Desert Rose

by Anna Lowe

  The hellhound flashed its angry eyes in her direction, then huffed and stalked out of sight. The next bone-chilling howls she’d heard came from farther away, then farther still.

  She’d stood still forever, frozen to the spot. Blinking into the night, wondering what miracle had occurred.

  I’m coming!

  She’d imagined that voice a moment later, once the hellhound was gone. A deep, oaky voice, calling to her from far away.

  I’m coming! Hang on!

  The voice belonged to someone big and capable and so furious at the evil threatening her life, she shook inside.

  The same voice she heard now.

  I’m coming! Hang on!

  Wait. Axel? Was that Axel’s voice?

  Footsteps thundered across her porch, and a heavy fist pounded at her door. She skittered away with her heart in her throat.

  “Beth! Beth!”

  “Axel?” she squeaked. Or was it some trick?

  “Beth!” His voice was hoarse with worry.

  She scurried to the door and flung it open so quickly, he stumbled in. Broad hands gripped her shoulders to keep from bowling her over.

  Axel panted, wide-eyed. “You okay?”

  Her heart slowed from a terrified staccato beat to a ponderous thud. He’d come for her. He wanted her to be all right.

  “Fine. I’m fine,” she managed.

  He gaped at her for a moment, then thumped the door closed and parked his bulk in front of it. She could sense a shimmer of furious javelina around his shoulders, daring anyone to try to get past him. His eyes shone, taking her in, and he froze for a moment, then shook himself back to action. His teeth flashed in the moonlight as he lifted a curtain to peek out.

  She blinked, caught between memories of the past and the present. Trying to tie them together in a way that made sense. That night she’d seen the hellhound, she’d gone outside, unable to resist the urge to test the air. There’d been an overwhelming feeling that fate was bringing her the scent of something…promising. Something that made her cheeks go hot and threw all kinds of crazy images into her mind, like the impossibly soft touch of a callused hand…

  But then the howling had started, and she’d come within a hair of certain death before she’d been saved by a voice…

  “I came as fast as I could,” Axel said, still looking out.

  His hand was tight on the curtain. His right foot pawed the ground. Apparently, her gentle giant had a raging, animal side that only came out in extremes. Maybe male wolves weren’t the only ones to have protective streaks a mile wide. But no wolf had ever been that protective of her.

  No one. Only this man.

  Her mind spun over memories of the hellhound, licking its lips at her, then turning with a jolt. Stalking off at some distant threat.

  I’m coming, the voice had assured her.

  “It was you,” she whispered in wonder.

  Hazel eyes tinged with gold swung around, questioning.

  “It was you that night I saw the hellhound.” She stepped closer, staring into Axel’s eyes. “You’re the one who scared it away.”

  His eyes flashed, and she saw anger, worry, determination. Then he gulped. “That was you I heard?”

  It was part statement, part question, as if he already suspected the answer.

  Her hands were trembling, and the only way to still them was to clutch his shirt. “You heard me from…how far away?”

  One massive boot scuffed across the floor. “A hundred miles?” He wrapped his hand around hers and held it so close, she could feel the beat of his heart. “Doesn’t matter how far.” He shrugged. “I came as fast as I could.”

  “How…how did you know where to come?” Her voice wobbled on every word.

  Mate, her wolf hummed inside. My mate.

  “I just knew.” Axel shrugged. “I just knew.”

  She couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe, because she’d heard the stories. There was only one way a shifter could hear another over that great a distance. Destined mates could do that. No one else.

  She stared up into his eyes. “Axel.”

  His lips moved, but no sound came out. No sound but the beat of his heart under her hand.

  Thump.

  Thump.

  Thump.

  Mate?

  Mate, her wolf hummed.

  When she leaned in to sniff his neck, her wolf hummed in sheer certainty. Mate.

  “It was you, that night. You came for me. All that way…”

  He shut his eyes and closed a second hand over hers, dwarfing it. “It was you, reading to me, after the fight.” His voice was so low, she could barely hear. “You read to me, all that time.”

