Nothing had been unpacked, Alicia thought as she hurried out of bed, pulled on her bra and panties, and then looked for a box that might have a pair of jeans and a sweater. Frantically digging clothes out of one, then another of the boxes, she finally found a pair of jeans.

But before she could put them on, she heard footfalls headed in her direction down the hall at a full-out run. Her heart went into overdrive.

Chapter 21

Jake smelled the scent of the damn wolves before he could locate them in the woods. Peter and three other members of his pack were looking for the men who had been shooting at them. Sam had been hit, damn it.

He was sitting in the grass, holding someone’s bunched-up shirt against the leg wound. “Go,” Sam said, the bearded, burly man’s expression one of barely suppressed rage. “Find them. Get rid of them.”

Jake knew that Silver Town’s bartender, a gruff man who looked like he lived as a mountain man in the wilderness most of the time, meant for him to go after the two wolves. The others were strictly human. Probably more of Mario’s henchmen. Jake’s men would be targeting them while in their human forms. He would bet Mario was one of the wolves.

Jake was worried about Sam’s injury, though. The bullet hadn’t been silver or he could have smelled its particular metallic scent. But even so, if the bullet hit a major artery, Sam could bleed out and die before they could get him help.

“Darien’s sending Doc,” Sam growled. “Peter already called him.” Sam detested being injured like this while everyone else got to hunt down the bastards. “Hell, Jake, I mean it. I’m going to live. Quit giving me them puppy-dog eyes.”

Jake shook his head and tore off after the scent of the two intruding wolves.

Peter was the sheriff, and Heston was a new deputy. The rest of the men, even Sam, were deputized whenever they needed to go on a manhunt or wolf hunt. So there wasn’t any need to call in anyone else to apprehend the human bastards. And if they died in the shoot-out, they died. Simple as that. Lawmen had a right to protect themselves. In Silver Town, that’s just what they did.

As for the wolves…

Jake was hot on their trail. Or at least one of them.

He finally discovered the wolf backed up against a pine tree and growling at him. Jake didn’t know if it was Mario or someone else, but he didn’t care. The wolf represented trouble for Alicia and for their kind. If he was ever arrested, and since he was either Mario or one of his men and eventually would be, he couldn’t be allowed to live. Still, Jake couldn’t, with a human conscience, just outright kill without the wolf first attacking.

They’d figure out something else to do with him, but what, Jake wasn’t sure. It wasn’t the first time he’d been glad Darien and Lelandi were the pack leaders. Tom and Jake and others of the pack advised them, but ultimately, decisions of this nature were left up to Darien and Lelandi.

The gray wolf continued to snarl and growl at Jake, his nose wrinkled in a hideous display of ferocity, his canines fully exposed, the fur on his back standing on end.

Another couple of shots were fired off some distance in the woods. Jake wasn’t sure if that prompted the wolf to attack, or if Jake’s failure to look ferocious made the wolf believe Jake was not someone to fear. But the attack came and Jake tore into him, showing the wolf he wasn’t one to mess with as his teeth tore at the wolf’s neck. The villain shook him loose and skittered away with a yelp.

Then he uttered a low growl right before he dove for Jake for a second time. He wasn’t a skilled wolf at attacking, which meant he probably hadn’t used his wolf instincts in wolf-to-wolf combat much, if ever. Although some instincts would come into play in a fight to the death.

But the guy was much heavier than Jake, and the damned beast actually knocked him off his feet with the second charge. Adrenaline coursing through his blood, Jake scrambled to get to his feet, knowing he could have been dead meat if the wolf had known how to attack him just right. Not wanting the wolf to learn from his mistakes or to put Jake in too vulnerable a position again, he attacked the bigger wolf this time. But it was like slamming into a damned brick wall. Jake dodged before the wolf could take a bite. The man reminded Jake of a bully with more brute strength than brains.

The wolf looked pleased, like he was smiling at Jake, and that pissed Jake off. Sure, the guy was a bigger wolf, but he wasn’t going to win this battle. Not with Alicia’s life at stake.

And with his attack on Jake, the deal was off. The pack leaders wouldn’t decide this guy’s fate. He was Jake’s for the taking.

Jake lunged at the wolf, going for his throat again. The wolf’s and Jake’s teeth clashed in a wicked snapping of canines. Enamel hit enamel with resounding whacks, snarls ricocheting off the trees like a wolves’ warning to others to stay away. Then like two fighters in the ring, neither of them making any headway, they both fell away.

