Bastard had been a bitch to get over the bumper. Deadweight. He snickered. The man might actually be dead by the time anyone found his car.
Oh well. Served him right for watching his woman. He’d seen Red sitting across the street from her office this morning in his car, coffee cup in one hand, cell phone in the other, probably prepared to wait all day if he had to. Then he’d had the audacity to follow her when she’d left.
A simple fender bender at a quiet four-way stop had sidelined Red easily enough. Red had obviously been trying not to get noticed, which meant he’d been far enough back from Paige that she hadn’t seen a thing. A nasty knock to Red’s temple had done the rest. He’d have to remember to thank her for leading them into a seldom-used area where he could take her tail out.
Of course, she’d have to reciprocate by thanking him for removing her nuisance. He grinned at the image that came to mind. Paige on her knees, her sweet little mouth wrapped around his dick as she professed her undying gratitude.
“Don’t worry, Red. I’m sure the air will get thin pretty quick. You’ll be out of your misery soon.”
Red moaned behind his gag but otherwise didn’t stir.
He slammed the trunk closed and moved to the driver’s side, which he’d left open. He turned the key in the ignition and shoved the rock against the gas pedal. The car took off with a jump, spurting gravel behind, and coming inches from doing him bodily harm by taking his toes off.
The car rolled to the edge of the embankment and for a few seconds seemed in suspended animation. Then the nose dropped and the whole thing went over. It wasn’t a huge slope, but good enough the vehicle wouldn’t be immediately seen from the road unless someone was on the shoulder.
He should feel some remorse for the man he’d stashed in the trunk, but he didn’t. Red had been interfering with his woman and something had to be done. He wouldn’t stand for anyone watching her.
She was his and his alone.
And the sooner she realized it, the better.
It wasn’t hard to find the spot where Katie had been brutalized. Yellow crime scene tape still clung to a copse of trees, and the scent of old blood was ripe when Paige lifted her nose and inhaled. Whoever had picked through the area hadn’t left much in the way of tracks to follow either. Except their own.
Paige carefully skirted the edges of the scene beyond the tape and tried to find evidence of any kind of animal’s presence. There wasn’t a single sign of even the smallest predator coming to investigate the strong stench of blood still souring the air hours after the ordeal was over. She would have thought they would have been attracted from miles away.
“But there’s nothing.” Her murmur cut through the silence.
Silence? Paige jerked her gaze up from the ground and spun around. “No birds chirping or insects singing… What the hell?”
She felt it then. Someone watching her. Their heated stare penetrated her entire being, lifting the hairs on the back of her neck and arms. She turned in a slow circle. Nothing but trees greeted her in all directions. Perhaps all the bad karma from last night was freaking her out.
Damn it. She should have waited for Caelan. She’d called him and asked him to meet her, but her brief bit of sanity in calling him hadn’t stopped her from doing some snooping of her own before his arrival, had it?
The running path was to her right, about twenty feet away. Other than the stench and spillage of blood, there was nothing to indicate anything had happened in this area. But then, there was a reason she wasn’t a detective. She probably wouldn’t know a crime scene, sans yellow warning tape, if it stood up and slapped her in the face. What exactly had she hoped to accomplish this morning?
Oh yeah, you were going to follow the scent of the shifter right to his front door.
Gotta love fits of fancy. Hands on her hips, she tilted her head back, closed her eyes and opened all her keener-than-human senses. Might as well at least try. A slight, warm breeze blew across her cheeks and rustled through the leaves. Earth, decaying vegetation, pine and the lingering scents of sweat and old cologne assaulted her nose, along with the ever-present metallic odor of blood. And then there was the feeling she was being watched again.
Saliva pooled in her mouth as her teeth lengthened. Her wolf begged to be released, to set out and find a trail left behind by the attacker. Paige sighed and dropped her shoulders. She wasn’t stupid. Well, she was, since she was standing here alone in the first place. The park was damn creepy right now, in the light of day, no less. She’d never felt this way here. And there were other people milling about so she wasn’t truly alone in that sense. Apparently not everyone had heard what had happened, but having other souls around should have made things less scary.
A woman jogged past, also by herself, her hearing plugged with ear buds. She didn’t turn, and never saw the crime scene tape. Obliviously, she ran on.
Was she the reason the animals had gone silent? Not even the froggies sang from their lily pad homes in the pond several yards behind Paige.
Now wasn’t the time to go chasing after a nonexistent…whatever, just because the hairs on her neck were standing at attention. Besides, Paige made a small wolf, and based on what had already happened here once, she wasn’t inclined to go up against a much larger male wolf in a sexual frenzy. Especially not with humans around.
The mere thought made her shiver. Though she much preferred her sex as a human, she wasn’t inclined to provoke another shifter, a man who’d raped once already, into taking her. In either form.
Thinking about wolves and sex made her think of Derek. Again. Her nipples beaded beneath her bra in anticipation of her mate. She had to see him tonight. Had to tell him what she was somehow.
