Fear, icy and potent settled deep into my chest as we ran. The scents of the others were thick, their apprehension leaving trail through the heavily wooded forest I could have followed blind.
As soon as we heard voices, I smelled it. The same nauseating scent of cloves, sweat, and rotting blood. It was bewildering how eerily similar it was to back then. Only this time I wasn't weak, wasn't so pathetically human. This time, I'd rip Michael to pieces.
Kyrian, Avery, Tripp, Rita, and a short brawny man I didn't know were already in the clearing when Britta and I broke the tree line. The body I could just barely begin to see poking out of the tall reedy grass.
"Britta?" Avery asked, his hard gaze going between his mate and me.
"Do we know who it is?" she touched his arm briefly before turning her attention to Kyrian.
"Carmen." The stout man replied gruffly, his expression going steely. "They ripped her throat out."
Britta's hands flew to her mouth. "No!"
I tilted my head, rolling his words around in my mind. 'They?'
I sniffed again, drawing the breath deeper into my lungs, searching passed Michael's and corpse's overwhelming odors. Tar, asphalt, bleach, pepper corns. Imbedded in them a second wolf's unsavory scent emerged. Yeah, he was right. Michael'd had someone with him, but the fragrance wasn't fami00liar to me.
Kyrian, who'd been watching me closely, glowered as I finished my silent assessment.
"It's him, isn't it?"
I swallowed down my trepidation as the group's attention swung to me, then nodded. "He was here, but I don't recognize the male who'd been with him." I shuddered involuntarily. Michael was somewhere nearby, and he knew I was with this pack. My stomach twisted.
The stranger's bushy mustache twitched. "You can tell the second was male?"
I thought about the scents I'd picked up. "I believe so." There'd been nothing even faintly feminine about them.
He grunted. "Good nose."
Rita's eyes spat fire. "Should she really be here, sir? She's the reason Carmen's dead."
Hurt and fury scorched me. "Say the word, and I'll be gone before lunch."
Before I could hope, or worry, that they'd finally see what having me around would bring to their families, Kyrian snarled at her. "Get her out of here Jeff!"
The busy mustache man cast a long, considering look in my direction before nodding. "Come on Rita."
"Sir! Alpha Kyrian!"
"Let's go, Rita." Jeff muttered almost kindly, giving her a light push to get her moving.
If looks could kill, I would have been six feet under at the black, baleful glower Rita shot me as she passed.
My wolf's hackles rose. Her snarl was so loud and demanding it surprised me when my lip curled away from my own teeth and the sound reverberated out of my own throat. Rita wanted a piece of us? One more step and we'd rip out a hamstring.
Rita flinched away and exposed her throat.
You could have heard a pin drop with how silent that clearing went, not even the birds or crickets daring to make a sound.
"Holy shit." Tripp sucked in an awed breath.
"How?" Britta sibilated; her expression pinched.
Kyrian dropped his hand into his palm and rubbed his eyes. "What fucking else."
Their clear befuddlement cleared the angry haze that had started to creep in on the edge of my vision. "What?"
The alpha waved away my question. "Not...not right now. Just hold that thought till later."
I frowned. 'Okay—'
It seriously pissed me off to have to be brushed to the side, but given the circumstances, I bit the inside of my cheek and let it go.
"When did this happen?" Britta asked, returning the attention back to where it deserved to be, the dead.
"Right after shift change this morning." Tripp informed her, his eyes locked on Carmen's pale, blood-splattered face.
"We knew there was a chance Michael might follow her." Avery shot a hard look at Kyrian. "Looks like he has."
My belly knotted tighter. "So, what, is this just his calling card?"
"You could say that. He wanted to make damn sure we knew it was him." Kyrian cursed again. "Well, that fucker has my attention now. Tripp!"
My guard snapped to attention. "Sir?"
"We double the guards. No one goes anywhere alone. Pull every resource we have available. Nothing moves on our lands I'm not aware of!"
"Yes Alpha!"
The Alpha's command rolled over all of them, his authority absolute.
