Wolfen
Madelaine Montague


 


 


 


 

Chapter One


Danika Whitney's
frustration had mellowed somewhat by the time she reached the edge of town.
Pushing the worrisome puzzle of her latest defeat in tagging one of the
wolves terrorizing the area to the back of her mind, she searched her
pockets with one hand for the list she'd made for herself before she left
the cabin.



 "Shit!" she muttered when she
discovered it wasn't in her shirt pocket. When a similar search of her jeans
pockets came up empty, she glanced at her carryall frowningly and finally
let out a huff of irritation that ruffled the brownish blond tendrils
straying from her ponytail over her brow and along her cheeks.



 So much for thinking she'd let one
trip into town suffice to hold her for another week! “I made a list," she
muttered to herself. “I know I did. I must've put it in the bag."



 She didn't feel very reassured, but
after contemplating turning around and heading back to the cabin she'd
rented for her investigation, she dismissed it. She was hungry, damn it!
That was probably why she'd forgotten the damned list. She'd had her mind on
a nice hot ęI didn't cook itł meal at the diner, and her latest failure, and
she'd probably lain the note she'd made for herself down somewhere, or maybe
just left it on the table where she'd sat down to write?



 The roar of an engine behind her
jerked her out of her preoccupation about her missing list. Danika flicked a
glance in the rearview mirror of her truck and froze.



 There was a pack of motorcycles
roaring up behind her.



 She stared at the leather clad men on
motorcycles for several moments, feeling a jolt of adrenaline rush through
her when it occurred to her that it didn't look as if they had any intention
of slowing down or stopping behind her. Transferring her gaze to the light
at the intersection where she'd stopped on ęautopilot', she realized it
wasn't actually a traffic light at all but rather a blinking caution light.



 Discomfited when it dawned at her
that she'd been sitting at the intersection searching for her list while she
waited for the light to changewhich was never going to changeshe took her
foot off the brake. Before she could move forward, the men on the cycles,
who
did actually slow, whipped around her like the tide rolling around a
bridge piling, three on one side, two on the other.



 To a man, all five turned to stare at
her as they moved around her.



 Unnerved, Danika stared back them,
glancing from one side to the other before it dawned on her she probably
shouldn't be looking at them at all. They looked rough, and dangerous, and
it was never a good idea to encourage the notice of obvious gang
membersprobably felons and drug addicts.



 They might think she was
interestedas in flirting!



 They might think she was angry
because they'd broken the law by passing her at an intersectionon both
sidesand consider it a challenge!



 Averting her gaze as one unnerving
thought after another flitted through her mind, she watched them
surreptitiously as they turned the corner.



 "Well shit!" They'd turned and headed
down main street, which was where the ębusinessł district layher objective.
“Now what?"



 She didn't want to appear to be
following them, especially not when ęthe incidentł at the light might be
something they could take exception to. One never knew with gangs, she was
sure.



 Not that she'd had any experience
with gangs, or even studied gang mentality and behavior, but she did watch
the news. People might
think she was too out of step with the real world to notice things,
but she did!



 She decided to go straight instead of
turning, hopeful that they meant to continue right on out of town. She was
almost positive they weren't local. Both the leather they were wearing and
their bikes had looked dusty as if they'd been riding a while. Besides, she
was pretty sure she would've noticed if there'd been a local biker gang even
though she hadn't been in the area long. It was something she felt certain
would have stuck out in a community this tiny, particularly when it was
mostly made up of farmers.



 They'd looked a good bit younger than
the bikers she'd seen riding up the interstate back home from time to time.



 Not that she'd checked them out, but
she'd been stunned enough to look and she'd seen a lot of shaggy hair that
didn't seem to be threaded with any gray at all and she'd caught a glimpse
of smooth shaven faces that didn't look weathered.



 The hard muscles certainly didn't
look like anything that would belong to a more mature male. She hadn't
noticed any middle-aged, or beer, paunches.



 Disturbed that she'd noticed so much
when she'd been certain she hadn't stared, she pulled in to the first
parking spot she came to, grabbed her carryall and dumped the contents into
the passenger seat, raking through it hopefully it in search of her list.
Irritation flickered through her again when she saw it wasn't in the bag
either.



 When she'd shoved everything back
into the bag, she decided she'd delayed long enough the gang would've
cleared town. She started the vehicle again. She would go eat first, she
decided. It was never a good idea to go to the grocery store hungry and she
could try to compile her list again while she was eating. It hadn't been a
long list. She didn't need much, but she didn't want to get all the way back
out to the fishing camp where she was staying and discover she'd forgotten
something it was going to be hard, or impossible, to do without,
necessitating another trip into town.



 Beyond the fact that she didn't like
to waste her time doing the same task two or three times because of
something she'd forgotten, she had work to do and not much time to get
results.



 Truthfully, although she couldn't
quite put her finger on it, the locals made her uncomfortable. They seemed
almost ... hostile.



 It didn't make any sense. She'd been
sent because of the wolf problem that had been reported. She was sure, given
the fact that there'd been several cases reported of attacks on livestock,
and even one on a resident, that they thought sending her was a waste of
time, but she couldn't see that that would account for the brooding sense of
hostility she'd noticed when she'd arrived the week before. Mostly people
just ignored her or considered her with amused contempt. She wouldn't have
been surprised at either reaction.



 The antagonism she'd felt seemed out
of place, but then it seemed to be a tight knit community pretty much
isolated from the rest of the world. Maybe they just didn't like strangers
at all? Or maybe it was directly related to her purpose for coming. Maybe
they thought sending her to do studies before they took action was just a
way of paying lip service to their problem without actually doing anything?



 She supposed she could understand how
it could look that way to the casual observer, or that they might think they
were being called liars for reporting the attacks at all. The behavior of
the wolves was unprecedented, though.



 Their existence in the area was
startling enough when they were hundreds of miles from where there should've
been any wolves, let alone a pack so large. She supposed that might explain
the attacksthem being out of their elementbut there seemed to be a
plentiful food source in the forests. Why the wolves were going after
livestock when they should've been content with the abundant wildlife, and
should want to avoid men, was another mystery.



 And then there was the man that had
been attacked.



 Of course, she hadn't been able to
verify that attack. Everyone had clammed up. She hadn't even been able to
learn the source of the original report let alone the victim.



 Parking her vehicle near the diner,
Danika got out and locked her doors by force of habit. Shoving her keys into
her pocket instead of the bag, since it took too much time to search the
thing for them, she headed into the diner, still mulling over the mystery
she'd been sent to solve.



 The bell over the door tinkled as she
shoved the door open. The sound triggered earlier thoughts that had dogged
her all the way into town, her latest failed attempt to tag one of the
wolves. She'd been pissed off when she'd found the first tag but took it
philosophically enough since she'd clipped it in his ear and figured it must
have been loose enough for him to scratch it off. However, she'd brought the
wolf down with a tranq the second time and embedded the tracker in his hip.
He shouldn't have been able to find it, let alone remove it, and yet she'd
found that one discarded in the woods just like she had the firstdiscarded
and mangled beyond use.



 Wolves were intelligent, she knew,
and she still found it almost eerie that she hadn't managed to locate the
packonly the one lone wolf that she'd tagged, twice, because he'd been
brazen enough to come almost right up to her cabin. Otherwise, they were
almost like ... ghostsghosts that left a lot of footprints and nothing
else.



 She came face to face with a local as
she crossed the threshold. He narrowed his eyes at her, his lips tightening
with anger. Surprised since she recognized him and he'd flirted with her
when she'd first arrived, she moved aside for him to leave, turning to watch
him curiously as he limped to his car.



 Shaking her head to dismiss his
strange behavior, she continued inside, allowing the door to swing closed
behind her. The crowded diner quieted noticeablyenough that Danika become
aware of it when she would ordinarily have been deep enough in thought to be
oblivious. Feeling awkward at attracting so much attention, she struggled to
pretend she hadn't noticed as she moved further inside, since retreating
didn't seem to be a good idea. The restaurant appeared to be full, but,
after glancing around, she decided to walk to the back to be sure before she
beat a retreat.



 One booth was vacant at the back and,
as luck would have it, it was one of those huge u-shaped booths designed to
accommodate a large group. She stared at it uncomfortably for a moment,
undecided, torn between her growling stomach and her discomfort. Finally,
she moved toward it, deciding she'd leave if they told her she had to.



 Everyone seemed to return to their
own interests as she slid into the seat and settled. Relaxing fractionally,
she grabbed a menu and opened it. She'd been unnerved far more than she'd
realized. It took her several moments to actually focus on the menu.



 Her skin still prickled from all the
staring eyes that had watched her progress through the diner. Trying to
dismiss the feeling that everyone in the diner was still observing her,
though more discretely now, Danika pretended an interest in the menu she
didn't particularly feel anymore.



 She'd just managed to dismiss her
uneasiness enough to actually begin reading when the bell over the door
tinkled again. Focused now on trying to decide what she wanted off the menu
she might've been oblivious except for the fact that the first tinkle was
followed by another and then a third in quick succession. Suddenly aware
that there seemed to be a lot of traffic at the door and that she'd settled
her ass in the only available boothbuilt for a large partyshe glanced up
from the menu and froze when she saw that she hadn't, as she'd hoped, heard
people leaving.



 The biker gang had just entered the
diner.



 The lowering volume she'd noticed
when she'd come in was nothing compared to their reception. The diner went
dead quiet.



 They seemed unaware they had the
attention of everyone in the place.



 Her gaze collided with one of the men
and a jolt went through her. For a handful of seconds, she couldn't seem to
drag her gaze away. Finally, the realization hit her that by allowing him to
catch her gaze she'd drawn attention she didn't want and she quickly averted
her gaze to the menu again.



 She couldn't concentrate on it. Her
ears felt as if they'd elongated with the intensity of their focus on the
men. She heard the heavy tread of booted feet as they sauntered unhurriedly
through the diner.



 "Mind if we join you?"



 Danika looked up automatically at the
deep masculine voice. Startled when she discovered the manthe entire pack
of menwas standing right in front of her booth and worse, the man was
talking
to her, Danika felt her eyes widen. Her thoughts went chaotic in a
frantic attempt to find some reasonable excuse for why she minded that
wouldn't arouse their antagonism. “Well ... uh...."



 The man who'd spoken to her slid into
the seat. Frozen in place, she felt her eyes grow wider and wider the closer
he came. Brought abruptly to the belated instinct to flee by the man's
proximity, Danika slid away from him, only to discover that three of the
others had slid into the seat from the opposite side, pinning her in.



 Wide eyed with panic, she stared at
first one face and then another until she'd catalogued a mental photograph
of each. It didn't help that her imagination instantly kicked in and
supplied her with a kaleidoscope of horrific images that all featured her as
a victim and the pack as violent offenders.



 "The name's Balin."



 The voice was the deep rumble of a
high testosterone male and it sent a wave of prickling sensation through
Danika that she dimly recognized as a purely feminine reaction to an
attractive male. She blinked for the first time in several minutes,
realizing only then that she'd been staring slack jawed at the man who'd
slid in beside her. Sucking in her first breath in as many minutes, which
made it obvious by the dryness of her mouth that she'd been staring at him
with her mouth open, she licked her dry lips and brought them together
abruptly. Her eyes slid away as she pasted a nervous smile on her lips.
“Danika," she said weakly.



 Where was a cop when she needed one?



 "Con."


 Danika stared at the huge paw the
blond man had extended across the table toward her, wondering if he was
admitting to being a con man.



 "Connor," he amended as if he'd read
her mind, “but everyone calls me Con."



 Or maybe it was just the blank look
on her face?



 Like a sleep walker, she extended her
own hand, watching as it disappeared in the man's clasp.



 "Dakota."


 Still with the feeling that she was
in the grips of a dream, or maybe a nightmare, Danika removed her hand from
the man's grasp and watched it disappear as the second enveloped it in a
firm shake.



 "Xavier."


 "Jared," said the last of the five,
who'd settled on the other side of Balin.



 Marginally relieved when the five men
grabbed menus and turned their attention to studying them instead of her,
Danika tried to shift unobtrusively to put a little distance between herself
and the men crowding her. She discovered it was useless. For all that they
seemed more rangy than big, they
were big men and the booth wasn't nearly as big as it had seemed
before they'd descended on her. There wasn't much more than a couple of
inches between her and the men now firmly entrenched on either side of her,
Balin and Dakota.



 Surprise flickered through her that
she actually remembered the names. Ordinarily, she was very bad with names
and it wasn't as if she'd actually had her wits about her when they were
making the introductions. For one, they were unnerving just by virtue of
being a biker gang. She'd never been this close to the criminal element of
society and she was sure she was petrified with terror, although she was in
a state of shock that, fortunately, made it impossible for her to either
faint or scream, and she sure as hell couldn't run.



 Secondly, although she was well aware
that it was psychotic even to have such thoughts, despite their rough
appearance and the fact that all of them were sporting at least a day's
growth of beard, Xavier was the closest to ęjust averageł of the bunch and
he wasn't actually average but several cuts above the best looking man she'd
ever actually seen in person. They were all handsome enough any one of them
could have made it as a model, or actor, despite the intimidating multitude
of tattoos and piercings she could see at a glance that unnerved her more
than she would've thought possible. Along with the unfashionably long hair
they all had, though, the tattoos and piercings seemed to add to the wild,
untamed air of the bunch.



 The last time she could recall being
this unnerved was when she'd looked up from taking notes in her wildlife
studies and discovered one of her ęsubjectsł had noticed her and wandered
close enough to study her.



 Balin had a tiny ring at the outer
corner of one eye brow she saw when she glanced at him again and her
imagination took flight as to where else he might be piercedhis nipples,
certainly. She couldn't resist flicking a glance at the t-shirt molded to
his rippling physique and the nipple rings brought her focus instantly to
his hard pecs.



 "What's good?"



 Her gaze jerked upward from his
nipple rings to Balin's face. She thought she saw a flicker of amusement in
his hazel gaze. “What?" she asked blankly, her mind going wild at the
question.



 "On the menu."



 She felt her face heat. Trying to
pretend she hadn't been staring at his body, Danika frowned at the menu. “Uh
... actually, I'm not from around here. I don't really know."



 He dropped an arm along the back of
the booth behind her, shifting to face her. “No?"



 His hard thigh brushed hers when he
shifted. Between the burning heat of that touch and her acute awareness of
the arm behind her shoulders, Danika had to struggle to gather her wits.



 "Maybe you'd know of a good place to
stay around here, then? Or are you just passing through?"



 She wanted to tell him she was just
passing through in the worst kind of way, but his interest in a place to
stay probably meant he was looking for a room for the night. If she lied and
he found out, would he be pissed off?



 She didn't want to piss him off.



 "I ... uh...."



 "What will you folks be having?"



 Relieved by the interruption of the
waitress, Danika's gaze snapped from Balin to the waitress standing over the
table with a pad in her hands. “What's tonight's special?"



 "Meatloaf."



 Gag! “I'll take the baked chicken
dinner, then."



 The men all ordered beefthick steaks
and all the trimmingsminus the ęrabbit foodł they didn't seem to approve
of. They didn't look like they had anywhere to put that much food, but then
again, they were all painfully young and very muscular. They probably burnt
up a couple of thousand calories just breathing.



 Ordinarily, Danika didn't pay much
attention to her appearance or the passing years, but their youth made it
impossible not to compare her age to theirs, and their beauty ... well,
she'd never felt quite as plain or unappealing, like a little brown duck
that had found itself swimming in the midst of a flock of beautiful swans.



 It didn't occur to her until the
waitress left that the woman hadn't asked about dividing up the tickets.
“Wait! Put mine on a separate ticket!"



 The woman turned around to glare at
her in irritation.



 Balin waved her off. “Just leave it
together. I'll pay for hers."



 Struggling with indignation when the
woman left without waiting to see if she was agreeable to that solution,
Danika bent a tight smile on Balin. “I'll just give you my share, then," she
said firmly.



 He lifted the black, beringed brow.
“Consider it payment for sharing the booth."



 Danika kept her smile with an effort.
She didn't want to argue with the man, not when he personified dangerous,
but she wasn't about to be obligated to a total stranger,
especially a dangerous one. “That's ... sweet, but completely
unnecessary."



 The comment provoked chuckles from
the other men and she looked around at them in surprise. Con's blue eyes
were dancing with merriment as he divided a glance between her and Balin.
“Sweet? Balin? Honey, you don't have a clue."



 Honey? She might've taken exception
to that, too, except some of her shock was beginning to wear off and, as it
did, she was more and more uncomfortably aware that she wasn't in the middle
of a pack of swans.



 They reminded her a lot more of a
pack of ... wolves, she decided, though she wasn't certain why unless it had
just popped into her mind because she'd been called in to study a wolf pack.



 There was more to it than that, she
decided. Balin was a bit more ęsolidł looking than the others, not exactly
stocky, but definitely more heavily muscled than the others. The rest of the
gang, though, had the kind of builds that reminded her of wolves in the
wild, muscular, but lean. Con was the only one of the bunch that was
actually fair, though his complexion wasn't. Every inch of skin exposed was
tanned to a golden brownwhich probably meant he spent a lot of time on that
bike of his. Balin was almost his exact opposite. His hair was black enough
it seemed obvious that his sharp features were the result of a lot of Native
American blood or maybe Hispanic, although he looked more Native American
and his name didn't seem to be Spanish. Of the other threeJared and Dakota
were closest in coloring to Balin and Xavier, whose hair was a lot like
hers, neither blond nor brown, but in between, was closest in coloring to
Con.



 They weren't related that she could
tell but then again not all siblings looked like peas from the same pod. She
looked nothing like either her brother or her sister, fortunately for them,
and unfortunately for her since she was the family ugly duckling.



 More to occupy herself than for any
other reason, Danika looked around for her bag and discovered Xavier had
dropped it on the floor by her feet when he'd slid in beside her. Dragging
it out from under the table, she dug around for a piece of paper and a pen
while the men scanned the restaurant with keen interest.



 Despite her optimism, she couldn't
think of anything to put on the list of things she needed.



 "Taking notes?"



 Startled at the low, husky voice near
her ear when she was struggling to concentrate on recalling her list,
Danika's head whirled automatically in that direction and she found herself
almost nose to nose with Balin. He stared back at her with patent interest.



 Her instincts seriously impaired, her
head finally recoiled on her neck and she leaned back to put a more
comfortable distance between them. “Notes?" she repeated blankly.



 He studied her a long moment and then
flicked a glance at the envelope she'd pulled out of her bag.



 "Oh. I was just trying to remember
what I'd come to town to get. I forgot my list."



 A slow grin curled his lips. “You're
staying around here, then?"



 Danika blinked at him, mentally
kicking herself.



 "Yes," she mumbled, returning her
attention to her project and staring at the paper hard to will her brain to
function on a level above ęfemale in heat'. The thought had no sooner
flickered through her mind than she realized a good part of her jitters was
exactly that.



 It stood to reason, she excused
herself. They were a damned good looking bunch and they practically wreaked
of testosterone. She was a woman, after all, even though that wasn't
something she remembered very often.



 "Is there a particular reason you
don't want to tell us where you're staying?"



 Danika felt her face heat again. She
cleared her throat, searching for something to say that wouldn't offend.



 "We don't bite ... hard," Con said
with a husky chuckle.



 "Just a little gnawing here and
there," Jared agreed with a wolfish grin.



 "You're scaring her," Balin said
coldly when she sent the two men a wide eyed look.



 They were all scaring the shit
out of her!



 Unfortunately, it wasn't fear that
coiled in her lower belly, generating heat.



 The men tensed at Balin's rebuke
allof them. Danika flicked uneasy glances from one to another and
finally looked at Balin, who seemed to be the focus of their brooding gazes.
He'd tensed, as well, but she didn't think she would've noticed if not for
the fact that he was touching her. He looked singularly unimpressed by the
fact that the other four men radiated hostility and aggression.



 That thought sent a wave of cold
through her.



 Alphas, she realized, stunned. That
was why she felt so uneasy. It wasn't just the testosterone level at the
table. It was the fact that she'd instinctively registered that all five men
were alphas.



 What in the world would bring five
such dominant males together?



 She dismissed the possibility that
she figured into the equation just as she'd immediately dismissed the
suspicion that either Con or Jared were actually flirting with her in
reality. More likely, given the way they looked, they were just used to
toying with whatever female came within their sphere.



 "No, they're not," Danika lied,
hoping to diffuse the situation.



 Some of the tension eased from Balin.
Amusement and something else she couldn't quite grasp flickered through his
hazel eyes. “No?"



 She offered him a weak smile. “I know
they're just being playful."



 Dakota snorted, the sound a mixture
of repressed amusement and mild annoyance “Con's right. You are clueless,
sweet thing," he muttered in a rumbling growl of a voice.



 She made the mistake of whirling to
look at him when he spoke and discovered he'd shifted a lot closer than
she'd realized. He was close enough she could see his eyes were dilated
until she could barely discern the difference between the pupils and the
thin, golden brown ring around the outer edge.



 Her body, mindless thing that it was,
still keyed more to animal instinct than sentient being, reacted with
another wave of warmth at the blatant sexual interest in his eyes.



 They must have been on the road a
long time, she thought dimly, to have any interest in her.



 Fortunately, the waitress arrived
with their food, effectively distracting the men from her and each other.



 "So ... you're not passing through
and you haven't been here long," Balin said almost conversationally as they
focused on their food. “Now I'm wondering what could've brought you to this
little out of the way hick town."



 Danika flicked an uncomfortable
glance around to see if any of the local ęhicksł had taken exception to the
comment. It didn't help her feelings when she noticed a number of people at
the surrounding tables seemed to have their ears pricked to listen to the
conversation.



 She wasn't certain why she got that
impression. They seemed to be focused on their food and/ or their dining
companions, but the impression resisted her efforts to dispel it with
reason. “Work," she said finally.



 His black brows rose questioningly.
When she ignored the silent command to continue, he pursued it. “What kind
of work?"



 "Oh, you wouldn't be interested,"
Danika said dismissively, not because she was concerned about telling him
beyond a reluctance to get acquainted with an obvious gang member, but
because she doubted he was interested or would be intrigued if she did tell
him.



 "Try me."


 She glanced at him in surprise and
then looked around at the others at the table, discovering she had their
full attention. Finally, she shrugged. “Wildlife management brought me down
... or rather up, I guess since this is north of where I live ... because
they seem to be having trouble with wolves and I'm the closest they could
get to an expert in that field on such short notice."



 Something flickered in their eyes,
but it wasn't surprise.



 Why weren't they surprised, she
wondered?



 Maybe they didn't know wolves weren't
natural to the area, but surely they still should've been surprised at her
vocation?



 Jared, who'd leaned around Balin,
studied her speculatively, then flicked an enigmatic look at the others. “I
suppose from that," he drawled after a moment, “that you're supposed to
observe and report back on whether to send trappers or hunters."



 Surprise flickered through her.
“Actually, that's pretty much it. They weren't convinced there were wolves.
This is a rogue packnot native to the area and they've never had a problem
with wolves. Their behavior is pretty peculiar for wolves to say the least."
She shrugged. “Not that I'm really an expert. I was doing a study on wolves
in captivity in the Atlanta zoo. I haven't actually studied them in the wild
before ... other animals, but not wolves," she added quickly before they
could get the impression that she didn't have any idea of what she was
doing.



 She could only describe the
expressions on their faces as grim, which both surprised and disappointed
herthe grimness. Bored, wouldn't have surprised her. People had a way of
looking like they were searching for a polite way to scrape her loose the
minute she got warmed up about her studies in wildlife.



 "What were you doing the study for in
Atlanta?" Dakota asked after an uncomfortable silence had descended at the
table.



 "Mating," she said before she thought
better of it. “They're concernedthe zoothat the wolves don't have much
interest in it."



 [Back to Table of Contents]



 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 Chapter Three


He was either
completely unaware of Danika's feeble attempt to dislodge him or he chose to
ignore it. He speared the fingers of his free hand into the hair at the back
of her head, holding her when she tried to retreat from the dizzying
sensations pelting her. Sucking at her lips momentarily, he repositioned his
mouth more firmly over hers and thrust his tongue more deeply into the moist
cavern of her mouth, boldly exploring every inch of it.



 She managed a sound, but even she
wasn't certain if it was of distress or encouragement, if she was distressed
because of what he was doing, or because of the way it made her feel.



 Her back bumped against the door
frame or the wall. She had no idea and no time to assimilate the fact that
he'd pinned her or how he'd maneuvered her there. Prying her fingers from
his shoulders, he manacled her wrists with his big hands and pinned them to
the wall on either side of her. His groin made almost painful contact with
her belly as he curled his hips, the thick, engorged shaft of his cock
sending quakes along the channel of her sex. The feel of his hard body and
the evidence of his arousal in conjunction with the heat his mouth and
tongue generated made slippery moisture collect in her nether regions.



 "Let her go, Con."



 The thread of violence in the low,
growling voice penetrated the heated stupor that had gripped Danika,
rippling through her in a chilling wash. Con stiffened, pulled away slowly
and released her, turning to meet the threat. Disoriented, Danika surveyed
the cabin behind Con as he shifted and no longer blocked her view. Jared,
Xavier, Dakota, and Balin were ranged behind him, all stiff with the tension
radiating from them. Balin, who stood closest, was obviously the one who'd
spoken, however. He didn't glance at Danika.



 "Go back to your cabin, Dani," he
growled.



 Uttering a snarl of rage, Con
launched himself at Balin.



 Danika felt her jaw drop.



 "NOW!" Balin roared, narrowly dodging
the hammer-like fist Con swung at him.



 Danika jumped. Galvanized, she
whirled, bumping into the edge of the door and then the door itself as she
fought her way out of the cabin in a blind panic. She'd barely cleared the
door when Con flew through it backwards and landed in a skidding slide on
one shoulder and hip in the yard. Uttering a squeak of alarm, Danika bounded
off the porch and toward the safety of her cabin. When she'd slammed and
locked the door, she stood staring at it, listening to the roars of rage
from outside, meaty thuds of fists meeting flesh, crashes as bodies met
walls or furniture instead and the sounds of splintering wood when they did.



 The expectation that the sounds of
battle would either diminish very quickly or be accompanied shortly by the
wail of sirens went unrewarded. Slowly, her body unable to maintain the
heights of panic, the adrenaline rush eked away, leaving weakness in its
wake. Wobbling toward her bed, she dropped onto the side of the mattress
weakly, plugging her fingers in her ears, trying to master the shaking.
After what seemed an ungodly amount of time, the sounds of the fight finally
diminished and then ceased completely. As relieved as she was that the fight
had ended, visions of bodies laid out in the yard danced in her head. The
urge to check and see wasn't hard to suppress. She didn't really want to see
the results of the battle, particularly when it occurred to her that she
might hear the victor pounding on her door at any moment.



 The thick wooden panel and locks
suddenly seemed woefully inadequate given the way Con and Balin had been
throwing one another around. Scrambling toward the headboard, she coiled
herself into a tight ball, listening tensely until she couldn't even
maintain that much and her muscles relaxed of their own accord.



 The blankness shock had produced
evaporated after a while and chaotic thoughts poured into her mind.
Uppermost was the question of what had happened. She drew a blank. There
were holes in her memory. She'd been too groggy from interrupted sleep and
her anger that they were making so much noise there was no chance of any
wild animal coming within miles to remember anything very clearly about her
trip over to the neighboring cabin. Con's wholly unexpected kiss, to say
nothing of the effect it had had on her, had completely fixated her mind
from beginning to end.



 She had no idea what had been going
on in the cabin behind them, or what might be going through the minds of the
others, but she doubted very much that they could possibly have gotten the
impression that she was struggling to break free. What little resistance
she'd managed to muster had been feeble at best and nothing they could've
noticed. Even Con didn't seem to have noticed.



 That ruled out the possibility, as
far as she could see, that it was some chivalrous desire to protect her that
had sparked the fight.



 Unless they'd been doing some of that
macho male talk beforehand, wagering on who could get in her pants fastest
or something like that?



 The violence of both men's reactions
still seemed way too excessive for that supposition. Men talked, especially
young men, establishing their manhood with their peers in counting coups
with women, she knew, besides their propensity to relive their experiences
for the sheer enjoyment of it by talking about them. That still didn't
explain the challenge and counter challenge between Con and Balin. For that
matter, although it was a while before she recalled it, Jared, Dakota, and
Xavier had all been bristling with challenge. Their expressions, every line
of their taut bodies, had projected barely leashed violence ready to
explode.



 So much for her budding theory that
they were just ordinary, everyday guys who dressed differently!



 If any one of the men had established
squatters rights on her and had any reason to think she ębelongedł to them,
she could've understood hostilitynot
that excessive, but some challenge. But they hadn't.



 She could envision far more easily a
group of randy young men egging on the one that had caught her, or watching
with relish, hoping to ętap that thingł in their turn.



 They'd been drinking. She'd tasted it
on Con, but he hadn't been drunk or even close to it. She didn't recall
anything about any of the others that had seemed to imply they weren't in
complete control of their mental faculties either.



 She also couldn't think of anything,
beyond the violence, that would point to the possibility of them being
hopped up on some kind of drug.



 It had been inexcusably stupid of her
to have gone over to their place, especially half naked, although it wasn't
really uncommon for women to run around as scantily clad or less in gyms or
on the beachcertainly in public! She hadn't had her wits about her. She was
mature enough, though, that she should have recognized that fact and
gathered her wits instead of just reacting.


 It almost seemed as if they'd turned
the music up so loud just to disrupt her work, but she knew that was
paranoia. People that listened to music, young people, seemed to have a need
to feel the vibrations all the way down to their core.



