The door opened and Scarlett shivered even though it was ninety degrees outside. He pulled her close to his side before he regarded the man who opened the door.
“I’m Michael Kane. I need to see Cole about my sister.”
As he watched, the man—who was at least three inches shorter than he was with blazing red hair and green eyes—let his eyes turn wolf. Michael could have laughed. It took guts to be that aggressive and that stupid. Or maybe Michael was simply unaccustomed at this point to being surrounded by power hungry males who had no idea what real shifter power felt, smelled and tasted like when they encountered it. For kicks, he should send Tristan and Cullen down here to blow their minds with power.
Rather than return the glare, he looked past the man into the hall. “Is he here?”
When wolf-eyes spoke, he had a gruff voice. Its scratchy timbre hurt Michael’s ears. “He’s here. He expected the latent wolf to bring you last night.”
“Scarlett is my mate. We were temporarily sidetracked. I’m here now. Cole can deal…unless, of course, he wants me to go see Zack for my information.”
Michael had no intention of going to Zack for anything other than murdering the son-of-a-bitch, but he was willing to let Cole and his crew think otherwise if it got the ball rolling on Angel’s location a little faster.
From behind the man who blocked the door, a shout resounded down the hall. “Let him in, Deke.”
Deke jumped, moving out of the way and Michael clutched Scarlett’s hand tighter to reassure her she was still safe. He would tear every member of the house limb from limb if he needed to. They were here to collect information and get out. That was all.
As Barge, Todd and Seamus passed Deke, they growled at him. Turning around, he looked at his three companions.
“Listen, boys, if you’d rather wait outside that is fine.”
Todd shook his head. “No, Michael, we go where y’all go.”
Great. Michael’s wolf rolled his eyes. We have officially gained a fan club.
Not sure exactly how that happened. We delivered them a beat down.
His wolf paced around. Their wolves are thrilled to be with us.
Michael wasn’t sure exactly what to do with that information. Instead, he looked at the shifters.
“If you’re coming with me, I’m going to charge you with a job.”
All three men hit the floor. Michael cursed and grabbed Todd by the shirt, pulling him up.
“Don’t you guys start that dropping to the floor and shifting nonsense. I’m not going to carry your unconscious selves out of here if you overuse your shifting and pass out.” He looked at the other two. “Stand up.”
They did as he commanded and Michael heard Scarlett snicker next to him. Grinning, because Scarlett had just laughed at something he’d said, he continued his instructions.
“If I’m busy, the three of you are responsible for Scarlett’s safety, even if that means carting her out of the house and taking her back to my hotel room.”
Pulling his key out of his pocket, he handed it to Scarlett. She took it and placed it in her pants’ pocket. For a second, Michael was absolutely fascinated with the way her small fingers moved. There was a gracefulness that she possessed that he’d never seen on anyone else before. It was as if her limbs flowed in one simple, straight movement, as opposed to the jerky rushed way his own body functioned. She was just so…dainty.
“We’ll protect her, Michael, you can count on it.”
Todd’s voice pulled him out of his obsessive thinking about Scarlett. He glared at them one more time. In no way did he fool himself into thinking he could count on them. He didn’t plan on getting into the kind of trouble where he would actually need their help. However, having them on alert might help things. Where his mate was concerned there was no such thing as being too careful with her welfare.
Finally, they turned the corner and walked into a room. The walls were painted red with high ceilings, a large fireplace and furniture that spoke of antebellum south. If no one in this pack lived very long as Scarlett said, then this wasn’t a callback to another time the occupant had actually lived in. No, Michael knew right away that Cole was trying to make some kind of statement about class and culture with his home decoration.
Michael’s wolf howled inside of him. Yes, both parts of him were both unimpressed with the show.
Three men sat together on a couch. The one in the middle—who looked to be about thirty but then again everyone here did since clearly no one was truly mated—wore an expensive white linen suit. On his right and left were two dark haired shifters. They were big and bulky looking.
