What's Her Secret?

by Geraldine O'Hara, Natalie Dae, Nichelle Gregory, Crissy Smith, Lisabet Sarai

  Piper climbed up onto four furry paws and shook. The black wolf dropped his head and growled at her. Holy shit! Jace didn’t know what to do.

  The two wolves circled each other. Piper snapped at the black wolf, which remained calm. What the… How? His mind raced trying to figure out what to do. He gripped the gun tighter.

  He had left his office in search for her and noticed that Piper was no longer behind the bar. He’d asked Brittany and she’d informed him that Piper had taken out the trash. As he’d made his way through the kitchen, a feeling of dread and danger had moved up his spine. He had been in enough rough spots during his military career to trust his gut. He’d quickly run to his office to the locked drawer of his desk and taken out his .45. He’d rushed back through the kitchen and out the back door to see a man on top of Piper.

  Fury had filled him as he’d watched the woman he loved being threatened. He clutched the gun, not sure what was going on or what he should do. It wasn’t like he could call nine-one-one. How would he explain to the police that two wolves were fighting behind his bar? Oh, and not to shoot the little one because he loved her. Damn! His head was spinning.

  The black wolf lunged for Piper and she dodged. Jace raised the gun again and fired a warning shot down the alley. The shot was aimed over their heads, the bullet’s target the thick cement fence. The sound echoed through the dark alley and he had time to briefly worry about someone hearing it as they passed by. He didn’t know how he would explain two wolves fighting. The black wolf snarled and Piper whimpered and none of that mattered. He had to protect Piper.

  “Back over here, honey,” he spoke to Piper. “Carefully.” He had to get her away from danger.

  He hoped she understood him in this…other form. His entire knowledge of werewolves came from books and movies. He never would have imagined that the myths he’d enjoyed reading and watching about were real. In some stories the animal kept the intelligence of the human. He really hoped so because he didn’t want Piper to attack him.

  Piper scooted back and the black wolf lunged again. Jace shot another round. The black wolf turned back to him and started to stalk forward.

  Jace’s hand was still as he aimed his gun at the animal. Even though his heart raced in his chest, he would use his experience as a soldier to protect Piper and himself.

  The wolf growled low and deep, sending unease through him. The animal didn’t seem afraid of his gun. Well, shit, would his bullet even kill a werewolf? His mind still struggled to understand but his heart had no issue trying to protect Piper.

  The black wolf pursued him as Jace backed into the kitchen door. Four bullets left in his gun. Jace would at least hurt him. A bullet in between the eyes should slow him down, maybe enough to get Jace and Piper out of the alley. He aimed carefully.

  With a howl Piper hurled herself through the air and onto the back of the other wolf. Jace dropped his arm with a curse. He couldn’t take the chance of hitting her.

  The black wolf turned and snapped at her. They rolled, snarling and biting. Piper got her jaws around the black wolf’s throat and Jace heard a yelp before she went flying into the wall. The black wolf shook himself—Jace could see he was hurt. And so was Piper. Jace started to inch closer to her, keeping his back to the brick, but the wolf moved faster.

  Before Jace knew what was happening, the black wolf pounced and was on top of Piper again. She whined, fighting, and Jace ran toward her. Before he got there though, she managed to scramble away and launched herself back at the black wolf. Jace could see blood where she had lain and it terrified him. He was desperate to help Piper, but was unable to take a clean shot and he didn’t want to risk hitting her. Fangs clashed and the two wolves battled again. The sounds that echoed around the alley were horrendous. Jace braced his feet and waited for his chance.

  Piper rolled away from the black wolf, panting, and Jace knew this was his opportunity. He took his shot—hit the black wolf in the side. He snarled at Jace, but Piper was there to sink her teeth into his flank. The black wolf turned and Piper backed off.

  Jace aimed and shot the wolf in his shoulder. The black wolf stumbled and Piper was there again, this time taking a chunk out of the beast’s stomach.

  This continued until Jace was out of bullets and the black wolf weakened. Piper growled and attacked once more. Blood spurted as she closed her jaw around the other wolf’s throat—then it was over.

  Jace dropped to his knees as Piper backed away. He wanted to reach out to her. To call her over to him. His entire body shook and he couldn’t seem to get his voice to work.

  Piper continued to distance herself, whimpering. The thought that she was hurt snapped Jace out of his paralysis. “Piper,” he called out softly to her. She stopped moving and crouched down.

  Jace gripped his knees. He wasn’t afraid of her. She had risked her life to protect him. So many questions were now answered. So many things that he hadn’t even realized he’d noted now came to the front of his mind. The way she sniffed and rubbed up against him. Her secrecy and the constant running to remain alone. The way her eyes would glow when she was under him while he made love with her. Everything just clicked into place.

  Piper wasn’t fully human. But she was still his.

  Piper tried to make herself as small and non-threatening as she could. Now that the adrenaline was leaving her body all she wanted to do was curl into a ball.

  She couldn’t believe it was finally over. Joe wouldn’t be stalking her. She could live the life she wanted to now. But had she lost Jace? She couldn’t see him sticking with a woman who turned furry and had killed a man in front of him. Her soul ached knowing she would never see her mate again.

