Her Wanted Wolf

by Renee Michaels

  She looked up at him, her eyes snapping with excitement. “He was here not too long ago. I think we just missed him. We have his distinctive scent. It will take no time to separate the old from the new vapors once we step outside, but I won’t lose him now. We can track him, let’s go.” Sabine tugged at his arm and pulled him back outside.

  With the bit between her teeth, Sabine set off at a fast clip. He didn’t have to shorten his gait for her to keep up. They walked briskly for a couple of blocks before she started to veer to the left, but he pulled her to a stop.

  “The Redmaven hideout is straight ahead,” Sabine stopped and stared ahead of them.

  Oh yeah, he could almost taste them.

  “Well, the werekin we’re trailing went in the opposite direction.” She tilted her head in the direction she wanted to go. “We could head for the den, but I say we follow the strongest indicator of Aimee’s presence.”

  Torn, Drew hesitated. He looked at the silent Rafe passing a keen eye over the streets. “Rafe, we’re going to split up.”

  “Not a good idea. The place is swarming with those mutts.”

  “Don’t you think I can cover your butt?” Ishbel taunted. “We’ve passed several Redmavens, and not once did they take a second look at us.”

  “Yeah, it’s the damnedest thing, isn’t it? I still expect one of the Redmavens to catch our scent and come at us, claws out.” Rafe looked around, wariness in every line of his body.

  Ishbel shook her head. “Never happen, apart for the fact they don’t smell us, they can’t really see us, we blend in. They’re hunting, but there is no structure to it, like they’re chasing their tails,” Ishbel mused out loud.

  “I noticed that,” Sabine agreed. “It’s as if they’re searching for someone specific.”

  “In which case they are distracted. It’d be the perfect time to slip under their radar, get up real close, and squirrel out the weaknesses. That is…if there was a wolf with the cojones to do it.” Drew let the challenge hang in the air.

  Rafe snorted, “Man, that shit didn’t work with me when we were kids, and it sure as hell won’t work now. I’m doing it because it’s what you want me to, but if anything happens to you, I’m taking a hank out of your hide, before Gustav skins my ass.”

  “I’ll have to be careful then, won’t I? Get a read on the den, number of exits, its defensibility, and if at all possible, a head count.” The sun was three quarters of the way done with its daily journey across the sky. Drew figured they had three hours of daylight left before darkness fell. The werekin would shift and prowl in their base form. They’d be at their most dangerous.

  “Sabine and I will follow the were with Aimee’s scent on him. After you garner as much info as you can, head back to the car and leave the area. Turn your phone on then, I’ll text you and let you know where to pick us up. Watch over Ishbel.”

  “No hardship to keep an eye on her pretty butt,” Rafe quipped, and received a sneer in return. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss on her temple, then urged her down the street away from Drew and Sabine.

  Ishbel shrugged off his arm and marched down the road with Rafe a step behind her. “I can take care of myself.”

  “My primo likes to live dangerously. She is going to castrate him one day.” Drew watched the bickering couple disappear around a corner.

  “I’m not so sure. If she really found him objectionable, he wouldn’t get his hands on her,” Sabine sniffed the air and sighed. “Rain is coming.”

  “Summertime in the south, honey, a shower of rain every afternoon and then you steam in the damp heat.” Looping his arm around her waist, they jaywalked across the road. The scent trail of the were they traced ebbed and flowed like the tides. Sabine paused, considered, grinned ferociously, and forged on.

  A were walked out of the alleyway ahead of then. He did a quick visual surveillance to the left and right, before he slunk back into the passage.

  “The watch has increased,” Sabine murmured, not at all concerned.

  Drew shortened his long ground-eating stride to an easy amble. His instinct was to pause and mark the position of the shifter before they walked past the yawning mouth of the side street.

  Sabine tugged on his sleeve, the expression in her eyes demanded that he trust her. Gritting his teeth, Drew forced himself not to reconnoiter the shadowy lane. He hated leaving his back vulnerable to an attack.

