Pack Challenge (8 page)

So why did Sara feel like Zach was somehow different? What was it about him that spoke to her on some other level the few men she’d had in her oh-so-tame past never could? Why did she itch to touch his skin?

To feel him touch her? What was it about this man that made her feel

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like she’d been waiting her entire life for him to come walking through her door?

What was it about this man that made her want to punch him right in the forehead?

Marrec moved over to the bike he’d readied for Julie.

Zach kicked the door to the workshop closed, ensuring Sara couldn’t hear the conversation. “I have a question.” Marrec leaned against the bike, his arms again crossed in front of his chest. “Why didn’t I turn her myself?”

“It would make sense.”

“Her grandmother. The craziest bitch I’ve ever met on two feet or four.

Did Sara tell you what she found in her house when she cleaned it out?” Zach nodded. “Yeah. She did.”

“When my oldest boy showed interest in Sara, she set my car on fire.

She said after that it would be my house.” Zach felt a growing sense of horror for this woman’s self-hatred. He couldn’t imagine his life without the Pack. Without being who he was.

“If only she would have shifted, I would have snapped her neck. But I wasn’t going to kill her as human.”

Zach didn’t blame him. Kill one of them as human, they stayed human. Kill them as beast and they stayed beast. In the end, much easier to explain the dead animal on your territory to the cops.

“So, I figured I’d wait until the old bitch died on her own. I just didn’t know she’d take so long to do it.”

“She’s in a lot of pain, you know.”

Marrec sighed. A sad one from deep inside his chest. “I know. And her aggression is getting worse, too.” Marrec grabbed a stack of papers off the counter behind the bike. “To be honest, I think it’s poison.” He handed the papers to Zach.

“Poison?”

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“The Withell Pride is known for dipping their claws in poison.

Prolongs the agony.”

“That’s very human of them,” Zach noted with disgust.

“But I can’t get her near a doctor. Her grandmother made sure of that. The girl’s terrified of anything medical.” Zach flipped through the bill of sale and other paperwork Marrec handed him. “What would she need done?”

“It’s a little barbaric…she’d have to be bled. But several of the docs at the hospital are part of my Pack so it wouldn’t be a problem.” Marrec shook his head. “But not until she knows who and what she is. If we just turn her, I’m afraid of what she’ll do. Maybe I’ll talk with Yates about it.

About the timing.”

Zach nodded, keeping his expression purposely blank. “Sure.

Whatever.”

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Sara barely moved back in time as a biker from the next town stepped in front of her so he could talk to Angie.

“Uh…excuse me?” she asked, even while laughing.

He looked at her like she’d just appeared out of thin air. “Oh. Hey, Sara. Sorry. Didn’t see ya there.”

“Yeah. At six feet, I am so small and undetectable.”

“Huh?”

Angie reached around and grabbed hold of the sleeve of Sara’s leather jacket. “Excuse us.” Angie dragged her over to the bar.

“You and those legs, Santiago,” Sara teased, marveling at how only Angie could make the tacky gold short skirt she wore look classy rather than slutty.

“Shut up.” Angie stepped up to the bar, ignoring the men staring at her, plotting their move in the hopes of getting two seconds of her time.

She knocked on the bar with her knuckles. “Excuse me. Bar slut?” Miki didn’t even turn away from the three regulars she was helping as she reached back with one arm and gave Angie the finger.

“How rude!”

“Leave her alone.” Sara laughed while glancing around the club.

Packed but with a lot more unknown faces then she’d seen in a long time.

“Who are all these people?”

“Must be here for tomorrow’s rave.” And then Angie threw her arms up in the air and “woo-hoo’d” for the benefit of everyone.

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“Jeez, Ang. We’re not even there yet and you’re already grooving.”

“You know me. I do always love a good party.” Miki stepped in front of them. “All right. What do you bitches want?”

“Oh, very nice. Does Skelly know you’re so rude to your customers?”

“You’re not customers. You’re family. I can talk to you anyway I damn well want to. So you two want something or are you here simply to annoy me?”

“Both.”

Miki looked at Sara. “What’cha want?”

