Too Hot to Touch

by Lora Leigh

  Felines weren’t the only ones in attendance. Noble watched as Wolf Gunnar, pack leader of the wolves, conferred with Del-Rey, pack leader of the coyotes, to direct their own security forces in concert with the felines’.

  The pre-Thanksgiving party Sanctuary hosted every year had never been so exciting. Now if they could just make certain they kept the damned journalists contained.

  “Noble, give Brackenmore and the others to Mordecai. I want you to contain your librarian and get her sequestered,” Jonas said into the link seconds later. “We have a security report from surveillance that she may have been close to a meeting between Brackenmore, Engalls, and one of the lab assistants earlier in the hallway.”

  Noble’s head jerked in her direction. He could still see the very edge of her skirt peeking out from where he had pushed her.

  The Coyote Breed, Mordecai, his face scarred, his icy blue eyes filled with death, took Brackenmore and the others, and Noble strode across the ballroom quickly.

  Haley was still huddled there and stared back at him, her eyes wide and touched with courage and trepidation. He held his hand out to her and watched as she lifted hers, her fingers trembling as he gripped them.

  “They’re monsters,” she whispered, and though her eyes were dry, sorrow filled them. “Noble, they’re monsters.”

  The fine hairs along his body lifted in warning, but even worse, the spots along his shoulders began to tingle in foreboding. She knew something. In that moment he knew she had seen or heard something that could possibly get her killed.

  •CHAPTER 1•

  THREE WEEKS LATER

  DECEMBER 7

  “The winter storm heading for the Virginia mountains is slated to pile on the snow. We’re looking at up to ten inches possible before nightfall, with another ten to fifteen over the next two days. The moisture we’re tracking . . .”

  Haley turned off the television and stared at the black screen in satisfaction as she forced herself not to smile in glee at the thought of snow.

  She tugged at the snug cuffs of her cheery red cotton blouse instead and turned to her assistant, Patricia.

  Nearing fifty, but as spry as a woman fifteen years younger, Patricia looked displeased over the weather forecast. Dressed in dark brown tailored slacks and a matching sweater, Patricia had a smile that always brightened the darker hues of the clothing she wore.

  “I’ll never get out of that damned lane the county refuses to pave with that kind of accumulation,” Patricia pouted, her brown eyes sorrowful. “I hate being stuck.”

  Haley frowned. Patricia’s little sedan would never handle such a heavy snowfall, nor was it equipped with the same traction sensors and tires that Haley’s four-wheel-drive truck had.

  Living in town, Haley didn’t worry as much about getting out as she did about the inconvenience of the snow itself. They hadn’t had a storm like this move in for years, and the dump of fluffy white stuff almost had her rubbing her hands in glee.

  But she knew Patricia, and her friend hated the snow, just as she hated the way it confined her in her little house outside of Buffalo Gap.

  “Take my truck.” Haley moved to the counter behind which she and Patricia worked and lifted her purse from the floor.

  She pulled the car keys from the inside and tossed them to her friend.

  “Are you serious?” Patricia stared back at her in surprise.

  “They’ll have the roads here in town clear before noon, and Sanctuary will make certain the main road is clear before then. All you’ll have to worry about is getting out of that little hole you live in.”

  She almost shuddered. Patricia lived in one of the small hollows that dotted the mountain terrain. The mile-long track between her house and the main road was rough at all times. Filled with snow, it would be impossible for Patricia to navigate in her little car.

  “You’ll take my car then?” Patricia worried. “I’d hate to leave it just sitting in the parking lot.” She gripped Haley’s keys like a lifeline.

  “The car will be fine for me until they get the snow cleared to your house.” Haley shrugged, then stared back at Patricia worriedly. “But please be careful. I just bought her, and she’s still unscratched.”

  The pristine cherry red pickup had been her dream vehicle, with big tires, the standard shift—and the advanced electronics was her pride and joy.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of your baby.” Patricia was almost as gleeful over driving the truck as Haley was over the coming snow.

