by Bianca D'Arc
The filet mignon was everything Jason had promised and she turned out to be hungrier than she expected. They ate, enjoying each other’s company and talking about their respective lives. Mostly, she answered Jason’s questions about her work as a detective.
“You’re very good at interrogation,” she commented after a while, realizing that she was talking way more than he was.
“I can’t help it. You intrigue me.” He met her gaze over his glass as he took a sip.
“Now it’s your turn. Tell me about you and your Pack, if you can talk here.” She looked around, trying to gauge how private they were. Jason followed her gaze.
“Everyone in here is a shifter. Mostly wolves. A few other species over by the bar.”
“Other species?” Sally tried to glance at the bar unobtrusively.
“There are more than just wolves in the forest, sweetheart. Big cats, a few raptor breeds…many of the animal predators have shifter counterparts. Some are rarer than others. There are only a few bear shifters in this part of the country, for example. A family of them are sitting near the door, as it happens.”
Sally looked at the table he gestured toward and saw a very normal-looking man and woman with a small child sitting in a booster seat. The kid was eating with his hands and as she watched, one hand partially shifted to a furry paw complete with sharp claws. The mother noticed and corrected the child with a smile, and the hand returned to human shape and color, the claws retracting into human nails.
“The children shift at such a young age? Must be hard to keep track of the little buggers.”
Jason laughed outright at her calm observation. “You’ve got that right. But only a few species start shifting that young. Bears are among the most magical of shifters. Their kids go furry from almost the very beginning, according to what I’ve heard. Among wolves, the first shift usually coincides with puberty. All those raging hormones seem to trigger our inner wolf. Or not.” He shrugged and took another sip of his drink. “Occasionally a child born of the Pack won’t have the ability to shift. It happens. We try to keep those members in the Pack now, whereas in the past, many Alphas demanded such children be shunned.” He frowned at that idea. “I don’t hold with that. If you’re born to the Pack, you shouldn’t be forced to leave it for any reason. Not to mention the fact that even a non-shifting child carries the genes and could potentially have a child with the ability.” He gestured toward her as he picked up his fork again. “You might’ve picked up your shifter blood from just such a circumstance.”
There was a collective breath taken by most of those around them, clearly listening in. Wolf hearing was as good as he’d claimed. She made a point to remember that their conversation could be heard several tables away.
“Thanks for sharing that little tidbit. But you might want to say it louder next time. I don’t think the people sitting at the bar heard you.” She saluted him with her fork before digging in for the last remaining bits of beef on her plate. Jason chuckled again as he finished his steak. “Glad you find this amusing.”
“Oh, honey, you have no idea.” He wiped his mouth with the napkin and sat back in his chair, watching her.
Uncomfortable with his regard, she looked around the room. “Nice place. Do you bring all the tourists here?”
“I picked this place for lunch because the food is good, I knew we could talk relatively freely, and I like to throw business Bob’s way.”
“How come?”
“Wild Bob really used to be wild. He ran up in the hills with the timber wolves. Real wolves, not shifters,” he clarified. “His mate died and he sought solace in the hills. Sometimes it helps to get away from it all for a while and stay in our fur. Bob came back to us a few years ago and it was rough for him at first. He’s doing well now though, and I like to drop in when I’m in town. A good Alpha supports his Pack members.” Jason rose as he looked toward the kitchen door. “Speak of the devil. Here comes Bob.”
Jason shook hands with a giant of a man who wore a spotless white apron around his waist. It seemed a little incongruous with the idea that he’d been cooking in the back, but Sally saw how respectful Wild Bob was toward his Alpha. He’d probably put on a new apron before coming out to greet Jason.
Sally smiled when Jason introduced her and shook hands with the big man. He had that wounded look in his eyes that she equated with many victims of violent crimes where loved ones had been killed. She’d seen it before. That look that said something was broken deep inside that would never be whole again and her heart went out to them every time, though she did her best to maintain a professional distance.
She wasn’t on the job now. She returned Bob’s greeting with more warmth than she could have shown to a victim back home. She complimented his cooking and his establishment as effusively as she could. Bob responded to her overture and chatted in friendly tones for a few minutes before heading back to the kitchen after thanking her and the Alpha for dropping by.
Jason settled the bill and they were on their way a few minutes later. She’d learned a lot from the stop and had an absolutely delicious meal in the process. She climbed behind Jason and snuggled up to his back with a drowsy sort of satisfaction. After only two trips riding behind him, she already felt as if she belonged there, putting her life in his hands, trusting his skill and wrapping her body around his from behind.
“Comfortable?” he asked before he started the engine.
“Mmm. Food coma is setting in. I never eat such a big lunch back home.”
“Ah. I think I know just what you need.” He took off without further ado and headed out of the city.
They rode along, the wind whipping at her face and around her body, except for where she was shielded by his big, warm frame. He was her safe harbor in the maelstrom. She was mellow enough from the good meal to relax and enjoy the speed and skill he demonstrated on the back country roads as they climbed higher into the foothills. She recognized most of the roads from the trip out but where he should probably have turned to take her back to Dmitri and Carly’s, he took another path.
