Firefighter Wolves Shifters (A Paranormal Romance Series Boxset)

by Brittany White

  He hesitated for a second, and judging by the look on his face, this was not something he was very keen to talk about. She almost told him to forget it, but if they were going to make some sort of relationship between them work, he needed to know that he could talk to her about what was bothering him.

  He came and sat beside her, turning so that he could look at her. “Do you not want me to stay here with you?”

  “No, that isn’t what this is about. You are more than welcome to stay with me as long as you need to, but there is something going on at home, isn’t there?”

  “Yes,” he sighed and she could see his shoulders sag for a second. “Do you remember that guy you saw watching us after our date?”

  “Yes. His name was Tyler wasn't it?” He nodded and she tried to remember what Josh had told him about her when she’d seen him staring at them when they’d left the restaurant after their first date. “You said he was being a pain in the ass. What exactly does that mean?”

  “Tyler has a sister named Eloise. We all grew up together and have been friends for years. What I didn’t realize was that Eloise’s feelings for me went beyond friendship. It was brought to my attention not too long ago.”

  Harper absorbed what he was saying. She wasn’t surprised that another woman found him more attractive and she wondered if she had competition for his affection. But the fact that he was here with her told her that she didn’t need to worry about him wanting another woman. She reached out and took his hand. He clasped it as he looked at her.

  “What happened?”

  “Eloise saw us walking together on your first day back in town. She must have taken it as a sign that she finally needed to speak up about her feelings.” He took her hand and brought it up to his lips. “I didn’t do anything to encourage her. I swear that I had no clue how she felt about me. I did my best to let her down easy, to make her see that I wasn’t the right man for her. But she didn’t take it all that well.”

  She knew Josh well enough to know that he wouldn’t have deliberately hurt Eloise when he rejected her, but if Eloise was half as attracted to him as she was, she also knew that it would hurt if he didn’t feel the same way.

  “And Tyler is mad because you rejected his sister?” Perhaps his friend had had hopes that Josh would get together with his sister, and when Josh had turned him down, it had angered him.

  “That’s part of it.” Josh looked down for a second and she wondered if he was going to say any more. “Eloise left the compound shortly after it happened. I think it was too painful for her to see me all the time knowing that what she had hoped for would never come about. I don’t know.”

  There seemed to be more to the story than what he was telling her, and she wondered what it was.

  “Surely Tyler doesn’t think it’s your fault that his sister needed some time away to come to terms with the fact that you aren’t interested in anything with her. I would think he would be glad that you were honest with her and gave her the chance to move on and find a relationship that was better for her.”

  Josh gave a bitter laugh. “You’d think that, but you’d be wrong. Things have gotten complicated. Eloise has been out of contact with everyone and Tyler blames me. He has made it clear that if anything has happened to her that it is my fault. And he hasn’t exactly been subtle in his anger. If I stay at Shadowbrook I know that I would end up getting into a fight with him, and that is the last thing I want. Despite what Tyler thinks, he’s still my friend and I don’t want that friendship to be destroyed by the time that Eloise comes back.”

  No wonder he wanted to avoid his home for the time being. And she was happy to have him here. But since he seemed to be open to talking to her, she remembered what she’d overheard at the bookstore. Maybe he would be able to shed some light on what she’d overheard. There was still a nagging curiosity inside her about the talk of a blood feud.

  “Who are the Canergies?” She watched him carefully and his eyes went quickly to hers.

  “Where did you hear that name?” Was it her imagination or did his skin go a few shades paler?

  “I overheard a couple of ladies from town saying it. They said something about a blood feud that happened a hundred years ago. I just wondered if you knew a little bit about the history of the house.”

  He withdrew from her and she stared at him. “It was a long time ago. Ancient history in fact.”

  “Are you sure? They seemed to think it had something to do with your shooting.” She watched him carefully as he turned away from her. Something was going on. His whole demeanor changed and she couldn’t understand why. “Is there something going on that you aren’t telling me?”

  Was there some truth to what those ladies had spoken of? Was there still a danger to him, one that he was reluctant to tell her about? How else could she explain why he was acting the way he was now?

  “Josh, talk to me.” She stood up and went to stand behind him. She put her hand on his arm and he turned toward her with a smile on his face. One definitely looked forced.

  35

  Josh

  How was he going to avoid this conversation? When she’d first mentioned the Canergies it was the last thing he expected to come out of her mouth. So far she was ignorant about the true reason he’d been shot, and he aimed to keep it that way. At least until he found a way to tell her about his true nature.

  But what he needed to focus on now was finding a way to steer the conversation away from the subject she was currently on for fear that she would delve too deep inside it and find out something he was not ready to share with her.

  “The so-called blood feud is an old rumor that has been circulating throughout town for decades. There is little truth to it.” He hoped that he would forgive him for the smooth lie that spilled forth from his lips if she ever learned the truth. “And as far as my being shot, the police still haven’t found out who did it, and until they do we’ll never really know the cause. They aren’t even sure if I was a target or if it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  She looked at him with big eyes when he stepped toward her. “I’ve been so worried that something like that would happen to you again.”

