by Sky Winters
Kat nodded and grabbed the handle of her suitcase to pull out to his truck. He took it from her and carried it, opening up the back door and putting it in before opening the front passenger door for her to climb in.
She pulled out her phone as he climbed behind the wheel and called Max, an Alpha she went to school with who was with the pack council. She explained the situation to him, and he told her he’d get someone out now to keep an eye on her parents for a couple of days, from a distance, so her father didn’t get upset about her sending them, of course.
“Thank you, Max. I appreciate it,” she told him, ending the call and letting Travis know. He nodded and said nothing. She wanted to ask him a million other questions about what had happened but thought maybe now wasn’t the best time. Instead, she watched out the window as they drove into the city to the five-star hotel where she’d be holing up for the next few days. Under different circumstances, it might be romantic.
In the parking garage, Travis pulled a packet of hand wipes from his console and began wiping blood away from his face and neck. Now that some of it was gone, she could see the cuts and bruises on his face. He pulled on a long jacket from behind the seat and they hurried into the hotel, making a quick jaunt across the lobby and into the elevator.
It was only inside the mirrored box with its bright lights on them that she noticed the blood seeping heavily from his side.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Travis
“Let’s just get to the room,” Travis said, noting how upset Kat was before she even said anything.
She’d be more upset if she knew what had happened once he and his guys had arrived at the bear cabins. They had managed to catch them off guard, but only for a moment. With only a half dozen bears, he’d felt good about their chances, but that had quickly changed with the arrival of new bears.
Mike was in the center of one of the cabins. He was heavily shackled to prevent him from shifting, though it wasn’t clear why. He was a big guy, but he was also a Beta. He was no match for an Alpha wolf, much less an Alpha bear. From the looks of him, he wasn’t even a match against his Omega sister at the moment.
They’d beaten him pretty badly, and not even in bear form. He didn’t have the scratches or lacerations you’d see from a bear attack. These were scrapes and bruises from a good old fashioned beat down with human fists. One eye was swollen shut and the other was cut deeply across the brow, leaving blood to seep down into it.
From the way he was slumped over, he was likely drugged to keep him under control. It was likely easier to keep him sedated than to have to continue to beat him down when he got out of hand. Whatever the reason for his condition, it looked grim, and he was going to be a handful to move, if they got that far.
Once everyone was in place, Travis shifted, and the others followed. They had to be quick, as the bears would pick up their scent and they wanted to move in on them before they had time to shift on their end. If they could catch them off guard as humans, they could quickly get the upper hand, doing the damage to weaken them before they changed.
Past that, it was just all-out war, with snarling and growling as wolves launched themselves onto their prey. They almost had them dispatched when a couple of sleek Mercedes SUVs rolled up and a dozen more men spilled out from both sides, quickly shifting and joining the fight.
Somehow, they’d managed not to lose anyone, but a few of his pack were badly hurt. It was only because of their speed and greater agility that they were able to take them down. Travis also suspected that these particular bears weren’t in their top form due to indulging in a bit of their own product. It had been their undoing.
They’d expected that the family of a Beta would just do as they were asked, defenseless against a pack of bears. No doubt, they were well acquainted with Mike and knew what they needed to know about his family. Beta father and son, Omega wife and daughter. Not wealthy, but certainly comfortable enough to cover Mike’s debt.
What Travis couldn’t understand was why they hadn’t given Kat more time to get the money together. It made no sense to think that anyone could pull together that kind of cash on a Sunday. Only the truly wealthy or maybe someone who owns a business would have that kind of cash stashed away and easily accessible on a weekend.
After all was said and done, Travis had sent two of his pack brothers to take Mike back to his place and asked them to keep an eye on him until the next day. He’d get someone to rotate them off in the morning and then go in tomorrow after work to have a little talk with Mike himself.
The rest of the pack had stayed behind and cleaned up the mess. The SUVs were packed with the bodies they left behind and pushed into the large lake that sat to one side of the cabins. They wouldn’t stay hidden there forever. The Diamondbacks would find them eventually. Still, it bought them some time. How much depended on who all knew about this little operation and who would miss those sitting on the bottom of the lake.
“Let’s get you undressed and see where that blood is coming from,” Kat said once they were inside the room.
Travis felt a little lightheaded. His legs faltered as she helped him over to the chair that sat on one side of the room. He held on to it while she helped him undress, a gasp escaping her lips once she could see the source of the blood. There was a large gash across his side where one of the bears had clipped him with its claw.
“I need to get something on that,” she told him. “Sit down in the chair.”
Travis half sat, half fell into the chair. Everything was fuzzy as she disappeared into the bathroom and returned with a towel.
“Come on. Let’s get you to the bed before you pass out on me. I won’t be able to lift you,” Kat told him.
Her voice sounded like it was coming from a million miles away and through a tunnel. He put his arm around her shoulder as she struggled to get him over to the bed and help him get stretched out. All the while, she held the towel against the wound on his side.
