Dare the Wolf: A Bully Boys Novel of Paranormal Romance

by Cassandra Moore

  When they moved, they moved together. Long thrusts took him too far away from her. Instead, she followed his hips with hers, and they ground against each other in slow motions until more primal urges overcame them. Steady thrusts turned frenzied, ragged as he lost all care for rhythm. The realization of how close he was to release surged through her with an all but unbearable intensity. Unable to keep still, she hooked her hands over his shoulders to drive herself onto his shaft.

  It broke over her in bright waves. She cried out as it possessed her, made her writhe against him to force every wave of heat she could withstand. His cries echoed in her ears as heat spilled into her, and she clenched around him to milk him of every pulse of warmth.

  As they collapsed on the bed, panting, he didn’t pull away. He was still buried inside her as he wrapped her in his arms and held her against his chest. Words waited at the top of her heart, the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed them down. No matter what they’d said before, in the heat of their conversation with emotions riding high, three words could change everything.

  Those three words would lay more than her body bare. After today had done its level best to remind her what could happen to a woman who left herself without armor around her heart, she couldn’t withstand another blow to her psyche right now. Give me one night of peace. One night to feel safe here with him, and I can face anything tomorrow.

  Fate seldom listens to prayers.

  7

  Where There’s Smoke

  Their breathing hadn’t even calmed before someone knocked on the door. Jake half sat up, propped on an elbow, to listen. Anita held her breath so she didn’t make more noise than necessary. Though she’d never heard of Ferals knocking on doors, she’d never heard of them talking, either, and that had already happened once today.

  But there were more threats than the Ferals. Even though it didn’t sound like the angry banging she would expect from Lou, she couldn’t rule it out. He’d surprised her too many times this week for her to discount anything.

  Another knock, louder this time. “Jake, it’s Nicole. I know you’re in there. Shane sent me. Open the door.”

  Anita and Jake exchanged looks. They’d been pretty distracted if they hadn’t heard her pull up. The question was, how much had she heard herself? “Just a sec,” he called.

  “Do you want me to wait here?” Anita whispered as he rolled off the bed. She hadn’t asked that question since she’d snuck out with her first high school boyfriend.

  Jake nabbed a pair of sweats off the top of the laundry basket and shook his head. “I’m not ashamed of you,” he said. “And dollars to donuts she knows you’re here anyway.”

  Anita made a sour face. No, they hadn’t bothered to keep quiet. Out here, the jackrabbits didn’t care if you moaned yourself hoarse. Nosy girlfriends, though. They cared, and they passed the information along to the alphas who’d given orders for their packs to steer clear of you.

  As if he sensed her thoughts, Jake snagged her hand to give it a gentle squeeze. The earnest look in his eyes said he didn’t care who knew. He’d go against his alpha’s wishes for her. She squeezed his hand back and got herself up to get dressed.

  Jake answered the door while she pulled on a set of comfy clothes from her bag. “Didn’t expect to see you tonight, Nicole,” Jake said, by way of curt greeting.

  Nicole let her displeasure color her tone. “That’s obvious. I came to check on you. Shane was worried about you after your call, but he and the rest of the pack are out sweeping the town perimeter again.”

  Anita didn’t miss the note of accusation in her statement. You called. Shane had to go out again. Are you happy with yourself now?

  Jake didn’t miss it either, and answered it with his own. “Hope he sent the rest of them out and went to bed. He hasn’t slept much the last day or so.” You didn’t let him sleep, now he’s working again. Hope you’re satisfied.

  “He wanted to come out himself, but I told him I’d do it. He has enough to do.” Not even Joan of Arc could have sounded so very martyred as Nicole did. Or so judgemental. “Somehow, I had a feeling I’d find Anita here, too. You know Shane’s going to be pissed.”

  “So be it.” Jake folded his arms over his chest. “That’s a matter I’ll take up with him.”

  “You know he told you to keep your head down and let the whole stink with her blow over.”

  “Situation’s changed. I’ll settle it with Shane.”

  “Don’t drag him any further into this drama you’ve created, Jake. He doesn’t need your shit.”

