Protective Instinct (7 page)

His jaw tightened but he dropped his hand. Of course he didn’t move it far, just let it fall right next to her, inches away from her side. “Teresa—”

“Let me finish.” She rolled onto her side so that they were directly facing each other. The manufactured light of the fake fire flickered, making shadows dance around them, some over his far-too-handsome face. “Second, I know what you’ve told me but I’d like it if you’d help me understand what your real fear is.”

He stared at her for so long, those dark eyes unreadable, that she wondered if he’d answer or if they’d come to a complete standstill. Just because they weren’t going to be intimate in the near future didn’t mean she wanted to cut off complete touch from him. No matter what, she loved him and despite the way he was holding back, she knew he loved her too.

Reaching out, she linked her fingers through his, their hands lying between their bodies on the blankets. Hand-holding she could deal with, just not the other stuff.

He seemed to gather strength from her or maybe she was just projecting, but he answered. “Since finding Lucas, I’ve always put him first.”

She nodded. It was one of the things she loved about him.

“And the fact that you love him as much as I do is, well, not unexpected.”

His words had a soothing effect on her, easing the tension from her shoulders. She still didn’t respond though, wanting him to get all this out.

“I don’t think you would do to future cubs what my mother did to me, but…” He sighed. “I guess you’re right, this is more about my own bullshit. I just need to be sure that you’re sure.”

The fact that he didn’t already know sliced her up more than just a tiny bit, but she nodded and tried to cover the hurt welling inside her. But it pushed up with the intensity of a geyser. “You should already know,” she snapped, deciding not to bother hiding her emotions. Screw that. She let his hand drop.

He reached for her. “Teresa, I—”

She moved lightning fast, jumping to her feet. “I’m not having this discussion with you again. I just can’t. You know how I feel and I’m not going to sit around and convince you of it. Now, let’s get our bags put up and see what they’ve stocked in the kitchen. I’m starved.” Oh God, her voice sounded overly bright and ridiculous. Smiling was just as much of a strain and since he was an empath she knew she wasn’t fooling him. So, she let her smile fade. She wasn’t even going to bother right now.

He reacted just as quick. For such a big male, he moved with an incredible fluidity. She’d thought it from the first moment they’d met. From the first argument they’d had when his pack had integrated with hers. It had been over something silly, something to do with organizing one of the stables. He’d been big, obnoxious and so damn sexy.

His dark eyes flashed with something, she wasn’t sure what, but the sound of the front door swinging open made them both pause for a moment.

Ryan spun, blocking Teresa with his body before she could even react. She scented Erin though so peeked her head around Ryan’s body.

Erin stood in the entryway of the living room, the dim light from the foyer behind her illuminating her red hair. Her expression was grim as she looked at the two of them. “Someone, maybe more than one person, is in the woods. I don’t know if they followed you guys but I sense their power. It’s dull, maybe because they’re too far away, but I wanted to let you know. We’re going to scout—”

“I’m going too.” Ryan stepped forward, his long legs eating up the distance between him and Erin.

Teresa’s lips pulled into a thin line as she followed after him. She sure as hell wasn’t being left behind. “Me too.”

Ryan’s head whipped around to look at her as she approached. She could tell he planned to argue so she looked at Erin. The enforcer’s hair was pulled back into a tight braid and she had two blades strapped across her chest. Unlike most of their kind, Erin preferred to fight in her human form. It was part of why she was an enforcer.

“If for some reason I’m a target and someone did follow us here, it’ll be stupid for me to hole up in this cabin like bait.” She’d be safer with Erin and Ryan or one of the others. It was always safer to work as a team.

Ryan’s mouth opened, no doubt to argue, but Erin nodded. “I agree. We don’t have a visual on anyone but the power I sensed was from the west.”

From the road.

Before either of them could respond, Erin continued. “So you two are going to head deeper into the woods in an easterly direction. Put some distance between here and the cabin. We’ll see if someone makes a play for it.”

Teresa knew that wasn’t the kind of help Ryan had planned on, but he nodded. Teresa did the same. She wasn’t part of the warrior class and trusted her packmates to do what they’d come to do.

“Got your earpieces?” she asked.

Nodding, Teresa reached into her pants pocket at the same time Ryan grunted a yes. As their resident computer guru, Ryan was always in charge of anything technology related. For their last investigation into vamp blood dealing, he’d gotten the pack small communicators. Even though they all had supernatural hearing, if they were separated by enough distance, it would be impossible for a backup team to hear them if they needed help.

Teresa and Ryan headed out the back door as Erin went out the way she’d come. They both activated their earpieces as they glanced around the tree line of the woods beyond. A near-full moon and too many stars to count were high in the sky, illuminating everything and painting a postcard-perfect image.

The one good thing about this was that they didn’t have to talk right now. Intellectually Teresa completely understood Ryan’s hesitancy to bond now that he’d put it out there that this was about him and not her. But in her heart, it didn’t matter. All her heart and wolf knew was that he thought she could be remotely like the woman who’d raised him.

That cut deep.

“Fuck, Teresa,” Ryan muttered as they breached the tree line.

He must have sensed her emotional distress. “Don’t. It’s not fair that you can sense my emotions. Now’s not the time anyway.” They needed to be quiet, something he knew.

“Uh, yeah, and we can all freaking hear you,” Aiden said over the comm.

Hearing him made her smile, which seemed to annoy Ryan further. But whatever. Aiden had thought his vampire mate was dead but recently discovered that not to be the case. When their bonding link had clicked back into place Aiden hadn’t let anyone or anything stand in the way of claiming his female. She wished Ryan would do the same.

