At the sound of a car coming up behind her, she stuck out her hand to flag the vehicle down. As if fate was on her side, it was a taxi. She waved frantically to get the driver's attention. The car slowed and stopped beside her. She bent and looked through the open passenger door window. "Are you free?"
"Sure," the driver said. He reached behind him and opened the back door.
Lexi got in. Once they were on their way she told him the address of her flat. She looked out the back window, but didn't see anyone appear at the end of the drive.
Another car followed them, but the vehicle wasn't familiar, and she didn't think it was Raed. He probably didn't even know she was gone yet, but once he figured it out he'd probably be pissed at her for running, but she didn't really care.
She paid the taxi driver then headed up to her flat. So much for her first full day in England. Determined not to let this one day get her down, Lexi decided starting tomorrow she would do the sightseeing she had planned. She wouldn't waste her entire vacation thinking about Raed. What was done was done.
The driver of the car who had followed the taxi watched Lexi as she entered the door next to a bookstore. He waited a few minutes to make sure she would be upstairs in the flat before he got out and crossed the street. He leaned back against the door as he pretended to tie his shoe then he brushed up against the brick wall beside it, marking it with his scent. He smiled as he crossed back over to his car and drove away.
His evening just kept getting better and better. He'd thought he'd done well to have discovered the hunters' home base, but to find a mortal with those immortals had been an added bonus. Earlier, when he had cornered her in his wolf form, she had the scent of the shifted warrior he had fought all over her, the scent so strongly mixed with her own, he knew she had to have slept with him.
He pulled up to the front of a non-descript farmhouse and got out. To passersby, the property looked like any small farm in the area, but the building was much more than that. It was the den of his werewolf pack. They'd dug a series of tunnels and a large cavern under the farmhouse. Not even the servants of the Anglo-Saxon god, Tiw, knew about this place.
He went inside the farmhouse, then down to the root cellar and opened the door that led to one of the den's tunnels. The dark earth walls and ceiling closed around him as he went deeper underground. When he reached the large central cavern, he walked by members of his pack and headed to the back of the open space. Some still inhabited their wolf forms, while others had taken on their human or half-human and half-wolf forms. Their numbers changed frequently, added to by the newly turned who instinctively found their way to the pack, and reduced by those the immortal warriors took out during their nightly hunts. At the moment, the pack had twenty members, including himself and their pack leader, Nathan. They were all male.
At the very back of the central cavern an opening led to a smaller cavern, Nathan's private quarters. He poked his head inside and waited for Nathan to acknowledge him. His pack leader shifted from wolf to human and signaled him to enter with a wave of his hand.
"I didn't expect you back so soon," Nathan said. "I hope you haven't come back unsuccessful. I would be greatly disappointed."
None of the pack wanted to disappoint Nathan. When Nathan became upset with one of them they usually ended up torn to pieces, literally. Nathan ruled with an iron fist, and had claimed the leadership by being the toughest and cruelest werewolf in the pack, killing everyone who stood in his way.
He shook his head. "You won't be disappointed, Nathan. I was more than successful. I found the home of the immortal warriors as promised, but what I found there will interest you even more."
"And what would that be?"
"A mortal woman, who had the scent of one of the warriors all over her."
Nathan's grey eyes focused on his face. "Now, that is interesting. If they have a mortal in their midst, she could be quite useful. Even if we can only use her to eliminate one of the warriors, it's one less out hunting us each night."
He nodded. "That is what I thought. And as luck would have it, when I drove by their manor to return here, the woman was outside on the road. She flagged down a taxi and I followed her back to her flat. So now we know where she lives as well. I even managed to spread my scent around her building. What I did should piss her warrior off when he smells and recognizes my mark," he said, pleased with himself.
Nathan crossed his arms over his chest and scratched his chin. "Where can I find the warriors' manor and the flat of this mortal?"
He rattled off the two addresses as he watched his pack leader circle around him once before he came to stand in front of him again. He would have thought Nathan would have been more than pleased with him, but a look of disgust never left his face.
Nathan moved closer. "Now tell me why the warrior would recognize your scent?"
He swallowed as a shiver of unease ran down his spine. "I only thought to have a little fun with the mortal. I cornered her in the warriors' back garden. Her warrior chased me away."
"I never told you to think," Nathan growled.
That was all the warning he got before Nathan's razor sharp claws slashed across his throat. As his blood sprayed, Nathan said, "You're a fool. Now the warriors know we have found their home. I may be able to salvage this by using the mortal, but sadly you won't be around to see."
The last thing he saw was Nathan, in his werewolf form, lunge for him and finish what he had started with his claws.
After talking with his men, Raed returned to the kitchen only to find the room empty. Where was Lexi? He headed for the living room; she wasn't there either. He took the stairs two at a time to his bedroom. Empty as well.
Back downstairs, he met Garrick, who had just come in the front door. "Did you see Lexi out there?"
Garrick shook his head. "No. I thought you said she was inside."
"Bloody hell."
Raed rushed outside. Even though they hadn't been able to find the werewolf that had invaded their property, it didn't mean he couldn't still be hiding somewhere nearby. Raed came to a stop when he reached the top of the long drive. He sniffed the air, trying to zero in on Lexi's scent. There. Faint, but the scent was definitely there.
"She ran, didn't she?" Garrick asked as he came to stand next to Raed.
"Yes." He followed Lexi's scent down to the end of the drive.
"I guess the werewolf scared her off."
Raed turned his head left and right until he picked up her scent again, heading up the road to the left. He followed it until it abruptly ended. "Damn. She must have managed to get a lift from someone." He headed back toward the manor. "No, a werewolf didn't make her run. I did."
"You?" Garrick scoffed. "I thought the two of you hit it off pretty well."
"I angered her when I told her the next time I told her to do something she had better do it."
Garrick laughed. "Yeah, that would piss off any modern woman."
"I acted on my gut reaction. Seeing her cornered by the werewolf . . . the sight scared the shit out of me. I got angry at her for putting herself in danger."
"But she didn't know danger lurked outside the house."
"I realize that. I overreacted."
As they walked back into the manor, Garrick asked, "So what are you going to do now?"
"I'll give her until tomorrow then I'll go see her."
"And if she won't see you?"
"She's mine. I'm not going to let her go so easily." Raed headed down the hallway, but turned back to Garrick before he went very far. "Tell the others we're going to start the hunt earlier tonight. I want to find the bastard who dared threaten my woman."
Raed caught the look of surprise that flashed across Garrick's face before he continued down the hall. He knew he sounded possessive of Lexi, but he couldn't help himself. Seeing her cornered by the werewolf had conjured images of her mangled body lying in a pool of her own blood. The images scared him.