The man he assumed was named Badger pointed a finger at him. “Shut up. I’ll deal with ye in a minute.”
That boiled his blood. If he was going to die, he would show at least a little chutzpah before they took him out. Pulling himself up to his full height, he glared at them. “You two listen to me. I was minding my own business, eating dinner and working. Then I got abducted, raped, and forced to flee with a murderess. I deserve some answers!”
Badger stared at him before he burst out laughing and turned to her. “Ye already claimed him then, girlie?”
Her face turned a deeper shade of crimson as she nodded.
The man’s laughter roared out of him as he held on to the counter for support. “Holy Goddess, ye picked yerself a fine one, didn’t ye? And despite his scrawny looks, he does seem to have a right fine pair of bollocks hiding in there somewhere.”
“Now listen here—”
“Shut up!” both of them ordered. His mouth clamped shut, although he suspected based on what he’d already experienced that it had more to do with her command than Badger’s.
Badger scrubbed his face with his hand. “Well, what’s his name, girlie? Or are we calling him ‘Shut Up’ for life?”
Now beet red in the face, she mumbled, “We haven’t got that far yet.”
“No thanks to you,” he thought, unable to voice it.
Her head snapped up as she glared at him. “I’m sorry you were at the right place at the wrong time, but would you rather me let a man who’d whore out his own daughter go free? Especially when he had three younger than her at home he planned to sell off, too? I had my orders.”
He glared at her.
She shoved the carton of milk back in the fridge and growled, “Fine. Say whatever you want.” She slammed the fridge door shut.
Badger cackled and turned back to him. “Well, laddie? What would ye have us call ye if ‘Shut Up’ ain’t to yer fancy?”
He took a deep breath. “My name is Heathcliff.”
Her eyes widened. “Fuck. Me. No way. Please, Goddess, tell me you’re busting my balls.”
“My mother loved Wuthering Heights. If you make a joke about the cartoon cat, I’ll…” Well, he’d already seen her kill a guy. “I’ll be really pissed off if you make a crack about the cat.”
That amused Badger immensely. “Heathcliff? Oh, lassie, I can’t wait for the next pack Muster.”
“Shut. Up,” she growled at him.
Badger grinned. “Not quite. So what’s yer full name, boyo? First, middle, and last.”
He’d go out with at least a little dignity. He threw back his shoulders. “Heathcliff McKenzie Ethelbert. Doctor,” he added, although that last part sounded a little lame, even to his ears.
She let out an audible groan and leaned over the counter, her head hung low. “Nooo.” It almost sounded like a mournful howl.
Obviously delighted, Badger slapped her on the back with a pleased cackle. “Well, Heathcliff McKenzie Ethelbert, let me formally introduce ye to yer mate here, Dellis Tadewi Bleacke.”
“Mate?”
Badger grinned. “Mate. Welcome to the Targhee pack, boyo.”
“Pack?” He felt his mind close to shattering. He decided to focus on the one thing he could comprehend and deal with. “Wait a minute. Your name’s Dellis, and you pick on me for Heathcliff?”
Her head snapped up. “You will call me Dewi. D-E-W-I.”
“Well, you can call me Heathcliff.”
“Oh, fuck me, no way in hell.” She straightened and turned to face him. “McKenzie, huh? I’ll call you Ken. I like Ken. I already have a cousin named Mac. No way in hell am I introducing you to my family as Heathcliff.”
Badger laughed again. “Peyton and Trent are gonna shit themselves.”
She glared at the older man and jabbed a finger at him. “Don’t you dare call them!”
He held up his hands. “No, no. I’d rather see the shock on their faces at the next Muster. This’ll be a scream.”
“If you can tell me what I’m supposed to call you,” Ken said, “why should I settle for Ken? Which I hate, by the way. And who says I’m staying here? And…what is this pack you keep talking about?” Maybe he shouldn’t have asked that last question, but he was more than a little curious.
Badger looked at Dewi. “Ye get to do the honors, young lady. He’s yer mate.”
She stared at him, those beautiful mocha eyes melting him. Despite the crazy situation he felt his cock stiffen in his pants. He shifted his position around the corner of the counter to conceal that fact.
