Wolf's Song

by Taryn Kincaid

  “Good job, darlin’.” Astonishment painted her lover’s face. “Now what?”

  “Now we get the hell out of here.”

  “Um. Okay. Anything you say, sweetheart.” His gaze roved over her naked form, heating, and he grinned at her, brandy-colored eyes alight. “Have I told you lately, how awesome you are?”

  “I bet you say that to all the girls with tranq guns in their hands.”

  “Only the one I’m desperate to…buy condoms for.” He shot her a wink. Then looked at her uncle. “And by the way…getting out of here is a really good idea.”

  She found her scattered clothes and pulled them back on.

  Brick tried to prop himself up, but his arm fell back to his side. “Even better plan if I could walk,” he muttered.

  She raced back to him, trying to lever his body off the floor. If she’d thought him heavy when he’d pressed her against his mattress, most of his poundage borne by his forearms and shoulders, the tranquilizer deadening his limbs now seemed to double his weight.

  “Help me help us, Brick,” she urged. Slinging his arm across his shoulder, she ducked beneath him, forcing him to his feet. They couldn’t exit through the door into the saloon. The cats would be on them like mustard on a hot dog. She managed to drag him toward the bathroom in the rear of the office and throw open the window.

  “I got this, Aura Lee.”

  He clambered clumsily onto the toilet seat and yanked her up with him. She eyed the window. His size. His lethargy. Shot him a look full of doubt.

  “Let me go first, sweetheart,” he hissed. “If I don’t make it, you shift. You soar. You get the fuck away from here. Fast as you can.”

  “I won’t leave you.”

  “Don’t underestimate the wolf.” He touched her chin with his finger, his aim only a little askew. “Listen to me, Summer. I need to know you’re safe. That you’ll get safe. Or I don’t stand a chance.”

  “All right.”

  When she nodded reluctantly, he expelled a relieved breath. “You fly.” He gave her a parting wink and tumbled through the window, landing in a leaden heap in the bushes below. He shifted, the wolf bounding toward his truck, still parked in the rear lot where they’d left it. The beast moved less gracefully than usual, but not as sluggishly as the man.

  She climbed out of the window and raced after him. Bundled him into the back of the vehicle, got behind the wheel, and tore ass down the mountain with teeth-jangling speed. Stopping briefly at the cabin to snatch up a bag of clothes.

  And then on into Los Lobos. Slamming into the sidewalk abutting The Den. Where it had all ended for Brick. Or begun.

  He sprang out of the back of the truck, a huge, furred frenzy, and marched to her side, his movements fluid, his lope confident. I got this, baby was stamped across his snout, written in every ripple of muscle. His jaws closed around their bag. A thrill of excitement zipped through her. She wrapped her hand in his thick scruff and walked into the bar beside him. By the spirit of the Great Hawk, she loved this guy. Man. Beast. The whole gorgeous package.

  “So you finally ready to settle up your bar tab, boy?” The huge werebear lumbered behind the bar of The Den, moving toward the antique cash register. He’d brushed his black hair back from his broad, weathered forehead, twisting it into a two tight braids that flowed over his shoulders and swung when he moved. A silver and turquoise earring, shaped like a dreamcatcher and dripping three tiny feathers, dangled from one ear. His blue cambric work shirt covered the tats and arrow scars Brick had seen marking his chest.

  He stared back at his mentor, the sole friend he’d had in the world—until Summer had flown into his life and thumped him in the ribcage with a Ram truck medallion, capturing his heart.

  He dumped the bag of clothes on the floor. Shifting back into human form, he yanked on a pair of jeans, patting the pocket for his wallet. “Yeah, what’s the damage?”

  “Let’s see…considering you guzzled like a fish, nearly got my liquor license yanked a few times, and broke up the place when you lunged for Magnum—not to mention ten years of compounded interest? I reckon that’s about $19,000 you owe me.”

  Next to him, Summer gasped, bristling and furious on his behalf. “That’s price gouging, you cheat,” she hissed. “He couldn’t possibly have run up that big a tab here. He was just a kid when he got his head handed to him and you didn’t do anything to stop it. Interest? Are you kidding?”

