Tempted by the Wolf

by Alicia Montgomery

  Merlin stood up, and Meredith suddenly felt the power emanating from him. She stopped short and looked back at Daric. He must have felt it, too, because his brows were drawn together in confusion.

  “Tsk tsk, she-wolf. They’ll be fine, just a bit of confounding potion to stop them from tearing my club apart,” Merlin drawled. “What kind of place do you think this is, anyway? You Lycans are such brutes, I swear. Ivar,” he called to his assistant. “I should have listened to you. They’ve brought me nothing but trouble.”

  “I told you, boss,” Ivar admonished.

  “I suppose my curiosity got the best of me,” Merlin sighed. “Take a seat, she-wolf,” he said, gesturing to the chair opposite Killian.

  “What did you do to them?”

  “What did I do to them?” Merlin exclaimed. “That one,” he pointed to Quinn, “chased down one of my best dancers! Do you know how much money Sven rakes in? I told you the Viking look was hot! He was human, too, which meant he didn’t cause a lot of trouble.” The warlock shook his head. “Anyway, in the middle of intermission, I see Sven tearing out from the backstage and that oaf—in full wolf form—hot on his heels. Then those two,” he gestured to Connor and Killian, “grab Sven and tried to take him down. I got there just in time to throw the confounding potion on them to knock them out. And now poor Sven’s gone.”

  “You chased him down? Why?” Meredith asked Quinn, but the other Lycan didn’t answer, except to let out a pained moan.

  “While your friends are recovering, perhaps you’d care to tell me what four Lone Wolves are doing in New York, traveling with a warlock? Does the Alpha know you’re in his territory?”

  “You know the Alpha?” Meredith asked.

  Merlin laughed. “Of course. I may not be bound by your society’s ridiculous territorial rules, but I’m smart enough to know that it’s better to keep Grant Anderson as a friend instead of foe. Well, not friends, strictly speaking,” he clarified. “But, he’s well informed of my activities and knows I’m just a humble businessman, trying to eke out a living.”

  Meredith snorted at his words. “Right. So, why did you hire us?”

  “Really, I’m explaining myself to you first?”

  Meredith shrugged. “If you want to know why we’re here.”

  “Fine,” Merlin huffed. “Like I said, curiosity. And, it seems witches and Lycans are slowly getting along, I thought I’d expand my clientele. Thought it would be good for business. Now, tell me what you’re doing at my club? And I know you weren’t looking to make some cash. That one,” he motioned to Killian, “tried to break in here.”

  “We just wanted some information.” Meredith explained to Merlin what had happened to Archie and how they found the card.

  “That was it? Why didn’t you ask me?”

  A groan came from Quinn. “Ask you? That was all we had to do?”

  “Well, if you were just regular Joes off the street, of course, I wouldn’t tell you anything. But, if you are working for Grant Anderson, all you needed to do was ask. Nothing would make me happier than having the Alpha of New York owing me a favor.”

  “Well, can you give us the information now?” Meredith asked. “I’ll let Grant know, of course.”

  Merlin paused. “Fine. Give me the card and Archie’s photo.”

  Killian, who managed to sit upright, handed Merlin his phone and the card they got with Archie’s things.

  “Hmm…” Merlin examined the card. “This is just our standard calling card. Only witches and warlocks can see it, but it was also enchanted with a spell so a particular person could read the address.” He looked over at Daric. “I suppose that’s why you have the warlock. He was the one that led you here.”

  “Can you tell if it was enchanted for Archie?”

  The warlock shook his head. “I’m afraid not. There are traces of the spell, but only the witch or warlock who cast it would know who it was intended for. However,” he continued, looking at the photo on Killian’s phone. “Ivar,” he called. “Take a look at this. Is this the man from last Wednesday night?”

  The other man walked to Merlin’s desk and stared at the photo. “Yeah, that’s him.”

  “So, he was here? You saw him?” Meredith stood up and slammed her palms on the desk. “Tell me, who did he meet? What did they say? Did they leave together?”

