Bitten By The Wolf (Hell's Wolves MC Book 5)

by J. L. Wilder

  Chapter Fourteen

  VINCE

  There were shifters in town.

  Vince smelled them from the moment he rode in. There were shifters here in this little nothing Wyoming town, and there hadn’t been shifters here before. What was that about?

  Could they have been following us?

  No. That didn’t make sense. Vince and his pack had been here months ago. Nobody would still be in this town if they were on the Hell’s Wolves’ trail, unless they were the worst trackers in the world—in which case they wouldn’t have made it this far to begin with.

  Maybe they were hunting omegas, as Vince and his pack had been when they were here.

  Well, best of luck to them if they are, Vince thought, feeling a little sour grapes about the situation. There aren’t any omegas here. There aren’t any omegas maybe anywhere.

  He didn’t really want to return to the same motel he’d stayed in when he’d been here with his pack, but he couldn’t afford anything else. At least it wasn’t the same room. And at least he wasn’t sharing the space with three other men this time. He wouldn’t be crammed into the space between Dax’s bed and the window, trying to get comfortable on the floor. He would be able to sleep on a relatively soft mattress.

  But he wasn’t going to sleep. He was going to go looking for the girl.

  The question was, how was he going to find her?

  He remembered her scent. He thought that if he got close enough, he would probably be able to track her pretty easily. But with the stench of fellow shifters clogging up the air, he was going to have to get a lot closer than he would have originally thought. That was annoying.

  He dumped his duffel bag on the bed and decided to try the bar where he’d met her. Maybe it was one of her favorite places. Maybe she’d be there tonight. It was worth a shot.

  Will she even want to see me, though? he thought as he threw a leg over his motorcycle.

  He shook his head. Of course she’d want to see him. After the sex they’d had? He had no doubt it had been as earth-shattering for her as it had for him. Of course she was going to want another go-round.

  By the time he reached the bar, he had convinced himself that she would be there, ordering drinks or maybe sitting with that friend she’d been with last time. But the place was empty except for a couple of gray bearded barflies sucking on bottles of lite beer. No women at all, and especially not her.

  Damn it. What was he going to do now?

  The idea came to him. I’m going to have to go to her house. It’s the only chance.

  Of course, her house was surrounded, literally, by steel traps. It was the place he’d gotten injured last time. And this time, his pack wasn’t even in the same state. He would be very lucky to survive if he stepped in a trap this time.

  So he would be careful. He could manage that.

  He parked his bike about a mile from where he knew the house to be, giving thanks for his good sense of direction, and grabbed a couple of sticks from the ground. He used these to probe the earth as he went, testing for traps, stepping only when he knew it was safe to do so.

  It was slow going, naturally, and there was one bad moment when a trap did spring and snapped his stick right in two. Vince was left staring at it and shaking with the realization that that could very well have been his leg. That it had been his leg just a few months ago.

  And then, suddenly, he had made it to the clearing, and no more woods stood between him and the bright ranch house.

  He stood at the tree line for a while, just watching, wondering what he should do. Should he just march up to the door and ring the bell? That seemed risky. What if someone other than her answered? She had been found in the woods by two men. One of them might live here. They both lived, at the very least, nearby.

  And even if she did answer the door, what then? How could he explain what he was doing here? She wouldn’t associate the man she’d met at the bar with the wolf she’d saved in the forest. How could he explain how he’d found her house? They hadn’t even exchanged names. She would be well within her rights to be completely freaked out by his sudden appearance at her door.

  What was he going to do?

  Before he could come up with the answer, the door to the house banged open and a figure came running out, down the porch steps and into the yard.

  It was her.

  He knew her immediately. He knew the scent of her, like peaches and freshly mown grass. He knew the shape of her. He knew her soft hair, her gentle features—although they weren’t gentle now. They were twisted into a grimace, and he realized she was trying not to cry.

  He stepped forward, out of the trees and into the yard.

  She screeched to a halt, staring at him as if she had seen a ghost.

  He held up both hands, hoping to convey that he meant her no harm. “Hey,” he said quietly. “It’s been a while, huh? Are you okay?”

  “What are you doing here?” Her voice was shaking so badly that Vince was afraid she would start crying at any moment. He didn’t know what he would do if she did. They had hardly had a conversation before. He wouldn’t know the first thing about how to comfort her.

  “I came to see you,” he said.

  “How did you find me?”

  “It’s a long story...maybe we could talk about it?” He gestured toward the house.

  “I’m not inviting you inside,” she said. Her hands came to rest protectively against her stomach, as if she were guarding herself against something. “I don’t know what you want from me, but you’re not going to get it.”

  “Hang on.” Vince frowned. “Who says I want anything? I just wanted to see you again.”

  “Right.”

  “Look, I liked you, okay? And I just thought—I mean, didn’t you have a good time that night at the bar?”

  “It was a one time thing,” she said. “Besides, you never showed up there again. Maybe if you had—”

  “I had to leave town!” he protested. “You’re the one who didn’t want any exchange of names. I thought you didn’t want to know who I was. I thought you didn’t want me to be able to contact you again.”