Teresa turned away from Ryan, scanning the thickening trees as much for recon as because she didn’t want to look at his gorgeous profile. Or into his eyes. Her heart ached too much and there was no bad guy, no one to blame.

It was just the situation. Somehow that made it worse, not being able to take out her frustration on anyone.

* * *

Frida paused next to a giant oak tree, resting her hand against it as she surveyed the woods. She and John had split up and while she was dressed as a hiker, she knew that no one from the shifter pack would believe she’d just gotten lost out in the woods.

She was a vampire, something they would know immediately if they scented her. And vamps didn’t tend to do things like go hiking. Though if she did, it would make sense that it was at night. A pathetic excuse, but one she would use if necessary.

She couldn’t see anyone, but the vehicle that Natalia’s sister had been in had turned off on a side road about a mile back. One of her human contacts had seen the female, Teresa, and another male leaving the ranch. They’d gone into Fontana and stopped at a coffee shop. After getting drinks and a bag of what she guessed was pastries of some sort, they’d headed out of town. She and John had started following them about forty-five minutes into their trip, letting their human contact stop his tracking.

So if the couple had been worried they were being followed, they should have relaxed, let their guard down.

Unfortunately she didn’t think that was the case. Something was off. She couldn’t put her finger on it… There were no noises, she suddenly realized. Not even the crickets were chirping.

Nothing.

It could be because of her presence, but… No, there was someone or something else out there. Taking a deep, quiet breath, she inhaled scents while simultaneously listening for anything that was off.

But still nothing. Which meant all the forest animals were being quiet because there was a bigger predator lurking in the woods. Maybe more than one.

The back of her neck tingled, her internal radar telling her to make tracks. On silent feet she backtracked the way she’d come, using her vampiric speed to flee through the woods until she reached the main highway. Once she was sure it was clear she crossed over to the other side and moved deep into those woods.

Now she would just wait for John to return. She was strong as any vampire but she wasn’t a warrior and she didn’t want to take the chance that there were more of the sisters’ packmates with Teresa. And Frida had scented more than one shifter. Since she didn’t know the layout of where the female had gone, too much could happen if she tried to follow. She refused to fail in this.

While she was disappointed not to be able to go after the sister tonight, she would show patience. She was basically immortal and no matter how long it took, all those bitches were going to pay for taking her lover, her maker.

Her everything.

Chapter 7

Connor groaned as Ana nibbled along his jawline, her fingers sliding up under his shirt. Today had been long and the cubs were finally asleep. He’d been counting down the time until he and Ana finally got some alone time.

When she slid her hand down the front of his pants, he groaned again. “Tell me again why I can’t touch you?”

She bit his chin playfully before brushing her lips over his. “Because I said so,
Alpha
.”

“I don’t sense any respect in that word.”

She snorted and nipped him again. God, he loved the way she played with him. It didn’t matter that they were bonded now, some days he still expected to get up and find out this was all a dream. When she raked her teeth against his neck, that dominant nature inside him welled up, was ready to take over and flip her onto her back right on the living room floor when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

Ana paused then pulled back, but remained straddling his lap. “Grab it, it could be important.”

There was no censure or disappointment in her words. One of the many, many things he loved about her. She was the perfect Alpha’s mate. Hell, the perfect mate period. She understood the nature of his position and always supported it. Just as he supported hers. The give and take sometimes felt almost synchronized. He wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve her, but he was holding on to her forever. Frustrated at the interruption, he fished the phone out and tensed when he saw Erin’s name.

She’d already checked in with him. If she was calling again it meant something had happened. “What?” he demanded, answering on the second buzz.

“Scented a vampire in the area. Maybe two. Hard to tell with the wind though. I sensed power, too. Not as strong as you or me but there was some decent power in the air.”

Connor frowned. Vampires. “What did Larissa say?” The newest member of their pack was an ancient vampire, bonded to Aiden.

“She and Aiden both agreed. The trace of something was in the air but…it wasn’t there long, so…” Erin sighed and he could practically see her frustrated expression. He could certainly hear it in her voice. “It might have been an old scent.”

“On our property?” he asked dryly, not looking for an answer.

She sighed again. “Yeah, I know.”

“Keep Teresa and Ryan in the cabin with two packmates inside at all times. Mix up the shifts, I don’t care how you do it.” It would be harder to make it appear like Ryan and Teresa were alone this way, but his pack’s safety was more important than anything.

“How’s Rafael and his team?”

“Settled in, no movement that I’ve heard of.”

“Hmm.”

Connor had a feeling he knew exactly what Erin meant.

“If this is a vampire thing… Teresa is connected to Natalia,” Ana said, speaking for the first time. Her thoughts mirrored Connor’s.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Erin said. Even over the phone they’d have no problem hearing each other, not with their extrasensory abilities.

“Me too.” Connor would have to put in a call to one of The Brethren now. “Check in with me in a couple hours. For the next twenty-four hours, let’s make it a regular thing.” It might be overkill but he didn’t care. If his brother’s mate wasn’t expecting so soon he’d be out there with them right now. But as it was, he wasn’t leaving Liam—who was a ball of stress. It was like the male had completely lost his mind with worry.

“Sounds good. Now spend some damn time with your mate.” Erin was chuckling as she hung up.

Ana’s mouth curved up wickedly. “That sounds like a plan to me.”

Connor settled his hands on her hips, rolling his erection against her. Unfortunately she had jeans on, but he’d soon remedy that. “I need to make a call first.” His voice was strained as he spoke. God, he didn’t want to do anything but sink inside his bondmate. Duty called though.