The tall one growled, “Who’s going to make us?”
Knox looked around and shrugged. “I am.”
“You and what fucking army?”
Knox stood then moved in so his nose was within millimeters of the other man. He allowed his wolf out long enough for the guy to see the glow in his eyes and feel the wrath surrounding him. “I do not need an army.”
The skinhead took a step back, blinking rapidly, taking shallow breaths as he fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a knife. Flicking it open, he held it up. When the thug sliced at him, making a clean cut in his bicep, he hissed then grasped the man by the neck and slammed him down on the table. The wood splintered under the force.
The door opened, and his alpha spoke from behind him. “Knox.”
“I have this under control.”
“Never doubted it.” Derek strolled to the counter, followed by a few of his packmates. “Hi, Shelley. Can I get a piece of that key lime pie?”
“I think I can do that for you.” She served up a piece of her famous pie.
“It’s time for you four to get out.” Knox kept his voice low. “If I see you in this area again, you’ll find out what army I stand with.”
As they stormed out, the man he’d beaten pointed at Emerson, a menacing snarl twisting his face. “Watch your back, bitch.”
“Get. Out.” Blood dripped down Knox’s arm and puddled at his feet. Emerson pressed a handful of napkins to the wound. This was not the ideal moment for her to touch him for the first time in eight years. His wolf demanded he tear out the throats of the men and fuck his mate. Not in that order.
“See you around, cupcake.” The skinhead turned a table as he limped out. Way to save face, asshole.
As soon as the Camaro pulled out of the parking lot, he shrugged her hand off and righted one of the tables knocked over in the chaos. “Alpha.”
“Knox. You okay?”
“I always am.”
Emerson reached for him but dropped her hand before making contact. “Does the diner have a first aid kit? I need to look at this wound.”
Shelley pulled one from under the counter and pushed it toward them. “I guess I should thank you for not tossing them through the window. Plate glass is pricy to replace.”
“I’ll fix the table. Have Alan bring it over tonight.”
“I’m more concerned about the blood you’re dripping all over my floor.” She winked.
Emerson rummaged through the box, pulled out gauze and alcohol swabs, put on some gloves, and reached for his arm.
He pulled away. “Don’t”
“But I need to examine it. You need stitches.”
“I’ll be fine.” If she touched him again, everyone in the room would get another kind of show.
“You know this is only going to end one of two ways,” Derek said.
Yep. Either Knox was going to claim his mate, or he was going to have to find a way to deal with her until she quit the area. The pack could not jeopardize their new life by having him go off the rails again. “I do, and, unfortunately, the thing I need most to do, I can’t.”
“I’ll send someone to watch the shop when the sun sets. Let me know if you need a running partner.”
“Thank you—damn it, Emmy, I said stop it.” Her touch burned his skin on a normal day, but her prodding made him ready to nip. He pulled away and headed for the door before she could reach him again.
“You are still bleeding,” she called after him.
His sensitive hearing picked up the conversation in the diner as he crossed the street. “He’ll be fine, Emerson,” Derek insisted. “I suggest you leave him be.”
Panic laced her reply. “I can’t. He’s going to bleed to death.”
“It looks worse than it is. Whatever you do, don’t go over there.” Derek’s tone resonated with boredom.
“Are you going to stop me?”
“Nope. Just warning you.”
Thanks for the help, Alpha. Picking up his pace, Knox entered the garage, slammed down the bay door, and ripped his shirt over his head, wrapping it the best he could around the wound. He needed to rest and let the damn thing heal. In the bathroom attached to his living quarters, he found an ice pack and an ace bandage to hold it in place. He had just snapped the ice pack, activating it, when he smelled her behind him. “I said leave me alone.”
“No, you told me to stop it.”
“Well, I fucking implied it.”
“That you did, but as a medic, I can’t very well let you bleed to death, no matter how stupid you’re being.” She reached for him again.
