By Hook or by Wolf

Chapter Six

Lee

It’s her.

The woman from the gallery.

She’s here.

The thief.

“We need to talk?” My mother raises an eyebrow. The two women completely ignore me and my brothers. “Yes,” she says. “Why, I think we do. Boys?” My mother looks at each of us. “Will you excuse me and Natasha, please?”

Natasha.

So that’s her name.

Natasha.

It rolls off my tongue like a treat.

Natasha.

My inner-wolf wants to howl, wants to run free.

It’s the woman of our dreams, it whispers to me. It’s our mate.

I’ve never been one to believe in mates. Not really. I know that my parents were mates and that Trevor and Anna were completely inseparable, but until this moment, I never really knew what they meant when they used the word mates.

I figured that a mate was similar to

a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

The words were similar in nature.

Surely they meant the same thing.

Only, in my case, they aren’t.

They aren’t even close to the same thing.

“Natasha,” I say, stepping forward. As if noticing me for the first time, her eyes pull away from my mother’s and the girl looks at me. She’s tall and lean with long, dark hair. Her leather jacket hugs her body tightly. Actually, she’s only wearing black. It looks good on her. Sexy. She looks like she’s fit and strong and happy.

And sneaky, apparently.

“My name is Lee Claw,” I say to her. She looks me up and down very briefly. Her eyes dilate just the slightest bit. If I wasn’t watching her carefully, I might have missed it. Yeah, she likes me. She’s attracted to me, at least. How very interesting. I’d be lying if I said this doesn’t please me.

She’s very lovely. Not only does she smell wonderful, but she looks sweet. Sassy. She’s a mystery, and I love feeling curious. I instantly want to know more about her.

Everything.

I want to know everything about her.

“You,” her eyes narrow. She doesn’t look happy to see me. “You’re her son.” She jerks her head toward my mother. I’m not sure why Natasha seems to be so angry or what her beef is with my family. She and my mother obviously know one another and, more importantly, they both seem to know that Natasha was in the gallery last night.

How strange.

Why do they both know where Natasha was?