Taming the Hunted Read online

  His brow creased and he didn’t answer right away. “I don’t think that’s the best idea,” he said, his gaze remaining on the road.

  “I have to pick up some clothes. And besides, I have a business to run. My clients will be wondering why I haven’t contacted them.”

  His yellow gaze flickered to her face, lingering for a second before he turned back. “No.”

  “But I have to.”

  “No, you don’t. You can ring your clients from my mobile and we will buy you new clothes.”

  She was taken aback by how forceful his voice was. It left no doubt in her mind that the matter wasn’t up for discussion. That was the problem with ‘alphas’, their word was law in the pack.

  They made a detour to the mall, as he had suggested. Shopping was not her favorite activity, but she had no clothes and he refused to take her home. He hurried her through the mall, one hand on her back as he whipped out his card faster than the checkout girl could swipe. Several of the girls gave him lingering looks that took in his tailored suit and broad shoulders, but one look at his face and most turned away.

  “You could lighten up a bit, you’re scaring people,” she whispered to him.

  “I’m being perfectly polite,” he hissed, making the checkout girl take a step back.

  “No, you’re being a brute, and I have half a mind to smack you like a bad puppy.” The second she said it, she cringed.

  His hand flexed on her back and his amber eyes seemed to burn with fire as he turned to her. It was hard to breathe, but she didn’t mind. Her thoughts were focused on his face, which seemed to lean in closer as he inhaled her scent in a carnal, animal-like way.

  Her senses tingled and screamed ‘danger’, but her body was drawn to him. She could feel his growing excitement against her side and felt herself grow warm.

  He seemed to gain control of himself as the girl behind the counter handed back his card. He steered Marian out of the shop and into the underground car park. The sound of screeching tires echoed around the concrete walls. Gabriel was now moving so fast that he was pushing her rather than guiding her. As they came in sight of the car, he pulled her into another space and pinned her to the wall. He clasped her hands in both of his and held them over her head against the cold concrete. Her heart raced as he leaned in. She sighed at the feeling of his warm breath on her face and closed her eyes, caught up in the moment like a drug.

  “Don’t ever speak to me like that in public again, Marian.”

  Her name rolled from his mouth like silver and she could do nothing but nod, hyper-aware of his body leaning over her. He shifted both of her hands to one of his and traced her jaw with his fingertips. She breathed out and stared into his eyes, which glowed in the shadows.

  He traced his lips along her collarbone, his hand on the back of her neck, pulling her closer. She groaned and slumped into him, but he stood back far enough that she couldn’t touch him.

  “Gabriel.” Her voice trembled, with fear or lust, she didn’t know which.

  His chest rumbled and he scraped his teeth across the soft flesh of her breast. His body loomed above hers, and she felt so small and fragile in his hold.

  “Say yes, Marian. Say that you will never talk back to me.” Each word vibrated deep within him, his breath hot against her skin.

  “Never. I would never,” she whispered, arching her back, longing to press against him.

  Her lips were open to him and he brushed them with his. As she stared up into his golden eyes, his pupils dilated in the dark.

  “Good girl.” He covered her mouth with his.

  He tasted of cherries and the sweet tang of grapes that they had sampled as they shopped. His tongue traced her lower lip and he deepened the kiss. Headlights swept their hiding place and she knew they had run out of time. He leaned back, easing the pressure on her hands, and with one hand on her waist, half supporting her, he guided her to the car.

  Chapter 6

  They didn’t wait until they were in the house. With a rough tug, Gabriel pulled Marian into the trees just off the driveway. It should have hurt more as he thrust her against a tree, but she smiled at the pain and gasped as he ripped her shirt off and took one erect nipple into his mouth and pulled.

  It seemed that she was being punished, and if this was the sentence, that was just fine with her. She grabbed hold of his shirt collar and pulled his face up to hers. She licked the inside of his lip before pressing her mouth roughly against his. His hands went to her buttocks and he lifted her from the ground. The feeling of being so powerless made her tremble. She had never been the aggressive type in bed, but something inside of her tipped, and in one movement, his shirt went flying into the bushes.

