Wild Prince

by Vivian Arend

  Cole kissed the top of her mound, slipping his fingers into his mouth to get them extra wet in case he was mistaken, but again as he pressed in, she squirmed in discomfort.

  His fingers were wrapped by her body like a too tight glove. He dropped his forehead to her belly and took a deep breath before lifting up and waiting until she met his gaze. “You’ve never done this before, have you?”

  She bit her lower lip then tried for light and perky. “I’ve had lots of orgasms.”

  “On your own.” He slowly slid his fingers out.

  “Please don’t stop,” she begged, curling up and catching hold of his hand, trapping it between her thighs. “I want this. I want you.”

  He wanted her too, and he was going to have her, but this meant rutting like an animal was really out of the question. He struggled for control, focusing on giving her what she needed. “I promised you an orgasm. You’re going to get it.”

  Her fingers relaxed, tension draining away as she stroked his hair. The heat in her eyes scalded him, and he adjusted position, pressing her legs farther apart as he settled between them. Then he tore his gaze from her begging plea and turned his gaze downward.

  Pretty curls covered her sex, and he moved slowly, stroking them apart with his fingers. The heady scent of his aroused mate tangled him up as tightly as the duct tape had hours earlier.

  Cole traced his tongue over her sex. Up one side, pause, a solid lick over her clit, using the roughest part of his tongue he could and enough pressure that her hips wiggled. He placed his fingers over her hipbones and pressed her to the mattress. Then he did it all over again. A tease, a hesitation, a firm stroke to put the taste of her into him so he would never forget, never get her out of his system.

  He didn’t want her gone. He wanted to soak in her. To roll in her and cover himself with her scent until she was him, and he was her, and the two of them had created their own unique combination so everybody who met them knew that she was taken.

  Mine. Urgency grew rapidly.

  A low moan drifted from her, higher now and then quieter, staccato gasps as he lapped three times rapidly. But as he played with her pretty pussy, tongue stroking over and over, he carefully replaced his fingers. Only to the first knuckle, over and over until her body softened and he could stretch her.

  The torment of going so slow—if he were a younger wolf he wouldn’t have been able to stand the demands. As it was, he was pushed to the limit, but seeing Dani in immense pleasure was worth it.

  A slick of sweat formed on her skin. She cupped her own breasts and he reached up to help. Pinching a nipple between thumb and forefinger, he multitasked with licks and thrusts, and enjoyed the sounds escaping her lips as he drove her closer and closer to the limit.

  Pushed her until she toppled over, a cry of pleasure from her lips shooting through him as if she’d speared him. The sweet heat of her body pulsed around his fingers, her hips rising against his mouth as he doubled down. Forcing pleasure upon her. More, and more, until she was not only moaning but screaming. His name. Swear words. His name again, louder this time.

  Cole played until the aftershocks refused to come, which meant a long, long time, because every additional lick, every slow movement of his fingers made her rise up and damn near levitate off the mattress. His control was a thin line, growing weaker, but he held on. Somehow. Not for much longer.

  “Oh. My. God.” Dani breathed out long and hard, reaching for him and tugging at his shoulders as if she wanted to pull him over her. And he wanted that, damn he wanted that but—

  He gave in for one second, covering her again so their bodies were all but intimately connected. Taking her lips in a kiss that feverishly attempted to meet his unmet needs. She tried to tangle her legs around his hips again. Tried to pull them together, but he resisted.

  Slowing her, easing her. Stroking his hand along the side of her face, and then her neck. Down her torso until she was soft under him, nearly purring as he petted her.

  He pressed one final kiss to her lips. One to the tip of her nose. She giggled, squirming as he lifted up to kiss the center of her forehead and then, before she could protest, he rolled off. Limit reached. The animal crying for release, while the man held it together with barely restrained power.

  She stared after him, confusion slowly working through her haze of pleasure. “Where’re you going?”

  He forced his feet to keep moving. “I’ll be back. Need fresh air.”

  Silence for a second. “What?”

  What he was doing was getting himself some room. Room to breathe, because she was his mate, and yes, she was an adult. She also wasn’t ready for him. Not for how much he needed her, and with his control teetering on the edge, this wasn’t the time to explain.

  He pushed through the door and into the falling snow, stepping forward even as she crawled out of bed to follow him. He shifted in mid-run, managing to keep from tangling his feet together as he switched from two to four limbs on the ground.

  Cole ran.

  He wasn’t running from her, he was running so he could come back. So he could be who she needed him to be, not some wild creature who would take her without thought or care, but who could take her like a mate. As someone who thought she was the most important thing in his life, and the most precious thing.

  She needed to be protected and cared for and all the things he was completely incapable of doing at that moment because wild need had caught hold of him and the beast was in control more than the man.

  He raced into the snow.

  Somewhere out there was his control, and until he found it, Dani would have to wait.

  7

  Dani clutched the sheet in front of her and stared at the closed door.

  What…? What had just happened?

  He’d left her?

  She raced across the room to stare through the open door into the swirling snow. An icy wind whirled around her and sent her skin to goose bumps. Not sexy goose bumps like she’d had not even sixty seconds ago. The kind a woman got when a certain sexy, talented, asshole of a wolf had been seconds away from taking her.

