by Kate Wendley
“What’s the address there? Can you tell me?”
She actually growled, but finally started spouting out numbers. Then a street. He read it back to her and all she said was, “Yes.”
He grabbed his keys and rushed out the door as he tried to keep her on the line. “Stay where you are, Helena. I’m coming over. Ok?”
“Yes.”
He started talking about anything and everything then, just to keep her attention and keep her on the line. He’d die if anything happened to her right now, especially if he could’ve saved her. A wolf in charge of a human was generally not a good thing. Anything could happen. She could so easily put herself in a situation where humans would realize something was very, very wrong with her, and then… The family didn’t take kindly to supernaturals making themselves known to humans, even if no harm came to them. Supers that put the community’s secrecy at risk tended to disappear.
Marc hurried, praying she’d stay safe and hidden.
**
Helena lived in a nice part of town, and the front door to her apartment building was locked. Great.
“Helena. I’m downstairs. Can you let me in?”
He heard a thud on the line, then footsteps. Soon the door opened and bright eyes greeted him… and a scantily clad Helena.
“Marc.”
Relief washed through him that she was ok, and the power of his reaction shocked him. Why did he feel so strongly about her? He barely even knew her. Did he just feel sorry for her since she was a loner in Atlanta?
She reached for him and he quickly pulled her into his arms, gave her a full body hug, then forcefully ushered her back inside.
He spoke quietly into her hair as they walked. “Which apartment is yours?” From the sounds of her earlier footsteps, he guessed she lived upstairs. She wasn’t being much help because her wolf was busy nuzzling and pawing at him while they walked. A door was open on the second floor, and the lit up screen of a cell phone was on the ground inside so he wandered in.
It smelled like her in here, so he spun them around and shut and locked the door. A dim light was on in another room, but otherwise her apartment was dark. He could make everything out well enough so he didn’t bother looking for more lights.
Now that they’d stopped walking, her pawing at him intensified. She wanted more than just to nuzzle and be close. He closed his eyes and focused on the feel of her, willing himself to calm down now that he was here. She was safe and it didn’t look like she’d even left her apartment, so no humans were involved…
And now he had her all to himself. Anxious and willing and being spicy as hell. Dammit. The strange, comfortable energy between them was like a drug. He wanted to lose himself with her, and he knew that if they made love, it would be incredible, unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. It had to be because he’d never felt so all consumed by even just the thought of being with someone. She was his, body and soul.
His wolf wanted to rush to the fore and play with her, give her anything she wanted, but Marc knew what would happen if he let him. He and Helena would have wild, passionate sex, and then when their human sides took over again, things would not be good. Probably.
“Helena. Are you there? Helena, listen to me. Your wolf has taken over. Do you understand?” He firmly nudged her away from himself, though it took a lot more willpower than it had at the trail earlier today. And if she kept touching him in ways that he liked, well, maybe he was letting that happen for longer than he should be…
His eyes lingered on her snug tank top that was too short to meet the top of her skimpy panties, and a shiver of raw, animal need overtook him. He’d sworn to himself he wouldn’t have sex again just for the sake of having sex, though. He wanted it to mean something important for once, but he was seriously rethinking his personal oath right about now. She wanted him, there was no doubt about it, and he wanted her…
His resolve weakened and he helped her pull his shirt off so she didn’t rip it to shreds, and then she was in his arms once more. She nipped at his shoulder, and then his neck, and when he cupped her cheeks in his hands, wanting to kiss her so, so badly, he realized that would never happen. Not while she was her wolf. Wolves didn’t kiss. Wolves nipped and licked and bit. They didn’t do the more human stuff.
Now that his self-respect was mostly in place once again, he knew he needed to do the right thing by her so that come tomorrow, he wouldn’t be ashamed of his actions here tonight. The right thing to do was to see her through the night with her virtues intact. When they woke tomorrow they could talk more about this as their human selves.
“Come on Spicy. Let’s get you back to bed. You need to get some sleep.”
She gripped him again, this time rubbing her body against his, and he struggled to keep his hands off her. Lord he wanted nothing more than to strip her out of these thin underthings and taste her everywhere. She’d even enjoy it. Tonight at least. Instead he kicked his shoes off and forcefully helped her to her room.
She had a nice place, from what he could make out. Judging by her bedroom her whole place was nicer than his, and cleaner, too. He liked it.
She willingly slunk into bed, pulling him along, but then she really got fierce with him. Every bone in his body told him to take her, and it felt like a supernatural force was trying to bind them together, though that was probably just his hormones talking. For once in his life he knew what he needed to do, no matter how badly he didn’t want to do it. He needed to watch over her tonight and leave her be, even as his body trembled and threatened to stage a revolt.
Helena wasn’t helping matters either, so he used a little muscle to turn her so he was spooning her, then trapped her arms so they were crossed over her chest. “Helena, sleep. We’re not playing tonight. It’s just sleep.”
She bucked against him, and when she realized he wasn’t going to let her loose, she growled angrily.
He wanted to laugh at her orneriness, but instead he bit the back of her neck. At first she stilled, but she must have thought he was just playing because she started fighting his hold on her again.
