The Bucklin Wolves Next Generation: Revelations (3 page)

“You’ve never seen me shifted,” Seth said. “I don’t think you realize how large a shifted wolf is, especially an alpha. You’re in for a treat.”

Her eyes grew wide with excitement before returning to normal size as she turned to reenter the house. “Just wait for me here. I’ll pack up.”

“Maribel?” he asked, looking back at his truck. She turned and looked at him as she got to the doorway. “You haven’t even gotten the pack from me yet.”

“Oh,” she said. Her mind was starting to wander again now that it was time to go. Was she really that disturbed about going into the woods alone with him? He knew females had mood swings, but who had ones this wild?

Seth walked back to the truck and grabbed the pack before heading back up the stairs. Maribel tried to block his entrance into the house, but he pushed his way past. As he entered the kitchen he froze, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. She was alone now, but she hadn’t been alone this entire day. The scent was an affront to his nostrils. He could feel his muscles involuntarily flex. The offending party hadn’t gone much farther than the door and his stink didn’t cover Maribel, so there’d been no foul play sexually. What the hell did Jacko want with her and why had he been in her house?

Maribel’s eyes grew wide as she stared at him. She knew exactly what he was smelling and that was the reason she had tried to prevent him from entering the house. Was he being set up? Was Maribel part of their plan?

He looked back at her, studied every inch of her face as she stood behind him. No. She hadn’t betrayed him. If there was a plot against Seth, she was not involved. The fear in her eyes as she studied Seth’s reaction was all the convincing he needed.

“What did he want?” Seth asked quietly.

“He and Ms. Wilson stopped by,” Maribel said hastily.

“He must have scared you pretty bad for you to lie to me,” Seth said, turning back to face her. “You think I wouldn’t be able to smell her whore’s perfume?”

“It was nothing,” Maribel said, grabbing the pack from him and heading for the bedroom. “I swear. Nothing happened.”

“Did he hurt you?” Seth asked. His question made her freeze in her tracks. Her head turned slowly to face him. “He’s bad news, Maribel. Let me know if he hurt you and that’ll be the end of him.”

“No,” she said, her words barely squeaking out of her throat. “He didn’t hurt me at all.”

“Did he threaten you?”

“No.”

“You don’t have to lie to me. If he did anything to you, then I need to know about it. I’ll make him pay.”

“You should stay away from him,” she whispered. If he’d been a normal man, he wouldn’t have been able to hear her words, but his enhanced hearing picked her voice up perfectly.

“He should stay away from me,” Seth corrected.

“No,” she whispered again. “Stay away from him.”

“I don’t fear him.”

“You should,” she said.

Her words hit him in the chest like a battering ram. She left him standing in shock as she disappeared into the back of the house to gather her belongings and prepare for the trip. Seth couldn’t believe the words she had said to him. He was an alpha wolf and he feared no man or beast. So why couldn’t he shake the feeling that she was right and he should be more careful around Jacko?

Chapter 3

The drive to the forest was so silent Maribel thought she would pass out. When she had finished packing her change of clothes and spare shoes, she had found Seth waiting in the truck. When she got in, he had looked at her like he wanted to say something, but he had shut up quickly and thrown the truck into reverse. As they peeled out on the street, she’d sworn she saw Jacko standing on the front porch of the house he had been given. He was watching them, and she hated it.

Seth didn’t try to engage her in conversation at all during the drive. He drove at speeds that weren’t safe for the old, beat-up roads they drove on. She considered laying the statistics out for him several times, but she knew he would just lecture her again about how he was a big, bad alpha wolf who defied all probability and good judgment.

She wanted to believe him so badly. He was strong, confident and exuded leadership like no man she had ever met. But somehow she was still afraid of Jacko and she knew Seth should be too. What the hell was Jacko and why was he so damn scary? She knew that statistically a man had no chance to beat a shifter in any kind of fair fight, but Jacko didn’t fight fair. She knew he’d killed shifters before.

