He hadn’t made any friends with his speech. Growls and dirty looks sounded in the crowd. Mags inserted herself between him and the wolves. No, he wasn’t going to let her shield him. He took a step forward and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. His woman didn’t put herself in danger for him even if she had the heart to do so.
“My brother-in-law makes a very good point.”
He started at Betty’s turn of phrase then accepted the title. In their world, he and Mags were as good as married. It made sense, and he let the pleasure of the idea wash through him. If he didn’t need the whole fuss of the big ceremony, he wasn’t going to complain. The idea of having to talk to so many people….
“Unless Ryker specifically asks you to stay, go home. The pack’s on lockdown. I think Drew, having lived with the humans for so long, would probably agree with Clayton.” Betty rubbed at her eyes. “Thank you for coming out and please don’t anyone feel accused. This is precautionary. Drew has faith in all of you. I do, too. Let’s just start making it harder for the guy to get away with what’s he doing.
Things seemed to move faster after her speech. After the gathered dominants left, he retreated to the computer. Crimes could be researched. There were databases for these kinds of events, even if they weren’t official. Bloggers loved to keep track of strange and unusual murders. Clayton would bet the farm this ass had done this before.
Betty’s computer was slow but at least functional. Clay sat back in his chair and waited for his search query to load.
“What worries me here, Betty,” Thomas, their father, said. Clay was going to have to go introduce himself to the man, state his intentions or something. God, he really hated heart-to-heart conversations. Mags knew his feelings. Why couldn’t that be enough? Or maybe he didn’t have to chat. Did wolves have social customs like that? He’d need to ask. “What about the people who weren’t prepared to be homebound? Do they have enough food? Medicine? Supplies?”
“That’s a good point, Dad. We need to look into things to see if they’re okay to be holed up for a while. I think we can safely say there are some people beyond reproach. You, for example, you weren’t here. We can trust you aren’t the killer. Ryker can be counted as not the murderer.”
Clayton smiled. Now there would be a story…. He shook his head. No, he didn’t need to go there. It wouldn’t be helpful. The enforcer wasn’t murdering people.
A list of one hundred similar deaths popped up on the screen, and he bent over to examine them. Changing the search criteria, he eliminated the ones from twenty years earlier, choosing to focus only on the ones from the last one to two. He didn’t think this person had been at this for decades. Although he supposed it was possible. If narrowing the query didn’t show any results, he’d go back out again.
Small steps. He seriously didn’t miss police work. Fiction was so much simpler. If he said the killer was obvious, then, dammit, the killer was obvious.
Mags walked up behind him. “Turning up anything?”
“See the little swirling circle? It’s trying to load, and I am trying to remember I used to be a patient man.”
Ryker spoke from the doorway. “There’s someone else above reproach who could help, go door-to-door.”
Clayton swung around from the doorway. “That’d be me, right?”
“No.” Mags growled her response. “I think I’ve made myself clear on this. He isn’t bait. Go use your human if you want someone put out there to be killed.”
Before Ryker could answer, Clayton did. “His human doesn’t have police training. I have no idea if she knows how to use a firearm or not, but I do. It actually makes great sense.”
Ryker nodded. “I’d be there the whole time. Only no one would know.”
Mags growled again. “I said no.”
The scentless killer versus the scentless enforcer with him in the middle....
The computer finally loaded and he turned back to it. “Hold that thought.”
Three murders where a woman had been strangled and laid out like they were slumbering jumped up at him. Some animal damage reported to the bodies, but authorities never determined exactly what happened. “Three women all died in Montana two years ago. All of them a similar build. Brown hair, dark eyes. Looked wolf-like but couldn’t have been done by an animal. Any of your pack mates roaming around Montana two years ago?”
Betty walked over and looked over his shoulder. “Totally possible. Most of the pack wasn’t here then. We really need to make a database of where the pack has been. Unless—Ryker, didn’t Saja start on that? She’s been finding our people. She must have some kind of list.”
“She has something.”
A moan in the bedroom silenced the room. For a moment, no one moved, and then Betty darted in there, followed by Mags. One by one, everyone moved to the doorway. Clay hung back. He didn’t know Drew yet. The others should see him first if he’d woken up.
Ryker turned back, shaking his head slightly to indicate Drew wasn’t awake.
Clay stood. “While they’re busy, let’s get going. I’ll ask for forgiveness later. Consider me invested in this mess. The sooner we get it done, the faster I get my mate out of here.”
Ryker’s lip twitched. “You may come to regret this decision. Women don’t like to be gotten around.”
Maybe that was true for others, but Mags was so kind and gentle, she’d never really get unforgivably upset. Would she?
He followed the enforcer out the door, careful not to let it slam behind him.
Chapter Five
Mags was going to kill him. She rocked back on her heels and tried to concentrate on what Betty was saying. Drew had made a noise. He’d moaned. It was the first sound he’d let out since he’d been found, and they had obsessed every which way since the second he’d done it about whether it was a good sign or a bad sign.