 One thing was abundantly clear even
if she couldn't figure out what had spawned the violence. She needed to stay
as far from the gang as she could possibly get! The fight just emphasized
her earlier assessment.



 When she'd managed to calm down
somewhat, she checked the time and got up to dress. Obviously, between the
fight that had erupted and the loud music, which was still playing, there
wasn't a chance in hell that wolf was going to come anywhere near the
cabins. Peering cautiously out of her window, she saw that the gang was
half-heartedly cleaning up the debris from the fightBalin and Con included.



 Shivering a little when both men
glanced toward her cabin, almost as if they sensed her watching, she moved
quickly away from the window. The cabin didn't have a back door,
unfortunately, no doubt a precaution to keep renters from sneaking off
without paying. There was a window on the opposite side of the building from
the neighboring cabin, though.



 She studied it doubtfully, feeling
juvenile for even thinking about climbing out the window. She should just
ignore them and walk right out the front and go about her business. Thinking
about that and doing it were two entirely different things, though. As silly
as she felt sneaking out the window to avoid any possibility of another
confrontation, she just couldn't summon enough guts to face them.



 She had two options as far as she
could see. She could behave like a skittish teenager and climb out the
window or she could go back to bed and forget about her research.



 The research paid the bills, though,
and her boss was going to get pissed if she didn't have something concrete
to report in short order. Opening the window, she surveyed the drop to the
ground and finally gathered her flashlight and night vision glasses. Shoving
them into her bag along with a bottle of water, she leaned out the window
and lowered it to the ground. It landed with a gentle rattle of the contents
but she doubted it was loud enough to raise any alarm the way the music was
still blaring from next door.



 Undoubtedly the proprietor hadn't
thought it was worth his time to confront them, she thought wryly, but
doubted the man could possibly sleep through it, and certainly not the
fight.



 When she'd straddled the windowsill,
she paused to consider the best way to get out without injury and finally
turned around, settled her weight on her belly and felt around the outside
of the cabin with the toes of her shoes for purchase. The cabin was built of
rough hewn timber, but it was vertical planking not horizontal and she
didn't find a hold for her toes. Sighing irritably, she wiggled a little
further out and searched for the ground. The cabin was higher off the ground
than she'd guessed. Realizing there was nothing for it but to drop and that
she was already past the point of having the option to change her mind, she
pushed herself off the windowsill and dropped to the ground. She landed
unevenly, pinwheeled her arms in an effort to regain her balance and finally
fell backwards when she failed, sprawling out.



 "What the hell are you doing?" Balin
growled from far too close.



 Danika jackknifed upright and whipped
her head around guiltily to look for him. Con, Balin, Jared, Dakota, and
Xavier all stood at the front end of the cabin, scowling at her.



 Anger spawned by acute embarrassment
descended over her after a moment's surprise. She glared back at them and
picked herself up, brushing the seat of her pants. “Not that it's any of
your business," she snapped, reaching down to snatch her bag from the
ground, “but I'm going out."



 "Out the window?" Con ground out.



 She blushed but decided it was
probably too dark for them to notice. “I felt like it!" she said testily,
daring them to say anything more about it.



 The five men exchanged speaking
glances.



 "I'll go with you," Dakota announced.



 "NO! ... Thank you!" Danika added,
belatedly remembering her manners.



 "One of us will," Balin retorted, his
voice implacable.



 Danika stared at him in disbelief.
“Excuse me?"



 "You heard me."



 "I heard you!" Danika snapped. “I
just don't know why the hell you think you can tell me what to do!"



 He wasn't accustomed to being
challenged. That much was obvious from the taut set of his jaw. “There's a
pack of rogue wolves roaming these woods. They've already attacked several
people. Use a little common sense, Dani!"



 Shock rolled through her and not just
because in the space of less than a day he'd picked up the habit of calling
her Dani ... as if they were intimate acquaintances instead of complete
strangers to one another. She'd seen them when they arrived in town. How was
it, she wondered, that they seemed to know everything that had been
happening so quickly? Maybe even knew more than she did? She certainly
hadn't heard of attacks, plural, only the one, and she hadn't even been able
to substantiate that.



 Maybe he was exaggerating to get his
point across?



 "I know that," she said finally.
“It's why I'm here. I appreciate your concern, but I know what I'm doing."



 "And that's why you climbed out the
window?" Balin growled angrily. “Because you know exactly what you're
doing?"



 She narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh!
Don't even go there! Just because I didn't want to take the chance of
becoming embroiled in another one of the macho bullshit battles you guys
have got going on to decide who's top dog it doesn't follow that I don't
have any common sense. In point of fact, it's because I
do that I figured it was better to climb out the damned window than
risk getting mixed up in another one!



 "I happen to be a grown woman! And
I've probably been doing this since you boys were still in diapers, so just
run along now and mind your own damned business!"



 The expressions that descended over
their faces at that challenge to their manhood were downright unnerving.
Maybe, she thought a little uneasily, she shouldn't have thrown in that bit
about them being kids?



 So she'd exaggerated a little bit!
She was still older, wiser, and just as damned determined to have her own
way as they were to get theirs!



 She discovered they'd moved subtly
closer while she was distracted by her temper and she found herself
surrounded. Amusement vied with the fury glittering in Balin's eyes, she
realized. His gaze slid down her length, paused for a long moment at the
juncture of her thighs, and moved back up to her breasts for another
significant pause before it returned to hers. There was heat besides the
anger in his eyes now. “You're an alpha female," he murmured, his voice
husky with a promise that evoked a startling rise of heat inside of her in
response.



 Unnerved, Danika flicked a quick
glance around at the others. What she saw didn't reassure her. They were all
looking at her in much the same way as Balin. When she met Balin's stare
again, she discovered he'd moved closer still. He reached out to lift a lock
of hair lying across her shoulder, brushing the back of his hand very
deliberately across her breast as he did. Her breath stilled her chest as
tingles of awareness radiated through her from the light touch. Her thoughts
scattered in a million different directions.



 "Stay in your cabin."



 Sucking in a much needed breath of
air, she set her jaw. “I won't and you can't make me!"



 A wolfish grin split lips. “I can and
I can think of a lot of things I could do to occupy your time while I'm at
it."



 Her eyes widened with shock. “You
wouldn't
dare !"


 "Oh, I would," he assured her.



 "Rape carries a healthy jail
sentence," she said in a voice that quavered with a lack of conviction.



 "I can guarantee you it wouldn't be
rape."



 She was afraid he could. “It would,"
she declared stubbornly, “because I'm sure as hell not going to cooperate."



 His gaze flickered over her face.
“Liar," he murmured mockingly.



 "I'll scream," she threatened.



 The flames leapt higher in his eyes.
“I'm counting on it. Quit pushing while you're ahead, Dani," he added,
almost gently. “I find challenges hard to ignore and I'm pretty sure you're
not ready to face the consequences."



 Shivering, Danika averted her gaze,
flicking another quick look at the others. To a man, she saw challenge in
every gaze. She looked away, studying her feet. Taking it as defeat, Balin
grasped her arm and led her around to the front of the cabin. Jared, who'd
undoubtedly gone in through the window, unlocked the door when they reached
it. Expecting them to leave, Balin surprised her by escorting her inside.
She glanced at him uneasily and then at Jared and Con, who'd followed her
and Balin inside.



 There was surprisingly little damage
to either Con's or Balin's faces considering the battle between them only a
little earlier, she noted absently, most of her mind on why they had all
crowded into her cabin. Dakota and Xavier entered a few minutes later. Armed
with hammers and nails they'd found somewhere, they strode to the cabin's
windows, closed them and nailed them shut while Danika gaped at them in
disbelief.



 "That's a fire hazard!" she said when
she finally found her voice.



 "Then don't start a fire!" Balin shot
back at her.



 "This isn't happening," she muttered
to herself, plopping weakly on the edge of her bed. “This is some kind of
bizarre dream."



 "Hopefully it won't turn into a
nightmare for you," Balin said dryly as Dakota and Xavier finished and
headed for the door. Jared paused to pat her cheek before following them.
Con and Balin, after exchanging a long, challenging look, followed the
others, closing the door behind them.



 Anger flickered through Danika after
they were gone. Jolting to her feet, she stalked to the door and locked it
and then leaned weakly against the door as the brief spurt of defiance left
her. After staring around at the one room cabin for several moments, she
finally made her way back to her bed, pushed her shoes and jeans off and
climbed under the covers. She lay staring at the shadows in the room for a
while. The music next door died. Sometime later, she heard the distant howl
of a wolf. It was followed by others, too many to count.



 She'd missed her chance to get a look
at the pack, she realized. She couldn't seem to summon enough energy for
anger to take hold, though. She felt completely drained by everything that
had happened.



 * * * *

"What the fuck was that
all about?" Con growled when they reached their own cabin.



 Balin paused to study him through
narrowed eyes for a long moment. When Con made no attempt to approach him,
he continued to the chair near one window and dropped into it. Jared and
Dakota took up each end of the couch. After surveying the room for a place
to light, Xavier finally settled on one of the bunks with his back to the
wall.



 "I'd like an answer to that myself,"
Dakota said.



 Balin met each of the other men's
gazes, holding it for a long moment before he moved to the next. “She's an
alpha female," he responded finally. Stretching his long legs out before
him, he crossed them, studying the toe of one boot thoughtfully.



 Jared's lips tightened. “I think
we've all pretty much figured that out by now."



 Balin flicked a glance at him. “She's
still a human female."



 "And I give a fuck!" Con snarled.



 Balin's face hardened. “Are you
challenging me for her?"



 "God damn it!" Dakota snarled,
surging up from the couch. “You said you weren't interested!"



 Balin sent him an enigmatic look.
“What's your interest?"



 Dakota glared at him. “I think you
can figure it out."



 "Humor me."



 Dakota opened his mouth and then
closed it again. “She's human," he snarled finally, dropping back into his
seat. “What do you think?"



 "I think she's off limits," Balin
growled. “Alpha or not, she isn't one of ours. If you need something to
stick your dick in, go find a wolfen or a werefemale."



 Con scowled at him but finally moved
to prop one shoulder against the wall, facing the group. “What was that all
about while ago, then, if you consider her off limits? Or is she just off
limits to us?"



 Balin frowned. “I think the alpha of
the rogue pack is after her."



 Con flicked a glance at the others
and came away from the wall. “What makes you think that?"



 A mixture of amusement and anger
glittered in Balin's eyes. “She said she'd spotted a wolf right outside her
cabin a couple of times since she's been here. She tried to tag himtwice. I
didn't make the connection until she bowed up at me. She's an alpha. He
knows that. He's looking for a mate."



 Dakota, Jared, and Con exchanged
looks of outrage. “The slimy, fucking bastard!" Dakota snarled, voicing
Jared and Con's sentiments along with his own.



 Xavier frowned. “If you're right, why
hasn't he marked her?"



 Balin grinned abruptly. “Possibly
because every time he comes near her she shoots him with one of her darts
and he wakes up with a tracker in his ass."



 Xavier looked taken aback. “Ouch!"



 Dakota stared at him a moment and
began laughing. Even Con and Jared grinned.



 "She must have some potent joy juice
in those things to take down a wolfen. Remind me to steer clear of her when
she's packing."



 Balin sobered. “I'm not sure he's
wolfen. If he is, he's either got some serious mental issues or he has
virtually no control over his rogue pack. From what I saw, the
son-of-a-bitch and his pack have infected most of the fucking town. I doubt
that's allowed by the Canadian council any more than ours and for the same
reasonthe best way to coexist with the humans is to make certain they don't
know we exist. I don't know what his agenda is, or if he even has one."



 Dakota and Con shrugged when he
looked at them questioningly.



 "We spotted maybe a handful that
weren't. Without going door to door, though, I don't know how we can tell
just how many have been infected and how many aren't," Con answered.



 "I hadn't expected it to be this
bad," Dakota added.



 "I'm pretty sure the council didn't
either," Balin retorted shortly.



 Jared scrubbed his hand over his face
and then raked his fingers through his hair irritably. “Fuck! I hate to
admit it, but I don't have a fucking clue of where to go from here. He's got
an army. Maybe we should send for reinforcements?"



 Balin looked disgusted. “Rabble.
There's no army and no clear leader. It's going to be a blood bath when the
weres hit their first transition. I don't think there's anything we
can do to stop it. About all we're going to be able to manage is clean up
and we'll be damned lucky if we can do that without having a horde of humans
breathing down our necks if it's as bad as I'm thinking it'll be."



 "The council isn't going to be happy
with that," Xavier retorted. “The idea was we were going to come in and
clean things up quietly. I sure as hell don't see any way to do thatnot
with most of the town about to go into transition."



 Balin spread his hands. “We're only
wolfen, not gods. There are limits even to what we can do."



 Dakota frowned thoughtfully. After a
moment, he sat forward. “What about the church? Tomorrow's Sunday, right?"



 Balin eyed him with interest. “And?"



 "I figure most of the community is
going to turn out for church. I counted three. If we station ourselves at
the churches, we can at least get a head count of those not already infected
and it would give us a better idea of what we're dealing with."



 "It's an idea," Balin agreed
thoughtfully.



 "A good one," Jared said.



 Con shrugged. “We'll still need to
figure out how we can protect them from the
weres ."


 "One thing at the time," Balin said.
“It'll give us something to work with, as Dakota pointed out."



 * * * *

Sunlight was spilling
through the window when Danika woke. Pulling the cover over her head, she
lay still, allowing her mind to come alive slowly. The thoughts that flitted
through her mind weren't particularly pleasant, though, and she pushed the
cover away and got up a few minutes later. After putting the coffee on, she
went into the bathroom to bathe and dress and brush her teeth. She felt
marginally better when she emerged, alert enough to make a cup of coffee
anyway.



 Carrying it out to the porch, she
plopped down in one of the chairs, propped her feet on the porch rail, and
stared vacantly at the lake, trying not to think about anything.



 It worked until the biker gang poured
out of the cabin next door, mounted their bikes, and revved the engines. She
ignored them, pointedly, narrowing her eyes at the view before her.



 It was just a shame they didn't seem
to notice.



 They put their bikes in gear and
roared off, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake. Waving her hand in front
of her face to dispel the dust, Danika turned to watch them until they were
out of sight.



 "Good riddance!" she muttered. “Bossy
bastards!"



 Getting to her feet, she stalked
inside and gathered what she thought she might need then headed out of the
cabin again, taking the trail she'd discovered a few days earlier. She found
herself listening intently for the sound of motorcycles as she strode
purposefully along the trail but after a while she managed to dismiss it.



 It was an uncomfortably warm day and
the bag she was carrying seemed to weigh twice as much as usual. Stopping
after a time, she checked her pedometer to see how far she'd come and
dragged her bottle of water out to take a few sips.



 She'd been studiously avoiding
thoughts about the night before, but there was little of interest around her
to keep her mind occupied and she found the thoughts creeping in despite her
best efforts to keep them at bay. She wasn't certain how she felt about the
confrontation beyond being annoyed. She realized she hadn't actually been
afraid of them, though, and that surprised her until it occurred to her that
they hadn't made her feel threatened. If they had, she would've had enough
sense to be scared, especially after the fight she'd witnessed between Con
and Balin.



 She hadn't wanted to think about that
at all but the moment she did, she remembered Con's kissvividly. She felt
the effects again, toohot, jittery, breathless.



 He could kiss. She had to give him
that. She'd never been more thoroughly aroused so quickly in her life.
Whether he could use that python he had pressed against her worth a damn
might be another matter all together, but he could damned sure kiss.



 He probably couldn't, she told
herself. Granted, her own experiences were fairly limited. She didn't have
the time or patience for relationships and her work made it nearly
impossible for one anyway. She had participated in some extracurricular
activities from time to time, though, and the only guy she'd been with that
was hung like that had had this moronic attitude that his cock was so
wonderful nothing else was needed. She was supposed to
look at it and come.


 Of course, he couldn't kiss worth a
shit so Con already had one up on the guy anyway.



 Or maybe it wasn't that Con was so
good at it so much as it was that she was just plain horny?



 She hadn't thought she had a problem
until she'd run into the biker quints from hell. Obviously, she'd been
wrong, though. Not that they weren't five of the hottest males she'd ever
laid eyes on, and she was only human, and she could only withstand just so
much testosteroneespecially when came so beautifully wrapped. She supposed
if she hadn't been needy before she'd had more than enough provocation to
feel that way now.



 Especially after that kiss.



 Firmly, she put it from her mind. The
guy couldn't be much more than twenty five years old, for gods sake! “Get a
grip, Danika!" she muttered under her breath. She was ... old enough to know
better, not too old to be tempted, but too damned old to fall for a pretty
face.



 A fabulous bod.



 Dreamy kisses.



 And a champion cock.



 Oh the temptation to go for a wild
fling!



 She gave herself a mental smack.
“Knock it off, Danika! You're not seriously considering having sex with a
biker!"



 She was.


 Any of the five. All of them.



 Because she couldn't even decide
which one appealed to her the most.



 Because she was an idiot.



 She hoped when she made it back to
her cabin it was to discover the bikers had taken off. They were screwing
with her head and they were going to seriously screw up her job if they kept
interfering every time she needed to go out to check on the pack she'd been
sent to study.



 What she really needed to do was wrap
everything up as quickly as she could and remove herself from temptation,
not wait for them to remove themselves from her temptation.



 Con had sucked out every ounce of
willpower she possessed with that one kiss. If any of the others were half
as good, she was dead meat ... putty in their hands.



 Oh god! She would love to be
putty in their hands!



 [Back to Table of Contents]



 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 Chapter Five


Discovering he couldn't
get a decent internet connection, Balin got on the phone and contacted the
head of the council to outline the situation and make arrangements to get
what they needed.



 "I don't like it," Dorian muttered
angrily when he'd finished.



 Balin's expression tightened with
annoyance. “If you've got a better suggestion, we're wide open."



 Silence greeted that remark. “You say
the rogues have infected half the town?"



 "Actually, I didn't. From what we can
see
more than half the town is infected. It's impossible to determine
whether the rogue pack did it all or if they only got the ball rolling by
infecting the first. My guess is, given the extent of it, they set out to
convert the entire town."



 "What the hell would they do that
for?" Dorian demanded.



 "Your guess is as good as mine,"
Balin said wryly. “We've only been here a few days. We haven't been able, so
far, to run down but two of the wolfen and they were disinclined to talk."



 "I still don't like it. There isn't
going to be any way to keep something like this quiet."



 "I don't like it any better than you
do," Balin growled impatiently. “This is a whole different ballgame than
what we expected when we were sent here, though. We expected to deal with
the rogue pack and possibly a few
weres who'd made the mistake of crossing their paths. This was
systematic. It's sure as hell no accident that they've infected so many. I
couldn't begin to speculate on what the pack leader was thinking, but
there's no doubt he has some kind of agenda beyond staking out new territory
for himself."



 Dorian was silent again, obviously
thinking the situation over. Balin waited with what patience he could
muster. “Fine," he responded finally. “I'll talk to the council, explain the
situation, and we'll get you what you need. I can't help but think you need
reinforcements if it's as widespread as you say."



 "I'm not going to disagree. We're
about to be heavily outnumbered here. If the goal is to keep this as quiet
as possible, though, I'm not sure sending in a few hundred wolfen would go
unnoticed. The
weres are going to be unstable when they hit their first transition
in a few days. Sending in more wolfen is only going to make matters worse,
to my way of thinking. It'll almost certainly result in a heavier loss of
lifeand it's going to be damned hard to hush this up if we end up with a
couple of hundred bodies."



 "You think having several hundred
pain maddened
weres rampaging around the countryside isn't going to arouse a lot
attention?"



 "No, I don'tnot if we manage to
quarantine the uninfected. They won't know what's going on. We can tell them
whatever story we need to. The county doesn't see a lot of traffic from
outsiders so I don't expect there's much likelihood of anyone beyond the
area getting wind of it. Once the
weres have exhausted themselves we'll take care of the rogues and get
some of our own men in here to restore peace and establish council law. It
may take some convincingthey're bound to be feeling powerful and
invincible, but we can handle that issue fairly quietly I believe."



 Dorian uttered an irritated sigh over
the phone. “Alright, I'm convinced. You'll get what you need. I still think
you should go ahead and send for a few of your men."



 "I'm glad you agree. We already did."



 "Well?" Dakota asked when he'd hung
up the phone.



 Balin turned and surveyed the others.
“We have the go ahead. Dorian says we'll have what we need here by next
Friday."



 Jared looked disgusted. “That's going
to be cutting it close."



 Balin shrugged. “It's a tall order
even with the resources at our command. It might just work better
anywayhave more of an emergency feel to it that would create enough
uneasiness to get them moving without asking too many questions or making
too much noise. We don't want any of the more suspicious deciding to start
making phone calls."



 Dakota frowned. “It might be a good
idea to cut the communications just in case. I'll get back with my pack and
get someone to working on that."



 "You think the rogue pack might try
to make a run for it?" Con asked thoughtfully.



 "They know we're here," Balin
retorted. “They haven't yet. I think the bastards are feeling too full of
themselves to consider it. Either that or they're laboring under the
misconception that we're rogue, too, and they think this is just a local
territorial dispute."



 "I'll still feel better when we have
our net in place," Jared muttered. “I don't like the fact that they haven't
made a move on us. They must at least suspect the council sent us or they
wouldn't be so careful to keep on the move."



 "They're still taking our measure,"
Balin responded with a shrug. “Look at it from their standpoint. There are
only five of us. I doubt the leader feels threatenednot by us. No doubt he
also figures the
weres will eliminate the problem for him once they turn. They'll be
under his controlsuch as it is. More likely he's keeping on the move
because he realizes he screwed up and the government is on to him, otherwise
he would've made a move against Danikabeyond trying to turn her, which I
think was his plan. It's probably still his plan, either because he wants
her for a mate or merely to get her under his control and keep her from
bringing in the fedsprobably both."



 Xavier looked troubled. “I still
don't like it that we don't have a clear picture of his plans. You think
he's just crazy, Balin?"



 Balin made a rude noise. “Crazy
ambitious seems more likely. I don't think he chose to jump the border. I
think he was driven out and I also think he's got ambitions beyond taking
over this little burg. He had all the men he needed to do that. The only
possible explanation, assuming he isn't crazy, is that he planned on using
the
weres to help him grab a bigger chunk of territory than this small
area. Maybe he's even got ambitions of bouncing back across the border once
he's strong enough and taking back what he lost. If it makes you feel
better, we'll ask him before we rip his throat out."



 "If he comes within sniffing distance
of Danika again, I'm not waiting to ask the bastard anything!" Con growled.



 "She's not yours to protect!"
Dakota snapped.



 "You saying she's yours?" Con
demanded, tensing all over and coming slowly to his feet.



 "She's under the protection of
council law," Balin said coldly.



 Jared, Con, Dakota, and Xavier all
exchanged a long look before turning to look at Balin speculatively.



 "She wouldn't be any less protected
by council law if one of us claimed her," Jared said finally.



 "Or more," Balin pointed out tightly.



 "If you mean by that that you don't
have any intention of taking part in the fight to settle who gets her,
that's fine by me," Dakota snapped.



 " Noneof youuswill Ä™getÅ‚
her!" Balin snarled. “She isn't wolfen and she isn't a
were , and I'll fucking kill the first one of you that even considers
converting her. She wouldn't make it through transition. You all
know what her chances are. Even if she made it through transition in
one piece, physically, and didn't die in the attempt, her chances of making
it and still being sane are even less likely."



 Con narrowed his eyes at him
furiously. “What I'd like to know, since you keep trying to convince us
you've got no interest in her yourself, is why the fuck you keep harping on
taking her for a mate when none of the rest of us have suggested it."



 Balin's face darkened. “Maybe you
think that isn't what you've got in mind," he said coldly. “Or maybe you're
just trying to convince me it isn't, but you wouldn't be so fixated on
getting her in your bed if the thought hadn't crossed your mind."



 "Maybe it's what's on your mind?"
Jared retorted.



 "Maybe," Balin responded, “but I'm
not thinking with my dick. I know it isn't possibleeven if it was
desirablewhich it isn't."



 "What's crossed my mindseveral
times," Con growled, “is that I wouldn't be thinking with my dick if I used
the fucking thing!"



 Balin studied him for a long moment
and then looked at each of the others with equal assessment. “Then maybe you
can explain to me, since you're all so sure mating hasn't crossed your mind,
why it is that you think you can settle this, or need to, by combat? If you
just want to fuck her, draw straws!"



 The sense of discomfort that rolled
through Con leavened his aggressiveness, slightly. He glanced around at the
others, seeing a similar reaction in their expressions. “We agreed to settle
it in the accepted manner," he said finally.



 "And, once you have," Balin said
coldly, “the victor's planning on just marching up to her door and informing
her she's the spoils of battle? You think she's just going to drop to her
back and spread her legs for you?"



 "Don't be an ass, Balin!" Dakota
snapped. “We're not fucking idiots, whatever you think. The victor gets to
convince her and the others step back."



 Balin's lips tightened. “You're lying
to yourself if you believe that. You wouldn't be willing to settle it in
battle if any of you were willing to let it go that easily."



 Con narrowed his eyes at him. “I'd
suggest you stay here if you didn't have any interest in the outcome, but I
don't fucking trust you."



 Abruptly, Balin grinned at him
wolfishly. “You're not as stupid as I thought you were."



 Con stared at him blankly a moment as
the insult struck home then uttered a snarl of rage and pounced.



 "Not here!" Jared, Dakota, and Xavier
bellowed at almost the same moment, struggling to separate the two men.



 "You want to scare the hell out of
her like you did the last time?" Xavier demanded indignantly. “The victor's
going to have a hell of a time convincing her to unlock her god damned legs
if he has to take the door off to get to her!"



 Con and Balin, both breathing heavily
with rage, backed off, glaring at one another.



 "The woods then," Balin snarled
finally.



 * * * *

To Danika's relief,
there wasn't a sign of the bikers when she nerved herself to poke her head
out for a look around. Their bikes were still parked in front of their
cabin, though, and she decided to err on the side of caution. Holding her
bag close to keep the contents from rattling, she stepped out onto the porch
and closed her cabin door as quietly as she could.



 She glanced at the neighboring cabin
again when she reached the yard, frowning a little worriedly. She'd heard
the sounds of an argument/fight between them a little earlier. The silence
from the cabin now was downright unnerving, particularly when the presence
of the bikes made it obvious they hadn't gone anywhere.



 Maybe it had just been another drink
inspired argument and they were sleeping it off?



 Dismissing it after a moment, she
headed toward the break in the woods where the trail started, waiting until
she was out of view of the cabins to flick her flashlight on. She'd napped
for a while in the hope that she'd be more alert if she had to stay out all
night. She'd slept longer than she'd intended to, though, and, as she
hurried along the trail, her mind switched focus from the bikers to a
growing anxiety that she might've missed the wolves.



 Not that she could actually count on
the fact that they'd used the trail a good bit before in their nightly
roaming, but she thought her chances good of catching them. She just hoped
she was early enough to find a good observation spot where she could see
them without being detected.



 She'd found a tree close to the
clearing where the tracks indicated a meeting point. She was pretty sure she
could climb it without much trouble. Then, even if they did spot her and
decided to attack instead of running, at least she'd be safe. The thought
made her think about her tranq pistol and she stopped and rifled around in
her bag until she'd unearthed it. She carried it for a while, but the custom
made pistol was heavy. No doubt the guy she'd bought it from hadn't
considered the weight a problem, but her hand and arm began to cramp fairly
quickly from the heavy piece and she finally stopped again and shoved it in
the front of her jeans.



 Thinking wryly that she looked like
some kind of vigilante the concern flickered through her mind, briefly, that
she might stumble upon a game warden or a night hunter but she was able to
dismiss it fairly quickly. She hadn't run into anybody in her nightly
wanderings in all the time she'd been there. It seemed unlikely she would
now.



 She was about halfway to the clearing
when she heard, dimly, in the distance, the snarls and growls of wolves. Her
heart kicked up its pace a notch. She hadn't missed themyetbut it seemed
obvious they were already at the rendezvous point. If she didn't hurry, she
still might.



 The snarls and growls grew louder as
she hurried down the path, punctuated now and then with yelps of pain that
made it clear they were fighting. That could be a good thing and could be
bad news. The fight was bound to hold the focus of the entire group. On the
other hand, they were also certain to be more dangerous if they were
fighting over pack position.



 It was hard to say when she couldn't
see what was going on. They might be squabbling over a killan equally
dangerous situationbut it began to seem that way when she realized there
were intervals of silence and then there would be a fresh eruption as if a
new battle had been taken up.



 She turned off her flashlight when
she knew she was getting close, which necessitated stopping to allow her
eyes to adjust. It was as dark as a cave under the trees. The sliver of moon
overhead didn't give her much light to see by, but she discovered that after
her eyes adjusted she could see well enough to stay on the trail.



 She encountered another unanticipated
problem once she reached the point where she could glimpse the wolves in the
clearing. She couldn't make her way to the tree she'd intended to use
without alerting them to her presence.



 There were only five wolves that she
could see, and she felt a shiver work its way up her spine at the thought
that the other members of the pack might be in the woods surrounding her.
The five wolves she
could see were hugeand obviously thoroughly pissed off, bristling
with rage as they circled one another.



 There was no carcass, eliminating
that as a possibility for their animosity toward one another.



 She halted while she still had at
least a little cover, trying to decide whether it would be better to retreat
or stay where she was and wait until they decided to move on. Two of the
wolves, a huge black and an albino that was almost completely white, uttered
snarling growls and charged one another while she was trying to make up her
mind. The violence of their attack startled her and she took an instinctive
step backwards. Her foot settled on a dead branch. It snapped under her
weight.



