To Tempt the Wolf

Chapter 13

SEEING THE BLUE PICKUP APPROACH, TESS A INSTANTLY forgot all her aches and pains. Her heart beat with renewed dread as she watched the truck's progress. The driver paused again some distance from the SUV. It had to be them. She looked in the backseat for a weapon. Ashton's rifle! Relief washed over her.

Her hands shaking, she grabbed the weapon and then unlocked the SUV's passenger door. With the greatest care, she managed to climb out without putting any weight on her ankle and leaned against the SUV's icy metal. Aiming the rifle at the pickup's windshield, she hoped they would get the message and back off, turn around, and leave for good, no matter who they were without having to fire a shot. No way did she want Hunter and the others to come running to protect her when they needed to rescue Rourke and Cara.

The driver didn't back off. In fact, the truck inched forward. She fired a warning round in between the driver and front seat passenger, blasting a hole in the glass, the gunfire reverberating in the woods. The rifle butt recoiled against her shoulder blade, bruising it, like the last time she'd shot at the stalker, only in wolf form that time. The truck spun around, slid, stopped, and retreated. She let out her breath, feeling she'd had a reprieve.

"What the hell's going on?" Ashton hollered, carrying Cara across the road. Her head was bleeding, and she looked dazed, her eyes focusing on nothing.

"Oh, Cara." Tessa nearly dropped the rifle when she got the door for Ashton and stepped with her full weight on her injured ankle. Pain shot all the way up through her thigh, and she gritted her teeth, stifling a pathetic whimper.

"I've got my hands full," Ashton grouched. "I can't be carrying both of you at the same time."

"Oh, shut up, Ashton," Cara mumbled. "Give the poor woman a break."

Despite his scowl and the hint of sarcasm in his voice, he sounded upset to see Cara hurt. "You're bleeding to death, and you think I'm not shook up about it?"

Cara cast him a sardonic smirk. "It's one way to get rid of your mate in case you're already dissatisfied."

"You'll live." Ashton helped her into the SUV. "At least Hunter warned me you would."

Cara puckered her lips and blew him a kiss. "Hmm, the honeymoon's already over."

But Tessa didn't think so. Rather, the way he acted so tenderly toward her, despite his disdain, he seemed to suit Cara perfectly. A match made in werewolf heaven.

Tessa hurried to sit with Cara and slipped her hat over the head wound, wishing she had a scarf instead. She applied pressure and hoped Cara would be all right.

"Go help Hunter. Tessa's taking good care of me," Cara ordered Ashton.

He grunted, considered her for a moment longer and then checked to make sure the truck hadn't returned. "Stay in the vehicle this time," he said to Tessa, then closed the door, and took off across the road, disappearing down the hill.

As if she planned on going anywhere now. "Are you really going to be all right?" As big a gash as Cara had, Tessa figured she might need a blood transfusion and stitches.

"Yes. Don't look so worried. On second thought, continue to look worried. It's nice having a friend who's anxious over my welfare. It's not really part of our lifestyle. We get hurt. We get better. Life goes on. Everyone knows that in a pack. No worry."

"What about Rourke?"

"He'll be fine."

But the way Cara avoided looking at Tessa, she was pretty sure Cara didn't know the truth.

"Did you kill any of them? The men in the truck?" Cara asked, her voice hopeful.

"I was afraid it wasn't them. What if it was some other motorist with a pickup that looked like theirs?"

"It was them. The truck had the same engine rumble.

Hunter couldn't leave Rourke's truck, as he was wedged in between the half-jammed door, trying to get it opened wide enough to get me out. Ashton was in the same predicament, and Hunter didn't want Meara leaving, figuring you were safe inside the locked SUV. But when you fired the rifle, he swore you'd never mind him if you joined the pack. Meara said you nearly unmanned the one guy, and if she'd gotten a hold of him, she would have done the rest. You got her vote. Guess you're an alpha after all."

"Sure." Like Tessa really believed that now, laid up with an injured ankle, unable to help anyone.

The sound of footfalls crunching on the frozen roadway caught their attention, and Tessa was relieved to see Hunter and the others, although seeing Rourke unconscious made her heart hitch.

"Here comes the rest of the crew. Help me into the very backseat, will you, Tessa? It's going to get a little crowded."

