Adam watched the last of the bodies tossed into the building. The flames covered enough of the front so that the last one was a difficult throw battling the heat and smoke.
Chase took the body away from the were and chucked it inside.
This wasn’t the first time Adam had to do something horrible to protect his pack.
He looked around. Now the stakes were higher.
He watched the building burn and realized that whatever it took, whatever he had to do to keep his pack, all of them, safe, he would do it.
A deafening boom shook the ground. Everyone dropped, taking cover where they could. Adam looked up, seeking out his two wardens. His gut clenched.
“Tank! Chase!”
Damn, he couldn’t hear past the ringing in his ears.
Ash and pieces of the bar rained down around him, catching in the dry brush and trees of the woods. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye.
Chase waved at him to come, then pointed down the road. Flashing lights were making their way slowly up the road. Adam chose the better part of valor and followed his warden into the trees. Here and there, small brushfires flared up.
The forest. Adam’s gut clenched at the new danger. He glanced around, but he didn’t even have a shirt to beat out flames with.
“I should have kept a closer eye on the boy. I thought they were surrendering. The female’s scent …”
Tank’s distress over Brandon made Adam pause and rest his good hand on the big man’s shoulder for comfort.
“Just say it.” Chase’s eyes were hard amber bits. “They were a couple of sneaky bitches.”
Adam started to shake his head and stopped short. His broken collarbone made movement almost impossible. He’d have to change soon to jump-start the healing process.
He prayed that the fire department would concentrate on the forest. Aside from the wildlife and the trees, there were human homes a few miles away. A fire could travel fast.
Adam’s eyes blurred. He focused again on the small fires and watched it fizzle out in a small cloud of steam. Small multicolored sparkles flew around the extinguished fire and up into the trees.
He turned his attention back to his pack. Mentioning the sparkles or the extinguished fire might have Tank fussing more over the silver poisoning.
“Don’t blame yourself. Either of you.” Adam blamed himself enough for all of them. “Anything can happen in a fight. You do the best you can at the time.”
They watched the fire truck from the safety of the trees. Tank fussed over Adam’s wounds until he growled and snapped at the big man to leave off. The volunteer firemen made a big show spraying the surrounding area so that the fire wouldn’t spread.
“You’re lucky, wolf. Between the fire department and my people, the fire won’t spread.”
Tank and Chase closed ranks around their leader and faced the intruder with bared teeth. Fighting claws ran out like switchblades on the warden’s hands.
Jarred Morgan held his hands out in the universal sign of peace. He looked very different without his dorky cowboy getup. A gauzy sheet wrapped around his body similar to a toga or ancient Greek style. He still wore the black-framed glasses.
Adam finally figured out what the scent was that eluded him.
“You’re an elf,” he accused. A fairie lord. Adam really didn’t want to mess with fairies, anytime. Never mind when he was wounded.
Morgan smiled. He glanced up at the sparkles that coalesced over his head. Scent and closer inspection by the wolven revealed a humming mad swarm of fairies.
“Mostly an elf,” Morgan corrected. “I told you I’m mixed. The purebreds in the courts hate it when we mongrels think we’re good enough to associate with them.”
Tank and Chase relaxed their stances a little. Enough not to offend a fairie lord, but not enough to jeopardize Adam’s safety.
Adam wondered how long he’d have to chat before he could go curl up somewhere and tend to his wounds. Would it insult Morgan if he emptied his stomach in the bushes? The silver was making him very nauseous.
“Take your Pack Father home, gentlemen.” Jarred Morgan stepped back into the trees and disappeared. Fairie folk were more at home in nature than wolven. “The fire will not spread any further. The county has been trying to shut down this place for a long time. They’ll be happy it’s gone.”
Adam wanted to stay. He managed to wait until the fire was out. The water hoses made puddles that the volunteer men stomped through until the parking lot was a muddy mess.
