Six Months

by Dark, Dannika

  “Maybe I won’t. I’m an old wolf, April. The years are catching up with me.” He sighed and lowered his eyes. “I had a woman a long time ago and she left me for another Shifter because I couldn’t get her pregnant. She went into heat four times and nothing. Maybe that doesn’t mean anything in your human world, but that’s a big deal in mine. I never told my brothers because that’s not the kind of thing a man wants to spread around.”

  “How do you know you were the problem?”

  “Because she got pregnant right away with the new guy.”

  I knew Reno had a past, but it hurt to see it still followed him. Now I understood how he felt about my ex because suddenly I wanted to find that woman and wring her neck.

  “I’ve always wanted a good woman, but it just never played out that way. The older you get, the tougher it is with Shifters. The women go after the young, virile men if they can’t mate with an alpha.”

  I smirked and touched the sleeve of his shirt. “You’re virile.”

  “Getting women isn’t a problem; it’s keeping them. I don’t tell them I’m sterile because I don’t ever let it get serious enough that I have to. But I’m telling you,” he said, his voice softening.

  “You can’t get serious with me, Reno. I’m mortal. I’m not going to live hundreds of years like you will.”

  “You don’t think it kills me to know I’ll have to watch you get older? I know a Mage who owes me a favor—I can find a way to bring you into our world.”

  “But I don’t want to be one of you. I like who I am. I don’t even know what the heck a Mage is, but I don’t think I’d be okay with becoming something I’m not… just for love.”

  I clamped my mouth shut and the energy in the room became electric.

  Reno tilted my chin up and his sexy mouth stretched into a smile. “Did you just say what I think you did?”

  “That I don’t want to be an immortal?” I said coyly.

  His thumb stroked my jaw and insatiable desire bloomed throughout my body. “No. That last word you just said. Love.”

  My lips had barely parted to conjure up a good argument when his mouth crushed against mine. It wasn’t rough and demanding, nor was it soft. Reno explored my mouth with his lips, working his way to my chin where he planted a soft peck. The feel of his bristly face and soft mouth became an argument that I couldn’t win.

  “You want to say that again, princess?”

  Oh, boy! Do you! my inner voice screamed excitedly.

  I gave her the middle finger.

  “No. I didn’t mean it that way, Reno.”

  His warm hand slipped beneath my shirt and caressed my back. That was the moment my spine turned to jelly and I was all his.

  “Sure didn’t sound that way.” He unzipped my black pants and they dropped to the floor. I stepped out of them and kicked them aside. The house wasn’t so quiet when it filled with the sounds of wet kisses, quickened breaths, and soft moans. Reno filled me with desire and I soaked him in like a sponge.

  “They’ll be back soon,” I whispered. My heart raced like a greyhound on a track.

  “They’ll be hours,” he promised through a kiss, stroking my tongue with his in slow, possessive motions. His thumbs hooked around the thin string of my panties on each hip and he pulled them down.

  Reno’s body felt solid beneath my touch, like granite. I’d never felt a man so fit. I reached up and held on to his broad shoulders.

  “Princess, that’s not where I want your hands.” His forehead tapped against the wall and his breath heated my ear. “Unbuckle my belt.”

  A rush of exhilaration heightened my craving for more. It was his voice—the one I couldn’t resist. I stood before him fully exposed from the waist down, feeling even more desire than I had our first time.

  I separated the leather from the latch and waited. I knew Reno liked to be in charge and part of that was giving detailed orders. I could have just unzipped his pants and continued with the obvious, but that would have taken away his illusion of control.

  “Undo my pants,” he said in a raspy voice.

  I stared at his shoulder, using my hands to feel my way to the button, and then I slowly dragged the zipper down. I knew how much he liked slow motions, so I took my time.

  His breath felt like an Arizona wind against my neck. He shifted his head so that his lips were grazing along my earlobe. “Tell me what you want.”

  Would he do anything I asked of him? I remembered our first night together, and yeah, he would.

  “Shift.”

