She could only see the back of the Indian from her vantage point at the table, but he still hadn’t put on a shirt, and his back tightened beneath his suspenders before he answered, “Full moon. Not a good night for visitors.”
“No, it was not. Do you know anything about this woman they were looking for, Joseph?”
The Indian’s answer came in a lazy instant. “No, King, I have not seen her.”
The white man’s eyes shifted then. Off of the Indian and on to her. “Are you sure about that?” he asked. “They are still looking for her.”
“I am sure and certain,” the Indian answered. “I have seen no one matching that description around here.” The Indian moved then, lowering his hand. Which at first she thought might be his way of telling her to run. But no…he bent down. Grabbed a stoneware jug from the floor.
“I offer you this to take back for your kingdom house table.”
The white man’s eyes stayed on her.
A few moments ticked by. Each one seeming to swing her life back and forth on a pendulum.
But then the white man’s gaze finally dropped away so he could take the stoneware jug the Indian offered him. “They seem mighty determined to find her, is all. I have some concerns about them coming back with their dogs, asking more questions if they do not like the results of my investigation.”
“Well, now that I think on it…” the Indian said.
Her body tightened, preparing to run even though she doubted she had a hen in a fox den’s chance of getting past them both.
“…I did not see my canoe in the river this morning. Somebody must have taken it.”
“Hmm,” the white man said, looking over his shoulder in the direction of the river. “Then I suppose she must have made it cross the river. They will not be happy to hear the news of a stolen canoe, but I cannot account for their happiness, can I?”
“No, you cannot, King,” the Indian answered. “You did as you said you would. Looked into it. Got them the answer they needed.”
“That I did,” the white man agreed.
He glanced at her again, the wide-eyed black woman in the Indian’s cabin…
Then he tucked the stone jug under one arm and walked away.
She did not have any notion of having held her breath until it rushed out of her mouth. So fast, it made her head light, and she had to sit a few moments after she had been prepared to run.
“Want another bowl of suppawn?” the Indian asked. He closed the door and walked back over to the table for her answer.
She raised her eyes to his, too weak with relief to do anything but nod.
He grabbed up her bowl and went to the hearth’s black pot to fill it once more. “Eat,” he said, setting the bowl down in front of her. “Then we must walk to the river and see about that canoe.”
“You going to give me your canoe?” she asked, truly shocked at his continued generosity.
But the man’s faced darkened. “No. But I will need your help to push it out into the river. Then I will flip it over, and give the patrollers something to find.”
He shook his head. “It is a shame. That canoe took me two moons to make.”
She shook her head, too, not understanding. Even a little bit. “So you ain’t going to let me go?”
The Indian regarded her with solemn eyes. “I cannot say for sure yet. We will have to see what happens at the next full moon.”
At the next full moon? “What does me going north have to do with the moon?” she asked carefully, so as not to offend.
The Indian did not answer. This question or any of the others she put to him about his full moon notions over the next four weeks.
Chapter Sixteen
Two Centuries Later
“Don’t kill him. Please, don’t kill him!”
Somewhere in the distance, Nago heard Halle begging for the life of the male he was currently wailing on like a horizontal punching bag. The worthless fuck who’d tried to mate his she-wolf. HIS she-wolf!
What would have happened if the idiot’s father hadn’t sent that message to WolfNet? With the exact coordinates for the Chivaree party? Nago had run full out, but what if he hadn’t made it here on time? The thought had him raising his fists again, even though he’d already beaten the overstepping prick to a pulp.
Only Halle’s scream of “No, Nago, please!” made him pause.
For once he and the beast were in agreement. They both wanted to ignore her. They both wanted to end this bag of shit right now.
“Nago…” she pleaded again, her voice trembling in horror.
And Nago lowered his fist. Deciding instead to reach behind him to the waistband of his pants for his gun.
Halle’s breath caught when Nago brought out a gun. It was old-fashioned, like those she’d seen in historical dramas.
“Oh, God, Nago don’t,” she begged.
Nago regarded her for a cold moment and pulled the trigger.
She screamed but cut off abruptly when what looked like a small dart hit Eric square in the chest.
A tranquilizer, she realized in the next heart-stopping moment, as Eric’s bloody face lolled sideways onto the cabin’s rough wood floor.
The hick-hop soundtrack from earlier started up outside again.
The Chivaree party had roared back to life. Just like Eric wanted, she thought to herself as she watched Nago grab the Ohio prince by his sock-covered feet.
Not seeming to care about the way the young prince’s head bumped against the floor planks or how many splinters his back might be collecting, Nago dragged him toward the cabin’s entrance. Then callously tossed him out the front door, like so much garbage. More of the obnoxiously loud music poured into the cabin before Nago slammed the door shut.
He then turned back to her, his face a mask of cold rage. “This is what you signed up for,” he snarled. “To be hunted down like prey. To be claimed by whoever caught you. And I’ve caught you.”
His words caused her heart to thunder with fear. “Nago…” she choked out. But then…
Oh God, then her body betrayed her by releasing a fresh round of heat into the air.
She didn’t have a chance to finish the sentence.
