Page 68 of Bound to the Wolf
Reece had four inches and at least thirty pounds on Dawson, and the kind of scarred knuckles that said he’d been in more fights than a man in a gray suit could count. Not that she wanted that to happen.
Dawson had a very punchable face, but there was no need to upset the balance of power in Hobson just yet.
“Does Cole know you’re here?” Dawson asked.
“Cole doesn’t need to know everything,” Reece replied, and Delainey had to grit her teeth.
Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to tell the enemy-ish werewolf that no one knew where they were or would come looking for them. She didn’t say a thing out loud.
“We want an update on Austin. We have no quarrel with the Iron Runners.” Behind Dawson, one of his wolves snorted, but she couldn’t see which. “We came here because this was the last place we saw him. That’s it. We wanted to do a resonance scan and see if that gave us a place to go.”
“Is that what Cole’s been trying to call me about for the last four days?” Dawson asked, sliding his hands into his pockets with the ease of a man who had never once been afraid of the answer to his own question.
“Have you been dodging his calls?”
“I have three hundred werewolves under my command. I’m a busy man.”
That was a yes, but she didn’t point it out.
Dawson sighed. “Austin LaSalle is in Arizona. He is working as a used car salesman, and no pack will allow him to join. He’s little more than a rogue. He isn’t in Hobson and hasn’t been for months. He is nowhere near the East Coast. Does that satisfy your curiosity?”
“Where in Arizona?” Delainey asked.
“Scottsdale. Now get out of here before I decide to teach you a lesson. I do this as a favor to Cole. Tell him to remember his debts.”
Reece growled, but Delainey reached out and put a hand on his arm. The muscle under her fingers was rigid, his forearm corded tight, and she could feel the heat of him even through the sleeve of his shirt. If Dawson wasn’t looking right at him, she might have grabbed his hand, but that felt like giving too much away.
They walked back to the car in silence. Reece’s strides were long and stiff, and Delainey had to take two steps for every one of his to keep up. Delainey silently took the passenger seat, realizing Reece probably needed to feel in control right now. The only way she could give him that was by letting him drive.
They were still deep in Iron Runner territory, even sitting in the car, and should have started it up immediately and driven away. But Reece sat in the driver’s seat with his hands on the steering wheel, shoulders heaving as he breathed deep.
He looked pissed.
His knuckles were white where they gripped the wheel, and a smear of drying blood still marked the skin below his nose; he hadn’t bothered to wipe it.
“I’m sorry I sort of took that over in there,” she said, hoping that would ease them through this. “No.” She corrected herself. “I’m not sorry, but if that caused problems, I regret that for you.” She didn’t know exactly what she was saying.
In a flash, Reece was on her.
His body pressed her back against the seat, and his face was buried in her neck. The seatbelt caught across her collarbone, and his weight pinned her against the leather, one of his large, square-knuckled hands braced on the headrest behind her.
His teeth nipped at her pulse point, and Delainey shivered. She held completely still, unsure if this was incredibly sexy or some sort of threat.
Why did werewolves need to make everything so complicated?
“You’re more than just someone I hired.” His voice was low and rough, and his lips brushed against her neck with every word.
Delainey shivered again. “I know that.” It came out high and a bit breathy.
Reece pulled back. Their gazes met. His eyes were solid gold, no brown left in them at all. Then his lips were on hers.
It was the kind of kiss that staked a claim, that bruised, and was so far beyond some casual thing that when he pulled back, Delainey felt like he had left a piece of himself inside her. She tasted copper, his blood or hers, she couldn’t tell, and the pressure of his mouth had been hard enough that her lips felt swollen and hot when the air hit them.
The gear shift had to be digging into something uncomfortable. Reece pulled back as if he were being jerked by an outside force.
He didn’t say anything as he put the car into gear and they drove away.
Chapter
