North Wolf

by M. A. Everaux

“I know,” she assured him. “And I thank you for that comfort. I don’t want any of you to die, though, for me or anyone else.”

  He picked up a paintbrush, squirted a few dabs of color on a palette, and stood in front of the canvas. “I will endeavor to meet your demands. Now, you will have to close your mouth and let me paint. I am an artist, you know.”

  “Yes,” she murmured, “I’ve heard.”

  When they broke for lunch, Gwen was prepared to make a break for it.

  “You stay here,” Connor insisted, wiping his hands on his once-pristine jeans, spreading a streak of slate blue across his leg. “I’ll bring something up.”

  “I think I should get lunch.” She sidled closer to the door, her freedom in sight.

  Quick as a snake, Connor had the handle in his hand and smirked. “Stay here and relax. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  Gwen watched as her escape slowly crumbled before her eyes into a pile of ashes. When the lock clicked in place, it disappeared altogether.

  “That man!” She stomped her foot and waited.

  Several hours later, after a lengthy discussion on the sexual appetites of Picasso, which Gwen just nodded her head through, curious and appalled at the same time, Connor finally pulled away from the canvas, wearing more paint than the painting, but pleased. “It’s going well,” he decided finally. “Definitely time to stop.”

  Gwen uncurled from the chair, her back screaming at her. She now knew firsthand what a chick felt like just coming from its egg, uncurling its body for the first time.

  “God, I’m tired. This is ridiculous—I haven’t even done anything today.” She made a little squeaking noise as she stretched her arms over her head and slid out of the chair. “Is it really going well, or is that just an excuse because you’re tired enough to stop too?”

  “It’s an excuse.” He methodically swirled his brushes in the mineral spirit solution and smiled. “Eben’s coming up the steps and I doubt if he’ll let me keep you cooped up in here all day.”

  Gwen stopped in mid-stretch and looked at him. “How do you know?”

  Connor raised his brows and tapped his ear. “Remember?”

  The door popped open and they both looked over to see Eben step into the room, his shirt unbuttoned down the front and flapping at the sides of his chest, his jeans work-stained and worn. If Gwen hadn’t known he was in the forge, she would have the minute she saw him. He was still sweaty and flushed with heat from the coals.

  She looked away, embarrassed. He’d seen her last night, panting and screaming for him, completely naked and shameless. How was she supposed to act? How did he expect her to act? She only prayed Connor didn’t know.

  Eben nodded to Connor solemnly. “You’re done?”

  “For today. She refused to pose nude so I borrowed one of your shirts. I hope you don’t mind.”

  Eben’s dark eyes stared at her, pale and expressionless. “Actually,” he drawled softly, watching the blush that covered her cheeks, “it looks better on her than me.”

  Connor finished with his brushes and carefully laid them out for the next day. “Precisely what I thought.”

  Gwen thought it a good time to leave. Jerking her head up, she turned away and grabbed her clothes, still in a pile where she’d left them. “I need to get dressed.” She scurried around Eben and headed for the door, ducking her head lower as she passed him. Her breath whooshed out in relief once she was out the door and in the hall.

  “I’m making meatloaf tonight, Gwen,” Connor called after her. “I’ll need your help, if you don’t mind.”

  Gwen bit back the retort that almost burst out of her mouth and continued to Eben’s bedroom. Their bedroom, now, although it still felt strange to say that.

  She dressed quickly and wore the most unrevealing clothes she had, which were her overalls. They were pale and worn, but so comfortable. Over an old shirt, she thought she looked quite cute in them.

  Pleased with her little outfit, she hummed a tune as she went downstairs.

  After dinner, rather than hang out and listen to idle conversation, Gwen went to the studio and ended up staring at a blank sheet of her sketch pad, not sure what she was doing. No pictures came into her head, no images that were just begging to be put down. Her hand didn’t even move on its own, knowing what it wanted to draw. Instead, all she had were questions. And almost all were about Eben.

