His Wolf (Wolf of My Heart)

by Linda Palmer

  “Then you’d better think again.”

  “Shh.” Red held up his hand to silence us.

  I instantly thought of Erik-wolf, who could’ve escaped out the window by now and might be making his way around the house. If he came through the front door, he’d surely die. No wolf, especially a new one, was a match for one gun, much less three.

  Buzz Cut sniffed the air. “A Were’s been here.”

  I looked at him in confusion. Of course one had. And one still was. Namely, me. Couldn’t they tell who they were smelling?

  “How can you scent anything over that bitch’s perfume?” Blondie as good as growled.

  Oh. My. God. They didn’t have a clue I could shift. I really was Yarbrough’s best-kept secret. I don’t know how I kept my face straight. “Fine then. I’ll make you a list of the passwords. You can take the laptop and go.” As in please.

  “Oh we’ll take it, all right,” said Red with a humorless laugh. “And there won’t be any need for a list since we’ll be taking you, too, just to be sure you’re being straight with us. Besides, Yarbrough said you were the best assistant he ever had, and since I’m taking over Houston, I’ll need you to sort things out.”

  I backed up a step. “Not happening.”

  “Then we’ll just have to hire us a hacker and a secretary, which means you’re no use to us at all.” Red nodded at Blondie, who leveled his gun at me.

  I never got the chance to react. Erik-wolf erupted into the room, but not through the front door. No, he came from the tiny hallway behind me, which meant he’d somehow gotten the bedroom door open. Flying past, he charged Buzz Cut, who yelled and staggered back, dropping his weapon in the process. The guy partially shifted—freaky to see—but Erik mauled him into bloody unconsciousness before that process was complete. The moment he was out, he shifted back into human form and lay there still as death and bleeding from his bites.

  The other intruders, frozen in shock, abruptly came to life and shifted. But I did, too, ferociously snarling as I freed myself of the bits of clothing that hadn’t been torn during the morph. As I attacked, my paws slid on the shredded fabric littering the hewn wooden floor. She-wolf me sensed their extreme shock at the new development, but they quickly rallied, making it two seasoned wolves against two newbies. Erik went for Blondie; I attacked Red. Though I was the smallest animal in the room and had never fought, I gave it all I had. I even got in some bites, clamping down on Red-wolf’s shoulder and holding on for dear life as he slung me about.

  That small victory ended when I was slammed against the wall. Pain shot through my back. I howled my agony. Red-wolf pounced, gnawing me like a bone while I struggled to get away from him. Cruel jaws locked on my airway, cutting off my oxygen. The room went gray and then black. Fight sounds faded to silence.

  And then all at once I could breathe again. As air rushed into my lungs, I opened my eyes and saw Erik, fully naked and gloriously human, kicking the holy shit out of Red-wolf. I swore I could hear ribs crack. Diverted, my attacker whirled and lunged at Erik, who lunged back without hesitation, somehow breaking one of Red-wolf’s front legs from the sickening crunch of it. Then Erik got him in a wrestler’s choke hold, tightening it until the werewolf’s golden eyes glazed over and he went limp. Erik let Red-wolf drop to the floor, where he immediately shifted into a naked man.

  Still struggling to breathe, I assessed our situation with a sweeping glance of the room. Three down, none to go. I tried to clear my head enough for the focus needed to shift back. I managed, but only because of the full moon’s powerful sway. I was that rattled.

  The moment my shift was complete, Erik dropped to one knee nearby. His gaze slid over me. He winced. “God, Bronte. Are you okay?”

  “Yes. Just a little banged up.”

  “Chewed up is more like it. You’re a bloody mess.”

  “Well, you’ve never looked better,” I said, using that excuse to take in all his yummy details. Even scratched and bleeding he’d do. He’d definitely do. I reached out for him. We hugged.

