by J. C RIMELL
“You sound different.” His eyes narrowed, exposing the strange white circle in the center of his pupils. “Are you a stranger here?”
His accent wasn't from Carolina, perhaps more European. But there was an undercurrent of something else. Something foreign Kit couldn't quite catch, despite coming from a city full of diverse cultures. She was about to answer him, but caught her tongue just in time. Shaking her head in response, she watched his brows knit tighter together.
He breathed deeply, a strange look of pain flashing across his eyes as though fighting with an internal struggle. “Turn around so I can untie your restraints.”
Kit didn't know if turning around would be the last thing she ever did. If it were, at least she wouldn't see death coming.
Propping herself forward on her knees, she shimmied around managing to remain upright. Her breathing was jagged and forceful while she waited. Kit tried hard not to move when she heard a strange growl emerge from behind her. She had no idea if this was part of a psychotic game and he wanted her to fight just so he could trap her again.
Seth found the woman attractive. Beautifully so, and it awoke the male in him that had remained dormant since the curse. He took a hold of her slender hands and marveled at how small they looked in his own. He saw the broken skin of her wrists, the smell of her blood was a fragrant bouquet that screamed at him. Tore at his throat like a wild beast. He felt her pulse quicken beneath his thumb, her blood warm on his skin. Releasing her restraints, he lifted his thumb to his mouth, tempted to taste, to savor.
Sliding his tongue over the crimson liquid coating his thumb, he took a second to distinguish the flavor. It was like an aphrodisiac. His fangs lengthened, a sudden erection grew thick and hard against the buttons of his jeans. The feeling grew intense, and he hadn't felt himself react in such a way for many years. Wiping his hands down his shirt, suddenly overcome by the weakness of the body he was inside of. He needed a new host and soon. His head dropped down, his lips brushing the buttery soft skin of her neck. Oh, the temptation of it, maybe just a short feed to strengthen him a little. At least that's what he told himself as he fingered the short, silky golden strands of her hair.
Rather, Seth knew, he wanted to taste her skin and draw her blood into his mouth. It was a compulsion that still felt odd. Like an alien demand his body craved. Even against the very core of who and what he really was, beneath the fiend he had been unwillingly turned into. Tracing the curve of her neck with his thumb, he felt her shiver with trepidation beneath his icy touch, and he despised himself.
“I'm a fucking monster,” he cursed under his breath.
No female alive would want him or look at him as if he was anything other than a thing of nightmares.
“You'll be fine now, no one will hurt you.” He let go of her. No, he didn't want to hurt her, he wanted to feel her womanly body pressed up tight against his own, the heat of her. Biting down on his tongue he drew blood as his lethally sharp fang pierced the sensitive skin. “Stand up.”
What? Kit felt her jaw clench as she curbed her temptation to yell, shout and plead, because she couldn't comprehend just what was he was implying.
Oh, Jesus, please. She couldn't dare to hope.
Using the wall for support, Kit pushed herself up onto her feet. Her legs trembled, weak and shocked. She craned her head to look at the stranger who had brought her here and wondered if he would still kill her. Wishing now she had spoken to her parents more often, regretting all the things she hadn't yet done. Would anyone be looking for her? Or would her face be on a poster stuck to the door of her aunt's café, just like all the others who had gone missing?
Her heartbeat was a jackhammer in her chest. The weight of dread so heavy, it was suffocating, threatening to take her under. Kit's hesitant, blurry gaze flicked upward, and his glacial eyes were the last thing she saw before darkness eclipsed her vision.
Chapter Nine
Cade rushed from his room through the den, wearing a clean black shirt with the sleeves rolled up and some black denim jeans. He'd even taken the time to shave. Now he was running late for his date with Kit.
Not a great start.
Slipping into his black leather biker jacket, he checked for the keys in the pocket for his Harley. Feeling the cool metal between his fingers he tried to avoid being seen as he went through the kitchen. At this time of night, it would be empty and led straight out the back of the compound.
“Where are you going all spruced up, Omega?”
Cade cursed, having thought he'd slipped out unnoticed.
