Pack 11 - Wolf Whisperer

by Karen Whiddon

  He smiled wryly. “Yes, Nurse Kelly. Whatever you say.”

  At that, she couldn’t help but laugh.

  “You’re right, I need to lie down,” he said. When she nodded, he went straight for the futon, her pit bull Brandi settling on the floor at his side. Closing his eyes, just like that, he fell asleep.

  She watched him doze, unable to help herself. Whatever force that drew her to him tormented her, making her want to climb up on the futon and curl into his side. She restrained herself, just barely, and kept one eye on the time.

  An hour later, the sun had begun to travel toward the horizon and he woke up. It was time to go.

  Crossing to his side, she rubbed Brandi’s head lightly before scowling at him. It occurred to her that her best armor might be an unpleasant attitude and she tested that now.

  “Are you well enough to travel now? If so, we need to go right away.”

  “At dusk? Why not in the morning?”

  How to explain the instinct that guided her life?

  “Because we have to leave now,” she said. Nothing more.

  To her surprise, rather than arguing, he got up and stretched, drawing her gaze. “I’d like to brush my teeth and freshen up, and I’ll be good to go.”

  “Let me pack a bag,” she told him, making her voice cold to show she had no reaction to the warmth of his male beauty. “Not that I have much—almost everything I own burned in the fire. I assume you have one in your car?”

  “Yes.” He watched while she threw together a few things. “What about the dogs? I’m guessing it will be safe enough to take them to your friend’s place in town, if we do it quickly. Are we taking all of them? Even the ones in the kennel?”

  Despite herself, she laughed. “No. Not the kennel dogs. Ben said he’d stop by here once or twice a day to check on them.”

  “Ben?” He stared at her for so long she became uncomfortable. “Who’s Ben?”

  “A good friend, nothing more,” she said firmly.

  After he’d freshened up, he rejoined her in the main room. “Let’s hit the road.” Leading the way, he held the door open for her. “After you.”

  “Stay where I can see you,” she cautioned, refusing to give in to his charm.

  He dipped his chin in acknowledgment, his slight smile knowing. “Still don’t trust me, eh?”

  “Not entirely,” she admitted, checking to make sure her spare gun was loaded before holstering it. She grabbed a box of extra shells, just in case.

  Watching all this, he held out his hand. “Since mine was an apparent casualty of the fire, if you have another spare, I’d like a weapon, too.”

  She ignored him, continuing to pack her ammo.

  “I gave my word,” he said quietly. “I never go back on that.”

  Instead of answering, she motioned for him to follow her outside. “We’re going to leave now.” Checking her weapon, she motioned toward the door. “If and when I feel the need, I’ll make sure you’re armed. Right now, keep your eyes open for trouble.”

  She could tell he didn’t like that. The frown line between his eyes deepened and his mouth tightened, but he didn’t respond, other than to comment on what he plainly viewed as her paranoia. “I don’t think they’ll be back so soon.”

  Outside, the early-evening sky looked gray and cloudy. They’d taken a few steps from the house when the sound of an airplane made them look up.

  “There.” She pointed at the single-engine plane in the sky. “Still think I’m wrong?”

  Grabbing her arm, he cursed as he pulled her back toward the house. “Get inside.”

  Slamming the door closed behind them, Mac faced her, breathing hard. “We don’t know for sure that was them.”

  “No, but do you really want to take a chance?”

  He crossed to the window, standing to one side and peering through the drapes. “Is there a place around here for a small plane to land?”

  “Other than fields, no. The nearest airstrip is ten miles or more away.”

  Eyeing her, he appeared to be considering. “I don’t think they’ll risk trying to land in the pasture. What direction is the airstrip?”

  “Due north.”

  “That’s the direction they’re heading.” He pointed to a speck in the sky. “If we’re going to leave now, we need to hurry.”

  Nodding her agreement, she opened the door. “Let’s go.” They headed straight to his car and she waited impatiently while he retrieved his bag from the trunk.

