LustUndone (18 page)

“About what? Clint, you have to tell me what’s going on
here.”

“Like I said, I’m going to show you,
chere.
Just sit
there and don’t move.” He rose from the bed and undressed slowly, his eyes on
her glowing hotly.

“Listen. If this is just some new kinky way to have sex with
me—”

“
Non!
Please. Listen to me. This is very important.
Just…watch and listen, okay?”

But when he was standing in front of her magnificently
naked, with his glorious cock pointing straight at her, thinking was nearly
impossible.

“Close your eyes,” he told her.

“What?”

He clenched his fists at his side, obviously reaching for
control. “Just. Close. Your. Eyes. Count to ten then open them again.”

“Okay, okay.”

Obediently she closed her eyes and counted. When she opened
them again she almost had a heart attack. In the place where Clint had been
standing was a huge wolf, its black coat shining in the last of the sunlight
pouring in through the window.

Chapter Nine

Sophia was stunned. If not for the fact she lived and worked
with shifters she might have been more shocked than she was. Or frozen with
fear. But she knew exactly what had happened. The only thing surprising her was
that the wolf was Clint. That he obviously was a shifter.

He looked at her with those amber-flecked hazel eyes and
there was no mistaking who was staring back out at her. Sophia reached out a
hand to stroke the thick black pelt and the animal rubbed its head against her
hand.

“I know it’s you,” she said in a soft voice. “And it’s okay.
I know all about who and what you are.”

The wolf backed away from her to the center of the room. The
air around it seemed to move in an accelerated current until it was nothing but
swirling dust. Sophia blinked. Clint was in front of her again, still naked.

“You don’t look frightened,” he observed, pulling his
clothes back on. “You have no idea how difficult it was for me to decide to do
this. I was afraid you’d have a seizure or scream down the house.” He fastened
his jeans. “So what am I missing here?”

Sophia wet her lips. “Now it’s your turn to sit down.”

“Okay.” He grinned. “But I’m going to sit in the chair over
here, because I only have so much control over myself when I see you and a bed
together. So what’s the deal?”

“You asked me about the group I work with now. The team.
Night Seekers.”

He nodded.

She cleared her throat. “Everyone on the team, including the
billionaire who funds it, has lost someone close to them to the Chupacabra.
Each of us has researched it, discovered the method of killing and realized
that was what happened.”

“And no one wanted to believe you,” he guessed.

“You are so right.” She twisted her fingers together in her
lap as she remembered again the bodies of her twin nephews and the stink her
supervisor made when she tried to insist she knew what had happened. “The sole
purpose of the Night Seekers is to find this creature and destroy it. Which, by
the way, is becoming increasingly more difficult to do. We know it migrates but
the amount of territory it covers, especially within the last two years, is
mindboggling.”

“That still doesn’t tell me why a black wolf suddenly
appearing next to you didn’t scare the shit out of you.”

“Okay, so here’s the reason. Six of our team members plus
the man who put it together, are shifters. And we all work and live together at
our headquarters in Texas. Desolation Ranch.” When he didn’t say anything she
frowned. “Clint?”

He rubbed his hand over his face. “You live with them?
You’ve seen them change?”

“Yes to all of that.”

“But… Didn’t it freak you out at first?”

Sophia shrugged. “By that time I’d done so much research on
the Chupacabra that I think I was ready to accept anything. And Craig Stafford,
the man funding all of this, chose us carefully and was very explicit about
what we two humans would be dealing with. He suggested Dante Martello—the only
other nonshifter—and I do a lot of research on it before we made the commitment
to join the Night Seekers.”

“And how did that go?”

“Fine. We talked to each other a lot, also. The two of us.
Then we met each member of the team. It was a lot easier than anyone thought it
would be.”

Clint stood up and resumed his pacing. “But you slept with
a…a…”

“A wolf?” She laughed. “We’ve had two weddings recently at
Desolation Ranch. Team members who married humans. Mated with them. They seem
to be working out just fine.”

