Call of the Wolf (10 page)

* * * *

"This feels like old times, huh?” Jerico said, pulling his gaze from the distant landscape he'd been scanning for any sign of activity that might be a threat.

"This?” Adrian asked with a snort of amusement.

"Yeah—watching the perimeter."

Adrian shook his head and then tipped it back to stare up at the moon. “I suppose it looks the same where ever you happen to be in the world—I get the vibes—but this isn't like anything we ever did before."

Jerico shrugged. “Us working together on a mission."

Adrian grinned at him wolfishly. “You miss the old days?"

"You don't?"

Adrian considered it and finally shrugged. “I guess ... sometimes."

Jerico sent him a troubled look. “You don't ever think that, maybe, we shouldn't have broken up the pack and gone our separate ways?"

"What are you getting at, Jerico?” Adrian asked testily.

Jerico thought it over and finally shook his head. “I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it until I got here and we all got back together."

Adrian studied him assessingly. “And we hadn't more than gotten through the greetings when we spied Abby. That should tell you we did the right thing. In the old days we never would've been at odds over a woman."

"We're all here guarding her, though, aren't we?"

"Because we all want her and we all need to protect her."

"And, if we were still a pack like we were in the old days, we'd be doing the same thing,” Jerico said pointedly. “Because she'd belong to the pack Alpha and his Betas."

"I'm not Seth's Beta anymore. I'm pack Alpha,” Adrian growled.

"I'm pack Alpha, too,” Jerico snapped, “but that doesn't change the fucking fact that I'm about as fucking low in the hierarchy as I can go! This is second time the gathering's been called here. Have you seen the size of Seth's pack?"

"Seth wasn't pack Alpha the last time the gathering was called here,” Adrian retorted.

"Exactly—he replaced the old Alpha. This is prime territory, which puts Seth about the same fucking distance from the top of the chain as I am from the fucking bottom. I'm just thinking I might prefer to be his lieutenant and enjoy being closer to the top of the hierarchy—especially if he's going to end up with Abby."

"You don't think you've got a shot at winning the challenge?"

Jerico shrugged. “I never beat Seth before. There's always a possibility, but I fight better
with
him than against him."

Adrian frowned irritably. “Just what are you getting at, Jerico?” he growled.

Jerico's lips tightened. “I want Abby. I'd do just about anything to get her. I'm saying maybe we ought to consider the possibility that there'll be others that feel the same way and we might have a better chance if we're standing with Seth."

* * * *

The alarm that woke her the following morning was so jarring Abby shot upwards, prying her sleep blurred eyes open to look around until she finally realized it
was
the alarm. Squinting her eyes, she peered at the clock, trying to figure out why it was blaring. When she couldn't jar enlightenment into her sluggish brain, she dragged herself from the bed and shut it off. After looking around in confusion for several moments for a door leading to the bathroom, she headed toward the only door she could see and wrenched it open.

Memory started to return, recognition of her surroundings, and she made her way to the bathroom to take a shower. The shower raised her alertness somewhat, enough for it to dawn on her that she had to get ready for work—something she'd fallen out of the habit of. Drying her hair with a towel, she headed into the kitchen to put water on to heat for coffee.

Seth was leaning back against the sink, his arms folded over his chest. Abby came to an abrupt halt, staring at him blankly.

He surveyed her from head to toe with a slow, thorough appraisal that precluded any pretense of doing anything else. His eyes were gleaming when he met her gaze again. “Mornin', beautiful."

Uttering a belated squawk as it slammed into her abruptly that she was stark naked, Abby whirled and dashed toward her room. Completely and totally awake once she'd slammed the door behind her, Abby discovered her thoughts were still chaotic.

What the hell was he doing in her kitchen, she wondered a mixture of embarrassment and indignation?

She didn't remember much about the night before, but she was certain that it had been Cameron who'd carried her to bed. He'd offered to stay, but she hadn't taken that seriously.

And that still didn't explain Seth being in her kitchen!

