Wolf on the Hunt

by N. J. Walters

  He ignored the table and sat on one of the barstools. Better for him not to move more than necessary. He didn’t want to flash his growing erection at her.

  Gray bent over and pulled a bowl of cooked eggs that had been kept warming in the oven. Louis almost bit his tongue off to keep from growling when the action pushed her heart-shaped ass into the air. He wanted to fall to his knees behind her, yank her pants down and bury his face in her pussy.

  What the hell was wrong with him? He hadn’t been this hot for a woman since he’d hit puberty. It wasn’t that he couldn’t get a woman if he wanted to. A quick trip to the nearest city would take care of that for him. Heck, he could hit the local roadhouse bar on Saturday night if all he wanted was to get laid.

  No, it was Gray having this effect on him. Louis wasn’t sure he liked it. He prided himself on his control. The last time he’d felt anything like this at all was when he’d met Gwen, and what he’d felt then paled in comparison to what he was experiencing around Gray.

  Was this what Jacque had gone through when he’d met Gwen? If it was, it was a wonder his brother hadn’t snapped Louis’s head from his neck for sniffing around her. He appreciated his brother’s restraint and made a note to apologize to him later.

  Because Louis knew he’d kill any male who dared to so much as look at Gray in a sexual manner.

  She was his.

  His wolf howled in agreement. Outwardly, Louis showed none of his inner turmoil. His entire life had just been turned upside down. Only yesterday he’d resigned himself to the fact he’d probably be alone his entire life. He could never have imagined finding someone like Gray—a beautiful, courageous half-breed werewolf. The odds were astronomical. Yet here they were.

  Gray plunked the bowl of eggs in front of him. “Help yourself.” She set a plate piled high with toast beside it before getting the ham.” “Coffee?” she asked.

  “Please.” He had to get a grip on himself before he did something totally stupid, like blurt out the truth to her. She was his mate. Yeah, he didn’t think that would go over so well.

  He almost didn’t believe it himself, but he was a creature of instinct and his wolf knew what he wanted. Hell, Louis knew what he wanted. Still, he needed to back up a bit and take this slowly for both their sakes. He’d been attracted to Gwen and that hadn’t worked out so well. Granted, this felt much more powerful. He knew what he’d felt before had been a combination of lust and loneliness. This was real.

  He frowned. At least it felt real. Were his feelings for Gray just lust and loneliness?

  To distract himself from his thoughts, Louis grabbed the bowl of eggs and piled over half of them on his plate, grabbed his fork and dug in. He needed the protein to help rebuild his blood and muscles. Steak would have been better, but beggars weren’t choosers. He was grateful to be alive.

  Yes, a werewolf could survive being shot, but too many bullets in strategic places and his body could bleed out before it could heal itself. He’d gotten lucky.

  Gray placed coffee in front of him. He nodded his thanks but kept eating, pausing only long enough to load some of the ham onto his plate.

  “I wasn’t sure how much to cook. I thought I’d made too much.” Gray leaned on the counter and studied him. “I’m thinking I underestimated.”

  Louis slowed down and forced himself to stop even though his body was screaming at him to keep eating. He was shoveling this into him like a starving animal. No manners whatsoever.

  Way to go to impress the lady, LaForge.

  He placed his fork on the edge of his plate and took a sip of coffee. “Our metabolism runs much higher than a human’s.”

  She nodded. “I figured that. “I’ve always been able to eat whatever I wanted. I have curves but I don’t seem to get any smaller or larger.”

  “Shifting and healing take a vast amount of fuel.” He didn’t want her to think he was always like this. He did have some manners.

  “You mentioned that.” A smile hovered at the corners of her mouth. “You’re hungry. Eat. Don’t mind me.” She filled a plate with two slices of toast, a few spoonfuls of the eggs and two slices of ham. She didn’t come to sit beside him but remained standing on the other side of the counter as she ate. Shadow strolled over and stared at Gray until she handed the beast a slice of the ham.

