Far From Innocent (17 page)

“What?” Heidi snapped at him. “She just said the bad things we hear about her pack aren’t true. Give her a chance to tell us how it isn’t.”

“Malta werewolves don’t have magic,” Erin said quietly, seeing that even if Heidi was nice to her, deep inside, the bitch believed her kind to be all voodoo werewolves or something crazy like that.

“Then what do you have?” Heidi prodded.

“Our pack leader in Malta called it a gift. He taught some of us to work with the elements.”

Again Martin’s eyes pinned her in the rearview mirror. Their steel blue color glowed in the darkness, irritating her.

“He taught you?” Steve looked over his shoulder at her, his curiosity smelling stronger than normal from the adrenaline already pumping inside him. “So you could teach others?”

Erin laughed and all of them looked at her. She hated the caged-in feeling that started rising inside her. “Well, I couldn’t teach you shit. I’m not very good at it. But if some of the idiots in my pack can master things, I’m sure anyone could.”

Heidi made that snorting sound again. As odd as it sounded, it fit this bitch.

“Maybe you could show us what you can do,” Martin suggested, his tone a bit cold for her tastes.

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“I’m not some freak sideshow act.” She met his gaze in the rearview mirror and he looked away.

“There’s Bob’s car,” Steve said excitedly and pointed toward several cars parked diagonally along the side of the road. “Pull in here.”

He had the door opened before Martin stopped the car. Heidi opened her door when her phone started ringing. She stared at the glowing box and frowned, standing outside the car and making room for Erin to climb out next to her.

“I think it might be the number you called,” she said, and held the phone to Erin.

The two werewolves joined them on their side of the car, sniffing the air and searching the darkness for signs of the other werewolves. Someone shouted as Erin answered the call.

“Hello.”

“Erin, it’s Moira. Are you coming to meet me?”

“No. They brought me downtown with them. Apparently several
lunewulfs
got into a fight with some Malta werewolves in their town. The pack leader is here and they brought me here too.”

“Oh hell. Okay. We’re almost to their town. What kind of car are you in?”

Erin quickly described the car and the shops that were around them. “But Moira, you can’t come here. It’s not safe.”

Moira laughed in her ear, the relaxed, confident sound instantly making Erin feel foolish. Damn the bitch for always making her feel like she wasn’t quite as good. She bit her lip, refusing to let insecure thoughts grow in her head. This was the last place where she could afford to look or smell weak.

“Don’t worry, Erin. Those
lunewulfs
can’t hurt me. If at all possible, stay real close to that car and I’ll grab you, then we’ll go find our fool werewolves.”

Erin liked the way she said
we
.

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Far From Innocent

Juan wanted to kick his littermate’s tail. Of all the times Dante had turned an ambush into child’s play, shrugging off how easily the two of them had overcome being outnumbered in the past, tonight the jerk had gone lame on him. This “keep the gift a secret” crap needed to be saved for another time.

“Your pack stole my littermate, and you can go to fucking hell if you think we’re leaving without her.” Dimitri’s shirt had torn down the middle of his back. Too many contorted muscles had ripped the thing in two.

“You’re a fucking liar.” One of the
lunewulfs
who held on to Dimitri growled as his teeth pointed past his lower lip.

Two werewolves held on to Dimitri, and two more had their mangy paws on Juan.

“The four of you are in some serious trouble for entering our territory.” A
lunewulf
named Bob, who appeared to be their pack leader, glared at them with silver eyes.

Every werewolf in the dark alley struggled to stay in their human form. The fact that they did at all told Juan the town must have a fair amount of humans in it. Not that he could smell a damned thing at the moment other than outrage and hatred.

“We sniffed my bitch out to the edge of our territory, which is where we found her clothes. She is here and we’re not leaving without her.” Juan shrugged violently against the two
lunewulfs
holding him, knocking one of them off his feet.

Instantly several more of them jumped him, knocking him to the ground. The burn of the gravel tore at his hands and knees, fueling the fire already raging inside him. He roared and leapt to his feet, out of control for a minute as the change unleashed inside him.

