Wanted by the Alphas (An Extremely Sensual Paranormal Shifter Romance) (11 page)

“Why witches?” she asks. “Why not something
else?”

He pauses.

“I don’t know if you have heard the rumors,
because no one likes to talk openly about it.”

“I have heard about the Walkers, yes.”

“Good. Then you know.”

“But the Walkers have ancestors who were
accused of witchcraft.” She suddenly has the urge to defend Lucien.
“It doesn’t mean they are involved in witchcraft today.”

Again, Kirk hesitates. Then he shakes his
head.

“I shouldn’t have told you anything. Sorry.
You shouldn’t be involved in our family feuds.”

She is already involved. She thinks.

“Does your family have a feud with the
Walkers over your brother’s death?”

If they do, it’s a pretty big feud, she
thinks. Enormous. Enough to kill over.

But he doesn’t want to say anything further
on the subject.

“How’s the sweet and sour pork?” he asks
instead.

She senses his mood shift, and she
acquiesces.

“Delicious. Maybe I’ll ask the cook for her
recipe.”

“It’s a closely guarded secret.” He
laughs.

As are many things in Dolphin’s Bay, she
thinks.

The rest of the evening is filled with
pleasant chatter and work discussions. The time flies, and before
she knows it, she has a call on her cellphone.

Lucien’s number flashes on her display.

“Excuse me, but I’ll have to take this,” she
says.

“Boyfriend?” he says lightly.

Is it her imagination, but does she detect a
tone of disappointment in his voice?

“Not yet. We’re still feeling our way.” She
gets up from the table and grabs her phone to run outside.

“Lucien?” She closes the door behind her. It
is chilly outside and she has forgotten to bring her jacket, but
after knowing what Kirk Fitzpatrick feels about the Walkers, she
doesn’t want this conversation to be eavesdropped upon.

“Shannon.” The way he says her name – in that
smoldering, sexy tone of his – makes her stomach go aflutter.

“I’m having dinner right now with my boss.
Can I call you back later tonight?”

“Your boss?” Jealousy immediately comes into
his voice. “Kirk Fitzpatrick?”

“It’s a work thing.”

“Yeah, sure.” Lucien doesn’t sound sarcastic
about this, merely practical. “Shannon, you should really be
careful about him.”

“But why? He’s a doctor, for goodness sakes.
You’re telling me to be careful about him and he is telling me that
his family has a feud with the Walkers over the death of his
brother.”

“He told you that?” Incredulous.

Careful, she tells herself. Lucien doesn’t
know about her healing powers.

“Yes. He says it’s common knowledge.”

There comes the sound a sharp breath on the
other side.

Then: “Please, Shannon, stay away from him. I
know you can’t really stay away from him as much as I would like
you to because he’s your boss, but don’t have anything to do with
him for more than necessary. I know I sound like a jealous
boyfriend – ”

Boyfriend! Her heart leaps at his first
mention of the word.

“ – but I know things I can’t tell you about
the Fitzpatricks. This feud . . . my family was unfairly blamed
over the death of Kirk’s elder brother. But trust me on this – we
didn’t have anything to do with it. I swear it!”

“Lucien, it’s all right – ”

“No, listen to me, please. Are you
listening?”

She forces herself to calm down although her
pulse is starting to race with his outburst. “I’m listening.”

“Don’t get involved in this, OK? Don’t ask
Kirk to tell you anything, and don’t ask the same of me either. All
this happened long before you came here with your brother. It
doesn’t mean if you date one of us and work for the other that you
have to get involved with every aspect of our lives.”

He pauses.

“I don’t mean that to sound as a brush off
because it really isn’t. It’s just that all of our families have
secrets that are buried so deep that it’s best people outside never
know of them. Just as you and your brother probably have secrets
that are best kept under a lid. Just let it go, OK, Shannon? Trust
me when I say it’s the best for all of us.”

She doesn’t say anything.

“Shannon, did you hear what I said?”

She pulls in a deep breath. “Yes.”

