Hunger of the Wolf (23 page)

Chapter Twenty One

A nose nuzzled Shilo's ear. As he sucked her earlobe, a shiver skittered along her spine. She surfaced to a vague awareness. “See you tonight, baby."

Shilo felt her lips curl in response, but she couldn't manage any more than that faint acknowledgement of Dante's affection.

She was drifting downward again when she felt another face against her neck. “Be good, Hummingbird. See you tonight."

She almost managed to get her eyes opened that time. “Bye,” she mumbled, shifting to try to find a more comfortable position on the hard, hairy pillow beneath her cheek.

Undoubtedly he perceived it as a sign of affection rather than the search for comfort it was. Kane rolled over, dumping her on the bed on her back. It took more to stir her when she was nearly comatose, but he persevered, caressing her with his lips and hands until she passed from completely relaxed and half asleep to mellow, warming interest. Parting her limp thighs, he entered her, stroking her slowly until he'd roused her thoroughly before he shifted positions and began to thrust into her more deeply, more rapidly, driving her toward the summit before she'd entirely grasped she was nearing it.

Sucking in a sharp breath, she tensed all over and then trembled and gasped throatily at the waves of release that shook her. He found his own surcease as her climax dissipated into mellowing waves of pleasure.

He kissed her thoroughly, if briefly, before he withdrew. “Bye,
chère
."

She smiled a little drunkenly, managing to get one eyelid open enough to peer at him as he rolled out of the bed. The soothing patter of water in the shower sent her back into dreamland despite the fact that she felt a vague sense that something was missing.

The room was bright when she woke again, still with that strange sense that she'd missed something. She lay with her eyes closed for a while, trying to figure out what it was and finally got up to bathe and dress.

Jessie was cooking breakfast when she arrived in the kitchen, drawn there by the smell of coffee. He sent her a teasing smile when she stumbled in with her eyes still half closed. “Mornin', sleepy head."

She yawned. “What time is it?"

"Ten."

Shilo managed to get her eyes fully open at that announcement. “Ten?” she echoed. “I slept so late!"

He grinned at her, displaying a pair of intriguing dimples, and then turned to prepare a plate for each of them. Shilo stared at her plate with admiration when she'd settled at the eating counter—perfectly cooked bacon, fluffy, soft scrambled eggs, and golden toast. “It looks too good to eat. We should take a picture or something."

He stared at her a moment and finally chuckled. “Better eat it while it's hot,” he urged her, digging in to his own.

"Did you sleep late, too?"

He shook his head. “This is my second breakfast."

She sent him a look of disbelief, uncertain of whether he was joking or serious. “You're off today?"

Something flickered in his eyes. “Yep."

Frowning thoughtfully, Shilo focused on her meal. Was she under guard, she wondered? Or was it just that they weren't comfortable leaving her alone because they were worried about her?

She was half way through her breakfast before she realized the house was completely quiet. “The men finished the project?” she guessed.

He nodded.

She studied him speculatively for a long moment.

Amusement creased his features. “Tonight,” he said in response to her unspoken question.

"Tonight, what?"

"We'll show you tonight what we've had done in there."

She lifted her brows at him and then narrowed her eyes. “You read minds?'

He chuckled. “I read faces,
chère."

She let it go at that. She hadn't actually been trying to guard her expression. She still suspected they had some form of telepathy, maybe not the ability to read and convey thoughts like a typical conversation, but enough to send and receive a general idea. When she'd finished eating, she sat sipping her coffee, contemplating whether or not she might get more information out of Jessie than she'd managed with either Dante or Maurice. All they'd really told her was ‘not to worry her pretty little head’ over the incident at her place.

"I don't really remember what happened out on my farm,” she said tentatively to test the waters.

He studied her, but he didn't volunteer anything. “Aside from ignorin’ orders and near gettin’ yourself killed,
chère
?"

Irritation flickered through her, but only briefly. There didn't seem to be any way to approach the damned subject without getting another lecture about
that
! “I made my own decisions a long time before any of you came along, and I've survived so far,” she said testily.

He tilted his head, studying her curiously. Frowning after a moment, he stared down at the dark liquid in his cup. “Maurice was wrong, wasn't he?"

Shilo looked at him questioningly.

"You didn't bond, did you
chère?"

Shilo's belly tightened at that. A feeling almost like fear washed through her. Actually, she supposed after a moment that it
was
fear. Until he'd questioned her, she hadn't realized how important it was to her to be ‘one of them’ to be a part of the pack. She found she didn't want to answer, but then she didn't have to. The very fact that she didn't seem to know what to say appeared to be enough to answer his question.

"Once a male has marked his female they're close in a way that's hard for a human to understand,” he said almost conversationally. “It's a joinin’ in more ways than the physical act of matin', almost a mergin’ of souls. Vows, like humans exchange aren't necessary and unlike those, which can be empty and meaningless unless the two want to uphold the vows, the bondin’ is of the blood and nigh unbreakable. Dante ... we all wanted it badly enough to ignore the signs that you hadn't because
we
felt the bondin’ with you. If you'd felt it, though, protectin’ the alpha's pup would've been your highest priority. Whether or not you agreed with his orders, you would've done what he tole you to protect his pup.

"We were all angry that you put yourself in harm's way, not because you disobeyed the command of your pack alpha so much as that you threatened the pack yourself by puttin’ yourself at risk.

"Dante and Maurice chose to ignore that because they'd already completed the bondin’ with you themselves and its hard for them to accept the possibility that you still feel separate from them, not bound as they are."

Shilo felt a knot of emotion form in her throat. “But you don't feel it so you can see it, is that it?"

