by Sarra Cannon
“Coming out tonight, Zack, honey?” a sugar-sweet voice called, full of thinly veiled promise.
Hell, no. Zack barely bit back the comment as he turned to face Audrey.
Dear God, what was the woman wearing today? Some kind of pink frou-frou thing that barely covered her nipples, let alone the rest of her breasts. Which, he supposed, was the point. The self-styled playgirl of the ranch had her role down to the hilt, from the highlighted tips of her overbleached hair to the ruby-red lips that shaped words like, Here. Now. Me.
He backed away. Yeah, he’d played around with Audrey a couple of times—or had gotten played by her. Hell, every man on the ranch had, but whatever the appeal had once been, it just wasn’t there any more. Besides, he was tired of being second or third choice.
“Lemme guess,” he offered, resuming his swinging stride even as Audrey hurried alongside. “Ty’s busy tonight. Cody, too.”
Everyone on the ranch knew how the singles scene worked. Audrey, like most of the local women, always tried Ty first. If that didn’t work, well then, she’d work her way down the pack hierarchy until she found a man who’d play along for the night. That was the way it worked. The women would try Cody next, and if they somehow struck out with him—hard to do, given Cody’s willingness to please—then they would head for third choice.
Third choice came in two flavors. If the girls were after fresh meat with a strong dose of dark and tragic, they went to Kyle, the new guy on the ranch. If they wanted to prove how rebellious they could be, they came to Zack. He was the closest thing to the wrong side of the tracks the ranch had to offer, and the women found their way to him regularly.
Audrey’s martyred sigh told him that she’d already exhausted options one and two.
“Cody is off with some other girl,” she scowled.
Yeah, Zack figured as much.
“And Ty’s off hunting for his phantom again,” she grumbled. “The mate that doesn’t exist.”
Everyone knew that story: how Ty had fallen hard for an ephemeral scent that had come then simply disappeared. He’d hunted weeks for his destined mate, only to come back darker and emptier than before.
Audrey tugged Zack’s elbow and pulled him around, bringing him face-to-face with impossibly lush lips. “You know what they say about alphas.”
That it was notoriously hard for strong characters to find their mates? Sure, Zack had heard that. And hell, maybe it was true. But at the moment, he was more concerned with warding Audrey off, now that she had her breasts crushed against his chest.
“You’re an alpha inside, Zack.” She came to the tips of her toes and let overly moist lips brush his ear. “A big, strong man.” When her hand ran south along his abs and teased at the top of his jeans, he went hard in spite of himself. “Why don’t you come out and find your mate,” she whispered.
The woman was a siren, calling him toward a rocky shore. One he had no intention of wrecking on tonight, no matter what his animal wanted. It would be empty, meaningless—and he’d had plenty of that in his life. Just because women tried him out regularly didn’t mean he took them all in. Especially Audrey. Especially tonight, with the scent of Rae—er, the full moon—still lingering around him like a smoky haze. He shouldn’t have been able to scent anything over the barrage of odors coming from the cattle that morning, but Rae’s distinct flavor had stayed front and center, finding its way past everything else to invade his senses.
And just like that, he jumped back in time to live it all again. The cattle, the fence, Rae. The bonfire she’d ignited in him was nothing like the tiny sparks Audrey set off.
“Zack, sugar?” Audrey called.
He blinked himself back to the present. The sun was low on the horizon, the sky starting to split into layers of red, orange, and yellow. He’d somehow made it through the work day and to this point. Quitting time, and time to head home. Alone.
“Gotta go,” he mumbled, pulling away. “Find yourself another party, Audrey.” Her face went from soft and seductive to solid ice until he added his usual line. “You deserve better.”
She flashed a satisfied smile and dropped a kiss on his cheek. “Don’t sell yourself short, coyote.”
He clenched his jaw. Right. He was just a coyote, but he shouldn’t sell himself short. He suppressed a grimace as Audrey smoothed her skirt, reapplied her pouty look, and headed off into the night. To Kyle, no doubt.
