by Morgan Fox
Perhaps that was why the council was hiding information from her. Either they didn’t want her to dig things up because it would reveal a secret about a council member they’d rather stayed buried, or they were actually trying to protect Silence and the town from something awful. As much as she would’ve liked to believe their avoidance was for her own good, she felt it might be more the other.
After hours of reading and rereading the same no-answers-to-be-found material, she decided to give up and take a shower. Stripping down, she darted into the bathroom to take care of business. Once done, she grabbed an oversized white T-shirt and black panties and sank into bed. The curtains in her apartment were already drawn shut, as she was used to having to catch a few hours of sleep whenever possible. The blacked-out rooms were as dark as if night had already fallen.
The moment she closed her eyes, Walker’s intoxicating scent filled her nose, and Lance’s chiseled, gorgeous face filled her mind. Suddenly, her thoughts were on the way their cocks felt sliding inside her. The difference between the ways each fucked her was so profound, rough and possessive, relaxed and sensual. Their unique lovemaking styles made no never mind to her. They were both equally exquisite, and her pussy throbbed and clenched just remembering how each made her feel.
Groaning, she shifted her position on the bed to cover her head with the pillow. When she did, her nipples scraped against the T-shirt, and instantly the clothing she wore only made her feel more aroused. She’d give anything to have these men in her bed, pleasuring her through all hours of the night.
The more she tried to ignore the men in her life, the more her body reacted with need and desire. Rolling over to lay flat on her back, she wondered if she should simply slide her fingers into her panties and caress her clit until she came. At this point, masturbating was her only option, considering it wasn’t likely that either Walker or Lance would arrive to satisfy her.
Then she heard the shift in the corner of her room, and her eyes batted open. Cloaked in black, a tall figure moved from the shadows and stood at the foot of her bed. The grace with which he moved had her eyes widening and her fingers curling around the sheets of the bed. Her pulse pounded, and she wished she had her gun.
She’d been so exhausted when she finally hit the bed that she simply forgot to pick her firearm up off of the floor. Reaching for it might be impossible if what she was staring at in the dark was something supernatural in nature. The electricity licking over her skin told her not only was the man in the dark a lycan, but he was frighteningly powerful.
“Turn on the light, Silence. It’s better to see who’s come to visit.” The buttery smoothness of his voice had her body squirming to reach the light. She had to know who the seductive voice belonged to and who possessed the power that had her body warming with heat and shivering from cold all at once.
Are you out of your mind? Focus on who would dare come into your room in the middle of the day uninvited.
Then, as she was about to turn on her lamp, it dawned on her just who was standing so causally at the foot of her bed. It was the lycan who had turned Lance. The power pouring out of his body was familiar, like an echo she’d felt once before. She’d recognized it when she’d found Lance after he’d been attacked and again at the clinic with Walker.
The light flashed on, and she sucked in a sharp breath. No older than his midforties, her unwelcome guest stood at least six foot three and had shoulders that stretched broader than most. His frame was solid and firm with muscles. A dark tan and close-cut, midnight-black hair enhanced the hazel green of his eyes.
What? Did she expect him to look hideous and deformed? To be honest, she hoped he did. It would be easier to consider him a monster if he looked the part. At present, he looked like someone any girl would be thrilled to—
He cleared his throat as if he’d heard her thoughts.
Shit, he probably can.
Folding his arms over his chest, he grinned down at her and slowly arched a dark brow. “Silence Foster. How lovely it is to see you again. What’s it been? Ten years?” Pausing, he snapped his clawed fingers together. “No, no, I remember now. Time does fly so fast. It’s been exactly seventeen years since I last saw your young face standing next to your father at the council meeting. You seemed so innocent at the time.” He smiled. “Now look at you.” He glided around the bed and stood beside her, raising his hand to cup her cheek. She cringed as his claws dug into the back of her neck. “All grown-up with two lycans to fuck and fight over you. How delightful.” He laughed and released his hold on her. “You can thank me for that, by the way. I just couldn’t allow the prodigal son’s return to keep you from focusing on town business. After all, you were about to have your hands full with me.” His smile widened.
