He inhaled and narrowed his eyes.
She shrugged.
“If you saw anyone, I need to know.” His jaw tightened. “It’s my pack and my place to make sure they’re following my edict.”
“Saw anyone? No.”
“Did you catch anyone’s scent?”
“You mean other than my brother’s, who you believe is dead…and thus my judgment is suspect?”
He went back to staring her down.
“Did you want to get naked again? I can call your work and let them know you’ll be late.”
Shaking his head, he turned to go to his truck. Ten feet away, he stopped abruptly and came back toward her. Whoa. Her heart started pounding, and she caught her breath. The intensity in his eyes had her backing up. Suddenly, she was flat up against the house, and he was right there. The fire in his gaze said he was as much a slave to this as she was. It overwhelmed her—this heat. It was as animalistic as the rage that sometimes built in her. This was her temper’s twin, but no less passionate.
What would happen if I just gave in? If I stopped fighting the wildness in me?
Travis pressed up against her, cradling her head as he kissed her. Tender but insistent, his mouth mated with hers, his tongue sliding and caressing hers. The sharp tug of his hands in her hair and his belt pushing against her stomach kept her rooted in reality, but her brain was melting. No one but no one kissed like Travis. The females in the pack were fools. When he pulled back, she felt dazed and out of breath—and entirely out of control.
“Hey,” she said shakily. She saw something in his eyes this morning that hadn’t been there before she’d sneaked into his house this second time. Possession. She’d gone to him. She’d gone back. His eyes said “mine” as clearly as if he’d said it out loud. And right now, she couldn’t disagree with that. They could go at it on this porch, and she’d be fully supportive. She might not even call his work to tell them she’d had their sheriff naked on her porch again—and that he’d be late.
“Be careful today,” he said, “and I’ll see you tonight.”
If she didn’t leave…
She should get out of here while she still had any desire to. No. No, there was no way she could stay here. In the middle of nowhere. With a guy who was way too good for her. She didn’t exactly have a history of staying on the right side of the law—how on earth would she manage to sleep right beside it?
Still, she asked, “Your place or mine?”
He stepped back and scowled at the house. “Mine. I don’t plan on eating in a place where a man dragged guts all over.”
LeAnn narrowed her eyes. “And I was going to make myself some more oatmeal.” Did he really have to remind her of that every chance he got? She’d finally opened the freezer yesterday, and it only had a few frozen pizzas and ice cream. But there was a strange scent in there that even the cold temperature couldn’t disguise. If Ross kept remains next to his frozen food, he was as sick a bastard as they were saying. And it was getting harder and harder to see him as innocent.
“Definitely mine,” he said, looking at her.
She got the feeling they weren’t talking about residences anymore.
With a nod, Travis turned and was gone.
…
It might take him some time to get used to the fact that he was dating a criminal. There was nothing overt in her history of course. LeAnn’s caginess extended to her life, and running her license had yielded no red flags for LeAnn Wilcox. As long as LeAnn Wilcox had dropped out of the sky not so long ago.
It probably wasn’t classy to run a background check on your mate, but it was better to walk into this knowing full well whom he was with. If he knew what to expect, he was in control. And Travis would scrape for every bit of control he could manage with LeAnn. So far, she had a habit of leaving him feeling like a gibbering fool. He cashed in a favor with a friend to take the search to the next level…with discretion.
But now it was time to do something really stupid.
Because he wanted Ross out of his relationship with LeAnn. He needed to settle this once and for all. She needed to accept the scent-match. Once she was really and truly pack, he’d hunt down who’d been at her house last night because someone had. And Ross’s scent was there, too. Though he suspected whoever had been by was using Ross’s clothing to throw them off. Someone had been by, and LeAnn knew it.
So it was time to get to the bottom of this, even if contacting another Alpha two days after he’d married his scent-match was imprudent.
Going on their land without a warning was even more unwise.
Jordan answered the phone with a snarl.
He heard Christa laugh in the background before she said tiredly, “Stop it, you moron.”
