by Kate Douglas
Tinker buried himself in Lisa’s soft, slick folds, felt the firm contractions of her muscles holding him, and knew he’d come home. She’d climaxed when he suckled her breast! Now that was a first. He’d never brought a woman to orgasm so quickly before, never been with a woman so responsive. He’d never had so much trouble holding on to his own control either.
Tinker sat back on his heels and lifted Lisa with him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and locked her heels at the small of his back. She arched her spine, bringing her pubic bone up tightly against his, and her long, dark hair cascaded over both their bodies. Tinker cupped her buttocks in his palms and lifted her as he thrust, increasing the depth with each tilt of his hips.
They fit together as if they’d done this forever. He felt her thoughts, her innate curiosity as she delved into his past. With anyone else, Tinker knew he would have felt violated. He would have resisted such a thorough exploration of his life, but when Lisa traveled through his mind, he saw it as a search for understanding, a need to know even more about the man who was now her mate.
He flexed the big muscles in his buttocks and drove steadily in and out of her tight sex, marveling at their differences and celebrating the one thing they shared—their Chanku heritage.
So many contradictions. Lisa was soft and feminine folds to his hard, thrusting cock; smooth, white skin to his dark chocolate; light and laughter to his serious side. Where he was weak, Lisa had strength. Where Tinker felt strong and self-assured, Lisa had needs.
Needs Tinker fully intended to meet. Now, though, the rhythm he maintained kept both of them at the very edge of climax, kept their bodies poised on the brink. He made a conscious effort to open his mind to all of Lisa Quinn, then lost himself in sensation.
Lisa felt as if she existed on two levels. One, a woman of desire and sensation, a finely tuned instrument being played by a master. The hot, thick length of Tinker’s cock, stretching her almost painfully on each penetration, sliding deep between the slick walls of her sex, then slowly pulling back, the pressure of his pubic bone against her clit, the heat of their combined bodies, all came together in a lush and sensual well of feeling.
The other Lisa was a huntress, an explorer searching through the convoluted passages of Martin Tinker McClintock’s past. His first memories were of darkness and confusion, a feeling of loss and abandonment. She learned all he knew of his beloved foster parents, both of them white, both of them loving the child they considered a special gift.
She felt his grief at their deaths, his fear of being thrust into a society he was ill-prepared to handle. All the typical confusion and lack of confidence felt by any young man, compounded by racial hatred and a lack of understanding of his place in a society that didn’t know how to handle him.
His bravery in Afghanistan translated as a death wish in Lisa’s mind. He hadn’t cared whether he lived or died. Hadn’t cared about much of anything until Ulrich Mason, head of Pack Dynamics, gave him direction and purpose and an entirely new life.
A life as Chanku. Lisa’s sexual fever built when she found the part of Tinker’s memories where he kept those special thoughts of his packmates. Sex with men she’d never met, all through Tinker’s past.
The most special memories of all, the memories that took Lisa even higher, were his thoughts of Tia Mason. Tinker’s packmate’s mate, the daughter of his mentor.
Were Lisa merely human, she might have been jealous. Were she not Chanku, she might have been angry.
Instead, she saw Tia from Tinker’s perspective, saw the way his lips and tongue suckled her pussy, watched the thick length of his dark cock sliding carefully, slowly, almost gracefully inside the tight rosebud of her ass, felt the pressure when Tia contracted around him. She experienced sex with Tia Mason, and Lisa’s world exploded.
Caught in Tinker’s memories of sex with Tia, Lisa arched against his thrust, felt his cock press deep and hard, and she cried out as her orgasm slammed into her. She clutched his shoulders with grasping fingers and drew blood with her broken nails. Her thoughts remained linked with Tinker’s, her body and his moving as a single entity.
Caught in Lisa’s mental backlash, Tinker followed her into climax. He threw his head back, and his mouth opened in a silent howl as he filled her with hot bursts of seed. Thick streams of semen ran down her legs, leaving a scorched path behind, yet still his hips rocked against her, still his cock filled her clenching sex.
