Power Unleashed (4 page)

Morales went, we can narrow down where he’s living.” No doubt Morales was masking

his scent. A traitorous bastard like that would have been hiding his true self for years. It

would be second nature to him. And Miami was big. They needed to shrink the playing

field.

“And I’m getting Marisol the hell out of town,” Stephan interrupted.

“I’m not going anywhere!” she shouted.

Adam ignored her outburst and focused on Stephan “I agree. You need to take her

and her sister away from here. It’ll be easier to hunt him down if they’re gone.” Despite

wanting nothing more than to finish that kiss with Paz, he wanted her safe.

“I’m not leaving,” Paz said. Maybe it was because Paz was quiet or maybe it was

because she rarely spoke—Adam couldn’t know since he’d just met her—but the room

went silent at her soft-spoken declaration.

Marisol was the first to break the silence. “If I’m leaving, you’re sure as hell

leaving.”

“I thought you said you weren’t going anywhere.” Paz’s voice was wry.

“I…I…” She turned to Stephan and glared. “This is your fault.” She stood and

pushed the chair back with startling force before striding from the room.

Stephan muttered a string of curses under his breath before following after her.

“I take it this isn’t their first discussion about leaving?” Thomas directed his

question to Paz.

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She shook her head. “Ever since Morales called Marisol with that taunting message,

Stephan has been trying to get her out of town. And I agree with him. She’s just too

stubborn.”

“No, she doesn’t want to leave you.” Thomas’ expression softened when he spoke

to Paz and Adam had a very real, very violent urge to lunge across the table and kick

his teeth in.

The rage he expelled sent a wave over the room and all three turned to look at him.

“I’m ready to catch this bastard,” he muttered. The explanation pacified everyone, but

he wanted to kick his own ass for letting his emotions get away from him. It rarely

happened and certainly not with strangers. He shifted in his seat and caught Paz’s gaze.

“Why don’t you want to go with your sister?”

She darted a quick look at Thomas then back at him. “Thanks to being held captive

for a year, I’ve built up an immunity to silver. I’m stronger now and I’m older than him

so if he attacks me one on one, I can hold my own. Plus…I think we can bait him out

into the open. Besides her new mate, he knows I’m the one person Marisol will do

anything for. We can use that against him.”

“No!” Adam surprised himself and everyone else in the room with his outburst, but

he didn’t care.

Thomas’ eyebrows arched for the briefest moment, but he shook his head at Paz.

“We’re not going to use you as bait.”

“I’m just saying it’s an option if we can’t catch him. I’m more than capable of

handling myself.” Her head cocked slightly to the side and something passed between

her and Thomas. It wasn’t a look of lust, or desire but something else. Adam couldn’t

place his finger on it, but he didn’t like it.

“Well, I can’t make you leave,” Thomas muttered.

Technically he could. Something everyone in the room knew, Adam included.

Adam wondered why Thomas wasn’t pushing the issue but let it slide. It seemed he

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now had more to investigate. Unfortunately, all he was interested in was finishing that

kiss with Paz.

Stephan walked back into the room. “Paz, will you
please
talk some sense into your

stubborn sister?” he growled before sitting back at the table.

Wordlessly, she nodded and left. Finding Marisol wasn’t difficult. She was outside

on the back patio, alone and practically spitting fire. As Paz opened the sliding glass

door, her sister stopped mid-pace and glared at her. “You’re insane if you think I’m

leaving you.”

“Will you please sit down and listen, little
hermana
?”

Marisol pushed out a long breath and lost most of her steam as she collapsed onto

one of the lounge chairs. “I don’t want to leave.”

Paz sat next to her. “It doesn’t matter what you want. Your mate can’t think straight

if you’re in constant danger. If his head isn’t on right, then that puts you and his

brothers in danger.”

“Then why don’t you want to come with me?”

“It’s not that I don’t
want
to. I’m not going to run away from anyone ever again and

I want him to pay for what he did to me, Shea,
you
, our entire freaking pack and all

those other packs he betrayed.”

“But what if something happens to you?” The desperation in her sister’s voice

pulled at her heartstrings.

She stayed firm. “It won’t.”

“What if you kill him using your powers and Adam finds out what you are?”

That was something she’d already thought of, but there wasn’t anything she could

do about the possibility now. “You can ‘what if’ yourself to death, Marisol. Preston

Morales needs to be stopped. If he isn’t, the death toll is going to keep rising in Miami,

and our existence—your mate’s existence—will be threatened.”

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Savannah Stuart

“I don’t understand why you won’t come with me.”

Paz had her own demons to face and she’d be damned if she ran away when she

knew she had the ability to stop a monster like Morales. Thanks to her heritage she was

more capable of killing Morales than any of the werewolves in the house, Adam

included. They might not all realize the extent of her gifts, but her sister certainly did.

The drugs she’d lived with for a year were completely out of her system and while she

hadn’t tested her powers yet, she planned a little test run tonight once everyone had

gone to sleep. “You know why I’m staying, Marisol. I can help. Besides, you
just

bonded with your mate. You deserve some alone time.”

“I don’t give a shit about that. I don’t want to leave you again.”

“One week. That’s all I’m asking for. It’s not long.” She scooted closer down the

seat and wrapped her arm around Marisol’s shoulders then used her most sickly sweet

voice she knew would annoy her sister. “Please? Don’t make me beg, little
hermana
.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ugh. If you stop, I’ll say yes.”

Chuckling, she dropped her arm and nudged her sister with her elbow. “By

tomorrow morning you’ll be thanking me for letting your mate whisk you away.”

“We’ll see.” Then Marisol’s eyes narrowed. “What on earth were you doing outside

with Adam Tucker,
the enforcer
?”

