by Sarra Cannon
He gave her a hard look, his eyes dropping to her legs for a moment before turning his attention back to the road. Without a second glance, he reached for the shorts, brushing his rough fingers lightly across the backs of her hands, and placed the fabric across his lap.
“Put the shirt on.”
His voice felt like a reprimand, one that made Sariel’s confidence backslide. Stomach sinking and face burning hotter than before, she did as she was told and pulled on the shirt. There was a hole in the side, small and perfectly round, but at least the fabric covered her to the middle of her thighs. Long and gray and soft, smelling like her mate, the shirt was a simple point of comfort. One she clung to. Once appropriately covered, she turned her body toward the passenger door and did her best to ignore the man less than a foot away. The one she sensed was trying hard to ignore her as well as he tugged the shorts up his long legs while driving.
What seemed like hours later, they pulled up outside a small house on a lakeshore. Her mate let the Jeep slide to a stop out front, and then reached into the glove box to grab what looked like a black cell phone. Before she could ask, he jumped out of the vehicle, leaving her behind. Sariel sat and watched him leave, her heart thumping and her stomach sick. She had no idea where they were and why they weren’t driving father out of the area. And she had no clue how to even speak to a man like her mate.
When the women didn’t follow him, he slowed and turned, raising an eyebrow at Sariel as she waited in the Jeep with Angelita.
“Come.” He motioned for them to follow him.
Sariel crawled down from the huge vehicle, helping Angelita to the ground before walking in his direction. He watched her approach, looking her over, his eyes trailing along her body in a way that was blatantly sexual. The fire in his gaze put her body on alert, making butterflies explode in her stomach. But then he shook his head, furrowing his brow, and Sariel’s excitement crashed back down to earth. Damn, she had no idea how to handle this man.
Without a word, he turned and stalked toward the house. Sariel hurried to keep up with his long stride as Angelita raced past, still in wolf form. He took the three stairs in a single step, his eyes on his phone. Sariel huffed, irritated at his refusal to speak.
“What now?” she asked as she stepped on the porch.
Her mate used a keypad to unlock the front door and led them inside, already listening to the ringing of his phone call. “We hole up and call for backup.”
“We’re not running?”
“If we run, they’ll chase. I’d rather fight them on my terms than theirs.”
Sariel glanced at Angelita, who sat on the floor watching them. Damn, she wanted to trust him, trust the man who’d come to help them, but she also wanted to get far away from this place.
“How can you be sure they’ll follow us here?”
He snorted, not looking at her. “Because you two are here. They’ll come.”
“So we’re bait?” Sariel asked, frustration leaking into her voice. “We’re just going to sit here and wait for them to come and take us again?”
His cool eyes met hers, hard and direct, not a single sign of affection or mate bond present. “They’ll come, and they’ll try to get to the two of you. But they won’t succeed. My orders are clear—save the Omega at all costs.”
“But you’ve already broken your orders,” Sariel whispered, a knot forming in her stomach. “Save the Omega…singular. You brought me along when you should have left me and just taken Angelita. She’s your mission.”
His jaw clenched, a tic forming along the edge. “Strategical decision.”
Sariel crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin, unable to hide the shake in her voice. “And what about me?”
He stared at her for a moment, icy eyes harsh. Unwavering, unemotional…and uninterested. “You’re not part of the plan.”
Chapter 9
Bez watched his mate’s face fall, an unfamiliar sensation in his gut telling him something he’d done had caused her pain. He hated that look, the way her eyes went dark and flat, and how her spark disappeared. It made her seem almost dead inside. And though he didn’t know exactly how he’d messed up, the last thing Bez wanted was to see her dead in any way.
He searched for the words that would fix his mistake, that would take that look off her face, but he had none. And by the way her shoulders rolled forward in defeat, she knew it. Damn it, why did he have to find her now? After all the years alone, centuries upon centuries of living the life of a nomad with his Dire Wolf brothers, he stumbled upon his mate in the middle of a fucking mission. He couldn’t have prepared for this.
