“I'll do it. You go back. I don't want her to wake up alone, and I have someone to call,” he said darkly. And he was going to make it damned clear to the alpha and beta of Redhawke that she wasn't theirs anymore. Zach nodded, but Caleb could easily read his approval and stepped out without a word.
Caleb pulled out, drove into town, stopped first at the new sushi place, and then went on to the fast-food joint. He pulled out her cell phone while he waited in the drive-through line, scrolling through until he found his father's number. It was answered on the first ring, but not by his father.
“Liza, why the hell haven't you checked in?” Her father sounded more exasperated than upset.
“Hey, Henry. Where's my dad?” He was too pissed to bother with pleasantries.
There was a long pause while the phone changed hands and probably went on speaker.
“Caleb?”
“Yeah.”
“Where's Liza?” Henry again, sounding suspicious. Caleb rolled his eyes.
“She's fine. Sleeping. What I want to know is why the fuck y'all sent her here? An unknown witch in lupine territory? That's suicide.”
The idea of what could have happened if someone had discovered her made his blood run cold. Damn it. Had they thought of her safety at all?
Henry snorted. “Liza can take care of herself.”
“Something you'd know if you bothered to keep in touch,” his father grumbled.
With a nod, he accepted bags from a clerk at the window and pulled into a parking spot.
“I'm in touch now. What's wrong?”
“She didn't say anything?”
He growled. It took a couple minutes of struggling to regain control before he was calm enough to answer. They simply waited him out.
“She didn't say anything.”
There was another longer pause and he heard his father's sigh. “I'm ready to retire. It's time for you to come home.”
He snorted. Yeah right. He wasn't buying that for a minute. “Fine. Keep your reasons to yourself. But I'm keeping Liza, and this time I won't tolerate any interference.” It was hard to ignore Henry's barked laughter while he put the car in reverse and got on the road going back to his cabin. To her.
“Good luck with that, son.” His father's amusement was clear, like he knew something Caleb didn't. Like he didn't think Caleb could keep her. He ground his teeth together.
“I don't need luck,” he said through clenched teeth. “She's mine. She always has been.”
“Hell, I know that boy. 'Bout damned time you figured it out.” He stared at the phone a moment before flipping it closed, refusing to answer when they called back. Shit. What the fuck was he supposed to do now? He didn't want to take her back there, but he'd heard something in his dad's voice. Fatigue maybe. He should have kept in better touch. Should know what was going on in his pack.
He'd left, sure, but he'd always intended to go back and take his place. He'd hoped to have worked Liza out of his system first. That definitely wasn't going to happen. The decision was mostly made, but first he needed information and she, as paladin, was the most logical source to obtain it from.
He grinned as he drove up the cabin's drive and parked. She was his mate and he would soon be her alpha. She wouldn't be able to deny him anything. Her body, her strength, her knowledge. Her heart and soul. They were far from that level of acceptance, but he sure as hell looked forward to the hunt.
Chapter Six
Zach was back at the cabin in record time. He didn't want Liza to wake alone. Not that he expected her to be happy finding him there instead of Caleb. And not that it mattered. He and Caleb would discuss it later after he recovered from the shock of this situation.
Zach should have known by Caleb's overreaction back at the bar what Liza meant to him, but it wasn't until he saw Caleb mark her that it all made sense. She didn't just belong to Caleb.
She also belonged to Zach. He wouldn't be happy sharing a mate with anyone else.
Hearing her stir in the bedroom, he sighed and entered the kitchen. He didn't know what brought her to them now, but he was sure the rest of the night would call for coffee. He started a fresh pot and waited for her to come out.
She'd dressed, and again he was hit by that same sense of unreality as when he'd first seen her. Her raven hair was pulled into a ponytail and with no makeup on she looked impossibly young and feminine. Until his gaze drifted down. The woman was all dangerous curves. That was his first thought when he saw her. It wasn't until he saw her naked, saw her sleekly muscled body that he realized how accurate an assessment that was.
He scowled. She certainly looked competent, but he wasn't real keen on his mate, his human mate, being a high-ranking soldier much less paladin. Standing in the doorway she went very still and he made an effort to school any emotion from his face. Relaxing marginally, she entered the room and helped herself to a cup of coffee but kept at a distance from him.
“Where's Caleb?”
“He went to get food. And I brought your car. Ready to tell us why you're here, sweetheart?”
She frowned. “It doesn't have anything to do with you.”
“Hmm.” Letting the heat show in his eyes, he approached her slowly and was relieved to see she felt it too. She froze, gasped when he stretched out a hand to stroke the mark Caleb had left on her neck. Soon enough she'd have a matching one. “We'll have to agree to disagree about that. For now.”
His words snapped her from the spell and she moved away. It was an easy, casual step but her back was stiff. He wanted to put his hands on her and rub away the tension, and he got the feeling she would reject the offer. But why? He thought it was more than loyalty to Caleb.
He searched for a way to put her at ease, but realized he knew almost nothing about her.
After pouring a cup of coffee, he sat at the table and gestured for her to take the chair next to him. He repressed a smile when with a suspicious look she sat at the opposite side of the table.
