by Anya Bast
By the time she’d flipped to her back, he was looming over her. Through her burning eyes, she watched him extend a hand. “Don’t be afraid. Come with me.”
Don’t be afraid, easy for him to say. He was ten thousand times her size.
She narrowed her eyes. “Why?” The man was too gorgeous for words, but that didn’t make him trustworthy.
“I am Lucas. You are my mate. Mine and Rafian’s. Ours. That’s why.”
She stared at him, trying to comprehend what he’d just said. “Mate? What does that mean?”
Lucas shifted impatiently. “Woman, I speak English very well. I learned it for you. You must know the meaning of the word mate.”
She blinked through achy, reddened eyes. “Mate as in sex, or mate as in joined in some kind of….marital type arrangement?”
His teeth flashed white as he bared them, looking predatory for a moment. “Both. Lots and lots of…both.”
Kaitlyn’s mouth went dry. “Uhm. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m a software engineer from Chicago. I have a career back there. I can’t go off mating with a couple strange men from—wherever this is.”
His head lifted as if he heard a sound in the distance. All she heard were twittering birds. “We’re not safe here.”
She glanced around at the lush forest that surrounded them. They were in a meadow dotted through with tall grass and daisies. All the scene needed were cavorting kittens. “What’s not safe about this place?”
Not a millisecond after she’d muttered the sentence the sounds of shouting, horses, and men crashing through forest filled the air. Lucas’s gaze caught hers and held. Then he moved, leaping to the side almost faster than her eyes could track. His form blurred and a curious sound she couldn’t identify came from his direction….a stretching, popping kind of sound. It was a fleshy, organic, alien noise that made cold, stark fear race up her spine.
It happened so fast, she barely registered the event through her shock and primal emotion. All she knew was that one minute the gorgeous man was there….
And the next moment he’d turned into the biggest wolf she’d ever seen.
Chapter Two
Her breath caught in her throat as the creature’s head turned and a pair of dark, mysterious brown eyes met her gaze. Those were wolf eyes, but the soul in them was the same. This was Lucas. All black, furry, and big as a pony, but it was him. Impossibly.
Oh, holy… Her supposed “mate” was a werewolf?
The sounds of the approaching riders grew louder and the wolf gave the forest his full attention. He repositioned himself, putting his huge body between her and whatever was about to burst into the clearing. It was an oddly protective gesture that made her sorry she’d pepper sprayed him.
A low growl issued from the wolf’s throat. It made all the hair on the back of her neck rise. His hackles rose as a group of five men rode out into the clearing and a vicious snarl erupted from his throat. The horses all shied and whinnied when they saw the wolf. The leather-clad rider in front—a broad-chested guy with salt-and-pepper hair—looked past the wolf to where she sat on the grass. His eyes narrowed as he spotted her and her blood turned to slush in her veins.
Never had she been so sure someone wanted to kill her.
A flash of white caught her eye. Another wolf, of the same size as the first, leapt into the clearing and ran flat out for the men. Lucas broke into a run too, striding beside the white wolf. Some of the horses reared, dumping their riders off their backs. Others bolted. It was mass chaos as the group tried to get away from the oncoming rush of teeth and claws.
The head of the group held her gaze for a moment longer and it was like only the two of them existed in the world. The look on his face told her clearly that he would end her life one day. Then he turned his mount and disappeared into the dark forest.
Kaitlyn took a few deep breaths. She kept expecting to wake up, as if this was all some weird dream. But the hard ground beneath her told her otherwise…as did the crazy beating of her heart. Not to mention the remnants of the pepper spray which still stung her eyes. No way was she dreaming or imagining any of this.
Both wolves trotted toward her and her heart rate ratcheted into the stratosphere. There was nothing warm and fuzzy about having two pony-sized wolves running toward you, even if you were pretty certain the wolves had just protected you from a psychopath. She scrambled to her feet and retreated backward until the wolves came to a stop before her.
