The Dark-Hunters (318 page)

It was a harsh thing for a Were-Hunter to be attacked by them, and Wren could understand Fang’s coma from it. The wolf was damned lucky to be alive.

Since that weird Thanksgiving when Fang had managed to leave his bed for the first time, he’d been slowly coming back around, but the wolf was still seriously scarred by his attack.

“What happened to your hair, tiger?” Fang asked.

“It fell off.”

Fang shook his head as Wren walked past him, into the kitchen. He stopped at the sinks. Marvin leapt from his shoulder to the shelf above while he unpacked the pan for the dishwashers.

“How did it go this afternoon?”

He turned his head to see Aimee behind him. As always, she was stunningly beautiful, with a tight red T-shirt and a pair of jeans. A wide smile curved her lips. She looked hopeful.

Wren shrugged. “It was all right.”

Her smile faded. “Did the flowers not work?”

“They worked.”

“Then why aren’t you happy?”

He shrugged again.

Aimee grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out of the hearing range of the others, into a corner. “Wren, talk to me.”

She’d been the only person he’d ever really spoken to, which didn’t say much, since he seldom said more than a handful of words to her. “I don’t belong with a human.”

She glanced toward the door that led to the bar where Fang was working. “Yeah, it hurts to want something you know you shouldn’t. But—”

“There are no buts in this, Aimee,” Wren said between clenched teeth. “Katagaria don’t have human mates, you know that. When was the last time one of us was mated with a human?”

“It’s happened.”

He knew better. “Even if it did, we’d be sterile. An animal can’t have children with a human.” Which might not be so bad. The gods knew the last thing he needed was to sire more freaks like himself. But that wasn’t the point. The point was that Maggie was out of his league. She was everything decent in the world, and he was everything that gave humans nightmares.

It was impossible.

Wren sighed in resignation. “I got her out of my system. Now I need to work.”

But the problem was that Maggie wasn’t out of his system. If anything, she was more a part of his thoughts than ever before. He didn’t understand the hunger he felt. The need.

The beast within him wanted out to hunt for her. It was salivating inside, simmering. It was a good thing he knew how to control the beast, otherwise there was no telling what he might do.

He left Aimee and went to get his pan.

“Wren?” she said, pulling him to a stop.

Wren cast a meaningful look toward the bar where Fang was waiting for the bearswan. “Stop being a dreamer, Aimee. Our reality is too harsh for that.”

He saw the doubt in her blue eyes. “But it’s the hope of something better that keeps us going.”

He scoffed at her blind optimism. “I abandoned the idea of hope the day my own mother lunged at my throat to kill me.” He gave Aimee a hard stare. “And if I were you, Aimee, I’d heed that warning well. Neither of us has a human mother. If you think for one moment that Nicolette wouldn’t turn on you, too, you’re crazy.”

“I’m her only daughter.”

“And I was an only child—the last of my mother’s kind—and yet she didn’t hesitate to come after me. Think about it.” Wren brushed past Aimee, back into the bar.

Still, Aimee’s words rang in his ears.

Hope. He snorted bitterly at the thought of it. Hope was for humans. It wasn’t for animals or freaks.

“Hi.”

He glanced up to see a young woman in an extremely short skirt and tight midriff shirt approaching him.

She leaned her head back and polished off her drink. “I thought I’d save you some time and bring my glass to you,” she said, giving him a hot once-over. She slid her empty glass over her breast before she handed it to him.

Amazed that he felt absolutely nothing for her, Wren inclined his head and took it from her before he moved away to another table.

The woman pouted before she returned to her seat.

“What the hell is wrong with you, tiger?” Justin asked as he joined Wren. “What kind of beast would turn
that
down?”

“Go get her, panther,” Wren said quietly. “She’s all yours.”

“Yeah, I think I will.”

Wren watched as Justin made straight for the woman and struck up a conversation. A few minutes later, the two of them were headed off toward the storeroom near the stage that had been soundproofed by one of the bears as a place where they could take willing human females for a quickie or two.

