Lover Wolf (Shifter Falls Book 2)

by Amy Green

  “We are animals, you know,” he reminded her, because he didn’t want her to think that all shifters were safe. Especially if he wasn’t around. “We’re not always polite. We can be dangerous.”

  Her brow went up. “I can handle animals,” she said. “I’m starting to like them better than humans.”

  “Careful,” he said, but he smiled. “You’re starting to get soft. Besides, there was the night we had a grizzly bear fight in here.”

  It was true. It had taken three days of repairs, though no one had been hurt. But Tessa just shrugged. “Bears shouldn’t drink.”

  “You really are one of us,” he said.

  She crossed her arms and stepped closer to him. “I’ve been watching you work,” she said. “You look like you’re just talking, but you’ve been doing something else.”

  “Like what?”

  “Giving orders. Getting information.”

  He tapped his fingers slowly on the counter, thinking about how much to tell her. As his mate, she was entitled to know everything he knew. But she wasn’t his mate. Not yet. “The pack works a certain way,” he said finally. “We’re a network. It’s why we’ve never needed phones.”

  “Is this”—she motioned around the bar—“how you’ve always worked?”

  “I didn’t work any way when Charlie was alpha,” he replied. “But Charlie did. He did a lot of business at the Dirty Den. He liked to work surrounded by strippers.” He watched her look of distaste and shrugged. “They’re nice girls, most of them. They stayed safe by reporting whatever Charlie needed to know. Now that Charlie’s gone, we don’t do business at the Den anymore, but if we shut it down, those girls are out of jobs.”

  She bit her lip. “I got offered a job there once.”

  Heath saw red, the reaction so strong he lost his breath for a second. He could feel a pulse jump in his neck. He wasn’t much for strippers, but he’d been to the Den a few times, and the thought of his mate there—not just his mate, but Tessa, his Tessa—on that stage, taking her clothes off, made his wolf nearly come out of his skin. He crossed his arms and looked at the ceiling for a minute, doing his best to stay human. “Is that so?”

  “Well, not a job, you know, but an audition,” she said. “You have to audition. But I got the job here instead, and I didn’t go.” She paused, and he collected himself enough to look at her again. “So you see why I like it here. Part of me is glad to have a job where I don’t have to show my tits.”

  God, he wanted to protect her. He wanted her never have to decide again whether to show her tits to make the rent. Whether to mate with a werewolf just to stay alive another day. He should let her go, but he was too selfish, and the price was too high. And if he took her, he would do what he had to to make her life better. He would burn down this whole town if he had to.

  It was the only thing he could think of to do, to make it up to her.

  But she was looking uncertain, so he came toward her, moving close. The Black Wolf was nearly empty, but they were still in public, so he didn’t touch her the way he wanted to. Instead, he placed a hand on her waist and spoke softly in her ear. “As my mate,” he said, “you will be able to do anything you want, and no one will bother you. Not ever. And the only one who will see your tits is me. Are you ready for that?”

  She bit her lip, and looked like she was about to answer, when she looked past him at the door. “That cop is here,” she said, her voice a little strangled. “Just like you said.”

  He turned to see the door open and a woman come through. She was in uniform, dark brown pants and a light brown short-sleeved button down, a badge on her shoulder, a thick cop’s belt around her waist. Heath paused in surprise. The woman was slender, in her twenties, with dark brown hair pulled back into a braid—a braid, of all things—and flashing dark eyes. He could probably have picked her up with one arm, yet she strode into the bar like she was about to take it over.

  So this was the sheriff of Grange County.

  Nadine Walker’s gaze found him immediately, and she strode toward the bar, ignoring the amazed looks from the few shifters sitting and drinking. “Are you Heath Donovan?” she asked.

  Heath gave Tessa a quick wink. This is an act, the message was. Don’t believe a word. Then he turned back to the sheriff. “That’s me.”

  The woman held out her badge, as if she actually thought someone wouldn’t believe she was a cop. “I’m Sheriff Walker of Grange County,” she said. “I wonder if I could ask you a few questions?”

