Someone had cut a narrow trail. It did not ascend, but remained level as she followed it. The forest grew darker and more sinister.
Something grunted in the distance. Arianna froze, recognizing the slightly rancid scent. Ogre.
Fear froze her in mid-stride. If she ran, it would see her. Hiding offered her only defense.
Crouching down behind a fallen log, Arianna tried to keep her breathing quiet. The ground trembled. She peeked around the log.
Green-skinned, the creature had long, dark hair and thick, long limbs. The Ogre halted and sniffed the air. She cursed her approaching heat, preparing to shift into wolf.
But the Ogre ducked beneath a thick western hemlock tree. It emerged as a much shorter Skin, wearing black leather pants, a black jacket and thick, black boots. The Ogre now had rugged but slightly handsome features, yet looked tough, a guy you did not want to mess with.
Hellhounds. Arianna wanted to laugh. She recognized one of the bikers from Spuds. It made no sense. If the Ogres were here because her pheromones drew them, why hadn’t they attacked her? And why was this one uninterested?
Ogres aren’t supposed to shapeshift. The books her friend Beth had loaned her lacked many details.
The creature continued down the mountain. When it was out of sight, Arianna resumed her hike.
Some time later, she entered a clearing offering a pristine view of the valley. Arianna searched a rock outcropping and found a candy bar wrapper. Inhaling it, she caught the boy’s scent.
“Good job,” she murmured.
Settling onto a flat boulder, Arianna broke out an energy bar from her pack and munched between sips from her water bottle.
A deep howl cut through the air.
Her heart stilled. She stashed the wrapping, hid her pack and shifted into wolf.
A large gray timber wolf entered the clearing, but she didn’t recognize his scent. Arianna’s heart pounded hard. She tried to quell her fear, but her wolf was too animalistic. Baring her teeth and pointing her ears, she growled.
He looked like Kyle, but his scent was confusing.
As she advanced, the wolf held its ground. She stopped, wondering what the hell it wanted. And then the wolf blinked, and shifted into a tall, unsmiling man with brown hair.
Kyle, the dreaded hunter, here to drag her to the pack and her fate.
The sour stench of fear filled his nostrils. Kyle watched Arianna the wolf. Until now, she’d been his to protect. Now she was his to claim in the flesh.
Satyr blood surged hot and thick as he caught her delicious scent. The image burned into his brain of waist-length blond curls, those incredible blue eyes, the wide, reddened mouth and her wealth of curves made for a man to run his hands over...
Arianna. Arianna. Arianna.
The chant pulsed through his body. Kyle focused on the wolf, the coiled tension in her young, strong body. If he approached now, she’d bolt.
Or attack.
The wolf retreated, keeping her head lowered. Then she turned and darted up the mountain, crashing through the undergrowth.
He was fast, but Arianna was smaller and swifter. Kyle shifted back into wolf and bounded after her, paws slipping in mud and pine needles. His wolf enjoyed the chase, salivated at the thrill.
His Satyr hungered to chase her down and hold her for the taking.
Grimly, he kept both cravings at bay, the man inside the wolf directing the chase. Arianna was scared.
And then suddenly she was gone.
Digging his paws into the mud, he skidded to a halt. Kyle lifted his nose. Wolves didn’t vanish into thin air.
But he knew Arianna. She was good at hiding, when he gave her the advantage.
Not today. His sharpened senses caught her fragrance. There! A small cluster of rocks and bushes.
Kyle pretended to slip and fall. He released a long howl of anguished pain. Lying still, he waited, panting heavily and whining.
Sure enough, Arianna crept down the slope to investigate. Eyes half-slitted, he watched her shift into Skin form.
When she drew close, he sprang upward. In mid-air, he shifted to Skin form and leapt forward, tackling her to the ground.
Straddling her body, the soft female beneath him stirring his senses, Kyle pinned down her wrists.
She was naked. So was he.
Arianna stared up at him with wide eyes. A flood of female pheromones gushed from her skin, triggering his instinct.
His Satyr blood thrummed through his body, flooding him with male hormones, preparing him to mate. His cock lengthened and thickened, as his balls drew up tight.
