Dark Wolf(5)

Skyler had to smile. Most Carpathian hunters were tough as nails and  then some, but Paul's sister Colby had married into one of the roughest  families of all. She was a lifemate to Rafael De La Cruz. There were  five brothers and all of them were considered extremely lethal, some of  the most feared predators on the planet. Clearly, Paul had already  learned a lot from them. She had no doubt that he'd learned to defend  himself as well. He fought vampires and did a man's work on the ranch,  running things while the Carpathians slept during the day.

"Josef, load your coffin into the truck, please," Skyler told him.  "We've got to keep moving. We need to be on the road just in case  someone comes looking for one of us."

Paul looked over the ornate coffin and then burst out laughing. "Look at  that thing. Josef, you've been having fun, haven't you?"

Skyler rolled her eyes. "Don't encourage him. You have no idea. He  actually put the cause of death as a broken heart in the official  documents. Can you believe that?"

Paul laughed harder. "I would expect nothing less." He ruffled Skyler's hair. "You grew up beautiful. Who knew?"

Josef scowled at him. "You see her nearly every day on FaceTime or  Skype. She looks the same way she always looks. You, on the other hand,  have grown your hair out. You're even beginning to look like the De La  Cruz brothers. Are you crazy?"

Paul shrugged and pushed his cowboy hat back on his head with one thumb.  "Everyone is a little afraid of the De La Cruz brothers. I don't mind  in the least being associated with them. It automatically makes me a  badass."

Skyler found herself laughing-and relaxing-for the first time in days.  She'd forgotten the easy camaraderie she shared with Paul and Josef when  they were together like this. She loved them both and knew they felt  the same way about her. Both might tease her about Dimitri, but they  held him in great respect. They wanted to find him every bit as much as  she did.

Josef was worried that she might not know the consequences of their  actions, but she knew all too well. How could she not? She was lying to  the people she loved. And she knew, without a shadow of a doubt that the  De La Cruz family would protect Paul just as Gabriel and Lucian would  her. The De La Cruz brothers had been a long time away from the  Carpathian Mountains, and they were a law unto themselves. They were  loyal to the prince, but at the same time, it was the eldest, Zacarias,  who governed their actions. He would never, under any circumstances,  allow one of his family members to be in jeopardy without coming to his  aid.

She had thought a lot about what she was doing. Paul was important to  her and he knew it. They had discussed openly what the De La Cruz  brothers would do should the plan fail and they all get in trouble. The  De La Cruz family had more to lose than any other. MaryAnn and Manolito  De La Cruz would be hunted and killed, just as Dimitri would be, if the  Lycans had their way at the summit taking place soon in the Carpathian  Mountains. They were considered the dreaded Sange rau-literally bad  blood-a mix of Lycan and Carpathian.

She watched Josef float his coffin into the back of the truck. He was  astonishingly adept at moving objects. She could do it, but not as  easily as he did. Josef had gone through an awkward phase, but he had  certainly come out of it and was smooth and adept at using his  Carpathian gifts. He was considered a child in the eyes of the  centuries-old Carpathian males. Carpathian children weren't considered  adults until they hit their fiftieth year.

The Carpathians were just beginning to understand his genius with  technology, especially computers. There was little he couldn't do,  nothing he couldn't hack, and no program he couldn't write. She was  fairly certain they still didn't recognize the enormity of his abilities  and what it meant for their people. Carpathians were very intellectual,  but she knew Josef was a true genius, miles ahead of most people in any  species.

Paul and Josef were outsiders in their own world, just as she was, to a  much lesser extent. She lived with Carpathian parents who treated her  lovingly, but she wasn't Carpathian. Paul also was surrounded by  Carpathians, but he had to live in a human world, even if he didn't fit  there anymore. He'd seen vampires, had even been possessed by one. And  then there was Josef. Her gaze fell on him. Flamboyant. A rebel. Yes, he  was both of these things, but he was also loyal, brilliant and someone  who could always be counted on.                       
       
