Releasing the Hunter hn-168 Page 18

  He moved toward her, his steps hesitant. It looked like he’d bolt at a second’s notice.

  “Thanks,” she said. “Again. For saving me.”

  He gave her a little smile. “Seems to be a habit of mine.” He pointed to her neck. “You’re bleeding pretty good there.”

  She touched her throat; her hand came away smeared in crimson. She could feel warm trickles sneaking under the collar of her shirt. “Yeah, he nicked me a few times too many.”

  He stepped even closer to her. She could smell him now. A dark, dangerous scent clung to him like shadows. “Let me see.” He touched her neck with just his fingertips.

  She shivered as a warm sensation drew over her throat, down her shoulders and ventured lower still. She felt her nipples harden instantly under her shirt. She stifled the urge to cover her breasts with her arm to stop him from noticing. It didn’t matter. He noticed. She could tell by the slow, lazy smile that spread over his face and the gleam in his dark eyes.

  He dropped his hand from her and took a step back. “There. The bleeding should stop.”

  She stared at him for a long moment, taking everything about him in. He looked the same. Maybe his hair was a little longer; the ends flirted with his earlobes. But he was the same. And in that moment she remembered every reason why she fell in love with him. Those reasons hadn’t gone away.

  “I like your necklace.”

  She reached up and stroked a hand over the silver cross. “At least it’s just a cross.”

  His lips twitched a little. “Yeah, good thing, that.”

  “I gave the key to Quinn.”

  “I figured you would. It’s best with him anyway.”

  “Why did you bring it back?”

  He looked at her, as if memorizing every nuance on her face, every line, every slope and every muscle. “Because being human meant never having a chance to be a man with you.”

  Her heart skipped a beat in her chest and she had to fight down the urge to let the tears welling in her eyes fall. Instead, she cleared her throat and kicked at a small pebble on the ground. “Quinn won’t ever forgive you. I can’t promise you that he won’t try to kill you later.”

  “I don’t care.” He reached for her hand and took it in his. “All I need to know is...can you forgive me?”

  Her skin warmed in his, and the sensation crept over her wrist and up to her biceps. He was doing that thing he knew she liked, when he transferred some of his power into her. It was sneaky, but she couldn’t stop the giddiness inside her stomach. It was one more thing she liked about him.

  “I don’t know. Maybe in time.”

  “Good.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss on the back, and then he let her go. He turned to leave.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Giving you that time.” He gave her one of his devilish smiles and walked out into the night, the shadows along the street swallowing him up.

  Chapter 32

  The jerk, she thought. He’d done it to her on purpose.

  Every night for the past week since seeing him on the street in front of the club, she’d been waiting for him to show up at her house.

  She would eat dinner, watch some TV, dress for bed then sit in her dark bedroom waiting for the knock at the door or at the window. It wouldn’t have even surprised her if he slipped into the house unseen and unheard to take her by surprise.

  But he hadn’t shown and she was growing more impatient and frustrated with every passing minute.

  Just the way he wanted her, she suspected.

  She could’ve called him on his cell phone, but she didn’t want to seem desperate. She didn’t want him to have the upper hand. She was supposed to be trying to find ways to forgive him, when in reality she’d forgiven him the second she’d seen the hanging necklace glinting in the moonlight. She would’ve welcomed him back into her arms gladly.

  Tonight, she’d met Jake for some prep on a new job. He’d had information she needed. He’d also informed her that the Crimson Hall Cabal was after her and to watch her back. Once they’d met, they’d talked, had a drink, then she’d left with Jake’s warning fresh in her mind.

  Jake hadn’t asked her about Ronan, but she could tell he’d wanted to. Maybe it was the angry glare she’d given him when he started to open his mouth. Or the sadness that she couldn’t stop from enveloping her when she thought no one was looking.

  She’d had no real idea how truly empty her life was until Ronan had come into it and messed it all up. And now that he was gone, she felt not just empty but hollow. Like he’d taken all the good stuff with him.

