Outback Cowboy

by Lexxie Couper

  He gave her his best angry glare. “One fish, two fish, red fish, dead fish. Put him down, Claire,” he warned, letting his voice drop to a threatening decibel.

  “Epic fail. It’s blue fish. Phew. For a minute there, I considered sleeping with you, Grammar Guru. Now you’ve gone and ruined it.” She leaned at the waist again, ready to hurl Gannon over her shoulder.

  “Stop!” he bellowed, yanking Gannon’s legs from her grip and hauling his body over his own shoulder, cracking Gannon’s head on the exit door. Angry that her situation was forcing him to reveal a side he’d rather keep to himself. “The hell I’m going to let them kill you. You do remember the last werewolf to die for an infraction much smaller than this, don’t you?”

  He watched Claire visibly shudder, smelled her ripple of fear. Good. Something needed to remind her she was on a suicide mission.

  “I do. I remember. Joe Green.”

  “And what did Joe do?” Irish asked as Gannon hung from his shoulder, his bulky body swaying to and fro.

  Her nose wrinkled in cute distaste. “Had an affair with another club member’s wife or his old lady, or whatever you crazy bikers call them.”

  He hated the disgust she held for bikers in general. Hated hearing it in her tone. Hated knowing she thought they were all ignorant, filthy scum of the earth. Someday he’d love to tell her that before the government interfered, he, too, had hidden amongst the humans, working as a very successful attorney, which was what paid for the synthetic blood he bought from Gannon while Irish searched for someone to recreate the formula.

  “Right. They strung him up, stripped him of his patch, and burned the club’s tattoo right off his back. You werewolves might self-heal, but I’d bet my immortality it damn well hurt while it was happening. Remember Joe’s screams coming from the woods, Claire? How could you forget? You could hear it clear across town. A little bump and grind is nothing compared to murdering the alpha of your own damn pack. You’re bent out of shape right now, but you might change your mind damn quick if they come for you.”

  Her beautiful blue eyes fell to the floor. “Fine. So what do you propose we do with him?”

  “I propose you not ask questions. Just clean this place up—clean it good. Use your speedy werewolf skills, run home, get a bottle of bleach and get back here pronto. Leave nothing behind. Who knows who else comes out here? Someone might walk right into this mess if you don’t leave it spotless. Someone who might smell your blood mingled with Gannon’s. I haven’t seen many of the kids in town out here much because we’ve instilled fear in them about getting too close to the borders, but you can’t afford not to be careful, Claire. When Gannon turns up missing, you’re the first person they’ll come looking for. Be ready.”

  He saw her bravado hit low tide when she said, “Shit. I didn’t think of that.”

  Irish clenched his jaw. “There’s plenty you didn’t think about. Now handle this.” He turned to leave, wishing like hell he could stay. Claire put her hand on his back to stop him.

  Just that small touch was all it took to create a rush of need in him so deep, so primal, it would scare the hell out of her. It scared the hell out of him.

  “Thanks, Irish,” she whispered, the sweet lilt of her voice wrapping around his eardrums.

  Walk away, Irish. Use those vampire legs and get the fuck out.

  He nodded his head before pushing his way out of the bar and heading for his bike, trying to shake off the indelible scent of Claire.

  The crunch of icy snow beneath his feet made what he was about to do real. Very real. Something he’d die a gruesome death for if he were found out.

  Setting Gannon’s body on the back of his bike, he used a bungee cord to tie him upright to the seat. His silhouette under the moonlight made for a macabre image.

  But Irish chuckled at the sight. He couldn’t say he was sorry the son of a bitch was dead. The werewolf had had it coming for a long time. He was a cruel pack leader, and an even crueler president to his club. He and Irish clashed often but they’d managed not to kill each other.

  When the government had dumped them all here ten years ago and left them to their own devices, things hadn’t been so bad. At least not while Gannon’s father Hardy had ruled. The two clubs had managed to come to a peaceful, albeit tenuous understanding, enforcing laws as needed and, in general, keeping at least a modicum of the order one would expect to find in a small town run by humans.