It was weird that Wren felt absolutely nothing for the woman. Not even a slight stirring. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear he was mated. But there was no mating mark on his hand, and even if there were, he would never mate with a human. Especially not Maggie. Her father was too prominent a man.

The idea was to keep their world a secret from humans. Mating himself to a member of a politician’s family was suicide.

Marvin came running up to drop a glass in his pan before he dashed off again.

*   *   *

Nicolette paused just outside the door to her office as she watched Wren cleaning tables. Every animal sense she possessed told her that it was time he left Sanctuary—not that she had ever really wanted him here.

If she had her way, there wouldn’t be anyone staying at Sanctuary except her own family. But that wasn’t their laws. It was necessity that dictated she allow other Were-Hunters to come and go and even live in her beloved home.

That didn’t mean she liked it.

Her gaze softened as it drifted toward her son Dev, who was talking to her other son Cherif. She’d lost two sons to the Arcadian Were-Hunters who had once pursued them to the ends of the earth and beyond for no other reason than because her kind were animals. She refused to lose any more children to this bloodthirsty war of Arcadian against Katagaria.

She would do anything to protect her family.

“Lo?”

She turned at the sound of her mate’s call. Aubert was staring at her with a concerned gaze. “
Oui,
Aubert?”

He glanced over to where Wren was. “The tiger isn’t hurting anyone.”

She curled her lips as she watched Wren cleaning. “His very presence offends me. He isn’t right and you know it.”

“He has nowhere else to go.”

“And neither do we.” She jerked her chin in the direction of the monkey as he bounded back toward the tigard. “That is unnatural, too. I hate that damned monkey. He is filthy. Animals such as that one are food for us. They should never be kept as pets.”

“Marvin isn’t a pet,” Aubert said quietly. “Wren doesn’t own him. They are friends, and the monkey keeps the tiger calm. It is why we allow him to stay.”

She made a disgusted sound. “Why must we cater to him? We are bears. We are the more powerful. One strike and we could kill the tiger.”

Aubert conceded the point with a nod. “In the wild, beast to beast, yes. But Wren is part human, as are we. He knows not to attack us from the front, but rather to attack us from behind. What he lacks in strength, he makes up for in speed and agility. He could kill us. I have no doubt.”

She looked at her mate with rancor. “You fear him?”

“No,” he snapped. “But I’m not a fool. Don’t let your hatred blind you,
ma petite.
Better to use his strength to fight for us than to make an enemy of him.”

She considered that. “Perhaps, but he isn’t like the others. He sees through us and our hospitality.”

“
Oui,
but he keeps it to himself. Seldom does he speak to anyone.”

Still Nicolette didn’t trust Wren. She could sense the tigard’s unrest. Sense his volatile state. He could turn violent at any moment. “I think we should take our concerns to the Omegrion.” The Omegrion was the ruling council for their kind. It made and enforced the laws of all Were-Hunters, and its members could call out a blood hunt for anyone the Weres deemed a threat to their world.

Aubert rolled his eyes. “There is no need for that. Wren is not a Slayer.”

“No, but he will be. I can feel it.”

*   *   *

Wren let out a deep breath as he finished wiping down the table. With his new haircut he was attracting way too much attention, and he hated it. He’d always liked blending into the background. In the past, people might notice him, but they quickly looked away. Or curled their lips in repugnance.

Either was preferable to the women watching him now. To the men narrowing their gazes because their girlfriends were ogling him.

Tigers by nature were solitary creatures. They lived their lives alone.

And yet his thoughts kept drifting back to the afternoon. To the sight of Maggie’s face.

I have to forget her.

The only problem was that he couldn’t.

*   *   *

Marguerite sighed as she straightened her bed. But it was hard to not think of Wren while she made up the bed where they had spent most of the afternoon.

“It’s for the best that he’s gone,” she told herself.

It was true. Law school wasn’t easy. Her classes were hard, and they required a lot of concentration. The last thing she needed was the distraction of a troubled bad-boy boyfriend.

The last thing she could afford was to flunk out of school. That would just tickle her father no end.

