by Black, Tasha
“Yeah,” Will said. “She’s here too. But good luck getting her to stop playing with the little ones long enough to talk to.”
“Hannah’s here, right?” Mary asked.
“Oh, yes,” Will said. “Hannah can’t wait to see you. She’s been talking about that book you guys are reading all morning.”
Mary blushed and returned to her usual quiet state.
Will opened the door to the old white stucco farmhouse.
Hannah sprang up from the window seat where she had clearly been keeping an eye out for Mary and they both dashed giggling up the stairs, books in hand.
“That’s nice to see,” Kate said, smiling after the girls and wiping her hands on her apron as she came to greet everyone.
“Hello Kate,” Erik said, secretly hoping she would hug him. No one gave hugs like Kate Harkness.
Kate embraced him immediately.
“Erik, I’m so glad you came in to see me. And you brought me the help I needed. LeeAnn, Jenny, Bonnie, you ladies are lifesavers.”
The three women beamed.
It occurred to Erik that Kate might be giving them as much as they were giving her - the opportunity to volunteer their time for those less fortunate seemed to have given LeeAnn, Jenny and a handful of other women who took shifts here a sense of purpose these last few weeks. So he didn’t complain about having to give them frequent rides.
“We’re glad to be here, Kate,” LeeAnn said. “Are you set up in the kitchen?”
“Yes, please go on in and help yourself to a cup of tea first,” Kate said. “Hannah made you some treats, too. They’re on a big plate.”
“Kate, can I bend your ear a second?” Erik asked.
“I’ll be along in a minute,” she said, patting Jenny’s arm as the girl walked past.
Kate walked with Erik back to the living room.
“I hope it’s alright that Mary’s spending so much time here,” she said worriedly. “I’m not trying to steal her away.”
Erik smiled and shook his head.
“I’m glad she has a good friend. This has been a big adjustment for her.”
“She’s a lovely child,” Kate nodded.
Kate was understating matters. Mary was an amazing person. Erik and Ainsley had big dreams of the role Mary might play in their combined pack when she grew up.
“Her mom is doing her best,” Erik said. “And Ainsley and I try to spend extra time with her too. But since Ennis arrived…” he found himself unable to finish.
The stress of the Federation councilman’s arrival had left the two of them scrambling.
Kate nodded in understanding.
“She’ll be fine. She’s bright and she knows she’s loved. But this isn’t what you wanted to talk about.”
For a human she was intuitive.
“We’re missing some pack members, wolves from Copper Creek,” he told her, cutting right to the chase. “I know you have a habit of… taking in strays.”
Kate clucked sympathetically.
“No, I haven’t seen anyone, though I could understand some folks not feeling immediately at home in such a different environment.”
“That’s what I thought at first, too,” Erik said. “But we’re missing one particular woman who left behind a close friend and too much of her stuff to look like she went anywhere on purpose. It has me worried about all of them.”
“Oh, dear,” Kate said.
“I thought you might keep an eye out for me,” Erik said.
“Of course,” Kate replied immediately.
“And I heard that Darcy might know something about a shifter trafficking ring,” he added. The words were so distasteful it almost hurt to say them. He was careful not to reference Darcy’s adopted son, though rumor had it that was where she had found him.
Kate nodded, biting her lip.
“She’s at the barn. Let’s go chat with her.”
They went out the front door and around the house to avoid disturbing the women in the kitchen.
He followed Kate under the sycamores to the octagonal barn.
The barn had been outfitted as a shop with a bakery in the basement. As soon as Kate opened the door, the scent of baking spices and fresh produce washed over them. The walls of the main floor were lined with shelves covered in toys and jars of honey and apple butter and pickles. Rows of low tables showed off bushels of fresh fruit - apples, peaches, pears, berries - whatever was in season.
Darcy stood on a ladder against the north wall, stocking pickles. The wolf shifter was tall and shapely with long dark hair. She balanced a wooden crate of jars on one hip.
“Hey, Erik,” she called down.
“Darcy,” he yelled back.
She climbed down the ladder so swiftly he wondered that she didn’t end up in pile of glass shards and pickles. Placing the crate gently on the ground, she strode over. “What’s up?”
“I’ve got some missing pack mates,” Erik said without preamble. “I heard that you might know something about a shifter trafficking ring.”
A stormy look crossed her features.
“Yeah,” she said, “I did. Fortunately it got broken up.”
“How do you know?” Erik asked.
“There were two ringleaders,” Darcy said. “Finn took care of one of them.”
Erik’s eyebrows went up. Finn was a great guy - funny, hunky by ladies’ standards. But he wasn’t a shifter. He was a professional magician. Erik wouldn’t have thought he was capable of taking anyone out.
“He did,” Kate put in proudly.
“And the other one, well, she was dealt with by some friends from Glacier City,” Darcy grinned.
“Dealt with?” Erik asked.
“The Glacier City vigilante had her when I last saw her,” Darcy said. “And he was taking her to Panchenko.”
