Hunted And Claimed (Wayward Mates Series Book 7)

by Delta James

  “Yes, Liam.”

  “All right then, your punishment is over. You can pull your breeches back up. And you’re to find some time this evening to apologize to your alpha for your behavior and language this afternoon.”

  Dinner had been dreadful. Other than her brother, all of the alphas who were in attendance were arrogant and boring, which seemed an odd combination. She looked up and caught Aidan’s eye at one point and he shook his head ever so slightly and smiled at his younger sibling.

  Colleen had taken his hand, pulled him closer to her, and whispered, “Thank you and I’m sorry about this afternoon.”

  “Forgiven,” he said before kissing her forehead. “You behave while I’m gone.”

  Colleen could not look him in the eye. She very much doubted she’d ever see Aidan again. Her plan violated every rule of pack protocol for a woman. Aidan would move heaven and earth to find her, but he would fail. Colleen knew she would miss him.

  Chapter Two

  Three years later; Outer Banks of North Carolina

  Skylar Owen hugged Riley Gentry close. The early morning fog had yet to begin its recession from the beach into the ocean. The sun was beginning to cast its first rays of light and played among the clouds; the fog and filtered sunlight turning the sky the most amazing shades of pink, purple, and orange.

  “Are you sure I can’t persuade you to stay longer?” she said, truly sorry to be losing the young, red-haired alpha female who so reminded her of herself.

  “No. It’s time for me to go. What you’ve done here at Bae Diogel is amazing. But no pack needs two red-headed alphas,” said Riley with a bemused, peaceful expression.

  “Oh, I don’t know. If the Ruling Council comes calling it might be good to have another alpha wolf around. And unlike the boys, I don’t mind sharing.”

  Riley laughed. She was genuinely going to miss the women of Bae Diogel... Skylar, Roz, and Darby most of all.

  “Won’t you at least stay for breakfast and say good-bye to the others?” asked Skylar softly.

  “I don’t like goodbyes, Sky. It’s time for me to move on. There’s a rundown warehouse in Galveston calling my name and whispering to me that it needs me to turn it into an upscale bistro.”

  Skylar looked at her fondly. “You will be missed. You know Cameron Nichols is alpha in Galveston. He’s not going to be inclined to allow an unmated female to just live in his territory without being part of his pack.”

  Riley grinned. “That’s why I don’t plan to ask him. I figure if I keep to myself, there’s no reason for him to know.”

  “Riley, that’s foolish. You’re going to open an upscale bistro. I can’t imagine you being anything other than a smashing success. Nichols is one of the largest suppliers of Wagyu beef in the country, not to mention his commercial fishery in the Gulf of Mexico.”

  “He’s too busy to take notice of one stray wolf chef, especially if I’m not bothering anybody.”

  Skylar snorted. “You’d best keep a sharp watch on him and have an exit strategy. With the growing shortage of female shifters, you’d be a prize he’d want to integrate into his pack... and don’t forget he’s unmated.”

  “Is he good-looking? Great in the sack? Maybe I’ll set my cap for him.”

  Skylar laughed out loud. “Oh, now there’s a match I’d like to see—a sassy Irish alpha female who abandoned tradition and left her birth pack and a cowboy alpha shifter. If it happens, I get pick of the litter. Careful he doesn’t rope and hogtie you!”

  “He’d have to catch me first.”

  “What do you think the rope is for?”

  “Would he tie me up? Kinky!”

  Skylar laughed again. “I am truly going to miss you.”

  Riley sobered. “And I you. I’m grateful for the respite you gave me. I left a pan of cinnamon rolls proofing. All you’ll need to do in about an hour is bake them.” Riley turned to leave and then impulsively turned back and hugged Skylar again. “If you or Bae Diogel ever needs me, you know how to get hold of me. Thank you again for everything.”

  Skylar watched her leave with a sinking heart. Riley would be missed not only by Skylar herself but by the other women at Bae Diogel, the rogue all-female pack Skylar had founded.

