Protect and Fur [3xtasy Lake 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (2 page)

She flicked her hair and curled her lip. “That’s rather arrogant.”

He edged closer, “No, that’s confidence. You knew where I would be. Considering I saw Carol Henderson pass by not too long ago, I’d be willing to bet she told you.”

Her beautiful smile faltered.
Gotcha. I was right.
“Waving so nicely guaranteed you my complete attention.”

“I was simply telling you I think you’re number one.” She batted her eyes at him, her smile overly sweet now.

“Nice try. What do you want, Brenna?”

* * * *

I want you.
Horrified, Brenna snapped her mouth closed, stopping the words from shooting out. She’d been enamored with this man ever since the day he had stormed into her exam room with Jessica and the Bennetts.

When an unknown shifter had appeared in the doorway of the exam room, Brenna hadn’t thought of anything other than protecting her friend. She’d felt silly afterward when she’d learned he’d been there to help. Craig Walker’s scent and presence had haunted her ever since. She’d sure she’d scented him near her house a few times since. She’d gone out during the last full moon, but he’d been nowhere to be found.

“I don’t want anything from you, Officer Walker, unless you want to tell me why you’ve been following me around. You’ve been in the woods around my home.” Craig leaned into the window, his face a breath away from hers, so close she could’ve leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. His lower lip was full, and she fought the urge to touch it and see if it was as soft as she imagined. The short sleeves of his uniform shirt stretched around his biceps. His natural scent dominated the space and invaded her senses.

She knew next to nothing about this man who haunted her thoughts on a regular basis. He’d never made a move to get to know her better. Sure, she could’ve tried making the first move with Craig but when she thought about it, all she could remember was the sight of Aiden, her Mate, walking away. She couldn’t risk feeling that way again. “Do you need me to say it, Brenna?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Don’t force me to face what I’m not ready to.

Craig’s brows furrowed. “Is that so?”

Instead of intimidating her, his aggressive dominance turned her on. She clenched her thighs together against the cream that coated her panties. In a move so fast she almost missed it, he whipped open the door and pinned her to her seat. He caught both her hands in one of his, and restrained them against the headrest. He buried his face into her neck and inhaled deeply. His lips brushed the sensitive skin below her ear, and her pussy respond with another surge of moisture.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about, Brenna. I can smell your sweet wet cunt getting ready for me. Deny it all you want, but one day I’ll be between those lush thighs of yours and you’ll be screaming my name.”

My wolf is already howling your name.
“Hell will freeze over first.” She didn’t understand why she felt so driven to defy him. She couldn’t deny that she was attracted to him, and she hungered for him in a way that might only lead to madness. But she’d given into these stupid animal urges before, and look what had happened then.

Craig bit down on the sensitive muscle that connected her neck to her shoulder, sending a white-hot bolt of lightning straight to her pussy. The intensity of it almost made her come right then and there. He held her hands immobile on the headrest, and her inner wolf was rolling over and showing its belly. Christ, she wanted him so badly, but this was almost exactly what had happened before. She’d thought Aiden was the one, too, and that had been a joke. She was the one fucked, and then Aiden had walked away with her panties in his pocket, leaving her with an ache that continued to this day.

“When you’re ready to be honest with me, Brenna, we are going to have a nice long talk, but until then, slow the hell down before you kill yourself or someone else.”

He extracted himself from her vehicle. She would’ve thought him completely unaffected if it wasn’t for the large bulge behind his fly. He closed the door and handed her a piece of paper.

She stared at him in shock. “You’re really giving me a ticket?”

“You were speeding. Instructions are on the back. Be sure to buckle up, Miss Roberts.” He slipped his sunglasses on his tanned face as he smirked at her. With that he turned and walked to his vehicle.

Brenna sat there staring at the rectangular piece of paper. Her pussy throbbed, and the asshole gave her a $125 fine. She pulled her seatbelt so hard she almost ripped it from the side of the vehicle.
I hate you all.

