Dreaming of the Wolf (20 page)

In his dream, she’d been in a dirty, rundown motel, he guessed. The bed had been covered with a comforter of brown palm trees, hideous and garish, along with the picture of palm trees on the wall. Yet… he didn’t sense it was Florida. Why not Florida? Because Mary from the art gallery hadn’t called him that long ago. He didn’t believe Alicia would have had time to reach an airport by car, then fly to Florida and get a room.

The phone book. Sitting on the bedside table in Alicia’s room, it had “Crestview” printed on the front. That was a town one hour southeast of Silver Town.

And someone had been about to break in.

He called Silver Town’s sheriff, waking him from a dead sleep. “Peter, call the sheriff who oversees Crestview. See if a woman has called in a 9-1-1. Get back with me ASAP.”

He clicked off the phone and headed into the hall. Everyone in the family was still asleep. He didn’t intend to wake them if it was all a wild-goose chase. How in the hell could he explain he was attempting the rescue of a woman from his dreams? Darien didn’t even believe Jake could be dreaming of her for real. Not as his dream mate. Not when she was human.

But how else could he explain the motel room and the phone book, when he’d only passed through the nearly nonexistent town a few times during his life? He was climbing into his truck when Peter called him back.

“There was a 9-1-1 call from the Crestview Motel, just like you said. The caller was a woman who said men were breaking in and were going to kill her. The operator said loud bangs could be heard in the background, and she figured a man was trying to break down the door. But she couldn’t get anything more from the woman. Then shots were fired.”

Hell.
“And?” Jake was already barreling down the highway toward Silver Town and would go south on the road toward Crestview from there.

“Her name was Alicia Greiston, with an e-i rather than an a-y.”

Jake felt sick to his stomach. “Was?”

“Well, I’m not sure. She’s gone. By the time the sheriff got there, he found one dead male, his torso riddled with three bullets, and a bullet wedged in the wall across the room. Her purse, clothes, gun, pepper spray, and stun gun were there, and her still-active cell phone was charging on top of one of the dressers, but there was no sign of the woman. And her car is still locked and parked at the motel, driver’s side window bashed in. The car battery was gone, so she wouldn’t have been going anywhere in the car anyway, if she’d tried. Either the man who was dead had broken into the room, and she ran off, or there were others and they’ve taken her.”

He cursed under his breath, not liking any of the scenarios. “Alicia.” Jake frowned.

Peter hurriedly said, “What did you want me to do?”

“For now, nothing. I’m heading out there.”

“Had she called you?”

Jake didn’t say anything.

Peter cleared his throat. “The woman who called from that art gallery in Breckenridge said she gave Alicia Greiston your number.”

“Yeah, but Alicia didn’t call.”

“The phone line was cut to the room, and the cell phone was being charged, so she might not have been able to earlier. But how did you know she needed help if she didn’t call?”

“Family thing,” Jake said vaguely.

“Oh, okay.”

“Thanks, Peter. If I need backup, I’ll give you and Darien a ring.” He wanted to tell Peter not to inform his brother, but Darien was the pack leader and if Peter thought Darien needed to know about this, he’d fill him in. And Jake knew Peter would. Darien would most likely be pissed that Jake was continuing to leave him out of the loop.

Sure enough, Jake wasn’t more than five minutes down the road when his cell phone’s familiar jingle alerted him. He yanked the phone off his belt and said, “Yeah.”

“What the hell is going on?” Darien said hotly.

“She’s in trouble. The woman I keep dreaming about. She’s not pregnant. Or at least she sure as hell doesn’t look that way.”

“Then why would she say…” Darien didn’t say anything for a moment, then he grunted. “You said she’s not a gray wolf. Are you
certain
?”

For a split second, Jake mulled that over. Then he frowned. “Of course, I’m certain. I was with her in Breckenridge that first day.”

“What if she was bitten
after
you saw her?”

Jake considered that scenario, his hackles instantly rising. “Hell. If she’s been bitten recently, she most likely has very little control over the shift.” But that would explain why he was dream mating with her. She needed him desperately.

“She could have shifted at the gallery and didn’t know what else to do about being stuck in the ladies’ room.”

“It makes sense.” Jake let out his breath. It changed everything between them. “Then who turned her?”

“Someone who’s after her possibly, or someone who’s dead. That may be the reason she’s never tried to hook up with you. Without knowing you’re also a wolf, she wouldn’t want to risk discovery.”

“Hell. Alicia has to be frantic.” He only hoped to hell she was still alive so he could rescue her once again. And then they’d deal with all the issues she had to face—these men, a possible pack, her werewolf genetics, her need for a mate—
him
.

Silence met Jake’s ears, then Darien finally said, “All right. Well, Peter said she’s in a hell of a lot of trouble. You can’t go it alone.”

“I’m going to track her down, locate her scent, see what I can come up with.”

“Fine. But I’m sending Peter and Tom for backup. And next time you have the urge to rescue some damsel in distress, let me know first, will you?” Darien hung up on Jake.

Jake let out his breath in an exasperated huff. Yes, they worked together as a pack. And Jake was obligated to let his pack leader know what he was up to when there was trouble in the wind.

But that was under normal circumstances. This was way beyond normal. And he wasn’t about to wait for everyone to get a move on when he was well on his way to locating his dream mate, with or without his pack’s help.

Jake was doing this
his
way.