  “And I don’t need yours.” Jake leaned against the doorframe, arms still folded, the very picture of an immovable object. “You’re not the alpha, Nicole. You made it pretty clear earlier that you don’t consider yourself part of the pack. I respect you, since you’re the alpha’s lover, but you’re not his mate. You ain’t got any weight to throw around here, so don’t try.”

  Anita ducked around the corner of the door in time to see the look of pure murder on Nicole’s face. “Don’t think I won’t tell him you said that.”

  “Run off and tattle on me to the alpha. Makes me no nevermind.” A lazy smile turned up Jake’s lips. “We’re fine here, by the way. Thank you for asking.”

  Anita adored Jake all the more for his sly, backhanded statements. “Hello, Nicole. Let Shane know I’ll be glad to tell him what happened tonight, will you please? He might find it important.”

  “I’ll do that. Can I have a word, woman to woman?” Nicole cast a dirty glance at Jake. “Maybe you’ll be more reasonable than he is.”

  “It’s possible.” She laid a hand on Jake’s arm to let him know it was all right, then scooted past him to join Nicole outside.

  Jake stared at the two of them a moment. “I’ll get us some food started, Anita,” he said at last, then closed the door to give them privacy. Anita understood enough about werewolf hearing to know he could likely hear them from inside, closed door and all.

  Nicole didn’t, or she didn’t care, either. “You and Jake got close fast.”

  “Pretty sure Jake and I have been close since we met. I just didn’t see it, or do anything about it, until Lou shot himself in the foot.” Anita tucked her thumbs into her waistband to hang.

  Nicole’s pursed lips reminded Anita of nothing more than a cat’s butt, all puckered up. “Yes. Well. About that. This thing with Lou, and Jake, and the Bully Boys? It’s caused a lot of trouble today. A lot of rifts.”

  “Starting with the rift in my marriage, Nicole.” The insinuation that Anita had caused all this rankled her.

  Nicole softened her expression. “You’re right. It’s… It sucks shit to love a man who doesn't love you the same way. You wonder what's wrong with you, that you aren’t worth his heart.”

  So sincere. If Anita didn’t know better, she would have thought Nicole meant what she said. As catty as the statement could have been, it rang with an unexpected truth. “It does. Though I wonder why I didn’t see it years ago.”

  “Love makes us blind. Familiarity makes us comfortable. You aren’t the first woman who hasn’t seen her man fell out of love with her until it was too late. Or wondered if he ever loved her at all.” Nicole’s smile strained under the other emotions that warred with it.

  Anita wondered who’d broken the woman’s heart, and how many pieces he’d broken it into. “There’s some comfort in that, I admit. At least I’m not alone. Now, I’ll be glad when this is all over.”

  “Why not get it over with faster? Leave town?” There was the Nicole that Anita had expected. The one with the agenda and all the edges, not the soft spot of vulnerability she’d left uncovered for a moment. “This is going to drag out if you’re still here. You’ll be a sore spot for Lou. People will ask him why they’re seeing you with Jake so soon after the split, and Lou’s going to get madder and madder.”

  “Why should I have to leave, Nicole?” Anita pointed at the ground beneath her. “This is my home, too. Why should I be punished b
ecause Lou can’t keep his dick in his pants? If he’s sore because I get to be happy, then he should leave. Not me.”

  Nicole huffed a snort. “That’s not likely. You know Lou. He won’t change. And if he won’t, you have to. At least, if you ever want to have peace, and you ever want the Bully Boys to have peace.”

  That stung. It hit too close to worries Anita had carried since Lou had started his scorched earth campaign on her life. Lou wouldn’t stop until he’d burned out the irritant in his ego. No one ever stood up to his bluster for precisely that reason. But how will he ever learn he has to stop if no one stands up to him? “I don’t think I’m willing to do that. Lou doesn’t always get to have his way. And I don’t care to leave Jake behind when I’ve just found him.”

  “So take him with you.” Nicole’s gaze flickered to the trailer door, then back to Anita. “What do you think this is doing to his reputation here? His time here’s been pretty well tainted. The pack’s not going to appreciate the trouble he’s brought on their heads. Travis already has to haul bikes out to Nevada for repairs. It’s going to get worse from here.”

  “Jake joined this pack not long ago, Nicole. It means a lot to him. I’m not taking that away from him.”

