by Ellis Leigh
“Let’s forget him for now and get this job done for your boss,” she said, sounding almost back to her normal self. Almost. “I’m in the mood for a little quiet time back at the cabin.”
Translation—her wolf wanted to hole up in her den and hide from the world. And though Deus wanted to trust her words instead of his instincts, he couldn’t. Something in her eyes told him this wasn’t the first time she’d been told she wasn’t welcome somewhere. And that thought made him want to dig through whatever records he could find to figure out where she came from. He’d promised her he wouldn’t, but if people were after her, if some Alaskan pack wolf recognized her enough to demand she leave town, he needed to know why.
The fates help him, but he’d do anything to protect her, including breaking his promise to her.
14
The phone weighed on Deus’ hand. He needed to call Luc, to tell him about what had happened in town, but he didn’t want his mate to overhear the conversation. She’d seemed a bit more off-balance since they’d gotten back, a little less herself.
Running into that shifter could have been what set her off. The fear he instilled, the unease. Or the trigger for Beautiful’s descent into herself could have been being trapped in a cabin usually reserved for poor pack wolves. She had no trust in pack, no faith in that sort of community. Her parents had pulled her away from hers—Deus had to assume there was a good reason for that. Reasons he didn’t know how to combat.
Deus didn’t know what to do to keep his mate safe and happy. How to chase away the ghosts that followed her. He needed advice on what would settle her wolf, which meant asking Luc. Even if doing so caused him to fuck up the mission he was in Alaska to complete. Which seemed to be an actual possibility.
Luc had texted twice since Deus had brought Beautiful back to the cabin in the woods. Deus should have answered his Alpha, but he’d been obsessed with getting the internet up and working so he could research, and once the satellite dish was installed and receiving data, he’d ended up focused on his mate. It was hard to resist her, harder to resist his need for her.
So he’d waited for the right opportunity. Her need to shower for a second time that day had been it, so Deus stepped outside while Beautiful headed for the bathroom. As soon as he reached the tree line—figuring a little extra space would keep the conversation private—he pulled up Luc’s contact info and took a deep breath, pushing aside the unsettled sensation that had been haunting him. By the fates, did he feel as if he were drowning.
“Tell me,” Luc said, not even giving Deus time for a greeting.
“Nothing yet. We spent the day in town but didn’t find out anything about the pack. We had a run-in with someone I assume is from it, though.”
“And?”
“He didn’t like my mate. Said she wasn’t welcome here.”
“So she knew him?”
“No, that’s the weird part. She said she’s never been up here and never met the guy, but he definitely seemed to know something about her.”
“Have you found out more about her yet?”
Like her name, where she was from, her family or pack info…all the things Deus shouldn’t be looking up about her. “Not much.”
“That’s not nothing.”
It wasn’t. “My gut tells me she’s an Omega.”
A powerful female shifter considered a gift to any pack they were born into. Something shifters admired, honored, adored…and fought wars over. A variety of wolf thought to be a long-lost relative of the Dires. The female version.
Luc didn’t argue the assumption. “Considering the rest of the brothers have found their mates in Omegas, that wouldn’t surprise me. A gift to a pack from the fates, but without a pack behind her. There’s a backstory there.” Luc’s voice had taken on that rough edge, the one that told Deus the shifter was getting pissed. Deus couldn’t blame him. Something about Beautiful’s story sat wrong with him. Worried him. Made him wonder how bad the truth could be.
He was almost afraid to find out. “I’m hoping she’ll fill me in. Eventually.”
“She doesn’t trust packs, does she?”
Understatement. “No.”
“Does she know about ours yet?”
“Negative.”
“Tell her. Soon. A woman who’s been abused by a pack in any way will have trust issues. Your not telling her will exacerbate them.”
“I’ll tell her.” Deus would, too. Soon. He had to. “Now, how’s your end of the mission going?”
Luc sighed, an unusual sound to hear from the shifter. “There’s something wrong with the way they treat their packmates here, Asmodeus. Something in the way they dominate one another that makes my wolf uneasy. Keep a close eye on your mate.”
Mate. The word sent his mind tilting slightly off axis. But the idea that the local pack could be a threat to her, even if the very idea of someone dominating a woman like Beautiful made him want to laugh, snapped him back to the task at hand. Luc had an almost preternatural sense when it came to the members of his pack—that included the women mated into it. He also knew when things were going wrong around him, and if he felt the need to mention a potential danger combining these shifters and Deus’ mate, Deus knew better than to ignore him.
“What do you mean, there’s something wrong with the way they treat their packmates? Is this focused on the women? Are they abusing them?”
“I can’t get too close to the pack without them sensing me, so I’m trying to stay out of their way. That said, I haven’t seen any women, so I don’t know for sure what they are or are not doing.”
“We didn’t see any in town either.”
“No?”
“No. I hadn’t noticed, but Beautiful did.”
“It’s this pack. I can feel it, but I can’t pin them down on anything. Whatever they’re doing isn’t new, though. There’s an aged sort of veil over the instinct, one I’m having trouble seeing through. That’s why I need you to find me intel on them.”