  She looked confused. “I didn’t.”

  “So why are you mad at me for not being around after that night?”

  “I’m not, I just...” she sighed and pushed a hand through her hair. “Why are you here now? What do you want from me after all this time?”

  “Can we just start over?” Vince hadn’t known what to expect, but he had hoped for a warmer reception than this. Now he had to accept that maybe he hadn’t left her with the pleasant memories he’d thought he had. Maybe she hadn’t been pining for him the way he had for her.

  “Start over how?” she asked.

  He held out a hand. “I’m Vince.”

  She hesitated, then returned his handshake. “Amy.”

  He smiled. They were making progress. “It’s real nice to meet you officially.”

  “Wish I could say the same.”

  “Okay. You’re not happy to see me. I get that.” He dropped her hand. “But do you think I could take you out for a drink or something?”

  “I don’t drink.”

  “You did before.”

  “Well, I don’t now, all right?”

  “Okay, okay. Dinner, then?”

  She eyed him hesitantly. “Coffee,” she said. “And only because I need to get out of the house for a few hours.”

  “Okay. Coffee.” That was definitely a start. “What’s the best way to get back to the road without going through the woods?”

  Her eyes went wide. “You came through the woods?”

  “Well, I didn’t know how to get to the house—”

  “There’s a trail! My God, you could have been seriously injured doing that. There are animal traps all over these woods.”

  “Guess I got lucky, then,” he said.

  “Lucky, hell. Those things will break your leg. Or, I don’t know, maybe not your leg.” She looked down at his ankle. “You
look pretty big boned.”

  “Still wouldn’t want to step in a trap, though.”

  “No, you wouldn’t.”

  “Lead the way.”

  Amy led him around to the front of the house. Sure enough, there was a beaten dirt path that led through the trees, straight up to the road. Vince shook his head. “I can’t believe I didn’t know this was here. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble.”

  “At least you didn’t get hurt.” She had stopped by his bike. “Is this yours?”

  “Yeah. Are you okay with bikes?”

  “It’s cool.” She stroked the leather seat admiringly. “But...are you a pretty good driver?”

  “I’m good, don’t worry.”

  She was holding her stomach again. “Just promise nothing bad’s going to happen to us.”

  “Of course it won’t,” he promised. “I’ve been riding since I was fifteen years old, and I’ve never had the slightest problem. Everything’s going to be fine.”

  She nodded. “Okay,” she agreed, and got on the bike.

  VINCE FOUND A COFFEE bar on the edge of town and they went inside. He ordered a cappuccino, and Amy got a green tea.

  “Just tea?” he asked her. “You don’t want anything else?”

  “No, tea’s fine.” She sipped it and closed her eyes, clearly enjoying it. “Why did you leave town?”

  So they were diving right in. Vince put his cappuccino down on the table. “I’m not actually from here,” he said. “I live in Oregon, with my family. When I met you, we were passing through. Then we had to go back home.”

  “So what are you doing here now?” Amy asked. “You didn’t come all the way back from Oregon just to find me.”

  “Actually, I kind of did.”

  She blinked. “That’s weird, Vince. Why would you do that?”

  “Because—” He sighed. There was so much to explain to her, and it was all so complicated. Where could he even begin? “I’m going through some stuff at home,” he eventually said.

  “You’re going through some stuff.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So you decided to hunt down a booty call a few states over and see if seconds were on the table? Which they’re not, by the way.”

  “I just wanted to see you again,” he said helplessly. “I couldn’t get you off my mind, Amy. I didn’t even know your name, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Be honest. You didn’t feel like there was...I don’t know...something about us?”

  She was looking at him suspiciously now. “What kind of thing?”

  “Some kind of connection. Something more than the norm? I feel like there’s something between us that we should be exploring. Maybe that’s crazy. In fact, I know it’s crazy.” He thought of his newly discovered alpha status and what his pack mates would say if they knew he was chasing a human woman like this. “But, Amy, I can’t help it.”

  He reached across the table and took her hand.

  He expected her to pull away from him, but she didn’t. Instead she sighed, turned her hand over in his, and squeezed.

  “Shit,” she said quietly. “I really didn’t want to do this.”

  “What is it? Do what?”

  She sighed. “Vince, I’m pregnant.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  AMY

  She waited on tenterhooks for his response. Would he be angry with her? Would he try to take her child away from her? She wouldn’t allow that to happen. She would find a way of stopping him.

  But to her surprise and immense relief, his face lit up. “You’re pregnant?” he asked. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously,” she said weakly.

  “And I assume—I mean, you’re telling me this because—”

  “It’s yours.”

  “Jesus,” he said. “Wow. Fuck. Jesus.”

  “I know, right? I wasn’t exactly expecting it either.”

  “But don’t you see?” he asked. “This means I was right.”

  “Right about what?”

  “There was something between us.”

  “Oh, there is no way you were just psychically aware that I was pregnant, and that’s what brought you back from Oregon.”

