The Calling (12 page)

No one spoke as they ate. The clinking of silverware on plates the only sound in the room. When they'd finished and cleaned all the dishes he refilled his coffee cup and leaned back in his chair.

"We need to come up with a plan," Jacob said. "I'm sure Malcolm is forming one of his own as we speak."

Garrett glanced up at Rayna, watching her eyes cloud with worry. The scent of her fear filled his mouth a second later and he saw Jacob shift in his seat. "I won't let them hurt you, Rayna. You don't have to be afraid."

"I'm not," she said, pushing her plate away. She looked up and sighed. "Does it show on my face?"

"No. I can smell it," he said.

Her eyes widened a bit. "Smell it? What do you mean?"

"We have a very keen sense of smell," Jacob said.

"Some of us do," Garrett grinned. "Jacob is the exception to the rule."

"Very funny," Jacob said. "I can smell just fine. I know she's scared. She reeks of it."

"Judith mentioned something to me about it," Rayna said. "The smelling fear thing but I didn't really understand what she meant."

Jacob turned to her and leaned his arms on the table. "We can smell fear, just like she said. When your pulse races it causes your scent to thicken in the air and it coats my tongue like thick molasses."

"My scent?"

"Yes. Too bad you smell like Garrett though." He laughed and leaned back in his seat. "I'd much rather taste flowers than him."

Her cheeks reddened and she lifted a hand, pulling the robe she was wearing closed.

"It's the clothes," Garrett said. "My scent is on your skin."

She met his eyes and said, "Oh."

"Not that I'm complaining," he said, grinning. She smiled and ducked her head, lifting her coffee cup and taking a sip. "I'd much rather smell me on you than the pup here."

"Hey," Jacob said. "No name calling before noon. Besides, this
pup
got her to safety while you were busy playing the hero."

"Next time, you can play the hero," Garrett said. "I'd much rather save the girl and hide out for a while. Less painful."

"No thanks," Jacob said. "Unlike you, I'm not crazy enough to go against the entire pack single-handedly. Omega's run when the big boys get all gnarly and besides," he laughed, "I excel at running."

Garrett grinned and looked back at Rayna. She was staring at him and his body tightened at her bold gaze. He inhaled deeply, taking in his scent that lingered on her skin and he wanted nothing more in that moment than to pull her from her chair, sit her on his lap and kiss her until she couldn't breathe. His fantasy was interrupted when Jacob said, "So, what do you think we should do?" He glanced at Jacob and leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table. "Get her out of town. We can't stay here long. The sooner she's gone, the better off we'll be."

"I can't leave without Mitch," Rayna said. "I won't."

He looked up and met her gaze. "Getting you safe is our first priority. We can come back for Mitch."

"Garrett, if they want me bad enough to lure me here what makes you think I'll be safe anywhere I am? Malcolm practically stalked me for six months. They know where I live."

At her words, he saw the torn, ripped body of the young victim lying in the alley in Bluff's Point and knew she was right. He looked up at her and knew his face reflected what he thought.

"What?" she said. He sighed and lowered his head. "Garrett?"

He rubbed a hand over his face and looked up at her. "There isn't a serial killer in Bluff's Point."

"What do you mean? And what does that have to do with this?"

"It has everything to do with this and I know who it is," he said. "Well, not exactly who it is, but I know
what
it is."

"
What
it is," she said, confusion wrinkling her brow. Her eyes widened a moment later. "You mean-"

"A wolf."

"A wolf? As in a werewolf?
That's
what's been killing all those women?" He nodded. "Does the police department know this?"

He snorted a laugh and shook his head. "No. It wasn't exactly something I could tell anyone, now was it?"

She stared at him for long moments before saying, "You know why don't you?" When he didn't answer her, she clenched her jaw and said, "Damn it, Garrett. Now isn't the time for secrets. After last night I wouldn't think you had any more of those. Not any that will shock me more than that one did."

He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. "Did you ever follow up on any of the victims?"

"Of course I did," she said. "I always ran an article on the victims."

"Did nothing about those women ever seem familiar to you?"

"Should they have?"

