Wild Wolf (5 page)

The pickup halted, the driver's and passenger's doors opened, and two men got out of the cab. Misty recognized them as she drew near—Diego Escobar, a human who was the mate of her friend Cassidy, and Stuart Reid, a tall man Misty had met only a few times. Reid wasn't Shifter, but he lived in Shiftertown and didn't talk much about his past. He used to be a cop, as had Diego. Now they both worked for Diego's private security company, DX Security.

Misty pressed her hand to her side and hurried the last few yards, breathing hard. The two men and Graham turned to watch her, but Dougal kept his face buried in Graham's shoulder.

“Please say you have water,” Misty said as she reached them.

Diego silently held out a sports bottle. Misty upended it, pouring the liquid in a stream into her mouth. The water didn't taste anywhere near as good as the water the hiker had given her, but it was wet, which was the point.

“We need to get out of here,” Graham said.

“That's the plan,” Diego said then turned to Misty. “You okay?”

“Fine,” she said. “Now that there's water.” She took another long drink.

Graham ignored them and pushed his way to the truck, Dougal still hanging on him. Without a word, he continued to the truck bed, where he convinced Dougal to turn him loose so Graham could lift his ruined motorcycle into the back, then they both climbed in with it.

Diego watched Graham, a puzzled look on his face. “I thought he got himself shot.”

“He did,” Misty said, too weary to go into details. “Can we go home now?”

Diego opened the pickup cab's back door. “Your carriage awaits.”

Misty gave him a weak smile and let him help her up into the cool interior. Diego had the air-conditioning going full throttle, the icy blast making her blink. Misty leaned back into the soft leather of Diego's custom seats, thinking nothing had ever felt so good.

Diego slid into the driver's seat. Reid, who'd not said a word, was at the back of the truck talking to Graham. Misty couldn't hear what they said, but Reid wore a worried expression as he scanned the desert.

Reid then climbed into the pickup's bed, still conversing with Graham. Diego said nothing, only put the truck into gear and pulled out.

“Can I borrow your phone?” Misty said, her voice thin and tired. “I need to call my brother.”

“Already taken care of,” Diego said. “Your brother is safe, in Shiftertown, in fact.
My
brother and a couple of my guards are at your house, making sure no bad guys show up there. Paul's at Eric's house, which is where we're headed.”

“No,” Misty said sharply. “I want to go home.”

Diego looked at her in the rearview mirror, surprise on his face. “Your brother's worried about you.”

“Keep him safe, and thank you. But I need to be alone for a little bit. Tell Paul I'm fine, and I'll see him later. If my house is safe, I want to go there.”

Diego still looked puzzled, but he didn't argue.

Misty dozed off once the truck left rutted road for smooth pavement. The pickup's deeply tinted windows kept out the sun and leather seats cradled her body.

The sleep didn't refresh her, though. Flashes of dreams struck her—Graham with blood all over him, Flores's pockmarked face when he'd pushed it close to hers, the despair when she'd been locked in the hot shack. Threading through these visions was the remembered sensation of the wonderful, sweet, clear coolness of the water. Misty wanted more. She had to have more.

The truck jerked as Diego slowed for traffic on the freeway, and Misty woke. The dreams fled, and she couldn't remember them when she reached for them. But she was still thirsty.

Diego pulled off the freeway and took the streets to the ordinary suburban neighborhood where Misty lived. In a short time, he was pulling into her driveway, the house a welcome sight.

Graham was up and out of the pickup's bed as Misty opened the cab's door and let Diego help her out. She started for her front door but realized in dismay she didn't have her keys. They'd be at the shop in her purse, still locked in her desk drawer.

Didn't matter. Diego's brother Xavier pulled open the house's front door from the inside, looked around, then gave a thumbs-up to Diego.

Graham got in front of Misty as she went up the walk. “Where the hell do you think you're going?”

“Inside.” Misty motioned to the door where Xavier waited. “I live here.”

Diego raised his brows, looked at Graham, and then turned and moved discreetly back to the pickup, pulling out his phone to text someone.

