Desert Heat (Complete)

{Lacie’s P.O.V.}

As soon as we finished lunch, we were taken straight to the airport in Reno where Dorian’s jet was at. We didn’t have time to get our stuff from back at Yellow Moon. Deacon said he would have all of our stuff shipped back to our house. Dorian and Aries didn’t want to risk my being out in the open. I still couldn’t believe someone put a bounty on me. Everyone’s first thought that it was Maya, but according to Aries, there are channels that one has to go through to get bounties authorized, which is something Maya couldn’t have done, at least not legally.

It was also the most random thing, other than the poisoning incident, and my sister freaking out over Deacon and Evelyn’s pups, everything was quiet. Aries has become super overprotective, and refuses to leave my side, even while on the jet,

“Baby, you’re hurting my hand,” He was squeezing it so hard.

“Hm? f**k, I’m sorry, Precious,” he let’s go and puts his arm around me instead.

“Aries, I understand what you’re feeling, but we’re going to get to the bottom of this,” Dorian says to him.

“It has to be Maya! There’s no other explanation! Who else who hates Lacie enough to want her dead? She even told her own parents she wanted Lacie executed,” Aries says.

“You know better than anyone that you don’t just put out a bounty,” Dorian replies. “Mikey is contacting every bounty hunter and hitter he knows and so are Fury, Carter, and Poseidon,”

“What for, baby?” Allie asks him.

“It’s so they can put a stop to it. They are spreading the word that Lacie is Aries’ girlfriend and a friend to them,” Dorian answers.

“What good will that do?” I ask.

“Lacie, you know that Aries’ reputation, as well as the others, right?” I nod my head. “Well, Mikey’s reputation goes beyond theirs. The only other retired bounty hunter that is more skilled that Mikey is his old man, Ethan. f*****g with someone close to them is plain suicide,”

“So, you’re hoping that if the word spreads fast enough that Lacie is protected by some of the most skilled hunters, both active and retired, no one would be stupid enough to take it?” Allie asks, and Dorian nods. “If it is in fact Maya, wouldn’t she know Aries is a bounty hunter?”

“No, because I never told her what I did for a living. Remember, I told you that Maya was nothing but a booty call. s*x, that was it. I never told her anything private about myself. Especially not what I did for a living. Everyone knows that bounty hunters make good money,” Aries replied. “The only thing that b***h knew was that I worked for the Alpha. In her mind, I made decent money, and I wanted to keep it that way. I didn’t need her trying to stick around because I’m technically rich,”

“So, she has no idea that you’re one of the best out there?” I asked him.

“No, Precious, I promise you that,”

“Okay, let’s just say for one minute, that Maya is not the one behind this. Who else is out there that would have enough hatred towards Lacie or Aries to put out a bounty?” Allie said.

“I won’t lie, I slept with a lot of women, before Lacie and I met, and I mean a lot,” Aries replied. “I was born a rogue, which meant I would never have a mate, so I had my fair share of girlfriends, and one night stands,” he said and looked at me. “Precious, please don’t hate me,”

“Why I would hate you? You told me all of this already. Am I a little bummed, sure, but you said it yourself, you were a rogue with no chance of finding a mate at the time. But we are here now, and I love you,” I reply and give him a sweet and tender k**s. “Your past doesn’t define who you are as a person unless you let it, like my sister,”

“I love you too, Precious,” he said and gave me a k**s back.

“Okay, this is sweet and all, but can we get back on topic here,” Allie said clapping her hands to get our attention. We just smiled at her. “I doubt a bunch of ex-girlfriends from your past is capable of putting a bounty together, so that leaves Lacie,”

“What about me?”

“Do you know of anyone that would want to hurt you, other than Maya?” she asks. I think about it,

“Not that I know of,” I reply, and shake my head at the same time.

“Any ex-boyfriends that might have a personal issue? Ones that have money, or connections?” Dorian asks.

