Her Lone Wolves (2 page)

White
. That was all Jane Evans saw as she peered through the window of her rental car. A world made of nothing but the color white. She'd heard the term white-out before, but she'd never imagined the phrase accurately described the phenomenon. The only white-out she'd been familiar with was that liquid stuff you used to fix typing mistakes.

It hadn't been this bad when she'd driven up the mountain to take the last set of photographs she needed for her magazine assignment. Just a few flurries floating leisurely past her lens. But when she’d started back towards town, the flurries turned into a blinding wall of white.

She anxiously gripped the steering wheel. She just wanted to get back to her room at the hotel. She leaned forward, her eyes frantically searching through the snowy windshield. The wiper blades couldn’t keep up with the rapidly falling snow. She wasn't even sure she was still on the road.

Her heart pounded in her chest and her mouth was sour with fear. Maybe she should just wait it out. But where? She didn't think anyone else was on the road. She hadn't passed any cars. The idea of just stopping in the middle of the road didn't appeal to her at all and definitely was dangerous. But she also didn't want to pull over and get stuck in a snowdrift.

She gently pressed the accelerator. The thought of being trapped in the mountains during a full-blown blizzard terrified her. She'd just have to trust she was on the road and that, if she kept going, albeit slowly and carefully, she'd find her way back to town. More than likely she'd be stuck there until the storm passed, but at least she’d be safe and warm in her hotel room.

She eased the car further down the road. Then, suddenly, she was flying, the car completely out of her control. Panicking, she wrenched the steering wheel around then cried out as the car slid down a snowy embankment, trees rippling past the windows, snow whirling about her. The car slammed into one of the trees. Jane screamed when something exploded against her chest.

And then, instead of white, there was only black.

Chapter Two

Everett wearily trudged up the stairs to the second floor. When the blizzard finally settled in, he’d made sure that everything in the house and the barn was ready for it. He’d had to do all the work himself because, as he had suspected, Caleb hadn’t done a damn thing. He released a heavy, frustrated breath. He was bone-tired and he was hungry. The sooner he got out of these wet clothes and into something warm and dry the sooner he could get something to eat.

He wondered where Avery and Caleb were but assumed they were somewhere about the place. The house was big as it had been built to accommodate more than just the three of them.

Everett frowned as he walked towards his bedroom. Once he did see Caleb, he’d have more than a bone to pick with him. He was getting real tired real fast of the younger man’s growing defiance of him. There may not have been much left of their Clan, but Everett was still their alpha.

He opened the door to his bedroom and went inside. Someone had lit a fire in the fireplace. He frowned. The twins knew better than to go poking around in his room. But, considering how cold and wet he was, the fire felt good. He began stripping off his clothes as he headed for the large walk-in closet.

He stopped and stared, his eyes widening.

A woman was in his bed. And not just any woman. A young, beautiful, apparently naked woman. For a moment, he wondered if he was dreaming. He blinked hard but when he opened his eyes she was still there. He went over to the bed. Her long, ash-blonde hair was disheveled as if she had been tossing wildly about while she slept. The bed covers were all tangled and, as a result, her breasts were uncovered. And what breasts. Round and firm with coral-colored aureoles and nipples that were like sweet berries. He wondered if her breasts were real. They looked awfully big for someone as slender as she was. Well, if the breasts weren't real she most certainly was.

But her being in his bed was a mystery and if there was one thing Everett McKinnon didn't much care for were mysteries.

Or strangers.

She moaned softly, the sound burrowing straight to his groin. Under her lids, her eyes moved quickly. She was dreaming.

As he stared at her, she suddenly arched her back and those strawberry nipples tightened provocatively into hard, long nubs. He smelled her pussy ripening, the scent both sharp and sweet in his nostrils.

It was all he could do not to throw himself onto her body and plunge his hardening cock inside her.

He was about to shake her awake, his hand already tingling at the thought of touching her smooth skin. He heard a sound from behind him. He whirled around.

Avery stood in the doorway. He quietly gestured for Everett to follow him out into the hall. Everett glanced back at the woman. She uttered a soft, sighing sound that caused his cock to stir, but she did not awaken. She only turned on her side, her mouth-watering bosom bouncing lusciously as she did.

Once they were out in the hall, Avery carefully closed the door behind him. In the crook of his arm he held a stack of neatly folded clothes. Only a couple inches shorter than Everett, Avery was just over six feet tall and powerfully built like his twin.

But he and Caleb weren’t identical twins. They shared the same nut-brown, shoulder length hair, but where Avery’s eyes were hazel and filled with a kind of inoffensive guilelessness, Caleb’s eyes were green, like a cat’s, and there was always a sly cageyness about them.

Everett angrily jabbed his finger at the closed door of his bedroom. “Who the hell is she and what the fuck is she doing in my bed?”

Avery gestured for him to keep his voice down. “I don't know who she is.”

“What do you mean you don't know? Where’d she come from?”

“We found her. Actually, I was the one that found her but Caleb helped me bring her here.”

Everett took a menacing step toward Avery. “Why?”

Avery moved back, blinking nervously. “Her car had slid off into a ditch. She was near frozen. What were we supposed to do?”

“So you brought her here. Knowing full well the rules. And then you put her in my room.”

Avery nodded, but his eyes were darting about as if he was afraid to look Everett full in the face.

“What in the hell made you do a damned fool thing like that?”

Avery swallowed thickly. “What do you mean? Bringing her here or putting her in your room?”

“Both,” Everett growled.

Avery shrugged. “Your bedroom's the only one with a fireplace.”

“We’ve got central heating.”

