Digging the Wolf: a paranormal romance (Werewolves of Crookshollow Book 1)

by Steffanie Holmes

  “How?” I whispered back.

  She pointed to one of the images, where my grandfather dragged a pig’s carcass back to the cave, and his three children waited with open mouths of their supper. “This pig is pretty easily recognisable as an Oxford Sandy and Black pig,” she said. “There’s no other pig breed it could possibly be. But that particular breed wasn’t introduced into the country until the seventeen hundreds.”

  “Much later than the neolithic, then?”

  “Exactly.” Her grin was infectious. “And when you couple that with the priests in the last image…it’s obvious. Ruth is going to be spewing when I tell her. Did you find anything?”

  I passed her the book and pointed to the paragraph on Peyton. “They sound like nasty people,” she shuddered as she read the page.

  “Yep. But did you notice what’s interesting? They may have a shapeshifter in the family.”

  “You don’t think that’s just part of the legend?”

  “All legends start from somewhere. Perhaps you should ask your friend the mythology major.”

  “I will. He’s supposed to come out here tomorrow to look at the caves…” Anna paled. “Oh, I hope I haven’t put him in danger.”

  “He’ll be fine. We can drive out in the morning and wait for him. I’d like to meet this friend of yours.”

  “OK. Thanks Luke.”

  The sun had long since sunk below the horizon. The beer supply had run out and one by one the archaeologists loped off to bed. Anna glanced at Caleb and I. “I feel too wired to sleep,” she said. “What should we do now?”

  “We’re going to your tent,” I growled. “But you’re not sleeping any time soon.”

  “So no one wants to play cards with me?” Caleb asked.

  “Play with yourself. You’re taking the first watch tonight. Come get me at 3am and I’ll relieve you of duty.”

  “So you trust me now?”

  “I don’t. But Anna does, and that means something to me.”

  “It should.” Anna grinned, wrapped her arms around me and kissing my lips.

  As we walked across the camp, Anna snuggled tighter against my body. The warmth of her ignited my desire. My cock was already straining against my jeans. It had only been a few hours since we’d been in the shower together, but already I was desperate to be inside her.

  Anna hung back while I circled her tent, sniffing the air for a hint of the black wolf’s scent. Nothing. But I knew better than to assume he was gone for good. I pulled open the flap and peered inside, but no one was hiding in wait for us.

  “After you,” I pulled back the flap all the way. Anna ducked inside and I followed her, wrapping my hands around her beautiful round arse.

  “Hey!” Anna protested, leaping away. But there wasn’t far to go in the tiny tent. She fell back against her sleeping bag, and I climbed on top of her, my cock pressing urgently against her thigh.

  Anna’s lips found mine, her tongue sliding between my teeth. My hands cupped her face, bringing her closer. My body ached for her, wanting to be as close as possible, right now.

  I reached up to unbutton her shirt, but Anna held my hand. “Let me do it,” she whispered. “You’ve already ruined two of my favourite shirts.”

  I was going to protest, but then she started undoing the buttons, starting at her neck and working her way down. She appeared a little nervous, like a schoolgirl in the back seat of a car for the first time. That only added to my desire as she unhooked the last button and pulled her shirt open.

  Her breasts were cupped inside a black bra. I reached behind her and unhooked it, sliding it and her shirt off her shoulders. I cupped one of her breasts in my hands, loving how perky and firm it was. She gasped as I closed my mouth around the nipple and sucked gently, her nails digging into my back.

  As I sucked on her other breast, Anna fumbled for my buttons. I shrugged my shirt off my shoulders, and pressed my body against hers, loving the skin against skin, the way her hard nipples rubbed against my chest.

  Anna kicked off her jeans, and pulled mine off, too. I tugged down her underwear and thrust my face between her legs, longing to taste her sweetness once more. I parted her lips with my tongue, inhaling the sweet smell of her. She moaned as I ran my tongue along her, finding her clit and circling it slowly. Anna’s nails dug deep into my shoulders as her first orgasm claimed her.

