by T. S. Joyce
The first shot of salty heat drenched her throat. Dalton went rigid when she swallowed another stream and another. His body twitched as he released her hair and gripped the steering wheel with both hands. The leather of the wheel groaned under his grasp as he doubled over her and pushed his hips at her again with a groan. His body was stone for the span of a few heartbeats before he relaxed back against the seat again and heaved an exhalation. “God, you smell good.”
She pulled off him and kissed his tip, then grinned up at him. “Like honey?” He always said that. She’d made sure to eat extra honey on her oatmeal in the mornings just because he was so sweet with his compliments.
“Like honey and pheromones. I love the way your body reacts to me.”
“Hey, remember that one time Erotic Red Riding Hood ate the Big Badass Wolf instead?”
Dalton grinned and brushed a wayward strand of hair from her face. He searched her upturned face with content pooling in his lightened eyes. “You make me happy,” he murmured.
“A blow job would make any man happy,” she pointed out.
He chuckled and shook his head. “No, it’s not just that. Being with you is different. It’s bigger. It pulls at pieces of me I thought were dead.”
Oh, she knew what he was really saying. Late one night, he’d told her about how Shelby had treated him. About how she’d withered under his touch and squirmed away until he finally gave up on affection. Shelby had managed to make someone who was warm and giving curl into himself and feel too repulsive to touch. A part of her hated Shelby. A part of her was grateful Shelby had been awful enough that Dalton was able to break whatever bond he’d forged with her.
A stream of sunlight filtered through the window, illuminating Dalton’s perfect, stony abs and casting the crease between his taut pecs in shadow. When he smiled down at her, his canines looked fractionally longer, and sharper. He looked monstrously beautiful with gold flames for eyes and a wolfish smile. “You know what I’m about to tell you, don’t you?”
Kate sat up and snuggled against his side, her heart pounding against her ribcage. “I hope I do.”
“Will it make you run?”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Dalton tucked her hair back and leaned slowly into her. “I love you,” he whispered, cheek rasping against hers, lips to her ear.
Rolling her eyes closed, she melted against him and reveled in the relief that followed those words.
He loved her. Her. She hadn’t just imagined what was building between them. He really felt the way she did, and for the first time in her life, she felt like she was on the same page with someone else.
She kissed him softly, then eased back to bask in the inhuman glow of his eyes. “I love you, too.”
Chapter Ten
Dalton cut the engine and pulled on his sweater. Kate glanced around the muddy woods with their patchwork of snow mounds clinging onto life. The sunlight filtered through the spruce branches and birch limbs, patterning the forest floor with yellow speckles.
“Where are we?”
“I want to show you something,” Dalton murmured, his lips curved into a lingering smile from the important trio of words they’d just shared with each other.
He pushed open his truck door and jogged around the front, then helped her out onto the muddy road.
“I didn’t wear the right shoes,” she said, frowning down at her work tennis shoes.
“I’ve got you.” Dalton bent slightly and folded her into his arms with little effort. After kicking the door closed, he strode with her up one of the well-worn muddy divots in the road.
“Why aren’t we driving? The road looks passable.”
“Because I don’t want you to see this place for the first time through my truck window. I want you smelling the air. I want you feeling the breeze, and I have a question I want to ask while we stand on this land, not in my truck. This place should be felt, not just seen.”
Utterly confused, she nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Okay.”
With long, smooth strides, Dalton crested a hill and halted, then set her down gently. Kate dragged her gaze from his striking face, stoic now with an edge of worry, to a clearing. In the center was a rustic cabin. It was small, but beautifully crafted with log walls, natural wood details, a sizeable front porch, and a large window on the side. A stone chimney crept up the front, right beside the porch, and smoke puffed steadily from the flue. Snowcapped mountains set a scenic background to the home, and behind was a smaller cabin, not much bigger than a large storage shed.
Kate inhaled the crisp, clean air, and let it off in a long, reverent sigh. “Oh, Dalton. Is this your den?”
“No,” he murmured, turning her shoulders slowly until she was squared up to him. “But it could be ours.”
“What?” she asked, glancing at the beautiful homestead and back.
“My alpha bought this place before he met his mate. She owns the deed to the next property over, and Link moved in with her when they got married, but he didn’t let this place go. I called him last night and asked if he would accept offers, and do you know what he said?”
“Tell me.”
Dalton swallowed hard, his eyes filling with some emotion she didn’t understand. “He said he’s been waiting for me and Chance to come home. He’s been saving this place for one of us to make an offer.”
“Oh my gosh,” she whispered.
Dalton slid his grasp from her arms to her hands and squeezed. “I live in a temporary room up at Silver Summit, and I’ve never looked into settling outside of the time I work. Not until I met you. I want to build a life with you, Kate. I’m selfish. I know you would have made a safer life if I’d been strong enough to leave you alone, but I can’t do anything about that now. You feel like mine. My mate, my future, the one I want to come home to between jobs.”
She opened up her mouth to share his sentiment, but Dalton got a panicked look and rushed on.