“I know that, but your room’s more comfy.”

Everett doubted it was the real reason she’d been put in his room, but he’d deal with that later. “Why did you bring her
here
?”

“We couldn't just leave her,” Avery said. “She'd have died.”

“And did it happen to cross either you or your brother's mind that maybe that would have been for the best?”

Avery's eyes widened. “You don’t mean that.”

“She's not Clan. That makes her a threat.”

“She's just a woman, Everett. What kind of a threat can she be? And you've seen her. She’s pretty, isn’t she?”

“No, she's not.”

Avery looked at him as if he'd grown another head. “What?”

“She's beautiful. And that makes her even more dangerous.”

Avery shook his head. “I know you think it's best we keep to ourselves but—”

Everett grabbed his arm and gripped it. “I don’t
think
it. I know it.”

Avery grimaced. “Alright, alright. Let go.”

Everett released his arm.

“But keeping to ourselves doesn’t mean we have to commit murder,” Avery went on.

Everett raised an eyebrow. “Murder? Who's talking about murder? If you'd left her where you found her she’d have died naturally.”

“There’s nothing natural about freezing to death,” Avery replied, “And I refuse to believe you’re that cold-blooded.”

“Oh, believe it, little brother,” a voice said from behind Everett. “You know how our Clan leader is. He always means what he says and says what he means.”

Everett turned around. As always, the sight of the other Tanner twin never failed to cause his hackles to rise. Although Caleb and Avery were the same age and shared the same birth date, because Caleb had been born a few minutes earlier, he considered Avery his younger brother and treated him as such.

“If he says we should have left that woman to die,” he went on as he stopped next to his twin, “trust me, he means it.”

Everett glared at Caleb. “She's a threat. Pure and simple. If she should find out—”

“But she won't,” Caleb sharply retorted. “Not unless you or my little brother gets it into your heads to shift in front of her.”

“I wish you'd stop saying that,” Avery said.

Caleb put on an exaggerated expression of innocence. “Saying what, little brother?”

Avery gritted his teeth. “You know what. I'm only a few minutes younger. But you act as if you're years older than me.”

“But I am.” Caleb grinned wickedly. “In so many ways.”

Everett did not have time for the twins’ bickering. His concern, for the moment, was that naked woman in his bed.

“Well, she’s here now,” he said. “We need to deal with that for the time being.”

“I could kill her now if you want,” Caleb offered. “Problem solved. And we wouldn’t have to feed her.”

Everett glanced sharply at him. He knew Caleb was only joking and that, more than likely, he was just mocking Everett for his having initially suggested she should have been left to die.

“No, not until it’s absolutely necessary and we have no other choice.”

Avery was about to protest, but Everett brusquely gestured for him to remain silent. He was alpha. It would be up to him to decide when and if the woman needed to die to protect their secret.

“You sure she knows nothing of what we are?” he asked.

Avery nodded. “She's only been here a few hours and she's been asleep the whole time. She's got this bump on her head. Probably happened when her car slid off. Her air bag had gone off too. I’m sure it kept her from sustaining even more injuries.”

“How do you know she doesn't have a concussion?”

Avery and Caleb both shrugged, their puzzled expressions indicating the thought had never crossed their minds.

Great
. However, Everett found himself thinking that if she did, in fact, have a concussion and if she didn't wake up from it....

It was coldblooded of him, he knew, but the Clan came first. Or what was left of it.

“Who took off her clothes?” he asked, recalling the sight of her naked body on the bed.

“Oh, that honor fell to yours truly,” Caleb said with a sly grin. “Her clothes were all wet. The windshield had cracked and there was snow in the car.” He cocked his head at his twin and the folded clothes he was holding. “Suzie Homemaker over there got it into his head to wash and dry her clothes.”

Avery glared at his brother. “That's not funny, Caleb. I swear, one day I’m going to—”

“What? You’re going to do what?” When Avery remained silent, Caleb gave him a wolfish smile, his green eyes glittering dangerously. “Yeah, that’s just what I thought, little brother. You’re not going to do a goddamned thing.”

“Stop it. Both of you.” Sometimes their constant bickering made Everett want to howl. Literally.

He was about to go back into his bedroom. Then, reminded of how the woman had looked in his bed, so enticingly erotic, he looked darkly over at the twins.

“I don't have to tell either of you not to touch her.” He focused his gaze on Caleb especially, who smiled lazily.

“Why? You want to keep her all for yourself? That’s not Clan law. You fuck her, we all fuck her.”

Everett went over until he was just a hairsbreadth away from Caleb.

“What I want is to keep the Clan safe,” he said. “To do that I need the two of you to keep your wits about you and your dicks in your pants until she’s gone. Understand?”

Caleb’s nostrils flared and he bared his teeth. For a moment, Everett wondered if he would choose this moment to make his move. To try and take over what remained of the Clan.

“Moon's going to be full soon,” Avery said. “And with the way that snow's coming down, the pass off the mountain won't be near enough open to get her back to town before we Change.”

“I'm aware of that,” Everett said through gritted teeth. He was still staring at Caleb, willing him to back off. Now was not the time for a Clan Challenge. Not with that woman in the house.

Caleb finally lowered his eyes and stepped back.

“What if she does find out?” Avery said, the relief on his face evident. He’d been witness to too many of these abortive challenges on Caleb’s part to Everett’s authority. “What if she does discover what we are?”

“Then we kill her, Everett said flatly.

Caleb slowly shook his head. “You really are a heartless bastard.”

“I do what I must to protect the Clan.”

“The Clan.” Caleb sneered. “We're all that's left of it. Thanks to you.”