“Who ate your Wheaties?” Her gaze roamed his face and ran down the length of his braids. His scalp prickled, like she’d given them a hard tug…as if he were on top of her—
Sweet Mother, no. He’d sworn no more of those fantasies. From experience, there wasn’t a lake big enough to douse that arousal.
He glared at her to mask the desire he felt. “I don’t eat cereal. I had fish.”
Her nose wrinkled. “I can tell.”
A scowl creased his brow. He stomped down on the gas and sped off. A smirk twisted her lips. He narrowed his eyes on her, but couldn’t stop from tilting his head slightly to sniff at himself.
She relaxed in the seat and pulled out her phone. “Do you know where we’re going? I think the commander texted the location.”
“Yep.” Chayton stared out the window, hoping she’d drop it at that.
“Oh yeah. You’re from that area, right?”
He made a noncommittal grunt and avoided looking at her. That damn shirt she wore, with the gun holsters strapped around her breasts like a frame, showed off her best asset. It would be better if the Tomb Raider sat next to him. At least he could fuck her, leave satisfied, and not dwell on it again.
The redhead next to him… Her long braid reached below her shoulders, hitting the same point on her back that his braids hit on him.
She’d never once made a crack about his hair. No one did, actually. It was like they all saw the color of his skin, his swarthy features, and solemn expression, and left him the fuck alone. Just the way he liked.
They drove in silence. At this time of night, there was little traffic in West Creek. He steered across the bridge in Freemont and turned onto the highway that would take them to the headwaters of the river that separated the two cities. From there, they’d head deeper into the forest where many shifter colonies made their home.
Several miles out of town, Kaitlyn poked on the radio station. Country music blared. Old school country, when fringe was as long as the sideburns.
Chayton’s favorite.
“Ooh, I love this stuff.” The smile in her voice warmed his insides.
He pushed the scan button to turn the station.
“Hey.” She glowered at him, then rolled her eyes. “Of course you don’t like it.”
“Why would I?” Other than for the steady beat and smooth, deep voices of the country crooners, or the sassy lyrics. More importantly… “Why would you like it?”
She crossed her arms and stared out her window at passing trees, which were growing thicker with each mile.
“So? Why?” He didn’t know why he prodded, other than the burning drive to find out why she enjoyed the same thing he did. “You weren’t even born close to when this music played.”
A muscle in her jaw tensed. Her reluctance at spilling her reasons drove his curiosity higher.
“Come on, Kaitlyn. All I’m asking is why you like classic country.”
She shifted her eyes to him. What startled him was the deep-rooted sadness he saw there.
“My mom used to listen to it. She’d laugh and dance around. We’d two-step around the living room.” A hesitant smile lifted her mouth, but faded away. “It reminds me of the good times, before my dad took it all away.”
His brows shot up in shock. It wasn’t like Kaitlyn to share her personal history. None of the other Guardians had shared it, either. Chayton assumed they either didn’t know, or it didn’t matter, that a pretty girl like her grew up without a care in the world.
“Did you end up kicking his ass after you got your first black belt?” Mark down the first time he tried to lighten the mood around her, or for her.
“Didn’t have a chance. He killed my mom and himself when I was eleven.”
Chayton barked out a “Holy shit.” He cleared his throat, feeling like an ass for turning the station. “What the hell for?”
She shrugged with no effort behind the movement. “Dunno.”
A small sigh escaped him. He punched in the station to return it to the classic country channel.
She glanced at the radio, and then at him. Her surprise filled the cab.
His considerate gesture was a shock to him, too. This mission couldn’t end soon enough. And Sweet Mother Earth, they’d better not have to go to his colony. The last thing he needed was Kaitlyn exposed to his pack.
Chapter Two
Searing lips burned a path down her neck. Kaitlyn smiled, murmuring for him to continue. A rock-hard body descended upon her. So close. She’d been wanting him inside of her forever. She’d felt empty for so long, nothing and no one had been able to fill the void, until she met him.
