Wolves’ Bane (3 page)

By the time I made it back downstairs, the wolves were gone and Caleb stood on the porch with two other, massive muscle-bound men.

I tentatively stepped out into the humid night air. “Are they gone for good?” I scanned the area around my house.

“No, they’re just gone for now,” Caleb said, then motioned toward the street. “I’ve got my men watching the area.”

I scanned my property again, this time noticing at least five men standing sentry around a wide perimeter of my house.

“You’ll need to deal with the neighbors,” Caleb said to the dark-haired fellow at his side.

I shook my head as I eyed the houses across the street. I was missing something. “No one is around this time of year.”

Caleb cocked a questioning eyebrow in my direction.

“This is student housing, all rented out during the fall term, but this time of year most of the houses stay empty. Not to mention, it’s Saturday night. Everyone who has a life is out partying.”

Caleb frowned. “Get the men to check it out just in case—do a quick search.” The dark-haired man nodded, then loped off in the direction of the others. Caleb cleared his throat, pulling my gaze back to him. He nodded toward the second man at his side, a tall blond-haired god. “Morgan Stills, this is Lance Brooks.”

“How did you know—”

Lance’s lopsided grin disarmed me immediately as he cut off my question. “Nice to finally meet you, Morgan. Sorry about the crazy night. We had hoped to find you first.”

Caleb motioned toward the pool of blood on the porch, which trailed down to the pavement in front of my house. “Get the men to clean that up and find some way to patch up Morgan’s window as well.”

Lance nodded. “They’re on it.”

I cringed, a sickening sense of unease filling my stomach. “They took his body?” I scanned the spot where I’d last seen Jimmy. The body was indeed gone. I trembled, replaying Jimmy’s gruesome death. “He died, right?” I swallowed the hard lump in my throat, determined not to cry in front of these men. “I mean, I know he died, no one could survive that kind of attack.”

“You’d be surprised.” Lance snorted. Caleb shot him an angry look, and Lance shrugged before adding, “Yes, the wolves killed him and then took the body. That’s what they do, Morgan. They’re animals, after all, and unfortunately your friend was their prey.”

Lance’s tone was so matter-of-fact I almost thought he was joking, but the truth of it was in the blood trail that led away from my house.

This was real. Jimmy was dead. I retched, covering my mouth as my stomach heaved.

Caleb reached out to me, but I took a step back, fighting the urge to vomit.

“They…they’re going to eat him? His body?” When no one answered, I retched again. “Oh god.

Lance’s face was drawn into a deep frown, his hand out to steady me. “Morgan, there’s a lot of information you need to know. Things you should have been told from the time you were a child.” He shook his head. “Once we explain it all to you things might be a little easier to accept.” He patted my shoulder. “I’m sorry about your friend.”

I nodded, still covering my mouth, my eyes darting from Lance to Caleb, and then to the sickening puddle that was all that remained of Jimmy. No matter how I’d felt about him, he didn’t deserve to die that way. No one deserved to die that way.

“It was my fault,” I whispered as tears prickled my eyes.

Caleb stepped closer to me, his expression one of pity. “It was bad timing. He shouldn’t have been here.”

I shook my head fiercely, dropping my hand to my side as I continued to stare at the bloody spot on the pavement. “No, that wolf wanted me.”

Caleb gently guided my chin until I was looking at him. “The wolves were after you, yes, but you had no control over what they would do. This is not your fault.”

Looking into his eyes was like staring into a still pool of the bluest water. There was no deception there—he believed what he was saying and I found myself relaxing under his gaze, my stomach calming and my heart slowing. His presence, his assurances did more than they should to ease my worries.

“This is not your fault, Morgan.” He brushed my arm, trailing down to my fingers, lingering there as if he were playing with the idea of holding my hand.

His touch, however subtle, sent a rush of comfort over me. I shook it off. Eyed him suspiciously. Who was this guy? How did he keep disarming me so easily?

He pulled away then spoke to Lance over his shoulder. “We leave now.”

“Yeah, but I’m driving. You haven’t slept in days—no way I’m getting in a truck with you behind the wheel.” Lance chuckled as he headed toward the large SUV parked in my driveway. “Morgan, girl, you’ve been a devil to get a hold of.”

“I thought you were hunting me.” I wasn’t about to apologize. Caleb had scared the crap out of me in a freaking terrifying situation. “Where’s the safest place for me to go? I mean, what if they come back?”

Caleb motioned toward the SUV. “You’re coming with us.”

“What? I don’t even know you.” I frowned, shifting my eyes from the vehicle to Caleb. Lance was already at the driver’s side door, his arms draped over the top. He was watching me, a smirk playing on his lips. “I might be crazy enough to swallow the idea of feral wolves on the hunt, but leaving with complete strangers is something that’s totally not going to happen.”
Okay, good, ol’ logical Morgan back in control.

