CHAPTER SIX
"Aaron, Kate? You free to catch up?"
"Of course we are, Thorn is everything okay?"
Kate sent back, knowing he would soon work out Aaron wasn't with her.
"Lucas is playing country music, not even the cross-over sort, think Loretta Lynn and George Strait variety. We're on our way to the lodge, long story short Luna is ready to make babies, and I'll be making my mate a wolf in the next few days. On top of that the mating thing seems to have infected your inner circle – Lexi has mated too. She is about to call the girls to tell them. Luna spent part of the day with the aunties and is being weird, so something big went down, and then on top of that I have too many unanswered questions with regard to the mission you and Aaron are on. Other than that Kate, everything is hunky dory."
"Yeah well just to add to your troubles, Aaron and I just had a huge fight and I think he's off with one of the cheap skanks from this shit hole. I would rather listen to Lucas play his country music than the continual sound of domestic arguments we've been listening to. Finally, I should mention I have a really bad feeling something is going to go really wrong this week and I wish I could be more, ahh clear, but we're going to lose a member of the pack Thorn, and I cannot see who, and I can't see how or when."
"Fuck. I'm giving you guys one more day up there and then you can start back to the lodge. The girls will be happy to see you. The surveillance equipment should pick up anything that woman has to offer. I'm not leaving you guys out there at risk."
"It's not here, and it isn't us."
Kate then spoke quickly and off subject,
"Thorn did you just tell Aaron to come back?"
"Of course not, I was going to catch up with you, then go give him hell when we were finished."
"Fine, I'll go unlock the door and let him in then. But if you got him to come back I wouldn't be letting him in."
Thorn heard the door open and then a loud gasp. He heard a thud and a crash.
"Kate? Kate? Aaron?"
Then the unmistakable growl of his brother "I did not look at another woman. I was trying to work out what was off about her. I only went near her to see if she was human or wolf. She smelled so strongly of her addictions it was hard to get past that. She was human but she has spent a lot of time with a wolf. I followed her. I have a lead on Luna's dad."
"And why did you have to attack me when you came in the door. I did not give you permission to kiss me, or to run your hands all over me and break things."
"Shut up. I'm on a short fuse right now. Both of you sit down. Kate, does he smell of another woman?"
"No. He doesn't."
She admitted.
"Then apologise to your mate. He kissed you, touched you, because you are the one he wants, he wants you to smell of him. He wants your smell on his skin. Fuck you two aren't getting any closer to sorting things out are you?"
"I apologise Aaron. I let my insecurity get the best of me," her pause was telling, "I like you kissing me too much, it's why I keep trying to stop you."
"I know you're sorry. I'm never going to cheat on you baby, I swear. I know you think I can't keep it in my pants, but I've never loved anyone else. Um, I mean, you know, I've never been in love before. This is not the same. I also know the kissing gets to you. You give in and cling to me every time, it is the only time you touch me. The only time you drop your guard. That's why I keep doing it."
"Okay, we can talk about this when our Alpha, and your brother, isn't listening."
"Good because I'm nauseous already. Now what was this lead?"
"This total junkie was doing a drug deal with a wolf. She got her supply and he didn't take any payment. Told her it would be the same deal as last time. She argued with him over the terms of the agreement. She was to find a girl, preferably a virgin and get her to him. In the past a virgin got her a three month supply. She claimed virgins were getting harder to come by and countered they were easily worth six months."
"She's trading children for drugs?"
"Yeah, it got worse. He then re-iterated two months for an 'impure' girl, he went up to five months for a virgin. She agreed and left. He got on the phone to someone he called Boss and said he would have some more for him soon but that one of his supply network was pushing for more drugs and was basically past her use by. He ended the call saying he would dispose of her body after she brought him the next one."
"You think the boss is Luna's dad?"
Kate asked.
