by Lori Devoti
“Not—” she began, but he silenced her with a kiss, pulled her body flush against his and inhaled her scent, let his wolf revel in being so close to her.
The beast deserved this moment. Caleb deserved this moment.
Her fingers tiptoed down his skin until she found his hip. She stroked him, her thumb dipping lower toward his sex, but not quite there. She teased and tantalized him with that tiny distance. She made tiny circles, moving lower with each, until he was hard as steel and throbbing with need.
The backs of her fingers skimmed over him.
Desire clutched him, like a fist closing around him. His body tightened. He pressed his face into the crook of her neck and inhaled again. There was a spice to her, alluring and exotic, something he couldn’t identify and knew if he ever smelled it again he would only think of her.
Her bare foot slid up his calf, then her thigh inched higher over his. She was open for him. His sex touched hers and he could feel the heat of her core.
She scraped her nails over his hips now. Pain and pleasure mixed together; breaths puffed from his lips.
Her hand dipped lower again till finally her fingers wrapped around him. She slid the skin up and down over his hard shaft, swirled her thumb over the tip.
He groaned and edged his thigh farther between hers until she was riding it. She slipped his sex into her folds, moved it back and forth until her breaths too came in puffs and sweat covered both of them.
They paused and stared at each other.
Tomorrow things would change. Caleb knew that, and based on the sad shades of hope and desire in Samantha’s eyes, he suspected she did, too.
Unable to wait any longer, afraid she would pull out of the fog that had settled around them, he angled his hips and thrust inside her.
Her eyes closed and her hands moved to his shoulders. As he pulled in and out, as tension and desire continued to build, she clung to him. He nibbled on her neck. Then he flipped onto his back so she was astride him.
With her staring down at him, her hair free around her face and brushing the tops of her breasts, he slipped his hands under her buttocks and lifted her. Her head fell back, her breasts rose and he lowered her, lifting his hips as he did and plunging into her fast, hard and completely.
Her fingers curled, her nails scraping his arms.
More pain, more pleasure.
He lifted her again and again. Repeated the movement until his heart threatened to fly from his chest.
He moved his hands from her butt to her breasts, massaged them as they continued to move. Her lips opened, pants of air escaping. She stared into his eyes and murmured something he couldn’t hear…or wouldn’t let himself hear.
Words of love he knew she wouldn’t repeat after tomorrow.
Then her body tightened around his. Her eyes closed and her fingernails dug into his skin. He let himself go, too, let his wolf free. He forgot who and what he was, just spiraled up and back down, until they both lay exhausted, Samantha crumpled on top of him, her still rapid breaths puffing warm over his skin.
With one hand, he pulled her hair to one side, baring her neck, then he caught the skin between his teeth, marking her one last time as his.
Samantha lay beside Caleb, staring at the wooden beams that divided the cabin’s ceiling into three wide stripes. They were both naked, neither feeling the need to even reach for a sheet to cover themselves after their bout of lovemaking was over.
Caleb, she assumed, because he was so comfortable being naked. Samantha because she was afraid any move on her part, even reaching for a sheet, would break the mood, end the moment…and cause Caleb to leave.
She didn’t want him to leave…not ever.
The fire had begun to die down, but its warmth still floated over their bodies. Samantha’s leg was draped over Caleb’s. She could feel the tiny hairs that covered his skin.
Caleb moved and she tensed, afraid he would push her away. But he merely reached for her hair and brushed a lock from her face. “I need to go to the other cabin, in case your doctor is watching. Make it look as if we are staying there.”
Her fingers, spread wide on his chest, stiffened. She stared at them, pale against his skin. He was tan everywhere. She was pale everywhere. A symptom of their so very different lives.
“I should go, too, then. He’ll be looking for me.” It made sense, but even as she spoke she knew Caleb wouldn’t agree.
“There just needs to be activity. I’ll give him that.” He moved as if to sit up. Her hand slipped from his stomach and her thigh landed on the cold sheet beneath them.
A chill shot through her.
This was it. He was leaving.
“Will you be back?” she asked, trying to sound unconcerned. Concern would mean she was weak, afraid. She wasn’t. She’d faced down zombies; she could face anything.
Including life without Caleb.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat with his back to her. “Just stay here. I’ve talked to the owner. He’ll see you get food.”
“Food?” She could survive a few hours without food.
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Stay here until it’s over.”
“Over?” Forgetting her nudity, she swung her body around and knelt on the bed. “I can’t stay here. I have to meet Allison.”
“No. You don’t.” There was steel in his eyes.
She pressed her fingers onto the tops of her thighs. “I do. She’s why I’m here.”
He took a breath. “You don’t think you can trust the doctor to do as he said, do you?”
Did she? She shook her head. “No, but if there’s a chance…” She scrambled from the bed and searched for her clothes.
Caleb stood, too. He pulled the clothing from her fingers. “I can’t let you leave.”
“You can’t stop me.”
He wadded up her clothes and tossed them into the fire.
She watched in horror as they melted into nothingness. Her hands fisting at her sides, she took a step back. “I have others.”
