He took Michelle’s hand, and before Josh knew what he was doing, he’d put himself in Gabe’s path, showing his teeth.
His back was to her so she wouldn’t have seen anything, but Gabe sure did. But rather than be upset or offended, he had to wrestle back a grin. Josh narrowed his eyes, promising retribution, friend to friend, if he got any teasing about this.
Josh made himself step to the side, placing his hand on Michelle’s shoulder. Her brows were up as she glanced back and forth between them both.
“Sorry, wolf stuff.” Gabe shrugged, his smile still in place.
She took his hand, shaking it.
“If you don’t mind my saying so, you don’t look well.” Gabe examined her closely.
“The spell that was used was…wrong. Gage told me it should wear off in a bit.”
“How about you eat something? I was just about to head home to see my babies. Why don’t you and Josh come along? Nick said he was going to grab some Chinese on the way to meet us. I’ll call and tell him to get extra.”
“Gabe, Nick and Tracy have two daughters. And a dopey three-legged dog named Milton who guards them with his life.”
Gabe laughed. “He’s really fond of all the food they drop. What do you say? You can fill us in on what you know. Maybe we can brainstorm something.”
“Are you sure?”
Gabe smiled, charming. “Of course. Nick would only whine about me and Tracy having met you and him not yet. He’s a handful that way.”
Her phone rang. “Excuse me a moment. This is Gina.”
She answered and turned to where she’d been sitting at his desk.
“Are you all right?” Gina asked.
Michelle took a deep breath. “I think so.”
“I’d like to see you. To do a quick check of your shields and your aura. I want to be sure you’re unharmed. I know Gage told you we’re learning all this as we go.”
“Tell her to come to my house for lunch. She can check you there.” Gabe announced this without so much as a pardon me for listening in on your phone call.
“You’ll get used to that. Tell him what your limits are. He might even remember it. But don’t count on it. Wolves, especially male wolves, are ridiculously overprotective. I’ll grab Damon and we’ll meet you at their place in a few.”
She hung up and looked back at both men, who stood, arms crossed over their chests, only making them appear more imposing.
“I’ve seen that one before. Lots of perps do that.” She put the phone into her pocket and stood. She was still a little dizzy but at least nausea had retreated some and she didn’t have double vision anymore. “Also, it’s rude to eavesdrop.”
Josh grinned at Gabe, who raised a brow.
“Gina is right. We’re really nosy and overprotective. We have great hearing so it’s hard not to eavesdrop on a phone call. It comes in handy sometimes though. There’s a bright side.”
Gabe Murphy appeared to be a bigger handful than Josh, which said a lot. Little tiny Tracy must be a powerhouse to keep him in line.
“We’ll meet you at your place.” Josh nodded at Gabe, who waved one last time and disappeared.
“If you need to rest, they have extra bedrooms. It’s a soothing place they’ve got. Warded by the Owen witches just months back. It’s safe and quiet. It’ll do you good. You’ll like Nick.”
“They’re your family, right? So this is like…meeting your dad? Your other dad, since I already met Gabe.”
He took her face in his hands and kissed her quickly. “Sort of, I guess. Don’t be nervous, all right?”
She sighed as he took her bag. “Maybe if this last week hadn’t been filled with kidnapping, dark magic, attacks and death, I might be more worried. At this point, I’m just happy to be somewhere no one will try to kill me for a little while.” She looked him askance. “No one will, right? I mean there’s no battle to the death or anything like that?”
He burst out laughing as they headed out to his car. “Nope. Just a dog, some toddlers and alpha wolves.”
One of the girls, Rose, the two-year-old, had settled next to Michelle, reaching out to pat her hand from time to time. It was pretty freaking adorable. And it eased some of her nervousness.
Not that anyone had given her anything to be nervous about. Tracy, Nick—who looked like a model—and Gabe had been incredibly welcoming. Josh had stuck close. The girls were sweet and jolly, and the house was, just as Josh had said, soothing and calm, even with all the people in it.
People. Ha. Weres had so much energy. Power coming off them in waves. She’d have known the difference in a crowd, between a human and a shifter. Funny how she never noticed it before. There had to be shifters in Roseburg for goodness’ sake, she’d just never been in any enclosed space or near enough to one. Or maybe she didn’t notice, or attribute it to any one person in particular.
Whatever the case, when Gina arrived with another Owen witch, Rhonda, it was easy enough to tell the difference between their energy signatures.
Rhonda was a nurse much like Allie, and it sent a slice of sadness through Michelle at the thought.
“Let’s take a look at you.” Gina looked back over her shoulder to Tracy. “Can we use the office down here? It’s hard to get a good read with all this magick around.”
“Oh, of course!” She opened the door and let them in. Rhonda closed it and magick rushed through the room.
“I’m just going to look you over, all right?”
Michelle nodded, watching Rhonda and Gina, seeing how they drew energy and used it.
It didn’t take very long, less than three minutes or so, before Rhonda’s gaze sharpened and she looked into Michelle’s eyes.
“You’re all right. Nothing permanent. I expect you’ll feel nauseated for a bit. Whatever was done was unnatural. A gross misuse of energy and power. It’ll rebound eventually if the caster was human or witch. I don’t know though. There’s something else here that seems more than stolen magic. This is…” Rhonda licked her lips as she thought. “To aim a spell like that, to cause one person to harm another, much like what they did in the convenience store, it takes a lot of power and focus to do something like that.”
“Do you think there’s something else helping? Another sort of paranormal we don’t know about?”
“We need to talk to Gage and Lark about this. And Josh too. He’ll want to protect the pack, as will the Alphas.” Gina ran hands through her hair and still looked gorgeous afterward. If Michelle had done that she’d look like a hobo.
“Let’s have Josh come in when we call Gage. I don’t want the children to hear.”
“Good idea.”
She went out to get Josh, Gina right behind her, but found yet another woman touching him when they got to the dining room. Only this one wasn’t touching him like a friend. She looked up into his face like she wanted him to kiss her, and her back was arched like she was trying to brush her boobs against him.
Something hot and unpleasant ran through her veins at the sight.
Tracy was speaking quietly to Josh and the woman, but it was Josh who turned and started. “Michelle.”
“So glad you remembered my name. I’m going to make a call to Owen. I thought someone from the pack might want to be present. If you’re not too busy.” She turned and walked back into the office.
Gina closed the door and leaned against it. “I need to talk to you about this whole thing. Wolves are…casual about their affections. But with the one—the one as in the forever one—it’s different.”
Josh tried to open the door, Gina poked her head out. “Back off. I’ll let you know when you can come in.” And closed it in his face.