  “Aren’t you already?” Nicole folded her arms across her chest. As she did, the sleeve of her loose shirt slipped off her shoulder to reveal a silky, lace-trimmed bra strap in a distinctive shade of teal blue.

  Anita’s eyes narrowed. She couldn’t make herself look away from Nicole’s shoulder. Anita had burned that particular shade of blue into her memory that afternoon, when she’d found that pair of cute boyshort panties on Lou’s bedroom floor. I’ll wear your favorite panties so you can take them off.

  Now she had a face to put that annoying winky smile on. It belonged to Nicole.

  Their gazes met. In an instant, both of them understood. Nicole knew Anita had put it together. She could see it in the other woman’s face. Anita knew that Nicole knew. They’d come to an awkward détente Anita had an almost overwhelming urge to break with her fist.

  “No, Nicole, I’m pretty sure I’m going to stay right here in Coyote Trail.” Anita’s smile had edges. “Lou and his cock cozy of the week don’t get to run me out. You think the town’s gossiping now? Wait until they’ve got a little more information to play with.”

  “I don’t think I’d throw more fuel on that fire.” Nicole narrowed her eyes as she yanked her sleeve back up over her bra strap.

  Power, fickle as storm winds, shifted into Anita’s favor for the first time in two days. A heavy weight evaporated from her heart to leave it light at last. Hope swelled. Hope she could gain control of this situation after all. Back Lou down, turn the town’s gossip mill around, reclaim support both for herself and for the Bully pack. Since she’d found out about Lou’s infidelity, she’d assumed he’d taken up with some random woman who’d caught his eye. But no, he’d aimed high, and cheated with his friend’s girlfriend. If anyone had more potential for social currency in the town than Lou, it was Shane.

  Lou and Nicole had handed Anita the key to setting the situation right. She didn’t even need revenge, no matter how good it sounded right now. Just a clean slate, with everyone a little bruised and sore but happier after all the pain faded.

  “I don’t want to feed any fires. What I want is for everyone involved to act like an adult.” Anita took a step back. Time to end this conversation before it turned unpleasant. “Lou can back the hell off. Give me a nice, amicable divorce. No more macho bullshit. And maybe he ought to apologize to Shane. For a lot of things.”

  Anita had decided to take the high road and forego an outright admission of her knowledge about Lou and Nicole. The other woman decided to walk a different path. “You think you’re so smart, don’t you, bitch? You think you’ve got it all figured out. But you don’t know shit. So keep your mouth shut.”

  One of Anita’s hands balled into a fist. She forced it to relax as she climbed the three steps that led to the trailer door. “I tried to be nice, Nicole. You think I’m going to let Shane go right on living a lie while you fuck around behind his back? No. You’ve got tonight to tell him. Tomorrow, he hears it from me. This whole charade is over.”

  Anger burned in Nicole’s eyes. Her entire body trembled with it. But Anita could see fear there, too, the desperate fear of a cornered rat who stared into the cat’s eyes and saw the end staring back. “Don’t fuck with me, Anita. You’ll be sorry.”

  Anita smirked over her shoulder as she turned the door handle. “No need for me to fuck with you, Nicole. Lou got there first. Wonder how sorry he is now.”

  She didn’t bother to look at the expression on Nicole’s face as the door closed.

  Jake stood adjacent to the trailer door, leaning against the cabinets with his arms folded across his chest. One eyebrow lifted in an expression of unamused curiosity. “Did I overhear what I thought I overheard? Nicole’s fucking around on Shane with Lou?”

  “Yep. You overheard just fine.” Now that the conversation had ended, Anita had time to process what she’d learned. “Jesus Christ on a cracker, how do you go from Shane to Lou? That’s like trading in your motorcycle for an electric bicycle with a dead battery.”

  “No accounting for fucking taste.” By Jake’s disgusted expression, that taste approximated the flavor of the underside of a toilet seat. “You know we have to tell him.”

  “If you overheard the part about her cheating on Shane, you overheard what I said, too. Tomorrow.” When he started to protest, Anita held up a hand. “He’s on sweep right now. The last thing he needs is a call to tell him his girlfriend is boning his former friend.”

