Wolf in the Woods: BBW Wolf Shifter Romance (Shifters of the Glen Book 2)

by Skye Jones

  Once I reached the clearing, I stopped and took in a lungful of night air. It ghosted over my skin, cooler than the previous evening due to the clear skies. I tipped my head back and looked up, smiling at the beauty of all those stars twinkling away. What other life went on out there? I definitely didn’t believe we were alone in the universe, and looking at those millions of stars blew my mind.

  Crack. To my right, a twig snapped. I froze, not even daring to turn my head and look. I opened my mouth, ready to scream if the weird-but-hot-guy appeared.

  A wolf stepped into the clearing. Its bright green gaze fixed on me, and the shout in my throat died on a whimper. I must be seeing things. Gone mad with lack of sleep or something. A wolf. Here? In Scotland? No fucking way.

  Still staring at me, the animal swung its head from side to side in a deliberate arc. Was it shaking its head at me? Holy shit, I’d lost it. Maybe one of the guys spiked my beer, giving me a bad trip or something. I’d kill the fuckers if they’d been so stupid. My heart beat so hard in my chest I saw stars. God, the thing was huge. Were wolves so big? I mean, I’d seen one in a zoo, but years ago as a kid. Everything looked big when you were a kid.

  It took a step toward me, and I stumbled back. As it neared, it sniffed the air and let out a low rumble deep in its chest. It came right up to me and stopped with its head down. The animal nuzzled my leg, like a pet dog or cat, and whined softly. I experienced the oddest urge to pat it on the head, but fear held me back. With another whine, it stepped back until it reached the edge of the clearing. Not looking my way again, the wolf turned and disappeared into the woods. One minute it was there, the next it merged with the dense trees, an apparition disappearing into the fog of heavy foliage.

  My mind screamed at me to run, to get back to my friends, but my legs refused to move. They shook like crazy and held all the strength of pipe cleaners. After a few minutes, I’d calmed down enough to be able to head back to the tents, legs shaky as hell but able to hold me up. Once I got to my tent, I stumbled in and collapsed onto my sleeping bag. Surely, either I’d experienced some form of hallucination or been drugged. Either way, I needed to sleep.

  *

  The wolf stood in front of me, eyes glowing, but I wasn’t scared this time. I sensed it didn’t mean me harm. It came as a friend, not foe. Others danced around us, their fur glowing in the moonlight. They howled up at the full moon, and I wanted to howl with them.

  Lights flickered, and I found myself in a room—a cozy, round room made of wood. It reminded me of something out of a childhood fairy tale. My senses fizzed with awareness as I looked across from me to see a tall, broad man. The guy from the woods. I experienced no fear, only…attraction, lust, and something deeper, something which made me ache. The man smiled, his austere face transformed by the movement. His gaze held mine as he pulled the T-shirt over his head and threw it to the floor. He stalked over to me and leaned in. Soft huffs of breath blew across my cheek as he studied me.

  “So beautiful and all mine,” he murmured.

  His hand trailed down my neck to my breast and I looked down. A shocked squeak eeked out of my lips when I realized I was totally and utterly naked and sitting on a large bed. A thick rug covered the floor, and an animal print comforter stretched over the bottom of the bed. The place reminded me of Hobbit meets caveman, as far as décor went.

  A rough hand palmed my bare breast, hefting the weight of it, before deft fingers lightly pinched my nipple. I gasped and the man licked his lips.

  He stood back and used those nimble fingers to unbutton the fly on his faded jeans. As the material dropped to the floor with a dull thud, I gave another gasp. This man was stunning. Truly beautiful.

  Strong and powerful, he owned the kind of body that easily defeated other men and could probably tempt any woman he desired. His cock hung full and heavy between his thighs. Not fully erect but thickening with arousal.

  I wanted to taste him. To take his heavy manhood in my hands and bring it to my lips.

  “Do it,” he commanded. “Taste me.”

  I leaned forward and took hold of his now fully hard—and scarily impressive—erection and brought it to my mouth. I tentatively licked a long, slow stripe up the underside, and he groaned in response.

