One eyebrow raised, she crossed her arms. ‘Sounds good,’ she huffed.
After staring at each other through the dim light for what seemed like an age, she eventually unclasped her arms.
‘Fine!’ She took a step back from the car. ‘Can you please come and look?’
Stubbing the butt of his cigarette out, he stepped up to the engine bay. He was right. The engine was toast. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and flicked on the torch to just make sure. She stepped closer until she was peering over the engine beside him. A soft glimpse of heady scent radiating off her body made his own stiffen, and he felt his fingers tighten on his phone. She smelt sweet, like a mix of cinnamon and syrup.
‘So, what do you think?’ she asked. The husky whisper of her voice was close to his ears. It threw images into his brain of her naked body writhing and pulsating under his own, and he choked down a large breath of air to remove them. Women and cars had always been his weakness, but this one seemed to control his body and he had only just met her. Again his nostrils flared in recognition, but he wasn’t able to place where he knew it from.
‘No,’ he gulped out. ‘It’s dead. You’ll have to get it towed in the morning.’
He watched her lips twist and a growl escape them, and it made him want to return the sound in appreciation. She reached up, grasping the lid in both hands. She slammed the bonnet down with a ferocity that belied her size.
‘For fuck’s sake!’ Having vented, her shoulders dropped, and she eyed him cautiously from the side. ‘I don’t suppose you can drop me into the next town then so I can find somewhere to sleep for the night?’
‘I would, but I’ve been drinking,’ he lied. ‘That’s why I crashed here for the night. Didn’t want to get caught by the cops.’
She arched her eyebrow, her lips tightening into a thin strip.
‘Right,’ she huffed. ‘Awesome. Well, I guess I’m sleeping in this bomb tonight then.’
She yanked open the handle of the car and slumped down into the driver’s seat, and pointedly locked the door.
Dru tapped lightly on the window. ‘I have some spare camping gear in the back of my car,’ Dru offered, trying to not sound too keen. ‘There’s another sleeping bag and stuff. If you wanted to use it. I mean, you don’t have to.’
He wasn’t sure why this woman was affecting him, but being near her made his brain fuzzy and body warm. He was still uncertain if it was a good thing, or a bad thing. Either way, he seemed incapable of making rational decisions in the dark of the night and with this lady nearby. She nibbled on her lip as she considered his shadowy figure. Sighing, she got out of the car again.
‘Fine, thanks. I’ll go find a room somewhere and get some sleep while I still can.’
‘I have a spot,’ he offered.
She took a step away from him.
‘Forget it, I’m not sleeping in a room or a bag, or an anything with you in it. Forget that I agreed. I’ll be fine here.’
As she turned to climb back into the car, his hand shot out of its own accord and wrapped around her forearm. The electric feel of her skin under his touch sent his brain into overdrive. Little sparks resonated along from her skin and straight up into his chest. His breathing became soft and shallow, and his brain had a sudden and impulsive realisation. She was a were-panther like him. The shock of it made him drop her arm as fast as he had reached out to grab it and the two of them locked eyes, seeing each other as if for the very first time.
#
CHapTEr Four
Nicci could feel the loud thump of her heart right up to her eyeballs. He was a panther. As sure as the grass was green, this guy was the same as her. Fuck.
She had spent her entire life running from who she was. Having lost her parents as a baby, she became a ward of the state and despite many attempts by unsuspecting foster parents to reign in her wild side, they had never been successful. Now, as her senses went into overdrive at the smell of a creature like herself, it raised her natural guard to its highest levels. She did the mental math of how quickly she could escape. But looking at the poor, degraded town in the dim moonlit night, she knew that there was nowhere to go for miles. Hell, she had driven for a good part of the trip through scrub and bushland before she even found this place. Or what was left of it. Clenching her teeth, she considered her options.
‘I’ll sleep in the car,’ she growled.
He ran a hand through his mop of blond hair.
There was something strangely familiar about him, her brain told her, and it was more than the undeniable knowledge that he was her kind.
‘Hey wait,’ she paused as she reached the door handle. ‘Do I know you?’
He had the square jawline and broad physique of a man who worked hard on his image. And as tendrils of her brain fired, she scanned his face for clues through the darkness. His face had dropped when she asked the question, and she saw his shoulders slump.
‘You might have seen me around,’ he admitted.
‘Are you famous?’
He gave a small and bitter laugh. ‘Not really, more like infamous. I’m Dru Maxwell. Nice to meet you.’
His hand thrust out in her direction, and she took a step back.
‘The Dru Maxwell?’ she gulped. Everyone knew Dru Maxwell. He wasn’t just famous, he was mega-famous. Known across Australia as the best race car driver the country had ever produced, he made men jealous and women swoon. In one of her foster attempts, one of the younger boys in the house had stuck pictures of him up on the wall with old chunks of dirty blue-tack and stared at his face every night before he slept. ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’
The words slipped through her lips, her brain unable to comprehend why such a person would sit in the dark in the middle of an empty town on his own. It didn’t make any sense.
