Leader of the Pack (3 page)

“He’s not in the hospital. At least I don’t see you running to call an ambulance.” Cullen shook his head. “You know what? Just forget it. I’m sorry I interfered.” He turned and started to head for the SUV.

Aislinn watched him leaving for a moment. “Shit, wait!” She was standing there nervously. “God, why does the smart thing have to feel so shitty? Look, I just don’t like owing people anything. I seem to be accumulating quite the bill with you. First you come out of nowhere and… Well, you know what you did. Now you want to give me a real job. How the hell am I supposed to pay you back for this stuff?”

Cullen could understand how she was feeling. He didn’t like owing people either. “You can call us even for the first thing, considering you spent half your shift keeping an eye on me and then making sure I got home all right.” She looked like she was about to argue but an authoritative look from Cullen kept her silent. Even if the glare she threw at him was screaming that she didn’t think it was an even trade off. “As far as the job goes, I’m just offering you a job. Intelligent, reliable people are hard to come by. It’s not as big a favor as you might think.”

“I’m really not in a position to turn you down.” Aislinn was feeling trapped. But she knew better than to think that it would be at all feasible to go back to her job at the Blood Pit.

Cullen nodded. He started searching his pockets. Empty handed, he looked up at her. “Got a piece of paper and a pen?”

Aislinn opened her purse and started rooting around inside. “Now you’re asking a lot.” After a moment she shook her head. “Not with me. But I know I have one inside.” She pulled her keys out and without another thought about letting a complete stranger into her apartment she headed up the cement steps from the sidewalk and opened the main door. Cullen followed along behind.

Keith watched out the window as Cullen headed into the building with the girl he had just rescued. None of it made any sense. He was torn between getting out and following them and just asking Cullen what the hell he was doing. It was late and he wanted to go back to his bed. Jaylyn was already pissed that he’d left. If he didn’t get back soon, he’d be sleeping on the couch.

Cullen was still just drunk enough to completely forget that Keith was waiting outside. The elevator was out of order so they headed up three flights of stairs. The place was entirely unpleasant. It smelled of mould and piss and there was garbage in the halls. It didn’t look as though it had been cleaned in about a century and graffiti covered the walls and railings of the stairwell. He couldn’t help the look on his face when Aislinn opened the door to her apartment and let him in.

“I know the place is pretty awful. But the rent is cheap.” She was more than a little embarrassed by letting him see the place. She lived in efficiency in the bad part of town. There’s only one look for places like that. Aislinn liked to refer to it as post-apocalyptic chic. The only thing worse would be being homeless. The one room she was in sported tattered wallpaper in an old 70’s pattern. She slept on a mattress on the floor in one corner and the kitchen was only functional because of the microwave she got at the local Goodwill. She tossed her purse down on the table. She was kicking herself for letting him in here. She could just imagine where he probably lived if he was able to say that he ‘had influence over a number of businesses in town.’ She rummaged through some things on a small table in the kitchen/dining/living area of the room and managed to produce a pen and paper.

Cullen could see the embarrassment on her face when she handed him the stuff without looking him in the eyes for the first time that night. He put the paper on the table so he could write and it wobbled. He ignored it and wrote a name, number, and address on the paper. Then he wrote something else underneath that. “Here,” Cullen handed her the paper and she looked over the information. “Go to the address there. The guy you want to talk to is Liam Arnauk. Tell him that Cullen sent you. I wrote him a note there. He’ll give you a job.”

Aislinn looked over the paper. The note he had written on the bottom of it wasn’t written in English, but she could read it. “The girl’s name is Aislinn. I’d appreciate if you found her a job. I’ll call us even if you manage something good. Cullen.”

Cullen was stunned. It took a lot to surprise him. But this girl had managed one thing after another tonight. “You read Gaelic?”

Aislinn was pleased by the shocked look on his face. She smiled at him smugly. “Actually I read and speak several languages. Gaelic is one of them.”

“How? No one bothers with Gaelic.” He couldn’t help the curiosity. Who was she?