  Her mind hauled out the painful memory of the wounded javelina, wrapped in bandages, pale and nearly lifeless in a bed. She wasn’t a doctor or a medicine man; all she knew was books. So she’d read to him. Anything, everything. She read and read and read until she was hoarse, then read a little more because death lurked quietly in the corners of the room, and her voice was the only thing pushing it back.

  Or so she’d let herself imagine. Afterward, it seemed silly. How could a single voice beat death back?

  “It was you, reading to me,” Axel said in awe. So quietly, she nearly missed it.

  Her breath caught in her throat. “You heard me?”

  His chin dipped, and a second hand clasped hers. “I heard you.” Of course I heard you, his tone said. “Your voice was my lifeline.”

  When she remembered to breathe again, it was a long, shaky inhale. On the exhale, her eyes closed, and just like that, she was wrapped in a blanket, snuggly and warm. It took another couple of shaky breaths for her to look again, and when she did, all she saw was a two-by-two inch patch of his flannel shirt. She was that close, clinging on that tight. She tilted her head up and found Axel looking down. Reaching out slowly with one giant pad of a thumb that touched her right cheek and slid softly, carefully to the side, wiping away a tear.

  Mate, her whole body sang.

  Mate, his body hummed in reply.

  Another tear escaped, carrying jumbled emotions down her cheek. She clenched her fists in his shirt and tipped her head closer to his. Why was she crying when she could do so many better things?

  Like kiss him, her wolf threw out. Like cup his face in both hands and pull him closer. Like crush ourselves against his chest and let the heat of our bodies intertwine.

  Axel’s lips were a hair away from hers. They were wet, and his eyes shone. Her lips tickled, begging for a taste of him.

  She went up on tippy-toe, threaded her fingers through his short-cropped hair, and leaned in.

  Mate! her wolf sang as their lips joined. More! Need more!

  Even a lot more might not be enough, not of the only part of Axel she could call soft. His lips danced with hers, and he slowly took over the lead. Told her when to open and when to close. When to shift left, when to tug right. When to hold still and let him taste her. His tongue eased past her lips and touched her teeth. Touched, tasted. More thoroughly with every passing second, until his hands were as tight around her as hers were around him, and his lips pressed harder, demanding more and more. His leg slid between hers, and she wound herself closer, closer—

  The lights flickered on, ripping them out of the kiss like a couple of deer caught in headlights.

  “All clear!” a voice shouted outside. “All clear.”

  They broke apart with a gasp and stared at each other.

  Axel started leaning away, and Beth nearly cried.

  Her hand shot out—driven entirely by her canine half—and caught his arm before she knew what she was doing.

  “Wait!” She hit the light switch by the front door, plunging the room back into darkness. A good kind of darkness, now that the all-clear had been sounded. “Wait,” she cried, looping her arms behind his neck, mashing her breasts against his chest. “I like it better this way.”

  The candles in the room winked their approval when Axel sque
ezed closer in a quick, your-wish-is-my-command move.

  Up to then, her heart had been hammering at the bad things in the past, like hellhounds or rogue attacks or the idea of another rejection by another man. Now, her heart started hammering from all the good things that could happen. Right there in her bungalow.

  Right now, her wolf purred. No interruptions. No wimping out.

  “Beth,” he whispered.

  She caught Axel’s lips in another kiss in case he needed convincing, closed her eyes, and hoped to hell she wasn’t reading him wrong.

  The way he kissed her back…no way could she be wrong.

  “I like it better this way, too,” he rumbled. His eyes swept over the flickering candles, then over her body, and he squeezed her against the wall.

  Her nipples heated and peaked as his kisses grew harder and deeper. If it weren’t for his shirt, she’d have a hard time holding on to him. He was that big. That hard. That solid. She might as well have tried getting a grip on the red rock of the mesas surrounding the ranch. She couldn’t even get a hand around half his bicep, let alone the tree trunk of his forearm. She stretched to the tips of her toes and settled for looping her arms around his neck.

