A Wolf's Savage Embrace (14 page)

“He has no right to speak to you…” he began, but Kat cut him off.

“It’s okay. He’s a friend, and for some reason, he seems to be just a little ticked off at me right now,” she turned back to Thomas – who was watching the pair warily. “It’s been a long time, Tommy.” She said, as lightly as possible. “What’s got you in such a snit?”

“Your sister was here,” She heard Luke say, and her eyes widened.

“When?” Kat asked, directing her question to Thomas.

“She left about a half hour ago,” Thomas huffed. “Right after she about squeezed my balls completely off - and
then
the little shit
has the audacity to kick me in the shin! Obstinate little brat! Just why in the hell people procreate is totally beyond me.”

Kat tried to hold it back; she really did, but she just couldn’t.
She burst out laughing – actually doubling over from it. The floodgates had been opened, and all of the tension and worry of the past few days was deliciously rolling out of her. God, she needed this, she thought – wiping the tears from her eyes with the backs of her hands. She had not laughed so hard in, she couldn’t remember how long – but the thought of a seventeen year old girl holding her friend prisoner –
literally,
by the balls, was freaking hysterical!

“It is
not
funny!” Thomas practically shrieked. “That little twit just about maimed me for life!”

“I’m… I’m sorry…” Kat choked out, trying desperately to regain her composure – but she just couldn’t pull it off.
She didn’t know what was wrong with her, but she just couldn’t stop laughing.

She turned and glanced at Luke, who was standing there watching her as if she had lost her mind - and she only laughed all the harder.
Oh, this was rich; she thought with a very unladylike snort.

“Katrina,” Luke whispered, and reached out to touch her arm – only to stop a moment later and pull it back - and Kat found herself wishing that he hadn’t.
God! All she wanted was to feel his hands on her again.

The thought sobered her up in an instant, and she turned back to her friend – trying to shake off the immense sense of loss that she felt as she did.

“Do you know where she was headed?” Kat asked finally, and Thomas huffed again as he stomped over to her. When he was not a foot from her – she heard Luke’s low growl of warning and he stopped – rolling his eyes dramatically.

“Don’t worry,
He-Man
,” Thomas bit out, glaring at Luke. “I’m not going to hurt her.” He looked back to Kat and gave her small smile. “Really, Katrina. Your own personal guard dog?” he asked. “My, my, love – you sure have moved up in the world.” He gave Luke the once over, then leaned in to whisper conspiratorially in her ear. “Although, I must say, he
is
yummy.”

“The Hell I am!” Luke barked, and Kat bit back the smile threatening to make its presence known, once again.
She cleared her throat and looked at Thomas, her expression growing serious.

“What did my sister want?”

“Well, besides my
gonads
on a platter,” Thomas said gruffly, but his tone too – had grown serious. “She’s looking for your mother.” He informed her with a shake of his head. “But I haven’t seen Elaine in months.”

“Well, that sure as hell beats three years,” Kat replied darkly.
“What did you tell her?”

“I didn’t know what to tell her,” he replied, “but she was holding what looked like a letter in the hand that
wasn’t
squeezing the life out of my boys – so I’m guessing someone gave her some information – or she wouldn’t have come looking for me.” He looked at her apologetically. “And she found out about you - from me. I’m sorry, Kat. It just kind of slipped out. I figured that if she was looking for your mom, that she had to have known about you. Jesus, Kat - just what is going on here?”

Kat stiffened slightly when she felt Luke’s heat against her back.
He had moved up to stand just behind her – not touching - but Good Lord, he didn’t need to. Just his presence this close to her was enough to send her body into overdrive. She bit back the urge to turn around, jump into his arms –
and then
jump him! Geez –she thought with a scowl, she sure hoped she could muster up some willpower – and fast.

She cleared her throat and tried to ignore the man standing behind her.
“There is just too much to explain right now, Tommy,” she answered. “We need to find Harper.”

Thomas glanced at Luke a moment before looking back to Kat – his eyes narrowing.
“Are you safe with Mount Olympus here?” he asked, and Kat flinched slightly.

Sure, she was safe – but was Luke?
She felt like a complete coward for not just ditching him and doing this alone – and she was seriously beginning to hate herself quite a bit for it. She had never in her entire life been a coward – but this man had broken down her defenses so thoroughly that she didn’t even know which end was up anymore.

“Don’t worry,” Luke growled over her shoulder, and Kat felt a shiver run across her at his deep, husky tone.
“I won’t let
anyone
touch her.”

“Well, la di fricking da, Hercules,” Thomas snapped, and Kat bit back another laugh.
“But I was talking to Kat – not you.”

“I swear to God - I’ll break your freaking …” Luke began, but Kat stopped him.

