by Anthology
“I know, I know.” A female stood in the opening, her red hair askew on top of her head. “Too much. But I wanted it to be Christmas-y.”
A second, tawny-haired female joined her. “Now all Four Corners can smell it’s Christmas.” She grinned at Blaze. “You probably don’t want to come in.”
He definitely didn’t want to, but the potpourri stench was the least of his reasons.
He recognized both females though he’d seen them only from a distance. He didn’t need to see them; like all the pack, he’d felt the moment when their bonds tightened on their powerful mates.
The smiling one was Maddie, true mate of the pack’s alpha, Kane. The scowling redhead was Darling, mated to Rafael Villalobos, Kane’s cousin and second in command.
Mad and Dare. Both women had become werewolves during the most recent mating season. Before that, neither had had any idea that werewolves existed.
If there were any beings Blaze wanted to confess his biting and fucking to less than his alpha, it was his alpha’s sharp-eyed mate and her best friend.
But they had gone through what Annie was facing. He shifted uncertainly from one foot to the other.
“Blaze Domingo,” Maddie said at last. “Tried to swing by your mom’s place last month. She’s still out on Thorn Gully Road, right? The gate was closed, and it seemed rude to go around. How’s your brother doing in graduate school?”
“Uh, good. He’s home for the winter break, but he’ll be the first in the family to finish a degree, so Mom’s proud of him.” The port wine stain felt fiery hot. “And yeah, she still lives out there. But she…doesn’t really appreciate folks stopping by.”
“Folks,” Maddie repeated softly. “Meaning werewolves.”
He clenched one fist hard enough to crack his knuckles. Of course Maddie knew everything about him already. She was his alpha’s mate, and she was a strong werewolf in her own right. She would do whatever was necessary to fortify her position, her mate’s, and the pack’s.
Just as well he was coming clean now.
Except he really wished he’d stayed with Annie long enough to shower.
Especially when he saw Dare’s nostrils flare. Her wolf wasn’t as dominant as her friend’s, but in some ways it was more observant. He could almost imagine creamy furred ears the same color as her pale skin perking through her red hair.
He took a slow breath. “That’s old news. And I have something else to talk about.”
Maddie’s smile vanished instantly.
Dare straightened another inch. “Should I get Kane?”
Maddie studied Blaze for a moment then nodded, and Dare vanished into the house’s dark interior.
She tilted her head. “Anything you want to say before they come back?”
He considered. “Whatever happens, don’t—please don’t take it out on her.”
Maddie didn’t ask “she who?” and didn’t say anything else until her mate returned alone. The two of them stepped out under the petroglyph and let the doors swing silently shut behind them. The reek of excessive holiday cheer thinned but didn’t quite disappear.
Kane Villalobos waited with the centered stance of his army days. He’d traveled the world making connections with other shifters before returning to Angels Rest, and Blaze was painfully aware of the gulf of experience between them. His wolf only knew that Kane’s wolf was a giant brindled beast that could pancake him—in either shape—with three paws tied behind its back.
Blaze faced his alphas and told them about the previous night.
Not all of it, of course. Not the softness of Annie’s skin, not her sweetness when she cried out. And not his burning need to see her again.
He ended with, “She wants a wolf to protect herself. She’s not some Kingdom Guard spy.”
“How nice you’re such an expert on spying,” Kane said wryly.
Blaze flushed. When he’d been watching Annie from the shadows last night, he hadn’t even thought to stop himself from going to her when she dropped the key.
And at that point, they’d even both still had on all their clothes.
Maddie gave her mate a nudge with her elbow. “Gypsy and her brother didn’t come up with any Guard connection either.”
Blaze jolted, then smacked his fist into his thigh. After the Kingdom Guard attacks, of course Gypsy would’ve reached out to the pack alpha about a stranger in town.