  Yum, her wolf murmured. I like the scent of this man.

  She rubbed her cheek against his in slow, hard swipes.

  Love the scent of this man, her wolf growled.

  She slid both hands under his shirt, nearly purring as his steely frame heated under her touch.

  A rumbling sound came from Axel’s chest. His leg found its way back between hers, and every bouncing molecule in her body stampeded to her core, shoving and pushing in a rush to get close.

  Want to bathe in the scent of his man, her wolf yowled.

  He leaned in slowly, carefully. Too carefully.

  “Axel,” she hummed, pulling back a tiny bit. “I won’t break.”

  His dreamy eyes took a moment to focus. The right corner of his mouth crooked up and a smile slowly spread all the way over to the left, like sunrise creeping over a ridgeline and bathing the world in magical light. “Sorry.”

  She tilted her head, opening her neck to him. The rumbling sound grew louder as he worked his way toward her collarbone with big, openmouthed kisses that pulled and sucked at her skin. Kisses that said, I want. I need.

  Her foot left the ground and looped around his leg. Then she wrapped the other one around him, too, going airborne. Which was perfect, except damn, she should have stripped first.

  He hitched her higher and kissed down the front of her shirt. Right down to the top edge of her bra where he stopped and panted. Closed his eyes and inhaled her, but damn it, didn’t budge from the pillow of her chest. Other than the hard jut of his cock against her belly, he seemed so careful, so unsure.

  She loved the gentleman in him, but her wolf had had enough. “I want this,” she scolded, pulling back. “I want you.”

  “You sure?” He ran a finger along her arm as if to test if she really would break.

  Left to its own devices, the librarian part of her soul might just have mumbled something polite. But her wolf had long since grabbed the reins on this encounter.

  She barely held back the wolf’s cry—My mate! Mine!—and substituted a few breathless words instead. “Not the time to make your momma proud of your manners, cowboy.”

  A little smile slipped over the edge of his mouth. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “So what are you waiting for?” She slid her hands from the back of his neck to his chest, then to the top button of her shirt.

  Touch him! Take him! her wolf cried.

  His fingers tightened against her rear. He held her easily, as if she were featherlight—and she was the last girl on the ranch who might be called feather anything.

  His eyes grew darker and widened as she worked down her buttons, one at a time.

  “It’s just…” He trailed off as the white of her bra appeared. The jut of his cock grew harder against her belly.

  She popped another button and gave herself a little cheer. Good to know a girl didn’t have to play fast and loose like Audrey to get a man—a good man—turned on.

  “Just…?” she prompted, drawing the flaps of her shirt apart.

  His hands snuck around her ribs—her tingling ribs—and his fingers edged upward.

  “My first time…” he started, then trailed off.

  “First time against a wall?” She tightened her legs around him. “Mine, too.”

  Axel’s eyes grew dark. With shame? Lust? A mixture of both?

  She nodded in recognition. First time with a wolf. Well, it was her first time with a shifter of any other type, too. But what did that matter? He was all man right now.

  All mine, her wolf growled.

  “First time,” his bass rumbled, so low she nearly missed it. “I mean…”

  It took a second for her to get what he meant. “Your first time…in human form?”

  He gave a curt nod and gulped. Looked down. Was he embarrassed? Afraid of rejection?

  Her turn to go wide-eyed with wonder. She’d heard javelina shifters stayed in animal form much longer than wolves did. As in, for months at a time. That they roamed for hundreds of miles, defending huge territories…

  And just like that, it clicked. The way Axel fingered books in the library. The way he sat in exactly the same place for lunch every day. The way he sniffed the air and closed his eyes.

  She’d been living on Twin Moon Ranch for so long, she took home for granted. For Axel, just being in human form was a luxury, and feeling at home was a privilege.

  More than a privilege. Maybe even a dream come true.

  Her heart thumped harder. She was part of that dream? Plain old Beth, the overlooked librarian, was worth dreaming about?

