“Uh, Lucas . . .” Her eyes searched the thick brush. They only had about thirty minutes of sunlight left, if that much. “Can we please get out of here?”
“No, these ass**les are gonna shift and explain exactly why they attacked—” He took a step forward, turning slightly as he held up his hands, and Sarah saw the waning light glint off the claws extending from his fingertips. “Or I’m gonna skin ’em.”
As far as threats went, Sarah thought that one was pretty good. Mostly because she knew that Lucas meant exactly what he’d said.
The coyote shifters must have known it, too. The creature who’d been tossed against the tree gave a half-hearted howl, and, as Sarah watched, fascinated and horrified at the same time, his body began to change. No matter how many times she saw a shift, she’d never get used to the brutal transformation. Bones snapped. Fur disappeared. His muzzle shortened. His ears flattened.
In moments, a man stood before her. Tall, thin, skin tanned a deep brown, and, of course, naked.
His head was bowed. Shaggy brown locks of hair covered his face. The pose was one of submission—like Lucas was gonna buy that. She inched to his side. The better to watch.
“Why did you attack me?” Fury vibrated in Lucas’s voice.
“Not you.” One long, bony finger lifted and pointed toward her. “The woman.”
Goosebumps rose along her arms. “We really need to get out of here.” So the bastard had followed through on his threat. He’d put a price on her.
Lucas’s blue eyes focused on Sarah. “Why are you after her?”
She held his stare. She’d explain everything to him when they were somewhere nice and safe and out of the open.
The coyote shifter said, “There’s two hundred grand being offered for her.”
No, being offered for her dead body. But, of course, the jerk coyote wasn’t going to admit that part. Surely Lucas understood though, he knew these games.
“Lucas . . .” His name slipped past her lips. She couldn’t look away from his eyes. Okay, this wasn’t his fight, so maybe he probably should just turn his back on her and walk away.
But if he did that, she might as well just jump into a grave. Without a pack to aid her in this mess, she wouldn’t survive. All her allies had vanished. Or been killed.
“I saved you at that jail,” she reminded him, and dammit, that was partly true. “Pack law says you owe me now.” She licked her lips and tasted her fear. “Help me.” She wouldn’t beg. Not yet, anyway. But maybe in about five more minutes, if more of those smelly coyotes burst from the bushes and came at her with claws and teeth.
Lucas stared down at her. Watching. Weighing. After one very long moment, his gaze tracked down her body. No expression passed across his face.
“Help me.”
When his gaze rose again, he inclined his head in the faintest of moves, then he turned his attention back to the coyote.
Oh, Christ, please let that have been a yes.
Lucas crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the trembling man. “You caught my scent the minute you crept into the park.”
The shifter glanced up at him from beneath thick clumps of hair.
“You knew I was a wolf.” Lucas’s lips curled down in a hard frown. “And I’d bet that you knew exactly who I was.” A pause. “But you attacked anyway.”
“Her! Not you—her!”
The snarl that burst from Lucas had the guy stumbling back. “She was with me, and you attacked.” Lucas shook his head. “Wrong move, ass**le.”
Sarah straightened her shoulders.
“You don’t ever, ever come at me again with bloodlust in your eyes and teeth bared, you understand?” The words vibrated with rage. “If you do, I guarantee it will be the last f**king mistake you ever make.”
The shifter gave a quick nod.
“Get out of here, and take your dog,” Ooh, big insult that, the coyotes hated being called ‘dogs’, “with you.”
The guy scrambled. He grabbed the bleeding coyote and tossed the “dog” over his shoulders. That second shifter had to be injured pretty badly if he hadn’t been able to transform back to human form.
Lucas waited for the man to turn away with his bleeding buddy before saying, “I’ve got your scents now. You’ll have two hours to get out of town. If I see you after that—you’re both dead.”
The shifter broke into a run.
“And you . . .” He slanted a dark glance her way. “Pack protection doesn’t come as cheaply as you seem to think. I don’t give a shit about the old laws.”
Her stomach dropped. “If you don’t help me, then I’m the dead one.”
A shrug.
What? “You can’t be that cold of a bastard. I need your help, and I’ve traveled over seventeen hundred miles to find you.” Just like John had. Hopefully, her quest wouldn’t end the same way.
She wasn’t ready to die.
Sarah sucked in a deep breath. “I know who set you up for murder. If you give me protection, I’ll give him to you.”
Both brows rose. “Oh, you’ll most definitely give him to me, one way or another.”
Her back teeth clenched. “I could have left you in jail,” she gritted.
A hard smile. “And I could have let the coyotes have you.”
She flinched. Okay, he had a point there. A rather nasty, cold-hearted one, but . . .
“You must have done something pretty bad to get a price on your head.”
Not really. She’d actually tried to do something good. That just hadn’t worked out so well.
“Sarah King . . .” He drew out her name, as if tasting it. “Are you a bad woman?”
Yes. Don’t trust me. She bit back the words. Now really wasn’t the time for that much honesty between them. So she didn’t speak but she managed to hold his stare.
After a moment, he lifted his hand and offered it, palm-up, to her. “Once you come with me, there’s no going back.”
The heated look in his eyes told her he wasn’t just talking about a few days of protection.
But right then, she would have traded what was left of her soul to walk away with Lucas Simone.
“I don’t want to go back.” The rumors she’d heard over the years, about humans being absorbed into the packs—women, mostly, who disappeared after they were linked with male shifters—those stories drifted through her mind once more.
Some wolf shifters roamed on their own. The Lones. Some Lones existed in society, blending almost seamlessly with the humans. But most of the Lones didn’t blend so well. They had breakdowns. They’d been known to go on killing rampages. Often, they were tagged as serial killers and put down.