  Heath frowned. “Is this important? I’m busy.”

  The sheriff looked pointedly around the room, which was as quiet as a library. “I think perhaps you can spare me a few minutes.”

  He let a beat of silence settle in, and then he gave a reluctant sigh. “A few minutes, I suppose.”

  As he walked around the bar, the sheriff’s gaze fixed on Tessa. “Are you Tessa Keefe?” she asked. “Scott Kraemer’s ex-girlfriend?”

  Tessa just gave her an annoyed look. “What’s it to you?”

  “I want to talk to you next.”

  “I already talked to Chief Tucker.” She hadn’t, but she said it smoothly. Good girl, he thought.

  “Miss Keefe, your ex-boyfriend was killed in my jurisdiction,” the sheriff said. “I’m in charge of the investigation into his death. Hence, I need to talk to you. Got it?”

  The two women faced off for a long minute. “Whatever,” Tessa said finally, her voice hard.

  “Come now,” Heath said in a lazy drawl, wrapping his fingers lightly around the sheriff’s upper arm. The touch was so unexpected she jumped like a startled cat. “We can talk in private in my office, sweetheart.”

  Her attention came off Tessa, like he’d intended it to. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call me sweetheart.”

  “My bar, my rules,” Heath said. He looked over her head and caught Wes Carter’s eye. Wes curled a hand around his beer glass and pushed his chair back as Heath led the sheriff to his office. “I’ll tell you anything you need to know,” he said.

  Some of it might even be the truth. Perhaps. But this was going to be a very long conversation. He was going to make sure of it.

  He just hoped it would be long enough.

  14

  Tessa watched Heath lead the sheriff away, and a pulse of worry went through her. Something wasn’t quite right here. She was Scott’s ex-girlfriend, the woman he’d tried to abduct only an hour before he was murdered. Yet the sheriff investigating the murder very obviously wanted to talk to Heath instead of her. There had to be a reason.

  He didn’t seem concerned, but he was putting on his Heath Donovan act. Tessa knew better now. He’d been shot this morning, and he was in the middle of protecting her against an enemy he didn’t know yet. He was also under some kind of pack orders he had to fulfill, as well as potentially taking on a mate he’d have for the rest of his life. As always, nothing was as it seemed with him. He was carrying a lot more than he let on.

  She’d had a quick, brutal stab of protectiveness when she’d locked eyes with the sheriff. She didn’t care about herself, not right now. Leave him alone, she wanted to say. He doesn’t need a human cop in his face. He’s barely washed the blood off after being shot by a silver bullet. He was bigger and stronger than her, and a wolf, and he didn’t need her protection, but she discovered that he had it anyway.

  Wes, one of the lower-level Donovan pack members, sidled up to the bar and sat on a stool, beer in hand. “Hey, Tessa,” he said.

  She blinked at him, coming out of her trance. “Hey.”

  “Just so you know, I’m supposed to keep an eye on you,” he said deferentially. “Bodyguard-like. Heath’s orders.”

  She hadn’t seen Heath give an order, but she was starting to get used to the way shifters got orders from their leaders somehow without words. Her first instinct was to protest, but she wasn’t stupid. Scott had nearly abducted her from this very bar, in daylight. With Heath in the office and out of her sight, she’d t
ake a bodyguard if it was offered.

  Besides, she didn’t mind Wes. He was lanky, with a sandy beard and hair that he kept tied back in a man-bun. She could see the edge of his wolf tattoo beneath the sleeve of his t-shirt, but he wouldn’t have the stylized D that Heath and his brothers had on the backs of their necks. Wes was a soldier in the pack, not a leader.

  She shrugged at him. “Suit yourself,” she said. “I’m just going to be pulling drinks.”

  “It’s cool,” Wes said. “If Heath gets arrested, just stick with me and I’ll take you to Brody.”

  Tessa froze. “Arrested?”

  Wes swigged his beer. “Well, that guy drugged and nearly kidnapped you, and then he’s dead,” he said reasonably. “If you were a cop, who would you suspect?”

