All We See & Seem (Timber Wolves) (2 page)

“Sorry to ruin your mental image,” he said once he had drained the remaining third of the can while keeping the phone at arm’s length so as not to offend the Alpha Female with his gulping noises. “I’m currently in the too-much-to-do-to-sleep phase of college life. I haven’t seen my bed in days.” Which was a lie. He had seen it, but only for a few short hours here and there. Balancing a full course load with political espionage was really cutting into his beauty sleep.

“Ahhh… Caffeine IVs. Rumpled hair. Falling asleep in the library, your glasses pressed into your forehead.”

“You forget. I’m a Shifter. I have no need of glasses.”

“Potential Donovan, if I want you to wear adorable horn rimmed glasses in my fantasy, then let it be so.”

“Of course, your majesty. Forgive me. I meant to say, you must have spies keeping an eye on me since your description is one hundred percent accurate.”

Not for the first time, Jase looked around his room, searching for the tell-tale reflection of a camera lens. He was just joking around when he said that Sarvarna had spies following him, but once he said it, he feared it was true. She was, after all, the most powerful woman in the supernatural world, and Jase was definitely on her radar. If she wanted to know what he was doing every minute of every day, he had no doubt she could get that information with a snap of her fingers.

She doesn’t know anything,
he told himself to calm the pounding in his chest.
If she had any idea of what you’ve been doing, you would be dead already.

Surprisingly, that pep talk didn’t really help all that much.

“My fantasy also has you sitting in your dorm room right now in jeans and nothing else.” Her silky British accent made the already suggestive statement sound even more scandalous. If she hadn’t been married or completely evil, he might have found it tantalizing. But since she and her husband, the most powerful Shifter in the world, tried to kill his sister, he mostly felt skeeved out. He crossed his arms over his Captain America shirt as if to hide himself from her lecherous fantasy.

But no matter how he felt, he had a job to do. “You do have spies watching me, don’t you?” He forced his face into a smile and hoped the effort reflected in his voice. “Someone is sending you a live feed, right? You can actually see me lying across this bed, can’t you?”

“Mmmm…. If I could, I’m sure it would make a most delicious picture.”

Jase was starting to feel the kind of dirty a shower wouldn’t fix.

“To what do I owe the honor of your call?” he asked, changing the subject from what he was wearing and where he was wearing it. “Did you need to know what color to paint the walls of my room? Because I’ve always been partial to a nice milk chocolate color.”

“Milk chocolate? You should have said something earlier. The walls are already a nice grey with a hint of blue. I hope that is to your liking.” Although, she couldn’t really care less if it was to his liking or not. The main concern was it was to her liking. It hadn't taken Jase long to figure that one out.

There was a time not too long ago when Jase had wanted to give Sarvarna the benefit of the doubt. He didn’t question that there was corruption in the Alpha Pack, but in the beginning he’d believed Sarvarna to be an innocent bystander. Talley thought it was because Sarvarna was beautiful, and if he were being honest, that probably had something to do with it, but mostly he hadn’t thought a girl could be so cold-hearted. His experience with people of the female persuasion, which was considerable, made him believe they truly were the gentler sex. Even his sister Scout, who could hold her own in a fight with anyone of any gender, was more tender hearted and compassionate than any of the guys he knew. So, initially he believed Sarvarna to be under the power of the evil, controlling Stefan, the husband who had taken her as his bride despite the seventeen year age difference.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

After just a few days with the Alpha Pack he saw who was pulling the strings. Sarvarna wasn’t some damsel in distress who needed saving, but a power hungry queen, dolling out poisoned apples to anyone who got in her way. And Jase had led the Fairest of Them All into the woods, handed her off to a living time bomb, and then crawled back to the castle in an attempt to attempt to distract the queen from their trail.

As far as Jase could remember, the woodsman ended up dead in this story.

“I was wondering if you knew the location of Pack Leader Hagan,” Sarvarna continued, upping the difficulty level of this conversation. Idle chatter and a bit of flirting weren't effortless, but they were easy enough. Evasion and subterfuge were a bit more challenging. Luckily, he’d picked up a few weapons along the way.

