Her Wanted Wolf

by Renee Michaels

  She said it with a sly persuasiveness. At first glance, it was a win-win situation. He’d get to have sex with her, and he wouldn’t be tied permanently to a mate.

  If he took her as his mate, it would cost him. Drew had no doubt about that. The wolf in him was already felt an unusual possessiveness toward her. Besides, no Lunedare ever had a temporary mating. In that one instance, they clung to the old ways.

  Sabine was right. It wasn’t the first time the Redmavens captured mortal women for breeding. Justice had rescued several women from an unsanctioned den a couple years ago. They used the fact that the Redmavens drugged the traumatized women to plant the idea that they’d hallucinated. It was easier for them to accept they imagined it than to believe that the men who held them captive morphed into wolves.

  He had to get a look into that den, and he needed Sabine to get him down there.

  Deep down, Drew knew they were on borrowed time. If Bardo hadn’t figured out what was keeping his pack from detection yet, he would soon. When he did, he’d blanket the area with his men. Then he’d have a hell of a hard time getting the women to safety.

  As Sabine waited for his decision, he felt the tension in her.

  Drew’s eyes dropped to the sparse silver down on the cleft of her nether regions. The image of him sliding his cock into her slipped insidiously into his head. Hell. He didn’t need this. The words of denial looped in his head. I don’t want her. I don’t need a mate.

  When he looked up to meet her gaze, she wouldn’t miss the desire in his expression.

  “Are you sure you’re prepared to take me on as a mate and all it entails?” He gave her a chance to back out. “Once I take you as my mate, my spoor will soak into your skin. You’ll crave my body, as I will crave yours. It won’t be so easy to walk away from each other.”

  Sabine gulped and her eyes widened with shock. “Weres have sex with weres who are not their mates all the time.”

  “As often as we can as long as we are not mated, but if I put my mate’s mark on you and say vows, the were in me and the man I am, will not break them.”

  She studied him doubtfully.

  Drew realized the little wolf was not completely sure about what she’d proposed. However, her momentary uncertainty wasn’t enough to curb her tongue.

  Hands on her hips, she challenged, “Are you prepared to take me on? You don’t have to put your mate’s mark on me. As a matter of fact, I’d prefer it you didn’t.”

  She had what his uncle called gumption. He just wished she had a little less of it.

  Her pert retort pulled a raspy chuckle from him. “Now I’m terrified. I’ll consider your offer. Do you have a cell? I need to contact my pack.”

  He’d have to find a phone, and soon. If the boy Sabine put down was expected at the Redmavens’ den by a certain time, his absence would put his pack on alert that something was amiss.

  “A what?” She looked puzzled.

  “A cell phone.”

  Sabine shook her head. “Uh, no, don’t have one.”

  “Is there a land line somewhere near here?” Drew asked hopefully.

  “Nothing like that near here, either.”

  “Short wave radio? Drums? Smoke signals?” His hopes dwindled as she shook her head at each request.

  Christ, he’d been tossed back a couple of centuries.

  “None of the above. We never had the need to contact anybody outside of our pack. We’re pretty self-sufficient here.” She said it with pride.

  They’d achieved the impossible, hidden from man and werekin for centuries. Not an easy task.

  “Our supreme alpha, Justice, is going to love you. He has no use for phones either.” His frustration growing, he asked in a measured tone. “Where is the nearest town? I’m going to need to call in some of my clan to help protect your family.”

  “We don’t need them. If we come to an agreement, you can lead us to where you’re going. We’ll get you out undetected. Where do you live by the way?” She motioned to a small dwelling behind her and took a step in its direction.

  “Colorado. Our territory is in the high county, a couple of hundred miles west of Boulder.” He grasped her wrist before she could slip away. “I noticed you didn’t say you’ll follow my lead. If we mate, you will abide by my decisions.”

  The snarky she-wolf returned in full force. The cocky little smile that roused him tugged at her lips, but he preferred it to the cool derision in her eyes.

