Wild Instinct

by McCarty, Sarah

  His chin came up and his eyes narrowed. “You have trouble with the fact that I’m mixed blood?”

  It would be easier if she did. She dismissed his statement with a wave of her hand. “I have trouble with your arrogance.”

  “I’m not arrogant.”

  “Arrogant enough that you blithely dismiss my instincts.”

  He didn’t exhibit any of the anger she expected, just asked in an almost conversational tone, “Do you trust your instincts?”

  There was a time when she’d never questioned them.

  “Sometimes.”

  But the times they’d failed her had left scars too big to ignore.

  He tipped her face up. “That’s a shame.”

  Yes, it was. Especially now when she needed them to tell her that her son was fine, and they weren’t telling her anything at all.

  “You need to find my son.”

  Cur’s broad-shouldered frame filled the mouth of the cave, looking bigger silhouetted by the light behind him. “I was planning on doing that very thing.”

  Garrett nodded to Cur. “Sarah Anne will tell you where they’re meeting.”

  “I will?”

  Garrett reached for Meg. “Yes, you will.”

  She took a step back, feeling an unreasonable bite of hurt when Meg reached for him. “You have a habit of thinking you know a lot more than you actually do.”

  “I know you’re going to tell me.”

  “The same way you think I’m mated to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you’re wrong.” She shifted Meg’s position to ease the ache in her back. “I’m not joining Haven. It was a mistake to think I could.”

  “Haven won’t have a problem with your children’s bloodlines,” Cur said, setting his pack down before squatting beside it.

  “That’s what everyone says . . . now.”

  Garrett smiled at Meg. It was a little stiff and a touch awkward, but from the way Meg beamed back, it didn’t matter.

  “Do you know something I don’t?”

  “I know it’s never a good idea to take anything at face value.”

  “So you’ve decided you’re going to go it alone.”

  “I’ve decided you don’t own me.” When he didn’t contest her claim or look concerned, her stomach knotted.

  “I guess there’s plenty of time for you to learn that I don’t often say what I don’t mean.”

  She turned to Cur. “What do you do?”

  He smiled and leaned against a boulder. With a flick of his fingers he motioned to Garrett. “Pretty much whatever he tells me to.”

  The brief moment of freedom she’d felt when she’d stepped out of the cave disappeared. “I hate you.”

  “I get that a lot.”

  An emotion as powerful as hate should have an impact. She turned and started walking down the hill, Meg nearly deadweight in her arms.

  Garrett fell into step beside her. “You’re a stubborn woman.”

  “You’re an irritating man.”

  He was everything she’d run away from. An arrogant wolf who was convinced that he knew best, expecting her submission and obedience simply because he was male. He reached for Megan again. Sarah Anne gave him her shoulder.

  “You’re just tiring yourself out.”

  She planted her feet. “Go away.”

  He stopped and arched a brow inquiringly. Behind him, she could see Cur getting something out of his backpack.

  “You should know I fully intend to contest your claim,” she challenged.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “There are probably a hundred women at Haven who want your attention.”

  “Probably.”

  She snorted. “You could’ve at least pretended modesty.”

  The corner of his mouth tipped up. “Probably. Where are you supposed to meet Rachel?”

  Her mouth worked. Her distrust burned deep.

  “Where?”

  He repeated the question with such calmness. In the end, she didn’t really have any other option but to tell him. “The south ridge. Are you happy now?”

  “Not by a long shot. I shouldn’t have had to ask twice.”

  Her head came up. Megan grunted, disturbed from her dozing by the sudden move.

  “You might want to save your claiming until later, hot stuff. When you have all the facts.”

  The “hot stuff” scraped across Garrett’s nerves. What the hell was the point in waiting? Did she have someone else in mind? “I never have been a man for taking chances, and waiting won’t get me anywhere but dead. Just like that useless human husband you mated up with. You’re a breeder, dammit.”