My wolf huffed, the weight nothing more to her than the wind from a butterfly's wing.
"As for you," Kyrian growled, slinking towards me with powerful, sensuous strides. A wholly unexpected thrill sparked through me. "You're not allowed out of my sight from now on. Where I go, you go."
"I think the fuck not." I snapped, wanted to beat the tingle that had begun low in my belly with a brick. What the hell was wrong with me? What happened to all the fear from just a few moments ago?
His eyes narrowed into angry slits as he got nose to nose with me. "It's not a request, Jo. I'm telling you how this is gonna go."
I heard the order, the double timbre of the Alpha's voice bearing down, trying to bind me to its will. My wolf shook out her fur, not the least bit bothered.
"I'm not leaving my cabin." I ground out between clenched teeth, not breaking the challenging stare. "Deal with that."
The sound of an ATV came from just beyond the clearing. Probably to collect the body.
Kyrian glared a moment longer, then he straightened with a smirk. "You don't want to leave the cabin? Fine."
"Well, good." I floundered, reeling from the sudden shift in his attitude.
"I'll just move in with you."
"You'll what?!"
'I'll kill him in his sleep. Hide his body under the floorboards. Rip off his arm and beat him with it!'
Still, no matter how much I glowered and protested, Kyrian made good on his threat. As soon as we got back, boxes began to appear in my living room. I glared at each and everyone of them as he unpacked them until there was a mound of folders in one of my wicker chairs and his laptop rested on my coffee table.
"I've been invaded!" I grumbled as I slapped together a sandwich while the alpha typed furiously away on the keyboard.
I carried my place over to the recliner and crawled into it, tucking my legs before stuffing a bite into my mouth. I watched him work as I ate, trying to orientate myself to his proximity.
"So, about my pin." I reminded him after the silence started to stretch between us.
He sighed, leaning back, and dragging a hand through his hair.
"Since you're not recognized as a pack member, there should be no way you and your wolf could cow anyone, especially not someone like Rita, into showing you her throat in submission with nothing more than a growl. Like you were her superior."
I considered that. "Kinda like how your alpha voice makes them all go military and snap to."
"Exactly like that."
"Oh."
"It's not normal."
I sneered. "Uh, hello. You're werewolves. What's normal about any of this?"
"Not to burst your little judgmental bubble, but so are you."
I curled my lip at him. "I'm nothing like you."
He shook his head. "Yeah, you are. As much as you try and fight it, you're a wolf. It's as much a part of you as those sexy little freckled across your nose."
'He thinks my freckles are sexy?'
"What?" I asked instead, thanking whatever above that that hadn't come out of my mouth.
Kyrian smirked. "You heard me."
That was the problem. What was I supposed to do what that information? He returned to his laptop, leaving me to study him openly.
His mahogany-colored eyes matched his scent completely, I realized. Down to those little green flecks I'd noticed the first time I'd met him, like the subtle hint of rosemary that wove through the scent. virile and masculine.
His hair was still beautiful, so shiny and heathy I had the strangest urge to reach out and remove the hair tie that held it back so it could hang around his thick, muscular shoulders and run my hands through it. I wondered if the tresses felt like the silk I imagined them.
Speaking of shoulders, I could admit that he was completely drool worthy. Corded with ropes of taunt, tight muscles that invited you to run your fingers over them and marvel at how warm and firm they were. His neck was just as thick and corded, begging me to sink my teeth into I while his hot scent filled my nostrils.
My gaze traveled lower, my imagination having no trouble imagining what Kyrian looked like without this shirt, and my mouth watered.
Still lower, to where his computer rested on thick, strong thighs. Yum.
"If you keep looking at me like that, I won't be responsible for the outcome."
Our gazes met and I all but drowned in the stark need I found blazing in his eyes.
I gasped, my face going nuclear hot, then rushed from the room and into the loft where I dropped heavily onto the bed, my head in my hands.
'I am so, unbelievably fucked.'
'You could be.' The dirty little part of my mind pointed out.
'Fuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccckk.'