Blood Enforcer (Wolf Enforcers Book 2) Page 15

  “Hungry?” He shot her an amused look and took a big bite from his own sandwich as he started the engine. “This is the first time I’ve seen you just eat, without thinking about it.”

  “No wedding.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not getting married. There’s no tiny sized dress to squeeze myself into.” She shot him another look and dug into the fries.

  “Good. You’re too skinny anyway.”

  “You know, you’re the only person who’s ever said that to me.” She slowed down and began to enjoy the food. “Roger had this idea I should fit into a size two. The perfect woman would be a size two.”

  Sam snorted.

  “It’s not funny.”

  “No, I can see you don’t find it funny. But think about it. Women who are five foot nothing have trouble being skinny enough for a size two. You’re almost six foot, right?”

  “Right. So?”

  “So, even if you had no fat on you, which you don’t right now, you’d never be wearing a size two. Roger’s an idiot.”

  The flare of anger shot up and died. “You’re right. He’ll be happier with Sarah. She’s only five foot six and naturally thin.” Poor Sarah. Roger had swept in, like the vulture she now realized he was, and taken advantage of her sister’s grief. She shoved another fry into her mouth. Take that, Roger. If she could, she’d poke his eye out. In the meantime, Roger and Sarah would have to wait.

  His head tilted away from the road, and he ran his eyes up and down her body. “Unless she’s not stacked like you, I don’t think boobs like yours would fit into a size two.”

  Warmth heated her skin. Her mouth dropped open and she shut it fast remembering the food. “How dare you!”

  “Well, let’s face it, sugar, you’re down to skin and bones and you still have a nice rack. I can’t wait to see what you look like after we fatten you up.” He gave her chest another quick evaluating glance. “You’re a good C cup now. I’d say you’d be heading for a full D, maybe a double if you put on enough weight.”

  “What the hell?” She stuffed more fries in. Chewed. Swallowed. “How would you know what size clothes women wear anyhow? I thought you were a chef?”

  “Cook. I’m a mean short-order cook. A chef goes to school.” He sipped his soda. “My mother makes clothes. She’s a seamstress. And I have a sister. Growing up there were girls in and out of our house on a constant basis.”

  “I thought all the girls were sent away to school.”

  “Yeah, but they come home again. Once they’ve settled down, around seventeen or so. They’re only gone for a few years.” He grinned. “With a dressmaker mom and twin brothers, my sister was popular.”

  “Twins? You have a twin?”

  He lost his grin and focused on the road. “Yeah. Gabe.”

  “The one you owned the restaurant with?”

  “Yeah, one and the same.” All the zip of the boob conversation had gone out of his voice, leaving it flat.

  “What happened?”

  “Same sad story. Boy meets girl, boy likes girl. Girl meets boy’s twin brother and dumps boy.”

  She knew there was more, but it was obvious she wasn’t going to get it tonight. Glenna looked out the window at the dark steep slopes lit up by the occasional house. The road they were on was tight and narrow, and the walls of trees and rock climbed steeply up on one side and dropped off into pitch black on the other. Unlike I-70 there were few other vehicles. “This isn’t the highway. Will it take us a long time to get there?”

  “We’re not going back to the cabin.”

  She sat up. “Why not?”

  “It’s not safe. I don’t think we’re being followed, but there’s no way I’m taking the chance of leading anyone back to Lana’s. We’re going somewhere else.” His face was tight.

  “Well, are you going to fill me in?”

  He glanced over at her, not answering.

  Tension rose inside her and she dug her nails into her palms to keep from raising her voice. “Sam, I’m finished with not knowing what’s going on. Tell me now, where the hell are we going?”

  “Here.” He pulled off into a narrow cut through the brush. The SUV bounced over the cracked heaving pavement all the way into the parking lot of a roadside motel. The sign, lit by a single bulb, said Trout Haven in faded letters over a peeling picture of a winking fish, an enormous hook caught in its lip.

