by Jenny Frame
“Caden,” she called, before falling to her knees and breaking down in tears. The commotion and noise had drawn some of the partygoers outside, along with Lena’s brothers and parents.
“Selena, what happened? What’s wrong with James?” her mother asked.
Lena watched Tom and Greg run straight to James, even though they must have seen that their sister had blood on her. This one action hit her hard, and it was an epiphany of sorts. Caden, and the people she had met in Wolfgang County, were the only ones who had ever shown her care and respect. No matter what they were.
What she had to do became crystal clear, and that terrified her.
*
Leroux and Ovid stood outside an abandoned half-decrepit mansion. “This is a perfect base, Ovid.”
“I thought so, Alpha. It has large grounds, and a good perimeter to defend. We should be able to see anyone coming for us.”
She watched as her elite wolves carried supplies and weapons from their van parked outside. “Yes, indeed. Now we just have to hope Kurtis is worthy of the Lupa pack.”
Leroux took out her cell phone and made a call.
“Kurtis here. How may I serve, Alpha?”
“We have our permanent base. I’ll send you details once you complete your part of the plan. Be ready when I call next, and don’t let me down.”
She hung up and Ovid said, “Can he be trusted, Alpha?”
“His hate and jealousy of Dante runs deep. I think we can trust him, but we always have other options if he needs to be disposed of.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Here you go, miss.”
“Thanks.” Lena stood up from her seat at the front of the bus and smiled at the bus driver. She tried, with some difficulty, to get her heavy bag down the step to the street.
“I’ll get that for you.” The driver lifted her case with ease and set it down on the sidewalk. “You take care now, it’s late and it’s dark. You don’t know what’s lurking out there.”
Oh, I know what’s out there. “I will, thanks for your help.”
After the bus drove off, Lena took a breath of the fresh, clean air that she had missed so much in the city.
She looked up at the sky and saw the bright stars and the shining full moon hanging low in the sky. Follow the moon, her Uncle Joel had said—how right he had been. She heard a long, lonely howl in the distance, and the sound reverberated through her body. Caden.
Lena knew for certain that it was Caden. The howl called to her in a way she didn’t understand, but felt all the same.
She took her cell phone from her purse and called a local cab. “Just enough time to put this case in the apartment, and then it’s time to face your fears, Selena. I’m coming, Cade.”
*
Caden pulled on her jeans and a T-shirt after taking a quick shower. She had taken a long late-night run to try to help calm her wolf, and her loneliness. It hadn’t worked. Every thought she had was of Lena, and every cell in her body ached for her.
She looked in the mirror and heard the phrase that haunted her. Get away from me, Caden. What kind of monster are you?
“A monster that no one could love.” She ran from her bedroom and leaped over the banister at the top of stairs.
When she landed, she could have sworn she scented Lena. She shook it off as merely wishful thinking, but then she heard a knock at the door.
Her heart thudded, and her palms became sweaty as the scent grew stronger. It couldn’t be her. Lena wouldn’t come back.
She took a deep breath and opened the door, and there she was. The female who refused to leave her thoughts.
“Lena? You came back?”
“Yes. I brought the things you left in the city.” Lena shrugged, indicating the duffel bag slung across her shoulders. “Could you take it off me? It’s quite heavy with one arm.”
“Of course, sorry.” Caden took the bag and threw it over her shoulder. “Will you come in? It’s safe. I promise.”
Lena stepped in and said, “I know that.”
Caden started throwing clothes and magazines off the couch. “I’m sorry it’s a mess. I told my cleaner not to come this week.” Lena sat down while Caden paced nervously. “Can I get you something to drink? Water? Fruit tea? Milkshake?”
“No, please sit down. I want to talk.”
Caden had never felt so nervous in her life.
“It’s hard to know where to start,” Lena said.
“I’ll answer anything you want. I promise to tell you the truth.”
Lena couldn’t look at Caden, but she asked, “Are you a werewolf?”
