Fated Legacy Complete Collection

Chapter 5

Chapter

Five

“ G autier!” hollered Lieutenant Hollings from his office outside the detectives’ bullpen.

Skylar shut down her computer, left her desk, and walked into his office. “Lieutenant?”

“The Chief just called down here and wants you outside ready to go in five. Any idea why?”

Skylar was clueless. She knew Chief Malloy. As Travis had pointed out, he knew her family—her pack—and knew what they were. He was one of only a handful of humans in the city that did.

“None whatsoever, but I know enough not to keep him waiting.”

She went back by her desk to pick up her gun before ensuring she had her badge and cell. Once she knew she had everything, she headed outside just as the driver rolled up with the Chief of D’s car.

Skylar heard someone coming down the steps behind her. “Detective Gautier, you ride with me.”

The chief didn’t break stride or wait to see if she followed; he just headed toward the waiting car and got in as soon as the door was opened. She followed him in and sat next to him.

“Chief Malloy? Can I ask where we’re going?”

“Down to the wharf. I’m afraid there’s been an incident with your Jeep.”

“My Jeep?”

The chief nodded. “Yes. Your fiancé called.”

Fiancé? Last time I checked I didn’t have one of those. Damn. He had to be talking about Travis. So now Travis was calling himself her fiancé? I need to shut that down before it gets back to Rivière Du Loup. Wait, what was he saying about her Jeep?

“What’s happened?”

“He went down to the wharf to retrieve it for you and found, according to him, a hunk of burning metal.”

“He called you and not me?” she asked as she decided she was so going to kick Travis in the nuts.

First he calls himself my fiancé and then calls the Chief of Ds instead of me about my Jeep.

“I sent a forensics team down there to meet us. Any reason someone would want to torch your car?”

“Vandals?” she suggested.

“No. Travis seemed to think it was more serious than that.”

“With all due respect sir, Travis isn’t a cop.”

“No, but like your younger brother, he spent some time in the military and can probably tell the difference between some kids getting their rocks off and a real threat.”

They fell into silence for the rest of the ride. Skylar was trapped between taking advantage of having the chief’s ear and trying to figure out what the hell she was going to do about Travis.

As they pulled up behind a police crime scene barrier, the chief got out and she followed.

“Travis. Good to see you,” the chief said, extending his hand for Travis to shake.

“Chief. Skylar, I’m sorry about your Jeep,” Travis said as he walked around the chief and enfolded her in his arms.

She wanted nothing more than to knee him in the groin or at least kick him in the shins, but then she caught sight of her Jeep—more accurately, the smoldering hunk of metal that had once been her sixteenth birthday present from her godmother, Skylar Grainger.

“Skylar gave that to me,” she whispered. “I know it was old, but…”

“I know, sweetheart,” Travis purred.

Skylar gently disengaged from Travis’s embrace and started toward what was left of her vehicle, finally stopping so that she wouldn’t be in the way of the crime scene techs.

“Any idea who might have done this?”

Risking a furtive glance at Travis, she responded, “No, sir. I was down here yesterday following up on a homicide.”

“We were planning to go to dinner, and I was in the area, so I picked her up. We were running late this morning, so I told Sky, I’d get it brought home,” supplied Travis.

“Why would she have you at a crime scene?” the chief asked, eyeing them both.

“Skylar and I are engaged,” Travis said without missing a beat. “I wasn’t at the crime scene per se but was just meeting Skylar here.”

The chief glanced at Skylar’s hand. “If you’d been wearing your ring, I would have congratulated you before now. I’ll expect an invitation to the bonding ceremony. You’ve got a bright future with the department, Skylar. I’m glad Travis is opening up a restaurant here. Maybe we can persuade him to let you stay with us.”

Before she could argue, she felt Travis’s hand on her shoulder. “That was my thought. If Sky wants to stay with the department, then I need to be here in the city.”

The chief turned back to Travis. “You know her apartment isn’t in the best neighborhood.”

