“No,” Gabi countered. “Julius set up this sting because he had a feeling Celeste was feeding you information. I didn’t think that was likely or I would have shut the whole thing down before it started.”
“You’re saying there aren’t actually shifter children being raised by the Council? That mentioning them was bait for Celeste?”
Gabi shrugged. “If there are shifter children being raised by the Council, they’re none of your business. Ask yourself, who had a better childhood, Celeste or your mate?” Then she proved the question to be entirely rhetorical by returning to her previous point. “Children aside, Celeste is the one Julius is currently fixating upon. You need to get her out of town now.”
“And I’m expected to believe you care about Celeste even though you proved last month that you didn’t actually have any personal feelings for either of us.”
“I don’t have any personal feelings for you,” Gabi corrected. “But I just told you why I’m here in this stairwell. I’m concerned about my sister.”
Then, when I stared at her, totally befuddled, she spelled it out for me. “I’m here for my sister. I’m here for Celeste.”
Was that why Gabi had always been so much gentler to Celeste than me during our training? Not because Celeste lacked my lupine resilience, but because the two of them shared DNA?
Unless, of course, this was yet another ploy in a long line of similar ploys. My ex-mentor always strove to be two steps ahead of the competition and she’d feign any advantage necessary to make that happen. But what could her purpose be in claiming sisterhood with Celeste?
I’m not sure how long I stood there before Orion brushed past, his fingers trying to pluck the tracking device out of my hand in the process. So he had seen it. That was good news, but I closed my fist rather than accepting his assistance. Because I had a better chance of planting it on Gabi’s person than he did.
Orion didn’t try to force the issue. Instead, he leaned in and sniffed Gabi, his nose far closer to her face than was appropriate in human circles. No wonder she took a step back.
“You think I’m a teenager who needs her breath checked for alcohol?”
“I think you’re a very good liar…”
Gabi dimpled as if he’d praised her beauty. “Why thank you.”
“…Who isn’t lying this time.”
For a split second, the implications of Celeste and Gabi actually being siblings continued spinning through me. Then I remembered the other sister involved—Maya, who I hoped was only drugged instead of dead.
“You can’t be serious,” I emoted, even though I trusted Orion’s judgment. As I spoke, I stumbled…
…Or pretended to. At the same time, the hand containing the tracking device wobbled out to catch my balance by making contact with the one part of Gabi she wasn’t likely to mess with in the near future—her hair.
Unfortunately, Gabi never trusted werewolves, and she was also the one who’d taught me the stumble-then-stab. No wonder she thought I was attacking. No wonder she easily countered my offensive with a manacle-tight grip on my arm.
Which meant the tracker was stuck just shy of contact with her scalp. I needed a distraction to grant me that final inch, and Orion provided it.
“Don’t touch her,” he growled, his fingers digging into the skin of Gabi’s wrist.
For a moment we froze like that. My arm in Gabi’s grip and Gabi’s in Orion’s. There was a lot of squeezing going on all around, but Gabi showed no signs of noticing the pain I felt.
After several long breaths, however, she did release me. “Mind your manners,” she warned Orion.
Rather than answering in words, Orion merely growled before puffing himself up like exactly the sort of posturing alpha werewolf Gabi had trained me to deal with. At the same time, I shook out my hand to relieve the residual pinch of Gabi’s grip.
And if that hand-shaking brought my fingers very briefly in contact with a dangling braid? The motion was irrelevant to Gabi, who had already mentally moved on.
“Do we need to beat our chests a little longer?” she asked, continuing to address Orion. “Or can we jump ahead to the part where we make a deal? Your sister for my sister.”
As she spoke, the briefest flicker of what could almost be termed affection softened my former mentor’s stern features. Still—
“I’m not turning Celeste over to you,” I interjected, hoping Orion wouldn’t disagree. Even though we had no idea what had happened to Maya. Even though he had to be frantic after losing contact with his sister via the pack bond.
Orion just glowered while Gabi proved that wasn’t what she wanted anyway. “Not what I’m asking for. I’ve already made my request—get Celeste out of town. Keep her safe. Do that and I’ll bring Maya to you in three days…”
Three days was after the children were moved, after the prophesied deadline. Still, the air turned sour. “No.” This time, Orion’s growl wasn’t feigned to divert attention away from my sleight of hand. “I want proof of life.”
Gabi rolled her eyes. “Your sister isn’t dead.”
In perfect tandem, Orion and I leaned forward to sniff Gabi’s breath. His head was so close to mine that it was almost impossible to notice the sweet scent of truth over his cactus-thorn signature.
Ignoring our inhuman behavior, Gabi continued: “I used the same drug they developed on the oil rig. It’ll make her manageable, keep her from shifting…”
“Keep me from feeling her down the pack bond,” Orion added.
“Is that so?” Gabi smiled as if she hadn’t known that tidbit of information. “How useful. I’ll be sure to make a note of that.”
She would too. Gabi seemed to honestly care about Celeste, perhaps so much she was willing to sneak around behind the back of the man who I now realized must also be her father. But Gabi was still our enemy.
“You want three days so you’ll have time to set up a sting in our territory,” I guessed.
“No. I need time to make it look like you wrested Maya out of my grip when I release her.”
The air around Orion turned sour. He didn’t trust Gabi. I didn’t trust her either. I’d learned that lesson the hard way.
“Do you really need me to spell out every little thing?” Gabi over-enunciated her words, which she perhaps thought made it easier for us to sniff out their veracity. She needn’t have bothered—we were both close enough now to catch the complete lack of a lie in the air when she continued.
“If you keep Celeste safe,” she promised, “I’ll do the same for Maya. In seventy-two hours, all six of us will meet within your territory—you two, Celeste and her boyfriend, Maya, and me. You choose the time and place. I won’t tell anyone about the meeting and I won’t bring backup. I’ll transfer Maya into your custody while satisfying my curiosity about Celeste’s top-secret boy toy. Then you and I will go back to being enemies with one point of commonality only—Celeste.”
