Cat's Wolf (A Shifter Romance Novella) (9 page)

“Do you know where to find M—him?”
He asked, avoiding mentioning Malachi’s name.

Kaitlin nudged the food around on
her plate with her knife, “The last I heard he was hanging out at
The Iron
Pit
a lot but I’ve never seen him there.”

“The shifter bar?”

She nodded and chanced another
glance up.

Rhys had calmed down considerably
and had resumed eating his breakfast, though it seemed difficult with his bent
cutlery.

“We’ll head out later and see if we
can find him,” Rhys said calmly.

Brent glanced across at him, “Just
us three or should I call in some of the pack?”

“The fewer the better, I think.”

After that they finished their meal
in silence. Brent got up and left the room for some task, while Kaitlin picked
up the plates and put them in the sink to wash. For some reason, she needed to
be doing something, anything. Turning on the tap she filled the sink with hot
water.

Warm breath tickled her neck as
Rhys sighed. “I know I messed up earlier, Cat. And I’m sorry. But like Brent
said, it probably wasn’t the best time to mention ex-lovers when we marked each
other last night.” His fingers lightly grazed the mark at the base of her neck
and she shivered.

“I’m sorry, too,” she whispered.

He sighed and she felt the press of
his lips to her shoulder. “So, what shall we do this morning?”

Reaching out she turned off the tap
and then spun to wrap her arms around his neck. “I could actually do with some
clothes, since I ran away without any.”

Rhys smiled at her indulgently.
“You can have whatever you want. Where would you like to go?”

Kaitlin thought for a few seconds
and then shrugged. “Wherever’s closest. Clothes are clothes after all.”

A puff of air left him as he
laughed. “You really are one of a kind, aren’t you?”

“I’d like to think so,” she teased.

Shaking his head, he led her from
the room. “Brent? We’re heading out to shop. Alone!” And with that, he slammed
out of the suite and hurried her to the lift.

Kaitlin giggled as Rhys attempted
to shove her jeans down her thighs in the small confines of the changing room
cubicle. His fingers slid off the denim as he tugged and his elbow hit the
cubicle wall with a bang. He swore heatedly under his breath and she giggled
even louder.

“Rhys, this is impossible,” she
whispered through her laughter.

“No it isn’t. We
are
having
sex in here,” he vowed.

This was only the third shop she’d
entered and he’d been asking her to model the clothes for him since the first.
She had done, giving it her all, and it had turned him on, big time. Kaitlin
hadn't even picked up anything to try on in this shop before he’d dragged her
into the changing rooms and started undressing her.

Grabbing her waist, he spun her
around until her back was to him and then roughly shoved the jeans down to her
knees. He moved in behind her and ran his hands up and down her sides lightly. Her
breath hitched and she reached out to steady herself against the mirror. From
her position she could see the way his eyes smouldered as he took in her body.
His index finger ran down her spine and her skin erupted in goose bumps.

“You are so beautiful,” he
whispered.

His hands left her and she glanced
over her shoulder to see him undoing the buttons on his jeans. Greedily she
watched as he freed his erection from the denim. Rhys foot nudged her legs
wider and she readily spread them.

Then she felt his fingers run up
the inside of her thighs and her legs trembled, going weak. When they reached
the apex of her thighs he let out an appreciative noise to find her wet and
didn’t wait any time, thrusting into her. A gasp left her lips and she braced
her hands better against the mirror as he began to move inside her.

It was impossible to smother her
moans of pleasure and Rhys didn’t even try as he picked up the pace.

Minutes later they came and Kaitlin
covered her mouth to try and smother her scream while Rhys growled into her
throat.

Someone knocked on the door,
“Hello? There best only be one person in there!” The matronly voice sounded
scandalized and Kaitlin bit her lip to stop her laughter.

Rhys tucked himself back in his
trousers and then gently tugged her jeans back up her thighs. Spinning her to
face him, he lightly brushed her hair into place and then unlocked the door.

The shop assistant’s mouth dropped
open when she saw them leave the room and then opened and closed like a fish
out of water as Rhys led them past her and out to the main shop.

Surely they weren’t the first
couple to get amorous in the changing rooms? Or maybe just the first she’d
caught?

Kaitlin laughed as she linked her
fingers with Rhys’.

Chapter 13

Kaitlin glanced up at
The Iron
Pit
and frowned. This didn’t feel like a good idea anymore. She couldn't
explain why, she just got the sense that something wasn’t right.

Rhys placed an arm around her waist
and Brent came up on her other side and together they walked through the open
double doors of the bar.

The inside of the bar was pretty
basic; wooden bar along one wall, bar stools at it, wooden tables spread
throughout and a snooker table at the back.

“Do you see him?”

She scanned the bar looking for
Malachi but it had been years since she’d last seen him and he’d probably
changed a lot in that time.

Her gaze landed on a table in the
back near the snooker table and she frowned. That guy could be him, she mused.
He had the right hair and height. As if sensing her attention on him, the guy
glanced up and she sucked in a breath. It was him alright. He hadn't changed at
all.

Malachi’s face showed surprise and
he stood up slowly.

“Is that him?” Rhys asked, seeing
that she was staring at him.

It took a few seconds for his words
to sink in and when they did, she nodded slowly.

Brent and Rhys shared a look before
walking forward; leaving her behind and she frowned, wondering what they were
doing. She hurried to catch up and pushed between them as they reached the
table and threw a glare at each man.

“Kaitlin?”

