Wolf Rain

by Flesa Black

  The deep voice tried to calm her again. “Just let me…. I’ll come back. I promise.”

  She tried not to cry out when his warmth disappeared. She heard the scraping of her drawers, wondered what he could be doing, then sighed when his body was against hers once more.

  “I knew I’d find what I needed,” he said, his words filled with a smile. “I want to give you what you want. Let me. Trust me to.”

  His request was a sensual aphrodisiac, twining around her like dark silk. Wrapped in his words, in her need, in the moment, she couldn’t say no.

  “Yes.” Her whispered voice reverberated through the room, momentarily clearing the fog of desire from her mind.

  When his thick voice moaned in her ear she was gone again, dragged into the vortex of passion. He gently flipped her from her side onto her stomach, his hands roaming each inch of exposed skin he could touch. She began to push up on her hands and knees, but his palm held her firmly at the small of her back. She was confused for a moment, but his hand played with her bottom, skimming along the flesh and sending shivers up her spine.

  She felt the slick lubricated head of his cock slide between her cheeks and gasped. Oh, yes, she thought, and shimmied closer. She didn’t question how he’d known she enjoyed being taken like this. All she knew was that she was going to die if he didn’t do exactly what he was promising.

  He eased into her, his hot shaft rasping the delicate flesh. He opened her wider than she’d ever been, the pleasure and pain shockingly erotic. When he was fully inside, she let out a broken moan, fighting the almost undeniable urge to scream through the wild desire that had ensnared her.

  He moved, slowly at first, as if he were letting her adjust to his size. But, oh God, she didn’t need him to be so careful. She needed him to hurry, to give and take and push her into the orgasm that was teasing her.

  She heard him curse and hiss, and just as she’d wanted, his speed increased. She went with him, her hips bucking between him and the mattress. Her tender nipples impaled the crinkled sheets beneath her, and even that was a startling pleasure.

  When she thought that she might die from his attentions, his fingers were there, pressed between her sopping folds, softly petting her painful clit.

  “Oh, dear God!”

  Her cry was loud even to her own ears, but there was nothing that could hold it back. Her body tensed and bowed as her orgasm exploded, shattering her from the inside out. She shot upwards suspended as she heard the man behind her yell his own pleasure. Then she was tumbling down, floating in warm water as her exhausted mind began to slip into sleep.

  He carefully turned her back to her side, her body drawn against the incredible solid heat of a man. She felt a tender touch against her cheek and sighed with happiness. Snuggling closer, she wrapped her arm across his stomach and drifted on a hazy fog.

  Something inside of her flared for a startling moment, igniting a small part of her heart that she’d forgotten was there. Somehow, she thought she should be panicking. She should be scared. She should be pulling back and examining exactly what had happened and why. And what it all meant to her.

  But she couldn’t bring herself to roll away from the man holding her. Breaking the spell he’d cast felt like the greatest sin she could commit. And so she burrowed even closer and let sleep drag her under into the unknown depths of dreams.

  Chapter Three

  Diana awoke slowly, her languorous limbs holding her down as the soft morning light played across her closed eyes. Before she thought better of it, a smile began spreading across her lips, pulling at her cheeks. Strange, since she hadn’t had much to smile about for most of her life. Something wonderful had happened, she thought, but she couldn’t quite remember what it had been. She’d been walking home…the wolves… She wrinkled her brow as her mind conjured up the scene. The man, Harm, had been there, then had walked her home. He’d been injured, a bite on his arm, so she’d bandaged—

  She sat bolt upright in bed as shocking realization zinged along her nerves. She’d actually taken a virtual stranger to bed, and had experienced the true meaning of multi-orgasmic. She was only grateful she took bi-monthly birth-control medication, because she definitely hadn’t been thinking about safe sex last night.

  She covered her mouth, holding in a startled giggle. She’d had the best sex of her entire life, and she liked to think he’d enjoyed it, too. With a strange sense of foreboding, she turned her head to stare down at the space beside her. When she saw that it was empty an odd sense of dread settled around her. Dread? No, it couldn’t be. Why would she be afraid that he’d left?

  Then she remembered their odd connection, the way she’d felt when she’d stared into his eyes, the way he’d made her feel when he’d touched her. It had been completely right, completely natural, to make love with him.

  Shaking her head, she climbed out of bed and winced at her sore muscles. No one had ever exhausted her body this way—but then, she’d never been with a man who’d been as demanding the third time around as he’d been the first. Stretching carefully, she let her gaze wander over the room as she lifted her slick peach robe from the footboard. Both her clothes and his were missing from the floor. Either he’d picked up before he’d left, or he was more freakish than she’d believed and had taken her clothes with him. Both thoughts were too strange for her to consider.

  Coffee, she decided. Her brain simply wasn’t going to work without it. A hurried glance at the clock told her it was almost seven. She had plenty of time to get ready for her day off. She had a lot to do. She knew she should be glad Harm was gone. She had to close up her storage space and make plans—plans that only she was privy to. If she had a man like Harm hanging around, he’d insist on helping her, and then… Well, she didn’t have to worry about that. He was gone, after all.

