Oh, yes, the undeniably feral tang of wolf. Lily's nostrils flared as she caught a whiff of all the potential delights, and the cold seeped away in increments. The cowboy was Pack. She couldn't possibly hurt him.
“Lils, you owe it not only to yourself, but to our Pack. We need you functioning again.” Sara's voice caught Lily's attention again with its firm reason. “Look...your brothers made me do this tonight. Take you here. They said it's time for you to meet someone. You've been ready. You just won't admit it.”
Even the cowboy's seductive promise couldn't keep indignation at bay.
“They what?”
Sara giggled before returning to her drink and settling back in her chair. She scanned the room as she had been doing since they arrived, checking out the available men for any possibilities of fun that evening. The local cowboys were hot, brazen, and sexy. Just Sara's inexhaustible style. Sometimes, Lily wished she could be that casual about it all. She used to be. Before.
“Knew that'd get you. Now, go get him. Before he changes his mind. You won't hurt him, Lily. Look at him, for crying out loud.” Sara eyed Lily's cowboy with critical appreciation again. To Lily's own amusement, a flare of jealousy scampered through her. “He's tough. He probably wrestles bulls in his spare time or something. And you want it. I can tell.” Sara gave Lily a pointed glance.
Lily felt her cheeks heat. All wolf shifters could scent another's arousal, regardless of gender or relationship, if those aroused didn't bother to mask it—or were too fascinated by the object of their lust to focus on anything else.
The worst of it was that they were right. Dammit. Lily needed to step back into her role as a Pack Guardian. She needed to regain her edge, her spark. Her driving hunger. And the only way to do that was by connecting with a male wolf in the most primal way imaginable. Through raw, hot-blooded, no-holds-barred sex. Wolves didn't fear natural, carnal—some might even say “animalistic”— needs the way humans did. Instead, they craved and even relied on the energy of mating. To Pack, sex meant life. And the mating frenzy created the most vibrant, unrestrained life energy possible.
Lily very deliberately shunned that need ever since the...event. Although she avoided her Pack duties, her father—the Alpha—let it slide. There were other Pack Guardians to pick up the slack, and they'd done so with remarkably little complaint. Lily's indiscretion was of the type that hadn't happened to this Pack in the history of the younger generations, and they'd been each and every one shocked, confused, and uncertain. Which meant they'd also treated Lily like a breakable piece of china ever since.
She could coast a long time on her Packmate bonds by drawing off their own life energy, which they willingly shared. That's what Pack bonds were for. But being fully involved in life and Pack Guardian duties, however, wasn't happening. Not until she got in the saddle again.
Her lips quirked up at her analogy. Bet the cowboy would love for her to get into his saddle. She did like the fact that her body was responsive tonight. It was a good sign.
The last time she'd had sex—over two years ago—she'd lost control during it and bitten the man. A human. Which was expressly forbidden by ancient Pack law. He'd turned. And because turned shifters, rather than natural-born, were strictly forbidden by those Packs that actually abided by Pack law, the consequences had been severe. His sentence was death, in order to preserve Pack safety.
And Lily had been the one required to do it.
Here, in the bar alight with human emotions and desires ping-ponging all around the room, guilt once again skittered along Lily's skin. But also the molten heat from the cowboy's presence. And her own tumultuous desires, clawing at her from the inside, demanding to be sated. She deserved to live again, didn't she? Yes. Live a real, alive, feeling life. Sara was right. It was time. Besides, she had a duty to her Pack.
Her wolf whined in silent excitement, urging Lily on. With what felt like a small snap of instant relief, she let her wolf rise closer to the surface. She and her wolf were the same creature, and her wolf needed to mate. It was about time she started acting like it.
“Okay,” she said. Resolve frosted her voice. Sara paused with her glass halfway to her lips and looked hard at Lily.
“You're going for it? For real?”