  He jerked his neck back. “What?”

  “Reno, your leg is bleeding and you’re in pain. If shifting heals you, I want you to shift.”

  He stepped back, breathing unsteadily as if he’d run a marathon. “My wolf—”

  “Won’t hurt me. We’re on good terms and I’m not afraid of him. Please, heal yourself.”

  Something wild spun in his eyes and without a word, Reno shifted in a liquid movement of flesh to fur. Standing before me on a pile of clothes was that beautiful wolf with the dark mask on his face. He groaned deep in his throat and I rubbed his soft ears. “Oh, sweet boy.”

  When he abruptly shifted back, Reno stood before me naked. I admired his impressive body, feeling a deep yearning to know every part of him. He brazenly reached down and slid his hand between my legs, working me over with skilled fingers. When I moaned, his actions were quick. Reno lifted my left leg and I felt the blunt press of him against my core, anchoring into position. He slipped inside me so fast I made a strangled moan in the back of my throat. I’d never imagined being taken by a man in such an uncompromising and primitive manner.

  Reno lifted my other leg and held me against the wall, crashing into me like a violent collision as he went every bit as deep as he did hard. Something wild took hold—I’d never felt so much passion and became consumed by it.

  “Look at me,” he said when my head fell back and my eyes closed. “April, look at me when I take you.”

  A turbulent power rolled in his voice, and I wondered how he could sound so in control when his body felt anything but. I glanced down and as soon as our eyes met, something happened.

  A connection formed that had nothing to do with sex. Feeling him deep inside me while we gazed at each other made it like nothing I’d ever experienced.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Our lips almost touched as we moaned and blew heated breaths against each other. Reno rocked his hips faster and faster until it felt so out of control I cried out. My nails bit into his back and all I could feel was the animalistic passion between us.

  His simmering eyes looked wild as they devoured me, pupils dilating each time I let out a gasp. I felt my climax coming on and he must have sensed it closing in fast. Reno’s movements became skilled as my legs clenched against him, a ripple of tension and pleasure moving through me. This wasn’t about control where every move was premeditated. This was carnal desire in the raw.

  “That’s it, baby. Gimme everything you got,” he demanded as he drove impossibly deeper. His whiskers scratched torturously against my throat while his mouth journeyed toward my ear—each word a penetration into my fantasies. “Don’t hold back. Jesus… I can feel you tightening around me,” he said in a ragged breath.

  My breath caught and every muscle contracted when I came in his arms. Over and over. Reno kept pumping into me, and when my legs began to tremble, he held me firmly in his grasp, hands splayed beneath my thighs. His eyes widened as I gripped the back of his neck and arched my body, caught up in the animalistic desire I felt for this man. Reno let me ride out the wave of pleasure before he stilled.

  I blinked away a few bright flashes of light and rested my cheek on his sweaty shoulder. Spent and out of breath, I planted a tender kiss against his skin and felt him shudder as I blew a cool breath of air on his neck.

  Suddenly, I felt him move inside me, still fully erect. “Reno?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You can finish.”


  “Nah.”

  I lifted my head and looked at him. His hair was somehow smashed in different directions. I didn’t remember doing that with my hands, but I must have.

  “What do you mean by nah?”

  He turned to walk toward the stairs, still carrying me. “I like being inside you, princess, but two minutes ain’t nearly enough.”

  “Reno?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re coming back down to get my panties and your clothes before they get home, right?”

  “Nah.”

  I jerked my head back. “What do you mean by nah?”

  “I’m too busy admiring your flowery petals,” he said in a drop-dead serious voice.

  I busted out laughing. “Have you been reading my books or are you making fun of me?”

  He stopped and his eyes glittered with amusement. “Maybe I’m trying real hard to be the guy in those books for you, April.”

  Damn if that didn’t sucker punch me right in the heart.

  When a car door slammed, both of us froze.

  “My clothes!” I screeched, wriggling my legs frantically until he put me down.

  “April!” Trevor shouted from outside. His footsteps hammered up the porch steps and I panicked.

