by Milly Taiden
TWO
Ryder’s gaze swung around the crowded bar. Blood Hounds was the home away from home for him and his pack. Shifters currently in the bar were much more worked up than usual. Their rowdy voices made him smile. The calling of the full moon had started. They would need to run and handle the mating heat soon. Very soon. His own animal paced inside his skin cage, wanting to be let out.
A tall, sweaty glass of beer was slapped on the counter before him. “Here you go, boss. Drink up.”
Marlena.
He met her smile with a nod. She’d been hinting quite obviously of being free for him to use during the heat. But he knew she wasn’t the one for him. Besides, he couldn’t just take someone without his animal in full agreement. He’d tear the woman to shreds during sex if she didn’t have that particular scent to make him want to mate her.
“Ryder…” She winked. A sensuous move meant to entice. Bold red lips tipped up at the corners when she smiled at him. She leaned over the counter, her breasts in full display in the low cut red top. “My offer is still available.”
“Thanks, Lena, but I’ve already told you I’m not interested.”
Cold seeped into her sapphire eyes. Her lips pressed into a thin line.
“You’re better off taking up Chris on his offer and spending some time getting to know him. He’ll be good to you.”
She snapped her teeth with a soft growl. The next instant, he saw her ramrod straight back moving to the other end of the bar. Women. He’d never understand them. Picking up the beer, he took a swig of the cold brew and sighed into the glass.
“You’re lucky I’m not going to be citing you for drinking and driving.”
He shifted in his stool until he was facing Theo’s checkered shirt. His second was a bit of a know-it-all. To add insult to injury, he was also the sheriff in town and his good friend.
Theo scanned the bar before locking on him.
“Any word on Quinn?”
Quinn was acting like a kid who’d had his toy taken away. Ryder wished he knew what the hell was going on with his cousin. After breaking up with the neighboring Alpha’s daughter, he’d left town without a word. No one could get in touch with him.
Theo grimaced, shaking his head. “Sorry, boss. The thing is he just took off without telling anyone anything.”
Ryder’s face tightened. The wolf wanted out. Frustrated, he scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. His cousin was young, stupid, and had let his inability to deal with the woman’s wishes to break things off incapacitate his thinking.
Theo leaned on the bar, grabbed a bowl of pretzels, and started popping them in his mouth. “We’ll keep trying the other packs in the area. He had friends in the Pennsylvania pack. Maybe he took refuge there.”
“Possibly.”
“Have you found out who the woman is yet?”
“No.”
A woman had come to see him. From what Theo told him, she seemed intent on talking to him about something. Busy dealing with Marlena’s brothers causing problems with some humans, Ryder had missed her.
“Anyway, I’ll give Quinn another week to contact us before we send someone to haul his ass back home.”
The bar grew instantly still. His heart skipped a beat. Something made the hairs on his arms stand on end. Drawn by the quiet, his gaze jerked to the entrance. His breath caught in his chest while he watched every male in his pack freeze in place. A woman had walked in. Her gaze did a sweep around the room until it stopped on him. He met her stare, watched determination line her features, bringing her straight to him.
Wow. The beast inside him howled in appreciation as he took in her curvy body. Long, chocolate-brown tresses fell down to her elbows and over skin the color of cinnamon. His gaze slid to her full breasts, straining against the cotton of her T-shirt, down to the denim clinging to her hips in a soft caress. Once he’d taken her full body in, all the way to her booted feet, his gaze swung back up to her face. She inhaled. Her breath hitched. The pulse throbbing on her neck increased in speed.
Interesting.
One of his pack members, a young and very stupid wolf, stood and blocked her path.
“Hello, gorgeous—”
If he hadn’t seen it, he wouldn’t have believed it. In the blink of an eye, the woman shoved the young wolf twice her size in the chest, sending him flying across the room. He landed with a thud by Ryder’s feet. She didn’t break a sweat. A predatory look, that of an angry wolf, met his gaze.