“In the car. I didn’t bring them in. I’m not going to.”
It didn’t matter. She had other options: the sheets, the blankets, the shower curtain. She wouldn’t let modesty keep her from saving her friend.
But she wouldn’t let Caleb know that. She kept her gaze from wandering to the blanket, prayed he didn’t throw it into the fire, too.
Instead, he pulled on his own clothes and walked to the door.
Her arms crossed over her chest, she watched him. She had dreaded Caleb leaving; now she couldn’t wait for him to go so she could put together her plan and follow him.
He opened the door.
The motel owner stood on the other side.
Samantha cut off her gasp and her need to grab the blanket off the bed to cover herself. She stared him down and bore holes of anger into Caleb’s back.
Caleb took a step back. For a second she thought the other man was going to come in. Her fingers twitched, moved toward the blanket, but a smaller dark shape moved past the two men.
A dog or—this time Samantha’s gasp couldn’t be hidden—a wolf padded into the room.
“Mike raises husky/wolf mixes. He trains them as guard dogs. Linda is yours for the night, and for as long as you need her.”
The canine wandered around the room then walked up to Samantha and sniffed. Apparently satisfied, it turned and stalked to a place near the fire to sit. Its golden-brown eyes flitted over Samantha, then back at the two men. The expression in the creature’s eyes was easy to read—bored, annoyed, resolved.
“Linda?” Samantha asked, her gaze shifting from the animal to Caleb. “I’m… I don’t need her.”
His hand on the door, Caleb stared at her. “But I do. The dog is well trained. She won’t let anyone enter or leave, not until Mike or I release her.” Then he strode out the door.
Samantha used her heels to push herself upright in the bed. Somehow she’d managed to sleep. Not at first. Right after Ca
leb left, she’d tried following.
The dog, Linda, however, hadn’t seemed to approve of the idea. The creature hadn’t even seemed to be watching Samantha as she pulled the sheet from the bed and fashioned a toga-style dress from it, hadn’t cracked an eyelid as Samantha had stared at it, looking for some sign the animal was awake.
Assured it wasn’t, she’d stepped toward the door and without warning, the creature had leaped forward, its hair bristling around its neck and its teeth flashing.
Samantha had tried to maintain control, to appear unshaken, but there was something about facing down the snarling animal that had rattled her far worse than any of the zombies she’d had a hand in killing.
Still, she had reached out a shaking hand, and almost got bitten for her efforts. She could swear she’d felt the canine’s teeth brush her skin as she yanked her hand toward her chest. But there had been no mark and when she looked back at the creature it stood exactly where it had been before—as if it hadn’t moved at all.
Still, Samantha had been shaken. She’d stepped onto the bed and walked backward until reaching the headboard. There she had collapsed and eventually fallen asleep. When she’d awakened, it had been to the sound of the motel owner delivering lunch. Apparently, she’d slept through breakfast.
Mike was in the room now. He dropped a white paper bag of what smelled like burgers on the table. “Brought you lunch. I’ll take Linda for a while. Give you a chance to get up and stretch your legs.”
Unlike Caleb, he wasn’t even pretending the dog was there to protect her.
Samantha gathered the blanket around her body and stared at a blank spot on the wall. It was probably a mistake. You were supposed to talk to your captors, make them see you as a person, but Samantha had no words in her. She was too angry, too desperate to leave.
She’d gone through so much, put others through so much, all to save Allison, and now that she had been promised a visit Caleb and this strange man with his stranger dog were keeping Samantha from her.
He grunted and motioned to the animal, which trotted past him without a glance Samantha’s way.
“I’ll give you a few minutes,” Mike said. “Make use of it.”
Then like Caleb, he left.
Samantha wasted three seconds frozen on the bed, unsure if she could trust that he was actually gone. Then she was on her feet, her nudity forgotten. She raced to one of the small windows that flanked the door. The lower ledge hit her right above the breasts. It was small, maybe two feet wide, but big enough for Samantha to shimmy through.
Of course, anyone watching the door would see her escape through the window.
She cursed and glanced around the room. Her gaze went to the bathroom. She scurried toward it.
The space was barely big enough to turn around in. A prefab shower filled one end. The door opened almost into the toilet, and the sink was right beside both. She stared at the tile-topped cabinet, wondering…
As the idea formed, she hurried back out to where the motel owner had left the burgers, grabbed them and moved just as quickly back into the bathroom. After ripping open the bag and tossing its contents into the shower, she crouched on the sink and waited.
Five minutes later the door to the room opened.
“I’m in the bathroom,” she called.
There was a grunt, then the door closed again.
Samantha reached down and turned the knob, inched the bathroom door open just a bit. The dog, Linda, lay six feet away, its tail covering its nose.
“Linda?” Samantha called. “You hungry? Come here, girl.” She used the same voice her neighbor, who seemed to constantly be misplacing his golden retrievers, used when trying to locate his pets.
The dog’s ears twitched. Her tail slowly uncurled from around her face and she moved to a sit. She didn’t, however, come.
