Wild Wolf (Shifters Unbound, #6)(15)

But for the most part, humans weren’t worth the time. Misty was a distraction for him, and Graham didn’t need distractions right now.

Her scent, that was most distracting of all. A scent Graham could wrap around himself until everything bad went away. Misty’s smile was pretty good too. He remembered when he’d first seen her in the bar—she’d given him that sweet smile and asked if he was Shifter.

The smile had been completely absent this afternoon when Misty had said, I’m done, and closed the door on him. The finality of it bore into Graham’s heart.

Like he needed a human in his life. Graham’s day had been hell since he’d woken up. First the Lupine woman had attacked him in his own house, sent to try to get Graham to mate with her. Then Misty’s scared voice on the phone. In the seconds he’d heard her, he’d known that nothing else mattered but finding Misty and making sure she was all right.

She hadn’t been all right. He’d had to fight for her, which had led to him getting shot. Then he’d slowly baked in the sun until Misty made him drink water a Fae had given her.

Graham knew the “hiker” Misty had stumbled upon had been Fae. Reid agreed. The cave she’d described, which had mysteriously disappeared, screamed of Fae. They must have been on a ley line out there in the desert, one of the lines of magic that crisscrossed the world. Stone circles were found on them as well as other mystical places—Fae loved ley lines.

Graham remembered how the gang leader had smirked and said he only needed one Shifter. One Shifter for what? To give to the Fae lurking nearby? For what?

No wonder the human had been stupid enough to give Graham directions to his location instead of setting up a dead drop. The human had planned to give him to the Fae. Why, Graham had no idea.

Didn’t matter though, did it? Graham had drunk the effing water. It had cured his gunshot wound almost instantly, but Fae cures came with a price. Whatever else the water had done to him, he wasn’t sure yet.

He’d planned to talk it over with Misty when they got to Shiftertown, where he’d explain everything to her. Diego, the traitor, had taken her home instead. Fucking humans.

I need her.

Graham banished the voice inside his head. He didn’t need Misty. He needed to take a Lupine mate, and soon. Dougal wasn’t a natural leader, and his wolves were getting restless because Graham had no other heir. He had to establish his dynasty, have strong cubs of his own who’d protect Dougal as family.

Plus, he needed to keep the wolves he’d brought to this Shiftertown under his control. The human government, trying to consolidate and save money, had closed the Shiftertown in Elko last year and shunted all Graham’s Shifters here, expecting Graham and Eric, two powerful alphas, to decide who would lead. The humans had created a powder keg begging to explode. Some of Graham’s Shifters were near to feral, having lived close to the wild for so long.

The few Lupines participating in the experiment to take off Collars were getting too big for their britches, like the female this morning. Collars didn’t make or unmake dominance. The idiots needed to learn that. Collars just shocked you. Graham had decided to keep his Collar to prove no one would be able to best him despite the torture device around his neck.

No, he thought, as the pickup turned onto the streets of Shiftertown, I don’t need a human woman in my life to screw me up right now.

I’m done, Misty had said.

Why did those words echo over and over inside his head?

Diego pulled the truck into the driveway of Eric’s house. Eric Warden sat on a bench on his low-roofed porch, his bare feet up on the thick wooden railing. He didn’t bother to rise when the truck pulled up, only turned his head to watch them stop and get out.

Eric was like that, acting all laid-back and too lazy to do anything. The truth was, he was the dominant Feline—the dominant Shifter—of Shiftertown, and he could switch from laid-back kitty cat to killing machine in a heartbeat.

His mate, Iona, came out of the house with a little more animation. Iona was a sassy sweetheart, even more so now that she was pregnant and about to drop her first cub. Her wildcat was mostly panther—which, everyone had explained to Graham, was a rare, black form of leopard. Explained why she and Eric, a snow leopard, got along so well. The pair of them could be scary as hell when they wanted to be, but mostly they sat around looking pleased with themselves. Felines.

Iona started to ask, “What exactly happened?” as Graham lifted his bike out of the back of Diego’s truck, but Graham cut over her words.

“We need to contain those humans, Warden. They hurt Misty, and I’m not letting them get away with that.”

Another human came out of the house—Paul, Misty’s younger brother. He had dark brown eyes, like Misty’s, and he was rawboned and lanky, like Dougal. He’d shaved off his hair during his time in prison, but he looked too young for the buzz. For a human, he was full-grown, twenty-three or something like that, but still he looked very young.

He’d been in prison for the last five years, serving a sentence for riding in the back of a stolen car when it had gotten into a wreck that killed other humans. Paul’s lawyer had finally gotten him parole six months ago. Graham had been partly responsible for his parole—he’d growled at Eric and Diego until the two had used their influence in the law enforcement system around here to get the kid released.

“Is she all right?” Paul asked anxiously. “Where is she?”