by Kele Moon
Well, that didn’t help my sanity!
Brandi hesitated for about two seconds before she ran to one of the windows.
She peeked out, barely moving the curtain. Jason’s back was to her and she wasn’t going to miss seeing him change. She needed confirmation that she wasn’t going crazy.
He pulled his keys out of his pocket and tugged his jeans past his hips. He didn’t wear underwear. She stared at his perfect backside. He had the nicest ass she’d ever seen on a man. He was tan all over, as if he spent a lot of time lying out in the sun naked, and it only added to his appeal. He shoved his jeans down his legs to reveal muscular thighs. She saw wounds on one of his legs. Bite marks. She knew they were from his fight earlier with the three wolves. They looked almost healed. She tore her gaze away from the scabbed gashes
He wasn’t a hairy man. Some men had really hairy legs, but not Jason, which was surprising considering he was a part-time wolf. She swallowed, feeling guilty for a moment as she tried to remind herself she was just looking for confirmation that all this was real, rather than her being pervy and spying on him. She wasn’t supposed to be checking him out, but the man had a hell of a body. It was hard not to appreciate it.
Jason dropped his keys on top of his jeans and crouched down. The change happened so fast, she blinked from the shock of it. In seconds he’d gone from skin to fur.
She was still trying to accept the massive black wolf was the same guy who’d helped her wash dishes as he grabbed his keys in his powerful jaws, leaped off the porch and raced off into the woods. He never looked back, and she stared at the pair of jeans laying on the bottom step once he was gone. That was all that was left of the man he’d been.
Brandi dropped the curtain, walked to the couch and sat down hard.
She wasn’t losing her mind. Jason really was a Werewolf. She should be terrified of him but as she searched her emotions, it wasn’t fear she found. It was fascination, an odd form of security she wasn’t sure she should trust, and…desire.
Shock tore through her at the revelation. She was sexually attracted to the tall, dark-haired man with the mixed genes.
She looked around the cabin in a daze, unable to believe the one-eighty her life had taken in the past twenty-four hours. She’d woken up yesterday a sensible woman who was happy with her orderly, uneventful life. As boring as it was, she liked her career as a self-employed accountant with a sizable list of small-business clients. She enjoyed the freedom of working for herself and not answering to anyone. She’d made a bad choice once when she’d been younger and married Carl, but never again had she planned on falling for the wrong guy and giving up her self-worth.
Now Brandi was trapped inside a cabin in the woods and lusting after the big bad wolf.
Chapter Four
Jason headed straight into the woods without looking back, even though he had sensed Brandi’s gaze on him the moment he walked out onto the porch. He tried not to think about her watching him change into one of the same creatures who’d nearly ripped her to shreds.
He tried even harder not to think about her reaction to him before he’d changed, because he’d caught it, even from outside—the unmistakable scent of female desire.
Wolves weren’t known for restraint when it came to carnal things like the smell of female lust, but Jason was stronger than most. Perhaps it was his human genes that allowed him to exercise a little more sexual control, but his strength of will was paper-thin where Brandi was concerned. He was feeling very carnal, more so than he could remember being in a very long time. Perhaps ever.
But even more unnerving than the desire pumping through his blood stream, he was disturbed by how easy it was to expose himself to this woman. A human. He’d even discussed missing his mother. That was something he kept locked up tightly, since it was a weakness of sorts and wolves weren’t known for making themselves vulnerable to strangers outside their pack. He didn’t even talk with his alphas about it, though Desmon and Jazz were far more likely to understand than a human was. They’d suffered losses too, and more so, they were wolves.
His own kind.
Something that until this afternoon mattered more to him than anything else. He’d spent a lifetime denying any sort of connection to humans despite his father, or more likely because of him.
Not that the wolf in him was concerned with the not-so-minor complication of a lifetime of resentment directed toward the entire human race.
