by Tasha Black
Erik waited for Ainsley’s hackles to stand up, but she was laudably calm.
“May I have some time with my lieutenant to make preparations for his absence?” Ainsley asked.
“Very well,” Ophelia said, standing. She turned to Erik and he felt himself nearly paralyzed by her dark gaze. He could only imagine what her power would have been like over his wolf.
“Don’t exert yourself too much, I may still require your services later,” she said.
He gulped, ripped his eyes from hers and nodded.
Ainsley slipped off the chair and down the stairs as though her tail were between her legs. He followed her, trying to read her mood.
They didn’t speak until they were outside in the field.
“Let’s go to our spot,” Ainsley whispered.
He nodded and took her hand. They walked silently through the tall grass, bathed in moonlight.
At the end of the grass, a stand of bamboo led all the way down to the creek. Erik had cut a wending path through it last month. They made their way through the bamboo to the edge of the creek.
Silently, they followed the water until they reached the cave and the giant sycamore - the setting for so many of their happy childhood memories. Erik always felt a sense of timelessness in this place.
“What are we going to do?” Ainsley asked, breaking the silence.
“Maybe it’s best for me to leave, while we figure out how to get my wolf back. If Ophelia finds out, I’m in real trouble. Any progress on that?”
Ainsley took both of his hands in hers and squeezed.
And that was when he knew.
“Julian says there is no way to reverse it.”
The ground seemed to fall away beneath him. He struggled to stay calm, be strong for Ainsley.
“Okay, that gives us a course of action then.”
“What do you mean?”
The love in her eyes almost unseated him, but he managed to hold on, to do what was right.
“I am no good to you without my wolf. You need to find a new mate, as soon as possible, to secure the future of the pack.”
“That’s ridiculous, you’re my mate.”
“You only inherited your wolf on your father’s side as it is. You need to mate with a wolf or the next alpha by inheritance will be uncertain. This is bigger than you, Ainsley.”
“No, we don’t need an alpha by inheritance.”
“How many young wolves are there in town, Ainsley?”
She paused, thinking.
“The pack won’t have to worry about staying under the Federation’s radar if they just die out,” he continued. “This is your responsibility now.”
“I want you. I’m the alpha, I can do what I want,” she said impetuously. But her tone told him his message was finding its way home.
“No, Ainsley,” he told her sadly. “You can’t. Not this time. Ophelia is here to make that clear. She is testing you. You need to convince her you will do whatever it takes to ensure the future of this pack. Even if that means finding another mate.”
“Fuck her. Let her kick me out of the Alpha Club, then.”
“It’s not that easy. You would be banished forever. And the pack would fail without you. You have a connection to us. To them. You can feel that they’ve put their trust in you. And you’ve earned it. That’s why you don’t need to work your alpha powers on everyone to get them to follow you. They do what you say because they love you. We love you… I love you.”
She searched his eyes and then reached up to hold his face in her hands.
“I love you, Erik.”
“I will always love you, Ainsley, none of this will change that. But I need to go away. It’s what is best for the pack.”
Her expression was torn. “We can talk about it in the morning, right?”
He nodded.
She smiled at him then. And her smile, with all its sadness, was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Her hands slowly moved down his cheeks to his chest and rested over his aching heart. Though he knew it would only make everything harder, he longed to kiss her. Before he could stop himself, he pulled her in. When her face was an inch from his, he hesitated, allowing her to choose.
She pressed her mouth to his passionately. Though he couldn’t smell her excitement he could feel the intensity of it.
His own body responded immediately. It was always this way with Ainsley. He found himself going from zero to sixty in a heartbeat. And apparently, it had nothing to do with his wolf.
He ran his hands down her back, molding her tousled hair against her shoulder blades.
She moaned and pressed herself against him in response, sliding her hands up onto his shoulders and sinking her nails in.
The touch of pain didn’t excite him the way it did his wolf. But it still felt good. Very good. He was already hard as a rock and straining painfully against his jeans. But he wanted to go slowly. This might be their last time.
She was melting into him already though. Her breasts flattened against his chest, her nipples stiff against him.
The last time they had been here like this was the first night they were together. It was the night Ainsley had been drawn as alpha.
It was colder now, but he didn’t care. With Ainsley soft and whimpering with need in his arms, he was overwhelmed with the urge to protect and comfort her.
He bent and lifted her in his arms. She was so warm and soft, he felt he could have carried her a hundred miles.
He didn’t have to, though. Just like the first time, he carried her to a bed of pine needles on the bank of the creek where he laid her down gently, as if she were delicate instead of unbelievably powerful. As if she were the child they would never have together.
She reached for him and he stripped quickly and covered her with his warm body.
Her sigh of relief broke his heart. He knew his touch gave her peace.
He paused to take her in. Willing himself to remember everything: the curve of her hip, the softness of her hair, the fragrance of her that didn’t escape even his human nose.
But she was already writhing under him, tugging at her own dress.
He smiled. She had never liked to take it slow.
