The Bucklin Wolves Next Generation: Return

by Jessica Ryan

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t have a car here with me. The Mercedes belongs to Ms. Wilson and I think she went somewhere in it.”

  “I drove,” Seth said. “That’s why I came to pick you up and you didn’t come to pick me up.”

  Duh, she thought as he winked at her silly blunder. Don’t be an idiot. You’re already flustered and not thinking straight.

  It was true. In the company of an extremely attractive man, women could sometimes lose up to twenty-three percent of their normal mental capacity. That was bad enough, but a man around a woman he found even mildly attractive? Up to forty-eight percent. Attraction hit both sexes hard, and men a little bit harder. Unfortunately Maribel was feeling like she’d lost more than twenty-three percent of her brain.

  She followed Seth onto the driveway and stopped, looking around for the mysterious car that he’d said he’d driven there in. She was shocked that a werewolf could drive, but then again she realized she didn’t know a lot about them and the only ones she had been around in the past were wild.

  “Where’s your car?”

  “I rode my bike,” he said.

  “Can you pedal with me on the back?” It was an honest question. He shouldn’t have been cocking an eyebrow and giving her a look like she was growing a second head. Who rode a bicycle to a business meeting anyway?

  “I rode my motorcycle,” he corrected.

  Maribel instantly felt strong panic grip her body, especially in her chest. A motorcycle? Who the hell drove a death trap like that? Was he trying to kill her? Was that the plan? To off her?

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, stepping forward. He reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but stopped short and pulled it back.

  “You don’t have a car?”

  “I do,” he said. “But it’s such a nice night I wanted to ride the bike.”

  “A motorcycle? Are you insane?” Maribel couldn’t hold it in anymore. “You’re twenty-six times more likely die in a motorcycle accident than a car accident.”

  “I don’t crash,” he said, before reaching into a large saddlebag and producing a helmet that he held out for her. “If you’re worried, you can wear this. It even has a visor.”

  “A helmet is only thirty-seven percent effective in preventing death and sixty-seven percent effective in preventing brain injury.”

  “But your driver is one hundred percent in control and not likely to crash.”

  “Nobody can be in one hundred percent control of a machine like this! Not even a werewolf. Oh, crap. I said werewolf. I was told not to call you that. Oh my god. I’m so sorry. Wolf. I meant wolf. Goddammit. Sorry for cussing. Oh, man, what is wrong with me?”

  She wanted to collapse right there on the driveway and curl into a ball, never to be bothered again. Luckily Seth just laughed it off and climbed onto the bike. “Come on, Maribel. I’m hungry as hell. Let’s get moving while the getting’s good.”

  I don’t even know what that means. She stood and stared at the bike before slowly slipping the helmet onto her head. She was defeated, that’s all there was to it. There was no way she would be able to fight back against this. With reluctance she slipped her bag into one of the large saddlebags and swung her leg over the massive back of the bike. She tried to hold on to the seat, but she felt like she was going to teeter and fall off.

  “Put your arms around me,” Seth instructed. “Just hold on to me tight.”

  It took her a good thirty seconds to work up the gumption to even reach out. When her hands came close, Seth roughly grabbed them and pulled them around him, smashing her against his powerful back. It felt like she was lying against a rocky wall rather than a man’s back. She could feel every muscle in his chiseled midsection as well. Hopefully he didn’t feel the heat radiating off her nether regions.

  “I’ve never met a mayor who drove a motorcycle before,” she stammered.

  “You’ve never met an alpha wolf before, then,” he said, sitting back into her. She tried to pull back as she felt her large breasts squish into his back, but he kept the pressure on. “You want to stay as close to me as possible. Don’t be hanging out back there on your own.”

  “O-Okay,” she managed to get out. “So are you the mayor or the alpha?”