  She stalked forward confidently, dragging him along.

  The docks were two blocks ahead of them. The water had taken on a grey hue and crested in pissy swells, very much like his mood. Sabine skipped along by his side, led by the short sharp sniffs she took every few feet.

  “It’s him.”

  “What?” Confused by her question, he looked down at her.

  “It’s him, the were with Aimee’s spoor on him. They’re tracking him. That’s why he’s going around in circles. The only reason to do that is to throw someone off your trail. There is no doubt in my mind that he’s the reason for the posting of men all over the area. He’s heading in that direction.” She pointed straight ahead, to the docks.

  Drew bared his teeth. “Let’s go say hello.”

  “Just don’t kill him until he at least tells us where Aimee is.”

  “Whatever gave you the idea that I want to rip his throat out before I hang him up by the scrotum?” The bland tone belied the fierce lethality of his words.

  Sabine rolled her eyes. “I see you haven’t put much thought into it.”

  They covered the next two blocks in a short time and stood on the sidewalk across from a marina. The were was near, but Drew couldn’t pinpoint his exact location.

  “We’re going to lose him. The wind speed is rising.”

  “No we won’t. He’s here.”

  And Sabine was right. The scent of the wolf carrying his sister’s essence slapped Drew in the face the second he walked onto the sidewalk facing the ocean. Then Drew saw him. He was big. One of the steroid-fed Redmavens, and he’d have been brutal with Aimee.

  Drew’s body vibrated with a righteous thirst for revenge. Two city blocks stood between him and the son-of-a-bitch who had no idea his worst nightmare was about to bury his fangs into his jugular.

  The were studied the street in the opposite direction from them. When he turned his head to check the side of the street they were on, their gazes collided. In his eyes Drew saw surprise, recognition, and most confusingly, relief.

  Drew shrugged off Sabine’s restraining hand and charged at the were. The fucker must have a pair of balls the size of cantaloupes because he loped in Drew’s direction with an inexplicable eagerness.

  The stink of burning rubber and the reek of Bardo Redmaven blanketed the area.

  “Shit.” The were with his sister’s scent on him ran into the road, dodging the oncoming traffic. He raced down a short jetty, hopped into an inflatable boat, fired up the outboard motor, and cast off.

  Bardo mounted the sidewalk by the quay with the truck, sending people scrambling for safety. He and a dozen of his minions hopped on to the pavement. His inimical stare was riveted to Drew’s target.

  “You took something of mine, Micah. I’m here to retrieve it.”

  Micah. Drew had the name of the man who carried his sister’s scent.

  “Kidnapping someone doesn’t make them yours.” The boat drifted away from the dock, putting a slice of choppy water between Bardo and his mutinous pack mate.

  “I’m the Redmaven alpha. Heel like the mutt you are and take what’s coming to you,” Bardo raged impotently.

  Micah laughed. If Drew didn’t want to kill him, he would’ve applauded the cocky were for figuratively giving Bardo the finger.

  There was not a dammed thing Bardo could do and he knew it. Unfortunately, neither could he. More curious onlookers came to see what the fuss was about, and shit, someone had called the cops. Sirens screamed in the distance.

  “You are an alpha who’s lost control of his pack
,” Micah shouted. Bardo bristled at the taunt. “You can accept my challenge for the leadership right here. Should be quite a show.” His eyes flicked over the growing crowd. Micah’s eyes met Drew’s over Bardo’s shoulder. “And just so you know, I keep what’s mine, safe.”

  It was a message for him, and Drew flashed fangs at Micah. The cocky fuck grinned at him, revved the motor, and skimmed away over the white-capped ripples.

  Drew forced himself not to react when Bardo spun around to see what Micah found so interesting behind him. He scrutinized the crowd. His gaze swept over them, but swung back to rivet on Sabine, a millisecond before his gaze met Drew’s through the smoky plastic of the lens of the sunglasses.

  Bardo’s eyes flared with feral triumph. The elemental urge to take on Bardo made him take a step forward, before the instinct to see to the safety of his mate took over. He had to get Sabine the hell away from there.