Lisa fell forward against his sweaty chest. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and her ankles locked against the small of his back, holding them together. He tightened his arms around her and hugged her close. Lisa tucked her face against the juncture of his neck and shoulder where his skin was smooth and soft as velvet. She licked his skin and tasted salt and man.
Their bodies trembled, both of them sucked in air as if the next breath might be their last, and slowly their heart rates slowed, their gasping breaths eased, and the perspiration cooled upon their skin.
Tinker was the first to raise his head. He looked at Lisa and grinned, then cocked one dark eyebrow in question.
Lisa laughed out loud. “Wow,” she said, the sexual images of other men and that one, glorious woman still so clear in her mind. “I can’t wait to meet your packmates.”
Tinker laughed and kissed her on the nose. “That is not the thing you tell a man right after he’s fucked you senseless.”
Lisa slipped away from him, still giggling, then stood up and held her hand out. “For one thing, I may be well fucked, but I am not senseless. And for another, now I’ve seen what you’ve been up to, I understand why you want to go back to San Francisco.” She walked back to the small pool, tugging Tinker along behind her.
He followed willingly, still chuckling. His hand felt good in hers. Natural, as if it belonged there. Lisa’s legs were sticky with his ejaculate. Her body still trembled from her climax, and she couldn’t remember ever feeling this good after sex with either a man or a woman.
She stepped into the pool to bathe and thought how surrealistic it felt, to be here in the deep forest at the darkest time of night, still able to see with her enhanced Chanku vision, her body tingling from the best sex she’d had in her life. Surrealistic and unbelievable, yet she’d never felt so real before, never experienced life so completely.
Dipping into the chilly water, Lisa rinsed Tinker’s seed from her body and enjoyed the moment. It was all good, and yet there was a sense, a feeling, that something this perfect couldn’t last. She heard once more the rumble of trucks in the distance. A shiver passed over her body.
She blamed the cold water and shoved the uncomfortable sense of premonition from her mind.
Chapter 7
“Do you have to be away all day?” Lisa stretched up on her toes to kiss Tinker good-bye.
He kissed her back, his lips soft and warm, his taste more addictive each time they touched. “Most likely. I have to get in touch with Luc, have him check on Dunlop, see what he’s found out about the financing on the sanctuary. I want him to look into Hal Anderson, too, among other things. Will you be okay?”
“Of course. I love you.”
Tinker kissed her once more, then he left her standing on the front deck as he climbed into the rental car and drove away. She watched the empty road for several long minutes after he’d gone.
How had one man managed to upend her entire life so completely, in so few days?
Easy, idiot. He turned you into a fucking wolf.
Lisa wandered back into the cabin and paused in front of the mirror in her hallway. The woman staring back at her looked exactly as she’d looked for years. Tall, athletic, dark hair with amber eyes. Average, almost middle-aged. Slowly Lisa stripped out of her clothes until she stood naked in front of her reflection.
Then she shifted. The wolf wasn’t tall enough to see its reflection in the mirror. So much for that little experiment. Shifting back to her human self, feeling a little bit silly, Lisa gathered up her clothes and went into the bedr
oom to dress for work.
“Hey, Seth. How are you? I haven’t seen you around for the past few days.” Lisa waved to the gangly teenager. It was almost dusk, but she saw him clearly, now that her vision had grown so much better.
Seth jerked around and held something down against his leg, as if hiding it from view. “Oh, hi, Lisa. I, um, had family visiting. Had to hang around the house for a couple days.”
“Whatcha doing?” This time she was certain he looked guilty.
“Just cleaning out the shed. Mr. Anderson said it was getting messy in here, and he wanted things organized.”
Lisa smiled at Seth and gave him a minute to offer more information. He merely looked uncomfortable. “Any more word on the missing wolves? I haven’t seen anything in the paper, and no one around here is saying much.”