“Helena…” His warning tone only made her all the more excited, so he decided he needed to appeal to the wolf in her.
He slung a leg over hers so she was completely trapped under his body, then bit down hard on the back of her neck as he growled deeply against her skin. She stilled, as if waiting to see what would happen next. When she bucked cautiously against him, he growled and bit harder, and kept biting until he tasted blood in his mouth.
She sucked in a deep breath, and then her entire body relaxed against his. He’d marked her as his by doing this, and her wolf seemed happy with that because it wasn’t long before she was asleep in his arms.
He’d never done this before, at least not without sex involved. Werewolves could get rough in bed sometimes, and sometimes a nip ended up a little bloodier than intended. But that was just sex play and never meant anything more to him. Doing it now with Helena, and especially while she wasn’t even herself, felt strange, yet wholesome and right, as weird as that sounded. Everything about being here tonight was an unexpected shock, and he needed time to think about how not to screw things up with her once she came back to herself. But it was late, and it wasn’t long before his own exhaustion took over and he fell asleep with Helena trapped beneath him.
Chapter 8
The distant sound of her alarm beckoned Helena out of a deep, peaceful sleep. The slow realization that someone was spooned up against her stunned her completely awake. Her heart raced as she clumsily disentangled herself from his arms and legs and shot out of bed.
Marc. It was Marc. Sexy, gorgeous Marc. What the hell was he doing here? She dashed into the living room to silence her beeping phone, only to freak out even more when her call screen popped up. She’d talked to him for over half an hour last night? Why? What did she say to him?
She stared numbly at her phone. This kind of stuff hadn’t happened in a long time. She’d fought so hard to g
et control over her wolf, and now here she was again, doing things she could barely remember doing. Bits and pieces of last night came to her, mostly of her in Marc’s arms, but it wasn’t enough detail to make sense of what happened. It was like a half remembered dream that quickly slipped from her mind.
Anger and embarrassment settled in as Marc shuffled out of her bedroom with his sexy, sleep tousled hair. He was half naked, wearing a pair of cargo shorts that were just loose enough to show off that he was wearing a pair of dusty blue underpants. Which of course drew her eye to his heavenly sculpted body. She’d figured he was in good shape, but seeing his bare, broad shoulders, gorgeously defined pecs and abs she wanted to lick right here and now, she totally understood why women threw themselves at him. He’d probably never had to work for anything in his life and here she was, barely able to keep her sanity with all this wolf madness.
“Good morning. And in case you don’t remember, nothing happened. We just slept.”
Her body immediately tightened all over at the sound of his husky voice. She distracted herself from how turned on she was by looking at her phone. “I called you last night.”
“Yeah. Well, your wolf did. I didn’t want anything to happen to you, so I came over.”
She looked him straight in the eye. She wasn’t used to a guy talking about her wolf, or even knowing about it, though obviously Marc did. Even so, it still felt weird having this conversation. “How did you know it was my wolf that called you?”
He gave her a strange look. “Your old pack wasn’t much of a family, were they?”
Irritation burned inside her, mostly at herself, but a little at Marc, too. He just had to rub her mistake in her face, didn’t he? Yeah, she screwed up, and yeah, maybe she didn’t know everything about being wolf. But she’d worked long and hard to have a normal life again after first turning, and just like that, everything was spinning out of control. Again.
Marc looked far too comfortable here, and that stung, too. She wasn’t one of his casual girlfriends that he could just float in and out her life whenever he wanted. That wasn’t the kind of life she led and it never would be. She had to get him out of here so she could think… and so she could wallow in shame and pity without a sexy audience to feel awkward in front of.
“Never mind. Thank you for coming over and helping me deal with my issue. I appreciate your help. Sorry you had to go to all that trouble in the middle of the night.”
The instant look of outrage on his face made her freeze. What was he mad about? And what would he do about it? She knew so little about this man…
He stormed past her and grabbed his shirt and shoes up off the floor, then swiped the counter to snag his phone and keys before heading for the door. As he swung it open he snarled, “Not everything’s just about you, you know.”
A wave of nausea came out of nowhere when she realized she’d hurt his feelings. That. Was. Weird. And worse, she felt an overpowering need to set things right.
As she had the most confusing mental tug of war with her wolf that she’d ever had, she blurted out, “I’ve only been wolf for six years.”
Marc froze in the doorway and her sick stomach started to settle. He didn’t make any moves to either stay or go.
“I’m still trying to figure this all out. Some days it’s not so easy.”
He slowly turned back towards her and she could feel his anger give way to confusion. Another thing about being wolf. Emotions were easier to read because she could literally feel them in the air now. She hated that because most of the time, ignorance really was bliss.
She plopped down on her sofa as weariness threatened to overwhelm her. She was so tired of fighting her wolf just to live a normal life, and so tired of having no one to talk to about it. Besides the few things she told Charlie, which wasn’t much since Charlie seemed to already know it all, she’d never told anyone what was going on with her. Now, well, it felt good to be honest with someone who might understand, but it also felt like an admission of weakness. If she’d learned anything about being wolf, it was that showing weakness wasn’t a good thing.
