by Cara Morgan
“Good morning,” she said, her voice scratchy with sleep. She pushed a hand through her hair, and it stuck on a tangle. Great. She had a truly massive case of bed head. She had to look awful, but Eli was still looking at her like he wanted to eat her up, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as she thought. “What time is it?”
His hand wrapped around her bent knee, and a sweet curl of desire spiraled through her at the contact. Sensing it, his eyes darkened and his hand flexed again.
“It’s time to get up,” he said, almost regretfully. “The snow’s stopped, but we’re pretty well buried. It smells like it might start up again later, so we have to get moving if we want to make it out.”
“Can’t we stay here? I have food.”
“I made breakfast.”
She could smell it. Corned beef hash. Apparently, he’d found her stock of cans in the pantry. Her stomach rumbled, and he smiled.
“Stay here. I’ll get you some.” He grabbed a plate from the open shelf by the sink and scooped a generous portion from the pot warming on the old stove. She watched the muscles in his back and forearms flex as he moved about the kitchen, pouring her coffee and then loading everything on a tray he’d dug up from God-knew-where.
As he crossed the cabin, she piled pillows behind her back and pulled the blankets up to demurely cover her breasts. Eli settled the tray on her lap and then hauled over one of the wooden chairs from the table to join her.
He gestured at the tray. “I’ll do better next time. I’m actually a pretty decent cook, but there wasn’t much to work with. I thought about hunting you down something better, but this was at hand and I didn’t want to leave you to wake up on your own.”
She swallowed the mouthful of food, surprised at how hungry she was. She’d likely burned through a lot of calories last night. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”
“The food will help you to heal and restore her strength. You’ve probably noticed your metabolism runs faster than most human’s.”
She nodded. “I’ve always had to be careful who I ate with, and how much. My aunt tried to starve the wolf once, thinking it would cure me, but it didn’t work.”
Eli frowned so fiercely, she froze with the mug of coffee halfway to her lips. He noticed, and swore softly under his breath. “I’m not angry with you. Even a dormant shifter should have known better. Starving your wolf won’t do anything but piss her off. You’re lucky she didn’t try to take over.”
She set the mug carefully down on her tray. “That can happen?”
“Mostly in lone wolves and only under extreme duress. It won’t happen to you. For one thing, you’re not a lone wolf any more. For another, I won’t let you go hungry. Not for anything.”
“I’ve got a lot to learn.”
“I’ll answer any questions you have, no matter what,” he said. “Just ask. I’ll try to fill in the gaps as I think of them, but if that gets annoying, don’t feel bad about telling me to quit. How do you feel this morning?”
“The heat is gone.”
His eyes glittered. “Not gone. From what I’ve read, it will ebb and flow for several days before fading completely for a few years. We should probably try to make it down the mountain while it’s backed off. Do you feel up to that?”
She slid the tray onto the nightstand. “Do we have to go so soon?”
“The others will be worried.”
“Your pack.” Last night when the heat had been driving her hard, a pack full of willing shifter males had been exactly what she’d wanted. This morning, it seemed daunting.
Eli caught her chin and forced her gaze up. “It will be okay, sweetheart. Are you worried?”
She thought about denying it, but she wouldn’t start out their relationship by lying to him. “What if you’re wrong and they don’t want me?”
He drew her forward to place a gentle kiss on her lips. She felt the first faint stirrings of heat inside her. Not the driving need of the night before, but a warm, pleasant awareness of her mate. She wanted Eli again—when she shouldn’t want to have sex again for at least a week—but she wanted to get to know him too. She licked her lips when Eli pulled away, and his attention fixed briefly on her mouth before he released her with a sigh.
“There’s no way any of them would turn you away,” he said. “They’d be damned fools if they did, and no one in the pack is a fool.”
She searched his face. “And you’re okay with that? With sharing me?”
Eli rose from his chair and sat down beside her on the bed. He took her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. “It’s not like that exactly. The female chooses the pack, and right now I’m your pack. If you don’t want to claim the others as your mates, then we’ll leave the lodge. We can find our own territory like your parents did.”
She was stunned that he’d even suggest leaving his pack. She didn’t know a whole heckuva lot about Eli, but she knew that he loved his pack mates. They were his co-workers, friends, and family all rolled into one tightly knit group.
She squeezed his hand. “You don’t want to split with your pack.”
He looked up. “No. But I don’t want you to feel trapped either. I’d like for you to meet everyone and see for yourself that I’m telling you the truth. They’ll welcome you, Maggie. They’ll roll over at your feet and beg for your touch. If you decide it’s not what you want, then we’ll go from there. Okay?”