His wolf snarled. The bodyguards.
No one stood up to greet him and Michael smiled. So much for the show of manners and breeding.
“I’m Michael Kane. I understand you have information on my sister.”
Chapter 4
SCARLETT could hardly breathe. Michael had just walked into the living room of the man who could be called the most powerful shifter in the world—unless you were on Zack’s side of the war—as if he owned the place. He wasn’t cowering. He didn’t even look down. He just announced himself like he had every right to be there.
Her mate was magnificent.
“Yes, Mister Kane.” Cole actually stood up.
She knew she wasn’t alone in her shock at this behavior. Next to her, Todd, who for some strange reason now wanted to protect her, bristled, moving back and forth on his feet.
Cole spoke with his lazy southern drawl that masked an anger she was glad not to have seen very often. “I’m Cole Devereaux.”
Cole extended his hand and Michael eyed it but did not shake. The would-be Alpha of their wolf pack stared down at his own hand before putting it by his side.
“Here’s the deal.” Michael’s voice was so low, so strong sounding. It did funny things to her insides. In fact, every time he was near her, she seemed to get warm—sometimes wet—in all sorts of places she hadn’t known could react like that. “You offered my mate protection so I’m not going to kill you right now.”
Cole’s eyes got huge. “Excuse me? You come into my home and threaten me?”
“I didn’t threaten you. In fact, I think I just told you that you’d be safe from me. But I’m taking Scarlett and we’re leaving here forever after you tell me where my sister has run off to.”
Cole turned his gaze to hers and there was pure hatred in it. She’d seen that look before, only it had been coming from Zack and his men. Gods, Michael really couldn’t throw her over now. There would be no one left to help her. She’d be a dead woman within a matter of moments.
Cole addressed her directly. “I told you I wanted to tell him.”
Michael growled and all eyes in the room turned to him. “She didn’t tell me. Someone else did. In fact, she went out of her way not to tell me, you presumptuous moron.”
The two wolves who were permanent sentries for Cole stood and the door opened up. Thirty of Cole’s rank and file wolves marched in. Scarlett didn’t mind this group as much as she hated Zack’s version of it. These guys expected her to cook and clean for them, to wait on them hand and foot, but they never asked her for sexual favors.
She’d never known if that was because she was latent and that was so disgusting to them they didn’t want to touch her or because they were actually relatively decent people who didn’t demand sexual favors as a reward for letting her live. She suspected it was the second option since most women in the pack preferred to be here than at Zack’s.
Cole cocked his head to the side. “Despite your words, I think you are challenging me, Mr. Kane.”
“You know what?” Michael turned around to look at Scarlett before he glanced back to Cole. “You might be right about that. You might not have threatened to kill her but you just spoke to her disrespectfully. I don’t like that she had to act like a servant to stay alive. So, yes, I’m challenging you, Mr. Devereaux.”
Scarlett had no time to even gasp
before Michael and Cole both shifted into their wolves.
“No, Michael, no,” she screamed at the top of her lungs as Todd pushed her back against the wall. She struggled to see around him until finally he moved so she could at least poke her head out.
This was wrong. Michael couldn’t die here. Why couldn’t they just run away?
Tables and chairs went flying. Cole’s wolves ran through the room clearing the path for their would-be supreme Alpha. Todd continued to stay mostly in front of her, but Barge and Seamus rushed behind Michael, seemingly prepared to do battle for him.
She stared at Michael’s wolf. He was big, black, except for the few white patches on his face. Even having grown up around wolves, Scarlett had never seen one quite so big or fearsome looking. Cole was always impressive; a red wolf with brown spots, he dominated everyone except Zack. But, this time, Scarlett suspected Cole wouldn’t be dominating Michael.
Just that fast, the two wolves were on each other. Todd whirled around to her, a grin plastered on his face. “Wait until you see Michael.”
