Past My Defenses (Taming the Pack series) (Entangled Ignite) (25 page)

“Mmm…you smell so good.” She wrapped her legs around him.

“Almonds,” he said. He couldn’t lose her to her hormones now.

“Hazelnuts,” she agreed. “Mmm. Bananas.”

He pulled back. “Bananas? Bananas weren’t on my list.”

She leaned forward and pressed kisses along his jaw. “Yes, they were.”

“No, they weren’t. I remember thinking, ‘At least she can have my mom’s banana bread if my mom leaves out the walnuts.’”

“Bananas were on the list.” She bit his lower lip.

“Ow…uhh, no they weren’t.” He slid his fingers into her blond curls so he could repay the treatment with her lower lip.

“Mmm. They were. I’d never forget bananas. They make my…uhh…tongue swell.”

He tipped back farther. “I know they weren’t on the list you wrote out.”

It was getting darker outside, but he saw her eyes narrow.

“They weren’t on there.” He knew they weren’t.

“Are we really going to argue about this?”

He smiled. “We’re so far past arguing.”

She grinned, and her hands went to the buttons on the flannel shirt she was wearing when she stopped and cocked her head. Her mouth dropped open, and she shook her head slowly. “It’s like the universe wants us to never finish an argument.”

“What?”

She dipped her chin in the direction of the road, whispering, “A car just stopped up the road. Probably about two or three miles away.”

He glanced at his watch. “It’s been about two and a half hours. Hopefully he’s not late to the party.”

“He said he’d be here.”

“Yeah, in three hours.” Grabbing his shirt off the floor, he pulled it on as he loaded the revolver Jordan had brought. “If he isn’t out there, I’m taking both of them. I’m not leaving you the furry one.”

She narrowed her eyes.

“It’s not that I don’t think you can take them, but I still need to be in control.” He’d brought his own gun, but it was good to feel the revolver at the base of his spine as backup. “Okay, you’re going to stay on two feet after they show up?”

“No. I’ll switch to four. Probably. I’m faster.”

“You won’t have your knife.”

“I’ll have forty-two knives.” She pointed at her mouth.

“That’s true—and apparently you’re a danger to yourself with a real knife.” He grabbed her chin. “You are going to stay near me, right? You’re not going to go all lone wolf and get yourself killed…because that would kill me. Plus, this way we’ve got each other’s backs.”

Her eyes were shiny with tears as she nodded.

He pressed a kiss on her lips. “I love you,” he mouthed.

“I love you too,” she mouthed back.

He nodded at the back of the cabin. They’d discussed the probability that if they were in the cabin, the pair would set it on fire. If his house was any indication, they weren’t above smoking their victims out. In fact, he suspected that was what had happened; they thought he’d left Vanessa at home while he was at work. Even without that, both the Lycans didn’t like the idea of being trapped inside the cabin where they couldn’t maneuver or run. If not for the fire, he would have put up a bigger fight to stay in a place without so many possibilities for approach.

He felt clumsy behind her as she moved through the cabin silently. It was as if she weighed nothing and was made of liquid the way she slid around corners. If the fear of something happening to her hadn’t immediately cold-showered him, the sight of her slipping through the back room’s furniture would have been highly erotic. It still was, but there was no way they could act on it.

They both went to the back window and slid it open as quietly as they could. He gave her a warning glare and held her back when she went to jump out the window first. She rolled her eyes. Yeah, it’d be nice to get as much respect as Jordan did. Then again, maybe this was about her limit anyway. Then she stopped him from looking out. There was a silent argument of mouthed words and pointing at themselves and then at the window. Finally, she pinched him hard to get his attention and leaned in close to the window and inhaled deeply, closing her eyes. Oh. Right. A minute later, she tossed him an aggravated glare with a nod and a head gesture that he could go through now.

He dragged her in for one last kiss. There were some impulses you didn’t waste time repressing.

Luckily, the ground wasn’t too far below the back window, because for all their silence moving through the house, he sure wasn’t as great at dumping himself out a window. He spun to help her out but she was already on the ground beside him, in a crouch, inhaling deeply and scanning the area behind the cabin. She motioned for him to stop moving. Shaking her head, she nodded at the copse of trees behind the cabin. There was cover from bushes and then a large pine tree he intended to put his back against.

