by Mia Rose
Declan searched for the right words to say and came up with, “Thank you. So, is there any chance that we can forget what happened between us?” He gestured in between them and Noelle lifted her arms and placed both of her hands squarely on top of his.
She smirked, and said, “We don’t have to stop exploring whatever this is.” Her fingertips sent a jolt throughout his body.
Declan looked over his shoulder then turned back to Noelle. Her blue eyes stared into his so intensely, and the sunlight that hung overhead bounced off of them and highlighted her cheekbones. Declan’s eyes ran over the cheekbones of her heart-shaped face, that sloped into her jaw. His mind created images of a sticky afternoon spent trailing kisses along that jawline.
He’d kiss her until he reached the small bit of space left between her cleavage, and trail them down her belly. Declan knew that women like Noelle were dangerous, and that they could bring some of the most powerful men to their knees with a glance.
“We shouldn’t.”
“There’s no one outside, no one would see you leave. Even so, are you saying that it would arouse suspicion if you were seen taking a walk with someone who questions you about the apartment building?”
“I’m starting to think that you don’t have any questions about the apartment,” Declan said, and did a poor job of fighting off the urge to grin.
Noelle grinned and jerked her thumb over her shoulder, “There’s another cafe down there, same stuff that you can get here, but further away from any wandering eyes.”
Declan took a sip of his coffee and spun the cup around and raised it to Noelle’s lips. She sipped from the cup, leaving a pink stain on the rim of the lid.
Declan licked his lips and said, “I’ll treat!”
Declan usually treated women like they were pieces of fragile china, including some of the women that joined the pack and had enough strength to snap the railings off a stairwell. However, there was something about Noelle that told him that he didn’t have to be careful. It could have been the cool stare she wore every time that she’d run into him in at the Arden Cafe, or it could have been the way she pressed her incisors down onto her bottom lip when she came. Hmm, or it could have been the presentation of it all. The perfection of a woman that would seem so together by anyone else’s standards.
She wore expensive dresses, and playful heels; her long, perfectly layered hair that stopped just above the band of her bra was stunning. Declan had seen enough people trying to convince the rest of the world that they were happy, and he’d seen enough people do a piss-poor job of hiding it too.
He could smell how badly she craved adventures. He felt when he touched her, that if he slid his fingers in between the loose sections of her hair, it would tempt him. And he didn’t miss the way that her eyes rolled into the back of her head, or how her sultry expression begged him to give those silky strands a tug. Declan concealed a growl as he hoisted Noelle against the brick that lined the wall of the alleyway in between the family owned cafe on the right, and the print store on the left.
Noelle exhaled, and a giggle fell past her lips as she wrapped her arms around Declan’s neck.
“I don’t know how we keep ending up here,” Declan breathed.
His nails pinched the pale skin on her thighs, leaving small, pink indents just before the fabric of her dress stopped. Declan groaned, the heat that radiated off her made his cock as hard as the brick Noelle’s back was pressed against.
His fingers scaled up her thighs and he hooked his fingers into the space between her panties and her skin. Declan shimmied them down her legs, and they fell to the ground. He pulled himself through his jeans and pressed himself against Noelle’s wet center. The smell of her arousal lit his senses on fire, and he plunged himself deep inside of her.
Noelle cried out and buried her mouth into Declan’s shoulder. She kissed it, and he rocked his hips in and out of her. Noelle lifted her head from Declan’s shoulders and revealed a sultry grin, her lipstick was smeared against the edges of her lips. It was hotter than sex on a train.
Declan’s low chuckle into her ear made her clench tighter around his cock, and Noelle squeezed her legs against him, urging him to slide himself in deeper.
Noelle’s fingernails scraped against the back of his neck, and she knew that she drew blood upon hearing the low hiss that left his lips. Declan suckled on the soft skin on her neck until her body was done convulsing. One of her hands shot and curled into a claw, hovering just above the red brick beside them. Declan pulled himself out of her slit and a thin line of come dribbled off the tip of his cock.
