Corey, of course. Corey would have a smart-ass question. R.J. clenched his hands around the steering wheel, blood rushing south where it had no business heading. The kid made him think about sex way too much.
Hal turned in his seat to answer their questions. “Wolves can take down a bison, but normally we’d work in a team, cutting the beast off from the herd and running it into the ground. We’d always choose a calf or an animal displaying weakness. One that’s injured.”
“Most likely your kill will be an elk or some sort of deer. Maybe a pronghorn.” R.J. inched the bus forward when the traffic started to move.
“They’re so big,” Corey said.
A jolt of lust hit his body at the husky note in the kid’s voice. R.J. focused fiercely on the traffic in front of the bus. He refused to let his mind consider other big things. Oh, wait. His cock was way ahead of him. R.J. struggled to check his unruly body and started to recite the different states of America.
“They’re ugly,” one of the girls said.
“Ooh!” another girl said. “Look at the baby one. Isn’t he cute?”
“They’re dangerous,” Hal said. “They might appear cuddly, but don’t ever take them for granted.”
Finally the line of traffic moved freely again. R.J. trailed the other vehicles until he came to a turnoff to a hiking trail. The kids peppered them with questions about the various animals they might observe and the places they’d explore. A sense of satisfaction filled R.J. when Corey joined the conversation with the others.
Hawaii. Alaska. Nevada. New Mexico. He let out a sigh of relief when his cock relaxed. Yeah, he could rein in the attraction, and control would become even easier once Corey made friends. Yellowstone never failed to work magic on visitors, and the more they interacted with others and discovered nature, the simpler his job would become.
R.J. drove to the end of the tarmac and parked the bus.
“This is it,” Hal said. “We’re going to split into two groups here. Six of you will go with R.J. and six with me. Make sure you have your lunch and water bottle.”
Once everyone alighted from the bus, R.J. grabbed his pack and locked up. Shrugging his pack over one shoulder, he joined the others.
“This group can go with R.J.,” Hal said. “The rest of you come with me.” He departed down the trail, leaving five eager teenagers plus Corey with R.J.
R.J. scanned the faces. Quick with names, he ran through his group. Two bubbly cheerleader types, Beth and Maria; Corey’s roomies, Teague—the scholarship boy—plus John and Scott.
“Okay, listen up. Others use this trail and we don’t want them to overhear things they shouldn’t.” Mentor-mode. “Did everyone take their pills this morning?” Something he should have checked before they left their base.
All the kids nodded except Corey.
“I forgot.”
Hell. “Do you feel okay?” The last thing R.J. wanted to deal with was an out-of-control wolf. The need to work within the constraints of the park and the human tourists was the reason they weaned the kids off the drugs. They required time to learn control and to deal with their heightened senses.
Corey paused, considering his answer. “I think so. Everything seems more…sort of enhanced.” He lifted his head and tested the wind. “My smell and sight is sharper than normal.”
“You should all experience enhanced senses during the coming days.” R.J. glanced around the circle of faces. Young faces, he reminded himself when his gaze settled on Corey’s visage. He appeared unusually serious, brown eyes full of emotions as he studied their surroundings. Pleasure slid across his features. That’s what he’d look like when he had sex…
Ohio. California. Washington. R.J. jerked his gaze away to focus on the two girls in the group. “What can you smell?”
The kids fell silent and tested the air with intent expressions on their young faces.
“The different plants,” one of the girls replied. “They have a strong scent, more pungent than the ones in the city park at home.”
“The dirt,” the other girl said.
Teague grinned in triumph. “Animal droppings.”
“Perfume,” Corey said.
“I can hear people,” Scott said, after they’d taken stock of their surroundings again. “Arguing.”
R.J. nodded in approval. “A family group is heading down the trail toward us.” He’d no sooner finished his sentence than four people—two adults plus two children—came into view on the track ahead of them. All were dressed casually in shorts and T-shirts, and footwear unsuitable for tackling the terrain. Their faces were flushed red with exertion. Sweat shone on their brows. R.J. stood back for them to pass. “Did you see anything interesting on the trail?”