“Well, I have an ex-boyfriend, but I don’t think he has a personal issue with me,”

“Ex-boyfriend!?” Aries exclaims and growls. “You were a virgin when we met, Precious, how the hell can you have an ex-boyfriend!?”

“Aries, just because I was a virgin doesn’t mean I didn’t date in high school,” I tell him and lift a brow. His jaw drops and he scowls at me.

“Who is this ex?” Allie asks.

“We met when I was 16, he was 20 or 21, at the time,”

“WHAT?!” Aries shouts.

“SHUSH!!!” Allie growls. “Let her tell her damn story dammit!”

“As I said, I was 16, and he was 20 or 21, we met at my sister’s graduation party. Our dad threw Heather this massive party, and she invited a bunch of the older male wolves who were already in college, so they in turn invited a bunch of their college buddies who were also wolves. My ex was roommates with Heather’s boyfriend at the time, and he was super sweet. He knew I was sixteen, so he never tried to sleep with me, but he always said that he felt that we could be mates. So, we started dating, under the radar,”

“Oh, this fucker done gone robbed the cradle!” Allie says, and I just laugh.

“Anyway, we kissed and all that, but never did anything s****l. He never touched me, I never touched him, and he was very respectful of the fact that I was underage. He wanted to wait until I turned 18, and our mate bond was formed,”

“Why do I get the feeling this is going to take a very bad turn,” Allie interjected.

“Because it does. Remember, my sister was a w***e, even back then. I did better in school than my sister did, so I ended up graduating a year early. So, my parents also threw me a huge party, and you know, my boyfriend came, and he invited his friends, and Heather was now dating some other dude,”

“That’s not surprising at all,” Allie replied.

“No, it’s not,” I answered back. “During the party, I lost track of my boyfriend, and I went to go find him. I had asked around, and a lot of people said they saw him going upstairs, so I went go look for him. I assumed that he was in the bathroom or something, but that wasn’t the case,”

“No,” Allie said.

“Yes,” I replied. “I caught my boyfriend and my sister having s*x, in my room,” I shuttered when the image back into my mind. “My sister was riding him in reverse, so she saw me come into the room, but he didn’t. Heather just smirked and kept going. She didn’t even stop,”

“WHAT A b***h!!” Allie screamed.

“Yeah, so, I decided to go sit out on the docks for the rest of the party and I cried. After like, an hour or so, my boyfriend came up to me, and tried to k**s me, as if nothing had happened,”

“You should have drowned him!”

“Believe me, Allie, I wanted to. I pushed him away and slapped him. Of course, he had no idea why I was so mad but then he saw that I had been crying. I told him I saw him f*****g my sister and that he and I were done. Of course, he said that because we were mates, that I couldn’t get rid of him that easily. I avoided him like plague for the next year, and I had every intention of rejecting him if he did turn out to be my mate,”

“And?”

“It turned out he wasn’t even my mate. On my 18th birthday, he came to the packhouse intending on making me his, but when I saw him, I felt nothing. I didn’t feel the pull, his scent made me want to gag, and he was ugly in my eyes. I mean, he was a decent looking guy don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t find him attractive. When I first saw Aries, and even to this day, he’s the sexiest man I’ve ever seen,”

“Uhh, I think Dorian takes the title of sexiest man,” Allie said to me and rubs herself against him.

“Keep telling yourself that, Allie,” I jokingly say and rub myself against Aries. The guys just smirk.

“How did he react?” Aries asked, getting back on topic.

“He was angry and hurt. He even grabbed me and looked me in the eyes, and there was nothing, for either one of us. I was ecstatic about it because I didn’t have to waste my time rejecting him or anything like that. But he was so mad, he felt like he wasted two years of his life with me, and felt that he was tricked or something,”

“Hold on, that may not be the case, Lacie,” Dorian said. We all looked at him. “Remember when I said that even young pups feel the attraction to their mates before they even come of age?”