He rolled off her and she sat up, lifting her arms so that he could slide the dress over her head. He laid it carefully next to her, then moved on top of her again.
She looked up at him longingly. Erik knew he could lose himself in her eyes. If she asked him to run away with her now he would do it. He would renounce his pack and his duty just to stay with her. Was it really fair for one woman to be so responsible to so many?
But she stirred beneath him again and he lost all thought.
He bowed his head to nuzzle her breasts. They were so full, so warm.
She arched her back and tangled her fingers in his hair, pulling him closer, always closer.
He sucked one nipple into his mouth and marveled at its sweetness.
Ainsley moaned and he worked the other with his fingers, soothing and exciting her at the same time. Her hips began to lift to him.
He was so hard now it almost hurt. It took all he had not to take her now, or grind himself against her. But he was determined to give her ecstasy one last time.
Slowly, Erik lowered his mouth, kissing and tasting her soft belly, and lower still until he could smell her arousal through silken curls, even with his weakened senses.
“Oh,” Ainsley breathed.
He lifted his face to take her in. The moonlight made her skin seem to glow. Her dark hair spread on the pine needles, and her face wore an expression of pure rapture: eyes closed, swollen lips slightly parted.
It was too much. Erik fell on her, spreading her folds with loving fingers and lapping and sucking at her frantically.
Ainsley cried out. Her hips bucked involuntarily.
She tasted exquisite. He tried to prolong her pleasure, alternating long slow strokes of his tongue with teasing flicks on her clit.
; Erik’s wolf had always known by instinct what Ainsley needed. Now he felt like a blind man, trying to read her signals - to see how far he could push her. The mystery of it was irresistible. He lavished her until his attentions seemed to inflame her beyond her self-control.
“Please,” she begged, her alpha voice gone.
He rewarded her immediately by sliding one thick finger into her. She was so wet, so warm. She cried out when he found that special spot inside her. His cock bobbed against his abs in response.
He ignored his own need and continued to work her with his fingers and mouth. Slow, then fast, soft, then hard. He was lost in the rich taste and feel of her.
The moment before she came apart for him her whole body froze.
Erik sucked her clit into his mouth and drew on it hard. Almost in slow motion, her hips lifted to him one last time, and then she convulsed around his fingers, crying his name.
It was more than Erik could take. He slid up to nuzzle her neck and then bite it. She was still trembling when he pressed against her.
Gritting his teeth and praying to last more than a minute, Erik squeezed himself slowly into her. He was so hard he was afraid he might hurt her.
Every inch of Ainsley was exquisite. At last he was fully seated.
Against every demand of his frustrated body, Erik held still and luxuriated in the tight hot feel of her. No matter how many times they did this, he was filled with a drunken pleasure at the idea that he was inside Ainsley. It was almost like being a part of her - like they were one person.
But her nails sunk into his shoulders once more and she rocked herself up against him eagerly, as usual dissolving his determination to take it slow.
Caging her head with his hands, and looking into her hazel eyes, he slid all the way out of her and thrust himself back in. She growled in delight. And he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from coming right then.
He knew that soon her alpha would take over and she would flip him onto his back and finish him that way. Tonight he felt so protective of her, he wished he could keep her like this, sheltered by his body. Maybe it was only because his wolf was gone that he wanted things to be different. She felt so good that he couldn’t really think straight. Didn’t want to anyway. He pushed the thoughts aside and sunk into her again, slowly, deeply claiming her, if only for tonight.
Ainsley bucked up to him, moaning. She placed one hand against his cheek again.
“I love you, Erik,” she whispered through the haze of her desire. Her eyes were filled with love and fear and a wisdom beyond her own years.
“I love you, Ainsley Connor,” he whispered back, and didn’t want to know how he must look to her - lost, bereft.
One last time he filled her and felt her lock down on him as she came again. He surrendered his pleasure to her then and filled her with his seed. The waves of pleasure seemed to join them for long minutes.
When it was finished, he rolled on his side and stroked her chest and belly with his palm.
“That was amazing,” she blinked up at him.
“It’s always amazing. Every time,” he told her.
For a few more minutes they lay in the moonlight. At length, Ainsley rolled on her side to face him.
“I guess we need to go back to Ophelia. At least you do. Maybe you’d better rinse off first,” she indicated the creek with her eyes.
Erik winced. There was no way he was going to service Ophelia. Not if he could help it.
“I’m trying to come up with a plan to avoid…that,” he said.
“Well, I think I’ll go to my house anyway. I don’t think I can deal with her tonight. I’m going to have a cup of tea and think about Copper Creek. Maybe we should send some of your guys and your equipment. You have some good guys, right?”
“Sure,” he replied without committing. He already knew that wasn’t an option. “I’ll stop over and see MacGregor to get his take on everything. He knows the rules and the bylaws better than anyone. Maybe there’s a workaround.”
They walked slowly to Ainsley’s house. She waved to him sweetly from the porch and went inside.
It took all he had not to break down as he turned his back on the Connors’ old Victorian and walked away.