Tessa helped Cara into the backseat and was mad at herself for saying ouch when she pressed against her ankle. Cara and Rourke were the ones with the real injuries.

She smiled at Tessa. "Believe me, my head doesn't hurt a bit. I know what it's like to have torn ligaments or a broken ankle. It hurts. Nothing to be ashamed of. And if you hadn't dove over the cliff, that maniac might have injured you a hell of a lot worse."

Meara jerked the car door open, letting in a whirlwind of cold and snow. Hunter lay Rourke on the middle seat, his eyes shut, unresponsive.

Her heart hammering, Tessa leaned over the seat to touch Rourke's forehead. "Is he going to be all right?" He had to be. Didn't their kind have recuperative abilities? Yet, what if-- "He's got a concussion. We're returning to your place," Hunter said, his voice dark and strained.

"I'll sit with Rourke." Meara climbed in and lifted Rourke's head onto her lap.

Ashton got into the front seat with Hunter, then slammed the door shut.

"You didn't happen to get a license plate number off that truck, did you, Tessa?" Hunter backed away from where Rourke's vehicle had left the road and turned around.

"Before or after the one guy slugged me?" she asked. Hell, she was lucky to see that the truck was pale blue and had tinted windows in this snow. And now a bullet hole with a spider web of cracks trailing out from it in the center of the windshield. If they didn't replace it, she would recognize it anywhere.

Hunter chuckled darkly. "Yes or no would have sufficed."

"What are we going to do about them?"

"End their pathetic existence."

Rourke moaned.

"Can you hear me, Rourke?" Meara asked.

Tessa leaned over the seat again to get a look at him, keeping her hand still planted on the hat over Cara's wound to stem the bleeding. He focused his eyes on Meara and gave her a devilish smile.

Meara leaned away from him and folded her arms. "He's going to live."

Hunter looked in the rearview mirror and caught Tessa's eye. He hadn't thought Rourke would be all right. But now his shoulders relaxed, and he concentrated on the road again.

She took a deep breath of relief.

"Did you at least shoot one of them?" he asked.

"I shot the windshield. I wasn't sure the truck was theirs."

"It was them."

Rourke said, "I... got... a... call... just... before--"

"Shh, let Ashton tell the story," Meara said.

Ashton cleared his throat. "The Department of Transportation sent out the word that the coastal highway was closed because of downed electric lines, flooding, slides, and fallen trees and--"

Tessa looked up from pressing the cap on Cara's forehead to see why Ashton had quit talking.

Hunter pulled to a stop in front of a Douglas fir blocking the road. "Unless anyone thought to bring along a chainsaw, looks like this is the end of the road."

"How many miles left before we get to Tessa's place?" Meara asked.

"Two." Hunter shut off the engine. "Ashton and I can go back and grab your chainsaw, Tessa, and cut up the tree, then we'll drive home."

"No," Tessa said. Everyone waited for her to speak further on the matter. She had expected Hunter would just ignore her response. She straightened her shoulders. "We can't wait here like proverbial sitting ducks. Unless you think Cara and Rourke are too injured to move, and then we'll have to take our chances."

"Not me," Cara said.

"I'll be all right. Just someone help me up." Rourke tried to sit up with Meara's help.

"I'm thinking of you, Tessa," Hunter said.

"Well, I'm perfectly fine."

"We'll discuss this stubborn streak you have later. If everyone is agreeable, we'll all walk back to Tessa's place."

Both Rourke and Cara looked paler than normal, but they put on stoic faces and began the trek home. Tessa had planned to somehow walk on her own, but Hunter lifted her in his arms.

"You can't carry me all that way."

Everyone chuckled.

"If I didn't have a lupus garou's strength, you'd probably be right."

"I don't think I've heard anyone question Hunter's strength before and get off that easily," Meara said, her voice amused. Rourke stumbled and she took hold of his arm and kept glancing at him as if to make sure he was okay.

Ashton had his arm around Cara's waist, and she snuggled under his arm.

"About the driver of the truck, I couldn't kill him. I was afraid he might not have been the same guy who was stalking me. And even if he was..." Tessa let her words trail off. She couldn't have murdered him in cold blood. If he had tried to run her over with the truck again, she wouldn't have hesitated then.

Hunter shook his head. "The bullets wouldn't have killed him."

"Unless they were silver?"

"So legend says. I don't know of anyone who shot a lupus garou with silver bullets. But it could have happened. That's often how legends get started."