“If one hair on her is hurt, motherfuckers, I swear every one of you will die,” he roared, unable to focus as he tore at his captors.

Once again he hit the ground, the impact even worse with the weight of too many werewolves on top of him.

“Pull him up.” The pack leader’s command sounded like it came through a tunnel.

“We know she’s here,” Dante said. “Send some of your werewolves looking for her.

We tracked her scent to a few blocks from here.”

“I’ve got several werewolves sniffing around for your bitch. No one’s seen anything.” Bob, a fairly large man for a
lunewulf
, didn’t sound too believable.

It was impossible to smell his lie though. Juan got a big whiff of his own blood and the foul stench of the werewolves holding him down. Someone shouted at the end of the alley and all of them jumped. Nerves were on edge. Juan grabbed the moment and 89

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jumped to his feet. He howled at the
lunewulf
who tried tackling him and sent the guy flying against the side of the building next to them.

“Juan!” Dante screamed at him, but he ignored him.

Standing here letting these
lunewulfs
paw at them was a waste of fucking time. He had the strength to throw these assholes off him. None of them matched his size or strength in human form, and he’d dwarf them even more if they were all in their fur.

But even with her gift, Erin wouldn’t be able to stop so many of them. They’d managed to carry her off in her fur—the thought sickened him. The more time that passed without finding her, the more gruesome scenarios attacked his mind. If she was hurt…just one little scratch…

“No!” He screamed, lifting another
lunewulf
into the air and throwing him into a few of his pack mates.

“Erin!” Nicolo yelled, but there was no way Juan heard him right.

His vision blurred, his insides torn and explosive while the change lunged forward.

He fought it, which surged adrenaline inside him at a painful speed. He panted hard while regaining his footing and struggling to search the crowd around him. It seemed in minutes the amount of werewolves in the alley had doubled.

“Juan!” The female who screamed his name couldn’t be Erin.

He wasn’t hearing right.

And there were too many damned werewolves holding him down for him to see or smell anything other than body sweat and anger.

“That’s enough!” Bob, the pack leader, stilled everyone around him. “This is the female?”

Two
lunewulfs
, one on either side of him, held Juan’s arms. The others backed off but watched him warily. Dimitri and Nicolo stood several feet from him, growling at the
lunewulf
s who stood around them. Dante shrugged off the males who held him and took a step forward, showing teeth when a
lunewulf
made a move toward them.

“Juan,” Erin cried out again.

This time he saw her, behind the pack leader, standing at the entrance of the alley with several
lunewulfs
surrounding her. He shoved the brutes holding on to him away and headed toward her.

Dimitri and Nicolo shoved their way forward as well.

Erin tried running to him, and Bob grabbed her. For a minute it looked like Erin would bite his arm off.

“Get your fucking paws off her!” Dimitri leapt through the air, taking down two of their pack members.

Juan grabbed the opportunity, bounding past them. He barely registered that Dante was moving alongside him. He bulldozed over a couple of their pack and leapt at Bob the same time Dante reached him.

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Far From Innocent

Dante could have the pack leader. Juan grabbed Erin, lifting her off the ground and heading toward the end of the alley. Two male
lunewulfs
and a female gawked at him.

He’d take them all down—kill them if need be. All that mattered was getting Erin to safety. What sucked was how far they’d have to run before they were truly safe.

And with the
lunewulf
pack chasing them, they’d have to run like hell. Juan wasn’t sure Erin could run that fast.

Hands grabbed him. People screamed behind him. It sounded like someone roared, as if their anger had consumed them and the change took over. He wasn’t sure. It was fucking chaos.

Erin’s long hair slapped at his face. She clawed at him, struggling to hold on as he ran.

“Moira,” she said.

“Huh?” He hated slowing down, frantic they’d be tackled to the ground if he didn’t keep moving.

“There.” She twisted in his arms.

