Wild (40 page)

Still, something bothered her about these two deaths and about the man that also seemed concerned. There was an element that she was missing, and that wasn't like her. Growing up with a mother who worked long hours and stayed drunk for even more, Caroline had learned early on how to take care of herself, and part of that meant being observant, meeting people, and assessing their roles in her life before they even had a chance to put their plans in motion. She'd been good at it all these years. Hell, she'd even known that Joey had wanted to have sex with her from the moment she'd walked into Natalie's house. But right now, she couldn't figure this out.

“Come here.”

His voice was deep and commanding. It had been since the very first time he'd spoken to her, and Caroline was still trying to decide if that were a good or bad thing.

“Why?” she asked as she turned around to see he'd come to stand in the doorway.

“Show me where you put the tarp,” he told her, his tone of voice still staying the same.

“I told you I put it outside with the rest of the trash,” Caroline was saying as she walked through the door.

She'd turned to the side, sucking in every part of her body that she could so that she wouldn't touch him. She headed toward the back of the clinic. He'd left the back door open, so she pushed through the screened door and stepped outside. The words she'd been about to say died in her throat as she looked toward the big green Dumpster and then around it where she knew she'd tossed that blue tarp.

“I threw it out here,” she said.

Malec had come to stand beside her, and he was sniffing. With a jerk of her head she looked at him to see what he was doing and wasn't totally shocked to see that he was indeed inhaling the air.

“It smells like trash,” she told him. “And the tarp smelled like blood. The animal's blood. Only I have no idea where it could have gone. It's so early, nobody would even be back here.”

“But someone was,” he said, taking her by the elbow and moving her hurriedly toward the door.

“What? Wait a minute,” she was saying as he pushed her through the door and shut it behind her.

“Wait just a minute,” she repeated with much more authority this time. “This is my clinic. Those animals were my responsibility. I don't know what's going on around here,” she said, lifting her arms to drag her fingers through her hair.

This time Malec did not speak. But he did take off his shades. He tucked them into the neckline of his shirt and took a step closer to her.

“You know something,” she stated. “Are you going to tell me what's going on?”

He was moving toward her, and Caroline felt a spurt of fear at the base of her throat. She swallowed hard, telling herself to remain calm. Malec had brought that buck to her to save, and he'd come running when she'd told him of the other wounded animals. So he obviously cared about animals. Surely that meant he wouldn't harm a human being either. She hoped.

When his hands came up, palms facing her and landing solidly on her breasts, she gasped, not sure what else to do.

“You pierced your nipples,” he said through clenched teeth. “Why?”

“What?” she asked, slightly confused at his abrupt change of subject and more than a little aroused at the gruff way in which his words had been spoken.

Caroline couldn't breathe.

She couldn't speak.

All she could do was feel.

Ripples of pleasure moved like lightning bolts from the spot his hands occupied on her breasts throughout the rest of her body so fast her knees went weak.

“You—” he started to say, his fingers clenching over her breasts.

She should have pushed him away. Should have screamed how inappropriate this was. He shouldn't be touching her. And he shouldn't be enjoying it. But he was, and dammit, so was she. With every squeeze sharp bolts of pleasure soared through her, resting warmly at her clit, that pulsated and hardened as if on command. She inhaled deeply, reminding herself that this was her office and that her staff would be coming in at any moment and that … damn, his hands felt so good.

He watched her. His eyes like dark lasers shooting straight into her soul as he stared without blinking, squeezed without any visible reaction to what he was doing. But that was okay, because Caroline was reacting enough for the both of them when his fingers came to squeeze her nipples, lightly at first because he knew the piercings were there. She realized that when his gaze lowered, his lips parted slightly. How had he seen them? How had he known to tweak them just the way he was, sending quick bolts of pain to her pussy that clenched and creamed in reaction?

She hissed, closing her eyes as he repeated that delightful little action again and then again.

“You tempt me,” he said, his voice husky, strained.

“I—” She paused because she had no idea what she was about to say or what the hell else was going on around her, except for the quaking of her thighs and the heat washing over her.

“Don't. Tempt. Me.”

His fingers left her abruptly, and she missed them instantly. He stepped back as she gaped at him.

“Call me if there are more animals,” he told her before turning and walking away.

Minutes later Caroline still stood in the same spot, staring down the hallway as if she thought he might magically appear again. But he was gone, and she was still aroused.

Dammit, she was very aroused.

 

CHAPTER 3

“There might be something in the forest,” Malec said to the rest of the pack later that evening. “Something that's attacking these animals, but not killing them.”

“What makes you think that?” Blaez asked.

The alpha sat at the head of the dining room table. The nine-foot cherry oak table they'd all helped to build. In chairs made of the same oak, with sturdy high backs and the bright red cushions that Kira had purchased online because she said the wood hurt her butt after a while of sitting, each member of the Trekas pack sat after Malec had called for a meeting.

“A hunter stalks its prey. Then it goes in for the kill. A wolf, for example, hunts with its pack. They collaborate and coordinate to test their prey and sense any weaknesses it may have. They use visual clues, hearing, and scent. They don't ambush, but instead will chase their prey for long distances. Each member of the pack has a duty, a part in the overall victory. And then they act. They attack and they kill, because that's the sole purpose of the hunt.”

“But these animals weren't killed,” Kira said, folding her arms across her chest. “That's the key factor here.”

She was thinking. For as pretty and sexy as their alpha female was, she was just as smart and cunning as her position required she be. An alpha female took care of the pack by cooking, cleaning, and organizing. She organized their attacks, working through the pros and cons before presenting the plan to the pack. She had to be cunning and deadly and still handle the insatiable sexual appetite of her alpha. In short, she was one bad bitch!

