by Desconhecido
“No,” Luka assured her, his voice harsh with pain he probably wouldn’t admit. He was glaring at the dirt somewhere beside his bare foot, and his glare never wavered as he elaborated. “Char will come after you simply because you interrupted him.”
Releasing an inappropriate breath of relief, Joella said, “I suppose that makes—wait, ‘Char’?” He’d said it like a name, but she had to have misheard him. Who names their baby ‘Char?’
“It’s an alias,” Luka said. He released a breath and lifted his dangerous eyes back to hers. “Witches never reveal their real names to their enemies. I only know what family he’s from by his scent.”
“This is ridiculous,” Joella mumbled. “Why did he…?” She couldn’t ask that. Whatever the answer, it wasn’t her business. Asking would just be hurtful. Especially if the almost-invisible wince she caught on Luka’s face was any indication. The hand hanging over his knee clenched in a tight fist and she could practically feel his anger. And for some inexplicable reason, she found that she didn’t like the sight. The pain in his eyes, in the tightness of his jaw, and the white-knuckled grip of his fist, it was all wrong. Everyone else had found comfort in each other. Why did Luka have to suffer in solitude? Did they blame him? Did he blame himself?
Whatever the reason, she disagreed with it powerfully. Human, werewolf, she didn’t care. Luka was a man with feelings, just like any other. And just like any other person who’d lost a good, close friend, the last thing he needed was to be alone. She was as sure of that as she was of the slowly rising sun.
She was moving before she could think better of it, letting one hand land solidly on his shoulder as she reached over and caught his chin with the other. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered when his slightly-widened eyes met hers. “Maybe if I’d gotten there a few seconds sooner…. Maybe I could’ve done something.”
Her words hung in the air and the tension in his shoulder slowly eased as he unclenched his fist. He held her eyes captive for several long, quietly intense seconds. Then his lips were crashing over hers, he’d tangled one hand in her shoulder-length hair, and her chest was pressing wholly into his. He was kissing her with a barely-contained ferocity that was both overwhelming and exhilarating. She was powerless as he sucked her lower lip into his mouth and nipped it with his teeth, and her blood was quickly coming to a boil as her body began to feel things it hadn’t felt in far too long. It was all she could do to keep up with the pace of his kiss, her arms instinctively winding around his neck.
His tongue swept into her mouth, stroking and sliding, demanding more from her even as his arm coiled around her waist and hauled her into his lap. She felt herself moan into his kiss as she let her fingers slip into his head of full, thick, chocolate-brown hair. The softness of his hair was in such stark contrast to the rest of him. The rest of him was deliciously hard and muscular, full of dangerous, primal promises. Promises her body was startlingly eager for him to fulfill. If he made love the way he kissed, a night with him would bring an entirely new definition of passion and pleasure. She’d certainly never been kissed the way he was kissing her.
He’d taken full possession of her mouth, one hand now fisted in her hair, the other cupping her ass and holding her tight against his chest. She could barely breathe and she absolutely could not get enough. Her tongue rolled shamelessly along his with every opportunity.
You know better, Ella, some piece of retained sanity whispered in the back of her mind. And oh how she wished that part of her were wrong. But it wasn’t and so, with more effort than she was willing to admit to needing, Joella pulled back from his hungry lips.
The moment she applied pressure to his shoulders, his grip loosened, and she watched, transfixed, as his Adam’s apple bobbed with a heavy swallow. She kept her hands on him, just under his shoulders, as she worked on catching her breath.
“Why,” she said with a gasp. “Why did you bring me here last night?”
Luka’s expression fell into a frown and his hands slid to her hips, but he made no effort to remove her from his lap. “I told you,” he said. “Char will come for you now.”
“Right,” she acknowledged, barely resisting the urge to dance her fingers around the collar of his shirt. He was way too distracting for her health. “But, why is that your concern? Why do you care about whether I live or die?”