  She had to know what that meant. A woman who could produce children without a mating bond. Every werewolf alive would want to claim her.

  She glared at him. “Don’t you ever say that about him again. John was a good man who loved his children, and he was strong in ways you can never be.”

  “But you weren’t mated to him.” It was a shot in the dark.

  She blinked. Her face paled to a ghostly white. “How did you know?”

  Shit, that put a whole new spin on the situation. “I didn’t.”

  “Oh, God.”

  Oh, God, was right. “We wondered why the rogues came after you so aggressively.”

  Her chin came up. “Well, now you know.”

  Now he knew. “You should have told Wyatt.” The alpha wouldn’t have waited until a home was ready for the family before sending for them. But he had waited, knowing that transporting them would expose them to suspicion. Since they’d been hiding successfully for eight years, he hadn’t thought another couple months would matter. Of course, Sarah Anne hadn’t told him about the attack on Teri. And she hadn’t told him she was a breeder—a woman who could bear a wolf child outside a mating bond. A woman every werewolf would want because only the drive to mate was stronger in a wolf than the need to reproduce. Shit.

  “You kept a hell of a lot secret.”

  “With good reason.”

  Maybe. “Did your husband know you were a breeder?”

  “He didn’t even know I had wolf blood.”

  “He wasn’t worth much, was he?”

  She jerked back as if he’d struck her, and a terrible shadow of pain whipped around her. “I loved him.”

  But she hadn’t trusted him to handle the truth about her heritage. “Tell me, what were you going to do if your children showed signs of their mixed blood?”

  She took a step back. “Tell him the truth.”

  “And you think he would have accepted that?”

  She took another step back. Did she think it was that easy to run away from the truth?

  She glared at him, her brown eyes dark with the pain of what she didn’t want to admit. She might have loved her husband, but she hadn’t believed in his love for her.

  “He was five times the man you are.”

  He wasn’t going to argue that. A lot of men were better than him. Men who’d had the luxury of developing a love of rules while growing up, whereas he’d survived outside them. “Be that as it may, currently you and your children are at the mercy of whomever is strong enough to keep you. Right now I’m the one with the claim, so until you find someone stronger, running away ends now.”

  “No.”

  Another step and she’d be out of his reach. He grabbed her arm. An immediate awareness of her mixed heritage slammed into him. There wasn’t a hard muscle within the spread of his fingers. Shit, he was probably hurting her.

  He let her go. She hunched her shoulder and rubbed her arm, glaring at him accusingly.

  “That’s right.” She sneered. “I’m not pure wolf. I won’t bring you prestige. I’ll always be a liability and my children, too. So are you very sure you want to go forward with this claim?”

  He let her go, reeling from the revelation and the waves of pain that flooded from her to him. She marched back to the cave. He followed more slowly, anger burning as hot as anything else. Ov
er Sarah Anne’s shoulder, Megan watched him with sleepy eyes and a whole lot of expectation.

  He ran his hand through his hair. Shit. He’d spent his whole life thinking that, when he found his mate, he’d finally find acceptance. Cherished images, framed in his youth of his life “someday,” shattered. Sarah disappeared into the mouth of the cave.

  Cur stood, his gaze following Garrett’s. “You can see she’s teetering on the edge.”

  “Yeah.” Well, so was he. “She’s not pure.”

  Cur would know more than anyone else what that meant to them. “Could see that.” He continued to repack his pack. “She’s got two kids.”

  “She’s not pure wolf.”

  “Could see that, too.”

  Garrett spun around. “How do you know?”

  “A pure wolf or a mix with wolf talent would have used a wolf’s speed to save her daughter.”

  He was right. “Why the hell didn’t I see that?”

  “I’d say you were a bit distracted.”

  He had been. The woman had knocked him off his feet from the moment he saw her. And it got worse the more he saw her. He ran his hand through his hair again. “Hell.”

  “So tell me, are you pissed because she’s not pure, or because you don’t know what to do with her?”