She couldn’t help but see him. His teeth bared, he growled at Cole as he tore at the smaller wolf. Every time Cole got up, Michael knocked him down. If Cole moved left, Michael moved left. If Cole moved right, so did her mate. There was nowhere for Cole to go. Michael wasn’t just beating Cole, he was humiliating him by showing the wolves in the room how completely unmatched they were. If it was apparent to Scarlett how ill-prepared Cole had been for Michael and she didn’t fight, then those who could had to be able to see it too.
Her heart beat fast and she shifted her weight to the balls of her feet. Gods, she was filled with so much nervous energy she was almost giddy from it. Looking left and right, she tried to assess the crowd’s reaction to the fight. Usually, she was good at it, staying to the sides, watching from afar but not today. She felt like howling in her very human voice how great Michael was doing.
What little she could fathom through her adrenaline rush, it seemed that all the wolves were equally as stunned as she was. Everyone’s eyes had become wolf. Their gaze locked on the battle, their jaws open. All of the men were enthralled.
Finally, Cole lunged forward leaping at Michael’s side. At the last second, Michael moved left, snarling as Cole crashed into the wall before hitting the ground face first. The would-be Alpha stood up and limped toward Michael. The red wolf stretched out flat on the ground, his ears back and whimpered his defeat.
All noise in the room ceased. Scarlett couldn’t hear anything but her own breath and the sound of her heart beating. Cole changed back into his human form, shifting out of his wolf body. Michael did the same, giving her a view of his backside. She wanted to rush forward and grab him, wrap her arms around him and stop the shaking of her limbs that seemed to be moving of their own accord, but Todd still hadn’t moved.
Cole looked up at Michael from the ground. “By the heavens above, I relent to you.”
Michael shook his head. “I don’t want you to relent. I want you to tell me where my sister is, apologize to my mate for your role in the brutality she’s endured and then leave town. You can come back when I’m gone. I don’t want to see you ever again. The only reason I’m not killing you is because you did offer Scarlett protection from Zack.”
On the floor, Cole nodded. “I’ll get my things.”
“No.” Michael stepped forward. “You’ll tell me where Angel is, apologize to Scarlett and then run for your life before I change my mind.”
Scarlett doubted very much that Michael ever changed his mind. He was like a river, his flow seemed to be always going forward in one direction, unrelenting and sure of itself. But Cole didn’t need to know that.
Cole stood up, his limbs almost giving out. No one moved to help him and Michael grabbed his arm to steady him and keep the other man from falling over. “Angel ran off when the fighting started. She said she wanted no part of it. She’s always been hard, your sister, difficult. She never knew how to tow the line.”
Michael grinned, his eyes still in their wolf form. “I like her already.”
Cole’s voice shook. “I sent two of my enforcers after her to bring her home. Both of them claim to be her mate.”
“The mating rituals of this pack are so screwed up, I don’t even know where to start with that statement.”
Michael paused. He still hadn’t looked at her and she was dying for some eye contact. She wanted to see into the depths of his soul again, to the soft place she sometimes thought she saw there. Of course, being her, she’d probably stare for two seconds and then have to glance at her feet. At least she’d have those two wonderful seconds.
He hauled Cole over to the chair that now resided in the corner giving Scarlett a view of her mate’s back muscles in action. If she needed any reminder of just how powerful Michael could be in his human form, she got it. So far he’d only been gentle with her. What would he do if she ever stepped out of line? Send her away or something worse?
That thought in mind, she looked back down to the floor.
Michael continued speaking. “In other words, you don’t know what happened to my sister.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Do you suppose Zack knows?”
Cole laughed, a wheezing sound. “Angel hated Zack even more than she hates me.”
“Okay,” her mate sighed. “Next up, you have an apology to make.”
Scarlett heard some strange scraping sounds as Michael dragged the chair with Cole in it over to her.
“Scarlett,” Cole spoke her name. “You may make eye contact with me.”
