Mark of the Wolf; Hell's Breed (10 page)

Maybe it wasn’t that the
beasts were taking over, though? Maybe it was just anxiety that
that was what was happening because he didn’t understand
what
was
happening/
had
happened?

He felt like he was less human—in his
mind—than he’d been before the incident. He had found himself
thinking in terms of ‘pack’ more and more often and less of ‘team’
or squad. It went beyond that, although he wasn’t as sure of other
things. Mostly it was a matter of looking at things differently
than he had in the past or at least feeling as if his perspective
had changed.

That
part could all be in his mind, though. Maybe he was no
different at all and it just seemed that way?

He was a hybrid. There was no memory
of anything else because he’d been genetically engineered—all of
them had—from inception. And yet he had never questioned his
humanity. He’d always thought of himself as a human with abilities
endowed by the hybridization—human with extra abilities and
senses—not non-human.

Of course everyone else attached to
the program had considered them non-human monsters and they hadn’t
even had the ability to shape shift in their own world.

And he had absolutely no doubt that
Laurie would consider them monsters if and when she found out what
they were.

But right up until he’d discovered
that his interest in Laurie went way beyond the hope that she was
some kind of link to the old world that could help them find their
way back it had only mattered what he thought and felt about
himself. Now that he felt like he’d lost something crucial, he
found that it mattered that he was a hybrid because he wanted
Laurie in a way he couldn’t ever remember wanting another
woman.

He couldn’t have her. It didn’t matter
how badly he wanted her—and none of the others could—although he
could see they wanted to get their hands on her as badly as he did.
She wouldn’t go for it, not once she knew what they
were.

It flickered through his mind to
wonder if it was actually possible that he could be with Laurie and
still prevent her from knowing—a sure sign of just how desperate he
was, he thought with disgust. He shouldn’t want her at all knowing
how she’d feel about it when/if she found out.

But he did. He always had.

The chemical attraction
had been there from the first moment he’d seen her counterpart in
his own universe.
That
hadn’t gotten lost in translation. If anything it was
stronger than before. He just hadn’t realized until he’d gotten
close to Laurie that
she
was everything he wanted, had always
wanted.

That fact was going to make for a
truly miserable gig, he thought derisively as he plopped down on
the bed and stretched out, the worst to date and they’d already had
some pretty bad ones.

Of course it could’ve been worse. He
could be on Xeno-12 right now getting his ass shot off or frozen
off with Lindsey riding him like she was a slavemaster.

* * * *

Despite the fact that Laurie generally
had trouble sleeping in strange places, she slept like a log once
she passed into the great beyond. She woke feeling strangely
euphoric—strange because it took her a while to figure out why she
felt that way.

Well, she wasn’t altogether sure even
after she’d thought it over for a while in a lazy sort of way with
her eyes closed. She’d slept better than she had in a very long
time, she realized, felt more rested and relaxed than she had in so
long she gave up on the effort to remember the last
time.

It was
before
, though. She realized that
fairly quickly—before the day she’d watched the murder play out not
more than a couple of yards from where she’d parked her car. She’d
broken half her fingernails off trying to get her car unlocked and
jump in and lock the door behind her before the murderer could get
to her. She’d stared him right in the face while she dialed
nine-one-one.

She could still remember the terror as
if it was fresh, as if it had only happened the day before instead
of nearly a year ago.

She couldn’t remember it without
thinking about the series of fortunate events that had resulted in
her being alive now instead of buried and all but
forgotten.

She hadn’t actually heard the life and
death struggle going on only a few yards away. Some sixth sense had
twanged and drew her gaze to the two men just as the victim toppled
his killer in a last ditch effort to save himself. If not for that
‘sense’ that something was wrong, she didn’t know if she would’ve
had time to save herself.

If she hadn’t had her keys in her hand
she didn’t know if she could’ve gotten the door open fast enough to
get in and lock it behind her.

If she’d frozen she would
be dead even though she
had
had her keys.

If her phone had been dead—or lost in
her pocketbook—she wouldn’t have managed to make the
call.

If there hadn’t been a patrol car
cruising down the block, he wouldn’t have gotten there before the
bastard broke her car window and got to her.

She’d tried
really
hard not to think
about all the things that
might
have happened to produce a completely different
outcome, but they were part of the recurring nightmares.

She’d slept through the night, though,
and didn’t remember having a single bad dream.

She thought she knew why when she
inhaled deeply.

She was sleeping in Lucien’s bed. She
could detect his scent on the sheets and pillow and it made her
feel safe, almost as if she was wrapped in his embrace.

She didn’t know
how
she knew it was
Lucien’s scent, but she was convinced of it.

She thought anyone else would think
she was a nut case. She hadn’t even known the guys an entire week.
She’d been very close to both Lucien and Damien, though, and she
thought the encounters had made a profound impression on her
because she was sure she could recall Lucien’s scent and Damien’s
and tell the difference between the two.

Was that just her
imagination, though? Would twins have a different scent? Almost
certainly if they were only fraternal twins since that was only a
situation where two separate entities were created at the same
time, the only difference between them and a typical birth being
that they developed together and were born together. Identical
twins were one person in duplicate. Genetically, they weren’t just
siblings like fraternal twins. They were
exactly
the same person—in
duplicate.

So unless they were just brothers who
looked an awful lot alike, it had to be all in her mind,
right?