Okay, you got her sitting. Now what?
He needed to get to know her on his own, without going through Caleb. So what did he know? She had a past with Caleb. She was a soldier. And a witch in a werewolf pack. Unheard of.
“Do you know the story of how we became enemies?”
She smiled. “The Little Red Riding Hood story? Of course.”
“Tell me.”
“Don't you already know it?” she teased, one eyebrow cocked. He'd seen her tease Caleb, but this time that carefree smile was for him. He thought his heart might burst from his chest.
“Maybe your version is different.”
She laughed. “Zach, I grew up in a werewolf pack. It's the same.” Her first test. He wondered if she'd lie to him. “Didn't you ever have contact with your own kind?”
Ah, he'd finally ignited her temper. Her eyes literally flashed—a brilliant silver—
reminding him she may be only half wolf but she was definitely all witch. “I see my mother almost every day. As for the others…” She hesitated so long that he didn't expect her to answer.
When she did, her eyes were sad. He'd do damned near anything to get rid of that look. “I saw my mother's family a couple of times when I was a child.” She was silent a long time, and while he watched, it was like she donned a mask. Hiding the hurts from the past. Hiding from him. He'd do something about that. Later.
“Tell me your story, Liza,” he said softly, somehow keeping himself from reaching for her to offer the comfort he knew she wasn't ready to accept yet. It was a way to distract her, to wipe that forlorn look from her face. She recovered quickly, sending him a quick grin that hit him right in the groin.
“Why not? Once upon a time… You sure you want to hear this?”
“Of course.” He had to know how she would teach it to their pups. Gods, was he really thinking that far ahead?
“Okay. Once upon a time, there was a girl called Little Red Riding Hood. Except she wasn't really a girl. She wasn't a woman either. She was at that
in-between stage. Young enough to still be charmed by childhood, yet old enough to yearn for adulthood.” So far, their stories matched.
“You want the witch version?”
He nodded.
“The wolf telling is better,” she said softly with a shake of her head before going on. “Red wasn't only young, but beautiful. Light and carefree. Every man and boy in the village was half in love with her, and as she grew she came to prefer one in particular. The woodsman who often escorted her to see her grandmother.”
And here their myths diverged. He rested his chin on his fist, caught up in her story. She told it like they were sitting around a campfire.
“Her heart was set. Most accepted she would never be theirs and wished her well. Most but not all. One young man was determined she would be his.
“He came up with a plan to save her, convinced that if he saved her from the wolf known to haunt their woods, her affections would switch to him.
“He watched and waited for his chance. Then one day he saw her set off on the forest path alone. He raced for a different path, donned the wolf skin he'd hidden, and lay in wait. When she appeared around the bend, he jumped out and howled. But instead of turning back on the path, she ran into the woods.
“Forgetting to toss aside the wolf skin, the boy gave chase, for there were not only wolves in these forests but bear and boar. But Red, being the gentle soul she was, didn't know how they were trapped and killed. A fate, as it turned out, she would share.
“It was too late when she discovered the trap, a deep hole in the ground filled with sharpened stakes. Alas, the boy couldn't save her, and he howled his sorrow and rage to the sky, falling to his knees beside the pit.
“And that is how they found him, the woodsman and the grandmother. Her lover wanted to slay her killer, but the grandmother stayed his hand. She couldn't bear the thought of living out the rest of her life without her precious Red, and she knew the boy couldn't either. But she also knew the woodsman wouldn't be happy without his revenge. She wanted the boy to suffer as they would, all his life. He would have no easy death. No quick end.
“And so she cursed not just the boy, but all of his line who followed, to be half man and half wolf, a reminder of Red's death he could never forget or ignore.
“Since that time witches and wolves have been mortal enemies. So it is. And so it shall always be.”
“I can't believe you got her to tell that version.”
Zach jumped. He hadn't even heard the car pull up, much less Caleb come in. The other werewolf set three bags on the table, two from the local hamburger joint and one from the sushi place that had just opened. Why the hell was Caleb buying raw fish? The mystery was answered when Liza grabbed the bag and unloaded two containers. The smell of rice and undercooked fish assaulted his nostrils. She looked up, saw his expression, and laughed.
Chapter Seven
Caleb watched Liza struggle not to laugh at Zach's disgusted expression. She must realize people only fell into two camps with sushi, because she didn't continue to tease. They either loved it or hated the idea of it so much they refused to try it. There were no chopsticks, but Caleb handed her a fork. She speared a bite and offered it to Zach. “Wanna a bite? It's good.” So much for not teasing. Zach shuddered while unwrapping a burger, and Caleb sent her a stern look. Rather than egg either one of them on anymore, she ate in silence. She'd just pushed both cartons away when her phone rang. Eyes narrowing, she looked around for it, her eyes suspicious when Caleb brought it out of his pocket. She held her hand out for it, but he just shook his head, sent the call to voice mail, and set it by his cup on the table. Out of her reach.
“So what's wrong with Dad?” he asked while reaching for a fry. She had that stubborn look that even five years hadn't erased from his memory. Damn it. She picked the worst times to be difficult.
“It's pack business.”
