Black Mesa Wolves Complete Series Boxset Bks 1-7

by J. K Harper

  “Just...I love you. Can that be enough for tonight?” Her wolf danced ecstatically in her head, accepting it as enough for now. “I can't fight it,” she admitted in a whisper.

  Mason tipped her chin up. His lips hovering over hers, he said, “For the night before Christmas, Ana, you can have anything you want. I'm just damned happy it's me you want. Now shut up and kiss me, babe,” he said, voice a playful yet almost serious growl again. “I've been missing your lips for too long now.”

  With that, Mason kissed her under the mistletoe tacked to the mantel above her wood stove. Eagerly, Ana reached up to meet his lips. Tomorrow could wait. For tonight, she had what she realized was the best gift she'd ever wanted.

  Yet despite her happiness, she couldn't completely ignore the tickle of dread tiptoeing along her spine.

  6

  A soft whisper pulled Ana out of sleep so fully and quickly she knew it had been deliberate. She lay still on the bed, listening. Heavy limbs draped over her as Mason's solid, intoxicating scent wafted over her entire body and home.

  Her mate. With her. Finally.

  And yes. He was her mate. No matter what happened now, they'd experienced a mating frenzy. She'd never known that could happen with a human, but it had and it did. Mason Pearce was her mate. She couldn't deny that anymore than she could deny she was a wolf shifter.

  Said wolf rolled lazily in her head, filled with pure satisfaction at her silly human's acceptance of such undeniable facts, although she was just as alert to whatever sound had roused her. Moonlight sliced into the room, spilling over the bed and lighting Mason's face in its silvery glow. He looked so utterly peaceful beside her, so utterly right in her bed, she could hardly stand how perfect it seemed.

  Yes. He belonged here with her, and she belonged with him. No matter what the consequences.

  Outside, a very faint howl lifted the tiny hairs along her naked skin. The implacable command of her alpha rolled through it, demanding nothing less than her immediate compliance. No matter what the consequences. Shivers bolted along her skin at the call of her alpha. He must know. She would not be able to conceal this from him, nor would she want to. Mason was hers.

  Mine, her wolf agreed in no uncertain terms, despite her urging to get going.

  Very carefully, Ana slipped out from under Mason, although she dropped a soft kiss on his shoulder first. He murmured very lightly in his sleep. Silent, her wolf dancing with urgency in her head to obey the alpha's command, Ana left the warm house and went into the icy winter night outside.

  She shifted before her feet touched the snow-covered ground outside her small porch, easily loping away from the small building and the sleeping man inside it. Her breath puffed out into the frigid night air, showing up in the moonlight as she ran over the crunching snow on light paws toward her awaiting alpha. He howled again, still quietly, from somewhere on the ridge behind the woods at the edge of the den property. Ears flattening to her head in acquiescence to his firm call, she kept moving forward despite the feeling of leaving a part of her behind in her bed, wrapped up with Mason's sleeping form.

  Nothing could take him away from her again. Except her alpha. Sudden apprehension rippled through her. Ana pushed herself faster, letting her slender yet powerful legs churn hard across the still landscape in an effort to quiet the nervous chattering of her human. He'll be angry, her human thought, her voice filled with some dread. But we came back to the party. I did my duty there. And it was fun, anyway. Like always. Some bravado stiffened her words.

  Snorting quietly to herself, Ana simply kept running. As her wolf, she well knew her place. Her human side often questioned herself, however. Wolves never questioned. They simply lived and obeyed.

  They had gone back to the party and mingled. Ana's human had been so happy with everything. Happy with Mason, happy with the lights and decorations and food inside the den. Happy with how happy everyone else seemed as they laughed and talked. She'd stayed close to Mason all night, drawing on his strength and support. He simply understood her in a way no one else ever had. He was hers. He was her mate. She knew it in her bones, no matter what fears her human had. No matter what alpha decided. If this had never happened before, it made sense that the answer would not be anything that had ever happened before, either.