  They’d prospered together during a time when survival was dependent upon your neighbor. They’d moved into abandoned houses, made them their own, put their government supplements to good use, created families, went to school, hosted town events, lent each other helping hands.

  But when Hardy got himself killed trying to cross the border into Canada and Gannon was handed the alpha role of his pack—shit went haywire, and it had been an effort ever since to contain the asshole and his cronies.

  So whatever he’d done to Claire had to have been pretty shitty. She didn’t have it in her to hurt a fly—Irish knew that instinctively without question. She was spicy, no doubt. Her tongue was sharp, her mind sharper, but she was no killer.

  Irish stared down at Gannon, the moonlight shining on his round face, his rubbery lips slack in death. Slapping the dead man on the back, he asked, “So, Gannon, what the shit did you do to make sweet, well-mannered librarian Claire Montgomery kill your dumb-fuck ass?”

  Chapter 3

  Claire let herself into her small house on Rose Meadow Lane at exactly three-fifteen, exhausted but satisfied she’d rid Boomer’s of the scent of death—and the grisly aftermath of Gannon Dodd’s murder. She’d stopped at the stream adjacent to her house to rinse away the blood on her body, each splash of water a reminder of what she’d done.

  Stripping off her dress, she decided burning it was the only way to ensure Gannon’s odor didn’t linger. Claire balled it up, grabbing a match from the hearth and striking it, throwing it into the fireplace where fresh kindling awaited.

  As the flames grew, she forced herself to block out the horror of tonight and focus on the fact that she was free of Gannon.

  Free.

  Whatever that meant in this day and age of paranormal segregation.

  It means you don’t have to mate with the vilest piece of trash to ever roam the earth.

  Lobbing her dress into the fire, she watched it turn to ash before heading to the shower to more thoroughly wash Gannon’s filth from her skin. Her stomach rolled. Even as a were who was raised on the blood of the hunt, she’d never seen so much carnage.

  She kept waiting for regret to sink in, for remorse to penetrate this haze of adrenaline she was experiencing, but so far all she felt was enormous relief that Gannon would never hurt anyone else again. He also wouldn’t darken her doorstep or humiliate her in front of her book club by stomping his big, ugly feet through her beloved library to remind her she was his mate.

  As she made her way to the bathroom, her calico cat, Mr. Darcy, slipped between her ankles, weaving in and out. She scooped him up, hugging him hard, still weak from the night’s events. All she wanted to do, all she’d ever wanted to do, was live quietly in this new way of life her kind had been forced into, and manage the town’s library surrounded by her favorite books.

  But when the mate call had come, and Gannon had picked her at the ceremony, everything in her peaceful life had changed.

  Tonight, it had crashed down around her, and nothing would ever be the same if anyone found out the truth.

  She shivered, dropping Mr. Darcy on the top tier of his kitty condo, pushing that awful mate night from her mind. The night that gave Gannon the right to declare her his in front of their pack members. The very sight of Gannon made her ill. What would it have been like if she’d been forced to be his wife?

  What if she’d had to endure his beefy paws and breath that smelled like a thousand rotting souls forever?

  What if she told everyone exactly who Gannon Dodd really was? What he was capable of?


  Claire pushed the bathroom door open, grabbing fresh towels from the cabinet and flipped the tap for the hot water. She leaned against the wall, pressing her burning cheek to the tile, swallowing back the bile continually rising in her throat. She needed to keep it together. Hatch a story and stick to it at all costs. Never deviate.

  And Irish—she needed to be sure he stayed out of this from here on out. Rock Cove couldn’t afford to lose one of the only fair enforcers it possessed. Despite his club’s moniker, he’d kept Gannon and the Dogs in line.

  The mere thought of him—and the lengths he’d gone to in order to protect her—made her heart tighten and her gut clench with fear. If Gannon had known how much she wanted Irish, he’d have killed her just for her thoughts alone.

  Now she’d put Irish and his people in jeopardy.

  Gripping the towels, she forced herself to stay in the here and now, breathing in the steam the shower created, letting her newly remodeled bathroom relax her frazzled nerves.

