And it wasn’t from her. She was no longer the little girl hoping to please her mother. She was strong. She was fearless. LeAnn spun away and walked toward her room.
“Where are you going?” her mother called after her.
She turned back, her own heart pounding. Something had just happened. That connection to this woman who shared her genes had broken. She was free. The beast inside her was right; she didn’t need to be here, trying to make peace when it wasn’t possible. Her mother would never understand her…not now, not when the beast was visible in her eyes and held her mind.
“What are you afraid of, Mom, that I’ll leave…or that I’ll stay?”
Ten minutes later, a backpack on her shoulder, she climbed out her window—though she didn’t know why. She could have left by the front door for all her mother cared.
Maybe after the weekend, she’d come back. After the weekend, they could go back to their usual pissed-off avoidance. As long as she went to school and pretended to be normal, the stuck-up witch in the front office wouldn’t call and remind her mother LeAnn existed. It was more of a holding pattern—no way could they make it until she graduated, but it was enough. And her mom was the only family she had. Family stuck together, right?
The air smelled fresh and clean outside. She inhaled. Her rage cooled, even if her pulse kept pounding. Outside, the two parts of her didn’t feel so at odds. Leaning down, she ran her hand along the grass.
“Honey, can you grab me my pearls from my jewelry box on the dresser?” Mrs. Spade from next door asked her husband.
In the last week, she’d learned far too much about the Spades. At first, she thought they’d left the window open, but it wasn’t open now. Something had happened with her hearing. Something was happening with her.
“Are you sure you want the pearls?” her husband asked. “You’ve never worn this necklace I gave you last month. Or these matching earrings from last week.”
Mr. Spade was trying to buy his way out of his guilt that he came home every night smelling like another woman and sex. Not that Mrs. Spade recognized it. It was subtle. He was even wearing more cologne to cover it. Eventually his wife would start wondering about all the late nights at the office. In the meantime, his unworn gifts would accumulate. Sitting there. Unnoticed. Uncared for.
“No, the pearls. And we’re late.” A few minutes later, they were gone in a haze of mixed scents: fabric detergent, cologne and perfume, breath spray, deodorant, and the exhaust from their car.
They’d never even noticed she was here.
In the darkness.
And they’d left their house empty, and they’d forgotten to set the alarm. She’d have heard the beeping if they’d bothered.
Idiots.
She straightened up. Maybe she could stay with Nell tonight and then go from there.
The bright moon came out from behind the clouds. It was a beautiful night. She wanted to run. LeAnn wanted to revel in finally being free. And she could spend the night outside. It was a cool night, but her skin was hot and feverish.
Her fingertips tingled.
She looked over at the Spades’ house.
Would it be so wrong to see what this buy-off necklace looked like?
A few birds startled and took flight to the left of her, and LeAnn twitched, blinking.
Did she fall asleep, or was that yet another blackout where flashes of her life broke through? So many of her days existed only in that hazy world of almost remembering, but trying to forget.
Hell, I’m so messed up.
Hopefully it was a flashback, because if she’d fallen asleep with an unknown quantity around… You never turned your back on an enemy, and you never called anyone a friend. And she’d just spaced out with a wolf female staring her down. Great.
Shaking her head, LeAnn sniffed the air.
Her wolf watcher was gone.
She went back inside, rubbing her arms, which felt suddenly cold. Okay, time to do a more thorough search of Ross’s house. True, Travis and his pack had gone through this place, but they didn’t know all the crazy spots people hid things. She did. She made a living finding things people had hidden.
Getting down on all fours, she crawled across his living room while looking up. Most law-abiding people only looked down while searching. While that might be slightly different for Lycans, she suspected they hadn’t gone through here in wolf form. Bingo! She found an envelope taped to one of the lower shelves in his bookcase.
Sitting cross-legged, she opened it up. Empty. But it had held something. She held it up to her nose. Ross. Ross had removed whatever had been in here. She could still smell his scent on it. He might have done it recently even. With a sigh, she dropped onto her back.