  No. Now she had the I’m all alone in a remote cabin and the man I thought I was about to have sex with is somewhere in his fur running as far from me as fast as he can blues.

  She planted her fists on her hips and glared into the wilderness for thirty seconds before slamming the door shut.

  On second thought.

  She jerked the door open and leaned forward to shout as loudly as she could. “Asshole.”

  Then she stepped back and slammed the door once more.

  Dani brushed her hands off then stomped across the floor to where her shirt had been discarded in the heat of the moment.

  Ha. Some heat of the moment, if he could turn it off that easily to go for a jog.

  Dammit, what had happened? It wasn’t that he didn’t find her attractive. There’d been no mistaking the response of his body, and guys just didn’t go down on a woman and leave her seeing stars without them wanting to make her feel that way. Or at least she was pretty sure of that. That’s what she’d heard.

  Not that she had experience…

  Oh frack.

  Her lack of experience. Yep, that had been when the tide had turned.

  Poor dude, it must’ve freaked him out royally to discover she was still a virgin. Not that it was any big glorious thing that she’d been holding on to, but—Kodiak Island was kind of the end of the universe, and between her studies and being somewhat related to ninety percent of the population, when was she supposed to have lost her virginity?

  Okay. That explained it. He’d be back.

  Dani reassured herself vigorously as she once again went about distracting herself until the big lug returned. But honestly, he’d better not make a habit of this, the random stopping in mid-coitus. It wasn’t a lot of fun, for either of them.

  The wind picked up and bashed against the walls of the cabin, gusting hard enough to make the windows shake. Dani stok
ed the fire and left the stove door open so she could watch the flames flicker. The crackle and scent of wood smoke turned the room into a retreat from the outside world.

  As she sat curled up in the chair and waited for Cole to return, Dani had plenty of time to think. She owed Charlene a debt of gratitude for giving an isolated little girl a future to dream about out in the big ol’ world, but even the short time Dani had spent around Cole made her realize there was a lot of other things she still needed to experience. Working for Charlene was a good thing, but maybe…

  She pictured the smile in Cole’s eyes. The one he’d tried to hide when he found something she did amusing.

  Maybe working for Charlene wasn’t the only good thing she could look forward to in her future.

  The door opened and she turned to offer a smile to Cole.

  It wasn’t him. Instead Michele stepped into the room, completely garbed in black. She glanced around the room quickly before moving toward Dani. “Perfect timing. Let’s go.”

  Dani shook her head in confusion. “Excuse me?”

  Michele tilted her head toward the door. “Come on. Charlene sent me to get you. You’ve seen your sister, right? Now that’s all dealt with, you’re supposed to return to base camp.”

  “But Charlene said I had a week.”

  Her partner stepped closer, eyeing Dani with disapproval. “But you finished your task. Why do you want to hang around here till the end of the week?” She waved a hand indifferently. “Doesn’t matter, because Charlene told me to bring you in.”

  Drat. Of all the unexpected surprises, this was just about the worst thing she could imagine…

  Okay, it would’ve been worse if Michele had shown up an hour ago when they were still fooling around. Or if Cole hadn’t chosen to go off for a marathon run and Michele had interrupted them in the middle of having sex, that would’ve been the worst thing Dani could imagine.

  She was torn. This was exactly what she’d been thinking about, the dilemma of wanting to pay Charlene back for all the things she’d done to help give Dani something to look forward to in the future, but to simply leave Cole—

  Dani took the clothing Michele held out to her, slipping on the pants and boots. She adjusted everything before placing the National Geographic back on the shelf and taking down a notepad.

  While she’d been dressing, Michele had been wandering around the cabin and removing all signs Dani had been there. Making the bed, replacing one cup and one plate so if a stranger walked into the cabin they would assume no one had been there except Cole.

  It was a strange sensation to look around the room and see all signs of her presence erased so thoroughly. Dani shook her head and pulled the notepad toward herself and put the pencil to the surface.

  Dear Cole

  That’s as far she got before the pad of paper was ripped from beneath her fingers.

  “Hey. Give that back,” she demanded.

  Michele held the notepad in the air before ripping the top page off then placing the pad back on the shelf. “You know the rules. No entanglements. Not about to let you leave a message.” She crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it in the fire before frowning sternly at Dani. “What were you thinking?”

  She was thinking that she really liked her wolf, and it would be kind of shitty if he came back and didn’t see anything from her about why she was no longer there. “Look—”

  “No. Fight it out with Charlene, but I’m going to follow the rules, which is what you would’ve done even a few days ago.” Michele looked at her with a hint of disgust in her expression. “What is wrong with you?”

  What was wrong with her? Dani wondered.

  Nothing. Where’s our wolf? her bear demanded.

  There was no way to solve this, not unless she wanted to get into a down-and-dirty fight with Michele, and frankly the other woman was a mountain lion. When it came to catfights, Dani was slightly outmatched.

  Didn’t mean she had to be a pushover, though.