“Annie is just trying to survive,” he repeated. Shapeshifters knew all about the struggles of survival, so maybe that would convince the Villalobos to spare her. He remembered days and nights when he felt his wolf was the only one who cared what happened to him. That loneliness, as much as Annie’s sexy, straight-on gaze when she said “bite me”, had moved him to grant her wish.
Kane skewered him with a formidable alpha stare. “You might be saving her at the risk of everything else we have here. Maybe she’s not Kingdom Guard, but how did she know about us?”
When Blaze could only shrug, Maddie let out a thoughtful hum. “Maybe she can help us with that answer. Tracking rumors is harder than tracking rabbits.”
The wolf in Blaze stiffened. It wasn’t ready to share its Ahh-eee.
Another glint from the petroglyph caught his eye, and he scowled. Was the damn rock mocking him?
Maddie followed his shift of attention. “If the werewolf virus is in Annie already, then the hows and what-ifs don’t matter. She needs to stay until her transformation. Gypsy will keep a watch when the moon is up. And Blaze too. After that…” The jagged edge in her agate-colored eyes softened when she looked at him. “You know she’ll have to choose.”
He knew that—better than any of them. But hadn’t she already chosen when she asked to see him, all of him?
He didn’t want to continue that thought.
Because what if all of him wasn’t enough?
6
Annie knew she was being watched. Not just by Gypsy, who had set her to updating the inventory of booze and dry goods, but by the others who drifted into the bar because they “just needed to ask a question” or “just wanted a cup of coffee”. Who drank roadhouse coffee anytime that wasn’t 3 a.m.?
A bouncy redhead in a puffy jacket blew in late in the afternoon and threw herself onto a bar stool just one down from where Annie was tallying up her last lists.
“Hey, Dare,” Gypsy said. “Getcha coffee?”
“I love you, lady, but your coffee is worse than Angel Creek runoff after a cattle drive.”
Gypsy snorted. “What do you want then?”
“A cup of tea, I suppose. And to interrogate your new waitress.” She turned toward Annie.
Who’d been listening, of course, but pretending not to. She stiffened when the redhead focused on her. She hadn’t expected anyone to admit their curiosity.
She eyed the redhead warily. “Interrogate? There won’t be, like, waterboarding or anything, I hope.”
The woman—Dare didn’t seem that much older than Annie was, though the flowers appliquéd on her jeans made her look harmlessly young—flashed a sly grin. “Maybe just sleep deprivation.”
Considering she’d yawned more than a few times during the day, Annie couldn’t stop herself from blushing. While she’d been busting her ass in the bar, apparently Blaze had been out kissing and telling.
“What do you want to know?” she asked stiffly as Gypsy slid a steaming mug across the bar and then made herself scarce in the back room.
“Blaze said you were in trouble and you think the wolf can get you out.”
A zing of interest made Annie swivel toward the other woman. Was Dare a werewolf too? She didn’t look like a monster; she looked more like a pinup model. “My ex always liked to celebrate by drinking. And then smacking me. Since Tomas just got early release from prison for ‘good behavior’, I’m thinking he’s going to be particularly celebratory on my ass.”
Dare studied her. “That’s tough.”
Annie lifted her chin. “It’s going to be really tough for him when
I’m a werewolf.”
She half expected the soft, pretty woman to give her some blowback about turning the other cheek. But Dare nodded. “I bit most of the way through a guy’s hand once. It was nasty.” She took a long drink of her tea as if to wash out the remembered taste.
Picturing the stylish Dare as a ravening wolf left Annie blinking. “I sort of thought just showing him would be enough.”
“Maybe. But a wolf isn’t a pet on a leash.”
Annie scowled. “This seems less like an interrogation and more like a lecture. I got plenty of those from the public defender and the social worker and the parole officer and the ER doc who set my bones last Christmas. See, I’m the one who put Tomas away.”
“Good for you.”
