Inching up to my feet, I was finally able to suck in a full breath. I crept closer to the door, moving slowly so I wouldn’t draw attention to myself, and winced when crunching glass broke beneath my shoes.
The gray wolf whipped his head in my direction. The black wolf still held my father by the throat. There was no blood, but my father’s screams intensified while he thrashed beneath him.
I held up my hands. “Good boy.” I didn’t know what else to say. The gray wolf took a step toward me just as the air shimmered around the wolf holding my father.
The shimmer grew, as if the air became liquid, before the black wolf blurred in between the image of a man and a wolf. What the…
I blinked. My heart was pounding so hard that I thought I would pass out.
The shimmer vanished to reveal Logan crouched over my father, his shoulders heaving, his body naked. His mouth was still open by my dad’s throat, but he shifted in an incredibly fast move so that his hands encircled my father’s neck.
“Alexander!” Logan snarled. “Hold him!”
One of the gray-and-cream colored wolves leaped onto my father’s chest just as my father tried to rise. The wolf’s jaws locked around his neck once more, while the other two wolves moved in and bit into his legs, effectively pinning him in place.
Logan stood. His magnificent, chiseled body had my jaw dropping, but that wasn’t the only reason.
“Did you just turn from a wolf to a human?” I shrieked. Oh my god! This can’t be happening!
Logan’s eyes glowed as he stepped toward me. I tried to keep my gaze on his face since his other parts—his very male parts—were on clear display. My lightheadedness grew stronger.
He didn’t seem the least bit perturbed by his nudity. Why should he? The dude just transformed from a wolf to a human! Or perhaps I was imagining things. It was possible that my father had knocked me out and I was dreaming.
Short, shallow pants filled my chest. I’m losing it!
“Daria?” Logan said quietly. He stepped closer, a panicked look in his eyes. “Dar?” His gaze traveled over my face, hardening when he took in the details.
I was vaguely aware of something sticky running down my temple—probably more blood.
“Are you okay?”
He stepped closer, until his naked body pressed against mine. I closed my eyes and breathed in his scent. My heart slowed as his arms wrapped gently around me.
“Logan?” I whispered. “Is it really you?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
My father’s cries and the other wolves’ snarls still filled the room.
Logan picked me up and moved us to the living room, then he set me down and looked me over. “He hit you.” His jaw locked, the muscle ticking in the corner. “I should have been here. I didn’t protect you.”
I shook my head in wonder, still unable to believe what I’d witnessed only a few minutes ago, and considering the snarls and yelps coming from the back room, I hadn’t imagined it, but it was not the time to ask questions or try to understand it.
“You couldn’t have. I sneaked out before any of you woke. It was stupid. I shouldn’t have done that.”
His eyebrows drew together in a heavy scowl. “We’ll talk about that later, but I still should have woken when you left. I should have heard you leave. I grew complacent.” He shook his head. “Right now, I need to get you out of here.”
In a blurred move, he swung me up in his arms, locking me against his chest. “Jake, Alexander, Brodie,” he called over his shoulder. “Shift back and take him away. I want that bastard locked up.”
Before I could ask what he meant by that, Logan strode toward the front door, kicked it open, and carried me out into the vast woods.
Chapter 18
Tree branches brushed against my face as birds chirped in the early-morning air. Logan carried me through the forest, as if it were the most normal thing in the world for a large naked male to carry a fully clothed, slightly beaten-up female through the woods.
A hysterical laugh bubbled up out of me. “What the hell happened back there? You can turn into a wolf?”
Logan winced at my tone. “Not a wolf. A werewolf.”
“A werewolf? Is that somehow supposed to make sense?”
His lips twitched up for a second before he caught my expression. His smile faded. “Daria, it’s okay. There are a lot of werewolves in the world.”
“Really? There are a lot of werewolves in the world, and I’m supposed to just take that all in stride?”
His gaze softened. “I know it’s a shock.”
“Right, because until this morning, I had no idea.” My brow furrowed, my mind spinning again. “And your friends are werewolves too? I heard you call for them back there, and there were three other wolves.”
He nodded. “That’s right. I’m a werewolf as are Jake, Brodie, and Alexander.”
I let that information sink in. He’s a werewolf, his friends are werewolves, and I’m a supernatural healer. Dizziness swam through me again. “Are you also going to tell me that there are more than just werewolves and healers? That there are vampires and gargoyles and all those other things that go bump in the night?”
“Well, yeah, if you want to get into it, all of those species exist, too, but there aren’t many gargoyles. They’re quite rare.” He offered another tentative smile.
The blood drained from my face.
He cursed under his breath. “We’ll get to that later. Why don’t we just concentrate on you and me right now. You’re a supernatural healer, or a witch if you want to be specific, and I’m a werewolf. End of story.”
I squeezed my eyes tightly shut. What the hell’s happening?
“Dar?” His arms tightened. “Just you and me, okay?”
Taking a deep breath, I met his steady gaze. His sandalwood scent wafted around me, and I took a few more breaths before nodding. “Right. Just you and me.”
