by Dena Christy
“A few days, why?”
“Because if he’s here, there may be more to follow. We’ll need to get out of town. I can take you to the complex in my car, and you can pick up your truck once you and Samara finish the mission.”
This was the last thing Eric had expected him to say. He’d been half expecting Alex to suggest they go after the wolf right now, turning this little meeting into some kind of trap. He hadn’t figured on Alex wanting to take them to the compound, but what he said made sense. If there were more wolves out there, he needed to get Samara out of town tomorrow. Eric was not the type to run from his enemies, but he had more than himself to consider now.
“Call me if you have any trouble,” Eric said as he gave Alex his cell number.
He turned and walked down the street toward where he and Samara were staying. He didn’t want to worry about wolves right now. His woman needed seducing, and he was going to relish every moment of it.
ALEX STOOD IN THE SHADOWS, the glowing tip of his cigarette illuminating his face as he waited for his prey to leave the boarding house. His lackey had been careless, and he’d brought his fate upon himself. Like Gordon Lahey before him, he needed to die.
Alex watched as the man came out of the house, then flicked his cigarette away. His quarry turned, and a look of relief came over his face.
“Oh, it’s you, Alex. For a minute I thought it was the other wolf here in town.”
“Take a walk with me,” Alex said as he made his way down the street. His companion trusted him, and he followed, and Alex knew he had him. Trust no one was a rule he lived by and it had held him in good stead. Eventually they reached the field on the outskirts of town, and Alex knew it was time to strike.
“I’m going for a run. Keep an eye on things here for me, make sure no one sees me?” Alex asked as he stripped off his shirt.
“Sure, no problem.”
Alex stripped out of the rest of his clothes and shifted into his wolf form. Before his prey had time to blink, Alex leaped at him and ripped out his jugular. As his victim bled out on the grass, Alex bit him in several other places to make it look like an animal had savaged him.
He turned back to his human form and frowned as he used his shirt to wipe the blood from his face and chest. Killing had been worth the bloodied shirt, he decided. This idiot had almost killed something precious to his plans and he could not have allowed him to live. He had disobeyed orders to watch Eric and Samara only when he had tampered with the brakes on their vehicle.
Fortunately for all of them, the demoness had not died. Now that she had turned, she was valuable to their cause. She would be prime breeding stock for their new army. The time of the wolf was rising, and soon they would be unstoppable.
CHAPTER 14
Samara sighed as she floated in the realm between dreams and waking. She could feel a finger trailing down her nose, and tried to bat it away, wanting just five more minutes of sleep.
“Come on, beautiful. It’s time to get up,” a gravelly voice said beside her and she smiled against her pillow. She would never tire of waking up next to him, of his voice being the first thing she heard in the morning.
She rolled over onto her back and looked up at him. The scruff from a day’s beard growth gave him an untamed appearance, which would never stop causing her heart to beat faster. How could she have gotten so lucky to have this man come into her life?
“What are you thinking about?” he asked as he leaned down to kiss her lips, his touch soft.
“You,” she said, pulling his head down to deepen the kiss. He drew back and smiled at her.
“Baby, I’d love for this to go further, but we have to get ready to go. The wolf who tampered with our breaks is in town, and we have to get out of here. Alex has offered to take us to the compound in his car.”
She nodded, a little disappointed that they couldn’t make love again. It didn’t seem to matter how many times she’d been intimate with him, she wanted more. Even after all the loving he’d given her last night.
It didn’t take long for them to get ready to go. After they’d packed their things, they enjoyed a full breakfast prepared by their hostess.
Samara watched Eric phone Alex to let him know they were ready to go. His face was set in tense lines as he talked. Eric had trust issues, which wasn’t surprising considering his past. She hoped he had grown to trust her at least.
“He’ll be here in a few minutes,” he said as he slipped his cell phone in the pocket of his jacket. He came to stand beside her on the porch.
Samara’s breath caught at the sight of him standing there in the early morning sun. He hadn’t shaved this morning, and the light glinted off his stubbled cheeks. He squinted against the brightness of the light as he stared up the road, his eyes crinkling at the corners. She couldn’t stop herself from looking at him, from drinking in the sight of him. It was almost as if she was trying to capture the hard planes of his face, to store it away in her memories of their time together. She didn’t think he noticed her gaze, but when he reached out and took her hand she knew he had.
“You look worried,” she said when he turned to face her.
“I am. I would rather wait to use our truck, so we can go to the compound on our own. I don’t like involving him.”
“Eric, Alex is part of the Order. It’s better to have someone else watching our backs since we don’t know what we are going to face when we get to the compound. We can trust him. I’ve known him for years.”
“I knew my brother my entire life, and it still didn’t stop him from betraying me.”
Samara was silent, not knowing what to say to him. There was no denying the truth of what he said. She didn’t know how to convince him that Alex was one of the good guys. He was a member of the Order, and the consequences for betraying the Order were steep. Once you accepted the mark of the Order, if you betrayed your blood oath, death awaited you.
