“Yeah, we can do that,” he said, bending to nuzzle her neck for a moment as they loped away from the tavern. “Damn, you’re fine. Where’d you come from again? Baltimore?”
“Out West. Baltimore was a pit stop.” She threaded her arm around his waist. “Where’s your car?”
He smiled. “You need one?”
She laughed, leaving his side. “I told you, I’m not from around here. How far is it?”
“Maybe five miles tops.” He could feel a sly smile ease along his mouth. Oh, man, to run with her under the moon. But he’d gained a healthy respect for traffic, ever since one of his brothers had tangled with an eighteen-wheeler and lost on the Jersey Turnpike, chasing tail.
She waved him away and glanced at an alley, then looked down at her strappy, black stiletto heels. “That’s not far without these.”
This woman was lethal. An alley could work right about now, but a sister like that deserved better. He already loved the sound of her voice, and almost passed out when she took off her shoes. She did it one at a time, real slow and sexy, then stood on tiptoes on the cold ground and raised one foot up like it was injured. Once she transformed under the moon, he knew she’d be stunning. The car would be faster, but a flat-out run would be awesome. Conflicted, he hesitated, something he rarely did.
“You hungry?” He couldn’t stop looking at her or at the way her fur coat whipped about her legs in the wind. A sister like this needed prime rib, hot off the bone, dripping. He could feel his jaw beginning to pack tight, and he rubbed it as he continued to look at her, trying to figure out what gifts to lay at her feet—all the while knowing she was becoming the beginning of his many problems. Uhmm, uhmm, buddy, his daddy ain’t lie—a woman like this would open your nose and make you hunt bear.
“I’ve already eaten, thank you,” she said coolly. But there was a sense of merriment in her eyes, a bit of naughty intrigue as she shifted her weight from foot to naked foot.
“Right, I forgot,” he said, chuckling low in his throat. “And now you’re gonna make me work OT to have it look like a mob hit or something. I hope you dumped what was left in the Delaware River, if you didn’t bury all the bones up in the tennis pavilion?”
“Of course, silly.” She smiled, but allowed her voice to dip to a dangerous octave. “I’m sorry about the poor girl. I’ve never done anything like that in my life. She was hooked on drugs, had a whole lot of problems, and maybe this put her out of her misery?”
It still wasn’t right, and that disturbed him deeply. That reality tempered his libido. The john, yeah—he could see offing a twisted bastard like that. A child-porn freak, whatever, the world was better off. Now he’d have to find a mob pimp, pin this whole shit on him and locate some poor pit bull to say the bodies had been fed to the dog to settle an outstanding debt. Which would mean some helpless animal would be put down by Animal Control to clean up this sister’s mess. The only saving grace in any of this was that she’d help him bust a ring that targeted children. Still . . .
“Was the chick helping with the kiddie-porn operation?” He needed something to cling to.
“Yes, if that’s what you wanna hear?” Her answer was breathy, sultry, causing a desire shudder.
Again, he could only stare at her. All his life he’d been telling women what they’d wanted to hear, just so they’d do what he needed at the moment. Her story sounded weak, even as his mind processed it, but it was so hard not to allow the probable lie to justify what he really wanted to do right now. “You sure?”
“Do I look like the kind of woman who doesn’t have a heart?”
Oh, shit, she was awesome. Working his ass to the marrow, and he knew it. Was her coat silver or dark like her hair, he wondered. One could never tell with women. Especially lupine women. And one like this had never strayed over his borders and into his yard before. She was fine enough to make a confirmed bachelor settle down for life. He’d had one of his own kind only a couple of times, back when he was young and foolish, and almost lost his life for the trouble. He’d learned by experience not to mess with one of the big dawgs’ women. But now that he was a big dog himself, and she’d wandered onto his porch . . .
“Are we gonna stand out here all night, or go play?” She gave him a pout. “I’ll help you clean up and put your nose on the evidence trail, if it’ll make you feel better.”
His mouth was going dry. Maybe she was telling the truth. Please, Lawd, let her be telling the truth. Still, there was this problem of how two bodies dropped on his watch at a historic B&B. He could feel her hesitate, growing unsure, while at the same time the anticipation around her was thick enough to gnaw through.