  Haley looked around the nearly deserted library. The two-story glass-and-metal building was incredibly beautiful. Donated by an effort between Sanctuary and several of its supporting companies, the building had the look and feel of beautiful wood, without the cost. Even the metal-and-steel shelves had that old-wood look, and housed the thousands of paperback and hardback books beautifully.

  The electronic books were housed in the main data boards and e-readers were plentiful for those who needed to check them out if they didn’t have their own. But it was the paper feel of the books that Haley cherished. The history and the bridge between the past and the present that always drew her.

  The library was deserted this evening. The last college student had left more than an hour before, and no one else had come through the heavy glass doors.

  “Why don’t you go home, before the storm hits,” Haley suggested. “It’s only another hour before closing, and I can take care of that myself.”

  “Or that handsome Noble Chavin, should he arrive before closing,” Patricia teased her. “When do you think he’s going to get up the nerve actually to do more than follow you home every night?”

  “With Noble, who knows.” Haley turned away from her friend, tucked the keys to Patricia’s car in her purse, and hid her expression.

  Noble, unknown to the curious, wasn’t courting her in any way, and she knew it. He was watching her, just as Breeds from Sanctuary often watched her. Just to be on the safe side, she had been told after she had told Callan Lyons and Jonas Wyatt about the meeting that had taken place in the library room of Sanctuary the month before.

  Jonas had promised her it was a precaution only, but that precaution still had the power to make her mouth dry with fear.

  “I think I’ll head home early then,” Patricia decided, as she moved behind the counter and pulled her coat on. She flipped her shoulder-length gray-and-brown hair over the stiff black collar and stared back at Haley worriedly. “You’re sure you don’t mind about the truck?”

  “As long as you don’t scratch her,” Haley reminded her, but her smile was quick. Patricia was excessively careful with everything, no matter to whom it belonged.

  “Should I throw a quilt over her before I go to bed?” Patricia laughed.

  “If you don’t mind. And don’t forget the pillows for her tires,” she reminded her playfully.

  Patricia rolled her eyes as she grabbed her purse and headed for the door. “I’ll be sure to remember both,” the assistant teased her. “Perhaps I should park her where she can watch television as well.”

  Haley laughed. Okay, so she loved her truck. Everyone teased her about it.

  As Patricia left the library, Haley moved from behind the counter, picked up the remote, and flipped the news on again. There was all that fat fluffy stuff headed her way. Piles and piles of snow. A snowman in her yard, the Christmas lights around her house twinkling against it, it was going to be the best Christmas ever.

  A smile was curving her lips when the world exploded around her. The blast filled the air, glass shattered as a wave of heat knocked her from her feet and flung her several feet away to where the children’s reading nook was sectioned off. She bounced over the low shelves, cried out in shock and pain, and crumpled on the floor as a wash of red seemed to fill the library.

  Sirens were howling. Something red was flashing, flickering and the scent of burning paper filled the air. It was hell on earth.

  Haley dragged herself to her knees, shaki
ng her head as she felt the ground shake again, and another explosion rock the air.

  She cried out, covering her head with her hands as more glass exploded, and the cold seemed to battle with a surge of heat.

  She staggered to her feet, shock, disbelief and horror filling her as she realized the books were burning. Piles of books. Flames licked at them, consumed them. The tables, counters, and much of the interior of the library was wood or a facsimile of it, and it was all burning.

  Smoke poured around her, choking her, making it nearly impossible to see as she fought to get her bearings. She stumbled through the debris-littered section, nearly falling as another, smaller explosion ripped across the earth.

  What was happening? A strike? Some sort of attack? Sanctuary wasn’t far from Buffalo Gap, and she knew that it was prone to attacks from several different racist societies, but no one had ever attacked Buffalo Gap.

