Her Wanted Wolf (15 page)

“They’ll be flanking us instead of the other way around this time.” The
male weres froze to stare at him, aghast.

This simply wasn’t done. No self-respecting wolf left a woman under their
protection open to an attack.

“I don’t want any hint of us carried on the wind. The she-wolves will
obscure our presence.” Drew met the affronted gaze of his men until they
complied.

“Then the legends are true? They can walk as shadows?” Rafe asked,
looking on dubiously as his pack mates reluctantly changed positions.

“You’ll see for yourself. It’s a marvel. If we play this right, we’ll
sink our fangs into the Redmavens’ ruffs before they realize what’s happening.”
Drew turned to look at his pack mates pointedly and slipped his arms through
the backpack. He waited for a snicker, but did not hear one. Well at least he
hadn’t totally lost his cred with his men.

Sliding down into were form, he nodded to Ishbel. She and her pack
sisters flanked the weres without acknowledging them. His pack brothers
bristled.

You’ll learn, boys
.

While he accepted how invaluable their gift was in their struggle,
putting she-wolves on the front line went against the very nature of a male
wolf. Who better than he appreciated Sabine’s strength and her love of her clan?
She was his equal. He could walk ahead of Sabine, which was his right as an
alpha and her mate. For her sake and his, he knew he would have to learn to
walk beside her, shoulder to shoulder.

* *
* *

Sabine paced the small hut in a tight agitated circle. “What kind of
alpha are you? You can’t lead us into a human township
en masse
. It’s
bad enough we have this girl with us. When she starts talking, if we’re lucky,
they’ll think she’s lost her mind and won’t believe a word she says. Or, they
could think we’re the ones who took her. What if the townspeople come out
shooting? How are you going to protect us? Someone will notice. Your plan is
faulty.”

Drew listened and waited for her to wind down. If she was this ticked at
his plans, he couldn’t wait to hear her opinion on their planned mode of
transportation.

She paused to draw a breath, and he cut in before she resumed her rant.

“How many full-scale evacuations have you planned?” He stood up and
caught her by the shoulders.

“None.” She glared up at him and tried to dislodge his hands from her
shoulders with a shrug.

Tightening his grip, he held her in place. “Any experience in battle
tactics?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean…” She dropped her eyes to avoid his probing
stare.

Drew cupped her chin and gently urged her to make eye contact. “I’ve done
both.” The softening of her mutinous glare gave him encouragement to continue
his argument. “I’ve a plan to outwit the Redmavens to get you and your family
out of here with their fur intact. All you have to do is work with me and it
will fall into place.”

He expected to see steam come out of her ears any second. She’d accused
him of high-handedness earlier when he got back and, to add fuel to the fire,
the older women followed his softly-worded authoritative command without
hesitation. She was not in a very receptive mood.

“I’ve kept them safe.” Sabine shook off his hands and stepped away from
him.

“So you did, and will continue to, as long as you follow my plan. We’ll
head out together, then I’ll go ahead to reconnoiter the area. I’m anticipating
the Redmavens will set a watch at the passes leading into the nearby towns.”

Sabine’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as she stared at him. “What are you
up to? It almost seems like you want them to attack you. You’d better tell me,
in detail, exactly what you’re going to do because I’m not budging from here
until you do.”

“The shortest route into Laststop takes us through a gulch. It’s a
perfect place for an ambush.” His toothy wolfish grin brought a look of horror
to Sabine’s face. “They are going to come at us. We’ll have to defend
ourselves. Once we’re engaged in a fight you’ll break off and go around us and
rendezvous with the transportation I’ve arranged.” His reasonable tone
heightened her look of irritation. He’d taken the wind out of her sails by
being calm and collected.

He watched her bristle with the effort to hold in her grievances. “What’s
going to happen to my father? He can’t run with us. And the girl? She saw too
much and she is in no condition to manage on her own. We can’t set her free
yet. She might go to the human authorities.” Sabine closed her eyes and
groaned.

“Got that covered. They’ll be taken out after us.”

“How are you going to accomplish that since it appears we’ll be leaving
them behind?”

