Branded by Lust: 4 (Night Seekers) (11 page)

He couldn’t believe how unsteady his hands were as he
stripped Rebecca out of her clothes, yanking off her boots and tossing them to
the side with two definite clunks. When she was naked on the bed he knelt
between her thighs, leaned forward and took her mouth in a soul-searing kiss.
She tasted of coffee and spice and the essence that was Rebecca. He was glad
he’d shifted and run tonight or his wolf would be growling to get out.

And even as he was losing himself in the kiss he recalled
the look on her face when he’d shifted. Something he’d had reservations about
doing in front of her. But the look on her face had been one not of revulsion
or fear but of excitement. Desire, even.

Then his thoughts scattered as the powerful spirit that was
Rebecca infused itself into him, arousing him even more. He broke the kiss only
when the two of them were gasping for breath. But he paused only for a moment
before licking the line of her jaw, the spot behind her ear, the delicate shell
of her ear itself. Her hands moved restlessly across his shoulders and down his
back as he kissed his way down her neck, pausing to nip lightly at the hollow
of her throat where her pulse beat frantically to the valley between her breasts.

One hand moved on her body to palm one of those breasts, his
thumb rasping back and forth against a nipple already hard and pebbled. He
could spend hours just worshipping this part of her body, but then he felt that
way about every part of her. He nipped lightly at each nipple, her body arching
upward beneath him, her nails lightly scoring his back. The sounds of pleasure
she made ramped up his need for her.

The skin around her navel was so soft, the furled flesh like
a silken web around the tip of his tongue. When he finally reached the nest of
curls covering her mound and dipped his tongue into her spicy musk he groaned
with pleasure. The taste of her cream was better than any aged bourbon or fine
brandy and much more of an elixir. He spread her lips with his thumbs and
lapped at the pink wetness.

God, she tasted so good. He wondered if he’d ever get enough
of her.

When he slid first one then two fingers inside her waiting cunt
her muscles closed around them immediately. He moved them in and out, his teeth
catching her clit, eliciting a stronger moan from her. He thrust his fingers in
and out, curling them so that with each retreat he dragged against her sweet
spot.

When his fingers were coated he slid them down between the
cheeks of her ass, seeking that tight puckered opening. When he found it he
spread her natural lube around it. He did this once, twice, then edged just the
tip of his finger inside, a groan of pleasure bursting from her mouth. Jesus,
she was so hot and tight. He wanted to fuck her there so badly but there was
time for that later.

Before that he wanted enough time to take the edge off both
of them so he could finally let her take him in her mouth. At the thought of
those soft lips around him, that small tongue licking him, his cock twitched.

“Logan.” She said his name like it was a plea.

He wanted to take more time with her, pleasure her longer.
But the shifting and the run had ramped up his sexual energy to such a level
that he couldn’t wait a minute longer. Taking a condom from the nightstand
drawer, he rolled it on with one hand then barely pausing long enough to
position himself he drove into her.

“Ah god.”

Her pussy gripped him like a hot fist, sending shards of
lightning zapping through his body. He had to grit his teeth to get himself
under control. When Rebecca wound her legs around him, dug her heels into the
small of his back and lifted herself up to him he had to move.

All control gone now, he pumped into her and she moved with
him on the roller-coaster ride. He thrust hard and fast, her body matching his
rhythm, the orgasm building rapidly inside him. And then… She screamed her
release as her cunt spasmed around his, pulling his own orgasm from his body.
His cock pulsed, his heart hammered wildly and he emptied himself into her,
wishing that just once they didn’t have that thin layer of latex between them.
That he could be naked inside her.

Finally he collapsed, catching his weight on his forearms,
his forehead on hers, their breath mingling.

He wanted to tell her he loved her but he wasn’t sure she
was quite ready to hear it. Instead he murmured into her ear one word.

Mine.

Rebecca smiled to herself as she dried off from her shower
and pulled on warm clothes. It had been so pleasant waking up in Logan’s big
bed with his arms around her. He’d woken her just after dawn and they made
slow, leisurely love. She wondered if they’d ever get enough of each other. She
hoped not.