“Kaitlyn.” His voice. So familiar.
“More.”
His head lifted and she gazed into dark brown eyes. The slide of his braids caressed her chest.
Braids?
Her eyes popped open with a gasp. She was in a vehicle and Chayton was driving, and she’d fallen asleep.
He shot her a questioning look out of the corner of his eye. “I thought your snoring was bad enough, but you scare the shit out of me when you wake up like that, Cinnamon.”
“Cinnamon?” She wiped her mouth to make sure she hadn’t drooled while she napped. The wet dream about her partner was bad enough.
Why did her regular partner have to be tied up with family issues? She thought of Jace Stockwell like a brother. They worked well together and Jace accepted all of her quirks. To top it off, his mate was her best friend. Instead she was stuck with Mr. Personality, a shifter her body refused to listen to her mind about.
“You call me Eagle. I thought I should come up with something.”
Night had fallen while she slept. She tried not to stare at his stark profile, cast in shadows. Strong nose, high cheekbones, perpetual scowl.
He took his eyes off the road to cock an eyebrow at her.
Oh, she’d been staring. She wrestled her gaze back to the road. “Eagle’s your last name.”
“But calling you Savoy isn’t as fun.” His gaze swept her body, then his forehead creased like he couldn’t believe he’d just done that. “Cinnamon fits your hair.”
Whoa. That was maybe a compliment. Warmth crept up her spine. She struggled to change the subject. “How close are we to the colony?”
“Valley Moon is twenty miles away, but we’re turning off the highway in a couple of miles. The roads are probably still poorly maintained and narrow.”
She regarded his stiff posture. “Are you worried about your home?”
Chayton snorted with derision. “The rogues can try to attack my colony and they will regret it.”
“I hope so,” she muttered. Out the window, cottonwoods had long changed to evergreens. Not the countryside she was used to. Spread out under moonlight, the forest’s beauty glowed. “Since we’re up here, we can stop in for a welfare check.”
“I’m not bringing you to the colony.” Venom laced his voice.
Kaitlyn stared at him, her insecurity cracked a little wider. “What is your problem with me?”
He maneuvered a turn and sped along a bumpy road that looked gobbled up by trees. A muscle ticked in his jaw. She waited.
“Bloodlines are…important…in my pack and in my clan. In all the packs that comprise my clan. All the clans that make up my colony, really.”
“So? I’m a natural-born Guardian. I’d say that’s bloodline enough.”
One muscled shoulder lifted in a half-hearted shrug. “Not really. My dad’s an ancient. He met my mom centuries ago, so her Sioux blood was as pure as it could get. Having to leave the colony because I was destined to be a Guardian wasn’t looked upon fondly by my parents, or our leaders.”
“Like, a real ancient?” Maybe she was a little impressed. Ancients were more like the werewolves she’d grown up hearing stories of; they were the original wolf-shifter.
“Legit.”
“How’d he survive the extinction?”
Chayton’s characteristic sneer returned. “Nobody g
ets to the colony. Not Sigma when they were at their strongest, not the Vampire Council before they lost their backbone, no one.”
“I didn’t think there were any left, that they got wiped out defending the species against the massive, targeted slaughter.”
His nostrils flared and his eyes blazed. His foot crashed down onto the brake and they fishtailed to a stop.
“Holy shit, Eagle.” Kaitlyn threw her hands up to brace herself on the dash, grateful that her longevity didn’t stop her from using a seatbelt. “What are you doing?”
He turned in his seat to face her, his body vibrating with fury. “Are you saying my father didn’t try to defend our people?”
Instead of being intimidated by the livid shifter confronting her, she rolled her eyes. “The shitty way you interpreted an innocent question is not my problem.” With each word, she leaned closer to him until inches separated their faces.
This close, his evergreen scent assaulted her. No, not quite evergreen. Like a recently felled tree—freshly cut pine. She lingered through a long inhale, his smell curling into her belly.
