I couldn’t breathe. “Where? He’s back? What did he say?”
“Yeah. At the bakery, getting coffee. He didn’t say where he’d been, but said that he was back to work. He looks good, Cass. Real good.” She nodded at my shock. “He wanted to know how you were, but he was all shy about asking. It was cute.”
“Major’s never cute.” Those tears were coming again, for a completely different reason.
“No. Major’s pure fucking sex.” Renee hummed like she’d just had a bite of chocolate. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything, I’m sorry.”
“No, you should have.” I headed back to the funeral home. “I’m glad he’s back.”
This was exactly the kind of trouble I didn’t need right now.
Chapter Three
MAJOR
“The band is paid for, we’ve got a dozen dancers. Some of them do more than just dance, of course.” X wiggled his eyebrows, light jumping in his eyes. “I’m so stoked about this party. We need this so bad, after all the shit we went through. It has to be totally fucking epic. What are we missing?”
“Strippers, band, booze, women, what else could we ask for?” Shea tapped his chin, narrowing his eyes at me. “How about even a drop of enthusiasm from our fucking brother? Come on man, quit moping. These parties are your claim to fame around here. It’s going to be lame if you don’t snap out of whatever funk you’re in.”
“I’m into it,” I lied. I couldn’t give a shit about this party. “You two can handle this. The shop’s a mess. We need to make some money to pay for your dancers, Shea.”
Shea laughed.
“Dude, I should show you my phone. They can’t wait to see me. I’m saving you so much money. You’re welcome.” He clapped my shoulder. “I’d let you read the messages, but you’d bust a nut.”
“It might be good for him.” X grinned. “Screw that, show me.”
I’d started the parties about ten or so years ago as a way to help my pack buddies get laid. We’d get our asses kicked if we even thought about touching a she-wolf. The trick was not to get caught doing it. Easier said than done. I showed my brothers all my tricks, but a couple guys, either dumb or unlucky, got caught with girls promised to those rich dickheads. Their punishment was ugly, almost enough to scare me away. None of us had ever taken a she-wolf to bed. It was torture, but we did it out of respect to the women. We didn’t think they were whores like their future husbands did.
Six months in captivity made me think long and hard about that, as I was being tortured, in many ways, over a woman I’d never had in my bed.
But I would.
Cass had loved to dabble on the dark side, and get her hands dirty with me. But she wouldn’t stand up to the system. I could make noise all I wanted, but unless I had a she-wolf by my side, it meant absolutely nothing.
After all those years of sneaking around, shame, and no satisfaction, the guys in the packs had no idea what to do with a human women. Nothing that a little alcohol and the pull of the moon couldn’t fix. I’d meant to throw the parties once or twice, to get the ball rolling. They quickly became legend in Idaho, and after a couple months we had to sell advanced tickets. I made sure there were always more women than men. Give the pack guys the advantage for once, let women fight over them. Every month, we could’ve filled two clubs. If I was doing it for the money, I’d be rich now. Still wouldn’t get me Cass, or any wolf. The only females that were available now were still in diapers.
Fuck that.
“Don’t tell me this is about Cass.” X frowned, clicking out of the website that had the hired dancers’ pictures on them. I recognized a few, and X would bring at least one of them to bed next weekend. “I saw you talking to Renee the other day. Your face lit up like the Fourth of fucking July when she mentioned Cass. I don’t know what bullshit she’s feeding you, but you need to forget it.”
“Renee said Cass was doing great.” The words came from between gritted teeth. It was bullshit. Darkness flashed over her face when I’d asked about her best friend. Walter, Cass’ husband, had been behind us in the line, buying a coffee for the human woman he paraded around town. Renee always loved stirring up drama, and I wouldn’t waste an opportunity to let Walter know that his father died with debts unpaid.