  She squared her shoulders and looked Michele in the eye. “Fine. I will be taking it up with Charlene. But maybe you should consider there are times when you shouldn’t follow the rules blindly, but look at the entire situation and make a judgment call for the best. And you can quote me on that, because that was one of the lessons the Charlene taught us. And if you want it in the vernacular, I believe the short version was ‘use your brains as well as your brawn, asshole’. Oops, that last bit was me, improvising.”

  Michele looked shocked, but she still headed to the door, jerking it open and gesturing broadly for Dani to go first.

  She was being escorted out whether she wanted to or not. Which she didn’t. It was suddenly clear that if Dani had her choice, she would be staying. She would be staying to fool around with Cole, and then she would be having a nice long talk with that gruff sexy wolf about the future, because she was pretty sure that’s what he wanted too.

  But because she had made a commitment, she would honour it—to a point. She was going to go march in on Charlene and tell her plans had changed. And if along the way to the secret hideout Dani happened to leave a few clues… Just a few innocent, accidental traces of their passing…

  Well, then, if a certain wolf returned to the cabin and had enough desire and smarts, he’d be able to track her.

  Damn right, he would. Dani scuffled her feet in the snow on the porch before pretending to follow obediently after Michele.

  One step at a time. He’d found her before; he could do it again.

  Please, Cole, do it again.

  It was nearly midnight when Cole stumbled back to the cabin, shifting on uneasy legs as he staggered into the shower house. He broke the ice off the surface of the water in the bucket, then didn’t bother to pour it into the elaborate shower system, just upended the entire thing over his head at one go, blasting the sweat from his body.

  His hair hung in his eyes, his legs were quivering. He shook as if he were in his wolf form, droplets of water flying everywhere.

  He might be exhausted, but inside there was a spot that was now at complete and utter peace. Control was back, and Cole was ready to go into the cabin and prove to Dani that not only did they belong together, but that he was the perfect mate for her.

  He’d been headstrong and stupid and unwittingly callous to leave her so abruptly. That was the last time he’d ever be so inconsiderate.

  He cracked the door open, cool wind swirling around him as he poked his head in. “Dani?”

  No answer. What was worse, a quick glance around the room was enough to tell him she wasn’t there.

  He strode the rest of the way into the room, quickly taking note of the changes since he’d left. The little things, like there were only utensils and plates for one person. Bigger things—he’d left her sprawled on the bed, the sheets a mess from where her fists had clutched at the quilt as he’d sent her spiraling into orgasm.

  No sign of it now. But what did remain…

  Cole took a deep inhalation, scenting the air. Anger rising as he realized that Dani hadn’t been alone in the room. The second scent, the one that had been with her back in Chicken was also present.

  Had she been playing him for a fool the entire time?

  He pulled on some clothing then went scrambling in the chest to find temporary footwear so he could march around the cabin in the dark and made double sure he wasn’t mistaken. That she wasn’t out on some innocent ramble showing her friend around.

  It didn’t take long to discover the only tracks led in a single line away from the cabin. Two sets of footprints, covering the traces of a single set that had come toward the cabin. The prints already filling in as the wind whipped the snow around him.

  A growl rose from within, fury whipping from his wolf and wrapping around his human self so hard he no longer felt the cold. He stomped his way back to the cabin, slamming his feet on the stairs—

  His gaze fell on the snow to the side of where he’d stormed out earlier. The faintest of marks. An a
rrow with what looked like a half loop.

  A direction marker?

  He leaned closer, examining it from every angle. Using his eyes and using his nose. It was definitely deliberate, and it was definitely Dani.

  What have you got yourself into, little girl?

  Not girl, mate, his wolf corrected him.

  Yes, mate, Cole agreed. But trouble.

  A whole lot of trouble.

  His wolf quivered with the need to follow. The need to track and protect, and Cole had zero problems with giving in to the urge.

  But first, he slid over to the shelf where he’d noticed the radio the first time he’d been in the cabin. He wiggled a few wires and connected it through, calling his brother on their home emergency frequency. In between waiting he paced, shoving down food as fast as he could. Striving to restock his body’s depleted stores.

  Static eventually turned into a familiar voice. “Cole? Is that you? God, you know what time it is?”

  “I’m tracking my mate.” He didn’t bother to beat around the bush. “I’m heading north. Activate all of our charge accounts at any shifter-friendly stops between here and the Arctic Circle in case I need them, but I’ll be in my fur most of the time.”

  Zero hesitation from his brother. “No problem. You want backup?”

  “No.” He wanted his mate’s perfect neck within reach so he could collar her. He wanted to tie them together on a short leash until they dealt with everything they had to. All of the weird mumbo-jumbo, and all of the questions they hadn’t even begun to talk about—and yet none of that really mattered anymore. He wanted her by his side, his mate, forever.

  But that wasn’t going to happen until he found her.

  “If you change your mind, let me know.”

  Caden was a rock, and Cole knew that, but this was something he had to do on his own.

  He closed up the cabin. It took time to make sure everything was put away, but he didn’t want to leave the place to be destroyed by little woodland creatures. Not when the next person to stumble in might need the supplies to survive. Dishes were stored, the mattress moved to safety.