Digging the Wolf: a paranormal romance (Werewolves of Crookshollow Book 1)

by Steffanie Holmes

“It’ll be fine.” Derek squeezed my arm. His tone was reassuring, kind, the way he’d been with me through the whole time I was dealing with Ben’s death. “Forget that article. It will be wrapped around people’s fish and chips by tomorrow. Now, what did you want my help with? Archaeologists and mythology students don’t usually have joint interests.”

  “I want to know about werewolves. Specifically, werewolf myths associated with England.”

  “Any particular reason?”

  “I believe the cave paintings aren’t as old as Frances and Ruth believe they are. I just need to prove it academically, without having to fork out my entire year’s scholarship for the carbon dating lab fee. One of the friezes depicts a man transforming into a wolf, and there is a lot of other wolf imagery. I need to look at some other examples of this type of imagery and mythology and put forward a case for the actual period the paintings are dated to.”

  “So, basically, a contextual art thesis?”

  I nodded. “It might work with the clothing, or a particular type of flora and fauna shown, but I thought the mythology was a good place to begin. I need to build a really solid case to take down Ruth.”

  “I’m happy to help.” Derek went to his bookshelf and started pulling out books, setting aside a small stack. “These will do for a start. I believe I’ve even got a book on animal depictions throughout British prehistoric artwork … ah, here it is.” He dumped a heavy volume on my lap.

  “Thanks, Derek.” I fingered the gilded edges of the book. It looked old and expensive and important. “Are you sure you don’t mind me borrowing these? You don’t need them for an essay or anything?”

  “They’re all yours. But, you know, the easiest thing would be if you just took me up to look at the paintings.”

  “I don’t know…Frances has a pretty tight grip on access. I don’t know if she’d let you on there unless you had a BBC camera strapped to your back or a Time Team trowel in your hand.”

  “Come on, Anna. I could totally help you expedite this process.”

  “OK, sure. I’ll bring you some photographs next time.”

  “I mean the real thing.” Derek gave me an intense gaze. “Take me to see the paintings.”

  I stopped short. “Oh. I don’t know…”

  “Come on, Anna. What harm can it do? I’ve visited you on sites before. I’m not exactly going to fall into a pit of scorpions.”

  Was that a good idea, with all the craziness out on site right now? Luke’s face flashed into my mind. He’d said something today about another wolf, a wolf who had killed. I knew Luke would be pissed off if I brought Derek to site, knowing the black wolf was watching us. But Derek knew a lot more about this kind of stuff than I did, and he might be able to point out some more features of the paintings we hadn’t noticed. It definitely didn’t hurt to try.

  Luke will just have to deal. He’s not running this show. I am.

  I flipped open my phone and checked the list of call times for various news outlets Frances had given me. “Why don’t you drive out tomorrow, around nine am? We’ve got a film crew arriving about ten, so that should give you plenty of time to look at the paintings before they start swinging around their lights. Bring a camera and a notebook and brush your hair. I’ll tell Frances you’re from National Geographic and we won’t have a problem.”

  “I’ll be there. This is exciting!” Derek clinked glasses with me. I slugged back my wine, and chased it down with the lukewarm tea. We caught up on all the university gossip for another hour or so, until my pores started to sweat from all the dirt lodged inside them. Time for a shower.

  Ten minutes later I was across town at mum’s flat, rapping on the door. “It’s me, Anna.” I called out, a lump of panic rising in my throat as I banged on the door and no one answered. “Let me in!”

  Had she slipped in the shower? Was she lying at the bottom of the stairs? Had she forgotten to eat for three days straight and died of starvation? This is was all my fault for leaving her—

  After five minutes of non-stop banging, our neighbour Mrs. Barnaby yelled out the window for me to stop the racket. “She’s not home.” She snapped. “I saw her leave about an hour ago, with that young friend of hers.”

  “Cynthia?”

  In reply, Mrs. Barnaby slammed the door in my face.

