Moon Dance (30 page)

He cocked his head to one
side. “Well, that sucks.”

“
We’re wanted criminals.”
She hugged herself.

He rolled his eyes. “If you
want to be dramatic about it.”

“
This
is
dramatic.” She dragged
her hands over her face.

Cole shrugged and went back into the
bathroom.

She followed him. “That’s
it? That’s all you’re going to say?”

He picked up his razor and
began dragging it over his cheek. “What do you want me to
say?”

“
Well, I’d think you’d be at
least a little bit worried.”

Cole rinsed the razor in the
sink. “How’s being worried going to help us?”

She glared at him.

He squinted in the mirror
and applied the razor to his face again. “This doesn’t change
anything, Dana. We’re still in the same situation we were
before.”

“
Shouldn’t we… I don’t know,
leave or something? What if the guy who checked us into the hotel
recognizes us?” She rubbed her forehead. “Maybe you should have
kept the beard. You didn’t have a beard in the picture.”

He turned to her. Half of
his face was shaved already. “Too late now.”

She walked away from the
bathroom and began to pace. “They’re going to find us, Cole.
They’re going to find us, and they’re going to lock us up
again.”

His voice drifted out of the
bathroom. “The SF isn’t at full strength. Most of their muscle is
gone since the west coast and the east coast branches were taken
out. They’re not going to find us. Calm down.”

But she couldn’t.

* * *

Dana was lost in her own
worries for the rest of the evening. Cole brought them back food
from a vending machine. He
’d wanted to go
pick something up from a restaurant, but Dana was too paranoid
about it, saying it was better to keep as far away from people as
possible.

Cole was trying to make a
list of everyone he knew that he could contact about Enoch. He sat
in the hotel room, clutching his forehead, muttering to himself,
and occasionally scribbling.

Dana alternately paced and
lay on the bed, curled up in a little ball. She was worried about
staying in one place. The thought of being captured again filled
her with terror. Not so much for herself, but for Piper. She didn’t
know what was happening to her little girl.

Cole said that Enoch
wouldn’t have hurt the children, but that he’d want to make sure
that they were all growing up with the kind of werewolf values that
Enoch believed in. Cole wasn’t sure if that would mean having the
children adopted by various members of his network of wolves or if
the kids might all be rounded up in one place. He promised he would
find out, that they would find out together, and that they would
get Piper back.

And there was no discussion
about what would happen after that.

Dana knew she wanted her
daughter back, but she was worried. If she was a fugitive from the
law, she wasn’t going to be able to take care of her daughter. She
couldn’t imagine being on the run like this with Piper. The little
girl wouldn’t be able to take it. And the constant danger would
drive Dana insane.

No, she had to figure out some way to
get herself cleared of these charges.

Maybe she could somehow
trade Cole for her freedom. If the SF had Cole Randall, what would
they want with her?

But that thought made her feel guilty.
Cole was helping her, and she was thinking about betraying
him.

Besides, everything was
confusing with Cole right now. It had always only been sex with
Cole, that was true, but there was something about the sex… She
felt utterly possessed by him, half-devoted to him. It was
ridiculous to feel that way, especially when they weren’t even
mated. Still, she didn’t want him hurt.

Late that night, Cole sent
out a series of texts to as many people as he could think of.
“Maybe we’ll know something by morning,” he told her. “You should
try to get some sleep.”

She crawled into the bed, but Cole sat
perched on the edge, looking at something on the android
phone.

“
What are you doing?” she
asked him.

He turned to her, looking
almost guilty. “Nothing.”

She sat up and snatched the phone from
him.

He had installed an app, and
he was looking at one of Dana’s social networking sites. The page
was plastered with pictures of Piper, and Cole had been scrolling
through them.

“
Oh,” she said. She handed
the phone back to him.

But he turned it off. “Let’s
just go to sleep.”

She hesitated.

He pulled aside the covers on the other
side of the bed and got under them.

She looked from the phone to
Cole. And then she crawled back up to the top of the bed and
slipped under the covers.

Cole turned off the light. He rolled
over with his back to her.

She lay there, eyes open,
staring at the ceiling. “Cole?”

He didn’t say
anything.

“
It’s, um, it’s okay that
you want to look at her,” she said.

“
Don’t.” His voice was
strangled.

“
I mean, it’s natural. It’s
good. She’s your daughter, so—”

“
She’s not really, though,
is she?” Cole yanked the covers tighter around himself. “Let’s not
do this.”

She closed her eyes, and she
lay in the darkness, waiting for sleep to claim her.

Sleep didn’t come. Instead,
she thought of Avery again, how Avery was dead. Really dead. Really
gone. She was never going to see him again, and the storm clouds of
sadness started to rush for her again.

She opened her eyes. “She
really
is
your
daughter, Cole.”

Cole sighed in the dark
room.

“
I’m not lying to you about
it.”

“
I know that,” he
said, his voice quiet. “But I couldn’t ever be a father, Dana. I
don’t know how to do it.
My
father…” He drew a ragged breath. “I really don’t
want to talk about this.”

“
Cole…” She turned
onto her side and pressed her body against his back. “Would
you
want
to be a
father?”

“
I…”

There was no sound except his
breathing, and it sounded uneven.

