Wild (41 page)

“But this one was left on the trail so that someone would find it, and then the others were dropped off at the vet's. Someone wants it known what they are doing, but they're not ready to reveal themselves as the culprit,” Phelan offered.

“And that is why we need to get it before it does this again,” Malec replied, almost vehemently this time.

Blaez nodded. “And we will. Just before dawn was when you heard it, so we'll head out tomorrow at the same time. We'll see what we can scent and, if need be, send out another call. We'll find whatever is out there to be found, and we'll deal with it. Understand?” Blaez asked Malec.

Malec nodded tightly. “Understand.”

He stood from the table and walked out of the room. Channing waited only a moment before standing and following him.

“You wanna tell me the rest?” Channing said from the doorway of Malec's room.

It was always dark in there, despite the two large windows on the one wall. Custom-fit room-darkening blinds were to blame for that. Malec had insisted upon them, causing the others to tease that maybe he was actually a vampire instead of a lycan. In contrast to Channing's room, all of Malec's furniture was heavy, dark wood polished until it gleamed. His king-sized bed sat in the middle of the bedroom floor, dominating the rest of the space. Two chairs situated near the window held black leather cushions and on the small table in between, a lamp and Malec's tablet. The top of the dresser was clear but for another lamp and was where Malec had stopped to place the cell phone he removed from his sweatpants pocket and his car keys.

“There's nothing more to tell,” he answered, his voice clipped and notably irritated.

Channing slipped his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. “You don't usually howl when you're running.”

“I don't usually find half-dead deer when I'm running either,” Malec snapped before pulling his T-shirt up and over his head.

With a nod Channing allowed the snap and entered the room when he knew that was the last thing Malec wanted him to do. Malec Zenta liked his space. He liked to brood alone, to think about his past, and to contemplate his future. He would probably have been a loner if he had not found their pack, since he'd walked away from his family after his twin brother's death. That had been Malec's way of walking away from the breed and the “curse” as his brother, Mason, had put it, once and for all. And then he'd joined the Marines and met Blaez.

Channing had already met Blaez at an assembly in his senior year of high school. Blaez had been there speaking on behalf of the armed forces, telling the students that hadn't already decided to attend college that there was a place for them in the Marines or any of the other branches of the military. Channing had no idea what he wanted to do once he graduated, and after listening to Blaez speak he still didn't know. What Channing had known for sure was that he was going to follow that man and ask him about being a lycan because, after the strange thing had happened to him when he turned fifteen and all the research he'd done in the two years since then, Channing was certain that's exactly what Blaez Trekas was.

He hadn't had to ask Blaez a damned thing or follow him for that matter. The alpha had been standing right beside the beat-up old Toyota that Channing had saved all summer to buy. Out of twenty-two hundred students in that auditorium Blaez had recognized Channing as a beta, and that day in the parking lot he'd brought him into his pack.

As for Malec, he'd come along about six months later, after Channing was halfway through basic training. Malec had just been transferred to their barracks, and before he could change out of his street clothes Blaez had called Malec to meet with him, Phelan, and Channing. And from that moment the Trekas pack was complete.

The bond between Malec and Channing had grown steadily, if not begrudgingly, from that moment on. Malec was a constant storm while Channing considered himself the calm aftermath. There could not be one without the other.

“You need to relax,” Channing told him. “Why don't we go out?”

Malec paused. He'd been on his way into his bathroom when he turned to look at Channing.

“You've been going out without me. Why ask now?”

“I know when to leave you alone,” Channing replied. “And when you need to find release before you really hurt someone or yourself.”

Malec shook his head. “You know that's not me.”

No, it wasn't, Channing thought. Malec's twin had committed suicide because he couldn't handle a life of being a lycan, being different from the majority of the world and the burden of keeping that secret. On the other hand, Malec owned who and what he was, and while he didn't wear it as a medal of honor the way Channing had come to look at it, he accepted his responsibilities, and he'd made a commitment to Blaez. There was no way he would ever do any intentional harm to himself.

But he had been denying himself release for weeks now, ever since they'd battled Kira's father's pack. Two full moons had passed in that time, two cycles of power and lust that would drive a normal lycan insane.
Repressed
was not an accurate enough word for what his friend was going through right now. Which was probably the real reason for his howling in the forest this morning. Malec was horny. He needed to get laid like yesterday, and if there was another of their kind in the forest, it was a dead lycan walking if Malec didn't get ahold of his frustrations before tomorrow when they all went out into the forest to find it.

“Be ready in twenty,” Malec finally answered, turning away from Channing again and slamming the bathroom door closed behind him.

Channing would be ready, he thought as he walked out of Malec's room. He just hoped whichever female they hooked up with tonight was ready as well. He had a feeling this was going to be a very long night.

 

CHAPTER 4

Malec saw her the moment he walked into the bar.

Or rather, his dick recognized the plump curve of her ass in the tight skirt that barely scraped along her knees. He was hard instantly, his body reacting to the sight of her standing at the bar, one hand propped on her hip as she talked to the bartender and the female standing in front of her. Her waist curved in, giving her one hell of an hourglass silhouette. He already knew that a frontal view would show her generous breasts, and if her top was as tight as her skirt he would surely see the imprint of her nipple piercings once more.

He licked his lips and began to walk, even more confident than usual, because tonight, he knew he wasn't alone.

