by Claire Ryann
Lowell couldn't resist his wolf's curiosity-- or his own-- he pulled himself up on his elbow and rested his head in his hand so that he could look down on her.
She remained curled on her side, facing away from him. Her hands were tucked up under her head and she was staring off in the direction of the far wall. He didn't need his sense of smell to know that she was scared. Her pupils were dilated and the whites of her eyes were wide around those beautiful violet blue irises. The rhythm of her breath was shallow and quick.
"Kara," he ran his free hand up her body and cupped the side of her face, gently trying to coax her into turning to face him, "I can protect you."
It was a promise from his wolf. Lowell hadn't been prepared to hear his own words. The creature inside him wasn't concerned with pack policies or politics or any of the tedious nuances of humanity. It was a primal beast that acted on instinct, and it insisted that Kara needed to feel safe. Especially safe with him.
She gave in to the pressure of his hand against her cheek and turned to look up at him. Her body was still naked and flushed from their love making and Lowell felt his cock stirring with new life as he drank in the sight of her heavy breasts laying against her chest. Each pale mound tipped in delicate rose nipples that were puckered from the chill in the room.
"You don't have to, Lowell," she whispered. "If I did it right, no one has to protect me now."
The wolf knew better. It pawed against Lowell's better judgment insisting on being revealed but he pushed it back. Now was not the time. Never would be the time. This beautiful woman was only his for the night. In the morning she would be on her way, taking her secrets with her while he took only her memory back to the den with him.
He resolved to let it go. He lowered his head to kiss her deeply and then changed the tone with playful nips that made her giggle. He landed his mouth repeatedly over her body, working his way down and adding to the hardness of each rosy nipple before rolling her onto her stomach.
He was eager to get to the other side of her, to move his hands and his mouth over her round shoulders, to test for ticklish spots along her ribs, and most definitely to lavish attention on that ass that had been tormenting him all day.
Lowell moved alongside her so that he had full access, and treated himself to an eyeful of her luscious form...and stopped. His blood running cold, his wolf snarling.
"What happened here?" He didn't mean for his voice to sound so hard and he instantly regretted it.
Kara scurried out from under him and ran for the bathroom, grabbing the duffle off the bureau as she disappeared behind the door.
"Kara!" Lowell's fist slammed into the wall beside the bathroom door, "Tell me what happened."
His wolf paced.
The perfect ivory flesh of Kara's lower back was crossed with razor thin lines that were barely beginning to fade to pink. Someone had gone through a lot of trouble to make marks where they wouldn't be seen. Someplace where they would burn every time she took a step or leaned or bent. They were designed to make sure she didn't forget them and now that Lowell had found them, whoever put them there was never going to forget them either.
He swallowed the hatred for the stranger and forced his wolf to recede. It had no enemy in sight to take vengeance on and he needed Kara to come back to his arms so he could protect her and kiss away her pain.
"Kara," he choked against the door, "please come out."
The door opened and Kara stood silently in front of him wearing a set of soft cotton pajamas covered in cartoon sheep. Her eyes were downcast and her jaw trembled with the fight to avoid tears.
It tore at Lowell's heart in a way he'd never imagined possible.
"Please tell me who did that to you," he said in a carefully measured tone.
Kara's head shook just slightly from side to side, "It doesn't matter anymore," she whispered low enough that only his wolf's hearing detected it.
Lowell pulled her into his arms, wrapping them tightly around her as if he could pull her close enough to bring her inside him where his wolf could curl around her as well. He forced his lungs to expand and contract fully with each breath. He felt her body shake and he knew she was crying.
His wolf howled, the rallying cry that was meant to call together a team. He was going to hunt down whoever had hurt Kara and then the wolves would tear the flesh from his bones while he begged for death.
First, he had to find out who it was they were hunting.
***
Lowell's night was fitful but Kara had slept soundly in his arms. The deep slumber of someone who hadn't had a good night's sleep in a very long time.
He'd forgotten to call the office back until dawn lit the room with dim blue light. He'd been awake most of the hours after listening to Kara's timid telling of how she'd ended up hiking across half a mountain range in winter.
It had taken all his strength to keep from giving in to the urge to let the wolf loose. He knew this man that had hurt Kara was miles away on the other side of the international border, there was nothing he or his wolf could do but comfort Kara and assure her that she was safe now.
His wolf still pawed and nudged close, anxious to reveal itself to the woman sleeping in his arms, but that wasn't an option. She was already hiding from one enemy-- her own husband. Ex-husband, Lowell corrected himself. She hadn't been discovered, there was every reason to believe she'd been declared dead by now.
He tightened his arms around the sleeping woman. She was his now, and that was the problem. He wasn't ready to let her go. Not to loosen his grip on her and disengage her body from his, not to let her climb into the SUV outside and drive away from him, and certainly not to allow her to be touched by another man ever.
Jealousy raged hotly through his veins at the thought. She belonged to him and only him.
He reminded himself that she wasn't his to keep. Kara was human and no amount of emotion raging through him could make her his mate.
As he watched the room fill with light, he cherished the feel of her in his arms, knowing that in a few hours he would be forced to let her go.