  She parked her newly acquired vehicle in the carport, turned it off and got out. She was tired and thought about nothing but climbing into bed and sleeping. She slipped inside and locked the door behind her. She toed off her sneakers and padded across the living room toward her bedroom with every intention of stripping off her clothes and sliding under the sheets.

  But the second she stepped into her dark bedroom, she sensed something was wrong.

  She unsheathed a blade from her back harness and held it out defensively. Her breathing slowed and she tilted her head to hear. A rush of movement came from her right, and she swung her arm but it was blocked. She was grabbed around the biceps and pushed up against the bedroom wall. A warm sensation stroked her skin.

  She growled, “What took you so damn long?”

  Ronan smiled. “I was giving you time to forgive me.”

  “Yeah, well, time’s up buddy.” She dropped her knife, and wrapped her hand around his neck, pulling his mouth even closer. “Kiss me before I change my mind.”

  He did. And it was good.

  A rush of delicious shivers raced down her spine. Her other hand found purpose under the hem of his shirt, as she feathered her fingers over his stomach and up to the hard planes of his chest. He moaned into her mouth as she rolled one of his nipples between her fingers.

  “Damn, woman, you’re killing me.”

  “Get used to it,” she said as she licked along his jawline. “I plan to kill you for a long time.”

  “Promise?”

  She looked up at him, met his gaze, saw the question there and the answer. “Yes, I promise.”

  “Good, because waiting for you has been torture.”

  “Torture?” She nipped at his chin. “You’re the one who was torturing me. Saying you’ll give me time. You knew I would be waiting for you to show up. Not knowing if you would.”

  He laughed. “I thought that was what you loved about me. My unpredictability.”

  “Maybe.”

  He released her one arm, then cupped her face in his hand and looked into her eyes. “It’s okay to say it, Ivy. It’s okay to love me. Because I love you.” He brushed his lips against hers. “For as long as I live, demon blood and all, I will love and protect you.”

  “I don’t care about the demon blood, Ronan. You are more human to me than any other man has ever been. I love you, all of you, because of how you chose to use the power it’s given you.”

  He found her mouth with his and kissed her hard and long. It had her head swimming by the time he was done. He released her other arm, then streaked both his hands down to her behind. He picked her up effortlessly and carried her across the room to the bed. He tossed her onto the mattress.

  He started to strip off his T-shirt, pulling it up over his head. Ivy perched up onto her elbows to enjoy the show. He smiled as his fingers worked at the zipper of his pants, and he slowly pulled it down to reveal he’d gone commando.

  “What about Quinn and the rest of the hunter community?” he asked.

  “Screw them. I don’t care. They’ll just have to deal with it. Besides, you’re a better hunter than most of them, so they should be thanking me for letting you hang around.”

  “Letting me hang around?” He quickly zipped up his pants. “Hmm, I think I’m insulted.”

  This had Ivy scrambling to the edge of the bed, grabbing for him. “Where
are you going? You can’t just tease me like that.”

  She tugged at his hips, pulling him closer to her. When he was situated right in front of her, she slowly unzipped him again.

  “You’re just using me for my extremely awesome body.”

  “Yeah, duh.”

  Laughing, he pushed her back onto the mattress and after quickly shedding his pants, he covered her body with his. He wrapped a hand in her hair. “Okay, you can use me for a while. But then I get to use your extremely hot body for the rest of your life.”

  “Deal.”

  With one mighty yank from his hand, her clothes were in pieces on the floor. He covered her mouth with his before she could protest and kissed her with every ounce of passion inside him. This was beyond anything she’d ever experienced. Or ever wanted to.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Lost Wolf’s Destiny by Karen Whiddon.

  Chapter 1

  The instant Lucas Kenyon heard the man’s cultured, sanctimonious voice on the six o’clock evening news, his blood froze. Despite not having seen the speaker for fifteen years, he shuddered. He knew that voice, knew it too damn well. Even after fifteen years, it still haunted his nightmares.