  She ran her nails down his back and he arched in pleasure, a cross between a moan and a growl escaping his lips.

  He grinned down at her, a look so full of fire that her breath caught in her chest, and she was glad he was supporting her as she was sure her legs would not hold out. He reached between them and ripped open her jeans, sending the button flying off so hard that she was sure it dented the car. He fumbled in his haste to get her jeans off one-handed whilst supporting her with the other. His tongue worked circles around her nipple, sending sparks of energy down her stomach and causing deep sensations in her core.

  “I need you, now,” she hissed in his ear.

  His hand made it to her center. He pushed the fabric at her crotch away and drove two fingers into her. Her body arched with the intrusion, her breath leaving her in gasps. His thumb rubbed circles against her clit as her hand found his already hard cock. She worked to release it from his fly, her hand pumping the warm mass of it through the cloth. He bit down on her neck, and pain and pleasure surged through her as he marked her like an animal. She rode his hand, her hips bucking against him. A whimper escaped her lips as she felt a familiar rush surge through her.

  “Well, you’re going to have to take a rain check,” a voice from behind the car interrupted.

  Gabriel growled at the intruder and half spun to face him, the hairs on his arms rising beneath her hands.

  “Sorry, kids, but we have a small situation which needs taking care of,” the voice, who she now recognized as Kennard’s, said.

  “Yeah, and you just interrupted it,” Gabriel growled at him.

  She slid down Gabriel’s body as best she could as he sure wasn’t letting her go. His hand brushed the wet crotch of her underwear as she lowered herself. She paused, pressing herself against him as he worked a finger in the side of the lace again. He looked at her, and the fire in his eyes signaled that he wanted to forget Kennard was there.

  “Now, children,” Kennard drawled.

  She wondered how well he could see in the dark.

  “Fine, we’ll solve whatever it is then pick up where we left off,” Gabriel snapped. With a final stroke, he withdrew his hand, tucking his manhood back into his slacks, and pulled her past Kennard and into the house.

  As they passed the brush her top had landed on it, she grabbed it, Although it was in pieces, she managed to wrap it around herself enough to have a little modesty.

  They burst into the kitchen with Kennard in tow. Jake and Nole were waiting for them. Marian noticed that the remains of the table and chair she’d broken had been removed.

  “Now, what was so important?” Gabriel demanded.

  She had never seen him in such a state of anger. As she had known him less than a week, it was not that surprising, but she was turned on even more by his apparent forceful desire to have her. And she was more than lusting to pick up where they’d left off. Her clit throbbed with neglect, and she could tell he still strained against his pants.

  “Sorry, mate,” Jake said, looking to the tattered remains of her shirt. “But Terrance is back and it looks like he has taken the, um, less favorable option.”

  Gabriel shot off some very impressive words that even made Kennard raise his inexpressive eyebrows and Nole giggle into her hand.

  “Who
’s Terrance?” Marian asked when no one looked to be elaborating on the situation.

  “He’s the imbecile that attacked you,” Gabriel growled.

  “Oh,” was all she could think of to say.

  “That’s a bit harsh, Gabe. It was an accident, and it looks like it didn’t turn out so bad in the end,” Jake commented, looking toward her now button-less clothes.

  Gabriel paused for a moment, looking at her body beneath the fabric with that small smile on his lips, distracted from his duty to serve justice for her. She crossed her legs in an effort to not squirm under his gaze.

  “We can’t find him,” a pack member reported, coming into the kitchen.

  “Keep looking,” Gabriel demanded.

  “The others are still searching,” the pack member replied, holding his hands out between Gabriel and himself.

  At his side, Nole stood, slurping a strawberry milkshake as if the situation were not out of the ordinary in the least.