  Jace was watching her and she knew she had to get away. Joe’s body lay broken between them. She started to scoot back when Jace began to rise.

  “No,” he ordered and she froze. “You are not running from me again,” he told her. “Come here.”

  Her sore and tired muscles wanted to run, the instinct hard to ignore. But the order from Jace was even harder to resist. She wanted to obey him.

  “Piper!” Jace called.

  She shook, unsure what to do.

  He sighed and stepped toward her. A whimper escaped that she couldn’t hold back. “Baby…it’s okay.” Jace continued to speak softly as he slowly made his way closer.

  Piper couldn’t control the shudders that racked her body as he knelt in front of her. Jace ran his hand gently down her side and her muscles relaxed. “Shh, it’s gonna be okay, honey,” he crooned to her.

  He petted her until she was relaxed and tranquil under his hands, until he sat back on his heels. “Are you hurt?” he asked. “Can you…uh…change back?”

  She could, but she knew as soon as she was in her human form she would have to talk to him. She liked him stroking and caressing her.

  “Come on, baby,” he encouraged.

  She rose to her feet and backed away, then started her shift.

  It took a little longer than when she had first transformed into her wolf form. Being injured and exhausted caused the shift to be painful. Naked and panting, she remained on her hands and knees once it was over.

  He inhaled and gathered her into his arms. She stiffened against her will, adrenaline still coursing through her, but he continued to soothe her.

  She let him pick her up and carry her back toward the bar. She tried to look over his shoulder at Joe’s body as they passed but Jace pushed her face into his chest and sped up. He opened the door, still holding her tight against his body. The familiar scent of the bar and Jace carrying her had tears springing to her eyes. This place and these people were what she wanted, although she was scared about what would happen next.

  Jace took her into his office and locked the door behind them before sitting on the couch with her still in his arms. He gripped her chin when she didn’t lift her head and made her meet his gaze.

  What she saw astounded her. Instead of disgust and fear she only saw love and compassi
on toward her. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose, her eyelids, her chin, before pressing his mouth against hers. Just a brief meeting of lips but it was enough to calm her. “Talk to me, Piper. I’m not going anywhere. Please just talk to me,” he begged. And she was unable to resist his plea.

  So she told him everything. She started at the beginning from when Joe had picked her up at the bar, to her change, through each city she’d gone to, until she finally got to the part about what had happened earlier that night. Jace had one hand in her hair while his other rubbed up and down her naked back. The hand in her hair tightened when she explained about Joe coming into the bar but relaxed and let her continue with her tale.

  Once her story was done she collapsed into him. He rubbed his chin over the top of her head. “You know where you went wrong, right?” he asked gently. She blinked up at him. “You should have told me, everything, from the beginning but especially once you fell in love with me,” he said.

  She sputtered. “Who said I was in love with you?”

  He laughed. “Oh, I know you love me!” he replied with full confidence. “And you better know that I love you just as much.”

  It was so great to hear his words. She snuggled deeper in his hold. “I don’t know how you can,” she confessed. “Especially after what you saw…” She couldn’t finish her sentence. She didn’t want to remember…to have to think about what she’d done in the alley. She had killed someone.

  “Because,” he said sternly, “this is a part of you. Just a small part of the woman I love.”

  Piper wiped her face against the soft cotton of Jace’s shirt. “I couldn’t tell anyone,” she told him, hoping he could understand.

  “I know you believe that. It’s all right. It’s in the past now and we’ll move on,” he agreed. “But from now on there will be no secrets between us. None. I don’t care what it is.”

  Piper bit her lip and gazed up at him. “I’ll try,” she responded. She might have had secrets but she had never lied. “What are we going to do about Joe?”

  “He’ll stay in wolf form?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “I guess. I don’t know about all of this.”

  Jace pursed his lips in thought. “Well, it’s normal to bury pets when they die. I’ll take care of it.”

  “You’ll bury him?” she questioned, not really sure how she felt about that. “Where?”

  Jace shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s going to be fine.”

  “I trust you,” she assured him and was somewhat surprised that she truly meant it.

  He smiled and quickly kissed her. “I’ll get your spare uniform out of your locker. Then I’m taking you home to shower and to bed before I come back to deal with him.”

  “Okay. I’m not going to argue. I’m exhausted.”

  “One question though.”

  She snorted. “Just one?”

  He chuckled softly at her dry tone. “Where are your clothes? You were fully dressed before you became the wolf.”

  She lifted a brow. “I wish I knew. I really don’t know anything about how this shifting works. There are some people I could ask but I’ve always been too scared.”

  “We’ll figure it out together. You and me.”

  She looked up at him and met his gaze. “Together,” she repeated.

  “So I’m going to take you home.”

  “Yes, please.” She really wanted that.

  “And I mean my home, our home,” he told her firmly. Piper stared into his eyes. “I’m going to take care of you from now on. And you’re going to let me.”

  “I can take care of myself,” she argued. Hadn’t she proved that?