His pupils dilated, his anger level dropped when his gaze lowered to her lips. Her breathing stalled. Was he—was he going to kiss her?
A flash of white outside the window ripped her attention away, her Guardian instincts on alert. “What was that?”
Chayton blinked like he was emerging from a fog. In an instant, he shot straight, his expression serious. He pivoted in his seat to follow her gaze.
Kaitlyn opened her door and hopped out. She withdrew her Beretta Compact. Its sleek lines glinted silver in the moonlight.
Chayton emerged from the SUV spitting a stream of cuss words.
Good to know how he felt about getting close to her. At least she had her work. “It looked like a person streaking through the trees.”
He hung back. “Seriously, Cinnamon. We’re in the middle of shifter country and you think seeing a streaker in the trees is relevant. It’s a daily event. I’d be worried if we didn’t see anyone running around the woods.”
She lowered her gun and thought a moment. “Do you run like a naked human in the middle of the forest? Because what I saw looked humanoid.”
Her drive to find out what the flash of flesh was couldn’t be ignored. She had to find it. Had to know.
“Fine. You and your guns go hunting in the trees.” The derision in his voice rankled her. “I’ll shift and do some real hunting.”
She bit down on her tongue to keep from telling him to go fuck himself. Her ability to shift was just fine, but her inability to not pass out when she shifted back comprised the foundation of all her insecurities.
The sound of Chayton shedding his clothing had her deliberately turning her back to him. In the months he’d been assigned to their Guardian pack, she hadn’t glimpsed him out for his runs. The other shifters she lived with didn’t flaunt their assets, but it wasn’t uncommon to see a full moon that wasn’t in the sky. Not that she’d been scanning the woods around her cabin to catch a glimpse of Chayton in transition.
Narrowing her gaze through the trees, she stalked steadily in the direction the mystery animal had moved. A huge, brown wolf surged past her, disappearing into the darkness. She screwed her mouth up at irony that the color of Chayton’s coat resembled a spice.
Cinnamon.
For a second in the vehicle, she could almost believe they were fated mates.
Oh, she knew. He didn’t think she did, but she’d been around men her whole life and how she felt around him was worlds different. Mated members of her pack always said you just know and it was true.
Before she learned she was a shifter, her innate nature exhibited itself in her rather promiscuous relations with men. Afterward…well, Guardians possessed a stronger sex drive than standard shifters and she was no different. Only, living with shifters made it seem normal because it was.
Snuffling and panting reached her ears as she neared the initial spot she saw the movement.
I smell shifter. Chayton’s rich voice floated through her mind like a caress.
Good golly, that was just unfair. She refused to acknowledge their status as mates until he quit being an ass to her. And apologized for his derogatory treatment of her.
But it was hard when he fired up her hormones and steeped them in desire just by mentally speaking a simple phrase.
Just one? She scanned the trees, letting her senses flare out. They weren’t as strong as a wolf’s, but this way, she wouldn’t have to endure Chayton loading her naked ass back into the SUV when they were done searching.
So, you can at least communicate like this? I wasn’t sure.
You could’ve asked.
A mental grunt answered her. Yes. Just one, male, but he smells different. I can’t pinpoint it, like it’s familiar on a few different levels, like I’ve come across this shifter before, but completely foreign.
Feral? Kaitlyn brushed through some pine branches. They scraped her face and the needles caught on her shirt, but she pushed forward. Crisp air, bordering on cold, dulled the pain to an annoyance. Crouching low, she moved through the trees. If Chayton wasn’t so intent on following the trail, he’d likely comment that if she shifted, she wouldn’t have to crouch.
She followed him. He trotted, stopping only to sniff and readjust as needed; otherwise, he’d leave her in the dust. Probably on purpose.
The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she slowed. Looking all around her, she couldn’t figure out why she was on alert. It wasn’t like she sensed danger. Her intuition didn’t scream at her to get back to their vehicle, but she had to find out who this shifter was. She swung around and ducked through the branches.
Savoy? Where are you going?