Channing smiled to himself as he thought that on an almost daily basis about Kira in the months that she'd been with the pack. In fact, he'd been the first of them to actually realize just how valuable Kira was eventually going to be to their pack. This was because she was a Selected, an alpha female that Selene had paired with a specific alpha male. These were matches that would enhance them both, creating a mighty force that could hopefully keep the peace between the warring breed.

“What type of wounds are they sustaining?” Phelan asked, his voice laced with that deadly edge that the lycan couldn't shed even on a good day.

“Slashes at the throat, wounds to the legs so they cannot get away,” Malec informed them.

Channing drummed his fingers on the table, watching his closest friend and fellow pack mate, hearing what he was saying and sensing something more.

“So they've been slashed and immobilized and then left to die,” he said, keeping his gaze focused on Malec.

Channing knew this lycan as well as he knew himself, if not better. He was a six-foot-one-inch, 211-pound lycan of pure muscle with pain in his soul and a darkness living inside him that manifested in his need to share his women. For Channing, the almost polar opposite of Malec, that dark need had served a purpose for him as well. Malec had served a purpose. He'd given Channing something that Channing had never thought he would ever have—a place where he belonged. He was Malec's third, since the very first time. He was also his pack mate, the one who'd fought beside him as they'd carried out covert operations for the government and planned attacks as lycans. They were as close as any blood relatives. Which was why Channing was the only one to see that these animal deaths were only a fraction of what was eating at Malec tonight.

“Left to die on the trail where anyone could have found it. That was the first buck, the one that lived after the vet operated and shipped it off to the national park. The lynx and the buck from today, they were wrapped in a tarp and dropped off at the vet's door.”

“Why were these dropped off instead of left on the trail like the other one?” Phelan asked.

“Because somebody wanted to save the animals,” Blaez added.

“Or someone knew that's where Malec had taken the first animal and thought they'd do the honors this time,” Kira added.

Phelan shook his head. “But why not stay there until the vet came in? Why not tell her what they'd found the same way Malec did?”

“There's something else,” Malec told them, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table. “When I was in the forest this morning I howled.”

Blaez grimaced. “Was that your first time?” the alpha asked with humor that wasn't always present in his tone. Another testament to the alpha female sitting to his right.

“There was a return call.”

Malec looked at each member of the pack, knowing they would immediately connect the dots. Channing did. All of them.

“You mean there was another lycan in the forest?” Kira asked. “A lycan that answered your call even though it's not a member of our pack?”

Malec nodded.

Phelan swore.

Blaez's expression migrated to a heated glare.

Channing raised a brow. “Did you find it?”

Malec turned to him. “No. I thought I was hearing things.”

“But you never hear things that aren't there,” Channing said. “You're always on alert when you run, especially after our brush with the last pack of Hunters. You would have heard the reply call and hunted it down. But you didn't.”

“That doesn't matter,” Malec said and then frowned. “I should have hunted it down, but I didn't. I tried to scent it, but there was nothing there. Or at least I didn't pick up on it. I've been at the national park all day, visiting the first buck and going into the forest there to see if I could pick up a scent. Now, I'm going back out in our direction, and I'm not coming back until I find it.”

“No, you're not,” Blaez said immediately.

Everyone was silent, except for Malec.

“What the hell, Blaez? I just told you that another lycan is in the forest. Do we really want to sit here and wait until it knocks on our door, like she—”

Malec stopped, his gaze breezing past Kira before returning to the alpha's.

“Kira did not knock on our door. I found her. I was supposed to find her,” Blaez said slowly, the way he always did when he didn't expect any argument from his betas. “And yes, she was a member of a Hunter pack that eventually came for her. We all know that story. What we don't know is what or who is out there now.”

Malec sighed, an action that was out of the ordinary for the normally respectful beta. Phelan was the one that tended to verbally spar with Blaez the most. He was also the one that had known Blaez the longest and had been closer to the alpha, which Channing knew gave Phelan the leeway Blaez afforded him.

Blaez continued as if he hadn't heard Malec's response.

“That is why we will not go running blind into a situation we may not be able to control.”

“It's one lycan,” Malec countered. “I can take one damned lycan.”

“Did you see it?” Blaez asked. “Did you scent it?”

Malec did not reply.

“That's what I thought, and that's why we're not running out there at this time of night. We're going to think about this and plan and go out tomorrow, prepared for whatever we may find,” Blaez told him.

Kira cleared her throat, sitting up in her chair and looking over to Malec. “Let's go over everything that's happened again, and we'll start from there. You found the first buck, took it to the vet.”

Malec nodded. “Her name's Caroline Douglas. She's new in town. She said she would operate and that she would call me with the results.”

Kira nodded slowly. “That was two days ago, right?”

Malec nodded also, in response.

“And she … Caroline … didn't call until this morning?” Channing asked pointedly.

A muscle in Malec's jaw twitched.

“She had two new animals this morning, the second buck and the lynx. I'd been out for my run, and that's when I'd heard the returning howl. Caroline called afterward, and I went directly into town.”

“Why did you howl in the woods?” Channing asked, already knowing the answer.

Malec was extremely tense. His broad shoulders were rigid, his words coming in a clipped and testy tone. His thick eyebrows were drawn together, and that muscle twitched in his jaw each time he looked at Channing. He was horny, Channing thought instantly. Very fucking horny.

“It doesn't matter. I did and there was a return howl. I know there's a lycan out there, and I'm betting it's the one that's hurting these animals,” Malec said adamantly.

Kira shook her head. “We don't hunt animals. There's no need. We don't eat them, and we can easily overpower them if they attack us. If it were one of us and the animal attacked, a Hunter or a Devoted would have simply killed it.”