"Then you'll have to go in and ask. Pretend you lost the key and forgot the room number."
"What, you want me to pretend I'm Trevor Gordan?" Jordan laughed aloud. "No way. I look nothing like this guy. You pretend to be him."
"I'm blind!" Damien said. They both paused for a moment.
"Alright," Jordan said. "Alright. You win."
"Glad to hear you've decided to listen to your alpha," Damien teased.
"Darling, if I get thrown in jail for impersonating someone you'd better bail me out."
Getting into the hotel turned out to be easier than either of them had guessed. Jordan got a new card and room number from the bored receptionist who was watching a soap opera at the desk. Damien waited outside of the lobby until Jordan came back, holding the key up.
"She was painting her nails. Didn't even bother asking for ID," Jordan said. "It's room 207."
They stood outside of the door and listened, but heard nothing.
"I can smell his scent," Jordan said. He slapped his forehead with his hand. "We should have just walked through the hall to smell the right room!"
"Hindsight and all that," Damien said, tapping his foot anxiously. "Let's go."
Jordan pushed the door open with one foot, stepping in cautiously. Damien listened intently, but the only noise was the low hum of a fan.
"Doesn't look like he left much," Jordan said. "There's just the one suitcase."
Damien walked into the room, letting his hands run over the top of the table, the bed.
"Nothing here," Jordan said, zipping the last of the suitcase pockets. "Dead end."
"Shh," Damien said.
"What is it?"
"It's time to be quiet, that's what it is," Damien said, turning his head in the direction of the sound. The hum he'd heard wasn't coming from the air conditioner at all. He knelt down by the bed and felt underneath the frame. His hands encountered a smooth surface, and he pulled out a laptop.
"Have I ever told you you'd make a great private detective?" Jordan asked, taking the laptop from Damien and opening it up.
"Flattery will get you everywhere," Damien said, his mind racing as he imagined what was inside of the computer. "Can you see if he's logged into his email?"
"Password saved," Jordan said, clucking his tongue. "People really ought to be more careful with their security."
"Good thing they're not," Damien said, leaning over as though being closer to the laptop screen would enable him to detect what was on it. "Anything important?"
"One second," Jordan said. "I'm not a speed reader."
Damien waited as Jordan clicked through.
"Here's something," Jordan said. "Wait, this can't be right."
"What is it?"
Damien heard Jordan inhale through his teeth.
"Ok, let me read this to you. It's from a few days ago." He cleared his throat.
"Hi Trevor,
I found the girl. Red hair, and she has the marks on the back of her left hand. Her address is—it's Julia's address. Come soon. Let me know if you need help taking her. I can't wait to be back in the pack. See you soon, Kyle."
A rushing sound filled Damien's ears. He couldn't have heard that right.
"Kyle? Not our Kyle."
"It's his email. It's Kyle." Jordan clicked back. "Let me see if I can find anything else."
Damien's fingers turned white gripping the table as he realized the mistake he had made.
"Kyle? And Katherine..." he murmured.
"You think he's going to kidnap Katherine too?" Jordan asked.
"I think she might be helping him," Damien said. He breathed deeply, trying to sort out his thoughts.
"She loves you."
"She loves Kyle. She's called to Kyle."
"You saved her life," Jordan insisted. "She was going to mate with you, for gods' sake."
"I need to call her," he said, fumbling for his phone.
"Call who?"
"Julia. She's with him."
"Shit," Jordan said. "We have to get back there." He slammed the laptop closed.
As they hurried back to the car, Damien dialed Julia's number with shaky fingers. The phone rang once, then twice.
"Please pick up," Damien said, his mind racing with horrible images. "Julia, pick up."
Jordan turned the key in the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot, tires squealing as they drove towards Julia's house. The phone seemed to ring forever, and he repeated the same words under his breath as he waited for her to answer.
"Please, please don't let me be too late."
CHAPTER SEVEN
Julia sat in her room. She had run out of tears, and now her imagination bubbled with ideas for how to stay with Damien. She could always ignore Granny Dee and run away with Damien... well, run away by staying at the house, she supposed. Surely Granny Dee wouldn't leave by herself if Julia insisted on staying.
The thought of losing Granny Dee made the tears start back up all over again. Dee had raised her since she was a little kid, after her parents died in the accident. As far back as she could remember, she'd sat next to her grandmother in the kitchen and helped her roll out the dough for cookies and pies. It was her grandmother who had told her stories, her grandmother who had raised her. When she was too young to understand, she had watched Granny Dee lose her husband to cancer, and had crawled into her lap and hugged her, and told her that it was okay, that they would always be together.
Always.