  She choked and stumbled again, falling to her knees as her eyes burned, and she fought for breath. She wasn’t going to get out of here. Tears filled her eyes, and fear filled her mind as she tried to crawl, fighting to figure out which way to move, which way to go.

  “I have her!” someone yelled, a second before strong arms wrapped around her and dragged her to her feet.

  A moment later she was slung over a broad shoulder.

  “Was anyone else in there?” another voice called out.

  “No one,” she choked. She couldn’t breathe, even as the cold outside wrapped around her, and she tried to blink the stinging pain from her eyes, still fighting to breathe.

  “Haley, where’s Patricia?” She was deposited on the hood of a car as someone shook her shoulders. “Is Pat in there, Haley?”

  Haley shook her head, blinking as the fierce visage of the sheriff filled her vision. She shook her head again.

  “Gone,” she coughed. “She left.”

  “Her car is still here,” Sheriff Zane Taggart barked into her face.

  “My truck,” she coughed again. “Gave her my truck.”

  Silence met the information. She coughed again, blinking, gazing around frantically until her eyes found where her truck had been parked. Right there, in front of where the big windows had been, where a fiery blazing hulk sat in the middle of melted pavement and the burning vehicles left in the parking lot by several city workers that worked nearby.

  Her truck. Her truck had sat right there. And Patricia had been in her truck.

  “No,” she whispered, horror filling her, streaking across her mind. “No!” she screamed. “Oh God, Patricia.”

  She tried to jump to her feet and ended on the ground. Her legs folded beneath her as the sheriff tried to catch her.

  Her nails dug into the frozen earth, and she stared at the blazing vehicle in disbelief and agony. Oh God, Patricia had been in her truck.

  • • •

  The report came across the radios within seconds of the blast. Noble was just coming off a twenty-four-hour shift and heading to the barracks when it crackled across the comm links.

  “All available enforcers, be aware. Explosion at the Buffalo Gap Library. One dead, one injured. Officers en route. Sheriff Taggart requesting enforcer backup.”

  He didn’t wait for the order. He heard the names called to backup, the enforcers being pulled in to head to Buffalo Gap, and he didn’t care if his name was on the list or not.

  “Comm one, this is Chavin,” he reported to the dispatcher. “I’m heading from Sanctuary en route now.” He jumped on his motorcycle, revved the motor, and shot out of the driveway next to the barracks. “Advise Alpha leaders one through four, we have a compromise.”

  “Enforcer Chavin, order received and being forwarded. You’ll be met by enforcers Warrant, Savant, and Crayven. Be advised, Director Wyatt will be en route.”

  Sanctuary’s heavy metal gates swung open as he approached, the headlights of his motorcycle piercing the darkness and highlighting the faces of the ever-present protesters.

  He shot through the opening, hit the gas, and tore through the press of bodies that threatened to surge against him.

  “Heli-jet is being prepped and en route,” the dispatcher reported.

  “Any report of the casualty?” he yelled into the link.

  “No report as of yet,” he was informed.

  He hit the accelerator with one hand, felt the power surge beneath him and, with the thumb of his other hand, hit the integrated traction control and advanced speed protocols before he pushed the specially designed all-terrain cycle to its limits.

  Thankfully, the curvy mountain road was more or less free of traffic. The cycle’s warning system alerted him to traffic and allowed him to streak around it safely.

  As he sped to the town, all he could see were Haley’s wary gray eyes and pale, worried face the night she had overheard the plans Brackenmore and Engalls had discussed with the Breed attempting to sell them information. All he felt was the echo of the knowledge that there was the chance that someone besides himself and the Breed Cabinet would find out what she had overheard before the hearing she was due to testify at.

  He powered down as he hit the city limits, though he still pushed the cycle faster than the posted speed limits allowed.

  Haley, with her bright red hair, her soft scent of desire, couldn’t be gone. He knew he should have never left her protection to any other Breed. Something had warned him, some strange foreboding had told him that her life would be in more danger than one silent bodyguard could defend her against.