  Garrett dropped his hand to his side. Cur always had a way of paring things to the bare essentials. “The latter.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Cur stood and shouldered his pack. “Just remember, when that rage gets eating at you, she’s yours, and the only way you lose her is if you hand her over to whatever yahoo thinks he’s got the balls to take you down.” Cur smiled at him. “And I’m still waiting to meet the wolf who can match you in a fight.”

  More of the wildness settled as that fact filtered through emotion. Though he had yet to mark her, Sarah Anne was his. And it would be a cold day in hell before he lay down in a fight.

  “She is, isn’t she?”

  “Yup. So where am I meeting up with this woman and kid?”

  “Rachel and the boy will be waiting on the south ridge tomorrow morning.”

  Cur grunted and hefted his gun. Before he could walk away, Garrett added, “I get the feeling Rachel isn’t going to be that happy to see you.”

  Cur smiled over his shoulder. “Well, we wouldn’t want it to be easy, would we?”

  “Nope. Have a care, Cur.”

  “Going soft now that you have a little woman?”

  “Got a bad feeling.” A very bad feeling.

  “How much trouble could a woman and a cub be?”

  Garrett scented the wind. Trouble was definitely coming. “A bit more than you’re expecting.”

  Cur’s grin flashed white in the night. “Well, good, then. I hate to be bored.”

  “MEGAN!”

  The cry was Sarah Anne’s. In a heartbeat Garrett was in the cave, Cur hot on his heels.

  Inside the cave, Sarah stood ten feet away from Teri. Meg was taking the final steps to Teri’s side. Between her and her destination was Daire. The big man looked up, his dark face starkly impassive as she offered him a tentative smile. He didn’t smile back.

  Sarah tried again. “Get back here.”

  Meg took another step forward, her head cocked to the side, studying Daire’s battle-ravaged face until she got close enough to touch.

  “Oh, my God.”

  Garrett caught Sarah with an arm around her waist.

  “Daire won’t hurt her.”

  Sarah shook her head and dug her nails into his arm.

  “Let me go.”

  It was too late. Though werewolves had hurt her aunt and killed her dad, and Daire must look, to the little girl, like the worst of them all, Meg reached out and placed her tiny hand against his cheek. The ancient didn’t move as her fingers explored every inch of scar tissue. Neither did the child. For a heartbeat they stood face-to-face. Then Meg gave his cheek a pat.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Daire didn’t say a word, just watched her as she went back to her mother. And sticking her thumb in her mouth, she leaned against her mother’s chest when Sarah Anne pulled her close.

  “Damn,” Cur murmured. “Things are getting interesting.”

  Seven

  SARAH Anne took a breath and held it. She didn’t like the way Daire was still watching Meg, as if he could see beneath her skin. “I’m sorry; she’s always doing things like that.”

  His lips didn’t move but there was the slightest crinkle around his eyes. Daire just shook his head and held up his hand. It annoyed her that he didn’t even deign to speak until she realized he was still concentrating on Teri, doing something—she didn’t know what, but something—to her. A smooth stroke of his thumb across her lips and Teri’s frown melted away.

  “What are you doing to her?”

  He didn’t look up, just said in that gravelly voice of his, “She’s dreaming.”

  Could he read minds?

  He looked at her. “Would it bother you if I did?”

  “Of course.”

  “Your daughter is talented.”

  It sounded like a reprimand, but she couldn’t be sure, since he didn’t take his eyes off Teri’s face. Garrett’s arm tightened around her waist. “She’s not wolf.”

  “Didn’t say she was. Doesn’t change the fact that she is talented.”

  She did not want any of the Protectors’ attention on her daughter’s odd ways. “Is Teri going to live?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  God, she needed good news. The brush of Garrett’s lips over her head should have been an irritation, but instead, it was a comfort. “When will you know?”

