by Claudy Conn
“You haven’t answered me yet about Ralphie and Carrie, but you don’t really know them, so I guess it doesn’t hit you the same as it hit me. Wow, I didn’t have a clue.”
“I haven’t known him long—true, but I liked him on sight.” He let go of her hand and sat back in his chair. “Are you sure you would prefer the dessert here to the one I could give you at home?”
“Home? At your lodge you mean?” She was surprised.
He shrugged. “Not mine, ours, and yes.”
“I’ll compromise with you. Let’s take it to go and have both.” She beamed wickedly at him.
“Oh, baby, I am going to spread my sweets all over your body and lick it off, inch by inch,” he whispered.
“Okay, ready…let’s go.” Zoie laughed.
He called for the check and a few minutes later, they were in his luxurious car and headed for the country road that would lead to their lodge.
Just before the turn off to the sandy road that would take them to his long drive, a dark SUV pulled out of the woods along the side of the road—and then another, and another still, blocking their path.
“This is so not good,” Zoie said as he put his car in reverse and sped it backwards, pinning her in place.
“Drink this, baby.” He dug into the cooler in the back and came up with a cold container.
She wasn’t thirsty, but now that he offered the blood to her, she couldn’t get it down fast enough. She finished the entire quart and looked up at him. He grinned.
“Good girl, now, go wolfen, baby. We are changing direction and will head for Bracken.”
* * * * *
Zoie was out of her clothes and in wolf form in the blink of an eye. She stood on all fours, her silver coat shining in the moonlight beside her Big Black Wolf.
She watched the rogues Rocco had imported from various parts of the country step out of their vehicles and take a stand.
Within moments, the seven of them transformed into their wolf form.
Real ugly vibes filled the air. Zoie knew these guys weren’t there just to threaten. They were out for a kill.
She turned to look up at Owen and saw concern in his green eyes. No, not concern, at least not for himself. He was worried about her.
In her head, she heard his voice, Baby, this is no time to take them on. I’m not sure you are ready…
Ready? I am ready to take on double their number, and not in the mood for running.
He laughed. Not running, baby, leading. With that, he loped off, looking back only once to give her a look over his shoulder as she followed and weaved through the pines.
If she had been in human form, she would have laughed. Everything she had inside of her simply exploded into real time life. She had to embrace who and what she was and take these rogues out. She knew it, and she wanted to show Owen that she could do it.
Rocco and his way of thinking had set a war into motion and the Bracken pack was now thoroughly invested in taking him down and making room for Caleb, who was the rightful alpha heir.
As Owen had predicted, the rogue wolf shifters followed them into the deep woods. Zoie could only guess that, as strangers in the vicinity, they were unaware of property lines as she and Owen led them off town property onto Bracken land.
The moment they weaved ahead with hybrid speed through the trees, she put up her head and howled for her pack.
Owen joined her, and they looked at one another as they heard answering howls hit the atmosphere from different parts of the landscape.
Baby, run ahead and join your pack to give me backup, I am going to stall them in that clearing at the top of the hill.
Owen just wanted her safely out of the way. Not happening.
No, you take a stand—I’m with you.
Baby—please. I will be distracted if you are here and in danger.
Then lead them deeper…
They won’t follow us. They heard your pack’s answer and know they will be outnumbered. I have to take them down here.
You can’t take down all of them.
You doubt your mate?
We aren’t mated yet.
Baby…
Don’t baby me ‘til we have all seven of their bodies detached from their heads and light up the sky for Rocco to see!
Bloodthirsty little hybrid. He stopped then, for they had reached the top of the rolling hill and the small grassy clearing.
They looked at one another, green eyes into blue ones, and knew what they were about to do and how they would go about it.
The seven multicolored wolf shifters slowly made their way up the hill, spreading out, their necks low to the ground, their teeth bared and saliva dripping.
Zoie saw Owen’s nose flare as his lips curled back to display his canines. Damn, but he was beautiful, she thought and got ready.
The most aggressive of the seven lunged at her, even as Owen took the initiative and went after another rogue shifter who came at her from her attacker’s side.
Violence surged through her veins as she easily maneuvered out of the rogue’s way and came down on his back. She bit into his neck and shook him viciously.
She kept telling herself, he was a killer, he would have killed her had he the chance, and got him down. She was strong, so much stronger than she had been when she was a wolf shifter.
With hybrid speed, she dragged the injured rogue shifter off, and in two sharp bites and pulls, had his head off and out of the way. She quickly glanced up, blood dripping off her tongue as she stared at another shifter lunging her way.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Owen had already taken down two rogues and was working on the third. He was something, her hybrid, really something.