She had left his heart bleeding once. This small cut was nothing compared to the havoc she had left in her path. He needed to shift and heal. And he couldn’t with her here. “Leave. Me. Alone.”
“Knox, please.” She took a hesitant step forward. “I get it. You hate me. But if you pass out from loss of blood, I have to call EMS to take you to the hospital.”
She was right. If he didn’t stop bleeding, eventually he would pass out; the pack didn’t need him shifting in the ER. “Fine. Do what you need to do.”
“What, here?”
“I’m not going to the hospital, so it’s here or nowhere.”
She blinked. “I need to see what I’m doing and this is what…a forty watt bulb? Perhaps out in the garage where the light is better and I have actually space to work.”
“Fine by me.” He had wondered where she planned to set up her first aid station in a room that had one pedestal sink, a shower, and an industrial toilet with no tank.
She rummaged through the medicine cabinet and held up a bottle of rubbing alcohol. “Is this all you have?”
“I didn’t make out my shopping list with getting stabbed in mind. Let’s get this over with.”
She followed him down to the shop. “Where are my car keys?” He waved her to the lock box and tossed her the key to it. Reaching in, she lifted out the pink chain. “I have my medic bag in the trunk. Be right back.”
When she left, he took a deep breath, finding his center. His wolf was screaming to let him run and that Knox should fuck her brains out. But if she left him again….
She returned armed with a large bag. He pointed to the unused work bench for her to set up. She unzipped the pack so it lay flat, a compact portable emergency room at her fingertips. The shirt wrapped around the wound dripped blood.
“I don’t have anything to numb the area. This icepack isn’t cold enough. Do you have ice in your freezer?”
“Doubt I filled the trays.”
“I can go back across the street to get some ice.”
“No, just do it.” Was she purposefully dragging this out to torture him?
“What about some whisky, beer, something to help—”
“I don’t drink. Ever.”
“Since when?” She paused in the act of pulling on rubber gloves.
Since the month-long drinking rampage after she left him. The one that landed him in jail and nearly destroyed him. “I don’t anymore. Let’s get on with this.”
She touched him, only pausing when he hissed for a second. “Sorry.”
“It’s nothing.” It wasn’t nothing; it was everything. It was his mate, who he never thought he’d see again, touching him, and his body screamed for more.
With gentle fingers, she removed the sticky shirt. Blood oozed from the wound. She lifted his arm, resting it above his heart and on the table she set up as her surgical stand. “This is gonna hurt.”
“Pain don’t hurt.”
Threading the needle, she paused, “Did you quote Road House?”
“Great movie, great actor.”
“I wouldn’t peg you as a Swayze fan.”
“There is a lot you don’t know about me.” He sucked in a breath as the needle entered the skin. Neither spoke as she worked the wound closed. As she knotted the thread, he caught himself breathing in the sweet scent of her shampoo.
She glanced up, and her eyes widened as he
moved in to capture her lips
They jumped apart when the door to the shop opened and the annoying bell pinged.
“Emmy?” Jesse called from the other side of the SUV Knox had up on the lift.
“Back here.” She grabbed the gauze roll and started to wrap his arm.
Derek entered as well. “How’s the arm, Knox?”
“I’ll survive,” he mumbled.
Jesse approached them. “I need a statement.”
“Let me finish up here, first.” Emerson pulled off her gloves and addressed Knox. “You’ll need antibiotics so it doesn’t get infected.”
“I’ll head over to the minute clinic later today.” He flexed his arm. “When do you want my statement, Jesse?”
“Derek says you might need to run to clear your head first.” Though human, Jesse was married to a wolf shifter who had joined their pack. He understood what Emerson did not.
Emerson gaped. “There is no way you can go for a run.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“He’ll be fine,” Derek echoed.
“And your medical references are?” She frowned at Derek. “I’ve done two tours in the Gulf. Trust me when I say that, although this wound is not life threatening, he lost at least twice the quantity someone donating blood does, and they are specifically told to avoid vigorous exercise for twenty-four hours.”
