Eyes on the Pride (Awakening Pride Book 8) (2 page)

“Now, look at this.” Her father clicked onto another image, one that had Utah Pearce’s photo on a split screen with that of another man. The other picture was older, early twentieth century would be her guess. Same posture. Same stance. Same piercing gaze. Same confidence and intelligence.

“Is that Dale Tahmond?” she asked as the connection was forged in her mind.

“Yes.” Her father validated her guess, tapping his finger on the screen. “Do you see the similarities?”

“How could I miss them?” she queried as her gaze moved back and forth between the two photos. “Utah Pearce has to be a descendent of Dale Tahmond. The resemblance is uncanny.”

“I think so, too,” her father agreed. He stood, stretching as he paced. “All this information. We’ve watched and recorded, keeping record of every little thing we could.” He grunted, throwing his hands in the air. “It’s time everything was shared. We can’t filter the information anymore, only sharing what pertains to individual shifters or families. We have to help the new pride.”

“You want to share everything with Utah Pearce?”

He stepped toward her, skimming his fingers down her cheek then cupping her jaw. “I want you to share everything.”

“What?” She hated the way her voice shook as she stepped back from her father’s touch. “Me? Why?”

“Look at you. You’re petite and human, beautiful with an engaging smile. None of them will see you as a threat. Plus, you know the history as well as I do, so you won’t rely on the database.”

“I’m not one of them, so it won’t matter. I’m human. If I’m lucky, they’ll give me a pat on the head and send me back on my way.”

“Did you know Abby Lane is a descendant of watchers, of Ebidiah Lane?”

“You can’t possibly think that will get me an invite into the inner group! Does this Abby even know she’s descended from watchers?”

“I don’t know. I’ve printed out information about Lane just in case. I want you to take it to them, but I don’t plan for that to be your way in. There’s only one sure way to be accepted.”

“Yes, but I’m not a shifter.” Her head spun, but not with the facts and information that had been dumped into it since birth. She didn’t care that she needed to help Utah Pearce tap into the pride link only he could initiate. She didn’t care about sharing the information with the new pride. Not when it sounded as if her father wanted her to do it alone.

“You don’t need to be a shifter,” her father stated. His gaze pierced her, as if he’d make her see by force of will alone.

She shook her head frantically. “You can’t mean… I’m not…” She couldn’t manage a complete sentence.

“Why do you think Calloway Meyer has stayed so close to us for the last four years?”

She shrugged. “Who the hell knows why Calloway does what he does!”

“Think, Darby. How many times have you gone out and he’s showed up? How many times has he sent you home when you’ve tried to sneak out while I was busy?”

Her face flushed with color she couldn’t hide. How did her father know about those times? Calloway had spoken to her like a child and commanded her obedience. Christ, just thinking about it made her clench her thighs closed, made her nipples throb where they hardened and rasped against the lace cups of her bra. Her body always reacted that way when he was anywhere near her.

“You know the truth.” Her father’s voice was calm, soft. “I think you’ve always known.”

“I don’t,” Darby murmured. As much as she lusted for Calloway, the man scared the hell out of her. He was a dominant force of nature. He was the star of every sexual fantasy she’d had since the moment she’d first glimpsed him. One way or another, she was screwed.

Chapter Two

Darby pulled her car into the motel lot and parked next to the office. Her head was still spinning. For the first time in her twenty-five years, she was on her own. She’d prepared for this day all her life, but it wasn’t as she’d pictured it. She’d expected to take her place as a watcher, just as her father had. Instead, she was heading to Oklahoma with the task of joining the newly forming pride and making sure they had access to every piece of information gathered throughout history by watchers. She had an encrypted flash drive and the information needed to access the current code for the online database. Plus she had the print file her father had given her on Ebidiah Lane for his descendent Abby.

Her father was on his way to Ireland, stating there was something there he wanted to check into. She knew it had something to do with the Dockery brothers who were currently with the new pride, but her father hadn’t gone into detail. He’d been too busy making sure she knew exactly what was required of her. Go to Riverton, Oklahoma, a tiny town along the Red River, and stay there until she could gain a meeting with Utah Pearce or his wife Abby Lane Pearce.