“You'll be safer in Shiftertown,” Graham said, his voice a growl.

“But I want to stay here.” Misty shook her head. “Thank you for helping, Graham, and I'm sorry you got hurt because of me.” She paused. Xavier had retreated inside the house, as discreet as his brother, leaving her and Graham relatively alone. She drew a breath. “But don't call me again.”

“What?” Graham's focus shot to her, the distraction of his fear and anger gone. His eyes burned, every part of his unnerving attention on her.

Misty stepped into the shade of her small front porch. “I said don't call me. I'm done.”

“Done with what? What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Good-bye, Graham.” Misty made herself walk inside the house and start to shut the door.

She thought Graham would grab the door at the last minute and charge in after her, raging all the way, but he only stood there, amazingly still, his wolf eyes going silver as she closed the door in his face.

T
his is what I get for tangling with a human.

Graham repeated this to himself all the way back to Shiftertown. He and Dougal were now riding inside the cushy cab of Diego's truck, in the backseat, the air conditioning on too high for Graham's taste. But Graham wanted to ride inside because Dougal still needed Graham's reassuring hugs, and Graham didn't want the dumb-ass human police seeing Dougal basically on Graham's lap, and pulling them over. Dougal wouldn't last against human police right now—he might do or say something stupid and get them all arrested.

In fact, humans were pains in the ass all the way around. Graham would keep that fact to himself while Diego, a human, was driving them home. Plus Diego had found Graham a clean T-shirt, black with a tiny
DX Security
logo on it.

But for the most part, humans weren't worth the time. Misty was a distraction for him, and Graham didn't need distractions right now.

Her scent, that was most distracting of all. A scent Graham could wrap around himself until everything bad went away. Misty's smile was pretty good too. He remembered when he'd first seen her in the bar—she'd given him that sweet smile and asked if he was Shifter.

The smile had been completely absent this afternoon when Misty had said,
I'm done,
and closed the door on him. The
finality of it bore into Graham's heart.

Like he needed a human in his life. Graham's day had been hell since he'd woken up. First the Lupine woman had attacked him in his own house, sent to try to get Graham to mate with her. Then Misty's scared voice on the phone. In the seconds he'd heard her, he'd known that nothing else mattered but finding Misty and making sure she was all right.

She hadn't been all right. He'd had to fight for her, which had led to him getting shot. Then he'd slowly baked in the sun until Misty made him drink water a Fae had given her.

Graham knew the “hiker” Misty had stumbled upon had been Fae. Reid agreed. The cave she'd described, which had mysteriously disappeared, screamed of Fae. They must have been on a ley line out there in the desert, one of the lines of magic that crisscrossed the world. Stone circles were found on them as well as other mystical places—Fae loved ley lines.

Graham remembered how the gang leader had smirked and said he only needed one Shifter. One Shifter for what? To give to the Fae lurking nearby? For
what
?

No wonder the human had been stupid enough to give Graham directions to his location instead of setting up a dead drop. The human had planned to give him to the Fae. Why, Graham had no idea.

Didn't matter though, did it? Graham had drunk the effing water. It had cured his gunshot wound almost instantly, but Fae cures came with a price. Whatever else the water had done to him, he wasn't sure yet.

He'd planned to talk it over with Misty when they got to Shiftertown, where he'd explain everything to her. Diego, the traitor, had taken her home instead. Fucking humans.

I need her.

Graham banished the voice inside his head. He didn't need Misty. He needed to take a Lupine mate, and soon. Dougal wasn't a natural leader, and his wolves were getting restless because Graham had no other heir. He had to establish his dynasty, have strong cubs of his own who'd protect Dougal as family.

Plus, he needed to keep the wolves he'd brought to this Shiftertown under his control. The human government, trying to consolidate and save money, had closed the Shiftertown in Elko last year and shunted all Graham's Shifters here, expecting Graham and Eric, two powerful alphas, to decide who would lead. The humans had created a powder keg begging to explode. Some of Graham's Shifters were near to feral, having lived close to the wild for so long.

