Claiming the Wolf

by Michele Hauf

  Silly thoughts for the tough-guy werewolf bruiser? Probably. He’d never let any in the pack know he’d been smitten by a pretty set of legs and pearl-white fangs.

  But it was more than that, wasn’t it? Beyond Danni’s obvious beauty, and the compelling allure of her bite, something more kept Hart returning to her arms and thinking of her when he was not in those arms. She had become a part of him, literally, because her blood was inside him, as was his inside hers. But that wasn’t the deepest most intense reason that found him waiting impatiently before her door right now.

  While he felt he filled some part of her wanting soul, he knew she had stepped into the part of his life he’d never realized was wanting. He needed to be with her, plain and simple. All the time. Watching her, admiring her, learning her, knowing her. Kissing her. Loving her?

  He shrugged at his thoughts. Maybe. He couldn’t claim more than a few romantic flings, all of which, he’d thought to be in love, and maybe he had been. Love occurred over and over in a person’s life. He believed that. But to know the love was meant for you and to hold it gently yet firmly enough not to let it slip away? Now that was the challenge.

  Another knock, and he listened carefully but didn’t hear anyone inside. She said she’d be home all day and he’d hoped to catch her in the act she’d alluded might happen when she was thinking of him. Even if he missed it, he would request a private show. Was that what she was up to right now?

  Smiling at that thought, he tugged out his cell phone. No messages. And he didn’t hear any moans on the other side of the door. Maybe she’d stepped out for a few things?

  He tried the doorknob. It was locked, but he didn’t want to stand around in the hallway waiting. And maybe he could enact his plan to spread around the rose petals?

  Slipping out a credit card from his wallet, Hart jimmied the lock, and stepped inside the quiet apartment. Before he could close the door, his phone rang and he eagerly answered, thinking it was Danni. “Hey, sweetie.”

  “Dude, that is so wrong.”

  Shit. “Hey, Tony, what’s up?”

  “I didn’t know you had hooked up, man.”

  “I uh... Well, you know, I have my flings. Why the call?” He rapped the bouquet of roses against the back of the sofa, thankful he’d not gone into some sappy I adore you and want to watch you masturbate greeting.

  “We got the vamp who was creeping around Remy. And get this. It’s a freaking chick.”

  Hart’s pulse stopped, cold and dead as a corpse. The roses scattered at his feet. Grasping the air with his free hand, as if trying to catch himself from a fall, he shook his head. “When did that happen?”

  “Few hours ago. We found her snooping around the compound.”

  Oh, Danni. He clutched his aching chest where his heart pounded for escape. She’d told him she couldn’t give up because of her brother. He should have given her the information she needed. That would have kept her away from the compound.

  “Hart?”

  “I’m here. What are you going to do with her?”

  “We tossed her in a cage. Will make for some excitement in a few weeks after the UV sickness kicks in.”

  The blood games. Bloody hell. No sane punishment for a woman, let alone, a vampire of any persuasion.

  “I should be the one to interrogate her,” he summoned quickly. Anything to put him close to her, to gain control of this crazy turn of events.

  “Maybe. Hart, you didn’t know the vamp you pursued was a chick?”

  “The suspect was wearing all black, including a skull mask.”

  “Uh, sure, but—”

  “I’ll be there soon, Tony.” He slapped the cell phone shut and turned to find a man he recognized standing in the open doorway to Danni’s apartment. “Slater.”

  Rushing the vamp, Hart grabbed him by the lapels of his expensive suit and slammed his spine against the door frame. “You bastard! You did this to her!”

  “Chill out, wolf. What the hell is a werewolf doing in Danni’s home?” He cocked a sly look toward the floor. “With roses?” His slimy gaze moved up Hart’s form and landed his neck. “Ah, you’ve been bitten. Romancing the fang, buddy? No wonder Danni failed this job. She’s been playing for the wrong team—” His last word was cut off with another slam against the frame.

  “You changed her against her will, and now you threaten her brother’s life to keep her in line.” He rammed a punch into the vampire’s gut and the man bent forward, groaning. Gripping him by the hair, Hart slammed him backward again and fisted his jaw.

  Slater yelped and spat his blood at Hart, hitting him on the cheek. The smell of it made him growl. “Rough me up, man. You’re signing the brother’s death warrant.”

  “You!” He kneed the vamp in the thigh to effectively pin him. “Will not go near David Weber. Danni has been taken by pack Levallois, and they are going to use her in the blood games.”

  “No way. I never wanted that for her.”

  “Yeah, well you sent her in to nose around the pack, what did you expect? She wasn’t cut out for what you commanded of her. She’s too new, barely comfortable with vampirism. Arsehole.”

  “Apparently she’s comfortable enough to claim herself a wolf.”

  He slammed a fist into the vampire’s gut for changing Danni against her will.

  “From this moment,” he said forcefully, “you will leave her alone. She’s out of your tribe, got that? Danni no longer does your dirty work.”

  “Who’s going to stop me?”