“Well, if it’s about Kiera, you can fix that yourself.” X had an answer for everything. “We all know Baron hates to fight.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Last party before we got captured. Come on, you weren’t that drunk. You had a girl on your lap—I thought the two of you were going to go at it right on the bar.” Wouldn’t be the first time that happened at a Full Moon Fever party. “She stood out because she had short hair, and she wasn’t dressed like...you know how they dress at those things. It took me a while to figure out that was Kiera. It’s got be killing you to see her with a Channing.”
I remembered Kiera, all right. There was a fire inside her like I’d never seen before. Instead of offering to crawl under the table and suck my dick like most of the party girls, Kiera guaranteed she could drink me under the table. She almost succeeded. We shared one hot kiss, and I’d been about to ask her to come back to my place when she freaked out. Slapped me across the face out of nowhere, and her friend dragged her out of the bar. What the fuck. Never thought I’d see her again, until she led me out of a dog fighting ring. “No. If I’m going to fight for a woman, she’s going to be a wolf.”
GRANGER FALLS HAD BEEN suffering from a case of Full Moon Fever only the Lowes could cure. The crowd, spilling out onto the deck on a snowy December night, cheered when my brothers and I arrived at The Redheaded Stepchild. A swarm of half-naked women immediately surrounded Shea, their hands everywhere on his body. He nudged X, and one of his admirers who had a thing for both brothers wrapped him in a promising hug.
I turned back to the bar, high fiving Jacques, the owner.
“Good to have you back, man,” he said, sliding my beer over to me. “I forgot how crazy these things get.”
I was proud of these parties. People out here were humble and hardworking. Wolf or not, they needed to let loose. Girls twisted above our heads on poles in unison, and the band tore through their set. My brothers disappeared fast, most likely back to the VIP area we called Red Heaven.
“Hey, Major,” a blonde woman purred. Her perky tits threatened to spill out of her corset. “I missed you.”
“Tell me all about it.” I leaned on my stool, back to the bar, and she took my response as invitation to straddle my lap. I had no idea who this chick was, but it wouldn’t stop me from enjoying the ride.
“I was so lonely.” She pushed out her cleavage, tracing the swell with her fingers. She pouted when I didn’t move, fluttering her eyelashes in invitation. “Without these parties, I had to take care of my own fever, if you know what I mean.”
Her hand dropped to mine, pulling it from my leg and placing it on her crotch.
She was hot, all right, writhing in my lap under my hand.
“How’d you do that?” I asked.
She pushed her cleavage so close to my face my beard tickled her skin. Her hair fell down around me and whispered in my ear. “I pretended you took me to Red Heaven and fucked me until I had to crawl out of there on my hands and knees, with your cum running between my legs. Can’t you feel how wet I am for you, Major? Stop wasting time and make my dream come true.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” A voice I hadn’t heard in years startled me. I sat up straight and practically pushed the blonde off my lap. The woman standing beside us was my dream come true. Cass didn’t hide her amusement. “Never come on to a man like that. Make him chase you. They’re all animals, you know. That’s what they love—the hunt. Claiming what’s theirs.”
The blonde rolled her eyes. “You didn’t tell me you were married, Major.”
She stormed off.
“Come here,” I said, holding my arms open. Fuck, was Cass a sight for sore eyes. Red dress hugging every lusci
ous curve, topaz eyes framed by pin-up girl lashes, her dark hair falling above her cleavage. Just a hint, not the whole show like my blonde friend had been willing to give. I couldn’t tear my gaze away, dying to rip that pretty dress off her.
“My eyes are up here,” she laughed.
“I know.” I winked at her. “But I liked what I saw down there. Now get over here.”
“Like hell I’m going climb in your lap and ride you like a pony.” Cass laughed as she pressed against me. “You’d be the one crawling out of Red Heaven on your hands and knees. If we made it that far.”
My cock sprang to attention.
“Promises, promises.” Her lips were so close, I wanted to suck the lipstick off of them. Smear it all over her face and smash the façade she was trying to put up. If she knew how good things could be, she’d never go home to her husband. Or she would and I’d have to live with knowing what I could never have. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Cass’ mouth fell open. “I thought you’d be glad to see me.”
