ShiftinDirty-ElizaGayle (5 page)

“Nice place.”

She looked over her shoulder briefly before returning her attention back to a cabinet she was currently digging through. “Thanks. I always loved this place as a kid. We’d come up here during the summer for vacation and I never wanted to leave.”

After emptying all of the contents and two drawers onto the floor and then returning them, Sienna finally stood with a pair of jeans grasped in her fist.
 

“I need to change. I’ll be right back but feel free to make yourself comfortable.” She waved toward the couch.

“Why do you need to change? I like the clothes you have on. That skirt looks amazing.”

Her eyes widened at the same time her hands flew to the hem and pulled the denim as far down as it would go. “It’s too tight. Keeps riding up.”

He had no idea what she was talking about. All he saw was the way the fabric hugged her ass every time she bent over. He took several steps in her direction, his gaze fastened on her lips. They looked ripe and kissable.
 

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Sure.” Although he wasn’t really. The hours away from home obviously had not cleared his body of the excess pheromones he got from Kitty. “I can’t stop thinking about how sexy you are.”

She blinked. “What?”

Gage smiled at her confused expression. It mirrored his own feelings. Not wanting to waste time with explanations, he reached out and pulled her close to him.

“Since back at the bar when I touched you like this, I’ve thought of little else.” he grabbed her hip and plastered her to his front.
 

“What are you doing?”
 

He enjoyed the fact her words came out breathless and her face now looked flush. The cloud of desire he saw in her eyes had to reflect in his own.
 

“What I’ve been thinking about since I met you.” He tipped his head down and covered her mouth with his own for a kiss he knew would sear him to the bone. And he was right.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pressed her closer so nothing at all stood between them. Not even air. He teased her lips with his tongue until she softened and opened to him. For long moments he simply drank at the sweet honey of her mouth while teasing every inch he touched.
 

The animal inside him pushed him hard and Gage pushed back, refusing to let the wildness take over. To do so now would only scare her. She needed more time than he could afford to give her, but he’d damn sure give her all he could.

He nipped her lip and seemingly woke something inside her as well. Her hands grabbed his shirt and twisted the fabric erratically. It took an additional burst of restraint not to whip both their clothes free so he could rub against her naked. He groaned at the idea of her naked curves plastered against his muscles.
 

Sienna jerked away, planting her hands against his chest and pushing with a surprising amount of force. She must have expected resistance as it proved too much and she started to fall. Gage tightened his hand at her hip and steadied her.
 

“You should not have done that,” she said, touching her lips gingerly. He imagined she felt the imprint on hers as much as he did his. Although it wasn’t just his lips that were feeling it. His body buzzed from his head to his toes. And if she happened to look down she’d find more than either of them bargained for.
 

Gage didn’t know what to think about this turn of events. Before the recent addition to his family he’d given almost no thought to finding or taking a mate. Even with Kitty in residence and her hormones kicking his ass, he still didn’t think about a mate. Maybe he’d given a thought or two to what it would be like to have cubs of his own, but he didn’t take any of that seriously.
 

He needed sex. An outlet for the build up and frustration of being in such close proximity to a fertile female shifter. That’s it. Simple. All he needed in life was friends, family, plenty of sex and the freedom to shift when he wanted.
 

Then he walked into a bar and came face to face with something entirely different.
 

He was about to tell her that kissing was the least of what he planned to do to her when the buzz of an incoming text message on his cell phone broke the silence.
 

“Sorry. I gotta check this.” He pulled out the phone and read the message.
 

No safe haven until I get more information. Nikki and her unborn cub are the priority. Call me. ASAP!

The wolf inside him growled. Somehow his inner animal had already grown possessive of the woman currently edging her way around the dining table to get away. She wouldn’t get far.

“I need to make a phone call and I’m not getting strong enough reception out here.” He held up his phone and moved around the room checking the bars.
 

“There’s a small store at the top of the hill about a mile from here. In the opposite direction in which we arrived. They might have a phone or maybe even service. Not as many trees near there.”

“I don’t want to leave you here unguarded, but I do need to make this call.”

She rolled her eyes. “I doubt anyone is going to find us all the way out here, but just in case they do, my daddy has a shot gun in the back bedroom.”

“Smart daddy.”

She smiled, dipping her head.
 

“You go get the gun and I’ll run to the store. Don’t open the blinds or the door until you hear me return.”

“Yes, sir,” she sighed. “I wanted to change anyway.” She was already retreating to the bedroom and he had to fight the urge to stalk her. Her scent still filled his head, wreaking havoc on his body and the idea of her taking off her clothes, even to just put on others, made him pike hard.

“Oh wait.” She stopped and turned back to him. “Can I get you to bring me a few things from the store?”

She started rambling off a list that he vaguely catalogued while watching her soft body shake. When she finally finished rambling and began backing away from him again, he spoke up.
 

 
“Sienna.”

She stopped her retreat and met his gaze.
 

“We’re not done with that kiss.

Her mouth dropped opened and he took the satisfaction of her shock with him as he walked out the back door and got on his bike. She had five minutes, maybe ten to get her thoughts straight before he did anything crazy.
 

***

“What do you mean a human saw him shift? What the hell were you doing fighting around humans?” Bhric sounded like he was on the edge of losing it.
 