  Whoever had owned this house before being offered something bigger and better by the government in return for leaving their home had taken great pride in the small things. Carved-out nooks in the walls, decorative sills on every window, crown molding, and ivory beadboard on the sides of her kitchen cabinets. When she’d found it and claimed it as her own, she’d kept the tradition of love and care alive, planting roses and verbena along the whitewashed fence out front, hanging pots overflowing with fuchsia and geraniums in the summer on her tiny front porch, planted impatiens in the window boxes, cramming them with color.

  This house was more than she could have afforded on her salary as a librarian back in California. While she was resentful as hell that she’d been forced from her life without so much as a week’s warning, she was grateful she’d landed here when there had been absolutely no choice but to leave or spend the rest of her life in prison.

  She lived where she still heard the ocean, where the waves still crashed against the rocks, and the wind blew soft and rose-scented in the summer. Where there was plenty of land to shift and run.

  Her cell phone rang, stilling her step into the deep-blue-and-green tiled shower. Who was calling her at three in the morning? The strains of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet pulsed in her ears.

  Answer? Don’t answer?

  Claire dropped the towels, turned the tap off, and ran for her phone, scanning the living room until she spotted it in the bowl on the table in her entryway. Her eyes flew open wide when she picked it up—Freya?

  Freya was almost always in bed by eleven, tucked in after a long night of marathon Law and Order reruns.

  Panic seized her. Stay calm, Claire. Breathe. She pressed answer and muttered, “Freya?” Thankful her voice was hoarse from all the screaming she’d done tonight; it lent being fake-awakened from a sound sleep some credibility.

  “Did I wake you? Of course I woke you. It’s after three in the morning. How silly of me.” Freya’s sleepy yet still-sultry voice soothed her.

  “It’s okay,” she offered, pinching her temple. “What’s wrong, Freya?” Something was definitely wrong. She heard it in her friend’s voice.

  Freya paused for a moment, the crackle of the line hissing in Claire’s ear. “Are you sitting down?”

  “I’m lying down. I’m in bed,” she lied, so effortlessly she might have patted herself on the back if not for the gnawing guilt.

  Freya sighed into the phone. “Your intended is missing.”

  Claire paused for a moment, praying some of her fifth-grade acting skills would save her. She’d been a mean Pilgrim Number One back in the day. She could certainly be one now when her life depended on it. “What?”

  “Gannon’s missing, Claire, and no one can find him. They found his bike off of Rooster Rise, but no Gannon.”

  Shit, shit, shit. His bike. His stupid, loud, ozone-eating, ugly bike. Rooster Rise was damn close to Boomer’s. Too close. How could she have forgotten to find his bike and get rid of it? “How do you know?” She winced when her voice rose. Squeaky. That sounded a little squeaky.

  “The Dodds and their gang of merry men just came banging on my door. They’re doing a house-to-house search for him. Said they tried yours about an hour ago but you weren’t home. So naturally, they came here.”

  Her hand began to shake. She tamped down the fear by biting the inside of her cheek. “But I saw him earlier this evening. He was at Captain Ahab’s, drinking, just like he does every night of his wretched life.” The foul, drunken sod drank like his existence depended on it. “Why would they go looking for him? He’s known for disappearing for days at a time. What’s the sudden panic about?”

  She heard a rustle of fabric before Freya said, “Apparently, there was some big meeting he wouldn’t have missed for all the small woodland creatures in the world, and he missed it. Never showed up. That has the pack and his brother Courtland in a tailspin.”

  Even in death, Gannon Dodd was still up her ass. “Well, they haven’t come back here.” Yet.

  “But they will. You’re the first person they asked me about. They asked if I knew where you were earlier tonight, and if Gannon was with you. I think they hoped maybe you and Gannon were just, you know, getting to know each other and didn’t want to be disturbed. I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling them you’d rather be dead than let him inside your house, but really, they already knew that. It wasn’t as if you kept it a secret. Which, I’ll remind you, I told you was something better kept to yourself,” she scolded in her motherly tone.