He walked off, wishing his stride felt more purposeful and relaxed than it looked. It would be good to get some distance from his day. Good to get home to the cabin he’d grown up in. Like him, it stood on the fringes of pack society, firmly on ranch land but facing the coyote territory that bordered the ranch’s western border. Funny how half of a man’s blood could determine his whole being, at least as far as his wolf packmates were concerned.
He tried to blank his mind out. Just let it all go: the pack, his day, the subtle reminders of who he was and who he’d remain for the rest of his life. Third choice.
Usually, he could shed those thoughts like so many layers of clothing as he walked the rough path past acacia and graythorn. Tonight, though, that mechanism was off. Way off.
He sat a long time on his sloping porch, watching the stars blink on, one by one. The sight that normally brought him a sense of peace only mocked him tonight. And it only got worse when the moon rose over the horizon.
A lazy howl sounded in the distance: one of the younger wolves, calling the pack out to play. Minutes later, the night came alive with voices. Some mournful, some teasing, others lusty. As usual, the full moon was bringing out the full range of emotion in wolves.
The longer he sat there, the harder it was to resist the moon’s pull. He wanted to shift and run this itchy feeling off. Run and run until one of the hot-blooded females coaxed him into forgetting everything the easy way. Maybe Rae would be among them. Maybe she’d let him lead her to a private spot. Maybe—
He shoved off his chair and headed inside. He’d call it an early night, that’s what he’d do. He didn’t understand why Rae was off-limits, but both Ty and old Tyrone had made it clear that she was not to be touched.
More like implied, his wolf complained.
Right, the coyote agreed. They didn’t actually forbid—
He shoved them into the dog house he kept at the back corner of his mind and slammed the door on their protesting yelps.
It was no better, though, in bed, lying naked atop the sheets. Especially when the distant howls of his packmates grew more frenzied with the sounds of a lusty chase. Cody, by the sound of it, had found himself a willing playmate for the night. Barks turned to yowls of pleasure, male and female, that carried through the night.
Images flashed through Zack’s mind, and the heat in his body rose. Images of Rae, tossing her ponytail behind her shoulder.
His hands slid from his ribs to his hips, down and up and back again.
Rae, gray eyes narrowing on him, swirling like harried clouds. Had she felt it, too?
He ran a palm over his groin, hastening the rush of blood, the hardening of flesh.
Rae, her fingers playing over his shoulder, heating his skin as they went.
His fingers slid along the length of his cock, and his mind substituted her light touch for his, telling himself his wolf needed this.
He let his eyes slide shut and pretended it was her hand working him. Up and down, tugging the foreskin, encircling the base. She’d glance up and those gray eyes would have darkened with desire. Her lips would part when her eyes dropped to his cock, and then she’d move down and take him with her mouth. Warm and wet and soft, it would be so much better than this crude self-service job of reality. Then she’d come up, looking dazed and lusty, and thrill him with the taste of himself on her lips. She’d lower her hips over his and take him in in one long, certain push. No hesitation, no games. Just two kindred souls united at last.
He dug his free hand into his own hip, making it hers, pulling her closer as he worked himself harder,
faster. Going deeper and deeper as her eyes told him no man was his equal. None.
He continued until he was panting, then lying spent and shamefaced in the dark of his room, just as lost and lonely as the teenager he once was. What the hell was he doing?
He hid his face in the pillow. Whatever it was, he was definitely blaming it on the full moon.
Chapter 6
Rae was completely unaffected by her day. Completely unaffected by the full moon, too. And most of all, completely unaffected by the man who’d invaded her senses before backing hurriedly away.
She knew this because she told herself so a hundred times throughout the day and into the night. Because being affected wasn’t an option. Not for a woman who knew exactly what she wanted.
Well, most of the time.
More or less.
Sometimes.
