Claiming the Wolf

by Michele Hauf

  Slater strode across her threshold, having received the ever-damning invite the day he’d bought her the apartment—and now the invite would hold forever. The spicy scent of his cologne should have had her swooning, but it only sickened Danni. Clad in gray Armani, a smart pair of aviator sunglasses propped on the top of his immaculately coifed head, he sniffed and wrinkled his mouth.

  “Brownies?”

  Should have gotten rid of the plate and fork on the counter. Hell.

  “You eating, Danni?”

  “I uh...it reminds me of...better times.” She rushed to the counter and grabbed the dishes, sitting them in the sink. “I nibble. Don’t you miss mortal food?”

  “It’s been so freakin’ long. Last time I ate, the Nazis were occupying Paris.”

  She’d never asked how old he was. Most vampires in Zmaj reminisced about the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

  “So how did things go?” he asked, but she knew he was baiting her, fishing for the truth. He always knew things and waited for her confession.

  “I had an issue,” she said.

  “Yes, I’ve heard.” He sat on the sofa, crossing an ankle over his knee and stretched his arms across the back. “Come over here where I can see you, Danni. We need to talk.”

  Meekly, she wandered before the sofa, but when she got within his sight she lifted her chin and stood proudly. He may have been able to bring down her confidence, but somewhere inside, her soul was still fighting. She could take this man. She was Dan the Man. But he held a wild card that gave her good reason to hold her punches.

  “Remington Caufield has put word out an attempt was made on his life by a vampire.”

  “There was no assassination attempt,” she defended. “That’s not what you requested.”

  “You must have scared the wolf. But you didn’t get the info, right? The location of the warehouse?”

  “Not yet. I wasn’t able to plant the tracking device.”

  “Not yet,” he repeated glumly. “I thought you’d be better than this, Danni, I really did. Inadequate comes to mind. Got something to show you.”

  He reached inside his suit coat and pulled out a glossy photograph and held it before him so she had to bend forward to get a good look. Controlling her breath, she stopped the urge to scream at the sight of her brother’s smiling face.

  “Did you know he’s vacationing in Belize?”

  She didn’t. She’d tried to keep as far from David as possible since her transformation. She knew Slater was keeping tabs on him. To keep her in line.

  “Don’t you fucking hurt him, Slater.”

  “You do your job, and your brother will be fine. What the hell? Is that a bite mark on your neck?”

  She slapped a palm over her neck. Apparently being bitten by a werewolf left a telltale mark. It should have healed by now.

  Slater chuckled. “‘Bout time you came around, sweetie. Thought for sure you were going to starve yourself when I first transformed you. Now you’re taking as good as you’re giving. Good for you. Live the life, I always say. Although...am I interrupting?” He looked about and down the hallway. “That bite mark looks fresh.”

  “He just left,” she managed with a shrug, her palm still pasted to her neck.

  “I see. You’re spending your time with a lover when you should be working.” Slater stood and tucked away the photograph she wanted to grab and keep for herself. He had no right touching an image of one of her family. “Two days,” he said. “Get the information, or you’ll have to deal with me and my bites.” He flashed a fanged smile. “I know you like my fangs, sweetie. But next time? I won’t be so gentle. In fact, I’ll tear out your carotid if you fail me on this job. Ta.”

  And he strode out, leaving the door open behind him.

  Danni slammed it and beat her fist against the wood. She bit her lip, then winced because a fang cut the thin skin. But at the moment, pain was better than the hurt in her heart...and the awful image of having her carotid torn from her neck.

  She had to get the information the tribe wanted, or David would never forgive her for not protecting him from the fate Slater promised.

  Five

  She turned to find the werewolf standing outside the patio door, hands fisted at his thighs, and a focused look pinning her through the heart as if with a stake.

  Hart could give her the information she needed to save her brother. But that would mean using him for a means she wasn’t comfortable with anymore.

  Danni rushed over and opened the door. “Did you hear?”

  “He’s threatening you with your brother’s life? Bastard. Is he the one who changed you?”

  “He is. He has a sort of control over me. You’ve seen how tough I can be. But around Slater it’s difficult to raise my voice, let alone a fist.”

  He pulled her into his arms and stroked her hair. “What can I do to help you, Danni? I want to protect you. And if that means protecting your brother—”

  “It’s too much to ask. I can’t. I won’t.” And yet... “They need the location of the warehouse where pack Levallois holds the blood games.”

  “Ah.”

  Ah, indeed. She bowed her head to Hart’s broad shoulder. This man smelled musky and cool, like the wind and sex. Like everything she never knew she wanted until now.

  “I can’t give you that information,” he said.

  “I know. You’d betray your pack.”

  “Then what will you do?”

  “I’ll figure something out.”

  “You can’t go sniffing about the pack again, Danni. Remy has a high alert out for you. Though, he has no idea you’re a woman. I led him to believe the vampire I pursued was a man.”

