Slade Read online

  “Allie won’t care if it means Joseph’s life.”

  “Have you met my wife?”

  “Many times.”

  “And you still believe she has a selfish bone in her body?”

  “She loves her son.”

  “Yes, but she won’t go along with this.”

  “She will.”

  A mother’s love was predictable. Reliable.

  Caleb snorted again. “Uh-huh.”

  “I am not participating in kidnapping the woman who might save my child’s life.” Standing on the wide, covered porch of her house, hands on hips, Allie tossed her head, causing the soft brown fall of her shoulder-length hair to swing about her expressive face.

  “Allie, be reasonable,” Caleb cajoled. “We need her.”

  “I am being reasonable. You’re being reactionary.” Allie shook her head. “Kidnapping a woman. Caleb, what were you thinking?”

  “Hell, what makes you think it was my idea?”

  Allie searched his gaze before turning slowly toward Slade, shaking her head. “I thought you were the reasonable one of the brothers.”

  “I’m always reasonable.”

  Just not always as balanced as people believed. But that was his secret.

  Slade looked toward the small cabin to the right of the main house where Jane slept in the big brass bed. Even separated by walls and a hundred yards he was drawn by that inner hum of rightness to touch her energy, to feel it close around him. He succumbed to the temptation, reaching out with his mind. Her energy was soft now, peaceful, free of the stress and worries that haunted her mind. At least he’d been able to give her that.

  “Not everyone is as open-minded as you,” Slade said. “And Joseph needs her.”

  Allie turned in Caleb’s embrace and leaned back against his hard chest. The way his brother loomed behind her, his muscle backing her stance wasn’t an illusion. Caleb would always have Allie’s back. From the day he’d met her, she’d been his focus. At first, he’d thought to hold himself back from her, knowing there was no future for her without conversion, but Slade and his brothers had taken the decision from his hands the night Caleb had almost been killed by a rogue D’Nally were. Allie was their brother’s anchor to this world, and they’d used her to keep him here. He’d just barely worked up to forgiving them.

  Allie cocked her head to the side, studying Slade with those big blue eyes. She was such a strange mix of optimism, determination, and new age openness that he could never tell what she was thinking. “Jane is a scientist. Which means she deals in hard facts and proof and only finds questions interesting as long as they remain unanswered. Why don’t you appeal to that?”

  “Because I ran out of time.”

  “Another man?”

  Allie had always been astute, and today was no different. She’d felt his interest.

  “Lots of them.”

  She let out a huff of air. Caleb stepped in and let him off the hook.

  “We’re not sure how innocent she is. She worked for a Sanctuary company.”

  Allie brushed that aside with a wave of a hand. “If there was a taint of Sanctuary about her, she wouldn’t be here, but that doesn’t absolve you.” Pointing her finger at Slade, she said, “You promised me you’d find a cure for Joseph and I’m holding you to it. But not at her expense. We’re not Sanctuary. You need to get her cooperation the right way.”

  “I’ll get it.”

  “Without lies.”

  “I can’t promise that.”

  “You have to.”

  He settled his hat over his brow. “No, I don’t.”

  Joseph was his nephew and he’d fight with everything he had, but unlike Allie, he didn’t have a qualm about kidnapping a scientist who might have the answer Joseph needed. He’d never been that good-natured.

  “But speaking of the devil, where is my nephew?”

  “He’s sleeping.”

  “He go down late?”

  “No.”

  It was four a.m. Joseph usually went down at one a.m. and got up at two thirty a.m. Three hours was a long time for Joseph to nap. His constant need for food functioned better than any alarm clock. “Did he seem lethargic when you put him down?”

  Worry flashed across Allie’s expression. “No. Why?”

  Slade hated being the one to add to her worry. “It’s a long time for him to be without food.”

  Panic flared across Allie’s expressive face, draining what little color exhaustion had left in her cheeks. “I was just happy he was resting.”

