Tempting the Enemy (23 page)

“There’s no law that says you can’t share,” Kroft replied silkily. Unmoved and unafraid. Confident, actually, that he’d stacked the deck neatly in his favor.

The bastard should have been born a reptile instead. He licked at his growing fangs, eyes going glassy with hunger. “You have no right to hoard a female in Heat. We aren’t mated. She could choose any of us.”

“Unconscious?” Pale would have liked to sink his teeth into Kroft’s jaw and hear it crunch like mulch. Just because the packs were gone didn’t mean any sense of honor had to go with them. “She made her choice.” He hoped.

“If she’d chosen, she’d be imprinted already.” Kroft took a deep inhalation, a sick smile spreading his lips as he crudely acknowledged the scent of her on the air.

“She’s so ready, you can almost taste her.”

“Leave now, and I might not claw out your entrails.”

Maybe.
Pale didn’t want to make any promises he couldn’t keep. He didn’t dare take his eyes off the man directly across from him, but he’d be stupid if he didn’t keep the others in his peripheral vision.

“You can’t beat us all, Rysen.” Kroft’s soft taunt came as the others stalked closer, sealing off escape.

No, he probably couldn’t. But he’d try.

Kroft leaped into the air with a roar, shifting in a silent ripple midair, revealing bared teeth, colorless fur and vicious black claws. With no time to do anything else, Pale spun, taking the brunt of the white Wolf’s weight on his back, falling to one knee rather than drop her. Fire arced down his back as the Wolf scrabbled for grip, Dee Tenorio

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digging deep when he did. Sharp teeth clamped where Pale’s shoulder met his throat, tearing deep gouges while Kroft shook his head, ravaging toward a kill.

Pale roared, rolling Jade to the ground before grabbing Kroft by the scruff and flipping him into the darkness beyond. His flesh tore, blood sluicing from the wound, but it wasn’t fatal. It would take far more than that.

White fur gleaming even in the darkness, Kroft twisted as he hit the ground. In less than a second, he was back on his feet; only his friends were with him now, growling and snarling. All five formed a half-circle around Pale and Jade. He held his arm up in front of his face, still kneeling, protecting her the only way he could in his current form. As a man, they’d rip him to shreds. As a Wolf, he had a chance.

He took a fleeting glance at the woman curled on the ground of the filthy alley, unclipping his badge and his gun slowly, tucking them beneath her. It wasn’t allowed, but he’d be damned if they’d get her without a fight and she was no match for them without a weapon.

They waited, knowing he couldn’t use his human tools against them. This was a Wolf matter. The badge was useless in a challenge and the gun, unforgivable. The only law that held sway among Wolves was his right to protect what was his—his life, his pups and, most important, his female. They’d all die before he let them have her.

A moment later, he changed. A howl went up in the darkness and the enemies rushed in.

Chapter Fourteen

Jade’s eyes fluttered open when something heavy hit her legs, pinning them down. Sounds registered next—

angry barks and vicious snarls, high-pitched whines of pain and submission. She lifted her head, then ducked as a wayward paw whooshed past her face. She lurched backward into a rough brick wall, dragging the rest of herself toward it. Once she had her back to it, she kicked at the weight on her legs. Belatedly, she realized it was an unconscious Wolf. At least, she hoped it was unconscious.

Blood dripped from its neck onto her pants. She refused to check it for any signs of life.

Rubbing at her eyes, she took in as much of the scene before her as she could. Dim alley, small trash containers knocked onto their sides, three piles of fur strewn in different directions. Three more were still fighting. A brilliant white, a more common gray coat and a giant blur she made out more by the gleam than the color. A black Wolf, the same shade as a raven wing.

Pale.

She wasn’t sure how she knew, but her heart thudded with fear for him. This was what he’d warned her about.

A challenge. If he didn’t win, the others would try to rape her. She looked around wildly for light, something she could draw on to help him. There was some at the far end, the parking lot. She reached, feeling the draw in her fingertips, as if she were pulling at a fabric instead of the Dee Tenorio

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light. Very little came. Too far away and she was too drained. She tried again.