They all grew quiet. The snow fell around them, the wind still blowing hard, and they slipped as they walked on the icy road. After a mile, Rourke had slowed his pace even more, and he seemed to be leaning on Meara's strength. Ashton finally lifted Cara and carried her. But before they reached the house, Tessa saw a black Hummer parked in the driveway. Her heart tripped.

"Leidolf," Hunter said, his voice couched in annoyance.

"The red lupus garou is back for the redhead," Meara said. "Don't you think?"

"Back for me?" Not that there were any other redheads in their little party. "Red lupus garou?"

"There are red and grays," Meara explained.

"Better not be the reason why he's returned," Hunter responded.

Tessa didn't see any sign of Leidolf in the Humvee, then observed him looking out the picture window.

"How'd he get in my house?" Her frigid skin turned icier.

Leidolf opened the front door and came outside. "Back door was unlocked. Road was blocked by downed wires the way I was headed. Looks like you ran into some trouble, too."

Tessa felt sick to her stomach. At least she was pretty sure she had locked the back door. Unless someone had gone out that way and hadn't relocked the door.

"Rockslide our way. Then on the return home, a tree had fallen across the road," Hunter said.

Leidolf dropped his gaze to Tessa as if he had only now noticed her in Hunter's arms. "Is she injured badly?"

"No, she is not injured badly." Tessa frowned at him.

He didn't have to act like she was a child or didn't exist.

He smiled and then looked at Hunter. "We need to talk about the woman."

Woman, as in her? Hunter didn't respond, just carried Tessa into the house and headed for her bedroom. The red lupus garou was so intolerably arrogant.

"I guess I'll play nurse," Meara said. "Not my favorite role, but I can muddle through." She followed Hunter into the master bedroom.

"I'm fine, Meara. Go take care of Cara," Tessa said.

"I'm sure Ashton will want to look after her," Meara said.

Hunter lay Tessa on the bed, and then pulled off her gloves. "I need Ashton to play guard, and I'll take Leidolf with me to cut up that tree so we can return with the SUV."

"What if they come after you?" Tessa asked, not liking this one bit.

"They won't mess with two alpha lupus garou males, guaranteed."

"Can you trust Ashton to stay put this time?" Meara asked.

"To protect his injured mate? I think so. Besides, I don't trust Leidolf to stay here with Tessa."

Meara laughed. "You know what, dear brother? I don't either." She headed down the hall and spoke in Michael's bedroom. "Here, Ashton, let me take care of Cara. Can you talk with Rourke for a minute? Make sure he's lying down in the guest bedroom? I'll see him after I bandage Cara's head."

"Did we really leave the back door unlocked?" Tessa asked Hunter. "I know for sure I locked the front door, but we were all busy getting stuff for the trip, I just don't know about the back door."

"Either we did, or we didn't. Don't worry about it, Tessa. They won't try to get in with as many of us as there are here now." He got her a glass of water and some medicine. "I'll be right back."

She leaned against the pillow and unbuttoned her parka, trying to ignore her throbbing ankle or the fact the house was frigid.

Hunter soon returned with an ice pack from the freezer. "Good thing you had this handy." He pulled the boot off her uninjured foot, and then carefully slipped the other off as she gritted her teeth in silent suffering.

"Broken or sprained?" she asked.

"Bruised and swollen. We won't know whether it's broken or sprained without an x-ray."

He placed the ice pack on her ankle, and then helped her out of her coat. Pulling the comforter off the bed, he moved it over her so that it didn't cover her foot. "Your socks are wet and cold. Let me get some dry ones for you."

As soon as he pulled open the top drawer, she opened her mouth to tell him where he should have gone. He held up a handful of colorful silk panties and smiled. "Wrong drawer."

She cleared her throat. "Try the one below that."

He pulled out a couple of pairs of pastel fuzzy socks and closed the drawer with his hip.

"They don't match."

He chuckled and pulled off her wet socks and then slipped on the dry ones. "The way to avoid spending hours looking for matching socks is to have all the same color."

"How dull."

"Works for me. It's either that or wear nothing at all."

She smiled. Yeah, she could see Hunter like that--in nothing at all.

"How's that feel?"

"Much better." Awful, really, but maybe the medicine would kick in soon.

"You're a terrible liar. Don't ever play poker."