  The worry immediately echoed in Caleb’s energy, the way it would with any mated pair. What one felt, the other did, too. Only in Caleb’s case the pain of worry was amplified by the agony of his guilt. Caleb blamed himself for his son’s illness. It didn’t matter what Slade said to the contrary. Caleb was stuck on the fact that Allie had not been fully converted when Joseph had been conceived. Never mind the suspicion that he never would have been conceived if those unique circumstances hadn’t existed. Caleb knew what he knew. “I’m sure he’s fine, Allie girl.”

  Slade closed his eyes and touched his energy to Joseph’s, something he could do only when close, and only because he’d taken his blood. “He’s fine.”

  Allie’s soft mouth twisted with the truth she couldn’t change. “All things considered, right?”

  A straight “yes” would have been cruel. “Don’t worry, Allie. I promised you I’d fix this, and I will.”

  Even if it killed him. He ran his fingers through his hair. He just wished he had a clue where to start. He checked Jane’s energy again, finding a curious blankness instead of the warmth he sought. The light in the cabin came on. The door opened. Jane stumbled through the opening, fingers rubbing at her forehead.

  “Thought you said you put her out.” Suspicion edged Caleb’s tone.

  “I did.” And she should still be out. Jane groggily walked to the edge of the porch, gripping the rail, bare feet planted firmly in a pool of moonlight. Light from the interior shone through her borrowed, rumpled nightgown, highlighting the full curves of her hips to all who glanced her way. And more than a couple weres were glancing at the sensual image. Including Derek, who joined them on the porch just in time to enjoy the view. A growl built in Slade’s chest.

  “I think you underestimated the little lady.”

  Slade didn’t like the speculation in the other man’s voice. Jane was his. “Not in any way that counts.”

  Derek shifted his rifle on his shoulder, blond hair gleaming in the pale light, teeth flashing in a quick grin as he stepped down the stairs, reminding Slade that the were had always been too handsome. “It looks like she has a few questions she needs answered.”

  This time Slade’s growl was louder. Derek didn’t look back. “She’s not yours yet, vampire. That means it’s a clear shot for every man willing to make a move.”

  Like hell. With a leap, Slade fell into step beside the big were. “I thought you already found your mate.”

  There was only the slightest break in Derek’s stride. “Maybe I’m tired of waiting for her to see the light.”

  Or maybe he just wanted to get his goat. Either way, Slade found it didn’t matter to his vampire side. He didn’t want the good-looking were anywhere around Jane in any kind of mood—good, bad, happy, or sad.

  “Bullshit.”

  Derek shook his head. “Sure enough, it is. I’m just damn sick of hearing my mate scream when she sees me.”

  “She only did it once.”

  “Though she doesn’t remember her time in their hands, I’m still tied in her mind to the horror Sanctuary put her through.”

  That had to be hell. Wolves waited a lifetime for a mate, lived to find one. And Derek couldn’t get near his. “So let Tobias alter her memory.”

  Derek’s snarl was a feral warning. “No one’s raping her mind.”

  Like they’d raped her body. The latter remained unsaid.

  “It’s not the same.” Slade didn’t hol
d his breath that Derek would listen this time anymore than the last time he’d said that. He was right. Derek spun around, canine’s bared, eyes glowing. “Go near her that way and I’ll rip your throat out.”

  Slade kept his voice even and his hands down. One thing he was learning about wolves was that they were damn touchy when it came to their mates. “No one would dare go near her. Not with the guard you put around her.”

  Derek blinked. The battle fire left his eyes, but the tension remained in his shoulders and his features had yet to return to normal. “That’s the plan.”

  Jane was watching them, her gaze locked on Derek. Slade couldn’t tell if she was ready to run or ready to battle, but her weight was on the balls of her feet. She was definitely ready for something. “Do me a favor and don’t turn around until you’re back to normal.”

  “This is normal.”

  “How about human then?”

  All Slade needed was for Jane to see Derek half morphed and any negotiations would go out the window.