A moment later, Ralphie, Brock, and three of their male pack members were on the scene, and within a moment, only one rogue shifter remained.
He whimpered, turned, and ran.
Owen transformed into human form and stayed her pack with an uplifted hand. “Let him get away and tell Rocco what went down this evening. They saw Zoie in action tonight and will think twice about attacking her again.”
Ralphie’s wolf was brown and white with black markings around his eyes and ears. He padded over to Zoie, and they bumped their wolf heads together.
Brock made a sound to their pack members and nodded to his sister before he loped off.
Owen was still in human form, and Zoie’s attention was taken by the fact that he was hard all over. Oh so hard.
He saw her staring at his cock and laughed before he went wolf. Come on, my beautiful mate…we need some alone time.
Not your mate. We only had one date.
I don’t need a date to know you are my mate, my one and only, my future bride. So, do you want alone time with me, or shall I escort you home?
His green eyes twinkled, belying the arrogance of his tone, and she thought, Who am I kidding? Yeah, I want alone time with you.
Chapter Thirteen
A MATTRESS OF sorts lay flat on the floor of what Zoie thought of as the master bedroom.
They were now both in human form and totally naked.
Zoie was always self-conscious when naked and exposed like she was now. She knew she would never be thin, or tall, or even graceful, and that knowledge did worry her at moments like these when he held her and ravaged her with his eyes.
Standing before this incredible hunk, who could have anyone he wanted, made her feel a moment’s shyness. There just was no disguising the fact that her curves were full-bodied, that her ass was as plump as it was round, and that he was staring at her like he wanted to devour every inch.
The look in his eyes—that hungry, needy look, blasted all her insecurities to smithereens. Breathlessly, she asked as she waved at the mattress on the floor, “When did you put this here?”
“Early this morning. I know you bought a bedroom set for us, but I wanted you comfortable tonight because…” His hand, which had been gently stroking her neck, slid down to her chest, lingering only a mom
ent, then covered her breast before fondling and teasing her nipple.
Oh, she wanted him to keep doing what he was doing with her nipple, but his hand slid further down, and lingered at her belly before finding and taking hold of her trim mound in a way that made her wet inside and limp at the knees.
“I have plans,” he growled.
“What plans?”
“To take you on a trip,” he said, and hungrily kissed her mouth, parting her lips as he searched for and found her tongue, melding it with his own.
Damn, but he sent her into space as his tongue licked and teased and literally made her mold her body up against him.
Too soon, he pulled away from that kiss and she whimpered for more, but he whispered, “Ah, Zoie, you are delicious, so delicious.”
“A trip? Where are we going?” she managed to ask, and heard the rawness in her own voice.
“To the land of pleasure.” He bent his head and suckled at her nipple, came up and flicked it with his finger as he murmured, “For an extended stay.” His mouth then traveled down to her belly, leaving a trail of sizzling flesh in its wake.
Anticipation mingled with the wild sensations he had already elicited in her and she went into position and teased his nipple with her tongue.
His groans excited her and she pressed her sex against his hip.
That was all it took.
He had her in his arms, cradle-like, as though she were simply a featherweight, as he situated her on the mattress.
With fluid grace, he had her legs bent at the knees and those knees in the air.
“I want to taste your honey, baby…I am starving for your juice,” he murmured as he went down between her legs and first poked his nose and breathed in her aroma. “Exquisite…your scent drives me insane with need, Zoie.”
He licked her canal with a feral movement that took her to another plane of reality where stars burst in a dark sky and she gave herself to his manipulations.
“Owen…” It was all she could say because her blood burned all the way to her brain, turning thoughts to ash.
Here was her physical mate. They were matched to give one another pleasure, but she no longer was concerned about the future. Right then, they belonged to the moment and that moment was the epitome of what gratification was meant to be.
Well, okay, her body declared, he said he was about to take her to the land of pleasure and she damn well wanted to do the same for him.
His nibbling at her nub, his tongue circulating inside of her drove her to the edge, and when his finger joined his skilled tongue, she pumped towards the ceiling with wild abandon as her body exploded and shuddered. She couldn’t control the jerk-like movements of the aftershocks. She couldn’t speak, but, all at once, she wanted his cock in her mouth and she scrambled to take hold of his pulsing erection.
“I want this,” she growled, and licked its length.
“Do you taste us, baby? Us—Zoie…we are an ‘us’,” he whispered.
His words floated in her brain as she took the head of his dick into her mouth, then sucked hard as she took it deeper.
She worked him, her hand gently fondling his balls as she sucked hard and stilled, then sucked hard again.