  “No way. This place looks like it has roaches. Or worse.”

  Sam parked and turned the engine off. “Those feds followed us from your sister’s.” He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it off his face the way she was coming to know meant he was stressed. “That means they know you’re alive and if they find you, they’ll take you straight to the CDC.”

  “But if the CDC is still looking for me can’t we just show them I’m fine and not contagious? They’ll leave me alone, leave you alone. Don’t they just want to make sure no one is spreading disease?”

  Sam shook his head. “Where have you been all your life?” His face in the shadowy light of the hotel’s sign was incredulous. “The feds aren’t our friends, they’re the enemy. They won’t stop until they’ve captured one of us and studied us. They won’t let you go. They’ll put you in a lab and take small samples of you until you die. And then they’ll cut you apart for good measure.”

  He jerked back away from her, opened his door and stalked to her side of the SUV. He wrenched open her door, waited for her to climb out. He leaned in close to her ear. “Now be good, come with me, and be quiet.”

  She wanted to argue. Wanted to scream at him and rail and hit. But someone had tried to run them off the road, and despite his insistence that it was all about her, she didn’t believe him. She knew how to be good, how to stuff her anger down deep and bide her time, but she was sick of doing it. Sick of waiting.

  All her anger rose up inside her, waiting to explode as she followed him into the tiny dusty foyer of the motel decorated circa 1966 with brown wood paneling and mounted fish everywhere. She waited while he signed in as Mr. and Mrs. Jones and paid in cash. The wrinkled night clerk gave them the once over, but didn’t ask any questions other than did they know how long they were staying.

  “Just the one night,” Sam said.

  He nodded and handed him a plastic round key ring. “You can take number eight, down on the end.”

  She stayed quiet, frustration and fear building into white hot anger, while Sam moved the SUV down the row and unlocked the flimsy door, checked the room over, looked under both beds and into the closet before turning back to her. “The room is secure. We need to talk.”

  Her anger flared into rage. “Bossy son of a bitch. You’d better believe we need to talk.”

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Serena surveyed the chaos of the great room in the Ram’s Haven guest house. Clusters of the Windy Gap kids played together, making the high-ceilinged room ring with laughter. Mothers and grandparents snuggled with little ones. And of course there were wolves curled up in corners, or nudging balls back into play.

  A pang of homesickness for the quiet of the tiny home she shared with Gabe filled her. What was he doing now? Was he able to get any sleep? Had the mostly volunteer force kept the fire contained, or was it still raging toward the main compound of Windy Gap and their home? And beneath it all lurked the fear she might never see him again. Never touch him, curl up close to him in their bed, or see the love in his eyes.

  The shamans’ circle at Ram’s Haven had considered her needs and placed her in a room with just Sheila. She didn’t know if that was good or bad. She’d be able to sleep tonight, after the over-full building had settled down, but she didn’t know if she wanted to. The council had made it clear—she’d have to visit Glenna tonight. She couldn’t put it off any longer. She had no choice.

  She wished she’d had a chance to talk to the shamans’ circle at Windy Gap, but things had been crazy with the fire and now she was the only one from her pack stationed here. The others
were spread out, helping the firefighters, helping with first aid. Anywhere someone might need them. No. She was on her own. She had a job to do here, to help these people through this crisis, and she couldn’t burden the worried mothers and grandmothers with her fears for Glenna. Even if she could have shared the confidential details with them. But she couldn’t.

  Once again she was back at the beginning, like a pup chasing its tail, only she knew there could be only one outcome.

  Ram’s Haven’s head shaman, Adam, came over to her, smiling out of his salt and pepper beard. “Mind if I join you.” She hadn’t met him before tonight, but he had a good reputation as a shaman and a dreamwalker.

  “Of course.” She scooted over on the hard bench seat. “Thanks for helping out with the kids today. This has been really hard on them, especially the little ones. You’re very good with them.”