“You need to shift before you pass out,” she told him. “You need to shift so this will heal before you bleed out.”
Travis was dimly aware of what she was saying, but he finally grasped the words and did as she told him. Imagine that, a big badass Alpha wolf taking orders from a fragile little Omega. He chuckled as he began to morph back into wolf form. It hurt like a son of a bitch as his body broke apart and reformed.
He was dimly aware that Kat had laid down beside him and was still holding the towel against his wound, staunching the flow of blood until his wolf metabolism healed the gash in his side. Then it all went black, and he was in the darkness. There were no thoughts, no dreams, just an endless sea of black. At first, there was pain, but then, that also subsided, and he was just nowhere.
It wasn’t until much later when he finally opened his eyes again that he realized she was still there beside him. The towel was no longer on his side, but she had laid her head against his chest. Her blonde hair rose and fell with his breathing as she slept. It was okay. It was all going to be okay. He closed his eyes and let himself sleep again.
This time, there was a dream and, as is often the case with dreams, he had a revelation. He knew why the Diamondbacks had thought the family could get the money on a Sunday. Mike had told them they could. Their doctor was a vet, with his own office, and Travis would bet any payments made the prior week were in a safe there, waiting to be taken to the bank the following Monday.
Did a vet have that much cash on hand? It seemed like a lot to him, but it made him wonder if Mike knew something he didn’t and that, perhaps, Kat didn’t know either. There was something fishy about the whole situation, and once he had a chance, he was going to find out what it was.
His side burned and itched, but that was part of the healing. He pushed it away and tried to get what sleep he could manage. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kat
Kat tried not to toss and turn. The hotel room was nice, extremely nice, but she was worried abo
ut Travis. She was worried about Mike. She was worried about how she was going to get her hands on the money she needed to put this behind them. For that matter, she was worried about whether that was even an option anymore.
There was the possibility that Travis and his pack had killed the bears responsible and that no one else would come looking, but if their pack was like hers, there was personal business and there was pack business. If the Diamondbacks were into everything Travis had said they might be, that sounded like pack business, and more of them would come. This time, not only for their money but also for blood.
Then, there was the rut. It had been pushed down, but it was still there. Lying so close to Travis and not touching him had been akin to torture. It helped that he was in his wolf form, but not much. It only limited how much she could touch him; it didn’t take away her desire for the man within.
It seemed like she had only just fallen asleep when the phone was ringing. She debated whether to answer it, but Travis was already on it, shifting back into human form and pushing a button on it as he sat up on the edge of the bed. She admired how beautiful he was naked as she crawled across the bed toward him and examined his side.
The large, angry-looking scar was all that was left behind to tell the tale. It didn’t look great and would heal more over the coming days, but at least it was closed up. He glanced back at her through tired eyes.
“How does it feel?” she asked.
“Like I fought a bear,” he laughed.
“I’m glad you can find some humor in it.”
“Levity is always a good thing,” he told her, pulling her closer to kiss her.
It had an immediate effect, sending a tingling through her veins and into her toes. It apparently had the same effect on him; he pulled her closer and kissed her. His mouth was hungry on hers, and they were quickly lost in one another, taking their time to explore each other’s bodies in a way they hadn’t taken time for during their first night together.
A knock on the door jarred them from their cuddling afterward. Travis groaned and climbed out of bed, cracking open the door only a hair and speaking to whoever was outside.
“I’m going to skip breakfast this morning. Give me a heads up when she’s headed down, and I’ll come down then.”
“Okay. You alright? You look like you had a rough night.”
“You have no idea, man. Thanks,” Travis told him, pushing the door shut and coming back into the room. “I’ve got to shower and change. You’ll be fine here. There’s some cash in the bedside table if you need it. I think you’re fine to go out if you want. No reason for them to look for you here or in the city, if they are looking at all yet.”
“I’ve got to go out. I have to go to the bank.”
“Maybe you should just wait until we see what’s going to happen with that.”
“I’d rather have the money and not need it than end up in the situation we were in yesterday.”
“I’ll leave that up to you. I just hate for you to put yourself in an unpleasant situation financially because of something your brother did.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“I hope so,” he told her. “As much as I’d like to be able to help, I really can’t.”
“You already have. You got my brother back. Can I see him today?”
“Maybe. Let’s just see what happens today, and if it is clear, I’ll take you to him tonight when I get done.”
Kat nodded, feeling the pull toward him permeate her being as he grew closer and kissed her again.
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
“Alright, I have to shower and get going. Call me if you need anything or if anything happens. I’ll just have to tell the princess I have to go.”
Kat nodded and got out of bed to put on her robe. She wanted to shower with him but knew it would only lead to more sex and keep him from getting out the door to his job. Besides, she needed to get dressed after he did so she could get started. There should be a branch of her bank somewhere nearby.
