Claiming the She Wolf (8 page)

“What are you saying to me?” He gritted his teeth. “We passed the employer-employee relationship a while ago.” Physically, he moved closer. If she was trying to deny what they shared, he wouldn’t let her.

“You made it very clear you were only here for a short time. Well, that deadline has passed. Have you found what you were looking for?”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “Argh. You’re infuriating. Do you know that?”

Why the hell did I come here? I wanted information about my mother
. But it wasn’t like they were going to have her private journals, or suddenly, he’d get insight into what she was thinking when she left. Hell no. Instead, he got to see the beauty of the city, feel what it was like to live within a pack with others who understood what he was experiencing, and fall in love with Tala. Wolf or human form, he loved both sides of her.

“I’ve learned more than I could ever have hoped or imagined,” he said. With his fingertips, he tilted her chin up. “You’ve taught me more than anyone.”

Damn, Yas wasn’t making it easy for her. She insisted on standing on her own two feet, and even absent, her brother had to go and fuck this up for her. Yas was perfect. She never thought she’d meet someone like him in Los Lobos, and it had to take a stranger showing up out of nowhere to help her. Now, she’d learned it wasn’t fate that brought him to her, but her brother. If only she could go back an hour in time and not find out. How could she look at Yas and not see her meddling sibling?

She’d about given up hope bonding with a mate, and when she’d least expected it, and least wanted it, it happened. Too bad the timing wasn’t right.

He didn’t understand. She saw the hurt in his eyes and had to close hers in order to shut it out. “I think you should find someplace else to stay.”

She opened her eyes, taking in the firm set of his jaw. He looked away from her, and her heart panged at what she was throwing away. He was her one chance at happiness. How could her ideals make her turn away the man she’d fallen in love with? It made no sense. While her emotions screamed, her will turned to steel. She was determined to be independent, and she meant it.

No matter what the cost.

“Hmm, if that’s what you want,” Yas said. “That’s one thing I don’t do, stay past my welcome.”

She watched his tight ass as he stormed upstairs, and listened to him stomp while packing his things. Tala sank into the couch. If she followed him, she’d end up saying she was sorry and asking him to stay. Pushing him into bed….

No way
. Instead, she resigned to staying put. All too soon, he’d returned with his beat-up backpack slung over one shoulder. He hesitated at the door.

“If you need me, I’ll be at Gee’s for a few days until I figure out what I want to do.” He swept his eyes across her body, and his hunger and pain cried out. When she didn’t reply, he nodded and walked out of her life.

For no good reason, she’d chased him out.

Leaving Tala’s place was one of the hardest things he’d ever done. As Yas walked off her property and down the road, he kept waiting to hear her chasing after him. Not only had he grown quite fond of their time together—living with her the past couple of weeks felt right, so easily they’d fallen into a routine—but he also worried about her safety in that big ol’ house all alone. No wonder her brother didn’t want her staying behind.

It was more than bad luck. Someone had purposely been sabotaging the construction. Thinking about her, an attractive woman—
his
woman—without protection, got his hackles all raised up.

Before he headed to Gee’s, there was one stop Yas had to make first. He’d been avoiding it the entire time he’d been in Los Lobos. Now, when he was more down than ever before, why did he choose to go? Hell, he didn’t get it. But if his time was about up in this small town, then he wanted to see the home he’d grown up in and his family had fled.

The house was located on the other side of town. The farther he got away from the core of revitalization, the more rundown the remaining buildings became. Finally, he reached the end of the drive.

Wilderness encroached on the property. The main structure of the house remained, but it was missing the front door, and the windows had been broken out. Typical.

Could his family have moved out, and no one ever inhabited since? The gate hung on one rusted bracket. And he’d thought Tala’s house had been unkempt.

A huge tree hung over the side of the house, and as he passed, Yas caught sight of chains and rubber submerged in the greenery.

His heart stilled. It couldn’t be.

Memories of a tire swing or pushing his toddler sister while she giggled crowded his mind. How was it possible he’d forgotten? Until now.

