by Taylor McKay
Wade dropped to his hands and knees, feeling his blood heat and rage through his veins. His wolf emerged, skin and limbs morphing into primal animal. Thick black fur covered his body. The scent of sex—of Calan—intensified with Wade’s heightened senses.
Following in Calan’s wake, Wade easily tracked him across Channing land. As a wolf, Calan was stunning. The six weeks of chase revealed Calan’s swift mind. He was always several moves ahead. His agile body navigated the forest. Catching him had not been easy. It had been exhilarating. Calan had made Wade hunt, fight and control his submission. Wade’s body responded with just the memory of Calan beneath him.
Wade tracked Calan to the outbuildings. Most of the men had their own small cabin. They weren’t ranch hands. This was their home. They worked, played and lived as a family. But wolves needed their own space, especially males. Wade was dominant in his role on the ranch. He was Channing land. The blood and sweat he shed was for the ranch and his pack. He worried, and yet he ached for more. No, he wasn’t alone. But he wasn’t complete. Not without Calan.
Wade approached Calan’s cabin. His wolf eyes easily saw in the night. The darkened windows belied the activity within. Calan was there. Waiting. Wade prowled the perimeter. They were alone. But Calan wasn’t going to make it easy on him. Good.
Would Calan expect the wolf or the man? He cautiously approached the door, using every sense to discern his prey’s location. Oh yes, the chase was still on. Calan was no more able to resist than Wade. They were meant for each other.
A low growl sounded from within the cabin. Wade shifted, willing his body from wolf to man. The fleeting pain was nearly an aphrodisiac. To want to shift was to want to fuck. He stood, the glow of the moon cutting through the trees and bathing the log cabin in a cool glow.
“Calan, will you talk to me?”
Another growl emanated from behind the door.
“I won’t fight you, won’t chase.” Not until Wade convinced Calan to stay. Wade leaned his forehead against the door, the first shivers of fear rippling through him. What if he couldn’t convince Calan he belonged on the ranch with the pack? What if Calan’s feelings weren’t as strong? Wade knew he’d never long for a female, but maybe Calan wasn’t like him and the others. Maybe the call of the lycan to breed would strengthen in Calan.
“The door is open.”
Wade slowly exhaled, gripped the handle and turned the knob. Calan stood in the middle of the room, zipping up his jeans. Wade took him in, dragging his gaze from Calan’s bare feet, up his jean-clad legs, and pausing on the worn denim cradling the soft mound of his cock. The jeans rode low on his narrow hips. A trail of brown feathering hair bisected his grooved stomach.
“I have to go.”
Wade’s gaze snapped to Calan’s piercing whiskey-colored eyes. Dark hair curled in sexy disarray, the fringe brushing his bare sculpted shoulders. Calan was lean strength. “Don’t leave.”
“I wouldn’t have stayed if I’d known you were lycan.” He shoved his arms into a long sleeve shirt. “I’ve been here before and it doesn’t work.” He stomped his feet into boots.
Wade knew what Calan meant. Before opening the ranch to other wolves, like himself, he had also been a loner. “A wolf without a pack is a solitary life.”
“You don’t think I know that.” Calan draped his bag over his shoulder and paused. His gaze roamed over Wade’s nude body.
Blood rushed from Wade’s head and into his dick. His cock twitched and slowly became erect. “I never believed I’d be mated until you came here. There was a time when I was just like you, believing there was only one way of life for a lycan.” He was begging for a chance, knowing together was the only way they’d ever be complete. “Stay,” he pleaded.
“Thanks for the work. I appreciate it.” Calan glanced around the small cabin. “But I don’t belong here.” He turned his gaze to Wade then quickly looked away.
“Yes, you do. The ranch could be your home.” He took a hesitant step closer to Calan. “With me.”
Calan shook his head, his face a mask of pain. His eyes glistened. “I don’t belong with you.” He strode through the door and into the night. “I don’t belong with anyone.”
