She didn’t move, so he got a bit closer, practically belly walking to her side. If he’d been in human form, he might’ve tried to explain he didn’t mean to trespass when she took the pack out. But in wolf form, he could only show her his submission…
And get closer to her, because she drew him as sure as a magnet attracted iron shavings. She didn’t move, allowing him to stand by her side, and he breathed out in relief.
When she nipped his nose and jogged ahead, he gave a small questioning woof. Her posture said play, her eyes said she’d been as moved by the lovely night as he’d been, and his wolf wanted to leap in happiness. Pouncing after her, they soon raced side by side through the night. He didn’t know where she led them, only that he’d follow her.
It seemed they raced, flew over the wintery playground, for hours until she finally slowed and glanced at him again. He recognized the area—the gulf, a cliff overhanging the Ashtabula River near a state park. Below them, the water cut a brown swath through the blanket of white covered rocks. Trees, bare of leaves, lifted their skeletal arms toward the moon, as if the forest itself worshipped the bright fullness hanging with a promise in the velvet darkness.
When she howled, he joined her, their voices raising in song.
Unexpectedly, she pounced him, both paws bringing him down to his side again while the power of her supremacy washed over him. He didn’t plan it, but he shifted, bones cracking and popping in singular agony and always unexpected pleasure as he again became a man.
Lynwood looked up at her, with her teeth bared and eyes bright as her alphahood kept him on the ground in the snow. “Hey, Alpha sweetheart. Gorgeous night, isn’t it?”
He didn’t care was about being naked, but he couldn’t help the arousal which hardened his dick when she looked him over. When she turned and vanished into the trees, though, he covered his face with his hand. “Great move, Lynwood. You scared her off.”
Her howl echoed through the night, but he was in the wrong body to answer her. She was bitching, anyway, disgusted because he thought he could scare her.
Smiling, he didn’t move for a long while, knowing somewhere in the darkness she roamed. And she was beautiful.
***
The foolishness of wanting to protect the male rogue irked her. He’d encroached on her turf—again—and wandered far too close to her pack. She’d basically chased him away and he never worried, not once in the entire exchange.
There had to be some dominance in him, yet he didn’t reveal a speck of it, instead rolling on his back to accept her power without the slightest hesitation. Then he’d transformed—he must know the choice made him more vulnerable since her teeth would cut through his lovely brown flesh as easily as if he were indeed made of chocolate—yet he lay in the snow like a damned fool, looking up at her with adoration.
Which should disgust her. She found nothing attractive about blind adoration, nothing.
Alpha sweetheart. Snorting, she stomped her paw into the snow. The stupid phrase rattled her out of sleep at nights, to lay clutching her pillow like some lovelorn sap. She’d followed him home, watched as he strode naked in and out of the bathroom—from the wet still clinging to his hair, he’d showered. Once he’d settled into bed, thereby harmless to her people, she strode back into the night. If she ran, she could catch back up with the pack as they raced through the night on the hunt.
Before she’d made it far into the forest, though, the darkness swept down on razor wings of night and rolled her end over end. She’d no more than regained her feet when it struck again. Her blood looked terribly bright against the snow…
Rubies, sizzling rubies, giving off steam as they and she sank into the cold and dark.
CHAPTER Four
He hated his job. Arguably, it’d been so long since he stayed any place long enough to hold down gainful employment, he kept telling himself it might be something he needed to get back in the habit of doing. As if he’d forgotten how to turn his brain off long enough to make it through a shift without hating every human he came in contact with. Then again, being a short order cook in a small local restaurant wasn’t exactly the kind of gainful employment to leave anyone thrilled with their life choices.
Rubbing at the spot at the base of his spine which ached after being on his feet for nine hours, Lynwood unlocked his apartment. He longed for nothing more than a glass of refrigerated cheap whiskey and some streamed episodes of Game of Thrones. He’d almost turned the knob when the wolf awoke, stirring to predatory life with the feel of bristled fur. Something was inside the apartment. Lips peeled back, man and wolf raced to fight.