But it had also made her late getting up. Logan had let her
drift off to sleep while he showered and dressed. Then she’d really had to kick
her inner starter to get going. The sheriff and his deputies would be here
before long and she wanted to be awake and alert.

Logan was in the kitchen talking to Eve when she walked in.

“Good morning.” Eve smiled at her. “I can see in just a
short time Montana certainly agrees with you.”

“Excuse me?”
What on earth was that comment all about?

“You have color in your face and your eyes are sparkling
enough to decorate a Christmas tree.” She grinned and shifted her gaze to
Logan. “Or is it more than our environment that’s responsible?”

“Maybe.” Logan pulled Rebecca into his arms, not embarrassed
at all by Eve’s presence. “A man can hope.” He touched his lips to her
forehead. “I told Eve we could take care of breakfast but I think she doesn’t
trust me to feed you properly. Anyway, this morning I’m grateful for her
because Rance Danvers will be here shortly along with Doug and Ford. In fact,” he
turned his head as they heard the slamming of doors out in front, “I’d say
that’s them now.”

By the time he let the men in Eve was already dishing up the
food and handing it to Rebecca to put on the table.

“I’ll come here for meetings anytime,” Danvers said around a
mouthful of scrambled eggs, “if I can get meals like this.”

The others grunted their agreement. Conversation was kept to
a minimum until all the food disappeared and the dishes cleared away. But once
Eve had finished and left, Danvers hauled out the county maps he’d brought with
him and Logan passed around the latest aerials Ric had sent.

Danvers took out a red pen and began making marks on one of
the maps.

“Here’s Kalispell.” He drew an X with a circle around it
then pulled over another map of Kalispell and the outlying areas. He drew another
circle around the city proper. “I think we can eliminate the heavily populated
areas, according to what you tell us, Logan.” He drew a larger circle then
swept his finger between the two lines. “So here is one of our first areas of
concern. Few houses. Sparse population. No close neighbors. Lots of lodgepole
pines for concealment.”

Matt took out his own pen and drew a slightly larger circle
then looked at Logan. “If we work with your twenty-five-mile radius we can go
as far as Columbia Falls and Whitefish but that’s it. Thank god. Polson and
Libby are too far away.”

“But that leaves a lot of empty space,” Ford pointed out.
“Remote ranches. And the outskirts of both Libby and Whitefish have a lot of
isolated residences on the edge of the towns. Which are damn small to begin
with.”

Logan nodded. “This is a good area to focus our search.
Eleven miles in each direction.” He pulled the aerial map from the pile in
front of him. “Let’s mark the same things on this map and then we can figure
out how to divide things up.”

“I checked,” Danvers said, “and all my deputies have
snowmobiles. I just have to reassign their routes. But what do I tell them
we’re looking for? Those mythical escaped convicts?”

“Just like we agreed.” Logan leaned back and ran his fingers
through his hair. “But be sure you also tell them to be on the lookout for any
wild animals in the area. Particularly if it’s one they haven’t seen around
here before.”

The sheriff nodded. “I’ll handle it. Okay, let’s divide the
area into sectors. Logan, you tell me which sector you and Miss Black want to
take and I’ll assign out the others.”

By the time they finished going over all the details it was
well past ten o’clock. Logan frowned when he closed the door on the departing
men.

“What’s wrong?” Rebecca asked.

“We’re burning daylight. It gets dark here by five-thirty
this time of year and it will probably be at least noon by the time Danvers
gets his teams out.”

“I know, but we at least have part of the day,” Rebecca
pointed out. “Let’s get ready and hit our sector.”

He grinned at her. “Ready to see if your riding skills are
still sharp?”

“You were serious about this, weren’t you?”

“You bet. Dress warm and put your boots on. Those fur-lined
ones will do. I’ll make some sandwiches and fill a thermos with hot coffee. I
expect we’ll be out awhile.”