After a long, tense moment, the woman took a deep breath and lifted her chin, almost challenging him. Bez’s wolf perked up, eyeing her, waiting to see what she had planned. She gave Bez a hard look, one that made his wolf whine inside his head. One that made his blood rush south to his neglected cock.
“I need to take a shower,” she said, her voice firm.
Bez felt his eyebrows furrow. He wanted to ask her what he’d done wrong and how to fix it, but he stayed silent. Instead, he pointed toward the back of the house. The woman nodded once, glanced at the wolf at his side, and strode down the hall toward the bathroom. He watched her go, a sense of dread knotting his gut and telling him he’d just made a huge mistake. Not a familiar feeling for him.
The wolf at his side, the Omega named Angelita, whined as she watched her friend leave.
“She wants to bathe,” Bez said, frowning at how unnecessary the words were. “I have no idea what just happened.”
Angelita chuffed, an almost mocking sound, which seemed fitting considering the situation.
“What?” Bez asked. “Am I supposed to know what’s going on in that woman’s head?”
Angelita didn’t answer. Instead, the wolf hopped on the couch and waited, watching him, making Bez feel somehow expected to do…something. When he didn’t move, she barked. Bez growled in response, his own wolf forcing his human spirit aside. The shewolf wagged her tail and perked her ears as she waited, the picture of youthful ignorance. If she knew the kind of man he was, the things he’d done over the years, she wouldn’t want him anywhere near her. But right then, she did.
Bez approached the couch with caution, his steps slow. He wasn’t afraid of the little wolf, but she made him feel off-balance, just as his mate did. That sensation was something he didn’t like, something he was unaccustomed to experiencing. He treated the women as if they were dangerous, and wasn’t that just a mind fuck. A tiny teenage shewolf and his own mate, dangerous to him.
With more care than probably necessary considering the small build of the girl, Bez lowered himself to the couch, leaving lots of space between himself and Angelita. She shuffled closer, making soft, chuffing noises. Bez growled back, his wolf uncertain if her actions were some kind of challenge or not.
When her nose hit his thigh, Bez huffed. “If you have something to say, Omega, shift back and say it.”
The wolf froze, staring at him deep and hard for a moment before she dropped her eyes. Bez could almost feel the sadness pouring off her, the desperation. His wolf surged forward, seeing her as something to guard and protect. More so than just in the context of following Blaze’s orders. He suddenly saw her as pack, which threw Bez even more off-balance. He wasn’t a protector. He was a hunter, a tracker, and an assassin. His idea of keeping the Omega safe had been to lock her in the safe room and wait until someone else could deal with her. Now he had two Omegas on his hands, and he couldn’t imagine leaving either of them alone.
Unsure what to do next, Bez said the only words he could think of. “You can’t shift back, can you?”
Angelita shook her head and whimpered. Bez lifted his hand, his movements unsteady and awkward. This wasn’t his thing… He didn’t touch. He didn’t feel. He didn’t… Without allowing himself time to think his actions through, he brought his hand around to the back of Angelita’s neck. And he rubbed.
�
�It’s okay,” he said, staring at the way his fingers moved in her fur. Wondering when the last time he’d voluntarily touched someone other than in a formal greeting had been. “Those first shifts can be brutal. I couldn’t shift at will until I was nineteen. Before that, every shift my father forced upon me was painful and seemed to take forever.”
The girl watched him with her wide eyes. Waiting for something he couldn’t identify. Bez’s massage faltered, his mouth going dry. Fuck, what was he supposed to say? The Omega lay there looking at him, not giving him any clue as to what she wanted. Bez hated not knowing the next step in a plan. Hated it so much, he refused to live that way. But damn, the two Omegas had thrown his world completely upside down in the course of just one evening. And the night wasn’t over yet.