“We’ve never had good luck with humans,” he told her.
“That’s the reason my entire family was killed. Men in the bayous who
discovered we were shifters thought we were descended from the bloodthirsty
rougarou and burned down the fish camp we owned. With everyone in it but me. I
was fourteen when it happened.”

“Oh, Clint.” She could feel the pain of the young teenage
boy devastated at what happened, consumed by grief.

“So how did you get up here? You’re about as far from
Louisiana as you can get.”

“My folks were descended from the original Acadians. I
thought if I got to where they came from in Canada I could find some of my
relatives.” He gave a rough laugh. “I was hitchhiking and after my last ride
dropped me off, I nearly froze to death. Frenchy found me.”

“And didn’t freak out when he discovered your true nature?”

“No. Strange, isn’t it? So.” He stopped his pacing in front
of her. “Three things.” He held up one finger. “I believe your theory.
Completely.” Another finger. “Second. I want to help you. I can run as wolf and
get places humans can’t. And in the dark of night.”

Sophia snapped her fingers. “It’s you that Logan saw the
past couple of nights, right?”

“Guilty as charged. I usually run when I get home from the
bar. Works off excess energy and helps me sleep.”

“I saw you yesterday morning, too. Shocked me, because I
lived in Maine all my life until I moved to Texas and I never remembered seeing
or hearing of any black wolves in this state.”

“Yeah, I’ve had to be real careful when I run.”

“So what’s the third thing?” she asked. “You said there were
three.”

He put his hands beneath her elbows and lifted her so she
was standing, barely an inch of space between them. “It means I don’t have to
force myself to stop seeing you. I hope. Which I knew I’d have to do. Because
of…things.”

“You being a shifter.”

He nodded. “And that’s the last thing in the world I
wanted.”

“I told you, we have two couples back at Desolation Ranch
where the male is a shifter and the female is human. It works very well for
them. In fact, Dakota Grey is an herbalist, among other things, who grows the
special herbs shifters need to maintain control over their body.” She cocked
her head. “By the way, where do you get yours?”

“On the internet. There’s a place I order them from.” His
eyes were heated as they studied her. “Sophia, there’s something very electric
between us. Something a lot more than just fantastic sex. I want to keep seeing
you. And help you with this case.”

“And when the case is over?” she wanted to know.

“I have no ties. I can look at all kinds of options.”

She studied his face for a long time, seeing the emotion in
his eyes. Feeling the tension in his body as he waited for her to answer him.

“Let’s find this devil beast first, before more people are
killed. And hope like hell it’s the last of its kind.” She stood on tiptoe to
brush her mouth against his. “Then we’ll have a lot to talk about.”

He cradled her face in his big palms. “But we can still keep
seeing each other.”

“We do a lot less seeing and a lot more doing but yes. I’ll
still answer your knock every night.”

“What about your partner? Are you going to say anything to
him?”

“Logan?” She waved her hand in the air. “He already suspects
and it doesn’t bother him. Besides, I think he’s trying to figure out how to
get to first base with my sister. A much bigger challenge.”

He slid his fingers into her hair and held her head in place
as his mouth moved over hers, gently at first then harder until the pressure of
his tongue made her open for him. Sophia pressed herself against him, feeling
the hard length of his erection and the heat of his body through his clothes.

Abruptly he broke away. “If I don’t go now I never will.
You’re coming to The Crown, right?”

“Oh, right. The Crown. I think we won’t have to worry about
keeping secrets.”

“I don’t understand.”

She laughed breathlessly. “Well, Logan had planned for us to
eat early so he could catch a quick nap and then go for a run. He figured he’d
run late at night again and try to catch the black wolf we were sure we saw.”

Clint chuckled. “Plan to tell him he can get his beauty
sleep?”

She sobered. “I think I should tell him everything, Clint.
Otherwise he’ll be chasing a black phantom. And I’d rather he agree to let you
help us. We could really use one more wolf running out there at night.”

