I call his cell phone and wait for him to answer. It rings several times, and no one answers. He must be running. I leave him a short message.
“Zeke I just wanted to let you know that I am alive and all right. I don’t know when I will get a chance to call again. I miss you. I hope you’re all right. I never meant to hurt you. I hope father will forgive me. I doubt he will ever speak to me again. I doubt he cares that I am gone. At least now I won’t be causing any more trouble.” I hung up without saying goodbye. I couldn’t bring myself to say bye. It would make it to final like I am not going to ever see him again. I will see him again. I hope.
I don’t know how long I was sitting there lost in time when I heard him clear his throat behind me. I turned to see Max standing behind me in the doorway. He has his arms crossed over his bare chest. He might be mad that I used the phone I can’t tell.
“Did you remember to block the call?”
“Yes. Sorry, I should have asked first. I just wanted to let my brother know I was all right. He must be feeling bad with me so far from him. No one answered. I guess he is out running.”
He doesn’t seem too upset with me. He comes out and sits right beside me. His bare skin touches my arm. I move over a foot. I don’t want to be touching him. I don’t know if I can control my impulses. The one that wants to jump his bones.
“Do you need to use the phone again or are you done with it?”
“Oh, sorry here. I don’t have anyone else I need to call. It’s just Zeke, he is my twin. We are so connected it hurts to be so far apart.”
“I am sorry it hurts. It’s a pretty night out isn’t it. The moon will be full in a few nights. I can feel it.”
“Yes, I can too. Nothing better than running under the full moon.”
“Oh, I can think of a few things. I take it you haven’t been with anyone at all yet.”
Was he insinuating I had sex with other wolves? “I have not!”
“Sorry, I wasn’t accusing you of anything. You know it’s all right to be with someone. As long as they don’t bite you, they’re not mated to you.”
“I am not that kind of wolf. I will not be with anyone till I have chosen a mate.” He laughs and shakes his head. I don’t think anything is funny. He smiles at me. I don’t think I like him smiling at me. He is making fun of my innocents. I may be a virgin, but I know what I want.
“Do you want to come back inside. The air is getting a bit chilly out here.”
“I’m fine, thanks. I like the cool air.”
He sits with me for some time without talking. At one point he stretches, and his arm comes down around my shoulder. He tries to pull me close, but I stand up and move away from him. “I was just trying to warm you. I can see the bumps rising on your arms, you're cold. I take it you’re afraid to go inside with me. I told you I wouldn’t do anything till you are ready.”
“I feel fine. If it gets cold, I will come in. If you are cold go on inside. The night air feels good to me. I like listening to the creatures of the night. I always sleep with my bedroom window open so I can listen. I love listening to the owls and crickets. It is like their singing me to sleep.”
“It’s when they go quiet that you have to worry. Does it not seem a little quiet all of a sudden?”
I listen. He is right, nothing is making a sound. I listen to see what else I can hear. Then the smoke hits my nostrils. “Smells like the hunters are camped close by. I hate hunters. They always leave a mess, their trash and dead animals.”
“I am going to go have a look you stay here. Keep the phone with you. If I am not back in twenty minutes’ head for the truck. The keys are hidden… Never mind, I will be right back.”
He doesn’t want me to know where he left the keys. I got news for him I can hot wire a truck as well as any of my brothers. I won’t let him in on that little fact. Yes, I have been in trouble before. I used to sneak out of the house. When I didn’t feel like walking well, I borrowed transportation. I usually dropped it back off close to where I borrowed it from.
I watch him strip off. I hadn’t even thought about it. He turns around to give me the full-frontal vision. I gasp and turn away. He laughs. I listen till I hear him running.
I may have only gotten a short look but let me tell you it was plenty. The wolf had a lot to be proud of. Very nice indeed. I had thought the wolves at home who stripped before fighting for me were well hung, but I don’t think they could hold a candle to Max. Nice, very nice. I feel hot and overheated just thinking about him. I go inside and get a wash rag and run it under cold water. I put it to my face, I need to cool off.