A loud bark made her jump and she realized it was Pale, barking at her. Milk-blue eyes met hers, a message in the shake of his head just before another leaped on his back and he was whisked back into the fight.

Don’t help him? Or don’t expose her abilities? Did it matter?

She pulled her hand back, unwilling to distract him from staying alive. In front of her, the black and the white collided, standing on hind legs, their forelegs clawing at each other’s chests. Dark stains mottled the white, but his teeth still flashed. The black caught him at the throat, giving his head a mighty shake and throwing the white into the wall like a rag doll. A sharp whelp of pain and the white stayed down. The black growled menacingly at the remaining gray, which paced nervously, licking his teeth and whining in her direction.

Jade pressed herself closer to the wall.

The black took a threatening step forward. That quickly, the gray abandoned the others and loped through the alley to the street beyond. Leaving her alone with the great black Wolf, which stumbled as it turned its huge head her way.

He’d won. Protected her. Relief flooded her, even though her heart had yet to slow down. She hadn’t even realized it was racing. He lowered his muzzle at her sigh, moving to her with stuttering steps. She cut the distance in half, reaching for him and burying her face in the fur at his neck. Too late, she realized he was covered in something thick and wet. She pulled her hands back. Even without bright enough light, she knew it was blood.
His
blood.

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“Oh, Pale.” She wanted to help him, but the longer they stayed exposed, the more of a danger she was to him.

“Can you make it back to your car?”

He pawed the ground near her feet, where she found a wallet and his gun.

She picked it up, showing it to him, not even bothering to stop from rolling her eyes. “Don’t you think this might have been a little handier than your teeth?”

He growled, then licked his chops and led the way toward the lot. She had a feeling if they’d chewed his leg off, he’d still have led. Stubborn male. Gathering herself, she pulled her legs under her and followed, wavering almost as much as he was. When she wondered why her mind was still fuzzy, she flashed on a stream of bloody memories that weren’t hers and cut the thought off desperately. Ghosts. In the blood. Sickened, she rubbed the back of her hand over her forehead, understanding her weakness. They had drained most of her power. She’d need rest, soon.

No one else bothered them as they crossed the lot, passing a car haphazardly parked near theirs. How long had she been out, that those men had the time to arrive?

How long had Pale fought to protect her? How much blood had he lost to keep her safe? The questions filled her as she walked on leaden feet, the lack of answers weighing her sense of responsibility. He’d told her to stay behind him. Sure, Mitch Kroft might have tried to get at her based on scent alone—she had enough logic to accept that he probably would—but she was the one who’d insisted on continuing with this case in the first place, leaving herself and Pale vulnerable. Risking her own life was part of accepting her assignment. She’d had no right Dee Tenorio

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whatsoever to ask him to risk his. But he had. And that meant something to her heart.

By the time they reached the car, she was barely keeping herself upright. He sat on his haunches next to the back wheel on the driver’s side, scratching with one paw, a puddle of blood starting to form beneath him. He wanted in, did he? Well, he should have had the presence of mind to put his keys with his gun, shouldn’t he? Jade blinked heavy-lidded eyes at him, trying to decide if she wanted to expend the energy to argue with a dog.

Pale scratched again.

No, she didn’t. She could accidentally step on his tail to make him back off until she figured a way into the car, but that would take energy too. Energy she needed to conserve, if only to repay him.

In Wolf form, the top of his head still came to the middle of her ribs. He definitely outweighed her. She wasn’t going to be teaching him any lessons on patience tonight, not even with him wounded. And the items in her hand, while important, weren’t going to get them in the car—or to the shoulder pack, which lay at the foot of the passenger side.

She slid Pale a sideways glance. “If the Order finds out about this, I’ll spike your doggy kibble with a spell that’ll make you impotent for a year.”

His bright eyes narrowed on her.

She lifted her hand for the small light from a nearby lot post. It came easier, without the distance. She didn’t need much, just enough to shape the glow into a small tool. She inserted the tine of light into the lock, and then used pressure pulses to fill the tumblers. A quick twist and the door unlocked. She yanked the handle and released the light.

