Her Wanted Wolf

by Renee Michaels

  “Not good enough. The Silverwolves don’t have the numbers to defend themselves against a marauding force, and don’t pretend they wouldn’t be vulnerable even within your domain. The older women are set in their ways, as I am. They will only follow you if we have a familial connection or if you put me down to become their alpha. It’s no longer safe here with these newcomers snapping at our heels. Sabine tells me they stink of something freakish. My family will need to move on to give the younger ones a chance for survival. Will you do as I ask?”

  “I can’t do it the way you want. But I’ll protect them.” Drew raked his hands wearily through his dusty hair.

  “You are already mated?” the old man demanded.

  Drew lips tightened. “Once, but I lost my mate.”

  “I’ve had two mates. I loved and mourned each one as if she were the only mate I ever had. It’s unnatural for a man to be without a woman,” the Ancient chided.

  Drew grinned. “I never said I lacked female company.”

  A fit of coughing shook Balthazar when a chuckle slipped from his parched lips. “A true wolf. Sabine would be my choice for you. She is strong and will be a fine consort. She isn’t corrupted by human sentimentality. In her lives the best of what we are.”

  “It wouldn’t be fair to your daughter. I’m a virtual stranger. You don’t know what kind of were I am. My vow as the Lunedare alpha is that I’ll keep them safe.”

  The old man didn’t know what he asked, the kind of life he attempted to arrange for his child. Drew loved once, and that part of him died with Christa. Any other woman he mated with would be short-changed.

  A fierce demand burned in the old man’s eyes. “What is your word, if your actions don’t hold true to the core of our beliefs? You are more than a man. In you resides your spirit kin, the wolf. Have we moved so far away from what we are that you’d leave twenty of our women in peril? We are meant to live by our instincts, not by emotion. The strongest of those instincts is to survive. Has yours been so watered down that the perpetuation of our race is no longer paramount?” Balthazar sagged back on his bed, and turned sluggishly onto his side to face the wall. “Then let us die. The loss of the Silverwolf pack is the harbinger to the end of our race. Maybe I’m to be proven right after all, and my fears have become a bitter fact. We have become more man than wolf.”

  Drew slumped back against the wall. Mental and physical weariness washed over him.

  Shit. There was no way he could leave the women to fend for themselves. Balthazar pricked his pride, shamed him, and called on his sense of duty to do right by his diminishing race.

  Sabine said she’d do whatever her father asked her to do, no matter what. He doubted she had any inkling what Balthazar had in mind. He’d resisted his family’s pleas to take another mate to sire cubs for the Lunedare pack since Christa’s death. Maybe a political marriage would shut them up. Fucking a stranger meant there was less chance of engaging his emotions.

  Drew grinned ruefully. He couldn’t describe his reaction to Sabine as dispassionate.

  Remembering his body’s reaction to her filled him with a guilty kind of remorse. Christa’s face, with her sweet mischievous grin, filled his mind. It gave way to his last memory of her, her face waxen in death, cold to the touch. Lifeless. And all his fault.

  Fuck, if only he could let Christa go. Some part of him felt he did not have the right to go on without her.

  Yet, here he was very much alive. Bound by guilt to a dead love with his blood raging with need for another woman.

  Chapter Six

  A savory bouquet mingling with Sabine’s scent reached Drew before he heard her barely perceptible footsteps on the other side of the wall. He looked up as she eased through the doorway with two earthenware bowls in her hands.

  To Drew’s embarrassment, his belly gurgled like an unclogged drain when the fragrant steam spiraling up from one of the bowls wafted past his nose.

  Lips pursed to control her smirk, Sabine passed him a hand-molded clay dish and spoon. “There’s plenty more. You look half-starved. Why haven’t you been eating?”

  “The scent of any kill I made might have given my presence away.” Drew lifted the spoon with trembling fingers and took a tentative bite of the gamey meat.

  Wild sage and rosemary burst over his tongue. Drew almost moaned with ecstasy, but he managed to stifle the urge. He started to shovel the hot rabbit stew into his mouth so fast it seared his tongue. The hunger he’d ignored far too long took over, and he ate ravenously.

