Page 97 of Kidnapping Their Third

The young man scrambled to his feet and rushed to her side, head bowed, and arms wrapped around his chest.

“Yes?” he squeaked.

“You’re going to help me pack and then we’re leaving here,” she explained. “Do you have a vehicle?”

He shook his head, then nodded. “I don’t have one, but my alpha’s car is here. We can take that. Except, uh, you might have turned the key to stone.”

Mrs. J examined the pieces of stone that had been the alpha, her eyes flashing as she looked them over. “Here they are,” she said and reached down to one chunk the size of her fist. The moment she touched it, the stone turned into a piece of bloody pant leg.

A moment later, she pulled a key fob free of the cloth, which had been the pocket of the alpha’s pants. She held it out and the young man took the fob with a shaking hand.

“What are you called?” she asked.

“James Dean, but everyone calls me JD,” he whispered.

“Very well,” Mrs. J said. “I’d like to be called Ysabel. It’s such a lovely name, and I haven’t used it before.”

Now that she was healed, Cora was coming out of her gorgon induced daze and looking around the room with a critical eye. “Why does it feel like I dreamed all this?”

“Brain trauma,” Ysabel said airily. “Your brain was swelling a bit, but you're fine now. Off you two go. I’m sure Kimble is eager to set eyes on the two of you after feeling everything through the link. Poor vampires. I’d never trade eternal life for the sun. We gorgons thrive in the light.”

“Thanks for not letting me die,” Cora said.

“I’ll take payment in drinks. I like fruity cocktails the best,” Ysabel said, then turned her attention to JD. She pointed to the apartment’s empty front door frame. “My apartment is the one with the open door. Go in there and find something to eat. I can hear your empty stomach complaining from here. Eat fast. We have a lot to accomplish tonight. I’m impatient to begin my new life after putting it off for so long.”

JD rushed out the door as if she’d screamed at him to move instead of giving her order in a reasonable, even affectionate tone. They heard his feet pound down the hall and then cut off as he got to her apartment.

“That one is going to be an eager disciple,” Ysabel commented.

“Well, you inspire eagerness with that whole turning-people-to-stone thing,” Cora quipped.

Pike stiffened but Ysabel didn’t take offense to Cora’s sass. Instead, she threw back her head and laughed. Wiping a tear from her eye, she headed to the door. “I’ll be in touch, little human. We’ll have a girl’s night. I haven’t been young for a long time. This’ll be fun.”

Then she was gone, and the room seemed to dim a little. Pike remained still, surrounded by bits and pieces of stone wolves, staring at the door and still holding Cora.

“Is any of your stuff that important?” Cora asked after several seconds of silence.

“Not a damn thing,” he agreed and carried her out of the building and to his truck. He was still naked but didn’t care. Therewere extra clothes in the truck, and he couldn’t stand to be in that place a moment longer. “I’m never leaving the compound again.”

Chapter 36

Kimble

Cora frowned at her phone again, then deliberately set it on the kitchen table face down. Kimble didn’t need to see the message to know it was from her Aunt Maria. She was desperate to broker peace between Cora and the rest of her family. As time went on, Maria’s pleas became demands, and Cora stopped responding.

It bothered Kimble that he couldn’t simply fix the problem of Cora’s family for her. It had been several months since the revealing confrontation at Daniel’s house, and Cora’s anxiety about talking to them had only gotten worse. Pike noticed also but had no more clue how to fix it than Kimble.

“Want to talk about those texts?” he whispered in Cora’s ear.

“Never,” Cora answered, then spoke up to Pike. “What are you going to plant in the southeast corner, near the barn?”

“I was thinking of planting rhubarb there,” Pike answered, his arms elbow deep in soapy water.

It was early evening. Cora and Pike had finished dinner, and Cora was sitting crosswise in his lap while Pike cleaned up. At first, it’d bothered Kimble that Pike wouldn’t let him help; then he’d realized it was because the bear was possessive of the kitchen. Although he might have a laid-back personality, Pike had very strict rules about how everything was done in his domain.

“Have you thought about pomegranates?” Cora suggested. Along with the kitchen, Pike’s other domain was his garden. Cora and the wolves had tried to help him in the early days but had been gently rebuffed. It was his place to be king and caretaker, and it was obvious he loved it.

“Pomegranates,” Pike repeated, pausing with a skillet in one hand and a soapy sponge in the other while nodding his head. “That’s a good idea. It’s a winter fruit, and I’m trying to put in more winter and fall plants.”

---