Penny of the Paranormal: Shifter Romance (Vanguard Elite Book 4)

by Annie Nicholas

She yanked her hand away as if burned. She smelled of a confusing combination of shock and arousal.

  Before either of them could make anything of a simple touch, he grabbed her by the gloved hand and pulled her into the forest. Deeper and deeper, to give them some distance from the others sensitive ears.

  “That’s far enough, Alistair. I want to be able to find them again.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “We just follow our scents back to them.”

  “Oh…” She shrugged. “Look, Pallas assigned me as team leader.”

  He shoved his cold hands into his pockets. “And?”

  She sighed. “I know you mean well, but you’re being selfish by ordering my team around.”

  “Your team is never going to survive without direction.” He didn’t understand why her words stung so much. For the first time, he was really trying to help others, for their sake and not his, yet she was upset. He rubbed the ache growing in his chest. “You might get hurt, Penny. I joined to protect you,” he whispered.

  Couldn’t she grasp that?

  Penny crossed her arms. “Ian made you volunteer. I’m not stupid.”

  “It’s not like he twisted my arm. I mean, look at your team choices.” He pointed back at the campsite. “Seriously? I haven’t been here long, but from what I gather Pallas doesn’t care if any of you die. Don’t think I didn’t notice that unmarked grave you visit on the edge of the property.”

  She gasped. Her eyes wide and brimming with tears. “Jake didn’t die in training. It was from a house fire the humans had set. Not anything Pallas did.”

  “That doesn’t excuse him almost drowning both Clare and Darrell or any of the other close calls others had suffered. You can still die out here.”

  “I’ll have you know I picked the perfect team. Parker can build, Vicki can cook, Bobby Jo was studying to be an astronomer, Amy is a nurse and Nick, well… Nick is a florist but he can shift the fastest.”

  Alistair gave her a slow and meaningful glare. “You picked them with all this in mind.”

  “No, of course not. I didn’t know that the mission would be a death march into a winter wonderland, but I can work with who I picked. If I recall properly, I didn’t pick you.” She jabbed him in the chest with a tiny little finger. Very un-omega like. But was it? She was protecting her team. Wasn’t that the scope of omegas? To care for the pack. “I need a team. That means working together. My question is what do you offer us besides your opinions?”

  Hurt flashed through him as if she slapped him with claws out. He leaned forward until they shared air. “I can hunt.” He was filled with inner demons, none of which he would share with Penny. She didn’t need to know what drove him to take care of her.

  She visibly swallowed. “Well, then, that can be helpful too.” She spun around and stomped back to the camp—in the right direction, at least.

  He kept his distance, least she heard his chuckles. He wasn’t laughing because he’d won the argument. On the contrary, he thought he had lost it. The little omega had taken back control of her team without shedding one drop of blood. That was why he was laughing. At himself, for thinking he could just take over.

  When he arrived at the campsite, he stopped dead in his tracks. Well, he’d be a donkey’s uncle. Parker had built a lean-to and lined the snowy ground with evergreens to help retain their warmth. He crouched, peeking inside.

  They were all piled together with no room for him.

  Penny was in the center of everyone, her gaze steady on his as if daring him to squeeze inside.

  He sighed and curled up on the edge. This would be the worst time of his life and the girl he’d made this sacrifice for hated him now.

  Chapter Four

  The scent of smoke clogged Penny’s nose. She couldn’t breathe. Heat scorched her skin as she crawled on hands and knees. The manor was on fire again. Something struck her hands and she stumbled. It was a body. Her heart leaped to her throat. The smoke cleared and Jake’s dead eyes stared back at her.

  Penny jerked awake, a scream on the edge of her lips. Every muscle in her body was stiff and it took two tries to crawl over the bodies of her teammates and out of the lean-to. She sucked in a big lung full of cold air as if she’d actually been suffocating.

  She hadn’t known Jake long, only a few days, before the fire had taken his young life. He’d been the only omega male she’d ever met. It had been nice to have someone who seemed to understand her. They’d buried him on the manor’s grounds since his pack refused to claim his body. That was how much an omega’s life was worth to most packs. If he’d been a hunter, she bet they would have sent a delegation.

