Big Bad Bite (16 page)

He cockily continued. “
My current hope is
that you don’t choose that over-grown mutt, McPhee, when you could
have something so much better. Me.”

Jenna was so concentrated on keeping her wolf
in check that she could no longer tell where they were, or how far
they had driven, before he slowed the car down enough to turn into
the beginning of a driveway that looked to be a million miles long
with the tunnel vision she was currently suffering through. Her
breathing was sawing in and out of her chest roughly by the time he
finally stopped the car in front of a sprawling moss green
house.

Still unaware that Jenna was so close to
shifting; Kent parked the car and shut off the powerful engine.
“Let’s go, my growly gumdrop. Our host is awaitin’.”

The sounds of his door opening and closing
were the last things she heard before losing the fight with her
wolf. Her animal instincts were already in overdrive as the bones
in her body started to morph. Her arms and legs shortened, while a
subtle pain thrummed throughout her entire body as her jaw started
to lengthen out into her muzzle. By the time Kent reached her door
to open, her wolf was springing out of the car and directly for
him.

She wasn’t able to jump very far since the
upper half of her sleek black body was trapped in her shredded
t-shirt, but she was able to catch him unaware. Her teeth connected
with the small amount of loose denim on his thighs, directly under
his groin, and held on. With her head tilted back enough to make
eye contact with him, her nose was pressed up into the man’s
favorite organ, just enough to let him know she missed on purpose,
and for added effect, she bared a bit of fang and growled at him.
Kent’s body froze. One of his hands still had a tight grip on the
car door while the other was in the air as if trying to show her
that he meant no harm.

“Does this mean my hopes are dashed and you
want McPhee after all, my furry little firecracker?”

A masculine laugh rumbled behind them from
the direction of the house, “Is it possible Kent, that there’s
finally a woman on this planet you can’t sweet-talk into doing what
you want? I’ll have to make sure and mark this day on the calendar.
Matter fact, give me a second to get my camera phone up so I can
take a picture of this or Alec will never believe it when I tell
him.”

All of Jenna’s animal instincts screamed at
her for leaving her back unprotected. There was a possible threat
in the stranger behind her, so whether she felt Kent had learned
his lesson or not, she was going to have to let go so she was no
longer in a vulnerable position. She clamped her canines just a tad
tighter, shaking her head from side to side to jostle him, and
growled warningly. It was one last attempt to let Kent know,she was
not someone to fuck around with.

“Alright! Alright, my angry angel. No need to
threaten the better parts of me. I’ll be a good boy from now on.
Promise.”

She slowly unclamped her teeth, and then
turned to the side so that one-half of her body was tucked next to
the car and she could now see both Kent and the massive stranger
who was leaning against the open doorway to the house. There was no
other way to describe him than to say he was huge. It wasn’t just
that he was tall, because she was getting used to being around tall
men such as Adam, Uncle Owen and her brother Logan, who all stood
at just a smidge over six feet. Hell, even Kent was still tall to
her and he stood a couple of inches under six feet. No, it was that
this stranger probably topped out at close to six foot four inches
and was built like a flippin’ tank. Even if his shirt had not been
tight across his body, it would have been impossible to miss his
defined chest, trim waist, broad shoulders, and bulging biceps. He
made Kent’s well-sized swimmer’s build look damn near puny, and he
had what she would guess to be at least thirty pounds of muscle
over Adam’s built frame. She felt as if he should be required to
wear a t-shirt that said
‘Here Stands Goliath’
in large,
bold print letters for any of the half blind morons that didn’t
initially see him coming.

It wasn’t just that his body from the neck
down sent out that dangerous vibe either. He had a face that could
have been the example picture for the word ‘serious’ in the ‘How to
Spot An Alpha Male Manuel’; right in between the entries for
‘domineering’ and ‘violent’. All entries she was quite positive he
would star in. She wouldn’t be surprised, however, if the words
‘sensual’ and ‘virile’ could also be applied.