As she drove away, she glanced in her rearview mirror and saw Officer Walker returning to his hangout to catch more speeders.

Her vision clouded for a moment, and she blinked wildly as she wiped the tears from her eyes. Her mind replayed the night she met Aiden almost a year ago.

She’d gone to stay with her pregnant sister. She loved Ava, but she’d been driving her insane that evening. With single twinge, Ava thought she was in labor. It was exhausting. Brenna’d taken a walk to clear her thoughts and get some fresh air. The small town her sister and brother-in-law lived in was safe and much like Ecstasy Lake, except that their Alpha was aging and a few younger men were vying for the position. It’d created almost a civil-war kind of mentality among a lot of the residents.

A gang had arrived in town and brought with them a host of new problems. Ava’s husband, Bill, had been talking of moving right after the baby was born.

She’d been so deep in thought she hadn’t realized how far she’d wandered. The streets were deserted that time of night, and the alleys were dark and stank of despair. When she’d turned to head back to the house, she came face-to-face with
him
.

His eyes had captured her attention. Their bright amber color fascinated her. Unable to help herself, she’d reached up to brushed his long dark bangs back off his face to get a better look.

“Brenna!” River’s voice crackled over the CB radio. With the proliferation of cell phones, CBs were obsolete, but she still had fun talking on it with other enthusiasts. She grabbed the handset and pushed the “talk” button. “Hey, River, what’s up? Over.”

“Get the fuck back here. There’s been a shooting! A hunter tagged one of the Guardians on patrol. They just brought him in. Oh, god, hurry. It’s Alec Carmichael.”

“On my way. Over.” Brenna flicked on her hazard lights, tromped on the gas, and the SUV roared down the road. Let Officer Walker catch her this time. This was the second shooting this week. The first, they thought was an isolated event. If it was some poacher hunting out of season, her father had the Guardians watching. Something gnawed at her senses about this. The first victim survived. Why hunt in these woods when Algonquin Park was a short distance away? There were hundreds of places in the park where you could poach and have a better chance of getting away with it. That’s if Jaxon, Kaden and Sloan Henderson didn’t get wind of it.

She’d had an argument with Sloan the other day when she’d overheard him planning to do a bit of hunting on his own. Brenna did what any woman would do when a man wasn’t being rational. She called his wife. Carol freaked at the possibility of her husband putting himself in that kind of danger, and that was the end of that. Sloan was a strawberry tiger and would stick out like a sore thumb in the forests this that of year. Everything was lush and green right now. Fall was a much easier time for his red fur to blend in.

A cruiser raced up behind her with its lights flashing and siren screaming.
If he thinks he’s pulling me over right now, he’s crazy
. But instead, Officer Walker flew past her in his cruiser and cut in front of her. His voice crackled over the CB’s radio. “Brenna, keep up.”

Running his siren, he cleared the traffic out of the way as she raced behind him. He led her in the back way to avoid going directly down Main Street. There were several vehicles parked in front of the clinic, and she pulled in and barely had the SUV turned off before she was running into the building.

Several people were yelling in the waiting room, and her father was standing at the door of the examination room. He was dressed in nothing but a pair of jeans, which meant he had been in wolf form not too long before.

“In here, baby girl.” He looked as though he’d aged since she’d been at the house for breakfast this morning. His tall, lean form was rigid, and his hands were clenched into fists. Blood smeared his upper body, and she could see claw marks on his chest and arms.

“Dad, are you hurt?”

He pulled open the door. “No, honey. Go help Alec.”

She entered and a wave of calm washed over her. She knew she had to switch off her emotions in order to do her job. Alec Carmichael was one of the oldest members of the pack. He lived alone and never had a family of his own. He wasn’t the nicest man in town, but she always suspected his negative, gruff nature hid a lot of pain.

“Multiple shot wounds or just one big wound, I’m not certain.” River, her assistant, had already hooked an IV up to the large wolf on the table. Carol was passing River gauze and towels as they tried to stop the bleeding. “I’ve got him sedated and under anesthesia.”

