Lonely Alpha by Ranae Rose

his
injury, not to mention the fact that he’d apparently spent the
night tracking the hunter.
    “Are you sure it’s a good idea to stay here?
That guy could come bursting in here at any second.” She glanced
toward the curtained window, fear tying her stomach in knots when
she realized that she’d dropped her gun in the living room when
she’d shifted into wolf form.
    “No, he won’t do that.” A wry grin tilted
Jack’s full mouth. “Bargin’ in and shootin’ a man dead in his own
home – what kind of sport is that? No, he’ll want to kill us in the
wild. We’ll be safe here – for a while, anyway.”
    Mandy nodded stiffly. “If you say so.” The
truth was that she’d finally accepted the horrible practicality of
Jack’s anti-hospital sentiments. How could she possibly admit
herself or him to an emergency room when she could turn into a wolf
at any moment? She wasn’t in control of her transformations yet,
and then there was the matter of her body temperature. Jack no
longer felt abnormally hot to her, which meant that her temperature
had elevated to match his – to match a wolf’s. Who knew what other
changes this strange new nature had wrought in her body? “But
what’s our long-term plan?”
    “To kill the bastard before he kills us.”
    “You don’t think we should involve law
enforcement?”
    Jack scoffed, hinting at the rough, sarcastic
nature he’d displayed up until recently. “Tryin’ to make it down
the mountain and into town would end in a fight for our lives
anyway, and takin’ the road would be a suicide mission. We’ll have
to heal up tonight and then start hunting our hunter.”
    “Right.” Mandy managed to keep the shakiness
she felt brewing inside out of her voice. “Do you have a pack that
can help us?” It felt a little silly to ask, but she’d seen
something like that in a movie once, and her current circumstances
were far stranger than anything she’d ever seen at the theater or
on TV.
    “No.” He turned over onto his uninjured side,
facing the door. “It’s just us.”
     
    His answer sparked something inside Mandy –
curiosity, as well as tentative sympathy. His initial reply had
hinted at bitterness, but there hadn’t been a trace of it in his
voice when he’d said ‘it’s just us’. It seemed that she’d become an
ally to the crazy mountain man, and maybe he wasn’t so crazy after
all. “Do you think it would be safe to get some sleep?”
    His back was still to her. “Should be.”
    With his offhand blessing, she closed her
eyes. The past hour’s events had exhausted her, but that was no
surprise. It wasn’t every day that one transformed into an animal
for the first time and became caught in a murderer’s trap, only to
be rescued by a naked, golden-eyed werewolf.
     
    ****
     
    Mandy awoke in a sweat. She’d been having one
of those dreams again, and the smell of crushed pine needles still
swirled about her. Something warm was pressed against her cheek,
and when she shifted against it, the scent grew stronger. Slowly,
she opened her eyes, finding herself face to face with plenty of
bare muscle.
    Jack. He lay sprawled beside her on the bed,
his bicep against her cheek. She cast a hasty glance at his face
and was relieved to see that he was fast asleep. How had she gotten
here, in the middle of the bed? She’d fallen asleep slumped against
the headboard at the far end, while Jack had lain at the foot of
the mattress. Somehow, they’d found each other.
    Her blanket! She remembered it with a start
and realized it was no longer wrapped around her body. Instead, it
lay crumpled at the base of the headboard. She snatched it with her
good hand and covered herself with it again.
    Jack had kept ahold of his blanket, though
that was all he’d managed. He held it in his fist, and it streamed
across the mattress beside him, covering nothing. Mandy allowed her
gaze to travel over his resting body. It was perfect, save for the
wound in his side. It had