When The Wolves Whisper

by

Brenda Williamson

Chapter 1

The forest stood dark, ominous, and scary. Nikita turned her head, thinking she heard whispers. Quiet voices that rose in pitch, until the howling wind drowned out the inaudible murmurs. She stared at the long dirt road. Looking back to where she left her car parked, she realized she went farther than she thought. The car was no longer visible. If she hadn’t worried about getting scratches on the new vehicle, she would have driven it to her grandfather’s old house in the woods.

Gusts from the intemperate weather whipped her long hair around her face. She brushed it away and caught the scent of an animal, not strong, yet dominant enough to overpower the pine surrounding her. In most circumstances, she wouldn’t even think to direct her mind to the odors woodland creatures carried. Today, she felt strangely different. Her observances acutely took in everything.

Nikita turned when the fine hairs prickled on the back of her neck. The wind had vanished like the calm before a storm. The warning of danger snaked a chilling shiver up her spine. Then she saw the bane of her uneasy feeling. Three wolves stalked her. They were in the lane between her and the direction of her car. Her pulse quickened. She remembered, from when she lived with her grandfather, she shouldn’t run. She should not be afraid to stand her ground or

look a wolf in the eye. Courage would protect her from their confusion and their wariness.

The large wolf, standing at the front of the pack, bared his teeth. Long yellow fangs emerged. Her legs trembled. She couldn’t outrun them, and still, she really couldn’t believe the old story her grandfather told her.

She slid one foot back. As a child, the house she grew up in seemed a hundred miles from the highway. In her adult mind, she reasoned it had to be close.

Two of the wolves began to snarl. Not at her, but each other, as if they argued. She shuffled back a little farther. The large wolf seemed fixated on her. He wouldn’t turn from his steady watch. She closed her eyes in hopes it would break the lock of their gaze.

“One, two, three,” she counted.

Her lashes flipped up quickly, and she spun away to run. There might have been fifty yards between her and the big wolf, and she sensed the danger when he began his run for her. She knew her grandfather wouldn’t lie, although, he couldn’t have anticipated her coming face to face with a big bad wolf. Nevertheless, Nikita didn’t have the bravery to test any theories.

The crunch of leaves and sticks grew louder. The distance between them shortened. When the barn came in sight, she knew she’d not make the door in time. Her legs stretched, her arms pumped, and adrenaline rushed madly through her veins. Still, she knew the spurt of energy wouldn’t be enough.

The wolf crashed into her. On contact, her feet left the ground and she collided with the wall of the building. She hit

hard at chest level. The pain, however, burned in her thigh. Before the wolf came at her again, she jerked on the barn door and got it open far enough to get inside. She flung herself forward when the bulk of the wolf squeezed in and prevented her from closing the heavy wood barrier. She reached for the shovel propped against the wall.

From the shadows, another wolf emerged. The one that came first stood still. The silence engulfed them so profoundly, she heard his heart thumping beyond the deafening sound of her own. She watched the silhouette of the new wolf standing his ground. Proud, determined, and threatening, he knew how to stare down a wolf, just as her grandfather had told her.

A tingling of excitement crept in on her fear. Suddenly, the silly sensation disappeared when the big bad wolf charged. The one from the shadows came at her and she cringed. Her arms went over her head as she dropped flat to the ground. She heard the whoosh of air and prepared for the impact. A second later, she rolled to look where he set down with a thump. He had leapt over her and landed on her attacker.

A vicious battle raised the pair of wolves on their hind legs. Razor sharp teeth dug into hide. Fur flew in the ensuing frenzy. Because the animals were the same in color and size, she lost track of who was who. She wanted to think of the other wolf as her rescuer. Except when all ended between them, she didn’t know if she would be safe from the new wolf any more than she would be from the bad.

The fight rolled them on the ground. They crashed into the barn door. Their weight made it swing open so hard, it hit the

barn wall and bounced back. By the time the door closed, the wolves were outside snarling, growling, and she assumed attempting to tear each other apart.

Nikita crawled to the door. She looked for a latch and saw it had nothing. The only bolt had been outside. She sat for five minutes, or longer, listening to the wolf fight. When it ended, she hoped they had forgotten about her.

Blood oozed from the laceration in her leg. The sting of dirt made it hurt enough that tears welled in her eyes. Her head shot up at the creak of the barn door.

A gorgeous man with dark brown hair and eyes, walked in and stooped down. The tingling of her skin intensified as if white-hot lightning rippled beneath her flesh. She panted from the ordeal as well as the sight of the sexy stud staring at her.

“The wolves,” she said in warning.

“What are you doing here?” His deep voice captivated more than her thoughts. Her insides churned with desire.

He scooped her up, and she leaned on his chest. Muscles bulged, taut and hard. She sank against his capable strength and looked toward his delicious full mouth.

“I’m here to sell my grandfather’s house.”

He made a pronounced display of inhaling with a strange swing of his head. It appeared a funny quirk until she felt like doing the same—sniffing at him to absorb every trace of his maleness.

“Why didn’t you shift?” He took long strides from the barn to the house.

She studied the set to his jaw. With the dark stubble of hair outlining his lower face, he had a rugged masculinity. Discreetly, she breathed in his appealing scent.

“Open the door.” He waited for her to turn the doorknob, and then with the toe of his boot, he kicked the door open.

“So, why didn’t you shift?” he asked again, and sat her on the kitchen table.

