Her Wanted Wolf (36 page)

Sabine’s head jerked up at the thuds of paws hitting the ground. It gave
her a hint at the speed at which the wolves ran and their weight. They were
fast and they were big. She squinted and peered into the dense darkness beyond
the artificial illumination. She picked out dozens of disembodied feral yellow
eyes, above a multitude of lethally bared fangs gleaming with nightmarish
malevolence.

A massive black wolf separated from the shadows and barreled toward them
at a dead run.

She looked to Drew, expecting him to change into were form to meet the
hostile lupine’s challenge, but he stood firm. Why didn’t he shift? She braced
her legs apart, preparing to morph. Their first trial as a fighting unit, outnumbered,
and Drew stood perfectly still making no move to fend off the aggressor.

The were in her rose and her fangs lengthened in response to the oncoming
threat, but that didn’t prevent a film of sweat from coating her skin.

The wolf began his transformation, in mid-stride. He shimmied into a
combination of wolf and man, and then finally morphed into a man. Swift as
Mercury’s, his feet flashed as he charged at Drew. Bulky muscles bulged and
flexed over a long ebony body. His hair floated back from his face in a leonine
mass of dancing braids.

He bared his teeth, stooped slightly, and used his legs to launch himself
at Drew who was already springing forward. Their chests slammed together with a
loud hollow thud, and the two men fell to the ground. Rolling and wrestling,
there was an inexplicable restraint in their confrontation. Neither man used
claws or fangs against his opponent.

Sabine took a swift glace at an immobile Rafe. Why the hell didn’t he go
to his alpha’s aid?

Sabine gripped the delicate material on the hem of her shirt to pull it
over her head, preparing to shift unhindered. She froze when the two grappling
weres fell onto their backs, laughing like hyenas.

Sabine’s shock turned into irritation, and she gritted her teeth to
prevent herself from spewing invectives at them. It was conclusive. Men were
idiots.

Drew rose to his feet and pulled the other fool up with him. The two
alphas hugged each other and pounded the other’s back.

“You’re losing your edge, pal. You came barreling off the jet like a
neophyte,” the were who she assumed was Royal Sinclair taunted with a brilliant
flash of white teeth, which was more of a sneer than a smile.

“Bullshit, I caught your scent the moment I stepped off the plane,” Drew
shot back.

Were insults the normal greeting between alphas?

“That’s a crock. You didn’t sniff for us until you had moved away from
the safety of the craft. I had the drop on you.”

“Like hell you did. I’m not the fool that came barreling through the dark
without getting a whiff of us,” Drew mocked.

Sabine watched the were’s face go blank with surprise before he lifted
his head and inhaled deeply. His nose twitched and his eyes grew wary.

Over Drew’s shoulder, Sabine’s eyes met the tawny gem-hard stare. His
nostrils flared and his eyes sharpened to a guarded suspicion. He dragged in
air, repeated the action.

“You’ve been holding out on me, brother. Why can’t I catch the scent of
her spoor, or any of you for that matter?”

“Sabine, my mate and her sisters are the last of the Silverwolves.”

Royal’s mouth dropped open. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

“I shit you not.”

Royal studied Sabine until she wanted to squirm under his scrutiny.

“I heard you took a mate, but there was no mention of her gifts. Kinda
selfish of you to scoop her up before she realized that she could do so much
better. With a Sinclair, for example.”

“I already told him he was a greedy bastard,” Rick interjected coming up
behind her tapping on a sleek device.

Sabine tensed when eight wolves trotted forward, shedding their
were-forms and lining up behind Royal like a muscle-bound bulwark. To Sabine
surprise, there were two women amongst them.

“How the hell could she find a better pack than the Lunedares? We protect
our women. They aren’t put in danger,” Rafe defended his pack, his disapproval
apparent in his dark scowl.

“The Sinclairs are a small clan. We use the best of our best, regardless
of sex, for our fighting force. Now you Lunedares have to make do with the
pitiful male pups you’ve got.” A sly smirk spread across Royal’s face. “Hey
Rafe, if you want to go one-on-one with my primo, Sirah, feel free. We won’t
think less of you if she kicks your ass.”

“Shiiet, next thing you know we’ll be having a female alpha,” Rafe
groused sourly.

“Now there’s an idea worth exploring,” Sabine mumbled.