As soon as she asked it an odd sensation fell over her. The question, relevant though it was, seemed so much heavier. Not because of the passionate kiss they’d just shared, but because, thinking about it that way, she wasn’t honestly sure there was anyone who truly had cause to care about her survival. Sure, she had work friends, and two or three friends from college she’d kept in touch with, but no one she really felt close to. And that realization was far from comforting.
Luka’s frown deepened, whether because of her question or because of his seeming ability to read her mind, she wasn’t sure. “He’s my enemy. Everyone he kills is my fault, because I failed to kill him when I had the chance.”
Her eyes widened and, thoughtlessly, her gaze landed on his scar. Without direction, her fingers followed her gaze and, as the tips of her fingers landed on the curve of it over his cheek, she whispered, “Did he … do this?”
Frown softening as his gaze shifted, becoming distant, Luka replied, “Yes.”
For a moment she felt the burn of tears behind her eyes, but Joella pushed them aside and leaned forward, pressing her lips lightly to the scar where it bent to follow the curve of his jaw.
Luka’s arms wound around her waist, hands splaying over her spine, and he whispered, “Why do you care about my pain?”
“I know what it’s like,” she admitted softly, her arms curling around his throat. “To grieve … alone. No one should have to endure that.”
Silence settled around them for a moment, and an odd sense of comfort warmed Joella’s heart, much the way Luka’s embrace was warming her body. After a few seconds, however, a very different sensation made itself aware and Joella bit back a groan of mortification.
“Luka,” she began, sitting up a bit again even though she couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eye. “Do you, um, have somewhere I could pee?”
He raised a brow at her and she could’ve sworn a corner of his lips twitched with amusement but, fortunately for him, she wasn’t looking straight at him to be certain. “Yeah,” he replied instead, before promptly shoving to his feet without releasing her.
Joella cried, startled, and tightened her hold on him as her legs dangled awkwardly in the air. The man was nearly a foot taller than her! But his hands returned to her hips and he set her down without argument, gently, and on her feet this time. Like he’d suddenly decided to have manners. Geez, kiss a guy once and he’s all nice to you all of a sudden.
With one hand at the small of her back, Luka escorted her out of the cave and around to the back, where he gestured toward the not-so-distant line of desert trees and shrubbery. “There’s the tree to the left, the tree to the right, or those bristle bushes in the middle. Your choice, but don’t get too close to the bushes, they’re a real pain in the ass.”
Mouth falling open in horror, Joella shifted and angled her stare up at his profile. “You can’t be serious.”
“What,” he said. “You expected a toilet and running water out here?”
Well, when you phrase it like that…. Groaning now, Joella squeezed her eyes shut and dropped her forehead into his shoulder. “How long until I can go home? Maybe I can just hold it.”
“Sorry, Ella,” he said, “but I can’t make you any promises there.”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that. On one hand his response made sense, she supposed, but she was stuck on the dumbest thing. Ella. Since her mother’s death, and her subsequent loss of the good friend she’d had in her youth, no one had called her that. It was what she called herself most of the time, but only in her head. “Are you a mind-reader?” she asked suddenly. “Can all werewolves read minds, or is it a specia
l-to-you kind of thing?”
His eyebrow was going to get stuck unnaturally high on his forehead if he kept giving her the look that followed that question. “No to both,” he replied after a long second. This time his lips did twitch and he added, “But your scent generally gives away your mood, so it doesn’t take a lot of effort to guess most things.”
Well that’s embarrassing. But it didn’t explain the name thing.
“Like embarrassment,” Luka offered teasingly when she didn’t say anything.
Biting back another groan, Joella smacked him lightly in the side and stepped back. “Could you pretend not to know everything I’m feeling? And go back to the cave or something. You do not get to watch me pee.”
She swore she could see him swallow his laughter as he inclined his head. “Watch out for snakes,” he said helpfully as he strode back toward the cave.
