Excerpt of Wolf Fever by Terry Spear

Excerpt from Wolf Fever:

Darien fondly patted Lelandi’s ribbon in his belt, but
then
without warning, he dodged after Jake’s ribbon first. His
brother, already eyeing him warily, bolted away from him
in
time, and Darien headed for Tom with an evil glint in his
eye, aggressively, no holds barred this time. Carol
figured
he was leaving her for the bachelor males instead of
retaliating and taking her tag.

She went back to protecting her tail and targeting the
guys
who were out to get her, never having had so much fun in
her life.

Six tags so far, and…

Bang! She was hit, shoved onto her back, taken down by…
the
red-and-white-striped fiend from her vision. Mervin, the
barber?

He smelled of heavy hair tonics and sweat. She moaned,
just
thinking what being mated to him would be like. He was
the
only man in town who wore a costume year-round—a barber
quartet type of affair, complete with bowtie, red-and-
white-
striped sports coat, and dark pants, even for playing a
rough-and-tumble game such as this. At some time or
another
during the game, he’d lost his white straw hat.

At least while he had her pinned on her back, he couldn’t
get to her tail. But then he wasn’t trying very hard to
get
it either, she belatedly realized. Keeping her pinned
beneath him, he seemed to be enjoying another sport just
fine.

She squirmed, trying to unsettle him, but her actions
only
brought a smile to Mervin’s thin lips. His pale yellow
eyes
smiled just as brightly. Great.

Without warning, Mervin flew aside, his eyes wide and
mouth
gaping. Her rescuer, Ryan McKinley, crouched next to her
and rested his hand lightly on her shoulder, his brows
knit
in a deep frown, his eyes dark as a stormy night.

“Are you okay?”

The entire playing field grew silent again, and her heart
pounded in panic.

“You shouldn’t be here,” she whispered. “They’ve been
looking for you.”

“Carol’s fine,” Darien said, his voice terse as he drew
close.

Darien offered his hand to help her to stand. She grabbed
Ryan’s knee instead and started to help herself up. Ryan
quickly seized her hand and pulled her to her feet,
keeping
her close by his side in a protective mode, the heat of
his
body warming hers, his fingers still holding onto hers in
a
possessive way. But she was more concerned about
protecting
him!

Darien gave Ryan a dark look, but not in the least bit
cowed, Ryan squeezed Carol’s hand reassuringly and tossed
a
sly smile to Darien. “Good game.”

Lelandi quickly stepped forward and waved a handful of
ribbons. “Blue team won!”

Still, everyone waited for Darien to respond, either
concerning the game or Ryan, or both. Darien looked at
one
of his men, who lifted their team’s captured ties, minus
Lelandi’s that Darien still had tucked proudly in his
belt.
His team was definitely short a few.

Darien gave Lelandi an evil smile. “Lelandi’s team won.
Let’s eat!” He wrapped his arm around her waist, offered
Ryan a warning look, and then nodded to Tom and headed
for
the house.

Carol breathed a tentative sigh of relief. As uptight as
everyone was when waiting to see how their pack leader
dealt with issues, she couldn’t shake loose of the
tension
tightening her chest. She figured that the pressure
wouldn’t go away until Ryan left the area for good.

Taking his brother’s cue, Tom approached Ryan. “What are
you doing here?”

“Don’t any of you talk to each other?” Ryan moved his
hand
to Carol’s back and stroked it once in a reassuring way.
“I
told Jake I wished to speak to Carol about a matter
concerning the murder investigation.”

Tom’s eyes widened a little. “Why? The case was solved.
All
guilty parties were held accountable.”

“Just a couple of questions concerning… investigative
techniques.”

Carol’s heart sank. That was what this was all about? Or
was Ryan just saying so as a cover? He still stood next
to
her in protective wolf mode, their bodies lightly
touching,
the heat curling through her. He sure seemed to want
something more of her than to question her.

“Why were you here last night, skulking around?” Tom
asked.

Ryan didn’t say anything, which made Carol wonder again
if
he had an agenda he didn’t wish to discuss with anyone
else.

Tom cocked his head to the side, gave Ryan a look that
said
he didn’t trust him, and then gave a short nod.
“All right, ask your questions of her.”

“Privately.”

Frowning, Tom hesitated. Then he motioned to the side of
the house. “Over there. That’s as private as it’s going
to
get.”

People were milling about, most likely interested in what
Tom was going to do to Ryan, or what Ryan had in mind to
do
with Carol. Most of the onlookers were bachelor males,
including one particularly sore-looking barber, who was
brushing at yellow-green grass stains on his red-and-
white-
striped coat.

Ryan took Carol’s arm and led her to the side of the
house.
His touch was gentle, caring, and protective, and every
time he got close, a spark of interest seemed to ignite
between them. She looked up at him, expecting… well,
hoping
he wanted to see more of her. Date her or court her, or
whatever werewolves did before they decided they were the
right ones for each other and mated for a lifetime. Not
that she was ready for a long-term commitment, but a
couple
of dates would be nice, just to see if he was even her
type.

“Carol…” Ryan released her arm and shoved his hands in
his
pockets, his head bent to speak more privately with
her. “Are you sure you didn’t overhear conversations,
which
is how you came to the conclusions you did and were able
to
solve the case?”

Instantly, he stoked her ire. She folded her arms and
narrowed her eyes at him. So he truly wasn’t interested
in
her. “What are you inferring?”

He cleared his throat. “Darien and his brothers wouldn’t
let me speak with you concerning this matter when I was
here before, first, because you had been injured so, and
after that…” Ryan shrugged. “They were being protective,
I
suppose. But after giving your situation further thought
—”

“For five months?” Her voice was rife with annoyance, yet
she wondered why he’d truly thought about it for that
long.
Just a rabid need to learn the truth? Or was there more
to
the story than he was letting on?

