by Lori Devoti
He had spent the last twenty years fighting the beast inside himself, but that beast had never wanted anything as badly as it wanted Samantha.
He gritted his teeth and tried to force the feelings aside. “Do you know where the lab is?” If she did, if she told him, would he believe her? Or was all of this a convoluted con designed to suck him into a trap?
“No,” she answered, and then turned to him. “I’m sorry I tried to use you, but you have to understand Allison needs me. I’m all she has.”
Her tone was so damned earnest, it hurt him to hear it.
Torn and confused, Caleb turned away and stared out into the trees. “Why the new address?” he asked again, this time to himself. The address Samantha had pretended to get from the kids at the gas station had significance, but nothing involving zombies.
However, if she got it from the doctor…
“What were you supposed to do when I took you to this new address?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. He just said to get you there.”
“Well, then, we should go.”
Samantha hadn’t known what to say when Caleb had agreed so readily to take her to the address. She had thought once she admitted the truth he would boot her out of his car and leave her stranded in the woods. The only thing she hadn’t been sure of was if she would be breathing at the time.
But he had simply jerked the car into Reverse, backed out of the cow path and got back on the road.
They had driven maybe ten miles when he put on his blinker again.
They were at a camp, the kind you expected to be filled with hormone-filled tweens making pottery and going on nature hikes. There were cabins, two community buildings and a giant field. And the entire place was surrounded by trees.
There were also signs posted everywhere warning that this was private property and no hunting was allowed.
As they pulled onto the property, Samantha noticed a glint from the roof of one of the common buildings. She squinted, then reached for Caleb. “There’s someone—”
“With a gun? We passed another outside, hidden in a tree. Trust me, guns are the least of your worries here.”
His words chilled her, but not as much as his tone.
Apparently, she wasn’t the only one in the car with a secret. Caleb knew something about this place. She pulled her hand back toward her body, but kept her eyes on the roof where she had seen the glint.
Caleb stared out the window at the camp. It was empty now, but in a day’s time it would begin to fill. Anticipation of the full moon would bring the pack weres and those who hoped to be chosen to join the exclusive group.
The buildings had aged since he’d been here last. Paint peeled off the trim and rot was apparent on some of the logs, but still the place was in decent condition.
He wondered if the woman who ran it had aged, as well.
He didn’t have to wonder long.
Anita Barnes stepped out of the cafeteria/kitchen building and into the full sun. Her hair was glossy-black, not a gray hair in sight, and her skin though tanned was wrinkle free. She didn’t look a day over thirty. But she was at least two decades older.
That’s when Caleb had seen her last, when she had chosen him and turned him into a werewolf like herself.
When she saw him, she lifted her lips in what others might have taken as a smile, but not Caleb. He knew he wasn’t in her good graces. She might be happy to see him, be hoping he had finally decided to give up his rogue ways and join the pack, but she wouldn’t let him in easily.
No, he had done the unthinkable—turned his back on her offer of standing by her side as she led.
Even after twenty years, she wouldn’t have forgotten that.
He parked the car and motioned for Samantha to wait inside with the windows up. He didn’t want her to hear the ensuing conversation. Then he stepped onto pack ground as a rogue, a were that Anita, if she so chose, had every right to destroy.
“Long time, Caleb. You look…good.” She angled her head and let her gaze roam his body. Then she lifted her gaze and met his, ordered him with her eyes to submit and lower his eyes.
He did. He wasn’t here to make trouble. He wasn’t sure why he was here, but the coincidence was too great. No one but weres and those sponsored to become weres knew this address.
How had the zombie doctor?
He waited for the pack alpha to give him a signal before lifting his gaze. She turned to the side, telling him she accepted his show of subordination.
“So do you, Anita. And the camp. You’ve kept it up.”
She turned back to him, her shoulders squared. “We’ve changed in twenty years. Our weres are more established. We learned taking in desperate kids who begged for our help wasn’t the way to grow strong.”
“I didn’t realize the pack had a goal of world domination.”
“Financial security is far from world domination,” she retorted.
“Far from what I was told the weres stood for, too.” He crossed his arms over his chest and glanced around the camp. There were subtle signs of changes that he hadn’t noticed at first—satellite dishes, an addition on the back of the main rec building and an expensive roadster parked next to the cabin he knew belonged to Anita.
Anita lowered her head, but kept her gaze on him. “Are you judging us, rogue?”
He lifted his lips in the imitation of a smile. “This isn’t my pack. Who am I to judge?”
“Exactly.” She twisted her lips and took a step back. “So, why are you here? Are you thinking after all this time you can change that? Join the pack? As I said, things have changed. We’re more selective now.”
Like the two drugged-out kids he’d seen at the gas station. Yeah, the pack was selective now.
“No, I haven’t come to join.”
She didn’t reply. Her gaze had moved from him to his car and the redhead staring out the windshield at them. “You brought someone with you.”
Her voice was hard, like flint. She turned on the ball of her foot and her hand darted out to grab him by the front of his shirt. He outweighed her by thirty pounds, but she jerked him against her as if he weighed no more than a newborn pup.
