“Not a Lycan!” How many times do I have to say it?
Travis was still looking at her, and he shook his head minutely and mouthed, “No.”
If he didn’t allow it, he’d lose his place as Alpha and possibly go through his own challenge. Her brain sorted through alternatives. Pack was everything to Travis—he’d been willing to die last night to keep his place and keep the pack strong. And she’d brought on some of this mess by coming here. Last night was Travis’s challenge. It was only fitting if today was hers. She owed him. She owed them. This was part of being a pack. It felt right.
And it’s not like she could turn into a wolf and have it out with Alanna instead.
If she could, she’d have thrashed her skinny ass.
She glanced around. Most of them had their heads bowed. The fact that some didn’t was a bad sign—bad for the pack and their Alpha. Jordan was trying to communicate something with his stare, but she wasn’t sure what. He was probably telling her to do the right thing. And she would.
LeAnn licked her lips. “Fine. I’ll agree to my life on the line on one condition.”
“You don’t have a right to make stipulations,” Alanna said.
“Oh, will you shut up!” She glared at Travis. “And you didn’t let me slap her! Look, regardless of whether you vote to kill me or not, can we all go figure out what happened to Merilee? Because I sure as hell didn’t kill her, and I want to know who did.” She stood up straight. “Also, I’m sorry for what my brother did. If you do vote against me I can finally try to make that right. I didn’t know him as well as I thought, I guess.”
…
If someone had plunged a knife into his chest, it would have hurt less. Her words opened up a gaping wound inside him. Last night, he thought he’d grasped the depth of his feelings for LeAnn…when he thought she’d run away. Either her shared confidences or this fatal threat of losing her laid waste to what he’d believed. He was in over his head and drowning with her. He needed time to examine this…to get a handle on it.
Travis shook his head. “LeAnn.” She couldn’t do this. This was the height of unnecessary risk. He needed her. If anything happened to her…
“Travis, this is what a pack does, and this makes sense. They protect their own,” she whispered. “I’d want my pack to protect me, too, if I was…in one.”
He exhaled, clenching his teeth. How could he deny her this? Even if a sick sense of dread settled in his stomach. She wanted to be pack—she might deny it, but her stories of her past said she’d been searching for a place to belong her whole life. It was why she’d clung so tightly to Ross’s innocence.
There was nothing else he could do. He couldn’t undermine the stance she’d taken—she was behaving like an Alpha. He certainly couldn’t condemn her desire to act like she was a member of the pack.
He also couldn’t live without her.
Travis met Jordan’s gaze. The other Alpha nodded minutely.
He shook his head again, but yelled, “Fine, but I don’t want to be here for the vote, so Jordan can tally. I don’t want to know how you vote. For what it’s worth, LeAnn has no reason to feel threatened, and she knows that because I’ve only wanted her since we’ve met. So she’s not a threat to anyone.” He frowned. “Other than Alanna.”
“Whom I’ve yet to kill,” LeAnn added.
He nodded toward a door. “Come on. We’ll wait outside.”
The cool air felt good after the tense atmosphere inside. The vise around his chest eased up just from getting LeAnn out here, with him.
They walked to the edge of the porch where the voices inside were no more than murmurs and leaned against the rail side by side.
He stared off ahead. Things needed to be said between them. He hadn’t handled the morning well. Actually, from what she’d said inside, he hadn’t handled their relationship well.
“If I do die without slapping Alanna, I’ll never forgive you.” There was a stinging pain in his chest, and he drew in a sharp breath. He didn’t even like her joking about it. If he lost her, he’d go mad. In a short amount of time, she’d become more important to him than anyone. She wasn’t going to die. He wouldn’t allow that to happen. He was going to make sure she got the chance to heal and be a part of something.
But this wasn’t the time for that. He needed to be calm and collected. Who knew what the next ten minutes might bring. There’d be time to examine his feelings later—he had to believe that.
He cleared his throat. “Like you were only going to slap her.” He shot her a wry look. “I nearly caught a kick to my privates for holding you back. If that was over a slap…”
She shrugged. “Yeah, it would have been ugly.” She glanced at him. “But I would have won.”
“You would have.” He wasn’t coddling her, either. She was stronger than she looked, and she backed up the verbal ferocity with quick, dangerous reflexes. LeAnn had the instincts and moves of a street fighter—which she’d probably earned, if her story was anything to go by.
“Even if she cheated and shifted.”
“Totally cheated.” LeAnn hadn’t shifted. For a moment, he’d doubted she was Lycan, too. But she had to be.
LeAnn cleared her throat. “Earlier at your place…”
“I was an ass because I didn’t know how to tell you or not tell you because I didn’t want you to think I believed it. So I was trying not to say anything.”
“Oh.” Then she pointed in the direction of her brother’s house. “But you kept telling me earlier today that you weren’t interested in Merilee, like you thought I was capable of it and you were trying to prevent it.”
“No. I thought you were capable of what I stopped between you and Alanna.” He tipped his head in the direction of the cabin, even as he tried not to think about what might be going on in there, tried not to make out the mumble of voices. He clenched his fingers tighter around the railing. Nothing was going to happen to LeAnn. If he had to take on the entire pack, nothing was going to happen to her.
