The Black Wolf. Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

time was what she needed. Time to herself. Time with the water, which had been lacking at her family’s inland estate. Time to experience a few more precious moments without the shackles of Were society.

      “I’ll take you there,” the Were beside her said, skipping over all of the things they hadn’t yet mentioned about why she was in Miami and how she had gotten away from the guards. “To the house,” he added.

      She had escaped one net only to be ensnared by another. The big Were next to her, with his moon-streaked brown hair, lean, muscular build, chiseled features and light eyes, looked capable enough of handling any surprises that were in store.

      Because he was in human shape tonight, Cara maintained her human countenance. She also kept her voice. However, she sensed the wolf curled up inside this guy as if it were her own and knew that it was strong, like hers. Being near him messed with her delicate equilibrium. She was drawn to him without knowing why.

      He looked at his hand suddenly, as if he also felt the burn caused by one brief, simple touch. Then he glanced back up at her.

      “I don’t like being caged,” Cara said, watching him closely, observing how he fisted his hand and the way the wind played with strands of his hair. He was as good-looking as her father, with prominent cheekbones and wide-set eyes. He was tall, with broad shoulders and moonlight-dappled golden skin. All of those things reinforced the Were’s wolfish nature, and yet he wasn’t a full-blooded member of the species. Human blood also ran in his veins; she perceived the slightest hint of an altered fragrance. One of his parents had, at one time or another, been human.

      “That’s what you believe will happen when you accept our hospitality?” he asked. “You’d be caged?”

      His voice disturbed her with its low, cautious, controlled quality. The Were’s earthy, masculine vibe caused another new ruffle in her widening awareness of the world outside her family’s gates. This was her first time meeting a male Were who looked as if he might not be too much older than herself.

      “Why else would my parents shun this place and everyone in it, if not that for the fact that they no longer fit in?” Cara replied.

      “From the stories I’ve heard, your parents withdrew from the rest of the pack because it was in their own best interest.”

      Yes. She knew that. But it was only a small part of why the Kirk-Killions had withdrawn. And she didn’t owe this Were any explanations.

      “I need time to get myself together,” she said. “It’s not easy for me to come out of the seclusion I’m used to.”

      To her surprise, her companion seemed to get that. After a brief silence, he nodded and said, “I’ll wait for you on the beach.”

      Cara didn’t know what to make of that. He was going to leave her alone for a while?

      “What if I swim away?” she asked.

      “Then you will be someone else’s problem.”

      He didn’t mean that the way it sounded. Cara heard how his pulse pounded with the effort it took for him to let her have her way. She had no doubt that he would come after her if she tried to leave the area, and that shaking off this guy might be a difficult task. The strength of his inner wolf and all those rippling muscles made him a worthy opponent.

      “Who are you?” she asked, more intrigued about him than she wanted to be.

      “Name’s Landau. Rafe Landau. And I can assure you that though my family’s estate has walls, those walls are there only to keep trespassers out.”

       Landau...

      The Miami pack was both run and protected by his family.

      She didn’t really believe in coincidences, and yet what were the odds she would run into a Were of this caliber so soon after ditching the guards his family had sent to bring her there?

      “Can you promise me that’s the truth? I won’t be a prisoner behind those walls?” she asked.

      “I can.”

      The handsome Were allowed one little thought to slip past his mental defenses, and Cara caught hold of it easily. Neither fear nor anger ruled Rafe Landau’s thoughts. He wasn’t afraid of her at all. When she saw the image he held in his mind, she smiled.

      “I could be one, you know,” she said. “If there were such creatures.”

      He was staring at her openly. His heart continued to pound.

      “Who knows?” she added. “Since you’re granting my wish by letting me explore the sea, maybe your wish will come true.”

      “What wish?” he asked, frowning.

      Cara’s answer was meant as a subtle warning of her power. This Were might be strong, but he wasn’t truly in control now that a werewolf-vampire-banshee hybrid like Cara Kirk-Killion was in Miami.

      “About mermaids,” she said as she dived beneath the next incoming wave.

       Chapter 3

      “Well, this is going to be a challenge,” Rafe muttered as Cara Kirk-Killion disappeared from sight. He feared that the word challenge didn’t begin to cover things.

      She was swimming away, and he wanted to go after her. What if she decided not to return? Would he let her go? Let her become somebody else’s business, as he’d said?

       Not likely.

      He found himself much too interested and curious about her. And besides, his family was responsible for her safety.

      Rafe ignored the tug of the outgoing tide on his legs. He needed more time to think. If Cara was anything like her parents, he could sympathize with her reluctance to meet the pack that had helped her family out of a jam so long ago.

      Rosalind and Colton had departed from Miami soon after a battle with a particularly nasty nest of vampires that had almost killed Cara’s father. Colton Killion had been so severely injured that he had ended up a rare ghost wolf—the name Weres had for survivors of such heinous, life-threatening attacks.

      Given Colton Killion’s state of health and his appearance after the attack, the wolf’s desire to go into seclusion was understandable. But in addition, from the stories Rafe had heard, Colton’s mate had turned out to be something even rarer than he was, making it even more necessary to retreat from the city. Now, Killion’s sole offspring was here, and heaven only knew what traits she possessed.

      Rafe walked farther up the beach and turned without taking his eyes off the ocean. Cara hadn’t seemed dangerous, but what did he know? Wasn’t it a fact that looks could be deceiving?

      He clutched his phone. The next step was to call and check in with his father, who would probably send a car to fetch her. But he didn’t do so. Not yet. Rafe empathized with her plight. Cara had to know how different she was and that his pack would be wary.

      Still, whatever other forms she could take, Cara was a wolf. Both of her parents had been full-blooded Lycans before the events that had changed them, and Lycans carried the purest blood in the Were world. His hand felt hot. His insides were feverish. It was likely that his wolf was reacting to that part of Cara. Was his desire to see her again due to obligation and the threat of danger in his own backyard, or did it have to do with meeting a new kind of being that he wanted to understand?

      Maybe she’d ditch him and appear somewhere else. If she did, where would she go?

      “I won’t call them,” he said as if she still stood beside him. Then he sent that same message silently through the telepathic channels all Weres used to communicate.

      “But I won’t go away,” he warned out loud.

      The return of the fluttery sensation in his chest made Rafe stand up straighter. It was as