Untamed Darkness

by Kate Wendley

  When her tongue gently stroked across the skin of his hand, his whole body clenched. Good God she was turning him on. He didn’t want to startle her out of her reverie, so he just sat there, daydreaming about everything he wanted to do to her and with her.

  “Why is he following her? I thought they were working together to find the missing orb?”

  He shivered in need and drawled out, “I have no idea.”

  She turned to look at him, then startled. “Why are your eyes glowing?”

  He tried to stifle a groan, but wasn’t entirely successful. “It might have something to do with you nibbling on me.”

  “What?” She looked at his arm in confusion, then flicked it away as she started to get up. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what−”

  He grabbed her before she could scoot away. “Hey now. I didn’t say you had to apologize.”

  She kept trying to wiggle loose, but quickly gave up. “Jeez you’re strong.”

  He smiled. “I work out.”

  Her hand covered her eyes in embarrassment. “I’m really sorry for that.”

  “Don’t be. I’m not.”

  Her hand slid away from her face, and was that a spark of something in her eyes? Her wolf liked what was going on. Did she though? He couldn’t tell and it was maddening. Whenever they even started to connect, she hid her emotions and put a wall up.

  Like now. She looked away from him as her shoulders tensed up. “This is what I mean. It’s so hard to always have to be thinking about controlling my wolf.”

  “Then maybe you’re not running in the right circles.”

  She turned back to him with a question on her face.

  “If you’re never around other werewolves, then your wolf never gets to be herself, right?”

  “If I’m around other wolves, it’s even harder to control my wolf. That’s why I’ve always stayed away. Stuff like tonight would happen, except out in public.”

  “Then you need more practice out of the public eye. Sometimes you have to let go of your control in order to get it back, gorgeous.”

  She frowned. “If you came over tonight thinking you’d get some…”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. That’s not it at all.” Dammit. He pushed too hard and now she was on the defensive again.

  The TV blared with gunfire, so he grabbed the remote to pause the movie and make the noise stop. It gave him something to concentrate on instead of sticking his foot further in his mouth.

  While he silently counted to ten to give himself time to think of how to fix this blunder, she touched his arm and said, “I’m sorry. I’m just… worried. I’m no good at this.”

  “No good at what?”

  Helena frowned, and he relaxed for some crazy reason. This wasn’t all about him doing or saying the wrong things. She was nervous, too. He could deal with that.

  He reached out and cupped her cheek, and she froze at his touch. He ran a thumb along her soft skin, but only for a short moment. She was skittish, but she was his. She just didn’t know it yet.

  She sounded breathless when she said, “I told you I’m not like you and your friends.”

  “I’m glad you’re not.”

  “You are?”

  He nodded, and wanted so badly to let this sudden, intense moment keep building. “Very. Now, time for bed. Does this thing fold out?”

  She snapped out of her daze, something he was sure he’d kick himself for later, but tonight was going to be weird enough. He didn’t want to put even more pressure on her. She had some real, honest to God problems and he wanted to help her through them. He could be there for her wolf issues. That’s how he’d show her he could be good for her.

  He stood up and lifted a cushion on the couch, but there was nothing beneath it except the frame.

  “This isn’t a hide-a-bed.” He let the cushion drop back into place. “Ok. Blankets?”

  Confusion swept over her features but she quickly recovered and took off across the room, then opened a closet door. “There’s an assortment in here. How many pillows do you want?”

  “One is good.”

  They settled into a rhythm clearing the space around the sofa and making up a bed for him to sleep on, then teeth were brushed and lights were dimmed.

  Before Helena left him alone in the living room, she turned to him and said, “Thanks again Marc. It’s nice to have someone I can talk about wolf stuff with and be able to relax around.”

  “I told you. No thank you’s. I’m not doing you a favor. I’m getting to know you.”

  A chuckle escaped her before she shook her head and slipped off to bed.

  **

  Marc woke to Helena crawling on top of him on the already too small sofa. He tiredly laughed. “Helena? Is that you? Or is this your wolf?”

  He got a sexy moan in return as she tried her hardest not to slip off him, and then she bit down hard on his neck. That woke him right on up.

  She lapped at the wound, the smell of blood strong to his overly sensitive nose. She marked him? A surge of pride flowed through him, his wolf up and alert inside him, ready for whatever came next.

  But he couldn’t let this go any further. This was Spicy, Helena’s wolf, not Helena. Still, he fought with himself over wanting to take her here and now. Her warm body clamored for his, and that deep, needy pulse between them just never went away.

  “Ok, Spicy. You’ve got my attention. Trust me, I’m not fighting you because I want to. But this needs to be between me and Helena, do you understand? Our wolves already like each other. I need to make sure our human selves do, too. So… back to bed.”

  He tried to shoo her off him, but she growled her displeasure. He finally put a little muscle into it and hoisted her off the couch so he could help her back to her own room. And if tonight was anything like last night, he’d finish his night in there as well.

  Things could be worse, he supposed. He could be home alone fantasizing about how badly he wanted to make crazy love with her. Instead he was here, fighting the actual need building inside him.