Maybe.

She discovered that it didn’t make
that much difference to her. She didn’t doubt it would to them, but
she felt as safe and comfortable whichever one it was—Lucien or
Damien.

The smell of food cooking brought her
out of the bed finally. All she wanted was her coffee. She couldn’t
handle food first thing in the morning, but she definitely wanted
the coffee.

She actually preferred having her
coffee before she dressed, but she wasn’t drowsy enough to forget
she was sharing a cabin with four strange men.

She snickered at that thought and
corrected it.

Men who were strangers—not strange. At
least they didn’t seem weird to her. They seemed pretty
normal.

Well, except for what they did for a
living.

But then again there were plenty of
men that worked in security or were policemen or soldiers or
mercenaries. They just happened to have the sort of job that was a
little more risky and maybe had a little higher cool factor than
the typical gun toting job.

Kane, looking like he hadn’t slept
much, was in the kitchen frying bacon when she arrived. It felt
oddly intimate being in the kitchen with him so early in the
morning with both of them still not terribly alert.

“
Want something?” Kane
asked by way of greeting, his voice having that ‘rusty’ morning
sound to it.

“
Coffee,” Laurie responded
a little faintly.

“
There’s a pot brewing.
It’ll be ready in a few.”

Pleasure wafted through Laurie. “Oh.
That’s great! Do you have any cream or dry creamer?”

“
Some of everything. I
drink mine black, but Lucien likes cream in his and Basil and
Damien want the dried stuff.”

Lovely! Because she actually liked
both in hers! She’d brought what she needed, but she didn’t feel
like wrestling her suitcases at the moment.

The coffee pot started filling just as
Kane finished cooking his eggs. Laurie searched the cabinets until
she found a cup and then the drawers for a spoon. It was a small
kitchen, tiny actually. She supposed she should have just got out
of the way and let Kane finish instead of crowding him, but it
didn’t really seem awkward dancing around him to gather her fixings
and he didn’t seem to find it annoying.

“
Sure you don’t want
anything?” he asked as he settled at the table with his
plate.

She smiled at him. “Just coffee,” she
said, spooning sugar and creamer into her cup before she added the
coffee and then moving to the fridge for a few dollops of milk.
“You said you liked your coffee black?”

“
Yeah. I’ll get
it.”

“
I can get it. I’m right
here.”

She got another cup for him and
settled across from him.

“
How did you
sleep?”

She smiled wryly. “Better than you, I
think.” She blushed faintly when she remembered she’d stolen poor
Lucien’s bed. “Must be the mountain air.”

Kane rubbed the dark sandy whiskers
along his jaw ruefully, but there was humor in his eyes when he met
her gaze. “That bad, huh?”

Laurie shrugged, her smile widening.
“I didn’t say it was bad. The rugged look suits you.” He looked
good enough to eat, in fact, way too sexy to handle so early in the
day!

He uttered a surprised bark of
laughter at that.

Lucien, who came in on the heels of
it, gave both of them a sour look. “Ah. I see our little Laurie is
a morning person,” he murmured.

Despite the fact that the comment
seemed just a tad sarcastic, the ‘our’ Laurie sent an odd little
tingle of warmth through her. She chuckled. “Not really. But I
slept well for the first time in a very long time and I feel better
this morning than I have in a while. Plus I had coffee waiting,”
she added, smiling at Kane. “I usually have to put it on
myself.”

Lucien snorted. “Well Kane didn’t put
it on. I put it on and set the timer when I came in from watch at
four.” He moved to the counter and poured himself a cup of
coffee.

Laurie sat up straighter in her chair
and stared at his broad back. “Four! My god! What were you doing up
at four?”

He sent her a startled look and then
glanced at Kane questioningly.

Kane shrugged.

“
This is a security
detail, sweetheart,” Lucien said with a touch of amusement. “We
rotate the watch.”

“
You mean you actually
stand outside in the dark with guns watching for somebody that
might decide to sneak up? Aren’t there like … electronic gadgets to
do that? I thought that was why we came way out in the middle of
nowhere—so we didn’t have to worry about anybody sneaking
up.”

Chapter Eight

There was no getting
around the fact that Laurie hadn’t had a clue that she would be
expected to go into protective custody. It hadn’t even occurred to
her that she might need it! She didn’t realize just
how
unprepared she was
for it until that moment, though, and it actually became even
clearer and worse as the day wore on.

There wasn’t one movie or book that
she’d seen or read that had prepared her for what she had to deal
with. She hadn’t realized how much the entertainment industry
romanticized this sort of thing!

It was absolutely miserable! Far worse
than any vacation she’d ever had in her life—with all of the down
sides and none of the pluses.

It transpired that she didn’t have
anything with her that she wanted or needed. She might just as well
have stuffed her suitcases with garbage because aside from a few
changes of clothing and a few of the cosmetics she’d brought that
she almost never used, there was nothing—none of the day to day
‘must haves’.

The cabin was in the back of beyond
nowhere.

She supposed. She didn’t actually get
much chance to check it out, no more than a glimpse of woods that
looked totally primeval. Because as soon as she walked to the
window to check out the view she was snatched away from it and
lectured about making a target of herself.

She stared at Lucien wide eyed, her
heart hammering like a pneumatic driver. “You think they’re out
there?” she gasped breathlessly.