"You need to charge him with attempted murder. He shouldn't be allowed to get away with this. Why didn't you tell me you were hurt? No, I'll tell you. You're too macho to let me know, damn it."
He hid a grin. Her alpha posturing triggered his primal craving for her all over again.
She wiped away the blood, but it pooled up more. She clamped the gauze on it and the frown returned to her brow. "Hold this while I cut the tape. So what happened exactly?"
"I was gathering firewood. I guess he thought I was a new species of game bird."
"He wasn't supposed to be shooting in the middle of the night." She finished taping the gauze to the wound. "Are you really all right? Have you had a recent tetanus shot?"
"Yes, to both."
She stared at him for a second, her look concerned again, and touched his arm, a jolt of electricity heating his blood. "I can't afford to lose you before you help me find Bethany's killer."
He raised a brow. "And here I thought you had a hankering for me."
"Humpf." She jerked Michael's sweatshirt off the floor and waved it at Hunter, her face stern, but he could see she was half-teasing. "You're only borrowing my brother's clothes. I expected you'd give them back in the same shape you received them."
"I'll try to run faster next time."
She shook her head. "I can't imagine you running from anyone."
She had that right.
She returned to the bathroom and rinsed the blood out in the sink, and then the shower curtain rings slid across the rod. A dripping sound in the bathtub followed that.
When she climbed back into bed, Hunter leaned down, kissed the top of her head, breathed in her heady sweet scent, and pulled her into his arms. And wished he could have her, that she was one of his kind, and she'd want him in return.
"I'll try not to get any more of his things shot up. And when I'm able, I'll buy him replacements. Sleep, Tessa. Or we'll have to take a nap in the middle of the day to make up for not sleeping half the night."
"You have to report this to the sheriff's office."
"The shooter said he would."
She turned and stared at Hunter. "You talked to him?"
He tightened his hold on her, keeping her soft body pressed against his chest, her bottom seated provocatively against his arousal. "Don't worry about it," he said, his voice growing ragged with need. "It has nothing to do with you."
"He shot you on my property so it has everything to do with me. What did he say? That he was going to report how he'd shot you?"
"More like that he was going to tell the sheriff how I destroyed his brand-new rifle."
Her eyes grew even bigger, the blue specks highlighting the green gems. "What... what did he look like?"
"He said I stole Michael's clothes. He had shoulder-length blond hair, stood a little shorter than me, talked big, but was shaking in his boots."
"Ashton Wellington."
"Who?"
"The sheriff's son and Michael's best friend. Great. His father can be a real pain in the butt when it comes to protecting his son."
"I wouldn't worry about it too much." He wrapped a curl of hair around his finger and examined the color and texture. "After all, the guy shot me, not the other way around."
"Yeah, but you destroyed his gun." She frowned at Hunter. "How?"
"I tossed it in the ocean. Figured he'd wake you up, and he shouldn't have been shooting that close to your house anyway."
She groaned and hugged his arms wrapped around her chest, drawing him into her silky embrace, making his blood sizzle--siren.
"Expect the sheriff's visit early in the morning," she warned.
He nuzzled his face in her hair, smelled the fragrant peach scent, wanted to lick every inch of her skin to see if she tasted just as sweet. "What role do you want me to play?"
"Cousin from back east. You're staying with me until we clear Michael of his crime."
His hand stilled on her hair. "Gay cousin?"
She snorted. "Like anyone would believe that."
He smiled and rubbed her arm with a slow, stroking caress. "Good. Not that I care much for being a cousin either, too easy to get caught up in a lie."
"What then? My lover?"
He chuckled darkly. "Works for me."
Chapter 4
EARLY THE NEXT MORNING BEFORE TESS A WOKE, HUNTER searched through her house for any reason a lupus garou would have specifically targeted her other than the fact her pheromones undoubtedly had something do with attracting him and soon found something he couldn't comprehend. Wolf pictures filled three desk drawers in the guest bedroom. Since lupus garou wolves looked just like regular wolves, he couldn't tell if they were real wild wolves, or his kind. Not unless he could smell them. Against a wall, shelves housed several books on wolf behavior also.
But why she'd have tons of photos and books on them, and why her scent attracted him to such an arousing degree--
A sepia photo half-hidden by the wolf pictures caught his attention, and he pulled it out. "Seth."
Sitting next to a woman with a baby on her lap, Seth appeared more youthful than Hunter remembered him, his handlebar mustache curled high, his pale eyes as serious as the rest of the expression on his face. Hunter recalled seeing him in a photo panning for gold in California with his great-grandfather and great uncle, the three of them the best of friends. But he didn't remember Seth having a mate before a rockslide had taken his life.
Hunter glanced at the back of the photo. No identification. Why would Tessa have a photo of him? And how come Hunter remembered who Seth was, when nothing else was clear?
In the closet, Hunter found a bunch of half-finished paintings, the focal point of the pictures, wolves--gray, red, Arctic.
He frowned. Maybe Tessa's brother used the wolf photos to create the paintings. But why not finish them? Why hide them away?
Tessa stirred in her bed in the master bedroom. Hunter shut the closet door and left the guest bedroom to make the fire and start breakfast, but he had a lot of questions to ask the little lady.
When Hunter's arms had been wrapped tightly around her, Tessa felt warmer and more secure than she had in months--since the time the sheriff told her that her brother was suspected of murder.
Except for Hunter nuzzling his face in her hair in the middle of the night, and rubbing his cheek on her shoulder another time, he hadn't made any overtures that amounted to wanting something further. Probably because he didn't know if he had a significant other, which made her appreciate him even more.
After finding her father making out with different women on three occasions at home when her mother was gone, Tessa didn't think any man could be faithful. Well, maybe she did. For a while. Until she began dating and then she knew the truth. Most men she'd known didn't care who they were with as long as the woman agreed to have sex.
Hunter's warm embrace had been comforting, and Tessa wanted to bask in the feel of him, the masculine smell of him, the heat of his body all night long, but she finally had fallen into a deep slumber.
When she fully awoke, she wasn't surprised to find Hunter making eggs, sausages, biscuits, and coffee over the fire. Another load of wood was stacked neatly on the log rack. He seemed at home under the circumstances, which again made her wonder if he was an undercover operative or a Navy SEAL or something.
Navy SEAL. She snorted. Yeah, that nearly drowned in the Pacific.
Part of her hoped he'd remembered something about his former life, mainly that he wasn't attached to anyone. But part of her was afraid he would recall too much, and he would leave her for his old life pronto. Right now, she needed him, if nothing more than for moral support, well, and protection.