Only Reed and Ryan hadn’t flinched. They were two of the most unflinchable, unflappable men she’d ever met.
Ryan walked to stand at her side. She was nearly able to look down at him. He bravely put a hand on her back. A warm and loving feeling moved inside her, but as she was now she had no time to think about her softer feelings for Ryan.
Reed walked slowly forward until he was right in front of her. She was nearly eye level with the wolf she came from. Apparently the nanos picked the biggest threat near her and made her the same height. That kind of well thought out planning from them was almost more than she could fathom. What didn’t surprise her was that they recognized Reed as the most powerful Alpha in the group.
“You’ve become an Alaskan Devil Wolf,” Reed said in awe. “May I touch you?”
Heidi nodded, her frizzy hair moving stiffly around her face. Reed’s touch on her massive arms felt very strange, almost surreal. She was mildly embarrassed when he stepped back and studied her powerful legs.
“I always wondered what the rest of it would look like. Now here you are in the flesh and my eyes are still having trouble believing,” Reed said.
He closed his eyes, breathed deeply, and then held out one hand to Heidi. As she watched, Reed’s fingernails extended into claws. She stared in wonder, knowing that’s where the little robots inside her got the idea for what she was now. She touched Reed’s half-shifted hand gently with her own. Their nails in this form were like knives and very deadly.
“One hand is all I’ve ever managed, but I’ve always been told the Devil Wolf tradition runs in my family. The ability to control your shift takes a lot of focus and a very pure heart. Imagine if such a power came to those who sought a violent solution to every problem. They say that was the case in the first of the werewolf shifters. All of them could become like you. Then the Great Spirits intervened because it got misused. Now werewolves either walk as human or run as wolf. To hold a form in between is a very rare thing. It took me three hundred years to manage just this one hand. Silver halts this ability completely. That’s how Randall Crane managed to keep me captive.”
Heidi looked at the women she’d been turned with. Looking more alarmed than she’d seen her Alpha be in a while, Ariel almost imperceptibly shook her head, but the message in her gaze was there. She didn’t really want anyone to know about Heidi’s immunity to silver. Such knowledge would make her the most sought after experiment still running free. Apprehension agents would be trying to capture her all the time.
Heidi put her deformed, bleeding eye gaze back on Reed. “I find it strange that there’s a name for this partially shifted form.”
Reed shrugged. “Well, it’s a mythical name. The legend of the Devil Wolf is often used to scare young children into behaving. The form was originally used to enforce moral law among those werewolves who proved unredeemable in other ways. I’m guessing that’s why your spirit chose to shift like this when dealing with Travis. You’re the stuff of werewolf nightmares. I’m sure you’ve figured out how powerful this form is.”
Heidi nodded, not commenting on the power. “That’s what Yana called me the first time she saw me like this. I figured calling it my nightmare form was appropriate.”
Reed turned to look over his shoulder, indicating everyone should come closer. Heidi almost laughed when they all but tiptoed as they moved in.
“It’s probably best we keep this to ourselves. People might not like going to a Healer who can give them nightmares,” Reed advised the group.
All the collective nods had her relaxing as she shifted back to human. Ryan’s arm slipped around her then, pulling her close. Heidi looked up at her perspective mate. Maybe he was afraid of her. Maybe he wasn’t. Ryan would stand by her either way and he wasn’t intimidated by their uncertain future. What else was standing in her way? Nothing, she decided. Nothing.
She put a hand on Ryan’s chest while the others moved ahead of them back into the house.
“What is it, Heidi? Everything went fine. It’s all out in the open now. We have to take some precautions to keep it a secret, but everyone who saw you can be trusted.”
“I know all that,” Heidi said quietly. “I held you back for another reason.”
“What?” Ryan asked. “Are you okay?”
Heidi turned to face him and shook her head. “No. I’m not okay. I miss you. I want you to live with me—even if we end up fighting every day. I know you’re the one. I believe now that you’re my mate. I’m ready to commit and to do it werewolf style.”
Ryan closed his eyes. “Are you sure? Please be sure. I don’t want to get my hopes up again.”