“Absolutely.” Before she could question the determination beneath her words, Lily shoved the chair back in a fluid move, rose, and threaded her way through chairs, outflung legs, and hot emotions toward the waiting wolf cowboy. Blood thrummed in her ears as she moved closer to him.
“Hell, yeah,” she heard Sara murmur somewhere behind her.
Lily was on the prowl again. Finally. And both she and her wolf loved it.
***
Kieran Rendall watched with hidden bemusement as the Black Mesa guardian came toward him with the deliberate, sinuous motion of a hunter. An enticingly kissable package of nerves, predatory hunger, and a touch of wariness, heading straight for him. Long dark red hair tumbled down her back. A fierce red wolf, this one. He'd known that since the first time he'd ever seen her.
He could also sense her deep hunger for sex. He could smell it, sizzling off her in waves that tempted and tormented him. Her wolf was hungry, and so was the woman.
Finally. He'd been waiting for Lily for a long time. Ever since the night she'd put to death the human she'd turned with her own unthinking lust, Kieran had been watching her. An emissary from the Silver Mountain Pack to the north, he'd been sent down by his father to observe the Black Mesa Pack's adherence to ancient law. Tradition demanded all regional Packs sent official observers when an errant wolf broke a law, to be certain justice was still served accordingly. It was an excellent method of checks and balances. Besides which, without laws, shifters eventually went totally wild.
He could still recall that cold night. Lily's eyes had gleamed with unshed tears, her back ramrod straight, as the punishment was read in front of the entire Pack and all attending regional members. The turned wolf, like Lily just barely into his twenties, had been in the center of the circle, naked and shivering in human form. He'd refused to become wolf even though told he could fight for his life. He refused to harm Lily.
Kieran remembered the suddenness with which Lily changed, her lithe red wolf gliding along the edges of the circle before she leapt onto her silent, unmoving prey. The naked human looked right at her the entire time, unflinching. With one terrible snap, it was over. She broke his neck with ease. The death blow was clean, immediate, and as humane a kill as a wolf could do. Kieran was impressed at the sight, and thoughtful. It had been planned. She likely had told her doomed one-time lover he had two choices: become wolf and fight her to the death, or accept as easy a passing as she could deliver. Kieran understood that. He would never have fought her either, if he'd had a chance to love a woman like Lily. He couldn't have borne the thought of killing such a beautiful wolf.
Lily had stood for a moment over the unmoving body of her lover, utterly still herself. Then she turned and leapt in a graceful arc right through the circle of spectators, her brothers howling after her, her father silent yet watching with an outstretched arm as if to stop her. Lily bounded into the winter-cold high desert, the flash of her red fur disappearing into the moonlight-silvered branches of the junipers and the shadows of the canyon walls.
No one saw her again until the following spring.
Kieran gave himself a mental shake. The woman was here, now, and she was ready. Oh, was she ready. The sway in her walk as she approached told him a fire banked between her legs. He knew exactly how to answer it. His wolf simmered beneath the surface, as eager as he to stir the qualities in this she-wolf that would catapult her back to her rightful place. She was a born leader.
He fingered the glass in his hand as Lily drew near. With a tremble of her lip, she stopped before him. He let his nostrils flare, taking in her scent. No fear. Sheer anticipation made her skin shiver, her mouth quake as if she could already taste him.
Practiced at the art of concealing his emo
tions, Kieran gave an internal snort at his arrogant fancy. Lily wanted him, of that he was sure. Her arousal was being broadcast loud and clear to any wolf within a few miles. But he highly doubted she was already playing every move in her head. He knew she hadn't touched a man in two years. With this one, he would have to go very, very slowly. He already knew she was more than worth it.
Lily parted her lips as if to speak, then wet them with her tongue instead. Kieran's hand tightened on the glass and almost broke it. Holy... He internally shook himself back to a semblance of respectability. Well, hell. She was going to test his control indeed.
“You've been looking at me.” Her voice came out pitched low but clearly audible to his heightened hearing in the loud bar. She paused as if to gauge his reaction—or censor herself—then plunged on. “And you like what you see.”
