Rebuilding the Wolf Read online

  “She might really have a heart attack,” I warned Illinois since I was right by him, already having backed away from her before her security could intercede. “I wanted to prove I wasn’t lying, as that would ruin the point of all of this and waste my time coming here, not really push her into a cardiac episode. Her blood pressure was already through the roof just being here, but it’s really jumped up.”

  “You’re mixing the symptoms wrong in this instance,” Carter interjected. “She’s about to have a hypertensive crisis that might lead to a stroke, not a heart attack like some can. She needs an ambulance and now.”

  I shrugged. “I’m still new. All I know is it’s time to worry.”

  People actually took us seriously and led her out to meet the paramedics that were called. Except once she left, no one seemed to really know what to do or how to get back on track.

  “Chief Thomas, you can take your seat again,” South Carolina muttered, glancing around at his colleagues. “Let’s take a ten minute break and come back to hear from the vampire.”

  “Carter Gomez is my name, Senator. Do you refer to African Americans as ‘the black?’”

  He shook his head, ignoring Carter and calling the break before leaving his seat.

  Galvin gave me a signal he wanted a word or fifty, and I headed towards him, sighing and wanting this over with already. He guided me down the hall and to a room that seemed a lounge for witnesses or whatever.

  “I want a copy of that recording,” he said first.

  “Sir?” I muttered, searching his eyes.

  He sighed. “I’m not going to blackmail her or anyone there. I want it to cover my butt, Thomas. A lot went down that I didn’t see or hear, and now I find out you were recording it all.”

  I bristled at the implication. “We had the normal club surveillance on, not added extra cameras. It got a lot of the audio since there wasn’t the normal music playing. I make sure we’re always covered. I wasn’t trying to hold it over anyone. She’s said that and worse in interviews, just never about anyone specifically or like me with the FBI. That was what I busted her on.”

  “I understand. I’m not upset or saying you did anything wrong,” he assured me, reaching out and patting my shoulder. “I know this is rough, and I doubt it will get any better. Just hold it together and keep being professional like you were. I know others would want you to play the game and the politics, but I think the fact you won’t is one of your strongest attributes.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  We headed back in before the ten minutes was up, and I thought at first Carter was annoyed, but then I realized he was bored, giving him a questioning look.

  He moved his hand over the microphone so no one else like us could catch what he said. “Sera, I have spent thousands of years with actually terrifying people with vast power. There are a hundred of these people, two elected per state, and even more in your Congress. And this is just one country. Their power is not as vast as they think. They only get things done if so many of them agree, which is rare. They are not people I would ever fear.”

  I opened my mouth to argue but then thought better of it and let the topic go. He might be right, but maybe he wasn’t fully. I wasn’t sure, but no matter what was the truth, I didn’t really feel like using any more energy on this. It was a huge enough hassle coming all the way to DC and having to jump through all of this just for politics and posturing when we’d shown the idea works.

  But there were moves to be made, and those who would want the power of controlling the team or those who wanted us out of their state like we weren’t all one country, and on and on and on. I was all for debate when it led to something better, but a lot of DC was just people arguing based on what their donors said or the current climate along with what they could get.

  In other words, I had next to no faith in any of them.

  Carter did better being grilled than I was, giving them bored looks when they went too far.

  “You need to remember you’re a guest in our country,” South Carolina snapped at him at one point during his turn.

  Carter just raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Yes, in the land you stole from the indigenous people. I believe you’re also taught to respect your elders better, as it’s a part of having manners and I am at least sixty times your age. I am thousands of years old as you sit there perched above me and lecture me on the ways of the world. Yes, please, continue to educate me on your very vast experience over your handful of decades.”

  I wasn’t the only one who had to cover a laugh with a cough as he completely stumped them.

  “I have a few concerns about this dynamic,” the senator from Florida interjected, finally saying something. He seemed on the fence, so I wasn’t sure what to make of him, but the same seemed to be true of us. “You understand you will work for us, the government, not Chief Thomas, right?”

  Carter sat with that a moment. “As she does, yes, but my understanding was we would answer directly to her or Chief Monroe. That is the only way we’ll agree to do this.”

  “That’s the part that worries me.”

  “We have our own worries with this venture,” he reminded Florida. “Not everyone in your government is honorable or would look for reasons to hang us out. We trust her and him. She has told us this is the right path, one that can help many, and we liked helping on those two raids, others that first one as well. So we are willing to try this because of her. Our faith is in her as she fights for us and all the citizens here.”

  I leaned in to the microphone. “That’s not to say they won’t help on a different agency raid. They did that, but they don’t know how we work. I do, and I went and bridged the gap. They’re not just going to handle something CIA because they’re federal just as we don’t with the FBI. They’re saying they trust us to navigate the lines.”

  “I understand, but what would you do if there is a problem, Mr. Gomez? Say you are called in as SWAT would and have a different person to work with, handle the situation with.”

