by Sabrina York
Her request seemed nonsensical but as the wife of their leader, what she wanted she got. Seeing Bethy so happy and back in the pack made her small requests worth it.
The door swung open and Luke smiled at him. Bending his head in a sign of submission, Jack remained that way until Luke patted him on the back.
“Come in, my brother. Get out of the cold.”
“Is it cold?”
“Alaska is always cold. I guess you’re used to it.”
Entering the home Luke and Bethy had made together calmed the wolf inside him.
This is what it’s supposed to feel like…what a home should be. This vast sense of rightness that radiates everywhere.
A fire blazed steadily in the fireplace and he smelled the remains of the bacon and eggs they must have eaten for breakfast. He bet it’d tasted fantastic. Bethany could really cook. Not that she ate very much anymore. Two ounces of food at a time since she’d had her weight loss surgery, which just blew his mind. How did humans survive? Two ounces amounted to a snack for a werewolf.
He followed Luke into the living room and sat down. The familiar steps of his older sister fooling around upstairs with something noisy reminded him of times long past.
“What is she doing?”
“Attempting to use her sewing machine.” Luke shrugged. “It makes her happy.”
Sniffing the air again, he grinned at the scent he uncovered. “She’s pregnant.”
Luke sat back in his chair, a satisfied grin easing his hard features. “I told her everyone would know immediately. She thought we could keep it secret.”
“That’s why she hasn’t come down to see her only brother.”
“You don’t miss a trick, which is why I made you an enforcer.”
His heart swelled with pride. He’d been named the youngest enforcer in Luke’s inner sanctum. A lot of the other wolves thought he’d gotten the job because they’d become brothers since Luke married Bethany. But, he knew he’d earned his place and Luke’s trust.
“Thank you, my Alpha.”
Luke drummed his hands on the table in front of him. “Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m always glad to have a visit from you. Always. But I scent that something is on your mind. Go ahead and tell me.”
He took a deep breath. “Thank you. I’ve…ah…been thinking for a while now about my mate.”
Luke’s eyebrows shot up. “You’ve found a mate? Why did I not know about this?”
“No, my Alpha. I’m not starting out very well here.”
Luke waved his hand in the air. “When we’re alone you can, as you know, call me Luke.”
“All right.” A clock dinged somewhere in the house. “The thing is that I never meet any women. I mean, I’ve been around all the females of the Delta pack for so long now I think I would know if one of them had been born to be my mate.”
His leader took a sip from his coffee cup. No emotion wafted off Luke at all. He had no idea what his brother-in-law thought about anything at that moment and it threw him off his game. But he loved a challenge and if Luke wanted to give him one, he would rise to it.
“And none of them are, so….”
“I’ve decided to date.” He tried, and failed, not to fidget in his seat. “So I’ll be leaving Delta from time to time.”
“Of course. You don’t need permission to do so. Are you looking for a dating advice?”
He laughed. Oh, that would be humiliating. “No. I’m not quite finished explaining. About a month ago, I paid for the 1Night Stand dating service you and Bethy used.”
“What?” Luke’s surprise traveled in the air. At last, he’d managed to raise an emotion from the other man. “You registered for a human dating service?”
“Well, yes. You used it.”
“I did but there were extenuating circumstances involved in my contacting Madame Eve at that service. I knew Bethy belonged to me and I couldn’t have her having sex with other men.”
“Right, that’s true.” He remembered when they’d made that plan. “But, I have another reason for thinking I should try out some humans. My mother, a human, mated my father, as you know since, well, you married my half-sister. I think I might have a predilection for liking humans.”
“I suppose that’s possible and it’s not for me to say where and how you meet your dates. But Bethany would argue that you don’t have a really good understanding of humans. She always thought you didn’t understand her.”
“I know that and that’s why I’m here. I would like you to explain human women to me.”
Luke shook his head. “Not for all the perfect, untouched forests in the world. I do not presume to understand the workings of the human female mind. I do not even feel that I have an adequate understanding of the one human female I am mated to and live with on a day-to-day basis.”
“I see.” Well, that made things more complicated. He had hoped Luke would give him a crash course before his date.
“You do know that whomever you meet is likely not your mate. It will be a good night of sex, but that’s probably all it will be.”
He rubbed his nose. “I know. That’s not such a bad thing either.”
He didn’t want any of the females in his pack, not even for a roll in the woods. And for whatever reason, probably due to the fact that his sister mated their Alpha, none of them would leave him alone.
***
Gloria Powell stood in the lobby of the Castillo Lodge in Castle, Alaska and asked herself what the hell she had been thinking indulging in a dating service in the first place. Single moms running from deranged exes had no business—none—doing anything but watching their backs. And yet, there she remained, dressed for a night of carefree sex like she went on blind dates all the time.
Of course, if she’d been smart, she would have objected to the whole thing before she got on the bush plane that brought her to the lodge. She’d gone too far from Katie. No, she had to remind herself for the millionth time, Katie remained safe. Her Aunt Samantha could keep her secure in her home in Anchorage for one weekend. If anything happened to Katie, if her six year-old daughter so much as stubbed her toe, Samantha would know what to do. Tonight had to be about her rediscovering her feminine side and remembering that fun existed in the world. Or at least that had been Aunt Samantha’s insistence when she’d forced her to enroll for the service.