  Daire looked up. It was funny—when she could really see his face, she didn’t see the scars. Instead she saw those black-as-night eyes and the endless depth of energy behind them. She grabbed Garrett’s arm against the black-magic lure. It wasn’t a sexual pull, though there was a sexual component to it. The sensation was more like the type of vertigo she got when looking over the edge of a high cliff. She had the unsafe urge to lean farther, get closer.

  “Your daughter doesn’t fear me.”

  “No.” And that was a mystery unto itself.

  “How long have you been living with humans?”

  “Eight years.”

  “You didn’t teach her wolf protocol.”

  “There wasn’t a need.” She’d never intended her daughter to grow up among wolves.

  “She shows no respect.”

  “If you touch her—”

  This time his lip did twitch. “I know. You’ll kill me.”

  Garrett pulled her back against the hardness of his thighs and chest. “Stop threatening the pack members, Sarah Anne. They’ll get to thinking you don’t like them.”

  “Maybe I don’t.” The retort was weak because she couldn’t get past the fact that Daire was right. Meg didn’t show the proper respect and as such could find herself quickly ostracized. Her bright, shining little girl snubbed. It broke her heart.

  “She’ll be fine, Sarah.”

  What did Garrett know about little girls and how they needed to fit in? In her peripheral vision, she could see a pair of scuffed black leather boots. She couldn’t remember which Protector wore those. Kelon or Donovan. She didn’t care. She wanted her son. She wanted her daughter. She wanted her life back. She wanted this all to end.

  “Actually,” Kelon said, “Daire hasn’t declared allegiance to anyone yet. We’re trying to win him away.”

  “From whom?” She wished the question back the second she said it.

  Donovan walked up. “If you believe the rumors . . . from the devil?”

  She could believe that.

  Donovan’s gaze raked her from head to toe. “Garrett.”

  “What?”

  “Your mate is tired.”

  “I’m fine.”

  Garrett’s hands on her shoulders moved subtly. The tight muscles relaxed and a comforting haze settled over the worry in
her mind.

  “I can’t leave Teri.” She looked so still, so lifeless, so close to death.

  “You can’t do her any good in here.”

  She swatted at his hands. “Stop telling me what I can and what I can’t do.”

  His response was to lift her and her daughter into his arms and carry them over to a boulder. Easing her forward, he slid his big body behind hers. She had to admit that it was much more comfortable resting against him than the rock. And it felt so good to have his strength to lean on.

  The last brought her up short. She couldn’t let herself rely on Garrett’s strength. She didn’t even know if she was going to stay with Haven.

  Meg struggled in her arms.

  “Megan, stay still.”

  Daire held out his hand and beckoned with a twitch of his fingers. “Let the child go.”

  “She’ll just be in the way.” It was too dangerous. Meg would reveal too much. She felt a pull on her consciousness. Daire looked up and, once again, she was staring into those bottomless eyes.

  “You know that’s not true.”

  “She’s just a baby. What can she do?”

  He didn’t blink. “More than you understand.”

  That was probably true. Megan’s gift had been growing along with the rest of her. She looked at Teri, remembered that moment when Teri had thrown herself between Megan and certain death. Whatever Teri needed, she would get. Sarah Anne would just deal with the consequences when they came calling. She let Meg slide down her body.

  Garrett’s fingers slid down her forearm. Shivers chased up her arm. She whipped her head around. Garrett’s eyes had that same bottomless feel as Daire’s.

  “If I thought there was danger, I wouldn’t let her go,” he whispered in that calm manner.

  She believed him. Kissing the top of Meg’s head, she whispered, “You do as Mr. . . .” She didn’t know his last name. “You do as Mr. Daire says.”

  “Yes, Mommy.”

  Sarah Anne let her daughter go. Meg rushed to Teri’s side, sinking with a peculiar grace to the floor beside her.

  “Oh, God . . .” Please protect her.

  Garrett’s hands slid up her arm and around her shoulders, giving her something to brace against as Meg revealed all.

  “What do I do?” she heard Megan ask.