  “Stay right there.” Erik left long enough to find some clothes. When he got back, I saw he had dressed and was carrying more clothing. I watched him struggle with dressing the lower halves of three very large men who were out cold. He then left again and came back with ropes, which he wound and intricately knotted around the Weres. Neither man nor wolf would break free anytime soon. Erik dealt with the guns next. He laid them on the kitchen table, along with a couple of knives that I pointed out on the floor among the scraps of clothing. He added two wallets to the pile, as well.

  Then it was my turn for his attention.

  “Come on.” He scooped me up and deposited me on the couch though I was feeling stronger by the second and could’ve walked. “Let’s see how bad these bites are.”

  I had bites, plural? I only remembered the neck thing. Gingerly touching it, I felt sticky punctures way too close to my jugular. Erik had saved me from certain death twice now. I owed him big time and could only gaze in wonder at the bound bodies littering the cabin floor. He made another quick trip to the bedroom, coming back with my abandoned bikinis and one of his Tshirts, which he tossed to me.

  I stood to put on the clothes.

  “Save the shirt until I’ve dressed the bites. Just cover up or something.”

  With a nod, I stepped into the bikinis and then used the T-shirt to hide everything above the waist. “I’ll need to buy you more Band-Aids if this keeps up.”

  He just shook his head and sat next to me. I saw that he had a wet washcloth and the first aid kit. For the next few minutes, Erik cleaned wounds I didn’t know I had while I held the shirt over my bare boobs. “First fight?”

  “Yeah, and speaking of firsts, how’d you shift back so fast? It took me way longer than that my first time.”

  “Guess I’m a natural.”

  I had to agree. “And where’d you learn to fight like that?”

  “I might have a black belt or two.”

  “So that’s what your cousin meant by the ‘white pajamas’ comment.”

  “Yeah. They don’t appreciate the subtlety of martial arts.”

  “Well your talents saved me tonight.” I touched his face. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. Now would you please tell me why in the hell you tried to lock me in the bedroom?”

  “I wanted to keep you out of my problems.”

  “Damn, Bronte. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m in this thing as deeply as you are. So no more tricks, okay? This is my fight now, too.”

  “Okay.” I peeked over my shoulder at the men lying on the floor. Was one of them stirring? “What are we going to do about those guys?”

  “I say we stuff them in the trunk of my car or, better yet, theirs, if we can find it, and dump them somewhere far, far away. Then you call your Corteggio friends and report where they are.”

  Though he was clearly joking, his idea wasn’t half bad. “I do have a business card one of them gave me.”

  Erik sat back and wearily rubbed the top of his head, messing up already messy hair. “I was actually kidding.”

  “I know, but your idea is still a good one.”

  “Hmph.” He put a neon pink bandage on one last wound and then began cleaning up everything.

  I stopped him. “Not yet. I haven’t done you.”

  Erik sighed and handed me the kit. “Do you have any idea how tempting you doing me sounds right now?”

  “Because I’m half naked?”

  “Right in one. And touching you is driving me insane.”

  I loved the sound of that almost as much as I loved the boy saying it. Oops! There was that pesky L word again, slipping in when I least expected it. Once more I filed it away for future consideration. At the moment, my tired mind couldn’t do any thought process justice. “So let me touch you instead.”

  “I’m okay. We need to get rid of the Weres while it’s still dark.”

  “Then we should finish dressing.” Turning my b
ack on Erik, I put on his tee. I started toward the bedroom. Halfway there, I realized that Erik hadn’t followed. A look back revealed he was locking up the front of the house again. As for the broken window, he used one of the boards left over from his bedroom door project to cover the empty spot.

  We both changed into day clothes. I tugged my boots on. Twisting my hair into a messy ponytail, I followed him back to the living area. All three guys were awake now and highly pissed, but Erik had them secured.

  “You’ll never get away with this,” said Blondie. “Our whole pack knows where you are. If we don’t come back, someone else will show up. The Arm doesn’t forget or forgive.”

  Erik ignored him and singled out Red. “Where’s your ride?” Erik got a snort in reply and drew his foot back as if he were going to kick the prisoner right in his broken ribs.

  Red instantly caved. “A mile north.”

  “And the key?”

