Tempting Whispers: The Kategan Alphas 6 (2 page)

She wanted to stand there with his hand
touching her gently, wanted to wrap her arms around him and just hug another
good person, but she couldn’t. So, with a sad smile, she tugged her arm out of
his grasp. “I can’t tell you that. For all your good intentions, you might just
do more harm than good. ’Bye now.”

She turned and forced one foot in front
of the other. She wondered if he’d call out to her, if he’d stop her. Worse,
her gut was clenched with excitement that he just might do it. But he didn’t
and she tried to tell herself it didn’t bother her. She was doing the right
thing, she knew it.

* * *

Brayden let her go—for now. If she wasn’t
going to give him answers, then he’d find them. She had no idea just how good
at that he was. Or she’d forgotten at how skilled he was at tracking.

Inside, he cornered the secretary behind
the lobby’s main desk. He checked her nametag for her name. “Sara, what did
that woman want?”

Sara’s eyes sparked with pleasure and
Brayden wanted to shake her. Certain women seemed to always find him attractive
and it either helped or hindered whatever he was doing. He hoped for the prior
in this case.

“The woman that made the scene?”

He glared at her in answer.

She fidgeted with her collar. “Yes, her,
of course. She came asking questions about an annulment, divorce, things like
that. I told her both parties must be present for any formal arrangements, and
when she threw a fit, I called security.” She tossed a bright-white smile up at
him and he left without a word.

Settling into his SUV, he turned the car
on then sat back, his thumb idly scratching his chin. He caught stubble there
and made note to shave later. The questions wouldn’t leave his mind. What was
Vanessa Kategan doing in Chicago and whom was she trying to get a divorce from?
His mind scoured the events that took place two years before. The name Joseph
popped up. She’d run away from her father because he planned to have her mated
to Joseph, an older Alpha from a different pack. In return, they’d combine
packs to have more land. By law and duty, she had to obey her father. His gut
twisted tight with nerves. Law was law and needed to be obeyed. He’d chosen his
job based off his own personal beliefs. He’d even told her then that she should
be a good daughter and do what was needed of her. Now he clenched his jaw and
squeezed his eyes shut to the pounding sting banging at his temples. Had he
made a mistake?

Grabbing his cellphone out of the center
console, he flipped through the contacts to Vane Kategan. His finger hovered
over the green ‘call’ button. With a curse, he shut his phone and tossed it
into the passenger seat.

He put the car into drive and took off.
He’d find her and figure out what she was up to. Even if that meant sending her
back to where she came.

Chapter 3

Vanessa couldn’t stop looking over her
shoulder. She wasn’t sure what she’d find. A tall, gorgeous man with a full
head of thick, slightly curling hair, and lips that taunted her to taste them,
or a shorter, stauncher man with meaty fists and a steadfast frown. A chill
swept down her spine at the thought of Joseph. She petted the pocketknife in
her jean pocket to calm herself.

The sun began its descent from the sky.
A crackle of thunder clapped overhead and she jumped, her legs moving faster.
The streetlights kicked on, casting the streets in a dim yellow glow. She
passed a small 7-Eleven crammed between two clothing stores in large
brownstone-type buildings and turned left at the next street. She spotted the
glowing neon sign for the trendy little coffee shop she’d taken a job at, and
sighed.

She dashed across the street and rushed
inside, the feeling of eyes on her only now lessening from the warmth of the
room and laughter of the small crowd already gathered. A Cup of Joe was a
trendy coffee shop with a small stage set up for poetry readings, small local
bands, and karaoke nights. The furniture consisted of old, vintage-style chairs
and worn-out leather sofas sandwiched together in a tight area. The aroma of
vanilla, cocoa, and chocolate made her sigh as she made her way into the
employee’s lounge in the back. She had a small locker here and inside sat her
only belongings—a satchel of things she’d managed to grab in a hurry.

“Hey, Vanessa,” a male voice called out.

She pulled on the dark brown apron and
pulled her hair back into a tie before turning around. Her boss, a youngish
human in his thirties checked his watch then smiled. “You’re on time. Good, I
like punctuality. Want to try your hand at taking orders tonight?”