  A tiny shudder of nerves from her human once again rippled across her mind as she whipped past snow-laden pine trees, their trunks dark against the whiteness draping the night. Her alpha called to her, and she would answer. That was simple enough. Even if it was in the middle of the night, and on the eve of Christmas. Which for some reason meant a lot to her human, although Ana never truly understood its importance.

  When she gained the top of the ridge, she slowed down, picking her way more carefully among billowing white mounds that hid large boulders and shrubs. Channing Bardou, alpha of the Black Mesa Pack and one of the most powerful wolves in the entire world, sat on the highest part of the slope, from which the entire property and in fact the whole valley would be visible to him. Ana kept her head low as she approached, then slid onto her belly as she neared him. Reaching out her nose to his in tentative greeting, she rolled onto her back, showing him her defenseless belly in a show of submission. If he wanted to rip out her entrails right now, he could and she would let him.

  He's not going to do that, her human thought in some exasperation. But there was the slightest note of doubt in there as well. Ignoring all human logic, Ana kept her belly to the sky, tail drooped to one side. Her alpha nuzzled gently at her face before quietly commanding her to sit beside him. Rolling back onto her paws, she shook herself once to send small snow sprinkles flying from her coat, then sat back on her haunches and looked down into the valley with him.

  “Beautiful, isn't it?” Alpha's voice was calm as he surveyed the valley and mountains spread out before them. Although of course he did not speak as a human would in this shape, Ana understood him perfectly. Lights twinkled across the landscape in the far distance, many miles from the den. The edges of the town disappeared around a curve in the low mountainside hills, but the glow from all its collected lights softened the sky behind the horizon. “The holidays are a very important time for humans,” he went on, tone still very calm, if thoughtful. “This is when gifts are exchanged. When hearts are opened. When love arises.”

  Ana stared hard at the lights, unsure of what her alpha was saying. Her human stayed breathlessly silent in her mind, listening and watching just as hard. Crystal cold night air crackled over her nose and let sounds from far away ring as clearly as if they were mere feet from her. The moon's light shone off the white snow, bright enough for even human eyes to see clearly. To Ana's wolf eyes, everything was as visible as if it were in full sunlight.

  “And look closer,” he said. “Here, at the dark empty spaces surrounding us. Pack lands,” he added. “Black Mesa wolf territory, from our private holdings out onto the public lands as far as we can see.”

  Ana kept her ears pricked forward to show her interest, although she had no idea why he was telling her this. She knew this already. Black Mesa Pack territory was vast, sprawling into two states and spreading over mountain ranges and desert lands. She'd never even set paw on all of it, not being a Guardian who patrolled and protected the pack. Her hunting forays she kept to the lands near the den, where it was safest. She knew her strength, and her place. Stepping outside her bounds wasn't a smart thing for an omega wolf to do.

  Ana was definitely smart. Except, maybe, when it came to her heart.

  That thought came from her human, ever doubtful, ever wondering. Ana kept her huff to herself. She did as her pack told her, kept them playful and happy, and didn't make ripples. But now she'd chosen a human man as a mate. He was her mate, and that was simple truth. Big ripple, indeed.

  “This is Black Mesa land because shifters have held it for centuries now.” Alpha's voice held that teaching cadence she'd heard many times over the years. She must sit still and simply listen to him, even though she sti
ll didn't understand why he was telling what she already knew. “Shifters held it, expanded on its borders, and kept it ours despite all those who would have taken it from us. Other, more greedy packs, rogue wolves...and humans.”

  Ana tensed a little. She thought of Mason, sprawled innocently in her bed. Those dusky blue eyes closed, his dark head nestled into her pillows. In her heart, she knew he was her mate. He was so like a wolf in many ways, although her human didn't understand that. His totem animal, whatever that meant—despite the moment, she huffed to herself at his funny human logic—was strong. It didn't matter what it meant. He was hers.

