Wolf Detective

by Candace Ayers

  My stomach dropped. He leaned closer and inhaled deeply. His nose stroked up the side of my face and as it did, I sputtered out my exhale and sucked in another breath full of his scent .

  Oh, holy moly. If lust had a scent… Lust did have a scent. Him. Every bit of its deep headiness to its masculine musk, gave me visions of nasty, dirty, screaming, hair-pulling sex. I went from being anti-mate to wanting to dry hump his leg in a matter of seconds .

  He continued to inhale me. His lips stroked my throat. His tongue caressed my sensitive skin as his teeth raked gently over my pulse. I was weak. I was helpless to the power of the mate-pull. As if on cue, a thunderclap let loose from the heavens and I was—dropped. He released his grip and pulled away like he’d been scorched. My knees failed to hold me upright, and I plopped into the creek with a not so delicate splash. What the hell ?

  Sitting in the muddy, waist deep water, I was dumbfounded. I pulled myself to my feet and stood open-mouthed in shock, dripping dirty water .

  “Denny Wade? I’m Detective Raif Williams. I have a few questions for you .”

  “Det—” He could’ve said that leprechauns lived up his butt and came out twice a year for a pole dancing ceremony and I wouldn’t have been more surprised. He was a detective and he had questions ?

  “I didn’t do anything.” I hadn’t. I was a law-abiding citizen, unless you counted that time I keyed a hunter’s truck. But, who could blame me? He was vile and cruel and he’d deserved it. He’d had a slaughtered doe strapped to his hood and had been driving around like murder was something to be proud of .

  “You fled from a police officer .”

  I opened my mouth to argue and then snapped it shut. I hadn’t fled from a cop. I’d fled from…from…a scary, dangerous wolf shifter man. That can’t be right. My mate couldn’t possibly be a carnivorous predator and natural enemy of my kind. Ugh. Wait until the girls find out !

  “I wasn’t running from a cop, I was running from a …a …”

  His eyes flashed. “I understand you were you were photographing a pet poodle at a park in Smith a few days ago. I need to see those photographs .”

  I stared at him, confused and annoyed. I was drenched and freezing cold. I’d just sprinted for my life and the whole time he’d been chasing me to get pictures of a dog ? “Huh ?”

  “I spoke to a Miss Anita Gregory. You were hired to photograph her prize-winning poodle last Sunday afternoon at a park in Smith. I need those photographs .”

  I tried to appear composed and in control as I brushed my wet hair back from my face. My teeth began chattering. The idea of confronting him about his brutish asshole-ness was tempting, but not a great idea, what with him being able to sprout fangs and claws and all. Besides, he was pretty big. “I haven’t started working on them, yet. They’re still on a memory card right now .”

  “I’ll take possession of that , then .”

  I bit my tongue. “I—I’ll have to speak to Miss Gregory. If she’s agreeable to it, I can make you a copy .”

  He looked as though he might disagree, but fortunately, he didn’t argue. “Fine. I need it now , though .”

  I nodded and stood. As I sloshed back towards my studio, I wondered what the hell had just happened. How was it we’d had an interaction without any mention of the fact that we were mates. Whatever. I wasn’t going to be the first to say it. I had some pride .

  He trailed behind me the entire walk back to the studio. I walked stiff-legged, my sopping wet clothing hanging from my body. My shoes had filled with water and every step was unstable as my feet slid around inside them. They were also squeaking something fierce. Even without his shifter hearing, I knew he could hear every embarrassing little fart sound .

  Unable to resist any longer, I glanced over my shoulder only to find his eyes glued to my ass. Heat scorched my face and I jerked back around, but not before my foot struck the log strewn across my path. I tripped and stumbled, arms flailing, but just before I hit the ground, warm, strong hands grasped my waist and pulled me upright .

  “Careful.” His voice tickled my ear as his rock-hard erection dug into my ass. My breath froze in my throat and I had to fight not to wiggle my hips. My deer was wagging her bushy little tail like mad. She wanted to be mounted while I clung to my very sanity. Didn’t she understand that he was a wolf ? He could chew us up and spit us out. It was like she didn’t even care as long as she got a little action. Shameless hussy .

