by Vivian Arend
Damn, he tasted good.
A sudden rush of scent filled her head and made it spin. Tingles raced down over her body coming to land between her legs. She reached out a hand to see if something was pushing on her crotch, but nothing was there except the internal pressure that made her want to squirm.
Keil’s hand slipped around to the back of her neck, drawing her closer and shifting her mouth to a different angle as he continued to kiss her. She pressed into him, enjoying the pleasurable sensations flowing through her. Yet even as she kissed back she wondered what she was doing. Why she wasn’t pulling her knife on him and getting him to back off?
He lifted her around to lie on top of his body as his tongue worked its magic on her mouth. His heart beat under her hands, the long, hard length of his body warm against her torso and limbs.
And she realized the long, hard length of something else nestled between her legs. Oh. My. Word. She pushed up with her hands on his hard chest to stare into his dark brown eyes, uncertain what to do. She felt safe, even if this had to be the most insane thing she’d done in her life.
“Are you feeling better?” Keil mouthed as he traced a finger over the ear she’d been clutching moments earlier. Robyn nodded. “Let’s get some more sleep. We’ll talk this through in the morning, okay?”
She nodded, lowering her mouth to give him one more gentle kiss, before crawling off his body to rearrange her sleeping space. Any concern over her strange reaction to him was washed away by the quick relief of her earache.
She’d just straightened the bottom blanket when Keil’s soft touch on her arm made her pause. His eyes were bewitching as he stared at her, silent for a moment.
“Please, can I hold you?”
Robyn swallowed hard. Oh man, did she want him to hold her. She nodded before ducking her chin down to avoid his eyes. He shifted his mattress closer, pulled her sleeping bag under them before wrapping an arm around her waist and drawing her back tight to his torso. Up against his warm and solid body. He pulled his sleeping bag over the two of them, nestled her head on his arm and wrapped his legs around hers, pinning her in place.
It was the most incredible feeling, safe and secure.
This was insane. She didn’t know this man from Adam and here she was wrapped up like a jellyroll with him. His fingers slipped along her arm to link fingers with hers as he rested their joined hands touching her belly.
Yup, totally insane.
Robyn closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Clattering pots and pans woke Keil in the morning and he groaned. There were times that being deaf would be a blessing. Or at least make him stop wanting to kill his brother. Wrapped up together in Robyn’s warmth, he wasn’t ready yet to get out of bed.
They had shifted while asleep and he was flat on his back with Robyn’s head resting on his chest. Her hands clutched at him while one of her legs had slipped over his belly, the inside of her thigh pressing down on his morning hard-on. It was heaven and hell to feel the weight of her against him.
“So, I take it you’ve had an interesting night. It is obvious I sleep like a log. Want me to make coffee or do you want me to go ski for a few hours?” TJ’s grinning face peered down at them, his eyes tracing over Robyn where she clung to his brother’s body.
“Stop leering at her. Nothing happened. Yes, make coffee and stop being such a shit.” Keil tried to speak softly but Robyn woke, reacting to the lifting of his chest. “TJ, go get breakfast. I don’t want her to be any more embarrassed than she needs to be.”
“What’s to be embarrassed about? She’s your mate. You could do the horizontal bop in front of the pack and no one would be embarrassed. Except Keith. He’d be embarrassed because he thinks he’s got the biggest dick in the pack and if you…”
TJ’s voice faded away as he dug into their food supplies for the coffee.
Keil sent up a prayer that Robyn wouldn’t freak out when she found herself in his arms. He didn’t want to move backward in their relationship. He sensed that today was going to be a big day. A day of big revelations. A day of—
“Ahhh.” Keil slammed his mouth shut and reached down to grab Robyn’s wrist. She’d slipped her leg off his cock when she started to wake, which was sad but understandable. But then she’d followed it by running her fingers over the hard length of him and finished by cupping his balls.
“You okay, Keil?” TJ wandered back with a worried expression on his face.
“Just fine. Um, leg cramp. Get the coffee.”
