Embracing Carly

by Tianna Xander

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  Read Protecting Ally here.

  Protecting Ally

  Shifters of Wolf Lake Book 3

  Extended edition

  By

  Tianna Xander

  Chapter One

  The door banged open, crashing against the wall, and Ally spun around, her hands held against her chest. Her heart slammed against her ribs at the facial expression of the man in the doorway. The dust rag she held in her hands fell to the floor, forgotten as two angry-looking men stalked into the room.

  “What are you doing in here?” the older, balding man snarled. He bared his crooked teeth, his body shaking with anger. An air of menace surrounded him as he approached her. All Ally could think about was how his sexy English accent and deep voice didn’t match how foolish he looked with those horrible teeth and his mousy brown hair in that ridiculous comb-over.

  Why did men, especially rather rotund men, with pasty complexions and potbellies, think comb-overs made them look good? In Ally’s opinion, what it did do was make them look foolish. She refrained from telling him that, however. He looked angry enough already, though what he had to be mad about was anyone’s guess.

  “I’m cleaning your room, sir. I’m the maid.” Her cleaning cart was outside the door. Was the man dense, as well as blind? Now that her shock had worn off, she was back to her old snarky self and just a bit angry at the man’s overbearing attitude.

  Who did he think he was, banging in here and scaring her half-to-death? If she’d planned to do anything underhanded, she sure wouldn’t have left the door propped open with her cleaning bucket.

  “No.” He scowled at her, his splotchy face getting redder by the minute. “What I think you are, is a spy, missy. I left the do not disturb sign on the door for a reason.” His comb-over fell into his face and he shook his age-spotted head as he dug through a drawer. “Pack our things, Martin. It looks like we’ll be leaving today after all.” Having evidently found what he had been searching for, he turned back to Ally with a sneer. “This will teach you to snoop in rooms with the do-not-disturb sign on the door.”

  “There wasn’t a sign on the door, sir. Perhaps you forgot to hang it before you left.”

  “I never forget to hang that sign. I never ask for maid service in hotels. Never.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Well?”

  For the first time, she noticed the guy who stood just inside the door near the man with the combover. He was big. Bouncer big. He also looked mean. He wore his dark hair cut short in a military-style, high-and-tight. An ugly scar on his right cheek ran from his eyebrow down to just below his ear, though he could have been handsome if it hadn’t been for the cruel set of his mouth and his narrowed eyes.

  He looked like a mercenary even in the khaki slacks and button-down shirt he wore. No amount of expensive clothing could change the air of menace surrounding him. Whoever these people were, they obviously weren’t working within the law and they thought she’d found them out.

  “There was no sign on the door, sir. I swear.” She shook her head and moved back as the older man headed toward her with a syringe. At that moment, Ally knew she was about to die.

  Gone were her dreams of a home and family of her own. Gone was the possibility of meeting Mr. Right and having two point five kids and living happily ever after.

  “Don’t think I believe that you didn’t read my papers.” Mr. Combover flicked a glance over to the pile of folders on the table that she had barely glanced at earlier. “I wish I could believe you, but I can’t take that chance.”

  Why do people always think the hotel maid has the time to snoop? She had sixteen rooms to clean in an eight-hour day. If she didn’t hustle, she wouldn’t get her work done. Not finishing on time ended in a write-up and a disciplinary action in her record. She couldn’t afford that. She needed this job.

  Ally looked around the room for a weapon. There was nothing within reach. The motel management had bolted down the lamp on the desk to deter theft and the phone was out of her reach on the nightstand next to the bed.

  “Get over here and help me, Martin.”

  Ally wasn’t sure if that was the big man’s first name or his last and she wasn’t sure she cared. He was about to become an accomplice to whatever Mr. Combover had planned for her.

  “Yes, Doctor Thornton.”

  Doctor? That man was a doctor? From where she stood, he looked more like an escapee from an insane asylum. A good portion of his mousey-brown comb-over stood up on the top of his head, his wrinkled navy-blue suit looked like he’d slept in it, and the crazy look in his eyes told Ally she didn’t have long to live.

  She wanted to cry. Not one of the things on her bucket list, would get scratched off. Hell, she hadn’t even made love with a man, the huge mistake in Brian Culver’s backseat when she was a teenager notwithstanding.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I swear!” She continued to move away from the man until she found herself backed up against the wall, trapped with nowhere to go.

  The man shrugged. She refused to believe a real doctor would act this way. What kind of doctor killed people for cleaning their motel room? Moreover, what kind of real doctor stayed in cheap motels?

  “It doesn’t matter, now. You’ve seen Martin and me and you know our names. There are only two things that will keep you from going to the authorities. One is death.” He held up the syringe and smiled. “This is the other.” He turned to the other man who must have been his assistant, since the guy seemed to jump every time the doctor spoke. “Get her and hold her down.”

  Ally made a break for it. Deep down, she knew she didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of making it to the door, but she had to try. Leaping over the bed, she dove for the door.

  Martin grabbed her braided hair from behind and yanked her backward. She screamed at the pain. It felt as though he’d pulled out her hair by the roots all at once.

