Kalen (6 page)

Ally stood and stretched, then shook the leaves and dirt from her coat. She looked up at Kalen with shock.
How did I do that? It felt…weird.

Kalen chuckled into her mind, then trotted into the brush, away from the men his senses told him were not more than seventy-five-feet away from them.
It’s instinct, sweetheart.

I told you to stop calling me that.
She growled, then trotted after him.
Are they close?

Yes. They are very close. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear them crashing into the clearing we just left in a minute or so.

Then we should run, shouldn’t we?

Kalen would have liked to have been able to run, but he knew they couldn’t afford to leave the two men with the knowledge of their existence. They now knew about weres and if they left them alive, they would soon contact other humans about their kind until they found someone who would listen to them. He couldn’t have that. Not now that they were at war, fighting to keep their species secret while that lunatic, who called himself a doctor, kept injecting innocent humans with an agent that turned humans into shifters.

If only their alpha could get the formula and get rid of the
good
doctor who invented it. They could repopulate their species with those like the MacDonald brothers who wanted to become weres instead of injecting innocents who merely wanted to continue their lives, blissfully ignorant of anything they would consider abnormal.

Kalen sighed, trying to figure out a way to tell Ally that he would have to kill those two. How would that make him any better in her eyes? He squeezed his own eyes closed at that thought. Why did he want to be better in her eyes? The feelings growing so deep inside him were
not
welcome. His wolf fought him at every turn as he denied wanting a mate. Perhaps Kalen Tolbert didn’t want a mate to share his life with, but his wolf did and he had chosen Ally.

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to deal with those two. They no doubt look at me as some sort of prize, or trophy animal they want to hang on their wall and brag about. By now, they suspect the same of you. They’ll want the five minutes of fame they’ll get by proving that werewolves really exist.

Don’t be ridiculous.
She snorted.
Werewolves don’t exist. They can’t exist.

Why was she so adamant in denying the truth of her situation? Was she that desperate to hold on to what little bit she could of her old life?

Kalen nudged her shoulder, turning her away from the clearing and trotted a distance away with her at his heels.
How do you explain us if weres don’t exist, Ally? What would you call what you are now?
Stopping, he turned to look at her. For some reason, he needed to see her, to look into her beautiful eyes.
You certainly aren’t human anymore. Humans don’t turn into wolves and run around the woods on all fours. What are you if you’re not a werewolf, Ally? What are you?

Ally didn’t have an answer for that. With a snort of disgust, she turned around and headed away from him.

Where are you going?

Anywhere is better than here.

Even back into the hillbilly twins’ clutches?

Uh, well, no.
She frowned, her wolf’s eyebrows dropping over her eyes.
Of course I don’t want to go back to them. Do you think I’m some sort of idiot?

No. I don’t think you’re an idiot. I
do
think you have a poor sense of direction, though. If you keep heading that way, you’re going to run into them. They’re only about one-hundred feet or so behind us.

Ally turned around, shoved her snout in the air and headed off in the other direction.

Don’t go far. Find a spot to hide in and wait for me. Otherwise, we could end up in Texas with your sense of direction.

Kalen left her to find a hiding place while he crept up on the two unsuspecting men. Keeping himself hidden in the low brush, he was able to get almost close enough to touch them. Peering out through the bushes, he noted that they both carried guns.

Damn.

What is it?

Ally’s question startled him. She shouldn’t have been able to pick up his thoughts, even with their bond. She was much younger than he was. The answer that came to mind wasn’t something he wanted to examine too closely.
They’re both armed. I was afraid of that. I can’t take either of them on as long as they’re together.

Then we should leave.

We can’t leave, Ally. They have seen me change. I can’t leave them with knowledge of our kind.

Then you shouldn’t have let them see you like that. That’s a no-brainer.

Kalen wanted to laugh at her attitude, but it was up to him to educate her about their kind, at least until he managed to escort her to safety or to Bastien and his mate. As their leader, Bastien would see to it that Ally had a job and a residence. Judging by her previous form of employment, he would hazard a guess that Ally would be better off as a werewolf than she ever was as a human. The two men wandered into the clearing, their guns at their sides.

“I know those two are here somewhere, Billy. I can almost smell her perfume.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Billy said with a chuckle. “She smelled pretty. I wonder if she’ll smell that nice when we tie her down and screw her before we skin her.”

“Uh, uh, I think she’ll smell even better. After all, she’ll be turned on like that girl a few months ago. You remember her.”

“I sure do. That one lasted almost a month before she died.” He smiled almost wistfully. “I wish we’d get more like her. I like it when they last a long time and they hurt so much like she did. She must have liked it, cause she lived so long without her fingers.”

Okay. That’s it,
Ally said with a snarl that drew the men’s attention.
I’ll draw their fire and you kill these two. I have never met two men who deserved it more—with the possible exception of the jerk at the hotel who turned me into a dog.

You’re not a—

Shut up, dammit! I don’t want to hear it.

Kalen didn’t want her risking her life like that, but he didn’t have much of a choice.

You’re going to use me and like it. If they kill me, I’ll be in a better place. I don’t want to live like this anyway.

You don’t know what it’s like to live as one of us. You should give it a shot before you write yourself off like that. I would guess that you would live better as a were than you did as a human.

I doubt it. A maid is a maid is a maid. I don’t know how do to anything else.

I don’t know any were that is a maid. We all take care of each other and so far, new weres have been given jobs at Loup-Tech, but we can talk about that later. They’re heading your way. I hope you’ve moved from where you were when you growled earlier.

Kalen heard a slight rustle in the brush to his left.

