by Eliza Gayle
She looked around the sparse room and wondered what to do next. Hiding out in a roadhouse at the edge of the neutral zone seemed like a good idea but in reality it was just another avoidance technique. And now maybe a dangerous one, if word spread about her condition. The best thing for her is to get the hell out of this room as soon as possible. Niki stuffed her cell phone in her back pocket and her room key in the front. She glanced one last time for something important she needed to take with her and realized there was nothing. Her clothes were sparse and her belongings even more so.
She planned to protect only one thing. The baby inside her.
Satisfied, she crossed to the door and quietly slipped it open a crack. She took a deep breath and began cataloguing the scents. For her everything was about what she can smell. Every new scent tells her a story. Bhric, the hot but sullen proprietor of this place had a hodge-podge of shifters residing in the building. Mostly hybrid weres and a few humans carrying recessive were genes. Talk about messed up. Humans couldn't know about shifters. It was too dangerous.
Satisfied all the occupants were busy with other tasks, she rushed down the hall and the back stairs. One hundred feet to freedom. She sped up. Seventy-five feet to go. Despite her plan to escape into the woods her anxiety ratcheted higher with each step. Fifty more feet.
What the hell was wrong with her?
Half a flight of stairs and she would be out of this self-confinement. Sweat trickled down the side of her face and her heart beat faster. She sniffed again, smelling nothing beyond the house inhabitants and the beer and greasy food they were always consuming.
These shifters were a strange lot. As far as she could tell, not one of them were related, yet they were always claiming some sort of brotherhood. Ten more feet.
She pushed the door open and gulped in a lungful of sweet night air. Niki surveyed the parking lot that lined with a row of motorcycles parked in front of the building. Surprised to see so many, she turned and walked to the tree line. She kept her borrowed vehicle a few miles from the Dark Moon for safety reasons, but it doesn't take her long to walk.
About to the step into the trees, someone seized her arms from behind. Before her brain engaged, a soaking wet cloth covered her nose and mouth and the scent of pungent antiseptic burned into her senses and blocked her from any other smells. She fought against the hands holding her prisoner, but the chemical was already working. Her vision blurred and her limbs shook.
She's falling. The ground beneath her opened up and the wind rushed past her as she fell into the pit. Her hair whipped across her eyes as she continued to fall. Her heart races out of control as she waited for the ground to smack her face. And still her body hurtled through space.
"Be careful with her, you idiot. She's supposed to be pregnant and we promised she'd be in perfect condition."
What? Niki didn't understand. Her ears rang louder. This was it. Her secret caught up with her and now she had to die. In a vortex of confusion she slammed into the ground face first.
Niki moaned at the pain blooming across her nose. What the hell? She slowly turned her head and opened her eyes. The room was dark and it took her a minute to focus. The sheets were hanging off the mattress next to her. Holy hell.
With her heart still racing, she rolled over and gingerly pressed her nose to see if it was broken. She'd fallen out of bed in the middle of a damned dream.
7
"So what do you want to do next?"
Dean lifted the bottle of whiskey to his lips and took a swig while he pondered Bhric's question. The burn of the alcohol going down worked well with his foul mood. As soon as Niki had fallen asleep, his beast had gotten impossibly restless. All he could think about was Niki and Bhric. She'd told Bhric she was pregnant and then she'd been kidnapped.
To keep himself from disturbing her rest, he'd come downstairs to the bar in search of lots and lots of alcohol.
Now his brother was asking him stupid questions. He wanted to kill some wolf ass as soon as possible, that's what the hell he wanted to do. But more importantly, he had a pregnant mate he wanted to get as far away from this place as possible. No way in hell he'd leave her here with any of Bhric's crew.
As far as he could tell, things had gone downhill since he'd left. He had no idea what his only brother was involved in, but there couldn't be any blowback on Niki.
"Gotta do something about the Pickwick pack," he said.