“No idea,” he said, meaning it. He purposefully never knew where Toby was, or the specifics of what he was doing.

Unfortunately, Sarvarna seemed to have a much better idea of his cousin and former Pack Leader’s whereabouts. “He’s with the Northcutt Pack in Virginia. Isn’t that interesting?”

Jase was sure she would find it more than interesting if she knew Toby was there to gather support to overthrow the Alpha Pack.

“Northcutt Pack? In Virginia?” He tapped his pencil on the desk exactly seven times in an effort to make it seem like he was having to think about it. “What is their Seer packing?”

“Strength,” Sarvarna replied. “It’s a decent Sight, but she’s nearly sixty years old. Surely Toby doesn’t mean to marry her.”

“I think Toby has had enough marriage for one life time, and even if he hadn’t, I’m pretty sure he’s not suffering any type of grandma complex.” Jase couldn’t decide if he was more disgusted by the thought of Toby making out with an old lady or annoyed at Sarvarna’s hypocrisy. Like she had any right to comment on someone else marrying out of their age range for the purpose of gaining a bit of power. “I’m sure he’s there for Charlie. I remember him saying something about if he only knew whether or not Charlie actually had the strength to recover, then he would know how to proceed with his treatments.”

“His brother’s condition is upsetting him, isn’t it?”

“He’s having a hard time.” Seeing someone you love on the brink of death does that to a person.

“Perhaps he should have considered this possibility before he jumped to defend that little witch, then.”

Jase heard a snap and realized he’d broken his pencil in two. Splinters of plastic and pieces of lead littered his desk.

If flirting with Sarvarna was playing a basic level and lying to her was fighting the Big Bad at the end of each world, then not reacting when she talked about Scout was running headlong into Bowser’s castle. The coyote inside him screamed for him to defend and avenge his sister, but his human side knew these games were how he would accomplish it. Surely if he could control himself while Scout was locked in a cage for weeks and watch as they led her to the site of her attempted execution, then he could hold his tongue when Sarvarna called her names.

“Scout was raised as a member of our family. Toby felt obligated to protect her.”

“It was a misplaced obligation, and an insult to me.”

You’re an insult to the Shifters, Seers, and decent humans of the world.

“I promise he didn’t mean it like that. My cousin doesn’t always think things through. He didn’t understand how hurtful his actions were until it was pointed out to him.”

At the mockery of a trial Sarvarna orchestrated, Toby had been unable to follow through with Liam’s plan to sit there silently while Scout was sentenced to death. Unlike Jase, he had stood up for Scout, not caring about what it would cost him. Once Scout had successfully escaped, Toby was punished for his loyalty. Severely. But the broken bones and bruises were nothing compared to not knowing whether Charlie lived or died. Jase hadn’t been there - he was where Toby should have been, at the hospital waiting on updates about Charlie’s condition - but others had told him how when he’d been allowed to catch his breath between assaults, Toby had only ever asked about his brother.

After that night, Toby made a show of falling in line with the Alpha’s wishes. He literally went to his knees, begging for forgiveness. Since groveling was one of Sarvarna’s favorite things, she had pardoned him, although her dislike of him was more than evident by the way she spoke to and of him. It was okay, though. While she might merely dislike Toby, he actively and passionately despised her.

If Toby was smart, he would have gone on with his life as quietly as possible, keeping all his hatred and rage locked inside. But the Hagan Pack wasn’t known for being smart. They were, as Jase’s gramma liked to lament, overburdened with bravery and confidence. So, instead of the beaten down follower Sarvarna thought she’d gained that night, she’d created a dangerous enemy, one who wouldn’t rest until she was removed from power… or more preferably, this world. If Sarvarna so much as suspected that he was really down in Virginia to convince the Northcutt Pack to join him in trying to overthrow the Alpha Pack, she would have Toby executed. No trial. No second chances.

“There are whispers,” Sarvarna said. “Rumors that your cousin is still loyal to the Thaumaturgic. They say his allegiance is to her, not me.”

“Toby? Loyal to the girl who shot his brother?” Not that Scout had really shot Charlie, but the Alpha Female didn’t know that.