She wiped at the angry tears on her cheeks. She refused to cry in front of Marc. This was her life and she’d deal with it, not continue to play the victim. Still, she couldn’t look at him as he slowly closed the door and sat down beside her. But when he put his shirt on, she angrily watched every inch of his sexy, sculpted chest disappear under the cloth.
“You’ve only been a wolf for six years.” It didn’t sound like he believed her, and there was more than a little irritation in his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Ok… So how did you get turned?” The suspicion was still there, but her stomach was settling. Weird, but true. Her wolf was calming down inside her now that Marc didn’t seem so mad. She didn’t even want to think about what that meant.
“A one night stand with a guy I knew from my college finance class. He bit me. Hard.” She pointed to the tender juncture of her neck and shoulder, as if Will’s bite was still there. Marc’s eyes followed anyway.
“I called that number you gave me yesterday. Charlie said he also bit other women. He’s dead now, though, so I guess he’ll never have to pay for what he did.”
He frowned and somberly said, “He obviously paid with his life.”
“What? No. He got mauled by wild animals…” Her jaw dropped. “Are you saying other werewolves killed him?”
Marc’s silence as he watched her only scared her even more.
“What the hell kind of family is this?” And worse, what kind of wild animal had she turned into? Was she capable of killing someone?
“The Master of Atlanta only has two rules for supernaturals that live in his territory. One is we do nothing to harm humans. The other is that we don’t do things that draw attention to the fact that we even exist. That we’re not regular humans. This guy broke both those rules.”
Her heart pounded harshly in her chest. “So the Master killed him?”
Marc shrugged. “I don’t know. Someone did. It could’ve also been the Alpha Wolf, Sebastian, or one of the elders. Maybe even Charlie.”
Her throat went dry. Her life as a werewolf was suddenly a lot more dangerous than she realized it was.
“And I’m part of that world now.”
Marc slowly nodded, his angry frown now replaced with concern.
Her hands trembled so she clasped them tightly together. “I can’t remember everything that happened last night. What if I−?”
He put a warm hand over hers. “You didn’t do anything bad. You called me and I came over to make sure you were safe. That’s it.”
“But how would my wolf be able to call you? And why?”
Marc sat back and gave her a thoughtful look. “I don’t know, actually. But we should try to figure it out. Your wolf seemed to have a lot of control over you in human form.”
She stared blindly at him, ran her hands over her face in frustration, then smoothed her hair back. Marc’s eyes followed her movements, and the feeling of his attention on her was intense.
“You should wear your hair down today.”
“Why?”
He carefully watched her. “Because I marked you last night. On the back of your neck.”
Her temper flared. “What? You gave me a hickey?” Just when she was starting to think he was a responsible kind of guy after all, he blew it by doing something juvenile. Adults didn’t give hickeys.
His instant look of confusion quickly melted into disappointment. “It’s a little more than a hickey. Do you have work today?” He seemed irritated now as his gaze flicked away from hers. Had she hurt his feelings again? How?
“Yeah. We’re creating a new marketing campaign for a development going up on the west side of town. I need to be there to work on it.”
He nodded to himself. “Ok. Then maybe you should tell me where you’ll be. Just in case I get another phone call from your wolf. It’ll save time to already know where you are.” He pulled his p
hone out as she looked him over. His height made her feel vulnerable and girly. She wasn’t used to that around men. She was normally taller than guys, so to have to look up at Marc brought out a primal feeling of him being her protector. It had no basis in reality, except that he’d done nothing but protect her these last twenty four hours. Huh.
“Thank you for everything you’ve done to help me Marc. You didn’t have to do any of this, but I’m glad you did.”
The serious look he gave her nearly made her want to jump his bones right here and now. This man was sexy with a capital S. He probably knew it, too, just like all his beautiful friends knew it, but right now he just seemed like an honest, genuine guy.
“I’d say you’re welcome but that would make it seem like I’m doing you a favor. It’s not a favor, Helena. I want to get to know you better.” He reached out and touched her, making a tingle go up her arm. “I want to feel more of this.”
He was sinful to look at with his soulful eyes, broad shoulders and long, strong arms and legs that made her own long limbs seem dainty. And when he touched her, an intense energy shot through her. It reminded her of how she felt dancing with him at the Tabernacle. Then, like now, she wanted him so bad. She needed him worse than she’d ever needed anything in her entire life. She imagined throwing herself into his arms, and she knew he’d accept her.
But did he accept every woman who threw themselves at him? That was the million dollar question. So far it kind of seemed like he did, which made her heart hurt. She pulled away from his touch. None of this early morning intense chemistry between them mattered. This had to be some weird wolf mood thing again because it wasn’t logical that she should want someone she barely knew as badly as she wanted Marc, and certainly not someone that didn’t want a serious relationship. She wasn’t like that. Flighty relationships with too many unknown factors involved weren’t her thing. She had enough problems in her life, she didn’t need a sexy, flirty guy hanging around, too.