Page 32 of Lone Wolf’s Claim (The Kincaid Werewolves #1)

M arc busted out of the restaurant and searched the area. Careful not to knock down any pedestrians, he made his way to the outer edge of the sidewalk and looked up and down the street.

He could’ve sworn he’d seen something, or someone, watching them from the wall on the other side.

“Don’t worry, lunch is on me,” Keegan joked as he and Stone joined him outside.

Marc shook himself for the second time that day. “Did ye see something? Across the road there?” He pointed at the stone wall that bordered the small slope of lawn.

“Something like what, exactly?” Stone asked.

“I thought I saw a lass…” Looking around again, Marc shook his head. “Never mind. It was nothin’. I think the heat is making me daft.”

Keegan glanced around. “I didn’t see anything, man. But maybe you should drink some water. Sounds like you’re dehydrated.”

“It’s verra possible.”

Glancing around one more time, Keegan took off his hat and scratched his head before covering his short dark hair again. “I’m sure it was nothing. Humans stare at us a lot.”

“And who can blame them? Especially the females,” Stone added with another grin, careful to keep his fangs under wraps around the humans who were milling about waiting for their tables.

“Ach. Aye. You’re right. It was probably nothin’,” Marc acceded. Yet he still had the strangest feeling it wasn’t nothing. That it was actually a very big something.

“Tell you what,” Keegan told him. “We have to head out. I’ve got another appointment I need to get to and I need Stone with me for this one.

” He took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his brow, then looked up rather sheepishly.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect this ‘meeting’ to happen.

I was half expecting to get jumped. But why don’t you come by the house tomorrow afternoon and we can talk some more?

If what you were saying is true, we have some more things to discuss.

Do you have a cell on you? I’ll give you the address. ”

Marc pulled out his phone and saved the address Keegan gave him.

“If Jace was still here, I’d have him show you around a bit…”

“That’s quite okay,” Marc assured him. “I have a map.” He pulled one out of his pocket that he’d picked up when he’d hit Austin. “I can find my way.”

They shook hands and the cowboys took off, leaving Marc alone on the street. He watched them until they turned the corner, then he looked both ways before dodging four lanes of traffic to the other side of the street.

It wasn’t “nothing.” He’d seen someone watching them. He was sure of it. Listening to his instincts, he headed in the opposite direction, toward the college. He’d only gone about three blocks when he caught his first whiff.

Meadowsweet flowers after a heavy rain.

As the scent hit his nostrils for the second time that day, his entire body shot awake almost violently, and he allowed himself to do what he’d wanted to do back at the capitol.

Letting his nose guide him, he hung a sharp left and then a right onto Guadalupe, dodging humans and moving as casually as he could.

He followed the scent a few more blocks before coming to an abrupt stop in the middle of the sidewalk.

Dammit. He’d lost it.

Glancing around, he saw he was in front of the University Co-op. He pulled open the door and was immediately assaulted with racks and racks of burnt orange—T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, backpacks—anything a burgeoning UT college student could ever need to support his or her school team.

And meadowsweet after the rain.

“Can I help you find anything?” The question came out a bit breathless.

Marc barely glanced at the young female who apparently worked there.

“Nae. I’m good, thank ye.” She blinked hard a few times at what he could only assume was the accent, smiled a strange smile, opened her mouth to say something, but then turned abruptly and went back to the clothes she was in the process of hanging on the wall display.

Every few seconds, she would glance at him out of the corner of her eye and smile as a blush reddened her cheeks.

Marc cocked an eyebrow. The cowboys may have had a point about the females flirting with them here.

In Seattle, they weren’t quite so transparent about it, if they swooned over him at all.

Of course, it rained a lot there. And most everyone went about their business under the cover of raincoats, with their noses in their coffees.

Turning his back to her, he surveyed the store, searching for…

he didn’t know who, or what. He followed the scent to a back clothing rack with a big “Clearance” sign on it and pretended to look for something in his size as he made his way around the circle of clothing.

The musky smell got stronger as he got closer to the rear corner of the store.

It flooded his senses until he could barely think, but try as he might, he couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.

And he even checked inside the clothing racks.

With a frown he pulled his head out of the clothes to see the salesgirl watching him from a few racks away, and she wasn’t smiling this time. Rather she looked like she was wondering if she needed to call for backup.

“Are you sure I can’t help you find something?” she asked warily.

With a start, he realized he’d been looking through the women’s section. Marc forced himself to smile at her. “Cannae find a shirt large enough to fit me.”

“The men’s big and tall section is over there,” she told him, indicating the other side of the store.

“Ach. Aye. Thank ye.” Not knowing what else to do without making himself look even more suspicious, he headed over that way and proceeded to look for something in his size.

The intriguing scent of the flowers faded as he walked away.

But he didn’t know what else he could do without raising more suspicion, and that he could not do.

Staying under the radar of the humans was fundamental to their survival.

* * *

Bronaugh held her breath as she watched the werewolf move away from her and head to the other side of the store.

As soon as he was far enough away, she blew out a relieved breath.

Then as quietly as she could, she made her way back toward the front doors and waited until another customer came in.

A young guy flung open the door after just a few seconds and blew inside, and Bronaugh ducked under his arm and rushed past him and out of the store before it closed again.

Running full-out, she put as much distance as she could between herself and that male.

She didn’t bother cloaking her form anymore—she was moving too fast for the human eye to track now anyway.

No one would see her until she stopped, and she wasn’t stopping until she got to her room at the Holiday Inn.

When she got to First Street, she hit the hike-and-bike trail that hugged the edge of Lady Bird Lake and dropped down into the water, disguising her trail with the smell of fish and algae.

She wasn’t taking any chances that the wolf would follow her to her only safe place here.

Back up on the trail, she blasted past the joggers, not slowing until she got to her hotel near I-35.

Dodging a group of runners, she took the path that connected the trail and the hotel and walked into the foyer.

The hot Texas sun had nearly dried her clothes already, so she didn’t attract any undue attention as she got into the elevator.

Letting herself into her room, she locked the door and leaned back against it.

Breathe, Bronaugh. Just breathe .

That had been entirely too close. How could she have been so stupid?

She’d almost let herself be seen by the creatures that had been hunting her and her kind for hundreds of years.

Getting herself captured now was not going to help her family.

And now that she’d tracked them to this city, she needed to keep her wits about her so they didn’t slip out of her grasp again.

She knew those wolves had something to do with her family’s disappearance. Tomorrow, she was going to follow the new guy and find out for herself.

And when she showed herself, it would be on her terms. Not his.

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