Taryn’s Wolf

by Marisa Chenery

  “With you around I can’t see that happening, no matter how tired I am.”

  Braedan picked that moment to return. Seeing the heated looks Taryn and Wade were giving each other, he said, “Shall I go back outside and give you a few minutes alone?”

  Taryn shook her head. “No. Come on upstairs and I’ll show you the room you can use. The one Wade was using, one of the others can use.”

  “If it wouldn’t be too much bother, I’d like you to set that one aside for my brother. I spoke to him last night and he decided he would like to come and help out with the harvest as well.”

  Wade seemed to perk up at that. “Drake is coming here? He’s finally coming out of it?”

  Braedan nodded. “Yes. That’s part of the reason I was at Wulf’s Den the other night. I was letting Beowulf know Drake was ready to take on the world of the living again.” For Taryn’s benefit, he added, “Drake is my older brother. A few years back he lost his wife and daughter. He took their deaths rather hard.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. He is more than welcome to stay here in the house. I’ll put the rest of the men up in the bunkhouse.”

  With Braedan and Wade in tow, Taryn climbed the stairs to the upper level. She stopped at the room next to the one Wade had been using. Standing aside, she let Braedan walk past her into the room. He gave it a cursory glance and then nodded. “The room next to this one is where my brother will be staying?”

  Taryn nodded. She heard Wade thumping around in that room. She assumed he was gathering up his clothes to move them into her room. “You must be really close to your brother since you look out for him so much.”

  “Yes I am. Despite the big age difference, we’ve always gotten along well. Do you have any siblings?”

  “No. Mom just had me. She died when I was three.”

  “And your father?”

  “I have no idea who he was. Mom never married, and she didn’t leave any clues as to who he was. My Uncle Colin took me in after she died. So he really was the only parent I knew.”

  Braedan gave her a curious look. “Your uncle’s name was Colin?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “No reason. The name isn’t all that popular.”

  “I guess not.” Taryn took a flustered step back as Braedan moved to stand before her and seemingly took a whiff of her. “I’ll leave you to unpack. You can meet Wade and me downstairs whenever you’re ready.”

  Going to her bedroom, she found Wade there. She softly closed the door behind her. Noticing her thoughtful expression, Wade asked, “What’s up?”

  “Does Braedan have any weird fetishes I should know about?”

  “Braedan? No, why?” There was no mistaking the laughter in Wade’s voice.

  “He just smelled me.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. He made sure he got a good whiff of me.”

  Wade kissed the tip of Taryn’s nose. “Maybe he thinks you smell good. I know I like smelling you.”

  “I don’t mind when you do it. I just found it a little weird when Braedan did it.”

  “If it made you uncomfortable, I’ll tell him not to do it again.”

  Taryn shook her head. “Don’t you dare. It’s not as if he tried to make a move on me.”

  “He’d better not, or I’ll have to tear his head off.”

  Taryn rolled her eyes at Wade. “Whatever. I’m going to go downstairs and see what I have in the kitchen to whip us up some supper. And before you ask, no, I do not need your help cooking.”

  Wade held his hands up in surrender. “I wouldn’t dream of it. I’ll be down in a few minutes. I’m going to see how Braedan is settling in.”

  “Sounds like a plan. I’ll leave the two of you alone to catch up on things.”

  * * * *

  Wade tapped on the open bedroom door before he stepped inside. Braedan turned away from the open suitcase that sat on the bed and looked over at Wade. “Come to warn me away from Taryn?”

  “You heard what Taryn said?”

  “How could I not, what with werewolf hearing being what it is.”

  “You could have done the polite thing and made yourself not listen.”

  “Don’t get your ass in a knot. I know Taryn’s your mate. I could smell your scent all over her. That and sex.”

  Wade glared at Braedan. “I was having a good day until you showed up.”

  “You know I like to yank your chain,” Braedan said, laughing. He grew serious. “How old is Taryn?”

  “Actually, I don’t know. She has to at least be in her late twenties. Why such interest in Taryn all of a sudden?”

