Half Wolf (12 page)

“Why would it?” Michael’s voice registered his uneasiness with this line of questioning.

“Because she has been up close with one in a different way,” Dylan said.

Hell, could everyone read her mind? Did all of these Weres know what had happened to her?

“Sorry,” Kaitlin said, frustrated, scared all over again by Dylan’s reminder of that vampire attacker’s foul breath and how close she had come to dying. “I don’t see how I can know their location when I barely know the direction of my apartment.”

Michael moved. Turning slowly, he spoke to everyone. “Let it go. We can start the search and do one building at a time if we have to.”

As all eyes shifted to him, Kaitlin swayed. The ground was moving, and a quick look at the others told her no one else had noticed. More outside pressure came, as if the night again was closing in. Piled on top of the internal pressure threatening to make her shout, she caught a new scent that was similar to the sharp odor of rotting wood.

She widened her stance. Raising her face to the sky, Kaitlin drew in a breath of night air that might have carried a message of sorts if she could figure out how to access it. Both the earth and the wind were trying to communicate with her, and that notion was bizarre. Still, she had a feeling their message was important.

Was it a warning? A signal to be wary?

Why did she think the wind could speak her language?

Who would believe it?

* * *

Michael felt the direction Kaitlin’s mind had taken. Before he had a chance to explore further, she slammed a mental door in his face. He didn’t know how she did that, because it was a barrier he could not scale.

Before long the others would notice how Kaitlin had frozen in place. They would note the ashen pallor of her face. Getting her out of there was crucial. She wouldn’t want them to discover the reason for her sudden color loss. Sooner or later, they would pick up with greater detail the new thing blossoming inside her.

The rapid growth of the wolf inside Kaitlin was like nothing he had ever encountered. He couldn’t wrap his senses around the reason for its early intensity, or comprehend why it was happening to her at all...unless Dylan and Devlin were right, and she wasn’t quite human to begin with. Perhaps they were nearer to the truth than he had been because he was close to her on a level that extended far beyond their brief acquaintance with her.

Imprinting with Kaitlin was no joke. Lust and attraction and cravings were all part of that. Longings to be near her, to touch and smell her, had been magnified to alarming proportions. Because of that, it was entirely possible that he had missed something important.

Hell...maybe he hadn’t felt sorry for her that fateful night and some kind of magic had been at work the whole time, directing his actions where Kaitlin was concerned. Maybe she had lured him there.

Her aliveness was expanding. The thing centered at her core had picked up a glow, as if an internal lantern had been lit. She had wavered in and out of transparency prior to this, or so he’d thought, convinced at those times that he had made those things up.

He wasn’t so convinced about his imagination now.

Dylan had been wrong in assuming what Kaitlin hid was dark, though. If this other side of her carried dark traits, it did a damn fine job of faking the opposite. Michael was afraid that if she stood here much longer, that internal light might shine from her pores, becoming a beacon for every living thing in their surroundings.

Light was the essential element that vampires and rogue Weres lacked, the element that species clinging to the dark left behind, along with their former lives. That had to be why they were attracted to her.

He also wanted to melt into that inner light, and into her. Kaitlin Davies was some kind of unidentifiable spirit, and this first inkling of what that spirit looked like would have surprised everyone here. Even Kaitlin didn’t know this. Whatever had been hidden inside her must have been dormant before tonight.

As her gaze gravitated to him, the wind picked up. For a moment, Michael believed she had conjured it. But it was an ill wind that Kaitlin was showing him, and tucked inside it wafted the unmistakable odor of several bad things.

Chapter 13

R
ena was the first to speak. “Hey, are you all right?”

Michael shook off the spell he’d been under and barked, “Fine,” then pointed to Dylan. “There’s a nest in the building beside the athletic field.” He inhaled deeply, finding images in the wind. “More unwelcome guests are being housed in a warehouse beside the dorms.”

