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Authors: Cooper West

Homecoming (2 page)

BOOK: Homecoming
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“Yeah. You good?” Sula made Lisbeth look directly at her, channeling a little of her power to get Lisbeth to pay attention. The man holding Lisbeth stiffened in surprise, causing the other two men to straighten up and stare at Sula. She relaxed because it meant they were not powerful enough to see too far past Bracelet's cloaking charms. She ignored them since she could rip them apart if they got unfriendly…although it would probably piss Lisbeth off.

“I'm great! Sula! Meet Tony.” Lisbeth waved expressively over the man's head, and he nodded at Sula with blatant suspicion.

“Tony.” Sula nodded back. He wrinkled his nose at her familiarity. Something about the expression was wolfish to Sula, so she tagged the men as a pack. At least that put them in Lisbeth's camp, which was not quite reassuring but better than flying blind should anything go sour. Sula turned to the other two men, who remained still and quiet, clearly waiting for Tony's lead.

“Daniel and Cal.” Tony nodded towards each in turn, and they nodded at Sula.

The men stared at her with assessing eyes. Daniel was solid and built like a football player, but not a huge one. Sula would call him a quarterback, not that she knew the sport. Cal was smaller, leaner, with glittering, dark, suspicious eyes. He wore a trimmed goatee and mustache, which he probably thought gave him a bit of a cowboy charm. They both wore sweaters and jeans, inconspicuous enough except for the grounded shifter charisma they naturally carried. They were probably used to being ignored when they wanted to be. Sula looked them over, schooling her features to 'disinterested' despite their attractiveness. They smelled primal and sexual, and Sula tried not to think about how either of them might match up on the dance floor. She was not there for that kind of action, least of all with a pack of shifters who were sniffing out Lisbeth.

She pushed back the disappointment and turned to her friend. “So what's up?”

“We're going to play later. Come on! Come with us!”

Sula shook her head, but smiled. “Just tell me where at.”

“Oh, the usual. Around back.”

She meant close to the cabin, safe from prying eyes and near enough that Sula would hear trouble if it started. “Okay. Let me know when you leave. I'll be dancing.”

“You won't join us?” Tony asked politely, his posture stiff.

“No, I won't. See you later, girl. Remember to tell me when you leave.” Sula kissed Lisbeth's forehead and Lisbeth cooed, then dropped against Tony's chest with a happy growl. Sula went back to the dance floor, sinking into the crowd and moving with the heat of it, Bracelet burning against her skin to ward off the desires that pulled at her. Lisbeth tapped her shoulder not long afterward and motioned that she was leaving, with a hopeful look in her eyes. Sula shook her head again, pushing Lisbeth towards the door where she could almost see the charisma of the shifters throbbing with anticipation and need. The two betas kept their eyes on Sula, their energies held in check, but Sula could not deny how attractive they were even as she glared back. Lisbeth was in for a long night, if Tony's eager reaction was any indication. Sula wished her good luck.

She continued dancing until closing time, drinking water and moving constantly and avoiding contact. Most regulars knew that she did not dance with anyone and new people learned fast. The bouncer knew both her and Lisbeth well enough to keep a friendly eye on them, which Sula appreciated because it meant she could focus on dancing and not on being evasive. She bailed for the jeep well after two in the morning, layered in sweat and her hair nearly dripping with it. She smelled rank with club stink: cigarettes and spilled beer and the sour salted sweat of the dancing drunk. She enjoyed the cold, fresh air, letting it whip through the open windows as she drove up the mountain to home. She kept the radio off and listened for howling, but the night music was sparse, just a few owls.

She pulled up to the front of the house and went still the moment the motor turned off. They were there, she could smell them even over the exhaust. She got out carefully and stood next to the Jeep, looking up at the porch, where two of them stood in the shadows. Men still, or perhaps again.

“You got Lisbeth?”

“She's with Tony,” Cal drawled, the smaller of the two but more aggressive by a mile. Sula did not need to use her senses to smell that much, nor the arousal pouring off of him.

“Tony. Damn silly name for a werewolf.”

No answer. She tossed the keys in the air, just to hear them jangle.

Cal wrinkled his nose. “You stink.”

“Wasn't expecting company. Why aren't you off with the pack?”