  “Yeah, he is, sweetheart,” Brick whispered. He ran a hand over her soft hair. His turn to soothe her ruffled feathers for once. He nuzzled her neck, inhaling her essence. His own scent remained faint on her skin. He’d have to do something about that soon. Make sure he’d marked and claimed her. Mated her.

  “She’s right, Gee. So how about I just save The Den for you, and maybe all of Los Lobos along with it?”

  “What’s this about saving Los Lobos?” A tall man with brown hair and compelling blue eyes uncoiled himself from his bar stool. He didn’t bear any resemblance to his late father whatsoever. Had to be Drew, though. He remembered the intense eyes from when they both were pups. What he didn’t remember, was the slight limp.

  “Heard you were back. Glad you made it."

  “Are you?” Drew scanned him as thoroughly as a TSA officer profling a suspect on the No Fly list. “Heard you challenged Magnum.”

  Brick shrugged, extending his hands, palm up. He didn’t belong to pack anymore and he’d be damned if he’d show more submission than that. But his resentment toward the new alpha ebbed away.

  “Someone needs to take charge. By rights that should be you.”

  “Glad you see it that way.” Another tall, lean wolf, with long black hair and intimidating eyes emerged from the shadows to plant himself at Drew’s side.

  “Ryker.” Brick acknowledged the pack enforcer briefly. He doubted he’d ever warm to the guy. That long ago day in The Den, Ryker had stood by and done nothing. True, he hadn’t piled on when Magnum and his thugs had beaten him into the sawdust. But he hadn’t stopped the massacre, either. “Especially with the cats threatening.”

  Drew exchanged looks with Gee and Ryker, as if they’d all been expecting the news. “How’d you hear that?”

  “We just came from Shady Heart.”

  “My uncle Cal’s place.”

  “The fuck were you doing there?” Ryker demanded.

  “None of your fuckin’ business.”

  “It is if the cats sent you here. If you’re some kind of spy or traitor to your pack.”

  “The pack that kicked me out and banished me, after beating me bloody, you mean?”

  “So you’re back with an ax to grind?”

  Brick stared hard at the enforcer, his rage palpable. But Summer stroked soothing patterns up and down his arm, calming him, silently urging him to back down from another fight, another challenge.

  “No,” she said, her face crimson. He squeezed his eyes closed. She’d tell them. At the risk of embarrassing herself. To his worthless hide. To save him once again. “We had to pick something up at the pharmacy.” She paused, as if waiting to see if that explanation would be enough. But the wolf leader and his enforcer both wore identically grim expressions, their eyes cold, not giving an inch. “Condoms,” she blurted.

  “Condoms? The fuck for? You’re a wolf. You don’t need no stinkin’ condoms. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that?”

  No. No one ever had. Not Magnum. Not anyone else while he was growing up, not anyone after he’d been banished. Not even Gee. No wonder Cal’s whores snickered when he’d used protection, the foil packets stamped with the Graymarket logo. Summer’s face burned brighter. But Brick had had enough. He gripped her hand and turned to leave. “We’re done here.”

  “Wait.” Gee spoke up from his place near the bar. And only Gee could have stopped him from turning his back on them and heading out the door. The werebear looked at Drew “You need all your wolves, together and united.”

  The alpha nodded, his expression that of a
man steeling himself for the inevitable. “Guess it’s time.”

  “You ready?” Gee focused on Brick, an eyebrow raised in question.

  “Me?” He wrapped his arm around Summer’s shoulders, pulling her closer. “For what? I’ve got no skin in this game.”

  A sound of disgust, all spit and snarl, issued from the werebear’s mouth. “To accept your place in your pack. That’s why you’re here, right? At long last?”

  Brick started. No. He’d come to Los Lobos to protect his mate. He couldn’t leave her in Shady Heart. He couldn’t give her to the cats. He glanced around The Den. Different from his last visit to the place. The volume in his brain now seemed perma-set to “mute.” No rival voices turned his skull into a killing field, no strident tones bombarded him. He could sort out the muffled sounds, make sense of them.

  Because of Summer.