  “Well, you don’t need to worry. I’m not in any more danger than any other innocent person.” God he was going to go to hell for the lies that were spilling out of his mouth. But how could he tell her that he was shot because he was a werewolf and that an old enemy had targeted him to get him and his wolf pack out of their ancient home? It would be a hard sell for anyone to believe, and since he had not yet prepared her to reveal his true nature to her, he was certain that it would drive her away. She would be sure to think he was crazy.

  He put his arms around her waist and pulled her to him. She put her hands up to his chest to keep him from leaning into her.

  “Are you sure there isn’t a danger to you?” The concern and fear he read in her eyes touched him and he found that he didn’t want to talk about this anymore. They were here, they were safe and together and he wanted her. Taking her to bed that first time had given him an appetite for her that showed no signs of abating.

  “I’m sure, I promise.” Her resistance to him relaxed a little as the ever-present desire between them wove its spell over them and he leaned in to kiss her softly on the mouth. “Don’t you think that we could find something better to do other than talk. I’ve been away from you for the past twenty-four hours and I’m hungry.”

  She slid her hands up his chest and put them around his neck. “Well, then I suppose we have to do something about that.”

  He quickly squashed the nagging bit of guilt over his deception as he swept her up into his arms. There would be a time when he needed to come clean with her when he needed to show her what he truly was, but that time was not tonight. Things were still too new between them and until he was sure that she would accept him for what he was, he would keep his true nature to himself.

  He carried her toward the bedroom and shivered when s
he nuzzled her lips against his neck. “I miss being in your arms on the nights you are away from me.”

  “It’s the same for me.” He loved his job, he loved feeling like he was helping out his community, but the long shifts away from her felt much longer than they used to before she came into his life. “All the more reason for us to not waste any more time talking.”

  He set her on her feet and quickly stripped off his uniform. She gave him a smile that promised untold pleasures and pushed him so that he fell back on the bed. He leaned up on one elbow as he watched her slowly bare her body before his fevered gaze. He wanted her so much, needed to feel her pressed close to him, but he held himself back. He enjoyed her teasing of him and he wanted to see what she had planned for him next.

  Once her clothes were pooled on the floor, she walked slowly toward the bed with her hips swaying in a seductive rhythm and her long, blonde hair tumbling around her shoulders. He didn’t think he would ever get tired of seeing her like this.

  The bed dipped as she joined him and he reached for him. She knelt beside him on the bed and took hold of his wrists before he could touch her skin. She placed them on either side of his head. “Leave them there.”

  He was helpless to anything by obey her whispered command. His body felt like it was on fire with his arousal and he couldn't remember ever being this hard before in his life. She seemed intent on bringing his body to a fever pitch of desire as she leaned forward, bringing her lips to his. She kissed him with a passion that was electric and sent a longing to bury himself deep inside her slamming through his body.

  He held back the urge to grab her, flip her on her back onto the mattress and bury his body deep inside her. She wanted to take the lead and he was so turned on by it that he wasn’t going to stop her no matter how torturous it was.

  Her hair brushed against his skin as she moved her lips and tongue over the muscles of his chest. Her tongue circled the flat coin of nipple and a shiver traced itself down his body, arrowing straight to his groin. God, he didn't know how much more of this he could take until she touched him where he needed her touch the most.

  She must have realized that he was hanging by a thread because she looked up at him and the smile she gave him was one made of pure feminine wickedness. He squeezed his eyes shut as she lowered her mouth back down onto his skin and followed a path straight down his abdomen until she came to his erect cock.

  He let out a groan of excitement when she held on to him, and when she took him into her mouth he moaned with pure pleasure. He fought to hold himself still, to keep himself from pushing himself deep into her mouth. She was the driver of this encounter and he would let her set the pace.

  She loved him with her mouth until he knew that he could take no more. He finally reached for her, grasping her arms and pulling her on top of him. She knew what he needed, and judging by the slickness of her body as she straddled him and took him deep inside her it was what she needed to.

  She rode him, rode him slowly, torturously, until his body was clamoring for release. He couldn't hold himself back from her, and she grasped her to him and flipped her over onto her back. Her eyes were alight with excitement as he drove himself into her, again and again. He wanted to drive from her mind any man she’d ever been with so that when she thought about sex, he would be the only man that she would think about.

  Her body coiled beneath him in her orgasm and the squeezing of her flesh surrounding him send him over the edge. He shuddered as he spilled his seed inside her and fell against her body. They clung to each other deep in the night, and as he finally rolled to his side and held her, he didn’t think it was possible to have a more perfect moment than the one they were in right now.

  36

  Harper

  Harper glanced at the man standing beside her and was shocked to see it was Jack. This wasn't right, Jack was dead, had been gone for four years. Why was she seeing him now?

  “What’s wrong?” It wasn’t Jack’s voice that came out of the man’s mouth, but Josh’s. His face morphed and it was Josh standing beside her. They were leaving the bookstore opening, were walking toward the park. A feeling of dread curled inside her but she couldn't do anything to prevent the event that she knew was coming from unfolding.