“Yes,”

“It’s the same for those who are of age. They will be attracted to their mate before he or she is of age,”

“That’s just like what happened with Sam and Lucas,” Allie says.

“What about them?” Aries asked.

“Lucas met Sam when she was only 15, and he was 19, at the time. Long story short, Lucas’ wolf Quentin told him that he was drawn to Sam the moment he met her, blah blah blah to all the middle stuff. My point is, the moment Sam turned 18, it was game over. They mated as soon as they could, and she came back to Desert Moon with him. They got married a year later,”

“Wait, Sam is from another pack?” Aries asked.

“That’s not important,” Allie said. “What is important is that maybe this ex-boyfriend really did feel the mate bond with you, the way Lucas did with Sam, but because he cheated on you with your sister, who already would have deemed impure by the moon goddess…”

“She rescinded the bond when I turned 18,” I concluded.

“I didn’t know that was possible,” Aries said.

“The moon goddess works in mysterious ways, but she doesn’t make mistakes,” Allie says. “That I know for a fact,”

“Lacie, you said that this guy was a wolf. Was he part of a neighboring pack?” Dorian asked.

“No, he told me he was from out of state. He was actually slated to be the next Alpha but would only take the title after he found his mate, who he thought was me. But that wasn’t the case… Obviously,”

“He was an Alpha?”

“No, he is actually is a low-level beta, but he said something about their Alpha having been banished for breaking the law,”

“Where is he now?” Aries asked me.

“Uh, last I checked he was still in Tampa, and still unmated at 24,”

“Huh, it just dawned on me that this guy is my age,” Allie said. I could see Allie thinking about something really hard.

“Baby, what’s going on in the brain of yours?” Dorian asked her.

“Low-level Beta, banished Alpha, my age, living in Tampa…” she repeated and kept making her thinking face. “Lacie, what state is this guy from?”

“Ummm…New…New York? No, not New York. The other small state up there with New in it,”

“New Hampshire?” she asks

“Yeah, that one,” I reply, and her face immediately changes to shock and dismay. Allie looks at Dorian and he looks at her. Aries and I look at each other and just shrug.

“Allie, you don’t think…” Dorian says.

“Lacie do you remember his name!?” Allie asks with eagerness.

“Uhhh, Shawn something. John…Johnson…Jackson…No…Jensen! Shawn Jensen,” Allie’s jaw drops, and she and Dorian just stare at me.

“What?” Allie just blinks a hundred times over and wanted to say something but stops herself. “Allie, what?!”

“Lacie…I went to high school with Shawn,”

“What!?” Aries and I exclaim.

“Yeah, he was best friends with my ex, Devin, who we knew was supposed to be an Alpha before I got him sent to prison and he was banished,” she replies

“Your ex?! The one that…”

“Yeah, the one that assaulted me and left me for dead,” Allie and I both scoffed at how small the world really was.

“Dorian, do you think this guy Shawn put the bounty on Lacie?” Aries asked.

“I don’t know, but if he is the next Alpha of his pack, then he would have the connections to do so, but the question is why?” Dorian responds.

“You guys,” I get their attention. “When I said that Shawn was mad when we didn’t turn out to be mates, I mean, he was MAD. Like, full-on outraged. He almost shifted into his wolf, he was so angry,”

“This is insane! So, we don’t have two crazy exes to deal with, we have three,” Allie said rubbing her temples with her fingertips.

“If he is the one behind this, why would he go after Lacie?” Aries asked.

“Spite,” Dorian replied. “Pure spite,” he said again and looked at us. “We already know that Heather and Maya know each other, we’ve already proven that,” we all nod. “So, think of it as coming full circle now, Maya knows that Aries is low level, and if she knows Heather, she would know that she and Lacie are daughters to an Alpha and if Lacie was supposed to be mated to a future Alpha, but lost out on that because he slept with Heather before Lacie became of age…”

“Heather may have contacted Shawn and told him that Lacie is now mated to a low-level Omega,” Allie concluded. “Wow, that has to be the biggest kick in the balls,” Allie says. “Low-level or not, Shawn is supposed to be an Alpha, and he lost his future Luna. And now, a year and a half later, he finds out the mate that should have been his, is mated to a much older low-level Omega instead,”

“Yeah, that’s a big kick in the balls alright,” Dorian replied.

