by Dez Burke
"Don't... please... stay away!"
Her voice sounded surprisingly quiet in the silence of the cornfields, after the roar and rumble of the motorcycles and wolves that had come and gone. Her heart pounded in her chest. The wolf paused mid-stride, his front leg bleeding. Then—oh lord—the wolf was standing, changing, somehow turning back into human form. The fur disappeared, the claws retracted, and in only a few seconds the wolf was gone, and Josh was standing in front of her.
Naked.
She swallowed. The world was spinning around her, and her vision began to blur. This couldn't—he couldn't—
"Ruby—" Josh held out his hand toward her and took a step forward. His arm dripped with blood.
"Josh, I'm going to faint," she said, matter-of-factly, and then the world went dark.
***
She woke up in the cabin. The windows were still darkened outside. For a brief moment she exhaled in relief. It had all been a dream after all. Then she sat up and saw Josh sitting at the table, pressing a washcloth against his bloody arm. He looked at her with apprehension.
"You alright?" he said.
She opened her mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again. And closed it. She didn't know what to say.
"Will you come here and help me with this cut?" he asked.
Ruby nodded mutely. She got up, her knees shaking, and walked over to the table. She realized her hands were dirty. She went to the sink to wash them, then came back. Josh was sitting with the washcloth against his wound, frowning. She gulped.
"What—what should I—"
He pushed a needle across the table toward her. It was already threaded.
"I just need you to sew it together."
"Sew it together?"
"It's a deep cut."
"They have doctors for that," she said, picking up the needle uncertainly.
"I don't want the doctors here to see this kind of bite."
This kind of bite. A wolf bite. Ruby gulped.
"I don't... I don't know how."
"Don't you know how to sew?" Josh turned his face to her, half-smiling. His calmness made her feel a little bit better. But only a little bit. Sucking in her bottom lip, she took up the needle as though it was a dagger.
"Right here," Josh said, pointing. "Stitch in, then out the other side. Just a quarter-inch or so apart. Sorry, I'd do it myself if I could reach."
Ruby pressed the needle against his shoulder until it pierced his skin. She pushed it through and pulled the thread tight. Blood welled up between the stitch and she swallowed down her disgust.
"This is so not what I got my MBA for," she said.
"Sorry you got into this," Josh said. "They must have thought you were part of this territory when I dropped you off the first time."
"Who were those guys?" And who... what are you? she wanted to ask.
"They're part of another nearby pack. They don't normally come this far north into our territory."
"Your territory?" She pulled hard at another stitch.
"Our pack's territory. You met the leader tonight."
Ruby sat back in her chair.
"The leader. Of a wolf pack?"
"That's right. His name's Henry. Great guy. Makes his wolves fight too hard, though, at least in my opinion. I'm sure he knew I was fighting a while before he decided to roar in and save the day."
Josh chuckled, but Ruby just shook her head.
"And you're... you're a wolf."
"Only part-time," Josh said, smiling.
"This is crazy."
"Crazy? Yeah, I guess so." Josh turned his arm to her again for the last stitch. "Monsters. Werewolves. Shifters. Whatever. I thought it was crazy when it first happened to me."
"When you...changed?" Ruby focused her attention on the needle going through Josh's skin, pulling the wound tight. She couldn't make sense of any of this.
"Shifted, yeah. I was a teenager, and I didn't have my parents around to tell me what was going on. And my foster parents, sweet as they were, well...they didn't sign up to have a teenage wolf in their house. I hid it for years."
"How could you hide something like that?"
"Here? Who you hiding it from, the corn?" He laughed. "I love it out here. Nobody to bother me. Until you came along."
"Me?"
"You with your big company acquisition and your businessmen who turn out to be a from rival pack."
"My businessmen? I had no idea! Alex was—"
"Just a joke." Josh put his hand on hers, and his warmth made her shiver with desire, despite everything. "I knew from the beginning you weren't one of them. You're not a shifter."
"Not like you."
"Right." Josh examined the final knot she'd made. "Thanks, this looks good."
"But you said—"
"What?" His gray eyes made her mouth go dry. She wanted him to kiss her, wanted nothing more than to throw herself into his arms. But he was a monster. He had changed, grown fangs and claws, and... She shook the thought out of her mind.
"You said you wanted me to come back to visit," she said.
"I do."
"Why? If I'm not a...a shifter. Why would you want me?"
"Well," Josh said, a twinkle in his eye. "Nobody's perfect."
Ruby swatted him on his good shoulder, unsure what else she could say.
"I didn't think about that too much, really," he said.
"Really?"
"It's not like I'm eating raw bunny rabbits for lunch every day, Ruby. It's just something that happens to me once in a while. Heck, I've come to like it."
"How?"
Josh turned and took her hands in his, and for a moment she could not even hear his words. The electric thrill of his touch on her skin was something so incredible that she couldn't even manage to stay frightened. How could he be a monster? He couldn't.
"When I'm a wolf," he said, "everything is more intense. My mind focuses on one thing only. My senses go crazy with input. Running through the fields, smelling the corn and the red good earth. Feeling the strength of my legs. It's like riding a bike, almost - wind blowing my hair back."
"Fur."
"What?"
"Wind blowing your fur back," she corrected.
Josh caressed her chin with his hand, and she closed her eyes. Her cheek pressed into the palm of his hand, and when she had her eyes shut like this, she could almost pretend that nothing at all out of the ordinary had happened to her. Then his hand fell back down and she felt empty without his touch.
