Authors: J. Rose Allister
Drew was right about one thing. Despite the inner voice whispering for her to run away, she couldn’t stop watching. She was mesmerized by the sleek, glistening lines of their male bodies as they rocked in a passion she’d never before witnessed. Drew’s seduction and claiming of Russell thoroughly separated her from them while at the same time drawing her in. She couldn’t decide whether she felt shut out of their bond, or if she was an inexplicable part of it.
Drew’s thrusts grew harder and more desperate as his eyes squeezed shut and sweat trickled down his neck. He was beautiful. There was no doubt about that. So was Russell, his hair hanging long over the face contorted in what might have been misconstrued as pain if she didn’t know better.
“I ache for her,” Russell said in a gruff, throaty tone, challenging her opinion about his discomfort.
Drew shot her a smoldering glance. “Then buck this hot ass against me harder, and I’ll help you do somethin’ about it when I’m finished.”
Talaitha’s fingers dug into her palms as Russell began rocking back on his hands, slapping his rear against Drew’s hips. Drew threw his head back with a groan that pebbled gooseflesh on her arms. With one last thrust, he rammed his cock deep and let out a feral growl. His body shook visibly as he released himself inside Russell, who moaned in response with his eyes squeezed tight. Her feet finally began to shuffle forward, drawn to the call of their animal passion. An unmistakable metallic
click
stopped her short.
“How convenient of you to cage them up for me,” said a voice from behind her. She spun around with a gasp to see a redheaded gadje woman. She wore tight green pants and a quilted nylon jacket, but the silver glint of a gun in her hand had most of Talaitha’s attention. “All that’s missing is a pretty red bow on top.”
“Who are you?” Talaitha asked.
The gun wavered to gesture toward the cage. “I’m the one who’s about to take these creatures off your hands.”
“I don’t understand.” Talaitha turned enough to see the men had uncoupled and were clutching the front of the cage, staring at the woman—and her lethal-looking pistol—with fiercely glowing eyes.
“What’s not to understand?” The woman stepped forward, and Talaitha instinctively backed away, closer to the cage. “You have dangerous animals. I’m a dangerous animal hunter. End of story.”
Talaitha strove to keep her voice neutral. “As you can plainly see, these men are well under control. I don’t need you to take them off my hands.”
The woman’s smile failed to light her narrow face with the slightest touch of humor. “What I saw looked pretty out of control. I will be taking them, nonetheless.”
Talaitha lifted her chin. “You can’t have them. They’re mine.”
The woman cocked her head. “Really? I don’t see proof of that.” Without warning, she shot forward and tugged at the neck of Talaitha’s blouse with her free hand. “Where is the mark?”
Talaitha started to call out to alert the clan, but the gun swiveling to her chest changed her mind. “Don’t get any ideas about yelling for help,” the woman said. “This is a private matter.”
“Leave her alone,” Drew spat. “She’s not the one you’re after.”
The woman pulled away and strode closer to the men. “I don’t know you. But I do know him.” The gun jerked toward Russell, who stared her down dispassionately. “I see you tried to mark him. But claiming him for another pack doesn’t change who he is. He still owes me his blood.”
Talaitha’s thoughts spun in all sorts of wild directions while she looked back and forth between the others. Surely there was something she could do to ward off looming disaster.
“It changes everythin’,” Drew said. Then, “Friend of yours, Russ? Seems like this woman knows you.”
Russell’s eyes narrowed. “She thinks she does. But she’s dead wrong about me.”
The woman snorted, though her eyes remained cold. “Sure I am.”
“And who the hell is she?” Drew persisted.
“I’m sure you know there are those out there who like to hunt our kind,” Russell said. “She’s just a particularly annoyin’ thorn in that side.”
A werewolf hunter. Talaitha eyed the woman, who was still glaring at Russell.
“Wow,” the redhead said, “funny how you paint that to make me sound like the bad guy. Are you going to pretend you’re not one of Blaise’s hounds?”
Drew frowned. “Who the hell is Blaise?”
The woman’s eyes widened. “You must be new or incredibly stupid to be a werewolf around here and not have heard of him.”
Drew folded his arms. “Let’s go on the assumption I’m new around here. What’s the deal with this Blaise?”
Her eyes glittered in a manner not entirely unlike the weres. “The
deal
is that Blaise and his bastards are a pack of murdering degenerates that the world would be better off without. Something I plan to see to personally.”
“We
were
a pack, you mean,” Russell said. “Blaise is dead, and the rest of us were separated by our new alpha.”
“Which does not exonerate you from your crimes,” she spat.
“And just what are my crimes, exactly? What have I done to you? Do you even know my name?”
Her eye twitched. “I don’t have to get personal with you to know you’re a vicious animal who needs putting down. Regardless of what that idiot alpha thought when he took out Blaise, letting the rest of you go on your merry way doesn’t change a damn thing. Not for me.”
“Who are you?” Drew asked. “Why do you have a vendetta against Blaise’s old pack?”
The gun barrel shifted to point square between his eyes. “None of your business, blondie. Suffice it to say I’m the arm of justice, and that you couldn’t have picked a worse wolf at a worse time to make a pack bond with.”