 Any doubts she'd had that they were
completely focused on one another vanished instantly. All five wolves
jolted, whirling toward the sound. Danika froze, hoping they'd dismiss the
sound if she was still enough. The air was still. She didn't think they
could catch her scent.



 Before she could relax, the crackling
of underbrush broke the stillness. Her worst fear realized, Danika snatched
her tranq pistol from her pants and took another step back, prepared to run
the moment she could be sure of the direction the wolves were. Her foot
snagged in something that felt likecloth. Peripherally, she registered the
fact that it was discarded clothing, but her mind leapt away from the
thought almost instantly as three wolves charged out of the brush on the
other side of the clearing.



 She sucked in a sharp breath as three
of the five who'd originally occupied the clearing whirled to face the
threat, launching a furious attack. The white wolf whirled in her direction
the moment she did and charged toward her.



 Screaming, Danika fired at him. The
dart grazed his shoulder, almost seemed as if it would miss him altogether,
then lodged in his hip. He uttered a yelp, stumbling. Firing at two of the
others now fighting in the clearing, she hesitated just long enough to see
the tranq darts had found their mark. Pandemonium ensued, either from the
hits or the loud report of the pistol. The wolves not already engaged in
battle skidded to a halt, their heads whipping around as they searched for
her. Two more charged toward her. A half a dozen whirled away and leapt into
the brush. The custom made pistol had three more darts, but there were at
least a dozen wolves in the clearing by that time. Even if she'd had more
darts with her, she didn't have time to reload. She also didn't have time to
decide whether to run or climb. She couldn't see well enough to find a tree
she might be able to climb. Firing at the two heading straight for her,
Danika whirled and ran.



 She developed a stitch in her side as
she charged full tilt down the dark trail. Gasping for air, she sucked in a
breath and held it, trying to listen for pursuit. When she didn't hear
anything, she slowed enough to look behind her. The wolves seemed to have
dismissed her in favor of fighting among themselves.



 She wasn't keen on the idea of taking
any more chances, though. Holding her side, she jogged down the path as fast
as she could until she finally broke from the woods. She paused for a
moment, huffing for air until she thought she might pass out. Massaging her
side, she limped toward the safety of her cabin as fast as she could manage
when she'd caught her breath and finally made it inside, slamming and
locking the door behind her.



 She leaned weakly against the door
when she'd locked it, still struggling to catch her breath, listening
intently for the distant sounds of battle. She shivered when she heard a
lone wolf howl. A few moments later the call was taken up by more.



 "That didn't go well," she muttered
shakily when she'd finally, almost, caught her breath and her heart had
stopped hammering in her chest as if it would explode. It didn't occur to
her until a good while later, when she'd finally stopped shaking, to wonder
if the wolves she'd managed to hit had been knocked out. The temptation to
go check assailed her immediately. They were
big wolves, though, a lot bigger than she'd expected them to be, and
she wasn't as convinced that the dosage she'd used would keep them out for
very long as she would've liked it to.



 Could she really afford to ignore the
opportunity to tag them, though? At the rate she'd been going she was
never going to be able to account for the size of the pack orfind
their lair.



 She had to go back. She was
almost certain all the gunfire had chased away the othersalmost wasn't
enough to make her terribly happy, but she reloaded her pistol and grabbed
more darts and shoved them into her bag.



 She was going to have to climb a tree
if they got after her again. She didn't think she could manage another run
through the woods.



 Her knees were practically knocking
together when she stepped outside the cabin and closed the door behind her
again. Resisting the sudden urge to head next door and ask one, or all, of
the bikers to go with her for added protection, she started down the steps
of the porch.



 Con stepped from the path she'd so
lately fled from before she'd covered half the distance between the cabin
and the woods. She halted abruptly, staring at him shock as he staggered, or
maybe stumbled? He was bare-chested and barefooted, his shaggy blond hair
tousled. He was also bleeding. Xavier, who exited the woods behind him,
didn't look to be in much better shape.



 "My god!" Danika gasped, racing
toward them as her shock finally released her from paralysis. “What happened
to you two?"



 Con stared at her for a long moment,
obviously having some trouble focusing his eyes. Abruptly, his brows
descended in a frown. “Woman!" he growled. “You are a menace!"



 Danika braked to a halt, gaping at
him. “Me? What did I do?"



 "As if you didn't know!" Con
snarled.



 He was drunk, Danika realized
abruptly. “If you're talking about the shooting just a little while ago...."



 "That's exactly what I'm
talking about!" Con growled. “What the hell did you think to accomplish?"



 "I wasn't trying to accomplish
anything but to scare off the wolf pack that's been terrorizing the locals.
They were after me!"



 "That wasn't that wolf pack!"
Xavier said angrily.



 Danika turned to stare at him. “What
do you mean it wasn't
that wolf pack?" she asked blankly.


 A look of dismay flickered across his
features. He turned to look at Con as if seeking help but apparently the
look on Con's face didn't look promising. “I just remembered something," he
muttered, shoving past Danika and heading for his cabin.



 "Where do you think you're off to
now?" Con demanded, drawing her attention back to him.



 "I figured as long as I'd taken some
of them down I'd tag them and put a locator in their hips," she informed him
stiffly.



 Con glared at her in fuming silence
for a moment. “I don't think they'd appreciate getting a locator in the ass
any more than they liked the fucking darts."



 "Well, I'm not going to ask them!"
Danika snapped, realizing he was too drunk to make any sense.



 He grabbed her with surprising
strength when she tried to march past him. Before she quite knew what was
happening, she found herself slung over his shoulder. Stunned, she couldn't
even gather her wits to try to struggle for several moments. It was the
realization that he was hauling her back to her cabin that finally
penetrated her surprise. “Put me down, you ass!"



 "Not likely!"



 "I mean it, Con! Put me down!"



 "I don't think so."



 She made a growling sound of
frustration in her throat as he started up the steps. “I've got work to do!"
she ground out angrily. “Who do you think you are? Tarzan?"



 He allowed her to slip to her feet as
he entered the cabin with her. “Something like that," he growled, hooking a
hand behind her head and dragging her against him.



 "I'm pissed at you!" she snapped as
he lowered his head to match his mouth to hers.



 "I'm pretty damned pissed off with
you, if comes to that," he muttered, nipping at her lips with his, nibbling
and sucking at them hungrily. “And I still want you like hell."



 "I mean it," Danika whispered,
weakening.



 "I do, too," he murmured against her
throat, having taken a quick detour to suck open mouthed kisses along her
throat that had her gasping for breath. Heat spiraled between them like
steam rising off hot pavement as he stroked one hand down her back to cup
her buttocks, dragging her up almost bruisingly against his erection.



 He sought her mouth again, settling
his lips firmly over her mouth and plunging his tongue inside to taste her,
to give her a taste of himself. The stroke of his tongue along hers, the
heat of his mouth, was as intoxicating as it had been the first time. She
found herself gripping his shoulders frantically, surging with him in a
rhythmic dance to bring their bodies closer, to brush, meld with the heated
current that passed back and forth between them.



 "I can't do this. We can't," she
whispered when he lifted his mouth from hers at last, making his way down
her throat again and then up to nip at her ear.



 "Why not?"


 Good question. Unfortunately, she
couldn't seem to wrap her mind around it.



 He sucked at her earlobe, explored
the hollow of her ear with his tongue. Keen awareness in the form of a rasp
of pebbly skin cascaded over her. She shivered at the acute sensation as he
found his way beneath her t-shirt and brushed his hands over her prickling
flesh. Her nipples tightened, nudging his palm as he cupped one breast,
kneaded it and then flicked his thumb over the erectile tissue, sending
heated currents along her nerve endings to her womb. It contracted in
response, heated blood flooding her nether regions.



 They waltzed awkwardly across the
cabin as he divided his attention between his goalher bed, and his other
goalher body, teasing her with nibbling kisses until she wasn't certain if
she was so thoroughly disoriented by his kisses, or the dizzying movement.
The world ceased to spin quite so wildly as he half fell, half dragged her
onto the mattress, dragging her t-shirt up in almost the same moment. “Mmm,
sweet," he murmured, running just the tip of his tongue over the nearest
nipple. “Baby."



 The word was a pleasurable groan
against her skin as he explored the soft flesh he'd clasped in his hand. She
arched her back, coming off the bed as he finally covered the tip of her
breast with his mouth, sucking on it until she thought her chest would cave
in from lack of oxygen before he released it and nuzzled his way across her
breasts to the other tip. She clutched at him, threading her fingers through
his silky hair one moment, skating her palms over the rippling flesh of his
shoulders and arms the next.



 "I could eat you up," he whispered
against her skin in the valley between breasts, meandering downward until
his chin met the waistband of her jeans. He shifted upward again, covering
her mouth as he tugged at the fastening, using the back of his hand to widen
the opening as he pushed his hand down to cup her sex, stroked the outer
lips and then delved the cleft to find her clit.



 She sucked in a quick breath as he
stroked the sensitive bud, inhaling the intoxicating scent and taste of him,
felt herself falling deeper into the quagmire of sensations dragging her
into a world where dark, heated pleasure was all that existed.



 With the last thread of sanity she
possessed, she lifted one arm and searched blindly for the drawer to the
bedside table as he tired of the limited access he had and commenced to
tugging and shoving at her jeans and panties. She found what she'd been
searching for as he tossed her jeans and panties aside, shoved her legs
apart, and dove over her, grinding his cock against her.



 "Con," she whispered a little
frantically, shoving the condom into his hand.



 Con lifted his head from her throat,
studied the packet lying in his palm, and then covered her mouth in a deep
kiss, tossing the packet over his shoulder.
No fucking way is there going to be anything between you and me, baby,
he thought angrily.
It's going to be skin to hot, wet skin and my seed bathing your womb when
I come.



 She gasped when he shifted slightly
away to drag his dick along her cleft and connect his body to hers, moaned a
caress over him as he pushed inside of her, feeling her tight flesh
enveloping him slowlytoo slowly. He felt sweat pop from his pores as he
strained to press deeper, sawed in and out of her a few times to coat
himself with her moisture. “Oh Jesus, baby, you're tight," he muttered
breathlessly, dizzy with the way his heart was hammering frantically against
his chest wall. “And so hot. My god you're hot."



 Her sex clenched tightly around his
cock at his words, quivered, milking pre-cum from him. His heart rate jacked
upwards a few notches. Sucking in a harsh breath, he felt his face twist
with the effort of concentration it took him just to bury himself another
inch. “I don't think I'm going to make it, baby," he gasped warningly,
pulling out slightly and then driving into her again.



 She tensed all over as he finally
drove home, panting for breath. He tensed, as well, struggling against the
need to hammer into her until he came. “Did I hurt you, baby?"



 She groaned, shaking her head. “It
feels good," she whispered shakily.



 "Oh hell!" he muttered, feeling her
sex tighten around him again, so tightly he felt his cock gliding out of
her, breaking his tenuous grip on his control. “Hold on, baby. It's going to
get rough."



 Slipping a hand beneath her to tip
her hips upward, he began to thrust into her in deep, short plunges,
pounding against her g-spot. She groaned, arched her head back, her entire
body tensing. Grinding his teeth, he struggled maintain the rhythm she
needed until she began to shake all over, uttering keen cries. The quakes of
her sex around him in ecstasy drove him beyond any awareness of anything but
his goal. He increased his pace and the depth of his thrusts until he was
jolting her with each plunging descent, curling his hips to grind them
against her when he felt his body begin to yield up his seed, shuttering and
gasping when he managed to catch a breath between the hard spasms.



 Relief, profound and draining went
through him when his body finally ceased to convulse. Panting, he allowed
his head to drop weakly forward on his shoulders, holding his upper body off
of her only by locking his elbows since it felt like every muscle in his
body had turned to water.



 He didn't want to move, wasn't sure
he could. Finally, he merely allowed one elbow to bend, tipping himself off
of her.



 He was coasting toward blissful sleep
when she spoke.



 "Was that just to distract me?"



 He struggled to gather his wits. It
was too late. They were gone. “Which part?" he asked drunkenly.



 "The sex."


 The sex, he thought a little wildly?
For a distraction? From what? He couldn't think of any reason he wanted, or
needed, to distract her, but he realized, dimly, that it was reassurance
time. With an effort, he rolled over and threw an arm and leg over her,
dragging her beneath him. “No, it wasn't," he said firmly.



 She sighed. He could tell, just from
the tone of the sigh, that she wasn't satisfied with the answer he dredged
up. Finally, the tension seeped out of her, though. Vastly relieved he
didn't have to try to think of anything else, he snuggled against her and
drifted into blissful oblivion.



 [Back to Table of Contents]



 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 Chapter Seven


"No. It's not a pack of
dogs, wild or otherwise. It's definitely wolves. I've had the chance to get
a very good look at them. It's an unusually large pack, which probably
explains their aggressive behavior," Danika informed her boss.



 The report was greeted with silence
and Danika began to wonder if she'd lost the connection.



 "Then it's definitely our ballgame,"
he responded, making it clear he'd hoped otherwise. “Any more reports of
attacks against any of the locals?"



 Just me
, she thought wryly.
“Actually, I couldn't verify the one you told me about. As soon as I started
asking questions everyone started backpedaling. Depending on who you ask,
nobody got bitten, it was somebody's dog, or it was a wild dog. And nobody
seems to remember who it was that supposedly got attacked. These aren't
dogs, though. I managed to bring one down with a tranq and examined him. I
haven't managed to get that close to any of the others, but I've been close
enough for a visual identification. It's wolvesbig wolves, and damned
cannytwelve to fifteen in the pack, maybe more. I haven't been able to get
close enough to determine the exact number."



 "So ... you're saying you don't think
they're a threat?"



 Danika wrestled with her reluctance
to say anything that might convince the game commission to destroy the
animals. “They're out of their natural habitat and it's a big pack. There's
a potential for trouble."



 "But no actual, verified, reports?"



 Danika frowned. “Where are you going
with this?"



 "I'm not sure I can authorize the
expense of a clean up without a solid reason behind itlike an attack. We're
talking a lot man power and a lot of money to trap that many wolves and
relocate them."



 Danika mulled that over with mixed
feelings. “They're out of their natural element here and that always means
trouble," she responded finally. “Even if there haven't been incidents, yet,
there will be ... eventually."



 She could almost visualize his shrug.
“And the chances are nobody's going to want to move on this until and unless
that comes about."



 "The trouble is the chances are
better than even that the problem will be an even bigger one by that time.
They'll be breeding."



 "I'll take that under advisement.
When do you expect to get the full report to me?"



 She'd been dreading that question. “I
should be able to wrap up my findings in another week or so," she hedged.



 "Good! A week then."



 "Shit!" Danika exclaimed when she'd
hung up. At the rate she was going her report was going to be completely
hypothetical with the bare minimum of actual facts. She should've told him
two weeks, she reflected glumly. But then she'd been afraid he'd pull the
plug altogether and inform her they didn't have enough money in the budget
to cover a long range study. Her preoccupation with the members of the biker
gang wasn't helping. Neither was the fact that they seemed to have decided
it was their ędutył to protect her.



 She couldn't think what to do about
them if they didn't just decide to move on and/or stay out of her business.
It wasn't as if she could lodge a complaint with the cops. What could they
do when the gang hadn't actually broken any laws? And considering the way
the local law had acted toward her, she doubted they'd even bother to have a
talk with the bikers.



 Let alone, she didn't think any of
the gang would pay any attention to a ęwarning'. They certainly hadn't paid
her the least attention when she'd cussed them out for their interference!



 And that was just one side of the
problem. They didn't
have to actually interfere to be a distraction. Ordinarily, even as
good looking as they were, she thought she would've been able to pretty much
ignore them and go about her business, but their interest in her was making
that harder than it should've been.



 She was still angry with Condamn his
hide! She supposed it was fairly typical human behavior that the moment the
immediate ęthreatł had passed she'd begun trying to reason her doubts away
and become intrigued all over again, but it was damned inconvenient! If she
could've just put all that fabulous sex from her mind and focused on the
downside of what he'd done she would've been far better off. Even the
distraction of anger and/or fear would've been better, but she hadn't been
able to hang on to those emotions despite her best attempts to keep the fire
going. Remembering the way he'd made her feel was slowly but surely eroding
her resolution to steer clear of himall of them.



 A wild fling with potentially deadly
consequences should have sobered her, brought her feet firmly back to earth.
It had, briefly, but almost the moment she'd touched down she'd begun trying
to convince herself that she didn't really have to worry about the
consequencespartly because she didn't want to worry and partly because
she'd had a taste of heaven and she wanted
more .


 They were young enough, handsome
enough, and certainly charming enough to be playersif it looked like a duck
and quacked like a duck, it was probably a duck! They hadn't really acted
like players when she'd first met them, though. As soon as they'd sat down
with her they'd seemed completely focused on her. They hadn't given more
than a passing glance to any of the other women in the diner. As unsettled
as she'd been, she would've noticed if they had. It might actually have made
her less uneasy if they
hadn't seemed so focused on her. She wasn't used to being the center
of so much appreciative male attention. She'd had
dates whose roving eyes made it nearly impossible to carry on a
damned conversation!



 They
didn't carry stds,
according to Con.



 If they'd been nasty and sleazy she'd
wouldn't have believed that reassurance for a moment. She shouldn't have
anyway. A person could look just fine and not be, she reminded herself, and
then immediately contradicted herself with the reflection that there
should've been telltale signs that weren't there.



 Who was she kidding? She hadn't
gotten them down and examined them, any of them, and certainly not Con.
She'd been too focused on getting him inside of her as quickly as possible
to think about anything else. This wasn't fantasy land, even though it felt
like it! It was the real world.



 Other people still took chances and
rationalized it, she reminded herself and the truth was life would just stop
if nobody ever took a chance on anybody.
Not that she was in favor of taking unnecessary risks, but nobody
ever really
knew that the person they were with wasn't taking unnecessary
risksin marriage or a long term relationship. No matter how cautious a
person was, it always eventually came to decision timeto trust or not to
trust. Take the plunge and drop the shields? Or move on and hope you could
trust the next person you got involved with?



 The question was, could she trust her
instincts or not? Were her instincts right? Or was want deafening her to the
little voice that should be warning her?



 Frustrated that she couldn't make up
her mind as much as she was by the fact that she couldn't get her head
straight at all and focus on her job, she gave up on trying to work after a
little while, deciding a trip to town might help clear her head. She could
pick up the things she'd forgotten during the last trip and treat herself to
a dinner out. She could only tolerate just so much of her own cooking.



 Her timing sucked, she discovered,
but then she should've been used to that. It seemed she'd always been out of
step with the rest of the worldexcept in this case she actually landed in
sync, arriving at the grocery store in time for hump days specials that had
brought in almost as many people, or more, than weekend shopping. People
almost looked like they were stocking up for a hurricane or something the
way they were filling their buggies.



 Shrugging it off after a moment, she
chanted her short list in her head until she'd managed to fill it, ignored
the temptation to grab a couple of the two for one half gallons of ice
cream, mostly because the refrigerator in her rental wasn't big enough to
hold one, and headed to check out.



 It was almost dusk when she'd stowed
the bag in her truck. Parking seemed to be a little bit of a problem,
though, and she was only a little over a block from the diner. She decided
to walk instead moving the vehicle.



 It was one of those decisions she
usually regretted. As short as the walk was, it took her past the local
watering hole, which seemed to be hopping. Her heart skipped a beat when she
glanced casually in that direction as she neared it and caught a glimpse of
a couple of motorcycles. Trying to convince herself that it wasn't
their motorcycles, trying to maintain the appearance that her glance
was
still casual, she looked closer as she passed a large tree and a
parked truck and could get a better view.



 She got a better view than she'd
wanted. Not only was it
their motorcycles, but they were sitting on, or propped against them,
and there were women draped all over them like Spanish moss. She checked for
just a split second then poured on a little more speed, trying to look as if
she was merely walking briskly, not running, but it was enough.



 The second time she looked, she not
only locked gazes with Balin for a handful of heartbeats, she caught a
glimpse of the others as they lifted their heads and looked right at her.
One of them called out to herCon, or maybe Balin. She wasn't sure. Her
heart was hammering so loudly in her ears with distress that she didn't know
for certain. She couldn't resist responding, though. Con and Balin had both
climbed off their bikes and were both looking directly at her, so she still
didn't know which of them had called out when she'd looked. She didn't stop.
She didn't think she could handle an encounter with any of them at the
moment. Instead, she threw up a hand, waved gaily, and walked a little
faster.



 "Fuck!" Balin ground out, peeling the
werefemale off of him again, shoving her away, and striding after Danika as
she rounded the corner and disappeared. Con fell into step beside him
several moments ahead of the others.



 "I think she's pissed," Con muttered.



 "You think?" Balin snapped irritably.



 "What the hell was with them,
anyway?" Dakota growled as he joined them. “They haven't even gone through
first transition, yet. They couldn't be in heat, could they?"



 "Doubtful," Xavier concluded,
nodding. “They're probably just stirred up because it's getting so close to
the full moon."



 "Either that or the rogue leader set
them on us hoping to distract us," Jared said pointedly, catching a sharp
look from the others.



 "Shit!" Con ground out. “I thought
their interest was sudden. You think the rogue alpha knew Danika was in
town?"



 "She came from the direction of the
grocery store. If she was in there long there was plenty of time for her
presence to be noted and the alpha notified," Dakota said grimly.



 When they rounded the corner, they
discovered Danika had vanished. They halted abruptly, glancing quickly
around the street and into the surrounding buildings.



 "She's in the diner," Balin said
grimly.



 "And, unless I miss my guess, he's
got his greasy fucking paws on her," Con growled.



 Danika was in such a state she was
working on autopilot. She'd set out to go to the diner, and she went,
pushing through the door and looking around the restaurant as if she had no
idea how she'd gotten there. The man who jostled her and then caught her
shoulders to steady her looked familiar, but she couldn't place him.



 "You alright?"



 Danika frowned at him
uncomprehendingly. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to run into you."



 He smiled. It wasn't a particularly
friendly smile, though. Actually, it made a shiver run up her spine, but she
was in too much turmoil to pin down what it was about him, or at least his
smile, that set off warning bells in her head.



 "I'm not. It gives us a chance to
meet. My name's Claude."



 Danika blinked at him, trying to
summon her manners and finally managed a smile. “I've seen you before," she
said slowly.



 "Could I buy you dinner?"



 "Well ... uh.... “Danika tried to
jostle her tumultuous thoughts into some sort of order. Reluctance was
strong in her to have anything to with the man, regardless of how polite he
seemed. Beyond that, she didn't actually feel up to any company, and she
wasn't even certain she wanted dinner any more. On the other hand, she
certainly had no desire to high tail it down the street again past the
bikers.



 He shrugged. “The diner's full, but I
have a table...."



 The bell over the door tinkled,
drawing Danika's attention. Balin stepped inside, his face taut. Con was
directly behind, making no attempt to hide the fact that he was furious and
directly behind him was Dakota, Jared, and Xavier, their faces rigid as they
glanced around the restaurant and then focused on Danika and Claude.



 "She's with us," Balin said coldly,
slipping an arm around her waist and drawing her away from the stranger,
whom she hadn't realized until that moment hadn't released her.



 Claude's smile faded. He glanced from
Balin to Danika and back again. “Is she, Prince?"



 Balin's hand tightened convulsively
on her waist. “She is."



 Claude drew in a deep breath, almost
seemed to sniff the air. “Strange, but I didn't detect that she'd been
marked."



 "Just the same..." Balin said
tightly.



 "So she isn't?"



 Balin's eyes narrowed. “Is that a
challenge?" he asked, his voice a low, threatening growl.



 Claude stiffened. He flicked a glance
around at the others before he met Balin's cold gaze again. “Another time."



 Balin studied him for a long moment
and then pushed past him, carrying Danika along with him. Still too bemused
and unsettled to fully grasp what was going on, she glanced at Balin's hard
profile and then away again, scanning the faces of the people they passed.
They reached the table in the back that they'd shared before. A couple was
occupying it but when the group stopped, the man glanced up and then jolted
to his feet. “We were just leaving."



 Several emotions flickered across his
companion's face, but she got up and followed him without a word. Danika's
knees buckled as Balin pushed her toward the seat. With an effort, she slid
across the seat at Balin's urging, stopping when she encountered Dakota,
who'd slid in from the opposite side.



 "I'm glad you decided to join us,"
Balin said coolly after a pregnant silence.



 Danika turned her head to look at him
blankly when he spoke. She had no idea what was going on but the tension,
both at the table where they sat, and seemingly throughout the entire
restaurant, was taut, the air virtually crackling with it. “I decided I was
hungry after all," she finally managed to say.



 The tension in Balin, who sat
directly beside her, eased slightly. He grabbed a menu and shoved it into
her hands. Con and Jared swiped a forearm across the table, shoving the
dishes from the last occupants to the edge of the table. Xavier grabbed the
other menus and passed them around.



 Danika glanced at the men around the
table and finally leaned toward Balin. “What's going on?" she asked in a low
voice.



 "Later," he said shortly, his
expression so grim she decided not to ask him anything else.



 She hadn't noticed how utterly quiet
the restaurant had become since they'd entered until, little by little, like
the first pinging drops of rain that are followed by a shower and then a
downpour, sounds arose around themthe clink of a spoon against china, the
scrape of a shoe on the floor, the tinkle of the bell over the door, low
voiced conversations that gradually increased in volume. Letting out an easy
breath for the first time since she'd entered the diner, Danika relaxed
fractionally.



 Her thoughts were still chaotic.
Distress, overshadowed by the strange behavior of everyone after they'd
entered the diner, flowed back to join her confusion and lingering
uneasiness. She might've been inclined to think Balin and the others had
fabricated the strange confrontation to distract her, except she couldn't
understand why they would. She was upset, but she knew damned well she had
no right to be.



 The confrontation, she didn't
understand at all, but there was no doubt in her mind, despite the almost
exquisitely polite way they'd spoken, that it
was a confrontation. Nor did she doubt that the dangerous
undercurrents she'd felt were real, not imagined.



 Balin had made it clear he didn't
want to discuss it while they in the diner, but she found it unnerving to
feel as if she was in danger and have no clue why or from what direction.



 "Do you know him?" she asked quietly
when she decided there was enough noise it wasn't likely anyone would
overhear.



 Balin slid at narrow eyed glance at
her. “No."



 She frowned. “Why did he call you
prince?"



 "Because he.... “Xavier broke off
abruptly, glaring at Dakota, who'd elbowed him in the ribs. “What the hell
did you do that for?" he demanded in a low growl.



 Dakota rolled his eyes. “It was an
accident."



 Danika studied the two men curiously,
but before she could think of anything else to ask the waitress appeared.
Grabbing the dishes, she wiped the table down and told them she'd be back to
take their order.



 "What are you having?" Balin asked.



 Danika glanced at him and focused on
the menu. She didn't actually want anything. Her appetite had vanished
before she'd even gotten to the diner.



 Visions of the scene before the bar
arose in her mind's eye as her thoughts connected with it and a wave of
nausea hit her as the images of the women, coiled seductively around Balin
and Con, flashed through her mind. They'd been dressed for bearhalf naked
up top, skin tight jeans below. Dakota had been sandwiched between a blond
and a redhead, Jared flirting with a brunette, and Xavier wedged between a
blond with boobs nearly as big as his head and a tiny Asian looking girl
with long black hair.



 She might have been amazed at the
details of her memory at any other time, but her eyes had stamped the
vignette on her brain like a photograph and she not only wasn't amazed, she
wasn't pleased about it.



 She thought if she tried to eat she
might throw up. It seemed absolutely imperative that she pretend it hadn't
bothered her at all when she'd seen those
slutty teenyboppers mauling them in the parking lot, though. That she
hadn't given it a thought, didn't care, couldn't even remember it because
she hadn't actually noticed that girl's hand on Con's crotch. She hadn't
been aware of the girl stroking her hand along Balin's thigh. She hadn't
caught the vacant, glazed look in Xavier's eyes or the taut expression on
Dakota's or the way Jared had gripped that brunette's arms as if he was
thinking about throwing her down on the ground and having her right there.
“I think I'll just take the special," she managed to choke out, wondering if
she could manage to eat it to save her lifeor at least her pride.



 Balin summoned the waitress with an
imperious flick of his finger and ordered the special all around without
consulting with any of the others. They bent baleful glares at him, but
merely tossed the menus toward the center of the table.



 "I expect they have the special
ready," he said pointedly.



 "Good thought," Xavier said, the look
of irritation vanishing from his face immediately.



 The others relaxed fractionally,
settling more casually on the bench and flicking a glance around the diner
from time to time while they halfheartedly discussed their bikes. Danika
wasn't particularly interested in the subject but welcomed it for the simple
reason that it wasn't something she would be expected to take part in. As
Balin had predicted, the food wasn't long in coming. Danika was glad for
that, too, mostly because it meant there was an end in sight and she really
wanted to be done and head back to her cabin.



 Despite her churning stomach, she
managed to eat enough, she thought, to appear interested in the food. She
was heartily glad, though, when she set her utensils aside and dragged a
bill from her bag to cover her meal.



 Balin eyed the bill she put on the
table, sent her a speculative look and finally merely dropped a bill on top
of it, but a muscle in his jaw was working as he slid out of the bench and
helped her from her seat. Bent on escape, Danika felt a flicker of anger for
the first time when Balin very casually slipped an arm around her waist and
escorted her out the same way he'd escorted her in. Con and Jared preceded
them to the door. Xavier and Jared brought up the rear.



 "Well ... thanks," Danika said the
moment they cleared the doors of the diner. “I guess I'll see you guys
later."



 "We'll walk you to your truck," Balin
said implacably.