  Damn Jonas. Noble had warned him they couldn’t keep her safe like this. She needed to be sequestered, at the very least pulled into Sanctuary until the hearing next month against Brackenmore and Engalls.

  The bastards. The drug they had created to attempt to control Breeds had resulted in two deaths in the past few weeks, and they had nearly lost Dr. Morrey as well.

  And now, they could have lost Haley.

  He couldn’t imagine a world without Haley in it. He refused to imagine such a thing. It was impossible, it couldn’t happen.

  He hadn’t kissed her yet. He had barely even touched her. He hadn’t yet figured out why she drew him as no other woman ever had, though in the past week, he had begun to suspect exactly why.

  He hadn’t yet had a chance to decide if he could risk taking her, making her his, or if he should force himself to leave the situation as it stood.

  The hunger eating at him was still controllable. The need driving him could still be buried in another woman. The heated lust could still be pumped from his body, and though satiation was never complete, it was satisfying.

  He was still his own man.

  For the moment.

  Once he knew Haley was safe, once he made her life his primary objective, he would no longer be able to claim that singular independence. And he knew it.

  He raced into town, slowing the cycle and easing it around traffic, bending over the padded chest rest and gearing down as he glimpsed the flames that blazed around the library.

  And he felt the roar that discharged from his chest at the sight of the twisted, ruined, blazing hulk of Haley’s truck. A roar of bloodlust and animalistic rage. Someone was going to pay. Dear God, if she was in that truck, if she was gone forever, then blood would flow.

  •CHAPTER 2•

  Haley shuddered in the blanket Zane Taggart had wrapped around her. The sheriff was kneeling in front of her as she sat sideways in his cruiser, her feet on the ground, the heat from the vents blasting over her upper body. Still, she shuddered from the cold and the fear.

  Zane was one of those men in Buffalo Gap Haley had known almost since the cradle. He was a few years older than she, so he had always been a little protective of her. Zane was protective of all women though. He wasn’t in uniform, so he must have been off duty when the explosion happened. He was dressed in jeans¸ a dark flannel shirt, and a heavy quilted overshirt.

  He was staring at her silently as she gripped the cup of hot coffee he had pressed into her h
ands seconds ago, his expression concerned.

  “You should let the paramedics look at you, Haley.” He reached out and brushed her hair gently off her forehead.

  “I’m fine.” A sob hitched her breath, shuddered through her body. “Patricia’s not okay, Zane.” More tears leaked from her eyes.

  She couldn’t seem to hold them back. Patricia was gone, and it was all her fault. Because she had let Patricia borrow her truck, had given her the keys because it was going to snow.

  Lazy fluffy flakes were already drifting through the air, but they no longer held the magical appeal they had only a few hours ago.

  Flames still burned inside the library. The fire blazing around the building and the vehicles that had caught fire were more important than the books inside a building that would contain its own flames.

  “No, Patricia’s not okay, Haley.” Zane sighed and stared through the windshield before turning back to her. “You have to tell me what happened, honey.”

  “I don’t know.” She stared back at Zane in shock. “It was going to snow. You know how pitiful Patricia’s car is in the snow.” Another sob tore free. How pitiful it had been. The explosion had destroyed several other vehicles as well¸ Patricia’s being one of them.

  She lowered her head, fighting the sobs that shook her shoulders as Zane patted her knee.

  “Come on, Haley.” He lifted her chin until he was staring back at her. “You gave Patricia your keys, right?”

  She nodded unsteadily. “So she could get to town after the snow. She hates being snowed in.”

  “Yes, she hates that.” Zane nodded. “Go on.”

  “That’s all,” she whispered. “She went out to leave. I turned the television back on. I wanted to see the snow.” Her lips trembled. “They were showing the snow in other states, and I wanted to see it. And then . . .” She blinked and shook her head.