He’s family. And family sticks together, right?
“What the hell have you done, Ross?”
…
Unlike the usual boisterous, flirtatious crowd that looked like a singles meet-and-greet, his pack was more subdued as they met in the cabin’s great room. Yesterday, they’d been anxious to fight, and the road trip to Glacier Peak had been high-spirited.
Going to a fight—hell yeah.
Taking down poachers—booyah.
Immediately afterward, they’d still been feeling the adrenaline rush and been exchanging stories. Today, things had changed. Tom and Eli were dead, and everybody liked them. The whole group was feeling their mortality more.
Other than Alanna, the females had been left to protect Jordan’s house during the poacher takedown in case the other location was a trap. They were hearing everything secondhand yesterday and today. And he’d be surprised if some of the males hadn’t been exaggerating their parts in the battle. Suddenly this pack of Lycans led by an Alpha felt like they were all Alphas—in their minds.
And right before the females in the group one by one went into heat. The next couple months should be pure hell. Lycan females only went into heat once a year, and it made the unattached males in the area get a little nuts competing for attention.
Last year, he’d been one of them—though he’d done his best to ignore his urges, because he hadn’t wanted to pick an alpha female back then. Now he’d finally decided to pick Alanna, and look where that had gotten him.
Scent-matched.
To a crazy woman.
Who looked great naked.
It was so peculiar to be in front of them and not be attracted to any of the females in the room, even against his will. Merilee was in heat, but that was just…information. He wasn’t drawn to her. Not that he would have acted on it with Merilee anyway. He might’ve been the only one in the room not to. Though Troy had been staking his claim more and more with her.
He could feel Alanna’s eyes on him. Jordan had said he’d indulged her too much, and Alanna’s perception of him was that he was weak. So he’d started ignoring her and treating her like a male pack member. It had seemed to work immediately. Thankfully, he hadn’t made it beyond that.
From the moment he stepped up on the podium, the room hushed, and they all bowed their heads in deference—though Troy and Liam had fought the instinct longer than the others. Alanna stood apart with her arms folded rather than clasped in front of her like many of the others.
“As Tom’s and Eli’s families were near Glacier Peak, their memorials will most likely occur north, but I’ll email out details as I hear them. Both of them died in form, so I’m waiting to hear whether their families wish them reported as missing or not.”
Most of the time, Lycans had things put in place so that their deaths weren’t complicated by the lack of a two-legged body, but sometimes they still had to go through the motions of the human world.
He felt like he was stalling.
He was.
There were definitely times he didn’t feel up to being an Alpha of any group, let alone one as complex as this.
He cleared his throat. “I actually called you together for a different reason, though. Ross’s sister flew in yesterday and is concer
ned about the whereabouts of her brother. I’ve tried to explain his death and the circumstances surrounding it, but she and her brother weren’t…close, so she had no part of his plans, and she can’t believe he’d do this.”
Troy looked up at him with narrowed eyes.
There were going to be questions. He might as well deal with them directly.
“Yes, Troy?”
“How do we know she had nothing to do with this?”
“Because I’ve spoken with her, and as your Alpha, I’m convinced of it. She intends to find out what really happened, according to her, and if she needs to find out in her own way that her brother was a murderer…” He shrugged with a nonchalance he didn’t feel. It was irrational, but he wanted her to believe him—because she was his mate—because he was Alpha—because he was telling the truth. Basically, because he said so. He was Alpha, and he said so.
Troy didn’t bow his head in acceptance. He continued to stare at Travis.
Travis stared back. It took longer than it should have, but Troy eventually bowed his head. He could feel the others’ eyes on him, even if they were trying to keep their heads bowed.
“LeAnn, Ross’s sister, is pack, and no harm is to befall her while she is here.”
Troy’s head snapped up again. “Just because her brother was pack that doesn’t mean she has a right to our protection. He lost that right, and so did his family.”