11
Kara opened her eyes with a few blinks to clear them and looked around the room.
Lowell was missing.
She remembered hearing the shower run, the sounds of a one-sided conversation in hushed tones as he called his friends.
She sat up and looked around. He'd said they were 9 hours away. Where did he go?
The sound at the door startled her and then she realized that there was only one person who would have the key.
Lowell's grin lifted her heart as he walked through the door carrying Styrofoam boxes from the diner across the street.
"I figured the less people see you the better your chances of getting to Florida are," he said as he brought her a box filled with biscuits covered with thick sausage gravy. "I got those," he nodded at the contents of box number 1, "and these," he opened box number 2 to reveal thick fluffy pancakes and several strips of bacon fried to perfection.
"Looks like they do breakfast better than dinner," he laughed, "but I got the coffee from the gas station, I'm hoping it's better than the glop I was drinking at the diner yesterday."
"I heard you on the phone this morning," Kara was hesitant to bring it up, part of her hoped his friends wouldn't be able to come after him, that he'd be stuck with her forever.
"I need to get back," he said. "Ming can't get away long enough to come all the way out here though, is there any chance you can take me back to the Interstate?"
Kara's stomach rolled over on top of the pancakes that suddenly seemed too sweet. She'd secretly hoped that she'd be forced to keep the room another night and have at least several more hours with him.
He was really going.
"The Interstate?" She squeaked.
"I know it's a lot of back tracking but you'll be able to take the freeway south and then head west on the open roads without dealing with the snow. You'll make up the time easy."
She closed the lid on the ta
ke-out box of pancakes and dropped it in the trash on her way to the bathroom. "Sure, just let me hop in the shower and brush my teeth, I'll get you back to your friends lickety split."
She wasn't sure if she hoped Lowell heard the hurt in her voice or not.
There was no new snow on the road which was good but the melted slush they had driven though yesterday had frozen over night. Their early morning departure meant traveling over slick patches of ice but Kara had grown up driving in extreme winter conditions and the SUV that had been left for her was equipped with good tires.
She wished they were studded snow tires but with patience and skill, she got Lowell back to the rendezvous point on the west side of the mountains where his friends were waiting for him.
Watching Lowell slide out of the passenger door as she pulled up to the gas pump was bitter sweet. It was going to be hard driving without him beside her. He was good company and he didn't spend the whole time telling her how to drive. Kara couldn't think if she'd ever known a man who made a good passenger.
Lowell filled the gas tank for her and washed her windshield like he had before. Kara thought it should be a spectator sport as she watched him through her windshield.
"You sure you don't want me to wait with you?" she asked when he was finished.
Lowell's eyes rested heavily on hers, "Nah, that's them," he jerked his thumb toward an old red Dodge covered in mud and parked in front of bar and grill across the parking lot, "they're waiting on me."
She nodded because she didn't know what to say and she couldn't say anything anyway because she knew she'd start crying.
After all they'd been through together in such a short time, it was hard to admit to herself that she was just a one night stand. She felt connected to Lowell in some way, as if her whole life had been carefully orchestrated to put her on the path to meet this man.
Now he was about to saunter off to meet up with his buddies at some roadside bar in the middle of nowhere without so much as a goodbye kiss?
Kara held back the tears.
She'd risked everything. Confessed her whole plan and told him exactly what she'd come from and where she was headed. Hoping that he might offer to bring her back home with him. At least for a little while. It's not like she had anything waiting for her in Florida.
Ever since he'd spoken with someone named "Mingan" on the phone that morning, he'd been anxious to get back to them and he'd certainly been eager enough to make sure she got back on the road. He wanted to make sure she put several hundred miles between their hotel room and her next stop.
Lowell reached through the driver side window and touched her face, "I'm gonna miss you, Ms. Monica Brewer," he said softly as his thumb gently caressed her cheek.
Kara managed a smile.
"You be careful, pay attention to your surroundings, and don't let anyone get too close a look at you. You'll be fine."
Lowell's voice was thick, he glanced over his shoulder at his friend's truck but he found several excuses to keep talking to her, to keep touching her, to keep breaking her heart.
Kara finally took his hand and gently pushed it back through the open window, "I'm just gonna run across the street real quick and grab something to eat for the road," she said as she nodded at the burger stand. "You get back to your friends."
Lowell took a step away from the SUV, his lips pressed in a firm line that made his expression unreadable as he watched Kara drive away from him even if only to stop on the other side of the street.
She tried not to fixate on him in her rear view mirror but she couldn't help it. He didn't head toward the bar until she'd parked in front of the burger stand and headed inside the attached dining room for a bathroom break before ordering her food and hitting the road.
He waved once and then headed toward the bar.
When she came back out and picked up her order at the take out window, Lowell was out of sight. The big truck was still there and some kid was loading beer in the back.
She was so busy watching the kid at the truck, she totally missed the black sedan that had slid into the parking space beside her SUV but she didn't miss the voice that called her by name or the man who owned that voice as he pushed her inside the car.
12
"Hey!" Mingan held up his hand to direct Lowell through toward the table the guys had staked out.