The black wolf blurred again and the sound of one organic creature becoming another reached her ears. It was a noise she couldn’t even describe, but it made her think of bone, blood and stretching tendons. She turned her face away. When she dared a glimpse again, Lucas lay on his side in the grass…naked. The white wolf stood silent sentinel, his yellow eyes focused intently on her.
“What the hell is going on?” She put her hand on her hip and tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to mask the quaver in her voice. All she really wanted to do was pass out, but no way was she fainting in front of these guys.
Lucas pushed up from the ground, shaking his head as if to rid it of ringing. “We’re still not safe here. That was a hunting party that came across us unexpectedly. They’ll be back with reinforcements. We need to move out. Kaitlyn, ride the wolf. He can carry your weight.”
“Ride the wolf? No way.” That was just one strange thing too many for her right now. She eyed the eerily calm white creature, who eyed her back. “I’d rather walk.”
Lucas stood and all the rest of the words on her tongue disappeared. The man was naked and not apparently modest. Glancing down, she raised an eyebrow. And she could see why. A man hung like him had every reason to show off. “We aren’t walking; we’re running. Think you can keep up?”
She ripped her gaze away from his pelvic area, feeling her cheeks heat. His expression reflected nothing of what he might be thinking of her close examination of him. Mostly, he looked annoyed…which annoyed her. “I run five miles every morning and I’m wearing my tennis shoes.” Thank god she’d slipped them on at the office after everyone else had left. They were far more comfortable than heels. She was also thankful she’d worn pants today and not a skirt. “So, yes, I can keep up.”
He shrugged. “Then we leave right now.” He turned and began to run toward the forest, the white wolf falling in by his side.
Normally a running naked man would look odd, maybe even funny. Lucas looked beautiful, powerful. His strides were long and certain, muscles working in concert to carry him swiftly over the ground. He ran like a gazelle…no, that wasn’t right. Gazelles were fine, thin, and delicate. He was all muscle and tightly leashed control. No, he ran like…well, like a wolf.
She hesitated a moment, then knotted her long, dark hair at her nape and took off after them. She didn’t like anything about this situation, but she had no choice but to follow. The last thing she wanted was to be left behind in this strange place with psychopathic hunters on the loose.
But, man, they were fast. She trailed far behind, leaping over fallen logs and clumps of vegetation. Part of her worried about what strange creatures might exist in this alien wood, but that reminded her that she was, in fact, in an alien wood and she stopped thinking about it. Her mind wasn’t ready to deal with that yet. Instead she ran until her heart raced, her breath sputtered out of her and her muscles burned. She knew Lucas had slowed his pace for her, trying to let her keep up.
Finally, she could run no more and sat down on a boulder to catch her breath.
A few moments later brought the vision of a huge white wolf. He padded up to her and bumped her hand with his head. Wonderingly, she rubbed his ears, like he was some kind of enormous dog. His yellow eyes bored into hers with so much soul and depth it made her want to look away. She assumed this was the pair to Lucas. This was Rafian, most likely the blond man she’d seen in her daydreams.
Rafian nudged her hand again and she understood what he wanted. Giving up, she wearily hoisted herself onto his back
and nestled into his soft fur. He took off with a leap, following Lucas, and her fingers curled into his coat to hold on.
As the wolf traveled at a blurringly fast pace through the forest, Kaitlyn could not deny that this experience was one hundred percent real. Even the deepest delusion would lack the tactile quality of Rafian’s fur, the rocking of his body beneath hers, the perspiration from her run drying on her skin, and the green, verdant scent of growing things.
Her mind couldn’t deny the truth. Somehow, some way she’d been catapulted over the rainbow into a strange world in which werewolves were real.
