Stryker's Desire

by Meg Ripley

  “They’ll test my clothes,” Cam countered. Raul’s lips twitched in a smile.

  “Guess you’re going to have to douse them in wolf’s bane then, aren’t you?” Raul growled low in his throat, a warning sound. “If you have a problem with it, you challenge me right here and now.” Even injured, even tired as he was, Raul knew that Cam wasn’t a match for him; he’d sparred with the other wolf before.

  “If they find out and Reginald challenges you, I’m not going to be your second,” Cam said. Raul shrugged.

  “I won’t need a second for a battle like that,” he said simply. “Now step aside and look for some fucking wolf’s bane to roll around in.”

  Cam moved away from the door, and Raul brushed past him, striding into the shed. The smell of blood—the panther’s and his own, along with splashes of what he was certain belonged to other members of the pack—filled Raul’s nose. The gloomy light revealed the three panthers, bound in their copper chains, watching the door. The she-panther was coated in sweat, blood spattered across her face and body, but despite her position she stared at him defiantly as Raul closed the door behind him. “I’m going to get you three out of here,” Raul said quietly.

  “Right,” one of the two males said, snorting. “I’m going to trust a wolf.”

  “You might as well,” Raul said, shrugging. “This is the last chance you’re going to get.”

  “We make our own chances,” the other male said. “And if your asshole pack tries to take us out, we’ll take some of you out with us. And the rest of our clan will come after you.” Raul smiled slightly.

  “We outnumber you,” Raul pointed out. “There are more of us, we have more allies. You don’t stand a chance if we come against you.”

  “So why help us then?” The she-panther finally stirred as she spoke. She was obviously in bad shape.

  “I’m not going to sit around and watch while the Alpha does something that’s against the Pack’s laws,” Raul said simply. “Either you accept my help, or you take your chances when it comes time to get the fuck out of here or die.” One of the two men looked closely at the she-panther.

  “Take her out,” the man said. “Lachlan and I can take our chances.”

  “Asshole! We could get her out of here,” the other male—presumably Lachlan—said.

  “Do you want to risk it? She’s mating age.”

  “Not like it matters to either of you anyway,” the woman said. “I wouldn’t mate with you even if I was in heat.”

  “Take her out,” the first man said again. “Get her out of here.” Raul nodded and moved forward. The she-panther growled as he approached, pulling back her lips to snarl at him. “Keira—let him help you. Let him get you out of here. So help me god…” Raul met the woman’s gaze for a long moment.

  “I’m not going to touch you in any way other than to get you out of the chains and into my car,” he told her firmly. “You can let me help you, or you can wait here for the rest of the pack to come in and lead you out to your death.” She stared into his eyes for a moment longer and then sighed, slumping against her chains, giving him implicit consent. Raul looked around, met the prideful, bitter gazes of the other two panthers, and went to work on disentangling the woman—Keira—from her chains.

  ****

  Keira thought she must have blacked out at some point; as she came to, aware that she was in a vehicle—with a wolf no less—and that the vehicle was moving, she felt a jolt of anger and shame: at her weakness, at the fact that she’d had to be “rescued” in the first place, that the source of her rescue was the wolf that she had been on the verge of winning her challenge against only a few hours before. She opened her eyes just a slit and saw gray, early-morning light coming in through a window. “Where the hell are you taking me?” she turned her head slightly; just the smallest movement sent a jolt of pain through Keira’s body.

  “To a hiding spot,” the werewolf said brusquely. “I’m taking you somewhere you can be safe from the pack.”

  “A wolf abandoning his pack?” Keira chuckled weakly. She knew that in a matter of hours, with the exposure to the copper gone, she would be halfway to healing; but that was small comfort as her body ached and throbbed and burned.

  “Not abandoning my pack,” the werewolf said. “I’m just against the decision.”

