Karly's Wolf (Hollow Hills Book 1) (8 page)

“Hello,” Colton called as he reached the door, offering up a two-knuckled knock to help announce his presence.

Karly frowned. She clutched her hands together, wringing each finger one at a time even as her nipples tightened, stiffening against her will. At least she wasn’t afraid of him. He was probably the only person, apart from Mama Margo, that she wasn’t afraid of. How pitiful was that?

Colton knocked again. “Miss Smith, can you come to the door please?”

Unsure which was worse, the attraction or the fear, Karly went to the door. Opening it was only half as hard as dragging her gaze away from his smile.

“Good morning,” he said softly, his voice as calm and gentle as a cowboy with a skittish mare.

“Good morning,” she reluctantly replied.

“You’ve got power again,” he noted.

She glanced back into the kitchen where the light was on and the coffeemaker was just beginning to percolate. The heady aroma was wafting through the cabin and had definitely reached the front door. It would have been polite to offer him a cup, but the intimacy of inviting him in made her hesitate. “It came back on last night.”

“You’re lucky. Sometimes it takes Montgomery two or three days to get us back on the grid. Hollow Hills is too remote to be on anyone’s high priority list.”

She looked at the badge on his chest and wrung her hands again, squeezing and choking at her fingers. This was ridiculous. She was ridiculous. Her face felt hot every time she looked at him and, despite the fact that she had a stomach full of strangling knots, there was a tickle of molten awareness flowing down to dampen the folds of her sex.

Damn dream.

She could barely remember it and still it was doing this to her.

“Do…do you want a cup of coffee?” Her voice came out sounding husky, somewhere between a whisper and strangled bedroom arousal that only someone without ears would fail to recognize.

That smile of his broadened, softening his strong features and making that blossom of heat in the pit of her nervous stomach warm all the hotter. “I would love a cup, thank you.”

She’d offered; he’d accepted. The die was cast, and her fate was sealed.

She turned and somewhat stiltedly walked back to the kitchen. She found two cups, the only two she had among the meager store of dishes in Margo’s mostly empty cupboards.

“Settling in, I see.”

Karly jumped at how near his voice sounded. Oh God, he’d come inside!

Well, of course he’d come inside. She’d offered him coffee. She could hardly expect him to stand out on the front porch and chug it. When people were being friendly, they sat at the kitchen table and sipped slowly over civilized conversation.

She couldn’t believe she was doing this, and why? Because she’d had a crazy sex dream, that’s why. Her hands shook, but she managed to fill both mugs without spilling. “I don’t have cream or sugar.”

“I don’t mind black.”

She waited for him to select a chair and then set one of the cups in front of him before taking the chair opposite him. It was the farthest that her tiny kitchen and even tinier table would allow her to get. She cupped her coffee in both hands but didn’t drink. She was shaking so badly, she was afraid she’d scald her own lap if she tried. So she sat there, helplessly frozen and staring expectantly back at him.

Bless him, his smile never wavered. He simply sat across from her, waiting for the coffee to cool enough to drink, a large man folded into a relatively small area and so obviously trying his best not to look intimidating.

“So, how are you and Puppy getting along?” he asked.

She looked down at the empty food dish that he’d walked right past on his way to the table. “Fine. Did you see him outside? Sometimes he likes to take walks in the mornings.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’s around. He likes you.”

Karly blinked at him. “How would you know that?”

“He wouldn’t still be here if he didn’t.”

That made sense. Despite herself, she relaxed a little. “I suppose considering your job you know all the strays around here.”

“Each and every one,” he replied. “But I wouldn’t call him a stray. He’s just not…owned.”

“Isn’t that the very definition of a stray?”

“It is, and it would apply…
if
he was a dog.”

Her eyebrows beetled together. “He is a dog.”

“No, he’s a wolf.” Colton thought about it, and then amended. “Half wolf, on his father’s side. Does that make you nervous?”

Yes.

“If he’s half-wolf then someone must have tamed him. He’s been very gentle with me.”

