Terry Spear’s Wolf Bundle (89 page)

He chuckled and pulled off her wet socks and then slipped on the dry ones. “The way to avoid spending hours looking for matching socks is to have all the same color.”

“How dull.”

“Works for me. It’s either that or wear nothing at all.”

She smiled. Yeah, she could see Hunter like that—in nothing at all.

“How’s that feel?”

“Much better.” Awful, really, but maybe the medicine would kick in soon.

“You’re a terrible liar. Don’t ever play poker.”

“I play poker very well, thank you.”

“Not with me. I’d insist on strip poker and I’d have you naked in record time.”

She laughed.

“I’ll be back after a little while.”

She saluted him.

“Wrong hand. You’d never make it in the Navy SEALs.”

“They don’t salute when they’re undercover. Remember?” She raised a brow.

“I’ll take care of her,” Meara said, walking into the room. “Cara’s sleeping. Rourke is lying in bed. Ashton’s working on a fire. Go talk to Leidolf.”

“I’ll be back.” Hunter kissed Tessa on the lips, hot and wanting, pressing for more, until he pulled his mouth away with reservation, and she wanted to drag him back and devour him whole.

“Don’t allow her to move from the bed, Meara.”

“The one guy had a walking cast on,” Tessa said, as Hunter was about to leave the room.

“Yeah, I saw. He had a broken leg.”

“I thought you healed up quickly.”

“Instead of six to eight weeks, it would be more like a week. Rest. I’ll return soon.” He winked and left.

Meara pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down. Tessa opened her mouth to speak, but Meara raised her finger to her own lips and raised her brows.

In the living room, Hunter said, “Come on, Leidolf. Let’s get a workout on that downed tree. Watch the others, Ashton.”

“Yeah, you can count on me.”

The front door slammed closed.

Meara took a breath. “I hope Hunter doesn’t get into a fight with Leidolf over you.”

“You can’t be serious.” Unable to quit shivering, Tessa pulled the covers to her chin.

“Two alpha males interested in the same woman? Hell, you saw what happens when one beta wants you. You better believe now that you have to be turned;
Leidolf’s interested, and there will be trouble between him and my brother. Not only that, but this business with Devlyn Greystoke is bound to cause problems. Hunter told me Devlyn lost all his family in a fire. Any family connection, no matter how slight, would most likely interest him. Which leads to the real problem.”

Tessa tensed, not liking the warning in Meara’s voice.

“Because of the shortage of females in a given pack, a leader who can entice a female to join his pack—particularly if it’s his relation—can offer her to another member, strengthening his bonds with his pack.”

Finally finding her voice, Tessa said, “That sounds like some medieval barbaric ruling. The king decides which of his wards weds and whom. Why didn’t Hunter already tell me this?”

Meara shrugged, but Tessa could tell she wasn’t saying all there was about the subject. “All right, so what about Leidolf? He doesn’t know anything about me.”

“Right. But for
lupus garou
, pheromones have a lot to do with the selection process. We’re attracted to someone’s looks, but also to the sexual scent each of us gives off. It’s subtle, not noticeable to the human population. Since the
lupus garou
males outnumber the females, males are always on the lookout for a female. But what entices one male might not another. It’s like having a craving for chocolate and entering a shop full of spicy pickles. Kills the desire. Walk into the store next door where a pot of hot chocolate is brewing, the male is in love.”

“Pickles and hot chocolate?”

Meara chuckled. “Okay, maybe peppermint and hot chocolate?”

Ashton poked his head in. “Interesting discussion. Fire’s going good. Did you want to move in there? This room is awfully cold.”

“Sparks will fly if she’s moved in there by the fire and Leidolf gets close to her when he and Hunter return,” Meara warned.

Ashton gave her a devious smile. “No television, radio, nothing else better for entertainment. Besides, it’s freezing in here and Tessa’s shivering.”

“Tessa?”

“It
is
awfully chilly in here. With the ice pack on my ankle, it’s making me even colder.”

Although she intended to walk with Ashton’s help, he lifted her from the bed. “Can you bring the comforter, Meara?” Ashton asked. “Unfortunately, all the blankets are either in my truck or your SUV.”

“Oh, well, hell, I never thought of it,” Meara said. “At least when the guys come back, we’ll have some of the blankets. Is Cara warm enough?”

“After we get Tessa situated on the couch, I’ll check on Cara.”

“You can stay with her. I’ll be the guard for a while.”