Annie snorted. “Whatever. The first thing he did when he found out he was getting out?” She tucked her hair behind her ear and angled her bruised cheek toward the light from the window. “Sent one of his boys round to give me this. Said it was a ‘missed-you kiss’ from Tomas and there were a lot more coming.” All the bottles in Gypsy’s wouldn’t be enough to drown the sickness that had flooded her mouth with bile when he sneered at her, both of them knowing there was nothing she could do. “As a werewolf, I’ll be stronger than him, than all of them.”
“Not a werewolf yet,” Dare reminded her. “You willing to hear one more lecture?”
Annie shrugged.
“You came here looking for a werewolf, but what else did you find?”
Oh sure, now she switched back to asking questions. Annie stuffed down her impatience and tried to consider the little riddle. Well, she’d found Blaze, of course. But he was the werewolf. Was she supposed to think he was something else?
Annie waited, but the other woman drained her mug and hopped off the barstool.
“Don’t forget those cute Christmas cocktail recipes I emailed you,” Dare hollered abruptly. “Angels Rest needs more cute cocktails.”
From the back room, Gypsy grunted something mostly indecipherable.
But Dare grinned as if she’d heard every word. She waved at Annie. “Gotta go. If you need anything or have questions…” She left the sentence dangling.
Questions like what else she was supposed to be looking for in this backwater town, maybe? It was Christmas time; gifts were supposed to be right under the tree and easy to find, not something she had to hunt down.
Annie just shook her head.
Dare reached the bar’s front door as it opened, letting in a gust of cold and the gray light that heralded another snow flurry. She ducked under the arm of the guy arriving in the doorway.
Blaze lifted his chin from the sheepskin ruff of his heavy chore coat and stiffened. His wary gaze followed Dare out before turning to track instantly to Annie.
Her pulse leaped when their gazes connected.
She throttled the reaction. She’d already gotten what she wanted from him—hopefully—and she reminded herself she was annoyed that he’d tattled on them. But she couldn’t shut down her awareness of Blaze’s slow steps across the bar. The scent of pine and snow drifted to her a moment before he did. She knew he was carrying the cold of the outdoors with him. But her blood was running so hot she wondered if anyone else could see the steam between them.
He paused in front of her, and she had to look up.
“Hey,” he said.
She bit the inside of her cheek. The faint tang of blood reminded her of what they’d shared.
Her lashes fluttered against her will. Damn it. She didn’t want to be one of those girls, turning all weak and giggly when a hot, ripped guy walked by. She’d seen too often what happened to those girls; she’d been one of them. Instead of taking what she wanted, she gave up who she was.
Never again. She’d taken Blaze, and she had his wolf. It was her wolf now. Or would be, if she could just be sure it was in her.
If only she could trigger the fever. Right. Now.
She stared up at him through her suddenly not-fluttering lashes.
“Hey,” she said back.
Apparently werewolves weren’t much for small talk.
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward the door then hooked it in his belt loop. “So Dare was here.”
“Yeah.” Annie thought about relaying their conversation, but what did it even mean—what else did you find? What else was there to find in this little town with barely one main street? “It was fine.” But unlike when she and her mother used the word, this time it pretty much had been fine.
Blaze grimaced as if he heard the things she didn’t say. “I’m sorry they butted in. I had to tell them. When you change, I didn’t want them thinking you were a rogue.”
She tilted her head. “A rogue?” That actually sounded sort of cool.
“A werewolf who can’t control the wolf.”
Okay, not cool. She had enough destructive forces in her life. Nobody needed more of that.
“Speaking of which.” His edgy movements stilled for the first time since he’d walked in. His blue-green eyes were steady on her. “How are you doing?”
“Fine,” she said again. And again she was surprised she meant it. She knew her curt answers were bugging him by the way his eyes narrowed, and she didn’t want that—at least not anymore—so she added, “I missed you this morning.”
She half thought that might scare him off again. After all, he hadn’t been there when she woke up.
Instead, he brushed the back of his knuckles over her cheek. Not the bruised one.
