Dirty Wolf

by Aidy Award

  The lust in his gaze was so powerful it seemed like his eyes were glowing with it. Gal blinked and the glow was gone, but the lust remained. “Here’s everything you need, kiska.”

  Gal swallowed, not quite trusting herself to reply yet. Max leaned forward. Whoa, he was coming in for a kiss. Right here, in front of half the town. His eyes never left hers and he reached around her side, skimmed his palm along her bare arms. Her heart rate soared right up to maximum speed and at the same time she forgot how to breathe. She’d imagined kissing Max more times than she could count.

  His eyes twinkled, her eyes surely matched with her own gah-gah for him sparkle. Gal parted her lips and sucked in the soft woodsy scent of him.

  Max shifted and held a crystal clear martini glass right in her face. “Salt or sugar?

  Gal raised one eyebrow at the bastard and sucked on her teeth. She was salty alright. “Neither. Gimme the chocolate syrup. I’ll prep the glasses, you mix the drinks. I think you know what to do.”

  His lips pressed together in a close-mouthed grin stifling a laugh that screamed he knew exactly what he was doing. Why was she staring at his lips anyway?

  She turned and grabbed the bottle of syrup and the glass out of his hand. She put all of her concentration into pouring a thick bead in a long swirl from the base to the rim, drizzling the Hershey-goodness along the edge so it dripped enticingly down the outside. A peek out of the corner of her eye showed him watching her while pouring the ingredients into the shaker. Good.

  The bottle gave a satisfying splursh with her next squeeze and the chocolate covered the ends of her fingertips. “Oops.”

  She brought her finger up to her mouth and wiped her fourth finger clean by swiping it down the inside of her bottom lip then licking the end clean. Max knocked the shaker and had to fumble to save it. It was a wonder he didn't spill it everywhere since his eyes were locked on her mouth and fingers and not looking at the countertop at all.

  Ha. All's fair in love and war. This was a little of both. Gal moved to lick her middle finger next but Max grabbed her wrist and sucked both messy fingers into his mouth. His tongue swished back and forth and then pressed against her fingers as he sucked on them. Those sparkles in his eyes went dark as midnight and she could hear his rapid breathing as if no one else existed around them.

  The things that man did with his tongue had Gal’s knees going weak.

  “Mmm.” He hummed around her fingers and the vibrations went straight through her. One by one, he popped her fingers out of his mouth, licking the tips, imitating her earlier tease, and then licked his own lips. “You are delicious.”

  “Uh-huh.” Crap. Her voice came out breathless and wow, she sounded super-smart.

  He moved even close to her so their bodies were only centimeters apart. “I’d love to just eat you up.”

  The yes-please was on the tip of her tongue when his phone rang. Max’s eyes narrowed and he silenced the ringer. Irritation flashed across his fast and he sighed. “Duty calls, kiska. I have to go, but I will be seeing more of you.”

  “Okay.” She sure wished she had a flirty retort to his declaration, but she wanted him to see more of her. Much, much more.

  Max grabbed a napkin and a pen. He scribbled something on it and pressed it into her fingers. Then he kissed her palm, put one hand on the bar and leapt right over it and into the crowd. He was through the crowd and out the door before she even got her wits about her. She gave the drinks they'd mixed a shake and poured them into the glasses she'd prepped. She made her way back to the table and set the martinis down for her friends. She was riding a natural high and didn't need anything more to make her night feel good.

  Heli was practically vibrating with excitement. "Holy crap. I thought you guys were going to start making out right there at the bar."

  Zara nodded and picked up one of the drinks tasting it. "The way you guys were eye-sexing it up got pretty much everyone in here hot."

  "Shut up. You're going to make me blush." Gal put her hands on her cheeks but there was no hiding her high color. She opened the napkin and found Max's phone number written on it, with the words, put this in your phone printed underneath it.

  "Too late." Heli took the other drink and downed half of it. "So, when are you seeing him again?"

  Not soon enough.

