Wicked Werewolf Passion (2 page)

Lucas’s lips twisted wryly. “Hey man. I give a shit. Just don’t get warm and fuzzy with me.”

“Not a problem,” Shi assured him, clearing the high doorway meant to accommodate the common height of a male wolf, in his case, six feet four inches. Shi didn’t do warm and fuzzy, but had an especially intense distaste for the kind of warm and fuzzy meant to hide deceit that had stuck with him the past hundred years, since the slaughter of his family. Since this place had become home. Only it hadn’t been home the past eleven months. Not since Nico had all but shackled him and shipped him off on special assignment, away from temptation and the slammer. His gut clenched.
Without even saying goodbye to Carmen. Because Nico was right
, he reminded himself.
You wouldn’t have said goodbye. You had to let him do it for you.
It was true. Shi knew this. And while Carmen’s father had seemed to recover without memory of the attack, the risk of triggering that memory too soon could be grave. Which brought Shi to the question he’d had since Nico’s short phone call and command he return. Why had Nico summoned him when Carmen’s birthday was still a month away? Whatever was going on had to be big because Nico didn’t take unnecessary risks. 

Shi paused at the top of the set of stairs that separated him from her, the sound of old school rock n’ roll blaring through the wooden floors. Everything inside him screamed to go to her, when he knew how dangerous that was, how forbidden she was. 

Damn it to hell Nico, what am I doing here and why is she at the same place I am?

With a low growl, Shi raked a rough hand through his long, red-streaked black hair, steeling himself for the impact of seeing the woman he’d left until he knew for certain their future. He hit the bottom step and brought his old familiar hangout into view, the packed stools at the mahogany bar to his left, the equally packed tables to his right. He made a b-line towards the back room that Nico, and his Second in Charge, Kole, favored, his skin prickling with the certainty she was near. 

“Shi!” 

He heard Carmen’s voice, before he saw her, his name on her lips spoken in the soft, feminine sweetness, and then suddenly she was in front of him, throwing her arms around his neck. He inhaled the scent of her long, red hair, and emotion welled in his chest, the kind he didn’t want to feel for anyone again in this lifetime, but she managed to create in him. A hot rush of heat followed that emotion, desire ripping through him, uncontrollable in a way a male of his age didn’t experience unless he was with his one mate. Her breasts pressed to his chest, her lush curves melded to his body. Somehow, his hand settled on her back without moving.   

“Oh God, I can’t believe you’re here,” she whispered in his ear, and pulled back.  “I missed you.” Her hands were still on his arms, her brows dipping as she inspected him. “Don’t you dare look like you’ve committed a crime by hugging me. You were my bodyguard during the worst time of my life. I damn well get to hug you when I see you again.” She blinked up at him, and he could see the glimmer of dampness in her eyes, her voice lowering. “I...we...”

“Don’t,” he warned softly, reminding her there was no such thing as a whisper where wolves were involved. “I have to see Nico.”

A wounded look rushed over her face. “We have to talk, Shi. I need to talk to you.”

“I know.”

“When?”

“Soon.” He started to turn away, aware of too many eyes on them but she grabbed his arm, holding his attention, as if he really wanted to be anywhere but with her. “Promise me you won’t leave without seeing me first.”

He stared down into her baby blue eyes, trying not to notice how the skin colored dress she wore clung to every lush curve he burned to touch. They were walking a tightrope that could lead him to jail if Carmen’s father snapped again. 

“Shi,” Carmen pleaded again. 

He also saw the desperateness in her eyes, and it was beyond him to refuse her, even though he should. “I promise.” He didn’t give either of them time to say more. Shi turned away from her, and headed for the back room, where a waitress sent him to a private dining room Nico had sound proofed years before. 

Shi closed the door to the small room barely large enough to hold the small circular booth and slid into it with Nico and Kole. “You think you could have picked a place where she wasn’t?” 

Kole arched a blond brow and played dumb. “Who are we talking about?” 

“Fucking smart ass,” Shi grumbled, and eyed the red leather Kole had on. “And what the hell are you wearing?”

