Night Fall on Dark Mountain by Delilah Devlin Page B

“Now, you’ve earned your answers.”

Chapter Five
    ‡
    S tasia McGwyre fumed as she drew her blue jeans over her hips. Still sticky and hot, she knew the guys in the station would smell the scent of sex clinging to her body. They’d share smirks and knowing glances and think she was still the dutiful little bitch to the clan’s alpha male.
    She’d been there. Done that. With Max when he’d had his choice of mates.
    When her brother Todd had been the ranking male, her stature as his familial female had raised her above the sniffing of the local dogs. Now, she was back to square one.
    And all because another Weir crooked his finger to make her his.
    Alec finished dressing and leaned against her pickup, watching as she drew on her boots. Her fingers shook and her stomach jumped, not wanting to lean over and present a view he couldn’t resist exploring. It didn’t take much to turn on the horn-dog.
    She berated herself for betraying her attraction in the woods. Having fought hard to wrest control of her passionate nature, she hated Alec for the ease with which he’d knocked down her walls.
    The man who had the power to arouse her had the power to destroy her, unless she could tip the scales in her favor.
    “Didn’t take you nearly as long to get those off,” he grumbled.
    Stasia gave him a chilling stare, but his lips lifted in a grin. She straightened and strode toward the station house without replying. He was trying to draw her into another argument, and she wasn’t going to be led. He might have power over her body, but she controlled what went on inside her head.
    It seemed all the deputies on duty, and even a few who worked the early morning shift, had gathered in the station. When Stasia and Alec drew near, their conversation halted and they looked up, excitement tightening their features.
    Her brother Todd gave her a quick once-over, and his lips thinned in disapproval.
    Stasia glared and tilted her chin, pretending indifference. But she couldn’t resist lifting a hand to her hair, wondering if she still had leaves clinging to the strands.
    “They’re both in the pit, waiting for you, Sheriff,” Todd said, a note of insolence in his voice. Todd still smarted at how easily an accountant had bested him in the trial.
    Alec nodded, not seeming to notice his deputy’s disrespect, and continued past the line of officers. “Get out on the road,” he threw over his shoulder. “Make sure we don’t have more bloodsuckers making their way into town.”
    Stasia followed on his heels as he headed away, staying quiet so as not to underline her presence. She had to get into the pit to see for herself.
    The steps down into the basement of the one-hundred-twenty year-old station house were narrow and lit by a single naked light bulb. The air was moist and smelled slightly of mildew. Stasia sniffed and caught two other distinctive scents below.
    One she’d know anywhere if she lived to be a thousand years old. The other, a mix of masculine musk and elusive almond corpse, was a smell she hadn’t experienced often, living this deep in were-held territory.
    A vampire. Max truly had dared to commit the offense!
    Her heart pounded faster, and she had to consciously rein in her were-beast, lurking just beneath the surface. She followed Alec past storage cages to the specially designed cell at the end of the basement, fighting the urge turning on the tap of liquid lust that seeped a slow drip between her legs.
    Thick steel bars, set deep in concrete, ringed a dark cell. Alec flicked on a light shaded to shine directly into the faces of the two captives.
    “Dammit, Alec. Are we still playing games?” Max growled.
    That deep-throated rumble made her body weep faster. Stasia couldn’t help it. She reminded herself Max wasn’t the wolf she’d known before, but her body remembered the sex, and her panties drenched.
    Unforgettable, harsh, uber-alpha sex.
    “Who’s playing?” Alec murmured and leaned back against the