Dark Wrath (13 page)

Finally, trying
to act casual when she felt downright faint--as if she was entering a bear den
instead of a room full of men--she decided she could pretend she was looking
for something to read.

The moment she
stepped into the doorway, all conversation died and she found herself staring
at nearly a half a dozen men.  Jesse and Tavian had a large map spread out
on the table before them and had obviously been studying it before she came
in.  Billy Ray and three other men whose names she’d heard but couldn’t
remember were grouped around the other end of the long table with playing cards
in their hands.

Despite her
intention to try to behave casually, she checked in the door way when they all
looked up, as if she’d been pinned to the frame.  Panic washed through
her.  Her mind went blank and refused the simple order she forced through
it to ‘act natural.’  After many moments, enough to assure them all that
there was nothing casual about her entrance, she managed to force herself to
move forward instead of whirling on her heel and dashing back to her own
cabin.  Every muscle, bone, and tendon in her body protested the mental
order to move, though, and she felt horribly awkward and self-conscious as she
focused on the cabinet that she knew held books and magazines and headed toward
it.

Behind her, she
heard movement as the men shifted in their seats.  To watch her, she
wondered?  Someone cleared their throat.  “I’ll take two.”

She heard the
slap of cards on the table and a miniscule amount of relief went through her.

“I think we’re
going to have to risk following the coast line of the mainland if we want to
make time,” Jesse said slowly.  “They know we got Dr. Wagner. 
They’ll also know we had the chance to question him.  They’re bound to be
expecting us.  I can’t see any benefit to us in giving them more time to
prepare.”

Mainland? 
What mainland? Erin wondered as she knelt in front of the cabinet and began to
shuffle the books and magazines absently.  She hadn’t seen a sign of land
in days.  She was fairly certain they’d been heading south, south east,
though.  Cuba?

There wasn’t a
great selection of books and magazines.  Even if she’d been really
interested in finding reading material she would’ve been hard pressed to find
anything to her taste.  Did the woman never read anything but medical
journals and animal magazines?  Cripes!  Talk about obsessive! 
The selection of books wasn’t any better.  Those were about animals too.

Finally, more for
something to do with her hands than anything else, she picked out a couple of
nature magazines and took a copy of The Call of the Wild, closed the cabinet,
and stood once more.  After studying the couch speculatively for several
moments, she decided she’d had enough excitement for one night.  Her heart
simply couldn’t take planting her ass on the couch and pretending to ignore the
room full of Lycans while they pretended to ignore her and stared holes through
her when they thought she wouldn’t notice.

Without glancing
toward any of them, she tucked the book and magazines beneath her arm and
headed out again.  She was shaking so badly with reaction by the time
she’d gotten to the end of the corridor she was grateful to reach her own cabin
again.

Dropping the
reading materials on the floor by the bed, she stripped down to her panties and
t-shirt, crawled into the bunk, and pulled the covers over herself.  She
was running out of time and she was completely out of ideas.

A
in’t
never seen two people mope so much in all my days.  Dere ain’t nobody here
gonna bother you,
chère
.  Why you always hidin’?”

Erin had been so
deeply in thought she hadn’t noticed the man who’d stopped beside her even when
his shadow blocked the uncomfortable glare of the sun.  His voice
penetrated her abstraction, though, and her head jerked upwards.  “Excuse
me?”

Tavain shook his
head and moved to settle one hip on the railing.  “He tole you you were
his woman, right,
chère
?”

Erin blushed to
the roots of her hair.  She didn’t have to say anything.  Her
reaction was enough.

Tavian
chuckled.  “No need to be so shy about it,
chère
.  It’s a
natural ting.  An’ we’re not like the humans.  We know when a
female’s been marked by one of our own.  She’s off limits.”

Erin
blinked.  “Marked?” she echoed.

