Under My Skin (14 page)

“Do you mind?” I retreated a few steps.

He lowered the light to illuminate the grass between us. “Where did you come from?”

I shrugged. “I snuck out.” I blinked hard, not mentioning exactly
how
. “I couldn’t sit around while you were out here patrolling. Besides, I guess the spell worked. No sign of Wade, not even a smidge of vamp mist.”

Alec pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. The green glowing screen lit his face. “Matt said Wade keeps driving around town in circles. He starts for this subdivision but ends up back at his house.”

“That’s gotta be frustrating for him.” I grinned through my unease. The last thing I wanted was for Alec to see through my bravado to the heebie-jeebies settling in my gut, warning me no spell, no matter how powerful the witch who cast it, would stop Wade.

Or prevent me from making a huge mistake if I let him in.

Alec’s broad shoulders jerked in an impatient shrug. “As long as it keeps him away from you, I could care less if his fangs get twisted.”

My heart tripped at his words. Was he jealous? Or merely concerned for my safety?

He gave me an assessing look. “Did you ask your uncle about that cop today?”

“Yeah, Marcus is representing a group of ranchers being run off their land. He’s lodged complaints and started protests. My guess is the property developer bought off Wade’s dad, because Marcus said the cops are doing zilch to stop the scare tactics.”

Alec peeked around the garage toward the house. “So why did Wade want you to check into Marcus?” He paused, then tipped his flashlight up to my face. “What’s the name of the developer?”

I squinted back at him through the harsh light.

“Would you stop that?” I shoved his hand down and tried to ignore the warming shivers that flooded me whenever we touched. “The developer? Hmmm…it was this really ominous sounding phrase, you know? Harbinger something.”

Alec gave a dry laugh, opened the back gate, and slipped into the alley. I trailed in his wake.

“What’s so funny?” I stood in the open gateway as Alec checked out the access lane, his stance alert though the night was quiet.

“The developer didn’t have to pay Logan off. He
is
Harbinger. Logan owns the company.”

I frowned. “Are you sure? Isn’t that like a conflict of interest or something?”

Alec shrugged. “Maybe, but it’s not common knowledge.”

“Then how do you know he owns it?”

Sculpted lips slanted into a sarcastic smile. “Because Harbinger tried to buy our ranch a few years ago. Back then, Logan wasn’t so hush-hush about his controlling interest in the company. My dad had it out with him more than once before….”

“Before he died?” I asked, then flinched as pain flickered in Alec’s eyes. I had to steel myself for the anguish that knotted the air around Alec each time he mentioned his dad. He’d told me the Hunter Council had done nothing to track his dad’s killer, but knowing Alec and Matt, there had to be a whole lot more to the story. Stillness settled in my body…a hush, a fear. What if a rogue wolven had killed Alec’s father? How would Alec ever accept me?

“How did your father die exactly? What got him?”

The light in Alec’s hand flashed upward. “What got him?” he echoed, his expression harsh.

I so knew that look. I’d glimpsed it in my reflection many times. The look of someone whose pain was eating them up inside, but who’d never let it show.

Choking on the lump of sorrow jammed in my throat, I cupped a hand over my mouth. “God, that was rude,” I mumbled against my fingers. “Forget I asked.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ve got nothing to hide.” Alec straightened as if bracing himself for my reaction. “I’m warning you, this will make me sound like a mystical native. Cue the ceremonial drums and flutes playing in the distance.” He shook his head. “I hate that stereotype.” He met my eyes in the darkness. “Ever heard of a Windigo?”

I shook my head.

“It’s a Cree myth, passed on by my mother’s people, the Métis. The Windigo is a wicked creature, half-man, half-beast that lives only in the North. It loves the cold because its heart is made of ice.”

He did sound all mystic. His words, the tone of his voice—I could almost hear the drone of war drums. But he wasn’t just sharing a bit of cultural folklore.

“Windigos feed on human flesh. The more they eat, the bigger they get and the more they kill.”

“And that thing…the Windigo,” I struggled to sound out the unfamiliar word, “killed your dad?”

“Yeah. My father was a good hunter, did everything by the book. The Hunter Council told him to go after it, to use my mom’s knowledge of the legend to take it down.” Alec’s lips twisted. “Mom appealed to the Council, spoke with some top level guy from Vancouver. She insisted that one hunter wasn’t enough, no matter how skilled he was. The Council must send help; they’d underestimated the Windigo’s trickster ways.”