  Behind her, the door opened. When she looked around, Eben was standing in the room, his back to the now closed door, and his arms folded over his chest. He didn’t look pleased.

  “You disappeared on me.”

  Gwen turned back to the paper, and with a sigh, closed the sketch pad. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would matter. I wanted to go somewhere and just be quiet for a while. I didn’t realize I needed your permission.”

  He actually snarled. And it wasn’t at all a nice sound.

  Gwen stood up and put the sketchpad back in the cabinet. When she closed and latched the doors, he was standing just to the side, his eyes searching her face.

  “You regret last night.”

  “I don’t regret it,” she said immediately. “But I don’t know exactly what it is you want from me. I don’t understand this…thing, you have for me at all.”

  “I want you. That should be enough.” He moved closer, crowding her against the cabinet.

  It should be enough, but it wasn’t. “For how long? Do I get any say in this? And what about female Weres?” she went on determinedly, giving voice to the thoughts that had been circling through her brain. “Don’t they exist? Isn’t there someone in your little group who has first dibs on you?”

  “There are females.”

  She waited for him to continue, and when he didn’t, she asked, “Then why aren’t you with one of them? You’re thirty-five. You should have kids and a wife. Why in the world are you messing around with me?”

  “So it has come to this.” He sighed and moved away, his back arching for a minute. He sat down in the battered leather chair and stared at her, his eyes narrowed. Finally, he said, “You won’t like it.”

  She slid her hands in her front pockets and shrugged. “You said you wanted me when you saw me in the hospital. I was a mess there, Eben. You can’t claim to have suddenly been overcome with rapture, because that doesn’t fly. And if you decided I would be an easy catch, well, I can’t really disagree with you there. But you could have picked someone a whole lot more healthy, a lot more stable. There’s something you’re not saying, and I don’t like it. I want to know.”

  “I didn’t want anyone else. I wanted you.”

  “Right.” She rolled her eyes. “And you figured this out after taking one look at my unconscious body. I may be insane, but that doesn’t make me completely gullible.”

  A low growl came from his throat, and even as she watched, his eyes altered, changed and reshaped to that of his other form. “I don’t like it when you say that, and there is no other woman for me. Only you.”

  “Only me,” she repeated softly, shaking her head and folding her arms over her chest. “Eben, what are you saying?”

  “Come. Sit with me.” He crooked his finger at her and pointed to his lap. “Sit.”

  Gwen let out her breath and inched forward. His eyes were the only things that had changed, but it still made her nervous. His eyes alone were almost as scary as seeing the full package of the Were the night her father died.

  She stood over him, biting her lip and avoiding looking into his eyes. “Um, what am I supposed to do here?”

  “Sit. And we’ll talk for a while.”

  “Just sit,” she mumbled, climbing into his lap clumsily and settling against him. It felt strange. Awkward, actually. The feeling of intimacy they’d developed the night before was completely gone. At least for her. Eben didn’t seem to have any problems as he pulled her higher against his chest and played with the end of her braid.

  “You were going to answer some of my questions,” she reminded him,
laying her head on his shoulder.

  “Which would you have first?”

  “Why aren’t you married?”

  “I am.”

  “You are,” she repeated, abruptly straightening and pushing away from him. She stopped immediately when a warning growl came from his throat. “I’m leaving.”

  “Don’t you ever say that to me.”

  She didn’t even dare to blink or take her eyes off him. “Eben,” she said carefully, her voice completely even. “Let me go.”

  He bared his teeth in a vicious grin. “I’m Were, Gwen. We, like wolves, mate for life. That’s why I took you. That’s why I have no woman from my clan. That’s what you are to me. Mate.”

  She let out her breath and dropped her eyes to his chest, which was moving up and down as slowly as before, as if there hadn’t just been a tense moment. Mate. It echoed in her head, over and over again.

  “Look at me,” he ordered.

  She did, but she didn’t want to.

  “You are my mate.”

