Unconditional Read online

  What she would do when this was all said and done she honestly didn’t know. For the first time in a really long time, she just didn’t know. She was alone and drifting, and she had to let that be okay until she found Allie. Then she could go soul searching.

  “Is she going to be all right?” Damon tipped his chin toward the car. “Gotta be a lot to take in for her.” He did grin for a moment though. “I will say she’s a little bad ass. The way she handled Charlie was a sight to behold.”

  “She’s a nice girl from a small town who has just had her entire world turned upside down. So yeah, I think she’s a little overwhelmed. She’ll deal. She’s got a spine of steel to go with her badassery. She made a tackle I’d have admired back in the day.”

  “I forget you played football. She was a cheerleader I hear.”

  “Better not let Gina hear you talk like that. Your witch will cut you.” GiGi smirked as she referred to Damon’s mate, a witch like Michelle, but one who’d grown up within the clan system and was far more versed in the world of the Others.

  “Depending on how long she’s in town, you guys should come over for dinner or something. Gina would like Michelle, and Michelle could use some allies, people like her.”

  “One step at a time. Let’s just find her friend first. I know this girl, Allie. Grew up with her too. You and GiGi track here in town. Work with Pam on any other sightings of that SUV. We’re headed south to those other rest stops. I want to be sure they’re the same mages.”

  He checked in briefly with Pam, but the coroner had shown up and she was far too busy to say much, which was fine. His mind was already on Michelle.

  That was a lie.

  His mind had never left Michelle. His skin still burned at the small of his back where she’d touched him. Her scent had pushed even the pervasive and horrifying stench of death from his nose.

  He wanted her. So much he had to force the need from his mind with other things. He remembered that body in the convenience store. He hoped like hell that wasn’t Allie’s fate. He’d die before he let it be Michelle’s fate.

  “Ready?” he asked, sliding into his seat and fastening his seatbelt.

  “Yes. I checked in but there’s nothing new. Kathy, that’s Allie’s mom, she’s got her sister staying with her and the coven is in touch with Owen. No one else has gone missing, though I find it hard to believe they just stopped off in Roseburg, kidnapped a witch like a cup of coffee on a road trip. This seems far more organized than junkies grabbing a fix.”

  “Yes. The fact that they’re working together with turned witches and have started targeting Weres points in that direction.” There was silence for a while and he wanted to fill it. Wanted her voice.

  “So, since your cop boyfriend moved away, has there been anyone else?”

  “I’ve been on nights for the last few months. My turn I guess. It’s hard enough to date when you’re a cop. Your schedule is already sort of wonky as it is, and then once you add night shift, it sort of kills your social life. I work, come home, go to bed, get up, eat, work out, go to work. What about you?”

  “I go out here and there, but nothing serious.”

  “Wolves mate for life right? I mean, that would have to be weird when it comes to dating.”

  “It’s complicated, but yeah. I tend to date only other wolves. It’s hard to explain to humans, hey look, I already know up front this won’t be permanent and I could meet that forever person at any point so hey let’s keep things light.”

  “All I know is what I hear about in the news or whatever. And it’s always so sensationalized it’s hard to know what’s true and what isn’t.”

  “So ask. I’ll tell you.”

  “You got bit you said. Wolves tell the media all the time that they’re safe to be around. Clearly that’s not the case.”

  He treaded carefully here. “That’s partially true. I was bitten by a wolf who had really poor control. Most of the time when a human is changed, or when a natural wolf hits maturation, they’re guided through it by older, stronger wolves with a great deal of control. But the guy who bit me hadn’t told anyone he’d been bitten when he’d been on a camping trip. The day he attacked me had been his very first shift. To their credit, when Pacific heard they came to get us both. Being turned at my age is hard. Being nineteen is hard enough, you’re still a teenager, on your way to manhood, all those hormones. It wreaks havoc, and most humans that age who want to be turned are refused until they’re at least twenty-five. After I was bitten, I lived in the Pack House for eight months as I worked on my control and I shifted regularly in the company of other wolves. It’s not a perfect system. Accidents do happen. But we work as hard as we can to ensure they don’t.”

  “And you didn’t hate them? I mean you ended up one of their leaders even after they changed you without your consent?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Lots of that going around.”

  He snorted. “Life is complicated, I suppose. But what was I going to do? I wasn’t good enough to play professional ball. My grades were okay but nothing spectacular. My parents couldn’t have cared less about where I was going or my plans for the future. I had a dead-end in my past but a freak occurrence opened up many doors for my future. I was strong. And fast. I could control my shift early on. Pack life can be pretty disciplined and regimented. I…took to it. I thrived. Each time I challenged for a position and I won, I earned respect. It was a totally different world, but it feels natural to me.”

  “So you advance by fighting?”

  He shrugged. “Sometimes. I ended up as Enforcer without a fight. I was second-in-command to the Enforcer who is now the Alpha. I ascended and no one challenged me. I’d earned the respect of the pack.”

  “That means a great deal, I imagine.”

  “Yes.” It meant everything.

  “I’m glad you have a good life.”

  “Yeah? Even if I was a dick to you before?”