  Hers to protect. Or, perhaps, to be required to—kill? The thought again made her reel with terror. She hadn't turned him, and she never would. Never. Once before she'd seen a human killed by his shifter lover. The shifter had bitten him in a forgetful moment of blind passion, turned him, and paid dearly for her mistake. The memory was seared into Ana's mind, as it was in every single pack member forced to witness the necessary punishment for not only exposing shifters to a human, but creating a made shifter. Both things were so deeply against all pack law they virtually never happened. Especially since the penalty was death.

  Never, ever would she let that happen to Mason. Never.

  “We are all shifters here, Ana.” Alpha's voice was still teacherly. Calm. “That is what being a member of the Black Mesa pack means. To be a wolf shifter. We cannot have human involvement in our pack, except on the most peripheral levels. To do otherwise would mean the exposure and eventual extinction of our pack. Of all shifters. This is something I can never allow to happen.”

  Ana thought she caught just a hint of an immense grief behind his words. Before she could examine it, Alpha turned on her so swiftly she had no time to react. The great head swung toward hers, his eyes pinning her like a predator did its prey. Heart battering her from the inside out, Ana shook so hard she thought she might pass out.

  “Truth, wolf,” her alpha said. Quailing, she could see the fierceness in his eyes before she cast her own gaze to the ground in sheer subservience. “Is he your mate? The human in your home, the human with whom you chose to share the majority of your time rather than your pack on this most special night? Do you dare allow a human to stake his claim on your heart, as your mate?”

  Ana's heart pounded so loudly it obliterated almost all other sounds. Very faintly, she heard a great horned owl hoot from the woods behind them. She thought her human might be in a faint in her mind.

  “Answer me, Daciana Lyall,” her alpha growled. “Do you claim that human man above any male shifter, into your heart and your life? Regardless of all consequences?”

  The sheer focus of his gaze unnerved her so badly she almost prostrated herself again, to show him her vulnerable belly, her lowliness in the pack hierarchy, her willingness to submit to all her pack's rules despite her own wants. Yet deep within, she also knew the truth. Her heart was beating alongside that of the human man in her bed many miles behind them, entwined with him no matter what. Mason Pearce, human or not, was her mate, and she could not deny it.

  She would not deny it, no matter the consequences.

  “Yes,” she finally said, voice low yet sure. Her voice was surprisingly steady despite the rapid smack smack smack of her heart. “Yes. I claim him as mine. Regardless of any consequences.” The last words dragged out of her in a small, ragged whine, but she forced them out anyway.

  Although she still didn't dare look her alpha in the eye, her words were strong and sure. Despite her human's fear, Ana felt the unshakeable truth of what she'd just said hang in the air between her and her alpha.

  He was silent in response. Slowly, her breathing calmed as her heart rate slowed back to more normal. The roaring left her ears, and she was able to pick up on small sounds again. The tiny crunch of some nocturnal forest dweller wandering over the snow. The long, low whistle of the train on the far-off tracks, sounding almost mournful in the dark as it clattered its winding way along the valley floor. The hoot of the owl again, quieter now.

  Ana felt amazingly calm and certain as she waited for her alpha to pass judgment on her admittance that a human man was her mate. When he spoke, though, he didn't say anything at all she expected.

  “There are many reasons humans do not know of the existence of shifters.” His voice was thoughtful again. He'd returned his gaze to the dark valley stretched out below, so Ana did, too. “Mostly, it is to ensure our survival. We are certainly outnumbered in the world. Humans being the way they are, we would be captured and either locked up or killed if they knew of us.”

  Ana cocked her head once in understanding. Alpha kept his eyes fastened on the valley, seeming very intent, before speaking again. “What you need to understand is that sometimes, we are not only secret from them.”

  Startled, she glanced at her alpha for a split second. He looked back at her, amusement suddenly apparent in his expression. “Sometimes, Ana,” he said in a soft voice, “we are a secret from ourselves.”

  Ana's human muttered very quietly, What does that mean?

  She had no idea.

  “Come,” her alpha said, standing up and shaking himself slightly. Ana did the same. “We shall run for a while now so you can ponder. Then we return to the den, so you can return to Mason. Tomorrow morning, bring him to my house.” The alpha and his mate's house was slightly separate from the main den, sitting behind it in a small copse of trees for more privacy. “There you will learn the fate for taking on a human as a mate.”