  She could hear her neighbor, Milly Jenkins’, voice in her head chastising her. You see. Didn’t I tell you that women who wear ponytails are more likely to get attacked? I saw it on the news. They even interviewed convicted rapists. They stalk women with ponytails and buns. They said it gives them something to grab onto.

  Now wasn’t the time to call Milly and tell her she was right. Though she wished she could tell her and scream for help while she was at it.

  Ally didn’t think these men were going to rape her. In fact, she was certain the syringe contained some sort of lethal overdose. The authorities would find drugs in her system and everyone would think she was an addict. She screamed for all she was worth, but it was only for a couple of seconds. Martin clamped his hand over her mouth while he yanked her head back by her hair and pushed her face down onto the bed. Please don’t rape me. Please don’t rape me. She thought she chanted that in her mind until the crazy man who called himself a doctor snarled.

  “We aren’t going to ravish you, you stupid girl.” He laughed a strange, high-pitched maniacal snicker that made Ally’s skin crawl. “Just a little pinch,” he said with a giggle before he jabbed the needle deep into her upper arm.

  Ally screamed for all she was worth, but it did little good with her face pressed into the bed. Whatever it was they’d injected her with burned like acid as it penetrated her flesh. She couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything beyond thinking of how much it hurt. Martin lifted his weight off her and she tried to sit up, but she couldn’t. The pain was just too intense. For some reason, she didn’t even have the strength to turn over onto her side.

  “Get our things packed, Martin. She isn’t going anywhere. The sedative should be taking effect any moment now.”

  So that was why she couldn’t move. At least if she had to die, it seemed like it was going to be quick, if not painless. That was
a good thing, wasn’t it? She drifted in and out while they continued to gather their things.

  “We can’t leave her here.”

  Ally wasn’t sure, but she thought it was Martin who had said that. She could only see two blurred shapes as they stood next to the bed talking about her as though she wasn’t there.

  “Of course, we can. If they’re following us, which I have reason to believe they are, having to take care of her will be a priority for them. When they find her—and they will—they’ll have to deal with her. It will slow them down and give us time to increase our lead. I always listen to my gut. It’s saved me more times than I can count. We leave her here for them to find and get moving. It will give us some much-needed time to escape.” The doctor chuckled. “And if they don’t find her and she goes to the police, when they check her blood there will be a media frenzy like you wouldn’t believe to help cover our trail. Either way, we’re home free at the next lab.”

  Ally didn’t hear much after that. The two figures moved around the room packing up. After a few moments, she closed her eyes and lost awareness of them. Besides, she was just too darned tired to care. All she wanted to do was sleep.

  Chapter Two

  “They’re gone. The scent left behind is at least four hours old.” Kalen checked his watch as they stood outside the motel room. “It’s two hours past checkout time. I doubt their stuff is still inside. We’re getting closer, so we should just keep moving.” Kalen looked at Bastien Sinclair, the official healer of their pack and owner of the multi-billion-dollar corporation, Loup-Tech, with a shake of his head. “I don’t know why you want this asshole to bother picking the lock. They’ll have left nothing, as usual.”

  He pushed the maid’s cart out of the way as he moved to join the others. Why were the maids always blocking doors with the damned things?

  Kalen couldn’t wait to catch the crazy scientist who insisted on changing soldiers into shifters. Sure, their species was a dying one, but they wanted to choose who they added to their ranks.

  Soldiers and mercenaries were on part of the list they had cut out and burned. The last thing they needed was a bunch of gung-ho soldier-types with ego trips mucking things up and getting them noticed. Not that it mattered much anymore. If the government knew about them, it was only a matter of time before they started trying to round them up like cattle.

  Pacing, Kalen ran his fingers through his hair as he watched Kyle Ward pick the lock. It didn’t help that he didn’t like the other man either. He would rather be on the road with anyone else but a mated pair and that piece of shit, Kyle. He didn’t add in the others because he didn’t know them well enough to form an opinion either way.

  His only other worry was the fact that there was a set of human twins with them. What stake the retired Army Rangers—the MacDonald brothers—had in all this, he had no idea. And he didn’t care.

  He only wanted to make sure the Rangers didn’t get them all killed. They might be trained soldiers, but shifters knew when to follow orders and when to tell the general to fuck off and die. From what he could see, the MacDonald brothers were order takers, plain and simple.

  “Damn it all to hell,” Kyle said as he looked back. “Get over it, Kalen. I slept with your sister. She’s a consenting adult. It’s not as though I coerced her.”

  “Shut up, you waste of fur, before I break your legs again.” He growled a warning. “Just because I agreed to work with you, doesn’t mean I like you.” He growled at the other man he’d just as soon skin and stuff as to work with. “Just shut up and pick the fucking lock.”

  Still on his knees, Kyle shook his head, then grinned when the lock snicked, and the door opened. “Technically I wasn’t picking the lock. It’s electronic.”

  “Whatever.” Kalen glanced over at Bastien. “Can I kill him now?” He would have added an exaggerated please to that, but Kalen didn’t beg anyone.