Jerk. There weren’t any snakes out this time of year. She hoped.
Having lingered long enough to sort out her scattered, confused thoughts, Joella decided she was due a few more answers. At the very least, some more thorough explanations, not the least of which had to include why Luka seemed to think she could just not show up for her regularly scheduled life without repercussion. Whether or not she liked it, after all, she still needed her job. So, as she returned to the small cave where she presumed Luka was waiting for her, she steeled herself for another argument.
She just wasn’t expecting it to have started without her.
“I won’t say it again,” Luka declared, his usually gruff voice just above a growl. “We stick to the plan.”
Joella came up short, one hand landing on the outer stone wall of the cave. She couldn’t be positive, given that it had been dark when she’d been brought there and she’d never been properly introduced to Luka’s group, but she was fairly sure that was the dead man’s brother Luka was talking to.
The smaller man flinched and Joella got the distinct impression he wasn’t usually comfortable arguing. Still, he tried. “But Justin—!”
“Wouldn’t want you throwing your life away for revenge,” Luka said sharply. “We will get vengeance,” he added, “but I won’t tolerate you running off half-cocked.”
Head hanging, the man clenched shaking fists and said, “Yes, Alpha.”
Luka watched him trudge back toward the clearing where the rest had previously been gathered in silence and for a moment Joella wondered if he’d even realized she was there. He answered that unspoken question when he said, “I see you survived.”
Biting her lip as she briefly reconsidered her earlier intent, Joella stepped forward. “Somehow,” she replied. Come on, Ella, you have to do this. Taking a breath, she added, “Listen, I understand your point, but I can’t just disappear from my life. I have a job, and I need to keep it to pay my bills.”
During her little speech Luka had turned, frowning at her, and when she was done, he took a moment with his response. She couldn’t read his expression, aside from his obvious disapproval.
“You’re worried about money problems,” he began slowly, “when your continued existence is in jeopardy?”
Pursing her lips, Joella countered, “What’s the point of ‘existing’ if I’m living under a bridge and having to beg for food?” Sure, that was a little extreme, but times were tough. Losing a good-paying job because she just went AWOL for a while would look terrible on her résumé. No one would hire her, and eventually she wouldn’t be able to afford her rent.
Luka didn’t seem to like her argument, because his eyes narrowed sharply and he stalked forward until he’d backed her against the stone wall, completely covering her body with his. “You are not getting yourself killed,” he said firmly. “I’ll return you to your life when this is over, not before.”
Joella swallowed, startled by the ferocity of his response. And then she remembered what he’d said before. He doesn’t want any more blood on his hands. Sliding her hands up to his shoulders, she offered, “What happens to me isn’t on you, Luka. I’m not your responsibility.”
His brown eyes flashed, he braced his forearms on either side of her, and caught her lips in another powerful kiss. He sucked her tongue into his mouth, stroking it slowly, before sweeping his own past her lips. The kiss was powerful, demanding, and immediately reminded her body of all the wonderful things she’d been feeling just a handful of minutes earlier. Some part of her recognized that he was kissing her to get his way, but in the moment she just did not care. Men as sinfully sexy as Luka didn’t even give the time of day to women as ordinary and overweight as her.
Her arms slid up, around his shoulders, and her fingers dove into his thick brown hair as she kissed him back. He rumbled with a growl of approval when she dragged her teeth over his tongue and the sensation vibrated straight through her chest to her tightening core. She was starting to wonder if Luka was capable of bringing her to orgasm just with the power of his kiss when he pulled back, putting a full foot of distance between their bodies.
“Do you have family out of the area you could stay with for a couple of weeks?” His question threw her completely off, as she’d all but forgotten their argument.
It took Joella a moment to process his meaning and she slowly shook her head. “No,” she admitted. “I have … a job. Just a job.” None of her semi-friends lived near enough to go to and far enough away to be safe. But even if they did, they weren’t close enough for her to go to them. She didn’t have any single person who would voluntarily put their lives on the line for her sake. What was I even arguing for? A job she hated? An apartment she hoped to move out of in the next year or two?