  Determinedly pushing away her disappointment, Diana stumbled out of her bedroom and into the kitchen. She stopped dead in her tracks when she smelled freshly brewed Arabica wafting through the small space. Slowly, she turned around, afraid but excited by who she might find.

  There he was, standing in front of one of the bookcases in the dining area, his back to her. She swallowed spastically, her eyes scanning his broad shoulders and lean torso. Was it possible for him to look even better today than he had the evening before?

  “‘To my little Hunter’.” His quiet voice tore through the silence, making her jump.

  She could only shake her head, her sleep-heavy mind confused. “Wh—what?”

  He turned, his copper eyes intense as he studied her. “Everyone thought he was talking about a son. We all assumed that Hunter was the name of a little boy. But it wasn’t, was it?”

  She blinked as she tried to process exactly what he was trying to say. Her muscles tightened in quick defense as realization began to dawn. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Harm carefully closed the well-worn book before making his way to the kitchen pass-through. A book, she knew, that had a more personal inscription penned to her from her father just under the printed dedication. He watched her, keeping her rooted to the tiled floor as he slipped the hardback onto the counter’s smooth surface. She checked the sudden need to take a step back, instead curling her hands into fists.

  “Bollocks. Don’t lie. You are Dr. Gerry Allen’s hunter.”

  She turned away, forcing her hands to remain steady as she reached for a coffee cup. “Who?”

  “It was quite ingenious, actually.” His voice was softer now, the tone soothing. “Your mail says you’re Diana Galen. Diana, the goddess of the hunt. You changed your last name, used his first initial, dropped an L. It was very well thought out.”

  “I—I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Your father knew how controversial his research was, so he was careful never to tell anyone about his family. He kept you and your mother well hidden. The only thing anyone knew was that he and his wife had a child, but he managed to keep your gender a secret. His single slip
was that one dedication in his first book, to his Hunter. People have been searching for you for years, and here you are, hiding in plain sight. No one ever thought to look in Europe, let alone in a city. And no one ever considered that you were a female.”

  The carafe clinked against the enamel of the dark green mug as she tried to remain calm. “That’s quite an imagination you have.”

  Suddenly he was behind her, his hands resting on the counter, holding her without actually touching her. His breath caressed her ear as he leaned in closer. “Your eyes give you away, Diana. They’re your father’s eyes. And your chin, it’s a bit smaller, maybe more delicate, but it’s a near replica of Dr. Allen’s. It wouldn’t take much for me to get a DNA test. In a couple of hours, I can prove who you are. By tonight the whole world would know.”

  Oh, God, he was right. How could she have let her idiot hormones obliterate all her common sense? She should have sent him home. She should have never even let him up the stoop. She’d always been scrupulously careful…

  A sudden suspicion skittered up her spine, drawing a chill along her bones. “Wait, how did you… Did you suspect something before…”

  “No.” The one word was short, soft and concise. He followed it by laying a gentle kiss on her neck. “All I saw was a pretty woman with nerves of steel. To be honest, if I’d thought you were Dr. Allen’s daughter…”

  She was afraid to ask, but she had to know. “If you’d thought I was his daughter…?”

  “I wouldn’t have slept with you. No, that’s not true.” He let out a frustrated sigh and she felt his nose nuzzle her ear. “I couldn’t have stopped what happened. But I would have taken it slower. I would have…”

  Her mouth lifted slightly as wry amusement slipped in underneath her fear. “Courted me?”

  He chuckled softly. “Something like that. And I would have told you who I was.”

  The fear surfaced again, drowning out the growing glow he’d created. “And who are you, Harm? I know you aren’t in a pack, or you would have changed last night. I can only assume you’re with the government.”

  The silence that followed was answer enough. She made a disgusted noise and pushed her way out of his near embrace. Crossing her arms over her stomach, she strode into the living room and began to pace.

  “I suppose you want to take me to some research lab, is that it?” She flung the question out but didn’t wait for an answer. “Everyone thinks he used me as an experiment, that he pumped me full of untried medications and experimental drugs. Well, he didn’t. Believe it or not, my father loved me. He wouldn’t have ever done something like that.”

  She paused to stare at him and saw that his shrewd gaze had narrowed. “No, he didn’t experiment on you…but he left you his experiments, didn’t he? You know exactly what he was doing. In fact, I’ll bet you helped him when you were old enough.”

  Shock sapped the wind from her sails, bringing her to a grinding halt. “I’m a courier, Harm.”

  “By need or by choice?”

  She tilted her chin up and refused to reply. Dear Lord, had she been that transparent? How could this man have figured her out in a matter of hours? She couldn’t let on that he was treading down the path she’d tried to keep blocked. There was too much that she absolutely couldn’t allow to fall into just anyone’s hands.

  He took slow, sure steps towards her and she held her breath, waiting. When he was within arm’s reach, he stopped, held her steady with his eyes and pulled her against his chest. She didn’t want to melt into him, didn’t want to give in to the strange need, but she did. With a sigh, she leaned against him, listening to the steady beat of his heart. He gathered her closer, one large palm smoothing up and down her back.

