Taming the Hunted

by Larisa Anderson

  His mouth tasted like ripe peaches. His kiss moved against her lips as he parted them with his tongue. She resisted at first, but her body gave in to the need for physical contact. She groaned and allowed her urges to take over as she climbed forward onto him, lowering herself to straddle his lap like a grown-up kid on Santa Claus, with her legs folded on either side of his against the armrests. Her hand fell from her clutch on her blade and rose to cup his rough, stubbled chin, drawing his mouth harder to hers. His large hands slid across the concave of her neck down to the curve of her hip. His hands rose again, and he slid her shirt up her waist. She shifted and felt the growing bulge that was his warm cock stirring against her crotch.

  His teeth nipped her neck in a gesture that was all too familiar and arousing. The sharp pain brought her back to her surroundings. What was she doing! She pushed him away and stood, pulling her shirt down and thanking the gods he hadn’t gotten it high enough to reveal her concealed blades. She assumed he knew she had them, after all, the man had all but carried her there. Still, she wanted what was hidden to stay hidden.

  “So, um. What are you all doing up after nightfall anyway?” Her words came out breathless and rushed.

  He chuckled, that fire still in those yellow eyes, which watched her as she tried to shift the feelings he’d awakened in her just moments ago. “You can hardly judge all of us by me and Kennard,” he replied.

  “There are more of you?” she asked.

  “Yes, most of my pa—um, friends live here.”

  “How many is most?”

  “At last count, there were ten people living here, including myself.”

  “Ten!” The back of her neck prickled. She could take on one, but ten...

  “Is there a reason you live with a vampire?” she asked, needing to know what she was up against here. His expression did not show surprise that she knew what Kennard was.

  “He was kicked out of his coven in a rather elaborate fashion. I stepped in and now he feels he owes me.”

  “You’re not nervous having him around?” She watched his eyes for some indication of whether he told the truth or not. Vamps and wolves were notorious for their feuds; hunting the same prey resulted in turf wars. She was sure now, after that bite, that he was a werewolf. The last one to try and mark her had been Lione. She shuddered at the thought and pushed the memory away so she could focus on the situation at hand.

  “He thinks we taste bad,” he replied, grinning.

  He stood, unfolding like a great panther, and stalked past her to the door. She breathed in as he passed, his scent lingering, making her heart give an extra beat. He held the door open and gestured for her to take a look out into the hall with a sweep of one broad hand. She made sure to stand a little behind him where she could see any move he might make, taking the opportunity to admire the curves and dimples of his ass through his tailored trousers which sat a little too snug around his hips. She always appreciated a man who took care of himself. Realizing where her thoughts were leading, she cast the idea out. Night stalkers and hunters did not hook-up.

  Looking around his great ass, she found they were standing in the second floor hallway, which opened onto the entryway below. A wooden rail ran the length of the hall with stairs at each end leading to the entry.

  “Like it? It was being used as a bed-and-breakfast until we moved in.”

  “Where are the rest of your friends?” she asked, noting that the house was quiet and still.

  “Out, they should be back soon.” He looked like he wanted to say more, but thought better of it. Closing his mouth, he ushered her to the end of the hall.

  “They must be brave to be out at night.” Her body was coiled in tension in the unfamiliar surroundings, each step calculated and her eyes scanning for exits as they walked.

  “They can take care of themselves.” He started down the metal stairs that spiraled to the bottom level. He was at the bottom before he seemed to realize she wasn’t behind him. “Come on.”

  “I think I’ll just go back to our, my, your room,” she stated before sliding back along the wall so that she didn’t present her back to him. Her hands clenched and unclenched as she fought to keep the fear at bay, her eyes firmly fixed on the solid floor beneath her feet.

  He was at her side before she moved more than two steps. Grasping her elbow lightly, he turned her face. His hand felt hot on her skin, but she kept her arms by her sides and her eyes focused on the faded red carpet under her feet.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding surprised at her sudden change in mood.

  “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m afraid of heights.”

  He was silent for a moment, and she felt drawn to look up at his face to see what he was thinking. She couldn’t read voices as well as body language and needed to know if he was angry with her.

  “But it’s only one floor up.”

  She looked straight up. It was a bad idea to gaze into those incredible golden eyes. Her brain started to scramble and her breath caught in her chest. She tried to tell herself it was from the fear, but the heat rising in her chest and the fluid pooling between her legs had nothing to do with the height. With him just inches from her, she could feel the heat of his body through his shirt and shuddered as his breath warmed her neck.

  “I won’t let you fall,” he whispered.

  She nodded and tried to calm her breath as the dizziness from the heightened lust welled in her body. His smell was like a pheromone, setting every cell in her body on fire.

  She felt him guide her to the top of the stairs, her gaze still fixed somewhere between his face and shoulders. His arm was firm and comforting around her waist as he lifted her into his arms and jumped over the banister, landing hard, but balanced, on the floor below. The air left her lungs in a huff of surprise as they landed.

  “What’s the hurry?” she asked, breathless as he set her on her feet again. His hand accidentally—or not—brushed the sensitive path up her ass and the curve of her back.