“That’s because his other half is pure good, old-fashioned gentleman.” Colton hazarded his first hot sip of coffee, and then amended himself again. “From his mother’s side. And, he likes you.”

When he smiled at her, Karly caught herself on the brink of returning it. She quickly looked away, afraid of becoming too unguarded in his presence.

“Don’t worry. None of the—” Colton lowered his cup, his infectious smile broadening into a grin. “—strays around here have ever bit anyone who didn’t first do something to deserve it.”

“Is that why you came out here this morning? To tell me they won’t bite?”

“Nope.” For the first time, his smile dimmed. “I just wanted to make sure you knew Puppy’s the one to stay close to if something should happen. The others will follow his lead.”

She could already feel herself tensing up again. “If something like what should happen?”

Colton shifted in his seat, and it made her even more nervous when he abruptly set his cup aside to face her fully. “I have to show you something, but first I want you to promise me that you won’t let it scare you.”

That right there scared her.

“All right.” She was proud of herself that, while her soft voice did shake, she didn’t sound anywhere near as panicked as she felt.

Setting his coffee to one side, Colton reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of white paper. He slid it across the table to her, two fingers pinning it to the rickety wooden surface while he reiterated, “Anything you don’t understand, I’ll be happy to explain. This is nothing you need to be afraid of. It’s just something you need to know.”

Karly reached for the paper like it was a snake. Her fingers didn’t feel quite right, but she still managed to unfold it without too much fumbling. However, their slight tremble became a volatile shaking once she started reading.

“Karly?”

She couldn’t breathe. She dropped the BOLO on the table, snatching her hands back and crushing them against her chest to keep from having to touch it. She sucked in a ragged breath, but honestly could not get air into her chest.

“Karly!” Colton’s strong voice cut through the panic, reminding her that she wasn’t alone.

He wasn’t smiling any more. His eyes were grim, locked on hers, and yet somehow he wasn’t anywhere near as threatening as that paper lying between them. “This is not a warrant. You’re not going to be arrested, and you’re not wanted for questioning. All this is, is a missing person’s. It’s like a picture on a milk carton, okay? And I’ve already taken care of it.”

“Taken care of it?” she echoed. Her throat wasn’t working any better than her lungs were. She really did sound strangled now. “What does that mean? How?”

“I had a call placed to the sheriff a couple of towns over. He’s a fishing buddy of mine. He’s going to cancel this out in a way that won’t be traced back to Hollow Hills. You’re safe here, sweetheart. You’re also not a child. Adults can go “missing” whenever they want to. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” She sounded unbelievably calm. Much more so than she felt.

Ducking his head, Colton studied her closely, and judging by that slight narrowing of his eyes, he didn’t believe her act. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.” She didn’t mean to snap, but that’s how it came out. Hard and bitter sounding.

“Hey.”

She didn’t want to look at him. She was too afraid of what he might be able to see if he kept looking at her this way. After a moment, he gave up waiting for her to give him a response and gave her one instead. His hand was as firm as it was gentle when he leaned across the table and captured her chin, forcing her eyes back to his. “You’re going to be fine.”

She almost laughed at him. “You don’t know him, so you can’t know that.”

“Yes, I can. Hollow Hills is my town, not his.” Abandoning his chair, Colton came around to her side of the table. He hunkered down, bringing himself to her level. His very nearness should have been threatening, but for some odd reason, Karly didn’t find it scary at all. Perhaps because she was already too frightened to feel anything more. “If he’s stupid enough to come here, I promise you, he’s going to find me a hell of a lot faster than he finds you. Now, I know you’ve got no reason to, but I hope you’ll trust me.”

She didn’t think she had it in her to trust anyone, especially not now. But then, for whatever reason, he went from looking at her to looking at her mouth, and suddenly everything that Karly wanted most—to run, to find another town, another place to hide—it all shifted. A pulse of wanting strong enough to echo what she had felt in her dream thumped way down deep inside her. She looked at his mouth too, wondering if the reality of being kissed by him would feel as good as it had in her dream.