  She expected him to defend himself, to say that of course he hadn’t thought any such thing, but to her surprise, he looked at her very seriously. “We need to talk,” he said.

  “Yeah, I’d say so.”

  “No, I mean...more than you know. I’m not...exactly what you think I am.”

  She felt chilled. “What does that mean? What’s with men showing up and saying weird things to me lately? I swear, it’s like something out of a movie.”

  “Hang on.” He held up a hand. “What men are showing up and saying weird things to you?”

  “There are a bunch of them. They’re like a little pack, I don’t know. They started coming in to the restaurant where I work, and one of them followed me home one night, and they were talking about whether I was one of their kind—God only knows what that means. It was creepy. That’s actually why I’m staying with my parents for the weekend. I was hoping they would leave town.”

  Vince shook his head. He looked disturbed. “They’re not going to leave town,” he said quietly.

  “How do you know? What are you talking about?”

  “Because you’re the reason they’re here in the first place. Or, not you, I guess, but the baby. Shit. Shit.”

  “The baby?” Terror shot through her. “What do you mean, the baby? What do those men want with my baby? How do they even know I’m having a baby?”

  “They can smell it.”

  “They can smell it?” She felt on the verge of a panic attack.

  Vince’s hands came to rest on her shoulders. “Breathe, okay? I got you. We’re fine right now. We’ll figure this out together.”

  “But who are they? What do they want with my baby?”

  “It’s because of me,” he said. “They want it because it’s my baby.”

  “They’re with you?”

  “No, I don’t know them. But they’re...like me.”

  “Tell me what you’re talking about,” she said. “Tell me now, or I’m leaving and going to the police.”

  In answer, he slid one hand down her arm to her wrist and ran his thumb along her scar. “Do you remember the night you got this?” he asked her.

  She frowned, shocked out of her panic by the fact that he was making reference to that night. “Yes,” she said. “I was attacked by a wolf.”

  “A wolf who had gotten his leg caught in a trap.”

  “Yes. How did you know about that?”

  In answer, he bent down and rolled up the cuff of his pants.

  At first she didn’t understand what she was seeing. The light was too low. Then he stuck his bared leg out from under the table.

  And she saw it. A ringed scar.

  “What happened to you?” she asked.

  “It’s going to be hard for you to believe.”

  “Tell me anyway.”

  He nodded, his hand still clutching hers. “I was there that night,” he said.

  “In the woods? Did you find me? Did you help my father bring back?” She gasped. “Wait. Did the wolf bite you too?”

  “No, Amy,” he said quietly. “I was that wolf.”

  She didn’t understand.

  But he kept going. “I was the wolf. My family—all of us—we’re shifters. We transform at will, from human to wolf. And the men who have been bothering you since you got pregnant—I feel sure they’re shifters too. They’re not sure what they’ve found, but they know there’s something different about you. We can smell it on each other. And even though you aren’t a shifter, your baby...probably is.”

  “Wait a minute,” she said, feeling faint. “You’re lying to me. Why would you make up something like this?”

  In answer, he took her hand and pulled her to her feet.

  She was too shocked to resist. She was too shocked even to pull away as he led her into the woods beh
ind the coffee shop. Part of her brain was screaming at her—he’s crazy! He’s one of them! Don’t go off alone with him!

  But there was something about him that she trusted, despite everything. She was terrified, but she was curious too, and she had to know.

  He stood her beside a tree. “Stand right there,” he said, “and watch.”

  She watched.

  He stripped away his clothes and piled them neatly on the forest floor. She had forgotten the beauty of his body, and it was hard not to be mesmerized by the broad planes of his chest and the tight muscle of his abdomen and thighs. She felt her breathing pick up slightly.

  And then—

  He seemed to be shrinking and growing at the same time. Her eyes couldn't make sense of what was happening. Strong legs shortened. His posture changed. His face—

  A wolf stood before her.

  And she wasn’t afraid at all.

  The wolf padded slowly over to her and rubbed its face against the scar on her wrist, then gave it one gentle lick. Then it stepped back away from her again.

  “You’re really Vince,” she whispered. Her hand went to her stomach. If he had been telling the truth about that, he had been telling the truth about everything.

  What did that mean for her baby?

  A moment later he had resumed his human form. He stood before her, fully naked and reached a hand out to her.

  “The baby,” she said. “Will the baby be all right?”

  “The baby is going to be fine,” he said. “We shifters have babies all the time. They’re perfectly healthy. Look at me.”

  There was plenty she could have said to that. She didn’t know anything about him, after all. How could she hold him up as a specimen of good health? How could she assume anything about her child based on the man before her?

  But he was big and strong. She traced the line of his bicep.

  He inhaled.

  “I think I can smell something,” she said.

  He shook his head. “Humans can’t smell it.”

  “You don’t know what we can smell,” she pointed out. “You only know what you can smell.” It was nothing like she’d ever smelled on any other man. A sort of woodsy, wild, spicy scent. Without thinking, she leaned into the tender spot along the side of his neck and sniffed.