Chapter Three
HIS ANIMAL WASN’T normal. Not for a natural-born shifter. His was a stalker, abnormally fixated on things, and usually it wasn’t too big of a problem.
Penny’s sister? Caitlin—gorgeous, intelligent, exhausted perfect Caitlin—was his monster’s instant obsession. And that could be a problem.
He’d never obsessed over a female before. Especially not one who was practically related to pack. She was Penny’s sister, damn it.
Most natural shifters were one with their animals.
Bitten shifters didn’t have quite the same connection.
They had to bond with their beast, and sometimes it took, sometimes it didn’t.
If their maker didn’t teach them how to merge, one, usually the animal, ruled during the change and the human ruled the rest of the time.
There was never any learning, no growing together.
They weren’t shifters, they had half-lives.
Human half the time, animal the other. They would drive each other crazy battling over the body.
There was no reason for him and his wolf to think separately, other than his beast was a freaking monster.
Crazy already. Not that that was a bad thing, it made him alpha of his pack.
It was just that the wolf didn’t understand and these were trying times with the new state laws.
If anyone would end up in shifter prison?
It would be him. Because the wolf would break the newly enacted human laws.
It didn’t care. Thankfully, he’d never get it in his head to turn someone because like the monster he was, he only had kill on the brain.
He’d killed anyone who ever challenged them.
He’d killed his own father.
But here was this woman whose father enacted the laws against shifters.
She was dangerous. She could return to her father at any moment.
And he still wanted her. From the very first moment he saw her, he was whipped, as crazy as the wolf.
For the first time in his life, he could understand obsession.
Maybe he and his wolf were a match after all.
He was sure she felt it too. He didn’t miss the way her eyes lingered on him all through breakfast. The way she looked at him, that first shared glance… shock, like she’d been hit by the knowledge that his wolf wanted her.
And so did he.
“Turn here,” he said, pointing to the right. “It’s a shortcut. Not much, but it’s best not to push it if low on gas.”
“What do we do if we run out?” Caitlin asked, her eye glancing down to the gauge.
He shrugged. “Walk.”
“Whaat?” she screeched, her gaze finally flitting to him. “We could have taken Noah’s truck and just filled up a gas can!”
He smiled. Oh, he’d put a gas can in her trunk just in case it came to that. And yes, it was easier to take someone else’s car.
But that wouldn’t put his scent in her property. Mark his territory, reminder her and others of who the fuck he was.
“Or the guys could change and run up there while we wait in the car,” Penny said from the backseat.
“Yeah, and what would we do when we change back at the station and now there’s two guys standing buck naked?” Noah asked.
Penny giggled and Caitlin gave him a quick, wide-eyed look. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes drifted down to his lap before she yanked her gaze away.
He leaned back casually in the seat. “Imagining me naked?”
“What?! No!” she barked, as Penny and Noah laughed because her voice was full of horror.
Or lies.
“It’s okay,” he assured her. “It’s only natural to be curious.”
“I’m not curious,” she gritted.
He gave her a slow, lazy wink.
She looked into the rearview mirror and rolled her eyes. “I thought your alpha would be a little more standoffish. Professional,” she said to Noah.
He chuckled. “Nope. He’s not from the world of politics. This is about as much as we can hope for.”
“Well,” she drawled finally. “As enticing as it is to watch a dangling dickidoo flop around while you prance naked, I’ll probably pass.”
As Noah and Penny hooted in the back seat, he leaned forward. “Oh, baby. It’s not gonna dangle when it knows you’re present.”
Her lips curled up into a tentative smile as she glanced sideways at him. “Half-mast?”
“Full. A concrete hard-on. Probably the size of your arm.”
She bit her lip as she looked away, but it didn’t mask the hint of curiosity. That was good. It was the beginning spark of interest, and he could live with that.
They drove a few more minutes before they reached the end of the road.
“Okay, here we go. Main strip of town. Turn right here and we’re coming behind the station.”