It took everything in Jason to focus on the job at hand and not turn back to do something more interesting than scavenging for the scent of rogue wolves in the woods. Jason wasn’t sure what would’ve happened if Brandi’s safety wasn’t at stake. Something that probably would’ve shocked her more than she already had been, because he wanted to find the source of that female desire and claim it like the dirty dog he could be, but fortunately he also had the undeniable compulsion to eliminate this threat to her. It was more important to him than sex.
Even the wolf in him agreed, which was as unusual as everything else about his reaction to this human. The wolf was a wholly feral being, one whose needs were very simple—survival, serving the pack, fucking.
Not necessarily in that order, especially when a female smelled as sweet as Brandi Compro.
It would be another story if she were a wolf. He was feeling very protective of her even though she wasn’t pack. That meant he might be very compatible with her, and typically he would explore that, and a female wolf would be just as willing to exchange sex and see if they were well-matched in more ways than one, but humans were wired differently.
Weres mated for life once they found the right one. In every case, a male Were existed to protect his mate. It circumvented all his other instincts, even that of his own survival. Jason wasn’t real sure why he was feeling that way toward Brandi. Werewolf chemistry at its best. It happened all the time, but not with a human. At least not that often. There were wolves who’d decided to mate with humans. His mother was one, but look at how well that turned out and hers wasn’t the only sad story he’d seen.
Deciding to focus on the issues in front of him, Jason leapt up the steps of a two-story cabin that was hidden in the densest, darkest part of the forest. It was even more secluded than Jason’s cabin, and that was saying something.
He dropped his keys, changed forms and knocked on the door, finding himself winded in human form. He’d been running without even realizing it. He picked up his keys while he waited.
“Who is it?”
“I know you can smell me.” Jason rolled his eyes at the sharp, predatory growl from the other side of the door. “It’s Jason. Open up, Miles. I need your help.”
“Fuck off!”
Jason shook his head, trying to hide a smile, because Miles would probably try to take his head off if he was looking through the peephole and saw it. As his closest neighbor, Jason considered it his duty to visit Miles at least a few times a week, and it always took some charm to get him to open the door.
“A rogue pack invaded the territory today…on our side of the woods.” Jason didn’t have the patience for charm this visit. “They attacked an innocent human female. They wanted to leave her mutilated body as a warning of an impending territory war.”
Jason growled at the memory, his body suddenly tight with rage.
Miles opened the door. Bare-chested and barefoot, his long black hair hung past his broad shoulders. The deep, damaging scars that never stopped being painful to look at were clearly visible on his muscular chest and arms. His dark eyes were narrowed, his marred face contorted in fury. “Did they kill her?”
“No, she’s back at my cabin. She’s bruised up and scared, but she’ll heal.”
“What happened to the wolves who attacked?”
“They’re dead.” Jason voice was more wolf-like than human. “But their alpha got away, along with one of the other rogues. I intend to remedy that.” Looking for a distraction to hide how deeply it bothered him that Brandi was hunted, Jason tossed
his keys on one of the porch chairs. “I’m leaving them here while we hunt. I had to lock up my phones rather than risk her calling the police.”
“She knows about us. What does Des have to say about that?”
Jason growled again. “The human’s my problem. She’s under my protection.”
Miles’s eyebrows shot up. For once the intense scowl he always wore eased to show genuine surprise. He leaned into Jason, sniffing curiously, obviously looking for the scent of sex. When Miles found nothing, he shrugged and said, “I’ll get my rifle.”
Jason changed forms without answering and headed back down the steps to wait. He preferred his wolf form. It made his thoughts clearer, less confused. In this state, he had one goal—eliminate the threat to Brandi because she smelled good and looked incredibly sexy wearing only his T-shirt and maybe, if he was very lucky, she’d let him find out if she tasted as good as she smelled.
“Pack politics aren’t my problem. Neither is the human you’re obviously sniffing after.” Miles closed the door behind him. He hadn’t bothered putting on any more clothes, but a 9mm was now tucked into his jeans. He clutched a semi-automatic rifle in his right hand. “But they’re fucking with my side of the woods. That is my issue.”