Prodigal son? “What are you talking about?”
He tsked under his tongue. “Really, Silence, you need to stop being so naïve. You’d make a lousy investigator.”
He cast a wicked glance over her body, and she felt the heat of his stare as he inspected her. Immediately, she folded her arms over her chest. “Explain things to me, then, and start by telling me who the hell you are.”
“If only your father were here, this moment would be perfect.”
As hard as it was to not demand he tell her everything, she managed to keep her words suppressed. She hoped the uncomfortable silence between them would keep him talking. It did just that.
He winked. “I always did hate the silent treatment,” he said, teasing with a grin. “My name is Verrick Marshall, and I once lived in Silent Falls. That was until I had a little misunderstanding with your precious council, mainly your father and Walker Reed’s grandfather, Dutch, as it were, but I got my revenge.”
She swallowed the bile rising up in her throat. “What kind of revenge?”
“The only kind I like, my dear. The kind of revenge that ends with them dead and me very much alive and more powerful.”
His confession overpowered her. Her chest became tight as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. “You killed my parents by setting fire to their car with them inside it, and you pushed Dutch Reed off a cliff,” she stated coldly.
He let out a hearty chuckle. The proud swell in his chest made her hate him even more. “I know it must be a shock to you, but it really was for the best. They had become such a nuisance to me, and they had given me no other choice but to see to their deaths. I really was most humane about the ordeal.”
The pull of her wolf was edging closer to the surface. Her nails and teeth throbbed with awareness and need. She was ready to tear his throat out where he stood. Through clenched teeth, she said, “My parents were burned alive, and Dutch Reed’s body was mangled by sharp rocks and boulders. Neither family could have open caskets at the funeral. How is either of those humane?”
Verrick shrugged. “Well, I could have just as easily ripped their heads from their bodies and fed them to the animals.”
Keep your cool, Silence. It’s not every day you come face-to-face with your parents’ killer. “You are a sick son of a bitch, you know that?”
He began to pace her room, riffling through items on her dresser. “Tell me, Silence, what did you hope to uncover by going to the Reed estate?”
She arched a brow. How did he know where she’d been? Had he been following her? Had she placed Annabel and Walker in danger by doing so?
Nerves swirled and slithered like snakes in her gut as he answered, “Yes, I know you were there today. I watched you. I’ve been watching you.”
I want you to leave.
He stopped his investigation of her room, turned, and smiled at her. “First you want to find me and kill me, saving your little town from the menacing lycans running amuck, and now you just want me to leave?”
She did want him to leave. She needed him to leave, but first she had to stop him from reading her thoughts, if that was even possible. “So you are reading my mind. How nice, considering I didn’t remember inviting you to do so.”
&n
bsp; His eyes flashed a devilish red as he said, “Well, I don’t really need your permission. I’m strong enough to break through any barrier you can erect, Ms. Foster. Try as you may, nothing you do will keep me out of that lovely head of yours.”
Anger and fear churned inside her. “What do you want?”
Verrick blurted out, “I want Walker, of course, and I want you to stay the fuck away from him.”
Her heart seemed to stop beating. “Why?”
He studied her for a long moment, his eyes focusing on hers as if he were trying to reach inside her thoughts, pulling every last memory out of her. “You truly don’t know what Walker Reed is, do you?”
“I know who and what Walker is, and he’s a good man.”
