Wild Instinct (5 page)

“That was fear.”

He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. We’ve created success out of less.”

Yeah, they had. They were a good team. Cur, given an edge, could manipulate any situation. And Garrett could always find an edge. He leaned back against the opposite wall. “Anyone ever tell you you’re a goddamn optimist?”

Cur smiled, revealing his canines. “No matter what happened in there, whether you decide to stay with Haven or not, there’s no denying that you’re better off tonight than you were when we rolled out of bed this morning.”

“How do you figure that?”

He hooked his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans and leaned his head back against the stone wall. “Tonight we have choices.”

“All of them bad.”

With a jerk of his thumb, he indicated the interior of the cave. “Only a pessimist could call that pretty little thing in there bad.”

That pretty little thing was the scariest thing he’d ever seen. She made him hope. “That pretty little thing cherishes the same prejudices as the McGowans.”

“That pretty little thing belongs to you, body and soul, by pack law. It doesn’t matter what she thinks. All that matters is what you want to do about it.”

Yeah. As if it would be that easy. He’d snap his fingers and everything would fall into place. “You think the McGowans are just going to let me walk out of there with her?”

Cur smiled, baring his canines. “I don’t imagine we’re going to give them much of a choice.”

It was tempting. And it wasn’t as if taking what they wanted wasn’t the norm for them. Packless wolves had to scavenge the best they could, for what they could. Some thrived. Some died. Some went mad from the loneliness. He and Cur had found a way to thrive. Sarah Anne was a fighter. From every indication, she’d learn to thrive, too. “Tempting.”

Cur pushed off the wall. “So, why are we still standing here?”

Garrett remembered Sarah Anne’s courage as she’d fought to the bitter end, the disbelief when she’d thought she’d run out of options, the rebirth of hope as she realized her pack had come for her. The wonder when the McGowans introduced themselves. He’d been a lot of things in his life, some of them less than flattering, but he did not want to be the man who took away Sarah Anne’s dream. As much as he longed for pack, a woman with children would long harder. “Because I like to think we’re not total bastards.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah, fuck.”

“Couldn’t you wait to try out decent until after we get what we want?”

The “we” made Garrett pause. “Apparently not.” The coldness built in his gut. “However, there’s nothing holding you here if you want to pick up that job we turned down for this one. It’s pretty doubtful anyone else has jumped on it.”

It was pretty much a suicide mission for a human.

“Nothing except my pack.”

“I’m not sure Haven is going to accept us.”

“Who the hell was talking about Haven? We’ve been pack our whole lives.” Cur dismissed the distance between them with a wave of his hand. “It’s enough for me.”

No, it wasn’t. Though they’d been telling themselves that for years, werewolves were made to belong to a bigger whole. He and Cur might have human blood, but they were wolf to the core, Protectors, and despite the life they’d made for themselves, they were only half alive. Garrett felt the pain of it every day. He knew damn well that Cur did, too. If Garrett walked away from this opportunity to belong, he’d have his mate, but Cur would have nothing but knowledge of what could be but might never happen. And yet, he’d make the sacrifice for Garrett. Because they were friends.

Garrett glanced back inside the dark interior and saw Donovan arguing with Sarah. Whatever they were discussing, neither was pleased. He hoped to hell the McGowans knew what they had in Cur. He was a fierce soldier, a loyal friend, and he deserved a heck of a lot better than to be cast out because his father had mated a human. If the McGowans could deliver belonging, Garrett was willing to make a few sacrifices of his own. Cur was right. They were all the pack each of them had. And pack put pack first.

Garret straightened. Sometimes a man had to fight for what should be his. “Well, I’m thinking we’re going to take more.”

“Your mate?”

Garrett nodded. “And our place is in this pack.”

It felt good to say it.

“I’m glad to hear it.”

The statement came from the interior of the cave. Garrett turned and Kelon was there. That fast, that startling. Not a sound had betrayed his approach. Yet another difference between the Protectors and themselves. He and Cur were self-taught. Their skills were limited to what they could improvise and piece together, the taint of their human blood prohibiting the assignment of a mentor to teach them the skills of their birthright. Not that it had stopped them from stealing a few, but there was so much more they could learn.

