by Afton Locke
Even though Brooks sat a few stools away, he was still visible because he towered above the other men. Seducing him ought to be pretty painless for Lara. Hell, she might even enjoy it. The thought, plus the predatory way the guy ogled his woman, made Ogden slam his mug down.
“Anything wrong with the beer, pardner?” the wiry bartender asked.
“It’s fine,” he replied, flexing his fingers. “I got a cramp in my hand.”
He considered adding he’d tied too much rope or bucked too many broncos—or whatever people did around here—today. However, he decided not to draw any more attention to himself than he already had.
When Lara took a break, canned country music played so people could keep dancing. Ogden resisted the urge to convince her to leave. He’d promised not to interfere tonight. Brooks swung off his stool and strolled to the stage as if he owned the entire place. Maybe he did.
Ogden’s grip clenched hard enough around his mug handle to break it as he watched Brooks lead her to the dance floor. They did the two-step to a fast song. Of course, the two of them danced perfectly. Ogden would probably lumber like a bear.
A growl bubbled from his throat when he focused on Brooks’s hand riding the back of her waist. She was his woman! He ached to jump off his stool and cut in. Or knock the guy’s head off. Sitting here and doing nothing went against his basic instinct.
He rubbed his jaw hard enough to unhinge it. Disturbances ripped through his body, precursors of his familiar shifting hell. If he kept feeling this way, he would shift right here in the middle of the bar. The last thing he needed was to turn into a helpless ball of fur on the floor.
Brooks did wear a wedding ring, but Ogden wasn’t sure if it meant anything to the man. Although he didn’t slow dance with Lara nor do anything inappropriate, his gaze and posture made it clear she was his for the night.
Who could blame him? She had raw, exciting allure few women could match. Ogden wanted her so badly he felt like howling to the music. Being encased in her hot, silky walls had made him crave her more.
She flirted with the man so much—touching his arm and whispering in his ear—he was convinced she truly had the hots for the rancher. But when Brooks spun her around, she looked straight at Ogden with sad gray eyes.
I’m yours, they said.
The glance was so brief, he wasn’t quite sure he’d deciphered it, but the feeling in his heart did. When he concentrated harder, he noticed she acted different with Brooks. More stiff and exaggerated. With Ogden, she was natural—quiet and understated one moment and a raging she-wolf with claws the next. The woman dancing with the rancher was someone he didn’t know.
She’d told him she wasn’t afraid of anything. Hell, she was braver than most men he’d met. Her fearless zeal could be a real pain in the ass sometimes, but he had to admit he admired it. Her willingness to give her life for her pack made him feel like a selfish coward in comparison. He’d lived most of his life getting by, hiding his family secret under his petticoats. As Gee and Lara had pointed out, he may not even need to anymore, but he was too afraid to risk exposure.
She was right. His home was worth fighting for. How could he continue to sweat Drew Tao when she faced such danger tonight? Maybe it was time to claim the Dominant role he was destined for. He might hate how she’d stirred up his life, but he loved the woman.
The song ended, and his muscles calmed, resisting the urge to shift. Lara requested a glass of water at the other end of the bar. Not surprisingly, she stayed away from Ogden. Relief washed over him when she launched into the next set. At least Brooks couldn’t paw her while she performed.
He was tired of sitting at this bar and smelling beer and leather. If something was going to happen, he wished it would hurry up so he could take her home once and for all. Luckily, working with wood had taught him patience. He stroked the woody grain of the bar, over and over, as the time dragged by.
After two sets, Lara was done for the evening, and Ogden yawned. It had been a very long day. Aside from a couple of dances with her, Brooks hadn’t done anything. His mind shifted back into alert mode when the rancher approached her again. Within minutes, they walked outside together.
Ogden left enough money on the bar to pay his bill and followed them at a distance. The muscles twitched in his arms and legs, wanting to run up behind them and tackle the big guy instead. To his dismay, they strode to a big, silver pickup and she got in.