  He let go and gave me a light nudge in the direction of the studio. We were close enough that I could hear my clients inside, changing back into their clothes and getting ready to leave .

  “Dang.” I hurriedly sloshed towards the shop, hoping to leave detective ass-wolf behind

  6

  Raif

  T his case just got so much more complicated. My eyes were glued to her ass. She had the best ass I’d ever seen and it was all I could do to not lean down and sink my teeth into it. She’d asked me if I was going to eat her. Eat her? Hell, yes. I wanted to lick and suck her until she begged for mercy. I wanted it so bad that I had no choice but to pull away from her like she was burning coals .

  When I scented her arousal, I reacted by almost marking her. A grave slip that wouldn’t happen again. I was drooling to mark her pale flesh, not just in the traditional way, but in the deviant kind of way. I wanted my bite marks all over her ripe ass, claiming it as my own. Fuck. I was a sick bastard .

  I’d always assumed finding a mate made you sappy and shit. Sweet romance and flowery love, and all that. Instead, I had to fight the urge to overpower her and mount her like an animal. The things running through my mind would make a porn star blush. My imagination was working a million miles a second and it was all smut .

  She was delicate, soft. Way too delicate for a beast like me. I needed to leave her alone. I couldn’t trust myself to even touch her without losing control. Men like me weren’t meant to have mates. The job was too demanding, too brutal. And I’d seen first-hand what it did to spouses. It ruined them .

  She stepped into her studio and looked around. When she spotted the annoyed couple with their jester child, she blanched. “I am so sorry. This was a complete misunderstanding, Mr. and Mrs. Frankfort. If you’re still interested, I’d be more than happy to finish the shoot .”

  The Mrs. looked at her husband and gave a subtle shake of her head. The husband shrugged. “We’ve got other things to do today .”

  “Of course. Again, I’m so very sorry. If you have some time during the rest of you trip, please stop back. I’ll do the rest of the shoot for free .”

  The woman nudged her husband again and I easily detected the beady eyes of greed. “Well, I guess we can finish up now. Free, of course .”

  Denny nodded and smiled tightly. It didn’t reach her eyes. She looked strained and her movements jerky as she motioned them back towards the dressing rooms. “Please, get changed again and I’ll finish up for you .”

  “Since this will be free, I’d like more copies. And I want to try on that dress in the window .”

  I was growling before I even realized it. The greedy woman taking advantage of Denny’s kindness pissed me off. I wanted to snap at them. I’d chase their freeloading asses right out the front door .

  Denny scowled at me before turning back to the freeloaders. “Sure, of course. Go right ahead. I just have to take care of something while you’re changing and then we’ll get all the shots you want.” Fine, scowl at me and smile at the moochers. Right .

  Denny crossed to the other side of the studio and disappeared through a doorway. I followed. Stepping over the threshold, I found myself utterly horrified. She was a hoarder. Had to be. I was standing in what was intended to be a small office, but was indeed its own level of hell .

  There was barely a square inch that wasn’t littered with boxes of camera equipment, stacks of photographs, photography magazines, clothing, and a few things I couldn’t begin to identify .

  Denny stepped around a large box of p
rops, moved a stack of paperwork and file folders from her desk chair to a corner of her desk and keyed up her computer. “I just have to find the memory card and I’ll make a copy of it. Just give me one second .”

  I scanned wall to wall, taking in the framed photographs covering them. Most faces were unfamiliar. Some were scenery shots, but there were also pictures of a younger looking Denny showing off a brilliant smile and proving that she’d always been radiantly beautiful. In one, some scrawny punk had his arm around her waist and her head rested on his shoulder. The sight overwhelmed me with a wave of fierce possessiveness and before I could stop myself, I pulled it off the wall and tossed it across the room into a pile of costumes. Hope she hadn’t seen that. “Do you ever clean ?”