The itching on the back of his neck didn’t stop until they were there and he had the firmness of the scratchy bark behind him. He still intended to use the cabin as cover when the shooting started. And he couldn’t imagine gunfire not happening with another human along for the ride. Even bringing forty-two knives to a gunfight wouldn’t reassure him. He had his night scope from his rifle in his pocket, but the distance, ambient light, and amount of trees providing cover would render it mostly useless. He was better off shooting at whatever moved and hoping Jordan would be approaching from the direction he planned.

Vanessa got jittery the moment they stopped. He’d asked her not to change forms immediately so they could still communicate with words, but it was clearly not how she’d have it. She wanted to prowl and to run. He might need to grab her and restrain her again.

He trusted her judgment even less when she suddenly went still and turned to him with a smile. He wanted to preemptively “Oh, hell no” whatever crazy idea she’d come up with. She crooked her finger for him to duck so she could whisper in his ear.

“I’m thinking I still have time to lay a false trail if I hurry. I’ll shift. You grab my clothes, wrap them around a stick, and I’ll drag it over to the side there. That way we’ll have somewhere besides the cabin to watch for their approach because there’s no way they’re going to approach the clearing dead-on.” She inhaled deeply. “The wind is from the east. I can do this. I’ll plant it over there and be back in less than a minute. They probably won’t even be here for around five minutes.” She pointed to the clearing to the east.

“I don’t think this will work…they’ll be able to tell it’s not a person.”

Her eyes narrowed. “It worked on me,” she said, her mouth flat.

“Okay, then. I guess it works.” He didn’t need her pissed off at him now.

She looked around and grabbed a stick. When she went to hand it to him, he grabbed her wrist. This might be the last time he saw her in human form before this all went to hell. “Marry me,” he mouthed.

Her eyes widened as she stared at him.

“Please,” he added.

A wide grin spread across her gorgeous delicious lips, a sight he’d remember until the day he died—which, hopefully, wouldn’t be today. “Yes,” she mouthed.

He huffed out a breath in relief. She’d said yes. He took the stick from her hand. When she hesitated, he asked soundlessly, “Do you want me to turn around?” She’d never let him see her change before.

Still smiling, she shook her head. It was like watching something behind a rain-streaked window…human and wolf blurred to wolf in a matter of seconds. After shaking off the fantastic image, he grabbed the flannel shirt she’d been wearing and tied it onto the stick, which she grabbed with her jaws and took off with. The bushes barely twitched as she passed through them. She was amazing. No wonder Jordan had wanted her for Alpha. He couldn’t have her, but it wasn’t a surprise she’d been chosen.

When she was halfway to her goal, his memory skipped back to Jordan saying the semi-truck had stopped to let the Lycan off. What if the car had stopped a couple miles back to let the Lycan out? Oh hell. They might not have as much time as they thought.

“Vanessa,” he hissed. “Get back here.”

He sensed she’d stopped to look back at him—probably in annoyance. And then she whimpered as she shot out into the clearing surrounding the cabin as a dark wolf tackled her, its jaws at her throat.

He jumped out of the bushes and trained his rifle on the wolves snarling and wrestling. The silver wolf tossed the dark wolf off, but she was in front of his shot.

“Vanessa, get out of the way and give me a clear shot.”

She snarled back at him as she and the other wolf faced off, both in a crouch.

“Stubborn wolf,” he muttered, his gun trained on the fight. He was going to take the shot if she was far enough out of the way. Unfortunately, wolves moved supernaturally fast. He’d have his gun trained on the dark wolf and be about to take the shot when Vanessa would lunge forward. Back and forth. They were evenly matched. Vanessa drew the first blood from the brief whimper from the dark wolf. But every time Vanessa was at the wolf’s throat, the dark wolf would wriggle sideways and get loose.

And then the shooting started.

While he was waiting and watching and hoping not to shoot the wrong wolf, the poacher didn’t seem to care which wolf he hit. He fired onto the fighting wolves with a spray of bullets that temporarily separated them.

Using the cabin as a shield, Dane approximated where the poacher was and fired into the bushes. Clearly, he didn’t hit him because he immediately returned fire, and Dane ducked back as bullets nicked the trees and dug into the ground all around him. Then the poacher sent off another wave of bullets at the wolves.

Dane fired blind into the bushes. He waited—hoping. Damn. The poacher’s bullets went wide and inaccurate, but he was still alive to be firing. Directly ahead of him, a black wolf jumped from the bushes.

