Women speak two languages, one of which is verbal.
--Steve Rubenstein
Dane glowered at the closed door, jaw clenched, and eyes burning. Now that the phoenix was back at his pack's suburban community, he wanted to make sure he continued to play an active part in her safety. He hadn't figured it out yet, but there was something untouchable about her. There'd never been anything untouchable about any of the girls in his past. Just thinking about it made him even more aggravated. Did he want her? Or did he want to protect her? Was there even a choice to be made between the two?
He stood with his arms tightly crossed, not sparing a glance to any of his fellow pack members when they happened by. Stoic and annoyed was exactly how he intended to remain.
Four pack leaders, including his older brother, were just beyond that infuriatingly thick door, talking about his phoenix. Probably things like where she would stay, who would protect her, and so forth. Why he wasn't in there, lending his own, well-deserved two cents, Dane would never know. He had, after all, been the one to save her not the pack leaders. She was in his custody by grant of the Council. Hence the glowering he currently practiced.
"If you stare hard enough, might actually break down one day."
Dane raised his gray eyes to find Rory a few feet away from him. Just as quickly, he looked away.
"Or do the Grey Wolves have laser sight I've never read about?"
He didn't give her any attention. Usually, a pretty girl like her would have pulled him deep into conversation by now, but he was still pissed about the words exchanged at the Covenant meeting. The reckless volunteering of himself and his pack in front of the Council had all but permanently marked him as untrustworthy. Rory must have thought that he was a crazed Don Juan, panting after every girl he saw. Which, admittedly, wasn't far off from the truth, but he didn't need her knowing it.
"Well, I'm looking for a change of clothes. Maybe some shoes?"
Of course she was. He didn't know what to give her; he wasn't prepared. He took his time uncrossing his arms, stalling for time. Then he pointed to a bush behind her. "All of the bushes that look like this-" he gently thumbed a pointy, waxy, dark green leaf-"have suitcases of clothes under them. We'll get you something else that fits better later." Original purpose? In a neighborhood where nearly everyone was a lycanthrope, extra sets of clothes were a necessity. However, it helped him today, having an answer for Rory. Before he did something ridiculous like let a smile slip, he resumed his glaring at the foreboding door.
He still couldn't figure out why he'd been so determined to be involved her protection after only a few shared glances and even fewer shared words. It shook him to the core, and only fed his frustration.
Again, her voice penetrated the silence between them. "So, is your charming, compassionate persona saved exclusively for rescue missions?"
He didn't miss how hopeful she sounded. A pang of guilt for switching moods so fast on her hit him in the chest, but it wasn't enough to make him unfold his arms. The alphas would emerge soon with what he predicted would be an almost certainly unfair verdict.
The only comfort Dane currently had was that the alphas would never let Rory back into Ivy's care indefinitely. Or alone with a vampire at all, really. If nothing else, he'd at least get to be nearer to Rory for a while. The slow-fading feud between vamps and lycans would be good for buying him time to assess the feelings that this fiery girl instilled in him. And, he would take as much time as he could get.
It was silent where Rory stood. Dane sighed. Here he was, anxiously awaiting permission to watch over her personally and he was treating her like a pariah. Another sigh escaped his lips. This time, it was one of defeat before he awkwardly swung around to face her.
Pointless.
She was gone; the dull scrubs she'd been wearing scattered aimlessly on the porch floor in front of him. Dane's eyebrows scrunched together and he bounded off the deck, wildly whipping his gaze all around him. The alphas would kill him if he'd already lost her. Why did women always have to run off when they were upset or weren't getting their way?
The overcast skies made the mid-afternoon seem more like early morning as a dark gray hue blanketed everything. Except for that one red spot in the sky. Or was it yellow?
Dane craned his head back far enough to peer harder into the sky. He felt his mouth droop slightly.
Gracious wings of flame flapped and steadied, sending a temporary ring of fire above him. Dane dropped to his butt and watched in a rare kind of awe that he'd only exhibited as a child during his first trip to Disneyworld. She was gorgeous, like a tiny lighthouse in a brewing hurricane. Something fell into place inside of him, and something else fell apart at the same time.
Maybe Pompeii was right. Maybe Rory was the answer to revealing themselves to the humans. It was beyond him how anyone could see her in flight and not feel something incredible stirring in their chest.
Behind him, the heavy door swung open.