  The clarity of her song cut through the all the static. The purity of her soul, the way she’d touched his, soothed and calmed his psyche. He’d tuned into her frequency completely.

  He glanced at Drew. No vision of death. No gore of war. Instead, he saw the alpha seated at the head of a polished table, flanked by Ryker and his seconds. Cal Seven sat at the other end of the conference table, his cats at his back, lieutenants on each side of him. And somewhere in the middle…Summer. Her fingers threaded through his. Bringing the wolves and cats together.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I’m in.”

  Chapter Seven

  The negotiations opened with rancor and mistrust. The cats initially tried to keep Brick and Summer separated but she wouldn’t tolerate that. And neither would her wolf.

  “We’re together,” Brick growled at Cal. “Get used to it.”

  She slipped an arm around his waist, her fingers stroking up and down his back in soothing circles until the fierce rigidity left his jaw.

  “It all starts here,” she told her uncle.

  Eventually, the rival factions stopped arguing over the shape of the table and who sat where. As time went by, they deigned to share coffee and doughnuts with each other. Then pizza and Chinese take-out. Minutes lengthened to hours, hours to days. Weeks flipped by. Calendar pages turned.

  “Get me out of here,” she whispered to Brick one afternoon.

  She sensed his edginess, the increasingly agitated pacing of his beast. The cats and wolves had talked late into the evening until everyone slumped and wilted, wrung out and drained. Except Brick. Energy charged her wolf, until he practically vibrated beside her. As if he were the only one at the table who sensed the rising of the full moon. Strange. She knew that couldn’t be; that the other wolves had to be affected. But she also knew that, no matter how much he’d accepted his pack and been accepted back, she didn’t want him running with them tonight. She wanted him all to herself when he shifted.

  He stood abruptly, nearly knocking over the coffee cup in front of him as he snatched her hand.

  “If you’ll excuse us?” He shrugged. “And even if you won’t. We’re gone.”

  They fled to the cabin, the sky darkening above them.

  Brick leaped from the truck. She followed, taking her lead from him in this. The moon glowed high over their heads, full and round, silver tinged with gold. He dragged her to him, his mouth closing over hers, hot, hard and hungry. Thrilling her. Fierce zips of desire shot straight to her core. She caught his excitement.

  “Ready, sweetheart?”

  “Always.” Anticipation filled her. Would tonight be the night? Would he finally mark her? Claim her? Show the world she belonged only to him?

  She shuddered with need, fumbling to get her clothes off. He pushed her hands away, yanking her arms above her head to dispose of her shirt. He lowered his head to the curve of her breast, sucking her through the thin silk cup of her bra, tearing an impassioned moan from her.

  “So sweet,” he murmured. “Nothing like the taste of you.” He ripped the flimsy material with a sharp claw and lapped at her again, his tongue swirling over her nipple. “My one and only.”

  Her craving for him flamed out of control. She could not get close enough, no matter how much she tightened her arms around him, rubbed her body against his in feline fashion, attempted to climb him, like the cat she’d been born.

  But the compulsion of the moon gripped him totally now. He tore off his clothes and dropped to all fours. “Run with me, Aura Lee,” he growled, the last words he could utter.

  As usual, she grew wet watching him shift, the bright shimmer of air around him as his muscles stretched and bones cracked to accommodate his lupine form, the expression of ecstasy as his beloved human features hardened and lengthened. He butted his honey-furred hide against thigh her until she stripped also. The moon kissed her upturned face as she whirled naked beneath the shining orb.

  Then Brick raised his head and let out a challenging howl, his mating cry. Her breath caught in her throat. He offered her a wicked amber wink and loped away. She shifted, leaping into the air, soaring high above him, keeping pace.

  And then they were racing together under the stars, gilded by moonlight, through the glimmering, sparkling night.

  The moon had not yet faded from the sky when they finally came to rest and shifted, collapsing naked to the earth. Although they’d run for miles, they’d found their way back to the lake near the cabin, where he’d first viewed her human form.

  She’d barely caught her breath before he turned toward her with a grin, shamelessly displaying his enormous erection.

  “A good run, wasn’t it, Annabel Lee?” The same words he’d said that first time she’d flown with him. He’d called her “Aura Lee” since then, but she loved that he remembered.