“I know this is new to you, so just take a minute. Keep breathing.”
I closed my eyes and concentrated on inhaling and exhaling. His advice was sound. Without realizing it, I’d begun hyperventilating, but his calm tone and familiar scent helped push the anxiety down, and my head began to clear.
“Are you feeling better?” he asked a moment later.
I took another deep breath. “Yeah.”
“If it helps, you can ask me about what I am.”
An image of my father flashed through my mind. Only minutes ago, he’d thrown me against a wall. I shoved that memory down and asked in a rush, “So is that why your eyes glow? Because you’re a werewolf?”
“You’ve seen my eyes glow?”
“Yeah, a few times. I thought I was seeing things, but apparently, I wasn’t. Do they glow cause you’re a wolf?”
He frowned. “All werewolves’ eyes glow when we feel a heightened emotion. Normally, we hide it. Glowing eyes in public can cause problems.” His frown grew. “But they glowed around you.”
He shook his head, appearing troubled. I waited for him to explain that comment, but he suddenly seemed lost in his own thoughts.
Another moment of silence passed as I mulled over my new reality. Snapping twigs continued to fill the air as Logan walked steadily through the trees.
Another image rose unbidden in my mind. My father. His raised fist. His absolute hatred for me. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut. “So were you born a werewolf?” I opened my eyes again, just in time to see Logan duck us under a tree branch.
“Yes. I come from a long line of werewolves. My family descends from the originals, the world’s first werewolves.”
“That sounds impressive.”
A deep groove appeared between his eyes. “I suppose it is,” he replied, albeit reluctantly.
“And how many werewolves are in the world?”
His frown lessened, his gaze meeting mine again. “At last count, around fifteen thousand in the US, but there are more in other countries—maybe a hundred thousand worldwide. You reall
y didn’t know about us, did you?”
I shook my head.
“And your mom and grandma didn’t know either?”
“Not that I know of. If they did, they never told me. But you knew about us?”
Logan sidestepped around an evergreen branch so it wouldn’t scratch my face. The strong scent of pine wafted toward me. “The entire community knows about the Gresham women. The reason I answered your ad for a bodyguard was because supernaturals take care of their own.”
“The entire community? What’s that?”
“The supernatural community. We’re an entire community of supes who live in the real world while disguising our true natures from the humans. Because we’ve been persecuted in the past, we’ve gone underground. Hiding hasn’t stopped the SF’s mission, though. Our job is to protect our own, but usually that’s from other supes, not from one’s human father.” His tone hardened at the mention of my dad.
“SF?”
“Supernatural Forces.”
“Is that supposed to mean something?” I brought a hand to my forehead and took a deep breath, concentrating on my breathing again. “Okay, lay it on me. What’s the Supernatural Forces?”
That worried expression crossed Logan’s features again, as if he wasn’t sure if I was about to grow hysterical or not.
When I continued to look at him expectantly, he said slowly, “The Supernatural Forces is the supernatural community’s version of the armed forces and law enforcement combined. My pack brothers and I are members.”
“So you really are in the military?”
“I’m not in the US military, but yes, I’m in the supernatural one.”
“And the part on your resume about personal security, when you said you’ve been working it for a few years, was that true or not?”
“Partly true. You’re the first client I’ve taken on in a while to do bodyguard work for, but I have done it in the past.”
“So that’s why you never wanted to go to the police. Because you kinda are the police.”
“Exactly.”
I tried to lean back more in his arms, but my ribs ached, so I stopped. “I guess I’m lucky you saw my ad.”
He ducked his head, even though there weren’t any tree branches. “It wasn’t luck. We’ve been keeping tabs on you.”
My eyebrows rose. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that the SF monitors all supernaturals in an attempt to prevent exactly what just happened back at your dad’s mobile home. When we saw your ad, my boss put me on the job, and when you got that extortion email, I called it in. After I explained that your situation seemed more imminent than we’d originally thought, he agreed that more help was needed, so Brodie, Jake, and Alex were called in too.”
“So that’s what you meant when you said you’d need their help once my dad was found. You’d need them to help you arrest him?”
“Yeah, and now I’m doubly glad they were brought in, given what happened.”
Since his tone hardened, I had a feeling that he still blamed himself for my father attacking me despite my sneaking away from the bus.
I grimaced. “What happened back there wasn’t your fault. None of us knew my father was my stalker, and I shouldn’t have left the bus like that. How can you do your job when your client sneaks out of your sight?”
“Actually, we did know it was your father. Alexander figured it out early this morning, a few hours before you left, after your dad clicked on one of the links. I was going to tell you first thing this morning, after I figured out how to break it to you, but when I woke up, you were gone. And then Cecile told me you were going to meet him—”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done it. Looking back, I know it was so stupid, but I’d never thought it was him. How could somebody’s own father do that?”
“Because he was desperate. He owed the mob money.”
“The mob?” My head snapped back. So that was who he owed money to.
