That was exactly what she’d needed tonight. Obedience and gratitude. The satisfaction of being the one to push him to complete sexual annihilation.
As she gathered up her belongings, Holly searched with her nose and ears and that other indefinable sense that had been grafted into her DNA. The men were gone, and she stifled a sense of disappointment. After all, she’d run away half expecting to be hunted. She should have known Chase would respect her need to leave the pack and find herself. He’d never hunted the other women who’d left and always accepted them back without question. Why should she be any different?
She had to laugh at her own capriciousness; she’d left in order to find herself, and yet in leaving Truckee, she’d left a good part of herself behind. She was in no position to be angry with the men. She’d gotten exactly what she’d asked for: space and time. Her ego had been bruised, but that certainly wasn’t their fault. It was perverse of her to expect them to follow her. But still… She shook that thought away. What were they doing here tonight?
Something must have happened to bring them here.
Of course, they might be here for fun.
Even as the insidious thought crossed her mind, she rejected it. They weren’t here to play, not with Kurt along. He was far too sensitive to expose himself to a place like Dark Haven. Ethan would never push him to do something like that.
Anxiety played at her nerves. She should go upstairs and confront the men, assert her independence. And she should find out what was wrong.
But two of the men upstairs were her reason for leaving the Truckee pack in the first place. She’d run away, and they hadn’t followed her. She bit her lip, debating what to do.
Step by step, she climbed the stairs, wondering if they would recognize her. Hunter would; he’d been the last person ever to set eyes on her human form. She might be able to slip past the others. And Tex… The thought of her gentle cowboy made her heart ache a little. Sweet as he was, he’d see only a complete stranger, not the wolf he’d grown to know.
As she climbed, the music grew louder. Men’s and women’s shouts rose above the cries and screams of the subs in the dungeon. It had taken weeks to desensitize herself to the raw emotion from that room. It had taken even longer to find the courage to submerge herself in classes on domination, force herself to pick up the tools of the trade. The ability to unlock a sub went a long way toward salvaging the broken woman. Holly knew she’d never be normal, but at least she could function. She could live a life among humans…hold a job, and maybe she’d be brave enough to love.
Upstairs a crowd had gathered around the mechanical bull, and in spite of her tension, she smiled at the spectacle. A bare-breasted woman rode the bull as it moved in slow motion. When she came off the machine, she fell in a tumble of ruffled skirts and lacy petticoats. Amid shouts and laughter, she cheerfully dropped her skirt and climbed back onto the bull. She wore nothing but a lacy pink thong. Strip bull-riding.
Holly rolled her eyes and laughed.
The rest of the sub’s clothing was scattered across the stage. She glanced over to the other stage; a sub was busy handing bundles of short pegging strings to doms while several submissives huddled in a group, waiting for Master Xavier and Master Simon to pair them up with their “cowboys.” Holly shook her head ruefully. That old Billy Ray Cyrus song blasted through the sound system, prompting a dozen nearly naked subs to gather in a slightly obscene version of a line dance. Looked like Master Xavier was in the mood for skin tonight!
“Mistress Holly?”
She paused and smiled at the young woman who waited, hands folded and head politely bowed.
“Yes, Jenna?”
The sub kept her eyes lowered. “We’re doing calf roping. Would you like to participate?”
Calf roping? Like in the rodeo? As she watched, a young woman darted out onto the stage, followed by a dom who quickly roped her, smoothly dropped her to the floor, and then caught her hands and feet with the short rawhide strips. He jumped up, hands in the air to stop the clock. Holly had never been to the rodeo, but she’d watched when Tex would turn on the television and cheer for his favorites.
Little Summer Aragon was staring wide-eyed at the gigantic dom she’d just been assigned. Holly frowned; the girl seemed a bit fragile for such a huge man, but Xavier was skilled in pairing the right sub to a Dominant. She stifled her concern. In this past year, the greatest thing she’d learned was to give and accept trust. Those two had to work it out together, knowing that Xavier wouldn’t mislead them.
