“Not something I have to do?” she asked him slowly, propping her hands on her hips as she watched him. “Tell me, Jacob, exactly what will be required of me during this enforced stay with you? Or am I here for you to merely torment?”

“Torment?” Jacob shook his head, confused and finding it more than difficult to follow her reasoning. “Faith, I have no desire to torment you. Did I not just let you dump me on my ass? Did I retaliate? Did I mount you and force you to take me? Dammit, you’re my mate, not my slave. Do whatever the hell you please, but you will stay.” His voice slowly rose as his own frustration began to get the best of him.

He advanced on her until they were nearly nose to nose. He had to forcibly restrain himself to keep from touching her, tasting the heat that rolled off her in waves. In all his life, his control had never been tested in such a manner. He could not remember a time when he had been so filled with conflicting desires and needs that his body nearly shuddered from them.

“You are too bossy, Jacob,” she yelled back fiercely. “You are arrogant, lordly, and an asshole to boot. I have no desire to be under your thumb for one day, let alone seven.”

“Do you prefer my thumb or my body?” he growled back. “Don’t push me, Faith. My control has never been at its best where you are concerned, and infuriating me in this manner does not help.”

“So it’s my fault now?” she argued back, her black eyes bottomless, hot and excited. Damn her, she didn’t even bother to hide the fact that his anger was arousing her. “Poor Jacob can’t control himself, so it’s all Faith’s fault. Come on, Jacob, surely you don’t expect me to fall for that?”

“Faith, you are pushing me.” His voice lowered, the rough rumble that echoed from his chest surprised him. Only during extreme stress or fury did the animalistic growl vibrate in his chest in such a way.

Faith’s eyes widened, and damn her, he could literally taste the heat flowing from her core. The smell of her arousal was wrapping him in a bond of lust he was finding hard to deny.

“Jacob, you are pushing me.” A slender finger poked into his chest. “This big bad Alpha Enforcer persona is growing tedious.”

“Tedious?” he snarled. He was a big bad Alpha Enforcer. Did this now make him tedious? He didn’t think so. “I am about to show you, Faith, that I can be very untedious, if you do not get that pretty little finger out of my chest.”

She looked down at her finger, then back up at him. A slender auburn brow arched in challenge. Her finger pressed deeper as a daring expression crossed her face.

“What will you do Big Bad Alpha Enforcer? I’ve already dumped you on your ass once. Are you looking for a repeat performance?” she asked him softly, amusement and calculated female challenge filling her expression.

Before she could react, before he even knew what he had intended, his arms reached for her. She was lightning fast in her attempt to avoid him, to pull another of her little stunts designed to throw him off balance. Before she could get her legs in position he had her arms behind her back, her body sprawling beneath his as he forced her to the couch behind her.

He moved quickly between her thighs, pressing his thick erection against the heated, jeans covered cunt that tempted him past sanity. He stared into her shocked face, seeing the excitement that flared in her eyes, the flush of angry arousal on her cheeks.

“Be very careful, Faith,” he whispered warningly as he arched her swollen breasts into his chest, relishing the feel of her hardened nipples. “I remember well how hot and wet your cunt gets, and how tight your ass wraps around my cock. It’s your choice, which takes you when the time comes, the man or the beast. Push the beast much further, and you may well learn the conclusion of the act forced upon you in that damned Lab six years ago. Do not, Faith, push my needs for you in this manner.”

She stared up at him, her lips parted, her breathing rough and hard. Then she licked her lips. A slow, wet swipe of her tongue, the act deliberate, challenging.

There was nothing left to say. Jacob’s lips slammed down on hers as a groan was ripped from his throat. His tongue forged into her mouth, the heated depths soothing the sudden ache of it as her lips closed on him. He slanted his lips over hers, the hand holding hers behind her back arched her closer as the other curved ruthlessly around her breast, his fingers gripping the hard little nipple poking against the cloth of her shirt.

She moaned, a sound rich with longing and arousal as she met his kiss with a force of her own. Her thighs tightened on his, driving his cock tighter against the wedge of her thighs as her hips arched into him. She was a live flame in his arms, burning him, searing his body as he fought to take his fill of her lips.

And he would have. He would have taken his fill of her body, her lusts, if he had been but given a chance. As his hand went to burrow beneath her shirt, the low drone of the house alarm began to beep imperatively.

* * * * *

Jacob was on his feet, jerking Faith up behind him a second later as he rushed to the walnut wood cabinet in the corner of the room.

“Visitors,” he bit out at her surprised look.

He jerked two revolvers, and matching comm. links from the chest and pushed them to her.

She didn’t speak, but the brief glance he shot her assured him that she was following his lead efficiently. The revolver was in a readied position at her shoulder, the comm. link attached securely to her head.

“Expecting someone?” she asked him, barely a breath of a sound as they moved into the foyer, edging along the wall to the slender, tinted double windows that looked out to the front gate.

Jacob grunted sarcastically as he flipped his own unit to a private channel. He didn’t want Faith aware of the fact that the whole compound was being watched. He wanted her comfortable, relaxed, and protected.