“I’m calling to let you know I’ll be on your land in about three hours,” Travis said.
That got Jordan’s attention. “Where?”
“Up near the cabin.” He didn’t need to say which cabin. They both knew.
“It’s cleaned up. I had a few of my pack verify it yesterday.”
“I’m looking at something else.” He didn’t care about the actual battle site where they’d taken down the poachers. Ross had run off somewhere nearby with most of Black Tusk chasing him.
“What?”
He sighed, but his business was going to be spread soon enough. With how much family they had in common with Glacier Peak, it was probably only Jordan’s “honeymoon” keeping him out of the loop.
“Ross’s half sister is here and claims she’s picked up the scent of her brother around. She says he’s still alive.”
“A half sister?”
“They weren’t close, but she seems to care what happened to him, even if I can’t seem to convince her he’s a murderer.”
“I don’t think Black Tusk left you a body to find for her to bury.” He could hear Jordan getting out of bed.
“I know, but…” Travis took a deep breath. “Miller said they never saw a tattoo, and there was that other wolf out running around.”
“You think Black Tusk killed an actual wolf, and Ross escaped.”
“No, but it’s a possibility that I want to rule out so we can all get on with our lives.”
“Have you caught Ross’s scent?”
He wanted to bang his head against something. “I’m nowhere near the tracker you are, and I still haven’t caught up on sleep. Plus, someone in my pack is playing tricks on LeAnn now. They’ve swiped clothes from her and from Ross.” She might think he hadn’t realized it, but her scent was becoming the most recognizable to him, and the one leaving her house was a mixture of other scents and hers.
“LeAnn is…?”
“His half sister…and my mate.”
Stunned silence.
“What is it, Jordan?” Christa asked. He must’ve looked as astounded as his silence implied.
“You scent-matched?”
“Yup.”
More silence. “Okay, I’ll meet you there in three hours.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Actually, I do. I’m better at tracking, and Ross kidnapped Christa last time. If there’s any chance he’s alive…”
“Kidnapped!” Christa said. “Why did you say that instead of abducted?”
“Christa,” Jordan said on a groan.
Travis grinned. It was sorta good to hear his former Alpha whipped like this. It made his last two days of desperate distraction thanks to LeAnn seem less pitiful.
“I bet if it’d been Vanessa, you’d have said abducted,” Christa grumbled.
Jordan sighed. “I’ll see you there in three hours after I treat my mate like an adult.”
“Adult situations?” Christa asked on a laugh. “You know, Jordan Hill, sex isn’t going to get you out of every argument.”
“We’ll see,” Jordan said as he hung up.
…
Three hours later, Jordan’s Bronco parked beside his truck.
“You smell more like Christa than you
do yourself.” Travis couldn’t help the smirk on his face.
Jordan had a good three inches on him and a helluva lot more arrogance, so he raised his eyebrows and then sniffed the air and shook his head. “No wonder you’re feeling pissy. I take it she’s not happy as hell to be matched to you?”
No, she wasn’t. And he probably smelled like a man who needed sex in a bad, bad way.
Then Jordan wrinkled up his nose. “You smell enough like Ross that I want to kick your ass…fair warning.”
“Being scent-matched to Ross’s sister…” Travis shook his head.
“That’s about how I felt when I scent-matched to Dane’s sister. Like the universe has a sense of humor.”
“Still feel that way?”
“Somewhat. But also like maybe I deserved something good after all.” He nodded at the cabin. “Shall we do this thing so I can get back to my wife before she moves on to a younger man?”
Travis grinned. “I heard she likes old men.” Christa did work with veterans.
Jordan laughed, shaking his head. “You’re lucky I’m in a good mood or I’d shoot you over that.”
Travis looked around and inhaled. “Well, I hope you stay in a good mood, because I feel like this might be more of a wild-goose chase than Ross led us on last time. He better hope to hell he’s dead, because I feel like killing him much more violently just for having to come back here. This place smells like death.” And so many other scents. There was no way he even knew where to begin. “Where do we start? I can smell a hundred different Lycans and then two dozen men.”
