Funny how life frequently managed to bring the unexpected. Avery didn’t just get an eyeful of trash cans and darkness. Mr. Chase Fucking Wonderful was there, too, bare-assed naked and pawing through her trash.
“What the actual fuck?” She’d been right about him.
Chase looked up and she had the impression he’d seen her, too. So Mr. Randall was, in fact, either a reporter or a crazy. Either way, she’d had enough of his shit.
* * * *
It hadn’t taken the dog long to follow him to the other side of her cabin. He managed to stop Roscoe’s barking a second time, but the dog continued to watch him through the window. It was time for him to go. Liam’s plan was a stupid one, and he wasn’t going to find anything in her trash.
Hurrying, he tried to stuff the disgusting trash back in the bag, not wanting to leave a mess for her to clean up in the morning. For his mate, he could be considerate like that. Then, he’d get out of there before the dog started barking again and this time she came running. He’d shower, eat, and plan how to approach her without getting shot down again. He’d tried. Liam couldn’t say he hadn’t, but the dog had just proven how stupid the whole plan was.
He looked up to give Roscoe a quick salute of thanks and found Avery watching him. Shit.
She should scream, run, call the police, and all the things human females were supposed to do when a naked man showed up uninvited on their property. But she didn’t. She just stared at him, and with his sharp vision, he could all-too-easily see the expressions flitting across her face. Shock, disgust, anger, and determination took turns before she disappeared from the window.
It took Chase only a second to get moving. He had to get to Avery before she called the police. He didn’t want to be escorted off her property and labeled a stalker, or worse. If that happened, he didn’t know how long it would take to get close to her again. No, he had to have her—and now. He’d simply explain who he was and why he was there. She’d believe him, right? He knew the answer was no, but he had to try, and time was limited. She was smart, so she’d probably already called the police.
Feeling like he was racing her fear, he made it the front door, and knocked hard. He could hear the dog running to the door, barking again, sounding even more excited than before. “Open up, Avery,” he yelled. “I can explain.” Lame. If he was a woman, he wouldn’t open the door, either. “I swear it’s not what you think.”
Of course she wasn’t going to just let him in, bare ass and all. “Okay, don’t open it. Just come to the door so I can talk to you. Call the police if you have to, but let me explain before they get here.” If he had to guess, he had a good twenty minutes or so before the police arrived. “Please, Avery. Please just let me know you can hear me.” He banged on the door a few more times then begged like a dog for a treat.
Chase no longer expected her to open the door, but he did hope curiosity would make her listen to what he had to say. He was shocked speechless, though, when the door opened and Roscoe barreled into him, barking, wagging his tail, and jumping up in an attempt to lick his face. What surprised him the most, though, was the shotgun pointed at his chest. And then she cocked it.
* * * *
“Back, Roscoe. Sit!” Avery had always considered her dog extra-intelligent, so she didn’t get why he was licking the enemy. “I said sit, damn it.”
Roscoe finally seemed to recognize the seriousness of her tone and complied. She gave Chase the look, the one that meant “move wrong and bite it.”
“I’ve called the police and they’re on the way. But I promise you, I won’t wait for them. You have sixty seconds to get off my property. Then, I’m going to blow a hole in your chest and sleep like a baby tonight.”
It was a bluff. She wouldn’t shoot him unless he made her, but she wanted him gone, and only the truly crazy would stick around to see if she meant it. If he was just a reporter, he’d run like the wind. But reporters didn’t usually come around naked. She couldn’t help but flick her eyes down to check out his package, and boy, was he ever packing. What a waste.
Mr. Crazy held his hands up in surrender. “I know how this looks, but I can explain...”
“I don’t care what you have to say. Just go!”
“I’m not what I seem.” He shook his head, sighing as if he was the one with a reason to be frustrated. “I’m a shifter, a wolf shifter, and you’re my mate.”
Oh, fuck. Rabid-ass crazy it is. “You have forty-five seconds now.”
“My alpha sent me here to watch you, but when I scented you, I realized you’re my mate.”
“I feel sorry for you. I can only imagine how hard it must be to live with true madness. I can end it all for you, but don’t make me. Turn around and walk away.” Avery would hate to shoot him, she really would, but she could see him flexing, tensing his body to grab her. She took a step back, wondering if it was foolish to wait for him to make the first move.
“Please, Avery.” He didn’t move toward her, which was good, but he didn’t leave, either. “Just let me explain. Be reasonable.”