  He laughed in frustration the whole way to her bedroom. It was also kind of funny that she was wearing loose, oversized shorts to bed tonight. She had the same snug tank top on though, or one similar to before.

  She willingly let him guide her, and he wondered if her wolf was getting used to him. That or now that she’d marked him, and he’d already marked her, she wasn’t worried about him leaving.

  “It’s bedtime for both of us, Spicy. Ok?”

  She whined playfully while dropping onto the bed, pulling him down alongside her. He gladly molded himself around her again tonight, then gave her a firm nip to the back of her neck before he realized what he was doing. Ok, his wolf must have surged forward a little there, but Helena didn’t seem to mind so neither did he.

  He cuddled around her body, this time not having to hold her down, but still wanting to feel her everywhere. She drifted off without a fight, and soon his own sleep pulled him under, too.

  **

  Helena woke before her alarm went off. She wasn’t surprised at all to have Marc in bed with her again. This time he wasn’t draped over her body, though. Instead, she was draped over his. He lay on his back with her nuzzled into him, a leg over his thighs and her arm over his broad, bare chest. His hand held hers there, and it made a warm feeling flutter in her belly.

  The man was something to look at, that was for sure. And he really seemed to want to be here for her. But what about all his other girls? Did they matter? Yes, they mattered to her. But… he didn’t smell like another woman. Another thing she was shocked to realize once she turned wolf. She could smell if someone had a lover. It seemed horrifying to her to realize what she’d been smelling when she first figured that one out. Now it just seemed normal. Overly private, but normal.

  Marc just smelled like himself. Hot, sexy man. If she could bottle the scent, she would.

  He stirred as she looked him over, and then he was stroking her arm. Neither of them
spoke as they watched each other, but the gentle touches were making her pulse race.

  “Why aren’t you with one of your beautiful girlfriends, Marc?”

  He didn’t bat an eye. “I don’t have a girlfriend, and you’re sexier than any of the girls I hang around.”

  “Me? Why do you think that?”

  “Because you have your life together. That’s sexy.”

  “But you’re here because I don’t have my life together.”

  He chuckled and she wasn’t sure why.

  “Working through a wolf issue is way different than not having your life together. You’ll find a balance with your wolf soon enough. That’s something we all figure out eventually.”

  His words sounded nice, so she settled her head against his shoulder again. She didn’t want to argue her point of view about her wolf this morning. She wanted to bask in the early morning light sneaking in through her curtains and the cozy feeling of his body against hers.

  He moved a hand over her knee, then gently up her thigh. She closed her eyes to the luxurious feel of his slow moving warmth. With his cheek so close, she could easily nuzzle into him, so she did. She felt naughty letting her wolf desires mingle in with her human ones, but it felt right. He felt right.

  Soon both of his hands were moving up and down her leg, caressing and massaging as he went. She felt something move against her and realized he was getting hard. It satisfied something inside her to know he found her sexy, and she decided she wanted to do something about it.

  She reached for him, and he stilled as soon as she touched him. His breathing became heavy as she wrapped her hand around him, then slowly stroked up and down…

  His warm hands went back to massaging her legs, and soon his long fingers found their way under her loose shorts. He trailed fingertips along the edge of her panties, then lower, closer and closer to her core.

  Her breathing quickened and her body trembled, aching for more, but her alarm chose that moment to go off and the spell was broken.

  She reached over to shut down the irritating sound, and Marc jumped out of bed.

  “We can’t do this.”

  That was new. Wasn’t the woman supposed to be the one to say that? “Why not?”

  “I don’t want our first time to be a quickie just because we’re both in the mood. I want it to be because we care about each other and have decided we want this.”

  Helena’s jaw dropped, and then her heart nearly burst. This was a good guy. “Oh. So… you’ve thought about us having a first time together?”

  He looked at her like she was crazy. “Helena, when we touch, it’s like I’ve known you forever. Something about you calls out to me. I can’t explain it, but I want it. I want you.”

  Whoa.

  “Don’t you feel it, too?”

  “I… feel something. I don’t know what the energy is.”

  He frowned. Clearly she didn’t have the knack for kind words like he did. “I told you I’m not good at this.”

  He sat down next to her on the bed and she had a hard time looking away from his nearly naked body. “Didn’t you have more clothes on when you went to bed last night?”

  “I get hot at night.”

  A laugh burst out of her because ever since she’d turned wolf, she was always hot, too.

  He tentatively reached for her and she let herself be sucked into his atmosphere. She tucked herself against his chest, something she’d never been able to do with a guy because of her height. With him, she felt at home.

  She quit deflecting and whispered, “Yes, I feel something between us. I like it, but I’m scared.”

  “Of what?”

  “My wolf. It’s already a lot for me to handle.” A lot for her to control.

  He hugged her closer. “We’ll work on that, gorgeous.”

  Marc left for the day after pointing out with a twinkle in his eye that she marked him last night. He walked out the door almost immediately after saying that. She almost wished she hadn’t found out from Charlie what a big deal marking someone was, but then had a crazy thought. What if she just rolled with it? Would it be so bad to get wrapped up in Marc’s world?