  He gave her a smile, showing too many teeth, and his eyes sparkled, enticing her in.

  A choked laugh pushed past her lips, feeling like a fool, forgetting her training at one smile from this guy. She looked around the foyer in an attempt to orient herself. She could hear noise now, low voices murmuring. A room led off to one side, and she could see Kennard in there, reading the paper on a beige lounge. Intrigued by the vampire who lived with his natural enemy, she went to investigate, stepping across the foyer. She felt Gabriel follow and made sure to keep him in sight.

  Pushing open the door and entering the room, she was surprised to find a small girl, no more than ten, sitting at Kennard’s feet and painting his toenails red before a large, empty fireplace.

  “Hello,” the girl said not looking up.

  Something about her voice made shivers crawl up Marian’s back. That voice should have belonged to a much older woman. She studied the girl, not trusting anyone to be what they seemed in this house where vampires and wolves coexisted. She had no shoes, dirty nails, and short, cropped blonde hair that cupped her round face.

  “Yours?” she asked Kennard who hadn’t looked up from his paper at her entrance.

  “I belong to no one,” the girl stated, glancing up.

  Her eyes made Marian take a step back. Baby blue with long black slits like a cat. The girl turned back to her chore, applying another layer on the nails. Marian looked to Gabriel as her own mind drew a blank on this strange girl.

  “She’s a werecat. The only one I have ever met.”

  “A werecat?” Marian had heard stories of them. There were shifters who could transform into large cats, tigers, lions, but she had never seen someone who, like a werewolf, was half-cat half-human.

  “Gabriel says that I am special,” the girl commented.

  “Indeed you are,” Kennard told her as he turned the page.

  “You need to feed,” the girl stated, laying Kennard’s foot back onto the wooden floor and admiring her handiwor
k as she blew to dry the nail polish.

  Marian noticed long gouge marks in the wood beneath the girl’s knees, as if a large dog had pawed at it and torn it up. It confirmed her theory that she was in the midst of a pack leader’s home and that it was not a safe place for any hunter, no matter what her skill level.

  “Will you join me?” Kennard asked the girl as he inspected his nails before rising in one sinuous movement.

  “No,” was all she replied.

  Kennard nodded and seemed to glide weightlessly from the room, his feet making no noise on the wooden floor.

  “I am Nole.”

  Marian jumped at being addressed.

  The girl smiled. Her little teeth, like Gabriel’s, were too many and too sharp. Gabriel moved around Marian and opened his arms to the little werecat. She came forward and let him pick her up and place a kiss on her cheek. Nole giggled, the sound for once sounding like the child she was.

  “I will go and welcome the pack home,” Nole said.

  Gabriel placed her on the ground again, and she turned and skipped out the door.

  “Unnerving, isn’t she?” Gabriel commented, leaning on the doorframe.

  “That’s one word for it. Another of your rescued pets?” She had meant to refer to Kennard, but the words had come out harsher than she intended.

  Gabriel took it in his stride. “Nole comes and goes as she pleases. She belongs to no one and we have no idea where she came from. She just turned up one day and made herself at home.”

  Marian looked up as a small ginger and white cat walked past the windowsill.

  “She is more childlike than she will admit though,” Gabriel added as an afterthought.

  Marian watched his face. For the first time that night, she thought she saw another side to the man, a softening. The bond between him and Nole was strong, that was clear in the way the girl acted around him. Letting him hold and kiss her. It could have even been that he saw her as a daughter. The thought made Marian’s heart flutter, wolves were not known for their nurturing nature.

  “Come on, we should go before my mates get home.”

  He gestured for her to leave the room before him, and once again she was forced to brush against his chest as she passed him, trying not to stroke her hand down his taut body as she did.

  They made it halfway across the entry when a noise outside alerted her that they were no longer alone. There was a crash as the front door opened, admitting half a dozen men who were laughing and shaking rain from their hair.

  Gabriel moved faster than she could track. His large body shoved her to the side of the stairs before taking a protective stance in front of her. She couldn’t see the men around his broad shoulders. God, it had to be illegal to smell that great. Her senses were alive with adrenalin, making each breath a deep intake of sweet musk.

  Gabriel appeared to have noticed none of her sudden stillness. One arm held onto the railing so he almost blocked her from view. Shaking her senses back to the present danger, she smoothly let the blades slip down into her tensed hands. The cool metal reassured her rattled nerves. The sheer size of each of the men as they filed past the small gap between them and Gabriel told her that running was not an option.

  “Hey, Gabe, where were you? You missed a great night.”

  A short blond who looked to be in his late teens extracted himself from the chattering group. She saw him drop Nole’s hand and she skipped over to the kitchen with the other men.

  Gabriel shifted so that he blocked her from the newcomer’s view.

  “Who’s that?” the blond asked.

  Gabriel shook his head, but didn’t answer the question. Marian could see the feet of the men, all barefoot, move past as they made their way into a room off to the side of the stairs. When the noises were muffled, she assumed they had closed the door, and only then did the blond speak again.