She watched him walk to the sink and get a clean rag from a drawer. Muscles stiff and well crafted rolled beneath his tshirt.

“You’re the wolf from the barn?” She cocked her head. “You saved me, why?”

“For myself.”

Her intake of air made a wheeze. He turned his head and looked her way. The smile on his face relaxed the buildup of her nervous energy.

“Very funny,” she grumbled.

He carried a wet cloth, a dry cloth, and antiseptic to the table. His fingers went to the snap on her jeans.

“What are you doing?” She grabbed his large, warm hands.

“Getting you out of your pants, it makes it all the better to eat you, my dear.”

She gasped at the sexual innuendo with a pleasurable tightness in her vagina.

He chuckled and put a finger under her chin, lifting her face. “I’ve got to see the cut on your leg, okay?”

Nikita nodded, feeling the scrumptious heat of her cravings increasing with the adorable upward curve to his mouth.

“It would heal right up if you’d shift into a wolf,” he said.

“I can’t shift.”

“What do you mean you can’t shift?” His dark brows lifted in an arch. “You’re Elmer Gant’s granddaughter, aren’t you?”

She nodded, feeling awkward admitting her flaw. Glancing down, she looked at his long tanned fingers rubbing hers.

“A rare-breed,” he commented, almost too hoarse for her to hear.

“Yes, that’s what my grandfather called me.” She felt a kinship with him immediately.

“You can shift. It’s just a matter of getting a missing chemical in your system.”

“Really?” She held his hands tighter.

He smiled and she wanted to melt from the radiance burning her soul. His fingers went back to her snap and she let him undo her pants. The zipper slid with ease. He folded the waistband down and as she rocked from one cheek of her ass to the other, he worked her pants out from under her bottom. It could have gone so much simpler if she just stood up, but she liked how close he came to help her undress.

His hands glided down her legs, her shoes came off, and he rolled her short ankle socks over her heels. Slow, torturous, and intentional, he caressed the sole of her foot, while she sat in her panties on the table.

“What chemical?” she finally had to ask.

He went straight to washing the blood from her leg. Most had dried, but some trickled down as he wet over the area.

“Huh?”

His concentration apparently involved his tongue licking over his bottom lip. She squirmed, all twitchy inside with an

imagination running away wildly in a direction that put his

tongue in her.

“You said I could shift, if I got a chemical.”

“Yup, just have sex with a Wolfgar wolf.”

She kicked her leg at him, not finding his joke amusing. The idea however, had the same appeal as slinking down into a bath full of bubbles tickling her nose. Sex with the devilishly gorgeous man fit right alongside eating a dish full of sweet chocolates.

His serious gaze made her swallow. His eyes had a distinct glint of an idea brewing in the dark irises. Quickly, she blinked. What she saw wasn’t his thoughts in the dark pools— it was her own.

“This is a joke, isn’t it?” She flinched at the pain in her leg.

“No joke.” He went back to cleaning her injury. “There are a few females born without a hormone the male secretes during ejaculation.”

She didn’t want to believe him. It seemed ridiculous.

“Hold this.” He pressed the dry cloth on her wound. “If you could shift, this would heal almost immediately.”

She remembered her grandfather once cut himself with an axe. He changed into a spry, gray-haired wolf, and within minutes, stood back at the woodpile, splitting wood without the nasty gash in his hand.

“So, do you have a name?”

“Trevor Darke.”

“I’m Nikita Gant.”

“I know.”

“How?”

Trevor picked up a picture frame and carried it to her. She looked at her high school portrait. She didn’t even have a copy. She had given it to her grandfather when he came to the city for her graduation. It was the last time she saw him. He died that winter ten years ago.

“Ouch!” She jumped.

“Sit still.”

“That’s not so easy when you’re sticking a needle in my leg.”

Dimples dented his cheeks. She let a silent sigh escape. The man oozed sex appeal like a maple tree leached sap in the spring. She wanted to lick his sweet face until she didn’t thirst for the scent of him anymore. Though each glance convinced her, she wouldn’t tire of the twinkle in his eyes.

Chapter 2

Trevor tried not to breathe. Her intoxicating scent tightened his muscles and made his cock harden and throb. The bitch was in heat, and it was apparent she didn’t know it. Her blue eyes watched him enough that he could sense her desire.

“Hold still,” he told her again. “If I get the stitches small enough, you won’t have much of a scar.”

“You said if I could shift, it would heal.”

The smile started and he couldn’t hide his amusement. “You want me to fuck you?”

“No!”

He laughed and kept sewing her flesh together. “You know, it’s no problem. We could do it right here on the table.”

“Keep dreaming, wolf man.” Her lips pinched with her frustration. “Provided I even believed you, why wouldn’t my grandfather have told me?”

“Maybe he figured it was something your mother should have mentioned.”

“My parents died when I was little.”

Trevor silently scolded himself. He knew that and had forgotten. Everything he knew about the Gants, he’d learned from Elmer Gant’s journals. He hoped sending the letter to the girl in the picture would bring her, and it did.

“Why do you have this old picture of me?”

“It came with the frame.”

She looked around him. “It seems many things here belonged to my grandfather. Just how did you come to live here?”

“Inheritance.”

“You can’t inherit this place. My grandfather sent me a letter saying it was mine.”

“When you’ve rested up, we’ll discuss your reason for being here.”