  “Thank you. But I have to do this for David, my brother.” She stroked the bite scar ruching his neck. “I feel awful about this now,” she said. “You’re too kind, Hart. Nicest guy I’ve ever met. My bite must have been the cruelest blow.”

  “I’m tough. “ He clasped her hand and kissed her knuckles. Bowing his head to her neck, he kissed her below her jaw so close to the scar he’d left there. “But I think you soften me. That may be a good thing or a very bad thing.”

  “I’m pinning it as bad. You need to stay strong for your pack. I don’t want to make you weak. Do they know you were bitten?”

  “No, but I can’t hide it much longer. I haven’t given thought as to what I’ll do without a pack.”

  “We have a lot to think about.”

  He dove into her hair, nuzzling into the thickness and grasping it to smooth along his cheek. She loved him lingering in her, taking her in, devouring her with his senses. She wanted to do the same with him, to learn him completely, and then start over and learn him again.

  “Let’s stop thinking,” she whispered against his ear, dashing out her tongue to tickle the lobe. “Make love to me, Hart. If you forgive me, and feel you can trust me, show me. Surrender to me.”

  He dropped to his knees before her. She stroked his mouth, his lips soft and thick, and he tongued her finger.

  “I’m yours,” he said. Spreading out his arms, he opened himself to her. “Body and...we’ll see what happens from there.”

  She lifted a brow.

  “There’s a lot involved with having sex with a werewolf, you know. A fine line between mating and sex, if you know what I mean. Your bite bonded us in a strange way, but not like my breed’s mating bond. That involves you getting busy with my werewolf.”

>   “That would bond us for life?”

  He nodded.

  “I’m not ready for that, Hart. I just want to have sex and enjoy the moment.”

  “Then let’s get that dress off you.”

  * * *

  The sky had darkened quickly, and rain pattered against the tiled roof. Danni had opened the bedroom window because she loved the sound of rain, and the occasional sprinkle on her sex-heated skin felt like faery kisses.

  Skimming her fingers through Hart’s short, thick hair, she thrust her head into the pillow and widened her legs, allowing him access to do as he pleased. And the wolf did what pleased her well. His tongue touched her in ways that ignited the fiery tingle over and over, and when she had climaxed so many times, her breaths coming out in quick gasps, she could but loosen her muscles and accept his unrelentingly sweet torture.

  She would never tell him to stop. She was not a fool.

  Sometime later, she found herself curled against his body, her head bowed to his softly haired chest, and her knees against his stomach. Wondering what he would look like, feel like, in werewolf form put the question at the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t want to ask him to shift, and decided she would see him that way when he trusted her.

  Hart kissed her hair and stroked it across her back. “You want me to close the window?” he asked. The rain still sprinkled the bedside, and while the sheets weren’t wet, they were getting moist.

  “I wish we could have sex in the rain,” she whispered. “I want to feel the cool water dribbling over my skin while you pump inside me.”

  “You have a balcony back here. Isn’t it one of those little private courtyards below?”

  “Yes, but my neighbor’s window is six feet down and to the right. She’s old, but curious.”

  “Let’s give her a show.”

  “Hart.” She laughed and bit at his stomach but did not use her fangs.

  “I’m serious. It’s past midnight. She’s probably sleeping, and it’s only a half moon on the other side of the building.” He slid off the bed, and his body was silhouetted by the pale moonlight he seemed to think was not shining on this side of the building. His erect cock jutted up, ready and willing. He held out his hand to her and something akin to starshine glinted in his eyes. “I dare you.”

  “Oh, now you’ve done it. Dan the Man can never resist a dare.” She stood and accepted his hand.

  “Dan the Man?”

  “That’s what they called me in the service. I once crossed a minefield to bring the crew sandwiches on a dare. Could have blown my leg off, but instead I served up the salami.”

  Hart waggled his hips, which set his cock swinging. “Speaking of serving long thick things you like to taste...”

  She grabbed his cock and tugged him outside onto the balcony. They had but a foot of space and the outer wall was smooth fieldstones. Rain spilled through Danni’s hair and down her shoulders and back, lifting shiver bumps on her arms, yet she tilted her head, opening her mouth.

  “You are a goddess,” he said, clasping a wet nipple and squeezing it. “And she is sleeping because there are no lights on in the window below.”

  “All the better to watch the horny neighbors,” Danni said. She licked the raindrops splattering his shoulders and followed them down his tricep and around to the thick nugget of muscle bodybuilders would kill for. “Let’s put on a good show. This may be the most action she’s seen in decades.”

  Hart lifted her and she wrapped her legs about his waist, snuggling her mons against the head of his cock. He didn’t push inside her, and she liked that he’d learned that about her. She loved it when a man rubbed his cock against her clit. She came much easier with direct contact there than by internal stimulation. All her nerve endings seemed to grasp out greedily and take in every slip and slide and grind. Gimme, gimme, gimme, her body whispered. And oh, her werewolf lover gave.