Paz could feel her cheeks flush. “Ah, I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Seriously, of all people, why him?”

Paz shrugged. “I like him. He’s not a pig and he’s not very good at talking to

people. Something we have in common.”

“Yeah, but, are you still, you know…”

“A virgin? You can say the word, Marisol. And yes, I am.” She was probably the

world’s oldest freaking virgin, but after her year in captivity she planned to make some

serious changes. Life was much too short.

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Power Unleashed

Marisol shook her head and stood. “Please be careful with Adam. He’s not one of

us and you know what could happen if… I better go find Stephan and stop him from

sulking.”

Paz raked a hand through her hair and leaned back against the lounge chair. The

sound of the ocean waves crashing against the shore was incredibly soothing. As she

closed her eyes and stretched her legs out, the sound of the sliding glass door and

Adam’s unmistakable scent greeted her senses.

A second later, he sat on the edge of her seat. Leaning back the way she was, her

dress had ridden up against her thighs and was exposing a lot of skin. She wanted to

tug it down but didn’t want to draw any more attention to herself.

“How’d you get your sister to listen to you?” he asked.

She shrugged. “I’m older. It’s not too hard.”

“Why aren’t you going with her?”

It would be impossible to explain to him why without revealing her true nature. So

she changed the subject. “After one kiss you’re already looking to get rid of me?”

His green eyes darkened to storm clouds. Wordlessly he leaned forward until their

noses were almost touching. “Not on your life,” he murmured before closing the rest of

the small distance between them.

The porch and the decorative column obstructing them offered a certain amount of

privacy from those in the kitchen. And thanks to the angle of the chair and the dim

lighting, no one could really make out what they were doing. Kissing him was stupid

and it could get her into trouble. It was just so hard to care when he was slipping his

tongue inside her mouth.

As Paz opened her mouth to him, Adam placed a hand on her exposed thigh.

Underneath his calloused fingers, her leg clenched, but she didn’t pull away. Her

tongue danced against his, almost shyly and in complete opposition to her personality.

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Savannah Stuart

Something told him she hadn’t been with many men. Wolf or human. The knowledge

pleased him more than he cared to admit.

When he swept his tongue along her teeth, she gripped his shoulders and scooted a

few inches closer. His hand automatically slid up her leg. Instead of stopping, as a

gentleman would have, he kept going until he covered her mound.

Her head snapped back and her eyes flew open. “What are you doing?” she

whispered.

“I want to touch you here.” He kept his voice just as low as hers and slid a finger

underneath the material of her panties. He could feel her soft thatch of hair and he’d bet

anything it was just as dark as the soft espresso-colored curls framing her face.

“I’m not going to have sex with you,” she blurted.

Despite every fiber inside him wanting to flip her over and mount her, his human

side wanted to learn what made her tick. What her body liked. And he desperately

wanted to please her. “That’s okay. I just want to touch you.”

Her dark eyebrows snapped down in confusion, but when he pushed the flimsy

fabric completely to the side, a new expression covered her face. Her lips parted slightly

and her breath hitched erratically.

With his middle finger, he rubbed gently against her clit. Each time he did, her hips

arched against him. She let out little moans that almost sounded like purring.

Instead of kissing her, he watched her face while he became more intimate with her

body. Rubbing lower, he slid his finger inside her pussy and wasn’t able to restrain a

small groan. She was tight and incredibly wet. And it was all for him.

“Do you like that?”

She nodded and clutched the side of the chair. “This is crazy,” she whispered.

As if on cue, the sliding glass door opened and without looking he knew who had

stepped outside.
Thomas.
Adam bit back a growl. Paz immediately closed her legs,

forcing him to remove his hand. He leaned closer as he pushed up and stood. “Meet me

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Power Unleashed

tonight by my beach house. Eleven o’clock.” Without waiting for a response, he nodded

once at Thomas before brushing past him.

It was definitely time for him to leave the party. He spotted Marisol and Stephan

arguing in one corner of the kitchen and Nick and his human mate, Carly, kissing by

the minibar. No one else paid him much attention as he exited the house. While he

wanted nothing more than to stay and talk to Paz, he knew it would be impossible with

so many people around.

Her sister didn’t like him talking to her—that much was obvious. And something

was going on with her and Thomas. He didn’t think it was physical because Paz didn’t

seem like the kind of woman to stray, but he planned to find out what secrets she was

keeping from him.

* * * * *

Despite the cool breeze blowing in from the Atlantic, fire burned through Paz’s

system as she stripped her dress and panties off. She felt guilty lying to her sister about

wanting to go for a run alone, but she brushed those feelings away. It was embarrassing

how much she wanted to see and talk to Adam again. And she wasn’t quite sure why

she was so interested. He wasn’t suave or even very charming like so many of the

wolves who’d tried to get into her pants before. And, more importantly, he didn’t know

what she was. The wolves from her old pack had known she was half fae. The ones

who’d tried to bed her had made her feel as if they were doing
her
a favor by wanting to

sleep with her. She snorted at the thought.

Adam was different. He wanted her for her. She wasn’t certain that she was going

to sleep with him, but he didn’t seem to care about that. Taking a calming breath, she

prepared herself to change form. Even though she was half fae, shifting into her wolf

form still hurt just like any other full-blooded werewolf.

As her bones broke, shifted and realigned, a rush of adrenaline pumped through

her with lightning speed. It had been a couple days since she’d stretched her legs and

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Savannah Stuart

the sensation was refreshing. She was smaller than most shifters, maybe because of her

faerie heritage, she couldn’t be sure.

Bounding across the sand, she let the salty essence of the ocean rush over her.