Protective Instinct Read online

  “Come in,” a male voice called out.

  For a brief moment, he tensed, his wolf clawing at him, wanting to know who the hell was in his female’s home. Just as quickly he realized who the male was and opened the door. In a few steps he was in the living room and found Aldric in front of the fireplace, working on getting a fire going. The room was a mix of modern and country, or country chic as Teresa’s sister Natalia said. Whatever the hell that was.

  Ryan nodded at the male, not surprised to find him there since he’d been spending a lot of time with Natalia the past few months—which meant he was at the sisters’ home all the time. As far as anyone knew they weren’t actually seeing each other, but they were clearly close friends. “Where’s Natalia?”

  “Right here, cowboy,” she said, stepping back into the room with two beers in hand. “We’ve got beer in the fridge if you want one.”

  He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Nah, but thanks.” On instinct he looked up, as if he could somehow see through the damn ceiling to Teresa’s room. She hadn’t answered his texts or calls and when he’d gone to the main house Ana had been cagey about her whereabouts. That wasn’t like Ana, so he’d come here to find her. He needed to see Teresa with a desperateness that didn’t exactly surprise him. The urge to simply touch her, to run his fingers through the waves of her long, dark hair and see her equally dark, amber-flecked eyes flash with whatever emotion she was feeling at the moment.

  “So what’s up?” Natalia asked, collapsing on one of the leather couches closest to Aldric. She crossed her legs and took a sip of her beer as she watched him with an almost amused expression.

  As if she didn’t know why he was here. “Where’s your sister?”

  “Which one? I’ve got three.”

  He gritted his teeth, but forced himself to remain calm. He knew she was just messing with him. “The one I plan to mate.”

  “Mate? Hmm, doesn’t ring any bells. Can you be more specific?”

  “She’s gone with Rafael to look at some property a couple hours north. They left not too long ago,” Aldric said without looking up from the fire.

  “Damn it, Aldric.” Natalia nudged his back with a sock-clad foot. “Thanks for ruining my fun,” she muttered sulkily.

  Ryan ignored her and pinned Aldric with his gaze. His wolf swiped at him as he tried to digest what Aldric had just said. Teresa was off site with an unmated male? She hadn’t called or texted him to tell him either. What the hell?

  The male glanced over as a small fire started, then stood. “He’s a good male,” Aldric said. “She’ll be safe.”

  Rafael was also a single, alpha male, and according to some of the females in the pack, ‘so pretty to look at’. Not to mention he’d seen the way Rafael had been sniffing around the sisters’ house lately. Maybe that fucker thought Teresa was free and now planned to make his move. Over Ryan’s dead body. His jaw tightened as he tried to find his voice. “Does Ana know about this?”

  Natalia snorted. “It was her idea.”

  His gaze snapped to hers and he knew his wolf must be in his eyes because a wave of tension rolled off her, the sensation sharp and stinging. As an empath he sensed emotions even when he didn’t want to. Normally he could lock it down pretty tight, but right now he was grasping at his control, trying to get his shit together.

  Instead all he could do was picture that GQ-looking bastard with his female. “How long will they be gone?” he growled.

  Now Aldric stepped forward, all protective wolf as he moved fluidly in front of Natalia. Ryan wanted to roll his eyes but couldn’t manage even that. It wasn’t like he’d ever hurt a female. “They’re staying the night. You want the details, ask your Alpha.” The underlying bite to his words had Ryan’s hackles rising but he tamped all his anger back down because it wasn’t aimed at either of them.

  “I’ll see you guys later.” He left without waiting for a response. As he stepped outside he headed straight for the main house only to find it empty. Next he went to December and Liam’s home. And hit the jackpot.

  Ana and a very pregnant December sat at the center island, mugs of tea in their hands.

  “Hey, Ryan.” December smiled warmly. What people said about pregnant females was definitely true because she was glowing. One hand rested gently on her protruding stomach. “Lucas isn’t here right now. He and Vivian headed over to Kat and Jayce’s. To bother Leila, I’m certain.”

