Dark Wolf Returning (10 page)

A slight smile ghosted his lips. “She must care about you a lot, El.”

Her dark eyes twinkled. “Or maybe she was thinking about you.”

He grunted, taking another drink from his mug.

“I’m really hoping you’ll talk to me about her, Eli.” The quiet words were rough with sincerity. “I want to be able to help you, but I can’t do that if I don’t understand
what’s going on.”

Steering the conversation in a slightly different direction, he leaned back in his chair and said, “Speaking of the little Bloodrunner, where is she? I thought she might be here with Wyatt.”

Elise gave him a disappointed look, then sighed and gave in. “She and Wyatt are out checking on some things down in Wesley. With all the tension in the pack right now, we think
a few of the younger wolves who were caught up in Dad’s craziness might have slipped back into old habits. There’ve been a few human disappearances around Wesley, and we want to make sure they aren’t the work of any rogue wolves.”

A deep scowl settled between his brows. “Why the hell did Carla have to go?”

Frowning again, she said, “She’s just doing her job, Eli. Don’t be an ass.”

“She could get hurt, damn it.”

His sister looked as if she was trying not to roll her eyes at him. “This is Carla we’re talking about. I get that you’re protective of her, but she’s a serious little badass.”

His nostrils flared as he pulled in a hard breath. “Did she or did she not end up kidnapped by those bastards?”

“That was different.”

“Was it? Because no matter how
you look at it, she managed to get herself into a situation that put her in grave danger.”

“And she got herself out of it. Seriously, Eli, what is your problem?” she demanded as she crossed her arms, her slender brows pinched. “I love you like crazy, but you’re acting like a jerk.”

He grunted, knowing damn well that he sounded like an ass. But he didn’t know how to make her understand.
He’d always worried himself sick over Carla’s job, his fears only growing more intense as their connection had deepened. Now that he was back, that worry was scraping him raw inside. Made him feel like she might be stolen from him before he even had the chance to get ahold of her.

If a bloody miracle happened and she eventually agreed to let him complete the bond, how would he cope with what
she did for a living?
Could
he cope with it? Would she give him any consideration at all, or dig her heels in and turn a deaf ear to his concerns?

Damn it, it was always like a chess game with her, and he didn’t know how to win. Didn’t know which move would be the right one to land him his queen—or what the hell he’d do with her once he got her, considering everything that stood between them.
She made him feel a thousand different things at once, and he was still too wound up by her sudden appearance back in his life to make heads or tails of any of it. All he knew was that he was done with...with
this
. With feeling like the gulf between them was growing wider with every second that went by.

Elise’s gaze sharpened as she studied his scowling face. “You know,” she murmured, “whatever
is going on between you and Carla, it hasn’t exactly put Wyatt and I in an easy situation. He’s protective of her, and I’m protective of you. But I’m starting to wonder if I’m on the right side in this thing.”

“Leave it alone, El. You and Wyatt don’t need us causing problems for you.”

“Nothing is coming between us,” she said in a tone that was more confident than anything he’d ever heard
from her before. “We’re just worried, Eli. But I have a feeling there’s a lot you need to fill me in on, whether you want to or not.”

“No offense, sis, but it isn’t any of your business.”

She turned her head a bit to the side, staring out at the thick woods that lay just beyond the kitchen window, the look on her beautiful face making his insides tighten, as if he needed to brace for
an emotional blow. Then she looked at him and said, “Did you ever wonder why mother named me Elise?”

Wondering where she was going with this, and wanting to talk about anything in the world besides their mother, he gave an uncomfortable shrug. “No idea, El. I’m assuming she just liked the name.”

Her lips twitched with a brief smile. “It never struck you that it was a little
too
similar
to your own?”

His tension cranked a notch higher, and he mirrored her pose, crossing his arms over his chest. “What are you getting at?”

Softly, she said, “One of my earliest memories of her is the day she explained it to me. She said that Eric was her little troublemaker, but you were her rock. Strong and proud and never afraid to stand up for what was important to you, even though
you were just a child. And she wanted me to be like that. She said it was never easy for women in our world, and she wanted me to have every advantage going in, so she named me Elise because she wanted me to carry a part of you with me, wherever I went.”

He scrubbed his hands over his face as her quiet words wound their way through his head, then placed his fists against the tabletop and
took a sharp breath.
Christ,
if his mother only knew what kind of boy he’d become after she’d left. The things he’d done to keep as much of his father’s attention focused on him as he could, and not on Eric or Elise, were far from noble. He’d often acted like a bully and a thug just to keep the old man happy, and that was a shame he’d carry with him for the rest of his life.