She sighed. Now she had wet panties. It was time to go wait for Caelan back at the car. Where she didn’t look quite so much like a fool trying to do something she had no clue how to do. She tried one last time to pick up anything that might be more useful to Caelan, but unfortunately she still could neither confirm nor deny the presence of a shifter.
“Shoulda just let the professionals handle it all along,” she groused. “Computers. Stick to computers, woman.” Her investigative abilities beyond scent—and she had to admit not even that was very strong—were sorely lacking.
Caelan had offered her a position in his company when she’d first arrived at the pack. Paige had the distinct impression he’d only offered because she was family and he felt sorry for the way she’d lost her parents. Perhaps he thought working for him might encourage the rest of the pack to accept her more readily and not treat her like the outsider she was.
Thank God the pack had accepted her without her needing to prove herself to them.
So why, three years later, did she sometimes feel like she didn’t fit in? Perhaps because her parents hadn’t settled in with the pack when they’d mated. Despite the fact the three of them had traveled to dense wooded areas often so she and her dad could shift while her mom looked on, ultimately they’d chosen to go their own way and live among the humans. Her mother had never felt one hundred percent comfortable living among shifters, and Paige’s dad would have moved heaven and earth to make his mate happy. So they’d moved. In a way, Paige sometimes felt more comfortable with her teammates at Trice than she ever did among the pack.
And now she was about to bring a panty-dampening human into their ranks.
“What are you doing out here, Paige?”
She spun around, her hand pressed to her chest in an attempt to keep her heart from leaping out. “Crap, Caelan. You scared me to death.”
“You’d better be glad it was me, considering the fact you were in LaLa Land. If I’d been the shifter who attacked that woman last night, you’d be in the same position she was. Only worse, because no way would another shifter have let you live.”
Paige sucked in a breath. She heard the soft reprimand in his voice an
d he was right, dammit. About everything. She’d been distracted enough that her own alpha had come up on her without her knowing it. In a place she was stupid to come alone to in the first place.
Caelan crossed his arms over his chest. With his feet shoulder width apart, he looked every bit the imposing alpha male he was. “Before I lay into you about how dangerous it is to be here alone, how are you?”
He knew about Derek. Why else would that gleam be in his eye?
She raised her chin. “I’m happy.”
Caelan’s eyebrows furrowed. “With being stalked?”
Shit. “No, I mean…I’m happy with the way I’m handling it.” Lame answer, Paige.
He tried—unsuccessfully—to hide a grin at her discomposure. The cur, he did know. Apparently he was willing to wait for her tell him about it.
“Fine. I met my mate, so yes, I’m happy. You knew at the restaurant, though, didn’t you?” She grimaced.
“I suspected. Why are you making such a face?”
“He’s a human.”
“So’s mine. And Eli’s. Hell, Paige, the man is Nikki’s brother. How could I begrudge you your mate?”
“He’s what?”
He spoke slowly. “Nikki’s. Brother.”
“The man walking me down the aisle,” she muttered. Fate?
“Yep. Now, what are you doing here? You called me to come; you should have left it to me. Especially with what you’re dealing with. Speaking of which—everything okay today?”
“Yes, and you can tell your man to go away. I’m perfectly safe at work with all my coworkers surrounding me.”
“Hmm. You weren’t supposed to notice him. He must be losing his touch. Besides, he was just supposed to check in on you now and then, not watch you twenty-four seven.”
“What the heck for? I thought we decided no one had been in my house.”
“Maybe you tried to convince yourself of that, but I wasn’t and neither was Eli. If you have a stalker, I want you protected. Therefore, Matthews—who won’t be happy that you were able to see him. Derek can take responsibility for you tomorrow night.”
“Great. I find my mate and you practically move him into my house. I haven’t even told him about me yet.”
Now he grinned fully. “You’re welcome.”
“I hate you for this unnecessary interference.”
He shrugged. “When the threat’s out of the way, I’ll tell Derek to take a hike.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“Thought you wouldn’t mind.”
She scoffed.
“Now,” he said, playfulness aside. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Well…” Hm. What could she say to that? He had her. “I thought about that. I raced from work all excited thinking I could have something for you by the time you arrived. Must have been the adrenaline. But on the way, I decided it would be dumb of me to come here alone, so I was going to wait.” She shrugged. “I guess my common sense flew out the window, though, because I couldn’t resist taking a look.”
“Ah.” He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “So, Sherlock, what can you tell me?”
Her posture slumped. “Nothing.”
And there was another smile. Jerk. I mean that in the nicest way.
“My teammate, Ryan, came in to work this morning and the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘Do you believe in werewolves?’”
The smile evaporated. “Great. Just what we need. Your buddy to start a witch hunt. So far, at least from what I gathered on the phone on the way over, I don’t think anyone believes her. They haven’t taken any action yet anyway, besides putting out a BOLO for the man she described.”
“I hardly think a be on the lookout is enough,” she muttered.
“I’m sure they’re doing everything they can, Paige.”
She was too, but it didn’t make her any less angry that it had happened in the first place. “You believe her, right?”