“I do. Sky’s going to be moving in with me. We’re renovating the loft over the restaurant. I was headed to her place to collect some of her stuff and to give her landlord the required thirty days’ notice. I stopped here on the way to pick up the keys to her place.”

“That’s good to hear. I’m sure her papa will be glad to know she’s tucked in safely with you.” One of the techs walked toward them but stopped at a respectful distance. “What do you know?”

“It wasn’t kids. It was a professional, or at least someone with a good grasp on what he or she was doing. They smashed in the rear passenger and front driver’s windows. It looks like they opened up the driver’s door and then slashed all of the seats and floormats, doused everything with lighter fluid, and set the car on fire in multiple spots. Then they popped the hood to douse the engine before setting the whole thing ablaze. I’m sorry Skylar, it’s a total loss and anything you had in there has been destroyed. Well, except for this medallion. I don’t recognize the saint. We’ve already dusted it for prints.”

Skylar took the platinum chain and medallion gifted to each of her siblings by Travis’s mother on their eighteenth birthday. “It’s St. Ailbhe. The Irish patron saint of wolves. Do you need this for evidence, or can I keep it?”

The chief answered for the tech. “Take pictures of it and catalog it, but let Skylar keep her necklace. I’m sure if we need it later, she’ll produce it.”

The tech took the necklace, snapped several polaroid pictures of it, and labeled each of them before handing it back to her. Skylar slipped it on over her head.

“Was there anything in the Jeep they might have been looking for?” asked the chief.

“I’d been assigned to do some background investigation on the murder victim they found in that abandoned warehouse, but I kept the few notes I made on my phone and my laptop back at HQ.”

“Skylar, why don’t you take the rest of the day to deal with insurance. This is probably more random than targeted, but just to be sure, look through your notes and let me know if anyone you’ve talked to looks good for this.”

“I’m fine, sir. I can file an insurance report on my lunch hour.”

“No, I want you to take the day and make sure you let your insurance carrier know to follow up with HQ, as it might be job-related. How are you fixed for a car?”

“I can drive her to and from work,” Travis offered.

The chief nodded. “Probably not a bad idea.”

“I wouldn’t want to put Travis out, sir.”

“No problem, sweetheart,” said Travis. “That’s what fiancés are for. If she’s off the clock, Chief, I may take her to look at some things for the loft.”

“Sounds like a plan. Get her mind off it.”

“Sir, with all due respect, I’m standing right here, and I don’t need you and Travis making decisions about my day.”

The chief chuckled. “My apologies. I sometimes forget you are your mother’s daughter. You’re going to have your hands full, Travis.”

“Yes, sir, but in the best way possible.”

Skylar rolled her eyes, turned her back on both of them and walked to his truck, getting in without assistance.

When Travis got in behind the wheel, he headed off her tirade. “The more relaxed we look like as a couple, the more believable it is that you were just following up on something dull and routine as opposed to trying to catch a homicidal maniac without back up.”

“Homicidal maniac? That’s a bit much. At this point I have no idea what is driving this guy…”

“That means he’s not some kind of deranged psycho?”

She shrugged. “All I know right now is he’s preying on the women of this city, and I need to figure out what his next move is before he kills someone else.”

Travis pulled out into the streets of New Orleans, heading toward her apartment.

“And just where do you get off commandeering my life and telling the Chief of Detectives that we’re engaged?” she snarled.

“It seemed the easiest way to explain why you would be staying with me. And before you start in on not being with me, let me remind you, that maniac just torched your car.”

“We don’t know that it was him.” Travis took his eyes off the road just long enough to glare at her. “Okay, we probably know that. But still, now I’ve got to call Rivière Du Loup. I don’t want word of our engagement getting back to my family without an explanation. And I need to come up with something good.”

“That won’t give away the fact you’re chasing down a serial killer all on your own. I told you last night, you either agree to go along with staying with me so I can have your back, or I hogtie you and drag your cute little ass home so your father can.”