“Yeah, sure.”

He handed her a small pad and pen. “Have
at it and don’t forget to clock in.”

Time passed in a whirl of dirty coffee
cups, fresh brew, and bawdy laughter from the guests. The muscles in her back
felt tense and hard and she desperately wanted a massage or a steaming hot
bath. But she dredged on carrying trays laden with iced and hot coffee drinks
until the clock struck midnight. As the last guest left, she sighed and got to
work wiping down the tables and sweeping up the joint. Her boss, Rob, and the
other three employees joked and laughed at the bar as they wiped it down and
ran the dishwasher. She wished she didn’t feel alone, left out, but she did.
Maybe it was for the best that she didn’t try to make friends. Yeah, making
friends could make possible targets. See? Being alone wasn’t so bad after all.

In the back room, she put away the
broom, dirty towels, and hung up her apron. She counted her tips and grimaced.
Twenty-nine bucks and fifty cents.

“Hell,” she muttered.

She stuffed her measly change into her
bag, waved goodbye to everyone, and stepped outside. The strong male presence
hit her fast and hard. With frantic fingers, she reached into her pocket and
clenched the pocketknife in her hand, which she’d bought after escaping. With
the press of a button, the blade stuck out. She kept it flat and pressed
against her thigh as her eyes darted left and right, narrowed on the passing
cars, searching every face, every window in the building across from her until
her eyes hurt from squinting into the night. Someone watched her. Someone was
here.

The door opened behind her and she
jumped. Rob frowned at her. He was only slightly taller than her, with a little
extra weight around the middle of his tucked in striped shirt. “Hey, you okay?
Need a ride home?”

She quickly retracted the blade. Home?
She couldn’t bear to admit she didn’t have one right now. “No. No thanks.”

He eyed her curiously, then nodded. “Stay
safe; I’ll see you tomorrow, same time, okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be here. ’Bye, Rob!” She put
on a false smile, then forced her body to turn and walk down the street.

The idea of half-sleeping in the
bathroom at Walmart again twisted her gut into a queasy nasty mess. Every time
the door opened, she’d jump and flush the toilet she’d been sleeping on.
Sometimes she’d have to leave when the cleaning crew came, but so far, no one
suspected that she was actually using the place as a slum. That wouldn’t last
much longer. It didn’t help that she’d made barely a hundred bucks in the week
she’d been working at Rob’s coffee shop.

The storm loomed overhead still. Streaks
of puffy clouds growled and rumbled. The scent of unfallen rain teased her
nose. Before long, she’d be walking in the rain. She quickened her pace. She
still had a good fifteen blocks to go to get to Walmart. At the next
intersection, she stopped and waited to get her signal to cross when a black
SUV pulled up in front of her. Panic flared fast. She pressed the button on her
switchblade as every muscle in her body tightened, readied.
I’ll be ready
this time
. The darkly tinted windows didn’t allow her to see inside. Even
the pale yellow streetlight offered no help. The hairs on the back of her neck
shot straight up, then the window lowered with a whirr of the mechanism
working.

Her muscles relaxed in an instant. A
wobbly laugh escaped and she retracted the blade deftly before pocketing it
again. “I guess you found me.” Why did she feel so happy at seeing Brayden? It
had to be the idea of safety he gave her. Whether imagined, real or not, she
felt it around him.

“Of course, I did. I’m a great tracker.
Or did you forget?” A bolt of lightning pierced the sky followed by a cracking
explosion of thunder that made her jump. “Get in the car.”

She was about to turn down the offer
when the sky split open and wet fat droplets pelted down on her. “Yeah, okay.”
She hopped into the big SUV and grimaced. It was the same one he’d dragged her
into after she’d tried to run away from her Kategan cousins pack. She’d
realized that no matter how much Vane wanted to help her, he was still going to
turn her over to her father. So she’d tried to flee. Yeah, that hadn’t turned
out quite as she’d planned. Dmetri and Brayden had been there as if they knew
her plan in intimate detail. The bastards.