Thrusting it aside after a moment, she searched for clothing, finally settling for the least offensive of the dresses the Feds had furnished her with. When she'd combed her hair, she left it loose to dry and headed into the kitchen again.

She hadn't imagined it. Seth
was
in her kitchen—now seated at her table sipping a cup of coffee. There was a second cup across from him.

Amusement and something else gleamed in his eyes when he met her gaze. “I'm not sure I needed the coffee after that, but I figured I might as well have some since I'd already made it. I didn't know you slept in the buff or I would've been sittin’ down."

Abby felt her face heat. “I don't
bathe
with clothes on!” she said irritably, pulling out the chair and plopping down on the seat since her knees still felt weak.

The amusement had left Seth's face when she finished doctoring her coffee with cream and sugar and looked up at him again.

"As much as I enjoyed the view, I'd just as soon none of the others saw you like that,” he said, a tautness in his voice that hadn't been there before.

Abby stared at him in disbelief and dawning outrage. “This is
my
damned kitchen! My damned house! What I do inside my house is my business and nobody else's. If I'd known you were here,
you
wouldn't have gotten a view!” she snapped.

Some of the tightness eased from his expression. “It wasn't just an accident, though, was it? You make a habit of strollin’ around your house naked ... or next door to it."

She narrowed her eyes at him. As a matter of fact, she did, and she still didn't see where he got off chastising her about it. “And your point is?"

He narrowed his eyes at her and leaned forward. “I'm not keen on sharin',” he growled.

Abby felt her jaw slide to half mast in stunned surprise.

Seth studied her a moment and flicked a glance at his watch. “We're runnin’ late. I figured, since you don't know the way to the school, I'd drive you today."

He got up, tossed the last of his coffee into the sink and rinsed the cup, all while Abby stared at him, stupefied. Finally, she got up and headed to collect her purse and the folder—the
infamous
folder that had blown her cover. Catching her elbow, Seth walked her out and helped her into the front seat of his patrol car.

Abby still hadn't thought of a response when he pulled into a parking spot at the school and shut off the engine. She glanced at him frowningly. “Did I miss something?” she asked finally.

Shifting around in the seat to face her, he draped an arm across the steering wheel, tilting his head at her questioningly.

Abby frowned, trying to sort her confusing thoughts into some sort of order. The uncomfortable suspicion still plagued her, though, that she'd somehow gotten confused, misheard him—something. “Did you...? Did you...?
What
did you say to me?"

Something flickered in his eyes that looked suspiciously like wariness. “What did you think I said?” he hedged.

She
thought
—after knowing her five minutes—he'd informed her that he'd staked a claim on her and she needn't be considering sharing her honey pot with anybody else. She stared at him uncomfortably for a moment and finally shook her head. She had to be losing her mind. “Never mind. I think I'm going to have to think about it."

Seth didn't look terribly pleased about the comment. Instead of responding, though, he got out, walked around to her door and opened it. Cupping her elbow, he guided her into the school and to the principle's office, introducing her. “If I don't get tied up, I'll come by at lunch,” he said when he'd finished the introductions and turned to leave.

Abby merely gaped at him and, after a moment, he left.

The principal was halfway through her ‘welcome—orientation’ speech before she managed to snag enough of Abby's attention to actually listen. She was still in a state of disorder when the woman escorted her to her classroom and abandoned her to the twenty demons from hell that were perched in their seats, as wide eyed with innocence as if they actually were the little angels they'd portrayed themselves to be—obviously for the principal's benefit.

Abby stared back at them uneasily and finally pasted a bright smile on her face. “Well!” she managed to say brightly. “I'm Ms. Winthrope, as your principal told you, and I'll be your new teacher. What I'd like everyone to do first is to draw me a picture showing me how you spent your summer vacation or anything special that happened."

The scrape of chairs and the stampede to her desk to collect art supplies were her first clues that her strategy to give herself a few minutes to collect wits wasn't going to work quite the way she'd anticipated. They'd asked her so many questions in their munchkin voices that by lunch time she had a splitting headache—and most the questions were personal.

Seth
could learn interrogation techniques from them!