  I scrambled toward my clothes and grabbed my pants just as the door swung open. My eyes went wide as I held them in front of me.

  But not as wide as Trevor’s.

  Then they narrowed and sliced over to Reno. “Guys like you are a dime a dozen,” he began. “You’ll fuck anything in sight. Barely got the door closed and couldn’t wait to get off. Even though she’s hurt, even though she just went through some traumatic shit tonight. You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”

  Reno walked coolly over toward us and lifted his pants from the floor, yanking them up. Trevor curved his arm in front of me so that I was behind him.

  “Get dressed, April. We’re leaving.”

  “Over my dead body are you taking her out of this house.” Reno zipped up his pants, not even bothering with a shirt. He moved so slowly that I got dressed even faster.

  “Trevor, please don’t start anything,” I said in a calm voice. “Are you hurt?”

  He gave me a sharp glare. “You didn’t look too concerned about my well-being when I walked in the door, babe.”

  “Then why don’t you tell me how you healed from a bullet wound?” I said coldly, loudly, putting my hands on my hips.

  His nose twitched and he slanted his eyes toward Reno. “You want to know why girls like you are so damn sexy to guys like him? You’re submissive.”

  I expected Reno to lunge at Trevor, but he didn’t. That’s when I knew Trevor was right.

  Chapter 25

  “How’s your foot, babe?”

  Trevor turned down the small TV in our motel room and crawled into bed next to me, switching off the lamp. After we left Reno’s house, Trevor swung by a gas station and bought a small bag of toiletries for our stay at the motel. It wasn’t the finest digs in town, but it was a step up from some of the places I’d lived in as a small child.

  “Are you still giving me the silent treatment? Let’s see, your record is twelve days for beating up your ex after you came crying to me the night you left his sorry ass.”

  “Fourteen days,” I murmured against my pillow. “And you did more than beat him up. You terrorized him.”

  Trevor curled up behind me and brushed back my hair with his fingers. “I’m sorry I had to pull you out of there, April, but you need to understand that someone like Reno isn’t good for you. Guys like him just don’t give a shit about girls like you, and you’re a gem. You’re like those little glass snow globes your dad gave you—fragile and beautiful. He just wants to keep shaking you up until you’re confused, but once the snow settles, you’ll see he’s still on the outside and not the right guy for you.”

  “He makes me happy.”

  “You can find someone better to make you happy.”

  “It’s not what you think.”

  “Nothing ever is.”

  I rolled over to face him and stared at his soft lips. It was the one thing about him that no one took notice of, but he had a great mouth. Maybe it’s because his smile was always genuine, never forced or phony, never mean-spirited or mysterious. When Trevor smiled, it was just all Trevor.

  “I know what you are.”

  His expression went rigid and he rolled onto his back, grabbing the clicker and turning up some stupid movie with alien explosions. “Tired, that’s what I am.”

  “Trev, I’ve known you long enough that I can tell when you’re lying. I can’t force you to confide in me, but we both know what I’m talking about. I’m not going to back you into a corner, but when you want to talk about it, I’m here. That’s all I wanted to say.”

  “Don’t know what you mean, babe,” he said in a distant voice, tucking his hand behind his head. “I booked the room for the week. They have pretty good monthly rates—cheaper than some apartments. Not bad for a couple of drifters without any junk to haul around. I’m hoping I land a job soon.”

  “Where did you apply?”

  “One of them is a shoe store; the other is a pizza shop.”

  “Trev?”

  “Huh?”

  “You don’t like sneakers and you hate pizza.”

  “Doesn’t mean I can’t sell the shit out of them.”

  I smiled. Yeah, he could.

  “Hold on to your panties!” he exclaimed, swinging his legs off the bed and reaching in the closet. “Wait until you see this. I went back to the trailer and found a couple of odds and ends that weren’t incinerated too bad. Check it out!” He whirled around.

  Trevor handed me an e-reader and I turned it over in my hands, dumbstruck. He gloated and sat on the bed, peeling off his socks.

