He glanced at Tessa, his eyes widening when he saw her. Surprised to see a human in a house full of lupus garous? Or was he interested in the redhead?
Irritated that Leidolf had seen Tessa, Hunter moved across the floor to block Leidolf’s view of her. “I’ve got a situation here I need to resolve before I can go to Portland.”
“With the woman?” Leidolf asked, his voice and brows raised.
“I’m Tessa Anderson, and you are?” She moved around Hunter to shake Leidolf’s hand. She didn’t look pleased Leidolf would treat her as some woman when the house was hers, or that Hunter would stand between them.
But Hunter didn’t like that she would get near another alpha male. Where Rourke and Ashton were concerned, they seemed to know their place. Leidolf was an unknown quantity—and an alpha leader.
“Leidolf Wildhaven.” He tilted his nose up and took a deep breath, his eyes darkening as he took her hand and held on longer than necessary, not shaking it, but restraining her.
For long enough that Hunter’s blood heated.
Hell, if her pheromones were triggering Leidolf’s interest—and worse, she seemed intrigued by him also and didn’t pull away… “Fascinating.” Then Leidolf released her hand and saw the wolf photos on the coffee table. He motioned to them. “Who took these?”
“I did.” Tessa sounded as ready to defend herself as Leidolf’s tone was accusing.
“Let’s go outside, Leidolf.” Hunter motioned for him to take the lead and shut the door behind them before he gave in to his wolf nature and fought him over Tessa. “Like I said, I have a situation here, and I need to resolve it before I can leave.”
“Concerning the woman? She knows what we are?”
“No.”
“I smelled at least six different lupus garous in the house, and she doesn’t have a clue what’s going on?”
“None. A gray is trying to change her. I need to stop him before it gets that far.”
“The one who’s been in the house? The one in the photos? Hell, he’s Yoloff and he and his brothers and three more of their pack members are from La Grande. All males. All looking for mates. They came sniffing around Portland, but we don’t have any unattached red females, so the grays moved farther west. You’re bound to have more trouble with them. I take it you want the woman for yourself?”
“I don’t believe in changing humans.”
“At least that’s something we agree on.” Leidolf offered an arrogant smile. “Yet two are newly turned, am I right?”
“Yoloff changed the one and the other was an accident.”
“Ah. I don’t blame you about the woman. I’m a royal and mixing our kind with a newly turned lupus garou doesn’t appeal.”
A royal? But Leidolf’s attentions toward Tessa hinted at more than a little intrigue. Mixing his purer lupus garou line with a human just turned might become an option if the red got desperate enough for a mate.
“I’d guess she has a red in her family tree because of her hair color and as petite as she is.”
Hunter snorted. “A lupus garou can’t impregnate a human.”
“In all of the years I’ve lived, I’ve learned one important thing: there are exceptions to nearly every rule.”
Hunter snapped his gaping jaw shut, glanced back at the house, saw Tessa watching him through the picture window, and turned his attention back to Leidolf. In all the years Hunter had lived, he’d never seen a case like that. “You know someone like that?”
Leidolf motioned to the house. “Right inside. Maybe a couple of generations back. Maybe more. But she’s got a lupus garou in her genes somewhere along the line. Got to have if she’s chasing down lupus garous like Yoloff, drawn to us, curious, and we’re just as attracted to her.”
Hunter glanced back at the house. Tessa’s brows lifted.
“She may not smell like us or have our enhanced wolf abilities, but she triggers your craving, doesn’t she? I can see in your expression you don’t believe me, but I met one other nearly a hundred years ago. A human female.
She moved close to where my father’s pack lived in Wildhaven. Several of our unmated males fought over her. Finally, a red won her over and that was that. But she had lupus garou pheromones that triggered quite a bit of testosterone between our males before the situation was resolved. A grandfather was the culprit.”
“But the woman didn’t interest you.”
Leidolf shrugged. “I told you. I want a lupus garou who’s close to being a royal. Why don’t you bring the woman to Portland where you can keep an eye on her, and then you can force your pack to return to the coast?”
Bring her to Portland to watch over her? Or give Leidolf another opportunity to check her out? Only this time in his territory.
“If I don’t resolve this by week’s end, I might do that.”
“Good.” Leidolf looked back at the house and bowed his head to Tessa. “Too bad she isn’t a red lupus garou. I imagine though, you wish she were a gray.”
