Dark Fates (A Paranormal Anthology)(62)

His ears rang, and sweat formed on his back. By the moon, he craved this woman. Needed her above all things. His mouth ached, and he took a deep breath, trying to hold off the instinct as long as he could. Biting Chelsea would happen, but first he had to see to her pleasure.

“Oh, Hayden.” She squirmed beneath him. “Oh, almost.”

Her body shuddered under his, and he bit down on his lip so hard his extended canines drew blood. Damn it, he couldn’t hold off any longer. With Chelsea’s juices coating his dick, he bit down on her shoulder. She cried out his name, and her fingers dug into his back.

He tried to keep it light, but the animal in him would have none of it. The wolf wanted ownership. Chelsea belonged to him, and the permanent mark he left there would tell the world to back the f*ck off. Or they’d be dead.

Her * clenched against his still-hardened cock. He tried to make sense of the sensation. She’d already come, and he hadn’t moved since he’d spent inside her. Was the bite doing that? Did she like the feeling?

“Oh, Hayden.” She spoke with her eyes closed. “Do that again.”

He grinned as he let go of her skin. “Count on it.”

****

Hayden wasn’t sleeping when the knock on the door came. He’d scented Sal’s approach earlier. Chelsea slept deeply next to him, her gentle snores telling him how out of it his mate remained. Hopefully whatever Sal wanted wouldn’t take up a great deal of time. He wanted to have Chelsea again before dinner. They’d had three rounds of amazing sex before she’d finally given in to exhaustion.

For his part, he was too wired to close his eyes.

He dressed quickly and cracked open the door. Sal stood looking at the floor.

“Sal?” Hayden spoke and Sal’s raised his eyes, obeying the unspoken command, and finally met his gaze. .

“I’ve had a breakthrough with the True Believers. We did as you said, traced the money starting with the car we hid in the back. And I have an address. Shall I go investigate it?”

Hayden took a deep breath. So much for an afternoon of pure sex. “No. I’ll go.”

“My Alpha…”

Hayden interrupted the complaint he knew Sal would make. “She’s my mate, and it’s my right to defend her. Text me the address. I’m not going to do anything dumb without the pack at my back to defend me. But I’m going to go look so I can see just how much planning we need to do to get them.”

Sal nodded. “We’ll take care of your mate while you’re gone. It’s only half an hour away. Online it looks like a shipping warehouse.”

“Interesting cover.” He nodded. “Tell the guys I’ll be back in a bit.”

He closed the door on Sal and stood still for a moment to steady himself. There was no way in hell he’d let any of them come with him to do what needed to be done. Although his pack would always be loyal, they’d also consider it being protective of him to show up even after he’d told them not to.

They’d all put their years with Lucian behind them. They weren’t torturers anymore. But if he found any of the people who had been holding his mate captive for all that time, he’d gladly sacrifice the years he’d spent reinventing himself and become the werewolf he’d been before.

Anything to get to the heart of the group that had harmed his mate and had targeted his people. He’d be damned if they ever got another try at him or anyone else he knew.

His cell phone beeped indicating that Sal had texted him the address. Chelsea mumbled something and rolled over. He crossed to the bed and bent over to kiss her on her cheek. “Sleep. I’ll see you when I get back. Everything will be better then. I promise you that.”

First, he’d find out who was after them, take care of that problem, and then they’d work on figuring out what was going on with her talents. There had to be someone else on the planet who had gone through what she did and knew what to do about it.

He’d find them. Hayden had always been good at tracking down information. It was a gift. Or maybe a curse.

Hayden closed the door behind him and headed down the stairs. He nodded at a group of tourists, and an older white-haired woman with glasses pointed at him. Hayden shook his head. The damn Wine Spectator article.

He walked to his car but stopped halfway there. A cold breeze touched the back of his neck, and he turned around, sniffing the air. There was no scent of anything out of the ordinary to catch his attention, but a shimmering object lay on the ground.

Hayden bent over to pick it up. It was some kind of necklace. Well, it was more like a totem attached to a leather strand that could be worn as a necklace. It was the design itself that caught his attention. Carved out of wood, a female werewolf stared back at him.

He sniffed the jewelry. Although the most recent scent on the piece was human and male, specifically from one of the True Believers he’d destroyed, there was also the distinct scent of female werewolf on the piece. Who the hell had it belonged to?

Hayden shoved it in his pocket. He didn’t have time to work out that mystery with so many left for him to solve. If it proved not to be unlucky, and he’d do an internet search on it to find out, he’d give it to Chelsea as a gift. He smiled at the thought. His honey mate would love small gestures like that. It had been way too long until someone had taken care of her.

He continued on to the car. It started right up, but before he drove away, he stopped to look at his vineyard. In terms of size, it wasn’t as impressive as some of the older, original, or corporate-owned places, but he was damned proud of it. After Savage had handed him the Napa Valley and told him to go make himself a home, he hadn’t really known what to expect. This place, pushed into a hillside, with vines, at least half of which he had planted himself, had become their sanctuary.