He stepped forward out of the shadows, and despite the situation he held a friendly stance. “Tony's looking for a mate.”

“You're not pretty enough for him, huh?”

He shrugged, surprising Sula with the fact that he was not offended by the suggestion.

“Can't give him puppies, now can I?” He smiled at her confusion, a predatory grin that had no effect on Sula because, after all, they were just wolves. It was almost laughable, except that she knew how dangerous she was to them.

And the fact that their Alpha was on a mate–hunt was not a good sign. Lisbeth was avoiding her own family because she did not want to mate, so she would hardly take up with a stranger for anything but fun. Sula felt herself glaring.

“Jealous?” He smirked.

“Just don't want trouble. She's not the mating kind.”

Cal bounced on his heels, vibrating. “Not the mating kind, huh? That's not what I smelled.”

Sula casually walked up the stairs to the porch, trying to figure out if they were just bored and waiting, or posed some kind of threat. “Oh she likes to mess around, but long term? Not her style.”

“Could be she's not found what she wants yet,” Daniel said from where he stood behind Cal, looking Sula over with interest. Obviously they knew she was a shifter, but had assumed she was a wolf too. “Could be you two just haven't found the right pack.” Daniel smiled invitingly with a kindness that was missing from Cal's aggression. She could feel them working their way a bit closer to her, radiating heat.

Under any other circumstances she might have taken them up on the offer, because she was not immune to their allure, but she laughed and shook her head. “Damn interesting pack that would be, then.” When they did not react, she shook her keys again. “I'm done for the night. You aren't invited in. Sit on the porch and be quiet until your Alpha gets back, or go running around, I don't care.”

“Mighty bossy for a second.”

“Cal, right?”

He nodded.

She walked up and poked him in the chest. Both men started in surprise. “I'm no second, not to Lisbeth, not to anyone. Don't work that way for me and you'll have a long night bleeding to death if you try and take me on.” She pushed mentally against Bracelet, shoving its power back a bit and letting her bear nature reveal itself. She knew the effect it had, like a massive cloud blocking out the sun, her unconscious strength overpowering everything within radius. She did not know if she was small for bear or not, but she knew that there was no other predator who outranked her either way. She relaxed into that unassailable power for the small moment Bracelet allowed her.

Daniel snarled, putting his hand out to grab hold of Cal, as if to pull him to safety.

Cal was motionless, though, staring at her with both fear and open fascination. After a second he found his voice. “Heard of your kind.”

“Yeah, everyone has. Good night.” She turned heel and went into the house, locking the door behind her even though she knew they would not dare to touch it. If they had heard of her kind, then they knew the same myths and legends of blood–thirsty berserker werebears that Lisbeth had been raised on. It rarely worked in Sula's favor, but this time, she was pleased to send the dogs scrambling.

~*~

In retrospect, Cal remembered that moment at the club like watching a slow motion scene in a movie. He had noticed her first, although how someone that tall and beautiful didn't have everyone in the place staring at her, he didn't know. She was gorgeous, a little too skinny for him but built like a 1940s movie star: slim, elegant, and feminine. And a werewolf.

“Hey.” He had grabbed at Daniel, who tapped Tony.

Tony turned to look, humoring them, but in the middle of it froze. His expression cleared of all emotions except need and desire and lust, his nostrils flaring as he took her in. Everything changed in the half a second it happened, even if Cal could not explain exactly why. He knew it though, and from the stunned expression on Daniel's face, he knew it too. They looked at each other warily, in shock but also agreement: Tony found the mate he wanted, and Heaven help them both if she made things difficult. Or worse, if her pack did.

Because there were a couple of universal truths in play, which Cal knew for fact: one, most female shifters were not keen on rogues, Alpha or no; and two, no woman that goddamn gorgeous was single.

His brain went from “packmate” to “cop” like a switch being flipped. Old habits never died, especially when they came in handy. Daniel was a wilderness boy from Alaska who liked people and respected the laws of nature, but Cal was a city cop who didn't trust anyone and had a history that gave him plenty of reasons not to. They worked well together like that, and within seconds they were bunched protectively around Tony playing a werewolf version of good–cop/bad–cop as he made his was over to the girl.