Ashton lay Tessa on the couch. “Hunter will be pissed if I’m not guarding.”

“I’ll take care of him.” Meara waved her hand and then covered Tessa with the cover. “Go. Keep Cara warm.”

When Ashton retired from the room, Tessa asked, “He really won’t be mad at him, will he?”

“Probably. But, we can come up with a good story.”

Right.
As if Tessa could bluff her way through anything where Hunter was concerned.

With the incessant frigid wind blowing, Hunter trudged through the snow back to the SUV with Leidolf at his side, carrying the axe while Hunter held the chainsaw Ashton had rescued from the demolished shed.

“You haven’t turned the woman. Yet, I imagine as cozy as you are with her, she knows what we are by now,” Leidolf finally said.

Hunter knew the red was interested in Tessa, and he couldn’t help but be irked by it. Hell, he had enough problems already. “It’s my business to take care of. Where are my people, exactly?”

Leidolf ignored his question. “She’s a petite redhead. If she’s turned, she’ll be more like a red wolf than a gray.”

“She’ll be a gray. But what’s your point?” Hunter was trying to keep his temper, but he knew exactly where this line of reasoning was going.

“Two bachelors in my pack are seeking mates.”

Well,
not exactly
what he expected Leidolf to say. “And you’re not?”

“I’m a royal. I already told you that. The woman wouldn’t interest me.”

Hunter knew better, just the way Leidolf observed Tessa when he thought Hunter wasn’t looking, the way he pretended disinterest when he looked at her and knew Hunter was watching.

Leidolf swung the ax as if fighting an unseen enemy. “But since you’re not interested in changing her and two of my men are, it seems we could come to some kind of agreement.”

“When the weather breaks, I’ll go to Portland, strictly to take my rowdy pack members off your
hands, and speak with Tessa’s brother in prison at Salem on the way up there. Tessa will stay with me for her own protection.”

“So you haven’t eliminated the stalker yet.”

“You noticed Tessa’s injuries? The stalker did that. Or one of his brothers.”

Leidolf’s expression turned stormy. “And they still live?”

“For now. As soon as the storm quits pounding the coast, we’ll be up to your place. You might have noticed Tessa lost her shed, part of the shingles on her roof, a couple of trees came down on her property, one on Ashton’s truck, and she has no electricity.”

“No electricity in parts of Portland either. Our winds haven’t reached the levels yours have, but we’ve suffered a lot of devastation from this system.”

“So where are my people?”

“I’ve isolated them in one of my barns.”

Hunter stiffened his spine and glared at Leidolf.

He cast him a smirk. “Teach them to run out on their pack leader. Give them worse conditions than they’re used to and they’ll beg to return. Although I’ll admit, two escaped to Washington State.”

“Have you ever had problems with your pack of this sort—that you would admit to?”

Leidolf grinned. “No, I’ve never had your kind of trouble. But then again, I’d been a loner for a number of years before I came here. Some in my pack believe I have special powers.”

Hunter bit back a laugh and with the most serious face he could muster, asked, “Do you?”

“Some say I do.”

“Doesn’t seem like it to me.” Hunter hoisted the chainsaw over the other shoulder.

“Maybe it’s because we’re both alphas and the magic only works on betas.”

“Or maybe because we’re both royals.”

Leidolf stared at Hunter for a minute. “
You’re
a royal, but would take a human mate?”

“I wouldn’t have, had the circumstances been different. But not because I’m a royal.”

“Ahh, so keeping the lines pure doesn’t mean anything to you.”

Hunter shook his head. “No, changing a human is the only thing that makes the difference, only now it seems I have no choice.”

“We always have choices. You can give her to me.”

Hunter laughed. “You, or the two males who want a mate?”

“To me, my pack, for one of the males who wants her. Don’t you think three newly turned
lupus garous
in one pack will be a little much to handle?” Leidolf asked, avoiding the issue.

“You live in the city. How could you manage?”

“I’d keep her at my ranch in the country.”

“Why don’t you take Rourke or Ashton off my hands?”

Leidolf laughed. “I need females, not more males.” He shook his head. Then he tilted his chin up with a gleam in his green eyes. “I contacted Devlyn Greystoke in Colorado to let him know about his distant cousin, as a courtesy.”

Courtesy, my ass.

“As soon as the weather clears, he’s flying out here. He wanted me to give you a message since I didn’t have your phone number.
Don’t
touch her.”