  “What about Gary and Lachlan?” Keira remembered the discussion between her clan-mates and closed her eyes, thinking that the two of them were idiots. Of course, you don’t know that he’s not taking you somewhere to kill you himself for almost besting him in the challenge, she thought wryly. Privately, Keira had to admit to herself that the wolf had held his own pretty well—and he wasn’t actually as hideous as she would have thought. Keira cast a quick glance over the man in the driver’s seat of the car, taking in his muscled, lean body, the rangy look to his face that most wolves seemed to have.

  “They made their choice,” the wolf said. “I gave them the option and they wanted to take their chances.” Keira’s lips twisted into a grimace; she knew he was right, and there was nothing she nor the wolf could have really done—but that didn’t stop her from being saddened at the knowledge that her clan-mates would almost certainly die.

  “What’s your name?” she frowned at the werewolf, realizing that she’d been rescued by someone who she didn’t even know the first thing about—other than that he was a wolf.

  “Raul. You’re Keira, right?” She nodded slowly. “You weren’t half bad back there. If we’d had maybe ten more minutes though, I’d have turned it around.” Keira laughed and then cringed as the movement sent pain shooting through her body.

  “Please, Fido,” she countered, once the pain began to ebb. “I would have had you on your back whining like a kicked dog.” Raul barked out a laugh.

  “Which one of us is driving? Which one of us had to rescue the other?”

  “I was wrapped in copper chains! Let me wrap you up in tin and injure you and see how much bounce you have in your step, asshole.” Keira sat up in her seat, looking around. She hated not knowing where she was going; she hated feeling vulnerable—especially in the presence of a wolf.

  “I’ll give you a rematch once we’re both recovered,” Raul suggested. “No holds barred.”

  “To the death?” Keira raised an eyebrow, feeling suspicious towards the wolf again.

  “To submission,” Raul countered. “Whoever makes the other submit first.”

  “Then to the death,” Keira said, shrugging. Raul glanced at her and smiled, shaking his head.

  For a long time, they continued on the road, both of them silent. Keira closed her eyes, trying to call up the mental impressions of her clan-mates; at such a distance, it was difficult even to feel the members of her clan—she couldn’t reach out to any of them. They had to be out in the boonies surrounding Spring Lake, not in the town proper anymore. Keira wondered if any of the members of the clan even knew what had happened to her, Lachlan, and Gary.

  “Why were you raiding werewolf businesses in the first place?” Keira opened her eyes and glanced at Raul. She shrugged.

  “I’m not even sure I understand what the reasoning was,” she admitted. “But once the decision was made, we were the natural choice.” She grinned slowly. “Had to have pissed you all off not to be able to track us, huh?” Raul’s lips twitched in the beginnings of a smile.

  “If we hadn’t caught you last night, it was going to be my head,” Raul told her. “Reginald—our Alpha—got particularly pissed after the fire at the last raid you and your friends pulled off.”

  “That was an accident…I think.” Keira bit her bottom lip. “It wasn’t me that did that. Someone pulled a fuse or something, the sparks lit on fire.” She shrugged.

  “If you don’t even know why your people wanted to raid werewolf businesses, why did you go along with it?” Keira shrugged again.

  “You do stuff because your Alpha wants it, right?” Raul hesitated and then nodded slowly. “It’s not that different wi
th panthers. The clan decides to do something, and the right people for it get it done.”

  “So, if your Alpha decided that you should grab some werewolves and put them to death…” Keira considered the question and shook her head.

  “I’d do the same as you,” she admitted. “We wouldn’t do that though. We’ve got rules. We’ve got standards.”

  “So do we,” Raul said, glancing at her and scowling slightly. “What Reginald commanded is against our ways.”

  “I saw how happy people in that shed were to hear it,” Keira said. “It doesn’t seem that against your ways.”

  “They were pissed—you guys have been pissing us off for weeks. Someone could have died in that fire. We could be discovered. We had to get some other shifters on the police to get onto the investigation so that it wouldn’t lead to figuring out why certain businesses were targeted and others weren’t.” Keira frowned; she had known that the fire would intensify any investigations—would make it more official—but she hadn’t known that the wolves had done anything to slow it down.