Abruptly, he rolled over. He
put his lips on hers and started kissing her fiercely. “Let’s not.
Please?”

His fingers traced patterns
over her skin, finding her secret places, and she could hardly
remember what they’d even been talking about.

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

Dana
’s hands were pinned over her head, Cole’s fingers interlaced
with her own.

His face was inches from
hers, and they were both breathing heavily, writhing against each
other. He drove himself deep into her, and she moved her pelvis in
answering thrusts.

She felt close to him—so
close, almost too close, as if he was breaking through some barrier
she’d put up, battering at it with each stroke of his
cock.

There was a banging noise.

At first Dana thought it was
her own mind, an auditory hallucination of a battering ram. When
she was having sex with Cole, she felt utterly lost, and maybe that
meant—

But no. It was real.

The door burst open, wood splintering,
screaming on its hinges.

She screamed, her body
tensing.

Cole let go of her hands, twisting his
body in the direction of the noise.

He was still inside her.

People were rushing into the
room. She could see them, barely illuminated by the hallway lights.
Inside the hotel room, it was dark. But she could see the
distinctive outlines of SF tranquilizer guns.

No
,
she thought.

A shadow moved on Cole,
pressing one of the tranq guns into the back of his head.
“Randall,” said a voice. “I’d recognize your stink
anywhere.”

Dana knew that voice. She
blinked, and she could see his features in the darkness. “Davis?”
she said.

“
Jesus, Gray.”
It
was
him. Brady
Davis, one of the other trackers. She and Avery had worked with him
for years.

“
But how are you…? You’re
not dead?”

“
I was out the night of the
attack.” Brady’s eyes found hers. “The fuck are you doing? I’m only
glad Brooks is dead, because if he saw this, it would kill
him.”

Guilt rose up in Dana’s
gut.

Cole chuckled. Somehow, he
was still rock hard, and when he laughed, she could feel him inside
her. “Okay, we get it. We’re captured by the big, bad SF. You gonna
give us a second? We’re a little… indecent.” And then, as if to
punctuate that point, he thrust into her again.

Dana cringed. This was
probably the most embarrassing moment of her entire life, and—of
course—Cole had to make it worse.

Brady moved the tranq gun to
Cole’s forehead. “How much damage do you think one of these darts
would do at close range like this? You think if I pulled the
trigger, you’d survive?”

Cole considered. “Yeah,
maybe not.” He ran his hands over Dana’s hips. “So, um, now
what?”

Brady looked down at their
bodies and then out at the other SF agents. There were three
others—four total, counting him. He cleared his throat. “Uh, well,
why don’t you, um… get off of her?”

Cole was grinning, clearly
enjoying this. “Did you say ‘get her off,’ because I’d be happy to
oblige, but it turns out she’s not big on having an
audience.”

Dana wanted to punch him.
Why was he dragging this out? They were caught. It was awful enough
already without his stupid quips.

“
You not understanding that
my finger is on the trigger, and you could be dead in two seconds?”
Brady growled.

“
No, I don’t think I’m
getting that, exactly,” said Cole. “There’s no way I’m going to be
dead in two seconds.” He flicked his glance down to Dana. “Sorry
about this, beautiful.”

Sorry about what?

Cole’s features
twisted.

Holy fuck, he was shifting. He was
shifting, and his fucking penis was still inside her.

She yelped, scooting away
from him, disengaging. She did
not
want wolf dick in her. Not if she was human. Not
even Cole’s.

Brady pulled the trigger on
his tranq gun, but Cole’s wolf head was not in the same place as
his human head had been, and the dart flew past harmlessly. It
stuck in the wall with a
thwap
.

Cole lunged onto Brady,
knocking the gun out of his hands, his teeth going for Brady’s
neck.

“
Cole!” she screamed. “Not
Davis. Please!”

Cole paused, his jaws
gaping, centimeters from Brady’s exposed skin.

Oh! He stopped.

But the other agents had their guns
raised.

“
No!” she screamed at them.
“Stop!” Before she knew what she was saying, “Stop, or Cole will
kill Davis.”

Now they froze. They all looked at
her.

She grabbed the sheet from
the bed, covering herself. “Put down your guns. All of you, put
them
down
.”

They hesitated.

“
Davis?” she
said.

“
Gray, you never used to be
such a bitch.” Brady’s voice was strained.

“
The only thing keeping him
from ripping out your goddamned throat is me,” she said. “So, I
wouldn’t be so insulting.”

Cole’s teeth came down on
Brady’s skin. Not breaking it, just pushing against it.

Brady whimpered.

“
Tell them to put down their
guns, Davis,” she said. “Tell them.”

“
Do it,” Brady gasped. “Do
what she says.”

The other SF agents all set down their
tranq guns.

Dana was shaking. She picked
one up, she aimed it at one of the agents. Then she pulled the
trigger.

One of the others went for the guns,
but Dana was faster. She put a dart in each of them.

They staggered, dazed… And
then they fell down, unconscious.

Gathering the sheet tighter,
Dana went over to Cole and Brady. “Okay, Cole, you can
move.”

Cole didn’t.

“
Cole, we’re not killing
him. He’s my friend.”

Cole retreated, closing his mouth. But
he whined and gave her a reproachful look.

Dana put a tranq dart right
in Brady’s chest.

* * *