  Ana's human was silent in dark fear. Still not daring to question, Ana merely followed her alpha as he sprang silently down the hill. They raced over the ice-crackling snow beneath the moonlight, Ana quiet and confused the entire way back, new doubt beginning to spread despite her one unshakeable certainty.

  Mason was hers and she his. No matter what the consequences.

  7

  The wolf chasing him ran faster and faster. Gaining on him, its hot breath tickling at his neck, it howled. The wolf bounded in front of him, whirled around to face him, and stopped. Small and pretty, the wolf opened its mouth, laughing at him. As he watched, curious and confused, it stretched and morphed and began to change shape, growing into something else. A soft voice called out his name. “Mason....” it said, a hint of laughter still in it. “Mason, I'm right here. Wake up, Mason. Time to wake up now.”

  With a start, Mason opened his eyes. He rolled over in the softness of his bed and moaned at the delicious smell. Was that...pumpkin and cinnamon? Couldn't be, he decided sleepily. His slacker roommates never baked anything. Another enticing scent rose from the pillowcase under his cheek, and he jolted with sudden awareness. This scent was all soft rain and wildflowers, underscored by something so arousing he was abruptly rock hard.

  Ana. His Ana. He was in Ana's bed. At Ana's house. Where he'd spent the night, finally, for the first time in months. Memories of the evening and night washed over him, making him even harder. Ana's laughter, her little gasps as he'd trailed kisses over her entire body, the note in her voice as she'd begged him to keep going, to not stop, to never stop. Her dark hair sliding over one green eye as she straddled him, seeming excited by her own daring as she took the lead.

  The mind-blowing orgasms, the wild intensity of being with her again. The crazy feeling that they'd shared something so profound it had just changed his life.

  Yeah. It had been too long. He was putty in the woman's hands. Whatever she asked, he'd say yes. Unless she asked him to leave again. Nope. That wasn't going to happen ever again.

  “Ana,” he murmured, stretching out one hand to search the bed for her warmth.

  “Hey, sleepyhead,” her dark velvet voice came from a little ways away. He heard a smile in it, and something else he couldn't quite decipher. “I made some muffins. Christmas morning muffins, and some coffee.”

  Mason lifted his head from the pillow and peered out the open doorway of Ana's room. Her little cabin was cozy to the extreme. Which was to say it w
as tiny. She said it came with the job so it didn't matter how small it was. With her skill at decorating, though, her little place was the cutest—yeah, he didn't use that word much, but it fit—mountain cabin he'd ever seen, complete with its wrap-around porch, a giant-sized ponderosa pine to one side that gave it great shade in the summer, and the neat charm inside that had Ana's prettifying touch all over it. He'd always loved it here. It felt more like home than the place in town he shared with two of his work buddies.

  Out here, it always felt right. Then again, it was where Ana was. Being wherever she was felt damned right.

  The sweet woman herself appeared in the doorway, a steaming mug of something that smelled like a serious cuppa joe in one hand. She was wearing a plush forest green robe that made her eyes sparkle like emeralds in her gorgeous face. Mason propped himself up on one elbow and studied that face. Especially the lips, which were plump and red and very slightly bruised looking.

  He smiled in pure male satisfaction. “Looks like someone did some wild stuff to your pretty lips last night, babe,” he said. His voice was still roughened by sleep and it came out low. “They look extra sexy this morning.”

  His instant reward was Ana's face and neck flushing pink, which she'd always had a tendency to do every time he complimented her. She paused in the doorway and caught her lower lip in her teeth. The sight sent a bolt straight down to the part of Mason already hard enough to hurt, and he groaned. “God, woman, you're going to be the death of me,” he muttered, starting to fling back the covers to beckon her to him.

  But at his words, Ana suddenly stiffened. An expression like that of a frightened doe flashed over her face, followed by another expression that seemed fierce. Then worry took over.

  Mason watched the blatant procession of emotions in fascination and some alarm. “What's wrong? And is that coffee for me?”