The few Lupines participating in the experiment to take off Collars were getting too big for their britches, like the female this morning. Collars didn't make or unmake dominance. The idiots needed to learn that. Collars just shocked you. Graham had decided to keep his Collar to prove no one would be able to best him despite the torture device around his neck.

No,
he thought, as the pickup turned onto the streets of Shiftertown,
I don't need a human woman in my life to screw me up right now
.

I'm done,
Misty had said.

Why did those words echo over and over inside his head?

Diego pulled the truck into the driveway of Eric's house. Eric Warden sat on a bench on his low-roofed porch, his bare feet up on the thick wooden railing. He didn't bother to rise when the truck pulled up, only turned his head to watch them stop and get out.

Eric was like that, acting all laid-back and too lazy to do anything. The truth was, he was the dominant Feline—the dominant Shifter—of Shiftertown, and he could switch from laid-back kitty cat to killing machine in a heartbeat.

His mate, Iona, came out of the house with a little more animation. Iona was a sassy sweetheart, even more so now that she was pregnant and about to drop her first cub. Her wildcat was mostly panther—which, everyone had explained to Graham, was a rare, black form of leopard. Explained why she and Eric, a snow leopard, got along so well. The pair of them could be scary as hell when they wanted to be, but mostly they sat around looking pleased with themselves.
Felines.

Iona started to ask, “What exactly happened?” as Graham lifted his bike out of the back of Diego's truck, but Graham cut over her words.

“We need to contain those humans, Warden. They hurt Misty, and I'm not letting them get away with that.”

Another human came out of the house—Paul, Misty's younger brother. He had dark brown eyes, like Misty's, and he was rawboned and lanky, like Dougal. He'd shaved off his hair during his time in prison, but he looked too young for the buzz. For a human, he was full-grown, twenty-three or something like that, but still he looked very young.

He'd been in prison for the last five years, serving a sentence for riding in the back of a stolen car when it had gotten into a wreck that killed other humans. Paul's lawyer had finally gotten him parole six months ago. Graham had been partly responsible for his parole—he'd growled at Eric and Diego until the two had used their influence in the law enforcement system around here to get the kid released.

“Is she all right?” Paul asked anxiously. “Where is she?”

“Home,” Graham said. “She needed a break, all right?”

Eyes focused on Graham. Two pairs of Feline eyes, Lupine ones from Dougal, the human eyes of Paul and Diego, and the weird, black-hole eyes of Stuart Reid.

Graham had seen a glimmer of pure rage in Reid's dark eyes when Graham had told him about the Fae. Reid hated Fae—he called them
hoch alfar
—hated them more than Shifters did . . . Nah, that wasn't possible.

“She's
fine
,” Graham said into the silence. “Xavier is looking out for her. But we have to cut it off at the source. If we get the leader, the rest will go down easy.”

“Already being taken care of,” Eric said mildly. “Diego?”

“DX Security tracked down Sam Flores and his gang nursing themselves at their safe house. Looks like you and Dougal ripped them up pretty good. I dutifully reported Flores's criminal activity to the police. I know guys on the force who were happy to shovel Sam Flores and his boys back into prison. They broke their parole, so they're history. My friends found Dougal's motorcycle and are returning it to the DX Security offices as we speak.”

Graham had meant something more permanent for Flores, like quietly breaking his neck and burying him somewhere no one would find him. That's what Flores had intended to do to Misty and Paul, and Graham saw no reason to be lenient.

But human justice was different from Shifter justice. Graham knew he had to let Diego take care of it, much as it chafed him. Diego had been a very good cop, with awards and everything, and the humans respected him, even after he'd mated with a Shifter.

Diego's Shifter mate came out of the house now, carrying their eight-month-old cub, Amanda. Attention left Graham and turned to the baby, who looked fearlessly out at the world from the safety of her mother's arms. She had Diego's dark hair but Cassidy's Feline green eyes. Diego had been surprised by the green eyes, but genetics worked a little differently for Shifters. Amanda would be Feline, like Cassidy, but because she was half human, she'd not change into her Feline form for a few years yet.

