The Last Wolf: A Highplains Shifter Erotic Romance (Wolf Fire Book 1)

by Alice Longstaff

  “But he used you!” I said. “How could you let him do that to you? How are you pleased about it?”

  “Yes he used me. But God I liked it. Sometimes girl, you just have to let yourself get used. I still think about that fuck years later. It’s an experience I wouldn’t swap for anything in the world and you have nothing to compare it to, nothing! Think of all the experiences you’ve missed out on Hope. I just want you to have fun like I do.”

  “I know, I know. I’m wasting my life.” I took a deep swig of my whiskey, starting to feel distinctly drunk. “But there’s nothing I can do about it, I don’t feel the same way about men as you do, they don’t make me feel the same emotions. I’ve never met anyone who I could feel like you did about the surfer, I can’t have the experiences you have had. If someone tried to do that to me, no matter how amazingly hot, I’d scream for the police.”

  Talking of amazingly hot, at that moment the doors to the bar swung open. Like everybody else in the dismal room me and Cassie whipped our heads round to see who had arrived. And, oh my gosh, talk about an arrival. The man who burst through the door had to be 6’4” in his socks, and had a body like he was a part of some dirty Greek sculptor’s sex dream. Goodness me, I thought, if Cassie was looking for someone who could pick her up and have her against the wall then she sure had found him, the size of that man’s arms. He filled the doorway completely, blocking out the light and making himself a silhouette, but when he stepped forward I could see that the sculptor sure hadn’t skimped on the face either. His large deep set eyes seemed to flash with a shimmer of violet that I’d never seen on a man before, he had high cheekbones and a face that tapered down to a strong manly chin covered with a stubble so intense it almost looked blue.

  I felt Cassie dig her elbow into my ribs as he strode towards the bar. “There’s your man. If you don’t take him I will.”

  “He’s all yours Cassie.” I whispered from the side of my mouth.

  “Then why is he staring right at you?”

  “Honestly Cassie, I’m not in the mood for this. If you want to talk to him then go and talk to him but I’m going to sit right here and finish my whiskey. Like I said, I’m not like you.”

  “Your loss honey.” Said Cassie. “Did you see the size of the bulge in his pants?” She held her hands apart like she was showing off an imaginary fish. “Talk about hung.”

  I had seen the bulge, in fact I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off it, which is certainly not like me at all. Too much whiskey Hope, time to calm down. I sat at the bar peeling the label from my bottle of beer. Why was I here? Why had I allowed myself to be talked into coming to this ridiculous part of the country, to this ridiculous bar, with my ridiculous friend? I wasn’t cut out for single life, maybe I should just take Cassie’s hint and join a nunnery.

  I could hear my friend’s most flirtatious laugh filling the bar, the one that basically said if you wanted to you could take me right here on the floor. I looked over and saw her leant in close to the newcomer. She had one of her hands on his broad muscular shoulder and looked tiny standing next to him, the sheer size of the man was just incredible. I couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, from his part it looked like not much, but she was throwing her head back and laughing at every utterance, like he was some comedy god. Could she be any more obvious? It was kind of pathetic but I knew it would work, I had seen it a hundred times - Cassie always took home the man she wanted.

  I signalled for the barman to slide me over another whiskey and heard a deep resonant voice say: “this one is on my tab Earl.”

  The handsome man was leaning on the bar next to me. I looked over at Cassie, trying to signal “what happened?” with my eyebrows, but probably not succeeding, I’m no Roger Moore.

  “Your friend tells me you’re new around here?” Said the man.

  “Yes, we’re here for a few days. For some reason, darned if I know why, we’re going to be working on an organic farm.”

  “Burnt Back Ridge?”

  “That’s the one.” I said with a smile.

  “Well that’s just about perfect. I own Burnt Back Ridge.” He said with a grin, seating himself on the bar stool next to me.