Despite the ruthless
reputation he’d earned as a high-priced mercenary, the rumors of his greed were greatly exaggerated. Yeah, he’d made a ton of cash at times, but there’d also been a lot of jobs that hadn’t even come with a paycheck. More than once, he and the other guys had helped villagers who barely had enough to feed themselves, ridding the area of the bloodthirsty drug cartels who destroyed their fields
and way of life. Had rescued women and children who’d been sold into the horrific sex slave industry, returning them to their homes. But Eli knew that sometimes there simply weren’t enough good deeds to erase the stains on your past. Which meant he was probably a bigger fool than he’d ever realized, since he just kept on trying.

“Eli?”

Feeling as if the gritty words were being torn out
of him, he forced his gaze to Elise’s and said, “Don’t, El. Whatever you do,
don’t
be like me.”

Covering one of his big, scarred hands with her soft ones, she gave him a crooked smile. “I hate to burst your bubble, but I think you’re pretty damn awesome. So you’ll stay my hero whether you want to or not.”

He shoved his free hand through his hair, and swallowed the lump of bitterness
stuck in his throat. “Damn it, honey. If you only knew.”

“Knew what?” she asked, tilting her head a bit as she studied him.

He debated, wanting to unload the heavy burden of his secret after all these years once and for all, the weight of it crushing him down, but still terrified of what it would mean. Would his sister hate him? Would Eric? Would he lose them now that he’d only just
come back to them?

And was the fear of that happening just another part of why he’d opted to stay away for so long? Because as long as he wasn’t with them, he didn’t have to fight this constant battle to keep what he’d done inside?

Needing to get the hell out of there before he said something he would no doubt regret, he pushed back from the table and stood. “Thanks for the coffee, honey,
but I have to go.”

She reached out and caught his hand, squeezing it until he finally looked down at her. “Eli,” she murmured with concern, “whatever it is, you know I’ll still love you. Right?”

He nodded as he pulled his hand from hers, then turned and walked out, no doubt leaving her with a thousand questions.

And not a single answer.

Chapter 7

A
fter suffering two days of hell, Eli was ready to howl. He was frustrated, exhausted, and so goddamn hungry for a certain little half-breed it was driving him mad. She was doing a damn good job of avoiding him, the glimpses he occasionally got of her twisting him into knots of tension and craving. There were so many things he needed to say to her, things he needed to
make her understand, more of them building up inside him with every hour that went by, but she wasn’t giving him the chance.

Hell, she wasn’t even willing to be in the same room with him. Which made it damn difficult to give her the explanations she’d demanded of him.

Their relationship, whatever it was at this point, had turned into one hot, tangled mess of
should haves
and
shouldn’t
haves,
and all he wanted was to tie her sweet little ass down and make her listen. He finally understood that there was no way forward until he did that, and while he still didn’t have everything figured out in his head, the one thing he knew beyond any doubt was that he didn’t want her breaking their bond. Yeah, there were a thousand and one issues they needed to work through, but that was the
one thing that was non-negotiable.

“Yo, boss man!” Kyle suddenly barked, jerking Eli from his thoughts. “You heard a word I’ve said?”

“Doubt it,” Lev murmured. They were all sitting around the kitchen table in the cabin that Eli and Kyle were sharing. Grinning like a jackass, Lev lifted his coffee mug and added, “He’s too busy mentally undressing the little Runner in his dirty daydreams.”

“Lev, shut up,” he muttered, before looking at his second-in-command. “Sorry, Kyle. Go on with what you were saying.”

Kyle leaned back in his chair. “I was telling you that the guys and I have finally ironed out a plan.”

“Great. Let’s hear it.” He’d been waiting two damn days for this.

“First, the way we see it, there are two basic problems that we have to deal with: the fact
that they have more bodies than we do, and the fact that they control the timing of their attack. There’s not much we can do about the first, but the second is one we can take away from them.”

His brows lifted with interest. “And how do we do that?”

Sam gave him a slow smile. “That’s where the plan comes in.”

Twenty minutes later, Eli agreed that what they’d come up with was a brilliant
idea that might actually succeed despite their limited numbers, and he told the guys to take it to Mason and the Runners. The five of them had been working closely with the Runners for the past few days, with the exception of Carla and Wyatt, who kept taking every “out of Alley” assignment that came up.

Thankfully, he and the guys were getting along great with the rest of the group, and the
training sessions they’d been helping out with were progressing even more rapidly than they’d hoped. Everyone in the Alley was trying to keep a positive attitude, and the arrival of thirty Lycans from the Pennsylvania-based Blackstone pack, who were willing to help with security patrols, had been greatly appreciated. And there’d been a message from the Greywolf—who had actually threatened to move
in on the Silvercrest’s northern border in order to prevent the Whiteclaw from encroaching on their territory—that they were standing down. Apparently, the news that Eli and his group of ruthless mercenaries were now working with the Silvercrest had been enough to make the Greywolf rethink their position.