  “It’s complicated,” he said. “I guess you can call me both. The mayor of Bucklin was always the head alpha, but we don’t have packs anymore like we used to. I guess technically that makes me alpha over everyone. But I don’t feel like it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Hey,” he said, turning his face to the side. He was so close, she could almost kiss him on the cheek. If he was really talented they could even touch tongues. She felt her face grow hot with the thought as he continued to speak. “I’m really hungry. Can we just go ahead and get to dinner and talk about this later?”

  I’ve hit a nerve, she thought.

  “Sure,” she said, reminding herself not to be so nosy during the interview. “I’m hungry too.”

  As the motorcycle roared to life, sounding more like a dragon ready to attack its prey than a machine, Maribel couldn’t help but scream. Seth, the jerk, responded by laughing heartily. He was laughing so hard his entire body vibrated. Maribel could feel her hands running up and down his abs as he laughed. When he quit laughing she was embarrassed to find her hands still running up and down his washboard belly.

  I definitely need to change my panties later, and he might just need to change the seat on this bike. I don’t know how well you can clean leather. She was definitely wet from touching him, even in the face of the mortal danger she was facing.

  Seth didn’t take it easy, even knowing it was her first time. She wondered if his lovemaking would go the same way. She had surely never been with a man who was packing what he was packing just behind his zipper. The motorcycle sped off down the street, running a stop sign and screaming into the evening.

  Maribel had to bite her bottom lip to keep from screaming as she leaned forward, completely smashing her ample breasts into his strong back. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she caught a wide smile on his face as he took a corner way too fast. There was something beyond dinner here, but Maribel was too scared to process it.

  Chapter 5

  These pants are too tight, Seth thought as he took the bike through the twists and turns of Bucklin, trying to find the open highway that he sometimes wished he could hit and never turn around on. His manhood was growing rock-solid behind his pants and it was beginning to hurt. Her breasts felt amazing as she pushed them in to him and he could smell her arousal in the night air.

  He shouldn’t have been playing the cool bad boy with her, but he couldn’t help it. She seemed to really enjoy it and he knew he was making inroads with her. He wasn’t quite sure what he wanted out of her. Was it just sex? Or was he seeking something a little deeper? She was an amazing woman—smarter than anyone he had ever met. He had once been told intelligence was a turn-on and now he knew why. He knew what his wolf wanted: the creature wanted to claim her as his mate permanently. Seth didn’t want to be so hasty, because there was a lot going on. He knew for sure he wanted their naked bodies entwined in a beautiful dance of lust and love. Since he’d become mayor/alpha he hadn’t been with a woman at all. There had been too much knowledge to seek, so he couldn’t be distracted by the flesh like other, lesser men would have been.

  The plan was going exactly as he and William had envisioned it. They’d secured a deal that was going to bring Bucklin forward into the modern world. They would both reap the financial rewards and then Seth and William would quietly retire to a life of private citizenship, maybe even going their own separate ways. They would save the people they cared about, but once they’d learned to take care of themselves they would be on their own, or in the hands of their new government, as Seth finally lived the normal life he wanted and William got some much-needed rest and relaxation. Could that normal life be lived with Maribel, though? Possibly, but she herself had a hectic career; he
had to remember that. She wasn’t even from this area.

  William had been able to see the lust in his eyes. He’d even protested the meeting they were going to have tonight, wishing that Seth would just stay home and practice the speech he was going to give at the groundbreaking ceremony. Seth hated cameras and he hated reporters, but that didn’t mean he froze up in front of them. He was more of a ‘shoot from the hip’ type when it came to speeches, although he had only given a few in his brief time as mayor. No, the problem wasn’t practicing the speech—it was the fact that Seth was going out with a human he was so obviously attracted to.

  William could be a bit of a control freak, but that might have been because the treacherous snake he called a son was so difficult to control. Red Moon, Blood Moon, it didn’t matter what they wanted to be called—Crow had fostered a culture in the pack that bred contempt for the other packs. William had lamented it on more than one occasion, but he’d also lamented high profile members of the community, like Rowan, taking human mates.