"I play poker very well, thank you."

"Not with me. I'd insist on strip poker and I'd have you naked in record time."

She laughed.

"I'll be back after a little while."

She saluted him.

"Wrong hand. You'd never make it in the Navy SEALs."

"They don't salute when they're undercover. Remember?" She raised a brow.

"I'll take care of her," Meara said, walking into the room. "Cara's sleeping. Rourke is lying in bed. Ashton's working on a fire. Go talk to Leidolf."

"I'll be back." Hunter kissed Tessa on the lips, hot and wanting, pressing for more, until he pulled his mouth away with reservation, and she wanted to drag him back and devour him whole.

"Don't allow her to move from the bed, Meara."

"The one guy had a walking cast on," Tessa said, as Hunter was about to leave the room.

"Yeah, I saw. He had a broken leg."

"I thought you healed up quickly."

"Instead of six to eight weeks, it would be more like a week. Rest. I'll return soon." He winked and left.

Meara pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down. Tessa opened her mouth to speak, but Meara raised her finger to her own lips and raised her brows.

In the living room, Hunter said, "Come on, Leidolf. Let's get a workout on that downed tree. Watch the others, Ashton."

"Yeah, you can count on me."

The front door slammed closed.

Meara took a breath. "I hope Hunter doesn't get into a fight with Leidolf over you."

"You can't be serious." Unable to quit shivering, Tessa pulled the covers to her chin.

"Two alpha males interested in the same woman? Hell, you saw what happens when one beta wants you. You better believe now that you have to be turned; Leidolf's interested, and there will be trouble between him and my brother. Not only that, but this business with Devlyn Greystoke is bound to cause problems. Hunter told me Devlyn lost all his family in a fire. Any family connection, no matter how slight, would most likely interest him. Which leads to the real problem."

Tessa tensed, not liking the warning in Meara's voice.

"Because of the shortage of females in a given pack, a leader who can entice a female to join his pack-- particularly if it's his relation--can offer her to another member, strengthening his bonds with his pack."

Finally finding her voice, Tessa said, "That sounds like some medieval barbaric ruling. The king decides which of his wards weds and whom. Why didn't Hunter already tell me this?"

Meara shrugged, but Tessa could tell she wasn't saying all there was about the subject. "All right, so what about Leidolf? He doesn't know anything about me."

"Right. But for lupus garou, pheromones have a lot to do with the selection process. We're attracted to someone's looks, but also to the sexual scent each of us gives off. It's subtle, not noticeable to the human population. Since the lupus garou males outnumber the females, males are always on the lookout for a female. But what entices one male might not another. It's like having a craving for chocolate and entering a shop full of spicy pickles. Kills the desire. Walk into the store next door where a pot of hot chocolate is brewing, the male is in love."

"Pickles and hot chocolate?"

Meara chuckled. "Okay, maybe peppermint and hot chocolate?"

Ashton poked his head in. "Interesting discussion. Fire's going good. Did you want to move in there? This room is awfully cold."

"Sparks will fly if she's moved in there by the fire and Leidolf gets close to her when he and Hunter return," Meara warned.

Ashton gave her a devious smile. "No television, radio, nothing else better for entertainment. Besides, it's freezing in here and Tessa's shivering."

"Tessa?"

"It is awfully chilly in here. With the ice pack on my ankle, it's making me even colder."

Although she intended to walk with Ashton's help, he lifted her from the bed. "Can you bring the comforter, Meara?" Ashton asked. "Unfortunately, all the blankets are either in my truck or your SUV."

"Oh, well, hell, I never thought of it," Meara said. "At least when the guys come back, we'll have some of the blankets. Is Cara warm enough?"

"After we get Tessa situated on the couch, I'll check on Cara."

"You can stay with her. I'll be the guard for a while."

Ashton lay Tessa on the couch. "Hunter will be pissed if I'm not guarding."

"I'll take care of him." Meara waved her hand and then covered Tessa with the cover. "Go. Keep Cara warm."

When Ashton retired from the room, Tessa asked, "He really won't be mad at him, will he?"

"Probably. But, we can come up with a good story."

Right. As if Tessa could bluff her way through anything where Hunter was concerned.

With the incessant frigid wind blowing, Hunter trudged through the snow back to the SUV with Leidolf at his side, carrying the axe while Hunter held the chainsaw Ashton had rescued from the demolished shed.

