Her Wanted Wolf (38 page)

No, they didn’t. Drew laced his fingers loosely through Sabine’s and ambled
down the street with Rafe and Ishbel behind them. He kept a sharp eye on the
two men scanning the area at the intersection across the street from them. The
four lanes of traffic between them was an intermittent barrier at best. Not
that they needed it. The four of them were virtually invisible to the
Redmavens, thanks to Sabine and Ishbel. As soon as they were out of the
Redmavens’ line of sight, they increased their speed.

The shops they strode past sold a mishmash of goods, heavy on the
industrial, but peppered with older established stores, which would never
change locations. There wasn’t much for her to see, but Sabine took quick
glances through the plate-glass windows as they walked by.

The wind picked up, carrying with it a concentration of were-spoor.
Patrols were out in full force. They were hunting somebody. A group of weres
drove by in a beat up pickup truck. Drew’s body quivered with his aggression.
Rafe was as perturbed. Tension came off his primo in waves.

Drew’s eyes connected with a human passerby. The man’s eyes widened with
fear and he scampered out of their way.

Sabine groaned and gave him a poke in his belly with her elbow. “Down
boys, don’t scare the natives. We’re getting closer. The Redmavens’ den can’t
be far off. Don’t draw attention to us.” She pulled Drew to a stop and lifted
her chin, a look of pure bliss sliding across her face. “Hey, do you smell
that? Candy.”

He almost grinned. “You would smell that, wouldn’t you? We can buy some
brittle now to add to the impression that we have a reason to be in the area.”
It would also give him time to get a hold of himself. He was on the verge of
running off half-cocked.

“Good thinking.” She pointed to the confectioner’s sign swinging
hypnotically in the breeze. Sabine skipped forward, pulling him along with her.

A bell tinkled over their heads as they passed through the door and
stepped into a decadent haze, rich with the scent of melted chocolate, butter
and sugar. Tart berries, caramel, and coconut added another sinful layer to
tease their noses. The display case was a candy-a-holic’s wet dream, with row
after row of glossy handmade candies.

But that wasn’t what made him twitchy. The familiar scent of his enemies
was strong in the small space. To add to his unstable state of mind was an
element mingling with the Redmaven spoor which was all Aimee.

Drew murmured into Sabine’s ear with a harsh growl. “She’s been here.”

Sabine’s nostrils flared. “No, not her.” She looked over a few of the
people in the shop with a studied nonchalance, but he felt her exhilaration. “A
man, a were, who carries the scent of her on him like you carry mine on you. It
reveals their intimacy, and he’d had recent contact with her.”

She looked up at him, her eyes snapping with excitement. “He was here not
too long ago. I think we just missed him. We have his distinctive scent. It
will take no time to separate the old from the new vapors once we step outside,
but I won’t lose him now. We can track him, let’s go.” Sabine tugged at his arm
and pulled him back outside.

With the bit between her teeth, Sabine set off at a fast clip. He didn’t
have to shorten his gait for her to keep up. They walked briskly for a couple
of blocks before she started to veer to the left, but he pulled her to a stop.

“The Redmaven hideout is straight ahead,” Sabine stopped and stared ahead
of them.

Oh yeah, he could almost taste them.

“Well, the werekin we’re trailing went in the opposite direction.” She
tilted her head in the direction she wanted to go. “We could head for the den,
but I say we follow the strongest indicator of Aimee’s presence.”

Torn, Drew hesitated. He looked at the silent Rafe passing a keen eye
over the streets. “Rafe, we’re going to split up.”

“Not a good idea. The place is swarming with those mutts.”

“Don’t you think I can cover your butt?” Ishbel taunted. “We’ve passed
several Redmavens, and not once did they take a second look at us.”

“Yeah, it’s the damnedest thing, isn’t it? I still expect one of the
Redmavens to catch our scent and come at us, claws out.” Rafe looked around,
wariness in every line of his body.

Ishbel shook her head. “Never happen, apart for the fact they don’t smell
us, they can’t really see
us,
we blend in. They’re hunting, but there is
no structure to it, like they’re chasing their tails,” Ishbel mused out loud.

“I noticed that,” Sabine agreed. “It’s as if they’re searching for
someone specific.”