Why do I think such things whenever he is around me? I didn’t get those thoughts when Duncan and Rufus stripped before they fought for me. Was it just because they were going to fight? Maybe I should have taken a cold shower.
I could feel her staring at my back. I knew when I turned around to show her what I had to offer it would get her attention. She liked it. I know she did, I felt the air become heated. Or was that just me wanting her to want me? No, she wanted to be with me. She wanted what I had to offer her. Just you wait, baby, you will feel all of it soon. I will show you just how well my tool works. How well I work it. I want you so bad right now. I must focus on the hunters. I must make sure that your pack hasn’t found us. That one little taste today in the woods just got my motor going. Your juices were so sweet to my taste buds.
I wait for him to return out on the porch. I don’t hear anything. As long as I don’t hear a gunshot I think he is ok. The night still hasn’t started talking again. That makes me a bit nervous. The crickets, owls, and the frogs none of that stops unless something dangerous is around.
Ten minutes, then fifteen and he still hasn’t returned. I start to think, what if he doesn’t come back? What do I do? Do I crawl home and hope the pack will accept me? Do I crawl back to Rufus? Or Kyle? What about Duncan would he take me even though he lost the fight? I mean, if the pack wouldn’t take me, would he?
Twenty minutes and still he isn’t back. Twenty-seven minutes no sign of him returning. Then I hear a howling way, way off. I don’t know what he is telling me. We are not connected the way I am with my father’s pack.
Maybe he was just letting me know he is out there. No, wait, what if another pack of wolves is out there? What if my father is out there? No, it wasn’t any of our pack, I would have known their howls. What if it is Max’s pack? He hasn’t mentioned a pack, but surely he has one somewhere. He can tell me he is a lone wolf, but he could be lying for all I know. He has made a lot of calls since we have been together. Maybe it was his pack he was calling?
Thirty-five minutes still he hasn’t returned. I don’t know what to do. I start to think I should be going to the truck and getting the hell out of there, but I stay.
Forty-five minutes and still he hasn’t come back. Forty-eight, forty-nine, nothing. I pace the length of the porch. Then I feel eyes on me. I know I am being watched. I stop and turn toward the eyes. I feel him. He is there watching me. I stay still staring out into the dark toward him. I know it is him I feel. I have that feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Some thirty-six minutes later and he is approaching the porch. I stand there staring at him. He stands before me naked. He stares at me. I don’t look down. I don’t need to see all of him. I wait for him to tell me what he found. “You are so beautiful when you’re scared. You stayed. I told you to leave if I wasn’t back in twenty. But you stayed.”
“You didn’t tell me where the keys were, remember? How was I going to go, just run into the night not knowing exactly where I was? I waited to see if you were alive or not. I didn’t hear any shots so I was pretty sure you would return.”
“Yes, that is why you wore a path in the wood on the porch. You didn’t even call anyone. I am proud of you.”
“What was this some kind of damn test to you?” I turn and walk into the house slamming the door behind me. The glass in the windowpane shook. I didn’t care if it broke. I went into the little bedr
oom and shut the door. That is when I noticed there wasn’t a lock on the door. Great. I sit quietly for a long time. I don’t move or make a sound. Then I hear him moving around. He is still in the living room.
“Cara, sweetheart come here.” I hear him calling me, but I don’t go rushing to him. Then I hear him walk over to the bedroom door. He listens to see if I am sleeping. He doesn’t hear anything, so he cracks the door open. I wait, watching him. It is dark, but our eyes can see through the darkness. When his eyes met mine, he pretended to be looking for his phone. “Do you still have my phone?”
I sit still and look at him like he is not fooling me. Then his phone rings. Damn it, I did have it. I nearly jumped off the bed when it rang right beside me. I forgot I had it outside when I stormed into the house. I reached for it, but he was already grabbing for it.
“Hello”
“Sir, I have that information we talked about.”