  That was a relief. I found my own key and unlocked the door. The place looked a little cleaner than I remembered. There was a bit of food in the fridge, and the scrapbook wasn’t lying open on the sofa. I smiled when I noticed Cynthia’s handbag sitting on the kitchen counter, my new tarot deck peeking out from the side pocket. That Cynthia. She may believe in tarot cards, but if she’s finally got Mum to come around again, she’s my favourite person.

  With Mum’s whereabouts still unaccounted for, I decided it was time for that shower. I shoved my clothes into the laundry and climbed into the shower, letting the hot water soak away my fears from the day.

  I was still angry with Luke over the way he’d spoken about me with Caleb, but now that I had some distance from the forest, I wondered if I might have overreacted, just a tiny bit. I was concerned about how attached I’d got to him so quickly, and like my mum retreating from reality in order to protect herself from more pain, I was looking for any excuse to retreat from Luke, because in my head I was worried that he’d be killed, and I’d have to live with the grief of losing another man in my life.

  And he said there is another wolf, a wolf who has killed...

  This was stupid. I couldn’t live my life being afraid of death all the time. The way my body had reacted when Luke touched me…that was what I needed. That was the reality I should be grounding myself in. Ben had been fond of saying, “Life’s too short.” That’s why he spent so much time hiking and rock climbing and not doing his schoolwork. Ben didn’t even own a mobile phone. He thought life was too short to spend it staring at a screen.

  Well, maybe life was too short for me to give up on Luke. I’d been lucky to have loved Ben, but he was gone now. And Luke…he was very definitely not gone. He made my body feel like no one else, and he made me want to be bold and bright and adventurous. I hadn’t felt that way in a long time.

  This is all so complicated. I wish someone could just tell me what to do. But that was the old Anna talking, the one who accommodated everyone else’s needs at the expense of herself. The one who didn’t go to Cambridge and who swapped her field school at a Sicilian villa for the damp, miserable Crookshollow forest. I wasn’t sure I was that girl anymore.

  I stepped out of the shower, wrapped myself in a towel, and crossed the hall to my bedroom to find some clean clothes. I was rooting through my drawers for some underwear when I felt a strong finger slide along the side of my neck.

  “I love a girl who’s wet for me,” a husky voice whispered against my ear.

  I jumped a mile in the air, my heart jackhammering against my chest. My towel slipped down my torso. I spun around. “Luke!”

  “Anna.” His fingers traced the line of my collarbone, the touch turning my fear to passion.

  “Don’t scare me like that.” I scolded him. “I’m really not in the mood.”

  “Your nipples say otherwise.” Luke touched a finger to my breast, my nipple hardening under his caress. A small moan escaped my throat. My body remained rigid, on high alert, every sense tingling with sweet anticipation. The humming energy surged around us, drawing us together like magnets.

  “I am still angry with you.” I managed to choke out, but the words sounded unsure. I’d forgotten what I was angry about.

  “That’s why I came.” Luke moved closer to me, his chest pressing against mine. Heat pulsed through his shirt, searing my naked skin. His fingers danced over the edge of my neck, around my nipples, teasing me with the lightest touch. “I was going to surprise you in the shower, but I decided under the circumstances it was a bit sleazy.”

  “And waiting in my bedroom for me is less so?” I said, finding my self-control at last. I couldn’t believe
he was here, in my room covered with posters of ruins and spaceships. I yanked my towel up over my chest and tried to duck away from him, but he stepped towards me, cutting off my path to the dresser. The only way around Luke would be to go across the bed, and under the circumstances I thought that might give the wrong message.

  Besides, my skin burned from his touch. I didn’t want him to stop. Not really.

  “Point taken.” Luke gripped my shoulder, his face suddenly serious. “I didn’t mean to flirt. It’s just hard to resist when you’re all naked and damp and gorgeous. I really did come to talk, and to make sure you were OK. I was worried about you. I didn’t like the way we left things, especially not when there’s at least two dangerous wolves out there.”

  “So you thought you’d break into my house and scare me? How did you get in, anyway?”

  “You left the front door unlocked. I needed to check you were safe.”

  “I’m fine, Luke. I’m a little annoyed. I don’t like being talked about as though I’m some sow you’re haggling over at a market.”

