When the clip ended, Tao turned to Marcus. “I heard you marked Roni.”
“Yep.”
“I knew you wanted her badly, but I hadn’t expected you to mark her. I heard Nick went postal.” Tao smiled at the idea.
Marcus returned the smile. “I honestly thought the vein in his temple would pop.” He twisted his mouth. “But I can’t say I blame him. My rep isn’t pretty.”
“Yep, it seems it’s come back to bite you in the ass. I was a little wary of her in the beginning. She just seems so . . . aloof and standoffish. But then I realized she’s only like that with people who don’t matter to her. I can relate to that.”
True. Tao wasn’t interested in expanding his world beyond the people he cared about, but with those people he could be considerate, protective, and loyal. For him, everybody outside of his pack, particularly humans with their ignorance and prejudice, was no concern of his.
“She earned my loyalty when she saved Kye,” said Tao, a tinge of self-condemnation in his voice.
“Tao, it wasn’t your fault that you passed out. Nobody thinks less of you for it. Hell, Roni and Shaya passed out too. It just took you a little longer to come around.”
“It still pisses me off.”
Marcus went to say more, but then his cell phone rang. Taking it from his jeans’ pocket, he saw that the caller was Shaya. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Please tell me you’re not busy.”
Marcus straightened in his seat. “What’s going on?”
“Well, Roni shifted into her wolf form yesterday a few hours after she got home, and . . . well . . . we can’t get her to change back.”
“I’ll be right there.” He ended the call.
Tao, obviously having overheard the conversation, said, “We’ve got this; go see your girl.”
A short time later, Marcus was striding through Nick and Shaya’s lodge. In the living area, he found the Alpha pair, along with Derren, Eli, and the enforcers, having a tense conversation. “Where is she?”
Nick jumped to his feet. “What are you doing here?”
Shaya quickly explained, “I called him.”
Nick spun to face her. “You called him?”
“He might be able to do something.”
“How do you figure that?”
Leaving the couple to argue, Marcus turned to Eli. “Why are you all so worried? If you don’t trust that Roni’s going to shift back any time soon, something must have happened. She was calm when she left me yesterday.”
Eli sighed, clearly troubled. “After we got back, she vanished, and we thought she’d disappeared in her wolf form. When it happens, she never goes far, but she mostly avoids people; eventually, she makes her way back, but it can still be months before she shifts again. She hasn’t done it since moving here, and we were concerned that seeing the vid—reliving the memories—would act as a trigger. As it turned out, she hadn’t shifted. She was just hiding in one of the lodges. We tried assuring her that it was okay to be upset—”
“Did she look upset?”
Eli seemed surprised by the question. “What?”
“Did she look upset? Did she say she was?” Because her family had a nasty habit of “assuming” when it came to Roni—assuming they knew what she was feeling, what was best for her, what her limits were, and what she wanted.
“No, she kept saying she was fine. But there was no way she could possibly be fine. Still, it looked like she might not bolt on us. But then she and Nick clashed over the decision of whether or not to tell Mom everything. I think it acted as the cherry on the cake—she was dealing with enough already—and that just made it worse, so she broke and shifted to escape it all.”
Maybe. But none of that added up to Marcus. It didn’t fit with the Roni he’d come to know—she didn’t “break.” In any case . . . “Shaya, you should have called me sooner. Has Kathy been told about the vid being on the website?” Marcus might just have to hurt Axton if he’d done something so fucking idiotic.
Shaya assured him, “I convinced Nick not to say anything.”
Good. “I want to see her.”
Nick took a step toward him. “Wait a minute—”
Shaya grabbed his arm. “No, you wait a minute, Nick. There’s a good chance he can do something.”
“Like what? He has no significance to Roni’s life.”
Derren cleared his throat. “She marked him.”
The air suddenly chilled. Slowly, Nick turned to face his Beta. “You did not just say that she marked him.”
“Look, Nick, we know you want her to be happy,” said Shaya. “And that’s great and all, but right now, she’s far from happy. We haven’t been able to help her. What’s the harm in letting Marcus try?”
The words “letting Marcus try” made him bristle. This wasn’t a negotiation. “I won’t leave without seeing her.”
Nick snarled at him. “You don’t have any authority here, Fuller. This is none of your business; it’s a pack matter—”
“This is a Roni matter, which makes it my business. I know you’re worried for your sister, and I know it will gall you if another male can help when you couldn’t. I get it. But this is about Roni—not you, not me, and not anyone’s pride.” Marcus returned his attention to Eli. “Where is she?”
Eli glanced from Nick to Marcus, and then sighed. “Follow me.” He led Marcus out of the lodge, into the forest, and deep into Mercury Pack territory. Nick and Derren came along, but they remained silent. Eventually, Eli halted near a fallen oak. “If you keep walking straight ahead, you’ll come to a clearing. That’s where she is. We’ll have to stop here or she’ll scent us. Her wolf won’t let any of us near her—not even Shaya.”
Derren scratched his nape. “Her wolf is clearly as pissed off as Roni is. And since Roni’s frustration will be feeding hers . . .”
“She has no tolerance right now,” finished Marcus.
Eli nodded. “We’ll wait here for you, just in case she warns you off.”
“She won’t.”
“What makes you think her wolf will allow you close, when she’s keeping everyone else away?” asked Nick. The hostility was gone; it was a genuine question.