  Up until this past January, he’d assiduously avoided anything to do with The Church of Sanctuary and its leader. If something came on the news, he’d changed the channel. Newspaper or magazine articles were tossed, unread. He’d wanted no reminders of his painful past.

  But the time had come to face his demons. Lucas had never in his life made a New Year’s resolution. This year, he had. No more would he bury himself in work and avoidance.

  “What the hell?” he muttered, grabbing the remote and turning up the volume.

  The man, Jacob Gideon—Lucas refused to think of him as his father—smiled benevolently. “We can heal young Hailey, I promise you that.” His tone reverberated with the sincerity of his conviction. “Faith works through my hands.”

  Faith? Try murder. Un-freaking-believable. Briefly, Lucas closed his eyes, allowing the long-ago grief and pain and shame to wash over him. On some inner level he’d known. After all, Jacob had killed once in the name of his faith. Lucas had no doubt the man would do it again.

  If he hadn’t already. Lucas cursed. No wonder the voice of his conscience had gotten so loud he’d been unable to drown it out.

  As the man spoke again, Lucas snapped out of it. What Jacob was suggesting—no, stating—was more than wrong, more than an outright lie.

  Of course, Jacob spoke as if he really meant his own nonsense. Lucas made a sound of pure disgust. Jacob had always believed he was an angel appointed from up high who had somehow misplaced his wings.

  As if angels killed. Though thinking about how Lucifer actually had been a fallen angel, Lucas supposed it was possible. Jacob always had styled himself as if he sat on the other side of God.

  His father looked sincere and kind, but Lucas knew better. Jacob was pure evil. Studying the man, he shook his head. Jacob looked eerily the same, as if selling his soul to the devil had granted him eternal youth. He was more than dangerous. He was deadly. No one knew that better than Lucas. After all, Jacob had been hunting him for the past fifteen years.

  With narrowed eyes, Lucas watched the rest of the news segment, wincing as a fragile little girl with a heart-shaped face smiled painfully at the reporter. Something about her delicate vulnerability reminded Lucas of the child he’d once been, and the other. The twin he’d lost. The sister Jacob had killed.

  As the camera narrowed in on a woman—her mother?—Lucas moved closer to the television. The sight of this unknown woman—as defenseless as her daughter—hit him like a sucker punch to the gut. Her brownish-blond hair as fine as spun silk, creamy porcelain skin and long-lashed green eyes, made her a beautiful mystery that interested him far more than his father’s manipulative faux spiritual healings. She was, Lucas thought, both lovely and otherworldly, in a way neither he nor Jacob Gideon would be able to resist—for reasons as different as they were themselves.

  This was partly what interested him, or at least that was what he told himself. True, she was gorgeous, but around her he could see the faint hint of an aura. An aura that meant she was like him. He’d learned there were others, of course, and how to recognize them, even though he stayed away from them like he stayed away from Jacob.

  Until now, as far as he knew, no others of his kind had fallen into Jacob Gideon’s clutches. Of course, if they had, he wouldn’t have noticed. A shudder racked him, of guilt and grief and sorrow at the knowledge that his years of avoidance might have enabled Jacob to snare another Shifter. Lucas had personal experience with what would happen to any soul so unlucky.

  He closed his eyes. Though it had been fifteen years, he still fought the lasting effect of those inner wounds. This woman, whoever she was, was making a terrible mistake. Jacob would torment her the same way he’d tortured his own son, under the guise of doing his idea of the Lord’s work. That was awful enough.

  Ah, but it didn’t stop there. Worse, far worse, was the fact that her little girl would be in even greater danger, despite Jacob’s claims of being able to heal her. Neither she nor her mother would ever be heard from again, once Jacob had them locked away in the compound known as Sanctuary, an enclave of his faithful on thirty acres in the West Texas desert. Both of them would probably end up dead.

  Jacob had killed once before, many years ago. No doubt he’d have no qualms about doing so again.