Caleb sighed and rubbed his hand along the back of his neck. “Listen, Morgan.” He locked eyes with me. “I’ll explain everything once I get some sleep. For now, all you need to know is that you’re safe with us. We were born to protect you. I was chosen for you. I told you, I’m your Hunter. I’m not hunting you. I’m
protecting you
.” He waved his hand around. “You know, from the beasts.”

I opened my mouth to argue, disbelief still warring with the reality the night had shown me. “This makes no sense.”

“You know what you saw, what you heard. It was all real, every moment of it. Those wolves won’t stop chasing you as long as you’re alive. You’re only safe if you’re with us.” He turned toward the truck and Lance tossed a bundle at him, which he caught with both hands. “Here, you need to wear the cloak while you’re outside. I know that this is hard for you to grasp, but as Lance said, this is information that should have been passed down to you through your family. You must trust me. If you stay here or if you run anywhere else, the pack will find you. If you value your life, you’ll put on the cloak and come with us.”

“I could stay with my friend Rachel until—”

“Until what?” His tone was sharp, his patience clearly waning. “Until the beasts come and kill her too? Maybe I wasn’t clear enough before. They will hunt you until everyone you love is dead. They will toy with you, and then they’ll kill you too.”

I shuddered. Those eyes of his had turned stormy, determination set within. He was serious. “The police—”

“Will not believe you.”

His words hit like a rock. I knew he was right. No one would believe me. The fact that he and his men did said something.

Yeah, it screams crazy house.

“You saw one friend die tonight. You ready for that to happen again?” Caleb said, his tone cold.

I flinched. It was a low blow when only moments before he’d said Jimmy’s death wasn’t my fault.

Caleb held out the cloak. I looked at it, shifted my gaze to Lance and then back to Caleb. It sounded crazy. It was crazy. Wolves, hunters, protectors. But something in my gut told me he wasn’t lying. It was insane, stupid, for me to trust him so easily, but there was something about him that drew me in.

I nodded as I reached for the cloak. “Fine,” I sighed. “But I need to call my friend Rachel and let her know I’m okay.”
Warn her away from the woods or something.

Caleb nodded, ignoring my outstretched hand, instead wrapping the cloak around my shoulders himself. He clasped it at my neck, once again grazing my skin with his fingers, sending a jolt of something through my body. This time I shivered, craving more.

“We’ll call once we get on the road.”

Chapter Five

The Boys

Cal pushed himself into the backseat next to Morgan and grunted as he practically had to fold in half to fit.

“Why don’t you take the back, stretch out, and I’ll sit up front?” Morgan offered, moving as if ready to jump out of the truck on the other side.

He shook his head, his gaze shifting to the passenger side as Ken—another member of his team—opened the door and peered in. “Any room in here for me?”

He motioned to the front and Ken nodded, looking from Cal to Morgan.

“Morgan Stills,” Cal said. “This is Ken Perkins.”

Ken smiled one of his signature smiles as he reached into the backseat to shake Morgan’s hand. Cal clenched his jaw, his body pulsing to knock the other male’s hand away and claim Morgan for himself. Instead, he pushed himself farther back into his seat, shifting to the side toward her. He knew that Ken meant no harm, but all the same, this woman was Cal’s and he felt an urgent need to stake his claim.

“Hi, Ken.” Morgan smiled then turned to face Cal again as his knee brushed hers, a benign touch that had him craving something more intimate. “They don’t make these SUVs with such a big guy in mind, do they?”

“Cal’s bigger than most.” Lance chuckled from the front as he revved the engine. “Ready folks? We’d better get out of here before the king and his pack come back.”

“The king?” Morgan’s eyes were wide again, a look that Cal was slowly learning meant more than fear or curiosity. It meant she was thinking, and that seemed to be a dangerous thing.

“King Lazarus,” Cal said, and he cleared his throat. She turned those beautiful brown eyes of hers toward him and his pulse sped up, despite his bone-crushing exhaustion. “Pack alpha and king of the wolves,” he added.

“But not just any wolves,” Morgan said. “That wolf, King Lazarus, spoke to me. He said that I was his bride.”

Cal’s gut clenched at her revelation, but he schooled his reaction and shifted his gaze to meet Lance’s in the rearview mirror.
Ahhh,
shit.
The Oracle hadn’t prophesied this.
Damn it!
This was a twist he wasn’t even remotely prepared to handle.

“I mean, I’m not going crazy, right?” Morgan asked. “That wolf did speak to me, he can do that. And you.” She pointed at Cal. “You were doing some kind of magic spell in the house. I mean, you did say that we humans don’t
believe
in certain dangerous things…things like magic and talking wolves, right?”