Miles couldn’t change forms. The explosion that scarred him eight years before made it impossible. It had turned him into a lone wolf. He didn’t need to shift to be nearly feral and savagely intimidating. A deadly shot. A vicious fighter. Miles was wild and unpredictable on his best days. With the exception of Desmon, Miles’s cousin, most of the wolves in the pack avoided him out of fear.
He was just the guy Jason wanted on this mission. Miles wouldn’t mind helping Jason kill a few wolves if they caught this alpha and the rest of his pack.
****
Brandi turned on lights as it grew dark outside.
She fed more logs into the fire to keep it going.
Wind hit the cabin. It sounded like a storm was approaching, from the way the gusts had picked up in the last hour, and she hugged her arms to her chest to fight her rising apprehension.
As crazy as it was, she had this unbelievable burst of energy that left her so on edge she was practically jumping out of her skin. She should be exhausted after spending all morning running for her life, but she felt as if she could sprint a hundred miles instead. Despite the chill in the air, she was sweaty, restless, making her feel as though she needed to be doing something—anything. She’d never been this jittery in her life.
Brandi rummaged through the cabin after Jason left and hadn’t found a phone, just as he promised. She wasn’t even sure why she’d looked, but she felt as though she needed to. It was as if there was a hole inside her she needed filled, so she opened drawers and looked in closets. Frantically. Even though she wasn’t really sure what she was searching for.
There were four bedrooms upstairs. One had been turned into a gym. Jason liked to lift weights, and from the set of weights on the barbell, he could lift over three hundred pounds. One bedroom was storage. Another just held a twin bed and a dresser. The master had a king-size bed and a mahogany bedroom set. There were a few clothes on the floor. The room was obviously lived in, but like the rest of the home, it was mostly clean.
She walked to the window and peered out as she chewed on her bottom lip, still bursting with nervous energy. Maybe it was some sort of delayed adrenaline from the attack earlier.
Or maybe it was panic over Jason.
He’d been gone for about five hours. When was he going to return? She hadn’t expected him to be gone that long and she wasn’t sure why she needed him back so badly, but she did. She’d found the switch for the outside lamp as the sun had gone down. The porch was lit, but beyond the circle of light, there was only blackness.
It was so eerily quiet in the woods.
Except for the pounding wind, which wasn’t helping her nerves.
Was Jason all right? Had he run into more of those evil Werewolves?
A violent gust shook the cabin again and she heard wood creak. Brandi shivered, but not from the cold. She was an independent woman who lived on her own and ran her own business, but she’d had a long day and tonight she was scared. Maybe that’s where the energy came from. Fear. She wasn’t so sure how she felt around Jason, but she felt safer when he was here and she wanted him to come back.
Needed it.
What if those men were looking for her and came to Jason’s cabin?
Brandi suspected she was also working on a severe case of shock.
She hadn’t found a weapon in the house. She’d looked after the quest for the phone turned up nothing. She’d even searched Jason’s closet. The man had a lot of jeans and T-shirts. He also liked leather. He had two leather jackets, four pairs of leather pants, and three sets of leather boots in his closet.
No gun.
The windows quaked as the storm raged. She jerked toward the sound, her heart racing. Where the hell was Jason? She chewed on her lip once more, shocked she wasn’t bleeding already. Nerves made her chew on her lip a hell of a lot. It felt swollen so she forced her teeth to release it and walked to the couch instead.
She sat down and stared at the fire sightlessly for a long while, before a howl tore through the night.
Brandi jumped from the metric ton of nerves flooding her system. It sounded close, so she stood up and turned toward the door expectantly.
Dear God, please let it be Jason.
Everything in her was wound tight, but something deep down told her things would be better once Jason was with her again. Maybe this hollow, aching feeling would stop.
She hugged her chest again—and then heard something on the porch.
She ran for the fireplace and grabbed up the fire poker just in case it wasn’t Jason. She stared at the door before she heard another sound from outside.
