by Alisa Woods
“I don’t know,” she said sarcastically, “I thought maybe I could just blow you.”
He laughed so hard, it lifted him up from the mattress. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to specify that up front.” He smirked at her. “Otherwise, I get a little carried away with the thought of the main event.”
She fanned herself, pretending to be overheated. Then again, it probably wasn’t pretend. “You’re not kidding me, hot stuff.” Then she landed both hands on his chest and peered seriously into his eyes. “But one of these days, I really need a good night’s sleep.”
“We can sleep when we’re dead.” He grinned and pulled her in for a quick kiss. “But it has to be time to get up by now.” He eased her off his chest and groped around for his pants, which had been thrown on the floor somewhere when they’d headed in for the night and immediately gotten busy. He found them, pulled out his phone, and checked the time. “Shit!”
She propped herself up on her elbows. “What is it?”
“I’m late for training.” He cursed under his breath. As much as he loved Julia, and loved loving her, he really needed to get his act together and make sure it didn’t interfere with his alpha duties.
Her eyebrows flew up. “Oh no—that means I’m late, too.” She scrambled out of bed and hunted for her clothes.
“That’s right…” He started pulling on his jeans. “You’re starting at the school today, aren’t you?”
“Yep.” She glared at her wrinkled T-shirt and tossed it aside, going to dig out a fresh one of his. “Going to school, with lots of kids, smelling like sex! On the first day! What a great way to start.”
He laughed, but he wanted to make sure that this was actually something she wanted to do. He loved that she was helping out—he loved everything about it, including the fact that it was her idea—but he didn’t want her to feel pressured.
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” he asked. “You could start tomorrow instead.” They’d just recently opened the school again, given there hadn’t been any sightings of the Wolf Hunter or his thugs since the last attack, and that had been over a week ago.
She slipped his t-shirt over her thin frame, and it hung on her, two sizes too big. She gathered it together and twisted it into a knot to make it fit better.
“It’s not like anyone will be surprised you and I are having sex,” she said with a smirk. “I’m pretty sure even the kids have figured out that much. But yes, I’m sure—I want those kids to get the education they need. And have some kind of future. Plus, I have a few ideas about how to do that.” The look she gave him as she was buttoning her jeans was a little more hesitant, almost bashful.
But he didn’t expect any less from her. “Of course, you do. But I still want you to come by later for combat training with the guys. Do you think you can fit us into your schedule?” She had been showing Marco some of her moves—apparently, she had some training in jiu-jitsu, which was hot as hell—and he was up for naked wrestling with her just about any damn time, but she had some legit fighting techniques that his pack could benefit from. Plus, he was hoping the training would be one more hook to draw her in and keep her here. They hadn’t talked about her joining the pack or mating or anything—he was determined to take it slow after their rocket-hot start. He wanted her to be sure. And he wanted to know what her answer would be before he asked her the next time.
“I’d love to train with your guys,” she said with a small smile. “Maybe I can catch you in the afternoon session after school gets out?”
“Deal.” He jammed his feet into his boots and came over to drop a quick kiss on her cheek. “You know I love this, right? I love every bit of it—the school, the training…”
She smirked up at him as she ducked down to tie her shoelaces. “Me giving you blowjobs first thing in the morning?”
He closed his eyes, tipped his head back, and groaned. “If you start talking about it, we are never getting out of here.”
She laughed and sprung up from the floor, then slipped her arms around his waist and gave him a kiss on the chest. “My lips are sealed, then.”
He peered down at her. “Please don’t ever say that again.”
She laughed again and pushed away from him. He caught her hand in his because he seriously couldn’t stand to be more than a few feet away from her. Ever. And being separated for half a day was going to be rough on him. It was a good thing his wolf was crashed out, lolling on his back in a haze of post-climax bliss. It would make it easier for Marco to let her go for a little while. He kept his fingers laced around hers as they left his room together, closing the door behind them.
A giggle down the row of rooms snagged their attention. Stefan and Isabel didn’t even see them—they were too wrapped up in groping each other and working their way towards Stefan’s bedroom. Marco grinned and waggled his eyebrows at Julia.
“They were both out on the night shift patrol,” he said, quietly. “I guess they’re just getting in.”
“And just about to get off,” Julia said with a smirk.
Marco squeezed her hand harder. “What did I say about the sexy talk? No more. Or I’m going to drag you back into my room and bend you over my bed.”
She smiled wide, and it lit up something inside him—she was a sex kitten in bed, tough as hell outside of it, and then, to top it all off, she was crazy smart. She had been working toward some kind of degree in technology before her life went to hell and she ended up falling into Marco’s world. He was insanely lucky, she was fucking hot, and he was thoroughly in love. He just prayed he wouldn’t screw this up somehow.
He kept her hand in his as they strolled out toward the common area. Luke, one of his top lieutenants in the pack, was waiting for Julia in the eating area—he was going to be her escort to the school.
Luke gave him a nod good morning. “Hey, boss.” He looked to Julia. “Ready whenever you are, ma’am.”
“I’m ready.” She was still smoothing back her sex-tossed hair.
