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Frankie's hand clasped firmly around my bicep, pulling me gently away. His voice was steady as he spoke, a grounding presence amidst the heat that threatened to cloud my judgement. "Theo, man, calm down."
I took a step back, my heart racing and my breathing hard and unsteady as the adrenaline rushed through my system. I took a deep breath, willing the claws that had formed to sink back into my fingers. It had been an age since I’d shifted purely from emotion, and I fought to keep a handle on it.
I looked over to Mario, calmer now on the outside, though my wolf raged inside me. “She’s off limits, Mario. And keep your comments to yourself. She’s a member of my team, and you’ll treat her with respect.”
"Got it, boss. Respect. Off limits," he said, raising his hands in surrender, though his lips still held a trace of amusement.
"Good," I muttered, turning away to hide the conflict that churned inside me at the thought of him laying his hands on her body. Images had raced through my mind, and for a moment, I had wanted to shift and tear his fucking throat out. Mario might be inappropriate, but he was a good man and good friend. What the hell was this woman doing to me?
"Boss, you seem off today," Frankie observed, his keen eyes narrowing as they met mine. "Everything cool?"
I nodded, taking a couple of deep breaths. I glanced over at Mario. "Sorry," I said, running a hand through my hair, pushing back the strands dampened by sweat. "It's just...it's so fucking hot, you know? I need a break. And a cold beer sounds like heaven right now."
"Let's wrap up here, then," Frankie suggested, already moving to finish the security check. "We'll head back and crack open a couple of cold ones. Mario can head the night shift for just generally being a dick.”
I grinned, and looked at Mario. “Yeah, you can take the dick shift.”
Mario rolled his eyes, but he grinned back. “You’re the boss.”
We wrapped up the last few checks, packed away the equipment and headed over to where the team had set up our tents. My wolves worked their asses off, but when they were off duty, they could get a little rowdy.
I’d set the security business up nearly ten years ago after working freelance on my own for a while. I had never been cast out from my pack, but I’d never quite fitted in, and while most wolves were very home and pack orientated, I’d always had a thirst for freedom and adventure. My business allowed me to travel as well as to return home when I needed my pack, and it had proved pretty lucrative when the world had gone to shit five years ago, so I got to send money back too. At first I’d hired ex police and ex military, but I’d soon attracted lone wolves that for various reasons had either left or been cast out of their packs.
Many had turned over a new leaf and just needed a second chance, and I’d been happy to give it to them. I’d had a couple of bad eggs, but most had become the most loyal guys ever, and I didn’t regret it once. I had a pack by blood, but these guys? These guys were pack too. They worked together, played together, and we’d even had a few matings in the last few years, Frankie’s being one of them.
Donna had been a great addition. She’d been rejected by her mate and left her pack, unable to see him with another wolf, but she’d found a new life with us, and when Frankie had joined up after a run in with some crime family in New York, she’d decided he was it and set about fixing him up good. They had been mated for two years, and he was a different wolf. Still fierce in a pinch, but a good friend and mate. Mario and I teased him about it, but deep down, I envied him, and now I’d met Sariel, I envied that set up even more.
As we wandered into the camp, I couldn’t help looking back towards the direction of the tell, wondering where she was.
Chapter Nine
SARIEL
We set off towards the location Cole had given us, with a brief foray into the large tent now assigned to equipment storage. Alastor had sorted Lily out with a couple of water bottles, and all three of us took a handful of energy bars and a bag of trail mix. This was only a brief excursion, but there wasn't any harm in being prepared. The sun was high in the sky, and beating down, and I felt grudging gratitude for the sunscreen Alastor had applied. I made a mental note to purchase some of my own in the nearby town as soon as possible. I didn’t like being beholden to him, and I certainly didn’t want to give him a reason to touch me again. I could still feel his warm fingertipsmoving firmly yet gently over my skin, and my stomach churned over the memory. Probably from repulsion. Yes, that was almost definitely it. And anger.
I’d managed to keep my temper under control during our little conversation back in the camp. Alastor might think all angels were mindless submissive drones, but he’d never met me. Yes, while submission and following orders without argument was the normal way of things, we were an army, and I couldn’t imagine any army on Earth not expecting their troops to be obedient and follow orders, so I wasn’t sure why he had such a thing against angels doing the same.
I frowned. Why did I even care what he thought? I’d felt a little spiky at having to follow the orders of a being so much lesser than me, and it wasn’t like I was being judgemental - angels were the first race, created by the Almighty One to be perfect, unending beings of light and love. Demons on the other hand were some kind of warped development that had been born out of rebellion, selfish desires and evil. Though I had to admit, I had met quite a few while I’d been on earth, and although I’d found most shallow and driven by their own selfish pursuits, the ones I’d worked with had never struck me as evil, Alastor included. This wasn’t the first time I’d wondered about what angels were being taught during their drill sessions about the demons themselves.
I smiled to myself. If Alastor thought we were all mindless drones, he certainly hadn’t lucked out with me, as I thought he might be starting to realise. My mouth had got me into quite a bit of trouble over the centuries, and although in the last six hundred years, I’d matured and managed to keep my temper in check, I still wasn’t past mindlessly obeying orders, and even sometimes disobeying them if I thought it was the right thing to do. My smile faded and I sighed. It was the whole damn reason I was here, after all. But I guess Alastor didn’t know that. Iwasn’t even sure that Gabriel had told Palmer why I was being punished.
I took a breath, trying to calm myself, and Lily glanced back at me.
“You ok back there?”
I nodded, following her between two of the dry spiky shrubs that populated this arid landscape.
“I’m fine.”
“Don’t tell me you're worn out already,” she teased. “It wasn’t exactly a long walk, and look, we’re here already.” She gestured in front of us, and I looked up and smiled.
The tell itself rose high into the sky above us, a towering mound of earth and stone with a gentle slope on three sides, and a much steeper one on the fourth. Most of the ruins were found at the very top of the tell, nearer to the steep end. They had been meticulously excavated and within half an hour I found myself standing in what had once been some kind of building, surrounded by walls of rounded stone.
I turned to Alastor, who stood on one of the higher points, his dark eyes scanning the horizon.
"This is the location you wanted to explore for an entrance?" I asked. "It's the most excavated place on the entire site. If the entrance was here, surely the human archaeologists would have found it by now?" I tried to keep the scepticism out of my voice and my tone polite, but it clearly hadn't worked as Alastor turned slowly to look at me. I felt that familiar charge as our eyes met, but I refused to look away.
"Indeed," he drawled, his deep voice sending a shiver down my spine. "A fair observance, Sariel. And yes, you are quite right, however this is not the location I was interested in looking at. I merely wanted to get a feel for the land, get a good look around and this is the highest spot in the area to do so. We'll move on in a few moments."