“I like my enemies to know I’m coming and that they still can’t get away.”  

Nico raked a hand over his goatee. “She showed up right before you got here when I’ve never seen her here before tonight. It’s like she knew you were coming when that’s not possible.” He shoved a tequila shot Shi’s direction. “And we chose the bar because we thought you’d need a drink or ten to get by, being back.” He narrowed an amber stare on Shi. “How’d you hold up?”

Shi downed the shot, feeling the burn, and knowing he’d need another five to begin to feel a buzz. He motioned to the waitress to make it happen. “Like a wolf in heat, so why I am here before I can do something about it?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Nico said. 

Shi ordered a bottle of tequila because that response from Nico, who always had control and knew all, couldn’t be good.  Kole shoved his shot at Shi and he drank it. Sometimes a wolf’s metabolism wasn’t a welcome one. Like on the rare occasion you wanted to get shit-faced. 

“The leader of the Alaska Royal Patrol says he has information regarding a Rebel infiltration inside the Patrol,” Kole said.  The patrol being the wolves who discreetly policed the cities around the world, protecting both the secrets and security of their race, while ensuring humans didn’t get mistakenly put on anyone’s food chain.  

That got Shi’s attention considering he’d spent most of the past year seeking out the very traitors they were now talking about. That absence of warm and fuzzy had gotten way worse since being separated from Carmen but it had come in handy when dealing out swift justice. 

The waitress set the bottle on the table and filled Shi’s shot glass and he waited until she was gone to cast Nico a scrutinizing stare. “Surely you could have passed on the information to me and kept me the hell out of here for another month.”

Kole downed a shot. “That’s where it gets interesting.” He motioned to Shi’s glass. “I’d suggest you drink that before we tell you how interesting.”

A trickle of unease slide down his spine, and Shi kept his eyes locked on Nico.  “What’s he talking about?”

“Since you’ve had such success dealing with this issue, Alexander told the council he thought your presence would be helpful.”

Shi’s blood ran cold and suddenly tequila sounded like a very bad idea. He needed to be fully cognizant and ready for battle. And this was headed for a battle, he had no doubt. “And he still seemingly has no memory of the night he attacked me?”

Nico’s lips thinned. “So it seems.”

Shi laughed without humor. “I’m not buying it. He wanted me back here before Carmen’s birthday.”

“If you’re right,” Nico said, “and I believe you are, he has plans for you.

Kole snorted. “And they don’t involve Sunday football and dinner with the would-be mate.”

“Not unless I’m the dinner,” Shi agreed, glancing between Nico and Kole. “Any idea what he’s planning?” 

“Aside from my assumption he wants you dead before you can mate with Carmen,” Nico drawled, “not even a scent, and believe me we’ve been trying.”

“And you can bet he knows we’re trying,” Kole pointed out. “He knows how good and how connected we are, and yet, he’s fearless.”

“How sane is he now?” Shi asked, hoping his craziness explained his confidence, not about to make the mistake of believing Alexander really didn’t remember the past. 

“He’s convinced everyone he’s back to normal,” Nico said. “Even Carmen.”

Shi had worked with Nico for thirty of his hundred and ten years alive. He knew how to read between the lines. “But he’s not.”  

“The differences are subtle but they exist,” Nico confirmed. “So here’s the plan. We need to get you to the testimony at two o’clock tomorrow and then get you out of here again without event.” Nico plopped a set of keys on the table. “I have a place I keep as a safe house. It’s off the grid, wired, and secure. No one can get to you there and the added bonus is you can’t get to Carmen. Everything wolf inside me screams Alexander is looking for a setup. You don’t need to fuck up and get caught with her now and I don’t trust your hormones anywhere near her. You’re too close to freedom to be with her. We’ll come to you tomorrow and head to the hearing together and walk out with you.”

Shi grabbed the keys. Nico was right. He had to get out of here and he had to stay away from Carmen. It was going to be absolute torture but he had to do it. “Can you-”

“I’ll talk to her,” Nico said. “You just make sure you don’t. Mating heat is nothing to under estimate, Shi. You of all people know that.”