Samantha called again, this time tossing a bit of the hamburger out into the room.
Linda stood, sniffed the burger, then gulped it down.
Her confidence building, Samantha called again and again, repeated the steps until Linda was halfway into the bathroom.
Then she tossed what remained in her hand into the shower. As the dog trotted after the meat, she leaped, grabbing the top of the door to swing out.
She made it into the main room and landed on her feet. With a sigh of relief she turned, ready to jerk the door closed behind her and trap the canine inside the bathroom.
But the dog wasn’t in the bathroom.
The dog was standing right in front of her. Teeth bared, it jumped up, placed both front paws on Samantha’s shoulders and knocked her to the ground.
Her heart heavy in her chest, Samantha stared up at the snarling, angry beast.
She’d taken a chance and she’d lost.
It was over. Everything was over. She could only pray now that somehow Caleb found Allison and saved her. Without Samantha’s help.
She closed her eyes and waited for the pain of razor-sharp teeth piercing her flesh.
She felt nothing.
She opened her eyes. The dog was still there, and its teeth were still exposed, but there was something off about the expression in its eyes.
Bored. The dog looked bored.
Sure she was going mad, Samantha blinked and raised her body a smidge, enough so she could pull her elbows beneath her. The dog closed its mouth and took a step back.
Samantha stared at it, insanely sure the animal understood far more of what was happening than could be possible. Sure, too, that the dog had no more interest in watching her than she had in being watched.
As if on cue, the animal twisted its neck to glance at the window. The sun was still high; a sliver of light shone through the slightly parted drapes. The noise of cars coming and going, and people talking seemed suddenly much louder than Samantha had noticed before.
If she could hear them…
Samantha opened her mouth to scream.
The dog looked back at her, its expression this time saying, “Go ahead.”
“They won’t help me, will they?” she asked, her voice soft.
She was talking to a dog; she couldn’t bring herself to put much volume behind the words.
But the dog seemed to agree with her. It backed off another foot, into a sit.
Samantha pushed herself more upright, too. She was naked again, and strangely, talking to the dog made her aware of the state, more so even than when the motel owner had been in the room. She gestured toward the bed and its coverings. “Do you mind?”
The dog tilted its head back to the window. Taking that as a no, Samantha pulled the sheet from the bed and tied it around her body in its earlier toga-party style.
Feeling more comfortable, she studied the dog. People said having a pet made old people live longer; something about the companionship and having someone to talk to. The hospital where she trained had dogs come in once a week and the patients did seem to respond.
So, talking to the dog wasn’t crazy. It might not get her out of this room, but it could make her feel better about being trapped here. And who knew, maybe talking to the dog would have the same effect on the animal. Maybe the creature would relax, perhaps even come to trust her.
It certainly couldn’t hurt.
With that in mind, Samantha started talking.
She told the creature everything: how she’d met Allison, what they’d been through together, how Allison had disappeared and how she had found her. She told it about meeting Caleb, how he looked when he killed those zombies the first night, how scared and excited she had been watching him. She told it about their trip and how she’d known all along she was betraying him, how she regretted it even as she was doing it, but how she had seen no way out. How even now knowing it would cost her Caleb, she couldn’t turn her back on her friend.
She told the dog everything, even things she hadn’t until that moment admitted to herself.
When she’d emptied her soul, she looked up.
The dog was watching he
r, staring at her as if it had never seen her before.
Samantha clutched her toga, pulled it away from her legs so she could leap away from the animal if it decided to lunge.
The dog shifted its gaze to the window, then back at Samantha. It stared at her some more, and then it seemed to make a decision. It stood and padded to the door. There it stopped and turned to face her. With its nose, it gestured.
Sure now she had lost her mind, Samantha took two steps toward the dog. “Are you… Will you…” She shook her head, then took another step. The dog moved back.
Then it turned away and padded into the bathroom.
Samantha stared after it, but only for a second. Then she sprinted through the door.
Chapter 15
C aleb stood at the edge of the woods. He’d gone to the cabin, entered, made noises as if Samantha were with him hidden inside, and then he’d exited, leaving the metal cylinder behind. He’d slipped out the door in his wolf form and roamed the forest, hunting for any sign or scent of zombies or anyone else….
He’d found nothing.
He had spent a night away from Samantha, a night when she still wanted him…or would have if he hadn’t trapped her in that motel cabin with Linda, a werewolf, sitting guard.
If there had been any possibility that he could keep what he was from Samantha, keep her believing that she loved him, he had blown it last night.
He picked up a rock and tossed it from one hand to the other. It was over now.
The night had fallen. The camp was crawling with both werewolves ready for their monthly change and humans hoping to be chosen to join them.
Caleb had seen no sign of the doctor or his zombies last night, but tonight was the appointed night, when the doctor had told Samantha he would send Allison to the cabin.
But the cabin would be empty. Linda would keep Samantha trapped at Mike’s motel, safe. If Allison did show at the cabin, if she wasn’t a zombie already…well, she would just have to wait.