Hunter attempted to shrug off the annoyance that another leader was dictating to him, even if he was distantly related to her. “And you still want Tessa?”

“Let’s just say whatever happens before he arrives, happens. I wouldn’t have a problem dealing with him. Not after he slipped Bella out from under my nose when she was living secretly in
my
territory and she’s a
red
.”

So
that
was why Leidolf told Devlyn about Tessa? Not out of some admiration for the gray who’d fought the murdering red alpha leader, or because he felt it was his duty.
Hell no.
Leidolf wanted to get back at Devlyn for stealing Bella, in the event Hunter took Tessa for his own.

Leidolf stopped dead and stared at the tree blocking the roadway around the bend. “You didn’t tell me it was
that
big.”

“O
UCH
,” T
ESSA
SAID
AS
A
STAB
OF
PAIN
SHOT
THROUGH
her ankle while Meara helped her settle on the couch in front of the fire.

“If Hunter changes you, it won’t take as long for you to heal.” Meara sat down on the chair opposite her.

“I thought you didn’t care for me much.” Although if Cara had spoken the truth, Meara admired Tessa somewhat and had given her stamp of approval behind her back.

“I really have no choice, do I?” Meara offered her a wicked smile.

Tessa couldn’t tell if she was teasing or being truthful. Maybe a little of both.

“Hunter will be changing you. Then you’ll be our pack leader’s mate. So…” Meara shrugged. “I’ll have to live with it, or give you a hard time. And believe me, I’m very capable of it. Just ask Hunter. Are you alpha enough to take it?”

“I’ll have to be, won’t I?”

“So you’re going to be one of us?”

“I don’t see that I have much choice.” Yet if Tessa could have had a semi-normal life with Hunter, she would have jumped at the chance. Marriage meant getting along with the relatives though, but mixing it up with the personalities of a werewolf pack?

The doorbell rang and Tessa glanced back at the door. Please be Hunter and Leidolf.

“I’ll see who it is,” Meara said.

Tessa’s heart sped up. “Wait, let me come with you.” She tried to stand.

“No, you can’t walk on that foot.”

“You stay put, Tessa,” Ashton said, hurrying into the living room, zipping up his jeans, his chest bare.

Meara crossed the floor and peeked out the security hole. “Oh, hell.”

“Who is it?” Ashton asked.

“Uhm, three guys I know. If Hunter catches them here, they’ll be dead meat.” Meara opened the door. “Go home before my brother finds you here.”

“Come on, Meara. We’re planning on heading up to Idaho for a change of scenery. Come with us.”

“Leave,” Ashton said, joining Meara at the door, his voice as threatening as Tessa had ever heard it. “Now.”

He might be a pushover when it came to Cara, which made her wonder if Bethany had had the same effect on him. But when it came to most men, except for Hunter, he could get pretty physical.

Tessa couldn’t see the other guys, but she was dying to get a look.

“Are you going to make us? One lone male?”

“Two,” Rourke said, looking pale still as he made his way to the front door, a little unsteady on his feet. “Oh hell, they’re three of the ones Hunter and I smelled down by the beach. Why don’t you leave before the two alpha pack leaders return and rip you guys to shreds?”

One laughed. “Like there’d be two alpha leaders chumming together.”

Her head bandaged, Cara walked into the room and grabbed the rifle. “Here, Ashton. Want to go hunting?”

“Hmm, maybe
you’d
like to go with us,” another male said.

“I’ve got a mate. He’s the one now holding the loaded rifle,” Cara said. “So maybe you ought to run along like everyone says.”

“Do they know anything about the gray Ashton saw? My stalker?” Tessa asked from the couch.

“A stalker, you say, little lady?” one of the men said. “We might know something about it. Got some beers?”

“Oh, no. You guys just get out of here,” Meara warned. “If my brother catches you after you encouraged me to leave our cabin, no telling what he’ll do to you.”

“If any of them know about my stalker, I want to talk to them,” Tessa said, trying to make it off the couch. “So let them in.”

“No, we can’t.” Meara shook her head at Tessa. “Believe me, you don’t want to see what Hunter will do if he finds them here.”

Tessa sat on the arm of the couch and scowled. “Let them in now, or else.”

“It is her house,” Cara conceded.

“Then I’m leaving.” Meara folded her arms. “I won’t watch Hunter kill them.”

“I’ll go with them, we’ll talk, and then return. All right with everyone?” Jeesh, Tessa couldn’t believe she would have to leave her own house to interrogate possible witnesses.