Where in the hell did he plan on taking her? Ogden assumed she planned to bring him to her motel room. He wasn’t crazy about the idea, but at least she’d be accessible.
To have any hope of saving her, he had to tail the truck. What if he lost them? After wasting precious seconds fumbling with his keys, he finally jumped into his truck and started the engine. Lara was right. His vehicle was pretty old. Could it keep up? If he ever got back to Los Lobos with his sanity intact, he’d buy a newer one.
When Brooks turned left out of the parking lot, Ogden was right behind him with his fingers crossed on the steering wheel.
***
Lara’s heart flew as she got out of Tyler’s truck after the fifteen-minute ride. A lone tree dominated the flat front yard, reminding her of a target. Where was she? He’d insisted on taking her to the ranch of a friend who was conveniently out of town. She’d planned her strategy around her motel room, not this strange place. Not having her vehicle didn’t help either. Driving his would be her sole chance of escape. Hopefully, she wouldn’t get arrested for auto theft.
She hadn’t counted on him wearing a big, silver belt buckle either. Silver and wolves didn’t mix. Part of her wished Ogden had followed her the entire way and part of her didn’t. She had no way of knowing because he might have parked on the road and continued on foot so as not to spook Brooks.
He sure was sticking to his word about not interfering. His calmness in McCain’s had both surprised and impressed her. He’d behaved like a watchful mate, protecting her, but it seemed he’d stopped trying to run her life.
Another man might have locked her to the headboard or washed his hands of her messy life, but not Ogden. He was as steady as Old Faithful, and she was falling for him.
Part of her wished he had tied her up tonight. What kind of life was this? Would her mother really want to see her daughter in her murderer’s house, facing the same danger? Maybe he had a point. Was the best way to fight choosing not to?
Tyler strolled into the house and turned on a couple of dim lamps. Like so many in the West, it was a woodsy affair with varnished logs and a fireplace. Animal heads and rifles in racks adorned the walls. Her nose twitched from the lingering smell of death, and her heart skipped a couple of beats when she realized one of the heads was a wolf’s.
He gestured her toward the leather couch and poured some wine from the fridge.
“Your friend sure has a lot of guns,” she said as she took a seat.
“Got to keep them handy with all the varmints prowling around out there.”
Varmints? He must have thought her mother was a varmint to be exterminated. She took the glass of wine he handed her, desperate to get something into her stomach before she heaved. The idea of seducing this killer filled her with nausea. What if she couldn’t do it?
Ogden had changed her. Before, she could seduce a despicable man without even breaking a sweat. All she had to do was shut off her feelings and think about her mission. Because Ogden had claimed her body with such a heartfelt bond, she couldn’t bear to come close to another man.
Instead of Tyler’s broad shoulders, she saw Ogden’s blue eyes, piercing her with their wholesome honesty.
Why are you doing this? they seemed to ask.
When the rancher’s gold wedding band glinted in the lamplight, guilt scalded her with the intensity of acid. His vows obviously meant nothing to him, but her mating bond did to her.
I can’t do it!
Taking a shaky breath, she focused on her mother until the lust for vengeance roared through her veins
again. Victory—sweeter than a thick, medium-rare sirloin steak—stood so close she could taste it.
Tyler slid next to her on the large couch, his long leg pressing the length of hers. The sensation made her want to move to the opposite end, but she stayed still. Lara’s key chain, containing a miniature camera, was concealed in her hand and ready to go.
If she was lucky, she could avoid even kissing him. Just get half her clothes off and start snapping photos of them. She’d done it so often the routine was clockwork. Her heart stalled when he made his move, kissing her ear and nudging down the bandana to nibble on her neck. She’d made sure to position herself so Ogden’s hickey was on the opposite side from Tyler. The damn belt buckle was making her lightheaded, though.
“Why don’t you lose the belt, cowboy?” she whispered. “I don’t think you’ll need it tonight.”