  “What’s wrong?” Marian asked, looking to each of the pack members who inhabited the kitchen.

  There was a pause where a lot seemed to be said without being spoken out loud.

  “Come on.” Gabriel took the hand that still held hers and swung it over his shoulder, swinging her up after it.

  “Hey, I can walk, you know,” she protested.

  “All of you go look for the idiot,” he told the room. “Nole, stay here and keep watch, little one.”

  From her position, Marian saw them all hurry for the door. Everyone except Nole and Kennard, who wandered toward the fridge.

  “You, too, bloodsucker,” Gabriel commanded, not turning around. “For once, do as I say. You’re as much responsible for this as he is and don’t forget you are here by invitation.”

  Kennard continued to the fridge and pulled out a bag of blood and sunk his teeth into it before he replied, following them into the entry. “I was just grabbing a snack. We’ll be here all night and I won’t have a chance to feed. That is, of course, unless the human is willing.”

  He never got to finish his sentence as he was forced to duck the picture that Gabriel tore off the wall and flung at him without missing a step.

  “I was joking,” Kennard drawled, not rattled in the least. “Little Nole, let us go for a walk.”

  Nole emerged from the kitchen at a skip. She took Kennard’s offered hand, in her other hand, Marian saw a small, pointed blade had replaced her milkshake glass. They headed outside together, leaving Marian and Gabriel.

  “Where are we going?” Marian asked, noticing that they were headed for the stairs. “And should she have a knife?”

  “My room is safer than any on this level as he can’t scale the walls. Don’t worry, you won’t even notice we’re not on the ground.”

  She bit her lip as she felt his hand slip between her legs. It could have been an accident, but as his fingers brushed her crotch, she doubted it. She blushed as her blood beat harder through her veins, and she hoped there was no one left in the house to witness his roaming hands.

  True to his word, they were at his door before she even realized they had left the entry. He carried her in and laid her on the bed, his hand sliding along her inner thigh as he lowered her off his shoulders.

  “Stay,” he told her, tying her to the bed frame with the tattered remains of her shirt before leaving and slamming the door behind him.

  Chapter 7

  Marian heard a thump when Gabriel jumped off the balcony and landed on the first floor. She listened and heard the bolt being slid home on the front doors before the sound of his feet raced up the stairs. He came back into the room and locked the door behind him.

  “What did Terrance do that was bad this time?” she asked.

  “Do you want the long version or the short version?”

  “Short version,” she replied as her mind was still preoccupied with more entertaining thoughts than werewolf politics.

  “I banished Terrance for attacking you. He decided that he would rather kill you than be banished and has come to finish you off.”

  She opened and closed her mouth several times, all thoughts of lust being pushed unceremoniously out of her head.

  “Oh,” she said. “Well, shit.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  He moved up so that he was level with her stomach and started laying feather-light kisses on her skin, each one causing her to writhe under him.

  “When a wolf attacks a human and they live to tell the tale, there are several options. He can be banished, he can be killed, or he can kill the person he attacked and hope his pack mates accept him back, which we won’t in this case.” He ended each sentence with another kiss.

  “How does that make sense?” she asked in a breathy voice that she hardly recognized as her own.

  “Well, a newly-made and pissed-off wolf running around is dangerous to us and our way of life unless they can be controlled. Theoretically, if you’re attacked and not killed, you would turn into a pissed-off werewolf. So killing you takes away any dangers that you may pose in the future, thus protecting the pack. Of course, no one has ever attacked a human and not killed them on the spot anyway.”

  “I asked for the short version,” she added, her body arching up off the bed as he moved his lips lower to continue the assault.

  “That was the short version.”

  A wolf howled in the darkness, making her jump. Gabriel stopped his affections to check out the window.

  “What happens if he finds me before they find him?” she asked, cursing the bad timing.

  “That’s why Kennard and the others are outside. On the off chance that he does get past the others and me, they will have an angry and aroused werewolf to deal with.”

