by Godiva Glenn
Giving himself a firm squeeze, he explored the carefully tucked away memories of Nancy and her amazing body. He could hear her moans and the gentle laugh she had when she was aroused but shy about it. He usually hated shy, but he loved it in her.
What he wouldn’t give to have her with him right now. It was strange to reflect on his earlier hesitance of his feelings for her. It was easier to believe it was madness—his wolf too far from home—that had caused him to desire a human. Now he was deep in the woods, surrounded by the spirits of the ancestors, and he still craved her.
His hand stroked up and down, smooth motions to accompany the thought of her riding him. He could picture her pink cheeks and parted lips. Her dark eyes and the delicate scrunch of her brows. Precious when she was concentrating.
Moisture wept from his tip, slicking his hand. His fantasy was a gentle one, but as his hand worked up and down and faster, the image in his mind changed. Nancy was surprisingly wild in bed. He knew he could love her slow and tender or fast and dirty. Right now, his body wanted dirty.
His skin hummed with the shared hunger of his wolf. A recurring dream of Nancy on all fours, minus the sleazy hotel and creaky bed. Instead, they were outside, sweating their lust out under a milky moon. And he, free of his human guise, entered her in his true state. Dug claws into her perfect skin and held her tight as she fell apart from pleasure.
The thought of knotting in her, filling her to the brim… he grit his teeth.
“Wyatt?” Damon’s voice shattered the forest scene. A swift banging echoed through the room, the sound of a fist on his front door.
“Fucking hell,” Wyatt growled to himself. Lifting his voice, he called, “Just a fucking minute!”
He jumped from the bed and pulled on a pair of sweats. His erection ached and stood at attention, undisturbed by unwelcome company. Come on. He grabbed a nearby shirt and yanked it on then jogged in place for a few seconds, willing his blood flow to redistribute. It did, but it felt like his sac had been slapped a few times.
He pulled the door open. “What’s up?”
Damon looked him over with a look of amusement. Then again, Damon always looked amused. He was a cocky bastard with a heart of gold.
“It’s late,” Wyatt said.
“You’re up, though,” Damon said.
“Ser—”
“We’ve got a human lost in the woods. Reid thinks you should handle it.”
Wyatt looked over Damon’s head, scanning the trees. “Why me?”
Damon crossed his arms. “You, because that’s what the alpha wants. You just spent a ton of time with them. A little more won’t hurt. You’ll gain some empathy yet.”
“Fine.” Wyatt wanted to argue, mainly so he could return to the task at hand, but Reid’s request wasn’t something to ignore. Something to ignore, however, was Damon’s snide remark.
It wasn’t a secret that Wyatt was generally anti-human involvement. Obviously, that had changed, but whatever.
“Where, then?”
“East off the Stetson trail, close to that spot with the surplus of squirrels. Doesn’t seem to be the typical hiker.”
Wyatt nodded. “I’ll go.”
Damon stepped back and seemed ready to say something else, but nothing came. He turned and left, leaving Wyatt to his own jumbled thoughts.
The pack didn’t like having humans stumble onto the territory. They didn’t need snoopers or curious hikers with cameras.
Wyatt grabbed a hoodie and took off. The cool air quickly dispelled the remainder of his lingering arousal, clearing his head. After he’d steered the intruder back to town, maybe he’d let his wolf run free. Letting go and running wild worked almost as well as jerking off when it came to taming his extra energy as of late.
The leaves crunched under his shoes as he tore through the dark shadowed forest. The spot Damon had mentioned was only ten minutes away at the current pace. He’d slow before he got too close, of course. No sense in scaring whoever it was with the sight a man sprinting at break-neck speeds at night.
Taking the crisp wind deep into his lungs, Wyatt drifted into autopilot. Arms and legs pumping and propelling him forward through trees he could dodge with his eyes closed. It was nice to be home. He could appreciate it more now that he’d been away for so long.