He tied off the thread on her leg. Her pheromones kept putting out a strong, almost irresistible scent. He considered dropping her in a bathtub filled with heavily fragranced soap. He’d do anything to tone down the aroma of her sweet, luscious secretions keeping the wolf pack pacing the perimeter of the woods, waiting for her to emerge.

“Tell me about the Wolfgar wolves.” She closed her eyes while he wiped the traces of blood from her face.

“Like what? You grew up here.”

“Only until I was fifteen and then my grandfather sent me to live in the city with my aunt.”

“Puberty.” He smiled. “You were sent away to avoid just what happened today. Being unable to shift makes you a target for the unsavory in our breed.”

“Why are you no different than them?” She leaned forward, and he could taste the flavor of her breath in the air.

“Good breeding, I suppose.” He clenched his jaw and fought the primitive urge to jump on her. “But don’t think for a minute I don’t want to hump you until my cock falls off.”

He wiped along the side of her small nose. A few freckles speckled the ivory skin.

“Okay, I’ve figured out everyone wants to rape me, but it doesn’t tell me about the Wolfgar wolves and why I’m so different.”

He swept her blonde hair back over her ear. The silky curls wound around his fingers, and he held her delicate face.

“I don’t know why, you just are.”

Not only special, she was beautiful. He had loved that picture of her. Ten years and she had matured into a beautiful woman. He touched her silky cheek. Every minute it became more difficult not to throw her on the floor and do everything he yearned to do. Intelligence dictated he control his instincts. His impulses however, commanded he not only have sex with Nikita, he mate with her.

“You are very evasive with answers. Is there some secret I should know?”

He caressed the pulse under her jaw. She stretched her neck and he felt the quickening—the rapid beat created by an

enthrallment he enticed. He stroked her collarbone, and she leaned toward him.

“Tell me something, pretty please?” Her lips puckered, breaking down the barrier he tried to keep between them.

Chapter 3

Trevor’s palm swirled over her breast, so his light touch kept her nipple from hardening. Nikita watched his eyes. The shimmer of something dark and mysterious flashed. She waited for another hint, fascinated by him in a way, unlike her attraction for other men. This feral draw of his scent overpowered all reason. She wanted to be explored by him, feeling his hands upon her burning hot flesh. What her mind wished for, fate commanded.

He moved his hand down to her waist. She whimpered for the retreat he made from her tightening nipple. She whined a small chirp again when he tugged her t-shirt up enough to push his hand beneath the cloth. His fingers weren’t as cool as she thought they’d be. He skimmed his caress over her belly and the muscles retracted from the ticklish sensation. Her white t-shirt rode up on his moving arm.

“Tell me again how you don’t want me to fuck you.” He pinched her nipple gently.

“I...” Air came out of her lungs without sound.

Speech seemed impossible.

He twisted the tender tip of her breast harder. She shook her head, hoping it would be enough to make him back off. She couldn’t just spread her legs for a stranger within an hour of meeting him. Could she?

Her legs opened slightly. The pressure she imposed on keeping her knees together, loosened. Her cunt constricted. Trevor plucked at her nipple in a rhythm, which soon made her insides clench and leak.

“You need a Wolfgar male to bring you to maturity.”

“I’m mature enough.” She squeaked.

The oncoming climax tweaked nerves inside her.

“You’re a virgin.”

“I’m not a virgin!” she blurted too loud. “I’ve had sex with plenty of men. Well a few, but plenty of times.”

She rubbed a hand on her neck. The heat had risen. She perspired profusely. Trevor’s hand began shaping her breast like a lump of clay. He squeezed and molded it, always making her nipple pinch between his thumb and forefinger. The torture drove her insane, the kind of crazy from wild pleasure, and the sort of delight she might not resist.

“You can’t shift until you’ve had sex with a Wolfgar. Do you really want it to be one of those horny wolves outside?”

Nikita shook her head while he lifted her shirt. She looked at her swollen, milky white breast in the palm of his hand. It appeared different somehow with her nipple spiked and inflamed. His head bent and she whined with the pleasing texture of his cooling tongue. Bathing the sensitized tip, he sucked it into his mouth.

Her small orgasm peaked, leaving her panties wet. Trevor bent lower, kissing her belly. His lips headed for the creamsmeared cotton between her legs.

“Wait.” She held him at bay with fists full of his hair.

He looked up and his brown eyes had changed to a dark gold. It frightened her the way he excited her.

“Can’t you kiss me first?” She wanted him to fuck her. She lusted for it right from the start. Only she needed to feel like they had something more personal between them. Anything, so she didn’t feel as if this were strictly a primitive mating ritual.

“You want human courtship?” He put a finger beneath the elastic of her panties. “You know, I thought I would just do you a favor by breaking your cherry.”

“Excuse me!” She pushed him away. “I told you, I am not a virgin.”

She jumped off the edge of the table and tugged her tshirt down.

“You can’t change into a wolf until you have sex with me or one of those fellows out there.” His head jerked toward the door. “Here, in these woods, that means inviting danger.”

“Well, eventually I’ll go out of heat and then everything will be normal.”

“You don’t want normal.” He stepped close.

His hand cupped between her legs. She stood like a statue and let him rub his finger over the crotch of her panties. Her willful hips rocked toward him, making his finger press the cloth into her. His head cocked to the side, and he lowered his face to hers.

“Pucker,” he demanded with a curled finger beneath her chin.

“I don’t need to be schooled in how to kiss.”

“Pucker,” he said, softer.

