by Day, Vella
Wendlick got out of his car. “So now what?”
“I’m not sure. If you hear from him, let the general know.”
“Will do.” He took off his wire and handed it to him.
Kurt jogged up to him. “You gonna tell the general that Couch never showed?”
His gut clenched thinking about that conversation. “Yeah. I have to. Let’s go.” He turned to Wendlick. “Thanks and be careful.”
Kurt gave his brother a hug. “We’ll get him. Hang in there.”
Trax’s civility disappeared the moment he climbed in his car. As he exited the shipyard, he checked the roads but spotted no one waiting for his team to depart. Not only did his pride take a beating at his failure, but that meant Liz was still in danger.
“Fuck.” He slapped the wheel and then called the general. The resulting conversation bolstered his resolve to do better next time.
He parked behind his building and trudged up the steps, not relishing having to tell Dante and Liz that he’d botched the attempt. Again. He heard the giggling before he opened the door at the top of the steps. He stepped in the house and when he saw their lips locked he nearly lost it.
They separated and looked up at him with such hope in their eyes that his throat squeezed tight. “Don’t even ask. Couch never showed.”
He stalked off to the kitchen and grabbed a beer. Couch must suspect something was up and decided not to show at his promised appointments. That meant he was hiding and only Couch knew when he’d emerge.
Liz drew in her bottom lip, an action that caused his groin to ache. She stood and faced both men. “Now that you’re both here, there is something I need to bring up.”
She dragged her hands down her pants as if this news wouldn’t be well received and looked right at him. “As much as I appreciate all that you’ve done, I really have to get back to work.”
Trax’s shoulders tensed. “That’s not a good idea.”
She held up her hands. “I knew you’d say that, but there’s no telling when you’ll catch Couch.”
Her voice was without censure, but the pain ran deep. His frustration bubbled out. “You’re right.” She seemed to pin everything on his ability to get the job done. And he’d failed. “But I promise you, I will succeed.” He had to.
“Why is it so important to you?”
That was easy. “Because the Colters killed our father, and I want to see justice.”
She glanced at Dante to see if he’d add anything. Wisely, his brother said nothing. She faced Trax again. “Why would they do that? Did he chase after them like you do?”
It was time to tell her. “Yes. You see my father was a werewolf, too. He dedicated his life to bringing the Colters under control, and in the end they got the best of him.”
She swallowed as if she didn’t want to make the connection. Her hand lifted as if she needed to balance.
Dante jumped up and guided her back to the sofa. “Let’s sit you down.”
She jerked her arm out of his grasp. “Stop patronizing me. Tell me what’s going on.” She flicked her gaze from one to the other.
Dante ran a hand down her arm. “What my brother is doing a bad job of saying is that we, too, are werewolves.”
Her knees buckled, but Dante caught her before she dropped to the ground. This time Liz let him guide her to the seat. Trax wanted to hug her, but his body wouldn’t move. Being with Liz was too good to be true.
“What do you mean you’re werewolves? Are you like Couch?”
Trax couldn’t stand the revulsion rippling across her face. “No. We are members of the Pack. We’re the good guys. We protect the humans from the likes of Couch.”
She shook her head as if to push out the thought. “You can shift into a wolf?”
From her question, she intended to walk out of their lives. His lungs tightened. He might as well make sure she was certain what they said was true. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on shifting. When he was prompted to fight or flee, changing took little effort, but to change for no reason took effort.
He thought of Liz’s naked tits and how perfect they were. His cock hardened and his need for her took over his brain. His claws extended and his bones cracked. Then his body hunched, and he shifted into a wolf.
Perhaps out of habit, he howled. She screamed.
#
This couldn’t be happening. Liz had only stated that she couldn’t take advantage of their hospitality any longer. She never expected them to claim they were werewolves. Blinking to make sure this wasn’t some parlor trick, the animal in front of her was definitely a wolf-like creature. Her heart refused to stop slamming against her ribs.
“Trax? Is that you?” Her voice cracked.
“Bro, stop it.” Dante draped his arm around her shoulder and drew her close.
She didn’t want to even think about the fact that he was a werewolf, too. Her vision blurred and fur spun. Human arms replaced the furry legs. Mesmerized by the transformation, she couldn’t look away. It was the same series of events when Couch’s men had charged away from her. His head appeared and the spinning ended. Trax was back to the way he was before.
“See? Are you willing to accept us this way?”
She jumped out of Dante’s grasp and edged toward the bedroom. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“You would have run sooner, and with Couch on the loose I didn’t want you harmed.”
It made some sense, but it was still a lame excuse. “I need to leave.”
Trax stepped forward, but Dante’s low growl appeared to stop him.
Dante turned to her. “I’ll drive you home.”
She shook her head and raced into Trax’s bedroom. As quickly as she could, she locked the door though she wouldn’t be surprised if they had some way to get in. She spotted her purse and searched for her phone. Once she turned it on, she dialed Chelsea.
“Oh my God, Liz, are you okay?”
“Yes and no. I need you to come get me. Please?”
“Sure, sweetie. Where are you?”