She’d once read about ancient orders that gathered together to hunt down the supernatural. They were usually just men, but somehow they had been able to slay vampires and werewolves with brutal efficiency. Many of them had claimed they were protected by their faith in God, while others had claimed they had special magical items that they had gathered over the years from ancient tombs. Whatever the case was—they didn’t fear any shifters. But Jacko didn’t seem like the most pious man she had ever met. No, he was confident in his ability for a different reason.

When they finally arrived at the entrance to the forest, she was exhausted from the silence. Seth was brooding like a moody teenager and she was tired of playing this game. She wanted him, she wanted him bad. But he could never know that. Still, she had to say something to bring his mood back around. She’d read studies that said you were seventy-two percent more likely to catch a man’s interest if you asked about him. Generally a man’s favorite subject was himself.

“So, have you ever been out here before?” she asked, trying to find some sort of jumping-on point.

“Once,” Seth said, pulling their packs out of the truck. “It was a long time ago, though, when I met with Aster.”

“The old mayor?”

“That’s the one.”

He’s in a shitty mood,
she thought. “What did you two have to talk about?”

“I just wanted advice,” Seth said.

“So you know where he lives?”

“I caught him in town,” Seth said. “I followed him back here.”

“So, the other wolves do come back to town from time to time?”

“Not that I know of. He was trying to get something from his old home. He told me it was the last time he’d ever lay eyes on Bucklin.”

“That’s kind of depressing,” Maribel said, following him towards a small hill that led up into the tree line. She could see a path just on the other side that wound through the trees. At least they wouldn’t be on an overgrown trail.

“How so?” Seth asked.

“He just gave up his home,” she said. “Just like that. I mean, you’re attached to it, right?”

“I guess.”

“It is a special place. One of a kind, actually. There aren’t many places like this out there in the world. Sure, wolves have their pack land, but how many can really claim to have an entire city to themselves?”

Seth looked back in the direction of Bucklin with a sort of reverence in his eyes. He smiled and then looked down at her, his hardened face softening. She could tell at that moment that the tension and anger he had felt before was beginning to escape his body, bringing back the same smiling cutie she had spent so much time with over the last week. “I guess you’re right. It is one of a kind, but unfortunately it’s going the way of the dinosaur too. We’re opening it up to humans now, remember?”

“Yeah,” she said. She had forgotten that little detail. “Still, Seth, you have something to be very proud of. I guess things change and people grow. Aster outgrew Bucklin and did what was best for those who wanted to follow him. You’re doing what’s best for who’s left. Who’s to say which one of you is right or wrong?”

“We’re both right,” Seth said, leading her through the trees. “We did the best we could with what we had in front of us.”

“That’s a good way to look at it. Aster has moved on, but maybe Rowan hasn’t.”

Seth stopped and turned back to her with a cold, steely gaze she hadn’t seen before this point. “My brother isn’t the one who attacked Jacko. I’m not even sure Jacko was attacked.”

Surely he wasn’t implying what she thought he was implying. That was madness. Jacko was paid very well by Mr. Sokolov. He wouldn’t jeopardize his mission. “He didn’t set it up.”

“I can’t rule anything out,” Seth said. “Once I talk to Rowan, I’ll have my answer.”

“And if you don’t like the answer?” she asked.

Seth stopped and turned back to her again. This time his eyes weren’t hard, they were almost sad—pleading with her to stop this line of questioning. “Let’s not talk about this anymore. I know you have a job to do, but so do I. Trust me. When the time comes I’ll do what’s best for my people. I believe in the strength of a blood tie, but William raised me. He’s back in Bucklin along with everyone who matters to me right now. The only person who matters to me that isn’t in Bucklin is standing next to me right now.”

Maribel was never more thankful than right now that she had tan skin to hide her blushing. When the words came out of his mouth, she had to suppress a giggle as she felt a tingle run through her entire body. When he spoke like this, he was hard to resist. Before she knew it, she was in a situation she didn’t want to be in. Seth was leaning against a tree, nearly blocking the path in front of her. If she wanted to go by, she was going to have to touch his sweaty, beautiful body. He was leaning closer to her, his face drawing ever nearer. If she didn’t move now, they were going to kiss and god knew what else. She couldn’t let this happen, not now.

