Hunter's Heart: Wolf Shifter Romance (Wild Lake Wolves Book 5) (11 page)

Chapter Twelve

I don’t know how long we lay together like that. We
took our time, exploring each other’s bodies with lazy fingers and soft kisses.
It seemed like forever, but I knew it was only minutes. We didn’t have time for
anything else. Maybe we should have waited. We’d stolen a few moments of
pleasure amid the chaos. But, now that we had finally given in to what our
bodies craved, I felt like I could think straight again. I also sensed it
wouldn’t be long before I’d need him like that again.

“If we stay out here much longer, your father is
going to come out here and shoot me for good,” Derek teased as he leaned down
and kissed my nipple.

“Ugh. You’re right.” No sooner had the words left my
mouth when my pile of clothes started to beep. Static crackled, and my father’s
voice came over the walkie I’d hooked to my waistband.

“Jessa. Check in, please.”

Derek gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and leaped
to his feet with agile grace. He held his hand out to help me up. I reached for
my pile of clothes, only finding my pants and t-shirt.

“I had a bra and underwear around here somewhere.”

Derek’s soft laugh sent gooseflesh skittering along
my back. He circled his arms around me and drew me back to him.

“Is this what it’s like bedding with a wolf?” I
said, my words sounding more like a purr.

Derek kissed the top of my head. “It’s what it’s
like for mates, Jessa. At least, so I’m told. I’ve never actually had one
before.”

I whirled in his arms and felt the color drain from
my face. “You mean to tell me that was your . . . uh . . . first . . .”

Derek’s brow arched to the sky. “Ah. No. I don’t
kiss and tell, baby. But I’m talking about mates. I’ve never had a
mate
before. Wolves generally only get one.”

I stabbed my arms through the sleeves of my shirt
and wriggled back in my pants. My boots lay on the ground a few feet in front
of me and I slid my feet into those. I slung the rifle back over my shoulder
and waited for Derek. He didn’t need much prep time, or really any. He’d come
out here in the wolf form and had no clothes. As soon as we got closer to the
trailers and in sight of the cameras, even though it was getting dark again, I
realized that might pose a problem.

Derek saw me looking and laughed again. “Don’t worry.
I’ll wear the wolf. Wouldn’t want to give Grammy a heart attack.”

“Can you read my mind?” I asked. Derek took my hand
and we started walking back. We were easy together now, sated, and the
immediate threat from the enemy wolves had abated. Plus, touching Derek now
seemed the most natural thing in the world. If anything,
not
touching
seemed awkward.

He didn’t answer my question right away. He scanned
the horizon and sniffed the air, ever vigilant.

“Derek?”

He looked down at me. “Ah, no. Not exactly. It’s
just you happen to have a very expressive face.”

We kept walking. In about fifteen yards, he’d need
to shift again if he wanted to avoid marching into my father’s Quonset hut in
the buff. I found myself slowing my pace. My need to have Derek all to myself
almost overwhelmed me. In fact, a different growing need started to bloom
inside me, heating me through and through.

“You wanted to bite me,” I said. It just came out.
The instant it did, it felt like a cop out. It wasn’t just Derek wanting to
bite me. It was me wanting to get bit.

Derek’s pace slowed and he squeezed my hand. “Yes,”
he answered plainly.

“I wanted you to. God. Derek. I wanted it more than
I’ve ever wanted anything. Why didn’t you? I think I would have let you.”

“I know.” He took a breath and stopped, turning to
me.

“So what stopped you?”

“I told you before, I won’t mark you as mine unless
you’re absolutely sure it’s what you want.”

“I did want it. That’s what I’m trying to say. I
want it now.”

“But it scares you. Confuses you a little.”

I bit my lip and looked up at him. “Yes. Truth?
Yes.”

He nodded and drew me to him. “And that’s why I held
back. You have to be ready. Because, Jessa, when I do mark you, I mean for it
to be forever.”

He took my breath away. His words and everything
about him.

“Grammy said when an Alpha marks a woman, they’re
connected forever. That you’ll be able to know what I’m feeling all the time.”