Marguerite stepped back from the bed and stumbled over something under her foot. Frowning, she saw the small black wallet on the floor.

She grimaced at the sight. “Damn.” Of all the stupid luck. It must have fallen out of Wren’s pocket while he’d been dressing.

She picked it up and opened it to find his license and money. Yeah, it was his. Not like it could have belonged to anyone else, but she’d still been holding out for a clumsy burglar.

“I should mail it to him.”

But he would most likely need it before then. “I can be a grown-up about this.”

She’d take it to the bar, leave it with the waitress, and duck out before he even saw her.

Okay, that was a little cowardly and less than adult, but it would be the way to save her feelings. If he didn’t want to see her, then she didn’t want to be seen.

*   *   *

Wren was in the kitchen unloading dishes when something strange went through him. It was hot and scintillating. Like something had brushed up against his very soul.

Eyes narrowed, he lowered his head and scanned the room.

There was nothing out of the ordinary. But still the beast within him sensed something.

Grinding his teeth, he left the kitchen to head to the bar. He’d only taken one step inside when he found the source of his discomfort …

Maggie.

And she was talking to Dev.

Wren’s gaze narrowed even more as a jealousy the likes of which he’d never experienced before took hold of him. It was all he could do to stay in human form and not run headlong and attack the bear until he had Dev lying dead in his jaws.

But he did cross the bar in quick, fierce strides.

Marguerite felt the air behind her stir. Even before she turned her head, she knew it was Wren. She could feel his presence like a tangible touch.

She looked up at him over her shoulder. His blue eyes scalded her with heat. The intensity of his stare made her shiver.

“You left your wallet,” she said quickly, not wanting him to think that she was tracking him down. She took the wallet from the man she’d given it to and handed it to Wren. “I was just going to leave it for you.”

She started for the door.

“Wait,” Wren said, pulling her to a stop.

“Wait for what?” she said more harshly than she meant to. “I’m not a yo-yo, Wren. You made it clear that there’s nothing more between us. I was—”

He cut her words off with a scorching kiss. Marguerite actually moaned at the feral taste of him.

Even so, she pulled back. “This is cruel.” She saw the bitter longing in his eyes as he stared at her.

“Have you ever wanted something that you knew was bad for you? Something that you ached for so much that you could think of nothing else?”

“Yes, which is why I always end up eating the whole chocolate bar anyway.”

His grip loosened on her arm as he laughed. She saw the shock on the man’s face over his shoulder.

Wren pulled her against him, nuzzled her, and took a deep breath in her hair. “And I want to inhale my chocolate, kitten. Even if it kills me.”

She frowned at his words. “I would never hurt you, Wren.”

He tensed as if he heard or felt something. “You need to go now. It’s not safe here for you.”

“How so?”

Wren didn’t answer. The two of them were getting way too much attention from the other Were-Hunters in the bar. He couldn’t afford to let them know just how much this woman was coming to mean to him.

“I’m taking my break,” he said to Dev before he took her arm and led her for the door.

“What’s going on here?” she asked him as they walked outside.

“I can’t explain it. I really can’t.” There was no way to tell her that the feelings inside him were completely wrong. He wasn’t supposed to feel for a human. Not like this.

He felt …

Like a human being. And that was something he most definitely wasn’t.

Wren took her to her Mercedes, which was parked on the side street. He clenched his fists as his body roared to life, demanding he take her again.

Why was he feeling like this? Dammit, it was wrong.

Lifting one hand, he laid his fingers against the blush of her cheek.

He wasn’t what she needed in her life. He wasn’t what anyone needed, and he knew it. But for the first time ever, he wanted to be with someone.

And a human woman no less.

What was wrong with him? Was this the
trelosa
that could come upon Were-Hunters when they hit puberty? He’d never really felt it as a young man and hadn’t understood the rabies-like madness that appeared with hormonal surges.

But he felt it now. It gnawed and it demanded.

Maybe the
trelosa
had been delayed because he was a hybrid. He didn’t know. But humans weren’t supposed to attract him. Not as anything more than a possible bedmate or prey.