She almost laughed at that. “Ten seconds.” Her finger tingled on the trigger. She didn’t want to kill the poor, sick bastard, and it would be a shame to maim that incredible body. “You’re almost a dead man.” She expected him to lunge for her any second. “Roscoe, bedroom, now!” She wouldn’t risk her dog getting in the way and possibly getting hurt. To her relief, Roscoe obeyed, trotting off.
Chase chose that moment to back off, too. Smart choice. He backed away slower than she liked, his hands still held up, and then stopped.
“I want you all the way off my property.”
He gave her a look, as if she was the out-of-line one. Then, he proved that she was just as bat-shit crazy as he was. Illuminated by the moonlight, his body quickly bent and twisted, shook and…morphed…morphed was the only word for it, transforming from a naked, crazy man into a huge, black wolf like the ones she wrote about in her books.
Avery’s finger slipped off the trigger and she almost dropped the gun. It was a close call.
Chapter 5
Liam would never approve of the way he did it, especially while she held a gun in her hands, but there was no other way as far as Chase was concerned. He had to have her, and if that meant revealing his true nature while she stood poised to shoot him, so be it. She couldn’t kill him with that thing anyway, not unless she had silver bullets. He’d be hurt, badly, but he would survive. Fortunately for him, she didn’t shoot. Her mouth dropped open and she grappled with the gun as if it were suddenly too big for her hands.
“Oh God, they were right. I am crazy.” She stood staring at him, not moving. “They had it right the whole time.”
Chase didn’t know who they were, but he could see she needed more proof. He took a couple of steps toward her, and her eyes widened even more. As Chase was trying to decide how to get her to put the gun down, Roscoe came bounding back out the door. The dog ran straight for him, barking excitedly, sniffing Chase in this new form, and bouncing about as if ready to play. Avery seemed to take that as a reason to put her gun down, just outside her door.
Women were unpredictable. He didn’t know what she’d do, but she surprised him by walking toward him, slowly at first. He sat back on his haunches, hoping to make himself less threatening, and it seemed to work. She walked faster in her bare feet, reaching her hand out toward him.
Her eyes were wide, her mouth open. What did she want from him? He sniffed her hand, noting that she pulled back a bit but didn’t run, so he went ahead and licked it. His first taste of his mate and she tasted of sugar crystals, probably from whatever she’d had in that mug. It wasn’t where he wanted to lick her, but it was a start. Chase licked her hand again and again until she wrinkled her nose and pulled her hand out of reach. Okay, so maybe he’d gone overboard, but she was lucky he hadn’t given her whole body a bath. He was that damned excited.
Roscoe gave a happy little yip, and Avery stared at the dog as if she’d never
seen him before. Chase gave her a gentle head-butt. Eyes on me, babe.
Avery reached out again and touched his fur, inhaling sharply at the contact. “So…then…this is real?”
She stroked her hand down his back and then back up again, practically petting him. If Chase had been able to, he would have groaned with the pleasure of his mate touching him in any way at all. She circled around him, picking up on the other side, stroking and petting as she went.
When she made it back to his front, she gave him the same weird look she’d given the dog, who’d grown bored with their little scene and run off to nose in the grass.
“I never really thought I was insane. I always knew what I’d seen. Well, sort of. After a while, I did start to think that maybe they were right and I had been dropped on my head one too many times as a baby, but then I’d just say to myself, ‘No, Avery, you’ve seen these things.’ There was just always that little bit of doubt.”
Her words came out in a rush and then kept coming. Did she expect him to answer? Probably not. It was the shock. He wanted to growl at her to stop or pick her up, take her inside, and give her something else to do with her gorgeous mouth. Instead, he quickly shifted back to the man who could actually do the latter of those things.
“Slow down, Avery. Invite me in, so we can talk.”
She backed away from him as if more afraid of him as a man than as a wolf. Roscoe did his part by sniffing him before running off to nose in the grass some more.
“Invite you in?” she asked. “Do you need an invitation? Like a vampire?”
Chase rolled his eyes. “No, I don’t need one to get inside, but I do want one. Just to talk.”
“But…you’re naked.” Her eyes traveled the length of his body as she talked, and she couldn’t hide her interest. She did her perusal a little too slowly and spent a little too much time between his legs. “You can’t come in…like that.” Her voice had taken on a breathless quality that he liked—very much.