Snarls and growls broke out across the bar. Almost all the pack members stood, ready to attack. Her concentration never wavered from Ryder’s face. She continued to make her way to him. Theo was about to step in front of Ryder, but he placed a hand on his shoulder. Let her come to him.
“She the one?” Ryder asked softly.
Theo’s sharp nod was all he needed.
With a handful of steps between them, she stopped. The intense way she stared at him, almost as if she were fighting her instinct, immediately caught his attention. He inhaled. Had to bite his teeth hard to stop from groaning. She was close to the heat. Her body exuded the wild scent of animal, woman, and a musky essence her wolf released to attract her mate. There would be no way to explain his lack of self-control if he pounced on her.
Lick her.
Taste her.
Own her.
Exactly what his animal wanted. Her scent drew him like the tastiest of treats. It was a little off for a wolf, but she had an animal inside all right. An animal his wolf demanded to take for himself.
“Are you Ryder?”
Her husky voice wrapped around his gut and turned his libido into an aroused mess. His cock jerked in his jeans. For a second his only thought turned into dragging her to his office and finding out what she’d yell when she came.
“I am.”
He watched, entranced, while she slid the tip of her wet pink tongue over her bottom lip.
“I heard you, um, do jobs, for hire.”
He heard it then, the soft hitch in her voice. She might look cool and composed on the outside, but the tiny quiver indicated something else.
“I do.”
She glanced back and forth between him and Theo, her lovely dark brows dipping in a frown. “Is there somewhere I can talk to you?”
He studied her fisted hands and the slight trembling of her lip. But it was her eyes–the way her golden gaze captured his attention–that made his decision. He wanted to know more about her.
“Why don’t we go into my office?” He glanced at Theo and nodded. His second would follow behind. He cupped her arm, and she inhaled sharply. Her face jerked up until their gazes met again. He saw the wolf in her eyes. Wild. Untamed. And it called to him.
She jerked out of his hold. Bright gold held his stare. “I can walk, thanks.”
He pointed ahead of him and couldn’t help but visually caress the luscious curve of her ass with each step she took. His animal growled. She exuded strength. Power. Sex. All things that made the alpha in him want her instantly. This was the type of woman he’d been waiting for. The type he’d been searching for.
When they reached his office, he directed her to a seat and weaved around his desk. He watched as she sat stiffly in the wood chair, her hands folded over her lap.
Theo shut the door behind him. His unabashed grin made an appearance, and he waggled his brows at Ryder. His second had seen his interest in the woman.
She cleared her throat. “I—”
“What’s your name?”
No longer was this about whatever she’d come for. It had moved on to the wolf and man wanting her. Her scent continued to drive his animal insane. He didn’t want to admit to the possibility that this tiny, sexy woman, this spitfire creature with a body made to tempt, could be the one. His one.
She glanced at his mouth and stared for a moment. Needy. Hungry. Desperate. He could smell it. When her gaze lifted, he saw the arousal in the liquid gold of her eyes. He snapped his teeth. It was all he could do to n
ot growl at his friend to get the fuck out.
“Raine… Raine Bowe.”
Theo laughed. Hard.
“Rainbow?” Ryder’s lips quirked. He couldn’t help it. Who the heck named their kid that?
She rolled her eyes, clearly used to jokes made at her expense. “Yes, my parents were hippies. They loved anything and everything depicting happiness and peace and all that stuff.”
“Holy crap that’s messed up.” Theo got out between chortles. He slapped the desk while he hooted. “What’s your last name, Bright?”
Husky laughter, her husky laughter, lightened the atmosphere in the office. Her hands were no longer folded in a white-knuckled grip.
“So…” She nibbled her bottom lip—her full bottom lip—a lip plumped red and calling for him to do his own brand of nibbling.
“What kind of job did you want done?” No denying it any longer. He was curious as hell what kind of work she’d need him to do.
Head bent, she glanced down at her hands for a moment. With a deep breath, she pierced him with her unwavering gaze. “I need you to kill me.”