  Skylar raised her hand in farewell as Riley jumped into her vintage MG roadster and headed off the island.

  “Fair wind and good fortune,” she whispered.

  * * *

  Present day, outside of Belgrade, Serbia

  Riley Gentry glanced at her watch. She was cutting it close. It would take at least an hour for her to return to the old-world mansion turned resort in order to start cooking for the final round of a local competition whose goal was to raise the level of cooking in Serbia, not known for its culinary expertise. When she wasn’t competing in various cooking competitions or taking lucrative executive chef gigs, Riley ran a successful farm/sea to table restaurant along the seawall in Galveston, Texas—the Sea Wolf.

  She was currently concealing herself in the woods adjacent to an old, rundown manor house. There had been rumors circulating that packs desperate for females had been raiding other packs and turning human women against their will. Riley had been at a cooking competition in Mexico when a planned assault on the United States was foiled and repelled by the combined strength of the wolf-shifter packs in New Orleans and Galveston.

  Riley was a lone wolf. As far as she knew, Cameron Nichols, the alpha of Galveston, was unaware of her presence in his territory. It was considered a serious breach of protocol for an unattached wolf to take up residence in an occupied territory without the permission of the area’s alpha. Riley didn’t much care for protocols or following the rules, especially ones she had no input in making.

  She was about to make her move toward the house and getting the three women who were being held there against their will when a slight movement caught her eye. She secreted herself back into the bushes and watched as a male figure dressed all in black sprinted across the small, open space and began to climb the corner of the house. Riley had to smile; she had planned to do the same.

  Her attention was divided between the grounds of the house to spot any potential combatants and the balcony where the figure in black had managed to get to safely. Riley silently shifted to her wolf form in order to access her heightened senses. She could see or hear nothing to cause her any concern as the man entered the room.

  Again, Riley scanned the house and the land around it. She looked to the balcony to see the figure lowering each of the women from the balcony to the ground. It seemed he had directed them to run to a specific place. All three had made the safety of the woods before the man lowered himself to the ground and joined them. The exploding incendiary devices and resulting fire startled her for a moment and then she grinned. Well done, she thought.

  She picked up her clothes in her powerful jaws and allowed the group of women and their rescuer some breathing room. Quietly, she followed them back until she saw them get in a waiting vehicle and speed off into the night. She ran toward her own stashed mode of transportation, a stolen lorry from the city. If all went well, she would be able to return it to its parking place with no one the wiser. She shifted back, turned over the motor, and headed in the opposite direction of the man and the three ex-hostages.

  Unless she was sadly mistaken, and she didn’t believe she was, she’d just seen the Welsh wolf, Griffin Owen, snatch the three women to take to safety. They were in the same line of business... only Griffin didn’t know it.

  Riley made it back with a bit of time to spare. She’d had a good laugh when she returned the lorry. Apparently, its absence from where it had been parked had been noticed. By the time the police got there, however, it was once again sitting waiting for its normal use. She’d had to suppress a giggle as she heard the lorry’s owner trying to explain to the cops that he hadn’t wasted their time and that it really had been missing. When one of the cops pointed out that it had a full tank of petrol, the truck owner seemed to b
e mollified and quit complaining about his disappearing truck.

  Riley slipped back into the resort’s kitchen with time to spare. This competition was at a resort wishing to improve its image for providing upscale food. No television was involved, a must as far as Riley was concerned, but the money was good as was the exposure for a young female chef. The other chefs stumbled in, grateful that once again Riley had turned on the coffeepot.

  “The semi-final round—not sure all of you needed to get up,” she teased them.

  “Knock it off, Riley,” groused Charlie from the San Francisco Bay area.

  Grace, the only other woman left in the competition, said, “How do you manage to look so good and so wide awake at this God-awful hour?”

  “Good DNA,” quipped Riley.