She didn't know how she would tell Granny Dee about Damien's... condition. Would she ever need to? Perhaps that was what Dee sensed in Damien, something strange that made her hesitant about accepting him. The first time they'd met, she seemed to get along with him just fine, but now it was as though she'd had a complete change of heart.
A knock on the door interrupted Julia's thoughts.
"Julia?" Granny Dee's voice came through the door. "I need to go to the store for groceries. Will you come with me?"
"I'm not really feeling that well," Julia said, choking back her tears.
There was a pause, and Julia thought that Dee might have left before she heard her voice again.
"Please don't be mad, Julia. I just want to do what's right. Will you be here when I get back?"
"Don't worry," Julia said with a sigh. "I'll be right here in my room."
"Thank you," Dee said. "Julia, I hope you know that I love you, and I just want to keep you safe."
"I love you too," Julia said softly. She turned over and buried her face into her pillow as Granny Dee's footsteps tapped down the stairs. Then the car drove away, and the house was silent. Julia wondered if Granny Dee had seen Kyle and Katherine's car at the end of their driveway, parked on the side of the road. She might be suspicious.
"Let her be suspicious," Julia muttered into her pillow. "She doesn't trust my choices anyway."
House arrest. That's what this felt like. Nobody wanted her to go anywhere. She had guards outside of the house protecting her from some vague threat. Julia tossed her pillow to the foot of the bed. A hot shower would make her feel better. It always did.
The water washed through her red hair and she slicked it back. Normally her curls were out of control, but whenever she took a shower she would pretend for those brief minutes that she had straight hair that did what she told it to do. She rubbed her body with soap, feeling the curves of her br**sts. She remembered in the lake when Damien had touched her, held her close and wrapped one arm around her. She'd felt weightless, like she could float anywhere with him. His hand had touched her...there. His tongue had slid into her... there. She closed her eyes and imagined what it would be like if she was him. If she was blind, touching her body. What would she feel like?
Her hands slid over her soapy skin, pausing in spots to caress, stroking long, harder against her muscles. She leaned her head back against the tiles and moved one hand to her throat, where he had held her tightly without hurting, the other hand down between her legs, exploring the hot folds there. A soft moan escaped her lips as she slid her hand back and forth, finding pleasure in the memory of him taking her, being inside of her. Other girls had told her that it would hurt, but even with his size she'd felt only pleasure, sharp pleasure that took the pain and turned it into something beautiful and desirable. Her body, desirable not just for its shape or smoothness, no, desirable because it belonged to her and he wanted her. She imagined his desire as she smoothed her hand down the front of her chest and cupped herself, feeling the weight of her breast as her other hand moved deeper inside of her, her fingers trembling as they shivered her nerves.
Damien...
The ringing of her phone brought her sharply out of her reverie. Turning off the water, she opened the shower door and pulled the towel off of the rack to dry her hand. The towel slipped from her grasp as she reached for her phone, landing on the bottom of the shower.
"Damn it," Julia swore, picking up the now-wet towel and slinging it over the side of the shower curtain rod. The phone rang loudly on the counter.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," Julia said. She stepped out of the shower, water dripping from her dark red hair onto the floor. Wiping her hand dry on the crumpled up dress she'd taken off earlier, she answered the phone and held it an inch away from her ear.
"Hello?"
"Hello? Julia?"
"Hi, Damien," Julia said. "Sorry it took so long to answer. I was just—"
"Julia, listen to me. You have to get out of there."
"What?" Julia felt lightheaded. "Damien?"
"Do you hear me? Kyle is dangerous. You have to get away from him."
"I—I can't," Julia said. "I mean, Granny Dee just left with the car. Should I run, or—"
"No, no." Damien hesitated for a second. "They're both still in the forest, right?"
"I think so," Julia said. Her eyes turned to the door, and she suddenly felt acutely vulnerable. She was nak*d, she had nothing to protect herself with. And no way to leave. "How do you know about Kyle? Is Katherine—"
"I'll tell you later. Right now you have to get somewhere safe."
"I can... I can lock the door."
"That won't stop him," Damien said. "You need to leave. Listen. There's a spare key in a magnetic case under our car. It's right next to the front right tire, just under the fender. Can you get to the car?"
"I think so," Julia said. Her heart was racing. She pulled the damp dress over her head, trying to dress herself as quickly as she could. "Where do I go?"
"North," Damien said. "Take the highway. They won't be able to chase you that quickly. I'm almost there, and I'll deal with Kyle. We can meet up afterward. Just get away."
Julia's body was hot with adrenaline, her breath coming fast. Deal with Kyle? That would mean another fight.
"Should you really do this? Can't we just run away from him?" Julia opened her bedroom door and listened. There were no sounds coming from the first floor. She tiptoed down the stairs and peered out the window. The sun was setting quickly, but she could still see the woods. Kyle and Katherine were nowhere to be found.