 "That isn't necessary," Danika said
through gritted teeth bared in a facsimile of a smile.



 "We're going that way to get the
bikes anyhow," Con pointed out.



 Danika flicked a look at him and
frowned. “Oh yes!" she said in pretended remembrance. “You were at the bar.
We might as well walk together that far."



 Con and Balin exchanged a speaking
look. Danika noticed it out of her peripheral vision but pretended not to.
She also pretended to be unaware of the way the five men surrounded her,
glancing alertly up and down the street as if they were a military escort or
something of that nature.



 The tension she sensed in them
unnerved her all over again. She'd put it down to the confrontation in the
diner earlier. For whatever reason, they didn't like Claude and the tension
thereafter had been a residual reaction to nearly coming to blows, and maybe
also to the hostility emanating from the other diners for whatever
reasonprobably because they were all strangers and there'd been a hint of
violence barely restrained that had disrupted their meals. There didn't seem
to be a simple explanation for their behavior at this point.



 They split up as they reached the
bar. Jared, Xavier, and Dakota went to retrieve their bikes. Con and Balin
stayed with her despite her protests that it wasn't necessary to walk her
all the way back to the parking lot. Jared, Xavier, and Dakota joined them
there as they reached her truck. “Wait here," Balin said grimly, waiting to
make sure she meant to comply with his order before he turned to follow Con
back to the bar to retrieve their bikes.



 Danika turned to glare at his
retreating back and discovered when she turned around again that Jared,
Xavier, and Dakota had strategically placed their bikes to prevent her from
pulling out of her parking space. She studied them in tight lipped silence
for a moment but decided not to make an issue of it when she recalled she
was supposed to be pretending she wasn't thoroughly pissed off with them.
Unlocking the door, she got inside and sat fuming while she waited for the
rest of her escort to join them.



 It occurred to her for the first time
that the entire gang had come charging after her the moment they'd spotted
her. They had to have done so to have arrived at the diner right behind her.



 Just how interested had they been in
all that feminine adoration if they'd broken off immediately and followed
her, she wondered?



 Why
had they, for that
matter?



 It would've been highly flattering to
think they'd been more interested in her, maybe even trying to convince her
they had no interest at all in the pack of young women fawning over them.
She found, though, that with the best will in the world, she couldn't
swallow that possibility for their behavior. They'd behaved as if they were
protecting her, but from what? It was a tiny town, not big enough to have
much of a crime rate, and she hadn't been threatened. As upset as she'd been
she would still have noticed if she had been.



 It seemed to her that there were
vibes of hostility where ever they went, but it also seemed to be directed
primarily, if not entirely, toward the bikersnot her. She didn't quite
understand that, either. They didn't seem confrontational. Of course, she
had no idea how they behaved when she wasn't around, and they were rarely at
the cabin they'd rented. Anything could've happened.



 She frowned. Well, not just anything.
They would've landed in jail, surely, if they'd been running around picking
fights and thoroughly disrupting the peace. So they couldn't have done
anything blatant, she was fairly certain, to have incurred the hostility of
the locals.



 Maybe they just felt threatened by
the long hair, leather, and motorcycles? Maybe they just disapproved of the
biker gang, fearing they meant to settle in the area and cause trouble?



 The hostility still seemed a little
excessive to her, but that didn't necessarily mean she was wrong about the
reason behind it.



 It also didn't explain why the biker
gang appeared to think she needed to be protected. They hadn't arrived
together. There was no reason for the locals to associate her with themor
hadn't been before the incident in the diner.



 She didn't entirely understand that
either. Unfortunately, she'd been upset
before it had all started and she hadn't really had her wits about
her, which meant she couldn't recall it with any real clarity. The main
thing that stuck in her mind was the way Balin and Claude had bowed up at
one another, had almost seemed to be trying to goad one another into a
fight.



 Claude, she finally remembered, had
flirted with her several times since she'd arrived. She supposed ęflirtingł
was a little presumptuous, but he'd certainly seemed to notice her, seemed
to be checking her out.



 Regardless, it seemed indisputable
that he was a local which also seemed to preclude any possibility of some
sort of history between him and Balin.



 They'd seemed to be bristling
at one another over her. She was inclined to put that down to wishful
thinking on her part but, despite the undercurrents, they'd certainly given
her that impression.



 Why had Claude called Balin prince?
Just to bait him? Implying that Balin was acting like he was better than
everyone else?



 Maybe, but she couldn't think of
anything Balin had said or done to give that impression. Besides, it was a
really
odd thing to call him. She could've seen it if he'd called him an
asshole, or something in that vein. Even if Claude had decided Balin must be
the leader of the gangand she couldn't really see that that impression was
strong enough others would've noticedwhy not King Asshole or something of
that nature? Why Prince?



 And what the hell had he meant by her
not being ęmarked'? It seemed obvious he'd meant claimed, but why hadn't he
said that? That he didn't see that she'd been claimed? Why ęmarked'? What
kind of ęmarkł did he expect to see? Bruises and black eyes? Chains? A
collar around her neck?



 He'd said Ä™detect', she remembered
abruptly. He hadn't said he hadn't
seen that she was marked. He'd said he hadn't detected that
she had been.



 That was just too bizarre!



 Maybe she was just reading all sorts
of things into the incident she shouldn't because Claude was just plain
weird.



 She should've known, if he was
interested in her, he must be weird, she thought wryly. Not that she cared.
He'd sort of given her the creeps the first time she'd run into him. She
wasn't sure why. He was attractive enoughnot to her taste, but he wasn't a
bad looking man for all that, certainly not scary looking. There was just
something about him, about the way he looked at her, that made her skin
crawl.



 She was perverse, she decided when
she'd finally identified itpossessive. He'd looked at her like he owned her
and was just waiting for the right moment to lay claim and it had made her
feel hostile toward him. Ironically, she'd seen very similar looks in the
eyes of the biker gangcertainly in both Con and Balin and she thought the
others, tooand her reaction had been the complete opposite. Whenever any of
them looked at her like that she had bad, bad thoughts, became weak kneed,
and weak headed,
hoping any one of them, or even all of them, would act on the promise
in their eyes.



 Of course, Con had, and she was
miffed with himmostly because he had steered clear of her since.



 She shouldn't have even wanted him to
try again after the dirty trick he'd pulled, but she could lie to herself
all she wanted to. If he tried again she was going to be putty in his hands
just like she had been the first time around.



 [Back to Table of Contents]



 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 Chapter Nine


Con, sprawled on the
lower bunk of a two tiered set, had pushed himself upright with one arm and
was staring at her with the owlish, unfocused look of someone perilously
close to passing out from too much to drink, but he was dirty and covered in
deep scratches, bites, drying blood and nothing else. Jared, Dakota, and
Xavier, dressed in nothing more than jeans, looked to be in nearly as bad a
shape, except that they weren't obviously drunk. “Come to have a look at
your handiwork?" Con muttered.



 Dakota threw a pillow at him,
smacking him the face. He wavered and toppled back on the bunk. “I feel sick
as a dog," he said from the depths of the pillow over his face and then
chuckled at something about it he obviously found humorous.



 "Shut up, Con!" Dakota snapped
irritably.



 Con lifted a three fingered salute,
waving it to encompass the room at large and finally dropped his arm across
his chest, rolling over to put his back to the room.



 "What happened?" Danika asked in a
hoarse whisper when she finally found her voice. “My god!"



 Balin emerged from the bathroom, his
dark hair dripping rivulets of water down his chest to collect in the towel
he wore around his waist.



 Danika swallowed hard at the glitter
in his eyes and taut set of his expression. “I brought my emergency medical
kit," she said weakly, holding it up.



 "You can put the tranq pistol away,"
Balin drawled coolly, folding his arms over his chest and settling one
shoulder against the doorframe.



 Danika glanced down at her pistol
when he spoke and pushed it into the waistband of her jeans. “The wolves
were outside. I thought ... I just came to make sure you were alright," she
said a little stiffly.



 "Don't waste your sympathy on him,"
Jared growled. “He's just fucking fine."



 Danika glanced at Jared before she
returned her attention to Balin again. He certainly looked better than the
others but she thought being freshly bathed had a lot to do with that.
Neither the scratches she'd noticed on his chest nor the bite mark on his
shoulder above his collar bone looked as deep and ragged as she'd thought
they did, but she noticed a deep bite wound on his upper arm that she hadn't
before. There were also a lot more scratches than she'd thought.



 "The puncture wounds from bites can
be really dangerous," she said after a moment. “You really ought to go to a
doctor."



 "I'll live," he growled, his hard
gaze meeting hers in a way that made her suspect he wasn't referring to the
bites at all.



 She reddened at the reminder, but as
much as she regretted the misunderstanding, she'd already explained it, and
she didn't see any point in trying again when he'd jumped to the wrong
conclusion to start with and was determined to stick to it.



 Dakota broke the standoff by pushing
past Balin into the bathroom and slamming the door behind him. Balin shoved
away from the door, crossed the room to a canvas bag lying on the lower
level of a second set of bunks, dropped his towel, and dug through the
contents, obviously in search of clean clothes.



 Danika watched him, mesmerized by the
play of rippling muscles at such a simple task, feeling her belly perform a
slow shimmy at the memory of their wild coupling. How much of it, though,
she wondered, had been pure desire for her and how much inspired by anger?
He'd been furious with her when he arrived and more furious when he'd left.
Maybe it had never been intended as anything but punishment and she was just
a complete idiot for thinking raw passion had inspired it?



 When was the last time she'd inspired
raw passion in any man, she wondered in self-derision?



 She dragged her gaze from him finally
and looked around a little vaguely. Jared and Xavier, she discovered, were
watching her, their faces eloquent of brooding violence. She swallowed with
an effort, her mouth dry. “I could clean those wounds and bandage them," she
offered.



 "It's nothing," Jared growled, his
gaze sliding to Balin. After glaring at him for a long moment, however, he
transferred his gaze to the far wall.



 Xavier didn't respond at once.
Instead, he simply stared at her as if sorting his thoughts. Abruptly, he
got up from the chair he'd been sprawled in. “You can do mine," he offered.
“Why don't I walk you back to your cabin?"



 Danika looked at him uncertainly,
smiled tentatively, and then frowned when the suspicion arose in her that
his main focus was getting her alone.



 "Like fucking hell!" Jared growled,
surging to his own feet. “I'll walk her back to her cabin. You don't need
any ęnursing', Xavier, and you damned well know it!"



 Xavier sent him a resentful glare.
“She offered!"



 Dakota had come out of the bathroom
in the meanwhile, now clean and dripping water as Balin had when he'd
emerged. “If she needs an escort back to her cabin, I'll walk her," he
snapped. “The bathroom's yours, Jared."



 "It can wait," Jared said through
gritted teeth. “I'm going to walk Danika back to her place."



 "Not by yourself!" Dakota said
challengingly.



 "Two minutes," Xavier said. “That's
all it took...."



 Balin punched him in the face with
his fist, laying him out flat on the floor. He didn't make any attempt to
get up, merely pushing himself up on his elbows to stare at Balin with a
mixture of anger and confusion while he tested his jaw with one hand.



 It couldn't have been clearer what
was going through their minds. Obviously they knew she'd already had sex
with both Con and Balin and resented the fact that they hadn't had a ęturn'.
“Why don't all three of you come and we can just take care of your little
problem all at once?" she asked sweetly.



 Dakota and Jared at least had the
grace to look uncomfortable. The sarcasm seemed to go right over Xavier's
headbut then, to be charitable, she supposed Balin's fist in his face might
have rattled his brains a little. “I volunteered first," he growled,
scrambling to his feet at last.



 Danika glared at him and threw her
emergency medical kit at him. Whirling on her heel, she stalked to the door
and snatched it open. She paused in the doorway, turning to glare at them.
“I don't
need an escort! Do me a favor ... all of you," she said, looking at
Balin pointedly, “and just stay the hell away from me! If you need your itch
scratched, there's plenty of willing kitties in town!"



 Her fury sustained her all the back
to her own cabin. She was so angry, in fact, that it didn't occur to her to
even glance around in search of roaming pack members that might present a
danger. The realization shook her when she was safely behind her own door
again, sending a knee weakening jolt of adrenaline through her. There didn't
seem to be any end to the stupid things they made her do!



 Flicking the overhead light off, she
crossed the cabin to her bed and flopped down on the edge of it, dropping
her tranq pistol onto the bedside table. She wasn't used to having such
turmoil in her life, she thought morosely. It was no wonder she wasn't
dealing with it well.



 The urge to cry assailed her from out
of the blue. She sniffed, resisting the urge to give in to it. It might make
her feel better to cry her eyes out, but she doubted it.



 She didn't know why Balin had
immediately jumped to the nasty conclusion that she was ęconfusedł about who
she was with anyway. She hadn't
been with Con but the one time. He didn't know her! He had no
right to jump to the conclusion that she had sex with just any man that came
along,
just because she hadn't tried to fight him off!


 It was none of his business anyway,
she thought angrily. He sure as hell hadn't consulted with her about that
damned womangirlshe'd seen wallowing all over him and she'd be willing to
bet, if he hadn't been distracted, he would've been humping her.



 It was an unpleasant thought that led
to an even more unpleasant onethe possibility that he'd had that twenty
something year old on his mind when he'd jumped her. Maybe
the slut had gotten him all worked up and she'd only been the
recipient of his earlier frustration when that didn't pan out? Maybe that
was even why he'd jumped to that conclusion about her? He'd had that girl on
his mind and figured she had Con on her mind?



 She hadn't envisioned anything this
complicated when she'd entertained the idea of a fling. It wasn't
supposed to be complicated! It was supposed to be a wild adventure,
fun for everyone involved and no baggage! She would've thought
they would certainly see it that way, not be fighting among
themselves about it, but there was no dismissing the fact that it had
created tension among them.



 The thought brought her back to her
shock over their appearance. Standing after a moment, she mulled that over
while she undressed for bed and finally climbed under the covers in her
panties and t-shirt.



 Those wounds weren't from fighting
among themselves. They
looked like they'd been attacked by the wolvesexcept not nearly as
bad as they should have. Granted, they were all big, strong men and could
probably fight off an attack, even bare handed, a lot better than she could,
but if she was right there were at least fifteen wolves. And wolves usually
attacked as a pack.



 Of course, they weren't in the habit
of attacking humans at all, and when they attacked together they usually
singled out an individual target, bringing it down together.



 Regardless, they certainly hadn't
bitten and clawed each other and she'd seen definite bite marks and the deep
furrows of claws. How had they managed to fight off a pack of wolves without
any worse wounds than they'd come away with?



 * * * *

Dakota caught her
completely by surprise. Danika had woken to the sound of the motorcycle
engines as the bikers left. She'd assumed they had all gone and answered the
knock on her cabin door without any suspicion that she needed to brace
herself for an encounter.



 He studied her almost cautiously for
a moment before he held out her medical kit. “I thought I'd return this."



 Danika took it, studied the box in
her hands, wondering if he'd decided to use returning it as an excuse to
make peace, or to get what he wanted, or if he was merely returning it
because it was the right thing to do. Uncertain of whether she appreciated
the sentiments regardless of the motives, she finally looked up at him.



 He met her gaze searchingly for a
long moment and finally looked away, shifting slightly as if preparing to
leave. “Anyway, thanks for the loan."



 Danika cleared her throat. “But you
didn't actually use it?"



 He met her steady gaze for a prolong
moment. Finally, his fine etched lips quirked upward a fraction at one
corner. “Nope."



 She debated with herself briefly and
finally caught his wrist, tugging at him to draw him inside. “Let me at
least look."



 He allowed her to draw him inside,
his eyes gleaming with both amusement and warmth he made no attempt to hide.
“If you're sure you want to, but I give you fair warning I won't behave
myself."



 There was a teasing tone to his
voice, but she had the feeling he was serious and she still ignored it,
leading him to the couch and pushing at him to sit down. “I think you will,"
she responded as she settled beside him.



 He tilted his head. “Why would you
think that?"



 "I think you'll be able to contain
yourself," she said dryly, taking one of his hands in hers and examining his
arm. A frown creased her brow when she saw that the scratches she'd noticed
the night before were nothing more than red marks now. She released his hand
and looked at him, confused. “Let me see that bite wound I noticed on your
chest."



 He looked surprised and suddenly
reluctant. “No bitesunless you want to nibble on me."



 She gave him a look. “Just take off
the shirt."



 "Yes, ma'am!"



 She stared at his chest as he peeled
the t-shirt off, trying to ignore the shimmy in her belly. He had a
beautiful chest and torso, well defined with muscles, lightly sprinkled with
dark hair. His nipples were pierced, she saw, feeling warmth join the shimmy
in her belly. She had a vague memory that both Con and Balin had had theirs
pierced, too, although she hadn't spent a lot, or even
any , time examining them.


 His skin was smooth and unblemished.
There wasn't a sign of a bite beyond red marks where she
thought she'd seen a deep, ugly bite. The muscle in his pec tensed
when she lightly traced the marks with one fingertip. She glanced up and
caught her breath at the taut set of his face and the gleam in his eyes.



 "I did warn you," he said huskily,
catching her hand and drawing her closer. She resisted the pull, looking
away when he shifted his hold to her upper arms and drew her closer despite
her resistance.



 "This isn't a good idea," she said
faintly.



 "For you? Or for me?"



 She looked at him, planting her palms
on his chest to resist his insistent pull. “For either one of us. I don't
understand what's going onI thought I did, but it's not the ... game I
thought it was andI don't want to be the cause of any kind of problems
between you and your friends."



 His face hardened. “We aren't
friends."



 She frowned at him. “But ... you came
together. You're part of the same gang, right?"



 Something flickered in his eyes.
After a moment, he seemed to shrug. “In a sense. It's a little more
complicated than that."



 Danika felt a flicker of resentment.
“But I wouldn't understand?"



 His gaze wandered over her face. “You
wouldn't want to."



 She smiled with an effort. “It's some
sort of brotherhood you all belong to, then, which makes me an outsider and
trouble."



 Briefly, he looked surprised. He
relaxed his hold, allowing her to pull away, but then followed her, pushing
her down on the couch and pinning her beneath him. “If I was worried about
it, I wouldn't be here," he murmured, dipping his head to capture her lips.
She evaded him, turning her face to one side. Not to be discouraged, he
contented himself with nuzzling her ear, the side of her face, and her
throat.



 Goosebumps rose all over her at his
leisurely exploration. Her heart began to beat a frantic tattoo against her
chest wall.



 He paused, lifting his head when he
reached her shoulder. When she glanced at him, she saw he was scowling at
her neck and abruptly remembered Balin had bitten her hard enough there to
leave a mark. He met her gaze after a long moment. “He marked you," he said
tightly.



 The comment connected with something
in her memory, but it was only a hazy connection, eluding her grasp because
it also raised her temper. She pushed at him and slipped out from under him,
landing on the floor beside the couch. “Like I said," she said tightly.
“Obviously this isn't a lighthearted game we can play and still be friends."



 He followed her, grasping her arms
and drawing her to her feet as he stood. “Is that the only one?" he demanded
in a low, growling voice.



 Danika stared at him in stunned
surprise at the abrupt transition from teasing flirtation to deadly serious
in little more than the blink of an eye. “What?"



 He let go of her wrists, grasping her
waist instead and pulling her hips against his when she leaned away from
him. His erection was instantly obvious, digging into her belly. “Does that
feel like a game to you?"



 She frowned at him. “It feels like a
cockand you look like a man looking for a place to put it."



 His lips tightened. He released her
so abruptly she staggered back a step. “And you figure any place will do for
me, is that it?"



 She studied him with a mixture of
uneasiness and anger when she caught her balance. “It looked that way to me
the other night."



 "Damn it! Because those fucking
weres ...."


 She frowned at him when he broke off
abruptly. “Wares?"



 He scrubbed a hand over his face and
then raked his fingers through his long, dark hair in an almost agitated
manner. Danika used his distraction to put a little distance between them,
moving around the couch. His gaze zeroed in on her the moment she moved. He
planted a hand on the back of the couch and swung over it like a gymnast
dismounting from a parallel bar, startling her when he landed in front of
her. He used her surprise to his advantage, catching her and drawing her
close again. “We've got a few things we need to get straight between us."



 She gave him a doubtful look. “I see
you've got
one thing you want to get straight between us," she said tartly as he
bumped his erection against her again.



 He grinned at her wolfishly. “I do at
that." He leaned closer. “There's only place I'm interested in putting it,
though, regardless of what you believe."



 A shiver of warmth skated through her
as his heated breath caressed the side of her neck. Doubt warred with want.
She certainly wasn't needyshouldn't have been. She'd been just fine before
she encountered the biker quints, she thought irritably, and it had been
years since she'd been with a man.



 It didn't escape her that her
emotions were a tangled, conflicting mess. If it was merely an adventure, it
couldn't be serious at the same time. If she wanted it to be nothing more,
she shouldn't be complaining that they were only using her. It was either
mutual or not.



 "If I give in," she said
uncomfortably, “it isn't going to cause any trouble?"



 His eyes gleamed. “That's not your
problem, and I'm not worried about it."



 She had the feeling that she'd been
outmaneuvered and it
was her problem. Con and Balin were both going to be angry with her,
but then they were already. She didn't owe them anything. There hadn't been
any discussion about ęexclusiveł usage, on either sidebecause nothing was,
or could, come of it. It almost felt as if sealing that understanding was a
better idea that allowing any doubts to remain in anyone's mindespecially
hers, because she'd begun to realize the casual sex thing, even though she'd
talked herself in to it, wasn't for her. She couldn't feel casual about it.



 She could act like she did, though,
she assured herself. She could lick her wounds later, when they were gone
back to where ever they'd come from and she had gone home.



 Pulling away from him, she went to
her bedside table resolutely, took a condom out and tossed it to him. He
caught it, stared down at it in tightlipped silence. Ignoring the obvious
signs of obstinacy in the set of his jaw, she stripped off her t-shirt and
panties and climbed on the bed, turning on her side to look up at him
expectantly.



 He looked torn, furious, and at the
same time desirous. His fist closed around the condom packet, tightening
until his knuckles were white. Uttering a curse under his breath, he placed
one knee on the bed and a hand on her shoulder, pushing her to her back and
settling on top of her. “Lady, you really know how to piss a man off. You
know that?"



 She could see that. Guilt flickered
through her and discomfort. She had made it feel like a transaction and it
didn't make her feel any better than it made him feel. She averted her gaze,
unable to hold her anger in the face of his. “If you don't want to practice
safe sex, that's fine. We won't do it."



 He caught her jaw, forcing her to
look at him. Some of his anger abated when he'd studied her face for several
moments. “This isn't about sex," he growled. “I think you know that."



 She swallowed with an effort. “What
is it about, Dakota? I don't understand any of this. I thought I did, but I
don't. It was just supposed to be about having a little fun fooling around,
wasn't it? Because that's the impression I got ... that all of you had just
decided I was handy and you'd take turns and everybody could go away
satisfied."



 He frowned. Shifting slightly to one
side of her, he propped his head in one hand and stroked his fingers lightly
over the mark in the crook between her shoulder and neck almost
thoughtfully. “Maybe that's the way it started out, and maybe it was just a
lie we all told ourselves," he muttered. “I'm not sure I entirely understand
it myself." He uttered a sound somewhere between a snort and laugh, though
it lacked humor. “It's not a situation I ever expected to find myself in and
I'm pretty fucking sure none of the others did eitherwhich means we still
haven't resolved it in our heads. I know I don't like this worth a fuck,
though."



 She looked at him in confusion,
wondering if he was referring to the mark on her neck or the situation or
both. “So it isn't just that your straw came up?"



 His black brows snapped together over
the bridge of his nose, but she could see from the look in his eyes that the
suggestion wasn't entirely new to him and that it was something that had at
least been considered. Amusement flickered in his eyes after a moment,
though. “Actually, everybody figured you were still so pissed off after last
night that it would be ęsafeł to leave me to guard the hen house alone while
they took care of business."



 She stared at him, torn between
amusement and irritation. “And you figured you might as well have a try with
the hen?"



 He grinned at her. “Not exactly. I
figured they were right. I just couldn't resist trying," he murmured,
gliding his hand down from her neck and over the slope of one breast to
tease the nipple that rose to greet him by tracing light circles around it.



 Warmth stirred to life inside her
instantly, currents that eddied pleasantly through her.



 He met her gaze. “Woman, if you had
any idea what you do to me...."



 Her throat closed at the look in his
eyes. “What?" she asked breathlessly, wanting to hear more.



 He grasped her hand, carrying it to
the front of his jeans, curling her fingers around his erection, and guiding
it in a stroking motion for several moments. “This is just for me?" she
asked teasingly.



 His gaze remained serious. “It is ...
every time I look at you, get near you, catch your scent, or hear the sound
of your voice." He leaned toward her slowly, catching her lower lip between
his and sucking at it lightly. “No woman ever had this effect on me before,"
he murmured as he released the tender flesh and nipped at her upper lip,
“and I've got a bad feeling no other will."



 He played with her lips almost
teasingly, alternately brushing his lips along hers and then plucking at
them. He lifted his head slightly after a moment to look down at her.
Sensing his watchful gaze, she opened her eyes with an effort and looked
back at him.



 Unfastening his jeans, he dragged the
zipper down and then took her hand, guiding it to his cock. The wiry pelt
that surrounded his cock was a sharp contrast to the silky skin of his
member that delighted her. She wrapped her fingers around the thick, hot
shaft, exploring it from root to tip and his eyes slid closed, his
expression tightening. Fascinated, she watched the pleasure contort his face
as she stroked him, reaching down after a moment to cup the soft sacks
beneath it. He caught his breath. “That feels good, baby," he said in a
husky whisper that heightened the arousal stirring to life inside of her,
evoking a cascade of stippling skin to lift her awareness of every point
where their bodies touched.



 She looked down at his cock when she
stroked up the underside of his member and encountered a small, rounded,
metallic object, catching a glimpse of a bar piercing just beneath the ridge
of the head of his cock. He placed the edge of his hand beneath her chin,
nudging it upward and matching his mouth to hers.



 It was no gentle tease as his first
kiss had been, but full of heat and hunger. He opened his mouth over hers
and thrust his tongue past the fragile barrier of her lips, in one motion
laying claim to the heated cavern of her mouth. His essence filled her like
a strong tonic as he stroked his tongue along hers, producing an instant
high and enervating every muscle in her body at the same time.



 Desperate for more of the taste of
him, she sucked his tongue greedily. A shudder traveled through his big body
that thrilled her even more. Grasping one thigh to move it out of his way,
he slid over her, wedging his narrow hips between her thighs. The rough
brush of his jeans against her tender nether lips as he undulated his hips
against her added another stimulating texture to the sensations pelting
herthe hard, silk sheathed root of his manhood, the tickle of the hair that
surrounded it, and the press of his bare belly and chest against hers.



 Lifting her arms, she explored his
back with her palms and fingertips, enjoying the smoothness of his skin and
the hard muscles beneath it. His weight felt good against her, right in a
way she didn't take the time to explore. She didn't want to think about
anything except the way he made her feel and the comfort and excitement she
derived from his nearness. The eagerness of his touch made her feel wanted,
needed. The solid strength of his large frame made her feel feminine and
desirable and protected all at the same time.



 Wanting every inch of contact she
could manage, she curled one leg around his narrow hips, stroking her foot
along his long, jean clad legswishing he'd taken the time to take them off.



 She supposed he hadn't been certain
enough of his welcome.



 She
hadn't been certain if
it came to that.



 She didn't know if it was his deft
touch and practiced kisses or something more integral to himan
unanticipated chemical reaction between thembut the only doubts that
flickered through her mind was whether she could bare to wait longer for the
deep connection with Dakota that her body craved. She spread her thighs
wider at the thought, cupping his sex with her own, arching against him in
encouragement.



 He ignored the lure, breaking the
kiss to explore her further. The tug of his mouth on her breasts took her
breath away, sent her fever higher until she was writhing restlessly beneath
him, panting for breath, too dizzy and desperate for thought of any kind.



 Anticipation hammered inside of her
when he shifted to push his jeans further down his hips. She reached eagerly
to help him, shoving a hand down his back to cup his buttocks and urge him
on. A moment of doubt slithered along the fringes of her mind as he guided
the head of his cock into the mouth of her sex, but slipped from her gasp as
her focus shifted sharply to the feel of his flesh penetrating her,
stretching her in a way that made her ache wonderfully for more. She curled
her hips eagerly to receive, braced herself to counter his thrust and hold
herself still until he'd burrowed deeply, withdrew and pushed again.



 Her heart felt as if it had leapt
into her throat to choke her. She stroked his silky hair. “Dakotathat
feelswonderful," she whispered.



 A tremor coasted through him. He
levered himself up to look at her, sawing shallowly in and out along her
channel, teasing her with each stroke that barely grazed her g-spot. She
opened her eyes to give him a reproachful look but the expression on his
face stilled the air in her lungs.



 Holding her gaze he cupped his hips,
pressing slowly deeper until she could feel him grinding his belly against
her, could feel him pressing against her womb. He lowered his upper body
until his weight rested on his elbows, slipping his arms beneath her
shoulders. “It feels better than that," he said hoarsely, dipping his head
to meet her lips once more as he withdrew slowly along her channel and then
set a rhythm that he echoed with the stroke of his tongue.



 Heat rippled over her. She clung
tightly to him, opening herself merely to receive at first, to luxuriate in
the delight of his penetration, of the deep connection that made her ache
for fruition. The moment came when she couldn't remain still any longer,
when she felt her body racing toward completion and commanding her to move
with him.