“I’m sure this time. Test me,” Heidi said.
Ryan opened his eyes and chuckled. “Test you?”
“Yes, say something sexy. Make my fangs drop. Ariel and Brandi still talk about when that happened to them.”
Ryan covered his mouth as he laughed. He had trouble sobering up. His relief was making him giddy.
He stepped in close, slipped his hands around Heidi, his wrist sliding under her breasts. She leaned forward to rub the sides of her breasts along his arms, just like she always did. God, he’d missed her playfulness, her willingness, her abundant generosity as a lover.
“I have to go to work for a couple of hours, but I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said.
Heidi nodded. “Katarina and Yana are leaving with Reed.”
“Good,” Ryan whispered. “I need everyone gone because I need to be inside you. I’d prefer not to make you scream over and over with your Alpha friend just down the hall. She might misinterpret my actions.”
Heidi giggled. “Stop. That’s not working. You’re just making me laugh.”
Ryan drew in a breath. “Are you sure about wanting this sexual torment? It’s going to be hard enough to wait until tonight as it is, and I’m not just talking about me finding it hard this time.”
“It’s okay. I can handle a little frustration. Do it,” Heidi said, getting a little breathless in anticipation.
Ryan leaned down and kissed her mouth, moving to her neck. He growled against it. “I was never accepting no,” he whispered. “One way or the other I was going to make you mine. Are you going to make me yours, Heidi? Are you going to mark me for the world to see? Are you going to sink your fangs into me and never, ever, ever let go?”
Heidi fangs dropped as she groaned. Her mouth sought his neck instinctively, but Ryan held her off. She looked up to see his fangs had dropped as well.
“Come on. Just one little nip?” she begged.
Ryan shook his head. “Not unless you want your entire family witnessing our mating. Matings once were public on purpose. That’s sounding pretty good to me right now. I wasn’t my best that night in my cell.”
Heidi took two baby steps away. “God, this hurts.”
“I know. It will hurt again later too,” Ryan said. “Then it will get better than you ever dreamed.”
“Go before I embarrass both of us,” Heidi ordered.
“Getting bossy again?” Ryan asked, finally dropping his hands away.
“Yes. Now go.”
Chuckling over her admission, Ryan skipped going through the house and walked around the side of the yard to discreetly get to his truck.
Heidi tidied up after saying her goodbyes, but found it hard to focus on anything for longer than two seconds. She kept reaching up to touch her still descended mating fangs which every werewolf who left had teased her about. When Ryan’s truck rumbled into the driveway, the first thing she thought was this would be their normal routine every day, except she’d probably end up riding home with him.
She pulled the door open and was swept up in his arms. His already hard erection pressed painfully against the front of her. He saw her fangs, groaned, and lifted her until she was wrapped around him.
“Tell me everyone is gone,” he said.
Heidi nodded against his shoulder. She wrestled the coat off him, and then wrangled his shirt off
. Sniffing the hot scent rolling off his aroused body, she groaned and nipped at the skin along his shoulder. Ryan hissed and stopped to press her down on his erection. At this rate they weren’t going to make it to the bed. The thought made her giggle.
“You make my fangs ache, Ryan Calder. They feel like tuning forks,” she whispered.
Ryan pushed her to the bed and stripped off her clothing, ripping the lacy underwear she wore into shreds as he removed them. He ripped his jeans off after, and tossing all that aside, he crawled over her at last.
Wanting to be sure Ryan knew how she felt about this, Heidi pulled his hips down until he was between her legs.
“I’ve been ready all afternoon. Don’t make me wait,” she said.
“Yes, Ms. Bossy,” Ryan teased, pressing inside the furnace of her body. “Gods… you’re the hottest woman I’ve ever known.”
Heidi felt her fangs grow impossibly longer and the sensation made her a little afraid. “Is this going to make me shift?”
“No. This is going to make you mine and me yours. Bite me and see.”