He sat down in a chair in the corner across from the bed next to the only window in her room. “You really don’t know.” He chuckled in an astounding I know something you don’t know manner. “I’m truly surprised our boy hasn’t shared his life with you. Walker is very special, my dear. He’s more than just a wolf. He’s a hybrid. A rare, but powerful lycan that can keep his wolf controlled even during the full moon. Do you know how dangerous that would be for the rest of us? A lycan who could so easily pass for human at all times?” He shook his head. “I couldn’t risk that he would unbind himself and want to be a wolf for you, so I put Lance in your path. I knew the attraction between you would be instant, but I had no idea how your wolves would crave one another’s. That was a bonus. Since Walker wasn’t able to satisfy you the way a true wolf would his mate, I was counting on Lance to step up to the plate, and he did. From what I heard when the two of you were fucking, he did a very nice job.”
She should have been embarrassed by what he said, but she wasn’t. She couldn’t get the faces of Walker or Lance out of her head. Both her mates were suddenly tangled into this web of shit with her. “Why did you try to capture Lance last night if he’s supposed to be a distraction for me?” She leaned forward on the bed, her legs resting over the edge of the mattress.
He clapped his hand together as if warming them from the cold. “I needed to get you and Lance together again, and I knew he’d progressed far enough that his wolf would be very horny. I only hoped he’d remembered you from the accident. After all, you were the first woman he saw.” He shrugged as he said, “I also couldn’t very well let you have all the fun training him, now could I?”
Everything about Lance was a setup. Her stomach knotted. Brow furrowed, she said, “You want him to be like you, a monster who prays on the innocence of others.”
He hissed. “Stop being so dramatic, Silence. I merely wanted him to infiltrate your pack.”
She shook her head. That was too easy of an explanation, and she knew there was more to his story. “I don’t think so.”
“You doubt me, precious?”
Her skin crawled at the way he called her “precious,” sounding almost as if he’d planned to caress her with sweet words to coax whatever he sought from her. “I don’t doubt what you’ve shared with me about Walker, but I think there’s a whole lot more to your nefarious plans than you’re leading me to believe.”
“You really are too smart for your own good.” Verrick grinned, his white teeth gleaming at her. “Okay, I’ll share more. I think you’ll enjoy this.” He rose from his chair and moved over to the bed, crawling toward Silence. She stood to move away, but he grabbed her arm and yanked her back. She fell to the side, but was kicking him away the moment her body bounced on the bed. His actions were faster, his strength impossible to match as he held her down underneath him. “Don’t worry, Silence. I just wanted you to know the most intimate details of my reasons for being here.” He sniffed her hair, pulling his head back fast as she tried to headbutt him.
Damn.
She struggled beneath him. “Quit playing games, Verrick, and just spit it out.”
“Very well,” he said, pinning her arms above her head and locking her legs down with his lower half, his torso pressing heavily against hers. His power and strength kept her from moving. “Thirty years ago I belonged to this town. I was even a council member.”
“Why isn’t your name part of the council history journals? Everything is documented, and I don’t remember ever seeing the name Verrick Marshall.”
“I figured you wouldn’t. Bad boys like me don’t get historical records of their existence, especially when you’re a murderer.” Verrick licked his lips.
“What exactly did you do?”
“I found a gorgeous little blonde.” His gaze drifted over her body, lingering on her breasts. His glare crawled up her throat, her lips, and settled back on her eyes. “She was a hot little thing like you, but she was married. That didn’t seem to be an issue, and convincing her to be with me was quite easy. You see, her husband was a total asshole, a cheating, incompetent, weak lycan, and alcoholic to boot. Evelyn Reed gave me the access I needed into her powerful lycan-witch family, and I soon obtained a seat on the council. I had plans for this town.”
The bastard used Walker’s mother.
She bit the inside of her mouth, keeping her wolf locked away, and asked, “What kind of plans?”
A fire lit inside his gaze as he said, “Can’t you guess? I wanted only lycans to be among us. I wanted all the humans exterminated or forced out. This was our home and had been for generations. You of all lycans should know that. You were even named after this little town, as was your twin. Silent Falls and Shadow Meadows were the best lycan safe grounds known in Texas. Think of the power one could have governing a group of only lycans.”
