by Desiree Holt
He was just inches from her. Jordan was determined not to let him intimidate her. If he didn’t want her there, well and good. He could clean his own damn messes. But when he moved to within inches of her, all her wolf senses stood up and shouted. What on Earth? This was impossible. She’d researched and looked and was positive there were no wolves here, let alone shifters. Her senses had to be off, thrown askew by her flight from the pack and her desperate search for a safe place.
But when she looked at him, his eyes narrowed just the slightest bit and his nostrils flared. Fear bubbled up inside her. Had the alpha somehow found her here? Was this a trap? No, no, no. He wouldn’t behave this way, looking for isolation. He’d wait to get her alone, grab her up, and take off with her before anyone could stop him.
Still, something was off here. It wasn’t just her wolf senses twitching. Her pheromones had decided to wake up, making her nipples tingle and the inner walls of her sex pulse with need. Tiny electrical impulses sparked her nerve endings. This was not good. Not good at all.
She tried to slide by him, but he grabbed her upper arm, holding her in place.
“Who are you?” His jaw was set, the look in his eyes hard and demanding.
“I’m Jordan.” She wet her lips. “Jordan West.”
She tried to move past him, but he still held her in that iron grip.
“What are you doing here, Jordan West?”
“I, uh, I clean the cabins.” Wait. She’d already said that. Why did she have to sound so damn nervous? Maybe because she was, and it wasn’t just the idea of a strange man holding her arm so she couldn’t get away. There was some kind of electricity in the air between them, the kind she’d seen in the pack when….
Am I crazy? This guy is no shifter. I’m projecting because of my fear.
“Besides that.” His eyes bored into her like two heated arrows.
“I work for the Pelleys. Housekeeping and office stuff.” Would he ever turn her arm loose? He was beginning to frighten her, even as her pheromones started a little happy dance.
At last, he released her arm. “I don’t need anyone in here. I’ll tell Allison again.”
Jordan eased past him and hurried toward the front door. When she reached her cart, she tossed in her things and pushed it up the path toward the other cabins and the office. When she reached the first of the buildings in the main cluster, she stopped and turned around, calling herself a damn fool for doing it.
The man stood on the porch of his cabin, arms crossed, staring up the path at her. She swore she could see electricity crackle in the air between them.
Oh lordy.
Grabbing the handle of her cart with both hands, she pushed it forward again, walking with firm strides until she reached the building that housed the office. She steered the cart around to the back where carts and supplies were kept. She unloaded everything, made checkmarks on the chore sheet to indicate what she’d done, and closed the door. Then she leaned against the side of the building, pulling herself together.
Who was this man? Where had he come from? And why did he have such an effect on her? She’d do well to stay as far away from that particular cabin as she could.
Because the Allegash Sporting Camp was located so far from civilization, the Pelleys had built a small cabin on the other side of the office for help. During the height of each season, they often had day helpers but just one who lived at the location
“It isn’t close to fancy,” Allison had told her with a laugh.
The building was a small one-bedroom, plain but very clean. Jordan didn’t have many belongings anyway, and it was big enough for one person. And, to her, it was a palace.
She fetched the salad she’d made from the fridge and carried it out onto the miniscule back porch. Sitting on the steps, she ate slowly while she enjoyed the peaceful environment. A soft breeze ruffled the surface of the lake, and Jordan lifted her face to it. She’d hoped it could blow away her troubles once and for all, but now she doubted that would happen.
She forced herself not to think about the man she’d seen and the unusual chemistry that blasted between them. She wasn’t a virgin in the real sense of the word, although she’d been very sparing in her relationships within the pack. She had known from the time Anton became second in command he’d had his eye on her. The males in the pack had shied away from her, unwilling to risk his possible wrath. Another reason for her to make her break. The tension every time they were in the same place together, every time he looked at her, had gotten to be more than she could bear.
She set her empty plate down beside her and leaned against the porch railing. Lulled by the warmth and the breeze, she closed her eyes for just a moment.
The night was so clear, the stars like bright diamonds in the sky and the full moon casting its light everywhere. She’d felt him calling to her, even as she slept, a lure pulling her out of bed and into this tiny clearing in the thick trees.
He was magnificent, his fur a rich ebony, his eyes warm gold. He stood there, watching her, then dipped his head just enough to acknowledge her. She walked forward with slow steps, mesmerized by his gaze. When she was a scant inch from him, she stopped and waited. He moved forward another inch and touched his snout to hers. Then he began to circle slowly around her.
She turned, always keeping her gaze locked with his, waiting to see what his next move would be. Would he mount her? Take her right here in this forest beneath the moon? She started to sidestep, but, at the low growl rumbling in his throat, she stopped. And waited.
In seconds, moving so fast he was a blur, he was behind her and ready to mount her. Her body was ready for him, her passage wet and slick, just waiting for his thick cock to fill her. He growled again, and she responded with an answering growl.
I am going to fuck you now.
Yes, do it. Do it!
She inhaled a sharp breath as he began to ease his thick shaft inside her, and she—
“Excuse me. Are you okay?”