Chapter 19
Grace had been on the phone so long, she was starting to lose feeling in her butt. And all for nothing. At least so far. She tried to shift her weight in her office chair to return some circulation.
Grace had decided that rather than looking for evidence, maybe she’d be better off looking for Lilliana. She’d begun by calling Springton Hospital. No luck. County General. Nothing.
Now she was on her thirteenth call to a municipal police force.
All the local townships and boroughs had their own departments. If something suspicious had been reported, or a person with an injury found, Grace ought to be able to track it through a colleague. The county had twenty-seven municipal police forces. And most of them were fairly sleepy, which meant that Grace’s colleagues had plenty of time to chat.
It had been a long night.
The Lower Providence Township phone rang once.
“Lower Prov Police, Fire and Ambulance,” said an eager voice.
Crap it was Joy Leipers. Grace would never get off the phone.
“Hey Joy, it’s Grace, from Tarker’s Hollow.”
“Graaaace! Have I got a story for you! You have a minute right?” Joy didn’t wait for an answer. “You know how it always gets wacky around here about the time of the full moon?”
“Uh, yes…”
That was the understatement of the year.
“Well, this month is no different. The Malones just got a chicken coop! You know the Malones right? Molly and Hal? Anyway, it’s the thing to do to raise chickens now and eat organic eggs and whatnot.” Joy took a moment to laugh at the upper middle class citizens of Lower Providence. Grace was decidedly alone among local police in serving the population to which she belonged. She tried not to make a big deal of it and over time they had seemed to forget.
“What happened?” Grace asked, knowing it would be quicker to get to the end of the story then to try and circumvent it.
“Well, you know these folks’ll call in an engineer to hang a picture on the wall. They brought in some Amish carpenter to design the prettiest chicken coop you ever saw. It was tucked under their porch with two levels and teak wood doors and stuff.”
“Um-hm,” Grace looped the yellow belt to Lilliana’s raincoat around her fingers and released it again. She had been holding it all night, hoping to get a reading out of it somehow, but it was just flopping around in her hands like any other raincoat belt.
“So, we get a call from Molly, she’s frantic. She says There’s been a break-in! They’re gone - they’re all gone! We send Phillip over there in a patrol car, sirens blazing! Guess what happened?”
“What?” Grace pretended not to see the punchline coming.
“Something broke into their chicken coop, took the chickens! Hal Malone was cursing like a sailor, Molly was crying, the kids were standing on the lawn in their pajamas. All over a couple of chickens. And some dumb box.”
Shit. Sounded like the work of juvenile wolves.
“What did Phillip think happened?”
“Oh who knows? Probably a fox or a dog! Anywho…What can I do you for?”
Grace blinked back into the matter at hand.
“We have someone missing but it’s too soon for missing persons. Her name is Lilliana Atwater. Mid-twenties, dyed red hair, was last seen in a yellow raincoat. Any reports or injuries or anything in your neck of the woods?”
“Nope,” Joy said, “can’t say that it rings a bell. Have you tried Springton?”
Gee, no, I didn’t try the town NEXT to Tarker’s Hollow.
“Yes, that was my first call. Working my way out from there. I’ll keep going. Something about it isn’t right.”
“Well, just keep an eye out for the chicken kidnappers while you’re at it
, will you?” Joy chortled, hanging up.
Grace set the phone back on the receiver and went to cross Lower Providence off her list.
When she looked down at the paper she nearly jumped with surprise.
There, in the margin of her list, sat a hastily scrawled note.
A note that had not been there before.
The ink matched the pen in Grace’s hand.
But it wasn’t written in Grace’s neat handwriting.
The Rustic Kitchen - 9:30pm
The Rustic Kitchen was an old Victorian house that had been converted into a restaurant years ago. It also sold knicknacks and desserts, and was beloved by children and the blue haired set. Last Christmas Eve it had burned in an electrical fire, just after the owners had prepared two hundred dinners to donate to the homeless. Now the burnt-out shell was on the market.
Who would meet there?
And where did this message come from?
Grace looked down at the belt in her hand and up at the big clock over the station door.
9:14 PM.
She could make it to the meeting if she hustled.
Chapter 20
Erik tried desperately to pull his thoughts from Ainsley as he marched back to his house.
But tugging his mind outward only drew his attention to the other love of his life.
The sandstone sidewalks of Tarker’s Hollow absorbed the beat of his footsteps without complaint. Red and yellow leaves skidded across the quiet street, turning gray out of the circles of the street lamps, each of which illuminated the house of a friend. The tree canopy rustled above, filtering the moonlight over his head.
Erik loved the stone of the houses and the wind worn cedar shake of their upper floors. Waxy leafed rhododendrons had begun to wilt and retract for the winter, revealing the intricate gingerbread woodwork of the porches.
There was no place in the world like Tarker’s Hollow. And Erik was about to leave it forever.
He turned right onto Yale and walked through the small town center, passing the hardware store one last time. Of course he wasn’t really going to call MacGregor. He already knew there was no workaround.