Hunting Her (The Keeping Her #6) (18 page)

"Lucas
is fucked," Eli muttered low.  Not low enough apparently, because Lucas
turned his glare at the camera and snarled at Eli.  He didn't waste too much
time on that, turning back to his mate right away and snarling again.

"The
Council wants to take you from me," he bit out and Xena could see claws
coming out of his hands.  His voice sounded guttural and harsh, as if he was
fighting the change and losing. "No fucking way are you going anywhere
near them."

"If
they want a healer," Xena said mildly before Miley could answer, and from
the stubborn look on her face, she was definitely ready to answer. "Do you
think it's a great idea for them to see more of what you are capable of?"

"Exactly,"
she said.  "They want a healer, seeing me in action will not change that
one way or another.  Nor are they going to try and take me in public view.  And
Xena has assured this is a very public challenge.  I will be in no more danger
than if I stayed home.  Less probably since I will be with you."  She
raised her chin and looked long and hard at her mate.  "Unless you really
think you, Logan, Demon, Eli and Mac can't protect me." 

From
somewhere beyond what they could see on the screen Xena heard Cassie whisper,
"ooh, nice one."  The human probably had no idea that everyone on
both sides of the conversation could hear her whisper just fine.

"Shh,"
Clytie answered her cousin in her own easily heard whisper.  "Eventually
he'll stop worrying and realize she has to go."

Cassie
kept going in the same barely there whisper to her cousin that every shifter
could hear.  "Maybe," but she sounded doubtful.  "You'd think
he'd know his mate well enough to know she would never forgive herself if
something happened and she wasn't there."

There
was a long pause of silence while Lucas and Miley stared each other down.

"He
won't ask her to be less than she is," Clytie continued to whisper to her
cousin, her belief in Lucas coming through the low words, and Xena saw Lucas’s
jaw clench tighter still, his eyes sparking from gold to blue and back again
while he growled his displeasure.  His eyes stayed on his mate, but Xena could
see Miley's lips twitching just a bit.

"Well,
if he does it'll hurt her," Cassie said and it was then that Xena realized
the humans knew exactly how good shifter hearing was.  She had to bite back a
smile when Cassie continued.  "It would be the same as him saying her
healer status was not as important as her status as his mate.
Big
mistake."

"Huge,"
Clytie agreed.  Then they shut up. Sneaky point made. 

Lucas
started cursing long and loud. 

Eli
was right,
Xena
thought. 
Lucas was fucked.

More
than one muffled chuckle could be heard quickly silenced from both sides.

I
really like this pack,
Xena thought.
 
Who knew humans could be so entertaining.
 

Xena
turned away to hide the humor on her face.  She met Logan’s eyes and saw that
while he still looked grim, he was also seeing the humor in the situation. 
Behind him, Demon was smiling big, and even Mac had humor twinkling in his cold
grey eyes.

Eli
leaned down, taking up most of the camera while he smirked.  "So we will
see you both in the morning then?"

Eli
might be mischievous, but he wasn't suicidal.  He waited until the screen went
blank before he started laughing outright.

Once the
call ended, Logan lost the small amount of humor Clytie and Cassie's
interference caused.  The others could laugh all they wanted; they didn't have
mates going into a challenge circle in the morning.  As soon as the conference
call ended, he hauled his mate’s fine ass over his shoulder.

"Gentlemen,"
he said grimly.  "My mate and I have some business.  I trust you will make
sure the house is secure and Lucas and Miley are protected on the drive from
the airport?"  He didn't even wait for Mac's nod.  Just adjusted his
suspiciously silent mate at his shoulder and headed for the bedroom farthest
away and as such offered the most privacy.   Not that he thought it would do
much good, but it was the best they were going to get.

It was
the master, with an attached master bath.  That was all he took in before
closing the door behind them and locking it.  Not that
that
would do
much good either, considering she was a master thief and everyone in the house
could walk through the door if they so choose.  His point was made and he knew
she heard the click and knew what it meant when he felt her stiffen over his
shoulder.  Though, she still didn't speak.

The silence
only lasted until he dropped Xena to her feet at the foot of the four-poster
King bed.

She
crossed her arms and regarded him warily.  "Now that you've carried me
away like a swooning damsel in distress over your big wide shoulders, feel
better cowboy?"

He
didn't actually.  But he damn well would feel better by the time he was
finished with her.  "You knew before you went into that room you were
going to get her to challenge you,"  he stated, biting the words out while
trying to keep his need to accept the challenge in her eyes in check until they
had their conversation.  Then he was going to fuck her until she damn well knew
who that fine ass belonged to.

She
pursed her lips, and then blew out a breath, meeting his eyes with steel in
hers. 
Another challenge
. 