The minutes flew by, each breath and step refreshing him. He felt alive. He leaped over a narrow creek bed, dry this time of year, and took a glance at the sky. The moon seemed brighter tonight somehow. The usual whisper of magic that the ancestors left on the land seemed louder, too.
Ahead a fallen tree leaned across his path. The sight of it meant it was time for him to slow down and stop kicking up dirt for the world to hear. He adjusted his pace to a safe jog and took a deep breath. At first, there was nothing. Squirrels—as Damon had pointed out—but little else. His foot kicked something small that didn’t feel like a rock and pausing to look down, he discovered a mostly destroyed corn cob. He rolled his eyes and scented the woods again. Charlotte. Possibly the only lupine ever to think there was a need to feed the wildlife.
He continued forward, searching with eyes and nose and ears. The dark was nothing to him, nor was the mystery of not knowing exactly where the person was. His heightened senses would catch them in time, and hoped it wasn’t a hunter scented with urine—he hated that.
The trail veered towards a clearing, but he’d finally caught a scent that gave him pause. It wasn’t following the trail, not exactly. Whoever was here spent plenty of time retracing their steps.
Scanning the area, a distant snap caught his ears. He turned and headed to the source, the scent growing stronger.
He wanted to deny what his nose was telling him, but his blood was already alert. He needed to see who his intruder was. His legs moved faster than he aimed to. Gone was his steady pace, replaced with a desperate frenzy.
The chill in the air had hidden the light fragrance, transformed it, almost. But it was there. Sharp and sweet and clean. His wolf ran with him, large paws banging his skin as if he would move faster that way. A low, eager whimper sounded and rattled his mind. His wolf was acting up in a way it rarely, if ever, did.
A lone figure had paused in his path, stood and simply stared. He fought the urge to wipe his eyes because even if this were an apparition, he wanted it to stay. Moonlight glowed on the thin strips of reflective silver of her black jacket and she shivered.
“Wyatt? Is that you?” Nancy asked.
FOURTEEN
Wyatt took in Nancy’s searching expression, realizing that in the dark he could see her clearly, but she likely saw only a shadow, if anything.
“It’s me. What are you doing wandering in the dark?” he asked.
She released a frustrated sputter while stomping back to the trail. “My flashlight died. Don’t change the subject.”
“Change the—”
“Are you alone? Is anyone else hiding in the shadows?” She peered into the darkness in vain.
“I’m alone—”
“I’m not the slapping type but I really want to slap you,” she said, her voice shrill. “I can’t believe you. You know for the first few days I wondered if I had imagined it all? At least I did when I wasn’t hoping you’d come back. And when I realized that was it, you were gone… I absolutely hated you!”
His hands moved out to hold and calm her, but they froze in the air as if kept away by an invisible force. He didn’t have the right to touch her. Dropping his arms to his sides, he met her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Of course you’re sorry. It’s not like I expect you to be proud of yourself!”
“I mean…” What was there to say?
She clasped her hands and blew on them for a moment, either to calm herself or to attempt to warm them, he wasn’t sure. Her entire body shook.
“I never wanted to hurt you.”
Her head tilted up to the sky and she laughed. From the tight corners of her closed eyes, tears glistened. “I know. And maybe that pisse
s me off the most,” she said, her voice coming down from its high octave. “I can understand why you left. At least… the reasons you gave, I get it.”
“But you’re here.”
“Because you broke my heart, and I don’t care if your reasons make sense. I’m here even though I’ve never been camping, never even taken a stroll in the woods, for that matter,” she said. “You didn’t stick around long enough for me to process any of it, but I have spent the last month thinking about it.”
He moved closer to her. “Time doesn’t change the situation,” he reasoned. “I’ve missed you more than you probably imagine, but that’s not enough.”
“The hardest part of everything is your job, Wyatt. But Damon and Charlotte make it work. We can too.” She took hold of the front of his shirt. “I know you think I’m throwing away something to be here, but I’m not. I don’t think this life will be so horrible.”