No one asked how he had managed to pinpoint the intruders so quickly, and he wouldn’t have told them anyway. Kaitlin’s secret rogue-honing ability was safe with him for the time being, despite Dylan questioning her about it. While he had a feeling she had called up the wind blowing through the circle, he was the one putting names to the evil nestled inside it.

At the moment, Kaitlin didn’t look well. Possibly she was wondering the same thing about calling up that wind, and recognizing the hints of what it carried.

“I’ll take Kaitlin home first, and then we can rendezvous at the field,” he said. “She’s not up for the kind of guests we’re expecting.”

Kaitlin didn’t argue with that. No one else did, either.

Michael felt some semblance of relief. Her unusual fast track toward her wolf had shifted from his shoulders to those of her parents. He had nothing to do with this other side of Kaitlin. Family secrets were always a burden, but her family obviously had not told her about theirs.

Relief was quickly replaced with empathy. How could her family have hidden a secret like this? Or did her family even know about her, if Kaitlin didn’t?

Had she heard those comments? Damn it, he’d forgotten to seal them off. Stiff, and as white as a ghost, Kaitlin whispered, “Please help me.”

And that was exactly what he was going to do.

Taking her hand, Michael nodded to the others and headed for the trees with the knowledge that Kaitlin wasn’t up to chasing after more turmoil.

Hell, neither was he.

* * *

War raged inside Kaitlin. She hadn’t been able to duck fast enough to avoid all the bad information flooding her mind. The world had changed one too many times and she was having a hard time keeping up. If her DNA carried something that was other than human, and also other than the new infusion of wolf, she’d have a lot to confront her family about. The family she had always trusted and loved.

Did this make the other members of her family different, too?

How different?

The answer, whenever it decided to show up, made family decisions and directions about not standing out in a crowd doubly dubious. Was the fact that they didn’t want to stand out because the Davies clan was something
Other
?

The opposing factions inside her didn’t know how to respond to the latest round of news. One side wanted her to growl in distress. The other wanted her to disappear.

Beyond her thunderous heartbeats the night had become a symphony of sounds that were like nature’s music. Night birds sang in the distance. Grass rustled as she and Michael walked.

Leaves swayed and crinkled over their heads. Branches rubbed together. This stuff had nothing to do with the moon that peeked out from behind overhead clouds. She had heard this kind of music only once before, in a recent dream.

“Do you have any idea what that secret is?” Michael asked as they walked briskly toward the street. “The one someone in your family might have kept from you?”

Kaitlin shook her head.

“You need to talk to me, Kate. Tell me what I can do to make this easier for you.”

“Michael.” The word was special, safe, and made her feel better. But it was only his name, not a talisman or an answer to Michael’s questions.

“I only have an inkling of what you’re going through,” he said. “It’s very different in my case, since I knew from the start what my family was, and what I was. No secrets there.”

Michael was taking her home, doing his best to help and honestly trying to understand the situation. She loved him for that.

“I’m scared.” She tugged on Michael’s hand to make sure the bond was tight, wishing some of his incredible strength and confidence would rub off on her. “And I’m sick of being afraid.”

She remembered saying this same thing to Michael before. How long ago had that been? Hours? Days? She had lost track of time. God, could it have been only that morning? Was this the same damn day that she had awakened screaming?

“You haven’t noticed the moonlight for a while,” he observed.

“I do feel it. I had made up my mind to give in before...” Before what? Before two werewolves she didn’t know had pegged her as being different? Before a beast these guys called a rogue tried to make her his dinner?

Had Dylan’s and Devlin’s attention been the initial spark that started the ball rolling on that new Otherness inside her? Was the wind to blame? The wind that turned the movement of branches into voices that sang of starlight, escape and freedom?

She feared she might have a nervous breakdown trying to piece this together before they reached the street.

“How could you know where the monsters were hiding when the rest of us couldn’t?” Michael asked.

“I saw a picture in my mind.”

“Like the hills and valleys you spoke of earlier?”