Throwing open the door, he raised his fists—
And didn’t see a damned thing out of place.
Then he almost tripped over her.
The white and black wolf lay like some perversion of a bearskin rug on his floor, her legs splayed out alongside her and blood marring the side of her coat. Though his first instinct was to drop to her side, to try to fix it, his wolf was wiser and he obeyed the animal’s survival skills.
Striding back to the door, he looked for any blood in the hallway or marking the door, but he didn’t see any. Closing and locking the entrance, he did a quick sweep of the apartment. He found the trail of blood specks leading to his bedroom window. Cleaning fast, he erased all signs of her inside the house and then went outside to remove all traces of her scent and wound for a good space—enough so, perhaps, to ensure few would realize where she’d gone.
She’d been alive, her chest moving with her breaths, when he’d left her. The trick was to keep her that way.
Once he reentered his home, he sniffed, ensuring none invaded since he’d left to hide her presence. She was safe and awake. Blue eyes considered him, yet she didn’t move. “You must be really hurt to not snap at me, Alpha sweetheart.”
Her snort was followed by a wolfish cringe, and she lay her head back on the floor. Apparently the small movement caused her additional pain.
He’d have to move her. Scooping her up, he gritted his teeth when her maw closed over his wrist warningly. “I’m not going to hurt you, sweetheart. I’m carrying you to the bathroom so we can clean you up.”
She pulled her teeth back from their pseudo-bite slowly and with a warning growl. He got the message loud and clear—she might be down, but she was far from out. She rested in his arms, every muscle tensed. Unhappiness practically rolled off her, but she didn’t fight him. Placing her in the claw-footed tub, he began to run water after ensuring against his wrist it would be warm. “We could probably access your wounds better if you were in human form…”
He trailed off when her teeth closed over his hand, barely biting down with any pressure or force. Shaking his head, he snagged a rag and began to work the blood out of her pelt. “Suit yourself.”
Something had carved her, long gashes running down her hide as if whatever attacked her tried to gut her. The blood between her toes and on her claws wasn’t hers—proof she’d gotten a piece of whatever it was—but only her ribs saved her from bleeding out or laying somewhere with her intestines in the snow. “Something really got a piece of you, Alpha sweetheart.”
He didn’t ask, not the whole time he cleaned the wounds and washed her, why she’d come to him. It wasn’t because she was in wolf form, either, because he wouldn’t have asked regardless which body she filled in his home. He didn’t care why she’d chosen to come to him, not one little bit. It was more important to note she had.
If she changed, she’d likely heal the worst of her injuries, but from the way her legs shook and she leaned into him, he wasn’t sure if she retained the energy to do it. The power, the alpha strength, usually radiating off her as sure as light beamed from the sun, seemed almost entirely spent, leaving behind a bleeding animal who trembled.
He didn’t have medicinal supplies, not anything which might help her, so the best he could do was rend a sheet with his claws and then use strips of it to wrap her tight. Still, not a single complaint nor b
ark from the lady wolf. She simply focused on standing while all four of her legs shook with the effort, and he rushed his ministrations in hope of getting her off those feet.
Satisfied he’d cleaned, dried, and bandaged her as well as his meager supplies would allow, he scooped her up again and ignored her small woof of reproach. “Look, Alpha sweetheart, if I ever show up on your doorstep in this kind of shape, feel free to haul me around. Until then, accept the help and shut up about it.”
Blue eyes swiveled to meet his, ears back and teeth bared.
Smiling at her, he lay her on his bed. “That’s better. There’s my girl. Now, rest. I don’t know about you, but today has been a hell of a day.”
Though she permitted him laying her on the mattress, when he moved to join her, she bit at him. Her ears were pinned back, her brows low, and her teeth revealed as she snarled out a growl.