“Get the shooter,” Dane yelled at Jordan before firing around the edge of the cabin again.

The poacher was still firing on the fighting wolves. Vanessa could hold her own in that fight for a few more minutes, but not if the poacher’s bullets took her down.

The black wolf’s head swiveled from the wolves to the bushes where the poacher was firing from.

Dane leveled the rifle at Jordan’s head. “Go take down the shooter or I will kill you.”

The Lycan glared. Then, one of the strange shudders shivered through him, and he was gone—toward the shooter with a snarl either for the hunt or for Dane. Dane spun and sent another barrage toward the shooter before Jordan got there. The poacher was still firing on the wolves.

Dammit.

There’d been every chance this was going to go to hell, but this was beyond what he’d anticipated. His throat felt thick with fear, and he could feel the hammer of his pulse in his ears. And he was out of damn bullets in his rifle and in the spare clip he’d brought whereas the poacher had brought a seemingly endless supply. He dropped his rifle and pulled Jordan’s gun from his waistband. Now he was down to six shots. He took a deep breath. Come on, Jordan.

The shots from the poacher had stopped. Either he was reloading or fighting off a wolf. He thought he heard a growl from there, but it might have been wishful thinking.

The dark wolf had Vanessa pinned beneath it, but she was in good enough shape to snarl and snap.

A couple wild shots sounded from the poacher as he screamed, and Dane stepped forward and trained his gun on the bushes where the sounds had come from. Come on, Jordan. The black wolf stepped out into the clearing, blood on his muzzle, and his eyes trained on the other two Lycans.

Dane dropped to a crouch and used his knee to brace his hand. “Vanessa! Give me a clear shot.” This time the silver wolf didn’t snarl off his command—she was tiring. The dark wolf possibly had more experience in a fight to the death. Snarling and growling to his left startled him, and Dane jerked his head in that direction expecting another Lycan to have come—a new Lycan. It was Jordan. Jordan was advancing on him with murder in his eyes, snarling and snapping. Unlike before, there didn’t seem to be any human left in the wolf.

“What the hell, Jordan?”

He glanced from the two wolves to the approaching Alpha. Which way? Damn. He didn’t want to waste any shots on winging Jordan, because he’d have to just injure him; Vanessa would never forgive him.

Jordan crouched, his snarling becoming even more hostile, his eyes madder.

“I’m going to take down the Lycan if I can get a clear shot,” he told Jordan.

Jordan snapped the air, his eyes narrowed to vicious slits. Holy hell.

Vanessa flung the dark wolf off her, and shifted in a second. “Dane! Shoot the Lycan! She’s controlling Jordan.”

At this, Jordan snarled and charged at him. Dane got the dark wolf in his sights as it leaped toward Vanessa. His mate covered her head with her hands and curled into a ball rather than get in his shot. He fired three shots into the dark wolf just before it plowed into her with its jaw wide, and then Dane dropped the gun and sent a wild, clubbing right hook straight into Jordan’s head. His fist connected with a hard thud.

Then the clearing was silent.

Chapter Nineteen

The female Lycan’s teeth connected with her shoulder, but there was no wild aggression or power behind them, and her body dropped onto Vanessa like a heavy fur coat. Dead. She was dead. With a shudder, she pushed up, getting the corpse off her. Ugh. Grossest thing ever. The blood from their wounds was smeared across her pale skin like war paint.

Then the silence got to her, and she swung to look at Dane. Dane! Jordan! She knew even without looking that Dane was alive. His pull was still in her soul, drawing her toward him, but he might have been injured. Jordan had intended to rip him to shreds.

Dane was already running toward her, seemingly unharmed, but in the distance she saw the black wolf crumpled next to where he’d been. She screamed and pointed. No. No. No. It wasn’t his fault, but… “Dane! Jordan?”

“He’s just dazed!” Dane said with a glance over his shoulder. He tucked a gun into his waistband as he crouched beside her, searching across her skin. “Are you okay? Tell me you’re okay. I need you to tell me you’re okay.”

“I’m okay. I’m okay. You’re sure you didn’t…?” She took a few deep breaths as she saw the black Lycan get to his feet slowly and shake off his disorientation.

“Do you need your inhaler?” Dane pulled off his own shirt with another glance at Jordan over his shoulder. “Jordan, I will shoot you if you attack again. You get one freebie, furry.”

When her head was through the collar of Dane’s shirt, she saw Jordan shift, still clutching his head.