They traveled for a long time. When twilight touched the endless forest landscape with deep grays and blues and her head dipped with fatigue, Kaitlyn was happy she’d given in and had climbed onto Rafian’s back. The rhythmic rocking and the flex and bunch of his wolf’s body as he moved lulled her into drowsiness. By the time they stopped her head lolled with tiredness, but she wouldn’t let herself fall asleep. This situation was far too unpredictable to let her guard down.
Lucas pulled her from Rafian’s back and set her on her feet. She glanced down and away. Yep, still naked. Lucas seemed not notice or care. Dirt coated him from his strenuous run. He barely seemed winded and his feet didn’t look harmed at all.
She reached up and plucked a stray leaf from his hair before she could stop herself. He grabbed her wrist fast as lightning, making her take a swift breath and go very still, her eyes wide. She thought for a moment he might kiss her again, and she wasn’t so sure she’d mind if he did.
But then Lucas blinked slowly and released her, dragging his fingertips sensually down her forearm. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” She cleared her throat, trying to get rid of the quaver in her voice.
He continued to hold her gaze. “You have beautiful eyes. It’s uncommon to have dark hair and blue eyes, isn’t it?”
“Uh, yes, it is.”
He nodded and turned away.
She swallowed hard and took stock of her surroundings as the huge white wolf ambled across the grass toward the forest. A rough hewn log house with a large porch stood in the middle of a large lawn dotted through with flowers. She recognized this place as where her visions always took place. A large building stood not far away. The forge. That’s where the men created tools from metal. She suspected they made their livelihood from that.
The place seemed hand constructed, yet beautiful and perfect. On such a property, she would have expected to see a barn, livestock, farming, but there was no evidence of those things. Just the house and the forge. Maybe horses and cows objected to being kept by wolves?
And that was the oddest thought she’d had in a while.
Smoke curled from the chimney of the house and Kaitlyn realized for the first time that it was chilly here. Apparently she’d been too distracted by events to register the temperature at first, and the wolf’s body had kept her warm on the journey. On the other side of the rainbow it was high summer. Here, it was edging close to winter.
Rafian had disappeared. She thought Lucas had gone into the house while she’d been gawking. If she wanted, she guessed she could leave. She glanced at the forest. Right. And go where? Walk into the creepy alien woods all alone, or stay with the two gorgeous men who’d protected her? Even if this situation was pretty strange, no decision had been easier to make.
She walked toward the cozy looking abode. “Hello,” she called as she entered.
Nothing.
She stepped into a sizable kitchen that opened into a large living room. Soft looking couches and chairs dotted the area. A huge stone fireplace dominated the far wall, filling the entire space with flicking flames and bone soothing warmth. A set of rough hewn wood stairs led to a loft, where she could see a table, books and a bed. A corridor to her right led down to a few darkened rooms.
“Do you like it?”
She jerked at the sound of a man’s voice and whirled around. There stood the blond man, Rafian, now in human form. She glanced down and turned her face away. He had no reason to be modest either. “Don’t you guys believe in clothing?”
“Fabric is always destroyed when we shift. It is used by the magic it takes.”
“You must go through a lot of clothes.”
“Yes, but it’s a small sacrifice for the majesty of wolf form.”
She met his gaze. “You’re Rafian.”
He stared at her, oddly intent, then nodded once. “You know us from the unveilings, as we know you. We’ve spent time educating ourselves about your culture and ways, learning your language.”
“Unveilings?”
“When the curtain that parts our worlds rips a little and mates are drawn together. You could see us sometimes, as we could see you. It’s a way to ease the path to mate-hood, make things easier for us to join.”
“Mates. There’s the word again.”
“Too much, too soon,” came Lucas’s voice from the corridor.
She turned and found him standing with a towel wrapped around his midsection and glistening as through he’d just showered. Kaitlyn frowned at him. “Not nearly enough, you mean. I want answers and I want them now.”
One side of his mouth hitched up and it made her heart stutter for a moment. “Women of your world are very demanding. Here you must know when to allow a man to protect you.”
Oh, no. Had he seriously allowed those words to leave his mouth?