“Good luck with the little monsters,” Marco said and dropped another kiss on her cheek. He really didn’t want to let her go, but he wasn’t going to let that show now.
“See you soon,” she said with a smile, releasing his hand and walking off with Luke. Marco watched them go, fighting his own urge to follow after them and tell Luke that he would take her from there, but he really did have work to do.
He strode to the back of the shelter and out into the bright morning sunshine. A dozen of his top lieutenants were gathered, already organizing themselves for their hand-to-hand combat training. This was something new for them, and a direct response to the Wolf Hunter’s attacks. Marco wanted his people to be able to defend themselves, but also to be equipped to come to the defense of others, should the need arise again. Every day that passed without another attack or kidnapping, Marco dared to hope a little more that the Wolf Hunter had lost interest in them after the last beat down. But the darker side of him insisted they weren’t that lucky.
Normally, Stefan would be organizing anything on this scale, but he’d been pulling night duties with Isabel, and Marco was happy to let his best friends get to know each other a whole lot better. He hadn’t asked them yet—if Stefan had actually done the deed and claimed her. It was their business, and he figured they would tell him soon enough. He wouldn’t be surprised if Stefan claimed her the very first time, whenever that was.
Marco knew it was killing him not to claim Julia every time he had her writhing underneath him. Patience. It definitely wasn’t one of his virtues, but Julia was too important to him to lose.
Casey, one of his newer pack members, broke from the training and jogged up to him with some kind of electronic device in his hand.
Marco nodded at the device. “Is that what I think it is?” Casey had some electronics training before he lost his job when he was outed as a wolf. He eventually landed downtown, fighting for his life in Cruz’s gang. Marco had found him half dead in an alley, and Casey had been
in his pack ever since. Marco had asked him put together some kind of tracker, just in case the Wolf Hunter’s van showed up again. If they wanted to stop the attacks, once and for all, they needed to find out where the Wolf Hunter’s men were taking people once they were snatched. Then Marco was going to rip that fucker’s throat out and end this nightmare.
“Yeah,” Casey said. “Took me a while to get all the parts together, but I’ve got a couple of functioning prototypes now.”
He handed it over to Marco. It was mostly bare electronics—a circuit board, a battery, and other stuff that Marco didn’t recognize. It was kind of flimsy and fragile.
“It’s not finished, of course,” Casey said, waving his hand at it. “It works, though. It’s only got a range of about five miles, though, maybe ten at the outside. So, once we plant the tracker, we’ll have to make sure we follow them pretty close. It’s enough distance that we should be able to stay out of sight, but still be able to follow them to wherever that bastard is taking our people.”
Marco nodded. “Nice work.” He held it up. “We’re going to need something a little sturdier, though.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m working on a case to go around it to protect the electronics. You can keep that one for now—I should have a case by this afternoon.”
“Great. As soon as you’ve got something finalized, go ahead and start making more. Let me know if you need extra funds. I want every possible pack member to be carrying one of these, no matter what, by the end of the week. Next time the Wolf Hunter’s van shows up, I want every chance to get a tracker on it. Then we’ll hunt down his ass and make him regret messing with our pack.”
Casey smirked. “You got it, boss.” He jogged off to go make that happen in his workshop inside the shelter, and Marco slipped the jumble of GPS parts into his pocket.
He turned to watch his pack members pairing up. They had finished their warm-ups and were starting to do some light combat moves. He waved over Mason—he was barely seventeen, but he was fully grown as far as being a male shifter wolf. He had all of his strength, plus tons of raging testosterone eager to take on the Wolf Hunter. Marco just wanted to make sure he had a little experience to go along with all that exuberance. Marco himself was only twenty-one, but he’d been in more fights than he could count—and some he couldn’t even remember, not after the beat down. He hadn’t won all of them, but he had the strength of all one hundred submission bonds behind him now.
Mason didn’t have a chance, but Marco wanted to teach him how to fight smart, not just channel his righteous rage.
He beckoned Mason with a short wave. “Give me your best shot. And no shifting.”
The kid came at him and soon ended up face down on the pavement. Marco laughed then gave him a hand up. They went at it again and again, getting sweaty in the hot sun. Mason was learning a little bit about fighting, and a lot about how to stay alive. They had been training for about an hour when Casey came running back out of the shelter.
“Marco!” he called even before he reached them.
Mason took that moment of distraction to swipe Marco’s legs out from underneath him. He landed hard on the broken concrete.
“Asshole,” Marco grumbled at him, but the younger wolf just laughed.
Marco was picking himself up off the pavement when Casey reached him, out of breath and wide-eyed.
Marco immediately sobered. “What is it?”
“There’s something going down at the school,” Casey rushed out, breathless.
Julia. Marco didn’t wait to hear any more, he just grabbed Casey by the shirt and hauled him toward the street. “You’re with me,” he barked out. “Everyone else, grab what you’ve got for weapons and meet us at the school!”
And then he hauled ass around the corner of the shelter, praying he wasn’t too late.
Thugs in black tactical gear were hustling the schoolteacher and the kids toward the stairs.