  “It’s all going to come back up faster than it went down if you continue to eat like that,” Sabine warned tartly.

  She was right.

  His shrunken stomach rebelled at the sudden influx of food and spasmed painfully. Drew swallowed hard to keep his gorge from rising.

  Sabine slowly shook her head back and forth. Drew recognized the gesture her gender perfected to inform men, wordlessly, that they were acting like idiots. It was better than the despised eye-roll or the pleading glance to the skies for divine intervention, he supposed.

  Stooping down, Sabine propped up her father. “Come on, Balthazar, you said if we found you an alpha you’d eat something,” she coaxed, holding the spoon to his lips.

  What was he? A pet she’d fetched to please her father.

  Drew looked over the rim of the bowl to meet another one of the cool assessing glances she shot him between spooning broth into her father’s mouth.

  “Are you going to help us, wolf?” Sabine asked baldly. The generic form of address rankled but he let it go. At the moment, he was too damned weary and grateful for the food to allow the slight to rile him.

  “I’ll see that your family is taken to safety.” His brusque reply raised her brows.

  “But not Balthazar’s way, right? Why not? Are you afraid to take a Silverwolf as a mate?” Her frown suggested Balthazar had handed him a great honor, but he was too dense to recognize or appreciate it.

  Balthazar choked on a spoonful of soup. “You masked your presence and eavesdropped?”

  “I did.” Her unrepentant reply earned her a frown from her father. “How was I going to find out what you two are plotting? Bring you an alpha wolf, you ordered. If I’d known I’d be a part of the bargain, I wouldn’t have done it. But it’s done now, isn’t it?” She shifted her attention back to Drew. “I am sorry you’ve lost your mate, but she is gone. We need your help, if you can manage that without falling into a trap.”

  “Deplorable. Insulting our rescuer’s abilities is no way to secure his help.” Balthazar’s admonishment preceded his grimace of distaste as he pushed the spoon away from his mouth. “No more of this pap. I want meat.”

  “Not till you drink this.” She flicked Drew a glance. He caught the wiliness in her expression before she assumed a bland expression and continued in an overly reasonable tone.

  “He might not be the wolf we need.” Drew shot her a stony glare at the gleam of pseudo-innocence in her laughing eyes. “All he’s shown me is that he’s easily distracted.”

  “No manners.” Balthazar tapped his daughter on the chin in an absent but loving gesture.

  Sabine grinned at her father. Her face took on a luminous beauty. Her eyes darkened to an unusual navy blue, and dimples flashed in her cheeks.

  Drew caught a glimpse of the warm woman beneath the cool, determined façade he mistook for iciness. He had to shift the position of his legs to conceal his hardening, unruly body parts.

  The radiance of Sabine’s smile made him want to bask in its warmth, to melt the coldness inside of him. Discomfited by the path his mind took, Drew quashed the emerging feelings ruthlessly.

  Lust was one thing. He could handle that. Deeper emotions weren’t something he was willing to delve into right now.

  “Papa, you’ve drummed into our heads that manners are the shackles of civilization. Something only housebroken pets worry about, you declared,” Sabine teased her father. At the same time, she flashed Drew a pointed glance. �
�Now you want me to follow the petty protocols set down by man? You raised me to be pure wolf.”

  “You’ve paid too much attention to the ramblings of an old man who has lived so long he’s become an anachronism,” Balthazar groused. “And don’t try to soften me up by calling me papa.”

  The byplay between father and daughter held no heat, only affection. Drew watched them share a grin of perfect understanding.

  Balthazar’s smile faded, and he took Sabine’s small hand in his bony palm. His eyes were filled with a fanatic zeal as he stared into his daughter’s face.

  “Remember the vow you made to me. Secure his agreement, Sabine. Save what’s left of us.” He sank back, worn out. “I’m tired. Let me sleep.” The old man slid into his base form and drifted off into a light doze.

