Dire Desires_A Novel of the Eternal Wolf Clan

by Stephanie Tyler

  How much had Jinx told them about her past? How much did he actually know? They’d barely had time to talk before she’d been sedated.

  Rescued. Safe, the rustling told her. It never steered her wrong.

  Her back ached. It had been hurting, as if she’d bruised it, for the past several weeks. She lifted the shirt and turned to look over her shoulder in the mirror at her naked skin, noted that Gwen was watching her too.

  “I must’ve bumped it the last time I”—she was about to say escaped—“exercised.”

  Gwen moved closer and her tone was a little off when she said, “It looks like it’s going to be just fine.”

  “You’re the doctor.” She tugged at the neck of the T-shirt. The clothing was soft, but it still chafed. And Gwen hadn’t seemed bothered by her nudity, but still, she knew walking around the house with all the men wasn’t appropriate.

  “Are you hungry?”

  “Actually, starving,” she said. Gwen went out the door and pulled in a table on wheels with a big tray of covered food dishes.

  “That smells great.”

  “Here—sit and get started. I’ll be right back, okay?”

  Gillian couldn’t think of anything but food at that moment. At first, it was only that way after they’d sedated her and lately it was that way all the time. There was never enough food, except on the days she ran. Then, it was like her body shut down to everything but the air and the moon.

  It was all delicious—lots of stew meat and potatoes and bread. She sat and ate for what seemed like hours. Finally, when her stomach stopped complaining, she looked around and noted that there didn’t appear to be any cameras in this room, although they could be well hidden. She took a few more bites and couldn’t shake the fact that she was alone.

  They trusted her, just like they made the mistake of doing time and time again at the hospital. Gillian always took full advantage of their mistake and she’d do it here.

  Really, she had to. The moon, the air, Jinx—all called to her as surely as they felt her pain of being held captive.

  Her bare feet padded across the cold floor, but her blood ran hot. Her fingers nestled in the seams of the cinder-block wall, looking for any kind of weakness, a secret passage.

  Nothing.

  She went into the small bathroom and looked up at the vent. It was small, but it had to lead outside. She lifted the cover and smelled earth. But she’d never liked enclosed places, so she was torn.

  Jinx had left her. She’d ask him why when she saw him again.

  She went to the door and found it opened easily. She went to the next door and found herself inside a maze of cars and motorcycles. There was a big window about seven feet up and she climbed onto the roof of a truck and pushed it open and looked down.

  You can do this.

  She balanced in her bare feet on the window’s ledge. Hesitated and then jumped as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Landed solidly on her two feet and broke into a dead run toward the woods, her smile wide. The wind tore through her hair, the T-shirt billowed out around her and she heard her own laughter echo in her ears.

  She was free—and this was no dream.

  • • •

  “Your brother looks good for being a prisoner of hell. The biker look works for him,” Jez said, trying to keep conversation going as Jinx brooded in the passenger’s seat. “A bold choice of tattoos, though. The women are going to love them, I’m betting.”

  “Do you ever shut up?” Jinx growled.

  “Finally. I was beginning to think I’d lost you in your broody bad-boy mood for the night, and we have work to do. Are you ever going to ask what I found back at the psych facility?” Jez asked. “I realize you were busy being all growly over your mate—”

  Jinx wanted to say she’s not my mate but the words wouldn’t come out, dammit. Instead, he managed, “I talked to a ghost who mentioned a monster.”

  “Most of the patients saw it,” Jez confirmed. “Several nurses mentioned that over the past four days, they used a lot more drugs than normal to keep everyone calm. One of them said that, and I quote, ‘It was like all the freaks freaked out at once.’”

  “Nice nurse,” Jinx muttered.

  “All the patients I spoke to—”

  “You spoke to patients?”

  “They won’t remember me, wolf,” Jez told him with a sigh. “You sure you want to talk about monsters rather than the fact that your brother woke up and you just found your mate?”

