Winter’s Wolf (10 page)

Shit no, he wanted to see. Still stroking himself gently with one hand, he parted the bushes with the other in time to watch Winter throw his head back and let out a howl Matt could hear over the rushing stream as jets of jism flew into the air like the spray of the tumbling water. Sweet heaven, gods on Olympus must look like that as they created worlds from their own loins.

Dimly, from somewhere behind him, came Ollie’s voice. “Matt, Winter, where are you guys?”

Shit!
Matt tucked and zipped so fast it was a wonder he didn’t do injury, and when he looked up toward the pool—Winter was gone.

His legs wobbling, he started back in the direction of their camp and ran into Ollie coming toward him. Ollie grasped his arms. “Hey, man, you okay?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to go find the water. It’s a nice spot. You should see it.”

Ollie shook his head. “No. Man, I was worried. I came back to the campsite to get some water. Forgot to take it with me. Both of you guys were gone. Where’s Winter?”

“Uh, no idea. Wasn’t he sleeping?”

“No.”

“Maybe he went to take a leak.”

“I guess.”

They arrived back at the camp, and Winter lay snoring softly on his sleeping bag.
Jesus, that guy moved like smoke.
Matt lowered his voice. “You going back to the car?”

“No. I’ll hang with you guys. I don’t want to lose you.” He laughed nervously, which seemed funny for a seasoned marshal.

Matt settled back on his sleeping bag. His body wanted to conk out after that massive orgasm, while his brain sorted the array of suspicions crowding his mind. Ollie? The man seemed too dumb to do much plotting, but it could all be an act. Thane? Way smart and too sexy for his own good—or Matt’s. No matter his intentions, the man was dangerous. Matt closed his eyes and developed a close personal relationship with every rock and insect in northern Connecticut for a few more hours.

In the morning, they nosed around halfheartedly but discovered no more convenient packets of dropped drugs. Once out of the woods, they found a diner for breakfast. Over eggs and bacon, Ollie looked at his watch. “Need to get back. Let’s get a move on.”

Thane’s pale eyes stared at Ollie over his coffee cup rim. “Oh? You were the one who wanted to stay.”

“Yeah, but now I got shit to do.”

Matt nodded. “I have a lot on my plate besides bacon this morning too. I’m ready to go.”

As they left the restaurant, Matt’s phone rang. He let Ollie and Winter get in the SUV and walked a few steps away. “Partridge.”

“Yeah, Partridge, this is Caruthers. Did you have any luck?”

Matt glanced at the other two men, who were climbing into the SUV. “I’ll report in later. Not a good time now.”

“You should know that new drugs hit the streets in Hartford yesterday. Kids dropping like flies. Two are in the hospital for heroin overdose.”

His jaw clenched. “Thanks for telling me. I’ll be in as soon as I get back to my own car. A few hours.”

“Thanks.”

Matt stared at the phone, the eggs and bacon threatening to come back up. Was that the real reason he’d been taken out of town? To give the drug dealers free rein?
Shit.
He walked back to the SUV, which Ollie already had running. As he got in, Ollie asked, “Everything okay?”

No, everything is fucking not okay.
“Just the office.” He stared out the window as they drove away. Pretty clearly, somebody had wanted him distracted and out of the area, and shit if they hadn’t succeeded. Somebody’d lured him away. His eyes flicked toward the backseat. And they’d used the best possible bait.

W
INTER
STOOD
in the street as Partridge drove away in his POS gray sedan. Matt had barely looked at him when they got back. He jumped out of the SUV like somebody singed his tail, grabbed his stuff, and took off without a smile or a glance at Winter. Crap, what had he done? What did Partridge want from him?

The previous night, Matt sure seemed to know what he wanted. Hell, he’d practically melted down jerking off behind that bush while he watched Winter. That made two of them. If that bumbling asshole of a werewolf hadn’t shown up, Winter would have been happy to give Mr. FBI anything he longed for. Now they’d backed up past square one, and Winter didn’t even know why.