So Leidolf was interested in her. “She’s human, and I intend for her to stay that way. But if she were part lupus garou, she would have gray lineage.” Hunter made the comment as pointed as he could. He didn’t want one horny red thinking he might claim her.
Leidolf perked up. “How so?”
“If it’s true she has distant lupus garou lineage, her great-grandfather was probably Seth Greystoke.”
Leidolf’s eyes rounded. “The devil gray who beat Alfred’s great-grandfather?”
Hunter frowned. “Who?”
“Alfred was the previous red pack leader in the Portland area. His great-grandfather was as much of a terror when he was the pack leader in the Oregon territory. Seth had come here with the gold fever. Made a mint. Then after he took down Alfred’s great-grandfather, he returned to his home in Colorado. Seth’s great-grandson, Devlyn, came here looking for a female red, Bella, and destroyed Alfred three months ago, after Alfred and some of the males in his pack had killed young women in the area.”
“Seth.” Hunter shook his head. “We’d heard he had a son.”
“Yes, whose own son fathered three boys. But everyone died in a house fire set by vigilante humans, except for Devlyn. Being punished for disobedience, he was sleeping in a shed that night.”
Hell, if Tessa and her brother were truly Seth’s descendants, they were Devlyn’s distant cousins. Which could be more of a problem, or Hunter’s solution, depending on the way he looked at it. “Never would have figured Seth to oust a leader. He was in California when my great-grandfather met him.”
“Earlier gold fever?”
“Yeah, guess he never did get over it.”
Leidolf glanced back at Tessa. “I’ll get word to Devlyn that he’s possibly got a couple of distant relations still living. Never know. He might want to take her back to his pack—for safekeeping. Once others discover she’s available, the stream of lusty suitors will never end. You know as well as I, a vulnerable human will soon succumb. As for your people, don’t wait too long to get them.” Leidolf climbed into his black Hummer, gave a wave, and drove off.
He’d had every intention of getting rid of Yoloff to protect Tessa, but if Leidolf was right and Seth truly had been her great-grandfather, the trouble would never end. So why not take the easy way out and hand her over to Devlyn? If he truly was family, he’d take care of her. Her brother, too. So why did that make Hunter want to fight to the death for her before anyone took her away?
His only other option as he could see it was to change her and claim her for his own. But not without her consent. So if he chose that path, how the hell was he going to get it if she knew what they were without using some damn caveman approach? And then there was one other nagging worry—that she might not be alpha enough to be his mate.
Hunter ground his teeth and headed back inside.
“What did he say, Hunter?” Meara’s brows pinched together in worry.
“Nothing. Rourke, hurry up and finish eating so we can go.”
Looking sour, Ashton shoved his hands in his pockets. “Can’t I be the one to go with you?”
“You can shoot. Rourke can’t. Stay here and protect the women.”
Cara ran her hand over Ashton’s arm. “Besides, we can take a nap later since we didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. Wouldn’t you like that?”
Ashton threw his coat on and stalked out back.
“Watch him, Cara. Make sure he stays here when we leave,” Hunter warned.
She smiled. “That I will, Hunter. He’s all mine.”
He wasn’t so sure. Ashton didn’t seem to be taking the change well, unless something else was bothering him. Maybe he didn’t like that Rourke seemed to be Hunter’s favorite now. But it wasn’t that. It really had all to do with who could use the rifle.
While Rourke was finishing off a banana, Hunter took Tessa aside, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her mouth, enjoying the warm, soft feel of her. Her tongue flicked against his lips, her arms reaching around his neck, her body screaming she wanted him to take her. And he sure as hell wanted to oblige. Some of it was the need to prove he was more to her liking than Leidolf was, damn him for interfering.
He took another deep breath of her uniquely heady scent and groaned inwardly. Afraid Leidolf was right in speculating Tessa was in part one of them and with him notifying Devlyn of the situation, Hunter knew he had to take drastic measures one way or another soon. “Don’t take a nap without me.”
“Wouldn’t be half as satisfying.”
He kissed her again and gave her another warm embrace, not wanting to let her go, but he had to take care of this matter with her brother. “Come on, Rourke.
Let’s get this done.”
She gave Hunter a concerned smile. Afraid for his safety? Or that he wouldn’t learn who Bethany’s murderer was? She had a lot more than that to worry about.
