Just One Bite

by Barbara Elsborg

Cal stared at her with his mouth open. “I haven’t changed yet. And I’m not a cutie.”

  “Oops.”

  He began to unbutton his shirt.

  Liz pressed her back against the counter. “Wha-wha…” Bloody helicopter. “What are you doing?”

  “If I shift in my clothes, I’ll tear them.”

  “Right.”

  Liv knew she should have shown him the door. Letting a delusional stranger get naked in her apartment? What had happened to her brain? She licked her lips, told herself not to watch and instead stared without blinking. Tight, dark nipples, gently rounded pecs, ripped abs—did she mention the really ripped abs?—that happy trail of black hair leading to— Oh my stars. What the hell is that?

  Oh yes, she remembered.

  Just.

  She’d not seen many close up, but this one was rather spectacular. Long and thick and—

  “Don’t be scared,” Cal said.

  Liv was intimidated, but not scared. It would fit—right? What was the point of giving a guy a cock that was too big to put anywhere? That would be such a sick joke.

  Then in a flurry of movement, amid a series of stomach-churning snaps and cracks, Cal turned into a big, black wolf.

  “Oh my God,” Liv gasped. She looked around for Cal because, seriously, somehow he’d done a trick with mirrors. Bloody good magician. Was this being filmed? A camera hidden someplace? A TV crew lurking ready to capture her reaction? Laugh it off.

  Liv tried. “Ha-aagh.”

  I can’t. Not unless that strangled squeak counted.

  The wolf tipped its head to one side, looked at her with Cal’s dark eyes, and she sneezed. Liv began to hyperventilate because there was no way this was a trick. She’d just seen Cal transform into a wolf. And what would be the point in scaring her half to death if he wasn’t telling the truth? She backed away to the other side of the counter, but there was nowhere to hide, not from the truth.

  Shit. Bugger. Bollocks. There was a werewolf in her apartment. And if he really was telling the truth, pretty soon there would be two.

  Liv went down like a stone.

  Chapter Two

  Cal shifted back and raced to the other side of the counter. “Oh fuck.” He dropped to her side, brushed her sun-tousled…mmm…oddly cut hair aside and patted her pale cheeks. “Liv?”

  He’d anticipated a scream, not that she’d faint. Cal hadn’t been able to think of a better way to prove he was telling the truth than to transform, but maybe he should have thought harder. Christ, the whole thing had gone tits up since their encounter this morning. He was winging this and not doing it very successfully.

  Liv opened her eyes and he breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Where am I?” she gasped. “Who are you? Why are you naked? Is this heaven?” Then she sneezed three times.

  Cal had to fight the impulse to growl. “You know the answers to those questions.”

  Liv exhaled. “I dreamed you turned into a wolf.”

  “I did.”

  She swallowed hard. “You weren’t lying.”

  “I never lie.” Though if I’m being honest and there’s no point lying to myself, I live a lie.

  “You tell everyone you’re a werewolf?”

  Cal’s lip twitched. Liv was smart. “No. I’m not supposed to tell anyone.”

  “So now you’ve told me, you have to kill me?” she whispered.

  “Why would I do that?” Oh God, don’t be too smart.

  “In case I tell someone?”

  Crisis averted. “I trust you not to.”

  He pulled her into a sitting position and, with reluctance, let go of her hand. Her fingers felt so soft. Cal clamped his teeth together and yelled at his twitching cock to calm down.

  “You know my name.” She furrowed her brow. “You called me Liv.”

  “I heard someone say it.” Which wasn’t a lie.

  “I can smell something burning.”

  “Damn.”

  Cal rushed back and pulled out the grill. Liv’s steak was black and had shrunk to the diameter of a shot glass. He shoved his steak under the heat and pulled on his boxers. When he turned, Liv was back on the stool. She looked up so guiltily, he guessed she’d been staring at his ass. Cal swallowed his smile.

  He pushed the lump of charcoal toward her. “Done enough?”

  “Let me check.”

  He thought she was joking, but she cut the burnt offering in half and inspected the interior.

