Never Cry Wolf (Night Watch #4)(36)
Author: Cynthia Eden

No one called back to her.

Sarah glanced around. All the buildings on this stretch of road had been abandoned. One looked like it had barely survived a blaze. Two others were boarded up, just like the warehouse. She caught the furtive stare of a homeless man and heard the squeak of rats.

But didn’t hear the voice of a wolf shifter.

Sarah crept away from the SUV. “I’m here! Isn’t that what you wanted? Dammit, Rafe, I know you’re watching! Isn’t this what you—”

“Hello, Sarah.” He said her name softly, and she spun around. He stood less than five feet away, dark hair tousled, one brow raised, and his lips twisted in that familiar smile.

“Rafe.”

“Good to see you again, sweetheart.”

She flinched at the endearment. Rafe sidled closer, that smile still on his lips. His face was deceptively handsome—strong angles, high cheeks, a square jaw. And his body was still as strong and powerful as ever. “Wh-where’s Dane?” she demanded, her gaze trying to search the growing shadows. “I’m here, so let him go.”

“No.” He stood less than a foot away now, staring at her, his nostrils flaring.

Oh, shit. That damn keen wolf sense of smell. He’d know—

“You really shouldn’t have f**ked him, Sarah.” His brown eyes slit.

An engine roared. Her head swung to the side and she saw another dark SUV hurtle down the road. Lucas.

Rafe’s fingers locked around her throat. Her heart froze as he leaned in close to her. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to kill him,” he whispered.

Lucas leapt from the vehicle, with Piers and Caleb at his heels. “Sarah!” Lucas charged forward, his eyes already lit with the glow of the beast. His claws were out, up, ready to rip and tear. “Get the f**k away from her, Santiago!”

But Rafe just pulled her closer. He spun her, so that her back was pressed to his chest and his hand still circled her throat. “Sarah’s used to having me near her.”

Lucas snarled and charged at them.

Rafe’s claws cut into her skin. “Another step and I’ll cut her throat wide open.” A rough laugh. “She won’t be any use to either of us then, will she? So I’d suggest you stand down!”

Lucas threw out his hand and caught Piers just as the guy ran by him. Caleb waited a few paces behind them. All three men seemed to vibrate with fury.

“Where’s Dane?” Lucas’s hands were at his sides.

“All in good time.” Rafe’s muscles were rock-hard behind her. “You only brought two men. Good.”

Lucas didn’t speak.

“You know I could kill her before you so much as touched me, don’t you, Alpha?” Now Rafe was taunting. “Charmers are no different than humans. One slice—and she’s gone.”

Lucas wasn’t looking at her. The fury of his stare was directed fully at Rafe.

“You f**ked my mate, Simone,” Rafe snarled, “and that really, really pisses me off!”

“I’m not your—” Sarah began but his claws dug deeper and her words ended in a gasp.

Lucas looked at her then, burned her with his blazing blue eyes. There was death in those eyes. The savage promise of hell coming. “She’s not yours,” Lucas told him, his voice quiet, a hard contrast to the fury of his stare.

“Do you think she’s yours?” Laughter. “She’s playing you, the same way she played me.”

Oh, hell. “Lucas—” Damn, those claws hurt.

One hand smoothed back her hair. “Did you tell him, sweetheart? Does he know about your little secrets?”

No, he didn’t.

Lucas was still looking at her, and she knew he’d seen the flicker of her eyelashes. Too telling for someone as observant as he was.

“Did you really think she was just some innocent charmer who’d stumbled into your path?”

No one’s innocent.

Sarah licked her lips.

“She killed a cop last night,” Rafe murmured. “But her face hasn’t been splashed all over the TV. In fact, no reports of that cop bastard dying have even made the news.”

Lucas glanced back at Rafe.

“Why do you think that is?” Rafe asked.

Lucas kept his hands at his sides. Caleb stalked closer to him.

“Did you even wonder why the story didn’t spread like f**king fire?” Rafe hauled her closer. “I bet Sarah knows why she’s safe from scrutiny. I bet she knows why the cops aren’t chasing her, why they have never chased her.”

Her body trembled. She hadn’t expected this. She’d thought Rafe would fight her, that Dane would escape. Why is he doing this?

What had he told her about Lucas? I’m not going to kill him. Then what was his plan?

“You f**ked her, and you may have trusted her.” Rafe’s fingers tightened on her throat. “I made the same mistakes.”

“Let her go.” Finally, Lucas spoke.

She felt Rafe tense. “Do you know what she is?”

“A charmer.”

True enough.

“That’s not all,” Rafe told him, voice cutting like the claws on her neck. “She came to me for a reason, came to you—for the same damn reason.”

Now he was hitting too close to the truth.

“The cops aren’t after her,” Rafe said, “because she’s got someone covering her back.”

Sarah tried to crane her neck away from those claws.

“I’ll give you a chance, Simone.” She knew Rafe was bullshitting. He wouldn’t really give Lucas anything. “You can walk away from her. Go back to your pack—”

“What about Dane?” Piers wanted to know.

Rafe didn’t acknowledge him. “You can go back, leave her with me, and life can just . . . go on.”

Everyone else’s life.

“I’m not leaving her,” Lucas told him.

If claws hadn’t been digging into her skin, she would have relaxed.

“She’s here to destroy me.” Rafe was adamant on that. He was also right.

“No,” Lucas smiled now. “I’m here to do that, ass**le.”

Chapter 10

Thin trickles of blood ran down Sarah’s throat, and the sight had rage boiling within Lucas. “Let her go,” he snapped, the beast inside howling for freedom.

Rafe narrowed his eyes. “Did Sarah tell you why she first came to me?”

Don’t want to know. His nostrils twitched. He couldn’t detect Dane’s scent. There were coyotes around, close, hiding in the shadows, and the thick odor of blood hung in the air, but—no Dane.