Of course I have. I may not care if they kill me, but I don’t want them to kill
you
. You’ve been…nice to me and you treat me like an equal, not like the help.

You
are
my equal. In our society, there aren’t many whom we would consider above us. The alpha’s family comes to mind.
Kalen watched, waiting for Ally to make her move. He had to move fast because if he didn’t, she could very well wind up dead and he didn’t want that.

He sat staring at the two men as they crept through the clearing, their guns raised, looking for a target. When Kalen saw the ammo belt Bobby wore, he nearly groaned with relief.

They were using tranquilizer guns. He smiled in his wolf’s body, no doubt looking rather vicious as he bared his teeth. Ally could risk herself all she wanted and he needn’t worry. The worst they could do was knock her out and it would take several hits to do that. It would be no trouble carrying her back to civilization. In fact, he was afraid it would be a pleasure to carry her through the woods, smelling her sweet scent as he bore her slight weight.

He shook his head to clear it. He had no business thinking of her that way. Once this was over and he had her safe, he would leave her with someone who would teach her their ways and forget about her. He needn’t keep telling himself what he already knew—that he had no desire to mate, regardless of the way he felt about the beautiful Ally.

It didn’t matter anyway. Ally had made it abundantly clear that she would rather die than live out the rest of her life as a were. Who was he to try to change her mind?

Kalen stared out at the two men as they made their way toward the area that Ally had just vacated only moments before. Another rustle in the brush had them spinning around, their guns raised.

“You see something, Billy?”

The mentally challenged Billy did no more than shake his head, his gun still glued to his shoulder, his arms trembling either from the weight of the gun, or fear.

It didn’t matter to Kalen which it was. He’d already pegged the not-too-bright Billy as his second target. Bobby held his gun steady and his aim would no doubt be good.

It was then that Ally chose to run out. Billy let loose with a high-pitched scream as she latched onto his ankle, her mouth closing down hard.
Eww! His foot smells like corn chips and his ankle tastes like crap. You’d think they could bathe once in a while.
She dove for cover when Bobby turned around, firing quickly.

Billy hopped around on one foot, using the butt of his rifle as a crutch as he tried to look at his ankle, no doubt worried that he would now become a werewolf and that his brother would hunt
him
next. It was a fair assessment. It didn’t look as though his brother held much love for anyone, or anything beyond himself and his love of self-gratification.

Kalen took the opportunity to lunge at Bobby, knocking him to the ground. The other man tried to bring his gun up, but didn’t have a chance. Kalen had superior strength on his side. He snarled and wasted no time in ripping the idiot’s throat out.

He never wanted to kill them in front of Ally, but he didn’t have much choice. They were bloodthirsty and not too bright. It was a combination that, over the years, Kalen had found made for a monster in the guise of a human being.

Kalen watched the light leave Bobby’s eyes and jumped off him, leaving him staring sightlessly up through the canopy of trees into the night sky. He turned his attention to Billy and knew that this human must also go. He couldn’t allow this man to live with the knowledge of their kind and he couldn’t justify taking him along with them. The man was almost as perverted and deviant as his brother.

Billy still hopped around on one foot, too preoccupied with the pain radiating from his ankle to worry about what else was going on around him. It made it easy for Kalen to launch a strike against the other man.

Just as Billy turned and noticed his brother on his back, his throat bloody and torn, Kalen struck. At least the simple-minded Billy wouldn’t have to live long without the brother he so obviously loved. He died with his brother’s name on his lips and tears in his eyes. Kalen felt a shifting somewhere near his heart and almost felt sorry for the man.
Almost.
Billy may have been someone they could have helped if not for his deviant nature.

A rustle in the brush to his right drew his attention and Ally made her way through the tall, weed-filled grass and brambles. She looked everywhere but at the two bodies before she turned and headed back the way they came.

Kalen shook his head. For a were-being, the woman had a horrible sense of direction. Perhaps that was something one must be born with because the woman couldn’t find her way out of a room with four doors, by the looks of it.

Where are you going?
He had to ask. He also couldn’t keep the sound of humor from his voice. They could be out here for days, trying to find civilization with her sense of direction.

Ally didn’t answer right away. She lifted her nose and sniffed the air and groaned.
I’m headed in the wrong direction again, aren’t I?

Kalen wanted to laugh. It felt strange. He hadn’t had this much humor in his life in decades. That he found himself laughing so much now was telling, though he was determined to ignore it.

It wasn’t that Ally wasn’t beautiful, because she
was
. It was more than that. A lot more than that, not the least of which was his determination to remain single.

Yes, sweetheart. You have lost your way again.
He nudged her shoulder until she faced the right direction.
If you’re going to insist on taking the lead, at least head in the right direction, which would be this way.

Oh, shut up.

Chapter Five

Ally paused and let Kalen be her guide. If the jerk continued to make comments on her sense of direction, he could just lead the way himself. With luck, maybe he would take her to a place where she could find her way home.

Will you take me home?
Something told her he wouldn’t, but she had to know where she stood. What if she could convince him to take her to her house? She could put some real clothes on, then go over and bite Milly Jenkins in the butt for convincing her to wear such skimpy clothes to work. Had she been wearing her usual oversized T-shirt, she doubted even the horny moron brothers could have found
that
sexy.

I don’t think that’s a wise idea.

Why not? Do you think I’m going to run away, or something?

No.
Kalen stopped, then turned to look at her.
I would love to take you home, but there are things happening to you, that will continue to happen to you, that you’ll need help in understanding.

I think that’s a load of bull. I think you and your friends are afraid I’ll run to the media, aren’t you?

Kalen turned away and continued to lead the way through the woods.
There is that. Though that isn’t what bothers me the most.