Page 18 of Ruined Wolf

I drained the rest of my beer and stood up. “Bottle of whiskey for my friend here,” I told the bartender, passing over my card. They grinned at the bottle and glasses set before them.

“Don’t worry,” I said, slipping my phone into my pocket. “I’m not one to fuck with either. Have a good night.”

They stared up at me, and I smiled then turned and walked out of the bar. There was nothing else I was going to find here, and I needed a room for the night. Nova’s secrets were beginning to unravel. I could see why she’d kept them. She was afraid we’d return her to her father and start trouble between the packs once we realised it had been the High Rocks Pack knocking her about. I pondered what to do as I walked along the dark streets. As I stepped out into the more well lit part of town and headed towards one of the nicer hotels, I made up my mind.

I would keep it to myself for now. Maverick had enough on his plate without me dropping this nuke too, and I’d bide my time, at least until relations between the packs settled down again. The men of High Rocks could sleep in peace. For now.

CHAPTER SEVEN

NOVA

I breathed a sigh of relief as the tourist centre door swung shut behind the latest group of visitors. They hadn’t been difficult, quite the opposite. They were a lovely group of students on a backpacking trip for spring break who were working on conservation or ecology degrees, and we’d had a good chat about some of the better and quieter spots on the island, but people had been in and out all day, and I was ready for a break. I got up from the desk and flipped the closed sign on the door.

Eleanor was not in the office today. She was running errands and working from home this afternoon, though I had her number if I needed her and she only lived a couple of minutes away. I hadn’t felt the need to call. Yes, I’d been run off my feet, but I did love this job, and it was nice chatting to people.

With spring in full force, the island was getting more and more visitors. The busy summer season hadn’t quite started, but people were getting in early to avoid higher prices and crowds, and the tour companies were already starting to book up. I was feeling the change myself, a lightening of the spirit that came when the days grew longer and warmer and there was more sunshine in the air. The island was coming alive around me, and I’d started going for walks in the forest with Maverick and sometimes Lucas. Maverick liked to shift and run, and I’d watch him as he changed from his commanding alpha human to a playful pup as he bounded through the trees. I felt sad that I couldn’t shift and join him, but it was still nice to watch. Lucas tended to stay in human form, and we would walk in silence together, just enjoying each other’s presence. If he was feeling chatty, he’d take me to a new place and tell me about its history or the wildlife that lived around there. He was my walking encyclopaedia. I loved hearing him talk about the island. He spoke with such passion and energy that he never showed at any other time, and I felt joy at the idea that he was comfortable enough to share this part of himself with me.

We hadn’t talked about the day at the Devil’s Chimney since, and I hadn’t raised the subject of his dad’s death again, though I felt like I understood him a little better. I had always wondered how he could be so different from his brothers when they’d had the same upbringing, and now I knew. Trauma changed people fundamentally on the inside, and Lucas was becoming less of a mystery every day.

I needed to think about Devil’s Chimney though. I hadn’t managed to get any time alone in the last few days to check the map. Between being at work with Eleanor, Lucas and Maverick being so protective, and all the time we were still spending in bed, this was the first time I had to myself.

I sat down at my desk and pulled the map sketch out of my pocket. It was getting rumpled, and I smoothed it out over the desk, searching for the symbol. I had been right. It did look like a whale. It was in a spot surrounded by islands, and I studied them, trying to work out if we’d passed them. I thought we had, though it was difficult to reconcile what I saw in a map with what I had seen speeding through the water, especially since I hadn’t been paying much attention part of the time. I grinned, and my face heated at the memory of Lucas’s talented fingers.

I had thought my crazy sex drive would calm down after Maverick, Lucas, and I were mated. We’d accepted the bond, so it had done its job, but I still felt a strong pull to them, and I couldn’t help but feel like something wasn’t right.

Something was missing. Probably my integrity, I thought with a grimace. My little secret wriggled away in my belly, more active than ever. I’d been so paranoid over the last few days that I’d been making sure the lights were always off when I went to bed with my two mates, but I knew I couldn’t conceal it much longer, and then everything would come spilling out.

My mind drifted back to the cave and the water, and I remembered standing at the entrance with Lucas, glancing down into the darkness between spurts of water. I blinked and looked back at the symbol—a whale symbol. Something clicked in my mind.

It was just a matter of perspective. Devil’s Chimney was a relatively modern name, and it made sense looking at it from the cliffs, as if you were on a rooftop with the water spraying out above you, but what if the cave hadn’t been found from the cliffs? What if it had been spotted from the sea at low tide? From the open sea, the spurting water could easily look like the blowhole of a whale.

I smiled and folded up the map. I was right. Devil’s Chimney was the last map location I needed to find. Maybe Lucas had been right as a child. Maybe the treasure was hidden inside that cave, and they just hadn’t found it. I needed to get into that cave, but I wasn’t stupid. It was clear how risky the whole thing was, so I would have to plan carefully.

Bringing up my browser, I looked up the date and time of the next lowest tides. A normal low tide wouldn’t do, since the water wouldn’t drop low enough for me to get in, search, and get out. I gazed at the screen, my heart sinking. It would have been too easy to be anytime soon. The next tide that would be low enough wouldn’t happen for another week. I would have to wait until then to search the cave. I rested my chin on my hands and rubbed my eyes. I just had to buy myself enough time to find the gold, but if the lowest tide wasn’t for another month, I was out of time. There was no way I could hide the baby for much longer. I was going to have to come clean. I just needed to decide how much I needed to tell them.

“Working hard, or hardly working?” The familiar drawl interrupted my thoughts, and my head flew up as Ethan sat down opposite my desk.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, trying not to show how on edge I was at his presence. He’d kept his word, not coming near me since the claiming, but I hadn’t forgotten that he’d tried to kill me to cover his tracks, and now I was alone with him in the centre. He wouldn’t go for me here though, surely.

He reached out, grabbed a small wooden carving of a sea lion, and twirled it around his fingers. I’d seen it in the gift shop and bought it the day after the boat tour. It reminded me of Lucas.

“I just came for a chat. How’s mated life treating you, Nova?”

“Fine. Is that all?”

“Not very friendly service for a tourist advisor, Nova. Perhaps you’re in the wrong job.”

“What do you want, Ethan?”

“What I said I wanted on the night of the claiming. I want to know what Jaxon told you about this island and his journal.”

I sighed in frustration. “Like I said, he didn’t tell me anything. I didn’t even know he came from here until I got here, and I don’t... The journal, you keep calling it a journal...”

“So you admit you have it then?” His eyes narrowed. “Give it to me.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not a journal, Ethan. I don’t know what secrets you’re trying to protect, but that book? It’s a little history project Jaxon was working on, that’s all. There’s no mention of you inside. You have my word.”

“I don’t believe you,” he said simply. “Jaxon possessed... important information that could cause me a lot of trouble if it got into the wrong hands. That information was not at the apartment where you resided with him, therefore, it must be contained in that book, and I want it.”

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