Wolf Fever (3 page)

“I go by Ryan.”

She hesitated to speak and then asked, to the point, “So,
Ryan
? Why are you here? Does Darien know?”

“No. I wanted to speak to you about—”

Lights suddenly flooded the back porch and Jake yelled, “Here! She's taken off into the woods this way!”

“O
H, NO
. G
O
,” C
AROL WHISPERED TO
R
YAN IN THE
dark woods, at once sounding vulnerable and desperate. Darien and his brothers were sure to be on the warpath as they searched for her. “If Darien finds me with you and you're…” She motioned to his nudity, her gaze lingering lower. “There'll be hell to pay.”

“He'll smell me anyway and see my wolf tracks.” Ryan couldn't pinpoint why he delayed leaving. Maybe he was worried he might have gotten her into trouble because of their actions. Yet, the inexplicable feeling kept gnawing at him that when he had wanted to question her during the investigation and after she'd been injured, Darien hadn't allowed it. Ryan didn't like to be thwarted in any fact-finding mission he set out to accomplish. And he wouldn't be this time, either.

“Go,” she pleaded.

“Tomorrow, I'll speak with you at the celebration.”

“Darien won't allow it. You know he won't.”

At that, Ryan felt a stab of guilt. The only reason he came here was to see Carol and prove she didn't have any special abilities. For an instant, he thought she sounded hopeful that he wanted to see her about some other matter, something more intimate. Which struck another chord deep inside.

He had to remind himself that his own wolf pack hadn't had a newly turned wolf in a couple of decades.
So he wasn't used to the notion that someone like Carol might have difficulty adjusting to pack life where a leader had to ensure the newbie didn't stray far and cause colossal problems that couldn't easily be resolved.

“Carol…”

She shook her head. “Go, now. I'll try to see you tomorrow.”

He ground his teeth and listened to the hurried footfalls headed in their direction. Then he shape-shifted and, at a wolf's loping run, took off for the river to hide his tracks again. Eventually, he'd return to the bed and breakfast and settle in his room for the night. Although he might not be able to keep the room if Darien learned about it.

He had wanted to face Darien and his people and explain why he had been there tonight, knowing they'd question Carol mercilessly about what she had seen in the woods. Although as a naked man, he'd have had no chance to explain himself, especially when he couldn't come up with a half-logical reason to explain it to himself.

“Carol!” Darien said, his tone sharp but worried.

A pack leader carried the burden of keeping all of his people safe, Ryan knew only too well. He headed toward the river and thought he saw a flash of red fur. Coyote? Another red wolf? He glanced back in the direction he had come. Couldn't have been Carol, and he doubted it would have been Lelandi.

Unless it was that sneaky cousin of Lelandi's, Ural. Or some other member of her family. Why slip around in the dark out here in the woods like he was doing? Ryan's spine stiffened as he considered what might have
happened to Carol if she had encountered whoever this was alone in the dark.

He had never liked coincidences and rarely believed in them. His P.I. instincts pressed him to investigate the red in the event he could be trouble for Darien's people.

With a quick twist in the wolf's direction, Ryan dashed in hot pursuit after the red.

The image of Ryan in the nude was still foremost in Carol's thoughts as he raced off in his wolf form. Although his eyes, pools of darkened amber, were entrancing enough to nearly make her forget anything else. Dark coffee- colored hair curling around his ears had somewhat softened the hard, angular planes of his face, a shadowy stubble adding to the sexy ruggedness. She hadn't seen him in five months, but that amount of time didn't diminish the way she had remembered him—the way he had studied her months ago when she explained to Darien what she'd envisioned and helped him bring the murderer to justice.

Ryan had observed her the same way just now. He seemed to be intrigued with her. Most likely because he'd never met anyone quite like her. At least that's what she thought.

But then she was back to thinking about his naked body. Healthy.
Right.
Sleek hard muscles toned to perfection, darkly pebbled nipples and an indented navel meant for licking, skin glistening, his sex stirring even as she had admired it, jutting out from a bush of dark brown hair, muscular legs, and large feet, all
very
well proportioned, caught her imagination. She'd definitely not seen him in
that
way before.

She had believed that once she had turned into one of their kind, seeing a naked man built like Ryan wouldn't affect her. She guessed that was a naïve thought. Especially when she had to take a look at his package— twice. Would it make any difference if she had been a werewolf for eons and had seen others strip and shape-shift whenever in a pack?

Maybe. Like living at a nudist colony and being used to seeing everyone nude all the time. No big deal. Even though the pack members didn't shift all the time. So they weren't often naked in front of other pack members. And they changed so fast that, to the naked eye, the shift was mostly a wondrous blurring of forms.

She had thought she wouldn't be affected, being a nurse and trying to look at him in a clinical way while maintaining an air of aloofness.
Right
. She hadn't succeeded. Now she couldn't shake loose the image of his powerful build, thinking how it would be with someone like him in the throes of passionate lovemaking. Her face flushed at the thought.

“Carol!” Darien snapped again. She recognized the fear in his expression, although he often schooled his face to hide such emotions.

He stalked toward her, dark hair, dark eyes, a warrior ready to do battle. His brothers flanked him, all eyes on her, tensions running high, their postures ready to pounce if she attempted to run. Where was she supposed to run to? She was clueless about so many aspects of being a
lupus garou
.