  “Is it yours?” she asked, indicating the Malibu.

  “No. It’s a rental.”

  She flashed him what she hoped was an apologetic smile before bending over and slashing the passenger-side front tire with her pocketknife. “Come on.” She moved on, heading toward her garage at a trot.

  “Why’d you do that?” Keeping pace with her, he sounded only mildly curious.

  “Because now you can call the rental car company and see if they’ll send somebody to retrieve the car. After all, you have a flat tire.”

  He said nothing, but the look he gave her brimmed with disapproval, which made her feel as if she had to elaborate. “You can tell them you had to get to a meeting, so you left it on this ranch in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Sounds like you have everything planned.”

  Again, she got the distinct sense that he didn’t approve.

  Though she told herself she didn’t care, it still rankled. “I like tying up loose ends.”

  At the entrance, she led the way to her workshop slash garage and punched in a code. The overhead door swung open. Inside the cool darkness where she kept her cars, both vehicles sat untouched and undamaged by the fire. “Come on,” she urged again.

  Inside, he stared. “You have both a Corvette and a Hummer H2?”

  “That wasn’t in your file?” She couldn’t help her sharp-voiced reply.

  Stone-faced, he shook his head. “No.”

  Half wishing he would react and half wondering why she seemed to be spoiling for a fight, she opened the back of the Hummer to reveal an assortment of plastic kennels. Then she whistled for the dogs. They came running, tails streaming out behind them. One by one, Kelly directed them up into the back of the SUV, lifting the smaller ones and letting the larger dogs jump. They seemed to sense her urgency and moved quickly, obeying without fuss.

  The last to arrive was Brandi, who stood with her side pressed against Mac’s leg, plainly not wanting to leave him.

  “Brandi, up,” Kelly ordered. To her disbelief, the dog didn’t move.

  Not looking at her, Mac stepped forward and patted the floor inside the Hummer. “Brandi, up,” he said, repeating her command. The dog responded immediately, leaping gracefully into the Hummer and going inside her crate.

  “She’s mine,” he said, smiling. “Whatever happens, when this is over, she’s coming with me.”

  He thought they could simply part after this. Telling herself that he didn’t know, this still both stunned and infuriated Kelly. Careful not to show her reaction, she flashed Mac an utterly fake smile. “We’ll see.”

  Now that all seven were inside their kennels, she closed the tailgate.

  “Are you ready?” she asked Mac, keeping her voice pleasant. “We’ve got to go now.”

  Meeting her gaze, he nodded and held out his hand for the keys.

  For a moment she only stared at him in disbelief before shaking her head. “You’re not driving. For one thing, you’re not completely healed yet, and for another, this is my vehicle. Furthermore, I know my way around here and you don’t.”

  “Are you always so bossy?”

  Looks like she wasn’t the only one spoiling for a fight.

  “Come on,” she told him. “Let’s go.”

  He didn’t move. “I think all this Tearlach stuff has gone to your head.”

  She let her breath out in a huff. “Stop trying to provoke a fight. We don’t have time for this.”

  “They have to land the plane and drive te
n miles. I think we have a few seconds to spare.” Moving closer, he stopped when he was inches from her face. “A fight might be just the thing,” he drawled. “You want one, too. Maybe it’ll clear the air.”

  “We really don’t have time for this,” she repeated, using her most bored voice. She gave him a dismissive look and turned to move away.

  Instead, he grabbed her. Yanked her up close, chest to chest, muscular arms imprisoning her. Then, while she was still sputtering, he covered her mouth with his.

  Instantly, she froze, words and arguing all forgotten. He was big and solid and smelled like sun and grass.

  As he slanted his lips over hers, she thought he meant to punish her with the hard demand of his kiss. She wanted to resist, would resist; after all, she didn’t even know how to respond. Though he could not know it, she had never been kissed before.

  So she stood, hanging on to her anger like a shield, while he pressed his mouth against hers and she tried not to react.