  Max

  Just a little dinner party. His ass. No one has a midnight dinner party just because it's a full moon. He didn't need his finely-honed wolf senses to know this was a well-laid trap.

  "Mother. This isn't going to work. I see right through your matchmaking machinations."

  Selena was not only the matriarch of the Troika wolf pack, she was a crafty mother who wanted her sons mated and making her grandbabies. Since Niko, the eldest wasn't here, Max had become the center of her attention. "Why, whatever do you mean, sinochek? I'm sure I've never had any machinations in my life."

  Yeah, right. Whenever she used Russian endearments, they all knew she was planning something they wouldn't like that she was sure would be good for them. Like match making. "Your middle name is devious."

  "It is not. You know very well I'm named after Tsarina Catherine." She pretended to go about her business. Which of course included sticking her nose into her three sons’ business as often as possible.

  So far he'd avoided her attempts to find him a nice she-wolf. This was all Niko's fault. If he hadn't gone off to Russia to serve the alpha, he'd be the one here getting set up with every other girl from here to Rochester. His brother was the future alpha of Rogue, New York. He was the one who needed a mate. Niko better bring home a nice Russian wolf beauty or their mother would have her claws in him next.

  As it were, she was determined to get both Max and the youngest brother Kosta mated off before the next full moon.

  Which wasn't going to happen. Max was perfectly happy to live his free and easy bachelor life chasing as many skirts as he cared to. There was only one he had any interest in lately, longer than that if he was honest, and his family would not approve.

  Galyna's pretty almond-shaped eyes, dark creamy skin, and luscious curves had been driving him crazy since high school. She'd gone off to college in Michigan, stayed and got an advanced degree and he'd given up on ever seeing her again.

  Until last night. He'd been given the perfect opportunity at the Sleepy Folk to taste her forbidden fruit. He could hardly believe how hot the chemistry had been between the two of them. He'd had hell to pay for not finishing his patrol of the Reserve but after seeing her walk through those woods dressed to kill, he'd taken the risk.

  Selena straightened the t-shirt Max wore and brushed invisible specs of lint off his shoulder. "I've invited NEIGHBORING ALPHA WOLF and his daughter to the party. It would be simply rude of you not to come."

  Great. Galyna would hate everything about ALPHA WOLF DAUGHTER. Gal was everything the wolftress wasn't. Kind, friendly, soft and curvy. And if he didn't quit thinking about her endless curves he was going to embarrass himself in front of his mother. Or worse make her think he had the hots for WOLFTRESS.

  No way. "Sorry, mother, but I already have plans that night."

  He didn't yet, but he would if he got his ass over to the library before the evening family story hour and asked Galyna out. He found out from Kosta that Gal had taken a job as the children's librarian in town. He suddenly found himself very interested in Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too. Tonight he was going to to something about it. Like actually asking her out on a date instead of reliving dirty fantasies of having her in his bed.

  She was interested. The scent of her arousal drove his wolf insane. But she wasn't a shifter. She was human and would need wooing. Dinner definitely. A movie? No, he wanted to spend time with her, get to talk, not sit in the dark with her. Although, if he was very, very lucky they would be doing something else in the dark. In the back of his car, with her legs over his shoulders.

  His mother scoffed, ending his already wild fantasy. "What? Who?"

  The
phone rang and Max almost howled, "I'll get it."

  Thank the moon for any distraction that would move his mother off the topic of him getting mated, or who he really wanted to spend his dirty time with. He grabbed the old school handset and barely got out a hello before he was inundated with the gruff voice speaking Russian on the other end of the line.

  For the rest of his life he would remember exactly where he was and what he'd been doing when he heard the catastrophic news from Russia. Each stark, guttural syllable shot him straight in the gut with pain.

  Max gripped the phone too tightly and balled his other hand into a fist. "Znayu. I'll tell the family. Spasiba."

  He hung up the phone, setting it very gently back onto the cradle. His mother insisted on keeping her nineteen-seventies rotary dial phone. She didn't like change very much.