He jerked toward the approaching alphas and shoved himself off of the ground. He kicked the scrubs off of the porch and into the nearby bushes with a brusque sweep of his leg before treating the alphas to an innocent smile. His brother, Shep, was the only one who didn't seem to buy it. Oh, well. You can't win them all, Dane thought with a barely visible shrug.
"Dane!" Uncle Crux called, his smile as wide as ever; the skin around his eyes crinkled with the effort. "You just missed the meeting, I see."
Dane arched a brow and directed his attention to his brother who had told him multiple times that he hadn't been invited to the small conference. Typical Shep behavior. How was he supposed to prove to the alphas and the Council that he could carry the weight of responsibility if no one handed him the burden? Hoping that his smile never faltered, he nodded to Crux.
"Seems that way, doesn't it?" He pushed his hands into his pockets before continuing. "I was busy talking to, er, Rory."
Immediately, Uncle Crux's eyes lit up. Two of the alphas departed together, still chatting about the phoenix and her potential. They were both blurs of animated expressions, hand motions, and raised voices. They looked like they'd just won a cruise-line sweepstakes. What the hell had they been talking about in there?
"Delightful! Where is she?" His common gray eyes sparkled with childlike giddiness.
Dane froze. He didn't want to chance a skyward glance for danger of the remaining alphas thinking he'd allowed Rory a birdy joyride. Better to change the subject, then.
"What is going to happen to her during her stay here?"
"Ah, yes," Crux said as if recalling a very sad memory. He removed his pocket watch from his vest and began shining it with a tiny grey handkerchief. Dane ignored the quirks; having lived with the man practically his entire life. Uncle Crux always seemed like he'd been born in the wrong era. "In light of the gravity of the situation, we feel that Shep would be more than qualified—"
"Wait. Shep?" Dane couldn't keep the harsh, incredulous tone out of his voice. He looked to his older brother with a disbelief he couldn't disguise. "Uncle, the Council put me in charge of her safety." He glanced to Crux's right to find Shep, standing tall and smug just behind him.
"Yes, and this pack would never act against the Council's wishes. You will be her escort to and from shift changes with the vampire, and Shep will remain her caregiver." The old guy looked at Dane as if he were trying to get out of this particular argument. He couldn't believe the alphas were trying to loophole their way out of giving him the slightest bit of responsibility.
Dane let out a pompous snort. "Look, she already knows me from the rescue. And she was raised alone with one guardian. Do you really think she needs to be handed off from person to person any more than necessary?" Before he'd even been sent on the mission, he'd gotten his debriefing. He'd skimmed more than perused the file, but he knew the basics.
"Little brother, the decision's already been made." Shep wasn't smug, but he didn't seem altogether unsatisfied, either.
Dane scoffed and threw his hands up in air. There was absolutely not a chance in hell that he wasn't the most qualified person for the job. After all, he had seen more of what she was capable of than anyone else. Including her little fire-bird show less than a minute ago. They'd even bonded...in a way. That night of the rescue when he'd shared every last one of her memories for a split second.
"She doesn't need a nanny," Dane bit back. "Uncle Crux, you can't be thinking of going against the Council's wishes."
"Ada—"
"She prefers Rory," Dane interrupted. He bit his tongue and looked down at his shoes when his brother raised an eyebrow.
"Why is that?" his uncle asked, his tiny spectacles sliding down his plump nose a bit.
"It's short for Roarer."
All three lycans jumped and turned toward Rory, who'd found a large t-shirt to dress herself in. That wasn't very surprising. Many times Dane had been given the chore of dumping clothes in safe areas around the neighborhood just in case any unexpected shifts occurred in the pack. He was sorry he hadn't put anything in the suitcases that would fit someone so slender, though. Dane had to try especially hard not to linger on the sight of Rory's suddenly exposed legs.
Shep's voice helped get his attention away from that tempting sight. "We understand this must be a very stressful time for you, but trust me—"
"Dane is right. I don't need a nanny. What I need—" Rory continued as if Shep hadn't even spoken—"is a friend. Someone who I can trust to take care of me. Not someone who is ordered to."
Dane moved a bit closer to the dark-haired girl, somehow advocating her outburst. Even if only with body language. Where had this new Rory come from? Dane couldn't help but notice her new spark, and he liked it. Shep looked as stone-faced as ever, arms crossed and hooded brow shading his gaze. Across from him, Uncle Crux was grinning nervously as if trying to placate Rory and appease Shep at the same time.