  While her body was still shuddering with pleasure, I climbed on top of her, put on the condom, and entered her. Her wetness enveloped me, our bodies fitting together perfectly. I moved slowly against her, the pressure rising in my stomach as my own pleasure built. Anna gasped and clawed at my back.

  “You feel so good,” My cock slid in and out of her, our bodies fitting together perfectly. I buried my head into her shoulder, dragging my teeth along her neck. Pressure tugged at my core, the wolf inside me struggling to escape, to unleash all my wildness.

  “Luke,” she gasped, her walls tightening around me. I pumped harder, enjoying the way my length slid right into her, the way she bucked her hips up to meet each thrust. She wanted me just as much as I needed her. “Oh, Luke.”

  Anna clenched around me, her body shuddering as an orgasm tore through her. Her eyes fluttered shut, her head fell back, her breath hitching. Her walls contracted around my cock, squeezing me tight. I thrust faster, loving seeing her lose control.

  Feeling her come sent me over the edge. The pressure building inside me spilled over. I saw stars as I came, the bright lights of a thousand distant galaxies shimmering in brilliant supernovae.

  We collapsed against each other, utterly spent. I wrapped her in my arms, enjoying the warmth of her body stretched across the furs. For a few precious minutes we enjoyed the bliss of our bodies, but then the fear and uncertainty started to creep back.

  Anna wrapped her arms around my neck. Her limbs went stiff. “Luke, I’m scared.” Anna’s lip trembled.

  “Don’t be.” I wrapped my arm under her neck, stroking her cheek with my other hand. “I’m here, and so is Caleb. We won’t let anything happen to you.”

  I won’t let anything happen to you, I thought, as I kept my eyes glued on the door. Especially not anything named Caleb.

  I wasn’t going to let that red-headed lout fool me again. He wasn’t going to get Anna. Of that I would make certain.

  19

  Anna

  I woke up from a dream about death to find Luke still lying beside me, his eyes wide open. “Did you sleep at all?” I asked.

  “No. But you’re OK, and that’s what’s important. No black wolves in sight.”

  “Where’s Caleb?” Why had Luke not slept? Hadn’t Caleb relieved him of his duty?

  “Outside,” Luke growled. “But I needed to watch him, too.”

  “You don’t still suspect him, do you? You’re being paranoid. Caleb is your cousin, and apart from attacking me that one time, he’s been a perfect gentleman.”

  “I have to be suspicious. He’s a wolf on my territory, and he’s close enough to you to do real harm. Just let me be a protective alpha, would you?”

  “I guess. Does that mean you’re coming with me into Crookshollow today? It would mean leaving the site unguarded.”

  “Do you have to go?”

  I glanced over at my phone. “Yeah. I need to talk to Clara about some charms to protect us, and get to my friend Derek before he leaves for the forest.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Remember, I told you my friend the mythology nut was coming out here today to look at the caves? But after what happened to Misty on the road, I don’t want him anywhere near this place. But I can’t just call him and tell him not to come.” I tapped my useless phone screen.

  “Shit. OK. Guess we’re going to town.” Luke glanced at me with hard eyes. “You really trust Caleb?”

  “I really do.”

  “Fine. But if we come back here and Ruth has been torn to shreds, try to refrain from doing a victory dance on her corpse.”

  “I mak
e no promises,” I grinned at his dark humour, hoping like hell there would be no more death.

  “Derek, have you noticed anything strange this week?”

  “You mean, apart from the fact you’re spending more time at my house drinking all my tea than out on that archaeological find of the century?”

  I drained the rest of my cup, and punched his arm. “Be serious please. And be serious while you put the kettle on again. I need another.”

  I felt a bit guilty leaving Luke hunched down in his truck at the end of the street while I drank tea with Derek, but it couldn’t be helped. True to his word, Luke wouldn’t let me go to town alone, but I didn’t want him inside while I spoke to Derek – I was worried Luke’s presence would throw off our usual rapport. I hadn’t told Derek about Luke, and I didn’t want to suddenly surprise him, knowing the way he still felt about me. Plus, I hadn’t told Luke about Derek’s feelings, and I didn’t want a macho showdown. We had more important things to worry about.