Eric sighed, and she felt him squeeze her hand. “Just promise me you’ll be careful.”
“We’ll both be careful,” she replied, lifting his hand to place a kiss on the back of it.
Alex pulled up in his car, and the two of them got in, with Eric choosing to sit in the back. She could feel the tension radiating off him in waves.
They drove in silence for several hours. Samara’s restlessness grew as the tension between the two men became almost unbearable. She was grateful when Alex stopped at a service station to get gas. She decided to go to the bathroom to get away from them, and hoped they didn’t kill each other before she got back.
“I DON’T like going into this situation any more than you do,” Alex said as he pumped gas into the tank. Eric looked over at him, careful to keep his expression neutral. At least it was neutral; his lips were set in a firm line, sure, but it was a far sight better than pulled back and snarling, which is what he longed to do.. He’d noticed the way Alex watched Samara, his eyes just a little too hungry for Eric’s liking.
“And why is that?”
“This isn’t the type of mission Samara is usually sent on. Her skills are much more specialized. She’s the one you send in when you want someone killed.”
“She already told me she’s an assassin,” Eric said. The warm woman he held in his arms and made love to at night didn’t seem like a cold-blooded assassin. “She doesn’t look like a killer.”
“I know, that’s what makes her so good. They never see it coming. She gets her target in her thrall, and there is nothing that can save him from her. She’s an expert at what she does.”
Eric didn’t say anything else. Samara come back from the bathroom and try as he might, he could not see a vicious killer in the woman coming toward him.
“I’m sure she can handle herself when we get to the compound. She’s had dealings with the wolves injected with Horn’s formula. She had to kill one recently so I’m sure she will be fine,” Alex said as he removed the nozzle from the gas tank and put it back into the pump.
Eric felt col
dness creep into his stomach at Alex’s words. He didn’t know why the other wolf felt it necessary to tell him about Samara killing one of Horn’s men. He tried to dismiss the words from his mind, wondering if Alex was trying to drive a wedge between them. That had to be it.
THEY STOPPED at a motel for the night, in a little town three hours away from the compound. Alex made a good point that they wanted to have a good night’s rest before they had to face Horn at the compound. Eric and Samara would rent a car and go to the compound separately from Alex, so as not to arouse suspicion. Alex had revealed that he was the member of the Order assigned to observe Horn at his complex.
Eric and Samara walked into their room together and put their bags down.
“I’ll be so glad when this is over, if only so I can sleep in my own bed and not in another motel room. Won’t you be glad to get back home?” Samara asked as she turned to Eric.
“I don’t have a home, so I’m used to this. The house we went to that night belongs to my brother Rowan. I haven’t had a home of my own in six years.”
“What do you mean? Where have you lived?”
“I go where the work is, and I go to different oil rigs out west. The companies either have camps we live in or they rent us hotel rooms. It never made sense to get a house.”
“It must have gotten lonely for you, though?”
“You get used to it,” he said, shrugging as he made his way to the bathroom.
Samara frowned at the closed bathroom door. Eric seemed much cooler and more distant tonight than he had this morning. She wondered what could have wrought such a change in him. Perhaps it was going to the compound and facing Horn tomorrow that was making him revert to his old self.
She got dressed for bed while she waited for Eric to finish in the bathroom. When he came out she went in and cleaned up. When she was done in the bathroom, the lights were out and Eric was already in bed.
She eased into the bed beside him and moved over close to him. He pulled away and moved over, closer to the edge. It was almost like that first night they’d shared a bed in their motel room.
“Eric, what’s wrong?” she asked, at a loss to explain his attitude.
“I’m just tired, and we have to have our wits about us tomorrow so we need a good night’s sleep.”
“Are you sure that’s all?” Samara had a feeling he wasn’t being honest with her, but all she could do was hope he would tell her the truth.
“That’s all. Good night, Samara,” Eric said as he rolled over to face away from her.
“Good night, Eric,” she said, turning her back to him. She lay like that for a long time, wondering what they would face tomorrow. Whatever the outcome, at least this mission would soon finish. She hoped she and Eric could move past it once it was all over.
CHAPTER 15
Ryan Connelly sat in the guard booth at the gate of the Horn compound. There wasn’t much going on tonight, just as it’d been quiet almost every night since he’d come here. When Cadric had assigned him to go under cover at the complex he’d expected things to be much more exciting. Thus far nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
He was about to start reading a book when he saw headlights approaching up the road. He’d been expecting a member of the Order for several days and he wondered if it was her. He’d never met her, but he’d seen her picture. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, which stood to reason since she was a succubus.
When the car stopped at the guard booth, the window rolled down to reveal a lone man. A werewolf, in fact, who didn’t look familiar to Ryan.
“I’m here to see James Horn, he’s expecting me. My name’s Alex Tremblay.”
Ryan phoned up to the house and it did appear that the wolf was expected. Something about his name rang a bell with Ryan but he could not place it. As he pushed the button to open the gate, his gut was telling him that something was amiss. Where had he heard that name before?
