After finishing my pizza and salad, I leave Kier still eating in the restaurant. I take his refusal to let me pay as just another sign that he cares, even if he is determined not to show it.
Still, I thank him before making my escape. Not to climb in my car and drive out of town, but so I can get booked into the motel before Kier catches on to what I’m doing and tries to stop me.
I can’t imagine how you’d stop someone from checking into a motel room, but if anyone can manage it, it would be Kier. Alphas have altogether too much determination to have things all their own way.
I don’t make it to my car because standing in front of it is Leo.
The dark snarl on his face leaves me in no doubt that he heard my passing reference to his tiny package. Since he’s taking this so personally, I steal a peek at his jeans just to make sure. One glance is enough to confirm that he has nothing to fear in that department, so it’s clear he’s the type who’s easily insulted.
I’m also guessing that Leo is no longer interested in being my friend.
Over the years, I’ve learned some guys are like that. They are all over you one minute, and the second-the very second-you tell them you’re not interested, you become the enemy.
“Oh, hi, Leo,” I say as I try to work out how I can get to my car without having to go through him to do it.
While he’s no alpha or even a beta, he is a dominant enough shifter that he has the potential to be difficult. Which is fine, because I am all of those things as well.
“You’re invading territory that belongs to another pack.”
Oh, so that’s how he’s going to play this.
When he was interested in having a good time, he was happy to let that slide, but now sexy time is no longer in the cards, he gives a damn about shifter rules.
“Nope. Visiting. That’s all.”
He narrows his hazel eyes, which, now they’re hard and glinting, aren’t quite so pretty anymore. “You failed to notify the alpha of your arrival, nor did you get permission in advance.”
I keep walking, tugging my car keys from my pocket as I approach him. “Again, visiting. Blowing on through. I’ll be out of your pretty hair before you even notice I’m here.”
When his lips tighten, I mentally sigh. Did I really have to remind him that I view him as a pretty thing instead of a real man?
“No. That’s not going to work. You’re coming with me.”
I stop a few feet away.
Ordinarily, I’d be worried about attracting attention since we’re in the middle of town, but Leo doesn’t seem to care. I guess it makes sense since we’re tucked down the side of the restaurant in a place that’s pretty much a ghost town.
Although Kier is in the restaurant next door, I’m not about to call for help that I don’t need.
“To see your alpha?” I ask.
Something dark skitters in his eyes. “Eventually.”
Okay, so maybe I was wrong about Leo. Maybe he’s not pretty after all. Maybe something dark and less golden lurks beneath that pretty exterior.
“Yeah, I don’t think so. You want to move aside, Apollo, so I can get to my car?”
Confusion chases away his dark expression. “Apollo?”
I nod, even as I grip my keys a little tighter. “Greek God, all golden-haired and golden-skinned. Pretty. Kinda like you.”
He takes a threatening step forward, no doubt attempting to use all six feet of his height to intimidate me. Since I’m a hair shorter than five-four, it really pisses me off when guys try to use their height against a woman like that.
I tilt my head to examine him the way I would a bug under a microscope. “Or is it less Greek God, more poor man’s Hercules, golden from a bottle and empty-headed to boot?”
With an enraged snarl, he charges. I don’t move. I just watch him coming.
The second he lifts a hand to my throat, I step aside and, with my fist wrapped around my keys, punch him hard between his legs. When he sinks to his knees with an anguished moan, I have a split second of pity for him, until I remember the dark look in his eyes.
“Hallee,” Kier sighs from behind me.
I turn to find him standing a few feet away, his face an expressionless mask and his eyes bright with an unreadable light.
“Oh, hi, Kier.”
His gaze dips to my right. Before he can open his mouth to warn me of a threat I can already feel, I take a step to the side, turn, and kick, aiming for Leo’s kidney.
With a low groan, Leo abandons his strike against me to curl in on himself instead. This time I don’t take my eyes off him. I glare down at him, letting my anger out for the first time. “Seriously, Leo? Trying to punch a girl in the back? Play nice.”
He makes a strangled sound and rolls onto his back. While he’s doing that, I skirt around him and head for my car.
Leo’s arrival has meant I’ve lost my opportunity to quietly check into the motel since I doubt Kier is going to be happy with me pointing my car in any other direction except out of town. I’m a foot away from it when I stop with a tired sigh.
Instead of Leo tackling me to the ground and taking his fury out on me, I hear flesh hitting flesh followed by a heavy thud. That’s when I turn.
Standing a few feet away is Kier, his hand tightened in a fist and a dark glare on his face as Leo lies unconscious at his feet.