“Do I get to see you in a real cowboy hat and everything?”
she teased.

He lowered his head for a quick kiss. “And if you’re very
good, little girl, later I’ll show you how us cowboys burn off excess energy.”
He started toward the kitchen then turned back. “Oh and you’re handy with a
rifle too. Right?”

She nodded. “Our dad taught Sophia and me and our brother
when we were kids.”

“Good. I’m putting one in the scabbard on your saddle along
with extra ammo.” His face turned serious. “We’ll need all the heavy artillery
we can get if we run into the devil beast.”

Rebecca tried to chase away the cold shiver racing down her
spine as she headed for her room.

* * * * *

Ben Crater decided to treat himself to breakfast while on
business in the very small town of Libby. Not that he couldn’t cook. As a
matter of fact, he considered himself a damn good one. But this morning he’d
felt a little lazy and what the hell. He was going out anyway.

He pulled into his driveway, still in a haze of comfort from
the good food and the few people who’d stopped to chat with him in his booth. He’d
made few friends since moving here by his own choice and didn’t usually
encourage casual visits. It wasn’t just that he was antisocial, although many
would call him that. He just had secrets that were nobody’s business but his
own. That was the primary reason he’d settled here and bought this isolated
property.

Still, once in a while he needed the sound of a human voice.

I need to get married. This solitary stuff has turned out
to be bullshit.

Oh yeah? Forget that dumb idea.

Three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan had changed him. He felt
good about defending his country and keeping people safe and helping people in
other parts of the world to achieve that same safety. But after a while he knew
it was time to get out.

His parents lived in upstate New York in a small community.
He could have bought some property there but he figured it was time to put some
distance between them. He needed to lead his own life. And at his age it was
about time. He’d come to Montana to visit the family of a close friend killed
by an IED—an improvised explosive device—and decided living alone in all this
wilderness was what he wanted. But it was beginning to wear on him.

He loved the house and the fifty acres that came with it. No
one to jabber at him or stick their nose into his business. But maybe he’d reached
a point where he wanted that. First, of course, it would be nice if he figured
out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

He had enough acreage to run a small herd of cattle if he
wanted to. Be a rancher. Or see if there was anything available in local law
enforcement. He certainly had the skills for it. What he needed to do was take
some time to examine his options. Make a plan for the rest of his life.

But first, since it was such a nice crisp day he’d saddle his
buckskin Soldier and take a ride. With all the snow they’d had lately the poor
horse had hardly been able to stretch his legs. He started toward the house to
dress more appropriately for the outdoors when he heard the horse give a
frightened whinny.

Ben raced toward the barn, the horse’s scream getting louder
and more frantic. He heard the banging of hooves against the walls in the
stall. He couldn’t imagine what was spooking the animal.

As he ran through the open doorway he saw an apparition—the
only term he could use to describe it—backing away from Soldier’s stall. He had
never seen anything like it. The head resembled an alligator with fangs and the
eyes glowed red in the reflected sunlight. The body looked as if it had been
put together from a variety of animals.

Ben froze, his heartbeat ratcheting up as fear gripped him.
He’d never seen anything like this before and then had to blink to assure
himself he wasn’t hallucinating. He cursed the fact that both his rifle and his
handgun were in the house where they’d do him no good. He looked around for any
kind of weapon and found a short length of wood leaning against a stall door.
He picked it up although he didn’t think it would be much help against the
creature. He wasn’t even sure if his guns would stop it. His heart pounded so
hard it echoed in his ears and he could hardly breathe.

Focus, Crater. Focus. Put away the fear. You can do it.
You’ve done it before. This is not worse than facing the Taliban.

But that was a lie. This was nothing like facing the enemy.
At least there he knew what to expect. Had been trained for it. But this.
Nothing in his life had prepared him for what he was seeing.