Calmly, he ignored her outburst and continued. “Just that
you may seem to have psychic powers or a sixth sense or
something, but in truth…” He let his words fade, allowing
her to draw her own conclusions, his gaze studying her
eyes, observing her reaction. Like a P.I. and former cop
would. Most likely jaded. Believing the worst in anyone
they thought might have something to hide.

She opened her mouth to speak but then clamped her lips
shut. Hell, ever since her seventh birthday, after nearly
drowning in a lake—well, technically she had drowned in
the
lake, been declared dead, and then revived, she’d had
these
unwelcome visions. She’d thought everyone else did, too,
until she mentioned one to her mother.

She still remembered that day as if it were yesterday.
She’d explained how she’d seen a man driving a pickup
truck
down the street from where they lived and running over
one
of her classmates. Except that the accident didn’t happen
until two days later. And the boy died. Night terrors
followed, waking her, and she’d try to catch her breath,
tears streaking down her cheeks, her pillow soggy.

Horrified and unable to deal with what she’d seen, she
finally told her parents. They’d immediately sent her to
a
special doctor to get rid of her episodes. After three
years of visits, he gave up on her, declaring her utterly
hopeless. Well… even worse than that. To mollify her
parents, he’d said in an appeasing but not very sincere
way
that she’d probably grow out of it. The real reason he
dropped her as a patient in such a hurry went deeper than
that.

Waiting for her to respond, Ryan cleared his throat and
shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Sorry. You had a question for me?” She tapped her
fingers
on her folded arm, an insincere smile playing on her
lips.
He hadn’t asked her a question, but the way he spoke was
definitely a ploy to get her to respond to his
observations. And she wasn’t biting.

“Don’t you suppose you might have come by the information
you did through some means other than a psychic
connection?”

“Hmm, sure. That’s what happened.”

Ryan’s mouth curved up ever so slightly, but she could
tell
he wasn’t being taken in by her surrender. Before she’d
become caught up in the werewolf culture, she’d kept her
abilities secret. Now that those in this pack knew about
her, she really didn’t care if any were skeptical. As
long
as they didn’t try to tell her that she didn’t have a
sixth
sense because it wasn’t possible.

She supposed that was all because of Dr. Metzger and the
way his icy blue eyes would peer through his brass rimmed
glasses at her, while his big chin tilted down,
condemning,
judging. If people didn’t believe her in private, fine.
Yet, usually if people confronted her like this, she
would
smile disingenuously and tell them how right they were.
She
never felt the need to defend what she could see when
others couldn’t, or what she could envision or perceive
sometimes when she touched an object.

“But you truly believe otherwise,” Ryan finally said.

This time her smile was bright and true to her feelings.
She couldn’t help liking Ryan, despite his denial of her
abilities. He had an easy but determined manner about
him,
not brusque like Darien or teasing like Jake or afraid to
make waves like Tom. His determination was matched only
by
her own.

She glanced at the men standing about, including both Tom
and Jake. Which made the situation worse. Why couldn’t
any
of the alpha males show any real interest in her? She was
not a beta kind of girl. She supposed that was because
her
father had become so downtrodden by her mother’s
treatment
of him. She couldn’t see being married, um, mated to
someone like that.

“Carol?” Ryan said, his deep baritone voice again yanking
her from her faraway thoughts.

She really needed to get more sleep. She turned her
attention back to Ryan. He thought she wasn’t being
honest
with him about her abilities, when he wasn’t honest about
why he had been lurking in the woods last night, watching
her window. She didn’t have to be psychic to know
something
more was going on between them. Time to turn the tables.
Throw him off balance.

Trying to look like this was a perfectly natural way for
her to act, she smiled, wrapped her arms around his neck,
and leaned into the soft sweater covering his hard body,
which instantly reminded her just how hard his body was
when he wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothes.

She only meant to give him a slow kiss on the mouth, just
to prove to him that he had another agenda that he
wouldn’t
admit to. Or if not, then maybe Tom or Jake would finally
show some interest in her. But more than anything, she
wanted to get Ryan off the subject of her abilities
before
she said something in anger that she shouldn’t.

To her surprise, he eagerly captured her mouth with his.
Not cautiously, building up the desire in slow careful
increments, but judiciously, as if he had been starved
for
affection for a very long time. His hand cupped the back
of
her head, his free hand drifting lower on her back and
holding her in place.

She hadn’t meant to respond so fully to the kiss either,
but his unbridled need fed into hers. Forgetting they had
an audience, she parted her lips to accept him, to open
an
intimate path between them, their tongues dancing,
touching, exploring. Her hands fisted in his soft sweater
at the back of his neck and held him even tighter. She
pressed her body against his hard muscles, and
shamelessly
she wanted more.

But then he released her and unwrapped her arms from
around
his neck, his eyes smoky and dark, his expression
otherwise
unreadable, his hands still securely holding her wrists.
Their breaths came quickly as their hearts thundered at a
runner’s pace. He opened his mouth as if he was going to
say something, but she didn’t want to hear the apology
she
figured he would offer or another word about her
abilities,
if that’s what he had in mind.

She quickly spoke instead. “I accept. Come pick me up for
a
date at six o’clock. Promptly.”

She’d show him he wasn’t as much in control of the
situation as he might think.

Then she winked, pulled free, and stalked off toward the
house without a backward glance, her blood sizzling with
arousal and irritation.

She harrumphed under her breath. All the idiotic romantic
notions she had been harboring for Ryan
McKinley… and all he really wanted was for her to confess
she wasn’t psychic?