by J C Gordon
She opted for leaving her hair loose. Caleb seemed to like it loose and she was trying to knock him dead as promised. A light touch of make-up and she was ready for him, and looking as good as she’d ever managed to look before. She wondered if he’d approve, as she slowly smoothed her hands over her dress before she stepped out into the great room.
“Oh. My. Fucking. God!” Millie practically yelled, her blue eyes going wide as she looked up from the breakfast table at her friend.
Rhianna blinked in surprise and looked down at herself with a frown. “Do you think it’s too much, Mills?” she asked worriedly.
“Too much?” her friend spluttered. “You look positively stunning, Annie! What’s the reason for this? Are you actually going out tonight?”
Millie had been truly worried about her friend and the level of depression she kept sinking into. She understood Rhianna’s grief and did her best to counter it, but she’d been unsuccessful most of the time. She’d been expecting another quiet night in with her friend, watching crap movies and stuffing their faces with too much ice cream.
Rhianna smiled, her face flushing slightly. “Remember that guy Caleb I met a few weeks ago? He managed to track me down, showed up today, and invited me out for dinner. He must have seen my picture in the newspaper article about Rafe. He seemed to think it would be a good idea for me to get out and about again, so I said I’d go to dinner with him.”
She watched Millie’s face carefully as she spoke. Her friend had been quite guarded around her lately, and she really wanted to hear Millie’s honest opinion about going out with Caleb.
Millie pursed her lips, surprise clearly showing on her face. “You don’t really know anything about him, Annie,” she said doubtfully.
“Well that’s why people go out on dates, Mills, to learn more about each other, and it’s just dinner and nothing else. I won’t be going back to his place again like the first time. He said he’s willing to be friends for now.”
Millie burst out laughing and shook her head. “You seriously think any man could look at you dressed like that and just want to be friends?” she asked incredulously. “Annie, you’ll be lucky to make it to dinner, girl.”
Despite her concerns, Millie couldn’t help but be pleased that there was a little bit of light shining in Rhianna’s eyes, a small hint of excitement. It was the first time in weeks she’d seen her friend smile, let alone laugh. This Caleb guy must be something pretty amazing to get this type of reaction from Rhianna.
Her friend was frowning doubtfully again as she looked down at herself for a second time. “He said to wear something stunning. Said if he had to behave like a gentleman, he could at least admire me whilst doing so. I don’t have time to change, Mills. He’s going to be here any second.” She was unconsciously biting her lower lip with concern.
“You look perfect, Annie,” Millie sighed, crossing over to her friend to give her a big hug. “I’m only teasing you. I’m so happy you’re going out on a date, honey. It’s time to start getting back into the swing of things. You go and enjoy yourself. You deserve a little bit of fun.”
Rhianna smiled slightly and couldn’t deny that her heart was thumping a bit louder than usual as she anticipated Caleb arriving. As if on cue, the doorbell rang and she jumped slightly, her heart pounding a little bit harder.
“I’ll get it,” Millie said gently. “Give you a minute to collect yourself and me a minute to check out this Caleb.” Before Rhianna could answer, her friend was striding quickly towards the front door and pulling it open.
Caleb smiled down at the tall, dark-haired woman who opened the door to him. He kept his expression carefully neutral, not giving even the tiniest hint he’d heard the tail end of their conversation because of his enhanced hearing abilities. That skill wasn’t exactly something normal human males possessed.
“Hi,” he said pleasantly. “You must be Millie. I’m Caleb Ryder.” He politely held out his hand to the woman and watched her blink up at him slowly before she took his hand and shook it firmly.
“Pleased to meet you, Caleb,” she said cordially. “Please, come in. Annie’s almost ready.”
She turned her back and must have made some kind of gesture, because Caleb caught a flush of colour in Rhianna’s cheeks before his golden brown gaze slowly roamed over her. He had to stifle a deep groan as his body stirred with a healthy appreciation of the perfection he was viewing. He’d told her to wear something stunning and she’d promised to knock him dead. She’d managed to do both in one fell swoop. He was quite literally willing to drop to his knees and promise her anything if she would agree to let him peel that beautiful dress from her body and let him lose himself in her.
He realised he was literally standing there on the doorstep practically mute, and gave himself a mental shake. He stepped into the apartment, walking slowly over to Rhianna so he could lean down and graze her cheek lightly with his lips. He also took the opportunity to breathe in her heady scent before he whispered in her ear, “Just as well you have a chaperone or dinner would most definitely be out the window right now.”
Rhianna shivered delicately as his husky voice whispered across the shell of her ear and she had to smother down a moan as she felt a trickle of liquid heat rush through her body. He was obviously very pleased with her choice of dress, and she had to admit he was looking spectacular too. He was wearing another black Armani suit coupled with a black silk shirt. He’d forgone a tie and his long, silky golden brown locks were loose around his shoulders. He looked good enough to eat.
“Shall we go?” Caleb asked, straightening up and placing a hand lightly on the small of her back to usher her from the apartment.
Rhianna grabbed her wrap and purse, and smiled at her friend. “I won’t be late, Mills,” she said, and almost laughed when Millie rolled her eyes at her, giving her a ‘yeah, right’ look.
