Wild Game (Wilding Pack Wolves 1) - New Adult Paranormal Romance (5 page)

He strolled up to the desk and dropped the bag of food next to her keyboard. She jerked back and gave it a strange look, as if she’d never seen take-out before. Then she tapped something rapidly on the keyboard, and the flickering stopped. She pulled her headphones off and set them on the desk.

Her cute, scrunched-up face peered up at him. “You brought me food?” As if that was the most unexpected thing he might do. Little did she know he’d been thinking of a whole lot of other
unexpected
things he could do with her‌—‌like bending her over that wide desk of hers. Or throwing her down on that rumpled cot she kept in the corner, obviously there for camping out late at night, working, like she was now. But those were thoughts to keep in his head, not spill out his mouth.

Instead, he shrugged one shoulder. “Unless you’ve got a secret snack bar in here, I figured you hadn’t eaten all day.” He glanced around the room for the tale-tell Doritos bags and Red Bull that a lot of coders at Wylderide used to decorate their desks, but hers was pristine. Just her keyboard, mouse, cell phone, headphones and… he finally caught a look at what was on her screen.

Shit.
She was watching the video again‌—‌the one the hate group put up that listed all the names and locations of the Wilding pack. That video had tipped off whoever murdered her father and now was after her as well.

He shook his head at her. “Believe me, I understand losing yourself in work…” He flicked a hand at the screen. “But this is straight-up destructive what you’re doing.”

“It’s not destructive,” she protested, pushing back from the desk and rising to her feet.

He gave a non-committal
hmpf
and scrutinized the video, even though he’d seen it a hundred times. The star of the thing was a man in a metal-looking armor mask, like something a medieval knight would wear. It completely obscured his face. He called himself
The Wolf Hunter
in a modulated voice that made it untraceable‌—‌Owen and Riverwise had given it a shot, but came up with nothing. What was clear was the scrolling names and addresses of the wolves he had doxed‌—‌exposing them to a world that already hated shifters. But this was all old news, and there was nothing to be gained from her spending hours alone at night in her office going over it.

He dragged his gaze from the screen and back to her dark eyes, watching him… then he gestured to the video. “This isn’t helping anyone‌—‌it’s just going to tear you up some more.”

She scowled at him. “I’m trying to figure out what we’re really up against.” Then she pursed her lips and turned away, marching to the window to stare out at the nightscape of the city.

She was dressed in one of those costumes again, the kind from her futuristic combat game. Most of the characters wore the same stylized black gear she had on the day before, but today, she was wearing a skimpy camouflage tank top, a pair of olive-drab cargo pants, and heavy black boots that probably weighed as much as she did. Her long black hair cascaded down her back, but he’d already noticed her perky little breasts holding their own under the tank. She wasn’t wearing a bra as far as he could tell, and he shouldn’t have noticed, but he did. He cursed himself for having thoughts like those when she was obviously still rattled by yesterday’s attempt on her life. But that scorching hot kiss was still on his mind‌—‌in fact, it had played on an endless repeat throughout the day, as much as he tried not to let it.

She had her arms crossed with her back to him, clear across the room. He wanted to get closer, but she was the one who had moved away. And the way she had pushed him away in the medical warehouse still stung.

He stayed where he was. “I’m doing everything I can to keep you safe, Nova.”

She unfolded her arms and glanced over her shoulder at him. “I know you are. That’s about all I know anymore.” Then she went back to looking out over the city.

It wasn’t quite an invitation, but his body was getting squirrelly with so much distance between them. It was like she was a magnet, and while he didn’t understand the source of it, he couldn’t deny the pull. He kept his footfalls quiet as he stepped across the room.

“There’s nothing for you to do about any of this tonight,” he said softly, close at her back. “You need to knock off and go home. Some food wouldn’t hurt you, either.”

She turned to face him, and he didn’t like the worry etched on her face. Then it twisted into a smirk. “Getting tired of babysitting me? Why, you got a hot date tonight?”

He dipped his chin to look her more steadily in the eyes. “No, ma’am.” A sweet ache started up in the pit of his belly. The only hot date he wanted was standing in front of him.

He could see her react‌—‌lips part, eyes going a little more wide‌—‌then she broke the hot staring contest they were having and seemed to find something interesting to look at about mid-level in his chest. Or she was just avoiding looking in his eyes‌—‌he couldn’t quite tell.

In almost a whisper, she said, “Brad wants me to be his mate.”

“I’d already figured that much out for myself.” He waited for more. If she wanted to open up to him, he would take all of that she wanted to give. It surprised him how much he craved it, too‌—‌almost as much as he wanted her lips on him again.

She finally brought her eyes up to meet his. “He just wants me for the business,” she said, with more than a little bitterness. “Wylderide is worth a lot of money, but it’s more than that‌—‌he wants to be alpha. He wants to lead the pack.”

Owen eased a little closer to her. “So he’s not just an asshole, he’s a money hungry asshole.”

She huffed a laugh but looked away. “He’s not an asshole. I just don’t want to be forced into picking him for a mate.”

“That’s easy enough‌—‌you tell him no.” It seemed clear as day to him.

She turned those wide, dark eyes back to him. “It’s not that easy. Wylderide’s employees are almost all pack members‌—‌we have a few humans, awesome programmers who just want to hang in their cubicle coding all day and who don’t mind being left out of pack affairs. But most of the company is my father’s pack, and now they don’t have an alpha. And they need one. Brad wants to be that alpha, and I can’t lead the pack without a mate.”

In one breath, she’d spilled more than she’d said to him in all the time he’d known her.

He leaned in even closer, pressing a hand against the cool glass of the window behind her head. “But you don’t want a mate,” he said softly.