  The dog took the treat and gave a happy grumble as he devoured it in one bite. Shadow gazed up at Gray with sheer devotion in his eyes. He knew exactly how the dog felt.

  Louis shrugged and went back to eating. He needed to be at full strength in case those hunters decided to double back. He didn’t trust them. Then there were his enemies who were out there somewhere. They might not be in Salvation today, but they’d be here eventually. It could be a day, a week or a year before they showed themselves. Louis had to be in peak condition at all times.

  And speaking of time…he glanced around for a clock and found one on the stove. When he saw the time, he swore.

  Gray’s head snapped up.

  “Shit. I’m sorry. It’s just that I don’t want the others to worry about me.” He should have been home by now. Jacque would be concerned.

  “Others?” He heard the slight quaver in her voice.

  “The rest of my pack.”

  * * * * *

  Jean Paul Dupointe hunkered down behind a large rock and watched the hunters move out of sight.

  “Should we kill them?” his brother asked.

  Jean Paul prayed for patience. Robert was a good man, if not a particularly smart one. “Non, we don’t want to let anyone know we’re here. Killing the hunters will bring search parties and police.”

  Robert nodded and hung his head slightly. His brother meant well, but he didn’t always think before he acted. Jean Paul had worked too hard to get into the position he currently held. Getting into Pierre LaForge’s inner circle was not an easy task. It was a long, bloody process. Many in their pack had perished in this war with Jacque and his small pack. It was time for it to stop.

  “You think Louis is dead?” Robert asked.

  They’d both scented their former packmate in the woods and seen the blood. They’d followed it straight to a small house on the edge of the town but hadn’t found a body. They’d gone searching for the hunters to make sure they didn’t have it. Last thing they needed was the damn thing to start disintegrating quickly, as all dead werewolf bodies did. That would lead to questions none of them wanted humans asking.

  But the hunters were empty-handed. It was for that reason only that Jean Paul let them live. If they’d had Louis’s body, he’d have been forced to kill them and dispose of all the bodies.

  “Non, he isn’t dead.” Which meant he must be back at that house where his scent had ended. That was interesting. It would be worth finding out who lived there. “Come,” he told his brother. “Let’s go into town and have a beer and listen to what the locals are saying.” He didn’t want to mention the house and his suspicions to Robert. His brother was just as likely to blurt things out that should be secret.

  To Robert, the world was black and white. The alpha was always right and the rules were never to be broken. That’s what made him very good in the position they now held at Pierre’s side. It also made him a danger to them both. A wolf who couldn’t keep his mouth shut usually had a short life.

  Jean Paul saw the world in shades of gray and did what needed doing for survival. Robert couldn’t share what he didn’t know. Jean Paul had been keeping things from his brother since they were kids. It was second nature.

  Robert hurried ahead of him. Their truck was parked a mile down the road. He thought about contacting Pierre, but he’d already given him his report for the day. The entire pack was still on their land and they’d built another home. That had been a tidbit of news that Pierre hadn’t known.

  Better to wait until he knew something for sure. The last thing he wan
ted to do was piss off his alpha. Jean Paul planned to live a long life, and Pierre had a very short temper.

  He followed Robert back to the truck all the while wondering if Louis was dead or hurt and if he was indeed in that house. And if he was there, it led to all kinds of questions. Did he know the people who lived there? And if they were unaware of who and what he was, why had they taken a wounded wolf into their home?

  Chapter Seven

  Gray knew wolves were pack animals. Still, it was a shock to hear him so casually mention others. Somehow she’d pictured Louis as a lone wolf.

  “We’re a small group—five males and four females.”

  So there were more werewolves walking around in the area. It was hard for her to wrap her head around everything. Now that Louis had eaten and was looking much better, it was time to ask her questions.