"I
knew it was the only way to take out the threat without bringing the council
down on me, and by default you and your pack.  We both know they might have
been forced to pay lip service to punishing her, she might even have lost her
job, but it would not have stopped the crazy bitch."

That
what she said was true did fuck all to alleviate his temper.  "We would
have figured something else out," he muttered the temper simmering to a
boil when she scoffed.

"What?" 
She narrowed her eyes when he just clenched his jaw, having no answer at the
moment and not giving a fuck that she made sense.  She read it on his face and
leaned her small body toward him at the waist, uncrossing her arms to poke him
in the chest.  "You think I can't take this prissy Nazi bitch?"

Slipping
into a southern drawl would have told her he was beyond pissed, if his raised
voice had not. "She's a fuckin' wolf, you're a coyote.  She can probably trace
her bloodlines to the wolves that fought alongside Genghis fucking Khan. Your
mother was a human.  The
prissy
Nazi bitch
has got weight and
power on her side.  Do you even know if her wolf can fight?"

She
didn't blink before poking him in the chest again, yanking his tail with her
words, actions, and tone. 

"
I
can fight
,"
she hissed at him.  "And if you don't back off
this, you'll find that out first hand."

That was
one fucking challenge too many. Lucas lunged.

***

Xena had
no idea how she ended up in the bed with Logan pressing her bodily to the
mattress, his hands shackling her wrists high above her head, his hips firmly
between her thighs.  The fact that she didn't automatically fight him off when
he came at her was a testament to the trust between them.  Laying helpless
under an angry wolf shifter was making her rethink that at the moment however.

"You
know it occurs to me you might have anger management issues," she said
mildly and watched his eyes flash at her.

"This
isn't anger darlin'."  His voice had gone liquid and hot, his drawl
heavy.  "This is pure rage."

She
pressed her lips tight and tugged lightly at her hands but didn't attempt to
get free, something told her it would take more fight than she was willing to
give to get her mate to let her go. 

"I
can handle myself in a fight Logan.  Coyote or human," she said trying to
soften her voice, soothe the beast.  "I get that you don't like me in
danger, but..."

"Don't
like?" he interrupted, his voice going softer and infinitely more dangerous. 
Xena got caught in the intensity of his eyes.  "You think I 'don't like'
you in danger?"  He laughed, but it was completely without humor. 
"You don't have a fuckin' clue."

So it
was safe to say she was not good at soothing the savage beast.  Inciting new
heights of anger?  She seemed to have down however.

"Logan,"
she tried one more time.

"Quiet." 
The one word was clipped and hard.

"No,
listen to me..."

Again he
interrupted her. "Quiet."

Arrgh
. 
Fucking Alpha wolfs. 
Now
Xena was getting angry, along with ridiculously wet with arousal, which she was
studiously ignoring, along with all the tingles his liquid drawl was stroking
every time he spoke.  It was ridiculous, embarrassing and counterproductive, so
she was ignoring how turned on she was getting, in favor of letting her anger
grow with each refusal of her mate to listen to her and actually hear what she
was telling him. 

"I've
been patient," he growled out.  His wolf gold eyes glittery, his jaw
clenched hard.  "You needed time to understand who you belonged to.  You
had it.  It's past time I show you exactly who you belong to.  But more
important, you need to understand something else."  He raised a hand and
claws shot from the tips of his fingers making her freeze beneath him. 
"No one is allowed to put
you
in danger."  Down came the
hand.  "Not even you."

"Logan,"
she started, her voice going growly high and tight, her eyes on the hand as it
came at her.  Too late she started to struggle... and he shredded her black cat
suit right off her body.  By the time he was done she was blinking up at him,
completely naked, without a single scratch on her, her favorite thief outfit in
tatters around her.  Her weapons and tools scattered to the four corners of the
room.  And she was back in the same position, hands stretched high above her
head, angry wolf shifter between her splayed thighs. 
Well, fuck.

God
he was good.

He was
also still fully dressed, which made her feel vulnerable in a way she didn't
like.  I mean she
liked
it, if the way her body was going up in flames
was any indication.  She just didn't
like
it.  Plus he still had all his
weapons on, and something steel hard and blunt was digging into her thigh
painfully.  Something besides his massive, equally hard dick, which she didn't
mind so much, if she were honest about it.

"Do
you really think we should get into some crazy sex Olympics tonight," she
asked, knowing even as she poked at the alpha wolf that she should probably
just shut the fuck up.  "I do have a fight to win in the morning."

Logan
stilled completely, his eyes narrowing, his nostrils flaring.  It was safe to
say she definitely had the ‘incite the wild beast’ abilities down cold.

"You
just don't know when to fuckin' stop, do you?"

