by Terry Spear
“I’d get together with my sisters, and then last year with CJ and my sisters. This has been the best with you. Why don’t we start the turkey, and I was thinking about starting breakfast, but…”
Peter pulled her up from the couch and gave her a kiss. “You want to model your lingerie for me?”
She smiled and ran her hands over his T-shirt. “Yeah, I do.”
“Good. That’s why I got them for you.”
“The wolf one first, right?”
“That one you wear when I’m not around.”
She chuckled, took his hand, and led him into the kitchen. He pulled the turkey out of the fridge while she readied a turkey pan. After they rinsed the turkey and removed the neck and giblets, they put the turkey in a roasting bag and then placed it in the oven and set the timer.
Meghan grabbed up their clothes and carried them upstairs while he put the shoe racks under the side table to assemble later. She had just placed the new clothes on a chair when she heard him jogging up the stairs to join her.
“Which do you want me to put on?” She held up the red baby-doll pajamas and the blue nightie.
Peter’s smile was totally wolfish as he rested his hands on her shoulders and stroked them through the red silky pajamas she was wearing. “This.”
She laughed. “You didn’t even have to get these for me.”
“Oh, yeah, for later.” He took them from her hands and set them on top of his sweaters on the chair.
He wasn’t waiting for a style show. And she was glad about that.
“This is just as sexy on you. Anything you wear, or don’t wear, is sexy.” He pressed his leg between hers and began to rub. “You are sexy.”
“So”—she kissed his stubbly chin—“are”—she licked his mouth, her arms wrapping around his neck, feeling her blood heat as he pressed his thigh so wickedly between her legs—“you. Every delectable part of you.”
He kissed her mouth and his lips lingered there, hot and soft and greedy. She licked the seam between his lips and poked her tongue into his mouth, tasting the peppermint candy and white chocolate latte he’d had earlier. He smiled a little before sucking on her tongue. An erotic shot of electricity went straight to her groin, and she moaned against his mouth. Now she knew how it felt when she did that to him.
He slid his tongue into her mouth and she quickly reciprocated, sucking on his tongue with vigor. He groaned and wrapped his arms around her tighter, his steel-hard cock bumping against her tummy. She ran her fingers underneath his T-shirt, feeling his smooth skin and hard abs all the way to his pebbled nipples. She rubbed them with the heel of the palms of her hands, eliciting a low growl. His wolfish pheromones let her know just how keen he was to have her, how much she was turning him on, her own pheromones eagerly responding.
He slowly moved his hands to her breasts and caressed them through the satiny pajama top, then gently tweaked her budded nipples. She pressed her breasts into his hands, and he cupped them, then leaned down to lick one of the protruding nipples.
Oh God, she was about to come unglued. She pulled his T-shirt up and nuzzled her mouth against one of his nipples, and he jerked his T-shirt off and tossed it. Then he began unbuttoning her pajama top. Slowly at first, making her feel sexy, but then he started working faster. She figured, though he thought the pajamas looked sexy on her, he’d probably prefer one of the new ones he got her. Easier to pull off and toss.
But this was fun, too, as he came to the last button, unfastened it, pulled her top open, and then molded his hands around each breast again. Then he licked and kissed each of them in turn as she slid her hands over his back, loving the muscular feel of him.
She hadn’t known what she was missing before Peter. She slid her hands down the back of his shorts and cupped his naked buttocks and pressed him harder against her. She was already slippery and wet for his cock, her body thrumming with need.
He slid her top off her shoulders, and it slipped to the floor. Then he pulled her pajama bottoms down, and she stepped out of them. Eager to free his cock, she slid his shorts down his legs, and he kicked them off. She climbed into bed and he followed her, covering her with his body, lifting her legs around his, and pressing his penis into her.
He was so big, and hard, and perfect for her. He began to thrust, easy at first, then pressing his hand between them to stroke her already swollen clit. She felt her world tilting on end as he continued to stroke her, slowly pushing into her, the feeling more erotic than she’d ever experienced.