  “No problem. They all seem to be settling in well.” They watched the room overflowing with children. “I know it sounds corny, but I believe the kids are our future. Now that modern couples put off having kids so late we don’t have as many of them as we used to, and I like seeing them all together like this. It reminds me of the old days.”

  “We don’t have that many at Windy Gap either.” She nodded to the group. “This is most of them. A few went to relatives with their families, some are away at Ridge School, or Sister Absolute’s, but these are most of them.”

  “We could have hosted you with families in the area, but we thought you’d like to be together.”

  “We’re pack. When things get hairy, we like more of us around, not less.” They smiled at each other. Pack clung to pack, even in today’s modern world. Maybe especially in today’s modern world where discovery lurked around every corner.

  He seemed kind, thoughtful, and mature, like the kind of man you could depend on to give you honesty. He’d been a calm resource during the day’s chaos and she’d leaned on him several times already. Maybe she could lean on him a little more.

  “Adam, can I run something by you?”

  His brows went up. “Sure.”

  A ball hit her foot and she gently kicked it back to the four- and five-year-olds who’d lost it. Pack stuck with pack, but there was no privacy here. None at all. “Can we talk outside?”

  He nodded and they escaped into the chill of the mountain night. Stars filled the sky, sparkling as if there were no flames licking away at her home. They were beautiful and if she hadn’t had so much on her mind she might have really taken the time to look, but instead she turned to Adam. “I know you don’t know me very well, but I have a problem. Normally I could go to my own pack’s shamans but...” She shrugged and he nodded.

  “What’s the problem?”

  She hesitated. The pack council had made it clear—none of this was for public knowledge. She’d been prepared to talk to her own circle, but this man? Would the powers in charge at Windy Gap understand? Was he trustworthy?

  Adam reached over and squeezed her hand. “It’s okay, Serena. I’m just as bound by our rules as your own shamans’ circle. I’ll keep your confidence.”

  “I’ve been instructed by our council to do something I think violates my vows as a shaman and as a dreamwalker. I don’t know what to do.”

  Adam pursed his lips. “That’s serious. What did your head shaman at home say?”

  “Nothing.” Adam frowned and she rushed to fill him in. “I didn’t have a chance to talk to anyone, not with the fire and evacuation. Now we’re scattered and I’m supposed to walk tonight.” She wrapped her arms tight around her body, the cold raising goose bumps on her skin. “If I do what they want I’ll betray my patient’s trust, maybe even hurt her permanently. All so the council can hunt someone.”

  “I don’t know the details, but I’m surprised at your council. It must be serious.”

  “It is. They’re not wrong and they are so wrong.” Serena shivered.

  They listened to the sounds of the night. A late-season cricket, the wind in the pines, and the howls of the wolves out playing and working in the dark. A single howl ripped through the dark, sending a thrill through her. Despite the fact that she’d made her peace with never running as a wolf in anything but her dreams, she still felt the call. Adam smiled at her. He knew. He understood.

  Even her own mate would never understand—he had a physical wolf. He could shift and run under the stars, smell the deep damp of the woods and the musky scent of a frightened rabbit. She could only dream and imagine what that was like.

  “We may not have the physical bodies of wolves, Serena, but our dream wolves have gifts the shifters will never know or understand. You don’t just have a responsibility to your patient or to your vow. In the end it’s your wolf you must look in the face.”

  Her wolf.

  A trio of howls joined the others. Pack backed up pack but who was she supposed to back up? Could she rip Glenna’s world apart and violate her oath to her patient? Would Glenna forgive her? Would she forgive herself?

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Sam could smell Glenna’s anger as she paced the small hotel room. She was nervous. He could smell that too. And something else that lay under the nerves in her sweat. Wolf.

  She must be getting closer to the change but he had no idea how close, and that worried him. If it was coming soon, he needed to find somewhere to take her. Somewhere she could go through it in private. And this seedy room wasn’t it.

