by Dannika Dark
Melody’s lips peeled back, and she licked her fangs.
“Careful, Tak. She’s not from around here,” Lakota reminded him.
Tak turned around, a smug grin on his face. “Let me take care of this. I’m not going to hurt her.”
Lakota folded his arms. “No, but she might hurt you.”
As if insulted, Tak lifted his chin. “I’m like the Pied Piper. Watch me work my magic.”
Melody’s wolf backed up a step, a chunk of rock breaking off and falling below. Lakota drew in a sharp breath.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Tak said smoothly, advancing toward her. His alpha power rippled through the air. “Calm down and submit like a good girl.” Her wolf wouldn’t understand his words, but she would feel the meaning behind them.
Tak froze when Melody suddenly streaked toward him. She leapt into the air like an experienced warrior and threw him onto his back. Before he could push her off, she charged at Lakota and knocked the wind out of him. He flew backward and hit the ground, her wolf straddling him.
She lunged viciously at his face, but instead of attacking, she licked it clean.
Tak stood and brushed the leaves from his pants. Not that Lakota could see much of what Tak was doing. Melody’s wolf was wiggling, flapping her tail, whining, and licking him all over his mouth and face. He wasn’t certain whether she wanted to befriend him or gobble him up like an ice cream cone.
Tak appeared in his line of vision and bent over, his hands on his knees. “She acts like she’s known you all her life.”
Lakota shoved her off when he heard a current of suspicion in Tak’s voice. Without warning, Melody ran at breakneck speed toward the cliff and leapt off the edge. Both men chased after her and skidded to a stop when they reached the rock. Twenty feet below was a swimming hole, and her wolf was paddling in the water like a duck.
Tak stripped out of his pants and shoes and tossed them over the edge to where the bank was. “Someone has the right idea. Why don’t you bring the horses down for a drink?” He dove off the edge, hugging his knees, and created a loud splash when he hit the water like a cannonball. Seconds later, Tak’s head appeared above the surface, and he whooped with delight.
Irritated, Lakota grabbed the horses and headed left until he found an easy path that led down to the riverbank.
Why am I so damn mad? At first he thought it had to do with Melody’s wolf almost blowing his cover. Tak could have caught on and realized something was up. But in truth, Lakota wanted to jump in the water and play with her wolf. He wanted to be as easy with her as Tak was. It was the first time he’d met her wolf, and that was an honor among Shifter family and friends. He wondered how differently their meeting would have gone had they been alone—how he would have cradled her wolf in his arms and shown his affection. Now her first memory of Lakota was going to be him shoving her away. Her wolf didn’t know anything about bounty hunting and undercover operations. She didn’t deserve to be punished with his ambivalence.
And that first impression might be a lasting one.
When the horses caught sight of water, they trotted ahead of him. Their hooves splashed in the shallow end as they lowered their heads to drink. Lakota left them and headed up the bank to the right, noticing a small waterfall within the retreat. Melody’s wolf had claimed a flat rock beside it. Her head tilted to the side at the naked man floating on his back.
“Get in here!” Tak yelled. “Life doesn’t get better than this.”
No sense in arguing. The heat was sweltering, and the cool water sang to Lakota like a siren’s song. He stripped out of his clothes and dove in. The water shocked him for all of three seconds, then it was just cold, clean, and refreshing.
He swam to the middle, the dried blood washing off his skin. “Koi’s in the clear, but do you think one of your packmates might have killed that girl?”
Tak closed his eyes when a shower of sunlight trickled through the branches overhead and caught him in a net of light. “I don’t think it was one of ours,” he said, his legs sinking as he righted himself. “Only white men kill for sport, and all those other victims were a sporting event.”
“Or a lesson. It could go either way.”
Tak swam toward the shore and got out. “Do you want to implicate my people?”