“Exactly what do you think would happen to you if I told my father you’d forced yourself on me?”

Travis laughed. “Forced? Hmm, the she-wolf I mounted several times last night seemed to enjoy being pleasured. Besides, your papa wouldn’t like the fact that you were taking this bastard on without backup. And all I have to do is call to you…” as he said this, her body trembled in response, “…in the presence of your papa, and it’s all over except for your bitching and complaining. I’ll ask, you’ll say no. I’ll challenge you to run, and I’ll catch you. Force me to do that, and I’ll give you another spanking. Then I will take you into seclusion to mark and claim you before knotting and tying you to me. And for the record, I do think we ought to at least tell both of our packs. You need to make a decision, Sky. I won’t keep having this same argument with you.”

“I don’t see that you’ve given me much of a choice.”

Travis grinned . The bastard is really enjoying himself. I might have to play along for now, but once I catch the killer, all bets are off.

“That’s not true. I’ve given you several choices. You may not like any of them, but how we proceed from here is entirely up to you.”

“The chief indicated you had served in the military. I didn’t know that.”

He nodded. “Delta Force. Given who my parents are and what they’ve done in our society, I felt like I had to prove myself. They didn’t understand, but I’m guessing you do.”

“On that, at least we can agree.”

She stood looking down at the casket of her training officer and partner as they lowered it into the ground. Warren Kramer hadn’t deserved to be gunned down on his way home from his shift. He’d stopped to pick up groceries and walked in on a robbery. The perps were unknown and had killed the shop’s proprietor as well.

When the service was finished, she walked over to his widow, Edie.

“I keep thinking he’s just going to come through the front door tonight, and I’ll realize this was all a bad dream,” she said, clutching Skylar’s hand.

“I know. That phrase from Shakespeare about we won’t know another one like him keeps tumbling through my brain.”

“You come from good people, Skylar. Your family sent the chef from the plantation to cook for the gathering this afternoon. Your mama wouldn’t take no for an answer. Like mama like daughter. Warren always said you were the most tenacious recruit he ever trained. Smart as a whip, never missed a shot, and fitter than anyone he’d ever partnered with.”

“I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do without him. When my dad found out I’d entered the police academy, he had a meltdown.” Skylar laughed, remembering.

Jean-Michel had come into the city with JD and two other young pack members, insisting that she come home. The night before, her mother had asked her why she was doing it.

“You have to ask, mama?” she’d said.

“No, I don’t suppose I do. I can imagine growing up the only daughter of your father. I know that hasn’t always been easy for you. But you will be careful?” Darby had said.

Skylar had agreed and ended the call. She’d known when she hung up on her mother that it wasn’t over. Her father was used to having his word be law for his pack, but he’d raised her to be every inch the alpha she-wolf her namesake was and had instructed her mother to train her to fight.

Skylar smiled at the memory and continued, “He brought some of the men who work for us into the city to take me home. Papa and I were having a shouting match in the parking lot. Warren walked out, leveled an assault rifle at my dad, and asked him if there was a problem. My dad said he knew Warren would have fired on him—not killed him, but definitely put a bullet in him. My dad always respected that.”

Edie recalled the incident as well. “I doubt he would have challenged the Alpha of New Orleans for anyone other than you. He believed in you, Skylar. Believed you could be a real asset to the department. Said you were destined for great things.”

“He was a wonderful friend and mentor. I feel lucky to have known him.”

“You know he supported your application to become a detective. Said you could do more good trying to solve crimes and help victims, than you could on the street.”

“I was accepted. I’m moving up next week.”

“Do something for me?” Edie asked.

“Anything. Anything at all.”

“Find out who did this. Bring them in. It’s being written off as a random street crime. It was given a little more importance because Warren was a cop, but I don’t feel like it’s a priority.”

“I’ll find whoever it is. And much as I’d like to rip their throats out, I won’t. That wasn’t Warren’s way. I will honor him and see them brought before a court. They’ll pay, Edie. I promise.”