  “You’ll lead me when you’ve earned my respect. All I know of you as a leader is that you ran willy-nilly to my rescue without scoping out the area for the presence of other wolves.”

  Drew winced. She had to bring that up. Shit, he’d never had his balls busted so much by a woman before.

  “Balthazar doesn’t have much time.” Sabine’s voice cracked and she dropped her eyes to the ground. “After we give him back to nature, we can leave.”

  “Your family can’t afford to stay here any longer. I’ll head for the nearest town to find a way to contact Justice Ambervane. He needs to know about the existence of your pack.”

  “Have you any idea what you look like? You’re naked and have a crazed look about you. Any human who catches sight of you will shoot you on sight. I would.” Her grin held a tinge of the imagined pleasure of doing just that.

  Drew ran his hand over his scraggly beard. Yeah, he probably looked like Grizzly Adams.

  “Rest and get cleaned up tonight. We’ll steal you some clothes from the camp further down the mountain in the morning. You can head for Laststop after the majority of the weres we’ve been avoiding leave the canyon. We can avoid running into them once we know which direction they’re heading.”

  Drew froze. There was only one reason a group of wolves left their den en masse. A hunt.

  He grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to face him. “They’re hunting you, aren’t they?” Drew cupped her jaw and raised her face to read her expression.

  Sabine looked fiercely up at him. “Yes, but I don’t want Balthazar to know how bad it is. We’ve become complacent in our isolation. We raced the woods as we pleased before they came. Maybe we weren’t as judicious about masking our presence as we should have been. It’s my fault we’re in danger. I have to fix it.” She jerked her chin out of his grip and turned to leave, her body stiff from having to admit her mistake out loud.

  Drew rested his hand on her tense shoulder. “Ahhh, now I get it. You think you screwed up, so you’re going to sacrifice yourself to make amends.”

  “Every morning I worry that day will be the day they’ll stumble across us. In my head, I know they won’t find the den. The combined efforts of the women should keep us hidden until we need to leave.” Anguish flitted across her face. “You wouldn’t understand. It’s my responsibility to keep us safe. I failed them.”

  Yeah, he understood, only too well. It was a hell of a burden Sabine shouldered. He cringed at the naïveté of this small she-wolf, who, in all earnestness, believed she’d be able to hide from the rabid pack indefinitely.

  Getting the women away from here was more urgent than he thought. It didn’t take much of a leap to imagine how the Silverwolves’ stealth skills could give the Redmavens some badly needed leverage. The Lunedares and Ambervanes were at the top of their shit list, and they’d be crawling up their butts if they weren’t careful.

  “What do you want more than anything, Sabine?” Drew asked her the same question she’d asked him to get her attention.

  Her head jerked up. “My family safety, of course. They are everything.”

  “Then listen to me very carefully. The weres you’ve cleverly managed to evade so far are not ordinary wolves. They were bred for strength, cunning, viciousness. The stench you smell is from the drugs they’ve been poisoned with to make them killers. You don’t want to know what they’ll do to the women of your family if they get their hands on them. If you want to save your pack, it’s time to act. You need to be far away from here as possible. You
say they’ve taken human women. If word spreads that shape-shifting beasts are roaming the forest, the old myths will be remembered. It’ll start as a whisper at first. It will feed fears, and the murmurs will grow into a roar man can’t ignore. They’ll start to hunt us again. If you thought it was bad for our race in the past, it will be worse this time around. With the weaponry they have at their disposal now, we’ll be slaughtered. We’re calling for help tonight. Now, point me in the direction of the nearest town.”

  Drew watched the color leach from her face. For once, she didn’t prevaricate. “Will any communication device do?”

  Drew nodded. “It would be a step in the right direction.”

  “There is an unmanned ranger station due east of here. It will take no time at all to get there. They have some sort of radio. Ishbel will take you down. Come on.” She took off at a fast trot, and he had no choice but to follow her.

  “How do you know this?” He lengthened his gait to keep up. It seemed once she had a purpose, she went at it full speed.