“Thane.”

Winter looked up at the marshal, who stood in front of his office. “Yes, sir.”

“Come give me your report.”

Report? Ooookay.
He followed Freedman into the low building, then to his office, and sat in the chair while Freedman shut the door. “I assumed Ollie would give you the details, sir.”

“Yes, he’s writing up a report, but I just want your observations.” Odd. Ben had the most shielded energy of anyone Winter knew except Cole and the alphas. Damned hard to read.

Winter grinned. “Is this a test?”

“It might be.” But he leaned back and smiled.

“The place was interesting.”

“Oh, in what way?”

“Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make it look like that was the center of some large drug operation.”

Freedman frowned. “Make it look?”

“Yes. It was all planted. The whole site’s a fake, set up to look like drug processors left in a hurry when they were never there.”

“Ollie said you found two packets of heroin.”

“It’s real, but since the rest of the site’s phony, I expect that’s just part of the fiction.”

“Ollie seemed pretty convinced.”

Do not say Ollie’s an idiot.
He shrugged. “If you’d been there, you would have agreed with me. No drug smell. No residue in the building. It should have been dripping off the walls if they were cooking shit in there.”

“You know a lot about drugs?”

“Nope. But I have a really good sense of smell.”

Freedman picked up a paperweight shaped like a wolf. “Interesting.”

“Like I said.”

He leaned way back in his chair. Relaxed. And controlled. “So why would somebody do this? Go to all that trouble?”

“Probably to convince you and the FBI to search north of here and leave this territory alone.” He sat back to match Freedman. “That’d be my guess.”

“What did Partridge say?”

“I think he’d figured out it was a fake on his own.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He’s a pretty smart guy.”

“For a human?” Freedman laughed.

Winter smiled back. “So, do you have to interact a lot with humans in your work?”

“Yes, quite a bit. I’ve seen to it my staff are all like us, but other departments aren’t.”

“Like the FBI.”

“You have trouble with Partridge?”

He’d like to tell someone his troubles, but not this someone. The marshal still added up to an unknown in his book. “No. Humans are just hard to figure sometimes.”

Freedman snorted, slapped his leg, and stood. Winter followed. Ben gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I’m impressed with your skills. You’re an asset. I’ll have more for you to do soon. Keep track of your hours and turn them in to my secretary, okay?”

“Yes, sir. Thank you.”

Freedman picked up a cell phone off his desk. “Here. This way I can reach you when I need you.”

Winter looked at it. “No more living off the grid for me, huh?”

Freedman raised an eyebrow. “It’s not too big a commitment. It’s registered to the department. Don’t worry, they still can’t find you.” He barked a laugh.

Winter walked out into the side parking lot where he’d left the old, beaten-up SUV. What now? He should go into the city and find a gay bar, pick up a guy, and go bang him. Shit, he hadn’t had his cock in somebody’s ass since the night his father caught him with the human. That was a long time ago.

He sighed and climbed up into the vehicle. He didn’t feel like going out and picking up a guy. No, not true. He knew just which guy he wanted to pick up. His cock had designs on one ass, and until it got what it wanted, it wasn’t going out to play. That was one disturbing crock of shit.

D
AMON
CREPT
through the underbrush, approaching the huge mansion. Merced and Landon hadn’t been kidding. This kind of money made your knees weak. The huge home rose up on two wings of three stories, all covered with ivy and approached by a huge circular drive complete with fountain in the middle. Magnificent, if you liked gothic romance.

He sniffed for dogs. He hadn’t wanted to get this close, but she never seemed to leave the house. The drive from the public street into the home stretched almost a mile, so hanging out across from their turnout got him zero reward. Once he thought he saw a glimpse of her in the back of a limo, but chasing the classy vehicle on his motorcycle qualified as a guaranteed night in jail. Hell, that might not be so bad if she’d just notice him.