  “So, what are you going to do with me?” Keira crossed her arms over her chest.

  “I’m taking you to a hiding place,” Raul said. “I’ll bring you food, keep you out of the line of fire, until things settle down. I’m going to try and get talks between your folks and my pack.”

  “Good luck with that,” Keira said, trying to imagine the reception that Raul would get with her clan. “You saw how much we trust wolves.”

  “I can hope that keeping you safe will win me some points,” Raul pointed out, smiling.

  “I’m going to be so fucked when they find out I’m being protected by a wolf,” Keira told Raul, shaking her head and smiling to herself in spite of the knowledge of how grave her offense would be.

  ****

  Raul looked around as he approached the flophouse he’d left Keira at the day before. Scenting the air, he filtered through the different smells: feral cats, a few squirrels, a rat or two. No sign of wolves—and no sign of panthers, either. He strode towards the front door of the tiny, ramshackle house tucked away in the woods and considered the course of action he’d taken.

  Keira’s clan-mates had, in fact, met their death the morning after he’d spirited Keira away. Raul had hated to see it—he had hated the fact that he’d had to bear witness to such a brutal, unjust execution. The mood in the pack had been divided ever since—some of the Alpha’s most fervent followers were more than a little pleased with the course of action Reginald had taken, but it was obvious that there were many, many more who were doubtful of the wisdom of the act. Cam himself was less than thrilled, and Raul knew that his second wouldn’t snitch on him.

  Keira’s escape at the hands of her clan-mates was an accepted cover in the pack. Certainly, Gary and Lachlan hadn’t disputed it; they had kept their mouths completely shut, not even saying anything in their own defense as Reginald read out the charges against them. Raul felt cold in the pit of his stomach at the memory of the two men, led out in their copper chains. He knew he would have to tell Keira as soon as he went into the safe house to bring her food; and he knew—from his own bonds with the members of his pack—what kind of grief she would feel.

  He had, in fact, brought a bottle of whiskey with him, along with some food to last for a day, just for the purposes of drinking to her fallen family members. Raul took a deep breath, summoning the moral courage to face the pain he was about to give a total stranger, and turned the knob on the front door.

  Keira sat in the gloom, half-sprawled on the couch, watching him as he entered. “They died,” she said dully. Raul closed the door behind him and nodded.

  “I brought food and booze,” he said, crossing the room to the dilapidated old chair next to the couch. “I hope you like whiskey.”

  “I like anything that will get me good and drunk right now,” Keira replied.

  “There should be some glasses in the kitchen,” Raul said. “I’ll put the food in there, too.” He looked away from the were-panther, feeling uncomfortable. I should have known that she would have already felt the loss of her clan-mates, Raul thought, stepping into the tiny kitchen in the safe house and opening the fridge. He shoved the bag of food into the fridge and turned to the cabinets, opening one and reaching for two glasses.

  He brought the bottle and glasses back into the living room and sat down in the chair once more. “I knew they were going to die,” Keira said quietly. “I mean—intellectually I knew it. But when I felt that wrench…” she sighed. “And when you walked in I could see it all over your face.”

  “If I could have stopped it, I would have,” Raul told her. He cracked the seal on the whiskey bottle and poured them each a healthy shot. “Even if you are a glorified housecat.” He extended one of the glasses towards Keira and she snatched it from him, barely waiting for Raul to settle the other glass in his hand before she knocked back the contents. Raul smiled with more than a little bit of respect for the neat way the woman drank down the burning alcohol.

  “So, what are we going to do now?” Keira put her glass down on the coffee table and Raul refilled it, doubling the shot.

  “Now we’re going to drink, and in a day or two, I’ll start putting out feelers for a contact in your clan.” Raul finished his shot and exhaled sharply. Keira waited for him to pour his second shot and then as one they knocked back their liquor.

  “I’m going to miss those assholes,” Keira said, setting her glass down and sighing. “I mean, Lachlan was one of those guys, you know—totally had to be kept in his place, unpredictable, thought he was so much better than everyone else—but he was family.”