As a gray wolf, Alicia bolted out of the hotel and ran at a gallop, tearing through the woods and keeping close to the road that would take her to Silver Town. At this point, she figured she had
nowhere
else to turn. Although in the back of her mind, she kept telling herself she shouldn’t try to locate Jake. That seeing him again would cause more problems than she was willing to face. He’d want to see more of her, to protect her. And she knew she’d end up having to bite him. Turn him. Just like Ferdinand had done to her. So that Ferdinand—in his own words—wouldn’t be alone. If she turned Jake,
she
wouldn’t be alone.

But she couldn’t do that to Jake.

So why was she still running toward Silver Town? Because for the first time in her life, she
really
didn’t know what else to do. And she realized then just how isolated she’d become. No real friends, not after her mother had been murdered by the Mob, and no family left.

Running through the pines and spruce and ash trees, she just hoped no one would shoot her.

She’d have given anything to see those bastards’ faces after she’d bitten the one in the arm who’d swung around to shoot her, once he’d broken into the room and seen his buddy sitting dead against the wall. His jaw had sagged, his eyes had widened, and he’d lowered his gun in surprise. She’d lunged at him as if it was instinctual and bitten as hard as she could, afraid anything less wouldn’t have gotten the message across.

And the other big, burly, black-haired man had squeaked like a girl when she’d swung her head to bite him.
Danny
Massaro
. The guy she was supposed to serve a warrant on. Ferdinand’s brother, whom Ferdinand said would kill Alicia and him if Danny had the opportunity. She recognized his cologne. He’d been at Ferdinand’s condo and had come looking for her when she had hidden under the bed. He was partly responsible for Ferdinand’s death. Maybe even the one who had ultimately killed him or given the order.

Danny had fired off three shots at the night sky as he fell on his butt, trying to avoid the snap of her jaws and her wicked teeth.

For a damned instant, she’d wanted to arrest him! As if he’d have given her time to shift, dress, grab the arrest warrant and gun, and rearrest him. But then she’d regained her senses, and too concerned he might aim the gun at her the next time, she hadn’t stayed around to find out if he was aiming at her for sure.

She thought she might have bitten the other guy a little too hard, though. She wasn’t certain, but he’d lost the gun, which was her whole reason for biting him, and her jaws were so powerful that she hadn’t realized her own strength. It felt as though she’d crushed the bones. He had cried out in the most guttural pain, then dropped to his knees and collapsed on his face. He couldn’t have died, unless she’d given him a heart attack. Right now, she didn’t care. She was alive and wanted to stay that way. And the truth of the matter was, if he
had
died, that meant one less killer on Mario’s payroll who’d be after her.

She’d run across the street and headed for the woods, only looking back to see Danny still sitting on his butt, staring after her as if he had seen a ghost. Then he scrambled to his feet and ran into the room, ignoring his partner in crime. She was fairly sure he was looking to take care of her—as Alicia the woman, and not in a pleasant way—not realizing Alicia was the wolf that had just escaped them.

Her werewolf condition was wrought with mixed blessings. She didn’t like the lack of control she had with shifting. Especially when she couldn’t always shift at will or fight the shift during the full moon. But this biting business could come in handy. At least she was a lot more frightening as a wolf than she’d been as a woman with a gun. And to an extent, she liked her enhanced hearing, although trying to focus on one conversation at a time had proved difficult sometimes. The sense of smell was something else. She smelled way too many odors that she didn’t want to.

For the first time as a wolf, she’d run good and long and hard, and she wasn’t even tired. As a human, she couldn’t have run half as fast or long without having gotten stitches in her side and leg cramps. She would have been doubled over, trying to catch her breath. In that sense, she loved the freedom that being a wolf gave her. Until she saw a pickup truck on the road beside the woods headed toward her.

Before she could dodge deeper into the forest, the truck applied its brakes and screamed to a halt. She nearly had heart failure and dove deeper into the woods.

A man hurried out of the truck yelling, “Alicia Greiston! Wait!”

She stumbled in surprise to hear the man calling her name, and the odd familiarity in his voice made her pause for a second.

The door slammed and the sound of crashing through the underbrush forced another healthy shot of adrenaline surging through her veins, and she bolted again.

He couldn’t think he could chase her down. And how the hell did he know her name? That she was the woman who was now a wolf? Had Ferdinand told someone that he’d turned her before he died?

That was the only reasonable explanation she could come up with. But even so, how would he know she was in these woods?

“Alicia! It’s me!”

The man’s voice sounded like Jake Silver’s. The truck, now that she thought about it further, did look like Jake’s. But it couldn’t be him. That had to be wishful thinking on her part. Wishing he’d come to her rescue. A
wolf’s
rescue, rather.

Whoever it was would never catch up to her. Then just as abruptly, she didn’t hear the sound of his crashing through the underbrush any longer, and she slowed to a trot. She didn’t want to get too far away from the road and lose her way.

But then she heard something else. Something quieter approaching her at a run. She whipped around and nearly had a heart attack. A
big
gray wolf was running toward her, and her heart skipped beats all over the place. She turned to run away, but he leaped and tackled her. Her heart stuttered.

With his heavier weight, she fell beneath him, and he pinned her down, his mouth at her throat, forcing her to hold still. He didn’t hurt her, but she knew that those wicked teeth clamped around her throat could kill her instantly.

Oh, God, she’d managed to save herself from a bunch of thugs only to be killed in the wild by a real wolf.

She whimpered, scared out of her wits, wanting to thrash at him with her teeth but afraid he’d crush her throat. He was panting and so was she. His chest heaved, but hers even more so since she’d been running for so long. Forever, it seemed, he just held her there, not letting her up, pinning her to the forest floor, in charge, in control. Wouldn’t he be surprised if she just shifted into a woman? Yeah, and then he’d kill her for sure.

He couldn’t be thinking of mating with her, could he?

Oh, God, what a horrible thought.