“I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Not if you were hoping for sex this morning,” she agreed. Was that a catch in her throat? So much for casual bravado.
“No, not because of that…because it was a jackass thing to say to someone, but I wasn’t thinking when I said it.” He sighed. “I’m a control freak, LeAnn. And I’m manipulative. I learned a long time ago that if people thought I was stupid, they’d give me this edge—they’d trust me. I’d probably score high as a sociopath if I were ever tested. It’s made me a natural Alpha, this way I have of controlling people—of controlling situations. I haven’t felt like I was in control since I woke up to a naked woman with a knife at my throat. You knocked me on my ass, and I haven’t recovered.”
That shouldn’t make her feel proud, but it did…a little.
“And you know what? Maybe that’s what I needed…someone I’d have to drop the act for and who’d keep me guessing. I still wish we weren’t dealing with all that we are, but I think that’s a sign that I’m lazy…and I never claimed not to be that. And I don’t take off when things get difficult. I stay and fight for what matters—you should recognize that about me by now.” He went back to kissing her neck.
Maybe he did, but she didn’t. Leaving was…easier.
Why did he have to be everything she’d ever wanted and smell like it, too? Her body was so not siding with her brain.
“Look, I can’t be with a cop.”
He bit where her shoulder and neck met and sucked lightly.
And all her synapses fried. She inhaled raggedly. Her darker side, the beast she fought back, seemed to have a sensual aspect. The heat rose. A growl sounded in her head. It wanted release. No. No one could see that side of her. Especially not Travis. She sounded slightly desperate when she said, “Travis! Did you hear me? I can’t. I sorta believe laws are made to be broken.”
“Mm.” His thumb was rubbing back and forth across her stomach…across her naked skin…as his mouth pressed kisses around the straps of her tank top.
LeAnn moaned softly. She couldn’t think. She could only feel. Her whole body felt licked by fire. No. Her brain snatched around for anything…anything to stop him from taking them both over the edge. “Wilcox isn’t my real last name.”
That should stop him. It didn’t. Oh, it really didn’t. Her skin felt so hot and sensitive, and she could still feel every kiss he’d left behind. LeAnn flipped onto her back and grabbed his face in her hands. Maybe he wasn’t listening to her. He didn’t seem to be doing a lot of thinking since he’d stopped talking. She was struggling to think of much of anything other than him and her making the most of a horizontal surface.
“Travis,” she said, meeting his eyes. Her hands trembled. She needed to stop this while even a small part of her had the strength to. He had such gorgeous eyes, and when he stared at her, it felt like he was seeing her soul. “I’m not right for you. I don’t want to stay here.” Her brain screamed at the lie, but she continued. “Frankly, your pack sounds like a bunch of rabid dogs. Not a bit of this makes sense between us.”
He lifted his hand up to prop his head on and kept staring at her. “Where do you want to be?”
She licked her lips. “What?”
“You said you don’t want to stay here—where do you want to be? Baltimore? I know even LeAnn Wilcox hasn’t lived there all that long. I don’t know what your name was before that, but it doesn’t seem like you have a home base.”
So he had been listening, and he’d checked up on her—she figured he would. “I don’t know, but not here. Your pack is crazy.” She drew in a deep breath as she felt the heat from his touch recede. They could talk about this and be reasonable.
He smiled. “They are. But you haven’t really gotten to know them, and all you’ve seen so far is the most extreme of pack behavior. We don’t normally attack each other. My pack is still trying to find its feet. When couples start pairing off, it’ll be…less unstable.”
“What if you’re not Alpha over it anymore? Can you leave or do you have to stay here?”
The smile dropped off his face. “I can leave. Even if I win today’s challenge, I can still leave.”
She wanted to ask if he would if she asked him to, but that’d be implying a commitment that she wasn’t ready to make. And besides, he might say no, and she wanted to believe he would—that she was that important to him. She’d never been that important to anyone. She probably wouldn’t be again. Maybe that’s why he was so hard to walk away from. How many times did you have a guy tell you that you were meant to be with him—and want that, too? In her life, this never happened. This was a fairy tale in her life of shadowed streets and dark, run-down stopovers. This was her Cinderella. It was a little hard to walk away from.
“How does it work?” she asked. “Today’s challenge? You’ll head over to his house and you’ll kick this guy Troy’s ass?”
He slid his hand across her stomach and went back to rubbing her skin with his thumb. “It’s slightly more…organized than that. It’ll happen in front of the pack so that they’ll recognize who the stronger Lycan is.”
There was something he wasn’t telling her. She felt it. He was keeping something back. “So, I could be there?”
“No, you shouldn’t be there.”
“Why not? You said I was pack. You told them I was.” Not that she was sure she wanted to be, but he had said that.
“Your first experience with the pack shouldn’t be a fight. This is an exception to the way we are. It’s a…violent but necessary aspect to trusting that the pack is being led by the strongest among us.” He smiled. “I don’t even want to be there, but they might notice if I’m not.”
They stayed staring at each other. His hand even stopped moving. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“A lot,” he said, raising his eyebrows.