Luka was frowning again. “Is your job that good?”
At this Joella couldn’t have stopped the incredulous laugh if she’d tried. “Not even,” she managed. She sighed, then, and moved to sit on a smooth rock. “My boss just pays me fairly well, considering my position, because he’s hoping I’ll sleep with him.”
“Then you’ve got no reason to throw your life away,” Luka declared on a growl, turning a glare toward the clearing.
She stared at him for a moment, wondering at the growl in his voice, before releasing a resigned sigh. She didn’t like it, but he had a point. It wasn’t like she wanted to die. Still…. “Maybe not, but people will think I’ve gone missing. Or died, even.”
“Then you’ll have to prove them wrong,” Luka said as if it were the most obvious thing. He glanced back at her, then, and said, “Come on, breakfast’s cooking.”
Chapter Four
LOCAL WOMAN BELIEVED DEAD
A poorly enlarged, outdated Driver’s License photo was centered below the abrupt headline on the front page of the newspaper, but it was good enough. Char recognized her as the woman who’d nearly gotten him caught in an altercation with Alpha werewolf Luka Craige. And while he already couldn’t allow the woman to live, just for having seen him standing over Craige’s Beta, now he was doubly inspired to burn a hole in her chest. All of which made the fact the local authorities already seemed to believe her dead that much better.
“Terrible, isn’t it?” his middle-aged waitress asked with a sad shake of her head as she returned with his order. “I don’t know what this world’s coming to. Doing something like that to someone.”
Char lowered the paper for a beat and offered the woman an understanding smile. “Getting to where it’s not even safe outside,” he said. “Could I get a warmer for the coffee, too?” He waited patiently as she obligingly refilled his coffee then stepped toward her next table before spreading the paper out in order to read and eat simultaneously.
Unsurprisingly, the article was short and close-mouthed on the details found at the actual crime scene. They described the body as “burned beyond recognition” and, apparently, they were basing their theory of the body’s identity on the woman’s interrupted 9-1-1 call and the tossed purse found at the scene. It really was perfect.
His eyes returned to the line with the information he’d been looking
for and he smirked. ‘Twenty-nine year old Joella Harp’ had landed herself at the top of his to-do list and, unfortunately for her, he really didn’t have time to draw out the game. Not with a bitter werewolf on his trail. If you’re lucky, Ms. Harp, the wolves have already eaten you.
****
“Can’t I at least run home to get into something more comfortable?” Joella said, obviously unhappy with Luka’s previous answers.
Luka grit his teeth in his effort to keep his voice level. “No,” he ground out. “For the last time, Ella, you can’t go back into that town until Char is dead. End of discussion.”
“Uh-uh,” Joella said. “You can’t ‘end of discussion’ me, Luka. I’m not asking to be allowed to go to my job or stay in town. I just want clothes. Clean clothes. That’s not an outrageous request!”
“Alpha said no, human,” Vanna interrupted from her perch on a nearby rock.
“You’re wasting your time, Vanna,” Morgan put in without looking toward her sister. “Humans don’t understand ‘compliance’.”
Joella’s lips pursed, but Luka ignored her reaction as he turned a glare on the twins. “You should be getting ready. We leave soon for the hunt.”
The girls both pushed to their feet and Vanna asked, “Alpha, if she really wants to take her life into her hands, why are we wasting our time with her?”
“Because I said to,” Luka snapped, his irritation slipping through. Neither asked any further questions before scampering off, leaving Luka as alone with Joella as he was going to get.
“So is that it?” Joella asked, her voice lowered slightly. “I’m a waste of your time?”
“That depends,” Luka said, stepping into her personal space again. “Are you going to throw your life away as soon as I turn my back? Do you want to die?”