  “I was being serious, you know. About you noticing anything strange.”

  Derek went to the kitchen and got the kettle going, then sat back down across from me, patting my leg in a friendly way. “Strange how?”

  “I don’t know. A feeling of being watched, someone hanging around your house. Someone who is not me asking you odd questions. Just anything odd or out of the ordinary.”

  “What’s this about, Anna?” Derek leaned forward, his eyes sparkling. He loved a good mystery, and here I was being rather mysterious. “Does this have something to do with that reporter that died?”

  “Yeah, and about why you can’t come on the site any more. It’s very…complicated.” I said, thinking fast. “And…top secret. There are some interesting facts about the cave paintings that haven’t been released in the media. I think that might be why that reporter was killed, someone thought she was getting too close to the truth.”

  “What kind of facts? You’re not in danger, are you, Anna?”

  Oh, just a maniacal werewolf who wants to mate with me. Nothing particularly dangerous at all. I shrugged. “I…I think I am, but I’m being well looked after. I can’t say too much at the moment, but suffice it to say the paintings may not be as old or as special as first thought.”

  “That sounds like something from a spy film.”

  “I know. And it gets worse. I think, before she died, the reporter had been following me – I was at home the other day after coming here and I think she might have snuck inside while I left the door open. And because I was around at your place first, I’m worried they might come after you next.”

  “I’m intrigued. And slightly terrified. You’ve got to be careful, Anna.” Behind us, the kettle popped. Derek sprung to his feet, taking my empty cup with him to the kitchen. “Do you want some mousetraps with your tea?”

  “Yes please.”

  While Derek prepared the tea, sliced cheese and tomato and heated the grill, I shuffled through the papers on his coffee table. He was really making headway on his family history project, probably because the deadline on his master’s thesis was approaching rapidly and he was desperate for distractions. He’d laid out his family tree across the table on a big sheet of white card – all the different generations labelled with dates and spouses and children. Post-it notes stuck out from every surface, and lines were crossed out or dotted over. There were some lines with question marks where he obviously hadn’t found the right data, and others had notes referring to certain documents he’d photocopies from archives. I scanned the names above Derek. There were his parents – Theodore and Alice – and his grandparents, and he’d traced the line right back to—

  I stopped short, my breath freezing in my throat. It can’t be the same person. It must be a coincidence.

  There, on the paper, listed as Derek’s great grandfather on his father’s side, was Robert Peyton, the man who had killed Luke’s family.

  “Derek?” My voice came out high-pitched.

  “Yes?” He called over the sizzle of bubbling cheese.

  “This chart says you’re related to the Peyton family.”

  “Yeah. Isn’t it cool?” Derek came back to the table with two steaming mugs of tea and a plate of mousetraps. He pushed a thin book across the table towards me. “They’re quite an old Crookshollow family. Apparently, they used to have quite the reputation as righteous witch hunters. My great grandfather Robert was Bishop of Loamshire.”

  “I’ve heard some stories about them. Someone in the village was saying they had something to do with the caves—”

  My phone vibrated, startling us both. I grabbed it and held it to my ear.

  It was Frances. She was screaming incoherently. I held the phone away from my ear as Frances’s screeching cut away to static.

  “Frances, what’s wrong? Where are you? How are you getting phone reception?”

  The phone crackled some more, and the Ruth’s voice came landed in my ear. “Anna? You’ve got to come...immediately. The site’s been…royed.”

  “What?” I didn’t think I’d heard her right. The line was terrible. They must still be somewhere near the site.

  “Come back now! The police are on their way, and they’ll need to take your statement.” Ruth’s voice was choked with sobs. “Someone has been here with a crowbar. The cave paintings have been completely destroyed.”

  20

  Luke

  This time, I was the one driving. My powerful truck made quick work of the dirt roads, and we even passed the police on the way out to the site. Anna gripped the edges of her seat so tight her knuckles turned white.