Pulling her phone from her purse, she noticed it was dead and put it on the charger to juice up while Travis was in the shower. She pulled her clothes from the suitcase and hung them up so they wouldn’t wrinkle any worse than they already had. She should have pulled them out last night, but she’d been focused on Travis.
“There’s an iron in the cupboard if you need it. It had a built-in steamer if you just need that.”
“You’re surprisingly domestic for an Alpha,” she laughed.
“Yeah, well, I’ve learned to be,” he told her.
“How so?”
There was a flicker of something in his eyes, some truth that he wasn’t ready to share. She could see it and wondered what it might be, but knew it was something for another time. Somehow, she could already read him like a book. Travis had his secrets, and he held them close, but she wanted to know them all.
“A story for another time,” he told her.
“Of course,” she replied, watching as he got dressed and crossed the room toward her to give her a kiss. “The keycard is on the nightstand for you to get back into the room. Be careful today and text me when you have a chance so that I know you are okay. If I don’t hear from you at least every couple of hours, I’ll come looking for you.”
Kat would normally be concerned about a demand to keep in contact so heavily, but these weren’t usual circumstances. She nodded and smiled, already missing him as he left the room. Once he was gone, it was tempting to lay back down and get some more sleep, since she’d slept so poorly the night before. Instead, she got up and showered, getting dressed and retrieving her phone to look up the nearest bank location. It was only then that she noticed the message from her mother.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Travis
It was all Travis could do to focus on his job, following this vapid, self-indulgent woman around as she barked orders. She was in a mood, and today just wasn’t the day for it. He was overcome by an urge to shift and just scare the holy shit out of her.
He knew it was part of the rut. It made him more aggressive, more protective, but not of some human woman. Instead, it made him agitated that he was having to pull himself away from Kat and her situation to deal with her insanity. There was no real danger to her, aside from breaking a nail trying to flip off a reporter, but she acted as if she had a price on her head.
“Travis, can you come here and help me?” she bleated.
He made his way across the clearing to where she stood in a robe. One side of it was askew, leaving a clear view down the front of her breasts. She made a point of leaning forward to give him a better view, but he wasn’t interested. No human woman could give him half the pleasure of his own kind, and the rut ensured a lack of interest in anyone other than Kat, shifter or otherwise.
“I’ve dropped an earring in the leaves down there. Wardrobe is going to kill me if I lose another one after they had to scrounge about to find a replacement for the one from yesterday.”
It was unlikely that this woman gave two shits about whether wardrobe had to hunt down another earring, and it was likely that if they’d had to do it once, they’d purchased a pair, meaning there was still another one available.
“I’ve got it,” Bob said, coming out of nowhere to help look for the missing earring.
Travis almost laughed. He wasn’t sure what was more amusing: her desperation in seeking his attention or Bob’s quick reaction to make sure she didn’t get it. At the same time, there was nothing funny about it at all. If she got too out of hand, he’d have to set her straight, and that could put this job in jeopardy. He now had more reason than ever to get through these six months and get started on what was looking to be a better life than he could have hoped to find so soon after his release.
The thought of that was another hurdle he knew he’d have to leap. Kat deserved to know what sort of man she was getting herself involved with. The rut had been unexpected, had sped up their relationship in a way that only it coul
d do. That was the purpose of the rut: to seal the fates of two people together.
His phone buzzed, and he snuck a peek at it while Vivianne was busy with her scene. There was no message, just a snapshot of Kat’s beautiful face, smiling at him from his room. He couldn’t wait to get back there, to be with her. A disturbance nearby caught his attention, and he hurried over to see what was happening.
“You can’t just change the lines however you see fit, Vivianne!” the director was shouting at her.
“I don’t see why not. It’s a shit film, and the only reason I took it was because I’m already due to be out here for another project. You should be grateful for me even agreeing to be in this piece of garbage and improving your pitiful writing.”
“Grateful? You’re the worst actress I’ve ever worked with. I wish I’d never offered you the part. As it is, you’ve cost me more than you’re worth.”
“Then find another actress. I quit.”
“You can’t quit. We have a contract.”
“Take it up with my lawyers. I’m going home.”
The director took a step toward her, and Travis stepped between them. He didn’t blame the guy for being annoyed, and she was a complete pain in the ass, but he wasn’t about to let him assault her. Besides, it was his job to protect her, and this was the closest to needing protection she’d gotten since he’d come on board.
“Fine,” he said, not taking his eyes off of Travis, though he was speaking to Vivianne. “Those aren’t your clothes. You’ll need to give them back to wardrobe.”
Travis heard a snicker from one of the crew members but didn’t turn around. He kept his eyes locked on the director, who scowled as assorted women’s lingerie and a robe were tossed at his face from behind Travis.
“Come on, Travis. We’re going home.”
Travis turned to see a naked Vivianne walking with her head held high back toward the car. She turned toward Bob as she passed him.