  “That puts her at the right age.”

  “The right age for what? I have no idea where you’re going with this.”

  “You know part of the reason why it has taken Drake so long to come out of grieving. The body of his daughter was never found.”

  “Yes, I know. He thinks there may still be a chance that his daughter is alive.”

  “I may be way off base here, but there’s something about Taryn that makes me wonder if Drake wasn’t wrong in his thinking.”

  “Oh, come on, Braedan. Taryn isn’t a werewolf. She has no idea our kind truly exists. And besides, Drake’s daughter wasn’t named Taryn.”

  “I know she’s mortal, but so was Drake’s mate.”

  “Now that I didn’t know.”

  “Drake wanted to keep it a secret. He didn’t want it common knowledge that he had taken a mortal as his mate. He thought it would help keep her safe.”

  “Which had the opposite effect.”

  “Yes,” Braedan said, softly. “But be that as it may, there are too many things that work out right to completely discount Taryn as Drake’s daughter. Her uncle’s name was Colin. That was the name of the brother of Drake’s mate. I can sort of see some of Drake’s features in Taryn, even her scent smells vaguely like his.”

  Wade shook his head. “Those could just be coincidences. Until you can prove it a hundred percent, I won’t have you saying anything about this to Taryn. I still have to find some way to tell her what I actually am. I don’t need you stirring things up with your conjectures.”

  “You have my word. We’ll have to see what Drake thinks of Taryn when he arrives with the others tomorrow.”

  Wade jumped on the chance to change the topic of discussion. “I’ll be glad more of us will be around starting tomorrow.”

  “I thought you wanted Taryn to yourself, without a bunch of other werewolf males roaming around the property.”

  “Oh, I’d love nothing more than to have her all to myself, but there is one male werewolf we have to keep an eye out for.”

  Braedan stood up straighter. “Who? What happened?”

  “Before you arrived, I had to chase him off the property.”

  “Anyone we know?”

  “No. I never met this werewolf before. He wasn’t from our pack. He was out in broad daylight, in wolf form around mortals, howling. I went wolf and followed his scent. When I asked him what he was doing on the property, he said he had a vested interest here. I sensed there was something not right about him. Something more than his being a lone male werewolf in close proximity to my mate.”

  “Are you going to tell Beowulf? As pack leader, he needs to know. And with Roxie being what she is…”

  “I plan on calling him later. We’d better get downstairs before Taryn wonders what’s keeping us. Try to remember to keep the werewolf instincts under wraps, at least until I’ve had the chance to ease her into it.”

  Braedan nodded. “I promise to keep the wolf buried. Just don’t take too long in telling her. I would hate to see what happened to Drake happen to you because you waited too long to tell Taryn the truth.”

  “Beowulf already gave me a warning along the same lines. I’ll tell her. Soon.”

  * * * *

  Slowly backing away from the open bedroom door, Taryn quietly made her way downstairs. She knew the two men would be down any minute. Once again
in the kitchen, she picked up a knife and busily started chopping vegetables for the stir fry she was making.

  She hadn’t meant to eavesdrop on Wade and Braedan’s conversation. She had only gone upstairs to ask them if they had any objection to what she was going to cook. Not really knowing them well enough to know what foods they liked, she had felt it safer to ask. Hearing her name mentioned as she reached the upper floor, and then the ensuing conversation, Taryn had found herself frozen to the spot.

  She at first thought Braedan was pulling Wade’s leg with his comment about Wade’s wanting her all to himself without other male werewolves being around. When Wade hadn’t laughed, but went on to tell Braedan about chasing another werewolf off her property, she didn’t know what to think. From the conversation, it was apparent both men believed they were werewolves. Taryn wouldn’t have thought either man was that delusional. She knew there was no such thing as werewolves. But there was something different about Wade, and not just his ability to keep an erection for hours. It was his eyes, and how they glowed during sex. Savagely Taryn pushed her thoughts aside. She wasn’t going there.