He surveyed the ground she hadn’t seen anything on and sighed. “Haven’t heard too many victims say they’d seen their attackers turn into a wolf, but then, I’ve never been a victim, so it’s hard to say what might be going through her head after what she suffered. Many women are probably too afraid to say anything for fear of retribution when the man finds out she filed a report.” He lifted his gaze and fixed it on her. “But unfortunately we can’t discount what she said she saw, regardless of her state of mind.”
He drew his hands out of the pockets and fisted them at his sides. “And if a wolf did do this, he damned well better not be anyone from my pack, because if he is, challenging him would be going too easy on him.”
Paige’s eyes widened. For the sake of whoever did this—not that he deserved anything less than being castrated and hung up to dry for what he’d done to poor Katie—Paige hoped the idiot was smarter than to try and do this so close to his own home. She didn’t even want to think about living near a monster who raped women. Especially not while she was also dealing with Flower Man, Tucker, invading her domain. She had to trust that Caelan and Eli would take care of the bastard who’d done this when and if they found him. Until then, she for one would be extra careful. Or, at least, more careful than to wander alone in the woods.
“So now what?”
He stepped over to her and wrapped his arms around her in a brotherly hug. “Now, cousin, you go home and stop trying to do my job.”
“Hey.” The spell broken, Paige took offense and went for a semipunch to his gut.
He dodged her with a snicker. “I’m just sayin’ there’s a reason you work with your computers rather than hanging out with me and E all day, remember?”
Hell yeah, she remembered. The first time she’d gotten a glimpse of some of the backstabbing, lying, cheating sons of bitches they sometimes had to deal with, Paige had said sayonara. She hadn’t wanted to associate with lowlifes. Not that all the jobs were bad. A lot of them dealt with bodyguard services to high-end humans and shifters alike, but Paige had already decided she most definitely wasn’t cut out for working at a security firm, no matter how menial a job Caelan could find her.
She didn’t want menial anyway. She wanted pride in her accomplishments, which meant working with what she knew best. Computers were what she knew best. Programming specifically. Building programs from the ground up and teaching her clients how to use them. It was something she and her teammates were really good at and she loved it. So, she’d let the alpha shifter boys play with their toys and she’d play with hers. In a nice, quiet office. With computers that couldn’t potentially shoot back.
“Fine.” She took one last look around. It occurred to her she should say something to her alpha about the icky being watched feeling she’d had, but what? She hadn’t seen anyone, only got the tickle along the back of her neck. It was highly possible she was spooked by the bad karma anyway, and without proof, telling Caelan wouldn’t do a damn thing for her—except, perhaps, make her seem paranoid.
Ah, what the hell…
“I got the feeling I was being watched out here.”
Caelan’s demeanor changed in an instant; his body went on high alert.
“Didn’t see anyone, though. Didn’t smell anyone either,” she expounded.
He relaxed a fraction before his eyes slid shut and he lifted his nose in the air. After a long moment, he shook his head. “I don’t detect anything either.”
Paige released a shuddered breath. So it had been the karma after all. Like in her house. Surely if Caelan couldn’t smell anyone, no one was there. He was the alpha, their Prime, the strongest of the pack. He would know.
“I probably won’t see you again until Friday, so be careful. And don’t give Matthews a hard time if you see him again,” he said, breaking her train of thought and changing the subject. If he wasn’t worried, she wouldn’t be either. Caelan shi
fted his weight onto one foot. “Nikki appreciates everything you’re doing for her, you know?”
Paige smiled. “She’s only told me about a thousand times.”
“Yeah, well, it’s kind of an awkward situation.”
“No, it’s not, and I wish she’d quit worrying about it.”
“I’ll tell her you said so.” He turned over a clump of disturbed earth with the toe of his shoe and stared at it as if it were the eighth wonder of the world.
“I’ve told her every day for the past seven days, and I’m sure I’ll get the chance to tell her again at the fitting today,” she said dryly.
Caelan’s attention was still focused on the ground. “Oh, that.” A resigned sigh passed his lips. “I guess I’ll be seeing you tonight, then.”
She waited for him to say more, but he seemed riveted on the earth.
Apparently she’d been dismissed. Summarily dismissed. She wanted to beg him to tell her what he saw, because she didn’t see a damn thing among the rotting leaves.
Computers good, mysterious intrigue bad, she reminded herself, and turned away. “Meet with Nikki and Tieran this afternoon, finish project tomorrow morning, rehearsal dinner tomorrow night.” And in the midst of it all, find a way to be with Derek.
And tell him she could turn into a hairy beast on a whim.
And hope he didn’t find it completely unattractive in the woman he’d slept with.
And lastly, rip out her own heart when he did.
Stop, wimp. He’ll be fine with it. If your cousins haven’t run him off yet, you won’t.
I hope.
Her skin tingled at her nape again, and she had to try to convince herself she really wasn’t being watched as she traipsed back to her car. The impression didn’t dissipate until she was safely locked inside and pulling away from her parking spot. So much for thinking she’d be any use as a detective. She hadn’t gotten anything but a case of the willies.
“Coo-coo. Coo-coo.” Derek curled his hands around his mouth and called out to Caelan, who was squatting near a felled log.
Ultimatum: Graham Pack Mates, Book 3 Page 8