Wood creaked, and it wasn’t the wind this time.
She waited, her body a live wire of apprehension. If it was Jason, he would have to put on the jeans he’d left out there.
She saw the doorknob turn, but it held since she’d locked it. She slowly walked toward the door, waiting for Jason to call out to her and let her know it was him so she could unlock it.
Instead of Jason’s voice, she heard something scrape the wood. She backed up as the knob turned again. Terror hit her hard as the door started to slowly ease open.
Then she forced herself to relax, remembering Jason had taken his keys with him.
Except, it wasn’t Jason who walked in.
Brandi’s breath caught in horror as she stared at the thin, tall man who stepped naked into the cabin. He was probably about twenty, with dark eyes and short brown hair. He stared at her in shock. A frown marred his forehead as he stood there gripping the handle of the door, before he sniffed the air curiously.
“Who are you?” Her voice shook.
His frown deepened. “That’s my question. Who the hell are you?”
She backed up, clutching the fire poker like a baseball bat. “Jason isn’t here.”
“Good news for me.” His gaze lowered to take in all of her as he let out a low whistle. “Nice legs. You wearing anything under there?” He shut the door behind him. “You’re looking very tasty and you smell extra sweet. Jesus, you smell sweet.”
“Leave. Now.” Brandi gripped the weapon tighter despite her sweaty hands and reminded him once more, “Jason isn’t here.”
The man chuckled, as though walking into a house nude might be a normal situation for him.
“I heard you the first time. So where are you from, cutie? You’re a short little thing with curves for miles. I’ve never seen a bitch like you, but I like it. Where did Jason pick you up? How long are you in the area?” He took a step toward her. “I don’t smell Jason on you, so as far as I’m concerned, that makes you fair game. If he’s out there when he has you in his house, he doesn’t deserve you.”
She kept her gaze on his face rather than acknowledge how very naked this stranger wa
s. “Are you stupid? I said leave, asshole!”
“Why?” He glanced down at himself pointedly. “When I can think of better things to do.”
She followed his gaze, seeing that he was aroused. She looked away, knowing she was in deep trouble as the man kept coming at her.
Brandi was officially sick of being stalked by crazy, naked wolf-men.
She swung hard, fearlessly, in a way she didn’t think she was capable of, and nailed him with the fire poker in the gut.
He grunted loudly and doubled over, grabbing his stomach.
“You hit me!” His voice was a raspy growl. “Damn it. That—”
She hit him in the head with her second swing, blindsiding him to the point that he dropped to his hands and knees.
She dashed to the front door and flung it open without looking back. She ran outside, still gripping the fire poker. She wasn’t going to be trapped in the cabin with a Werewolf she could’ve seriously injured.
Injured animals were dangerous.
She’d take her chances outside.
Another howl pierced the night as the wind continued to blow viciously. Brandi threw up her arm and closed her eyes as dust flew at her from the dirt road the SUV sat on. She let her hand drop and opened her eyes the second the wind died down.
She glanced around in the darkness, but couldn’t make out much. The trees were just shadowy shapes in the pitch-black. She spun, facing the cabin, and saw the naked guy stumble outside. He was holding a hand to his bleeding head. He looked up and his eyes narrowed. He growled viciously at her, his teeth white and dangerously long in the night. The growl was deep and inhuman, which made it more of a terrifying sound coming from the man’s throat. He dropped his hand and growled at her again.
“That was damn unfriendly. I see you need lessons on how to be nice.” He stormed toward her. “If you like it kinky, you should’ve said so. You look a little fragile for rough sex but hell, with those legs and that body, I’m game to play.”
Running into the woods was a bad idea. She couldn’t see shit. She wondered if wolves had good night vision. Probably. She backed up and bumped the SUV. With nowhere else to go, because the woods were not an option—she’d done that enough for one day—she climbed up on the bumper, crawled to the hood and ended up on top of the roof. She could see thanks to the porch light as the man stared up at her in shock when he reached the SUV.