Foliage crunched beneath his boots as he pounded a path to the front. He rubbed his palm against the trunk and gazed upward. It made a mighty fine swinging tree.

The sound of a bird hawking drew his attention to the house followed by a staccato of memories of his mom throwing plates at a man, screams, and fire. He tested the wood of the stairs and made his way up, blinded by the past and hopeful for the future.

Running his fingers over the bannister’s peeling paint, he factored how much it would take to make the home hospitable again. After more than twenty years abandoned. He imagined his mom tending to the flowers. If left unattended, would they grow? The answer was yes, unbounded. And grow, and grow.

Inside, a damp muskiness filled his nostrils. So much of this wood would have to be knocked down and replaced. If he were staying in town, he’d probably start working on the house in his spare time.

In fact, who said he had to leave? Just because Tala didn’t want him in her life didn’t mean he had to run out of town with his tail between his legs. She might change her mind eventually, when she figured out that he wasn’t the threat.

Seeing their old home threw him into even more of a funk, and he had to get out of there quickly. Sure as shit he’d be doing some late-night visits to Tala’s place to ensure everything was fine. Too soon, Yas arrived at Gee’s Bar. One look at his face, no one asked many questions. After picking up a room key, he settled in upstairs. The joyful chaos of the bar was in stark contrast to the quiet solitude of where he’d been staying. He kept waiting to hear Tala’s sweet voice as she called him to dinner. Instead, the rumbling of his stomach made him stop pouting long enough to go downstairs for a meal.

Gee acknowledged him with a nod, and the server slipped a plate of food in front of him. Paul raised his eyebrows and looked at the empty chair. Paul didn’t utter a word, but Yas knew what the guy was asking.
Where’s Tala?

“Just me. She tossed me out. Damn that woman. She wants to be so independent, even when no one’s trying to take her freedom away.”

With a shake of his head, Paul commiserated with Yas. He lifted his palms upward and shrugged his shoulders.

“What am I going to do? Not hightail it out of this town and forget about her. She dug her nails into my soul, and now she won’t be able to get rid of me so easily. I’ll give her a little bit of breathing space, but I’m hoping she comes to her senses sooner rather than later.”

After nodding in agreement, Paul pointed toward Yas’s food. While the meals at Gee’s were good, he figured he’d get mighty tired of them day in and day out if that was all he got. He should be eating beef potpie at Tala’s about now and gazing into her sparkling eyes.

Damn it all. She had to hook him and then toss him like he was an underweight catch. As he ate, he eavesdropped on the various conversations happening. Most of the customers appeared to be pretty relaxed, but a group of three guys at the bar pounded the shots too quickly for his taste. In the space of half an hour, they’d ordered three rounds, and that was only what he’d seen. The tall, dark-haired guy on the end raised his hand at Gee, who shook his head and did a slash through the air with his palm. Yas recognized the universal signal for “done.” They’d been cut off.

“Fuck that,” the speaker for the group said with a snarl. He tossed some bills down and swept his hand across the bar, punctuating his words by knocking off the empties. The glasses crashed onto the floor. “We’re outta here.”

The jerk turned to survey the bar, probably checking out who was paying attention to the scene he’d created. The guy’s nose and face looked flat, pushed in, as if he’d broken it too many times and hadn’t bothered to get it reset. With such an attitude, it wouldn’t surprise him if he’d been in a few altercations.

As Mr. Flat Face made eye contact with Yas, his eyes widened as if he recognized him. He elbowed the shorter dude next to him, and all three turned to check him out. A sense of unease soured Yas’s gut. How could they recognize him? The only way would be to see him in town, and without Tala by his side, they probably figured out she was alone.

Gee came round the bar, arms crossed, and stared down the threesome. Laughing, they headed out. He was reading too much into the situation. Just because he’d had the fight with Tala, now he saw potential danger everywhere. She’d lived in this town her entire life. Because he wouldn’t be out there tonight didn’t mean anything was going to happen to her, right?