  “You are not my therapist, deadhead. And we’re not supposed to have mates.”

  “Did the Elders tell you that?”

  “Centuries.” Jinx slammed his hands along the dash. “We had no one forever. And now we’re allowed to fall like dominoes?”

  “I didn’t say the PTB made sense. Ever.” Jez took a corner on two wheels. Jinx hadn’t realized how fast they’d been going.

  The vamp was possibly more on edge than Jinx. “What’s wrong, Billy Idol?”

  “Fuck you, wolf.” Jez yanked the car to the side of the road. “I realize you’re all wrapped up in you. But I’m involved in this shit too.”

  “Is this about your brothers?”

  “I don’t like psych wards,” Jez muttered.

  “Why didn’t you say that hours ago?”

  “I didn’t think I’d have that kind of reaction.”

  Jez didn’t elaborate and Jinx figured he’d share when ready. At the moment, they were facing something bigger, because they were back outside the original scene of the crime, as it were. Beyond these iron gates that stood shakily was once the opening to purgatory.

  It was shut now, but would it always be there? Could Jinx be tricked into opening it a second time? Was he somehow purgatory’s bitch?

  “You think the monsters would come back here?” he asked to distract himself. “I think they’d stay far away.”

  “Got to cross it off the list,” Jez said firmly, his stiff-upper-lip composure back. The long leather coat whipped around his thighs as Jinx followed him reluctantly.

  The ghosts clung to him. They were all still freaked about the recent events and too damned needy for his state of mind.

  Needy ghosts were the fucking worst.

  “Are you going to talk to them?”

  “I’m not their therapist.” But even as he spoke, they dissipated like smoke in the wind. He felt naked being ghostless. “I think I was wrong about the monsters not coming back here.”

  Jez circled around slowly, his fangs elongated.

  “What exactly do these monsters do in purgatory?” he asked quietly.

  “All they do is fight each other. Over and over.”

  “I’m guessing they learned a lot about stalking their prey,” Jinx said. “And I’ve never felt more like it in my life.”

  “I think we should go.”

  “Way too late. Good thing we can’t die.” But it was for sure going to hurt. “What did they look like?”

  “That’s the odd thing—each person described them differently. It appears that the monsters morph into whatever your greatest fear is,” Jez told him. “They feed off humans and wolves alike. Vamps too, I’m guessing. Equal opportunity monsters.”

  “You didn’t think to mention this before?”

  “You didn’t ask.”

  A low growl emanated from the trees. “Jez, what’s your big fear?”

  “I don’t really like hellhounds much,” the deadhead admitted. As he spoke, a giant black beast with red eyes darted out of the woods, making a beeline for the vamp. Jez stood stock-still, muttering some kind of prayer—if vamps even prayed.

  Jinx wanted to remind him that prayers didn’t work so well for them the last time, since that’s what opened purgatory in the first place, but he refrained, if only because his heart was in his throat.

 
; “Jez, man, what the hell?”

  There was no way to outrun this thing. Fighting would be their best option. And what a fight it would be.

  The hellhound bounded on a straight course toward Jez, who pulled a silver knife and prepared to slice at whatever he could. Jinx called out and the hellhound skidded to a stop as the vamp and wolf stood close to one another.

  “What the hell?” Jinx repeated softly.

  “Good puppy,” Jez muttered and it advanced. Jinx took a step closer to it and it backed up.

  Okay, this was definitely all kinds of weird.

  “What’s your big fear, wolf?” Jez asked.

  Oddly enough, Jinx appeared to have none, since he was looking downwind at a hellhound, and he didn’t much fear those necessarily, although it was a big motherfucker and Brother was straining at the bit, pushing for a shift.

  “Not now, Brother,” he hissed.

  The monster hellhound stared him down. Snorted. But it was confused.

  And then it bowed.

  “It thinks you’re its master.”

  “I don’t want to be in charge of it,” Jinx hissed.