She was practically holding her breath as she tensed. The feelings washed over her in a cascade of sensation, the end coming, the exquisite release, and she finally relaxed against the bed, feeling at one with the world, loving her mate with all her heart.
Loving that they could take their relationship to this level on Christmas Day, the first of many to come, Peter began thrusting harder as she propelled her hips upward to take his thrusts. God, how he loved her. He continued to rock into her, harder, easing off, and kissing her breasts, then pumping into her again, no longer able to hold back. He felt the release coming and let go, plunging into her until the very end, and then he held her tight, moving onto his back and pulling her with him so they were still tied together. Then they cuddled, and they slept for a while before she started to stir.
“I’m hungry. Want some breakfast?”
“And more of this,” he said, running his hand over her naked thigh. “I’ll help clean up the living room, and then I’ll get wood for a fire and we can watch a Christmas movie.”
“I’d love that. I’ll just make us breakfast, and we can sit and eat it in the living room. How do cinnamon buns sound? Or monkey bread? I didn’t want to fix anything too heavy for breakfast because we’re going to have such a feast for a late lunch.”
“Yeah, monkey bread sounds good. And mugs of hot chocolate?”
“You got it. We can run before lunch, if my sisters and their mates are up to it.”
“That sounds like a good plan.”
They both dressed in jeans, sweaters, and boots, then Meghan cleaned up all the wrapping paper and boxes in the living room while Peter hauled the snow blower outside and returned for the log splitter. She gave him a kiss and headed for the kitchen. Peter put on his coat and went out back to set up the snow blower and try out the new log splitter.
* * *
Meghan pulled out the Bundt pan and then brought out two tubes of biscuit dough, a stick of butter, cinnamon, and sugar. She tied on her Merry Christmas apron and was about to preheat the second oven when she heard the doorbell ring. Thinking one of her family members had dropped by with some goodies, she headed for the door and peeked out through the peephole.
A four-foot-tall Christmas angel—the kind that was wired with lights—was sitting on the porch, wearing a big, red bow. She smiled, wondering who had given it to them. When she opened the door, she knew she’d made an awful mistake as soon as Rollins jumped out from behind a snow-covered holly shrub and punched her in the head. Her world instantly turned to night.
Chapter 29
When Meghan came to, she was lying on a rocky floor shivering. She realized with horror that she was down in one of the tunnels of the Silver Town Mine. Two lanterns were lit nearby.
She smelled Bill’s scent, surprising her, and looked over to see him lying on the floor nearby, unconscious, his leg bleeding from what she thought looked like a gunshot wound. His hands were tied together with a plastic tie. She tried to sit up, but her head shrieked with pain and she nearly passed out. She heard someone, most likely Rollins, muttering off in the tunnel out of view. She forced herself to get on her hands and knees, her head swimming, and crawled over to where Bill was. Pulling off her apron, she wrapped it around his wound and wished she had something to cut the plastic tie off his wrists.
“Bill,” she whispered. He didn’t stir. She didn’t think
he would be much help fighting Rollins, but maybe the two of them could do something. She needed to shift into her wolf. Maybe she could bite through Bill’s plastic tie.
She pulled off her boots and socks and shivered again in the cold. At least Bill was wearing his coat, ski hat, and gloves, which were all black. She suspected he’d been trying to find Rollins. But in the snow? He probably would have blended in better in all white. She hoped he’d be all right. His heart rate was normal, his face pale, but he was breathing steadily.
She heard someone coming and lay down as if she had moved and blacked out again. She wished it was Peter with half the pack coming to rescue her, but she was certain it was Rollins. Peter and the others would have been calling her name.
Rollins drew close to her. “I know you’re awake. I can smell your fear, and your heartbeat is racing too fast for someone who is unconscious.”
Had he made a study of women he’d beaten to see the effect he’d had on them? The bastard.
