Dangerous Nights Ch. 02

Alejandra ran and ran and ran. Her lungs were burning and she could not feel her legs. As she began to gain a bit of control, the adrenaline slowed and she began walking quickly and easily through the crowds of Chicago. She needed to think. She needed a place to hide. Fuck, fuck, fuck. What was that thing? She knew enough to know that it wasn't a man, but she had never thought—werewolves? Really? While a part of her wanted to find a quite place and just replay the smell of him, the rest of her knew that there was a dead man in a hotel room, and she was the last person seen walking into that room.

She knew her pimp Rita would not help her at all now—that gig, short and pointless as it had been, was over. Ned—no. She had left him at the alter. As good a man as he was, he was not that good. Her parents had officially disowned her to their entire community. Where could she go?

The answer was simple. She could go home. Not to the home she was raised in, but to the only place she had ever felt safe. Her grandmother's loft on the north side of Chicago in Logan Square. The place was empty for the winter, but Alejandra had a way inside.

Alejandra hailed a cab and was whisked away into the city.

Rylan leaned over the ledge, expecting to see the girl limp on the pavement. Instead, he saw a figure shimmy down a pipe and leap to the sidewalk. And bolt. The girl was fast, agile, she moved like a cat, he thought. There was no way he could catch her. But as she ran, he felt his heart literally tug him. Growling, he leapt off the ledge as well, shedding his shirt and enjoying the feel of the chase. To the average observer, he probably looked like a crazy jogger running shirtless in winter. But his run was just a little too rolling, a little too strong and fast to be human. Women stopped to stare at his muscles and he grinned to himself. It was very, very seldom that he showed off.

But he didn't stop to enjoy the attention, he pushed himself to keep pace with the girl, matching her stride for stride, using his height to both see above the crowd and cover more ground. He was within a block when the girl slowed down and hailed a cab. Shit. He had almost reached her. Before the car door slammed he heard a street name, smelled a wiff of her strange, sweet scent, and felt disappointment and anticipation surge through him. He would find her. He HAD to find her. Suddenly nothing seemed more important—not even the pack. Responsibility tugged annoyingly at his memory—as distracting and beautiful as that creature was, he needed to report back immediately to the pack. He watched the cab pull away, fighting the urge to chase, to run it down and pull her out of the cab and drag her back to his den. Never, never, never had a woman affected him so deeply. He growled fiercely, and sent a few passerby scurrying away nervously.

Alejandra paid the cab driver and stepped up to the posh apartment building. She touched the door handle and the lock clicked open. Alejandra did not know a great deal of magic, but the building recognized her and welcomed her, Alejandra's grandmother had made sure of it before she left for Florida. Sometimes it felt as though her grandmother were the only person on her side, Alejandra thought.

"You just come here if you ever need a place to stay," her grandmother had said. "The walls know this is a haven for you, and no harm will come to you here." It had seemed strange at the time, her grandmother had never before given her such permission, but at times her grandmother seemed to have sight beyond time, as the elders called it. In spite of her fear and exhaustion, Alejandra felt a rush of warmth and peace come over her, and by the time she reached the third floor apartment, she felt almost better. The apartment door clicked open, and Alejandra slipped inside, pulling off her dress and stumbling to the bedroom, where she fell onto the bed and was asleep even before the bed could cradle itself around her.

Rylan forced himself to pull out his cell phone and dial the numbers. As the number rang through, he slipped inconspicuously into an alleyway, to avoid more stares from women and men alike.

"How did it go?" a deep voice answered.

"Perfectly, Dad," Rylan answered. "But there's a problem. I'm not at the hotel. Can you send someone to Lincoln and 53rd?"

"Of course. I'll send Dov. But what happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"That's understandable. Please come quickly."

"Of course." Rylan flexed his muscles. Most of the time, having a father who was alpha was great. After all, he had inherited the size, speed, stamina, and even when he was a pup no one really hassled him. But then there were times when the alpha in Rylan demanded more respect than his beta rank earned. Even if he had the desire to fight his father for power, he didn't have the wisdom or respect to really govern. Yet. Rylan knew his father had high hopes, but there were no guarantees that Rylan would be his father's successor. That would depend on the pack, on Rylan's strength, and who stepped up to challenge him. It had all seemed very important about two hours ago, but as Rylan stood in the shadows waiting for Dov, nothing seemed to matter as much as that woman's scent, the curve of her body as she ran, the hope of finding her again.

When Dov pulled up, Rylan jumped into his brother's car. Rylan was the oldest of twelve siblings, but of the twelve, Dov and Rylan were by far the closest. They were twins, littermates, and Rylan had been born about one minute before Dov. It didn't take longer for the door to slam than it did for Dov to size Rylan up and ask, "What's up?"

"We need to take a detour." Rylan said.

"Don't think that will sit well with the boss," Dov said. "He was worried, you know."

"It's not that. There's this girl..." Rylan growled. "She was there. And she ran. And..."

"And you need to follow her."

Rylan met his brother's eye. They sized each other up. "She'd better be worth it," Dov warned. Rylan nodded. They pulled out into traffic and Dov opened his phone to tell their father they would be late.