The bar was crowded tonight, probably because of the hot new band Channing told him was playing this week. Malec didn't keep up with music or who was hot and who was not. The only reason he paid any attention to the news at all was because they needed to stay abreast of what was going on in the world now that the Shadow Shifters had been unveiled. The humans knew there were shape-shifters living among them, men and women who looked like them at first glance but could change in the blink of an eye to a big, ferocious, and deadly cat. This knowledge had been out for a year now, the Shadow Shifters scattering all over the world, some in hiding and others braving the world in the hopes that no one would ever see them shift. But the delicate balance between humans and the otherworldly had been tipped, which meant it was only a matter of time before all the shit hit the fan.

For tonight, however, the only thing Malec wanted to think about was how enticing Dr. Caroline Douglas would look naked and oiled from head to toe, lying dead center in his bed, ready to be fucked by both him and Channing.

“Let's dance,” he said, coming to a stop directly behind her.

She turned quickly, as if he'd startled her, and Malec frowned.

“Oh, hello,” she replied, the smile she'd had slipping as she licked her lips nervously. “I was going to call you in the morning. I found something else on the buck after you left.”

He wanted to hear what she had to say about the animal, but not as much as he wanted to feel his body up against hers, immediately. There was a war going on inside him right now. The one where he had a duty, a greater concern going on than the throbbing in his pants. Yet that throbbing was diluting all his thoughts and actions, pushing him to do whatever was necessary to seek relief.

“Tell me while we dance,” he said through clenched teeth, feeling as if he'd come to a great compromise.

Malec took her hand then, lacing his fingers through hers, jolting only slightly at the oddly intimate response to that touch. He began walking across the dance floor, totally ignoring the girl that had been with Caroline as she gaped at him. It was the receptionist, Olivia, from the clinic; he knew that much because she'd looked at him pretty much the same way when she'd seen him two days ago. They all looked at him like that, Malec thought. The females in Blackbriar, whenever he ventured into town, stared at him like they wanted to say something but couldn't. He wondered briefly if they thought he might be a Shadow Shifter. The thought made him chuckle inside because he was so much more.

A song was playing, something slow and sexy, instrumental. The dance floor area was dim, patrons sitting at their tables ordering drinks while they waited for the entertainment. But Malec walked them to the middle of the floor, turning and grabbing Caroline around the waist immediately. He pulled her close, his arms tightening around her, blood pumping quickly through his body, landing in all the important places. His hips thrusting against her body was proof of that.

She looked up in surprise, her lips forming a small
o
before she sighed.

“So,” she said slowly as Malec began swaying to the seductive rhythm. “As we discussed before, the cuts in this deer's neck were deeper than the other one. It was a wonder its head remained connected at all. Each one of the cuts was deeper—that's why there was so much blood. After that I thought I should check the lynx again, and it was the same—much deeper cuts this time. It looked almost violent.”

Malec's hands were at the small of her back, his fingers itching to go lower, to splay wide and possessively over the curve of her ass. He heard every word she spoke in the husky tone of her voice. He watched her lips moving, glossed with a red hue this evening that matched her blouse. Her hair was an array of curls, falling down past her shoulders, lying seductively over her luscious breasts.

“He meant for them to die this time,” he stated, once again his thoughts—lustful and contemplative—comingling until he did not bother to monitor his words.

“‘He'? You think a man did this?” she asked.

Malec stared at her then. He let himself focus on how close she was to him, breasts and pussy pressed up against him as if she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

On impulse, he jutted his hips forward. “Do you feel that?” he asked her, completely changing the subject.

She licked her lips. “I do.”

“Do you want it?”

She hesitated.

“Don't lie to me,” he whispered. “I'll know if you're lying.”

“What is it you think I'm going to say?” was her next question.

“You're going to deny it,” Malec told her. “But it will be a lie.”

His hands did flatten on her ass then, moving down to press her even closer to him. He just barely resisted the urge to moan when he saw the lycan over her shoulder.

A part of Malec settled into familiar territory as he'd known Channing would appear. This was how they worked, what they were used to. Now, it was time for Caroline to see, to experience the pleasure they had in store for her.

“You think you know everything, don't you?” she asked. “You think because I'm not arguing about you rubbing your hard dick against me that I must want you in my bed.”

Passion and fire, confidence and strength. He'd sensed it all in her from the moment he first stepped into the room with her at her office. She'd drawn him in, Malec would not deny, and now, he would have her.

“It doesn't have to be in a bed,” he quipped.

She swallowed hard but did not break eye contact with him. Nor did she try to pull away.

“If I wanted you, Malec Zenta, I wouldn't lie about it,” she said, her words sending bolts of desire cutting straight through to Malec's skull.

“Is that so?” he asked.

She nodded. “That is so. I have no problem stating what I want, when I want it. None at all.”

Channing stepped up to her at that moment. Malec moved his hands to her hips, as he knew that Channing's groin would now press into the delicious curve of her ass. They surrounded her, giving her no room to run or to deny their intentions.

“Tell me what you want right now,” Malec prompted.

She gasped then, as Channing reached around her, touching a heavy curl of her hair before letting it fall again, slowly moving his hand away from her breast.

“We're here to give you whatever you need,” Malec continued. “Pleasure like you've never imagined.”

The music had stopped, or at least Malec no longer heard it. All he could hear now was the rapid beating of her heart, the hitch in her breath. He could sense the hardness in Channing's body, the heat forming between him and Caroline, circling around the three of them as they stood in the middle of the dance floor. It was immediately intense and damned intoxicating, spurring the hunger inside him.

This was exactly what he needed. Having her between them right at this moment was proof of that fact. He'd been denying it for weeks, withholding the pleasure he needed to keep himself steady. It was a careful balance Malec kept, walking slowly along the tightrope of his life and his duties. They warred with everything he knew and all he'd experienced, until only this—the threesome—could bring him any type of solace. His body vibrated with need as he watched her, inhaled her scent, and craved like he never had before.