“Would you two just stop with the pissing contest!” She barked, and both men instantly snapped their mouths shut and gaped at her. “We need to find Harper before she disappears again, and I really don’t want to have to stand here with my thumb up my ass while the both of you throw insults and threats at each other like two bullies on a school playground. Just drop the damn testosterone down a notch or two,
boys!
” With that, she turned – walked around Luke, and stormed for the door.

Luke glared at Thomas for a moment in silent warning, before turning and following Kat out of the shop.
He spotted her as she stormed down the sidewalk; mumbling softly to herself about how all men were immature assholes - and Luke couldn’t stop the smile that came to his lips. The witch was absolutely adorable as she stomped along talking to herself.

He trotted up to her and grasped her upper arm – pulling her to a stop.
“Just where in the hell do you think you’re going
now?
” He asked as she yanked her arm out of his grasp, and Luke silently cursed himself for touching her. “Sorry,” he murmured softly, his eyes gleaming as he raised his hands in a gesture of apology. “I seem to have momentarily forgotten the no touching rule.” Shit, this was just too damn hard! Luke silently raged.

He wanted to do a Hell of a lot more than just touch her - and it was like a physical pull that was gnawing at his insides with a deep, growing ache.
Luke clenched his hands into fists and dropped them to his sides, trying desperately to regain some control over his libido – but this woman was making that nearly impossible.

“I’m going to find Harper,” Kat informed him as if he were daft.

“Well, you are going in the wrong direction, sunshine.” He replied with a grin, and turned and started walking in the opposite direction in which she had been heading – whistling softly to himself as he did.

Kat watched as Luke walked off – her eyes locking on his firm, perfect backside as he strolled down the street, as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
“Jackass,” she grumbled under her breath - and took off after him.

“I heard that,” he stated, not breaking stride –nor even bothering to throw a glance her way, and she felt the overpowering urge to chuck something at his arrogant,
gorgeous
head! And she swore that if she had had something – she would have.

Luke suddenly came to an abrupt halt, and Kat – not quite paying attention, slammed into his solid back with a loud
oomph!

“What the
hell,
Benji?”

Luke didn’t say a word; he just grabbed Kat around the waist and pulled her into a nearby alley, his mouth turned down in a frown.

“What?” She breathed, suddenly extremely nervous.

“I smell the witches that were at the
Bradford’s,” he whispered. “I want you to stay here, while I go and check it out,” he said, and felt her instantly stiffen.

Knowing that she was about to argue with him, he did the only thing he could think of doing – he kissed her senseless.
He crushed his mouth down onto hers and pulled her flush against his steely frame – his tongue taking possession and staking claim with a hot, urgent need. When he felt her relax against him, and moan softly, he turned them and eased her back, so that she was braced against the brick wall of the building as his mouth continued to devour hers.

Hating himself, he broke away from her lips and took a deep, steadying breath.
“Stay here,” he commanded huskily, and Kat just stared – unable to form any semblance of a coherent sentence – or thought for that matter. She was operating on pure sensation – and boy was it messing with her brain!

Luke dipped his head and kissed her again before turning and jogging back down the alley, and Kat was again taken by just how breathtaking the man truly was.
He was primal, raw sex and she realized with a groan that her knees were shaking uncontrollably and braced her hand on the brick wall behind her to steady herself.

She tried with everything that she had to gather her senses enough to go after him.
She’d be damned if she’d let him kiss her into submission
just
so that she would do what he wanted her to do. Screw
that
noise! Damn, stubborn -
arrogant
ass!

With that thought urging her on, she shook her head and started after him – albeit on extremely shaky legs – she realized with a disgusted groan.
Damn that man!

She hadn’t even made it five steps when Luke was back.
He took her by the arm and guided her along with him.

“What’s going on?” Kat questioned - her eyes large and wary.

“We need to get to Harper before they do,” he replied, leading her down the street. Kat was about to mention the no touching rule – but thought better of it. Now was definitely not the time to poke the beast.

Chapter
6

Luke pulled Katrina along with him as he followed Harper’s scent, loving the feel of her silky skin beneath his hand.
He headed down the main street of town and finally took a turn and started toward the town’s local park.

Harper’s scent was getting stronger as they neared, and he knew that the witches had taken the opposite direction. He paused at the entrance, and turned to Kat.

“I believe she’s still here,” he murmured, giving Kat a gentle smile when he saw the nerves hit her full on.

He knew she was terrified of meeting her sister- but he also knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had nothing to worry about.
The woman was amazing – and there was no way that Harper wouldn’t see that. “No worries, red.” He whispered with an encouraging grin. He cupped her chin with his hand and lifted her face so that she would look at him. “Come on, baby - just breathe.”