Before Dane could properly enjoy the sight of the two flustered alphas, Rory's long, gentle fingers were wrapped around his bicep. Curious, he peered down at her. But her burning coal eyes were on Crux and Shep. A strange intensity was clear on her face, but Dane was too tall to actually see into her eyes.
"Dane will be my escort and sole caregiver until I am moved into Ivy's care," she murmured. Her voice sounded like a mother soldier's: strong and delicate. Either way, he'd never heard anything like it.
Her fingers dug into his skin just a little as she pulled him away from his brother and uncle. He expected a debate from the two about what was best for Rory and how the four alphas had already come to a conclusion, but the building behind them was silent and Dane was enjoying how electric her skin felt on his.
"What was that?" he asked, when they were far enough from the scene they'd just left.
"I owed you one," she said, as if deciding whether or not to explain. She bit her lip and looked down at her feet as they walked. Amused, Dane realized that she had just lied to him.
He'd allow that for now. Mostly because a breath later she'd resorted to resting her head against his shoulder. He couldn't even begin to imagine how tired she must be. It was so easy to forget that she had literally just gotten out of a cage after being ripped from the only life she'd ever known.
Well, until her memories resurfaced in his mind, shocking him into her previously traumatized state. Her sadness and pieces of things he'd knew she'd hate to remember assaulted him a few times an hour, like he had singular telepathy. Was she thinking of the cage that often?
"Thanks for stickin' up fer me." His voice came out in a caressing whisper. "Yer certainly the prettiest knight in shining armor I could've asked fer." She glanced down at her hands like she'd never been flirted with before. With a face like that, he couldn't imagine that being the case.
They'd reached the back porch of his estate. Technically, it was his brother's estate, but no one really claimed much as their own in the pack besides partners. It was everyone's house. The wrap-around deck wasn't exactly subtle in its luxury, but most of the family preferred to be outside, so it was an integral feature. The dozens of rocking chairs, the set of swinging benches, and the multitude of worn-through couches were all necessities.
Neither of them sat, though. The two leaned against the porch railing comfortably standing next to each other instead. He wanted to ask her how she turned into a bird and back into a human so quickly, to see if it was anything like his own shift, but she spoke first.
"It sounded like you could use some support. It doesn't really seem like you get much of that around here," she reasoned. He realized that she could be referring to a multitude of instances: from his own brother's attempt to push him out of this assignment to the Council's reluctance to allow him to be Rory's bodyguard. He scrambled to change the subject.
Her arm was still lazily looped through his, and he commented idly on how warm her skin was. Lycans were naturally warm-blooded; their temperatures were a steady one-oh-three on most days. But this girl felt even hotter than that. Dane coughed, trying to keep his mental flirtation silent.
Then he caught sight of her mouth. Her smile was almost imperceptible. Dane cocked his head trying to get a better look, wanting to memorize it. He'd never seen a smile that held so many secrets.
"My temperature always spikes for a few hours after a molt," she said, sounding perfectly practiced.
"So it's a molt, not a shift, then."
She smiled in a shy, sad way. "Me being the last of my kind makes it hard to know if that's the official label, but it's what me and Uncle Matt came up with." Timidly, her arm slipped out of his.
"You miss your guardian?" he asked, closing the distance between them as if chasing the contact with her. Rory didn't notice.
She nodded in response to his question and looked out over the backyard where a few younger kids were playing a rambunctious game of tag. She seemed uncomfortable and quietly nostalgic. Dane had no idea how to respond to it. Every time she looked at him, there was this light shining out of those sad eyes of hers. But when left to her own thoughts, he had come to discover that it would be a struggle to pull her out.
All he knew was that he wanted to be the one to make that light come back. Even if only for a few moments.
"Want to see a trick?" he offered, fumbling for a lighter in his pocket. Rory's bright brown eyes were back on him now, which was eons better than her distant, glazed-over stare. Eventually, he pulled out a simple Zippo lighter and swabbed the pad of his fingers across it. "Okay, my brother taught me this when I was a wee little bastard. I don't even know if I remember it."
He snapped his fingers against the wick, and watched as the gas caught onto the fluid on his fingers, igniting into a small flame.
"Magic," he said proudly, clicking the lighter closed with an absent flick of his fingers. Rory broke into a huge smile, one that showed her teeth. He hadn't seen a lot of that particular smile on her, but man, it was gorgeous. He watched her forget her troubles and terrors and decided that it was stunning.