The beam of his flashlight moved over the lawn, residual glow illuminated his set jaw and rigid posture. “But they didn’t send anyone, so my dad went alone. Months passed, he never came back. Some Council guy showed up with a wad of cash. Told her the Council was sorry for our loss. An arrogant puke. Had bodyguards all around him.”

Full of himself and surrounded by goons. That sounded an awful lot like my dear friend Sebastian. Mr. Big Bossy Pants, yet intimidated enough by the paranorms to have round-the-clock protection.

“To them, my dad was another casualty in an ongoing war. He’d been assigned a remote outpost. They never expected much action around here and treated it like an isolated incident.” His hand formed a fist. He thrust it into his jean pocket.

“So what did you do?” I held my breath.

“Matt and I went after it, and with the help of…friends.” Alec smiled, a sharp quirk of his lips. “We killed it. End of story. Like all shapeshifters, as long as pure silver strikes its heart, the Windigo disintegrates.”

I jerked back a pace at the mention of a heart full of silver.
We killed it, the end.
Now that was a glossed-over version of one hell of a story. Who were these friends? Brit, the I-can’t-run-to-save-my-life girl, and what army? Still, they’d done it. Tracked their father’s killer, their own personal monster, and slain it. Visions arose of Alec and Matt spending night after night patrolling for their father’s killer. Tracking it. Taking it down.

I wanted to revel in their triumph.

But epiphanies had a way of taking the
reveling
out of
revelation
. I’d been so stupid. That’s what I should have been doing all this time. Tracking my parents. Not toeing the line for Sebastian and the Council. How long did it take for them to get their revenge? A week? Two? I waited for Alec to rub my nose in how efficiently he and Matt had avenged their father’s death while I’d wasted months doing nothing for my parents.

But Alec only stared into the night, his gaze unfocused. “You know, before my dad died, I used to want to split town, run off and join the Council’s training academy. Become one of their soldiers.” He snorted. “But now I know the Council’s not much different from Logan—breeding his army, brainwashing the town, sending his minions to fight his battles. Someone has to help the humans who get in his way.” Alec gave me a pointed look. “Matt and I will never make the mistake my dad did. We don’t go after paranorms alone. We work as a team. We have each other’s backs. And when we tell someone to stay inside, for their own safety—we expect them to do as they’re told.”

I grinned. “But I’m not a helpless civilian. I’m part of the crew, remember?”

“I don’t know what you are, Eryn.” His glance took in my strong, lean form, sending a tingle of awareness through me. “But I knew you wouldn’t sit on your hands for long.”

A pang of guilt gripped my heart. If only he knew how long I’d done absolutely nothing to find out what happened to my parents, he wouldn’t be so impressed.

“You said Harbinger is behind the land grab, and Logan is behind Harbinger. And that means what?” I dug my heels into the frozen earth, needing to feel grounded. “When people wouldn’t sell their land, Logan created a pack of werewolf wise guys to do his dirty work?”

“Looks like.”

“And the cops needed a scapegoat, so they blamed your family? Nice.” I met his gaze. “How do we prove it?”

“We
don’t.” Alec’s face softened into a smile. “At least we don’t tonight. Get back in the house and stay put. Kate put wards around your house, so you’ll be protected inside. Until I’m sure Wade’s bedroom stalking days are over, you have to do as I say. I want you safe.”

Once again his words hit me hard, but this time it wasn’t pain curling low in my stomach. Forget rules. Forget orders. I wanted nothing more than to rattle Alec, to make him lose some of that brooding control. My heart pounded as I took a bold step forward.

“You want me safe?” I sidled up against Alec’s warm body. At his swift intake of breath, I smiled, letting the tension build. He smelled of sweet spice and possibilities.

He dipped his head. His lips drifted slowly down to mine. The heat of his breath feathered over my sensitive skin.

I grabbed his coat collar and pulled myself onto my toes, wanting his kiss and wanting it fast. The intensity of the moment fed the wolven yearning for power, for freedom, to feel alive, that rushed through my veins like a tsunami. Alec’s lips brushed against mine.

Sweet, but I wanted more. I opened my mouth and drew him in.

Alec groaned low in his throat, then grabbed my arms, and pulled me against him. His kiss was hard, urgent.

