Mark of the Wolf; Hell's Breed

by Madelaine Montague

  Lucien waited until he was close enough to touch and then abruptly shifted into man-beast form. Several of the guards managed to scream, but Lucien, Damien, and Basil managed to take them before the guards could fill them full of holes. They bounded away when they’d backed the men onto the elevator and punched the button to send the cubicle on its way, arriving back at the target door just as a man opened it to look out.

  A look of horror crossed his features but he wasn’t too shocked to act. He was just too slow. Before he could slam and lock the door again, Lucien slammed into him, carrying him inside.

  Startled, Laurie screamed and then scrambled over the desk. “Thank god! I was beginning to think you guys had gotten lost!”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The rescue was pretty traumatizing. There were armed Federal agents crawling all over the building, which meant they had to make a window into a door and go outside to get away. Piggy-backing a wolf-man down the sheer side of a building wasn’t something Laurie ever wanted to try again! At the time, though, it seemed preferable to trying to fight their way past an army bent on putting as many holes in them as they could.

  Fortunately, gravity helped. It didn’t take long at all for Lucien to drop from floor to floor and reach the ground. It made for some scary drops and jolts, but he managed to catch each ledge so it wasn’t nearly as bad as a straight drop. And she had her face buried against his back so she couldn’t actually see anything even though her stomach told her each time Lucien let go to drop to the next ledge.

  The cars in the parking lot were their only cover once they left the building, but they almost managed to reach them before the Feds spotted them and they did manage to put some metal between them and the bullets. They made it into the woods on the other side without collecting Federal ammo either.

  That was when things got a little hairier. The guys wanted the angels to take her out of harm’s way. She not only didn’t like the idea of leaving the guys, she also didn’t like to fly—especially without a plane.

  They finally convinced her that everyone would be far better off without her in the way, though, and she went with Raphael.

  They didn’t put it like that, naturally enough. They made it sound like it was just anxiety for her safety that made them determined to fly her out of harm’s way, but she knew it was because she was slowing them down.

  She was ready to light somewhere as soon as she thought they’d managed to sneak past the Feds, but Raphael couldn’t be convinced. He kept right on going even though, after a short while, she could tell it was a hell of a strain on him to remain airborne carrying her. She’d never been more glad of anything in her life than she was when she realized he was descending.

  In the predawn hours, they landed in the yard of what looked like the cabin she’d stayed in with the guys, but she discovered that was deceptive once they were inside. It was similar but definitely not the same.

  A scantily dressed woman, heavy eyed with sleep or fatigue or both, greeted them as they entered. “Raphael?”

  “This is mon ami, Lucien and his pack’s, amour,” he said by way of introducing her. “Laurie, this is our woman, Amy.”

  Laurie thought if she hadn’t been close to dropping dead from fatigue herself the introduction would have stunned her stupid. As it was, all she could manage was a vague smile and the appropriate polite response.

  They led her to a room and told her to rest and she was more than happy to oblige. She crashed and slept. She was pretty sure when she finally woke up that she’d slept around the clock. It was early morning when she woke again and she didn’t think she would have felt as she did if she’d only slept a matter of minutes.

  Lucien, Damien, Kane, and Basil confirmed it when she left the bedroom. They’d been seated at a table eating but got up immediately when she left the room. They looked both pleased and relieved. “You ok? Feeling better? Hungry?”

  “Kane!” she exclaimed, rushing to throw her arms around his waist and hug him. “How did …?”

  She looked around at the guys questioningly when she pulled away.

  She saw that they were all glaring at Kane. She moved away from him and Lucien pulled a chair out for her at the table where they were seated. “You need something on your stomach. You haven’t eaten in a while.”

  Laurie blinked at him in surprise, but her stomach, as if in response, growled. “I don’t usually eat in the morning, but I could use some coffee.”

  Lucien brought her some coffee and a plate. Instead of arguing, she added cream and sugar to her coffee and picked up her fork. “How did you get away?” she asked Kane.

