SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (262 page)

“Prison-prison?” He seemed to find the phrase funny. “No. Local jail? Sure. Lotta folks still aren’t cool with my kind.” He came toward her, his shoulders back, steps easy and confident. “Not to mention I got into plenty of scrapes as a kid, both with the pack and on my own. Couldn’t help myself.”

She caught his hand as he reached for a strand of her hair. “What, like it was part of your nature?”

Son of a gun, that soft, rumbling laugh of his was something else. Had she known him back when she was young and her conservative parents had locked her and her sister in their rooms, his laugh alone would have sprung her bedroom door in a hurry.

“That’s exactly the excuse I used,” he said. “I’m a beast. A wild animal can’t be tamed. It’s in my nature.” His mouth twisted in a show of anger. “I was a stupid punk.”

Sherri ached at the pain that swirled in his amber eyes. “What put you on the straight and narrow?”

“Eh, I don’t know about straight and narrow.” He shrugged. “My brother Jett, he’s the good one. And Christopher, before he died.”

“I’m sorry.” She needed to hug him. He stood there, an island unto himself, with his hands at his sides and his fists clenched, and it wasn’t apparent her comfort would be welcome, but she did it anyway. “That’s… I lost my sister when I was a teenager. I know it’s hard.”

The beat of his heart pounded against her chest. “What happened?”

Sherri closed her eyes. The heat in the room settled over them like a thick blanket as she tried to remember but not remember at the same time. “Our parents didn’t let us leave the house. Beth wanted to go out and have friends. It got her into trouble with the wrong crowd.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t.” Everyone was sorry. She swiped a hand over her face. Looking up at Ash with his hard but concerned face, she had trouble collecting her thoughts. “You know what? This whole thing is crazy.”

“I told you, we only try to take them if they attack first. But I’m sorry to tell you I think there’s a good chance that they will. Jojo hates me. He always has. I have to assume now that he’s nuts enough to try anything.”

“That’s not what I mean.” She wiped at her eyes again. God, had she left the hotel wearing mascara? She hoped not. In her pacing, the bed came up behind her, so she allowed herself to flop onto her back. “I mean, I spent two years with a man I thought I knew, and I didn’t know him at all. I never did feel this comfortable sharing myself with him. You and I—”

She stopped when Ash’s head perked up and his finger gave the “hang on” gesture. He hurried to the bed and covered his body with hers. “Someone’s coming in,” he whispered in her ear. He slid off to the side and she strangely wished he hadn’t. He had easily a hundred pounds on her, but she didn’t find his mass suffocating so much as reassuring.

He nuzzled her neck and jaw. The nuzzling turned more insistent, into head butts and gentle bites. Honestly, she was surprised to find she liked when he did that, but it seemed an especially curious thing to do when they were probably about to have company.

“What are you doing?”

“Being affectionate.”

“For show, or did you get the sudden urge?”

“Can’t it be both?”

She turned to stare him down. “Why are you being weird?”

He grinned. “For all you know, this is normal.”

That made her cough out a laugh. “Uh, so, I’d love to see what you’d do if you took a woman on a real third date. Mini golf?”

Ash’s finger swept across her cheek. “We’ll have to find out.”

The door opened. In walked the lean, young man she’d seen in the middle of the night when she was first brought through the main house. He’d seemed quiet and polite, but she knew nothing about him other than the fact that he must be low on the pack totem pole the way Ash’s father had smacked him around. He held out a takeout bag. “Thought you guys might be hungry.”

Ash rolled his eyes. “And you brought stale burgers? This is nasty, grease-covered shit.”

“Ash.” Sherri put one hand over his. With the other, she reached out toward the young man. “I’m Sherri. Thank you very much for bringing us food. We’re grateful.”

Sherri would do whatever she could to keep someone who seemed sympathetic on their side. Lord knew they might need the help.

The younger guy pointed at Ash. “He doesn’t like me. It’s fine. Here’s your food.” He squatted down, putting himself lower than Ash where he sat on the bed. “Thought you’d want to know, I talked to Jett,” he whispered. “I think he’s gonna be at the handoff. I’d be ready.”

“How’d you talk to Jett?”

“Tracked him down. Let him know you ran into trouble.” He gave Ash a glare. “You’re welcome.”

Ash glanced at Sherri. “Jett’s an investigator with Nogales PD.”