She tilted up her chin and gave him a bold stare with her green eyes. This close, he could see the purity of their color. He imagined them smoky with desire, and finally let a grin tug up his lip again. Let her see a bit of his very male appreciation.
“I do. Have a seat. Please,” he added with soft insistence when she still regarded him with just a touch of that wariness she wore like a cape.
Never once looking away, she slid onto the barstool beside him. Obvious from her naturally confident bearing, as a one-time Pack Guardian she simply oozed alpha female. Despite her tight self-control and refusal to be a formal part of Pack hierarchy since that night, she couldn't conceal her true nature. And Lily was meant to be a leader. She was meant to mate with an alpha male for life and help guide the Pack, keep it strong. Whether she knew it or not, her innate talents were recognized by other wolves. Even ones not in her Pack. Especially ones not in her Pack. The wolves outside the Black Mesa Pack stood the most to gain by winning Lily as a mate. Her status as the only daughter of Alpha of the most powerful pack in the region just about guaranteed another strong offshoot pack one day. And those outside wolves had been sniffing around recently, which was why Kieran decided it was time to make his move. He would never let this woman—this wolf—belong to another. She was far too precious in many ways. His only goal now was to convince her of that truth.
“Can I get the lady a drink?”
Lily still looked directly at him. It was a light challenge, one she was unaware she made, and it was hot as hell. Kieran's balls tightened in response, and he curbed his wolf as it practically sat up and salivated. Not yet. Slowly.
“Only if it tastes as good as you look,” she said. Her saucy words were matched by her tone and stance. One hip cocked, head tilted, those eyes arrowing right through him.
Kieran almost swallowed his own tongue. He instantly felt his wolf leap into his eyes, smelled his own pheromones charging off of him as if they were warriors vaulting into battle. Maybe slow wasn't what she wanted?
Lily suddenly laughed, an infectious and even more hormone-inducing sound. The smile that cracked wide across her features was genuine, and all for him.
“I can't believe I just said that.” She glanced away and shook her head, sending red waves of hair undulating across her cheeks. “I don't know what's gotten into me tonight.” She raised her eyes to Kieran's again, her expression slightly self-deprecating. “My friend had to practically push me over here, and then I just said to hell with it. That sexy cowboy's been looking at me, he's Pack, and I deserve to say hello to him.”
With each honest word, Lily's voice deepened with instinctual need. Kieran's entire body stiffened from the effort to keep from grabbing her, leading her out of the bar and across the lobby to the attached hotel, into his room. He could still go slowly.
Sure.
“But I'm being rude. My name is Lily. I'm from the Black Mesa Pack.” She reached a hand out to him.
Kieran steeled himself for the electric snap he knew would happen when he let her touch him. Even so, when their palms met in an oddly formal yet insanely intimate handshake, the shock of it ran up his arm and exploded into every nerve ending. Lily felt it too, judging from her sharp inhale and widening of those amazingly clear eyes.
“Kieran. Silver Mountain Pack Guardian. It's very nice to meet you, Lily.” He was ridiculously proud of his steady voice despite the hungry wolf clamoring to growl through it.
He let his fingers slide against her palm as he slowly pulled back his hand. Adding the barest of swirls with one fingertip against the very sensitive center of her palm, he was rewarded by a distinct gasp. Keeping his gaze on hers, he studied her expression closely for fear, annoyance, or any other sign that he was being too aggressive.
Lily simply radiated her lust even more. Holding still so as not to betray his own nearly overpowering lust, Kieran marveled that she was so ready, so soon. When this wolf Guardian made up her mind, she made it up fast and certain. Which shouldn't have surprised him, given how quickly and decisively she'd ended the life of the human she'd turned. It was another sign of an excellent alpha to be. She was a perfect mate for him.
Now, he just had to convince her.