  “I looked, of course. I was curious.” A chagrined grin spread across her face. “I have to see to my family and prepare them for what’s ahead. So, we have an agreement of sorts?”

  “Yes, after I get a look at the Redmavens’ den I’ll let know what I’ve decided tomorrow.”

  Her shoulders sagged a little with disappointment, but she nodded and took off to get her sister.

  Drew wanted them long gone before the Redmavens got another whiff of them. The loose plan formulating in his head should work.

  But why did he have the sinking feeling his choices were toppling like dominoes, and leaving him with only one? To take Sabine for his mate.

  Chapter Seven

  Sabine collapsed in the minuscule cave tucked high into the side of the hill. The bravado she’d used to hold her own with the alpha was depleted and left her a mass of spent, quivering nerves. She wrapped her arms around her chilled body to control the tremors racking her body.

  Alone in her personal haven, she allowed her fears and insecurities to surface. She never felt so intimidated, daunted and hopeful all at once.

  Her father’s plan was set in motion. Sabine doubted very much that the proud were would readily agree to the condition she’d demand before they cemented their bargain. No alpha would. She only hoped Lunedare’s obsession with finding his sister outweighed his pride and the instinct to hold onto what was his.

  If he acceded to Balthazar’s wishes, it’d take her one step closer to fulfilling her promise to her father. Looking back, she realized Balthazar started to lay the foundations to his plan a long time ago.

  Sabine never imagined she’d actually have to keep the vow she’d blithely made to her father to ensure the continuity of her pack. For that, she required a male to impregnate her, but she always thought she’d choose her mate. And now her father had trapped her and Lunedare neatly into a mating. Sabine’s lips twisted into a grimace.

  But nothing was a sure thing, in spite of her father’s machinations. She might not be able to fall pregnant now that her breeding cycles were irregular and infrequent. The concept filled her with dread. It would be another failure on her part.

  Duty to the pack was paramount, and it wasn’t in her to stand by and allow hers to fade into extinction without a fight. Yet, a part of her balked at doing what her father asked. She had her pride and wished to be wanted for herself.

  As far back as she could remember, her father declared she’d inherited a full complement of a Silverwolf’s gifts. Her skill at masking their presence over a wide area outstripped even Balthazar’s. Sabine and her pack sisters honed their stealth and fighting skills under her father’s tutelage. It hadn’t occurred to her that they’d actually have to use them to defend their pack. Their strengths lay in concealment and misdirection. She’d always assumed any real threat would come from humans. They killed what they didn’t understand.

  Sabine couldn’t remember the exact moment she started to cover her father’s mistakes. What she’d taken for mere absent-mindedness was the beginning of Balthazar’s decline. Little by little, she stepped in to care for her family. Sabine kept her family fed and hidden for so long she didn’t know anything else. Maybe that’s what bothered her most. Sabine hadn’t taken an order from anyone in a long time. Living under Lunedare edicts would be confining.

  Her family had followed her lead in every way but one. She’d tried to move the pack while Balthazar was able to run on his own. No matter how much she pleaded, cajoled, and threatened, the older members of her family wouldn’t budge.

  These woods were the only home she’d ever known, but there was always a sense they’d have to move on one day. The back of her throat ached with unshed tears. Sabine would mourn the loss of this valley, and all its familiar nooks and crannies.

  Sabine glanced at her treasures, inconsequential trinkets from a world alien to her, that Ishbel had pilfered for her. Her sister understood her thirst for knowledge as much as Sabine knew Ishbel longed to leave the valley.

  With gentle fingers, she pushed at the colored bottles strung together with twine and hung from the ceiling, to send them tinkling musically against each other. During the day, they caught sunbeams and cast a full spectrum of colors over the dim cavern. She had a weakness for rainbows, real ones that arced across the sky, or the ones she created with her bottles.

  Rubbing her temples, she contemplated what lay ahead for them.

  They were being pitched headfirst into a world they knew nothing of, and she knew the Silverwolves were ill prepared. The last time any Silverwolf lived in were society, Queen Elizabeth I ruled England. Her mind boggled at the idea of interacting with were-tribes larger than her own. All the books she’d read in her search of knowledge would never give her the skills to cope in a modern environment.

