It was safe to say my Pack would never accept Lana. Hell, if something inside me hadn’t howled the moment our skin touched, I wouldn’t have accepted her either. In fact, the sane part of me was still struggling with it.
The wind gusted into my face as I squinted into the darkness, listening for Lana. I knew I should head back into the city—shit, I wanted to turn around and go back—but I couldn’t physically bring myself to leave her behind.
Her eyes haunted me. From the moment she looked up at me in the café, I was lost. Crazy. It was an instant animal attraction. The wolf inside of me wanted to touch her. Maybe the wolf recognized her even before we touched.
No. Dammit.
My life was already complete. I didn’t need a mate to tie me down with children and responsibilities. I trained the horses in my barn, I patrolled the city with the Pack, I drank the occasional beer, and when I could, I traveled. If I wanted female companionship it was easy to find at any of Reno’s casinos, and they usually came with no strings attached.
I caught her scent again unwittingly and made my way west, trailing Lana.
Why her?
It seemed like I pissed her off just by breathing. She’d kicked me under the damn table. No woman had reacted to me like that before, yet here I was following her like some pathetic dog. My freewill battled my instincts.
And my fucking instincts were winning.
I ground my back teeth together and hopped up on a rock. Movement to my right caught my attention just as her tail swished through the air as she stalked through the scrub brush below. Just seeing her relaxed some of the tension building inside of me. In the morning we could talk again.
I didn’t have any mate-for-life wolf instincts. That was nothing but old Pack legends. The stories of finding their mate, their eyes meeting and knowing with a single touch that they’d found the other half of their soul. Just because my father claimed it happened to him didn’t mean it wasn’t bullshit. None of my generation had found their “mate.” Jason and Logan had serious relationships, but they never claimed their girlfriends as a mate. It couldn’t be real. I’d never bought any of that romantic crap.
Maybe it was some sort of cosmic joke. Jaguars were our enemies, trained assassins. They encroached on our territory and killed humans. I was pledged to hunt them and kill them.
Not to help them. Or her.
I looked up at the stars. Just fucking perfect.
Chapter Three
Lana
The sun crested over the rocky hilltop when I opened my eyes. Where was I? I sat up waiting for my foggy consciousness to clear. Then I realized I was naked, and it all came back to me.
The new moon.
Adam.
I pulled my knees up and wrapped my arms around them, shielding myself while I looked around. Instead of seeing Adam lurking in the shadows, I saw my clothes from the night before, neatly folded on top of a nearby boulder. Adam must’ve followed me and left my clothes when I settled in for the night. There was no other explanation. I caught myself hoping for a half second that what Adam had told me about shifting into a jaguar might be true. But I hoped this didn’t mean he’d seen me naked. Maybe he saw me start to change and left the clothes before I was shifted.
Nothing I could do about it either way at this point.
After one last survey of the terrain, satisfied that I didn’t have an audience, I got up and dusted myself off. A shower would feel great, but it would have to wait.
When I reached for my clothes, I found a cell phone on top. It wasn’t mine. Strange.
I yanked my clothes on quickly and grabbed the phone, doing my best to ignore the new rips in my shirt and the torn leg of my jeans.
A red light flashed for a new text message. Curious, I opened it.
Lana, I took this for you last night.
I scrolled down and dropped the phone. The photo stared up at me as I took a step away. A black jaguar with dark eyes and lethal, sharp teeth glared out from the phone. Its ears were laid back as it snarled, but the dark chocolate-brown eyes were what had my heart pounding. I’d seen them in the mirror all my life. My eyes.
“No, no, no. It can’t be… Not real…” I knew I wasn’t schizophrenic like the doctors at Bellevue insisted. No one experienced a split personality only one night a month. I knew—I’d researched it just in case.
But a jaguar? I couldn’t believe I was schizophrenic, but I could consider believing I was some sort of shape-shifter? Worrying my lower lip, I glanced around for the men in white coats again.
The tune of Werewolves of London broke the silence, interrupting my mental breakdown. The cell phone lit up on the ground. Before I realized what I was doing, I bent down and picked it up.
“H-Hello?”
“Lana? It’s Adam.”
“Where are you?” I turned around looking for any signs of life nearby.
“I’m coming back out there to get you. Stay where I left your clothes.”
“Where am I?”
“You’re a couple miles away from the city. Sit tight, I’m not far.”
I closed the phone and stared at it. If the picture of the angry jaguar hadn’t stunned me, I might’ve peeked through his contacts or something. I mean how often would a freelance writer get her hands on a werewolf’s cell phone? But I wasn’t in the mood for snooping.
Curiosity killed the cat.
Oh, please, tell me I didn’t just think that.
I rolled my eyes at myself and slipped the cell phone into my pocket. If I was a couple of miles from the outskirts of the city, then Adam must’ve kept his word to keep the jaguar away from downtown Reno where the Pack was supposedly patrolling.
I climbed up onto the rock, looking over the terrain. It sure felt like I was awake, but this had to be a dream. Unable to help myself, I yanked the phone back out and took a closer look at the photo, narrowing my eyes to see every detail.
“You didn’t like having your picture taken.”
I gasped and almost dropped Adam’s phone again. “I don’t like being surprised either.”
He smiled, instantly reminding me how difficult it was to stay annoyed with him for more than two minutes.
“So what do you like?”
My heart fluttered a little at the innuendo, but I did my best to hide it. “I like pancakes, eggs over easy, and dry wheat toast.”
He raised a brow. “I take it you’re hungry.”
“Starving.”
He nodded and walked over with my cell phone in his hand. “I thought you might want this back. I figured since you didn’t have my number, you could call your phone and find me.”
“Thanks.” We traded phones. “That picture was… Well, it was unreal.”
“I thought since you don’t have a family to teach you, you might have to see for yourself in order to believe.”
We walked through the sagebrush and oak trees in silence. I still didn’t know why he was helping me. After spending years in therapists’ offices, I was well aware of my yearning to belong and feel connected with people. At the same time, it felt like a weakness. I needed to protect myself. No one else would.
I couldn’t take the quiet any longer. “Thank you for leaving me my clothes and helping me find my way back.”
“No problem.”
I could feel him looking at me, but I resisted the urge to turn and face him. His eyes were too intense, his body too perfect, and I wasn’t sure I was strong enough at the moment to push away my only potential friend.