She tried to imagine it. A pack of shifters to love and be loved by. A new family of people just like her. She wouldn’t have to hide who and what she was, or be ashamed because she was different. She wouldn’t have to be ashamed of her body or her needs either, not if the others were anything like Eli. Her human half feared rejection—because that’s what she knew—but the wolf had no such qualms. To the wolf, it was an easy decision. Her wolf wanted a strong pack, and a strong pack required more than a single mate.
Outside the walls of the cabin, a wolf howled. The sweet song sent a shudder of pure longing down her spine. It was unmistakable, that sound. Undeniable, the pull it had on her. A flush of warmth spread over her skin and she felt a pulse of desire deep inside of her.
A slow smile spread across Eli’s face. “Maybe we don’t have to go anywhere after all. Are you ready to meet the rest of the pack?”
She nodded, feeling like she was jumping off a cliff blindfolded with no idea what was waiting for her at the bottom. But she was making that jump anyway, trusting the wolf, her and her instincts. Trusting Eli.
“I’m ready.”
Maggie’s Wolves
Red Mountain Pack: Part Two
Excerpt
Maggie pulled on an old flannel robe and followed Eli outside to meet the pack. The sun was struggling to break through the clouds. The air was cold enough to freeze her breath, and there was a solid foot of snow on the ground. She was shivering by the time she’d taken two steps from the door, but Eli seemed impervious to the weather. He wore a pair of old jeans and his fleece-lined boots, but that was it. She opened her mouth to tease him about catching a cold, but then decided to simply enjoy the sight of all that thick, bulging muscle. It warmed her up from the inside.
“You can wait inside where it’s warm,” he said as she joined him. “I just wanted to talk to them for a minute or two to warn them about what to expect.”
She raised her brows. “You’re warning them about me?”
He coiled an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in close. “You need a warning label, sweetheart. Shifter in heat. Proceed with caution.”
“Hey,” she teased back, elbowing him in the ribs.
He laughed and buried his cold nose against the side of her neck. Pressing a quick kiss there, he said, “They need to know you’re new to our world. Most alpha females would already understand the rules of the game and let their wolves take charge.”
Her smile slipped away. “I’m doing this wrong.”
“What?” He caught her chin and lifted her face. “That’s not what I meant at all. You’re not doi
ng anything wrong. I just want this to go well for everyone involved. It’s best if there aren’t any misunderstandings upfront. You’re still worried about this?”
“I’m a little nervous.”
Terrified might be a better word. She already cared about Eli, and she knew how badly he wanted her to accept his pack as her own. He’d been completely honest in his expectations about that and, while her wolf was on board with the idea of claiming more mates, her human half was beginning to second guess everything. There was only one thing of which she was absolutely certain—scared or not, she wasn’t about to hide away while someone else decided her future. Not even Eli.
Resting her head against his shoulder, she took a deep breath to steady herself and was startled when she caught the scent of the approaching wolves. Masculine and wild, the scent made her mouth water.
“I can smell them,” she said. “My nose isn’t usually this sharp when I’m walking around on two legs.”
“It’s probably the heat. Your wolf wants to find other shifters.”
She looked out at the woods. She couldn’t see the wolves yet, but they weren’t far away. “There are only two.”
He nodded, tilting his head and tasting the air. “Case and Jack.”
They didn’t have long to wait. Within moments, the first wolf, large and covered with reddish brown fur, stepped from the tree line. He paused to study them through golden eyes. Maggie would have been able to read the wolf’s curiosity in the slight tilt of his head even if she hadn’t had the instincts of a shifter. A second wolf, smaller and gray, entered the clearing only a few seconds behind.
Eli stepped forward to greet them, positioning himself between her and the wolves. He probably meant to give her a minute or two to catch her breath, but she’d felt better with his arm wrapped around her. The wolves ignored Eli anyway, both of them moving to keep her within sight. They stared at her with obvious interest.
No. It was more than that. They were watching her with intent, as if she were prey. Feeling threatened, she reached for her wolf and, when the shift eluded her, made a small noise of distress.
“It’s okay, Maggie,” Eli said softly. “They’re not going to hurt you.”
It wasn’t that. “You said I would be able to shift.”
Frowning, he turned to look at her. “You still can’t?”
She shook her head. “It’s the same as it was last night before...” She glanced at the wolves, who continued to stalk closer, and then back at Eli. “Before. Is there something you’re not telling me?”