"Damn right." All three of the shifters sitting at the table with him nodded in agreement. Besides Bhric, he had his right-hand man, Greer, a wolf-cougar mix whose pretty face most certainly did not match up to his badass reputation. And Robert the mostly feline male who gave off a low level scent of wolf blood. Probably two feline parents, one being a hybrid.
All three wore similar clothing. Worn jeans, black T-shirts with Dark Moon emblazoned across the front in white letters and big, black shit-kickers. Or as some called them, riding boots. Not too long ago he'd looked just like them. He'd followed his big brother to this tiny town after their mother's death and one thing led to another. Before long they were running this dive.
"I ain't leaving her here unprotected. Retaliation might have to wait."
The three shifters glared at him before Greer spoke up. "What? Do we look like chopped meat to you? We know how to protect her."
Dean leaned forwarded and narrowed his eyes. "She was kidnapped on your watch once already."
His brother's eyes widened and a flash of anger mixed with pain crossed his face. "I had no idea anything like that was even a possibility. We haven't had a pregnant shifter female in the neutral zone in a long time so most of the packs and clans steer far clear of here. Everyone else we know personally. Now we know what we're dealing with. In fact, I'll put Calder on her as soon as he returns. Ain't no mangy ass wolf going to get through him."
Dean frowned. He had no idea who this Calder was but he didn't give a shit. It changed nothing. "You seem to think because you're a bunch of badass bikers with mixed DNA that you can't or won't be touched. I told you before you were an arrogant ticking time bomb." He took another swig of his whiskey and swallowed it quickly before it could burn his throat. "Appears you didn't listen."
Bhric shoved his chair back and stood, the other two shifters following suit. "What do you want to do, baby brother? Take this outside? Do we have to settle this once and for all with fangs and claws?"
"What's going on?"
All four mean swiveled their heads to find Niki standing at the bottom of the stairs holding her hand over her nose, a small trail of blood seeping from between her fingers.
Dean shoved his hair back and moved with preternatural speed. "What the hell happened? Are you all right? I thought you were sleeping."
She held up her hand and pressed it squarely into his chest when he got too close. "I'm fine. Stupid nightmare made me fall out of bed."
"I thought felines were supposed to land on their feet?" Niki turned and hissed at Robert. Apparently she wasn't in the mood for his sarcasm.
"Not now," Bhric said. "Get her a wet towel before things get out of hand."
Dean tried to ignore the other men. "What was the nightmare about? Want to talk about it?"
"Nope."
He sighed. Getting his woman to open up was like opening a can with his teeth. A pain in the ass. "Then let's get this cleaned up and then we can go back to bed." She'd appeared in nothing more than a tiny T-shirt that revealed a small gold stud pierced into her navel and loose pajama shorts that reminded him she had the best legs on the planet. A fact she didn't need to share with the other shifters in the room.
"Don't want to go back to bed. I want to hear why you and Bhric are about to go outside and tear each other apart."
Dean turned and glared at his brother. The last thing he wanted to do right now was talk about the past. "We're not, babe. In fact we're just going to agree to disagree. Aren't we?"
An unmistakable rumble sounded from Bhric before he answered. "Sure. Whatever y
ou say."
"Hey boss, the perimeter is all..."
Dean whirled to face the intruder and pushed Niki behind him, keeping his arm curled protectively around her side. The giant dark-haired stranger took two steps back and chuffed.
"What the fuck, Dean?" Niki did not sound happy.
Dean ignored her for now and stood his ground. "Who the hell is this?" He sniffed the air.
"Is he a—?
"Yes, he is. Why is everyone so damned shocked? Plus he's one of my guys. Newest one in fact."
Dean stared at his brother as if he'd gone insane. He'd brought a full-blooded bear into his clubhouse? "Are you crazy?"
"Not the last time I checked."
Niki shoved at his arm and he growled in response.