His deep voice shot electrical currents to her toes. The power of sound in a hushed tone pushed her lips out. The silliness had its own special thrill. His lips connected briefly, and she hardly felt it worth all the trouble.

She hadn’t realized she even closed her eyes, until her lashes lifted, and she watched his mouth moving away. Instinctively, she leaned to follow.

“That’s it?” She stumbled forward, off balance from the dizzy way she expected too much.

His grin appeared with the intent to rile her. The wicked way he made her want him should have some drawback. She only needed one little reason for her to back from his hand rubbing harder over her throbbing mound.

“You’re an evil man and no doubt rule that pack of lustful wolves outside.”

“I do have some say over them.” His smile faded.

He twisted her around and strapped his sinewy arm under her breasts. She liked the way she fit against his hard body. He looped a finger in the side of her bikini underwear, and a second after he twisted the fabric, it split at the seam.

He raked his finger into the short-cropped hair of her pussy. He parted the dewy lips and involuntarily, her legs squeezed. Her head whipped to the side in elation.

“I’ve kissed you. Now tell me why I shouldn’t screw your sweet body until my cock is numb?”

His hot breath washed over her cheek. Her lips automatically puckered and stretched toward his. A small cry of disappointment escaped when his head drew back. His long middle finger plunged into her and another cry became a

long-winded whine. She felt the tip of his finger tickling a

point inside that made her squirm.

“Trevor.” Her arms clung to his.

Her legs shook, and she didn’t think standing would be possible once she hit a full orgasm. He found the sweet spot and tormented her with small flicks of his fingertip. She panted heavily in the moments of reprieve. The sphincter of her cunt opened and closed on his knuckles so forcefully, it hurt.

“Trevor, please!” she cried out.

Two fingers jammed up inside her and she shuddered. Violently, her body shuddered in his hold. She shook her head from side to side, fighting the burning sparks ricocheting with such intensity she began to weaken in thought. The clarity of vision darkened.

Her body dripped perspiration. The slickness of her skin didn’t give Trevor the leverage to keep her up. She felt herself sliding down harder on his fingers. Her right leg bent and folded behind his denim-covered calf.

She stood that way for a minute and then it was over. Her orgasm rocketed her up on her toes and Trevor scooped her up. He sat her on the table and laid her back. She didn’t argue. Her body had exhausted all strength. She had nothing left but rag doll limbs, flopping where he put them. She didn’t care or consider anything until air puffed up her sore, aching hot channel.

His hands lay on the insides of her knees. He kept her legs parted as he sniffed her cunt. She felt strangely aroused by the exhale from his nostrils, the cooling air curled into her.

His tongue swiped one pass, and she jerked. He went slower with the second lap. From anus to clit, he dragged the tip of his tongue through her juices.

“I want you to come for me again.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. I’m only good for one orgasm. You’ve ruined your chances of getting me to climax again.”

“I don’t think so.” He licked again. “You’ve just not been with the right man.”

“Oh, and you’re just so experienced at making women have orgasms, are you?”

She didn’t want to discuss other women. Logically, they had been with other people, had sex, and led lives away from each other. The jealousy bug usually hit her when a man dumped her, not when she had a guy staring into her vagina like a gynecologist.

“I’ll let you decide for yourself.”

His chuckle had the same ambiguous emotion as his eyes when he stared. She tried not to think how weird everything around her had happened. Until the letter came about the property, she hadn’t known her grandfather left it to her.

Trevor’s hands massaged the inside of her thighs. Then he picked up her one leg, licked the sole of her foot, and sucked her toes into his mouth. He licked the top, around her ankle, and sucked on her shin. He straightened and held her leg out, up, and high, nipping and licking her skin until he put it on his shoulder. He moved his fingers to the strained muscles in the crease of her leg. Her heel slid down his back.

“Oh ... God.” She grunted the two words separately.

Trevor sniffed and lapped at her. He made swift jabs with his tongue and alternating swirls around the button of her clit. She lifted her bottom up using her leg as support on his shoulder.

Chapter 4

Nikita tasted good. All he had wanted in a Wolfgar mate, he now had presented to him by fate. He plowed the bright pink folds and slurped up all the cream scented with her essence.

“You’re delicious.”

“Oh, and I suppose this is the part where the big bad wolf eats me up?” She giggled.

“I plan to do more than that.” He unbuckled his pants while sucking on her distended clit.

Nikita squirmed and bucked to his thrusting tongue. He slurped up the sweet juices, and pushed the knot of flesh, circling it with feather light rotations of his tongue. He rubbed his hands over the velvet flesh of her belly and made her anxious in her movements.

“Trevor...” She grabbed his wrists. “Trevor, please fuck me.”

He had already dropped his pants. Standing up, he kicked them from his legs. He held her leg up against his chest and fit his cock against her entrance.

“Are you sure?” he teased.

“Yes.”

He thrust into her with repeated short strokes until he sank up to his balls. Nikita put her hand out to him. He took her leg from his shoulder and eased it away. He pulled her up

from her prone position on the table. Her delicate fingers curled around his, and he could see the beauty of her ivory skin against the contrast of his dark tan. She lowered the limb to a bent position and her toes curled over the edge of the table. Careful of the wound, he lifted the other leg.

He pounded into the center of her butterfly pose. Her expelling air came laced with feminine grunts. Moans of ecstasy twined their panting bodies. He slid his hands under her bottom and lifted her from the table. Her slender legs folded around his hips.