Her breathing picked up as he got closer, and he could feel his heart banging around in his chest.

“I don’t want a mate that’s just after my father’s money.” She kept glancing at his lips and letting her gaze flick down to his chest and back up again. She wanted him to kiss her, probably almost as much as he wanted to do the kissing.

He licked his lips. “I’m not looking for a mate. Can’t have one, anyway. But I haven’t been with a woman since I deployed last, and that was over two years ago. And here you are, prancing around in that tight tank top and loose combat pants, and can tell you this, darlin’‌—‌I definitely don’t want you for your daddy’s money.”

Breath escaped her just as he leaned in for the kiss.

He started it, but she was a wildcat on him as soon as he did. Her hands shoved his jacket clear of his shoulders even as he was fighting to put his hands just about everywhere on her at once. She was small, and she tucked right into his chest as he devoured her lips, but the best part was how she moved against him, all hot and bothered and squirmy with his touch. He skimmed her hips and that little waist and round to her back to pull her close. When his fingers found the hem of her shirt and slipped inside, he couldn’t help the moan. Her skin was hot and burning into his palm. Her whimper when he reached her breast about drove him insane. His cock was lost somewhere between them, but hard as a lighthouse making itself known.

She pulled away from his mouth enough to gasp, “Someone will hear us.”

“Ain’t no one here to listen,” he panted against her neck. “You can go ahead and cry out all you like, baby girl.”
God,
he was hard for her, and with her tight breast in one hand and her sweet ass in the other… it really had been forever, and he wasn’t sure he would make it to the finish line with this rocket start they had going. But that didn’t stop him from hooking her knee over his hip and making his intentions clear by driving his cock against her and pinning her to the window with his body.

They had entirely too many clothes on.

“We shouldn’t,” she gasped as he lifted her shirt above her breasts.

“I know.”
Damn,
he could barely breathe to make words. “That’s what makes it hot.”

She moaned and shuddered against him. He lifted her arms above her head, holding them there with one hand so he could get her tank the hell off her body, but he stalled out when he got a good look at her perfect little breasts‌—‌just the size to cup his hand around, so he did.

“Goddamn, you’re beautiful,” he muttered as he went for the other with his mouth.

She gasped so loud, he almost didn’t hear the phone go off behind him. He was too busy tasting her tight nipple and creamy flesh, but before he could come to his senses, she was squirming out of his arms…

And hurrying across the room, tugging her shirt down.

Dammit.
She’d left him panting and aching again. He braced himself against the window as she scooped her phone off the desk.

“Hello?” Her voice was remarkably even for where he’d had her a moment ago.

It irked him something fierce.

“Brad, it’s late,” she huffed out, her back to Owen.

That irked him even more.

He growled and crossed the room, determined to rip that damn phone out of her hand and hang up on the asshole, but by the time he got there, she had the thing tucked between her ear and her shoulder, frowning as she tapped madly at her keyboard.

He huffed his frustration, standing behind her and running his hand through his hair instead.

Then what she brought up on the screen chilled him.

It was the Wolf Hunter again, only this time with more modern-looking metal-armor mask and a new video.

“Shit,”
she said under her breath. Then into the phone, “No, no, I’ve got it. Okay. No‌—‌I’ll call you back.” She hung up and set the phone down, then clicked the video to play.

Somehow the hate group got hold of a wolf. It was big. Maybe big enough to be a shifter. Owen couldn’t tell, but
Jesus Christ,
the Wolf Hunter was dissecting the thing. Owen just gaped at it, horrified, as a step-by-step manual of instructions scrolled by on how to dispose of a wolf body.

A shifter body.

The video called on anyone who wanted to carry out the hate group’s form of vigilante violence to be assured that this technique of body disposal would keep them clear of the law, since wolf DNA was different than human DNA. Which was true, but
fucking hell…
it was like one of those cooking videos on the internet, only a how-to manual for how to get away with murder.

Owen slammed his hand down on the keyboard, freezing the video.

Nova had sunk down into her chair, hand over her mouth, eyes wide in horror.

“Come on,” he said, his voice rough. He tried to be gentle as he pulled her up out of her seat, but he wasn’t brooking any nonsense from her. “I’m taking you home.”

Fortunately, she didn’t protest. In fact, he had to keep an arm around her the entire way to the elevator because it looked like her legs were about to give out. He was shaking, too, but with barely contained rage.
What the fuck
was that asshole thinking, calling her up and showing her that damn thing in the middle of the night? If he didn’t have his hands full getting Nova home and safe, he’d hunt down Brad Hoffman and beat some sense into him.

Instead, he held a shaking Nova in his arms all the way down to her car.

Nova had never been so cold in her life.

It wasn’t the kind of cold that came from too much air conditioning in her car as Owen sped through the streets of Seattle, taking her home. Or the kind of chill that came from a harsh word, or a bad PR blitz for her game, or even the bitter loneliness as she stood over her father’s grave bidding him a final goodbye. No, this was the kind of deep-in-her-bones cold that came from seeing a man carve up a wolf on a video and knowing, without question, that he meant for that to be
her
.

Her whole body shuddered for the hundredth time as Owen walked her up to her apartment in silence. His hand was on her elbow, keeping her steady, but also hurrying her along. Like it was a race to get her locked away in the high-rise, high-security condo Wylderide game money had bought for her. And she supposed it was. He probably wanted to tuck her away so he could finally go home for the night.

While Owen unlocked her door, she pulled out her phone to check the time. Her hand was shaking, but she could tell it was late. There were also a half dozen calls and texts from Brad, but those couldn’t pierce the icy fog that was settling on her brain. She shoved the phone back in her pocket just as Owen latched onto her arm again and tugged her inside.