***
Lily wasn't sure who was more shocked at their contact—she or her suppressed wolf. The human and wolf parts were both her, one being, yet somehow separate too, in ways that sometimes defied description. At the moment, both were in tandem in their surprise at her sudden boldness and the biting desire that gripped every sense she had.
Interesting. This was the Lily she used to be. Strong, certain, unafraid. Maybe that part of her hadn't completely turned tail and run that night. So it was true about sex being the jump start she needed to return completely to her Guardian role. There was something to be said about merely recognizing a concept on an intellectual level, and actually understanding its truth down to her marrow. This was the trigger that would launch her natural instincts, help her call upon what some termed “wolf magic.” Sex with this gorgeous alpha, a pure mating frenzy, was the answer to unleashing her wolf magic and stepping back into her full lupine power. One night with him was just what she needed.
With tremendous reluctance, she freed her fingers from Kieran's sizzling grasp. Not that he was holding her hard. In fact, he'd barely skimmed his finger over her skin. But she couldn't think right even with that minor contact. What the darkly sexy wolf would be able to do to her when he touched her everywhere, skin to skin, body to body, every nerve ending quivering as though drenched in mindless, hungering fire—
Lily thought maybe the stool would melt beneath her overheated body. It was clear her brain was already fried.
Kieran regarded her with that cool stare. It wasn't cool, of course. She could sense his animal sensuality simmering just beneath the civilized human who remained in control. He was good at masking himself, no doubt about it. But Lily's own senses were so acute at the moment that it was almost as if she could read his mind. She'd never felt this sort of intense connection before. Not even with the man she'd changed, the one she'd thought she might love.
It had to be the long-repressed hormones. Pure and simple. She'd shoved aside her wolf's sexual needs for so long that now she'd opened the floodgates. Everything in her was coming alive tonight.
This was an achingly good feeling, actually. Something like power sizzled along her skin and nerves. Her wolf rolled over, reveling in the sheer sensuality of it.
“Actually,” Lily began. Was she really going to say this? Yes. “Actually, I think I'll skip the drink. What I'd really like is to drink you. I've been parched too long, and you're what I need right now.”
This time, there was no mistaking Kieran's purely male reaction. His wolf had nudged into his eyes earlier, his scent curled possessively around her. Now, though, his pupils widened. His skin darkened even more as blood rushed into it. She heard glass begin to splinter in his other hand, and she flicked her gaze to it. The amber liquid he'd been sipping from the short glass seeped through the spiderweb cracks the abrupt spasm of his grip had created.
Lily shivered with a wild leaping of desire. This wolf was strong. St
ronger than most wolves she knew.
The black Stetson shadowed Kieran's face as he briefly tipped his head. Then he looked back up at her, dropping his hand to her thigh. Through a roaring in her ears, she wondered if it were possible for a palm to actually scorch with its heat.
“And here I thought I'd have to go slow with you, Lily.” Kieran's voice was suddenly so dangerously soft, so deep, that Lily leaned forward to catch his words. “I thought I'd have to coax out your wolf to play, convince the woman to dance with me. Well, hell, darlin'.” He drawled the word like a true cowboy. This Pack Guardian was the real deal. “Clearly, I underestimated you. And I've got to admit, I've never been so glad to have done that in my life.”
Lily felt her smile reach down to her toes and up to the top of her head. Being desired was such a heady feeling—ah. That was it. That was the source of the power she'd sensed. He was making her feel like a woman again. Her wolf nuzzled and rubbed up in her mind, confirming Lily's revelation.
“I've never been this bold before. Maybe it's because it's been a while since I've been—social.”
Even as she said it, Lily could have kicked herself. Apparently, sexual power also made her brain even less effective. She might as well have told him she was deprived and therefore insanely horny. An easy wolf.
But Kieran still looked at her as if she were the whipped cream and he was the lucky strawberry about to be dipped into it. She saw in his eyes the triumph of a man who knows he is going to make a woman very, very happy.
“Lean a little closer, Lily. I'd like to see how bold your kiss is.”
Howl & Growl: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set Page 7