  I jerked back toward her desk, to find her kneeling, rifling through a pile of junk. She looked up at me in surprise, her mouth falling open. Fuck. It was a distracting position that sent wild thoughts to my brain. I looked up at the ceiling. Yeah, I’d just inspect the ceiling for a while. Until my dick calmed down .

  “I have a system .”

  “System would imply organization of some sort .”

  Ignoring me, she searched through drawer after drawer. A hideous clock on the wall ticked each second away loudly, slowly driving me insane as one minute turned into two and then three. Her mousy brown head disappeared under the desk and a few ticks of the clock later, she let out an excited shriek and came up .

  “I knew it was here !”

  Leaning against her doorframe, I crossed my arms over my chest. It was hard to keep my hands to myself when everything in me wanted to run them over her soft flesh, but as soon as I had what I came for I would get the hell out of her studio .

  It was more imperative than ever that I closed this case as soon as possible and leave Helen’s Corner. I didn’t know how long I could resist her, but I knew that if I failed, if I gave in to the mating call, a beast like me would ruin Miss Denny Wade. And that was unacceptable .

  She sat in her wobbly desk chair and slid the memory card into a card reader on her PC. She had an impressive set up. The computers at the precincts were ancient and miserably slow. An array of pics immediately popped up on screen .

  It took me a second to register what I was seeing. The pictures were all of the same shirtless punk with tattoos and a cheesy smile in various poses. In one, he was laid out across the hood of a cherry red Corvette, another had him flexing his unimpressive biceps in front of a brick wall. In one he was sprawled on a bed holding a heart shaped pillow over his junk. Jesus .

  I felt my claws extend and fur begin to sprout along my arms. Denny had been in the same room as this dirtbag? She’d taken his picture while he was wearing nothing but a heart shaped fucking pillow ?

  Denny was pushing buttons like mad to make the images disappear. She was bright red all the way to the roots of her mousy hair. She tugged her lip between her teeth and her shoulders shook. Fuck, I needed to get myself under control. I was scaring her again. She was timid .

  When I realized that she wasn’t frightened, she was fighting laughter, my jaw dropped. She finds it funny? Just that fast, my anger vanished. She was adorable when she was struggling to keep a straight face. It was good to see her like that. Fuck, I was already losing it over her .

  “Wrong memory card,” she sing-songed. A small giggle escaped, but she managed to mostly keep herself under control. “I don’t know where it is. I’ll have to keep looking after these clients leave .”

  I was about to object when her face went pale and her eyes grew even larger in her heart shaped face. “I forgot about shooting Meg’s engagement photos! Dang. I have to go!” She started grabbing stuff and then she slapped her forehead. “Oh, dang! I have to finish the Frankfort’s shoot and Mrs. Frankfort is going to want more than one outfit change now .”

  I watched as she flitted around the office, her long fingers fluttering about, touching random things as her brain clearly went berserk. Finally, she pulled a soggy cellphone from her pocket and frowned down at it . “Dang .”

  If she said that one more time, I was going to have a fucking anxiety attack. The woman was like a tornado wreaking havoc and destruction in her path. I took a step away from her. She continued to twirl around grasping at things, then shot out the door .

  I followed her out of her office where she stood explaining to the freeloaders something about an emergency and a voucher for a free session and full photo package. Then, like a whirlwind, Denny Wade was out the front door. I felt the need to remain until the freeloading couple changed and vacated the establishment, their jester in tow .

  I heaved a sigh and pulled my own waterproof phone from my pocket to scroll through my messages. The coroner’s report was in. Figuring I’d find Denny later in the day, I strode out to my truck .

  I couldn’t help but sit in the parking lot for a few extra minutes trying to process everything that had happened since I’d first arrived at the studio .

  I found my mate. She was beautiful, and I had no choice but to stay the hell away from her. There was no other option. It might be pure fucking torture, but mates didn’t survive men like me. Men like me ruined women. I’d watched it happen to my own mother .

  Denny’s mousy brown mane and long limbs suddenly came flying back towards the front door. She’d forgotten something. Possibly a change of clothes, since she was still soggy .

  Shaking my head, I had to laugh and curse my luck. Despite the fact that the woman was a hot mess, keeping my distance from her would be one of the hardest things I’d ever done .