“I wasn’t always living in crapholes like this and waiting tables in bars to make ends barely meet. Before I came here I was a college student. I was studying folklore and dead languages. Gaelic may not be completely dead, but it’s pretty close. I find it interesting. Actually I was wondering why you were using it. Studying something like that in college is one thing. But it looks like you’re using it on a casual basis. And ‘no one bothers with Gaelic.’” Aislinn mocked with a grin and raised eyebrows. She could tell by the incredulous look on his face that she had managed to get a little past his guard and that didn’t happen often.

“My entire family speaks Gaelic. We just always have.” He was giving her that appraising look again. Cullen couldn’t hold back his curiosity any longer. He stepped in close to her and moving very slowly so as not to scare her he leaned down and smelled her hair.

Aislinn felt an almost electric surge shoot through her as he stood so close to her. Her heart began pounding. At this proximity she could still smell the awful odor of whatever the blood on his clothes belonged to, but she also got a much stronger scent of him.

They both just stood there breathing, neither of them wanting to move. Cullen had never felt this compelled to touch a woman before in his life. Aislinn didn’t know if she wanted him to go or stay. When they finally moved they just stood staring into each other’s eyes as if they were trying to understand what was happening. But neither of them could wrap their brains around the situation.

Finally Cullen gently reached out and cupped his hand along the side of her face. Warmth spread from the touch through Aislinn’s body. Cullen ran his thumb slowly over her parted lips. She took in a sharp breath as shock waves seemed to travel through her from the place where he touched. All the sensations were amazingly strong and resulted in a heat forming between her legs.

The minute the scent of her arousal hit him Cullen felt his wolf surge like nothing he’d ever experienced. No battle or woman before now had ever summoned his spirit like this. He wanted her. There was nothing else in the world right at that moment; just this enigmatic female standing proudly in front of him, challenging him, and drawing him in. He still couldn’t place her scent. It wasn’t lycan, was it? But it wasn’t completely human either. Could he even be drawn like this to something that was neither human nor lycan? Was she fey? But he thought he knew those scents as well. Maybe the alcohol and all the competing smells from the evening were messing with his senses. He wanted to know.

Aislinn stared at him. She wanted him to do more. She couldn’t believe how badly she wanted him to do more. She cursed herself for not being able to keep control. He was a complete stranger. An incredible, sexy, kind, complete stranger. As she stared into his eyes they changed again. It was like staring into molten gold. There were dark flecks swimming in this iridescent amber around his black pupils. Aislinn felt herself being pulled in, as though she could be happily lost in those eyes.

Cullen felt his wolf taking too much control. He forced himself to pull his hand away from her and step back. It wasn’t until he wrenched himself back into the moment that he realized his eyes had shifted. She was just standing there staring. He could smell her arousal, hear her breathing, he could almost feel her heart beat thudding in time with his own. When he felt the stirring in his pants he knew that things had gone way too far. His brain was screaming,
You don’t even know what she is!
But his heart, soul, and wolf were insisting,
Take her
.

Cullen closed his eyes, breathing heavily, willing himself to get control. Aislinn watched as he seemed to be trying to gain a measure of composure. She couldn’t help herself. She really didn’t want him to stop. She stepped toward him and placed her hand on his chest. “Are you all right,” she said breathlessly.
This is insane
, Aislinn thought,
Derrick tries to rape me and now I’m encouraging my would-be protector to do who knows what.
This just didn’t make sense. It was as though her body had taken over and it wanted this man, badly.

When her hand touched his chest Cullen thought he might lose it. He needed to leave or rip her clothes off. He settled for something in the middle. Leaning into her he pressed his lips to hers. The entire room seemed to spin and it wasn’t from the alcohol. The kiss was long and lingering. Neither of them wanted to stop. Aislinn felt her heart in her throat, goose bumps ran down her body, and she could feel the heat between her legs intensify.

