Hunter's Moon (9 page)

“You can’t expect me to like it, baby.”

“I’m a hunter. You knew that when you met me. You knew that when you
bit
me.”

“I know,” he answered softly. “I’m not trying to change who you are, Gia. That doesn’t for one minute mean I’m happy about you putting yourself in danger though.”

So the man could bend a little after all. She smiled. Teased. “I think I’m pretty safe with the big bad wolf watching out for me.”

He chuckled, ushering her out the door. He stayed behind her. Once she’d thought that was because he enjoyed ogling her ass, but maybe it was just as much a protective instinct. She frowned. There was too much she didn’t know about him, but he seemed to know everything about her. He’d been wheedling information out of her bit by bit for months. He’d got her last secret with the story about her parents. Speaking of which, where was her father? She was waiting when the others entered the office, but no sign of Arthur.

“Where is he?”

Asa rubbed the back of his neck, a disgusted look on his face. “Gone.”

“How? When?” Anthony sat quietly while she asked questions. He must have been told during that whispered conversation at the door.

“We didn’t search him well enough. He had a cell phone. I went in to take it when it rang, but instead he got me with a chair.”

“You’re kidding.” She couldn’t quite keep the disbelief or censure out of her voice.

“I wish I was.”

Just when she was beginning to believe maybe his story was true. But did an innocent man run? She had an unwelcome, disturbing thought. He would if he was obsessed with one prey in particular. If killing that man meant more to him than proving his innocence. “Fuck,” she muttered.

“What?” Anthony asked.

“He went after Burns.” She couldn’t prove it, but it’s what she would do in his position. If he was telling the truth, and some time in the night, she’d started to hope he was.

Anthony’s cursing was more colorful and lasted longer than hers. When he fell silent, she asked, “Now what?”

“We track him.” His voice was rough, almost as much wolf as man. Acting on instinct, the visceral fear any human would feel confronted with a werewolf, she backed away a step. His eyes narrowed, nostrils flared, as the focus of his anger shifted. She lifted her chin in the air. She trusted him, damn it. It was a move born purely of instinct. He couldn’t fault her for that.

“Let’s get going then,” she said, ignoring his ire and its cause.

He didn’t move, didn’t blink, but she swore she could see him thinking. Could hear the words before they were even spoken. He was going to try to order her to stay behind. He was going to do the thing he’d promised not to and try to change her. He smiled, but there was nothing nice about it. She must have looked as mutinous as she felt. What could she say? It was a personal failing.

“Still don’t trust me, Gia?”

She shrugged, unable to resist the taunt. “Guess we’ll see. Do you trust me?”

“And on that note, gentlemen,” Clint said wryly, “it’s time for us to vacate the premises.”

They were all too happy to do that. The traitors. They could have stayed around to stick up for her. But, no, Clint shut the door behind them with a final sounding thud. And Anthony prowled closer. The look in his eyes, a cross between anger and desire and possession had her backing up. Careful measured steps until her back hit the wall.

“Going somewhere, baby?” he asked, pressing his body against hers. His erection pushed against her belly, and at the contact, her womb fluttered. She took a shaky breath.

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

“But you’re backing away from me.”

“Not anymore,” she said sarcastically, but she couldn’t miss the flash of hurt in his eyes and she softened. “You had that look on your face. The wolf in your voice.”

“What look?”

“The one that says you want to kill someone. Or something.”

He sighed, leaned his forehead against hers. “I would never hurt you. One day maybe you’ll believe that.”

She lifted her hands to cup his face, rubbed her thumbs over his cheekbones. “I do know that. It was just an instinctive move.” She rolled her eyes. Joked. “You’re as alpha as they come. You don’t ever back down. I don’t always have that luxury.” Realizing she’d handed him ammunition to lock her up to keep her safe, she rushed to add, “Which doesn’t make me weak. Or incapable of doing the job.”

He heaved a sigh. “Yeah, I was wondering if there was a way to keep you from the hunt. It isn’t because I can’t trust you to watch your back and mine.”

She believed him. Before. But now he was acting under the protective impulses of a mated wolf. “What then?” she asked softly, challenging his assertion.

“I can’t lose you.” Baldly said. Raw fear in his voice. “You saw your father. Whether he killed her or not, your mother’s death destroyed him. Badly enough he never even tried to contact his only child.”

“Which is a damned good reason never to have kids.” The possibility scared the hell out of her. God, more than possible. They hadn’t used protection once. She hadn’t even thought of it, and she was always extra careful. He gave her his best
wanna bet
grin and she slapped his arm. “Not funny.”

He sobered. “No. And I was trying to think of a way to protect you that, yes, you wouldn’t have liked. But I knew I’d never follow through. See? I’m dealing with the fear.”

She glared at him, trying to hide the tenderness welling in her throat. “The baby thing is not negotiable.”

He stepped back and looked her up and down, gaze lingering over her stomach. “It could be too late for that kind of negotiation.” Something in his expression made her think he knew more than he was saying, and she refused to ask. It just didn’t seem right that he could smell changes in her body before she felt them.

A commotion in the hall interrupted the conversation. The office door flew open, banged against the wall, and Julian stalked in. He was just as angry, dangerous, and alpha as Anthony had been moments ago. Carlos and Sunny followed him in.

“What’s going on?” Anthony asked, cocking his head to one side. She understood why. It was rare to see Julian on the edge of control. Gia doubted Anthony ever had.

“You let him escape?” His voice shook with fury.

“Not on purpose,” Anthony answered dryly. He took her hand in his, thumb soothing over her knuckles. “We were just going after him.”

“Gia is not. I’ll go.”