“Who made this path?” she asked, pointing past Seth. He turned and looked behind himself, opening a path for her to slide by without any skin-to-skin contact that she was sure would force her to dip into that change of panties she had brought.

“Oh,” he said, shaking his head. She knew his wolf was probably talking to him, and it was probably distracting. It was going to be hard to avoid him if the beast had staked its claim to her. Jacko had warned her as much. But surely it wasn’t as horrible as he had suggested. Seth wasn’t like that, he wasn’t that kind of wolf—she hoped. Plenty of men had put up fronts in the past. Everyone had thought Ted Bundy was a great guy.

“This is amazing,” she said, noticing how the path twisted around all of the biggest trees. Whoever had cleared it had been thoughtful to not disturb the ancient beauty of the forest that surrounded them.

“Beorn built it.”

“Who’s Beorn?”

“He’s an old bear who used to come into Bucklin from time to time. He was instrumental in defeating the demon and his biker gang. He used to have a cabin not too deep into the forest, until the demon and his troops blew it up.”

“Where is he now?” she asked.

“He and his mate moved deeper into the forest. Bears are pretty solitary. I doubt we could even find him.”

“His mate? There’s another bear out there with him?”

“A she-wolf,” Seth said. “My surrogate niece, actually.”

Maribel wanted to ask what he was talking about, but she shut her mouth and kept following Seth. He seemed to be in better spirits after their near moment, but there’d been a hint of sadness in his voice when he mentioned his surrogate niece.

He can talk about William and the wolves of Bucklin all he wants,
she realized.
But he longs for his family. That’s why I’m here, to keep him honest. He’d never tell us the truth about Rowan if he was left to do it alone.

“We’ll continue down this path for a while,” he said. “The path should be clear and you shouldn’t fall, even in the dark.”

“Are you not going to shift?” she asked. She had to admit, she was a little bit excited about the possibility of seeing him become a monstrous wolf. He had promised something big, but she wondered if he was exaggerating his size, like most men did. Although Seth didn’t need to exaggerate about size. He was one of the few men she knew could deliver on such boastful tales.

“I don’t need to shift yet,” he said. “I won’t need to do that until we leave Beorn’s old territory. I know my way around here fairly well. It’s when we cross the river that things will get a little fuzzy.”

“River?” she asked.

“This trail leads up. Most of them do. They lead into the mountains, and there’s a mighty river that runs right through the middle of this. It’s been an uncommonly wet spring and summer, so the river has already flooded a few times.”

“Won’t that mess with your sense of smell?” Maribel asked. She thought she’d heard once that animals were able to escape pursuers by running through a stream for a time. Hopefully the scent he was going to hunt wouldn’t be completely covered by the overflowing water.

“Let’s hope not,” Seth said, not convincing her very well. “I’ll pick up on it eventually.”

“What if you pick up someone else’s scent?” she asked.

“There shouldn’t be any other shifters out in this forest.”

“What makes you say that?”

“There’s some wild ones on the other side of the waterfall, closer to the campgrounds, but they don’t come this far over. How many shifters do you think there are in the world?”

“A lot?”

“Not as many as you think. There’s some humans who think every animal they meet in the wild is a shifter and every yoked man is a shifter in human form. If those people were right, we’d never be able to keep ourselves secret, and you wouldn’t be able to walk down the street without tripping over a shifter.”

“That’s true,” Maribel said. “I guess if there was a lot more of you, it’d be hard to keep your secret.”

“Exactly.”

“Still,” she asked, pondering a question that had been bothering her for a long time. “How
are
you able to keep yourselves a secret? The odds of being able to hide something this big are astronomical. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I study the numbers, and I know how the human mind works. There’s no way anyone with any knowledge of this would be able to keep it quiet. It’s also why there’s no aliens at Roswell.”

“You’re more likely to find an alien than a wolf in the city,” Seth said. “It’s easy to keep it hidden when we live such isolated lives. There’s a reason we live in rural areas. It’s closer to nature and it’s easier to keep up our masquerade.”

“Yeah, but what if a shifter was born in the city? What’s to keep him from turning into Teen Wolf during his formative years to gain popularity?”