for her. I never wanted kids. It only hurts to get immortality and the chance of kids taken away.” I sighed, wanting to be honest with Brian’s family because they kept bringing it up. “Queen Laila and Nina think they could help me if I ever want. So the door might not be as closed as the doctors think.” I shook my head when she went to ask. “This is an old issue with Jimmy.”

  “And you don’t want to talk bad about my idiot but loveable grandson, I get it,” she said gently. “He’s the baby and gets forgiven too much, but speaking as someone who had a perfect older sibling, it’s hard to grow up in that shadow.”

  I nodded, knowing I couldn’t understand that. I wasn’t sure what I’d say, but I heard something and tilted my neck to listen.

  “Sera, I need you,” Leo said quietly.

  “I’ll be back,” I told Grammy Havers and took off to where Leo was.

  “It’ll be fine,” a girl said as I reached them. “You get undressed and shift, and we’ll get naked too. It won’t be a big thing then.”

  “We don’t know you, and your parents work for Sera or Brian,” Leo replied cautiously.

  “They said no,” Ashley snapped. “Let it go and leave them alone.”

  “No one asked you, doggy,” that same girl shot back. “Everyone knows what female shifters are like, so just go hump whoever’s leg and leave us with the hot rabbits.”

  Relief filled Leo’s eyes when he saw me, so it wasn’t the first thing said or round of arguing.

  I moved closer, taking in the dynamic of three human girls who were Ashley’s age pressuring Leo, Ben, and Cory who Ashley was standing in front of protectively. I nodded to them I had this and focused on the humans. “Who are your parents?”

  “Whatever, let’s just go,” one muttered, pulling on the ringleader’s arm.

  “No, because you’re stepping in shit you don’t understand and it’s dangerous, so we’re going to go talk to your parents.” I held up my hand when they looked ready to argue. “We can do it quietly, or I can drag your asses out in front of everyone and announce I need your parents.”

  “You can’t start shit with the kids of agents just because you run the office,” she snapped at me.

  I moved in closer, intimidating her. “You were harassing an underage wolf and three children of the Alpha. I can hand your asses over to the Global Shifter Council as Alpha if I want. So do you want me to do that or have a talk with your parents so you understand how incredibly stupid you just were?”

  Two of the girls blurted out who their parents were, and I knew I could figure out the third from there. I nodded for the boys to follow me, holding off Ashley. She looked hurt, but I told her to go find Freddie and take a walk. She was seconds from shifting given the full moon, and that would escalate, not help the situation.

  “What is going on here?” one of the agents from Brian’s office I didn’t know well said as he went and stood by the ringleader. “What were your pack doing to my daughter?” He said it loudly and in front of a lot of people, so I mentally shrugged, not willing to keep it quiet now if he was going to make a scene.

  “I walked up on her and two of her friends saying if the boys got naked and shifted, they would get naked too, so don’t put this on my kids,” I seethed. “She also slut shamed one of my underage wolves, spouting shit that all female shifters are and to go hump someone’s leg. One, that’s just stupid to poke at a young shifter around the full moon, which we’ve told you guys, and hi, parent your kids in that.”

  “She wanted pictures of us as rabbits,” Leo added, and I nodded, knowing what the point was.

  “They are endangered shifters; do you get what that means?” I asked the girls, making it clear one of them should answer.

  “Answer Chief Thomas,” one of the other parents said firmly.

  “I just wanted some pictures for Instagram, as people still talk about them,” the ringleader defended. “It’s no big deal. You lied about all that shifter council stuff.”

  “Chief Thomas doesn’t ever lie about that stuff,” her dad argued, shaking his head. “People ask because bad people hunt rabbit shifters. You could have gotten them killed by posting pictures of them, especially shifted and tagging a location. This place is kept secret for a reason.”

  “And if you are the reason children of the Alpha or endangered shifter children are hurt or killed, you will be punished, and the sentence is death,” I told her, nodding when they gave me disbelieving looks. “There are strict rules to protect our kids because the danger for them is
real. Outing their location, posting what color they are or their information is absolutely something punishable, as you’re on private property.”