  He grimaced. “Not without help. The guys came and broke me out when they’d gotten you out.”

  She sent a startled, vaguely disapproving, look at the guys. “You went to break him out when you sent me away?”

  Lucien shrugged. “There wouldn’t have been any point in going after him if we hadn’t gone right then. The Feds were after us. They had him and they knew he was connected to us. We might never have found him if we hadn’t gotten to him before they could make him disappear.”

  “Oh,” Laurie responded in dismay. “Well thank god he didn’t have to depend on me!” She frowned, thinking. “You really ought to have gone after him first, you know. I don’t think I was actually in any danger.” She thought about it.

  “Well, maybe not. I didn’t trust that bastard that was questioning me, I can tell you. He tried to give me the impression that he was investigating my kidnapping, but he wasn’t very convincing. He wouldn’t answer any of my questions. He wouldn’t get me a lawyer and he seemed way more interested in Kane than he was the actual kidnappers.”

  Lucien frowned. “Well they didn’t actually see the kidnappers.”

  “Hmph! He all but admitted that that man that was killed was working for them. I asked about my brother and sister and their families and he said they were in witness protection and had been relocated—a year and a half ago! Months before the murder and I don’t believe for a second that my brother and sister wouldn’t have told them about me if the Feds had approached them and told them they were in danger because of something our father was doing.

  “It might have been believable that they didn’t know about the connection if not for that. I don’t think I would have believed them anyway, because if they’d tried to track down relatives of my father they would have had to run across my birth certificate and would’ve known about me without having to learn from my family.”

  She was actually surprised that none of the guys commented on her assessment, but then she was pretty sure they’d already figured out what the Feds were up to before they’d arrived, very conveniently, to clean up.

  They couldn’t have known she would be there and that it was a federal matter unless they’d been watching her and then looking for her after the kidnappers took her. Lucien and his group certainly hadn’t called them in. Even if the cops had been called on a burglary and/or shooting because of all the noise, they wouldn’t have known to call in the Feds.

  It finally occurred to her when they got up to do clean up that she hadn’t seen any of the angels and she vaguely remembered there’d been a woman at the cabin, too, when she’d first arrived.

  “What happened to the angels?”

  “They took their woman to another safe house—figured this one was going to be pretty crowded once we got back with Kane,” Damien responded.

  The comment reminded her that Raphael had introduced her to the woman as ‘their’ woman, Lucien and his pack’s.

  She was dying to find out if he’d said that because that was what Lucien had claimed, but she couldn’t quite get up the nerve. “I don’t suppose you managed to find out anything else about my father since nobody volunteered anything?” she said questioningly.

  Lucien looked disgusted. “Not a thing. Sorry baby. We tried. I’m pretty convinced they didn’t have him at either location. Not that we’ve got his scent, but we have yours and its part h
is since you two share the same DNA. And Raphael claimed to have gotten a good enough look at him to recognize him again if he saw him.”

  Laurie gaped at him, feeling her face heat with discomfort. “What do you mean, scent?”

  Lucien frowned, glancing at the others, clearly puzzled by her reaction. “Uh … Baby, you know we aren’t ….”

  She glared at him. “Don’t start that again! You are human! You may be enhanced—Well, I know you are. I’ve seen what you can do, but that makes you enhanced. It doesn’t make you not human.”

  The guys shared another look that she had trouble interpreting. Lucien moved closer and pulled her into a gentle embrace. “Baby …. Denying it doesn’t change it. We accept what we are.”

  Laurie stared up at him. “And you think I can’t or won’t accept it?”

  He smiled faintly. “Can you? Will you … accept us the way we are?”

  Laurie shifted closer. “I can and I have.”

  “Does that mean you’ll stay with us?” Kane asked.

