He drew in a long, slow breath. “Guess what?” he murmured.
Marcus blinked his watery eyes. “Wh-what?”
“You
are
dead.” His hands yanked hard to the right.
Snap.
Lucas watched the wolves close in on her, and he crossed his arms over his chest. And waited.
Sarah stood in the middle of that tight circle, her body tense, her hands fisted at her sides. Her gaze darted from wolf to wolf, and the scent of sweat and fear teased his nose.
Again, the smell of fear didn’t tempt his wolf. But, it did have the beast inside snarling . . . and damn if he didn’t want to go back to her.
Protect.
“This should be easy for you,” he called out, deliberately keeping his voice cool and expressionless. “You’re the charmer. Just tell me what they’re thinking.”
Her lips pressed together. So he wouldn’t see the tremble? Too late, he’d already seen. Sarah was scared. Charmers didn’t usually fear their linked animals, but then wolf shifters weren’t your typical beasts.
“I’ve already played this game,” she gritted. “You were there, you saw me with the boy.”
The boy. Jordan. “All you did was guess that he was a young wolf. Not a very impressive guess.” He shrugged. “This time, I want details.” Proof. “
Tell me what they’re thinking.”
Because if she really was what she claimed to be . . .
Her right hand lifted and her index finger pointed to the white wolf that stood less than a foot away from her. “Piers here thinks this test is a damn waste of time, and he wants to go for my th-throat.”
The drumbeat of Lucas’s heart echoed in his ears.
Could be a guess. Everyone knows my first-in-command is Piers.
Lucas lifted a brow. “You’ve got three other wolves still waiting,” he said.
But she wasn’t looking away from Piers. “Tell him to stand down. I don’t want this jerk taking a swipe at me.” She backed up a step. Not the brightest move. You didn’t show weakness to a wolf. Wolves liked weakness too much.
Lucas dropped his hands and rolled his shoulders. “Ease back, Piers.”
The white wolf immediately backed off.
Sarah’s green gaze rose to meet his. “Thank you.” No mistaking the fear in those eyes.
He inclined his head. “Three more.”
“You really are a bastard, aren’t you?”
“That’s what they say.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Right, you’re—” Her gaze shot to the left. To the big, black wolf with night-black eyes. “He says you’re a bastard, but you’re a
fair
bastard.”
“He?”
“Michael.” Her breath heaved out. “He says I shouldn’t worry, that you don’t usually eat women.”
Then her face flushed. A dark, fiery red. Her gaze darted to the other white wolf, Caleb McKenzie. He was a little smaller than Piers. Just a little. “
He
says you—ah—in bed . . .” Her hand lifted and shoved back a heavy mass of her hair. “I
don’t
need to know this.”
Lucas never looked away from her. “One wolf to go.” She swallowed. “Dane knows I’m telling the truth, so he’s trying to keep his mind blank now so I can’t see inside.” A brittle laugh. “No dice, Dane, and yes, I do think more coyotes will be after me. I think they’ll be here by nightfall and we need to stop screwing around with these stupid tests and get ready for them.”
“Shift,” Lucas ordered.
Sarah threw up her hands. “Wait!”
Too late. The snap and crunch of shifting bones filled the air. Fur melted away from the bodies of the wolves as dark, golden flesh appeared. Hands formed from paws. Muzzles slid back into the curved features of men.
Didn’t take long. Just a few minutes, and the wolves were gone. Naked men stood surrounding Sarah. Lucas bent toward the bag Piers had brought out earlier. He pulled out the jeans and tossed them to his men. Then he marched to Sarah’s side. The pulse at the base of her throat beat far too fast.
“You play with us,” he murmured as the men dressed, “but we scare the hell out of you.”
“Trust me on this, Lucas,” she said, voice quiet, “if I could have chosen, wolves would have been the last animals I would have linked with.”
But charmers didn’t have a choice. Their gift just kicked in when the right animal was around.
His gaze was on the faint mark on her throat, his mark, when he asked, “Was she telling the truth?”
“I wanted to rip her throat out,” Piers admitted. “Yeah, she knew.”
“She plucked the exact words from my mind,” Michael Montoya said. “We all know what a
fair
bastard you are.”
A snort from Piers.
Dane Gentry edged closer. “She can link with us.” He whistled. “Who the hell would have thought the stories were true? A charmer who can link with shifted wolves—that’s fucking rare.”
Her shoulders were so straight they had to hurt. “So I guess this means I passed your test? You believe me now?”
“I believe you’re a charmer.” His hand lifted and brushed against her back. “I believe that—”
But Sarah had leapt away from him. When his fingers touched the base of her back, she yelped and shot forward, running and slamming right into Dane’s outstretched and scarred arms.
“Whoa, sweetheart,” Dane murmured, “there ain’t no cause for you to—”
She kneed him in the groin. Dane immediately dropped his hold and stumbled back, swearing.
Sarah whirled back around to face Lucas. He raised his hand, a command for the others to stand down.
Don’t touch.
He knew terror when he smelled it. They all did.
“Are all wolves the same?” she asked, voice tight. “Sure, I know most folks say you’re all psychotic killers, but, hell,
some
of you have to be normal, right? Some of you have to have consciences?”
He caught the faint tightening of Piers’s eyes. Years ago, they’d had to put down Piers’s father when the guy went Lone—and went on a five-state killing spree.
“We’re not all fucking psychos,” Piers snarled.
“Really?” And one brow arched. “Then why were you so worried a minute ago that you’d be crossing the line and killing? Why are you afraid that you’ll like the taste of human blood too much and—”
Piers lunged toward her.