Wordlessly, she inspected the lighter before holding her own fingers out in front of her. For a moment, she simply stared at her own hand. Then, she held her fingers together as if preparing to snap.
A raging flame burst from her fingertips and Dane leapt backward. The fiery tower was at least four feet high. Rory must have recognized the fear in his eyes as he clung to the railing and winced against the sudden heat. She released her hand from the snapping position and promptly allowed the flames to extinguish as if they had never been there.
Speechless, Dane looked up at the awning covering the porch and found it melting around a gaping hole. The children in the yard had stopped playing, and were staring with mouths agape, watching Rory with wide, wondrous eyes. His own gaze found her face, watching as an uncomfortable expression contorted her pretty features.
"Beginner's luck?" she whispered.
Damn, that was the most tragic expression she'd ever worn. He cautiously pushed himself over to her and reached for the hand the flames had just come out of. She gave him that familiar deer-in-the-headlights look, but didn't pull her hand away from his. Her skin burned the way hot water on cold feet did. He smiled reassuringly anyway. This was something he knew how to do.
With the utmost care, he lifted his free hand to cup her cheek, watching as her eyes widened even further. He couldn't tell if he was leaning in to her or if the entire planet's gravity was shifting around her face, but he wasn't going to stop himself.
The sound of a throat clearing itself, however, did make him jump back and away from Rory's warm form. That didn't normally happen. Usually, he wouldn't have cared less about who saw him with his latest interest. He closed his eyes to cool his blood. Was she his latest interest? He was supposed to be protecting this girl, not flinging himself on her.
Shep stood there in front of them, waiting for something. Dane glanced at Rory. Her face had smoothed over; her eyelids lowered to an aloof hanging point, and her jaw clicked as it clenched.
"I didn't get to introduce myself," his brother said, extending a meaty hand. For someone who was only four years older than Dane, he sure was a lot haughtier.
"Rory." She shook his hand delicately.
"Shep," he responded in a voice naturally deeper than Dane's. Even his accent was thicker. Dane crossed his arms and leaned against the porch railing. Shep had never been one for words, and when he did speak, it was with a formal, commanding harshness that had never suited Dane. It was his alpha voice.
Shep glared at him. 'You can't kiss the phoenix,' he heard his alpha's voice ring out in his head. Man, he hated it when Shep used his alpha mentalism on him. 'You certainly can't kiss a girl you just met last night.'
'Brother,' Dane responded with a mental smirk, 'I kiss girls I just met five minutes prior. Sooner, if possible.'
His brother raised one of his heavy dark eyebrows before his expression settled into one of general disappointment.
Realizing that his brother hadn't taken well to the joke, Dane tried a different approach. 'Come on, Shep. Don't always be so serious about everything.'
Instead of responding, Shep turned his attention back to the pretty girl beside him.
"You'll be safe here with us. Are you hungry? We can have Danielle make you anything we've got in the kitchen."
"Starved, actually."
Shep smiled his patented, taut alpha smile, and Dane rolled his eyes. "Great. We have a room upstairs ready for you. My brother and I will be at your disposal whenever you're here. Don't hesitate to come find me."
Dane sniffed. Shep had never had a problem pulling in the ladies, but it's not like he took notice of them anymore. Ever since he'd taken over their father's position as alpha, he'd also adopted the label of pack bachelor. Still, Dane didn't want his brother around Rory any more often than he had to be.
A bellow of wind rustled the leaves and bent the trees in the backyard. Dane had known a storm was coming since early that morning. He could smell it. It always got like that around the end of August, anyway. Dane couldn't bring himself to close his eyes and enjoy it.
Eventually, Rory spoke first in her usual mousy tone. "It was very nice to meet you, Shep. Thank you for opening your home to me." She turned to him as if asking to be led away.
Dane motioned for her to go inside without him. She turned, her long arms gracelessly hovering at her side as she peeked in the back door. She glanced back at him and smiled, before moving inside and out of sight.
Dane waited until she was out of earshot before he blurted out, "One hell of a house guest, eh?"
Shep's eyes were warm when they turned upon his brother's. Somehow, it reminded Dane of the brother he used to be, not the alpha he'd grown to be. "Still don't think you should kiss her."
"Yeah, well since when have I ever listened to your advice about anything?"