She pulled her dress down and felt a sense of naughtiness creep over her upon seeing her underwear lying on the ground in between Declan’s feet.
It’ll be a sexy surprise for the next person that uses this alley.
A lust-laced fog hung over her, she knelt on the ground and swept the strap of her backpack into her hand.
“Do you have to get back?”
Declan nodded, “We had a full day planned of… changing out all the filters in the apartments.” He pressed his hand against the brick and captured Noelle between his arms.
“Will I see you again? I don’t even know where you live, or if Noelle is even your real name.”
Noelle chuckled and said, “It’s my name, I promise, my parents gave it to me.”
That, and a crippling need to find out how many werewolves are hiding out in that building of yours.
She kissed Declan on the cheek and said, “I have to get going. I’ll see you next time.” She wiggled her fingers over her shoulder and walked down the alleyway and away from him.
“There’ll be a next time then?” He called out to no one.
Declan sighed, he waited for the heavy feeling to fall over him, for his thoughts to start conjuring up justifications. There were none.
I don’t even feel bad about it this time, how wrong is that?
The periwinkle panties underneath him caught his attention. He knelt to the ground and brushed a piece of the lace fabric out of the way, the shimmering pellet underneath it caught his eye. Declan narrowed his eyes and raised one finger to the bullet, he pressed his index finger against it.
He gritted his teeth, leaving his skin pressed against the bullet felt like dipping his arm in a ring of fire. Declan held up his opposite arm and buried his mouth into it, he caught his breath before screaming into his shirt. His eyes flew around the alley, searching for anyone that might have stuck their heads out of the businesses on either side of him, and he slowly lowered his arm to his side.
“Another fucking bullet,” he said, and kicked the panties off to the side. Declan grabbed a torn ad off the asphalt and pinched the bullet in between his fingers. He raised it up to his eyes and his hands began to tremble.
The hunter.
“We don’t have to stop exploring whatever this is.”
Chapter 12
Watch Out
“What if all of us are killed by this hunter?”
Cassidy watched the woman leave, she leaned against the railing on the second floor and her eyes followed her out of the door. Cassidy hadn’t felt comfortable leaving the woman to her devices. The way that she insisted on lingering inside of the building made Cassidy’s nose curl. Something funny was going on. The wound on her back gave her hours of pain to endure, and she hadn’t seen much of anything that was outside of her apartment for days.
How long had this woman been hanging around the building?
After that incident with the press a couple weeks ago, she thought that Declan and Gabriel were doing their best to keep anyone who didn’t already live here or belong to the pack, as far away from the building as possible.
That woman had the chance to come here for an extended period not once, but twice? Cassidy pressed her hand against the throbbing gash on her back, and walked to the end of the floor. She walked up the steps and kept walking until she reached the fourth floor. As she took her foot off the stairwell and place
d it on the carpet, the apartment across from her swung open. Gabriel stood in front of her, his hands tucked into his pockets and a gloomy expression colored his features.
“Gabriel,” Cassidy said, “what is it?”
Gabriel blinked and locked eyes with Cassidy, “Nothing. I slept in longer than I would have liked. I bet that Declan has a mountain of work for me to sort through.”
“Ah,” she said, and looked over her shoulder. There wasn’t anyone in the lobby beneath them. Cassidy frowned, “Have you noticed anything weird around here lately?”
Gabriel chuckled and replied, “Where do you want to start? The building filled with lupine creatures, your attack, or Aster’s death?”
Cassidy shook her head, and moved closer to Gabriel. He stiffened, and watched her lean against the wall next to the door to his apartment.
“I mean, have you seen any weird people in here? Like, humans that are just hanging around?”
Gabriel considered her question for a moment before saying, “I think that you probably need to lie down, because that wound on your back is making you over-think things. Don’t you think?”