“You can see why I’m so put out, can’t you? After all I’ve done for your family, and he chose that…
thing
over me.”

“Sari. Sweetheart. Don’t be silly. How could anyone choose Scout over you?” The words were like dust in his mouth. If she believed him, Jase would demand to be acknowledged as one of the finest actors of his generation. “I don’t know who is telling you this crap, but they should be flogged for stressing you out.”

“Don’t worry,” Sarvarna cooed. “If it’s discovered that he’s lied to me, he will be. But Jase?”

“Yes, your highness?”

“If not, if he’s right, please know that no matter how much it pains me, Toby won’t be alone in facing my wrath.”

“We need to talk.”

Talley stumbled over her own feet, nearly dropping the notes she was trying to organize.

“Good grief, Jase. You scared me half to death.” He must have been waiting for her just outside the door to her Spanish lab. She’d barely stepped out into the hall when he appeared as if out of thin air.

They sped down the hall at a pace a bit too brisk for her short legs until Jase abruptly stepped in front of her and stopped. His eyes narrowed as his nostrils flared. She wrapped her arms around herself in defense, although what she had to be defensive about she wasn’t sure.

“What is that?” he asked, jabbing a finger at her shirt.

“I think it’s a Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Supernatural mash-up.”

The muscles in Jase’s jaw bulged. “Where did you get it?”

Talley sighed. She had planned on getting rid of Walker before Jase even knew he existed. For some reason, Jase didn’t react well to her parade of suitors. One of them had carried the mark of Jase’s annoyance - a black eye - until the full moon.

“I had an accident at lunch.”

“An accident?”

“I took a Dr. Pepper bath. Walker let me borrow his shirt.”

Jase’s lips pressed into a thin line. “You know Walker is a Shifter, right?”

“It did come up.”

There was a time when Jase would have exploded at her, but the past year had changed everyone. He was still angry, even without touching him she could see the wrath boiling just beneath the skin, but instead of throwing a tantrum, he kept his voice calm and controlled. “And how long has
Walker
been here?”

“Two hours, maybe?” Talley made a point of looking at her watch. “I got the impression he’d just got into town, and apparently I’m not that hard to find.” She wondered if there was some sort of tracking device on her since all the visiting Shifters seemed to have no trouble locating her on a campus filled with 28,000 students.

“He just got here?” He looked skeptical, but accepted Talley’s nod of confirmation if his willingness to continue walking was any indication. “Which pack?” he asked as they descended the back stairwell.

“Helkamp.”

Jase’s eyebrows scrunched together. “Helkamp?”

“Tiny pack down in Arizona. I think they have three Changing, including Walker.”

“Three Shifters make a pack?”

“Where two or three are gathered together as Shifters, there is a pack.”

“Nice try, Tal, but I do know my memory verses. Doesn’t your mother have some very strong feelings about bastardizing the Bible?”

Talley flinched, more affected by this new caustic version of his anger than the screamfests he was known to throw on occasion since starting to come into his own dominance. At least when he was screaming he was too busy attracting as much attention as possible to think about the best way to hurt the object of his anger. He knew what mentioning her mother and any of her mother’s “strong feelings” would do to Talley. She couldn’t believe he would be so cruel.

And she hadn’t even been purposefully trying to paraphrase the Bible. Unlike Jase, Talley didn’t grow up attending Sunday morning worship services and memorizing key verses. No, the Matthews practiced some old time religion. At least, her mother told her it was old. There really was no way to tell since most of the world was ignorant of Shifters and Seers, and therefore a religion practiced by just a small percentage of their numbers was basically unknown. While the Donovans focused on Jesus’s love and sacrifice, the Matthews saw God’s son as a footnote. Talley had been forced to read the Bible from cover to cover when she was eight, but most of her religious upbringing didn’t come from those pages. Instead, her mother relayed stories about the sacred duties of Shifters and Seers and holy aspects of the Alpha Pack. It was this belief system that led her mother to turn Scout, Jase’s sister and Talley’s best friend, over to the Alpha Pack in July. Jase made zero effort to hide his hatred for the woman and became enraged any time Talley came to her defense.