She lay on her bed, pillow pulled over her ears to block out the sounds of the night. It seemed that the wolves of Twin Moon Ranch reveled in the full moon like any other pack: loud, gleeful, and blissfully free of human inhibitions. Mated pairs sang sweet duets, howling their devotion into the night. The elders were hunched in a circle by the sound of it, voices joined with decades of practice as they sang an ode to generations past. Among them was a gritty bass that could only be the old alpha, joining in or warbling into silence whenever the hell he pleased. From farther out in the desert came the sound of the young and the restless, romping and yipping with the joy of youth, the thrill of desire.
That should be us out there, her wolf growled.
She ignored it. The last thing she needed was to go cavorting with a dozen randy males, all of them more than willing to initiate her into the pack in the most intimate way. A little bit of loose and easy didn’t mean much, not with wolves, but some shifters had a way of letting too much carry over into the next day.
Not like I’d run with just anyone, the wolf sniffed. Just with him. Zack.
Rae pretended not to hear. I just want to be left alone.
So alone that we’ll be alone forever?
She strained to pick his voice out from so many others. Zack. A man she knew nothing about, except that his soul carried the scars of the past. A man whose power pulsed and glowed under the mantle of submission he pretended to wear. A man at home but not at home.
A man who flipped some dormant switch in her and set off a thousand blinking lights. Some soothed like Christmas bulbs strung on a tree, while others set off lightning bolts of anxiety.
A wolf needs its mate.
Enough with the mate nonsense, she snapped. He’s just another alpha-type. The same as the rest.
This one is different, her wolf insisted.
How can you be sure? Alphas took what they wanted, when they wanted. Alphas were to be avoided at all costs.
He’s not Jed.
He’s worse, she retorted. With ten times the power.
And ten times the restraint. Couldn’t you see it in him?
An image flashed in her memory: that moment right before Zack pulled away, his brow furrowed, eyes dark. The man wore a code of honor like a suit of armor. Restraint? Yes. But there was a reason for it. Under that armor was a powerful beast. What happened when it ran free?
He could set us free, her wolf whispered. We want him. We need him.
Outside, another wolf howl joined the rest, deep, gritty, and full of heartbreak. She froze, trying to place it. Not Zack, for all that she could picture him howling that way. But Zack’s voice was smoother, more secretive. If anything, she’d guess that was Ty, standing apart from the others as he always seemed to do.
In the distance, another male sang in triumph, joined by a sultry female voice that purred satisfaction into the night. The moon urged; the body obeyed. It didn’t have to mean more.
Except some men didn’t get that. She hugged herself under the bedsheets. Some men thought that a female who was willing to put out as a wolf would be willing to hand her human body and soul over, too. Like Jed. One casual canine romp with him—the mistake of her life—and he thought he could claim her. He had her up against a wall the very next day, teeth bared at her neck, whispering all kinds of promises he’d never keep. He’d gone on about how happy she’d be serving him and how the two of them would rise to the top and rule their own pack. He’d gotten so carried away with his crazed vision, she thought he’d try to claim her that very night. All it would take was one deep bite in the right spot and she’d be bound to his whims and violent desires forever. Because a mating bite could be forced, and it was forever. The worst kind of forever.
She shook her head. If Jed was her destiny, she didn’t want it.
Lucky for her, Greer—top dog of the Colorado pack—had come along and chased Jed away. Greer had saved her sorry little ass.
Unlucky for her, Greer had also taken notice of her sorry little ass, and something in his eyes said she hadn’t won much of a reprieve from unwanted attention. Greer was a tyrant of an alpha who took what he wanted, when he wanted. Next to him, Roric of Westend pack in Nevada was a goddamn saint.
She drew the sheet over her head along with a long, deep breath, reminding herself of the long road she’d traveled since then. She’d escaped that Colorado pack and started new in Nevada. From that point on, the only lovers she’d accepted were all low-ranking, easygoing types. And if sex with them left part of her unfulfilled, such was the price of protecting her soul.
Destiny is a myth, she told her wolf as gleeful howls carried through the night.
