“I need you to talk to Tracy, Nick and Gabe too.”

She sighed. “I need to brush my teeth. And I need a shower. At your place, not theirs.”

He stifled a smile. If she felt well enough to say that, she was getting better. “All right, I’ll make you a deal.”

“I’m not interested in a deal, Josh. I want to go take a shower and brush my teeth. Where I have my clothes and toothbrush. Then you can haul me to your Alphas and to Boston. But I’m not deal-making for anything else.”

Akio snorted but wisely continued his call.

“All right.” Josh concentrated on driving and keeping the smile off his face. “Mighty wolfish of you.”

She kept her eyes closed. “What is?”

“You want your own territory. It’s where you feel safest.”

“I don’t want to be naked where another female wolf’s magick is. Sue me.”

He grinned. “Beautiful, it makes me hot when you’re like this. It appeals to my wolf.” He took her hand and squeezed it.

She snorted. “Everything appeals to your wolf. He’s pretty easy.”

Akio laughed then. “She’s got your number.”

“Only for you. Fine. I’ll take you home. To our place and you can clean up. I’ll call to see if they want to come over or if we can go on our way to the airport.” Wasn’t like it was an option to keep Cade Warden waiting on such key info. Nick, Tracy and Gabe would know that too.

Chapter Fourteen

After her shower and a great deal of scrubbing the stench of the death magic off her skin, she’d put her hair in a quick ponytail. When she stepped out of the bathroom, Tracy and Gabe were at the apartment, waiting for her.

“I know it’s hard, but anything you can tell us about what you felt would really be helpful.” Gabe watched her intently as Josh put a mug into her hands.

“Drink that. I made a call to Gage while you were in the shower, and he said tea would help you feel better. He wants you to call and fill him or Lark in on what you felt when you get the chance. They’re going to try to send someone down, or at least have a more trained witch go to the scene. But there’s something major going on, and they’ve got all their powerful folks working on figuring out who this big bad is and how to stop it. They don’t want just anyone going out there, especially given how you reacted to it.” Josh pushed a sandwich her way. “He also said protein helps after you get a shock to your magick the way you did.”

Akio sat on her other side, squeezing her shoulder. “Your color is a little better. You will sleep on the trip out to Boston.”

Suddenly all that alpha male in the room drowned her. All that attention and concern stifled her, even as she found it reassuring.

Tracy rolled her eyes with a grin and then shrugged. “I know. I grew up in a house full of them and now I have two of my own. You’ll get used to it.”

“This is nice. I mean, thank you, Josh for the sandwich and for touching base with Owen for me. And thank you, Akio, for your concern. But all this alpha-male smothering is a lot and I need to breathe.”

Akio eased back. Only a little. But enough. Gabe smiled and winked at Tracy, who leaned into his body and took up some of his attention.

On the other hand, Josh stared right back at her. “Tough. You scared the hell out of me, Michelle. It’s going to take me a while before I can manage to feel any better about it. I need to know you’re okay. My wolf needs to take care of you.” He tipped his chin. “Eat while you talk.”

She sighed but obeyed, eating automatically, and yes, after several bites of the rare roast beef on the sandwich, she did indeed feel better.

In between bites, she explained to Tracy and Gabe what she’d felt at the scene, in the circle, and tried to make sense of the way she’d sensed the energy of Pacific wolves. She was certain they’d stolen the magick from the wolves, the way they had with the witches. But who they were and where they’d gone was still a mystery. And this new and altogether terrifying presence she’d picked up at the murder scene made her very concerned.

They didn’t overstay their welcome after that. Only urging Josh, Michelle and Akio to stay safe and check in frequently. Michelle needed to pack a quick bag, and they were on the way to the airport where Akio had arranged for a plane to Boston. They’d added Pacific wolves to Jack’s team so Akio would be free to fly back to Boston with Josh and Michelle.

“I’ll be all right, you know,” Michelle murmured to Josh after Akio had gone off to check in and connect with their pilot. “Your job is here. Your job is protecting the Alpha trio and you can’t do that if you’re with me.”

“My job is protecting my pack. Which I’m doing by going to Boston. And now my job is protecting my mate. You’re out of your f**king mind if you think I’d let you fly across the country without me. Even with Akio. We just mated. You’ve had an extraordinarily shitty week. I’m with you and that’s all there is to it, so don’t waste your energy arguing any further.”

She leaned against him, sensing how agitated he was, wanting to comfort and soothe. “Okay then.” Since they needed to wait until they got all the stuff in place to take off, she took that time to call Owen and ended up with voicemail. She left as detailed a message as she could about what she’d encountered at the scene. About that other sort of magick she’d sensed. Not related to the mages or the turned witches. Something she’d never encountered the likes of before. Even talking about it hours later, it filled her with dread. A dread Josh must have felt through the bond because he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her until she felt a little better. It worked both ways.