He stood there—gripping the length of wood, hoping it would
be enough—waiting for the creature to move. And wondering exactly how in hell
he could protect himself with this stupid piece of wood. Soldier was still
going crazy in his stall, whinnying in fear and rearing and banging his hooves
against the walls. The glowing red eyes shifted back and forth between the
noise and Ben.

And then, for whatever unbelievable reason, the creature
turned and raced away to the other open end of the barn. It turned the corner
of the building and then it was just…gone. Disappeared.

Ben forced himself to wait, counting to fifty before he
walked outside and ran his gaze over the area. Some squirrels were huddled
beneath the pines chattering away in their squeaky voices. Overhead birds flew
in frantic circles, the sounds they were making almost like screams of fear.

But no creature. No sign of it anywhere.

If it weren’t for Soldier’s reaction Ben might have thought
he’d imagined the whole thing.

Finally, deliberately slowing his breathing and steadying
his nerves, he walked back into the barn to calm Soldier. It took a good ten
minutes of soothing words to settle the horse and another ten stroking him and
murmuring softly before Soldier settled down and the wild look left his eyes.
By that time the adrenaline rush had left Ben and he dropped down onto a short
wooden bench, his legs suddenly weak and trembling.

Holy shit!

What was that he’d just seen? He scrubbed his hands over his
face and rubbed his eyes as if he could erase what he’d seen. Then he blew out
a breath. That wasn’t happening. He was sure he’d never forget it no matter how
he tried.

When he was sure his heart rate was back to normal and his
legs would hold him, he rose and walked back to Soldier’s stall and spent a few
more minutes with him. Then he pulled out his cell phone and asked the operator
for the number of the county sheriff.

* * * * *

Logan and Rebecca were headed toward the barn when his cell
phone rang. He dug it out of his jacket pocket.

“Tanner.”

“Logan? It’s Rance Danvers. Where are you?”

Logan frowned. “Still at my house. Rebecca and I are just
about to saddle a couple of horses and head for some of those hard-to-get-to
spots. Why?”

Silence thrummed across the connection.

“Rance?” Logan prompted. “What’s going on?”

When the sheriff spoke his voice sounded strange. If Logan
didn’t know better he’d think the man was frightened by something.

“I just had the damndest phone call.” He paused again.

“From who? And what did he want?

“Guy named Ben Crater. Former Marine. Came here to settle
after his tour in Afghanistan.”

Logan was beginning to lose patience. He wanted to get
going. Tracking wasn’t going to be easy under the best of circumstances and the
places they were heading made it that much more difficult.

“Forgive me for being rude, but is there a point to this? I
mean, Rebecca and I were just about to head out.”

“I think I finally believe everything you’ve said.”

“Because you got a phone call from some Marine?”

Logan started walking toward the barn again and motioned Rebecca
to come with him.

“Logan, unless this guy’s having psycho dreams I think he
just saw your Chupacabra.”

“Are you shitting me?”

He stopped again, still as a statue. Rebecca gave him a
questioning look.

“I wish I was,” the sheriff told him. “Crater said he’d never
seen anything like it. Wanted to know if I’d heard of anything like it in the
area.”

“Jesus.” Logan blew out a breath. “You want me to go see
him?”

“Better you than me. At least you can answer his question.”

“What kind of guy is he?” Logan wanted to know. “What’s your
take on him? Is he liable to freak out?”

Danvers gave a half-laugh, half-grunt. “Man’s done three
tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t think much scares him anymore. Anyway,
he wanted me to come out there but you know you’re the logical one to see him.”

“Okay. Give me his address. You’ve got Doug and Ford quietly
spreading the word to the ranches in the county and the isolated homes?”

“For all the good it will do,” Danvers snorted. “People
around here are so used to hunting wild animals you can hardly scare them about
anything.”

“Just have them stick to the message. At least people will
be on guard.”

“Rebecca and I will head on over to Ben Crater’s right now.”

“You’ll call me after you see him?” the sheriff asked.

“Yes. Depending on what he saw, we might need to change our
points of reference for the search.” He ended the call and shoved the phone
back in his pocket.