Bryce shoved his hands in his pockets and watched as Alexis strutted away. Her maroon dress hugged her curves in all the right places, and her hips swayed in time with the music as she drifted through the door. What a woman.
He couldn’t fight his smile. He’d jokingly asked her out a few times…well, every time he’d seen her since they first met, but she’d never taken him seriously, especially since Macey was always around when he did it. After a pep talk from Chase’s wife, Rain, on the balcony, Bryce had gathered up the courage to ask her out for real this time, and his pulse was sprinting from her answer.
Wait…she hadn’t exactly said yes, had she?
She hadn’t said no either, though.
Alexis was mysterious, and he liked that about her. Most of the women he’d dated wanted to spill all their secrets and load him down with their problems before they’d gotten to second base. Not Alexis. She was a woman who knew how to handle herself.
He’d had to fight the urge to slide his fingers into her silky, blonde hair while they were dancing. She smelled like cinnamon and vanilla, and she’d fit in his arms perfectly. He could get used to holding a woman like that.
“You’re smiling.” Rain grinned as she and Chase moved closer to him from the dance floor. Her long, dark curls swished across her back as her husband spun her under his arm before pausing in front of Bryce. “I guess it went well?”
He tried to flatten his mouth into a neutral expression. “We’re having coffee tonight.”
“Good for you.” Rain waved as Chase led her into another turn.
His own smile returned as soon as she looked away, so he sauntered to the bar and ordered a Jameson. Sipping his whiskey, he kept an eye on the door, watching for Alexis to return.
He couldn’t explain the way he felt about the woman. There was something about her that made him want to dive into her mystery and swim through her soul. Independent and strong, she didn’t give a damn what anyone else thought of her. She was who she was, and she made no apologies. He could learn a lot from a woman like Alexis.
The band played three more songs, and Bryce ordered another drink. After another three numbers, she still hadn’t returned, and a sinking feeling formed in his stomach.
Grabbing his third drink from the bar, he found Macey sitting at a table near the wall. He strolled toward her and settled into a chair. “Congratulations, again.”
She smiled. “Thanks. Thirty more minutes, and we can get the hell out of here. I’ve dealt with enough people for one day.”
He chuckled. “I bet.”
“I saw you dancing with Alexis.” Her brow puckered, her eyes holding way too much concern.
His stomach sank a little further. “I’m supposed to take her out for coffee after this is over, but I haven’t seen her in a while.” He set his drink down and drummed his fingers on the cloth.
Macey reached across the table and stilled his hand. “She left.”
He blinked. “She went to the restroom. She’s coming back.”
“She left fifteen minutes ago. Said she wanted to make the drive to her new job tonight so she’d be fresh in the morning.”
“She…” He let out a heavy sigh. “She didn’t tell me that.”
Macey squeezed his hand before leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. “Her excuse was a load of bull if that makes you feel any better. Between me trying to get her to stay at my house while I’m gone and you asking her out, we probably scared her away. What else did you talk about?”
“Nothing really. I was my usual charming self. Don’t think I’ve ever scared a woman away before.” He tossed back the whiskey and focused on the burn it caused on its way down to his stomach. At least that was a welcome burn.
“She’s skittish. It may not feel like it now, but it’s better this way.”
He arched an eyebrow.
“She ran away when she was thirteen. I didn’t see her for twenty years, and now she’s been in and out of my life so many times in the past year that I’ve lost count. I love her, but…Alexis always leaves. It’s the only dependable thing about her.”
There had to be more to it than that, but if the woman didn’t want to go out with him, he wouldn’t push it anymore. Despite what he led people to believe, he was no stranger to rejection. It had been a while since it had happened, but he’d get over it. He always did.
Plastering on his most confident grin, he straightened his spine. “She’s still pretty, though.”
Macey rolled her eyes. “You’re impossible.”