He nodded as he took my hand again and we started to
walk. “And you’ll always know what I’m feeling. And marking is a process; it’s
not just one bite. The deeper I mark you, you’ll eventually hear my thoughts.
It’s how I can always protect you. Always know when you’re in danger. We become
part of each other. Forever, Jessa. That’s why I want to make sure you’re one
hundred percent ready. Plus, I don’t know. I kind of wanted to pick a spot with
a little more romance than a junkyard.”

He laughed at the last part, low and deep, sending
warmth flooding through me again. I laughed too. It was absurd. At least a
little. But, I wanted to tell him it didn’t matter. Wherever we were seemed
like the most romantic place on the planet. And knowing that made me understand
how right he was. This was new. This was intense. Before I was willing to give
myself to him completely, I needed to know for sure.

“We’re getting close,” I said. About ten yards ahead
of us, Dad had a camera affixed to a utility pole. When we came over the next
rise, we’d be in range of it.

Derek gave me a nod. He squeezed my hand then let it
go. He took one step as a man, the next as a wolf. The power and speed of his
shift sent a thrill through me. Derek stretched his paws and arched his back,
shaking his tail out. He looked back at me and let out a chuff. I put a hand on
his back, sinking my fingers into his rough, silvery coat. My wolf. My man. My
protector. We headed back to the hut.

Grammy and my father stood just outside the doorway.
Dad had his rifle pointed at the ground; Grammy had her hands on her hips.

“Everything okay out there?” Dad shouted. I raised
my hand in a wave and gave him a nod.

“They’ve moved off,” I said. “Derek thinks we’re
safe, at least for now.”

“Good,” Dad answered. He gave Derek’s wolf a dubious
glance then turned to Grammy.

“Head back on in, Thomas,” she said, giving him a
hard pat on the back.

“You okay?” she said, turning to me. She put a hand
on my arm and jerked her chin at Derek. She held a pair of folded jeans under
her arm and she tossed them on the ground in front of him.

“Those are Thomas’s old ones,” she said. “They’ll do
in a pinch. Why don’t you make yourself presentable while I take my
granddaughter inside?”

Derek lowered his head to acknowledge her, then
Grammy put an arm around me and we walked back into the hut together. Grammy
rubbed the center of my back and leaned in to give me a kiss on the cheek.

“You two sure didn’t waste any time.” A hot blush
flooded my face.

“Oh, God, did he see?” Dad had gone back to the
security monitors and had barely acknowledged me as we walked back inside. Oh,
God, indeed. Had we been careless? Had Dad installed another camera I didn’t
know about? When Derek and I . . .

“Relax,” Grammy said. “Nobody saw nothin’, darlin’.
But
I
know that look on your face. It’s not one I see very often. You
look happy. You look . . . well . . . in love, honey.”

Love. The word flooded through me and forced the air
from my lungs. Love. In love. Was I in love with Derek? I needed him. I craved
him. When he touched me, it felt as though my heart started to beat for the
first time. Was it love? I’d never felt it before.

“Everything under control in here?” Derek came up
behind us. He put a light hand on my shoulder, sending a trickle of pleasure
through me. God, would I ever stop feeling this way around him? Would the
wanting ever stop? In that instant, I knew I didn’t want it to.

“Your friend is getting more and more agitated,” Dad
said. He came away from the monitors and pointed his rifle at the prone form of
the enemy wolf. He still lay on the floor of the cage, but his fur rippled and
he bared his teeth.

“Time to have a conversation, I think,” Derek said.
“You wouldn’t happen to have shifter-strength shackles lying around, would you?
I need him human for a while, and that cage isn’t big enough.”

“As a matter of fact,” Dad said. He opened a drawer
beneath the table and tossed wrist and ankle chains to Derek.

“Everybody get to the other side of the room,” Derek
warned. “Tinker and Jessa, keep your weapons aimed at his head and heart. If it
looks like you should, shoot him. Just make sure you don’t hit me on accident.”
He gave my father a pointed look. Dad let out a low laugh, but moved to the
back of the room as Derek instructed.