  “That depends,” she murmured. “Are y’all planning on staying with me? Because it seemed to me that you were really anxious to go home. I thought that was why you were trying to track my father down? Because he had something to do with bringing you here?”

  “We don’t know that he did or if he can send us home, but it doesn’t matter if you’re willing to stay with us. We’ll gladly stay. At least … It doesn’t matter to us. But most of our battalion came through that rift. And we weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms. I expect a lot of them still want to go home.”

  He frowned. “I want you to really think about this, baby. We want you. But we aren’t the same and you know it. We’re wanted men. We’re going to either have to live on the run or find some place remote enough they can’t hunt us down, because they’re going to try. They want answers. They don’t just want us. It isn’t much of a life we can offer.”

  Laurie started to speak but he silenced her.

  “I’m serious about this, baby. Think it over. Let us know in a couple of days, when you’ve had time to think everything through.”

  * * * *

  A week later, somewhere in Alaska

  The cabin was luxurious, spacious, pretty much completely self-contained, and ungodly remote. As accustomed as Laurie was to living in town—even if it was a small town—the wilderness that surrounded the cabin was as unnerving as it was beautiful.

  She figured she could get used to it, though, probably pretty fast, actually. After all, she’d only had her cat for company before except when she was at work and she couldn’t really count work time as social time. She was surrounded with people she couldn’t chat with. Truthfully, she had far more company and interaction than she’d ever had before.

  She was going to miss her best friend … and her cat, but the guys seemed pretty determined to keep her occupied.

  She’d been a little stunned when she realized Lucien had really meant it when he’d said she was their woman. She was still trying to get used to that idea, but Lucien and Damien had both slept with her since the big battle at the cabin and although neither of them seemed completely happy with the arrangement they hadn’t tried to kill each other afterward.

  She supposed they were all going to have to adjust to the group thing.

  She thought that was probably the strangest thing about this very strange situation she’d found herself in. She thought it was also the one thing that was going to be hardest getting used to, but she discovered she was more inclined to find it wildly exciting than daunting.

  It wasn’t as if she was repelled by any of the four—far from it! She was attracted to them in every way—physically, emotionally, and mentally.

  Lucien seemed to think that she was their soul mate, that they’d been meant for each other. She thought that was the most romantic thing she had ever heard!

  It certainly didn’t make it less romantic that all four of them felt the same way.

  Well, she thought they did. They’d split up for the trip. She’d traveled with Lucien and Damien and the three of them had picked out the house. Kane and Basil were supposed to be joining them soon.

  And then maybe they could convince her that they loved her as much as Lucien and Damien did, she thought with a smile and a tremor of anticipation.

  Almost a week passed before Kane and Basil arrived and by that time Laurie was deeply worried. It didn’t help her feelings that they came bearing gifts—they’d brought her stuff from her apartment.

  Laurie stared at it, too stunned to speak for several moments, torn between the urge to berate them for scaring her and deep appreciation for their thoughtfulness. “I’ve been worried sick! I would’ve been more worried if I’d know you guys were risking getting caught to get this stuff. It’s just stuff! Not saying it isn’t dear to me, but you guys are way more important than anything I had in that apartment.”

  Kane and Basil had exchanged an uneasy/unhappy look, but at that they looked relieved.

  “It was my idea,” Kane boasted. “I thought of it way back when you were worried about the landlord putting it on the side walk. Basil stood my watch and his while I went to your place, packed everything up, and put it in storage. So it really wasn’t that risky. I didn’t have to go back to your apartment to get it.” He shrugged. “I didn’t tell you because I thought you might be pissed off about … uh … well, that bastard landlord put the apartment up for rent. He’d already piled most of it on the sidewalk when I got there. That’s why it didn’t really take me long to pack it all up and move it.”

  That relieved her of the sense of guilt she thought had overshadowed their thoughtfulness.