The county sheriff showed up and made it a point to canvass the area by flashlight, looking for anything suspicious. Adam didn’t care what the final verdict was, so long as the wolven were left out of it. While the sheriffs made notes in their notebooks and talked to the volunteer firemen, Tank finally pressed Adam to Change.
The wolven slowly headed for home, followed by a sprinkling of colored fairie light.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Diana stirred awake. In the dim lamplight, the gleam of wolven eyes watched from the corner of the room. Intent and hungry, she saw the visage of the predator that had hunted other predators earlier tonight. She wasn’t afraid.
“You’re back.”
She didn’t see any obvious injuries until he came closer, accepting the silent invitation to join her. Closer inspection revealed the weary strain in the lines around his eyes. His normally fluid movements dragged.
“You’re hurt.”
She’d prayed for him to come back alive and well. Oh yes, she’d fumed and vowed to rip Adam Weis a new one for taking Brandon into that mess. But he was back now and she couldn’t wait to touch him to see for herself that he was okay.
Adam rolled one shoulder in answer before using that arm to pull off the tee shirt he’d donned after his shower.
He’d wanted to come to her immediately, but had to get rid of the stink of blood and death and vengeance first. He’d made do with a phone call, telling Diana the basics and assuring her over and over again that the kid wasn’t hurt.
The sweatpants came off next.
She swallowed at the pink lines of shredded tissue healing on his torso. The mass of scar tissue on his collarbone was eerily similar to her shoulder bite, only much worse.
Her mind blanked of everything but the thought of how she might have lost him.
“I stayed up and waited.”
It was so late and even though she felt better, her own healing injuries dragged her energy level down. She’d fallen asleep listening for his truck.
Nude, he crawled into the bed careful of jostling her. Diana leaned back as he covered her gently with his body, settling between her legs. One armed, he held himself away from her chest. His other hand gently traced her features as she tried to decipher his feelings. He was shut down tight against intrusion.
“Adam.”
“Shhh. No words.”
His head descended. The clean mint of his toothpaste mixed with the flavor that was uniquely Adam filled her mouth. She matched him stroke for stroke, their tongues mimicking the act of lovemaking.
Heat filled her belly. Her breasts tightened, ached for his touch. She moaned, trying to pull him down so that they lay flush.
He slid down. His fingers made quick work of her pajama top buttons. Brushing a brief yet tender kiss near the healing chest wound, he buried his face between the full breasts that teased him constantly. Her wonderful tits played a major role in his dreams and fantasies.
Citrus and vanilla surrounded him with the feeling of peace, of homecoming.
All he could think of while getting his pack settled at home was getting here. To Diana, his haven. He needed her. His mate. Needed her so badly that he could not chance her glimpsing his emotions and pushing him away.
Diana moaned as he suckled her breast, threading her fingers through his hair. A direct line of heat shot from her breast to her womb, which contracted in sheer pleasure.
A hot work roughed hand replaced his mouth when he s
witched breasts.
Adam didn’t just suck her nipple. He feasted. Rolling the berry tip around with his tongue, he scraped her sensitive skin with his teeth. The opposite nipple, he plucked with his fingertips. She was the perfect dessert.
Diana keened in ecstasy, writhing upwards against him.
God, she needed this. Instinctively, she reached out with her gifts, to share the pleasure. A blank wall met her efforts. She was as blind as any normal human woman to her man’s innermost feelings.
In a way, it was freeing. She only knew what he showed her with his body. And his body said that Diana Ridley was sexy and arousing. Her hands traced over the roadmap of the battle.
Thank God, they healed so fast. She was too attached to him by far.
Adam rolled over and her thoughts scattered. Her pajama bottoms had disappeared without her realizing it. Now, she sat straddled over her very own werewolf lover.
He stretched his arms over his head. In a tiny fantasy, she could imagine him bound, a slave to her whim.
She felt powerful. Bold. Desirable.