  “Ignition.”

  With a nod, Erik began dragging him into a closet. I helped with the other two. Though they struggled and cursed at us, we ignored their abuse. They’d started this, after all. I had no sympathy for them. Once we got the door closed, we scotched it with a kitchen chair shoved under the knob.

  Erik and I then got into his Jeep and drove through the woods until we found a black Suburban that just might’ve been the vehicle that ran me off the road. The keys were in the ignition, as promised. I drove the Jeep back to the cabin with Erik following behind, the powerful engine roaring. What happened next was a trial of endurance and strength for both of us. The Weres had clearly talked while we were gone and decided to make things as difficult as possible. So getting them into their Suburban was hell.

  But we did it with the aid of one of the weapons they’d brought with them.

  Erik next unloaded all those weapons and put them and the knives and wallets we found in a plastic zip bag. He went outside and threw all the ammo into the trees, bullet-by-bullet and in different directions. No one would be stumbling across them anytime soon.

  I followed Erik in the Jeep as he drove the SUV out of his woods and a good twenty miles through mountainous back roads. Deeper and deeper into the wilderness we went, so far that I thought we’d never get there. He finally pulled into a deserted area that he’d clearly known existed, though how, I didn’t know. But we certainly hadn’t wasted any turns on our journey to it.

  Erik killed the engine and got out, locking the doors with the remote dangling from the key chain. Blip. He caught my eye, showed me the bag of weapons, and pointed into the woods. When I nodded, he walked out of sight. What felt like an eternity later, he stepped out of the woods empty handed, but nowhere near his entry point. In fact, he was now on the other side of the road. I crawled over the console so he could slide behind the wheel. He put the Jeep in reverse and got us out of there.

  Chapter Eleven

  “What did you do with the guns?”

  “Scattered and hid them. Got that business card?”

  “It’s back at the cabin.”

  The clock on Erik’s dash said 5:00 a.m. by the time we got home. After we swept up all the shredded clothing on the floor, I dug the required card out of my sports bag and borrowed Erik’s cell phone.

  “Ben DeLuca.”

  “It’s Bronte Hannigan, Mr. DeLuca. Sorry to call so late, er, early, but I want to report a werewolf attack.” I didn’t give him a chance to respond before I gave him the details.

  “And they were after a laptop, you say?”

  “Yes. There’s information on it that they want. I’m thinking you might want it, too. Do you want me to mail it or something?”

  “Actually, I currently have a man in the Missouri area. I believe you met him: Levi Crane.”

  A picture of the young man in question popped into my head—DeLuca’s partner and one of the two men in black. “I remember.”

  “I’ll have him call you and set a time to meet if that’s okay.”

  “Yeah, sure.” I gave him Erik’s number and ended the call.

  To say I felt relieved didn’t begin to go there. My mood was almost giddy and apparently infectious. At any rate, when Erik turned on his iPod and hooked it into an external speaker, he grinned really big and did some fancy footwork to “SexyBack.” Since Justin Timberlake was just my fav, I joined him. Though we probably looked like idiots, I honestly didn’t care as we dirty danced to some very suggestive lyrics.

  When the song ended, we both collapsed on the couch, laughing like the crazies we were. Erik lay back, pulling me on top of him, which put me half on and half off the cushions. We began to kiss again and again, with each one more intense than the last. It was heaven. I loved that Erik liked to make out. The few guys I’d dated for any length of time seemed to think of kisses as obligatory, insignificant time wasters designed to get them into my pants a little quicker. Erik wasn’t like that.

  Lost to the sensation of his lips pressed to mine again and again, I knew that it would be so easy for me to love him. In fact, I probably already did. And it didn’t take much imagination to picture him loving me back. He certainly knew how to make me feel cherished.

  “I have an idea,” I said, stealing a moment to rest my cheek on his shoulder.

  Erik changed our positions a little, putting me on my side with my whole body now on the cushions. His eyes looked very dark and a little mysterious. “Which is?”

  “Let’s shift together and explore the woods.”