And hot sex might occur, if luck happened to be on her side.
She walked, head held high, and wished she’d taken the time to get her out-of-control, curly hair cut and her nails done. The makeup she’d hastily applied did little to cover the dark circles under her eyes from nights spent jumping at every sound outside the window. Her date, Jack Johnson, might take one glance at her haggard appearance and run for the next bush plane. She wouldn’t blame him.
Smiling at the receptionist, she gave her name to the friendly woman with perfect, straight blonde hair.
“Ah, yes. Ms. Powell. We’ve been expecting you. How did the flight go?”
She blinked. When had she last engaged in small talk? “Um. Fine. Thank you. This lobby, it’s lovely.”
And she meant it. Designed to appear rustic but clearly welcoming, she’d walked right through the front door with almost no trepidation at all. She smiled slightly as it occurred to her that it had been a long time since her interior design degree had proven useful.
The date had already turned out to be good for her. Right off the bat, she’d suddenly become an interesting, unterrified person again.
“Thank you for the compliment. I’ll be sure to let Mr. Castillo know that you said so.”
Her cheeks heated. Perhaps it had been sort of silly saying anything to the receptionist. She grabbed her key and cleared her throat that had gone dry. “Is my date here yet?”
The woman smiled. “Yes. Mr. Johnson arrived this morning.”
Well, that eliminated her ability to take a bath and make herself slightly less unappealing before he arrived. Well, she sighed, Jack needed to like her
in her current state. Nothing could be fixed anymore.
After a few minutes of getting lost—the hotel had a perfect design, but she could get lost driving to the post office even after she’d done it a thousand times before—she found her room. She stopped at the door. Did she put her key in and just walk straight in or should she knock? She belonged inside the room. Yet, he’d arrived first. Did manners dictate that she let him know she’d arrived before she walked in? What if he’d gotten naked? Would he want to cover up?
She shook her head. The idea was preposterous. Why would a person strip naked and walk around that way in preparation for a date? She’d let her imagination run away again, a dangerous thing for a woman who’d had enough scary, very real things happening in her life.
With a steady hand, she put the key in the door and entered the room. The decorations were similar to the lobby, rustic but clearly designed to be welcoming and comfortable. She wished she could spend more time examining the small touches in the room except she couldn’t take her eyes off the man standing in front of the window staring outside at the massive view displayed below.
She didn’t care about the pretty snow outside. Maybe she’d take a glance at it in a million years when she got over the crush she had on her date for the evening. Tall and broad shouldered, he took up a tremendous amount of space in sheer size alone. He turned to stare at her and her mouth dried. Jack Johnson had been carved from stone. The artist who’d designed him must have followed a pattern for the perfect male specimen. His face, covered in a light brushing of dark stubble, held high cheekbones and a long, slightly crooked nose. She wondered if he’d had it broken on more than one occasion. His sandy brown hair had been cut close to his head military-style.
He studied her silently with huge brown eyes then finally he took a deep breath. A brief, satisfied smile crossed his lips. “I knew it.”
She let out the breath she’d been holding, feeling too much like the schoolgirl she had been, with no confidence and not at all like the woman she’d sworn to her daughter she’d find a way to become. “You knew what?”
He walked toward her, extending his hand. She placed hers in his strong grip, expecting a shake. Instead, he lifted their joined fingers to his mouth and placed a small, gentle kiss on top of it. “I knew tonight would be really special.” He smiled again and her knees wobbled. Only her nerves kept her upright. “I’m Jack Johnson.”
“Like the singer.” Oh damn. Why did I have to say that? He probably hears that all the time and now he thinks I’m a walking cliché.
He raised a dark eyebrow. “I’m sorry. I’m not familiar with such a person. I’ll do an Internet search.”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and she realized he intended to search for the folk singer she’d mentioned. The last thing she’d meant to do was take his attention from her and onto a singer whose music she enjoyed but not enough to take time out of her one night away from her life to discuss.
She placed her hand over his phone. “I’m sorry I mentioned it. You don’t have to take the time to learn about him right now. He makes good music, but it’s not important to me that you know him or anything.”
He smiled, his eyes alight with amusement. “Okay. I don’t really follow current trends. I guess you could say that where I live gives me the ability to miss out on a lot of the current stuff out there.”
That sounded interesting. She’d like to find somewhere like that, assuming it wasn’t a cult. A remote location might actually keep Jacob from finding Katie and her. She bit her bottom lip. Searching for such a spot had led her to Alaska in the first place. Nowhere would ever be secure enough.
“No TV or internet near where you live?”
He joined their fingers. “Of course there is some. I guess you could just say that I’m a bit of an outdoorsman and I prefer spending time in the woods than on the computer.”
“That’s really nice.”
It did sound really romantic. Not that she wanted to try the experience herself. Trotting around in the woods did not seem appealing to her. She’d never been a city girl either. There had to be something in between, somewhere.