Sighing, rubbing his free hand over his head, he surrendered to those deep, dark eyes staring up at him. “You’ll shift back when you’re ready. You’re still too young yet to deal with the pressure I put on you. I…shouldn’t have forced you to shift that way.”
As Bez fell silent, he found himself staring down the hall where his mate had disappeared. Angelita must have felt more comfortable with his silence than his words. She inched closer, curling up next to him with her head on his knee. Bez kept his fingers buried in her fur, the close proximity of another shifter calming the confusion in his mind. The comfort soothed him, lulled him into a state of emotion he had never experienced. Without his mate in the room, he clung to Angelita like a lifeline.
“Did I mess something up?” he whispered.
Angelita sniffed, an agreeable sound.
Bez swallowed, listening to the sounds coming from down the hall. The water falling and meeting skin, the splash of something against tile. The noises that came from his mate as she bathed.
His mate…
“I don’t know how to do this.” Bez licked his lips, fighting to get the words out. “I’ve never done anything like this. Ever. She’s…”
He couldn’t say it, couldn’t tell Angelita he’d found his mate before he said the words to his actual mate. A woman whose name he didn’t yet know.
“Oh, shit.” Bez dropped his head back, rubbing a rough hand over his shorn head. He hadn’t asked her name, and he certainly hadn’t offered his. True, he’d made sure to save her along with Angelita, purely for selfish reasons if he were being honest, but he hadn’t treated her as a mate should. He hadn’t made things easier on her or offered her a single piece of himself. He hadn’t even told her his name.
But the danger hadn’t subsided, and he was still thinking like a soldier, not a mate. The threat of a hunting werewolf on a full moon was a real one, particularly for the women. Bez knew the men from the camp would come, dragging the beast along with them. They’d try to control it, to keep it away from the Omega and send it after his mate. A woman they saw as disposable. That thought made his blood boil and his wolf snarl viciously in his head. His mate was no more disposable than he was, and he’d prove it to anyone who dared treat her otherwise. But he’d need help to eliminate the threat.
“Fuck.” Bez threw his head back and pulled his phone from the pocket of his shorts. He’d never made this kind of call, never asked for help beyond the plan from his team. Not until now. Not until he started working outside of his orders.
His fingers flew over the screen as he dialed the number from memory. Carefully, he lifted Angelita’s muzzle off his thigh, letting it fall back to the seat of the couch as he stood up. He paced around the room, a caged animal wanting to be let loose. He needed to move, to hunt. He did not need to sit still.
Bez stalked across the floor as he waited for Dante to pick up, growling low and steady. This had to work. There was nothing more he could do, not on his own. He had a job to do in keeping Angelita safe from harm, but he had a personal responsibility to his mate as well. Both women were his to care for, and he couldn’t do it alone. He needed help to keep both women safe.
After what seemed like a hundred rings, Dante’s voice came through the other end. “What’s the news, Bez?”
“Change in plans.”
Dante’s pause would have been almost unnoticeable to anyone else, but Bez had worked closely with him and Blaze for a long time. That pause might as well have been a scream.
“What’s the situation?” Dante asked, his voice a bit lower.
“Four shifters heading our way, plus a werewolf on the hunt.”
“Ah, fuck.” The click of Dante’s keyboard sounded like automatic gunfire in the distance, his fingers obviously flying fast over the keys. “How much time?”
“Couple of hours at most.”
“Damn it, Beelzebub. You’re not giving us a lot of options.”
Bez squeezed his eyes shut. “I know, sir.”
“You have a place to hole up?”
“The lake house outside of Port Barre. There’s an arsenal and a safe room. I hate to use it, but it’ll work to keep the were away from—” Bez took a deep breath “—the Omegas.”
The silence on the other end lasted far longer than Dante’s original pause, not something anyone would miss. Bez knew the information that there were two Omegas involved would shock the shifter.
After almost twenty seconds of stunned silence, Dante growled, “What do you mean, Omegas? Please tell me you misspoke.”
