Hell.
A new worry shot through him. “My kind . . . can you—” He wanted her mouth again. Soon. “Can you read us when we’re in human form?”
A slow shake of her head. “No. Only when you’re the wolf.”
He wasn’t sure he believed her.
But he still freed her and stepped back. Because if he didn’t, Lucas knew he would have taken those lips again, and he wouldn’t have stopped with such a simple taste.
“Go inside. There’s a room on the second floor, to the right of the stairs—you can use it, for now.” Until he figured out exactly what was happening and how to get the price off her head.
Why do I care?
Because she had saved him at the jail. While he’d denied it to her, he did follow pack law. Up to a point.
Lucas turned away from her. He’d need to send Jordan someplace safe. Until this shit was smoothed over, he wasn’t going to risk his brother.
He’d almost lost him before. No way was he going to put his brother in harm’s way again.
“Is having sex with you the price of protection?”
Her voice froze him. Then anger ripped through his gut. He glanced back at her, frowning. “If it is?”
The wind tossed her hair. The moonlight glittered in her eyes. “I didn’t realize you were that hard up, wolf.”
He almost smiled. Nice bite. He loved women who knew how to fight. “You’re not gonna have sex with me because you want a safe place to hide.” And hiding, yeah, he knew that was what his little charmer was doing. Hiding with the big, bad wolf.
“Good to know, I—”
“You’re gonna have sex with me because you want me, just as badly as I want you.” Immediate attraction. Animal lust—that’s what his kind called it. Sometimes, the beast inside just recognized a perfect sensual partner.
In bed, he bet they’d be great. He couldn’t wait to have her, naked and hungry, in a big, soft bed. Or maybe out in the open, beneath his glowing moon. Either way, he would have her.
He paused, waited for her denial.
Sarah headed for the house. “Keep hoping, wolf.”
Her arousal, the rich scent of woman, teased his nose. He smiled. “I will, babe, I will.”
Chapter 3
Waking up to find yourself in a wolf’s den wasn’t the best experience, but, hey, it was better than being dead.
The next day, Sarah crept down the stairs, all too aware of the silence in the house. After he’d dropped his little sexual bombshell, she hadn’t spoken to Lucas again last night. She’d kept silent because, mostly, because he was right.
She did want him. Arrogant bastard.
She’d been thinking about him for months. Ever since she’d first seen his picture and heard the tales of the LA alpha.
His father had been slaughtered when Lucas was ten. Killed by the leader of a rival pack who’d wanted to claim the LA territory.
If the tales were true, and, after meeting the man, Sarah figured they had to be, Lucas had gone after his father’s killer. He’d attacked a full-grown wolf shifter, in human form—and the form of a ten-year-old boy really wasn’t that tough. Lucas had somehow survived that fight. He’d escaped death and disappeared from LA for six years.
At sixteen, he’d come back, and the shifter who’d murdered his father had been dead within an hour of his return. In the seventeen years since, he’d been the wolf running these streets.
So, okay, she had more than a little crush on the guy. A crush that had caused her to risk her ass when she found out he was in danger. She still couldn’t believe she’d driven all the way from Arizona to try and save him.
Well, his life—and her own skin.
Sarah reached the bottom of the stairs. “Hello! Lucas?” He’d better not have gone hunting without her.
“You’re pretty in the morning.” His voice came from the right. He stepped from the kitchen, crossed his arms, and studied her. “But I think I liked the other outfit better.”
She’d tossed on the jeans and t-shirt she’d stuffed into her travel bag. Since her goal today wasn’t seduction—not her main goal, anyway—she’d been glad to get back into her casual clothes.
Her hands dug into her back pockets. “I—um, thought you had already left.”
His lips curled. “I’ll be hunting soon enough.”
Sarah didn’t doubt it.
“Confession time, huh, sweet Sarah?”
She nodded. They needed to talk today, to plan and to attack. Because, once night fell, she knew more coyotes would be coming after her.
And him.
So where should she start?
“Tell me about the dead man.” He leaned back against the doorframe.
All right. That was one place to start. She cleared her throat. Took a nice slow breath. He’ll know when I lie. Well, he’d know, unless she was very, very careful. “John Turner was . . . like me.”
“A wolf charmer?”
“He was a charmer, yes, but the coyote was his linked animal. He worked with them.” Because every charmer she’d met had a primary link. Some could pick up thoughts from a few other beasts, but one animal was always primary, with a link so strong it took no effort to form the connection.
“Worked with?” Lucas repeated carefully.
Ah, now she had to be very careful because “worked with” was actually a nice euphemism for John’s spy work. When the coyotes got together for their hunts with other factions, John had always been there. Pretending to be a guard, but secretly picking up the thoughts of all the coyote shifters there and reporting back to his coyote leader.
Charmer spies were valuable commodities in the shifter world. Because when the beasts roamed free, it was so easy to discover what lies the men had been keeping.
“The dead guy was spying on coyote packs?”
Lucas obviously knew the score. She nodded.
“While he was . . . working, John got word of a planned attack in LA.” No sense sugar-coating. If she hadn’t been so tired lasted night, she would have gotten all this crap out into the open then. But she’d been running on fumes and the minute she’d found the bed, one that held John’s wild scent, she’d crashed.
It had been the first time she’d slept in the last thirty-six hours.
“John picked up the thoughts of a coyote named Hayden. The guy wanted more power.” Hayden. She’d met the jerk a few times. Squinty eyes. Handsome face. Evil grin. “He thought if he pulled off a coup here, he could start his own faction.” And then the coyotes could take back the power they’d lost to the wolves in LA.