  Well this was just great. I’d been dragged out here to the middle of nowhere on Cassie’s insistence and now she was probably going to spend the whole time flirting with the hunky owner, leaving me to pick peas and hose down pigs, or whatever the hell it was people who spent their vacations on organic farms did now-a-days.

  “Oh no, I mean, oh great. Nice to meet you.” I mumbled. He let out a laugh, so deep, rich and chocolaty that its lower notes almost sounded like a growl. I’ve always had a thing for people’s voices, and this man had a voice you could just drink up. I imagined lying back and just having him talk to me, he could read me the back of cereal boxes and the small print for medical insurance ads, anything as long as he used that voice.

  “You don’t sound too keen on farm work to me,” He said. “If you don’t like farms why did you sign up to help out?”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to sound rude. It’s just that I’m going through a bit of a tough time at the moment. I’m not sure I could be enthusiastic about anything right now, it’s nothing to do with you, or your farm, which I’m sure is... perfectly lovely.”

  Perfectly lovely? I wasn’t certain what the correct etiquette for complementing a farm was, so I guessed that would have to do. The handsome man clinked his tumbler against mine, sending the ice cubes in the glasses rattling.

  “Perfectly lovely it is, just like you.”

  He drained the rye from his glass and turned to look at me and Cassie. “Well I’m going to use the rest room and then drive on back to Burnt Back Ridge. Would you girls care to join me?”

  Cassie and I looked at each other: “yes please!” She said.

  The man showed us to his beaten up old Dodge and we both climbed in. I know it’s not the kind of thing you’re supposed to do, climbing into strange men’s trucks outside of bars, but he didn’t give off the rapey vibe, he seemed too solid, too unconcerned by what was going on around to be a threat to us. Even when Cassie basically shoved her tits in his face as she climbed in he barely seemed to blink.

  “So what’s your name?” Asked Cassie. We were sitting three abreast in the front of the pick-up, and Cassie had conveniently managed to place herself right next to the driver. Looking down I could see there was a clear foot of space between the two of us, but she was pressed right up against him as though we were squeezed like sardines in a can.

  “My name is Hakan.” He said.

  “Well that’s a pretty dumb name for a farmer.” Said Cassie, with what she thought was a flirtatious laugh. “what’s your surname, Slash?”

  “I think it’s a beautiful name. What does it mean?” I said.

  “It is a very ancient name. As old as the plains and the fields I farm. It means fire bringer.”

  Fire. It seemed appropriate somehow, we were driving into a blazing sunset and the man did seem to have a burning intensity about him. In my half drunken state it seemed right that we were being led into the unknown by the fire bringer.

  We reached the dusty godforsaken place where I had been dropped off by the bus earlier that day and turned right along a narrow bumpy trail. Every time we hit a hole in the road Cassie seemed to be thrown further onto Hakan’s lap but he kept his hands firmly on the wheel, his big forearms bulging as he gripped it. After about 20 minutes of interminable jolting and bumping I saw a faint glow in the distance.

  “Is, is your farm on fire?” I asked.

  The man let out one of his deep heart-melting laughs. “No, that’s just the fire pit, we light one every night and keep it burning till dawn.”

  “Doesn’t that use a hell of a lot of wood?” Said Cassie.

  “Sure does!” He said with a laugh.

  We pulled up in front of a rough circle of buildings with a huge blazing bonfire in the middle. Hakan gestured to a long low building to
our right. “That’s the dormitory where our volunteers sleep. From the looks of it they’ve all gone to bed already, the days are hard here and we start early.” He pointed to the grand building with a large veranda to our left “that’s where I sleep, in the lodge, if you ever need anything just knock on the door. I’m going to take a whiskey by the fire if you ladies would care to join me?”

  I looked over at Cassie as Hakan walked away towards the Lodge. I could see that she was sulking.

  “Oh Cassie, don’t be upset that he is not ripping your clothes off yet, he’s probably just gay, but I’m sure you’ll manage to turn him, have you thought about pulling your top any lower? I’m not quite sure he could see your nipples yet.” I said.

