by Vivian Arend
Keil groaned and rolled to his back. Finding his mate right now was going to make things difficult, to say the least. But was he sad he’d found her? Hell, no. Some wolves went their whole lives without discovering their mate. So he had a few issues to resolve?
Before next weekend. No rush.
A soft noise made him turn. Robyn was awake. She’d pushed up on one elbow, rubbing her hand over the side of her face and ear as if in pain. He scrambled closer, cautious not to frighten her—making sure she saw him approach.
He mouthed the words to avoid waking TJ. “Are you okay?”
Tears welled up in her eyes as she shook her head. With little effort he lifted her, pulling her into his arms. He ended up rubbing his hand over the side of her head while he rocked her gently back and forth. She was tense at first, but slowly relaxed, and his heart leapt.
Keil wasn’t sure what was going on, but she felt too marvelous pressed up against him to think it through. His fingers continued to smooth over her hair and cheek, the feel of her against him wonderful and right. Her skin was soft under his fingers, the warmth of her torso wrapping around him like a blanket.
And when Robyn turned her head in his hand and caressed her cheek against his palm, he thought his heart would burst. He couldn’t resist. Still cupping her face, he lowered his lips toward hers, brushing gently with a closed mouth, just to feel the friction of them coming together.
It was like a shock of electricity raced through her. Robyn had woken to the painful buzzing in her ear that had been a sporadic occurrence over the years. It only seemed to happen when she camped with strangers, and she’d learned to deal with it by rubbing, hard, on the soft spot below her ear. But today at Keil’s gentle touch, the pain receded, and a wonderful warmth built throughout her body she’d never before experienced.
As his lips touched hers something clicked within her, and all she could think about was feeling him everywhere.
Oh, Lordy, she wanted to be naked with him, and that was really, really not her.
She’d reached twenty-six years old with limited sexual experience. Whether it was because her brother was overprotective, or because her deafness had scared away potential dates, she’d never worried about it too much. It wasn’t as if she were totally ignorant—romance novels offered a great education, and she knew how to climax, but she’d never had any desire to try much of anything with anyone.
Her friends said she was saving herself for the “right man”.
Her parents had told her when it was time, she’d know.
After all these years she’d figured that the Timex took a licking somewhere along the line and busted, because no one had really turned her crank.
Until now.
This stranger made her mouth water, and she hadn’t had a real taste of him yet. She opened her lips a crack, to see what he’d do, and his eager tongue slipped in to trace the edge of her teeth.
Damn, he tasted good.
A sudden rush of scent filled her head and made it spin. Tingles raced down her body before landing between her legs. She reached out a hand to see if something was pushing on her crotch, but nothing was there except the internal pressure that made her want to squirm.
Keil’s hand slipped to the back of her neck, drawing her closer and shifting her to a different angle as he continued to kiss her. She pressed into him, enjoying the sensations flowing through her.
Yet even as she kissed back she wondered what she was doing. Why she wasn’t pulling her knife on him and getting him to back off?
He lifted her to lie on top of him as his tongue worked its magic. His heart pounded under her hands. The long, hard length of his body warm against her torso and limbs.
And she realized the long, hard length of something else nestled between her legs.
Oh. My. Word.
She pushed up with her hands on his hard chest to stare into dark brown eyes, uncertain what to do. She felt safe, even if this had to be the most insane thing she’d done in her life.
“Are you feeling better?” Keil mouthed as he traced a finger over the ear she’d been clutching moments earlier.
Robyn nodded.
“Let’s get some more sleep. We’ll talk this through in the morning, okay?”
She nodded again, leaning in to give him one more gentle kiss before crawling off his body to rearrange her sleeping space. Any concern over her strange reaction to him was washed away by the quick relief of her earache.
She’d just straightened the bottom blanket when a soft touch on her arm made her pause.
Keil’s eyes were bewitching as he stared at her, before speaking. “Please, can I hold you?”
