Enforcer's Heart: (BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (Stratton Wolves Book 3) (7 page)

None of that mattered. Nothing mattered but his lips on hers and his hands on her body, caressing the curve of her waist and dipping beneath her top to stroke the skin of her back. The simple touch stole her breath and made her heart race. Something moved within her, as though something deep inside stirred in its sleep, stretching its claws and making demands.

His hand stroked higher under her top, spreading out until it spanned her waist, his thumb brushing underneath her breast. At the same time he stroked his tongue along hers in a hot, wet kiss that should have been illegal for the things it did to her. She groaned into his mouth, needing more…needing anything…

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Riley, will you get a damn room!” a male voice yelled across the parking lot.

Ce snatched her lips away from Riley, pushing him back. A guy lounged in the doorway of the bar, arms folded and a big grin on his face. Cheeks flushed, Ce scuttled to hide in the truck as Riley shouted back.

“Yeah, right! Just call it payback, Blake, for when we all had to watch you drool after Honey!”

*

Riley was pissed with her. Well pissed.

Ce bit her lip as she watched the big, black truck roar out of the parking lot and onto the street.

“Well,” the woman next to her commented. “I think you got under his skin. For sure. Don’t worry about it. He’s a male wolf. They’re all asses.”

Ce slid a look sideways. Kelli Daniels, Riley’s sister, was as far from the image she’d formed in her head as it was possible to get. He’d told her (well, more snarled at her) that he couldn’t trust her, so he was dropping her off with his sister while he attended to pack business. Being the ruling female alpha, Ce imagined an eastern European shot-putter with bulging muscles, amber eyes, and fangs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, Kelli had amber eyes, but just a small ring around the irises. Other than that, she was…normal. And heavily pregnant.

“They are?” She couldn’t help the query. So far her experience of wolves had been the one who’d bitten her, the asshole who’d brought her here, and Riley. She didn’t count Max, Kelli’s mate, since she’d seen him all of thirty seconds before she’d made a run for it.

“Oh, yeah. Like totally. The lot of them think with the little head, if you know what I mean. And believe me, once territorial wolf urges get involved, they can be even more of a dick.”

Kelli turned toward the building behind them, a nail salon which made Ce blink a little.

“You get your nails done?” Suddenly she had an image of a wolf with a full French manicure and extensions. Mind you, blue glitter could look cool…even on a wolf. “Don’t they cause issues when you shift?”

Kelli smiled as they entered. “No extensions. Just polish. Difficult for me to shift at the moment anyway, so I like to take advantage of it while I can.”

That Ce understood. She followed the female wolf into the nail bar where she seemed to be well-known and liked. Within minutes, they were both settled in throne-like recliners as their nails were worked on.

“So, Riley is your brother?” Oh hell, just how retarded did that sound? She might as well announce her interest on the Internet. “I mean, there’s not much of a family resemblance.”

Kelli chuckled. “Yeah, knucklehead’s my little brother. Why, he been giving you trouble? Max filled me in on your situation. You’re a cop, right? Bitten on duty?”

“Nothing I can’t deal with.”

It wasn’t a lie, not exactly. She could more than handle one hot guy who kissed like a sex god. Probably by stripping naked and throwing herself at him. “Yeah. I’m a cop, but I wouldn’t say I was bitten so much as in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

She leaned back and sighed in contentment. She’d always been too busy to get her nails done, but this really was rather nice.

“Really? How so?” Kelli’s voice was full of curiosity, and she was nice, unlike her hot, sexy asshole of a brother.

“Tom, that’s my partner, and I were called to a restaurant break-in. One of the quieter areas of town. To be honest, we thought it was the guy’s alarm on the fritz again…he’d already been warned about it. But when we got there, the place was trashed and there was a wolf in the kitchen. Bast…Uhm,” she cleared her throat. “It attacked and we weren’t prepped or loaded for wolf. Managed to fight it off—”

“You fought off a shifted wolf?” Kelli whistled between her teeth. “Holy shit, girl, remind me not to piss you off, ‘kay?”

Amusement bubbled up and spilled over. “Yeah, right. It was just a fluke. For some reason the chef had some kind of silver knife. It had fallen onto the floor under one of the cabinets. As soon as I…well, you know…the thing screamed, went batshit changing forms, collapsed and died.” She grimaced. “Unfortunately on the way down, its fang got me in the leg. On the day I didn’t take my anti-fuuuurr… Shit. Look, do you guys get pissed off at being called furries?”

