Feint of Heart (3 page)

"We don't have to wait for them. They'll catch up."

The plan made perfect sense. The night was awastin' and we had Crazy Wilder to hunt down. So I fell into wolf form alongside the beguiling bitch and took off at a trot.

My wound should have jolted me alert every time my foreleg rubbed against the exposed flesh. But instead I seemed to float on a sea of sweet persimmon pulp. Every thin layer of humanity that I'd built atop my wolf over the years fled, and I sniffed then licked at the sex juices dripping from the female's vulva.

In response, Alexis turned her face around and nipped at my ruff teasingly. Then she was disappearing into a thicket and I pushed more speed into my paws to draw closer once again.

The rain had stopped, and stars were beginning to push their way through the clouds when I caught the first scent of Chief Wilder's trail. It was hard to tell around the all-consuming passion induced by Alexis's proximity, but I gave a quick yip and angled in that direction anyway. Moon rise wasn't far off, so it was imperative to follow every lead.

The female seemed less enthused by my decision, though. She pushed against my shoulder, trying to force me back onto the path. When I resisted, she shook her head repeatedly in a very human sign of negation.

No, wrong way.
I squinted my eyes as the words drifted across my brain. Surely it wouldn't hurt to follow this scent trail. After all, wasn't that what we were out here to do?

But Alexis was retreating in the opposite direction, and I could almost feel her vagina clenching around my dick once more. Did it really matter if we found Crazy Wilder tonight? There would be other Winter Hunts, other opportunities to claim our territory. Alexis and I had only these few short hours to be together.

Her white fur reappeared before me, and I sprinted forward until I bumped against her shoulder. We raced flat out for several minutes, then I slowed my steps to make sure I didn't pull ahead. Because winning the competition wouldn't really be winning if I left her behind.

Finally, we collapsed to the earth in exhaustion. Which is when Fen and Wade made their reappearance.

***

I looked at the pair quizzically, unable to parse their forms at first. Both were two-legged and fully clothed, Fen using a smart phone as a flashlight to illuminate her steps. Behind her, the male was blindfolded with what looked like my shirt, but he walked willingly in her wake.

What the fuck?
Had my pack mates really thought it was a good idea to leave the Hunt long enough to go back to camp and clean up, then answer a few emails before tracking me down?

Alexis must have felt the same way, because she got to her feet and growled, the menacing posture incongruous with her slender form. As she stepped between me and my pack mates, I lolled my tongue out at the humor of the occasion. It was sweet and totally unwarranted for the pack princess to try to protect
me
.

"Stop right there, bitch," Fen ground out. And now it was my turn to snarl. I knew the teenager, and she didn't use the B word to refer to female wolves. No, she was insulting this glorious creature who had given me the best night of my life. Spunk was one thing, but I was going to have to finally show this kid who was leader of our pack.

Before I could do so, however, Wade was walking forward, homing in on me by sound alone since his eyes were still covered.
And why doesn't he remove the blindfold?
I wondered. It wasn't as if the teenager's hands were tied behind his back. Instead, they appeared to be sporting yet another piece of fabric. I squinted my eyes, trying to make out more details in the darkness.

Then I had no more time to wonder because my own pack mate was tackling me, pushing me to the ground until my nose was mashed painfully into the dirt. I could easily have clawed my way free, but I trusted Wade, despite his apparent insanity. So I instead shifted to two legs and growled at him. "What's
wrong
with you?"

"It's what's wrong with
you
, boss," Wade said, his voice calm despite the incendiary words. He was tying the sweatshirt around my face now, blocking both eyes and nose.

The absence of Alexis's fruity aroma hit me like a punch in the gut and a howl of rejection came out of my throat without conscious volition. I ripped at the blindfold while Wade struggled to regain purchase on my arms, and it wasn't until I smelled the latter's blood that I stopped moving. I'd promised never to allow anyone to hurt my pack mate, and the fact that I'd just punched Wade full in the nose pulled me up short.

"Hold that thought." Fen's words were suddenly closer, whispering into my ear. A hard object slipped into my hand—the cell phone. Then my best friend Chase's voice was rising from the speaker.