  “I’m not minding it,” Jez said. “Now tell the nice hellhound that the vampire isn’t a chew toy.”

  “Maybe. Or maybe I’ll take him home with us. We wouldn’t need a security system then.”

  The hellhound moved toward Jez and Jinx stifled a laugh. “Back off the vamp. He’s with me.”

  The giant hound backed up.

  “Yeah, down boy,” Jez told it. “I bet if you followed him, he’d take you to the others.”

  “I’m not ready for that—what am I going to do?”

  “This is like that book, Where the Wild Things Are. You’re that five-year-old kid who wears the white suit with the horns. Kinky.”

  “I am not five,” Jinx said coldly.

  “You’ve created quite a wild rumpus,” Jez persisted.

  “I could still make you puppy chow.”

  “Point taken.” Jez cleared his throat. “You do realize you’re like their king now.”

  “I’m definitely not the king of goddamned purgatory,” Jinx said, but the beast sent up a mournful bark that said otherwise.

  “Cheer up. Things could be worse,” Jez noted.

  “How so?”

  “You could be the king of purgatory and be inside purgatory.”

  “I hate it when you’re logical.”

  Jez stilled then, murmured, “Hey Jinx, we’ve got company.”

  But Jinx already felt her presence like the soft brush of a hand on the back of his neck, a warm caress of sun. He felt her before he saw her, like there was a silken tie that stretched between them but remained unbroken. He felt tangled up. Confused. And grateful as hell.

  He didn’t dare turn away from the monster, had no fucking clue what to do with the bowing hellhound presence. Finally, he told it, “Go hide. Don’t kill or hurt anyone. Tell the others to stand the fuck down. Wait for my call.”

  The hellhound did some kind of doggy nod and disappeared quickly into the brush around the cemetery.

  “How very military of you,” Jez drawled.

  “You’re from London, not the south.”

  “I’m versatile.”

  “You’re fucking nuts.”

  “I’ve been hanging around wolves for too long.” Jez still looked shaky as he lit a cigarette that looked suspiciously like one of Vice’s special hand rolls. “This is getting weird. We might have to ask Kate if you’re all evil again.”

  “We can just ask Rogue,” Jinx said. “I’m guessing he’ll say yes.”

  Jez sighed. “Why don’t you see if you can make sure Gillian doesn’t run again? Although I have a feeling she was running to you.”

  It was then that Jinx realized his biggest fear wasn’t in the form of a monster, but rather, a mate.

  Chapter 7

  Instinctively, she knew where to find Jinx. In her old life, before the hospitals and the drugs, if anyone told her she’d be running through a creepy cemetery in the middle of the night alone, she’d have laughed. She probably would’ve been drinking at the time, in some kind of underground rave party with all the hangers-on who wanted to be called her friends because of her name and the money and perks that went along with that.

  She let them, because it didn’t cost her a dime, and she’d never let them inside where it mattered anyway. She’d learned from a young age that everyone wanted something from her, but that didn’t mean she had to give it to them.

  Here—he’s here.

  Her warrior was standing, tall and proud, his stance one of battle. And although she didn’t see any imminent threat, she certainly felt one.

  Her heartbeat pounded inside her ears, her toes dug the grass as her muscles tensed. She felt the urge to rescue him in much the same way he had her, but the rustling in her ears grew loud and she wasn’t sure what to do.

  He sensed her, but he didn’t turn around, not right away. When he finally did, his expression was serious but his eyes . . . they glowed.

  • • •

  She wore what must be Gwen’s clothes. As much as he wanted to see her naked, he was glad she wasn’t, because they weren’t alone.

  Once acknowledged, she strode across the space that separated them like she owned it.

  She was mesmerizing and when you were trying to tame a hellhound, it wasn’t the best time to be distracted.

  Maybe your fear isn’t going to come in the form of a monster.

  “You’re angry,” she murmured when she got close.