Lucas stepped in front of Sarah. “You don’t touch her.” Guttural. Suddenly, the tension was so thick he could feel the beast stretching beneath his skin.
Piers glared at him, his light green eyes a mix of fury . . . and fear. The guy wasn’t afraid of Lucas. No, Piers was afraid of what he might become.
“If you didn’t want me looking,” Sarah’s voice came from behind him, quavering just a little, but still with a fuck-you air that he liked, “then you shouldn’t have been one of the guinea pigs who tested
me.
”
Lucas didn’t glance back at her, not yet. He kept his gaze on Piers. “You back in control?”
A grim nod.
“Good. Stay that way.” Then he turned to Sarah. “I want the wolf’s name.”
Her lips parted, but she shook her head.
“
His name.
If the bastard is gunning for me, I’m taking him out.”
“I need assurance first.” She rocked back on her heels. “I need to know that you won’t throw me to the—”
“Wolves?” He finished, and let his mouth curl. “Can’t promise you that, babe.” The wolves already had her.
“Promise me . . . promise me that you’ll keep me safe. You’ll keep the coyotes and the wolves off my back.”
“Can’t imagine why they want to tear into you,” Dane muttered, and from the corner of his eye, Lucas saw the guy wince. Yeah, a sore cock could make any guy wince.
“The name,” Lucas said again, not about to be distracted.
But Sarah actually shook her head,
at him.
“Your promise first. I want you to vow right in front of your pack.”
Oh, she was pushing him. He leaned in close, towering over her. He let the tips of his claws burst through his fingertips, then those claws scraped lightly over the flesh of her arms. Not cutting the skin, but the threat was there. “I could always make you tell me.”
“No,” she said quietly, “you can’t. You’re not the first wolf who’s thought he could break me.”
Now what the fuck was that about? “
The name.
” He wanted to know the bastard who’d hurt her, who’d—
“I’ll tell you the wolf after you—”
Was it the same asshole who’d hurt her? Her lover? Talk about piss-poor taste in men.
“—once you make the vow.”
He dropped his hands, not even leaving a scratch on her. “I give my word that you have my protection.”
He was aware of Piers and Dane both tensing at that. Sarah studied him silently for a moment, then said, “Not that I don’t think you’re the big, bad asshole who can claw his way through just about anything and anyone, but . . . I want your whole pack’s protection, not just yours.”
Pushing . . .
“Because if you happen to eat a silver bullet, I want to know that my ass is still covered.”
“Fine,” he bit out. “Give me the name, and you have the pack’s protection.”
“For how long?” she asked, nibbling a bit at her lower lip. “This could go on for—”
“
Forever!”
“Shit,” Piers muttered. “No, he damn well didn’t just say—”
But Sarah was smiling now. A real, wide flash of her lips that made the corners of her eyes crinkle and for an instant, she went from pretty to full-on gorgeous. “Then we’ve got a deal.” She offered her hand to him.
What? Now she wanted a fucking handshake?
He grabbed her hand. Curled his fingers around her delicate bones. Stared at her mouth as she breathed the words, “Rafael Santiago. Rafe.”
He knew the wolf. His fingers tightened around Sarah’s and he pulled her in even closer. “Time to seal our deal.” Then he put his mouth on hers. Sarah’s lips were open, parted just right, and his tongue plunged inside. Her mouth was as soft as before, as lush, and her taste—
Still just as fucking sweet.
With every lick, every stroke of his tongue, he wanted more. The woman was meeting him head-on for the kiss. No shy backing away. Need and lust. Just what he wanted.
His cock shoved against the front of his jeans. If they hadn’t been surrounded by an avid audience, he would have pushed the kiss farther and taken so much more. But . . . they
did
have an audience, and he’d never been the sharing kind. Just a little longer and he’d—
She tore her mouth from his. Her breath panted in ragged puffs and her eyes met his.
He almost smiled at her. “Now, we have a deal.” One he would have preferred to seal while they were naked in bed, but they’d get around to that part. He just had to stir Sarah’s need enough, then she’d come to him.
Her gaze darted to the other wolves. “What do we—what happens now?”
“Now I get ready to hunt.” He inclined his head toward Michael. “Take her back inside.”
Michael nodded and stepped forward.
Sarah’s gaze searched his. “They’ll be coming for me soon.” Sooner than she realized. “Then they’ll have to get through me if they want you.”
Those eyes of hers were so deep. The greenest he’d ever seen.
She nodded. “Thank you.”
Don’t thank me yet.
She didn’t realize how she fit into his plan. She would. Soon enough.
Sarah turned away and followed Michael back down the worn path. He watched them for a while, no, watched her, until she was out of sight.
Piers opened his mouth to speak—and Lucas raised his hand, quieting him.
Sarah’s hearing wouldn’t be as good as a wolf’s, but he wasn’t taking chances.
He waited a minute. Two. Then he nodded for Piers to speak.
“What the hell are you thinking?” Piers demanded. “We can’t trust her, not for a damn minute.”
Lucas stared at him. “Watch the tone, Piers.”
Piers inhaled and his hands unclenched. “What do you know about her? We can’t—”
“We know she’s a charmer who can read the minds of shifted wolves,” Dane interrupted. “And that’s a real rare talent.”
“A talent that could be very useful to us,” Caleb added, the drawl of his native Texas sliding in and out of his voice.
“Or very dangerous.” Piers yanked a hand through his hair. “Any time we’re in wolf form, she’ll be able to get in our heads, to find our secrets.”
“There are no secrets in a pack,” Lucas told him quietly watching his first closely. “Or are you worried she’ll discover something I don’t know?”
A muscle jumped in Piers’s jaw.