The Black Wolf

“Why else would my parents shun this place and everyone in it, if not that for the fact that they no longer fit in?” Cara replied.

“From the stories I’ve heard, your parents withdrew from the rest of the pack because it was in their own best interest.”

Yes. She knew that. But it was only a small part of why the Kirk-Killions had withdrawn. And she didn’t owe this Were any explanations.

“I need time to get myself together,” she said. “It’s not easy for me to come out of the seclusion I’m used to.”

To her surprise, her companion seemed to get that. After a brief silence, he nodded and said, “I’ll wait for you on the beach.”

Cara didn’t know what to make of that. He was going to leave her alone for a while?

“What if I swim away?” she asked.

“Then you will be someone else’s problem.”

He didn’t mean that the way it sounded. Cara heard how his pulse pounded with the effort it took for him to let her have her way. She had no doubt that he would come after her if she tried to leave the area, and that shaking off this guy might be a difficult task. The strength of his inner wolf and all those rippling muscles made him a worthy opponent.

“Who are you?” she asked, more intrigued about him than she wanted to be.

“Name’s Landau. Rafe Landau. And I can assure you that though my family’s estate has walls, those walls are there only to keep trespassers out.”

Landau...

The Miami pack was both run and protected by his family.

She didn’t really believe in coincidences, and yet what were the odds she would run into a Were of this caliber so soon after ditching the guards his family had sent to bring her there?

“Can you promise me that’s the truth? I won’t be a prisoner behind those walls?” she asked.

“I can.”

The handsome Were allowed one little thought to slip past his mental defenses, and Cara caught hold of it easily. Neither fear nor anger ruled Rafe Landau’s thoughts. He wasn’t afraid of her at all. When she saw the image he held in his mind, she smiled.

“I could be one, you know,” she said. “If there were such creatures.”

He was staring at her openly. His heart continued to pound.

“Who knows?” she added. “Since you’re granting my wish by letting me explore the sea, maybe your wish will come true.”

“What wish?” he asked, frowning.

Cara’s answer was meant as a subtle warning of her power. This Were might be strong, but he wasn’t truly in control now that a werewolf-vampire-banshee hybrid like Cara Kirk-Killion was in Miami.

“About mermaids,” she said as she dived beneath the next incoming wave.

Chapter 3 (#uc8b0bae9-19a2-5db3-aa99-effb666ce0d1)

“Well, this is going to be a challenge,” Rafe muttered as Cara Kirk-Killion disappeared from sight. He feared that the word challenge didn’t begin to cover things.

She was swimming away, and he wanted to go after her. What if she decided not to return? Would he let her go? Let her become somebody else’s business, as he’d said?

Not likely.

He found himself much too interested and curious about her. And besides, his family was responsible for her safety.

Rafe ignored the tug of the outgoing tide on his legs. He needed more time to think. If Cara was anything like her parents, he could sympathize with her reluctance to meet the pack that had helped her family out of a jam so long ago.

Rosalind and Colton had departed from Miami soon after a battle with a particularly nasty nest of vampires that had almost killed Cara’s father. Colton Killion had been so severely injured that he had ended up a rare ghost wolf—the name Weres had for survivors of such heinous, life-threatening attacks.

Given Colton Killion’s state of health and his appearance after the attack, the wolf’s desire to go into seclusion was understandable. But in addition, from the stories Rafe had heard, Colton’s mate had turned out to be something even rarer than he was, making it even more necessary to retreat from the city. Now, Killion’s sole offspring was here, and heaven only knew what traits she possessed.

Rafe walked farther up the beach and turned without taking his eyes off the ocean. Cara hadn’t seemed dangerous, but what did he know? Wasn’t it a fact that looks could be deceiving?

He clutched his phone. The next step was to call and check in with his father, who would probably send a car to fetch her. But he didn’t do so. Not yet. Rafe empathized with her plight. Cara had to know how different she was and that his pack would be wary.

Still, whatever other forms she could take, Cara was a wolf. Both of her parents had been full-blooded Lycans before the events that had changed them, and Lycans carried the purest blood in the Were world. His hand felt hot. His insides were feverish. It was likely that his wolf was reacting to that part of Cara. Was his desire to see her again due to obligation and the threat of danger in his own backyard, or did it have to do with meeting a new kind of being that he wanted to understand?

Maybe she’d ditch him and appear somewhere else. If she did, where would she go?

“I won’t call them,” he said as if she still stood beside him. Then he sent that same message silently through the telepathic channels all Weres used to communicate.

“But I won’t go away,” he warned out loud.

The return of the fluttery sensation in his chest made Rafe stand up straighter. It was as though Cara Kirk-Killion had heard his little speech and had placed her own silent comment inside his chest instead of his mind. She knew he was there, all right, and that he would be here when she decided to be reasonable. She was also letting him in on some of the special things she could do.

The only question now was how long she might make him wait for another chance to see her, and if she already knew that was what he wanted most.

* * *

The Were wasn’t going away. Cara sensed his determination to corral the guest who was MIA and fulfill his obligation to the pack. She also sensed that he was genuinely interested in her for reasons of his own. This Were male had a different agenda. He seemed to be as curious about her as she was about him.

She rode the crest of another wave, feeling extraordinarily light, but guilt over the promise to behave that she’d made to her father left her nauseous. Her family never broke their promises. Would she be the first to do so? If the Landaus’ walls didn’t keep her in line, her family’s reputation for integrity would.

As the wave that brought her back to shore receded, Cara stood up. Taking a few steps forward to avoid the drag of the tide, she said to the Were on the beach, “You are persistent.”

“Persistence is my middle name,” he returned. “I’ve been told it’s a virtue.”

Cara didn’t wipe the water from her face, liking the coolness it provided. “You’ll take me to your pack yourself? You aren’t afraid of being alone with a member of my clan?”

“Should I be afraid?”

“Not tonight.”

“Then yes, I’ll drive you to the compound, if that’s all right with you,” he said.

“Do I have a choice in the matter?”

“I suppose you can do whatever the hell you want, though the invitation to be our guest stands,” he replied.