Chapter Two
(Three Months Later)
A feeling of dread twisted in Alexis’s core as she stopped outside a one-story brick house in Pearl River, Louisiana. Three massive pine trees towered over the squat structure, creating an intricate pattern of needle-sharp shadows jutting across the front lawn, and a tricked-out black Ford Mustang took up most of the short driveway. She let out her breath in a hiss. Eric’s ego was probably parked right alongside it.
Sinking in her seat, she gripped the steering wheel in her sweaty hands and stared at the front door. Bile crept up the back of her throat. This was a bad idea. She hadn’t spoken to Eric in two months. Not since she’d finished the job. He’d declined to pay her for the work when she’d refused to stay and be his mate. What made her think he’d pay her now?
Prying her hands from the steering wheel, she rested her fingers on the door latch, but she couldn’t make herself open it.
She squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her forehead. Coming here hadn’t been an option two years ago; it had been survival. When a Biloxi pack member’s drug deal with the area rogues went awry and three of them wound up dead, Alexis—the only other rogue in town—had been blamed for the murders. Mississippi wasn’t known for having the most civilized packs in the nation, so when the second-in-command had offered her a way out, she’d jumped at the chance to move to Pearl River and keep an eye on his son in exchange for her life.
Though she’d been paid to watch Eric and report his actions to the pack, she’d also tried to save him. To heal the wounds that made him into an abusive, cocksure, wannabe alpha male. She couldn’t help it; healing—fixing people—was in her nature. But she couldn’t fix someone’s personality, and he’d given her plenty of bruises to prove it.
Eric wasn’t mate material. Hell, there was only one person her wolf would allow her to take as a mate, and she’d been steering clear of him since her sister’s wedding.
A rogue couldn’t be tied down, and no matter how much she wanted to belong somewhere, she never would.
“What am I doing?” She eased her foot onto the gas pedal and continued down the street. She’d traded in her Honda Civic for a small stack of cash and this beat-up Ford when she’d finished the job. Eric wouldn’t recognize it, and something in her gut told her she should keep it that way.
She drove to a strip center a half mile from the neighborhood and parked in front of a doughnut shop. A pair of police officers sat inside the small store, chatting up the waitress behind the counter. How cliché. A diner anchored one end of the center, while a small grocery store occupied the other. People wandered in and out of the shops and restaurants all day. Leaving her car here wouldn’t raise suspicion.
With her phone and wallet locked in the glove box, she slipped the car key into her pocket and trekked up the street to Eric’s house. Winter wind bit at her cheeks, whistling through the trees and whipping her hair into a mess. She crossed her arms over her chest to ward off the cold and marched up the driveway.
Alexis hovered her finger over the doorbell. Go in, convince him to give me the money, and leave. That’s all I have to do. Then she’d never have to see the abusive bastard again. He owed it to her anyway. Soundproofing a room wasn’t easy. Or cheap. Twenty-seven years old, and he wanted to start a metal band. Meathead.
When he’d called her three months ago, asking her to do the job, instinct had told her to say hell no. But even werewolves couldn’t survive on hu
nting alone. Her human side needed to eat too, and the last twenty dollars she had to her name sat locked in the glove box of her car.
She rang the doorbell and waited. Silence answered. Her knuckles wrapped on the wood as she knocked. Nothing. “Eric, I know you’re home. Answer the door.”
He was probably in his music room, fumbling with the new guitar his daddy bought him. She twisted the knob. Cold metal bit into her palm as the latch disengaged, and she pushed open the door. Small town folk trusted their neighbors way more than they should have.
Alexis peeked her head inside. “Eric?” She stepped into the foyer.
Stifling heat blasted through a vent in the ceiling, and she slipped out of her jacket and dropped it on a ratty, overstuffed sofa in the living room. A football game played on an eighty-inch television. Surround-sound speakers hung from each corner of the room, but thankfully they were muted. A pizza box lay open on the kitchen counter, grease congealing on the surface of the leftover slices, and dirty dishes filled the sink.
She covered her nose. With a sense of smell ten times better than a human’s, how could any werewolf live like this?
