Mark of the Wolf; Hell's Breed

by Madelaine Montague

  Ordinarily, Danika didn’t pay much attention to her appearance or the passing years, but their youth made it impossible not to compare her age to theirs, and their beauty … well, she’d never felt quite as plain or unappealing, like a little brown duck that had found itself swimming in the midst of a flock of beautiful swans.

  It didn’t occur to her until the waitress left that the woman hadn’t asked about dividing up the tickets. “Wait! Put mine on a separate ticket!”

  The woman turned around to glare at her in irritation.

  Balin waved her off. “Just leave it together. I’ll pay for hers.”

  Struggling with indignation when the woman left without waiting to see if she was agreeable to that solution, Danika bent a tight smile on Balin. “I’ll just give you my share, then,” she said firmly.

  He lifted the black, beringed brow. “Consider it payment for sharing the booth.”

  Danika kept her smile with an effort. She didn’t want to argue with the man, not when he personified dangerous, but she wasn’t about to be obligated to a total stranger, especially a dangerous one. “That’s … sweet, but completely unnecessary.”

  The comment provoked chuckles from the other men and she looked around at them in surprise. Con’s blue eyes were dancing with merriment as he divided a glance between her and Balin. “Sweet? Balin? Honey, you don’t have a clue.”

  Honey? She might’ve taken exception to that, too, except some of her shock was beginning to wear off and, as it did, she was more and more uncomfortably aware that she wasn’t in the middle of a pack of swans.

  They reminded her a lot more of a pack of … wolves, she decided, though she wasn’t certain why unless it had just popped into her mind because she’d been called in to study a wolf pack.

  There was more to it than that, she decided. Balin was a bit more ‘solid’ looking than the others, not exactly stocky, but definitely more heavily muscled than the others. The rest of the gang, though, had the kind of builds that reminded her of wolves in the wild, muscular, but lean. Con was the only one of the bunch that was actually fair, though his complexion wasn’t. Every inch of skin exposed was tanned to a golden brown—which probably meant he spent a lot of time on that bike of his. Balin was almost his exact opposite. His hair was black enough it seemed obvious that his sharp features were the result of a lot of Native American blood or maybe Hispanic, although he looked more Native American and his name didn’t seem to be Spanish. Of the other three—Jared and Dakota were closest in coloring to Balin and Xavier, whose hair was a lot like hers, neither blond nor brown, but in between, was closest in coloring to Con.

  They weren’t related that she could tell but then again not all siblings looked like peas from the same pod. She looked nothing like either her brother or her sister, fortunately for them, and unfortunately for her since she was the family ugly duckling.

  More to occupy herself than for any other reason, Danika looked around for her bag and discovered Xavier had dropped it on the floor by her feet when he’d slid in beside her. Dragging it out from under the table, she dug around for a piece of paper and a pen while the men scanned the restaurant with keen interest.

  Despite her optimism, she couldn’t think of anything to put on the list of things she needed.

  “Taking notes?”

  Startled at the low, husky voice near her ear when she was struggling to concentrate on recalling her list, Danika’s head whirled automatically in that direction and she found herself almost nose to nose with Balin. He stared back at her with patent interest.

  Her instincts seriously impaired, her head finally recoiled on her neck and she leaned back to put a more comfortable distance between them. “Notes?” she repeated blankly.

  He studied her a long moment and then flicked a glance at the envelope she’d pulled out of her bag.

  “Oh. I was just trying to remember what I’d come to town to get. I forgot my list.”

  A slow grin curled his lips. “You’re staying around here, then?”

  Danika blinked at him, mentally kicking herself.

  “Yes,” she mumbled, returning her attention to her project and staring at the paper hard to will her brain to function on a level above ‘female in heat’. The thought had no sooner flickered through her mind than she realized a good part of her jitters was exactly that.

  It stood to reason, she excused herself. They were a damned good looking bunch and they practically wreaked of testosterone. She was a woman, after all, even though that wasn’t something she remembered very often.

  “Is there a particular reason you don’t want to tell us where you’re staying?”

  Danika felt her face heat again. She cleared her throat, searching for something to say that wouldn’t offend.

  “We don’t bite … hard,” Con said with a husky chuckle.

  “Just a little gnawing here and there,” Jared agreed with a wolfish grin.

  “You’re scaring her,” Balin said coldly when she sent the two men a wide eyed look.

  They were all scaring the shit out of her!