Dane caught the movement and immediately covered her eyes, much to her amusement. “Well, at least that gives me more interesting targets,” he muttered.

“I heard that,” Jordan said. “I’m fine now. I have no desire to rip your throat out for threatening my mate.”

“Vanessa is my mate.”

“Not Vanessa…”

Vanessa yanked Dane’s hand off her eyes and spun to look at the dark Lycan who lay crumpled and staring off into the woods sightlessly.

“Go put some pants on or I still might shoot you,” Dane said as he joined her in studying the other Lycan.

“He scent-matched to a Lycan hunting us?” she whispered. Something about the other Lycan seemed so familiar and yet…not.

“Oh, hell no,” Dane whispered as he stared at the Lycan’s eyes. “No, that’s just not…she couldn’t be…it’s just. Not. Possible.”

“Who?”

“It’s Sammy. The other day I noticed she had those greenish-brownish eyes.”

Vanessa punched him with a scowl. Why was he looking at Sammy’s eyes?

“Ow, I was just comparing her to you! I swear.”

Oh, because that was so much better. “Well, how did I make out? Clearly I have my good qualities.”

Dane rolled his eyes. They weren’t finished with this conversation.

“Why would Sammy be doing this?” Dane asked as he put two fingers to the Lycan’s neck. “She always seemed so nice.”

Vanessa shrugged.

“Why didn’t you know she was a Lycan?”

“It can skip a bunch of generations. She might not have even known before she shifted for the first time,” Jordan said, walking up behind him wearing the shorts he’d shifted out of earlier. He’d wiped most of the poacher’s blood from around his mouth, but it was still smeared down his neck and the stain lingered in some places. He crouched beside them, shaking his head. “I’ve been fighting a scent-match obsession ever since that night I tracked her at your place. It must’ve been the first time I caught her true scent, but I get the feeling she’s felt the pull of the scent-match with me for much, much longer.”

“But you’ve been around her, haven’t you?” Dane asked.

“She’s been covering her scent,” Vanessa said. “She was wearing some sort of perfume or something even when you were working together.”

Jordan nodded with a deep sigh, and he brushed a hand across the dead Lycan’s back. “We don’t wear perfumes or fragrances…but she has been when she’s human, I’d guess, something with a strong alcohol content. That’s why my body kept changing, because it only knew her scent as a wolf.”

“When would she have shifted the first time?” Dane tilted his head and narrowed his eyes.

“Around puberty.” It was crazy when it’d happened to her; luckily she’d been expecting it somewhat.

“She said she was bitten by a dog when she was twelve. Maybe she thought it was a wolf, and if she didn’t know it was in her genetics…”

“Hell.” Jordan shook his head. “If she’d talked to anyone in the pack about it, they’d have told her that was a coincidence, but that would explain why she hated Lycans—which she’d have to in order to do this. And then she scent-matched to me and felt this crazy pull against her will. It makes sense.”

“Then she met Cheri at the singles bar.” She groaned. “And I know I’ve been insanely jealous a few times since I scent-matched.”

Jordan drew a hand down his face and winced when he touched a large, fist-sized red mark on one of his cheeks. “That’s probably what started this. She might’ve been okay with everything if my mate had been faithful, but she saw Cheri and it pissed her off. Then I sought out Vanessa.”

“But I talked with her, worked with her,” Dane said. “I talked with her about Vanessa.”

Jordan shrugged. “You saw me at first when I was fighting it. The only way I could suppress it was to consciously act like I was two separate people and hide one of them. It was a weird dissociation that allowed me to function. I was feeling schizophrenic after just a few days—I can’t imagine months…years…hell, maybe a decade. I think I may have met her shortly after I arrived. But I haven’t seen much of her since then, and now that I think of it, that had to be purposeful because this is a small town. Part of her might not have known what she was doing. That might’ve been the only way she could live from day to day.” He shook his head. “She was there…that time you were working on the fence, and I met you at your Jeep. She probably heard everything we said…including me saying I was going to talk to Carrie again.” He groaned. “Hell, a single conversation could have prevented all this. Damn Hollywood myths.”

“Travis said Cheri had blackmailed her into helping,” Dane said.

Vanessa snorted. “Even if Sammy had asked Cheri if a wolf’s bite had turned her, I bet Cheri would have lied.”