  Sabine set the bowl aside and contemplated her sleeping father for a long time. She looked up to catch Drew watching her. A sigh slipped from her lips as she straightened her shoulders. If he read her right, she’d come a decision.

  Rising to her feet, she motioned with a flutter of her fingers for him to follow her out of the hut. They stepped out into the night and moved away from the cluster of huts.

  Head bowed, she started to pace in tight circles. “What is the one thing you want above anything else?”

  “To find Aimee, my sister. The were I tracked carried the essence of her on his fur. I hoped he’d lead me to her.” Drew watched her prowl like a caged wolf.

  “How long have you been searching for her?” The softly worded question held no curiosity.

  She’d baited a hook. No doubt she was working her way around to offer him something he wanted in exchange for his help. Drew knew it, but he bit anyway.

  “Several weeks.” For what seemed like an eternity, and he’d been aware of every second ticking by in slow increments. Sabine stopped her restless march to face him with a ‘cat who just ate a bowl of cream’ grin on her face. “Pitiful.”

  “Pitiful? The best trackers in several packs hunted for her. I figure if the Redmavens hadn’t lucked out and wandered into the area you covered we might have found them sooner. You inadvertently protected the very weres who threaten you now.”

  Sabine shot him a frowning glare. “It wasn’t intentional. If a Silverwolf searched for your sister, she’d have been found already. I can find her for you,” Sabine declared. Her eyes gleamed with a fervor similar to what he had seen in Balthazar’s earlier.

  “Don’t hold back on touting your abilities. I might think you lacked confidence,” Drew said dryly. His lips twitched when she shot him a withering look of impatience.

  “Do you have any idea what my clan can do for you? Once we have the personal scent of a wolf imprinted on our olfactory memories, we can identify his blood-kin, track him longer and farther than any other were. Silverwolves can mask their scent and walk in silence. You need such skills if your hunt is to succeed. Your sister’s been gone a long time, so it won’t be easy for you to pick up her trail.” She gulped like someone about to take a leap off a cliff. “If you do as my father asks and save my family, the eight of us who are young and healthy will help you find your Aimee. That way you can cover more ground. I think that’s a fair bargain.” Her face was tight with determination, and he could feel the tension humming in her. He could smell her desperation and something more. Was it guilt?

  “We don’t use our women to barter for alliances anymore. That’s one of the things we discarded, thank God.” He wasn’t dragging a bunch of women into his fight with the Redmavens. “Your family is secure whether you help me or not.”

  Sabine stood on her toes and sniffed the sensitive spot behind his ear lobe. The soft whoosh of air expelled through her lips brushed down the length of his neck.

  An involuntary shiver skittered over his skin, transmitted sensation to his nerves, and spiked his need for sex. He clenched his hands into fists to prevent himself from grabbing her. He wanted to hike her legs up over his hips and lower her onto his shaft. Standing would suit him fine.

  Drew bit back a groan, and forced himself not to step back. Though it was torture, her slightest touch stoked his cravings.

  Sabine closed her eyes. “The familial spoor you share with your sister was very faint on the were I killed. It didn’t have the depth of recent contact. I can also tell you that she was there. In that cave they’ve made their den. She’s gone now, though, along with the other women who were there at one time, and not all of them were she-wolves.” Her nose twitched as her head moved around. Her nostrils flared, seeming to seek a particular odor.

  Her eyelids eased open, and she gazed at him lazily from under them. “Want to know what else I read in the scent clinging to him?”

  At Drew’s curt nod she continued.

  “Your sister was very much alive when they brushed up against each other a few weeks ago. She drew blood.” Sabine smirked up at him. “The potency of her anger, fear, and confusion clung to him after all that time.”

  Drew’s heart slowed to painful pulses. Aimee was still alive and fighting not too long ago. He knew his sister. She’d definitely give Bardo the finger regardless of the consequences. The pride of the Lunedares could be a handicap at times, but it was something tangible to hold onto that his sister still had the will to fight. She was not broken, yet, but she would wonder why he hadn’t come for her.