  Carter frowned. “My understanding was most situations they took over, not rode the unicycle through the maze. We listened to the ATF agent on the circumstances and explained our plan, but in the end we went in how we needed to. Are you saying if someone could tell us to go in and handle it a certain way, we had to do it like that and at their orders no matter what?”

  “Sometimes, yes,” he confirmed, and I winced internally, knowing the answer.

  “No, we won’t do that.” He hurried to continue when several people looked shocked or upset. “If you are told to ram a blockade and you do and hurt people, that is your fault. I will not take that upon me or my team. When Chief Thomas was told the situation and what was needed, they worked together to meet in the middle with how to legally handle the situation and what worked best for us, was safest for everyone involved. That is only how we would do this.”

  “You mean you need some sort of contact person to handle the interagency or local mitigation?” he checked.

  “Yes, if we do not have that sort of discretion, then we need that. We won’t just blindly follow orders when we can hear more heartbeats or like the one raid could easily jump the fence instead of bust through how they normally would have to. We are not the hammer for people to use, as I believe the phrase is here, but the vacuum you put on the floor and does the job and navigates.”

  I understood what he meant first and leaned into my microphone again. “He means like a Roomba. He’s saying he thought a SWAT team would be more like a special ops team that handles a lot of the planning and execution, not just the bullets someone shoots.”

  “Yes, that, we will not be fast bullets to be used and pointed wherever. There must be a coming together like we have been a part of so far.”

  “I think that’s reasonable and feasible with some work,” Florida said after a few moments, most of the others nodding in agreement. “Yes, I believe that’s smart. You understand from our perspective it seems that Chief Thomas is the only o
ne who could shoot your team with your analogy.”

  I snorted. “No, Senator, that wasn’t how it worked on the raids. It was like working with any other well trained team, but I’m just the one who recruited them for the job. You trust the one who brought you in as the starting point.”

  I let out a relieved sigh when that seemed to work and the grilling continued.

  Finally, finally we were done and heading to the airport.

  “Can we not come back to this place for a long, long time?” Carter muttered as we headed to the airport, catching a ride from one of the local FBI guys who had trained with us that offered to take us.

  “Man, I say the same thing all the damn time,” the vampire agreed. “And they call us leeches and blood sucking monsters. Everyone’s like that in DC. I think there’s a vacuum that sucks out all the goodness of people when they come here.”

  “Maybe, but it’s also a lot of government work and years of being used and abused,” I muttered, pulling out something from my bag. “And I would be fine with never coming back, Carter, but you probably just jinxed us.”

  “Yes, yes, let me be old and cynical and you be young and hopeful as you read your cards,” he teased me.

  “Shut up,” I grumbled even as I pulled them out.

  One of Phobie’s brilliant ideas was instead of sitting down and having the guys negate what they said, they were to find out other ways to tell me, make the bad a chance to say something good they hadn’t before. The hysterical thing was they all thought of sending cards to me for each thing they said. When I told that to Phobie, she’d actually burst out laughing and said she’d get them to at least space them out.

  I’d honestly thought the idea a bit cheesy at first, but apparently I really had no experience in dating or just being loved because it wasn’t. It was so sweet, and I loved that I had piles of cards in my apartment that spoke from their hearts.

  Everything from Noah saying how he loved being with me when I was on my back and he could stare into my gorgeous blue eyes as opposed to what he’d said that night that he mounted me so he never had to look at me, to Hagan saying he loved to listen to me talk when I got excited whether it was about cooking or cases. Dain had been the only one not to send cards, as he took it a step further.

  Fairies couldn’t lie, so he recorded video clips for me that obviously weren’t edited and very clearly negated what he’d said. But that was all I’d gotten from him. Not so much as a text or call, so I still didn’t know what to do about him or if he wanted anything with me.

  “You have your first Valentine’s date with any of them when we get home, right?” Carter asked gently as I read over the newest card from Brian.

  “Yeah, Hagan’s picking me up from the airport and we’re having dinner,” I muttered, trying to hide how nervous I was. “Like a real date. It’s silly, right?”

  “No, Sera, not at all,” he murmured, taking my free hand in his. “Your other side makes you confident in a way none of us realized how innocent you were. Even with you having said you were inexperienced in love before, only Brian knew you’ve never really dated. Phobie was shocked too. Innocence isn’t about sex or how much of it you’ve had, but experience, and you do not have much.

  “It’s the right thing that they are now taking that into account, caring enough to do things right by you. Let them. Every lady deserves to be courted and seduced in the right way. Besides, they are all thrilled at the chance to not only woo you but that you agreed to have a date with each to start over.”

  “I’m scared,” I admitted to someone besides Phobie. “I miss them, but I’m scared. It was nice to be so free and alone, but it was lonely.”

  “It is a double edged sword, yes. You are having dinner, not jumping back into the relationship and living together. You would be scared to have a date with someone new. We all feel that. Enjoy it. Enjoy the experience and fun.”

