She turned off her flashlight when she knew she was getting close, which necessitated stopping to allow her eyes to adjust. It was as dark as a cave under the trees. The sliver of moon overhead didn't give her much light to see by, but she discovered that after her eyes adjusted she could see well enough to stay on the trail.
She encountered another unanticipated problem once she reached the point where she could glimpse the wolves in the clearing. She couldn't make her way to the tree she'd intended to use without alerting them to her presence.
There were only five wolves that she could see, and she felt a shiver work its way up her spine at the thought that the other members of the pack might be in the woods surrounding her. The five wolves she
could
see were huge—and obviously thoroughly pissed off, bristling with rage as they circled one another.
There was no carcass, eliminating that as a possibility for their animosity toward one another.
She halted while she still had at least a little cover, trying to decide whether it would be better to retreat or stay where she was and wait until they decided to move on. Two of the wolves, a huge black and an albino that was almost completely white, uttered snarling growls and charged one another while she was trying to make up her mind. The violence of their attack startled her and she took an instinctive step backwards. Her foot settled on a dead branch. It snapped under her weight.
Any doubts she'd had that they were completely focused on one another vanished instantly. All five wolves jolted, whirling toward the sound. Danika froze, hoping they'd dismiss the sound if she was still enough. The air was still. She didn't think they could catch her scent.
Before she could relax, the crackling of underbrush broke the stillness. Her worst fear realized, Danika snatched her tranq pistol from her pants and took another step back, prepared to run the moment she could be sure of the direction the wolves were. Her foot snagged in something that felt like—cloth. Peripherally, she registered the fact that it was discarded clothing, but her mind leapt away from the thought almost instantly as three wolves charged out of the brush on the other side of the clearing.
She sucked in a sharp breath as three of the five who'd originally occupied the clearing whirled to face the threat, launching a furious attack. The white wolf whirled in her direction the moment she did and charged toward her.
Screaming, Danika fired at him. The dart grazed his shoulder, almost seemed as if it would miss him altogether, then lodged in his hip. He uttered a yelp, stumbling. Firing at two of the others now fighting in the clearing, she hesitated just long enough to see the tranq darts had found their mark. Pandemonium ensued, either from the hits or the loud report of the pistol. The wolves not already engaged in battle skidded to a halt, their heads whipping around as they searched for her. Two more charged toward her. A half a dozen whirled away and leapt into the brush. The custom made pistol had three more darts, but there were at least a dozen wolves in the clearing by that time. Even if she'd had more darts with her, she didn't have time to reload. She also didn't have time to decide whether to run or climb. She couldn't see well enough to find a tree she might be able to climb. Firing at the two heading straight for her, Danika whirled and ran.
She developed a stitch in her side as she charged full tilt down the dark trail. Gasping for air, she sucked in a breath and held it, trying to listen for pursuit. When she didn't hear anything, she slowed enough to look behind her. The wolves seemed to have dismissed her in favor of fighting among themselves.
She wasn't keen on the idea of taking any more chances, though. Holding her side, she jogged down the path as fast as she could until she finally broke from the woods. She paused for a moment, huffing for air until she thought she might pass out. Massaging her side, she limped toward the safety of her cabin as fast as she could manage when she'd caught her breath and finally made it inside, slamming and locking the door behind her.
She leaned weakly against the door when she'd locked it, still struggling to catch her breath, listening intently for the distant sounds of battle. She shivered when she heard a lone wolf howl. A few moments later the call was taken up by more.
"That didn't go well,” she muttered shakily when she'd finally, almost, caught her breath and her heart had stopped hammering in her chest as if it would explode. It didn't occur to her until a good while later, when she'd finally stopped shaking, to wonder if the wolves she'd managed to hit had been knocked out. The temptation to go check assailed her immediately. They were
big
wolves, though, a lot bigger than she'd expected them to be, and she wasn't as convinced that the dosage she'd used would keep them out for very long as she would've liked it to.
Could she really afford to ignore the opportunity to tag them, though? At the rate she'd been going she was
never
going to be able to account for the size of the pack—
or
find their lair.
She
had
to go back. She was almost certain all the gunfire had chased away the others—almost wasn't enough to make her terribly happy, but she reloaded her pistol and grabbed more darts and shoved them into her bag.
She was going to have to climb a tree if they got after her again. She didn't think she could manage another run through the woods.
Her knees were practically knocking together when she stepped outside the cabin and closed the door behind her again. Resisting the sudden urge to head next door and ask one, or all, of the bikers to go with her for added protection, she started down the steps of the porch.
Con stepped from the path she'd so lately fled from before she'd covered half the distance between the cabin and the woods. She halted abruptly, staring at him shock as he staggered, or maybe stumbled? He was bare-chested and barefooted, his shaggy blond hair tousled. He was also bleeding. Xavier, who exited the woods behind him, didn't look to be in much better shape.