Robyn swallowed hard. Oh man, did she want him to hold her. She nodded before ducking her chin down to avoid his eyes.
He shifted his mattress closer, pulling her sleeping bag under them before wrapping an arm around her waist and drawing her back against his warm, solid body. He pulled his sleeping bag over the two of them, nestled her head on his arm, and wrapped his legs around hers, pinning her in place.
It was the most incredible feeling, safe and secure.
This was insane. She didn’t know this man from Adam, and here she was, wrapped up like a jellyroll with him.
His fingers slipped along her arm to link with hers as he rested their joined hands against her belly.
Yup, totally insane.
She closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Clattering pots and pans woke Keil in the morning, and he groaned.
There were times that being deaf would be a blessing. Or at least make him stop wanting to kill his brother.
Wrapped up in Robyn’s warmth, he wasn’t ready to get out of bed yet.
They had shifted while asleep. He was flat on his back with her head resting on his chest. Her hands clutched him tightly while one of her legs had slipped over his belly, the inside of her thigh pressing his morning hard-on.
It was heaven and hell to feel the weight of her against him.
“So, I take it you’ve had an interesting night. It’s also obvious I sleep like a log.” TJ’s grinning face peered down at them, his gaze tracing over Robyn as she clung to Keil’s body. “Want me to make coffee, or do you want me to go ski for a few hours?”
“Stop leering at her. Nothing happened. Yes, make coffee and stop being such a shit.” Keil tried to speak softly but she woke, reacting to the movement of his chest. “TJ, go get breakfast. I don’t want her to be embarrassed.”
“What’s to be embarrassed about? She’s your mate. You could do the horizontal bop in front of the pack, and no one would be embarrassed. Except Keith. He’d be embarrassed because he thinks he’s got the biggest dick in the pack, and if you…”
TJ’s voice faded as he dug into their food supplies for the coffee.
Keil sent up a prayer that Robyn wouldn’t freak when she found herself in his arms. He didn’t want to move backward in their relationship. He sensed today was going to be a big day. A day of big revelations. A day of—
“Ahhh.”
He slammed his mouth shut as he grabbed her wrist. She’d slipped her leg off his cock when she woke, which was sad, but understandable. But she’d followed it by running her fingers over the hard length of him, and finished by cupping his balls.
“You okay, bro?” TJ wandered back with a worried expression on his face.
“Just fine. Um, leg cramp. Get the coffee.”
“Yes, master. Right away, master.”
Keil glanced down at Robyn who smiled back, a mischievous glint in her eyes he hadn’t noticed the day before.
She mouthed the words, “leg cramp,” and squeezed. Her face was flushed, but she was still smiling, and when she leaned up to kiss him, he thought he must have died and gone to heaven.
Whatever was happening, please don’t let it stop.
Unfortunately, after brushing her lips over his she pushed herself upright, trailing her fingers over his torso in a maddening way before slipping from und
er the sleeping bag to go dress in her corner.
As he forced himself to ignore her, Keil watched TJ get out three cups and put on a big pan of ham steaks.
A clothed Robyn came back into his line of vision, and his brother stopped her.
“Good morning. Hey, how do you say that in sign language?”
She paused. She flipped him a thumbs up, and placing her left hand by her right elbow, she lifted her right hand in an arc.
TJ copied her. “Oh, cool, like the sun rising. Hey, Keil, look.”
TJ signed good morning to him.
A chuckle from her made them both turn and regard her with amazement.
“You can laugh?” TJ asked.
Her smile fell away, and Keil swore inside.
She wrote a fast note then disappeared out the door.
He checked to make sure she was just headed for the outhouse before reading the message.
I’m deaf, not mute. Lost hearing as a child. Virus. I have an ugly voice. Two sugars, please.
TJ gave a soft whistle. “Man, oh man, is she going to be a handful. I’m glad she’s your mate and not mine. Did you two fuck—?”
