Tamara dug toward the bottom of the chest in search of something that wouldn’t make her look like a child playing dress up in her parent’s clothes. Just as she grabbed hold of a green shirt, she heard something scrape across the floor. It was coming from the foyer where the wolf lie.
Her fingers paused on the fabric as a worst case scenario rushed through her mind. Realizing that she had no weapon against a wolf that was capable of turning on her, she loosened her grip on the shirt and turned.
As her brain registered and processed what appeared to be a naked Devin standing in the foyer where a wolf had once been, a blood curdling scream escaped from her throat. Devin, whose eyes widened, appeared just as startled as she was.
“Oh my God!” Tamara clutched at the towel covering her body and ran to the opposite end of the cabin.
Scratches marked Devin’s face and a deep scrape was on the left side of his abdomen. The bandages that she’d wrapped around the wolf’s torso lay at his feet. In his hand was the rope she’d used to secure the animal’s feet so it wouldn’t get away. He was sleek and built in his naked form. Hair the same color as the brown and black wolf spread over the upper chest and arms. A patch of it led down his torso forming a “V”. His manhood hung, full and long, between his legs.
After studying what she could only imagine was her state of mishap, he walked over to the chest where Tamara had been and scooped out a pair of jeans.
“What the fuck is going on?” she cried out. “What the hell just happened?”
“Is there a reason why you ran off, Tamara?”
She shook her head. Confused, she looked from the foyer to Devin, who was now buttoning up his pants. “The wolf…?”
Devin held out his hands, as if he was coming for her.
“Don’t come any closer. Please.” Tamara pointed to the foyer. “There was a wolf at the door and now…” She rubbed her forehead with her palm. Surely she wasn’t hallucinating. She’d fallen hard on the pavement at the museum, but she’d recovered already. She glanced up again at the fresh gashes on his abdomen, and then at the bite mark on his neck. The same emerald eyes of the wolf glanced at her attentively. He resembled the wolf. “You—”
Devin nodded. “Yes. I’m the wolf.”
Her breath hitched in her throat. She motioned to the foyer with her hands. “That’s impossible. The wolf was alive and breathing and now it’s gone. Was there a costume? What happened to it? How can you…?” Her words came out in a rush.
He took a seat in one of the chairs in front of the fireplace. “I can shift.”
“Shift?” Tamara straightened her back. “Like a werewolf? Like in a movie?”
“I am wolf. And I am human.”
“You’re a full grown man. How can you also be wolf?”
“I possess the blood and spirit of Caedmon. Our lineage goes back hundreds of years. Our gift allows us to shift between man and wolf at will.” Devin dropped his head. “I shouldn’t be telling you any of this.”
“The spirit of Caedmon?” She laughed, nervously. “Is this some type of joke?”
“No.” There wasn’t a smile or hint of amusement on his face.
“Then do it. Do it now. Shift into the wolf.” She’d come out from the corner she’d backed herself into.
“I don’t think you know what you’re asking.” Devin stood and walked toward the bathroom.
She followed him. “I know exactly what I’m asking.”
He turned on the faucet, cupped his hand under the spout, and splashed water over his face. As he leaned to grab the hand towel from the rack, Tamara glimpsed his waist and abdomen again. The deep scrapes had disappeared. The skin where the wound had been was the same complexion and just as smooth as the rest of his body.
“You healed…” Tamara raised her eyes slowly to his face. “…really quickly.”
“That’s not a joke, either. Our gifts also give us the ability to heal rapidly…when we have enough strength, of course.”
“Impossible,” she whispered. “I studied medicine. None of this is possible. A man cannot shift into an animal.”
“You’re right.” He shrugged. “I can’t shift. Now, why don’t you tell me where you were going? I thought we had a plan. That you would stay another day and I’d at least help you reach town.”
“I didn’t want to bother you any longer.” It was a stupid idea. If she’d stayed in the cabin and accepted his help in the first place she never would have been attacked by the wolf. “Hey, don’t avoid the issue.” She moved aside so that he could exit the bathroom. “Show me how you shift.”
“You don’t believe me. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Do you realize how surreal this is? For you to tell someone, me, a regular person that you can change into a wolf?”
“You didn’t actually see me shift?” He picked up the bowl of water by the foyer and continued into the kitchen. “As for you…do you know how surreal it was for me to witness a woman falling from a third story window of a history museum?”
“I didn’t fall. I jumped.” Tamara pressed her lips together. “I was in trouble.”