He covered her hands with his, surprised at how cold they were. Squeezing them, he had to admit he was nearly convinced. Standing his ground felt hollow. Even his wolf had come forward, drawn to her.
“We can’t be the first couple like this,” she said.
“No. But there’s nothing to say. Usually, it’s female lupine who run off with men, but I’ve never known anyone involved. It’s stories. Vague commentary passed down…”
“But it’s not… illegal or whatever?”
He shook his head. “It’s not sensible. Part of the lupine way of life is to continue on. To have children. We couldn’t do that.”
“You’re enough for me.”
“You sound so certain,” he scoffed. “But you’re human. Can’t you guess that lupine mate for life? We may court a few before finding our true mate, but it’s not like dating and it’s certainly not like what humans do. What happens if you tire of things after a year?”
“In your mind, if we start, we can’t stop?” She rolled her eyes. “Not that I plan on leaving, but so what? If things don’t work out, they don’t work out. It’s not the end of the world.”
“Except that you’d have even more information on my kind, and if things end badly, perhaps motivation to use that information against me. Against all of us.”
“That would never happen. And besides… how do you think I’m here?”
It was such an obvious question. “How are you here?”
“Mija told me where to find you.”
“Then she knows?”
“About us? Probably. I didn’t say it exactly, but let’s be honest. Why else would I be relentlessly harassing her about visiting?”
The information tumbled through his mind. If Mija knew, Charlotte knew. And Damon… Wyatt got the feeling that Reid hadn’t asked Damon to handle anything. “It’s not a coincidence I came across you.”
“Maybe? Mija told me right now wasn’t good because she was going to be away, but you haven’t been answering your phone and I got impatient.”
“No service,” he reminded her.
“Yeah. I figured. But my point is… I’m here. It’s no surprise why I’m here. And I doubt Mija would have told me how to get here if it meant trouble.”
The certainty in her voice tore at him, but it was too much of a risk. “I can’t,” he said. “I don’t have the authority to bring you into this life and put everyone else’s well-being at stake. Mija should have known better than. It’s not that I don’t want you, please understand that.”
She looked up at him. “You claimed me, Wyatt. Then you walked away.” Her bottom lip trembled. “You’re stupid, but you’re not unredeemable. You can’t seriously believe that I’d ever try to hurt you, or Mija, or Charlotte, Damon, or any of you. I love you.”
He didn’t think she would turn on the pack. Not really. It was another excuse, thrown out because he wanted her to stay, and somehow, he felt that getting what he wanted was a foolish dream.
The more Wyatt tried to cave and accept the possibility, the more he saw the layers of the ravine between him. She would give up her life in the outside world. He would give up his expectations in a mate.
The part of him that was too proud to love a human had died, but that wasn’t the only reason for him to want to love a lupine. He could never bond with Nancy. With no wolf, they’d never have an official mating. Their union couldn’t be blessed by the ancestors.
And perhaps it was petty, but he’d have to always suppress his lupine form around her. She couldn’t handle claws and fangs, much less the other aspects of being with his primal body.
“I’m going to walk you back to town,” he said. His hope had extinguished, and his voice sounded empty, even to him. “I assume you’re staying at the inn?”
She stepped back, and the wind blew between them, bringing back the chill of night. “Wyatt…”
“I’m going to walk you back to town.”
* * * *
Wyatt walked a silent Nancy back to the road at the edge of town. She had parked along the side of the road, unable to make it through the terrain. Another way the pack kept the land to themselves. There were hidden paths traversable by truck, but her small, sensible sedan wouldn’t get far on them.
As they hit the edge of the trees, he saw her car right at the head of the unmarked trail-head she’d followed to find him. Seeing her car made memories flood him. When he’d first met Nancy, she didn’t drive. Her ex didn’t want her to, and besides, she was used to small towns where walking was easy and normal.