  “Calm down, she-wolf,” Merlin ordered. “Ivar and I noticed him immediately. Wednesdays are our biggest weeknight. Witchy Wednesdays, we call it, and this place is packed with witches since we offer some great deals on drinks and private shows. So, when an older human gentleman shows up, he stuck out like a sore thumb. But, you know, we don’t judge here, whatever floats your boat,” Merlin shrugged.

  “Did he talk to anyone?”

  Merlin and Ivar looked at each other. “Yes, he did. He met with another individual. They sat down to talk in one of the corner booths.”

  “Who?” Meredith asked.

  “See…that’s the other thing that made your father’s presence memorable. This person that he met with stayed in the shadows and as far as we could tell, heavily glamoured.”

  “Glamoured?” Meredith echoed.

  “He means the person was using a glamour spell to take on the appearance of another,” Daric supplied. Meredith jumped in surprise, not realizing that he was standing behind her.

  “That’s right,” Merlin confirmed. So, even if we did have a photo or video of him, you’d be seeing a totally different face. He could look like Ryan Reynolds or Penelope Cruz or Colonel Sanders.”

  Quinn let out a groan and stood up, though he was still disoriented as he swayed from side to side. He sank back down on the couch and covered his eyes with his arm. “The guy,” he began. “Sven…”

  “Why did you chase him down?” Killian asked.

  “I asked him about Archie. The same questions we’d been asking everyone. Then he starts getting antsy, and I could smell the sweat and nervousness coming off him. Before I knew it, he pushed me aside and ran. And so, I shifted and chased after him.”

  “Do you think he killed Archie?” Killian asked.

  “Maybe.”

  Merlin shook his head. “This Archie…you said he was killed that same night? Do you know what time?”

  “The Detective put his death around midnight,” Killian supplied.

  “Sven was sweet,” Merlin said. “A little naive, I would say. I can’t imagine him killing anyone.”

  “Then why did he run?” Killian challenged.

  Merlin shrugged. “Look, I’m sorry about your father. I’ll do what I can to help if you put in a good word with the Alpha for me.”

  “Done,” Meredith agreed with a nod.

  “Excellent. We’ll go and track down Sven, he’s probably at home, the poor thing. The way he tore out of here, looked like you spooked him good,” Merlin said. “Sven only started…what…a month ago?” Ivar nodded. “I don’t think he has a lot of friends. He was kind of quiet and kept to himself. I think he said his aunt was a witch back in Canada or something, which is why he knew about us. Give your contact details to Ivar, and we’ll call you, but not until after we talk to him. I want to reassure him that you're not trying to hurt him.”

  “Thank you,” Killian said. “Any chance you got something to take this headache away?”

  Merlin laughed. “Just be glad you’re Lycans, and you have enhanced metabolisms. If you were human, you’d all be in the hospital by now.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Meredith, this is the reason you asked me to come in early today?” Jade said, placing her hands on her hips.

  “It’s important,” the other Lycan retorted. It was the day after the strip club incident, and Meredith was sitting on one of the tables in Jade’s office, her legs swinging back and forth.

  The Lycan had found a way to send Jade a message from the computer in the common room (she was still banned from having her own personal electronics) and asked that the scientist come in early before she had
to bring Daric in. She sent the email on high priority, with subject EMERGENCY and programmed it to send three times every fifteen minutes. When Meredith got a reply from Jade at three in the morning telling her that yes, she’d meet her at the lab at 8 a.m. if she would please stop bombing her inbox, she turned the computer off and went to bed.

  As soon as Jade (grumpily) walked into the lab, Meredith shoved a giant cup of coffee in her hands and proceeded to tell the Lycan scientist what happened the night before. In full, descriptive detail. With reenactments.

  “You like coming in early, anyway!”

  “Not to hear about your sex life!” Jade said in an exasperated voice.

  “We did not have sex,” Meredith pouted. “I told you, he only licked my—”

  Jade stuck her fingers in her ears. “I don’t want to hear it again, please. Once was enough to scar me for life.”

  “Fine.” Meredith rolled her eyes. “We didn’t…” She held up one hand and formed the fingers into a circle, then pushed her index finger into the hole in and out several times. “He only…” She then made a V with her pointer and middle fingers and stuck her tongue between them.