She blinked. She hadn’t expected him to say that. “Well, like what?”
He looked over at the phone on his bedside table. “Would you trust someone else to help you figure out what was happening with your brother if I sent you to stay with him?”
She shook her head but still asked, “No, why would you do that?”
“Because if I lose, you won’t be safe on my pack’s land possibly.” He frowned. “Troy’s a total ass and I can see him being vindictive…and ornery.”
“Well, we can leave together.”
He inhaled and exhaled before smiling, a pathetic half smile. “Okay.” Then he sat up. “C’mon. Let’s go eat some breakfast. I’ll make you something better than oatmeal…especially since I don’t have to waste time hunting down knives this morning.” He glanced at the window. “And since it’s early because you were trying to sneak out of here before dawn.”
“You were much easier to sneak out on yesterday.”
“Yup, but now I’ve had plenty of sleep, so you won’t be able to slide things by me nearly as easily.”
“And you’ll be in better shape to win this fight, right?”
“Yup.”
She narrowed her eyes. The way he said “yup” was in this slow, dense voice. It was freakishly convincing. He even dropped his eyelids slightly so he looked as lazy as he was claiming to be. He looked like a stereotypical small-town cop.
He looked up at her and winked.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re going to win, right?” It seemed like even if he did want to walk away, that it’d be better if it was his choice, not because he’d lost a fight.
“Yup.”
“Stop that.” It made her skin crawl—he was that good. Little old ladies in Buicks probably enjoyed getting tickets from him when he did that.
He laughed. “It used to make Jordan’s eye twitch, too.” He pulled a shirt on. “How do you like your eggs, LeAnn?”
“Over easy.”
“Well, that’d be the first time anything about you’d be easy.”
“Don’t make me get my knife. And you might want to grab a hose. Troy must have hydrated
before hitting your porch last night.”
“I’m going to kill him.”
…
“Travis, I think I’ve talked to you more in the last two days than I’ve talked to my wife,” Jordan said when he answered his phone.
“That’s because you’re not feeling much like talking and you’re hiding things from me because you think I can’t handle them,” Christa said in the background.
“I like your wife,” Travis said. “Platonically.”
Jordan sighed. “What now? If any of the poachers are alive, too, I’ll come kill you for this aggravation. It’s not a logical response, but I’ll do it.”
“I have a challenge tonight.” It was strange that in this day and age he could send out a notification of a challenge by email. Their progenitors would have found it disturbing. He found it slightly disturbing. One of them might die tonight. Come and watch. It was a good thing LeAnn wasn’t going to be there. She’d never understand the necessity of a strong leader. “I need you to make sure LeAnn makes it out of town if I fail.”
Another sigh from Jordan. “Troy?”
“Yup.”
“Stop that. You know I hate that.”
It reminded him of LeAnn and made him smile.
“You’re sure he intended to challenge you and you’re not just…on edge? Because a challenge when Ross might still be alive…”
“He pissed on Ross’s porch…which is where LeAnn was staying.”
“It could have been aimed at Ross.”
“Then he came and did the same thing at my place in the middle of the night when I didn’t challenge him right away.”
“Subtle.”
“Yeah, well, Troy tries to keep it classy.”
“Okay, what time?”
“Seven.”
“I’ll be there,” Jordan said, and Travis heard him leave a room, closing a door.
“You don’t need to be as long as you can send someone to make sure LeAnn is okay.”
“No, I’m coming because I don’t trust Troy, first of all, and, secondly, if he becomes Alpha, I’m taking some of my pack back. If Troy has a problem with that he’ll get his first challenge. I trust you with those I care about. Troy can’t seem to stop killing the neighbor’s chickens.”
Travis clenched his teeth and rubbed his forehead with his palm. He felt the same way about Troy. He wouldn’t trust him with a pet, let alone a pack. He’d been thinking of stepping in between him and Merilee, because Merilee wasn’t strong enough to not get beaten. Troy had all the telltale signs of an abuser.
“But you’re not going to lose,” Jordan said. “There’s no way. I’d bet my Bronco on that.”
It felt good to hear someone else say that. “You don’t think?”
“You had an older brother, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, he was killed in active duty twelve years ago.” He clenched his teeth. The sting of his brother’s death had dulled, but it’d never go away. It was an icy blast of water on his psyche. Josh was a good reminder of what happened when you didn’t control your emotions. And his life had never been more out of control.
“Lycan?”
“Yes.”
“Okay then. Younger brothers are the scrappiest of the lot. And the few times you and I settled our differences of opinion before I became Alpha…were memorable. If I hadn’t tired you out, you’d have won.”
“I won twice.” He and Jordan had gotten into several fights when Jordan had joined the pack—over stupid things. They’d both been venting. Travis’s brother had died. He’d needed to fight off some of his frustration. It’d been a private thing between him and Jordan that had ended right when Jordan became Alpha. But he had won twice. And against a male as big as Jordan—that couldn’t be discounted.