“Nothing,” the father said in disgust. “Not a single animal. What a waste of an hour.” They continued past, talking in loud voices, a wave of chemical perfume wafting in their wake.
R.J. waited until they’d disappeared into their campervan. “They didn’t catch a glimpse of any wildlife because they spoke in loud voices, and you might have noticed their scent. Any sensible animal hid the instant they sensed them. If you want to see animals, you must move silently and blend with the surroundings. The same is true when you’re in wolf form. If I’m hunting, I’ll sometimes roll on the grass or rub up against the bushes to disguise my scent.” His gaze slid to Corey. “Corey, if you start to feel strange I want you to tell me immediately. Stopping the suppression drugs abruptly can mess with you.
“We’re going to take the trail to the summit of this peak and we’ll take a break there for our lunch. It’s not a race. We’ll pace ourselves and will stop regularly. Questions?” He noted their anticipation with approval. Succumbing to Yellowstone’s charms didn’t take long, and the transformation never failed to give him a sense of satisfaction.
“What if we get tired?” Beth asked. “I’m not very fit.”
“I’ll carry you,” Teague said, waggling his eyebrows to comic effect.
“We all will,” John said.
“You just want to cop a feel,” Beth said.
“Yep,” Teague agreed while the others hooted with laughter.
“Let’s go.” R.J. cut through the flirting and took the lead. The fresh air and sunshine soon lightened his mood. The tenseness in his shoulders faded. Hal and this job had saved his sanity, made him whole again after his parents’ deaths and the lingering horror of their massacre. Whenever Corey tempted him he needed to remember his job and the security it provided him. The loss of his job and purpose would leave a huge hole in his life.
Corey tailed the group, taking in the trees and other surroundings with pleasure. He’d fought coming to Yellowstone, protested bitterly to his father, his mother and anyone who’d listen to him. The camp was okay and nothing like the prison he’d conjured in his imagination. The sights, the smells. The colors of Yellowstone. They spoke to the artist in him. His fingers literally itched to capture what he saw on paper. His steps slowed and he wished he’d remembered to bring his camera. It was still at the cabin because he’d hurried this morning and had forgotten to grab it.
“Corey.” The abrupt bark jerked him to the present.
R.J. stood in the middle of the trail, waiting for him. Six-foot plus of impatient male.
Something about the man brought a flash of anxiety, and excuses sprang to his lips. “I stopped to tie my shoe lace.” He was big, so sure of himself and his place in the world. And attractive. Sexy. Right now Corey would offer his left nut for permission to lift R.J’s tight blue T-shirt and touch his muscled chest.
“Keep up. I don’t want to waste my time searching for you.” He waited for Corey to reach him and once he’d passed, R.J. walked behind him.
The sensation of R.J. at his back ripped his mind off the grassy meadow and the trees. Like a spotlight, every one of his brain cells focused on R.J.’s presence. He smelled the man’s scent, heard his soft breaths and the rustle of his clothing. Blood flowed thickly through h
is veins, flooding his cock. His shaft lengthened, swelled, and walking became uncomfortable, every step sensual torture. Yeah, it was like persecution because Corey wasn’t used to denying himself anything. In the sexual arena, if something felt good, he embraced the activity.
Heck, he needed to entice R.J. into touching him in a sexual way or he’d go crazy before the end of three months.
The morning passed rapidly, with frequent stops for R.J. to tell them about the plant or animal life they discovered or to offer them another snippet of advice about embracing their wolf.
The longer they hiked, the more excitement pulsed through Corey. If he’d known Yellowstone would be like this he wouldn’t have argued about taking the trip. He scanned the trees and scrubby bushes, the views over the plains, every one of his senses working on overload. Lightheaded, he felt almost drunk on the rush of smells and sights, his enhanced hearing. Even the brush of foliage against his bare arm brought a rush of awareness.
