Shameless Desire (The Outlawed Realm) (7 page)

“Oh no, there’s bags and bags of it. Damir found a mall we hadn’t been to before.” Arez slipped off Lukan’s lap and bent at the waist so Regina could still see her. Her hair swung forward. She pushed it behind her ear. “Don’t go. Let me get it. I want to show you.”

Regina had been hoping for that. The moment Arez rushed from the room, Regina spoke to Lukan, “Have you, Damir and Meelo been following the reports about the recent murder in Seattle?”

He glanced over as though checking to see if Arez was out of earshot. Turning back to the screen, he used the same subdued tone Regina had. “Meelo and I watched the newscast the other night.”

“The victim was one of the guards that followed you through the portal, right? One or several of the werewolves attacked him, right?”

Lukan looked uncomfortable. “The reporter said it was because of drugs.”

“You don’t believe that. I can see it on your face.” Regina leaned toward the screen. “Help me out here. I’m worried about Nikoli. His features are identical to the rulers. What if the guards see him here accidentally? What if the werewolves come after him thinking he hunted them on E4?”

“They’d have to find him first.”

“By smell, correct?”

He glanced over again, as though something off camera had caught his attention or he needed to stall for an answer.

“Lukan, please.”

On a heavy sigh, he nodded. “Yes, they would find him by smell.”

Regina gripped the arms of her chair. “A few minutes ago, I looked outside to check why the neighborhood dogs were barking. I saw a man across the street.” She described his body shape, the length of his hair. “Does that sound like the creature you saw on E4 when you and Arez were hiding in the cave?”

Lukan’s frown deepened. Once more, he glanced over, checking the area to the side of him. “I can’t say for certain.” He faced the screen again. “The creature we saw wasn’t wearing clothes.”

Regina held back a groan. “Yes, I know, but he was young and strong, wasn’t he? His hair fell to his shoulders?”

“It did, but that doesn’t mean who you saw outside tonight is one of the creatures from E4.”

“Yeah it does,” she argued. “No one who looks like that lives on this street. The dogs weren’t only barking, they sounded scared.” Before Lukan could debate her, she asked, “How many guards and creatures followed you over here?”

“I don’t know. Arez and I saw nothing more than shadows. I was barely conscious after the guard hit me with his dart.” He whispered, “Why?”

Regina’s gut continued to twist, making her nauseous. “Is it possible that more guards are coming to this dimension other than those who crossed over with you and Arez?”

“How could they? Why would they?”

Because Vakar had sent them. Surely, he’d concluded that someone had helped Lukan and Arez escape. That someone could be Meelo or Damir. It could also be Nikoli, even though everyone on E2 believed he was dead, thanks to his father. Domm Zorr had lied to protect his son, claiming that Nikoli had died fighting the vampires. The rulers had bought his story, even giving Nikoli a state funeral.

Regina could only imagine Vakar’s rage at Nikoli having duped him. Could he already know Domm had been in on it?

If Vakar did, he hadn’t let on to the man. Domm hadn’t opened a portal to warn his son. Could be Vakar was biding his time until his plan was well in motion—using his device to open portals on this side, ordering the guards to locate and capture Nikoli, dragging him back to E2 for execution along with his father.

Regina bit her lower lip so hard she tasted blood. She wanted to scream or put her fist through the wall but forced herself to remain calm. To try to reason this out as Nikoli and his people would. The Seattle metro area had more than three million people in it. The guards locating him here, even accidentally, would be like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.

A good thing, until she remembered the help they might get from the werewolves that had also crossed over with their superior sense of smell.

“Regina?”’

She blinked, then blurted, “The guards are coming for Nikoli. One of the werewolves is already here. I know it. We have to do something.”

Chapter Six

Gwen stood next to Staci in their snug kitchen, both of them staring at the back door, listening for sounds from outside. Mortal screams. Animal snarls. Carnage.

Nothing. For the moment, everything was as it should be.

Yeah, right.

Minutes earlier, Gwen had asked Kuma who he was while her mind had added,
what are you?

He might as well have been reading her thoughts, or perhaps he saw the panic on her face, because he’d released her hand and stepped away from her bed, his attention moving to the hall.

At the time, Gwen wondered if he intended to leave, not wanting to explore why the thought pained her.