Where am I? “I don’t know.” She knew the general vicinity but hadn’t learned the roads.
“Check your GPS.”
Thank goodness Chelsea was so level-headed. “Okay. Give me a sec. While she stayed on the line, she pressed her GPS app and her location popped up. “I got it.” She gave Chelsea the directions. “Meet me in the alley behind Field’s Monitoring Services.”
“Will do.” Chelsea disconnected.
Her body vibrated with the need to hurry. How could she not have known what these men were? Here she thought she’d found the perfect men. They were fun loving—well one of them was—and kind, sexy, and trustworthy. Ha. Trustworthy. That was a joke.
She dragged her suitcase onto the bed and dumped her clothes and toiletries inside. Seconds later, she’d gathered her stuff. It would probably take her friend fifteen minutes to get here, but the sooner Liz got outside, the better she’d feel. She peeked out the door and when they spotted her, they stopped talking. From the way they were in each other’s faces, they disagreed about something.
“I’m going to wait for Chelsea downstairs.”
Dante moved toward her. “I’ll walk you out.” He glanced over his shoulder as if his brother would challenge his action.
Dante pressed his thumb on the sensor and the lock unclicked. He pulled the door open, and as she grabbed the handrail to go downstairs, he slipped her suitcase from her hands. She refused to think about his chivalrous action.
Outside, the air was fresh, and she was happy to be in the open again.
He set down her suitcase. “I’m sorry you had to find out like that.”
She saw no reason to continue this discussion. “It’s okay.”
“You do realize your mom’s son was a werewolf?”
She spun around. “You don’t know that.”
“He would have been if Couch was the father.”
She shivered at the thought. Maybe it was better that an umbilica
l cord had wrapped around his neck at birth. No. She didn’t really mean that. She would have loved her brother no matter who or what he was.
“You still have the gun, sugar?”
“Yes.” She hoped he wouldn’t ask for it back.
“We need you to be very careful. Couch might blame you for his troubles.”
As if her stomach wasn’t already in a state of upset, his comment made it worse. “I’ll be on the lookout.”
“The problem is that it might not be Couch.”
She spun around. “Why are you doing this to me? I’m scared shitless as it is. Now I have to look over my shoulders for the rest of my life. Maybe I should just move to another state.”
Only she didn’t want to move.
Before he answered, squealing tires turned a corner and charged toward her. She had to smile at Chelsea’s grand entrance.
As soon as her friend stopped, Liz picked up her suitcase. Before she took even one step, Dante pulled her to his chest and kissed her.
“Sugar, I will never stop wanting you or needing you. Please come back.”
She dipped her head. If she looked deeper into his shimmering hazel eyes, she’d be lost. Only now could she see the flecks of amber swimming in his iris. “Good-bye.”
Tears stung her eyes as she opened the back door to Chelsea’s car, tossed in her suitcase, and slid in the front seat. She kept her gaze averted as Chelsea took off.
Chapter Sixteen
Dante kicked a stone across the road. He couldn’t believe the woman he was falling in love with just walked out of his life because his brother shifted in front of her. Dante would have told her, but in his own way.
He raced back to the building and entered. He took the steps two at a time and barged into the living room. Trax was pacing the kitchen.
Attacking Trax might not have been smart, but Dante couldn’t take his brother’s surliness one more minute.
“You fucked up the best thing in our lives, you know that?”
Trax ran a hand over his short-cropped hair. “What was I supposed to do? I failed to find Couch.” He shook his head. “It’s better this way.”
“Better? Are you shitting me? Liz is the one for us.”
“For you maybe. She won’t want me if I’m a failure.”
“You’re not a failure. You ran into a little bad luck.”
Trax placed his empty beer bottle on the counter and got another one out of the fridge. He walked into the living room. Now Dante was worried. Trax never left an empty bottle on the counter.
Trax waved his beer. “We’ve got to make sure Couch doesn’t come after Liz.”
He agreed and was glad his brother didn’t want to abandon her. “How do you propose doing that?”
“We watch her twenty-four seven.”
That didn’t seem practical. “I repeat. How do you plan to do that? Follow her all day?”
“If need be.”
Now Trax wasn’t making any sense. “Just admit it. Liz is gone and we’ll never have a mate.”
Trax kicked the leg of the coffee table, sending a ceramic bowl skittering off the glass top and crashing to the floor. “Fuck me.”
Dante wanted to do more than that. “You suck.” He shoved his thumbs in his pockets. “So what’s your plan to get her back?” His brother better want her back or he would charge.
“We can’t go after her until Couch is caught and in prison for the rest of his miserable life.”
“That could take years.” They’d been after the guy for over six months already.
“What choice do we have?”
His brother was losing it. “Maybe I should move in with her.”
“You can’t be with her twenty-four seven. Listen, Liz needs time to figure things out. Charging in there will only make it worse.”
He tried to picture knocking on her door. She’d answer, but the stubborn half would appear. “I’ll give her a week. Then I’m going in.”
#
“Tell me everything.” Chelsea sat on Liz’s bed and handed her another tissue.
