Primal Desires (21 page)

I
can't believe he just stomped off to sulk and play with his wolves,” Sofia told Cathy. “It's been three days, and I'm still upset about that conversation.”

She kept her eyes on the busy freeway, trying to pretend that Jason's words didn't still sting. Every mile away from her pissed-off bondmate stretched her nerves, but this trip to Los Angeles was necessary. Maybe it was better for them to be apart, anyway.

“Men can be so melodramatic,” Cathy commiserated. “He knows you did it for his own good, even if he doesn't want to admit it. Besides, it's not as if he didn't enjoy himself meanwhile—for days!”

“I hated hurting him. I should have done it a different way.”

Cathy gave an earthy laugh. “How many ways did you do it?”

Erotic memories flooded her, and Sofia laughed as well. “More than I can remember.”

“Jason's a Family Prime who thinks like a Clan boy. He needs to remember his pragmatic roots and learn to appreciate you.”

The air conditioner in the borrowed car strained as the heavy traffic slowed. “Thanks for volunteering to help me pack up my apartment,” Sofia said to her cousin.

“No problem,” Cathy said. “It'll give us something to do after the vampire docs do the blood tests on us at their clinic.”

“How many vampire clinics are there?”

“I have no idea. But I do know that this one in L.A. is where most of their medical research is done. I've never thought much about vampires until now.”

“You had your own werewolf problems to deal with. Do you think this Hunyara werewolf-vampire connection is real?”

“I don't trust anything Eric told me,” Cathy answered. “But I hope it is real, just for the sake of keeping the werewolves from coming after our Hunyara asses. Man, life has changed in the last few days! We've discovered family secrets, you got your dad back, I've got control of my shape-shifting, Mike's given up being the Tracker, and Sid's quit the firm and has gone to stay with her sire.”

“Everything changes.” Sofia saw the sign for their exit and moved over a lane. She sighed. “I never thought I'd drop out of college, but I posted it on my blog for the world to read about, so it must be true. So here I am, back in town to do just that. Along with a million other things.”

“Blood tests and getting you moved are first on the agenda, though,” Cathy said.

“So it would seem,” Sofia said, and she and her cousin grinned wolfishly at each other.

• • •

“One very good thing about being a werewolf is that we heal fast,” Cathy said as she removed the Band-Aid on the inside of her elbow.

“While I have a bruise the size of a quarter,” Sofia complained, rubbing her arm. It felt like a half gallon of blood had been drawn by the vampire technicians. “And it itches.”

“Whiny wimp,” her cousin teased.

“You're buying my ice cream cone,” Sofia declared as they reached the ice cream shop down the street from her apartment. There had been other medical tests, too, and the doctor who ran the clinic had asked lots of questions. They'd spent several hours there before returning to her university neighborhood. The doctor had wanted them to spend the night at the clinic, but they had other plans.

“How long before we know anything from the blood tests?” Sofia wondered as they waited in line.

“They told me several weeks, maybe months. DNA testing results really take much longer than they show on TV crime shows.”

“I guess.” Sofia was thinking of Jason, so she bought a double scoop of the deepest, darkest chocolate she could get.

When they had their ice cream, they went to the small park across the street. They found an empty bench under a tree and enjoyed their cones in silence for a while as they looked around the busy neighborhood a couple of blocks from the university. There was plenty of foot and car traffic to watch.

“I'm going to miss this place,” Sofia said as she wiped her fingers with a napkin. “I've enjoyed school.”

“Look at it this way,” Cathy said. “The world loses a literature teacher and gains a wolf-taming superhero.”

Sofia snorted. “I guess I can go along with that. Except that I was majoring in electrical engineering. I read for fun.”

“Whatever.” A dangerous grin lit Cathy's features. “I think the bad guys read your blog and followed us to L.A. I recognize a couple of vehicles that are circling the park.”

“Why, cousin dear,” Sofia said as they stood. “Do you think we're about to get kidnapped?”

“I certainly hope so.”

“About time,” Sofia said. They began to walk toward the street. “Let's head back to my place. That ought to make it easier for them.”

G
ood morning, ladies.”

The unfamiliar voice roused Cathy to consciousness. The only scent she could detect, other than her cousin's, was that of coffee. The lack of smells told her they were in the presence of the enemy, but at least the bastards weren't complete barbarians—unless they didn't offer her a cup when she opened her eyes.

“Would you like a cup of coffee?” the man asked.

“No,” Sofia answered. There was a hysterical pitch to her voice.

Cathy sat up and gave her cousin a frown. “Don't be an idiot—accept the man's hospitality.”

Sofia looked their captor over carefully. He was tall and strongly built, with a long braid of blond hair and a heavy beard. His presence pretty much filled the one-room cabin.