Skylar made good on that promise. While going through the detective training, she convinced her class that finding Warren’s killer would be a good extra credit project. They’d pulled it off and the two men responsible were now on death row.

Travis was right. He probably knew better than most men what it was to be born into a pack that had a long and noble history and whose parents had brought about the end of an evil that had been perpetrated by one of their own kind.

“I’ve never been sure if it was harder for Rémy or for me,” she said as the memory faded.

“Rémy?”

“Yeah, he’s our father’s son and outwardly the most like him, and yet Jean-Edouard will be alpha. A very different kind of alpha than my father, but I think he’ll be an excellent leader. I worry about where that leaves Rémy. I know my mother feels he’s safer as a SEAL because she fears he’ll go rogue without a pack of his own. On the other hand,” she continued, “I’m a she-wolf but my mother is… well, my mother. I love her to death, and she really is one of my personal heroes, but still she doesn’t seem to fit in to wolfen society as a whole.”

Travis laughed. “Your mother? Mine broke from her origin pack and ran rogue for years. Even now, she doesn’t fit the commonly held role of mistress of the pack.”

“And that doesn’t trouble you? Being called to a she-wolf who is never, and I do mean never, going to conform to what our society deems as proper?”

“Hell no. How boring would that be? My mother drives my father crazy, but he wouldn’t change her. He and Uncle Aiden once had a hell of a row over it. They almost came to blows because my father will defend my mother’s right to be who she is to the death. And before you go getting any silly ideas in your head, you should know that when my father puts his foot down, my mother either chooses to obey him or gets forced to.”

“Am I supposed to think that sounds like a dream come true?” she snorted.

“I don’t know, you were all kinds of aroused when I spanked you.”

“It wasn’t the spanking; it was the adrenaline from the confrontation with the killer.”

Travis pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex, stopped the truck, and looked at her.

“You just keep telling yourself that, Sky. You forget I’m a wolf. I can smell my mate’s arousal and feel what you’re feeling. The adrenaline was pumping, but you didn’t get aroused until I imposed my authority on you.”

Skylar reached for the door handle, but Travis prevented her from opening it. When she tried a second time, he smacked the back of her hand.

“You wait,” he commanded.

“That’s stupid.”

“Maybe, but I’m telling you not to do it. If I were you, I’d pick my fights with your fated mate. I’ll spank your pretty bottom whenever you disobey me. Given that I like doing it and how turned on you get, you might want to try and limit the number of times in a given day that you get yourself spanked. You might want to ask yourself if whatever it’s about, is worth it.”

Skylar said nothing but relaxed back against the seat.

“Good girl,” he rumbled, leaning over to nuzzle her neck.

She wondered why it was that the simplest gesture seemed to have an erotic charge attached to it. She could feel it throughout her system, creating a direct link to her pussy. The thing was actually pulsing, and Skylar considered trying to get him to fuck her in her apartment.

Travis came around and opened her door. She rolled her eyes as she started toward her front door and was rewarded with a smack to her rump.

“Knock it off, Skylar. Give me the keys, I’ll open the door.”

“You aren’t going to do something dippy and romantic and carry me over the threshold, are you?”

“Nope, I’ll save that for when we get back to our place.”

Travis took her keys and opened the door. Before she could push past him, he quickly pulled it shut, took hold of her elbow, and guided her back to his truck. He started the engine and drove back out of the parking lot.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” she asked.

“Call the station. Whatever he was searching for in your Jeep and didn’t find? He also went looking for it in your apartment.”

“It’s trashed?” she said quietly. He nodded. “He knows where I live.”

“No, sweetheart, he knows where you lived and he might figure out where you are now, but I can make the loft secure and will keep you safe. We should call Rivière Du Loup, and Wolf Meadow just to be safe, and let them know.”

“Do you think he’ll strike at them?”

“Not likely, but better safe than sorry.”

Her cell buzzed and she looked down at her phone. “I swear, he knows everything.”