  She wanted to laugh. Long and loud. Lord, what a joke. “And they thought I was insane,” she quipped softly, shaking her head. “I wonder what they’d think now if I told my shrink any of this? He’d probably shove a needle in my arm and lock me in one of the safety rooms. They’re padded.”

  “Don’t say that to me,” he hissed. “And don’t tell me what I know. You are for me. In the eyes of my people, already you are my wife.”

  “And that’s it?” she suddenly railed. “What, you just declare it, and the whole thing is over? Don’t I get a say in this?”

  His mouth widened in a cynical smile. “You made your choice. Last night, when I took you. If you didn’t want me, then you should have said so then.”

  “Which is why you didn’t say anything to me before. Jesus!” She hopped off his lap, half expecting him to stop her. “This is absolutely crazy. I can’t believe it.” She walked in a brisk circle around his chair, thinking, plotting, figuring it all out. All of a sudden, she stopped in front of him again. “Eben, this is really bad.”

  “From where I’m sitting,” he said softly, “this is incredibly good.”

  “No, this is bad. Very bad. To just arbitrarily be partnered with someone you hardly know?” She frowned down at him, shaking her head. “That’s awful. Terrible. Fate’s own twisted little joke. No commitment, no affection, no great feeling. That is the very definition of bad.”

  His eyes rolled up and his expression darkened. “I never said there was no affection or great feeling.”

  She went back to walking around his chair, tapping her chin as she thought everything through. “Hmmm? Forget that. How do you know? I mean about the mate business. I’m assuming there’s something, but what is it? What was it about me that you decided meant I was your mate?”

  He leaned up, still staring at her. “Your scent, love.”

  “Right.” She jerked her head in a sharp nod, and then shook it. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Oh, this was awful! She’d been picked out of the hospital because of the way she smelled? Did life get worse than this?

  “And there’s no chance there’s another mate out there for you? Or maybe there’ll be someone else who smells the right way?”

  “No.”

  “No? Just like that? Okay, how about this?” She nervously pushed a few loose strands of hair behind her ear and exhaled. “You and I are going to put some distance between us. No more sleeping together, no more intimacy. We’re going to be really, really good. And we’re going to go out, and see if we can’t find someone else who smells right.”

  His head moved slowly, back and forth. “Come here. I have something else I want to tell you”

  She went to him and knelt beside his chair. “Eben, I’m not trying to be mean, here. I have no doubt that for you and yours, declaring someone your mate is a very important thing and all that, but I don’t think you’ve got the right person. I’m flattered and everything, but—”

  He grabbed her and jerked her onto his lap, his easy expression suddenly gone, replaced with something far more feral and harsh. “I don’t fuck around. Not about anything, and I certainly wouldn’t with you. You,” he snarled, “are my mate. My only. And I didn’t make a mistake, Gwen. Not about this!”

  She swallowed painfully and shook her head. “Eben—”

  His mouth came down on hers, not hard, not painful, but soft, gentle. And Gwen opened hers and welcomed him, because no matter how much she liked to argue with him, the sexual response was there whether she wanted to admit it or not.

  “Please,” she whispered, her tongue sliding over his, stroking it, massaging it for more pressure. All those feelings of confusion and worry joined and boiled down into old-fashioned lust. “Eben, please!”

  He pulled up slowly, his eyes looking into hers. “I do love you. You may not want to hear it, but don’t think that this is nothing but a physical attraction. I do love you.”

  She laid her head against his chest and gave up the fight. “I believe you.”

  He settled back in the chair again, his arms around her.

  He didn’t make love to her that night, which Gwen thought a little strange, but it sort of felt right. Her emotions were too raw, her insecurities too fresh to handle that type of intensity. Instead, he held her all night, keeping her at his side or spooned in front of his chest. Warmth didn’t even begin to describe the amount of heat that came off the man’s skin.

  She woke up wrapped around him, one hand on his nape, and the other lying on his hip. And Lord, was it comfortable.

  “You’re awake,” he said, his voice sleep-roughened.

