Wicked: Devils Point Wolves #2 (Mating Season Collection) (2 page)

Unfortunately, everything that came out of her mouth these days filled him with rage. Like her half-baked plan to serve as bait for the rogue that bit her sister. He still couldn't believe that his pack agreed with her. Or that his brothers also went along with the idea. Bastards.

As if she could hear his thoughts she turned her gaze to his on cue, giving him a look that clearly said fuck you. He clenched his jaw.

"You are a glutton for punishment." His brother Diego walked up next to him, a half smile across his face.

"You think that's funny?"

"Fuck yeah. She makes you squirm and that is a sight to behold."

Dante growled again. "You're supposed to be helping me find our rogue in the crowd not waste time giving me shit."

"I am an excellent multitasker."

It was then he noticed his brother's tight body language. To the casual observer he looked like nothing more than a man enjoying the show, but to him the subtle nuances such as the hard set of his jaw told Dante he was anything but a relaxed onlooker.

"Where's Damien?" he asked.

"Where do you think?" Diego smirked.

Dante sighed. Since turning his new mate wolf two weeks ago, they'd spent every waking moment running or fucking. He loved his brother and was happy he'd reconciled with his true mate, but this was mating season and it was driving them all a little crazier than usual it seemed.

"Any sign of our guy?"

Diego nodded his head. "Just that one dude to the right of the stage sitting in the shadows. His attention is fixated on Rebel, but he looks nervous. He fidgets a lot."

His brother had pointed out the same man he suspected, except he'd missed the nervous tics Diego easily discovered.

"We really going to do this? Just let her walk out of here unprotected?" he asked.

Diego shook his head. "She won't exactly be unprotected. Someone will have eyes on her the whole way."

"It only takes a second for this asshole to bite her or worse. Not even the fastest wolf in our pack will be able to stop that." And the thought of someone hurting her made him angry. A festering wound kind of anger that never relented.
 

"She's not exactly a pushover, dude."

"No match for a wolf."

Diego scoffed. "She has no problem taking you down."

"That's different." She'd grabbed his crotch and tried to neuter him. "She may not look like it on the outside, but she's vulnerable. And this is a bad idea."

Diego turned to him. "She made up her mind and she's determined. I agree that it's a dangerous thing for a human to take on. But I get why she needs to do it. You know as well as I do that you have to let her do this. Otherwise, she'll never trust the pack and you know we can't live with that."

Dante tried to ignore his brother's logic, but it was impossible. Without trust she'd have difficulty keeping their secrets. This wasn't what he hoped for her. He thought when she found out about his kind she'd be more on board. Everything he'd seen and learned about her said she had a very open mind.

"No, we can't have that," he admitted. There was no greater priority than keeping their existence a secret. Especially now that extremists with more hate than logic, were turning hunters more and more these days.

"Any sign of the hunter?"

Diego shook his head.

"Someone took a shot at the wolf in front of Faith. And that bullet casing I found smelled like silver. Hunter or not someone knows something and they could fuck one of us up if they're screwing around."

Dante turned his attention back to the stage when he realized Rebel's music was beginning to fade. The fake smoke filled the front and all he saw was the swing of her wicked red hair and the sway of bare hips...

Diego walked closer and nudged his side. "Time to take our places, bro. Don't worry. She's going to be fine."

Dante frowned. "Isn't there a stupid saying about famous last words?"

Chapter Two

Rebel flung open the dressing room door and crossed straight to the refrigerator on the back wall. She wasn't sure if she was amped up extra from two weeks off and she was already out of practice or from the knowledge that the man she wanted to capture was likely watching her dance.

Either way she was on edge.

She grabbed a bottle of water and rubbed it along her face and neck in an attempt to cool off and slow her racing heartbeat. Of course there was a third option for her discomfort. As the men who fed bills into her G-string faded from her memory, only one man remained.

Dante.

Why couldn't she get over him? They were not in a relationship and they didn’t even have sex. She sighed. It was sad she classified her time with men based on whether they had sex or not. Maybe though, that’s all this was. Lust that needed to be fulfilled. It had been a while for her and she’d been thinking about going in that direction with him until that night… When she saw him change…
 

Since then she avoided him or avoided talking about what happened. The whole thing unnerved her.

So he was a shifter? Big fucking deal.

Except it was a big deal. Because they had all these mystical things like mating season and true mates that ruled their world. A place where she obviously didn't belong. Or should she say yet another place she couldn't belong?

She plopped down in the chair sitting in front of her dressing room table and stared in the mirror. Behind the stage make-up and what felt like a pound of glitter she was still the same pathetic girl looking for that mysterious "thing" that eluded her. That feeling that would make her feel like her world had not actually been obliterated when her parents died and her twin left for college.

She'd begun to believe it was here on Devils Point. The chaos of Club Diablo mixed with the serenity of a small island seemed to make the perfect combination. She needed both. She lied to everyone about why she danced, making them think it was all about the money, when it wasn't. She loved to dance. It made her feel in control of her life.
 

Now she was closing in on the decision on whether she was going to stay or go. If tonight went well and they caught the asshole that attacked Faith, then she'd be free to leave. Her sister was settled in a big way with Damien and staying here only served to remind her on a daily—make that hourly–basis of what she could never have with Dante.