Her attention moved to Malachi.
“Long time, no see, huh?” She allowed herself to remember him back when they’d
been close. He’d had a recklessness about him that had drawn her in like a moth
to a flame. What with her father not letting any boys near her, Malachi had
been the only one brave enough to try. He’d come and sneak her out of the house
in the dead of night and whisk her off to wherever she wanted to go in his beat
up old car. It was on one of those nights they’d had sex.

“You’re here with wolves?” He
asked, bringing her back to the present. He was staring hard at the men on
either side of her, a frown on his face. “You’re father agrees with this?”

Kaitlin shook her head and grimaced,
“Not exactly. It’s a long story. Can we join you?”

Slowly, Malachi sat and gestured to
the unoccupied chairs. They all sat and stared at Malachi while he stared
almost unblinkingly at Kaitlin. It was unsettling and she shifted in her chair.

Rhys began to growl, a low rumble
deep in his throat that sounded both possessive and aggressive. She shot him a
quick glance and felt the anger radiating from him towards Malachi. Placing her
hand on his thigh she managed to get his attention and she shook her head. He
momentarily closed his eyes and she felt him relax beneath her fingers.

Kaitlin began to pull her hand back
but Rhys grabbed it and put it back on his thigh and covered it with his own.
She gave him a smile and then returned her attention to Malachi whose gaze was
locked on the table top where her hand had disappeared.

“I left my family and the
compound,” she admitted.

That got Malachi to look at her and
his eyebrows had risen in surprise, “Why? You were safe there.”

She shook her head and laughed a
little. “No, I wasn’t. My father has been using me as a pawn in whatever game
he’s playing, for years. That included getting rid of you. He got me involved
with Tito not long after you…left. He’d probably promised him a virgin and when
we—well it ruined that plan.”

Malachi was watching her intently,
“You left the compound because he played you into having a relationship with
Tito? Christ, Kaitlin, that’s nothing compared to what he could have done,” he
said snidely.

Kaitlin slammed her open right palm
onto the table top, hard. A loud crack filled the room and she gritted her
teeth against the pain that spiked up her arm. “There was more to it than that!
He used to make my puma go mad, helped the two of us separate by using his Alpha.
He didn’t help like a father should, he hindered me; blamed
me
for it
all. I nearly died!”

A soft keening sound came from Rhys
direction and Brent gently eased her wrist into his hold where he assessed the damage
she’d done to herself.

“It’s a clean break; she should
heal fine, and quickly.” 

As he spoke, the pain began to dull
and she let out a shaky breath. “It’s already starting to heal,” she told them.

“You should change to speed it up,”
Malachi told her. They glanced across at him in silence, obviously having
forgotten he was still there.

“I agree,” Rhys told her and urged
her to her feet. Brent and Malachi quickly got to theirs too and followed them
as they moved across the bar to the door. Luckily for them, there were some
woods directly behind and Rhys steered her around back.

“Strip.”

She raised a brow at his order and
watched as his jaw tensed. She could tell he was still pissed about Malachi’s
reaction to her and was taking it out on her. And she wasn’t going to let him.
“No!”

His eyes began to glow amber as he
stared at her in the darkness. “Cat, you
need
to change to heal your
wrist.”

“What I
don’t
need is to be
ordered about. If I wanted to be, I’d have stayed with my father!”

Rhys head snapped back like she’d
physically hit him.

Malachi appeared at their side a
second later. “Someone’s here.”

Kaitlin watched as her lovers head
swung to the darkness of the forest, his eyes searching for something in its
depths. He tensed suddenly and pulled her behind him. “You should have
changed,” he muttered darkly.

She stared daggers at the back of
his head but then she heard movement and her gaze moved beyond him. Something
moved and then she saw several pairs of glowing eyes moving closer to them from
within the woods.

Her breath caught and she wrapped her
uninjured hand around Rhys’ upper arm.

She’d known something was wrong
earlier, why hadn't she said anything? They must have been waiting for them to
come back out of the bar, but how had they known? Only the most trusted members
of Rhys’ pack had been brought in on their little mission. The same one’s she
had met the first night of her being at The Bay. Images of that one wolfs dark
stare momentarily flashed through her mind and she gasped. Had he done this?

Kaitlin scented the air but got
nothing. Her sense of smell wasn’t as strong as Rhys’, maybe he’d picked up on
something.

“Bears,” he growled, a hint of distaste
in the word.

“Tito?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.
Stay behind me.”

She scowled at him. Why did she
have to keep reminding people she was a trained fighter? Okay, her wrist had
been broken moments before but she was sure she could still fight.

A form appeared out of the trees and
they were human. She didn’t recognise the man but he was huge, definitely a
bear. Another joined him and this one she recognised. Tito.

A snarl built in her chest at the
sight of him.

Tito saw her over Rhys’ shoulder
and grinned. “Keeping you locked up already? I’m surprised you’re standing for
it, Kaitlin.”

She bared her teeth at him and
swore colourfully. He just laughed.

“What do you want?” Rhys asked him.

Cocking his head to the side, he
smirked, “I heard there’s a bounty on your head, Alpha.”

“And you’re hoping to claim it?”

“Nothing would give me greater
pleasure,” he assured.

Rhys took two steps forward and
Brent grabbed her arm to stop her from doing the same. Rhys held his arms out
to the sides, “Then come and get me.”

Kaitlin shot a glare up at Brent
when he refused to let her go, “What is he doing?” She hissed.

“Showing them why he’s the Boss,”
he said with a smile.

A frown marred her features as she
glanced across at the two men. What did he mean?

Tito stepped forward to stand a few
feet from Rhys while the rest of the bears stayed back to watch. They began to
slowly circle around and then suddenly Tito charged with a roar. He wasn’t fast
enough and Rhys swiftly sidestepped, turned and tripped him, sending him
falling to the floor.