  The woman came on again, her clear, melodic tone professing what sounded like sincere hope that Jacob Gideon and his Sanctuary church would be able to help her daughter. Standing frozen, Lucas couldn’t evade or avoid the pain and the longing and the need in her voice for her daughter to be healed. The emotion touched him deep inside.

  While he wrangled with the unexpected rush of emotion, his inner wolf came awake, paying attention to the woman’s words. This, too, was odd, as the beast had never before shown interest in any female. Concentrating on listening, he pushed his wolf back down, trying to figure out what drove the woman to ask for Jacob’s help.

  She was desperate, he understood. She had to be to agree to something as far-fetched as Jacob’s outrageous claims. His stomach heaved and he swallowed back bile. He hadn’t expected this when he’d decided to avoid having anything to do with Jacob and his Sanctuary.

  The question was, what was he going to do about it?

  Dragging his hand through his hair, Lucas stood transfixed in front of his TV, even as the footage moved away from the woman and child and back to the news reporter. Finally, a commercial came on. The report had ended. As he clicked the remote and turned the television off, reality sank in.

  Jacob Gideon had finally gotten his claws into another Shape-shifter. As far as Lucas knew, there hadn’t been any other victims since him and Lilly, which had led to his own escape so long ago. Since that fateful day, the image of his beloved sister’s lifeless body had haunted his every waking moment, as well as his dreams.

  And this? He couldn’t hide from the truth. Unless he did something right now, he’d have to live with another innocent’s death on his conscience.

  Which would be, of course, completely unacceptable.

  Furious, he snarled an unintelligible curse, stopping himself just short of hurling the remote at the flat screen.

  He could no longer remain hidden; the revenge he’d spent half his life dreaming about would finally be a possibility. After all, he was no longer a frightened teenager. He had to return to Sanctuary and save the Shape-shifter woman and her daughter.

  Because he knew in his heart of hearts if he didn’t, he’d be just as bad—just as horrible, foul and evil—as the man he’d once called Father.

  * * *

  Blythe Daphne smiled wanly at the television camera, loathing that she had to beg for sympathy and invite ridicule. She’d do anything—absolutely anything—to help her daughter, Hailey. This was her last resort.

&nbs
p; Proof positive stood a few feet away, flanking Hailey’s tiny body. Jacob Gideon, leader of a religious group called Sanctuary and renowned faith healer. Despite the fact that he was human and she and Hailey were not, she wanted to believe him. Though she’d be careful he never learned the truth about her daughter’s nature, Blythe supposed faith was faith and healing was healing. Her daughter could use healthy doses of both.

  Hailey had been born with a defective heart. She hadn’t been expected to live a week, never mind five years. Surgery couldn’t repair it and since Hailey was a Halfling, the wait for a compatible heart transplant was unfathomable. Halflings, the Pack doctors said, didn’t have these sorts of problems. None of them were able to explain Hailey’s condition. And, since Blythe knew very little beyond the basic dry medical information she’d been given about the sperm donor who was technically Hailey’s father, she couldn’t explain it, either. But she loved her baby girl more than life itself.

  Despite her grim prognosis, Hailey fought and lived and grew. Her caramel-colored eyes sparkled with joy and love. Together, they celebrated each birthday almost defiantly, Hailey still standing, as though her little spirit refused to give up. And if her daughter wouldn’t admit defeat, then how could her mother?

  Blythe had started an all-out campaign to find a way to save her daughter. When conventional medicine, both human and Pack, had failed, she’d turned to the internet, trying everything except what seemed dangerous. Each obscure cure grew stranger and more expensive than the last. None of them made the slightest difference.

  Finally, having read about him extensively, she’d arrived at one of Jacob Gideon’s Power of Faith seminars. Jacob Gideon was confident. Taking hold of Blythe’s hand, he’d gazed into her eyes and promised he could heal Hailey, as long as the two of them were willing to stay at his West Texas compound, Sanctuary.

  That’s when Blythe had balked. Something about Jacob Gideon agitated her inner wolf. Hailey, however, acted as sweet toward him as she did everyone else.