This time there was no invitation for her to get into position. Nago came across the room…grabbed her…and she was in position. Elbows down, ass up, presenting her arousal covered sex whether she wanted to or not.
And then his voice was back in her head, growling. “I caught you. I caught you. That means you’re mine.”
Halle wanted to protest. Wanted to tell him to just do it and get the hell out of her head.
But her wolf went crazy at his words, whimpering with its need to be mated.
“You waited too long,” the voice pointed out inside her head. “And now you’re hurting. How bad do you need me to fuck you right now, baby?”
Baby…not babe. Like he used to call her. A growing up, she sensed. And she could feel the swollen head of him at her entrance…
Her human wanted to scream with frustration and anger. But her wolf…her wolf released another wave of heat. Answering the question without Halle’s permission.
Inside her mind Nago chuckled, low and cruel. “Then choose,” he commanded. “Choose me right now.”
What? She didn’t understand.
And that was when Nago showed her how cruel he really could be. Because instead of taking her as was his right, he said, “I’m not a fucking hillbilly, Halle. I’m not going to take you against your will. If you want me, baby, you got to choose me. Over him.”
Oh, God…no. She didn’t realize how much she wanted to be a victim in this situation until that option was taken off the table.
Her wolf screamed inside her. Begging her to say the words. Give Nago whatever he wanted if it made this painful heat go away.
“Fine,” she bit out. “I choose you.”
“Over him?”
“Over him,” she agreed through clenched teeth.
“I can’t hear
you, Halle.”
So she repeated it, louder.
But once again he said, “I can’t hear you.”
She yelled it. “I choose you over him, okay?” her voice ten kinds of desperate as the arousal heat dripped down her thighs.
But despite her shouted acquiescence, he said, “I can’t hear you.” Again. This time snarling the words.
And that was when she realized exactly what he wanted. Her words inside his head.
“I’m a mated wolf,” he informed her. “I’ll only seed my mate.”
This time, even her wolf had trouble with the request. They’d both been left behind in that hotel room. Both humiliated by the male now demanding that she establish the most intimate connection a she-wolf could have with a male.
Neither of them wanted to make themselves that vulnerable. And the fact was, she’d already chosen. Eric—she’d chosen Eric. Not Nago. Eric. And saying otherwise felt equivalent to bearing her neck to a predator.
But he remained frozen behind her. His physical presence letting her know he’d settle for nothing less than full acquiescence. And from somewhere deep down in her soul a word pushed out through her mind. “You.”
One word. One word was all she gave him.
But one word seemed to be all he needed.
With her broken “You” still echoing between them, he flipped her on her back. Then his heavy body fell on top of hers, his thick waist pushing her legs apart, right before he…
They both moaned. Like starving people who’d been denied food for too long.
Nago’s hips began to move between her legs in a controlled roll. “You choose me. You choose me as your mate. Me as the father of your children.”
Anyone would have assumed he was gloating over her complete surrender. But to Halle, it sounded like a chant. Almost like he was praying—for what? She couldn’t begin to guess.
Yet she found her mind whispering to his, “You. I choose you.”
“You chose me! You chose me!”
His head fell to the bed, just above her shoulders. And his mouth captured hers as his hips began circling faster.
His kiss was familiar, and that somehow made it even worse. Her entire body lit up with it, like old sticks set to flame. And a few seconds later, the orgasm hit. Shutting down her mind, scrolling back the years, and obliterating the countdown clock so it read zero. Zero years, days, moments since the last time they were together like this.
She was a teenager. She was grown. She was young. She was unimaginably old as the orgasm exploded inside her. Blasting away both pride and regrets.
Inside her mind, Nago began a new chant, “She chose me…she chose me…she chose me,” he said over and over, voice feral as his hips continued to roll in her afterlight.
And then his body went rigid, the chant cutting off with a rough grunt right before his release flooded into her.
“Halle, baby, I’m so…”
Instead of finishing that thought, he kissed her again, his cock still pulsing inside her, warm and thick. This kiss almost felt sweet…until he swelled inside her.
She now understood why people often preferred to stick exclusively to “wolf position” during heat sex. In the otherwise staid missionary position, his knot pushed into a secret spot she hadn’t known she had…and cue the back-to-back orgasms. With lots and lots of screaming on her part.
Halle lost track of time, but eventually, she came back to find herself wrapped in Nago’s arms. Apparently, Nago had repositioned them side by side, adjusting himself, so the knot didn’t feel nearly so extreme.
“Sssh,” he soothed, gathering her close. “C’mon breathe. There you go. That’s how you do it.”
She breathed against his chest, and eventually, the stars faded as did the ringing in her ears. Which made it easy to hear the party going on outside.
It appeared their sex had gone viral. What sounded like a dirty South club before had turned into a bacchanal, thanks to the overload of heat pheromones floating out of the cabin.
Under normal circumstances, wolves did whatever they could to get out of the vicinity when a she-wolf went into heat. Heat pheromones weren’t mutually exclusive, and any wolf within scenting distance would fall into a similar sex thrall if they didn’t run at first sniff. But the party attached to a Chivaree mating was an excuse for its otherwise conservative attendants to have themselves a good old orgy.