“In which case they are distracted. It’d be the perfect time to slip
under their radar, get up real close, and squirrel out the weaknesses. That
is…if there was a wolf with the cojones to do it.” Drew let the challenge hang
in the air.

Rafe snorted, “Man, that shit didn’t work with me when we were kids, and
it sure as hell won’t work now. I’m doing it because it’s what you want me to,
but if anything happens to you, I’m taking a hank out of your hide, before
Gustav skins my ass.”

“I’ll have to be careful then, won’t I? Get a read on the den, number of
exits, its defensibility, and if at all possible, a head count.” The sun was
three quarters of the way done with its daily journey across the sky. Drew
figured they had three hours of daylight left before darkness fell. The werekin
would shift and prowl in their base form. They’d be at their most dangerous.

“Sabine and I will follow the were with Aimee’s scent on him. After you
garner as much info as you can, head back to the car and leave the area. Turn
your phone on then, I’ll text you and let you know where to pick us up. Watch
over Ishbel.”

“No hardship to keep an eye on her pretty butt,” Rafe quipped, and
received a sneer in return. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pressed
a kiss on her temple, then urged her down the street away from Drew and Sabine.

Ishbel shrugged off his arm and marched down the road with Rafe a step
behind her. “I can take care of myself.”

“My primo likes to live dangerously. She is going to castrate him one
day.” Drew watched the bickering couple disappear around a corner.

“I’m not so sure. If she really found him objectionable, he wouldn’t get
his hands on her,” Sabine sniffed the air and sighed. “Rain is coming.”

“Summertime in the south, honey, a shower of rain every afternoon and then
you steam in the damp heat.” Looping his arm around her waist, they jaywalked
across the road. The scent trail of the were they traced ebbed and flowed like
the tides. Sabine paused, considered, grinned ferociously, and forged on.

A were walked out of the alleyway ahead of then. He did a quick visual
surveillance to the left and right, before he slunk back into the passage.

“The watch has increased,” Sabine murmured, not at all concerned.

Drew shortened his long ground-eating stride to an easy amble. His
instinct was to pause and mark the position of the shifter before they walked
past the yawning mouth of the side street.

Sabine tugged on his sleeve, the expression in her eyes demanded that he
trust her. Gritting his teeth, Drew forced himself not to reconnoiter the
shadowy lane. He hated leaving his back vulnerable to an attack.

She stalked forward confidently, dragging him along.

The docks were two blocks ahead of them. The water had taken on a grey
hue and crested in pissy swells, very much like his mood. Sabine skipped along
by his side, led by the short sharp sniffs she took every few feet.

“It’s him.”

“What?” Confused by her question, he looked down at her.

“It’s him, the were with Aimee’s spoor on him. They’re tracking him.
That’s why he’s going around in circles. The only reason to do that is to throw
someone off your trail. There is no doubt in my mind that he’s the reason for
the posting of men all over the area. He’s heading in that direction.” She
pointed straight ahead, to the docks.

Drew bared his teeth. “Let’s go say hello.”

“Just don’t kill him until he at least tells us where Aimee is.”

“Whatever gave you the idea that I want to rip his throat out before I
hang him up by the scrotum?” The bland tone belied the fierce lethality of his
words.

Sabine rolled her eyes. “I see you haven’t put much thought into it.”

They covered the next two blocks in a short time and stood on the
sidewalk across from a marina. The were was near, but Drew couldn’t pinpoint
his exact location.

“We’re going to lose him. The wind speed is rising.”

“No we won’t. He’s here.”

And Sabine was right. The scent of the wolf carrying his sister’s essence
slapped Drew in the face the second he walked onto the sidewalk facing the
ocean. Then Drew saw him. He was big. One of the steroid-fed Redmavens, and
he’d have been brutal with Aimee.

Drew’s body vibrated with a righteous thirst for revenge. Two city blocks
stood between him and the son-of-a-bitch who had no idea his worst nightmare
was about to bury his fangs into his jugular.

The were studied the street in the opposite direction from them. When he
turned his head to check the side of the street they were on, their gazes
collided. In his eyes Drew saw surprise, recognition, and most confusingly,
relief.