  The cold had worked its way deep into her bones while she had slept, even with the body heat of the others to keep her warm. Then again, it could have been the nightmare that chilled her. She rose to her feet and peered through the dim morning sunlight and spun a slow circle. Where was the sun rising? The overcast sky and the trees made it difficult to judge east. Damn it. She’d placed her hopes on this so they could at least hike in the right direction.

  Alistair strode out of the woods. Shoulders rolling as he walked in the way predators of her race did. It shouldn’t be legal to look that sexy after spending a night sleeping in the snow. The wind tussled his hair and he gave her a lazy smile. “East is that way.” He pointed in the direction he’d come from.

  “I know.” It was a lie but he was probably too far to smell it.

  The others were starting to stir.

  “Where were you?” she whispered as he brushed past.

  “Checking the perimeter. Looking for tracks or scents of prey. Marking my territory.” At the last comment, he winked.

  Her bladder decided to pick that moment to remind her she had her own territory to mark. She squeezed her thighs together. He seemed so calm and relaxed in the wild. Not like when he’d been stuck healing in the manor. There he always seemed on edge and filled with anger. She envied his relaxed confidence in the face of possible travesty.

  Hurrying into the bushes, she found a secluded spot to take care of business. Unlike Alistair, she didn’t flourish in the wild. She loved the forest and had grown up following the hunts her father organized until their lands had been taken from her pack by the banks. Her wolf senses came to life out here, but sadness tugged at her soul at those fleeting memories of her childhood. The expanse of the trees made her feel small and she never knew exactly what she was supposed to be doing. Like the whole hunting thing was a mysterious secret that no one had explained.

  Once done, she strolled around the camp to see if she saw anything track-like. Why? She wasn’t sure. Alistair had done it and he made it sound like it was the right thing to do.

  “Penny?” Vicki joined her. “What are you doing?”

  “Checking the perimeter and looking for prey.” Glancing past Vicki, she spotted Alistair in the trees. His shoulders shook in silent laughter. Penny rolled her eyes at herself. What was she doing pretending to be a hunter? If a squirrel jumped out, she would probably scream from surprise.

  “That’s a good idea. I’m so starved I’d eat whatever you caught raw.” Vicki clutched her stomach.

  Penny’s was filled with terrible pangs as well.

  Alistair stopped mid-step, all signs of his amusement gone. “With your permission, Penny, I’ll hunt while you and the others travel toward Mount Killmore.”

  “How will you find us?” Or was he using hunting as an excuse to escape the mission? He could always claim he wasn’t able to find them and return to the manor. She couldn’t blame him as she tried to stop her teeth from clacking together. But if he did leave them, he’d lose his bet with Pallas and lose a year of his life to working at the boot camp.

  Alistair tapped his nose. “I’ll track your scent and I don’t plan on ranging too far.” He pulled his sweater over his head.

  Vicki’s eyes went wide and Penny fought the urge to tell her to shut them. Nudity wasn’t an issue for shifters, but Alistair had the best ches
t. All hard planes and masculine hair. A perfect place for a woman to rest her head. Before now she’d been the only one to see him without clothes and Penny didn’t want to share this part of Alistair with anyone.

  With a fingertip, Penny encouraged Vicki to close her mouth.

  Alistair packaged his clothes into a neat bundle onto Vicki’s arms. “Can you carry this for me?”

  “S-sure.” Vicki clutched his clothes as if it were a prize.

  A nauseous, unexplainable feeling punched Penny in the gut. Her wolf rose, which was startling. Unlike others, her animal instincts flared when someone was in need, not for fighting or dominance. But she really wanted to slap that silly grin off Vicki’s face.

  Hurt, she turned her back on them and strode to the shelter, but Alistair blocked her escape route. He lowered his lips to hers.