"...dog...oxytocin...."

I wasn't able to fully understand what I was hearing at first. But then I focused with horrified fascination as my milk brother explained how dogs and humans had coevolved to share a hormonal response based on eye contact. In other words, while shifters and wolves challenged each other with our gazes, looking into a dog's eyes caused humans to fall in love.

And perhaps gazing into Alexis's eyes did the same to every nearby male werewolf?

Being blocked off from the pack princess's sight and scent was already clearing the brain cloud that I'd been drifting beneath all night, and I could now put my own actions into perspective. I'd ignored Fen's intuition, had run off in the wrong direction with no plan, and had fucked a pack princess without foreplay on the wet December leaves.

In short, I'd acted like an animal.

My head fell into my hands as I slumped down in defeat. Yep, this time I'd royally screwed up.

"You're not really going to let this pup's imaginative storytelling throw you off your stride, are you?"

Alexis's words weren't nearly as sweet now that I didn't have the misdirection of her gaze to contend with. Instead, they sounded shrill, grating against my ears.

In fact, the first impulse garnered from my newfound clarity was to simply walk away, to get my pack mates to safety as quickly as possible. But, despite Alexis's misdirection, I was still the one who'd acted like a cad an hour earlier. So I figured I owed the pack princess an argument if she really wanted to get into it here and now.

She couldn't have picked a worse venue,
I thought, shivering. The clouds had cleared and the forest was now chilling by the minute. Plus, we were losing hunting time as we stood around and I could feel Chase's concern through the now silent phone dropped by my feet.

But I kept my voice level when I spoke. "Was Chief Wilder really so threatened by two teenagers and a bloodling that he had to send a parasite to take us down?"

"Take you down?" Now Alexis laughed, but the sound was nowhere near musical. "As I recall, there wasn't any going
down
at all. That was the saddest excuse for a girlfriend experience I've ever seen."

Beside me, Wade's body jerked in distress.
Don't you realize there are kids present?
I almost said, biting my tongue at the last moment. Not only would both Wade and Fen be mortified if I referred to them as children, but the cat was already out of the bag. Might as well move on to damage control.

Before I could find my tongue, though, Fen broke the ice. "Don't worry. I already smelled it," the girl said coldly, but she slipped a reassuring hand onto my shoulder at the same time. Chances were good she
hadn't
smelled the rich, sexual aroma wafting through the air since she was a halfie hosting the world's weakest wolf. But the youngster was an accomplished actress, and she was also far more loyal than I deserved.

My pack mate's spunk gave me the boost I needed to strike back at the pack princess with words. "You do realize you just called yourself a prostitute, right? Is that really what you want to do with your life?"

"Look me in the eye and call me that again," the female challenged. "I dare you."

***

My hand was on the blindfold before Fen could stop me. And Alexis's fruity aroma pushed its way back into my nostrils and brain when I'd barely touched the fabric.

But I knew the deluge was coming this time, so I was able to fight against the nearly overwhelming impulses her mere presence created.
Persimmons are bitter, puckery fruit when they're not ripe
, I reminded myself.
And Alexis is far from ripe.

The human words helped me master the scent, so I slipped the blindfold the rest of the way off and moved on to sight. The moon hadn't yet risen, but I could tell it was pushing against the horizon now because the sky had very subtly lightened in the few minutes I'd been out of action. In the gloaming, I stood and took two steps forward until I formed a barrier between the parasite and my pack mates. Then I reached out and tilted Alexis's chin upwards until our eyes locked.

Even with my brain unclouded, I could see that she was gorgeous. Her eyes were as wide as those of a manga heroine, her nose the tiniest pert protrusion between rosy cheeks. She bit her lips and the organs in question blossomed into arousal before my very eyes.

On the other hand, her irises, once so warm, looked cold and dark. The parasite was doing her best to lure me back in, but the effect was like a magic-eye puzzle—once you picked out the hidden image for the first time, it was impossible to go back to your previous state of ignorance.

