Legend's Passion (3 page)

She found herself staring down into steely blue eyes.

“Where the hell am I?”

Chantal looked to Noah, who stepped forward to the side of the bed. “Hey, Legend.”

Dylan frowned. “Devlin?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you doing here? Where’s here?”

“You’re safe, so don’t worry. And this is my sister, Chantal.” 18

Legend’s Passion

He looked to Chantal, then back at Noah. “She’s your sister?” Noah nodded.

“I need to sit up.” He pushed off the bed and struggled. Chantal started to help him, but Noah shook his head. She kept her hands at her sides. When Dylan managed to rise to a sitting position and push the pillow behind his back, he looked to Noah. “I feel like shit. What happened?”

“Long story. Long, really fucking complicated story. And you aren’t going to like the outcome.”

“I already figured that.”

The sheet had dropped down to his waist, leaving his chest and abdomen bare.

Chantal couldn’t help admiring his broad shoulders, sculpted pecs and well toned abs.

Now is not the time
,
Chantal
.
You can fuck him later
.

“So which one of you is going to break the bad news?”

“I will,” she said. “Since I caused this problem.” He crossed his arms.

She inhaled. “Last night, you and I had sex.” He looked to Noah and back at her. “You sure you want to discuss this in front of your brother?”

“He already knows anyway.”

Shrugging, he said, “Whatever. It’s your story.”

“Anyway, it wasn’t exactly normal sex.”

“Really.”

“Really. There was a small added component at the end.” She looked down at her nails. God she needed a manicure.

“You care to elaborate on the added component at the end?” 19

Jaci Burton

Not really. She wanted to go back to last night and change her mind about meeting a stranger in the park. She wanted to go home instead. She wanted to erase everything.

She looked at him, holding his gaze. “I bit you.”

“You did?” He felt his neck. “I don’t feel anything.”

“The wound is already healing. Anyway, it wasn’t an ordinary bite.” Dylan looked at Noah. “Does this have anything to do what with I’m investigating?”

“Yes and no. Let her finish first and we can talk about your case after that.” Dylan turned a now-sharp gaze to Chantal. “Go on.”

“We’re not human,” she blurted, then winced. Okay, so she probably could have finessed that a little better.

“Excuse me?”

“We’re werewolves.”

Noah leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “Way to throw it out there, Chantal.”

She half turned to shoot Noah a scathing look. “Well, there is no easy way to say it, is there?”

“Werewolves.” Dylan shook his head. “You can do better than that.”

“She’s not lying, man,” Noah said. “We’re wolves. Shapeshifters.”

“Uh-huh. Come on, Noah. We’ve known each other a long time. What’s really going on here?”

“Chantal bit you during sex. She changed you.”

“Changed me…how?”

“When I met you in the park,” Chantal started, “I thought you were another wolf, like me. I had made an arrangement to meet with someone…an out-of-town sexual arrangement. I thought you were him. I didn’t know you were human when we had sex. I didn’t know you were human when I bit you, otherwise I’d have never touched 20

Legend’s Passion

you. But because I did, you’ve been infected with werewolf blood. You’re going to become what we are.”

“You people really believe this?” He tossed off the sheet and swung his legs over the bed, heedless of his nudity. “You’re both fucking insane and I’ve got a job to do.” Noah rushed him, growling and partially shifting. His voice became dark and menacing as he pushed Dylan back onto the mattress with his forearm across Dylan’s throat. “Stay put!”

Dylan’s eyes widened as he took in Noah’s changed features. The eyes turning yellow, fangs where his teeth were, his voice now more of a growling snarl than a human’s voice.

Holy shit. Was he hallucinating? Had they fed him drugs or something? Noah backed off and Dylan watched him change back to human, his features softening.

“Sonofabitch,” he whispered.

“Sorry, man,” Noah said. “Had to show you we weren’t making this up.”

“I still don’t believe it.”

“It’s true, Dylan,” Chantal said.

