Mace rubbed his chest. He wasn’t the type to feel anxious but as the car Trent was driving got further and further away from the pack house, he could feel ants under his skin, his heart rate increase and his gut cramping.
“I need to go back,” he said. “I don’t know what the fuck is happening to me, but I need to get back to Roan.”
“Roan’s got Kalel and Peter at home with him. Ben, Gabriel and Sin will all be there within a couple of hours and the killer has no idea where he lives. We’ve been through all this – he’ll be okay. We’ve got work to do.” Trent made no sign of turning his car around and Mace resisted the urge to grab the wheel.
Mace hated that Trent was right. The discussion on Aaron’s twin, Martin had been hot and heated over lunch. Martin had a juvie record, but he’d been squeaky clean as an adult, living on the opposite side of town to Aaron. A chemical engineer, Martin was single and there was nothing that stood out about him.
Shane and Dimitri were already there interviewing Aaron about his brother this time. Trent and Mace’s had the task of convincing the captain to bring Martin in for questioning. That meant explaining to the captain that technically Roan wasn’t wrong in what he saw that night. Reynolds flipped his lid when Dimitri told him Aaron wasn’t their guy, despite Roan’s testimony.
Pointing out scent differences to the captain was not something Mace thought he should be doing. But Shane wouldn’t let him near Aaron, given his surly attitude. Dimitri and Shane would be able to scent if Aaron was lying, a skill Mace hoped would come to him in time. But none of that explained why he had this insatiable urge to get back to Roan. Trent pulled up to the station house and Mace hurried inside. He needed to pull Shane out of his interview, if only for a few minutes. The way he was feeling was anything but normal.
/~/~/~/~/
Shane wasn’t pleased to be pulled away from his interview with Aaron Clark, but he followed Mace into an empty interview room, closing the door. “Make this quick,” he snapped. “That guy knows something – my wolf can sense it. But the fucking man won’t talk and without anything beyond Roan’s statement, which we now know isn’t right, he’ll be walking out of here by dinner time.”
Something’s wrong with me.” Mace didn’t have time to screw around either. He needed to see the captain and then get his ass back to Roan. “I’m having trouble breathing, my gut’s turning inside out and my heart rate’s through the roof. I’ve got this horrible feeling that something’s wrong. There’s something we’re missing here.”
Shane frowned, his green eyes darkening. “It’s got to be the mating bond,” he said. “How long have you felt like this?”
“Twenty minutes, half an hour maybe.”
“Shit, this is not good.” Shane heaved a sigh and then said, “Look Mace, I’m not one hundred percent sure what happens when wolves and humans mate and the fact that Roan is an omega wolf adds even more confusion to the mix. Our pack didn’t have omegas and any human mates were submissive to their partners, not the other way around. In effect you’re Roan’s Alpha and it could be that your body’s adapting so that you can look after him the same way as an Alpha wolf would.” He ran his hands through his hair.
“Can you hold out for another hour? I need you to talk to Reynolds. We’ve got to convince him to let us bring Martin in.”
“He’s a family member of the first victim, isn’t that enough?” Mace was close to yelling. He needed to see Roan. “Roan’s given a witness statement; Aaron and Martin are identical twins. Surely the captain can see the relevance here.”
“I thought the same thing,” Shane said. “But because Roan was our only reason for bringing in Aaron, and he signed a fucking statement saying it was Aaron he saw, the lawyers are going to have a field day with this if and when we ever get Martin to court.”
“A bullet would do the job a lot quicker,” Mace said, yanking open the interview room door and storming out.
“Just do your job, Mace,” Shane yelled as he headed down the hallway.
Do my job. And yeah, when something happens to Roan in the meantime, what’s anyone going to say then? Oh, I’m sorry, we should have listened to you. Too freaking late then. I’m not taking that risk.
Pulling out his phone, Mace ordered a taxi to meet him round the back of the station. His fingers tapped an uneasy tattoo on his knee all the way back to Dimitri and Shane’s house. When he pushed open the front door and saw Peter lying on the living room floor with blood pooled on the side of his head; Kalel tied up and gagged beside him, he knew his little mate was right. Human’s didn’t listen to their sixth sense nearly often enough.