  Kissing his lower lip, she lingered there, sucking it in and tracing it back and forth with her tongue. He tasted like rain and salt, and still a bit like the brownie he’d had as a snack a while ago after they’d paused to recoup following their wild gyrations on the bed.

  Slicking her fingers through the hair on his chest, she found the hard, tiny nipples and pinched them. Hart growled into her mouth and rocked his hips, rhythmically dragging his swollen cock over her clit.

  “I love it when you hurt me,” he murmured.

  “You do have a tendency toward rough and hard,” she agreed. “But you can be oh, so gentle, too. Bruise me, lover,” she said. “Let me feel you hard between my legs.”

  Her shoulders hitting the fieldstones, he supported her against the wall, and increased the rhythm of his hips, sliding against her, teasing her to a shuddering, jittering tangle of nerves and tingles and tightening muscles. Her toes curled over the iron railing and she tilted her hips forward, matching his glide. Hands gliding to his neck, she bracketed his jaws and tilted her head as her fangs descended. She wanted the bite. To bring this climax to a new peak.

  When he noticed her struggle, without stopping the motion of hips and cock gliding and sliding and luring her to the edge, Hart nodded, yet it was a weird mix of up and down and side to side.

  “What does that mean?” she entreated breathlessly.

  “It means...I don’t know! I’m so close, Danni. And so are you. But your fangs...the sight of them. Bloody hell.” The thick canines lowered in his mouth and he twisted his head as if fighting it, his neck muscles tight and stiff—and then he grinned, relaxing. Surrender. “Yeah. Let’s do this.”

  She required no more permission. Lunging forward, Danni sank her fangs into the hot, wet heat of Hart’s neck, in the same spot where she’d first marked him. He growled the deep fuck-yeah growl that usually came when he was this close to orgasm. Pulling out her fangs, Danni slurped his purling blood. Sweets for the vampire.

  I could do this forever—be a vampire. I could accept it finally. But only with him.

  But would he be there to make that happen?

  With one final thrust of his molten hot cock against her mons, Hart’s teeth entered her neck, and the universe collided with her soul and lured it to a bright and perfect place navigable only by her and her werewolf lover. It hurt sweetly until he pulled out his fangs, and they fed upon one another, there, pinned against the outer wall, the rain splashing their bare skin, and the moon winking over the rooftops.

  Yes, forever sounded right.

  * * *

  The sweet, metallic taste of blood on his tongue did not disgust him. Hart closed his eyes and rolled to his back, his palm sliding down Danni’s cool belly to rest upon her neatly-trimmed mons as she lay sleeping beside him.

  He’d jumped, diving deep into the murk once again. But this time he saw more clearly. He no longer feared what he could become. Because whatever he did become, he’d deal with it. Taking Danni’s blood, and in turn, she taking his, was indescribably erotic and about the most amazing thing he’d ever experienced. It was like a runner’s high mixed with the ecstasy of orgasm and one’s tenth birthday when they got the motorized mini race car they’d always wanted.

  So damn cool.

  Which meant, he was going to have to get his ducks in a row and figure out what came next with the pack. Alliances had shifted since he’d met Danni. And he liked the side he stood on now. Sure, they hadn’t known each other long, but he was in it for the ride, no matter how long it lasted.

  And if they mated? Nothing w
ould please him more.

  * * *

  Hart dressed and gave excuses for having to leave. He had duties to the pack, and he didn’t want anyone questioning his alliances until he’d worked out his story.

  Danni couldn’t protest that. She hoped he returned quickly. In his arms she felt safe. It was weird because since Slater had changed her she’d thought to never feel that way again. And who would have thought she would know such a feeling with a werewolf?

  Stranger things had happened, but this one was the good kind of strange.

  “You going to hang around here today?” Hart asked as he pulled his shirt on. Danni suspected he was wheedling around to see if she had plans to spy on his pack.

  “Yes, wander about the house. Naked. Thinking of you.”

  “Naked, eh?” He leaned over the bed and kissed her stomach. “And when you think of me, while you’re naked, will you do this?” His fingers strayed between her legs.

  “There is a chance.”

  “Then I already regret having to leave. I’d like to watch you thinking about me.”

  “Hurry back and you might get your wish, lover boy.”

  “I will.” He kissed her again, then pushed from the bed and left the room.

  Danni listened as the front door closed and her heart fell. She did have other things to do today and it involved things she was wiser not to tell Hart about.

  Six

  Hart knocked on Danni’s door, and while he waited, he sniffed the roses he held. Red, because he thought the color signified romance or passion, but more so because he’d been fascinated by the velvety thick petals. He’d like to lay Danni down on these petals, spread across the bed, and make love to her slow and easy until they lost track of time and knew only the sounds of one another’s heartbeats.