  The short demonstration of Sabine’s skills awed him, though he’d never tell her. She was too cocky, and cockiness got you killed.

  Sabine could help him find his sister.

  They could live as man and wife. Yes, the man would happily claim her, but given his attraction to her, he could predict that the were in him would want more. With time and proximity, they’d be driven to take that final step to become were and mate. It was primal and the possessive sense of ownership a wolf had toward his mate would come into play. As long as she acknowledged him as her chosen wolf, she’d be his. To take, teach, and explore the depths of her sexuality. Drew sensed Sabine would be wild and uninhibited in his arms. She didn’t strike him as a woman who was lukewarm about anything.

  Drew reached out and brushed his knuckles over Sabine’s cheek. She stared to pull back, but she caught herself and stood still.

  “Let me get this straight. You’re willing to do anything to get my help?”

  She dipped her head in a jerky nod of agreement. “Yes, but with a few conditions of my own. I know you don’t want a mate, and neither do I.”

  Inexplicably offended by her words, Drew lifted his brows.

  “Nothing personal, but I have dreams and plans of my own. There is no room for a wolf in my life. You alphas tend to get a little inflexible on certain matters. I want my freedom. Our arrangement would be temporary, of course. I’d prefer if no one else knew that. In the end, you’ll get what you need and I’ll get what I want.”

  “You won’t have a problem having sex with me?”

  “No, you are an attractive man. I don’t see that as a hardship.”

  “I’m not really into duty sex.” Oh, yes, he was. He’d take it anyway, anyhow, with her. His mind sang with the possibility of having her in his bed. “Temporary arrangement or not, my people, our people, would smell the lie if we were not totally immersed with each other’s scent.” He trailed his forefinger down between her breasts, the erratic beat of her heart vibrating against his single digit. Her back arched to his light caress as if he were stroking a cat.

  The carnal heat flashing in her eyes belied her show of indifference to his presence. The little she-wolf wasn’t as unaware of him as she pretended.

  There was more, much more, than attraction between them, there was recognition. If or when they took that final step to a mating, it would be for more than mere practicality.

  She licked her lips. “I’ve never had sex with a man. I’m inexperienced, not ignorant. I’ve seen the humans mating when they camp in the hills.”

  There was a subtle shift in her scent. The memory of what she’d witnessed a
roused her, and her arousal made him even more erect. Yes, she was adventurous, open to experiencing everything he offered.

  She looked him up and down, and his cock jumped under her eyes. “You wouldn’t have a problem copulating with me. Will you?”

  Ignorant, no. Naive, yes. For her brazen words, the scent of her innocence filtered through. It was all so simple to her. As her mate, he’d have certain rights. That she understood.

  His preferences demanded more than mating for the sole purpose of procreation. His tastes were more sophisticated. She might be shocked to know what he could do to her with his mouth, hands, and body. Drew truly enjoyed the sweet salty taste of his lover on his tongue, the feel of a woman’s body quivering under his hands. There’d be no swift race to completion between them when they had sex.

  Drew’s eyes narrowed when his gaze met Sabine’s.

  She chewed on her lip anxiously. Disappointment and confusion clouded her eyes. She had no idea how close she came to being put on her knees and taken.

  There was nothing civilized about the way he and his were wanted her.

  She shook her head, gathered herself, and said in a crisp, businesslike manner, “Think about it. I’d pick up her scent from any wolf she had contact with. I can tell you if it was a month ago they brushed up against each other, or a day ago. Imagine the time and effort you’d save. At the same time, you’d find the wolves who’d insulted your pack. Two things you want badly for the price of a temporary arrangement. It’s a good bargain.”

  “Weres should mate for life.” If the thought of being tied to him for a couple of centuries didn’t get her to give up her mad plan, nothing would.

  “I know for a fact when our numbers started to wane, the council sanctioned short-term marriages. It’s one of the reasons my father broke away from pack society. It’s all I’m offering. I’d think the loophole I’m providing would suit your purposes.”