His full lower lip brushed against my teeth. I nipped at it. The unexpected deliciousness of his blood flooded my mouth as if I had ripped him open, cutting deep into his flesh. Hunger pangs ripped through my gut. Every cell in my body screamed at me to finish what I’d started. To bite deep, to shred, to tear. To destroy. I shoved Alec away, my heart racing, stomach coiled with hunger.

A streak of blood smeared across his dazed smile.

My nostrils flared. The scent of metal, tantalizing. My wolf surged to the surface.

We stared at each other under the starlight. My chest rose and fell with my gasping breaths. I couldn’t lose it, not now. Not with Alec.
Don’t think about the blood. Never the blood.

Alec took a step forward, but I stumbled back, holding my hands up to keep him at bay. He frowned down at me.

“Go to bed, Eryn,” he said, his voice husky. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow, when I was more myself and wouldn’t want to dig into him as if he were a chocolaty, gooey morsel. Already the distance between us lessened my craving.

I spied movement in my peripheral vision and turned. Curtains swayed at the twin dormer window next to my room.

Paige’s bedroom. Her blue eyes, wide with shock, glimmered through the window before she ducked out of view.

A Peeping Paige.

Lovely.

Alec’s phone pulsed. He held up a finger, freezing me in place. “What’s up?” he said into the phone. He listened for a second.

Alarm flashed in his eyes before he turned away from me, his voice harsh. “Give me details. How close is it?”

I frowned. Still charged with wolven energy, need flared into anger as I observed Alec’s rigid shoulders. Something was up, and I’d be damned if he’d shut me out. I focused on the muffled voice replying to Alec.

“Brit checked in,” Matt said, his voice tense. “Another male. She spooked him and he bolted. They’re about a block from you. I’m on my way to intercept.”

“We should have known he’d send his wolves.” Alec hunched over his phone and spoke low so I couldn’t hear—if I was the human girl he thought I was. Fortunately, I wasn’t. “Bring the rifle.”

Alec snapped his phone shut, pocketed it, and then turned around, his face expressionless. “Like I said, Eryn, you should get inside.”

Was he serious? “Uh, nope.” I sidestepped him, opened the gate, and started down the alley, inhaling through my nose and mouth, searching for the werewolf’s scent.

“What are you doing?” Alec called at my back. “Wait!”

I concentrated on getting a lock on the beast before Alec saw me sniffing the air like Fido tracking a floating rack of ribs. When the reek of death hit me, I was prepared, able to spin around and face Alec without gagging. A human wouldn’t get to enjoy the full stench of werewolf until they were right on top of one.

“I heard something back here,” I said. “Didn’t you?”

“No,” Alec said with an exasperated huff, “but Matt said a werewolf is headed this way.” Alec lit up the lane of darkened garage doors and garbage bins loaded with trash. “If I can’t convince you to get inside, then keep your eyes open and stay close.”

Ticked by his domineering tone, I bit back the urge to demonstrate my superior tracking skills by telling him the werewolf was about two hundred feet down the alley, meandering in our direction.

A scuffle and crash resounded behind us. We whirled at the same time, Alec jerking his arms up to block a blow and me baring my teeth in a silent growl.

Yellow eyes gleamed in the distance, twin beams reflecting Alec’s light. Alec inched forward, crouched low, but I let out a relieved sigh and tugged on his arm.

“Unless you want a tomato soup bath tonight, I wouldn’t bother.” At Alec’s blank look, I grabbed his hand and pointed his flashlight toward the glowing eyes. “Skunk.” The flashlight caught the cat-sized dark form as it ducked under a fence and disappeared. I had scented the stinky little bugger as soon as I’d entered the alley and promptly forgotten about it.

I laughed as Alec wrinkled his nose and tested the air as if he couldn’t believe we’d escaped a skunk bath.

An explosion ripped through the night. Gunfire. I jumped, inhaling sharply as the singe of silver penetrating werewolf permeated the air.

Alec looked to the stars and gave a long sigh. “So we’re good. Matt got it.”

The hair on my arms stood upright. Okay, if Matt had taken down the werewolf, why did my muscles tighten, my ears strain for the slightest sound? Something was wrong. I inhaled again, letting the night air sharpen my senses.

Damn. Another one. How had I missed it?