She recognized his voice, but he was still wearing hunter’s concealment spray. She opened her eyes to see the brown-bearded man staring down at her, his blue eyes hard. He had a few more creases around his mouth now. Scowl lines, not from smiling. And he was wearing a white snowsuit like Bill should have been, seamlessly blending in with the snow.
“I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to grab you. Bill was easy. He practically gave himself up to me. You were always protected. Except today. The sheriff was out chopping wood, and Jessup left a present on your porch. Perfect timing. He left it as a surprise, probably not wanting to disturb your Christmas, but it made the situation ideal for me. As soon as he left, I hurried to ring your doorbell and hid, hoping your mate wouldn’t return to the house and protect you before I could carry you off. I almost feel sorry for Peter. First he lost Lena, now you. He ought to cut his losses and forget mating again.”
Meghan couldn’t think in terms of Peter losing her and going through the grief all over again. She had to think in terms of winning against the rogue wolf.
“Why are you risking your neck to kill us?” Meghan asked Rollins. “You had your freedom. The Silver Town wolves would never have gone after you if you’d left us alone.” Which wasn’t true. Once they learned Rollins had killed the miners, they would have tracked him down or sent Anna and Bjornolf to take Rollins down if he was no longer in their territory.
“All I’ve wanted since I was imprisoned was to kill the two of you. Bill for threatening to kill me, and you for having me imprisoned.” Rollins shrugged. “How could I know his warning was just that? He’s too weak to do anything more than verbally threaten me. But no one ever bullies me and lives to tell about it. Ask any of the inmates I was incarcerated with. I was so ready to kill you for putting me in that hellhole. You don’t know how many times I fought the urge to shift and tear into someone. It took all my strength not to give in to my wolf. And I vowed I’d kill you both for all the trouble you caused me. That’s all that kept me sane in there. To learn you were back in my own stomping grounds could cause problems, sure. Everyone knows the old me. My scent. Hunter’s spray worked for the most part. But then you kept running into my stashes. How the hell did you manage to do that? You were like a noose around my neck.”
“What are you going to do?” Meghan hoped if she could keep him talking, Peter would have time to gather some men and search for her and find her before Rollins could kill her. She imagined no one knew Bill had returned to the area, trying to track Rollins down.
She wanted to strip out of her clothes and shift, then tear into Rollins as a wolf—it was the only weapon she had—but that could take too long and he might shoot her to slow her down. He had a gun holstered at his belt, and she probably wouldn’t be able to reach him in time. This was so reminiscent of the last time when she had fought with herself to make the right call. If Rollins shot her, he might not kill her, but she could bleed out before help arrived. It might be better to wait and hope the pack members discovered she and Bill were entombed down here.
“You wanna know what I’m going to do to the two of you? Trap you down here like I was trapped in prison. They’ll never get you out before the two of you suffocate. You were right. I killed the other miners, though how the hell you knew that is beyond me. They planned on killing me first.”
“For abusing your mother.”
“She got what was coming to her. My stepdad was great, and she murdered him. After I do what I gotta do here, I’m outta here for good. No one will ever find me. But I always take care of those who side against me.
“You might want to move back a way so the blast and falling stones don’t kill you right off. But, hell, it’s your choice. Maybe you’d prefer getting it over with quicker.” He moved away from her, and then she saw a wire she hadn’t noticed before. He brought out a lighter and moved toward the wire.
Screw it. She wasn’t just going to let him dictate the way he wanted this to go. She had to take a chance, even if it was the wrong one. She began stripping out of her clothes as fast as humanly possible.
Rollins glanced over his shoulder and smiled darkly at her as soon as she was naked. “You’ll never reach me before I set off the explosion, and you’ll be caught up in the blast. Like I said, it’s completely your choice.”
