been able to name. The homeless encampment where she’d lived for a time under a Florida bridge was as far removed from this forest haven as she could imagine.
Caught in her unsavory memories, the questions, and her fragile hope for something better, Lisa drifted with her thoughts. She’d felt the suspicion cast her way over the missing wolves and done her best to send it back. She found comfort in the dream she’d had last night and felt her heart speed up as her mind took her on a race through the forest, running with her packmates beside her. She was miles away and years beyond when a bright beam of light cut a swath through the darkness. She blinked and shielded her eyes when it found her.
“Shit. Quinn? Is that you? What the hell are you doing out here in the dark?”
“Hal?” Damn. Mr. Suspicious himself, her supervisor, Hal Anderson. She gritted her teeth in an effort to keep her mouth shut.
Anderson pointed the flashlight directly at her eyes. “No one’s allowed inside the pens after hours. Those gates are locked for a reason. The last thing we need is a mangled body come morning. You know the rules.”
Shaken rudely out of her meditative state, Lisa slowly unwound her legs and rose to her feet. She made a big point of stepping off the flat rock and moving into Hal’s comfort zone. Lisa liked the fact that she was taller than her boss. Enjoyed watching him take that involuntary step backward and duck his head in a typically submissive gesture without realizing what he’d done.
In fact, she liked the feeling as much as she disliked the man. He’d never come right out and accused Lisa to her face of having any connection to the missing wolves, but his suspicions had long been whispered about among the rest of the staff. Despite her dislike of the man, Lisa stood comfortably with hands on hips. “If no one’s allowed, then why are you here, Hal?”
He stepped back another pace, apparently caught off guard by her question. Then he recovered and puffed up his chest. All it did was make him look like an irritated little rooster. “I’m in charge of this sanctuary, and I go where I damned well please.” He patted the holster strapped to his side as if the sidearm gave him the authority his size couldn’t. “Now get out of here. Don’t let me find you on this side of the fence after dark, or your ass is gone. I’m not kidding, Quinn. You know the rules.”
“Oh, I know the rules all right.” She threw an extra bit of sway into her hips as she brushed by him, knowing exactly how much it would irritate the little tyrant. “I’m just wondering if you do.”
She also wondered what Anderson was doing out here after dark. Had he been casting suspicion her way to take it off someone else…like himself? Lisa felt his gaze on her until a turn in the trail dropped her into a stretch of deep forest and the path back to the main gate. She felt the wolves as well. Felt their presence without hearing or seeing them. Knew they protected her.
Just as she knew, without any doubt at all, that they hated and possibly feared Hal Anderson.
Pack Dynamics headquarters, San Francisco, California
The printer rattled to life, and a boarding pass slowly appeared. He’d forgotten to replace the ink cartridge, so the print wasn’t as dark as it should be, but what the hell. Martin McClintock, better known to his packmates as Tinker, sat at his desk wearing nothing but his worn flannel pajama pants. He watched the paper slip into the tray with the full and distinct knowledge that his life was about to change.
Tinker steepled his fingers beneath his chin and stared out the office window. It was barely six in the morning, still way too early to head to the airport. His plane didn’t leave until ten. He’d been awake half the night, lying quietly in the big bed next to Tia and Luc, listening to their steady breathing, wondering what lay ahead.
There was just one more thing to do before he left, and that very thing was stalking him even now.
Tinker sensed Tia Mason before he heard her. Sensed the wildness of the forest and knew she’d most likely shifted and gone for a predawn run. The hours before daybreak were the safest time to race through Golden Gate Park, a time when discovery was unlikely.
He grinned, knowing exactly why she searched him out.
For all the joy, all the glory of running as the wolf, shifting had its drawbacks, at least if one was alone. Almost unbearable arousal, a physical reaction impossible to ignore—an obsessive compulsion for sex not easily satisfied without a partner.
Among the Chanku, almost any partner would do—of either sex. It wasn’t merely a way of life or a social choice. The drives and sensual needs defined who and what they were, how they lived, what they thought.
Who they fucked and why.
A constant itch that needed to be scratched, a desire that had to be filled, a hunger that must be satisfied.
Tinker recognized that need in Tia now, the arousal coursing through her veins, her pheromones a tempting aphrodisiac to any virile male with the sense to read the signs. He grinned as heat pooled in his groin, fully aware he wasn’t immune.
Thank goodness. Tinker welcomed the powerful rush of blood and pounding heat. He felt his cock swell and rise within his loose flannel pants and acknowledged the arousal, the slow, throbbing ache in his balls, the tight sense of need centered along the base of his spine. It was all good, this need, this wanting.
Normally Tia would find her mate at a time like this, but Lucien was gone for the day, headed to Sacramento for an early meeting. Of course Tia would come here.
When in need, call Tinker.
He almost laughed aloud.
Tia came to him for many things—friendship, protection, sex. Tinker remembered how much he’d hoped at one time she might come to him for love, but that wasn’t going to happen. Not since she’d bonded with Lucien Stone, her mate and partner for life…and Tinker’s boss.
Tinker knew he should feel grateful that both Tia and Luc included him in their bed at night, accepted him as their partner in a thoroughly comfortable ménage. It wasn’t enough, though. Not nearly enough. Their loving relationship didn’t consciously exclude him, but as usual, Tinker realized he was the outsider.
The odd man out, though not necessarily at this particular moment.
Slim fingers brushed his bare shoulders. Warm lips tickled the edge of his ear. He felt her thick mass of hair brush his neck, trail lightly over the side of his face, and then sweep across his back. More hot blood rushed south as his cock reacted, swelling and tenting the front of his pants.
Tinker reached behind himself and caught the back of Tia’s head in his palm, dragged her slowly around to face him, spinning his swivel chair to meet her halfway.
She tumbled gracelessly into Tinker’s lap, all naked, giggling, sexy woman, and wrapped her slim arms around his neck. “I forgot Luc was leaving early. I got home and the house seemed so empty. Mik, AJ, and Tala aren’t back from Maine yet, and I couldn’t find you.”
Tinker laughed and kissed her lightly. Tia tried to deepen the kiss, but he pulled back, teasing. “Oh damn. And the batteries in your vibrator are missing.”
Tia cuffed the side of his head. “How’d you know?”
“Because I needed some for my flashlight and yours were the only ones I could find.”
“Oaf.”