But then he let her, and she knew that, too.
“Admission to the camp is invitation only. You know that.”
“Then why didn’t you have us shot when we entered?” She wasn’t stupid or sloppy. She’d seen both of them in the vehicle. And even if she hadn’t, she would have smelled the nonwere Samantha even shut inside the vehicle.
Her fingers loosened, but her face stayed tense. “I was curious. I didn’t expect to ever see you back here, not after so long.”
“Really?” He gestured at Samantha, told her to get out, but lowered his voice so she wouldn’t hear his conversation with the alpha. “Then how did she know to bring me here?”
Anita’s brows lowered. She dropped her hold on Caleb completely and took a step toward Samantha. Caleb lifted his arm, blocking her approach. The wolf in him snarled and he couldn’t hide the reaction, not surrounded by other werewolves. His lip rose and an angry rumble escaped his lips.
Anita stared at the arm cutting across her path. “You’ve forgotten your place, rogue.”
“No, you’ve forgotten. You didn’t make me a rogue…you didn’t beat me, and neither did any of the lapdogs you sent after me. I chose to leave. Don’t force me to do something now you will regret.”
She laughed. “A threat. Surrounded by my wolves and you give me a threat. For what? That?” She tossed her head toward Samantha. “Has the lost little boy found himself a special toy after all these years?”
“Don’t worry about what I’ve found. Worry about what she has to say, and what would happen if you challenged me here in front of your wolves. I’ve played along, given you the respect you are owed as alpha, but I won’t be pushed.”
She glanced at Samantha, laughed again, but the edge was gone. Her eyes darted to the sides, checking for which of h
er wolves were watching, estimating what they could see.
Caleb didn’t move. He’d spoken the truth. He didn’t want to challenge her, didn’t want to beat her. He wanted nothing to do with the pack; he never had.
“Talk,” she bit out, her gaze on Samantha.
Caleb lowered his arm. “Tell her what brought us here,” he told her.
“The kids—?” Samantha started.
“The truth.” His tone was as harsh as Anita’s had been. This wasn’t the time for games.
Samantha’s hand slid over the top of the open passenger door. “Someone gave me this address. He told me to get Caleb to bring me here.”
Anita shrugged and turned her attention back to Caleb. “A wannabe. We still get them.” She angled her head and studied Samantha. “What’s your story? You look to be healthy and attractive enough. What are you looking for, eternal youth? Revenge on some guy? Despite what Caleb may have told you, this isn’t a one-way deal. We give you the change then you’re one of us. No exchange, no backing out, no exceptions.” She glanced at Caleb. “Not anymore.”
“Samantha isn’t here to join,” he replied. “She’s here to get me killed. At least, that’s my guess. I came to see if you knew who was supposed to be doing the killing.”
Surprise rounded Anita’s eyes. “You think I sent some piece of ass after you, to lure you back here so I could get rid of you?” She shook her head and glanced over her shoulder as if checking to see if anyone else was enjoying the joke. “You’ve developed quite the big head, zombie hunter. As I said, we aren’t making the mistake we made with you, not anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’m twisting my tail into a knot worrying about what you’re doing. Truth is, until you pulled in here today I hadn’t given you a thought, not for over a decade. Make that two.”
It was a lie. He could see it in how carefully she held her body, but not all of it was a lie. She hadn’t sent for him; he could see that much, too. But she had thought about him more than once. And quite likely wouldn’t cry a tear if someone did shoot him square in the head with a round of silver right here and now.
But that was a long way from setting him up. Which meant Samantha wasn’t working for Anita. That left the doctor. But how had the doctor known about the camp?
A new suspicion tickled the back of his mind.
“So, things have changed. You’ve upgraded.” He turned as if seeing and admiring the camp for the first time. “How’d you manage all this?” He gestured toward the luxury roadster he’d noticed on arrival.
“I told you. We don’t just let anyone in, not anymore.”
He nodded as if that explained it, but of course, it didn’t. The pack wasn’t a cult. They didn’t take every dollar a were earned. Yes, the members were expected to donate to the pack, but it was, at least when Caleb had been here, voluntary. “You must have some generous wolves now.”
Something flickered behind Anita’s eyes. “We do.”
“You wouldn’t be charging for membership, would you?”
Her complexion darkened. “You can’t buy your way into the pack. Is that what your friend thinks?” She tossed an angry look at Samantha. Then throwing up her arms, she took a step back. “Look, I don’t know why you’re here and honestly, I’ve lost interest in finding out. The full moon is tomorrow. I have work to do.” Gravel crunched under her boot as she turned.
Samantha stepped out from behind the car door, and Anita leaped. She wrapped her hand around Samantha’s throat and squeezed. “Time for you to leave.”
Samantha’s hand moved to her side, where if she’d been wearing her coat, her pocket and perhaps her gun would have been. But her gun, with its mundane bullets, wouldn’t stop the alpha, not with the power of the pack behind her.
Caleb hadn’t wanted to challenge Anita, but she left him no choice, left his wolf no choice. He thrust his body between the two females.