  Hart gripped the vamp under the jaw and closed his hand over the windpipe. Wouldn’t kill him, but the man sputtered and clawed at the wall behind him as he lifted him from the floor. He willed down his canines and watched the vampire’s eyes grow wide at sight of the thick teeth.

  “My bite will not get you off,” he said. “It’ll tear out your veins and rip out a big chunk of your face. Want to try me?”

  “Fine! She’s out of the tribe. She’s worthless anyway.”

  Hart slammed the vamp hard against the wall, making him choke up more blood. “And if you harm one hair on her brother’s head I will rip your head from your neck. Tell me you understand, longtooth.”

  Slater nodded, wincing as blood drooled from his mouth. “You going to get her out of the games?”

  “What happens to Danni isn’t your concern anymore.” He shoved the vamp out into the hallway, and Slater caught his palms against the opposite wall. “Get the hell out of my air. I’m feeling the werewolf wanting to get loose.”

  “The bitch is all yours.”

  “And her brother?” Hart called after the vampire’s retreat.

  “Never heard of him. Just keep your damned pack from using our tribe members for their sick games, will you?”

  If he had such power, Hart would do that. “I’ll try,” he muttered, and turned to pull Danni’s door shut.

  * * *

  Danni paced the cell from the concrete block wall to the double set of bars separating her cell from the next, which was empty. It smelled like sweat and piss down here. One other vampire had been contained two cells down from hers, but he lay on the floor, face down, arms prostrated. No shirt, and his pants were torn to his knees, revealing wicked boils on every part of exposed skin. Every time the UV lights switched on he’d yelp and hiss as his flesh bubbled. She’d only been here a few hours, but she dreaded that sure and painful future.

  What a fool to have been grabbed. Tribe Zmaj would
never find her now. Slater could care less, she felt sure. She was lost, an unwanted creature plucked from the streets, as invisible as the homeless, and as reviled. No one would look for her.

  Rubbing the tattoo on her wrist, she smirked at the words. Come what will? Uh-huh. Well, they wouldn’t bring Dan the Man down that easily. She still had some fight left in her. If she went down, she was going to do it with fangs embedded in some werewolf’s neck.

  Her only hope was Hart. Would he question her absence when he returned to her apartment? She hoped so. But then came the hard part. She’d never expect him to go against his pack and request her release, or even attempt to save her.

  The steel door at the top of the basement stairs opened and footsteps shuffled down the concrete steps. Turning and crossing her arms, she would not give them the pleasure of seeing her weakness or fear.

  “Make it quick,” a man said to someone else. “I got a lunch break in five minutes, and I don’t need to spend that babysitting you and the vamp.”

  A throat cleared and Danni lifted her head. Not going to play their games. Fuck ‘em all.

  “You found her outside the compound?”

  Hart’s voice. Oh yes! Danni cautioned herself from spinning around and rushing to the bars, eagerly stretching out her arms to him.

  “Tony got the jump on her. She’s tough, but when threatened with a stake they always crumble. Ha! Crumble into ash, get it? I kill myself.”

  Out the corner of her eye, she saw the idiot wolf who had tossed her in this cell. Roughly, shoving her to land on her knees and palms, scuffing the skin bloody. He’d made smacking kiss noises and had spat on her.

  “Turn around, vampire,” Hart said. His voice was steady, calm. He hated her. He had to. “I need some information about why you’d risk your life approaching the pack, twice over. What is your mission?”

  He knew what her mission was. Something was up.

  Tilting back her head, and rubbing her hands up and down her arms, Danni resisted turning. But if she didn’t look at him now, she may never see him again. What color were his eyes? Gray-blue. But could she recall the exact shade now? And his mouth, full and soft; would she ever recall the curve of it as he marked his territory across her skin, or the dark stubble that shadowed his jaw and roughly tickled her when they kissed?

  Look now or never again.

  Turning, her head bowed, Danni thought she heard Hart exhale. He gripped the iron cage bars and she wanted to grasp his fingers, to touch his warmth, and remember how gentle her mighty wolf had been with her.

  “Name,” he demanded.

  “We got her stats,” the other said from the shadows by the stairs. “She’s with tribe Zmaj. We’re sending scouts out after them. They think they can mess with us? Ha!”

  “That’s a stupid move,” Hart said to the other. “If Caufield thinks he can continue with the nasty blood games he has to lie low, like I always tell him. If he starts a war with the vampires it’ll all get blown to hell. Do you want the Council on our arses?”

  Good play, Hart. The Council was tightening the reins on the vampire/werewolf relations. That was all Danni knew about the ruling group who oversaw the paranormal nations.

  “I don’t know nothing about the Council, man. Hurry it up! I’ll be at the top of the stairs.” The werewolf trudged up the stairs.

  And Hart reached through the bars, his fingers grasping. With his other hand, he put a finger to his lips to silence her. And when Danni put her hand in his, she felt everything they had shared the past few days and saw in his eyes what she needed to know—she was still his girl.

  “I’m going to get you out of here,” he whispered. A glance to the stairs, and then he placed his palm over hers. I will return. “Be strong.”