“You have no idea,” I whispered in her ear, running my lips over her throat. “But this is no place for a lady.”
“Good thing I’m not one.” She grabbed my chin and brought my face back to hers. She smelled incredible—jasmine, vanilla, and a breath of fresh fucking air. “I just read my little girl a story about how she was going to find her happily ever after, and after I refrained from adding what kind of bullshit it was, I decided maybe I was the one who should be proven wrong.”
I laughed. “If I remember correctly, you never are.”
Except for when she married Walter.
“God, I missed you, Major.” She put her hand on my chest, over my heart.
“You shouldn’t have come here, Cass.”
She pulled away from me. Fuck. “Oh, you think you’re going to tell me what to do now?”
I don’t think I had genuinely smiled since before the capture. “You’d know if I was giving you orders.”
“Indulge me.” She bit her lip as she sat on the stool next to mine and called over the bartender. “Let me play in your world.”
Cass wrapped her lips around the longneck bottle, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away. She licked the tip, winking at me before she put it on the bar. She knew exactly what she was doing. Asking for trouble.
“I’d make sure this beautiful body didn’t have a stitch of clothing on it.” I ran my finger from her knee to the hem of her dress. I let it catch there, not going any further. I’d never bring Cass to Red Heaven, and more importantly, she’d never go. “And I’d bend you over, that glorious ass high in the air—“
Cass leaned forward, cheeks and cleavage flushed.
“Is that all you think about?” She took another sip of her beer. This woman was trying to kill me. “Sex?”
A dark thought flashed in my head. Fuck. She could’ve been sent as a decoy. Cass had to do as her husband wished. His father’s blood may still be underneath Shadow’s fingernails, but it wouldn’t stop Walter from wanting me gone. “With you around? It’s in the top two.”
“What’s the other thing?” she asked.
“Spending the rest of my life with you.”
Chapter Four
CASS
This was a mistake.
I’d stormed out of the house, sick and tired of being surrounded by Walter’s family all week. They treated me worse than the hired help. Connie, they talked to like family. She was an old widowed wolf who knew how to play the sympathy card. When Emma needed something, they brought her to Connie. They looked at me like I was something crawling on their skin that needed to be slapped away.
So fucking what, I was born poor. Wolf trash, as they loved to remind me. My dad had liked to gamble, especially with the Ryker’s dowry, and sometimes my mother forgot to pick me up at school. Get over it. I was also born with some equipment the Rykers needed badly enough to pay for. It took me a while to get pregnant, but everything had been as good as it could have been until Emma was born. I’d served my purpose, somewhat. I’d given my husband a beautiful baby girl.
Not good enough.
Especially after he found out I’d been sneaking my human friend’s birth control to keep from getting knocked up again. Now I was back to being trash.
All I’d been able to think about lately was Major since Renee told me she saw him, and that’s why I’d come here. To get him out of my head, once and for all.
Because that was going to work.
It was an obsession, what could’ve been. I looked at the past with amazing clarity. In a perfect world, I could’ve married Major. In my fantasies, we never fought and we never grew old. We stayed in that lust-drunk haze forever. That’s why obsessions weren’t healthy. They made reality that much harder to deal with.
Finding him with some chick riding his lap like a carousel horse was exactly what I needed to see. Major wasn’t different than any other man, accepting the lowest bid to get the job done. I almost lost my nerve when I saw him. Nearly turned around and went back home, where I belonged.
But I was a glutton for punishment, and I went over to them. Major pushed the girl away. Forgotten, just like that. Fuck. Present day Major was going to torture me even worse than his memory did.
Now we stood by the bar with his arm around my waist, our faces barely more than an inch from each other. And every eye in the room on us.
Of course they stared. I wore the last name of one of the most powerful men in the state, accessorized with my husband’s sworn enemy.
“I was hoping we could go somewhere a little more private and talk.” I glanced back at the room. “And don’t you dare take me to Red Heaven.”