  The first round of this week’s competition wasn’t supposed to start for another forty-five minutes, but suddenly Jemma, the female judge, bounded in and surprised them with the news that the round was starting now and they had ninety minutes to prepare a high-end brunch entree.

  One chef started to try to make the perfect omelet, one a flavorful chile relleños, one a soufflé, and one a version of eggs benedict. Riley went with her tried and true quiche. She made a perfect piecrust and par-baked it. Then she added cevapi, a traditional small grilled sausage-like meat, leeks, cheese, fennel, and minced red pepper. She made her custard for the quiche and poured it over her ingredients. She set it in the oven to bake while she made a quick hash of several different types of potatoes, red peppers, and chopped onions.

  The omelet was a complete failure—overcooked and scorched. The chile relleños was a flop as there were no chilies available and so the chef had tried to substitute green pepper, and the soufflé never rose. That left the eggs benedict and Riley’s quiche. The eggs benedict was deemed good, but not inspired. Riley’s dish, having used some local ingredients, was judged the winner. Riley would have an additional ten minutes to cook in the main round.

  This competition, as well as several well-paid celebrity chef gigs all over Europe, had been the perfect cover for Riley’s work liberating women who were being forced into packs and worse. So far, she had only been able to locate and set a few of them free. Part of the problem was tracking them down, but she now had a line on one of the main traffickers out of Mexico and felt that her ability to make a real difference was about to pick up considerably. She always timed her extractions to coincide with the end or a break between her gigs. That allowed her time to get the women to safety.

  Her brother’s pack was part of a small group of packs, known as the Coalition, who had recognized the threat that this trafficking of female shifters posed. She’d been able to get a list of those members that she felt would take these women in and give them a safe home... Aidan’s pack being among them.

  She missed Aidan and all the others from home. She’d managed to glean from her contacts that Aidan had been successful in bringing Gianna home. Riley knew that she was already an aunt to one nephew and there was now another on the way. Marco DeMedici, Gianna’s oldest brother and her alpha, had allowed Aidan to force Gianna to run and then honored his claim as her fated mate.

  Marco had taken a turned human as his mate. One of the missing women was rumored to be her younger sister. Riley knew the DeMedici villa was a safe place to take former hostages in order for them to find refuge. Both their Madonna, Marco’s mate Catherine, and their midwife, Ashley, were sympathetic and supported Riley’s cause. She hoped at some point she’d either find Catherine’s sister or at least information that led to her being recovered.

  The final or elimination round of the competition here in Belgrade was to serve a unique take on a traditional Serbian dinner entree. Two of her competitors went with goulash. The other two went with moussaka. Riley went with a spin on sarma—cabbage leaves stuffed with minced meat and potato. Instead of cabbage leaves, Riley opted for vine leaves and used minced pork and sweet potatoes with a wine reduction sauce, cooked and served in a traditional cooking pan. The three judges who traveled with the show as well as a local judge gave the win to Riley... her fourth elimination round win.

  Thus far Riley had been able to fly under the radar of the Ruling Councils and packs on both sides of the issue. The competition was beginning to garner some interest from some television producers who thought it might make a good competition/reality series. She began to wonder if she should finish the competition or feign illness and drop out. The prize to win was a quarter of a million dollars. That money would go a long way to giving her a nice nest egg for her restaurant and also to fund her extracurricular activities. Riley made the decision to stay, with the option that if someone suggested filming, she would suddenly need to depart.

  Begrudging congratulatory remarks were made as the chefs headed back to the waiting room. If the show followed true to form, Jemma would come in and give them their next destination city. Some contestants used knowing the location to travel ahead of the show and play tourist including eating at the finest restaurants. Riley liked to research the indigenous cuisine as well as see if there were any of the rogue packs operating nearby that she could raid and destroy.