  “Perfect.” Liv smiled at him and his cock tented his shorts. Fuck.

  Cal wrestled his bloody steak onto a plate and sat on the opposite side of the counter, hiding his erection.

  “I’d check for a pulse on yours,” she said. “Might say ouch when you cut it.”

  At least she was joking and not curled up in a corner babbling with fear. He couldn’t believe she’d let him into her apartment. Plan F had been to knock her out and take her to his. He’d gotten nowhere with plans A to D. E was going okay, so far.

  Oh God, she was gorgeous. That short, tight red dress clung to every curve, and Liv had lovely curves. He wondered when she’d figure out that the dress needed to come off if she ever wanted to wear it again. It had killed something inside Cal every time he’d seen anyone else touch her. If his pack knew what an idiot he’d been agreeing to this, he suspected his position as alpha would be under threat.

  By the time Liv put down her knife and fork in the center of her plate, she’d polished off two glasses of wine. When she reached for the bottle, he moved it.

  “It’s not going to help,” he said.

  She cast him a pleading look.

  “That’s not going to work either.” Though those puppy-dog eyes definitely had an effect on his cock, but Cal wasn’t sure it could get much harder.

  “I don’t think I can wrap my head around this,” Liv said with a groan. “I thought you were insane, and now I’m wondering if it’s me who’s lost my mind.”

  “It’s okay to be scared,” he said. “I’d be more worried if you weren’t. I’m going to help you through this. That’s why I’m here.” Not for sex, but hey…

  She stared at him. “If it happens.”

  He met her gaze. “If it happens.” When it happens. It had to happen.

  “Pros and cons?” she asked.

  Cal sighed. That was easier to deal with than that further truth—that he’d bitten her on purpose. He hadn’t planned it that way, he’d just taken advantage of the opportunity. “Pros are super speed, super hearing, super sex…nses.”

  She snorted. “I didn’t miss that last one, super stud. What else?”

  He smiled. “You’re less likely to get sick. No more colds or flu and you’ll heal very fast from even major injuries.”

  “I’m never sick anyway.”

  Yes, I know.

  “You’ll be part of a great social network and have as many friends as you can cope with.” And if any of his pack touched her, or even breathed on her, Cal would kill them. Men or women.

  “I have friends.”

  Friends who Cal had carefully vetted and would continue to do so. He didn’t want to cross the line from protective guy to controlling bastard, but it was a fine balance for a werewolf, particularly a werewolf who wasn’t living with his mate.

  “You’ll stay looking young and you’ll live longer, and if anyone annoys you, you can rip out their throat.” Or I will. He beamed.

  Liv didn’t beam back. “Let me guess the cons. I’ll need to comb my face, throw away my silver jewelry, fleas will love me and so will stray dogs.”

  Cal laughed as if she’d made a joke, but apart from the fleas, she was right, though wolves groomed each other with their incisors not combs, and Cal didn’t intend to let any stray dog roam within miles of her. She was his. She just didn’t know it.

  Yet.

  Whereas he’d known it for a long time. This morning, when she’d come bowling around the corner straight into him, the scent of her filled his head and made
the world spin faster for a moment. Cal wondered how he’d managed to wait so long.

  He put the box of chocolates he’d bought on the counter, thinking it would raise a smile, but her face fell.

  “I’m a sucker for a guy who gives me chocolates. But, oh damn, this is going to hurt, isn’t it?” Liv whispered.

  There was no point in lying. “Yes, but each time you change, it gets easier. Your body adjusts more quickly to the transformation because it’s done it before.”

  “And if it happens, and it might not, I can keep living a normal life?”

  “Absolutely.” With me. And assuming normal meant having a libido that regularly soared off the scale, a need to run when the moon was full, a taste for rare meat and a dislike of squirrels.

  Liv doubled over and let out a long groan. Cal jumped off his stool and raced round to grab her. He hadn’t realized how hard it would be to see her hurting. Rage stampeded through his veins. If there’d been any choice…but there wasn’t. He’d known from the outset they were mates. He was hers as much as she was his.