“Not tonight, Jenna. But thank you.” She smiled a dismissal at the young woman and moved on. She took to the shadows, searching for men who were taller, more beautiful, and more fundamentally alive than the others in the club.
There.
She sensed that Kurt and Ethan were gone, but a tall, golden man sauntered into the room. Her eyes were drawn to Tex Texiera as though he were the sun. His walk was loose and confident, yet he was alert, scanning the crowd. He wore the sort of clothing that she’d frequently seen him in at home: boots and jeans and a cowboy hat. A battered leather vest was worn over his shirt, and a lariat hung from his hip. He carried a leather bag that looked suspiciously like hers. Tex looked comfortable in his skin. Comfortable in this environment.
She swallowed. Tex fit right in here at Dark Haven. She’d never suspected that he might be kinked. She chewed her lip, contemplating Tex topping a sub. In her imagination, the sub looked an awful lot like her. She shivered and continued to study her friend.
She knew his eyes were as blue as the sky against his sun-browned skin. She knew that when he smiled, a deep line would cut into the smooth skin of his cheek, and his smile would sparkle like the sun on water. She knew exactly how he smelled and even how he tasted. Her belly gripped, and for a moment, she gave herself to the arousal that washed through her.
A moment later, the second man entered and prowled toward the other side of the room. Hunter moved like a panther, smooth and sleek, not a motion wasted. Smiles were foreign to his face, though when they were young, he’d always had a smile just for her. Hunter was compassion and courage and justice all rolled into one single beautiful package. He was tragic and magnificent and heroic. He was as dark as Tex was bright, and when she saw the feral intensity on his face, she swallowed. He was hunting.
He’d caught her scent.
Holly went still, knowing that if she moved—if she breathed—he’d be on to her. As the men wove between tables and through the crowd, she moved in counterpoint, working her way toward the lobby. It wouldn’t be much longer before Hunter sorted her scent from the tangle of bodies and perfumes, particularly if he went downstairs, where she’d been running her scene. It seemed to take forever, but soon enough, she was able to slip into the darkness of the evening. She kicked off her secondhand boots and hid them and her bag behind a Dumpster in the back alley. She paused, scenting the faint trail that Ethan and Kurt had taken as they left the club. There was a third scent with theirs, but she didn’t take time to identify it.
Holly jogged down the sidewalk and ducked into another alley, then peered around the corner to see if the men had managed to track her outside the club.
And then she leaned against the brick wall, threw her head back, and laughed in delight.
They’d finally come.
* * *
“She was here. Right here.”
Hunter’s chest felt tight, and his heart pounded. Fear and relief mingled with fierce joy. Her scent was sweet and laced with the edge of arousal. These months that Holly had been gone had been the longest of his life, for he’d loved her for years. It seemed that he’d hurt for her so much longer. Holly had been the one constant in his life since they’d been children who’d been taken by Abraxas and warehoused in its labs. While they’d rarely been given access to each other, he’d always watched for her when he was moved around the facility. They’d formed a relationship that had survived even through her miserable pregnancies and the repeated ro
unds of torturous abuse they’d both suffered.
It wasn’t until that final day of captivity that he’d lost hope of her…for her. That last horrific, miraculous day when Chase’s men had raided the foul little lab complex they’d been housed in and had carried them to freedom and safety.
From that day on, Holly had been a wolf, and Hunter had remained a human. He hadn’t shifted a single time in the years of their freedom. He’d stood back and watched in impotent fury and painful jealousy as Holly’s wolf had turned away from him, going to Tex for comfort and companionship.
He wasn’t jealous of the other man for sexual or reproductive reasons, but simply because the big cowboy was so easy with his heart. He shared himself completely. Hunter had seen her falling in love with Tex, but Tex remained oblivious. Time and again, Tex would spend hours in her company, sometimes shifting and running with her. Time and again, he’d head off to the cities and bars to find sexual companionship. Tex would come home wearing the scents of the men and women he’d slept with, never noticing the devastation in Holly’s eyes when he returned.