The voice startled her so much she almost fell off the porch step. She realized her hands were between her thighs, her muscles tightly clenching them, and she yanked them away as if they’d caught fire. Unhurried, settling herself with a deep breath, she looked up at the man standing in front of her.
Still as ruggedly masculine as her first sight of him. Power. That was the word that came to mind. He carried an air of power with him. Like…like…a wolf? At once, the image from her dreams snapped into her brain, sending a flush of heat through her body. Her nostrils flared, seeking his elusive scent. She’d never reacted to a man like this before, not a human, not a shifter. What a time for this to be happening to her.
What in the hell is the matter with me?
“Yes. I’m fine. Thank you.” She wet her lips. “Is there something I can do for you? Allison explained to me you preferred to be left 100 percent alone. I like to respect people’s wishes.”
“How very polite of you.” He shoved his hands into his pockets.
She wanted to laugh. What an ass! She felt like being anything but polite with this stranger. She hesitated for a brief moment, wondering if it was safe to give it to him then gave herself a mental slap. Why would he have any idea who she was? Wasn’t that why he asked her name?
“I always try to be polite.”
“Well, polite person, there seems to be a problem with the coffeemaker in my cabin. I apologize for bothering anyone. If you can take care of this little problem, I’ll leave you alone.”
“The coffeemaker?” She frowned then her brain cleared. “Of course. I swapped it out with one in another cabin last week. The one you are in seldom gets used, and I needed a working machine. I’ll take care of it right away.”
She pushed to her feet and carried her lunch dishes inside. Her grouchy visitor followed right behind her. The kitchen was so small there was hardly room for the two of them.
She blew out a breath of exasperation. “If you will give me some room to move here, I’ll give you my coffee
maker to take down to your cabin. If you don’t mind bringing the broken one back to me, I’ll take care of getting it fixed.”
“But then you won’t have one for yourself.” For someone who appeared unfriendly on purpose, he sure paid a lot of attention to what someone wanted.
“I’m fine. Don will take it to get it fixed. Meanwhile, I’ll use the one in the office.”
He made a sound in his throat that sounded suspiciously like…a growl? God, her imagination was working overtime.
“Sorry to inconvenience you.”
“Not a problem.” She pushed past him to get her coffee machine from the little counter. The heat from his body where they made contact was as scorching as a real fire. She had to stop herself from fanning her face. Worse yet, she had an unexplained, strong desire to shift. “Here.” She shoved the coffeemaker into his hands. “If you’ll just bring back the other one, I’ll get it taken care of.”
“It’s Stone.” He sounded as if someone had tortured him to get that information.
She lifted her eyebrows. “Excuse me?”
“My name. It’s Stone. Stone Mackenzie.”
“Oh!” She wondered why, if he was such an isolationist, he bothered to tell her his name.
“I do have some manners,” he said, as if reading her mind. “I just don’t use them much anymore.”
Jordan took two steps so she wasn’t quite so close to him.
“Thank you, Stone Mackenzie. If you have any more problems, just let me know and I’ll get them taken care of.”
“Are you the fix-it person around here?”
She dipped her head. “You might say so. Unless it’s major. Then Don handles it.”
“Good to know.”
He stood there, holding the coffee machine, his gaze locked with hers. His golden eyes looked as if flames danced in their irises. Then he turned and left through her back door.
Jordan stood in the middle of her tiny kitchen, dumbfounded. She had no idea what all the pheromones were that had floated around her kitchen, or which of them they came from. The one thing she did know was she was glad Stone Mackenzie wanted isolation. Being anywhere around him could put her in a very different kind of danger.
Chapter 2
God damn it.
Stone had to restrain himself from slamming the door to his cabin. What the fuck was he getting himself into here? He needed complete isolation. Total. One hundred percent. Since his friends seemed convinced he’d slit his throat if they let him go off alone, he’d agreed to take himself off to this place as an acceptable compromise. He saw the brochures, looked at the pictures. It looked fine. A single cabin a good distance from the others. The camp sat at the edge of a wild lake with acres of thickly forested land running back from it as far as the eyes could see.
He didn’t have to talk to anyone. See anyone. Socialize. And he had as much room as he needed to shift and run. That was the big one. Since his last tour of duty, his senses were all out of whack. Being chosen for a secret paranormal Special Forces group was an honor, and he’d appreciated it. He’d never thought the Army would allow him to make use of his special abilities.
But then he discovered the military had a lot of units the public never knew about and would crap their pants if they did. The fact that Afghanistan had a substantial wolf population allowed Stone and his team of shifters to conduct night missions without any chance of discovery. And if a high-value target happened to be killed by marauding wolves, well, it was nothing unusual.
But, after three tours, he was weary of the burden of death. He’d seen so much death on both sides of the war that he carried the stench in his nostrils. He needed to find peace for himself, if such a thing existed anymore. The Pelleys knew nothing about him except he was burned-out and war weary. And they didn’t ask questions.
Now, here he was, caught up in…something…with a woman who he could swear carried the same sensors he did. But that was crazy, wasn’t it? To come all the way to this isolated sporting camp in a state not noted for a wolf population and find a woman he would bet money was a shifter? What the hell should he do?