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Ignoring the wolfish frown on his muzzle, she stretched into the compartment for her pack. Once in hand, she reached in for the cape he despised. Before he could nip at her to hurry, she unfurled it and draped it over his shoulders, pulling the hood over his pointed ears.

He shook his head, but she kept it in place.

“We don’t wear these for the fashion,” she snapped when he tried to shake it off again. “These capes amplify our gifts and I have very little left right now so stop fighting me. You
need
this.”

He stopped writhing under the cape, but she wasn’t sure if that was because he was listening or because his breath was turning into rough, wet sloshes of air. Pulling the ends together at his throat, she felt for her power, found it warm around her heart. Already stirring, but ebbing low. There would be nothing left when she did this. She’d be defenseless, most likely unconscious, but it was necessary. He’d bled too much already.

White.
She imagined the color, a pure, clean light in her mind. New. Healing. Her hands began to tingle, then heat, soothing them both with light that covered the cape in a shining moonlight glow. For a beautiful second, power burned, brilliant as a new star, then faded, leaving her empty.

Jade’s bottom sank down to the concrete, the edge of the open car biting into the space between her ribs. The cloak in front of her shifted. When the hood lifted, she didn’t see a black muzzle, but the rough-cheeked face that filled her with relief.

Pale stared at her, awe and shock clear in his eyes.

“You’re a healer?”

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Her vision blurred, but she gave him a smile that felt lopsided. “Occasionally. But don’t tell anyone. I don’t want all those sick people interfering with my fascinating career as dogbait.”

He frowned, looking down at his hands as if they were a new invention. “You enacted my change.”

“Did I?” Her head slid to rest on the edge of his car seat. It took effort to keep her eyes open. Was he saying something important? His head was tilted to the side, his frown deepening the groove between his dark brows. So strange to see the cloak on a man, but red was a beautiful color on him. Deep and true against the gold of his skin.

The only thing that looked better was no cloak at all. Oh yes, she’d love to see that again. Feel that again.

She only wished it weren’t so dark, so she could see more of his broad chest between the open folds of the cloak. Broad muscle, heavy, warm and firm under her touch. Abdominals she could trill her fingertips over as she drifted down his torso to find the thick male flesh she’d felt against her earlier. Encircle it in her hands and stroke it. Maybe even taste it…

She wondered groggily if she’d want this man even when she was dead, because it was starting to feel as though she’d end up that way before she got him.

She reached to smooth the frown lines between his heavy brows. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He watched her finger miss him by a mile and flop down into her lap. The frown deepened. “Because something’s wrong with you. I don’t like the way you look.”

She squinted at him, almost insulted. She liked the way
he
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her. “You got a real way with the ladies, Detective. I bet they just dive at your feet.”

“No, I mean your skin looks like wax.”

And his voice sounded as if it were coming from inside an empty room, but he didn’t hear her bringing it up, did he? Her eyes drifted shut. Finally, her fuzzy mind registered the concern in his rough words. “I’m drained.”

“We need to get you out of here.”

“Lead the way, lover.” Her head lolled back, thumping on the open door. She didn’t care. He picked her up and, even in her current state, she curled into him, slipping her hand between the cloak folds and rumbling in her chest at the silky feel of his warm skin. She complained a little when he set her inside the car and closed the door, but not much. She was safe. He’d protect her while she slept.

There were some muted thumps outside, but she paid them little mind. Soon, the car door opened again and she was enveloped in warmth. The engine purred to life. That opened her eyes. To her disappointment, he was dressed.

A pair of jeans and a hastily shrugged-on button shirt.

Must have been what he’d been thumping around at the back of the car for. The cloak lay over her now.

He smiled at her, she thought. She saw his teeth anyway. “Hide-a-key, under the wheel well. I was trying to tell you.”

She didn’t have the energy left to shrug. “Don’t speak puppy.”

He shook his head. “I’m just saying. No need to spike the kibble.”