“I’m looking. We went all through town but found nothing unusual.”
“Except the shifter who knew your mate.”
Fuck, that thought still pissed him off. “Yeah. Except him and his warning.”
“Are you sending her home?”
Deus nearly grunted as pain lanced through his chest, and his wolf whined at the very thought. He should—intellectually, he knew putting her ass on a plane back to New York would probably be the right decision. But he didn’t like the thought of being away from her. At all. Something inside of him—some instinct beyond just the mating itself—told him he needed her to stay close to him. He refused to disobey that feeling.
“No. She’ll stay with me.”
“Even if she doesn’t want to?” Luc simply chuckled. “I never thought I’d see you mated, Asmodeus. I especially never thought I’d see you as demanding and controlling as Beelzebub.”
Bez…the first Dire Wolf to find his mate in an Omega shifter named Sariel. Also, one of the most domineering souls he’d had ever met. To know Luc saw him in the same light almost made Deus cringe. Almost, but when it came to his mate, Deus didn’t care if he seemed overbearing. Her safety was his only priority.
“Yeah, well…” Deus had no other words. No possible argument. And he didn’t feel like searching for one.
“The mating haze is strong for you two.”
Deus still didn’t quite believe in the haze, but the lust he felt for his mate—the way he wanted to touch her all the time and keep her by his side—definitely seemed intense. “We have a strong connection.”
“Sure. Call it that.” Luc’s throaty chuckle told him all he needed to know about his Alpha’s thoughts.
“I’ll keep digging for information on this place. Maybe hit up the library tonight and look through old newspapers and town records if they have them on microfiche or even paper versions.”
“That’s your personal version of hell.”
No fucking lie. “Yeah, but I’ll have my partner i
n crime with me, so it won’t be all bad.”
“You say that now. Once you’re elbow-deep in old paper and your fingers are covered in ink, you’ll change your story.”
Never. “She’ll make the moment worth it.”
“So far gone. You and your—wait. What’s happening?”
Deus held the phone, keeping his eyes on the little cabin, hurrying toward it as every one of his senses lit up. Something had just gone wrong. He felt it in his bones, could almost smell it on the air around him. And if bad news was about to come his way, he wanted to be close enough to his mate to protect her. So he ran.
Luc suddenly growled low, the sound jarring. “The pack is on the move. Stay put at your cabin for now and go to town again tomorrow. I’ll call if anything seems to be heading your way.”
“Are you in their way? Do you need backup?” Because no Dire fought alone unless he wanted to. That had always been a guiding light for the group
“I’m fine. I’ve been keeping my distance so as not to draw more chaos into their group. You stay at the cabin with your mate.”
“Understood. Be safe.”
“You too, brother.”
Deus ended the call and headed inside, zeroing in on the sound of the water running in the small bathroom at the back. But before he turned that way, he darted to the couch where his laptop sat. A few keystrokes and he had the satellite internet connected and the web at his fingertips. It took him less than a minute to access the records he so meticulously kept, took him a little longer than that to image search his mate.
The first match wasn’t her alone—it was a family picture. One taken in front of what looked to be a shack much like the cabin he sat in. Three people stood before the structure—he recognized his mate as the youngest. The child.
The fates help him for breaking his promises to her, but he had only wanted to keep her safe. The past he found wouldn’t help him with that. It would only hurt her when she found out he’d betrayed her. He closed the connection and slammed down the lid of his laptop. He was the biggest asshole in the world. And someday, he’d have to admit what he’d done.
That he’d seen her humble childhood.
That he knew her name was Zoe.
15
The warm water of the second shower of her day pounded Zoe’s stiff muscles, but it did nothing to settle her mind.
You’re not welcome here.
She couldn’t stop hearing those words repeating in her head. Why her? She hadn’t been lying when she’d told Alaska she didn’t know who that shifter was, but he’d certainly seemed to know her. An uncomfortable thought for sure. But also, why here? She’d never been to Alaska, never even heard of the Brooks Range or this region. She’d certainly never been involved with a pack from the area. The fact that in this place, in this town, there was someone who seemed to know her shook her to her core. For the first time since she’d stepped out of the car at the airport in New Jersey, she wondered if she should have come at all. Perhaps she should have left Alaska to his great north adventure and stayed in the city where she could blend in.
But then she would have missed so much time with her new mate. Time she was actually enjoying. Time she wanted more of.
Alaska had skipped the shower with her, to Zoe’s dismay. He’d grabbed her ass, run his knuckles across her pussy, and pouted like a schoolboy when she’d asked him to join her. He’d said he needed to call his boss and make sure the satellite he’d set up was working. Something about research he needed to do. The man and his computers…she couldn’t compete. So she’d headed off to the bathroom alone, and she’d tried to catch her breath and resettle her wolf. Without success, unfortunately. No matter how much she attempted to push away the fear that strange shifter had instilled in her, she couldn’t. The urge to run, to disappear back into the concrete jungle she called her home, was strong.