“I know it’s fast. You’re human, and you need time to feel the certainty I do. My wolf has bonded to you…I have bonded to you, and for the rest of my life, I won’t see anyone else but you. But you don’t have the animal, and you’ll need time to build up confidence in me, and that’s okay. I’ll wait as long as you need me to. I can buy this place with my own money, put it under my own name if that will make it easier for you. You’ll have an out. It’s two cabins on sixty acres where my wolf can run safely, and you’ll have the protection of my pack and my alpha when I’m away. Link and Nicole live down that trail.” He jerked his chin at a worn path through the woods. “You don’t have to wait on your dreams. We can purchase your first dogs, clear land for their shelters. You can start your sled training program if that’s what you want to do. It’s close enough to town that you could still keep up your shifts at the medical center. I have money in savings that can get us started. I have to keep working to keep up the payments, but I can give you this now.”
“I have five thousand dollars saved up,” she whispered through a tightening throat. Her eyes stung with tears at what he was offering her. “It wasn’t enough on my own.”
Dalton’s eyes went wide, and he squeezed her hands harder. “What are you saying?”
She looked over the beautiful land and at the cozy cabin that was the home of her dreams. A deep connection was already forming inside of her as hope bloomed in her chest like a spring flower. “This place could really be ours?”
Dalton blew a shaky breath and nodded.
“Can I see inside?”
Dalton leaned down and kissed her, hand slipping behind her neck, thumb brushing her cheek. He sipped at her, then gave her tiny, loving pecks that ended with soft smacking sounds. They were the first sounds she heard here in this yard that could be the key to everything she’d always wanted, and now she understood his need for her to see Link’s place like this—free of the truck engine noise pollution and distancing window glass.
He was asking and hoping for her to bond with
this place and giving her the best opportunity to do so. With an emotional grin, she nipped his bottom lip.
“Why are your eyes watering?” Dalton asked, easing back by inches, eyes stricken with confusion.
“Because I’m happy.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Clearly you’ve been around the all boys’ club way too long.”
Dalton grinned and lifted her onto his back, holding her knees at his waist as he tramped across the muddy yard toward the cabin. “I’ll give you that. Silver Summit doesn’t have many female visitors. Happy tears don’t exist there. Only happy beers.”
She climbed down his back and onto the sturdy porch, kicked out of her shoes, then took a steadying breath before she pushed open the door. At the entrance, she hesitated in awe.
The outside was picturesque, like some Alaskan post card people in Galena sent to family members in the lower forty-eight. But inside this home, great care had been taken in the craftsmanship. The walls were logs, sanded to smooth surfaces and stained a beautiful chocolate brown color that contrasted with the gray sealant between each one to keep the weather at bay. The stones on the fireplace matched the ones outside, and the couch was made of dark leather. Every detail in this place gave it rich character. From the hand-carved coat rack, to the wooden counters, to the open concept. There were no walls separating rooms, only supportive beams that matched the exposed rafters above. Even the bedroom was only separated from the living area by a step up, and above the queen-size bed was the gorgeous picture window she’d seen from outside. From it, she could see the pine forest and the mountains jutting from the earth in the background. A fire crackled in the wood burning stove, the bed was made with a thick, red and beige plaid comforter, and white, simple dishes sat in a drying rack on the kitchen counter near the stainless steel sink. On a rustic carved table, outdoor magazines were scattered across the scratched surface, giving the place that lived-in feeling. It looked like a picture in a book. Staged, but homey. Perfect.
She could feel Dalton watching her, gauging her reaction, but she’d gone blank with the realization that this place could be where she slept. Where she lived and cooked and got ready for work in the mornings. This could be the place she greeted Dalton when he came home from guided tours.
Home.
This could be home.
“Wow,” she whispered, taken aback with how much she already loved this place. “Do you want to hear something strange?” she asked as she stepped carefully onto the solid wood floor inside.
Dalton slid his arms around her waist from behind and murmured against her ear, “I want to hear everything.”
“I’ve looked for cabins before. I even had a realtor, but none of the properties felt right. None of them fit.” She rested her cheek against his, the softness of her face contrasting with the scratch of his short stubble. “This one does.”
“Maybe you weren’t meant to connect with those other cabins.”
And suddenly, everything made so much sense. She’d never given a single thought to fate before. She’d been so bogged down with regret and bad decisions in men and friends, she’d never given a spare thought about bigger pictures. Everything she had done, experienced, and every ounce of pain had led her to this moment. Her ex, Nadine’s betrayal, her desperation to feel wanted, and her unfortunate choice in Miller. Her distrust in people and need to take care of others in secret. These things had twisted her like a wire and made her a better match for Dalton. He deserved a strong mate. Required one to withstand the complications of his life and his animal, and she’d grown stronger over the past several years for this, right here. So she could see the reward. So she could appreciate the man she was meant for.
“I want to show you something,” he murmured, taking her by the hand and leading her toward an open trapdoor off the kitchen.
“A root cellar inside?” she asked, excited by the treasure of not having to walk out in the freezing winter to gather the foods she wanted to cook.
