Cursed To Death

Sweat had created a deep V on Hunter’s army green t-shirt, starting at his heavy silver and amber amulet, and her tank top and jeans clung to her like she’d been poured into them. The thick silver chain around her neck with the etched amber piece dangling from it now felt like it weighed a ton. They’d only been inside about an hour and their guys that had been waiting double-parked in open jeeps looked like they’d been drenched in a sudden downpour.

Clarissa’s plump face was red and damp, and her blond hair was practically plastered to her scalp. Woods, who was behind the wheel of the second vehicle, had a steady stream of sweat rolling down his temples, matting down his normally immaculate brunet hair, while poor Bradley, the eldest on the team and in his forties, had his head back with his eyes closed, apparently deciding to tough out the heat by going semiconscious. Right behind them in another haphazardly parked jeep, Fisher bopped to the radio like a lanky golden retriever that enjoyed the wetness-simply having the time of his life because it involved another adventure. Seeing him in the backseat joking with the baby of the group, Mark Winters, brought a smile to her face despite the circumstances or uncomfortable heat.

However, Hunter’s main enforcer Bear Shadow, a three-hundred-pound Native-American double for an NFL linebacker, as well as Sasha’s half brother Crow Shadow, a shorter, more sinewy, defensive tight-end version of “the Bear,” seemed anything but relaxed and jovial. Sasha held her brother’s gaze for a moment. Looking into Crow Shadow’s face was like looking into a darker version of her own. His expression was tense but unreadable and only offered her a reflection of his exotic biracial elements of Native-American and African-American ancestry.

Still, there was a level of quiet anxiety in both Hunter’s men’s eyes that concerned her. Those two were normally laid back; they didn’t do high anxiety unless something serious had raised their DEFCON levels. What had the two male Shadow Wolves locked in on that she hadn’t seen or that her human squad hadn’t detected?

Clarissa should have picked up something psychically wrong now, just like her Shadow Wolf familiars, Woods and Fisher, should have instinctively detected if something wasn’t right. Their entire system was designed to preempt a threat. Plus, Bradley, their dark arts specialist, was always on guard, just like Winters’s techno-gadgets should have sounded if there was something dangerous closing in on them. But everybody in the Paranormal Containment Unit squad seemed okay and only heat fatigued, except the Shadows…

She glanced at Hunter and then watched him take two more steps toward their vehicle, weave, and then catch his balance by grabbing on to a lamppost. Then he slowly turned around, his gaze pure wolf.

“You okay?” she asked, ruffling her hair up off her neck, seeking a breeze from any direction in the still air.

Hunter shook his head slowly. “No. Not at all.”

For a moment she held his gaze and then looked around, stepping in closer. “What’s wrong? What did you see in there that I didn’t?”

Hunter’s hands covered her bare arms, sending searing heat into her flesh. Confusion tore at her mind; was what he had to say so awful that he had to steady her with a touch?

When he angled his face and moved in, the strange action startled her and she pulled back, eyes wide. A kiss? Out in public? In front of their squad? Hunter?

Oh yeah, something was definitely wrong. They didn’t do public displays of affection-ever.

“You okay?” she whispered, staring at him and then nervously glancing at her squad from the corner of her eye.

“I told you before. No,” he said between his teeth, his canines begi

“Then what’s the matter?” She’d asked the question without blinking, almost without breathing.

“You.” His grip tightened on her arms. “I can’t explain it… but do I need to right now?”

“Yeah… Hello… We are out on the sidewalk and people are staring at us and a you’re acting weird-”

The kiss was so sudden and feral that it knocked the wind out of her. One moment there was at least a half a foot between them, and the next she was wrapped in a viselike grip, her body crushed against Hunter’s stone-cut chest. Her amulet was pressing into her breasts from the force of its collision with the heavy amber and silver piece he wore. Winters’s joking comments about them getting a room sounded so far away as Hunter’s fingers threaded through her hair and within seconds splayed across her back. She swallowed Hunter’s moan while trying to wrest herself from his grasp, but her legs were becoming rubbery as he devoured her mouth. The second he broke the kiss to gasp in a breath, she pushed his chest with both hands.

“Yo! Time out!” Sasha tried to step back as she wiped her palms down her face. “What just happened in there?”

Woods started up the motor of his jeep. “We’ll catch you guys later tonight,” he called out and put the vehicle in reverse.

Bear Shadow nodded and started his engine.

Fisher jumped out of the backseat of the third jeep and headed toward the jeep Hunter had been driving. “I’ve got you covered, man. Leave it here and you’ll get towed for sure. Throw me your keys.”

Hunter never answered, just dug in his pocket and threw his keys in the direction of Fisher’s voice.

“No, no, no!” Sasha yelled, pure humiliation burning her cheeks. “This isn’t what it looks like!”

Hunter stared at her. “Yes, it is.”

It all happened so quickly that it seemed like a blur. One moment Hunter was staring at her, his eyes transformed to betray his i

He’d landed them in the twilight place, the shadow lands where spirits walked and Shadow Wolves traveled, but that fact seemed completely lost on Hunter. Wide, hot palms covered her backside, pulling her in close as he aggressively sought her mouth with a moan. No matter how fantastic what he was doing felt, his entire demeanor was incongruent with what was going on. Two women had died, they had just been standing over the first victim’s body… and that turned him on? Not a good sign.

“Stop!” Sasha said with a snarl and yanked away from Hunter’s grasp. She lowered her head in wolf attack mode, feeling her ears begin to flatten against her skull. “It’s dangerous in the shadow lands to be caught unaware. You of all people know that. How many battles have we fought in here? How many predators have we run from, coming through the zones? Once you start making love, you won’t hear a thing. Never that in here.”

She watched him back up and begin to rub the nape of his neck as though blood flow was returning to the thinking part of his body. Pointing toward the mist in a hard snap, she leveled her gaze at Hunter. “Two women just died, we just examined the bodies… now I want you to tell me real slowly and clearly why that just sent you into a mating frenzy.”

“I haven’t a fucking clue,” Hunter said quietly in a far-off voice. His tone was bewildered, as though he’d come out of a bad dream. There was no anger or judgment in his response, only what seemed like pure disbelief. He looked down at his hands, studying them intently as they trembled, and then finally looked up at Sasha. “If one of my own men had gotten out of the jeep, I would have battled him for being too close to my mate while in season… but you’re not.”

“No… I’m not,” Sasha said more softly, glad that the old Hunter she knew was begi

“I don’t understand… I thought my system had beaten the contagion.”

They stared at each other for what felt like a long time.

“This can’t be the contagion,” she finally said, now wrapping her arms around herself. “You beat it; Doc said you beat it-Silver Hawk saw you beat it in a vision.”