“Enjoy yourselves,” she answered, smiling. “Nice to meet you, Caleb.”
“And you, Millie,” Caleb smiled, genuinely liking the dark-haired woman on first meeting. The bond she had with Rhianna was obviously something special. He found it hard to dislike someone who cared about the woman at his side.
He stifled down another groan as he escorted Rhianna from the apartment and down to his waiting Porsche. Had he really offered to just be friends for now? Was he insane when he had? There was no way on the planet he could ever simply be friends with Rhianna Armand. He wanted her far too much to deny himself the pleasures of her body.
Caleb helped Rhianna into the car and then climbed in himself and waited until she’d buckled up her seatbelt. He watched her with a slight smile tugging at his lips. Who would have thought a seatbelt could be so erotic? She obviously sensed his eyes fixating on the way the strap lay over her breasts and he had to give himself a mental shake when he caught her arching an eyebrow at him.
“Are we going, Caleb?” Lavender eyes searched his face intently as she tensed slightly.
He smiled and looked away, taking a deep breath and regretting it immediately when the sweet scent of lavender and jasmine assaulted his nostrils. His body twitched and he managed to keep his expression as neutral as possible as he started the car.
The enclosed space inside the car was going to be a problem. Her scent was incredibly intoxicating and his photographic memory was kicking into gear and replaying their night together at his mansion. Caleb felt like an untried youth trying to overcome his excitement at the prospect of his first sexual encounter instead of a man with over two millennia of experience to draw upon. It would have been highly amusing if it were happening to someone else.
He pulled away from the apartment and tried to turn his mind to something else. “So, Millie calls you Annie,” he commented as he drove through the residential neighbourhood. “Is that your preference?” It sounded like such an asinine thing to ask but it was something to say.
Rhianna could see the tension in him and was going to ask what was wrong, but the heated look in his eyes a moment a
go rather answered the question for her. His attraction to her was evident and she couldn’t deny it sent a little shiver down her spine knowing he found her so attractive. “Rafe and Mills always called me Annie,” she answered after a brief pause. “At school I was more commonly called Rhia. I don’t really mind either. Whatever you’re comfortable with.”
Caleb pursed his lips thoughtfully for a moment as he ran the names over in his mind. “I like Annie,” he finally answered and glanced quickly to see her reaction. She was staring out the windscreen and a slight smile curved her lips when he spoke. She approved of his choice; that, in turn, made him smile too.
“I don’t know very much about you, Caleb,” Rhianna said, turning to look at him. “What kind of work do you do?”
“I’m a partner in a few technologies companies and also a silent partner in Karpathia’s,” he answered carefully. This was one of the reasons he didn’t have relationships with women. They invariably asked questions and he had to be exceedingly careful with his answers.
“You part own the nightclub,” she repeated slowly, a hint of surprise in her tone. “I find that surprising for some reason. I can imagine you working in a big company with your suits and all, but owning a nightclub seems a bit out of character for some strange reason.”
He laughed and shot her an amused glance. “You don’t think even high flying businessmen need an outlet to let their hair down?” he asked. “My partner Demetri sees to the day to day running of the club. I tend to just go there to let off steam after a particularly hectic day in the boardroom.”
He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he turned onto Old Forest Road. “I went back to the club every night after we met. I was hoping you’d come back.”
Rhianna sighed and closed her eyes, leaning her head against the headrest. “I had to go back to reality,” she answered, a hint of sadness in her tone. She couldn’t help feeling a thrill at his words though. A beautiful man like Caleb actively trying to find her again was quite a heady thought.
Caleb took his eyes off the road for a fraction of a second so he could look at her unobserved, and in that exact moment a shape blurred out of nowhere, crossing the road in front of them and crashing into the car.
Caleb’s first thought was for Rhianna. His arm shot out across her chest to keep her firmly in the seat even as he automatically began to correct the hard slide as the car spun around. They were in the middle of nowhere, the forest on either side of them, and he had to work hard to stop the car from hitting any of the trees.
A startled cry escaped Rhianna’s lips as the car spun completely around and then half way again. Caleb gripped the wheel tightly, now using both hands to halt the slide and shift down into neutral as the Porsche finally came to a halt. He was snapping off his seatbelt even as he turned to Rhianna.
“Are you okay?” he asked tersely, his eyes quickly running over her as he spoke.
Rhianna placed a hand to her chest as if doing so would slow her thundering heart. “I think so.” Her voice shook slightly and her words came out sounding breathless. “My heart feels like it’s going to burst it’s going so fast. What was that, Caleb? Did we hit something?”
Caleb’s sharp gaze was staring at the large grey shape in the road. Fuck, it was a wolf and he was in the Hanlon Pack area! This was not good. Jared Hanlon would not be happy with him if he’d just killed one of his pack. He looked back at Rhianna’s anxious face. “Stay in the car, Annie,” he said tersely. “I’ll go check it out.”
~~~~~
Jared’s wolf was quite literally pissed at him and it was making life a tad difficult. He sighed and rubbed a weary hand over his face as his wolf howled and raged inside him. “Stop,” he groaned in exasperation. “You don’t think I want to go over there and throw her over my shoulder and bring her home with us? It’s not that simple and you know it!”