Sherri squeezed Ash’s hand. “That’s great. That’s exactly what we need.” They could take down whoever was behind this and possibly intercept the drugs as well.

Ash seemed underwhelmed. His only response was a quiet. “Thanks, Kyle.”

“Yeah. No sweat.” The young man stood and left, a chill following him out of the room.

Ash lay back on the bed, thoughtful for a few minutes before he finally spoke. “Well shit, I think that kid did us a huge favor.”

Sherri agreed. She didn’t know how or why the young man had gotten word to Ash’s brother, but doing so must have been risky. Surely that meant a few of the pack members might be on Ash’s side. That sounded promising.

“I still don’t like the little weasel,” Ash said. “But he’s earned some points.”

She frowned. “He seems nice enough. He helped us.”

Ash’s expression was bland. “He’s a pack-groupie. A human hanger-on. My father shelters him in exchange for loyalty and service. Loyalty should be earned. Being wanted for what you are rather than who
you are is something I cannot stand.”

Unease pinged in Sherri’s chest. “That’s not what you think I am, is it?” She thought of her fascination the night she met Ash, and the shameless way she came back for more.

Ash rose up, brushing the sweaty hair from her face. “I approached you, remember?”

“That’s true.” She smiled slightly.

His finger kept going. Down her neck, and then on slowly, deliberately to trace her collarbone. “The night we met, I was…
aching
… to get you naked. You looked like a good girl who was dying for a reason to be bad. I wanted to be your reason.”

Her face heated. “I was certainly in a mood when we met.”

“Hell yeah, you were. One look and I was desperate to get my hands on you. Would it be all right if I put my hands on you now, Sherri?”

The heat stifled and her blood rushed so loudly she could hardly think. Her eyes met his, and she found herself nodding her head as she put her hands to his shoulders. If she needed something to grab hold of while they waited in this terrible limbo, she couldn’t think of a better place than him.

* * *

Ash had watched Sherri walk away the previous night, so buzzed with pleasure he’d wanted nothing more than to run outside, howl at the moon, and go back in to do it all again. Commitments at Howlers and a fierce hold on his lone wolf status had let her leave when he’d wanted her to stay, unsure if he’d really seek her out again once she disappeared.

Now, they’d landed back together, thanks to this shit storm. Even though the circumstances sucked jaguar balls, he wasn’t sure he minded. It gave him an excuse to touch Sherri again. So he did.

“May I?” Ash denied his baser instinct, his desire to rip Sherri’s barely hanging-on shirt from its confines and expose the warm, smooth skin he knew hid beneath. His fingers hovered a breath above her cheek. At her nod of agreement they touched down, and he released a snarl of satisfaction at the now familiar sensation.

“I’m sorry about this,” he murmured. “I know I keep saying so, but I really didn’t intend to bring you into this kind of trouble.”

“I attended a tutorial on the potential… criminal element associated with your kind. I knew the night we met that going to bed with you was a risk. It was mine to take. I still appreciate your remorse.” Sherri’s head lolled to the side. Her eyes lost focus, like she’d gone somewhere else in her mind. “The last guy I was with used me to funnel information for his boyfriend’s money laundering scam. He sure as hell didn’t apologize.”

Ash paused. Carefully, he pressed on Sherri’s cheek so that she had to make eye contact with him again. “So little of that makes sense. Please explain.”

She put a hand over her eyes. “It’s horrible and embarrassing. I was a shiny, new agent, working white collar crimes out of DC. I fucked up.”

He slapped a hand over her mouth. Lips brushing her ear, he whispered, “Whisper, remember? I suspected you might be law enforcement when you went for a gun in the bar. It won’t go over well here if they find out.”

She nodded. “Ryan and I had dated for two years and moved in together before I found out he was actually the lover of a dangerous but charismatic criminal named Boris Gusin. Boris was using Ryan to steal case information from me to evade capture.”

Ash found it difficult to close his mouth. “Jesus. There’s so much betrayal among my kind, but you must trust your mate. Once formed, that bond can only be broken by death.”

Her smile looked sad. “It’s different with humans.”

“So I’ve seen. That’s one reason why humans and
weres
don’t bond well. My father loved a human. It didn’t work.”

She gestured between them. “So do you think this will work? Will we be able to fool them I mean? The literal ‘til death do we part’ requirement sounds like a major monkey wrench.”

