Branded by Lust: 4 (Night Seekers)

by Holt, Desiree

  He frowned. “And that doesn’t bother you? Most women would run screaming into the night.”

  “Haven’t you figured out yet that I’m not most women? Anyway, when Sophia joined Night Seekers she spent a lot of time explaining the group to me, especially about those of you who shift. She gave me books to read and answered all my questions. So it’s not as if this came at me out of the blue.”

  She looked deep into his eyes. “It doesn’t scare me, Logan. I’ve done a lot of research, read a lot of stories about humans and shifters who mated. I know all about Dakota and Jonah. And now there’s Sophia and Clint.”

  “You’re an amazing person, you know that?”

  “And don’t you forget it,” she teased.

  He disposed of the condom in the bathroom before sliding back under the covers with her.

  “You know, there are two reasons Craig Stafford wanted so many shapeshifters in the group. One is because he himself is a shifter. The second is we all believe that the Chupacabra is one also.”

  She nodded. “Sophia explained all that to me. But she and I dug up a lot of that when our nephews were killed.”

  “The lab tests Craig’s people have done on the ones we’ve killed prove the mixture of genetic codes and DNA. We believe it’s able to assume many different forms, from human to a variety of animals. Even dogs. That’s why it’s so hard to track. We’re even beginning to think he can change into many forms, one of them being a bird.”

  “And he thinks that as shifters you have a better chance of seeking it out and finding it,” she said slowly.

  Logan sighed. “Yeah, and theoretically it works. But the damn devil beast keeps popping up no matter how many times we kill it, like the Hydra. Chop off its head and three more grow.”

  “That’s why Craig thinks someone’s breeding them,” she guessed.

  “Uh huh. He’s got another team trying to locate the lair using maps with diagrams of where it’s killed already. Our job is to prevent any more killings. If we can.”

  “But we don’t know about them until the first of the cycle of three occurs,” she pointed out.

  “True. But at least we can cut down the number. And each time we hope will be the last.” He pulled her tightly against him. “Meanwhile, I think we need to get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a very busy day.”

  “Agreed.”

  She had almost fallen asleep when she heard him whisper her name.

  “Rebecca?”

  “Yes?”

  “Tomorrow we’re moving your things into my room.”

  She was smiling when she finally gave herself over to darkness.

  Chapter Three

  They were up early the next morning. Rebecca wasn’t sure how awkward things would be between them. Would he regret what happened? Be sorry for the things he’d said to her, things that warmed her heart? But Logan pulled her close to him and kissed her, smoothing his hands over her hair, her back, the curve of her ass.

  “I’d like to wake up like this every day for the rest of my life,” he told her, smiling. “I wish we could just stay here and—” He shook his head, his mouth curved in a rueful smile. “But right now we have to get out of bed and get to work, damn it. Why don’t you shower in here and I’ll use mine? I’m afraid if we try it together we’ll never get out of the house.”

  She laughed, tension seeping from her body. “Race you to the coffeepot.”

  When they made their way into the kitchen, dressed for the day ahead in cold-weather gear, Eve Turner, the foreman’s wife, was already there, busy at the stove. She was tall and thin, clad in jeans and flannel shirt, her gray-streaked hair hanging down in a neat braid. A fresh pot of coffee stood on the warmer with large thermoses next to it and Eve was just taking a pan of biscuits out of the oven. Her eyes lit up when she saw Logan.

  “We sure do miss you around here, big guy.” She grinned and gave him a hug.

  He laughed. “Are you kidding? John runs this place so well I don’t think anyone even knows I’m not around.”

  “That’s a big lie.” She winked at him. “But we’ll take the compliment.” She looked expectantly at Rebecca.

  Logan drew her forward.

  “This is Rebecca Black. She’s another member of the special team I’m on. A new addition. She’s my partner on this assignment.”

  “Welcome to the ranch, Miss Black. I’m happy to meet you.” She smiled and held out her hand.

  “Rebecca, please.”