"You're taking this better than I thought," he said.
"Yeah, well, I might still be in shock."
"That's probably for the best."
Ruby stole a glance at him and saw a smile bending the corners of his lip. They both burst out laughing. She could feel the relief seeping through her body, relaxing her muscles. The laugh went on longer than it should. Then there was silence in the small cabin.
"I'm sorry about your acquisition," Josh said, squeezing her hand. "That guy was a jerk anyway."
"They don't call them the wolves of wall street for nothing, I guess."
"You forgive me for not telling you?"
Ruby barked out a laugh.
"Do you honestly care one bit about my forgiveness?" There was so much more going on here. So much that was bigger than her or them. There were wolves, and territories, and a whole world she had never even suspected lurking just underneath the surface of everyday life. But Josh had a hurt look on his face.
"Of course I care. I like you, Ruby."
"Why?" It was her standard rejoinder, and most men didn't know how to respond. But Josh had an answer ready.
"Because you're spicy and cute and smart as hell. I don't expect you to come back, but I would hate for you to leave unhappy."
"You would?"
"What's that they say? When you meet someone, always try to leave them happier than you met them." He stared into her eyes, and she was so uncomfortable that she shifted in her seat and could not meet his gaze.
/>
"I don't think any of those wolves is happier for meeting you," she stammered out eventually.
Josh leaned back in his chair.
"No, no, I suppose not. Some people don't deserve much of happiness, from what all they take. You deserve it, though."
"Well then. Yes. I forgive you for not telling me."
"Really and truly you forgive me?"
Ruby looked up into gray eyes searching hers.
"It's a pretty tough secret to tell someone. I can't really blame you."
"Thank you."
Silence filled the small cabin. Ruby ached to reach across and touch Josh. To explore his muscles again. Now that she knew he was...different. That's how she would have to think about it. Not a monster. But Josh stayed sitting, and she could not bring herself to make the first move. The tension between them crackled in the air.
"I should probably get you to the airport," he said, finally. He stood up.
"Yeah." Ruby sighed in disappointment, standing and turning to pack. God, she wanted him badly. Even now. Perhaps now more than ever. Looking out window, she saw the sky turning a light shade of gray. Almost dawn.
She turned around and found him standing right in front of her, his bare chest just inches away. She could feel the heat emanating from his skin, and she longed to touch him. She bit down on her lower lip. A painful indecision furrowed his face.
"I don't want to scare you, Ruby," he said.
"You don't scare me," she said, and as she spoke the words she knew that nothing else was truer. Despite everything, she felt completely safe with Josh, in his cabin. She wanted him, needed him, even though he was not quite human and she wasn't sure what would happen between them. She desperately wanted there to be a them.
"We still have a little time before we have to leave," Josh said. He reached one strong hand forward and touched her hip. Even the slight pressure was enough to send heat rushing down to where he stroked her, one slow finger pressing through the fabric. "Did you want to wash up, or...?"
"Or," she said decisively, and threw herself into his arms.
***
An hour later, she was on the back of his motorcycle. Her clothes were torn and crumpled, but she didn't care. The wind whipped her hair and rushed against her face, and she closed her eyes, enjoying the rumble of the motorcycle and the broad hardness of Josh's chest under her hands.
Then they rode around a slow curve and the sun broke over the cornfields. Ruby's lips parted as she watched the landscape before them turn fiery red and orange with the dawn. The sun's rays filtered through the leaves of the corn, and although the morning air was cold, all Ruby could feel was Josh's warmth against her. She never wanted the ride to be over.
Too soon, they pulled up to the airport. Ruby got off the motorcycle and slung her purse over her shoulder. It seemed impossible that she was leaving, but her plane was waiting. The city was waiting. She turned back to Josh, who was dismounting.
"Y'all come back now, y'hear?" He spoke with a thick country accent.
She giggled.
"Josh?"
"Yes, ma'am?"
"Thanks. I had a wonderful time."
A quirk of a smile danced across his lips.
"I'm sorry I didn't have a 5-star hotel for you to stay in. And sorry, you know, that wolves attacked you."
She laughed.
"That's okay."
"Really?"
"Really. You're leaving me happier than you met me."
She leaned forward to give him a soft kiss goodbye, but then he had swept her into his arms and she was spinning, not even on tiptoes. The hot pressure of his lips tore the breath from her lungs as he kissed her with more passion than she'd ever known. His hands crushed her blouse, pressing against her back, and she ached to stay that way forever. Then the kiss broke, and though the sky still spun, she breathed balance back into her body.
"Goodbye, Ruby," he said, putting her back on her feet and making sure she was steady.
"See you later," she said. Before she could change her mind, she turned and quickly walked away.
When she reached the airport door, she heard the motorcycle's engine rev. She turned to see Josh riding away, the new sun glinting off of his helmet. She watched him as long as she could, until he rode around the corner and disappeared from view.
Her phone rang in her pocket. She reached down and she turned it off without looking, walking into the airport.
No more phones. Not for now. She wanted to hold onto the peace inside of her heart for as long as she could. Until she could come back and be with Josh again.
The End
About the Author: Aubrey Rose
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Aubrey Rose lives in sunny San Diego, where she likes to lay around in a hammock reading her favorite romances. When she's not writing steamy stories, she can be found dancing naked in front of the mirror to Abba while her cat watches disdainfully.
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