  “Fuck off Hope. And I don’t think he’s gay. Have you seen the way he looks at you?” Said Cassie. “I think it’s something much more serious that homosexuality, I think he’s got an Amish librarian fetish. I’m going to go and find somewhere to sleep and call it a day. Promise me you’ll go for it. Promise me you will try to have fun. Give him one from me!”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said, shaking my head.

  Cassie walked backwards away from me, nodding and holding her hands out in the universal gesture for massive cock.

  Chapter Three

  Hakan did not seem surprised to see me sitting on my own, but then he looked like the kind of man who wouldn’t have been surprised if I turned into a giant purple unicorn. He sat down next to me on the log and we both stared into the flames. I don’t know if it was all the whiskey, or whether after hearing Cassie’s story I was just desperate to feel anything at all, but although nothing was said there was an definitely an energy between us. It was something that I had never felt before, something alive, something crackling like the embers in the fire. He was evidently thinking along similar lines, when he spoke his words jolted into me like lightning bolts.

  “There is something caged within you Hope, I can feel it straining to get out. There is something wild and dangerous there and it is calling out to a similar part of me.” I said nothing, I’ve never been very good at the whole my wild soul calls to yours conversations.

  “I would like to see you set yourself free Hope. I know you want to hide from it, I get the sense that you always have. I want to see you in touch with the beast that rages inside you. You don’t have to embrace it, you don’t have to keep in touch with it when you go back to the city, but while you’re here I want to see if you can make contact with it. You are not the kind of creature who should sit still and watch her life flash by. You should be fighting and clawing for every moment the universe can give you.” He said.

  I looked deep into his violet eyes, they seemed even brighter than they had earlier. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” I whispered.

  He didn’t say anything just turned to look at me full on. Half his face was hidden in shadow, the other flickered bright in the orange light of the fire. It seemed to accentuate the vividness of his eyes. He slowly reached up and took my chin in his hand, tilting my head back, looking down into what I guessed was my soul, where he thought I kept this dangerous snarling beast of mine.

  Somewhere far across the plains an animal cried out, a nonhuman terrifying sound. My eyes flickered away for a second, searching for the source of the noise, and when I looked back his head was bending towards mine, his big soft lips descending towards my own. Now, I know I have a reputation for being a little bit prudish, but I know how the mechanics of a kiss work. You either turn your head aside and dodge it (normally my preferred approach) or you close your eyes, press your lips forward and join the kiss. I did neither and kept my head exactly where it was, wide-eyed and unmoving as our lips softly touched.

  I know it’s a cliché, but that kiss really did feel electric, electric like being stuck with a cattle prod. It hit me deep inside in a way that no other kiss had. I had no time for worrying whether I was kissing right, whether he was enjoying it, whether my breath smelt okay, all my normal kissing concerns floated away in the intensity of the moment. My eyes slid closed and my tongue crept out, I realised that this was the kind of feeling that Cassie had been talking about with her surfer. The feeling that you didn’t care what happened to you or your body as long as you are with this one man. I shifted closer to him, pressing myself into his strong arms, but before I knew it he had broken the kiss and was standing up.

  “I want you to stay out here for a bit Hope, I want you to look into the flames and listen to the sounds of the plains. I want you to think about who you are and the person you would like to be. I will see you in the morning.”

  Chapter Four

  I would use three words to describe the next day. Hot, boring and long. I had woken up with the electricity still coursing through my abdomen. It made my body feel like it was full of potential that I had never realised it had. I wondered if this is how people like Cassie felt every day, full of sexual excitement, brimming with lusty anticipation.