The memory of being deep inside ‘the haze’, the lethal result of a male wolf who needed to mate being thrown into hormone overload, ground through him, and that had been with a wolf he despised. “She’s not of age yet.”

“Yeah well, maybe not,” Nico said, “but clearly you recognize Carmen for what she is already.  In anything else I’d bet my life on your control. In this – I’d bet on you not having it.” 

Shi wanted to argue but he couldn’t when just hearing Carmen’s name heated his blood. “That makes two of us.” Control was not his friend right now and neither was Alexander.

***

Fifteen minutes later, Shi had gotten directions to the safe house and he headed out of the hotel on his Harley, plenty skilled enough to dodge anyone who followed him. And sure enough, he hadn’t made it a block and there was another bike a few cars back, doing a piss pour job of following him. Shi’s lips quirked. Whoever this was, they really didn’t know just how bad a fucking mood he was in, or how much he’d enjoy wiping the pavement with them tonight. 

Shi cut off the highway to a side street and then down a dark ally. He skidded to a halt behind a dumpster, got off the bike, ditched his helmet, and was flat against the wall, weapon in hand in a flash in all of a few seconds. The other bike rounded the corner and came to a complete stop and Shi brought the slight form of a rider in a helmet into view. The wind lifted and his nostrils flared with instant awareness. Carmen.  Fuck! She could have been followed. She flipped up her mask a second before he was by her side, snatching her off of her bike. 

“Are you crazy?” he demanded. “You could have been followed.”

“So far we’re alone,” she breathed, and damn it, the leather pants she wore hugged her body like second skin – the way he wanted to. “I had to see you.”

And any second someone could round that corner. Shi lifted her off the bike, holding her close when he should have slid her immediately away from him. “You’re on dangerous territory.”

 “As long as I’m there with you,” she declared sounding as breathless and desperate. For him. That realization burned through him and called to both man and wolf in a way nothing had in his entire life. No. She called to him as no one ever had. He told himself to send her on her way. He told himself all the reasons he needed to stay away from her, at least for now. But another part of him said nothing was ever for certain. They didn’t know they were mates. They didn’t know there would be a tomorrow. Hell, they both knew more than most that tomorrow was never certain. Shi wasn’t going to the safe house without her.

Chapter Two

Nico’s idea of a safe house, Shi quickly discovered, was a ritzy guarded stucco place in the high-end Summerlin area north of the strip. With Carmen wrapped tightly around him from behind, and every nerve he owned aware of her pressed close, Shi used the remote control Nico had given him to open the gate and then seal it shut after they passed. 

Once on the property, high concrete walls ensured they weren’t seen from outside. Another punch of a button and the state-of-the-art security system secured them for the night. A paved drive took them directly to the garage and yet another punch of a button let them inside, dim lights flickering to life as they entered. 

Even before Shi killed the engine on his bike, the special electronic door had slid down and sealed them inside safely. Carmen climbed off the seat, yanking away her helmet. Shi was seconds behind her, ditching his own helmet, and watching her gloriously red hair tumble around her shoulders, his gut tightening at the way the leather she wore clung to the body he’d long resisted touching. 

“Shi I-”

She never finished the sentence. He was too hungry for her, too ravenous with need. One kiss, one taste, was all he’d had of her, and it had been all he’d had to hold him over for nearly a year. Shi pulled her into his arms, slanting his mouth over hers and stroking his tongue into the hot, wet recesses of sweet bliss. Drinking her in. He molded her close, feeling the soft curves of her body against his. 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered against his mouth between kisses, her fingers curled on his jaw. “I‘m sorry, Shi.”

“I’m not,” he murmured, but it came out more a hungry growl. “I’m glad you’re here.” White hot fire licked at his limbs, and Shi knew he had to act. He laced his fingers inside hers and started towards the door, knowing if he didn’t get her inside he’d forget how much he wanted to slowly make love to her, and fuck her right here in the garage. Which would be bad and wrong. He was driven by so damn much lust and need, he felt like he was about to combust.