  She’d be an unwanted mate of a man who’d sworn not to take another. Her pride rebelled at such a union. Yet the inexplicable allure about him pulled at her like the moon pulled the tides.

  To calm herself, she drew in a deep breath and held it until the tension seeped out of her. Letting out a shuddering sigh, she focused on Lunedare. With idle curiosity, she wondered what his dead mate had looked like. What kind of woman evoked such devotion?

  The wolf they’d brought to their den intrigued her and presented her with a puzzle. It took her by surprise that she found him almost impossible to read because very little of his emotions infused the odors his body. He felt closed off, an unfamiliar sensation for her. Oh, she caught faint whiffs of anger and arousal seeping through the tight control he had on his feelings. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to give her an insight into the man.

  The masculine musky fragrance he’d exuded brought a dull heavy ache to her pelvis. The sensitized, nerve-rich tissues between her thighs throbbed with a sweet, persistent ache. Sabine slid her hand up and cupped her breast. She pinched her nipple between her thumb and forefinger, hard. The self-inflicted pain sent her body into a series of jerky shudders.

  The scent of Lunedare clung to her senses to her as a cocklebur to fur. She couldn’t shake it off. She wanted him. A female were always sought out the strongest male in the pack. The aroma of his virility would arouse the other she-wolves.

  She grinned ruefully.

  There might be a riot among her fertile pack sisters who didn’t take their pleasure in each other’s arms. She wondered how many would succumb to the lure of the joys a man offered.

  Sabine scoffed at his appearance. She could hardly tell him that her fingers itched to push back the dense, sun-streaked, dark brown hair from his wide brow. She would never admit that his mouth, highlighted by the growth of hair surrounding it, mesmerized her as he spoke and that his full bottom lip beckoned her to take a taste at her leisure.

  His long, sinewy muscles, stretched taut over a long-boned frame, were so blatantly masculine in comparison to her feminine curves she hadn’t been able to stop looking at him. His manhood hung low and enticed her, stirr
ing images of couplings, which brought a flush to her skin.

  It wasn’t every day she got a chance to study a penis of those dimensions. Even at rest, it held little resemblance to the genitals of the campers bathing in the streams, who she and her sisters spied on. It was larger and heavier then the anatomy diagrams she’d studied too. Sabine gulped and a shiver of anticipation skittered down her belly to settle in her core.

  The image of their first coupling gave birth to acts she’d never dreamt of before, to needs she didn’t know how to address.

  Yes, she’d do as her father demanded of her. However, she wouldn’t allow Lunedare to put his mate’s mark upon her. She did not intend to bind herself permanently to a man whose emotions were bound to another woman. She had to rebuild the Silverwolf pack, but she also needed her freedom to find love, commitment and happiness for herself. She wouldn’t play second fiddle to a first mate’s ghost for a lifetime.

  Rising, she took one last look at her cave before leaving it. One day, if she were lucky, she’d come back with her cubs. It would be like a pilgrimage to show them her roots. Sabine frowned. She would return, that is, if Lunedare would allow her to take her offspring. Her shoulders slumped, feeling the pressure of another problem. He probably wouldn’t, so she had to find a way to make him see the importance of making sure her bloodline didn’t die out.

  Inhaling the sweet night air, she turned to trot down the hill to do a quick check of the perimeter before she headed for her bed. Sabine wasn’t surprised when her sisters separated themselves from the shadows to fall in step on either side of her.

  “Did he get a message out?” Sabine asked Ishbel, hopefully. It would be something to tell her father before she retired.

  “Yes, and by the alpha’s words, he’s called in an army. Lots of virile weres in our camp. Think about it, Sabine.” Ishbel’s white grin flashed in the dark, swinging the small cloth bag in her hand by its drawstring.

  “Will you take a mate, Ishbel?” Ala’s question drew a heavy sigh from Sabine.