  “But I’m not a werewolf,” she pointed out. Not denying the aroused part. “I mean, I will be, but I don’t have a clue how to…you know, go all morphic and hairy and grow fangs and stuff,” she said, regaining some of her composure now that Gabriel seemed preoccupied by the hunt.

  “Honey, you don’t get a say in the ‘morphing’ part when it’s a full moon and you’re young. If you get angry enough, trust me, you will indeed go ‘morphic’ and sprout a new hairdo.”

  As another howl sounded outside, she shuddered so violently that she knocked holes in the plaster of the wall as the bed’s headboard moved with her.

  She screamed as she turned back around to find a huge, black wolf sitting by her feet.

  Gabriel morphed back into his human form, interestingly naked, and came over to lay a hand on her cheek.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he assured her. “By the way you are shuddering, I have the feeling we are about to have several wolves in the room. You’re shuddering as a response to other wolves in the area. I just want to be prepared for when they get here,” he said, moving away again and morphing back into the large, black wolf.

  She moaned, running her tongue along her teeth, having the urge to bite into something.

  “If I start growing hair in places there should never be hair, that Terrance is in big trouble.” She finished her rave with another shudder and the room turned gray scale.

  “If I can make a suggestion,” Kennard drawled, joining their little freak show as he twirled the room key around his finger.

  “No,” she snapped back, her breath coming in quick, panting gasps.

  “You’re about to turn into a werewolf, and although I am sure our illustrious leader has thought this plan out, he, nevertheless, did not anticipate the fact that Terrance was already in the house before he locked the door.”

  “What?” She wrenched her arm free of her bindings, breaking the headboard, and knocked Kennard clear across the room. Her victory was short lived, however, as a heavy paw landed on her, pushing her over. Gabriel proceeded to sit on her. After huffing his hair out of her mouth she squirmed and attempted to wriggle free.

  “As much fun as this has been, I have had enough.” Kennard left the room, leaving the door open behind him.<
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  “Good riddance,” she yelled after him, feeling too many teeth in her small mouth.

  She twisted again, but Gabriel wasn’t budging, and a fully-grown werewolf weighed a ton. She was surprised he didn’t crush her.

  She had enough time to register a creak on the stairs before Gabriel was hit so hard that he bounced off the wall at the back of the room, leaving a boulder-shaped hole in the plaster. Faster than she could follow, a wolf as big as a small bear, but smaller than Gabriel, turned and started toward her.

  Chapter 8

  The sounds of growling and the soft pads on the floorboards as the intruder walked were terrifying. But Marian was in too much of a rage to pay much attention. The wolf in her had other ideas and wouldn’t let her run. She wanted to fight. This man, werewolf, had turned her into a beast and knocked out the guy…wolf, who had tried so hard to keep her safe.

  Her back arched as a splitting sensation tore down her spine. Her skin burned as hair sprouted all over her body, and she curled in on herself. She felt strong, stronger than she had ever felt, even as a hunter. She bared her teeth at the intruder and launched herself into the fight, her powerful back paws pushing her off the bed without thought as to how to move in this new body. She collided with him with a sickening crack of ribs. Her momentum carried her away from him as he shook his great form and rose above her.

  A small, snarling figure darted in, slashing with a small pointed knife. Nole. Marian attempted to push the girl away, but she was too fast and Marian too slow with her new limbs. Nole slashed with her knife and moved just fast enough to stay out of Terrance’s reach. Marian knew the girl was trying to give her the advantage. She wouldn’t waste the help. As she had the thought, Nole made one last swipe before jumping over to Gabriel’s seemingly lifeless form and setting up a defensive stance over her friend.

  Marian knew Terrance was faster than her in this form. As a hunter, she knew her weapons and her body, in this form she had to be smart. Using her assumption that he would think her a weak female, she cowered before him as he gathered his wits and approached. Making herself as small as she could, she willed him to come closer with her body language.