  “Is your mate watching?”

  “Like a hawk.”

  Derek took a breath. “It would serve you right if I showed her a bit of canine.”

  Slade arched his brow. “Now why would you want to do that?”

  “Because it strikes me as damn convenient that you put that fear of wolves in her mind.”

  “It was a necessary warning at the time.”

  “That doesn’t make it any less convenient, seeing as you’re bringing her back to a compound full of wolves.”

  Had he done it on purpose, knowing that bringing any female to the compound would spark the male wolves’ interest? Though the Johnsons were vampires who’d taken up with werewolves after their conversion, common interests, common views, and Jace’s alienation of the other vampires nearby had pretty much made it an easy decision. But there were some key differences in the two. “Maybe it doesn’t, but it doesn’t change the facts.”

  “And they are?”

  “She’s under my protection, and we need her cooperation.”

  “And you’re going to get that how?”

  Slade smiled reassuringly at Jane over Derek’s shoulder, just in case she could see them. “I’m going to charm her.”

  Derek followed the direction of his gaze. “Good luck with that.”

  “You think I’m going to need luck?”

  Derek’s canines were almost retracted. “To hear your brothers tell it, charm is not one of your strong suits.”

  Maybe not, with most women of his day. He was too blunt, but this was a different century. “Jane’s a scientist.”

  “And you think somehow that makes her less of a woman?”

  “No.” He was just hoping it would give him an opening to work through before any of the too-handsome, sweet-talking weres made their inevitable bid for her attention. Hell, maybe he had given her the fear deliberately. “But we speak the same language.”

  Derek shook his head. “Hell, I’ve got to stick around for this courtship.”

  “What do weres know about courtship? You just jump in and claim.”

  “Shows what you know. A were woman gives herself totally over to her mate on claiming. It’s up to the man to prove himself worthy before the bonding can take place.”

  That was news to Slade and explained why Derek hadn’t just claimed his woman. Well, that and the fact that it was forbidden for a werewolf, especially an Alpha, to marry a vampire. Even one who’d been recently turned to save her life, at that Alpha’s direction. “That’s still not that modern an approach to relationships.”

  “Werewolf society is not that modern.”

  “You might want to start changing that.”

  And claim your woman.

  For the first time Derek didn’t come back with an emphatic no. Instead he shrugged. “Maybe.”

  Change for wolves often meant battle. “Hey.”

  The other man looked back, a question in his slate blue eyes.

  “You know the Johnsons will support you. Whatever you decide.”

  It had always been understood, but for some reason, Slade felt it needed saying this time. Maybe because of the set of Derek’s chin, which spoke of trouble coming. Maybe because common sense said the man was hurting.

  “Thank you.” Nodding toward the porch where Jane stood clutching the post, he said, “I think your woman has frozen to the railing.”

  “You might be right.” Slade opened his senses, feeling Jane’s energy pour in as smoothly as silk, a foreign softness that filled a void he’d never known he had. Along with the energy came emotion. She was scared, confused, and she wanted to be held. Not by him, but by a man from her past. Anger surged. It was his right to hold her. His right to soothe her. His arms should be the ones in which she wanted to shelter. Not some male who wasn’t here and hadn’t ever been there for her. A growl rumbled in his chest. Derek laughed. “Oh yeah, she’s going to be charmed.”

  Slade bared his fangs at Derek. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do.”

  From the neutrality of his tone, it wasn’t hard to guess what he needed to do. “Mei can still only accept your blood?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “How can you not know?”

  Derek’s grip on the gun tightened to white-knuckled. Much more and the barrel would bend. “Because I’d kill the first man she even approached for food.”

  It was an extreme reaction from an intense man, but looking toward the porch, imagining any other man touching Jane, Slade could understand it.

  “Then maybe you’d better get back and take care of her.”

  “And maybe you’d better brush up on your charm.”

  If he didn’t want the haunted look in Derek’s eyes to take up residence in his own, maybe he’d better. “I’ll do that.”