  She snorted. “Even if you were a dick to me before. Why would I wish a horrible life on anyone, much less someone I cared so much about once?”

  “Only once?”

  “I knew Josh the jock. I don’t really know Josh the Enforcer. But I appreciate the help in finding Allie. That’s a start.”

  It was.

  They got off the freeway south of the first rest stop and then got back on heading north so he could pull into the northbound one. He caught the scent right away. The mages had a rotting meat stench.

  “Their energy is still here, faint, but here.”

  “I can scent it. It’s the same as the convenience store.”

  “I think there are surveillance cameras here.”

  “I know just the person to call for that.” He pulled out his phone and dialed Nina Warden, who at one time in her life happened to be a pretty notorious hacker. He explained the situation, and she told him she’d get right on it and call him back when she had news.

  “I could have gotten a warrant, you know,” she muttered when they got back in the car and headed north to the next stop.

  “Maybe, sure. Though how you’d have known the SUV stopped here would have been fun to explain, no? Well, Your Honor, I got out and I just sensed they’d been here.”

  This was a one-way road, and she was far too late in the journey to turn back. He felt for her, knowing it had to be hard. But she couldn’t count on human help for this. She had support in the Others, and the sooner she accepted it, the better off she’d be.

  Her mouth snapped shut, and she looked out the window as they headed north. The scent was the same at the second rest stop too, and by then it was already dark. He was hungry, and the breakfast bars he’d had in the car weren’t enough as they got back to Portland.

  He pulled into the parking lot outside one of his favorite barbecue places that also happened to be run by wolves from the pack. A safe space with plenty of variety and heaping helpings.

  She looked up at him, weariness all over her. “Why are you
stopping?”

  “I haven’t eaten in hours and neither have you. I need to get a lot more calories than I used to, and you’re so tired you’re weaving in your seat. Anyway, it’s too dark to do anything else right now. This place is really good, and it’s run by my people so we’re safe.”

  He got out, and before he could get to her door, she’d managed to grab her bag and join him. “I was on my way to get your door.”

  “Huh.”

  He hid a smile as they went inside.

  The way they all sort of swallowed him up with pats on the back, hugs and casual touches had been surprising. But she noted the same sort of behavior throughout the small restaurant.

  She looked back at the big laminated menu, so hungry it was hard to choose.

  “Everything is good. For sides I recommend the baked beans and the macaroni salad. Cornbread comes with the meal too. Oh try the lemonade.”

  He was really good looking. She stared at the line of his jaw far too long but couldn’t seem to stop herself. She was too tired to use her filters. That must have been it. She wondered what he smelled like just behind his jaw, beneath his ear. She’d been surprised when he’d hugged her earlier so she hadn’t really gotten much of a sense of how he smelled, though in the car she noted his cologne, and whenever his wolf got very close to the surface, she smelled the forest.

  She bet he looked way better naked now. The few times they’d actually done anything back in the day had been rushed but for the night of his senior prom when he’d gotten a hotel room.

  She bet he filled out his boxers a lot better. All muscled and tawny. His hair was longer than it had been, he had scruff. Man, she was apparently a sucker for scruff. Who knew? She’d tended toward clean-shaven men in the past but Josh had converted her.

  When she forced herself to turn her attention back to her menu, she noted he’d been staring. “What?”

  “Whatever were you just thinking about?”

  “What I’m going to order. Combo three I think, and I’ll take your recommendation for the sides.” She continued to stare at the menu to keep from staring at him.

  “Remember I can scent your arousal.”

  He spoke low enough that no one else could hear but her. The place was loud as it was, even if they all were shifters and probably had super hearing.

  “It’s hunger. I’m hot for ribs.”

  He laughed but didn’t push any further. Even as they ate, he kept it light. And he ate like nothing she’d ever seen before.

  “Holy cow, I don’t think I’ve witnessed another person eat that much food at once. Where do you put it all? You probably have like what? Two percent body fat or something criminal like that?”

  He paused as he forked up yet another bite of the Boston cream pie he’d been eating and sent her a smile so carnal she might have actually pulsed just south of her belly button. She sucked in a breath, trying to get herself back together. He did something to her. Awakened something she hadn’t known had gone dormant until that day.

  “You noticed my body-fat content?”

  She motioned his way with her fork. “Well for heaven’s sake, look at yourself!”

  “I like it better that you look at me.”

  “Hmpf.”

  He grinned, and God help her, he was so ridiculously beautiful she couldn’t help but suck in a breath.

  The grin slid off his features replaced by something else entirely. Hunger. He wiped his mouth and leaned forward. “You feel it too.”

  There was no mistaking what he meant. “I need to find my friend.”

  “Yes, of course. But you can’t do anything about that right now. Come back to my apartment. You can stay with me while you’re here.”

  She shook her head, hard. “Uh-uh. That would be a monumentally bad idea.” She bet shifter males were a big ol’ unruly handful, and she had limited time and energy. Hell, she’d probably end up getting steamrolled into stuff every time he smiled at her.