“Gotcha,” he said softly. “Now, you’re mine.”
CHAPTER 6
Firm muscles layered the hard body atop hers. Piercing green eyes captured her startled gaze. Arianna drew in a trembling breath, aware of the changes in Kyle.
Changes that had nothing to do with his wolf, and everything to do with being a man.
Kyle gave a small, mysterious smile. It was wicked and victorious and spoke of frolicking in green meadows, long, lazy days of drinking cold summer wine beneath the hot sun, then making love for endless hours of erotic pleasure...
A tantalizing scent of spices and male wound around her like a noose and flicked between her legs like the slow stroke of a finger. Fear evaporated. Instead she felt edgy, wanting. The burning ache cranked up until it became almost unbearable, and she needed to submit to his sexual demands...
Arousal spiked her body, making her nipples grow taut. The space between her legs grew wet, as a flush spread through her body. Arianna watched his expression grow intent with sexual awareness.
Wild violence swirled in those deep green eyes. They flashed amber, just as they had that time when she was fifteen. She’d hoped to never see that color in his eyes ever again.
Especially like this, held down by him, naked and helpless.
Arousal fled, replaced by growing panic. Please don’t hurt me, please don’t hurt me.
Closing her eyes, she tried to shut out the fear dancing along the knife’s edge. This was Kyle, her guardian.
But chasing after a fertile female triggered a male Lupine’s lust, she remembered reading. And with dominant males, the more a female struggled, the more determined the Lupine became to conquer the female. Kyle must have alpha blood.
So Arianna forced herself to go limp. Taming the fear blackening the edges of her vision, she gave him a little smile.
“Yeah. You got me, hunter. Good one.”
Confusion clouded his gaze. His grip on her wrists eased. But the thick erection jutting up from his groin remained, along with the coiled tension in his muscled body.
Her mouth wobbled precariously. She must be brave, and trust.
Despite their intense sexuality, a dominant male Lupine’s deepest, most primitive instinct is to deliver pleasure. If caught in in the open beneath a full moon, a female may protect herself with protests he is hurting her, Dale’s book on Lupines had instructed.
And beneath it, a grim warning: However, if the male is sexually aroused beyond reasonable thought, protests may fall on deaf ears.
Great guidance, she thought humorlessly. Arianna gazed at his face, the cruel lust stamped on his features, the Z brand on his hollow cheek flaring white.
“Kind of a bad place for making love, hunter. If you’re going to do this, can you find a nice, soft bed someplace? I heard the first time hurts, and I already have a pine cone poking me in the ass.”
Kyle blinked hard, and the violence in his gaze faded. With a snarl, he flung himself off her body and rolled back and forth on the forest floor as if he were on fire and trying to extinguish the flames.
A fire of a different sort, she thought in a haze. Seeing him try to control his lust, she managed to calm her racing pulse. Arianna sat up, and summoned magick to clothe herself.
After a minute, Kyle stopped and stood, brushing dead twigs and leaves off. Hunger bit like a snake as she stared at his naked body, the sculpted muscl
es, the long, strong limbs...
Hastily, she looked away. When she looked back, he wore faded jeans, a camouflage T-shirt, a heavy sheepskin jacket, and a black Stetson. Hiking boots covered his feet.
Her guardian tipped back the hat and quietly regarded her. Nervous, she licked her lips. Oh damn. Not a good idea, for hunger flared in his gaze again as he tracked the move. But he fisted his hands, dragged in a deep breath and headed for the rocks. His pack rested against a tree. He opened it, withdrew a glass bottle etched with intricate runes and scrolls and dripped a few drops on his tongue. Then he capped the bottle, replaced it and sat on a rock.
Arms resting on his strong thighs, he stared at the jagged mountain peaks.
Kyle often went long stretches without speaking. Tension slowly eased in her knotted muscles. Sensing he needed a moment, she went to retrieve her own backpack.
By the time she returned, Kyle looked more normal.
Arianna dumped her backpack and sat beside him. “You broke your own rules, hunter. Rule number one: Never leave your pack in the open when you shift, so your prey can’t double back and find you.”