  He shook his head and lifted her off his lap into the corner of the couch. “You’ve been doing it for too long. It’s time you were pampered,” he declared.

  Piper grinned. “Whatever you say, boss.”

  He chucked her under her chin and pointed at her. “Stay right where I put you.”

  She was happy as she laid her head on the back of the couch. Jace pampering her? Oh, that sounded like heaven to her.

  “And after you get some sleep you are going to tell me everything I need to know about taking care of you, in both forms,” he announced before opening the office door and leaving.

  She gazed after him. “I love you,” she whispered. The room was empty but she just had to say it.

  “I know!” he hollered back.

  She laughed and closed her eyes.

  Chapter Five

  Jace sat in a lounge chair on his back porch with a beer in one hand and his cock in the other. The full moon was bright above him and he couldn’t wait for the rest of his night to start. A sound to the left drew his attention and he watched as the woman he loved strolled naked through the side gate and into view.

  Three months had passed since he’d found out about Piper’s second form and they had been the best months of his life. Piper had settled beautifully into her new life, not being afraid to show him her true self and even embracing her wolf a little more and going for a run late at night.

  Since she didn’t know a lot about how she had been turned, they remained unsure on what exactly would happen with her wolf form in the future. He wanted her to bite him but she was still too afraid. Her own changing had been so traumatic that she showed true fear when he brought it up. She did confide that it was getting harder and harder to resist biting and claiming him. He would stroke her back and tell her that they would get through it. They could get through anything as long as they were together. And he believed it.

  So when she took her late-night runs in her other form he always made sure he welcomed her back. He always waited for her to return.

  She grinned, spotting him lying back. She licked her lips as she made her way over. “Oh, look what I found!” She teased a finger up his leg as she got close. “A naked man on my deck.”

  He was also hard and erect. Her cool hand replaced his hand on his cock and she pumped. He hissed and lifted his hips to push into her hold.

  “Mmm, my own special treat,” she purred before nipping his thigh.

  He loved when she played with him. As she got more and more comfortable with herself and their relationship, he had found that she had a wicked sense of humor. “What are you going to do with your treat?” he asked, lifting his hips.

  She licked some of the pre-cum escaping. “There are too many things I want to do,” she confessed, her eyes glowing as she looked up at him.

  “Take me in your mouth,” he pleaded.

  She chuckled and ran her tongue over his pelvis and around his cock. “Are you sure that’s what you want?”

  “Baby, please!” he begged.

  She hummed and swallowed, taking his cock deep.

  “God!” he hollered, bucking into the warm moist heat of her mouth.

  She wrapped one hand around his erection as she bobbed up and down. He loved when she gave him head, slurping and licking at him until it was almost too much. Yeah, oh, that was so good. He had just begun to lose himself to her when she drew back.

  He whined—he couldn’t help it—and reached for her. She smacked his hands away while she straddled his lap. “You ready for me?” she asked, gripping his cock again and rubbing his hard shaft against her wet folds.

  “Yes!” He strained to push into her.

  She threw her head back and lowered herself onto his thick cock. Their moans echoed together around the dark yard.

  Once he was fully inside her sweet body he grasped her hips and held on tight. “Ride me,” he ordered.

  Hands planted on his chest, she did just that. Rocking, lifting herself, before slamming down. It was fast and furious and so fucking good.

  He thrust up hard and deep until she clamped around him. He reared up, gripping her shoulders firmly, and drove deep inside. He chased his own orgasm until she cried out and reached a second climax. Then he yelled before fastening his mouth over her shoulder and biting down while he
emptied his seed inside her. He didn’t have to worry about breaking her skin and he loved when she wore his marks. A sign of his claiming of her.

  He collapsed back into the chair with her still wrapped around him. She started to laugh, he continued to pant. “God, I love you,” she confessed.

  “Me too, baby, me too,” he responded, patting her hip lightly, completely worn out for the time being. Maybe they could just sleep there for the rest of the night. Hell, for the rest of their life would work too.

  “How about a drink?” she murmured against his neck.

  He shook his head. “I think it’s past last call.”

  She snorted and slowly lifted off of him. “Never for us—we’ll never have last call between you and me,” she corrected.

  He loved when she got sappy with him. He pulled her into a tight embrace, settling her next to him in the lounge chair.

  “Right you are, baby,” he agreed. “How right you are.”

  About the Author

  Crissy Smith lives in Texas with her husband, daughter, and three Labrador retrievers. The three dogs love to curl up under her computer desk and nap while she writes. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for her but what’s a woman to do?

  When not writing or reading, she enjoys hunting, camping and shooting. But she has a girly side too and is addicted to pedicures and coffee.

  She has been writing since she was a teenager and still loves everything to do with the paranormal. Her stories and characters all have a place in her heart. She loves the Alpha male, the dominant werewolf, and the Master vampire, which find their way in most of her books.

  Learn more about the characters she has created at her website where they have their very own page. It will be updated from time to time to let you know what's going on with them. Also you can find out who will be in the next book.

  Email: cmsmith0328@yahoo.com

  Crissy loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.totallybound.com.