  “Well, guys,” said Jemma in her best game show host imitation, “it seems we’re to have a truly inspired guest judge. As you know one of the best boutique vineyards in the world is that of the DeMedici. We’ve been able to get their master vintner to agree to come and judge this next round...”

  Riley utilized all of her masking skills not to react. Granted she’d never met Marco or even heard of this master vintner, but she was pretty damn sure Aidan would have enlisted his brother-in-law’s help in trying to find his wayward sister and bring her back into the fold.

  The other contestants started buzzing around her. Riley sat sipping her Diet Coke, trying to calculate the risk versus reward of going forward. The reward was that she had a good chance of winning the competition. The risk was that winning meant she would be operating very close to the DeMedici sphere of influence... not necessarily the best place for a lone she-wolf on the lam.

  Grace flopped down beside her. “Congrats again, girlfriend. You are on a roll. This sounds great, don’t you think? They say DeMedici is one of the wealthiest men in Italy? Wonder if he likes blondes with pixie haircuts?”

  Riley smiled. “He likes blondes all right. He’s married to one. I believe they just had a baby and she is said to be a force to be reckoned with.”

  “Well, maybe she got fat and he’d like to take a nice toned, athletic body out for a spin.”

  Riley snorted. “That’s just nasty, Grace, and frankly beneath you. Besides the story is he is mad for his wife and sees all other females as gender neutral.”

  “Bummer. Wonder if he has any brothers?”

  Riley laughed. Grace wasn’t really mean spirited, but her biological clock was ticking. While she loved being a chef, she wanted nothing more than to find a husband and to start having babies. Riley was a bit concerned that she might find more than she bargained for if the competition got heavily involved with the DeMedici. Grace was the kind of woman who would attract a lot of wolf attention.

  Grace looked at her friend. “You feeling okay? You sure don’t seem pumped to have beaten the boys... again.”

  One of the male chefs, Julian, plopped down beside her and put his hand on her knee. Riley growled menacingly and he removed his hand.

  “She’s right. Normally you love nothing more than to win,” he said.

  “There are a lot of things I love more than winning,” Riley said quietly. “But beating you doesn’t rise to that level. Did you really think you’d win with the two pathetic dishes you put out today? I realize early on you decided that you could just phone it in, but the easy pickings have been eliminated. Josh is a great chef and you got lucky. It could just as easily have been you that got sent home. Step up your game, Julian.”

  The head judge had stepped into the waiting room.

  “Riley’s right. She was the clear winn
er today because her dish was the only inspired one of the bunch and she cooked it with passion to perfection. I know that Serbian food may not be in most of your wheelhouses but that’s what’s supposed to make you great chefs—that you can elevate even the most mundane food to something special. The judges will be meeting this afternoon. The final five may be whittled down to a final three or four.”

  Julian jumped to his feet. “You can’t do that. You can’t just change the rules...”

  “Sure he can,” said Riley. “There was that pesky little clause in the contestant contract about their being able to eliminate anyone for any reason if they felt it was in the best interest of the competition.”

  Julian turned on her. “When did you get to be such a supporter of the rules?”

  Riley grinned, “About the same time you served woefully under-seasoned eggs benedict to chefs with refined palates.”

  Riley watched as Julian balled his fists.

  Smiling, she said quietly, “Take your best shot, Jules... you’ll only get one.”

  The head judge stepped between them.

  “Okay, let’s everybody take a deep breath and a step back. Julian, why don’t you head on up to your room. Riley, why don’t you join the other judges and me for a wine tasting with the DeMedici vintner.”

  “If it’s all the same to you, George, I’d rather head up to my room too. Those of us who actually competed today are tired.”

  George’s face showed understanding, respect, and amusement. “And that way no one can accuse you of cozying up to the judges.”

  Riley stood. “They know better. I’m about as cozy as a cactus.”

  Everyone in the room laughed and the tension started to defuse.

  Riley turned and started toward the door passing by Julian. He reached out and grabbed her upper arm, removing his hand quickly when once again she growled.