He offered her one of his rare smiles, something that was usually reserved just for Cassidy anyhow, and lightly touched his fingers against the small of her back.
“Let’s get you back to your place, huh?” Gabriel narrowed his eyes at Cassidy’s turned back.
Who is that woman that keeps hanging around? Has Declan seriously not noticed the way that she’s been injecting herself into our day now?
Cassidy twisted her head over her shoulder and said, “You’re awfully quiet back there.”
“I’m still a little rattled from last night. My hand hurts, not that it compares to whatever happened to you.”
Cassidy nodded, and pushed open the door to her apartment. She held it open for Gabriel, but he lingered by the door.
Cassidy cocked her head and said, “Come on now, we can’t hold onto those old fashion ideas forever. You’re my friend, I’m inviting my friend inside of my apartment to take my mind off this thing on my back.”
When Gabriel didn’t respond, Cassidy smiled sweetly and placed her hand on his shoulder. She pulled him inside, and Gabriel found a place to sit at the table inside of the compact kitchen.
Gabriel always thought that it was a true hint of Declan’s character that he didn’t give himself the nicest apartment inside of the building. He could have had one of the spacious, open layout two bedroomed apartments on the third floor. Instead, he chose to cram he and Cassidy inside a six hundred square foot, basic one bedroom apartment.
Gabriel scratched at the brown paint that was peeling off on their kitchen table.
Cassidy shut the door and said, “Are you guys making any progress on this search for this rogue hunter? Are they with anyone? What’s their endgame?”
Cassidy moved over to the sink and poured a cup of water into the back of her coffee machine. She leant against the counter and waited for Gabriel’s reply. Just because she wasn’t able to go on any of the hunts and collect the information herself, it didn’t mean that she wanted to be kept out of the loop.
I’m still an alpha, she thought.
Gabriel rotated in his chair and said, “The only thing that we found was a bullet. We don’t know whose bullet it is, and we don’t know who’s been watching for werewolves around town. Declan wants us to switch up our hunting spots for now.”
Cassidy nodded, “I’d have to agree there. It would be better if we could just take out whoever did this.” She grabbed the coffee pot and set it on top of the burner, “You have no idea what it’s like to deal with this every day,” she gestured at her back, “and to know that it’s not getting any better. Every day feels like a struggle, and my body won’t heal itself.”
Gabriel held up his hand, and pointed at the burnt mess on his index finger, “I think that I get what you mean now.”
Cassidy gasped and abandoned the coffee pot, she took Gabriel’s hand into hers and said, “What happened?!”
“I picked up a silver bullet, I wasn’t thinking and touched it with my bare hand. Someone fired it at us last night. I couldn’t chase them down because Cole distracted me.”
Gabriel wanted to pull his hand away from Cassidy’s, but her soft skin felt too good against his hand. He always wrestled with his attraction to Cassidy. And he knew that any man with a working cock would appreciate a woman like her. She was thin, with a striking face, and long, blonde hair. Blonde hair had always been his favorite. He usually buried his feelings for her deep inside. And the fallout that could result from actually falling in love with the alpha’s mate could be deadly, not to mention that Declan would see it as a particularly personal betrayal.
Cassidy, as if reading his thoughts, let his hand slip between both of hers. Her face was sunken.
“Gabriel, what if it never heals? What if I’m not able to live with this thing on my back?”
She raised her shimmering eyes to him and asked, “What if this is how all of it ends? What if all of us are killed by this hunter?”
Gabriel rose to his feet and companionably wrapped his arms around Cassidy’s shoulders.
He held her close to him and said, “It won’t. I promise.” He pulled away and said, “We will figure out what’s going on and I’ll be the one to present that hunter’s head to you on a platter. After we forced them to fix the wound on your back.”
Cassidy laughed, but it was humorless.
She buried her face into Gabriel’s shirt and said, “You always find a way to be so tough. Sometimes I think that you’re Declan’s backbone.”