He pressed his belly to the ground and crept closer, sniffing the early morning dew on the hedges. When he had a good panoramic view of the entry, he stopped. Might as well wait awhile since he’d gone to all the trouble of getting in here.

It would be so great if he could talk to Winter about—her. He didn’t know her name and hadn’t had the nerve to ask Lindsey. That night twenty-six years ago, she’d called herself Jane, but he didn’t think that was real. Still, he thought
Jane
when he remembered her—which was pretty much all the time lately. Winter didn’t get it. He’d come home last night driving some beat-up SUV he said he got from the marshal, walked past Damon, and gone to bed. No worse than Damon deserved. He’d given the boy nothing but pain for hooking up with a human man. But while he’d yelled at him for having sex with a human, he’d mostly meant he shouldn’t fuck a man. Who’d have ever dreamed all these gay werewolves would come crawling out of the woodwork?

Was Winter gay? Strongest, smartest, most alpha of alpha males he’d ever known. Could he really be homosexual? But shit, look at Cole Harker. Who’d believe he liked to poke guys? Powers, if Winter was gay and Lindsey Vanessen did prove to be Damon’s son, that meant—he’d produced two gay offspring. He shook his head. What was wrong with him?

Noises on the front porch of the house made him look up. A butler or somebody held the door for an older human male. Not tall, but the man reeked of vitality, with a spring in his step and a smile for the day. He turned back and nodded at the butler. “Thank you, James.” He gazed inside the door. “Are you going out today, my dear?”

Damon’s breath whooshed from his chest and then stopped as a graceful blonde woman walked out after the old man.
Her. Jane.
She wore a pleated skirt and a light pink sweater with pearls. She’d gathered her fair hair at her neck with a clip, and when she turned her head, he saw it hung down past her shoulders in a tail. His whole body shook.

“No, I think I’ll do some gardening.”

The old man put a hand to her cheek, and Damon’s heart clenched. “Why don’t you come to the city and have lunch with me and Lindsey? Seth’s away and he’s lonely. It will cheer him up.”

She smiled. “Can’t fool me, you old dear. It’s not Lindsey you want to cheer up. But I’m perfectly fine here. You two have a nice day.”

Lindsey burst through the open door, still tying his infernal lavender neck scarf. “Sorry, sorry. Overslept.”

She smiled affectionately. “Or overdressed?”

He shook his head and kissed her cheek. “No, I must confess, I didn’t sleep most of the night, and then when I finally passed out, I missed the alarm.” He extended a hand to the butler. “If it hadn’t been for you, James, I’d still be dreaming away. Thank you.”

The man took his hand and laughed. Interesting. Pretty egalitarian for rich people.

She frowned. “You’re not sleeping.”

“I never do when Seth’s gone, you know that.”

“I know, dear. But at least you only have one more day and your white knight will be home.”

He laughed. “Maybe I can hang my golden hair from the tower and he’ll climb up.”

She shrugged. “Everyone to their own fairy tale, but it seems like a waste of a perfectly good staircase.”

“Have a good day, you sassy vixen.”

Damon’s heart squeezed. These humans loved Lindsey so much. Accepted him. Amazing.

The two men got in the waiting town car, and a driver took off slowly down the circular path. Damon scuttled farther into the bushes so as not to be seen from behind. When the vehicle turned out of sight, he looked back. She stood staring after the car. Did she look a little lost? He wanted to rush forward, take her in his arms, and kiss the frown away. Another sure invitation to jail time. Still, there had to be a way to meet her.

He glanced up at the sky where the full moon would shine tonight. Not the best time to be stalking humans.
Patience.

M
ATT
GLANCED
up at the glowing moon, shuddered, and hurried toward the townhouse. Jesus, he was late. Quickly, he unlocked and opened the door. Buster ran toward him, freaked by all the energy that vibrated through the house. The dog never got used to it. Matt scratched his ear. “It’s okay, boy.” The dog whimpered and backed up.
Poor boy.
He didn’t even like Matt much on the full moon.