“Have I slipped back a couple centuries in time as well into another world? You give me information. I will make decisions about how best to protect myself. Got it?”
Lucas studied her, his eyes dark. Her emotion was high and it was audible in her tone of voice. He knew he’d pissed her off. Rafian simply stood like a big boulder of gorgeousness, not saying anything. Perhaps he was the smarter of the two of them.
“Forgive me. You need to eat. Allow us to feed you and we’ll explain everything.”
Her jaw had locked. With effort she unhinged it. She was very hungry. Tired too. It looked like early evening in this place, but her biological clock said it was in the wee morning hours. She nodded sharply. “That arrangement is amenable to me.”
Lucas scowled at her. Apparently his English skills weren’t completely polished.
“Okay,” she rephrased, and then paused. “Throw in a shower and you’ll make me a very happy woman.”
“We want your happiness. That’s all we want.” That came from Rafian and was spoken with solemn certitude.
She looked at him, head tilted to the side. “Why? What am I to you? What do I matter?”
Rafian met her gaze. His eyes were slate gray and emotion she couldn’t understand seemed to scud through them like clouds. “Don’t you understand? You’re everything to us.”
She blinked, unable to find a reply. This whole situation was more than she could handle right now. Aside from the alternate world thing, she wasn’t ready to be everything to anyone. She’d thought once upon a time she’s been everything to her husband and then…..
“Come,” said Lucas. “I’ll show you where the bathroom is.”
Happy to escape the weight of Rafian’s words, she followed Lucas down the corridor and into a bathroom. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting from an otherworldly commode, but this one was pretty mundane, aside from being very nice. It had a large corner tub and a separate shower.
Lucas seemed able to read her mind. “We designed this house with you in mind, taking examples of homes from your world. Normally the Lycaon prefer to bathe outdoors, but Rafian and I have come to enjoy your way of doing things.”
“Lycaon? Lycan? You mean Lycanthrope?”
“Yes, a person to holds the form of a human and a wolf. Lycan is your term for them in English, is it not?”
“Typically they’re called werewolves.” She blinked, feeling stunned. She was currently in a house with two werewolves. “Uh, does this door lock from the inside?” She herded him into the hallway, needing time alone…and a lock.
&n
bsp; “Yes, but—”
“See you after my shower.” And she shut the door and locked it.
* * * * *
The door slammed in Lucas’s face. He stood staring it at, jaw muscles twitching. He’d known she’d be difficult. Most women who passed through the veil were. It wasn’t her strength or her stubbornness that made her difficult; most Lycaon females were that way too…the few of them that existed, anyway.
Kaitlyn’s complexity lay in her inscrutability. He didn’t understand her. That made wanting her that much harder. And he wanted her more than anything. Knowing she was undressing on the other side of that door right now tightened his body, made him insane with need. He had to hold himself back from breaking the lock—something he could do very easily—rushing in, pinning her to the counter, and then easing his cock deep within her.
The urge to join with a new mate was incredibly strong. He and Rafian had needed to prepare for the temptation of her, building up their control years before she’d come to them. Now that she was here, resisting her was harder than he’d imagined. He guessed the same was true for Rafian. Yet they knew they couldn’t push her. All of this was new and strange to her and she needed time to adjust. Otherwise she’d reject them.
He listened for the sound of the water starting, then headed down the hallway, unable to handle the image of water sluicing down her nude body. When she’d let him, he’d be licking off every glistening drop.
Rafian was pulling food out of the fridge when he entered. Before mates had begun traveling through the veil, the Lycaon had known nothing of such things as refrigerators or running water. As shifters, they had spent a good part of their lives in animal form. Catching food as a wolf, hawk, or bear was a lot easier than as a human, after all.
Having their mostly human mates traveling over had changed their culture greatly. They didn’t have the luxuries of the Magica, for the most part, but they had a kind of magic of their own. The magic of solar and wind power.