Wolf Undaunted. Shannon Curtis
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when nobody else could—well, it made him feel a little guilty. He wasn’t a figment of her imagination. He was real. Well, as real as a ghost could be. Vivianne was a strong woman, vivacious, clever, confident. Regardless of whether she was vamp or lycan, no guy wanted any woman in his orbit to feel “less” because of her dealings with him. That didn’t make you a man, it made you a bully. Sure, he’d take on a vamp, male or female. But he’d do it face on, in a fair fight. He’d seen Vivianne in action enough times to know she was nobody’s “girl,” that she could defend herself in a fistfight just as well as a war of words. Hell, his own alpha prime was a woman. One of the attributes of a vampire was their physical strength, and he’d fought against a number of them. But he was always brought up to respect women, and to protect those around you. Making a woman doubt herself, or scared to tell the truth because of how it might make her look, or fearing she’d lose her position because of her association with you didn’t make you a legend, it made you a douche.
And damn it, it was just one more thing to hate Lucien Marchetta for.
Dave reached for her hand, and Zane saw the tendril of light stretching between himself and Vivianne glow. Warmth encompassed him, and his frown matched Dave’s when he glanced up.
“Well, I’ll be...” Dave murmured.
“What?” Hunter asked.
“Who are you?”
Zane’s eyes widened as he realized Dave was speaking to him. “You can see me?” The witch’s lips quirked, and Zane wished he could see behind the dark lenses of his sunglasses.
“I see a lot of things...” Dave responded. He lifted his hand, and the tendril of light dimmed. Dave frowned, then touched Vivianne again, and the light ribbon glowed. “Interesting.”
“Who are you talking to?” Ryder asked, and Hunter squinted as he glanced around the room.
“Vivianne’s not hallucinating.”
Zane nodded. “Thank you. I’ve been trying to tell that to anyone who can hear me.”
“If it’s not hallucinations, or delusions, or a very creative imagination, then what are we dealing with?” Hunter asked, and folded his arms. The light in the room ebbed.
“She’s picked up a passenger.”
“What?” Ryder asked, perplexed.
“She’s haunted,” Dave explained.
Hunter started to stroll away from the gurney, looking into every shadow of the room. “As in a ghost?”
Dave tilted his head as he gazed at Zane. “I’m not sure...”
“Can you help me?” Zane asked Dave.
Dave shrugged, his own expression puzzled.
“So what do we do with a ghost?” Ryder asked.
“An exorcism?” Hunter asked.
Ryder turned to his brother. “Since when do we do exorcisms?”
“Hey, there’s a first time for everything. I’ve never had a patient haunted by a ghost before.”
“You want to experiment?” Ryder asked in disbelief.
“No,” Zane said, shaking his head.
“Hell, yeah,” Hunter said.
“And how do you think you’ll sell that to Vivianne Marchetta?” Ryder asked, gesturing to the still-unconscious woman.
Hunter grimaced. “Good point. She’s already going to be pissed when she wakes up...” He brightened. “So why not give her something she can be really pissed about?”
“No,” Zane repeated, louder.
“Exorcisms work on demons, not ghosts,” Dave interjected, then shrugged. “I think.”
“How do we know this is really a ghost, and not a demon?” Hunter asked.
Zane put his hands on his hips. “Oh, come on. First I’m a hallucination, then a tumor, and now I’m a demon? I take offence to that.”
Dave’s lips quirked, then he met Hunter’s gaze. “He’s not a demon. He’s offended by the suggestion.”
“He? Who’s he?” Ryder asked.
“Good question,” Dave said, and arched an eyebrow. “Who are you?”
Zane sighed. “My name is Zane Wilder.”
“Zane Wilder?” Dave repeated. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
“The Alpine guardian?” Ryder asked. “Wasn’t that the name of the guardian Lucien Marchetta killed?”
Dave glanced between Vivianne and Zane. “Interesting.”
“Stop saying that,” Zane muttered.
“A lycan?” Hunter asked, then chuckled. “Oh, man, a lycan haunting a vampire. That’s gold.”
“How does that happen?” Ryder asked. He frowned as he turned to the witch. “Dave?”
Dave tilted his head as he thought about it, then shrugged. “Yeah, I’m drawing a blank.” He glanced over at Zane. “Did you have a thing for Vivianne?”
Zane frowned. “No.”
“I mean, before you died?”
“No.”
“Were you both in some sort of relationship?”
“Hell, no. I’d never even met her. She’s a vamp, for crying out loud.”
“Huh.”
“What’s he saying?” Ryder asked.
“Uh, no,” Dave told them. His frown deepened. “Does she have something of yours? Maybe it’s not the woman you’ve attached to, but an object that she holds...?”
“Nope.”
“Then, how are you attached?”
“If I knew that, I would be able to unattach and get out of here.”
Dave sighed gruffly, then nodded to Hunter. “Wake her up.”
Hunter grimaced, and gently pressed his fingers to her temples.
Zane watched as Vivianne’s eyelids fluttered, then her eyes opened. He saw confusion, perhaps tinged with a little fear, and then the anger flared.
* * *
She was on her back, staring up at a group of men, with no recollection of how she got in this position.
And it freaked the crap out of her.
Eyes sparking red, she bared her teeth, and she welcomed the sharp sting of her incisors lengthening.
She swung her legs off the gurney, landing lightly on her feet. She glared at Hunter, then Ryder, and she hissed when she noticed the tall, muscular man with the dark sunglasses.
Zane braced his hand against the gurney, and shot her an expectant look. Damn it, she could still see him. Yet, the reason she was here, the current bane of her life, was not a face that caused her fear. In fact, seeing Zane came with a soft dose of reassurance. God, wasn’t that all kinds of sad.
“What the hell did you do to me?” She rasped at Hunter, her fists clenched as she started to slowly advance on him. The last thing she remembered was him asking her if she was ready for tests, and then boom—blackout.
Hunter Galen held up his hands, but didn’t retreat from her. “Whoa, lady prime, relax. I had to get you to completely relax so I could scan your mind.”
Her eyes rounded. “You knocked me out?”
Hunter shrugged, and she couldn’t help but notice he was not remorseful