  “I know what you mean,” Raul said, smiling a little sadly. “This feud thing has to end.” Keira hesitated a moment and then nodded slowly.

  They drank a few more shots and then Raul went into the kitchen, retrieving some of the food he’d brought for Keira. She wasn’t drunk, but she was definitely more than a little tipsy. “God,” she said, tilting her head back against the arm of the couch. “I almost can’t believe that Lachlan is dead.”

  “You were close?” Keira snorted.

  “He wanted to mate me,” she said, shaking her head. “No chance of that.”

  “Do you want to mate at all?” Raul raised an eyebrow.

  “I won’t mate with anyone who can’t take me in a challenge,” Keira informed him. “And so far, no one in my clan can take me.” Raul chuckled.

  “I almost took you,” he pointed out. Keira looked at him sharply for a moment and then slowly smiled.

  “Almost,” she said.

  ****

  Keira licked her lips, watching Raul intently. She wasn’t sure if it was the grief she felt at the loss of her clan-mates, the alcohol warming her body from the inside out, or some kind of fellow-feeling or gratitude that she felt towards Raul, but he had become more and more interesting, more and more intriguing and desirable, ever since he’d walked into the house he’d left her in a day before. All she knew was that in that moment, she wanted him. “Do you have a mate?” Keira felt her cheeks warming as she asked the question.

  “Not yet,” Raul said, shrugging. He looked at her for a long moment intently. “How drunk are you?”

  “Not drunk enough,” Keira replied. She smiled slowly. “If you’re single, and I’m single…” Raul’s eyes narrowed.

  “This is a really, really fucking stupid idea,” he told her.

  “What? The panther that nearly kicked your ass isn’t good enough for you?” Keira raised an eyebrow. “What do you look for in a mate?”

  “Someone who won’t kill me in my sleep,” Raul said, his voice wry.

  “So, don’t go to sleep next to me then,” Keira suggested. Raul pressed his lips together.

  “Do you really want this, or are you just drunk and grieving?”

  “The two aren’t mutually exclusive,” Keira pointed out. “But I really want it. I don’t know why, but I just…want to be out of my head for a while.”
Raul hesitated a moment longer, and Keira gathered up the weak strength that she had after her injuries and the exposure to copper. She launched herself towards him, twisting in the air so that she could straddle his hips when she landed, pulling from supernatural reserves of power she barely knew she possessed. Keira kissed Raul tentatively at first; she had had sex before, but not very often, and never with a wolf. But as Raul began to respond, his arms coiling around her waist, pulling her body against his, Keira deepened the kiss, battling him for dominance.

  The chair overbalanced and they tumbled onto the floor together, any qualms about their separate clans evaporating in the heat that rose between Keira and Raul. Keira nipped sharply at Raul’s bottom lip, and dropped down to his neck, nibbling along the column of his throat as she pawed at his clothes, desperate to get them off. Raul tugged at her ripped, dirty clothing, somehow managing to work it off of her more quickly.

  Keira moaned out, the sound ending on a purr, as Raul buried his face against her breasts, nuzzling and kissing, licking and sucking, worshipping her with his mouth. She felt herself getting hotter and hotter, wetter and wetter by the moment, more and more turned on the more contact she felt with Raul’s body. Heady, musk-laden pheromones filled her nose—the mingled scents of her own and Raul’s arousal forming a honey-sweet smell that Keira had never experienced with the few other men she’d allowed to have sex with her.

  She nearly ripped Raul’s shirt getting it off of him, and bit by bit, both of their clothes fell away, thrown across the room or left to fall to the floor. Raul reached down between her legs and Keira growled, nuzzling against his throat as his fingers rubbed between the slick folds of her labia, finding her clit by touch. Keira’s hands wandered all over Raul’s hard, muscled body, taking in the heat of him, the feeling of his crisp hair under her palm, his hot skin like velvet, his muscles rippling. Even a week before, Keira would never have thought that she could find herself getting naked with a wolf.