“No, but you can’t point fingers until you’ve eliminated all motive. If it’s one of the outsiders, they’ll eventually be caught and punished. But if it is someone in your tribe, don’t go down with them for the sake of protecting one of your own. There’s a lot of animosity in this town. I see it in everyone’s eyes, even yours.”
After putting on his pants, Tak sat on the bank, his knees drawn up and his arms draped over them. “Who are the ones that sit in the back of the bar? Who has to park behind the building in the mud? Who has to be careful about shifting off the property, or else they could be killed? We are prisoners in our own community. You don’t see that damn goat getting served on toast whenever he shifts in the bar, but what would happen if one of us shifted in there?”
Lakota dipped his head back and drenched his hair. “Maybe it’s time for you to put aside your differences and learn to get along. Start making changes. The whole world isn’t like Running Horse, you know.”
Tak narrowed his eyes. “Violence is the only real thing that makes changes. Just look at history. Half the Shifters around here are rogues looking for a good piece of land away from humans—land that belongs to us. They don’t want to make friends with my kind. They’re waiting for an opportunity to drive us off our territory.”
Treading water, Lakota gave the matter some thought. He could see motive on both sides. The tribes resented the locals and might have lashed out in anger, or perhaps their logic was to eliminate women so the outside Shifters couldn’t breed anymore. The packs and rogues obviously wanted the land and were digging their heels in. It was prime real estate—more miles of property than one could dream of owning. Or perhaps the killer was neither. Maybe it was just a sadistic murderer or someone who wanted to start a war between Breed and humans by planting Shifter bodies within human reach.
Melody’s wolf stood up, pacing restlessly the way Shifters did when their human spirit was ready to take over. After lapping up a few mouthfuls of water, she crouched down and then jumped off the rock, shifting in midair.
Chapter 12
The second I hit the water, I flailed my arms in panic. Where am I? Is someone still chasing me? The thoughts ricocheted in my mind as I choked on water.
The last thing I remembered was shifting when a wolf came after me. My wolf and I shared one purpose, one thought—survive. As consciousness had dissipated and my human spirit fell asleep, I knew my wolf would protect us and run like the wind.
Now I was choking and gasping for air, disoriented and unable to feel the ground beneath my feet. A loud splash sounded ahead, and Lakota was swimming in my direction.
He scooped his arm around my waist and whispered, “Are you okay?”
I held on to his neck. Water had shot up my nose, and I was coughing and gasping in a mad struggle to breathe. Normally I was a good swimmer, but the coughing made it difficult to speak, let alone swim.
“Hang on,” he said. “I’ve got you.”
With one arm, he swam toward the shore. As I held on, I suddenly realized how naked I was against him. Not only that, but how naked he was.
I let go and tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but he had an iron grip around my waist. Meanwhile, my breasts were precariously close to revealing themselves to his bestie, who was sitting on the shore, watching with avid interest.
When I felt the rocks beneath my feet, I used my heels to dig in and wrench away.
Lakota turned to face me. “What are you doing?”
My gaze darted between them. Nudity wasn’t normally a big deal, but maybe it was a little different because I liked Lakota. Maybe I wasn’t ready for him to see my body in its entirety, especially with an audience.
I didn�
��t know his friend well enough, and we were in the middle of the wilderness in unfamiliar territory.
“Where are the wolves?” I asked.
When Lakota stood, the waterline was just below his navel. “Dead and gone.”
Tak smirked. “Some dead, some gone. You’re a good shot with a bow.”
I wiped my face. “Not good enough. I missed the second one.”
Lakota gave me a wolfish smile. “You might want to cover your eyes.”
“Only if you promise to do the same.”
He swiped his finger across his heart and stalked away. Water splashed from the movement of his powerful legs, and even though I had my hands shielding my eyes, I couldn’t resist sneaking a peek between two fingers.
Oh. My. God. I’d never seen anything as glorious as Lakota’s backside. He had a strong physique with broad shoulders and taut muscles, but his ass was sculpted to perfection. He glistened, and his wet hair looked like spun silk the way it flattened between his shoulder blades. Every part of him was perfectly proportioned, and it made me want to dunk my head under the water and hide. A man didn’t go around looking like that without realizing he was an Adonis.