  She went still. Shocked at the gesture. He held her gaze and she was transfixed, helpless to react. Angling his head, he pressed his mouth against hers. She was surprised how soft his lips were. He was a hard man who filled the area around him with dominance. His kiss should have been demanding, but it wasn’t. He plucked at her mouth with tiny, sexy smacking sounds until she leaned into him and stood on her tiptoes. His tongue brushed over her closed lips and a delicious rumble filled his chest.

  She made him do that.

  “Take care of them,” he whispered against her mouth. Then Alistair shifted to beast form, his body covered in golden fur. Werewolves could walk on their hind legs, but hunting was easier on four. He paced around the camp then hurried by, pressing his huge body against her legs in farewell.

  Vicki sighed, still clutching his clothes. “That was so romantic.”

  Heat blistered Penny’s cheeks. “Come on. Let’s gather the others.” She stormed back to the campsite where the team milled around the lean-to trying to stay warm. “While Alistair hunts, we’ll hike until we reach the mountain. Gather any wood you can carry as we trek so we can make a fire tonight.” The snow would get worse as they climbed to higher ground and she imagined kindling would get scarce.

  The journey was more pleasant in the daylight, if not as cold. At least they could see better. It should make hunting easier for Alistair.

  A lump formed in her throat as she recalled what they’d done. He hadn’t just kissed her. He had claimed her in front of Vicki, who most likely had told everyone else on her team by now. Where had that come from? She’d assumed Ian had forced Alistair to join her team by using the incentive of winning Pallas’s car. What if that had been all a pretense?

  Such a simple thing, a kiss. Yet it had changed something in her. It made her want. That was a dangerous urge. Civilizations had fallen because of want. Now she desired more than she’d allowed herself to in years because life without love wasn’t a real life after all.

  What was she thinking? He’d done it as a tactic for power. If he could blind her with lust, then he could take over her team easily. Or that was what he probably thought. She wouldn’t let him.

  To distract her mind from thoughts of what if, she listened to her team discuss the wood craft Pallas had taught them, such as looking for moss on the tree trunks to confirm north, and as the sun rose higher behind the clouds, she kept their direction on track. Their steps grew harder as the land inclined. Obviously, they had reached the mountain’s base. If it was the right mountain was still to be determined.

  The overcast sky had darkened and the wind’s bite more sharp. She sniffed, rubbing her numb nose. Her jacket kept her somewhat warm as long as she kept moving, but not eating for days left her legs trembling with each step.

  She wasn’t the only one with symptoms of flagging strength.

  Nick collapsed against a tree trunk, resting his head, eyes closed. “Is bark edible?”

  “If you were a deer,” responded Bobby Jo.

  “We’ll rest here for a few minutes.” Their breaks were becoming more frequent and longer. Their only hope was Alistair.

  Vicki still clutched his clothes. “Maybe we should try hunting?” They hadn’t seen Alistair since early that morning.

  “You’re welcome to try.” Everything she knew about hunting was theoretical. They had grocery stores. Why would she kill something wild and free? She didn’t have that urge as a shifter. Not that she wouldn’t pounce on Thumper or Bambi right now. She just didn’t have any practical experience to lead a hunt.

  “Or we could tough it out and keep marching forward to our goal.” She pointed up the mountain.

  “I vote for food.” Nick raised his hand.

  “Food,” repeated Parker.

  So they were a democracy now. What did the history teachers say? They were three meals away from anarchy. She didn’t have the strength to fight them and needed them to continue working as a team. Hunger did terrible things to people and worse things to shifters.

  “We hunt for an hour and meet back here. Travel in pairs,” she ordered.

  The others stripped and changed to their beast form. She gathered their clothes, including Alistair’s, and set them on a large fallen log cleared of snow. “One hour,” she repeated.

  They took off before she finished speaking. Penny would guard their belongings and act as the messenger between hunters. She’d done this job before in her old pack.

  She strolled around the area, looking, you know, for a McDonald’s sign flashing in the distance.