This was a question she had never expected to have to answer to a human, and it was hard to say the words out loud. “Yes, although we prefer to call ourselves wolves.”
Lena stood and started to pace around the room. She stopped in front of the wolf painting that hung above the fireplace. “I should have put all the pieces of the puzzle together before now. The evidence was everywhere, but I just couldn’t believe people as fantastical as you could ever exist. It’s insane.”
Caden walked over to Lena and touched her shoulder. “There are a lot of things in this world that humans can’t see because they don’t want to see it. Nature is varied and plentiful. We wolves are simply a different kind of person.”
Lena turned and Caden saw tears starting to fall from her eyes. “Don’t cry, please?” She tried to take Lena in her arms, but she was pushed away.
“No, let me talk. I need to talk.”
“Okay. I’m listening.” Caden put her hands in her jeans pockets, to stop her reaching out.
“I’ve spent the last two days going from terrified to hurt to elated. I researched everything I could find on the Internet about werewolves, and it made me doubt my own eyes. It’s all myth and legend. I felt like a big joke had been played on me.”
“Myth and legend are what we want to look like. If humans knew of our existence, we believe it would be dangerous to our way of life.”
“Were you just going to lie to me for as long as we were friends? You were the wolf that saved me, from the beginning. It’s been you, and you kept it from me.”
Caden couldn’t stop herself from touching Lena. She needed the contact desperately. “I didn’t lie. I was working toward explaining everything. You have to understand that knowledge of our world is precious. The Alpha and Mater gave me permission to tell you about us.”
Lena looked confused. “The Alpha? Who, Dante?”
“Yes, and Eden is the Mater. They are the Alpha pair of the Wolfgang pack.”
“And you are…the Second?”
Caden threaded her fingers through Lena’s. “The second most dominant wolf in the pack.”
Lena took a step back as if she was scared.
“Hey, I won’t hurt you. I never could.” Caden pulled her closer. “Please, trust me.”
“Why did you kiss me and bite me like you did?”
“Come and sit down. I need to explain a few things.” Caden ushered her to sit on the couch beside her. “I kissed you because I’ve dreamed about kissing you since I first laid eyes on you. Only it wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”
“What do you mean?” Lena asked.
“Your brother spiked my drink with vodka. We can’t drink alcohol because we lose control of our wolves. That’s what was happening to me.”
“I thought Tom had done something of the sort. He kept asking if you had a problem with alcohol, because you wouldn’t accept a drink. I’m sorry my family treated you like that, Caden.”
Caden took a breath and continued. “You have to understand, to control the wolf within us takes a lifetime of practice. Our wolf reacts to strong emotions—anger, danger, love, sex. Alcohol dulls our control. I saw him, Thornton, kiss you, and my wolf saw someone touching my mate.”
“You think I’m your mate?” There was an angry tone to her voice that surprised Caden. “I don’t know why. You run away from me every time we get close.”
She hung her head. “I know, I’m sorry. I’ve been frightened. I never thought I would have feelings for someone, never thought I’d have a mate, especially. I wasn’t destined for one, and certainly not a human. I’ve always hated humans, ever since that human drunk driver killed my parents. But as my wolf looked into your eyes on the forest floor, I was yours.” She looked up and held Lena’s hand tenderly. “I love you, Selena Miller.”
Lena’s face remained unchanged, but more tears welled in her eyes as she said, “I don’t believe you.”
“What? You don’t believe me? Why?” All the color had drained out of Caden’s face.
“This is all one big joke. Why would someone like you love someone like me. You’re perfect, you’re gorgeous—”
Lena was stopped by Caden’s lips softly, but firmly kissing her.
At first she tried to push Caden away, but she very quickly melted into Caden’s soft lips and mouth. Caden’s kiss was everything, and so much more than their first kiss. It was less fevered but even more passionate than the first, and through it Lena started to believe.
Caden pulled away from her and said, “You are my Goddess of the Moon, and I will love you till my last breath and beyond.”