Kat nodded – taking a deep, steadying breath.
“No worries.” She repeated, hearing the tremor in her voice and wincing slightly. Damn it – she could do this! She looked at him and tried to return his smile. “Just breathe.”

Luke wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, wanting so much to take all of her fear and doubt from her - but he knew that he couldn’t.
She needed to find out for herself that she was worthy. He leaned back and kissed her gently on the forehead, then caught her gaze, his eyes locking with - and holding hers.

“It’s going to be fine,” he reassured her – his mouth quirking up into a lopsided grin that literally took Kat’s breath away. “You can do this.”

“All right.” She gave him a quick, jerky nod. “Let’s do it.” She whispered with much more conviction than she actually felt.

Luke dropped a quick kiss on her lips before whispering in her ear. “She’ll love you, red.
How could she not.”

With that, he took hold of her hand and headed toward a large tree house at the edge of the park. Not caring in the least that their no touching rule had been completely blown out of the water.

Harper noticed the couple walking hand in hand toward where she was sitting and instantly went on alert. There was something so familiar about the beautiful woman walking to where she was hidden, that she felt her throat constrict with tears. As they approached, Harper realized with a gasp, that she looked quite a bit like herself – but it couldn’t be! Could it?

She stood and braced herself against the wall of the tree house, peeking around through the window to watch them as they walked toward her.

The man was beyond drop dead gorgeous, Harper thought with a nervous smile, but her eyes kept going back to the redhead – it was as if she was being drawn to her - and suddenly Harper realized that her feet were moving, and she was heading toward the trapdoor of the structure. As if in a trance, Harper lifted the door and started climbing cautiously down the ladder.

When she reached the bottom, the couple stood not five feet away from her, and Harper heard the woman gasp as their eyes met.

“Harper.” The woman whispered, her eyes filling with tears, and Harper swallowed hard, trying with everything that she had to be brave.

“Yes.” She croaked out – her knees shaking wildly.

“I…I’m Katrina. I’m your sister.”

Harper took a breath and straightened her back – jutting out her chin slightly.
“Yeah, I kind of figured,” she replied, fighting the desire to throw herself into the woman’s arms with every ounce of self-control that had.

No matter what she was feeling, this woman was a complete stranger to her. She might be her sister, but she had never even attempted to contact her before now, and with that thought, Harper’s anger started to bubble to the surface and she tried with all her might to push it back. Think happy thoughts, she told herself.

Kat watched the play of emotion on Harper’s face nervously – not quite sure what she should say. Thankfully Luke helped her out.

“I’m Luke,” He said, letting go of Kats hand and taking a few steps towards the girl who was standing there so defiantly.

He held out his hand as Harper eyed him warily, not sure if she could trust the pair. When Luke graced her with that smile of his, Harper felt her cheeks warm. There was just something about him that made her want to believe that he would help her – that she could trust him.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and took a step closer, putting her tiny hand in his – needing them to think that she wasn’t as scared as she was.
“What are you doing here?” She asked, her voice cracking slightly, and she grimaced.

Luke chuckled, his eyes sparkling.
“We’ve been looking for you. And I’ve got to tell you, kid – you haven’t been easy to track,” he told her, turning and motioning to Kat to come over.

Kat took a few tentative steps closer as Harper watched her intently, feeling as if she was about to toss up everything that she had ever eaten in her entire life.
When she stood beside Luke, he put his hand to the small of her back and urged her forward as he took a few steps behind her to give them some space.

Kat stared, unable to utter a word – her heart pounding in her chest so hard that she feared it would burst.
She took a deep, steadying breath and glanced back to Luke over her shoulder. He gave her a gentle smile and a wink – nodding to her that it was all right, and Kat felt a surge of strength at his encouragement.

She turned back to Harper and tried to smile – hoping to put the girl at ease. The poor thing had had so much dumped on her in the last day, that Kat had the overwhelming urge to comfort and protect her.
“I didn’t know,” she began softly, her eyes shimmering with tears. “You were…you were kept a secret from me.” Damn it! Kat inwardly chastised herself. She was totally messing this up. “If I had known…I would have come sooner.”

Harper narrowed her eyes, biting at her bottom lip much in the same fashion as Kat did when she was concentrating.
“My mom and dad were the best,” she threw out, her chin jutting out in defiance, but Kat could see the emotion in the girl’s expression. “They loved me, and took care of me – but now…” She shook her head slightly, her eyes shining. “You really didn’t know about me?” She asked, after what to Kat seemed like an eternity, and she shook her head.

“My…
our
mother sent me away before you were born.”

“Why?” Harper asked as a tear slipped free and slid down her cheek - and Kat wanted nothing more at that moment than to take her in her arms and hold her.
Instead, she again shook her head sadly.