He should have known better.
“None of your damn business, Gunner.”
“Oh? I think that's where you're mistaken.” Gunner took a long sweeping look at the male and tried hard to fight the attraction he felt toward him. No, that little snippet of information would never, ever come out. It was securely buried in that deep, dark place Gunner stored all his emotions and bolted down with heavy, fucking lead weights.
Cade spun on his heel to face the Alpha's arrogant wingman. “Where I go and who I see is no concern of yours.” Somehow the two men had edged closer. Standing face to face a growl hummed in Cade's chest, fists were clenched and fangs punched out.
Gunner felt his cock twitch, he could smell the guy's scent, fresh from the shower all up close and in his face. Those eyes, deep and gray with silver streaks, seeing all kinds of shit he didn't want them to. He battened down the hatches before any of his real emotions could surface and be picked up on.
It was Nevada who intervened.
Thank fuck! Gunner thought.
Returning from her run, she shifted. Dazzling the two men with the myriad of bright sparks and glow of her transformation from the sleek and lethal golden wolf, into the beauty of a woman. She slipped back into her clothes she'd stashed to one side of the forest and made her presence known. “Jeez, Gun, give the guy a break. He may not be entitled to a mate, but he can sure get himself some sexual gratification.”
Ouch. Gunner squashed those images pretty swiftly.
Nevada's dominant eyes took a leisurely stroll over Cade. “Wow, you look good, Cade, never knew you could scrub up so well, brother.” She chuckled and winked at him. Tugging Gunner's arm, she dragged the hot-headed beta away. “Come on, Gun, I'll give you a run for your money in the gym, release some of that pent-up frustration. Best out of three?”
Yeah, good luck with that, Cade thought as he watched her lead the dickhead away. For whatever reason, Gunner had always had a problem with him and Cade accepted that he just rubbed the guy up the wrong way. The aversion started the night Cade came to Shadow Creek. One look in Gunner's direction was all it took and from that moment on, the red wolf never hid his dislike for him. Cade hadn't anticipated Gunners reaction, didn't even know the guy, but he sure as hell learned to defend himself quickly.
He may not be his Alpha's right-hand man, it was a position that had to be earned and Cade was too much of a rebel, too reckless. But he wouldn't be trodden on like dog shit by anyone―ever.
§
Cade's ride into Shadow Creek was made short by the dizzying speed at which he'd dared to drive at. His mind full of thoughts of spending a night out with Kit hadn't melted the arctic frost in his chest, but nothing would dampen his spirit.
Arriving at the café Cade parked outside and propped his bike on the stand, watching as Jo fumbled with the keys to the door. Her hands were shaky as she tried to get the key into the lock. A sudden, violent jab in his sternum had him realizing at once the pain that had plagued him all evening, had something to do with Kit.
“Jo?” he said, approaching her and gently took the keys and locked the door. “What's wrong?”
Trying to inhale a breath, the woman was clearly worried. “Kit should have been back over an hour ago,” she said, trying to play down her concern, but his intelligent gaze saw it was obvious the woman was panic-stricken inside. “She was going home to change for your date. You're late by the way.”
&nb
sp; The wolf in him paced, his own anxiety bubbling to the surface. Hands on his hips, he tried to think of plausible explanations. Having watched over Kit for so long now, he knew it wasn't in her nature to be late or deviate from made plans. He looked around, knew she locked her push bike in the parking lot behind the town's library, the tall, red brick building obscuring his view from where he was standing.
“There's no answer on her cell or the house phone,” Jo replied flipping shut her Samsung. “I'll head over to the house, see if she's there. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about.”
Cade nodded, trying to smile at her shaky laugh as she clutched her bag and headed across the street to the parking lot with him following closely behind.
“I'll come with you.” He wasn't about to let the woman walk into any kind of danger or see her niece injured or possibly even worse. The wolf growled, its fangs razor sharp against his skin, the protector in him clawing to get out. He had a hunch something was acutely off about the situation and he prayed to God he was wrong.