“I believe you,” Lena whispered breathlessly. “I love you too. You make me feel things like I could never have imagined.”
Caden rubbed her mouth and cheek over Lena’s face and neck, spreading her scent over her, and Lena felt the warmth of her love spread throughout her body.
Caden said, “I know there’s so much more we need to talk about, and a lot of hurdles we have to cross, but can we try? Try to, well, we call them mating rituals.”
“Date, you mean? Be a couple?”
Caden nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, date, can we? I will prove to you that we can make this work, because you are it for me, Lena. A wolf only gives their heart once.”
Lena stroked her love’s cheek tenderly. “Will you show me your wolf? I have to see all of you. I have to see the wolf who rescued me that first night. Please?”
Caden stood before her, began to undo her jeans, and kicked off her shoes. “No matter how scary it might look as I shift, I promise my wolf will never, ever hurt you.”
“I know. Show me, show me all of you.”
She pulled off her jeans and T-shirt, and Lena was mesmerized by her physique. What made Caden all the more attractive was her unashamed confidence in her body, an attitude as foreign to Lena as being a wolf.
“Are you ready?” Caden asked.
“As I’ll ever be.” Lena rubbed her cast nervously.
Caden deliberately slowed down her shift to pelt, to show Lena it was her and there was nothing to fear.
Lena gasped when she saw Caden’s muscles become pronounced and her eyes turn to the yellow she had seen before. She became a bit frightened when Caden’s face contorted and her teeth became like fangs. It’s only Caden, it’s only Caden, she repeated mentally, like a mantra.
Caden crouched and her bones began to crack and twist. Lena quickly covered her eyes and dared herself to peek through her fingers, and when she did, she saw the most amazing sight she had ever seen.
“Oh my God, Caden?” The wolf stood panting and looking right at her. It was a lot larger than she expected, about three times the size of an ordinary wolf, much more muscular, and taller. Its gray, brown, and white fur looked thick and soft, and she had the strangest urge to ruffle its ears and give it a hug, even though it looked like the wolf could tear her limb from limb. “I’m standing in the same room as a werewolf. How can this be real?”
Caden took a step toward Lena and whimpered when she backed away. Lena immediately felt bad and, using all her courage, walked to the wolf. She held out her hand, which shook with fear, and received a lick in return. She surprised herself by dropping to her knees and saying, “You are the wolf from my dreams, the one who saved me and protected me.”
The wolf gave her a lick on the cheek. Lena giggled and touched Caden’s fur, carefully at first, but then, as her confidence grew, scratched behind her ears. Caden whined and rumbled in pleasure and contentment.
“You’re not scary, are you? Well, maybe not to me, but I think you could be to your pack, or your friends.”
The wolf growled as if to confirm what Lena had said, and with a final lick, ran for the door. Lena followed her outside into the darkness of the night and smiled as Caden leaped in the air, on top her truck, and then onto the roof of the den.
Lena was amazed at how Caden’s wolf could move, jump, and twist in the air. This was why she was a perfect physical specimen. She was perfect.
Caden then ran off at speed into the forest and out of sight. What was she up to now?
A few minutes later, the wolf returned with a mouthful of wildflowers and dropped them at Lena’s feet.
“Are these for me?”
Caden lifted her paw and placed it on Lena, and howled long and loud to the moon, proclaiming to every wolf that her mate had returned to her.
*
Caden sat crouched, head down, before Lena, having shifted back to skin. She slowly stood and revealed the erotic image Lena had seen in her dream. She was slick with perspiration, muscles taut, with those yellow predator eyes. Lena felt herself ache, deep inside.
Caden stalked toward her, looking as if she was ready for the kill.
“Cade, you looked like this in my dream. One I never told you about.”
Caden said nothing, but gave a soft snarl. She padded around Lena, sniffing her hair and skin. “Tell me.”
Lena’s heart thudded harder than it had in her life. Caden hadn’t even touched her, but the erotic snarls and soft growls made her wet and ready. “You were like this, naked and with wolf eyes. You stood behind me and ran your hands over my hips and buttocks, and finally my breasts.”