He wasn’t handsome in a pretty boy sense. His
features were too harsh for that. No, he was rugged. Now that she
was utilizing all of her wolf’s senses, and Goliath only stood
thirty feet away from her position, she caught a peculiar scent
wafting her way on the gentle air currents. His unique scent
consisted of grass, a woodsy smell like tree bark, and something
else that made the muscles in her nose twitch in agitation. Before
she could help it, she sneezed. Her head shaking involuntarily to
try to clear the stinging sensation that followed. She had the
overwhelming urge to lie on the ground and cover her nose to help
cover some of the annoying smell, but she managed to keep herself
from doing it.

When her eyes focused on the source of the
unknown smell again, it was to find him grinning at her. She’d bet
her favorite rifle that most women would drop their panties at that
smile. Hell, if they were inebriated they probably did more than
drop their drawers. They probably dropped to all fours and
presented tail to be mounted. However, Jenna saw more in that smile
than human women would ever see. She saw the hints of his animal
nature shining through. The one-sided tip of his lips might
indicate amusement, but his eyes were wary. They held the look of a
hunter, the kind of hunter that excelled in the art of patience and
always caught its prey. She may not know what he was yet, but there
was no doubt in her mind that when it came to this man, she was
undeniably the prey.

Buzz cut jet-black hair topped off a face
where piercing golden-yellow eyes with a ring of rich green around
the pupils watched her with eerie intensity. Wide cheekbones framed
a slightly crooked nose that looked as if it had been broken one
too many times, and those sat over a strong square jaw that was
only slightly softened by the full bottom lip that was entirely too
kissable. Hell, she was having a hard time deciding if she was
supposed to be scared shitless of him, or drop into a melted puddle
of goo of lust at his feet. He didn’t pack quite the punch to her
libido that Adam did, but the man was nothing to sneeze at
either.

Well, scratch that, she had technically
sneezed, hadn’t she? So that single fact amped her curiosity into
suspicion. Jenna may not have encountered many shifters, and she’d
yet to encounter any kind of feline or bear shifters, but she was
betting it wasn’t a bear that would make her senses agitated. More
than likely, Goliath was some kind of feline. He didn’t smell like
any kind of feline she had met in her life, which summed up to a
handful of ordinary domestic cats from neighbors in her small
hometown that went totally spastic if she came within twenty feet
of them. After poor old Mrs. Boggmeyer’s cat had flipped its shit,
and then promptly died of a heart attack, when she’d simply walked
by the owner’s car as it was sitting in the grocery store parking
lot, Jenna had gone out of her way to avoid all pet felines. It
sucked giant silver bullets that she’d accidentally killed
someone’s beloved pet just by being herself on an everyday errand.
She tried to avoid the possibility of that ever happening again as
much as she could. Otherwise, if it ever happened again and someone
found out about it, they might label her SCK, ‘Serial Cat
Killer’.

The point of this whole inner mental tirade
was this; apparently giant shifter felines did not smell anything
like your everyday house cat. The closest you could probably get to
having the two species smell similar was if you talked some feline
shifter into rolling around in mass quantities of catnip, and
wouldn’t that be funny as hell to see?

Goliath’s full sexy lip parted from its top
counterpart as he began to speak, “I’m guessing your cute little
wolf pup there won’t have any clothes to change into since she
hasn’t shifted back yet?”

Kent shook his head ‘no’. “If you shifters
were ruled by the moon phases like all of those ridiculous legends
say, then I would ask if it was that time of the month. I have no
idea why she went all big-bad-wolf on me.”

“I’m sure it was your charming personality,
Kent. After all, from what I understand she wouldn’t be the first
woman to go homicidal on you after being in your company for a
period of time.”

“Very funny, you oversized Garfield. Can we
come in now? The sooner we get Little Miss Howling over here
properly covered, the sooner we can get on to the good stuff.”

“Come on, demon. Bring your puppy into the
living room while I get her something to cover up with.” Goliath
turned and headed into the house. His easy demeanor brought home
the point that he didn’t consider Jenna or Kent to be threats. If
she wasn’t so fascinated about the man, she might have to admit
that he scared her stupid.