Immediately picking up Kit's scent he tracked it. Soap, jasmine, something that held a hint of sweet spice, but it was marred by the undeniable scent of one of the Others.
The stale blood and rotting flesh.
Memories surfaced, the ones he tried to keep buried yet arose every time he caught a flicker of their decaying odor. His two pack mates had been missing for a couple of days having gone to a club in the city looking for girls to hook up with for the night. They were strong, virile males and could handle themselves in both their human and wolf forms. But alarm bells rang when after twenty-four hours they were still missing.
Cade and his cousin had traveled further North, following every faint scent and lead they had in an effort to locate the two young shifters. Flashes of bodies lying naked, broken, and bloody on a beach having been washed ashore by the tide still scarred his thoughts. Various marks on their flesh that should have healed seemed to indicate some kind of testing had been carried out. They had been killed by decapitation. Just what had tortured them and taken their lives had yet to be discovered.
“Her bicycle is still here.” The anxious tone of Jo's voice sliced through the quiet like a scalpel, scattering the images in his head like paper in the wind. “Her bag, everything is still inside, her cell, wallet… everything.”
Cade didn't want to get the cops involved, but he knew he had little choice than to go through the proper channels. The two deaths in his own pack had been covered up on the say-so of his cousin, Jack Henderson, Chief of Police and one of the Protectors for the Society.
“Cade?” Jack sounded surprised by the call, but it wasn't often Cade called upon his cousin.
“I'd love to say this is a social call.” He knew Jack would've already guessed it was anything but. “I need you over at the parking lot behind the library in Shadow Creek. Looks like a local girl, Kit McCoy has been snatched.” He couldn't say too much still within earshot of Jo. Her rosy complexion was now waxy and pale under the street lamp with shock and worry about her niece. He felt a knot tightening in his own stomach. The thought of Kit being harmed made him grip his cell phone unforgivingly as he tamed the rumble in his chest that wanted to emerge as a vicious a growl.
The other man sensed his cousins unease seeping through the end of the line. “It's one of them?”
“Yeah.” Cade cursed, running a fist through his hair in frustration. “Hurry, Jack, I've got a bad feeling about this.” Ending the call, his eyes scanned the parking lot for more clues. He needed to shift, he could pick up on the trail faster that way. It was clear they hadn't intended to go to Kit's. Leaving her possessions, including keys and valuables, screamed abduction. After convincing Jo to go home and wait in case Kit turned up, he slipped into the nearby shrubbery on the far side of the lot. Stashing his clothes and his belongings amongst some rocks under a thick-leafed bush he set his wolf free.
Muscles stretched, bone lengthened and snapped, and his animal instincts swelled into a volcano of heat that took over his entire body until the man was an echo in the back of the wolf's mind. It would merely be a flash of light to a passerby seeing the transformation. However, he always took care he was well out of sight of anyone. Shifting allowed him to communicate with his pack on a broader scale.
Once picking up the trail, he started to run sending mental messages. Firstly to Fleet, his Alpha, and reluctantly to Gunner, who he liked about as much as a fly on shit, but he was the best tracker in the pack. Cade wasn't about to compromise Kit's safety for his own personal differences with the guy.
Their responses were swift. The mental link between them growing stronger as he neared the pack's lair. The caves overlooking the ocean were deep and ran well into forestry areas still untouched and too far out and dangerous for the general population. Shadow Pack also used the best in alarm systems. Snow knew all there was to know when it came to technology. If an outsider managed to get in uninvited, they would wish to hell they hadn't, there would be no getting out unless permitted.
Cade ran hard, it was a good distance from the small town to the compound. Stopping at a hairpin bend in the road that edged the sea, he pointed his muzzle first to the road and then upward. He scented the faint lingering smell of the vehicle mingled with the floral hints of jasmine from Kit and the stale blood of the Other.
A snarl curled his muzzle back, revealing his deadly fangs at their full length. The bastard who had her would have his fucking throat ripped out and his black heart torn to shreds.
Breathing deeply, he got his head back in the game. Feeling the cool, night breeze slip through his thick black pelt he continued to move. He took off from the road and headed toward the caves, the sound of the waves disappearing in the breeze behind him.