Caden took the direction and stood behind Lena, her hands running over her hips and beautifully rounded backside. “Tell me more. I can smell your excitement, Goddess.”
Lena arched her neck back and to the side, offering herself to Caden. “You bit me with your wolf teeth, and it felt so powerful, I…”
Caden ran her tongue over the teeth marks she had made at the party and said, “It felt so powerful?”
Lena felt like she was going to combust. The marks on her neck felt directly connected to her clitoris, and she throbbed and ached in response. “I woke up having an orgasm,” Lena admitted.
Caden growled. “Goddess, that was the first of many. I want to please you and love you until you fall asleep from exhaustion. Stay with me tonight, please?”
Lena didn’t even have time to think before her body and her heart made the decision for her. “Yes.”
Caden lifted her, and Lena automatically wrapped her legs around her lover’s waist. When Caden reached the bottom of the stairs, Lena started to feel self-conscious. “Put me down, Cade. I’m too heavy.”
“You weigh nothing—hold tightly around my neck.” Caden let her arms drop and walked upstairs, demonstrating how easily she held her.
The strength Caden possessed made Lena feel safe, but she was still nervous about her body.
Caden walked them into her large bedroom and sighed when she saw how messy it was. Clothes in piles on the floor, the bedsheets half hanging off the bed. “I’m sorry it’s—”
Lena kissed her silent. “Don’t. It’s fine. It’s a wolf bachelor pad—I don’t expect it to be perfectly tidy.”
Lena surveyed the bedroom. It had a wood-plank floor and paneled walls, and floor-to-ceiling doors that led out to a balcony overlooking the forest.
“Your room is beautiful, just like your den.”
Caden let her down, and looked around. “It’s lonely.” Her voice held sadness. “I’ve been lonely for a long time.”
Lena lifted one of Caden’s hands and kissed it tenderly. “So have I, Caden, except since I’ve been here with you.”
Caden carefully took Lena’s glasses off and placed the
m on the side table. “Maybe we’ve both been waiting for each other.” She caressed Lena’s face and pulled her into a kiss, but Lena hesitated. “Is there something wrong?”
Lena’s cheeks went hot as her negative thoughts ate away at her mind. “I’ve never done this before.”
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
“I want to. I love you—I just don’t want you to be disappointed. I’m not like the women you know, like Eden and Stella.”
“No, you’re not like Eden and Stella.”
Lena’s shoulders slumped.
“You’re Selena, my Goddess of the Moon.”
“I don’t feel like a goddess. You’re so confident in your body, Cade, I—”
Caden unbuttoned Lena’s blouse, left it hanging open, and whispered into her ear, “Show me.”
“What?”
Caden trailed her fingers between Lena’s breasts. “Show me where you have been made to feel bad about your body.”
“I don’t think—”
Caden put her hand in Lena’s and repeated, “Trust me, and show me.”
Lena gathered her courage and placed her hand on her stomach.
“Here?” Caden asked.
She nodded and was surprised when Caden dropped to her knees and slowly shrugged the blouse from Lena’s body, and ran her hand over the surface of her stomach.
“This sweet, soft belly?” Caden placed her cheek against the warm skin and rubbed her scent over it before worshiping it with kisses and licks.
Lena couldn’t help but touch and stroke Caden’s hair as she was loved. She wished she didn’t have an arm cast on, so she could put both arms around her. “Cade?” she groaned.
“This belly is perfectly female and beautiful. I could spend all night making love to it. Where else makes you feel bad, my Goddess?”
Caden’s reassurance was slowly giving her some confidence, and she unzipped her skirt and let it fall to the ground, then placed her lover’s hands on her thighs.
She was surprised when Caden growled and looked up at her with her wolf eyes. “The first time I drove you to the farm in my truck, I helped you out and your short skirt rode up on your thighs. I wanted more than anything to sink my teeth into the flesh then and there.”