11. Tanner

It had been a few weeks since I was last home. Weeks of violence, bloodshed, and torture that meant I was feeling a lot calmer and my wolf's blood lust had been sated. For now.

He enjoyed ripping limbs off and the heady flavor of viscous human blood. We'd had more than our fair share recently, thanks to Carlos Carelli's issues with a rival gang.

With my help, his problems were now eliminated. All of them wiped out of existence. It was their own fault. The idiots tried to muscle in on Carlos's trade routes.

Carlos was not a man who reacted well to people attempting shit like that. His policy was kill first and ask questions later.

It was a strategy I could get on board with. And frequently did. I didn't particularly like Carlos, but he paid good money and didn't care how extreme my methods got. No matter how much mess I made dealing with his problems, he always cleared it up.

The track up to the cabin was now buried under several feet of snow, which meant it was impassable to anything other than a snowmobile. I'd left the 4x4 tucked away in the trees further down the valley and hiked the rest of the way on foot. Nobody ever came up this far in winter, so my beloved truck was safe. But I fixed a couple of small cameras to some trees around it just to be sure. These linked to an app on my phone and if anyone triggered them, I'd get an alert.

It was a massive slog up the mountain on foot, but much easier as a wolf. At night the forest came alive, and I enjoyed listening to the sounds of small creatures skittering away in the dark, spooked by my scent.

A timber wolf howled mournfully in the distance when I got close to the cabin, and my wolf growled. The local wolves knew we lived here and gave us a wide berth. We were the apex predators, and they were not stupid enough to challenge us.

There were no lights on in the cabin. Hardly surprising given it was 2 AM. The guys would be asleep, although with their sense of hearing, they might wake up when I walked in.

I shifted back and disarmed the alarm before opening the door into the laundry room. The cabin was lovely and warm. I sighed with pleasure at the scent of baking in the air. Cole was such a contradiction. My brother was a fucking alpha wolf who could kill someone just as easily as me - and had, many times - but he loved to bake.

He'd make someone a splendid wife one day.

I chuckled to myself in the dark. With my bag hooked over my shoulder, I padded silently into the kitchen.

The minute I stepped through the door, I saw her. Moonlight shining through the window painted her slim body in silver. Her long blond hair and the way the shirt she wore barely hid anything stole my attention.

From the scent of it, the shirt was Cole's. Who was she?

We never brought females back to the cabin, and certainly not humans.

"Who the fuck are you?" I didn't bother sugar-coating my words. She shouldn't be here, even if she was gorgeous, with a sweet curvy ass and perky tits.

She stared at me with huge blue eyes like sapphires. The steaming mug in her hand slipped through her fingers and smashed all over the floor. Liquid and china fragments spread far and wide.

Some of the liquid caught the front of her shirt, revealing the dark shadows of her nipples, but she didn't move a muscle to cover herself. It was as if she'd frozen like a statue.

I moved closer, not caring that I was naked. "I'll ask you again, who the fuck are you?"

Her scent filled my lungs: vanilla, cocoa, and traces of both Cole and Silas. My wolf howled with excitement, but I couldn't sense any aggression from him. He was eager for us to get closer to the female. He wanted her.

What the fuck?

I reminded him we didn't fuck humans. Only shifters. Humans were too frail. They got hurt too easily, and we liked to fuck hard. But he ignored me.

She trembled when I reached out and touched her milky white skin. So soft. The curve of her jaw, the delicate slope of her neck. I leaned in, inhaling her scent again.

I wanted to lick her, sink my teeth into her throat, claim her. My primal response to this human female confused me, but I couldn't pull away. She whimpered, provoking a growl. I sensed her fear and my wolf didn't like it. The thought of our female being afraid of us bothered him.

"Shh little human. I won't hurt you."

She whimpered again when I rubbed my thumb across her lips, but the subtle whiff of arousal wafting up from between her sweet thighs was unmistakable. She might have been afraid, but she was also turned on.

Blue eyes stared up at me, pupils blown wide, caught between fear and arousal. My other hand reached around and slid down her back to the curve of her ass. She was slim, too slim, but that ass…it was perfect, like a round juicy peach.

Fuck, I wanted to bite it hard enough that she screamed before soothing her with my tongue. I want to mark her flesh with my teeth, so every male understood she was mine.

All mine.

My cock was rock hard. I knew she felt it because her breathing sped up and the heady perfume of her arousal hit my nose like a shot of cocaine. Just as I was about to drop to my knees and taste her sweet pussy, broken glass be damned, the other door slammed open, hitting the wall with a resounding crash.

My brothers came barreling in, instantly killing my vibe.

"Tanner! Get your fucking hands off Eva!" I'd never heard Cole so fucking furious. It was both disconcerting and also interesting.

What the absolute fucking fuck had I missed?