Wade followed. “Do you think you’re the only one who feels alone? I’ve claimed you, Calan.”
Calan spun on his heels. “Until you come across a bitch in heat and can’t resist the call of the wolf. Hell yes, I want to stay. You’ve claimed me? I know! I felt the pull, the power. Even when I didn’t know you were the wolf in the woods, I wanted you. I’m so fucking attracted to you that I can barely breathe when you’re near me. I have a constant boner. And in the forest…” He let the words fade away. “I can’t stay.” His jaw clenched. “Regardless of what I feel.”
“We won’t let you leave.” Calan had already become part of their pack.
“Who?”
“Who do you think? Cole, Shiloh, Lance, and Gavin. Everyone.”
“They know? You told them?” Calan’s brows furrowed.
“Stay and let me explain.” Or maybe it would just make more sense to Calan if Wade showed him. Wade stretched his neck to the moon and howled. His call would bring the pack, just as they would be there for Calan from this night on.
A moment later, Calan turned to a rustle in the woods. A silver wolf leapt from the trees. Moonlight reflected off his shimmering pelt. Another wolf raced into the clearing, crouching with bared teeth.
Calan dropped his bag and turned in a circle as he was surrounded by wolves.
Wade came up behind him, pressed in tight, reached around and banded an arm across Calan’s clavicle. “Did you think you were the only one who felt they didn’t belong?” He rained kisses along Calan’s neck. “We’ve all been there.”
Calan trembled in his arms. The wolves shifted into men, men who had taken their friend and made him their brother. “A pack? Of males?”
Wade nodded. “Channing land is our territory.”
“Forgive us for not being honest.” Cole wrapped an arm around Gavin. “Like you, we don’t trust easily.” Gavin opened his mouth over Cole’s and kissed him deeply but quickly. “We had to cover our scent until we were sure you belonged here.”
“Wade never doubted,” Shiloh said. “And we trust him completely.” Shiloh smiled, his white teeth gleaming. “Like you, he’s saved all of us.”
“But he never claimed us the way he’s claimed you,” Lance said.
Wade tightened his hold on Calan. “You belong here, with us.” He breathed deeply of Calan’s scent. His mate. “You belong with me.” Wade opened his mouth over Calan’s neck, kissing, nibbling. “I love you,” he whispered. “Stay with me.”
Calan nodded and turned in Wade’s arms. Tonight, Calan was claimed by the wolf.
The End
Demanding
Romance
www.DemandingRomance.com
If you enjoyed Claimed By The Wolf by Taylor McKay, look for the next in the series:
Hunting The Wolf
Channing’s Wolves 2
By Taylor McKay
COPYRIGHT 2011 by Taylor McKay
www.DemandingRomance.com
Gavin leaned back in the hard plastic chair. Hairs on the nape of his neck tingled and his nerves were strung tight. Wolf instincts sensed danger. Tension built. “And they think we’re animals.”
Representatives from the state and the federal government were here for input on the wolf introduction program. Ranchers, folks from town, activists, and conservationist filled the auditorium…and they were getting restless.
A hard-assed rancher, Cliff Jenson, vaulted from his seat. “I want every last one of them dead,” he bellowed to the city council members and officials from the US Fish and Wildlife Service sitting behind the long scarred and nicked table.
“Please refrain from outburst. We can conduct this meeting with decorum and have a respectful debate.”
“Wade.” Gavin glanced left and right, ascertaining their position a
nd making sure there was a route of escape.
“Easy.” Wade leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Patience. We listen…then we plan.” He might sound calm, but Gavin could feel the tension rolling off his boss. This wasn’t a simple town meeting.
“The wolves have rights.” One of the conservationists tried to reason with the dissenters. But Cliff wasn’t alone in his thinking. For years, wolves had been hunted, nearly to extinction and pushed further and further out of their environments. With the increase of elk and other animals, natural predators, grey wolves, were reintroduced into the remotest areas of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. Their numbers had grown and now they were targeted again.