“I followed you from the bar last night,” he said. “And then I was watching you sleep. Started to feel a little weird about it.”
Whatever he’d felt had been strong enough to scare him, even if he wasn’t running now. She wasn’t sure what to make of that. She quirked a smile at him. “I think it’s only stalking if I’m not a werewolf too.”
As he dropped his hand, his gaze drifted down to her mouth. “I think you are. There’s just something… When I look at you, it’s like I hear someone singing, far away.”
Under his stare, her lips tingled as if a ghost was kissing her. “I’m a terrible singer,” she warned. “Makes my little sisters laugh like crazy.”
“Wolves hate auto-tune. You should hear the pack when we’re all together at the summer solstice. We want everyone to hit a different note.”
She laughed. “I can hit the wrong notes for sure.”
“Perfect.”
They grinned at each other. Until she remembered she wasn’t a werewolf yet, even if Blaze thought he heard the wolf in her.
And she wouldn’t be there for the summer solstice anyway.
The heavy beat of her heart felt too slow, but she needed the fever.
She reached across the space between them and tangled her fingers through his. “You should come over to the trailer. I stopped by a place in town this morning called Grampa’s and got some sandwiches.”
Blaze widened his eyes. “If you stopped by Grampa’s, I hope you went across the street to Gramma’s too. If you only buy from one, they get pissed.”
Annie shook her head in exaggerated dismay. “Gypsy warned me. I got chocolate chip cookies at Gramma’s.”
“War averted.”
How nice to live in a place where peace was that easy, just a matter of balancing receipts. Well, she wasn’t interested in a tie with Tomas, even if her mother was always telling her and her sisters to play fair—nope, she was going to nuke Tomas from her werewolf orbit.
Just as soon as she was a werewolf.
“So,” she said to Blaze. “You hungry?”
The golden ring around his blue-green eyes glinted when he nodded.
She excused herself to Gypsy who waved her off with thanks.
Though it was just late afternoon, the sun had already disappeared behind the clouds that seemed almost low enough to touch the mesa. When they stepped out of the roadhouse, Blaze put his coat over her shoulders. The thick canvas enveloped her with his warmth and scent, as if he had wrappe
d his arms around her.
“It’s not that far to the trailer,” she objected, but she snuggled her face into the fuzzy collar when the wind nipped at her nose.
“Your coat is too thin for out here.”
She bristled a little. “It’s good enough for Albuquerque, usually. I don’t hang outside in the winter much.”
“Werewolves do.”
Oh. Right. She said nothing as they followed the gravel path around the back of the roadhouse to the single-wide.
He must have sensed her sudden deflation because he added, “At least it has snaps. Snaps are better than zippers. If you have to change fast, zippers are hard to work with your teeth.”
So much she hadn’t considered about this new life. The werewolf woman Dare had offered to explain things, but Annie didn’t even know what questions to ask.
At least the change came with its own fur coat, no zippers or snaps.
Annie waited while Blaze crouched to retrieve the key from under the lawn gnome then slipped past him when he held the door for her as if they were entering a fine dining establishment.
So sweet.
So sexy.
She waited just long enough for him to close the door then she jumped him.
Eyes glittering, almost half gold, he let her press him up against the door. “That kind of hungry, hmm?”
She grinned up at him. “Is it obvious?”
“As of right this second, yeah, very.”
Fisting her hands in the front of his T-shirt, she pushed up on her toes and surfed the hard muscles of his chest to kiss him.
He was enough taller than her that he still had to dip his head to take her mouth. With an under-her-breath growl, she slid her hands up to lock behind his head.
He gave her an answering growl and anchored his hands under her ass to haul her all the way up. So much better. The swell behind his fly nudged her belly, setting butterflies dancing from there all the way down to her tiptoes and all the way up to her nipples chafing against the inside of her bra.
She slanted her mouth across his and darted her tongue between his teeth when he parted his lips with a sound that was much less growl and much more groan.