“Oh. I am. Just not against most people. Actually just against Alanna.” It was amazing that she seemed almost calm about what was going on. As if their relationship was at the forefront of her mind and dying for a crime you didn’t commit was no big deal.
“Jordan warned me that you two couldn’t be in the same pack, but I thought he was exaggerating.” He hadn’t been. They were going to kill each other despite neither of them outwardly wanting to be alpha female.
“She started it.”
Travis stood up and pulled her into his arms. “Yeah, but you were about to finish it.” There was a hint of pride in his voice, and the spark in her eyes and half smile said she’d caught it. So much for being the enforcer.
“I can’t believe you told me to behave like an adult.”
He grinned. “I seem to remember someone shouting, ‘Oh, it is on!’ before hurtling toward the other side of the room. I was concerned about collateral damage. You two are lucky we don’t have any kids in the pack yet.”
“You heard what she called me.”
He answered her by kissing her.
She pushed him backward until he slammed up against the side of the lodge, and then she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Mm,” he said against her lips as he tightened his arms around her.
She stood up on her tiptoes to deepen the kiss.
He pulled back and grabbed her face. “I don’t think I can do any better than you. I don’t even deserve you. You’re exactly who I want. You are the right person—for me, for the pack. So never say that again—never think that again. I want you.” He’d wanted to shake her when she said that. How could she not realize they’d gone way beyond that point?
Today was a semitruck careening out of control on hairpin curves. He’d been out all night searching for her…only to find her and connect with her. Then he’d stupidly pushed her away to compartmentalize things, and he was now facing losing her again. He needed her more than he needed his next
breath, but he couldn’t seem to find the right words to make her understand that…and showing her clearly wasn’t working well for him.
She licked her lips, drawing his attention to them. “That’s because you’re crazier than me.”
He smiled.
She tipped in and kissed his smile.
Opening his mouth, his tongue stroked hers as his hands slid down her back to grab her butt and lift her right off her feet. If only they didn’t have all these clothes in the way. If only she’d accept the scent-match. She moaned softly into his mouth.
Footsteps sounded inside the lodge, and he tightened his arms around her.
“Okay, break it up, kids,” Jordan said, opening the door.
They broke the kiss reluctantly, but she stayed leaning up against him.
“I told them no one travels alone, and that anyone able to go look for Merilee needs a group of three,” Jordan said. “I also stipulated that the area immediately around her place was ours to check out.”
She swallowed. “So they didn’t vote to kill me?”
Jordan shook his head. “Only a handful, but I think they would have voted to kill Travis, too.” He grinned at her then. “Are you kidding? I would pay to see that at meetings regularly. I think they’re all hoping every meeting turns into Thunderdome.” Then he shrugged. “Besides, as you pointed out, you’ve yet to kill Alanna, and that was a compelling argument. She’s not even in heat and you still despise her—it spoke to your motives.”
“I can’t believe you shot the ceiling.” LeAnn stared up at Travis with her head tilted. “That was over the top.”
“Was it? It didn’t feel like it.”
“Well, shall we go see what’s up at Merilee’s?” Jordan gestured at their parked cars.
She glanced over at the lodge. “So that’s what a meeting with the pack is like? I swear that ended nearly the same as a couple of the bachelorette parties I’ve been to. Well, not the voting to gang up and kill someone.” Then she wrinkled up her nose. “Not kill them. Maim…yes, but they’d have deserved it, and you don’t vote, not in so many words.”
Travis and Jordan stared at her.
“What? Seriously. There are some really bratty maids of honor out there. I once threw one out a window.” Then she looked at Travis and said, “Shooting the ceiling was still over the top.”
It’d felt so right, though.
“I’m glad the pack didn’t kill me,” she continued as they walked.
“I wasn’t going to let that happen regardless,” Travis said. No way in hell. He’d die trying to save her first.
“I would have tried to hold them back while you guys took off,” Jordan said.
“But it’s a pack law.” LeAnn’s jaw dropped. She’d actually expected him to follow pack law when it came to her life? She’d even made peace with it.
Travis shot her an aggravated look as he held the door open for her. “Yes, but laws were meant to be broken.” It was strange to hear the words leave his mouth.
“Who are you and what have you done with Travis Flynn?”
Part of his attempt to control everything had been a rigid adherence to laws. He’d do anything to keep her beside him, though. It was the new law of his life.
Chapter Nine
Considering how little sleep and how much duress he was working under, he really shouldn’t be driving.
LeAnn pulled out a camouflage hunting knife and started studying it.
Was he seeing things?
“Wait, you have a knife? Where were you hiding that?”
She pulled up her shirt to reveal a sheath. He should really disarm her before taking her anywhere.
“So you could have started a knife fight in the lodge with Alanna?” He’d definitely have to disarm her before meetings.
“No, I would have finished a knife fight in the lodge with Alanna. I’m pretty certain we already established that. And she shifted, remember? And I never pulled it out.”
“No, but you went for my gun.”
“Which you’d already fired into the ceiling.”