  Though, I have to say Cassie didn’t seem very full of sexual excitement and anticipation that day, the fact she seemed plain old pissed off. We had a strange breakfast, which I’m guessing was totally organic, of beans and a sort of mushy rice thing. Then we were sent out to where we would be working for the day, building a new corral for the beef herd. It was hard, tedious work. But Cassie mainly seemed pissed off that the hunky big-armed, strong-jawed countrymen she’d been fantasising about were nowhere to be seen. Instead our workmates were a collection of ragtag and scraggly hippies, I guess they were exactly the kind of people you would expect to spend their free time working on organic farms. They wore grey little vests that showed off twiggy upper arms, and their weak chins were mostly covered in scraggly pubic-type beards. I had to bite myself to stop myself from laughing at the thought of even one of them trying it on with Cassie, she’d eat them alive.

  “I’m sick of this.” Said Cassie after our lunch (more beans). “This is not what it was supposed to be about, where are all the cowboys? Where are all the hunks? Where is your Mr I Bring The Fire Man or whatever is called from last night? I think I want to go home.”

  “His name is Hakan, and come on it’s not that bad.” I said.

  “Not that bad! For you it’s not that bad! You’ve got that great big hulking man to look forward to. And by the way I cannot believe you didn’t screw him last night AND that you’ve let him out of your sight now. God if it was me I would have been on my back next to the fire quicker than you could say organic beef herd.”

  “Oh I know you would Cassie.” I said with a laugh.

  “No I’m serious, I was certain you were going to get some last night.” Cassie dropped her voice to a whisper. “Can I tell you something? When I was going to bed I was thinking about the two of you out there, I was thinking about you two and touching myself.”

  “Cassie!” I was shocked, “I don’t want you masturbating while thinking about me. That’s a violation, its mental rape.”

  “No its not, its good fun. I think about all my friends and their boyfriends when I masturbate, well not you and James obviously ‘cos that would be gross. But you getting ploughed by that big farmer, your tits jiggling in the fire light, come on that’s hot. Anyway, I bet Hakan was thinking about you while he wanked last night.”

  I felt my face turn a bright shade of red. It was kind of disgusting to think about anyone touching themselves while thinking about you, and it really did feel like an invasion of my most personal space, even though it was just Cassie’s imagination. But somehow I didn’t feel the same way about Hakan. An image of him flashed into my mind lying on his back under the open stars caressing himself to the memory of little old Hope. I gave a shudder. What was happening to me? I was even starting to grow wet between the legs, this wasn’t the kind of girl Hope Richardson was get a grip.

  We trudged wearily back to the dormitories after a hard day’s work in the fields. Behind me I could hear Cassie half-heartedly talking about m
editation and mindfulness techniques with one of the hippies. I could tell she wasn’t going to last much longer, this was certainly not her scene, however much to my surprise I was actually having a great time. My body felt tired but powerful after the day’s exertions, and I was desperately looking forward to the fire-pit and seeing Hakan again.

  But he was not there, my mysterious and elusive stranger had mysteriously and elusively done a bunk. I hadn’t quite realised how much I had been looking forward to seeing him until he was no longer there. I sat and stared at the flames for what seemed like hours, long after the others had gone to bed, every time there was noise from the prairie I jerked around, hoping to see him walking towards me, but there was no sign of the man. Eventually I decided to get up and go for a walk around the plains, there was no way I would be able to sleep that night, every time I closed my eyes my vision was filled full of lascivious and unfamiliar images, disturbing vision of being pinned down, pounded and dominated. I wasn’t comfortable with these mental pictures, projections from my inner beast Hakan would probably call them. I knew I had to get away, distract myself somehow.

  I climbed the narrow ridge close to the campfire. My eyes took a while to adjust to the dark after staring at the flames for so long, but when they did I saw movement on the plains below. It was a long way off, but to me it looked like a ghost flowing over the rocks and grass of the fields, a flash of gray and white. I squinted, trying to get a better look at what was moving so fast towards me, and realised it was a wolf, its fur as luminous as the moon. I’d never seen an animal move so fast, even when colleagues had taken me out for a day at the horse races. Even from a distance I could see the power in the animal as it charged towards me. I knew that I should turn and run, but the way the creature hurtled forwards made me feel completely helpless, if this animal had decided it was going to devour me then there was absolutely no way I could possibly stop it fore filling its wish.