"My god!” Danika gasped, racing toward them as her shock finally released her from paralysis. “What happened to you two?"
Con stared at her for a long moment, obviously having some trouble focusing his eyes. Abruptly, his brows descended in a frown. “Woman!” he growled. “You are a menace!"
Danika braked to a halt, gaping at him. “Me? What did I do?"
"As
if
you didn't know!” Con snarled.
He was drunk, Danika realized abruptly. “If you're talking about the shooting just a little while ago...."
"That's
exactly
what I'm talking about!” Con growled. “What the hell did you think to accomplish?"
"I wasn't trying to accomplish anything but to scare off the wolf pack that's been terrorizing the locals. They were after me!"
"That wasn't
that
wolf pack!” Xavier said angrily.
Danika turned to stare at him. “What do you mean it wasn't
that
wolf pack?” she asked blankly.
A look of dismay flickered across his features. He turned to look at Con as if seeking help but apparently the look on Con's face didn't look promising. “I just remembered something,” he muttered, shoving past Danika and heading for his cabin.
"Where do you think you're off to now?” Con demanded, drawing her attention back to him.
"I figured as long as I'd taken some of them down I'd tag them and put a locator in their hips,” she informed him stiffly.
Con glared at her in fuming silence for a moment. “I don't think they'd appreciate getting a locator in the ass any more than they liked the fucking darts."
"Well, I'm not going to ask them!” Danika snapped, realizing he was too drunk to make any sense.
He grabbed her with surprising strength when she tried to march past him. Before she quite knew what was happening, she found herself slung over his shoulder. Stunned, she couldn't even gather her wits to try to struggle for several moments. It was the realization that he was hauling her back to her cabin that finally penetrated her surprise. “Put me down, you ass!"
"Not likely!"
"I mean it, Con! Put me down!"
"I don't think so."
She made a growling sound of frustration in her throat as he started up the steps. “I've got work to do!” she ground out angrily. “Who do you think you are? Tarzan?"
He allowed her to slip to her feet as he entered the cabin with her. “Something like that,” he growled, hooking a hand behind her head and dragging her against him.
"I'm pissed at you!” she snapped as he lowered his head to match his mouth to hers.
"I'm pretty damned pissed off with you, if comes to that,” he muttered, nipping at her lips with his, nibbling and sucking at them hungrily. “And I still want you like hell."
"I mean it,” Danika whispered, weakening.
"I do, too,” he murmured against her throat, having taken a quick detour to suck open mouthed kisses along her throat that had her gasping for breath. Heat spiraled between them like steam rising off hot pavement as he stroked one hand down her back to cup her buttocks, dragging her up almost bruisingly against his erection.
He sought her mouth again, settling his lips firmly over her mouth and plunging his tongue inside to taste her, to give her a taste of himself. The stroke of his tongue along hers, the heat of his mouth, was as intoxicating as it had been the first time. She found herself gripping his shoulders frantically, surging with him in a rhythmic dance to bring their bodies closer, to brush, meld with the heated current that passed back and forth between them.
"I can't do this. We can't,” she whispered when he lifted his mouth from hers at last, making his way down her throat again and then up to nip at her ear.
"Why not?"
Good question. Unfortunately, she couldn't seem to wrap her mind around it.
He sucked at her earlobe, explored the hollow of her ear with his tongue. Keen awareness in the form of a rasp of pebbly skin cascaded over her. She shivered at the acute sensation as he found his way beneath her t-shirt and brushed his hands over her prickling flesh. Her nipples tightened, nudging his palm as he cupped one breast, kneaded it and then flicked his thumb over the erectile tissue, sending heated currents along her nerve endings to her womb. It contracted in response, heated blood flooding her nether regions.
They waltzed awkwardly across the cabin as he divided his attention between his goal—her bed, and his other goal—her body, teasing her with nibbling kisses until she wasn't certain if she was so thoroughly disoriented by his kisses, or the dizzying movement. The world ceased to spin quite so wildly as he half fell, half dragged her onto the mattress, dragging her t-shirt up in almost the same moment. “Mmm, sweet,” he murmured, running just the tip of his tongue over the nearest nipple. “Baby."
The word was a pleasurable groan against her skin as he explored the soft flesh he'd clasped in his hand. She arched her back, coming off the bed as he finally covered the tip of her breast with his mouth, sucking on it until she thought her chest would cave in from lack of oxygen before he released it and nuzzled his way across her breasts to the other tip. She clutched at him, threading her fingers through his silky hair one moment, skating her palms over the rippling flesh of his shoulders and arms the next.
"I could eat you up,” he whispered against her skin in the valley between breasts, meandering downward until his chin met the waistband of her jeans. He shifted upward again, covering her mouth as he tugged at the fastening, using the back of his hand to widen the opening as he pushed his hand down to cup her sex, stroked the outer lips and then delved the cleft to find her clit.