Gabriel separated from her and walked over to the pot of hot coffee that was waiting for them on the burner. He pulled a couple of mugs out of the cabinets and set them down onto the counter.
“None of us would be able to have a backbone without that bonehead.”
He smirked and poured a hot, bubbling stream of black coffee into both mugs.
Gabriel handed a cup to Cassidy, “He’ll know what to do.”
“What if all of us are killed by this hunter?”
Chapter 13
In Charge
“I’m the Alpha of the pack.”
Declan tried to slow his heartbeat but the sound pulsed in his ears. He braced himself against the brick wall and doubled over. His stomach lurched, and the contents of his stomach rushed up his throat. Declan cupped his hand over his mouth and willed the bile back down. Noelle had silver bullets. Noelle carried silver bullets around in that bag of hers, and she’d been walking in and out of Clifton Towers with silver bullets in her possession. How long had she known about the wolves inside of the apartment building? Declan’s trembling hands gripped his stomach; a bad taste sat on his tongue.
How could he have fooled around with her? He let a killer right into the heart of his pack, did she do something to bewitch him? How did she know that I’d fall for her? That I would take the risk and stray from Cassidy? Maybe she knew about everything the whole time, maybe she followed one of us home that night.
Declan gasped, throwing his hand against the brick wall for not having put it together sooner.
“Idiot!” he shouted, and looked over his shoulder to make sure that no one was watching the scene from the end of the alleyway. He couldn’t be sure of who was watching him any longer.
What if she was the hunter waiting in the woods for Cassidy? Then Gabriel and his group?
Before today, Declan would have discredited this idea altogether, and not just because of his wild, growing attraction to Noelle, but because she was so petite. In a million years, he wouldn’t have thought that a regular human woman could get the best of his own powerful mate, his skilled beta, and himself. He underestimated Noelle, and if his eyes hadn’t been so clouded with lust, his first hint would have been the way that she twisted his arm when she thought he was a catcaller getting handsy.
What normal woman could hold her own against a man Declan’s size the way th
at she did?
Not only was she likely to be a hunter, she was a well-trained one.
Were there more? Was there an entire group of hunters waiting for them somewhere? I’ve put the entire pack at risk. I almost sent Gabriel to his death the other night.
Declan shook his head, he couldn’t let himself get stuck on what would have happened if Cole hadn’t been there. What if Gabriel had been shot, instead of the oak tree? What if it had been fired into his back. Declan’s beta would have been dead by sunrise.
Or his back would look like Cassidy’s.
Declan rose to his feet, and inspected his clothes for anything that would stand out to Cassidy and Gabriel. He walked down the alleyway, and blended in with the people moving along on the sidewalk.
Declan parked his car just outside of the opening to the woods. He cut the headlights, and left the keys in the ignition.
I don’t have car thieves to worry about, I’ll be more concerned if I come back and see Noelle and her group leaning against the car, ready to fire a few dozen rounds of silver bullets inside of me.
Declan shook out his limbs; his right leg, then his left, and he twisted both arms into a cross body stretch. It had been a while since Declan ran out into the woods. He’d spent such a long time away from it with the intention of keeping himself safe, while unknowingly falling into the hunter’s trap. Declan walked into the clearing, and his eyes shifted from left to right, hoping to catch a glance of an ambitious hunter.
He’d decided earlier that afternoon that if Noelle was the hunter that had been terrorizing his pack, he could put a quiet end to things in her favorite spot to hunt prey. Declan crouched down, and his body morphed into his wolf form with ease. He stretched his front paws, then moved deeper into the woods.
There was a family of deer not too far from him, he could hear their hooves clopping through the mud, and he could smell the youngest fawn. All the meat tasted the same, but Declan had never been opposed to an easy kill. Declan lowered his snout to the ground and inhaled, searching for a whiff of anything that might be out of place in the woods. He continued on like that for the next hour, stopping at the base of trees to sniff around the perimeter of it.