All at once, he pulled himself out of her mouth and laid her back on the mattress. “I have to get inside your pussy, baby. Now.”
He rammed into her and Zoie was swept up by his intensity.
Did she feel pain when his fangs dug into her throat? A little. Did she feel pain when those fangs were retracted and replaced by his wolf’s canines, which went a bit wider, deeper? Hell yeah, but the pleasure of his movements inside of her quickly took over as he brought her to another climax and she screamed out his name.
He poured his hot seed into her, even as she trembled with the aftereffects of her orgasm and his words in her ear made her cling to him.
“Zoie—my mate.”
His mate. He had chosen her as his mate. She had allowed it. She could have stopped him. He would never have forced her. He wasn’t that kind. She had invited him in and she had given herself up to him. Mated.
She clung and he began rotating his dick, which was still inside of her, to touch and press against the walls of her sex.
“Give it to me again, baby…because I can’t get enough,” he whispered hoarsely. “I just can’t get enough.”
She pushed towards him, driving him deeper inside of her and stopped…they both stopped and listened.
Howls!
She recognized the howls coming from her pack.
They jumped up and hurried to the front door, ran outside, and at hybrid speed went wolfen and took on the night in the direction of the distress call, whose sound she knew too well. Ralphie!
* * * * *
Carrie, her clothes torn, and Ralphie, in wolf form at her back, stood in the clearing near her cottage.
Zoie could hear her pack howling as they raced towards her brother’s distress call.
Four vampires and two rogue shifters surrounded them.
Carrie was keeping them at bay with a blue and magical light she had wound around herself and Ralphie.
Zoie and Owen lunged into the air and came down on either side of Carrie and Ralphie. Zoie pawed at the ground.
One of the vamps said, “We only want the witch…her blood will give us powers.”
Zoie growled ferociously.
The vampire, at warp speed, went at the blue light, bounced off and fell backwards. Owen was on him and ripped his throat open, tore off his head, and dropped it near the body.
Owen…we’ll have to burn him later.
Oh, we will, baby, we will and all these damnable suckers!
“This isn’t your fight, hybrid,” one of the rogues said to Owen, leading Zoie to believe he didn’t know she was a hybrid as well.
Owen howled a war cry.
Brock and Zoie’s dad arrived on the scene and the rogues went wolfen and took off. The vamps remained.
Zoie didn’t recognize them as belonging to Drake’s clan, so these were killers. Would they actually try to take on the shifters?
Another one of the vampires moved quickly, and for a moment, Zoie was afraid as he attacked her father.
The vamp was fast, but once Raymond Bracken got his canines into the vamp’s throat, it was another one down.
Two vampires remained and without a word, turned and sped off.
Ralphie went human and Zoie had to avert her eyes so she wouldn’t look at her brother’s manly parts.
Carrie was in his arms and he said, “You are coming back to Bracken with me.”
“I don’t want to leave my home…but you are right. I don’t want to be the reason you are hurt. I will come with you.”
Bracken pack members in wolfen form arrived in numbers, and they were outraged that Rocco had used vampires to attack a witch that was under their protection.
Many of them went human and began talking about immediately confronting Rocco.
Zoie’s father invited them back to the house to discuss just how they would do this with the least amount of causalities.
“It isn’t going to be easy,” he told the pack before they all went wolfen and returned with him. “And we will need to be smarter than they, which means, thinking like Rocco. Are you ready for that?”
Zoie saw they were ready. Before they were done, they burned the vampire bodies, and then Zoie watched them lope off towards her family’s home. She started to follow when Owen’s voice in her head stopped her.
No, baby…let’s go back to our place. We are with your dad one hundred percent, but now, now we need each other.
He was right. Tomorrow they would talk strategy after her pack had laid down a plan. Tonight, ah yeah, tonight she and Owen had their own plans to manage because she knew in her heart, the fight Rocco had brought to their world was only going to escalate.
Just as this dread entered her mind, Zoie’s cellphone rang!
About Claudy
Claudy Conn, a
native New Yorker, now lives with her husband, Bob; their wolf, Cherokee; and Cherokee’s son, Rocky Man, who weighs in presently at 190 pounds.
She loves horses and riding and raised her twelve-year-old gelding Southern Pride from the moment he was born. She also loves gardening, swimming, skiing, hiking, and travel—and of course, reading, and writing, but no, she says, no arithmetic!
To get her monthly news, her reviews for all her new paranormal romances, and excerpts, come on and visit her at her website!
To see pictures of Cherokee—and her shepherd-wolf son!—have a look at her Facebook page!