  “Sweetheart, I’m not the enemy. When your father was alive, the last thing he could have done was go to the government. They cocked up by using an experimental agent to force rain, and they would have done anything to keep the truth away from the public. Diana, I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to listen without running away.”

  He paused, obviously waiting for her consent. She nodded. “You’re right. I’m with the government, but not how you think. A few years back a woman, Millicent Wright, began putting together specific people for a task force. There aren’t many of us, just a handful, but we’ve been very effective in tracking pack movements and taking out the high-level alphas.”

  Diana lifted her head to look at his scars. She traced the raised lines with tender fingertips. “You were attacked.”

  His jaw tightened and ticked as he stared down at her. “I was trying to save my brother. He’d invited them into our home. They were childhood friends and he didn’t know… I managed to take out three of them before the STF stormed in. Once I’d recovered, Millicent offered me a position, and I accepted.”

  Something he’d said earlier niggled in her mind. “You fit the profile of who she was looking for.”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  She thought of the way he’d taken out the Shifters so easily and the truth struck her, sure and hard and fast. “So my father was right. The chemicals they used to lace the clouds didn’t just trigger the full shifting gene in the humans that had them. They also triggered the partial genes in a few that carried those.”

  His eyes flashed and the skin under his scars paled. “Partial…that’s exactly what they call us. I have some of the DNA markers of a Shifter, but not all.”

  “Which means you’re…more. Better sight, hearing, smelling, recuperation, reaction time, strength. It makes sense.” She let her hands press against his chest, curling into the material of his abused T-shirt to reassure him. “Did you believe I’d think less of you?”

  “I didn’t know,” he confessed softly. “And I don’t know why I care, but I do. I don’t ever want to scare you, Diana. There’re a lot of things I wish I could do for you right now. Mostly, I wish I could’ve waited to let you tell me who you are in your own time, but I couldn’t. The fact is, what you know could be the key to survival for mankind, and I can’t and I won’t walk away from that. I have the feeling that you wouldn’t walk, either… At least not now, not after you’ve seen the wolves shift before they should have. And you can’t run from this—or from us.” He held his hands still, the heat of his palms seeping into her skin. “I want you to come with me. You should meet Millicent.”

  Before fear could set in, Harm’s gaze was intent on her again, silently asking for her trust. Somehow she understood the unspoken truth. He would never hurt her. He would die protecting her. He couldn’t know that he was presenting her with an opportunity she needed, and that his protection would only make giving them her secret easier.

  “All right,” she conceded. “But there’s somewhere we need to stop first.”

  Chapter Four

  Harm watched her from the corner of his eye as he maneuvered the vehicle between the tall metal storage units. He’d been studying her since they’d left her flat, touching her as often as he could. He wasn’t able to stop himself from feeling her skin, imprinting himself on her as she had him. She hadn’t seemed to mind, instead leaning against him as they’d sat in the black SUV. He’d have been happy to have driven around the city all day, using the time to learn more about the woman who made him feel more than he’d ever thought possible. A complicated woman who had slipped underneath his skin before he’d even kissed her.

  But they didn’t have the luxury that most others did. In that second, he wished for something he’d never truly had—he wished for a normal life. Sighing, he tried to concentrate on the narrow drive. He decided this must be where she kept all of her father’s paperwork, locked away from prying eyes. Keeping the research out of her home was a smart move, especially considering the danger it could have put her in.

  “The next unit on the right.”

  He eased on the brakes as he turned to study her again, noting the way her expression had tensed. “Diana, you’re doing the right thing. Millicent won’t—”


  “I know,” she said, trying for a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I just…. This is important, Harm. And it’s been mine for so long that it’s hard to share it.”

  He could feel the apprehension rolling from her body and laid a soothing hand over hers. How could he explain that he understood when he didn’t? How could he add more pressure to her when he could already see the strain?

  “I knew I would have to give all of this to someone soon. There really isn’t a choice. But still…”

  He simply nodded and waited, finding it easier to stretch his patience for Diana than he’d ever been able to for anyone else. When she turned unsure eyes to him, he felt his heart constrict.

  She wet her lips and took a deep breath. “I suppose it’s time.”

  But he didn’t let her slide out. Instead, he slipped his hand behind her head and pulled her into him for a gentle kiss. He felt her tremble as some of her tension slowly eased under the tender caress.

  “It will be all right, I promise,” he told her softly.

  She gave him a tremulous smile before opening the door and climbing down. He fought the impossible urge to tuck her back into the SUV and drive away, to save her from himself and the entire bloody world.

  By the time he joined her, Diana had unlocked the flimsy door of a small unit. She turned to look over her shoulder, holding his gaze with hers for a long moment before she stepped into the semi-dark of the building. His hackles were already rising before she flipped on the light. What he saw stunned him to immobility.

  “It’s a laboratory,” he rasped.

  She gave a jerky nod before moving towards the long table at the back of the room. “I had to do my work somewhere.”

  His muscles tightened as he slanted his eyes. “Your work?”

  “Yes…my work. Actually, my father’s work. I inherited it.”