Hunted (23 page)

“I like it.”

He placed a gentle kiss between my shoulders. A thrill of excitement ran down my spine. Then I tensed reflexively as he began to gently rub the ointment over the new tattoo. After securing the bandage over it, he slid down to lay next to me. It seemed right to shift slightly so my head rested against his chest and his arm went around my waist, holding me close.

“Matt, thank you.”

“For what?”

“For caring.” I turned my head just enough to press a kiss against his jaw. “I hadn’t realized just how alone I’ve felt until these last few days. I’m not sure how much longer I could have lasted on my own. I was dying inside and didn’t know it.”

“You’re selling yourself short again.”

“No. I’m serious. My life had become nothing more than trying to stay ahead of the trackers just one more day. I can’t tell you the last time I went to a movie or had drinks with a friend.” I paused, biting my lip to keep my emotions under control. “Do you know I didn’t get to graduate from high school? I did manage to get my GED. Figured my folks would come back to haunt me if I didn’t do that much. But their deaths and then what happened with Jennings put an end to things like going to school and dreaming of the school prom and college.”

“So what do you want to do now?” He tilted my head up some. “I meant what I said before. You can do whatever you want now. If you want to go to college and get a degree, we’ll do whatever it takes to get you admitted. If you want to work, you can do that. You have your life back now, Finn, and it is your life. I am not about to tell you what you can and can’t do.”

I smiled and leaned up on my elbow so I could kiss him. Then I settled back down at his side. “I told CJ I’d do some work for her.”

“Good.” His fingers ran through my hair.

“Matt, I don’t get you,” I said softly. “You have every right to push me out of your bed and onto the streets. You could demand almost anything from me as my alpha. Yet you don’t. Instead, you give. You give of yourself and you try to give of your money and you don’t have to.”

“Finn, I’m not the sort of man--or the sort of alpha--who believes my position entitles me to take whatever I want. My folks raised me better than that. If I just wanted someone to share my bed, I’d go out and buy myself a prostitute whenever I wanted to get laid. But that’s not what I want. I want a partner, an equal. I want someone who shares my values and beliefs and who will help me raise a family. I want you, but only if you want me in the same way.

“That means we go at your pace. I’ll help you as much as you let me. I may feel like kicking you in the butt now and then because you are about as hard headed as I am, but I won’t actually do it.” He smiled now and I grinned back at him. “But I do insist on one thing.”

“What?”

“If you’re going to work for CJ, you’re going to need some things. You’ll need art supplies and a good computer or tablet.  Maybe both. You’ll need someplace where you can work without interruption. So you’ll let me outfit one of the rooms here in the house as your office.”

Part of me wanted to object. I’d been on my own and had done for myself for so long that it was hard to accept help from anyone. But he was right. I would need some things if I was going to try to make a go of my art. It might not be what I wound up doing for the rest of my life, but it was something I could do in the short term.

Not that I wouldn’t repay him every cent he spent, even if it took forever.

“All right.”

He shifted and I felt him looking down at me in surprise. “What, no argument?”

“Not this time.” I grinned up at him. “Unless you want an argument.”

“I have something better in mind than arguing.”

“Oh really?”

“Really.” He grinned and shifted his weight. A moment later, I lay on my back, looking up at him. “But only if you’re agreeable.”

“Hmmm.” I whooped in laughter as his fingers found my ribs. “Not if you keep tickling me,” I gasped.

“I think I can find something you’ll like better.”

He stood and helped me to my feet. Without a word, he unbuttoned my jeans and unzipped them. Then he eased them over my hips. I stepped out of them and then my panties. Before I could object to him wearing too many clothes, he stripped. Things were definitely getting interesting.

“Lie down on your stomach.”

“Huh?”

Okay, a brilliant conversationalist I’m not.

“On your stomach.”

Not quite sure what he had in mind, I did as he said. The mattress dipped as he straddled my waist. My breath caught as his hands began slowly kneading the tension from my back. Careful of my new tattoo, he worked his way slowly from my neck and shoulders to my waist, his lips following.