  He nodded politely at the female, simply unable to be rude to her. The human-turned-shifter because of her relationship with Liam was sweet and she liked to bake something fierce. He never wanted to get on her bad side. Ana, however, was on his shit list.

  “I’m not here for him,” he murmured, shooting a dark glare at Ana.

  Who studiously looked down into her mug.

  “Damn it, Ana. Where is she?” he demanded.

  “Where’s who?” December asked.

  “Teresa.”

  “Oh, she’s—”

  Ana’s gaze snapped up and she glared at her sister-in-law. “Don’t tell him.” Then she focused on Ryan. “She needs some space from you. You’re making her crazy, Ryan. Either man up or give her the space she needs. It’s hurting her wolf right now. She just needs to find balance and she can’t do that with you around.” The truth rolling off her was sharp. Even without his empath senses, he could scent Ana’s concern. She was worried about her cousin.

  It was all his fault too. He opened his mouth once, as he tried to find a response, but couldn’t come up with anything. Shit. He was hurting his future mate. Something he never, ever wanted to do. Hell, it was something he’d sworn never to do. He’d rather lose a limb. Feeling numb, he took a step back from the island. “Can you keep Lucas tonight?” he rasped out. The cub he’d adopted would gladly stay at Ana and Connor’s tonight because he’d get to play with Vivian. Those two were practically inseparable.

  When Ana nodded he left, unable to stop the panic thrumming through him. In his quest to make certain he didn’t hurt a female the way his father had inadvertently hurt his mother, he was pushing away the one female who meant everything to him.

  He’d almost lost Teresa once when she’d been poisoned with silver. He couldn’t lose her because of the past that had haunted him his entire life.

  * * *

  Natalia put her feet in Aldric’s lap as he sat on the couch next to her. The small fire started to blaze. Even though it was May, tonight was supposed to be cold and while they had higher body temperatures than humans, she’d never say no to a warm fire. It made her want to shift, curl up in front of it and sleep.

  He took one of her feet in his hand and held it up a fraction. “Am I your footrest now?”

  She had on black socks with pink flamingos wearing Christmas wreaths around their necks. It wasn’t even close to the holiday but she loved fun socks. She wiggled her toes. “No, but you ruined my fun with Ryan so you’re rubbing my feet.”

  His dark eyebrows raised and she sensed something from him she couldn’t quite define. The male was alpha in nature, just like her, but he was a lot stronger and a bit more dominant. Definitely of the warrior class. And whenever she bossed him around he got this strange look on his face. She couldn’t quite place what it was, but she liked it.

  “It’s cruel to mess with a male like that,” he murmured, picking up one foot and expertly starting to massage the arch.

  “Then he shouldn’t be messing with my sister,” she snapped, a little harder than she’d intended. Okay, Ryan wasn’t actually messing with her in the sense that he was intentionally trying to hurt Teresa, but Natalia didn’t care. Teresa was her big sister and had been looking out for all of them forever, especially since their parents had been killed. No one upset her and got away with it. That was sister code 101.

  “You know he’s not. Not on purpose, anyway.”

  Natalia wondered if asking him to rub her feet hadn’t been the best idea. It felt so incredibly good, so sensual, she knew she wasn’t going to
be able to hide her reaction much longer. She didn’t want Aldric to know how much she wanted him, how much she cared for him. The past few months had been some of the best of her life because she’d spent them getting to know him, but it was clear the male didn’t want anything else from her but friendship. Otherwise he’d have made a move by now. It was just how lupine shifters were.

  Especially one as alpha as Aldric. With a military precision buzzed haircut, his hard features stood out even more. And his grayish-green eyes were so bright it was hard not to get ensnared by them. Not to mention his body…something she’d spent way too many hours fantasizing over. But it wasn’t just the physical stuff that pulled her to him. He took her on some of his investigations or bounty hunting jobs with him and treated her like an equal. And the male was funny. His sense of humor was subtle and he rarely opened up to anyone but her and her sisters. Something she liked. It made her feel just a tiny bit possessive of him.