"Don't growl at me. You do not shove me around like some simpering female who needs your protection." She pushed hard and against his better judgment he let go. She stepped around him and faced the bear.
"Sorry, Calder. Dean here is obviously an idiot."
"What happened to you?" the bear asked.
"Stupid dream. I fell out of bed." Her voice changed and he realized she was talking to him like he was her friend. In fact, all of them were staring pretty dumbfounded at the exchange between her and this stranger.
The bear named Calder came forward and approached Dean's mate. The hair on his nape stood on end in alarm.
"That's not exactly what I meant."
The giant of a man continued to advance and the unease he felt before ratcheted twenty times higher. His claws extended and fur began to push through his skin.
"Easy, Dean. Calder's a good guy."
The bear must have heard something in Bhric's warning. He stopped moving toward Niki and took a sharp left behind the bar instead.
"Dean." Niki's call to him grabbed his attention and he turned back to her. "What is wrong with you?"
"Oh I don't know. In the course of twenty-four hours, I've had to rescue my pregnant mate from some backwater wolves clear across another state. I find out you've been shacked up here with an assortment of unmated males, including my brother, who probably do not remember the last time they had good intentions, and now you're making soft eyes at him." He hooked his thumb in the direction of the bear. "Do you even understand how dangerous that is?"
"Do you even understand how dangerous I am?" She stalked closer and the pit in his stomach grew to epic proportions. The rage in her almost white eyes sparked and aimed in his direction threatened to take him to his knees. Okay, maybe he'd gone a little too far.
Niki drew a tight breath through clenched teeth. "You call me mate one more time and I'll be borrowing a knife from Calder over there to slice off your balls." She poked a finger into his chest. "My clan has trained the finest of warriors, doctors and scientists this species has ever seen." She pulled her lips back and revealed the extra row of razor sharp teeth of her feline. "And some of us have been trained to kill without ever being seen. So. Back. The. Hell. Off."
Damn.
Dean ignored a couple of the snickers coming from behind him and maintained his focus on the glorious woman in front of him. Part of him wanted to drag her off and fuck till they both passed out and the other half of him—pretty much the same thing. Thank the Goddess the human part of him enabled him to think with his brain under the most critical of circumstances.
He broke into a sweat despite the fact they were in a drafty old building in the dead of winter. Niki still held a defiant look stamped across her face, but he couldn't focus anywhere except her enticing mouth. He started to take a step forward and crush her to him when Bhric shoved his arm between them.
"Here," he said, holding out a small towel filled with ice. "She needs this first."
Niki glared at Dean and tried not to think about the heat gathering between her thighs. Damn him. No man had a right to make possessiveness look so damned good. Nor did it seem right that his he-man attitude had turned her on. She hated his interference that implied she couldn't survive without him defending her against unwanted attention. Niki scoffed in her head. She hadn't been here long enough to get to know these men very well, but she damn well knew she didn't need protection from them. Especially not Calder.
The first night she arrived, she'd surveyed the building and surrounding grounds for possible threats and various escape routes. It wasn't in her DNA not to be prepared at all times. Somehow the big bear had caught up to her after about an hour and politely inquired why she was so paranoid.
Despite his casual and friendly appearance, she'd been prepared to lay into him. Except his scent hadn't carried an ounce of deceit or anything remotely negative. And his dark, almost black eyes were warm, not cold as she'd expected. While she'd never actually met a bear shifter before, she'd been struck by his sweet smell. Then she'd discovered his loyalty. He had Bhric's back no matter what and that sealed the deal for her. And for the first time in her life, she'd started to build a friendship with someone not related to her genetically.
"Thank you." She took the offered ice pack from Bhric and placed it gently to her nose while holding her head back.
"Let me."
While it wasn't a question, it wasn't a forceful demand either. Wanting to get things back on an even keel, she allowed Dean to lead her to a nearby chair where he placed her in his lap and held the frigid cloth to her face. He definitely had a point about being thrust into this current mess on a dime.