As if any kiss could possibly ever banish one really big mistake and the four years’ worth of hell that had followed.

Her breath caught in the back of her throat, sheer anticipation making it impossible to swallow. His hand on her chin began to wander, his thumb passing once over the bow of her trembling lips before he, incredulously, pushed himself away. He backed away, leaving her unkissed, and Karly honestly didn’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved.

“Go, get ready,” Colton said, gesturing toward the stairs.

Confused now, Karly didn’t move. “For what?”

“You’ve hidden in this house long enough. I’m taking you out.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

It wasn’t yet ten in the morning when Colton drove Karly up to the Ridge, but already the parking lot was full. A line of cars wound a good half mile on every available stretch of shoulder from the summit of the Ridge all the way down to the main road. Although they eventually did find a place to park, it was not in the shade and the summer sun was beating down hot enough to soften the blacktop. When she slid down out of his pickup, her first step on it sounded sticky and just up the hill, the road actually seemed to smolder. If there were contenders on the field already, then it was hard to imagine the day ending without at least one really good case of heat stroke.

Only the slightest of mercy breezes brushed through the grass and trees, making the leaves rustle and the branches above them sway. Colton cracked the windows and locked the doors, and then they started walking uphill. Although close enough to hold hands, she was careful to make sure they didn’t touch.

“So, is this an annual town celebration?” she asked, trying to fill up the silence with something other than her awareness of the heat—both of the day and of him. They had an uphill hike of only half a mile to go, but she was going to be sweaty, hot and miserable by the end of it. She was also pretty sure they had already passed more parked cars than there were residents of Hollow Hills. She read a nearby license plate. “Montana? Wow. People come from all over, huh?”

“Not always.” Seeming not to mind either the heat or the uphill climb, Colton slowed his step to accommodate her shorter legs. “It’s more of a regional thing, although people have been known to come from even further away—other countries, even—to attend a Hunt. It’s not annual either. One is rarely hosted in the same place twice within any fifty-year span. And although we do sometimes have them every year, it can also skip two or three years or happen within two or three months. It just all depends.”

“On what?”

He shot her a quick sideways glance, quirked an equally quick half-smile, and then returned his gaze to the road ahead. His subsequent chuckle was an awkward, self-depreciating sound. “Several things.”

That roused her curiosity. “Is it a town secret?”

He caught his breath, an inward laugh that didn’t quite make it out far enough to involve sound. At least not until he cleared his throat. “All right. It depends on how often an Alpha needs a Bride.”

There was that word again. She thought about it. “So, these are wedding games?”

“Close enough.”

“For who?”

He looked away again. “For me, hopefully.”

Karly almost stopped walking. She tried to tell herself that sharp stabbing sensation in the pit of her stomach was due to surprise. “Who are you marrying?”

His smile turned every bit as self-depreciating as his laugh had been. “I don’t know yet.”

“You’ve never met her…or she hasn’t been determined?”

“Both would be accurate.”

That surprised her all over again, but this time it did so without that sickening clench to her mid-region.  “You said hopefully. Does that mean your marrying is…uncertain?” When he nodded, she asked, “Why?”

“You’re asking a lot of questions.” He was still smiling when he said it.

“Do you want me to be quiet?”

He laughed softly, shook his head once and then took a deep breath. “It’s not certain, Karly, because I’m not the only one vying for the position of Alpha of Hollow Hills. And it’s even more uncertain because other packs are trying to take control of this territory and throw us out of it. My catching a Bride won’t exactly guarantee my position or prevent an invasion, but it would go a long way toward solidifying my right to defend my position.”

“The Alpha male of Hollow Hills?” She tried not to laugh because for all that it sounded silly coming out of her mouth, both he and Mama Margo had used that word quite seriously. “All right, so what does an Alpha do?” She couldn’t resist knocking on her chest and offering a sedate Tarzan yodel.