“I don’t really know. She did everything she could to hide you from me.”

“I have no one now,” Harper whispered, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

Kat took a step closer to her, her own tears running down her face.
“That’s not true, Harper.” She said, trying her best to give her a reassuring smile. “You have me.”

Harper stared at Kat a moment in silence, her hazel eyes sparkling with moisture.
“I’m a handful,” she finally croaked out, and Kat couldn’t help but laugh.

“Yes, well; that makes two of us,” Kat replied softly, and decided to take a giant leap of faith. She swallowed back her fear and opened her arms to her sister, praying that she would see the love in her eyes.

Harper hesitated a moment, glancing at Luke standing there silently, before looking back to Kat. Then suddenly she was stepping forward in a rush and throwing herself into her arms.

As soon as their bodies touched there was an explosion of blue light that sent them each flying backwards with a loud pop.

Harper landed firmly on her backside in the sand, and Kat was thrown back, right into Luke’s arms - the force of it, knocking them both to the ground. And Kat had the insane thought that she had
finally
moved the mountain - and all that it had taken was a small sonic boom.

“What in the
Hell
was that?” Harper asked, getting to her feet and brushing off her bottom.

Kat lay there on top of Luke, painfully aware of his strong arms wrapped around her, and tried to calm her beating heart.
She felt him twist, and effortlessly stand up as he pulled her up with him.

“Are you all right?” he asked her, his hands curling over her shoulders, and his eyes boring into hers with concern.
Kat nodded slowly, trying hard to figure out just what in the Hell had just happened. She had never experienced anything like it before.

Luke turned to glance at Harper.
“How about you, kid?” He asked her, as he led Kat over to where she stood.

“Oh, I am just fine and
freaking
dandy,” she said with a sarcastic smirk. “I always enjoy getting the crap shocked out of me. It totally makes a girl feel alive, ya know? And I am
not
a kid!”

Luke couldn’t help but to burst out laughing.
The girl was just as much of a smartass as her sister, and he had the strong feeling that they were going to get along brilliantly.

“Do you feel funny?” Kat asked Harper, and Luke’s eyes shot back to her.
His gaze roaming over her body and face for any signs of injury – and his heart pounding in his chest with panic at the thought of her being hurt in any way.

“Yeah,” he heard Harper respond.
“I feel…kind of,” she broke off, trying to find the right words.

“Energized?” Kat offered, and the girl nodded emphatically.

“Yeah! That’s it exactly!”

Kat took another step, so that she was standing directly in front of her - and tentatively reached out her hand towards her sister.

“Katrina,” Luke protested softly with a hand on her arm. “Perhaps you shouldn’t.”

Kat shook her head, stopping any further protest - and took Harper’s hand.
There was a slight tingling at the contact, but no shot of electric current or ball of light. It felt almost like a diluted form of the tingles she had felt when she and Luke had made love, and she felt her cheeks grow warm with the memory. She shook off the thought, and pulled Harper into a hug, holding the girl close.

Harper relaxed a moment later when she realized that she wasn’t going to be shot through the air again, and her arms lifted to return Kat’s embrace.
After a few moments, they broke apart – smiling.

Harper looked at Luke who was standing there silently, a look of apprehension marring his perfect features.
She eyed him up and down a moment before looking back to Kat. “So, who’s Tarzan?” she asked with a grin. “Boyfriend?”

“No!” Kat burst out, her face flushing even redder than it had been. “He’s a…well; he’s sort of a friend.” She stammered, and then glanced at Luke.
“
And, a
giant, stubborn pain in the ass.”

Luke broke out into laughter, and blew her a kiss. “You don’t know the half of it,” he replied.

Harper’s eyes went between the two, her brows lifting slightly as if she knew something that they didn’t, and finally shrugged.

“Whatever,” she said after a long pause. “So, what do we do now?”

Luke walked over to them and grinned. “How about we get you both something to eat, and then settle into a hotel for the night. We have a lot to discuss, and you and your sister need a little time.”

Kat nodded distractedly and looped her arm through Harper’s, following Luke back to the car – trying as hard as she could not to stare at his behind as they did.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Luke laughed when, not thirty minutes later, both Kat and Harper ordered pancakes at the little diner that they sat in. “Seriously?”

“What? Pancakes are the perfect food,” Harper informed him, and Kat nodded in agreement.

The two seemed to be slipping into an easy friendship, and Luke knew without a doubt that in time they would become inseparable. There was an instant bond between the two that you would have to be hard-pressed not to see. “So,” Harper asked, interrupting his musings. “What’s
your
deal, jungle-boy?”

Luke choked back a laugh and studied her a moment.
“Jungle-boy?” He finally asked; his mouth quirking up at the corners.