“Ahh, I see it now.” She circled around the station and came to a stop at the pump. She peered around him to look through the passenger window. “Huh. There was a little old man who sat in that chair yesterday.”
Noah, the asshole, said, “No little old men work here.”
Noah was elbowed by Penny, like that was funny. Between the two of them, something was going on. Truth was, old Mack looked older than his fifty-odd years and did sit outside sometimes.
“Uhh, you can’t pay at the pump,” Caitlin whispered, her eyes glued to the ancient pump missing the card reader.
“Nope. Still old school up here in the mountains. Gotta go inside with your credit card, sis,” Penny said, way too gleeful.
“Umm, well—” Caitlin appeared to be stalling as she squinted into the darkened windows of the station.
“I’ll do the honors of pumping,” Noah said quickly, jumping out and heading for the tank.
“Oh, I can do it,” Caitlin called out.
“Don’t be silly,” Penny countered. “You gotta go inside and pay anyway. Noah can pump.”
“Well, shit,” Caitlin muttered under her breath.
“You want me to pay?” Isaac’s voice was low enough that the others couldn’t hear. Maybe she didn’t want to admit she had no money?
“What? No. I can do it. Unless… you’d rather come with?” There was a pleading look in her eyes that made him feel—needed. Wanted. His wolf sat up inside him.
“On one condition,” Isaac countered.
“What’s that?”
“You tell me why you’re freaked out. Share your deep secrets, woman.”
She sighed. “It’s just this old movie that’s always stuck in my head. An old deserted town. Looks fine, right? But it’s deserted for a reason. You find out when the people in the car separate that the crazy town folk are killers—”
“House of Wax!” Penny screeched, her voice at high volume.
Both Noah and Isaac winced, covering their ears, and he had it worse since Noah was outside.
“Sorry,” Penny said in a more normal tone. “Oh, my God, I can’t believe you still think of that movie!”
“Penny,” Noah called from outside.
“Oh, hell,” Penny said, scowling at him. “All right, all right. So, I still freak out over that movie, too, Caitlin. Noah goes inside the station with me. Especially at night.”
“What is this House of Wax?” Isaac asked.
Noah stuck his head into the driver’s window. “A movie the two of them watched when they were kids. Neither one could ever talk about it because they snuck into the theater room and hid behind the seats to watch it.”
“It was scary,” Caitlin assured him.
“Wait,” Isaac said, his head tilted. “You had a theater inside your house? Did everyone else miss this?”
“A theater room, really. It wasn’t like a whole theater,” Caitlin said, but that sounded weak, even to her ears.
Penny snorted.
“Maybe we should watch it as adults and see if it’s really—” Noah began.
“Nope,” Penny and Caitlin said together.
“Anyway, you gotta come in with me,” Caitlin said. “You said you would if I told you my secret.”
“So I did.” Isaac opened his car door at the same time Noah opened Caitlin’s driver’s side for her.
“My lady,” Noah said, a twinkle in his eye.
She tossed her keys into the cupholder, then came around the car warily, her eyes glued on the front window of the station. But, brave girl, she stood next to him and his monster was worse than anything in that building. She stood closer than she even realized.
He settled his hand onto the small of her back. “It’s okay. I got you.” And yeah, both he and the wolf noticed when her body relaxed against his palm.
His sensitive ears picked up the sound of a click behind him. He turned to look over his shoulder, which made Caitlin turn around too. Penny had climbed into the front passenger seat.
“What? Oh, my God. Did she just lock the car doors for safety?”
He chuckled when Penny waved at them through the glass of the windows.
“So much for sisterly love,” Caitlin grumbled. “I’m going to get serial killed in here.”
“Not next to me,” he said, hooking an arm around her neck and tugging her close. “Stick with me, Cait.”
“No one ever calls me Cait. It’s not dignified,” she whispered.
“Says who?”
“I guess… my dad always did.”
“Hmph. I like it.”
“I think I do too.”
“Then it’ll be what I call you.”
She was so small by his side. It fired up his protective instincts. He—and the wolf—liked that she didn’t pull away.