  Jake huffed a short, sharp exhalation. “You think she’ll tell him?”

  “I think she’s smart enough to know that it’ll go better for her if she gets ahead of it. Tells the story her way, instead of Shane hearing it my way.” Anita crossed the intervening space between them so she could lay her hand on Jake’s arm. “If she doesn’t tell him tonight, we’ll do it ourselves. We aren’t going to leave your alpha in the dark about this.”

  He growled low in his throat, but his posture relaxed despite the sound. “Fuck her. Just- Fuck her. God. Poor Shane. That man’s losing his oldest friend and his girlfriend, all at the same time.”

  “On top of all the bullshit with finding a mechanic good enough to fix the abuse you give your bikes. Which is also their fault.” She wormed her way into the circle of his arms. He folded her into an embrace, and she felt the tension ebb away. “I thought I felt sorry for myself in all this. It’s possible I feel worse for Shane.”

  “You’ve both had shit for a week.” Sighing, Jake put his cheek against the top of her head. “It might not be all bad, though. Truth’s gonna come out. Folks are gonna find out about Nicole and Lou. They’ll come out the other side of this looking pretty bad.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping for, honestly.” She hated to say it out loud. She didn’t even care to think it, where no one else could hear how petty it sounded. No matter how pure her motives for the hope, to her, it still sounded far too much like the gossip mongers who’d given them all trouble today. “I don’t want to feed the drama. I really don’t. I just want it all to die down so I can figure out what my life looks like now. Get a new job, find a new place to live…”

  An obvious question hung in the air, loud in its unasked silence. Jake cleared his throat to drive the quiet off. “You know you can stay here, right? With me.”

  Anita listened to the heartbeat beneath her ear. Strong. Steady. Like Jake. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard Lou’s heart against her ear, or the last time it had mattered. Imagine hearing this as you fall asleep at night. After you wake up in the morning. Imagine sharing more than a space. Imagine sharing a life. But… “What’s that mean, Jake? What does all this mean, not just that invitation.”

  “Means I ought to start that food while we talk about it, I think,” Jake said with a low chuckle for punctu
ation. “Spaghetti? I got noodles and a jar of sauce. Hadn’t made it to the store yet this week.”

  “Sounds like dinner to me.”

  She watched him as he set out the big pot, then pulled the boxes of pasta out from the cupboards that lined the trailer’s small kitchen. Years of coexisting with a partner had taught her a lot about what annoyed her in a housemate. Major dealbreakers were easy to spot. But it was the subtle things that built up to eventual resentment that slipped by all too often. Carelessness that showed no regard for the people who shared the house. Trash left about when the garbage can was right there, messy dishes left for someone else to clean up… The thousand tiny actions that proved a deep respect – or disrespect – for those who lived in the same space.

  Jake threw the pasta boxes away when he’d emptied them. He wiped an errant splatter of sauce off the counter when the jar dripped. Nothing in his refrigerator looked like it might achieve sentience and try to declare itself the new trailer overlord. Anita wanted to cry from happiness.

  “So, what’s it mean,” Jake said, once he had the sauce warming in a saucepot and the water on to heat. “It means whatever we want it to. I’m not a man who’s going to force you into a situation you don’t want to be in. Not going to pressure, or make it weird. But I know you didn’t plan on needing a new place to live. I’ve got one.”

  Anita put her palms flat on the table so she could lean back against them. “So if I just want to be your roommate, that’d be okay with you.”

  “Sure,” Jake said. An impish smirk turned his lips up as he leaned against the refrigerator door. “Though there’s only one bed here. Either we’d need to get a bigger place, or we’d need to share. I’ve got to admit, I have a preference.”

  That teased a laugh out of her. “I’ll bet you do. And maybe I do, too. Maybe I’d want more than roommates. But maybe that scares me a little.”

  His head cocked. “Because of Lou.”

  “Because of a few reasons. Lou’s one.” She gnawed on her lower lip as she got her thoughts in line. “If a friend of mine told me, ‘My marriage has been shit on toast for years, I left my husband yesterday for cheating on me, and by the way, I’m moving in with that cute guy I’ve told you about, after I fucked him,’ you know what I’d say? I’d tell her to calm her tits on that rebound thing.”