No matter how he tried to convince himself otherwise, his gut clenched with determination. He pushed his plate aside and left some money to cover the bill on the table. By the time he reached the door, he was trotting. Paul swept up the broken glass, and Yas stopped for a moment.

“I’m heading out there to make sure she’s all right,” he said. “Didn’t like something about those guys.”

“There’s a lot not to like about them,” Gee agreed. He turned to wipe down the bar top.

Did that mean he was doing the right thing by following them? He could interpret the cryptic words a few different ways. No time to decipher the meaning, he stepped out.

The moon hung low over the rooftops, brightening the night’s sky. The glow reached its lighted tendrils out, bathing him in its magical qualities.

For being so loud and obnoxious, the three guys were not to be found or heard. They reminded him of the frat boys he’d seen on campus. But, if they were as drunk as they’d seemed in the bar, they should still be fumbling somewhere close. Unless, they’d set off on a purpose.

His inner wolf growled and wanted to come out. He weighed the odds of shifting and unleashing his uncontrollable side. In wolf form, he’d move faster. Reflecting upon the calm lessons of Tala, he shut his eyes and willed his body to shift.

Nothing. He needed to do this now. A shiver crawled up his spine, and he shuddered in the cold night. He should be covered in fur about now, not freezing his white ass off in the middle of town.

He pictured flat-face guy, his head thrown back, laughing as he knocked the shot glasses off the bar, and the knowledge that passed between them when they made eye contact. Despite common sense telling Yas not to overreact, as sure as he could read the dude’s mind, he knew he was out there and he planned to cause some sort of harm to Tala. Fury rocked through his veins. His she-wolf, and damn if he would let anything happen to her.

With a howl, pain ripped through his body and he bent over, panting. His shoulders stretched out, broadening, and his claws dug into the hard-packed earth. Within minutes, he stood in wolf form. Someone whistled from the direction of the bar, and he turned and caught Gee watching him. The guy gave a little salute before turning and sauntering inside. Whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean, he was done wasting time.

The old house settled, creaking and groaning. Tala lay in bed, listening to the sounds and doing a bad job of convincing herself it was all normal. She should be tired. She’d worked hard physically, and emotionally she was spent after Yas left. Pride kept her from chasing after him. But if he returned, she’d welcome him with open arms.

Hell, she was the one who’d run him off. She shouldn’t be lamenting his absence.

She hated admitting that having him in the house had been nice. And it had helped. She wouldn’t be lying there worried about every creak if he was in bed next to her. No, she’d be exhausted from some good loving.

Eyes shut, she drifted off into a semiconscious state, thinking about his wicked lips and even more talented fingers. A crash downstairs startled her awake.
What the hell was that?

Panic rising, she waited for another sound. Adrenaline pumped through her body. Something had woken her up, but she wasn’t quite sure what it was.

I should go down and investigate. What if someone had broken in? It was stupid to chase Yas away
. It would be one thing to have a home full of guests. It was quite another to be here alone.

Right when she pulled on her robe and slippers, the smell of smoke reached her. Fire? Yas had insisted she stock a fire extinguisher in her room. She’d thought it a waste of space. Now, as she grabbed it, she thanked him and his overzealous safety. She slid a flashlight into her pocket and headed downstairs.

A glow of red illuminated from the breakfast nook. One of the windows was smashed in
again
, and fire licked up the wood table and spread across the floor. Smoke billowed toward the ceiling and clung to her skin. She coughed, covering her mouth, and turned on the extinguisher. White foam burst forth, and she skidded in reverse before repositioning and bracing for the force. She aimed at the floor and swept the spray. The small patch in the kitchen went out fast, but more flames crawled in from outside. A broken bottle lay on the floor. Had someone thrown it through the window?
A Molotov cocktail? In Los Lobos?

She’d have to go outside in order to attack the fire from there. Again, she wished Yas were there to help. She was an idiot. Sure, she could do all this solo. But if she didn’t have to, why should she?

A rustling sound came from outside the window. She should have thought to bring a weapon for protection. Did she have something she could throw? She could always hit the guy over the head with the heavy metal extinguisher.