“Of course, he does. New Orleans is his city, and you are his daughter. I’ll call Malloy and let him know about the break-in at your apartment. I’d like to have someone meet us at the loft as well.”

She answered the call. “ Bonjour, Papa. ”

“Don’t you bonjour, papa me. You’re engaged? Some madman has torched your Jeep? Travis is with you, yes?”

“Yes, yes and yes.” Skylar had learned long ago that prevaricating with her father usually only resulted in his getting angrier. “He says he’s my fated mate, but I’m not convinced.”

That turned her father’s anger to amusement and he chuckled. “Neither your mother or his were convinced they were the fated mates to Cameron and me. It is a common enough occurrence among strong-willed she-wolves. I have no doubt he will convince you. Put me on speaker.”

“I don’t think that’s?—”

“Now, Skylar, or I call him directly, alpha wolf to alpha wolf.”

“Fine,” she said hitting the speaker button.

“Travis Nichols. I understand you are making a claim for my daughter.”

“I am, Alpha. She is my fated mate. I would have spoken with you first, but time caught us up and I felt I needed to take her under my protection.”

“ Bien . I will tell you this is not a surprise. I have known since you were a boy that you were called to my Skylar. You love her?”

“I do, Alpha, in the same way you love your Darby, and my father loves my mother.”

“Then I wish you well and you have my blessing. If she chooses to be difficult, bring her home and she can challenge you to run. I have no doubt you’ll win the day. When might we expect a bonding ceremony?”

“Don’t you think I ought to be consulted in some of this?” asked Skylar with more than a hint of annoyance.

“No,” her father said. “This is a conversation for male alpha wolves, and you don’t have the requisite body parts.”

“Gross, Papa.”

“But correct, nonetheless. Travis?”

“With your permission, Skylar is working on a significant case and wants to see it through. It’s important to her and I support her decision, with the understanding that she will keep me advised of her activities.”

“Why not tell Malloy?” Jean-Michel demanded.

“Because Skylar isn’t ready to present her case. There was a break-in at Skylar’s apartment, and we did let him know about that. Sky will continue to keep him updated as she nails down the pieces of the puzzle. When she has everything she needs, she will let the chief and her direct superior know. She doesn’t want to look like she’s over-reaching. Until then, I will keep her safe.”

“And if I insist that you make an honest woman out of her immediately?”

“Then you and I will have an issue. Skylar is my fated mate and I will give my life to protect her and see to her happiness, and not you nor anyone else will tell me how to do that.”

“You think you could stand against the Alpha of New Orleans?” growled Jean-Michel.

“With all due respect, yes. I am ex-Delta Force, and my family has led the pack in Galveston for close to two hundred years. With your daughter at my side, there is no power on earth that could defeat me.”

Surprisingly, her father laughed. “ Bien. I think you and my daughter will do well together. If possible, we would like to see you both. Perhaps Darby and I will come into the city, and we can go to dinner.”

“Or maybe we could come for the weekend,” suggested Skylar, determined not to be left out.

“Even better. Travis, I would like to invite your parents to be our guests as well.”

“They would like that but let me call them to tell them. I doubt it will be any more of a surprise for them than it was for you. Perhaps in the next week or so, we can let Skylar, Darby, and my mother coordinate a date that will work for everyone?”

“An excellent idea. You mind your mate, Skylar. I fear you have met your match.”

Skylar rolled her eyes as her father rang off. “You might have talked to me about making a whole big thing with all of our parents at Rivière Du Loup. I can’t just go traipsing out there willy nilly.”

“True enough. But I don’t want my parents to feel left out and I know my mother is busy this weekend.”

“So why not wait and go later?”

“Because I figured it will give us a chance to get out of town while I upgrade the security at the loft.”

She nodded. “Thanks for supporting me on this case.”

“I meant what I said. As long as you play by my rules and I can keep you safe, I won’t let Malloy, or your father, know. The minute I believe you are in danger, I pull the plug.”