Drew spared Sabine a laughing glance. “Don’t give my mate any ideas,
please.”

Royal looked at her, speculation and a blatant invitation in his
expression. “You’d fit nicely with the women in my family.” His face sobered,
suddenly all business. “Speaking of women, we’ve scouted the area the Redmavens
are fouling. Aimee’s spoor is heavy around a warehouse, down on Savannah’s
waterfront.”

“Where are we exactly?”

Yes, that was something she’d like to know too, she had no sense of where
she was. It was bit disorienting.

“You’ve landed at a private airstrip outside of Atlanta.”

“Private airstrip?”

“Yeah, belongs to a human I do some ahh…security work for.”

“Is that what you’re calling it now?”

Royal shrugged. “Hey, you know how it is. Humans, they have to put a PC
title on everything. They never say what it really is.”

“And what would that be exactly?” Sabine’s curiosity got the better of
her as she asked.

“Hmmm, I would have called it a little retrieval and retribution.” Royal
beamed at her; the contrast between his teeth and his smooth ebony skin was
mesmerizing. His smile was full of charm and allure, but there was a hint of
lethality behind it that put her on her guard.

“I see,” Sabine murmured, though she really didn’t, and pressed her body
into Drew’s.

“How far are we from Savannah?” Drew looked up at the moon. “We only have
a few more hours of darkness.”

“About three hours hard driving, but I don’t suppose you want to draw any
attention, so four tops. I’ve arranged accommodations. Another client paid for
a job with a sweet plantation house on the outskirts of the city.”

Drew’s brow quirked up in question. “An entire plantation? How lucrative
is this security work? Maybe we ought to get into the business.”

“Hey, a man has to feed his family. Besides, it was a big favor and I
don’t work cheap. It ain’t Tara but I figured you could’ve used it to lay low,
keep your scent out of the mix for as long as possible.” Royal flicked a
speculative glance at Sabine. “Guess you have that covered though, huh.”

“I certainly do.” Drew slid his arm around her shoulder. “We’ll travel to
Savannah while it’s still dark. If you and your personal guard will join us.
I’d be grateful if you sent in your men to surround the city, spread your spoor
thick and wide. Not too close to the spot where the Redmavens are holed up, but
near enough to make them twitchy. I want them penned. No Redmaven gets out.”

“That we can do. Won’t give us a head count though. Be stupid to go in
without one. Those jacked-up weres can put a real hurt on you.”

“Yeah, while you’ve being visible, we’ll be taking a look-see to get an
idea of what we’re up against.” Drew looked over at Rick. “I want the rest of
my fighters brought directly to this plantation of Royal’s, quietly. Sabine’s
sisters will conceal the Lunedare forces until we decide when to move on the
Redmavens.”

Rick nodded in agreement and pulled out his phone.

“The docks are a busy commercial zone during the day. Here in the south,
every mother’s son has a gun rack in his pick-up truck. You might get your ass
full of buckshot if you and the Redmavens kick it off,” Royal cautioned, with a
grimace. “You should wait until tomorrow night to do your
reconnaissance
.”

Drew’s eyes narrowed as he considered his suggestion. He shook his head.
“They’d be more vigilant at night believing that’s when we’d stage an attack.
We’ll go take a look in the afternoon, in human form. With the Silverwolves’
help, we can slip in and out without a were noticing.” He looked to Sabine, and
she nodded her acquiescence.

Royal frowned as he looked over the Silverwolves. “Great, but these women
would be conspicuous because of their rare coloring. I’ll have Sirah arrange
appropriate clothing to ugly them up a bit.” He lifted his dinner plate-sized
hand and made a come-on gesture.

The menacing rumble of several engines starting up silenced the chirps
and clicks of the nocturnal birds and insects. Several husky vehicles drove
onto the pavement, black, with shaded windows, metal guards wrapped around the
bumpers with a howling wolf emblem fixed in the center of the chrome metalwork.

Drew nodded to Rafe and the rest of their party climbed into the
transportation to begin what Sabine hoped was the last leg of their journey.

“I thought you said you didn’t want to draw any attention to us. We’ll
look like a bunch of drug dealers heading for the coast. Sure as hell we’re
going to get pulled over.”