“On that note, how about everyone gets the hell out so I can rest?” Knox rose and indicated the door.
“Need me to have someone watch over the shop tonight?” Derek asked.
“That is a call only you can make.”
Jesse waved Emerson toward the door. “Why don’t Charlie and I get your statement at the diner? Knox, I’ll get yours later this evening.”
“Fine with me.” He turned, afraid watching her walk away even with two mated males might be too much for his thinly leashed wolf to take. His alpha was right, he did need to run, and sooner rather than later. First, he would do as he was told and rest.
Chapter Three
Emerson’s statement took longer than she expected. Knox’s friends had stayed and cleaned up the mess. Two men delivered the table across the street for Knox to fix. In the end, Detectives Charlie Aquino and Jesse Farrell took her to the police station to look over some mug shots while her attackers’ faces were still fresh in her mind. Her description of the stylized swastika on the car made it easier for Charlie to narrow down which groups to go through.
Tired, hungry, and cranky, she sat in the passenger seat while Jesse drove her to Knox’s Garage to get her rental car. Although she wanted some food, the thought of going into the diner made her a bit nauseous. Since the adrenaline had faded, the events of the day were starting to kick in. As she got out of his car, she realized she didn’t have her purse. Working back through the events of the day, she remembered dropping it on the counter as she walked into the garage to check Knox’s injuries.
“Damn, I think I left my purse with my keys at Knox’s. In all the mess, I didn’t even think about it.”
“I’ll wait here until you get back. Make sure you can get into your car.” Jesse leaned against his trunk, removing his phone from his pocket.
“Thanks.” She crossed the empty road as the street light came on. The garage appeared deserted, and she prayed Knox wasn’t out. She peered through the locked darkened glass door, seeing her purse sitting right where she left it. She remembered a back door when she had been in earlier and hoped he’d left it unlocked.
Emerson jogged around the side of the building. The rear resembled a residential backyard, complete with a fire pit, old charcoal grill, and a lone Adirondack chair. The Knox she had known long ago would have had chairs for many people. Didn’t he entertain at all anymore? Knox had been social, liked to go to the bars, hang out with fellow students. Always talked about the guys back home he considered brothers, called them his pack. She turned the knob, but the door was locked. She was about to knock when she noticed a stack of clothes folded neatly on the Adirondack chair next to the fire pit. His shoes and socks sat next to it, a roll of white gauze was in the fire pit.
With the light fading, she scanned the tree line and saw Knox standing gloriously naked. His broad back and full ass made her lick her lips. If she could have spoken around the knot in her throat, she might have pleaded with him to make love to her. Then a shimmer of light surrounded him, and, a moment later, a wolf stood in Knox’s place then raced headlong into the brush.
Emmy backed around the building, careful not to knock over the trashcan in the process. She might be playing the heroine in some horror film, but she’d be damned if she would make their mistakes. She had seen The Howling one too many times, and this was not how she planned to go out. She ran across the street, fighting the urge to look back.
Jesse pushed off the car, concern marring his face. “Emmy?”
“Get me out of here now.” She ran straight for him.
“What happened?” He grasped her arm, giving her a small shake. “Settle down and tell me.”
Wasn’t this how they all died in the movie? The guy friend refused to move and got attacked trying to be helpful. “Get us out of here now.”
“Okay, get in and I’ll take you home. You’re in no shape to drive.”
“No, not home. Take me back to the station.” They had guns at the station, lots of big guns. But this was Knox, or wolf Knox. He wouldn’t hurt her. To her amazement, Jesse did not ask any more questions until he parked behind the station. Then he turned in his seat and faced her. “Now, tell me what the hell has you so worked up.”
“You won’t believe me.” She scanned the road, expecting to see her worst horror movie nightmare charging down the road.
