Touching the brim of his hat, he nodded. “Evening, miss.”
The door slammed behind him.
It was just a kiss, but her body had burned from his touch. Alex touched her mouth, her pulse racing.
“Hey, lady, I can show you a good time, too.”
Wheeler gave her the eye. Interest flaring on their faces, the other men watched. First she had to throw off the wolves, so to speak. Alex gave a smile she didn’t feel. “Someone want to play a slow tune? I feel like dancing.”
Stools pushed back, boots scrambled to the jukebox. Quarters and dollars were fumbled. Alex let the glamour drop to show her real face. The men turned around, faces eager. Several gasps sounded, followed by looks of pure horror.
Always, they stared. And then the whispers began.
“Damn, look at her face,” one said. “Looks like the ass end of my truck.”
“Holy crap,” Wheeler said. “Thought she was hot. Must have been the liquor.” He fumbled for a cell phone and dialed. “Hey, it’s me. You should see the freak show at the bar….”
Alex felt the familiar twist of hurt. Yeah, I know what I look like. Get over it, guys. Go kiss a moose. She shrugged back into her coat and went outside to follow Dominic Farrell.
Chapter 2
Alex could track anyone or anything. And with Dominic’s scent burned into her brain, finding him wouldn’t be tough, not with the tracking chip she’d slapped on his black pickup. Before he’d entered the bar, she’d watched as he’d climbed out of the truck’s cab with a graceful, lean-hipped swagger in his tight black jeans.
In her sleek SUV, Alex followed her quarry, keeping a safe distance behind. After a few miles, she caught the flash of taillights. She slowed as the truck pulled into a hayfield. He cut the engine and got out, walking alongside the road.
Several yards behind him, Alex parked. She tailed him, making no noise in her soft-soled boots, watching as he vaulted over a chain-link fence.
Words on the gate proclaimed “See the Wild Wolves of Alaska!”
Bile rose in her throat. She’d heard of this roadside attraction’s cruelty. Her breath fogged the air as she climbed over the fence, dropped down and followed Dominic. A ribbon of gravel drive threaded through a thicket of pine trees and led to a small, darkened building. On the building’s right side was another fence. A few men gathered outside the building. Alex donned the glamour of a brunette with rosy cheeks and an apple-fresh look.
Then she hid behind a thick pine tree and watched.
“Let’s do it,” she heard him say quietly.
Breaking open the gate, the six vanished behind the compound. Alex dashed after them and ground to a halt, shoving a fist into her mouth to stifle her gasp.
Silver moonlight showed six gray wolves tied to a short length of chain. Ribs jutted out from their lean bodies. They paraded around a pole, their desperate whines echoing in the night. The scent of animal tinged the air, along with the sharp taste of helpless fear.
Ducking behind a tree, she watched Dominic’s face tighten. He and the others worked quickly, as the wolves closed around them, tails wagging eagerly as if sensing friends. As each wolf sprang free and ran across the open meadow, through the gate Dominic had opened, Alex felt a quiet, peculiar joy. As if her own spirit were set free and bounding across the field.
“Damnit. Hold on, boy. Almost got it,” Dominic muttered.
Her throat closed as she watched him try to free the last wolf. The chain wrapped around his throat, the gray wolf whimpered. Alex fought back the miasma of pity. She had to focus on Dominic, not these poor creatures.
A light flicked on inside the nearby cabin. Someone stepped onto the porch.
Dominic gave a low curse and with brute force, broke the chain. The wolf, seemingly traumaticized, did not move. Not until Dominic slapped it on its hindquarters. Dominic sprinted away as the man left the porch.
Alex followed. In the near distance to her left, metal glinted in the moonlight. Wicked steel teeth lay below the leaves. Suddenly the wolf headed toward the trap.
The wolf’s leg would snap under the pressure. Not if she could help it. With a preternatural burst of speed, she passed the wolf, stepped into the trap. Metal jaws slammed into her ankle. Pain shot through her bones, rattling her teeth. She collapsed, fighting shock and burning agony.
The wolf bounded across the field, vanishing into the woods. Safe! He was safe. Alex sat up, pushing past the pain and chanted a spell to release the trap.
Nothing. She touched the trap and a blue arc leaped up, shocking her nerves.
Magick. The trap was laced with it. And she was helpless.
The man coming toward her laughed. Boots crunched in the crushed grass as he advanced.
“Here.”
The man sent a blue arc of energy into the trap and the jaws sprang open. Alex pulled her ankle free, biting her lip. Burning pain seared her skin. Crab-crawling away, she eyed her rescuer.
Moonlight glinted his silvery hair. He had a handsome face, but a flicker of cruelty shone in his dark eyes. Robes of dark red velvet indicated status. A wizard of great power.” Alexandra Kostra. The Society for the Prevention of Malevolent Magick’s best paranormal bounty hunter.”
Alex’s heart raced. “How did you know…”
“I heard the rumors about your new hunt in Alaska. One of my associates saw you in the bar, and told me you were following Dominic Farrell.” The man patted the steel. “Dominic and his friends always stop by to free the wolves I’ve captured. So I set out extra traps in case you happened to stop by.”
“Nice greeting. Ever consider just a phone call?”
Every time she started a hunt, the underground paranormal world whispered of her target because she always got her quarry.
“I have something you’ll want.” A vial of green liquid glowed in the moonlight as he removed it from the folds of his robes. “I call it Beauty in a Bottle. It will restore your former looks, everything you’ve dreamed of. Alicia Cantros, the fairest Fae in the land.”
How the hell did this bastard know her real name? She’d worked hard to leave behind Alicia, learned not to look back, and move on. Glamour cloaked the ugly scars. As long as she remained celibate and asexual, the tattoos covering her face never appeared.
“My dreams involve you, on the ground, one of those wolves you tortured at your throat.”
“Don’t be so hasty.” He leaned close, darkness swirling in his eyes. “Think of it, Alexandra/Alicia. You can once more be the golden-haired Fae, who enchanted all men who gazed upon her.”
The old longing pushed to the surface. Alex struggled with her emotions.
His voice was hypnotic and low. “No one will ever call you ugly again. You won’t be forced to hide or disguise yourself just to enter a grocery store. People won’t stare because your face appalls them.”
Tempting with promise, the lure dangled before her. But she’d learned long ago that talk was cheap and men lied.
“There’s a price, of course. I will bargain with you for it.”
Alex yanked free her dagger and held it to the man’s throat. “I don’t bargain.”
Shocked, she watched him wave a hand, turning her dagger into a daisy. What the…
“Allow me to introduce myself. Lord Belaramos, local wizard, charmer and keeper of wild wolves.