Kelli snorted, lifting her hand to admire her newly filed nails. “Only the old stick in the muds. Personally, it’s never bothered me. I like my fur just fine.” She grinned at Ce. “And I like you, so if anyone has a problem with you using that term, you just tell ‘em to come and talk to me. Okay?”

Ce breathed a sigh of relief. Kelli seemed to be a kindred spirit. In fact, if they’d met under other circumstances she could see herself and the other woman being close friends. She slid Kelli a sideways glance as the girl finished up on her nails. “So would this be a good time to admit I call your brother Captain Furry Asshole?”

“Ha!” Kelli’s bark of laughter made the nail technicians jump, but the tears rolling down her cheeks assured them (and Ce) that it wasn’t a bark of anger. “Captain Furry Asshole! Oh, that’s awesome. I gotta tell Max that…yes, thank you, hun. They’re fantastic,” she said to the girl in front of her and pointed toward the credit card she’d left on the top of her purse when they’d sat down.

“Uhm.” Shit. She didn’t have any money on her. Kelli looked up, seeming to read her mind and waved dismissively. “Don’t worry about it, I got this.”

“Thank you, I should have thought of that before we sat down.” Ce breathed a sigh of relief. “I really don’t want to impose but you don’t suppose you could take me to a bank, could you? I can ring through and get them to forward me some cash so I can get some other clothes.” She motioned down to what she had on. “Arrived with just these…although Captain FA did launder them nicely for me.”

“Uh-uh. Not happening.” Kelli shook her head, hair dancing around her shoulders as they left the nail salon. “You’re a guest of the pack. What you need, we provide. Besides, shopping?
That
at least I can do at the moment. Anything more strenuous is out, because of the bump.”

She rubbed her distended belly as she walked, well, waddled.

“Hmm, thank you. If you’re sure.” Ce wondered how far along she was. Would it be rude to ask? She didn’t know many pregnant women, or women with kids. Was there some kind of etiquette with the questions? “Do you have long left…”

“To go? Ugh, thankfully not long now. A couple of weeks, perhaps less…” She smiled indulgently. “It’s a little girl. They’re usually early in my family.”

Without warning all Ce’s cop senses went into high alert. The sound of roaring engines filled the sleepy town’s main street and a second later three big Harleys thundered into view. Instinctively, she assessed them as they approached. They weren’t doing anything illegal. Yet. But the way they were riding seemed too intent, too aggressive for them to be on a simple little ride through town.

Movement on the street stopped, all eyes turning toward the bikers but no one went running. Huh, obviously didn’t get too many problems with biker gangs. But then, this
was
a shifter town so it’d be a tough gang who’d try to set up shop here, especially with Riley around. But still…

Her eyes narrowed the nearer they got. Was it her imagination or were they edging to this side of the road? Taking a step forward, she reached an arm out to herd Kelli behind her. Sure, the other woman was a shifter and could probably bench press cars for fun, but she was pregnant, which meant all Ce’s protective instincts were in full force.

The bikers dropped out of formation, one sped up and another fell back so they rode in a line. They were almost level with her and Kelli. As the first one reached them, she caught the movement of an arm and the glint of sunlight off the metal of a barrel.

“
Down
!” she bellowed, throwing herself to the side and turning to put her own body between the spray of bullets and Kelli. The sharp rap-rap-rap of gunfire filled her ears and the windows behind them shattered. A woman screamed. Ce didn’t think it was her. She hoped it wasn’t her. She had an image to maintain as a cast-iron bitch cop.

Then they were past and she turned, a snarl on her lips as she went for her gun…only to find it wasn’t there.

“Shit!” She ran into the middle of the road, squinting after the bikers and trying to get their plates. Fuckers had some nerve, trying a drive-by shooting in the middle of the goddamn day. All she needed was a few details and they could get an APB out. It was no good though, they were moving too fast and their back tires kicked up too much dust for her to make out the plates.

“They got away,” she said to Kelli as she returned to the sidewalk. Noting the other woman’s pale face, Ce did a quick visual check. There was no blood and she hadn’t fallen. Looking around, she met the eyes of one of the nail girls through the missing window. “Hey, can we get a chair out here. Kelli? Kelli…are you hurt?”