The rest of the morning was spent working out on the training fields, and then he and
the guys worked with Mason and Brody to fortify defenses in the Alley. As the day wore on, he constantly searched for Carla’s blond hair in the crowd of people moving around the glade, but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“Hey, Eli, wait up!” Kyle called out, just as Eli was climbing up the front steps of the cabin they were sharing. He didn’t have the patience to deal with any more of his
friend’s ribbing at the moment, and was about to tell him to get lost, when Kyle said, “I thought you might want to know that she’s back.”

He turned so quickly he damn near took out James, who was climbing the porch steps behind him. “Sorry,” he muttered, shoving past James and Lev as he hurried back down, scanning the glade. The instant he saw her on the far side, he took off.

“Carla!”
he called, not caring if he looked like an idiot to those who were probably watching him.

She kept walking, and he nearly crashed into Brody and Cian, who were deep in conversation in front of Brody’s cabin, as he ran across the Alley, trying to reach her before she disappeared inside Wyatt’s place and locked the door again. She’d fucking done it twice already when he’d tried to get her alone.

“Stop, damn it!” he shouted, causing everyone around them to quit what they were doing and look at him. “We need to talk!”

Ignoring him, she started walking faster. Eli cursed, ready to knock the damn door down this time if he had to—and then he got the break he needed. One of the soon-to-be moms stepped out onto Carla’s porch to ask her something about the thermostat in her cabin, and
she was forced to stop and answer the woman’s question. Breathing hard, Eli slowed down and positioned himself partially in front of her, his hungry gaze taking in every inch of her delectable form while she finished her conversation. She was dressed in a dirt-stained pair of jeans, tight black T-shirt, and black boots, her golden hair falling loose around her shoulders. It was her standard work
look, and he could tell by the light sheen of sweat on her arms and face that she’d been doing something strenuous, her provocative scent even richer than normal, so good he could sense it like something warm and sweet on his tongue.

When her conversation was finished, she started to walk around him, but he grasped her arm, halting her in her tracks. She didn’t even bother looking at him
as she said, “Let me go, Eli.”

“Not until you stop acting like a child and talk to me,” he bit out, leaning in close and tightening his grip, while still being careful not to hurt her.

She pulled in a deep breath, then slowly turned her head and took a good, long look at him with those dark eyes. “I can see you’re not going to be reasonable about this,” she eventually murmured, forcing
a note of boredom in her words that made him want to put her over his knee and spank her until she stopped acting like such a little brat. “So, fine. If you want to talk, then talk.”

Eli stared down at her, lost in his hunger and craving, and suddenly couldn’t think of a single goddamn thing to say. Instead, he wanted to take her down to the lush green grass, strip her bare, and make her
come until she stopped being so damn mad at him. Until he’d found a way to turn her hatred into something that didn’t make him feel like he was dying inside.

She crossed her arms over her chest the instant he lowered his hand, her foot tapping out an impatient rhythm against the grass, while his mind remained completely blank.

“Well?”

He ran his tongue over the front of his teeth,
then got right in her face. “Why are you avoiding me?”

“It’s not that hard to figure out. I told you what I wanted to hear. Until you’re ready to be honest with me, which I seriously doubt is why you keep trying to do this, I have nothing to say to you.”

He bit back a curse, wondering if anything he said at this point would make a difference to her. She was so damn bitter. So angry.

Sensing the curious stares coming their way, he grasped her elbow and drew her reluctant body to the side of the cabin, where they were out of view. Then he gave into the visceral urge to have her locked down, and backed her against the rustic cedar planks, caging her in with his arms as he planted his palms against the exterior wall. Holding her hostile glare, he asked, “Why did you bother
to come after me, to bring me back to this place, if all you planned to do was ignore me once we got here?”

“You’re seriously this upset because you think I’ve been ignoring you? Jesus, Eli. You ignored me for two entire days in the truck while we were driving here!”

He drew his head back in surprise. “I wasn’t ignoring you.”

“Like hell you weren’t.”

“Damn it, Rey. Why do you
think I sat in the back seat for those entire two days? I hate not driving, but I wanted to be as close to you as I could be. Even if we weren’t talking to each other.”

“You wouldn’t even look at me!” she snapped, her beautiful eyes glittering with emotion.

His voice turned guttural. “I was looking at you every goddamn time you closed your eyes or stared out your window. I just didn’t
want you to know it.”