  Then something changed. The tone, the tenor, the slight hitch in his breathing, the rapid tempo of his heart against her breast. Though he didn’t push, it was more and she responded to it like a flower opening her petals to the sun.

  She found herself parting her lips and when he slipped his tongue into her mouth, she swayed, dizzy, against him. He tasted her and suddenly she couldn’t get enough. Now she pressed against him, feeling the unfamiliar swell of his arousal with something akin to wonder.

  This…this was what it was like, the thing she’d been forbidden to have?

  As the thought came to her, she realized how close she stood to the edge, to being out of control. She pushed him away, hard, and stumbled backward, wiping her hand across her mouth.

  He stood, unmoving and staring at her, expression hooded, then without commenting, he turned and went around to the passenger side, climbing up and buckling himself in.

  “Let’s go,” he said, apparently unfazed and giving her an impersonal smile that she felt like a punch to the gut.

  Then, because any reaction she showed—even revulsion—would be a victory for him, she climbed up in the driver’s seat, fit the key in the ignition and started the car.

  What the hell? Maybe this Tearlach binding thing went both ways. If she ever saw her mother again, she’d have to ask her.

  As she backed up out of the garage, a maroon Ford Explorer screeched from around the side of the building and swung sideways, effectively blocking them in.

  Chapter 5

  “Looks like I was wrong about the time. Do you know them?” Mac asked, eyeing the maroon SUV and wishing he had his gun.

  “No. Brace yourself,” she said, her voice only the slightest bit husky. “If I have to, I’ll run into them. This Hummer can push them out of the way.”

  She sounded so certain, but he had his doubts. The thing was big, but it wasn’t a tank, after all.

  “You’re probably right, but let me have your pistol.” He held out his hand. “Just in case.”

  She shot him a glance, but didn’t hand over her weapon.

  With a sigh, he lowered his arm, glancing in the backseat where the dogs had grown agitated in their kennels. “They know something’s up.”

  “They usually do.” Voice impersonal, she returned her attention to the other vehicle. “Good thing they’re secured.”

  He had to admire the way she sounded so cool, confident and collected.

  Kelly revved the engine. “Hang on,” she told him.

  Both front doors of the other vehicle simultaneously opened, meaning there were at least two of them. Probably more, in the back.

  Fingers itching for a gun, Mac waited for the back doors to fly open, disgorging a whole slew of bad guys with weapons pointed at them. This time at least, he thought wryly, they wouldn’t be vamps. Too early in the day for them.

  But no one else exited the vehicle. Instead, the two men in dark suits turned to face the Hummer, peering into the dark garage with hands raised high to show they were unarmed. They looked like government workers—FBI, CIA or…Protectors.

  As he tried to see their auras to determine if they were human or shifter, Kelly turned to him, green eyes panicked for the first time.

  “Protectors!” she said. “Get down! You’re supposed to be dead. They mustn’t see you.”

  Oh, for the love of… Though he shot her a glare, he complied, unclipping his seat belt and sliding down until he rested, back to seat, just beneath the dash.

  “Satisfied?”

  “Yep. I hope they didn’t see you,” she said without looking at him, voice tense, gaze still fixed on the strangers. Again she revved the engine, but kept the vehicle in Park with her foot still hovering over the accelerator.

  “I doubt it.”

  As he was about to urge her to get going—no telling when the suits would pull guns and start shooting at them—she shifted into Drive.

  “Hold on.” Jerking the steering wheel to the right, she jammed the accelerator to the floor.

  The massive SUV shot forward and they rammed the Explorer’s front quarter panel hard, metal screeching.

  As Mac pushed himself up enough to see, the men in suits scattered.

  “Get back down,” Kelly ordered, shifting into Reverse and backing in preparation for another hit.

  Muttering curses under his breath, he complied. Even though they weren’t currently in their wolf bodies, they were shifters, and letting her take the dominant position went against everything he believed in. As soon as he was a hundred percent, he promised himself that would change.