Colton laughed again, and for the second time said, “Close enough.”

“No, I’m sorry. I’ll be serious. I’m curious. Besides “catching” his Bride—which stirs up a whole slew of new questions, by the way—what does an Alpha do?”

Having rounded a curve in the road, Karly could see the summit of the Ridge up ahead. They weren’t close enough yet for her to glimpse the tents through the trees or the colorful pennants, but she could hear the shouting and the laughter and the occasional snap of cloth in the breeze.

“We lead,” Colton answered, his expression seeming to close the nearer they drew to the crowded fairgrounds. “We guard our territories.” He looked at her then. “And we protect all those within it.”

The implication of what he was trying not to say wasn’t lost on her. Karly flushed, a slow burning heat that moved up from her core to scald her cheeks. She had to change the subject. “And you decide who gets to be Alpha via ragtag games of tackle football?”

“No.” For the first time, his flash of a smile seemed genuine. “The games are simply a means to an end. It gives you a chance to show off your strength to potential females, and if you’re lucky, you can also knock a few of your competitors out of the running.”

“Is that what you were doing yesterday with that boy?” Having finally reached the summits’ intended parking lot, they stepped off the road together, gravel crunching under both their feet.

“That’s what he was trying to do to me.”

Despite the veiled ruthlessness that she had witnessed yesterday, Karly liked walking beside him. She liked hearing the crunch of his boots grinding in the loose rock and she liked feeling the heat of him, even hotter than the surrounding sun, every time his arm bumped lightly into hers. On the few times when he pulled a little ahead of her, she really liked watching him walk. That swaggering strut of his struck her as sexy. He didn’t even seem to know how sexy that was, and that appealed to her, even though she knew it shouldn’t.

“So what’s on the agenda today? More football and beating each other up?” Karly stopped when he did, but while he stared off toward the banners and tents, she continued to study him.

“Not today,” he said softly, and then began to smile. “Sounds like they’ve got something else planned.”

Karly tried to hear what he was, but it was just shouting and cheering. To her, it said football game, but as they approached the same grassy field where Colton had tackled and been tackled the day before, instead of teams of men beating each other into the ground, today it was the women’s turn. In this case, the term “the gentler sex” seemed to hold no meaning.

“Oh whoa,” Karly said, trying hard not to sound judgmental. Just as the men had done the day before, the contestants were engaged in a rowdy game of skins versus skins. Some were wearing sports bras, but most hadn’t bothered, and all of them wore dirt and bruises from no-holds-barred tackles to the ground regardless of who had the ball. “These are your Bridal choices?”

Colton grinned. “I do love our old, time-honored traditions, don’t you?”

Karly’s startled laugh cut into a wince when four women collided and the one on the bottom of the pile came up bloodied, spitting teeth and grass, and with an arm that bent in ways no human arm should. “Oh wow, these girls are serious.”

“Deadly,” Colton agreed. “They have a lot to prove. Strong women attract strong mates.”

“So does a good curry.”

Colton chuckled. “Fond as I am of curry, a woman’s cooking skills aren’t half as important as strength, courage and good family ties. There are a lot of men here competing for Brides and not one of them is going to care how well she cooks.”

Another bone-crushing tackle resulted in two women picking themselves up off the ground. Both spat blood, but only swiped their mouths and rejoined the next line up. This was not hair-pulling, bitch-slapping, name-calling, feminine warfare. This was every bit as brutal as the men had been the day before.

“This has Bridezillas beat all to hell and back,” Karly said flatly, and then looked at him. “You want to marry one of these women?”

His smile dimmed around the corners of his mouth. He inclined his head. “Want doesn’t have anything to do with it. But yes, in three days’ time, we will have our Hunt and I will take one of these women for my Bride.”

He did not look happy about it. Funny, but she kind of felt a little disappointed too. She wasn’t even fully divorced yet. She didn’t have a right to feel like this.

Karly faced the field and tried to study his options with an unbiased eye. “But you don’t know which one?”

“No.”