“Yes. Like that. Just a picture I was able to decode.” She glanced at Michael. “Maybe those pictures will go away if I don’t concentrate on them.”

“Would you like them to go away?”

“Yes.” She tested his grip again and found it secure. “There’s more.”

“Like what?” Michael asked, slowing their pace.

“Something very dark is nearby, coating whatever light remains in this place.”

Michael eyed her again. “In the park, you mean?”

“This darkness covers more area than that. When I first sensed it tonight, I thought I might be the cause, because of what Dylan and Devlin had said. I don’t think I am. I don’t feel darkness inside me. I’m not like the other anomaly Dylan mentioned, am I?”

“I’m not sure what Dylan was talking about, and am pretty sure you’d know if you had darkness inside you,” Michael replied. “More than that, I’m sure I would have noticed.”

“I can’t be a vampire. You told me that. Yet I can sense them.”

“No vampire. I promise you that. You did not die by a vamp’s hand, and death is how their poison is passed along. Wolf and vampire can’t exist in the same body. And all Weres can sense vampires at times. This wouldn’t be news for your wolf.”

Maybe it was nothing new, Kaitlin thought, and yet Michael was thinking about the crazy werewolf in the library that had nearly completely covered its wolfish odor with that of its vampire kill, mixing up scents and causing confusion.

“In any case, that has nothing to do with you,” Michael said, aware that she probed his thoughts.

They paused near the street across from her apartment. She hadn’t been there since heading out to meet Michael earlier. Windows were dark, making the place that had been her haven seem uninviting. Traffic in front of the building was light, since most students near the campus walked or rode bicycles. She had no idea what time it was.

Michael had somewhere else to be, and they both resented that. He didn’t want to leave her any more than she wanted him to. Was she supposed to curl up in a chair and wait for any news they would eventually bring her if the pack survived finding nests of vampires and an escaped convict with an army of criminal-minded werewolves?

“That werewolf came after me tonight,” she said. “You believe that might not have been a coincidence.”

Michael’s scrutiny intensified. “That rogue, if it had anything to do with Chavez—the wolf Dylan and his friends are chasing—could just as easily have gone after any woman who was out here and alone.”

“Do some Weres do that? Chase humans?”

“Bad ones might.”

“What about the vampire attacks? So many of them?”

Michael’s green eyes were bright under the streetlights. “We are going to find out about that. I am going to find out.”

He stepped off the curb, pulling her along with him. He would leave her soon, and the thought of Michael fighting a wolf so bad that Miami Weres had chased it here, and that he might be hurt in that fight, was almost too much for Kaitlin to bear.

“You’ll have to,” he said.

She glanced at him.

“You will have to stay here this time, Kaitlin. You have to promise me you’ll do that.”

The energy sparking between them was exquisite and addictive. Kaitlin didn’t want to promise Michael anything that had to do with being separated from him. Though she was scared when she was with him, being without him seemed a terrifying idea. He hadn’t gone anywhere yet and her longing for him had already tripled in scope. The very thing that had been her first inconceivable anomaly had now become her safety net.

She found herself again chest to chest with Michael, not sure who had made the first move. His body heat was scalding. The sexy Alpha’s breath was rich.

Kaitlin cursed the night, the visitors and everything else that stood in the way of her having Michael to herself, including the guilt she harbored for being so selfish. Each second ticking by felt like an incredible gift, and also a monstrous mistake.

“All right, Michael,” she said.
If I lie, you will know it.

“Let me hear you say it.” He whispered this to her, leaning down to capture her gaze. “Say the words, Kaitlin.”

“I promise to stay put.”

His lips brushed her forehead, setting off small internal explosions that mirrored the rocking ground beneath her feet. She wrapped her arms around Michael’s waist, frightened that this might be the last time to indulge in a stolen embrace, and that the danger tonight was too terrifyingly grim for any semblance of normalcy to return afterward.

“This isn’t wise.” His lips rested on her temple. She heard his intake of breath.