  Eve’s face sobered at once. “This is very bad business, Logan. John and I still remember when Wade and Julie were killed. We knew then whatever got them wasn’t normal but no one would listen to you.”

  “Apparently, according to Greg, Sheriff Danvers is still unwilling to even consider it.”

  Eve shook her head. “He’s a good man but past time for retirement. We need someone in there with more modern thinking. Someone who won’t shoot this theory down out of hand.”

  Logan grunted his agreement. “You’d think with a second round of killings he’d realize we weren’t dealing with the normal wild animals around here.”

  “I suppose you’re off to the killing site today.”

  Logan nodded. “Then I’m going to beard the lion in his den and see if Danvers will let us get a look at the body.”

  “Yeah,” Eve snorted. “Good luck with that. Well, I’ve got coffee for your thermoses and ham and cheese biscuits. Enough for breakfast and some to take with you.”

  “Careful,” Logan told her. “You’ll put ten pounds on us.” He looked at Rebecca. “People would love to steal Eve from me just for her cooking.”

  “Fat chance,” she grinned. “Oh, and I’m making up some casseroles for you. I’ll put one in the fridge and the others in the freezer. I’ll tape the heating instructions on top. I figured your schedule would be hectic and you shouldn’t have to worry about cooking. John put steaks in the freezer for when you want a change. I’ll take care of breakfast like I always do.”

  Logan gave her a hug and a kiss on the forehead and a faint blush crept up Eve’s cheeks. “You’re the best. Leave John and marry me.”

  Rebecca was charmed by the way Logan went out of his way to make the woman feel good.

  “Are you kidding? I like to think he’d fall apart without me.” She glanced over at Rebecca. “But I think it’s past time you were thinking about getting hitched.”

  Now it was Rebecca’s turn to blush, especially when the thoughts of the night before came rushing back to her.

  “Logan and I are—” she began but Logan interrupted her.

  “Are a good combination,” he finished. “Now how about that food? My stomach’s climbing up my backbone.”

  “Almost ready,” Eve said and busied herself putting the finishing touches on their breakfast.

  They ate quickly then left Eve working in the kitchen. Bundled into her fleece-lined jacket and boots, with silk long johns under her jeans, Rebecca followed Logan out to the barn. The coffee and biscuits had replenished her energy and the bite of the cold air assured her she’d be fully awake.

  Logan held the two thermoses and she carried the cloth thermal bags with the rest of the biscuits. The landscape was a sea of frozen white snow dotted with stands of ponderosa pines, their needles dusted with white.

  “Where are the cattle?” she asked, looking around.

  “In the winter pasture about a mile from here.” Logan pointed. “There’s more shelter there to serve as windbreaks and we planted hardier grain.”

  “What about when you get massive snowfalls?” She looked at the sky, which today happened to be a bright clear blue. “What do you do then?”

  “We have commercial snowblowers we use. And the hands take feed out to them for as long as they need to. It’s important to make sure they don’t lose weight. Also we have to check when there’s a storm for any strays that get stranded.”

  “I had no idea your place was this big.”

  His face sobered for a moment.
“My brother and I bought it together. When he was alive we both owned it. He built his house at the other end of the property and I just haven’t been able to bring myself to do anything with it. Eve Turner makes sure it’s kept in shape inside.”

  They were both silent for a moment, Rebecca fully aware of the sorrow gripping him.

  “So exactly how much land do you have?”

  “Sixty-four hundred acres. I know that sounds like a lot, but not all of it is usable land. There are heavy stands of ponderosa pines and in some areas the outcropping from the mountains intrudes. We had to mark off the acreage that could be planted and we stagger the grain crops for summer and winter. Anyway, we got it in a foreclosure at a price we couldn’t walk away from.”

  She stared around her. “Where do the Turners live?”

  Logan pointed past the barns. “Just beyond that thick stand of pines. You can’t see their house from here.

  “Ranching sure isn’t for the faint of heart, is it?”