“What does that matter?” Considering the circumstances, that’d seemed reasonable.
She shrugged and put the knife away as he pulled into Merilee’s.
Jordan pulled up behind them as they stepped out.
LeAnn inhaled. “I’m starting to figure this out, I think. I’ve never had people try to cover their scent with other people’s scents so it was harder at first, but I can smell the polyester of my sweater and the stale scent of me…it’s not fresh. Bringing it to this area is fresh, but the source is older.” She scowled. “Whoever has that sweater is going to die. Seriously. I loved that sweater.”
Jordan walked up behind him and inhaled, too.
“Knowing it was that material, I think I can almost see what she’s saying, but”—he shook his head—“it’s far more subtle.”
“Then there’s the alcohol they used to cover up their own scent, but it’s really changed it, not blocked it.”
Jordan looked at her with raised eyebrows. “You might be better than me.”
Travis grinned. His day had vastly improved. His mate had shown up Jordan—who was widely acknowledged to be the best at tracking anywhere around here. “Can you tell who did that?”
LeAnn wrinkled her nose and squinted. “Not for sure. And I’m not sure if I want it to be her so much that I’m thinking that.”
“Alanna?” both men asked in surprise.
“Hell yeah, she’s the one who framed me.” Her accompanying look implied they were both gullible fools.
“Why?” Jordan asked.
“To get me killed.”
“How can you already hate each other so much?” Travis asked again. He felt far less strong about Troy, and without a doubt, Troy would have killed him if he’d won.
LeAnn shrugged. “She even told me that if she killed someone we’d never find the body. I should have taken that more seriously. It was like she was telling me she was going to do this.” She gestured at the house. “This is almost my fault. I should have killed her in her office yesterday.” She started walking toward the house, but added, “That probably would have seemed excessive to you, though.”
His jaw dropped and he turned to see a similar look on Jordan’s face.
“Wait.” He caught up with LeAnn as she stepped onto the porch. “Alanna said to you that we’d never find a body if she killed someone? What the hell was the context on that?”
She took a deep breath before saying, “She was talking about…” She stopped and looked around, and her shoulders dropped. “Damn. Ross was here.”
Jordan stepped onto the porch. “He was.” He pulled out his phone, shaking his head.
“Are you sure it was recently and not just his clothes?” Travis asked.
Jordan paused and looked up.
LeAnn folded her arms and wouldn’t make eye contact. “Yeah, someone has been planting his scent, too, but not this time, and he’s been visiting a lot of people in the pack. And it’s recent—he probably came here before he was at our place this morning. It smells earlier—in fact, I think it was around the time it rained—which is why it’s stronger on the porch.”
He’d been to their place? Wait, she’d called it “our place.” His mouth went dry. That had to mean they were that much closer to her accepting the scent-match. But Ross had been at his house? Why? The bastard wasn’t getting anywhere near his sister.
There were so many things in this conversation that they’d need to revisit. Hopefully he’d remember them all, because LeAnn only seemed to answer questions rather than volunteer information, and she was distracted at the drop of a hat.
LeAnn turned and went inside. “He was in here, too.” She pointed to the right. “He went that way.”
They followed her as she went down the hallway and ended in Merilee’s room.
LeAnn winced. “Yeah, she’s dead. They killed her and dug that thing out of her.” She pointed at the tracking tag.
“It doesn’t smell like pain or even fear, so they must have injected her with something while she was sleeping, because I can’t smell a gunshot, either. Ross was here around the same time. Polyester LeAnn smell is in here, too.” She muttered “that whore” under her breath.
“You’d make a great detective,” Jordan said, his hand still poised on his phone.
“I don’t tend to work on that side of the law.” LeAnn covered her mouth and nose with her hand and shifted back and forth on her feet.
“Ross used injection to kill Colby,” Jordan pointed out, looking at him. “He killed him before he gutted him.”
Ross had first killed Colby with an injection and then cut him open.
“He did?” LeAnn asked, dropping her hand. “Wait, don’t answer that.” And she gagged before bolting from the room.
They looked at each other before glancing after her. She was on the front porch gulping in deep breaths.
“I could have put that better,” Jordan said.
“I’m not sure if that’s what it was.” She’d seemed less affected by her brother’s crime the previous times they’d discussed it.
Travis followed her back out to the porch where she was leaning on the railing, biting her lip while blinking rapidly. He rubbed his hand down her back.
“That smell…you know? I thought I could handle it, but that smell. It suddenly took me back, and I could see that guy’s wife, and he’d raped her, and so the place smelled like sex and then death and…Merilee’s room…” She shook her head. “Sorry. That was stupid.”
If he’d doubted her at all—which he didn’t—it was obvious she hadn’t killed Merilee. Her brother may have, but she hadn’t. It was even unlikely she could kill Alanna despite what she kept saying.
“You are probably thinking I need some serious therapy.” Her jaw clenched as she stared at the ground below the porch.
He decided to be honest. “I’ve been thinking that since I met you. I think it was the naked with a knife to my throat thing.”
She smiled and turned her head to look at him. “And yet you want me?”
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