Grinning, he unbuckled it and pulled it loose. She released the breath she’d held when it hit the floor at a safe distance.
“By varmints do you mean wolves?” she asked, struggling to sound nonchalant.
He snorted. “They’re the worst ones.”
“Do you shoot them yourself or do you have your men do it?”
“Sometimes I do it because I love to watch them die.” He stroked the red streak in her hair. “This is sexy and…familiar somehow.”
Lara concentrated on keeping her stomach under control. “I hear there’s a black wolf around these parts with a red streak.”
His eyes, mere inches from hers, brightened. “I saw it!”
Her gut clenched. He’d been the one to pull the trigger on her mother. Putting two and two together, she was sure of it. Victory stepped even closer. A few more minutes….
She unbuttoned the top two buttons of her blouse with lazy fingers. “All this talk about killing is making me really hot.”
Being the predator he was, he grinned and dropped his head to peruse her flesh. She quickly undid more buttons, pulling her bra straps down and out of the way. Exactly as she’d done with Ogden earlier today.
Tears scalded the backs of her eyes. He was right. She was a whore! How could she ever look him in the eye again? She was his mate, his woman, and she had no right to give herself to anyone else, no matter what the reason.
Well, it was too late to back out. She had her safety to think about. Tyler would be plenty pissed when she took off in his truck. She needed to get him doped up with more lust first. A coyote howled in the distance, driving her nerves closer to the edge.
When her breasts were fully exposed, she lifted the key chain camera to the side, familiar enough with the range of its viewfinder to know she caught his face and her nipples in the shot. Struggling not to recoil from the sensation of his saliva on the tops of her breasts, she took a few more. The clicks were extremely quiet but so were the surroundings. Too bad they couldn’t have done this in the noisy motel.
“What’s that?” he asked, pulling away.
But when she looked up, she realized he hadn’t noticed the camera but something at the window.
Ogden!
A gut-wrenching howl pierced the quiet. Oh, God, no. He’d seen her and the resulting emotions had sent him into a painful half-shift. If Tyler found him defenseless…with so many guns around….
“I can’t believe it!” he shouted, grabbing a rifle from the wall. “The hairy varmints are coming up to the house.”
When he ran toward the front door, weapon in hand, she was on his heels, buttoning her blouse and stowing the key chain in her pocket. It took a while for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Why couldn’t she have done this in daylight?
But the hunter seemed to have better night vision than she did because his rifle was already aimed and cocked as he stormed into the yard.
By the time she saw Ogden—as a Wolf—the shot rang out and he went down. Exactly as her mother had.
Chapter Six
By the time she got to him, Ogden was half-wolf, half-man with a bloom of red staining the side of his white shirt. He thrashed, still alive, but for how long?
“No! No!” She took such hard breaths her lungs ached.
Ogden, the only man whose touch she enjoyed. Ogden, gentle soul who hates to cut trees. Ogden, her protector. Emotion, fierce as a lightning bolt, seared her red streak and cast her into a hard, fast shift. Every inch of her skin crackled as glossy, black fur poked through it. Like strong rubber bands, her bones pulled and changed shape.
Not now! She needed to call 911 and tend to her mate.
Correction, she needed to take down the man with the gun. Because, in wolf form, she was his next target. For a split second, her skin seared, fiery-hot, where the rifle aimed. But she wasn’t about to be Hunter Boy’s target practice.
Using every muscle in her lupine body, she circled and approached Tyler from the side. Jumping, she managed to knock him down. When the gun fell from his hands, she kicked it away. With hot spittle dripping from her lips, she clamped her jaws around tender throat flesh.
Kill him!
The instinct flared through her brain. He beat her with his fists and tried to kick her, but she didn’t let go. If she was going to take his life, she needed to do it quickly, before he got the upper hand. The muscles in her jaws trembled, aching to clamp down harder—crush his windpipe, sever his jugular.