  “I get that, and I’m sorry. It’s the wolf in me. He comes to the surface sometimes, especially so soon after the full moon. All that adrenaline and instinct haven’t quite left my veins yet. We’re very possessive, especially of our mates. It can sound a little primal if you’re not used to it, but no offense was meant.”

  “You keep saying that word. Mate. What does it mean? I mean, I know what it means. But what is a mate to you?”

  Luke paused. “I’m not sure I should tell you. I think it might be something you’ll add to that list of things you don’t like.”

  “That’s for me to decide. Before we go any further I want to know exactly what I am to you.”

  “Werewolves retain many of the primal animal instincts of their wolf half. One of those instincts is to breed and carry on the genetic line, passing on our wolfish genes to the next generation. The wolf genes are passed through the male line, but only females with certain genes can give birth to a werewolf.”

  “That makes sense.” Clara hadn’t told me that.

  “We’re guided to these females by scent. A potential mate gives off a very distinctive odour. They’re very rare, and it’s not unheard of for a wolf to go through their entire life without finding a mate, especially when the genes are recessive and can disappear from a line. Wolves believe there is only one mate for them in the world, and that mate is drawn to them, just as much as they are drawn to her.” Luke’s eyes bore into mine. “That’s why we both ended up at this site. It’s fate, the universe, whatever you call it, trying to draw us together.”

  “But we didn’t know each other! I didn’t even know I had this…wolf gene.”

  “Yes, but you weren’t meant to go to this excavation, were you? I remember you saying neolithic archaeology wasn’t your thing.”

  I thought back to my conversation with Professor Hicks. “You mean Becky Masters wanting my place on the Sicily dig was no accident?”

  “Huh?”

  Briefly I explained about Becky’s accident and how I’d ended up taking her place on the Crookshollow dig. “I don’t particularly like Becky, but I hate the idea that I was somehow responsible for landing her in hospital.”

  “It wasn’t your fault at all.” Luck grinned. “The universe finally saw a chance to get us together, and events fell into place to make it so. It happens to so many wolves. It happened to my grandparents, too.”

  “You mean…you think we’re destined to be together?”

  Luke nodded solemnly. “I do. Does that scare you?”

  “Yes,” I whispered, reaching up with my hand and running my fingers over his cheek, tracing the line of stubble along his jaw. “No. maybe…I don’t know. It feels right, and that scares me. I can’t explain why, but I believe it.”

  “You don’t know how pleased I am to hear that.” Luke growled, and claimed my mouth in a fierce kiss. Heat surged through my body as his tongue slid over mine. My core throbbed with desire – it had been too long since he’d been inside me. I wanted him bad.

  I broke the kiss after a few moments, panting hard. “I still have questions.”

  “Can they wait?” Luke bent to kiss me again.

  I shook my head, even though my body screamed in protest at being wrenched away from Luke yet again. “If I’m your mate, then why does Caleb think he can ‘claim’ me?”

  “As the son of my father’s older brother, Caleb would technically be alpha of any new Lowe pack. That means he has mating rights over the females in the pack, even if they are mated to another. That right isn’t usually exercised, but Caleb seems particularly keen on you.” Luke leaned forward and stroked my naked thigh, just below where the towel stopped. “I can’t say I blame him.”

  My whole body shuddered, but I needed to know more before I let him tear my towel away. “But I’m not in this pack. I haven’t agreed to be part of any pack.”

  “To wolves like Caleb, what you think doesn’t count.” Luke knitted his fingers between mine. “That’s why I’ll have to fight him, to establish the order of our pack. Once I’ve established myself as an equal rival, he won’t come after you. He’ll have to treat you with all the respect due to a member of his own family.”

  “I don’t want you to fight him. Did you see his arms? They’re like tree trunks. He could snap your neck as easily as opening a jar of pickles.”

  “I’m not afraid of him, or his pickle jar–opening abilities.” Luke flexed the muscles in his arm. “I can take him.”

  “He’s your cousin. Maybe you could try being nice to him?”