  “I wasn’t going to post their color,” she lied.

  “Don’t lie to shifters, kid,” I chuckled darkly. “Even the boys knew you were lying. You were going to get them to shift and take pictures for social media. Would the amount of likes be worth their death? Is that the kind of kid you are? It’s all about the likes and follows and nothing else is in your head?” I leaned in closer and growled softly. “There are outstanding offers for them. Did you want them for money?”

  “No, I just wanted to…” She trailed off, looking at her dad. “We were just going to—”

  “I think the rest of this should be in private,” one of the other parents muttered. “Thank you for telling us, Chief Thomas. We’ll make sure our daughter understands what she did.”

  I nodded, backing down. “Add in a lecture about slut shaming other women, and I’ll forget it happened.”

  “Oh, there will be several,” the woman standing next to him promised firmly. So that had to be one of the moms. “As the only thing worse than a man who shames a woman is a woman who shames other women.”

  “Amen,” I said, several other women agreeing. I turned to the boys. “You guys okay?”

  “That’s so not how I thought a girl would ever ask me to get naked,” Ben grumbled. “I’m going for cake.”

  I wasn’t really sure how to respond to that, so I was glad when Reagan waved me off and went after him. The rest of the party went off without any hiccups, and after it was over I was ready to crash.

  Instead, I had a movie date with Hagan, finally getting to the first Underworld movie like we’d said months and months ago. We snuggled together on the couch in my apartment and watched it on the huge TV with surround sound. It was honestly better than going to the theater because the snacks didn’t cost an arm and a leg, and I learned Hagan knew how to make the same artery clogging popcorn.

  It went well with the funnel cakes and tons of leftovers from the party, including huge slices of someone’s birthday cake.

  “Do you want to stay over?” I asked him when the movie was done. “I want to watch the second one, but I’m just so sleepy all the time still.”

  “Yeah, I’d love to stay over,” he said nervously. “Shower?”

  I nodded, wanting to get the sunscreen and sweat from the afternoon off of me before we crawled in bed. He ended up being ridiculously sweet and only kissing me and some fun touches even if it was still the full moon. Even crawling in bed naked he didn’t try for anything more than snuggling.

  I fell asleep with a smile, feeling like I was really back with the Hagan I’d fallen for, not the guy who had messed up or I’d misunderstood or any of it. It was just us and being together, and it was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

  12

  Wednesday came too soon, and even worse than the APA convention we’d not had enough time to really pull together as we wanted, there was another vampire attack victim found, so I missed greeting the Alphas and people. Awesome.

  It was the same as last time, four different vampires feasting on one person until they died. The difference this time was she was female and a vampire. Not one of our vampires or local, but vampires killing their own raised the level of stupidity, as that always brought more pissed people to the table.

  “Keep it under wraps for now,” I told Shaw as she walked me to my car after I’d checked the scene with them. “Pull her file and see what we can get. Check with Noah just to be sure, as there’s a chance Annis doesn’t know everyone Vlad had stashed wherever. Text me after that and we’ll go from there.”

  “Got it, Chief.”

  I headed over to McCormick Place and tried to get my head in the game. I wasn’t in a normal suit or dressed up, trying for a more relaxed and welcoming attitude as the FBI is known for being hard asses, which doesn’t go over well with paranormals who are laid back. So I had nicer jeans and boots with an official FBI shirt we were giving out to those interested in being recruited.

  It was the standard job fair deal, and we decided to go on the first day when people would want to get a chance to talk to me before other meetings or events. Our hope was they’d send some Betas to see if I was open to adding to our schedule and we might be able to snag them for the FBI.

  Hey, it was the best we had in so much crazy and lack of idea of what to do, as paranormals were so different than humans when it came to law enforcement or authority. Or really maybe not, but they were dismissive and afraid whereas most humans were just afraid. It was also my first time doing it since I’d always been undercover. Not good if you worked the FBI booth at recruitment events when undercover.

  Not if you wanted to live through it.

  And now I was the boss of the office and the face of the non-human division. It was nerve wrecking.