“Yes, master. Right away, master.”
Keil looked at Robyn who smiled at him, a mischievous glint in her eyes that he hadn’t seen the day before.
She mouthed the words back to him, “Leg cramp,” and squeezed. Her face was flushed but she was still smiling, and when she leaned up to kiss him, he thought he must have died and gone to heaven.
Whatever was happening, please don’t let it stop.
Unfortunately after brushing her lips over his she pushed herself up, trailing her fingers over his torso in a maddening way before slipping from under the sleeping bag to go dress in her corner.
As he forced himself to ignore her, Keil watched TJ get out three cups and put on a big pan of ham steaks. A clothed Robyn came back into his line of vision and his brother stopped her.
“Good morning, Robyn. How do you say that in sign?”
Robyn paused. She flipped him a thumbs up, and placing her left hand by her right elbow, she lifted her right hand in an arc.
TJ copied her. “Oh, cool, like the sun rising. Hey, Keil, look,” and TJ signed good morning to him.
A chuckle from Robyn made them both turn and regard her with amazement.
“You can laugh?” TJ asked.
Her smile fell away and Keil swore inside. She wrote a fast note and disappeared out the door. He checked to make sure she was just headed for the outhouse before reading the message.
I’m deaf, not mute. Lost hearing as a child. Virus. I have an ugly voice. Two sugars, please.
TJ gave a soft whistle. “Man, oh man, is she going to be a handful. I’m glad she’s your mate and not mine. Did you two fuck—?”
Keil hit him. Not hard enough to do permanent damage but hard enough to make his eyes register the shock of it. After picking himself up off the floor, TJ carefully exposed his neck to his brother.
“You will use that brain of yours to remember to be polite when you speak to and of my mate. Understood?” Keil drawled the words as he poured the coffee and prepared Robyn’s cup for her. “Even though it’s none of your damn business if you were thinking straight you’d already know the answer. Use your bloody nose. No, we have not mated yet. Yet for some insane reason she let me kiss her and hold her, and while I’m pleased to report that yes, she’s officially my mate, I have no idea why she doesn’t seem to know a thing about wolves.”
He sat at the table. “So I don’t want you making any stupid remarks until we figure this out. Got it?”
TJ shrugged. “I’ll behave. I figure it might be kinda freaky to be told something like ‘Hey, didn’t you know you’re a werewolf and, oh, by the way, you’re my mate. Oh, and there’s going to be a challenge to the death next weekend for the leadership of our pack and I’m one of the headliners for the match.’ I think telling it all upfront might be the easiest way.” He turned back and flipped the ham. “Besides, there’s nowhere for her to run while we’re here. Gives you two time to work it out.”
For the second time in as many days, the door behind them slammed open and Robyn charged in, her face red and her eyes blazing. She glared back forth between the two of them, her nostrils flaring slightly.
For not knowing she was a wolf, she had the evil-eye thing down pretty good, Keil thought as a shiver ran down his spine. He watched TJ struggle to keep his feet.
She surprised them by speaking. Her voice was gravelly and harsh but very powerful. Keil had heard a few Alphas over the years and she ranked up there with the best of them.
&nbs
p; “Who is my mate?”
Like a flash TJ pointed to Keil. “Crap, has she got my number. I hope she doesn’t tell me to go jump off a bridge or something because I—”
Robyn stormed up and grabbed the pad of paper. Keil read over her shoulder as she wrote.
If you don’t want to be overheard don’t talk where a lip reader can see you.
Werewolf?
Mate.
Challenge. To death.
What the HELL are you talking about?
She pulled away from the table but stopped to add, Where is my coffee? And it had better be strong.
Chapter Four
It took three hours, two pads of paper and fourteen fried ham-and-egg sandwiches. Keil thought that on the whole it went pretty well, especially since he’d managed to not to skin TJ alive during the interrogation.
Robyn stood stiff and angry at first, looking ready to throw her coffee cup at them if they made one wrong move.