Now he had to explain. Drew avoided Sabine’s eyes. “Well, the chopper
taking us out will fly back up here and pick them up.”

“Chopper?” she asked wearily.

“Yeah, you know—a helicopter.”

All the color leached out of Sabine’s face, and her mouth dropped open.
He’d seen her angry, disdainful, aroused, but never totally flummoxed.

Pale-faced and little shaky, she shook her head in disbelief. “Now I know
you’re insane. There is no way my pack will willingly climb into an aircraft.”

“Your pack does as I say, unlike my mate who should show more faith in my
abilities.” Hell would have blizzards on a regular basis before she stopped
questioning his actions.

“Piffft, don’t refer to me as your mate in that tone, like I’m now
supposed to be a mindless appendage. I don’t know if your plan is going to
work. I won’t have my father spending the last minutes of his life with
Redmaven’s claws at his throat.” Drew recognized the now familiar stubborn
thrust of her chin.

“If I get your father and family out unscathed, will you follow my lead
from then on without throwing up any road blocks?” The sooner he got her and
her family settled the sooner he could get on with the business of finding
Aimee.

Sabine closed her eyes. “I said the words, didn’t I? We already have a
bargain in place.” She finally looked up at him, shaking her head as if she
wasn’t quite sure how she’d ended up agreeing to their deal.

“Your cooperation is part of that bargain. I’m still waiting to see some
evidence of that.” He waited for her answer.

She twisted her lips, weighing her options. “I don’t remember agreeing to
fly anywhere. Is this the only way you can get us all out safely?”

“Yes. Any suspicions Bardo had that I’m in the area will be confirmed
when he finds the dead weres in the cave, if he hasn’t already. The duo who
chased you will confirm of your presence. Bardo will put two and two together
and conclude we are connected. He’ll figure I’d want to get you far away from
here as soon as possible.” Drew laid out the scenario as it played out in his
mind.

Sabine’s head jerked up. “You know him that well?”

Drew lips twisted into a bitter grimace. “Given enough time and reasons,
you come to know your enemy as well as your friends.”

Bardo was in his sights, finally. Sabine asked him if he hoped for a
fight. He wanted more than that. He counted on it. He’d searched for Aimee in
the way of his people for months. Now he’d use technology and Sabine’s ancient
gift, a mix of the modern and the mythical. Drew was going to use Rick’s toys
and affix electronic tracking devices to the fur of Bardo’s pack mates. It
would work because the Redmaven alpha kept his fighting force in wolf form most
of the time. With Sabine to help them track undetected, they would lead him to
Aimee’s location. It could not be any easier.

“Fly? I’m going to be up in the air?” Looking a little green, Sabine
swallowed hard. “I’m beginning to think I should have left you in that hole.”

“It’s just one of the new experiences
I’ll be giving you over the next few days.” Sabine sent him a searing look
suggesting what he could do with his new experiences. Drew slipped away to have
a last minute confab with his men, grinning for the first time in a long while.

Chapter Twelve

Something was brewing. Tomorrow night Micah would take his turn at
patrolling the area. It’d leave Aimee vulnerable to Rifkin’s whims. For the
past two days, Rifkin watched her with a hungry avidity as if he marked time.
Micah watched Rifkin with as much vigilance. She let out a sigh of relief when
Rifkin slunk through the door.

Micah made a drinking motion, Aimee reached for the short can of espresso
and chugged it down. The dark aromatic fluid coated her tongue, leaving behind
a bitter aftertaste. Micah had better have a good reason why he insisted she
drank the high-octane coffee. She swallowed back the nausea caused by the
caffeine surging through her system. Her stomach rolled in jittery heaves and
adrenaline pumped into her, spiking her energy level.

Aimee flexed her fingers and willed her claws to slide out from her
fingertips.
She could shift seamlessly.

Elation mixed with the caffeine made her giddy, and her were surfaced and
unfurled within her. Aimee initiated a change and allowed the first millimeter
of fur to emerge through her skin.

“Not yet.” Micah’s harsh whisper made Aimee jump, and she clamped her mouth
shut to stifle a frightened yelp.

