Pack Challenge (9 page)

“You so
are
interested.”

“He’s on the List,” Miki chimed in.

Angie shoved Miki by her shoulder. “Shut up.”

“Don’t shove me,” Miki snapped, shoving Angie back.

As the ugly slap fight ensued, Sara went back out into the bar.

-71-

Shelly Laurenston

Zach watched her limp back into the bar. The two women who had been fighting—and gave him the perfect excuse to drag Sara’s amazingly delicious body right into his—had been dragged out by the bouncers.

To his surprise, she limped back to the stool next to him and slid back on it. He barely caught his growl in time when he thought about her doing the same move to his face.

“Everything okay?” Zach asked.

Sara shrugged. “Just another night at Skelly’s. Nothing to worry your pretty, big, fat head about.”

It took a lot not to laugh. For a girl raised as human, she was damn funny when she wanted to be.

He held her beer out to her. “Here.”

She looked down at it like it had a snake wrapped around it. “You want me to drink that?”

“What? Too warm?”

She snorted. “Sorry. I think I’ll avoid taking opened but unattended bottles of beer from guys I barely know.” After a moment of being insulted, Zach realized if this was his sister, he’d tear her ass up if she took a bottle of beer from a near stranger.

Even with her heightened senses, it was a dumb fucking move.

Sara had common sense, too. Dammit! He needed to find some flaws with this chick soon or he was going to get in way over his head.

She ordered a fresh beer from the bartender and motioned to Zach.

“He’ll pay for it.”

“I will?”

Tilting the bottle toward her full lips, she grinned. “Yeah. You will.”

“And why is that exactly?”

Still grinning and now drinking, she shrugged. He was more than ready to take this discussion to the bathroom where he could fuck the answer out of her, but his cell phone went off.

-72-

Pack Challenge

“Yeah?” he barked into the phone, his eyes locked on her long, exposed throat and all the smooth skin he wanted to taste with his tongue as she swigged back that beer.

“Zach. It’s Julie. We need you back here. Problem with a few of the vendors and Yates is about to go feral.” Zach sighed. There went his bathroom plans. “Yeah. Yeah. I’ll take care of it.” He closed his phone.

She placed the beer bottle back on the bar as her tongue darted out and licked up a drop of liquid from her bottom lip. Zach balled his free hand into a fist and let the tips of his claws peek out enough to dig into his flesh and cause enough pain to distract him from grabbing the woman, bending her over the bar, and fucking her within an inch of her life. “I gotta go back,” he managed to grumble. “Problems with vendors at the site for tomorrow.”

“Wow.” She smirked. “How much I really don’t care.” He gave a low growl. “You’ll be there tomorrow, right?” Eesh. He made that sound like an order to be on time for a court date.

“That’s the plan.”

“Good.”

“Doesn’t mean I need to see your ass there, though.” Damn but the woman played with fire.

Stepping in front of her, Zach stared down into her pretty face. For a really long time he stared at her and Sara stared back. She didn’t flinch.

She didn’t hide. She didn’t back down at all.
Nice.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he finally said.

With heavy sarcasm, she responded, “I’m all breathless with anticipation. Can’t ya tell?”

Zach studied her body, examining her from head to foot and back again. Finally his eyes locked on hers and he said, “You will be.” Then he walked out, the rest of the Pack instinctively following him.

-73-

Shelly Laurenston

“Dude, I made out like gangbusters tonight!” Miki pulled a healthy wad of cash out of her pocket and flashed it at her friends while Angie jumped into the cab and closed the truck door.

“And what are we planning to do with all that cash?”

“Computer memory, thank you very much.” Angie sighed. “What do you need computer memory for?”

“Because she wants to see if she misses that interrogation room and…what was that guy’s name again, Ang?”

“Agent Jones?”

“You two are never going to let me forget
that
are you?”

“No,” they barked in unison.