  Her mouth watered. That thought hadn’t helped. The last time she’d eaten fast food was the town’s fall festival. She and Blain had stuffed themselves silly on corn dogs, popcorn, and deep fried Oreos. Oh, god, those were the days. She’d thought the boot camp had been brutal then.

  Stepping over snow covered branches, she spotted an irregularity in the ground ahead. She paused, taking in her surroundings. The quiet was so deep it was almost suffocating. Scents of evergreen, dirt and fox swept past in the wind. She crept forward, suddenly nervous to be alone.

  Weren’t horror movies based on idiots like her?

  Heart pounding, she kept forcing one leg in front of the other, faster and faster as recognition registered.

  A trail in the deep snow.

  She knelt next to it and studied the paw prints. Too big for a real wolf, so it had to be another team from the boot camp. She traced the outline. The print was so big it matched her hand’s size. Only one shifter’s wolf was that big.

  Ian… The alpha team had all shifted to travel. That was a good idea, which was why Ian made such a great leader and she didn’t, but her team could follow this trail to find their way.

  Pallas only said to return with the flag. It wasn’t a race of who got there first but who could get there.

  Something wet and heavy landed on her eyelashes. She blinked her vision clear. Snow. She held out her palms, watching the flakes melt. So pretty. It was falling heavier and heavier.

  She glanced at the trail. Oh shit, the snow would cover it soon. She jumped to her feet and ran to where she’d left the team’s clothes, all the while calling out their names.

  She stood by the fallen log, her breath fogging the air as she tried to catch her breath. No one called back. A howl would do. They were probably too far to hear her. She wished Pallas had let them keep their cellphones. What had her father done when hunting? She’d always been too busy picking flowers and feeding birds—to his horror—to pay attention.

  The wind blew through the branches, howling with the sudden gust.

  Howling…

  She’d always been good singing with the pack on full moon nights. Come to think of it, her new pack hadn’t spent a single night serenading the moon. Maybe it was more of a pack custom than a species one.

  It had been a long time since she’d howled in her human form though. She couldn’t shift since it would be too difficult to explain the trail and snow fall. Throwing back her head, she started low and slow, letting the sound build up in her lungs before calling out to her teammates.

  Snow was starting to fall in heavy flakes. Alistair pause
d to watch a few flat past his muzzle. So pretty. He flexed his claws, digging them into the frozen ground.

  The game in the area was slim pickings. He could only guess that the prey smelled a pack of werewolves traveling through their forest and had either run or hidden. He’d only caught two rabbits but they were still fat from summer grazing. It wouldn’t leave them full but it might prevent Parker from gnawing off Vicki’s leg.

  A familiar sound filtered through the bare branches. The howl was distant and female. Not a sound of distress but a call to gather. He tilted his head, ears forward. That wasn’t Julia’s howl. He knew hers from pack events back home. He couldn’t imagine Clare’s voice being so lyrical.

  Penny?

  His heart skipped a beat. Why was she calling for the others? They were supposed to stick together. Why had they abandoned her? He grabbed the rabbits in his mouth and followed the distant sound. It was faint. They had covered more ground than he would have guessed. Maybe it wasn’t Penny howling and he was running in the wrong direction. He paused every few minutes to search the ground for her scent.

  On the third try, he finally caught her smell on a bush she must have brushed against.

  Chapter Five

  By the time Penny’s team responded to her call, the snow was falling so thickly she had to shield her eyes to see their approach. She explained the trail that she wanted to follow before it was covered by snow.

  She ordered them to stay in wolf form. Her team could move easier in this deep groundcover on their wide paws. Not to mention shifting took a lot of energy, something everyone was short on, but she stayed in human form to make communication easier.

  The trail had a thin layer of snow on it but they could still follow the other team toward their goal—the flag on top of Mount Killmore.

  Marching as a group, they climbed the steep slope. Each time Penny faltered, one of her teammates was at her side to steady her steps. She would move faster and be warmer if she shifted, but who would carry their gear? And secretly, she feared in wolf form she would revert to her omega role. It was more difficult to ignore instinct in her beast form.