Zoe jumped when the shower curtain suddenly slid to one side. Alaska stood there, naked and hard, looking almost feral in his intensity. Those ice-green eyes appeared darker, his muscles larger, as he growled low in his throat.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. Just…distracted.” Not the right word for how she felt, but it would work. It had to because she simply didn’t have it in her to dig deeper for the truth.
Alaska stepped into the shower and closed the curtain before wrapping his arms around her from behind. Somehow, that move made things so much better. To be in his hold—her back against his chest, his lips nuzzling her neck—fulfilled everything she needed. Warmth and comfort, support and safety. Home.
He kissed his way down her neck to her shoulder and gripped her harder. Stronger. Pulling her tightly against him as he asked, “Want to tell me about that wolf?”
If he hadn’t been supporting her with his body, she might have trembled at the thought of the man. “I already told you, I don’t know who he is.”
“You looked scared.”
Zoe didn’t feel fear often, but she was woman enough to admit when she did. “I was scared.”
She turned to face Alaska, placing her hands on his chest. Keeping their bodies close as the water and steam warmed the space around them. “I’m still scared. A giant shifter in a tiny, man-filled town I’ve never been to singled me out as someone undesirable, and I have no idea how he knew anything about me. That’s frightening.”
Alaska growled, his arms like steel bands around her. “I would never let anything happen to you.”
She wanted to believe him, wanted it more than anything. But people lied…shifters lied. And Alaska…well, she still didn’t even know his real name, did she? The fates had brought them together, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to deceive her. She’d been down those roads before, just without a mating bond between her and the other party. The journey had always ended in a mess of varying degrees.
“What are you thinking about?” Alaska asked, sliding a hand down her back to cup her ass and rock her against him. Trapping his cock and teasing both of them with the subtle movements while still staying focused on their conversation. Quite the task, really, because she was quickly losing track of words as her body craved more touching. He was just so distracting.
“Talk to me, Beautiful.”
There it was. The name he called her. The one that had somehow become not enough. It lacked the connection she craved, the intimacy. It wasn’t her. She looked up only to find him staring at her. His face open, trusting, and honest. Filled with something that looked the way her heart felt. Connected.
“I don’t even know what to call you,” she whispered, the words and fear of what that meant loosening its hold on something inside of her. Giving her the courage to open up, to offer something of herself, as a way for the two of them to grow closer.
But Alaska didn’t answer at first. Instead, he watched her, unblinking. Unmoved, it seemed. And then he pulled her closer, blocking his eyes from her gaze. “I like it when you call me Alaska. It’s like our own private thing, more special than if you called me the same thing everyone else does.”
Immediately, whatever had been loosened tightened right back up enough to break her of the spell she’d somehow fallen under. He couldn’t feel the same draw to her if he wouldn’t even admit his name. She was ready to tell him hers—to tell him everything—but if he wasn’t, then she didn’t want to risk her heart. Perhaps the mating call pulled stronger on her, or she fell for him a little faster than he’d reciprocated. Maybe he didn’t trust her enough to tell her something as simple as his first name, a thought that made her gut clench hard. One she had to take seriously.
Whatever was happening, whatever place he was in compared to her, she’d be sure not to bring up such a thing again. She wouldn’t push for more info, for that sort of intimacy. She’d keep things more casual and allow him to set the pace. She’d also keep an exit strategy in mind, just in case. Because from where she was standing, that non-answer of his might as well have been a gentle nudge toward the door.
&n
bsp; But until Zoe felt the need to walk out of it, she had a hot, sexy wolf shifter in her arms. One who made her laugh and curled her toes with his kisses. One she still wanted to share a little time with. One who still rocked her body better than anyone else she’d ever been with. So she plastered on a smile and pulled out of his arms before dropping to her knees.
“Then I’ll always call you Alaska.” She licked the tip of his straining cock, humming softly as she tried hard to ignore the ache in her chest. To push past the disappointment burning a hole in her gut. She might not ever truly get all of him, but this, she could have. This, she could do. Physically, he was hers. For now.
So she sucked him deep, tonguing the underside of his cock while she stared up at him. While she watched his eyes burn and his jaw go tight. While she held on to his thighs as he rocked back and forth, as he fucked her mouth. And when he finally slid deep enough for her to have to hold her breath, for her to feel him at the back of her throat, she growled long and loud. Letting the rumble build in her chest and vibrate through her throat.
His hands flew to her hair, tugging, directing her as she opened wider so he could push farther, slide deeper. So she could swallow him down as he growled her nickname and began thrusting in earnest.
He came in her mouth with a groan that practically shook the walls. Zoe swallowed what he gave her, still growling low. Giving him every bit of her attention to pull him through his orgasm. Only releasing him when his grip on her turned soft and his breathing leveled out.
“Fuck. That was surprising and amazing, Beautiful. Let’s dry off so I can return the favor.”
“Don’t we have work to do?”
“The only work I plan on doing tonight has to do with my face and cock working that pussy. Come on. I’ve got some giving to do.”
Zoe kissed the tip of his cock one last time before rising to her feet and letting him steal a kiss from her swollen lips. And as he picked her up and carried her out of the bathroom, as she laughed and clung to his broad shoulders, she tried not to think how much she’d like to hear him call her Zoe just once.