Even now, Tex was aroused by the open sexuality that surrounded him. A glance at the front of his jeans told Hunter he was erect, half ready to take his pleasure with any one of the willing humans even though Holly was so near.
“She was with a man. I smell his seed mingled with her scent.” Tex’s voice was gravelly and rough. The wolf was rising. Finally he was showing some emotion. Hunter closed his eyes and focused on the scent of the human. It was stronger, and he was close. They moved through the maze of bondage apparatus and tables and followed the man’s scent to a small, dark room at the back of the building.
He saw the man reclining on a sheet-covered sofa. He wasn’t sleeping, but rather in a blissful state that reminded Hunter of someone high on drugs.
Holly’s scent was all over him.
Hackles rose on his neck, and a low growl rumbled from his throat. Tex reached out to gently restrain him, holding him back. He glared at the other man, and Tex shook his head slightly, leading the way back up the stairs.
“He was with her!” Hunter’s fury had him seeing red. Tex hauled him to a small round table and forced him into a chair. When a waitress started in their direction, he shook his head curtly.
“They were together, but not…together. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Holly topped him tonight.”
Hunter looked up in confusion. He’d blocked some of the more disturbing impressions of the place from his awareness. It surprised him how quickly he’d grown blind to the nudity and deaf to the pleasured screams of the subs. He’d even caught the scent of blood, but had set that aside as well. He’d grown up surrounded by sex and blood and screams; this place was confusing in the amount of pleasure that lingered in the air like a haze. He looked around, somewhat surprised by his arousal. The sheer eroticism of the place washed over him, and suddenly, the night was rife with possibility.
“What’s that mean?”
Tex leaned forward and smiled. “That means he was her submissive. I’m not sure what’s going on with our little wolf, but it looks like she’s found a way to take control of her life.”
Hunter didn’t understand the vernacular of the lifestyle he was navigating tonight, but he understood Tex’s meaning.
Holly was exorcising demons.
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
His companion smiled, and as always, it was an expression that loosened the tight knot in his chest. He might feel jealous of Tex much of the time, yet he also had the unsettling awareness that his wolf took comfort—pleasure—in his company. He was at ease around the other man. If it hadn’t been for Holly, he might have thought of Tex as his friend.
“It’s good, but it would have been better if she hadn’t tried to do this on her own.”
Hunter gazed around the room, seeing but not really observing. Most of his brain was focused on Holly’s trail. As always, his vision began to fade around the edges as his gift kicked in, tuning itself to his chosen quarry.
“Maybe the only way she could do it was alone. Maybe we…the men…are too much for her.” He glanced up at Tex, taking in the now sober expression. “She wasn’t treated well, Tex.”
“I know that, Hunter. I know you all suffered in the labs.”
Somehow Tex did know that. He hadn’t been genetically tampered with like the rest of them, so how could he be so aware of what they felt?
“She had babies. They all died, either at birth or shortly after. One of them was mine.”
Tex didn’t say anything; he reached out and gently rested his hand over Hunter’s clenched fist. Hunter stared down, wanting to flinch away but needing that contact. For whatever reason, he couldn’t stop talking.
“At the end…she’d had the baby…my baby. It lived for three days, and then they took it.” He bit his lip. “Just before Chase came, they brought it back to her, and it died there in her cell. She screamed. She ripped at her own skin. I was just yards away and couldn’t do anything. That’s when she shifted and never turned back.”
Tex squeezed his hand. Holly had been an incredibly strong woman. She’d taken so much over the years. Only abject, utter despair could have forced her to retreat to her wolf like that.
“You never shifted again either.”
Hunter wasn’t ready to talk about that. Not now, and not with Tex. He slipped his hand away and removed it from the table. He’d done bad things while in wolf form. Vile things. He’d been released from his cell to fight for his freedom, and he’d wallowed in the blood of his captors. He’d torn through his tormenters as if skin were paper and bones were twigs. He’d taken their lives, and inside, the joy of the hunt had filled his heart. Finally, he was fulfilled. He’d become exactly what Abraxas had made him, and they’d paid the ultimate price.