  Bastien chuckled. “I know there’s no love lost between you two, but you can’t fight forever.” He turned to the men who had come as protection. They all carried concealed weapons and held themselves at the ready.

  “Okay, Randy. It’s your call.” Bastien always deferred to the well-trained humans as though they were the heads of his security, though Kalen knew that honor went to Bastien’s friend, Dimitri, a Russian immigrant who had married the MacDonald twins’ sister, Charity.

  Randy Macdonald stepped forward along with his twin brother, Cameron. They drew their weapons as they quietly entered the room.

  “You’re going to want to see this, boss,” Randy called from near the bed.

  Kalen followed Bastien into the room. Nothing that had happened recently had prepared him to see a dead woman on the bed. “Well, hell. What are we going to do about this?” The woman lay face down, her rich brown hair spilled around her head like sable silk. It was as though she was asleep. Yet, she was too still.

  Randy reached down to feel for a pulse. “She’s still alive. It looks like someone has drugged her.” He pointed at a nasty-looking red spot on her upper arm. “They injected her with something. Anyone care to guess what it was?”

  The twins holstered their weapons against their sides and searched the room. “Man, am I glad you let us join you on this.”

  Me, too,” Cameron agreed. “The only way it would be better is if they had some of that serum to give to us. I’d change in a heartbeat if it meant being able to protect Chas better.”

  Randy snorted. “You just want to do it because you think it’s cool.”

  “Well, there is that,” Cam said with a shrug. “The only thing I can think of that would be cooler than watching these guys change is doing it myself.”

  “Come on, you two. Don’t start bickering here. We need to search the room.”

  Randy snorted at Bastien’s comment. “We rarely bicker with each other. We share that for our younger brothers and Dimitri.” He bared his teeth in a large grin. “We can’t help it. It’s fun. He’s so easily baited.”

  From what Kalen had seen, it was also easy to bait the MacDonald brothers. At least, Randy was easy. All one had to do to raise his ire was to call him Junior. What he had against that was anyone’s guess.

  Bastien was already digging around in the drawers of the bureau, opening and closing each one. He waved back toward the bed without looking. “We need to get this woman out of here before she wakes up and starts screaming.” He took a moment to look at Kalen. “Take care of her while we continue our search. She’s going to have questions, lots of them, and we need to know how much she knows.” He shoved his fingers through his hair, obviously agitated. “And what the good doctor gave her. If she’s had the serum, we’ll have to take her with us, and she’s most likely not going to take kindly to our basically kidnapping her.”

  Of course, she wouldn’t, but they couldn’t have the woman running off to the police screaming that there were werewolves in her city, and thanks to some mad scientist, she was now one of them.

  He glanced out through the still-opened door and into the parking lot of the cheap motel with a frown. It didn’t matter that this was a small town. Otherwise sane people screaming werewolf usually raised eyebrows no matter how small the community might be.

  Kalen knelt on the bed. Reaching out, he took the woman by the shoulder and rolled her over. Pain and terror-filled violet eyes stared up at him for a split second before she grabbed his forearm and sank her newly formed lycan canines into his wrist.

  It was obvious she was in mid-shift and filled with horror at what was happening to her. The smock she wore that identified her as one of the hotel maids barely had time to register in his mind before her assault. He growled with pain as he grasped her chin and inserted ever-growing pressure on the hinges of her jaw to release himself.

  He didn’t want to harm her, but damn, she had a hell of a bite force. She’d hit bone if he wasn’t mistaken.

  “Shit! She’s biting me. Sonofabitch, it hurts like hell!” The woman had a good grip on him, too
. Low growling sounds came from her throat as he continued to exert pressure on her jaw until she finally let go. He watched, horrified as she screamed and begged them to kill her to stop the pain.

  “Cover her mouth, for fuck’s sake,” Randy hissed as he ran to close the door. “We’ll be lucky if no one heard that.”

  Hell, they were already lucky. The woman had jaws like a steel trap. He looked down at the deep puncture wounds on his wrist, cocked his brow and gave the others a half grin. “She’s still mostly human—does this mean I’ll become one of them now?”

  A muffled scream drew his attention. Cameron was trying to hold her mouth shut while her beautiful face elongated into a muzzle. Kalen wasn’t sure he would have had the courage to try that. But then, he knew how hard she could bite.

  She continued a mixture of screams and howls as she jerked around on the bed, her body trembling with exertion. Her organs shifted and her bones popped and cracked as she changed shape into that of a beautiful and large sable wolf.

  Kalen knew from experience the change was always painful the first several times. The pain was so intense, one fought it. He supposed he should have tried to get into her mind and help her, but he’d just been so startled that she’d bitten him, not to mention worrying about what fresh hell her screams might bring to the door.

  He laid a soothing hand on her head and looked down into her beautiful violet eyes. “It’s okay. You’re okay.” He smiled. “I know you’ll probably think I’m crazy, but believe me, everything will be all right. We’ll tell you what happened, and we’ll help you to the best of our ability.”

  He continued to look down into her beautiful violet stare that drew him in. Kalen was aware of nothing going on about them as he met those startling eyes. It was almost as though everything in the world stopped and it was just the two of them in this room.