“Not exactly a man,” she corrected herself. “Werewolf.”

He nodded.

“Oh, God, not another one!” Sofia had her arms wrapped around her drawn-up legs and was looking at their captor with wide, terrified eyes.

Cathy gave a disgusted shake of her head. “I bet you're Nathan,” she told the werewolf. “Eric told me about you.”

“Did he?” the deep-voiced male growled.

“May I have some coffee?” she asked.

He poured a mugful from a thermos and brought it to her. When she reached for the cup, he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to her feet. “What happened to Eric?” he demanded. “What did he tell you?”

“Eric's dead,” she said with a grimace of pain, leaving out the fact that she'd killed him herself. “He died when the Bleythin pack showed up to ‘rescue' me. They didn't ask if I wanted rescuing,” she added. “Then they made me go back to spending the moonchange locked in a cage. Eric promised me freedom. You didn't have to knock me out to get me here; I was hoping you'd come for me.”

“You don't mean that,” Sofia said. “You don't want to be a werewolf.
I
don't want to be one,” she added in a bleak whisper.

Nathan let Cathy go and laughed at Sofia's fear. “You'll get used to it.”

“You haven't bitten her yet, have you?” Cathy asked.

“No,” he told her. “I'll let you do the honors to prove you really want to be part of the pack.”

“Come the moonchange, I'll be delighted,” Cathy said.

She didn't think he believed or trusted her for a moment, but he did finally hand her the coffee. She downed it in three gulps. “That almost helps the headache.”

“Where are we?” Sofia demanded. “How did we get here?”

Cathy stood up. “Don't mind her,” she told Nathan. “She's a whiny little thing who's never going to be a pack alpha.” She approached Nathan. “I can see a pine forest beyond that barred window. It looks like the perfect place for our kind to run free.”

He grinned. “It is.”

“Why not take me for a walk?” She put her arm through his. “Show me around the place.”

He didn't relax his guard, but he didn't say no. “There's food on the table,” he told Sofia before leading Cathy outside. “And a guard on the door.”

• • •

Once they were gone, Sofia returned to a conversation she'd been involved in since she fully awoke from the long, drugged ride. So far, she'd found out that they were being held in a large compound in a remote part of Oregon that was surrounded by an electrified fence. It was patrolled by armed guards. Their Hunyara relations and several other captives were locked up in a large central barracks, which was also guarded. The place was quite the fortress.

Am I as bad an actress as I suspect? Because Cathy's really good.

Are you sure your cousin's acting?

Please! This was all her idea.
After a heavy silence filled her head for a few moments she went on,
Do not try to get me paranoid, Cage.

All I'm saying is that sometimes you can't trust the ones you care for the—

All right, all right! I shouldn't have tricked you. How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?

Once.

Oh. Haven't I—

No.

Of course I'm sorry I hurt you. I just couldn't think of another way.

You could have asked me to let the Clan Prime go in my place. We could have talked it through.

Well…yeah. It didn't occur to me to be reasonable at the time. I was pretty hysterical that night. Sid said all the psychic turmoil was messing with everybody's brains.

And I've found out that Lady Juanita was messing with yours,
Jason said.
Matris are born matchmakers. She saw suggesting you keep me in bed as a bonding gift to us. Due to all the blood we shared then, she pretty much arranged that we'd pass the point where we could ever leave each other.

I don't want to
ever
leave you!

Nor I.

But you'd been thinking you might have to. I'd been thinking I might have to let you run off and hide with your people and stay away from you to cover your trail. We can't do that now. We didn't want to anyway.

Do you forgive me?
Sofia asked.
I promise never to do it again.

You'd better not be promising never to have an orgy again. I liked that part.

So did I. And if we want to do it again anytime soon, I suggest we get on with the rescue.

I agree. All our players are in position—even your Dad has shown up. I've been working with him on his wolf taming; he's rusty but talented.

I'm glad.

Okay, we're coming in. You and Cathy can do your thing now. See you soon.

I love you.

Love you, too. Get to work, Mrs. Cage.

W
hile talking to Sofia, Jason had been careful not to show her how worried he was for her. He kept reminding himself that she was brave and strong and resourceful, and he wanted her that way. But he would much rather lock her up somewhere safe and luxurious and keep her there. He couldn't follow those protective impulses with a wolf tamer for a bondmate, but that didn't stop him from having them.

He'd been terrified ever since he found out that she expected him to find her, no matter where she ended up or what condition she landed in. Everyone involved had assumed he'd follow the psychic trail to her, which he had. So her confidence had been well placed, but he'd still been scared he'd screw up. Now he intended to get her out of harm's way, and keep her there for as long as possible.

Coming up beside him, Mike Bleythin said, “Pashta's group is ready. Let's get this over with. I want Cathy out of there right now.”