  Images ran through her mind of all the girls she’d seen Marc with, and all the crazy guys, and decided yes, it was a bad idea. She went to work in a funk.

  **

  Marc texted Rio once he got home. He’d texted him five times sometime between last night and this morning, asking him where he was and what he was doing. Sheesh.

  ‘Was busy last night. Heading to work now. Something up?’

  Rio didn’t answer until close to noon. ‘We’re all meeting at the bar tonight after work. I’ll let you know which one later.’

  He didn’t have to think about his answer. ‘Can’t. Busy tonight.’

  ‘Doing what?’

  ‘Meeting up with Helena.’

  ‘Who?’

  Marc grit his teeth as he texted back, ‘A girl.’ He put his phone away, then pulled it back out in case Helena texted him. Only Rio did, though. He ignored him.

  The rest of the week flew by with Marc spending his lunches and then every night with Helena. Her wolf stopped waking him up in the middle of the night, but he’d also started sleeping in her bed each night instead of on the couch. Either way things calmed down between them as far as her wolf went.

  The heat between them was a different story, but Marc wanted to take things slow with her, something she didn’t seem to mind. He sometimes wondered if she was even interested in him for more than a friend, but then he’d catch her looking him over, or see a spark in her eye that told him she was holding back just as much as he was. But why?

  Their wolves clearly liked and accepted each other, but Marc wanted to be sure Helena’s heart was in it as well. If she could care for him without sex even being in the picture, then he’d feel like he’d finally taken a huge step towards becoming the responsible man he craved to be. And taking his time getting to know Helena was turning out to be the most exciting thing he’d ever done in his life.

  Chapter 10

  Saturday morning was the fourth morning Helena had woken up with Marc in her bed. She was getting used to the intoxicating smell of him in her sheets and the lingering scent in her room. Today he didn’t have to leave her right away to get to work, but she wasn’t sure what else that meant for her day.

  “Your wolf has been calm the last couple nights. You didn’t even wake up last night.”

  “Really?”

  “Actually, I’m not sure. You didn’t wake me up though.”

  “Well you’re already in here with me. Maybe my wolf is ok with that.”

  “Are you?”

  She almost asked him what he meant, but she knew. She’d been avoiding talking about them as a couple, happy to have him by her side for her wolf issues, but she knew that wasn’t fair. She’d turned him into her cuddle buddy even though she knew he wanted more.

  So did she, she really did, but deep down she worried he wasn’t the responsible guy he was being right now. But people changed, right? The guy she’d seen downtown a few times, and then out at the concert with his crazy friends could be all in the past…

  It was too recent. Her gut told her that what she’d seen was what she’d get. He was being awfully nice and, well, totally awesome right now, but what about when the shiny newness of this relationship wore off? Then what?

  “I like you Marc, and I really, really appreciate you being here for me. But I want to take things slow between us. I want to make sure this is right for both of us.”

  He nodded as if he was ok with that, but the mood between them cooled and she felt bad about it. Still, they got up and made breakfast together, and she marveled at how he made everything fun. No matter what they were doing, he was easy going and sometimes downright goofy just to get a laugh out of her.

  He was a fun guy, but was he also responsible? Could she imagine a couple kids in the mix and him being just as attentive with them? Yeah, that was
a big step to think about. But wasn’t getting serious and thinking about the future something she needed to do in order to decide what she thought of Marc? Could she see a future with this guy she’d only barely met a couple weeks ago?

  She wasn’t sure, and while her head was a mess trying to figure out why her wolf was so active lately, she had a hard time thinking of anything else.

  **

  Marc was having fun hanging out with Helena this morning. During the week they were always in a rush, so it was nice to have a lazy morning where they had nowhere to be. They made pancakes together, and the flour mostly stayed where it belonged, only some of it ending up on Helena’s nose.

  Deep down he knew she was still holding him at a distance though. It hurt, but not as bad as it could. After all, they’d marked each other, even if it wasn’t Helena’s human self that marked him.

  He had a hard time with some of her questions about himself, though. He didn’t want her to know what kind of life he used to lead, especially since some of his stupidness was pretty recent. He didn’t want to live that life anymore, so he just wouldn’t. The more time he spent with Helena, the less tempted he’d be to hang out with the guys and do stupid things. Problem solved.

  Rio texted sometime during the morning, and Marc felt a little bad for not letting him know he wouldn’t make their normal workout today, but whatever. Dudes didn’t need hand holding like that. Besides, there were lots of other guys at the gym on Saturday mornings that Rio liked to hang out with, too.

  **

  Sunday night was full moon and Helena felt strange shifting with Marc. She’d never let anyone else see her wolf, let alone see her actually shift into it.

  But he was wolf, too. That changed a lot of things. Including how modest she was around him. So far they’d seen each other in almost no clothes, but never totally naked. Tonight it was au naturel for them both.

  He drove her up to the ranch, a large plot of land north of Atlanta that someone in the family owned. Apparently it was available for all the shapeshifters in the territory to go and shift and run around on full moon nights.