Wolf Quest (2 page)

“The werecougar I knew said I smelled of magic, but she couldn’t tell me what kind.” Maria looked interested now. There was no way she could hide it, though it was obvious how hard she tried to sound casual.

“This is all tied up with why your cousin was trying to find you, but I can tell you some of it. Sally recently found out she is the descendant of a dryad named Leonora, who lives on Pack lands. Sally is able to pull up a magical family tree of sorts and it shows that she is descended from Leonora’s daughter Marisol and a famous werewolf of old. I don’t know exactly where you fit on the family tree, but you are a cousin somehow. Whether you come from the wolf line or not, you definitely have dryad magic in you from Leonora.”

“If what you’re saying is true, it would explain a few things.” She looked pensive.

“Is she coming with or staying?” Arlo’s voice intruded in Jesse’s ear, over the tac radio. Jesse almost jumped. He’d just about forgotten they were in the middle of a mission. Damn. This woman was a killer to his concentration.

“Will advise. Stand by,” he answered back, tapping his ear to let Maria know he wasn’t talking to her. “The boys want to know if you’re staying or going.”

“Staying,” she said firmly.

“Sure I can’t talk you into leaving? It’d be safer. And easier for me to keep you that way.”

“I’m not convinced of that. Besides, I haven’t made arrangements for anyone else to take care of the animals. I can’t leave them in the lurch. The animals in my barns are very ill. I take on the hard cases—those that require surgery or extensive medical treatment—and rehabilitate them to the point where another facility can take them.”

They hadn’t had time to scout the barns and paddocks. They’d come directly to the house, expecting to have time to work their way outward from there once they’d established that Maria was safe—preferably sleeping peacefully. Only it hadn’t turned out that way. They’d arrived, heard the crashing sounds from the kitchen and had to dive right in. Not the best situation ever, but he’d dealt with worse in his time.

“All right.” He looked out the window and noticed the slight pinkening of the eastern horizon. “It’s nearly dawn. I’ll send the guys back with the prisoners for my brother to deal with. If you’ll allow, I’ll stay here and repair the damage our entry caused to your home. I’d also like to arrange for you to speak with your cousin. Maybe she can explain in more detail and convince you to help.”

“Help? Who, exactly, needs my help?”

Jesse sighed. It really was too complex to bombard the woman with all this at once.

“Leonora. She’s in a sort of suspended animation inside a willow tree. Damndest thing I ever saw, and that’s saying something. The two men who attacked you tonight? One of their friends shot Leonora with a poisonous silver bullet during the dust up in Wyoming three weeks ago. Before going into the willow, she made Sally promise to find her long-lost family and gather them together to help her. Only together can you save her life, she said.”

“So now you’re telling me someone’s life is in danger and only I—and some alleged family members I’ve never even heard of—can save her?”

“I know it’s a lot to take in.”

“No shit.” Her muttered profanity made him smile. Damn, he liked this woman.

“How about we take this one step at a time?” He tried to sound less threatening and more warm and fuzzy. Not so easy when you had an assault weapon strapped across your chest, but he’d give it his best shot. “We’ll secure the perimeter and then I’ll send the guys on their way. I can fix up your door and any other damage today. I can even help you around the farm. Consider me your personal slave for the day. It’s the least I can do to make up for smashing in here. Then maybe this afternoon you can talk to Sally and learn more about what’s going on back home. What do you say?”

She stared at him for a long moment, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head in the most adorable manner as she considered. He wasn’t sure she was going to go for Plan B. It would’ve been so much easier if she’d just gone along with Plan A and come quietly. Now he had to improvise, and his Plan C was cloudy at best. Plan C covered what to do if she turned down Plan B, and it wasn’t ideal. Not at all.

Come on, baby. Go with Plan B.

“All right.”

Jessie tried not to let his sigh of relief come out too loudly.

“You—” she pointed at him, “—I want you outside with your men. I’m going upstairs to get dressed. Might as well start the day. I’d have been up in a half hour anyway. Secure your perimeter, whatever that means, but stay the hell away from the white barn. If the cats in there smell werewolf, it might upset them. It’s hard to predict how they’ll react, and I don’t want to deal with a half dozen frenzied felines.”

“You might be surprised. They tell me I have a way with pussy…cats.” He couldn’t help himself. The woman begged to be teased what with the way her thin satin nightie teased him. He was hard just from looking at her long legs under the lace-trimmed satin.

“Behave, wolfman,” she threw over her shoulder as she headed out of the kitchen. “I’ll meet you by the back door in fifteen minutes.”

Jesse met his men on the back porch and handed out orders as they marched toward one of the vehicles they’d stashed down the road out of sight. The back of the pickup truck would do well for prisoner transport. What happened to the two men after they got them back to Wyoming was up to Jason. He was the Alpha, after all. Jesse had to remind himself of that occasionally, but the arrangement worked for the most part. Jason gave Jesse complete autonomy over the Pack’s small but growing contingent of former professional soldiers—now tasked with keeping the Pack safe when not on outside assignment.

Jesse had built an elite clientele among the various shifter Tribes, Packs and Clans. When something of a paramilitary nature needed to be done, he and his select group were the ones called upon to do it. They hadn’t been in business long, but they had quickly gained a reputation for getting the job done.

Securing the prisoners in the bed of the pickup truck, Arlo and Jesse split up to scout the perimeter. Len was left to guard the prisoners and act as home base, should they run into trouble. It wasn’t likely, but it was best to be prepared for all possibilities. Arlo and Jesse each went in a separate direction. They met in the middle on the other side of the house. Their paths had taken them past the three barns and into some of the open pasture. Jesse scented the big cats, along with a few other varieties of animals. It would be interesting to see how Maria interacted with some of the creatures she had on her property.