“Gia is my mate and a grown woman. She’s made her choice. Neither one of us has to like it, but we do have to live with it.”

Sunny smiled and gave her a thumbs up. The other predator in the room, Carlos, scowled fiercely, but kept his protest to himself. Good. She’d hate to get blood all over her carpet. She wasn’t fighting it anymore. Anthony was hers, and this was her home. She stepped in front of him and glared at Julian.

“He’s right. This is my choice.” From the corner of her eye, she saw Declan slip in. Great. She could deal with both uncles at once.

“Why didn’t you kill him last night?” he demanded of Anthony.

“There were unanswered questions.”

“Dad claims he didn’t kill Mom.” She realized with the slip of the honorific she’d decided she did believe him. Julian looked stunned. Whether at the revelation or her belief in his innocence she couldn’t say.

“That’s crazy. He’s just trying to save his own skin.”

“And you’re just trying to avenge your sister’s death,” Declan said quietly.

Julian spun around to confront him. “You, of course, bought every word of it, didn’t you?”

The werewolf shrugged. “I never believed he did it. You know that.”

“Then why did he escape? Tonight and sixteen years ago. He abandoned his daughter. His brother. His pack.”

Every were in the room was uncomfortable with the question. The tension level shot through the room.

Carlos was the one who answered, and she wondered at the pain she heard in his voice. “It’s a kind of madness to lose your mate. Your mind is never right again. Most weres, no matter their species, don’t survive it.”

“Another bond can be created,” Sunny offered. “We know of cases where that’s happened.” She was referring to a couple in the Appalachian pack. The woman had been mated to someone else. When he died, another wolf claimed her.

“That was not a true mating,” Carlos said. “To lose a true mate is the closest you can get to death yet still live.”

Julian considered that. “Maybe. But that doesn’t excuse his running. Leaving his child.”

She wished he’d quit harping on that. Yeah, it’d been painful. A pain she’d forced herself to live with for years. But she’d been sixteen, old enough to fend for herself with an uncle who loved her to help.

“No, it doesn’t excuse anything. But it’s in the past, and we can’t change it.” She held up her hand to forestall the next complaint. “And no, it doesn’t prove his innocence. Maybe we can satisfy your questions to that when we catch up with him.”

“He’s slick,” he said bitterly. “You think I didn’t try to track him?”

“We’ll find him, Julian. We’ll find your answers,” Anthony said.

Chapter Eight

They tracked him for a week before deciding to regroup. Gia stared at the large map pinned to the wall, the thumbtacks stuck in it. They marked every reported sighting of Arthur, but by the time they got a hunter into position, he’d be long gone.

Ellen rushed into the room, face flushed, almost shoving Gia out of her way. She had a roll of twine in her hand. “Got an idea,” she said in response to Gia’s startled look.

Anthony was still lounging in his chair behind his desk, and the other weres had followed Ellen in. Clint caught her gaze and shrugged. He didn’t know what Ellen was thinking either.

“It looks random, right?” Ellen asked while unraveling the twine. She wrapped it under the base of the first tack, representing where they stood now. But instead of going to each tack in order, she stretched it out in an almost straight line. She stood back and grinned. “He’s trying to make it look like he’s moving randomly, but he has a purpose.”

Gia frowned at the map. It did look like that, but why all the subterfuge? Unless he knew someone else was following him. “Where’s he going?”

Anthony had come from his desk to stand before her. Declan, Asa, and Clint all edged forward to get a better look. “Shit,” Declan muttered.

“Yeah,” Clint agreed.

“What?”

Ellen took pity on her. “If he sticks to this pattern, he’ll end up in Miami. We’re pretty sure that’s where the Society is headquartered.” The Society was made up of rogue wolves, those who’d turned their backs on the rules all weres followed and who looked at humans as prey.

“He won’t get in there alone,” Clint said, and she remembered a rumor she’d heard long ago, that he had once infiltrated the Society.

“We have to go after him. We can’t let him walk into that alone.” Fear was a foul taste in her mouth. She’d just found her dad. She didn’t want to lose him again so quickly.

“No,” Declan and Asa said together.

She turned to protest, and Anthony pressed against her back, wrapping one strong arm across the front of her shoulders. She leaned into the embrace, into his heat and strength.

Declan smiled at her. “Don’t worry, Gia. He won’t be left to fend for himself. But we aren’t letting any mated wolf go on this mission. It’s too dangerous.”

She knew there was no way in hell she would win this argument, but she was contrary by nature enough to try. Declan shook his head at her, his smile rueful now. “Don’t even try it. Asa and I will go. We know a couple others that might want to tag along.”

“Hey, don’t I get a say in this?” Asa mock complained.

“Nope. I’m bigger and meaner, and I say you’re going,” Declan jabbed back. She’d become so used to their bantering insults she laughed reflexively.

“Okay. Okay. I get that I’m overruled. Just…keep me posted.”

“I will.” He indicated Anthony with a jerk of his chin. “Keep an eye on him. He’s trouble.”

Anthony growled. A week ago she might have started, but she knew him well enough now to know there was no menace in the growl. Declan and Asa hurried from the room to prepare for their trip. They were leaving as soon as they packed.

Hours later she lay in the dark next to Anthony unable to sleep. There was a very good chance her father wouldn’t survive his hunt and that Asa and Declan wouldn’t survive their rescue mission. She felt bad for putting them in danger, even knowing it was their job, but she was happy she didn’t have to risk Anthony. He’d become too important to lose over the past few days. No, scratch that. Over the past few months.

“You’re thinking too much.” He’d been asleep, and his voice was that sexy drowsiness that made her crazy with want. “I can feel your worry.”