“Then why do it?”

“Because it’s our way.”

The look she flashed him now was all but annoyed. “Oh, come on. What are you, gypsies?”

“Not exactly.” He made no effort to change his answer.

Karly cringed when the ball was hiked and two walls of shouting women collided. It might have been simply the sound of the impact, but she thought she heard bones snap. “Oh my God.” She tried to cover her eyes, but couldn’t make herself stop watching. “What if you don’t suit? Apart from potential chest sizes, what do you know about any of these women?”

“I know they care about our traditions.” Colton glanced at her sidelong. “I know they are fierce and determined enough to suffer pain in the hopes of attracting my attention. And I know that they will bring that determination into our marriage, because no one wants to be miserable with the one they have vowed to share the rest of their life.”

Karly flinched again, but this time it had nothing to do with what was happening before her. “What if you are miserable?”

“Then we’ll separate. We aren’t perfect, but we aren’t draconian either.”

Another hike of the ball resulted in another bone-jarring tackle, this time punches were thrown and she could have sworn one girl bit another. Karly folded her arms across her chest, hugging herself against an answer she, for some reason, didn’t really want to know. “If you have to pick, have you at least whittled down your options?”

A ghost of his former smile returned. Colton faced the field, folding his arms across his chest now too. “Sadly, I haven’t dedicated the proper attention to even begin my whittling. My…family is not at all pleased with me.”

“Your family has to approve of her too?”

“At this point, they won’t care just so long as I get one. Any one.” He didn’t sound happy about that, either.

“Okay.” Karly studied the field. She pointed to a blonde, her long curly hair pulled back in a ponytail and her bouncing breasts covered but pertly outlined by the wife-beater t-shirt she wore. “How about that one?” She tried her best not to think about Colton covering that woman the way she’s dreamed he’d done to her the night before.

“Not if you paid me,” Colton said flatly.

That drawling rejection made her so ridiculously happy that she actually smiled. “Why not?”

“Her father’s been trying to get his hands on Hollow Hills for years. He failed at brute force, so now he’s trying through diplomacy.”

“And if you married her, he’d as good as succeed,” she concluded. “I didn’t realize politics were also involved.”

“Politics are always involved,” Colton informed her.

“All right.” Karly studied the field again, taking her time now to pick and choose among the competing hopefuls. “What about that one?”

“The brunette with the dragon tattoo?” He snorted when she nodded. “She’s barely more than a child.”

“She’s old enough to have a tattoo,” she pointed out.

“I’m thirty-eight. I don’t want a Bride I’ll have to spank and send to bed without supper.”

Karly quickly bit back another smile. “All right, so one of the older ladies.”

“Not too old,” he corrected, his eyes now sparkling with amusement as well. “I don’t want to push her wheelchair quite yet either.”

“No toothless, old biddies,” she agreed and scanned their options. She’d been trying to steer clear of the shirtless ones, but feeling emboldened now, she chose one. “That one, the short-haired blonde.”

“She’s being particularly aggressive,” Colton noted.

“She does seem very strong. And if she’s not thirty, then she can’t be far from it, so no spanking required.”

“More’s the pity. She’s got the perfect backside for it—nice, round and jubbly.”

That caught her so off-guard, that Karly actually whapped him on the arm as she laughed. Colton made no effort to retaliate, but flashed that good-natured grin instead. In spite of herself, Karly relaxed even more. “I can’t believe you just said that. All right. So, she’s strong, grown, has a nice butt, and since she’s running around in public without her shirt on, we’ll just assume for now that she’s open to kinky sex. All that’s left is to find out what her family is like.”

“I have no idea; never met them.”

“Have you talked to her yet?”

“Enough to know she has a nasally laugh.”

“So, you want a strong, older woman from a good family, into kinky sex, but without the nasally laugh.”

“Is that asking too much, do you think?” He bumped his shoulder to hers, lowering his head in conspiratory humor, which made her feel as if he were trying to get intimately closer. She liked that too.