“So if that’s what you wanted, why didn’t it work?”
“Are you really so thick?” He rolled his eyes at her and she merely ground her teeth together. His overflowing power was beginning to make her sick to her stomach. “Your parents and Dutch Reed found out before I could convince any members of the council that my plan was the best for our kind.”
“So you had them killed,” she said bitterly.
“No,” he said, his voice deepening. “I killed them.”
A sudden wash of newly energized power warmed her skin. Silence knew her rescuer had finally arrived. “It might be a good idea for you to get off my mate, Verrick.” Her chest pounded at the sound of Walker’s voice.
She was unsure if his appearance was a good thing or one that would only get them into more trouble. As it was, they were in deep shit, and it was only getting deeper.
Verrick slithered off her and stood facing Walker, who was hovering in the doorway to her bedroom, blocking his exit. Immediately, she sat up and moved to the far side of the bed.
“Well, well, well. Look at how you’ve grown,” Verrick teased.
“From what I hear, you haven’t changed much. You’re still a cold-blooded killer with only one thing on his mind.” Walker quickly glanced over at her, and the moment his eyes locked on hers, she felt a wildfire blaze inside her. Something was different about her mate, something exhilaratingly sexy and powerful. Flicking his gaze back to Verrick, he said, “You really should find a hobby.”
Walker stood to his full height. His shoulders were just as broad as Verrick’s, but there was something so powerful in his stance. “I’m going to give you a chance that you didn’t give my grandfather or Silence’s parents. I’m going to let you leave this town and never come back.”
Verrick growled. The deep thunder rocked against the four walls of her room. “I don’t take to threats, boy.”
“Boy?” he gasped, taking a lethal step toward Verrick. “If that were the case, then why do you smell like fear?”
Verrick glared at him with a devious smile. “So, you’ve finally grown a pair, and now that you’ve been unbound and your powers have been restored, you think you can just challenge me?” He stepped closer to Walker, their massive chests nearly touching. “Do you expect me to believe that you can harness those powers enough to defeat me? You have no idea how to wield those skills.”
Walker smiled, a smile she knew mea
nt trouble. “Would you like to find out?”
A surge of power slammed into her, and she clung to the bed for support. She was shocked by the strength pouring out of Walker. He was a lycan now, but there was so much more to him. He was stronger, supercharged, and more powerful. She was practically getting drunk on it, but it was overloading her senses.
Groaning from the pressure building up in her head, she finally reached down and picked up her gun, one she always kept loaded with silver bullets. Checking her clip, she popped it back in and stared at the men in her room having a pissing contest.
Caught in the middle, she whispered, “This seems to be the story of my life.”
“Verrick, just go,” she ordered, pointing her 9mm directly at him. “I’d really hate to dirty my carpets with silver-bulleted lycan brains. I just had them cleaned.”
Cocking his head in her direction, he glared menacingly at her. “This is far from over.”
She nodded. “I’m sure, but for now it is.” Walker stepped to the side, giving him enough space to step clear of her room. “I’m sure you can find your way out, but I’d feel better showing you the way.”
Verrick shot her one final glance before leaving the room. She hurried for the bedroom door, listening to the final exchange of words between Walker and Verrick.
“Your grandmother may have given you your powers back, but it won’t stop me from using you to get what I want.”
Walker grabbed his arm, forcing him to look at him as he said, “You’d have to kill me, Verrick, to have my powers, and I plan on living a very long and happy life with my mate, so go fuck yourself.” Walker gave him a giant shove and opened the door. With another encouraging push, he helped to escort Verrick from her apartment, slamming the door.
Turning to face her, he looked better than she’d ever seen him. His body was swollen with muscles, and his presence so full of confidence. Sure, he had confidence before. How can he be a billionaire and not exude confidence? Even so, it was nothing compared to the way he was now. He was sexy and seductively primal in his dark and dashing cowboy way.