Fleet and Gunner met him minutes later on the outer edge of the lair. The gray/white Alpha stood tall and proud. His wolf was the image of the man: strong and well-built with salt and pepper hair, well respected by his pack. Gunner stood beside him, slightly smaller and broad shouldered, his pelt a contrasting red, a flame in the night.
Are you sure it was one of them that took her? Fleet's voice was a deep reverberation in Cade's mind.
I have no doubt. The scent was the same. Cade relayed the information, the point where the scent had trailed off and tried to keep his emotions in check. He didn't need the pack picking up on any feelings he had toward Kit. It would be easy to do seeing as each pack member was linked by their telepathic gift. In a ritual spanning centuries, each chosen pack member swore an unbreakable oath to the Society. Being able to connect with one another was part of accepting that pledge. But the downside meant nothing was completely private. And each member had his or her own techniques for hiding thoughts they didn't want others to know about.
That, however, didn't strictly apply to an Alpha and certainly not to Murphy, one member of the pack who could also pick up on feelings and emotions. There was no hiding anything from that shifter.
Suddenly Snow's voice cut into the conversation. Sitting behind a trio of desks back at the lair, he had recently taken up his new role in the pack and could be found whizzing between several computers and video screens on his customized wheeled chair.
Some fool just tripped an alarm on the north side of the den.
Cade received the command to check the outer perimeter while Gunner was sent to pick up on the trail. Fleet headed back to the den to check on who had stupidly tried to get through their tough security.
Moving quickly, Cade crossed the distance and began a sweep of the outer circle. His paws were so sure of the landscape beneath them, like he was a living, breathing extension of the earth. He knew the area by heart, every last rock, rabbit hole, and tree. When he scented a familiar fragrance halfway around the perimeter some fifteen minutes later, he stopped dead in his tracks. Trotting back he let the wolf lead, take over and show him what he'd found. His heart was racing as he edged nearer, her scent was a gentle caress which the wolf savored.
He remaine
d vigilant, even though the wolf assured him there was no one else. The lingering smell that remained was of the Others, but only weak against the floral tones of the woman he knew was out there… Somewhere.
Chapter Ten
When Kit came to, the dawn was a promising streak of the faintest gray in an inky blue sky. The sound of leaves danced around her in a soft breeze as her eyes opened to see a dense canopy of foliage. The dark parasol pierced by the remaining stars that twinkled above. She didn't move. Laying still and quiet, she suddenly felt the swell in her stomach rise up like a tsunami and her emotions came all at once. She cried fiercely, her hand smothering her mouth as not to be heard, but the tears flowed relentlessly. Kit was grateful and relieved she was still alive.
Sitting up slowly as her tears subsided, Kit caught the shimmering reflection of stone gray eyes coming toward her, and she scrambled to her knees. Her sobs caught in the back of her throat as she watched the large animal prowl languidly forward. She wiped her face with the back of the cuff of her light cotton jacket, ridding her eyes of moisture so she could see more clearly.
Shit! Kit knew not to run, but that's what she felt like doing.
Reaching out she grabbed a long, thick branch and clutched it. Her gaze locked solidly onto the… Wolf?
Yes, it was a wolf. Oh, Jesus! Oh holy fucking hell!
It lowered its head and lay on its belly, releasing a soft whimper. Surprised by its calmness, she waited, inside a trembling wreck expecting it to pounce. When after several eternally long heartbeat's nothing happened, she hesitantly let go of the breath she'd sucked in, hearing it shudder on the way out.
“Okay, if you don't hurt me,” she said, her voice trembling. “I'll let go of this stick. What do you say, hey, nice Wolfie?”
Her eyes widened as the wolf raised its head and gave a short, low howl before creeping gently forward, remaining low, its belly brushing the ground. She scurried backward, but her gaze never left the animal. Strangely, its eyes didn't look hungry for a kill. Rather they looked sympathetic, soft and kind, almost… familiar. The air took on a strange energy, wrapping around her, soothing her like a warm blanket being draped over her shoulders.