  “Shit, we’ve been spotted made.” He gripped Sabine’s elbow, pulled her through the press of human bodies, and hustled her back up the street they came from.

  Drew did a visual search to locate an open back door or an askew barrier in a boarded-up building. Anything that would serve as a hidey-hole.

  Were musk clouded the air, bringing with it a sense of imminent danger. The thud of running feet on hard unyielding concrete told him it was a matter of minutes before the Redmavens would spot them. Bardo’s men couldn’t track them by smell, but they were recognizable now that they had a description.

  There were Redmavens ahead of them, and, from the growing strength in the spoor coming at them from behind, more were rushing up from the rear.

  His valiant mate tensed beside him, braced for an attack.

  They were up a creek without a paddle and another she-wolf was on the cusp of being taken on his watch.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Sabine’s hand tightened around his, her nails dug into his palm, pulling him out from the web of nightmarish thoughts tangling his mind. Drew looked down to her emotions roiling in her eyes, they’d turned a stormy blue to show her worry and anger.

  “We’re close, Drew. Don’t let the Redmaven alpha’s presence scatter your focus. He took Aimee, and he forced me to abandon my home. Let’s mess with his head as much as we can.”

  The gleam in her eyes made him wary. She looked like she wanted to kick some ass.

  “What are you up to now?”

  She grinned evilly and wrapped her arm around his waist. “Diffusing spoor, ours and theirs. Bardo won’t be able to smell even the sweat on his scrotum as long as he is within a five-mile radius around us.”

  Drew had to stifle a laugh. “Sweat on his scrotum?”

  “Good one, huh. I’ve notice you include some reference of some body parts, particularly genitals, when you refer to your enemies.” Obviously pleased with herself, she nodded with satisfaction. “I am also sending a message to Ishbel to let her know we might have a problem.”

  “Might? Bardo is practically breathing down our necks.”

  “Tsk. He can’t hold his pack and you expect me to be intimidated by him. You are the better leader. You will triumph,” she said with conviction; a balm after his self-flagellation.

  Drew would hate to shatter her faith in him and prove her wrong. He’d better hustle and get her out of the area as fast as he could. “Come on, let’s get a move on.”

  She skipped to keep up with his long strides. “Cut right, they’re coming from the left.”

  They rounded a corner and he all but frog-marched her along the pavement.

  “We need to find a place to hide.”

  “If you were alone would you have concealed yourself?” The irritation in her voice took him by surprise.

  “Nope.” Drew pulled her across the street, and without exchanging a word they picked up their pace. He could almost feel Bardo’s teeth on his neck.

  A new hunt was on and he and his mate were the prey. The primal rhythm in the air shifted, from a hunt of retribution for a mutinous pack mate, to one that would define the status of the Redmaven pack, by subduing a sworn enemy.

  Bardo might just be desperate enough to come at him here regardless of the crowded streets. If these people going about their business had any inkling of what was about to go down, they’d scatter like chickens with a fox in their coop.

  “Then what you’re saying is, I’m preventing you from doing what you would have done to evade the Redmavens?”

  Drew ignored the softly worded question. They had bigger problems than Sabine’s bruised pride. Christ, the street seemed to have too many people all of a sudden. Too many eyes and ears.

  “No, I’m not taking any chances with you.” He took a quick survey of the area, chose the store with the fewest customers, ducked into it, and pulled Sabine in behind him. Drew found a spot behind a bank of shelves in the corner nearest to the window. It concealed them, but gave him a clear view of both sides the roadway.

  “Exactly what would your plan have been?” She stood on her toes to peer over the display.

  “Take a few of those fuckers out, to mess with Bardo.” The truck he’d seen Bardo leap out of earlier rolled past, stopped to let out several weres on the corner farther down on the street. He recognized and knew a few of the men. They’d kicked his ass before he grew into his paws. They dispersed, leaving behind two pups he didn’t know.