 Gasping for breath when he broke the
kiss and burrowed his face against her neck, she countered his nearly
frenzied thrusts with the same desperation until, abruptly, the tension
seized her body, making her arch against him, dragging a sharp cry from her
lips.



 He bit down on her shoulder in that
same moment. The sharp sting, rather than distracting her, sent her flying
over the precipice in hard contractions that felt as if she was shattering
into pieces. She bucked against him discordantly, too mindless to maintain
any sort of rhythm. He lifted his head, ground his teeth together and then
uttered a primal roar of pleasure as his body convulsed with hers, yielding
up his seed to bathe her womb in a hot tide.



 Awareness flickered through her mind
as she drifted down from the heights of ecstasy, but not surprise and she
found herself unable to summon even a little anger. He'd ignored the condom.
She wasn't certain whether she was just getting used to their grim
determination not to use one, or if it was the strange sense of gladness
that filled her that he hadn't, but she realized she welcomed the feel of
his seed inside of her.



 She hadn't not welcomed Con's
or Balin's, she realized in the same moment. She'd
wanted to feel their full claiming of her even while she'd worried
over the consequences.



 Maybe it was just that there didn't
seem much point in worrying about it anymore?



 Their faith in her seemed absoluteif
unwarranted.
She knew she was safe, but they had no reason to knowunless it was
just that they couldn't picture any other man wanting her?



 Dakota silenced that little voice of
doubt my nudging her face with his. “That was worth the possibility of
death," he murmured lazily.



 [Back to Table of Contents]



 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 Chapter Eleven


"Now that we've settled
that, why don't you explain to us, Dakota, why it is that the rogue alpha is
still a problem," Balin said after a long pause, ignoring the stunned looks
of the others.



 "We know why the rogue alpha
is still a problem!" Con ground out. “Dakota was too busy fucking Danika to
take care of it!"



 "Wait! Let's back up a minute!"
Xavier put in. “You can't participate in this, Balin!"



 Balin narrowed his eyes at his
cousin. “Exactly why do you think I can't?"



 Xavier gaped at him. “Because you're
the prince, damn it!"



 "As you pointed out yourself, there's
no reason to exclude me because my father decided to whelp me on my mother."



 Dakota narrowed a look at him. “If
you've got some
noble idea of saving the rest of us from ourselves, stuff it. In the
first place, you don't know you'll winI sure as hell intend to win this
contest myself. In the second, I know what I want. I don't need you or
any-fucking-body else making any decisions for me."



 "I issued a counter challenge," Balin
said coldly. “You don't have the right to question my intentions."



 "This Ä™knowingÅ‚ doesn't happen to
have anything to do with the fact that you spent the day in bed with her?"
Jared growled. “Balin's already marked her once, and Con had a chance
toexcept he had his mind on something else at the time."



 "If you're asking if I like thatnot
worth a fuck. On the other hand, that's history. I've got mine. She has
hers. If you're asking if I'm thinking with my dickmaybeprobably. But I
still know I want her. I did before I spent the day with her. That's
why I marked hernot because I wasn't thinking straight, but because
I was. Maybe it'll take. Maybe it won't, but I plan on that being my
problem."



 "Well, you can make your fucking
plans after the contest
if you win!" Con snarled. “Five of us, then. How are we playing it?"



 "Strictly speaking, Con and I ought
to be the challengers," Balin said. “As Jared pointed out, we were first
with her."



 "That's only because of the
underhanded trick you two pulled, circling back around while the rest of us
were busy kicking rogue ass!" Xavier said indignantly. “I don't see why you
should get first position because of an underhanded trick!"



 "What difference does it make when
we'll all be participating?" Con growled.



 "Balin makes it uneven," Xavier
groused.



 "You have a problem with me
participating,
cousin ?" Balin asked coldly.


 "I do, cousin ," Xavier
snapped. “Aside from making it an uneven contest, we're playing for keeps
and I know damned well you aren't!"



 "You read fucking minds now?" Balin
growled.



 "He has a point," Dakota said
tightly.



 Balin studied him assessingly. “Then
I'll even it up. Two for me in the first round."



 Jared scowled at him. “That's fucking
insulting!"



 "I also claim sovereign right," Balin
added.



 "Suit yourself!" Dakota growled after
a pregnant pause. “I'm second challenger."



 "That would be my right," Con ground
out.



 "You didn't even mark her!" Xavier
said indignantly.



 "She could be carrying my pup,
though!"



 "Or mine!" Dakota pointed out grimly.



 "Or mine!" Balin said coolly.



 "Fuck!" Jared snarled. “Don't start
that shit again! It pisses me off. Me and Xavier are the only ones that've
been playing by the fucking rules, gods damn it! If anybody should be
issuing the gods damn challenge it should be me and Xavier as the wronged
parties!"



 "Or we could even up the playing
field," Xavier suggested a little hopefully. “She's still a free female. I
don't see why the hell we shouldn'tjust because Dakota's now decided nobody
else should have a chance with her now that he has!"



 "Like hell!" Con, Balin, and Dakota
said almost at the same time.



 "We'll draw straws," Balin said
irritably, glaring at the hopeful look Xavier sent him and adding
sardonically, “to pair off for the match. At this rate we're not going to
get anywhere. Two and two, the winners of each match off for the next round.
Full shift and nobody gets stupid and tries to make it to the death, fucking
it up for everybody else when the council gets wind of our illegal match."



 "Which means somebody gets left out
and it sure as fuck isn't going to be me this time!" Xavier snarled.



 "I already agreed to take two
challengers," Balin pointed out.



 "Fine. Together? Or one at the time?"



 "Either way."



 Dakota couldn't find straws. They
settled for match sticks.



 "Now that we have our personal
business out of the way," Balin said sardonically when his opponents had
been selected, “maybe we should spend a few moments on council business?"



 Dakota shrugged, moving to find a
clean pair of jeans in his bag since it didn't seem he would be fighting
right away. “I caught his scent and went to investigate. He challenged me.
We fought. He tucked his tail between his legs and took off."



 "Where did all this take place?"
Balin asked curiously.



 "I caught up with him at the entrance
to the trail."



 "And where was Dani when all this was
going on?"



 Dakota straightened and fixed him
with a hard look. “I see where you're going with this. She was in her cabin.
I told her to stay put when I caught Claude's scent."



 "And of course she obeyed," Balin
retorted dryly.



 Uneasiness flickered through Dakota.
“I didn't see her come out," he responded tightly.



 Balin fell silent.



 "But you chased him?" Con asked.



 Dakota's face tightened. “For a short
distance, yesuntil I got the feeling he was trying to lead me into an
ambush."



 "A counter trap?" Balin mused.



 Dakota shook his head. “There was no
way to determine that. I don't know that it was a trap at all. I sensed it
was and broke off the chase. I don't mind taking on three or four, but I'm
not stupid enough to take on the whole pack by myself."



 "Good point," Xavier agreed, nodding.
“No sense in giving them better odds when we get to a showdown."



 "I was more worried about the
possibility that he might have a reason for drawing me off other than
cowardice."



 "The question is, are we giving him
too much credit? Or not enough?"



 Dakota looked at Balin. “I'd rather
not underestimate him when comes to Danika."



 "I don't like taking risks with her
either," Con said. “We know he's after her."



 "We suspect he is," Balin corrected
him. “There's always the possibility that we're attaching our motives to
him."



 "Except, according to Danika, he was
hanging around here before we got here," Jared reminded him. “And if Claude
is the alpha, he tried again at the diner."



 "I'm fairly certain he's the alpha,"
Balin said. “He backed down, but I'm thinking that was only because he could
see the odds weren't in his favor. He expected the females he'd sent our way
to keep us occupied."



 "His motives may have changed,
though. Or maybe I should say he has
more motivation to grab her now. I don't think it's escaped him that
our interest in Danika is too pointed to be nothing more than an attempt to
protect her," Con said wryly.



 "His pack still outnumbers usand
he's expecting more followers once the
weres go through first transition. There's no reason to think he
wants to use her for leverage or to bait a trap for us," Jared argued.



 "And no reason not to think
that," Balin said tightly. “He knew me. There's a good possibility that he
also knew that none of you were my lieutenants, which means he could've
figured out he's up against five alphasa lot more formidable force than a
single alpha and his pack. If he has, then he will also have figured out
that we aren't rogues and that it was the council is behind our presence
here."



 " Everybodyknows you!" Dakota
said tartly. “I've never met you and I knew who you were the minute I set
eyes on you. You're the prince. Do you really think just because you never
notice anybody else that they don't notice you?"



 Balin flushed angrily. “Meaning I sit
in my ivory tower and ignore the peons?" he asked coldly. “As it happens, I
knew who you were, tooand the others, at least by reputation. Claude, I
don't know. I would've remembered the slimy bastard if I'd ever seen him
before."



 Xavier, who'd been following the
conversation, but not taking part, spoke up abruptly. “It would a lot easier
to protect her from him and his pack if we kept her with us."



 Balin, Con, Dakota, and Jared all
turned to frown at him. “Exactly what story do we cook up to get her to
cooperate?" Con demanded irritably.



 "The truth?"



 "NO!" Dakota said harshly.



 "She's bound to find out sooner or
later," Xavier said with a shrug.



 "Later would be better!" Con ground
out.



 "Or never!" Dakota agreed.



 "That's the least likely thing
we could tell her to get her cooperation," Balin said irritably. “And that's
assuming she actually believed it, which she wouldn't."



 "I can at least agree with Xavier on
one point. It would be better if we could just take her with us. We've got a
lot to do and not much time to prepare. And it fucking well ain't working to
leave one of us to watch her," Jared said, glaring at Dakota. “I thought it
would, considering how pissed off she was the night before, but obviously
she was just pissed off with Balin."



 Balin glared at him. “We had a little
misunderstanding afterwards," he muttered.



 "Yeah, I got that. You went all
outraged sovereign on her and snubbed her when she came over to offer to
help. You could've handled that better," Dakota said angrily.



 "I didn't see any of you coming up
with any ideas to keep her from finding out we didn't need ęmedical
attention'!" Balin growled angrily.



 "That was your fault, too," Xavier
said indignantly. “She came in wearing your gods damned perfume!"



 Balin sought patience and managed to
swallow his spleen, although the remark about ęoutraged sovereignł irked the
shit out of him. He'd been angry! He knew he'd behaved like an ass. He
didn't need them to point it out, gods damn it!



 "We'll leave two men to watch herand
each other," he said finally. “It would probably be for the best anyway if
there's any truth to Dakota's suspicions."



 "That would be me and Xavier," Jared
said at once.



 Con, Dakota, and Balin all leveled a
suspicious glare on Jared instantly. Finally, Balin shrugged. Xavier wanted
to get his hands on Dani as badly as Jared did. It wasn't likely either one
of them was going to leave the field open for the other. “Don't do like
Dakota did and leave your bikes in plain view," he said acerbically. “If the
bastard comes sniffing around tomorrow, kill him and be done with it.
That'll be one less rogue to worry about when we manage to pin them down to
a confrontation."



 * * * *

It was impossible once
her shock finally wore off for Danika to dismiss the doubts that nagged at
her. Dakota's brusque dismissal might have been because of any number of
things, some she was sure must be legitimate, but she couldn't convince
herself of that when he didn't come back. If he had, she would've been
inclined to accept almost any excuse he wanted to make up, but he didn't.



 It occurred to her that something
might have happened to him. She tried to convince herself that it wasn't
likely, but her certainty that she'd seen him just before the two wolves had
torn into each other prevented any sort of comfort. It also hyped her
imagination until she began to envision him lying wounded and bleeding in
the woods. Without horrible visions driving her, she wasn't certain she
could've nerved herself to go into the woods alone, even though it was still
daylight.



 Wolves weren't generally very active
during the day, which was why she usually went out to watch at night, but
she'd just seen two fighting right in the camp not an hour earlier. She
didn't know which unnerved her most, the fact that the wolves were active
and prowling during the day, or the fact that it hadn't bothered them to
enter a fishing camp in broad daylight.



 One wolf bold enough to do something
like that was unnerving enough, but could be put down to a number of
factors. Two was just one too many. It pointed to a dangerous disregard for
the possibility of encountering humanswhich meant they might not go out of
their way to avoid her as wild animals generally did.



 Did it also point to an escalation in
the pack in general toward a dangerous shift in their hunting? She was
afraid it might, but she certainly couldn't sound an alarm based on the one
incident.



 After checking to make sure the tranq
pistol was fully loaded, she shoved it into her waistband, took another
handful of darts and pushed them into her pocket and left her bag. If she
encountered the wolves, she didn't want to be loaded down with anything that
might slow her down even a little.



 She searched for Dakota for over an
hour before it occurred to her that if he actually was hurt and unable to
get back to the camp on his own steam, she needed help. It was getting late.
It would be dark in a few hours and that would make it harder to rescue him
if he was hurt.



 She received her second nasty shock
of the day when she returned to camp to get Dakota's friends to help search
for him. Jared, Xavier, Con, Balinand Dakota!were all lounged on the porch
of their cabin, swilling beer while Con and Jared burned steaks on the
rusted out grill they'd found somewhere.



 The urge to kill swarmed over her.
She came to a halt, plunking her hands on her hips. Dakotathe
bastard!noticed her first and had the unmitigated gall to grin lazily at
her. She leveled a laser beam death ray at him through narrowed eyes and
stalked to her cabin, slamming the door behind her.



 Dakota's jaw went slack at the
pointed snub. Con chuckled. “Problems?"



 "Shut the fuck up, Con!" Dakota
snarled.



 Balin examined his fingernails.
“Something you did, I wonder?"



 Dakota glared at him. Setting his
beer down, he strode purposefully toward Danika's cabin.



 "He's got balls. I'll give him that,"
Jared muttered. “I wouldn't be tangling with that she cat if I'd pissed her
off like that."



 Xavier nodded. “Better to let them
cool off."



 "Just shows you don't know women,"
Con drawled. “She wants to get it off her chest. Otherwise, she'll brood,
and that's never a good thing. Next thing you know your clothes are on the
sidewalk, covered with gasoline, and she's holding a match."



 Balin sent him an amused glance.
“Many of your relationships end that way?"



 Con glared at him, but grinned after
a moment and shrugged. “Only one. I took my clothes with me after thator
abandoned them as a lost cause."



 Balin nodded. “Actually, it works
better not to leave anything to start with. Then you don't have to go back
or collect your belongings from the sidewalk."


 "What works best," Xavier countered,
“is to only take things you don't care about and then act like you're all
tore up when they break them, or pissed off. Then they get to thinking it
over and feel guilty and you get a pity fuck before you have to run for it."



 Balin and Con both eyed him in
fascination.



 Dakota made it all the way up the
stairs to Danika's cabin and across the porch to her door before it hit him
and he came to a screeching halt. He'd dumped Danika off his lap, literally,
when he'd torn off after the rogue. He'd worked up a convincing tale about
hearing someone tinkering with his bike, but he hadn't actually gotten
around to delivering it. The others had returned by the time he'd finished
bathing the blood off and he'd gotten so wrapped up in the argument he'd
clean forgotten.



 He wavered for several moments with
his fist in the air, trying to decide if it would be better to try to
explain now or give her a little time to cool down. She might still go for
the tale about the thief and his bike, but he was excruciatingly aware that
that tale didn't cover the time lapse.



 She snatched the door open before he
could retreat.



 He tried using the dimples since that
generally worked pretty well, ignoring the scowl on her face and her folded
arms. “Hey, babySorry about what happened earlier...."



 She unfolded her arms and stabbed him
in the chest with her index finger. “I just spent over an hour searching for
your body in the woods!" she snarled.



 A jolt went through him. “What?"



 "I saw...."



 Dakota clamped a hand over her mouth
and hustled her inside the cabin, slamming the door behind them. She shoved
his hand away. “I saw you. I saw the wolves fighting. I thought something
horrible had happened to you!"



 He frowned at her, trying to sort
through the rapid fire accusations. One thing seemed clear, though, she
hadn't seen what he'd been afraid she had. Hooking a hand behind her neck,
he dragged her close. She tensed, tried to pull away, but he trapped her
with his arms. “I'm sorry."



 She didn't look particularly
mollified, but, thankfully, it occurred to him before he opened his mouth
that she'd said she had seen him near the wolves. The lie he'd come up with
wasn't going to work. He felt a little lightheaded when he realized how
close he'd come to disaster. “I heard something and went to investigate.
Turned out it was that wolf you told us about and I chased him off."



 He knew from the look in her eyes
that she'd seen more than she'd admitted.



 "It scared me," she admitted finally.
“The wolves ... they're acting strange, Dakota."



 He tightened his arms around her, but
he couldn't think of anything to tell her that was likely to allay her
fears. “Nothing is going to happen to you," he said after a moment. “I'm not
going to let it."



 "I wasn't worried about me," she
said, her voice muffled by his shirt, her warm breath making his skin
prickle. “Wellnot until I went to look for you and got worried about the
wolves. I thought something had happened to you when you didn't come back."



 "I'm an ass. I admit it. I got tied
up and.... “
No! Don't tell her you forgot, you fucking dumbass! That'll just piss her
off all over again.



 "And it didn't occur to you that I'd
scare myself by thinking something terrible had happened when it was
nothing?"



 He pushed her chin up and studied her
face a little doubtfully. “Will it make you feel better if I let you kick my
ass?" he asked, mock serious.



 Her lips quivered faintly, though she
repressed the urge to smile. “Maybe."



 He stroked a thumb along her lower
lip, but resisted the urge to kiss her. If he got started he was going to be
in the middle something he didn't want to be interrupted at when the others
decided to break up his party. “We're grilling steak for supper. There's
plenty to go aroundand plenty of beer. Would you like to join us?"



 She smiled faintly but shook her
head. “I'm sure you guys would be more comfortable without me underfoot."



 "If things start getting wild, you
can always dash back to your cabin, but we don't usually get drunk." In fact
never. They metabolized the alcohol too fast to get more than a buzz,
whatever they drank. It occurred to him, forcefully, that that wouldn't be
the case with Danika, and it would probably be the best way to ensure that
she stayed put once she went back to her cabin. In fact, if they knew it
wasn't likely she'd be up wandering through the woods, they needn't go far
at all. They could stay close enough to ensure that none of the rogues tried
anything while they were otherwise occupied.



 He coaxed her out despite her
protests, settling an arm around her waist as much for the enjoyment of
holding her close as to give her a sense of protection since he could tell
she was uneasy about being with the group. Con and Balin both scowled at
him. He grinned back at them provokingly, walked Danika over to oversee the
cooking and headed for a beer.



 "Feeling pretty smug, aren't you?"
Con muttered when he stopped near them to pull a beer out of the cooler.



 Dakota grinned at him, but the smile
didn't reach his eyes. “Not particularly. On the other hand, it occurred to
me that I'd feel better about going if I knew Danika was in her bed asleep
and not creeping through the woods with that fucking pistol of hers."



 Con slid an assessing look in her
direction. “There is that. Think we can ply her with enough to sedate her
for the night?"



 Dakota shrugged. “It's worth a try."



 She wrinkled her nose when he handed
her the bottle. “I don't really like beer."



 "It's not so bad when it's ice cold,"
Xavier said. “Still tastes like panther piss, but ice cold panther piss."



 Danika chuckled. “Now I'm really
tempted!"



 "It's ain't so bad after you've
downed half the bottle," Jared agreed.



 Danika smiled at him, but wrinkled
her brow thoughtfully. “You're southern. I can't quite place the accent,
though."



 He held his bottle out in a salute.
She obligingly bumped her bottle against his, took a deep breath, and turned
it up for a large swallow. She made a face when it went down, shuddering.
Jared, Dakota, and Xavier were all grinning at her when she unscrewed her
face and blinked at them.



 "Good huh?"



 Danika shuddered again. “Awful!"



 "Naw'lins," Jared drawled.
“Originally, anyway."



 "Ah! I knew I detected a southern
drawl! It's always nice to hear oneespecially when I'm so far from home."



 "Where are you from?"



 She batted her eyelashes at him and
deliberately thickened her own accent. “Why, Georgia, sugar! Cain't you
tell?"



 Dakota's gaze wandered over her
appreciatively. “A peach. Are all the peaches as sweet as you?"



 She chuckled at his attempt at
flirting. “Hopefully sweeter," she said wryly. “Or we'll have a hell of a
time selling the next crop. Where are you from?"



 His eyes crinkled with amusement. “I
think I'm going to let you guess."



 She took another sip of the beer,
shuddering all over again. “How much did you say I had to drink before it
started tasting good?" she asked, eyeing the level of liquid in the bottle
doubtfully.



 "All of it," Xavier said promptly.
“The next one's better."



 Sending him a reproachful look, she
shook her head at him and then turned to study Dakota thoughtfully. “One of
the Dakota's?"



 "Nope."


 "That's not fair! I'm really not very
good with accents. Give me a hint."



 "It's west of the Mississippi."



 She gave him a look. “Half the
country is west of the Mississippi!"



 He shrugged. “I'm part American
Indian."



 She widened her eyes at him. “Really?
Part a little? Or part a lot?"



 He grinned at her. “Part a lot."



 "Really?" she asked, pleased. “Me,
tooI think, but just a little."



 He lifted his dark brows at her.
“You're blond," he said chuckling.



 She pouted. “I said a little, didn't
I? Cherokee, I think. Or maybe it was something else?"



 "Too bad," he said, mock serious.
“They were deadly enemies of my people."



 "They were?"



 "No," he said, grinning, then leaned
down to whisper near her ear. “Montana."



 A shiver skated through her as his
warm breath caressed her, but this time it was a pleasant one. He took her
bottle from her hand and headed back toward the cooler. “I wasn't done with
that."



 "Sure you were. I'll get you
another."



 She eyed Con and Balin a little
uncomfortably when they reached the porch. “Is he part Indian, too?" she
whispered to Dakota as he straightened and twisted the lid off of another
bottle.



 He glanced over at Con and Balin.
“Con? I don't think so."



 "I meant Balin," she said a little
testily.



 "French," he said curtly.



 "You're sure? Ä™Cause he looks Indian
to me."



 "You want to ask him?" he whispered
back at her.



 She blinked at Dakota. “No. He's mad
at me."



 He settled an arm around her
shoulders and led her back into the yard, pressing the bottle into her
hands. “I think I've got a buzz," she announced to the group at the grill.
“Are you done burning those yet? Because I'm hungry."



 "How do you like yours?" Jared asked,
grinning at her.



 "Dead."


 "I'm pretty sure it's dead," Dakota
said, laughing at her.



 "Yes, butnot wounded, you know. Not
bleeding."



 The three men exchanged a speaking
glance. “I think this one's probably done enough," Jared announced, pulling
a blackened chunk off the grill with a cooking fork and slapping it on a
plate.



 "I'll take it," Dakota said as Danika
reached for it. “I'm not sure you can make it back inside with the meat
still on the plate."



 She gave him a reproachful look. “I
can," she said mulishly. “I've only had one beer!"



 "Two," Xavier contradicted her.



 She frowned at him. “Are you sure?"



 "It doesn't matter," Dakota assured
her smoothly, guiding her back into the cabin.



 She had a little trouble negotiating
the steps. “That sure is strong beer. How many did you say I had?"



 "When did you eat last?" Dakota asked
her when he'd helped her into a chair at the table inside and settled the
plate in front of her.



 She frowned, trying to remember. “I
don't remember," she said finally. “I have to pee ... pardon me. The ladies
room?"



 Dakota guided her across the cabin
and pushed the door open. She waved him away. “I can manage."



 "You're sure? I don't mind helping."



 "Very funny!"



 She nearly missed the toilet. She had
no idea why that was so funny, but she had a hard time containing her
amusement. The bathroom swam around her a little nauseatingly when she got
up again. Gripping the lavatory to steady herself, she managed to wash her
hands and splash a little cool water on her face.



 Dakota was waiting for her when she
emerged. She beamed at him. “I did just fine all by myself, I'll have you to
know."



 He grinned at her. “Baby, you do
not have a head for booze."


 "Are you inthin .. inthin ...
suggesting I'm drunk?"



 He laughed. “No, but you've got a
hell of a buzz."



 "Alrighty then!"



 She beamed at the men around the
table when she'd managed to ring the seat of her chair. “This is fun!"



 Balin eyed her with amusement. “Which
part?"



 "All of it! I'm glad I came. I
haven't been to a party in ... uh ... a long time. I don't get out much.
Well, I do, but it's usually in the woods and there's nobody there." She
turned to look at the man seated next to her and discovered it was Con.
“Where you from?"



 He grinned at her. “Currently? Or
originally?"



 She frowned at him. “That depends on
how long you were where you were originally from."



 "Why?" he asked, chuckling.



 She frowned. “I don't know why. Oh!
ęCause if you didn't grow up there it don't count. Doesn't. Customs! You
know. People've got a lot in common when they're from a spefic ... spefic
... certain place."



 "So if I said I was from Georgia...."



 She gasped in pleased surprise.
“You're from Georgia! Hey! I'm from Georgia!"



 His shoulders started shaking with
suppressed laughter. “Baby, I don't think you need to drink any more beer."



 She turned to frown at her half empty
bottle. “I've only had one ... and a half," she added conscientiously.



 "Three," Xavier said cheerfully.



 Dakota elbowed him in the ribs.



 "Why did you do that?" he demanded
indignantly.



 Dakota rolled his eyes at him.



 "'Cause he don't want you counting
for me!" Danika snapped. “And I don't neither! Either!"



 He shrugged. “We've got plenty more."



 "But Dani's had enough," Balin said
pointedly.



 Danika frowned at him. “Are you
really French?"



 He looked vaguely annoyed. “I'm not
Indian, American or otherwise."



 "Oh." She leaned closer to Dakota.
“You think he heard me a while ago?" she asked in a loud whisper.



 Dakota eyed her with amusement. “It's
possible."



 "I guess he didn't like that," she
muttered. “But me and you's Indians and we don't care, right?"



 "But he isn't."



 "Oh!" She thought that over and
turned to smile at him apologetically. “Sorry. It's the dark skin and the
cheekbones. Honest mistake. Beg your pardon! You have a very nice face even
if you aren't Indian."



 "Eat your steak, Dani," Balin said,
studying her with a mixture of amusement and irritation.



 She saluted and picked up her fork
and knife, sawing off a piece. “Mmmm! Delicious! You're a very good
cookwhoever."



 She noticed when she was about
halfway through her steak that she'd lost a little of the pleasant glow of
Ä™don't give a damn'. “Uh oh," she announced. “I'm losing my buzz. I think
I'll have another."



 "All gone, baby. Sorry," Dakota said
firmly, helping her from her seat when she put her utensils down.



 "It is?"


 "It is."


 "Guess that's the end of the party
then," Danika said glumly. “I'm going home now."



 "Someone should walk you back."



 "I won't get lost. It's right over
there," she assured Dakota, pointing.



 "Actually, it's in the other
direction," Balin said dryly.



 "I would've figured it out when I got
outside!"



 "I'll walk her over and then meet you
at the place," Xavier offered.



 Everyone turned and glared at him.
“Jaredwhy don't you and Xavier
both walk her to her place and make sure she's alright?" Dakota
suggested. “Asleepand then meet us?"



 [Back to Table of Contents]



 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 Chapter Thirteen


"Going somewhere?"



 A jolt went through Danika that was
hard enough it rattled the contents of the bag she had slung over her
shoulder. In the process of locking the door to the cabin, she whirled at
the sound of Con's voice. A wave of disorientation washed over her at the
sudden movement, punctuated by a couple of sharp stabs of pain in her
temple. She put a hand to her head. “You startled me."



 His gaze moved over face, settling on
the sunglasses perched on her nose. “Sorry. I just thought if you were
headed to town I'd get a lift."



 She glanced at the row of motorcycles
lined up in front of his cabin.



 He leaned back against the hood of
her truck, folding his arms over his chest. “I was going to pick up a few
things. It would be easier to haul them back if I rode with you."



 "Actually I wasn't," she said
apologetically, waving the map she held in her hand. “I have some work I
needed to do." She hesitated, chewing her lip indecisively. She hated being
disobliging, especially when she couldn't see that it would really interfere
with her own plans. “I could still take you, though. I don't work on the
clock."



 A slow grin curled his lips. He
straightened away from the vehicle, dropping his arms. “Good."



 The smile made her heart flutter
uncomfortably. There ought to be a law against men that good looking!



 She moved down the steps to the yard
carefully, unconsciously holding her head, and leaned over just enough to
unlock the door of her vehicle. Con slid into the passenger seat as she
climbed in, adjusted his side of the split bench seat as far back as it
would go and sprawled comfortably, half turned toward her. “You look like
you had a rough night, baby."



 "Oh thanks! That's just the sort of
thing a woman likes to hear! Baby, you look like shit!"



 He chuckled, scrubbing his hand over
his jaw wryly. “That was meant to be commiseration for the hangover."



 She sent him a sharp glance and
winced. Her
eyeballs hurt! “You don't look like you're suffering too much," she
observed dryly.



 "A hair of the dog," he said simply.



 A vague sense of nausea surfaced,
although she hadn't detected the smell of beer on him. “Oh please! I just
got my stomach settledsort of."



 He frowned at that, scanning her
speculatively. “You didn't drink that much."



 Danika shoved her key in the ignition
and started the truck. “Obviously, it was enough. I don't drinkI mean ever.
And I've never had beer before. I don't think I will again, either,
considering the way I felt when I got up."



 He picked up the map she'd dropped on
the seat between them when she'd gotten in, studying it thoughtfully. “What
are these marks for?"



 "Possibilities."



 He quirked a dark blond brow at her
questioningly. She flicked a glance at him, considering whether to tell or
not and finally shrugged inwardly. “I need to wrap things up. The wolves
seem to be very active in the woods near the camp, but I haven't located
their liar. I'm going to check those places out today. That's why I was
taking the truck. They don't usually roam such a large territory, but then
again these wolves don't seem to follow any of the studies I've referenced."