“Wait.” He pulls the phone down, then speaks to me. “You have a good night. Sleep well my dear. I will see you in the morning.” He smiles like he has just won the world’s biggest prize. I don’t say a word. I don’t move just sit there staring at him as he walks out the door and shuts it behind him. I listen and hear the front door open then close. He has taken the call outside. I wonder what that is all about?
There is no window in the bedroom so I can’t sneak out and listen in. I look around to find something to put in front of the bedroom door. At least something that would make a noise. A noise loud enough to wake me up if he tried to come in while I slept.
I find a wooden chair. I take it over and push the back of it up under the doorknob. It will keep him from making his way in too easily. He would have to force the chair back and it would either have to break or at least scrap the floor.
I decide it is safe to lay down. I don’t think I am all that tired, but it doesn’t take long till I am sleeping. I dream of many things. First, I see Zeke, his body is mangled and bleeding. I almost feel like I am there with him all torn up. It hurts.
The next thoughts I have are of a fight. Rufus and my father? Odd. I see Rufus attacking my father in the living room. The pack is gathered. They’re having some kind of meeting. I can’t hear what is being said. Then out of the blue, I see Rufus jump off the couch and storm my father. My father is all over him.
Rufus is fast and pretty strong. My father is old and has fought many fights and knows how to fight well. Rufus bites him in the thigh. My father tears into Rufus’s neck. Blood splatters everywhere.
I must have howled because I am woken by Max beating on the bedroom door. I sit up and look around forgetting that I am not home. “Cara are you all right? Cara answer me what is wrong?”
“I’m ok. Bad dream I guess.”
“Open the door, let me see you. Cara, please let me see that you’re all right. Come open the door or I will break it down.”
“Ok hold on a minute.” I stand up and feel the cold wood against my feet. I shiver. The night temperature has dropped. I pull the chair back then he is pushing the door in on me.
“Are you all right?” He grabs me and pulls me into his arms. It feels nice. He is warm and smells so good. Then I remember he is still a stranger. I stand back from him. He tries to hold me.
“I thought someone had gotten in somehow. I heard you growling and then screaming. I didn’t know what to make of it. I was ready to kill whatever was attacking you. I…” He is sweating. He is shaken. He really did think something had me. He was really worried about me. I can see just how scared he was.
“I was having a really bad dream. I thought… I saw my father being attacked by Rufus. I saw blood, lots of blood.” I was shaking and didn’t even know it. He steps to me once more and wraps his arms around me. He doesn’t let me pull away this time. I hear his heart racing. He really was going to kill whatever he had to, to hold on to me. That is something only a mate or pack member would do.
“I tried to get in, the door wouldn’t open. I thought I was losing you. I thought they found you and were fighting with you to make you go home with them. I don’t want to lose you. Cara, I need you. I want you.”
I can feel things rising in between us. I push against his chest. His nice firm chest. I tell myself to focus not on him but something else.
He looks at me with a concerned face. “Why wouldn’t the door open?”
“Because I blocked it with a chair. I didn’t know if I could trust you.”
“Oh, baby you scared the death out of me. I was half asleep when you started howling and wasn’t thinking clearly. All I could think was they had come to take you away. I won’t let them take you from me. I won’t let you go.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of what he was saying. I know my father had told me hundreds of times about male wolves. About how I was coming of age and throwing off scents that would drive all male wolves crazy. “I’m all right now. Sorry, I scared you. I should let you go back to bed. You should get some sleep.”
“I don’t think I can sleep with you so far away from me. I want to stay in here with you. I will sleep on the floor. I just don’t want to go through that again. I will get my blanket and pillow. You go lay back down. I will be back in a minute.”
“But I…” Crap could I trust him?
“I won’t do anything. I just need to know you are safe. Lay down and try to go back to sleep. If you start having another nightmare I will wake you.”
I don’t know about laying down with him in the same room. I don’t like the idea. I go to the bathroom. He has his blanket and pillow and is heading for the bedroom.