Travis leveled him with a stare again. He was holding back the ocean with this one. He had a month tops before Troy challenged him. Probably less. Thanks to his own intervention, Troy hadn’t been injured as badly yesterday as he might’ve been. And that was going to come back to bite him.
Several of the others had raised their heads slightly. To an outsider, this wouldn’t appear to be spiraling out of his control as it really was.
He gritted his teeth. It was going to have to come out if he was going to keep LeAnn safe. “She’s pack because she’s my mate.” A pin could have dropped and sounded like glass shattering in the stillness left behind. “I scent-matched to her.”
Several of his pack looked up at this. All but Alanna looked down again. Eventually he gave up and nodded at Alanna.
“If she’s Alpha, why isn’t she here?” Alanna’s eyes were narrowed, and her face was taut. She’d have a difficult time accepting another female as Alpha. She’d barely accepted him as Alpha.
“She’s not…thrilled to be scent-matched to the person who also told her Ross is a traitor and dead.”
I’m going to be dragging LeAnn kicking and screaming into being my mate. That almost made him smile.
“So she hasn’t accepted the scent-match?” Alanna asked, raising her eyebrows and folding her arms.
Damn, he should have seen that coming. Technically, until LeAnn accepted him as a mate, she was more competition to the females in the pack than a member. In a nonvolatile pack, this would be nothing. In Rainier pack, she was another contender for Alpha…a favored contender. He’d never favored any of them. Not even Alanna. Well, not obviously, anyway. Many may have guessed Alanna was the most likely candidate, but he hadn’t chosen her openly. It shouldn’t be a problem. None of them had appeared interested in him. He was reading far too much into Alanna’s question.
“No, she hasn’t,” he said, “but I have, and as your Alpha, I say she is pack, and you will treat her with respect.”
The more he’d thought about that morning’s confrontation, the more he’d wanted LeAnn. It wasn’t only the scent-match. She intrigued him. She was a puzzle he looked forward to figuring out. It made him question his own sanity, but he was going with Mother Nature on this call and accepting her as his mate—whether she liked it or not.
At the very least, she was attracted to him. She hadn’t been able to cover that up as well as she’d probably thought. Her scent sold her out.
Liam looked up.
He nodded.
“Is she Lycan?”
He closed his eyes for an extra-long blink. Yeah, this was going really well. “She says she’s not, but her abilities say she is.”
It was quiet again.
Might as well slam the lid on this coffin and end the meeting. “She also says that she’s caught the scent of Ross in our area. I tried to confirm this was wishful thinking on her part, but there is a very slim chance that Ross was not killed yesterday. If you catch his scent on any of your patrols, contact me immediately. LeAnn shares a resemblance to his scent, but she’s different enough that you should be able to distinguish. I believe Ross is dead, but I’d rather not find out he is alive through another murder.”
Half of his pack lifted their heads to stare at him. Great.
“We’ll run normal patrols, but I know some of you sustained injuries yesterday. Contact me if you don’t think you’ll be able to patrol this week, and we’ll accommodate.”
Merilee was staring at him with wide eyes.
He nodded at her. She was harmless, at least. She was sexually aggressive, but she had no desire to be alpha female.
“Even if she didn’t help Ross, is there any chance she’s dangerous?”
He tightened his jaw. He should have expected this. Ross’s murder of Colby had been ugly—even if no one here really had cared for Colby. “No. She’s not.” Well, she had pulled a knife on him. But still… Well, and she was insane. But she most likely wasn’t dangerous. “I wouldn’t antagonize her, but I’ll keep an eye on her.” He looked around the room. “In fact, I intend to watch her very closely.”
Hopefully that would be enough of a threat to keep her safe…while he was still Alpha.
“You’re dismissed.” And he walked out of there. Immediately.
…
This time, it was him. She could feel his gaze from the same bushes. She’d found one of Ross’s hidden weapons, and she took the shotgun and her dinner out with her.