Jordan closed his eyes and inhaled and exhaled slowly before opening them. She could almost see the weight of guilt settling on him.

“This is all so sad,” Vanessa said. This Lycan had just been trying to kill her, but she almost wished she wasn’t dead—or wished they’d known and could help her.

Jordan didn’t even look up as he said, “Just now, I could feel the madness and obsession when I was near her…smell it on her. If we hadn’t stopped them, who knows how many of our pack would have died, because she’s lived here long enough that she knows all of us. All of this because some great-great-grandparent never mentioned they were Lycan.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered and laid a hand on Jordan’s shoulder. She could see the conflicting emotions on his face—feel the horror and sadness reflected in his eyes. She wasn’t even sure you could scent-match twice; this might be it for Jordan. And she was dead. And she’d been trying to kill everyone and everything he cared about.

“She called in sick after I shot her that one time.” Dane’s gaze kept bouncing between Jordan and the Lycan he was touching almost tenderly.

“I can’t believe I couldn’t place her scent. It seems so obvious now, but that perfume really threw me,” Vanessa said, standing.

“Aw hell, what have you done?” Jordan whispered—probably too low for Dane to hear.

She touched Dane’s shoulder. “Let’s go back to the cabin. I think I need my inhaler.”

“I’ll be in soon,” Jordan said, shaking his head.

Standing, Dane looked from him to the wolf and said, “We have a wolf dead from gunshots and a poacher who came to kill us, and he was killed by a wolf…and the FBI here asking questions.”

Jordan’s head dropped. “Which gun did you use?” His voice sounded so weary.

“Yours. The one in that backpack.”

Jordan held out his hand. “I’ll take care of it.”

Dane glanced at her before dropping the gun in his hand. “So, you’ll make sure it looks like…”

“I said I’ll take care of it!” Jordan jerked a hand roughly through his hair and took a deep breath. “I’m Alpha. I’ll make sure it ends for all of us here. My pack comes first. I come last. If anyone knows the rules—I do.”

He’d scent-matched with someone who was dead in front of him—someone he’d barely known. Vanessa swallowed and blinked back moisture in her eyes. He was probably wondering if he could have done something, if he’d known. She was thinking that, and she wasn’t exactly known for her empathy.

This sucked.

“Leave me,” Jordan whispered, too quiet for Dane to hear.

“My inhaler,” she said again.

As they were walking away, Jordan called over his shoulder, “Dane!”

They stopped.

Jordan took a deep breath. “I apologize for trying to kill you. Again. It was…rash.”

Dane raised his eyebrows. “So, to be clear, you’re apologizing for both times?”

Jordan threw a glare over his shoulder.

“He said yes,” Vanessa said, rolling her eyes at both men. There was no way that was audible to a human.

Dane nodded. “I’m not going to apologize for punching you in the head. Mostly because I enjoyed it too much, but also it was that or kill you.”

Jordan looked upward as if asking for patience. “I wouldn’t expect it.” He rubbed his face. “I will be telling the pack that it was the poacher, though…and that I ripped out his throat for it.”

Dane narrowed his eyes and then shrugged. It gave her hope that he was beginning to understand and accept their ways…grudgingly. “As long as you also tell them I didn’t miss shooting.”

“No, you didn’t miss.” Jordan exhaled deeply.

“I don’t think we should tell them it was Sammy.”

Jordan shook his head. “There’s no reason to. No reason at all.”

She pulled Dane with her. She glanced back in time to see Jordan drop his head onto the pelt of the mate he’d never know and heard him sigh raggedly.

Dane stopped just inside the cabin. “I’m helping to cover up two homicides.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe it was her. I can’t believe I killed her. I can’t believe any of it.”

She nudged him inside. They could leave death outside. Their lives had been dogged by death for too long. It felt like time to be free. At least for them. It’d be a lifetime before Jordan got past today. But they could get beyond it.

When the door of the cabin closed, she dragged her own mate close to her and said, “Tell me…us getting married…was that a ‘we’re going to die’ sort of question?”

Dane grinned. “No, that’s an ‘I’m booking us flights to Reno just as soon as the FBI lets us. I’m not taking a chance that you’ll change your mind and run out on me.”

She pulled his mouth to hers and kissed him…and then she whispered “zucchini” against his lips.

He whispered back, “Banana wasn’t on the list,” then, a kiss later, “I love you anyway.”

She laughed and wound her arms around his neck.

Mine.

His.