In the city, the smells were often noxious and the sight of a beggar at the street corner didn’t make his heart race like a glimpse of a deer or a squirrel. The wilderness was a revelation, a life-changing experience even. A giddy laugh escaped. There was so much to see—the trees, the bushes, their leaves stirring a little in the breeze, the long grasses. Myriad scents crashed through his senses. The colors bombarded him. Green, everywhere he looked, in many different shades. In the past he’d concentrated on abstracts and cityscapes, some sculpture with metal and pieces of junk. He’d scoffed at artists who produced landscapes but no longer.
Now he comprehended their fervor and enthusiasm.
The sounds—they played through his mind like an orchestra. A cacophony of clicking and buzzing insects. There was the awkward clamber of the people as they scurried from sight to sight and the snap and zoom of their cameras. The songs played by the wind whispering through grasses, rustling the leaves. And the animals. To his right, a chattering chipmunk scolded them for venturing too close. A gasp of wonder escaped while he watched the tiny animal’s antics.
“Corey! Keep up with the rest of us.” R.J.’s exasperated tone finally jolted him from his trance, and he hastened his pace even as he noticed the man’s quickly hidden amusement. Warmth suffused him because he sensed R.J. understood his rapture at his surroundings. Yeah, he’d protested leaving the city, calling it a life sentence. Now he wondered if three months would suffice to capture the wildlife experience in his art.
At the front of the line, R.J. halted abruptly, his attention on something deep in the undergrowth.
“What is it?” one of the girls asked.
“Quiet.” R.J.’s hand gesture signaled them closer, his finger touching his lips indicating a need for silence.
Corey crept nearer with the others, his gaze scanning the dim shadows while anticipation hummed in him. Then he saw the creature. His eyes widened and his breath whooshed out with a faint hiss. A bear. A real live bear.
He dragged in the animal’s scent, concentrating so he’d recognize the aroma in the future. The bear ceased its foraging, lifted its head and stared straight at them.
“Why doesn’t he run away?” Corey asked in a low voice, secretly glad the bear hadn’t retreated because he wouldn’t have missed this for the world. Already he was trying to memorize the creature’s lines and appearance, the color of its coat, to recreate on paper once they returned to camp.
“He doesn’t have to run. The bear is high on the food chain here. It’s probably confused because he can smell wolf but we’re not in wolf form.”
“What sort of bear is it?” Beth backed away with a startled eep when the bear snorted.
“Grizzly. See the hump above its shoulders? That’s how we distinguish between grizzly and black bears. Don’t judge by color. Bears come in shades from blond to brown and black. Much like wolves,” R.J. added.
Corey glanced at the others, observing the same enthrallment capturing him. Suddenly he couldn’t wait to embrace his wolf, even though a sliver of fear lurked inside him. What happened if he managed to get stuck in a half-change again?
Frowning, he glanced at R.J. and found the big man staring. Corey winked, taking childish pleasure in the way color seeped into R.J.’s face, highlighting his cheekbones. Yeah, Yellowstone possessed lots of advantages he’d never considered before, including the sexy R.J. Blake.
With another sidelong glance, he checked on R.J. and caught him watching again. This time their gazes met and held. Instead of flirting or saying something suggestive, Corey smiled, letting his pleasure in the moment openly show. The man’s gray eyes widened fractionally and he didn’t crack a smile in return. It didn’t matter. The reaction was enough for Corey. He’d been with men and spent enough time with others to sense R.J. returned his interest. R.J. could battle the attraction all he liked, but they’d end up together.
Chapter Three
Corey’s breath caught when they entered a high mountain meadow an hour later. The strenuous ascent of the steep track challenged all of them except R.J. With heaving sides and sweat glistening on his arms and legs, Corey stood beside the others, his thigh muscles quivering. Judging by the moans and groans from the others, they were suffering the same exhaustion.
Wildflowers peppered the green grass and the bubble of water indicated a small stream nearby. Something else for him to paint. Watercolors, maybe in an Impressionist style. Next time he wouldn’t forget his camera. Whenever practical, he intended to take it with him to record the details his saturated mind would miss.
“We’ll break for lunch here.” R.J. shrugged his pack off his broad shoulders, the play of muscles catching Corey’s rapt attention. “Not many hikers come up here.”