He smiled. “That bond is pack law. I belong to no pack. And you didn’t seem to like my ‘kill everybody to escape’ plan, so yes. I do hope we can fake our way through a mating ceremony.” In truth, he found himself wishing for things with Sherri that went beyond a fake ceremony. Wishing they could be something more, in spite of their differences.

The realization made it hard to breathe.

Sherri smiled sadly. “We’re outnumbered. The other plan was too risky. If it came to it, would you honestly be able to kill your own father?”

His fingers tangled in her hair. “To save you? Us? Yes. My father has killed plenty. So has Jojo. It was his bullshit posturing that brought you here. They know the risks, and I meant what I said when I left.”

“What did you say?”

“That if they fucked with me again, I’d bite back, and it wouldn’t be pretty.” He growled low in his throat, anger rising.

Sherri frowned. “That’s crazy.”

“It is.” Ash touched her skin, feeling the heat that rose from her body. A sudden flood of musk and pheromones swirled in his nostrils, making him throb. “And yet you’re aroused.” He skimmed a palm over her inner thigh and up to the waist of her pants. Dammit, he was anxious to take them off and prove his point.

Sherri squirmed beneath him, pushing their bodies together. “I don’t even know why. The situation is so far beyond wrong, I can barely spell the word.”

“I know why.” He claimed her mouth and tongue, kissing her as roughly as he dared. Their bodies ground together, their skin sweaty from the lack of ventilation in the room. When he pulled away two buttons had popped on her shirt and one on her pants.

“You, uh, wanna clue me in?”

“I’ll clue you in if you let me take off your pants.”

She rolled her eyes, but allowed him to ease down her zipper anyway.

He’d hardly thrown off the coveralls when he was on her again, taking care with the delicate buttons on the blouse and her lacy under things, only because she didn’t have spare clothes. He groaned when he pushed inside her, thrusting faster, impossibly harder, than he had the night before. When her legs folded around his waist and her heels dug into his back, he thought he might be in heaven.

“God, Sherri. I’ve never met such a passionate human.”

“Tell me,” she said.

“Unbelievably passionate,” he growled.

“Explain, I mean.”

He chuckled and slid his hand under her head. “One track mind, hmm?”

“You said… you’d explain.”

“Okay…” He pulled her hips forward and slowed their pace, angling her head to the side so he could whisper into her ear. “I know… we just met. I know… you’re a strong woman. But…” Ash’s free hand slid over her belly, her breasts, up over her shoulder. It held her firm as he thrust steady and hard. “But still, if I tell you I’ll kill anyone who lays a fucking finger on you, how does that make you feel?”

Sherri gasped. Her eyes widened and her legs tightened their squeeze around his body. “That’s… oh.”

He thrust harder. “And if I tell you I’d have that asshole boyfriend who betrayed you taken care of in a heartbeat?”

A soft gasp. The blush on her cheeks darkened. “He’s in prison.”

“You think I couldn’t get to him there?”

“Don’t…”

“Don’t worry.” Ash sat up and gathered her into his lap, wrapping her around him again. He pulled her hair to the side, whispering to her still as she rode his cock. “I won’t. I wouldn’t. But if you asked me to, I could and I would.” He grunted and snarled, nipping possessively at her shoulder. “Do you like knowing that? If you asked, I would go that far.”

“Yes. Oh my God, I do. I shouldn’t… but I do.” She stifled a cry, and her slick walls clamped down around him. Nails raked across his back. Her breath came harsh and ragged into his sensitive ear. Suddenly, Sherri stilled. She arched her back with a trembling gasp, and then sagged against him.

Ash snarled and thrust hard as he rode out his orgasm. “A man goes to the ends of the earth to protect his mate,” he murmured. “Even when you can take care of yourself, it’s good to know someone is willing.”

“I… God…”

“All those proper words of yours, and I’ve rendered you speechless?” He couldn’t help but chuckle, licking the salt and sweat on her shoulder. “Mmm. I enjoy tasting you.”

“I… Thank you.” She pushed her hair back from her face. “Oh my God. I’ve never… That was amazing.”

He laid her back on the bed. “You liked those things I said to you.” It wasn’t a question.

She stared off into space at first. “I did. I can’t believe that I did. I’m not one of those women who needs to be taken care of. I sure as hell don’t condone revenge or violence. It’s stupid because it never stops. That’s so
nuts.
”