“Then Hunter would
really
kill them,” Meara said. “No way are
you
leaving with them.”

“She’s not one of us?” one of the men asked, trying to look around the wall of people at the door.

Tessa caught a glimpse of the man who appeared to be in his midtwenties, black beard and shoulder-length hair, dark brown eyes. Cute. No wonder he had enticed Meara to go with him.

He whistled. “I’ve never heard of a human in a
lupus garou
pack.”

“Come in and tell me what you know about my stalker,” Tessa commanded and would have dragged him into the house, if it hadn’t been for her blamed ankle.

No one moved. Meara and the rest still blocked the three guys from entering. Ashton still held his rifle ready.

“Fine.” Tessa hobbled to the front door. “Let me out and I’ll speak with them on the front porch.”

Rourke grabbed her arm so she could lean against him. “You don’t even have your coat on.”

“Well, someone get it for me.”

“Oh hell, let them in.” Meara raised her hands in resignation. “If they’re too stupid to recognize the danger…” She shrugged and returned to the living room and collapsed on the recliner.

“Are you sure?” Ashton asked, still keeping the men at bay on the front porch.

“Let them in,” Tessa said. “It’s my house and my business. Besides, if Hunter learns you sent them away and they had information about the guy who’s trying to turn me, he’d be even more furious.”

The black-haired guy nodded. “I told my friends I thought that was what this was all about. Either that, or a pretty
lupus garou
female lived here on her own. Although we smelled a human female and suspected the gray got himself hooked on one of them instead.”

Rourke lifted Tessa in his arms and carried her back to the couch. “Might as well let them in, Ashton. Tessa’s right. If they know something about this gray and his brothers, and we chase these guys off, Hunter’s bound to be furious with us.” He cast Meara a sympathetic look. “Guess we’ll just have to hope he doesn’t kill them afterwards.”

“Maybe we can get whatever information they have out of them quickly, and they can be on their way,” Cara suggested, sitting beside Tessa on the couch.

Ashton motioned with the gun. “Get inside. You’re letting all the cold air in.”

“Like it’s our fault,” the black-haired guy said. “Jessup’s the name. These are my friends, Redmond, on account he’s got a red
lupus garou
in the mix way back when, otherwise he’s all gray. We try not to hold the other against him.” He gave Redmond a sly smile. “And Butch, cuz he chopped off all his hair, although we haven’t figured out why he would do that now in the dead of winter.”

Looking cross, Meara cleared her throat. “Now that you’ve made your introductions, tell us what you know about this guy and his brothers and then get your butts out of here.”

Redmond stood next to the fire, warming his backside and grinned at Tessa. “I can see why he’s got the hots for you. So, are
you
the one who’s getting her?” he asked Rourke.

Meara gave a haughty laugh. “He might want her, but my brother is the one who’s claimed her. Quit changing the subject and tell us what you know.”

“Thought we might have a beer while we’re talking.” Butch’s pale green eyes speared Tessa.

“No.” Tessa wondered why the guy seemed so familiar. The courthouse! His hair was cropped short now, not long like when she had seen him at the trial, she was pretty sure. And he stood a little taller now, not as sloop-shouldered. But the eyes…she was sure they were the same eyes that had watched her so closely. “No alcohol in the house.” Tequila, but not for the likes of them. “What do you know about my stalker?”

She noticed Rourke surreptitiously taking pictures of the three men using his phone. She knew if he put his heart into it he would make an excellent investigative reporter.

“He and his brothers aren’t from around here,” Jessup said. “Like most unmated males, they’re looking for a female. He saw you sometime and decided you were the one for him.”

“Have you met them? Talked to them? Know who they are?”

Jessup tipped his head to the side. “Yoloff is the one who wants you. The one with the broken leg, he’s Andreas, and Ren is the other. They’re from Arizona, not looking to settle down here. Too wet. I talked to Yoloff. He didn’t say what he was doing here exactly, but I knew it had to be over a woman. They plan to return to Arizona once they’ve finished their business here.”

Or Hunter finished with them. Tessa looked over at Butch. “How come you were at my brother’s trial?”

He stared her down as if he was trying to intimidate her, then finally shrugged. “Why would I be at a human’s trial?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

Waiting for his response, everyone watched him. Either Redmond and Jessup didn’t know their friend had been at Michael’s trial, or they pretended innocence.

Butch gave her a smirk. “Don’t know your brother, why he’d be on trial, or where it was held either. You must have mistaken me for someone else.”