Eerie silence filled the home, and a sinking feeling twisted her gut tighter. Something was off. Her instinct to run battled with her curiosity to figure out what was going on. Curiosity won.
“This is a bad idea,” she whispered as she crept down the hall, the beige carpet masking her footsteps—not that anyone inside a soundproof room would have heard her approaching. Her arm hairs stood on end as she rested her hand on the knob and twisted it. Figured. Eric felt the need to lock this door, but not the front one. Detaching the bobby pin from her keyring, she jiggled it in the lock to disengage it and flung open the door.
Her breath caught in her throat.
Eric crouched, in wolf form, his gray fur standing in a ridge down the center of his back. Saliva dripped from his bared teeth as he snarled over a trembling woman. Blood soaked through the thigh of her khaki pants. Eric’s head snapped toward Alexis, his gaze locking with hers for a split second before she reacted.
“Eric, no!” She called on her wolf, her body tingling with magic as her form shifted. Plowing into his side, she knocked Eric off his feet, and the woman scrambled into a corner. Eric lunged at Alexis, clamping his jaws on her front leg. His teeth tore into her flesh, cracking her bone, and she yelped and jerked from his grasp. She threw herself toward him, and they tumbled over each other, fighting for dominance. Alexis didn’t stand a chance against a wolf as powerful as Eric, but she couldn’t let him tear a defenseless human to shreds.
The woman screamed. Alexis glanced her way to find the victim sitting beside a mangled, bloody body. Eric barreled into Alexis’s side, knocking the breath from her lungs as she crashed to the floor. The woman stumbled to her feet before falling onto her side.
Why wasn’t she running? The door was wide open.
The woman clutched her leg and peered at the torn flesh, gritting her teeth as her complexion paled. Alexis glanced at Eric. What was this sick bastard doing?
She bared her teeth, growling a warning for Eric to stay away as she backed toward her. The woman’s chest heaved as she tried to scramble away. Eric crouched low, preparing to lunge. She had seconds at most.
Alexis placed her front paw on the victim’s leg. A high-pitched squeal escaped the woman’s throat, a mixture of garbled fear and pain. Magic pulsed from Alexis’s core, and she focused it into her paw. She felt the woman’s torn muscles stitch back together as the wound closed.
She clutched her leg. “How?”
Alexis’s head spun, but she nudged her with her nose. She wanted to scream, “Get out,” but her wolf mouth couldn’t form words. Another nudge, and the woman shot to her feet and raced to the door.
Eric lunged for his victim. Alexis caught his back leg between her teeth and yanked him to the floor. The sharp tang of were blood oozed into her mouth as she tightened her grip on his leg. The woman took one last look at the body before sprinting away.
With his victim gone, Eric relaxed beneath her grasp. He shifted to human form, the sensation of matted fur turning to skin and denim on her tongue. She growled a warning, refusing to release her hold.
“C’mon, Alex. Let me go.”
Her nostrils flared as she blew out a hard breath and tightened her jaw. Nausea churned in her stomach, her power waning from the energy she’d expended to heal the human. She’d need rest to regain her strength, but she couldn’t let Eric see her weakness.
He winced. “I wasn’t trying to kill her.”
Yeah, right. She flicked her gaze toward the crumpled corpse in the corner.
“That was an accident.” He shrugged. “Let me go, and I’ll explain.” His eyes didn’t hold a single hint of remorse, but that shouldn’t have surprised her. He’d tried to convince her she deserved the beating he’d given her, right before she’d run away.
She released her grip on his leg and backed up. Ribbons of blood flowed down his skin, splattering on the tile floor. She hesitated to shift. Eric was stronger than her no matter what form he took. As a man, he stood six-four with two hundred pounds of pure muscle. In her weakened state, at least as a wolf, she’d have a fighting chance if he tried to pull something.
He rubbed at the gash in his leg, wiping the thickening blood from the wound. The flow was already subsiding. “I haven’t seen you in two months, sweetheart. Show me your pretty face.”
Asshole. Alexis blew out a hard breath and shifted to human form. The gash on her arm had already healed, and the bone had mended where it cracked.
