AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then there was her unique coloring—the gray streaks in her hair and her gray eyes. It was more than coincidence. The first stirring of anger ignited inside him. He had no intention of falling victim to his baser instincts, of allowing himself to be controlled by another. He’d survived this long by being smart.
Get your head on straight. This is a job.
He hadn’t worked this hard to control himself since he’d made his first shift. Whoever Luna West was, she was a danger to him. How much of what he was experiencing was natural attraction and how much might be a result of some mage-conjured spell? The white wolf had cautioned that a woman would be the lure cast out by his enemies. As much as he wanted to discount the warning, he wasn’t stupid. There were mystical elements at play. It was his job to get to the bottom of the conspiracy against the lone wolves and eliminate it.
“Twenty thousand.” Chelsea gave a sharp laugh. “You’ll have to forgive Luna’s inflated view of her talent and odd sense of humor. Honestly, I felt sorry for her and allowed her to hang a piece of her work. It’s my generous nature, you understand. The price is two thousand.”
Shrugging her hand off his arm, he held out his credit card. “The price is twenty thousand and worth every penny.” He watched her lips flatten into a frown as she weighed his obvious brush-off against the lure of his money. No surprise, the cash and possibility of future sales won.
The difference between the two women was glaring. Chelsea was hard, with a calculating, mercenary side. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. He appreciated her cunning and willingness to do whatever it took to get what she wanted, but he sensed a cruel edge to her temper and feared Luna would take the brunt of it for tonight’s fiasco. Generous nature? Yeah, that was a laugh. This woman did nothing without there being some benefit for her.
Luna, on the other hand, had raised the price on her work, not out of greed, but because he got the distinct impression she’d decided she was either having regrets about selling or didn’t want him to have it. She was protective of the wolf in the painting.
The wolf on the canvas was him, down to the finest detail. What would it be like to have a woman like her be as protective of him? His skin rippled under his jacket, and he wrenched the creature back under control before it broke free. Merely because she’d painted him, claimed to dream about him, didn’t mean they had a connection. His wolf might be ready to throw caution to the wind but he wasn’t. Sniffing out lies was one of his abilities as a lone wolf, and there hadn’t been a whiff of anything but honesty from Luna.
Logically speaking, it was more likely the work of magic. He supposed he could be under surveillance, but he couldn’t figure out how. He moved constantly, never staying in one place, driven by the compulsion inside him to hunt rogue wolves. He despised the sense of being manipulated by a force outside himself. That had already happened once in his life—when he’d become the lone wolf. He hadn’t asked for that and hadn’t asked for this, either, but fate or life didn’t give a shit what he wanted.
“If you’ll come downstairs, we can see to the particulars. I assume you’ll want the canvas shipped.” Heels clicking against the hardwood flooring, she strode to the stairs.
“Yes.” He was currently staying in a hotel. He’d have it delivered there and arrange shipping himself. It would be picked up by a third party and put in a storage locker where it would remain until he could personally collect it. He trusted no one with his home address.
As he followed Chelsea, he tracked Luna. She was chatting with an older couple who seemed enthusiastic about a particular painting. As if sensing his gaze, she turned her head, and their eyes met. All other sound around him muted until the only thing he could hear was her sharp intake of breath and the rapid beat of her heart.
“This way.” Chelsea broke his concentration. Nose in the air, she led him to a counter at the center of the gallery. “Where would you like the painting sent?”
“My hotel.” He gave the address.
She glanced at the credit card before she ran it. “This is a corporate card. You’re in town on business?”
“Yes.” KA Incorporated was an umbrella company for all his other interests. He had other credit cards, but none of the names on them were actually his. Multiple identities were a precaution. It wasn’t always easy to tell friend from foe. And in these modern times, it was easy to track people’s purchases and movements.
He finished the transaction, noting the particulars on the delivery form, and held out his hand for the card. She offered it but held on rather than releasing it. “If you’d like company while you’re in town—” She let her suggestion hang there between them.
He normally had no problem with an assertive woman, one who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to go for it. Tonight, he found it annoying. “I’ll be busy with meetings.” Better to be vague than rebuff her outright in case he needed further information. This time when he tugged, she let go.
“If that changes…” She produced an ivory card embossed with gold script. It had the name of the gallery and the number on the front. He flipped it over, not surprised to see another number written in ink on the back. “My private line,” she said with a smile.
He tucked it into his wallet with his credit card. “It’s been a fascinating evening.” No lie there.
Her smile widened, and she licked her bottom lip. “It could be even better.”
“I’m sure it could.” But not with her. The laughter and conversation around him grated on his nerves. His wolf was pacing inside him. The air was stifling, even with the air conditioning. Too many people. Too many smells. Too many emotions battering at him. He headed straight for the door.
When Luna glanced his way, it took everything in him not to grab her and make a run for it.
Not yet.There were too many unanswered questions.
When he hit the sidewalk, he took a deep breath. He glanced at his watch, surprised to find a little over a half hour had passed. Such a short time, but meeting Luna had set his trajectory on a different path. Life was like that. You never knew when a huge shift was going to occur.
He hadn’t connected with Devlin since he’d arrived from Brazil. He’d turned his phone off during the flight and hadn’t turned it back on, distracted by the restlessness of his wolf. He had no idea if the inner voice that sometimes whispered to him belonged to the gray wolf itself or if it was from some outside source, but it had been there since he’d made his first transition. The voice guided him to his prey. In the early days, he’d fought the urge to hunt until the compulsion almost drove him out of his mind. It was either follow it or go mad. Since he enjoyed his sanity, he hunted.
He crossed at the lights and ducked into a coffee shop. The gallery opening didn’t end for another hour, and he intended to follow Luna home. He didn’t view it as stalking. If she was somehow involved in the mess with the lone wolves—and every indicator pointed in that direction—then it was his job to protect her. At least until he discovered if she was an innocent party or a major player in the conspiracy to harm him and the other two. If it was the latter…
His stomach clenched at the thought of having to put Luna down like a rogue wolf. There was a reason he rarely looked at himself in the mirror. Too much death and blood on his hands. It took a toll. There were days he wondered why he bothered, why he clung so tenaciously to life, but he’d never been a quitter. Life, despite the hardships, was precious.
After grabbing a coffee, he took an empty seat by the window, giving him a perfect vantage point. He winced when he turned on his phone. He’d missed three calls from Devlin. Considering they’d never talked until a few days ago, something big must have occurred.
He placed the call, glaring at a man who was about to sit near him. The guy turned on his heel and found a seat at the back of the cafe.