Millicent Cooper was driving both Jared and his wolf insane. She was their mate and they couldn’t get anywhere near her. She had quite literally tossed them out of her apartment that day and had so far refused to take any calls. His wolf wasn’t willing to accept her actions. He was the Alpha and she was his. It was so black and white to the animal part of him. Jared had to contend with the practical side of things though. Yes, Millie was his mate and he wanted her so badly sometimes it felt hard to breathe without her. She was also Rhianna Armand’s best friend.
He’d taken an instant liking to Rafe’s little sister the moment he’d met her. He felt protective of her and extremely guilty that she was going through such a hard time over the loss of her brother. It didn’t help that Rafe was very much alive and living with his pack and he couldn’t let her know that. He had to think of the wellbeing of the pack first. Their dual nature had to be protected at all costs.
Then there was Rafe to consider. He was a dormant Alpha, of that Jared was now sure. He appeared to be content just to be another member of the pack though. Jared surmised the man must have had a gentle nature when he was still human. Not all Alphas wanted to lead a pack. It was a hard role to take on and often required very difficult decisions that ultimately led to deaths. Rafe’s nature seemed to shun the violent part of being a Were.
If Jared brought Millie here to the pack, he didn’t think Rafe would maintain his current docile state of mind. He was adapting slowly to joining the pack proper, now he was in better control of his shifts, but he would know his sister would be in pain at the loss of Millie as well as himself. There was no accounting for what he’d do if his sister was hurt by any actions of the pack and more importantly, his Alpha.
He sighed deeply again and leaned on his desk, dropping his head in his hands. He had to have Millie. He could only deny his wolf so long. She was his. His wolf howled again inciting him to go and get their mate and Jared had to struggle hard to push him back down.
“I can’t,” he said, his voice anguished. “Do you want to lose your Alpha status? You know Rafe will challenge for leadership if we bring Millie here.”
His wolf huffed, growled and sent him images of them ripping out Rafe’s throat, before jumping on Millie and dragging her into their bed.
“I’m glad you’re so confident,” he smiled at the animal. “I, on the other hand, am not. Rafe is the biggest wolf in the pack. His lack of experience of pack life will not hamper him much should he choose to challenge.”
It wasn’t that Jared was afraid of the challenge. It was part of pack life and, if he was not strong enough to meet any challengers, he didn’t deserve to be Alpha. His issue was the people involved in the whole mess. He genuinely liked Rafe and Annie and he didn’t want to hurt them because Millie was his mate. He had to find some other way to work through this so that no one got hurt.
He heard a ruckus outside and then his study door opened and Aaron strode in. “The rogue’s been sighted, Jared,” the tall blond man said with an edge of excitement in his voice.
Jared stood immediately. “Gather the pack, Aaron. The rogue dies tonight.”
“What about Rafe?” There was a note of concern in his number two’s voice.
Jared paused for a second and then nodded. “Rafe too. He has to understand the animal nature of the pack. He may not like it but it’s necessary. Plus the rogue may be the best way to introduce him to it. He deserves to get a chance at punishing the Were who did this to him.”
Aaron nodded and left the room as Jared followed him out.
The hunt was on.
Rafe was not happy at being made to shift into wolf form to hunt the rogue who had forcibly turned him. He was given little choice in the matter by the Alpha. Jared had been firm and resolute when he’d balked at the very idea. Pack life hadn’t been as bad as he’d expected up until now. He was basically left alone to do his own thing when he wasn’t being taught the pack laws. He could now change at will and no longer lost it when he got angry at the changes happening to him. The rest of the pack seemed to treat him with some kind of special status at the moment and left him alone.
Well, the males did. The females strutted up and down outside the small log cabin he was currently staying in. They were usually naked when they did this which was rather disconcerting to say the least. The whole pack setup was a complete culture shock to him.
The Alpha had his own private residence set a bit apart from the other buildings in the compound. It was an imposing wooden building that served as his office as well as his home. Rafe had been inside it a few times and was surprised how modern the inside was. From the outside, it looked as if it was just a larger cabin but inside it was clearly a proper home as well as a place of work.
The rest of the pack seemed to live more communally, with sometimes two or three families occupying some of the bigger cabins dotted around the compound. Meal times were a communal event, taking place in the largest building in the centre of the compound that served as kitchen and dining room as well as meeting room for the pack.
Rafe knew he was lucky to have his little cabin that only consisted of two rooms: a sitting room and a bedroom with an adjoining bathroom. He knew Jared was allowing him some privacy as he gently eased him into pack life. In addition, the cabin was right next to Aaron’s, who appeared to be his minder and was one of the handful of betas who had yet to mate.
Getting the hierarchy right in his head was a major confusion for Rafe. The alpha and his betas seemed almost guaranteed to mate for some reason and therefore automatically had their own private dwellings. They still ate in the communal dining room but essentially, they had more privacy than the rest of the pack.
Clothes seemed to be optional in the pack but most people wore something to cover their nakedness, usually. It just seemed to be the females who liked to bare all in front of his modest home.