“A shot of te—”

“Don’t even think about saying tequila to me,” Miki cut in. “I’m not picking your fat ass off the floor yet again.” Sara’s eyes narrowed. “My ass is not fat.”

“Are you happy in your fantasy world, sweetie?” Angie asked, her arm around Sara’s shoulders. “Are your tits small there, too?” Angie ducked when Sara jokingly raised her fist.

Laughing, Angie turned to Miki. “You have any chardonnay?” Miki rolled her eyes, grabbed two Heinekens out of the fridge behind her, popped the tops, and slammed them in front of her friends. “Now don’t bother me.”

“Isn’t she like a breath of fresh air?” Sara shook her head. “No. Not really.”

God, he was getting pathetic. He caught her scent as soon as she walked into the club and his entire body tightened in lust. What was happening? Zach Sheridan didn’t get all bunged up over women. Ever. It was not in his nature. There were only two women he took special interest in protecting or caring about and one he called “Mom” the other he called “shithead” or “baby sis”.

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Sara didn’t notice him, but that didn’t surprise him. That grandmother of hers made sure Sara was completely oblivious to the power buried inside that sweet body.

She sat at the bar knocking back a beer in a worn leather biker jacket three times too big for her. Clearly a man’s jacket. Zach scowled when he allowed himself to wonder if that jacket belonged to some asshole. Some asshole other than him, that is. He didn’t like the thought.

Even as he fought it, he didn’t like to think for a second Sara might be getting down and as dirty as he’d been daydreaming about lately with some scumbag. Some scumbag other than him, that is.

The music changed into good trance and a guy invited Angie to join him on the dance floor. With a wink at Sara, she followed behind him.

The Mouth, as he liked to call the current object of Conall’s lust, was up to her eyes in patrons, which left Sara sitting there by herself. It was like she didn’t exist to these people. How could they miss her? The males of his Pack noticed her and if it weren’t for him, they’d be sniffing around her right now. But the locals and the bikers acted like she was part of the wallpaper. What idiots.

Still, Sara didn’t look upset. Instead, she sat on the barstool, drinking her beer and watching everything around her. Absorbing. That’s what she did. No one else may realize it, but Sara had the hard, cold eyes of a predator. And it turned Zach on something fierce.

Sara let the trance music flow through her, her head moving to the beat as she spun her stool around. The music dropped and she raised her arms in the air, howling out a “woo-hoo” right along with the entire crowd as the music hovered right “there”.

Oh, yeah, this DJ was awesome. The beat swung back up and the crowd roared in appreciation.

Yeah. This is what she loved. When the music took her away. Even for a little while. For a few moments, she forgot the pain, her

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grandmother and her less-than-thrilling life. She forgot it all while letting that beat move through her.

Someone sat next to her and she glanced to her left, expecting to see Angie. Instead, she saw him. Leaning back against the bar, his elbows resting on the polished wood, and his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankles. The man seemed to have an array of black, unknown-band T-shirts, blue jeans that fit his superb ass perfectly, and biker boots. He didn’t wear much else and, God in heaven, he really didn’t need to.

“Thought you weren’t going out tonight,” he said, raising his voice enough so she could hear him over the music but not enough for her to consider the yelling a threat.

“That’s not what I said,” she responded. “I said I wasn’t going out tonight with you.”

“And why was that again?”

“Cause I don’t like you.”

He snorted, it was sort of like a laugh, and went back to watching the crowd.

Christ, the man was irritating. Cute and hot and irritating.

She was seconds away from asking him why the hell he was even talking to her when a flash of gold dragged her eyes back to the dance floor. Sure enough, Angie had just stumbled back from two guys about to gut each other over her. It wouldn’t be the first time. Men, especially bikers, loved to fight over Angie. Of course, the one who got her could never keep her. But no point in telling them that. They saw Angie in all her cute, gold outfits and sexy, way overpriced shoes and thought they could handle her.

When they ended up in the ER, the doctors desperately trying to figure out how to stop the bleeding, those same guys always seemed so surprised.

