Resisting the Moon: A Royal Shifters Novel (15 page)

Sebastian

T
yla was still passed out, sleeping soundly in the bed. Her blonde curls fanned out over her pillow and on her face was a half-smile. She was so beautiful. It was late morning, and I could already feel the pull of the full moon drawing me to her. If she decided not to complete the bond tonight, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I’d never wanted anything more in my life.

Waiting for her to awake, I sat and thought about all of the details we’d seen while she’d held the stone. Judging by the memories, Amelie was being kept in a dark basement with cement walls. In the vision, we were able to see a clock in the corner of the room with the same time as when we touched the stone. It was too convenient to be a coincidence. It wasn’t long after that when it grew dark, interspersed with flashes of memories here and there. We realized then she had to be sleeping; there was a hazy shimmer around the visions.

Luckily, Amelie dreamt of Jaret. He looked familiar somehow, but I couldn’t recall where I’d known him from. I’d met thousands of wolves in my time, some in friendship and even more in battle. I couldn’t place him. In Amelie’s memory, they were sitting in a white gazebo by a small pond. There was a building in the background—apartments from what I could tell—with white siding and a green tin roof. That was what I was researching now. There had to be a place like that close by.

Tyla stirred and opened her eyes. She stretched, poking her breasts up in the air, making something stir down below. She was going to kill me.

“Good morning, love.”

She turned to me and smiled. “Good morning to you too. What are you doing?”

I held up my phone. “Looking for buildings like the one we saw in Amelie’s mind. It has to be somewhere near here. Maybe we can finally find this Jaret.”

Groaning, she covered her face with a pillow. “God, I hope he’s not dead. I don’t want to find her only to tell her that her mate is gone.”

“He very well could be. He hasn’t even shown up at her house to check on her. If this was you, I’d be doing everything I could to find you. What’s strange though, is I think I’ve met the guy before. He looks familiar.”

“Really? That’s weird. Maybe he just looks like someone you know.”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Do you think he’s not her true mate?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but we’ll see.” I tapped on another apartment link and grinned from ear to ear. “Got it.”

Tyla jumped out of bed and I showed it to her. Her eyes lit up. “You’re right, that’s it. Where’s it at?”

I clicked on the directions and a map appeared. “Thirty minutes away.” She rushed to get dressed and I couldn’t help but watch her bounce around. After months of nothing but torture, she was finally mine. Shaking her head, she burst out laughing. “What’s so funny?” I asked.

“Torture? Really?” She zipped up her jeans and waltzed over, grabbing my shoulders as she straddled my lap.

I cupped her ass and squeezed. “It
was
torture, just like you’re doing to me now.” My cock ached from her rubbing against it. I wanted nothing more than to tear into her, but we couldn’t, and she knew it. “We have to go,” I told her.

She nodded. “I know. I’m just ready to figure all this shit out so we can go home.”

“You’re not the only one.” I smacked her ass and she got up to finish getting dressed. Once she was ready, we were on our way out the door.

“What do you think we’ll find when we get there?” she asked.

My first thought was Jaret’s dead body, but I had to stay positive. “Don’t know. I guess we’ll find out.”

The drive didn’t take long and when we pulled in, I didn’t sense any other wolves around. But with the magic they were using, who knew anymore. They could be there and we wouldn’t know it. I parked the car and we both got out.

“Our best bet is to walk around and see if we can catch Amelie’s scent,” I suggested.

Tyla slung her purse over her shoulder and grabbed my hand. “Let’s go.”

The building wasn’t tall, but it was three levels and spanned five acres. I couldn’t find Amelie’s scent on the first or second levels. However, when we got to the top, I picked it up.

“We’re close. Her scent is faint, but it’s there. Two doors down.” Tyla took off for the door and looked in the apartment window. There were no curtains barring us from seeing inside, but it was empty—a dead end.

“I got his scent too, but it’s faint, just like Amelie’s.”

Tyla’s eyes went wide. “I can barely scent her. Must be nice to be a royal.”

“You’ll be one soon,”
I thought.

A small smile splayed across her lips. “How long do you think the place has been empty?”

“Two weeks, maybe?”

“I don’t get it. It’s like everything is being erased just to fuck with us,” she griped. I could feel her frustration and the desperation to get her cousin back.

Putting my arm around her, I pulled her into my side. “It’s standard procedure to clean the carpets and paint the walls before another tenant moves in, love. We just didn’t know in time.”

“Why do you think Jaret moved?”

“There are an infinite possibilities of reasons why he left.” An idea sparked in my mind. Grabbing her hand, I pulled her down the hallway.

“What are you doing?”

“I have an idea.”

“You are absolutely brilliant,” Tyla gushed.

Smiling, I tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I’m willing to try anything.”