  “Eww, please don’t do that again,” Jade gagged.

  “How am I supposed to tell you about what we did, then?” Meredith asked in an exasperated voice. “Shadow puppets? Sky writing?”

  “How about you don’t give me any more details? Stick to general information,” Jade groaned. “Oh, and by the way, supposed best friend of mine. You neglected to tell me about the death of your father and the fact that you have three brothers. How are you taking this?”

  “I’m fine!” Meredith assured her. She hadn’t seen Jade since her brothers arrived in New York. Grant said he’d be the one to tell Jade that she and Daric wouldn’t be in the lab for a few days. “Not like you thought to ask about me anyway,” she grumbled.

  Jade hopped on the desk next to her and put an arm around Meredith’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, Meredith. I got caught up with work and Sebastian and the baby. We’re going to have the loft renovated and have a couple rooms put in. Actually…” she smiled at the other Lycan. “I was hoping maybe you could have your own room in there with us. You’ll have a little apartment, actually, on a separate floor. Maybe someday, the Alpha will let you move out of here, and you can have a little home away from Fenrir.”

  “Really?” Meredith’s eyes widened.

  “Of course! Besides, I know Aunty Meredith’s going to be the best babysitter ever!”

  “Just as long as little Meredith doesn’t decide to set my hair on fire when I tell her she can’t have that cookie!”

  Jade laughed. “Well, according to Dr. Faulkner, there’s little chance the baby will be a dragon shifter. Although Sebastian has a dragon inside him, his fundamental DNA hasn’t changed. We’re going to run tests and map out—”

  Meredith placed a hand over the other Lycan’s mouth. “Blah blah, science word vomit. Let’s get back to my problem!”

  “And what is the problem exactly?”

  “That Daric is confusing, stubborn, sexy, and sending me mixed signals!”

  “Don’t forget the part about him being a warlock who was, until recently, an ally to our greatest enemy who had me kidnapped, tried to get my True Mate under his control, threatened my unborn child, attempted to kill our other best friend’s husband, had the Alpha kidnapped—”

  “I get it, I get it,” Meredith groaned as she hopped off the table. “I can’t resist bad boys, what can I say?”

  “This isn’t some romance novel where you’re the girl next door who gets mixed up with the leader of a motorcycle club!”

  “I know—what are you saying? You sound like you know what you’re talking about with the romance novels,” Meredith said with a raised brow.

  “Ugh! You’re not listening to me,” Jade said. “Or rather, you only hear what you want to hear. Really, Meredith? Out of all the hot men around here, he’s the one you want?”

  Her inner she-wolf was bobbing its head up and down, tail wagging. Yes, please, the she-wolf growled happily. Ugh, it was bad enough her inner wolf was batshit crazy over Daric; she just wished her little hussy of a body (i.e. her vajayjay) didn’t want him so bad.

  “You really are mental,” Jade said.

  “Oh my God, you’re the one sleeping with a fire hazard, and I’m mental?”

  “But Sebastian’s not evil,” Jade protested.

  “But Daric’s not evil, either,” Meredith retorted. “I mean, he’s on our side now…right? Kind of?”

  The scientist shook her head. “I still can’t believe you want to sleep with him.”

  “I didn’t say I was going to go through with it.” The she-wolf growled in protest. “I mean, c’mon. Just look at him? Wouldn’t you want to climb him like a tree?”

  “I would not,” Jade exclaimed. “And I already have Sebastian.”

  “What if he was dead?”

  Jade’s eyes suddenly began to glow, and the air became thick.

  “For crying out loud, Jade,” Meredith said. “I didn’t say I was going to kill your mate.”

  “But you said—”

  “Fiiiinnnnnnne,” the blonde Lycan said in defeat. “What if Sebastian were…turned into a llama?”

  “A llama?”

  “Yeah. If Sebastian turned into a llama, and he couldn’t, you know, perform. Because it would be weird.”

  Jade sighed. “Fine. Sebastian’s a llama and then?”

  “Well, if you had Daric or someone like him come up to you, wouldn’t you want to sleep with them?”

  “No.”