"Why are you all down here in the middle of the night anyway? Doesn't anyone sleep?" Based on the wild activity she'd seen the last few days, it seemed weird for the place to be void of women, a bar full of rowdy men and a whole lot of noise.
"Everyone wants retaliation on your behalf. Hard to sleep through that kind of frustration."
Niki sighed. The need to fight or run was an all too familiar feeling. The nightmare didn't help. The last thing she wanted was to keep reliving the last two days.
"What do you want to do?" she asked.
He brushed some loose strands of her hair from her face, caressing her cheek. "That seems to be the question of the hour. What does Dean want?"
"And?"
"You gotta know I plan to gut those wolves. No matter how deep their involvement was. They laid hands on you and that's simply unforgivable."
Niki nodded. "I know."
"But it goes much deeper than that doesn't it?"
She simply nodded. It was hard to acknowledge the truth staring at her in the face, but she'd never been one to run away from something when it got difficult. She frowned. Except maybe Dean. Although she'd initially walked because he claimed something she wanted no part of, and to her that was completely different. They'd had sex, which had been the exact plan. Incredible heart-pumping, get sweaty and do it dirty sex, but it was still just sex. Why couldn't it have stayed that simple?
Now she had bigger problems and he was involved more than ever. As her mind sorted and sifted through all the possible scenarios, Dean leaned forward and nuzzled under her ear. "Anyone ever tell you that you worry too much?" he asked.
"Only everyone I've ever known. That worry keeps me sharp and allows me to do a job most others can't."
"And does your mysterious job make you happy?"
She sucked in a breath. Happy? "I don't see how that's relevant. I have the skills to get a job done and I use them precisely. It's efficient, fast and serves a purpose. Justice. I very much believe in justice."
His hands had begun a slow trail up and down the sides of her body while she talked, but until they slipped between her thighs she'd barely noticed how incredible he felt. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes rolled to the back of her head as his fingertips approached her sex.
"Fuck. We're outta here."
Her eyes flew open at the sound of Bhric's voice. Dean's touch had become so powerful she'd momentarily forgotten they were not alone.
"Greer, tomorrow morning you are to call our handyman and get his ass over here. We're going to need some soundproofing in th
is building right away. Lots of it."
All the men heading to the door laughed. "About fucking time," Greer answered.
Niki tried to muster up some outrage over Dean fondling her in a semi-public place and couldn't. Her body tingled and the cat had already kicked as much of the human to the curb as she could. Some urges wouldn't be denied. At least not tonight.
Niki swiveled in Dean's arms and resettled in his lap with her chest pressed to his and her still sore nose buried in his neck. She wanted to have one more time with him before their world blew to hell and they were forced to part ways.
"Niki," he warned. "I can only take so much."
She stuck her tongue out and licked a trail up to his ear. "I bet you can take a whole lot," she whispered. The moist heat of her mouth blended with the taste and texture of the man beautifully. She inhaled deeply. For weeks after she'd left him his scent had lingered on her, driving her wild no matter how many showers she took. For day's she'd cursed what previously had been a gift.
His hands tightened on her waist and she felt his strength clear to her bones. She lifted her head and looked at him face to face. So much had changed, but just as much had stayed the same. He still had the small white scar above his cheekbone, only partially covered by his way past 5'oclock shadow. He studied her too, until his gaze slid to her lips.
Niki brought up her hands and threaded her fingers into his thick, dark locks. She tightened her grip and pulled him slowly to her mouth so she could kiss him again. They both groaned. Their lips fused and heat exploded inside her, more effectively than the sun on a hot southern summer day.
A lot like earlier, but more fiercely than before, her libido went insane. Her skin tingled with need as she ground her hips down on his with their lips burning between them. Despite her hold, Dean slanted his head and took control of their kiss. She accepted him greedily. The one time she needed him to take charge and he instinctively knew it.