  She nodded. When he pulled away and walked up the stairs, she felt the first teardrop splash her cheek.

  * * *

  “I thought so,” Tony said as he eyed Hart curiously, his focus going to his neck where Hart knew the man saw the bite mark. He hadn’t buttoned the shirt, knowing he’d have to face the cold hard facts sooner rather than later. “Remy wants to see you again, man. Right now.”

  Remy Caufield stalked up to Hart as he entered the office, and slamming a palm against Hart’s jaw, tilted his head roughly aside. The keen-eyed principal sneered. “You’ve been bitten. And you weren’t planning on telling me? It was the one we have below, wasn’t it?”

  Exposed, all sorts of excuses started forming in Hart’s brain, and then he shoved them all away. He was no man to lie. To get out of a tough situation he always used his fists. But a fight wasn’t going to protect the girl this time around. Above all things, he must protect Danni. He could care less what happened to his own hide.

  “She bit me that first night I pursued her. In the middle of a scuffle.”

  “So you didn’t ask for it?” Remy’s eyes widened, assessing, and then he nodded. “You would never do that, right?”

  “No, I didn’t ask for it, but I’ve since drank blood. The craving was strong. I couldn’t—” Perhaps he could have. No, he would never lead the principal to believe she’d forced him to anything. “—didn’t want to resist.”

  “Fuck. I thought I taught you better than this.”

  Remy shoved a hand through his hair and paced before Hart. He was a small man, but smart and strong, despite his size. Hart could take him down in an instant, but he would not. He respected the pack principal even though he didn’t agree with everything Caufield felt was best for the pack. “You’re tainted now, Hart. You know what that means.”

  Head bowed and hands clasped before him, Hart offered, “Sorry. If I could change things I would.”

  “You can go and stake that vampire bitch right now. Maybe that’ll stop your blood hunger?”

  “I don’t think it works that way. And I wouldn’t dream of harming Danni Weber.”

  “Is that so? Why is that?”

  “I’ve learned a few things about her. She was forced to spy on the pack. They’re threatening her mortal brother if she doesn’t do as the tribe commands. She’s an innocent in this mess.”

  “Innocents don’t rip out one of my pack member’s necks and change them to something—Christ. You know what this means? Tony!” Remy huffed and slapped a hand onto Hart’s shoulder. “Sorry about this, but I have to stand for the pack. And we can’t have a tainted wolf living amongst us. Tony, take him below and lock him up. We’ll set him lose later tonight after the banishing.”

  The banishing.

  Hart winced as Tony tugged him toward the door, yet he went freely, unwilling to resist when he deserved what was coming to him. Banishment was no picnic. It would scar him physically. But emotionally? He had no idea what to do with himself if the pack banished him.

  * * *

  At sight of Hart being led toward the cage opposite hers, Danni gripped the iron bars. He walked inside the small cell of his own free will, and watched as the other wolf locked him inside.

  “Sorry, man,” the wolf said, and turned to spit at her. “Bitch ruined our best wolf.”

  “What the hell?” she asked after the stairway door had slammed shut. “Hart?”

  “They know I’ve been bitten and the principal is brassed off over the whole situation. They’ll banish me later. Remy wants me tucked away down here for safe keeping until the pack can sharpen their talons and gather the wolfsbane.”

  “Wolfsbane?” That didn’t sound good. Danni swallowed a r
eedy moan. “This is all my fault! Look what I’ve done to you.”

  “Danni, I wish you could get beyond that.”

  Get beyond ruining his life? Was the wolf on something? Maybe the UV rays they kept flashing down here had affected his thinking.

  “Right now,” Hart said, “we have to worry about how we’re going to get you loose.” He tested the bars, wincing as he pulled at them and they didn’t move. “Made to keep in vampires. Very strong. Iron strafed with titanium, I’m sure.”

  “Yes, but what about a fully shifted werewolf?” Danni offered absently, stunned he carelessly disregarded his own danger.

  He tilted his head, eyeing her with a sexy grin that melted her core and made her want to kiss him. “You may have something there.”

  An electronic sizzle preceded the metallic clank of the overhead UV lights being switched on. The vamp two cells down yelled and moaned as his skin sizzled under the deadly rays. Thrusting her hands over her face, Danni cried out too. This time it hurt. The light felt stronger than a thousand suns and her skin burned.

  “I can’t let this happen to you,” she heard Hart say. “Take this!”

  The sleeve of his shirt landed on the base of the outer bars of her cage. Danni crept over to it.

  “Put it over your head and cover as much of your skin as you can. Crouch down. I’m going to get you out of here, Danni, if it’s the last thing I do.”

  And the wolf howled, declaring to all who would listen he would not be silenced.

  Danni pulled the shirt over her head but her bare legs were exposed still and the pain was fierce. She panted and crouched, trying to protect as much of her body as possible. Behind her, she heard bones crack and Hart’s growling moans as his body shifted. Peering out from under the shirt, she watched her lover shift into the half man, half beast werewolf within seconds. She had hoped her first sight of him like that would have happened in a different situation, in a more trusting atmosphere, at the least.