Devin dumped the water into the sink, then grabbed a tall glass and filled it with more tap water. “I figured this much. What were you running from?”
She swallowed. “I’d rather not say.”
He downed the entire glass of water and refilled it. “Do you know what kind of time people serve for breaking and entering?”
Tamara met his eyes in challenge. “You have no idea what was at stake for me.”
“I’m trying to understand.” He searched her face. “Left something valuable in the museum? You needed some cash…? What was it? What would lead you to burglary?”
“I’m not a thief.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I was running for my life.”
“Who threatened your life?”
She looked down at her toes. “My fiancé.”
His attention dropped to her ring finger. “You’re engaged?”
“Not anymore.” Arms still crossed, she slid her left hand under her arm. There wasn’t a ring. Brad had to pawn it to come up with funds to buy a car several months ago. He’d promised to buy it back, but his promises weren’t worth much. “Ex-fiancé.”
“Why would you run?”
“I set him up. I botched his robbery attempt and ran.” She turned. “I needed a way to escape from him without being found.”
“This seems to pain you. I’m sorry.”
She could sense him close behind her. “I’m not the complete victim here. I let it get out of hand.”
“Out of hand?” he asked.
Tamara nodded. “It got worse before it ever got better.”
Devin slid his fingers down her bare shoulder and turned over her arm. He inspected the bruise she’d received from Brad a couple days before the museum break-in.
“Is this what you are running from?” He spoke softly.
She nodded. The sound of his voice soothed her, but still she wanted to cower in a corner from embarrassment. She was ashamed to have let this abuse happen to her.
“You shouldn’t have to live in fear.” He let her hand drop to her side, but he did not let it go. “You have too much of a kind soul and are too beautiful of a woman to suffer such treatment.”
She wanted to fall into his chest to welcome a deeper embrace, but something warned her not to trust freely. Her body yearned to close the tiny space that kept them apart. Tamara pulled her hand from his grasp and moved to stand next to the fireplace. Oddly, the heat from his body had been more comforting than the heat from the fire.
“I can’t stay here long. One, I promised my counselor once I was safe that I would call her. And two, I don’t have any clothes.”
“I have cell phone. And I can get you some clothes.”
She wrung her hands together, contemplating his offer. The longer she laid low, the more likely any case that had been brought up against her would have gone cold. What the passage of t
ime did not guarantee, was that Brad had finally been captured and locked up. Unless he had a backup plan for getting caught in the act of burglarizing the museum, there was no chance he could have escaped being surrounded by police. The only reason she was safe and sound was because of the wolf. Devin, her rescuer.
“I must be a big inconvenience to you,” she mumbled.
“No, you’re not,” he said. “I’ve committed to help you.”
“You had plans before you even met me. I’ve done nothing but delay you.”
“Acting without adequate planning would have been a disadvantage to me. Over the past several nights here, I had the chance to re-evaluate my choice. I will have to leave soon though…if I plan to help my people.”
She turned to face him. “Your people?”
He moved to stand by the sofa. “Sit with me.”
Several moments passed while she waited patiently for him to speak. She lifted her gaze to meet his with question. Visions of his wolf flashed into her mind. “Tell me about this spirit of Caedmon.”
“We’ve been around for hundreds of years. One of the oldest and most respected wolf packs in the United States. Those who are born with the spirit of Caedmon have the ability to shift into wolf form.”
“Like you?” she asked when he paused.
“Yes. We’ve since branched out into many smaller tribes. We are a very diverse pack. This is the result of a custom of accepting wolves from disbanded packs who wish to accept the spirit, culture, and laws of Caedmon. However, the pack is still led by those who are directly descended from the first line of Caedmon wolves.”
“So, I assume that this is all kept secret…from non-wolves.”
“It is forbidden to offer knowledge about our existence to outsiders.”
She frowned. “But, you have told me…”
He grinned. “I’ve always been the bad seed.”
Tamara swallowed. “What happens to those who disobey the laws?”
“The punishment depends on the severity of the offense.”
She looked down at the patterns in the sofa. “I hope you are not punished because of me.”
He grasped her elbow in a gesture of solace. “Don’t worry about me.”
It seemed as though the Caedmon culture he talked of was a serious one. A real one. With people that shifted into wolf form just like he could. They had real laws, and he’d disobeyed one of them. For some reason, she did worry about him. She’d practically encouraged him to tell her a secret that he was bond to keep to himself.
They’d have to part soon, and she had a feeling that she’d never be able to forget Devin. The man who also a wolf.