It was nearly four in the morning, but Sara and Angie stayed because they didn’t want to leave poor Miki. The big blond left when Zach left but Miki kept worrying he’d come back. To be honest, Sara didn’t know what Miki was so concerned about. The guy was adorable and just a big ‘ol teddy bear. But Miki could convince herself of pretty much anything when she set her mind to it. No point in fighting her on it.

Sara dropped off Angie first. The woman’s house was big and gorgeous. Everything perfectly placed and designed…and all Angie did there was sleep. If you were looking for Angie you were more likely to find her at Sara’s house or Miki’s apartment.

“Sara—” Miki began.

“We’re going, Miki. We are going to this rave and I don’t want to discuss this anymore.”

-74-

Pack Challenge

There was no way she wasn’t going to the rave. Not after the last thing Zach said to her. The mere thought of those words had her nipples tightening under her Harley T-shirt and part of her really wanted to squirm. Probably a bad idea. Miki would definitely notice squirming.

“Fine!”

Sara chuckled. “I swear, you are like a dog with a bone.”

“I’m only trying to prevent our life stories from being re-told on
America’s Most Wanted.
” Miki’s voice dropped several octaves. “But little did these innocent women know that this rave would be their last…
ever.”
Her chuckle turning into a full-blown guffaw, Sara worked hard to keep her focus on the road. “Cut it out! We’ll be fine. Marrec gave his word, remember?”

“Yeah. That still bothers me. When has Marrec ever trusted anybody from outside this town? Mister Why Are You On My Territory.”

“I don’t know. But I trust Marrec and he trusts them. We’ll be fine.

And if you don’t learn to relax you’re going to become one of those cranky old people the neighborhood kids throw rocks at.” Sara stopped her truck in front of Miki’s apartment complex. “So please, do us all a favor before Angie rips your tits off…chill out.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Miki pushed the passenger door open but stopped before stepping out. She looked over her shoulder at Sara. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Why?”

Miki shrugged her small shoulders. “No reason. But you know if you need anything or whatever, I’m right here. So’s Angie.”

“Kendrick, what are you talking about?” With a shake of her head, Miki stepped out of the truck. “Nothin’. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“You mean today, don’t you?”

“Whatever.” Miki smiled and slammed the truck door closed. She waved and Sara waited until she saw Miki go up the stairs, into her

-75-

Shelly Laurenston

apartment, and turn the inside light on. Their signal that Miki had checked her tiny apartment and found no serial rapist hiding in any corners.

Sara headed home, not even bothering to turn the radio on. She’d felt it as soon as she arrived at Miki’s place. The first streaks of pain heralding one of her recent spate of “episodes”. Pain so bad some days, she wasn’t sure how she functioned. And sometimes, she didn’t function.

Instead she’d find herself face down on her kitchen floor or tangled up in her clothes in the back of her closet. The episodes had been getting worse and more frequent, but no way in hell was she going to tell Miki and Angie about it.

So focused on the road and getting back to her house before the pain became too much, Sara didn’t even realize something was following her until that something hit her truck with a loud “bang!” She didn’t stop driving. Miki had trained them well on serial killer M.O. But Sara looked in her rear view and that’s when she blinked in confusion. Cats. Two big cats in her rear view, racing after her. She frowned. Still dark out and only her taillights to guide her—one still busted since she hadn’t been able to afford to fix it—and Sara really couldn’t be sure she saw what she saw. They moved like cats, though.

But she couldn’t remember seeing mountain lions around these parts in the entire twenty years she’d lived here. And she’d gone hunting many, many times during those years. She never saw the kind of paw prints or markings indicating cats in the area. When she thought about it, not even stray house cats.

Add in that those things looked really
huge
for mountain lions…

A voice in the back of Sara’s mind kept telling her something was seriously wrong, but Sara didn’t know what and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Instead, she pressed on the gas and booked it home.

She had to admit it, she was scared. Seeing those things running behind her truck like they wanted nothing more than to use her bones to pick

-76-

Pack Challenge

their teeth clean of her remains had her adrenaline pulsing fast and hot through her system.