Two wolves were out here, Jake reminded himself. Two wolves and he had to get the other also. He had to end this now. Easier said than done as he again attacked and the wolf matched Jake’s skill with more brute force.

Jake whipped around in a circle, and before the wolf realized he was attacking again, Jake grabbed him by the throat. The wolf tried to yank away and nearly succeeded. But Jake held on, tightened his grip, and crushed him.

He didn’t wait to see what happened next. It didn’t matter whether Mario or the other man lay dead on the ground and would return to his human form. One was still on the loose as a wolf, as far as Jake knew. And his time to locate the bastard was growing short.

Jake tore off, trying to track the footpad scent of the other wolf who wasn’t part of their pack. That’s when he realized the wolf had gone straight to the damned front door! The shooters were the diversionary force. Damn it!

Alicia was alone and unprotected.

***

Not having time to dress any further, except for putting on the red panties and bra, Alicia dropped her jeans and looked around the bedroom for her purse, not remembering where she’d left it while everyone was still moving furniture. Kitchen? Living room? That’s where her pepper spray and stun gun were tucked away.

Jake’s gun! But where was it now? After he’d taken it into her apartment to use as protection, she didn’t remember him doing anything with it. Had he returned it to the glove compartment?

With the sudden rush of footfalls toward the bedroom, it was too late to go for the gun. She raced to the window and had only managed to unlock it when someone barged into the bedroom.

She whipped around and stared aghast at Mario Constantino. He was naked, tall, and big, but mostly naked. She was so startled at the sight of him in the raw that she didn’t react fast enough. He took two quick strides into the room and struck her in the temple with his meaty fist. A stab of pain shot through her temple before blackness cloaked her and she crumpled to the floor.

***

Jake whipped around to the back of the house and slipped through the wolf door, then raced down the hall to the bedroom where he heard someone rummaging around.

When he peered into the room, he saw a naked-assed Mario Constantino dumping all of Alicia’s things from the boxes onto the floor. Alicia was dead to the world, lying on the bed.

Jake growled low and threatening. Mario swung around, and Jake swore the bastard was about to have a heart attack. He quickly looked back at Alicia.

Yeah, you’ll pay, bastard.

Mario’s mouth dropped open as his attention returned to Jake. “Hell, you’re a wolf? The artist?”

So Mario had thought Alicia had turned into the wolf. That was the reason for him looking back at her on the bed.

Jake growled even lower, pushing Mario to shape-shift. But the bastard wouldn’t. Maybe he couldn’t. Damn him. Jake couldn’t let him live.

Jake advanced, still growling, his hackles raised and his posture as menacing as he’d ever been. Angry didn’t begin to describe how he felt about Alicia and the way this bastard had hurt her. Or what Mario planned to do with her in the future, if Jake let him live.

Mario was scowling and livid, probably because he’d been caught, but he still didn’t shift.

Jake drew closer, growling, threatening.

Mario grabbed one of the half-empty boxes and threw it at Jake. He dodged it and turned his focus back on Mario as he shape-shifted into the wolf. Like the other wolf, he was bigger than Jake, but this time Jake wasn’t going to give him time to make the first move.

He went for the wolf’s throat and sent him crashing into the closet door, but Mario somehow managed to scramble over one of the cardboard boxes and slip away. Relentlessly, Jake went after him again. Jake bit at him, got a mouthful of fur, and broke the skin on Mario’s shoulder. Mario yelped and skittered away. For being a tough bastard as a Mob leader, he was a cowardly wolf.

He probably felt much more capable with a gun in his hand. Or having others doing his dirty work for him.

Jake leaped over the cardboard box in his way, and Mario tried to reach the door.

But there stood Alicia in her red push-up bra and silky red thong, her hand against her temple, unsteady on her feet, her face pale, her expression pained. Mario stopped for an instant. With her free hand, she shut the door, sealing his fate.

Worried Mario would hurt Alicia, Jake tackled him from behind. Mario whipped around with Jake clinging to his back, holding on with both paws, trying to get a better grip on his neck.

The voices of men hollering outside caught Jake’s attention, but he remained focused on Mario and bringing him down. He heard the box springs squeak and figured Alicia had collapsed on the bed before she passed out again.

Mario was still trying to wriggle free, and Jake kept losing his grip on the massive wolf’s neck.

“Where’s Jake?” Darien hollered outside the back of the house.

“In the house,” Sam shouted back. “He’s fighting someone as a wolf.”

Not for long.

Mario stumbled over a box and got his feet tangled in Alicia’s jeans, and Jake bit him hard in the throat. Killing him. For Alicia. For her mother. For her father.