‘Good question,’ he chuckled, pulling his hand back and putting it into the pocket of his jeans. He scuffed the ground with one foot. ‘Just arrived tonight. Guess I ended up here the same way you did.’
She wasn’t sure what to say. His answer made little sense either. None of this was making sense. The silence between them was cut when Dru dropped the ultimate question.
‘So what pack are you from?’
Even in the darkness, she could feel the shimmer on her skin from a looming transformation. She had held it off many times before, but she was feeling less in control tonight than she had in years. The sharp prick on her lips of her sharpening teeth and her rising neck hairs reminded her of how dangerous her kind were.
‘I don’t know, and I don’t want to talk about it,’ she admitted, the words hard to get out with her increasing symptomatology. His eyes were focused on her own, and she saw the small lick of his tongue across his lips and felt the tingle of her body respond.
She had never met another panther shifter before. Sure, there were rumours and there had been a few sightings of panthers prowling lands by local farmers, but here was apparently one of the finest specimens right in the flesh. She knew without feeling the hard, taut muscles under her fingertips he was more than capable of overpowering her right there and then if he wanted to. She shivered and closed her eyes. If she could think of something other than transforming and releasing the beast inside herself free to run, fight and mate with him, she might stand a chance of getting out of this situation in one piece. But it was feeling increasingly unlikely.
She heard him give a small cough. ‘Hey, look, it’s okay, we don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to.’ He put his hands up in mock defeat. ‘But you can’t sleep in your car. It’s far too uncomfortable. Come inside, and I’ll set up a room for you. One that locks. At least you’ll be able to stretch out and get some decent sleep. Honest, that’s all it would be.’
Admitting defeat, she could feel her bones aching to be stretched out and released. That would be impossible curled up in the
confines of the car.
‘Fine,’ she sighed. ‘But first I have to go for a run and relax. I have been cramped up for too long.’
‘Sounds like a fabulous idea.’ She could hear the smile in his voice. ‘Did you want company?’
‘No,’ escaped her lips despite her body leaping to reply yes. He took a step back towards the house and a small sigh escaped his lips.
‘Okay, I’ll get some space set up for you. Come back in when you’re ready.’
‘I’ve got a bag in the boot with some gear in it,’ she told him. ‘If you can find me a room, I’ll sort it when I get back.’
He nodded and continued back to the house.
She waited until he was out of sight before she pulled her shirt up over her head. Her teeth were now biting into her lip, causing a rich metallic taste in her mouth, and her hearing and smell had expanded. As she closed her eyes, she could hear the soft patter of a bat’s wings in a distant tree and his soft footsteps metres away moving things around the squeaky wooden floorboards. His scent lingered, pressing at her and urging her to transform and explore. She gave into the shiver and felt the familiar searing pain of her bones resetting into their new form. When the pain subsided, she examined the dark hollows of the woods, and ran, feeling the soft brushing of her fur in the breeze as she went. It was bliss.
Within minutes she was deep in the wilderness, the only sounds being the scratching of mice, the hoot of an owl and the flutter of wings in the treetops. It had been several months since she had last transformed, having trained herself over the years to withhold the urge. It was a necessity given the rarity of her kind in normal society, but refusing the transformation month after month took a toll on her wellbeing. She could feel the flood of warm blood along her veins and the cool night air nipping at her nose. The wind rushed through her fur making her skin tingle, and a sense of freedom from being in nature filled her soul. Pausing, she lay down on her belly and enjoyed the cold feel of the earth. Feeling her bones relax finally and her head drop to the ground, it startled her to hear a booming growl in the distance. A shiver ran along her spine, making her fur stand on its end and her eyes sharpen. But what, or whoever, it was didn’t come for her, but she couldn’t bring herself to return to the room Dru had promised to prepare. Just being around him made it hard to relax. Eventually she curled into a small ball and got some well needed sleep.
#
CHapTEr FIvE
After she had left, the memory of her scent clung to him and he wasn’t able to shake it. When he lifted her bag from the car, he felt the shimmer begin. It was the knowledge that the bag was hers. Her sweet aroma had drenched it, and it mixed in his brain with the heady primal knowledge that she was coming into heat. He put the bag down on the ground as a shiver rippled through him. He had smelt it only rarely. The woman of his pack were normally sent away in the days that they were most potent unless she was with her mate to protect her. It was the only way they pack could stand to be together in the same place for any length of time. She must have been downwind from him by the car, or else he would have picked it up when they met. As it was, the smell was driving his hormones into overdrive.
Frustrated, he let himself morph, relishing in the painful transition. Standing tall, he shook his head the fur rustling as he did so. Staring through the darkness he could tell that she was now some distance away, for apart from the paw prints on the soft dirt off the edge of the road, there was no longer any trace of her. He gnashed his teeth, allowing them to glisten in the moonshine. Tonight, he would have to be patient.
From inside the house, a sharp blip radiated from his phone, indicating a text message. Giving a loud sigh that sounded more like a disgruntled purr, he walked back, his feet soft on the ground as he went. Pushing it over with his enormous paw, he looked down at the screen. Fuck. It was his father. He would have to change back and ring him.