  Meredith threw her hands up in frustration. “I swear, I can’t talk to you about these things. When does Lara come back?”

  “Maybe we need to come up with an Operation: PTC for you,” Jade sighed, referring to Operation: Pop That Cherry, Meredith’s original plan to help her get rid of her virginity.

  “Pshaw, it’s been a long time since I punched my V-card.” Meredith frowned. “Say, you’re a doctor, right? Medically speaking, if I haven’t had sex in like, years, does it come back?”

  Jade rolled her eyes. “No, it does not. But let’s get back to the task at hand.”

  “You mean, Operation: Get Meredith Laid?”

  “I mean, Operation: Get Meredith Laid But Not To A Possibly Evil Warlock Who Could Betray Us,” Jade retorted.

  “Operation: GMLBNTAPEWWCBU? Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.” Meredith supposed Jade was right. Maybe all she needed was a good fuck, from any man. The she-wolf, of course, howled in anger. The little bitch just wouldn’t let up. Satan’s tits, it was the wolf’s fault she was in trouble.

  The sound of a knock on the door interrupted them.

  “Come in!” Jade called.

  “Dr. Cross?” Daric called as he opened the door. “I’m here for our session.” The warlock suddenly froze when his eyes landed on Meredith. “I didn’t know you were already here. Alynna told me that someone else would be bringing me here, I thought you were unwell.”

  “Did you have a late night?” Jade snickered.

  “We did not come home until midnight and…” he drifted off and narrowed his eyes at Meredith. “You told her about last night, woman?”

  “Duh, she’s my best friend. Of course, I told her about…” Meredith did the gesture with her fingers and her tongue.

  “Trust me, I didn’t need to hear it,” Jade said, slapping her hand over her forehead. “Or watch the reenactments.”

  “How could you give her such intimate details?” Daric roared, stepping closer to them.

  “Well, what was I supposed to do? Just forget everything?” Meredith challenged, crossing her arms over her chest. “Little chance of that happening, buddy. Not when I have the beard burns on my thighs to prove it.”

  “Lalalala…I’m getting out of here…” Jade sing-songed, sticking her fingers in her ears and walking out of the lab, the door slamming behind her.

  ***
<
br />   “You just had to make things awkward, didn’t you?” Meredith’s amber color eyes stared up at him brazenly, her bizarre statement ringing in Daric’s ears, but not making any sense.

  The damn Lycan was infuriating. And wildly inappropriate. And beautiful. And Daric could still taste her in his mouth and remember how the sweet honey flowed from her delicious, greedy little cunt and onto his tongue.

  “Well?” she asked, her gaze never leaving him.

  He had surely gone insane. Whatever possessed him to take Meredith into the closet and go down on her? It was that other dancer, James, of course. He and Quinn had just finished “entertaining” the ladies in the VIP room. It was mostly serving them drinks, and doing small talk, though Quinn was eager to show off his dance moves. He was glad the Lycan was more than happy to do most of the job. Perhaps many of the witches were fascinated at being in such close contact with a Lycan, since the two groups rarely mixed. Daric, on the other hand, mostly stood on the sidelines.

  As they walked into the dressing room, he heard the other men talk about how James was “going to score with that hot new Lycan bartender.” He saw red, and rage filled his veins. There was only one place James could have taken her—the hallway that led to the alley outside where all the dancers would take their smoke breaks. He hoped he wasn’t too late, for what, Daric wasn’t sure, but all he knew was he needed to see Meredith.

  Seeing her pinned up against the wall by that vain idiot, however, was not what he had in mind and instantly, he wished he could take James to the far reaches of Antarctica and leave him there. He satisfied himself with taking the man down, especially when he implied Meredith had wanted him. Daric knew that wasn’t true, but he wanted to make sure anyway, by finding out if Meredith wanted him as much as he wanted her. They came so close to having sex in that closet, and even now his cock was beginning to respond, not just to the memories, but also to Meredith in front of him, her breasts heaving against her black tank top that showed off her creamy skin.

  He let out a sigh. “I’m not the one who made things awkward with Dr. Cross. Why would you discuss such intimacies with her? Would you like it if I told your brothers?”