“I’m sorry I yelled.”

“You didn’t yell. You were just trying to
make your point.”

He laughs mirthlessly. “Well, yeah. But
please heed what I just said. It’s important. Promise me you won’t
ask anything about our family feud anymore from either of us.
Promise.”

She doesn’t know if she can keep that
promise. It isn’t as though she’s nosy by nature. It’s just that
she has this sinking premonition that she and Jared are going to
get deeply involved, and the more she knows about what happened
between the Walkers and the Fitzpatricks, the better.

Still . . . it is only a premonition.

“I promise,” she says.

“Great.” He is immensely relieved. “I’ll let
you get back to your dinner. I’ll call you later, OK?”

“OK.”

“We’ll have more sex over the airwaves.”

She laughs. “Phone waves.”

“Miss you.”

“Miss you too.”

He clicks off, leaving her to mull over what
he said.

When she returns to the table, her skin is
flushed even though the air was so chilly outside.

“Everything OK?” Kirk says mildly.

“Sure.”

“Great.”

He doesn’t ask her anymore about who she is
dating – probably doesn’t think it’s any of his business – and she
is grateful for it.

THE FOREST

It is late when she gets home. She sees the
front door ajar. She parks, looking around for Jared, but she
doesn’t see him.

She kills the engine, grabs her purse and
gets out of the Toyota. The night is still but for the rustling of
the wind in the trees.

“Jared?” she calls.

She walks inside. Jared’s clothes are on the
floor in an untidy heap, and she immediately knows what
happened.

“Damn,” she mutters beneath her breath.

She supposes she shouldn’t blame him. He
can’t very well shut the door in his panther form. But he can well
take his clothes off outside and shut the door behind him,
right?

A semi-distant growl alerts her. The sound is
coming from the forest at the back of the house.

“Jared?”

Other snarls permeate the air, as though a
pack of animals has suddenly descended into the woods behind her
house. Now she is alarmed.

She breaks into a sprint outside. She
remembers the stories of how old man Pullnam was killed.

Jared!

The woods are dark, but she is guided by the
light of the moon dancing between the foliage. Brushing aside
everything Lucien told her about going into the forest alone, she
races towards the sounds. Rabid animals are fighting one another;
it would seem from the growling and snarling. She almost stumbles
over tree roots in her haste but her feet manage to pick themselves
up in time.

She rounds a dark pocket of trees and sees
them in a clearing. There they are – a huge black panther and a
pack of very large wolves. She immediately wishes she has thought
this over before she so unwittingly came here, but her only concern
was –
is
– for her brother.

The wolves turn to regard her, and she can
see the intelligence in their feral green eyes.

Not
wolves
, she instantly
understands.

Shapeshifters
.

Just like her brother.

Their innate intelligence tempers the
ferocity their animal form brings along with all its raging
hormones and glandular secretions. But it is like having two
warring wills in one body, she knows. She has seen Jared’s
transformation and all the freedom and imprisonment it brings.

On one hand, the animal side of them longs to
rend and tear everything in sight. Unlike true creatures of the
jungle, the shapeshifters have not learned to temper their
bloodlust and the power coursing in their muscles and veins with
the need to kill only for food or defense. Like children reveling
in their strength for the first time – or many firsts – they let
the demonic, feral sides of themselves take over completely.

Shannon has suspected the deaths of old man
Pullnam and the others were due to these shapeshifters who were
unable to rein themselves in. And now she knows for sure. Jared was
the same. At first flush of his transformation, he went on a small
animal hunting spree. She is glad the only slaughter of human
beings he ever performed was on those cartel lowlifes in Tupelo.
Those men who held her prisoner in Conchita’s hacienda were killers
and mutilators of innocent women and children. She did not regret
their deaths at the jaws of her brother.

The only slaughter she knows of, that is.

“Jared!” she cries out in fear.

He bounds in front of her, shielding her. The
pack of werewolves pace, circling them. This is not a good
situation. Both she and Jared may be staring at their deaths right
here if the werewolves have no control over themselves.

