by JJ King
Of course, she knew exactly how terrible it was that she could be so vain while on a tracking expedition and, as she pinched her cheeks then brushed her fingers through her hair, she dismissed that prudent voice and let herself just be human.
Satisfied that she looked as good as she could, given the circumstances, Katherine raised her head and walked into the club.
♀♀♀
It happened quickly.
The fine hairs on the back of her neck rose as her body immediately reacted to some unknown presence. She glanced around and moved quickly to a long wall, leaning against it in a self-protective measure as she scanned the room below. The beat of the music filled her head with chaotic images of bodies and blood, and the sweltering heat acted as an amplifier for the mixing scents.
Katherine closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying desperately to focus on remaining in control of her mind and body. There was an overwhelmingly sexual fragrance coming from someone in the room. She felt the urge to find him or her and surrender to them wholeheartedly.
While she managed to control her base instincts 99% of the time, there were moments such as this when her inner animal wanted to come out and play.
The chase, the heat, the scents, and the music combined to fill her with a pleasurable buzz as she scanned for trouble. Her whole body felt as if it were on the edge of a precipice, ready to leap into the unknown and revel in its dangerous appeal. Katherine knew that if she stayed here, felt this way much longer, her body would start to change without her consent. She would do what felt most natural, and right now that would be to find a mate. The intensity of her emotions shocked Katherine into remembering when she’d first felt this way, during her first mating season as a young wolf.
She was no young wolf now. Katherine was a woman, a grown wolf who knew better than to succumb to her rampant hormones. She focused on the feeling of being watched, of someone knowing who and what she was, and slowly calmed her breathing enough to clear her eyes and see.
And see she did. Katherine could see no one else but him. One man, standing alone while being surrounded, against the bar below. His gaze was directed at hers, straight at her, into her, and he was smiling the most terrifyingly magnetic smile Katherine had ever seen.
Wolf.
Katherine leaned forward, drawn by his unerring gaze, to take a better look at him. There was no doubting it; he was all wolf, tall and dark. His shoulders would span hers more than twice, and his limbs were all long, lanky, yet muscled. He smelled…well, Katherine wouldn’t have been able to describe his overall smell if she had wanted to even though the individual parts of it tickled her memory. It was foreign, unknown, and thoroughly sexual. He smelled like no wolf she had ever encountered, not within her family, or without. It struck her that his was the scent that had driven her into an aroused state when she walked into the club.
She remembered the disgusting scent of the rogue wolf that had been stalking her family and dismissed this wolf as having nothing to do with the other. He smelled too different, too delicious, to have been anywhere near the repugnant scent of the stalker.
Then again, her logical mind argued, she had never seen the wolf’s face and scent was, with chemical aid, somewhat disguisable. Besides, the trace scent of the rogue that had led her to this club was still present and, if she wasn’t mistaken, it was on, or very near to, this wolf.
He was an unknown factor and, quite possibly, a new player in this chase. She would change that right now, regardless of the fact that she didn’t have a backup anywhere near her location.
If he was the stalker she would deal with him in her own way. He might be dangerous but, then again, so was she.
Katherine kept her gaze locked with his as she descended the stairs to his level of the bar, easily ignoring the masses of bodies that swarmed around her, writhing to the music. Her entire body was tense and ready for a fight. The tingle of sexual excitement that had begun before she’d spotted him lay dormant, just under the surface, and somewhere in her mind Katherine let herself feel a split second of hope that this wolf could be vetted and cleared.
As she got closer to him Katherine felt his mind press on hers, trying to maneuver his way into her thoughts, but Katherine preferred to speak to him on a more human level, face to face, voice to voice.
Besides, she usually gave a wolf the opportunity to buy her a drink before she let him, or her, slip into the darkness that was her mind.
Katherine stopped just inches from his face. She was aware of the hum that buzzed throughout her body at her proximity to him, and she disliked the sense of being off balance. She gritted her teeth and made a tight fist, letting her nails make deep furrows in her palms. The small amount of pain focused her. She would bet her car that he was feeling this buzz, this imbalance too, so the upper hand was yet to be decided. Of course, home turf usually gave the upper hand, and this was definitely her home turf.
His eyes smoldered, never leaving her gaze, never straying for as much as a second. His lips were lush, almost feminine, but they held a hard edge that was altogether masculine. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but he smelled like sex, and wet earth, and sparking fire. As hard as she was fighting to remain stoic and uninterested, Katherine’s nose filled with him and her senses ripened. Arching one delicate eyebrow she acknowledged him and bade him follow her out of the bar. He did.
Despite her painfully obvious physical attraction to him, Katherine knew that if he was associated with the stalker then chances were good that he was dangerous and should be taken into captivity and questioned. Those were her father’s rules, pack rules.