The wolf growled when Derek got close to him, but he
put his head down. He seemed to understand Derek’s intentions and knew he had
no choice. Derek moved quickly. He opened the cage door and pulled the wolf out
by the scruff of his neck. The wolf snapped at him, but Derek got right in his
face and said something in his ear. He looped the wrist cuffs around the wolf’s
front paws. They were far too large, but Derek said something else to the wolf,
and almost instantly, he shifted. A painful, tearing sound. Not smooth or
graceful like Derek’s shift. This one seemed forced against his will, and I
knew instantly that’s exactly what it was. Derek
made
this wolf do his
bidding.

“How’d he do that?” Dad asked, giving voice to my
thoughts.

“He’s an Alpha,” Grammy said. “He might not be
that
wolf’s Alpha, but it doesn’t matter. If Derek wants him to shift, his ass is
going to shift.”

The wolf became a man. He was dirty. Long, streaky
blond hair, dark brown eyes, and high cheekbones. He looked malnourished, with
his shoulder blades sticking out and a deep hollow beneath each clavicle. Derek
shoved him forward. Dad had folding chairs around the table. Derek forced the
man into one of them and looped the wrist and ankle chains around it. Then, he
twisted the chains around his own forearm. If the man tried to run, Derek could
have him down on the ground in an instant.

Grammy came forward and threw a towel over the man’s
privates as Derek shoved the chair closer to the table.

“Who are you?” Derek said, nearly growling it near
the man’s ear. He clenched his jaw. He didn’t want to talk. But, Derek with his
Alpha strength seemed to act as a human lie detector, compelling him to speak.

“Jensen, Boyd Jensen.”

“Who sent you, Boyd?”

Boyd Jensen trembled in his seat. He really was a
pitiful creature. Sulking. Wretched. He buckled under Derek’s considerable
power over him. Boyd looked from Derek to me and back again. He squeezed his
eyes shut and tried to take slow, measured breaths. He was just no match for
Derek. Derek jerked the chains binding him, forcing Boyd’s back straight.

“Dammit! Stop that!”

“Oh, I don’t think I will,” Derek said. “You tried
to kill that nice lady over there.” He bent low, pressing his temple against
Boyd’s. He pointed to Grammy. She straightened her back. I knew what this cost
her. Boyd Jensen made her relive one of the worst experiences of her life. A
part of me . . . well, actually, most of me . . . wanted to watch as Derek
ripped him limb from limb.

“Who sent you?” Derek asked again.

Boyd laughed. “You really are an idiot, you know
that?” He wasn’t talking to Derek. Boyd looked straight at my father. Dad
stepped out of the shadows and pressed his hands flat against the table.

“Son, you’re the one chained up in my bunker just at
the moment. The rest of your friends were smart enough and fast enough not to
get caught. Who’s the idiot again?”

“He’s got a point there, Boyd,” Derek said. “Now, I
don’t have a lot of time. I know your pack isn’t going to quit. I also know
they weren’t sent here for me, were they?”

My heart raced.

“We hired you to do one job,” Boyd said, still
looking at my father. “You know full well what happens if you don’t hold up
your end.”

My father flinched. He took a step back and pointed
a shaking finger at Boyd. “What the hell are you talking about? I don’t work
for you, asshole.”

Derek pulled Boyd’s chains tighter. He winced but
didn’t break my father’s stare.

“I work for the Harlans,” Dad said, but something in
his tone faltered. His skin turned ashen. I went to him, putting a steadying
hand on his back.

Boyd sucked air through his teeth, trying to fight
off Derek’s influence and failing. The words he spoke were forced from him,
they seemed to stab through the air and hit my father like a thousand knives of
truth. “The Harlans are just the middlemen, Tinker. You work for us. Everything
you own, you paid for with our money. Not the Harlans.”

Boyd started to laugh, sounding more hyena than wolf
as Derek broke him. My father sank into a chair on the other side of the table.
Grammy stepped forward. Her color drained from her face just like my father’s.
What Boyd said was impossible. Wolf blood. Wolf money. All this time?