  While he did that, I held it to my nose and could still smell the plastic packaging. “This isn’t mine. You just bought this, didn’t you?”

  “Dime a dozen, babe.”

  “I can’t take it.”

  “And I refuse to have a birthday present I bought for you sitting in the ashes of your past. You’re my sexy nerd girl and I’m always gonna be here to make sure you get your book fix.”

  I laughed and fell against the pillow as he walked around the room. “I guess if I’m going to be a junkie like my mom, then at least my drug of choice is words.”

  “That’s not funny.”

  I set the gift on the nightstand. “Thanks, Trev.”

  “Just don’t say you owe me, because that’s not the deal with us.”

  No, it was never the deal with us. Trevor was the exception to the rule. He never made anything he gave me feel like it was more than I deserved. But he did make it seem like my gratitude was more than he deserved.

  I’d thought Reno would destroy Trevor with a series of punches, but their confrontation never got physical. I wanted to cry because he kept saying I was his girl, and he wasn’t letting me go.

  I never imagined I’d be the girl who would sabotage a relationship, but that’s how it unfolded. In the end, it might have destroyed me to love a man like Reno.

  Maybe twenty-three was too young to have all the answers. Trevor had hit the nail on the head when he told me that sometimes when you hold on to the fantasy, all you end up with is the reality. I loved Reno, even though I hadn’t declared it aloud to him. But I was the daughter of a drug addict, a traveling circus of debt, and a girl with a rocky past who didn’t trust men. I didn’t have skeletons in my closet—I had a boneyard.

  Trevor carried his own demons, and we both had a quiet understanding that we couldn’t fight each other’s battles or change who we were. But Reno had fought my battles and that scared me. I’d never had anyone put his life on the line for me. Despite Reno’s badass physical appearance and demeanor, he was a decent man with an amazing family. A man with integrity who’d fought in wars that weren’t his to fight, and here he was, trying to fight my battles too. A man who sw
allowed his pride so his baby brother could lead the pack. Why? Because he had integrity and respected rules. Maybe he saw me as a shy girl with pretty eyes and a pocketful of dreams, but the reality of who I was would eventually sink in. Reno could have saved me from debt, but I didn’t want to be saved. I wanted to save myself so that one day the man I finally ended up with would respect me as a woman.

  I wanted to be the sail in his ship, not the anchor.

  My phone rang and I rolled to the left side of the bed. I sighed heavily when I saw the name of the caller. “Hi, this is April.”

  Trevor clucked his tongue and tossed the remote on the bed, then stalked toward the bathroom. He thought it was Reno calling.

  “It’s Maddox. I stopped by your place for a spell and noticed it’s not there anymore. It looks like you ran into some trouble. Is that trouble taken care of?”

  “Yeah,” I said in a low voice. “I think.”

  “If you come with me, I’ll make sure you don’t have that kind of trouble again.”

  “The guy who was stalking me is taken care of, but I’m not sure if that means his boss will try to come after me or my friends.” I paused for a beat. “If I agree to your proposition, will you make sure my friends are safe?”

  I heard him sucking on his teeth as if considering. “I can only surmise you haven’t nipped that problem in the bud. What’s the name of the man after you?”

  “Delgado.”

  A soft laugh filled the line. “Yeah. That’ll be taken care of. I’ve got connections and he’s easily bought off.”

  “What are you?”

  A scratchy growl filled the silence. “Are you asking what my animal is? Well now, that’s not something I tell just anyone. I’m lethal, woman. But nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about. I control my animal and I won’t shift around a human unless they have it coming. If you stay with me, you’ll have my complete protection. Are you sure about this?”

  Hell no, you’re not sure, my inner voice shouted.

  That was fear talking. In the real world, problems didn’t magically disappear—they multiplied like gremlins. I owed Maddox more than fifty grand and didn’t have a dime in my pocket, not to mention I was homeless and without transportation. Trevor would never be able to get his feet on the ground if he had to take care of me too. It was time to start making tough decisions.