Tavian chuckled
again.  “Did you think doze were just love bites, little girl? 
Naw.  For sure he marked you.  Else how else he fine you, huh? 
Once done, cain’t be undone neider.  So why you mopin’ here when your man
waitin’ below, huh?  An’ why he always looking like somebody been
torturin’ him every time he look at you?”

As embarrassing
as it was to be caught up in such a conversation with a man--Lycan--she barely
knew, Erin was too intrigued by what he’d said, and too desperate for someone
to talk to to send him on his way.  “I guess that’s because he hates me,”
she muttered.

Tavian
grunted.  “You think dat,
chère
?  He hate you?  Shore did
go ta lots of trouble for a female he hate, doan you think?”

Erin
shrugged.  “He didn’t come after me.  He came to destroy the research
facility, and to get the baby.”

“So--not finding
baby boy, he sling you over his shoulder and take four or five bullet holes to
get you out of dere cause he hate you?  Baby girl, dat doan even make
sense to me, especially since I know different.  I been tryin’ ta keep my
nose outta his business, but seems to me the two of you ain’t got enough sense
between you to work dis ting out widout a little push in de right direction.”

Erin couldn’t
help but smile.  “I suppose he confided in you that he was madly in love
with me?” she asked doubtfully.

He
shrugged.  “Sort of did.  It was me and Billy Ray find him after doze
government boys fill him full of holes.  Never seen anybody so shot
up.  Lycan or not, I was wonderin’ if he was gonna make it.  He was
outta his head for a while there, babblin’ ‘bout that place--an’ you. 
Mostly you.  Finally figured out he was hurt more inside than those
bullets did damage.  He loved you so much de thought that you betrayed him
was what was killin’ him.  Had to start to hate to git through it.”

Erin felt a lump
form in her throat.  She grimaced.  “I doubt it’s a love/hate thing,
whatever you’re thinking.  He hates all of us, equally, or maybe me a
little more than the others, but I didn’t betray him, whatever any of you
think.  They used me, too.  I’m not trying to claim that I’m
completely without guilt, but it wasn’t me that did those things to him. 
It wasn’t my idea and there was nothing I could do to stop them.”

Tavian gave her a
hard, penetrating look.  “You set him free.”

Erin looked away
guiltily, staring at the swells along the side of the ship.  She cleared
her throat uncomfortably.  “That was as much for my sake as his.  I
couldn’t escape and I knew they wouldn’t stop until they were completely
satisfied.  And when they were done with us they would’ve either buried us
in some government prison somewhere forever or killed us, probably the latter.”

“You love him?”

Erin felt her
face redden again.  “I don’t really know how I feel about him, to be
honest.  I just don’t want him to hate me.”

He studied her
thoughtfully for several moments.  “Some men, dare a man’s man.  All
de men look up to dem, wanna be like them, follow dem through hell if dey ask
it, dare just natural born leaders.  Some men, dare a woman’s man and all
the women’s just migrate in dare direction when they come around.  Jesse,
he’s both.  Everybody love Jesse.  I doan think you’re an exception.”

She didn’t think
she was either.  “I haven’t had much chance to see the lovable side of
him--except from a distance,” she said wryly.

“So try a little
bit harder,” he said testily.

“How?” Erin
demanded hopelessly.

He shook his
head.  “Women are supposed to know these things.”

Erin gave him a
resentful glance and looked away again.  “Well, obviously I don’t.”

“You got ta see
somethin’ to want it.  Quit hidin’.”

“I haven’t been
hiding,” Erin retorted irritably.  “I just don’t feel comfortable walking
up to people I don’t know and trying to carry on a conversation with them.”

He grasped her
arm and hauled her to her feet.  “You know me.  If you let him ignore
you, he will.  You have to make it so’s he cain’t ignore you.”

She wasn’t
entirely comfortable, at first, even around Tavian, but after a few days she
became more so.  With no other plan to follow, she decided to take him up
on his suggestion, though, and made it a point to move about the ship more
openly, stopping whenever she saw Tavian to talk, whether he was with a group
of the others or not.  She found it was easier each time and began to feel
less uncomfortable and able to actually join the conversation in
progress.  Inevitably, whenever she joined any group, Jesse left, but
although she was disappointed at first, she realized fairly quickly that Tavian
had been right.