Cassidy smiled at Diego, her love for her human obvious. Diego had gone through a Fae magic ritual that would extend his lifespan to be close to what Cassidy's natural one would be. Graham had always wondered why the Fae had agreed, centuries ago, to perform this service for Shifters who took human mates, but he'd never bothered to track down a Fae and ask him. Graham stayed as far away from anything Fae as he possibly could.

Which brought him back around to the current problem. The shot he'd taken was a flea bite compared with what the Fae had potentially done to him.

And no one could know. Graham had told Reid, but Reid could keep his mouth shut. If any hint got out among the Shifters that Graham might be Fae-touched, he'd be finished. His wilder Lupines might try to kill him and take over his power. Eric would try to stop them, and then there'd be a battle to the death, a bloodbath the Collars couldn't slow. Eric would win in the end, but a lot of good Shifters could die, including cubs.

This was turning out to be one hell of a day.

“I'm going home,” Graham said. “Call me if you need help taking out the humans.”

“Thanks, Graham,” Paul said after him. “For helping her.”

Graham made an indifferent wave. “Whatever.” He and Dougal, who still didn't want to move more than a step away from Graham, went home, wheeling Graham's broken bike between them.

 • • • 

G
raham lived in the new section of Shiftertown, where houses were still under construction. Graham's house and about six others were completely done, the others nearing completion.

Because Graham was a leader, he'd insisted on his house being bigger than the others. Eric might play
I'm-the-same-as-you
with his Shifters, but Graham decided to never let others forget his position. A Shifter played with fire if he did.

The newer houses were more modern looking than the ones on Eric's street, with stucco and tile, and lots of windows. Graham's house had a second floor. The older portion of Shiftertown had been built in the 1960s, when people kept out the heat with small windows set high under the eaves, thick outer walls, and flat, white roofs. Graham had insisted on more modern insulation and double-paned windows, and Iona, who owned the construction company that built the houses, had agreed.

All the new houses had air-conditioning that worked, so Graham walked into a cool haven. He shut the door behind him and Dougal and let out a sigh of relief.

Dougal was still stressed. Graham could scent it on the lad, sweat mixed with panic and exhaustion.

Graham turned to his nephew, who was starting to curl in on himself, straightened him up, and pulled him into another hard hug. Graham had been doing this for thirty years, he realized—holding Dougal while he grew up.

“You did good out there.” Graham patted Dougal's back and tightened the hug. “You knew exactly what to do, and you brought help in time. We made it, and we're home, and whole.”

Dougal nodded against Graham's shoulder. He stayed dormant in Graham's embrace for a time, then he took a deep breath, his strength returning. Shifter hugs were more than just comfort; they were healing.

“Better?” Graham asked, releasing him.

Dougal wiped his eyes as he turned away. “I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I have things to do, Shifters to see. Call me if you need me again.”

Dougal walked to the front door, the swagger returning to his step. Graham hid his chuckle until Dougal had breezed out of the house, slamming the door behind him. He'd be all right.

Graham's laughter died as he made his way to the kitchen, thirst kicking him. He'd known the water was foul as soon as he'd smelled it, but his thirst had won over his common sense. And now he was thirsty again. He clenched his fists. If he gave in to a Fae curse, he might as well summon the Guardian and fall on the sword.

Misty hadn't seemed affected by the spelled water. Graham had looked into her face and hadn't seen anything but her clear, brown eyes, framed with thick, dark lashes. Lashes he'd love to feel fluttering over his skin.

Don't call me again,
she'd said.

She hadn't meant that, right? So hard to tell with humans. Misty had gone through trauma today, been threatened, terrorized, and hurt, poor thing. When she felt better, she'd call Graham and ask if they could talk. Misty liked to talk. On the phone, in person, over e-mail. Graham had never talked much with his other females, but then, his previous relationships had been all sex and not much else.