Lowell shot his buddy a grin and headed over. He watched Mingan casually drop a bill on the bar and carry a couple of beers back to the table.
Kenyon was busy chatting up a couple of ladies at the bar. Typical Kenny, even out here in some Interstate wasteland dive, he'd managed to round up a couple of girls. If the guys gave him enough time, he'd have those girls in some back room somewhere and not let them out till they were both walking bow-legged.
Lowell just shook his head as Ken glanced around and pointed at the petite blonde with a questioning eyebrow.
Lowell was not interested in being Kenyon's wing man today. An ache crept through Lowell's body. It felt like a corporeal entity, silently searching through an empty house in search of something lost.
He knew what that ache was looking for, she was across the street. On her way to her new life on the other side of the country. It shouldn't hurt as much as it did, he thought. After only 24 hours with her, her absence should already feel like someone had taken a core sample of his soul.
Heading for the bar first, Lowell grabbed a beer of his own before joining his friends.
"Thanks for coming out to pick me up," Lowell forced a smile, "I'm surprised you managed to leave the den without the kid tagging along."
Mingan laughed, "You know that's not possible, he's next door grabbing some of that piss water he calls beer."
Lowell couldn't help but laugh with his friend. One of the pack's primary sources of income was their own craft beer label, but that dang kid couldn't resist any chance he got to stock up on good old Bud Light whenever he could hitch a ride out of the den.
Ken had the two girls grinning from ear to ear up at the bar. Lowell watched him gesture at them that he'd be right back and then slip off the bar stool and head toward the table.
"Hey!" Ken grabbed one of the beers that Mingan had in front of him and Mingan growled possessively. "Whatever man, I'm the one paying," he tipped the bottle back and downed the contents. Setting the empty back on the table in front of the frowning Mingan, Kenny turned his attention to Lowell.
"So where the fuck did you end up last night?"
"Some place smaller than this hole that insisted on calling itself a town. Just a gas station with a diner and a crap motel," Lowell lifted his own beer to his lips and silently replayed his night with Kara as he pulled the hoppy ale into his mouth.
"Low," Mingan's head was tilted, looking at his friend with suspicious eyes, "how the hell'd you end up that far out of the territory?"
Lowell gestured at his nose. It was healing and he could breathe through it again but his sense of smell was still off.
"Busted snout. Good knock on the head during the fight. I ended up at the bottom of a ravine and kinda out of it. I ended up just hiking out all the way to the road." He carefully avoided mentioning Kara. The fewer people knew about her the better her odds were.
Mingan sat up in his chair and leaned forward on the table toward him.
"And then you hiked 60 miles away from home? On two feet?" Ken stood next to Mingan, staring down at Lowell.
Lowell knew his old friend was on to him. If there was one thing that never got past Kenny, it was a woman.
Lowell held his wounded hand up for their inspection. It was mostly healed now and wouldn't give him much trouble if he needed to shift, but the bright pink line that ran across his palm should explain why he was on 2 feet instead of 4.
Mingan's face scrunched up in a pained expression, "That happen during the fight?"
Lowell nodded.
Mingan seemed properly distracted now, the big man sat back in the solid wood chair and looked like he was about to sa
y something when Ken took a step closer to Lowell.
Lowell watched Ken's nostrils flaring as he bent toward him.
"Why don't you want to tell us about her, man?" Ken took one final sniff and crouched down at the edge of the table. His eyes were filled with genuine hurt as he looked up Lowell, "You run off and get mated up and you act like we're not gonna be able to tell? Damn man," he shook his head, "what is up with this pack lately?"
Lowell wolf was at full attention as Lowell sat up in his chair and searched his friend's eyes.
"What?" he choked.
"Yeah, Ken, say again?" Mingan leaned forward again, this time also making an effort to scent Lowell.
"Mated dude," Kenyon scoffed, "Like you can't tell? You reek of old married dude. No way I'm gonna be able to pick up chicks with you around now."
"Why didn't you bring her in?" Mingan's quiet voice sounded wounded, "You ashamed of us?"
Lowell didn't have time to give his buddies shit for acting like a bunch of clucking hens. His hand absently went to his nose and he winced as he rubbed against a tender spot that wasn't quite back to normal yet.
Mated? Is that why he'd become so attached to Kara so fast? Is that why letting her leave him standing in the parking lot had felt like being sliced into pieces? Is that why he'd felt the need to wrap her in his arms and never let her go?
Was there still time? He was on his feet and headed to the door. His heartbeat set a new speed record as he caught a glimpse of her SUV still parked in front of the burger place through the opening door as he collided with the kid.
Before Lowell could push his way past him, the kid was excitedly rallying his pack mates outside, "Some chick just got snagged guys!"
Mingan and Ken were sliding into the truck with the kid at the wheel before Lowell had a chance to focus.
"Low! Dude com'on!" the truck was backing out of the space in a hurry as the kid spun the wheel, "you gonna help or what?"
Lowell was vaguely aware that the kid behind the wheel was talking about chasing down someone who'd just kidnapped a woman from the burger joint but all he could was focused on was the SUV waiting patiently for his mate to return.