Bernie’s Den turned out to be a flat-roofed building with a large, cleared parking lot in front of it. Quite a few cars were parked outside, which made her skin prickle once again with nerves. It was midafternoon, and maybe when this pack woke up, they started their day here before heading off to work. Her pack usually gathered at the coffee shop. But regardless of their breed, for the most part it had been her experience that werewolves weren’t that different from each other.
She stared over her steering wheel for another moment before forcing herself to turn off her car and get out—before she lost her nerve. Once again tugging on her hat, she zipped her coat up to her neck, then hurried inside.
The bar door closed behind her with a thud, and Heidi inhaled the smells of a room full of werewolves. Slowly her eyes adjusted to the dim light. She ignored curious stares and walked up to the bar.
“Is your pack leader here?” she asked, cringing when her voice cracked.
The werewolf behind the bar stared at her. He was big—bigger than she thought an American werewolf would be. Arms as thick as her legs were covered with tattoos and the crew cut he sported gave him a rough look. But then, tending a bar, he probably had to appear capable of stopping any barroom brawl. Well, she wasn’t here to fight.
“What do we have here?” A werewolf with dark red hair leaned on the bar next to her. He tugged at her coat. “Don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”
Heidi backed away from him and immediately felt hard muscle behind her. She jumped clear of another werewolf who’d stepped up behind her.
“Do we have a new bitch in town?” The werewolf behind her grabbed her arm, preventing her escape.
She growled at him, showing her teeth. “Get your fucking hand off me,” she hissed.
“And she’s a feisty one too,” the dark redhead said. “Looking for a little action, little bitch?”
“Not with you, I’m not.” Sweat broke out along her spine while tiny hairs tickled the back of her neck. “I came here to talk to your pack leader. Where is he?”
“Why should he get all the action?” The werewolf at the bar reached for her again and she slapped his hand hard enough that flesh cracked against flesh.
Her act got them even more excited and their scents turned her stomach. This was bad. The bartender simply picked up a rag and casually started wiping the counter, watching all of them like he might see a good show.
“I came here to talk about dead werewolves, not kill one myself,” she snarled while her heart thudded so hard the ringing of blood rushing in her veins made it hard to think clearly.
“We don’t care about killing anyone,” the redhead said. “Just give us some fun and we’ll take care of you just fine.”
He moved too fast for her, reaching and grabbing her by the waist and throwing her over his shoulder before she could react. Then to her terror, the werewolves around him cheered him on when he turned in a slow circle, showing off his prize.
Heidi kicked and pounded his back with everything she had, fighting not to change right there inside the American werewolf bar. So far they hadn’t said anything about her being lunewulf, and she didn’t want to add to the trouble she was already in up to her hips.
Cold air wrapped around her when the door to the bar opened. She froze at the sound of a fierce howl. And so did the werewolves around her.
Someone yanked her off the werewolf’s shoulder and she was sent sprawling across the barroom floor. The skin on her knees burnt through her jeans and her palms hurt from hitting the wooden floor so hard. Finding her wits—and fighting the rising terror inside her—she glanced up at the backsides of three giant werewolves who stood between her and the American werewolves. She got an eyeful of black hair and leather before the yelling began.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” one of them bellowed.
She scrambled to her feet when Nicolo turned around, and she realized his question was directed at her. He looked anything but happy to see her.
“I was—” she began, brushing her clothes with her hands while meeting his irate expression.
“What kind of pack do you belong to that allows their single bitches so much freedom?” He almost yanked her arm out of her socket when he lifted her into the air and just as quickly pulled her out of the bar.
Chapter Four
“How dare you condemn my pack!” Heidi screamed at Nicolo the moment they were outside.
Considering how much smaller lunewulf females were compared to Malta females, she had more feistiness in her than any bitch he’d ever met. His cock got hard when she struggled under his grip. She almost ran next to him as he took long strides toward her car. More than likely, the American werewolves wouldn’t come out and challenge him for her, but just in case one of them had enough alcohol in his system to think he stood a chance against them, Nicolo wanted Heidi in her car.
“We wouldn’t condemn your pack if you’d come with the escort you were supposed to bring.” Josie’s words made her quit fighting Nicolo. “You are the one giving your pack a bad name running wild like this.”
She turned, obviously speechless as her jaw dropped, and stared wide-eyed at Josie. Nicolo hated the thought that Josie climbed around in her head, knowing things about her that Nicolo didn’t. And Josie had obviously done just that. His announcement made it clear that Heidi was supposed to have an escort and somehow snuck out of her pack without one.
“I’m not running wild,” she argued, standing tall, which for her brought the top of her stocking-capped head almost to Nicolo’s neck.
He let go of her, but she didn’t move. The three of them stood around her, with her back to her car. As if the little bitch could move if she wanted to. Even if she leapt over her car, at such close proximity, they would overtake her in no time. He doubted Heidi was stupid enough to try such a stunt. Not to mention, she’d called him. She wanted to see him.
“Then what exactly are you doing?” Dimitri demanded.
She turned her hard gaze from Josie to Dimitri, showing no fear. Then, throwing her hands up in the air, she let out a sigh. “I can’t fight the three of you. I doubt you’d hear me out any better than those American werewolves did inside. You might as well do what you want.”