Eric rose to his feet and dusted off his shirt, flexing his pecs so the garment strained across his chest and grinning like they’d had a friendly wrestling match rather than a full-blown fight. His charming smile added an innocent look to his sharp, handsome features. But a coldness hovered behind his eyes, turning the light blue irises to ice. “That’s better. Now we can talk like civilized people.”
“Civilized?” She looked at the heap of flesh in the corner and shuddered. “Nothing about this setup is civilized.”
“No? I soundproofed the room so it wouldn’t disturb the neighbors. Well, you soundproofed it actually. Great job, by the way. You’ve always been good with your hands.” His gaze raked up and down her body as he took a step toward her.
Her heart rate kicked up, but she held her ground and stared him hard in the eyes. “What’s going on here?”
He walked his fingers up her arm, and chills crept down her spine. “Why don’t you come to the bedroom, and I’ll tell you all about it?”
“Not a chance.” She slapped his hand away, but he caught her by the wrist.
“I knew you’d come back to me.”
“I came back for the money you owe me.” She jerked from his grasp. “If you weren’t trying to kill her, what were you doing to that woman?”
Sighing, he stepped toward the man in the corner. “I was really hoping he’d pull through.” He nudged the body with his boot. “Of course, if I’d have known about your little gift of healing, I would have waited until you got here. How long have you known you could do that? I’m hurt that you kept it from me after everything else we’ve shared.”
She clenched her jaw. “We never shared anything. I gave. You took. Now, you’ve got thirty seconds to tell me what the hell is going on or—”
“Or what? What will you do? Run to your sister’s pack in New Orleans? They won’t help you. This isn’t their territory.” A wicked grin turned up the corner of his mouth. “And you’re just a rogue.”
That sinking feeling she’d felt earlier slammed her stomach into her knees. Just a rogue. That was all she’d ever be. Even with her blood-ties to the pack, the law forbade them from interfering outside their territory.
She was on her own.
He rolled the corpse onto its back and rotated the head from side to side. “Damn. Definitely dead. I’ll have to find another one.”
“Another one?” She gaped.
“Well, you turned my next patient loose, didn’t you? I’m not a murderer. I’m trying to help these people.” He crossed his thick arms over his chest, purposely flexing his biceps.
She mirrored his posture, though she left the flexing to the meathead. “By tearing them to pieces?”
“I want a pack of my own. I deserve to be alpha, no matter what my old man thinks. I need at least twenty members before the national congress will even consider giving me pack status, but there aren’t enough weres out here that are willing to follow. Right now, I have three: Trevor, Justin, and you.”
She scoffed. “You don’t have me. And what does that have to do with killing humans?”
“Like I said, I’m not trying to kill them. I’m trying to turn them. Make them into werewolves.”
Her eyes widened. “That’s illegal.” And impossible. Even a rogue knew that.
He lifted one shoulder in a dismissive shrug. “Since when do you care about laws?”
Was he completely insane? “You can’t turn someone into a werewolf by attacking him.”
He gave the body another kick. “No? You’ve never been part of a pack, but the first and most important law weres learn is never to attack a human while in wolf form…unless it’s a fight to the death.”
She clenched her fists. “I’m aware of the laws.” Alexis had been on her own since she started shifting at thirteen years old, and the first rogue werewolf she’d met had taught her the rules. She shuddered at the memory of the other things he’d taught her.
“So? Why do you think that law was created?”
“Because attacking humans is wrong.” Werewolves were supposed to be peacekeepers, not monsters.
He chuckled and shook his head, giving her that condescending look he always used when he wanted to make her feel stupid. “Because if you leave them alive, they’ll turn into werewolves themselves. My dad is second of the Biloxi pack; he has access to ancient records. I’ve read about humans being turned. That’s why the congress outlawed attacking humans without killing them. To keep people from trying this.” He opened his arms, gesturing to the dead man in the corner.
Bound by Blood (Crescent City Wolf Pack Book 3) Page 2