Halle could hear couples—many of whom might only have met for the first time tonight—copulating as voices called out encouragement, “Yeah, girl, you take that wolf!” And to the males, “Get ‘er done.”
They weren’t addressing her and Nago. Halle knew this. Yet it felt like they were.
“Try to tune them out and get some sleep” he advised, drawing her closer into his arms. “Trust you’re going to need your rest.”
He was right.
So she closed her eyes, nuzzling the chest of the man she was fairly sure she hated when he showed up here less than twenty-four hours ago.
But now…now she’d chosen him.
She wanted to care about the choice she’d just made. She really did. But she found herself unable to grasp any of the worries sidling around her afterglow. Maybe because no matter what her rational mind put forth, she was here in this bed with him. Her sex still milking his as she fell into a deep and peaceful sleep.
Chapter Seventeen
Halle should have had nightmares. Her first—but technically second heat mating should have been filled with dreams of waking in that Tallahassee hotel room. But she slept deeply and peacefully. If she had any dreams, she didn’t remember them. And she woke up in a bed made by a long-ago ancestor, feeling blissful and fully restored.
Which was why her calm heart tripped over a few beats when she found Nago’s side of the bed empty. Then stopped altogether when she sniffed and got nothing but the smell of an old heat.
She climbed out of bed and glanced down at her stomach. No HeatAway patch. Also, no Mr. Nightwolf sitting in either of the cabin’s two chairs. The chairs were empty with nothing but her white shift hanging over the back of one.
Halle sniffed again. The cabin was completely empty, save for her and the questions she was asking herself: How could she have been so stupid? How could she have let herself fall for him again?
The breath returned to her body only to release in short, panicked spurts as she tried to figure out what to do now that he’d left her a second time. How to feel. What to think… And wow, she thought she’d done a pretty good job of encasing her heart in a hard, protective layer over the years, particularly where Nago Nightwolf was concerned. But as it turned out she hadn’t because here it was, breaking all over again—
The door suddenly banged open. And Nago appeared with two plastic bags hanging off one arm, and a flat case of bottled water under the other.
“Hey, you’re awake,” he said when he saw her standing next to the bed. “Babe, can I tell you how much I like this place? Just the fact that you got opposite of Alaska hardcore nature going on out here—I fuckin’ love it. I meditated under that magnolia tree, then took a run into town along the river to get us some groceries.”
Halle watched him come further into the room and set the flat of water down on the little rough table, before heading over to the hearth with the grocery bags. “I think I can figure out how to work this thing. From the looks of it, it’s useable. But if not, got us plenty of junk food to tide us over until I can go back out. And your kingdom’s people are really nice. This one lady, Mrs. Lupo, offered to drop off lasagna. And the clerk at the grocery store gave me the number of an old-fashioned pizza delivery service he said will deliver for free since it’s for you. Like, a guy drives it out to you and everything! No drones required—hey, why are you crying?”
Was she crying? She didn’t realize it until he asked the question.
Nago dropped the groceries like they were a pile of trash and rushed over to where she stood beside the bed. “Hey, hey, what’s going
on?” he asked, stroking a hand over her box braids as he pulled her into his arms. “Tell me why you’re crying.”
She shook her head against his shoulder. Not wanting to explain.
But he wasn’t having any of it. “No, don’t shake your head, baby. You’re scaring me.” Then he leaned back to ask her, “Did something happen? Did that Eric fucker come back? He was gone this morning when I cleared out all the Chivaree stragglers. I thought it’d be safe to leave you here alone. But if he came back…”
She spoke only because she was almost positive Nago’s next step would be to leave again to hunt Eric down if she didn’t explain. “No, he didn’t come back. I was just scared.”
“Scared of him?” Nago leaned back. “Babe, I’m here now. You don’t ever have to be scared again. I protect you from now on. From him. From life. All of it. I’m your man, now.”
She stopped, liking the sound of that but…
“You don’t believe me,” he guessed off her silence.
“How can I?” she asked, her voice barely making it above a whisper. “I believed you before, and when I woke up, you weren’t there. Just like this morning.”
He stared at her. Not comprehending. Until suddenly he did.
“By the Fenrir wolf, I’m stupid.” He pulled her back into his arms, rocking her back and forth. “I wanted to do something for you. Take care of you. But I should have thought about how it would look before I left out of here.”
He cupped her shoulders. “I’m sorry. Sorry for scaring you. Sorry for all of it. But Halle if you don’t believe anything else I say to you, know I’m not leaving you again. You’re stuck with me now, okay? As long as you want me, I’m here.”
Such amazing words. Such lovely promises. But how could she trust anything that came out of his mouth—?
Her heat scent chose that moment to crash the conversation, blaring out like a siren. And that was when she found out the hard way that her wolf didn’t give one damn about any of the valid reservations she might have about trusting Nago.
The Brothers Nightwolf Complete Trilogy: A Sci-Fi Shifter Paranormal Romance Box Set Page 9