 "Want company?"



 She glanced at him in surprise but
the suggestion wasn't unwelcome. The prospect of spending the day with him
was almost as appealing as the fact that the idea of encountering the wolves
wasn't nearly as unnerving if she didn't have to be alone. “You'd be bored
stiff. I'm sure you have better things to do with your time."



 He shrugged. “Actually, I don't. And
I haven't noticed that you were boring."



 Danika felt a blush heat her cheeks.
“I hope you're not talking about last night."



 He grinned. “That was ...
interesting."



 Danika couldn't help but chuckle with
embarrassment. She was instantly sorry. “Oh god! I didn't do anything really
awful, did I?"



 He looked at her curiously. “You
don't remember?"



 "Too much and not enough," she said
wryly. “Enough to wish I didn't remember what I do."



 "You didn't do or say anything you
need to be embarrassed about. We were drinking, too, remember?"



 She frowned. “Yes and no. I don't
think anybody got as drunk as I did."



 "Then again, you don't remember it
very clearly."



 She relaxed fractionally. “I really
wasn't acting really stupid?" she asked hopefully. “That you noticed, I
mean?"



 He studied her a moment and finally
grinned. “You're cute when you've had too much to drink."



 "I don't know how to take that."



 "Let's just say it was a side of you
I hadn't seen."



 "Oh that sounds ominous!"



 He settled an arm on the back of her
seat, curling his hand along the back of her neck and massaging it. “It's
alright, baby," he said gruffly.



 His hand felt good, the massage of
his fingers even better, the reassurance and the way he said it best of all.
“That feels so good," she murmured. “I took some painkiller and it helped,
but it just sort of took the edge off."



 He glanced around. “Pull off over
there and I'll give you a good neck rub."



 It was tempting. “You don't need to
do that. I'm fine."



 "Pull off," he said testily.



 She felt silly, but she pulled off
and cut the ignition.



 Unclipping his seatbelt, he reached
across and released hers. When she presented him with her back, he dragged
her across the seat and settled her between his thighs.



 "It's a little cramped for this," she
pointed out as he clamped a hand on either shoulder and began compressing
and releasing his hands in a motion that fell somewhere between pain and
ecstasy.



 "We could always get in the back," he
murmured near her ear, lifting goose-bumps along her neck that scurried down
her arm and across her chest, making her nipples perk up.



 "It's broad daylight!" she objected
with amusement. “I wouldn't want to have to explain
that if a cop decided to stop and investigate."


 He grunted instead of answering.
“Lean forward."



 When she complied, he moved his hands
down to her back, worked them down her spine and then back up again to her
shoulders and then to her neck. “You have
wonderful hands," she murmured dreamily.


 "I do?"


 His voice was husky but laced with
humor. He lifted his hands to her head, threading his fingers through her
hair and pressing his palms against her skull. “Mmm."



 She was relaxed almost to a state of
unconsciousness when he finally stopped, so much so that she wasn't
completely aware he'd stopped at first. She'd just sort of oozed down to
rest against his chest, dropping her head to rest against his hard shoulder.



 "Better?" he murmured, nuzzling his
face against the side of hers.



 She exhaled a deep sigh. “Mmmhmm."



 His arms encircled her. He splayed
one palm along her ribs but made no attempt to glide upward the few inches
it would've taken to cup a breast. He shifted, turning her slightly toward
him after a few moments. “Headache gone?"



 With her eyes closed, she performed a
mental search and discovered it was. Smiling faintly, she opened her eyes.
“How did you do that?"



 His gaze flickered over her face.
Lifting one hand, he removed her sunglasses and set them in her abandoned
seat. For a stilled moment of time, they merely looked at one another. His
gaze moved to her lips, one hand settled along her jaw, and his face drifted
closer. She closed her eyes, lifting her lips in offering. His lips brushed
along hers, making them tingle with awakening sensation. He nuzzled his face
against hers and sighed gustily, melding his lips more firmly against hers
in gentle pressure that gradually increased as he moved his mouth over hers
as if in search of the perfect fit.



 She turned more fully toward him,
lifting her hand to explore his lean jaw with her fingertips, parting her
lips for him when he at last settled his mouth firmly over hers and traced
her lips with the tip of his tongue. Warmth spread through her as he raked
is tongue along hers, filling her with his taste. For a handful of moments,
the kiss was nothing more than a sort of lazy exploration. It changed the
moment she ceased to merely accept his exploration and returned his kiss.
His arms tightened around her. The hand along her cheek slid deep into her
hair, cupping the back of her head and drawing her more tightly to him as he
deepened the kiss, sucking at her lips, his tongue thrashing along hers in
restless, possessive need.



 Heat rose inside her, rose between
them. She felt the tremor of crumbling restraint in him and it magnified the
need growing in her.



 He was panting hoarsely for breath
when he broke the kiss, his eyes tumultuous. The tension left him slowly, as
if he forcibly restrained it. He dragged in a shaky breath. “So ... now I
know," he said raggedly, a touch of humor in his voice.



 Danika looked at him with a mixture
of reproach and uncertainty. “What?" she finally asked when he didn't
elaborate.



 He shook his head dismissively. “Bad
idea."



 She frowned a question at him, but
yielded to his urging and collected her sunglasses, climbing awkwardly back
into her own seat. A mixture of amusement and disappointment filled her when
she glanced at him and saw him struggling to adjust his erection.



 He noticed, favoring her with a grin
that was almost more of a grimace. “Strangling the poor bastard. These jeans
are too fucking tight."



 She tried to hide a smile.



 "Pleased with yourself?"



 "No," she lied.



 "Liar."


 She chuckled, switching the truck on.
“It's nice to be appreciated," she murmured.



 He grunted, retrieving the map.
“Let's try this place first," he said, pointing.



 She lifted her brows at him, but
noted the spot. “You don't want to pick up supplies first?"



 "We'll do your thing and then mine."



 Danika smiled.



 "What?"


 She shook her head. “You're sure you
don't mind?"



 "Nope," he said, sliding down in the
seat and closing his eyes.



 Taking that as a sign that he didn't
particularly want to chat, Danika focused on her driving, content enough to
have it that way. She wasn't used to having anyone to talk to anyway and
conversing could be a strain when one wasn't, particularly if one had to
carry the bulk of the conversation. For all that he seemed more asleep than
awake, Con seemed to sense when they were nearing their destinationmaybe
because she slowed down.



 "Pull over here."



 She glanced at him questioningly.
“It's still a pretty good way."



 "You don't want them to hear you
coming, though."



 She looked at him in surprise, but
pulled over. “I doubt it would get them too stirred up. I'm sure they're
used to hearing cars."



 "No two cars sound the same, though,"
he said cryptically and climbed out before she could voice the question that
arose in her mind.



 "You think they know what my truck
sounds like?" she asked in disbelief when she met him in front of the truck.



 He shrugged. “Maybe. They've been
hanging around the camp long enough it's possiblejust like they'll know
your scent a mile off."



 "You seem to know an awful lot about
wolves."



 He glanced at her, studied her a long
moment and finally looked away again. “I hunt."



 She would've liked to pursue the
comment to learn more about him, but he hadn't seemed inclined to encourage
her interest and beyond that talking wasn't a good idea. Sounds carried in
the woods. They were still well over a mile from the old barn she'd
suspected the wolves might be using for a den, but it didn't necessarily
follow that they'd all be there even if she had a hit with the first try.
Ordinarily, they did most of their hunting at night and tended to stay close
to the den during the day, sleeping much of the time, but she'd already
discovered she couldn't count on ęordinary'.



 Shifting the strap of her bag for
comfort, she dug her pistol out and shoved it into the waistband of her
jeans. Con was eyeing her with amusement when she glanced at him. “Is there
anything you
don't carry in that bag?"


 Mildly insulted, she frowned at him.
“Lots of thingsno kitchen sink, no bed."



 She winced inwardly at the last,
wondering if he would comment on the direction of her thoughts.



 He grinned at her. “That's a shame."



 She reddened. “Really?"



 "Mmm. I'm thirsty. A sink would come
in handy right about now."



 The ass! She could tell by the gleam
in his eyes that his own thoughts weren't
that far from hers! Deciding to trump him, she unzipped the bag and
pulled out a large bottle of water. He chuckled when she held it out but
took it, opening it and taking a long draft of water. She studied him,
feeling her belly tighten as she watched the movement of his throat. It made
her warm just looking at him, resurrected the memory of his kissand other
memories that were even more heated.



 She emerged from her daze to discover
he was holding the bottle out to her. Discomfited, she took it and drank a
few swallows herself before she put it away. She discovered when she turned
around again that Con had dragged his t-shirt off. Wadding it, he tossed
onto the hood of her truck.



 "Hot?" she asked before she thought
better of it.



 His lips curled, hovering just shy of
a grin. “I expect I will be by the time we've made the walk."



 She was warm and she hadn't even
started! Focus Danika!



 Con stopped and lifted his head,
motioning for her to stop when they were just over halfway there. Puzzled,
she halted and studied him curiously. It occurred to her that he was no more
aware of the odd gesture than she was really aware of commanding her feet to
move when she wanted to walk.



 "The wind is drifting from that
direction," he said after a moment, pointing. “We should take to the woods."



 Danika didn't particularly want to.
Moreover, she didn't really see a need for it. There was a slight breeze,
she realized, now that he'd pointed it out, but it didn't seem enough to
carry their scent. “They'll
hear us coming. They won't have to catch the scent."



 "Just step where I do."



 He didn't wait to see if she was
agreeable. He stepped off the narrow, rutted cart path they'd been following
and into the woods with barely a rustle of the vegetation. Surprised, she
glanced at his feet and discovered that he wasn't even wearing shoes.
Shaking her head over that, she followed him, wondering if he even knew
where he was going. She certainly couldn't tell anything about their
direction once they'd left the road behind. There was no trail to follow and
the vegetation was dense enough it wasn't possible to catch more than a
glimpse of sky.



 He moved steadily and without any
appearance of hesitation, though, and when he stopped, she could see the old
barn. Impressed, she glanced at him. He seemed completely focused on the
barn and the overgrown weeds surrounding it, his gaze slowly sweeping the
area. She removed her binoculars from her bag as quietly as possible and
lifted them to her eyes, adjusting the focus.



 "They're not here. They've been here,
but they've moved on."



 Wondering how in the world he could
tell that when she couldn't even see so much as wallowed out weeds, Danika
lowered her glasses and glanced at him again. The tension she hadn't even
noticed in him was notable now by its absence. He headed toward the barn,
making no attempt now to be quiet.



 Unconvinced, Danika felt a flicker of
both irritation and alarm as she reluctantly followed him. The signs she
hadn't noticed were there, she discovered when they reached the barn. There
was a wide trail of flattened vegetation leading from the barn into the
woods. Dropping the binoculars back in her bag, she dragged out the small
camera she carried with her and took a few pictures of the signs she
foundgnawed bones that looked like they were from a fairly large animal,
maybe a moose or elkor a cow. At a glance, it was hard to say. They were
dry, the little flesh still clinging to the bones too decayed even to have
much appeal for the insects.



 "I wonder what made them decide to
relocate?" she muttered to herself. The place was pretty remote and, from
the look of the barn, had been abandoned by human habitation a very long
time. The track she'd been following in her truck wasn't even visible near
the barn, having long since been reclaimed by vegetation and even a few
small trees.



 Con didn't comment, either because he
realized it was a rhetorical question or because he didn't actually hear
her. She saw when she looked around that he was following the trail the
wolves had worn from the barn.



 They followed the overgrown track
back to the vehicle. Con studied her map while she jotted down a few notes
in her note pad. They didn't have any better luck with the next two places
she'd marked.



 Tired, hungry, and frustrated, Danika
took the map from Con after the third dead end and studied it. “We've come a
long way from the fishing camp," she said thoughtfully. “Even figuring they
cut a lot of miles off by going through the woods it's hard to believe
they'd regularly roam this far."



 "Hungry?"


 Danika glanced at him a little
distractedly. “There's a sandwich in my bag."



 Con uttered a chuckle, grabbed her
bag and started plundering through it.



 "The sandwich is on top," Danika
pointed out, glaring at him for going through her bag.



 He dragged it out and looked at it.
“This sandwich? Or the half eaten one I found at the bottom?"



 "Ew! I thought I'd thrown that away,"
Danika said in surprise. “No wonder the bag was starting to smell a little
off. Throw it out the window. Not the wrapper! Just the stinky part."



 "It all stinks," Con retorted,
pitching the whole thing out.



 "Litter-bug! You'll get us arrested."



 "I haven't seen any cops."



 "That's because they only have two in
the whole county."



 "Why don't we go back to camp and
find something a little more substantial?" Con suggested when she started
the truck up.



 She considered it. She really was
empty after her morning barfing session and she hadn't felt up to trying to
put anything in her stomach afterwards. “Town's closer."



 "The camp would be better."



 She couldn't quite decipher the
undercurrents in his voice, but she didn't particularly want to go into town
to eat. The locals had never seemed particularly friendly and they'd seemed
almost hostile the last trip. Of course, she'd been with the biker gang and
that might account for it. Then again, Con was with her now.



 And he wasn't wearing shoes.



 "Ok."


 Con relaxed noticeably. She couldn't
help but wonder why. It had occurred to her that he might be more interested
in sex than food, especially after that very warm kiss earlier, but there
was far stronger vibes that he just didn't want to go into town. She
couldn't say that she blamed him considering the reception he got when he
went.



 Four of the bikes were missing when
they returned.



 Danika's mind instantly leapt to the
fact that she and Con would be alone.



 Oh she was a slut! Still half dead
with a hangover and starving besides and her mind had immediately leapt to
sex!



 Con got out and followed her into her
cabin without waiting for an invitation. Sprawling on the couch, he watched
her through narrowed eyes for a time while she worked in the kitchenette and
finally stretched out full length, closing his eyes. “This won't take long.
I don't really have much besides canned stuff."



 "Good," he said without opening his
eyes. “I'm starving."



 "Starving man," she noted out loud
and went back to searching for something to put with the soup she was
heating. Pulling out a pack of cheese, she grabbed the loaf of bread and
made grilled cheese sandwiches to go with the tomato soup, making three for
him.



 He devoured all three, downed the
biggest portion of the soup, and looked around hopefully for more.



 "Still hungry?" she asked a little
doubtfully, wondering where he put it when he hardly seemed to be carrying
an inch of fat anywhere on him. Then again, he probably had a sky high
metabolism with all that muscle.



 "That'll hold me ... for now."



 He followed her when she collected
the dishes and headed to the sink with them, slipping his arms around her
waist and pulling her back against him when she tried to fill the sink with
dishwater. “Leave it," he murmured against her hair.



 "It won't take but a minute."



 Instead of arguing, he released her,
strode across the cabin and sprawled across her bed. She glanced at him, saw
that he'd gathered her pillow beneath his head, and focused on washing the
dishes, feeling almost equal parts irritation, amusement, and arousal.



 He was certainly taking a lot for
granted! Then again, it wasn't as if she hadn't been intimate with him
before and very likely, even if they hadn't all been sitting over in their
cabin discussing the gritty details, it wasn't likely that any of them were
unaware that she'd been bed hopping.



 She debated whether to join him or
not when she'd finished, but it was a short debate. He looked up at her when
she moved to the side of the bed, reached up to grab her wrist and dragged
her down on the mattress with him. He surprised her. Instead of taking
instant advantage, he situated her to his likingwith her back to himand
coiled around her. “Nap time."



 She smiled faintly despite her
disappointment, but the truth was she was more than a little sleepy herself.
“Long night?"



 "Rough night."



 It felt strange to lie in her bed
snuggled next to him, arousing, and yet comforting in a way. It wasn't
terribly comfortable. His arm and leg, which he'd thrown over her, were as
heavy as lead, but after shifting a few times to get more comfortable, she
dozed off.



 He had his head propped in his hand
and was studying her face when she woke. She opened one bleary eye to peer
at him and closed it again. “Was I snoring?"



 He chuckled. “Like a grizzly. Woke me
up."



 She punched at him weakly. “Was not."



 He captured her fist, nibbling at her
knuckles with just the edge of his lips. “Alright. You weren't snoringjust
a little drooling."



 "I know that was sexy," she said
dryly, rolling over and putting her back to him.



 He nuzzled her ear. “Come on. We've
got at least three more possibilities to check before dark."



 She twisted around to look at him in
surprise. “You're going with me?"



 "I'm not letting you go alone," he
said, his face abruptly completely void of teasing.



 She studied his expression. “Slave
driver," she murmured. “I had just enough sleep to want more."



 He grimaced. “Get out of the bed,
woman, before I loose my resolve."



 Grunting inelegantly, she complied.
“What resolve?"



 His gaze flickered over her. “I think
you know the answer to that."



 The promise in his eyes warmed her to
dew point, making it clear what he had on his mind even if not for the hard
ridge she'd felt butting against her ass. She just wasn't certain what his
resolution entailed. Not having sex with her again?



 He must have seen something in her
expression. When he stood up, he pulled her against his tall frame, nudging
her chin up with his thumb. “That look isn't helping."



 "What look?"



 He shook his head. “No more kisses
either."



 She gaped at him, feeling her face
redden. “I wasn't thinking about kissing," she lied.



 He grinned at her, a knowing gleam in
his eyes. “I know what you were thinking about."



 She gave him a look. “I'm not the one
standing here with a woody," she said tartly.



 He set her away from him with a
laugh. “It's a piss hard," he said striding toward the door. “I've got to
check on something. Don't leave without me."



 She stared after him, completely
disconcerted. “Is it really?" she asked when he'd reached the door.



 He chuckled instead of answering.
Frowning, Danika went into the bathroom to relieve herself and freshen up.
When she left the cabin a few minutes later, Con was standing in the door of
his cabin, talking to someone inside.



 Curious to see who it was, she
glanced at the cabin several times as she moved to her truck, but she
couldn't see who was standing inside. It was a shame, she thought, that she
couldn't readily identify their bikes. They all rode different makes or
models, but she hadn't studied them enough to figure out which belonged to
who. She was too busy studying
them when they were on them.


 They managed to check two more
possibilities before the sun set but didn't have any more luck than they'd
had earlier in the day. The last one looked the most recently occupied, but
if it was currently in use by the pack, they'd already left to hunt for the
night.



 She didn't remember that Con had
wanted to go into town for supplies until she'd parked the truck in front of
her cabin again. He dismissed it, though, when she suggested they drive into
town. “It can wait."



 He seemed distracted. After studying
him for a moment, waiting to see if he would say anything, Danika finally
got out. He got out, following her to the door of her cabin. “I don't want
you wandering around alone looking for the pack," he said finally. “One of
us will go with you."



 The warmth that had arisen at his
apparent concern for her safety took a nose dive when he said ęone of usł
instead of Ä™heÅ‚ and irritation quickly replaced her disappointment. “I don't
need a baby-sitter."



 His lips tightened. “You'll have one
just the same."



 Her eyes widened in outrage. “I don't
know where you got the idea that you could just order me around...."



 He made a sound of annoyance. “Gods
damn it, Dani! Don't be so damned stubborn!"



 "Why am I being stubborn?" she
demanded indignantly.



 He hooked a hand behind her head and
dragged her close, silencing her with a ruthless kiss before she could
actually get warmed up to her theme. “Because you can't help it, I guess,"
he growled with amusement when he released her.



 She glared at him, but he'd already
turned to leave. “I thought you weren't giving me any kisses," she said
tartly.



 He turned on the steps, his gaze hot
enough as it raked over her to singe her eyebrows. “Don't push it, baby. I'm
a man on the edge."



 The edge of what , she
wondered, staring after him speculatively?



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 Chapter Fifteen


Danika stared in
complete confusion at the ceiling above her head when she opened her eyes.
The memories that had flooded her mind the moment she surfaced toward
consciousness were the stuff of nightmares and, for just a moment, she
thought that was what it wasa nightmareand she'd just awoken in her bed.



 She was in her bed. She'd been
living in the cabin long enough that it was almost as familiar to her as her
own home, but the comforting sense that she'd just awakened vanished. It
wasn't a nightmarewell, it was, but also realshe thoughtmemories of
things she'd seen, things that had happened, not figments of her
imagination.



 Unless her mind had snapped and she
was delusional?



 It was almost more comforting to
think she might have had a psychotic break than the alternative. At least
then, if she ever got her mind back, she'd know she wasn't living in a world
where such things actually existed.



 Her mind leapt abruptly to Dakota,
hovered momentarily on his transition from handsome man to horrible beast,
and then leapt forward again to the way he'd looked when she'd last seen
him. She pushed herself upright in sudden, renewed panic.



 Balinlooking like the Balin she
knewmoved toward the bed, but stopped while he was still a good distance
from her when she swung her head in his direction and sucked in a sharp
breath.



 She stared at him, trying to
reconcile in her mind the creature he'd been before with the devastatingly
handsome man he was nowthe one she'd pined over, wished secret thoughts
about that she had barely even acknowledged to herself. “Dakota?" she
finally managed to ask, bracing herself for bad news.



 Something flickered in his eyes.
“They brought him back to the cabin."



 Her chin wobbled. “Is he...? Is
he...?"



 He frowned. “He's alright, Dani," he
said gruffly.



 She searched his face, wondering if
he was just telling her that to calm her down. “How could he be alright? He
was hurt so bad!"



 He held her gaze. “He's wolfen,
Dani." He hesitated. “We all are."



 She couldn't decide whether she felt
more ill or faint. “Con and...?"



 "Jared and Xavier," he confirmed.



 She digested that for a moment, or
tried. She really couldn't assimilate it. “What's wolfen?" she asked
finally.



 A flicker of humor entered his eyes.
He dropped to a crouch. It startled her, but then she realized he'd done it
to keep from towering over her. She relaxed fractionally, coloring faintly
when she saw the knowing look in his eyes. “You saw," he said finally, the
humor missing from his voice, all emotion missing. His tone was cool,
without inflection.



 She chewed her lip indecisively for a
moment. “Like ... kind of like...?"



 His lips tightened. “Movie monsters?"



 She swallowed. “Werewolves?"



 His expression hardened. “Those are
an abomination, the results of infection of a human. I was born as I amthe
others, too. We are wolfen. You could say half wolf half human, but that's
not actually what we are."



 "Wolfen."


 He nodded.


 "And Dakota's going to be alright?"



 "They didn't manage to take his head
off," he said wryly. “Short of that, we can recover from pretty much
anything fairly quickly. The same rapid cell manipulation that allows us to
morph from this form to the form you saw, or into the form of a wolf, also
allows us to heal quicklyeven from what appears to be grievous injury in
your eyes."



 The comment resurrected the memory of
the way he'd been when she'd last seen himcovered in blood, his own and
that of the others, horrible wounds slashing across his arms and torso and
chest. There was little sign of those now, though, nothing but angry red
marks where she'd seen gaping wounds before.



 She shivered, abruptly cold, feeling
a need for reassurance. That she was safe? She looked down at the cover
across her lap, plucking at it, thinking. “Y'all protected me from the
othersthe rogues. Was it because you didn't want me to find out that you
were wolfen?"



 "That's part of why we were sentto
protect the wolfen nation from exposure that could make lifedifficult for
us."



 She swallowed a little sickly. “And
... now that I know?"



 "We hope you're a friend and wouldn't
bring trouble to us without cause."



 Tears filled her eyes as she looked
up at him at last. “We're friends?"



 He tilted his head thoughtfully. “At
least that, yes?"



 She nodded, unable to speak, lifting
her arms out to him hopefully. He came to his feet without hesitation and
surged toward her. Settling on the edge of the bed, he drew her into his
arms. She snuggled gratefully against his warmth, soaking it in to dispel
the cold that seemed to go bone deep, reassured by the heart beat beneath
her ear.



 He pulled away after a moment, but
instead of leaving her, he lay down on the bed, pulled her down with him and
covered them, snuggling her along his length. “I'm cold," she murmured
unnecessarily, shivering with it, her teeth chattering.



 "Shock." He hesitated. “I regret we
couldn't spare you that."



 They'd triedmaybe only to preserve
their secretbut she couldn't deny that they'd done everything, short of
telling her she was in danger and explaining why, to keep her safewhatever
their motives.



 It occurred to her abruptly to wonder
if that was why they'd gotten her drunk that nightto keep her from going
into the woods. Maybe because they were running out of inventive ways to
protect her? Because they'd tried sticking to her like glue to keep her from
wandering off, bullying her, ordering her to stay away and she'd been
stubbornly determined to finish her job?



 She didn't actually have a job
anymore, though, she realized. She'd been sent to study wolves, and there
weren't any. She doubted there were even any wolfen left nowexcept for the
ębiker quintsł as she'd dubbed them. She'd finally managed to stumble upon
the hideout of the rogue pack they'd been sent to dispatch and they'd taken
care of it.



 A shudder skated through her at the
memory of the carnage, the savage battle she'd seen.



 Balin stroked a gentling hand along
her back. The movement of his hand soothed her, warmed her, and the tremors
began to subside. Little by little, she relaxed against him, half drowsing
with the mesmerizing stroke and the emotional exhaustion that crept up on
her as the shock began to wear off. He shifted far enough away from her to
study her face after a while. Sensing his focus, she opened her eyes to look
back at him.



 She hadn't really had the opportunity
to study his faceany of them really. She'd felt particularly shy of Balin,
though, unnerved by his aloofness. She supposed he would be considered
classically handsomenot boyishly handsome, not ruggedly handsomeclassic.
His features were probably the most symmetrical and appealingly formed that
she'd ever seenin naturemore like the perfection artists aspired to.



 Maybe that intimidated her even more
than his aloofness? Certainly as much.



 She should've felt so plain and
unlovely by comparison as to want to hide her own imperfections but she saw
appreciation in his eyesshe'd never seen anything else, she realized with a
touch of surprise. He liked what he saw.



 The hand that had been rhythmically
stroking her from the back of her hair and down her back, settled on the
back of her head. She felt a faint tremor in his hand, as if she'd
transferred her own trembling to him when she'd soaked up his warmth. He
eased closer slowly, as if fearful he'd startle her. She hesitated and then
tilted her face to give him easier access. She heard him swallow and then
his face was so close to hers she could feel the warmth of it, hear the
raggedness of his breath, feel the currents against her skin, inhale his
scent. Excitement threaded her veins even before she felt the light touch of
his lips against hers.



 He tasted her almost tentatively,
plucking at her lips with his. Images flooded her mindBalin the man, Balin
the beast. She tensed unconsciously, but the moment she felt him hesitate,
begin to withdraw, she knew acceptance. She wanted him, followed his retreat
like a flower seeking the sun, exploring his lips as he'd explored hers.
They were firm, hard like the rest of him, unyielding. He tasted ...
heavenly.



 He drew away, scanning her eyes when
she opened them to him, searching her for acceptance of his touch. He found
what he was looking for. “Dani," he whispered raggedly, surging toward her
again, pushing her to her back and opening his mouth to take hers in a
hungry assault that sent a rush through her, spawning heat, at first in
sinuous tendrils that snaked through her veins and nerves, and then
quickened inside her, blossoming rapidly. Her mind floated free, enveloped
in a sensual haze that seemed to lift her outside herself and yet she was
more aware of her body than she'd ever been, aware of it as a vessel filled
with the most delightful sensations imaginable.



 She could feel the heat radiating off
of him, the pleasurable pressure of his weight, the solidness of his form,
the unyielding strength of hard muscle. Her mouth and hands alone were
unfettered, free to feel everythingand they felt everything, the heat and
taste of him on her tongue as he explored her mouth with impatient forays of
his tongue, the cool silkiness of his hair beneath her fingertips, the heat
of the flesh of his bare shoulders and back.



 He broke away abruptly, shucked his
jeans with shaking impatience and then turned to her, drawing her upright to
peel her shirt off, tossing it aside, and then grasping the closure of her
jeans and tugging off both panties and pants in jerky haste. His gaze raked
over her with a thoroughness that seemed to take in everything at once, but
there was no time for doubts to creep into her mind. He rolled over her,
curling a leg around hers, settling a large palm in the center of her back
to draw her to him and match their bodies from hip to chest. Sensation
exploded through her in a shockwave as every nerve ending in her body, it
seemed, received instantaneously, perceiving more than her brain could
process all at once.



 She sank beneath the wave, lost touch
even with her body. A fierce joy filled her at his touch, his command of her
senses, vying with the carnal delight of flesh to flesh, separate and apart
from that rapturous inundation of her senses and yet intrinsically entwined
and inseparable at the same time.



 She didn't explore itcouldn't.
Reason abandoned her. Her instincts enslaved her and she relished the loss
of control along with the delight to her senses. The faintly rough texture
of the coarse hair that furred his male breasts and connected them with his
groin in a narrow trail that bisected his torso excited every nerve as it
teased her slick skin with each brush of his body. The cool metal rings that
kept his nipples pebbled and hard tantalized as they brushed back and forth
and around and around her softer breasts in teasing sweeps. His member,
engorged almost to steel hardness, almost seemed to throb with a life of its
own as he curled his hips into hers and relaxed in a restless rhythm that
found an echo within her womb, called to it, summoning heat, moisture for
him, want, need, desperation.



 She became vaguely aware that she
sighed his name with each hitch of her breath, reciting it endlessly like a
magical mantra that would bring her something she desperately
wantedcompletionand beyond that a wholeness release alone couldn't give
her.



