by Penny Alley
Gabe stood silently by, waiting while he looked his fill.
“What do you want me to do?” Gabe finally asked.
“Place a call to Jefferson in Grady. He might know someone over Redemption way. At the very least, he can cancel the BOLO without it leading back to us. This…Whitaker will have to do some fast talking if he tries to reinstate it. Something tells me, questions are the last thing that sonofabitch is going to want.” Dan Whitaker wasn’t in the photo. The picture had been carefully edited to leave nothing more than a disembodied hand upon her waist, but Colton stared at that, unblinking while the tick of his temper began to build behind his eyes.
“Some fellow came through town this afternoon,” Gabe reluctantly volunteered. “I didn’t see him, but Hays says he was asking after her.”
Colton drew a deep breath, trying to control the protective wrath of the wolf within. “Somebody already knows she’s here then. Who was he? Where is he now?”
“No idea on either count. He didn’t stick around.”
“Anybody talk to him?”
“And risk Mama Margo’s temper? Not a chance.”
Colton snorted, budding anger giving way to rueful laughter as he considered the old woman. “I’ve never seen her take to anyone so fast or so fondly.” He looked at Karly’s photo again, as if trying to memorize the soft lines of her unmarred face. “What about Marcus? Where is he?”
“Camping up on the Ridge last I saw.”
“Who’s he talking to?”
“No one that I’ve seen. He’s been keeping his distance pretty much since he got here.”
“Did you run his bike?”
“Yeah, he’s got a couple misdemeanors and a few traffic violations. Nothing unforgiveable or more recent than nine years ago. He seems decent enough. Says he’s not interested in a Bride, but he’ll run interference for you until you get one.”
Yeah, Colton liked him, all right. Usually, he was a pretty good judge of character. It was just that right now, when the very thought of Karly turned every other thought inside out in his head, Colton found himself uncertain which instincts to trust. “Are my clothes in the truck or are they still on the field?”
“I’ve got ‘em tucked up under the seat. What’s the plan?”
He had no clear idea. Folding the BOLO in half and then half again, Colton ran his thumbnail along the crease and glanced back up the road toward the cabin, hidden behind a curtain of trees and the darkness of night. He tapped the paper against his fingertips. “I’d better have a talk with her.”
“Right,” Gabe said, looking away. He didn’t seem at all surprised or happy by that answer. “Tell me something: Are you planning to be at the Ridge at all today? Because there’s only three days left until the Hunt and—”
“I know how many days are left,” Colton snapped, and instantly regretted it. None of this was Gabe’s fault. The security of both the pack and the territory had a lot riding on whether or not he brought down a Bride this year. For all that he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Karly, he couldn’t forget the importance of that either.
“Have you picked out a prospect yet?” Gabe snapped back. “Two would be better than one, although I’d be happy to know you’ve got at least one volka in mind. What pack is she from? Have you talked to her, asked her name, made your intentions known so when you tackle her to the ground, she doesn’t chew your face off the minute your weight hits her back? Because in case you’re not aware, a lot of folks left the Ridge last night with the very distinct impression that you’ve suddenly developed a hankering for chelovak tail. I might just be one of them!”
Throwing back his head, Colton glared through the darkness of crisscrossing tree branches to the star-studded sky above. He kept the explosion of off-color words locked fast behind his clenched teeth. “I know my duty,” he said tightly. “I’m getting this lecture from Margo, I don’t need it from you too.”
“Are you sure?”
The dam holding back his temper cracked just a bit. “What have you got against Karly?” he demanded. “Either of you! Any of you!”
“She’s not one of us!” Gabe growled, frustration putting more force behind his words than the situation might otherwise have deserved.
“Half the population of Hollow Hills isn’t ‘one of us’! Marcus isn’t one of us, but you’re damn eager to adopt him!”
“At least Marcus is volka! But trust me, the day you announce you want to have puppies with him, I guarantee I won’t be any happier about his adoption.”