A smile tugged at her mouth for the delicious body on display. Wide muscular shoulders, defined pecs, and a six pack abdomen were perfect to drool over.
Diana danced her fingers over the valley that divided his body. Fine, pale hair made an almost invisible trail down. His staff nestled against the crack of her behind, teasing her. So close she ached for him.
Adam moved when she moved. His blue eyes grew darker by the moment. She teased him, just by moving up and down against him.
God he was so erect. So big. She couldn’t stand it anymore. Raising to her knees, Diana speared herself on his thick sex. Shuddering as he slid inside.
With a growl, Adam grasped her thighs, striving to match her stroke for stroke.
God, the man knew how to work it. He swiveled his hips, gaining entrance to that special spot inside and rubbing over it again and again.
Diana’s nipples tightened even more, her body a flame that grew in intensity. He was the fuel making her burn bright. She ground down on him as he ground up.
The pace shifted, faster. His fingers grazed her abdomen and his thumb found her clit, massaging the little nub. Diana’s head fell back as the pressure below built. She felt him growing harder inside her body. His strokes delved deeper as she swelled around him.
Someone moaned. Someone growled. The world shattered into an explosion of stars and she locked up around him.
“Ahhh!” Adam’s howl cut off as he strained and shuddered against his climax.
“Mine!”
The word was a garbled growl, but she understood. Diana fell across him, sated.
The possessive didn’t even bother her.
He laid a hand over her behind, stroking her like a cat.
Finally, she managed to sit up. Her eyes felt crossed from all the pleasure. The faint trail of hair caught her attention and she followed it down. The dark curls of her sex mixed with the white blond of his.
She shoved away the half formed notion, already sliding into an exhausted healing stupor as she lay down beside him with a kiss on his chest.
When she woke, he was gone.
———
One week and four days later, Adam stood at Diana Ridley’s door, ready to settle in person what he’d only been able to hint at in snatches of conversation spoken in moments of stolen privacy.
Adam’s parents, proving what wonderful psychic parents they were, showed up at his door in time to make breakfast the day after the coyote fight.
Cheryl and Will spent the next week and a half proving what wonderful grandparents they were, taking care of things while Adam and his wardens facilitated moving the weres out of Anderson County.
He’d helped pack up and send off the four remaining coyote families, a werepanther that treed Chase for twenty minutes out of sheer perversity, and a family, of all things, of wereraccoons that everyone thought were hilarious until they changed.
As Mark so succinctly put it, Dude. That is one freaky family.
Adam’s parents took the boys and Karen to Six Flags. Cheryl stuffed them with cookies that made Adam miss Diana all the more.
Will took everyone fishing, something that Adam had forgotten how much he enjoyed. Growing up, Adam had had a lot of great times with his dad fishing.
Watching Chase gripe and bait all Tank’s hooks because the snooty warden refused to touch something as disgusting as fish bait was priceless.
The boys loved their new grandparents and whined when they had to leave. Karen cried and hugged Cheryl like she’d never let go. Adam loved his parents all the more for the gift.
The only flies in the ointment, so to speak, were Brandon and Diana’s absence.
After fleeing the burning bar, Brandon went directly to the Ridley house and stayed there. Diana had taken two weeks off work to stay with the traumatized wolf.
Now, Adam was here to make things right.
He knocked on the door, wishing he felt the same freedom the boys did, to barge right in. He frowned at the furious barking inside.
The door flung open. Karen smiled bright as a new penny up at him. She cocked a fist on her hip and frowned up at him prettily.
“Why are you waiting outside, silly?”
She snagged his hand and tugged him inside by the arm.
“Cut it out Brandon!” She called over her shoulder.
The barking stopped and Adam caught sight of the dark brown wolf in the living room.
Brandon peered over the back of the couch, ears laid back with suspicion as he watched Adam. The wolf whined and broke eye contact, ducking back out of sight. But not before Adam saw the red collar.
He frowned hard. A small growl of displeasure escaped him.