Jordan pointed at the cabin. “We go for the scent that there should be only one of.”
“Ross?”
Jordan shook his head. “No, the wolf. It came out the back of the cabin. If the wolf got away, then we know they got Ross. We don’t have to follow Ross’s scent—just the only thing that could have kept him alive.”
“That’s brilliant.”
“And you thought you were smarter than me.” Jordan cast him a look as he walked around to the back of the cabin. There was a broken window there that they stopped beside. They both inhaled.
Frowning, Travis asked, “I’m not wrong—that smells a lot like Ross, doesn’t it?”
Jordan scowled. “Ross is a bastard. I should’ve guessed he’d bathed that wolf in his scent so we’d follow it.” He glanced over at Travis. “And you’re hot for his sister?”
“Half sister.”
Jordan raised his eyebrows.
“Semantics matter when you want to bang a traitor’s relative.”
“Okay then, well, let’s follow the trail.” Jordan nodded at the forest. “It went that way. It smells like some Lycans followed it initially, but they probably turned back when they heard Ross was still in the cabin.”
He and Jordan were lucky the wolf bolted away from the battle, where the stench of dead Lycans and men made tracking more difficult.
About five minutes later, Jordan nodded. “Yep, we lose the other Lycans here, but the wolf’s scent continues on. They turned back.”
“Is that good?” He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. It was good that the wolf had gotten away. If the packs had killed a wolf thinking it was Ross—it’d be another reason to hate Ross.
“It makes it easier to follow.”
They went another half a mile into the forest before either of them spoke.
“How does your pack feel about their new Alpha?” Jordan asked as he stopped and inhaled.
“LeAnn hasn’t accepted the scent-match, so I doubt they consider her Alpha.” If Colby had been more liked, they’d probably despise her brother for killing him, and she’d be roped into their disdain. He’d never been more glad that Colby was a bit of a prick who liked to stir the pot.
Jordan froze and turned to him. “That’s not good.”
He didn’t like the look on Jordan’s face. Jordan had been Alpha far longer and had more experience with other Lycan packs. “Why? I told them she was pack, and that I’ve chosen her as a mate.”
“So you want her?”
“Yes.” There was no pause there. He wanted her more than he wanted his next breath. Whether they could be mates without strangling each other was more debatable. And it was likely that adherence to the law was a gray area with LeAnn. Plus, he still had that nick on his throat to remind him his mate was crazy and…volatile. But he wanted her as his mate.
Jordan shook his head. “It’s still only Merilee in heat, right?”
“Yes, why?” Hell, Jordan was starting to make him uneasy. Every time he thought he had a handle on things, the ground shifted beneath him.
“Until your mate takes her place as Alpha, the spot is still open to challenge. A female in heat would be considered justified in challenging LeAnn and taking her place. Since it’s a scent-match, it’s a respected kill.”
That sent a nasty chill straight down his spine and made his jaw tense up. Holy mother of…this had to be a freaking joke. “But it’d have to take place in front of the pack. I’d have to know about it. I’d step down as Alpha rather than have LeAnn go into a challenge.” She might act fierce, and she’d already gone after him with a knife, but challenge fights could be ugly—especially if his crazy mate didn’t change form.
Jordan shook his head. “Not under these circumstances. You’d be instinctually bound to stop the fight, so it’s acceptable for it to be…spontaneous. It’s different when it’s an alpha fight among females. Among males, the fight is part of the process to gain acceptance. It’s part of our honor. Among females, their honor is to perpetuate our species. If your LeAnn doesn’t want to be Alpha, then it’s acceptable for a breeding female to take her place…permanently. Archaic and primitive, but it’s our way.”