Seth shook his head. “No. Mr. Anderson doesn’t want to make it public, so he’s keeping it quiet. He’s afraid the neighbors will get upset and try to close down the sanctuary if they find out any of the wolves are missing, so the investigation is staying internal.”
“That’s what I heard.” She shrugged her shoulders, decided whatever Seth was hiding was none of her business, and turned away to head out to the parking lot. It had been a long day, especially considering how little sleep she and Tinker were getting. Between time spent learning all she needed to know about being a wolf and the amazing sex that always followed each shift, Lisa marveled she was getting any sleep at all.
“Where’s that guy?” Seth stood right behind her now. For a moment, Lisa almost felt threatened. That was stupid. If anyone was a threat, it certainly wasn’t Seth. He was just a kid, nothing more than a gangly teenager.
“You mean Tinker? He had some business to take care of in town. I’m meeting him back at my cabin in a couple hours. Why do you ask?”
Seth stared at her. His blue eyes narrowed; then he smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “I guess since you guys have practically been joined at the hip for the past week, I was surprised to see you here without him. He’s nice enough, but he’s kinda scary.”
Lisa laughed. “Tinker? Scary? I don’t think so! He’s a marshmallow.”
Seth’s smile didn’t go beyond the slight upturn of his mouth. “I’ve never seen a marshmallow that big with muscles like he’s got. The guy is absolutely ripped! I guess I was surprised at first to see him hanging around here so long, and now it’s weird that he’s not here.”
Lisa cocked her leg and rested one hand on her hip. “Now why would you be surprised he’s hung around?”
Seth shrugged and had the decency to look embarrassed. “Mr. Anderson said it.”
“Said what, Seth?”
He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “He said Tinker’s black and you’re gay, so he couldn’t figure out what the attraction was. It’s not like there’s a lot of black people around, and I didn’t know you were gay, but if you are, I guess what Mr. Anderson said makes sense.”
“He said what? I don’t believe this!” Okay, so she’d figured Anderson was racist, but what the hell was he doing discussing her sex life with anyone, much less a teenager? Keeping a tight lid on her anger, Lisa snorted and shook her head. “First of all, my sex life is none of your business or Mr. Anderson’s. For the record, I am not gay, and Tinker’s color, besides the fact that he’s absolutely gorgeous, has nothing to do with how I feel about him. He’s a very nice man who cares about me.”
Lisa turned to go back to her Jeep, but she couldn’t let it hang there. She stopped and turned back to Seth. “Martin McClintock is also more of a man than Hal Anderson or any other male I’ve ever met, including you, Seth Mitchell. You might let Mr. Anderson know the next time he feels like commenting on things that are none of his business, he’d be better off keeping his mouth shut.”
Seth stood there wide-eyed. Lisa spun around and headed for the parking lot. She was seething by the time she yanked open the door on the Jeep. She jerked the stick shift into reverse and popped the clutch, pulled out of her space, and shifted into first. Her old Jeep hardly knew how to respond. Damn Hal Anderson, and damn Seth, too. They had no business discussing her private life or her relationship with Tinker or Tinker’s race or anything about either one of them.
Still boiling, Lisa pulled into the parking spot in front of her cabin. There was no sign of Tinker. She wondered if he’d had any luck finding a fast hookup for his computer. He’d needed to make contact with the members of Pack Dynamics and do some research on his own about the sanctuary, including some background checks on Anderson. Cell phones didn’t work well here, and the cabin didn’t have a regular telephone. She’d never gotten around to installing one.
There’d been no need when she had no one to call.
Now, though, they had more questions than answers after Tinker’s communication with the wolves. Some of the animals did remember when their packmates disappeared, but the details were fuzzy and the visual clues difficult to decipher. There was unusual activity going on at night, but the animals only noted people passing. They didn’t care what humans actually did. Tinker had an idea someone at the sanctuary was taking the animals, though he wasn’t sure what the purpose could be.