He caught the edge to her voice. She was riding a fine line between calm and hysteria. Morgan had witnessed a lot over a short span of time—things a normal person would have fainted dead away over. And considering she’d been thrust into this strange new reality without the usual upbringing of a Huntress, she was holding up quite well. She was a fighter, feisty as all hell, and he liked it. It boded well for her and what was to come.

Her body trembled slightly as if she was reining in her emotions. He figured he was the only one who knew because he was wedged up next to her, making sure every part of his right side, from his shoulder to his knee, was touching her in some way.

“Yeah, he can talk, and yeah, I was casting a protection spell to keep the wolves out.”

“A spell,” Morgan whispered, her eyes wide once again. “So now what? We’re adding witches to the madness?”

He licked his lips, unsure how much he could tell her without sending her off the deep end. “We all have different abilities. I can cast spells through symbol tracing, which is what you saw me doing.”
Which is what you will be able to do once we are bonded.
He motioned toward Ken and then Lance. “They have other talents.”

Lance chuckled as he looked at Morgan in the mirror.

She opened her mouth to speak, but Lance cut her off. “You’ve heard of werewolves before, right, Morgan?” Lance’s gaze moved from Morgan to Cal, then back again.

Morgan frowned. “Is that what Lazarus is? A werewolf?”

Cal laid his head back on the headrest and closed his eyes, gently massaging his aching temples with his fingers. He’d been awake for almost two days searching for her. They’d known that she would be at a fair, but they hadn’t known exactly what city to look for her in. They’d had nothing but the pulse of Cal’s tattoo to point them in the right direction. It had been a hectic search, and now that she was safely in his care, he finally felt like he could rest. Except that as soon as he closed his eyes, his mind raced with the knowledge that if Morgan was truly Lazarus’s bride, he’d been dealt the shittiest hand he could imagine. Things had just gotten very complicated.

He needed to speak with the Oracle and find out what was going on. There had to be some mistake. His Huntress could not be destined for the wolf king.

Cal sighed as he listened to the conversation buzzing around him—Lance explaining to Morgan as much as he could to quell her fears and her questions, knowing that it was going to be Cal’s responsibility to give her all the details. It was part of his duty, just as it would be Lance’s duty when he found his own Huntress.

Morgan startled him by grasping his bicep and tugging his hand from his face. Cal jerked his head up to look at her, worry crashing over him as he saw her expression shatter before his eyes.

“I don’t know what to believe, Caleb.” She sucked in a shuddering breath. Finally, the mask was crumbling. “How am I supposed to believe this?”

He placed his hand on her knee, taking an immense amount of pleasure in the fact that she eased herself closer to him, melting into his side. He was sure she didn’t realize she was doing it. The magnetic pull of their bond was working on her to a certain degree as well.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense right now,” Cal told her, unable to help himself as he raised his hand to brush some stray tendrils of her hair from her face. “You’ve been through a lot, more than anyone should have to go through in a single night. You’re a pretty strong woman. Very brave.” She stared intently at him, making him wonder just how much was sinking in. “You’re not going crazy, Morgan. We have a long drive ahead. Why don’t you get some sleep? You’re safe with us. No one will hurt you while you’re under my care.”

She swallowed, closed her eyes for a moment and sucked in a deep breath. When she opened them, she was again all business. “I need a phone. I have to call Rachel.” Fire and brimstone flashed in her eyes.

Cal nodded as he tugged his cell phone from his pocket. “Here.” He handed it to her. “Call her. I suggest you tell her that you’re okay, and that you’re going to stay with a friend for a while.” He frowned as a thought suddenly occurred to him—something the Oracle had not specified in her ramblings. “Maybe you should call your parents too.”

Something skittered across Morgan’s eyes before she glanced down at his phone. “I don’t have any family left.”

“I’m sorry—” he started.

She shook her head fiercely. “No, don’t be, I’m not.”

Pity tugged at his heart, and as much as he wanted to shield himself from it, his instinct to protect this girl meant emotionally as well as physically. He draped his arm around her shoulders, cursing the cloak and its bulky folds that prevented his skin from actually touching her. He shifted more to the side and pulled her toward him, ignoring her startled gasp as he turned her so that he could fit her back against his chest.

“You’re safe with us,
with me
. Please don’t ever forget that,” he whispered in her hair, loving the smell of her, his body responding with possessive satisfaction to finally have her cradled against him.

She froze and he tensed, waiting for her to pull away. The bond was in full effect on his end, not so much on hers. For now, he was a stranger—someone she might feel an unexplainable connection to, but nothing at all like he was feeling. At least not until they bonded officially. After a moment, she seemed to melt into him again and he sighed with contentment. He laid his head back and closed his eyes as he listened to her leave a message for her friend—
Rach—
saying
that she was safe and would keep in touch.