Lelandi had warned her how vulnerable she would be on her own as a newly turned
lupus garou
. But she didn't want to live alone, either. Despite the pack's
restrictions on her, she still loved the whole lot of them. She loved their protectiveness, their caring, and the way they seemed clueless sometimes as to how to deal with her uniqueness.

Even so, she thanked God that she hadn't yet changed into a wolf. But the urge to shift would make it impossible for her to fight it forever. She had no plans to go anywhere. This was home, such as it was, and at least she worked in the hospital, now that she was one of them—
kind of
. Working as a nurse had been the job she'd dreamed of since she was a girl and had broken her leg. She wanted to help others in need, just like the medical staff had helped her. So this was it for her.

“I'm coming,” she said in a grumpy way, as Darien and his brothers drew closer. She really wished they wouldn't watch her so much. She was fine and didn't need them hovering over her like a bunch of old motherly hens. “I thought the three of you were at work.”

Jake and Tom looked her over as if to ensure she was okay and then quickly searched the surrounding area, trying to locate Ryan's tracks.

“Is that why you left the house? Because you thought I wouldn't learn of it? ” Darien took her arm and escorted her back to the house. He turned to peer over his shoulder at his brothers, took a sniff of the air, and grunted. Towering over her, Darien gave her a hard look.

“What the hell were you doing out here alone with McKinley? Just because my brothers and I weren't home and Lelandi was sleeping, that doesn't mean it's safe for you to be running around in the woods by yourself at night.” Then he considered her, his eyes narrowing. He shook his head. “He'd better not want you for a mate.”

Her lips parted in surprise. She should have known Darien would recognize who Ryan was, but why would a gray pack leader be interested in a newly turned red wolf? Then again, why in the world would he want to see her so badly, potentially incurring Darien's wrath?

She sighed. Ryan was virile, rugged, and sexy with a body that wouldn't quit. Hell, he was a feast for impoverished eyes to be sure. She hoped she'd acted less like a schoolgirl who hadn't seen goods like that on a man in a long time and more like a nurse concerned with his medical needs. But more than his physical good looks, Ryan was protective and caring and dedicated. Was he really interested in getting to know her better?

She smiled, each step becoming springier as she headed for the house. She'd always had a thing for alpha males. Not that she had any intention of being bossed around, even if one had her best interests at heart. Her fascination with alphas was that they were a challenge. Betas didn't hold much of an appeal.

But then her step slowed. When he'd been here before, she had read in his posture and in his censure that he didn't believe in her psychic abilities. With that kind of attitude, he couldn't be interested in her.

She stiffened and cast a look over her shoulder in the direction he'd gone. So then what was he
really
doing here?

Later that night, after not locating the red wolf who had run off in the woods next to Darien's house, and irritated beyond reason, Ryan came to the conclusion that the
lupus garou
was wearing some kind of hunter's
scent concealer. Otherwise, Ryan would have caught up to him at some point. Which meant the red was up to no good.

Sneaking through Darien's territory, the red had been careful not to mark the area, just as Ryan hadn't, although the instinct was hard to control as an alpha in wolf form. Ryan had smelled the scent markings made by Darien and other pack members when he had crossed the invisible boundary into Darien's territory earlier. The markings were a warning to other wolves and predators that the land was already occupied.

Ryan came across wolf tracks and red fur snagged on a pinyon pine branch, but the smell of the wolf's current location eluded him. When Ryan sniffed the fur left behind, there was no odor at all.

He traveled after the red wolf for a couple of miles, but the trail led to a river and stopped on the rocky bank. Even though the trespassing wolf was Darien's problem, not his own, a nagging thought continued to plague Ryan as he turned and headed through the forest to town. Why had the wolf been watching Darien's house?

His actions didn't make any sense, and Ryan couldn't help worrying about Lelandi and Carol, the only two red wolves in Darien's pack. Except for Lelandi's doctor from her former red pack, who was on loan to Darien's pack for the time being. But the doctor lived nearer town, not close to Darien's home. And he was a male. Which made Ryan believe that the red male lurker was interested in Carol or Lelandi. Or both.

Reluctantly, Ryan followed the tree line and finally reached the back side of the Hastings Bed and Breakfast, where his rented room looked out on the Douglas firs,
perfect for privacy. He'd left the window open so he could easily let himself back in. When he jumped at the opening, though, he realized too late that someone had shut the damned thing.

His front paws hit the glass pane hard, and he grunted and jumped back. Hell. Swinging his head around, he saw Bertha Hastings, the owner of the establishment, peer out the kitchen window. For a while, she just watched him, not recognizing him. A lone wolf. Not of her pack. An outsider.

He sat and waited.

Bertha's round face lifted in a happy countenance with springy silver curls tracing her cheeks where they'd fallen loose from a bun and a dash of white powder on the tip of her pert nose. Did she finally recognize him? She hadn't been at the battle when the reds and grays fought. And he hadn't been in his wolf form at any other time when Bertha had been around.

She opened the window, lifted her chin, and breathed deeply. Then she smiled again, this time her eyes matching the cheerful greeting.

She knew it was him. He took a breath of relief as she disappeared from the window. Then the back door opened, and she motioned for him to hurry inside. He hesitated, concerned she might have some human guests about. More vigorously this time, she again waved for him to come in.