Shocked, Anita dropped her hold.
With Samantha shielded behind him, he faced the alpha.
“Someone knows about this camp. Someone I very much want dead. As I said, you’ve upgraded. How are you making that money, Anita?”
The alpha’s eyes blazed. Caleb could see she wanted to change, but this close to the full moon when the entire pack would descend on the camp and she’d need to be her strongest, she wouldn’t. She would want that change to be fast. She would hold her shifts until her body exploded with the need, until it almost changed on its own. Then she could give the gathered weres the performance they all expected, and present herself as the strongest and fastest of them all.
Caleb, however, had no such concerns. He snapped his teeth to remind her of that fact.
She growled; her body vibrated with the need to dominate him.
But she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. She’d tried before when he was weaker, when he had nothing but revenge to drive him, and she’d failed. Now he had something else, something stronger—Samantha and his wolf’s determination to protect her. To love her.
“I don’t want your pack, Anita. I don’t want your rank. But I do want the person you’re working with. Either give him to me, or I’ll take everything you value. You’ll be the rogue on the outside, not me. Think about that,” he added.
She lifted her lips to show him her teeth.
He stepped in close. “And if you touch her…” He jerked his head to where Samantha still stood, silent and tense. “I’ll not only dominate you, I’ll kill you.” His gaze moved to the sniper now standing fully visible on the rec hall’s metal roof. “That goes for your minions, too. You might want to warn them.”
He gestured for Samantha to get in the car and moved back with one smooth slide of his foot. “Full moon, Anita. I’ll be here. You’ve got until then to make up your mind.”
Then he got in the car, slammed it into Reverse and spun out toward the road.
A gun fired as they roared through the camp’s pillars.
But the bullet didn’t hit them. The shot was no more than a weak attempt at saving face.
He’d allow her that.
For now.
Chapter 13
S amantha bit down on her cheek as the bullet pinged into their bumper. Her fingers scraped over the velour seats.
The woman and Caleb had spoken low. She had missed most of what they had said, but she had heard one thing.
Wolves. There had been a lot of talk of wolves.
She touched the bruised skin on her throat.
“I don’t know what caused her to do that,” Caleb ground out. He stared into the rearview mirror as if the woman, Anita, might be driving behind them.
Samantha resisted the need to do the same. The woman had unsettled her. She had been powerful and not just physically. She had exuded rank and confidence. But by all appearances she simply ran some kind of primitive camp.
“What kind of camp was that?” she asked, her hand still touching her throat and her voice rough.
Caleb screwed the steering wheel to the right. Samantha’s body jerked to the side. She grabbed hold of the door handle and waited.
“Anita’s camp. She runs it.”
“You’ve been there before.” It was an obvious truth, but all Samantha could think to say. Anita, the camp, how Caleb had acted around the woman—none of it added up.
But Caleb had definitely known the woman before and she had certainly remembered him.
“She was jealous,” she murmured.
“Who?”
“Anita. The reason she grabbed me. She was jealous.” It was the one thing Samantha did understand. When she’d seen the athletic but still curvaceous Anita sidle up to Caleb, seen how close he let her stand to him, she’d known they’d had a past. And it had eaten at her. Devoured her.
Her fingers tightened around the cold metal of the door handle.
She shouldn’t be thinking like this, feeling like this. She had no right, and worst of all she had no claim.
She wasn’t Caleb’s girlfriend. She was his betrayer.
&nb
sp; Anita jealous?
Caleb snorted.
Anita wasn’t jealous. At least not in the “I love him” way Samantha thought.
No, to Anita, he was property. A werewolf she’d pegged early on as making a strong companion, a mate to add strength to her position as alpha. Kind of an “if you can’t beat them, join with them” mentality.
Except he hadn’t been willing to play.
He hadn’t even bothered to turn her down. He’d just left. The ultimate insult, but also the smart move for survival. No alpha left another werewolf as strong or stronger than them alive. If he’d been female, Anita would have killed him or tried to on sight. As a male, she’d seen him as another way to strengthen her own position.
Which was why he’d suspected she was behind Samantha’s knowledge of the camp…or the address of the camp at least.
He still suspected Anita was up to something. Unlike the other werewolves in her pack, Anita’s one and only job was being alpha. She ran the camp and lived off the money the werewolves under her sent for pack expenses. She had never been too flush when he had known her. For that matter, neither had the camp.
Something had changed and it wasn’t just the higher-class weres she took in now.
No, the pack was getting money from somewhere else, too.
And Caleb smelled something rotten. Zombie rotten.
He glanced at Samantha.
“We’re taking a break.”
She’d been studying the barren trees as they drove. She jerked when he spoke. “A break?”
“From our trip.”
“Oh.” Confusion and a shade of fear clouded her eyes.
“I have business here. Once it’s resolved, you can—”
Her gaze dropped to the cylinder he’d left lying on the console between the seats. Her eyes darted back up, a question in their depths.
He stared at the cylinder, too, but noticed nothing strange about it. Then he placed his hand over it and felt a constant, but almost imperceptible beat.