“I’m going to hate Cup-a-Soup by the time I’m done here…oh, and I’m not your mate,” she said, setting the shotgun down on the porch and sitting on the lowest step.
He stayed in the bushes.
She rolled her eyes and leveled her stare on where she knew he was. “Travis, I know it’s you, and you shouldn’t be here.” Something strange was definitely going on, and she wanted to find Ross, get an explanation, and then get out of here before she did something she’d regret—something they’d both regret.
The wolf stepped out of the bushes, but then lay down and watched her from the perimeter of the yard.
“Wow, you’re big. I bet you’ve scared the crap out of the locals,” she said, eating a spoonful of soup. She held up the cup. “I’d offer you some, but I suspect you wouldn’t eat this as a human, let alone as a wolf.”
The wolf tilted his head.
“Your kitchen. I checked out your house before I woke you up. You eat real food apparently. Not a single Cup-a-Soup in all your cupboards. I like your gun safe. I’ve noticed that people in law enforcement always have decent gun safes.”
He kept staring at her.
“I did wonder why the guy visiting you left behind his clothes. That was weird. There weren’t any women’s clothes anywhere, so I’m wondering if you’re starved for attention and anyone will do.” That thought stung as it went through her head. Nothing he’d said had suggested she had more significance than that. He acted like he was choosing her against his will, against his best judgment. It’d be nice if he changed back into a human to dispute that.
He didn’t.
Of course he didn’t. You’d think after all this time I’d quit believing in love, and hope, and someone actually wanting me for me. The cruelest thing he could do is to make me believe again.
“Seriously, you shouldn’t be here…and you don’t want anything to do with me.” None of them did. People like her didn’t belong. And a human in a pack of wolves? That would be as ridiculous as it sounded. No way would she fit. “Your pack won’t want anything to do with me either. Especially if…” No, she wasn’t ready to s
ay it. If Ross was everything Travis said, she needed more proof—something tangible. And she needed to talk to her brother.
The tan wolf kept on staring. He was taking this watchdog routine a bit far.
“You’re really going to stay here and stay furry no matter what I say, huh?” She gestured behind her. “I could go grab you some of Ross’s clothes if you’ve decided getting naked again in front of me is no good.”
He growled—a quiet rumble of dissent. Apparently he didn’t much care for Ross’s clothing. That made sense. It all smelled like her brother, and he thought her brother kept body parts in his freezer.
“You could wear some of my clothes.” There was no way, but maybe it’d insult him enough he’d leave.
Nope.
Oh, to hell with this. She set her cup to the side and pushed to her feet. Stalking over there, she dropped to the ground in front of the huge wolf—who’d gotten to his feet as she approached.
“Look…I know you don’t believe me, and I’m not even sure why you’re here, but I know my brother is alive.”
It sounded like the wolf snorted at that.
“Fine,” she said, standing up and brushing off her pants. “Don’t believe me.” She walked back to the house. “Don’t come crying to me when your guts end up in his fridge.”
Chapter Three
He woke up to someone watching him. Blearily, he focused on the woman curled up at the foot of the bed, staring. His body had recognized her even before he’d opened his eyes, because while his pulse picked up, it wasn’t out of anxiety. Inhaling, he smelled her scent mixed with his on the cotton T-shirt she’d pulled from his drawers.
“I heard something. So I went out to my brother’s front porch and then I was here.” She held out her arms. “Apparently, I felt like going for a run. In the middle of the night. Here.”
She sounded so bewildered, and his shirt hung on her, giving her a little-girl-lost look.
He rubbed both hands down his face. “It’s near a full moon and you’re surrounded by pack. Plus, I’m your scent-matched mate. It’s instinct.” He knew. Heaven help him, but he knew. It’d been difficult to leave her. He was always in control, but his wolf couldn’t stay away from her.
Crazy Over You Page 4