When she overheard him and Diego discussing Faith being their brother's true mate, she'd forced them to explain.

Be careful what you ask for…
 

That’s the lesson she learned that night. She swiped a hand towel across her face, wishing she could wipe away the memories as easily as she did the sweat.

Apparently the wolves believed in and experienced some mystical connection when they bonded with their true mate. The person fated to them by some greater power. It made her insatiably curious about Dante's fate and so she confronted him with the question on whether he knew the identity of his true mate.

She'd seen the answer in his eyes before he bothered to respond.
 

No, he did not.
 

Which meant it wasn't her and no matter what happened between them she would never be "the one."

Her shoulders sagged. Even thinking about it weeks later crushed her soul all over again. She put the water down on the table and grabbed her make-up wipes. She needed to shake it off and get her head on the real mission for tonight. Time to get the gunk off her face and get on with the rest of her life.

"You done for the night?" Melody, one of her fellow dancers came up behind her and watched her in the mirror.

"Yep. Just one tonight."

"Must be nice." She reached down and rubbed the side of her foot. "My feet are killing me."

Rebel grinned. “One of the many things we sacrifice to do this job.” She grabbed her tube of foot rub and handed it to her friend. “Here, this will help.”

"Thanks. A bunch of us are headed into Tacoma later tonight to hit one of the all night underground clubs. You want to go with?"

Ordinarily she would have been interested. The idea of getting a little lost in a night of partying sounded really good right about now. But tonight she hoped to catch that furry, human-biting asshole with her starring as the bait.
 

"Nah. Tired. Think I might be coming down with something."

Melody smiled. "Awww. That's too bad. But maybe Dante can come by your room tonight and kiss it all better."

She scrunched up her mouth in a lopsided frown. “Whatever.”

Melody shook her head. “I don’t see why not. It’s obvious you two are crazy about each other. You should embrace it and jump him already. Either you have great sex and you get it out of your system, or you have great sex and realize you might have something together. It’s pretty simple really. I’m not sure why people always want to make relationships so complicated.”

Rebel stopped scrubbing her face and stared at Melody in the mirror. She made it sound so simple. And sex for sex’s sake didn’t sound like a bad thing. She certainly needed to do something to move on.
 

Melody wandered off to ask the other girls if they wanted to join her trip and Rebel turned back to her task at hand. Specifically, she needed to not waste much more time and get her butt out the back door of the club. If their planning panned out and this guy was as predictable as they suspected, he'd be waiting for her somewhere not far from the club. Either in the parking lot or on her walk to the motel, expecting easy prey.

For several nights now she'd gotten the sense that someone was watching her. Whenever she was alone, the hairs on the back of her neck would stiffen and goose bumps broke out across her arms. There was definitely someone out there and it was time to find out who. She finished reapplying make-up more appropriate for outside the club and then cleaned up her table. She couldn't stand a messy area, to the point it drove her a little crazy until she fixed it. The only exception being her motel room when she went on a bender after finding out the guy she really liked was a werewolf. That had been a nightmare to clean up after.

She grabbed her clothes out of her locker and put them on. Short cutoff jeans, a white nearly sheer tank top and strappy sandals that made her tan legs look good while still being easy to run in. If that became necessary and she really hoped it didn't.

With one last glance in the mirror where she wiped a smudge of lip gloss from the corner of her mouth, she grabbed her purse and headed toward the employee exit. There were live cameras that saw through the entire perimeter of the parking lot and they were betting on their rogue not only knowing about them, but also planning to avoid them when he made his move.

When she opened the door, the cool night breeze coming in off the water caught her breath. It never ceased to surprise her that no matter how hot it got on the island, the surrounding water always stayed cold. Made it easy to survive the summers here versus other places she lived, that's for sure.
 

She inhaled, taking a deep breath and pushed forward, letting the door close behind her. Every step she would make tonight had been planned out with Dante and his brothers and she knew that the entire pack was out here whether she could see them or not. They were here backing her up and planned to do whatever it took to keep her safe.
 

Still, her stomach trembled a little, making her all too aware that this mission she volunteered for could go south as easy as it could succeed. It all depended on how well she handled her part.
 

She walked across the parking lot, her body painfully alert as her muscles tensed the farther she moved away from the safety of the club. If she got through tonight she would definitely make a decision one way or the other about her future at Devils Point. There was no point to staying close by and torturing all of them any further if she needed to leave. A clean break would be the best course of action.

A cracking noise sounded to her left and Rebel froze. The sound, while not overly loud in contrast to the club, boomed through her ears. While it could have been anything— Raccoon, squirrel, stray dog— the way her hackles rose told her it was more. Maybe one of the pack members?
 

More likely their rogue. He was smart but he made mistakes. And he was just as much affected by the mating season as Dante and the rest of his pack. More if he was feral.

Another scary shifter term she didn't particularly like. It sounded dangerous.
 

She kept going. There was nothing much she could do until he showed his face. They had to be sure it was him before they made their move. It wasn't entirely uncommon for a dancer to get followed home by one of her customers. That was the downside to selling the illusion of sex. Some took the job far more serious than she did and thought if they tipped her high enough or if she showed them enough attention that they had some sort of claim on her.
 

They didn't and it only took a stern word or a hard grip on an arm from Damien, Dante or Diego to teach that lesson once. No one ever followed her more than once. Until now.