“Oh, thanks.” I grin.
He lifts his head to glare at me. “Why did you turn your back on him? You knew he was a threat.”
I shrug. “It was a bit of fun on a Sunday, and I knew you’d eventually want to join in.”
Kier shakes his head, even as a reluctant smile curves his lips. “You’re crazy, you know that, right?”
I drift closer to him and lift my hand to his chest. “You like me crazy.”
Before my fingers make contact with his flannel shirt, he snags my wrist in a grip that feels almost too tight to break. It’s deceptive though, I know I could pull my hand free anytime I wanted to because Kier has never used his larger build or strength to scare me. But I don’t.
It’s his turn to move forward, his gaze fixed on mine as he backs me up against the front of my car. “You could’ve gotten hurt,” he growls.
“You wouldn’t have let that happen.”
“Hallee…” Kier growls again, doing nothing to hide his frustration.
It’s my turn to step closer, not the least bit intimidated. “You know, I like it best when you’re inside me when you growl my name like that.”
Kier’s eyes burn with fierce intensity. It’s a battle to hide my relief that he isn’t once again ordering me to leave because, for all his attempts to convince me we’re over, I know his words couldn’t be further from the truth.
He closes his free hand tight around my hip and draws me hard against him. So close that it’s clear my words have had more than a passing effect on him if the hardness nestled against my belly is anything to go by.
“You shouldn’t be here.” He lowers his head, his gaze drifting to my lips.
I lick my lips in preparation for his kiss, and I’m sure-almost positive-that I feel the hard length of him jerk against my lower belly. “Shouldn’t I?” I rise to my tiptoes so I can meet him halfway.
“No. You shouldn’t.”
My eyes flutter closed at the faintest brush of his firm lips across mine. And just like that, my arousal is simmering to life as I wait in anticipation for the intense heat of Kier’s kiss, ignoring the voice in my head that tells me we shouldn’t be doing this in public.
Whenever he strokes his tongue against mine, the only thing I think of doing is throwing him down or having him throw me down, preferably while both of us are naked.
Someone clears their throat. “Neither of you should be here.”
I silently curse the universe as I open my eyes. Just when I’m making progress with Kier-which I’m almost positive would’ve led to us making use of his motel room bed-someone interrupts us. The universe likes to play games like that sometimes.
I turn to my right.
There is not one shifter but six, each one more hulking than the last.
As my gaze sweeps over bulging arms, pawlike hands, and thighs that reveal not one of them skips leg day at the gym, something tells me that putting them down will not be as easy as dealing with Leo was.
“I should’ve known something like this would happen in a town called Dexter,” I mutter as Kier and I break apart to confront this new threat.
Although I don’t see it on his face, I feel his amusement as we angle our bodies to face the shifters blocking our one way out. I guess I could just run them over in my car, but it just doesn’t seem fair, somehow. There’s cheating, and then there’s cheating.
“Dexter?” he murmurs, cracking a knuckle, preparing for the looming fight I can see brewing in these shifters’ eyes.
“Oh come on, Kier, I know a TV doesn’t fit with your isolated mountain man existence, but you must’ve had one in the past. Dexter. TV show about a cop who’s a serial killer who kills other serial killers. Gets it on with his sister.”
Six pairs of startled eyes jerk toward me. If Kier and I weren’t facing down these shifters, I’m almost positive I’d find a similar expression stamped across his face. I’d risk glancing over at him, but my instincts are warning me that my focus needs to remain fixed on Leo’s packmates.
I widen my eyes. “What? It wasn’t me who wrote that into the show. It’s true. He gets it on with his sister. Or maybe that was in real life…” I shrug. “Anyway, it was an old show. I think they’re bringing it back for another season. Like the Gilmore Girls.”
For several seconds, no one says anything. No one even blinks.
I try not to think about how I linked TV shows about a serial killing, potentially incestuous cop with a small-town feel-good show that Savannah and I liked to watch together.
Is this what Kier meant about me being not like anyone else?
Someone clears their throat, and this time it isn’t any of the hulking shifters in front of me.
They move aside, and a lean shifter steps into the space. I’m guessing he’s the brains of this ambush who was held up by the non-existent traffic. Whatever the reason for his delay, he’s the one in charge.
His straight back and focused brown-eyed stare as he stalks toward us tells me that he’s got authority, but he’s no alpha. Something about his actions reminds me more of Luka than of Kier or Dayne. I’d put money on him being a beta.
The lean, russet-haired beta briefly scans me before turning to my left. “Kier. Long time no see.”