As the daughter of the Alpha she, more than anyone, understood that rules were made for a purpose. Order is was what kept her kind out of trouble, on the evolutionary path rather than the mass murderer path. Wolves were hunters, yes, but they were also terribly intelligent creatures, and Katherine especially recognized the importance of keeping one’s wits if one wanted to survive.
She knew that she should call for back up but some rebellious part of her knew that the last thing she wanted in the whole world was to be interrupted right now. She felt almost desperate to speak with him and find out why, underneath his intoxicating scent, she could identify a hint of rot. Even after being out of the game she felt certain she was up to this interrogation, or battle if it came to it. Pride might come before the fall, but for some reason, she didn’t care. She felt deep down in her bones that she would be safe enough. Not completely safe, but safe enough.
Outside, the night was typically hot but with an added sultriness that complemented the heat from the bar. Katherine walked cockily down a long narrow alley, confident that she was being followed, stalked. Her serviceable shoes failed to make the usually satisfying click, click, click, click on the rough asphalt as she walked but the lack of her usual sexual arsenal only threw her off minutely. Katherine strained her ears to hear any sound of the wolf but found none. Disappointed, she turned to search the alley and found herself caught off guard by a thick chest covered in worn leather.
Katherine gasped, not in fear but in utter shock at being caught off guard. She had been actively searching for his scent and listening for his footsteps but had gotten neither. As the only girl in a family of boys, Katherine prided herself in her sensory abilities. Her nose was legendary among the LaFlamme tribe, and her ears had always been as good any other wolfs.
He leaned against her and, for some reason, she let him; hard enough to have her backing up against the cool concrete wall but soft enough to let her step back and not be pushed. His eyes, a deep amber color with flecks of chocolate brown mixed through, never left hers as they stepped together into the shadows.
Their breathing fell immediately into synch as they stared at one another, into one another.
When she finally found her voice Katherine was disturbed to hear it come out breathy.
“Who are you?”
So much for being the aggressor in this situation. Home turf be damned
.
He didn’t answer immediately, just kept staring at her and taking long deep breaths, smelling her. The silence unnerved her.
His head dipped slightly to the right and he closed his eyes, taking a long, deliberate inhalation of the skin stretched across her throat.
She trembled. Her body temperature felt like it was rocketing off the charts and her brain kept trying to go cloudy. It took all of her willpower to stop herself from giving in to the attraction.
“My name is Quinn. I’m not the one you came here looking for.”
Instant relief flooded through her at that simple statement, even as training had her mind rebelling against the claim. It was so strange, this internal battle between her instincts, which she always trusted, and logic, which demanded that she question him and get to the bottom of who he was and why he was here.
Beyond all that, to her chagrin, was a small part of her that couldn’t help but think that if he wasn’t the stalker then maybe she would get a chance to act on her sexual response to him.
“I’m…”
“Katherine LaFlamme, I know.”
“Who are you?”
His laugh rumbled through his thick chest and reached his eyes, catching her off guard, again.
He reached his hand out and took hers. The sensation of his palm against hers raced up her arm and into her chest. She inhaled deeply, refusing to gasp at her body’s reaction to his touch but needing oxygen all the same. The inhalation brought with it a faint flavor, something between caramel and chocolate, which seemed so anti-male that it brought a slight smile to her lips.
The corners of his lips rose in response to hers and laughter softened his face and warmed his eyes from deep amber to golden honey. Try as she may, Katherine couldn’t stop herself from staring into those eyes.
All thoughts of danger and crisis were forgotten. She felt a warmth flow through her body that she had never felt before. The heat remained, ratcheting up every second she was near him, and the familiarity of sex gave her confidence. The warmth, however, was new and different, and maybe cause for concern. The words “soul mate” passed, unwanted, through her mind.
She had heard her mother speak of her father as her soul mate. From infancy, the connection between her parents had been obvious for all to see but Katherine knew that it had taken them a long time to find one another despite the fact that they had known each other since birth. Love at first sight wasn’t something she believed in or was particularly interested in.
While attending university, she had taken the odd psychology course out of sheer fascination with the subconscious mind’s control over the conscious. She learned that the physical attraction between two individuals, fueled by pheromones, can give the impression of love. Its real root, however, was lust and lust was a game she knew plenty about.
This felt different. It felt like nothing she had ever experienced before. Even her first pubescent heat, for lack of a better word, had been less intense than this.
A large group of drunken friends stumbled into the alley where Katherine and Quinn stood staring at each other. Neither was noticed by the loud group but their presence gave Katherine the shock to her system that she needed to regain control. As her head cleared from the fog that had descended on it, she chastised herself for allowing such a stupid slip. Gut reactions were one thing when life was normal but the situation right now was anything but normal and she needed to keep her wits about her.