Giving him a scathing look, Colton stalked a few paces away before he did something both impulsive and hard to forgive. He didn’t have time for this. He ducked past Gabe, heading for the driver’s side of the truck to get his clothes out from under the seat. Already the sun was beginning to light up a gray and cloudy sky. It would be dawn soon, and if Karly followed her usual habits, she’d be up and looking for ‘Puppy’—he grimaced—within the hour.
Gabe moved away from him too, obviously struggling with his own need to avoid lashing out.
“She doesn’t deserve this. She hasn’t done a damn thing wrong.” Stepping into his uniform trousers, Colton tried to keep his voice even. He pulled them up over his lean hips, adjusting himself in the crotch before zipping his fly. “Other than getting beat up and accidentally hitting me with her car—”
“Oh, that’s got nothing to do with this and you know it!” Gabe exploded. “She’s human. She’s got no loyalty here. She could talk!”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it! Karly doesn’t talk. She doesn’t talk to anyone.” Colton shoved his feet into his boots, and then smacked his own chest as he added, “She doesn’t even talk to me unless I’m shifted.”
“She’ll talk—women talk. They always do. Hollow Hills is one word to the wrong person away from starring in an episode of Mountain Monsters!”
Pulling his white tee over his head, Colton shrugged into his uniform shirt and quickly fastened up the buttons. “You want me to walk away, pretend I didn’t see this…” He shock the BOLO before shoving it into his back jeans pocket. Dressed once more, he slammed the truck door shut. “…or worse, pretend like I don’t care that she’s in trouble? If this was anyone from Hollow Hills, not a single person in this town would expect me to turn my back! Well, I’m not turning my back. She came to me; I’m keeping her.” He felt a stab of heat burn first into his gut and then rush up through him to fill all the hot corners of his face when he realized what he’d said. “Safe,” he added belatedly. “I’m keeping her safe.”
Gabe locked his gaze with Colton’s, not at all convinced. Still, he dropped his gaze first, already shaking his head in defeat. “I’ve got a description, so I’ll keep an eye out for this stranger. Whoever he is—Whitaker or a private dick—I’ll find him.”
Colton nodded once, and then turned to follow the road back to Karly’s cabin.
“Are you going to mate her?” Gabe called after him. “If you’re going to screw everything up, that’s fine. I just want to know if I should keep trying.”
Colton sighed, his eyes closing, his head rocking back on his shoulders all over again. He turned, throwing out his arms in a helpless, angry shrug. “No Alpha takes a chelovak,” he said, every word tasting sour in his mouth. “I’ll be on the field today and tomorrow; and the day after that, I’m going to run a Bride to ground.” That tasted every bit as sour, too. Unable to hold Gabe’s knowing eyes, Colton had to look away. “Get Marcus a bunk up at the station until he can find a place of his own. Hollow Hills is ours, and we’re not going anywhere.”
Gabe just stood there, a grown man with vibes that were bouncing wildly between angry and ‘little boy lost’. “If she leaves, you’re going to follow her, aren’t you?”
“And leave you to be Alpha?” Colton tried to joke, but the argument was too fresh, and both their feelings rubbed just a little too raw.
“That’s not what I want,” Gabe said.
No, and Colton knew that.
What he didn’t know was how to soothe the wounds he’d inflicted between himself and his own second. Shaking his head, he ended up walking away, and that wasn’t the right thing to do either.
* * * * *
It rained all night long, heavy drops pitter-patting across the tin roof, dripping on it from the canopy of sheltering trees long after the rain actually stopped. Karly had to be getting used to the subtle sounds of country living. Unlike her first night when it stormed, she slept right through the worst of it without so much as a single trace of fear to taint her dreams. Other things, however, did haunt them.