  “Breathe, breathe,” he said.

  Liv straightened up. “Just crying wolf.”

  His heart rose out of his stomach, and he turned a low growl into a laugh. “You little tease.”

  “Is that all the help you’re going to give?” She raised her eyebrows. “Breathe? I think I’d worked that out for myself. What about gas and air? An epidural? General anesthetic? Or let me have another glass of wine. That should do it. On second thoughts, could you knock me out?”

  “I…er,” he mumbled. Actually, that hadn’t occurred to him.

  Liv grinned and Cal’s heart went the other way and shot into his throat.

  “Only kidding,” she said. “I can cope with a bit of pain. I’ve always been the brave one in the family. My brothers are wimps.”

  Sweet Jesus, don’t let it hurt her too badly. Cal tried to blank his mind to memories of first shifts he’d seen, those who didn’t make it. No point in telling her that not everyone survived their first time, and that even if they made it to wolf form, that didn’t mean they could change back. And if they couldn’t… He gulped. Could he break her neck? He wouldn’t have such a strong attraction to her if he was going to lose her, would he?

  Liv put the plates and the grill pan in the dishwasher. “What are we going to do while we wait and see if I grow hair in unusual places?”

  “You might want to change into something you don’t mind getting torn.”

  Her smile slipped. “Right.” She walked to her bedroom, and then she turned. “This isn’t a joke, is it?”

  Cal shook his head.

  “Don’t eat my cat,” she said.

  He straightened and sniffed. “You don’t have a cat.”

  “That was a joke.”

  * * * * *

  OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod. Liv took a deep breath. OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod. The deep breath hadn’t helped. Ohmy— Oh shut up.

  Her gaze drifted to her bedroom window and she took a step toward it before she remembered she had an apartment on the third floor. Liv paced around her bedroom. This was crazy. It had to be some sort of scam, despite what she’d seen and what Cal had said. She could explain this madness.

  So was she dreaming or—gulp—dead? Had she been strangled by Creepo, hit by a car when she ran across the road or maybe killed by the coffee machine? She might be in the hospital, lying in a coma. On the other hand, all this was really happening.

  “Are you okay?” Cal asked from the other side of the door.

  “Peachy,” Liv called.

  Cal had turned into a wolf. She’d seen it with her own eyes. He smelled…trustworthy. Whatever that meant. And of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Which was her treat to bring her out of a funk. Liv’s mouth watered. What if he tasted of it too? Almost enough to make her want to marry him. Liv let out a strangled laugh. Licking him would be so much less fattening than consuming the real thing. Maybe there was a gap in the market for men’s cologne—make it smell and taste of something women liked to eat.

  Concentrate, concentrate.

  She dragged her fingers through her hair, and then dropped onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Liv’s mind lurched back and forth so fast between reluctant acceptance and shaky denial that she felt queasy. More than queasy. The truth was she couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was wrong with her. She felt flushed with heat as if she’d been lying out in the sun for too long, and her skin seemed ultrasensitive. She itched all over. And who was bloody whispering?

  Liv’s eyes widened as she realized she could make out what her neighbors were saying the other side of her bedroom wall. Usually, it was just muffled sounds. They were talking about— Oh stop listening.

  But the big thing, the thing she didn’t want to admit in case she gave in to temptation and acted was that she was…oh darn it…incredibly horny. She’d shifted from dry-throated excitement to full-throttled lust. Her panties were soaked, her nipples tight enough to ping and her heart raced.

  Maybe lust was all it was. She fancied the socks off Cal. Not that he was wearing any—though he had been. She giggled.

  “Liv, what are doing?” Cal called.

  “Battling hysteria,” she shouted.

  “Need a hand?”

  “Nope, I’ve got him in a chokehold.”

  “I thought a knee in the balls was your signature move?”

  She smiled. “Only first thing in the morning.”

  “You’ve no idea how relieved I am to hear that.”

  Liv swallowed to try to bring moisture back to her mouth.

  “I’m going to have to come in and get you if you don’t come out,” he said.