“You wouldn’t have been at my house at some time or another, would you have? As an electrician? Plumber?”

He didn’t say anything.

Then Rourke jumped into the fray. “The three of you were at Bethany’s house. Why?”

Butch smiled in an evil way, turning his attention from Rourke to Tessa. “I thought we were discussing your stalker, Miss Anderson.”

“Seems you might know something about Bethany’s murder, too,” Tessa said, her blood stirring. “Where do you live? Why have you been in the area? Seeking mates, too?”

“Always.” Redmond winked at her. “Can’t blame us. When the urge hits us…Human females are one thing, but they’re not quite as feral as our own kind. No offense, miss.”

She wanted to say that Hunter seemed to be attracted to her even if she was human. And so was this Yoloff. But maybe Hunter didn’t really want her. Sure, he had said that all along. Not permanently. She would scratch an itch, but not in the long run. She could never be as wild as their kind. It wasn’t in her nature. Look at her bedroom attire even—soft, cuddly pajamas, or slinky nightgowns in summer, but he was probably used to his women naked. Not that she was inhibited about sleeping
nude, but it just seemed…weird. Especially since she was alone. Well, even with a guy unless they were making love.

Everyone was waiting for her response. She was sure her cheeks were rosy red as hot as they felt.

“Okay, so what about my other questions? Where do you live? Around here? I’ve never seen you in town before.”

“Farther west,” Jessup said.

“So what brought you here?”

“Looking for mates. Redmond already said so. But we couldn’t find any. Not until we caught Meara’s scent. We were curious about you, too, because Yoloff wanted you. So we’ve been hanging around, trying to catch sight of you.”

But Tessa knew it wasn’t true because Butch had been at the trial. “Did you see Hunter fighting the other gray?”

“No, but if we had, we would have come to his aid.”

She didn’t think Jessup or his friends would have helped Hunter. Why would they? When he was sure to keep them away from his sister.

Unless that’s why Jessup and his buddies were hanging around here. To get rid of Hunter and it had nothing to do with Tessa. Sure, and then one of them could claim Meara. Or try to, if she was all alone.

Although he would probably have a fight on his hands. But if Hunter had died and she was so distraught over losing him, Jessup or one of the others would come to comfort her. He might have gotten his way with her then.

Jessup cast a glance at his buddies, looking a little uncomfortable when Tessa didn’t respond to his remark about coming to Hunter’s aid when he fought the gray.

“What about Bethany?”

“We were curious about what had happened to her. Sometimes the police can’t pick up clues that we can,” Jessup said.

Rourke stood taller. “Why would you care?”

Jessup raised a black bushy brow. “We wondered if they had the right murderer.”

“Why?” Rourke asked again. “If you’re not from this area, and the killer wasn’t part of your pack, what difference would it make to you?”

He shrugged. “Just curious. Like I said.”

Before Tessa could ask them another question, everyone but her turned their attention to the front of the house. She didn’t hear anything, but she assumed they must have.

The door slammed open and Hunter stood in the entryway, his face dark as he considered the three new men standing in Tessa’s living room. Leidolf stalked in beside him and his expression was just as lethal.

Jessup, Redmond, and Butch’s posture changed from arrogantly sure of themselves to ready to run out the back door as they moved closer together and took a step backward.

“Meara?” Hunter roared, although he kept his eyes on the three men.

“Uhm, I told them they’d better hightail it out of here, but your future mate insisted they come in for a chat, since they know something of Tessa’s stalker,” Meara said, her voice a little shaky.

Tessa imagined not much shook her up.

Hunter’s expression changed subtly as he looked at Tessa, not as angry, but she couldn’t grasp what he was
feeling. He jerked his attention back to the three grays. “Start talking.”

His voice vibrated with raw anger and a shiver even streaked up Tessa’s spine.

“We already told her who the stalker is. Yoloff.”

“So which one of you killed Bethany?” Hunter asked, his voice still threatening.

“You got it wrong, mister,” Jessup quickly said. “Sure, we went to her house and checked the place out. We were looking for valuables. She wasn’t there any longer to care.”

“Thieves? You three are thieves?” Tessa asked, her voice rife with disbelief.

“We had nothing to do with her death,” Redmond said. “We were curious about who might have killed her though. So we looked around for any evidence the police might have missed. But we’d never met the lady.”

Tessa pointed to Butch. “Why was he at my brother’s trial then?”