He looked at her, his memories flooding back from last night. The woman with dark hair he’d thought was his contact. The sex. God, the sex—how could he forget that? She was still as beautiful in the daylight as she’d been in the park last night. He couldn’t believe what had happened between them. It wasn’t like him at all to forget his job and have sex with a stranger. “I don’t fuck women I don’t know.” She nodded and dropped her gaze to her lap. “It’s in my pheromones. When I’m in heat like that it’s irresistible to human males. It’s like a drug, an aphrodisiac. It makes you drunk with desire.” She looked up at him. “I didn’t know you were a human. I never would have come near you had I known.”

He rubbed his forehead where a headache was starting. “This is all a lot to process.

And still damned hard to believe. Werewolves only exist in the movies and in books.” 21

Jaci Burton

Noah smirked. “Apparently not.”

“And you say I’m going to change now, become like you?”

“Yes. But it’s not so bad. We lead normal lives. We belong to packs and we guard and take care of each other. You just have to be careful around humans.”

“Obviously,” Dylan deadpanned. “This is real, huh?”

“Yup.”

Dylan dragged his hand through his hair. “Holy fucking shit. Okay, I need to get up. I’d like to get dressed. Where are my clothes?” Noah opened the closet door. “These have all been brought from your hotel. The dresser has the rest of your things. Your toiletries are in the bathroom.” All his stuff. “Where exactly am I?”

“This is the San Francisco pack leader’s mansion,” Chantal said. “You’re safe here among your own kind.”

“Werewolves aren’t my own kind.”

“They are now,” she said in a low voice that spoke of embarrassment. She could barely meet his gaze.

God, she was beautiful. And every time he looked at her he was reminded of the wild, animalistic sex they’d shared last night. And his dick was getting hard. So not a wise thing to happen in front of her brother. He grabbed the sheet and bunched it up over his crotch. “I need a shower and to get dressed. And I’m starving. And I have a million questions.”

Noah nodded. “Take your time. One of the guards will escort you downstairs when you’re finished. We’ll meet you there.”

“Fine.”
Just get the fuck out of my room
. Christ, this was confusing.

Chantal stood, opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, then clamped it shut and followed her brother out the door. He locked it, walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower, trying to relax under the hot steamy spray. When he was 22

Legend’s Passion

finished he stared at his reflection in the mirror, checking his neck and shoulder for marks.

Other than a faint hickey-looking mark where Chantal said she had bit him, he didn’t see anything that resembled the vicious bite marks similar to the ones on the bodies from the case he was investigating.

And obviously the victims had been torn apart and killed, not transformed into werewolves.

So what was the connection between Chantal and Noah and this case?

Was he really going to turn into a werewolf? And what the fuck did that mean? For him, for his career, his future? Was all this real? He’d seen Noah partly change from human to beast. That had been no illusion.

Goddamn.

He’d sure as hell had one life-changing fuck last night, hadn’t he?

23

Jaci Burton

“This has really screwed up our pack dynamics, Chantal.” Chantal sighed as Lamont Burkhart, the pack leader, read her the riot act.

“What were you thinking?”

“I thought he was the man Maia set me up with.”

“Didn’t you smell the human on him, for Christ’s sake?”

“No, I was too busy fucking him to think about his scent, Lamont.” And that was the truth. She hadn’t bothered to track his scent. And even if she had, all she would have scented was human. Even werewolves smelled human unless they changed or were releasing pheromones, and only the females did that. Smelling wolf on him wasn’t her primary objective last night. Getting his cock inside her was.

Lamont paced, his hands clasped behind his back. He was over six and a half feet tall and had to nearly double himself over to get in her face. “If you would mate with someone in our pack we wouldn’t have had this problem.”

“I’m not ready to mate—”

He held up his hand as he straightened. “Spare me the same bullshit you’ve been spouting for the past two years. I don’t want to hear it. Turning humans is frowned upon and you know it. It’s hard enough to keep our identities secret without bringing in outsiders. What is it with you Devlins and your predilection toward mating with humans?”

He was referring to her brothers, Jason and Max, both of whom had fallen in love with human females. But her situation was different. “I’m not the least bit interested in mating with a human or any man right now.”

“A little late for that given the situation, don’t you think?” 24

Legend’s Passion

“It’s my fault, Lamont. I should have been more specific in my description of the were I set her up with. I should have gone with her.” Chantal looked with fondness toward her friend, Maia. “It’s certainly not your fault, Maia. I take full responsibility.”