  “That’s not how wolves work. Besides, I don’t trust him.”

  “Why not?”

  Luke shrugged. “All sorts of reasons. Why has he only just shown up in my life now, when the paintings came to light? How could he have been out there all those years without my father learning about him? Why did he never try to find us?”

  “That same reason you never tried to find him. He thought he was the only one—”

  “I don’t want to talk about Caleb anymore,” Luke growled. He cupped my chin in his strong hand and pulled my face to his. “I have something else on my mind.”

  “What’s that?”

  Luke’s lips slammed against mine, all his desire welling up into the kiss. His lips forced mine apart, his tongue bombarding me. I wrapped my arms around him, and all thoughts of Caleb and mating and the caves flew from my mind. My core throbbed as I gave in to the urgency and hunger of our kiss.

  As our kiss heated up, Luke walked me backward into the bathroom. “I like the idea of you all dripping wet,” he whispered, as he reached behind me and turned the shower back on.

  I leaned in to kiss him and he tore the towel away from me. Steam rolled off the shower, making my skin warm and slick. Luke slid his hands down my torso, his fingers leaving trails of fire across my sensitive skin. He ran a single finger between my legs, right along my slit, and my core thundered with pleasure. God, I wanted him, right now.

  “Hey, both of us have to be naked.” I lunged for him, and grabbed the edge of his t-shirt, pulling it over his head. I slid my hands over his muscled torso, enjoying the way his tattoos moved as he did, the colours shifting.

  “Pants next,” I said, grabbing for his belt. I fumbled with the buckle as Luke’s tongue attacked mine. I could already feel his cock straining against the fly of his jeans.

  “As you wish.” Luke tugged down his jeans, kicking them away. From beneath his boxers, his cock stood proud. I pulled them off, bending over him as he stepped out. The head of his shaft bobbed just in front of my eyes.

  The length of it still shocked me. It was so big it looked like it belonged on the set of a porn film. I’d never been with a guy who was so huge before, nor looked at a cock and wanted to touch it so bad, to wrap my mouth around it and feel him jerk against my lips. I reached out tentatively with my tongue and touched it to the tip.

  Luke groaned. The sound made my core sur
ge with pleasure. I felt powerful. I took the head into my mouth, enjoying the taste of him. Warm and earthy and slightly salty. I’d never given much head before – Ben found it hard to relax and enjoy it, and I’d done it to other guys I’d been with more out of a sense of obligation, but with Luke, I couldn’t wait to put my hands all over his cock.

  I stroked him slowly, alternating my mouth and my hands. Luke’s fingers entwined in my hair. “Anna…” he groaned. God, I loved it when he said my name.

  I slid my tongue down the length of his shaft, marvelling at how big it was. My hands pumped it faster as my tongue circled the tip, pressing into the little v just below the head. Luke curled his fingers in my hair, his breath hitching as his leg muscles clenched. Knowing I had this effect on him made my whole body flush with heat.

  “No more of this,” Luke breathed. With a grunt of effort he grabbed me under the shoulders, lifted me off my feet, and placed me under the shower.

  The rush of hot water over my flushed body made me shudder with delight, but not nearly as much as when Luke climbed in beside me and wrapped his arms around me, his tongue darting into my mouth.

  Luke pulled me towards him, the warmth of skin against skin burning through my body, lighting every nerve ending on fire. He guided me under the stream of water, adjusting the head so it dribbled a light pattering of water over both our bodies.

  “Oh dear,” he said, picking up the soap and loofah from the shelf where I kept them. “You are a very dirty girl.”

  “I just had a shower.”

  “Go with it.” Luke rubbed the soap over the loofah, building up a nice lather. He alternated strokes with the loofah with his hands, drumming his fingers against my body. His touch sent shivers of delight through me as he soaped along my shoulder-blades, lathering across my chest, just brushing the tips of my nipples. I moaned. Of course I would go with it.

  “I’m filthy. I need more soap.” I leaned my back against the side of the shower, bracing myself as he lathered me from head to toe. Luke unhooked the shower nozzle and used that to wash off the soap, licking and kissing.