Dewi’s eyebrow twitched, revealing her apparent amusement. Somehow, he knew she realized why he’d moved. “I’m an Alpha wolf shifter,” she said. “Targhee pack out of Idaho. I’m one of their Enforcers.”
“She’s a Prime Alpha, actually,” Badger chimed in. “Lone wolf. And not just one of their Enforcers. She’s the Head Enforcer. She’s too modest. Usually she don’t take to others very well. Count yerself lucky, boyo.”
“I don’t count myself lucky!” he yelled, near the end of his tether. “You people are crazy, and I want to go home!”
* * * *
Dewi sensed him drawing dangerously close to a mental breakdown. Despite her irritation and trying to wind herself down to settle her hunt instinct so she didn’t accidentally hurt her new mate, she stepped closer to him. She hated how he flinched away at first.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” she said, forcing her voice to stay soft and gentle. She reached up with her right hand and palmed his cheek, her eyes never leaving his.
He let out a soft moan as his eyes dropped closed. He nuzzled her hand with his lips.
“See?” she said. “It’s instinctive. We’re mated.”
“I don’t understand any of this.” He kissed her palm, setting off a flurry of desire in her core. She needed to quickly get some food in her—preferably really rare steak—and then she could take him upstairs and spend the night getting to know him better.
Much better.
“You don’t have to understand any of it. I’m a shape-shifter. Wolf pack. We’re not just legend. I’m sorry about how this happened, but I couldn’t let you get away when I found you.”
“Wolves mate for life,” Badger chimed in. “When they find their mate, if the person’s not already taken, they claim them. Especially a Prime Alpha like Dewi here.”
She felt Ken’s resistance—she refused to call him Heathcliff—drain from him as his lips traced her palm. He grabbed her hand and held it pressed to his mouth so he could kiss and lick her flesh. “Don’t worry,” she assured him. “We’re going to spend the next couple of weeks right here getting to know each other. And I’ll have plenty of time to tell you everything.”
“I can’t,” he gasped without opening his eyes.
“What do you mean, you can’t?”
“I’ve got to work.” He finally opened his eyes. “I’ve got classes to teach Monday morning and papers I haven’t graded yet.”
Badger cackled. She shot him a dark look. “I think I’m gonna have to re-estimate him,” Badger joked. “He’s got a bigger set on him than he looks.”
“Shut up,” she said.
“Oh, no ye don’t, girlie,” he teased. “Little Miss I-Don’t-Need-A-Mate has found her match. Despite his looks, I have a feeling he’s gonna teach ye a thing or two. Mebbe give ye a run for yer money.”
If she leaned in and kissed Ken’s delicious lips, she would end up ripping his clothes off and fucking him right there on the kitchen floor despite Badger’s presence. Instead, she captured his hand and gently squeezed before letting go. She was painfully aware of how fragile his fingers felt in hers despite the fact that he was a man with a little substance to him.
“I have to eat dinner,” she explained. “If I don’t, we’re going to have a serious problem. I’m sure you’ll probably want something, too, since I interrupted yours.” She stepped away even as Badger dove for the fridge and pulled out a couple of huge steaks from the ready
supply he kept for her.
“How ye want yers, Ken?” he asked.
She didn’t miss his sarcasm.
Ken blinked. “Um, no. No thank you. I’ll just have a salad.”
Her mouth watered at the sight of the steaks as Badger fired up the gas grill built into the stove top. He knew she needed to eat to help sate her urges after a hunt, especially when she made a kill. “No, you have to eat,” she said. “Trust me. You’ll need more than salad for the night ahead of us.”
He slid onto a stool in front of the counter. “No, thank you. I don’t eat steaks.”
She sensed Badger turn to look at him. “Well, what do you eat?” he asked.
“I don’t eat meat.”
“Ye what?” She winced as she heard the laughter threatening to break through Badger’s voice again.
“I don’t eat meat,” Ken said. “I’m a lacto-ovo-vegetarian. I eat dairy and eggs. Every once in a while I’ll eat fish and shellfish, but that’s the only meat I eat.”