“I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking like a protective male.”

“Our mates are altogether too tough for our own good,” Mike answered.

Jason nodded his agreement as Laurent and Eden came up to them. The four of them gazed down from their hiding spot to the encampment below.

“I want to get my hands on the computers in there,” the mortal woman said. “We need to find out what's really going on.”

“I just want to kick some ass and get home to our kid,” Laurent said. “Let's get moving, before the deodorant we confiscated from these jokers wears off.”

“Roger that,” Eden answered.

A second later, a hideous scream sounded in the compound below. They took this as their signal to move forward.

“I think Cathy's responsible for that,” Mike said proudly as they ran for the fence.

• • •

The limitation to being a wolf tamer in this situation was that not everybody in this nest of dangerous lunatics would be a werewolf. When Sofia had mentioned the possibility of mortal bad guys, Cathy had come up with a solution. Everything now hinged on finding out what type of enemy was guarding her prison. Sofia stepped up to the door.

She wiped everything else from her mind and concentrated on the job at hand: she was supposed to be scared. “
Supposed
to be scared?” She managed to make herself cry and rapped on the door with both fists. “Help! Help!” she shouted. “Let me out! Somebody please help me!” She tried to mentally project that she was fragile and not a danger to anybody.

The man outside yelled for her to shut up. When she continued shouting and banging, he finally opened the door. “I told you to shut—”

She sniffled and wiped the back of her hand across her cheek. When he reached out to grab her shoulder, she looked him in the eye and latched onto a werewolf's mind. She'd taken him too much by surprise for him to put up much of a fight.

“Take me to the other prisoners,” she told him.

With the guard as her escort, she crossed the compound to the barracks Jason had told her about. No one questioned their progress. When Cathy made her move, everyone else in the compound rushed to find out what Nathan was screaming about. With this diversion under way, the attack from the outside began.

Sofia couldn't worry about the sudden gunfire from the defenders, or the huge truck that came careening down the hillside and crashed through the fence into one of the buildings. She only hoped nobody was driving it.

She had the werewolf under her control hold his weapon on her, and pretended to still be a scared captive when she went into the barracks. There, she saw five prisoners being watched by two guards. The prisoners, three men and two women, were each handcuffed to a bed frame set into the concrete floor.

“What's going on out there?” one of the guards asked. “Why'd you bring her in here?”

“You're both needed outside,” her guard said, as she'd ordered him to. “Go on. I'll take over in here.”

The men must have been bored, because they didn't question this order but ran out to join the excitement. Sofia hurried toward the prisoners after they left. “I'm here to rescue you,” she told the staring prisoners. “If any of you is a werewolf named Hunyara, Uncle Pashta wants your help outside.”

Two of the men raised their free hands, and one said, “You're cousin Sofia.”

She nodded. “Help me free them,” she ordered her werewolf.

He didn't have the keys to the handcuffs, but solved the problem by carefully putting a bullet through the chain on each prisoner's cuffs to break the links.

• • •

“Go to sleep,” she ordered the werewolf when he was done.

She gave his gun to one of her cousins, and they went to join the fighting. “Stay here,” she told the others, then ran outside, anxious to find Jason.

• • •

Once inside the compound, Jason headed straight toward Sofia. He moved too fast for any of the shooters to take aim at him, but bullets still buzzed dangerously close, hitting the dust as his feet flew by. He ignored them and happily tossed aside all those who tried to physically attack him.

Sofia's presence drew him like a beacon to the central building of the complex. She came through the doorway when he was just a few yards away, and her face lit with a smile that sent his heart soaring.

She didn't see the gunman taking aim at her.

That was all right, because Jason was on top of the shooter before he had time to fire.

When he let the body fall to the ground, Sofia looked at him with very wide eyes. “There was a time when I would have found that profoundly disturbing.”

Jason grabbed her hand and took her back into the barracks, where they exchanged a quick, fierce kiss. “The operation's winding down,” he told her. “Stay here until I come for you.” Surprisingly, she didn't argue.

When he returned, he brought a crowd with him. Eden carried a confiscated laptop, and she and Cathy sat down to have a look at what was inside. Pashta and the other Hunyaras gathered around the three freed prisoners. Laurent and Mike stood guard over Eden and Cathy. Sofia's father stood back and warily watched everyone else, looking a bit lost amid all this activity.

Jason took Sofia aside. “You can debrief and take part later,” he told her. “But first—”

Her mouth covered his, and they shared a long, lingering kiss. He held her close and she put her head trustingly on his shoulder.

“We'll have more adventures,” Jason said. “But I promise you we'll always end up like this.”

She looked up at him, her smile filled with joy and confidence. “Together.”

“Together.”

After they'd spent a few quiet moments holding each other, Jason asked, “So, how do you feel about working with animals?”