We’d grabbed a bite to eat while we waited on the apartment manager to give us a tour of the place. The snow had started to fall again, but we sat outside by the pond. There were others who pulled in and looked at us like we were crazy, sitting outside with no jackets on, but the cold didn’t bother us. I could lie down in a bed of snow and never get frostbite. It was one of the many joys of being an Arctic wolf. I missed being in the icy regions of Canada where I was born. One day, I’d take Tyla there so she could see where I came from.

“Why didn’t you tell me you missed home?” she asked.

I chuckled. “Prying in my mind again?”

She nudged me in the side. “Just looking out for you. But I’d love to go to Canada some day. I’ve never been up that way.”

“You’d love it. I still own a bunch of property up there. My parents left it all to me and my brothers.”

“Wow. I guess all your money came from them then? You haven’t had a job since you moved to Wyoming.”

“How do you know?” I asked, watching her blush. “Were you watching me?”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’ll admit I was curious, and may have asked around.”

“Why didn’t you ask me? We were friends.”

She shrugged. “I guess I didn’t want you to know I was interested. Didn’t think you’d care.”

“That’s what you get for assuming. Now what do you want to know? You can ask me anything.”

She giggled. “You probably shouldn’t have said that. I might take you up on it. But in all seriousness, where does your money come from? If I’m going to be your mate, I need to know this stuff.”

“You do, huh? You’re not going to take it all and run are you?”

“Depends on how much you got.” She laughed. Her gray eyes twinkled, making me smile.

“I’ve lived a long time, Tyla. And so had my parents. I’m not going to lie, they did leave me with a fortune, but that’s because they were around for over three hundred years. However, I do have my own money as well.”

“What did you do?”

Grinning, I thought back to when I was a boy. “My first job was ice fishing. I went out there with my dad every morning. Since the cold didn’t bother us, we were able to withstand the freezing temperatures all day long. We kept some of the fish we caught, but sold the rest to the local markets. There wasn’t a lot of money in it, but my father and I enjoyed doing it. Years later, I jumped on the gold mining craze. There’s a mine up in Alaska I worked in, but it’s abandoned now. Made some good money doing that.”

She gazed at me in awe. “That sounds like so much fun. I’ve always wanted to pan for gold. I can’t imagine what it was like to live during that time.”

“It had its perks, but I also endured great losses as well. Due to lack of medicine, the majority of my friends died young. It’s something I had to get used to.”

Tyla grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I know how you feel.”

It was hard not to get attached to humans. Most of them were my good friends, especially when it came to my most profitable investment. “But a large chunk of my money comes from an investment I made many years ago. A friend of mine had owned an oil company but didn’t have the money to buy the right equipment. I gave him the money and became his partner. When he passed on, I bought it outright and have owned the whole company ever since. It’s one of the main suppliers of oil to both Canada and the United States.”

“Wow.” Her mouth gaped and she shook her head. “I don’t think I can say any more than that.”

“Good. Because it’s show time. I think our guy just arrived.” We both got up and the short, balding man who approached us held out his hand. He reeked of too much cologne and his beady gaze lingered on Tyla’s chest.

She squeezed my hand.
“No hurting him,”
she warned.
“He probably doesn’t see perky breasts at home.”

“I don’t give a shit if he’s never touched a boob. If he stares at either one of my girls again, I’ll rip his goddamn eyes out.”

“You must be the Michaelson’s. My name’s Jeff Roberts. I believe you spoke with me on the phone,” he announced. Tyla shook his hand and he beamed, but when it came to my turn, I made sure to squeeze it extra hard. He winced and pulled away. “Got a strong hold there, don’t you, son?”

I clenched my jaw and showed my teeth in a forced smile. “We’d like to see the apartment you have available.”

Pulling out a set of keys, he nodded toward the stairs. “Follow me, please.” We got up to the apartment and he opened the door, walking in first. “The carpets have all been cleaned and the walls freshly painted. Our last tenant moved out about two weeks ago.”

Here we go. “Why did they move? There’s nothing wrong with the apartment is there?” I asked.

“No, not at all. He’d finally found a house and decided to move when the one year lease was up.”

Tyla cleared her throat and he turned to her. “So everything’s ready for us to move in?”

He nodded. “I can draw up the papers whenever you’re ready.”

“Sounds good,” I said, grabbing Tyla’s hand. “Just give us a day to think on it and we’ll get back to you.”

Jeff smiled. “As you wish. I look forward to speaking with you again.”

I pulled Tyla in front of me so he couldn’t watch her ass as we walked out the door.
Fucking cocksucker
. When we got to the car, Tyla reached for her phone. “You calling Blake?” I asked.

“Yep. I’m going to see if he can get a list of people who rented an apartment at this place over the past year.”

It was a good move. Blake had access to all sorts of government programs, so finding the list of renters should be easy. Or at least I hoped. Time was running out.