“Okay. When you come to The Crown we’ll go into the office
and talk. Away from other ears. Okay?”

“Won’t people ask about it?” she wanted to know.

“I’ll tell them it’s all about the case. That you want to
know if I’ve seen any suspicious people hanging out at the bar.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “We’ll make it work.”

* * * * *

The beast was restless. It had stalked and chosen its prey
but now it wondered if it had made the right choice. There had been so many to
choose from that the creature was actually confused. It had selected one target
but now, as the light faded from the day, it wondered if maybe one of the
others would be better.

It huddled in the barn, battling the pain in its head that
seemed to come more and more frequently. The time for the kill was getting
closer but the confusion with its selection was causing it great agony.

Maybe when it got darker it would check the others out one
more time. With its great speed it could do so quickly and still return to this
place if the first choice was the right one.

But first it had to will away the piercing pain.

* * * * *

Elaine Warren peered out the kitchen window, about to jump
out of her skin. She didn’t know what the noise was she’d heard outside—wasn’t
sure she even wanted to know. It was getting dark now, making it harder to see.
She flipped the switch for the outside lights, feeling somehow more protected
with the area around the house illuminated.

Ssssh
!

There it was again. Taking another timid look through the
window, she realized she hadn’t latched the double doors on the garage. The
wind had caught the edge of one side and was pushing it against the snow.

Damn!

Harland would see that when he came home and pitch ten kinds
of a holy fit. Of course, he pitched a fit about almost anything these days.
Elaine just tried to keep her head down and out of the way.

But she’d better fix this right away. Sighing, she went into
the mudroom, jammed her feet into her boots, dragged on her jacket and scarf
and opened the back door. She had barely made it to the first step off the
porch when something roared up behind her. Elaine turned her head and barely
had time for a terrified scream before something sharp jabbed into her throat.

She was already dead when her body was torn open and her
insides yanked out.

* * * * *

Sophia was very pleased with the way the conversation at The
Crown had gone. Rebecca had been more surprised at Clint’s admission than
Logan.

“I was about to zero in on you, as it happens,” Logan told
him. “When I stopped to think about where a black wolf would have come from
around here and realized it was a shifter, I began to narrow the options.”

“You didn’t think it was one of the locals?” Clint asked.

“I would have been surprised. Only because Sophia would have
had some inkling of it, having lived here as long as she did.”

Although Sophia had indoctrinated her sister on the shifter
breed, information which Bec had absorbed without much questioning, still it
stunned her to realize that Clint turned out to be one. But like everything
else with her, it was information she absorbed and processed and went on with
things.

“You masked your scent,” Sophia said.

Clint nodded. “A few tricks I’ve learned. I’m always worried
a stray shifter will wander into the area and turn out to be hostile.”

They had talked at length about the area that had already
been covered and Clint had offered to run at night to search for traces and
identify targets.

“That would be a big help,” Logan told him. “We can only
warn people so much plus there are so many isolated residences here that
pinpointing the next target will be difficult.”

“But maybe not too far from where we found the animal
carcasses,” Sophia put in. “We could start with that section.”

“Why don’t you meet me behind the motel?” Logan suggested.
“Call me when you’re, uh, ready.” He winked at Sophia.

Heat crept up her cheeks but Clint just winked at her and
said, “Sure thing.”

They ate and spent some time visiting with Frenchy before
one of his friends drove him home. Back at the motel Sophia waited impatiently
until she heard the familiar knock.

“Anxious,
bebe
?” Clint grinned at her as he closed
the door and pulled her into his arms.

“Scaringly so,” she admitted just before his mouth cut off
any more words.

His lips were warm against hers, his tongue even hotter as it
snaked into her mouth and licked every surface. She thrust her own tongue
against his, dancing with it, sucking on it, making him groan. One large hand
held her body to his while the other gripped her head, angling it to give him
better access.