She had to find a way to help Utah tap into his ability to call his pride together. All shifters could communicate with each other while in animal form, but an alpha could issue the call in his human skin. Furthermore, that call would go out to every member of his pride, no matter where they were in the world. That particular skill had been lost through the centuries. None of the shifters utilized it anymore, not even the bears who were the most unchanged of all the shifter species. How was she supposed to figure it out?

She made quick work of getting a room, using an alternate ID and paying in cash. It wasn’t hunters she feared finding her, though. If what her father thought was true, it was one pissed off male shifter she needed to be on the lookout for. If she was Calloway’s mate, he’d pursue her, and when he found her… She shivered. When he found her, he’d finally claim her.

She slid back behind the steering wheel and drove around to the back of the building to park. She slung her weather-beaten backpack over one shoulder and headed toward the glass door that led inside, swiping her card and waiting for the green light before jerking it open. Her room was down the hall to the right, but there was an ice machine and vending just to the left. She opted to grab a drink and snack before calling it a night. She’d need to get an early start in the morning.

She was glancing down, fumbling with her wallet as she stepped back into the corridor, when she crashed headfirst into an unforgiving wall of solid muscle. She squeaked as hard hands caught her hips, holding her steady and entirely too close. She knew who it was by the electricity that surged between them. His touch. His scent. His heat. He surrounded her, and it was all she could do to catch her breath.

“Calloway.” His name was all she could manage as she felt the hard bulge of his erection against her stomach. Her pussy clenched, her nipples rigid beads pressing against him.

“Darby.” His voice was deep, husky and dripping with anger. “You ran from me.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she huffed, shoving ineffectively against his chest. “I’m taking a trip. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Don’t lie to me, ever. I know exactly where you’re headed. You should have come to me.”

She finally forced her gaze up to his, lifting a brow. “Come to you? Why would I do that? You’ve made it pretty clear over the last four years that you want me to stay away.”

“You were just a kid.”

“I was twenty-one when we met, hardly a child.”

“Hell, you still look like a child.”

“I can’t help my height,” she snapped. “Not all of us are built like a damn mountain.”

“It’s not your tininess I was commenting on,” he countered. “You’re young, far too young for the things I have in mind.” The last bit was muttered under his breath with disgust.

“I’m a woman, Calloway.”

His gaze flicked over her, and she swore his cock pulsed where it rested along her stomach. “I can see that.”

“I seriously doubt you see anything unless you want to,” Darby retorted.

He glared down at her, opened his mouth then snapped it shut as his head jerked toward the door. She followed his gaze with her own but didn’t see anything. Before she could question, he moved, shoving her behind him and stepping back into the doorway of the little room that housed the vending machines. She opened her mouth to yell at him when the sound of the outer door opening filled the hallway.

She heard the rattle of wheels and heavy footsteps. Calloway gave a jerk of his chin, making her wonder if whoever had entered had acknowledged him in some way. There was a beep and the echo of a door opening and closing then only the sound of their breathing.

She was pressed against his back, fingers clutching the fabric of his shirt were it stretched taut over muscle. He reached back with one hand, tugging her wrist and pulling her after him.

“Wait,” she demanded when he headed toward the door leading outside. “Where are you going?”

“Back home where you’ll be reasonably safe.”

She jerked her hand free and took a step back. “I can’t do that. Dad’s leaving in a few days, and I have somewhere else I need to be.”

“It’s too dangerous. You might not be on the hunters’ radar right now, but you will be if you head to Riverton.”

“That’s a risk I’ll have to take.”

“The fuck you will,” he snarled. “I haven’t been watching you for four years just to let you get yourself killed.”

“No, we both know why you’ve been watching me.” She let her gaze dip to the fly of his jeans and the bulge that couldn’t be denied. “What’s the matter, Calloway? Afraid I’ll meet someone else? Someone who has no problem letting me do all those things you’ve merely imagined?”