Her head and heart pounding, she shifted and raced toward him, but she realized as soon as he set the flame to the wire on the dynamite, he could be right. But if he was going to bury them in here, he wasn’t leaving either. When his back was turned, she bit into his leg and he cried out. He whipped his gun out. She let go of his leg and grabbed the gun in her mouth before he could point it at her. She pulled it out of his grasp and tossed it back toward Bill like a dog bone. She turned to go after Rollins, but he’d hurried as fast as he could go with his bloodied leg away from her and the blast. She knew she couldn’t go after him again before the blast went off and stones fell and killed her. She whipped around and ran back toward Bill’s unconscious form. She had to agree with the bastard that Bill would never have managed to kill Rollins. The wolf was too crafty.
The explosion was deafening and shook the walls, roof, and floor of the tunnel. The impact knocked her off her feet, and she fell near Bill, light rock debris and dust raining down all over them.
Coughing as a wolf from all the rock dust, she glanced back at the entryway that was filled with boulders, loose rocks, and debris. Rollins’s headlamp light cast a soft glow through the murky dust, poking through a hole big enough she could slip her hand through. She felt a bit of relief that she and Bill were still alive, they weren’t cut off from air, but she knew it could be short-lived if Rollins set off another blast and blocked their air supply. Though it appeared they were buried in here anyway.
She worried Rollins was now preparing more dynamite to make sure she and Bill were truly trapped. The only way to fight Rollins was as a wolf. If she could take him out for good this time, then she could get help for Bill. She raced toward the boulders, her head throbbing. She couldn’t pass out now. Not when she had to stop Rollins from sealing them in all the way.
She slowed her pace when she reached all the debris and picked her way over the rocks littering the floor, finally reaching the bigger rocks blocking the entrance. The headlamp hadn’t moved. With any luck, the explosion had knocked Rollins out. She prayed it was so and that he didn’t kill her when she tried to remove the debris that she could and make her way out. Though she realized he might have set his headlamp down on the ground and was still trying to set up another explosion.
She climbed carefully up the angular rocks, then heard groaning on the other side. Maybe the blast had knocked Rollins out initially, but now he was reviving. Hopeful that Rollins was incapacitated for the moment, she had to make a hole big enough to crawl out of and take him out before he could do anything else to harm them.
She reached the hole and had to crawl on her belly to peek throu
gh the small opening. Dust particles floated around the headlamp on the rocky floor, the light angled upward. But then she heard Rollins groan again. The sound was coming from the base of the cave-in. She glanced to her left and saw a hand poking out of the rubble. Ohmigod, he had been buried underneath large rocks. Karma came to mind. If he’d left them alone, he could have lived for a long time without any trouble from the wolves. But she suspected she was the one who’d caused him to be pinned under the rocks when she’d bitten him and slowed him down.
She prayed he’d buried himself well enough that he couldn’t move the debris that pinned him down as she shifted and began to pull away smaller rocks from the hole. She felt the ones below her suddenly falling away.
* * *
Peter carried logs into the living room and realized Meghan wasn’t in the kitchen making the monkey bread. He’d expected to smell the sugary, cinnamon bread cooking. He set the logs on the rack near the fireplace and then called out to her, figuring she was in their bedroom or the bathroom. She didn’t respond, and he immediately was concerned. He tore up the stairs, and in a panic, he looked through all the rooms. There was no sign of her.
Heart racing, he called CJ and Trevor on his way downstairs. He rushed out the front door. “CJ, call the alert roster. Meghan’s gone missing. Trevor, gather whoever you can get hold of to start a search.” Peter stared at the angel on the porch and saw the card that said it was from the Frasers.
“Rollins,” CJ said, his voice dark.
“I’m sure of it.” Peter observed footprints by the shrub and along the walk. He saw her car was missing. “Put out an APB on her car. Fresh tire tracks were left in the snow. I’m tracking the car now.”
“All right. Tell me where it leads. Talk to you in a minute.” CJ hung up.
Peter got in his car and followed the car’s tire tracks down the back road. One good thing worked in his favor. It was early Christmas morning. Everyone was probably still at home unwrapping Christmas presents, and all the shops were closed, so no other tire tracks could be seen that morning. After the snowfall they’d had during the night, it couldn’t have been more perfect. He just prayed he’d catch up with Meghan before Rollins killed her.