  That was true. Freya had worried often about how outspoken Calire was regarding the archaic mating ceremony, and more than once she’d pinched her arm to quiet her when she’d railed against the fact Gannon had picked her as a mate.

  Claire’s knees wobbled as she made her way to her bedroom to find clothes. It was all she could do not to blurt out everything to Freya. The entire horrible night. They’d been best friends forever, shared everything. But if not a soul knew, not a soul could tell her secret. “Then I guess I’ll just wait for them to show up. I’d better get some clothes on.”

  “Wait, Claire. Before you go…are you okay, honey?”

  She pictured Freya’s pretty face, rosy-cheeked and ivory-skinned, her vanilla-blonde hair falling to her chin in silken waves as she gave Claire that worried look.

  “What do you mean, am I okay?”

  “I mean, I know mating with Gannon was a fate worse than death to you, and who could blame you? He was repulsive. But you have a good soul, my friend, and I wouldn’t put it past you to get upset because someone’s missing—even if that someone is Gannon Dodd.”

  Oh, sorely misguided Freya. If you only knew. Her soul was blacker than the darkest night. There was nothing good about it anymore. “I’ll be fine. I’m sure they’re just panicking because they’re total idiots who couldn’t reason their way out of a paper bag. Gannon will probably show up at that dirty clubhouse tomorrow morning and they’ll find out he was off whoring and boozing. He’s probably passed out drunk on some hooker’s bed in the Zone.”

  “Does he really go to the Zone?”

  Freya’s disbelief that anyone was capable of going to a place like the Zone—where those who’d balked at the human government’s laws had opened up shop, and depravity ran rampant—might have made her laugh. Except, they were talking about Gannon.

  “Where else could you find a woman willing to do him without the benefit of money as a dealmaker?”

  Freya chuckled, soft and tinkling. “Score one for you. You’re right. But even so, do you want me to come over so I can be there when they question you?”

  Claire couldn’t help but smile at the phone. Freya was ever the lawyer. Even though they’d taken her lucrative practice away and there was little to no lawyering to be had here in Rock Cove, you couldn’t beat the attorney out of her if you used a Louisville Slugger.

  “I’ll be fine. Since when have you known me to back down from the Dodds? Never, that’s when. Go back to s
leep, Sunshine. I got this.”

  “Okay, but you call me if they give you a hard time. Promise?”

  “Promise. Go back to bed. See you tomorrow.” Claire clicked the phone off and dug in her drawers to find some clothes. She threw on jeans and a T-shirt and then sprayed herself from head to toe with perfume, hoping to disguise the lingering scent of murder.

  Simply washing away Gannon’s existence might be harder than she’d originally thought.

  * * * *

  Her doorbell rang precisely twenty seconds after the roar of motorcycle engines abruptly stopped. She took a long breath before propping her door open to find Gannon’s brother Courtland and the rest of his dimwit crew gathered on her small front porch. Their club jackets hung from their broad shoulders, their unshaven faces all looking to her.

  As the icy wind of a Maine winter’s night rolled in, she affected an indifferent stance. “Don’t you boys need some sleep? Brain cells don’t reproduce by just squeezing really hard, you know. You need to constantly rejuvenate them.” Someone snickered from her lawn, but she couldn’t see past the crowd of bikers to identify who it was.

  Courtland pushed the door open, wedging his way inside and planting his big body against it. His greasy, dirty blond hair trailed down his back in windblown mats as his beady reddened eyes assessed her.

  Claire rose on tiptoe, her anger spiking as she waved a finger under his bulbous nose. “Didn’t your mother teach you any manners? You’re not supposed to enter someone’s house until you’re invited. Oh, wait. Your mother’s not with us anymore, right? Didn’t you buffoons eat her for dinner by mistake?”

  Courtland, so like Gannon in appearance if you tacked on an extra forty pounds, made a face. “Shut up and get inside.” He pointed a finger in the direction of her living room, where the fire still burned bright.

  Refusing to move, Claire glared up at him, towering over her. There was no use in cowering. That would be completely out of character for her when it came to Gannon’s brother and his crew. She’d never made any bones about how she felt about them before; she couldn’t afford to start now.