She’d gone through almost a half box already. “The last few days have been wonderful.” She held up a hand. “Being at the shipyard and seeing Couch scared the crap out of me, but with the bulletproof glass, I was safe.”
“You said the sex was wonderful.”
“Amazing. Both men really seemed to know what I wanted and needed.”
Chelsea looked almost dreamy eyed. “What was it like being tied up and totally at their mercy?”
Wonderful, divine, sexier than anything she’d ever done in her life. “It’s not like I can even describe how they made me feel. I will tell you that when Trax takes control, and I mean really takes control, I’m transported to a new place.”
“I want to be tied up, spanked, and almost tortured by a bunch of hunky men.”
“Do you have a fantasy of getting gang raped or something?”
Chelsea’s brows pinched. “No, I only want two men. And I want them to be so desperate that they tear off my clothes and fuck me hard and fast.”
Her friend’s comment finally got her to chuckle. “You are a piece of work.”
“You even said you liked being blindfolded and having a plug in your ass all night.”
“I did.” Only because the plug was the means to a very good end.
“So why the hell are you here and not getting laid?”
She didn’t know if she could put it into words. “Having the men take you is only good if there is total trust. Now there is none.”
“What you’re saying is that you are willing to give up on two of the hottest men in the world because they broke your trust?”
“Yes.”
“I see. Tell me this. Are you questioning their devotion?”
“Yes.” She didn’t see where Chelsea was going with this.
“Your belief is based on the fact they lied to you.”
“That’s right.” Her friend finally seemed to understand. “They even said I was the one for them. Their lack of honesty about something this important proves I’m not.”
“Then let me ask you this. When did you expect them to tell you? When they had you tied up and they were licking your pussy?”
“No.” Chelsea was being ridiculous.
“When they were trying to catch the bad guy for you?”
Heat slowly warmed her face. “No.”
“What would you have said if they told you the first night they were werewolves?”
Her friend was taking this too far. “I would have freaked.” Just like she did when Trax shifted.
Chelsea nodded. “They probably anticipated your reaction and were waiting until you fell for them before they told you.”
“That doesn’t change anything.”
Chelsea picked up Liz’s hand and ran a thumb over the top. “Unless they told you they were werewolves when Trax came up behind you in the alley, you would have said they should have told you sooner.”
“I suppose.”
“So it all comes down to timing. Just because their timing was off doesn’t mean they don’t love you.”
Now she was more confused than before. “I don’t know.”
“Here’s the bottom line. Do you love them?”
She removed her hand from her friend’s grasp and blew her nose. “Maybe.”
“Maybe yes or maybe no?”
“I don’t know. I’m so damned confused.”
“Think about this. Perhaps they withheld the truth to save you some trauma. After all, your first impression of werewolves wasn’t a good one. Don’t be so quick to judge.” Chelsea slid off the bed. “I need to get home. Think about what I said.”
Liz looked up and wiped the tears off her cheeks. “Thanks. Maybe I’ll see you at work tomorrow?”
“You bet.” Chelsea hugged her goodbye and left.
Liz got off the bed and made sure her drapes were drawn and her doors locked. If Couch really was going to come after her, she didn’t
want to make it easy on him.
What she really needed was a good soak in the tub with piles of bubbles, soft music, and a glass or two of wine. She wanted to forget about Harvey Couch, and she wanted to forget about the fact that the men she’d fallen for were animals in disguise.
She ran the bath water and poured her wine. After she stripped, she sunk into the foam, leaned her head back, and relaxed for the first time in what seemed like forever. The scabs on her knees had healed, and she almost had full use of her hand. The palm was a little tender. In a couple of days she’d see about getting the stitches removed.
She sipped the wine and let her mind wander to the hot sex she’d had with her men. There wasn’t only one thing that always brought her to the pinnacle of her release. Everything they did excited her. She couldn’t help but remember the time when she’d almost climaxed about four times before Trax finally let her come. That orgasm might have been the best one ever. Her pussy was still vibrating and swollen when Dante strolled in. Now she understood why her scent drove him wild—she was their destined mate. Then Trax held her down while Dante fucked her.
A normal person might have thought his action was insensitive, but when she was with them, her needs had always come first.
Then why leave them?
After finishing her glass of wine, exhaustion claimed her. She climbed out of the tub and dried off. The soft fabric from the pajamas made her even more relaxed, and she crawled into bed, hoping for a better day tomorrow. She promised herself she’d dream only of selling a home and not about her hot men.
#
Even seven days after learning Trax’s shocking revelation that he and Dante were werewolves, her sleep-deprived brain hadn’t figured out what she should do about it. She missed her men something fierce, but the fact they weren’t honest with her still tore her apart.
Chelsea had a point when she’d asked when would have been a good time for them to tell her, but learning after she made love with them was definitely too late. Adding to her problems was the fact all day long she kept looking over her shoulder, expecting a wolf to jump out from behind a bush and attack her. Even when she went into a neighborhood to check out a house, and a dog barked, she jumped. Her clients were even beginning to comment about her strange behavior. It wasn’t like she could tell them she was being stalked by a werewolf who wanted her dead.