Keil hit him.
Not hard enough to do permanent damage, but hard enough to make TJ’s eyes register the shock of it.
After picking himself up off the floor, his brother carefully exposed his neck, doing all the right things considering their positions in the Pack hierarchy.
“You will use that brain of yours to remember to be polite when you speak to and of my mate. Understood?” Keil drawled the words as he poured the coffee and prepared Robyn’s cup. “Even though it’s none of your damn business, if you were thinking straight you’d already know the answer. Use your bloody nose. No, we haven’t mated yet. Yet for some insane reason, she let me kiss her and hold her, and while I’m pleased to report that yes, she’s officially my mate, I have no idea why she doesn’t seem to know a thing about wolves.”
He dropped heavily into a chair by the table.
“So weird.” TJ joined him, his moment of submissive posturing done.
“I don’t want you making any stupid remarks until we figure this out. Got it?”
TJ shrugged. “I’ll behave. I figure it might be kinda freaky to be told something like ‘Hey, why didn’t you know you’re a werewolf and, oh, by the way, you’re my mate. Oh, and there’s going to be a challenge to the death next weekend for the leadership of our pack and I’m one of the headliners for the match.’ Freaky, but…I think telling it all upfront might be the easiest way.” He turned back and flipped the ham. “There’s nowhere for her to run while we’re here. Gives you time to work it out.”
For the second time in as many days, the door behind them slammed open and Robyn charged in, her face red and her eyes blazing.
She glared back forth between the two of them, her nostrils flaring slightly.
For not knowing she was a wolf, she had the evil-eye thing down pretty good, Keil thought as a shiver ran down his spine. TJ struggled to keep his feet.
She surprised him by speaking. Her voice was gravelly and harsh, but very powerful. Keil had heard a few Alphas over the years, and she ranked up there with the best of them.
“Who is my mate?”
Like a flash, TJ pointed to Keil before swearing and stomping his feet like a disappointed child. “Oh, crap, has she got my number. I hope she doesn’t tell me to go jump off a bridge or something because I’d—”
Robyn stormed up and grabbed the pad of paper.
Keil read over her shoulder as she wrote.
If you don’t want to be overheard don’t talk where a lip reader can see you.
Werewolf?
Mate.
Challenge. To the death.
What the HELL are you talking about?
She pulled away from the table, pausing to add, Where is my coffee? And it had better be strong.
Chapter Four
It took three hours, two pads of paper and fourteen fried ham-and-egg sandwiches.
Keil thought that on the whole it went pretty well, especially since he’d managed to not skin TJ alive during the interrogation.
Robyn stood stiff and angry at first, looking ready to throw her coffee cup if they made one wrong move.
“Come, sit down and we’ll explain everything.” He pulled back a chair for her, and she sat warily, shifting to keep both of them in her sight.
“Sorry, bro, guess my mouth got us both in trouble this time.” TJ lightly touched Keil’s arm in apology.
A sudden rumble of the floorboards made them both swing to look at her as she stomped her feet and glared evilly.
She pointed to the chairs and wrote rapidly, breaking the pencil lead as she underlined her final word.
I will talk this out with you. Sit down and don’t you dare speak again when I can’t see you. Ass.
Keil held out a reassuring hand and sat, motioning for TJ to join them. “I understand. We’ll answer your questions. What do you want to know?”
Robyn found another pencil and opened to a new page. Don’t think because I went a little crazy last night and let you touch me you can jerk me around this morning. You’re insane, right? Escaped from some home?
“No, it’s true. We’re able to turn into wolves.”
Prove it. She leaned back in her chair and stared at them mockingly.
The two men exchanged glances.
What? You need a full moon?
Both men dropped their heads into their hands for a moment. Bloody fairy tales. Finally Keil looked up to see her very confused expression.
