The Alpha's Hunger (7 page)

“No problem,” Mark said, looking from Ben to the pack leader and back again, most likely sensing the tension. “Do you have the explosives?”

A chill slithered through her body at the word
explosives
. She might have killed Ben. She couldn’t really blame him for not trusting her, could she?

He shook his head. “Not yet. I ran into a little trouble on my way out. I was hoping you’d drive me over there.”

“No problem.”

“And you want us to watch the girl,” Stanley said flatly.

“Yeah.”

“Who is she?”

Ben folded his arms across his chest. “She’s my assistant. She left the bomb.”

Five pairs of cold eyes turned to her.

She shrank in her seat.

“She was blackmailed.” Ben handed Stanley Ashley’s phone. “This is her phone. If the men who blackmailed her call, she has to pick up. Otherwise, don’t trust her with it.” To her, he said, “You tell them you have the laptop and you want to make the trade. You don’t know anything about the wolf. Got it?”

She nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Ben looked at Stanley. “So, are you willing?”

The man nodded grudgingly. “Yeah. We’ll watch her.”

Ben touched her shoulder, sending a jolt of electric energy through her. “Behave yourself. I’ll be back within the hour.” He left with Mark.

She instantly noticed the absence of his powerful presence. Not only did the energy in the room change, but she experienced a pang of dismay, as if being separated from him unsettled her. She definitely had Stockholm syndrome.

The men pulled out folding chairs and opened them, sitting in a ring around her.

“So… you’re all wolves?”

Their leader gave her a cold stare, then turned to the other men, pointedly ignoring her. “What do you think?”

“About Stone?” asked the man beside him with a pierced eyebrow. “I think you were right to question his loyalty. I mean, I came because you asked me, but if he had called… well, the only reason I’d come would be out of respect to Leon’s memory. But that collateral is going to run out soon if all his little brother does is take.”

“Well, technically this is the first favor he’s pulled in the three years he’s been here,” a younger Asian man spoke up.

She didn’t know why she felt so relieved to hear someone speak in Ben’s defense. She definitely didn’t understand the politics underfoot, but she was catching enough to put it together. They were a gang of some sort, and Leon, Ben’s dead brother had been a part of them, but Ben wasn’t.

“Yeah, but where’s he been? Lone wolves are trouble, that’s all I’m saying,” muttered the guy with the pierced eyebrow. “You know how Arctic wolves handle lone wolves.”

“No, how?” the Asian man asked.

“The pack hunts them down and kills them. I mean
canis lupine,
not shifters. But I’m saying we could take a page from their book.”

The other men grunted in some form of assent.

She attempted conversation again. “You guys are a pack? And this is your clubhouse?” she asked, looking around. The warehouse was made of steel construction, like a giant barn. The floors were plywood, painted gray but covered in dark stains. Folding chairs and tables were stacked against one wall, and a row of lockers stood in the back. On one end it sported the features of any good man cave—a pool table, foosball, and dartboard. Otherwise, it was a big, empty space.

What did they do here?

Stanley flicked his gaze to her. “No one is talking to you.”

Her stomach rumbled. She had skipped dinner because she’d been too keyed up about the meeting. Now it must be pushing nine o’clock.

“Wanna play pool?” the pierced eyebrow asked.

“Yeah, sure.” Stanley got up and followed.

She was left with the young Asian and a huge hulk of a man, who the Asian man called Brian. They talked on and on about baseball statistics.

After what must have been forty-five minutes, she pushed herself to her feet, determined to find the restroom to at least get herself some water to drink.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Brian asked, pushing her back down.

“May I have some water?”

He frowned. “Yeah, I guess so. Don’t move.” Brian crossed the room to the door she had guessed to be the bathroom. When he returned, he had a plastic cup full of water and a roll of duct tape.

“Thank you,” she said, taking the cup of water awkwardly between her bound hands and eyeing the duct tape. Her fears were confirmed when he crouched at her feet and wrapped her ankles in tape. “That’s really not necessary,” she said. “I wasn’t going anywhere; I just didn’t want to ask you to serve me.”