He pulled away from the curb and took
off down the rain-slicked street. “Where are you staying?”

Yeah, she so wasn’t going there with
him. “How’d you find me?” she countered.

She watched him drive from the corner of
her eye. He took the turns easily, pressing the accelerator and brakes smoothly
when needed, never once jarring her in her seat. He kept both hands on the
wheel in the perfect ten and two positions—textbook driving. Hell, everything
about him was textbook. It was ingrained in everything he did—controlled, by
the book. Or, rather, by the law with him.

She wondered what it would take, what he
would be like if she broke that control, snapped it like a piece of thread. A
pulse throbbed deep inside her, a lick of heat. She stilled at the sensual
feeling and looked away so he wouldn’t see the shock on her face. A tumultuous
smile trembled on her lips and she fingered it idly. She hadn’t had a thought like
that...a thought like she used to have in a long time. She wanted to laugh;
wanted to throw her arms around someone and dance. For the first time since she
left Joseph, she knew that she wasn’t broken.

“You should know I’m a great tracker.
Your scent is easy to find.”

That got her attention. She smiled big
but didn’t care, because it felt so good. “Oh, do you like it?” She hadn’t
meant to ask it, but her happiness in the moment had swept her up, lowered her
inhibitions.

He hit the brakes at a red light and she
went diving forward in her seat, only the seatbelt keeping her from hitting the
dashboard face first. She glared at him, but he kept his face forward, head
half hidden in the shadows of the car. “What are you doing in Chicago?”

She sighed and squeezed her eyes shut as
a sharp pain began throbbing in her temple and somewhere in the back of her
eyes. “Working.”

“At a coffee shop?” His obvious
disbelief made her laugh. She’d forgotten how deep his voice was, how poignant.

“Yes, at a coffee shop.” God, it felt so
good to talk to someone she knew. Well, in this case, ‘knew’ was a relative
term, but still. Someone who wouldn’t hurt her. Plus, he was easy on the eyes.
Not every man was built like that, with an athletic grace that showed in the
simplest movements, like walking. It gave a girl ideas.

He pulled onto the highway and rain
pelted the window like little firecrackers. “Vanessa, no one leaves their home,
their state, to work at a college coffee shop in mid-Chicago. Tell me what’s
really going on.”

His words cut through her like a silken
blade. “I can’t do that.” Her smile died.

“If you don’t, then I’m calling Vane. I
have a good feeling he doesn’t know you’re here.”

She turned to him in her seat, her mouth
threatening to drop open. “Excuse me? I’m not a kid anymore. He’s not my father
and this doesn’t concern him. Hell, it doesn’t even concern you.”

“It does now,” he said with such
authority she clenched her hands into fists until her biceps started to burn
with sweet pain.

“You do not control me,” she said in a
soft voice.

The car slowed as they pulled onto a
dirt path. He shot her a look, his lips pulled down into a frown. “I know that,
and I’m not trying to. What’s going on?”

Vanessa crossed her arms and stared at
the dirt path sweeping by them, at the rows of trees encasing either side of
the rode. She debated her options and still had no clue which choice was the
right one. A thought struck her. “What do I get if I tell you?”

A sound, almost like a laugh, escaped
him. “How about a safe place to sleep?”

She almost moaned at the thought of
sleeping on a bed in a house. Safe, without any worries. She didn’t think on it
long. “Deal.”

He pulled off the main dirt road to a
paved street that circled around. A large white house stood at the opposite end;
the fancy circular driveway looked like it’d be easy to come and go. She didn’t
know why his house surprised her, but it did. It wasn’t anything she’d ever
contemplated before. But now, she couldn’t help but feel surprised. The house
was two stories and very square and very white. Staring at it, the words simple
and clean came to mind. That and windows were everywhere. Very tall, imposing
windows that lined the front of the house and even up on the second floor. It
looked like the kind of house that belonged on a beachfront property, not
hidden back in the woods on the outskirts of Chicago.