In the meantime, Clay had slipped out, presumably with Ryker, despite her protests. Mags tapped her foot. He had waited ’til her back was turned and done it so she wouldn’t have a say.
“Betty,” she called over her shoulder. “I’m going out.”
Her father looked up from the book he read. “Your sister ordered everyone home. You can’t go wandering around.”
“Drew needs a healer. I’m going to get one.” Anything to get out of the house.
“Mags.” Her father patted the side of his chair. “Mating is hard in the beginning. I haven’t wanted to say anything—this is really more your mother’s territory, and, frankly, I have a hard time even thinking of Betty as mated, and she’s pregnant.” He shook his head. “You are mated to a human man who is forty-five years old. I’m assuming he’s never been married before.” Her father paused. “Has he?”
“No.” He’d told her over coffee one morning he’d never been married.
“So then we’re talking about twenty-seven adult years, which is a huge chunk of time in a human life, that he had to answer to no one except himself. When your mother and I first mated, I made some large mistakes. Your mother…she trained me.”
Mags had never heard her father talk like this ever. He usually avoided any and all relationship discussions. “She trained you?”
“Don’t knock it. Your mother can be a very persuasive woman. I suggest you give her a call. Clayton is a good man. I could tell from his speech and the way he stopped Betty from making a large mistake. I don’t know him yet. I look forward to a lifetime of getting to do so. You’re mad. Trust an old man when he tells you it’s fixable.”
She hopped off the side of the chair. “I’m going to get the healer for Drew. Then I’ll call Mom.” Then her mate had better be back so she could chew him a new asshole with the temper she hadn’t shown him yet. Oh, he was going to learn he didn’t get to run out the door when she turned around and expect everything to be fine when he got back.
Not. At. All.
The night was cold, the worst since she’d arrived back at Los Lobos. Getting to Ba
stian would be faster if she shifted. One thing she could do in Los Lobos that she couldn’t in Sioux Falls was shift as she saw fit. No one was around who couldn’t see her make the turn.
Calling her wolf, she turned into the four-legged version of herself. Mags wasn’t a fighter by nature, but she was still a shifter. Letting her wolf rise brought out all the anger she had stored inside of her toward Clayton’s running off. If she wanted to be honest, she’d known it would when she made the shift.
Wolves didn’t repress things like their human counterparts. They weren’t capable of pressing down their emotions. She wasn’t going to sit back and wait for later to come down on Clayton. He was going to learn what she was like when she was angry, and he for damn sure was going to make better decisions in the future.
Her wolf needed to see he was okay. Clayton was important. He wasn’t anyone’s bait. Her heart couldn’t bear to lose him. Not ever. She couldn’t be Betty, waiting by the bed for a miracle which might never come.
Or worse….
She was finding Clay right away. Mags breathed in the air. The wolf would always find her mate.
I’m coming, Clayton Davies, and you are in so much trouble.
***
Clayton wandered through the woods like he was lost, which he supposed he sort of was. If he had to, he’d figure out how to get back to Betty’s on his own, although he doubted it would come to that. Ryker watched him. The creepiest part of the whole thing was had they not discussed his being observed the whole time, he’d have no idea Ryker was anywhere near.
Clayton always knew when someone had eyes on him. His family had called him paranoid growing up. He’d always known he was just smart.
Ryker’s presence wasn’t even a little bit registering. The perfect protector or predator depending on which way he wanted to look at.
Come on now, crazy person, I’m here, I’m human. Come and get me.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on edge. Okay. Someone was there. “Gosh, I’m so lost. I really wish I had brought a map.”
He didn’t do damsel in distress so he quit doing trying and walked north away from the town. If the killer had decided to follow him, the best thing he could do was lead it away from Los Lobos, away from Mags. She wasn’t human, but if Drew’s shooting proved anything at all, it was sometimes there was a lot of collateral damage.
Assuming he was right about all of this. What if he was wrong? He’d interrupted Betty’s speech, inserted himself in the middle of things, which was really not his style, and not even made any attempt to convince his woman she should leave with him.
Pretty much since he had set foot in Los Lobos he had been behaving out of character for himself. Hell, even before then if he was honest. From the second he’d seen Mags he’d changed.
Ryker hadn’t struck yet, as far Clay could tell, but he didn’t doubt he would the second he figured out who stalked Clay. Assuming the enforcer knew the other man was there. The killer had no recognizable scent….
Clayton darted back as a wolf rushed out at him. He’d taken two steps back before he recognized the canine for who she was.
“Mags?” He bent over slightly to confirm he saw what he thought he did. “What are you doing out here?”
Seconds later, she shifted to human once more. Gorgeous, with her hands on her hips, she glared at him. He was always glad to see her, but her timing really sucked. He looked left and right for whoever had been stalking him and saw nothing. The feeling of being watched passed as well.
Shit.