“Finish up,” he commanded, holding his hand out for the cup.

She tipped her head back and downed the rest, then handed it to him.

He ripped off a small piece of duct tape.

“Oh, hey,” she exclaimed, trying to scoot down the sofa away from him. “That’s not necessary. I’ll keep qui—”

The tape slapped over her mouth. She screamed between closed lips and brought her bound feet up, right between his legs.

Brian grunted in pain and his hand shot out, catching her hard across the cheek with an open palm.

She gasped, but with her mouth closed, couldn’t suck in enough air, her nostrils coming together and locking, which only made her suck harder until the outer rim of her vision started turning black and lights danced before her eyes.

Calm down. Exhale.

Tears ran out of her eyes, not from the pain of the slap, but from her body’s response to not breathing. She managed to get some air out of her lungs and back in, but it didn’t feel like enough. The assholes had already walked away, which was a relief, because she wouldn’t have wanted them to see her cry. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the couch, schooling her heart rate to slow down.

You can breathe through your nose. You can breathe through your nose…

She didn’t know how long she’d sat there like that before the door opened. She unglued her eyelids to see Ben striding over to her, his expression dark and furious. She shrank down, not wanting to be the object of his anger.

He peeled the tape off her mouth, which hurt like hell. She blinked to keep back the pathetic tears that had sprung up at her relief to have it off. Glowering, he put a finger on her chin and turned it, looking at her cheek, which still stung.

He stood up. “Who hit her?” he demanded.

The huge guy walked over and said without concern, “She kicked me in the nuts.”

Ben emitted a snarl and tackled the man in a flash, rolling on the floor in a tangle of flying limbs and inhuman growls.

She heard herself shriek and held her bound hands to her mouth to shut herself up. The other men gathered around, seeming largely unconcerned. Actually, they looked excited, like this was a cock fight and they had money riding on the winner.

“Aren’t you going to stop them?” she demanded, looking at Stanley, their leader.

He shrugged. “Not yet.”

Ben’s fist emerged and he slammed it into Brian’s nose, sending blood spurting in all directions. As it leaked onto the floor, she realized, with a lurch of disgust, that all the dark stains on the plywood must be from blood.

The men continued to roll and tumble, punching, and… yes, biting, slamming each other’s heads into the floor or against their own heads. Ben’s eyes glowed yellow, and his teeth seemed longer than human teeth.

“All right, that’s enough,” Stanley cut in, still without any tone of urgency.

Brian obeyed his leader, lumbering up to his feet.

Ben had not surrendered, and he launched another attack, but the three wolves grabbed him and pinned his arms back. “Stanley said enough,” the pierced eyebrow growled.

Ben stilled, but his muscles stood taut, face twisted in rage.

Stanley held up his hand in a signal for Ben to stand down. “She wasn’t marked,” he said mildly.

She wondered what the hell that meant.

Ben shook off the men holding his arms and stalked toward her. In a smooth motion, he tossed her from the couch up over his shoulder and walked toward the door.

“Yeah, you’re welcome, asshole,” Brian muttered.

Ben didn’t stop or turn, he just walked out the door and out to her car, where he gently set her on the trunk.

* * *

He drew deep breaths to regain his temper. He hated himself for leaving Ashley to be mistreated like that. What had he been thinking? Those wolves were not his friends. They were not even his allies.

“Close your eyes,” he muttered, realizing he shouldn’t have taken her out of there without the blindfold.

By some miracle, she complied. He grabbed the blindfold and duct tape from the front seat and wrapped it on. She was shaking, and her expression was shell-shocked. He wasn’t sure if it was from fury or fear. Probably both. He knew he should apologize; hell, he should be begging for her forgiveness, but he couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out what to say. There was no excuse for what just happened to her. And it was all his fault. He was supposed to be protecting her and he had done nothing but terrify and traumatize the woman.

Yes, she had left a bomb in his briefcase, but he couldn’t really blame her for that, could he? She hadn’t known what it was. And even if she had, it was natural she would choose her sister’s life over his. It was stupid to believe she might have some kind of attachment after working for him for only a week.