He stroked the side of her face. “You’re very beautiful and I can sm…tell that you’re nervous.”
She hadn’t thought of herself as particularly obvious with her emotions but maybe he read people well. “I’m always nervous. It’s a natural part of my personality. I wouldn’t know what to do without anxiety keeping my spine straight.”
His eyes seemed to glow for a second. She blinked and the image passed. Strange.
“You don’t have to be nervous with me. Ever.”
“That’s nice of you to say.” She moved away from him to the bed. The comforter had been designed to look like a glorious display of outdoor colors. Reds, browns, and greens danced together in a swirling montage of circles and triangles all coming together in a dance of shapes in the center of the blanket. “What do you do?” She bit her lip. “Or would you prefer not to say?”
“I work in security.”
“What kind of security?”
“I help keep people safe.” He approached her again; she smelled the scents of sandalwood and evergreen on him, reminding her of the holidays as a child. “What do you do?”
“I used to be a designer but then I had my daughter and I’ve been home with her ever since.” Except for the odd jobs she took to keep them moving forward. Waitressing, file work, anything that would pay her in cash and not expect her to hang around long enough for Jacob to find them.
“You have a daughter?” His voice raised in surprise. “You don’t appear old enough to have children.”
“I’m old enough. Believe me. I’m thirty. She’s six.” Gloria pulled her phone out of her pocket to show him the little girl’s photo. “Her name is Katie.”
He took the phone and silently stared at it. The longer he regarded her daughter, the more nervous she became. Why didn’t he say something?
“She strongly resembles you. Same beautiful red hair and blue eyes. Like you, she’ll grow up to be stunning.”
Her cheeks heated. When had someone last said something like that?
He took a deep breath. “My mother raised my sister on her own for a while before she met my father. They were rough years for her.”
She couldn’t help but wonder why it seemed he held something back every time he spoke of his life. Not that she should care; they were meant to be have a one-night stand, not a meaningful exchange of life stories. In no universe could she begin anything of any substance until she either escaped Jacob once and for all, or her ex-husband died. Not that she wanted to wish death on anyone….
“How did her father die?”
Gulping, she shoved the phone back into her pocket. “Who said anything about his being dead? He’s not. He’s very much alive. We’re divorced.”
Even though Jacob hadn’t really accepted that.
“Really? What an idiot your ex must be.”
Her heart sped up. “I mean if I hadn’t gotten divorced, I wouldn’t be here, would I?”
“No, clearly not.”
She reached out to grab the sleeve of his T-shirt. She wasn’t sure where the impulse came from but judging by his grin, he seemed to like it.
“Do you live here? In Alaska?”
“I do. But hours from here. It’s a town called Delta.”
“I’ve never heard of it but I’m new to Alaska. I basically know Anchorage and now Castle.”
“Alaska is beautiful. It’s romantic and wild.” He stroked her cheek again. “But it has nothing on you.”
She kissed him then. His intake of breath said she’d shocked him. He bunched her sweater beneath his fingers. The slight scratch on her skin from the movement only added to the moment.
He broke their kiss to stare into her eyes. “I’ve waited for tonight. I knew you’d come.”
“Well, I could hardly not show after getting on a bush plane, now could I?”
“
I’m not doing a very good job of explaining myself. That’s okay. I’ll get the hang of it, I swear.”
She touched the cleft in his chin. “You are a little bit confusing but very cute.”
“And you are like something out of a dream.”
Kissing him again seemed the answer to his statement. She had never been anybody’s dream. Even if the next morning, when the romance wore off the forbidden nature of a one-night stand, he wouldn’t be thinking about her in those terms.
For the moment, however, she’d take the compliment. As ridiculous as it seemed, in his arms she relaxed for the first time in years. Maybe the sheer size of him gave the impression of safe harbor. Whatever the reason, she would drown in the sensation.
Chapter Two
Jack couldn’t believe fate had been so kind to him. He’d been driven to sign up with the 1Night Stand and now he knew why. His mate had been brought to him through the dating service. And her beauty took his breath away.
He’d known the second he’d scented her that she belonged to him. Cinnamon and honey surrounded her, but he smelled peppermint and Ovaltine on her, as well. He wanted to lick her from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. Hopefully, someday she’d let him do so.
Right then, he craved to kiss her. And kiss her. And kiss her. Her lips were soft. In fact, all of her glorious curves caressed his skin like she’d been made from the softest of silk. Restraint kept him from pulling her shirt over her head and filling his hands with her breasts.
“You are so incredible.” He sniffed at her neck to get another whiff of her uniqueness. The scent of what surely must be heaven filled his nose.
“It’s been a long time for me.” A light red hue coated her cheeks. “I don’t do this type of thing.”
“And for that, I’ll be eternally grateful.”
Because without a doubt, any man who’d been introduced to her would desire her. If she’d done this a lot, she would have been swept away by some other prospective suitor. The problem with mating humans had always been they didn’t feel the same absolute drive to have the wolf-shifter as his or her own. If she had been born a wolf, she would need him like he desired her. Instead, he had to woo her. Not that he would complain. Indeed, he’d required a non-wolf woman. More than anything.