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t fear that coiled in her lower belly, generating heat.

  The men tensed at Balin’s rebuke—all of them. Danika flicked uneasy glances from one to another and finally looked at Balin, who seemed to be the focus of their brooding gazes. He’d tensed, as well, but she didn’t think she would’ve noticed if not for the fact that he was touching her. He looked singularly unimpressed by the fact that the other four men radiated hostility and aggression.

  That thought sent a wave of cold through her.

  Alphas, she realized, stunned. That was why she felt so uneasy. It wasn’t just the testosterone level at the table. It was the fact that she’d instinctively registered that all five men were alphas.

  What in the world would bring five such dominant males together?

  She dismissed the possibility that she figured into the equation just as she’d immediately dismissed the suspicion that either Con or Jared were actually flirting with her in reality. More likely, given the way they looked, they were just used to toying with whatever female came within their sphere.

  “No, they’re not,” Danika lied, hoping to diffuse the situation.

  Some of the tension eased from Balin. Amusement and something else she couldn’t quite grasp flickered through his hazel eyes. “No?”

  She offered him a weak smile. “I know they’re just being playful.”

  Dakota snorted, the sound a mixture of repressed amusement and mild annoyance.

  “Con’s right. You are clueless, sweet thing,” he muttered in a rumbling growl of a voice.

  She made the mistake of whirling to look at him when he spoke and discovered he’d shifted a lot closer than she’d realized. He was close enough she could see his eyes were dilated until she could barely discern the difference between the pupils and the thin, golden brown ring around the outer edge.

  Her body, mindless thing that it was, still keyed more to animal instinct than sentient being, reacted with another wave of warmth at the blatant sexual interest in his eyes.

  They must have been on the road a long time, she thought dimly, to have any interest in her.

  Fortunately, the waitress arrived with their food, effectively distracting the men from her and each other.

  “So … you’re not passing through and you haven’t been here long,” Balin said almost conversationally as they focused on their food. “Now I’m wondering what could’ve brought you to this little out of the way hick town.”

  Danika flicked an uncomfortable glance around to see if any of the local ‘hicks’ had taken exception to the comment. It didn’t help her feelings when she noticed a number of people at the surrounding tables seemed to have their ears pricked to listen to the conversation.

  She wasn’t certain why she got that impression. They seemed to be focused on their food and/ or their dining companions, but the impression resisted her efforts to dispel it with reason. “Work,�
�� she said finally.

  His black brows rose questioningly. When she ignored the silent command to continue, he pursued it. “What kind of work?”

  “Oh, you wouldn’t be interested,” Danika said dismissively, not because she was concerned about telling him beyond a reluctance to get acquainted with an obvious gang member but because she doubted he was interested or would be intrigued if she did tell him.

  “Try me.”

  She glanced at him in surprise and then looked around at the others at the table, discovering she had their full attention. Finally, she shrugged. “Wildlife management brought me down … or rather up, I guess since this is north of where I live … because they seem to be having trouble with wolves and I’m the closest they could get to an expert in that field on such short notice.”

  Something flickered in their eyes, but it wasn’t surprise.

  Why weren’t they surprised, she wondered?

  Maybe they didn’t know wolves weren’t natural to the area, but surely they still should’ve been surprised at her vocation?

  Jared, who’d leaned around Balin, studied her speculatively, then flicked an enigmatic look at the others. “I suppose from that,” he drawled after a moment, “that you’re supposed to observe and report back on whether to send trappers or hunters.”

  Surprise flickered through her. “Actually, that’s pretty much it. They weren’t convinced there were wolves. This is a rogue pack—not native to the area and they’ve never had a problem with wolves. Their behavior is pretty peculiar for wolves to say the least.” She shrugged. “Not that I’m really an expert. I was doing a study on wolves in captivity in the Atlanta zoo. I haven’t actually studied them in the wild before … other animals, but not wolves,” she added quickly before they could get the impression that she didn’t have any idea of what she was doing.

  She could only describe the expressions on their faces as grim, which both surprised and disappointed her—the grimness. Bored, wouldn’t have surprised her. People had a way of looking like they were searching for a polite way to scrape her lose the minute she got warmed up about her studies in wildlife.

  “What were you doing the study for in Atlanta?” Dakota asked after an uncomfortable silence had descended at the table.

  “Mating,” she said before she thought better of it. “They’re concerned—the zoo—that the wolves don’t have much interest in it.”