"If
you think I'm intimidated by this Alpha wolf bullshit, you really haven't been
paying attention."  Xena gave him a smile with a lot of teeth. 
"Sexually overpowering me and using our attraction to do some kind of
modification to the way I do things might be the alpha way of reacting but it
sure as shit isn't going to work.  Not with me."  She shoved her face up
until they were nose to nose and eye to eye.  "You're angry because you
see what I did as putting myself at unnecessary risk, I get it.  But Cowboy,
unless you can tell me you wouldn't do the exact same thing for me or your pack
this ‘conversation’"..." She stressed the word conversation
mockingly.  "Is over."

"
Our
pack," he bit out.

"What?"

"You
said
your
pack.  This is
our
pack.
Our
ugly home that was
shot out. 
My
mate that is pitting herself against a wolf shifter who we
have never seen fight. 
Our
future that you put into jeopardy by going
maverick in that office today."

"Logan,"
she started, her anger just suddenly petering off.

"If
it had been me," he interrupted yet again.  "If I, say, challenged a
bear shifter of unknown fighting ability in the same way you challenged that ‘Nazi
bitch’ today, what would you have done?"

Xena
opened her mouth and then snapped it shut. Then opened it again holding on to
her stubborn by a thread.  "This was my fight."

"Wrong,"
Logan snapped.  His hand sliding between them he worked his jeans open enough
that he could slide inside her.  He moved in, one hard plunge.  "There is
no
your fight
, or my fight. I'm not trying to change you Xena, but I
will impress on you a truth you refuse to fuckin' get."  He pulled back
and thrust in again.  The heat and power behind it a punishment and a promise. 

Xena
gasped at the feel of her mate thrusting deep, claiming her, branding her.

"This
belongs to me.  This is mine.  You are my mate.  You do not put yourself in
danger."  Logan punctuated each statement with another hard claiming
thrust.  "You do not make plans that put what belongs to me in danger without
discussing them with me." Another hard thrust.  "You are not
expendable.  I cannot, and will not do without you.  I need you too fuckin'
much."

At those
words Xena lost whatever fight she had left, her body melting along with her
heart at the gruff need in his voice that hid behind the force of his anger.

She
looked into his eyes in confusion, bombarded both physically and emotionally by
this man, and like the warrior he was Logan took instant advantage of her
weakness, trapping her in the molten heat of his gold wolf eyes, a look on his
face that spoke of implacable will.  Xena did not even try to get away.

"And
I'm going to take you so hard and long that you don't forget who owns this body
again."

She
might have taken exception to his words, if she did not know right then with
him powering in and out of her, his heat surrounding her, his eyes branding her
as much as his body, that he was telling the absolute truth.

***

Opening
her eyes in the still dark morning, Xena pondered everything that had changed
in her life. 

For
the better it seemed,
she thought, knowing that unlike her, Logan had not slept at all after claiming
her completely and pummeling them both to orgasm.

Instead,
he had stayed up all night holding her, and whatever Xena thought about his
heavy handed seduction techniques and alpha claims to her body, all she felt
when she awoke, her back pressed against her mates chest as he spooned her, his
arms tight around her and his nose buried in her hair as he brushed a thumb up
and down her arm, was that he cared, more than a little, and he was worried. 
For her.  How long had it been since someone worried about her, or cared enough
to notice if she died?

She
struggled with her words, but lying in the dark with her mate holding her, she
had to give him something.

"I'm
not used to mattering," She started softly, getting it out with an obvious
effort.  She licked her dry lips and pulled his arms closer around her as he
stilled behind her.  "I see a problem and I jump in to fix it." She
took a deep breath.  "I will discuss it with you beforehand in the future. 
But in this instance, I know I am not wrong.  It had to be done, and I was the
only one who could do it.  If I had not, you and
our pack
would continue
to be in danger, a danger that I brought to
our pack
."

Her
emphasis on our pack was only slightly caustic.  She meant it, and she needed
him to understand where she was coming from, and trust her a little too. 
Finally hear what she was saying.  She had certainly heard him.

She
waited, wondering if he would fly off the handle again, but other than
stiffening as she spoke, he said nothing, before he gradually relaxed behind
her.  So she gave him more.  “You wanted to know why I hide so well.

She felt
him go completely still at her back, but he said nothing, waiting.  “When my
mother took me to my father’s family to live, it was with the promise given
that she would stay away.  They told us both how it was necessary, since as a
half breed my control would be questionable.”  Xena stopped to swallow the lump
forming in her throat.  “I could tell she was relieved to be done with me.  It
was hard enough being a single mom taking care of a sick mother, without adding
a daughter that turned into a monster.”

Logan
tensed behind her and she went on quickly.  “I got it into my head that if I
could control my coyote well enough to pass for human I could go back and live
with my mother and gram.”  Xena took a deep breath.  “I worked until I had such
good control even another shifter would never know what I am.  In the end it
didn’t matter.  She had moved on, started another family.  I found out that my
gram died and she never bothered to let me know.  Then she no longer mattered
to me.”