"You haven't turned the woman. Yet, I imagine as cozy as you are with her, she knows what we are by now," Leidolf finally said.

Hunter knew the red was interested in Tessa, and he couldn't help but be irked by it. Hell, he had enough problems already. "It's my business to take care of. Where are my people, exactly?"

Leidolf ignored his question. "She's a petite redhead. If she's turned, she'll be more like a red wolf than a gray."

"She'll be a gray. But what's your point?" Hunter was trying to keep his temper, but he knew exactly where this line of reasoning was going.

"Two bachelors in my pack are seeking mates."

Well, not exactly what he expected Leidolf to say. "And you're not?"

"I'm a royal. I already told you that. The woman wouldn't interest me."

Hunter knew better, just the way Leidolf observed Tessa when he thought Hunter wasn't looking, the way he pretended disinterest when he looked at her and knew Hunter was watching.

Leidolf swung the ax as if fighting an unseen enemy. "But since you're not interested in changing her and two of my men are, it seems we could come to some kind of agreement."

"When the weather breaks, I'll go to Portland, strictly to take my rowdy pack members off your hands, and speak with Tessa's brother in prison at Salem on the way up there. Tessa will stay with me for her own protection."

"So you haven't eliminated the stalker yet."

"You noticed Tessa's injuries? The stalker did that. Or one of his brothers."

Leidolf's expression turned stormy. "And they still live?"

"For now. As soon as the storm quits pounding the coast, we'll be up to your place. You might have noticed Tessa lost her shed, part of the shingles on her roof, a couple of trees came down on her property, one on Ashton's truck, and she has no electricity."

"No electricity in parts of Portland either. Our winds haven't reached the levels yours have, but we've suffered a lot of devastation from this system."

"So where are my people?"

"I've isolated them in one of my barns."

Hunter stiffened his spine and glared at Leidolf.

He cast him a smirk. "Teach them to run out on their pack leader. Give them worse conditions than they're used to and they'll beg to return. Although I'll admit, two escaped to Washington State."

"Have you ever had problems with your pack of this sort--that you would admit to?"

Leidolf grinned. "No, I've never had your kind of trouble. But then again, I'd been a loner for a number of years before I came here. Some in my pack believe I have special powers."

Hunter bit back a laugh and with the most serious face he could muster, asked, "Do you?"

"Some say I do."

"Doesn't seem like it to me." Hunter hoisted the chainsaw over the other shoulder.

"Maybe it's because we're both alphas and the magic only works on betas."

"Or maybe because we're both royals."

Leidolf stared at Hunter for a minute. "You're a royal, but would take a human mate?"

"I wouldn't have, had the circumstances been different. But not because I'm a royal."

"Ahh, so keeping the lines pure doesn't mean anything to you."

Hunter shook his head. "No, changing a human is the only thing that makes the difference, only now it seems I have no choice."

"We always have choices. You can give her to me."

Hunter laughed. "You, or the two males who want a mate?"

"To me, my pack, for one of the males who wants her. Don't you think three newly turned lupus garous in one pack will be a little much to handle?" Leidolf asked, avoiding the issue.

"You live in the city. How could you manage?"

"I'd keep her at my ranch in the country."

"Why don't you take Rourke or Ashton off my hands?"

Leidolf laughed. "I need females, not more males." He shook his head. Then he tilted his chin up with a gleam in his green eyes. "I contacted Devlyn Greystoke in Colorado to let him know about his distant cousin, as a courtesy."

Courtesy, my ass.

"As soon as the weather clears, he's flying out here. He wanted me to give you a message since I didn't have your phone number. Don't touch her."

Hunter attempted to shrug off the annoyance that another leader was dictating to him, even if he was distantly related to her. "And you still want Tessa?"

"Let's just say whatever happens before he arrives, happens. I wouldn't have a problem dealing with him. Not after he slipped Bella out from under my nose when she was living secretly in my territory and she's a red."

So that was why Leidolf told Devlyn about Tessa? Not out of some admiration for the gray who'd fought the murdering red alpha leader, or because he felt it was his duty. Hell no. Leidolf wanted to get back at Devlyn for stealing Bella, in the event Hunter took Tessa for his own.

Leidolf stopped dead and stared at the tree blocking the roadway around the bend. "You didn't tell me it was that big."