What the Wolf Wants: Howls Romance

by Amber Ella Monroe

  I want her badly. She’s mine.

  How the fuck do I cooperate in letting her go?

  Do I have to? Would she mind if I keep her?

  I resume chopping my fireplace wood. There’s way too damn much of it now so I’ll just donate the rest of this shit to someone who needs it down in the town. The Beverley family is always trying to find cheap wood, so they’ll appreciate this.

  Appreciate…

  Something I don’t get to see often in my old life. People look, receive, then demand for more when they don’t even deserve it.

  And it's not about things like wood either. It's the fucking money. In this town, there are people who are thankful for things that have no monetary value, not real monetary value.

  My pocket jiggles and I snatch my phone out of my pocket. I glance inside the Cabin through the large back window and see Claire doing those yoga stretches and bending her sexy flexible body in downward doggies and squats that make me growl.

  I glare at my phone and answer the call.

  “Dude, what the fuck? The world better be ending.” I squeeze the phone tight and I can hear Ben on the other side sighing.

  "It's ending in a different way. Your board of directors is talking about booting you out. You need to come back, Lucas."

  Ben’s a fellow pack mate and the Director of Operations for my firm, Zander Corporation. The firm has been in my family for years. I make top-level decisions as the firm’s President, but if I want to own the company, I have to fulfill my father’s request. This news about the directors trying to get rid of me as President doesn’t bode well.

  I purse my lips and stomp to the other side of the yard to grab some uncut wood to slaughter.

  “Ben, I don’t care what the hell they do. You’re not supposed to be calling me over such small shit—”

  “I know!” he yells, “but I can’t sit here and watch a group of shit eaters take what you worked so hard to make. Do you even want it anymore?”

  I stop. “I ask myself that question every day.”

  "Don't be serious." His voice drops cold as if I had said some life-altering news. "You put your blood sweat and—"

  “Ben, please. I need to be away for a while. A few more weeks. Tell them I’m alive and well. You better be calling from an untraceable phone.”

  I take one more look inside the cabin to see Claire doing more of her stretches. Then she goes into a handstand, revealing her toned legs and admirable strength. Ben’s saying something right now, but it goes over my head while I stare at Claire's perfect ass.

  “Lucas? Lucas!”

  “Shit, sorry. Look. I’ll be back. But not now. Bye.”

  I hang up, throw my phone in my pocket and gather up the chunks of chopped wood into my arms. I notice the fire in the cabin is getting small and I don’t want my Claire feeling cold.

  Stomping my boots off at the door, I nudge the door open with my shoulder and walk inside. The wood is obstructing my path of vision, so I don’t see when Claire's leg flies up and knocks the wood out of my arms. It clatters onto the floor and Claire gasps, balling up into a guilty sitting position, biting her pinky nail.

  “Sorry, are you hurt?” She gets up and looks at my arms then dips down to pick up the wood.

  “You’ve got some legs there… Might have to spank you for that…” I grunt, feeling the excitement of my cock juice up.

  Claire's face reddens and I can see that look of want in her eyes. On purpose, she takes an armful of wood and bends down to throw it in the fireplace. I see everything. I see her pussy bulge out of the yoga pants I bought her, I see the camel toe I aim to eat out, and the cascading curves of muscle down her legs.

  My cock is hardening up at an alarming rate.

  “You forgot to put some wood somewhere else too,” I hum with my cock growing.

  She brushes her hair out of her face and turns around to me, waiting for me to make a move and pounce on her. The firelight illuminates her face and curves as I map out which part of her to touch first, which ass cheek to slap first. I want to see both mounds bounce and jiggle. I'm salivating at the mouth for a taste.

  Until the fucking phone rings again. I swear, I’m going to smash this shit if it isn’t an emergency. I have thousands of damn employees. If the company can’t survive without me for a month, then I’m going to fire every last one of them, except Ben.

  He’s the only loyal worker I’ve known.