He thought about it for several minutes, about to pick up his book, when it came to him and adrenaline spiked through his body. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Cadric’s office number. Since his boss was a workaholic, chances were good that he was in the office.
“Sir, did you send Alex Tremblay to Horn’s compound?”
“No. He’s supposed to be on leave of absence to take care of a family emergency.”
“That’s funny, because I saw him drive in here not five minutes ago.”
Ryan heard Cadric curse before he spoke again. “Has Samara arrived yet?”
“No sir. I’ve checked the logs for the past few days, and there has been no sign of her or the wolf she’s traveling with.”
“I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I intend to find out.”
“What do I do about Tremblay?”
“Nothing. Let’s see how this plays out.”
Ryan heard the click in his ear as Cadric disconnected the call. He had a feeling that things were about to get exciting around here.
THE FOLLOWING MORNING Samara and Eric made their way to their rental car. It seemed Eric had gotten over whatever was bothering him the night before. While he wasn’t as easy with her as he had been, he was at least looking at her and speaking to her in more than monosyllables.
“Are you nervous?” he asked as he started the car.
“A little. I don’t like not knowing what we are getting into. And since someone doesn’t want us to go to the compound at all, I’d be a fool not to go in with a healthy sense of caution.”
“Do you think Horn is responsible for the attack on you and tampering with our brakes?”
“He seems like the most likely choice. I don’t know how he knew we were coming. Few people in the Order know about this mission.”
“If your organization was able to get someone into his compound, couldn’t he get someone inside yours?”
“It would have been almost impossible for him to do that. Members of the Order are hand-picked by the heads of the cells. Cadric is head of our cell. You can’t just volunteer to be part of it. Once you commit to the Order, you have to take a blood oath. If someone came into the order whose loyalty was not with us, then once they took the oath their mark would not appear.”
“Could he have gotten someone already on the inside?”
“Anything is possible. It would be quite easy to find out who it is.”
“How?”
“When someone who has taken a blood oath betrays the Order they become marked for death. It’s impossible to hide such a mark, because it usually appears on the face. It’s a broken circle in red. Once Cadric learns of their betrayal, and he would find out, they will have the mark.”
“So if Alex had betrayed us, then we would know?”
“If Cadric knows, then we would know. If you are concerned about Alex, then I can call Hadria when we get to the compound and see if she sent Alex to check up on me.”
“Why wouldn’t you call Cadric? Wouldn’t that be the quickest way to find out?”
Samara sighed, looking over at Eric with a frown on her face.
“What is it?” Eric asked, glancing at her before turning his eyes back to the road.
“I can’t call Cadric. If Hadria did send him, then I don’t want her disciplined for this. And she would be, since it’s forbidden for anyone to interfere with a mission until ordered to do so.”
“So if it turns out that Alex is legit, then we might have someone else at the compound who is out to get us. Are you sure we should go through with this?”
“I have to. I can’t fail. This is a test for me, and too much is riding on this mission for me to quit now. You are under no obligation to come with me. You aren’t a part of the Order, and there is no reason for you to be risking your life. If you want to back out, I won’t blame you.”
“As far as I’m concerned, I became involved when Horn injected my brother with his formula. Besides, I can’t let you do this on your own.”
Samara was silent as he looked over
at her, with a fierce light in her eyes.
“Thank you,” she said with a smile.
“No problem,” he said, returning her smile before he moved his gaze back to the road. He reached over and rested his hand on top of her thigh, and she placed her hand on top of his. He turned it over and gave her a gentle squeeze. Their hands remained linked as they made their way to the compound.
HADRIA SAT outside Cadric’s office and waited for Nick to show up. She had no idea what was going on, but whatever it was it couldn’t be good. Cadric had sounded pissed when he left the message on her phone last night. She looked up when Nick walked through the door and took a seat beside her.
“What’s going on? I’m surprised Cadric wants to see both of us this morning. Do you think it could involve Samara and Eric?” Nick asked with a glance over at her.
“I don’t know. I hope she’s alright,” Hadria replied, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth.
“I’m sure she is. I told you that Eric called me after she pulled through the change. She’s fine.”
Hadria looked up in surprise when Nick reached out and clasped her hand. She almost pulled away from him, knowing she should, but she needed the comfort he was offering.
Cadric came out of his office, and Hadria could tell by the look on his face that pissed didn’t even begin to describe his mood. He inclined his head toward his office, and Hadria dropped Nick’s hand, stood up and walked into the office. Her stomach tightened as she took one of the seats in front of Cadric’s desk, with Nick taking the seat beside her. She flinched when Cadric banged the door shut behind him.
“I want to know if you sent Alex after Samara to keep an eye on her,” Cadric asked without preamble, sitting down at his desk. Shock raced through Hadria at his question.
“Of course not. I wouldn’t violate the rules for interference, no matter how concerned I am about her. What the hell is going on, Cadric?”