Moira Rogers - Crossroads

“Jackson’s hurt, and his mother is—” She looked up at him and bit off the rest of her words with a soft curse. “Their cell numbers are on the corkboard in the office. Can you call them and ask them to meet us upstairs?”

“Yeah. Sure.” He tried to smile to reassure her, but it felt flat. “Anything else?”

She scooted her stool closer to Michelle’s. “Have you eaten lately, Micky?”

It was apparently the wrong question to ask. Michelle groaned and paled even more. “Aaron keeps forcing food on me every hour.”

Aaron growled softly. “Because you keep throwing it up.”

“Because I’m pregnant and terrified .”

“Which makes it more important to eat, not less.”

Derek cleared his throat. “You’ve got some tea back there, don’t you, Nick? Kat’s always drinking it when she’s here. I can find some of that.”

“The decaf stuff. Thanks, Derek.” She glanced at him again. “And some pretzels, I think. From the pantry.”

“Pretzels and tea. Got it.” He fought the urge to ask if she’d be okay going upstairs on her own. It would be insulting, considering Nick could probably command her shapeshifter strength better than he could. Then there was Aaron, whose bulk dwarfed them all. “I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

She murmured something unintelligible, her attention already back on Michelle.

He faintly heard their fading voices as he strode into the kitchen and squinted at the wall until he found a light switch. He flicked it up and down, but nothing happened, so he gave thanks to his enhanced senses and picked his way across the kitchen to the office on the far side.

The lights in the office did work. Derek pulled out his cell phone as he studied the corkboard beside Nick’s neat desk, but he didn’t dial any of the numbers he found there. Instead he called Andrew.

His friend answered on the third ring, sounding tired and grumpy. “If you’re calling me to gloat about how you finally got to nail your dream girl, I’m going to kick your ass tomorrow.”

If only. “Not so much. Listen, this could be awkward, but I need you to go back to Kat’s apartment and keep an eye on her.”

His entreaty was met with silence. Then Andrew cleared his throat. “Not too tough. I haven’t left Kat’s yet. What’s going on?”

Derek froze, caught between relief and irrational protective anger. “You haven’t left yet?”

“Derek, I’m not leaving Kat here alone, passed out drunk. I’m on the couch.”

“Okay, okay. Just…stay there, would you? Nicole’s sister showed up at the bar talking about their Conclave and fucking execution orders. Last time all the shapeshifters got riled up, someone broke into Kat’s place for God knows what reason.”

“Christ. Yeah, I’ll stay. Are you calling Alec and Jackson?”

“Alec, first. Not sure if we should drag Jackson into shit when he’s still recovering and his mom is in town. Alec will know, I guess.”

“Sure.” On the other end of the phone, a microwave beeped and stoneware clattered. “I’m going to have some coffee. Call me back if I need to take Kat over to my place.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Andrew.”

“Don’t mention it. Keep me posted.”

He disconnected the call. Instead of consulting the corkboard, he scrolled through the numbers stored in his cell. This time it only rang twice before he heard Alec’s gruff voice. “You’d better not have called me by mistake during some drunken sex.”

The greater New Orleans area seemed to be under the assumption that he and Nick would be naked by now. Which we might be, if life didn’t suck. “Hi, Alec. I’m doing great, thanks. Nick asked me to call you. Think there’s trouble. Her sister’s here.”

“Michelle? Alone?”

Derek moved to a shelf on the far side of the office and picked up a flashlight. “Not alone. With a big hulking angry-looking werewolf.”

“Well, that goes without saying. Aaron’s her bodyguard. I meant, is the Alpha with her? Their dad?”

“No. She said something about being pregnant, and an execution order for Aaron, and her powers being out of control.”

“For fuck’s—shit, just a second.” He heard a muffled noise and the faint murmur of a female voice, followed by the slam of a door and the crunch of gravel. “I’m not that far out. They at Nick’s place?”

“No, upstairs above the bar.” Derek flicked on the flashlight and moved back into the kitchen to search the cupboards for tea. “Nick asked me to call Jackson too, but I figure you’d know if that was a good idea.”

“Fuck, no. His mom’s in town.”

“He can’t let Mackenzie look after his mother?”

“Kid, no one tells Nancy Holt to stay home and keep out of things. That woman’ll be climbing all over us if she gets a whiff of trouble, and Nick knows it.”

She had looked wary. Derek propped the phone against his shoulder to free up a hand so he could search the cabinets. “So we’re not calling him?”

“I’ll decide once I figure out what the hell is going on. I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”

“Uh-huh, and then you’re going to explain to me what in hell is going on, right?”

Alec snorted. “You don’t want to know.”

Maybe he didn’t, but sticking his head in the sand and walking away wasn’t an option. “Maybe not, but I need to, Alec.”

“Yeah.” Alec sighed roughly. “Fine. Reader’s Digest version. You know Michelle’s a Seer, right?”

“Superpowerful magic shapeshifter hybrid. I paid attention to the shit that went down last month, Alec.” Which was only a little lie. He would have paid attention if any of them had bothered to explain it to him while it was happening. “She’s got all sorts of rules and shit governing her life, and it sucks. I remember that part.”

“Do you remember the part about her not being allowed to have sex?”

Derek dropped a box of tea. “Uh, she’s pregnant, Alec.”

“Well, someone’s been breaking the rules. I say more power to her, but the possibility that she’s going to have some powerful little Seer baby is going to give the Conclave a collective shit-fit.”

“Jesus. They’d kill her for it?”

“Derek, most shapeshifters would kill her just for being who she is. If Nick’s dad wasn’t the big fuckin’ honcho, chances are she wouldn’t have survived infancy. That’s our dirtiest little secret. They may shun wolves like you, but they murder the ones like Michelle.”

“And Aaron?”

“He’s not really her bodyguard. At least, he’s not supposed to be. He’s a Conclave spy. If he helped her escape, that’s treason.”

Derek had gotten the impression that Aaron’s involvement was a lot more intimate and involved than just escape plans, but it was the last subject he wanted to discuss with Alec over the phone. “Okay. So the Conclave’s scared and pissed. Is Nick in danger?”

“Doubt it. It may seem like their dad can’t protect Michelle, but he’s fighting a few hundred years of tradition there. Nick’s the Alpha’s heir. No one would dare touch a hair on her head.”

It made it easier to breathe, if only because he knew Alec wouldn’t lie. “Okay, I’m going upstairs now. I’ll tell Nick you’re on your way.”

“Ten minutes out, kid. Hang in there.”

“Thanks, Alec.” Derek shoved the phone in his pocket before rummaging through the boxes again. It only took a few seconds to find the one box of decaffeinated tea. The pretzels were easier to find, and Derek snatched up an entire bag and hurried upstairs.

He found Michelle and Aaron sitting on the overstuffed sofa. The tall man had one brawny arm around her shoulders, and she leaned into him. Nick paced in the kitchen and rushed over to him as soon as he opened the door. “Thanks, Derek.”