  The taste of him burst onto my tongue, clean but with a hint of sexy musk. I moaned as I licked up his length again, and between my legs, moisture pooled. I wanted more. I parted my lips and sucked his broad head into my mouth.

  “Yes,” he grunted as his fingers found my hair and pulled me in closer.

  I knelt, to better control my movements, and bent forward to take him in even deeper. I took him to the back of my throat and he sighed.

  One hand rested on the bed, helping me balance, but I raised the other and cupped his full balls. I massaged them and tested their weight.

  “Stop.” He pulled my head back, using his grip on my hair, gentle though and not hurting me.

  “I don’t want to stop.” I looked up at him, my mouth slick. Bereft at losing the taste and thickness of him.

  “I need you,” he said.

  One moment, he stood looking down at me; the next, I was flat on my back and he loomed over me. Strong, thick arms propped up his big body. The low glow of light in the room made his tanned skin glow. A smattering of hair covered his solid pecs and narrowed into a trail running down his flat stomach, leading to his glorious cock.

  I wanted him. I wanted him with every single fiber of my being. I’d never seen such a virile male before. Male, not man. The word choice stopped me for a moment, pulled me out of my haze of lust.

  The room shimmered, the walls almost buckling around us.

  “No. Don’t go, min älskad.”

  I didn’t understand his last words. What did they mean? The room creaked and groaned around me and the floorboards rippled alarmingly.

  *

  “Holy crap.” I sat up in bed with a cry. The thin sheet I’d tossed over myself before sleep felt damp. I ran a hand between my breasts, and my fingers came away covered in sweat.

  “Babe?” Cindy mumbled as she struggled to turn around in her sleeping bag. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine.”

  I’d told my best friend a massive lie. I wasn’t fine. I’d seen a wolf, followed by the strangest dreams. Dreams so intense they seemed more real than the small tent I slept in. Oh my God. What if I ended up going mad like my Aunt Carolyn? She’d been famous in the family for her epic “eccentricity.” She used to have a thing about wolves too, if I remembered rightly. Used to paint them and fill her home with photographs of them.

  I decided to share at least a little with Cindy, and I told her about the man in the woods. I left out the bit about finding him weirdly attractive despite my fear, and I definitely left out the dream. I simply told her that I’d seen a stranger, and I confessed he’d both scared and intrigued me.

  “Don’t go wandering off into the woods alone again, Iz. He might be a fucking serial killer for all you know. Why the hell he’d be wandering about these woods all alone, I have no clue. It’s freaky.”

  Shivering as the sweat cooled on my skin, I sank back down under the sheet. I closed my eyes, wanting nothing more than to return to the room with the dark-haired man and let things play out. Instead, I lay awake for hours, my mind unable to settle and my horny body tormenting me as I ached and throbbed between my legs. Sleep didn’t return for me all night.

  Chapter Three

  It had been a day since I’d seen the wolf. I’d spent another night tossing and turning, and when sleep did come, it tormented me once more with strange and erotic dreams. I nurtured one hell of a bad mood as a result.

  “Watch out or the crazy wolfman will get you.” Dave pushed at Gregg as they entered the clearing.

  His words had my head snapping up.

  “Batshit old crone,” Gregg snorted.

  “What are you talking about?” I stood and wiped my hands down my legs, getting rid of the sticky residue of
the mango I’d been peeling.

  “We’ve been hunting and gathering,” Gregg said. “Thought we’d see if we could find anything edible and came across the local crazy.”

  “Why?” Cindy came out of our tent. “We have more than enough food.”

  “To see if we would catch anything.”

  I puffed out a breath. If we needed to hunt and gather our food, relying on those two would be a death sentence.

  “Ooh, I see.” Cindy loaded sarcasm into those words. “And did you gather a feast?”

  “Nah,” Dave laughed. “We bumped into this old woman, who started to warn us about camping here and talking about full moons and wolfmen.”

  They all laughed, but not me. My skin crawled and broke out in goose bumps. A wolf! I’d seen a wolf. A wolf with green eyes like those of the man I’d bumped into. The strange, scary-sexy man, with his scars, his muscles, and his…maleness. Oh, my… What if? No. No way. I shook my head.