She dreamt of Colton. There wasn’t much that she could remember about it once she’d awakened, but his face was right there in her mind and her nipples were peaked, her breasts swollen and heavy, aching for the hands and hot mouth that had, imaginary or not, been attentive upon them. Lying in bed, her sex pulsing molten with a level of desire she hadn’t felt in a very long time, she’d squeezed her thighs together, trying to bring back any part of what she’d dreamed, but all she could remember was some hazy sense of being covered, kissed, caressed, and Colton’s low voice whispering in her ear, “I’ll show you how an Alpha runs his bitch to ground.”
When McQueen had said that to her, it had made her skin crawl. But last night, in the fantasy of her dreams, it had felt so very different. It had been possessive, rather than dirty. Seductive rather than derogatory. The way he’d said ‘his’ had made her feel that way. Like she was his, in every way that mattered.
And now, in the brilliance of the early morning light, Karly tried to make sense of the dream, but already what tantalizing bits that she could remember were dissipating from her mind like thin tendrils of smoke on the wind. Stretching out her arm, Karly felt along the empty sheets beside her, but she already knew what to expect when she opened her eyes. Puppy was gone and, downstairs, the front door was wide open. Whoever had taught him how to open it, Karly grumbled as she crossed the living room, should also have had the decency to also teach him how to shut it. She did it for him, then went back upstairs to shower and gather her dirty laundry.
Without a washing machine and without a clue where the nearest laundromat was, she scrubbed her clothes as best she could in the bathroom sink and hung them up over the shower curtain to dry. She had just headed downstairs to start a pot of coffee brewing and was about to make breakfast when she heard the crunch of truck tires coming up the unpaved road just outside.
Her stomach gave a sickening lurch, one which eased with recognition when she ducked to look out the window and caught her first glimpse of white paint instead of red on the truck that was pulling up to her front porch. It was Colton, coming to check on her again.
Unwanted flashes of last night’s dream zipped through her mind, bringing with it a blossom of heat low down in the pit of her stomach. She wished he’d go away. She hadn’t yet fully escaped the last man she’d entertained erotic fantasies about. It unnerved her that she was already entertaining fantasies about this one.
He seemed nice enough, some tiny part of her brain pointed out.
He was also big and strong, as well as law enforcement, and that made him too dangerous to risk.
Damn, he was parking instead of turning around.
Double damn, now he was getting out.
Hunkered behind closed drapes, she peeked out through the crack in the curtains, and for a moment, found herself admiring the lazy way he had of walking, sauntering really, all long legs and lean hips, one hand rising to scratch at a corner of his sensual mouth as he climbed the three steps to her door.
Sensual mouth? Really? Karly rolled her eyes, all but groaning at herself.
“Hello,” Colton called as he reached the door, offering up a two-knuckled knock to help announce his presence.
Karly frowned. She clutched her hands together, wringing each finger one at a time even as her nipples tightened, stiffening against her will. At least she wasn’t afraid of him. He was probably the only person, apart from Mama Margo, that she wasn’t afraid of. How pitiful was that?
Colton knocked again. “Miss Smith, can you come to the door please?”
Unsure which was worse, the attraction or the fear, Karly went to the door. Opening it was only half as hard as dragging her gaze away from his smile.
“Good morning,” he said softly, his voice as calm and gentle as a cowboy with a skittish mare.
“Good morning,” she reluctantly replied.
“You’ve got power again,” he noted.
She glanced back into the kitchen where the light was on and the coffeemaker was just beginning to percolate. The heady aroma was wafting through the cabin and had definitely reached the front door. It would have been polite to offer him a cup, but the intimacy of inviting him in made her hesitate. “It came back on last night.”
“You’re lucky. Sometimes it takes Montgomery two or three days to get us back on the grid. Hollow Hills is too remote to be on anyone’s high priority list.”
She looked at the badge on his chest and wrung her hands again, squeezing and choking at her fingers. This was ridiculous. She was ridiculous. Her face felt hot every time she looked at him and, despite the fact that she had a stomach full of strangling knots, there was a tickle of molten awareness flowing down to dampen the folds of her sex.