  He had no idea how he was going to tell her that all of their worlds were about to change. He swallowed, then did it again. It was taking all that he had to hold his wolf down. He wanted nothing more than to shift, throwing off all the world and go running into the reserve that backed up against his mother's house.

  He and his brothers had spent more of their youth running and causing havoc in those woods than anything else. Now all three of them would never be able to do that together again.

  Fuck.

  He slammed his fist into the leg of the wooden stand, splintering it and causing the whole thing to fall over, telephone and all.

  "Maxsim Alexsander Troika. What is wrong with you?" His mother chastised, but with concern in her voice.

  Max turned and the second his mother saw the look on his face she sat on the couch. She grabbed her throat and stared at him, begging him with her eyes not to say the words he knew he had to. "Who?"

  "They said--" He couldn't say it. He couldn't even believe it. His eldest brother was dead. But it was worse than that. "Niko, he... he killed the Tzar, mom. Why would he do that?"

  His mother shook her head, tears he’d never once seen from her pooled at her eyes. "I don't understand. Who is dead, your brother or the Wolf Tzar?"

  He could hardly believe he had to say it. "Both."

  That word rang through Max’s brain over and over during the blur of the next few days, like a song he had stuck in his head that wouldn’t budge no matter how hard he tried. The entire wolf shifter world was in a complete uproar and all he could think of was how it simply didn’t make sense that both the alpha of all wolfkind and his brother, the future alpha of the Troika pack were dead. It couldn't be true.

  He needed more information and their network of friends and allies had dried up. Every single pack had forsaken the Troikas. Some were out for vengeance.

  The moonlight full-moon party turned into a pack enforcers strategic planning meeting. For those in the pack who stayed loyal to the Troikas. Some had fled to the neighboring packs of Grimm and the Bay. Every man, woman, and wolf left had to be called up to run patrols around the town. Max and Kosta were no exception. They were now the leaders of those patrols.

  Except when their father was. Like now. He'd always been a stern man, but now he was downright angry at anyone or anything that even looked at him funny. He certainly wasn't happy with the job Max and Kosta were doing keeping everyone safe. There had been an attack almost every night since the news of the assassination hit WolfSpace. Max had a special hate for social media these days.

  "Son, pay attention. Those Grimm's will take you out with your tongue hanging from your mouth catching flies like that." His father had no patience for wool-gathering. He was a man of action if nothing else.

  Max, Kosta, and his father, the alpha of the Troika pack, Piotr, were on yet another patrol to defend their home and their territory from the neighboring packs. The alphas of Grimm and the Bay saw Niko's actions as weakness and betrayal by the entire Troika pack. No wolves in Rogue, New York were safe.

  "Sorry. Just tired I guess." And grieving. But none of them were allowed to show that.

  "Alphas don't have the luxury of being tired. You have to be better now, Maxsim. The best. I've been too soft on you because we all relied on Niko's--" his father looked away. "You're the heir now. Start thinking and acting like an alpha because the other packs will never let us forget your brother's betrayal. We'll have to fight for every bit of our territory and the safety of the wolves of our pack for generations."

  An anger he hated bubbled inside of him. How could Niko have done this to them?

  No family was more loyal to the Volkov Tzars' reign than the Troikas. It was why Niko had gone all the fuck the way to Russia in the first place. Serving under Mikhail Volkov was something not every pack undertook. But Niko and Mik had gone through their first shifts together and had been tight ever since. Max would do anything to go to St. Petersburg himself to investigate the claims that his brother had fought and killed Mik. Until he did, he couldn’t believe it.

  Max stood up straight, wanting badly to shift to his wolf form and tear any living thing in the forest to shreds. A good alpha controlled his instincts and did what was right for the pack. He exchanged a quick glance with Kosta who'd watched the whole dressing down while leaning against a tree and looking every bit the wild child. The both knew what they had to do and would give their lives for their packs.

  Kosta gave him a I'm-with-you-brother chin jerk and went back to slouching.

  "Yes, sir. I know what I have to do." The responsibilities he never thought he'd have to face already weighed heavy on him.