She grimaced, her shoulders tensing. Aaaand here it comes…
Badger burst out into gales of laughter. “Let me get this straight. Yer a vegetarian?”
Ken nodded.
“Ye don’t eat red meat?”
“No. Why?”
Badger turned to her. His grin split his ruined face from ear to ear. “Oh, Dewi, please, ye got to let me be there when ye break this to yer brothers! Their big, bad Prime Alpha baby sister is now mated to a grazer!”
* * * *
Ken watched as Badger scrounged a potato from the vegetable bin and tossed it in the microwave for him. Then Badger grabbed a notepad and pen and shoved them across the counter at him. “Write me a list of what ye want me to buy at the store. Yer scrawny enough. Don’t need ye starvin’ to death on us.”
“That’s not necessary. If you’d please just take me home—”
“You’re not going home,” Dewi growled at him. “This is your home.”
He stared at her. Truth be told, as crazy as this whole mess was he really didn’t want to go home, even though he didn’t understand why that was.
“Best not to argue with her until she gets a bellyful,” Badger warned him. “She’s right feisty after a kill.”
His stomach turned. How the hell did I get mixed up in this, anyway? “Look, I promise I won’t say anything to the cops if you’ll let me go.” Not that he wanted to go. Hell, just letting go of her hand nearly broke his heart.
Badger laughed while Dewi glowered. “I think he’s gonna need a demonstration,” Badger said. He winked at Ken. “Or a good hard fucking. From her, lad,” he quickly added. “Not me. No offense, but I don’t swing like that.”
“I can’t until after I eat,” she said. Her voice had definitely deepened, developed a distinct undertone he’d swear sounded like a growl.
“I know, girlie,” Badger assured her. “It’s almost done.”
“Just give me one. I don’t care if it’s raw.”
“Oh, fine. Be that way.” Badger used tongs to lift one of the two steaks off the grill and pass it to her. Ken watched, fascinated and slightly nauseated, as she stepped over to the sink and quickly proceeded to devour the meat with her bare hands. She’d pushed her sleeves up past her elbows. Bloody juices ran down her shapely forearms.
I’d love to lick them clean for her.
He blinked, startled. Okay, gross for starters, but there went his cock again, throbbing as he thought about licking her entire body.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, attempting to regain control.
As she ripped into the meat, Ken realized she made content shnurfly noises he’d never heard another human make before. In just a few quick moments, she’d completely finished the meat and licked her hands and arms clean of juices before washing them in the sink.
When her eyes made contact with his, he knew. Whatever she was, she wasn’t human. Not a kind of human he was familiar with.
He also knew he’d rather die than be separated from her.
Logic and reason tried to break through, pounding up a storm on a door somewhere deep inside his brain, but he refused to listen.
“Here’s the other one, kiddo,” Badger said, presenting it to her on a plate. “Try eating it like yer not a total barbarian, for chrissake. Ye’ll scare the poor lad. I raised ye better than that.”
Without breaking eye contact with Ken, she unerringly grabbed a knife and fork from the counter, made fast work of slicing the rare meat, and forked the plate’s contents into her mouth…
Wolfing it down proved the best description his brain could latch on to.
“What are you?” he whispered.
She softly burped and excused herself as she rinsed the plate and utensils before putting them in the dishwasher. Her expression had taken on a softer, sated tone.
“I told you, I’m a wolf shifter,” she replied. “Most people think we’re a myth. There are very few humans who know the truth about us. There’s a lot more of us than you’d think. Here in the Tampa Bay area alone there are nearly a thousand of us, most either descended from or beholden to the Targhee pack. Although some others from other packs have filtered in over the years. That’s why they sent me here, to keep order. Humans can’t be dragged into pack business. We don’t need the truth getting out.”
She stepped around the counter. He turned on his stool to follow her movements.
“Don’t let him hit the floor,” she warned Badger as she shrugged off her shirt.
“What?” Ken asked.
Badger laughed as he stepped close. “She’s worried ye might faint on us. Valid point, too. Don’t feel like totin’ ye to the emergency room to explain how ye got a concussion.”
