“You’re coming to me instead of Abbott because you don’t want him biting your girl?”
“Yes. Will you do it? I don’t want her to know you bit her, so you’ll have to wipe her memory of it. I can pay with cash. How much will you charge?”
“Abbott’s minimum to oversee the oath is five grand. Your club’s on good terms with us, so we’ll go with the minimum and I won’t charge extra for binding her enough to track her. If you need me to find her, it’ll be ten thousand a night plus expenses, which you have to know are expensive for my kind. We can’t just stay in any hotel. If I can’t get away, I can send another vampire and let them tap into the binding. The nightly cost will probably be less, but could be more, depending upon who’s available.”
“Fair enough. I’d like to do it tomorrow night. Do you have a problem pretending you’re blind and walking my wolf in under the pretense of a seeing-eye dog? I’ll get Harmony or Sophia to come with us as well. She knows them.”
“What time?”
“Sunset’s around seven thirty, so maybe an hour later? Assuming she’s in her dorm.”
“Dorm?”
“A high-dollar one that’s closer to an apartment. There’s a shared living room and kitchen, and they both have their own bedroom. I’ll make sure Freckles is at the clubhouse.”
Iris wasn’t sure why Harmony wanted to stop by, but she said it was important. Iris had been kicked out of her last college for having wine in her dorm on top of failing some classes, so she wasn’t risking wine this year, but she wished she had some to offer Harmony. Perhaps she could talk to her father about letting her move into an apartment for the second semester this year.
She opened the door to Harmony, a tall blonde woman, and a huge dog. Huge.
The only animals allowed were fish, but it only took her a few seconds to realize the woman was blind and this was her service dog.
The two breezed in, and Harmony said, “This is Kendra, and everything will make sense in a few minutes. I hope.”
“Her dog looks more like a wolf. What’s his name?”
“That’s kind of complicated. Sit and read this. I’m going to lock the door.”
Iris opened the folded piece of paper. Her name was handwritten at the top, but the rest was typed, and instead of a signature, someone had penned a handwritten D.
* * *
Iris,
* * *
I wasn’t allowed to tell you a big secret about me when I was a teenager, and you haven’t met all of the qualifications for me to share it with you now, but I’m breaking some rules to do it anyway, because I need to be honest with you.
My family lives where they do because of the forest behind them. You see, we’re werewolves. We shift from human to wolf on the full moon, and any other time we want to. My family members spend more time as a wolf than a human, but I was always more interested in being a human. I still am.
I’m not a danger to you. Once you’ve read this, I’ll shift so you can see me. Please don’t freak out.
* * *
D
* * *
Iris looked up, met Harmony’s gaze, then the blonde woman’s, and then looked at the wolf.
“That can’t be Danny.”
Someone had taken the harness off him while she read, and now, the wolf changed before her eyes. Not changed. Morphed. He was a wolf, and then he just kind of shifted and rearranged until he was a very naked Danny, standing on two legs and grinning.
“You need clothes.”
Okay, so it was a stupid reaction, but she was sitting and he was standing, and his dick was right there, and it was the only sentence she could put together.
He looked at Harmony, and she pulled some cut off joggers from her purse. He stepped into them without taking his eyes off her.
“You’re speechless. First time for everything.”
Panic hit and she could barely breathe. “I don’t know if daddy has cameras in here. He might see.”
“Harmony has a jammer in her purse. She turned it on before we got started. Nothing will work within twenty yards of it.” He shrugged. “The wolf can usually hear them, though. It’s subtle, but he can pick up on the transmission from camera to router. Nothing popped for him.”
“Werewolves aren’t… this can’t… fuck. I’m not high and you’re here and the wolf isn’t.”
She looked back at the paper, read it again, and looked back up. “So, you were born a werewolf? Not bitten and turned into one?”
He sat, and she motioned to the women. “I’m sorry, where are my manners. Please, have a seat.”
“Quite all right,” said Kendra. “You’re handling it better than most humans.”
“Humans. So, the two of you are werewolves, too?”
“I was bitten, not born,” said Harmony. “We’ll get to what Kendra is in a minute. Ask Mac your questions.”
She looked back to Danny. “I don’t know what to ask. You could understand me, when you were a wolf? I mean, you let them put the harness on you, so I assume that means you have control, right?”
“Yes. My parents would’ve never let me go to boarding school if I hadn’t had perfect control. It’s why my family got me out so much though. You always wondered why they came to get me out so often. If they only checked me out on the full moon every month, it might’ve been obvious, so they picked me up in the evening and brought me back in time for classes the next morning two or three times a month.”
“Is that why your skin’s so hot? And why you eat so much?”
“Yes.”
She looked to Kendra. “You’re the reason he can tell me early, right?”
“I like you. This next bit’s a little easier to swallow if you figure it out for yourself. If werewolves exist, what else would you expect might not be a myth?”
“Vampires? Surely not.”
Kendra smiled. “Got it in one.”