Nothing. I’m doing nothing.
For one thing, he was in no condition for a relationship of any kind, and for another, hooking up with a shifter would come to no good end. Not now and not here. He would just do his damndest to avoid her at all costs. Except that might be a neat trick.
He stuck the coffeemaker on the counter in his cabin and went out onto the back porch. The first thing he’d noticed when he walked into the cabin was the incredible view from there, the vista of the lake surrounded by dense forest. Well, okay, maybe not the first thing. That had been the woman standing right where he was now. He closed his eyes for a moment, remembering her silvery-blonde hair, her small frame, the way her jeans and T-shirt fit her curves. The startled look in her deep-blue eyes when she turned to see him standing there, eyes framed by unexpectedly dark lashes.
Forget it, Stone. She’s trouble.
Well, yeah, anyone was trouble to him right now. He wasn’t sure he’d ever heal, that the warrior in him would re-emerge from the place it had gone to hide after the last scene of death and destruction.
Tonight, when the other campers were tucked into their cabins, when the Pelleys and Jordan West were asleep in theirs, he would take a walk deep into the woods, shift, and run with a freedom he hadn’t had for the past few weeks. Somehow, sitting alone in his hotel room and not being able to race outside with the wind just didn’t do it.
To give himself something to do in the meantime, he plugged in the coffeemaker and set about fixing a pot. The truck stop out on the highway was better stocked than any convenience store. He’d picked up a few things just to tide him over, but, tomorrow, he’d go back and do some serious shopping. He didn’t want to give himself any reason or excuse to leave the cabin and mingle with civilization unless he had no other choice.
He had chosen this state on purpose and this place because there was no modern history of packs. He’d had it with packs. The one that had decimated his own years ago and left him an orphan made him shy away from all lupine contact. He didn’t trust alphas, and he’d learned others in a pack seldom were able to stand up to them. He’d heard there were packs with a strong yet benevolent alpha, one who always had the good of the pack in mind. He just didn’t have the strength any longer to look for one.
His mind again wandered to Jordan. The electricity between them had shocked the shit out of him. But what stunned him even more was the impact on his wolf senses. It was impossible she was a shifter. Way up here in the desolate north woods? He was losing his fucking mind. He’d just been without for too long. No shifting, lack of sex, and emotional distress had made a total mess of his wolf senses. He needed to get his shit together.
Wait. Wasn’t that why he was here?
So he’d just hide in his cabin until he could run at night. Avoid Jordan West. Forget about the way his shifter senses reacted to her. He needed some of his world-famous discipline right now.
He filled a mug with the freshly brewed coffee and carried it out to the back porch, chose the Adirondack chair over the old but still serviceable glider, and settled himself. Other than to refill his mug twice, he never moved, staring out at the Allegash, blanking his mind of everything and anything. When the position of the sun told him it was close to evening, he fixed a sandwich and took it and a cold beer back onto the porch. After he finished eating, he sat in the chair, watching the color of the night sky deepen and the moon rise against its opaque surface.
At last, when it was full dark, he locked up the cabin and began his hike deep into the woods. Once he got into the trees, it was even blacker, a velvet blackness that cloaked him like a cape. The Maine North Woods stretched way farther than he could see, or even imagine. Before coming here, he’d read about it, learned it was more than three million acres, larger than Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks combined. He figured it was big enough for him to run to his heart’s conte
nt, listening to the song of the multiple birds that called it home and evading the predators like bear and coyote.
He walked more than a mile before he found a place that suited his purpose. Removing his shoes and stripping his clothes off, he rolled everything into a bundle and secured it in the notch of a branch, high enough up to keep it away from predators but still low enough he could reach it.
Naked, he stood beside the tree, inhaled, and let his breath out slowly then let his body begin its change. He felt the stretch of his muscles, the movement of bones, the tingle on his skin as his thick coat emerged. And then, in a burst of life, his human self disappeared and he stood on all fours, a massive black wolf, snout pointed up, sniffing the air. A soft breeze riffled his coat and stirred the leaves on the hardwood trees and the needles on the conifers. Not his kind of environment at all.
Noting the location of his clothes, he stretched out his body and took off at a slow lope, winding his way through the trees, picking up speed until he was running flat out. This was the first time he had been able to do this without restrictions since he’d been back, and slowly but surely the tension eased from his big body.
As he covered the miles, he noted the wildlife scattered around him, skirting the bear but racing with the coyotes and the deer and the other less menacing animals. Leaves rustled as birds, disturbed by his swift movement, flitted from tree to tree. The scent of pine was rich and redolent and created an exotic scent when mingled with that of the earth beneath his paws.
He could live here, he thought, if he could figure out what to do besides being a hermit. Another day and night of this and he’d never want to go back to civilization.
He had no idea how long he’d been running, just enjoying the freedom and the scents of nature and the breeze against his body when he came to a slight rise in the forest floor and stopped. In this particular area, the forestation was thinner, the trees farther apart, and, in some places, even scattered enough to create small clearings. He felt at peace for the first time in weeks. Maybe months.