“No. Mature wolves don’t need a full moon. We also don’t bite people to turn them into werewolves. You either have the genes, or you don’t. Sorry, that’s one of those tall tales that drives us crazy. We’ll have to, umm, take off our clothes to change.” Keil watched Robyn’s face. A blush rose to colour her cheeks and her eyes brightened with the mischief he’d seen earlier in the morning.
Good, maybe this wouldn’t take too much damage control.
She flipped the pad across the table. A private strip show? Goodie. Even if you don’t turn into anything, the morning isn’t a complete write-off.
Keil laughed and turned to TJ.
His brother knew immediately what Keil expected, but TJ offered a protest. “You should be the one to strip. She’s gonna see you naked the most often.”
Keil glared at his brother.
“What? You still having problems with that boner? Man, now I really think you should shift. It would serve you right for hauling me along on your retreat instead of letting me go hang out at Klondyke Kate’s with the rest of the pack.”
“TJ,” he snarled.
“All right, don’t get your fur in a knot. I’ll shift, but you keep an eye on her. If she signs anything that looks like ‘cute doggy’ or ‘sweet fluffy wuffy’, I want to learn them to insult the boys at the next pack meeting.”
Robyn raised a brow.
“Stop it with the Spock look, that seriously freaks me out. I keep expecting to see you grow pointy ears and hear you announce, ‘But this is not logical.’” TJ continued rambling as he dropped his clothes to stand naked in the middle of the cabin.
He waggled his eyebrows at her, and she blushed harder.
“Get on with it before I apply the Vulcan death grip, little brother.” Keil spoke through clenched teeth.
TJ shimmered, and there were two images overlapping each other, another shimmer and there was a large silver grey wolf sitting on its haunches in front of them.
Robyn tensed then rose from her chair, eyes wide with wonder. She stood for the longest time and simply stared, her breathing rapid, face flushed.
He was ready to take her arm to reassure her when she dropped to her knees and reached out in slow motion to brush the fur on TJ’s head and neck.
After a few strokes of her hand, TJ rolled over to his back and tilted his neck up
A surge of pleasure raced through Keil’s veins at
the sight. His brother, while not always the sharpest knife in the drawer, was a physically strong wolf. TJ didn’t give instant obeisance to just anyone. Another indicator that the woman kneeling by Keil’s feet was going to be a powerful addition in his life.
TJ shifted back and Robyn was caught stroking her hand down his naked chest.
“Damn!” she shouted and shot away from TJ, backing into the door.
“Oops, sorry. You were tickling me something fierce. Boy, am I glad you didn’t say ‘shit’ or some other swear word like that. With how strong your voice is, I’d have been in a hell of a mess,” TJ muttered quietly as he pulled on his clothes.
She closed her eyes for a moment and drew a shaky breath. Hell, could TJ do anything without screwing it up?
Keil refilled her coffee cup and waited for her to open her eyes before patting the seat next to him to get her to settle in close.
He wanted to pat his lap and have her crawl into it like last night. Actually, he wanted to strip her down and crawl into her, but that was going to take a little more time and patience on his part.
He hated being patient.
Her head was spinning, her heart beat a million times a minute and somewhere along the line she must have fallen down a rabbit hole.
Tad was never going to believe this. She was having trouble believing it, and she’d seen TJ change. She’d touched his wolf form. It wasn’t an illusion.
Unless there’d been something in her coffee. She gave it a cautious sniff. Smelt like normal Midnight Sun brew. She glanced up to see Keil watching her, his gorgeous eyes dark and dangerous. A shiver raced down her spine and heat flared in her belly.
Damn, he was potent.
She grabbed the notepad and sat for a bit thinking what to write. She twisted her face up, tapped the pencil a few times while biting her lip. Finally she went for honest.
Well. I’ll admit it. That was pretty cool.
Keil smiled, and she melted some more. Between his smile and the expression in his eyes, moisture was pooling in her mouth. And farther south.
She took a quick sip of her coffee and dragged her eyes away from his.