“I’m already practically there! See you later!” she called, slamming his door and half-jogging toward the side alley that would take her to the back stairs and her upstairs apartment over the coffee shop.
She hurried up the metal stairs to her door, pausing only briefly as she unlocked it and let herself inside. She flipped on the lights and closed the door simultaneously. She turned to face the glass door and just barely glimpsed Remi at the bottom of her stairs, looking up toward her apartment as she jerked her shade down. Ignoring him, and hoping he’d go away instead of coming up, she thought to herself that maybe a glass exterior door wasn’t the smartest choice, she considered for the first timereplacing it with a solid wood door as a way of giving herself more privacy. “Maybe later,” she muttered as she tossed her purse toward her love seat, then pulled down the shades on the large window to the right of the door, and in the window of the small kitchen that shared the living room space, too.
She stood there, leaning against the kitchen sink for a minute or two before she shook herself out of her self-imposed funk and headed to her bedroom. She walked through her small apartment, looking at all the cute little touches she’d added since she’d moved into her new place. It had been Tempest’s before she’d moved in with Brandt, and spending time in it with Tempest made her want to live there once it was available. Bailey flipped on the light in her bedroom and bathroom, turning on the shower to allow the water to heat up as she stripped out of her clothes and grabbed a favorite old, worn out teeshirt to sleep in. She turned on the television for background noise, then circled back to the shower, stepping thankfully under the hot water spray. Sighing with relief, she did her best to block out the disaster of a date.
Outside Remi stood on the small metal landing outside her door, listening to her movements as she went about sealing herself inside her apartment. He heard her footsteps through the place, the shower start, a drawer slide open and closed, and the television come on. Apparently, she was doing exactly what she’d told him she wanted — take a shower and go to bed.
He laid his hand on the glass door, and imagined her inside. “It’s gonna be alright,” he promised.
He had the thought as he went back down her stairs — careful not to make a single sound on the metal steps — that he wasn’t sure if he was assuring himself, or her.
~~~
Searing pain ripped through his body as he forced himself to shift from his beast to his human form. Lying on his back in the shallow water lapping at the river bank, his chest heaved as his long, black hair spread out around his head and shoulders. Teeth clenched he pushed himself up and onto the drier ground just above the river’s edge. He cursed the female for compelling him to follow. And she had done just that, compelled him, even if she didn’t know she had. He despised the power she had over him, and that was his entire reason for being here — to face that power and shut it down so he could effortlessly move on with his life.
Taking a deep breath, he rolled over onto his belly and struggled to his knees. “Aggravating female,” he grumbled, before gathering his fortitude and surging to his feet. A while later he pushed off the large water oak he’d been leaning against and focused on a set of stairs that led up to somebody’s house. Hanging on that stairwell hung a long rain jacket. Taking it off the banister, he slipped it on. He looked down at his body. The rain jacket was almost too small across his shoulders, and it fell just at his knees, rather than down to his calves like it was meant to do, but it kept him from walking around naked, and that was the whole purpose. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. He took the first of many steps he’d take that night, moving steadily, albeit slowly in the direction she’d gone with the male that he’d have to kill before he left the female on her own — eventually. It might take some time to get her out of his blood. “Damned female,” he hissed.
Chapter 3
Hellen ran through the woods, darting around trees, through shrubbery, and over fallen logs more quickly than she might have ever run before. The feeling of turning control over to her wolf, and having the freedom and safety to run without inhibition on her home land was not one to be taken for granted. It had been a long time since she’d allowed herself such freedom. She took in all the sights and sounds, her nose painting an even more detailed picture as she trotted toward home, nose in the air, tail held high. She was a sight to behold; her wolf a deep auburn with lighter reddish-blond streaks in the thicker fur around her head, chest, and tail. And she was large. As she’d matured, her wolf had done the same, transitioning into the impressive creature she was now.