“What?” The words came out of him and Theo at the same time.
Her only response was to nod.
With his reputation, he expected her to ask him to beat up an old boyfriend, possibly a married one. It was the normal request from women. Not death for themselves. Hell, never death period.
“Can you repeat that?” Theo choked.
“I said, I need him to kill me.”
Ryder’s animal growled, in clear disagreement with her request. He couldn’t kill her, not when he wanted to taste her, to hold her, to mate her.
“Why in the world would you want him to kill you?” Theo asked, voicing Ryder’s own question.
She trembled in her seat before taking a deep breath. A spark of anger lit her gaze, and he saw the wolf again. Much more prominent this time, as if it wanted to control her instead of the other way around.
“Because there’s something inside me.” Her voice deepened. “Something evil, and…it wants to come out.”
Anxiety traveled across to him. She was scared. No, scared was a much too tame word. She was petrified. He wanted to help stop whatever was bothering her, but she’d yet to make any sense.
“Honey, the only thing I can smell inside you is a wolf.”
Her eyes widened. She gripped the arms on the chair, scratching at the wood with her nails. “A what?”
Something didn’t sit right. She sounded surprised that she had a wolf inside. “A wolf shifter. A pretty dominant one if the way you’ve been clenching your hands is any indication.”
“I-I don’t understand.”
So much distress. It was hard to sit there and not get up and hold her.
“What part don’t you understand, darlin’? You’re a shifter. One of us.” Theo stated. He leaned back on the office chair, making it squeak.
The wolf inside Ryder snarled. He glared at Theo, not liking his second calling her darlin’. But Theo being Theo grinned and waggled his brows again.
“I don’t know how I got a wolf inside me,” she said so softly, it took him a moment to realize what she’d said.
“Someone bit you?” He growled, stood, and shoved his chair back so fast it flipped over and slammed on the floor.
She jumped in her seat. “No… I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?” Theo tapped his fingers on the desk. Disbelief coated his words.
Ryder understood why. How could she not know if she was bitten? He marched around his desk until he was sitting on the chair beside her. Her facial lines were pulled taut. Her eyes looked too big and dull with fear when she turned to him. The instant need to protect her was overwhelming.
He drew her chair forward until they were facing each other. “Why don’t we start from the beginning?”
She nibbled on her lip, and his arousal surged like a white-hot blanket caressing his cock.
“My parents got sick some months back. I had to leave my well-paying job at a bank to come take care of them. That was their final request, for me to stay with them.” She licked her lip and shifted in the chair. “The bills started piling up. I signed up for a sleep study a few weeks ago.”
Theo coughed. His second gave him one of the looks that meant something bad was coming.
A wave of concern washed over Ryder. “Why did you sign up for a sleep study? Did your doctor suggest it?”
She frowned. “Well, no. I got a call.”
His gut clenched.
“After my parents died, I was left to take care of all the expenses.”
He bit back the urge to pull her onto his lap and hold her. He scented her pain, knew remembering her deceased parents hurt. She glanced down at her lap. He grabbed her hands in his grasp and held them.
“What happened to then?” From Ryder’s desk chair, Theo studied her with interest.
Ryder knew none of what she said was a lie or they’d smell it. Instead of deception, he scented confusion, concern, and fear.
“About a week and a half ago, they called me. The caller said they’d gotten my information from one of the waitresses at the restaurant I used to work at on weekends. He wanted to know if I would be interested in a sleep study. They said they’d pay me.” She met his gaze. “They offered me the money I needed. I’ve never done one of those things, so I don’t know if the amount is the norm or not, but I knew it was stupid to pass it up. I researched. A lot. It seemed simple enough. I go to a lab, and they watch me sleep. How hard could that be?” She laughed. The sound was filled with bitterness. “My parents’ death left me with nothing. Their bills were huge, and I just barely had enough to bury them.”