“No.” Kaitlin closed her eyes to absorb the riotous sensations he caused in her body by placing one brief kiss in the wrong place. “Probably not.”

But it is glorious
, she silently added, slipping her hands beneath the hem of his jacket.
You are glorious.

Michael wore no shirt beneath the borrowed tweed coat. He shuddered when her fingertips danced over him.

The jacket was too small to contain Michael. His wide shoulders stretched the seams. When his arms encircled her, the coat rode up his back.

Testing the limits of her craving for him and pushing thoughts of guilt and danger aside, Kaitlin pressed her palms to his warm flesh. She moved her hands upward, over his waist and abs, acutely aware of each inch she traveled and awaiting his response.

It wasn’t the response she had expected.

He released her, caught her wrists in a viselike grip and sucked in a breath. But she wasn’t going to let him off that easily. What she wanted from him wouldn’t take up much precious time.

She waited out the few seconds it took for Michael to loosen his hold on her wrist. When he did, he gathered her closer.

His kiss was a feverish devouring that captured her completely from the first touch of their lips. No light thing, and an action without warning, this kiss threatened to fade the rest of the world out of existence.

Lips. Tongue. Teeth. This was why Michael was so dangerous. He was a talented warrior for justice and sublime as a lover. She was going down in flames, craving him, wanting him, needing him, in spite of the dangers the night had brought. Their mouths were merging in an endless, mindless seduction of every other part of her.

Deep within her body, shocked by this kiss, Kaitlin felt her wolf stirring. The sensation was indefinable and disturbing, as if she had swallowed an animal whole and it was still alive.

Barreling upward, this inner wolf clawed its way to her throat, where it made a rumbling sound that resembled a groan of pleasure.

Michael echoed that sound.

She climbed up his body by wrapping her legs around Michael’s hips. She clung hard to his shoulders as the kiss went on and on in a more provocative version of the first time Michael had placed his mouth on hers...in darkness, at death’s door.

They were on the street, at the curb, and his hands tore at her clothes without a care for who might be watching. Hell, she didn’t have to worry. No observer would have recognized shy, quiet Kaitlin Davies.

When Michael backed away from the street, she was sure they were going to finish this without a bed and four walls, and in this one case, the darkness might be a friend.

* * *

In the back of Michael’s mind, a warning light flashed. Time was short. Others were waiting, depending on him to join the hunt. He just couldn’t stop kissing Kaitlin. Everything he had always wanted was centered in her fragile, misunderstood body.

He liked to think that on some level he knew what he was doing, and that following his instincts about being physical with Kaitlin would turn out all right. He had never been delusional.

He could have taken her to her apartment, one rationalizing flash told him, but if he was late to the hunting party, Rena might come calling and break down the door. Instead, he carried her, with her legs around his waist, to the trees bordering the park; merely a few yards of backpedaling from the rest of civilization. He wanted her all to himself and was breathing hard. But then Kaitlin had always taken his breath away.

She was perfectly positioned to rub him the right way. Against the jeans he had nabbed from a student’s backpack, the space between her jean-clad thighs created enough friction to heat the planet. The only question left was how he was going to get her out of those pants in a semipublic place, in order to explore what she was offering.

They were hungry, unashamed, wanting.

He didn’t plan on being disturbed.

There wasn’t time to treat this right, treat Kaitlin properly, and he hated that. However, her plans were crystal clear. She dug into his shoulders with her fingers. Her tongue danced with his. She was clinging to him as if her life depended on it, and he didn’t slow down long enough to tell her it didn’t.

As for himself... Michael Hunter enjoyed his reputation as a badass Alpha who had never been tamed, and didn’t want to be domesticated now, no matter how much he wanted Kaitlin. Those warning lights in his mind told him that if he and Kaitlin followed through with a physical merging, they’d have to deal with the repercussions of a hasty, spur-of-the-moment hookup for days to come. After imprinting with her, having sex would seal the contract their bodies had made.