“Don’t worry,” Garrett sneered, driven to lash out by the resentment he couldn’t shake. “It’s our policy not to leave a job until it’s done.”

Kelon’s right brow lifted in clear mockery and the corner of his mouth twitched. Anger twisted in Garrett’s gut. If Kelon kept pushing him, he’d find out just how many of the Protectors’ secrets he and Cur had managed to uncover for themselves.

“We appreciate that.” He jerked his head toward the interior. “Donovan wants you back inside.”

“Why?”

This time there was no mistaking the other Protector’s amusement. “Sarah Anne is freaking out.”

He hadn’t claimed the woman, and Kelon knew it. “So why is that my problem?”

Another cock of the brow accompanied by a flash of canine. “Because Donovan wants it to be.”

What the hell did that mean? Was Donovan sanctioning the mating? He glanced at Cur. After a hesitation that indicated his own doubts, Cur shrugged.

Garrett was finished being a pawn in the McGowans’ games. “Tough.”

Kelon straightened, aggression whipping out in an acrid scent. “Are you challenging me, pup?”

The one thing Garrett knew how to deal with was aggression. All it took was a lift of the mental barriers he normally kept battened down. “Call me ‘pup’ again and there won’t be any question mark at the end of that sentence.”

Cur took a step forward, ready as always to cover his back. Garrett shook his head. This was his battle.

Kelon glanced at Garrett. Then at Cur. Then back at Garrett. His expression was impossible to read. “Fair enough.” He motioned to the interior. “But Donovan is still your superior, and he’s still waiting.”

“Let me guess—he doesn’t like to be kept waiting?” Cur asked, shouldering past.

“Nearly as much as he likes dealing with hysterical women.”

Despite himself, Garrett felt the leap of concern, the need to protect. “Sarah’s hysterical?”

“From her scent, she’s about to go over the edge.”

It shouldn’t have bothered Garrett. It did. “Shit.”

He followed Cur.

Behind them, Kelon chuckled. “I thought that would get you moving.”

“Shut up.”

All the order inspired was an outright laugh.

Five

SARAH Anne was facing Donovan, chin up, shoulders squared, her daughter tucked behind her. From the impatient slash of Donovan’s hand, it didn’t look as if he liked what he was hearing.

“He’ll go after them now!” Sarah Anne’s order carried clearly.

If she was intimidated by facing down her Alpha, she was hiding it well. In another second, Garrett expected her to release her wolf and, at the very least, lash out with her claws. That wouldn’t do. Attacking the Alpha incurred severe consequences.

“You forget yourself.” And from the snarl that punctuated that statement, Donovan had reached the end of his patience.

Sarah Anne was anything but cowed. “I haven’t forgotten a thing. Not about how my son is out there at the mercy of any rogue who finds him. Or how my friend, who’s with him, is just as de fenseless, and most especially as to how you took your own sweet time showing up with our protection.”

“You were told to continue to lie low until we could get here and provide escort ”

“We couldn’t.”

“You disobeyed a direct order.”

Sarah’s hands fisted at her sides. “The rogues came for Teri.”

“That wasn’t your problem.”

“Like hell. She’s my friend. She was in trouble.”

Donovan raked his fingers through his hair. “She’s in even more trouble now.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“Whose do you think?”

She came up on her toes in a direct challenge “Yours!”

Behind Sarah Anne, Meg whimpered and hunched back against the rock. Garrett told himself this wasn’t any of his business. Sarah had, for all intents and purposes, rejected him. Her fear and her daughter’s fear were not his to soothe, but he might as well have been talking to the wind when Meg’s lip quivered and she looked at him.

She might as well have screamed the words, they bored into his brain so hard. He blinked. She was telepathic?

He held out his arms.
Come.

She didn’t just come; she ran across the dirt floor, long hair flying, tears streaming.

Sarah’s “Meg, get back here!” was pointless, as the little girl was clinging to his neck before the last syllable got out.