  She swallowed hard and struggled to find her voice. She was afraid she would accidentally let out a moan at the feel of his talented fingers on her, even through the material of her socks. “So how did last night with you and Jayce go?”

  He lifted his big shoulders into an awkward shrug. Both he and Jayce were similar with that silent, brooding attitude. “Good, I guess. We had some beers, watched some stupid sports thing on TV.”

  “What did you talk about?” she persisted.

  “Weapons.”

  She blinked. “What?”

  “You know, guns, blades, stuff like that. He got some new ones and showed them to me.”

  She raised her eyebrows.

  “What?” he demanded.

  “Nothing.” The two brothers hadn’t talked for hundreds of years. Aldric’s mate had been killed and he’d gone off the deep end, leaving his family behind and roaming the globe, but not before attacking and scarring his brother Jayce. At least that’s what he’d told Natalia. He and Jayce had so much to talk about, so much to catch up on, freaking metaphorical fences to mend. They shouldn’t have been talking about weapons. Males were so weird.

  When he slid his thumb down the middle of her arch, a groan escaped and she swore she felt the action all the way to the juncture between her thighs. On instinct she started to pull her foot back. She needed to get her body under control and this wasn’t helping at all. She was actively masking her scent but wouldn’t be able to do it for much longer.

  Aldric’s fingers tightened around her foot and she couldn’t get a read on his expression. He was always so hard to read and it made her crazy. “You don’t want me to finish?”

  “That’s okay. I want to start dinner anyway. Rosa and Gloria will be back soon.” And she really didn’t want to start making orgasm sounds from his touch.

  His fingers tightened again, holding on just a little longer than necessary before he let her foot go. “I can help if you want.”

  “Of course.” He’d been having dinner with them three or four nights a week and damn it, she knew she was getting far too used to it, but she couldn’t help it. She liked having him around. “So,” she started as she swung her legs off him and stood, “how long do you think you’ll stick around here?” Thankfully her voice sounded normal, casual even, as she started for the kitchen.

  “As long as Connor lets me,” he murmured, closer than she realized.

  Natalia turned to glance at him and found herself looking up. “Really?”

  He shrugged. “It’s the longest I’ve stayed in one place in…pretty much forever. I like it.”

  She nudged him with her hip as they entered the kitchen. He traveled on and off for bounty hunting cases he worked, but it seemed as if the Armstrong-Cordona ranch had become his base. “I’m glad.”

  His gray-green eyes flashed with something she couldn’t pinpoint, but it made her feel warm inside. And when he put his hand on the small of her back, just for a fraction of a moment, fireworks might as well have exploded inside her. But it was short lived because a second later she heard the front door opening and her two sisters returning home.

  Just as well. Nothing was ever going to happen between the two of them. Natalia refused to come in second place to the memory of his dead mate anyway.

  * * *

  Teresa silenced the ringer on her phone and tucked it into her purse. Too bad she couldn’t silence the guilt battering against the inside of her brain as easily. Gah. Now that she was on the road with Rafael she felt bad for not telling Ryan she’d be taking a quick trip.

  It wasn’t like he told her everything he did for work, but still, this felt wrong.

  “Your sisters don’t mind you going on this overnight stay?” Rafael asked as they pulled out onto the highway.

  She shook her head, surprised by the question. Her sisters were all adults. “No, they’re good. Besides, Aldric will probably be having dinner with them tonight.”

  At her words, Rafael frowned.

  “You don’t like him?” Both males were new to the pack, having joined around the same time. Though technically Aldric wasn’t a member, she knew it was going to become official soon.

  He gave her a casual shrug. “I don’t know him.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  He shrugged again and shot her a look that might be considered amused. At least he was talking. She didn’t want silence the next couple hours. “What do you think of the human, Matt Dunlauxe?” he asked, taking her off guard.

