Wolf in Plain Sight (14 page)

“No! You’re a goddamn werewolf. I knew it! You were too good to be human.”

“You knew it all along. Don’t pretend otherwise.” He pressed her hands into the mattress. “In the back of your mind you had to know. Did it excite you? Having an animal between your legs?”

“Bastard!” She bucked harder, panting with exertion.

Max felt his belly tighten in renewed arousal. “Did you like what my tongue did to you? Would you like a wolf’s cock fucking you?”

“Get…off…me!” she said between gritted teeth. “We don’t mix. It’s impossible. We’re mortal enemies, and it’s my duty to kill you.”

Max held her, not an easy task since she was strong and writhed like a snake. He ignored his arousal stirring between his legs. “Mine too, baby. But I saved your ass. Doesn’t that tell you something?”

Her eyes blazed with anger and betrayal. “It only tells me you’re more devious than the hounds who slaughtered those vampires.” She lifted her head and banged her forehead hard against his chin.

Max tasted blood from his split lip. “Pia, stop fighting me. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“And I should believe you?” she yelled. “You lied to me.”

Max heard the hurt and confusion in her voice. “I never lied.”

“Then you should have told me.”

“I just did. I let you bite me for fucksake!”

She halted her struggles. “You should have told me,” she repeated. This time her voice broke on a whimper.

“Like you told me you’re a vampire?” he asked softly.

“That’s not the same!”

“But it is, baby. What was I supposed to say? ‘Hey, Pia. I’m a werewolf.’ Could I trust you not to tell the others? I work surrounded by your kind. How long do you think they would have let me live?”

“They aren’t monsters.”

“And I am?”

Her eyes filled with tears. “Damn you!”

“Sweetheart.” He sighed and let go of her hands.

She didn’t fly at him. She covered her face and sobbed.

Max climbed off her and gathered her into his arms.

“Wh—what are we going to do?” she asked, burrowing her head into the crook of his shoulder.

He stroked her hair and her back. He didn’t know what to say.

*

From a distance,
Max heard the muffled rattle of his garage door opening and the roar of a motor. Alec was back. He glanced at the clock. It was nearly dusk.

With Pia sleeping like the de—well, like a vampire, Max decided not to join his brother in the kitchen. Alec could eat his way through the groceries for all he cared. He had more important things to consider—like the woman lying in his arms and his future, now that he’d been outed.

He wouldn’t ask Pia to keep his secret. Too many weighed on his conscience as it was. Besides, an idea had planted a seed. One that could potentially grow to bridge their worlds.

The garage door closed, and Max heard a car engine rev. Alec was in a hurry. Max settled his head in his pillow, ready to return to sleep, and then a niggling thought brought him wide awake.

The golden wolf. Not so unusual a shade. But he remembered something—something masked by his transformation the evening before. A scent. One
familiar
.

Max rolled out of the bed and quickly donned a pair of sweatpants. Then he headed to the garage. He flicked on the light switch. As usual, Alec hadn’t bothered to give the bike a wash before returning it. As meticulous as he was about his appearance and his own belongings, he wasn’t careful with Max’s things.

Max knelt beside the bike and sniffed. Above the scent of gasoline, rubber, and oil he smelled traces of wolf. And on the seat, beneath a leather strap, he found a tuft of hair—from a golden wolf’s coat—and a smear of blood.

A cold knot of anger settled in his belly.
Dammit all to hell.

*

Max quietly entered
Alec’s apartment and followed rustling sounds down the hallway to his bedroom. He eased open the door to see Alec slinging clothing into a duffel. “Little brother, what have you done?”

Alec froze, but kept his back to him. “What you should have been doing. Killing vamps.”

“If your cause is so righteous, why are you sneaking away?”

“Because you’ll never approve. You always follow some rulebook the rest of us haven’t read and don’t understand.”

“You killed humans at the vampires’ den. What do you think our pack will think about that?”

Alec’s broad shoulders tensed. “They’ll understand. Those humans were garbage. They fed vampires—willingly. Besides, I didn’t kill them. I just couldn’t stop—”

“You couldn’t control those mindless beasts you made. Could you, brother?”

“No.” Alec turned, his gaze was fevered. “I didn’t intend for it to happen. We talked about it beforehand, but once we were there, they seemed crazed by bloodlust.”

“It was you at that bar last night, too. You knew how unstable your cubs were, but you brought them anyway.”

“Yeah, and we would have killed every last vamp in that bar.” Alec picked up a shirt, wadded it into a messy bundle and stuffed it into his bag. “What of it? You stopped me from killing your girlfriend. Your
vamp
girlfriend.” He tossed the duffel aside and turned, his fists clenched at his sides. “She had your scent all over her. Can you imagine how sickening it was to discover you’d fucked one of those creatures? You! My own brother?”