Instinct had his arms wrapping around her tiny torso as her legs wrapped around his waist. He braced himself to be repelled by her scent, but all he felt was a cataclysmic urge to protect.

“Don’t let him hurt my mommy.”

He knew, from Donovan’s start, that he heard. And Sarah, too, from her gasp of “Meg!”

He ignored them both. “Donovan is your mommy’s Protector. He would never hurt her.”

“What’s a Protector?”

What was the human equivalent? “You know the police in your town?” She nodded. He moved to put her down, but she clung tightly. Not sure what to do with his free hand, he cupped her head as Sarah Anne had. Megan sniffed. Was she getting snot all over his neck?

“They’re good guys,” she said.

“Well, Donovan is like a super good guy.”

“He yelled.”

He shot Donavon a glare. “A super good guy with a big voice.”

Apparently that didn’t soothe her because when Garrett started to put her down again, she clung tighter. And from the way her nose slid against his skin, she
was
getting snot all over his neck.

Donovan touched his finger to her arm. Meg whimpered. Garrett’s lip curled in warning.

“I would never hurt your mother, little one.”

Meg froze. Garrett snarled.

“Or you,” Donovan added calmly.

Meg rubbed her nose on the back of her hand. Her lashes ticked Garrett’s collarbone. Just a foot away, Sarah Anne fussed, her arms crossed over her chest, her fingers biting into the puff of her jacket sleeves, betraying the tenuous hold she had on her control. In another minute, she’d rip her daughter out of his arms.

“You’re one of them,” Meg accused the big Protector, in a tiny voice.

Donovan’s tone gentled to an impossible level. “One of who?”

“The bad ones who hurt Auntie T.”

Donovan ignored Garrett’s warning and placed his hand on Meg’s back. “No, little one. I’m the good one who’s going to kill the ones who hurt your auntie T.”

That got her nose out of Garrett’s neck. Cold air rushed over the spot. “Really?”

No one that sweetly innocent should sound so bloodthirsty.

Sarah Anne reached for her daughter. “No, he’s not.”

Garrett didn’t hand Meg over, but he did give Sarah a piece of advice. “You don’t tell your Alpha what to do.”

It was too dangerous. Donovan would be totally within his rights to cut her down.

“The hell I don’t.”

Meg perked up. At the tone, or the opportunity to learn a new word?

“Watch your language.”

Sarah Anne’s mouth opened and then snapped closed as she looked at her daughter. He turned to the right. Sarah Anne went with him, following her daughter. With every inch between her and the other man, he breathed easier. Cur moved in on Donovan’s other side. Garrett caught Donovan’s eye. However he felt about the situation, protocol had to be observed. “I apologize for my mate.”

Donovan’s eyes narrowed. His nostrils flared. Something like satisfaction lit his expression. “You claim her, then?”

Garrett looked over, taking in Sarah Anne’s pale face, even features and that determination that belied the fragility of her gender.

“You take her as your mate, her children as yours?”

The ancient sanction settled like a balm over his soul.

“No,” Sarah Anne gasped.

“Yes,” he said, the inevitability of it flowing through him, even as Donovan smiled.

“Then your apology is accepted.” Donovan ruffled Meg’s hair. “Enjoy your new family.”

“You can’t do this,” Sarah Anne protested, her head whipping back and forth, looking for help. She wouldn’t find it in this all-male crowd. No male werewolf would mess with the advantages bestowed upon them when it came to claiming their mates.

“It’s already done,” Daire rumbled from where he sat on the floor.

“It can’t be.” Sarah Anne grabbed for Meg. This time Garrett let the child go. She clutched Meg to her as though the child was her one last link to sanity. “I left to escape this.”

The words had a hollow, disbelieving quality.

Donovan’s didn’t. “You can’t escape destiny.” He bowed slightly. “Welcome to my pack and my protection.”

Sarah Anne’s lip curled. “It didn’t last long.”

“Long enough.”

“What about my son?”

This time it was Cur who answered. “I’ll bring him home to you.”

“Rachel—”

Cur nodded, his too-long hair rasped across the leather of his coat. “Your friend, too. Consider it a wedding present for my newest pack member.”