On the Prowl by Kate Rudolph

8

Em watchedAndre work closer than she should have. He had the kind of stalking grace she would expect to see if he was in his animal form. But she had never seen him in his wolf skin. And she realized she wanted to.

She'd spent a lot of time researching wolves in the month since she’d discovered that werewolves were real. For a day she had fallen down the rabbit hole of believing outdated research on alphas and betas and omegas. In that structure, she thought Andre would be an alpha even if he was currently following the orders of Jericho Gibson. If that research had been correct, he wouldn't have stuck around for long.

But things were far more complex than a leadership structure broken down and based on rule by the strongest. She didn't doubt Andre could take just about anyone in a fight. But maybe he still had some things to learn about leading people.

She shook her head. Wild wolves organized themselves in family structures not unlike humans, with a mom and a dad and the baby wolves. Easy to understand, if a little disappointing for not explaining some of the vagaries of human existence.

Em really had to stop thinking about wild wolves. Andre was a human who could turn into a wolf. That was it.

"Do you have any ideas?" she asked, if only so it wouldn't seem so weird that she couldn't stop looking at him.

He was standing by her bed, and she tried really hard not to imagine what it would look like if he was laying down naked in it.

Damn it. And there was that image in her head. His skin would look good in her sheets. Pressed up against her. Pressing into her. Hot hands stroking her flesh as his coc—

No. She wasn't going to do that. She couldn't remember the last time she had wanted a man this much, but she didn't get to have him. She didn't even like him.

If she was in a more self-destructive period of her life, she might have suggested they fuck just to get it out of their systems. But that never worked, and Andre was here for a reason. She was going to take the help he had to give her and nothing else.

"There's nothing," said Andre, frustration lacing his words. He glared at the sheets as if he could intimidate them into confessing.

"No evidence?" Most of her ideas with evidence gathering came from Law and Order, CSI, and other popular police dramas. Not exactly something that would stand up in court. Or something that would give them a clue on how to investigate a supernatural phenomenon. But there were TV shows for that, too.

"No. There's nothing." He emphasized the word as if instead of nothing, he truly meant something.

"What do you mean?" Thinking about werewolves and magic was hurting her brain.

Andre struggled for a moment before he seemed to figure out what he wanted to say. "Everything has a scent. And ever since… you know… my sense of smell has improved. Sometimes that is not a gift." He shuddered at a memory he didn't share.

She had to smile at that. She didn't know how long he'd stuck around in the military before being discharged, but if his senses had been heightened while living in the barracks, that had to have been a nightmare. She had a feeling that army guys could smell really bad.

He continued. "But your bed and the costume don't have any scent whatsoever. It's like a void. I've never encountered something like that."

Now she was beginning to understand. He wasn't just talking about something being super clean. "That doesn't sound like a werewolf. I assume one would have a scent." She wondered how different it was than what she could smell. Was it just more? Or was there something indescribable about it?

"A regular werewolf, if there is such a thing, would have a scent," he confirmed. He crouched beside the bed and took another sniff before standing back up. Then he looked over at her and… was that a blush? Maybe he felt a bit self conscious for doing something inhuman in front of her.

But she needed him because he wasn't completely human. And she needed to think outside the box. "Ghost werewolf?" It sounded ridiculous even to her own ears as she suggested it, but what else was she supposed to think? They were already in a position where werewolves were the norm.

Andre pursed his lips and considered. Finally, he shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know if ghosts exist. But it's something with claws and something that doesn't have a scent. I'll try and do research. But in the meantime, I think you should cancel tonight's concert."

Whatdid he say? "What?" There was no way she heard that right. "There are thousands of people that are already on their way. They would murder me way more than some sort of ghost werewolf if I canceled tonight."

But his jaw was set and all that sexy—no, not sexy— intensity was pointed her way. "This thing could attack you. Just say you have… exhaustion… or whatever it is you pop stars say that you have when you don't want to perform."

Asshole! And things had been going so well. "First off, I'm a rock star, not a pop star. It doesn't matter, but let's be specific. Second of all, I am physically fine and I don't want rumors swirling that I'm about to go into rehab, or get plastic surgery, or that I'm pregnant, or any of the other dozens of rumors that will swirl if I cancel a concert at the last minute because of exhaustion. I'm not exhausted. I'm fine." And some stupid ghost werewolf was not going to keep her from performing. It could scare her, but it would not intimidate her.

Andre let out a sound of frustration that verged on a wolfish growl. "I don't care why you cancel. Say it's technical difficulties. Set the damn concert venue on fire if you have to. But you should not go on stage tonight."

"I went on stage last night and it was fine." She'd been a bit freaked, but that had all melted away as one song bled into another.

"You went on stage last night, and today it attacked your bedroom. That's an escalation. Clearly you can see that." His eyes were a bit wild as he made his points.

As their words got heated, they got closer and closer to one another. It was like they kept being pulled into each other's orbit.

Why couldn't she resist getting close to this man? He was infuriating. She had no doubt he would do something extreme to cancel the concert if he could.

And there was no way she was going to let him.

"So you're saying you can't protect me?" she challenged. He was the one who insisted on staying. So he could do his damn job. "Canceling is a big deal. I can't do it. Find a way to keep me safe."

Andre reared back and began to pace. "Did anything happen like this before you got to this town? You’ve been here for nearly a week, right?"

And she was supposed to have enjoyed staying in one place. Ghost werewolves had a way of messing things up. "That's right. We roll out tomorrow. And nothing weird happened beforehand. I mean, nothing other than the normal tour weirdness that happens occasionally."

"Normal tour weirdness?" he asked, one eyebrow raised.

It was such a part of tour life that it took Em a minute to figure out what had to be explained. "Stuff goes wonky. It's not magical. This was the first time that anything had been clawed up like this."

That answer didn't satisfy him. "Then why did you call Stasia right away? Seems a little strange to call for help after one incident."

"Did you see the size of those claws? And I've been having bad dreams." She hated to admit it. But he had asked so she would answer. "I usually just collapse in exhaustion after shows. But for the last week or so, I've felt like something's been chasing me. Could just be regular bad dreams. Happens all the time."

He made a sound of acknowledgment, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. And then he got quiet, eyes scraping over the room as he thought. "I'm going to need to talk to Darlene. I don't know how to keep you safe from a werewolf ghost, but I'll do my best."

"If we’re lucky, it's just localized to the city and it'll go away once I move on." She hoped. Maybe the hotel was haunted by a ghost werewolf and that was the problem.

What had her life come to?

"We," he corrected.

"We who?" She had a sinking feeling she knew what he meant.

"You're stuck with me until this thing is resolved." And the way Andre said it, it sounded like a threat.