"Think about it, Rayna. Think about each of them and what you learned."

She was quiet, staring at him for over five minutes before her eyes widened. Her face went stark white the next. "He was looking for me, wasn't he?" When he nodded his head at her, she asked, "Why? Why would Malcolm have those women killed if he wanted me to come down here? It makes no sense. Was he trying to turn me into a-"

"I don't think Malcolm is the one who sent the wolf after you."

She shook her head. "I'm confused," she said. "You just said-"

"Someone sent him but it wasn't Malcolm."

"Who then?"

Garrett glanced at Jacob before looking back at her. "Carmen."

Chapter 7

"Carmen?" Rayna said, wide-eyed. "Carmen sent a wolf to kill me? Why?"

He got up from the table, poured his coffee down the sink and walked to the living room.

Rayna stared at him, watching him look out the window. She glanced at Jacob, noticing him look at anything but her before he got up and left the cabin without a word. She stood and crossed the room, stopping just behind Garrett. "Why would Carmen send someone to kill me, Garrett? Yesterday was the first time I've ever met her."

He sighed and leaned against the window. Long minutes passed before he spoke. "I spent five years in Wolf's Creek after I was turned. I was twenty-four, scared out of my fucking head at what I'd become, and these people were all I had in the world. They were like me. Freaks that didn't fit into society. I met Carmen the second day I was here." He turned his head and glanced at her and she knew by the look on his face what he was going to say next. Her stomach cramped at the thought and she hoped she was wrong.

He looked back out the window, fixing his gaze on some distant point and continued. "She was different from anyone I'd ever met. I realize now it was just the wolf in her that made her so..." He shrugged and didn't explain. "But she started to change after a while. Grew more aggressive and talked about overthrowing Malcolm. I didn't think much of it at first. She loved nothing better than a little blood play and I thought she was just being Carmen. When she convinced a few of the other pack members that her plan to overthrow Malcolm was in their best interest, she tried to get me to challenge him. I knew she was serious then."

Rayna ignored the Carmen bit and asked, "What do you mean by challenge him?"

He turned and faced her, leaning his shoulder on the window frame. "Pack hierarchy is based on power. The strongest Alpha in the pack always leads, everyone else follows. It's the way its always been done. In order for someone new to take over, he has to prove to the pack he's strong enough to lead them. Once a challenge is made on the pack leader, they fight until only one remains."

Her eyes widened. "To the death, you mean?"

He nodded. "Most of the time. A pack leader will only relinquish his role by total defeat. He'd be an outcast if he just surrendered and there can only be one leader. Any pack can have any number of Alpha's though. Their strength varies but the strongest always leads."

Rayna shifted on her feet and glanced out the window. "So, Carmen thought you were strong enough to fight Malcolm and win?" she said, looking back up at him.

"I am strong enough to fight Malcolm and win."

She smiled at him and shook her head. "Your arrogance is showing, Garrett. Surely you aren't that confident in your abilities."

"I was stronger than any of them twelve years ago and I've only improved with age." He grinned at her and stood to his full height. "There isn't anyone in Wolf's Creek as strong as me and that isn't arrogance talking, that's fact."

"Okay, so you're the big bad wolf around these parts," she said, rolling her eyes at him. "And Carmen wanted you to prove it. Why? What did she gain by Malcolm being gone?"

"Carmen wanted to lead the pack."

She raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head. "But if you fought Malcolm and won, you'd be pack leader, not her. How would that make her leader?"

"She's Alpha female in Wolf's Creek."

"So?" That look crossed his face again and she knew. "Oh, I see. Whoever fucks the head honcho is at the top of the food chain, right?"

He nodded his head. "The pack leaders mate would also be seen as leader regardless of her rank."

"I see." She stared at him and tried to get the visions of him and Carmen out of her head without much success. She saw her in her mind's eye, saw the smile the woman had given her yesterday and now, the looks she'd caught didn't seem quite so odd. She looked up at Garrett and asked, "Was Carmen trying to get rid of me because of you?"

"I think so," he said.