Gavin glanced to Wade Channing from the corner of his eye. Wolves ran wild on Channing land. But Channing’s wolves weren’t causing problems for the ranchers. By night these wolves hunted in the woods and fucked in the thickets. During the day, they worked the land. Men with secrets—shifters who lived on more than fifteen thousand acres, their sanctuary in eastern Idaho. They coexisted with humans and used their distant wolf cousins as camouflage. Gavin was one of the pack. Wade was their Alpha.
A few incidents and ranchers like Cliff wanted the wolves gone. Channing’s wolves would lose their cover.
“I have a right to make a living. Are you going to pay me for the loss of my stock? The only good wolf is a dead wolf.”
The meeting continued. Wade didn’t contribute to the debate. However, as one of the largest land owners, Wade’s opinion carried a lot of weight in the community.
“There isn’t a rancher in these parts that ain’t going to shoot a wolf on sight.”
Wade shifted, his chair legs scraping along the floor. A few heads turned. Wade didn’t smile, didn’t speak. Gavin wanted to jump from his chair but he followed his Alpha’s lead.
“You got something to say Channing?”
Wade arched a brow. “Wolves are safe on Channing land.”
Grumbles erupted from several ranchers and a few conservationists clapped.
“Then your input isn’t needed in this debate. Ranchers in these parts want the wolves gone.”
Wade pushed off his chair and slowly rose. “Not all of us.”
“You agree with your boss?” Cliff asked Gavin.
Gavin stood, showing solidarity. “Do you really need to ask?”
Wade stalked towards the door, but Cliff blocked his way. “I’ve got traps set. I catch one of those wolves you’re so fond of, I’ll send it your way gift wrapped.”
“Step foot on my land and you’ll be buried on it. I shoot trespassers.”
“But you won’t shoot a worthless pack of wolves.”
“I’d give a wolf my last scrap of food while I watched you starve.”
The sea of bodies parted and Wade strode out of the room. Disbelieving words were whispered in his wake.
“Watch your back, Channing.”
Wade didn’t respond to Cliff. He didn’t have to. Six-two, solid muscle and a don’t-fuck-with-me attitude were enough to keep most people at a distance. But not everyone. Cliff Jensen stood with several other ranchers, glaring at Wade as he walked away, the sound of his work-worn cowboy boots on the hard flooring a harsh echo of his position. He was done talking. If the anger in Cliff’s and the others eyes and the hard line of their mouths were any indication, the wolves weren’t the only thing they wanted to see dead.
“We listened,” Gavin said. And nothing they’d heard gave him a reason to think this dispute was going to blow over.
Wade gruffed. “They’re full of shit. The wolves keep the elk population under control. No fucking way this is about wolves. This is about land and resources.”
“They sounded serious to me.”
“We need to plan. The others need to understand. If Channing land harbors wolves, and the ranchers sway the Fish and Wildlife Service to sign off on their proposal, we’ll have hunters all over our territory.”
“Do you think they will?” Gravel crunched beneath their boots as they crossed the parking lot to Wade’s truck.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve had to defend Channing land. Won’t be the last. We need Shiloh.” Shiloh and Wade had a special connection. Shiloh had been on Channing land as long as Wade. They’d built the ranch together. Lifelong friends.
None of the men on the ranch longed for the traditional ways of the lycan. Neither had they the instinct to take females as mates, had no desire to breed. But that hadn’t lessened their need to hunt, to chase, and fuck. Whether to dominate or submit, it would only be to another male.
“We’ll need to set up patrols.” Wade opened the driver’s side door of his truck and Gavin climbed into the passenger side. “No one goes out alone.”
“Maybe it would be best if the pack stayed close to home.”
Wade keyed the ignition. “And live like a caged animal? I’d rather be dead.”
Other titles by Taylor McKay
Available from Demanding Romance
Cowboy Tamed
Rough Rider