He didn't show for lunch, but she didn't even think about it until the bell rang summoning the children to the buses.

* * * *

"Fuck!” Seth muttered in disgust when he'd climbed into his cruiser again. He didn't know what the hell had gotten in to him to try such a highhanded stunt with Abby—of all the women he might have
thought
to pull such a thing with!—but it had to rank among the stupidest things he'd ever done!

Actually, he
did
know what had come over him.

Possessiveness!

And stupidity!

Not that he thought anyone could blame him, all things considered. He was lucky he'd managed to string two words together when she'd bounced into the kitchen stark naked, still damp and tousled from her bath, and heavy eyed with sleep.

She
was damned lucky she hadn't found herself flat of her back with her heels behind her head! A man could only take so much without going off the deep end!

The minute it had popped into his head that the others were liable to see her like that, he'd come unglued.

He didn't know if he was more pissed off with himself for playing his hand like that or Abby for dismissing it.

* * * *

Abby was sitting at her desk trying to work out what to do to keep her class occupied the following day when Adrian sauntered into the room.

"Ready to go?"

Abby lifted her head and stared at him blankly. “Where are we going?” she asked, thoroughly mystified and wondering if she'd agreed to go somewhere with him and forgotten it.

He favored her with a slow grin that displayed his dimple to full advantage. “Anywhere you want, Baby."

Abby struggled with the warmth invading her and further clouding her judgment. “I meant—uh—did we have plans?"

He chuckled. “Don't tempt me, Abby. I'm a man on the edge,” he teased. “Seth brought you. I didn't figure you'd want to walk back."

"Oh!” Abby exclaimed, reddening, then asked a little doubtfully, “He sent you?"

"Let's just say I won the toss."

Abby got up and gathered her things before it occurred to her that he had a motorcycle. “I'm not getting on the back of a motorcycle,” she said flatly.

He surveyed the dress she was wearing. “Nope. Not dressed for it, that's for sure. I drove your car."

"Oh,” she replied, disconcerted, wondering how he'd managed that when she had her key ring with her.

"There was a spare key under the front wheel well,” he responded as if he'd read her mind. “You want me to drive? Or you think you know the way?"

Abby had been on the point of insisting she drive until the reminder that she didn't know her way around. She
thought
she could remember how to get home, but she hadn't been paying as much attention on the ride out as she should have. “You'd better drive."

He opened the door and leaned on it until she'd gotten in. “So—how was the first day?” he asked when he'd slid into the driver's seat.

Abby groaned. “Interesting,” she muttered. “The children had a grand time."

He slid an arm across the seat back, pinching the tense muscles along the back of her neck. Abby knew she shouldn't have let him be so familiar, but it felt damned good.

"Just as I thought. Tense. You got a headache?"

"From hell,” she murmured, closing her eyes.

He shifted around in his seat. “Come here."

Abby opened her eyes and looked at him a little doubtfully. He lifted one dark brow in a questioning arch—or maybe challenging? She felt her skin prickle. Her nipples stiffened against the fabric covering them. She hoped the sports bra she'd elected to wear was enough to keep them from poking out noticeably, but it was doubt that that was the case that was the deciding factor. She shifted in the seat to present him with her back, grasping her hair, confined at the base of her skull, and pulling it over one shoulder.

She hadn't counted on the fact that the neck of her dress was wide enough to leave so much of her shoulders bare to his touch.

The rough skin of his palms as he settled his hands in the crook between shoulders and neck made a fresh wave of goosebumps rise, made her nipples harden even more. A shiver went through her when he started kneading the muscles, working her shoulders briefly before he inched back toward her neck. She felt the flesh of her scalp pebble as he worked his way up slowly from her shoulders along the column of her neck. By the time he'd threaded his fingers through her hair and begun massaging her scalp, her head had ceased to throb but she discovered the tension had only moved lower. Her breasts had begun to fill full and tight and her belly had tensed. The warm readiness she felt just from being near him had increased to an awareness that wasn't the least impersonal.