  “Always,” she agreed.

  He shot her a devilish grin as he snatched her into his arms, rolling with her over the soft grass. “Let’s see if we can make it better.”

  His weight pressed her down as he reached past her head to grab a bag he’d left earlier.

  “Smart ass,” she murmured.

  “You love my ass.”

  She nodded. “You know I do.”

  “That’s good. Because I feel the same about yours.”

  And suddenly the verbal jousting ended. He began teasing her in a more devastating way, his lips and hands and tongue all over her, his kisses consuming, his caresses delicious, little nips and nibbles and touches that singed her skin, arousing her, setting her ablaze. He stroked her between her legs and she knew he felt her arousal, her moisture, her heat.

  His mating scent enveloped her, coming off him in clouds, dark and rich, spicy and full of depth and danger.

  “I can’t wait,” he groaned, apologizing in advance. “Moon’s still in my blood. It’s gonna be a hot and hard and furious fucking.”

  “I’m on board with that.” She looped her arms around his neck, holding him tight.

  “But then I’m going to make love to you. Long, and slow and sweet.”

  He guided his thick, hot cock to her entrance and drove into her with a quick, powerful thrust, a savage groan. Goddess Mother Moon. Spirit of the Great Hawk. Nothing had ever equaled the explosion of pleasure she experienced having him inside her, huge and throbbing, filling her, making her soar to greater and greater heights.

  She moaned and curled her legs over his hips, linking her ankles behind his back. He found a pounding rhythm that left her breathless and shuddering, no nerve ending untouched. Desire licked her, as he pumped into her over and over, her ecstasy building until the tension became indescribable. She never wanted him to stop, the friction of flesh on flesh, the erotic sound of his groans, the smack of his balls against her ass, his cock plunging in and out of her wet channel, all almost more than she could bear.

  And his scent. By everything holy. Pine and juniper, his crisp natural essence, mixing with the sexy, luxurious and overwhelming scent of a wolf claiming his mate. For once and always.

  She wanted the blast of sensation to go on forever, but she hungered for release.

&nbs
p; “Brick,” she moaned, on the verge of orgasm. “Mark me. Please, baby. I need to belong to you.” Tears seeped from beneath her closed eyelids. “Take me there.”

  “Sure?” he rasped.

  But she veered too close to the edge of rapture and could no longer trust her voice. She tilted her head, exposing her neck. And just when she thought she could stand no more, he rubbed his face against her shoulder, sniffing, inhaling her with a savage cry. His fangs shot into her, billows of his mating scent wrapping her, binding her to him. She gave herself up to his passion and his keeping, her orgasm breaking over her, shattering her completely until she dissolved into particles of starshine.

  He shuddered, thrusting into her in a brief, final frenzy as he came, taking her with him again in another spine-shattering orgasm. His howl split the quiet of the night, a cry of triumph, of masculine satisfaction, of a lone wolf who knew he’d be alone no more.

  He collapsed on her breast, panting, and then rolled onto his back, gathering her to him, his arms strong and protective as they curled around her. He turned his head, rubbing his cheek against hers. Then moved lower to lick the mark he’d branded into her flesh.

  The aftershocks continued to ripple through her, as she lay against him, still gasping for breath. Awed by this male. Her mate. Her magnificent, awesome wolf.

  He reached behind her again and scrabbled around in the bag, humming. Humming Aura Lee. He wanted to do this again? Hey, no problemo, big guy. A bubbly laugh welled within her. He shocked her by singing.

  Brick? Her Brick? Her wolf? Singing?

  In a voice clearer and more mellow than she’d expected. He nudged her with a little velvet box and offered her a sly wink:

  “Aura Lee, Aura Lee,

  Take my golden ring;

  Love and light return with thee,

  And swallows with the spring.”

  Tears ran down her cheeks. “I love you, wolf.”

  “I get that.” His voice sounded gruff as he slipped the band on her finger. He seemed suddenly nervous, shy, not quite so confident of her. “But I want to make damn fuckin’ sure none of those cats ever even think about putting a ring on it.”