Chapter Six
Snow fell so furiously that it came down in a white haze outside the window. The temperatures had once again dipped below freezing with what Tamara suspected was the worst of the storm. Devin had even said he hadn’t seen this coming.
Fire crackled and danced in the fireplace. Every so often a log would break apart, and the flames would spark and pop as it settled in place again. It reminded her of the sounds of Christmas alongside her family. Sitting here like this with Devin made her realize that she missed moments like those.
Tamara folded her legs under her and scooped up another spoon full of soup. The hearty combination of chicken, noodles and other vegetables filled her up and warmed her insides on this freezing cold night. She’d never met a man who could cook, and always thought that finding one was like discovering a needle in haystack. Was it just by happenstance that she’d finally come across one?
She stole another glance at Devin who sat beside her, bent over the coffee table peering at some complex drawings. Every so often, he would mumble something to himself.
“Does Montana get this much snow?” She didn’t want to seem like a nuisance, but hearing the casual sound of his always seemed to calm her.
He nodded. “A lot more than this. I’m quite used to it.”
She glanced down at the pencil drawings and shadings. “What are you drawing?”
“An idea for an expansion of this cabin. It’s outdated. Too small, and needs a lot of work.”
She glanced at every corner of the room. It was small, but for its size it served the purpose. “Outdated? Well, how old is it?”
“Thirty, maybe forty years old. It was my mother’s. She lived here for a very short time.” He didn’t look up from the drawing.
“Is your mother…Caedmon?”
“Was. She’s dead.”
There was no emotion in his voice, and she wondered if he’d suppressed them.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“She followed her mate to the grave.”
“Excuse me?” Had she heard him correctly?
“Wolves mate for life. In Caedmon culture, if the mating is a true one, when a wolf’s mate dies, the other soon follows.”
“From doing some research on wolf behavior in college, I learned that they mated for life. It’s romantic…and sad at the same time.”
“How many bathrooms?” He looked down at his sketch again.
His change of subject suddenly caught her off guard. “What?”
“How many bathrooms would you want in your dream home?”
Tamara smiled. “My dream home? Hmmm…never thought about it.” She set the bowl on the table and peered at the drawing with him. “A huge master bath with Jacuzzi tubs, separate toilet and shower. The works. A half bathroom downstairs for guests. I’d want at least two bathroom upstairs with one of the rooms having its own bathroom.”
“Uh-hmm.” He scribbled some notes on a separate notepad. “Sounds like five bedrooms total.”
“Exactly. I’m not big on mansions, but I grew up in a family where we were taught to make people feel at home. My parents had dinner parties all the time. The guest list was always large.”
“And they don’t anymore?”
“If they were alive, they would. They were involved in a terrible boating accident.” At the time, they’d been on a month long vacation, and had died doing what they loved. The grieving process for her was long and difficult.
“That’s unfortunate.”
“Do you build homes all the time?”
“I make my living doing this. I have a construction business in Montana,” he said.
“How long have you lived in Montana?”
“Five years.” The muscles on his forearms moved lithely as he sketched on the pad.
It was long enough to call Montana home, yet she wondered what would make him return to Virginia after five years and refer to it as his home. Was it part of the Caedmon culture? Was he forced to return? What was at stake? Whatever business he needed to leave to tend to seemed serious enough.
“The other wolf…the one you were fighting with…is it Caedmon?”
“Yes.”
“Why did it want to kill me?” Had Devin not come when he did, she probably would not even be alive.
“It didn’t want to kill you,” he said. “These forests are Caedmon territory. In its eyes, you were a trespasser…as well as an unaccompanied female.”
“Then, I really need to leave, huh? Before the other wolves find out. I don’t—”
“You will do no such thing,” he said quickly. “You are under my protection. You will find safety, but you will not find it alone.”
His declaration was firm, as if there were no room for discussion. He was no stranger to giving orders. It was the very thing she was running away from now. Devin had good intentions, but was this hint of dominance a glimpse into who he really was?
“I don’t want to be a burden or the reason you receive reprimand from your pack, neither do I want to feel like a prisoner in your home,” she said, then picked up her empty bowl and walked to the kitchen.
She risked her life for the chance to make her own decisions again. There was no way in hell she would let yet another man make them for her. The reality was that a world of difference existed between Devin and Brad. She saw the hone
sty in Devin’s eyes, and the virtue in his demeanor. There should have been no comparison to Brad, but she had to be careful. Things weren’t always what they seemed. She’d been burned once before…
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