“Let’s go by car,” he finally said, hating that her smile had slightly melted away while he was deciding. “It’s not like out West on the plains, baby, or in the Sierras. Out here you can find yourself road pizza. Beautiful as you are, I’d hate for that to spoil the night.”
She sighed and put on her shoes, and waited. “Never mind. You don’t seem in the mood for a run. Maybe I’ll just go back home and—”
“Naw, baby . . . uhm . . . see, I just needed to be sure, because it’s my job and all . . . and, uh, you don’t have to leave just yet, do you? I’m not accusing you, just asking questions.”
His heart was pounding hard enough to make his ears ring. You slow, you blow, and he didn’t want this fine thing to go anywhere, especially not tonight. Now, true, he still had his pride, wasn’t gonna let no woman just work him like that, but as she turned to walk away, pride was breaking him down hard.
“Look, for real, let’s just talk.” He held up his hands, forcing the tremor out of his voice, and tried to hold his ground. “We do things a little different in Philly, that’s all.”
“I know. It’s so different out here. Not a lot of room to just privately get your run out.” She sighed, cast her gaze up to the still hiding moon and closed her eyes.
That’s the moment he knew he was done. Her head back, lupine profile lit by streetlamps, coat flowing in the wind . . . oh, shit, he had to get with her tonight.
“Do you ever feel like your natural instinct is making you crazy?” she whispered with her eyes still closed.
He swallowed hard. She shivered, wrapped her arms around herself and looked at him like she could eat him alive.
“Yeah. All the time.” He knew exactly what she meant, and he draped his arm over her shoulders, enjoying how she snuggled up against him. “But you can’t just drop a body real obviously either. In fact, you have to be smooth, do the meat houses and leave live kill for deer country—understand?” It was a compromise.
He laughed when she snarled and nipped at him but didn’t answer. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, but nowadays, there’s shit like forensics, okay? You have to be cool.”
“I don’t even know why I bothered to come out here then?” She gathered her coat closer and broke his hold on her as she quickened her pace toward his car.
“Well, if you don’t like how we roll in Philly, then why’d you come out here?”
“Because where I’m from, our kind, well, they’re all getting old, are already mated, and a lot of the good ones have been hunted to death.” There was a hint of desperation in her eyes. “The human males are all dawgs—they cheat. They don’t pair and mate for life. Once they marry, they still cheat. Can you believe it?”
“Girl, you know how they are,” he said with a shrug. But as he kept staring at her, he realized that the sound of her voice was a little more strident than necessary, if not bordering on hysteria. “You can’t be more than twenty-five or so, and settling down is—”
“Is what we all want in the long run.” Sudden moisture filled her eyes and made them prettier. “I’m the only sister of twelve brothers, and I don’t want to be . . .” Her voice was filled with emotion as it trailed off. “I had to leave home at my first heat, and I’ve been on my own since ranchers shot my mom. I can’t go home unmated. Not till my last brother is gone. The scent makes them overly
aggressive, and I don’t want them to go to jail or worse. Other females won’t let me near their perimeters until I’m mated. Human males aren’t . . . I just can’t tolerate . . . why are you making me explain?”
He nodded with appreciation. Twelve brothers, and she was the only female in the house? Aw, man . . . No wonder girlfriend was on the run. And what fool would be stupid enough to show up on her daddy’s porch to go through old battle rights to claim her?
“Where, exactly, out West are you from?”
“Kansas,” she murmured. “Cattle country.”
Why did he even ask? Yeah, it was a bitch being out there by yourself as a lup, dealing without a pack, no real den, living a double life, but he wasn’t making no commitments—not tonight. He was not going to Kansas. Not.
“Your pop, uh, is he old school? Still believes in asking for a sister’s hand the old way?”
“Yeah,” she admitted sadly. “He’s from the last of the old clans, stands about six-nine, weighs about three hundred and twenty pounds and is very old fashioned. I couldn’t even date till I finished high school, and he used to lock me in the cellar when the moon turned full. They broke the mold.” She looked up at him with hope shimmering in her hypnotic eyes.