He gripped her harder. It took a minute to realize she pointed. Moira drove toward them down the street. It made no damned sense at all what she was doing here. But right now, he was just really fucking glad to see her.

“Run!” he ordered, taking her hand and jumping over the hood of a car.

Moira slammed on the brakes so that she wouldn’t hit them.

“Get them!” someone yelled behind him.

A passenger door opened and Juan threw Erin inside then barely managed to get inside himself when Moira tore off down the street.

“Dante and the others are back there?” Moira asked.

Rosa twisted in the front seat, staring at Juan and Erin. “Are you two okay?”

Juan took a minute to adjust his large body in the small backseat.

“We’re alive,” he mumbled, struggling to get his legs to fit in the small space. “And yes, we have to get the others.”

He turned, pushing Erin’s hair over her shoulder and then stroking her cheek. “Did they hurt you?”

“No. Maybe it was Dante who intervened. I’m not sure. I got away from them because someone stuck them to the ceiling of this piss-poor den they took me to.” She chuckled although there was no humor in her tone.

“We chased your scent until we found your clothes, and then Dante left us. He’s done it before and I’m not sure what he does. But when he came back, he said he’d found you.” He stared down at the baggy coat she wore. It reeked of
lunewulf
. “Give me this thing,” he told her, tugging on it.

She slipped out of it, twisting her body in a sweatshirt that hugged her so tightly it was like a second skin over her large breasts. His cock got hard as a rock. What little air 91

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there was to breathe in the damnable small backseat, he sure as hell didn’t want clogged with the smell of another male. He took the coat from her, balling it up and rolling down the window, then hurling it to the street.

“I won’t have their scent on you,” he growled, twisting and fighting to maneuver his large body in the cramped space. He wrapped his arm around her, aware of everywhere she touched him.

“It was all I could find in that gross den to put on,” she said, glancing up at him.

“And it was that or run through their streets naked or in my fur.”

When she would have looked down again, he gripped her chin, forcing her to keep her face tilted to his. He had to taste her. As much as he ached to devour her, with what she’d endured being kidnapped and hauled from her pack, she’d need gentle. He brushed his mouth over hers.

Her lips parted and quivered against his.

“Where did you get the clothes?” he whispered.

Erin stared at him, her dark eyes haunted. “A
lunewulf
bitch gave them to me after I got away from that den. She and a male
lunewulf
found me in the street and I had to go to their den with them.”

He ran his hand down her body, needing to feel her but also wanting assurance that there were no bruises, that she wasn’t hurt. “You walked their streets in nothing but a coat?”

“Which is why the female gave me clothes. Not all of their pack is bad. That’s how I got to you. They brought me downtown because they’d heard there were Malta werewolves down there and a fight was under way. The males wanted in on the action.

I was with them when you first saw me.”

He hadn’t focused on the other werewolves around her. “I would have destroyed their entire pack if they’d hurt you.”

“I did send one of them flying across the room,” she confessed, whispering so quietly it tickled his ears.

It was like a punch to the gut. She confessed this bit of information to him, showing him she’d tried to protect her pack by not using the gift more. He never should have growled so loudly at her about using her gift.

“You should have sent them all flying,” he grumbled.

For the first time since he’d picked her up, she smiled. “I would have, but then suddenly they were all hanging from the ceiling.”

Rosa snickered from the front seat and Erin stiffened. He glanced at his cousin, realizing she had turned so that she faced Moira but could hear them too. The stale smell of jealousy overtook the hostile energy surrounding all of them.

“We’re being followed.” Moira’s excited tone quickly changed the mood. She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder and then took a sharp left. “I wasn’t planning on being chased back to our territory.”

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Far From Innocent

“Let one of them drive and we’ll go get the others,” Rosa offered.

“Like hell you two are taking off by yourselves in
lunewulf
territory.” Juan wouldn’t even allow that discussion.

Erin glared in Rosa’s direction. There was confusion in her eyes when she met his gaze.

He stroked her cheek. “Swear to me that none of them laid a paw on you?”

She shook her head, but her look had hardened. “I’m fine.”