He didn’t have to speak. When he switched over, he knew the others would be aware of it, and ready to report.

“Can’t see shit, boss.” Stygian’s voice was disgusted, angry. “I got the alarm the minute it came through, but there’s nothing out here.”

Not possible. The alarms extended fully around the hacienda’s boundaries, and were set to go off only in certain instances.

“No animals, no nothing. We found the tripped unit, and it’s definitely been tripped, but I’ll be damned if there’s anything around here,” the other Enforcer continued. “If it’s Coyote Breeds, then they’re getting smarter, or the alarm units are malfunctioning.”

The Coyote Breeds were smart enough as it was, Jacob thought furiously, they didn’t need to get smarter.

“Figure it out,” Jacob told him softly, his voice hard as he continued through the house, secure that Faith was covering his back. “Now!”

“We’re on it.” The link was broken when Jacob switched back to the private channel with Faith.

“What’s going on, Jacob?” Her voice was suspicious as they went through the lower level of the house.

“I don’t know yet,” he grunted. “Just stay behind me, and stay ready. I don’t know what tripped the alarm but I want to be sure nothing got in the house. We’ll check every room.”

* * * * *

The house was clear. There were no breached windows, no sign of trespassers. Faith moved carefully behind Jacob, her back to his, her eyes covering every inch of the rooms they moved through. They finally ended back up in the living room, where Jacob hit the switch that closed dark shades over each window and left the interior gloomy, intimate.

“So.” She turned to him, wanting answers now. “Exactly what mission are you on right now, Jacob, and who the hell were you talking to when you switched over on the comm. link?”

Chapter Seven

Jacob sighed roughly.

“The mission isn’t the problem, the possibility of Coyote Breeds are.” He raked his fingers through his hair as he faced her. “There’s a Lab around here somewhere, we just haven’t found it yet. Evidently, the Breeds they’re holding are pretty damned important too, because anyone who could have had information has been killed before I could get to them.”

A quick, thoughtful frown creased her face. “How many Enforcers do you have with you?”

“The Elite force is working with me, as well as Danson,” he told her, speaking of the team of eleven other Breeds known for their intelligence and savagery. “We’ve been working on this for a year now, with only the time to aid Wolfe taken off of it. But I think it gave them the time they needed to hide more effectively.”

She pulled the comm. link off her head, but tucked the revolver into the back of her jeans. It should have looked out of place, awkward on her, but the gesture bespoke a quiet confidence, a strength he had never thought she had. He had always felt that Faith needed to be protected, that she was unable to protect herself. Seeing differently shook him a bit, he had to admit. She shouldn’t have to defend herself. Shouldn’t have to live a life that required it.

“They’ll target you eventually. Have you set yourself up as a target?” she asked him. He had known she would figure out quickly, and as expected, she didn’t like it.

“Security is in place, Faith,” he assured her. “We’re targets no matter where we are. At least this way there is a measure of control.”

She knew this as well as he did. Her arms crossed over her chest, her hands rubbing at them as though to warm herself.

“This place is a security nightmare, Jacob,” she told him coolly as she paced to the closed shades of the largest window. “Whose is it?” She rubbed her arms again.

Jacob narrowed his eyes, wondering if perhaps her skin was irritated. The price he paid for that damned lotion she used, it shouldn’t itch, chafe, or develop a rash. The stuff was outrageous.

“A friend’s.” He shrugged, giving her the same answer as before. “He uses the place only rarely, and he’s one of the Pack supporters.”

Actually, Caleb’s father had been a higher Genetics Council member. After his death, and Caleb’s subsequent fury at learning of his parents’ depravities, he had become one of the Breed’s staunchest allies.

“How much trouble are you expecting?”

Jacob grunted. “Not much. Evidently they’re pretty secure in their ability to hide. We haven’t seen any signs of Coyote Breeds, and the perimeter breach could have been anything, including faulty equipment. But it’s the best we have for now.”

She nodded slowly, thoughtfully. Knowing that he was on a mission would not have surprised her. As an Enforcer, it was his life. It would become her life as well, and that scared the hell out of him.

Finally, she sighed deeply, rubbing at her arms again.

“What’s wrong, Faith?” Jacob leaned forward in his chair, frowning at the way her arms seemed to be bothering her. “Did you hurt yourself earlier?”

“When?” She looked around at him, confused for a moment before her lips quirked into a small grin. “When I dumped you on your ass? Naw. That didn’t hurt me.” She tucked a strand of short hair behind her ear nervously before going back to the late evening view outside.

She rubbed at her arms again.

“Faith, what’s wrong with your arms?” He stood up from his chair, stalking over to her, intent to find out what was wrong.

“Nothing is wrong with me.” She turned on him, frowning as he came near her.

It hit him then. Hard. Sweet, hot and so damned tempting he could barely stand it. Her lust was a palatable thing; he could almost taste it on the air around her.

He lifted her arm, his fingers running over the soft skin. Damn, that lotion was worth every penny he had paid over the years. Her skin was soft as satin, with a healthy, glowing sheen. It was warm, the feel of it unlike anything he had ever known.