  He looked back at her and grinned. “No, but it sure separates the men from the boys.”

  “Sexist,” she laughed.

  Logan led the way to a large shed behind the smallest of the barns and opened the double doors to expose four gleaming black Polaris snowmobiles.

  “It was obvious when we were in Maine you’re an expert on these,” Logan said, storing the coffee and biscuits in a compartment in the rear of one of the machines. “Just be sure to stay right on my tail when we get to the hiking trail. There’s a lot of hidden rock and obstacles under the snow.”

  “Not a problem.” She grinned. “I can follow orders well.”

  He winked at her. “Okay then. Why don’t you wait outside while I back both of them out and close the doors?”

  When the machines were both out on the snow and idling Logan handed Rebecca a helmet. She made sure to wind her scarf around her chin first and pull her knit cap down over her ears. Montana wasn’t that much different from Maine and the helmet was only so much protection. The wind and cold could cut your skin to ribbons if you didn’t protect yourself. She noticed that Logan had taken the same precautions.

  Then they were off, skimming across the packed snow, zigzagging through the ponderosa pines. At one point Logan stopped, dismounted to open a gate in what seemed to Rebecca like miles of fencing and closed it before taking off again. At one point in the distance she could see herds of cattle and Logan’s hands working with them, mounted on surefooted horses. Other than that there was no sign of life, not even a lone house or shack. She wondered exactly how far his ranch actually extended.

  She wasn’t sure how much time had passed but she calculated about two hours when they reached the foot of a huge slope and began climbing a roughly marked hiking trail. When they reached a plateau Logan stopped the machine, turned it off and signaled for her to climb off with him. The craggy rock was covered with snow and ice and in some spots she could see the opening of a cave. She shivered, knowing it was exactly the kind of place the Chupacabra liked to hide when preparing for a kill, and she looked around cautiously.

  They climbed off the snowmobiles and removed their helmets.

  “This is where they found the bodies of the ranger and the sheep.” Logan looked around, noticing the same caves Rebecca had. “Too many hiding places for the beast here.”

  She nodded and took a moment to look at the area beyond where they stood. She hadn’t realized until this ride that Logan’s land actually butted up against the beautiful national park. She could see the peaks of the two ranges that were part of the Continental Divide and she knew cradled in their hollows were pristine lakes.

  Logan had told her to the east was the Blackfoot Reservation, home of the original Native Americans to inhabit the area. Logan had driven all the way across the state to meet with their council when Wade and Julie had been slain and shortly after them a neighbor had met the same fate in the same manner. The Blackfoot Council hadn’t shied away from the strange legend like the sheriff and many of the people in the county had done. She wondered if he’d go back to talk to them again.

  She startled when he touched her arm.

  “A lot of places for the devil beast to hide around here. And who’s to say it hasn’t moved to another location now that it’s had its first fresh kill here?” He pulled a small camera from his jacket pocket and snapped several shots of the area. “I need to call and talk to Ric. And I have some questions for him to pass along to Craig. We need a better tracking plan.” He paused. “Before he kills again. And I’m not sure that’s possible.”

  Rebecca nodded. “Where to now?”

  “Let’s get off this trail and stop for the coffee and biscuits. I think we can use something hot. Then back to the ranch. I want to look through the folder Greg left with me last night, study the pictures and the ranger’s autopsy report. After that I’ll contact Ric. Then I think we need to take a trip into Kalispell and drop in on the sheriff.”

  * * * * *

  By the time they finished going through the folder and Logan called Ric their breakfast was just a faint memory.

  “Let’s stop in Overlook for lunch,” Logan suggested as they pulled away from the ranch in a double cab pickup. “I’ll have a better chance to pick up gossip than in Kalispell.”

  “Whatever you suggest is fine with me.”

  The Big Horn Saloon seemed to be the gathering place in the town of less than nine hundred souls. A combination restaurant and bar, at lunchtime it was jammed with wall-to-wall people. But a man tall enough to tower over Logan and probably twice his girth came out from behind the bar with a huge smile and enveloped Logan in a hug Rebecca was afraid would crack a few ribs.