Nicolo’s muscles hardened. The urge to grab her again, to show her exactly what it was he wanted to do to her made his blood boil.
Josie grunted and Nicolo glared at him. The werewolf simply raised an eyebrow.
“I come here to talk to their pack leader and this is what I get. Werewolves are getting killed all over the place and nothing will get solved if someone doesn’t start communicating. But who listens to a single bitch?” She turned her back to them and yanked her car door open. Her outrage filled the air while she fumbled through her purse.
Several snowflakes floated in the air around them. Nicolo leaned on her car door, watching while she pulled out her keys. The moment he’d heard her message on his machine, he’d headed out of their den. Dimitri and Josie had bounded out the door after him. It didn’t take too many brains to know the bitch walked into a world of trouble. American werewolves despised lunewulfs. And one as fucking hot as Heidi would be raped without question. The three of them had shown up just in time.
“What is this about werewolves getting killed all over the place?” Dimitri asked.
Her cell phone chirped in her purse and she growled, an incredibly sexy sound. “We lost two males the other day. They were almost sliced in two when they ran full speed into barbed wire.”
She grabbed her phone and shoved her keys into the ignition. “Hello,” she said, suddenly not sounding as confident as she had a moment before.
“Interesting.” Dimitri crossed his arms over his chest and glanced at Nicolo and Josie. “Now the lunewulfs have lost pack members the same way we did.”
“She’s telling the truth,” Josie whispered, speaking under his breath so she wouldn’t hear while she spoke on the phone. “Although she has ulterior mo
tives, she really does want all of our packs to start communicating.”
“Wishful thinking,” Dimitri muttered. “And what are these ulterior motives?”
Josie flashed white teeth when he grinned. “Ask your littermate.”
Dimitri’s growl rumbled through his entire body when he glared at Nicolo. “Don’t give me more headaches.”
“Stay the fuck out of my mind,” Nicolo hissed at Josie. “And hers too.”
Josie shrugged, the brute offering an overly dramatic lift of his shoulder while he attempted a helpless look. The rogue’s charm did nothing to faze Nicolo’s scowl. While Nicolo possessed none of the gift that Malta werewolves were known and feared for, Josie had a bit too much of it for his own good at times. And Nicolo had no problem knocking him down to size if need be. He’d done it when they were cubs and he’d do it again now if the werewolf got out of line.
Josie’s smile didn’t fade. “If you’re up for the challenge, go for it.”
“You two start fighting in the middle of American werewolf territory and I’ll kick both your asses,” Dimitri countered.
Nicolo ignored them and purposely turned his attention to Heidi and whomever she argued with on the phone.
She turned the key and pumped gas through her car while trying to get the piece of shit to start. Snowflakes blew around his face, the temperature dropping noticeably while he sensed her aggravation.
“I know I was supposed to ask Steve to go with me,” she said quietly into the phone, looking down so that he got a view of the narrow length of the back of her neck before it disappeared under the collar of her coat. “I won’t lie, Bob. I didn’t ask him.” She blew out another sigh and pumped the accelerator a few times before trying to start her car again. “Because, well, I wanted to come here alone.”
The lunewulf on the other end of the line yelled loud enough to tickle Nicolo’s ears. He reached in and pulled Heidi out of the car.
“Let me try to start it,” he told her. “Why didn’t you get this thing fixed?”
“I did,” she told him when he had lifted her out by her arm. She almost hung in front of him. Damn. She weighed barely anything. “I just got it out of the shop.”
“Who the hell are you talking to?” Her pack leader’s growl came through the cell phone noticeably.
Nicolo handed her over to Dimitri and slid into her car, immediately fumbling with the seat so he could fit his large body into the small space. The entire interior smelled of Heidi—a crisp, clean, energetic scent that matched her craving for life. There was something sensual about it too, something that called out every protector’s instinct he had.
“The Malta werewolves who brought me back to my pack are here.” Heidi proved how strong integrity ran through her with her honesty. “And Bob, I did come into Valle to pick up the office supplies. I’m sorry that I didn’t ask Steve to come with me, but I just didn’t want to spend time with him.”
“He was supposed to go with you for protection,” Bob screamed, making it easy to hear him. “And if you had any sense in your head, you’d see exactly why he should have gone.”
“These three aren’t going to hurt me. I can smell that they won’t.”
Nicolo tried again to start the car, hearing it lose juice with each crank. He glanced up when Dimitri took the phone from Heidi. He fought to climb out of the small space and handed Heidi her keys, feeling the urge to pull her a bit closer to him. The snow fell hard and fast around them now.
“This is Dimitri Spalto, pack leader for the Malta werewolves,” Dimitri growled into the cell phone.
“You lay one fucking paw on her and it will be war between our packs,” Bob shouted through the phone.
Dimitri narrowed his gaze on Nicolo, then scowled at Heidi while silver streaked through his dark eyes.
He didn’t acknowledge the lunewulf’s threat. “Your bitch’s car won’t start…again. I’m going to take her into Malta territory and put her with one of our bitches until this storm rolls over.”