“Calm down, Adam. You’re scaring him,” Diana said.
The sight of her made his mouth water, or it could have been the meat and cheese smell of lasagna coming from the kitchen.
“He’s not a dog,” Adam protested.
His fantasy woman walked past him to the kitchen. Her hips sashayed an invitation for him to follow. The wolf ran from the living room and followed on her heels. Adam couldn’t help but follow, too.
“You’re right. He’s not a dog,” she threw back over her shoulder. He watched the sway of her ass instead of the irritating collar.
“But the city isn’t goin to believe that he’s really a sixteen-year-old kid who prefers being a wolf. I thought the collar was appropriate. He liked the red one.”
Diana raised one delectable shoulder he’d like to nibble on.
“So, there you go. Tea?” She offered him a tall glass, already prepared and waiting for him. She’d known he was coming.
He cocked his head as he studied some indefinable change in her. She looked different. More serene, like the Mona Lisa. A woman with a secret.
“Did you cut your hair?” Adam threw out the question as he accepted the glass.
When in doubt, it was always a safe bet that a woman had had her hair done.
Diana laughed. The poor man really didn’t have a clue.
Karen, bless her, had kept Diana informed of all the goings-on while she tended to Brandon. She’d worried and fretted until he called each night to check on her and his missing wolf.
But she didn’t dare leave Brandon alone at first. All the boy, wolf, did was hide under her bed.
Adam didn’t understand yet how far the boy had retreated from the world. How much damage those monsters had done to him.
Selfishly, Diana welcomed the distraction from her own problems. Of course, Brandon had turned into another very delicate and odd situation to deal with.
Matthew, she finally decided, was a big boy, a man really. He was graduated from high school and starting college. His life. His choices. She had to let her son go.
Diana finally broke down and visited Laina, wolf in tow.
These days, Brandon didn’t stray far from her side. After lunch and a rather emotional let-it-all-out gir
l talk, Diana’s ex’s ex handed her a small envelope with MOM scrawled over the front in Matthew’s handwriting. The message inside was short and to the point.
I’m sorry, Mom. I love you. Matthew.
Diana clutched the letter to her breast and cried. Laina began to cry, then Sherry, Laina’s girlfriend started to cry. Brandon became agitated. Diana finally had to calm down and reassure him, scratching behind his ears.
By the time lunch was finally over, the women weren’t best friends, but they were amicable.
Diana felt good, better than good in fact. She gave Adam a small smile and decided to have mercy on him. She dished a portion of the lasagna she’d made for dinner and passed him the plate. She’d already enjoyed a share of the warm cheesy dish when it came out of the oven.
Who knew that wolven blood would speed up your metabolism? In the last week Diana had trimmed off nearly ten pounds without changing her eating habits. Okay, she’d sneaked some chocolate cake, but she deserved it with all she’d been through.
She cut Brandon a piece and took him out to the patio to eat it. There was already a bowl of iced tea on the lap tray she had set out earlier. Her neighbor was beginning to think she was weird.
Oh, well. At least Brandon was eating, instead of lost in the funk he’d started out in. Diana slid the glass door shut behind her and turned back to the wolf in a man’s skin in her kitchen. Adam stared hard at Brandon, hunched over his tray, nibbling at the lasagna.
“He needs to come home.”
Diana cocked her head. She realized where she’d picked up the mannerism and smiled to herself. Here we go, she told herself.
“He’s not human, Diana. Don’t pretend he is.”
She blinked, and then looked out at the patio where Brandon had abandoned the food and was nosing a ball around, lost in a private game of fetch.
“You’re kidding, right?”
She walked around the table to go nose to nose with the stubborn alpha male. “I know exactly what he is. And you, too.” Diana took a breath and ventured a guess. “I think maybe it’s you who are confused.”
She felt the anger and frustration, a tight knot inside. Adam shot up out of his seat and pushed past her.
Weremones Page 28