He shook his head. “I do feel it,
chère.
Even though you and I haven't completed the bonding, I still feel it because you've bonded with my brothers and
we
have a bond as pack brothers. It's just that it isn't as strong in me ... yet, and I can see more clearly.” He made a wry face. “Not much, but somewhat more clearly, because, even knowing, I'm still willin'—anxious—to bond with you as they have."

"No one said anything to me, asked me, told me anything,” Shilo said a little defensively.

He swallowed a little sickly. “Because we wouldn't have had to if you'd bonded,
chère
,” he said almost gently. “You would've felt it, known it, just as we do, and accepted that we belong together. You wouldn't even be able to consider leavin’ because you couldn't contemplate breakin’ the bond yourself."

The urge to cry grew stronger. Shilo wrestled with it, and struggled with her belief that leaving was something she had to do, to protect them as much as to protect her freedom and the wellbeing of her unborn child. Whether he could read her mind or not, though, he seemed to sense her determination to leave.

Under the circumstances, she knew it not only wasn't right to insist she cared for them, it would only make them feel that much more betrayed when she left, but she found she couldn't bear to let them think it hadn't meant anything to her. “I do feel it,” she insisted. “I do care about you. That's why I ... wanted to help,” she said, halting herself before she admitted that she was thinking about going. “I wasn't trying to risk the baby. I didn't even know about it. Regardless of what Dante told me then,
I
didn't know. I thought he just
figured
he had gotten me pregnant because we'd had sex. All I could think about was trying to keep you from being hurt, and the only reason that mattered so much to me was because I cared."

He reddened faintly, his distress more obvious. “
You
had sex. Dante mated with you."

Tears stung her eyes. She blinked them back determinedly, uncertain of whether shame and guilt was more dominant or the fear that she was going to lose the affection they had for her. “I'm not lycan. I can't be expected to behave as if I am."

"No,” he agreed. “You're not. You're a strong psychic, too powerful to accept the bonding even though lycanthropy is in your blood now because you've mated with lycans. If you hadn't been so strong, you would've become more like us and the bonding would've been the same as if you'd been lycan."

"And then logic wouldn't have entered into any of my decisions anymore? It wouldn't matter to me that I'd brought the Feds down on you, on the entire lycan community? I wouldn't be worried, like I am now, that what had happened would bring the Feds to your door?"

He studied her searchingly and finally got up and moved around to help her from her chair. He pulled her into his arms, then, holding her for a long moment. “Come, I'll show you something."

She didn't argue with him even though she'd begun to feel like her world was crashing down around her.

When they reached the living room he switched the TV on and picked up the remote to search for a recording. Curiosity pierced her misery as she settled to see what he'd brought her in to show her, but she was almost certain it must have to do with the incident at her farm. It became instantly obvious that she was right when he hit the play button.

In the news tonight, Federal authorities engaged in a confrontation late yesterday evening that left six Federal agents dead and five others hospitalized. Acting on information by an unidentified source, the Federal agents had approached this small farm in a rural area of the county to apprehend a suspected drug ring.

A picture of her farm flashed on the screen, though she doubted she would've recognized the place if she hadn't been expecting to see it. Both the house and barn had been burned, leaving little more than a shell of either.

At this time, it has still not been determined what set the center of what turned out to be an enormous, tri-state drug operation ablaze, but it's suspected that an electrical fire touched off an explosion of a meth lab housed here which resulted in the deaths of the Federal agents. Five others were hospitalized with minor burns and other related injuries to the explosion and later released.

No suspects have been apprehended at this time. Agent in charge, Anthony Stone, says that it is believed the drug kingpin had knowledge of the pending arrests and has fled the country.

In a bizarre twist, the skeletal remains of a woman missing for over ten years were recovered when investigations got underway. The woman, wanted for questioning as a witness in a Federal case, was identified as Anne-Marie Whitaker. Although federal authorities refused to comment on the case in question, they did indicate that they'd long suspected that she had been killed to keep her from testifying and admitted that the discovery of her body brought that earlier case, officially, to a close.

In other news....

Shilo stared at the TV screen blankly when Jessie switched it off, unable to fully grasp what she'd heard.

Jessie settled across from her.

"That's nothing like what happened,” she managed finally.

He shrugged. “The only objective in a cover up is to make sure the essential elements in a situation are covered—any deaths related to it—to lay the blame somewhere else, and to make themselves look as good as possible. Dante was right. They only needed a little time to come up with a story the public and their superiors would swallow. What's most important to us is that they officially closed your case."

A wave of shock rolled over Shilo. She wasn't certain whether she really believed that or not. “You don't think they just said that?"

"I think they decided livin’ was more important to them than continuin’ to hunt you. Dante can be ... very persuasive."

He left her to mull over it. She didn't do much ‘mulling'. She was too numb with disbelief to be able to think it through clearly. After a while, though, she began to feel a tentative ray of hope, a lifting of a weight she hadn't really been conscious of.

She shied away from thinking about the agents that had died. She didn't ask Jessie about it, but it was some relief to her to know she didn't seem to be directly responsible for any of the deaths—if she correctly interpreted the story on the news. The others—uncivilized or not, the lycans hadn't just been fighting for her. They'd been fighting for their lives when the agents had drawn down on them and started shooting. As badly as she felt about it, she would've felt a hell of a lot worse if it had been any of the pack members killed in the confrontation.

She was glad, though, that she'd been unconscious throughout the battle, and well beyond it for that matter. She had a feeling she would've had nightmares over it if she'd actually been through it herself.