“Come, sit down and we’ll explain everything.” Keil pulled back a chair for her and she sat warily, shifting to keep both of them in her sight.
“Sorry, bro, guess my mouth got us both in trouble this time.” TJ lightly touched Keil’s arm in apology. A sudden rumble of the floorboards made them both swing to look at Robyn as she stomped her feet and glared at them. She pointed to the chairs and wrote rapidly, breaking the pencil lead as she underlined her final word.
I will talk this out with you. Sit down and don’t you dare speak again when I can’t see you. Ass.
Keil held out a reassuring hand and sat, motioning for TJ to join them. “I understand. We’ll answer your questions. What do you want to know?”
Robyn found another pencil and opened to a new page. Don’t think because I went a little crazy last night and let you touch me you can jerk me around this morning. You’re insane, right? Escaped from some home?
“No, Robyn, it’s true. We’re able to turn into wolves.”
Prove it. She leaned back in her chair and stared at them mockingly.
The two men exchanged glances.
What? You need a full moon?
Both men dropped their heads into their hands for a moment. Bloody fairy tales. Finally Keil looked up to see Robyn’s very confused expression.
“No. We don’t need a full moon. We also don’t bite people to turn them into werewolves. You either have the genes or you don’t. Sorry, that’s one of those tall tales that drives us crazy. We’ll have to, umm, take off our clothes to change.” Keil watched Robyn’s face turn white. A blush rose to colour her cheeks and her eyes brightened with the mischief he’d seen earlier in the morning. Good, maybe this wouldn’t take too much damage control.
She flipped the pad across the table. A private strip show? Goodie. Even if you don’t turn into anything the morning isn’t a complete write-off.
Keil laughed and turned to TJ.
“You should be the one, Keil, she’s gonna see you naked the most often.”
Keil glared at his brother.
“What? You still having problems with that boner? Man, now I really think you should shift. It would serve you right for hauling me along on your retreat instead of letting me go hang out at Klondyke Kate’s with the rest of the pack.”
“TJ.”
“All right, don’t get your fur in a knot. I’ll shift, but you keep an eye on her. If she signs anything that looks like ‘cute doggy’ or ‘sweet fluffy wuffy’, I want to learn them to insult the boys at the next pack meeting.”
Robyn raised her eyebrow.
“Stop it with the Spock look, Robyn, that seriously freaks me out. I keep expecting to see you grow pointy ears and hear you announce, ‘But this is not logical.’” TJ continued rambling as he dropped his clothes and stood naked in the middle of the cabin. He waggled his eyebrows at her and she blushed.
“Get on with it before I apply the Vulcan death grip to you, little brother.” Keil spoke through clenched teeth.
TJ shimmered and there were two images overlapping each other, another shimmer and there was a large silver grey wolf sitting on its haunches in front of them. Robyn tensed. Keil watched her rise from the chair, eyes wide with wonder. She stood for the longest time and simply stared, her breathing rapid, face flushed. He was ready to take her arm to reassure her when she dropped to her knees and reached out in slow motion to brush the fur on TJ’s head and neck.
After a few strokes of her hand, TJ rolled over to his back and tilted his neck up. A surge of pleasure raced through Keil’s veins at the sight. His brother, while not always the sharpest knife in the drawer, was a physically strong wolf. TJ didn’t give instant obeisance to just anyone. Another indicator that the woman kneeling by Keil’s feet was going to be a powerful addition in his life.
TJ shifted back and Robyn was caught stroking her hand down his naked chest.
“Damn!” Robyn shouted and shot away from TJ, backing into the door.
“Oops, sorry, Robyn. You were tickling me something fierce. Boy, am I glad you didn’t say ‘shit’ or some other swear word like that. With how strong your voice is I’d have been in a hell of a mess,” TJ muttered quietly to himself as he pulled on his clothes.
Keil watched as Robyn closed her eyes for a moment and drew a shaky breath. Hell, could TJ do anything without screwing it up?