“It’s probably why he attacked you. He wracked up quite the gambling debt and was running out of time. From what Alexander found on his computer, he originally had until the end of the month, but they upped his timeline. As of three days ago, he only had until the end of the week to come up with the money, and if he didn’t…” Logan shrugged. “I’m sure you can guess what they’d do to him.”
“That’s why he went from threatening to kill me to demanding money. He probably wanted to scare me initially then work up to asking for money, but when he ran out of time, he attacked. But how did he get involved with the mob?”
“Gambling at the wrong places.”
“So will they kill him now that he can’t pay?”
“No. He’ll be taken back to the SF. He saw too much. That will need to be fixed before he returns to the human world.”
“Fixed.” I brought a hand to my forehead, my breaths coming fast again. I could only imagine what that meant.
“Dar? It’ll be okay. I promise.”
Tears threatened to fill my eyes again, now that we were talking about my father. “So he was the one who dropped off the beheaded bird? If he’s my stalker?”
Logan gritted his teeth. “Yeah, it was him. After Alexander got access to his computer, he learned all sorts of things, such as your father hacked your computer and your phone months ago. He’s been tracking you ever since.”
“Tracking me?”
“Through your cell’s phone location. He knew where we were parked, and since we weren’t far from his home the night before that show, what better time than to give you that present to scare you even more?”
“And that’s how he knew that my clients’ contact info was in my email. He’s probably read all of those emails.” When Logan looked at me quizzically, I explained how my father had planned to extort the money from me, by forcing my clients to put the money directly into his overseas account. A flush crept up my neck. “How can he hate me so much?”
“Because he’s a deadbeat loser who doesn’t deserve to share blood with you.”
The anger in his voice made me wince, which caused my cheek to throb. I wished I had an icepack.
Logan’s gaze darkened when he looked down and took in my injuries. I was pretty sure my face resembled a pulverized tomato. Not only had my father’s shoves and smacks left me with a swollen cheek and nasty bruises blooming on both biceps, but I also had cuts on my head and dried blood on my face.
“I’ll tend to your injuries as soon as we’re back,” he said.
“You don’t have to. I’ll be fine.”
He growled, that predatory sound again. Since I knew he was a wolf, his grumblings and growls made a lot more sense.
“Do you mind if I pick up the pace?” he asked. “We’re still a few miles from my clothes.”
“Um, no. That’s fine.” It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I could walk on my own despite my injuries, but that would have meant walking beside him, and he was completely nude. Wonder what Crystal would think of that.
Logan hefted me up higher in his arms. “I’ll try to keep my run smooth. Let me know if it’s not.”
He took off. The force of his propulsion pushed me against his chest, his rock-hard abs pressing flush against my side. Wind flew over my cheeks as the trees around us turned into a blur.
I gasped as his legs pumped beneath us. The forest sounds continued, mostly the snapping branches and squishing ground as his bare feet landed on the uneven surface, but those sounds faded. Instead, Logan’s steady rhythmic breathing filled my ears. Given how easily he breathed and moved, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that he possessed inhuman strength and speed.
Duh, Dar. He’s not human. He’s a werewolf.
Only a few minutes passed before he stopped. He wasn’t even winded.
“I’m going to set you down so I can get dressed.”
I managed to nod before my body slid against his. He held onto me until I was standing steadily, then he turned and rummaged behind a rock.
> My cheeks heated, and I quickly turned around. In that split second, I’d been awarded a very clear view of Logan’s firm backside and broad back. His skin had a smooth, even complexion and was the color of honey.
I tried to calm my breathing as rustling came from behind me before the sound of his jeans zipping followed.
“The interstate is about two minutes away. We can cross it and call for a ride.”
I tentatively turned around. Once again, my heart thumped.
He stood a few feet to the left, wearing his signature dark T-shirt and worn jeans. Mussed coffee-colored hair covered his head, and his eyes held a faint glow. I knew that meant he was feeling something, but I didn’t know what.
“Does that mean we should walk that way?”
“I can carry you again if you’d like.” He took a step closer to me.
I jumped back. “No, it’s okay. I can walk, if you don’t mind that I’m so slow.”
His lips quirked up. “You’re not that slow.”
I smiled tentatively as he led the way through the trees. His unique scent wafted to me, and my senses swam. I still had so many questions for him, but at the moment, it took all of my concentration to not stare at the beautiful planes and muscles that were visible through his thin shirt.
Werewolf or not, my body still identified him as a potential mate.
Chapter 19
“Oh, thank the stars!” Cecile’s thin arms locked around my neck the second I boarded the bus, but when she pulled back, her expression turned aghast. “Your face! What did he do to you?”
Logan didn’t give me a chance to respond. “We need a first aid kit. Do you have one?”
Cecile waved toward the bathroom but didn’t let me go. “In that back cabinet.”
Logan strode to the back while Mike pulled his Yankees cap off and wiped a tear from his cheek. He hugged me, too, as soon as Cecile let go.
The feel of them caused electric jolts to run down my arms, but I did my best to push those sensations away. I even managed to squeeze Mike in return before I took a step back.
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