Something wasn’t right. The room suddenly took on a different angle, and Iris felt a little lightheaded. She shook her head and the room spun a little, but then she felt better, and wasn’t sure why she’d thought something wasn’t right.
“I’m here because I can make oaths real.” Kendra told her. “I need you to say the words, ‘I won’t share your secrets,’ and think of what you’ve learned about werewolves and vampires when you say it.”
Without even thinking about it, Iris did as Kendra said, and somehow knew it meant she wouldn’t be able to tell anyone, or write it to them, or even hint about it. To show her how it would work, Harmony gave her a pen and asked her to write what Danny was on the back of the paper.
She couldn’t do it. Her hand wouldn’t even write the entire D — just the first vertical line and then the very top arc of the curve, but no more.
“And that’s my part of the evening,” Kendra said. “Harmony and I will sit out here and keep each other company while you and McGyver go into your bedroom to talk. I’ll have to harness him back up to get him out of here as my service animal.”
She let Danny take her hand and walk her into her bedroom. She was about to ask how he knew which one was hers when she realized her alarm clock proclaimed it was ten after nine, but they’d arrived at eight forty. No way had it been thirty minutes.
As soon as the thought occurred to her, she realized she was wrong — they’d talked at least that long.
“I followed you online last night.” Danny closed her bedroom door, and she focused on his big shoulders and lithe, carved muscles. So much made sense now, knowing he was a wolf. Instead of being freaked about being in a room alone with a werewolf, she remembered all the times he’d been protective of her, or caught her when she tripped over her own two feet. She recognized the times the wolf had been there, even before she’d known about him. Danny had always seemed to have this coiled power in him, even as a boy.
His voice jolted her back to reality. “It looked like you and your dad had a nice time.”
“We did. I’m hoping I laid the groundwork
so he’ll at least be open to meeting the man you’ve become, at some point.”
“And the rapper got you a lot of followers.”
“He put me in front of his fans, but it’s possible my name got them to follow me.” The daughter of Raisa Sokolov Wendel could get her own followers, but the jumpstart hadn’t hurt. Her following continued to grow — it hadn’t stopped after the gala. “Daddy’s on board with me stepping into the limelight so long as I don’t create any scandals.”
He stroked her cheek and she had to focus to keep from leaning into his hand.
“I know you asked for some time, but I needed to tell you my secret. You have no idea how much it killed me not to be able to tell you before, but the penalty for telling a human without taking proper steps to protect the secret can mean death to the human and anyone he or she tells. I couldn’t risk it.”
His voice caressed her skin and brought her clit to life. She tried to stay focused. “Thanks for doing whatever you had to do so I could know. Coming here like this, and with the jammer, there shouldn’t be a way for my dad to find out, but we have to be careful.”
She couldn’t take her eyes away from the shifting, chiseled muscles of his chest and stomach. Iris fisted her hands at her side to keep from stroking him, from running her fingers through the grooves where muscle met muscle. Who knew her Danny would still have six pack abs? She’d seen them when he’d changed shirts during their bike ride, but she was closer now, and they seemed more defined.
“I know,” he said. “A few more things I need to tell you. I can smell a lie. I can smell emotions, too — fear, anger, arousal. I have really good hearing, which you already figured out.”
Smell emotions. The ramifications didn’t take long to register.
“So, you know I want you.” After he’d had sex with other women, she hadn’t planned to fall all over him. She didn’t want him to know she cared.
“Yeah. The feeling’s mutual.”
Fuck it. He knew she cared, and he was admitting to caring, too. She didn’t know this new McGyver, but the old Danny had told the truth even when it would’ve been easier to lie, and it seemed this new version of him was the same. He didn’t have to tell her about those women, but she knew him well enough to understand his thing about total honesty. The same went with the werewolf thing, he went out of his way to make sure she knew the truth.
She took a breath and gave him her truth. “The fact you weren’t my first has always been one of my biggest regrets. I mean, you gave me my first orgasm, but I wanted you to…” Fuck her. Teach her. Own her.
“I know, and trust me, I’ve regretted saying no a million times over the years, but if I had it to do over again, I’d do the same. You were too young.”
“I’m not too young now, but we can’t do this right now. Let’s brainstorm and figure out how we can either have another full day, or maybe even part of a weekend together.”
“Deal.”
He held her gaze a few seconds, and moved slowly. She didn’t know if he was trying not to startle her, or if he was giving her a chance to stop him. If he’d gone fast, there’s a good chance she’d have stepped away, but the slower he went, the more she wanted him.
She breathed him in. He smelled like her Danny, but she didn’t get anything else. What must it be like to know whether the other person was aroused, or scared, or lying? Had she lied to him? She didn’t think so.
She didn’t want him to treat her with caution.
“I’m not afraid of you.”
“Not now. You were a few times, before. Eventually, you’ll tell me why.”
His hand touched her cheek, his finger skated under her ear, and he held the back of her head.