Her mind on so many things, not the least of which were the gator slides Brandt had told her about earlier in the evening, she was not on guard as she should have been, and trotted right into the large clearing her house sat in. Stuttering to a stop as a new scent hit her, she looked around her backyard, keen eyes scanning the tree line for the source of the scent. Her wolf started whining in her mind, letting her know what she already suspected. It was him. Her gator. He’d found her. Turning back toward her home, she finally caught sight of him as he stepped out of the darkness, allowing himself to be illuminated in the glow of the amber porch light.
Hellen slowly approached her house, her eyes taking in all details of the male calmly watching her approach. He was tall, and his good eye was a piercing light blue. He had long, black hair that fell to almost the middle of his back in a thick, shiny curtain. His skin gave the appearance of being sun kissed,almost golden in color, but it didn’t fool her — it was his natural skin tone — the sun had nothing to do with it. The milkiness of his bad eye and the scarred skin both above and below it let her know beyond the shadow of a doubt that though it had healed, it was totally useless. The air of danger and arrogance wafting from this male was by no means misplaced; he owned every bit of it. Despite the silliness of his appearance, bare legs and feet sticking out from below a too little rain coat, this was an absolutely beautiful male. A magnetically beautiful male. The same male that disappeared while she’d been gone for only two days, leaving her to worry constantly about whether or not he’d survived.
Forcing herself to adopt an I’m-not-sure-why-you’re-here and I-really-don’t-give-a-damn-that-you-are attitude, she shifted from her wolf back into her human form and walked completely nude, and without a care it would seem, past him and onto the cement foundation that made up her back porch of a sort. She took her key from the hanging plant to the right of the door and unlocked her door. She replaced the key and reached for the doorknob. At the last minute she looked his way again. “That’s my Alpha’s coat. He’ll probably be pissed.” She turned the doorknob, pushed open her door and stepped inside, closing it behind her.
The male stood looking at her, appearing calm and in control, but the pain she scented told another story. He was doing an excellent job of pretending, but he was hurting. He stared at her, his good eye like a lance right to her soul, daring her to continue to ignore him.
So, she did the only sensible thing she could think of. She reached out and locked the door, then turned her back on him and went into the bathroom off her bedroom to shower.
The male stood outside her back door, easily looking into her home through the glass door and the large windows oneither side of it. It was not, in his opinion, a very safe home. It wouldn’t take very much to break the glass and walk right in. Stepping right up to the glass, he prepared to do just that, when he suddenly remembered the female had returned the key to its hiding place, as though daring him to take it down and use it. Never one to refuse a dare, he took the key from the planter, unlocked the door, and let himself in. Walking through her home like he did so every day, he headed toward the front of the house, following the path she’d taken. He hesitated in her bedroom, loving the dark greens and browns and tans of the room, but then heard the sound of the shower from the connecting bathroom. He moved toward the bathroom door and let himself into her bathroom. He stood just inside the bathroom unmoving, watching the female watch him. She was as beautiful here in the overhead light as she’d been in shadows outside. He simply watched her as the steam from her shower slowly filled the room.
“You’re in my bathroom.”
He shrugged.
“Get out of my house,” she said. But her tone of voice belied her intent to make him think he was unwelcome. She wasn’t the slightest bit afraid of him despite the fact that he’d let himself in and that made her sentence no more than a statement.
“You left me,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I told you I’d be back in two days.”
“You said as soon as you could. Not two days.”
“Fine. I got back as soon as I could. It was two days. You were gone with no word. How was I to know if you’d left of your own free will or if whoever had started the job came back to finish it?”
“You want me to leave a note so they can find me again before I’m strong enough to fight?” he asked.
“No. But you could have made an effort to let me know you chose to leave.”
“Oh, I see. You worried about me. And that makes you angry.”
“Go away!” she said, her ire beginning to grow.
He simply stood his ground, not moving, not answering.
“You know what? I did worry, not because I care about you personally, but because it’s my job. I found you in dire need, and I saved you. And it’s what any decent person would do. As opposed to you who just growled and threatened me the entire time I did everything I could for you. And you couldn’t even let me know you were okay.”