  It’s a shame that he’s annoying the hell out of me with his worries right now. I know he means well, but fuck, I need to get this cock soft before it breaks.

  I growl. “Ben, what the actual—”

  Claire's eyes widen and she moves to the love sofa, trying to give me my space.

  “Look, new news, good news!” he says, pleading for me to not hang up the phone.

  “What? Good news can wait!” I grab my cock and start stroking it. I’m hard as a brick. I can’t take my eyes away from Claire. I have plans. They don’t include this phone call.

  “The contract is here. The contract of a lifetime.”

  Now that captures my attention. “You’re not talking about the Sully contract, are you?”

  “Yeah. It’s amazing… But they want to talk to you in three weeks. Are you going to—”

  “I’ll be there. Now stop calling.”

  I hang up with a new feeling of vigor in my chest. I've wanted that contract for years, now my chance is here. Without that contract, all this hard work would mean nothing.

  I’m in mid-stroke when I look to the side and see Claire gone. Where the hell did she slip off to?

  I get up and yank at my cock. She’s playing a game, huh? I’ll show her what happens when she wants to act like she’s in—what the hell is this?

  There’s a little note on my bed.

  “I’ve gone for a jog wearing the disguise you got me…fuck—what the hell is she doing?”

  I turned my focus away for a few split seconds and now she’s out there alone without protection—again.

  I march into the woods with my rifle in hand, wading through the dead bushes and looking around bare trees to see if I spot her skipping through the snow. What the fuck is she doing? It must be cabin fever to make her do something so reckless and stupid. What did she think she'd be doing out here when she picked this town in the first place? Going on snow-skiing adventures? This isn't the time or the place for that shit.

  She doesn't have my permission to be doing this. A deal is a deal. Plus, she doesn't have anything worthwhile on her to protect her from the dangerous things that crawl this mountain. The previous pack had vacated this region, leaving nothing behind but lone shifters. Now the only thing that roamed these parts in abundance were natural wolves, bears, and other creatures. Something told me that Sheriff Bailey and his other band of followers must have run all the shifters out of town, save for a few. This area certainly did look like a good place to live with a pack. It's one of the reasons why I fought to win the bid to buy this land.

  Wading through some parts of unmelted snow, I follow what looks to be footsteps. Good, I got a lead on her. I think about shifting to find her faster, but I don’t want to scare her. I know she’s gone this way because I see small tracks, but I can’t even catch her scent and that worries the crap out of me.

  “Claire!” I shout onto the mountain-side. My voice echoes back to me and snow falls off branches from the vibrations of my voice.

  “Claire, say something.” Bunches of twigs crack under the pressure of my weight, and I damn near want to knock these trees down to get to her faster.

  “Damn it, woman, I’m gonna tie you to the bedpost when I get to you.”

  I hear something. It’s a female voice. It has to be her. What other woman would be out here roaming around alone in the middle of nowhere alone? She had some nerve.

  “Claire?” I glance around my area of view, trying to spot even a glimpse of movement that might be her.

  Soon enough, she jogs into view from behi
nd some trees and waves at me. Sun shines onto her face and causes her to glow like an angel. Fuck Snow White, Claire is the real deal. Even under that fake brunette wig I got for her.

  I can hide the face, but the beauty rips through like a lion.

  She runs up to me and takes a moment to catch her breath. “Sheesh, tell everyone on the mountain that you’re hiding me. What’s wrong with you?” She straightens her back and folds her arms, glaring at me like I’ve done something wrong.

  Whoa there. Wait a fucking minute. I don’t get to receive that look.

  I chuck down the bottom edge of my rifle down onto the muddy ground and tighten my jaw. “Damn it, woman. You can’t go skipping out onto these mountains without protection—without me! We’ve talked about this.”

  Claire pulls a blade from her boot. She must have taken it from the set I had out on the porch. “Look, I have a big blade. Remember?”

  I suck my teeth and laugh. “Close combat with things out here isn’t a wise idea. Come on, let’s get back.” I pull my rifle out of the mud and motion with my head for her to go before me so I can keep track of her.