  “What’s up with you, misery guts?” Dave nudged me. “Still pining after Jase?”

  “No.” I almost shouted my reply, but his soft smile told me I’d let him know how I felt.

  Dave took a small, silver flask out of his jacket pocket and unscrewed the cap. He took a big swallow and then turned to me. “You know…I’ve wondered over and over again if I ought to tell you this—”

  “Dave.” Gregg walked over to us, his face suddenly set in serious lines. “Fucking leave it alone.”

  “Tell me what?” A sick dread settled itself in my stomach. Did I want to know?

  “It’s not our place,” Gregg said and walked away. “Plus,” he muttered, “Jase will fucking kill you.”

  “Okay. Now you have to tell me.”

  Dave sighed and took another swig from his flask. He offered it to me and the smell of brandy hit. I shook my head.

  “Jase fucked around on you from the start.”

  Wow. Talk about direct. The sickness in my stomach intensified.

  “I know you guys weren’t in love or anything, but I also know you thought you were close. Friends and lovers, and believed you were exclusive. But you weren’t. He’s a shithead when it comes to women. I can tell you this much…” He paused and his face took on a thunderous expression. “If he came near my sister, I’d kneecap the bastard. I don’t say this to hurt you. I think you deserve to know he’s not worth your tears.”

  Unable to speak, I nodded instead. Those annoying tears he spoke of gathered and pricked at my eyelids.

  “He’ll cheat on Big Tits too. It’s the way he is. Like I say, lousy with the women.”

  “Thank fuck we always used condoms,” I managed to mumble.

  “Yeah. I bet he insisted on it. Didn’t he?” Dave asked.

  Jason had insisted we use condoms. Even when I told him I’d gone on the pill, he’d insisted. Said he didn’t want us to have to go through the hassle of getting tested. The lying sack of shit. Sudden fury burned through me, bright and glorious after my weeks of lethargic depression. “Fuck him! Fuck him to hell and back, the bastard.”

  “See.” Dave smiled. “That’s better. I always liked you, Iz. You’re a laugh. You’re fit. Any bloke should be lucky to have you as their girl. He didn’t deserve you.”

  “Wow, Dave. You asking our Izzy out?” Cindy butted in, and I wanted to smack her. I’d never looked at Dave in such a way.

  “Not me, no. She’s not my type.”

  Ouch. Way to hurt a girl’s ego.

  “Don’t like blondes?” Cindy teased.

  “Don’t like girls,” Dave shot back.

  I stilled, and Cindy’s mouth fell open into a perfect circle of surprise.

  “You’re gay?” I said.

  “Yep.”

  “How can I have known you for all this time and have no idea?” I didn’t give a crap who Dave liked to play around with. My brother came out as gay at seventeen, and I’d seen the shit he went through because of bigoted idiots. My shock came from not having had a clue this entire time.

  “Because I haven’t been dating. Too busy working. So I suppose it’s not come up. But…I’m seeing someone now.” He dipped his head, but I saw his grin.

  “Good for you. I hope it works out.”

  “Me too.” He dropped his voice lower. “To be honest, I don’t think Gregg and Jason are too nice when it comes to how they treat women, and I’ve not been hanging around with them as much. I came on this trip because you guys were coming. Not for Gregg or Jase.”

  He got up to go, but before he walked off, he handed me the flask. “Here. I think you need this more than me right now.” He dropped a kiss on the top of my head and strolled toward his tent.

  I didn’t want to hang around any longer with Dave’s news burning a hole in my gut. Passing the flask to Cindy, I walked off toward the woods.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Going for a walk.” I turned my head and raised my voice so she’d hear me. “Won’t be long.”

  I needed the peace, but I also had this overwhelming urge to see if the wolf was at the clearing. Crazy and dangerous as it may be. I wouldn’t venture far; I didn’t want to bump into the stranger again. Despite my sexy dream about him, I wasn’t stupid enough to want another close encounter.

  “I’ll come with you,” Gregg called from the entrance to his tent.

  “No need. If you don’t mind, I’d rather be alone.”