“What am I doing here?” She pushed on his shoulder, and he took a step back. He could practically taste her fury in his mouth, and he wasn’t a wolf shifter. “What are you doing here? You waited until I wasn’t looking and then snuck out of the house like a thief in the night. You heard me say twice you weren’t to be bait. Yet here you are.”
With wolf hearing, whoever had been watching him, unless he’d run a distance away, just heard her expose the entire plan. Well, there went that idea.
“Between Ryker and myself we had this under control. I know you didn’t like the idea, but I was certain once you saw the benefit you would—”
“No.” She shoved him, and although he didn’t fall backward, he was sure it was because she held off and not because he was actually stronger than she was. “My sister is on her knees, losing her mind, because her mate might be dying. Any second. She hasn’t slept, eaten, or done anything but worry for days. That’s how much she loves him. I haven’t been mated to you long, but they might as well lock me up in a cage and throw me away if you die now. You don’t get to consider yourself bait without consulting me. That’s how this works.”
“Mags, I—”
Whatever he would have said was cut off by the appearance first of a man and a woman he didn’t know and then, quickly after, Ryker. Mags sighed loudly.
“There is no such thing as privacy. Not even in the middle of the woods.” Mags clenched her jaw. She’d hate to know it but, damn, the woman was hot as sin when she was angry. “This is Thane and his mate, Dani. They’ve been very helpful in this whole mess, I think. I only catch pieces of conversations but they’ve cleared a bunch of people.”
Thane extended his hand. “Sorry to, ah, interrupt. I’ve been there, man. We’ve been chasing hunters who are being let onto the land by outside forces. Several of them came this way. Although I doubted they continued much farther because of the yelling. Getting anything, Dani?”
She shook her head before she looked at Mags. “Give him hell.”
This was not going to work for Clay on a permanent basis. He needed his cabin, and he needed it very soon. How did Ryker do it? He didn’t particularly seem like a guy who wanted everyone in his business all the time.
“I think it’s safe to say there is no one here anymore.” With a nod at Clay, he walked away.
“If you see the hunters, howl in our direction.”
Thane nodded at them before he and Dani turned and left. Clayton turned to Mags. There was a lot to say but only one subject he felt like addressing while they stood in the woods.
“You hit me.”
The extraordinary woman put her hands on her hips. Again. He fucking loved that look. “Twice. If you want to be technical, I shoved you. Not even hard, or you’d be down on your ass.”
“You’re really mad.”
“Gee, Clay, you’re a writer. Do you use those stunning observations in your best-selling novels?”
Pulling her against him made him harder. Although she snarled, she didn’t push away. “I fucked up.”
“You did. Big time.”
Mags was so sweet, he’d never seen her snarly side. He liked it. “You shoved me. So I am going to paddle your behind.”
With huge eyes, she spoke. “You’re kidding.”
He shook his head, slowly. “Let anyone who is listening pay close attention. I am going to spank you, Mags, and you are going to fucking love it.”
The muscles in her neck clenched when she swallowed. “If you could smell, like I can, you’d know what you said made me wet. Why did it do that?”
“Because you know that after I get your bottom red, I’m going to get your pussy charged until I fuck you senseless. Every time you push me the way you did, I’m going to do it. Again and again.”
“Clay.” She rubbed her head against him.
“Come on.” He took her hand in his. “We’re leaving.”
His cock was hard as a rock. He owed her a large apology, and she’d get it after he made sure she never forgot the way he responded to her temper.
Hopefully, she’d find another reason to shove him soon.
Back at the room above Gee’s bar, everything was quiet. Mags hadn’t uttered a word during their whole walk. Suddenly, she gasped. “I promised to send a healer to Drew. I didn’t.”
Dammit. He gritted his teeth. The man was in a coma or whatever the wolf equivalent was. His needs had
to come before Clay’s need to spank and fuck his mate. “How far away is the healer?”
A voice sounded in the darkness. “I’ll get Bastian.”
“Gee.” Mags jumped. “I didn’t smell you.”
“As you weren’t supposed to. I thought I’d see if I could still do it. All the hiding of scents made me wonder if I still had it. Clearly, I do.”
Mags released his hand and Clay ground his teeth together. He had to find his patience, if he’d ever really had any.
“We ran into Thane and Dani. They’re hunting? Why didn’t I know the pack was also under attack?”
“Some things are being kept from Betty for her mental health. You didn’t know because she doesn’t know.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Who decided that?”
“I did.”
Clay doubted that very much. If Gee was taking one for Ryker, then who was Clay to question what was probably a lifetime of friendship?
“Mags.” He extended his hand again. “Gee says he’ll get the healer. Let’s go.”
She nodded to the bear. “Thank you.”
Clay waited until Gee had stepped back into the darkness before he picked his woman up and flipped her over his shoulder. “I know you’re stronger than me. You’ll always be. I won’t have you thinking I can’t handle myself.”
Scent of His Woman Page 6