Keil refilled her coffee cup and waited for her to open her eyes. He patted the seat next to him. He wanted to pat his lap and have her crawl into it like last night. Actually, he wanted to strip her down and crawl into her, but that was going to take a little more time and patience on his part.
Hell, he hated being patient.
Her head was spinning, her heart beat a million times a minute and somewhere along the line she must have fallen down a rabbit hole.
Tad was never going to believe this. She was having trouble believing it and she’d seen TJ change, she’d touched his wolf form. It wasn’t an illusion.
Unless there’d been something in her coffee. She gave it a cautious sniff. Smelt like normal Midnight Sun brew. She glanced up to see Keil’s gorgeous eyes watching her. A shiver raced down her spine and heat flared in her belly.
Damn, he was potent.
She grabbed the notepad and sat for a bit thinking what to write. She twisted her face up, tapped the pencil a few times while biting her lip. Finally she went for honest.
Well. I’ll admit it. That was pretty cool.
Keil smiled at her and she melted some more. Between his smile and the expression in his eyes, moisture was pooling in her mouth. And farther south.
She took a quick sip of her coffee and dragged her eyes away from his.
So what makes you think I’m a wolf? I’ve never turned into anything.
“You smell like wolf.” TJ leaned forward in his chair and sniffed in her direction. “Yup. I can’t explain it better than that. I can’t have you sniff a human and then sniff a wolf ’cause, we’re all wolves here. But when we go back to civilization, we can show you. Well, even there it’s tough to explain to someone that you need to sniff them but don’t want to say why. Trust us. You’re a wolf.”
Keil nodded in agreement and Robyn shifted in her chair to stare out the window. A tidal wave of emotions swept over her. The ability to turn into a wolf. Who wouldn’t want to be able to do that? It was the stuff of fairy tales and escape literature everywhere.
It also called to something deep inside her that had felt cooped up and trapped for many years. While she enjoyed her job at the bakery, and she loved her brother, she was never completely happy unless she was somewhere out in nature—skiing or hiking or canoeing.
Maybe this was the reason.
Robyn pushed the notepad at TJ. How come I’ve never turned furry?
TJ wrinkled up his nose and considered for a minute. “Keil? Ideas?”
Keil’s hand stroked down her arm and she bit back a moan. Oh man, that felt good. Her skin itched to be touched, and as much as she needed to find answers, she needed to jump Keil mo
re. The attraction that had begun last night, causing her to lose all sense and sleep in the man’s arms, it seemed to be growing.
Concentrate. She needed to concentrate on the cool idea that she might actually be able to turn into a wolf.
“Robyn,” Keil said. “Full-blood wolves like us are born with the genes to be able to shift, but they’re turned off in newborns until triggered. Kind of like they’re dormant. For some reason your genes must have never been switched on.”
A trigger?
Keil nodded. “Yeah. It’s a hormone and newborns get it from their mom’s milk.”
Robyn’s stomach fell. It more than fell, it leapt off the edge of Mount Logan and plummeted into the depths of the nearest crevasse.
The possibility that she was a magical being had excited her. Seeing TJ change had woken something inside her, full of joy and freedom, and a deep happiness she’d been missing all her life. Now it was slipping out of her reach and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She pushed away from the table and grabbed her coat, fighting back the tears as she rushed outside. She saw Keil rise to his feet, but she ignored his outstretched hand.
Damn, it wasn’t fair.
She managed to get her coat done up before the tears fell. She stood gazing over the lake, arms wrapped tightly around her torso as her eyes welled up and overflowed. The bright sunshine around her did nothing to lighten the spot of darkness she felt at the loss of something she’d wanted. Something she hadn’t realized she’d wanted so much.
Robyn felt him approaching. Gentle arms slipped around her torso and pulled her back into his body, supporting her. Holding her loose enough she could escape if she wanted, but close enough to let her feel his concern.
Another sob escaped before she could stop it, and Keil turned her and gathered her up against him like she was a child. She wrapped her arms around his neck, buried her face in his coat and let the misery release.
Her heart hurt.