She placed a hand against Quinn’s rock hard chest and was surprised at how easily she pushed him away. He towered above her but he obviously had no intent to harm her in any way.
Katherine knew her gut reaction about him was right; that he wasn’t a danger to her, but that didn’t excuse her from finding out who he was and what he wanted. He was, after all, an unknown wolf in her father’s territory.
She took a deep breath through her mouth, reluctant to take in his delectable scent again lest it brings on a second helping of that brain fog.
“Quinn. No last name?” She cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes, trying her best to reestablish her position in this little pas de deux.
“Deschains. Quinn Deschains. Wanna get out of here? Get some coffee?”
Before she could answer him yes or no, Quinn had taken her hand and began to walk out of the alley. The heat from his hand seeped into hers and suddenly she felt as though her palm was on fire. She pulled her hand back to her chest and rubbed her palm with the fingers of her other hand. She turned her hand over, searching for scorch marks, but there was nothing there.
Weird.
Quinn didn’t seem to mind that she had pulled away from him or that she was following him at least ten paces behind. Instead, he cheerfully stepped around bystanders and occasionally glanced back at her to flash a grin.
God, he’s gorgeous.
While she was busy assessing both the insanity of the situation and his ass, Quinn had steered them towards a local coffee place that just happened to be one of Katherine’s favorites.
The atmosphere inside the shop was relaxed. Graduate students argued literature while sipping steamed milk and espressos and at least one expectant author typed away madly on a tiny Acer notebook, filled with ambition and hopes that just maybe she’ll be the next big thing.
Katherine found a table at the back of the quiet store and sat down. She was so full of emotion and reaction right now that it was hard to decipher what was what.
Swirling around inside of her was excitement, fear, anxiety, elation and, overlapping all of those, confusion. Her usual collected and cocky attitude had abandoned her the moment she had touched his skin and breathed in his unique scent. She felt as though she were inside a tornado.
She looked over to the counter where Quinn was paying for their food and drinks with a crisp fifty and wondered if he was feeling as messed up as she was. It certainly didn’t look like it. His body language was smooth and uninterrupted by nerves as hers had been in the alley and on their walk here.
The more she thought about how unfazed he seemed to be in contrast to how unsteady she felt, the more she got angry and the more she started to feel like her old self. The anger brought with it a calming sense of control that she always felt while in the courtroom or in arbitration with particularly difficult people.
By the time Quinn sat down with a large tray filled with everything from sandwiches to a caramel macchiato, her favorite, Katherine was in total control of her body and mind. Her entire posture had shifted from awkward to powerful and instead of gazing at him with adoring and confused eyes, she now appraised him with the eyes of a hunter.
She took the cup he offered her with one hand without breaking her gaze. She took in his high end but worn leather jacket, his dark blue denim jeans and his expensive yet broken in boots. His fingernails were clean, a good sign that he wasn’t some disgusting stalker, and he wore only one piece of jewelry, a large platinum ring on his left hand. He had an easy air about him but she noticed a minute shift in his eyes when their fingers touched as he passed the cup to her. The heat from the drink matched the heat that radiated from his fingertips.
She continued to watch him as he picked up a turkey sandwich and took a big bite. The light of laughter never left his eyes as he chewed, gazing back silently.
The smell of the pastrami on rye loaded with sweet pickles tempted her enough for to break her gaze and dive in. The tangy taste of the pickles swam in her mouth, lighting up her taste buds. She stopped with the sandwich halfway back to her mouth and frowned.
Her favorite sandwich.
Her favorite drink.
She lowered the sandwich.
“How long have you been trailing me?”
His smile brightened the room somehow. “Since you got here, so two days. But, if you want to know how I know your favorite foods, then that should be obvious.”
She raised an eyebrow and waited.
He laughed aloud. “Katherine, you smell like caramel from the three of th
ese you’ve had just today and yesterday you smelled of nothing but pastrami and pickles. I’ve been following you, you’ve got me, but I’m not the bad guy. You know that.”
“How could I know that? You have his scent on you somewhere. Even now I can smell his reek. If you aren’t him then you know him.”
“Or I’ve been following him.”
She considered this. “Why?”
He took another bite before he answered, taking even longer to wash that bite down with a drink from his hot chocolate. “Because he’s dangerous and because he’s been looking for someone who’s important to me, to my family. I have to protect her at all costs.”
“Her?” The snarky remark that she had been waiting to make about his hot chocolate being a girly drink flew out of her head. He knew something about why she’d been followed, why her mother’s car had been forced off the road and why most of the women in her family were presently participating in a fun yet forced spa retreat with her mother.