  “No. Worried.”

  “Don’t be.”

  She was so goddamned pretty. His instinct was to fall to his damned knees and take her down with him, Jez and hellhounds be damned. Even Brother Wolf egged him on and it took him a long moment to gain control. “Gillian,” was all he could say before he brought his mouth down on hers.

  So much for control. Jez would have to deal.

  Her hands wrapped around his neck as he pulled her close. Her body molded to his perfectly, a fit he’d never thought possible.

  I’m the worst possible wolf for her.

  And that didn’t stop him from playing his tongue along hers, his canines elongating just enough to scrape her lip, a sign that Brother Wolf wanted to claim her too. His cock hardened and she moved her hips to rock against him. He ran his hands along her sides, cupped a breast before realizing that if he didn’t stop soon, he wouldn’t be able to.

  When he pulled back, she put her hands on either side of his face and stared at him. “You’re worried.”

  “About you, yes. Because you shouldn’t be out here alone.”

  “I’ve always been alone. But now, I’m with you.”

  Ah Christ. “Gillian—”

  “You feel it too, when we’re together. It happened back at the hospital. That’s never happened to me.”

  She was so much like the Dire women of old. Strong. Self-assured. Fate at first sight didn’t happen often, but they’d locked and loaded onto each other in the hospital room and nothing was going to change that.

  He wasn’t worthy of this. She was nobility. Royalty. “It’s never happened to me either.”

  “I couldn’t help leaving to find you.”

  “I’m glad you did,” he admitted.

  “The doctor—Gwen—said you were working.”

  She was absorbing the Dire culture so quickly—being around him would make everything happen faster for her. She’d scented him here, and she knew instinctively that he was hunting.

  “She’s right.”

  “You’re hunting ghosts.” Her eyes flashed for a second and he swore he saw them change. Prayed it was a trick of light.

  “Yes. I’ll tell you more, but we should get out of here.”

  �
��I was worried about you. You were fighting, I think. I didn’t see anything but I feel . . .” She trailed off, shivered.

  “Those are the ghosts.”

  “And the monster?”

  “What do you know about that?”

  “They talked about it. At the hospital. I never saw it but a lot of them did.” She slid her hand into his like it was the most natural thing in the world as they walked, with Jez several steps ahead of them. “I don’t want to go back there.”

  “To the hospital? You won’t.”

  “No, to the house with Gwen.”

  “Did something happen?” he heard himself demand with a growl to his tone so fierce Jez stopped walking for a second and turned to look at him with warning.

  Yeah, Brother Wolf, back it down.

  If Gillian noticed, she took it in stride. “No, they all seem nice. I just want to stay with you.”

  “You met all of them?”

  “Lots of males. They were big, like you. But none of them were you,” she said quietly. “I wanted to go outside, but Gwen told me I couldn’t. So I left.”

  “And they followed you,” Jinx said, noting Rifter’s truck. Vice would’ve been the first one on her tail, but he was no doubt helping Liam get ready.

  Liam. Cyd. Cain. Jinx felt the guilt of not being there ball in his stomach. As if sensing this, Gillian squeezed his hand a little tighter.

  “That’s Rifter. He’s my . . . boss. Both he and Gwen are.” Technically, it was the truth.

  Rifter came toward them and Jinx willed himself not to growl as he got close. But the possessive feelings couldn’t be ignored or tamed.

  Gwen must’ve mentioned it to the king, because Rifter stayed at a respectable distance as he spoke. “Gillian, you scared the hell out of us.”

  “I can’t believe a girl gave you the slip,” Jez said and Rifter growled at him. Jez crossed his arms and looked unimpressed.

  “You’ve got to go back to the house,” Jinx told her.

  “No, I don’t. I won’t.”

  She might only be out of prison because of him, but she wasn’t giving up any other freedoms easily, if at all. Hell, he was lucky she wanted to stick close to him, because her Houdini act was hard to top.