Heartsblood (Dark Hollow Wolf Pack 10)

“I can’t tell you how glad I am that you didn’t decide to play it safe and stay inside the lodge, Marco. But then you never have played it smart about much of anything.” He smiled at Nicky. “Hi, baby. You’re looking even yummier than usual. Did you miss me?”

Marco snarled and pushed Nicky behind him. Nicky knew the signs well by now. Marco was ready to shift and leap off the rock toward Tate.

“Oh Marco, please,” Tate said, and pulled out a nickel-plated, long-barreled pistol, leveling it right at Marco’s stomach. “You really can be tiresome.”

He fired and Marco grunted, staggering back and looking down at the rapidly spreading red stain on his shirt. Nicky and Logan both reached for him, but Marco stumbled away and turned to look at Nicky, his face already with a sickly gray cast that made Nicky’s guts clench in terror. His gaze raked over Nicky’s features, as if he were committing them to memory one last time, and then he closed his eyes with a tired sigh and crumpled down to his side on the rock.

* * * *

Ian stopped on the path back to the lodge and glanced up at the sun. It was probably around five o’clock, way past time for Logan and Nicky to return from their hike up to the little waterfall. Ian thought he’d seen Marco head up the trail after Nicky and Logan, well over an hour before, but of course, it was hard to say exactly where Marco had been heading.

What if Marco had found Logan and Nicky in some kind of compromising situation? Ian’s mind refused to picture exactly what type of situation that might be, but what might Marco have done if that were the case? A little shiver of unease passed over Ian. Marco would never hurt one of the pets intentionally, Ian knew that, but what if there had been some kind of fight and Logan tried to…to…what would Logan have done?

Defend Nicky, of course. It’s what Logan always did where Nicky was concerned. A frisson of jealousy raced through him, and he determinedly shook it off. Logan loved Ian. Ian was as sure of that as he was of the sun rising in the morning. He’d tried hard to curb his jealousy and possessiveness of Logan and had mostly succeeded. They’d come a long way since those first days when Logan was still more Hunter than Werekin, and when Ian had sometimes wondered if he’d ever fully commit to their relationship.

Ian’s mind drifted back to the first time he’d ever seen Logan.

Wolves mated monogamously for life, usually to a bloodmatch. For some reason, a wolf’s blood sang out when the wolf encountered his true mate. For Ian, it had happened when he was very young, with his wife, Maria. They’d known each other since childhood and mated as soon as their parents allowed. They’d had five blissful years together before Maria and their baby died in childbirth. After that, Ian had no interest in anyone for anything other than casual sex.

Mates for a wolf could be either male or female. No stigma was attached to same sex matings, with wolves having little control over whom their blood chose for them. Once the choice was made, they were totally attracted to the other person, even their scent called to them. If the bloodmatch died, a wolf could still mate again, and the match was another lifetime bond, but it was a more natural, human-like attraction. As with humans, the attraction could be very strong and powerful, but for Ian, it had never happened. Or at least not until the moment he laid eyes on a captured young Hunter in the cells below the lodge.

When Marco first approached him about mating with this young Hunter the wolves had captured, Ian had been resistant, but finally willing to do it for the good of the pack. As a beta, the good of the pack was always his chief concern, even though he knew he might not be able to form any attachment much stronger than the simple lust and the compulsion for dominance the mating bite created. And then Ian got his first sight of Logan.

Marco had taken him to the cells in the basement where the captive Hunter was being kept. Ian’s memories were vivid when it came to that first sight of the young man.

Logan was probably about twenty-five or six. His dark hair was curly, but he kept it cut short, so the curl barely showed. Ian guessed he shaved it military-style most of the time, probably because he didn’t like the curls. Logan’s eyes were blue, heavily fringed by black lashes. Blue was Ian’s favorite color for eyes. All the wolves had dark brown eyes, inherited from their Indian ancestors, so blue eyes were very exotic to him—exotic, beautiful, and damn sexy, judging by the unexpected bulge growing in his jeans.

The boy had stared belligerently at him when he’d walked up to the cell he was in, yelling at him to leave him alone. “Get the hell out of here!” he’d said. “I’m not talking to any of you!”

Logan had jumped to his feet and rushed up to the bars. Ian had to smile. The strongest human didn’t have a quarter of the strength of a wolf in his human form. It would be the same as an adult human fighting a five-year-old child. The hunter must know that, and still, he was defiant. Ian admired his courage.