So why did it still bother him so much?

He was the one with the irrational attachment. And it was one that had already caused her a world of trouble. If he hadn’t asked Ashley to be his assistant, if he hadn’t been seen driving to her house and picking her up, moving her up to his floor, welcoming her into his life, she wouldn’t have been targeted as the best possible candidate to plant the bomb. Her sister would be safe right now, and she would be blissfully unaware of the wolf who couldn’t get her out of his blood.

He cut the tape off her ankles and helped her into the car. Climbing in on his side, he buckled her seatbelt.

She lowered her torso to the center, but seemed to purposely avoid placing her head on his lap this time. He didn’t blame her.

He put the car in gear and started driving. Despite how abysmally this meetup had gone, there was one more wolf who might be able to help them, and Mark Ruhl had given Ben his address. Unfortunately, the computer hacker Jeff Zolla had left Stanley’s pack for the Boulder pack, which meant he may not be willing to do anything for Ben at all. He figured it was better to show up in person than to try to call. But first, he needed to stop and see his sister-in-law because he had a bad feeling about who was behind this attack.

When he’d driven five miles, he pulled the blindfold off Ashley. “You may sit up now.”

She sat up, looking out her window and blinking at the streetlights. “So… what? You just roll around and pop people in the nose every time you get pissed off?”

He didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing. Thinking again of what that asshole Brian had done to Ashley, he ground his teeth.

“I don’t know what you were so mad about. It’s not like they did anything different to me than you’ve already done. I mean, you brought me over in duct tape. So they put more on. And he slapped my face. Well, you’ve slapped my ass. More than once. I’m your prisoner here, right?”

Her words hit him like a punch in the gut. She was right. He had treated her just as badly. Did it make it all right because he cared about her? Or because he believed he had a right to punish her for trying to kill him?

Spanking females was part of their wolf culture, just like solving grievances physically between males. But it must have shocked Ashley to be spanked. He knew he hadn’t harmed her. He’d been careful only to use it as a show of dominance, not to cause her lasting pain. And from her scent, he thought she found it exciting. But to think she felt as abused by him as she did by them made him sick to his stomach.

He was bad for her. Really bad. And while he had an obligation to save her sister and protect her from the men who may want to harm her, the selfish part of him didn’t want it to be at the expense of forever losing her esteem.

He abruptly exited Sixth Avenue West and pulled in at a Motel 6. It wasn’t safe to take her home, but he could at least set her free if that’s what she wanted. She had her car and her phone. He could shift and go on foot. He got out of the car and walked around to her side. He cut her hands free and helped her to stand.

“You’re not my prisoner. If you want to do this on your own, I will stay out of it.”

Her eyes widened and then narrowed. She folded her arms across her chest. “Fuck that, Stone. I’m not going anywhere without you.”

The wolf in him heard the challenge like some kind of mating call. Mad force took over and he pushed her back against the car, crushing her lips with his own. She tasted of berry lip gloss, her lips impossibly soft. He buried his fingers in her silky brown hair, made a fist and pulled. He wasn’t thinking, hadn’t even known he meant to kiss her, but when her tongue responded, licking into his mouth and tangling with his, the urge to mark her came on like a freight train.

He ground his painfully hard cock against her flat belly. He kissed her as if he might devour her, her sweet lips opening to accept his thrusting tongue, her fingers reaching to clutch his shoulders.

His skin prickled with heat, his vision turned sharp, and his canines began to lengthen.

Jesus Christ. He was about to mark her right there in the parking lot.

But damn, if he lost control, it could be dangerous for her. Hell, he could even kill her. When a wolf had sex with a female, his canines lengthened and he sank his teeth into her neck or shoulder. Biting caused instant submission so the female relaxed and allowed his domination. In the case of mating, he left his permanent mark on her—breaking skin to permanently embed his scent in her epidermis.

With a human, he shuddered to think what might happen—he could hit her jugular, and the pain he would cause her would be unforgivable. Especially because humans didn’t heal overnight like wolves did.