Bez made another pass around the room, slowing slightly. “There were two Omegas at the camp, sir.”
Dante cursed low and guttural. “And you took them both with you?”
“Yes, sir.”
More silence. Bez’s head shot up as the shower turned off, his ears perking at the scratch of a towel against skin. His mate would be finished soon, and he still had no idea what to say to her. Angelita hopped off the couch and walked down the hall, leaving Bez to his phone call. He listened as she padded into the back bedroom and jumped on the bed, the mattress creaking under even her slight weight. He’d need to move her upstairs soon, into the cold, steel box that could keep her alive in the event the were got past him, but he could allow her to sleep downstairs in a comfortable bed for now. If he kept his wolf closer to the surface, he’d hear the threat of the men and their beast coming long before they hit the property.
“Do we know which pack Omega two belongs to?” Dante asked, drawing Bez’s attention back to the conversation.
“No, sir.”
“Does she match the descriptions of any of the missing Omegas reported?”
“No, sir.”
“Have you questioned her?”
“No, sir.”
“How do you know she’s not a threat?”
Bez paused, listening as his mate padded across the tile floor of the bathroom. The soldier in him said to give Dante all the details, to tell him he’d found his mate in the second Omega. But again, Bez didn’t want to say the words for the first time unless they were to her. Something in him, some deep and nearly dead place inside, told him that was the right thing to do. To tell others instead of her would be disrespectful to her and to the sanctity of the mating claim. And if there was one thing a Dire Wolf understood, it was the importance of respect.
So Bez took a breath, he focused on the sound of the woman who’d just opened the bathroom door, and he withheld information from Dante for the first time since they’d started working together.
“I just do, sir.”
Chapter 10
Sariel stayed under the pulsing heat of the shower for as long as she dared, letting the hot water wash away the filth that covered her body. She wondered if there were a way to wash away the bad memories as well. For two months, she’d been kept captive in that hell of a houseboat, half of the time alone and terrified. Hell, if she were completely honest, she’d spent every damned second terrified. And though she wanted to believe that part of her life was over, she doubted. Those men were still out there, coming for her and Angelita. The only thing standing in the way being her mate.
Her mate…ugh.
The shower may have left her
feeling refreshed, but it did little to soothe her splintered ego. Her mate was not good with words, that much was blatantly obvious. When he said she wasn’t part of the plan, Sariel thought her heart would break. She thought he could possibly regret bringing her with him. But as the water swirling down the drain went from black to gray to clear, so did her insecurities. No matter how little they knew each other, they were now tied together in a way most shifters dreamed about. She needed to pull up her big-girl panties, nonexistent as they were, and face down the beast so she could find out where she stood.
She was going to have to actually speak to her mate.
“It’s just talking,” Sariel whispered into the spray, letting the water drown her words. Stomach rolling at the thought of how badly this could go, she reluctantly turned off the taps. A chill set in fast, her body overheated from the shower, but she didn’t move. Instead, she stood with her hands braced on the tile wall, not ready to leave the safety of the steamy bathroom.
Finally, Sariel huffed and dragged open the glass door. She couldn’t hide forever. She dried off quickly and threw on the T-shirt she’d acquired in the Jeep, the little round hole sitting almost perfectly at the top of her hip. A perfect circle, darkened around the edges. So very odd if only in its perfection. She stuck her finger through the hole and wiggled it, contemplating why the man would keep a shirt with a hole in it. Sentimental reasons? He didn’t seem much like the sentimental sort, but it was always a possibility. Some kind of memory tied to it? Good or bad, that might be a reason to keep it. Or was he simply someone who refused to give up on things, who saw the flaws as minor?
Sariel sighed. She was putting way too much thought into a simple T-shirt with a hole in it. She needed to quit stalling. After one more moment staring at a damned hole, she tossed her head back and looked at herself in the steamy mirror.