Considering the fact that she refused to leave, Jesse figured he’d have his chance to do just that later in the day. But first he had to get his men on their way. He gave Arlo the high sign as they passed each other and continued on the circuit, moving in a bit from the sector they’d already checked. By the time they circled back to the truck, the full perimeter had been scouted. No big surprises. The two hunters had approached on a pretty straightforward vector. Jesse had sniffed it out almost immediately once he got near the driveway.

The hunters weren’t very crafty when it came to hiding their presence. They’d taken only minimum precautions, which spoke of lack of skill and just plain sloppiness. Jesse wasn’t impressed.

“These guys must be the B Team,” he observed when he reached Len. “They came in on the side of the driveway. Their vehicle is stashed in those bushes up at the road, right next to the entrance to Maria’s land. Take it with you when you go.”

“You’re not coming?” Arlo asked, joining them as he completed his circuit of the perimeter.

“She refused to leave. She’s a veterinarian with a lot of sick animals that only she can take care of, supposedly. I’m going to stay and convince her otherwise. Help her find someone to fill in with the beasties.”

“I thought I smelled lioness, but I figured I had to be wrong.” Arlo shook his head.

“Nope. Your sniffer is good. Lions, tigers and probably bears too, for that matter. Our little Maria is a brave one.”

“Don’t like leaving you here alone, Jess.” Arlo was one of Jesse’s closest and oldest friends. His expression was troubled.

“Yeah, I feel it too.” They both had a sixth sense for impending danger. “It’s why I’m staying. She refuses to leave, and if these guys found her, you know their bosses have to be on their way.”

“If this was the B Team, the A Team could be right behind them,” Len observed in his quiet way. Len was usually a man of few words. That he chose to speak now indicated he felt the same danger in the air. Not good. But what could Jesse do?

“And we can’t risk keeping these guys here. I want Jason to have a chance to question them. Maybe send them on to the Lords if necessary, so the priestesses can have a crack at them. Either way, these two could have information, and I want to give my brother every chance to extract it. Low-level guys like these won’t have the same protections against spilling their secrets as the higher-ups. They probably don’t know as much, but what they do know is easier to get at.”

Arlo and Len were both nodding. They knew full well what was at stake. The safety of their Pack and perhaps all shifters who fought on the side of Light.

“Get them back to Jason as quick as you can. I’ll stay in touch by phone. We’ll plan as we go if the situation here goes south.”

“I don’t like it, but I guess it’s what we’ve got,” Arlo ground out.

“I hear you, brother.”

Chapter Two

It had been a bitch of a morning. Maria cursed under her breath as she yanked on her underwear and jeans. She then threw on an old shirt with angry movements. First, the noise of an intruder had awoken her and then two guys had attacked her when she went to investigate.

She never locked her back door. The oaf who had broken in after she’d already subdued the intruders could have spared himself the trouble if he’d just tried the knob. Like the first set of burglars had.

Part of the reason she didn’t lock her door was that people sometimes brought injured animals to her at all hours of the day and night. It simplified matters if they could get inside easily. Most people in these parts were honest and the crime rate was incredibly low. She’d never had a problem before.

All that changed when not one, but two sets of asshats decided to rumble through her kitchen in the dark hours before dawn. She didn’t really know what to believe, but she wanted to give the guy who had remained behind a chance to prove himself. He’d taken away the first set of idiots and sent his men away as well. That had to count for something.

Or maybe he was just playing her. Trying to lull her into a sense of security before attempting what the first to idiots had—abduction. No way was she going anywhere with anyone. Not now. Possibly not ever.

She would have called the cops if she thought they’d actually do something. But her sanctuary wasn’t popular, and she was already
persona non grata
with the local sheriff. Her immediate neighbors didn’t like the idea of wild animals so nearby and had sent the sheriff over to read her the riot act more than once. She didn’t like the man and it was clear the feelings were mutual. After their previous confrontations, she knew he wouldn’t spit on her if she was on fire.

She would fight whatever battle might come on her own land, and on her own terms. She’d fought too long and too hard to create this little oasis of calm in an otherwise turbulent world. She needed the peace she found here, on her sanctuary, away from other people and surrounded by her animal friends.

This place was a balm to her soul and she wouldn’t give it up easily.

But there was something about the hottie who’d broken through her kitchen door as if it had been made of paper. His strength impressed her, but there was also something in his eyes. It was a wounded wariness she often saw in the eyes of the animals that came to her for healing. And he wasn’t hard to look at either. In fact, he was just about the yummiest thing that had walked across her path in too many days to count. Years, even.

Yes, sir, when the good Lord was handing out handsome, that boy got a double helping. And he didn’t carry himself as if he either knew it, or cared. She liked that about him too.

She didn’t really know the first thing about him, yet something inside her stood up and took notice when his gravelly voice rasped over her senses. Yeah, she liked the way his simplest words caressed her nerve endings and even the way his gaze had roamed over her body in obvious appreciation. She’d give him a chance to prove himself either way. The animals should do it. They’d give her a clue as to his inner character. They were the most objective judges of character she’d ever known and she trusted them as she trusted no other.

“Time to face the music,” she said to herself as she opened her bedroom door and headed down the stairs to meet him. It was time to feed the menagerie.

Maria found him at the kitchen door, his weapons placed carefully beside him as he examined the damage he’d done to the frame and knob. He’d already removed some of the dangling hardware and the largest of the splinters. At least he appeared to be making good on his promise to fix her door. He’d broken it, after all.

“I’m going to need to replace a bit of the trim and this wood right here.” He pointed to a section that had been mostly demolished by his entry. “I don’t suppose you have anything like this on hand?” His gaze met hers with a skeptical tilt of his head.