“There’s more.” He climbed down the tall ladder, then helped her off the bottom rung when she climbed down after him. The floor was composed of packed earth, but the walls were made of old stone that looked to have been repaired many times over the years. Surprising because she hadn’t realized the cabin was that old.
“Link rebuilt and repaired this place, but it was originally a moonshiner’s cabin.”
“They made moonshine in the root cellar?” she asked, confused.
Dalton pushed a small lever on the wall, and with a deep, echoing click, an entire wall of shelves, canned food and all, lurched forward. He gestured for her to open it the rest of the way. Enthralled, she pulled the panel to expose the entrance to a tunnel, propped up by railroad ties like some mining cave.
“Link calls it the fox tunnel.”
“For the moonshiners to escape out to their caches in the woods without being followed and robbed or worse,” she guessed.
“Exactly. It was part of why Link bought this place. He’s mostly animal, or was before Nicole and the McCall Reset. He settled here more easily because it had an extra escape route. The end of the tunnel empties into the woods two hundred yards off. He told me about it when I asked about making him an offer on the house. Will you meet my pack?” he asked suddenly.
Surprised, she dragged her eyes away from the dark tunnel and up to his face. “When?”
“Now. They’re waiting to meet you.”
“I thought you said it wasn’t a real pack. You said you were only bound by technicality.”
“It started that way, but it’s not the way Link wants it. He is part of the reason I began to consider this cabin. He wants us around more. Chance and I help keep him steady. We help him fight the McCall madness, along with a cure Vera made for his damaged DNA. I used to resent risking my own wolf’s sanity to protect his, and then I resented him for keeping his own baby girl when mine had missed the cure. It’s selfish. I was hurt and couldn’t see anything but the shit I’d gone through. But I feel different now.”
“Different about what?”
“Everything.”
“What’s changed?”
Dalton straightened his spine and shrugged. “I don’t know. You. The pack. What I want from life. I went a long time making sure I stayed safe. Never connecting with people so I couldn’t get hurt. And then I was thrown into this pack in exchange for the cure for werewolf females, and I fought hard to stay separate. I fought off any bond Link tried to make with me. I didn’t hold his child, didn’t let myself get close to his mate. They tried to build a good pack, and I sabotaged it.”
“Dalton, you didn’t sabotage it. You went through trauma, and you wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again. It’s a scary thing, giving people power over you.”
“You did it. You let me in immediately, even after how Miller treated you.”
“You’re worth the risk.”
He smiled and searched her face. “It’s you, Kate. You caused the changes in how I feel. Keeping my distance from the pack won’t just affect me. You’ll be part of the pack, too. I’ll hurt you if I keep us separate. I have to do better than I have been doing, for the pack, but also for you.”
Pride unfurled in her chest, and she inhaled deeply, standing straighter with her growing admiration for him. April First didn’t have Dalton on his knees crawling through the muck anymore. This was his stand to be better, to shoulder his pain, to take his life back, and to create something worth fighting for.
Dalton softening toward his pack told her more than any words he could say that he was in this with her. He wanted to fix what was broken, for her.
“I’d like that then. I want to meet your pack.”
Chapter Eleven
“I should’ve brought a present. Wine or something. Hardware Jack makes watermelon moonshine. Maybe I should go back to town and get something.”
Dalton grinned and shut the truck door behind her. He pulled her in close and clamped his teeth onto her neck,
then released her with a sexy growl. “They won’t need gifts to like you.”
She giggled as her cheeks flushed with pleasure. “You’re bringing a meek personality into a house full of werewolves and asking me not to be nervous.”
“I’ll be there,” he murmured, backing away just far enough to let her see how serious he was. “I’ll never let anything happen to you. And besides,” he said, tugging her hand toward the small cabin that was glowing with lantern light from every window, “they don’t bite. Much.”
“You bite all the time.”
“Love bites. And you should be counting your lucky stars with those. In the old days, a bite from a werewolf poisoned the blood and killed humans.”
“What?” She skidded to a stop, just before the front porch. “Your bite could kill me?”
“No.” He gave her a wolfish grin. “We evolved.”
“Or we evolved. Maybe humans came up with an immunity to you.”
Dalton frowned thoughtfully. “Huh. You should put that theory in front of Vera.”
“The fox-shifter mad scientist?”
“Yeah, she eats that shit up. Of course, then she’ll have you donating blood to her experiments to try and discover whatever antibodies you’ve built up over time if it’s true. Maybe don’t tell her if you want to avoid her needles. She’s a freak for blood.”
“She sounds terrifying.”
“Nah, you’ll get used to everyone.”
Kate wrung her hands over and over and stared in fear at the front door. “I have a submissive personality. Am I the only one like me in your pack? And with the Silvers?”
“Woman, being submissive isn’t a bad or good thing. It’s just a personality type. Packs can’t function if every single member is a dominant. We’d be bleeding each other all the time. It would be really hard for Chance, Link, and I to get along if Nicole wasn’t around. You’ll soothe us even more. Or…” He arched an eyebrow and smirked. “Maybe you’ll jack up our protective instincts, and we’ll be thrown into chaos.”