A simple deception. Dangle money in front of a person for what appeared to be a common research study only to use her for whatever they’d wanted. Sadness, so much sadness slipped over her face, he felt his chest tighten. The wolf inside wanted to hunt down the people who’d hurt her.
Calming his snarling wolf, he focused on how nice it felt to hold her. Such nice hands. Soft. Smooth. Clear of any scars. It felt good. No, not good. It felt right, to hold her fingers in his grasp. He rubbed circles over the top of her knuckles until she relaxed her fists.
“So you did the sleep study?” Theo prompted with a frown and scratched his chin.
“Theo.” Ryder growled. He caressed her hands between his own, enjoying her yield to his touch.
She was asking him for help. Had not lied to them so far. He didn’t like the way his second glanced at her as if she were holding back. They could both scent she wasn’t lying.
Her gaze bore into his. She shifted, nodding at Theo. “Yes. I went to this address they gave me, and they said they wanted to test a sleeping pill.” Her gaze jumped back and forth between him and Theo. “They said they knew that wasn’t in the original request, but it was just to see how long it took me to wake up.”
The wolf paced inside him. More than what she’d said had happened. He could tell. And none of it had been good.
“I went to sleep and…” She stared off into the distance, hands shaking in his grasp.
“What happened to you?” He growled. There was no helping it. His animal was close to the surface. He didn’t like the thought of this woman having been hurt.
Her eyes glowed beautiful, liquid amber. Just beneath the surface, her wolf appeared ready to break loose. She shut her eyes and inhaled. “I don’t know.”
Watching her take that breath was hell on his control. His cock grew so fucking hard, he was sure it would rip through his jeans.
She moaned and licked her lips. “You smell good. Wild.”
Fuck.
He tamped down his surge of lust, cleared his throat, and asked again, “What the hell did they do to you?”
She took a deep breath. “I don’t know. I woke up, and there was a commotion. Lights were flickering, and an alarm blasted all around me.” She broke their connection and stared at the wall over his shoulde
r. “I wasn’t in the same place I’d fallen asleep. This was a different spot. The other place had been nice and filled with smiling faces that made me feel comfortable. This was like a clinic. Cold. Stark. And then—” She gasped. The lines of her face tightened. “Anger rolled around inside me. I was bound to the bed, but I tore the belts off. I had an IV, and I tore it out of my arm.”
She probably didn’t realize how much deeper her voice had gotten. Most shifters didn’t like being bound, unless it was during heated sex and with their consent. A bound male would mean sure death once he got his hands on the captor.
“What happened then?” Theo asked. He leaned forward in his chair.
Her gaze connected to his. She snarled, the wolf riding her hard. Stunned pleasure filled him at the amount of control she had over the animal.
She ran a shaky hand over her hair. “I killed the guard at my door and escaped.”
THREE
Raine didn’t know how much longer she could hold back the wildness pushing to get out. Nor did she know why the scent of the man, Ryder, made her body throb and her pussy slick. But goddamn, he was just so tempting when his eyes filled with sin. The way his wicked smile invited her to the dark side made her breath catch. Her body throbbed for a single lick over the tattooed arms and muscles shifting under the snug T-shirt.
And oh, that chin. Lord have mercy. With just enough facial hair to make her want to bite him, she’d had a hard time focusing on thinking when he was such a feast for her hormones. But even with all that, she fought the attraction. She knew he was the only man who could help her. And she really needed his help.
“How did you manage to kill the guard?” The one he’d called Theo asked.
It was clear he was having a hard time believing her. No shit. Like she wasn’t having a hard time believing everything she’d been through in the past three days. Her body was no longer her own. It was hell to rein in the aggression she felt.
“When I opened the door to leave, a man stood there. He turned around and pointed a weapon at me, but…I don’t know how, I moved faster than him. I grabbed the hand holding the gun and twisted, breaking his wrist in the process.” She gulped and tried not to remember the sick sound of the bones popping. The blood. So much blood. “When he pulled out a knife and stabbed me with his other hand, I yanked it out of my shoulder and shoved it into his chest.”