  Yep, and he was armed and dangerous. Liv gulped. “Couple of minutes.”

  She pushed herself to her feet and stripped to her panties. Kept my knickers on, Dad.

  Liv knew she should have been thinking werewolf but the concept of sex overpowered everything in her head. She was consumed by the thought of the guy on the other side of the door, desperate to kiss him, touch him, feel his naked body next to hers. Liv couldn’t remember ever feeling so strongly about anyone. I want to jump his bones. She clapped her hand over her mouth as if that could stop the lust sprouting, growing, blooming. Liv didn’t do this. This wasn’t her.

  She dived into her bathroom, locked the door and leaned back against it. Safe.

  Cal knocked right by her ear. Liv squeaked and jumped away.

  “Come out,” he said.

  “Are you going to huff and puff and blow my house down?” Liv grabbed her knee-length pink robe. She slipped it on and triple knotted it at the waist.

  “I promise not to touch you,” Cal said.

  “Where’s the fun in that?” Damn. That had slipped out before Liv could get her hand back to her mouth.

  She heard Cal give a throaty chuckle. Now she had even wetter panties, darn it.

  “Go back into the lounge first,” Liv told him.

  She heard him walk away, every step clear even though he trod on carpet. How the hell?

  Want him, want him, want him. She ached with wanting.

  Liv tied another knot in her belt…then another. She looked at the tangled mess at her waist and groaned. Before she went into the living room, she took off her panties. Well, she’d stopped listening to her dad years ago.

  Cal sprawled on the couch, his arms resting along the back. The tent in his boxers was still there. God, it’s bigger. Liv headed for a few moments of sanity on the other couch but tripped over a foot that hadn’t been there a second ago and fell onto his lap. Cal wrapped his arms around her, set her sideways on his knees, and didn’t let go.

  “I’m frightened,” Liv whispered. “I need distracting.”

  Warm hands slipped around her throat and Cal stroked her jaw with his thumbs as he mapped her face with his soft lips and stubbled chin.

  “Ah, Liv,” he whispered, his breath brushing her cheek and making her shiver. “You’re
perfect.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  “No—”

  He put his finger on her lips. Liv turned into a puddle of goo and he hadn’t even kissed her.

  “You’re perfect in my eyes, perfect for me.”

  “You don’t even know me,” she muttered.

  “Werewolves know instantly,” he said.

  “I was trying to forget that part.”

  “Oh yeah, sorry.”

  He trailed his tongue across the seam of her mouth and warmth pooled in the pit of her stomach. Liv already felt as if she’d been played with for hours. Not that any boyfriend had managed hours. Nor many for minutes, come to that.

  Cal stared into her eyes, angled his head and pressed his lips against hers. The kiss was electric. Liv might as well have been plugged into a socket. Her fingers dug into his shoulders and her hip pressed against his erection as their tongues slipped and slid. They ate at each other in a gluttonous spree that grew wilder and greedier until they verged on suffocation. Liv wanted to climb into his mouth and slide down his throat. It was Cal who pulled back, his hands dropping into the neck of her robe. He eased it over her shoulders and pushed the garment down until it caught at the bend of her arms.

  He pressed his forehead against hers. “Enough distraction?”

  “I’d been thinking,” she panted, “that we could do a jigsaw puzzle.”

  He laughed.

  “Don’t think I could ever have enough of your kisses,” she whispered, and pulled back to look into his eyes. “That was the best kiss I’ve ever had.”

  His smile sent a jolt of delight straight into her heart. Liv twisted so she sat on his lap with her knees on either side of his hips. Cal fumbled with the knots of her robe.

  And fumbled.

  “I was a Girl Scout,” Liv said. “I have a badge for knots.”

  Cal sighed. “Close your eyes.”

  She peeped and couldn’t hold back the gulp when he changed one fingernail into a sharp claw and sliced.

  “Oooooh,” she whispered.

  “I told you not to look.”

  “You don’t know women very well, do you?”

  He chuckled, pulled open the robe and then let out a growl when he saw her breasts. “My God, is that what women have?”