“Where are we going?” Lana’s voice knocked me back to reality.
Glancing over at her, I shrugged, trying to shake it off. “It’s a nice day. Want to eat at Lake Tahoe?”
She shifted in her seat. Shit. I had scared her. “That’s okay. I’d rather get back to my car and get on the road before the guys in gray jumpsuits come back.”
“You’re safer if you stay here.” My grip on Chaney’s wheel tightened as I struggled to calm the restless wolf inside of me. “Those guys after you were human. You’ve got skills you don’t even know about yet.”
“This sounds totally insane, but how can you be so sure they weren’t…like me?”
“Remember I caught your scent from outside?” I cut my eyes toward her for a moment, remembering the nasty kick she’d given me. “These guys reeked of Irish Spring and Zest, but nothing supernatural.” I focused back on the road. “I can keep you safe while you learn to protect yourself.”
“I know how to protect myself just fine, thanks.” She hesitated, and I hoped she was going to give me this one. She took a deep breath and shook her head. “I can’t stay here.”
I gave it one more try. “I’m not suggesting forever, but maybe a couple days?”
Her eyes drifted over my way, and she raised a brow. “What about the Pack? Will you be able to keep me a secret from them?”
I didn’t want to think about my Pack right now. “We’ll figure it out.”
We zipped past a Lake Tahoe sign, and she tried to tame her hair, holding it behind her head. “How far is the lake from here?”
“About an hour away now.”
Her teeth caught her full lower lip, and I forced my eyes back onto the highway as blood rushed below my belt.
She freed her hair and touched her pocket, probably checking for her pepper spray. Great.
Finally she nodded. “All right, but just for the afternoon.”
Everything about Lana distracted me. Her scent, her smile, her lips. I felt like an addict. She didn’t seem to have any idea how sexy she was, which made her even more attractive. She didn’t have to try to get my attention. She just had it.
In spite of her race being an enemy of the Pack, the wolf inside of me staked his claim anyway, leaving me scrambling for a solution to this impossible problem. I was screwed. She couldn’t stay in Reno, and I couldn’t tell her why I wanted her to stay without sounding like a stalker. I’d had no idea how strong the instincts of the wolf inside me could be. It went beyond physical want, a need to have her nearby, to know she was safe.
I had to figure out how to protect her from the men after her and from my own Pack. She was right. It was probably safer for her to leave town. But I couldn’t let her go. It’d be great if I could figure out how to live in the moment and enjoy today because I may not see her again tomorrow, but I flat-out couldn’t.
A sarcastic chuckle slipped out of my mouth. I sold that same line of bullshit to women I dated many times. I never realized what a heap of crap it was until I tried to pitch it to myself. I was an asshole.
And apparently fate had a sick sense of humor.
“What’s so funny?”
I glanced over at Lana. “Nothing.” She didn’t look convinced. I decided to change the subject.
“So what do you do for a living?”
“I’m a freelance writer.”
Not what I expected. “What do you write?”
“Anything really. My last article was for Women’s Day about going on day hikes with your children. You know, fresh air and exercise make for good bonding time with your kids. That kind of thing.”
“Do you have kids?”
“No!” She laughed and shook her head. “But I go hiking, and I’m a good writer. I can research, and thanks to pen names, no one needs to know I’m not a mom. Magazines pay pretty well for articles, and I can get paid electronically. No need for a local bank. Which works well since I’ve been…moving around a lot lately.”
I pulled off the freeway and stopped at the light. “Do you write books, too?”
“Not right now.” She ran her fingers back through her hair, pulling it away from her face. “I have to crank out plenty of articles to make enough money to live, so there isn’t any spare time right now for fiction that doesn’t pay. What about you?”
“I’m a horse trainer.” I could feel her eyes on me and glanced over before taking the road toward the lake. “What?”
“Really?”
“You sound surprised.”
“You don’t wear a cowboy hat or boots.”
I laughed. “The horses don’t actually give a shit about cowboy hats and boots, so neither do I. A comfortable pair of jeans and tennis shoes work fine for me. I save the Stetsons and boots for the horse shows.”
“So you really get paid for riding horses?”
“Yeah. I have a ranch a few miles outside of Reno. Do you ride?”
“I always wanted to when I was little, but I moved around a lot.” She stared straight ahead again. “Not many ponies around.”
“We’ll have to go for a ride sometime.”
I left the offer on the table, although we’d probably never ride together. If anyone in the Pack found out a jaguar lived within our territory they would hunt it down. Lana would be in danger on the ranch.
She was already in enough danger. I put her there by asking her to stay.
But I couldn’t let her go.
Fuck.
I pulled into a parking spot on the north shore. Fewer campers over there. After shutting off the engine I turned to her. “Welcome to Lake Tahoe.”
The sunlight sparkled on the deep blue surface of the lake as we walked along the water’s edge. A small, orange fishing boat floated out in the center of the water. A patient fisherman sat at the bow, toying with the line of his fishing pole, and all around us the breeze moaned through the pine trees.
I reached for her hand and led her along a trail toward a granite boulder. Every time we touched the mate bond pulled at me, like I walked into a spider web and might never get free.
“Lana?” I pointed up at the eight-foot-high boulder in front of us. “Can you jump up there?”
“Jump?” She stared at the top. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Not at all.”
She checked the rock again like it might have shrunk, then crossed her arms. “No one can possibly jump that high.”
I leaned in and kissed her cheek. Her eyes grew wide and she blushed. I couldn’t resist the grin tugging at my lips. “Watch me.”
Rolling my head to loosen up, I took a few steps back and gave the area a quick look-over. Other than the fisherman out on the lake, there didn’t appear to be anyone else around. I sprinted toward the rock and leapt into the air. Nothing felt better than pushing my body and feeling the power brewing inside. I landed at the top of the boulder and smiled down, daring her to follow.
“Unbelievable. How did you do that?”
“You can do it too.” I straightened and glanced at the lake. “You just don’t know it yet.”
She shook her head. “No way.”
“Last night you turned into a big, bad-ass jaguar. You can make a little eight-foot jump onto a rock.” Something drew my attention back toward the water again. There was a disturbance in the air—I could feel it but couldn’t pinpoint what it was. I looked back at Lana. “I told you I’d prove you have enhanced abilities.” I opened my hands, ready to catch her. “Let’s do this.”
She walked a few paces back, bitching and moaning the whole way about how impossible it was and something about suing me if she broke her leg. Finally she ran, and the moment she let go, her natural abilities took over. Her strides were fluid. Her feet pounded the ground, legs pushing hard until she jumped.