The nearest wall was to the right of the door. It only took a half turn and a few strides.

“Oh!” Nikita gasped, when he pushed her up against it.

“Pucker.” His hips pinned her to the wall and his hands dragged hers up above her head.

Her mouth barely began to form the delightful shape when he attacked her lips. He sucked and pulled at her tongue. He hadn’t planned on kissing her and yet, it’s all he had wanted to do from the very start.

“God you taste delicious.”

“You’ve said that ... and oh no, Trevor hurry...” she cried. “Hurry, please.”

He rocked his hips. His orgasm had backed down from the full pressure he felt at the table. Nikita’s pleas stimulated another part of him. He sipped the saliva from the corner of her mouth as she whined in gasps. He let go of her hands to hold her hips, to pump in and out with hard strokes. Their bodies slapped together, and her wet center sloshed.

Finally, her arms squeezed his neck and their kisses stopped. He had a hand at the back of her head and one wedged into the crack of her ass. He piloted her humping body tight on his cock so when he exploded it would be inside her.

A loud bang at the side of the house made them freeze.

“What was that?” Nikita exclaimed.

“Hold on.” His cock hurt with the heaviness of his load. He could have crushed her in his arms as the liquid burned from his loins and jettisoned into her.

A crash of the windowpane on the back door turned her head. He rotated to shield her.

“Trevor?” Her nervous voice questioned the disturbance.

“Hold on for another minute.”

He roared with the intense rapture of his ejaculation. The wolves outside howled in synch to his mating. Nikita’s whimpers drew his mouth to hers.

“I won’t let them touch you.” He kissed her softly. “I promise, I won’t let them have you.”

He let her legs down, and she slid from his cock. It tickled him to feel it glide up to her belly.

“I want you to stay in the house.” He pulled her shirt down. “Go start a bath with lots of soap, and I’ll be back in a minute.”

The howling continued, and she remained next to him. “Why lot’s of soap?”

“Because you reek of sex and they can smell it.”

“What are you going to do?” She held his arm.

“Tell them to go on home.”

“Will they?”

He cupped her cheek. “The scent is so potent I’ll hardly be able to control myself if you don’t take a bath soon.”

She smiled, and he saw she didn’t consider it a problem that he lusted after her body.

“Go on.” He swatted her bare ass.

“You shouldn’t go out there.”

He opened the door. “I’ll be all right.”

Chapter 5

Nikita watched the door shut her away from Trevor. Her thigh throbbed with pain from her stitched laceration. She hobbled to the hallway and found the bathroom right where she remembered it. It didn’t have a place in her memory the way it appeared now. Except on the shelf above the toilet, she saw a familiar bottle of bubble bath, her favorite. Her grandfather gave it to her for her twelfth birthday. He said she should take a bath everyday so she smelled pretty. Now she knew his real reasons.

Nikita turned the spigots on and opened the cap to the bubble bath. Tipping the bottle, she poured a generous amount into the stream of warm water. She looked at the bottle, wishing her grandfather had told her more about how she would come in heat and how she’d acquire the ability to shift.

She pulled the t-shirt over her head, tossed it to the floor, and stepped into the tub.

A thump against the wall drew her gaze up to the window. She climbed on the lip of the enamel claw foot tub and looked outside. A face appeared, startling her, and her wet feet lost

all traction. She squealed, knowing the pain of her landing as

she fell back.

“Gotcha.” Trevor caught her. “Don’t look out the windows.”

His eyes gleamed with the shameless gaze he swept over her nakedness. He made it hard to breathe, difficult to swallow, and challenging to think. When he looked at her as if he’d die without a kiss, her heart burst with joy.

She touched his cheek, pulled his face close, and pressed her mouth to his. Her lips parted to suck on his thick tongue slipping between her teeth. Hungrily obsessed by his maleness, she kissed him.

“We need you washed, Nikita.” His mouth moved over hers, at the same time he set her down in the tub, into a cloud of bubbles.

“What happened outside?” she asked when their lips drew too far from pecking at each other’s.

He looked worried and it made her nervous the way he stood silent, with his hands on his hips. She drew her knees up and held them to her chest.

“There are more of them.” His tone had reluctance in voicing his concern. “We’re going to have real trouble.”

She looked up at the window. “More?”

“A whole lot more. I didn’t know so many Wolfgar existed.” He began removing his clothes.

His finger tugged at the snap on his pants. He bent down and pulled his boots off. Quickly she saw him go from dressed, to exquisitely naked. She held her breath when he came to the tub. His beautiful tanned body stood out against the pale blue wallpaper.

She scooted toward the faucet end.

“They weren’t too happy I had your scent on me.” He stepped over the edge and sat.

“Shouldn’t we do something? Get away from here, call the police, something?” She slid back with his help.

“We wait.” His arms surrounded her. “Now don’t worry. I promised to protect you and I will.”

For the moment, she trusted his confidence.

“Are you going to tell me now how it is you’re living here, and how you think you own this house?”

“Your grandfather left it to the new leader of the pack. It would have been your father, if he had lived.”

“Then me?” She put her head back and squirmed to his probing fingers swishing between her legs.

“Sorry, babe, but the Wolfgar wolves haven’t got any need for equality between the sexes. It has to be a male, and usually, to keep the bloodlines pure, the male should accept the female from the extinct line.”

Nikita twisted to look at him. “You said you lead that pack outside.”