  By the time Wade and Braedan had joined her in the kitchen a few minutes later, Taryn had her thoughts back under control. In no way did she let on she had heard part of what they had been discussing upstairs.

  Plastering a smile on her face, she turned to face them. “I hope you guys like pork stir fry. It’s about all I have in the fridge. I have to make a run to the grocery store sometime tomorrow.”

  “That’ll be fine,” Wade said as he came over to see what Taryn was doing. When she raised a brow at him, he slowly backed away. “All right, all right, I’ll not go near the stove again.”

  “As long as it’s food, I’ll eat it,” Braedan informed her.

  Taryn nodded and returned to what she had been doing. The men sat down at the kitchen table. As she worked, she listened to their conversation with only half an ear. That they were comfortable being around each other was easy to see from all the good-natured ribbing that went on. Taryn was at least happy to note neither one of them said anything more out of the ordinary. She had to wonder if both men had actually known she was outside the hall listening and decided to have some fun with her. To be honest, she wouldn’t put it past Braedan. He seemed like the type of person who liked to do things such as that.

  Now that she had convinced herself that the whole “werewolf” thing was indeed their way to get even with her for eavesdropping, Taryn felt a small measure of relief. She really didn’t want to think the man she was sleeping with was a complete and utter nut job.

  Giving the food in the frying pan a stir, Taryn heard the yip of a coyote out in the vineyard. She didn’t give it much thought. There were a lot of coyotes living in the Stags Leap District. It wasn’t uncommon to hear one at The Pines. But the wolf howl that soon followed the coyote’s yip made her instinctively turn to look out the kitchen window. Behind her, she heard Wade and Braedan rush to their feet and move closer to the window. When the men didn’t see anything outside, a knowing look passed between them.

  “It may be a good idea to make sure all the windows and doors are locked,” Wade suggested.

  “I agree,” Braedan quickly replied back. “I’ll check the upper floor while you check down here.”

  The two men left without saying a word to her, intent on the task at hand. Taryn felt a niggling feeling of doubt rise to the surface. One that said maybe the whole werewolf thing hadn’t been a joke at her expense after all.

  Chapter Nine

  The following morning, Taryn got up bright and early. She tip-toed around the bedroom, trying not to wake Wade up. Before leaving the room, she gave him one last look. He was stretched out in the middle of the bed. The covers barely concealed his nakedness.

  She softly closed the door behind her and headed for the bathroom. As she brushed her teeth and washed her face, Taryn went through her mental list of things that had to be done that day. The first on the list was to get what workers she had started with the harvest. The next thing was to go grocery shopping. Having Wade, Braedan and the seven extra men coming, she figured she would need to stock up. She hoped to accomplish that task before the other men arrived later that morning.

  Taryn worked in the vineyard with her regular crew for an hour before she returned to the house to see if Wade and Braedan were awake. Stepping into the house, she heard their voices coming from the kitchen. Both men were sitting at the kitchen table sipping on coffee. She walked over to where Wade sat and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

  “I’m glad to see you two finally woke up. The others should be arriving soon and I need you to keep them occupied until I get back.”

  “Where are you going?” Wade asked as he pulled Taryn onto his lap.

  Giving him a shove, Taryn broke free of his grasp and stood up. “None of that now,” she scolded him. “There’s too much to be done today. I have to go pick up a truckload of groceries. When I get back, I’m going to need the lot of you out in the vineyard helping with the harvesting. I was already out there helping.”

  “So that’s where you disappeared so early this morning. I missed giving you a proper good morning.”

  Taryn found herself tempted to tell Wade that she would be more than willing to go back upstairs with him, to make up for her not being in bed beside him when he woke up. Like yesterday, she had found herself missing him while she worked in the vineyard, but it hadn’t been as bad. The hard work of harvesting grapes had kept her mind busy, putting a buffer around her longing to be with Wade.

