He told his dick to shut up and waited for her answer as he waved away the other wolves.
“You called for the head of the hunters,” she said, and he had, not more than four hours ago through a weremessenger.
“You’re a Were.”
She shook her head like he was the stupidest wolf alive. “You’re
“I am the king,” he told her in a growl that shook the room and she had the good sense to take a step back and bow her head.
She was a beta—he sensed that now, even though she’d come off as very alpha on first approach.
“I’m Violet,” she told him, her chin raised in a show of pride or defiance or maybe both. “I want to join your pack.”
“And leave the hunters?”
“I’m not their leader.”
“Then I didn’t invite you here.”
“I don’t wait for invitations,” she told him. She was slim with cool green eyes that drew him in from this distance. Full Were.
There were tribal tattoos circling both slim biceps. Other tattoos down her arms, words and symbols in black that Liam should want to take his time reading.
Instead, he wanted her out. “You can go. I’m not taking visitors.”
“You need me on your team.”
“Why’s that?”
“I can fight.”
“I have plenty of fighters.”
“Not ones who are as good as I am—no females. I’m your surprise.”
He snorted. “Take it up with Cyd—he’s my alpha.”
“I’m taking it up with you. I’ll fight my way in.”
She turned on her heel to leave. Before she could get far, he grabbed her arm and she was trying her best to look calm—halfway succeeding. He had to give her credit since his reputation for bloodletting was growing to legendary status every hour that passed.
“Tell your hunter leader that he made a mistake by not coming here to pay me some goddamned respect. Tell him I might have to teach you some while I’m at it.”
“Maybe I’d enjoy that,” she bit out with a snarl, her canines lengthening a little and fuck it all, he was hard.
“Maybe you should be careful what you wish for.”
He let her go with that and she bounded off into the night, her white top glowing in the moonlight, the damned pink bra teasing him. He wanted to shift, run her down and yank it off with his teeth and dammit, it was happening.
Where was all the control Vice taught him? He couldn’t tell if Vice would be proud or pissed but he didn’t care either way now that the wolf was in control.
She still ran in front of him, unshifted, looking over her shoulder. She had to know she had no hope of winning this race and finally, her shirt flew in the air, like she knew she had to save her clothing so as not to walk home naked.
She whirled around and held him off as she tugged off her heavy boots and her jeans. And then she simply stood there in her pink bra and matching lace pink thong, a large tattoo of a dragonfly fluttering delicately across her taut middle. Whirled around and kicked him in the face with a hard roundhouse kick that sent him backward and brought his wolf out hard.
He forced it back, the way Vice taught him, but that came at a price. His anger would be uncontrollable if this Were continued to assert dominance by fighting.
For a few moments, she did—when he caught her, she bit and kicked and scratched, her own wolf half out. Finally, she stopped struggling when he howled at the sky and threw her to the ground. Instead of trying to get up, she lay there, watching him. Waiting.
He jumped onto her, pinning her.
And she bared her throat to him.
“I don’t care that you’re a woman. Do you get that?” He’d never be taken in by soft hair or a pretty face or general anatomy again.
“Good. Think of me as your beta and we’ll be just fine.”
He took her down, poised his open mouth over her throat, his canines elongated, ready to rip open her life force.
Her pulse raced but she remained still, throat bared, submissive.
She was fucking lying.
He pushed off her. “Don’t ever come back here again.”
She didn’t say another word and he fought not to limp all the way back to the sunroom, giving himself credit for never turning back no matter how badly he wanted to.
He stripped in front of the bathroom mirror to survey the scratches from the beta. She hadn’t exactly held her own with him, fight-wise, but he hadn’t expected her to. Still, she hadn’t backed down and that, he hadn’t expected.
“What the hell? A girl beat you down?” Cyd asked.
“Can I have some privacy?”
“You want that, close the bathroom door.”
Liam glanced at Cyd. “I know you both researched her while I was gone, so what do we know about her?”
Cyd smiled. “I knew you’d ask. But maybe we don’t have to have this meeting in the bathroom.”
Liam complied, trailing the alpha into the living room where Cain waited with a file.
“Violet used to bounty hunt for her old pack out in Wisconsin,” Cain started as Liam flipped through the papers. “There’s no details here about why she left—or whether or not she was kicked out, but after that, she started working with the hunters against the weretrappers. She passed for a while, and by the time they discovered she was wolf, she was too valuable to be let go.”
“So why come to us?”
“Why the hell not?” Cyd demanded.
“We need a beta,” Cain added.
“Forget it,” Liam said firmly and neither twin argued. “Find out why she left Wisconsin.” Because he would never let himself be burned by a woman again.
Chapter 21
It was three days until Jinx felt that all the drugs were out of his system. And he waited an extra few, just in case. By then, both his wolf and Gillian were climbing the walls. There was only so much the roof, fresh air and orgasms could do. And she didn’t understand why they weren’t having sex again—but he wasn’t about to talk mating with her. Not when she already had more than enough to deal with going on inside her head.
A Dire wolf due for her first shift couldn’t be controlled—he could only hope for containment. Between the Dires and the goddamned hellhounds, he had coverage, but relying on hellhounds to keep monsters out of the way was the most perverse game he’d ever played. And yet, he was trapped inside of it with no way out for the foreseeable future and a potential mate running loose in the woods.
The one thing they had going for them was that they weren’t likely to run into anyone looking for Gillian Blackwell in the woods, running naked.
He had to let her run. Tell her that on her birthday, he would take her farther up, maybe even Canada to let her run, but he wouldn’t make a promise he couldn’t keep.