“Look, it is my bed. I’ll share it with you, but it is still my bed. I get it, you’re alpha. I’m not challenging you. I’m simply getting into my bed.”
With those bold words, he waited for her teeth to snap at him. When she didn’t move, he couldn’t decide if she’d agreed to concede the argument or if she’d been simply too hurt to further fight to make her point. Rolling on his back, he faced the ceiling. In moments, she’d circled, finally resting her head on her paws. Her body faced the window, ears pricked toward same direction as if she would guard them from attack while she recovered from her injuries.
“You’re a helluva lady, Alpha sweetheart.” Pulling a blanket up to cover her, he closed his eyes and tried to hide the tiny pleased place inside him.
The place where his wolf reveled in the fact she’d come to them, and they wore her scent.
***
The bandages hung loose around her waist. Then again, her human torso wasn’t the same shape as her wolfish one. Luckily, changing seemed to close up the worst of her injuries, and she picked at the raised red marks where the bird-like thing tore into her. If she managed to change a few more times, she’d likely be rid of the rest of the wounds, but she was tired.
Bone tired. The thing seemed to not only tear into her flesh, but tear into her power. What creature could do something like that? The attack had been unprovoked, unexpected, and she’d been helpless to defend herself.
None of which sat well with wolf or woman. Perhaps what she’d been cleaning up around town lately wasn’t the evidence left behind by a sloppy shifter, but this new creature. Sure, some of the things she’d found were proof someone was creating shifters and leaving them without instruction, however a few of the dead she’d found…could be caused by the winged creature thing.
Not that she could do a damned thing about it if the monster who’d attacked her also caused the other problems. In fact, she’d been lucky to have the strength to stumble back to his apartment. Lynwood Pierce, her unwanted rogue wolf, and the only person in town she could think of who wouldn’t see her weakness as an opportunity to take her out.
Rolling to face him, she considered his handsome features relaxed in sleep. She wasn’t sure if the man was a fool or more trusting than any wolf she’d ever met. Then again, when she’d been bleeding and weak, she banked on his soft nature to scrape the pieces back together again.
To give the hairy bastard credit, he’d done well in an emergency. She could’ve done without the carrying her around like a loaf of bread, but she’d hardly been in the position to put up much of a fight. Not to mention her wolf was obviously ailing in some soul-deep fashion since the bitch actually liked having his arms around her.
She reeked of him, his seductive scent wrapped around her from head to toe. Not only did he wash her in his soap—yes, to clean the injuries, but still—but she’d lain with him through the night. In perfect gentlemanly fashion, he’d kept to his side of the mattress. His arm splayed above his head, a position which left his side jarringly vulnerable to attack if she’d chosen to be a bitch.
Wolf and woman, though, were stirred by having him so close. He was naked, she was naked. She could simply make both parts of her dual nature happy and take him. Maybe sex would cure her of whatever mental ailment she suffered whenever he was near.
It wasn’t as if he’d fight her. She could smell his attraction, knew the rogue wanted her as much as she craved him. It wasn’t wise, however, since he wasn’t pack, wasn’t hers, wasn’t her type. A logical wolf would either sleep with one of her own to take the edge off sexual needs or find some willing human for a night, not shack up with a rogue.
Telling herself so, though, while she lay on her side to watch him sleep, didn’t hold much weight.
Giving into temptation, she traced the line of his brow with her fingertip. He stirred in his sleep, turning into her feather light touch instead of away. A smile curved his lips, but he didn’t open his eyes. The low-level scent of his desire, though, spiked and became a heady cocktail she felt a bit drunk on.
“You can stop pretending to be asleep, rogue.” No kindness or softness marred her words, and she worked to ensure her face didn’t reveal her feelings either by asserting her practiced mask—the face of the alpha. “I can tell you’re awake.”
“I’m not pretending. I’m having this fantastic dream where this utterly sexy woman is naked in my bed and touching me… To be honest, I’ve no desire whatsoever to wake. Be a pal, Alpha sweetheart, let a guy revel in a good fantasy.”