  Without waiting for an answer, I turned and walked off. Since The Bastard had kicked me to the curb, Gregg seemed interested in a bit more than friendship. No way. He didn’t do it for me, and I wanted to avoid Jason’s gang for any future romantic entanglements. I’d always liked Dave. He’d struck me as the most sincere of the group. Some of Jason’s mates were…well… Frankly, they were utter dicks. Dave had seen the light too, it seemed.

  Gregg stood out as the ringleader when it came to acting like a misogynistic prick. The guys had kind of become my friends through my relationship with Jason, but I realized I didn’t like all of them. I envisaged our little gang breaking up completely now that we were finished with university.

  I walked down the trail, lost in deep thought, and stopped when I realized I’d gone farther than intended. About to turn back, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. A huge hare sat not five feet from me in the woods, its nose twitching as it stared at me. It turned tail and hopped away, but not particularly fast. Enchanted, I stepped off the path and followed it into the dense leaves. At first, the hare let me follow as it hopped along, but suddenly it kicked up its heels and bounded off too quickly for me to see where it went. Shrugging, I turned to head back to the path and stopped dead in my tracks.

  Holy fuck! The wolf I’d seen before was standing, staring at me, those preternatural orbs taking me in. All the hair on my body stood on end. The animal loomed as large as I remembered. Way too big to be any normal wolf, besides which, it shouldn’t be wandering about the Scottish forests unless it had escaped from a zoo. A possible explanation perhaps. Except…such a theory didn’t explain the odd, spooky energy radiating from the creature or its massive size. And those eyes. They stared right into my soul.

  The air stirred around us, and a sense of magic danced in the space between. Something elemental and wonderful sparked and shimmied in the dense forest. Instead of feeling fear, I became enraptured. This creature seemed familiar to me, as if I knew it. I grew certain it wouldn’t hurt me. Not stopping to think, I took a tentative step forward.

  Something whizzed past me, so close it displaced the air next to my face, and a huge rock hit the wolf on its flank. The animal howled in pain and went down. Horrified, I whipped around to see Gregg standing with another rock in hand. He hurled this one, too.

  “No.” I ran toward him.

  “Get out of the way, babe. That thing can do us serious harm.”

  I turned back to the stricken wolf to see it on its feet once more. It gave a low, deadly growl, and for a moment, I worried it would attack, but it wobbled on its
feet. Another huge gash split the side of its head. Oh, God. It would die from the wound if we didn’t get it help. The animal stared at us, then limped away deeper into the woods.

  Furious, I ran at Gregg and pushed him hard enough he stumbled back.

  “You utter bastard. Why’d you do that? Didn’t you see how beautiful it was?”

  “It’s a fucking wolf. Clearly an escaped zoo animal. It might have killed you. Jesus, Izzy. Get some sense into your head. Honey, I probably saved your life.”

  I didn’t wait for him to say any more. Heart hammering, I followed the wolf deeper into the woods. I couldn’t see the animal, but I went in the direction he’d been headed. I prayed it wasn’t seriously harmed. Like idiots, none of us had brought satellite phones with us, and our mobile phones didn’t have reception. The poor creature risked death out here, injured and alone.

  Where had it gone? I turned my head, looking left to right, but nothing. And then I saw it—red dots spotting the ground. Blood. I followed the trail until it petered out, and then I carried on farther into the woods.

  “Iz, stop this right now. Come back to the camp with me.” Gregg grabbed at my arm.

  “No. Let me go. What are you even doing here?”

  “I followed you.” He didn’t flinch at his admission.

  “Stalkerish much, Gregg?”

  “You’re not yourself. I heard you last night, moaning and muttering in your sleep. You’re all worked up. I can smell the sexual frustration on you.” He stepped closer.

  Ugh. What a disgusting thing to say. “I beg your fucking pardon?”

  “You. Smell. Of. Sex. You want it. I can give you what you need.”

  I tossed my head back and laughed.

  “You find the idea of sex with me amusing, do you?” He sneered at me. “You’ll spread your legs for slutboy Jason, but you’re too good for me? Don’t fool yourself. Everyone sees you as used goods now.”

  “Oh, so this is like a charity fuck you’re offering me?” I laughed again.