Sensing more than seeing Remy move, Triana jumped out of the way. She hit the floor at the same time Remy smashed into Quinn, knocking him though the wall. There was a gunshot, then lots of snarling and growling mixed in with a few cries of pain.
Triana was glad it was too dark to see anything in the other room, but she knew what was happening. After the part Quinn had played in her father’s death, she couldn’t find it in herself to feel sorry for him.
It couldn’t have been any more than thirty seconds later before Remy bounded out of the hole he and Quinn had made in the wall. He stopped when he saw her standing there, his whole body displaying how hesitant he was to approach her.
Smiling, Triana stood and moved to meet him halfway. Then she dropped to her knees and held out her arms. He was there immediately, his head towering over hers, his huge muzzle sniffing softly around the scalp wound that she’d gotten when Quinn had slammed her head into the wall of the van earlier. She’d almost forgotten about it.
“I’m fine,” she said, almost laughing as he chuffed and continued to sniff at her head. “Are you okay?” She ran her hands along the thick fur of his withers and sides. “You didn’t get shot, did you?”
He chuffed again in answer. Triana sighed. This part was going to be tough. She was obviously going to need to brush up on her wolf sounds.
Not having any other way to know for sure, she ran her hands all over Remy’s body. He was huge, so it took a little while, not that he seemed to mind the attention.
When she was satisfied he hadn’t been wounded, she sat back on her heels and looked up at him. “I didn’t know you could do this.”
He sat down and chuffed again.
She laughed. “You’re absolutely beautiful like this, but do you think you could turn back, so I can actually talk to you?”
An expression that looked like concern crossed Remy’s furry face, but then the second wolf padded out of the other room to stand beside him. Remy visibly relaxed as the second wolf—he was the same size but with darker brown fur mixed with gray—lay down on the floor and closed his eyes. Remy did the same.
Triana watched, fascinated, as the muscles under their fur began to twitch and spasm. Then it got a little weird as their fur started to disappear. Okay…a lot weird. But as a curious science nerd, she couldn’t look away, even when the bones under all those muscles started to change shape. Besides, this was Remy, the man she loved. There was no way she was going to look away.
Until they were done shifting back into their human form and she realized they were both naked as the day they were born. She certainly had no problem looking at Remy like that, but seeing some guy she’d never met before was…strange.
As she stood up and turned her back to give the man some privacy, she had to admit her mother had been right—alpha werewolves were certainly hunky.
Triana felt Remy’s presence behind her even before he turned her around and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly as she kissed him back. Then she pulled away a little to take a closer look at the two bullet wounds on his chest. She could still see them, but they were completely closed over. She hugged him again, never wanting to let him go. But after a while, she heard the other man clear his throat.
Remy chuckled. “Triana, this is Cooper. He’s one of the werewolves in my pack.”
Triana went through the most unusual handshake ritual of her life with a naked guy who’d moments before been a wolf. She suddenly knew how guys felt when they met a woman. Don’t look down. Don’t look down. Don’t look down.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Cooper said with a quirky grin that suggested he knew exactly what she was thinking. “I hate to interrupt the reunion, but we need to get out of here. The gunshots and that wrecked Caddy are going to attract attention sooner or later, and we don’t want to be here when the police show up because that”—he gestured at the other room—“is going to be damn hard to explain.”
Crap. Triana hadn’t thought of that. She grabbed Remy’s hand and started for the door. They obviously weren’t leaving in Lee’s car, so that meant walking. Then the problem with that idea hit her.
She stopped and turned to look at them. “You guys didn’t bring clothes with you, did you?”
They both shook their heads.
Of course not. “Then we might be in trouble because I don’t have my purse or cell phone, and you can’t go out there naked.”
Remy and Cooper exchanged looks.
“This is New Orleans, darlin’.” Remy’s mouth twitched. “I doubt anyone will even notice. Besides, it’s dark out.”
Triana felt her jaw drop as Remy gave her hand a tug and started for the door, Cooper in tow. Crap. They weren’t really doing this, were they?
Well, this was probably going to be interesting. Then again, something told her everything in her life would be more interesting now that Remy was in it.
Chapter 20
Triana sat at the picnic table beside Cooper’s wife, Everly, watching Remy and the other members of the Pack on the volleyball court as they kicked up sand and laughed like a bunch of kids. Running around without a shirt, sweat glistening on that perfect body of his, Remy looked good enough to eat. She had to admit she appreciated some of the other guys out there too, particularly the ones displaying that wolf head tattoo on the left side of their chests. They weren’t Remy, but they were fine.
“If the Pack gets any larger,” Everly remarked, pushing back her long hair, “I think we’re going to need a bigger volleyball court. Between the SWAT guys, Jayna’s pack, my brother, and the new betas, the place is getting crowded.”