Max felt his body go cold. “Go home, Alec. Don’t come back. If you do, I’ll have to kill you.” He turned on his heel and walked away.

“You’d kill your own?” Alec screamed after him. “For what? That bitch? That fucking vampire whore?”

Max left the apartment, climbed on his bike, and sped to the station. He needed to see Pia. Needed to hold her and remind himself why he was turning his back on his own kind.

*

Pia slid the
keys to the sedan across the conference table.

Joe raised an eyebrow. “What’s this? Max still not feeling well? He didn’t drive you?”

She shook her head. “No, he left me a note to say he’d meet me here.”

The conference room grew still. Pia glanced around the table and noted for the first time that only vamps were in the room—Dylan, Quentin, and Joe.

“He was on his bike then?”

Pia wondered at Joe’s pointed question. His gaze was too alert for it to be a casual inquiry. “I’m not sure. I haven’t seen a bike. Why? What’s going on?”

“The team ran a check on all the vehicles parked along the boardwalk last night,” Dylan said, his voice even—a little too controlled. “Max’s motorbike was among them.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Neither do we,” Dylan said. “That’s why we asked.”

“But he didn’t drive there on a bike. He arrived with Joe and me.”

Quentin cleared his throat, drawing her attention. “What do we really know about Max?”

Pia turned to Joe. “He was your friend before you turned.”

“We drank beer,” Joe said, his eyes narrowing, “and watched each other’s asses on the job, but I wouldn’t say we were ever bosom buddies. I didn’t even know he had a brother in town.”

That caught her short. “A brother?”

“We ran some checks on my old buddy. Max has some deep, dark secrets.”

“We’re thinking he has some big hairy ones actually,” Quentin said.

Pia blushed guiltily.

“You know, don’t you,” Quentin asked softly.

She raised her head reluctantly, afraid they’d read Max’s secret in her eyes.

Quentin’s narrowed gaze pinned her to the spot. “He’s a fucking werewolf, isn’t he?”

Fear for Max instantly dried her mouth. Her heart pounded in her chest.

Joe rose from his seat and grabbed her upper arms. “Pia! This is important. Is Max a werewolf?”

Tears pooled in her eyes and trickled down her face. “He’s not dangerous to us.”

His face grew red, his mouth twisted with anger. “Well, fuck!”

“Where is he?” Quentin asked, rising from his seat.

“H—he’s supposed to be here,” she whispered.

“All of us are supposed to be here,” he said, his voice deadly calm.

“Lily! He’s going after Lily!” Joe released her. “We’ve got to get back to The Compound.”

“He’s not like that,” Pia cried out. “He wouldn’t hurt her. Why would you think he’d hurt her?”

“If he finds out she’s carrying vamp kits, he’ll fucking kill her!” Joe shouted.

“She is?” Pia grew cold. “I wondered, but the women were so tight-lipped.”

“She’s having my babies—and if anything happens to her, I’ll kill anyone responsible.”

“Let’s go,” Dylan said. “Call the women on your cell, Quentin. Let them know we’re on the way.”

A phone. Shocked and feeling like events were whirling out of her control, Pia could only think that she needed to get to a phone. The second part of her mission was accomplished. Navarro needed to know his hunch was right, a breeder was pregnant by a vampire.

Instead, she let the men herd her outside the station and into the sedan. As the tires spit gravel, she wondered where the hell Max was and hoped he’d gone to ground. He’d been right. If the vampires found him, he was a dead man.

*

Finally, the sedan
came to a screeching halt. Max waited long, heart-stopping minutes before he opened the trunk latch and climbed out onto the driveway inside The Compound.

His impulsive action to hide inside the sedan had paid off. Although their voices were muffled, he’d discovered they were on to him. His life in Vero was forfeit. After he learned the truth for himself about Joe’s wife, he would disappear. He couldn’t return to the clan. He couldn’t remain in his “blended” world either.

He couldn’t have Pia.

Her tearful comments to the rest of the SU vamps had tugged at his heart. He was warmed by her defense.

“He wouldn’t hurt us,” she’d said. “He saved my life last night.”

“I don’t know what Max’s game is,” Dylan had said. “But there’s a reason he’s still hanging around. I just hope it’s not the one I’m thinking. If it is, we have to hope like hell he hasn’t had time to tell others of his kind.”

What had they been talking about? They were speeding toward The Compound. He knew because Quentin called the women to tell them to make sure the place was locked up tight. The only reason Max could think for their desperation was that he’d been right about the woman, Lily.