One of the older males had shown him the gate where a man had come through carrying what looked like a gun. A truck had waited on the service road, not far from the place where Lisa had made her first shift. There was no sense of time in the visual, no idea when it had happened, but from what Tinker understood, someone had shot a wolf and hauled the body out in a large crate, though he couldn’t be sure if the downed animal was actually dead or merely unconscious.
The truck drove away, and the wolf was not seen again. The old wolf grieved for his packmate in the way of animals. Grieved but moved on in life, dismissing the loss of one as something that diminished the whole, but a loss that would be repaired with the birth of a new cub.
It was the way of things. Life and death, birth and existence, a successful hunt or a failed one, all part of the circle of life.
Tinker had tried to communicate with others, but their lack of concern once an animal left the pack made it difficult to pursue more detailed information. Then there was the issue of trucks traveling at night, but running without lights. Another curious thing to wonder about. Tinker had wanted to discuss the problem with his boss, Lucien Stone. Luc, he’d said, had a way of figuring things out.
Lisa wondered if Tinker was merely homesick for his packmates and looking for a chance to communicate with them. In a way, she missed them as well, though she’d never met any of them. Knowing them through her link with Tinker made all of the Chanku real to her.
Already she thought of Luc and Tia as her packmates, just as she now saw Tinker as her bonded mate. She’d known him barely a week. Amazing how quickly so much in her life had changed.
Restless after a long day working with the wolves and the numerous groups of visitors who regularly toured the site, Lisa pictured Tinker as she paced around her small cabin. He’d be absolutely furious over what Seth had said today. The more she thought about Tinker, the angrier she got over Hal Anderson’s comments and the fact that Seth had obviously felt no qualms about repeating racist or homophobic crap to her.
Looking for a diversion, Lisa checked the refrigerator, but the larder was empty. There’d been little reason to shop, especially since she and Tinker had hunted almost nightly since her first change.
Why cook when the forest was teeming with game? That was one of the biggest changes, as far as Lisa could tell. She’d always loved animals and hated the idea of hunting for sport. While she accepted that her beloved wolves hunted to survive, she hadn’t let herself think of the details of hunting and killing for food.
Her basic nature had changed. Hunting with a gun still disgusted her. Hunting as a wolf in search of sustenance excited her. The thought of tearing into a freshly killed rabbit made her salivate, even as she paced the floor on two legs. She checked the time. Tinker had said he’d be home late this evening,
but he hadn’t known for certain when that would be.
There was a moon tonight. Not even half full, but it was already rising over the treetops and casting a silvery blue glow across the forest. She saw differently now. Saw with eyes that picked out objects in the dark as if it were merely dusk. It would be almost as bright as daylight for her tonight, should she run.
She’d not gone out without Tinker before. There’d been no need, as he’d never left her. Lisa stood by the large picture window that looked out over the meadow and felt the call of the night.
She would shift and run. Not far, but at least she’d burn off some of this excess energy and adrenaline that had her feeling so keyed up and anxious. It must have been that stupid discussion with Seth that had her feeling like this, but she couldn’t relax, couldn’t get it out of her mind that Hal Anderson was talking about her behind her back.
Even though Lisa had long thought of herself as a lesbian, at least before she met Tinker, Hal had no business discussing her sexual preferences with anyone, especially a teenage kid who’d harbored a crush on her for the last year. It infuriated her even more to know he was making racist comments about Tinker.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. It was good to focus her nervous energy, good to have something to think of rather than worry about Tinker. He’d been gone since early this morning. She’d expected him back before now and hadn’t realized how much she would miss his mental touch, the constant awareness of her mate’s thoughts in the back of her mind. Missed his mental touch as much as she missed the physical touch, the powerful realization that desire for her simmered just below his surface—much as Lisa’s desire burned for Tinker.
She realized now how he’d been her constant companion since they’d met. Her companion, her friend…her lover. She missed him. She was lonely without him.