“Yeah. He sounded proud. “You want to mate?”

“Didn’t we just have sex in the kitchen?”

“Oh, yeah.” He nuzzled her jaw. “And hot sex that was. I’m talking about breeding ... you know doggie style, well in our case wolf style.”

“What does that prove?”

“You’re in heat, remember. We do it until you’re out of heat and we hope it takes.”

“What takes?”

“The pregnancy.”

“Pregnancy! I don’t want to get married and have a baby.”

“Whoa, babe, I never said anything about marriage. This is just a breeding. I plant the seed and you raise a Wolfgar carrying our bloodlines. He’d be heir to the throne.”

“Throne,” she scoffed. “We’re not royalty.”

Nikita stood up, stepped over the edge of the tub, and reached for a towel.

“No, but we’re pretty damn close. Gants have commanded the pack for a couple hundred years. Before that, it was the Darkes and now it’s the Darkes again. The change in family leadership however is strained.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m the last Darke and it’s up to me to make a kid to succeed, otherwise, the wolves stay unruly, waiting for my demise so they can battle out who’ll be the next leader.”

“I’m not sure I like the arrogance in your way of thinking. I wasn’t put on this planet to be a doormat or a bitch for breeding. I want kids, but not for your reasons.”

“What’s the difference?” He stepped from the tub. “You’ll have me around to protect you and the pup.”

“Why would I need protecting? As I see it, once I’m pregnant, no one will bother me.”

She watched his lean hard body move to the towel rack. The well-defined curves of his frame stirred lust within her. He dried off, wiping the towel under his arms, down his sides, and around his semi-erect cock. The man always seemed ready to mount her. She wondered how long before he did

what he wanted, instead of trying to make it her idea. She decided not long, by the look in his eyes.

“Come here.” His finger dipped into her cleavage behind the towel she had bound to her chest.

His tug relieved her of balance and she did a tiptoe dance toward him. His hand slid into her hair and his palm cupped over her ear.

“What am I going to do about you?” he whispered hoarsely. “I feel the need to have you and it ain’t got nothing to do with your scent.”

“Charm will get you a lot,” she growled, playfully. “But it won’t get you a baby.”

His soft full lips covered hers firmly. She still couldn’t believe the attraction she felt for him, and she worried the feelings were strictly chemistry.

The bathroom window suddenly shattered. Trevor pushed her to the farthest reaches of the room. His body shielded her and she couldn’t imagine her being in heat having anything to do with his heroism. From the start, he consistently rushed to protect her. He made her feel safe.

Nikita clung to the towel and to him. Trevor smelled wonderfully sweet like the lavender bubble bath. It distracted her senses, but not her fears.

“They’re going to get in,” she said, looking around his shoulder.

“Shift.”

“I can’t, you know I can’t.”

“You can now.” He tugged her out of the room.

He grabbed the towel she held and unwrapped her.

“Trevor!”

“We’re leaving here and you have to shift.” He towed her toward the door leading outside.

“You said we’d wait.”

“Change of plans.”

“Trevor, please!”

His hand had the doorknob half turned.

“Trevor,” she cried. “I don’t know how to shift yet.”

“You’ll do it when you need to.” He leaned toward her. “I promise. You can do it.”

He opened the door and looked around outside. She felt self-conscious about her nudity and the fact he planned to make her run outside in such a fashion.

“You said you left your car at the end of the lane?”

“Yes.” She held his hand with both of hers.

“You have the keys?”

“I dropped them when I ran from the wolves.”

“Then I’ll hot wire it, I reckon.”

He jerked her outside, and they ran across the yard. The howls came at them from all directions, but only one wolf appeared. Trevor shook her grip free, and she watched him drop to the ground in the shape of a wolf. He shifted so fast, she hardly saw him morph from man to animal.

He looked up at her and she knew he wanted her to change, but how? She tried to think it and nothing happened. She tensed all her muscles as if she could squeeze a wolf out of herself and still, she stood a petrified, naked woman.

The large wolf studying them began to stalk a wide circle. Trevor took the challenge and advanced. Her heart raced with

the terror something would happen to him. She looked around for anything she could use as a weapon.

The howls grew louder. They echoed in the dark forest. She glanced back at the house and while it might have been safe at one point, the wolf sitting on the porch made it off limits to her. The whoosh of leaves turned her to witness Trevor attacking the large wolf. Fur flew in their attempts at overpowering one another.

Trevor yelped, and she raced to help. The magic of shifting happened without thought. Her limbs were all legs, and a sleek fur, like Trevor’s, spread over her skin. She leapt on the big wolf. The strength she possessed came as a surprise. Adrenaline flowed in her veins and gave her an added boost of temerity. The blood on Trevor frightened her into a vicious retribution. Her fang teeth cut into the big wolf’s flesh just at the shoulder. She shook her head and tore the hide from the bone.

The persistent howls rattled deep into her. When something grabbed her fur, she twisted her head to snap at her attacker, except she met Trevor’s muzzle. His wet tongue rolled over her nose and she ran with him to the house. The wolf on the porch, having no help from the pack, trotted off into the woods with his tail between his legs, and they rushed inside the shelter.

Nikita didn’t know how to shift back to woman to help Trevor. She looked at his fur, bloodied by wounds in his hide and tried to lick away the pain. He huffed and puffed, exhausted and energized. He nuzzled her body and sniffed

under her tail. The eroticism of his moves aroused her much differently than when she stood as a human.