“That might not be far from the truth,” Russell said, his eyes softening. “But if you know what Blaise was capable of, you must also know many of us were not with him by choice. Not all of us were responsible for the harm he caused.”
“Shut up,” she said. “You were all guilty of doing his bidding, regardless. Anyone who was part of that bloodline is a disease.” Now the gun swiveled back. “And silver is the cure.”
Part of Talaitha wondered whether she dared make a grab for that pistol while the other part wondered why she would even consider trying to save them. They were werewolves. It would be suicide, for sure. She had never picked up a gun in her life, whereas the woman seemed quite steady and comfortable with the weapon. If Talaitha tried to disarm her, she’d likely earn a bullet for her efforts. Yelling for help would gain her little more. She only had one weapon she could possibly use.
Drew started to say something, but the woman cut him off. “Enough! No more chitchat to prolong the inevitable. Time to say good-bye.”
“So, you’ll shoot unarmed men locked in a cage?” Russell asked, moving his naked form in front of Drew. “Neither of us hurt you. Drew doesn’t even know who Blaise was. He’s innocent.”
The woman paused, but the smile that erupted failed to reassure Talaitha that his attempt at reason had succeeded. “He’s a werewolf.”
She stalked forward, and Talaitha reacted without thinking. She put herself between the gun and cage, uttering Romani under her breath.
“Stay out of this,” the woman said. “I have no quarrel with you.”
Talaitha kept up her magic until she felt the answering breeze stir around her.
“I said, move the hell out of my way!” The woman shoved her, and Talaitha stumbled back and nearly lost her feet.
“Don’t touch her!” Russell shouted. “She ain’t a part of this.”
“I am now,” Talaitha said.
“Djukiv, farmechiv gadje a gazhikani baxt!”
The woman turned to her just as Talaitha finished the spell by spitting into the dirt near the redhead’s feet. The gesture went ignored as the gun neared the cage. Talaitha held her breath.
Russell put himself more fully in front of Drew. “Fine. Shoot me. But leave Drew and Talaitha alone.”
“Fair enough,” the redhead replied.
Talaitha’s heart nearly stopped at the roar of the gun going off. She shut her eyes, hands flying to her ears as deafening gunshots exploded in her head. When she risked opening her eyes, it was to the muffled sound of the woman muttering a string of expletives—and the men still standing, wide-eyed in obvious shock.
“Damn cage,” the redhead said, and she closed distance and stuck the barrel close enough to range through the bars without either of the men being able to grab it. “Duck
this
, wolf.”
The gun went off again, and the men—along with Talaitha—jerked. The bullet, however, missed its target yet again.
“What the fuck?” she said, staring down at her gun barrel. She raised it between Russell’s eyes again and fired, but this time the weapon clicked impotently. The gun was empty.
The sound of shouting pricked Talaitha’s ears, and she interrupted the woman’s cussing fit. “My entire clan is no doubt on the way to investigate that gunfire. If you plan to leave here alive, I suggest you do it now.”
The woman was still gaping at her weapon in shock, but then she blinked and seemed to take in Talaitha’s words. With one last venomous glare at the men in the cage, she turned and sprinted for the woods.
“You know,” Drew said, in a tone that was far too casual for that of a man who’d just been shot at numerous times, “I came to Shay Falls to try and escape my talent for findin’ drama. Instead I run smack into it headfirst.”
“I don’t understand,” Russell said, much less smoothly. “Ain’t no one is that bad a shot. How could she possibly have missed every time?”
Talaitha was still trying to slow down her galloping pulse when Drew spoke up. “It was Tal. You cursed her, didn’t you?”
She glanced at him. “What makes you think that?”
“I’ve been around enough Gypsy stuff to get the gist. Spittin’ in the dirt ain’t just a bad habit for your kind, is it?”
Ignoring Russell’s careful scrutiny, she shrugged. “I might have worked some emergency magic. She won’t be able to harm your kind with any weapon she possesses.”
He arched a brow at her. “Why would you do that if you hate werewolves?”
The sound of louder shouts and approaching footsteps forestalled further conversation. “Shift into wolves,” she hissed. “Now.”
She backed away from the cage as a group of clansmen burst into the clearing. Seeing her standing there brought them up short, and none would speak to her directly.
She turned her back and moved off so none would face the risk of touching or looking her in the eye. As she faced the cage, she saw that Russell and Drew had done as she’d asked and shifted. She spoke over her shoulder to none in particular to avoid spreading her impurity. “A woman came and tried to shoot the wolves we captured for our show. I stopped her, and she ran off.” She pointed to the woods. “That way.”
Muttering about protective spells that didn’t ward off gadje troublemakers followed, but she could also make out whispers of those wondering why Talaitha was again near the wolves when they had caused her defilement in the first place. As the group fanned out to begin checking the surrounding area, she pondered that question herself.
She turned and headed back to the bushes where she’d dropped her blanket while those not involved in searching for the self-proclaimed huntress wandered back to their trailers or perhaps the campfire.
“Where are you goin’?” Russell asked, back in human form now.
“I can’t be near you. I’m supposed to be in a time of cleansing. I have to find somewhere to perform the rituals and wait out my separation.”
“You can’t stay out here alone,” Drew said. “What if that crazy bitch comes back?”