Chapter Nine
Ethan’s wolf clawed at the surface, howling inside him, demanding to be freed. He wanted Piper Hollister with a hunger that floored him.
Her soft, subtle body pressing tightly against him was driving him insane with need.
The strange odor he’d picked up on in the parking lot suddenly filtered through the room and slid up Ethan’s nose. The scent was definitely not human, nor did it belong to anyone in Ethan’s pack.
He had no doubt that he’d been followed from the restaurant.
Ethan pulled Piper’s body tighter against him, his protective instincts kicking into overdrive.
He’d been seen kissing her, which could have inadvertently put her in danger.
There was only one thing Ethan could do to ensure Piper’s safety. Take out the threat.
The song came to an end, and Ethan stepped back, blanking his face of emotion. “Will you excuse me for a moment? I have an important call I need to make before it grows too late.”
“Of course,” she murmured, a small smile on her sexy lips. She returned to the table and picked up her glass of wine.
Ethan’s senses were on high alert. He turned slowly, his gaze touching on every person in the room, but found it empty of the supernatural.
The glass entrance door eased shut, signaling the exit of someone Ethan hadn’t seen.
He strode across the room, careful to keep his gait relaxed and nonthreatening, and then left through the same door.
The overpowering scent of wolf became stronger as Ethan stepped outside and sauntered toward the side of the building, removing his clothes as he went. Luckily there were no patrons milling about.
He unlocked his car, opened the door, and deposited his jacket, shoes, and pants onto the passenger seat, all the while keeping his gaze glued to the darkened woods behind the establishment.
The sheer willpower it took to keep from shifting in the open wrenched a deep growl from Ethan’s throat.
A barely audible sound echoed from the trees, and another scent burned through Ethan’s nostrils. The unknown shifter wasn’t alone.
Ethan ran toward the darkness, his wolf emerging before he cleared the tree line. He felt ripped apart, invigorated, and furious all at once.
The sounds coming from in front of him told Ethan the wolves had scattered in different directions: one to the east and one to the west. Ethan ran east.
A howl burst from Ethan’s chest, signaling to any of his members in the area about the westbound enemy in their midst.
Answering howls ricocheted through the night, letting Ethan know his call had been heard.
Ethan concentered on the wolf in front of him, pounding through the trees like the devil himself were following. And in a sense, he was.
It didn’t take Ethan long to catch up to the fleeing wolf, as no other could match Ethan in speed or strength.
With a mighty heave, Ethan sprang through the air, slamming into the wolf with the force of a truck.
They rolled for several yards before Ethan found his footing and drove into the stranger once more.
Snarls rent the air as the two of them came together in a mass of teeth and claws.
Ethan couldn’t recall the last time he’d fought with such rage fueling him. Then again, he’d never felt threatened in the way he had tonight.
If it had been only him, he would have left the bar, taunting them to follow. But Piper had been with him, and he couldn’t risk her being harmed by one of them, or at the very least landing on Foster’s radar.
Crushing the shifter’s throat with his powerful jaws, Ethan reared back and opened his senses.
The sounds of running had faded along with the distant howls echoing through the night.
Ethan stared down at the dead wolf lying before him. He would have to send Billy in to remove the animal before it began to rot and drew unwanted attention.
The last thing Ethan needed was to have a dead wolf discovered that close to the city. He could imagine the backlash that would cause.
Turning back toward the Blue Sapphire, Ethan thought about Piper and the danger she was in by being seen with him.
He either needed to leave her alone, or take out the entire Foster clan. And he damn sure didn’t want to leave her.
Ethan waited in the shadows for two giggling females to round the building and get into a car.
Waiting another few minutes for them to back out of the parking lot, Ethan shifted and strode back to his own vehicle to grab his clothes.
He dressed in record time, slipped on his shoes, and hurried back inside, only to find his table empty and Piper’s scent barely detectable.
Ethan returned to the parking lot, his gaze touching on the empty parking space where Piper’s car had sat not thirty minutes before. “Damn.”
Jerking his cell phone from his pants pocket, Ethan dialed Billy’s number.
“Yeah, boss.”
“There’s a dead shifter in the woods behind the Blue Sapphire, just east of Piney Point. I need you to get rid of him.”
A brief pause ensued. “One of Foster’s?”
“He reeked of the Kenwood pack,” Ethan murmured, climbing back in his car. “I’m sure Foster sent him. There was more than one, but I doubt the other fared any better than the one I ran down.”
Billy made a satisfied sound in his throat. “Your pack?”
“Yeah. I was fortunate that a few were nearby, else one of the intruders might have escaped.”
“Where are you now, boss?”
Ethan climbed behind the wheel of his car. “I’m heading out to Piper’s to make sure she made it home all right, and then I’ll be at the penthouse. Call me if you run into trouble.”
“Will do,” Billy assured him, disconnecting the call.
Pulling out of the parking lot, Ethan drove toward the address he had for Piper.
Ten minutes later, he arrived in front of a charming two-story house surrounded by live oaks and a white picket fence. Her car sat in the drive.
He pulled up along the curb, watching for signs of movement through the dimly lit windows.
A light came on in what Ethan assumed was an upstairs bedroom.
Piper’s silhouette drifted past the window several times before the room was plunged into darkness.
Rolling down his window, Ethan deeply inhaled, expanding his senses to the surrounding streets. But no signs of shifters could be detected nearby.
Since moving to Florida and learning of the feud between the Kenwood and the Sorrento packs, Ethan had never dated a woman for more than one night. Not that he’d been interested enough in any of them to take things further, but a few had been pleasant to be around.
For Ethan to show interest in another put them on the Foster’s radar, which was something he’d never been willing to do.
But Piper…ah, Piper was another story.