It should have been a sign when she bought the car. She was preparing to move on. A bigger city, he assumed. Like she said, a new start.
But a life with him wasn’t the new start she deserved. Still, he’d been surprised that she’d given up, but maybe a taste of being lost in the woods was enough to cement the fact that she wasn’t prepared to give up a normal human life.
“I can ride back to the inn with you if you don’t remember the way,” he said as they neared her vehicle.
She sighed and her hand dug in her pocket. “I won’t get lost. It’s like one road.” Pulling out her keys, she released a frustrated grunt. “This is ridiculous.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want to hear that!”
Her keys fell to the ground, but she didn’t pick them up. Instead, she turned and hugged him. The surprise knocked the wind from his lungs, and she squeezed her arms around him while she burrowed her face against his chest.
“If you send me away, it means I was foolish and crazy to have come here,” she said, words muffled. “I settled everything back home and dropped the charges to avoid having to revisit that nightmare in court. All because I knew that if I found you, that would all be behind me.”
“I don’t understand—”
“I don’t either!” She pulled her face back and looked up at him. There was a fierceness in her eyes that he wasn’t used to. “Sometimes when I touch you, you get warmer or… I can’t explain it. It’s like a subtle tingling where my skin hits yours. And I’ve been thinking. Is that your wolf?”
He was taken aback by her words. He had no idea if she was right, but what if she was? He’d never heard of humans being able to sense anything.
He rubbed his thumb along her jaw. “Do you feel anything?”
She shook her head.
His wolf stirred from the shadows of his mind and wandered forward. He licked at the air.
“There,” she whispered.
Had lupine just made that assumption, never having tested it? Or maybe Nancy was more sensitive than most. Either way, it wasn’t something he knew how to process. “I don’t think you’re supposed to be able to tell.”
“But I can. So, I’m right.”
“Yeah.”
“What does he want? Does he want me to go, too, because I don’t have a wolf of my own?” She searched his face. “You said his thoughts are purer. I assume you mean simpler. Then what does he think of me?”
The truth tugged at his heart. His wolf had chosen Nancy before Wyatt had the sense t
o stop seeing her as just another human. Case in point, his wolf was whining in his ears at this very moment, wanting to be heard.
“It’s more complicated than that,” he said dropping his hand and taking a step back.
“I see,” she said softly. She bent down and scooped up her keys. The moon reflected and glittered on the hint of tears trapped in her eyelashes, and she sniffed as she nodded to herself. “Room 109. I’m there for two days. After that, I’m gone. I think maybe you need to talk with your wolf some more because I know exactly what I want and need.”
“I don’t see how we—”
“I’m not lupine, but I can do commitment. And more importantly, I’ve put my heart out there. I took a leap of faith.” She pointed to her car and the headlights flashed. “You’re saying goodbye, but it feels empty. I don’t know what is holding you back, but it’s not the excuses you’ve given so far.”
FIFTEEN
By the time Wyatt made it back to his place, he was ready to have a beer or fifty and pass out. Unfortunately, Damon was sitting at the table outside, and by the look on his face, he wanted to talk.
“Where’s Nancy?” Damon asked the moment Wyatt reached the table.
Wyatt sat down and glanced back into the shadows he’d come from. “Don’t worry. I sent her away.”
“Why the fuck’d you do that?”
“What?” Wyatt turned his head sharply to look at Damon.
“She came all this way and you decided to be a dick?” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “Unbelievable.”
“Unbelievable? She’s a human. She can’t be around the pack. You know that. Rules are rules.”
Damon arched a brow. “The rules, sure. All that says is you need permission to bring her in. Permission that you should be out getting right now instead of starting a pity party.”
Wyatt rested his forearms on the table and stared down at the wood grain. “It doesn’t concern you.” He didn’t understand Damon’s interest whatsoever. Sure, Damon always had a soft spot for humans, but being friends was one thing. Anything more… “And thanks for sending me out to get ambushed.”