The Werewolf Meets His Match (Nocturne Falls Book 2) (4 page)

Hank frowned. He probably would have done the same thing. And left the same amount of bruising. She had to be shifter. Or some kind of supernatural. He inhaled, but the smell of shifter was everywhere in the station with himself, Deputy Cruz and Birdie being here all the time. “What did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t.” With a smirk, she lay down on the cot and returned to inspecting her nails.

Hank went back to his office to start the paperwork on her charges. His inbox chimed as he sat down. He pulled up the message from Clemens Kincaid with the subject line,
Your new wife
, and opened it, scrolling down to the attached picture. He stared in disbelief, a growl building in his throat. “Hell no. This is the woman I’m supposed to marry?”

“What was that, Hank?” Birdie called out.

“Nothing. And you can cancel the IAFIS search. I already know who she is.” He ran a quick background search, printed out the info and tucked it into a file, then marched back to cell number three and glared at the woman inside it. Flirting with bad girls was one thing.

Marrying one was another.

Anger made his jaw tight. “You’re Ivy Kincaid.”

Her smile dropped and the slightest hint of fear played through her smoky eyes before she dropped her gaze and straightened upright on the cot. “And you’re Hank Merrow.”

Was she afraid of him? He hadn’t expected that. But then, their packs had been enemies since well before either of them was born. Afraid was probably an understatement.

She must be terrified of him. Of what he might do to her. She was being offered to him like a piece of property, all to firm up a deal. Knowing her father, she’d probably had less say about this than he did.

That took the sizzle out of his shock. She had no more to do with this than the man in the moon. With a heavy sigh, he lifted the keys from his belt and unlocked the cell. “Let’s go to my office.”

Hank Merrow was gorgeous. Not average good-looking, not handsome at the right angle, not all right with dim lighting.
Gorgeous
. Which was both a blessing and a curse. He was the kind of hot that gave a woman wicked thoughts and sucked the sense out of her head. Ivy tried not to fidget in the wooden chair across from his desk, but parts of her were getting uncomfortably warm.

She tried to remind herself that Hank Merrow, while still the enemy and a complete question mark, might also turn out to be her salvation. It was a helluva shot, but once her father had told her she’d be marrying a Merrow to seal the new treaty, she’d decided to think positively. To make the most of this new situation. To believe that life really could get better.

Because the alternative was unthinkable. And this certainly couldn’t be worse.

Hank’s lips were moving.

She leaned forward. “What?”

“I said how long have you been in town?”

“Oh, uh, just since last night.”

“First night in town and you get drunk, start a fight and end up arrested? What do you plan on doing for an encore?”

She crossed her arms. So he was a hard ass. She’d had a lot of practice dealing with those. “I wasn’t drunk. I’d had two beers. And I didn’t really start that fight—”

“You already told me you hit him.” He opened a file and read. “And I quote, ‘Then I punched him.’”

“Look, I know what I said, but the guy was a creep and he deserved it. I told you what happened. He was roughing up his girlfriend.”

Hank stared at her, his blue eyes stupidly mesmerizing. He must really be something in full wolf form. Finally he blew out a breath. “I’ll talk him into dropping the charges.”

“You will? Thank you. I guess you don’t want your fiancée to have an arrest record, huh?” She smiled hopefully.

“Did you think I wouldn’t check up on you?” He flipped to a new page in the file. “You already have one. And don’t use that word.”

“What word?” She knew perfectly well what word he meant. She just wanted him to say it so he’d get used to the idea.

“Fiancée.”

The way he grimaced when he said it almost made her snort. “Don’t worry. You only have to call me that for three more days.”

He frowned. “Why’s that?”

“Because after that I’ll be your
wife
.”

His frown deepened.

She settled into the chair a little more then pointed at the file. “That arrest was for protesting the use of a rather controversial pesticide in Smoky Mountains National Park.”

He grunted. “You’re a tree hugger?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Have you ever run through that park?”

“The Georgia Pack hasn’t been allowed access to that park since—”

She held her hand up. “Right, sorry. I forgot about the edict.” Her father had declared the park off limits to anyone who wasn’t a registered member of the Tennessee Pack. “But I can tell you it’s beautiful. The kind of place that makes you forget your troubles and makes you glad to be a shifter. Completely spectacular. And the Army Corp of Engineers was going to bombard the place with a pesticide that would kill off this little black beetle that sometimes infests the trees. I’m all for saving trees, but that pesticide had the potential to kill off some of the other native species…birds, fish, you name it.”

He squinted. “You’d rather the beetle lived and the trees died?”

“No.” She rolled her eyes. “But there was a safer solution.”

“Such as?”

“Increasing the population of woodpeckers in the area. You know, set up a breeding program, that kind of thing.”

“Uh huh.” He flipped to another page. “And the grand theft auto?”