  The question was pretty random, but… “He’s cool. So is his mom. We’ve known them since before we came out to humans.” They ran a Native American shop in town and had openly accepted the pack before it had been popular to do so.

  “Rosa’s been spending a lot of time at his shop lately.” The statement was casual but she noticed that finger clench thing again. Interesting.

  “Yeah, she likes getting off the ranch.” And since Matt’s mom had hurt her hip last month, Rosa had been helping out at the shop. Deciding to see if her guess was right, Teresa continued. “Plus I think she likes Matt.”

  Rafael’s claws tore into the steering wheel and Teresa snickered.

  Narrow-eyed, he looked at her again. “You’re messing with me?”

  She pressed her forefinger and thumb together. “Little bit. So…you’re into Rosa?” When he didn’t respond, she continued. “Come on. You just tore up the steering wheel over that little mention of her and someone else and I desperately need to get my mind off stupid males. Give me something.”

  A low rumble came from Rafael and it took her a moment to realize he was laughing. “Fine, yes, I like Rosa. She’s been very kind to me.” And that was apparently all he planned to say on the matter.

  “How do you like living in North Carolina—” Her words were cut off as someone suddenly rammed into them from behind. The crunch of metal rent the air as they careened into the railing along the side of the road. She cringed at the scraping sound, her wolf clawing to break free at the threat.

  Rafael tried to twist the wheel to the left, but the vehicle crashed into them again.

  Teresa’s heart rate kicked up. This was intentional. There was nowhere to go on this stretch of road, not as they curved around a winding bend. She grabbed onto the hand rest, tensing for another impact, and turned around in her seat.

  Even with her acute vision, it was too dark to see who was driving. All she could make out was the silhouette of a driver and a passenger. “Looks like there’s two of them.”

  “Call Connor,” Rafael ordered, even as Teresa was already grabbing for her purse to do just that.

  The SUV lurched forward under the force of another impact. Her head snapped back, the jolt sending pain shooting down her neck.

  “Shit,” Rafael muttered. “Brace yourself.”

  By the time she’d sat up straight, they slammed through the side rail, careening over the edge of a snow-covered mountainside.

  Chapter 3

  Frida slowed her SUV and pulled off to the side of the road. There was a
wide pullout around thirty yards ahead of where she’d just sent that bitch wolf over the incline. Not bothering to wait for her companion, Frida exited the vehicle and raced down the road to where the metal railing had given way.

  “They won’t be dead,” John murmured as he hurried to stand next to her in seconds. Though he wasn’t as old as her, his vampiric speed was still impressive. He placed a hand on the small of her back in a way she knew he meant to be possessive. It grated against her nerves, but she ignored it.

  “They will be when I’m through with them.” Though she didn’t care about the male at all. It was just the female she wanted dead. After what that bitch’s sister had done, Frida was going to destroy everyone close to Natalia Cordona.

  Starting with her oldest sister, Teresa.

  However, Frida would have to kill the male too. He wouldn’t stand idly by while they kidnapped Teresa Cordona. That might get tricky. She’d wanted to kidnap and torture Teresa as a giant ‘Fuck You’ to Natalia, but if she had to simply kill both wolves now so be it.

  She took a step forward, ready to climb down the snow-covered incline, when John grabbed her upper arm. Before she could ask him what he was doing, two headlights flashed over them.

  A car pulled up next to them and a group of four young kids got out. They were likely in high school or college by her estimate. Not that she cared. She’d kill these fools if they got in her way.

  “Are you guys okay?” one of the males asked, his gaze roaming appreciatively over Frida. “We saw that SUV fly over the edge.”

  “We’re fine,” John answered for her, his voice taking on a possessive note as he stepped closer to her. He didn’t even like other males to look at her, which was ridiculous. Of course males were going to look at her. So did females. Frida knew what she looked like and reveled in it.

  “Cops are on their way. Luckily they’ve got someone close by,” another boy said as he walked to the edge and looked over. His cell phone was in his hand, likely the one who’d called the police. “Shit, you can’t even see the SUV from here. It’s too dark.”