“Well, the guy was an asshole with an impulse control problem. He should have controlled himself better than that.”

Bhric growled on the other end and he was damn glad he wasn’t standing next to the man. Bhric was known for his temper and no one wanted it thrown in their direction.

“We both know what all the councils will say when word about this gets out. Where are the wolves now?”

Gage winced. “Don’t know. They followed me and it took a long time to shake them. I’ve got a bad feeling I can’t shake that they are still tracking me though. I’ve got the girl stashed somewhere safe for now, but it won’t last. I need to bring her home.”

“I don’t mean to sound heartless, but what do we care about what happens to one human woman? She butted into our business and saw more than she is allowed. There are already rules in place for this kind of thing. Let the wolves take her and then get your ass back here. We’ll deal with the wolves through Rafe. That’s his thing.”

Gage didn’t give one shit about who took care of the assholes from the bar. If Bhric wanted the alpha leader of the wolves to deal with his own kind that was his business. The girl on the other hand…
 

“There’s a slight problem with that plan.” He wasn’t a pussy and he could certainly admit this to his own leader. “My wolf won’t let the girl go.”

“You have got to be fucking shitting me.” Gage held out the phone and snarled at it as he listened to the string of curses coming out of Bhric’s mouth. Leader or not, Gage had a limit to how much bullshit he could take.
 

He placed the phone back at his ear. “Look I know. You think I don’t realize what kind of problems this is going to create? Laws are there for a reason but there are always circumstances in which they can be broken and I’ve seen a lot of rules get bent in the name of mating.”

“So you’re claiming her? Is she on board with that?”

“I don’t know yet, we haven’t exactly had time to sit down over a cup of coffee and have a fucking chat. I’m not even sure she has fully processed what she saw.”

“Here’s a guess,” Bhric’s voice rose several more octaves. “She’s not on board. She’s in shock and a human in shock is extremely dangerous.” Another string of garbled curses came across the line as Bhric’s anger made his inability to control his animal almost impossible.
 

“Get your ass back to the woman and wait to hear from me. I’m going to make some calls and see what I can find out. Whatever you do, don’t fuck her. We aren’t even sure what happens to a human taken by a shifter in mating heat and the last thing I need is another woman losing her damned mind over one of my pack.”

Gage wasn’t sure he could make that deal. Every minute he was away from Sienna the stronger the bond between animal and human got. At the moment he was close to crawling out of his skin to get back to her.
 

“I’ll try,” he said into the phone.
 

When Bhric started yelling at him to do more than fucking try, Gage disconnected the call and shoved the phone back into his pocket.
 

The more he thought about Sienna the more the fine hairs on his body stood up and noticed. He needed to get back to her now.

Chapter Five

Luke Blackwood kneeled on the side of the road and inspected the tire tracks along with the single set of foot prints a few feet away. He’d already scented the shifter and he was pretty sure the tracks belonged to the woman. After more than an hour of riding they’d lost the trail. So he’d backtracked to where the scent was still the strongest and ended up here on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

He surveyed the surrounding area. There was no obvious reason why they stopped here, but they had. Now he only had to decide where they went from here. He had a feeling the shifter had led them around in circles to throw them off the trail.
 

It still burned his ass that the woman had seen him shift. His plan to grab her after her shift at the Hog had gone up in flames the minute she witnessed his transformation. An act he squarely placed on the shoulders of the unknown wolf who’s scent didn’t quite smell right. Probably not a full wolf, which put him far outside the neutral territory, giving him no rights and Luke all the power in this scenario.

If he could find them.
 

No, not if. When. His ability to track was unrivaled among his kind and it was only a matter of time before he located them.
 

He raised his head and sniffed the air. It had been a few hours and their scents were starting to fade. However, their tracks led east and despite the circles they traveled in, he’d bet their ultimate destination had been east. Hopefully, not back to the neutral zone though. He didn’t love the idea of entering that area.

While he didn’t subscribe to the same “pure” ideals many of the older shifters held dear, he had a massive distrust for anyone outside his own pack. Which made his plans to capture a human female a bit of a stretch, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
 

The shifter population was suffering from a lack of population growth. Specifically, pregnancies between shifters were not happening and so far the only ones that had produced children recently were either rumored to be specially bonded mates (something he didn’t believe in), or the result of cross breeding.
 

This information had led his pack to some alternative thinking and brash action. They immediately nixed the idea of creating mixed breed shifters. They wanted only wolf pups in their pack. Mainly, because they didn’t trust werecats as far as they could throw them, the weak little shits. So the notion that mixing DNA between shifters and humans might be worth the risk of a few humans discovering the truth was born.
 

Which is where the chick from the bar came into the picture. They’d been using the bar for some time as a way to scope out potential females who might be interested in their program and finally today the new girl had appeared as the perfect candidate. There were all different kinds of women to be had, but the kind they sought for their program were not easy to find. Her sad story of needing both a place to live and money to get out of debt from some deadbeat boyfriend made her an even more perfect candidate for them to approach.
 

Then the lone shifter walked in and screwed up the whole plan.
 

Luke strolled over to his bike and climbed on. He had their scent in his head and he was ready to take it as far as it led. If that meant he had to remove a shifter out of his way so be it. What was best for the greater good was all that mattered.
 

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