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Sara knocked against the bar with her knuckles, catching Miki’s attention.

“Angie alert.”

Miki looked out over the dance floor and growled.

“Leon!” she yelled, and the bouncer was there in an instant with one of the new trainees. They grabbed hold of the men and Sara barely caught Miki in time, trying to dive over the bar with her baseball bat firmly in hand.

“Don’t even think about it, Kendrick.”

The two bouncers picked the fighting men off the floor and dragged them to the exit.

“Dammit, Morrighan!” Miki, grinning, slid back off the bar. “I could have taken at least one of them out and it would have been totally legal this time.” She slipped the bat back to its hiding place under the bar at the same time she caught sight of Zach. “What’s he doing here?” Sara shrugged. “I don’t know.” Sara looked at Zach. “What are you doing here?”

“Enjoying the wonder that is Texas.”

Trying hard not to laugh, Sara said to Miki, “He’s learning to love our mighty state.”

Miki rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

And then he was there. The big blond stalker. He smiled at Miki. “Hi.” She didn’t even try and fake that particular conversation. Instead, Miki yelled, “Break!” and then disappeared into the back room, slamming the door behind her.

The blond frowned in confusion and gave his order to the other bartender.

“Fun friends.”

Sara turned and faced Zach. “If I didn’t know better I’d swear that was sarcasm I just heard.”

“Me? Sarcastic? That’s crazy talk.”

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“Then you fit in perfectly around here.” Zach motioned to the beer in her hand. “Want another one?” Okay, was he buying her a drink or just buying her a drink?
Hhhhm. This is a
new level of idiotic questions, Morrighan.

But before she could turn him down or shove her tongue down his throat, he said, “Behind you.”

“What?”

He didn’t repeat himself. Just grabbed hold of her jacket and yanked her over to him. Her body slammed up against his, her breasts pressing into his hard chest. She gasped in surprise and sexual awareness. Oh, yeah, this guy felt good! Still, that didn’t mean he could go around grabbing her. Before she could tell him to get his big paws off her fat ass, something slammed into her from behind, shoving her closer to Zach. At this point, if she were any closer, they’d be fucking.

Sara’s eyes stayed locked on Zach’s rich hazel ones. No one had ever looked at her like this. Like they could eat her alive.

For a split second she thought he might actually try and kiss her—

and she didn’t know whether she’d kiss him back or stab him in the face—but his next comment took her by surprise.

“Nice jacket.”

“Uh…” Sara looked down at the worn and very loved jacket she wore as often as she could. “Thanks?”

“Where’d you get it from?”

That was none of his goddamn business, but she heard herself answering before she could stop herself. “It was my dad’s.” His hazel eyes searched hers like he was trying to figure out if she were lying. Definitely not a guy who trusted a lot of women.

After several moments, he muttered, “Good.” Before she could deal with why that might be good and why the hell did he care about her wardrobe and why did he keep looking at her like

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steak tar tar; the chanting behind her picked up volume and her eyes widened in panic.

“Get her! Get her!”

Oh, Lord!

Sara pulled away from Zach and spun around. Two women viciously fought each other and Sara leaned forward, trying to get a good look.

“You thought it was me, didn’t you?”

Standing up straight, Sara couldn’t believe the overwhelming relief coursing through her when she realized Angie sat on the stool beside her and not in the middle of the bar fight.

“No. Of course not,” she lied. “I was being nosy is all.”

“Lying heifer.” Angie sipped her beer and crossed her legs. Audible groans came from the men around her.

“So, Morrighan, having fun?”

Sara stared at her friend until she realized Angie kept motioning at Zach…and that Zach had noticed.

“Jesus Christ!” She grabbed Angie’s arm and dragged her around the bar and into the back. Not surprisingly, Miki sat on a box of liquor reading a book.

“What’s going on?” she asked while standing and walking over to them.

“I swear, Santiago! You are an idiot!”

“I’m only trying to help you along. The guy is all over you and you need to let him know you’re interested before some other biker slut, such as yourself, snaps him up with a well-timed blow job.”

“I’m not interested. I’m not a biker slut. And eeewww.”