  “I got something for you, too,” Basil announced. He left the cabin and headed to the panel truck outside. When he returned, he was carrying a cat that looked like a whirling dervish, bleeding from scratches on his hands, face and neck, and struggling to maintain his ‘look what I got you’ smile. Her cat wasn’t too happy either.

  But then Marcy had never been particularly fond of dogs and Laurie had a feeling she sensed their wolf side.

  Well, she’d just have to adjust!

  “You wonderful man!” she exclaimed enthusiastically. “You can put her down now.”

  Uttering a deep-chested growl, Marcy hit the floor running and disappeared under the couch. More snarls and growls emerged once she’d found a place to hide, but Laurie decided to ignore her.

  Pretending she didn’t notice the already closing wounds, Laurie surged toward Basil and up on her tiptoes to kiss him. To say it wasn’t quite what she’d expected was an understatement. She’d intended a friendly kiss of affection and appreciation. She’d expected something similar. What she felt was raw need as their lips met and Basil closed his mouth over hers.

  The feel of Basil’s mouth was as unique as his essence as it flowed into her, branding her with the feel and taste of his desire, dragging her deeper into the molten abyss that had her as drunk as if she had alcohol flowing through her veins. It seemed to last forever … and not nearly long enough.

  She was panting for breath when he lifted his head. “It’s really hot in here,” she said weakly. “I feel dizzy.” She glanced from Basil to Kane, trying to gather her thoughts, and abruptly remembered, when she saw Kane was looking both crestfallen and indignant, that she hadn’t offered to kiss him for his daring deed!

  Pulling away from Basil resolutely, she moved to Kane. “I can’t thank you enough for your thoughtfulness,” she said shakily as she strained up to reach Kane’s lips.

  He didn’t leave her to struggle alone. Grasping her waist, he hauled her up tightly against his length and laid a sizzling kiss on her that rivaled the heat in Basil’s. His taste was like strong liqueur. It went right to her head and made her even dizzier, heating her from the inside out. Her kegels commenced to clapping ‘here boy!’. Her knees and legs felt like they’d turned to cooked spaghetti, in fact everything below the waist felt like it was cooking.


  Abruptly, she recalled the fantasy she’d entertained when they’d been at the first safe house and it didn’t seem nearly as wildly improbable and way more appealing.

  Lucien and Damien were out hunting and it seemed a really good time to get to know Kane and Basil better. After all she was supposed to be their woman, wasn’t she? That was what they’d said when she’d agreed to go with them. And yet not a soul had touched her since they’d left the lower forty eight!

  And she had needs, she discovered, that went way beyond any needs she remembered ever having had before.

  “My, it’s hot in here! What day is it? I mean time?” she asked when Kane finally broke the kiss.

  Kane stared down at her in bemusement, blinked a couple of times and then scooped her up in his arms. Turning, he surveyed the massive great room of the lodge, zeroed in on the stairs leading up to the second floor and strode briskly toward them.

  Unless he was dancing the two step, Laurie thought dizzily, Basil was right on his heels.

  She tilted her head until she spotted him, discovered she was right, and gave him a come-hither lash batting signal and a dopey smile. “Are we doing a three way?”

  They’d reached the upper hallway by that time. Kane halted in his tracks and turned to look at Basil, who he apparently had realized was following them step for step. Basil and Kane exchanged a strange look. “Baby …,” Kane said finally. He frowned and looked around and then headed into the nearest bedroom and set her down beside the bed. “Why don’t you lie down? We’ll talk about it later.”

  “Can we lie down together and talk about it now?” Laurie asked, dropping abruptly to the side of the bed and falling backwards. “I am so hot! And you guys didn’t get a turn. We can do it now,” she said playfully, lifting one leg and scrubbing the sole of her foot over the hard bulge in Kane’s jeans.

  “With both of us?” Basil asked, beginning to sound more than a little peeved.

  Laurie sighed. “I guess that’s a no? I can just lay here and be a Laurie sandwich,” she added. “We don’t actually have to do anything … maybe a little petting?”