  He took her arm and led her to the park. She wanted to stop, to turn around and go back to the safety of the crowd at the bookstore, but she couldn't seem to make her feet obey. There were in the park, Josh was talking to her but she couldn't hear what she was saying. A flash of light exploded in the night and the sound of a roaring was the only sound she could hear.

  Josh cried out and crumpled to the ground beside her. Blood bloomed on his shirt and she frantically put her hands on it.

  “We need to get out of here.” She tried to lift him but he was too heavy. “Oh God, help me. Someone please help me.”

  The night was silent around her as she felt the warmth of his blood under her hand. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t how it happened.

  She tried to get him to move, but he wouldn’t budge. She looked into his eyes, which stared up at her and her heart pounded inside her.

  “No, you live through this, I know you do.” But no matter what she did she couldn’t get him to move and she watched in horror as if it was happening to another person when she saw the light of his life slip from his eyes.

  With a gasp, Harper’s eyes flew open and at first she was confused about why she was laying in bed with a warm male body beside her. The dream had been so vivid as she hung there somewhere between sleep and wakefulness that she was shocked that Josh was alive and whole next to her in bed.

  She slowly sat up, and her eyes roved over him. Her heart rate slowed as her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she saw the even rise and fall of his chest with each breath he took. A tightness banded around her chest and made it difficult to breathe. She wanted to shake him awake, to make sure that he really was alive, but she stopped her hand when it was halfway toward him.

  He’d already told her that he wasn’t in any danger, and she desperately wanted to believe him. He would think she was silly for being so paranoid. But she needed to get out of this room, to get some air so she could breathe. The dream had been so vivid that she’d still felt the lingering pain that had been inside her when she’d watched him die while she’d been sleeping.

  Not wanting to disturb him, and knowing that she would not be able to go back to sleep unless she did something about the restless energy that was bouncing around inside her, she quietly slipped out of the bed. She froze when he made a noise and rolled over. The fear inside her was her problem, not his and she would not burden him with it. She would get over the dream, she just needed to get some air and clear her head.

  She quickly pulled on the clothes that she’d been wearing earlier and slipped from the bedroom. Moving on autopilot, she slipped on her coat and boots and quietly left the apartment. A walk to clear her head was what she needed.

  The town of Lenox was sleeping quietly around her as she forced herself to remember the dream. When the shooting had first happened, she’d relived it in her sleep for weeks after. But since she’d come back to town and seen Josh alive and healthy, her sleep had been untroubled by the event that had terrified her so much. So why was she dreaming about this now?

  Had some of the anxiety over her growing closer to Josh been the cause of it? Ever since they’d first slept together, she had felt herself growing closer to him. She couldn’t imagine what her life had been like without him. She suspected that she was starting to fall in love with him. Was that feeling of vulnerability the reason that her mind had decided to show her, her worst fears when it had replayed the events of that night, but had changed the outcome?

  She knew that she’d never really dealt properly with Jack’s death, she had gone through the motions of living, burying herself in her work to avoid dealing with the pain of it. Was this her mind's way of showing her that what she feared the most had not happened, and it was now time to l
et go of her fear that she would lose Josh too?

  She didn’t have the answer, and she realized that she’d been so lost in thought that she’d walked a lot further than she had planned to. She was on the dirt road that led to the Shadowbrook Estate. Had she been so troubled that her body had automatically pointed her in the direction of Lana so she could talk it over with her?

  It was the middle of the night and there was no way she would be welcome at Shadowbrook at this time of night. She stopped in the middle of the track as she looked around. The trees on either side of the road were thick, blotting out a lot of the light from the moon. She shivered as the world surrounding her took on an ominous tone. She needed to get back to the apartment.

  She was about to turn around and go back in the direction that she’d come from when a low growling sound came to her. A wave of cold washed over her body as she froze in place. Her heart slammed against her ribs as she swallowed hard. She needed to get out of here before whatever had made that sound decided to show itself.

  She was in the process of spinning around when a gray streak came flying out of the woods. A scream ripped itself from her throat the biggest wolf she’d ever seen came out of the woods and directly into her path.

  Its fur was standing up, its hackles were raised as its lip curled back to reveals its vicious-looking teeth. She froze in place as terror paralyzed every muscle in her body. The wolf stalked toward her, as if it was intent on making her its next meal and she found that she couldn’t make herself move as it growled at her.

  37

  Josh

  Josh stepped out of the woods and moved so that he was standing in front of Harper. He’d woken almost immediately after she’d walked out of the bedroom. Something had disturbed her and when he’d heard her leave the apartment he knew that he couldn’t let her wander the night alone. He’d followed her at a safe distance, not wanting to stop her from working through whatever had driven her from the apartment in the middle of the night, but he’d wanted to make sure she was safe. He was glad that he’d given in to the instinct to keep an eye on her. Who knew what Tyler had planned when he’d come running out of the woods. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good if his threatening posture was anything to go by.