A wave of fatigue hit me hard enough to have me swaying on my feet. A glance at the clock told me it was nearly two a.m., well past my usual bedtime. I flicked on the bedside lamp and switched off the overhead lights. I drank a little water and tried to keep my eyes open while waited for Calder, but it was a lost cause. Within minutes, I drifted off.
Something jarred me from sleep. I lay still for a few minutes, trying to figure out what woke me. Down the hall a door slammed, followed by another. That was probably it. Blinking to clear my vision, I glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost six a.m.
Rolling over, I reached out, thinking maybe Calder had returned without waking me. The other side of the bed was cold and empty. He’d never come back. Crazy thoughts assaulted my mind, worries that he was hurt or in trouble. Heart pounding, I climbed out of bed and yanked on my snug leather pants. Without the aid of the baby powder I’d used earlier, it was tricky, but I managed it.
Slowly, I opened the door to the hall and peeked out. I wasn’t sure why I was trying to be so quiet. I was an invited guest, a friend of Donna’s. Then again, all that partying the night before might have made some of those vampires hungry. Rolling my eyes at my own wild thoughts, I walked down the hall, my bare feet silent on the carpet. I reached the staircase and took a couple of steps down when I heard the quiet murmur of voices.
Instinctually, I crouched down on the steps, partially hidden by the railing on the stairs. God, I was being silly, acting as though someone was going to chase me down and throw me out if I was seen. I recognized the low rumble of Calder’s voice.
Happy he was back, I smiled and was about to push to my feet when I heard a woman’s low, flirtatious laugh. I froze. What in the hell? Craning my neck, I watched as Calder walked into view, shirtless and barefoot, his back covered in scratches that looked like….were those fingernail marks? The woman appeared a moment later, wearing only a miniscule pair of lace panties and sheer matching bra.
Oh, shit, shit, SHIT. My stomach twisted painfully as she rose on her toes and pressed a light kiss to Calder’s cheek. The ache faded into numbness as I watched his hands curve around her waist to the small of her back.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying over the roaring in my ears, but their body language said it all. Their attire, the way he was touching her, only a blind fool wouldn’t know what had happened. Considering I’d become adept at reading signals much more subtle than those during my teenage years and, later, when I dated a series of compulsive cheaters, this was like a slap in the face.
When the roaring finally subsided, I heard Calder say, “I need to get upstairs, I have someone waiting for me.”
The woman chuckled. “Lucky girl. Before you go, I do need to give you one more thing.”
Calder didn’t reply verbally, but that wide, wicked grin I’d seen so often last night spread across his face as he followed her out of sight.
Feeling as though I was going to vomit, I crept back up the stairs on my hands and feet. When I reached the top, I stood and swiftly walked back to Calder’s room. Though I just wanted to leave, to get the hell away, I didn’t want him coming after me. I went to the desk in the corner, grabbed a pen and paper and scratched out a quick note. I wanted him to understand that I was gone and I wasn’t coming back.
When I finished, I left the note on the nightstand and grabbed my boots, shirt, and corset. I was back out the door and moving toward the staircase on the opposite end of the house at light speed. I only stopped long enough to snag my purse and keys out of the mudroom off the kitchen where I’d left them. Somehow, I managed not to run until I was out of the house and in the driveway.
My bare feet slapped on the cement as I dashed to my car, unlocking it with shaking hands. As quickly as possible, I shoved my key into the ignition. I didn’t even clasp my seatbelt until the car was rolling toward the front gate. The guards at Conner’s were well-acquainted with me and my sporty little Mustang, so they merely waved at me and opened the gate.
As I drove home, Donna’s words about staying away from the werewolves echoed in my mind. I had barely given them a thought last night while I’d been naked against the library wall or in his bed, but now, they were all I could focus on. She tried to warn me, but, as usual, I acted impulsively. I’d actually thought that Calder wanted more than a one-night stand. He seemed interested in me and not just for the sex. I enjoyed our verbal sparring and his smart-ass remarks. His request that I wait in his room for him, sleep in his bed, it seemed so sincere. Just like all the things my father said to my mother and my lying, cheating exes had said to me.
It seemed that, even after years of experience with men like Calder, I still hadn’t learned my goddamn lesson.
I held it together until I reached my townhouse. Incredibly grateful I lived in a unit with a single car garage, I pulled inside. I shut off the car and then closed the overhead door before I climbed out. Though it was fairly early on a Saturday, people were already out of their homes, jogging or doing yard work.
Still barefoot, I went inside my townhouse and straight upstairs to my bedroom. As soon as I passed the open doorway, I began shucking my clothes, leaving them in a haphazard trail behind me. Though I’d bathed a few hours before, I felt an uncontrollable urge to take a long, steaming hot shower. Since I’d spent the night in his shirt and his bed, I could still smell the warm tang of Calder’s scent on my skin and in my hair. I needed to eradicate all traces of him from my body and mind.
I turned on the shower, making the water as hot as I could stand, when my naked reflection in the mirror caught my eye. Suddenly, all the marks I’d been cataloging earlier seemed to mock me.
Stepping under the scalding water, I finally allowed myself to cry.
Chapter Twelve- Calder
“I appreciate your help, Chloe.”
She glanced over her shoulder, smiling. “No problem. If I had known that Shane was going to bait your pack members like that, I would have kicked his ass and left him at home.”
Chloe MacArthur was the enforcer for the pack from Austin. They had come in for the weekend to meet with Conner and the Council, as well as my pack’s alpha, Lachlan. At first glance, I’d rolled my eyes at the idea of a female enforcer, because, well, she was a girl. I know, I know, completely sexist and narrow-minded. I guess I’d forgotten how vicious and bloodthirsty a she-wolf could be. Most of the females in our pack were fairly laidback.
By laidback, I mean they would only maim a male for misbehaving rather than outright killing him.
Chloe was not that sort. I’d seen her take on male wolves twice her size and make it look easy when she won. In order to reach beta in my pack, I’d had to fight my way through the ranks and I hoped to God Chloe never asked to join our pack because, as good as I was, she was better. I wasn’t too prideful to think that I wouldn’t get my ass kicked into next year if I ever went toe-to-toe with her.
In fact, after seeing the way she handled her wayward pack member, Shane, this morning, I knew I would get my ass kicked. The confrontation had begun between Shane and one of my pack members, Kyle, while they were at the party. As was often the case among wolves, the disagreement was taken outside and punches were thrown. Chloe and I had tried to break it up, but Shane shifted and almost ripped Kyle’s throat out.
In order to hunt the dumbass down, Chloe and I had shifted as well. I didn’t know what she had planned for him and I really didn’t care. We chased him to ground and she incapacitated him.
With all the fists and claws flying, my shirt had been ripped to shreds as well as parts of my back. The deep scratches burned and throbbed. I knew they would heal in a day or so, faster if I slept for a few hours.
Since she still had a few streaks of blood on her skin, Chloe hadn’t bothered to dress again. She’d muttered something about not wanting to ruin her designer dress with bloodstains. Then she’d kicked Shane in the ribs. Apparently, her fancy clothes meant a lot to her.