“Why not?” Maria asked, loosening her ponytail and recapturing stray blonde strands before fastening it again. “It’s beautiful.”
“Most people keep going to the summit. If they take this side trip, they can’t get to the summit and back in one day, which most of them prefer to do.”
“Their loss.” Teague rolled his shoulders, letting out a husky groan. Although Corey witnessed the move, the sight didn’t raise a blip on his sexual radar.
“I’m starving,” John said.
The group removed their packs, Corey’s belly rumbling with hunger once he heard the mention of food.
“We’ll set up camp farther away from the trailhead, in case we get human visitors.” R.J. led the way over to the far side of the meadow, and Corey found himself dawdling, the last to reach their picnic spot, despite his gnawing hunger.
“When are you going to start telling us more about wolf stuff?” Scott asked. “When will we learn about shifting?”
“Yeah,” Teague said. “When will we shift?”
Corey dropped his day pack on the ground and flopped onto the grass with a groan. His feet ached and his legs still quivered like jelly. They wouldn’t be in so much of a hurry to shift if they knew how painful the process was and the horrid disorientation.
R.J. unzipped his pack and pulled out a packed lunch. “I’ll start while we’re eating.”
Corey hurriedly followed suit, opening his lunch and sinking his teeth into the roast beef sandwich with a groan of pleasure. The meaty flavor exploded into his mouth. So good. Hell, he’d never tasted something this delicious in his entire life. He chewed rapidly and shoved half the remaining sandwich in his mouth, giving a soft growl of pleasure. He swallowed and grabbed a second one.
Someone was growling. He didn’t bother looking, too intent on appeasing his hunger.
“Corey!”
Corey’s head jerked up, eyes widening when he realized constant growls were issuing from his throat. He froze, and glanced down at his hands. A croak of shock escaped. Sharp claws poked from beneath his fingernails, like the time he’d made his half shift. His sandwich slipped from nerveless fingers, hitting the ground by his leg.
When another growl emerged, his fellow students backed away and Corey didn’t blame them. Only R.J. moved clo
ser, concern filling in his gray eyes.
“Corey, it’s all right,” R.J. said in a calm voice. “Don’t fight your wolf. It’s safe to change here. We’re safe here. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
Corey trembled, fear swelling to a hard ball in his gut. Somehow, his wolf had crept up on him, maybe because he was relaxed and happy for once, not trying to hide any facet of his identity—gayness or wolf.
A bolt of pain seared the length of his spine. He cried out, his limbs twitching painfully as his nerve endings reacted to the stimulus.
“Corey, strip.” R.J. seized his shoulders to hold him in place, and yanked up the hem of his T-shirt. Normally Corey would make a smart-ass comment, but right now he couldn’t raise the energy. Dread curled through him. He couldn’t let this change happen. He’d end up transformed halfway, the pain enough to bring unmanly tears to his eyes. And the shame. His father hadn’t spoken to him for weeks after the wolf medics had finished poking and prodding him, drawing his blood for medical tests. Becoming trapped in half form sucked, and he didn’t want to experience it again.
R.J. rapidly unfastened Corey’s jeans, jerking them down his legs until they reached his boots. “I’m going to talk you through the change. Are you listening? Corey?” R.J. kept talking, his voice soothing as he untied Corey’s boot laces and removed his footwear.
“Yeah.” His voice emerged in a guttural growl and the harsh noise scared him even more. A sharp crack sounded and his jaw started to reshape. Agony writhed along his nerve paths, and his entire body jerked in a spasm. Corey swallowed and stared at his misshapen hand. Ugly coarse hair sprouted on the back. This hand couldn’t hold a paintbrush or draw a line with a piece of charcoal. Horror writhed through him. Despair.
“Strip,” R.J.’s persuasive tone propelled Corey into action. He met R.J.’s steady gaze, latched onto the connection and didn’t let go, standing mutely while R.J. removed the last of his clothes. The fresh breeze played across his naked skin before the forceful push of his wolf sent him to his knees.
Lone Wolf Page 3