  Was that it? The sheriff thought Heath had murdered Scott? That was crazy. “Heath is just my boss,” she said carefully, not wanting to get into the way he’d kissed her this morning. Or the mating thing. She wasn’t used to being as open about mating as shifters were.

  “Sure,” Wes said. “Except that every shifter who’s been in here for the last six months knows he’s totally gone on you. Why do you think no one has ever hit on you in here?”

  “What?” Tessa said to him in disbelief. She’d just finished telling Heath that shifters were nice. “Are you saying there’s some kind of order not to hit on me?”

  That made Wes laugh, a light sound that he covered by swigging his beer again. “Tessa, when it comes to you Heath doesn’t have to give an order. Any shifter who’d like to keep his throat in one piece just toes the line.”

  I want what I’ve wanted for months, he’d said. “It’s his wolf that likes me,” Tessa protested, her throat dry.

  Wes just shook his head. “No, that’s him. The human side. When he carried you in from that back alley—I’ve never seen him like that. Nothing makes Heath that angry. But that night, I thought he was going to kill someone right here in this bar. If your guy had been standing here, Heath would have ripped his head off.”

  “He’s not my guy,” she said about Scott. God, this was too much. “And Heath couldn’t have killed him, because Scott was killed somewhere in the woods, and Heath stayed here.”

  “Well.” Wes ran a finger over the sweat on his beer glass. “He could have left here and done it, then come back.”

  “He didn’t.” Even though she’d been completely unconscious, she knew it.

  “No, he didn’t,” Wes agreed. “But you were out for hours, and there was no one else to know. So he could have.” He nodded toward the closed office door. “I think that’s what the sheriff is getting at.”

  “For God’s sake,” Tessa said. “Why did he agree to talk to her, then?”

  “He had to,” Wes said. “Besides, this way he keeps the sheriff from talking to you. And it keeps her away while the guys do the other stuff.”

  Tessa stared at him in dismay, her mind working. “The other stuff? What are they doing?”

  Wes obviously thought she was high enough in the pack to tell her, because he did. “I don’t know everything,” he said. “But Devon’s been sent into the woods to kill the shooter with the silver bullets, and Ian is going to burn the Martells’ camp. Brody and Chief Tucker are going to round up Martell himself, assuming Heath can keep the sheriff out of their hair long enough.”

  “And if Martell puts up a fight?”

  “Then there’s a fight,” Wes said. “He’s trying to invade our territory, and he tried to take you. The Donovans aren’t going to let that stand.”

  She ran her hands distractedly through her hair. “Damn it,” she said. This was because of her, all of it. Heath getting shot. Devon, Ian, and Brody risking their lives. Heath maybe getting arrested. Xander Martell had other motives, but one of his motives was her. And it was because of her that the Donovans felt like they had to take revenge.

  It was time to put an end to this. And she was going to be the one who had to do it.

  She reached for the phone behind the bar, but remembered that the land line had been dropped long ago. She grabbed her cell phone from her pocket. “Wes, I need to make a phone call. In private.”

  “Okay,” he said. “I have to follow, but I won’t listen in. Where are we going?”

  “I’m going up to Heath’s apartment,” she said, walking around the bar. Heath rarely bothered to lock his door, especially when he was working in the bar downstairs. “No one can get to me up there, anyway. Just guard the door.”

  He didn’t even blink at the fact that she was going to Heath’s apartment without him. He was treating her as Heath’s mate already, even though he could certainly scent that she hadn’t slept with him, let alone mated with him. Wes was Heath’s pack mate, and he only did what Heath would want—and Heath would want Tessa in his apartment, because he thought she belonged there.

  That’s him, Wes had said, as if it was obvious. His human side.

  Tessa took the stairs as fast as she could.

  It took her twenty minutes, Googling on her cell phone and calling various numbers while pacing Heath’s living room, before she got through to the man she wanted. And when he answered the phone, she didn’t even hesitate.

  “Is this Christian Martell?” she asked him.

  The voice was deep and very cool. “Who’s asking?”