She didn’t want to believe that Eli had lied, but if taking a mate was supposed to allow her to shift again, it hadn’t worked. Why would he have lied? Not for sex. As desperate and sick with lust as she’d been last night, he hadn’t needed to make stuff up to get her into bed.
Eli lifted his hand, but she didn’t take it. “Maggie…”
“Why can’t I shift?”
The brown wolf stopped moving forward. The air seemed to shiver around him like heat over asphalt, and then he shifted, the change moving over him in a sweeping wave of retracting fur and popping bones. She winced at the sound even though she knew from experience that it wasn’t particularly painful. She’d always thought it would hurt like hell if it happened slowly, but it never took more than a second. It was strange watching it from the outside. She hadn’t seen anyone shift since she was a child.
When it was done, a man knelt in the place of the brown wolf. His hand sank wrist deep into the snow as he leaned forward to catch his breath. His skin rippled for a moment longer as the skin and muscle settled into place. He stood slowly. His eyes, still tinged with wolflight from his change, fixed on her with disconcerting intensity. His hair was the same reddish brown color as the wolf’s fur and longer than she liked. He pulled the look off. With a face like that, he could have worn his hair however he liked and still have looked good. His body was…God, he was a beautiful man, as perfectly proportioned as a statue in a museum. The thick white scar running from the bottom of his ribcage to hook around his hip was a jarring blemish.
“This is Case,” Eli said. “Alpha of the Red Mountain pack. Case, this is Maggie Lewis…my mate.”
Case’s gaze flicked briefly to Eli’s, but his expression didn’t change. Maggie couldn’t tell what he thought about the news. Eli had said the men of his pack would roll over at her feet and beg for her touch. Maggie couldn’t imagine Case begging anyone for anything. He seemed far too contained for that.
Stepping forward, Case extended his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Maggie.”
She shook his hand, and a shiver ran over her skin at the contact. His hand wasn’t as roughly calloused as Eli’s, but his grip was warm and very strong. When she moved to release him, his fingers flexed once and then reluctantly, as if he had to force his hand open, he let her go.
“You won’t be able to shift until your heat is over,” Case said. “You still feel your wolf?”
She felt her wolf just fine. At the moment, her wolf was very interested in the nude man standing in front of her. Her hand tingled with the memory of his touch, and she was painfully aware of his growing erection. She stared at his face, refusing to look down. “I feel her.”
He nodded. “Then everything is as it should be. You’re still in heat. All of your wolf’s energy and attention will be diverted to that until it passes.” He looked at Eli, a faint smile curving his mouth. “No wonder you didn’t come home. We worried you got caught in the storm.”
“It wasn’t the storm.” Eli turned to her, and her heart squeezed at the hurt expression on his face. “I thought you would be able to shift today, Maggie. I’m sorry.”
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing,” Eli said. “You thought I’d lied to you.”
She shifted her feet uncomfortably. “I got a little worried, that’s all. I still trust you.”
A shadow of uncertainty crossed his face, but he nodded and reached for her hand. When she took it, he tugged her closer and kissed the top of her head. “You should go back inside and get warmed up. I need to shift and catch some food before we start down the mountain. Dress warmly.”
No, she wanted to say, I’m not mad, I promise. I’m sorry. But Case was watching them both, and the words died on her tongue. “You’re leaving me alone?”
Eli swept his thumb over her cheekbone in a light caress. “Not alone. Case won’t let anything happen to you, and I want you to talk to him.”
He wanted her to do more than talk to Case. He wanted her to claim Case as her mate too. Eli was giving her to his friend. Her human half didn’t like that idea at all, but the wolf was completely fine with it.
Eli seemed to sense that. “Trust your wolf, Maggie.”
Before she could protest, Eli bent his head and took her mouth in a deep, possessive kiss. Then, when the heat surged in her blood and her head was spinning, he released her abruptly and walked away. She stared at his retreating back for a moment, feeling bereft. The smaller gray wolf—Jack—followed at his heels. When she turned back around, Case stood only a few feet away, his eyes glowing faintly with wolflight.
“Let’s talk.” He walked toward the cabin and opened the door.
What does Case have to say to Maggie?
Find out in Part Two of Maggie’s Wolves!
About the Author
I’ve always been a big fan of the supernatural—vampires, shifters, magic—anything with a touch of the unknown and maybe the occasional dash of horror. I’m also a big fan of sexy romance, as you can probably guess from my writing. Maggie’s Wolves is the story I’ve always wanted to write, and I hope you enjoy it!
If you’d like to contact me, you can reach me at: [email protected].
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