She followed Kent through the front door and
into an extremely open floor plan. If she had to guess, she would
say that it was at least fifteen hundred square feet that basically
translated into what an ample sized living room, dining room, and
kitchen would look like with no walls to separate them. It was, in
essence, one large rectangular room with four columns, offset in
two pairs situated a third of the way into the room from either
end. Each column had been designed to look like the trunk of a
tree, complete with tree bark. Those tree-like columns not only
connected to the vaulted ceiling above that sported several
skylights, but they also had thick branch-like looking beams that
ran width wise to the front and back walls of the room. The only
reason those beams didn’t look one hundred percent authentic was
because of the fact that they ran in a straight line back and forth
to the walls, and well, no tree branch would ever be that perfectly
aligned. The work was beautiful, but Jenna wondered why Goliath had
gone through so much trouble to have such elaborate work done on
his house. The attention to detail on the ‘branches’ and ‘trees’
was ridiculously accurate.

Red mahogany hardwood flooring ran from one
end to the other, and the walls were painted a rich fern green with
a white trim. The overall effect from the flooring, tree-like
columns, branch-like beams, and green walls gave off a feeling of
being miles deep in a forest, instead of under the roof of a house.
On the left was a set up for the so-called living room, with
furniture sturdy enough for a giant to sit on. There was one couch,
one chaise lounge, and something that looked like a cushioned base
for a couch, but with no backing whatsoever. It was upholstered in
a rich chocolate fabric, and all of the pieces looked comfortable
enough that whoever crashed on them might not want to get up for
the next millennia or so.

The long back wall of the house featured two
sets of French doors, each on opposite ends of the expansive room.
One set was off the living room while the other set was off of the
L shaped kitchen, with three large windows in between them. With
all of that glass, it gave an almost uninterrupted view of the land
behind the house. Jenna didn’t think she could live that
comfortably being so exposed. Anyone within line of sight of those
windows would be able to see practically every move made within the
room. It was a rather stark reminder that this Goliath-sized
shifter feared practically nothing, and to be honest, that was
enough to scare the shit out of her. It was the law of the wild
that for each predator, there was always a bigger, badder predator
behind it. Apparently, Goliath thought he was the end of that
line.

A variety of color drew her eye to the front
wall, turning her head to look in that direction she saw several
shelves filled with items. It seemed as if half of the items were
similarly painted to match each other. There were bowls with spoons
sticking out of them, candleholders, and round platters. The most
eye-catching pieces though were the Russian nesting dolls. There
were six of them, with the largest looking like it was
approximately a foot tall. Naturally, each doll was a little
smaller than its predecessor until the last doll looked like it was
maybe six or seven inches tall. Between the platters, bowls,
utensils and dolls, it created an extremely vibrant wall.

Each piece was painted black with hints of
red, orange, yellow, and green. Looking at the dolls, her brain
started working overtime trying to figure out what the hell was
bugging her about them. Something was off. It took Jenna a few
minutes to finally figure out what was missing on the dolls. They
didn’t have the pale, round human faces that were customary.
Instead, they featured the faces of tigers. The largest tiger face
was smiling in a coy way. The next doll down showcased a snarling
tiger face. The third had a decidedly fascinating depiction of what
a tiger’s face looked like in contemplation. The final three dolls
had youthful, fun faces, which led you to believe they represented
children. The only doll that was different was the largest,
childlike doll, which had a white tiger’s face with blue eyes,
instead of the standard orange face of the other dolls. She was, in
turn, utterly fascinated and equally disturbed at the implications
of these dolls.

It was one thing to guess that you were in
the presence of a larger predator. It was another thing entirely to
KNOW that you were in the presence of a larger predator. One that,
based on his size in human form, Jenna was guessing was on the
bigger spectrum of what feline shifters could weigh in at. Since
she ran on the smaller side, her wolf was smaller than her human
form. His tiger would be at least double his human form, if not
triple it. He could not only take her down easily, he could swat
her away as if she were an annoying bug. She suddenly got why
wolves tended to hunt in packs. She found herself wishing that
someone other than one of her family members were there to have her
back.