  “Get used to it. Until the harvest is complete, there will be no lying around in bed for any of us.” Grabbing her purse off the kitchen counter, Taryn waved to the two men and left.

  It didn’t take her long to arrive at the nearby grocery store. Taking one of the shopping carts at the front of the store, Taryn filled it to capacity. She cringed a bit when the cashier told her what her total grocery bill was, but she knew there was no getting around it.

  Checking that task off her mental list, Taryn loaded all the grocery bags into the trunk of her car and headed back to the winery. When she arrived, she took note of the extra cars parked in her driveway.

  She parked her car in front of the garage and opened the trunk. She had her head deep inside the trunk fishing out grocery bags when a voice coming from behind her asked if she needed any help. Caught off guard, Taryn jumped and slammed her head on the inside of the trunk lid. She cursed under her breath and stood up straight.

  “I apologize. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Taryn turned around and came face to face with another man you would expect to find on the pages of a fashion magazine. He towered over her, and was so good-looking no woman would be able to resist staring at him. He wore his dark blond hair on the long side, just past his shoulders. Just like Wade and Braedan, he was powerfully built. Taryn watched his dark brown eyes look her up and down. She guessed him to be only a few years older than herself, but his eyes belied that fact. There was something about the way he looked at her that said the years hadn’t been kind to him.

  “Lisa?”

  Taryn shook her head. “That was my mother’s name. I’m Taryn.” Thinking it was strange that this stranger would call her by her mother’s name, Taryn stuck out her hand for him to shake. He clasped her hand in his larger one, but didn’t shake it. He stared at her for so long, Taryn started to feel a bit uncomfortable being under his close scrutiny. She tried to pull her hand free, but he didn’t let go.

  “My name is Drake.”

  She recognized the name. He was Braedan’s older brother. Now that she knew who he was, she could see the family resemblance, and it also explained the hurt she saw in his eyes. He was supposedly still grieving for his wife and daughter. When he used her hand to pull her closer to him and inhaled deeply, Taryn figured the two brothers were very much the same in that regard.

  “Nice to meet you, Drake. Braedan said you would be coming
.” She pulled a little harder to free her hand. “I should get these groceries into the house before some of the frozen stuff starts thawing out.”

  Drake looked down at their clasped hands, and ran his thumb caressingly across the back of her hand before he released her. “Of course, let me help you.”

  Moving a little to the side so Drake would have room to reach into the trunk beside her, Taryn watched him out of the corner of her eye. He grabbed the majority of the grocery bags and then patiently waited for her to collect the rest. Taryn could sense his interest in her, but she didn’t think it was in any way sexual.

  Closing the trunk, Taryn led Drake into the house. She casually turned to look into the living room and stopped walking so suddenly Drake ended up ramming into the back of her. Lost for words, Taryn couldn’t stop herself from staring at the men congregated in her living room. It looked as if a hunk convention was taking place. Every single one of them had a face that would turn any woman into an idiot. She knew she looked like one, standing there staring with her mouth hanging open. There was so much testosterone in the room, she could almost feel it rolling over her in waves.

  Wade walked over to her and stood directly in front of Taryn, blocking her view. “You’re only supposed to look at me like that,” he said quietly. Drake, who still stood beside Taryn, chuckled.

  Distracted, Taryn stammered, “What? Who?”

  “Never mind,” Wade ground out as he pushed her in the direction of the kitchen. “I’ll help you put the groceries away.”

  Placing the bags she carried on the kitchen table, Taryn began to empty them. “Those are the men Beowulf sent over?”

  Wade just about growled his reply. “Yes.”

  “All I have to say is, damn. There must be something in the water you guys are drinking. That many good-looking guys in a room would turn any woman into a blithering idiot. I could make a fortune in wine tastings here at the winery if I had some of those guys working for me all year long. I’d have women coming from all around just to stare at them.”

  “Taryn.”

  “I wonder if I can convince some of them to stay on after the harvest. I had thought of opening the cave here at the winery to the public for wine tastings. These guys could be the edge I need to draw more visitors.”