Hunting Ground (Alpha & Omega 2)

She'd left them before dessert, though, because she didn't trust herself not to indulge. The restaurant they'd chosen was justly famous for its exotic cheesecake. She hadn't kept her figure by allowing herself to sample food she might like too much-and she'd noticed it was getting dark. Arthur didn't like it when she was out too late, he worried about her.

The elevator opened onto the right level for her car. The light next to the elevator was out. She hurried through the darkness until the next light, then felt silly for her anxiousness.

Someone on the other side of the garage was arguing with his girlfriend. Neither of them was very upset. Probably foreplay, she thought. She and Arthur indulged, and she recognized the tone.

She looked, but she couldn't see the couple because an SUV was in the way. Before she got a clear view, the sound of car doors shutting cut off the sound of their bickering. A car engine started, and a silver Porsche passed by, its lights momentarily blinding her.

She dropped her keys and started to kneel and pick them up. Someone's hand was there first.

"Allow me." The man was taller than her Arthur, though not as wide through the shoulders. For a minute she was worried-as any woman alone in a parking garage with a stranger would be. But then she saw the cut of his wool coat: thugs wouldn't wear expensive coats and white linen shirts.

"Thank you," she said as she took her keys out of the leather-gloved hand that held them out to her.

"No troubles," he said. "You'll forgive me the question-but what is a lovely woman like you doing out here all alone?"

Part of her preened under his obvious admiration-she knew her aging distressed Arthur. The honest appreciation in a handsome man's eyes soothed a growing wound in her heart. This man looked to be a few years older than she, and his manners were gallant.

"I was dining with friends," she told him. "My husband is waiting for me."

"Ah" He opened his fingers as if he'd held something precious he had to let go. It was so artfully done that she was certain he had to be an actor or maybe a dancer. "I should have known that such a lovely woman would not be left free-but a man lives on hope. Your accent is charming-you are British?"

"Yes. And so is my husband. Thank you for the keys and the compliment." She smiled at him and headed for her car with brisk strides that would let him understand that, although she appreciated his admiration, she was not available. The smile stayed on her face, warmed a little, as soon as she had her back to him.

She pressed the button that unlocked her car and opened the door-and a hand closed around her mouth.

"Forgive me a little harmless flirtation," he said in her ear. "It seemed a kindness I could give. I regret that your death will not be so kind. My employer failed me-and so I no longer have to follow his so-explicit instructions. My friends are sad, and a little play will make them feel so much better."

She screamed, but the faint noise that escaped his hand wouldn't travel far.

His free hand petted her face as he whispered, his breath smelling like peppermint, "I'll see to it that your husband knows that you didn't flirt with me. That you were faithful to him unto death. Will that soothe him, do you think?"

He was strong. He controlled her struggles effortlessly even though she worked out on a daily basis. Werewolf. He must be one of the werewolves.

"Come, my children," he said, and she realized he wasn't alone. She heard people move behind them, but the only one she could see was the woman who hopped onto the roof of her car. A beautiful woman with honey-colored hair caught up in a ponytail.

"We can play with our dinner?" the woman asked, and terror made Sunny's knees give way. The woman had fangs.

Not werewolf. Vampire.

"We're going to see if she is his mate-or merely his wife, Hannah," her captor said.

"That means yes." The voice came from her left, but she couldn't see the man who said it. But she felt him pull her arm straight and sink his fangs into the inside of her elbow.

It hurt.

THE Emerald City Pack's hunting grounds were in a warehouse district that had seen better days. Those warehouses nearest the water were lit up and, if not hives of activity, still obviously running with a full shift of people. As the ground rose away from the water, the warehouses began to look less and less prosperous.

Following Charles's directions, Anna continued up the battered asphalt road to a pair of huge buildings surrounded by a twelve-foot-tall chain-link fence, hospitably topped by razor wire.

The whole property looked as though no one had done anything industrious there for fifty years-and none of the other warehouses in the immediate area looked any more occupied. Adding to the general disreputable air, the metal roof of one of the buildings was missing a sheet or ten of roofing material.

The people at the gate must have recognized the car because they had it opened for her to drive right on through. As she drove closer to the warehouses, the buildings looked bigger and bigger, and, as she passed between them, they shut out the night sky until it was a narrow ribbon with the Hunter's Moon, just a sliver of silver, in the sky above them.

There were thirty or forty cars in a space big enough to park a hundred. Most of them were parked next to the larger of the two warehouses, so that was where Anna parked, too.

"You're quiet tonight," said Charles.

She looked at her hands and flexed them on the steering wheel, easing her grip when the wheel creaked.

She'd meant to keep quiet about joining the hunt, but as the time approached, springing it on him in front of everyone seemed more and more stupid. "I have an idea-and you aren't going to like it."

He looked at her for a long time, long enough that she finally looked back.

"I am dominant," he told her, as if she didn't already know. "And that means I am driven to take care of those who are mine."

She met his gaze, held it, and realized slowly that it pleased him that she could do so. It pleased her, too.

"You want to go into the hunt."

"Yes."

She expected him to forbid it outright-and realized that part of her had been counting on using that as an excuse to bow out.

Instead he simply asked, "Why?"

"Because Ric thinks that it might help with this..." She dropped her eyes and then raised them again and firmed her voice. "With the baseless fear that had me shivering in my seat yesterday when the auditorium filled up with Alphas-who were ready to kill each other to protect me. It made me feel stupid and weak. I was less frightened when Chastel came into Angus's office-and I had a lot more reason then."