He cursed under his breath. “You might be surprised. Come on in. I’m gonna call Alexa to come over.”
Numb, she nodded, not sure what Jesse’s pretty little wife was going to do about her seeing werewolves, but she supposed it didn’t really matter. Alexa appeared in Jesse’s office twenty minutes later. “Emerson, are you okay?”
Was she? She shifted uneasily in her seat in front of Jesse’s desk, tightening her grip on a cup of awful station coffee. “You didn’t have to come out here.”
“I think I did.” She closed the door behind her and settled in the other guest chair. “Jesse told me you saw Knox shift into his wolf.”
“Oh my god. I did. He was standing there one second, and the next he was—” She dropped the Styrofoam cup, noting with disinterest the dark liquid soaked the gray carpet much like Knox’s blood had soaked his shirt. “I didn’t say anything to Jesse.”
The other two exchanged a glance.
“You knew?”
“Listen.” Alexa reached out, grasping her hands. “It’s not as bad as you might think.”
“He turned into an animal, but it’s not as bad as I think?
“I understand what you are feeling.”
“No you can’t. Knox and I were lovers.” She studied the coffee stain on the rug.
Alexa cupped her chin, forcing Emerson to meet her gaze. “I need you to breathe with me.”
“Breathe.” She nodded, taking air in through her nose and letting it out her mouth until the numbness faded and she could feel her fingertips again.
“What happened with you and Knox?”
“We had a fling years ago.” Silence. She continued. “My home life wasn’t good. An understatement as you know, Jesse. When I met Knox, I hoped for a quick, no ties, couple weeks of fun before I headed off to Basic Training.”
“And Knox fit that bill.”
“Except, what he made me feel was anything but no ties.” She rubbed the back of her neck and crossed her legs, trying to hold back the dampness between her thighs as memories of them naked, intertwined flooded her. She shook her head to clear the images. “He was intense. I started feeling if I wasn’t with him, I couldn’t breathe. I got scared and I ran.”
“You fell in love with him?”
�
�It was more than that, like the more we made love the more I needed him. I was losing myself. I swore I’d never be like my mother and her obsession for the men she slept with, but I would have walked on fire for him had he asked.”
“Do you know how Knox felt?”
“It doesn’t matter. He hates me now.” What she wouldn’t give to have him look at her the way he had their last morning together—despite what she’d seen in the woods. The kiss he gave her before leaving for class that morning had been the softest and the sweetest of their relationship.
Alexa turned to Jesse. “I think it’s the best way.” When he nodded, she returned her attention to Emerson. There was something unspoken going on. “He doesn’t hate you. He’s…guarded. But he could never hate you.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Jesse pulled the cord on the window blinds, closing them off from the rest of the office. “I understand Knox.”
A chill ran down Emerson’s back. She rose and backed up until she hit the wall behind her. The same shimmer came over Alexa, but unlike Knox she didn’t change into a wolf. The shimmer faded. Still…she drew the logical conclusion. “You’re a wolf, too?”
“I am.”
“And you knew this when you married her, Jesse?”
He draped an arm around Alexa’s shoulder and kissed her cheek. “I did. Because like you, I discovered I can’t live without her.”
Emerson slid down the wall. She pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes, convinced when she opened them she would be back in her bedroom this morning, waking from a sleeping pill-induced nightmare.
She was vaguely aware of the door opening and closing but didn’t bother to notice who came or went. Her world had shifted on its axis. She would like to say it altered when she saw Knox change, but it occurred the moment she touched him again. All the old feelings filled her as if it hadn’t been almost a decade, but hours.
“Emmy?” Knox’s voice. So soft and kind, she knew she imagined it. His hand cupped her cheek. She moved into it as if drawn to a lifeline. Just for a second, she would allow herself to pretend he didn’t hate her, that if she were to open her eyes she would find love in his eyes, not contempt. “Emmy, look at me.”
Second Chance Desire (Hot Moon Rising #8) Page 3