Discomfort moved through her when she realized she was aroused. “That's good,” she said a little breathlessly. “Thanks."

He withdrew his hands readily enough, but slowly enough she sensed his reluctance. Clearing her throat, she moved back into her own seat and focused on fastening her seatbelt. She sensed the speculative glance he slid at her as he started the car, but she didn't dare meet his gaze, afraid he'd see how she felt.

"You should grab a shower, down a couple of painkillers, and rest for a little bit when you get home,” he murmured after a few moments, his voice husky. “It would knock the rest of that headache out."

"Sounds like a plan,” Abby agreed, smiling faintly. “I guess civilizing five-year-olds may take getting used to."

"You just have to let them know who's boss. They'll run over you if you let them—it's the nature of the beast."

Abby couldn't help but smile. “I doubt their parents would appreciate likening them to little beasts."

"That's what they are until they've been civilized—cute—but still little beasts. That's where tact comes in."

Abby slid a speculative glance at him. “You know a lot about five year olds?"

He grinned. “If you're asking me if I have any little rug rats—no, but I've been around a few—more than you, I'd be willing to bet."

"If you've been around
any
, you've been around more than I have,” Abby retorted wryly, trying to subdue the flush that mounted her cheeks that he'd so easily seen through her attempt to pump him for personal information.

"Not married, never have been,” he added, grinning again, although he didn't look at her.

"Did I ask?” she asked a little irritably.

"Just FYI. I haven't actually been looking. I figured when the right one came along, I'd know it."

That was a little more information than she was really comfortable with, particularly when he casually draped one arm across the back of the seat and began massaging the back of her neck again—actually, it was more like a caress. The warmth that had barely settled churned to life again. Abby tensed, but she was torn. She liked him. His touch was a little more intimate than she was completely comfortable with since she knew allowing it would only encourage him to be bolder, and yet she didn't want to discourage him either.

In any case, although she supposed it
should
have felt like encroachment, it didn't.

She was almost sorry, in fact, when they turned on the road where she lived and she saw that they were nearing her drive. He didn't remove his hand until he'd pulled the car up behind the house. Shifting it into park, he unfastened his seatbelt.

Abby was unfastening her own when she felt his hand settle along the base her skull again. She looked up to discover he'd leaned closer.

It didn't take a great deal of thought to realize his intent. Doubts flickered through her mind, but her heart leapt, as well, the warm tingling feeling from before burgeoning. The temptation was just too much to resist. She lifted her lips to meet him halfway, releasing the breath that had caught in her throat in a sigh as she felt the pressure of his hard mouth on the tender flesh of her own.

Between one heart beat and the next, her entire world seemed to have narrowed only to Adrian, the feel of his lips as they danced lightly along hers in a teasing caress, the warmth of him. She lost awareness even of the weight of his hand on the back of her head. Dizziness swirled through her as she dragged a deep breath of him inside of her where it warmed her blood more. Her heart began to surge against her breast bone with excitement, speeding the blood through her in a dizzying rush that made her feel as if she was floating.

He dipped his head to a sharper angle after a moment, fitting his lips more snugly against her mouth, sucking lightly at her lips before he stroked the tip his tongue along the seam of her lips and plunged inside. Instantly, every sense sharpened, every wonderful sensation intensified.

Abby lifted a hand to clutch and Adrian's shirt, striving to get closer still, to absorb more of the heady sensations. She'd expected to enjoy Adrian's touch. She hadn't anticipated losing herself so completely that nothing existed to her but his caress, the taste and texture and smell of him. She hadn't thought her need would edge rational thought away. She never imagined a kiss could bring her so close to heaven.

She could barely lift her eyelids when he withdrew his touch, eased away from her to study her face. The tautness of his own features, the gleam in his hooded eyes, the unsteadiness of his breath made her nearly as weak.

His gaze flickered over her face and returned to her swollen lips. For a moment, she thought he would pull her close for another kiss, but he seemed to abruptly come to an awareness of where they were even as it began to filter into her own mind.