With a thud, Michael knocked Cole’s chair over onto the floor. He oomphed as his body collided with the ground.
Her mate snarled. “Your damn right she can look at you. If she feels like staring at you on the ground, that’s where she’ll do it.” Michael put his foot on the side of Cole’s body. “Go on.”
“Scarlett, I’m sorry if any of my actions ever led to you suffering more abuse or if I ever did anything to not treat you correctly.”
She nodded as she stared at Cole. He was just one of the many men who had run her life since she was a small child. He lay flat on the floor, in a position of subjugation, just as she suffered all her life from him, Zack and Nero She could remember him laughing as he’d dropped a piece of food or a cigarette butt on her head.
The revenge that she expected to feel never came. A gasp sounded from across the room as Scarlett knelt down to be closer to the floor where Cole was strewn.
Tears filling her eyes, she swore she wouldn’t let them fall. “Thank you for your attempts to protect me from Zack, even if it was never enough. I’m not dead today because you took me in a few weeks ago and you didn’t rape me or let anyone else here take me against my will.”
She realized what she said were things she’d not said to Michael yet. He was bound to have questions…lots of them…and maybe she should have just stayed quiet. Still, her mouth kept moving, almost of its own volition.
“You’re mean and you’re a bully, but I owe you a debt of gratitude and if there’s anything you ever need that I can provide, I will be glad to.”
Above her Michael growled. “You can ask me and I’ll decide if she helps you.”
The edges of her mouth quivered. She was torn between wanting to sob and wanting to smile. She stood up instead and found Michael’s gaze waiting for hers. Exhaling, she gazed in his brown depths, now human and not wolf. There in the center of his eyes, as he reached out to take her hand into his, was the softness she’d needed to see.
Even now after he conducted this fight with Cole, he didn’t look at her with hostility. Maybe, just maybe, Michael was a man who could control his aggression. If such a thing was possible.
He regarded Cole. “I think I told you to run.”
Cole grunted as he got off the floor and ran out the front door, slamming it behind him. The room was still so quiet she could have heard a pin drop.
Michael let go of her ha
nd as he looked around. His voice was low when he spoke to her. She knew everyone in the room could hear him anyway thanks to their wolf senses, but she appreciated the effort nonetheless. “Any of these shifters here ever rape you, Scarlett?”
She shook her head. “Not here, no.”
“Okay.” He glanced back at the group. “Who’s next? Who wants to go at me?”
No one moved. Then, within seconds of one another, the thirty-two wolves in the room hit the ground, shifting as they went. One by one they assumed their submissive poses, head down, eyes pleading at Michael.
He turned around to regard Scarlett. “Tell me they didn’t all just do that.”
She bit down on her lip, which hurt, trying not to laugh. Michael’s expression was priceless. His eyes were huge, his mouth gaping open as if he’d just tasted something bad. His body was totally naked and the sight of it made her stomach tighten.
He was an Adonis brought to life. If he hadn’t been holding her hand, she might have taken a few steps backward into the wall just to support herself.
“They’re all offering you their submission.”
Michael looked up at the sky for a second before exhaling a long breath. He spoke to the group of wolves.
“Shift back.”
One by one they obeyed.
Turning back to Scarlett, he spoke. “Is there a place here I can shower?”
“Upstairs. You can use Cole’s room. It’s the nicest.”
Nodding, he smiled at her, but it was tight and she could see the tension in him radiating from his clenched jaw and his tense stance. “Okay.”
She watched as he scanned the room. Finding who he sought, he stared at Todd. “Good job taking care of her.”
Todd beamed like he’d just been told he’d won some kind of lottery. “Thank you, Michael, it was my pleasure.”
“Uh-huh.” Michael took two steps toward him. “I want you to do me one more favor. I want you to tell all these people here what I told you about how a pack should work, about mates, about the Alphas taking care of everyone else. Can you do that?”