"Nah. The guy got off the phone and rang someone else. He called her Ma'am and said he was following her orders not worrying about the boss, and that he'd been keeping an eye on the bitch, but she was too far gone to worry about now. He then said he'd be disposing of one of the traders and thought it was time to get rid of that bitch Jolene at the same time. Jolene is Luna's mother Thorn."
"Okay so where did her dad come in?"
"He said to this ma'am person 'What the fuck did John see in her in the first place? He should consider himself lucky that you took him. Instead of still being a moody bastard.' You had already said Luna only knew her dad's first name."
"John."
There was a pause in the communication, Aaron and Kate knew Thorn was composing himself and then bringing Luc into things.
"Lucas, Aaron has a lead on Luna's dad, the surveillance equipment isn't going to be enough though. There are more complications than the plot of Game of Thrones. Drugs, sex slaves, witches, wolves and a big mysterious nasty."
Thorn quickly filled Lucas in.
Lucas joined the communication, reluctantly turning down his music.
Thorn continued to speak, now that Luc had tuned in.
"We're going to need the full core to work this out and that means it's getting harder and harder to keep this from Luna, which I am not too worried about as we have an agreement in place and she's going to be a bit distracted which will help. However we're entering a very dark world, we already have Aaron and Kate in danger and neither are trained in anything like this. I want to pull them out as soon as possible and avoid putting any more of the pack in danger."
Kate zoned out of the conversation briefly as the men continued to discuss their thoughts and plans. She saw the image as clearly as she had in her dream last night. It was their third night in town. Yesterday Aaron had worked on the car to keep up appearances and Kate had spent some time talking to a few of the local women. They had returned to the bar last night and again today. Mason and Carl had installed the bug on the second night. It appeared anybody in the trailer park in the evenings was too out of it to pay any attention to any movements, and the idea of a meal with Jolene made both her an Aaron feel sick, so they had decided there was no need to get that friendly with her.
"Kate, you alright?" Aaron grabbed for her as she felt herself fall. "Kate?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, just having a moment."
"One of those bloody visions?"
"Don't worry about it. I'm fine."
"Yeah whatever." He lowered her into a chair.
"Thorn we're going to have to wrap this up soon, Kate just had another vision and looks like she's about to pass out or throw up."
"Get her something sweet and let her have some peace, she'll be fine as soon as she works through what she saw."
"She does this all the time?"
Aaron was grabbing a bag of candy and some fruit already. "Here, eat."
"Yes Sir." She said so sarcastically he thought she was about to refuse to eat. He was surprised when she tore open the bag of candy coated chocolate and began to drop them into her mouth.
"Well not all the time. But it was a bit scary the first few times we saw it."
Kate tuned in long enough to hear what Lucas and Thorn were saying. She did not like the way the conversation was going at all.
"Okay so Aaron watch Jolene. Kate stay safe. Tomorrow you guys will be out of there. Please keep your eyes and ears open."
"I'm not just going to sit in this flea infested motel room. I was sent here on a mission, and until both Aaron and I are relieved I will continue with that mission. I expected no less from you Lucas than to assume I wasn't capable of being an asset not having a penis, but I thought you knew better Thorn."
"Kate, I took it for granted you would know what you should do. While you are doing it, be careful."
"Thorn, I don't like her being here, I would like her to leave now. I can get her to the airport and I'll just tell everyone she left me."
"You expect to get near me again this year Aaron you will zip it right now."
"Tip Aaron, never think any of the inner circle are weak. Your mate has already completed one degree, has almost completed a second. She has gifts you can only dream of. She is fit and strong. She fights like a tiger."
"Sorry Kate. I just feel sick even thinking of losing you."
There was a low growl and after a silence, "What the fuck was that for?"
"You didn't like it?"
"Baby, you can kiss me like that any time any place."
"Well at least you two have made some progress finally,"
Thorn laughed and both Aaron and Kate growled at him,
"Okay I think the girls have stopped screaming in the back seat so that's our sign to end this. We'll be in touch tomorrow."