“Rape her and you die.” Bob didn’t yell this time, but his promise still came through the phone clearly.
Dimitri simply handed the phone back to Heidi. “Leave her car here. We’re headed back to the pack.” He stormed back to his truck, the spicy smell of his anger lingering in the air.
“Bob, the Malta werewolves really are gentleman. I’ll call you as soon as they have me in their pack.” She hung up quickly.
Nicolo grabbed her jaw, lifting her face until her blue eyes glowed when they met his gaze.
“Gentlemen?” he growled under his breath. “Little bitch, you should never lie to your pack leader.”
She shuddered, an energy pulsing from her that stabbed him in the heart and then sank lower, straight to his cock.
“I doubt you would do anything that I wouldn’t want,” she whispered, daring to take him on right there in the middle of the parking lot.
His cock got so fucking hard he could barely move. This tiny lunewulf bitch had more nerve and guts than were safe for a female to have. She licked her lips and he fought the urge to claim her right there. But that would be insane. Already her pack leader promised war if she were touched. In spite of the fact that she obviously didn’t understand the meaning of those words, the honor of his pack had to come first.
He would release his frustration later, possibly in a good, hard run. It would do him good to find a single bitch from his own pack and release the sexual craving Heidi created in him on one of his own kind. Without dwelling on the idea longer than a minute, he knew it wouldn’t work. Heidi had gotten under his skin. No other bitch would take away the urge she’d instilled in him. Although many werewolves fucked any bitch who flipped her tail in their direction, taking a female just to get his rocks off had never satisfied him. He needed more of a connection with a bitch in order to truly be satisfied. Heidi offered him that connection with that sultry gaze of hers and her whispered suggestive comments. Why the hell did she have to be lunewulf?
When they reached the truck, Dimitri and Josie finished talking and then Josie headed across the parking lot toward the street.
Dimitri stalked around the truck to the driver’s side. “Josie is going to sniff around here for a bit, see what might be going on. Let’s go.”
Nicolo reached for the door handle, but then grabbed Heidi’s shoulder. He flattened her against the side of the truck and willed her to feel how hard she’d made him. Her lips parted and she looked up at him, a breath escaping her as she tried moving her arms between them. Whether to wrap them around him or stroke his chest, he wasn’t sure, nor did he allow her room to do either.
“Until you return to your pack, you answer to me. Is that clear?”
She relaxed against the truck, leaning her head back to look up at him. Her grin was a perfect sexual invitation. “Now that depends on what the questions are,” she told him. “I’ll trust you, if you trust me.”
“Trust is earned with time. But you will not run wild like you have been since I’ve met you.”
“I came here alone on purpose,” she whispered, the arch of her neck looking damn good to nibble on. “I wanted to see you, wolf man.”
Her confession sent all blood draining to his cock and made his bones ache to change. Not only was Heidi wild, but her uninhibited honesty made him crave her even more.
Snow blew around them, but the cold did nothing to stop the fever boiling inside of him. He lowered his head and took her upper lip between his teeth, nibbling it, then sucking. Her cry of need sounded so soft, so alluring. He lifted himself off her enough to grab the zipper of her coat and then yanked it all the way down. The bulky leather between them annoyed him, and at the moment, he didn’t care who saw him devour her.
She stretched against him, wrapping her arms around his neck and then tangling her fingers in his hair. She grabbed a hold, tugging, fighting to bring him closer to her. And then she bit his lip—just as he’d done to her. Nicolo swore the ground tilted underneath them. He
idi was barely half his weight and size, and the petite lunewulf almost knocked him off his feet.
He pictured her in her fur, pure white and with a speed no other creature on earth could match. He imagined chasing her down, willing every bit of energy that rushed through his veins to allow him to capture her. He would gain her submission, then take her until she couldn’t move anymore.
Nicolo impaled her mouth with his tongue. Reaching underneath her sweater, his fingers brushed over the lace that covered her small, round breast. Her nipple tortured his palm when he squeezed the soft flesh. It was hard and eager for his attention.
The engine of the truck roared to life and Heidi jumped, revealing that some of her boldness and confidence proved to be a front. In truth, she was scared. As she damned well should be.
He broke off the kiss, straightening and staring down at her flushed expression. He loved the way lust smelled on her.
“I’m going to fuck you,” he promised her.
Her eyes widened, and she licked her already moist lips. He didn’t need her response to his words. Her musky scent was answer enough. Reaching for the door handle, he pulled it open and turned her so she’d climb inside.
Nicolo ignored the spicy smell of his littermate’s anger. “Take her to Erin. Heidi will stay at her den,” he told Dimitri.
His brother’s cold gaze swept over both of them. “I won’t have Erin involved in this.”
“Who is Erin?” Heidi asked.
“Our littermate,” Nicolo told her, pulling the door shut and then putting his arm protectively over the seat behind her. He looked past her at Dimitri though. “And Erin can take care of herself. Take her there.”
Dimitri growled and the tires slid over the snow when he peeled out of the parking lot. His littermate probably didn’t realize how his reckless driving forced Heidi’s body closer to his.
Forbidden Attraction Page 5