Not sharing Drew’s concern, Royal smirked confidently. “Hasn’t happened
yet. No lone traffic cop is going to pull us over on the back roads we’ll be
using.”

“You just like begging for trouble don’t you?”

“Hey, I’m in good company. You glide along the edge of danger as much as
I do.”

“Yeah, but I’m an old married man now. I’m not free to do as I please anymore.”
Drew tilted his head in her direction.

Sabine snorted. “You’re a were, and no mate can tie you down.”

“You can tie me down anytime, babe.” He looked at her. The wicked gleam
in his warm brown eyes made her lips soften into a smile as she remembered what
he did to her while her hands were bound.

There was no mistaking the carnality in his expression, and as always it
tugged at her emotions and the were within her. The hot feminine need of a
mated she-wolf attuned to her man’s desires spread through her.

Royal’s amused voice intruded. “Ahmm, you two want to stand here all
night and have eye-sex, or can we head on down to Savannah where a Tester bed
is waiting for you? I’d suggest the latter. The scent of your woman’s spoor is
slipping through whatever shield she erected, and it’s getting a rise out of
the rest of us. Literally.” He walked off chuckling and got into the passenger
seat of the truck at the head of the line.

Sabine blushed and masked her scent. She couldn’t believe Drew affected
her to the point she’d dropped her guard. It was dangerous and irresponsible.

Shamefaced, she looked up at Drew. “It won’t happen again.”

“You wouldn’t have let it happen in a threatening situation, Sabine.”
Drew took her hand and pulled her toward the trucks. “Glad to know you have a
weakness for me. Come on, you’re all but drooping.”

Drew opened the door for her and Sabine slid across the seat. “No more
sex while we’re hunting for your sister. You make me careless.”

Royal’s belly laugh from the front seat made her want to pull her head in
like a turtle.

“Then we’d better find my sister fast.” Drew slid in and nestled her by
his side. “Because I don’t know how long you can go without a taste of me.”

Sabine shook her head and let out a sigh. “I can’t wait for all this to
be over so I can stay in one place.” Sabine rested her head on his shoulder and
closed her eyes. The anxiety of flying had worn her out. She and Drew were
going to discuss the mode of their transportation on their journey back. Flying
was for the birds.

Chapter Twenty-six

The pearl grey dawn was diluting the inky blackness of the night when
they pulled onto a long, tree-lined, unpaved driveway. The moss clinging to the
trees rippled gently in the soft breeze ushering them up to a gem of an
antebellum mini-mansion at the end the road. Its six columns stood like
sentries guarding the front porch littered with paint buckets, drop cloths, and
white-painted tubs overflowing with oversized pink hydrangeas. A garden spread
out from either side of the building in a cheerful, disorganized, colorful
jumble.

Like Royal had said, it wasn’t Scarlet O’Hara’s Tara, but it was its
prettier, less imposing little sister. Whatever the hell he’d done to earn this
small slice of Heaven on earth must have been a doozy.

Sabine stirred beside him. Her body curved into his, her head on his
chest with an intimacy he savored. Drew turned his head and dropped a kiss on
the top of her head.

She blinked sleepily up at him. “Are we there yet?”

Drew nodded absently. He loved the look of her when she first woke up,
with her hair mussed and her mouth soft and kissable. Sabine stretched
languidly with an unconscious sensuality. Need for her kicked up in his belly
and shot down to his cock, tightening the denim over his crotch.

“Yep, come on, sleepyhead. Let’s get you to bed.” Drew slid out of the
van and helped her out. They turned when they heard the creak of a door opening
behind them.

A woman stepped out into the light wearing paint-spattered overalls and
the rattiest Converse high-tops he’d ever seen. She walked across the black and
white tiles with a regal grace, a clipboard clutched to her chest. She studied
them with cool green eyes, her honey-gold skin gleaming in the morning light.
She tilted her head in greeting.

Royal rounded the truck to join them. “Drew, this is Nara, my ahhh…”

“Yes, Royal, what exactly am I to you?” The acid in her tone had Royal
bristling beside him.

“I could say, you’re a pain in my a…but I’m too much of a gentleman, so
I’ll settle for thorn in my side,” Royal bit out and took the three shallow
steps in one leap. “Welcome, Drew, alpha of the Lunedare pack and his mate,
Sabine. Were you able to get the place ready for our guests?”