“Panchenko,” Erik echoed. “Is he the Russian guy who owns the casino?”
“Yeah, Roman Panchenko owns the casino here in Philly, but he also inherited the Glacier City mob,” Darcy said. “He’s definitely not someone you want to get on the wrong side of. Roman keeps his own hands clean, claims he’s gone legit. But I’d be surprised if she’s not wearing concrete shoes at the bottom of the ocean somewhere.”
“So what happened to the shifters?” Erik asked.
“How old are the kids you’re looking for?” Darcy asked.
“They’re not kids,” he replied. “They’re all adults.”
Kate bit her lip and Darcy shook her head sadly.
“This was all kids, Erik. No adults. They were all taken as children.”
Erik fought the urge to punch something. The ringleaders got off lucky dealing with the mob instead of facing pack justice.
“We’ll keep an eye out for anything suspicious,” Kate said. “Won’t we, Darcy?”
“Of course,” Darcy answered.
Erik nodded.
“Thank you,” he said.
But it was another dead end.
And it only filled his mind with more questions. One in particular that he found harder and harder to silence lately.
What the hell kind of alpha couldn’t keep his pack safe in his own hometown?
Chapter 5
Cressida ran as fast as she could, which was fast. She paid no attention to the light traffic on the boardwalk, or to Antoinette who stepped out of her souvenir shop to yell, “Everything okay, hon?”
She couldn’t see Javier, but she tracked his scent, which snaked out behind him, curling elusively off the boardwalk and out into the little town beyond.
She had no idea what she would say or do when she caught him, no clue what right she had to stop him. There was only the dogged insistence of her wolf and the pounding of her poor heart, driving her after him like a cow to the slaughter.
She had never seen such a look in his eyes, in anyone’s eyes. She had lost him for good now. That much was inevitable. But still she ran.
She reached the edge of the pine forest just as the sun dipped b
elow the tree line. In the shade she found his clothes, abandoned, and his scent grew richer, deeper.
He had shifted.
Cressida slipped her clothes off and dropped into her silver wolf with a sigh of relief.
The world blurred at the edges but so did the complicated nature of her feelings. The wolf didn’t dabble in doubts and niceties. She wanted and she took.
Cressida flew through the trees, her muscles aching with the mounting tension. She was gaining on him. The pine needles scattered under her paws.
Long minutes passed and then his scent dwindled. These weren’t her woods. He had the advantage. And he had been learning.
She whined her despair, but kept running, flattening her ears to provide the least resistance, relying on her instincts to take advantage of every way to increase her speed.
The cool, pure scent of water found her nose and she circled back to it. A tiny stream slipped between the pines. She leapt over it and at once picked up his scent again on the other side.
The bank sloped steeply downward and she took advantage of the terrain to launch herself an extra twenty feet.
When she landed she knew she was close.
The trees were thinning again and she could see the intense blue of the twilight sky in the clearing ahead.
She slowed to a trot and left the shelter of the trees behind.
In the center of the clearing, the massive light brown wolf that was sweet Javier awaited. He turned his head as soon as she stepped onto the grass, baring his gleaming teeth in a deep growl.
His anger washed through her, chilling her with its bristling blue scent.
Her hackles raised and she waited for him to attack.
He held his ground, the growl still rumbling in his throat, and she lowered her head and edged closer.
He was perfectly still for a moment, long enough for her to hope he would allow her to approach.
She inched closer still.
His eyes flashed yellow in the moonlight and he launched himself at her.
Cressida yipped and dodged out of his way, barely. She was so much smaller than he was. Instinct told her to run.
Instead, she caught herself and turned to face him, holding her head up proudly.
Enough running.
Javier lunged at her again.
Cressida flung herself heedless at him. The force of his pounce knocked her on her back and they tumbled over and over, jaws flashing.
He snapped at her side, but she slid out of the grip of his teeth.
She scrambled out from beneath him, but he caught her with a massive paw on the way out, sending her sprawling.
This was not their usual play fighting. He was serious.
Javier was too strong for her.
If she didn’t run, he would have no problem killing her.
And she couldn’t slip out of his hold indefinitely.
Cressida turned to face him again, chest held high, ears perked up and ready.
He tensed. She could see his muscles bunching for another charge.
Closing her eyes, she shifted, the cool air caressing her naked skin.
Her frail human form would be completely defenseless against his raw power.
She opened her eyes to see him crouching before her, all the more terrifying now that she was less connected to his animal side.
He growled and the earth seemed to rumble.
Every instinct she had screamed at her to flee. But her heart told her to stay put.
Being human was complicated.
“No more running,” she said, in a voice that didn’t quaver in the air the way it did in her head.
He took a step toward her and she managed not to flinch.
In the space of his next step he had shifted as well.
His naked human form was still far larger than hers. He was thick with muscles, and the tribal tattoos that snaked around his biceps looked almost sinister in the last of the fading light.