When they reached the neighborhood, Rylan felt uneasy. He had no idea which building she might be in. But a brick apartment building caught his eye, the kind of building that looks both welcoming and safe, the kind that might have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. A light shone in the third story. "Stop," he said. Dov pulled over and parked. "Fill the meter up and give me thirty minutes," he said. Dov raised his eyebrow but said nothing. Rylan stepped out of the car and sized up the building. If he tried to go in the front, he'd have to break through two doors. If he just went through the window, however...quietly, he climbed up the side of the building, and swung onto the fire escape. He found the window where the light had been on—now it was black. It must have just reflected to streetlight, he decided. But something about the window felt right—urgent, even. He tried to push it open, and it slid up like butter. He slipped inside, taking one last look back at his brother parked on the street, and could smell her immediately. Her scent was delicate and wild and sweet and tangy and he savored it as his eyes adjusted to the dark.

A noise woke Alejandra from her sleep. Not a noise, a presence, she decided, and she felt only slightly surprised to open her eyes and see the stranger from the hotel standing in her grandmother's bedroom. She stretched and yawned.

"You're not afraid?" he asked.

She blinked her big, golden, oval-shaped eyes at him. "I am safe here. You couldn't have gotten in unless the place willed it." And to her surprise, it was true. She felt completely safe in this apartment, in his presence, in her underwear.

Rylan felt a pressure squeeze his chest as he stared at her. She was too beautiful to be real. Her eyes were both innocent and wise, her hair wild and dark and wavy, her skin smooth and olive-toned. He had no words, and suddenly his hands and feet felt too big, and he realized he was standing shirtless in an apartment he had broken into—not a very smooth introduction, to say the least. "I'm Rylan."

She smiled, and it felt like the sun breaking through clouds. "I'm Alejandra. This is my haven, my grandmother's home. Welcome."

It hit Rylan that she was using Old Speech—it sounded so familiar and natural, but it was settled—she was not human.

"Thank you, Alejandra. I am sorry for..."

"For breaking in?" she continued to smile at him, and suddenly she felt her whole body flush. "I should thank you. For earlier." She looked up, and both felt slightly more on edge. The wind rattled through the apartment, and Alejandra ran to close the window. When she turned, she found herself inches from Rylan.

Before she could ask any of the million questions bubbling inside of her, she looked up and their eyes met. Heat pooled between her legs and she felt an aching in her hips and her lips and suddenly the only thing in the world that mattered was the heat radiating from his body. They both smelled her arousal at the same time, and Alejandra blushed. Rylan felt his cock harden painfully, and he couldn't help but moan as Alejandra pressed herself into it. She put her hands on his chest and he felt electricity surge through him and before he could think her lips were on his and they were kissing, tongues tasting and tantalizing and he pulled her hair back and bit down her neck to her collarbone, kissing and sucking until she thrust her chest up and he kissed his way down to her breasts. He pulled her bra aside and nibbled at her nipples. Gasping, she pressed his head harder, begging him to bite and taste and explore. He simply could not get enough of the taste of her skin and the smooth feel of her body under his calloused hands. He fumbled at the bra until finally he ripped through it. His wolf was getting wildly out of control. He needed to slow down or things were going to happen way too fast.

Alejandra was no longer in control—his mouth and hands were too much. She had never felt so painfully aroused—his cock was pressing against her leg, begging to be free from his pants. When he ripped her bra off, she gasped and wrapped her legs around him. He lifted her easily, still sucking and biting her breast while she writhed in his arms. Suddenly she broke away and leapt down. She threw him onto the bed with surprising force and clawed his pants off. Rylan was so surprised he almost lost his arousal. But she kissed him fiercely and bit a trail from his neck to his chest to his pelvis and he lay back, completely lost in her scent and the feeling of her mouth exploring his penis. Alejandra moaned. She simply could not get enough of his hard cock in her mouth. She licked her tongue over the veins and ridges and circled the top. It was the biggest cock she had ever seen and she just wanted to suck on it forever. Best. Cock. Ever. She thought to herself. She moaned again and rubbed her breasts against his hard dick. She slid up and kissed him, tempting his penis with her dripping wet pussy. They were both beyond sense and reason and were seeing stars, so completely lost in the moment that they had no sense of place or time. Alejandra felt as though her whole life had been building up to this. He grabbed her hips and was ready to thrust up into her when several things happened—first, their eyes met. Then, the word "Mate" popped into Rylan's head. Then, the window opened and his brother peaked his head into the room.

Alejandra shrieked and dove under the covers. Rylan looked at his brother, ready to lunge and kill, his first instinct to protect Alejandra, then simply considering how bad a fall three stories would really be if he just pushed Dov back out the window. Dov looked sheepishly at the two of them. "You said 30 minutes," he said. Then, slightly accusingly, "I swear I had a feeling I needed to get up here fast."

Alejandra growled fiercely. "Abuela, you don't need to protect me!"

The two men stared at her, and she glared back. "This apartment is attempting to protect my chastity," she explained lamely. The two men looked skeptically at the former prostitute. She covered herself back up with the blankets and Rylan looked at Dov, wondering exactly what would have happened if his brother hadn't interrupted—would his wolf have completely taken over? Would he have mated with a complete stranger? He could see the same questions in Dov's eyes, and the looked away, neither wanting to address those slippery, unknowable questions.

"Well, instead of sowing wild oats, maybe we should get back to the den," Dov suggested.

Rylan looked down at the lump under the sheets next to him. "Only if she comes, too."

Alejandra peaked her head above the covers, wide-eyed. She blinked. "Really?"

Dov looked at Rylan as if to say, you are not really going to bring a stray back to the den, are you?

Rylan met his gaze. "Really."