Hunter remembered waking in the back of a tented truck as it trundled over the sodden road through a jungle, seeing and feeling rusty blood all over his arms and chest…his face. He’d worn the blood of his enemies for days. He’d tasted that blood in his mouth for years. Hunter never wanted to taste old blood again. He’d spent endless nights wide awake, unwilling to replay the carnage in his dreams. Now he hunted, but only in human form. He’d never trust the wolf again.
“She had to have shifted to human form to come here. She must have had help from someone in the pack.”
Tex heaved a big sigh. “Maybe Eva. I initially thought Briony might have helped her leave, but Doc Bree would be too worried about her. Eva’s been up at the compound every month visiting her brother Deuce.”
Irritation rose within Hunter. He liked Napa’s alpha female, but she wasn’t Truckee’s alpha, even if her brother was living under Chase’s protection.
“Eva has no business meddling with our pack. But if it was her, she’d have kept an eye on Holly.” Hunter rose, feeling back in control. Marginally. For a moment there, he’d been afraid he might take out his anger and jealousy on some innocent human. He closed his eyes and focused on the nearly imperceptible trail that existed only in his mind.
“She’s outside the club. We’ll pick up her scent out there.”
Tex nodded and headed out the door to the lobby, still carrying that small duffel bag of his. Hunter had thought he carried a change of clothing, but now he suspected Tex was more familiar with the BDSM scene than he let on.
To his chagrin, Hunter felt his cock slowly harden at the thought of what might be in that bag. The image of Holly on one of those crosses flashed through his mind, and he shut it down fast.
She’d spent too much of her life being abused by others. And yet when she ran, this was where she’d come. He took a deep breath and let it out, doing his best to focus.
“Hunter. It’s okay to be turned on. We’re wolves. We’re dominant by nature. Sex is our lifeblood. And we’re hunting.”
“But we’re hunting Holly.” He shook his head. “It’s not all right.”
Tex handed the human receptioni
st his bag and headed out the door to the sidewalk. He grinned. “Somehow I think Holly knows exactly what’s on our minds. And frankly, Hunter, I think this is exactly what she’s been hoping for.”
Chapter Three
Holly laid her trail carefully, taking a few side trips up rickety fire escapes and onto the roofs of various commercial buildings. The city wasn’t like her home in the mountains; she couldn’t use running water to mask her trail. But then, she wasn’t leaving a visible trail for the men’s sharp eyes, so the trade-off was good.
Briefly she considered a run to Golden Gate Park, where they could shift and race, but Hunter would probably stay on two feet. She felt a moment’s sadness for him. She’d taken to her wolf these past few years out of survival. He’d locked away his wolf out of fear.
She wondered which of them was more pathetic.
Tex, though, he was healthy. Perhaps that was why she’d always craved his company. They’d spent hours together, often in peaceful silence. Sometimes she’d been privy to his innermost secrets. She knew he’d been afraid for his best friend Rico when the man had fallen in love with the very human Briony. Turned out Briony had some mysterious secrets hidden under her milk chocolate exterior.
She thought about Doc Bree with a pang of loneliness. When she’d run, Briony had been blossoming into early pregnancy. With a jolt, she realized the baby would be born by now.
She didn’t even know if it was a boy or a girl. Eva hadn’t told her. Tears burned her eyes, and she wiped them away, angry at herself. If she’d stayed within the safe confines of the pack, Holly would never have been able to walk among her friends and family as one of them. She’d never have been able to summon the strength to consider a job or even take a lover. More than anything else in the world, Holly wanted children…children who lived. She wanted a man who cherished her and would keep her fears at bay. She wanted a man who could unlock the mysteries of her body. She wanted a man like Tex, who radiated goodwill and happiness.
Doms of Dark Haven 2: Western Night Page 13