Cressida felt a nameless longing. The air between them seemed to be magnetized. Her hands lifted from her sides slightly, ready to wrap around him.
But he froze just out of her reach and studied her, reproach in his eyes.
A thousand witty remarks lined up in Cressida’s mouth like ants moving crumbs at a picnic. She willed herself to swallow them down. This was serious. Her normal instinct to ratchet down the tension was the opposite of what needed to happen now.
He stared.
She waited.
“I shouldn’t have come,” he said at last. “I’ll be gone by morning.”
“Finally got tired of chasing me?” she asked teasingly as her heart sank.
“No. It’s not that,” he said. “I just thought… You and Linc…”
“I’m not your mate,” she heard herself say. The defensive note in her voice jangled in her ears.
“You’ve made that pretty clear,” he said flatly.
Cressida had never promised him anything, it made no sense that his words felt like ice cubes in her heart.
“Then why do you even bother with me?” she asked, not sure if she was really asking him or asking herself.
“Because I love you,” he said.
“And what if… Wait. What?”
“I love you, Cressida,” he said.
She gaped at him.
He watched her for a moment, a bemused expression on his handsome features.
“And I think you love me too,” he continued, as if daring her to contradict him. “Even if you won’t admit it yet.”
Before she knew what was happening, Cressida had taken two steps and then she was flying into his arms, kissing him with all the fierceness of an attack.
He kissed her back, one hand tangling in her hair, the other molding her ass against him.
Cressida wrapped her thighs around his waist, grinding herself against his rigid cock.
He groaned against her mouth and she swallowed the sound, feasting on it. He still wanted her. She was not too late.
He lowered his head to nuzzle her breasts and the pleasure was so intense it almost hurt. She relished the heat of his breath, the scratch of the stubble on his jaw against her delicate skin.
Cressida barely noticed when he laid her down gently on the pine needles.
But when he kissed his way up to her face instead of down, she couldn’t help opening her eyes.
He was smiling down at her, his brown eyes crinkling at the corners.
Filled with sudden sunshine, she smiled back.
Is this love? Is this what it feels like all the time?
It seemed too easy somehow. Ainsley had bonded with Erik when he drew her alpha and they saved the town. Grace and Julian had found it while taking down a freaking moroi.
Was it possible that this man had showed up in town, followed after her like a hot duckling for a couple of months, and now she was in love with him without any adventure or any bloodshed at all?
“What are you thinking?” he whispered.
“This is… nice,” she said, leaving out the part where she wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
“I’ll show you nice,” he said, looking affronted and amused at the same time.
Then he was between her legs, making magic on her body with his mouth and fingers at the same time, sending her into a spiral that washed all thought from her mind. There was only his mouth and her mounting need.
Chapter 6
Javier lost himself in the scents and sounds of his mate. She was wildly excited and it took all his strength to resist claiming her immediately.
He tried to focus his attention on the task at hand, lavishing her velvet opening with long, loving strokes of his tongue.
The scent of the sea air mixed with her tangy spice, making him almost dizzy with the feeling of coming home.
She cried out and it sounded like an anthem.
When her hips began to shiver he eased a finger inside her and sucked her clit into his mouth.
Cressida’s whole body froze
for an instant, then she came hard, maddening him with the contractions of her pussy on his finger.
He lingered, prolonging her pleasure as long as he could, delighting in the abandon with which she enjoyed his efforts.
“Good girl,” he murmured at last, crawling up to her.
She kissed him on the lips, licking her own juices from his mouth.
He pulled back slightly, forcing her to look into his eyes.
“Come on, fuck me,” she urged him, her eyes flashing in the mischievous way he loved.
But they weren’t the words he wanted to hear.
I want to make love to you. I want to claim you as my own.
“Please,” she added with just the right combination of sultriness and despair to make him lose his mind.
His wolf added to Cressida’s plea. She’ll come around, but not if you play games.
Throwing caution to the wind, he let his body take over.
It was so easy with Cressida. Their bodies seemed to have been soul mates forever.
Maybe it was too easy. Maybe that was why he was convinced they were fated mates. And maybe that was why she was unmoved.
He pressed inside her, reveling in her exquisite warmth, the way her arms found their way around his neck, her hips arched up at the perfect angle.
She whimpered and dug her nails into his shoulders and he had to grit his teeth to keep himself from going over the edge.
No, he would go slowly, make her beg for his body, the way he wanted to beg for her heart.
But when she slid her fingers through his hair and plastered her lips to his he knew it was a lost cause. He would give her just what she wanted.
Always.
He kissed her, with all the pent up passion her absence had inspired. And when she began to tremble, he eased a hand between them and gave her the spark she needed to climax around him again, pushing him over the edge. He shouted out her name as he lost himself to the most powerful orgasm he had ever experienced.
When it was done, he rolled onto his back and pulled her onto his chest.
She snuggled into the crook of his arm without prompting, finding the perfect place to rest her golden head between his biceps and pec.
Javier would have sworn the air around them was glowing with the satisfaction he felt.