Drew shrugged off Sabine’s restraining hand and charged at the were. The
fucker must have a pair of balls the size of cantaloupes because he loped in
Drew’s direction with an inexplicable eagerness.

The stink of burning rubber and the reek of Bardo Redmaven blanketed the
area.

“Shit.” The were with his sister’s scent on him ran into the road,
dodging the oncoming traffic. He raced down a short jetty, hopped into an
inflatable boat, fired up the outboard motor, and cast off.

Bardo mounted the sidewalk by the quay with the truck, sending people
scrambling for safety. He and a dozen of his minions hopped on to the pavement.
His inimical stare was riveted to Drew’s target.

“You took something of mine, Micah. I’m here to retrieve it.”

Micah
. Drew had the name of the man who carried his sister’s
scent.

“Kidnapping someone doesn’t make them yours.” The boat drifted away from
the dock, putting a slice of choppy water between Bardo and his mutinous pack
mate.

“I’m the Redmaven alpha. Heel like the mutt you are and take what’s
coming to you,” Bardo raged impotently.

Micah laughed. If Drew didn’t want to kill him, he would’ve applauded the
cocky were for figuratively giving Bardo the finger.

There was not a dammed thing Bardo could do and he knew it.
Unfortunately, neither could he. More curious onlookers came to see what the
fuss was about, and shit, someone had called the cops. Sirens screamed in the
distance.

“You are an alpha who’s lost control of his pack,” Micah shouted. Bardo
bristled at the taunt. “You can accept my challenge for the leadership right
here. Should be quite a show.” His eyes flicked over the growing crowd. Micah’s
eyes met Drew’s over Bardo’s shoulder. “And just so you know, I keep what’s
mine
,
safe.”

It was a message for him, and Drew flashed fangs at Micah. The cocky fuck
grinned at him, revved the motor, and skimmed away over the white-capped
ripples.

Drew forced himself not to react when Bardo spun around to see what Micah
found so interesting behind him. He scrutinized the crowd. His gaze swept over
them, but swung back to rivet on Sabine, a millisecond before his gaze met
Drew’s through the smoky plastic of the lens of the sunglasses.

Bardo’s eyes flared with feral triumph. The elemental urge to take on
Bardo made him take a step forward, before the instinct to see to the safety of
his mate took over. He had to get Sabine the hell away from there.

“Shit, we’ve been spotted made.” He gripped Sabine’s elbow, pulled her
through the press of human bodies, and hustled her back up the street they came
from.

Drew did a visual search to locate an open back door or an askew barrier
in a boarded-up building. Anything that would serve as a hidey-hole.

Were musk clouded the air, bringing with it a sense of imminent danger.
The thud of running feet on hard unyielding concrete told him it was a matter
of minutes before the Redmavens would spot them. Bardo’s men couldn’t track
them by smell, but they were recognizable now that they had a description.

There were Redmavens ahead of them, and, from the growing strength in the
spoor coming at them from behind, more were rushing up from the rear.

His valiant mate tensed beside him, braced for an attack.

They were up a creek without a paddle and another she-wolf was on the
cusp of being taken on his watch.

Chapter Twenty-seven

Sabine’s hand tightened around his, her nails dug into his palm, pulling
him out from the web of nightmarish thoughts tangling his mind. Drew looked
down to her emotions roiling in her eyes, they’d turned a stormy blue to show
her worry and anger.

“We’re close, Drew. Don’t let the Redmaven alpha’s presence scatter your
focus. He took Aimee, and he forced me to abandon my home. Let’s mess with his
head as much as we can.”

The gleam in her eyes made him wary. She looked like she wanted to kick
some ass.

“What are you up to now?”

She grinned evilly and wrapped her arm around his waist. “Diffusing
spoor, ours and theirs. Bardo won’t be able to smell even the sweat on his
scrotum as long as he is within a five-mile radius around us.”

Drew had to stifle a laugh. “Sweat on his scrotum?”

“Good one, huh. I’ve notice you include some reference of some body
parts, particularly genitals, when you refer to your enemies.” Obviously
pleased with herself, she nodded with satisfaction. “I am also sending a
message to Ishbel to let her know we might have a problem.”