“Please,” she cries to them, calling to their
reason. “My brother and I have no quarrel with you. We just came
here to get away from our pasts. We won’t tell anyone about you and
we will leave you alone. Please let us be!”

The growling continues. Rumbles from deep
chests and deep throats. Light gleams from malignant eyes. Has this
pack gone too feral to understand human words? But the fact that
they are standing their ground gives her hope. The panther is far
bigger than them, but there are five or six of them, and Jared is
only one. Bullets cannot impact them, but a fight with another
shapeshifter can do serious damage.

The lead werewolf takes one step forward, and
then another. Emboldened, the others do so too. The heat rises from
their bodies and their hackles make them look very large. Their
teeth are sharp and white in the scant light afforded by the
moon.

Shannon wonders if both of them have
miscalculated in coming here.

Please
, she prays.

A deep growl behind a thicket of trees makes
them all look up. Another werewolf bounds into the clearing. This
one is the largest of them all, with glowing green eyes. It is very
clearly a male. The other werewolves immediately retreat at the
presence of this one, signifying that he is the alpha of the
pack.

Do not run, Shannon tells herself. They would
only come after you. Jared seems to agree with this as well as he
stands his ground.

The alpha werewolf throws up his head and
howls. She recognizes that howl. It is the one she heard when she
was in Lucien’s bedroom that very first night. Then he favors her
with a stare and she can see the supreme intelligence in his
eyes.

The pack does not move.

Jared seems to intuit that they are letting
them go. He turns away, nudging her to do the same. She does so,
taking small steps backward. She is very careful not to run just in
case this invokes the werewolves’ ire.

In this manner, they retreat from the thicket
of trees. The werewolves – under the command of their alpha – do
not follow. Once they are a considerable distance away, they both
break into a run and head back for the sanctuary of their
cottage.

THE WOLVES

“Jared, you have to be more careful!”

“I am being careful! It’s just that I didn’t
know they were there!”

Shannon examines her brother’s naked and now
human form in their cottage. There are no scratches or marks
anywhere.

“Well, now that you know, you can’t go
hunting.”

“I have to go hunting. Jesus. Hunting is what
I do.”

“They have obviously been here for a long,
long time. This is their territory and they are staking their
claim.”

“Then I’ll have to hunt in a different zone.
Or take them on.”

“You can’t take them on! You have seen them.
There are five or six of them.”

“I have taken on far more than that,
sis.”

“But those were men! These are werewolves.
Haven’t you seen them with your own eyes, Jared? Don’t let your
macho shtick get the better of your brains!”

“I’m bigger than any of them.”

“And if you ran in a pack, by all means, take
them on!” Though she privately thinks that is a stupid idea too as
she detests violence of any sort. “But you don’t run in a pack, and
you can’t go against a pack.”

Jared gets up from the couch. His long, lean
body is all sleek muscle. His erect penis bobs in front of him.
After a transformation, he is usually hungry and horny.

“I’m going to get something to eat. And then
I’m going to get someone to fuck,” he declares, picking up his
clothes from the floor. “Unless you’re willing to put out,
sis.”

“Don’t talk like that. You know I don’t like
that,” she counters, her eyes flashing.

“Fine. I’m going.”

He heads out and slams the door behind him.
She hears the engine of his new Pontiac start up and its tires
screech as it back out of the little driveway and down the
road.

She is worried. Worried sick.

Worried that Jared might be foolhardy enough
to confront one or all of the werewolves, and it would be just the
thing he would do too. Worried that tonight was just a warning.
This is our territory. Go hunt elsewhere.
Worried that the
woods – huge as they are – might not be big enough for another
shapeshifter.

They would have to leave. Go further north,
maybe even to Canada.

She will have to talk to Jared about
leaving.

Oh, but her heart wrenches at the thought of
having to leave! They have just gotten here. She is tired of
running. And she has gotten a job at a place that she likes. She
has just met Lucien.