  “Logan Tanner,” he said in a deep, gravelly voice. “Damn if you’re not a sight to see after all this time. Finally decide to come back to where the real folks are?”

  Logan managed to extricate himself with a laugh. “Not exactly. I’m actually here on assignment for the organization I work for.” He drew Rebecca forward. “This is my partner, Rebecca Black. Bek, meet Moose Malone, owner and chief cook and bottle washer here.”

  Rebecca found her hand enclosed in one big enough to belong to Paul Bunyan.

  “So Logan’s finally got himself a woman,” he grinned. “About damn time.”

  She shook her head, looking to Logan for help.

  “Partner as in business, you idiot,” he said. “We’re team members, working together.”

  “Uh huh. Uh huh. My eyes aren’t that old. I know what I see.” He punched Logan in the shoulder. “Let me get a table for you.”

  Rebecca was amazed at how gracefully the man moved as he waved to a teenager busing tables and shouted orders at him. In what seemed like just seconds a table had appeared from somewhere and was set up along the far wall with two chairs. She barely had time to catch her breath before a menu appeared in her hands and water and silverware were set up for the two of them.

  She leaned across the table. “How does he do that? I didn’t think you could get another person in here with a shoehorn and grease.”

  “A trade secret,” Logan grinned. “Moose made up his mind a long time ago never to turn anyone away, even if they had to sit on top of the bar.”

  The floor was wide wood planking and the walls were paneled in what Rebecca assumed was more ponderosa pine. As plentiful as it was in the area, she thought she’d probably see it everywhere. Someone had carved the long bar against the wall out of the same material and behind it was a long mirror and shelves of liquor bottles, just like an old-time saloon. It reminded Rebecca a lot of The Crown in Presque Isle, Maine.

  A woman worked behind the bar filling orders so fast she was almost a blur, and talking at the same time. Not that Rebecca could hear what she—or anyone—was saying, what with the noise level of all the other voices. It seemed as if every person was speaking at the same time. She looked at Logan, slightly glazed.

  “Is it always like this?”

  He nodded. “As long as an
yone can remember. Better decide what you want to eat. Here comes someone to take our order and about two seconds after that the parade to our table will start.”

  Rebecca ordered a club sandwich, Logan chose a hamburger with everything, and the waiter was no sooner gone than two men dressed in the now-familiar jeans and flannel shirts stopped beside them.

  “Logan.” One of them nodded. “Glad to see you home for a change. Staying awhile?”

  “Maybe he’s here because of the park ranger,” the other man interjected. “That right, Logan? The new outfit you work for send you here?”

  Although the men sounded slightly hostile, beneath their tone Rebecca detected a deep nervousness, almost a fear. Something unknown had invaded their community for the second time in three years and it was apparent people were on edge. It seemed to Rebecca that everyone in the place knew Logan. Maybe everyone in the county. He introduced each person who stopped by but after a while, even with her training, she began to lose track of them.

  Some of them only stayed for a moment, greeting Logan, acknowledging Rebecca—many of them with a curious eye—putting in their two cents worth then moving on. Others managed to steal a chair from a nearby table as people emptied out of the place and took the time to express their fear about the situation.

  And every one of them seemed to be singing the same song. Had Logan seen pictures of the ranger’s body? Did it look like those of Julie and Wade? Did he have any idea what kind of creature did this? Was he still convinced it was a beast out of legend that actually was real? And what was he going to do about it? A lot of them still remembered the other killings and even seasoned hunters knew whatever had killed the ranger wasn’t anything they’d had contact with before.

  Rebecca ate her sandwich and listened, assessing the tenor of the conversations and the mood of the community. Logan was right. Just like The Crown, if you wanted to learn anything, this was the place to come. By the time they made their way out of the Big Horn—with Moose refusing to give them a bill for their lunch—her head was spinning.