He did
notice.  Any time she nerved herself to look around for Jesse, she
discovered that he was watching--and he didn’t look at all pleased about it,
but at least he wasn’t unaware of her.

She’d just begun
to think Tavian’s tactic might actually work when they arrived at last at their
destination.

Her first clue
that they’d arrived was when the ship stopped and set anchor.  Merely
curious at first, Erin moved to the porthole of the main cabin and glanced
around to see if she could see any reason for the fact that they’d
stopped.  There wasn’t a sign of land, unless one counted the hazy line on
the horizon which might be land and might be nothing more than a low lying
cloud.  She hadn’t heard anything to indicate the ship’s engines had
broken down.  She couldn’t hear a lot of activity topside either.

Her interest
thoroughly aroused and excitement beginning to hum just beneath the surface,
Erin left the main cabin and went topside.  Tavian and Jesse were standing
at the bow of the boat with binoculars.

“What is
it?  Are we there?”

Jesse and Tavian
both lowered their glasses and turned to look at her.  After a moment,
Tavian nodded and departed as if he and Jesse had exchanged some sort of
telepathic communication.

“We’re close
enough,” Jesse said finally.  “We’ll wait for dark before we go in.”

“I’m going with
you,” Erin said, a little breathless from the adrenaline pumping through her
big time now.

“You’ll wait
here.”

Erin gaped at
him.  “You aren’t serious!  I need to go with you to take care of the
baby.”

Jesse frowned. 
“You’re a human, not Lycan.  You’ll only slow us down.”  Turning away
from her, he lifted the glasses again.

Erin glared at
his back.

She’d promised
herself she wouldn’t pick another fight with him--or allow him to provoke her
into a fight.  She couldn’t hope to make any sort of truce unless she
could manage to speak more than a dozen words with him without it turning into
a battle of wills, or a shouting match.

She knew he was
right.  Jesse and the others were capable of shifting, and as beasts they
could move through the woods at least twice as fast as a human could, maybe
more, besides having far better night vision.

She was already
turning away when he caught her arm.  Surprised, she looked up at him
questioningly.

“You’ll be safer
here.  My son needs his mother.  I don’t want anything to happen to
you and I can’t be sure I can protect you if there’s any shooting.”

Warmth flooded
Erin, washing away the hurt and anger almost instantly.  Fear reared its
ugly head, though, fear for Joshua if he should be caught up in a gun battle,
and for Jesse.  “Do you think I’ll be safer alone?”

Something
flickered in his eyes.  “You won’t be alone.  Billy Ray will stay to
guard you and the boat, and also Kenneth and Zack.  They can take the
yacht into deeper waters if necessary, but I don’t think it will be.  We
won’t go in until its dark.  Even if they pick up the boat on their radar,
they’ll probably just dismiss it as local fishermen.”

“What if you
don’t come back?” Erin asked shakily, swallowing against the hard knot
threatening to form in her throat from the moment she’d spoken the thought
hovering in the back of her mind aloud.  A terrible sense of loss
descended upon her.  She could no more imagine the many years lying before
her with no hope of seeing Jesse and Joshua than she could cease to breathe.

She knew then,
without room for doubts, that Tavian had been right.  If she could not
imagine life without Jesse she also couldn’t deny to herself that she loved
him.

“I will,” Jesse
said implacably.

“You don’t that,”
Erin whispered.  “You can’t promise me something that might be beyond your
power.”

The grip on her
arm loosened.  Time seemed to still.  For many moments Erin was
certain that Jesse would slip his hand up her arm to cup her cheek.  He
seemed to sway infinitesimally closer, as if to gather her to him and kiss her.