  7

  Denny

  I stopped half way up the staircase at the side of my studio that led to my apartment above. The stress leached through my body and culminated in a bone-deep fatigue. There was a man in town whom fate had deemed mine. And, although he was hot as hell, he was an uptight jerkwad. A scary, dangerous, uptight jerkwad .

  It was a cruel joke. Who ever heard of a mating between a doe and a wolf? I wouldn’t do it. After my father left us for the eighth and final time, my mother had gone through a never-ending series of tyrannical, overpowering loser boyfriends. My childhood memories included praying for my dad to stick around this time and cowering under the bed in fear while some bully or another took out his frustrations from failing life on her .

  No. Hell, no. I may forever carry the emotional scars, but now the choice was mine . The last thing I’d do was allow Detective Alpha Male to boss me around and then abandon me in the middle of the night .

  Although, that might not be a huge issue since he didn’t seem to like me much. He hadn’t even mentioned that he was my mate. Wasn’t there some initial conversation between mates upon first sight? I’d always assumed there was .

  My camera bag slipped down my shoulder and I let it slide the rest of the way down my arm to rest on the step. An owl hooted in the distance and closer, something larger and wilder grunted. My deer tracked the sound to the woods, behind the first set of trees. A wild boar out for a run. Not something that I’d go out to run with, but not something that worried me .

  I resumed the climb, thinking about the irony of intentionally settling in a town of women only to have the one man I wanted to avoid show up. It didn’t seem fair .

  I wondered if Helen Cartwright had ever found her true mate after founding the town. She’d been a secretive woman. Who knew ?

  “Have you found it ?”

  I startled and would’ve fallen backwards, down the stairs, if the detective hadn’t reached out and snatched me into his arms. His chest was solid under my cheek. My heart thudded against my ribcage and I hated knowing that he could hear it. As a predator, he could probably see my pulse working at the base of my throat. The fact that I had allowed myself to be snuck up on, easy prey, made my pulse work that much harder. It was a cycle that was sure to get me eaten .

  I suddenly became aware I was smooshed into the man from boobs to knees. I sucked in a sharp breath and snapped my eyes up to his. In the dark
ness of my tiny front porch, his eyes glowed with reflected moonlight. His wolf was clearly close to the surface, but instead of frightening me like it should have, I tingled like jolts of electric current were running through me .

  His scent bathed me and I was helpless to its fragrance. As I traced the details of his face with my eyes, little electric sparks turned into full-blown flames. I forgot my convictions in that moment. I forgot everything. I was just a woman in the arms of a man .

  He broke free first. He didn’t seem to be as affected as me. Not at all. “You’re a danger to yourself .”

  I straightened and, flustered, rifled through my purse for my keys. They were at the bottom, as always, but I was all too happy to be distracted searching for them rather than meet his gaze. “I haven’t had time to look for the memory card , yet .”

  “It’s vitally important that I have it in my possession as soon as possible .”

  Bossy. It’s vitally important that you go jump in a lake. How was it that my mate was such a jerk? Fate sure did screw up .

  “I’ve been really busy. I’ll look for it in the morning .”

  “Jesus. Someone could have killed and dismembered you into venison chops by now. Do you always take this long to get inside ?”

  My mouth fell open and I stared at him, frozen in horror. He knew I was a deer and he was making jokes about it? What was wrong with him? My fingers brushed against the cool metal of my keys, I tugged them out, slipped the key into my door, and swung it open. How’s that for fast ?

  “Goodnight, Detective .”

  He grabbed my door before I could close it. “It’s potential evidence for a case I’m working on. You might’ve gotten shots that could help identify a murderer. More than that, that memory card could potentially bring and entire organized crime syndicate to justice .”

  Suddenly, even more exhausted than before, I strode to the kitchen, dropped my bags down on the counter, and poured myself a glass of water. I closed my eyes and drummed my fingers on the counter, trying to remember where I put that dang memory card. I really did have a system, but I’d been so thrown off by the big jerk earlier in the day that I’d lost track of everything .