Oh, man, this was not good. See, he wasn’t down for this—her pop was no joke. Michael massaged his neck and just listened. True, if he had a daughter as fine as her, he’d be the same way—all lup males were. But still. Being on the other side of that equation wasn’t the place to be. The old brother was six-nine?
“He was gonna ship me to the Caribbean, where there’s still a lot of us, or to Africa—but the men there are thinning out,” she said, her beautiful eyes capturing and haunting him. “A lot of them are sick. He said maybe Canada, over where the arctic hunts are still really good. Before I came here, I was in Alaska for a while. Beautiful country. Last resort is Europe, to the Black Forest. I don’t want to go, though. All my girlfriends are here.” She looked him up and down, her tone becoming more urgent, yet gentler. “But, you’re six-four, I don’t know, what—like two-fifty? And you’re young. You could take him, couldn’t you?”
Him? Right. Take a six-foot-nine male lup weighing three-twenty or thereabouts, one that was fired up under the moon, ready to kill, had righteous fury in his eyes for his daughter’s honor? Oh, no. This wasn’t the Dark Ages anymore. That’s why he’d come to the urban environment, was trying to blend into human life, and he wasn’t even trying to go out like that.
“Baby, you don’t even know me. I mean, for us to get all tight so fast, and be meeting each other’s people, it’s—”
“I know you better than you think I do,” she said softly. “I’ve been watching you for a long time. You’re a lone lup, like me. Plus, you’re a cop—”
“See, that’s just it. I’m supposed to uphold the law, and girl, you’ve broken so many of them, I can’t begin to—”
“Which means you were drawn to the profession because you have some integrity. You’ve made detective and are still young, which also means you have to know how to hunt, can fight, can drop a body and have a work ethic.”
Her smile felt like it was licking a shiver down his spine. She was turning him on so hard with the truth, he almost winced. Her voice was making him cock his head to the side and stare up at the sky. Heaven help him.
“I was just looking for a decent, honorable man to date. One who might want a relationship, if compatibility presents itself. What more does a woman need in a mate? You’ve got a built-in serve-and-protect instinct, can feed a family both ways—by human cash and by our way, meat. We can find out the little details later, like what music you like, conversation, sports, whatever. As long as the basics are covered, the rest is manageable for most females. Is that wrong?”
He said nothing. He had to regain his composure, not blow his cool. Her quest was insane. Just because she was the marrying kind didn’t mean he was. Sure, he wanted to get with her tonight, but wasn’t down with all the rest of the drama. Right now, all he could do was look at her hard as he thought up a way to extricate himself from a sure trap.
Anyway, realistically speaking, even if her old man was fifty or sixty years old, he’d get his ass kicked for sure! Naw. Women didn’t take realities like that into account. Mortal combat? Uh, uh. This wasn’t even a conversation that he’d heard. He was a free agent, a lone wolf. It wasn’t about getting tied down, feeding an entire pack of hungry mouths, taking out the trash, having his male freedom revoked or anything crazy like that. No choker chain for him, nosiree. He didn’t even know how this discussion came up. But, damn, she was fine . . .
“You’re young, plus it’s not even spring yet. That’s why I can’t figure out why the rush—”
“I should have gone to the old countries, like Haiti, or somewhere our ancient ways are still appreciated!” She began to walk away, shaking her head and waving her arms.
He’d taken too long to respond. He knew it, and knew what came next. Michael let his breath out in a weary sigh and leaned against his car, distancing his emotions as he listened to her rant, trying to remain cool and dispassionate. Yeah, he wouldn’t arrest her—she was too awesome for that. Her kill had been pretty. And no matter what lies he told himself, he knew he couldn’t drag her into the station in cuffs. He didn’t have it in him to battle with her in the streets; they’d end up screwing in the middle of traffic, possibly stuck together, the way he was feeling tonight. So, the best bet was to let her take her wild ass back to wherever she came from. And true, the more pissed off and snarly she got, the sexier she became, but he wasn’t dealing with this off-the-hook female either.