He growled, his chest seeming to expand with every breath he took. She wanted to reach out to him, to run her palm between his pecs to soothe him. She wanted to comb her fingers through his short black hair, to get lost in his eyes, which had always fascinated her. A dark blue circle outlined an iris that was mostly pale green. There were flecks of gold and brown toward the pupil, but at the moment, the gold seemed to be streaking out, overtaking the green and brown.

“That idea doesn’t appeal to you?”

His nostrils flared, bringing to mind an enraged bull and she was the bright red irritant waving in his face.

“Calloway?”

“I’m holding on by a very thin fucking strand right now, so choose your next step wisely, Darby.”

“My next step is to head to the room I rented for the night for a long…hot…shower. Then the glide of cool sheets over my damp skin.” She knew what she was doing, painting the picture she wanted him to have in his head. She needed to know if she was his mate. She stepped into him again, running her fingers up his thigh, tracing over his fly, then caressing up his chest. She flattened her palm over his heart, enjoying the frantic rhythm she felt. “You’re more than welcome to join me.” She rose on tiptoes and brushed her lips softly over his, just a fleeting taste of what could be, something to tempt them both.

He stood straight, hands clenched at his sides, so still he could have been carved from stone. She sighed, letting him feel her breath, patted his chest then turned and headed toward her door. Her nipples were tight, her sex damp with unsated desire she knew would fill his senses with every inhale. She hitched her pack higher on her shoulder, pulled her door card from her front pocket then slid it into the reader on her door. The light flicked from red to green, and she grabbed the handle, turning it and pushing the door open. Cool air washed over her, a sign the air had been left on, which would be a good thing considering the inferno suddenly burning at her back.

He didn’t touch her this time. He didn’t need to. They both knew if he stepped in the door with her she would belong to him. She wasn’t sure he realized that would go both ways.

“Be sure, Darby.” His voice was deep, gruff and as hard as the cock she’d felt pressed against her moments ago. “There’s no going back.”

“So I won’t be a one-night stand?” she murmured in challenge, knowing the truth but needing him to confirm it just as much as she needed him.

She felt his breath at her ear and turned, letting her hair fall behind her shoulder, exposing the smooth skin of her neck to him. She shuddered as his lips caressed just behind her ear then moaned at the slight scrape of his canines.

“Move your bag,” he commanded.

She pulled it off, placing it on the chair just inside the entryway, hoping he’d step closer and press against her back so she could feel every inch of him.

His chuckle rasped over her skin instead. “Do you have any clue the beast you tempt?”

“I know who you are, Calloway. You don’t scare me.”

“I know, but you should be scared.”

She went to turn, but he caught her, one big hand flattening over her stomach and pulling her back into him. She shuddered again, fighting the urge to rub against him like a cat in heat. His other hand cupped her throat, his thumb pressing her chin so she was glancing over her shoulder at him. His eyes were a smoldering mix of gold and brown. Glowing orbs that let her know just how close to the surface his beast was.

“You should fear me,” he crooned.

She blinked lust-laden lids. “Why?”

“I’m going to own you,” he vowed. “Every inch of you will feel my possession. By the time we leave this room, you’ll be mine in every sense of the word. Mine, Darby. Not just this perfect body that’s had me salivating for four fucking years. Every fucking part of you will belong to me.”

“What if I don’t want to be owned by you?”

He laughed, his chest rumbling against her back. He dropped a kiss to her lips, soft but clinging, and she tried to follow his retreat the moment he pulled away.

“You don’t just want it. You crave it,” he challenged. “You need my kiss as if it were water and you were dying of thirst. Your breasts are heavy with tight nipples just begging for my lips, for the warm suction of my mouth. Your pussy.” He groaned, lids dipping low for a moment. His eyes seemed a deeper gold when she saw them again. “Your pussy is dripping with how much you want me. I can smell your desire. I plan to bathe in it. My mouth. My cock. My fingers. I hope you’re not on a schedule, Darby, because I promise you it will be days before I let you leave this room.”