Heidi would have obeyed if Ryan hadn’t chosen that moment to demonstrate his ownership in the oldest way possible. Her body arched against his deep strokes. She was calling his name when his mouth moved to a place just beyond her jugular. Danger flashed through her mind, but his teeth sinking in drove everything away as white light exploded everywhere inside her. She drowned in the pleasure and fought just to breathe.
Ryan went suddenly still, their connection deep as he growled in her ear. His teeth retracted from her. Trembling now he licked the wounds he’d caused.
“Bite me back,” he ordered. “Bite me now. No female ever has and I want you to…”
In the middle of his demand, Heidi latched onto his shoulder. Her hands slid down over his back and hips as he throbbed like a base drum with his sudden fierce release. When a swirl of colors exploded behind her closed eyes, she felt her fangs finally retract. Following Ryan’s lead, she licked the puncture wounds she’d given him, trembling with aftershocks the entire time.
“Kiss me,” she pleaded. “I still ache for you so badly that I feel insane with want.”
Her mate did as she asked then slid out of her. He flipped her over, raised her hips, and plunged back inside. Heidi cried out in relief when Ryan moved in rhythmic thrusts. “God, you feel so good. This is even worse than my burning time. Please don’t stop.” But Ryan did stop. Or rather he slowed and chuckled. Her low growl made him chuckle more.
Pulling his mate to her knees, Ryan moved slow and deep while she hummed her pleasure over what they were doing. He was never going to take this for granted… not for one moment.
“You’re mine to please in every way. Now that you’re my mate, I never have to stop. We can do this all night every night if you want. Tonight I don’t plan to stop until we’re both completely and thoroughly satisfied. I’ve been waiting for you, Heidi. I’m done waiting.”
“I’m satisfied now. I’m satisfied with you,” Heidi whispered, “but I still want you as badly as I did when you walked in the door.”
Ryan ran a hand into her hair and tugged her head back. “Good. You will always be that happy to see me.”
“Now who’s being bossy?”
“That’s not being bossy,” Ryan whispered. “That’s a promise I intend to keep every day my nano wolf chooses to stay with me. I love you so much. Thank you for loving me back. ”
“Ryan,” Heidi called, but her thoughts slid away as the pleasure her mate gave her swept through her once more.
Epilogue
Heidi leaned against her exam table, more exhausted than she could ever remember being in her life. The physical tiredness didn’t surprise her, because Ryan kept them both up all night, but it wasn’t their strenuous mating that wore her out.
It was the number of people who’d visited the Healing Center to see the brand Ryan Calder had put on her. Brandi had told her that she’d felt like one of Gareth’s cows every time she saw the mark. Heidi got that now. Totally got it.
She’d see a patient for a precious few minutes, and then have to see twenty or thirty residents who came traipsing through asking to see her mating marks. Frustrated with her clothing being tugged out of the way, she’d finally taken off her shirt and bra, and loosely fastened the stolen Crane lab coat she still wore at work over her naked breasts. It flapped open almost to her navel.
In honor of the occasion, Ryan had been given the day off by his boss. Her newly official mate had parked his stubborn butt in the chair outside her office, the one Katarina had put there. He accepted his own congratulations before clearing all the people one by one to come in and see.
“Is this parade to see me practically naked really necessary?” she asked when the last round of lookie-loos had left.
“Yes,” he answered. “There’s also a pack meeting Saturday with a potluck to celebrate. Wear something revealing.”
“I get why Ariel had to do this. She mated your Alpha. How come Brandi didn’t have to flash her boobs at the entire Gray Wolf pack?”
Ryan grinned. “It’s the male’s choice. I guess Gareth is less demonstrative. It’s only a one time thing. Your marks will never get this much attention again.”
“Good,” Heidi said, pacing the room like a caged tiger.
She smiled when she saw Ariel and Brandi. Both walked by Ryan like they dared him to stop them. She had never loved them more. “Finally—a friendly face or two,” she said.
“Cut the crap and flash your boobs for me,” Brandi ordered, flipping the lab coat lapel to the side. “Nice. Yours healed flat. My marks are like little craters. Ariel’s healed into gashes.”
Disgusted, Heidi looked at Ariel, who was laughing behind her hand. “You want to see them too?”