“Wait a minute, Lacie, you said that Shawn told you that Devin was banished for breaking the law?” Allie asks. I nod my head. “Did he say what the crime was?”

“Yeah, he said it was assault,” I answered.

“OH, THAT FUCKER LIED!!!” Allie roared. “HE SAID THAT HE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT DEVIN HAD DONE TO ME! AND HE HAD THE AUDACITY TO PLAY AS IF HE FELT SORRY FOR ME!” Allie was seething in anger. “HE KNEW! HE f*****g KNEW! HE’S KNOWN THE ENTIRE TIME!” Allie was starting to cry and scream.

“Allie!” Dorian unbuckled her seatbelt and picked her up. “Breathe baby!” he forced her face into his neck “Allie, you need to breathe!” Allie was shaking so hard.

“He knew! He knew Devin assaulted me and he did nothing! Shawn was supposed to be my friend!” I had never seen Allie like this before. I couldn’t help but cry for her. “Dorian, what if Shawn knew Devin was going to hurt me and did nothing to stop him!? Why didn’t he stop him!?!” Allie cried.

“Allie, I need you to breathe, okay,” Dorian cooed her. I watched as Allie took several deep breaths and finally started calming down. “We’re going to need to hold off on this conversation until we get home, I can’t have Allie hyperventilating on the jet,” we both nodded. He got up and took Allie into the private room. When the door closed I turned to Aries.

“Oh my gosh, I have never seen her act like that,” I tell him.

“I’ve known the Luna for years, and I haven’t seen that side of her either,” Molly the flight attendant said.

“What if she’s right and Shawn knew her ex was going to assault her but didn’t do anything to stop him?” I asked.

“He’d be an accessory to the crime, Precious,”

“You know, my mom used to be a pack lawyer before she retired,” Molly said. “Let me call her real quick,” Molly got out her phone and made Skype call.

“Hi, sweetheart,”

“Hi, mom, I got a question for you, a legal question,”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Mom, you know the Luna’s story right? The one where she was assaulted when she was human?”

“Yes, I know it well,”

“Mom, I just found out that the ex who assaulted the Luna was actually supposed to be an Alpha of his own pack before he was banished,”

“What!? Where did you hear this?”

“That’s a long story, and I will tell you later, but that’s not what I wanted to ask,”

“Oh, then what is it?”

“Mom, what if the future Beta of that pack at the time was an accessory to the crime when it happened? And he’s now next in line to take over as Alpha since the previous Alpha was killed,”

“If he indeed was an accessory, then he can’t be Alpha. He would actually have to stand trial with the Elder’s of their pack’s state, and either be demoted to Omega or banished,”

“Mom, I know that wolf law follows the same statute of limitations as human law, so what’s the statute of limitations on something like that?”

“Depends on the state, honey,”

“New Hampshire,”

“Let me check really quick,” We hear typing and some mouse clicking. “According to the New Hampshire county court website, it’s six years,”

“Okay, thanks mom,”

“You’re welcome, bye sweetie,” Molly hung up the phone and her face was dark.

“What is it, Molly?” I asked.

“We’re too late,”

“What do you mean we’re too late?” I ask

“The Luna was assaulted at 18,” we just look at her. “She’s going to be 25 in two weeks,” Aries and I both slumped in our seats. The statute of limitations was over, Allie wouldn’t be able to press charges or have Shawn stand trial if he did indeed know Allie would be assaulted back then. If he did, I wouldn’t be surprised if he really is the one responsible for the bounty on me. I just hoped that Mikey and the others can spread the word quickly enough that I’m mated to Aries and protected by some of the most feared bounty hunters.