Make him pay for all the evil he, and other bastards like him, had done. If he’d stopped at delegating wolf killing to his ranch hands to protect livestock, she might let him go. But protecting his property wasn’t enough for him. He murdered wolves singlehandedly so he could get a thrill from watching them die.
Had he smiled when her mother died? Had it thrilled him so much he jerked off afterward? Or had a celebratory shot of whiskey? Would he smile if Ogden died now?
Bastard!
Trickles of Tyler’s blood, where her fangs pierced his neck, floated across her tongue, sending her into bloodlust. A deep growl, fueled by the scent of his fear, reverberated in her throat. She let her teeth sink in a bit deeper. He writhed on the dusty ground, fighting her the entire time. If he lunged the wrong way, severing an artery, he would end up killing himself. Not her problem.
Don’t do it. Hasn’t there been enough killing?
She didn’t know who’d spoken to her—her own conscience or her mother’s spirit. Or maybe Ogden could communicate with her mind since they were both in wolf form.
Aw, hell!
With a bone-jangling growl, Lara opened her jaws, releasing Tyler’s neck. But he wasn’t going to get off scot free. Before he could get up, she sank her jaws into his right biceps and tore the flesh. Next, she caught his flailing right hand. Crushing his finger bones in her teeth set off such a fierce bloodlust in her brain, she almost decided to kill him after all.
Guess you won’t be shooting anything for a while, will you, Brooks?
The man screamed, high-pitched and childlike, which raised her hackles until they practically vibrated with electricity. Then he was silent, his head lolling to the side. Was he dead? When she poked her muzzle under his nostrils to check for breathing, she realized he’d merely passed out from shock.
But there was no time to gloat. Ogden needed help. As soon as she reached him, she already heard a siren in the distance. His cell phone lay on the ground beside him. In his half-human state, he must have managed to push the emergency button.
At the rate he bled from his side, though, they’d never make it in time.
Shift! Only in wolf form, can you heal from this.
To coax him, she licked his face and growled softly in the back of her throat. Pain rippled across his features as his body contracted. She yipped in encouragement as more gray fur popped out. His blue gaze—pale and watery—clung to hers while his body struggled to become a Wolf.
She’d never seen such a painful shift in her life. One nail at a time popped out from his paws.
Hurry! The ambulance is almost here. When they see us, we need to be human.
Ogden was
finally completely lupine. He whined from pain while she licked his wound. The taste of his blood had the opposite effect on her than Tyler’s. It made her want to pick him up by the scruff of his neck with her teeth, carry him off to a den, and nurse him to health.
But he didn’t seem to need it. The blood flow slowed to a trickle, and his whines turned to strong growls. She could finally see the path the bullet had taken. Thankfully, it had grazed him instead of burrowing into his internal organs. To her utter joy, he rose to four legs and shook himself. Those blue eyes still stared at her with a bond which would never die.
The siren grew closer. It must have turned off the main road onto the long driveway. She hoped to hell he could shift to a human faster than he had to a Wolf. When the authorities saw Tyler’s bite wounds, they’d look for the nearest wolf to blame it on.
She touched her nose to his, sharing his breaths.
You did great, honey. Now shift back to human on my count. One, two, three!
Her body obeyed, the shift happening so fast she fell on the hard ground. Her bones stung from where they’d lengthened, and her hairless skin felt as if it had been sandpapered at the mill.
Damn it! Ogden was mid-shift and seemed to be stuck. Red flashing lights from the ambulance swept across the yard. If the authorities found him in his half-wolf state, they’d lock him up in the nearest science lab. He might even end up at a circus where people would charge admission to see him.
She clutched both sides of his face. “I love you! For protecting me and being the gentle, honorable man you are.”
He answered with a hoarse groan.
“Answer me. With words,” she demanded. “Even if you don’t love me, tell me something!”
His whiskered face glowed as red as the flashing lights with his effort to speak.
“I d-d-do love you…L-Lara.”
A sob wrenched her rib cage. “Oh, Ogden. I don’t deserve it. Look at what I did to you!”