She was in her mid–twenties, nearly six feet tall, brunette, maybe 130 pounds. Cal's cop brain cataloged everything as they approached: body type, stance, build, attitude, clothes. She wore flats, unsurprising for a woman as tall as she was, and a nice blue wrap around dress that showed off everything without looking cheap. She had class, just like Tony did. Maybe, Cal thought, Tony could smell that too.

Cal noticed by the change in her posture that she pinged them right away, but she did not shut them out or look at anyone else in the club for backup. He did not believe for a second she was here on her own, but she was playing things cool, as if she did not have anyone to answer too. Cal did not believe they were that lucky, though.

“Tony.” He held out his hand. It was a formal introduction for unclaimed territory, where last names wouldn't matter because there were no local packs to attach to.

She looked at it, then at his face, then back at his hand. Cal held his breath. If she gave a last name, the night might end up being a bloody one.

“Lisbeth.” She took the proffered hand. As they gave a polite shake, both Tony and Lisbeth broke into smiles. Something clicked between them, Cal could see it.

She hadn't given a name, but sometimes that didn't mean shit because some shifters were just out to play games. If she belonged to anyone, Tony was going to be strung up by his balls.

They moved over to a table, Tony and Lisbeth making small talk about the club. She did not ask about Cal and Daniel, who clearly belonged to Tony. In fact she did not even look at them. Most normals would find that rude, but it was exquisite pack etiquette on her part. Until Tony deigned to introduce them, they were beneath notice. Tony, for his part, was playing it just as smoothly because giving up pack political structure to strangers was dangerous. They were testing the waters like seasoned players, making Cal think that she was naturally a female Alpha herself. It wasn't something he could tell by smell, but as the seconds ticked by and he watched the way she handled Tony, he was certain of it. Their prince had found his princess.

Daniel was busy getting everyone drinks and trying not to look stunned. Cal wanted to comfort him, to tell him that this was a good thing if it worked out, but he was on too high of an alert status to unwind that much. He was still waiting for her pack to show up; the fact that she was obviously unregistered herself meant something, and usually that something was bad news. Underground packs were usually underground for a damn good reason.

Several songs later, he was still waiting for Lisbeth's pack to show and Daniel had calmed down enough to be waiting with him. They looked at the doors, the bar, the crowded dance floor: nothing pinged. It was just too unbelievable that a single female Alpha was here alone, though. It just went against the laws of nature.

And then, suddenly from nowhere Cal could tell (and that bothered him all to hell), someone was there. Poking Lisbeth in the arm.

“Lost you.”

Lisbeth laughed at the woman who stood in front of her. They talked for a bit before Lisbeth introduced Tony. The woman—Sula—did not even offer to shake his hand. It fit with the strange energies that were oozing off of her. She
was
a shifter, but it wasn't obvious and her nature felt muted to Cal. It was weird that he could not pin exactly what she was or how she was hiding it, which threw him hard.

Then she turned to look right at him, and Cal felt nailed to the chair. Her eyes were dark, brown maybe or hazel, and they were not the eyes of a wolf or anything he recognized. She should not have even looked him in the eye, it broke all protocol, and who did not know that? But she kept looking, strong and stern and suspicious. Cal got hard in his pants. There was no way Tony or Daniel did not smell him like that, aroused and unsettled.

She didn't seem to notice, though, turning to Daniel and nodding as Tony broke etiquette by necessity to introduce them. Everyone at the table was thrown off guard except for Lisbeth, who grinned in amusement. Oh hell yeah, Lisbeth knew exactly how much Sula threw them and was enjoying it. If Tony hadn't been wrapped around her protectively, Cal would have snarled at both women.

Lisbeth invited Sula to go play with them later, which brought up Cal's hackles. He did not want this strangeness near his Alpha, or his Alpha's potential mate. Yet something pulled at him, a curiosity tinged with attraction. Sula was not beautiful like Lisbeth, and she was shorter and rounder too, but she was solid like the mountains around them. Firm and soft in all the right places, she advertised nothing in her plain jeans and tee shirt. Her face held the same conundrum: pretty and heart shaped, but with a strong jaw and those fierce, unforgiving eyes. Even her sweat smelled raw and primal in a way no wolf ever did, glistening on her skin in drops and rivulets. Cal wanted to lick it off of her.

BOOK: Homecoming
3.67Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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