Sara’s truck tore down the deserted highway to her house. Tires squealed as she made a wild turn onto the dirt road leading home. She came to a screeching halt in front of her house and sat several long seconds in her truck trying to breathe and to see if anything was still gunning for her. She couldn’t see anything. Nothing followed her.

Hands shaking, she pushed open the door to her truck and stepped out. As soon as her bad leg touched the ground, Sara went down with a scream. Pain so intense tears rushed to her eyes, ripped through her body completely crippling her. She hit the ground hard, her hands gripping her leg. She gritted her teeth together, trying not to scream again, trying not to show weakness.

She didn’t show weakness. Not if she could help it. When her grandmother still lived, showing weakness would only invite a painful lesson on what pain really was. So Sara learned not to show her pain.

Learned not to show how much she hurt. But this pain…this was worse than anything she’d ever experienced before.

Desperate and scared, no longer caring about mountain lions or anything else but herself, Sara used every ounce of strength she possessed to drag herself up using her truck door. She kept her wounded leg off the ground and made the long, painful way back to her house using the hood of her truck as a crutch. She moved around until she leaned against the side of the truck facing her front porch. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to make the very few steps from truck to porch, Sara pushed herself off and landed face down on the stairs.

Somehow, Sara dragged herself up those stairs and to her front door.

She managed to pull out her keys, but before she could even try to raise herself up to get the key in the lock, another pain tore through her, her entire body thrown into a brutal spasm. The scream she couldn’t help but release rang out through the trees surrounding her house.

-77-

Shelly Laurenston

Then absolutely everything went black.

Zach woke up when Kelly hit him in the head with her paw. Yawning, he rolled over and watched his Pack take down a deer for breakfast. He thought about joining them, but he was too busy mentally kicking himself in the ass. Exactly why did he grab Sara last night? And what was his obsession over that goddamn leather jacket? His relief at hearing it once belonged to her dad nearly made him physically ill.

I’m such an idiot.

“Hey.”

Looking up at Conall, “What?” Conall learned long ago Zach was not a morning person. So he never expected civil behavior.

“I think Pride was in Marrec’s territory last night.” Zach snarled and pushed himself to his feet. “And?”

“And nothing. I caught the scent when I was heading back from town in the truck. Just thought you’d want to know.”

“Shit.”

“What?”

“I better check on her,” Zach sighed.

“Because checking on Sara’s your job now?” Zach stared at the ground, his hands on his hips. “What time is it?”

“About eleven.”

“And what’s the rule?”

“Don’t even think about speaking to you until noon.”

“Then why are you testing me?”

“Cause it’s fun to watch you turn that certain color of angry red.”

-78-

Pack Challenge

It was the wet nose in her ear that woke her up. The pain had receded to its normal, dull ache and now Sara could see straight. Using her hands, she pushed the top half of her body up and looked around.

“Good Lord, I passed out on my porch.”

At least this time it wasn’t cause she was drunk off her ass or in a fistfight.

A low growl from off to her left caught Sara’s attention and held it.

She looked over and a brown-eyed wolf stared back at her.

She felt a long wet tongue against a spot on her back where her jacket and T-shirt rode up when she fell. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw another wolf. Big, beautiful, and definitely a predator based on the size of those fangs.

There were more, too. Lots more. The wolves from the woods. The ones she howled to every night. They were on her porch, in front of her porch, on the hood of her truck.

Sara worked really hard trying not to panic and thanked God Miki wasn’t around. Her screaming would have caused all sorts of problems.

Suddenly, Sara realized something—they weren’t trying to hurt her.

Actually, except for two or three watching her, they didn’t seem too interested in her at all now that she’d started moving on her own.

They’d come to protect her.

Sitting up with her all night while she lay passed out on her front porch, watching over her.

She could be wrong—she wasn’t exactly a scholar like Miki—but she was relatively positive that wasn’t normal wolf behavior.

Once Sara pulled herself into a sitting position, they trotted off. No

“Hope you’re okay” licks or friendly paw pats on the shoulder. Now that she could care for herself, they left.

“Is it my imagination or is my life getting really weird?” she asked no on in particular.