Kyle rubbed the back of his neck. “Knew this wouldn’t be a long hunt, and was more worried about spooking you than hiding my stuff.”
Huh. Sitting next to him, but keeping a safe distance, she hugged her knees. “Clever. You fooled me. Especially with the scent. What is that scent?”
The ghost of his old grin touched his full mouth. “It’s you. Trick of Beth’s. She’s been experimenting in the lab and distilled your scent. She wanted to distract the Ogres, herd them away from you. Sprayed it on myself to ease your fears when I caught you.”
Kyle fished out a small vial. Arianna sniffed the atomizer. “I really smell like this?”
“Like perfume to males,’ he said in a husky voice.
Fascinated, she took another whiff and shook her head. “What do you smell? Maybe it’s something I can disguise.”
Now he stared at her. “Sweetheart, a half-dead werewolf can scent your time from a mile away.”
“Tell me. Please.”
His breathing grew jagged. “You smell like honey and a bite of cool ice brushed with tangy citrus. You smell ripe, like a peach ready for picking. Had a hell of a time trying to keep my dick down, wearing your scent.”
Warmth spread through her body, her nipples tingling as moisture gathered between her legs. Kyle’s nostrils flared as if he scented her arousal. Arianna clamped her legs together. Okay, guess all pretenses were dropped now. They’d been dropped the moment he sprang on her naked body.
She handed the bottle back, watching as he stuffed it into his pack. “How did you find me so fast?”
“I’m a hunter. I know your scent, and I’m a lot faster than you. I could find you anywhere.”
Tension hardened his body, his gaze darkened and his pulse beat too rapidly. Whoa, still too intense. Time to take it down a notch.
“There’s an Ogre out there, at least one, searching for something. Nearly had a close encounter of the stinky kind.”
Kyle’s mouth flattened. “Did it come after you? Let me go after the bastard, I’ll—”
“Yo, hunter. Ease off the he-wolf routine and take a cold shower.” Arianna drew in a breath. “It was after something, but not me. Because I’d already encountered him earlier, and he had the opportunity to grab me, but had no interest.”
Quickly she explained about the shape shifting and the Ogres masked as bikers in Spuds.
Kyle frowned. “Why are they on the mountain?”
“Not sure, but they aren’t here for the scenery. They want something. Other than me.”
“You can’t be certain,” he said darkly. “You give off a very strong scent closer to your fertile period, and when the moon ripens, so do you. Every male will find you irresistible and want to mount you. Even Ogres.”
Okay then.
“I picked up the trail of the young,” she said, hoping to return conversation to a more normal level. “Bastards who took them laid a false trail, so I did as you’d taught and looked for other markers.”
He gave a brief smile, stretched out his long legs. “Good job. You’re a damned fine hunter, Ari. Take it slow, thorough, and don’t rush into anything, unlike some of the others.”
Finally she glimpsed the old Kyle, her partner on hunts, her friend.
“We make a good team,” she told him. “Now that you’re here, we can hunt them together.”
But her hopes shattered as he sighed and rubbed the bristles on his firm chin. “Sorry, little pint. Can’t risk it. I came here with one thing in mind.”
“What?” She tensed.
Desire darkened his gaze as he studied her. “You. And not to hunt with you, either. But to claim you and mate with you.”
Whoa. Arianna swallowed hard, feeling the world tip crazily beneath her feet. “A bit much. We haven’t had our first date yet. Ever hear of taking it slow? Maybe we can have a ten-year engagement first?”
But he did not smile, only regarded her with his intense gaze. “Darius and Aiden released my beast. I can’t stop this, not until I have you.”
Oh hellfire. Panic clogged her throat. Released the beast? Did not sound promising. Maybe she could reason with him.
Right. She fought a wave of hysteria. Diffusing a healthy sexual male like Kyle with reasonable talk was akin to throwing a bucket of water on a forest fire.
Kyle stood, his manner determined, and held out a hand. “Come, Arianna. Back to my cabin. Let’s get this over with. I have no desire to hurt you.”