She flipped sideways in the bed, fighting the memories of Jed away. Like her mother once said, to take away bad dreams, you need to bring in good ones. She tried conjuring up something safe and satisfying. Chocolate, maybe? It hardly fit the bill. The blanket she’d always slept under as a kid…better. She tugged the imaginary fabric tight around her body, closed her eyes, and tried again.
Vague threads of color wove and combined into an image of a brown-haired, green-eyed stranger who carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, yet moved with the silent grace of a cat.
Maybe Zack wasn’t out cavorting with the others. Maybe he was in his cabin out by the mesa, where she’d seen him disappear to over lunch. What a perfect place that would be. A wisp of smoke in winter, the cooling shade of a sycamore in summer. It was just close enough to belong to the pack, but just far enough to call one’s own.
Or maybe, her wolf cooed, he’s on his way over here right now.
She tried pushing the thought away but found herself too weary to resist. If the vision insisted on intruding into her dreams, so be it. As long as it didn’t happen in real life. Her imagination turned the tap of a tree branch into a soft knock at the door, and the fantasy took off.
“Rae.”
He’d whisper from the doorway where he’d be standing, silhouetted by moonlight.
“Zack,” she’d call softly and reach out with her hand.
He’d slip into her room, pull up a corner of the sheet, and slide in beside her.
She curled her arms around her torso and let the hug of comfort turn into a different kind of embrace, her hands slowly stroking the length of her body as her nipples hardened. What would his hands feel like, traveling that same path? How would he hold the weight of his body when he lay with her? Was he a tender lover or a demanding one?
The former, she decided. After all, it was her fantasy. One strong hand would cup her breast while the other stroked her hair and he murmured something sweet and low. Then his thumb would start working her nipple, the way her own thumb did now, and her aching body would press back into his, asking for more. Then his hand would wander lower, stirring warm, wet need in lazy circles that would have her biting back a moan. This man would know just where to touch her, and how.
He was doing it now, she decided, and in the darkness, she imagined their eyes locking as he lined up their bodies and slid home. Skin on skin, his heat would consume her. They’d move slowly at first then harder and faster until they hit a perfect rhy
thm. She would pull her knees wider and press harder, and if in reality her eyes were closed, in the fantasy they never let go of his.
Something in him would let go, too. His movements would grow more urgent, his face tighter as they both climbed to the top of a mighty peak, then tumbled over the other side together.
They would come together again and again, first in the guesthouse she’d been assigned, and then over in the lonely cabin by the mesa. Her heart soared with every imagined encounter, every shuddering climax. When they ventured outside, she would let him press her up against the very fence where they’d first touched and bring her as high as the stars, as bright as the moon. Then they’d shift and run together into the desert, and the howls of joy would be their own.
Her fantasies carried her straight through the night and into the next morning, staying with her even after she rose, stretched, and headed to breakfast in the community dining hall. The sun was shining, the birds singing, and still the glow lingered.
She yawned. Too bad it was only her imagination living fantasies last night, her fingers doing a poor job of what a capable man could do so much better.
The dining hall door banged open, and a tall figure stepped out. Rae stopped dead in her tracks, facing her fantasy, this time in the flesh. The living, breathing flesh. His gaze caught hers and he stopped cold, too.
For a minute, all she registered was the hazel of his eyes and the thump of her heart. The whiff of unmasked lust reaching out to her like an arm. Then a voice behind her startled them both.
“Oh, Rae, Zack, have you met?” It was Tina, the alpha’s daughter, who’d been the first to welcome Rae to the ranch.
Heat filled her cheeks even as she forced a smile to her face. “Yes, we have.”
It might have been the morning light, but Zack’s deep tan seemed to have a splash of red in it, too. His scent, however, had gone from full heat to guardedly neutral. The man was an enigma, impossible to read.
“Mmm.” His deep hum reminded her of Nevada: the rare sound of distant thunder behind the clouds. “We have.” He nearly left it at that, but then he rushed on. “Met, I mean.”