 He showered her with kisses that
almost seemed as much a form of worship as the hungry feeding of his own
senses. Saluting her mouth with the graciousness of his presence, yielding
the essence of himself she starved for the moment he relented and sought
appeasement elsewhere, he grazed the column of her throat next with his
lips, tongue, the edge of his teeth. Then he foraged lower to disseminate
what little sanity remained to her by suckling each nipple in turn,
endlesslyand not nearly long enough. Finally, he sucked in a morsel of
flesh along the sloping valley between her breasts, above her heart.



 The bite stung briefly.
Incomprehensively, it touched off a minor climax that shuddered through her
in gentle quakes that only heightened her need for more. “Will I be like you
now?" she whispered.



 He lifted his head. Fury blazed in
his eyes momentarily and then understanding evicted it. He dipped his head
to soothe the sting, shifting upward after a moment to nuzzle his face
against her neck. “No, princess," he murmured huskily, anointing the fragile
skin with tender kisses that made her heart leap in her chest. “You'll never
be what I am."



 He sounded almost regretful.



 At that moment, she felt regretful,
too, wishful for things beyond her. “The other, then?"



 "No," he said more forcefully,
nipping at her ear lobe. “I don't want that for you, wouldn't risk it. The
marking, in this form, wouldn't do that. Won't even do what I wish it
would."



 He silenced any other questions she
might have thought to ask with his lips, moving his hands over her to
position her for his possession while he claimed her attention with the
rhythmic stroke of his tongue along hers. She opened herself to him eagerly
at his urging, dragging her legs up the mattress and planting the soles of
her feet firmly to counter his thrust. He broke the kiss, curling his arms
tightly around her shoulders as he burrowed his thick length deeply inside
of her, moving at first in almost a languid caress along her sheathe that
made her throat close with emotions she scarcely recognized.



 It felt like homecomingand goodbye.



 He drove the emotions from her with
the stir of carnal heat that left no room for the thoughts and doubts. The
small climax she'd had was only a prelude, a dim shadow of the fire he built
within her belly. Fever suffused her, making her burn with the growing need.
Her mouth dried with the panting breaths that was all she manage between the
low, pleasurable moans he drew from the depths of her soul. She wanted it to
last forever, struggled against the rising tide every inch of the way until
it gripped her and tore her control from her grasp. Her climax was
shattering, uncontainable. The rapturous quakes that started along her
channel sent waves of bliss outward in every direction like seismic
aftershocks.



 She clutched him tightly, riding it
until it crested and began to dissipate even as he was caught up in the
throes of his own release, jerking against her with the power of it. She let
the lethargy that claimed her in the aftermath carry her beneath the cloak
of consciousness, basking briefly in the appreciative stroke of his hands
before she let go completely.



 She was disappointed when she woke
and discovered he'd abandoned her but not terribly surprised. The warm sense
of goodness that filled her faded a little, but she felt too thoroughly
satisfied for more than that slight dimming of pleasure. When she'd yawned
and stretched all over, she rolled over and stared out of the window for a
few moments in hazy contentment, allowing her mind to wander until the
pleasant memories collided with the nightmarish ones.



 Recoiling from them before they could
get a firm grip on her, she climbed out of the bed and went to shower and
dress, trying to decide what time of day it was. She'd left early with
Dakota, but the argument between them had consumed her mind right up until
her entire world had turned into a nightmare. Everything was a blur after
that, thankfully unclear in her mind. She was sure she couldn't have been
unconscious long after she'd finally managed to hyperventilate from terror
and pass out, but she had no idea how long she might have slept after Balin
had rocked her world.



 She couldn't believe it was much more
than mid afternoon, though. Even at that, she felt a little disoriented.



 Hearing voices outside when she'd
finished dressing, she paused, struggling with a rise of panic. She
recognized their voices, knew it was Balin, Con, Jaredthe wolfen.



 They hadn't really changed, she told
herself sternlythey were still the men she'd found infinitely desirable,
friends, lovers. Only her perception of them had.



 She'd seen doubt in Balin's eyes,
anger, and understanding. There was no hiding the fact that she'd been
terrified to the point of idiocy when she'd seen them, no erasing that
reaction and pretending it hadn't made any difference in the way she felt
about them.



 She examined that thought and
realized that, regardless of how she'd reacted, it actually didn't make any
difference.



 Maybe she was in denial?



 She supposed she was to a great
degree. A sense of unreality still gripped her and when she thought of them,
the images that came to mind were the forms she was most familiar with.
Wasn't that a part of who they actually were, though? They seemed
comfortable in the forms she knew. They might be just as comfortable in the
versions of themselves that had frightened her half to death, or the form of
wolves. Balin had said they could take that form and she realized she'd seen
him in that form.



 She'd seen all of them!



 They
were the five ęwolvesł
she'd come upon in the clearing!



 They were the wolves she'd thought
were trying to trap her the night she was certain the pack had divided
notrushing to trap her, but rushing to confront the others.



 Conthe great white wolf; Balinthe
great black wolf; Dakotathe golden brown and black; Jaredthe dark gray;
and Xavierthe tan and whiteall of them as handsome ... as
beautiful in their wild form as they were as men.



 She discovered she'd moved to the
door without really giving it a thought beyond the urge to see them. She
didn't want them to be left with the impression that she found them
loathsome in any way now that she knewscary in half man half beast form but
she thought she could accept that part of them.



 It would take some getting used to,
and she didn't have the luxury of time to do that, but she needed for them
to understand that she still felt the same way about them.



 They stopped talking when she stepped
outside, turning to look at her. She studied them back, struggling with a
sudden attack of shyness that was ridiculous given her history with them.
Balin's eyes gleamed with remembered pleasure as she met his gaze, and she
found herself smiling back at him.



 The door of their cabin opened and
Dakota, moving stiffly, but walking, drew her attention. A rush of relief
filled her. Her reluctance forgotten instantly, she rushed down the steps
and met him when he reached the yard, throwing her arms around him
impulsively. He let out a pained grunt at her enthusiasm, but prevented her
retreat by looping his arms around her when she would've pulled away.



 "I'm so relieved you're alright!" she
said.



 "That makes two of us, then," he
said, chuckling.



 She pulled away and looked up at him.
“They were concerned, too."



 He lifted his head and scanned the
others behind her, but he didn't respond to the remark.



 An awkward silence fell when she
pulled away from Dakota and turned to study them. She supposed it was
inevitable, but she was still disappointed. “I guess y'all have things you
need to discuss," she said uncomfortably. “I'll leave you to it. I just....
“She shrugged. “I should probably start packing, I guess."



 "It's too late to leave," Balin said,
halting her in her tracks.



 She turned to look at him, feeling
uneasiness creep into her.



 He made a sound of impatience. “The
moon will be full tonight. The
weres are already feeling the pull, their primal natures emerging.
There's already been violence. That's only going to escalate until the moon
rises tonight and then all hell will break loose. You don't have time to
pack and get to safety. You'll have to stay until the moon wanes."



 Confused instead of enlightened,
Danika stared at him a long moment and then glanced at the others.



 "He's right," Con confirmed grimly.
“I wish you were safely back in Georgia, baby, but that's not how it played
out."



 "I don't understand. I thought you
killed the rogues. There's werewolves, you mean?"



 "The rogue wolfen were only part of
the problemthe start of itnot the finish. They infected most of the town.
The monsters that come out tonight will be many times worse that what you
saw today."



 She looked at Dakota when he spoke,
saw the flicker of doubt she'd dreaded and then looked at the others.
“You're not monsters to me. Don't think that. It's not fair to me when you
have to know I had no warning."



 They looked unconvinced, glancing at
one another before they seemed to dismiss it. She didn't think they had. She
thought they'd merely set it aside as something beyond their control and
focused on the immediate problem.



 "What are we going to do?"



 Balin smiled faintly. “You're going
into ęquarantineł with the other uninfected. We've secured a warehouse,
supplied it, reinforced it as much as possible. The wolfen will be there to
guard the place until things settle. The ęmedicalł team is already in place,
collecting the uninfected and moving them to the warehouse for ętests'.



 "It's important that you support us,
Dani. They'll be scared, angry, confused, and rebellious. The cover story
we've cooked up is that there was a containment breach of a toxic chemical
from a derailed trainthat's about the only transport that passes through
this place that they'll buy because they know this sort thing is routed
through the least populated areas.



 "And some of them will have
ęsymptoms'. They'll be injected with something harmlessI don't know what. I
didn't ask. My only requirement was that it had to be something that
wouldn't be dangerous but would cause reactions. It's necessary to make this
believable, but liable to escalate their fears."



 Danika swallowed against the knot of
fear that wedged in her throat, staring at him wide-eyed. “I'll be injected
with something?"



 He shook his head. “Not youthe
others. You'll have to pretend symptoms."



 She frowned. “Why not? I mean, if it
isn't dangerous anyway."



 "It isn't dangerous. I swear it.
We're trying to protect them."



 "But...?"


 "Because I'm not willing to take
any risk with you!" he growled impatiently. “No matter how harmless
something is ordinarily, you can never predict when someone might have an
allergic reaction."



 His concern warmed her. His
insistence relieved her, and yet she had a feeling there was more to it than
he'd told her. She wasn't certain what. She trusted him. She was sure he was
convinced the only threat to the uninfected was the werewolves, but maybe he
didn't completely trust whoever was behind the quarantine?



 They told her to leave her truck. She
wasn't certain if that was because it had a flat tire and they didn't want
to take the time to change it or if they just didn't trust her to follow
their orders. She was leery about climbing on the back of a motorcycle.
She'd never ridden on one before, but it wasn't one of those things on her
ęmust trył list. She rode with Jared. Remembering what Dakota had said about
drawing straws, she supposed they'd settled it beforehand. None of the
others seemed particularly pleased when Jared led her to his bike, but they
didn't say anything.



 It was actually exhilarating in a
terrifying way, she reflected when they pulled off onto a narrow back road
and parked the bikes. She was almost too wobbly legged to walk with any
dignity. Amusement gleamed in Con's eyes when he helped her climb into the
back of the emergency vehicle waiting for them. “You look a little pale,
baby. Everything ok?"



 She gave him a look. “Ha! Ha!" she
said tartly.



 Grabbing a bag from the back as she
settled, Con hauled it out and unzipped it. The five stripped down while she
watched openmouthed, so mesmerized by all the beautiful male flesh that she
hardly noticed, at first, what they were pulling from the bag. Hazmat suits,
she discovered. The suits transformed them into grim strangers. The
uneasiness she'd felt before returned.



 It magnified tenfold when they
reached the outskirts of town and she caught her first glimpse of the
pandemonium. Men armed with wicked looking military rifles were going from
house to house, either herding people out or dragging them out. A steady
stream of people hurried along main street, clogging traffic and creating
the first and probably last traffic jam the town had ever witnessed.



 Dakota, who was driving, pulled the
vehicle to a stop as they neared the edge of town. The rear doors were flung
open and Balin, Con, Jared, and Dakota leapt out, turning and motioning for
her to follow them. Her heart was beating against her chest wall
suffocatingly as Balin helped her out, clamped a hand along one upper arm
and escorted her to the building everyone was pouring into.



 The others parted company with them
once she was in line, vanishing in the thick tangle of humanity and blending
with the other men surrounding them dressed in similar suits. Balin stayed
with her, but it was impossible to talk over the noise. In any case, she was
fairly certain he mostly stayed to make sure she went in.



 The place was a mad house, but the
man standing at the door directed her to an area that had been set up ęsoup
kitchenł style. The huge doors closed while she was still struggling to put
food in her empty stomach.



 The sound of bolts being shoved into
place on the outside was probably the scariest part of the entire process.
Uneasiness gave way to all out fear. She struggled with it, reminding
herself that Balin had specifically asked her to do whatever she could to
help everyone stay calm. Giving in to hysteria sure as hell wouldn't have
the desired effect.



 And she had no excuse. She at least
knew what was going on, knew the entire elaborate production was merely for
show.



 It felt too real, though. She got up
when someone announced over a PA system that everyone who'd eaten should
move to the examination and decontamination area. She hadn't been prepared
for that. She must have heard ęjust a precautionł a hundred times before
she'd run the gamut. Decontamination was a really unpleasant surprise. They
were ordered to strip down and ęfumigatedł with something they'd cooked up
to seem to be a decontamination shower. The women had been separated from
the men, but all of the hazmat team, as far as she could see, was made up of
men. The men waiting at the other flicked an indifferent glance over her and
then did a double take, staring at her more closely.



 She'd covered herself the best she
could with the square of cloth they'd given her that wasn't a hell of a lot
bigger than a hanky but she felt hideously exposed in all her flawed glory.
She realized after a moment, though, that both men were staring at the marks
on her neck, both of which had begun to fade but were still visible.
Embarrassed about her ępassionł marks, she hitched one shoulder, unwilling
to let go of her towel.



 One of the men jerked his chin at the
other. The man caught her arm and pulled her to one side, looking her over
frowningly. “You're the prince's woman?"



 Danika gaped at him.



 "Balin Chevalier?"



 She felt her face redden. She was
damned if she could figure out how he might have arrived at such a
conclusion just from the marks on her neckparticularly since Balin had only
contributed one of them. Apparently he took the blush as a yes. Handing her
a jumpsuit that felt like it was made from paper, he waited while she
struggled to pull it on and preserve her modesty at the same time and then
walked her over to an examination area.



 The woman he spoke to was the first
she'd seen. She lifted her head, stared at Danika for a long moment and then
motioned to her to sit down on the examination table. The man stayed,
watching her every move. The examination wasn't intrusive, thankfully. “This
is just a precaution," the woman recited, picking up a filled syringe from a
tray beside the examination table.



 Danika stared at the thing in dismay.
Balin had assured her she wouldn't be injected.



 The man took the syringe from her
hand, glared at her, and slapped another in her palmthis one minus a
needle.



 The woman's lips tightened, but she
went through the motions of injecting Danika and then told her she was done.
Relieved, Danika sent the man a grateful smile when she climbed down. He
nodded without smiling back, took her arm again and escorted her past the
waiting line and to an area where cots had been setup.



 The waiting ground down her anxiety
after a while. Apparently, it began to have the same effect on everybody
else. The volume dwindled. Someone put music on. It blared through the
scratchy speakers that had been set up here and there, more annoying than
soothing.



 The volume wasn't lowered even when
people began to settle on the cots to sleep and she finally realized it was
a precaution to keep them from hearing whatever was going on outside the
building. The moment she did, her anxiety was back full force, focused this
time on ęherł guys and most particularly on Dakota, who wasn't recovered
enough in her opinion from the last battle to take part in anything too
dangerous. They hadn't really told her what they expected to happen, but she
knew it had to be bad for them to have gone to so much trouble. She managed
to worry herself into a fitful sleep after a while, trying to remember just
how many days it took for the moon to wane. She didn't remember from school
and she'd never paid enough attention to the waning and waxing of the moon
cycles to knowdays, she was sure, wondering if, once they went through
transition the
weres remained beasts until the waning allowed them to resume their
human forms. What she knew about it could've filled a thimble, she thought
with disgust, wishing she'd asked them more questions.



 Not that it was likely to have done
her any good. She knew their secret now, but they were still secretive,
unwilling to share any more than absolutely necessary. She supposed she
could see their side of the situation. She wasn't one of them. She doubted
they really had that much trust in her keeping their secret to herself.



 They obviously hadn't considered the
unlikelihood that anyone would actually believe her.



 [Back to Table of Contents]



 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 Chapter Seventeen


Danika was tornfor
about five seconds. She wanted him. He'd thoroughly awakened her senses when
he'd massaged her and bathed her. Moreover, the sense that her journey was
quickly coming to an end and she'd never see him again made her desperate
for one last taste of his passion. It was that same sense of leave-taking
that made her reluctant, a belated need to protect herself from the pain of
separation.



 It was way too late for that, though,
she realized. She'd let him into her heartall of themor she wouldn't be
feeling so melancholy already at the realization that it was over.



 By the time Con had woven a trail of
kisses down her throat to her breasts she'd completely forgotten any need
but the need to feel him. He teased her, circling his ultimate objective,
massaging her breast with his hands, until she was moving restlessly beneath
him before he lifted his head to stare down at the hard tips that had leapt
to attention, begging for his touch. Dipping his head, he lipped at them one
at the time, the light pressure of his lips only making her hurt more for
his touch.



 "Con!" she finally whispered, a
desperate edge to her voice.



 "What, baby?" he murmured.



 She swallowed, reluctant to demand
that he stop teasing her and get down to business. “Don't tease me."



 "I'm not teasing, baby," he said
gruffly. “I'm savoring."



 She couldn't prevent a chuckle.
“Savor it with it
in your mouth!"


 He covered one tip with his mouth,
but didn't close it around her. Instead, he traced the aureole maddeningly
with the tip of his tongue. Her belly clenched as he grazed the nipple.
“Like this?" he asked huskily.



 She swallowed the flare of impatience
that swept through her. “More!" she demanded.



 He closed his lips over her nipple,
applying just enough pressure to tug it gently. A bolt like an electric
charge went through her. She gasped.



 "Better?"


 Her head swam. “Please?" she begged
plaintively.



 He lifted his head to stare at her
face through narrowed, predatory eyes. “Please, what, baby?" he growled.



 She licked her dried lips, shifting
restlessly, panting faintly from breathlessness.



 "You want me to suck it?"



 She swallowed, nodding.



 "And then, what? The other?"



 "Yes."


 He went back to teasing her,
massaging her breasts, circling the nipples with his lips, just barely
brushing one or the other from time to time as if the touch was merely
accidental. “After I've done that, should I head north or south?" he
murmured thoughtfully. “Chew my way down to the tender lips between your
thighs? Suck that sweet little nub or yours for a minute or two? Run my
tongue along your cleft? Tongue fuck you until you scream? Or maybe all of
the above?" he asked, punctuating each question with a light, nibbling bite
on the soft flesh of her breasttop, bottom, sideseverywhere except where
she wanted him to!



 She dug her fingers into his arms,
feeling her insides turn molten. “Con! Don't torture me!" she whispered.
“Anything! Everything! Please?"



 "Am I torturing you, baby?" he asked
curiously.



 "Damn it, Con!"



 He chuckled huskily. “Anything for my
baby," he murmured, closing his lips over one nipple at last and suckling it
so hard her toes curled and her fingers, already digging into his arms, bit
deeper as she surged against him.



 She fell into a burning pit as he
tugged and suckled and nipped at her nipple with the edge of his teeth, felt
as if she was being boiled alive. She couldn't catch her breath and thought
she might pass out, couldn't see for swirling dizziness, couldn't hear
anything but her frantic heartbeat and desperate breaths.



 She almost came when he moved to her
other breast to torture her swollen nipple unmercifully, felt the walls of
her sex quake, tremble, catch fire from the rush of blood and the heated
moisture that wept from her body. The frantic need to feel him inside of her
swelled within her.



 "Come inside menow!" she whispered
hoarsely as he released her nipple and dipped his head to bite the flesh
beneath her breast.



 "Not yet," he murmured distractedly,
scooting down to bite and suck at a patch of skin below that and then
another. Her belly quivered when he nuzzled the soft flesh. She lifted
unconsciously to meet his lips, shuddering at the keen sensation that rushed
through her as he sucked a row of love bites along her lower belly and then
grasped her thighs, pushing them wide and nipping at the soft flesh near her
sex.



 Con paused, feeling a rush of fury as
he spied the marks on her inner thighs. Jared and Xavier, he realized
instantly, feeling the urge to find both of themthat instantand tear their
fucking heads off. She was a fucking patchwork of wolfen love tokens, gods
damn it! All three vital pulse pointsneck, breast, and thighsalready
marked and then claimed by another, and then reclaimed as they'd battled
over the claiming of her. Tamping his fury with an effort, he bit down on
her inner thigh, mingling his blood with hers as the others had.



 She shuddered with a small climax,
gasping. Slightly mollified by her reaction to his marking, he shifted his
attention to the delicate pink lips that had been the other part of his
objective, feeding on her ravenously until she was screaming and bucking
against his mouth in a harder climax. He had to force himself to stop,
alerted to her distress by the weak, choked cries she uttered.



 Shaking all over with his own needs,
he crawled over her, aligned his body with hers and drove into the warm, wet
cavity where he'd found heaven before. He'd forgotten how tight she was, he
realized dizzily, sweating with the effort to hold himself in check until he
could conquer her clinging flesh completely. He didn't stop until he could
go no further, until he could feel her crushing hold all along the length of
his cock and felt as if he was choking on the need thundering through him.
“Jesus, baby!" he groaned hoarsely. “You feel so good I could die a happy
man right here."



 She stirred against him, the muscles
along the walls of her sex rippling over him like massaging fingersexcept a
hundred times bettertearing his hard won control from his grasp. He gritted
his teeth, groaned as he felt a warning tug in his groin the instant he
leaned down to match his mouth to hers and claim that hot, moist cavern as
he had the other. He tore his mouth from hers. “Can't hold it, baby," he
muttered apologetically and then remembered she'd come when he sucked on the
tender, luscious bud between her thighs.



 He came quicklytoo fucking
quicklybarely managed a dozen strokes before his climax tore through him
like it was going to turn him inside out. She stiffened as he drove
frantically into her, though, tipping her head back and giving voice to her
rapture in fresh cries of ecstasy. The profound sense of relieve he felt
when his body finally stopped convulsing was joined by an equally fierce
sense of triumph. He slumped heavily against her, too weak to do anything
else, trying to catch his breath and gather a little strength into his
rubbery muscles at the same time.



 He managed to roll off of her after a
few minutes. He lay limply for a moment, still gasping for breath. Shivering
as cool air washed over his overheated skin, he gathered her into his arms
and aligned their bodies close together, coiling around her possessively.
“Mine," he muttered to himself as he nuzzled her neck, just beneath her ear
and then placed his own mark next to the grouping already there.



 Danika shuddered but made no attempt
to evade him, holding perfectly still until he'd sucked away the sting.
“What is this thing you wolfen have about biting?" she murmured with a
mixture of amusement and irritation that set his teeth on edge.



 He discovered he was too satisfied,
and too fucking tired, to hold on to the flare of temper. “Love tokens,
baby," he muttered, giving in to the greater need to sleep after days of
battling crazed
weres and almost no sleep.


 It boggled the mind how much more
needed to be done before they could have a personal life again. They had to
put fear into the hearts of the new
weres now that they'd begun to realize what had happened to them,
organize and implement wolfen rule, bring the rebellious in linethen they
were going to have to get back to their old packs and take care of local
pack businessthen personal business. He wasn't worried too much. He had
reliable lieutenants to handle most of pack business and reliable people
running his own business, but there were always things that fell through the
cracks and had to be cleared up.



 * * * *

Con was gone, Danika
discovered without any surprise at all when she woke. The expectation didn't
prevent her from feeling abandoned, or ease the hurt much, but she wasn't
surprised. Sighing, still tired, she got up and cleaned up, staring for a
long time at the ęlove tokensł the wolfen had left all over her with a
mixture of amusement, irritation and the urge to crythree on her neck, two
between her breasts, and three more between her thighs, two of which she
didn't even remember receiving, though she didn't doubt they were Xavier's
and Jared's love tokens. Most of them were already fading. They'd be gone
soon and she wouldn't even have that much to remind her of them.



 Her memories were going to be baggage
enough, she told herself sternly, leaving the bathroom finally to dress.
There really wasn't any reason for her to hang around, she told herself,
struggling against the reluctance to move on, fighting the urge to stay just
so she could tell them goodbye in person. Her work was donehad actually
been finished days ago.



 They were probably going to be tied
up with clean upand very likely other things now that a number of wolfen
women had arrived on the scene.



 A ripple of unhappiness went through
her at the thought, the image forming unbidden in her mind of Balin, Jared,
and Dakota standing with the wolfen females when she'd left the compound.



 They might at least have walked over
to say bye, she thought resentfully.



 It would probably have been
uncomfortable, though, for all of them and she knew how men detested any
kind of scene, especially any kind that had the potential to become
emotional.



 She would be doing them a favor to
leave quietly and not make a big production out of it.



 She'd probably be doing herself a
favor if it came to that, she told herself as she moved about the cabin
glumly, gathering up her belongings. Despite the weeks she'd spent there it
didn't actually take long to pack everything up and pile it in the truck.
There wasn't any sign of any of the guysno bikes. She was so used to them
ęguardingł her from the threat of the rogues if made her feel even more
abandoned.



 She checked the cabin three times to
make sure she hadn't forgotten anything before she finally accepted that she
wasn't checking. She was lingering in the hope that they'd come back, or at
least one of them would show up.



 Wasting daylight!



 Sighing, she closed the cabin up and
climbed into her truck. She stopped at the edge of the highway, debating
whether or not it was a good idea to take a short detour into town and try
to hunt them down to tell them goodbye. Swallowing the urge finally, she
turned the other way and started home.



 It was a long, miserable drive to
Georgia. When she stopped for the night, she called Bill Fellows to let him
know she'd checked out of the cabin, just to be sure the owner didn't try to
charge them for another day, and gave him her report. She'd spent the
driving time going over it in her head, recalling the details of her
previous report to make sure she didn't change anything critical to her
story. He was so pleased to find out she'd ęhandledł the wolf situation with
some of the ęlocalsł that he didn't probe too muchthankfully.



 She didn't mention the Ä™bio-hazard'.
She wasn't touching that. The wolfen could take care of any of the fallout
from it.



 The trip was exhausting and
miserable, made more rotten by the lack of side window in the damned truck,
but she had no desire to stop along the way to get the windows replaced. She
headed for home like a homing pigeon.



 The place was stale from being closed
up so long and, of course, the cupboards bare, but she'd had food left over
from her stint in the cabin. She figured she could get by a few days before
trotting to town to replenish her supplies. She'd diverted around Atlanta on
her way south, but it had reminded her of her unfinished business at the zoo
and she gave the manger a call.



 They'd called in someone else while
she was gone. Not a big surprise! Ordinarily, it would've irritated her, but
she found she was glad.



 Wolves weren't really her specialty.



 It was so nice and quiet and peaceful
around her place that she was climbing the walls within a few days, unable
to focus on the notes she'd collected to even
try to write a paper. The need to be around some body kept
eating at her and it wasn't appeased by a jaunt into town for groceries or a
trip to the mall and the movies.



 She decided to pay a visit to her
grandmother in the nursing home. She hated going and was ashamed because she
did. She never knew, though, if her grandmother would know her and welcome
her and they would have a nice visit, or if her grandmother
wouldn't know her and she'd end up struggling to chat with her like a
complete stranger.



 She was going to turn around and
leave if her grandmother wasn't lucid, she decided when she parked in front
of the nursing home and got out. She just couldn't handle
that kind of visit right now.


 A relief so profound she felt tearful
filled her when her grandmother looked up and smiled at her when she tapped
nervously at the door and poked her head in.



 "Dani!"


 She smiled tremulously. “Grandma! How
are you today?"



 "Fine! Fine! How are you doing,
honey? You look a little peaked. You haven't been taking care of yourself, I
see."



 Danika felt her lower lip tremble.
She tamped the urge resolutely. “I'm good. Really!"



 Her grandmother gave her a look.
“What's wrong, honey?"



 Danika sniffed, feeling the threat of
tears gaining ground. “Nothing, really. I just haven't been to see you in a
while, and ... and I missed you."



 Her grandmother made a tsking noise
and held up her arms. Danika surged toward the frail little woman, hugging
her carefully. The tears she'd been fighting flowed down her cheeks as she
held her grandmother. “You might as well tell me," her grandmother said when
she pulled away and brushed the tears from her cheeks with her hand. “You
know I have a nose for things. Always have. It wouldn't have anything to do
with those wolfen you've been diddling around with, would it?"



 Danika gaped at her grandmother in
speechless shock, her tears drying up instantly. “Grandmother!" she gasped,
but she was too stunned by the woman's unerring accuracy to fully grasp it.
It was true everyone had always said her grandmother had a ęnoseł for
things. Everybody accepted that it was a gift even though nobody talked
about it. People had a tendency to think you were a nut case if you talked
about a person being psychic.



 She didn't know what was more
startling, though, the fact that her grandmother had spoken about wolfen
like she
knew all about them or the fact her grandmother knew she'd been
ędiddlingł with them.



 Her grandmother snorted and then
chuckled at the look on her face, obviously pleased with herself. Glancing
around for her chair, she settled in it stiffly. Danika dropped weakly into
the chair beside her. “You know about ... wolfen?" she asked finally,
beginning to wonder if her grandmother was as lucid as she seemed. Of
course, she knew, now, that there was such a thing, but her grandmother?



 She had no desire at all to
discuss what she'd been doing with the wolfen!



 Her grandmother stared at her hard
for a moment. “Are you going to act like I've lost my marbles if I tell
you?"



 "Grandmother!"



 "Don't grandmother me! I may be old
and I may not remember things like I used to, but I'm not a nut!"



 Danika bit her lip. “It just
surprised me," she said meekly.



 Grandma shrugged. “I imagine. Just
between you and me, though, I'm not physic. I know everybody always thought
I was and I let them think it. It's wolfen."



 Danika blinked. “I'm not following
you."



 Grandma huffed irritably. “I know
you've heard the whispers about an ęundesirableł in the woodpile, honey."
She grimaced. “It wasn't an Indian. He was wolfen."



 Danika felt her jaw slide to half
mast. “You're sure?"



 Grandma snorted. “Of course I'm sure!
Where do you think I got the nose from? I told you I wasn't psychic. I've
just got better senses. I
know things because of that.


 I ain't blind, neither, although I'm
damned close to it. You've got the marks. Looks like you got stampeded by a
whole pack."



 Danika reddened, surreptitiously
twitching the neck of her shirt up a little higher.



 "Too late," Grandma said tartly.
“Done seen Ä™em now."