“Lupine men aren’t what they used to be,” she said, continuing to rail. Her voice was nearly strangled as she sputtered her complaint. “Nobody will come to your door, court you like they’re supposed to and bring a pound of flesh to your clan as a good faith offering, or face your family with honor—but I thought you’d be different. Silly me.”
“Girl, please,” he said with bravado. “This is the new millennium. None of us do that anymore.” He opened his arms to the sky. “Be serious. Meeting people’s fathers, facing off in duels. That shit went out with high-buttoned shoes.” He dropped his arms in frustration and sent his gaze out into the darkness. Obviously, he wasn’t getting any tonight. Just his luck to run up on a superfine but old-fashioned lup. The situation was so ludicrous, he almost laughed through the brimming tears. The sister was wasting time. Damn, the moon was righteous, baby. Please, have a heart.
“And to think I tracked you halfway across the country, and for what? To be humiliated in the street, just totally turned away on a full moon?” She opened her arms and looked up at the sky. “I’m done. I’ve never been with a lup male in my life, and I’m done. I’ll settle for a mere human, raise my children the best I can, alone, and curb my nature. Fine.” She looked at him, rage making her glittering tears a beacon. “But I would have loved, just once, to let my hair down and get a full run out with a male like you. My. Bad.”
Her impassioned confession was his undoing. It was unraveling the rational part of his mind. When she turned away, glanced over her shoulder and then murmured the next statement, he almost transformed to full wolf on the spot.
“Do you know what it’s like to go into a lup heat and not be able to be with one of your own? Just once . . . I wanted it like that. I’ll lose my mind if another spring passes without a mate.”
That was it. All common sense shredded. He grabbed her arm, turned her around hard, holding her shoulders, and pressed her against his car. Before he could stop himself, he’d lowered his mouth to hers. He could feel her teeth thicken within her jaw as their tongues dueled. “Just tell me where they made you, and I’ll go there with you, girl . . . no lie.”
The moment he said it, he knew he’d live to regret it, because she fused to his body like a handmade sheath. Oh, yeah, just once—an available female without boundaries. Right about then, the clouds began to part, and
the moonlight hit her first; she was poetry in motion. Her shape-shift was so fucking sexy as she slid out of her clothes to land on all fours, there was nothing left to do but drop his gear and follow her in a flat-out run. What murder case? What job? Screw traffic and her daddy, he was on her.
Her trail was like a magnet as she dashed headlong toward the park. Screeching SEPTA buses, mass transit, SUVs, four-by-fours, stricken nighttime pedestrians, trucks, whatever—yeah, he’d be road pizza for her, if it came to that. Fight her father and twelve brothers? Okay, this was love. She was right; they could work on the details later. But tonight, shit, he just needed to work on her. He couldn’t stop running behind this woman to save his life. She homed to the woods, right off Kelly Drive, near the water . . . in the dark. Just call my name, princess, and I’m there!
She was silver in the moonlight, eyes the color of glowing bronze, and when she threw her head back and howled, her voice ran all through him from two miles away. She was dodging him, leading him in circles, refusing to come out of hiding, each call driving him crazy.
It was beyond instinct. Her lonely cry was a pleasure-coated stab to his groin. The forlorn wail traveled up his shaft and ravaged his senses. She had awakened the beast inside him, the procreation imperative. Anything that came between him and her tonight he’d slaughter. He needed her so hard, he was going blind—anything not giving off infrared heat, he couldn’t see. Anything that wasn’t her sound, he blocked out and wasn’t trying to hear. Anything except that wondrous fragrance she sent into the air with her call, he couldn’t smell. If another male had locked in on her and was crazy enough to go for her, mortal combat would result. He took a high position on a ridge, threw his head back and rent the night. Sweet Jesus, where you at, baby? I’ll make it all right, I promise.
Her reply went under his coat, got all into his skin, sent ecstasy prisms through his loins, made him holla and chase her even harder. Oh, shit, just once with this one. He was panting. He’d transformed many a night, but never like this. Yeah, this fine lupine he could marry. This one would keep him honest, penned in. Aw, Lawd, let her be willing and not run home to her daddy!
Voices From The Other Side Page 16