There was a sour feeling in his stomach developing and what felt like a vise clenching around his heart. He dragged both his hands through his hair. This couldn’t be happening. “Jordan, that’s insane. My whole pack is going into heat in the next two months. Even without this added complication, I know I’m going to be challenged myself. None of my pack is feeling bulletproof anymore, but they all feel like Alphas suddenly due to this.” He threw a gesture back at where the battle had been.
“Tell your mate to take her place or get her out of there. And she should steer clear of Merilee—especially if you’ve ever had anything with her.”
“With Merilee? No. I haven’t.”
Jordan nodded. “Because it could really go wrong for Merilee if your alpha female feels challenged. I wouldn’t bet on Merilee in a fight—she seems weak.”
Well, that explained why Merilee had asked if LeAnn was dangerous. “Does this sort of thing happen in other packs?”
Jordan shrugged. “It has. Pack law follows instinctual patterns, and with the well-being of the pack coming first—you know how vicious women can be. And a lot is forgiven of a female in heat. So tell your scent-match to step up or step out…fast.”
“It’s a scent-match. So wouldn’t we…?”
“Go crazy? Probably. Have you been able to stay apart for very long?”
He was fighting the urge to hurry Jordan so he could get back to her. And she’d come to him last night. Then he’d gone to see her this morning. Hell.
His silence must have said enough. “You saw how I was when I was at Rainier last week instead of with Christa. I had Vanessa at my house for a bit after she’d scent-matched to Dane and she was mental. Both of you will never get over it while you’re both alive. But she’ll actually be alive. When your more aggressive females go into heat, that could change.”
“I could step down as Alpha.” He didn’t want to. Being Alpha felt as natural as being in law enforcement. It fit him. It made sense. Plus he liked being in control. There weren’t many like Jordan whom he’d accept as an Alpha. And he’d only accepted that because he respected Jordan too much to challenge him. Still, if it meant being with his mate and her being alive…
“Sure, except it’d be considered losing
a challenge, and whoever takes over as Alpha has the right to take your life so you’re not a threat to the pack’s hierarchy again. And even if they don’t, it’s your word against the new Alpha’s that Ross’s sister isn’t a threat to them.” He shook his head. “Besides, like hell will I put up with Liam or Troy. I swear, if you let Troy take over the pack, I’ll find some obscure pack law to justify killing him.”
“You would not.”
“I would. He’d be a lousy Alpha and you know it. Stubborn jackass only thinks of himself.”
“Which is nothing like all the other Alphas.”
Jordan grinned.
He swallowed the unease he’d felt at Jordan’s words. Merilee wasn’t a threat to LeAnn. It’d be fine.
“You said Alanna goes into heat in March, right?”
“Yeah. She’s the last.”
Jordan nodded. “Good. That’s good.”
He shook it off. “Let’s get back to…” He pointed the direction they’d been going.
A half a mile later, Jordan stopped and looked around, inhaling.
“What?” He’d been struggling to follow the scent. Jordan was much better at this than him. It was good the other Alpha considered Ross enough of a threat to come help him.
Jordan sighed. “I’m starting to get other scents. Hell. They’re coming from the east, but there was no reason any of us would have come up here unless they were chasing something.” He closed his eyes for a long blink. “Okay, let’s just keep going. Even if Ross headed this way, he had a whole pack behind him, watching him. He’d had to have gotten stupidly lucky to have caught up to the wolf.”
“I heard you punched him in the face,” Travis said, walking beside Jordan. A lot of crazy stories had circulated during the aftermath of the fight when they’d been cleaning up, but he tended to believe that one. Some of Jordan’s pack claimed Jordan had shifted and punched a wolf in the face in a previous run-in with Ross and the poachers.
“Ross? Yeah. A little trick I learned from Dane. Lycans aren’t expecting you to punch them in the face while they’re transformed.”
“I remember you had a black eye after our first time up here. I’m getting a suspicion on how you learned it.” He tried to smother his grin. He’d come up as a deputy then to deal with a situation where a poacher had gotten his throat ripped out by a wolf. Jordan had looked like he’d lost the fight, rather than won.
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