The kiss became more and more inflamed. Cullen gently bit at her upper lip and she parted her lips to allow him to taste her. He snaked his tongue into her mouth and brushed against her tongue. Their breathing became increasingly ragged and Cullen’s hands managed to find their way along her waist, move under her shirt, and then drift deftly upward as he began to explore her body. When he reached her breasts Aislinn let out a soft encouraging moan that soaked into Cullen’s mind and called his wolf up full force. He wasn’t going to be able to stop it if this continued. His mind was trying desperately to regain control of the situation while knowing that the fight had already been lost.

When the tentative knock came on the door Cullen turned suddenly toward it as if he had been startled and growled menacingly at the unknown intruder. For a brief moment he was in guardian mode and would have attacked anyone who came through that door. At the second knock reality grabbed hold of him and Cullen was able to reassert his mind over his wolf.

Aislinn watched Cullen’s reaction and heard the growl issue from his chest. It was like some kind of weird guard dog sound. She remembered the sound in the street when Derrick had attacked her and knew it must have been Cullen as well. Oddly she wasn’t bothered by it. She didn’t really know why it didn’t bother her. A third knock on her door, and she moved to see who could possibly be knocking. The only thing that kept her from locking the door instead of opening it was the fact that Cullen had proven himself more than able of handling the situation should something terrible be on the other side of the door.

Aislinn took a deep breath and willed her heart to stop racing in her chest. She looked back at Cullen before she opened the door. He was staring at it readily, as though he expected something bad on the other side. His eyes had returned to normal brown, and he stopped growling. So she opened the door.

Aislinn recognized the guy at the door as Cullen’s friend who came to get him. She realized that he must have been waiting for Cullen all this time. She really wasn’t sure how long they had been standing there kissing. But if Keith hadn’t come knocking she was fairly certain that it would have gone much farther.

Cullen eyed Keith standing there, then let his head roll over his shoulders and sighed heavily. He knew logically that it was a good thing Keith had shown up. The last thing Cullen should have been doing was having sex with some girl he’d met tending bar. No matter how intriguing she was. No matter how much he wanted to take her. For a brief instant Cullen’s wolf reared its head again and Cullen considered telling Keith to get lost. But instead he headed toward the door.

“Like I said,” Cullen looked at Aislinn with a long suffering stare telling her he wished things were different, “take that note to Liam. He’ll take care of the rest. It was,” he paused and stared into her eyes with intense regret, “good to have met you.”

Aislinn felt as though she wanted to cry. None of this made sense. Why should it hurt so bad that this complete stranger was leaving instead of staying to have sex with her? If she didn’t know better she would have thought that her heart was mistaking Cullen for someone she had been in love with all her life. “Yeah, thanks,” was all she could muster.

Cullen almost changed his mind about leaving when he saw the glassy look in her eyes. It just wasn’t something he could do. He was supposed to be mated to Jenna. The arrangements were made. He shouldn’t be having sex with some random girl. This was probably just his subconscious trying to get him in trouble and out of the arrangement. He nodded at Aislinn, pushed past Keith and headed down the stairs at nearly a run. When he reached the street he let out a yell and punched a nearby signpost hard enough to bend it in half.

Keith was completely baffled by the situation. He followed Cullen in silence to the SUV. They both got in and Keith started driving before he finally got up the nerve to ask, “What was that?”

“I’ve found myself saying ‘I don’t know’ to similar questions repeatedly tonight. Just drop it.”

The tone in Cullen’s voice was dangerous and Keith didn’t really know what, if anything, he could or should say. So they drove back to the den in silence.

Chapter 2

A man's as miserable as he thinks he is.

-Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Aislinn put on what she considered to be her best interview clothes. The outfit consisted of a pair of black dress pants, a white button up shirt, and a shear black scarf she tied at her neck. She put on a pair of black heels and combed her brown hair into a twist at the back of her head. She didn’t really know what kind of business was at the other end of the address, but she figured that the look was conservative enough for just about anything and not overly dressy. She had bought the clothes to attend a funeral and hadn’t been given another opportunity to wear them since. She sighed and remembered that she didn’t even get to go to the funeral.