  "Good. Then do it." His father scented the air and his eyes went from human to the blue glow of his inner wolf. "Grimms. Let's show them we won't be bullied. Come on."

  He shifted and took off into the Reserve. Straight for the sacred clearing they used for mating ceremonies. Shit.

  Kosta shifted next, his bones and muscles cracking, and his fur bursting out of his skin. Max followed suit and ran behind the other two, protecting their six. The shift had become more painful than usual. The way his body broke itself and reformed was part of being an adult wolf-shifter, but Max welcomed it these days. He wanted that pain to remind him that he was the future alpha and would have to take on the pain of all his people.

  The anguish was nothing compared to what the whole pack would feel if the Grimm's desecrated the sacred circle.

  May the moonlight forever forsake them if they did.

  Max stayed on the fringes in the trees, and scented the air for any of the enemy who thought to conceal themselves rather than face those they accused head on. The Grimm's used to be a proud pack, but a string of greedy alphas had changed many of them into cowards. Which was the case tonight.

  No other wolves appeared in the circle, but several had been here and left puddles of piss dotted around the space. It was nothing that nature wouldn't take care of, but it was disrespectful. It was also the wolf way. The other packs felt Niko's actions the ultimate disrespect, so they were showing theirs in kind.

  His father shifted and stood in the center of the clearing, hands on hips and naked as the day, peed his own circle, reclaiming the territory as his own. Max caught a different scent on the wind. Not that of any shifter where they shouldn't be, but a human.

  He tore off from the clearing following his nose to the scent of honey and jasmine. The scent of Galyna. He should have warned her not to take this path again. Not now that the other packs were invading Rogue. If any wolf or man thought they could harm him or the Troikas by hurting her, they would be sorry sons of bitches. Then they would be dead.

  Max's wolf wanted to howl and warn anyone else away but he controlled that instinct. She may already be frightened and he didn't want to scare her even more. The wolf-shifters in Rogue knew better than to reveal themselves to humans. It was the number one rule passed down through generations. Keep the secret, keep the pack safe.

  He used ever sense he had wolf and human to search the area and seek out any danger. His hearing, sight, and sense of smell were all much more heightened than a non-supernatural being. Gal
yna wouldn't even know he was there, unless he revealed himself to her. He could never do that.

  Max followed her scent, while luscious as she was, also had a tinge of frustration like burnt coffee beans about it. He heard her voice before he saw her. The sound of her unique lilt went straight to his groin.

  "I know, I know, but my dad wouldn't let me take the car." She paused for a moment, listening to whoever she was talking to.

  Max snuck into the underbrush about ten yards down wind from where she was walking and scanned the area. There were no other humans about. He didn't scent any recent activity indicating wolves either. She rounded a bend in the path and it was as if the moon shined brighter, the crickets chirped a lullaby, and his heart skipped several beats.

  She was so fucking beautiful. Her jeans hugged her hips in all the places he wanted to, her top clung to her breasts in a way that made his mouth literally water and he had to lick his chops like a freaking lusty cartoon wolf. His wolf clawed and growled inside of his mind, pushing him to go to her, protect her, and most importantly make his claim on her.

  There was no question that he would protect her. The rest? Not so much. When the attacks on Rogue died down, he would have to satisfy himself with a few dates and if he was lucky some hot fucking sex. But beyond that, they could never be together. His world simply did not allow wolves to mate with humans.

  "Yeah, no. He doesn't even like when I go out after dark without a chaperone. He still thinks this is the eighteen hundreds. I mean seriously, I'm twenty-three years old. I have a masters degree. I think I can go out with my friends at night. They are so old school it's killing me." She stomped right past Max without noticing him even a little bit.

  That was both good and bad. He didn't want her seeing him, but she also needed to be more aware of her surroundings. He may not agree with her family not allowing her to go out. That would definitely interfere with his plans to ask her out. Like he had the time for that these days. But he didn't want her out walking after dark where she could be in danger. Dammit.