“I was eighteen and only along for the ride. My biggest crime was a bad choice in male companionship. Besides, that charge got pleaded down to unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Which is a misdemeanor, in case you didn’t know.”

“I did know, thanks.”

The slight sarcasm in his tone frustrated her. “Dude, I was eighteen. Didn’t you ever do anything stupid when you were eighteen?”

A cloud of emotion flickered in his gaze for a hot second, then it was gone. “No.” He closed the file. “Where are you staying?”

“The holding cell is pretty comfortable.”

“I’m serious. Where are you staying?”

“Don’t know yet. Got any recommendations?”

His eyes narrowed. “How much can you afford?”

“Something between bench in the park and youth hostel.” It would be funny if it wasn’t true.

He sighed. “I have a guest room. You can stay with me. We need to get to know each other anyway.”

Since her father had sent her here with very little money and a threat hanging over her head, she’d take it. She had no choice. Not until the marriage was official. After that, she was getting Charlie back and the two of them were getting away from anyone who knew the name Kincaid. They’d have their fresh start and a chance to live their lives anyway they wanted to. “No monkey business. We may be getting married, but I don’t know you from a hole in the ground. I’m not just going to jump into bed with you because—”

He held up his hand. “That’s the last thing on my mind, I promise you.”

She smiled, knowing it was in her best interests to be as charming and likable as possible. Starting now. “In that case, it’s so gentlemanly of you to offer. You won’t even know I’m there.”

He snorted. “Somehow I doubt that.”

Birdie stared at Hank like he’d grown a horn. She gave Ivy a quick, judgmental glance, then returned to Hank. “You’re leaving with
her
.”

Hank grunted. “I’ll explain later, Birdie. You know how to reach me.”

She shook her head. “But I don’t understand…”

Hank pointed Ivy toward the back door of the station. “Car’s that way.”

Ivy kept her mouth shut until he opened the door on the passenger’s side for her and she got in. “That’s a relief. For a second I thought I might have to ride in the back again.”

He gave her a look as he shut the door and went around to the driver’s side.

“Your receptionist isn’t going to be happy when my prints come back and she finds out I’m a Kincaid.”

He pulled out of the lot. “I’ll deal with my aunt.”

“She’s your aunt?” Ivy laughed. “Wow. I would not have figured that.”

“She’s a good woman. Just nosy. And terrible at her job.”

“I’m guessing it’s the family connection that keeps her there?”

He nodded.

She started to lift her feet like she was going to put them on the dash, then apparently thought better of it. “That’s how a lot of Kincaids keep their jobs, too.”

He glanced at her. “Like who?”

“Like my older brothers.”

“They pretty deep in your father’s pocket?”

She twisted to face him. “You asking me as a law man or my intended?”

“Just trying to learn more about the family I’m marrying into.”

She hesitated. “Yeah, they’re in deep. If they’d been arrested, my father would have just flown in and paid off whoever it took to get them out. Because that’s how Clemens Kincaid rolls when it comes to his boys. Speaking of, can we not let him know about this incident? Although I do need to tell him I’ve arrived.”

“I won’t bring it up if you don’t.” Hank glanced over at her. “And with you? How’s ol’ Clem roll with you?”

She stared forward, but that didn’t hide the anger in her eyes. “He pretty much ignored me until he’d realized there was something to gain in marrying me off.”

Hank couldn’t imagine his father treating Bridget like a commodity. She’d always been his princess, his baby girl. And he’d always made sure her brothers treated her that way too. Hank pulled into Howler’s back lot. A lone Softail sat in the parking lot. It was a sweet ride, made even sweeter by the thought of Ivy on it. “That your bike?”

“Yep.” She opened the door, looking back at him like she expected him to say something else.

If he’d upset her with the questions, he hadn’t meant to. But he also didn’t know how to apologize for trying to find out more about her. All he could come up with was, “Follow me home. It’s not far.”

“Right behind you.” She shut the door and climbed onto her bike, popping her helmet on before starting the engine. Why hadn’t she taken off instead of coming here to begin with? There was still a chance she’d run but Hank figured she was more scared of Clem than she was of him. Clem had a reputation for punishing pack members who disobeyed him. Hank supposed that extended to family as well.

He turned out of the lot toward home. She stayed behind him and as she followed him through town, he tried to see things through her eyes. The place was packed with tourists, many kitted up in Nocturne Falls T-shirts, but some were in costumes or half-masks or face paint. The kids were decked out in their favorite Halloween get-ups. It probably seemed crazy to her, and it was in a way, but he admired the cleverness of it. Being a supernatural and not having to hide your real identity all the time made life so much easier.

They left the town behind and drove into the hills, and the countryside grew more rural. He pulled into the entrance of his community, tapped the clicker pinned to his sun visor and waited for the gate to open, then went in slowly so she could keep up with him.

He tried to see his neighborhood the same way he’d seen the town.