I’ll die if he sees me naked! I’d never been as self-conscious about my body as the second he turned and looked at me.
“Your turn,” he said. “We have to get moving before dark.”
Keeping my hands over my eyes while he put on his pants, I asked, “Are you done?”
Tak chuckled and stood up. “This is better than TV.”
I dropped my hands in the water and searched the area. “Where are my pants?”
They exchanged looks, and sheer horror swept over me.
“Tell me you didn’t leave my clothes behind.”
Lakota squeezed the water from the ends of his hair. “No worries. I saw a few big leaves back there. Maybe you can sew a dress.”
My jaw set. “You’re not funny.”
A robust laugh rolled out of Tak, and he turned away. “That’s up for debate.”
“Then shift,” Lakota suggested.
I tilted my head to the side. “My wolf isn’t going to follow you.”
Tak kept laughing. “That’s also up for debate.”
This was awful. Terrible! I wasn’t even sure how close we were to the house, and the idea of riding on horseback naked while holding on to Lakota was… kind of sexy. But not so much with Tak around.
“Come out of there,” Lakota ordered. “You’re being childish.”
I almost fired a comeback but snapped my mouth shut when I remembered no one was supposed to know that we were old acquaintances. “Modesty and childishness might appear the same to you, but someday I’d like to give my body to my mate as a gift without the whole world having seen it first.”
Tak arched his eyebrows and gave me a respectful nod. “I’d give you my pants, but then my modesty would be compromised.” He clapped his hand on Lakota’s shoulder. “I’ll just leave you two alone to figure this out while I round up the horses.”
When Tak was out of earshot, I admonished Lakota with one glance. “I see you took the time to get dressed, but you left my clothes behind? Those were my favorite pants.”
He pinched his chin. “Let’s just worry about one thing at a time.” After a stretched-out minute, he stripped off his T-shirt and offered it to me.
I splashed water at him. “That’s not going to cover up the important bits.”
He snorted, amusement dancing in his eyes. “No one will see anything on horseback.”
“Maybe I’m not enthusiastic about spreading my legs open on the back of a horse for the next five miles. That’s a rash I don’t want to deal with. Give me your pants.”
He tossed the shirt on a rock. “Shall I tell you the reason why men shouldn’t ride naked on horseback?”
“Then walk.”
“Naked. In my shoes,” he said, conveying the disrespectful scene we would give the tribe, who were in the middle of mourning one of their fallen.
It was an awful predicament.
Lakota glanced up at where Tak had gone. “We need to go, Mel. Get out of the water. Those wolves might have gone for backup.”
“Does this stream run by the house?”
“Are you going to swim the whole way? I’ve got a better reason to get moving. There’s a snake behind you.”
Does he really think stooping to such immature tactics will frighten me? “There’s no snake in here. Maybe I can fall back and let you two walk at a distance. One of you can ride ahead and—”
“Dammit, Mel. There’s a snake!”
My eyes widened in horror when, in my periphery, a long reptilian creature slithered across the water in my direction. After that, my mind went blank.
A scream poured out of my mouth, and I charged out of the water with flailing arms and five pints of adrenaline shooting through my veins. I couldn’t think straight or even feel my feet touching the ground. All I knew was that a giant anaconda was chasing me.
When I emerged naked from the water, Lakota stumbled backward with a startled expression and slammed his eyes shut before turning away.
I didn’t just run to Lakota—I flew. Crawled right onto his back like a monkey climbing a tree, wrapping my arms tightly around his head.
“I can’t see!” he bellowed.
“Where is it? Where is it?” I shouted. “Get it away from me!”
“It’s not going to hurt you. It’s not even a foot long.”
Tak cleared his throat from somewhere above. “You two kids hurry up down there.” His laughter echoed in the swimming hole, then faded as he walked away.