 Danika dropped her hands into her
lap, frowning. “If I'm part wolfen, why didn't I know?"



 Grandma shrugged. “Like I saidin the
woodpile. It wasn't anything anybody wanted to talk about. Anyway, honey,
you ain't got more'n a drop in you. My mother was halfthat's why I know.
Back then, we were just trying to protect the family, not worried about
ęgood lines'. It just sort of evolved into a ędirty secretł because of all
the hush hush about it."



 Danika plucked at the leg of her
jeans. “You think, maybe, they sensed that and that's why they were
interested in me?"



 Grandma studied her for a long
moment. “I doubt they could sense it. They have amazing perception, but I
think you're too far from the tree. Maybe subconsciously. On the other hand,
my grandmother didn't have a drop and Grandpa was crazy about hernever
looked at another woman even though she passed a good twenty years before
him."



 Danika felt her throat close. “I
always thought that was so sad."



 Grandma nodded. “It was. How many
were there?"



 Danika sent her a startled look,
reddening to her hairline. “How many what?"



 "Don't play stupid, Dani. I counted
three marks on your neck, but I caught five scents. I'm guessing five."



 Danika squirmed uncomfortably. “You
can't really tell, can you?"



 Grandma shook her head, looking as if
she was undecided of whether to laugh or scold. “Got you in heat," she
muttered finally.



 "They what ?" Danika gasped,
horrified.



 "You needn't look at me like that
when you've been romping with a pack of wolfen, Danika Marie Whitney!"



 Chastened, Danika clamped her lips
together. “If I don't have more than a drop of wolfen in me, I don't see how
that would be possible," she said finally, although, upon reflection she
realized that it made her feel a little better about her ęrompł to think it
might have been hormones and instinct after all.



 Not much.


 She couldn't believe she was
having this conversation with her grandmother!



 "Genetics are so unpredictable,"
Grandma dryly. “The real question here is whether you caught a litter or
not. I'm thinking if they had a strong enough effect to bring you in heat,
they set your hormones in overdrive and there's no telling how many eggs you
produced for them. How many had a go at you while you were ovulating?"



 Danika felt her jaw go slack with
horror and stunned surprise. “Litter?" she asked in a suffocated voice.



 "It's been known to happenrarely, of
course, but then a female don't generally mate with a half a dozen," she
said tartly. “Alphas, I'm guessing, if they had that effect on you."



 "Oh my fucking god!" Danika gasped,
surging to her feet. “You're saying that to scare me, right?"



 "Why would I say it to scare you?
You've already done it!" Grandma snapped testily. “Too late to try to scare
any sense into you!"



 Danika wrung her hands. “I don't
know! I didn't know I
was ovulating!" A sudden thought occurred to her. “They'd be able to
sense that?"



 "Of course they would, particularly
when they were the ones that got you in heat to start with."



 "Will you stop saying that! It
makes me feel like a bitch."



 Her grandmother gave her a look.
“Imagine that."



 She glared at her grandmother. “I'm
too
old to be having a baby at all! Let alone a ... litter!"



 "Don't be ridiculous! If you were too
old you wouldn't be pregnant."



 "You don't know I am."



 "Yes, I do," Grandma informed her
complacently. “And long overdue if you ask me. I was beginning to think you
weren't going to give me any grandchildren."



 " Howwould you know?" Danika
demanded.



 "I can smell it! Just like
they smelled the chemical change in you that told them you were ripe
for mating. Sent them into a frenzy, I can imagine, if they were all
fighting over who was going to mark you."



 "What is this thing everybody
keeps talking aboutmarking? Wolves don't do that."



 "They're wolfennot wolves. They left
their love tokens all over you, I'm thinking. Like I said, you look like you
got caught in a stampede. I'm guessing it didn't turn out like they
expected. They were trying to mark you as their mate to warn the others off,
so
you would warn the others off. Mine! That's what each one of
those bites are all about. Possession. It takes three to seal the deal, but
the first begins the binding and each successive one makes the binding
stronger, harder to resist."



 The jerk of hopefulness in her breast
was hard to put down to anything else. “What happens when more than one does
it?"



 "Oh, I'm thinking warI'm thinking
disasterI'm thinking you're in for a really rough ride!"



 Danika blushed fierily.



 "I was talking about dealing with
them," Grandma said dryly. “Not the fun part. Now you're going to have to
live with it. They marked you. They impregnated you. You'll never get rid of
themany of them."



 Danika found herself smiling.
“Really?" she asked hopefully.



 Grandma started laughing. “Greedy
Gus!" She sighed. “I always hoped I'd find a wolfenor one would find me. I
wanted a man like grandpa in the worst kind of way. Not that I'm complaining
about your grandfather, mind you! He was a good man and we made a good life
together. But it was so ... tame! There was none of the fire like there was
between my grandparents."



 She patted Danika's hand. “Stop
worrying. They'll find you. They won't stop looking until they do. They
bound themselves to you. You're in their blood. You're carrying their pups.
They have to."



 Danika stared at her grandmother,
feeling a horrible suspicion wash over her. “Pups?" she echoed weakly.



 Grandma snorted. “Their babies. They
call them pups. Don't worry, you're not going to birth a litter of baby
wolves. If they're very, very lucky, they'll have enough wolfen in them to
have their fathersł ability to shift, but don't get your heart set on it.
They'll only be half wolfen. You don't have enough in you to make a bit of
difference."



 * * * *

Con knew she was gone
before he checked the cabin and he still couldn't prevent the howl of rage
and pain and fear he gave vent to when he saw he was right. “She's gone!" he
roared when he whirled around and saw the others standing behind him in her
empty cabin. “I'm going to beat her ass black and blue when I find her!"



 "I'll beat the fuck out of you if you
even think about it!" Balin snarled.



 The threat sent a jolt through Con,
cutting through his pain and rage enough for him to actually recall what
he'd said. “I didn't mean I actually would!" he growled. “Gods damn it! She
left!"



 "We see that!" Dakota roared, pacing
around the room furiously.



 "It's your fault!" Con
snarled, zeroing in on Balin. “She saw you with that wolfen bitch you were
fawning all over!" He turned to scowl at Dakota evilly. “And you!"



 Dakota and Balin exchanged an
uncomfortable glance. “
Iwasn't fawning," Balin said through gritted teeth. “ Shewas."



 "That was my sister!" Dakota snapped
indignantly.



 "Right!"


 "You've got a sister?" Xavier asked
in surprise.



 Dakota glared at him suspiciously a
moment. “My twin," he said finally.



 "Got a lot of females in your line?
We don't."



 "Nobody does," Balin growled. “And I
don't give a fuck if he has a sister."



 "Soyou're saying that actually
was his sister?" Con asked.


 " Isaid it was my sister, gods
damn it! What the hell are you asking Balin for? He don't know my sister!"



 "All I'm saying," Xavier interjected,
“is that you needn't claim the other was your sister, because I know you
don't have one. There ain't been a girl born in your line in at least four
generations."



 "Five," Balin corrected him, “and I
never said she was my sister. I wouldn't have been fawning on my gods damned
sister!"



 "You said you weren't fawning on her
that she was doing fawning," Con said suspiciously.



 Balin eyed him coldly. “I meant....
Gods damn it. It was Felicia!"



 "Who the fuck is Felicia?" Jared
demanded.



 "His intended," Xavier supplied
helpfully.



 " Yourintended?" Dakota
demanded. “You mean to say he already had a mate staked out and he's been
encroaching on
my preserve?"


 "Just when the hell do you think Dani
became
your preserve?" Con growled.


 Xavier shrugged. “Well, his parents
intended that he choose her and her parents intended that he choose her, but
he didn'tyet."



 "Stay out of it, gods damn it!" Balin
snapped.



 "Felicia," Jared muttered, thinking.
“Wait a minute! She's the one that tried to give Dani the damned needle!"



 "What?" Balin roared.



 "That guy you told to keep an eye on
her," Jared said. “Whats-his-name."



 "Nelin," Balin said grimly.



 "Nelin? Now that's just fucking
weird! Where the hell did his parents dig up a name like that?"



 "I don't care! What did he say?"
Balin growled.



 "He said Felicia tried to inject her.
I just told you that, gods damn it!"



 "That bitch!" Balin snarled. “If I'd
known that...."



 "You wouldn't have let her fawn all
over you?" Con asked sarcastically.



 "I didn't let .... “Balin
glared at him in fuming silence for a moment. “What was I supposed to do?
Pitch her on her ass? She stopped to talk."



 " That'swhy she asked you if
you'd talked to your parents lately ... and when you planned to visit her
parents!" Dakota exclaimed, abruptly enlightened.



 Balin's face darkened, his lips
tightening.



 Xavier eyed him speculatively a
moment. “You didn't tell her, your parents, or hers that you weren't going
for it," he said intuitively. “And now Dani's run off and we don't have a
fucking clue where!"



 "Georgia!" Dakota exclaimed. “She
told us that. Not that I wouldn't have figured it out ... eventually."



 "That's so fucking helpful!" Con
growled. “We all heard her say she was from Georgia. It's a pretty big
state. You didn't happen to ask her what part of the state? County? City?"



 "I didn't expect her to just
take off!" Dakota snapped. “
Youwere with her last. You didn't think to tell her we had unfinished
business?"



 "I had other things on my
mind," Con growled and then added irritably, “she was asleep when I left.
What was I supposed to do? Wake her up and tell her to stay put? That
would've gone over well!"



 "Well this is just fucking great!"
Jared said in disgust. “I don't guess anybody got around to asking her what
her last name was either?"



 They glanced at one another
uncomfortably.



 "Atlanta!" Xavier said abruptly.



 Con gave him a look. “It was a job,
Xavier. Just like
this was a fucking job. That doesn't tell us anything!"



 "Yes, but.... “Xavier allowed the
sentence to trail off as it dawned on him that he knew a fool proof way to
find out where she lived. Why share it? If they hadn't figured it out for
themselves it wasn't his place to do it for them. He glanced around, trying
to decide from their expressions if the others had had the same thought. He
couldn't actually tell anything. None of them looked thoughtful, or gleeful,
or even purposeful, thoughmore like poker facedand he finally decided they
were still mulling over possibilities. Feeling a good deal more cheerful, he
settled on his pallet and lay back to consider whether it would be better to
relocate his business or to start up a secondary location. He supposed he'd
need to find out where she lived first to see if it was even viable. He
liked the idea of a fresh start up, thoughleaving the current business in
good hands. That way he wouldn't have cash problems. And then, too, if the
second location didn't do well for whatever reason he would still have a
lucrative business to support him and whatever pups he might have.



 He might not have one, he reminded
himself.



 If there was anything about this
business he was certain of, and there wasn't a hell of a lot, it was that
Dani wasn't carrying one of his pups. That didn't mean she wouldn't, though.



 She had accepted him. She wouldn't
have done that if she didn't care something about him. He knew she wouldn't.
Of course, he also knew she had a lot stronger attachment to the others, but
there was no saying that couldn't be changed either.



 Especially if he found her and the
others didn't.



 Or if he found her first and had her
to himself for a while before they managed to catch up with them.



 Balin glanced around at the other men
and finally turned, heading for the bathroom. “We'll figure it out. We're
stuck here until we get everything cleaned up."



 Con glared at the closed door. “He
always fucking does that! Have you noticed that? Waits till everybody's
preoccupied, and then he takes the gods damned shower first! What happened
to drawing fucking straws? That's what I'd like to know!"



 Raking his hands through his hair, he
looked around, saw he was close the bed and dropped down on the edge.



 "You had the gods damned bed last
time!" Dakota said hotly. “Don't even think about getting comfortable!"



 Con narrowed his eyes at him and then
very deliberately turned and stretched out. “Who's cooking tonight?"



 Jared uttered an irritated sigh.
“I'll go fire up the grill."



 "Make mine rare!" Con called after
him.



 "He only knows how to cook them one
way," Dakota said absently, plopping down on the couch and stroking his chin
thoughtfully, “burnt on the outside and raw in the middle."



 [Back to Table of Contents]



 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 Chapter Nineteen


Danika eyed the doctor
uneasily as he fiddled with charts and files on his desk. She could see he
was struggling with something. She just wasn't certain what it was. There
was an underlying current of excitement about him, though, that gave her
definite bad vibes.



 He pasted a professional smile on his
lips when he finally met her gaze. “There are just a few things I wanted to
go over with you."



 "Bad news?" Danika managed around the
constriction in her throat.



 A frown appeared briefly between his
eyes and disappeared. “I have a few concerns. First off, as I'm sure you're
aware, there's your age."



 Danika narrowed her eyes at him.
“Women considerably older than me have babies these days!" she snapped
irritably. “You hear about it all the time."



 "True, but it's still a
concernalthough I haven't found anything that gives me a great deal of
concern at the moment," he added hastily. “Still, it's something we have to
consider and we'll have to monitor you closely to watch for any potential
problems that might arise."



 He stopped again and seemed to be
gathering his thoughts. “We found something ... a little unusual in your
blood workup."



 Danika felt coldness creep into her.
“Did you?"



 "I'm not saying it could be a
problem. It's just that ... Well, we don't really know what it is at this
time. We'll need to run some more tests."



 He beamed at her. She supposed it was
supposed to reassure her. She pasted a tight smile on her lips in return,
striving to hide the fact that she had a very good idea what the ęunusualł
thing was that he'd found in her blood.



 She should've considered that the
tests might turn up something unusual in her blood, considering what her
grandmother had told her, but she hadn't actually accepted it at the time
and besides that she'd been too panicked over the possibility of being
pregnant.



 "We won't worry about that right now
since it doesn't seem to be causing you any problems. Now...."



 Here if comes!



 "You haven't by any chance been
taking fertility drugs?"



 Danika blinked at him rapidly, trying
to digest the implications. “No," she finally responded without elaborating
any further.



 The frown flickered over his face
again. “I thought that might explain.... “He seemed to shrug. “I thought you
might have been off in your calculations regarding the time of conception.
Your uterus seemed a little large for the time frame you gave me...."



 "And?" Danika prompted when he paused
again.



 "I guess you weren't off. I heard
three distinct heartbeats when I examined you earlier."



 The cold washed over Danika again.
She stared at him glassy eyed for a moment, trying to gather spit in her
mouth for speech. “What does that mean?" she asked hoarsely.



 He chuckled. “Tripletsat least."



 Danika felt distinctly ill and more
than a little faint. “What the hell do you mean Ä™at least'?" she ground out.



 He looked disconcerted and then
irritated and finally concerned. “This shouldn't be any problem for you.
We're just going to have to take precautions and take extra special care of
you."



 "What do you mean Ä™at least?"
Danika demanded.



 "You need to calm down," he said
soothingly.



 "I am calm!" Danika growled.
“What do mean Ä™at least'?"



 He studied her for a moment in
silence. “You said you hadn't taken any fertility drugs. It's less likely
that you produced multiple ovum at one timenot impossible, but not as
likely as the possibility of cell division. In that case, the cell divides
equallyinto to two and then, more rarely, it will divide again. I only
found three heart beats, but it's still hard to be certain at this point.
There could be four. There's probably only three," he added hastily at the
look on her face. “Very likely the other just didn't develop for whatever
reason, but there's definitely three."



 Danika smiled at him tightly. “I have
to go."



 "I think you should lie down for a
few minutes."



 "I'm fine!" Danika snarled, then
pasted another smile on her face when she saw the doctor recoil at the
vehemence in her voice. “I'll lie down when I get home."



 She managed to feign a more calm
demeanor when she saw the doctor was seriously alarmed and left despite his
efforts to convince her to let him give her something to calm her.



 It required focus to drive home and
she almost welcomed the respite from the chaos churning inside of her. From
the moment she parked and switched off the ignition, however, the panic was
back, beating at her as she strode quickly to the door and went inside. She
dropped her keys and bag by the door, missing the table set there for that
purpose, but without actually registering it.



 She paced restlessly around the
house, not wandering, but racing, as if she could outrun the thoughts
chasing her, picking up things at random and walking around with them for a
while and then setting them down and picking up something else. She
supposed, somewhere in her mind, she was convinced she was cleaning. She
emerged abruptly, however, when she discovered she was putting the phone
book in the freezer.



 "Three! Oh my fucking god! Three?"



 At least.


 She looked down at her already
rounded stomach, visualizing the young women she'd seen in the waiting room,
their bellies protruding as if they had a beach ball under their shirts.



 And that was just one!



 "They'd have to be smaller," she
muttered, trying to reassure herself, trying to banish the image of herself
lying like a turtle on its back with a basket ball balanced on top of it.
“There's only so much room for expansion!"



 She should've waited around and asked
him questions instead of dashing off as if she could escape her fate by
escaping what he had to say!



 The flashing light on her answering
machine caught her gaze as she shoved the phone book into the freezer and
turned away. She stared at it, her mind leaping instantly to the possibility
that one of the guys had called her. Rage suffused her instantly as she
found a target. Marching to the phone, she stabbed a finger at the replay.



 "Bill Fellows here. Give me a call
when you get this message, Ms. Whitney."



 Deflated, Danika glared at the phone,
wondering idly why the man's voice sounded so strange. It also sounded
urgent, but she didn't feel like dealing with anybody else's fucking
emergency at the moment!



 Stalking into the living room, she
was on the point of flinging herself down on her couch to consider how she
might track the bastards down and cut their balls off and get away with it
when someone knocked on the door.



 She turned to glare at the door,
wavering between answering the summons and taking the head off of whoever
had had the fucking nerve to beat on her door and ignoring it. The second,
more demanding knock, clenched it. Stalking to the door, she snatched it
open. A jolt went through her when she discovered a crowd on her doorstep.
Recognition was a little slower.



 Con and Balin were at the forefront,
Dakota just a little behind them. Jared and Xavier brought up the rear.
“Three!" she snarled, holding up three fingers and shaking them in Balin's
face. “Three!"



 Whirling, she slammed the door behind
her, stalked to her couch and flopped down on it, folding her arms. She'd
the told the bastards off, she thought with a trace of satisfaction! The
dirty, rotten sons-of-bitches! Knocking her up and then going on their merry
way!



 But why should it bother them?
They weren't going to be stuck carrying around a fucking football
team for nine months!



 Alright, so not that much longer, she
conceded. She'd already put in a third of that, maybe a little more.



 It didn't make her feel any better as
it dawned on her that that also meant she had a lot less time to face the
moment of truth.



 Her front door opened. Balin and Con
leaned in to stare at her a moment and finally strode inside. Dakota, Jared,
and Xavier followed them, looking the house over with interest. Danika
glared at them as they ranged themselves casually around her, Con stopping
to prop one shoulder against the wall and folding his arms over his chest,
Dakota and Jared taking the easy chairs across from the couch. Xavier
flicked an uneasy glance at her and moved to the window. Balin stopped right
in front of her, studying her assessingly.



 She glowered at him. “If I'd known it
was y'all at the door I'd have grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen on
the way and cut your balls off at the door!" she snarled.



 Balin's brows rose, he slid a
questioning glance at Con. Con came away from the wall, staring at her more
intently.



 "I take it this doesn't have anything
to do with it taking us so long to get here," Balin said slowly.



 "I told you what it had to do
with, you asshole!" Danika snapped. “Don't play dumb with me! You damned
well know what you did!"



 "Three," Balin said, the beginnings
of a smile twitching his lips.



 Con stared at him a long moment and
chuckled. “
That'swhy she was still fertile!" His chest swelled. He turned to
grin at Danika, noted that she didn't seem especially pleased and sobered
instantly.



 "You're saying...?" Dakota broke off,
grinning.



 Danika uttered a growl, snatched a
pillow off the couch, and clocked him on the side of the head with it.
Jolting to her feet, she stalked from the room and into her bedroom,
slamming the door.



 Balin, Con, and Dakota exchanged a
grin, considered it a moment, and scowled at one another.



 "Three?" Jared asked. “That's what
she meant? She's got three in the oven?"



 Balin shrugged, surveyed the living
room, and finally moved to the couch Danika had vacated, settling on it with
relief. It had been a long fucking drive, and he was exhausted. The
adrenaline rush at Danika's news competed with his weariness, though, and it
took an effort to relax even a little.



 Con stretched to relieve some of his
stiffness and dropped onto the opposite end of the couch, stroking his face
thoughtfully. “The question is, who nailed her," he said musingly. “Could've
been one of us. Could've been all of us."



 "Well it sure as fuck wasn't me or
Xavier!" Jared growled.



 Dakota sent him a provoking grin
before he turned to scowl at Balin and Con. “I'm figuring their mine."



 "Figure all you fucking want!" Con
snarled. “That don't make it so!"



 "We won't know for certain until they
get here," Balin said tightly, shoving up from the couch and looking around
before he wandered out of the living room. Hearing the rattle of kitchen
ware, Con followed him.



 "You cooking?" he asked a little
hopefully as he settled at the bar to watch.



 Balin slid a cold glare at him. “What
the fuck would give you that idea?"



 "Don't be more of an ass than you can
help, Chevalier," Dakota growled as he entered the kitchen. “If you're
cooking anyway, you can just as easily throw something on for everybody."



 Danika stormed into the kitchen. “Get
out of my kitchen! NOW!"



 The men, who'd all gathered
hopefully, exchanged glances, shrugged, and filed out again.



 Slightly mollified when they didn't
challenge her, Danika stared at the food Balin had dragged out of her
refrigerator for a few moments, feeling the beginnings of guilt. They'd
looked exhausted and hungry.



 She didn't suppose it would hurt to
feed them before she cut their throats. Maybe she could find some rat poison
while she was looking for ingredients?



 Apparently the thought of poison
occurred to them. They stared at the omelets she slapped on her table a
little while later and sniffed it suspiciously. “I'm saving the rat poison
for the next meal," she said sourly, flopping down in her own chair and
picking up her fork. “I decided you might notice the taste in the eggs."



 She left them to take care of clean
up when she'd finished, feeling weariness dragging at her once she finally
had something hot and filling in her stomach. Ignoring her unwanted guests,
she went to her room, curled up on her bed, and went to sleep.



 She roused when the bed dipped a
little later, sitting up sleepily to see who'd climbed into her bed with
her. Balin, freshly showered and shaved and without a stitch of clothes on,
studied her warily for a moment and finally pulled her back down, curling
around her.



 "Don't try anything," she muttered
irritably.



 There was amusement in his voice. “It
hadn't occurred to me," he murmured.



 "What is that stabbing me in the
butt, then?"



 "He's just happy to see you," he said
in a shaky voice, nuzzling his face along the side of her neck. “He'll
behaveespecially with the threat of beheading hanging over him."



 She sighed, shifting to get more
comfortable.



 His hand drifted to her belly. “Are
you really so unhappy, baby?"



 Danika swallowed a little
convulsively. “I don't know. I haven't had time to consider it. I've been
too busy puking my guts out every five minutes and being scared shitless."



 His arms tightened around her. “I'm
assuming you went to a doctor or you wouldn't know ... as much as you do.
You can't go back to him. I'll find a wolfen to attend you."



 "A doctor?" she asked doubtfully.



 "We have them," he said, coldness
creeping into his voice.



 "Try not to be a jerk about it!" she
snapped. “I don't know a fucking thing about any of you."



 He uttered an irritated breath.
“You're right. That wasn't fair to you. Go to sleep. You need your rest."



 * * * *

Danika couldn't say
that her resentment was fading fast, but she did discover that it was oddly
comforting to have the guys around, even if she was still thoroughly pissed
off with them. By day three, she'd tumbled to the fact that they had every
intention of camping out at her place indefinitely.



 Not that they were underfoot. They
seemed occupied with their own business most of the time. She'd thought the
first few times they disappeared that they were gone for good, but they were
always back in the evening, bedding down on any available surfacethe couch,
the spare bedroom, her bed, or the floor.



 Her bedroom was like a revolving
doorevery night someone else climbed into bed with her. She was a little
pissed off that they were so damned easy to discourage from trying anything,
but she supposed it was a little bit of a turn off to listen to her barfing
every morning. True to his promise, Balin located a doctor for her. It
necessitated driving one town over, but she was actually surprised he'd
found a wolfen doctor even that close. Apparently, there were a lot more of
themwolfenaround than she'd realized.



 She liked him at once. In the first
place, he was old enough not to look like the ink on his license was still
wet. In the second, he was blunt when they discussed her condition but
seemed completely unconcerned, which made her feel like she needn't be.



 The entire gang accompanied her. She
was a little irritated about that, a little embarrassed about them crowding
the waiting room, but, despite that, it made her feel like she wasn't going
through it alone.



 Not that they could do anything about
the actual labor part of it! But still, it felt more like a shared burden.
The nurse looked the men over when she came out to get Danika to take her to
the back. “Who's the father?"



 Danika felt her face turn fire engine
red.



 "One of us," Dakota said promptly,
stepping forward.



 The woman lifted her brows. “It's
going to be crowded," she muttered, waving them in.



 They waited outside while she was
prepped for a sonogram. They entered hesitantly when called, looking uneasy
and eager at the same time.



 The doctor looked them over.
“Nobody's going to get the news today," he said tartly. “We're just going to
have a look at them."



 Everyone turned to study the screen
expectantly as the strange noise filled the room. “What's that weird noise?"
Danika asked uneasily.



 "Heartbeats. Three."



 "Just three?" Danika asked a little
hopefully.



 He grinned at her. “Just three."



 She knew it was ridiculous to feel
relieved, but she did. It wasn't
more than three, and at that point that was something to get excited
about.



 She studied the screen with more
interest, but she discovered she really couldn't tell that much about it. He
pointed out first one and then another, pointed to hands and feet. She
nodded in the appropriate spots, but she didn't know how he could tell
anything about the image.



 "Good, strong heartbeats, good
development. I think we're in good shape. I don't see anything we need to
worry about."



 The six of them filed into the
doctor's office when Danika had dressed and listened to his diagnosis and
instructions. Discovering Danika was still suffering from bouts of nausea
and vomiting, he gave her a different prescription to try and told her she'd
have to come in for shots if that didn't do the trick. His primary concern
at the moment was that she wasn't gaining weight.



 Considering she'd been on the barf
diet for a while, Danika wasn't actually that surprised, but she agreed to
try his suggestion of staying in bed and eating salty crackers before she
tried to get up in the morning.



 "At this point, I think it's safe
enough to continue with sexual relationsassuming, of course, that you feel
up to it," he concluded, spearing the men with a hard, chastening look.
“Ordinarily, that wouldn't even be an issue until the late stages of
pregnancy, but your situation is a little different. This is your first and
a multiple birth. You should exercise cautionnothing too strenuousand if
you don't seem to have problems, do as you like."



 He dismissed Danika. Feeling more
than a little resentful that he'd sent her out to talk to them without her,
Danika left his offices and went to sit in her truck, debating whether to
wait for them or not.



 "I don't know what the fuck is going
on here," Dr. Billings growled when Danika had left. “I'm not sure I want to
know, but I'll tell you all straight out that she isn't up to calisthenics
with all five of you. Never mind. I
do want to know! What are five alphas doing with a human female?"



 Balin eyed him coldly. “This affects
you, how?"



 "She's my patient!" Dr. Billings
growled. “You called me to make sure she delivered her litter without any
problems. I don't know how the fuck you managed to get a litter on her to
start with, but I do know it's going to be a hell of a lot harder to bring
this to a happy conclusion when the mother isn't wolfen!"



 Balin paled, glanced at Dakota and
Con, and finally settled in one of the chairs in front of the doctor's desk.
“There's a problem?"



 "Besides the obvious?" Dr. Billings
demanded testily but then relented. “She seems strong and healthy. I
couldn't find anything wrong with her or anything, at this point, to be
concerned about. I wouldn't have lied to her about that. But there's no
getting around the fact that she's beyond her prime breeding years and human
to boot! There
could be problems down the road.


 "You either need to settle on who's
the prime alpha or agree to behave yourselves. You can't be fighting over
her and trying to outdo each otherin the bedroom. This wouldn't be a
problem with a
normal pack, but if this were a normal pack there wouldn't be any
question about who'd fathered the litter. It being her first, it would be
the alpha that sired them, and I could expect him , singular,
to protect his pups by keeping the others off of her until she delivered
them."



 "It's definitely one of us," Con
growled, nudging his chin at Balin and Dakota. “Or maybe all of us," Dakota
said pointedly.



 "That narrows it down!" Dr. Billings
snapped sarcastically. “She's human, though. I doubt she's carrying one of
eachmaybe if she was wolfen.... What am I saying? If she was wolfen, she
wouldn't have let any of the others near her once she'd settled on a sire!
If she was wolfen, it would be
possible , given a scenario where she was in heat and the alpha that
claimed her was usurped by another while she was still fertile.... This is
giving me a headache I don't need!



 "For her sake and the safety of the
pups, the five of you are either going to have settle who's alpha and who's
her primary caretaker, or figure out how you can divide her time without
putting too much stress on her. If she's willing and feels up to ittwice a
weekmaximumand that's just for right now. The further along she gets, and
the bigger, the harder it's going to be for her, the more uncomfortable
she's going to be, and the greater the chances that she might be pushed into
premature labor by bedroom gymnastics. We'll have to play it by ear."



 "He's doing a lot of fucking
assuming," Con growled when they'd left the office.



 "Obviously, he's laboring under the
completely false assumption that Dani's as angelic as she looks and that
we're calling the shots," Balin agreed irritably.



 "Threatened to cut you your dick off
and shove it up your ass, too, huh?" Dakota growled, though there was a
thread of satisfaction in his voice beyond the irritation.



 "Not recently," Balin retorted. “I'm
keeping my balls
and my dick under careful guard."


 Xavier nodded. “Sleep with one eye
open and one hand on the jewels."



 [Back to Table of Contents]



 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

 


 The End.



 



 


 
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