  As far as Seth could gather, Satan’s Angels would have come regardless of what Rowan did, but many chose to believe Rowan and his need to save Eva were the reason so much ruin had been brought down on Bucklin.

  Maribel isn’t like that. We’re not at war, we’re rebuilding this place. She can’t cause us any harm. Hell, being on her good side may even bring us a favorable deal on this casino construction. She does have to report back to Mr. Sokolov, after all.

  Another smile crept across his face as he felt Maribel running her fingers over his stomach. She probably had no idea she was feeling him up; her body was doing it involuntarily. Oh, the things he would do to her if he got the chance. She liked to appear shy and demure, but he knew there was a fiery temper there, and a wild girl waiting to be let out. She had her head buried too much in statistics. She needed to live. He would help her open up, literally and figuratively.

  The few remaining members of the Bucklin community talked too much. If they saw the mayor at dinner with a human, there’d be so many phone calls to city hall the remaining support staff wouldn’t be able to handle it. He had to get her out of Bucklin so they could conduct this meeting in peace.

  The Roadside Lunchbox was a quaint little diner halfway between Bucklin and Cedarville. It was outside of his jurisdiction and it wasn’t frequented by anyone from Bucklin. It was a safe bet they could have a private meeting there.

  As they pulled off the highway and into the parking lot he confirmed his thought, not recognizing any of the cars in the parking lot. Seth pulled right up to the front of the building and stopped the bike. All at once he felt her hands go off his waist and her tits disconnect from his back as she leapt off the motorcycle before he could even get the kickstand down. His body immediately longed for hers to be pressed against him again as his wolf whined in disapproval.

  “Are you wanting to get away from me that quickly?” he asked as he stood up.

  “No,” she said, then peeled the helmet off and shook her beautiful dark hair out. “I just wanted to get the hell off that death trap.”

  “You made it here alive,” he pointed out.

  “But I still have to get home,” she countered.

  “You still won’t trust that I know what I’m doing, will you?” he asked.

  “The sample size is too small. I can’t draw any conclusions yet.”

  Everything was numbers and math with this girl. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Seth didn’t like to look at the numbers behind any situation; instead he chose to go off what his gut was telling him. Right now his gut was rumbling, demanding a sacrifice in the form of cooked meat. He smiled and patted his stomach. “You’ll trust me yet, Maribel.”

  “Maybe so, Mr. Mayor.”

  “Please, call me Seth.”

  “Okay, Seth.” The words sounded hard for her to get out, like she didn’t want to address him by his first name. She was very professional, and he did like that. If only Ms. Wilson would behave this professionally, then maybe he would feel better about her and Jacko.

  “Shall we?” he asked, holding his arm out.

  “Thank you,” Maribel said, then slid the strap of her bag around her arm and walked forward in front of him. Seth almost fell over before wiping it all away with another smile and following suit. “Why don’t you wear a helmet?” she asked.

  “Pardon?”

  “You own a helmet, but you don’t wear it when you ride.”

  “I don’t need a helmet. You know how hard it is to kill a werewolf?”

  “You’re not immortal.”

  “No,” he said. He didn’t want to be; that was for the vampires to worry about. Wolves still lived longer than most humans, though, and they didn’t start showing signs of age until they were well into their eighties. Most humans couldn’t handle that and generally the packs kept it secret from their mates, lest they run away in fear of being old and shriveled while their mate was still young and tight. “But it’ll take more than a motorcycle accident to kill me. Besides, I heal fast too.”

  “I did a little reading,” she said as they walked through the doors of the diner. Before she could say anything more, Seth put his hand on the small of her back and led her to a booth in the corner. As he removed his hand he noticed goosebumps running up her arm. So she did react to his touch. Excellent.

  “About what?” he asked, taking a seat across from her.

  “About wolves. You heal four times faster than a human does. If a wolf gets a cut it’s virtually healed by the next day. Broken bones can heal in a fraction of the time it takes a human’s to heal.”