She laughed and walked closer to him, leaning her shoulder against the wall. "Isn't twelve years quite a long time to hold some torch for a guy who left you?"

"What?" he smiled. "You don't think I'm worth some woman holding a torch for?"

"I haven't seen any proof of it."

"Maybe you haven't been looking in the right places." He glanced down and she followed his gaze, laughing when she realized what he meant.

"All right, enough," she said, waving her hand to dismiss his comment. "We'll debate your
torch
another time, right now, tell me why Carmen waited this long to come after you."

He sobered and shifted his weight, moving closer to her. "I left the pack not long after I realized what Carmen was up to and spent four years roaming the country until I found Bluff's Point. Eight years later, she finally tracked me down. When she tried to get me to come back and fight Malcolm, I refused. Carmen likes to have her way so she paid me a visit to try and lure me back the only way she knows how."

"What? She was going to fuck you into submission?"

"Something like that."

She stared at him, visions of him and Carmen once again filling her head. She didn't like the visual or the fact that the woman had gone so far just to try and seduce him.
Is that all she did, though? Try?
"Carmen was in Bluff's Point?"

"Yes."

Rayna crossed her arms under her breasts and leaned her head to one side. "Before or after there was an us?"

He paused and then said, "During."

Her pulse leaped and a lump formed in her throat. Why did he pause like that? "Did you sleep with her when she was there?"

"No," he said, his voice strong and sure. "I haven't been with anyone else since the day I met you."

"Are you lying?"

His eyes widened and his face turned red. "What reason do I have to lie to you?"

"To save your ass?" she said, jealousy making her words clipped. "Getting caught with your dick in some ho would make even a saint lie."

"I haven't touched her since the day I left this place, Rayna. Believe me or not."

She wanted to believe him but she'd seen Carmen. The woman was exotic looking and had a body even she would kill to have. She could see her seducing anyone she wanted to and she probably did.

"Rayna."

She focused her gaze on him and sighed, waving her hand to dismiss the whole issue. "It doesn't matter now anyway," she said, not happy about it but what could she do? Nothing. "So, when Carmen found out you weren't interested, as you say, what?"

"I wasn't interested," he said, giving her a pointed look. "And she found out why when she saw me with you."

"I see. So, what, in a jealous rage she sent some crazed werewolf to get rid of me?"

"No, she threatened to kill you herself." Chills raced down her spine at that. She'd been in the same room with a woman who wanted her dead? "Luckily for you she was more afraid of me than she was of risking her own neck. She left saying I'd come crawling to her before it was all said and done. The threat was there, as flimsy as it was, but it was enough. I broke it off with you and tried to keep you far enough away no one would link me to you."

"And then the first body turned up."

He nodded. "I didn't put the pieces together until the third one. When I looked at all three victims and realized they were all brunettes and twenty-nine, I immediately thought of you. When I saw they graduated from Hamilton, I knew whoever was killing those women wasn't your average serial killer. The method of death was too brutal for a human so I started looking harder. That's when I smelled the wolf on the victims and knew whoever it was, was looking for you."

"So you tore my heart out and stomped on it every chance you got so Carmen's pet werewolf wouldn't find me?" He didn't answer but she saw the truth of her words on his face. He left her, and treated her like shit, to protect her. She didn't know whether she should kiss him or kick his ass.

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

"You don't want to know."

"That bad?"

She smiled and looked away, leaning back against the wall. "I don't know what to think."

"Do you want to know what I think?" He reached out and hooked a finger under her chin, turning her head toward him. "I think, now that everything is out in the open, I don't have a reason to push you away anymore."

She stared up at him and narrowed her eyes. "Oh, so now that I know your secret, one you didn't trust me enough to tell me to begin with, everything is fine? That I should just forget what an asshole you've been to me for the last six months? Is that what you think?"

He smiled. "Yeah, that's what I think."

Why was he smiling? Did he honestly think she was just going to forgive him just like that? Of course he did. She laughed and shook her head, dislodging his hand from her face. "You are the biggest horses' ass I've ever known, Garrett Kincaid! All those poor, innocent rabbits you slaughter while all furry have rotted your brain."