           



       

Her heart had always gone out to him. She couldn't deny that she loved  him, so of course Dimitri knew. He knew everything about her. Long ago  she'd opened her mind to her lifemate. At first she'd allowed Dimitri  entrance into her mind with the vague idea he'd see, after her terrible  childhood, that she could never be what he wanted her to be. He had been  then what he was now. Absolute. Calm. Implacable. Certain. Loving.

He was a man nearly impossible to resist. Well. Okay. Her resistance to  the idea of being his lifemate had faded completely. She just needed a  little time to build confidence in herself that when the time came she  would be able to be a full partner to him.

Skyler bit down hard on her lip, wincing a little when it hurt. She  wasn't there yet, not the physical part, but that didn't matter, nor  would it ever if he didn't survive.

Josef's teasing nudge nearly sent her flying. He groaned. "There she  goes again, off to la-la land. She's taken to doing that lately, Paul.  You'll be talking to her and she seems like a normal person and then she  gets that hokey, moon face, all gooey-eyed and goofy and she drifts off  somewhere. I think before we do anything else we need to get her to a  doctor and fast."

"Oh, you're going to need a doctor." Skyler retaliated with a swift kick  to his shins, and as he turned to flee, she leapt up on his back,  pretending to punch his ribs.

"Help, help, she's gone mad." Josef spun in circles as if trying to get  her off his back, all the while holding her safely to him.

"Come on, you goofballs. We can't be certain someone hasn't figured out  yet that Sky is not where she said she'd be," Paul cautioned. "All  either Francesca or Gabriel has to do is try to touch base with her."

Josef stopped his wild spinning and bent his knees to ease Skyler to the ground. He glanced around him, suddenly wary.

"I don't think they'll find us this fast, bro," Paul said.

"No. Not Francesca and Gabriel," Josef said, stepping in front of Skyler  and sweeping her behind him with one arm. "But something has."

"I can help," Skyler hissed. "I'm very adept at all kinds of defense."  She peeked around Josef. She had met and faced all kinds of monsters and  they scared the hell out of her, but she wasn't about to show fear to  either of her friends-not when they were risking their lives in her  rather desperate plan to take Dimitri back from his captors.

Paul closed in on the other side. "Pipe down, lunatic, at least let us see what's coming at us."

"The coffin's in the truck, do you want to try to just drive away?" Skyler suggested hopefully.

"I'd rather meet them out in the open," Paul said. "Josef?"

Josef held up his hand, fingers spread wide. "Five of them. Punks. They  saw the customs guy close up shop and they like to come see what might  have been left behind. Two of them are pretty high. All of them have  been drinking. No vampires."

Skyler caught Josef's arm. "Let's just go then. Five humans with knives  and chains and maybe guns can still slow us down. Let's get out of  here."

"I don't think they have any intention of letting us take the truck, Sky," Josef said. "They've got their eyes on our ride."

Skyler sighed. Josef and Paul were spoiling for a fight. They both had  pent-up energy as well as suppressed anger toward their prince and the  other hunters. If she was being entirely truthful, she did as well. She  was angry. Furious. Dimitri deserved so much more loyalty than his  people were showing him. All three of them had been kept out of the  loop, too young to count, when the very person who was her other half  was in danger. It wasn't right. She was Dimitri's lifemate and at the  very least, she should be kept informed at all times, not dismissed as  if she were a child and wouldn't understand.

She took a deep breath, knowing that the only one of the three of them  who looked as if they could handle themselves was Paul. Josef, they  would dismiss. He was tall and lanky, but hadn't developed the outward  muscle that might impress a group of toughs like the ones posturing.  Josef, of course, was the one that everyone should be afraid of, but he  looked like the techie he was.

She listened to the trash talk and gave a little sigh. The world  sometimes seemed the same everywhere she went. London, South America,  the United States, even her beloved Romania had the same types that  would much rather rob than earn.