Kelli shook her head, blinking as though waking from sleep. Her eyes flared amber. “No. I’m good. But we need to get you looked at. You’re bleeding.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Ce returned automatically. “I’d know if I’d been hit, been doing this for years. People always love to get off a round or two at the cops. Bullets practically bounce off me.”

“No, seriously, hun. Look…” Kelli shook her head, her gaze fixed on Ce’s arm.

She looked down, surprised to see red blossoming over her shirt sleeve. “Huh… okay. Why is that not hurting?”

The girl emerged from the shop with a chair in her hands. As soon as it was put on the ground, Kelli urged Ce into it. As she sat, the other woman put her hand over the bloodied, torn area on Ce’s upper arm. Fire and agony stabbed through the limb, making her gasp.

“Fuck!
Now
it hurts. Can you not do that again?”

“Sorry, hun. Pressure and all that. We don’t want your arm to fall off. Can arms fall off due to gunshot wounds?” Kelli asked as she dumped her purse on the ground next to the chair. “Jane, could you get my cell out of there and call Max, please? Tell him we have a problem.”

Chapter Six

“Problem?” Max slammed the door as he got out of Riley’s truck. Even though he was pack alpha, he rarely raised his voice. Now, it was an all out bellow as he stalked into the nail bar and toward his very pregnant mate. “You call being shot at a
problem?
I call it the start of World War fucking Three!”

Riley followed right on Max’s heels. His attention wasn’t on his sister though. With Max on the warpath as he was, no one was getting anywhere near Kelli anytime soon. He just hoped the guy calmed before she went into labor. Hospitals, as a rule, tended to get a little pissy with relatives who tried to rip the heads off the delivery doctors.

No, Riley’s attention was all for the silent, pale-looking woman who sat on the chair next to a standing Kelli. For a moment irritation surged. His sister was pregnant, her belly enormous and she was constantly tired. Would it have killed their guest to let her sit?

But then something teased at his sensitive sense of smell and the bottom fell out of his stomach. Blood. He smelled blood. More than that, he smelled Ce’s blood. After last night, her scent and taste were so embedded into his memory that even in a hundred years he’d be able to track her across continents.

He lurched forward, his wolf taking charge and knocking him out of his semi-paralysis.

“Ce? Are you okay?” He was on his knees in front of her in an instant. His heart gave another hard squeeze when she just looked at him, her expression a little dazed.

“I got shot,” she informed him, as though that fact surprised her. “Someone actually shot me.”

“And here I was thinking a cop would be used to that…” He managed to smile, even though he didn’t feel like it and looked down to examine her arm. Clean towels were wrapped around it, the ends tucked in and the bundle held in place with gauze bandage. It even had a jaunty little bow.

A neat, if makeshift job, but if it worked who cared. He pried at the edges gently with his fingertips, trying to peek underneath, but his vision was secondary to other senses and the smell of blood wafted up. It had started to seep through the dressing, but his wolf assured him the flow was slowed. Too fast for a human to start healing. She might not be a wolf yet, but already her physiology had started to speed up.

She snorted. “Yeah, I know right? We get shot at a lot, but I’ve never actually been hit!”

“Given what could have happened, let’s be glad they were terrible shots.” He was having trouble keeping his voice level and his hands off her. He’d left her with Kelli because he’d been pissed off with her for calling her partner, but when Max told him they’d been shot at—in the middle of town of all places— all he and his wolf could think of was getting back to her. And if he thought Kelli had a masters degree in nagging, then it was nothing compared to the creature within him.

Still, the fact that she’d called Tom or whatever his name was still niggled at him. The affection and trust in her voice, and the fact she had contacted him rather than a member of her family had been eating at Riley’s gut since he’d left her.

But he’d never expected anyone to try… This.

“Indeed,” Max dropped into a squat next to Riley. “Want to tell me what happened?”

Instantly, the dazed expression faded from her face, her voice professional and calm when she answered.

“Kelli and I were out on the street when I heard the sound of bike engines. Harleys. No idea what type, just big.” She looked up as workmen filed through the main door carrying sheets of plywood to board up the broken window. They nodded to Max and Riley, then went about their business without a word.