Major stood up, his hand still on my back. “Let’s go.”
I hated sneaking around like I was ashamed of Major. More like I was ashamed of myself for not listening to my heart all those years ago and refusing to marry Walter. I owned my choices, but the barrage of bullshit and danger we’d have to deal with from my husband for this little show wasn’t worth it.
“You’re riding your motorcycle this time of year?” I asked.
Major left his bike in a random parking lot near the edge of town, and I picked him up behind the building. Nothing ever changed for us. We came to this same place as kids. He brought the chill in with him, and he hesitated before doing anything. Our gazes caught. Time stopped.
Major was better looking than he ever was. All man now, those broad leather clad shoulders filled the inside of my SUV. Dark hair fell past his shoulders, and his eyes glowed gold with desire. His lips moved softly, framed by a beard I was dying to have scrape against my most delicate skin. I squirmed in the driver’s seat, the thought alone causing a deep pulsing sensation in my core I’d become unfamiliar with. There was so much I missed about Major.
“Yeah. I like riding this time of year. The air’s different. Not just cold—crisper. It changes everything.” He leaned closer, picking a piece of hair up from my fuzzy collar. Faux fur, of course. Only my husband was a barbarian. “You ever been on a bike?”
“Nope.” I closed my eyes for a long blink as Major’s fingers brushed against my jaw. The only thing I was interested in riding was the man in front of me. It would’ve been so much easier if we just mauled each other in the front seat of my SUV. The backseat was out of the question; Emma’s giant car seat filled the space, in case I needed a reminder that I shouldn’t be here.
“Please let me kiss you,” Major pleaded softly, fingers resting on my cheek.
Major was the first man I’d ever kissed. We were fifteen, in this very spot, by the train tracks. My friends, who were lucky enough to be courted by the wolf they were promised to, liked to go to the Overlook, a scenic area holding court over a dramatic dip in Sawtooth. Even if Walter had been interested in wooing me back then, he was thirteen years older than me. He had to wait for me until I was an adult. All the more reason my kisses with Major had to be under the cover of night and secrecy. So we started coming here,
fantasizing about jumping in a freight car and going anywhere else. To a place we could love each other, out in the open. Twenty years later and I still had the same fantasy. Our kisses echoed like the hammer of the engine, pounding, powerful, urgent, and then disappearing into the nothingness like they’d never happened.
This wasn’t just a kiss. It was the beginning of the end. I closed my eyes, melting as an approaching train wailed in the distance. I leaned forward.
He still tasted so sweet, like pine and unbroken promises. My heart rattled against my ribcage, like I was still a kid and looking ahead to a life with Major, not back at a bunch of regrets without him. I’d been married for twelve years, and not one of Walter’s kisses had ever been like this. I leaned back, surrendering to Major. He pinned me down with his body, holding my hands against the frosted window as our tongues tangled, and I wrestled with my conscience. He nipped my lips, planting little butterfly kisses on my cheeks and eyelids, and finally one on the tip of my nose.
“Relax.” He placed his finger over my lips. “I know it’s hard. After all this time, I want you here with me. You don’t know how much I missed you. Every fucking night, you’re the last thing I see when I fall asleep. One of these nights, you’ll be in my arms when it happens.”
“I have dreams like that, too. But that’s what they are. Dreams.” My voice shook. Usually I had to hide it, but with Major, I could be myself. It made it hurt that much worse that we couldn’t make those dreams come true.
Major cupped my chin. “Look me in the eyes, Cass, and tell me that you’re happy. If you can say it and make me believe it, I’ll leave you alone. But if you can’t, I’ll stop at nothing to make you mine. Deal?”
It sounded like heaven. “My husband will kill you if he catches us.”
“Your husband is already killing me.” Major tightened his grip. “If I’m lucky, your lips will be the last thing I taste before I die.”
Her Renegade Wolf (Sawtooth Shifters Book 3) Page 2