In that one scan, he seems to take in everything, including our matching fluffy bracelets, something that Leo-who is still lying dead to the world at our feet-somehow missed.
Kier nods. “Frank.”
And that’s about all the greeting this sharp-eyed beta dressed in black jeans and a t-shirt gets. Although no one could ever accuse Kier of being chatty, his lack of greeting has me wondering what the hell we’re doing in Dexter with a beta I’m sure Kier doesn’t like.
Frank’s expression doesn’t change, which makes me think there’s no love lost on either side. “You’re here about-”
“The brothers.”
I can’t help but glance at Kier because something is going on here. No, there is something that he doesn’t want me to know. From Frank’s faint smile as he glances at me, he knows it.
“You’ll need to come with me,” he says.
I feel Kier turn to me, but I don’t take my gaze off Frank. My instincts are pretty good, and right now, they’re warning me he’s a threat. I want to keep my eyes on him at all times if I can help it. “Get in your car, Hallee. It’s time you-”
Frank doesn’t take his eyes off me either, and that faint smile doesn’t leave his lips. “No. I think you misunderstood, Kier. I meant both of you are coming.”
Kier grips my arm, nudging me back as he steps forward. I fight back my annoyance at his attempt to protect me because clearly Kier knows these people. It would be stupid of me to think there wasn’t some pretty big reason for him to turn protective when he knows I can take care of myself.
“She’s not a part of this.” Kier’s voice is granite-hard, colder than I’ve ever heard it before. Hearing it, my view of their relationship changes.
Yeah, they straight-up hate each other. Or at least Kier does.
Even though Frank is facing down a six-foot-something alpha who can be intimidating when he wants to, he doesn’t reveal the slightest bit of fear. “She came into a town without permission from the alpha. Whether she wanted to be a part of it or not, it’s too late for that. She is. She’s coming to the Range.”
In the tense silence that follows, I don’t wait for Kier to lash out at Frank. While I’m not afraid of a fight, our odds aren’t great, and even though we’re in a ghost town, we are in public. I have a feeling the people of Dexter might have something to say if they stumbled on a mass brawl of growling men, or even worse, wolves.
I shrug Kier’s hand off my arm and edge forward. “What’s the Range?” I ask everyone and no one.
Frank meets Kier’s gaze for several more seconds before turning to me. “Where the pack lives.”
“You mean where the alpha is?”
“Same thing.”
I blink. “You mean the entire pack lives at the Range? No one lives in town?”
He shakes his head.
Coming from a pack where we mostly live in town, but spend more than half our time at the packhouse, it seems strange that so many would all live together. It isn’t only because a group of people living in a remote place usually has people thinking they have a cult on their hands, but because it’s not natural.
Over time, if a pack has lived in a town long enough, they start to build relationships and friendships with the rest of the inhabitants in the town. They become part of the community. That’s harder to do if everyone lives apart from it. While it’s not impossible that this pack has become part of Dexter’s community, my instincts are telling me that they haven’t.
The building relationship part is kind of important because if anyone were to see anything out of the ordinary, they’re more likely to shrug it off than they would be if they were dealing with strangers. The people of Hardin know us, just as we know them.
“Alpha likes to keep a close eye on everyone,” Frank says.
My gaze dips to the now-stirring Leo. “I can see why,” I murmur.
When Frank chuckles, I lift my head, but I don’t laugh. None of us do because the sound emerging from Frank’s mouth is more than a little disturbing.
He steps aside, his face still twisted in a mockery of a smile, and holds his arm out. “Shall we?”
I take one glance at Kier’s face, not the least bit surprised to find it devoid of expression. It warns me that something bad is coming because Dayne is the same.
Dayne will shut down tight as if he’s trying to keep the worst of his emotions from us. Like just before he went outside and destroyed a tree when Glynn Merrick sent him a piece of Talis’ finger.
I don’t know what compels me to grip the front of Kier’s shirt and haul him down for a kiss. Although he returns it instantly, I don’t let it go on for longer than a few seconds because now isn’t the time for a lingering kiss.
“Hallee?” he murmurs, looking a lot less blank-faced than he did before.
“Now we can go,” I tell Frank because I’ll be damned if I’m about to go to my death without one last kiss from Kier.
I head for the shifters still blocking the road, tucking my car keys in my pocket as I go, saying nothing when Kier inserts his body between mine and Frank’s.
All I can hope is that my car will still be there when the alpha of this town is done with us. Scratch that, if the alpha even lets us live, never mind leave town.
After meeting Leo and Frank, I have my doubts.