strength and soothing the wolf. Dante finally felt the wolf recede as he conceded to his brothers' wishes. His mouth released the human’s neck and licked the drop of blood from his tooth not at all appeased but willing to give them a little time.
But only a little.
He jumped off the hunter’s back and flowed back to his human body, his muscles coiled tight and ready to attack at the first opportunity.
“All right asshole. If you have any desire to stay alive you better start talking.” Diego grabbed the hunter’s shoulder and jerked him around so he was on his back and yanked off the idiot’s hat that obscured his face.
Holy shit.
All three of them took a step back. Their gunman wasn’t a man at all. What they saw was so fucked up they were all too shocked to speak.
Lying on the ground at their feet was a blonde haired, blue-eyed bombshell dressed in flannel and shit kickers, with a handgun aimed squarely between Dante’s eyes.
“Get your filthy hands off me,” she spat in Diego’s direction without taking her eyes from her new target.
“Unless you want me to hand you over to him,” Damien pointed to Dante, “I’d suggest you put your gun down and try some manners. You are not only trespassing, but you shot my brother tonight and could have hurt our women. So we are not in a forgiving mood.”
“I could care less about your mood,” she said. “Your pack hurt my brother. I’ll shoot every one of you if I have to.”
Dante growled, “Unlike you, we don’t go around hurting people unless they’ve done something to deserve it. Who the hell is your brother and what did we supposedly do to him exactly?”
“One of you bastards bit him. Now I’m supposed to find him and put him down.” Her gun faltered for a split second at the last of her statement. Clearly, she was distressed about what she’d come for.
“Why would your people make you come here and do this? Do they not watch out for their women?” This time Diego asked the questions. He had a strange look on his face that Dante couldn’t read.
“We don’t coddle women where I come from. I sure as hell don’t need some man to do my hard jobs. I’m perfectly capable.”
Still staring at her gun, Dante responded. “I can see that. However, I don’t know where you got your information but it’s wrong. No one in our pack would bite a human unless it was an accident or they were forced to defend themselves. Besides, that’s something we would have heard about.”
“Sounds like high and might bullshit to me. My brother was tracking wolves in this area when he went missing. Then he called me a couple of weeks ago and said he was bitten. Took me that long to track him here, but make no mistake, he’s here and someone here will be held accountable.”
Dante was getting tired of listening to her excuses. He had an overdose of energy with nowhere to go at the moment and the pain of getting shot was starting to get past the extra adrenalin. Not to mention he was getting antsy to get back to Rebel. He was going to have one angry female on his hands.
Thinking of getting back home to his mate distracted him and he didn’t realize how woozy he felt until he swayed forward and Damien had to catch him.
“Whoa, big boy. You can’t pass out now. That little gun of hers may be tiny but it’ll pack a hell of a punch.”
“Already got one hole in me. Don’t need another.”
“No, you certainly don’t.” He turned to the woman still trying to threaten them. “You’ll hand over your guns to Diego and go with him now. You are outmatched by an entire pack.” As if on cue the rest of the pack emerged from the trees and filled the small clearing.
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t immediately lower her gun. “Who’s to say I put down my gun and you don’t kill me right here, right now?”
“Me,” Dante said. “If a human is bitten we need to look into it. That alone buys you a little time.” He paused. “But only a
Michael Baden, Linda Kenney
Master of The Highland (html)
James Wasserman, Thomas Stanley, Henry L. Drake, J Daniel Gunther