  I can only imagine she’s learned the ability to disappear easily.

  She turns away from me and thrusts out her hip. “No, I haven’t finished my jog yet.”

  "Don't be a brat. You didn't ask me for permission to even come out this far, and you don't have it." My cock is getting a rise out of this argument.

  She’s standing here, putting up a fuss with me while that ass is ripe for the spanking. Does she want me to fuck her in the middle of the mountain?

  “Excuse me? Permission? What do I look like to you right now? Some kid?”

  Obviously not.

  “No, you look like a naive girl who doesn’t know what the fuck danger is.”

  “Hey, at least I’m wearing my disg—”

  I throw my hand up. “It’s more than that. I know this whole damn mountain better than you.”

  There's more twig snapping, but neither of us is moving. I see something dark moving behind Claire and snap into action, putting my rifle up.

  “You’re gonna shoot me now!” Claire cries.

  “No, stay still.”

  There's growling noises, and she catches drift of what's happening. Her eyes widen and her body freezes. I don't even think she's breathing. It's a bear. I'm guessing that the bear either heard the commotion, or caught my wolf's scent and thought I was easy prey, or had been following Claire all this time.

  The bear rises on its hind feet and looks down at Claire like she’s his meal.

  Wrong. She’s mine. No one can have her. Only me. I feel a growl erupt from my chest, but this fight wasn’t is. It was mine.

  Claire cringes. “Oh shit!” she whimpers.

  “Stay still.” I aim at the bear, right to the heart. And shoot. Claire ducks and rolls to the side instinctively, giving me room to land another good shot that brings the bear down. I load more bullets into my gun just in case. Time is frozen as we both wait to see if the bear gets back up.

  He's dead. I don't usually take down animals with guns, but in this case, I had no choice. Some of my pack mates hunted their meal in wolf form, but not me. I guess living in the city most of my life sort of rubbed off on me. So, the other reason for me buying this land was because I know that one day I want to get back to my roots and letting my animal side out more often.

  I smirk and grab the head to look at its face. “There we go. Dinner.”

  “Nice… shot…” Claire is still on the ground in shock. She’s staring at the bear as if it could still spring to life and kill me.

  This is a good time to drive my point home with her.

  I offer her my hand and she takes it. I wrap my huge hand around hers several times and pull her up. “You know that bear would’ve mauled you to death before you got a swing in. Even with stab wounds that bear would’ve been able to kill you first.”

  “Thanks…” she mumbles, looking dazed and regretful.

  I drag the bear, a trail of blood coming from behind. I feel Claire still frozen in place and look back at her.

  “Are you coming or not? There’s more than just one bear out here.” I know I don’t have to do too much convincing at this point to make her come with me.

  She pulls herself out of her fear and jogs up alongside me. We walk together back to the cabin when she pauses. “Lucas?”

  “What?”

  She looks up at me with those emeralds. She belongs out here with me. She matches everything, even the snow and the woods. Most importantly she matches with me.

  “I’m glad you’re here…”

  I smile. My heart warms. Claire does that to me. She makes me feel.

  9

  Claire

  Lucas brings the bear in the yard and for a few hours disappears into the yard to gut it and clean it out. Of course, I don't stay to watch the blood spill everywhere. It's already too much. He's probably used to it. I'm sure he buries his canines in bears bigger than that one all the time.

  Scary thing is, I don’t remember hearing that bear come up on me so close. When I did, Lucas already saw him and had his rifle ready.

  Why on earth did I think he’d shoot me? Lucas could’ve done that when I slammed into his cabin on a snowy night.

  Instead, he took me in, helped me heal and take great care of me. I almost don't want to leave this mountain. But… I'll have to. When he returns to being the big bad billionaire everyone knows Lucas Zander to be, he can't take me with him.