The large wolf lay on the table, completely still. Brenna stepped up and starting working on him. River recounted what medication had already been given to Alec as Brenna quickly washed up. She didn’t have to worry about transferring germs since their bodies didn’t carry or catch diseases like humans did, but it was a habit she’d developed since not all her patients were shifters. “How much blood has he lost?” she asked as she inspected the wounds.

“Too much,” River replied.

“Carol, I need donors.”

“I’m on it.” Carol rushed out of the room to make calls to those who matched Alec’s blood type. Brenna had made a database for the entire town in case of emergencies like this.

River moved out of Brenna’s way and took over handing gauze and instruments. Brenna worked as fast as she could, trying to stop the bleeding and dig out the shrapnel. “This is more like a claymore mine than buckshot.”

“His vitals are dropping.” River updated her.

Brenna worked as fast as she could.
If I can get him stable he can shift, and that would heal all these wounds.
But she needed to get all this nonorganic material out of his body. She cleaned out another wound, but it wasn’t closing. “Why aren’t these wounds starting to heal?”
Even in human form he should’ve started healing.

“Brenna.”

“Just a minute more. I can get him stabilized as soon as I figure out where else he’s hit. Could they be coated with something that prevents clotting?”

“Brenna.” River grabbed her wrists.

Brenna snarled at her assistant, baring her teeth at her audacity to stop her from trying to save this man. River shrank back, fear wafting off her, but didn’t let go of Brenna’s wrists. “He’s gone, Brenna.”

“No, that’s not acceptable. Get the defibrillator paddles. I’ll finish this, and we’ll shock his heart. He’ll stabilize and then shift.”

“It’s too late.” River’s voice shook as tears caused her eyeliner to run creating black lines over her cheeks. She let go of Brenna’s hands and wrapped her arms across herself.

“Get me the epinephrine.” Another growl vibrated in Brenna’s throat as she fought the truth to River’s words. Her wolf wanted to fight. She couldn’t let Alec die like this. “Brenna, it’s too late.” Her father stepped up next to her and pulled her into his arms.
I failed.
The reality of the situation sank in, and she felt herself slump against her father’s strong form.

“Come here, River.” He lifted one arm and waved over the other woman. River leaned against his other side and started sobbing in earnest. Tears coursed down Brenna’s cheeks as well.

Gordon hugged them both tight against his chest. “You both did everything you could. I’m proud of you.”

Brenna slouched in a lawn chair, a bottle dangling from her fingers as she looked out over the lake. The sun was setting behind the trees, drawing great shadows across the already black water. She’d grown up in these forests, playing in the hidden streams and climbing rocks and exploring. This had been years before she matured into a shifter and then started to explore the possibilities outside of this small town.

But, no matter where she went in the world, this was and always would be home. Her sanctuary. Ecstasy Lake had its secrets and quirks, and she loved everything about it. Her hometown was changing, but certainly not for the bad. New people found their way here and were making a life for themselves. Carol and Mai had moved here last summer and were now mated. Max Shay opened the Double Decker Fries, and there was a small microbrewery they finished building out past the Solfalvis’. She hadn’t met the McNamara brothers, but her father said they were good men who were working every minute of the day to get their brewery up and running. Every person in this town was like her extended family, and she would do anything to keep them safe. That was why she’d become a veterinarian, because she’d felt she could help keep the local shape-shifters healthy and be here if someone new arrived and needed help.

Normally, she enjoyed sitting in the quiet, contemplating life. Only today, she was contemplating the loss of one. She wiped the tears from her cheeks with her hand. Despite washing them a dozen times, she could still smell Alec’s blood on her skin and the burning sensation of death under her fingertips. Losing Alec today broke her heart on so many levels. He wasn’t the nicest man in town. He was gruff and negative and far too aggressive, but he’d picked wildflowers and braided them into a wreath for her head when she was a kid. Every winter, he would hook a large trailer up to one of his horses and take all kids, both young and old, for a hayride during the first snowfall.