  “So are you a separate species? No one had to bite you so you’d become a werewolf?” It felt crazy to be asking such questions, like she’d fallen into another reality. But she knew what she’d seen with her own eyes, and unless Louis was a master of hypnotism or hallucination, she’d watched him turn from a wolf into a man.

  He studied her for a long moment before shaking his head. “Non. Most are born this way. It is possible to change a human with a bite, but it is extremely rare and almost always lethal for the human.”

  “But not always?”

  “Not always,” he conceded. “But it is an extremely painful process.” He turned the questions back on her. “You know nothing of your father?”

  Gray toyed with the handle of her mug. It hurt her to think of her father. “No. My mother never mentioned him, and my grandmother didn’t know anything about him at all.” She’d been thinking about something Louis had mentioned earlier. “I think maybe she did know he wasn’t quite human.”

  Louis’s eyes narrowed and his entire being grew more intent. “Why do you say that?”

  “We were always moving.” Gray had hated being woken in the middle of the night and strapped into their dilapidated car. “She was nervous a lot. I remember that. Always looking over her shoulder.”

  Louis drained his coffee mug, pushed back his chair and went to the pot for a refill. “It’s likely that she was afraid he or his pack would come after her if they knew about you.” He paused by her long enough to top up her coffee before going back to his seat.

  She breathed a sigh of relief when he was no longer right next to her. The towel he was wearing didn’t offer much coverage. It would only take one small tug and it would be gone. As it was, it wasn’t easy to converse with Louis with all that tanned and muscled chest on display.

  She scrubbed a hand over her face. “So it’s likely my father was trying to kill me?” That was a far cry from the make-believe story she’d indulged in as a child. She’d imagined her father didn’t know about her but would someday discover she existed and come to get her. Yeah, that was nothing more than a child’s fantasy.

  Louis shrugged. “Maybe.”

  Her mouth fell open. “Maybe? That’s all you have to say? You don’t find it appalling that a father would want to kill his child?” What kind of man was he?

  Louis released a tired sigh. “Chère, my father has been trying to kill me for years.”

  “But you’re not a half-breed.” She’d seen him shift and he’d told her that half-breeds didn’t shift. No, that’s not quite true. He’d told her that if she were going to be able to shift she would have done it when she was a teenager. “You can shift,” she pointed out. She’d seen him, even though she still couldn’t quite believe it.

  “Oh, I’m full-blooded, but that doesn’t matter to the old man.” Louis leaned his elbows on the counter and leaned in closer. “My father is alpha of our old pack in Louisiana. Pierre LaForge believes his word is law and he enforces it with a brutal fist. He thinks women are little more than chattel and all the men in the pack live to serve him.”

  Gray’s mouth was suddenly dry. He didn’t sound like the kind of man she’d like to meet. “What happened?” How had Louis ended up in North Carolina?

  “There were some of us who wanted more, wanted better for our lives. We left in the middle of the night and settled on some land we’d purchased up here. There were five of us.”

  She was fascinated in spite of her horror over their situation. It was like some dark fairly tale, complete with a nasty villain. “Five of you? I thought you said there were nine of you?” She hadn’t misheard him earlier.

  “My brother, myself, our cousin and two friends all left.” A half smile touched Louis’s lips. “The women came later.”

  Oh crap. Here she was fantasizing about Louis naked and he most likely had a wife or mate or whatever it was she was called. “Do you want to call your girlfriend to let her know you’re all right?” She was proud of how steady she sounded. No sign that her stomach was in knots or her chest hurt.

  Louis shook his head. “There is no woman to worry about me. The rest of the pack is mated, but not me.”

  There was no denying the sense of relief that slammed into her. She ignored it and tried not to smile. “I’m sorry.”

  He reached over the length of the counter and covered her hand with his. “I’m not.”

  Her heart began to race and she could feel herself sweating. Surely he didn’t mean what she thought he did?

  He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. Goose bumps raced up her arm.

  “Gray,” he began.