She tried to keep her vigil that she didn’t want him mating her. Her body however, had other plans, and she stood still while he mounted her. He humped her backside, aligned his erection, and impaled her with force. A howling whimper escaped her lungs.

Chapter 6

Trevor opened his eyes and looked around the kitchen. They still lay on the cold tile floor where he bred Nikita. Once they collapsed in exhaustion, he shifted back into a man immediately. It took longer for Nikita to relax and shift.

He stroked a hand down her side. He bred her with an abandoned sense of humanity. He took her like an animal without holding in check his powerful nature. Once inside her depths, he had forgotten her Wolfgar virginity. He stretched her insides until she whined with a pitiful cry while having to stay attached to him for half an hour. He couldn’t imagine the discomfort she felt.

He kissed her back and continued to stroke her side. “Did I hurt you?”

She-wolves often fought the coupling but Nikita couldn’t have been more cooperative. It didn’t mean he didn’t injure her with his aggression.

“Won’t you tell me what’s wrong?” He kissed the back of her head.

He rolled her over into the cradle of his arm. The remnants of tears glistened on her cheeks.

“Tell me you’re all right.” He kissed over her face.

She nodded slightly.

“I wish I could have been gentler, but I have no control once we start.”

“It’s all right, it’s not that.” She twisted against him. “I could have killed that wolf.”

He covered her mouth with his and kissed her tenderly, bathing her with his affection. “You were protecting me.”

“But the brutality—I wanted to kill.”

“No, you didn’t. You were scared and angry. It’s natural to wish someone dead. It doesn’t mean you really want it to happen.”

She let out a sigh.

“It’s really all right, Nikita. He’ll heal as he changes back to a man. Now come on, hold around my neck.”

“Where are you taking me?” Her slender arms coiled into place as he lifted her up from the floor.

“To our bed.”

“Our bed?’ She hiccupped a sob.

The tremors of her stifled cry built steam, and by the time he reached the bed, Nikita cried hard. He then realized the extent of her distress. It made his empathetic heart cringe and his eyes water.

“Our bed.” He lowered her onto the soft blankets. “I’m going to check and make sure the doors and windows are secure.”

She gave a nod and turned away from him as he drew the covers up over her. He avoided kissing her since he didn’t think he could handle her rejection. Especially not while his heart continued to crash against his ribs with a prideful

expectancy of her having his child. He heard wolves mated for life, but since werewolves weren’t true wolves, he thought the rules of nature didn’t necessarily apply.

Trevor went from room to room. He checked accesses of entry to the house. When he returned, he found Nikita asleep. He stood and watched her peaceful face. The splashes of tiny freckles were more prominent on the bridge of her nose when wet. Tears clung to her cheeks as if they were afraid to leave her.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” he said when her eyes opened.

A a gorgeous, glorious smile turned up the corners of her mouth. He felt better instantly.

“You’re not going to just stand there, are you?” Her hand stretched out to him.

Trevor took her warm fingers and kissed the tips.

“You’re not angry with me?” He sank down next to her and wiped her wet face.

“Why?”

“You were the one crying.”

“Trevor.” She sighed. “Things are going too fast, and it seems I don’t have any control over my life.”

Things had gone quickly that morning. He argued against what he had done by sending the letter and he still fought the reason for doing it.

“Come to bed with me,” she cooed. “I’d like to get to know you.”

“Oh, and just what did you want to know?”

Trevor held his breath when her hand slid up his thigh.

“Everything,” she purred.

The warmth leached from her palm while her fingertips were cool. He put more thought into her fingers curling over the side of his leg and hunting beneath his saluting erection. He moaned at the first touch to his balls. They ached for her handling. He knew the moment she kneaded them gently, he wanted more than a mating from her.

“Come to the city with me.” She sat forward.

Her lips pressed to the center of his chest. The heat stirred his lustful desire a little hotter. Her breasts brushed his legs and his cock nestled between them. She kissed his stomach so it pushed him deeper into her cleavage. Impulse, anticipation, and his pulsing hardness brought his hands up to squeeze her flesh to him.

“For a visit?” He tried not to selfishly enjoy it without paying attention.

“Well, if that’s all the time you want to stay with me, then yes, for a visit.” She shifted on the bed and it separated his cock from the heat in which he had it buried.

“You’re not going back there to live.”

“Yes, I am.”

“You have to stay here. Wolves mate for life,” he said it without a true belief in the notion, but a need to argue with anything reasonable she might accept.

“I’m not a wolf—not really.”

“You’re going to have my baby.” He grasped for reasons.

“You don’t know that for sure.” She scooted back on the bed. “Do you?”

The conversation turned serious, and it meant he wouldn’t get her lovely mouth on a part of him begging for his complacent silence.

Chapter 7

Nikita had such a need to have him inside her, she didn’t think about birth control. She liked the idea of having his baby and carrying on a legacy. She rose up on her knees and pushed him back on the bed.

“If I have a baby, what kind of father will you be?”

He looked at her strangely.

“You had to have thought about being a father and not some sperm donor to get the job done?” The question had merit.

“No, I hadn’t given it much thought.” He grabbed her arms, flipped her over on the bed, and hovered over her.

She looked up breathlessly aware he felt the same things she did.

She pulled him down. His lengthy, masculine body, solid, heavy, and incredible, meshed with her soft contours. He united every ache she had with a pulsing cure. He kept a knee to the outside of her leg to keep some of his weight from squishing her. For the most part, his astonishingly hot skin kissed hers from head to toe.