Near the stern of
the boat, something fell, jarring them both back into reality, spoiling the
moment, though it might only have been wishful thinking on her part.  She
would never know now for Jesse merely dropped his hand and stepped back. 
“Billy Ray will know what to do,” he said gruffly as he turned away and resumed
his study of the distant horizon.

She stared at his
broad back, fighting the urge to move closer, to make the first move if he
wouldn’t.  The need to feel herself cocooned in the warmth of his body, to
have his arms wrapped tightly around her and soak up the reassurance of his
strength and life was nearly overwhelming.  Doubts of her welcome held her
to the spot and finally she merely turned away and fled below.

She found she
couldn’t bear the confines of the cabin, though.  After pacing restlessly
about the room like a caged animal for perhaps an hour, watching the
agonizingly slow progression of the sun toward the horizon, she couldn’t stand
it anymore and left the cabin, heading for the galley.

It wasn’t her
night to cook.  Billy Ray didn’t object to her abrupt appearance or her
determination to help, however.  After pointing her toward a pile of
vegetables waiting to be peeled, he returned his attention to the meat he was
preparing.

She had no idea
what he planned to cook--some Cajun dish, no doubt, that would scorch the
tender skin of her mouth and set her on fire--but she didn’t care so long as
she had something to do.  When she’d peeled the potatoes and diced them,
she scooped them into a colander and rinsed them and then set them aside and
started on the onions and peppers.

When her hands,
arms, and shoulders began to cramp, she shoved a stray lock of hair from her
face, stretched to relieve the ache and glanced out of the tiny porthole set in
the galley bulkhead.  They sun was sinking into the sea, turning the water
and sky into a fiery red-orange glow.

Her stomach
knotted.

They would
probably wait until they’d eaten to pull anchor.

Weary now, Erin
finished the last of the cutting and preparation and rinsed the vegetables,
leaving them to drain in the sink.  Removing the apron she’d donned when
she’d settled to work, she headed back to the cabin.  A hot shower
relieved the cramping muscles and drained the last of her tension.  When
she’d dried off, she merely wrapped a towel around her and trudged back into
the cabin, collapsing face first on the bunk.

The mattress
dipped, rousing Erin sometime later.  Still groggy, she lay still,
listening for the sounds of a storm that might account for the rocking of the
bunk.  Instead, she heard the rustle of fabric.  The towel she’d
wrapped around herself was flipped away.  A hand, large, warm, rough with
calluses, skated up one thigh and then over her buttocks.

Her heart seemed
to stand still in her chest.  She tensed, waiting to see what he would do
next.

She felt the heat
of his breath along the cleft of her ass moments before she felt the nip of his
teeth along one cheek.  Goose bumps erupted, racing up her body and along
her arms and legs.

She rolled onto
her side, stared at Jesse, crouched at the foot of the bunk, for several
moments and lifted a hand to him in invitation.  Releasing a gusty sigh,
he surged toward her, settling the weight of his body along hers, twining one
long leg around her and dragging her lower body tightly against his.

His cock, hard
and erect already, dug into her belly.  She arched against it, slipping an
arm around his waist and cupping and massaging his buttocks.

He was
deliciously bare.  A faint smile curled her lips as she familiarized
herself with his upper chest and neck, tracing a path along his hard male
breasts and upward to his throat with her mouth, tongue, and the edge of her
teeth while she explored his back with one hand, feeling the rounded, puckered
scars that dotted his flesh.  She tried not to think about that.

He’d expected a
welcome.

She was ok with
that, better than ok.  If she’d known all she had to do was sleep naked….

His lips
beckoned.  She teased the corners with light kisses then nipped her way
across his full lower lip.  He sank his fingers into her hair, cupping the
back of her skull as he opened his mouth over hers in a deep, scorching
kiss.  Pleasure erupted in her veins like wildfire.  His taste and
scent invaded her senses like a heady drug as he thrust his tongue into her
mouth and raked it along hers.  Heat washed over her, made her skin tingle
with acute sensation, keen awareness of the touch of his flesh against hers.