  “The sight of Slade Johnson putting on the charm might just be worth bringing Mei back from her hidey-hole to see.”

  Mei’s hidey-hole was in town among the humans to whom she no longer belonged. It was the first time Derek had put into words what they’d all thought. Derek was the leader of a powerful pack. He couldn’t keep leaving. Mei had no people in this world. The only thing that made sense was to bring Mei here and to hell with all the complications that would bring. Slade settled his hat more firmly on his head as a wind kicked up.

  Yup. Change was coming, and it wasn’t all going to be good.

  7

  THIS couldn’t be good. Jane clung to the railing, battling the fuzzy cloud enveloping her brain. It felt as though she’d taken some sort of drug, but she knew she hadn’t. Taking a deep breath, she fought the haze—mentally locating the heavy areas and imagining them lifting away. The next breath went the way of the first. Function without feeling. Damn it! She knew the air had to be cold. She could see the fog when she breathed out, but she couldn’t feel it. Pressing her fingers against her temple, she rubbed. She needed to concentrate on feeling it. That was all. She just needed to concentrate. Looking out into the night, she could see nothing beyond the porch. Just black. Where the heck was a streetlight when she needed one?

  She took another step. The world spun out of focus. Closing her eyes, she leaned against the post. Porch light lingered in a golden haze beyond her lids. She couldn’t drive like this, which essentially curtailed her plan to sneak out, hot-wire a car, and escape. Not that she knew how to hot-wire a car, but she knew from the movies the basic process and the rest was purely deductive.

  Ice crackled beyond the light. Leaning her cheek against the cool wood of the porch support, Jane squintedinto the darkness. Ashadow moved, took shape. Broad shouldered, lean hipped, determined. She’d know that stride anywhere. Slade. In the distance, a horse whinnied. Where was she? The man moved with a fluidity that made it seem as though he flowed through space rather than strode. She licked her lips as she watched him, vaguely conscious of renewed sensation, even resenting it as he came into the moonlight. She really wished
she could be content to be his prisoner. A man like Slade had a lot to offer a woman who’d been too long without a relationship. Heck, he had a lot to offer any woman. There was sensuality in his features, promise in his movements that said his grace wasn’t restricted to walking. No metro-sexual there. Slade was all man.

  A second shadow stirred in the darkness, vaguely familiar. Derek? Fear rose, hit an invisible wall, and then ... disappeared in the resurging haze. She released her breath on a shivery sigh. At least the werewolf was staying back. She wasn’t up to handling Slade and the wolf. Slade was wolf enough for her.

  “I’m no wolf.”

  She blinked. There was only one way Slade could know what she was thinking. “You can read minds?”

  “Some.”

  Some. An understatement, she bet. She grabbed the post with both hands, forcing herself to look into his too-knowing gaze. “Well, stay out of mine.”

  Slade stopped in front of her. “You don’t look up to a fight.”

  “You’d be surprised.” She would really like to tear something apart. As soon as she could get her muscles to listen to her mind.

  “You also look a little cold.”

  “Do I?”

  His gaze dropped to her chest. Her glance followed his. Her nipples were peaked. He could believe that was from cold. That worked for her. It was better than the truth—that he was a walking fantasy and she couldn’t stop thinking how he’d look without that shirt on.

  Stop. It’s just the hormones talking.

  Unfortunately everything feminine in her refused to listen to the warning her mind kept screaming. It kept trying to sidle up to him and make friends. To catch his eye. Damn hormones.

  Slade’s gaze came back to hers. A slight smile quirked his lips. “Absolutely.”

  “Well, I’m not.”

  “Then what are you?”

  Confused. She was very confused. If she could just push the haze away, she was pretty sure she could come up with a clear answer to the questions in her mind. She licked her lips. Her tongue stuck to the dry skin. Yuck. “Thirsty. I’m very thirsty.”

  His head cocked slightly to the side as he studied her.