Nodding, Ariel strode over and peered down while Brandi held the lapel out of the way.
“Not too shabby. You okay about getting them?” Ariel asked.
Heidi nodded, yanking the edges of the coat out of Brandi’s fingers. She also stepped out of reach. “I’m fine. I’ll be better when show and tell is all over.”
“It’s the way of mating within the pack,” Ariel said calmly. “I’ve watched Matt deal with several couples going through it. I never realized how dramatic and eventful mating could be for werewolves. I guess it’s because all wolves mate for life. Werewolves really are the evolutionary ascendants of the ones in the wild.”
“Evolution,” Heidi repeated. “It’s strange you used that word. Diane Crane described her experiments as helping evolution along, but she also said that it was happening anyway.”
Ariel’s smile dropped away as she nodded. “She’s probably right. We’re not the first to undergo what we did, but from what I can tell, we were the first to survive it so well. I have no way to prove my thoughts on the matter, but I think the secret ingredient in our transmutation cocktail was Reed. We’ve each gotten more from him than any of his children or grandchildren. A geneticist might agree that we’re Reed’s evolutionary ascendants.”
Brandi chuckled. “Some of us got more traits than the rest of us. Either that, or we’re still changing. Had he lived, Randall Crane would have achieved everything his bat shit crazy sister was trying to do. Sheldon spends most of his time undoing what his brother did. Unlike Diane, Randall didn’t kill what he perceived as his failures. He just turned them loose in the world.”
Heidi frowned at Brandi’s comments. “Is my influence still working on Diane Crane? I still have trouble sleeping at night when I remember all she’s done.”
Brandi shrugged. “Hard to tell yet. Sheldon says she stays in her room, crying most of the time. He’s taken to sedating her. I told him she’s in mental purgatory and that things should start to change for her in about nine months. I’m not sure he believes me, but he’s keeping tabs.”
Heidi nodded. “Good. It sounds like she’s doing what I said. I’m having her go through the past, hoping that forcing her to feel empathy f
or her victims might evoke a genuine change in her thinking. That will be more powerful than any psychological suggestion I could plant.”
Ariel cleared her throat. “Let’s stop talking about the Cranes and talk about something else. Heidi, I asked Brandi to come with me to see you because there’s some interesting news I need to share. It may affect all of us eventually, or it might just affect you right now. Either way, I thought it best to share it with you both at the same time.”
Heidi drew in a breath and started pacing. “Oh God… those tests you ran. My nanos are dying, aren’t they?”
“No,” Ariel said firmly. “Your nanos are not dying. They’re replicating in strange ways… but not dying. That’s not what I discovered.”
Brandi snorted and looked at Heidi. “All Alphas like to draw out the bad news until your heart is pounding with fear. I don’t think they can help themselves. They’re natural drama queens.” She grinned when Heidi giggled and Ariel glared.
“That’s not what I’m doing,” Ariel said, defending herself. “What I’ve got to share is startling. I’m searching for the right words.”
Brandi coughed into her hand. “Drama Queen.”
“Just say it, Ariel,” Heidi ordered.
“You’re being bossy again,” Ryan yelled at Heidi from his seat.
Heidi growled when her pack mates giggled over her mate’s comment. “Shut up, Ryan Calder. I’m talking to my Alpha here. She has something important to tell me.”
Brandi laughed. “I just love it when Heidi growls. She sounds like a tiny puppy tugging on a rope.” Brandi imitated the sound until Heidi glared at her.
“Keep pushing and I’ll be your worst nightmare,” Heidi warned.
“Stop joking—both of you,” Ariel ordered, sobering up her pack. “I guess there’s no easy way to say it. Heidi, I don’t know how this happened to you, but you’re pregnant.”
“What?” Heidi exclaimed.
“Oh shit,” Brandi said, thinking about her impending heat cycle that Gareth had informed her was coming in two days.
“You’re pregnant?” Ryan yelled loudly, running into the office. “It must have been that night in the cell.”
Heidi: Nano Wolves 3 Page 16