Logan bared his teeth at him and growled. Very nice teeth they were too, white and straight. He had licked his lips afterward, and a hint of pink tongue showed between his full, sensuous lips. Ian found himself wanting to taste that tongue. A strange thought and as unexpected as his immediate erection. He hadn’t experienced a physical desire for any one since his mate passed away years before, but this human made his cock stir.

All in all, definitely a beautiful young man, muscular and well-built. Ian knew Logan abhorred the wolves as monstrous aberrations of nature. Of course, he only knew the lies and exaggerations he’d been fed by the fanatical Hunters. Ian liked the idea of introducing him to the true nature of the wolf clan.

“What’s the matter with you, wolf?”

Logan had yelled at him, jerking Ian out of his considerations and the possible repercussions of taking him as a mate. Almost from the first moment he laid eyes on Logan, though, Ian had known he would make this man his mate.

“If you’re going to kill me, go ahead and do it! Do it now! I’m ready!” Logan had banged the flat of his hand against the bars.

Ian took a step toward him, and Logan jumped back, startled by the quick movement. He quickly recovered, though, and tensed his body, ready for a fight. Ian managed not to smile. The young man really was entertaining. Undeniably handsome too. He would probably be a handful to any wolf who took him on. To Ian. He’d be Ian’s handful from then on.

Ian sighed at the memory. No, he trusted Logan. He just wasn’t so sure about Nicky anymore. Nicky had been somewhat out of control around the pets lately, or so the rumors went. There had been some kind of big argument the night the other alphas had visited, though Marco was keeping quiet about exactly what had occurred. Ian had even thought about forbidding Logan to go with Nicky that morning, but he knew that, A—it wouldn’t do any good, because Logan would go anyway. And B—it would piss Logan off royally, and they’d be in a shouting match in the time it took to say the words.

Ian sat down on a little stone bench in the side yard near the woods. It was shady there under the laurel trees and a cool evening breeze had begun to stir in the branches. This was the patch of land that Nicky had claimed as his own, close to the lodge, but far enough away to feel private. Nicky used to spend a lot of time painting here, though Ian hadn’t seen him with a brush in his hand for several weeks now. Maybe Ian would sit here and rest for a few minutes before going back inside the lodge. It would give him a chance to unwind and provided him with a good view of the trail Logan and Nicky had taken that morning.

There was a little copse of hickory trees near here, as a matter of fact, where he’d come looking for Logan the day before at about this same time of day.

He remembered that Logan had been working on a wood detail that day with a few other pets. It was still summertime, and they didn’t need the wood any time soon, but some trees had been cut down nearby earlier in the week so the area needed to be cleared. When Ian got there, he’d stood at the edge of the clearing and watched his pet admiringly for a few minutes, unable to help himself. The saw they were using snarled and rattled in the air around them.

Logan had taken off his shirt and sweat glistened on those strong muscles in his shoulders and back as he stacked the last pieces of wood he’d chopped. Two other young men were helping, and they had their shirts off as well, but Ian had eyes that day only for Logan, his handsome mate.

Logan had glanced up from stacking the wood on top of the growing pile and saw Ian standing at the edge of the clearing. He’d wiped his brow with the back of his hand and smiled at him. It was a smile that still had the power to cause a shiver of desire to run down Ian’s spine and lodge firmly in his balls.

“Hi,” Logan said and squinted up at the sky. “Is it about that time?” He’d dusted his hands together and looked down at his jeans, covered in sawdust. The sawdust clung to his body too, sticking like glue everywhere he’d sweated. Ian would enjoy taking him to the shower in their rooms to help him get cleaned up. He’d run his hands down the long, lean muscles of his back and…Was it normal to still be so crazy about your mate after two years? Marco seemed to be just as wildly in love with Nicky and it had been even longer for them. Of course, they’d had a lot of trouble with their mating, and they were still facing a lot of challenges.

Nicky had been so hurt when they lost their bloodmatch and Marco had seemed to reject him for a time. He still remembered how difficult it had been not only for them, but for Ian and his own mate during the breakup. Ian was fiercely loyal to his alpha, but he was also loyal to his mate and Logan had been furious with Marco. It had put Ian squarely in the middle. To be honest, he’d known that Marco was making a terrible mistake and told him so after Marco had insisted on signing papers dissolving his union with Nicky.