Snorting, she raked her nails down his chest. His breath hissed out and his smile grew, spreading across his face in a line of mirth and forbidden temptations. “Is there nothing I can do to you that you won’t enjoy?” she asked.
Finally, his dark eyes barely opened, slits of night lined by heavy lashes which promised sweat slicked skin and whispers in the night. “Only one way to find out, lady wolf.”
Giving him a shove, she then gestured to the door. “Out. I need to get up, and I don’t have clothes.”
Instead of obeying, he rolled toward her. The move was fast and unexpected, he had her pinned under his arms in a split second and managed to shock her. Her wolf, however, wasn’t willing to be put into a submissive posture—attractive wolf or no—and her muscles slid into motion before she’d really considered it. Flipping their positions, she arched above him with her nails dug into his shoulders.
His smile only grew as he considered her breasts. “Thought you’d do that. Dominants can’t resist being on top, however I’ve always been of a different opinion. The view from the bottom is pretty stellar.”
Considering he feasted his eyes on her breasts as they swung near his chin, she rolled her eyes. Easier to pretend disgust than to admit to the heat which pooled between her legs at his eyes on her, hungry and almost as tempting as the scent of his arousal spiking the air. “Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear, stranger. I said to get out.” With the words, she let loose her power, pleased when her supremacy heeded her call again.
At least until he reacted to it. He bowed under her, arching up as if he wanted to roll in the spill of lupine dominance. “Shit, your dominance crap should not feel damned good, Alpha sweetheart, but it really, really does.”
With a growl, she leaned low. “It shouldn’t feel good at all. You should be cowed right now, bending low in subservience.”
Those mysterious eyes of his fastened on hers again. “I’ll happily bend in subservience to you, Alpha sweetheart. Let me up so I can go to my knees for you.”
Rolling away from him before she was tempted to allow him to touch her, she growled over her shoulder at him. “Dara.”
She tried to stand, but her legs almost buckled, so she dropped back to the mattress to grit her teeth. Between the unfulfilled sexual tension tangling herself and the stranger and her injuries, she was frustrated to the nth with her body.
“Dara?” he asked. His face looked confused, and he reached for her. She couldn’t allow his touch. Not now, not while she wasn’t sure how she’d react to it.
“My name. I give it to you both in thanks
for your assistance and so you’ll stop using the damned Alpha sweetheart bullshit. I need another day before I leave to recover, so I will be staying here. I’ll ensure you’re properly compensated for the inconvenience of seeing me back to health once I’m better.” With those words, she changed, bones snapping and popping until she stood on four shaky legs rather than two. Nope, not back to full strength, not yet, but she’d hunt the creature that did this once she’d recovered.
“Dara…”
Stalking away from him, she put her paws on the windowsill to look outside. Night hadn’t released the land from its clutches, dawn still hardly a glow on the horizon. Snow thickened, making everything soft edges and clean white. No, she wasn’t in any shape to go out there, not yet. She certainly couldn’t afford to let her pack see her weakened state.
When the rogue’s scent got closer, however, she scowled to herself. She also couldn’t afford to be around him more than needed either, especially since he provoked unexpected reactions in herself and her beast—distractions she neither had the time nor desire to unravel. When his hand fell on her back, fingers delving deep into her fur, she braced herself against the equally desperate needs to bite him and to curl into his touch.
“Thank you for telling me your name, Alpha sweetheart. I’ll go find us something to eat.”
She didn’t bother to answer. No, she couldn’t afford to be around him, especially since it became clearer and clearer why he likely provoked her like no other.
But she wasn’t looking for a mate, not now. Not ever.
CHAPTER Five
A part of him hoped their moments in bed might translate to something more. Apparently he’d fooled himself, since she’d refused to change out of her wolf form from that moment onward. Walking alongside her, he knew she wanted something for lunch, but not what until she stopped outside a deli. “Roast beef okay?”
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