  “Fuck it to hell, Bardo’s setting up a grid.” He looked for the back door, spotted the exit and restroom signs over the opening of a hallway at the back of the room. “Come on, let’s go this way, there’s the back door. We’ll have to grab some sort of transportation for concealment and speed. We are going to have to be quick and lucky. If we could put a hole in the dragnet, it’d make our escape easier.”

  “We’ll follow your plan. What do you say we lessen his fore-fighter by a few weres?” She marched over to the doorway and poked her head through the front door.

  His knees turned to Jell-O. Fury and disbelief at her audacity raced through him like a wild fire.

  “Sabine, get back here!” His harsh demand had the men in the store turning their heads in his direction.

  Through the plate glass fronting the store, Drew saw her flash a smile at the weres. His nose twitched, and his body reacted to the thin, focused stream of pheromones she aimed at the two weres.

  His cock hardened to a painful rigidity. A primitive wave of possessiveness flushed through his system. Her mating lure shouldn’t be shared. He considered it his and his alone.

  What the hell was she doing? The idea was not to dangle irresistible bait in front of their pursuers. He was going to tan her behind the first chance he got.

  Sabine stepped back into the store and sauntered past him as the two weres bolted into the shop. They lifted their head, sniffed, and located Sabine by her scent as she meandered through the aisles. Fixated on securing the she-wolf, they moved past the aisle where he stood, without sparing him a glance.

  Sabine looked over her shoulder, her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open as if she were surprised and apprehensive. With self-satisfied smirks, the weres separated, obviously thinking they’d move on Sabine from two directions.

  Good luck with that, Drew couldn’t believe they fell for it. She skipped deeper into the maze of shelves and Drew lost sight of her, but not for one moment was he not aware of exactly where she was.

  Well hell, they left their backs unprotected, how stupid was that. He smelled their youth, the need to prove themselves, and their foolish belief that Sabine would be easy to take. It made them reckless. Poor saps, they were so screwed.

  Drew located the non-weres in the room and marked their positions. On silent feet, he stalked the preoccupied Redmavens.

  Sabine looked back and their eyes met, she gave him a slight nod. His mate danced to the mouth of the hallway below the red exit sign and slipped into it. It was empty of any human emissions.

  As expected, the weres followed Sabine like fish with hooks in their mout
hs. Pity he couldn’t put them down permanently. Still, he’d have the satisfaction of incapacitating them for a couple of hours.

  Drew sidled into the corridor and lost his scent of smell. Affected by Sabine’s drawing off the fragrances in the area, the weres shook their heads to clear them. Using their momentary disorientation, Drew rammed the sharp point of his elbow into the carotid of the were nearest to him. The low grunt he let out as he fell unconscious alerted his partner. The other Redmaven spun around. Sabine leapt on his back. He tried to shake her off, but she wrapped her legs around his torso and wrenched his head back, cutting off his air supply. He slumped to the floor, taking Sabine down with him.

  Drew glanced over his shoulder. Their good fortune held. Nobody strolled past the door-less passageway. He pushed open the washroom door and it banged against the wall. A hollow echo reverberated through the room, a sound particular to public restrooms. Sliding his arms under the unconscious were’s armpits, Drew hauled him backward into one of the stalls. He perched him on the commode and wedged the pliant body into the corner to ensure he’d remain upright. He exited the stall and shut the door to see Sabine struggling to drag the second wolf into the bathroom by his feet.

  “He would be easier to move if you lifted him by his upper body.”

  She wrinkled her nose with disdain. “I’m not putting my forearms under his pits. He reeks, and I don’t want to carry the spoor of a Redmaven on me.”

  Hoisting the second were into another cubicle, Drew allowed the door to swing shut. He took Sabine by the upper arms, hustled her out of the bathroom, down the short passage leading to the exit, and pushed her up against the wall by the back door.

  With his face inches from hers he snarled, “Don’t you ever pull some shit like that again. I aged ten years.”

  Not in the least bit intimidated by him, she leaned in until their noses almost touched. “We reduced Bardo’s men by two. I did what needed to be done.”