Midnight Moonrising (Moonrising #2)(83)

Tapping two buttons on the wall released the garage door and the main gate. A half a minute later, he was greeted by a handful of smiling werewolves.

Chuckling lightly, he led them into his house, hitting the buttons to close the gate and garage door.

"What's so funny?" Brad said.

Phoenix shook his head as he swallowed the last bit of blood in the bag. "If someone would have told me two weeks ago that I was about to invite werewolves into my home, I would have probably considered them crazy and killed them for it."

Roel grinned. "I would have probably done the same."

Instead of taking them downstairs, Phoenix led them into the living room on the main floor of the house. Pointing to the ladies first, he said, "Can I get you anything? Lea keeps food and drinks in the kitchen for herself. There is also wine if you're nervous about being here, but I promise nothing will harm you."

Neither of the girls moved or said anything; they just stared at him with silly grins on their faces. It wasn't the first time women had looked at him like that. Phoenix gave them a dazzling smile right back, and one of them actually sighed.


"Heather!" Brad shouted, and both girls jumped in surprise, then averted their gazes from Phoenix. "Sorry," Brad said as he sat a stack of three-ring binders down on the coffee table. "They don't get out much."

"Bradley Dewayne Rutherford the Third, stop telling lies!" the blond girl yelled.

Brad's hand flew out and he pointed at Phoenix. "Stop staring at your Alpha's boyfriend like you want to hump his leg or something! Did you forget you have a husband, and that he's standing in the room with you?"

"Brad, chill out, dude," Heath said.

"He's in a freakin' robe, Brad. I'm not dead. Of course I'm going to look. Don't act like you don't look at other girls."

The brunette rolled her eyes. "Both of you are being ridiculous. Phoenix is hot and we've never seen him before. Give her a break, Brad. She's not going to seduce him."

"Not while he's in the room, I'm not," Heather mumbled.

"What?" Brad fumed.

"Nothing," she sneered. "Nuh-thing."

"Shut the f*ck up!" Roel shouted. "Y'all are both over two hundred years old and fighting like you're in high school. Take a pill. Shit!" He pointed a finger in Brad's face. "And don't you dare ask me why I'm not married ever again. After seeing the way you two fight all the damn time, why the hell would I want to tie myself to one person for an eternity? Just… just stop. Nobody wants to hear y'all bitching at each other all the time. The shit gets old."

Phoenix pressed his lips together then held out his hand to the couch and sofa. "Why don't we get started," he suggested. "I'll have to retreat downstairs in less than an hour. Of course, you are all welcome to join me. I just figured the ladies would be more comfortable here, where I'm the only vampire they can see."

The girls sat quickly down on the sofa, leaving the guys to take their seats on the couch together. Brad purposefully avoided looking at Heather or Roel, a sullen mask on his face hiding only a fraction of the anger that was practically steaming out of his ears.

Phoenix snickered to himself. He hadn't really pegged the guy for the jealous type, but how well did you really know someone?

After Phoenix sat in the chair across from the girls, Roel opened the meeting.

"You said you and Mena were still awake when the witches knocked the rest of us out. I get that she wanted to knock the wolf out, but why the rest of us?"

Phoenix shrugged. "She said she needed to make it believable, but she didn't say that she needed to make it believable to only the wolf. I trust the three of you, but they may not. Meridia knew that there was some sort of spell over Jaxon before everyone came in the house, and the locator spell on the dagger and the rogue wolves was a fail because there is a powerful blocking spell around them."

Heath frowned. "A powerful spell? What, like they weren't the ones who cast it? I don't know any other witches in Montgomery."

"There are more," Phoenix said, "though I didn't think any of them were very powerful. I guess there's at least one, and that one is on Jessica's side." As he rubbed a finger over his chin, he stared at the stack of binders Brad brought in. "And that's bad news, but not nearly as terrible as what else I have to say. You're not going to like it, but Meridia says it's the only way for us to discover the wolf's name before the full moon."

"What is it?" Heath said after a few seconds of thick silence.

"Another Alpha wolf is the only one who can discover the wolf's name, and in order to do that she has to bond with him."

Roel shot to his feet, outraged. "There are over three hundred Alphas in those binders, Phoenix, and not one of them is going to go for that!"

"We have to find at least one, Roel. Mena made me promise to kill her if it couldn't be done." He let only his eyes ask the question of whether he really wanted that to happen or not.

"But," Brad started, "you and Mena are together. And not only is she with you, but she's also with Rhodes—"

"Mena isn't with the cop; the wolf is," Phoenix growled.

Brad waved a hand through the air. "You know what I mean. Are you really going to be able to share her with another dude? I couldn't do that."