  “Oh, I disagree. I think it’d be a fabulous idea. You want me, Michelle. As much as I want you. I promise to get you nice and tired so you can sleep.”

  “You come with all sorts of complications, Josh. I can’t right now.”

  “You still angry with me?”

  She sighed. “No. I get it.” And really she didn’t blame him. It had hurt, but she’d moved on and he did have a better life here. She cared about him enough to be pleased for that. And he’d been nothing but helpful in the search for Allie.

  “But?”

  “But you’re an alpha male and I have too much stuff on my plate to take you on right now. I want to check in to a hotel, take a long shower and then go to sleep.” After masturbating most likely because he got her all stirred up.

  The check came, and she didn’t fail to notice the way the waitress tried to flirt with him. But he didn’t engage, all his attention was on her and it flustered her.

  “Come on. We’ll get you back to my apartment where your car is so you can get your bag. There’s a hotel about three blocks from me. Secure. We put people up there when they come in from out of town. Leave your car at my place.”

  “Why?”

  He put an arm around her as he steered her to his car. “If they know you’re looking for them, they’re going to be on the lookout for your car. If it’s in the garage at my building, they won’t know you’re staying at the hotel down the street.”

  Which is something she should have thought of.

  She grabbed her small overnight bag from her car and he drove her to the hotel where they knew him, and of course everything female seemed to fall over herself to be of any assistance.

  “I’m walking you up so don’t argue.” He spoke, his lips against her temple, and she shivered.

  Her scent dug into him with sharp claws. She was turned on, wet for him, her skin heated from a perpetual blush. He couldn’t help but stay close enough to breathe it in over and over, dragging her over his tongue, swallowing her in big gulps.

  “Fine. Whatever. I just want to sleep so whatever it takes to make you go.”

  He grinned as he took the keycard from her fingers and opened up, heading in to check the space out and also leave his scent all over as he touched doorknobs, brushed against doorways.

  A suspicion had begun to build in his belly over the last hours, and each time he felt the need to do something like mark her space, it got stronger.

  “I’ll collect you first thing. All right? We’ll grab breakfast and head out. We’ll go back to the gas station and track on foot from there.” He knew Damon and GiGi would have already, but she knew Allie’s magick better than anyone else and it added another layer to the search.

  And it was all they had right then.

  She nodded and he moved to her, intending to hug her, but she looked up at him and there was nothing else to be done but kiss her. He tried to keep it soft and slow but she made a sound, a quiet, needy sound, and he swallowed it down, his tongue sliding between her lips, her taste, God her taste, it rocketed through him, filling him up and crowding everything else out but her.

  His wolf pushed at him, wanted to lay her out and feast on her until he was sated. Until they’d eased the stress from her features. The fierce need to protect her made sense, the need to scent her space and draw her close.

  She nipped his bottom lip, and he pulled her even closer, the jut of his cock against the softness of her belly. Her nipples were hard, pressing against him, begging to be touched. Licked, bitten.

  He wanted to bury his face between her thighs, licking her pussy until she screamed out. Wanted her to ride his cock until he came deep inside her.

  Which would be a whole different issue. He didn’t have any condoms with him, and the man slapped him back enough to realize he needed to talk with her about what all this meant.

  She was tired and worried and scared. Now wasn’t the time. No matter how much he wanted it.

  Sweet Jesus he tasted good.

  Michelle’s fingers slid up
the wall of his chest and into his hair, pulling him closer as he kissed the sense out of her.

  His hands at her hips were hot, firmly holding her in place as she fought not to writhe. His cock was hard at her belly, and she didn’t resist sliding against it until he gasped against her mouth.

  She was on fire for him. Wanted to be fucked in a way she couldn’t remember ever feeling before. He stoked that fire she supposed had always been in her belly for him until it consumed her.

  She couldn’t think straight, and that’s what finally gave her the strength to take a step back.

  Chest heaving, he examined her, licking his lips, his eyes had gone that otherworldly green. “I should go.”

  She nodded. “I can’t right now. It’s too much. I’m really tired and I just… I’m not thinking straight.”

  He hugged her one more time but stepped back without trying to kiss her again. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Please lock the door behind me. I should tell you one of my men will be on the hotel, keeping watch. You can see us, right?”

  “You mean your energy?”

  He nodded.

  “Yes.”

  “If you see anyone hanging around without that energy, you call me.” He picked her phone up from where she’d put it to charge and added his number. “Mine is here, as is Damon’s. You call, do you understand?”

  “Yes, of course. I appreciate it. But I’m all right. I’m a cop, I can handle myself.”

  “I don’t doubt that in normal circumstances. But these guys aren’t your run-of-the-mill baddie.” He slid the pad of his thumb over her cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Michelle. But you need to know this thing between us isn’t over.”

  She knew that. And she knew from the look on his face that he had every intention of ending up naked and horizontal with her, and she really couldn’t find it in her to be annoyed by that. He respected her wishes and that’s what counted.

  She walked him to the door and locked up in his wake, using the deadbolt and the slide lock too. A quick run through the room and she’d also made sure the lock on the window was set, as well as the one on the sliding glass doors leading to the balcony.