  “Have you lost your mind? She can’t be in here,” the blond man told Gabriel.

  “I don’t see how it’s any of your business,” Marian stated, trying to see around Gabriel’s shoulders.

  “Don’t talk, um…” Gabriel faltered and she realized he’d never bothered to ask her name.

  “Marian,” she told the blond.

  “Nice, you didn’t even ask her name before doing her,” he accused.

  “’Scuse me.” Marian managed to squeeze herself between Gabriel’s shoulder and the handrail so that she could see the blond better. “I am not that kind of girl.”

  Gabriel sighed.

  Marian struggled not to sneeze with all the dust in the place. It smelled like wet dog, and the floor was covered in mud and dirt. The blond guy looked amused, and he tried to smother a laugh with a hand.

  “Marian, this is my brother, Raphael.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Raphael said, still smirking. “But you should go home, right now.”

  Marian frowned at him to hide the fact she was trying to think of a way out of this and struggling to subdue the pulsing through her core.

  “She will go home when she’s ready,” Gabriel replied with a hint of a growl.

  “Dude, you’re an idiot for bringing her here this close. What if you lose control, or one of the lads gets up wind of her?”

  “I can protect her, and I haven’t lost control for years.”

  “Still here, guys,” Marian pointed out, trying to worm her way under Gabriel’s arm.

  “Get her out of here now. For her sake if not yours.” He turned as if to leave, but spun back and looked at her. “I have a better idea.”

  He stepped forward, but Gabriel growled at him—actually growled, a deep sound in the back of his throat that vibrated through his chest. Raphael glared, but didn’t come any closer. Instead, he leaned down until his face was level with hers.

  “Marian, you are to walk up those stairs and lock yourself in the first room you see.”

  Yes, a nap would be good, she thought. She was getting tired. She tried to turn around, but Gabriel didn’t budge.

  “Marian, go upstairs,” Raphael said again.

  Yep, going upstairs now.

  No, said another voice in her head. Upstairs means that your feet will be off the ground.

  “No,” she slurred.

  “What?” Gabriel asked, his eyebrows rising.

  “I would rather stay down here, thanks,” Marian replied evenly this time, her head clearing.

  Gabriel had moved enough that she could stand beside him, but not get past him, the movement made her breasts crush against the side of his chest. His eyes flicked to hers, and for a moment, fire burnt in their depths, but then it was gone. Marian shook herself, thinking she must be imagining the tension that sparked between them.

  Both men were looking at her like she had slapped them.

  “Well, that’s never happened before,” Raphael commented.

  “Yeah, pigheadedness must run in your family,” Marian commented, making his eyebrows rise even higher so they looked like they would disappear into his hairline.

  “So, are you going to introduce me to your other housemates?” she asked.

  “No!” they said in unison.

  Gabriel grabbed her arm and pulled her out the side door so fast he nearly lifted her off her feet.

  The house had a built-up tension about it; it wasn’t just about her presence either. Somehow there was a lot of anger, or pain, within those walls. Marian knew she didn’t need to get involved with any of it. A wave of relief wrapped around her as fresh air circled her senses.

  Chapter 3

  “Come with me,” Gabriel ordered.

  Not pausing to let Marian reply, he took her hand and led her into the cool night air.

  The hairs on her arms tingled with his presence so close to hers. She hoped that he couldn’t feel her shudder in pleasure at the thought of his nearness. Her nipples tingled against the fabric of her top. She was unwilling to turn her thoughts in a safer direction, wanting to stay in the fantasy for as long as possible, should he decide to
turn on her as Lione had.

  “Watch your step,” he warned, with a backward glance which scanned her face and lingered on the curve of her hips.

  She gripped tighter to his hand as they started down a path that led to the cliff face over the harbor. The area was a magnet for those not wanting to draw attention to themselves. Isolated and surrounded by dense forest, it was perfect for quick getaways. Sheltered on the other side by a sheer, black rock, many of Marian’s hunts had led her to this area.

  “Where are we going?” she asked, appreciating the way the shadows played around his shoulders as he moved ahead of her.

  “I want to show you something.” He turned back to her, his glowing, yellow eyes meeting hers in the moonlight.

  He seemed content to walk in silence, which was just as well as she felt too distracted by her own paranoia to hold down a proper conversation. It was best to know as little as possible about him and his friends. She couldn’t get into another relationship. Lione, the last alpha wolf she dated, had seen to that with his rough hands and cutting words. She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind. Tonight, she would let her instincts take over, with an extra shove in the bedroom direction if it was needed. She knew it was a bad idea, but only if she stayed. One night couldn’t hurt.

  “Watch your head.”

  Gabriel’s deep voice cut through her thoughts.

  She looked up just in time to see the branch fling back before it smacked her in the face. A sharp sting pierced her hairline, and the cool trickle of blood told her the impact had cut her skin. Gabriel gripped her hand tighter, stopping her from falling down the steep hill to their side as she stumbled back. Lights appeared behind her eyes as she tried to shake the pain from her skull, but she made it worse as blood pounded in her ears.