  “My name is Tessa Keefe,” she said. “I’m your daughter.”

  The silence on the line seemed to stretch. “I don’t have a daughter,” he said.

  “You do,” Tessa said. “You know you do. You gave her up, oh, about twenty-four years ago because her mother was not your mate. After that, I have to assume that you and your mate went off and had Xander.”

  “Is that what this is about?” Martell said sharply. There was not a trace of emotion in his voice at the fact that he was speaking to his daughter for the first time. “Xander?”

  “Of course it’s about Xander, you idiot,” Tessa said. “He’s come to Shifter Falls to fight the Donovans for territory. And he’s tried to have me abducted.”

  That brought a pained sigh, and she realized that Martell had known about the push for territory, but not about the attack. “I suppose he didn’t succeed.”

  “He didn’t,” she spat. “But the Donovans are going to retaliate. And it isn’t going to be pretty.”

  “Listen, Tessa,” he said. His voice carried not one shred of feeling when he said her name—but she noticed he used her name as if he knew it well. He knew who she was, then. He must have kept some kind of tabs on her. “Xander is a grown wolf. He’s already disobeyed my advice and my orders. I don’t know what you expect me to do.”

  “I expect you to call him off,” she said. She couldn’t believe she had to actually explain this. “God, what is the matter with you? There’s going to be a fight.”

  “This is what wolves do,” he explained. “The young males fight for territory. They attack the weak.”

  The Donovans aren’t weak, she almost said, but she closed her mouth. Maybe it was better if the Martells underestimated the Donovans. “If he wants territory, why doesn’t he just get it from you?”

  “Because he doesn’t listen,” Martell said. “He’s screwed up more times than I can count, against my advice. I’ve tried to teach him, but he thinks he knows best. He’s made mistakes that cost lives. So I cut him off from my pack. I had no choice.”

  “And you sent him here,” she said.

  “I didn’t send him anywhere. Xander obviously took a look at what was happening in the Falls and thought he could take a piece of Colorado. He also obviously found out where you were, though I myself never told him. He’s always known he had a sister given up, and he’d always had an interest in that, so it doesn’t surprise me that he tracked you down. A few of my less content wolves went with him.”

  “And you’re fine with that?”

  “Frankly, it’s win-win for me. If Xander loses, the Donovans teach him a lesson I never could. If he wins, he takes a piec
e of Colorado and I negotiate with him to expand my pack territory.”

  “Unless he dies,” Tessa said.

  Martell sighed, as if this were a minor detail, like his housekeeper showing up late. If this was what was considered a strong pack alpha, she was starting to appreciate the fact that Brody Donovan at least had a soul. “If he dies, Tessa, the fact is that at the moment I don’t have an heir anyway, because I’ve disowned him. He has no rights as son of the alpha anymore, and I have no other children. Except you.”

  She swallowed. This was too much. “I’m a woman. I’m not a wolf. I can’t be your heir.”

  “You’re my blood,” Martell said. “Blood matters more than the fact that you’re female.”

  Her stomach was turning. She sat down on Heath’s sofa, her knees giving out. It smelled like him, and she took a breath, taking in his familiar scent to calm her down. “That’s why Xander is interested in me,” she said. “That’s why he tried to have me taken. I’m not just his sister, I’m his rival. He doesn’t want to kidnap me. He wants to kill me.”

  “Almost certainly,” Martell replied. “He’d like to see you dead, and you’re a human, a defenseless woman. I’m amazed he hasn’t succeeded already.”

  Because of Heath and his brothers. She was alive because they were protecting her. And once Heath became her mate, then the Donovans would be mated to one of the heirs of the Martell pack. It was better if Martell didn’t know that particular plan was in the works. “He’s got some human with him,” she said. “A man with silver bullets.”

  There was another silence on the line, and she realized for the first time she’d actually shocked him. “You are fucking kidding,” Martell said softly.

  “I’m not. Who is he?”

  “The Silverman,” Martell said. “I didn’t know Xander had recruited him. But it makes sense.”