“You know what’ll help with the nerves?” he rumbled into her ear.
“What?”
“Road trip, where you stop off at every one of the little gas stations to get snacks—”
“Nope.”
He chuckled, because she answered almost before he even finished the sentence. “I can be persuaded to go with you. We can start slow. One little trip a weekend. Maybe just start with one station.”
They were up to the counter now and she slid her card across the way with one finger.
Her hand shook, and her eyes were on old Mack, who looked like he might have been tipping the bottle a bit behind the counter.
Still, if Cait didn’t know about his penchant for tequila, she might assume his narrowed eyes were glaring instead of glassy.
“Yeah, maybe if you were with me,” she said, her voice a thready whisper.
“It’s a date.”
Her shocked face turned toward him just as Mack handed her card and an old-fashioned paper receipt to sign. Was that maybe too fast?
“As friends,” he amended, choking down the wolf’s angry snarl. Even at that, she still looked shocked. “But just you and me. I think Noah and Penny will be busy. Unless you want to check with them and see if they’re available?”
She scribbled her signature on the receipt and slid her card into her pocket.
“No, I don’t want to bother them if they possibly have plans. We’ll just keep it you and me.”
The front door jangled as he held it open for her to pass through.
Noah and Penny were inside the car watching their approach, so he didn’t touch her this time as they walked back side by side. But it was okay, because they were going to have time together.
Just them. Because Penny and Noah would want to be in the seats together, which left her with him by default.
When they reached the car, Penny and Noah stayed in the front, with Noah in the driver’s seat.
Last minute, Penny unlocked the car doors with a grin. Isaac held the door open for her, and she slid in quickly. He came in right beside her.
“We got into the front for a quick getaway. Just in case you two got murdered by that ninety-five-year-old shopkeeper.” Penny winked, and Noah re-locked all the doors with a loud click.
“Nice to know you and Noah were safe!” Caitlin huffed.
“You were safe, too.” Noah winked in the rearview mirror. “That’s the alpha next to you. His wolf may be vicious, but he’s loyal. He’d probably eat anyone who tried to wax you.”
His wolf wanted to preen when she turned his way. Tilted her head and studied him as Noah pulled away and headed back toward the highway.
“What color is your wolf?”
“Charcoal.”
“Ice-blue eyes?”
He nodded, just once.
“They’re that color now,” she whispered.
“That’s when he’s close to the surface. He wants to know what’s going on.”
“But nothing’s going on.”
“He’s protective. Smelled your fear when we left the car.”
And maybe that wasn’t the whole truth. He was also a vain monster who wanted her to notice him when he felt Noah complimented him.
She brought her hand up to the scruff shadowing his jaw and scratched lightly with her fingertips. Then, like she was cooing to a pup, she murmured, “It’s okay.”
Just like that, he felt the stalker inside him fall hard—deeply, suddenly, irrevocably—in love. And the man?
He wasn’t unaffected either. Of course, he was tied to the beast’s emotions, but he had rational thought, not just instinct and pheromones.
He studied her. Golden brown hair, streaked with sun-kissed strands, lighter on the ends. The same heart-shaped face as Penny, little bow-mouth and pointy little chin. Obviously sisters. But she was more delicate looking, reserved. She brought out his protective instincts.
Penny was more of a firecracker and sure, she was gorgeous. She tended to wear bolder colors, even had her hair tinted with strands of red instead of the natural gold.
But Penny never made him feel like Caitlin did. Penny never gave off more than a sisterly vibe for him—and no, it didn’t matter that someone in his clan showed interest first. That wouldn’t have mattered to the wolf. If the beast wanted something, he would have taken it.
But Caitlin? Caitlin was… interesting, to say the least. Fucking cute in her mannerisms, gorgeous as fuck, sexy in that burgundy shirt and skinny jeans. The white, puffy vest like she was afraid to freeze. He wanted to keep her warm.
So he reached out and took the hand that had scratched his jaw in his. Twined his fingers with hers, used his thumb to rub the soft skin there.
She didn’t pull away.