“Matt.”

“Shh. Relax and enjoy.”

“You?” It was barely more than a breath and was all I could muster as his mouth followed his hands ever lower.

“I am enjoying.” He looked up, grinning.

“God, so am I.”

“Matt, you’ve got to be kidding.”

I stared at the leathers he’d laid out on the bed while I’d showered. When I’d first entered the bedroom, I’d thought he’d simply laid out the same leather pants and vest I’d worn the night he introduced me to the pride. But, upon closer examination, it was easy to see these were very different. Both laced up and looked like it wouldn’t take much to shed out of them.  But that was where the similarities ended.

I turned and looked at Matt where he stood in front of the closet door. When I arched an eyebrow in question, he actually blushed. God, he could be so cute. Then I felt myself blushing as one possible explanation for not only his blush but the need to quickly shed my clothes came to me. Surely not. . .

“No, oh God, no, Finn.” He all but stammered it out. “Believe me, we are NOT having sex in front of everyone.”

Thank God. It was one thing to undress and shift in front of others of our kind but it was something completely different to do so and have sex in front of them. I didn’t even want to think about doing so in front of my grandmother and Uncle Adam. I might as well just dig a hole and bury myself because I’d surely die of embarrassment otherwise. Matt might be a wonderful lover but not only no, but hell no to having sex outside the privacy of our home.

“Then why?” At least I didn’t have to explain what I meant.

“Finn, we don’t know what’s going to happen tonight. We’ve done all we can to make sure safeguards are in place. But you know as well as I do that nothing is foolproof. I want you able to shift and shift quickly if the need arises.”

I didn’t say anything. Instead, I nodded. He was right. Even if the only ones expected tonight were members of the clan, we couldn’t be completely sure what would happen. There was always the off-chance that someone would challenge him for clan leadership or even me for the role of his mate. By adding in the other clan leaders and those they brought with them, we were increasing the odds of something unexpected happening.

But I knew that wasn’t what he was worried about. We still didn’t know for sure if Jennings was going to show up. My money was on him being there. He had put too much time and effort into finding me and forcing me back to California. The last thing he’d want was for me to be with another man. Well, I had a feeling there was one thing he feared more than that--at least if he had even a modicum of common sense. He ought to be afraid of what I would say to the other clan leaders.

The thought of facing Jennings again after so much time should have worried me. But it didn’t. At least not at the moment. There was a thrill of expectation, of finally being able to face down the man who had caused me so much pain and fear for so long. It wasn’t necessarily logical and certainly not sane. But I knew what it was. For the first time I’d be facing him as an equal, alpha to alpha. He’d learn I was no longer the scared and hurting girl he’d terrified.

“Even if it doesn’t come to that, we very well may want the clan, as well as the other clan leaders, to see just how powerful an alpha you are. That means you’ll have to shift,” he continued. As he did, he watched me closely and I knew he wondered how I’d react to that.

Well, that was easy. I moved across the room to stand before him. The towel I’d wrapped around me when I’d stepped out of the shower dropped to the floor as I reached up to kiss him. He needed to know I wasn’t worried about what might happen tonight. I was confident in him as alpha and as my mate and I needed him to be confident in me.

“Matt, quit worrying.” I brushed my lips against his one last time before stepping back. If I didn’t put some distance between us, we’d end up back in bed and we didn’t have time for that. “I will do whatever’s necessary to secure not only my place with the clan but to support you as clan leader. I meant it when I pledged my life and my arm to you as clan leader.”

“I know you did and I meant it when I pledged the same to you.” Now he pulled me close and I breathed in the scent of him. Standing there, in the protective circle of his arms, I felt safe and knew nothing would ever happen. “But there’s more to it, Finn. I want the other clan leaders to know that you are not only an alpha but are strong enough to be one of our leaders. If we are to survive in a world where it is getting more and more difficult to keep our existence a secret from the general public, the clans have to work more closely together than ever before. That means we have to respect one another and realize we can’t continue to be ruled by the old ways. You understand that better than most. So you have to be accepted not only as my mate but as an alpha in your own right. Now, let’s get dressed. I want to be there before the others arrive.”