  Those dark eyes began to gleam. He gave me a wicked sexy smile. “Excellent plan.”

  We got up and began tossing clothes and Band-Aids, actions as intimate as sex, at least in my inexperienced opinion. I know we never took our eyes off one another. Was that indecent, obscene even? Maybe. But it didn’t feel that way. Maybe it was a pack thing. We were a pack, after all—a pack of two. Erik opened the door so we could get outside. I blew him a kiss and shifted. He quickly did the same.

  Hitting the woods with Erik-wolf was an indescribable joy I knew I’d never forget. We ran for miles, stopping to explore and even rest when the notion struck. And though we didn’t have the Hollywood magic of reading each other’s thoughts, I could have sworn I still knew what he was feeling. Erik-wolf led me to a cliff that overlooked a misty valley. I could see that storm clouds had begun to build in the northwest sky and even smelled snow in the air.

  Exhilarated, we stood so close together our bodies touched and watched the weather change dramatically right before our eyes. By the time we got back to the cabin around 6:00 Wednesday night, I knew two things: it was about to snow again and I was really and truly in love with Erik. But was he in love with me? That was a feeling I hadn’t picked up from him in either form.

  We shifted into our human selves and took turns in the bathroom, cleaning up and dressing. I noticed all my bites were almost healed, but didn’t give that miracle a second thought. Apparently that went along with the territory. Since Erik let me go first, I was in the kitchen making dinner by the time he came out of his bedroom looking like a GQ model in jeans, a sweater, and bare feet. We sat across from each other at his table for four. “I seem to be healing very quickly these days.”

  “Is that a goddess thing or a wolf thing?”

  “I honestly have no idea. Maybe it’s an Erik thing.”

  “Yeah, right. Just call me Dr. Wolf,” Erik said around a bite of ham sandwich. “Guess I should research wolves now that I am one.”

  “I did that, myself, once upon a time.”

  “So you could probably answer my questions.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Okay. Are wolves a protected species?”

  “Some are. Depends on what area of the country and their species. Grays are almost extinct in some states.”

  “You’re a gray.”

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t go extinct on me.”

  “I might’ve this morning if you hadn’t been around.”

  Erik closed his eyes for a mom
ent as if blocking an image of just that. “And I’d never have gotten over it.”

  I scoffed at his words. “Believe me, you’d have gotten over it.”

  Dead silence followed that, but not because Erik was eating. He looked deep into my eyes, but it was a vacant stare. Almost as if his thoughts were so far away that he wasn’t really seeing me. “Is it true wolves mate for life?”

  My breath caught in my throat. He would go there. “According to everything I’ve read they do. Things are a little trickier with werewolves. Guessing here, by the way. I honestly don’t know anything for sure. But I’m thinking the man and woman involved would have to be attracted to each other as wolves and as humans.”

  Erik visibly shifted gears. I had his attention now. “I agree. Nothing else would work. Have you met your mate?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  His shock was obvious, which meant he hadn’t expected that answer. I could only imagine what he must be thinking. The two of us had made out for ages, after all, which was not something a girl-wolf with a maybe mate should ever do.

  “In Houston?”

  I shook my head. “Didn’t I tell you? The pack there didn’t know I’d been bitten much less what I looked like. All our business was done over the phone. And those guys that broke in this morning? They didn’t know, either. I don’t think that many females have been turned. I might’ve been the only one ever, in fact. At any rate, Yarbrough didn’t tell a soul as far as I know.”

  “So where’d you meet this maybe mate of yours?”

  With my heart pounding in my chest, I went for it. “In a forest very very nearby. I’d gotten my wolfy right paw caught in a stupid steel trap. He came out of nowhere and set me free—a human guy that no she-wolf should love since that would bestiality.” I wrinkled my nose. “Big ew.”

  Erik kept his face straight, but I saw a twinkle in his eye. “So what’d you do?”

  “The only thing I could do—bit him to see if I liked him as much in wolf form.”

  “Did you?”

  “Oh yeah and then some.”