He slipped his hand from the back of her head to cup her cheek, stroking his thumb lightly along her lips, and finally dragged in a shuddering breath. “Baby, you keep looking at me like that and your neighbors are liable to get a real shock."

The comment didn't exactly break the spell—she still felt almost feverish with the heat and rapid beat of her pulse—but her awareness of her surroundings spiked. She glanced around uncomfortably and her eyes widened.

Seth was standing on the top step of her back porch, looking like a thunder cloud. Just behind him was Cameron, who looked as pissed off as Seth did.

Abby sat up abruptly, sending Adrian a worried look.

He'd noticed their ‘company,’ as well, she saw.

He turned to look at her just as she glanced at him. Their gazes clashed for a split second and she saw something in his eyes she couldn't quite interpret—satisfaction?

She wasn't certain—not of anything beyond the fact that she didn't want an unpleasant encounter and she saw no way to avoid it even as she bailed out of the car. Stalling for time, trying to gather her scattered wits, she grabbed up her purse and folder before slamming the door.

Adrian got out, as well. Shutting the driver's door, he leaned back against it, folding his arms over his chest. Even from where she stood, it seemed to her that he sent Cameron and Seth a challenging look. Whether he did or not, however, the two men came the down the steps and headed straight toward him.

Girding herself, Abby clutched her belongings a little tighter, rounded the end of the car and headed for the house. To her relief neither Seth nor Cameron said anything to her as she hurried past them and headed into the house. She paused when she reached the kitchen door, glancing uneasily at the three men.

All three of them, she discovered, were eyeing her.

Looking away, she went inside and slammed the door.

It hammered at the back of her mind as she strode quickly through the kitchen and hallway and into her bedroom that the hostility between the three men had been almost palpable. Wondering if an argument, or worse, was about to erupt in her backyard, she dropped her burdens on her bed and plopped down on the edge, straining to listen for any sounds that might indicate she'd been right.

After a few minutes, when she didn't hear anything, she relaxed fractionally. It began to seep slowly in to her as her tension eased that she'd found herself in a really bizarre situation, though, and she couldn't figure out how it had even come about.

She'd still been reeling with the discovery that she'd been abandoned to her own devices by the very people who'd put her life in jeopardy—furious, truthfully, that she had been abandoned—when she'd met Seth. His interest in her right from the start had made her far more uneasy than thrilled and she hadn't been any happier when he'd manipulated her into going to Ms. Parker's.

He was ‘drool’ worthy. There was no getting around that. Even in the state she'd been in, she hadn't been completely immune to his powerful sex appeal. She'd still had enough sense, though, to be wary. Granted, if he hadn't been wearing that uniform, she might've been completely witless, but that had certainly set off enough alarms to make her distrustful and, she thought, cautious.

Cameron, Adrian, and Jerico had thrown her even more off kilter, though, exuding enough interest in her, and enough high testosterone sex appeal that if it hadn't been for the snide remarks Julie had kept lobbing at her from the other side of the table, she was pretty sure she would've just gone catatonic.

Regardless, she'd still thought she handled the supper pretty well, behaved fairly rationally, managed not to succumb completely to her libido and made a complete fool out of herself. It had, after all, been a relatively pleasant dinner, even though she'd been plunged so swiftly into her new role that she'd felt like a junky in need of a fix by the time she'd made it back to the safety of her house.

If it had ended there, if she'd had a little time to herself to recover her equilibrium, she thought she would've been alright. The water heater incident had pretty well wrecked what little composure she'd still had, though, and then, after next to no sleep in the creepy new house the Feds had dumped her in, she'd crowned her disastrous beginning by letting the guys get their hands on the damning file notes.

It hadn't exactly been a turning point, though, she realized. All four of them had practically been ... stalking her from the moment she'd met them. It seemed silly and archaic to even think it, but they really seemed damned
forward
, regardless. Men in general, in her experience, seemed to be pretty simple and straightforward, and they preferred behaving accordingly but even so, especially these days, they generally weren't
quite
so blatant about what they wanted, certainly not under this sort of circumstances. Maybe it was just the ‘type’ of men they were?