  At least I was armed in case there was a problem. That always made me feel more secure and that I had the situation in hand. Not that I’d shoot anyone if they were a jerk, but it made it clear not to screw with us too.

  I really hoped so.

  I parked and found the booth already set up, noting how great of a spot we had given it was my thing. People were still coming in and setting up, but a good portion had already arrived and got this was something serious, not blow off and bluster time. I saw a few Alphas look completely confused when they checked in and it wasn’t the normal receiving line of greetings and flexing muscles.

  And here we’d told them it wasn’t going to be like that. There was too much to get done and heavy hitters coming to pull that kind of crap. I would also feel better when Eva arrived. She’d come in quick during the beginning of my recovery to filter my blood and help me out but then had to go again. This time she was staying more than a few days, but I knew there was a lot going on in Greece with refugees and it wasn’t the time for her to be absent.

  Especially considering Melicent had agreed to handle New York and Newark packs for at least another six months for me. She was enjoying it and what she had going, but she was next to lead in Greece so she had a position there as well.

  Personally I thought she liked being the Alpha of NYC and Newark, as it was away from Alena’s shadow and she could have a bit of freedom beyond next to wear the crown. She and I agreed that she would send some people for the NYC booth but only what we didn’t already have in Chicago or it was just redundant, as it was all under me anyways. Still, one of her consorts came with a good showing and had their act together which was great.

  Cooper, Harris, and Davis were back with their temporary placements, but I had Remington backing me and Jennings there to talk tech with any geeks we could always use. Plus Dain with the other trainers coming later, as they didn’t have a new class yet.

  Hence the recruiting. The first group was a mix of those who really wanted to help and assholes who wanted the badge and to hide to do bad things. That was the smaller percentage, but we’d gotten into their lives and the bad they’d been up to, having guessed that would happen.

  It also spread rumors that working for the non-human FBI was a trap to find bad guys. Well, if bad guys were stupid enough to try and apply, yes, it was. But if people were on the right side of the law, they had nothing to worry about. That was the logic most seemed to miss.

  “So is the training hardcore or comprehensive?” a panther from another area asked as he came over to the booth. “It’s a lot of group training and pushing endurance, right?”

  I answered even if I thought it was sort of a weird question. I figured there wasn’t a good lead in or way to say that they’re worried it might be too much for them. He sort of nodded along and frowned before taking the brochure and walking off. There were several more like that, and I could tell Jennings was just as confused as I was.

  Axel came earlier than he was supposed to, but I assumed it was because things were still off between us. He’d apologized again and asked to talk, bu
t honestly until we made it through the convention, I didn’t have a spare moment to breathe much less have a relationship talk, which I never wanted to have.

  He growled at a hawk that asked the same sort of questions. “This is why no one takes birds seriously. You’re here to represent your area, not be that loser everyone rolls their eyes at. Grow up.”

  The guy nodded, shooting me a guilty look before hurrying off. I blinked at Axel, and he seemed just as confused.

  “Oh dear,” Dain muttered, shaking his head. “I didn’t get it either.”

  “Get what?” I asked, glancing between them.

  “Sera, the guy was asking like you’re a Female Body Inspector bullshit and if the test to get in has to go through you and what sort of endurance he has to have to pass. Like having sex with you is the test to get in and is it hardcore or what.”

  “I didn’t get it either,” Jennings admitted when I flushed lava hot. “I just figured people didn’t know what to ask if interested.”

  “Maybe the four socially inept people shouldn’t run the booth at once,” I muttered, shooting Remington a look when he seemed offended. “Did you catch it?”

  “No, but I’ve never been to a job fair. What’s a normal question?”

  “I don’t know, I was always undercover,” I grumbled, realizing I didn’t have this after all. I pulled out my phone as I turned away from the crowd and fanned my face, totally mortified people were mocking us and I didn’t even get it.

  “Hey, hi, how’s it going?” Brian asked as he answered.

  “Um, not well,” I admitted. He’d been trying to see me since the party too, but again, too much on the plate. Though he could have tried to join my three times a day workouts, but then again, those weren’t private. “I need help on this one. Could you do the thing?”

  He was quiet a moment. “Would it make you less upset with me if I did?”