  As we pulled up in the truck and ran over to the caves together, my hand clasped tight around Anna’s, Ruth glared at us, as though we had something to do with this mess. Frances sat by the cave entrance, her face in her hands.

  “What happened?” Anna huffed as she drew up beside the other archaeologists.

  “It’s like I told you on the phone,” Ruth said, her voice hoarse. “You guys left. We did a quick Skype interview in the caravan, then came out here to get some more work done. But when we entered the tunnel, we noticed all the debris lying around, and the paintings were gone. Someone has hacked off all the images. There’s nothing left but dust and chips on the floor of the tunnel.”

  Frances let out a strangled sob.

  “Shit.” Anna’s knees wobbled. She sank to the ground beside Frances, her face terrified. “Who would do such a thing?”

  Her words were directed at Ruth, but the question was for me. I answered it in my head. Caleb. I’d left him alone here, and tried to forget about all my misgivings about him, because Anna trusted him. I’d even checked with Ruth before we’d left, and she confirmed he hadn’t left their side for a moment yesterday. But then he’d gone and done this – even though he swore he wanted the paintings as much as I did – and had destroyed forever the last link I had to my family, my history. Hatred and anger burned in my veins.

  “No one saw anything?” Anna asked. “You guys aren’t hurt?”

  Ruth shook her head. “We were all over in the caravan. But I can’t help but think, what if we’d been here when…” she shuddered.

  Anna was already sliding through the cave entrance. I jumped down after her.

  “Where are you going?” Ruth called down. “You can’t disturb anything. The police are on their way—”

  Anna ignored her. She picked up one of the torches from the edge of the abandoned neolithic site, and clicked it on. I followed her through the crevice, and down to the tunnel entrance. The whole cave reeked of wolf – the black wolf’s smell, which I knew now was Caleb’s true scent.

  “Shit,” Anna whispered, aiming the torch light into the tunnel.

  I sucked in a breath as the full magnitude of the damage came into view. The walls of the tunnel had been cruelly hacked to pieces, leaving jagged ribbons of colour. Piles of rocky debris littered the tunnel. Dust wafted through the stale air. I coughed as the smell invaded my nostrils, choking
out my other senses.

  The only thing left was a single crude piece of graffiti that hadn’t been there before – a stick figure of a woman with dark hair and glasses, a knife sticking out of her chest. The woman had a smudge of brown hair. It was meant to be Anna.

  “I’ll fucking kill him.” My hands closed into fists. The wolf within me growled in agreement.

  “Luke, I think you’re mistaken about Caleb—”

  “I’ve seen enough,” I snapped. “This is a direct threat to your life. I’ll make him pay.”

  “But we don’t even know that’s me…” Anna yelped as I grabbed her hand and dragged her back out through the cave. “Luke, hey, where are you going? Let me go!”

  I pulled Anna back through the cave entrance and up into the forest, when I sucked in several fresh breaths. “Where’s Caleb?” I snarled at Ruth.

  “He’s gone for a walk,” she replied. “He thought he’d have a look around the outside of the camp, see if he could see anyone hiding there, or footprints or anything. At least he’s looking out for our safety. Isn’t that supposed to be your job, ranger?”

  I didn’t have time to get into a verbal sparring match with Ruth. I grabbed Anna by the hand. There was no way I was going to let her out of my sight until I had subdued Caleb.

  “Luke, what are you doing?” Anna cried. I charged into the trees, yelling Caleb’s name.

  “Damnit, Luke.” Anna punched my shoulder. “Answer me.”

  “I’m looking for that cousin of mine.” I snarled. “He’s responsible for this. We’re going to settle this, once and for all.”

  “You’re looking at the wrong wolf, Luke. Ruth said Caleb was in the caravan with them. He can’t have done this.”

  “Ruth likes Caleb. She’ll say anything to protect him,” I snarled back.

  “He didn’t do it. You have to get that into your thick head if we’re ever going to solve this.”