  She slammed the Explorer one more time. The other vehicle shuddered and slid a few feet.

  “Once more ought to do it.” Reversing quickly, she repeated the process. This time when she rammed the Ford, she succeeded in pushing the other vehicle out of the way enough to let them past.

  “Success!” she said, the excitement in her voice making him wonder if she’d high-five him next.

  He really wished he was driving instead of her.

  As she floored the Hummer, the powerful engine roared as they tore off, leaving a cloud of dust behind them.

  Pushing himself back in his seat, Mac clicked his seat belt on and turned, glancing back to see the other men scrambling to get in their damaged vehicle and give chase.

  “You’d better hurry,” he commented. “They’re about to come after us.”

  “Okay.” The look she shot him wasn’t friendly. “I’m doing the best I can.”

  “Anytime you want to switch, I’m ready. I’m great at evasive driving,” he said, quite cheerfully, he thought, despite the fact that he had his teeth clenched.

  “You really are a control freak, aren’t you?”

  Her comment added insult to injury. “I’m a skilled driver,” he told her. “And since the motive is to get away from the bad guys, I’d think you’d take all the advantages you could get.”

  “I drive just fine.”

  “And there’s the difference,” he pointed out. “You drive fine. I drive…excessively well. Also, I need a gun. I refuse to be an unarmed target anymore. If you still think I’m going to try and use it against you, then you need to get over it.”

  “Are you finished?” she asked. For the first time he noticed her white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel.

  He tamped back both his frustration and his irritation. “For now.” Glancing back, he saw the Ford was still hanging in there. “Can that thing catch us?”

  She snorted. “Doubt it. This Hummer might be heavy as all get-out, but it can move better than that. Just to be sure, I’m going to drive like a bat out of hell, so you’d better hang on. I’ll show you some excellent driving.” She said the last with a straight face.

  True to her word, she blazed down the side roads, taking the entrance to the freeway at what had to be at least sixty-five. Behind them, their pursuers accelerated also, minutely closing the gap between them.

  “I’m not sure the freeway is the best—”


  “Hush.” Cutting him off, her mouth twisted. “Right now I can’t deal with both you and driving.”

  “They’re gaining,” he pointed out, probably needlessly. “Better step on it.”

  Gripping the steering wheel, she muttered something under her breath that sounded like damn Protectors.

  “You know,” he said, without looking at her, “in my line of work, we’re taught to look for facts instead of jumping to conclusions. How can you be certain they were Protectors? I didn’t recognize either of them.”

  “Do you know every single one?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Who else would they be?” She shook her head. “You are so in denial.”

  That rankled. He had to bite back a hasty cutting remark. “How about we agree they weren’t on our side, whoever they were?”

  “Fine.” She kept her attention on the road and her hands gripping the steering wheel. Still without looking at him, she asked, “Why’d you do that, back there?”

  She meant the kiss.

  “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “Gave in to impulse, I guess.”

  “Well, don’t do it again.”

  “I won’t. Believe me.” He sighed. “Mind telling me where we’re going?” he asked.

  “To drop off the dogs.”

  Keeping his tone pleasant, he continued, “I mean after that.”

  Switching lanes without signaling, she stomped on the accelerator and, despite its bulk, the Hummer leapt forward.

  When she finally glanced at him, she appeared confident, not worried. He couldn’t decide if this was a good thing or bad. “Well, before you showed up, I had planned to head to the airport and hop a flight to Vancouver, Canada. Now there’s you to consider, and I have a feeling those goons will be watching the airports. So we’re driving there instead.” Her sideways glance revealed little. “I’m assuming you have your passport?”

  He nodded. “Of course. But why Canada? And more specifically, why Vancouver?”

  This time, her look plainly indicated she thought he asked the question simply to irritate her. “My sister was last living on Vancouver Island when she was taken. From Vancouver we can catch a jumper plane to the island.”