"Kiss me," she demanded, not realizing her rabbit had slipped the snare. So I obliged, bending my neck down and pushing her lips apart with my own.

Her tongue teased me, slipping in and out of my mouth. But my body remained passionless. There was nothing less enticing than a pack princess reveling in her own power.

And when her hands slipped toward my flaccid manhood, I bit down on her lower lip. Not gently either. I could smell the subtle addition of blood to the air as the female pushed me away.

Or, rather, as she pushed herself in the opposite direction by assaulting my broad chest. I remained unmoved by the effort and the pack princess growled in a manner unbecoming of a lady.

Then she slapped me. Gritting my teeth against the sudden burn, I let her express her anger. If this is what it took for the girl to find her true power, then I could handle a bit of pain.

Because I was coming to realize that Alexis must not have tried to seduce me for her own ends, not when my reputation as a bloodling alpha had reached the ears of every shifter at All-Pack long ago. Pack princesses teased me with glances when flanked by their guards, but only the very bravest women pulled me into the trees to see if my skills in the sack lived up to my skills as an alpha.

And Alexis was anything but brave. No, I could feel her fear in the air, her worries that Chief Wilder would do her even more harm than I would if she failed at this task.

Still, when the young woman raised her arm for a second strike, I encircled both of her wrists in a single fist. "Enough."

Fen and Wade stood inches behind me now, seeking comfort from the proximity of their pack leader in a strange situation that must have felt thoroughly out of their control. In fact, I'd heard the former's gasp of disbelief when Alexis and I had kissed, but Fen trusted me enough this time to let the farce continue.

Wade, I assumed, was still blindfolded and had no clue what was going on. I didn't blame him. I'd barely been able to fight off Alexis's compulsion using the full force of my alpha personality, and I didn't think the weaker shifter stood a chance. So, even though he wasn't moving forward, I shot an arm out to the side as an order for both pack mates to hold their ground.

I knew the smart move now would be to turn away from Alexis and herd my companions out of danger while I had the chance. But as I gazed at the parasite one last time, I couldn't help feeling sorry for her. She wasn't exactly a pack princess, I now realized as I peered more closely. Not a pure-blood werewolf at all, in fact.

No, if I didn't miss my guess, Alexis was a halfie just like the teenager who had saved my hide a few minutes earlier with her quick thinking. But the hybridization of human and shifter blood, in Alexis's case, had resulted in something entirely new and different rather than creating the usual shifter with an abnormally weak wolf.

No wonder halfies were treated with contempt in every pack except my own. Alexis probably wasn't the first parasite to come out of the mix. And most shifters would find it safer to throw the baby out with the bathwater rather than risking being manipulated by a half-wolf like the one who'd wrapped me around her little finger tonight.

Yet more data to support my hypothesis that Alexis had been forced to accept Chief Wilder's protection—and commands—out of desperation. Which meant that I was honor bound to offer her a way out of her dilemma instead of simply plunging her back into the fire.

There's that ornery honor again.

But I didn't express my reluctance with words. Instead I said, "We can find a way to let you join our pack if you want to."

My mind was already running through possible methods I could use to block Alexis's strange effects on nearby shifters. Perhaps perfume and sunglasses? Or, better yet, a scent-absorbing charcoal lining to her clothes. If the female was willing, we'd definitely be able to come up with a compromise between her needs and the needs of my clan.

But Alexis, apparently, had no inclination to become part of a normal pack. Instead, she laughed in my face. "Why should I relinquish my powers when I'm stronger than you can ever dream of becoming?" she demanded.

"Because Chief Wilder will punish you for failing," Fen answered, taking a step forward to stand by my side. The kid was obviously right. My own alpha behavior aside, most pack leaders wouldn't let such an obvious failure go undisciplined.

Alexis didn't answer immediately. Instead, she seemed to will more persimmon odor into the air, and I had to scrunch my eyes shut for a split second in order to clear my brain. By the time I was able to see straight again, the parasitic halfie was behind my back, ripping the blindfold away from Wade's eyes and bringing the teenager back under her spell.

"I'll just move on to another pack then," she answered. "But I won't go alone."