Lakota finally shook me off his back. “Look, it’s harmless.”
I shuddered when I saw the snake swimming away. “I hate snakes.”
Since I’d grown up in the woods, wild animals were a part of life. But venomous snakes were particularly deadly to Shifters since shifting wouldn’t eliminate the venom.
Lakota turned away from me, and despite everything that had just transpired, I felt a flicker of desire as rivulets of water dripped down his back. We were alone, wet, and mostly naked. A flutter of tingles surfaced in places that made me feel exposed and vulnerable.
“I’ll shift,” he finally said. “You can wear my clothes and ride back. My wolf will stay close, and Tak will keep him in line if anything unexpected happens. How’s that for a plan? Acceptable?”
Walking naked to a funeral wasn’t, so at this point, I was willing to take whatever options I could. “Promise not to wander far?”
His head turned but not enough that I could tell if he could see me. “Why?”
“I don’t know Tak,” I whispered. “And neither do you. Not really.”
“I’ll stay close.” He swiftly shifted into his handsome wolf and licked my hand before racing off.
After putting on Lakota’s T-shirt, I stepped into his jeans, which swallowed me. “I need to gain some weight,” I muttered, laughing at the situation.
When I walked upstream and climbed the hill, I caught sight of Tak sitting on his horse, his hands gripping a branch overhead. I had half a mind to startle the mare and leave him dangling from the tree. But we had no time for mischievous behavior.
“Your friend shifted. He said he’ll stay close,” I called out.
Tak twisted around and looked me over. “So I see.”
I approached the Appaloosa and hesitated. The horse didn’t have a saddle to help me mount.
“Need a little help?” he offered.
Even though I did, the condescending tone of his voice was enough to make me dig in my heels. I circled around to the left side, and when I reached for her mane, my pants fell to my ankles.
Able to see my head and lower legs from the other side of the horse, Tak chuckled. This was going to be harder than I thought. I discreetly bent over and lifted the pants.
“Let me help you before the sun goes to bed.” Tak hopped off his horse and moseyed around to my side. He lovingly s
troked the mare’s neck before locking his fingers and bending over. “Step up.”
I gripped the waistband of my jeans on the right side to keep them secure. The moment I put my left foot between his cupped fingers, he launched me onto the back of the horse. Before I could situate myself, Tak slapped the mare on the rear, and she took off like a bolt of lightning.
As I bounced on the horse, struggling to hold on, my T-shirt flapped up and down and my pants slid so low that I could feel the wind on my ass.
So much for modesty.
Tak’s boisterous laugh eventually faded once I rode out of earshot.
We traversed the woods for an hour before my thighs began to stiffen and ache. Lakota’s wolf remained out of sight most of the time, but every so often, I would catch him peering at me through the trees. It comforted me unexpectedly, even though I wasn’t in imminent danger. Just the idea of him looking out for me warmed my heart and made me curious about the man Lakota had become.
Yet the stronger my feelings for him grew, the more I wanted to distance myself. A relationship with my best friend’s brother? Hope wouldn’t like it, and neither would his family, especially his Shifter stepfather, who was all about heritage and passing along traditions.
Am I really sitting here contemplating a relationship? Perhaps it was more like finding reasons not to be in a relationship. Lakota was a bounty hunter and traveled a lot. Strike one. I had a business to run and no time for dealing with a mate who might be threatened by my ambition. Strike two. What if he never found a spot as a second-in-command and I was the one bringing home the bacon? Other men might give him a hard time about who wore the pants in the family. Would he eventually want me to stay home and make babies?
Am I really sitting here contemplating babies with Lakota?
The man had never had sex before, and he sure as heck wasn’t going to mate the first woman he bedded. Life didn’t work that way.
“You’ve been quiet the past mile,” Tak said. “Something on your mind?”
Sex with Lakota? I wiped my forehead. “No. Just enjoying the scenery.”