“As well you should,” Lamont said. “Though Maia bears some blame in this too.

We hardly run an escort service here, Maia. And you know how I feel about pack members mating with outsiders.”

Maia nodded. “My humble apologies, Lamont.”

“Leave us,” Lamont said.

Maia turned away, smiling and winking a violet eye at Chantal on her way out.

One of the few friends Chantal had made since being assigned to this pack two years ago, Chantal refused to allow Maia to take the blame for her own error. Chantal had been the one to approach Maia about needing a man and not wanting to mate with a pack member. Maia didn’t mate with anyone inside the pack either. As a flight attendant, she had plenty of contacts in other packs and had offered to make arrangements.

No one else was going to suffer for Chantal’s mistake. It was bad enough Dylan already had.

The object of her thoughts walked into the room at that moment.

Her breath caught. Freshly showered, his hair still damp, he wore a white polo shirt and jeans, looking fit, casual and entirely too sexy. Her heart picked up a rapid pace, a hunger coursing through her that had nothing to do with food.

His gaze shot to hers, nostrils flaring as if he were breathing in her scent.

She’d seen that look between pack mates before. In heat.

Oh, damn.

“Dylan,” Noah said, stepping over to him. “This is Lamont Burkhart, the San Francisco pack leader. Lamont, Dylan Maxwell.” 25

Jaci Burton

Chantal hadn’t even known his last name.

Dylan shook Lamont’s hand.

“We are terribly sorry about the unfortunate event that has brought you here,” Lamont said, casting a chastising look at Chantal. “We hope you accept our humble apologies for what has happened to you.”

Dylan shrugged. “I’m not sure I know exactly what’s happened. But I’m slowly grabbing a clue.”

“It is Chantal’s responsibility to guide you through this process,” Lamont explained. “Come, you must be starving. The impending change will cause you to be ravenous. You need to eat.”

They sat at the table and ate. Chantal sat next to Dylan, breathing him in. Soap and the underlying scent of pure male that she attributed uniquely to him. It was burned into her olfactory senses now. She could probably pick him out of a crowd of thousands.

Dylan downed his food like a man starving, tearing through two thick, rare steaks until nothing was left but bone. They consumed a couple bottles of wine, which Lamont explained would help relax the agitation within him.

Chantal was pretty damned agitated herself. And at a loss for what to do for Dylan.

Or for herself.

Dylan wiped his mouth and took a swallow of wine. He stared at the remains of the two steaks he’d damn near inhaled. Two huge steaks. Almost rare. Damn, he’d been hungry. He always liked his meat well done. Scorched, in fact.

What the hell.

“You’ll find your tastes changing,” Maia said, smiling at him. A petite woman with the body of a stripper, she had unusual violet eyes and short, spiky blonde hair. “A lot of your tastes will change. More meat, less of the side foods.” 26

Legend’s Passion

“Uh-huh.” All the people at the table looked so…normal. They ate, they drank, had normal conversations, even laughed and cracked jokes. Just looking at them one wouldn’t notice anything unusual at all. Did they finish dinner, clear the dishes then turn into wolves and run wild through the parks?

“All your appetites will be more enhanced. Especially at the beginning,” Lamont said. “Food and sex.”

His gaze shot to Chantal, who turned a bright crimson.

“Chantal will see to your sexual needs.”

His brows lifted. “Is that right?”

“Yes. You will have a voracious sexual appetite before the change occurs. She will satisfy all your requirements. Anything you need, just ask her.” Interesting side benefit. “Tell me about this change.”

“Even now your physiology is changing. All your senses are heightening. You are growing stronger. During the full moon you will complete the transition and shift for the first time. It will be painful. Extremely painful. Chantal will assist you through that too. Trust her, let her help you. Do not leave her side at all for the next few days. It is important you stay here at the compound.”

Dylan’s gaze shot to Lamont. “Wait. Can’t do that. I have a job.”

“It’ll have to wait.” Lamont crossed his arms.

Dylan shook his head. “It can’t wait. I need to leave.” How could he have forgotten his goddamn job? All this shit had messed with his mind. Werewolves and sex and fucked up transformations didn’t matter. A killer was on the loose and he had to find him before he struck again.