It took us eight hours to get to our destination, and during that time, Caleb refused to release his hold on me. He had me locked in a tight grip while he slept like the dead. Strangely, I didn’t mind, even when his hand snaked up to cup my breast and I had to shoo it back to my waist. Still, I wasn’t creeped out.

Okay, maybe I was a little creeped out…but more by the flutter in my stomach at being nestled in his arms. Like he was some romance novel hero and I was a damsel in distress. The man was a walking wet dream and, bizarrely, I felt very much at ease with him.

Why though?
It made no sense.

I couldn’t sleep even though I was beyond exhausted. I was way too amped up with everything that had happened. Every time my lids shut, all I could see was Jimmy’s dead eyes staring back at me. So I stayed awake and spent the majority of my time studying the strange tattoo that marked Caleb’s forearm. I couldn’t make out what it was exactly, but the design was Celtic-looking, with thick black bands of ink circling around the sides of his arm.

As the sun slowly rose, Lance turned the truck off the highway and onto a gravel road.

“We’re home,” he sang, startling both Ken and Caleb from their sleep.

Caleb grunted as he brought his head forward, his grip still tight around my waist. He tilted his face to my hair, inhaling deeply once again. It made me feel…owned…and not in a bad way. I shook my head, trying to get my senses back on line when
home
appeared around a final bend in the road. My eyes wide with awe, I took in the massive—more than massive—
colossal
century home that stood before me. It was a beautiful old redbrick mansion, lined with large windows, a wraparound porch and at least two wings.

“Holy shit!” I gasped.

“Morgan, this is Wolves’ Bane, home of
The Order of the Wolf
.” Caleb’s voice was gruff from his sleep. “While you are on the property, you don’t have to wear the cloak. You’re protected here. The perimeter is enchanted. The wolves can’t get past the barrier.”

I nodded as the word
enchanted
echoed in my mind. I was still too speechless at the grandeur of Wolves’ Bane to utter a sound. This was all too surreal to process.

Lance pulled the truck to a stop in front of the house. “She didn’t sleep the entire drive up,” he said, presumably to Caleb. “You should take her to her room so that she can get some rest.”

Feeling like I had just been ratted out, I flashed a dirty look at Lance, glaring at him in the rearview mirror. He smiled widely at me before giving a teasing wink. I decided I kinda liked him—a brother I never had.

His expression crashed a moment later when Caleb growled at him.

“Well, I wouldn’t have wanted to sleep either with some giant pawing at me,” Lance muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

My mouth gaped and I could feel a burning blush wash over my entire face. Maybe I didn’t like him after all.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Caleb barked.

Lance winked at me again but didn’t bother answering Caleb. Instead, he and Ken shared a knowing look, then the two of them hopped out of the truck and quickly disappeared into the house.

Caleb shifted behind me and opened his own door, pulling me across the seat and out to stand next to the truck. He placed his hands on my shoulders and stared down at me, a gentle touch to my chin forcing me to look up at him. His face was still lined with exhaustion, his jaw painted with dark stubble. “What was Lance talking about?”

I felt my blush grow deeper. “Ah, nothing.” I bit my bottom lip and cringed, knowing by his expression that my answer was not going to cut it. I blew out a long breath. “You kind of, well, in your sleep, you sort of touched me a little. You know, a little cupping action.”

Caleb groaned and rolled his head back to stare straight up. When he brought his head back down, his expression was conflicted, guilt warring with… “It’s inexcusable. I’m sorry.”

I frowned. “It’s okay. No harm, no foul.”

Caleb’s expression changed in an instant, his eyes hooded as he moved his head closer to mine. “Really? You’re not angry?”

I swallowed, a wave of arousal washing over me. “Nope.” I shook my head and slid my eyes down to gaze at his lips.
Nope, didn’t mind it one bit.

He moved even closer, his hand trailing from my shoulder to my waist. “No?” He pressed my body against his, and I could feel the hard bulge of his erection prodding me through his black army fatigues.

Oh, wow!

I tilted my head up, my lips almost touching his, then closed my eyes and waited for him to kiss me.

“Cal? Are you two coming in or what? The girl needs some sleep, man,” Lance shouted, his tone teasing.

“Shit,” Caleb grunted as he jerked away, leaving my heart fluttering and my body quivering. “I guess we’d better get inside.”

I released the breath I’d been holding and opened my eyes. Caleb was already darting around me to retrieve my duffle bag from the back of the truck. Another close call. I slumped my shoulders in defeat. How did he do it? My lusty excitement deflated as I followed him into the house, determined to keep my thoughts in check and my gaze off his ass.