Never Cry Wolf (Night Watch #4)(73)
Author: Cynthia Eden

“Only a few were left alive by then.” A rough laugh.

“Imagine that. Packs are supposed to keep you safe, but with Kaber, just a few were left, and they hauled ass fast enough when I came back on the scene.”

Because they probably had expected Lucas to kill them. “So you started a new pack.”

The blinds fell back into place. “I started my pack. With Jordan and Dane, and when we found others, we brought them in.”

Always protecting. Always strong.

“What happened to your mother?” She voiced the question that nagged at her mind.

“I heard she died a few years back.”

Sarah slid from the bed. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I never knew her. She ditched me as fast as she could because she didn’t want to be tied down—”

She hurried around the bed. Hit her shin twice. Managed to find him and grab his hands and she held tight. “I’m sorry, Lucas.”

That shut him up.

“I’m sorry that you went through hell.” Because that’s exactly what it had been. While he’d been walking in his father’s blood, she’d been rebelling at her normal life. Ah, damn. She must have seemed like such a fool to him. “I wish things had been different for you.”

“Wishing doesn’t change the past.”

No, nothing could change the past. “But your future can be different,” she whispered. “Your life doesn’t have to just be blood and death. It can be more.”

His glittering gaze seemed to bore into her. “And what about you, Sarah? What do you want your life to be? You came looking for the death and the action and the monsters. Is that what you want your life to be like? Is it the thrill of the dark that gets to you?”

The words were a dig at her, a swipe that hurt, but she didn’t let him go. “It’s not the dark I want. It was never that.” Just to fit in.

“You wanted to belong, sweet Sarah, with the wolves.”

“No.” Not just with the wolves. There were other packs. Other wolf shifters. Rafe hadn’t been the first she’d come across in her time at the Bureau. He’d just the first wolf she’d taken as a lover.

And if that hadn’t been enough to scare a girl off shifters . . .

But no, she’d gone right back in. Fallen hard for her legend.

“I wanted to belong with you.” The words came out quietly, and she knew there’d be no more hiding. “I knew you’d keep me safe.” The profile had been dead on. He protected those weaker, always looked out for them if they were his. Did he consider her part of his family? He’d said she was in the pack, but . . . “I think I was a little bit in love with you before I even met you.”

He blinked at her. “Sarah . . . ?”

“The big, bad LA wolf. The alpha who took on a den of vampires to get his brother back—took them on and took them out.”

“Well, I did have a little help with that,” he said, voice dark and rumbling.

The wolfpack rumors didn’t care about his help. “You’ve never killed humans. There’s never even been so much as a whisper about you hurting them.”

He stared down at her, not saying a word, and she tensed. “I’m not as desperate as you seem to think, Lucas. It’s not pack or nothing for me. Hell, it’s not even pack. It’s just . . .” You.

“Be careful,” he warned her. “Be very, very careful.” And his hands bit into her flesh.

“Why?” She’d turned her back on the careful life years ago.

“Because if you push me too far, I won’t ever let you go.”

What if that was what she wanted? “Lucas . . .”

His lips brushed over hers. A quick, hard press that had her wanting him back in the bed with her. His body against hers, in her.

But he lifted his head too quickly. “Dane’s here.”

What?

“You should dress.”

She’d rather keep talking to him. Dammit, she’d just said she was in love with the guy. She’d never said words like that to a man before. “We’re not done, wolf,” she promised him.

“No.” Soft. “We’re not.”

A knock shook the door. Sarah wrapped the sheet around her body, tighter this time. She didn’t want it to slip and fall.

Lucas yanked on his pair of jeans and headed for the door. She caught his arm. “I’m going to keep pushing you.” She could give warnings, too. She stood on her tiptoes and let her lips tease his savaged ear, then Sarah whispered, “I’ll push and push until I get just what I want.”

His head turned. His eyes caught hers. “And what is it that you really want?”

Couldn’t he see? “You. Just you, Lucas.”

She stepped away from him. He’d believe her or he wouldn’t. This wasn’t about protection or the FBI or Rafe or any damn other thing. It was just about them. “And I need you to just want me, too.” Not the charmer. Not the woman he could use to spy on enemies or to make sure that his pack was always loyal. “Just want me.”

“I do.” Growled.

Her breath rushed out.

He reached for the door and yanked it open just as a fist slammed into the wood again.

Dane blinked. Faint light spilled on him from the bulb outside. Jordan stood just behind him, his shoulders hunched against the night.

“You were right,” Dane told Jordan, slowly lowering his fist. “She needed clothes.”

He tossed a bag to Sarah. She caught it, and her sheet didn’t slip.

“I know my brother.” Jordan’s lips curved a bit. “And I saw the way he looked at her.”

What? Did they think Lucas had ripped her clothes off? Oh, tempting, but no. “There was blood on my clothes, I—”

“I know.” And Dane came through the door with narrowed eyes and a tight jaw. “I could smell it outside.” He crossed to Sarah’s side. “Her blood.”

Jordan kicked the door closed and flipped on the light. “Here we go.”

A muscle flexed in Dane’s jaw. “Is Karen dead?”

“I don’t know.” And why did it matter to him? He’d been the one to gag the agent and stuff her into the back of a van.

Suspicion hit, hard, and she knew Lucas had the same thought because he grabbed Dane and tossed him back against the wall.

“How well do you know the FBI agent, Dane?” Lucas’s arm was at the other shifter’s throat.