“You’d have won more if I hadn’t tired you out. You don’t hold anything back for the second half of a fight. I had to admire that even if I also exploited it.” Jordan added, “Just don’t expect Troy to fight fair.”
“Nah. I expect he’ll fight rabid and all instinct, though.” Which sounded like it’d make for a short fight—and Jordan wasn’t wrong about him not holding back. The control he had as a human seemed to desert him as a Lycan in a fight. He couldn’t hold anything in reserve.
“He’ll fight bat-ass crazy.”
Travis grinned and leaned back in his chair. “Miller says the crazy ones are more fun.” He’d been talking about women, but it might actually apply in a fight like this.
“Miller is crazy. You should have seen him running off stark naked carrying those semiautomatics at the cabin. Christa’s dad said he’d take that image to his grave.”
It made him laugh. He could almost picture it, but he didn’t want to.
“Ahhh…I can’t believe that was only a few days ago and already Troy is pulling this crap,” Jordan said.
“The timing of this scent-match…was poor.” He couldn’t bring himself to regret it today. He felt more for LeAnn than he had for anyone before her. The scent-match might have forced them to spend time together, but the rest of this was hot-as-hell attraction and…something else. They matched in ways that didn’t make any sense because they seemed so opposite. He wanted to cook her breakfast for the rest of their lives. It was insane, but he was going with it.
“Yeah, but we both knew it was a matter of time before Troy challenged you. I should have killed him before this. That’s on me. I got soft after that whole thing with Sammy. But he’s been a danger to the pack for a good long time. I’d have guessed he’d have beaten Ross to the line on going psycho and killing someone. Anything else you need if this goes south tonight besides me grabbing LeAnn and getting out of there?”
“You’ll tell my folks?”
“Sure.” He cleared his throat. “I might kill Troy for his timing, though. Married three days and this isn’t exactly how I’d planned to spend my honeymoon. Chasing ghosts and attending a blood battle.”
“I thought you weren’t leaving until next week when Christa is fertile.”
“Well, we’re not, but…”
“What?”
“Christa told me I’m not supposed to talk about her cycle because it’s weird, but I never got a real sense of that until after she said something. Maybe it’s because she’s once a month instead of it being once a year and a big deal. But her scent makes it obvious. Even if she doesn’t go into heat.”
“It’s a little weird,” he admitted. He couldn’t tell when LeAnn would go into heat. He’d probably be able to tell when it got closer. “I guess that’s one difference in having a human mate.” And LeAnn was definitely Lycan. He had to keep telling himself that. Because nothing about her made sense otherwise.
“I suppose, but… Okay, Christa’s coming. I gotta go.”
“You’re so whipped.”
Jordan laughed. “No, I figure if she’s walking around, she’s rested up. I told you I was keeping her in our bedroom for the week.” And he hung up.
He set his phone down. At least that was one less thing to worry about. Jordan wouldn’t let anything happen to LeAnn—if he could help it. He turned back to his computer. Now it was time to track down what Ross might’ve been driving and see if it might have LoJack.
…
This might be a very bad idea, but the scent from the lab coat definitely came from here, and her brother owned no pets but had a vet’s business card on his fridge.
LeAnn locked her car and walked toward the veterinary clinic. She’d never been one to skip around a problem when she could approach it head-on. She’d considered going back to Merilee for the information, but it didn’t seem right. The poor girl was genuinely scared for whatever reason.
The front office was empty of clients, but there was a familiar scent here, one that matched the lab coat and that day from the bushes. It also had that earthy tone that she was starting to think was a Lycan thing. So this was her welcoming committee. She realized the receptionist was frowning at her. It was odd to walk into a vet’s
office sans a pet. Then again, it was funny that a Lycan was treating animals.
“I wanted to talk to Dr. Sampson about a non-pet matter.”
“Oh, she’ll know who you are?”
“Maybe.” If she’d been present when Travis had explained she was pack, she would.
A tall, dark-haired woman walked into the reception area, gave her the once-over, and was so not impressed.
Huh. Something about this woman made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and a growl form in her throat. LeAnn’d never hated anyone on sight, but maybe she could make an exception just this once. It was bone deep, instinctual. Sometimes, you just knew.
LeAnn stood a little taller…though not as tall as this freakstar. What was she? Six foot? And she was still wearing heels. Why? To tower over people to intimidate them into submission?
“Alanna, right?”
“Dr. Sampson,” she said, slowly enunciating every syllable.
LeAnn narrowed her eyes. Definitely not feeling the love. The rage inside her bubbled up, but she clenched her teeth and forced it down. She could deal with this…woman without losing her temper.
“I’ll see you in my office,” the vet said.
“Great.” LeAnn almost kept the sarcasm out of her voice, so she was calling it a win.
After shutting the door behind them, the woman made pointed eye contact.
“I thought you were supposed to look down as a sign of respect,” LeAnn said. Might as well throw it all out on the table.
“We are.” Alanna didn’t look down. She raised her eyebrows and folded her arms. “You’re not Alpha. You don’t even feel like pack.”
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