He hadn’t been there a moment ago. He’d moved so rapidly she hadn’t
smelled his approach. All evening he sat across the warehouse, in silent
brooding watchfulness. The door opened. She swung her head in its direction,
afraid Rifkin had returned. The were who entered the warehouse gave Micah a
slight nod.

“Ready for a pit stop?” His expression demanded her agreement.

“Ah, yes,” she said, trying to do her best to keep confusion in her
voice.

He unlocked the gate, gripped her elbow, and hustled Aimee toward the
poor excuse of a bathroom. Micah shoved her in, followed her, and pulled the
door shut behind him.

She looked up at him questioningly. He’d never done that before. He’d
always given her a few moments of privacy to take care of her business.

“I can’t pee with you in here.” There were some things a girl didn’t do
before a potential lover. “They’ll think we’re going to hook up.”

His reckless grin added to her wariness. “If they believe I’m finally
going to take you, it’ll buy us some extra time, which is what I’m hoping for.”
He turned on the sink faucets, opened the showerhead to full blast, and
stripped off his clothes. He rolled up his jeans.

Aimee’s belly did a happy dance, and the flesh between her legs throbbed.
“Are you going to?” she asked with a mixture of hope and fear of the
consequences.

Micah let out a dismissive snort. “I sure as hell am not going to lay you
down on the filthy piss-soaked bathroom floor the first time I make love to
you. Get naked and use my shirt to tie the clothes up into a bundle.”

Heck, this might be the only time they would ever have alone together.
She wanted him with a fervency of a woman whose man was going off to war,
knowing he might not return.

“We could do it standing up, with my back to the wall and my legs wrapped
around your hips.” She licked her lips at the image in her head. “Or I can face
the wall, and you could take me from behind.”

He let out a groan, cradling her head between his huge hands, and took
her mouth in a hot, all too brief kiss. “Behave yourself. I’ll be taking you in
every way imaginable, soon, but not here.” His words were more than a promise, they
were a vow.

With that said, he leaped up onto the pedestal sink and stepped onto a
metal support brace. He clambered up the wall until he reached a two by two
window several feet above her head. Muscles bulging, he removed the
inexplicably loose window from its frame. A salt-tinged breeze gusted through
the opening and diffused the stale urine permeating the tiny room. She took a
deep breath of her first smell of freedom in a long time.

Holy shit, her man had a plan. She was getting the hell out of here!
Aimee shed the Old Navy drawstring pants and tank she had on. She rolled them
up with his shirt and jeans before she tied them into a bundle, as instructed.

He turned, reached down as far as he could, and dangled the casement from
his fingers. She reached up, nodded, and he released it. Aimee caught the metal
square and set it aside.

Micah gave the rebar grill blocking their exit several forceful punches
to dislodge it from its frame. It hung on drunkenly from a few bolts. Flicking
his fingers, Micah motioned for her to join him.

“Throw me the clothes and come on up.”

Micah didn’t have to ask her twice. She tossed him the wad of clothing
and scrambled up the wall, glad for the stimulation the coffee gave her.

Micah pitched their garments through the window and curled his arm around
her waist when she perched beside him.

“It’s a twenty-foot drop. Shift in mid-air and run like hell once you hit
the ground. Do not lose sight or smell of me. I have only a thirty-minute time
frame to pull this off.” His hand tightened on her hip for a second before he
forced his body through the small hole and dropped out of sight.

Aimee didn’t waste any time. She levered herself up to the gap in the
wall, wiggled out and lunged head first toward the tarmac below. The wolf
within her, unrestrained, took charge. She transformed swiftly, her limbs
compacted, her body altered into her sleek were-form and sprouted a thick layer
of protective fur. Aimee landed on all four paws, trembling from the impact and
relief.

A low growl grabbed her attention. Micah, picked up their clothes in his
mouth, jerked his head and took off down the unlit alley. Aimee sprinted after
him, using muscles she hadn’t used for such a long time. They burned, but in a
good way.

On Micah’s heels, she raced through the industrial complex. Their claws
clicked a sharp staccato against the pavement. A wolf raced at them and she
froze but Micah didn’t hesitate. He passed him the clothes from mouth to mouth without
breaking stride, like the passing of a baton in a relay.