Slowing his breathing and focusing on his form, he greeted the painful transition with clenched teeth. This night was going from bad to worse. Reaching out a naked arm to pick the phone up, he hit redial.
‘Dru, where the fuck are you this time?’ His father didn’t bother with the niceties of greeting him. As the Alpha of their small, elite pack, his word was law, and Dru had broken it yet again.
‘I had to get away, Dad. I needed some time to think about things.’
There was a pause. A moment’s consideration. ‘Not good enough. You have commitments to your family and your job. They have to come first. You can’t just disappear like that. Where are you?’
‘Nowhere,’ Dru replied, feeling the tug of a smile on his lips.
‘Stop bullshitting me, Dru,’ his father roared down the phone. ‘I’m serious. You better get your arse back here tomorrow, or I’ll find you and drag you back myself.’
‘Good luck trying to find me, I doubt I could even find it myself,’ he snarled. In the background he could hear his mother’s soft voice urging his father to calm down and talk reasonably. But he was not a reasonable man. It was a fruitless effort. He hung up the phone and threw it across the room. It shattered and splintered into pieces on the floor, and he let out a howl of frustration.
* * *
She was gone all night. He awoke in a cold huddle in the room’s corner. As his eyes flickered open, he raised his head to see if he could sense her, but there was nothing except the soft whistle of wind through a gap in the window. He got up and stretched before grabbed some clothes from the pile and dressed. Some mornings he hated being part cat. It felt like he was constantly tired, even when he had just slept all night. There was a reason that house cats napped so often, and he was no different.
He glanced only briefly at the remnants of his phone scattered in pieces near the wall. He knew there would be repercussions for his actions last night, but he no longer cared. He had spent years trying to keep his father happy, to no avail. As the eldest child, he was expected to behave and do as he was told, while his younger brother Michael got to do whatever he wanted. But their joint dislike of the dictatorship style their father used was their undisputed bond. He hoped that Michael wouldn’t be made to pay for his disobedience as well.
As he strode out into the cool air, he could hear the soft rustle of footsteps on leaves in the distance. Keeping his eyes focussed on the car and the discarded bag that he had forgotten to bring inside the night before, he pretended that he didn’t know that she was coming back. With each step closer he could feel her eyes watching him, and it made the hairs on the back of his arms rise. His hand shook ever so slightly as he bent down to pick up her belongings. A wave of lust hit him again as the smell of her reached his nostrils, and he fought it back by clamping his mouth into a tight line. By now he could sense her on the edge of the wooded area. She had paused, checking to see if the way forward was clear.
‘I know you’re there.’ He hoped that he sounded nonchalant despite his gritted teeth.
‘I thought you were going to bring my stuff in last night,’ she called out. She sounded tired, and there was a small waver in her tone. ‘‘Is he scared of me?’ he thought to himself. He hoped not.
‘Yeah sorry, I got distracted,’ he replied and hoisted the bag over his shoulder and strolled back towards the house. His eyes stayed away from her direction on purpose. ‘I can go and set it up now if you want?’
She was still waiting at the verge of the woods, hidden from his view, watching him as he moved away from the car, but not replying. He took that as agreement, or at least he hoped it was. Only when he was nearly back at the house did he hear her step out and go to the rear of the car to find her clothes.
He smiled to himself. She might be full of bravado in the dark and shadows, but she was timid this morning. He picked a room at the back of the house which still had a functioning door and placed her things in the corner. Going back to his own, he grabbed a spare blanket, pillow and carried them back. In the d
istance he could hear the soft click of her car’s engine as it failed to start. Looking at the newly completed makeshift bedroom, he wondered if she would stick around or escape back to reality. He hoped she would stick around for a bit. There was something about her, and it wasn’t just his hormones speaking.
As he stepped back outside he saw her kick the wheel of the tyre. She was frowning and her lips were forming a small pout, making her seem younger than she had appeared last night. Her hair was sticking out in places, no longer restrained to the long flowing stream down her back. She was pretty. Not in a conventional sense of the word, but there was an otherworldly element to the proportions of her face. Large, clear dark eyes stared at him as she turned to watch him approach. He could feel his legs weaken under her intense gaze.
‘Morning,’ he greeted her, and gave her a smile. She didn’t respond, instead she continued to follow his approach, her eyes not moving from his own. He deliberately held his breath. The last thing he needed was another uncontrollable urge.
‘Morning,’ she finally acknowledged.
‘Sleep well?’ He got to the side of the car, and there was only the car review mirror now in between them. From this close he could see a scatter of freckles on the bridge of her nose he hadn’t noticed before.
‘About as well as you by the looks of it,’ she replied. He gave a small laugh which stuck between them in staccato beats. She stared back at him blankly.
‘So...’ he didn’t know how to talk to this woman. Even standing this close to her made him uncomfortable, but it was giving a high better than any drug he had ever consumed. ‘Did you want to ring a tow-truck today? I mean, I guess you have to get back on the road.’ Her eyes remained fixed on his own.
A Town Called Nowhere Page 2