Julia held back by the door to the one-room schoolhouse where the dozen or so kids received their lessons. One of the thugs was holding a gun to her side, keeping an eye on her while the other big, hulking men herded the kids like they were animals.
It didn’t take long before they were all single-filing down the stairs.
“Get moving,” the man barked at her when she didn’t leave the doorway the nanosecond the last child was out. He shoved her shoulder for emphasis. As if Julia didn’t know exactly what they wanted. The men’s faces were covered by black ski masks, like the cowards they were—cowards with guns. And, apparently, with the intent of kidnapping them all.
Julia marched down the steps, not dragging her feet, but not exactly hurrying. Her mind was whirling, trying to figure out what to do. She could shift and take on one of the kidnappers, but there were too many of them—maybe a dozen overall—and she might get one of the kids hurt in the scuffle. For their part, the kids were doing great, keeping calm and not shifting—Marco had trained them well. They were most vulnerable in their wolf form, simply because these men—the Wolf Hunter’s thugs—wouldn’t hesitate to kill them in that form. Being human was one of the few things that might keep them alive.
That was true for Julia as well, although her greatest concern was keeping the kids from falling into the hands of the Wolf Hunter. Only she had no idea how.
The schoolhouse room was actually an apartment on the fifth floor, and the elevator didn’t work, so they had to march down five flights. That bought her a little time, but it didn’t help—she still had no idea what to do.
When they reached the ground floor, she saw what had happened to the two pack members who had been guarding school—Luke and Jason were both laid out on the ground, unconscious. She couldn’t tell if they were dead or had just been tranquilized, like when the Wolf Hunter tried to snatch her and Ethan the first time. She didn’t have time to get a good look—her guard gripped her arm and shoved her through the door into the bright sunshine outside. A large white van sat askew in front of the apartment complex, and the teacher and kids were already mostly inside. One of the stragglers at the end of the line—Ethan—threw a worried look back over his shoulder at her.
Julia just pursed her lips and shook her head. It was too dangerous for him to try something, and she didn’t want him doing anything crazy to save her. She could tell by the look in his eyes that was exactly what he was thinking.
His shoulders fell, and he turned back to the van. The guard at the van door picked him up to throw him inside. This must have been too much for Ethan—he growled a little kid growl and grabbed at the guy’s face, getting hold of his mask with one hand and punching a small fist with the other.
“Ethan!” Julia rushed forward. “Stop it!”
A growling roar came from behind her, and everyone, including the guard and Ethan, froze and twisted to see what it was.
Marco—his eyes full of fury, charging out of an alley next to the apartment.
Julia’s heart seized. She didn’t know what Marco was planning, but she would find a way to help. She lurched over to grab Ethan out of the thug’s hands and turned to protect the boy with her body.
Shouts went up all around her. Julia met Marco’s gaze for a brief instant as he grabbed her and Ethan and shoved them away from the van and toward Stefan, who was right behind him. Stefan swung a metal trash can lid in front of them, using it as a shield as he hustled them away from the van.
Marco was beating the crap out of the thug, and the rest of the Wolf Hunter’s men were focused on that fight. The thwick of several shots sounded—tranquilizer darts—but she didn’t feel any pinches digging into her skin. She, Stefan, and Ethan scurried toward the alley.
“Go, go, go!” Stefan shouted at them. Metallic pings sounded against his trash lid shield. Julia had an iron grip on Ethan’s hand, and together they managed to reach the alleyway. They tucked around the corner, out of the line of fire.
Only then did she look back.
Marco was down on the ground, six thugs piled on top of h
im, with one of them repeatedly shooting darts into his body.
“No!” she cried out, involuntarily reaching toward him.
Stefan grabbed hold of her arm and dragged her back around the corner. He pulled her close and whispered hoarsely into her face, “This is what Marco wants. Don’t mess it up!”
Marco wanted this? Her eyes went wide as she looked back. The Wolf Hunter’s thugs were hauling his limp body into the van, dumping him next to the rest of the children and the teacher. Only Julia and Ethan had escaped, and then only at the cost of Marco being taken.
“You have to stop them!” She gripped Stefan’s shirt to make him listen.
He gave her a sympathetic look but just shook his head. Only then did Julia notice there was someone else in the alley with them—Casey, another one of Marco’s pack. She had seen Marco talking to him before and knew he had some tech skills, but her mouth dropped open at what he was doing—filming the whole thing on his phone!
“What the hell?” she yelled at him, her wolf nearly bursting out in her anger.
Casey winced and gave her a sideways look, but held his hand steady and continued to film the van. The back door slammed closed, and it screeched away from the apartment.
Julia shoved Stefan away. “What the fuck is going on here? How could you let them take Marco?”
Casey stopped the recording. The small ding rang through the silence after her accusation. But he ignored her question and turned to Stefan. “I can edit that last part out. The part where she’s talking.”
Stefan gave him a nod. “Let me know when it’s ready.”
Ethan was next to her, his face as aghast as Julia’s. “Why did you let them go?” In his young voice, the accusation was even more harsh.
The two men both winced. Stefan tipped his head toward Ethan. “We were doing what our alpha told us to do. Don’t worry, little man. We’re going to get everyone back.”