Nikita combed her fingers into the hair on his nape. She played with the strands of luscious silk while staring into his hungry eyes. His hand went to her hip and she moved by his guidance. His fingers slid along the back of her thigh and stopped behind her knee. He pulled her leg up and she lifted it over his hip. On their sides, his cock nuzzled her belly. He

adjusted. She gasped. He fit himself into the moist entrance

of her sex and shoved himself into her with vigor.

“Trevor!” she cried out with surprise.

“I want you to stay here with me.” His fingers dug into the cheeks of her ass to force her hips against his.

Her breasts flattened in the dark brown hairs on his chest. He couldn’t have excited her more. The aggressive movements put her once again on her back, Trevor on top, holding her down with his weight. It sent an erogenous thrill through her limbs.

“I have a life, a job, and oh God,” she groaned.

An intense orgasm arched her away from him. He kept flexing his hips and stimulating the fiery nerves already responding. His mouth moved quickly over her breasts. The thread between his suckling kiss and her clenching vagina went taut.

“You’ll stay?”

“Noooo...” Her body cramped with jerking spasms.

“Nikita, I want you to stay.”

She couldn’t carry on a conversation. She gripped his biceps, letting her fingernails dig into his skin to hang on to his last hard jolt. He lowered down after his howling completion, and she felt his sperm ooze out between them.

His nuzzling kisses along her neck drew her in closer until they were simply hugging. “Marry me?”

“You told me not more than two hours ago you wouldn’t marry me.”

“That was before...” His mouth came close to hers. “That was before we mated and I knew I’d have a bond with you for life.”

“I don’t know. You want to live here and my home is in the city.”

“Is that a yes?” He kissed small pecks to her lips, across her cheeks.

She didn’t want to say no when the word yes ran like a racehorse in her head. His hot breath caressed her neck.

“It’s a maybe.”

“Why a maybe?” He goosed back his head.

“We’re strangers.”

“Strangers who are naked in bed together if you hadn’t noticed.”

“It’s called a one-night-stand.”

“Does it feel like this could be just one night, or even one week with us?” He turned his back to her.

“No,” she answered, knowing he couldn’t see the shake of her head.

She’d not lie. She couldn’t when he looked almost hurt. “I need a little time.”

“You didn’t need too much time to let me mate with you.”

“That’s not fair. Escaping the threat of death makes people rush to do insane things.”

“Is that the excuse for the first time as well?” he charged.

Nikita sat up and kissed the back of his shoulder. The smooth skin, tight over the roll of his muscles, had its very own attraction. She slid her hand around his bicep to his chest.

“You know I care about you.” She watched her hand slip off his body as he stood. “Where are you going?”

He shrank within the blink of her eye and shifted into a wolf. He jumped on the bed and forced her to lie down.

“What are you up to?” She laughed at his licks to her face.

Trevor flopped down between her legs and put his head on her abdomen. The erotic position gave her a shiver. His gaze stayed with hers, even though he rubbed a circle on her skin with his chin.

“You’re trying to be cute, aren’t you?”

He rose up, and profusely licked her face. She put her hands up to stop him. He manipulated her arms so his paws pinned her. Suddenly, he shifted back to a man—handsome, well-built, and desirable.

“Is it working? I do cute rather well, don’t you think?” He leapt off the bed at the crash from the living room. “Wait here.”

She watched him walk naked from the room. Not feeling comfortable naked with wolves trying to get in the house, Nikita got up and found a shirt in a drawer. She put it on and started to button it when she saw the edge of a picture peeking out from under his socks. She slid the socks away and stared at the blue-eyed girl. Fifteen and smiling, she remembered the day her grandfather took her picture.

She heard Trevor’s footsteps and turned to ask him why he had a picture of her in with his clothes. She found it sweet, except the dresser was old and it was on the bottom, and she deemed it could have just been there and he never noticed.

“Is everything all right out there?”

Her head came up and a man grabbed her. His hand went over her mouth so she couldn’t get a sound out. He threw her to the bed and seconds later, she found herself pinned beneath a wolf.

She kicked her legs while laying face down on the bed. The wolf abruptly tumbled off the mattress. Nikita flipped over and saw Trevor, transformed, and fighting with her attacker. As battles go, he ended it quickly, leaving the wolf unconscious and bloody on the floor.

“Is he dead?” She drew her knees up and hugged them, not watching Trevor rise back to his feet as a man.

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Now what?” She sank into the niche he made with his arm around her.

“Oh, I don’t know—fight the wolves that come to our door one by one, I reckon.” He kissed her forehead. “This isn’t a one-night stand to me, honey, and it hasn’t been for quite a long time.”

“There’s a picture of me in the dresser.”

“It’s not the only one. I have others and just so you know, I sent the letter to get you here.”

“You’re not a big bad wolf in the least, are you?”

“Nikita, I’ve waited a long time to meet you, and you’re everything I imagined.”

She smiled and nuzzled her face against his warm skin. “You’re not going to get all mushy and tell me you love me too, are you?”

“Do you want me to?”

 “Yes, but let’s leave those confessions until we’ve known each other a little longer.” She tilted her head back and he kissed her.

“When?” He speckled her face with dozens of kisses.

“Tomorrow.” She sighed. “Let’s leave something for tomorrow and deal with your lust today.”