Indignant outrage returned. “I’ve never fainted in my entire life. I don’t even faint at the sight of blood.” God knew he’d seen a lot of it over the years. Especially his own, from beatings at the hands of his step-brother.
Badger grimly nodded. “That’s good to know. Chances are, ye’ll see a lot of that over the years with her as yer mate.” He tipped his chin in her direction. “Not yer own blood, mind ye, but others’.”
Ken returned his attention to Dewi, who by this time had worked her way down to her bra and panties. Holy crap, how’d she get undressed so fast? She showed no signs of embarrassment as she removed those and stood totally nude before them.
Beautiful, gorgeous. Not skinny, but firm, lean muscles and perfectly rounded curves in all the right places. His cock screamed to let him have another chance with her.
“Ready?” she asked, but Ken wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or Badger. He nodded anyway.
Badger replied, “Aye.”
As he watched she closed her eyes. Her lips moved although nothing came out. Suddenly, he was staring at a huge timber wolf with a grey face and silver coat with black highlights.
And Dewi’s mocha eyes.
It felt like all the air exploded out of his lungs.
Chapter Three
Ken opened his eyes to find Badger leaning over him and smacking his cheeks. “Never fainted, aye? Well, there’s a first time for everything, I s’pose, lad. Seems to be yer night for firsts.”
He heard Dewi moving around somewhere outside his range of vision. From the feel of hard, cold tile under his back, he knew he lay on the floor.
“Is he okay?” she asked.
The concern in her tone made his heart leap.
“Yep. And don’t worry, girlie. I didn’t let him hit too hard.”
He lifted his head and stared. Dewi had donned her overshirt and nothing else. She was buttoning it as she walked over to him and knelt at his side.
Looking mildly amused, she brushed the hair away from his face and helped him straighten his glasses. “Are you all right?”
He couldn’t make his mouth work, so he just nodded.
She pulled him into a sitting position before helping him to his feet. He imagined he weighed nothing to her. “You need to eat your
potato,” she softly said.
His heart pounded. Still unable to make his vocal cords work, and unsure what he’d say if he could, he nodded again.
She smiled. “You’ll be okay when the shock wears off. To answer your first question, no, you won’t start doing that. Mates can’t shift unless they’re born shifters.”
That had been his question, but he’d been unable to speak it.
He nodded.
She and Badger helped him back onto the stool. He watched as she gathered the rest of her clothes and carried them out to the garage. She left the door open and he saw her lay the pile of laundry on top of the washing machine. When she returned, Badger had set the now steaming potato in front of him, along with an assortment of butter, sour cream, and shredded cheese.
She leaned on the counter, her arms crossed in front of her. “You’d better eat before it gets cold.”
He couldn’t keep his eyes off her neckline, where he saw the plunge of her breasts, or from where her bare legs disappeared under the shirt’s long hem, which hung halfway down her thighs.
“Lassie, he can’t eat with ye standing there half nekkid,” Badger chastised. “Poor boy’s panting after ye. Go put on a robe or something.” He set a glass of ice water in front of Ken.
With a wink to him, she walked out of the kitchen. Ken almost fell off his stool as he leaned to try to follow her progress. It was only Badger’s strong hand grabbing his arm and hauling him upright that kept him from hitting the floor.
Again.
“Eat, lad. Ye sure I can’t fix ye something else?”
“This’ll be fine, thank you,” he mumbled. He forced the potato down, barely tasting it as he tried to process what he’d just witnessed.
Dewi returned a few moments later, wearing a man’s heavy, dark green velour robe that looked huge on her and nearly reached her ankles. She’d tamed her hair into a ponytail. “You look a little less pale,” she teased in a gentle tone.
“I don’t believe this is happening.”
“There’s nothing to believe. You saw.” She sat on the stool next to him. “And I am sorry for how all this happened. Under normal circumstances, I would have struck up a conversation with you first. By the time dinner ended, we probably would have been planning to have pups. I was on a hunt with a job to do. I couldn’t let my focus be stretched like that. Not without risking my life or yours. I needed to know I had you claimed, and I had to get you out of there safely.”
Bleacke's Geek Page 3