  She pulled her hand away and stood. Self-preservation dictated that she not get involved with this complicated man. After all, look what had happened to her mother. She’d ended up pregnant and alone, and if Louis was right, her mother had been hunted because of Gray.

  “Why is your father trying to kill you?” Nothing like a little murder and mayhem to get her mind off how sexy Louis was.

  Louis growled and the fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. It was a visceral reminder that this was no ordinary man sitting across from her. This was a werewolf. The rules she’d learned about dealing with normal men didn’t apply.

  “Because no one leaves a pack without permission, especially not the alpha’s sons.” Louis stood and began to pace. The towel hung low on his hips and the slit parted to give her a glimpse of his muscled thigh. She’d seen him naked. It shouldn’t be such a big deal now that he was half-dressed. Yet somehow it was.

  She’d been in shock earlier, only partially aware of his nudity. Now, she was fully aware of Louis as a spectacular specimen of manhood.

  He paused at the window before turning around. Her gaze followed the thin line of hair down the center of his chest to where it disappeared beneath the towel. The fabric twitched and her eyes shot to his face.

  “You keep looking at me like that, chère, and you’re going to see more than you bargained for.”

  She swallowed heavily. She realized she wouldn’t exactly mind if the towel slipped away. Focus, she told herself. This was no time to get distracted by a gorgeous man.

  “So your father is really trying to kill you?”

  Louis began pacing once again. No, not pacing. Prowling. Like some great beast, he flowed from one side of the room to the other. Even Shadow sat back and watched him. There was no doubt as to who was the apex predator in the room.

  “We’ve been attacked several times in the past year by members of our old pack.” Louis growled and Gray shivered. This was a very dangerous man. “We’ve all managed to survive, but not without casualties.” He turned and his brown eyes seemed to glow. “We’ve killed many of our attackers.”

  Gray was going to be sick. She slapped her hand over her mouth and dashed toward the bathroom. He called her name, but she wasn’t stopping for anything. She barely made it before she lost her lunch. She felt him hovering behind her but ignored him.

  She flushed the toilet and concentrat
ed on taking several deep breaths. A shudder racked her entire body. He talked about killing people so easily. This was the world her mother had been running from. Had she known how brutal it was or had she simply been frightened when she’d discovered what her lover really was?

  Gray would never know.

  Water ran in the bathroom sink and then a cold cloth was pressed against the back of her neck.

  “I’m sorry,” Louis told her as he wiped her face. “I shouldn’t have been quite so blunt.” He frowned and continued to wipe the perspiration from her face.

  She didn’t understand this man at all. He hadn’t attacked the hunters when they’d been trying to kill him, yet he talked of killing members of his own pack.

  “I need to brush my teeth.” The sour taste in her mouth was making her feel sick again. She pushed his hand away and concentrated on the task of putting toothpaste on her toothbrush. She didn’t look at him as she took care of the mundane task.

  She was in the house with a self-confessed killer. Then why did she feel safe with him? Obviously, she needed her head examined.

  When she rinsed her mouth and was minty-fresh once again, she turned to face him. He was leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed over his chest. His biceps bulged and a muscle in his jaw flexed.

  The scowl on his face made her take a step back. His expression grew even darker.

  Way to go, LaForge. He hated that his blunt manner had made Gray ill. She’d been such a rock through the entire ordeal, but everyone had a breaking point. Telling her point blank that he’d killed people he knew. Yeah, not his finest moment. No wonder she was afraid. It was a wonder she wasn’t screaming the house down.

  Now she was more afraid of him than ever. Her skin was pale and clammy, but it was the fear in her eyes that nearly brought him to his knees.

  “I won’t hurt you, chère,” he promised her. “I’ll never hurt you.”

  She nodded, but he could tell she didn’t quite believe him. And why would she? She barely knew him. Still, it hurt. His word, his honor, was everything to him. He was a protector by nature and he’d never experienced such a deep-seated need to safeguard anyone as he did this woman.