  Gwen blinked her eyes open and stared at his chest, which was less than an inch from her face. Ahhh. Perfection in the morning. Was there a better way to wake up? Slowly, she rolled away, stretching, a soft squeak escaping from her throat as she did so.

  He smiled and pulled her back to him. “I was hoping you’d help me with a problem.”

  “Oh. Sure. What’s up?”

  He pulled the covers back, revealing his cock, hard and throbbing. “I am.” His eyebrows rose in question. “You can tell me no. I won’t like it, but I’ll abide by it.”

  Gwen looked at his glorious body, bare to her eyes, and couldn’t quite manage to bring herself to actually say it. The word just wouldn’t seem to form in her throat. Her eyes traveled up his body, and stayed on his face. She felt the desire in her body, pooling quickly in her loins, already dangerously close to the breaking point.

  “Yes.” She lunged for him, her hands itching to touch him, her lips seeking the pressure of his. “Eben…”

  “I know baby, I know.” He pulled her mouth to him and latched onto her, sucking and swiping his tongue inside, his hand already on her breast. Teasing, stroking her nipple. It stiffened immediately.

  She wiggled with impatience across his chest, her own hands exploring down his body, across his chest, his sides, down his hips. He was so wonderful to touch, she’d never be able to get enough. And because there was so much of him, she doubted that would be a problem.

  “What do you want?” he whispered against her mouth. “What can I give you?”

  She stopped her hand’s caress over his thigh, confused over his question. “What do you mean?”

  He pushed her hair over her shoulder and leaned up, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I mean, how do you want it? What are your fantasies? What have you dreamed of?”

  “You know where I was. In that place, I didn’t dream. I had nightmares, and that’s it. As far as this type of thing goes,” she shook her head, “I’m a blank slate. I just want. I don’t know specifics.”

  “You want,” he repeated, his hand returning to her nipple and gently squeezing. Gwen sucked in a breath and closed her eyes. “I want you,” he whispered. “One day, in the change, but for now, I’ll settle for skin.”

  She barely heard him. His mouth immediately latched onto her other nipple, and his mouth pulled at the flesh, rhyth
mically using pressure to make her squirm. She slid her hands into his hair and held him there, thrusting her chest out, hoping he’d take the hint and keep going.

  He did.

  “The other,” she breathed. “Eben, please…”

  He let her nipple slide from his mouth, and when he did, she saw his eyes, changed as before. “Have your breasts always been this sensitive?”

  “Jesus, you expect me to think now?”

  A rough laugh escaped his throat even as he took her neglected nipple into his mouth and gently caressed the other, plucking it delicately between two fingers. Gwen cried out from the barrage of sensation.

  She was content for a while, but soon her whole body was shaking with fire. It flooded her veins, traveled into her skin, but most especially down to her sex. She dripped with need, and at any other time probably would have been embarrassed. But with him at her breast, and his lovely body before her, she didn’t have room for embarrassment, and gave herself up to the desire.

  He pressed on her lower back, until Gwen could feel his cock, swollen and hard against her stomach. She moved, sliding against him gently, and his mouth opened wide, releasing her nipple as his head went back and his eyes closed.

  “Christ.”

  Gwen took his mouth with her own, thrusting her tongue delicately at him. His hand fisted in her hair, anchoring her head while his other hand kept pressure on her back.

  He growled and thrust his hips against her. Gwen moaned and ground her mouth against his, needing more. The feel of dampness against her stomach keyed her in to the fact that he was just as needy as she was.

  “I know,” he whispered roughly. “I know.” He kissed her, and then abruptly rolled them over so that he was on top. “Are you ready?”

  Ready for what? The heat in his eyes said it was something different, but what exactly he had planned, she didn’t know. But then, she didn’t really care, either.

  He got up on all fours and crooked his finger at her. “Come here, beauty. We’re going to try something new right now.”

  She stayed where she was for a second, stretched on the bed, her legs separated and her breath coming in little pants. He wanted her to get up now?