  I’m not a part of that life. Plus, I have more searching to do. Should I hang up my gymnast medals and go back to the university? I keep telling myself that I will eventually pursue a degree in graphic design. Maybe I should just tell everyone to fuck themselves and screw all the promises I’ve made.

  The long, hot shower surely did the trick and all I want to do is just sleep and let my problems take care of themselves.

  I finish off my stretches in bed and yawn, then sink down under the covers. The door creaks open and in walks Lucas down to his boxers. He’s soaking wet, but he’s no longer covered in bear guts.

  “What happened? Did you throw your clothes out with the bear carcass?” I ask.

  “I almost did. I actually hosed down in the yard. I didn’t want to track blood and gore all through the house,” he replies.

  I recall almost throwing up my dinner when I ran out there earlier to check on him. "That was a lot of blood…" I hold my stomach, so I don't get sick again from the thought of it. I could never gut something out. I'd faint.

  “Bears are big fuckers.”

  There's no way he can hide his cock. It's so massive that even when it's not hard, you can see it. I’d be lying if I don’t say that my pussy trembles every time I see that bulge.

  “Gonna go hop in the shower down actual,” he says, disappearing out of sight.

  I sigh and collapse on the bed. I feel like I’m going crazy. I need some kind of relief fast or I don’t know what I’ll end up doing. I’m seriously thinking about taking a page from his playbook and spreading my legs and masturbating right in front of him.

  My fingers find my clit and I seek my climax with thoughts of Lucas’s big thick cock on my mind. His shower is quick and before I can bring myself to orgasm, he emerges from the bathroom. He smells of spice and sandalwood. The scent makes me dizzy.

  Lucas rummages through his drawer and pulls out some sweat pants then places them to the side. He has on a clean pair of boxers. His legs are just as corded as his arms. I catch a glimpse of his muscled back and all the tattoos on his body. The designs are like a maze, full of mystery.

  I still don’t even know why he’s here hiding and won’t ask either or else he’ll want to know my reason too. I remember when the news came out about his disappearance. So many people were shocked that someone who ran in so many social circles would go missing without a trace. There wasn’t any foul play suggested and all evidence pointed to the fact that Zander, the popul
ar shifter billionaire, had gone missing on his own. I practically found the missing billionaire. This story could be worth millions. I wonder if that’s why he offered me cash to stay quiet when I first told him I knew who he was.

  But, why did he feel the need to go missing? I have an inkling that maybe he’s getting tired of the limelight. That shit gets to you. I know it. Even as a gymnast, I wanted to run away every time the tabloids snapped photos of me.

  But Lucas Zander, he was different. He was always grinning in his photos, and there always seemed to be a chick or some model hanging on his arm. I wonder if the girls still chased him. I suddenly realize that I don’t even know if Lucas has a girlfriend. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t fuck me.

  He digs a fresh shirt out of his drawer. I perk up, take three steps across the room, and take it from him.

  “Ah, before you put this on, sit down.”

  “Hm?” He raises one of his large thick eyebrows and I gush at the sight of his raw face.

  I shiver. There’s a record I’m breaking with this many shivers. “Sit down, come on. I won’t bite.” I pat the bed.

  He sits down, grunting as he makes contact with the bed. He’s tired. Poor thing.

  “Be careful, because I do.”

  I chuckle. “I’m sure you do.” I place my hands onto his back and begin to knead at his muscles the way I was taught to. But it’s like I’m trying to knead into pure stone straight off the mountain.

  I dig my hands harder into his muscles. “Wow, your muscles are so tense. Must be all the wood chopping.”

  “And the cold. They’ll loosen up.” He reaches back and places a hand over mine. I jolt. His hand is so warm, strong, and… tender. How can a man so big and brutal exude such tenderness?

  I sigh and place my hand on top of his. This is a moment that I’ll cherish forever.

  Lucas snaps, and I’m flung back onto the bed with both hands above my head. My whole body is open to Lucas for the taking.

  I fight through the heat of my lust and want to try to speak some sense into him. Into both of us. “Lucas. You know as much as I do that we—”