She noted the scenery flying past with interest but not alarm. He would keep her safe. She didn’t know why she trusted this man so completely on such short acquaintance, she only knew she could. Perhaps it was the way he treated and was respected by his Pack members. Perhaps it was some innate instinct of her own that told her, after watching him interact with people last night and again this morning, that he could be trusted not to harm her. It might be a cop thing. Or it might be some sort of instinctual werewolf thing she’d been born with—though she still wasn’t sure she believed him about that.
He slowed the bike and turned off road, creeping along the grass at a slow pace until he entered a wooded area and slowed even more. They continued along for a few moments until the woods suddenly gave way to an enchanted glade, complete with a small waterfall that was only a few feet high, but absolutely lovely.
Jason stopped the bike and waited while she hopped off first. Sally was enthusiastically looking around at the scenery, her breath almost taken away by the natural beauty of the place. A brook leapt over an outcropping of rocks, tinkling merrily as it sped away downhill after collecting in a small pool beneath the waterfall.
“What do you think?” Jason asked in a hushed voice as he came up beside her on silent feet.
“It’s gorgeous,” she replied without taking her eyes off the beauty of nature.
“I’m glad you like it. Thought you might.” She turned at his softly spoken words to catch the look of satisfaction on his face as he watched her watching the waterfall.
“Did you? Take a lot of chiquitas up here, eh?” She was suddenly in a playful mood and felt like teasing him.
“Would you believe me if I said you were the first?” His eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled.
“That innocent look may work on some people, but not on a hardened police detective like me.” She rolled her eyes at his expression, smiling all the while.
“Sorry.” She shook her head in the negative. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
“Oh, I can do better. Question is, can you handle it?”
He moved closer to her, dropping the helmets on the soft grass beneath their feet. Suddenly she felt like she was being stalked by a wild predator. A thrill ran down her spine as she thought about avenues of escape. Did she want to run? It might be fun to lead him on a short chase, though ultimately, she really wanted to be caught.
Giving in to temptation, she stood her ground as he reached her. It wouldn’t be right to start this relationship by playing games. She decided she would meet him as an equal or not at all.
Wordlessly, he reached out, one hand just barely touching the sensitive skin of her cheek. When she didn’t move away, he deepened the contact, cupping her cheek in his warm, rough palm. Her pulse rate leapt higher as he moved even closer, right into her personal space.
His head dipped toward hers. She closed the space between them, stretching upward to meet his kiss. And then she was lost.
The kiss the night before was nothing compared to the full, intimate heat of him. His tongue invaded, plundered, staked his claim, and she loved every second of it. She met his challenge and returned it, reaching up to drag him downward, moving her body into his, daring him to take it further.
He didn’t disappoint. His hands roamed her back, sliding downward to cup her ass and lift her into full contact. She could feel the hard rod of his excitement against her belly and it made her want more. More of his kiss. More of him.
She didn’t know how long the kiss lasted. She only knew that when he drew away from her, she tried to follow. She was firmly under his spell and didn’t want to stop. Not for anything.
Somehow—and it shamed her to realize she’d been so far gone—Jason pulled back and cooled things down. His forehead rested against hers, his breathing harsh. That was some consolation, at least. She could feel the trembling of his upper thighs against hers. She knew a little of what it cost him to stop. She felt it too.
“Why?” The word escaped before she could stop it.
“Too fast,” he replied through ragged breaths. “You’re human.” He let her go and stepped back as if forcing himself to do so. “Mostly human, at any rate. Were mating can be…kind of rough on the uninitiated. I’m trying not to scare you off.” He shot her a rueful expression, his grin catching her off guard, but charming her just the same. “Is it working?”
“Why don’t you come back over here and find out?” she challenged.
He stepped back another pace. “Later,” he promised. “First, I want to show you something.” He held one hand out to his side, inviting her to take it.
Like teenagers on a first date, she held his hand as they walked together toward the small waterfall. He stopped for a moment beside it and she listened to the trickling water, appreciating its peaceful bounty as the cool, moist air helped bank the fire he had started within her.
“My mother used to come up here all the time when we were kids. We used to bring a picnic lunch and she’d let us play in the water and in the woods nearby. It was our special place.”
Touched by his words, Sally looked up at him. “She sounds like a special lady.”
“She was.” Sally sensed a wealth of pain in his simple words. “The year I became Alpha, she was killed in the violence. There was a bit of a clan war brewing until I stepped forward to claim leadership and broker peace. It was her death that finally turned me into the Alpha I am today. It was a harsh way to discover my own inner strength, but our world is like that sometimes. You should know this before you get in any deeper.” He turned to her, his expression earnest. “Right now, you’re on the periphery. Your friends are fully in our world, but you might get away with simply being watched by one of the vamp enforcers for the rest of your life. You could go on with your normal, totally human life. Only you would know what really goes on in the dark. And it wouldn’t affect you much, other than having to swear yourself to secrecy about your friends. Those ladies and their mates are powerful enough to allow you that freedom.”