Staci had saved her from such sentimental musings. “What’s wrong?” the girl had asked him, rocking on her heels as though she would have liked to move closer but didn’t dare.

“Something’s coming,” he answered.

Gwen hadn’t asked what, nor had Staci. They watched him release the metal button on his jeans and lower the fly. The zipper’s rasp sounded louder than it should, the same as the pounding rain and Staci’s hitching breaths.

“What’s he doing?” she asked Gwen.

Wasn’t it obvious?

The edges of his jeans fell away from his body, revealing his hairy groin, his muscles taut and rippling. He toed off his running shoes and stripped, his clothing smacking against the hardwood floor. He stepped out of his jeans. Naked. Unashamed.

Staci made a whimpering noise not entirely devoid of pleasure. Gwen couldn’t blame her. He was magnificent. His cock long and thick, the head plump, reddened with desire. Thick veins snaked up the rigid shaft. Gwen would have given up a year of her life for the privilege of burying her face in that part of him, licking his hard rod. She snuck a peek at his face. Her pulse leapt even as her bones seemed to go soft.

He stared at her like a man intent on passion…or a male animal during the rut. Three steps and he’d be back at her bed, climbing on it, unfolding his body over hers, trapping her beneath his weight and warmth.

A wanting moan bubbled up in her throat at the thought. Helplessly, she regarded him. His rich mouth she knew, there was no longer any doubt about that. They had kissed when he’d first brought her here. She recalled the pressure of his lips, his tongue seeking entrance, wanting to touch hers.

Had she responded as he deserved? Had she touched him enough to satisfy herself?

Gwen figured she hadn’t.

An artist might as well have sculpted his smooth pecs and torso, they were that masculine and perfect, his nipples the color of damp earth. Remembering the odd circles on his fingertips, Gwen studied his navel, a small half-moon, similar in shape to the bellybuttons of people on this side.

She didn’t linger there. Once more, his erect cock captured her full attention, the root of it surrounded by a nest of dark curls, his ruddy balls plump and lightly furred.

His powerful thighs tightened; so did his calves as he shifted his weight. Was he going to come to her now? Would he mount her in front of Staci? Gwen weakened even more, not minding that in the least, desiring everything he could give.

He turned to the bedroom doorway.

Gwen leaned up. The mattress shifted and squeaked with her weight. “What is it?”

“One of them,” he answered.

She didn’t ask
“Who?”
sensing he was referring to another man like the one who’d attacked her in the alley.

“What’s he talking about?” Staci cried.

Ignoring her cousin, Gwen asked, “Do you hear him?” The only sounds she caught were the rain and Staci’s frightened panting.

“Not yet…but his scent is growing stronger.” Kuma lifted his face and sniffed the dank air.

Not about to press him for details, Gwen murmured, “Don’t you worry. I have a gun. I’ll blow his fucking head off.”

Kuma regarded her weapon on the bed, its metal dull yet deadly in the lamp’s weak light. “No. He’s mine. The same as the other. They’ll pay for what they did.”

Before Gwen could ask what in the hell he was talking about, Staci gasped, “Oh my God.”

Gwen’s mouth sagged open, but no words or sounds escaped. The hair on Kuma’s legs, thighs, torso and arms grew at frigging warp speed, becoming longer, denser, resembling dark brown fur. His limbs shrank, so did his hands. His nails turned into claws. The physical agony it caused him was evident in his strangled growls, while his face…

Jesus
.

His lips, now black, pulled away from his teeth, no longer human but that of a predator, his canines long and deadly.

He dropped to all fours as the transformation continued, elongating his nose into a snout, turning his body into that of a formidable wolf. In a corner of Gwen’s mind, she heard Staci’s frightened moans and hoped to God her cousin didn’t make any sudden moves. Gwen knew she should have reached for her revolver, just in case, but didn’t. The thought of shooting Kuma…harming or killing him…wasn’t something she figured she could do.

He sniffed the air as he’d done when in human form, then trotted into the hall, his tail swishing, the end of it curling around the jamb.

“Hey,” Staci shouted, grabbing Gwen’s arm before she could reach the doorway and follow. “Where are you going?”

“Stay here. Shut the door and lock it. Take this—use it if you have to.” She pushed her gun into Staci’s hand.

“What? Wait!”