Taking another deep breath, she asked, “And what about at the motel? What the hell was
that?
”

“That was...complicated.”

She made a sound that was half snarl, half scream, and he had to grab her again as she tried to duck under his arm.

“I was afraid of losing control!” he growled, holding her against the cabin with his big hands pressed to her shoulders.
“You...you
push
me.”

“Toward what?” she demanded, only to immediately shake her head in frustration. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter. The only
pushing
I plan on doing is pushing you away from me, so your problems are solved.”

He could feel a muscle beginning to pulse at the side of his jaw, his heart pounding to a hard, brutal rhythm. “That’s not what I want and you know it.”

She
kept her angry gaze locked tight with his as she licked her bottom lip. “You’re wrong,” she argued, her breaths quickening. “I don’t know
anything
where you’re concerned.”

Biting back a groan, he begged her with his gaze to believe in him. “You would if you would just give me a chance.”

She paled as her eyes slid closed, and then she dropped her head back against the cabin with a thud
that made him wince. “I told you at that shitty bar in Texas that I wasn’t bringing you back for me, Eli. I brought you back for Eric and Elise, and for the pack. But not for me.”

“So that’s it?” he asked quietly. “You have no interest in what I do?”

She lifted her head, then slowly opened her eyes, their brown depths filled with pain. “You’ll do whatever you want, same as you always
have. I’ve learned not to care.”

He moved his sharp gaze over her beautiful face, using everything he had to read her...to see beneath her bitter words. “I call bullshit, Rey.”

“What?”

Pulling in a deep breath of her warm, mouthwatering scent, he spoke in a hushed, gruff voice that was thick with hope. “I can smell the need on you. See your pulse racing at the base of your throat.
Christ, baby. I can fucking
feel
how much you need this. How much you need
me
.”

She glared up at him. “Unfortunately for you, my hormones don’t make the decisions around here.”

A low, deep laugh rumbled up from his chest, and he lowered his head, pressing his lips to the soft skin at the side of her throat. “Maybe you should let them,” he murmured, licking across her hammering pulse.
“Because I want nothing more than to make you addicted to me. To how I can make you feel.”

Her hands settled against his shoulders, but she didn’t push him away. Instead, she sank her short nails into him, that little bite of pain shooting straight to his groin. “A woman’s head has to be in the game as much as her body for her to really enjoy herself, Eli.”

“I know,” he rasped, nipping
her delicate earlobe. “And if you just give me the chance, I’ll get them
both
to the right place.” He lifted his head, looking her right in the eye. “Take me to your bed, Rey, and I swear I’ll do everything I can to make it worth your while.”

She stared back at him through her thick lashes. “I thought you wanted to talk, Eli. Not fuck.”

He put his face right over hers, his big hands
flexing against her shoulders. “The talking comes
after,
Rey. After I’ve spent hours just making you come. I’ll bury my face between your sweet little thighs and lick you until you scream. I could keep my tongue busy down there for days, that’s how
badly
I want you. I dream about getting you under my mouth. Feeling you beneath my lips. Drinking you in, over and over. There were too many damn things
I never got the chance to do to you, and I
need
them, baby. I need them so badly it’s killing me.”

For an instant, he thought she was actually softening, her skin dewy and warm with color, making him want to press his mouth to those fever blushes so badly he could taste it. But then disappointment cut into him like a knife as he lifted his gaze back to her eyes. He could tell by the way they
narrowed that she wasn’t going to surrender so easily. “You didn’t get them because you went from never touching me, to messing around with me against a freaking tree, to falling on top of me like a drunken idiot two nights later, and then leaving me!”

He ground his back teeth together, wanting so badly to argue, but what could he say? She’d spoken nothing more than the truth. After trying
so hard to keep his hands to himself, only allowing a few brief kisses and touches, she’d caught him that last night when his control was shattered. He’d been hurting for Elise, for what had happened to her, filled with rage that he hadn’t been able to find the other bastards who’d raped her. Had been worried about what the League would do to punish him for the kill he’d made, but unable to regret
it. No, he would have done the same thing, in the same way, again...and again. But he’d drank more than he normally did that night, needing to dull the roar in his head, as well as the pain in his gut that made him ache for the feel of Carla in his arms. And then she’d knocked on his door, and his control had simply vanished, decimated beneath a crushing force of hunger so violent and savage he’d
nearly taken her right there, on the hard wooden floor inside the doorway. Somehow, he’d managed to get her into his bedroom, but that was the only concession to her comfort he’d been able to make.

He’d simply needed her too badly.

At first, he’d been worried she would stop him that night, since she hadn’t been happy with how he’d acted a few days before, when his control had first started
to slip and he’d kissed her. Then put his hands all over her.