He couldn't deny she had a point there. He stood and dragged Zach into the other room. “I hate to admit it, man, but she's right.”
He expected his old friend to take offense, but he just smiled. “She is my business. Just as much as you are.”
The inflection he used, the possession and determination and heat in his eyes, could only mean one thing. He'd never seen that look from Zach before. Possession and heat sure, but not protectiveness. Neither one of them needed a protector. Hell, only one woman in the world made Caleb react that way. Apparently she also pushed Zach's buttons.
“She is not going to appreciate having two mates.” At least not at first. But it pleased Caleb immensely, solidly tying the three of them together.
Zach shrugged. “She'll get over it.”
Caleb smiled, knew Zach had reached the same conclusion as he. “She can be convinced.”
“Oh yeah,” his friend answered in a voice gone deep with arousal.
Liza grabbed her phone when they left the room. The missed call was from Grant, the pack alpha. The line was busy when she called back, but her phone rang again as soon as she flipped it shut. A glance at the screen confirmed her suspicion. Since the alpha hadn't been able to reach her, the beta was trying.
“Hey, Dad.”
Caleb reentered the room with Zach on heels. Both looked pissed. She so didn't have the patience for them right now.
“Did you find him?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“No progress.” She sighed. She'd told them Caleb wouldn't come home if she asked. Why hadn't they believed her? Her father responded after a brief muffled conversation on his side.
“Fine. Leave him there and come home.”
She blinked. They were going to give up that quickly?
“Why?”
“We're going to pick a successor. You need to be here for that.”
“I'll see if I can charter a plane. Otherwise, it'll take two days to drive back.”
“No, don't do that. Just drive. This decision is going to take at least that long anyway.”
“Okay. I'm on my way.”
“Good.” She heard him take a deep breath. “Be careful.”
“Always,” she answered, but he'd already hung up. She stared at the phone, not believing they were actually going to bypass Caleb in the new hierarchy. That could spell disaster for the pack. She needed to hurry home, and convince Caleb to come with her.
“What is it?”
She wanted to tell him everything, but Zach was still there, and no matter how attracted she was to the other werewolf, he wasn't Redhawke.
“Zach is with us. Spill it, Liza.”
She rolled her eyes. Leave it to Caleb to know just what she was thinking and try to steamroll right over her. And fuck it. She was tired, and it would be days more before she could even consider rest.
“If you care anything about Redhawke, you'll come home.”
“Dad said the same thing.”
“You talked to him?”
“Yeah. I don't know what game y'all are playing, but I don't believe for one minute his rule is in jeopardy.”
“You've been gone a long time.”
He didn't answer, but his disbelief and suspicion were easy to read. She grabbed her keys from where he'd dropped them on the table. “Right. Believe what you want. I have to get home.” Caleb stepped aside, and she ignored the pain in her heart that he was going to let her go so easily. But when she got to the kitchen door, Zach blocked her, his arms crossed over his chest and his expression making it damned clear she wasn't getting out so easy. Damn it, they were really starting to piss her off. She turned back to Caleb, tongue sharp and caution forgotten.
“Even werewolves age. And even alphas get weaker.”
“He's not old,” Caleb scoffed.
“He's seventy.”
“Your father—”
She cut him off. “Is older than yours.” She took a steadying breath, tried to get control of her anger and her fear. “Look, there are only four soldiers strong enough to hold the pack.
May
be. At least two of them will try to force me to leave. An unmated human female with influence? Who's regularly overruled them?” She snorted. Yeah, if either Jonas or Baker became alpha, she'd be gone. “Your father won't appoint them, but if it comes down to a challenge?” She shrugged. “You know how unpredictable those things are.”
She watched his face carefully, saw the exact moment he started to take her and the situation seriously. And he was definitely not happy about it. Growling, he paced across the small room, stopped in front of her to set his hands on her shoulders. He gave her a small shake that should have intimidated her but instead made her body clench with excited need.
“You should have come to me sooner, Liza.”
“I'm here now.” She tried to make her words firm, but they weren't. Light and breathy, the sexual need unmistakable. He noticed. His nostrils flared to take in her scent and his eyes were as hot as she knew hers would be. He let her go abruptly, and she just restrained herself from stomping her frustration. She'd thought he was over the disgust he felt for his desire for her. So much for that thought.
He turned to Zach, who leaned against the doorframe, his ankles crossed, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He met her eyes briefly, not even attempting to hide his desire or the arousal bulging the front of his jeans, before turning back to Caleb.
“Welcome to Redhawke,” Caleb said. “Gimme ten minutes to throw a bag together; then we'll get going.”
Zach nodded, his gaze returning to her. His smile was slow and sexy. “Take your time,” he said to Caleb, and she didn't have to wonder if Caleb knew why his friend made the suggestion or if he was going to protest. He chuckled.
“Sure. I should gas up before we leave anyway, right?”
“Yep,” Zach responded but didn't turn away from her, waited until Caleb was out of sight before slowly approaching her. Steps careful, smooth, and measured. Stalking. Her arousal escalated to a level that made her tremble.
She moved back with each step he took forward until her butt bumped into the counter.
Once Bitten sm-1 Page 4