Damn dream.
She could barely remember it and still it was doing this to her.
“Do…do you want a cup of coffee?” Her voice came out sounding husky, somewhere between a whisper and strangled bedroom arousal that only someone without ears would fail to recognize.
That smile of his broadened, softening his strong features and making that blossom of heat in the pit of her nervous stomach warm all the hotter. “I would love a cup, thank you.”
She’d offered; he’d accepted. The die was cast, and her fate was sealed.
She turned and somewhat stiltedly walked back to the kitchen. She found two cups, the only two she had among the meager store of dishes in Margo’s mostly empty cupboards.
“Settling in, I see.”
Karly jumped at how near his voice sounded. Oh God, he’d come inside!
Well, of course he’d come inside. She’d offered him coffee. She could hardly expect him to stand out on the front porch and chug it. When people were being friendly, they sat at the kitchen table and sipped slowly over civilized conversation.
She couldn’t believe she was doing this, and why? Because she’d had a crazy sex dream, that’s why. Her hands shook, but she managed to fill both mugs without spilling. “I don’t have cream or sugar.”
“I don’t mind black.”
She waited for him to select a chair and then set one of the cups in front of him before taking the chair opposite him. It was the farthest that her tiny kitchen and even tinier table would allow her to get. She cupped her coffee in both hands but didn’t drink. She was shaking so badly, she was afraid she’d scald her own lap if she tried. So she sat there, helplessly frozen and staring expectantly back at him.
Bless him, his smile never wavered. He simply sat across from her, waiting for the coffee to cool enough to drink, a large man folded into a relatively small area and so obviously trying his best not to look intimidating.
“So, how are you and Puppy getting along?” he asked.
She looked down at the empty food dish that he’d walked right past on his way to the table. “Fine. Did you see him outside? Sometimes he likes to take walks in the mornings.”
“Oh, I’m sure he’s around. He likes you.”
Karly blinked at him. “How would you know that?”
“He wouldn’t still be here if he didn’t.”
That made sense. Despite herself, she relaxed a little. “I suppose considering your job you know all the strays around here.”
“Each and every one,” he replied. “But I wouldn’t call him a stray. He’s just not…owned.”
“Isn’t that the very definition of a stray?”
“It is, an
d it would apply…if he was a dog.”
Her eyebrows beetled together. “He is a dog.”
“No, he’s a wolf.” Colton thought about it, and then amended. “Half wolf, on his father’s side. Does that make you nervous?”
Yes.
“If he’s half-wolf then someone must have tamed him. He’s been very gentle with me.”
“That’s because his other half is pure good, old-fashioned gentleman.” Colton hazarded his first hot sip of coffee, and then amended himself again. “From his mother’s side. And, he likes you.”
When he smiled at her, Karly caught herself on the brink of returning it. She quickly looked away, afraid of becoming too unguarded in his presence.
“Don’t worry. None of the—” Colton lowered his cup, his infectious smile broadening into a grin. “—strays around here have ever bit anyone who didn’t first do something to deserve it.”
“Is that why you came out here this morning? To tell me they won’t bite?”
“Nope.” For the first time, his smile dimmed. “I just wanted to make sure you knew Puppy’s the one to stay close to if something should happen. The others will follow his lead.”
She could already feel herself tensing up again. “If something like what should happen?”
Colton shifted in his seat, and it made her even more nervous when he abruptly set his cup aside to face her fully. “I have to show you something, but first I want you to promise me that you won’t let it scare you.”
That right there scared her.
“All right.” She was proud of herself that, while her soft voice did shake, she didn’t sound anywhere near as panicked as she felt.
Setting his coffee to one side, Colton reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of white paper. He slid it across the table to her, two fingers pinning it to the rickety wooden surface while he reiterated, “Anything you don’t understand, I’ll be happy to explain. This is nothing you need to be afraid of. It’s just something you need to know.”