  She stopped, turned fiery, deep blue eyes on him. “We’re in the roach hotel. The car is hidden. Is there anything else we need to do before you finally give me some information?”

  “Just calm down...”

  “Calm down.” She stepped closer to him, pushed her face up into his. “How can you tell me to be calm? I’m declared dead to my family, my ex-fiancé is sniffing after my sister, and now I almost die by plunging off a cliff in a car driven by an insane werewolf. What exactly is there to be calm about?”

  Her pupils were dark and wild. Her pale skin flushed. The scent of the wolf grew stronger, more female. Hot. Memories of their kiss and how she tasted replayed in his head. Inside, his wolf began to push. His wolf wanted a mate and here was a strong one. New blood for the pack.

  He knew how this went. It was how he’d gotten involved with Serena. The chemical call of the potential mate had sucked him in. And then it was too late, the fever had grown until he needed her to slake it. And Serena had chosen Gabe.

  He shook his head and backed away from Glenna. Her flushed face, her high energy were products of her anger, not attraction. And her anger was a product of the surging adrenaline that came with the change.

  “You never answer my questions.”

  He took a deep breath. “You’re right.”

  “You’re just putting me off.”

  “Honestly, I’ll answer anything you want to know. But I need you to stop pacing and calm down.”

  “Screw that!”

  His need began to throb inside of him. He searched for a way to calm his wolf down and taper off the driving push for sex.

  Already he could see the wolf in her in the way she stalked him across the room. Her hips swung, her gaze stayed pinned on him. This was why they isolated the adolescents. The fever drove them to the change—and it drove them to mate.

  His instinct said push back. Dominate.

  He backed up. She followed until he was pressed against the wall and his breathing came fast and hard. “Glenna, you’re playing with fire.”

  “You can run and run, but I’ll stay with you until you answer me.” She poked him with a finger.

  She thought she wanted answers, but he could smell the arousal growing under all the other Glenna scents. The change was too close and he couldn’t take her anywhere else. He had nowhere to lock her up. He only had one choice.

  He broke and grabbed her wrists, pulling her in close until her breasts were squished between them and her mouth was inches away. “You can stop stalking me. You’ve got me.”

 
Her pupils flared and she struggled in his grip, but it was too late. He dove for the kill. His mouth skimmed hers. Light...then harder, demanding more from her than her resistance. He manipulated her lips, until she opened up with a moan.

  “Yessss,” she hissed.

  And that was all the permission he needed. She was all in now, her desire channeling all the adrenaline into the kiss. Their tongues tangled and played. He flipped them so she was against the wall and his erection pressed into her belly.

  “More,” he demanded. “I want more.” It had been too long since he’d tasted a woman, and this one, with the aura of the change upon her, was more than he could resist.

  “Sam,” she gasped, and opened her mouth further. He sucked and tasted all of it, exactly what he wanted. And none of it slaking his thirst.

  He let go of her one wrist and cupped her breast, rolled her nipple between his fingers. She whimpered.

  “Glenna, you don’t understand.” He understood, all too well. His body, his wolf, hell every single bit of him except for his common sense, wanted her. And he was tired of fighting.

  “I do understand. I want you, I need you. My body is so hungry for you.” She growled and nipped him. “Don’t stop.”

  “I shouldn’t do this, but you’re so damn sexy.”

  “So don’t hold back.”

  He’d been holding back for so long, holding back his wolf, his need, but now her need pushed him to the edge, and he could no longer resist. With a half howl he released her other wrist and pulled her t-shirt up, toss it on the bed and freeing her breasts. No bra. He dove for one of her nipples, pulling it into his mouth.

  His tongue flicked her nipple. “Ahhh, yes.” She took hold of his head, gripping his hair in her fists, as if he’d move and leave the luscious feel of her in his mouth. He pushed a hand between them, found her sweet spot and rubbed.

  “Oh, Sam. Sam.” The sound of his name penetrated the haze of lust that had built up around them.