  “I’ll try.” That was about the best I’d had. I’d never dated Jason. I’d gone on a few dates with the second guy I had been with, but that was it, and he had been gone after the first time we’d had sex. My relationship with Brian when he was my boss was anything but normal or regular dating. We had dinner a few times after we had sex, but they weren’t like dates.

  So really I was almost thirty and exploring dating for the first time. As a siren who had vastly expanded her sexual horizons and what she liked in bed.

  Yeah, that was totally normal.

  Fuck a duck.

  2

  “Hey, hi—hi,” Hagan greeted… While trying to hide a three foot tall heart box behind his back that could not be hidden.

  “Hi,” I chuckled, nodding to it. “What is that?”

  “For you,” he muttered, clearing his throat. “I kept thinking it was weird to leave it in the car, and now I think it’s weird to greet you at the airport with it.”

  “No, it’s great,” I muttered, letting him take my bag from me as I accepted the box. “I didn’t realize we were doing like gifts though. I mean, I know you guys said Valentine’s Day dates, but—sorry. I didn’t think, sorry.”

  “Guys give the gifts,” he chuckled, nodding to where his SUV was illegally waiting since he wasn’t really supposed to get out at the pick up area. Someone else was coming for Carter so he didn’t crash our date, so I didn’t worry.

  “Can I open it?” I asked as we got in and he pulled away from the curb.

  “Oh, yeah, of course.”

  “This is so cool,” I chuckled, feeling like a dork as my cheeks heated. “This is my first valentine. I mean, real one, not like friend ones or pity ones in college.”

  “Sera, I don’t think anyone ever gave you pity anything,” he said gently. “I think they were hinting they wanted to date you.”

  “Oh, wow, I really am bad at this,” I muttered, wanting to melt as what he said sank in. I’d totally ignored the ones I’d gotten before, not even considering someone was interested. I shook my head and focused on the now, setting the big heart on my lap before carefully wiggling the lid off and blinking at what was inside.

  Namely roses, but not flowers. They were something else.

  “They’re soap flowers,” he explained, probably feeling my confusion. “You put them in a bath, like you would bubble bath or oils.”

  “That’s so fucking cool,” I gasped, leaning over and sniffing the heavenly smelling roses. There were different scents for all the shades of red and pink that were gorgeously arranged in the big box. “They smell amazing. Wow, Hagan, this is really cool, thank you.”

  “Yeah?” he checked, looking relieved.

  “Totally. I’ve never seen these before, and any excuse to relax in the bath I’m so in. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” he muttered, blushing a bit even as he smiled at how I really liked it. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

  “You too.” It was my turn to blush then. I cleared my throat as I closed up the box. “Um, so how are things?”

  “Things are good.”

  “Sorry, I’m nervous.”

  “Me too,” he sighed, shaking his head. “I feel like a teenager borrowing Dad’s car for a first date.”

  “How old were you?” I asked, not ever having much time just to talk about the past.

  “Almost seventeen,” he chuckled. “I didn’t pass my driver’s test my first try. God, Reagan was such a dick about that. So I finally get it, and for some reason that gave me the courage to ask this girl I was crushing on. I thought she was sweet, shy—like a smartie.”

  “She wasn’t?”

  He threw back his head and laughed. “No, fuck no. Apparently she just used absolutely no energy in school and the moment she was free she was this whole other person. It was a disaster. This was before cell phones, but she was getting beeped constantly. It grated on my nerves, and I found out later that it was all her friends doing it to make her look cool, and all it made her look like was a drug dealer.”

  “Oh no,” I groaned, thinking that sounded
horrible.

  “What about you?” he asked, glancing at me quickly. “I mean, I know you haven’t dated as an adult, but what about when you were a kid?”

  “Um, I didn’t,” I muttered, clearing my throat.

  “Not ever? Like even grammar school or high school?”

  “No, school was always weird for me,” I answered, fidgeting with the box. “I was always getting bounced from one family back to the group home to another family, and it messed everything up. I would get to move a year ahead and then miss a bunch of school because I was placed with a new foster family and it was easier for them to just hold off until the new school year or whatever so I was by them.

  “Then it wouldn’t work out because every time I tried to hide I was different, I just brought attention to it. So then I’d be back at my old school in that year I started in and… Yeah, everyone knew and it was bad. Plus, I was placed in an abusive home when I was maybe ten, and so I came to school with bruises and people remembered that. Parents wouldn’t let their kids play with me like it was my fault.

  “So when I had the chance to go to a nice high school, like for real, and get ahead, get to college early and emancipated, I took it. I threw everything I had into getting out of my situation, and honestly nothing else mattered. And then I made it. Sixteen and no safety net standing at college with all my worldly possessions, which were next to none. Sure, I’d already signed up with the Navy and they owned me, but that was it.

  “No other path, no returning to the home if it didn’t work this time. I was terrified. I was frozen in terror as I looked up at the girls’ dorm wondering why I had thought hurrying to get there was such a good idea. And to top it off, I had no roommate. Well, I’d been assigned one, but she’d thrown a fit at getting stuck with a sixteen year old, so she got matched up somewhere else and I was all alone.”