Gwen couldn’t. Naked, she ran down the hall toward the front door, then stopped, not seeing Kuma there. Backing up several steps, Gwen peered into Staci’s room. The dangling beads on the girl’s vintage lamps created smudges of colors—red, yellow, green, blue—on the ceiling and walls. Her bed’s scarlet comforter was undisturbed, no indentations from Kuma’s paws to say he’d jumped on it to glance out the window.

Gwen checked the hall bath next, squinting at the bright fluorescent light. He wasn’t in the shower, trying to see out the small window at the top of it.

In the kitchen, she found him. He paced in front of the locked back door, his nails clicking against the gold-flecked linoleum.

“You don’t have to go out there,” she said.

He bared his teeth and growled.

She frowned. “You could get hurt. I have a fucking gun to protect us.”

He rammed the side of his body against the door, rattling the wood and glass.

Damn. Before he burst through the window or morphed back into a man and opened the stupid thing himself, Gwen got it for him.

He dashed into the small backyard, rimmed with vegetation, heavy with menacing shadows. Tree branches dipped to the ground under the pelting rain. Small pools of water and fallen leaves dotted the thick grass.

He halted in the middle of the yard and glanced back, his eyes silvery in the dingy light, intelligence burning in them along with something human…yearning, affection. As though he needed her to be safe, it was important to him.

Gwen leaned against the jamb, clutching it for support. Rarely had she been precious to anyone, especially those who should have protected her.

She’d never spoken to her father. He refused to acknowledge her existence, while her mother had too many problems of her own to deal with a child. If not for Staci, Gwen wouldn’t have known what family was supposed to be. Kuma’s concern reminded her of what she’d missed. It touched something deep within her, so long denied, urging Gwen to go to him, to cradle him close.

Before she could, he bounded away into the darkness.

That had been ten endless minutes ago. As she had earlier, Staci grabbed Gwen’s wrist now, keeping her from reaching for the doorknob.

“Oh God, please,” she said, “don’t go out there.”

“I have to.” Gwen yanked free. “What if he’s hurt? I can help him.”

“You’re a nurse, not a vet.”

A what? “Hey.” She glared at her cousin. “He’s still a man—a decent, brave, honorable man, got it?”

“I don’t get any of this,” Staci hollered, gesturing wildly. “We should call 911. They’ll know what to do.” She headed for the wall phone.

Gwen slapped Staci’s hand away from the receiver. “Uh-uh. No way are you calling the cops.”

“Why not?”

“Are you serious?” Gwen swung her hand in the direction of her bedroom. “You saw what Kuma turned into in there. How long do you think he’d last if someone outside saw what he did—what he’d become? They’d take him down like a fucking rabid dog.”

Staci pressed her fists to her chest, her pose reminiscent of a little girl scared shitless. “We can’t just let this continue. It’s nuts.”

And the guy in the alley hitting Gwen with a tranquilizer dart wasn’t? If not for Kuma, she’d have been raped, dead or worse by now. “He rescued me tonight, Staci. He didn’t have to do that. I’m not going to let anyone harm him.”

“Maybe someone already has.”

Gwen got in Staci’s face and bared her teeth at the girl. “Don’t say that. Don’t even think it. Where’s my gun?” She curled her upper lip at Staci’s empty hands. “Did you leave it in my bedroom?”

“Don’t worry. It’s on the nightstand.”

“Fucking lot of good it’ll do us there. Go get it.”

“So you can leave and get yourself killed?” Staci backed away and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. She tapped her foot against the floor. “I don’t think so.”

Gwen lifted her chin to the ceiling and sighed. “I’m not going to get killed.”

“You’re not going out there either. If you haven’t yet noticed, you’re naked.”

She’d forgotten about that. “Get my clothes.”

Staci pushed out her lower lip.

“Please,” Gwen added. “Someone has to let him back in when he returns. Do you want that to be you?”

“And disappoint him?” She arched one blonde brow. “I saw how he kept staring at you.”

Heat rushed to Gwen’s face and throat. “You’re crazy.”

“Maybe, but I’m not blind. I do remember what a guy looks like when he’s interested.”

Gwen wasn’t about to debate the point. She would have changed the subject, but it was already too late. Staci’s fight had gone, her sigh seeming to deflate her. Her shoulders sagged as though she had no choice other than to accept that a man would never look at her with passion again.