That was nothing new. We’d spoken of the need to plan for the future, to prepare for the day when we would have to go public with our existence. But I’d never realized until that moment that Matt meant to be one of those driving the decisions and he wanted me just as involved. It would be so easy to say “no” and slip back into the shadows. Our kind had become comfortable there. But, easy as it might be, we had to realize those shadows were shrinking and soon they’d be gone for good.

Besides, it wasn’t as if what Matt implied was something new. At least not to me. My parents had discussed it before their deaths. For as long as I could remember, they’d drilled two things into my head: the need to be careful and never betray my true nature to the normals and the need to be prepared for the day when our existence was finally revealed. They’d spoken at length more than once and with great passion about how it would be best for all involved if we determined the time and place to go public. If we planned for it, if we managed to lay the proper groundwork, much of the fear and knee-jerk reaction the normals would feel upon learning that monsters really existed would be blunted. If we were lucky, it would be blunted enough to keep our kind alive until we could be accepted as just another type of human.

For that to happen, our kind had to start working together. If I could help Matt facilitate it, I would--especially if it meant making sure Jennings and those like him were never allowed leadership roles in the clans again.

“Have you heard anything since this morning?” I asked as I began dressing.

“Nothing solid. The folks Danny has stationed at the airport reported seeing someone who matched Jennings’ description leaving one of the terminals late morning. There were three others with him and none of them looked happy.” He paused long enough to pull his shirt on over his head. “Unfortunately, our people weren’t close enough to tell for sure and there were too many conflicting scents to be able to tell if they were shape-changers.”

“My money’s on it being him.”

I’d feel a lot better if we knew for certain. At least our people said the four hadn’t looked happy. That meant Jennings, if it was Jennings, wasn’t as confident about what was going to happen tonight as he’d like. Good. A lack of confidence meant he’d be off-balance. If he was off-balance, he’d be easier to manipulate into admitting what he’d tried to do to me and, hopefully, what he had done to my parents. He would finally learn he had no control over me and absolutely no claim on me.

Matt watched as I pulled back my hair into a loose ponytail. Normally, I’d have braided it. Not tonight though. Matt and the others might think they could control Jennings and avoid a fight. I wasn’t so sure. The man I remembered had been hot-tempered and always ready to fight. That had been one of my parents’ concerns about him. Instead of working with pride leadership to gain experience, he fought his way to the top. The memory of my father saying Jennings was a prime example of someone who believed in the adage “might makes right” came to me. Dad hadn’t been complimenting Jennings at the time. Even then, he’d known there was something wrong with the younger man and had worried about it.

What Matt and I planned for the night was going to be more than a slap in the face. Jennings couldn’t to accept the fact I didn’t want to be with him. He’d proven that time and again by sending trackers after me and not giving up, no matter how many years had passed. When he saw Matt and I together, when he realized what my tattooing meant--and what an insult it was to him since I’d refused to have anything tying me to the Northern California clan included in the inkings--he’d be hard pressed to keep control. If he figured out we had even more in mind than just announcing my acceptance into the clan and the fact I was Matt’s mate and an alpha in my own right, he’d fight. I had no doubts about it.

And I planned to be prepared.

A soft knock at the door interrupted my thoughts. By the time I turned away from the mirror, Matt had opened the door and Sharon stepped inside. She looked first at her brother and then at me, nodding in approval. A slight smile touched her lips and, before I could say anything, she dropped to hands and knees and crawled closer.

“Get up,” I laughed. “Save it for the meeting.”

“Finn’s right, kid.” Matt reached down to help her to her feet. “While we both appreciate the sentiment--“

“Damn, big brother, you don’t feel it, do you?” Sharon shook her head, eyes wide with surprise. He shook his head and looked to me. All I could do was shrug. “Neither of you are holding back right now, are you? You’re both mentally getting ready for what might happen tonight.”