She ignored him and picked up her speed to a run.
The smell of strange shifter grew stronger. A blur of ivory ran off as she neared the edge of the road. “Hey! Stop!”
She prepared to give chase, but the speed of the blur flying through the trees was faster than she’d ever witnessed. Chayton charged past Kaitlyn, startling her. She hadn’t realized he’d stopped his search to follow her.
A heartbeat of indecision stalled her. Should she go after him? The strange shifter was faster and Kaitlyn’s gut told her he wouldn’t catch up to him. That speed was unnatural, even for a paranormal.
Chayton’s return saved her from the decision. His flanks heaved with effort, but she also sensed frustration. He flowed into his human form, leaving her slack-jawed at the sight.
He glared into the forest. “He was gone before I even got a read on his trail. I’ve never seen that before. I bet I could follow him for days and never catch up.”
Her mouth snapped shut before he glanced at her. Lean muscle roped his body from head to toe, like a work of art. As he spun to stomp toward his clothing, muscles flexed between his ribs, framing washboard abs. His quads bunched and relaxed when he bent to step into his pants.
“This kind of nudity shouldn’t bother shifters.” His lilting accent grew thicker with each word.
He’d caught her perusing his body like a night at the museum, after all. Speech escaped her until he straightened to fasten his pants and roll his shirt on.
“How’d you get all those scars?” White puckered marks dotted his chest. Bullet holes. “I thought only silver scarred us.”
A brow arched, an arrogant tilt lifted the corner of his mouth. “We call scars naze. I’m almost two hundred and thirty. I’ve been through some shit, seen some wars.”
“You’re that old?” She strained to see every last inch of his smooth skin before his shirt draped over him. “I mean, you come off as young and cocky. Not even Bennett and Mercury are that old.”
Something she said caused him to tense. His right eye twitched. Didn’t he like the young and cocky statement?
“And you would know Bennett and Mercury intimately?”
She sucked in a breath. How dare he? She’d done nothing wrong, not now, not then. Dealin
g with him tested all of her patience.
“Hardly. Before I found out about this other world with shifters and vampires and demons, I sought physical relief at Pale Moonlight, just like those two had. I barely remember it. I doubt they do, either. After they met their mates, anyone before them faded away.” She didn’t need to justify her activities from years ago. Or even last month. So why’d she keep talking? “I owe them everything. They saved my life, trained me, and made me a part of their pack. Their mates are like my sisters and they’re like brother-in-laws I respect the hell out of. Who told you?”
Old news was an understatement. In their world, it shouldn’t be a big deal. Except to Chayton.
His lip curled in a sneer. He didn’t look at her as he buckled on his weapon belt and shoved his feet into his boots. “You’re quite the legend at the club. At least with that bartender.”
Yeah, Waylon. He’d dropped hints about being exclusive and she’d considered it. It was nice turning to a familiar face when the urges got too strong to ignore. Then Chayton Eagle had been assigned to their pack. Her urges shot through the roof, but she needed to work out her feelings and get over Chayton before she stripped down with anyone else.
Two could go down this line of questioning. “Should we head to your colony so I can find out who you’ve fucked and confront you about it?”
His eyes flared in alarm, but he recovered quickly.
“No,” she continued before he could say anything, “I wouldn’t do that. Because it doesn’t matter and it’s none of my business.”
He shot her a glare before opening the SUV door to climb inside, muttering something she thought was, “You’d be surprised about that.”
Kaitlyn took her time walking around to the passenger side. This mission couldn’t be over soon enough.
***
Chayton eased his grip on the wheel until his knuckles were no longer white. Kaitlyn hadn’t said a thing since she’d gotten in. He didn’t blame her.
Why’d he go there? Bringing up the two senior males in their Guardian pack was a low blow. To her and them. He thought highly of the entire West Creek Guardian pack—except Kaitlyn, and that was because he couldn’t.
Ancient Ties (Pale Moonlight (Wolf Shifters Romance) Book 2) Page 2