She’d asked for time, but she didn’t want it. She wanted Danny to throw her on the bed and take her, but she also knew she’d freak if he did. She hadn’t had sex in a year. Not since…
Iris blanked her last visit to Monte Carlo out of her memory. She was never going back, and she was never even speaking to anyone with royal blood again.
She hadn’t even realized she’d closed her eyes, and when she opened them and saw Danny looking at her with concern, she realized he’d sensed something wrong and backed off. No, that wouldn’t do.
“Just kiss me already and stop teasing!”
He grinned. “Still bossy.”
And then there were no more thoughts, there was only Danny’s mouth on hers, his lips spreading her mouth open, his tongue tangling with hers, because Iris kissed him back with everything she had. This kiss was yet another claiming, but it wasn’t just Danny kissing and claiming her, because Iris stamped her claim right back. It was two souls coming together, their bodies the vehicles to make it happen.
Danny slid his hand down her body with a caress that threatened to make her shiver. He pulled her closer, and his warmer-than-human body heat was a seductive comfort. His hands skated over her skin. Her thighs clenched. Her already tightened nipples drew up even more.
She didn’t throw her leg around his waist this time, but her hands roamed bare skin, explored muscles and crevices, and drank him in. His kiss, his hands, his touch — Danny stripped her bare and shattered every defense, but only because she let him. This was her Danny, and she was never letting him go again.
When the kiss was finally over, she was almost too breathless to speak, but she opened her eyes and pulled air into her lungs to tell him, “You’re mine. No more meaningless fucks. Got it?”
He closed his eyes a brief second, but opened them and she saw his agreement before the nod.
“Yeah. My wolf is still pissed at me for last week. Not sure he’d let me again even if I tried. I’m yours, you’re mine. Lots to figure out, but…” he touched his forehead to hers. “You’re my Blueberry, and someday you’ll tell me who hurt you so I can hurt them back. Until then, you’ll let your security team and me keep you safe.”
Chapter 12
Iris had no idea why she was so nervous.
On second thought, she knew exactly why she couldn’t breathe. She was going to be alone with Danny for an entire fucking weekend.
Her father knew she’d made friends with the woman who owned the stables, and he knew the two of them were going to a spa resort for the weekend.
What he didn’t know, however, was that Brain and Danny would be going as well, and that they’d split off into couples once they arrived.
Iris packed Thursday night and loaded her car before classes the following morning, so she drove straight to Harmony’s place after her last class Friday. The two of them were getting mani-pedis and a massage shortly after check-in, and would catch up with their men later. Brain and Harmony had reserved a regular room with a balcony in the main building, but Iris and Danny would be in a cabin on the grounds. A security team of four was going with her, so they could cover her in teams of two, in two shifts. Kenny, the team leader, was coming on this trip, and she felt safer when he was watching her.
Iris pulled into Harmony’s driveway, opened her door to the chill, dry air, and breathed in the smell of the horses. Someday, if she ever grew up enough to settle down and get a house, she wanted to have that smell at her house. Not this many horses, but enough for her and her husband to ride. And maybe even kids, eventually.
But that was a long ways away, and may never happen.
“Thanks again for offering to go with us,” she told Harmony when she was let into the house. “My dad would’ve asked a million questions if I’d said I was going to a spa by myself for the weekend.”
“Having to spend a weekend being pampered is hard work, but I think I can handle the sacrifice,” Harmony said with a smile. “I’m just getting the paraffin dip for my hands, though. I called ahead and arranged it. I don’t like people messing with my fingernails. We’ll be able to sit and chat while they do our toes, though.”
“Oh. Okay. The dip is a little heavenly, too, and it makes your skin so freaking soft. This resort has great reviews, so hopefully they’ll app
ropriately wow us.” She sighed. “I tried to lobby for less security, but Kenny said I need a team of two on me at all times. They parked behind me when I pulled in.”
“No biggie. And really, since the men won’t be there until later this evening, and they’re leaving early Sunday morning to make it to church on time, we’ll be on our own enough, they probably have a point.”
Brain pulled into the resort’s lot, and McGyver scanned the cars, looking for his Blueberry’s BMW. He found it and pointed, and Brain pulled into a parking spot a few spaces away. McGyver had cloned her keyfob weeks earlier, and he’d jacked into the system so it’d send him a homing beacon every time the ignition was turned on, and every ten minutes while turned on. Having Aaron Drake watching her was good, but he needed to be able to keep her safe, too.
He opened her car and got the keycard for the room she’d paid for. They’d nearly had a major fight when he’d told her under no circumstances was she paying for their room. She’d told him she had to, or her father would suspect something was up, and he’d said he didn’t care. In the end, she paid for Brain and Harmony’s room as a thank-you for them helping with the getaway, and McGyver was paying for their cabin. She’d offered to spring for a cabin for the other couple, but Harmony insisted she’d rather be close to the restaurant.
McGyver checked in and got the keycard for the cabin. They took Brain’s things to his room, McGyver got Iris’s suitcase, they went back to the SUV, and finally headed towards the cabin, which the map said was less than a half mile from the main building through the woods, but a few miles by car.
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