  Bet your ass I am, her wolf huffed.

  “I get to be your first?” she asked in a whisper.

  His nod was curt, his cheeks a little pink in the candlelight.

  She nuzzled his face and tightened her legs around his waist, emboldened by her canine half. “I want to be your first. I want this, Axel.”

  He caught his lower lip again and kept his chin low. “But shouldn’t we… I mean…” He nodded toward the wall. “I want it to be nice for you. Not fast. Not rough.”

  Her chest swelled, because what wolf ever considered how he wanted her to feel? Most wolves jumped straight into sex, in animal or human form, then trotted right out the other side and disappeared back into the night.

  Good plan, her wolf growled inside. Jump straight into sex. But no disappearing after.

  She tugged Axel closer by both sides of his collar.

  “You can do nice to me all night, cowboy. Right now, how about hard and fast and hot?”

  His eyes flashed, and his skin went even pinker. Maybe his mother really did raise him to be a gentleman.

  “All night?” he mumbled.

  Oh, yeah, her wolf cheered.

  “Yeah,” she breathed. “Is that all right with you?”

  It felt funny, asking a two-hundred-plus-pound boar permission to have wild, crazy sex. Every stereotype told her it ought to be the other way around. But it felt good to be the one to ask. Empowering, even.

  Her wolf grinned in pride. You should let me out more often.

  Maybe she should. Maybe she would.

  Axel cupped her cheek, and his lips trembled just a tiny bit. A shy grin spread over his face as he whispered back.

  “Yeah,” he murmured, caressing her skin. “That’s all right.”

  She was tempted to pick right back up where they’d left off against the wall, but Axel deserved better his first time as a human. She might want hard and fast and hot, but he’d get the full deal—horizontal, face-to-face, and in a bed.

  “Right this way, cowboy.” She eased her legs down and tugged him to the bedroom. “Right this way.”

  Chapter Ten

  All night.

  Axel closed his eyes and hung back for a split second, breathing the mo
ment in. Candlelight danced over the soft curves of Beth’s face and filled the room with the scent of a thousand different flowers, but all he registered was desert rose. His desert rose.

  That, and the scent of desire wafting over dusky petals like a mountain breeze.

  God, he wanted her. Wanted to worship her all night. Maybe even for the rest of his life.

  She wants this, too, his beast rumbled, heaving and stamping and huffing inside, dying to get its prize. Hard and fast and hot.

  But where did he draw the line? Too hard or too fast could ruin the magic spell that had smoothed over the jagged edges of a crazy night.

  Life was easier in animal form. Heavy on physical things, light on emotions like the ones ricocheting off each other in his heart and his gut.

  Beth watched him through glowing, wolf eyes as she shed her top. Yeah, her inner beast was close to the surface, too. But on the surface, she was all woman. Her silky hair cascaded back into place, bouncing off her shoulders. His breath caught in his throat, watching her expose more and more of her creamy white skin. Watching her chest heave, her eyes flash.

  God, it was so much better this way. Physical and emotional, because his heart wasn’t just thumping away for what he saw, but for what he felt. And he wasn’t even touching her yet.

  She worked her hands inside her pants and slid them down. Slowly. Shyly. She looked away, hesitating as if self-conscious about the curve of her hips. As if…as if…

  His boar growled. Didn’t she know how incredibly attractive she was?

  “Hey,” he whispered.

  Her chin jerked up, and he bit his lip. God, you’re beautiful.

  Her eyes went wide.

  Had she actually heard that? His heart beat fast, and he tried it again. You’re beautiful.

  And you’re mine, his boar added in a deeper, grittier voice.

  Her mouth dropped open, and for a minute, all he saw were her eyes. Dark and sensual and surprised.

  You’re mine, his boar muttered in a commanding tone he’d never dare use as a man.

  She worked her full lips together and gave a tiny nod.

  Mine.

  He closed his eyes, amazed at the sound of her sweet soprano echoing through his mind. He strained, trying to hang on to her angel’s voice saying, Mine. Mine.