  “The wild is a harsh place,” he said, looking down at the menu. He already knew what he wanted and he hoped his bank account was ready for it.

  “Is Bucklin a harsh place? It’s so connected to the wild.”

  He looked up at her, his eyes boring into hers so hard over the menu that she was forced to look away and clear her throat. “Bucklin is safe as long as I’m in charge. Don’t worry, Maribel. I won’t let anything happen to you. Nobody will hurt you while you’re under my protection. I swear it.”

  She was embarrassed again, that much was evident. He had to let her know how he felt, though, and she had to know the vow he was making. He would kill anyone who thought about hurting her. He wasn’t above shifting and ripping someone limb from limb. He hadn’t evolved that far past his wolf, in spite of what William liked to think.

  “I, ummm, well, I appreciate that, Seth.” She looked away and mumbled. It was so low that no human could hear it, but Seth’s superhuman hearing picked it up and it brought another smile to his face. When he was with Maribel he might as well have had his smile permanently attached to his face, because she brought it out in him. “Nobody has ever cared enough to protect me before.”

  “What’ll it be?” the waitress asked, surprising both of them. Seth was so embroiled in his feelings for Maribel that he hadn’t even noticed the petite waitress making her way over to them. If it had been an enemy, he could be dead.

  “I’ll have the bacon and eggs meal,” Maribel said.

  “Toast or biscuits?”

  “Ummm…” She looked embarrassed to even be ordering any food. She was pretty self-conscious, Seth decided. “Can I get biscuits and gravy?”

  “Sure thing, hon. What about you, pal?”

  “I’ll have the eight ounce T-bone meal with a baked potato. I’d also like the cheeseburger meal, times two. I want one with fries and one with onion rings. Also, bring me the chicken fried steak meal with another baked potato.”

  “Expecting someone else?” the waitress asked as she furiously tried to jot it all down.

  “No,” he said. “That’s all for me. And two waters, please.”

  The waitress looked like she couldn’t believe him. He had seen that look before: she thought it was all a prank. One time he’d had to assure the manager at a restaurant in Cedarville that he was serious, and they’d still made him pay for it all in advance to preve
nt him from running. This waitress finally just nodded, her eyes still wide, before turning to walk away.

  “You’re really going to eat all of that?” Maribel asked.

  “I didn’t order it to stare at.”

  “But you’re so… so…. how do I put it? Buff. How do you maintain your body?”

  Seth threw his head back and laughed deep. She must not have done very much reading on werewolves. “We wolves eat a ton of food. It’s almost impossible for us to get fat. It’s the way our metabolism works.”

  “Must be nice,” Maribel muttered.

  For the next several minutes all they did was sit in silence, staring at one another. Maribel couldn’t maintain eye contact; she kept looking away before glancing back up at Seth. Seth couldn’t peel his eyes away from her, though. She was gorgeous. He couldn’t believe how taken by this one female he actually was.

  Thinking back on it, he’d honestly thought he would be more attracted to a girl like Stacy Wilson than a girl like Maribel. But here she was in front of him and he couldn’t get enough of her. Then again, the girl Rowan had claimed had been a little heavier than the average female too. Humans were shallow when it came to their choice of mate, but not so for the wolves of Bucklin. Maribel was perfect.

  “I guess it’s going to take a while to cook all that food,” she said, reaching into her bag. “Maybe I can ask a few questions?”

  “Go right ahead.” He was curious to find out what questions she could possibly have for him.

  “Well, I’ll just dive right in,” she said, opening a folder.

  “I don’t know what you could possibly be worried about. Sure, we have some abandoned houses and businesses, but we have virtually no crime. No gang activity. No drugs. It’s perfect for you, isn’t it?”

  “But what about the wolves who abandoned the town? That Aster guy and his people?”

  Seth tried to hide the surprise on his face. “How did you find out about that?” Only wolves in the know should know about what had happened in Bucklin.