“Carly mentioned something like that last night.”
“Or…” he went on, “…you could choose to fully embrace the small part of you that has always been different. Like your friends, you could become part of the bigger world—the world where shifters and bloodletters and even magic users share the Earth with regular folk. The world where we live in secret among them. You could join my world, Sally. You could join with your wolf.”
His words were so stirring, she felt in that moment, almost anything was possible. For a split second, she was ready to throw caution to the wind. She wanted to be with him, to embrace all that he was, and all that she could be. Then sanity interrupted.
“I’m not sure.”
Sally thought about her life to this point. Her hard-won career was waiting for her back home, along with a beautiful apartment she had spent the last three years decorating until she got it just so. Her life was somewhat empty, now that all her friends were married and they saw each other less frequently, but it was still her life. The one she had created for herself.
“It’s okay.” Jason dropped her hand and tucked both of his into his jeans pockets. His shoulders hunched a bit as he began walking toward the woods. She followed. “You don’t have to make any decisions today. You’re on vacation, right? We’ll just see where things lead. But I figured I should draw your attention to the facts at least once before we do some serious sightseeing.”
His smile was easy, but she could feel the undercurrent of tension in his voice. Her response mattered to him more than he was letting on, for some reason. She liked that he wasn’t pushing her too hard. She had things to think over and she needed to learn more about Carly’s new existence. She needed to learn a lot more about shapeshifters too, for that matter. This world was completely new to her, though not as unsettling as she would’ve expected. Somehow, she had always suspected there was something more to the odd things that happened to her as a cop.
She’d felt the pull of the full moon and chalked it up to coincidence, or perhaps superstition. She’d always been able to hear things others couldn’t and see things in greater detail than her colleagues. She had gained a reputation as a sort of super cop among her peers and enjoyed the way they treated her with increasing respect as she rose through the ranks.
Hers was a sometimes violent job. It could be rewarding as well. Catching bad guys before they could harm anyone else had been her passion for a long time, though lately she had found herself more than once simply going through the motions. She hadn’t felt the same elation that she had when she was younger. Justice had become her goal in both work and life, and sometimes, it was hard to achieve. She’d become disillusioned with the system over the years and now that she was away from home for the first time in a long time, she realized she was at a crossroads. She could either continue the way she was going, or choose a new path.
Jason had just laid a tantalizing new possibility before her. The question was, did she dare pursue it?
“Jason…” She trailed off, uncertain how to ask all the questions in her mind.
He turned toward her. They stood facing each other in the whispering woods. Suddenly the tension was back. The yearning. The need.
“I had such good intentions.” His hand rose to touch her hair, tucking a loose strand behind her ear. His eyes honed in on her lips, parted…ready…willing. “I think I know how Adam must’ve felt in the Garden of Eden. You are temptation itself, my Eve.”
“Sally,” she reminded him playfully, though she was touched by his words beyond bearing. No man had ever given her such verbal tribute. And no man had ever looked at her like Jason did. As if she were special, though that was too mild a word. As if she held his world in the palm of her hands.
She knew she was bei
ng fanciful, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was Jason and this moment—and how much she’d wanted him from almost the first time she’d seen him. There would be time to worry about everything else later. Right now, all she wanted was him.
His head dipped, and his lips found hers. She had a sensation of weightlessness and then she felt the cool grass beneath her back, tickling her neck as Jason pressed her into the thick green mat. A fresh scent rose from the crushed fronds, enveloping her in its delicious aroma. Never before had anything felt so right.
Jason’s hard body bracketed her, his long, jeans-clad legs slipping between hers as if they belonged there. The only problem was, they were wearing too much fabric. Skin on skin would feel so much better.
As if her thought conjured his action, Sally felt her jacket slide down her shoulders. Jason paused, breaking the kiss as he encountered the shoulder holster for her service revolver. He gazed down at her, one eyebrow raised in question, a faint smile on his lips.
“I keep forgetting you’re a cop.”
“That’s the nicest thing a guy has ever said to me,” she joked, shrugging out of the holster as he made room between them. He took the firearm from her, placing it delicately at her side, within reach, but safely away from where they lay entangled together. Her jacket went on top of it, hiding it from view.
He resumed the kiss, bringing her back to the sharp edged excitement only Jason had ever shown her. She felt the hem of her T-shirt rise, Jason’s strong hands skimming it over her heated skin as their kiss went on and on. She wriggled under him, helping his progress, wanting the fabric gone. She wanted to feel the tickling grass beneath her bare back and Jason’s skin above.
And most of all, she wanted to feel what it would be like to have him inside her, as close as two beings could be. She wanted to know how he looked when he came and how he made her feel when he sent her over the edge into a bliss she could only imagine.