The blooded female Lupine wanted to return with him, follow him into the bedroom and submit to his demands. The determined hunter balked, knowing the moment they stepped off the mountain, the young were dead.
There was no reasoning with a fully aroused male, but this was Kyle. He rescued injured and helpless creatures. Like her.
“Fine. You can claim me in your bed.” She swallowed hard. “Do what you will. But first, we’re finding the Lupines I’ve been tracking.”
“Too dangerous.”
A sickening feeling slammed into her. “Damnit, Kyle, I didn’t come all this way just to have you go animal on me. Can’t you control this?”
“I’m trying,” he said quietly. “It’s taking every bit of my control not to throw you down right here and mount you.”
“I can’t return now.”
His mouth a tight slash, Kyle clasped her wrist. “You must.”
The low command in his voice brooked no refusal. She took his hand, noting the gentle grip compared to the sexual violence flaring in his eyes.
She could smell his arousal, spiked by the pheromones flooding from her pores. Kyle’s big body tightened, his gaze darkening, a pulse beating wildly in his throat. Stricken, she watched the bulge in his crotch grow considerably larger.
She wanted to lie beneath him and spread her legs open.
She wanted to run away, screaming and crying.
A rill of fear skidded down her spine as she glanced at his long fingers, remembering the swiftness and skill of his wolf and those vicious claws. But Kyle would never hurt her. Arianna settled for raw honesty.
“I want to be with you, Kyle, but I’m afraid. Most of all, I’m scared for those poor kids, taken away from everyone and everything they’ve ever known. Please, don’t let them die. I beg you, leash the beast long enough for us to rescue them and return them to their parents. And then you can do whatever you wish to me.”
Something dangerous glinted his gaze. “Anything I wish? You promise?”
Arianna swallowed hard, remembering whispers of velvet ropes, blindfolds, exquisite pleasure bordering on pain. “Anything. I promise.”
Tension rode his jaw. He breathed through clenched teeth, staring into the forest, every muscle taut as a bowstring.
Finally he gave a rough nod. “All right. I’ll help you find the young.”
Relief filled her, making her legs tremble. “Thank you. You’r
e not a savage, Kyle.”
But the intent gleam entered his gaze again. “Don’t underestimate me, Arianna. You may regret it.”
Maybe. But for now, she’d remember the respect and friendship they’d always shared. “I wish things could be different.”
“Me too,” he rumbled.
“It’s my fault... if I wasn’t so scared, Aiden and Darius never would have put you in this position. I hate this.” Swallowing hard, she stared at the ground.
Warm fingers clasped her chin, lifted her face. Gently, he stroked along her cheek, his touch soothing. With a sigh, Arianna leaned into him. This was Kyle, the guardian who kept her safe.
“It’s not your fault. And if I ever meet the son of a bitch who did this to you, who took a brave little girl and made her terrified of sex, I’ll kill him.”
Arianna looked up, her heart pounding hard as he dropped his hand. Kyle’s mouth hardened as he stared into the forest.
“Change your socks. You’ve been tracking through the rain and need to keep warm.”
Kyle stood watch as she sat on the rock to change her footwear. Her wolf sentinel, who’d had sworn a vow to protect her from all harm. But he never promised she’d remain a virgin.
She hated coming into heat during the full moon. It equaled pouring gasoline on a smoldering fire. And Kyle was fire enough.
Minutes later, she followed him through the thick pines, mimicking his moves. Staying still when he did to listen, scanning the ground. They did not speak.
The hunt gave her the opportunity to study her guardian.
He was rugged as the harsh timbers and jagged mountains surrounding the ranch. And he possessed a smooth virility that made females turn their heads to give him a second glance.
He was sexy, edged with danger. And soon, she would become his and his alone.
Arianna’s breathing hitched. Something primitive and exciting awoke, triggering her sensuality, along with the damnable fear. But this time, she pushed the fear aside, combing through thin cobwebs of memory.
An image flickered... chained and bound naked to a wall. Being helpless and unable to free herself. The beast with glowing eyes...
Dark and Dangerous: Six-in-One Hot Paranormal Romances Page 18