“You sure you’re all right?”
“Yes, I just need to use the bathroom.” He nods his head ok then heads on into the bedroom. He is visible shaken. He really does care a lot about me. I take my time in the bathroom mostly trying to let him fall asleep. Then I can move out of the bedroom. If I have to I will sleep outside. The cool night air might help me sleep in more than one way.
When he held me, and I felt the heat rising, then when I felt him rising between us, it was almost too much to handle. I don’t want to do anything stupid. But how long can I hold off before I do forget myself and let him have his way with me?
He is sitting on a blanket on the floor right beside the bed where I was before. The side I had been lying on. When I walk back into the room, he smiles. He moves to let me back on the bed.
“I thought I was going to have to come get you. You are sure that you are going to be all right?”
“I’m fine, really, it was just a dream. The floor is too hard to sleep on go on back to the couch. Your back will hurt if you lay there.”
“I could lay on the bed with you. I mean you under the cover, me on top if you’re worried I might do something.” I stare at him like he is crazy. He laughs, then lays down. He rolls on his side facing me. I try to lay down. I can’t get comfortable with him watching me. I can’t roll over turning my back to him, that would be dangerous.
“Sweet dreams, Princess.”
“Oh, not you too.”
“What?”
“Princess? I hate that name.”
“I meant to ask you about it. Why do they call you Princess?”
“I thought we already talked about it. Because I am the only female born to our pack in over sixty years.”
“Oh, that’s right. That does make your pretty special. Princess fits you. You do look like royalty. You carry yourself like you’re that confident. You would make a wonderful Princess. I can see it now you dressed in the royal robe. The crown jewels on your head. You are sitting on a throne and everyone bowing at your feet. Yes, you would be the perfect Princess.”
I roll my eyes at him. I lay back on my pillow so that I am not looking at him, yet my back is not turned to him. He goes on about Princesses and stuff. I tune him out. I think about my own problems. I think about Zeke and wonder if he is all right? I think about my nightmare and wonder if it had any meaning to it? Rufus? Would he really attack my f
ather? Would he live if he did?
I wake up to snoring. Yes, he was snoring. Not on the floor where he had been when I fell asleep but lying on the bed next to me. I jump off the bed the minute I see him lying beside me. How the hell did he get on the bed without me waking up? What had he done to me? Had he somehow drugged me? Was that even possible to drug a werewolf and knock them out? I wasn’t sure.
“Hey, you’re up. Sorry, don’t go all crazy on me. I only got up here when I couldn’t wake you from another nightmare. You were growling and screaming something awful. I tried to wake you. I promise I didn’t touch you.”
“When did you get in bed with me? How did you do it without waking me? Did you drug me?”
He looks at me funny then turns his head sideways. He is confused. He slowly sits up. He is lying under a sheet. When he sits up it falls down. He is naked.
“What the hell?” He looks down, then figures out what is freaking me out.
“I lost my last set of clothes the last time you started screaming out. I was asleep an instinct said to shift, that you were in danger. I didn’t have anything else here to put on. I have more clothes in the truck. I will go get them in a few minutes. I need a minute to wake up.”
I slide around the side of the room, staying close to the wall. He watches me. I can see just how much he liked lying in bed with me. He is hard as a rock and standing very tall. “I didn’t touch you I swear. Not that I don’t want to. But I don’t want to do anything till I know you want me as much as I want you.”
“Good.” I make it to the door and run out. I hear him flop down on the bed. I go into the bathroom and check on my clothes. The shirt and underclothes have dried not my pants, they are still wet. I don’t know if I should go ahead and wear them wet or give them a little more time. I put everything on but my wet pants before I walk back to the bedroom to ask him if we are staying or leaving.
When I walk back into the bedroom. He has his eyes closed and his hand working on his hardness. I stop in my tracks. He heard me. I know he knew I was there, but he didn’t stop what he was doing. I back up a few steps.
One Princess One Pack One Villain Page 10