His cock perked up at her attention and stood at full salute when he saw the way her nipples hardened under her thin T-shirt. Chase had to get inside at all costs. “We have to talk. You’re a human I just revealed myself to, and I can’t leave you without explaining.”
“Leave me?” She looked about as horrified as if he’d said she was Little Red Riding Hood and he’d come to eat her, the dog and her granny. “You can’t go. I have so many questions, so many things I don’t understand. And I need pictures or…or…video, some kind of proof.”
Chase shook his head. There would be none of that shit and as little talking as possible. A little explaining and then he’d have her on top of that fluffy purple comforter he’d seen in her room. “First, no pictures and no video. It’s too dangerous. The only human who needs proof is you, and now you have it. Second, naked man in the house is a must if you want to talk. Third, do you hear that?”
“Hear what?” She cocked her head to the side as if listening hard for something. Cute.
His mate didn’t hear the sirens. Not yet. But the dog sure did. It was a good thing she lived so far away from anyone else. Neighbors wouldn’t enjoy the dog’s howls. “The police are on the way. I can hear the sirens. You’ll hear them soon, too.”
She looked behind her as if expecting them to suddenly materialize. “Okay…” She faltered and shook her head as if to clear it. “Okay, you can come in, but don’t sit on anything like…like that. Wait! Where are you going?”
He turned around and grinned at her. “I know better than to turn down an invitation from you. I’m getting inside before you change your mind.”
“I don’t believe this is really happening.” She hurried along behind him. He could hear her footsteps in the grass. “I don’t have a single thing that will fit you. You’re just so…You’re just huge. You’ll have to wait somewhere. I don’t know...in a closet? You know, hide out there until the police leave?”
“I’ll wait in your bed.”
Her breathing hitched. “No to that. How about the bathroom? You can…take a shower. You probably need one after digging through my trash.”
Damn. He wished he could erase that from her memory. It hadn’t been one of his shining moments. So unsexy. Unfortunately, wolf shifters didn’t have mind-altering skills. “Shower it is…then bed. You know I’ve been trying to get you into bed since we met. Your shower is just one step closer.”
He wasn’t sure, but he thought he heard a smile in her voice. “Be careful, Chase. The shock is wearing off. Be a bad doggy and I won’t hesitate to shoot you.” She grabbed the weapon in question and stepped over the threshold after him, shutting the door behind them after Roscoe ran in.
Chase grinned down at her. He’d be on his best behavior long enough to explain the whole trash thing. Then he intended to be very, very bad.
* * * *
Avery didn’t think she’d ever been so embarrassed. She’d had to explain to the policeman that she’d thought she’d heard a noise outside and then thought she’d seen a naked man outside her window. He treated her like a skittish woman home alone for the first time and insisted on checking about the place anyway. To make her feel better, he said.
Fortunately, he wasn’t the officer who’d come the other time. She’d heard noises outside once, soon after moving in. Something rather large had been scratching at her door and Roscoe had been pissed off, too, barking his head off. The officers had found no evidence of anything then, though they’d expressed concerned when she showed them some of the weirder letters she’d received from fans. All in all, though, they just seemed to think the letters had spooked her.
This time, the officers searched around her house, and said it looked like an animal had just been at her trashcans. They asked if she wanted them to search inside, too, just to make her feel better, but she told them her boyfriend was showering. Off they went, leaving her glad they were gone. She’d been so embarrassed she’d wanted to sink into the floor. It was a good distance from the police station to her cabin, and she’d wasted their time.
Chase didn’t give her long to wallow in her shame, though. The moment the police officers left and she closed the door behind them, he came walking out of the bathroom surrounded by steam and wearing just a towel around his waist. The sight of his chiseled, damp body scattered what was left of her brains.
Avery couldn’t speak when he walked out of there looking like sex served up on a platter just for her, and she would not, absolutely could not glance at his bulge, not one more time. Oops, damn. The second she thought it, she did it. She forced her eyes north after that.
Chase didn’t say a word. He strode over to her, walking like he owned the place, and seized her up into his arms. His lips met hers and the thrill of contact surged through her body. His kiss wasn’t gentle. It was possessive, claiming, and her body reacted of its own accord. Her lips parted for his tongue, which entered her mouth hungry, seeking, and she accepted the search, unable to do anything in that moment except cling to his damp shoulders. His hands were in her hair then, gripping her, holding her still for his exploration, which stiffened her nipples and teased her pussy with memories of the nights she spent stroking it to fantasies of him.
Just when she was sure she’d give him whatever he asked of her, anywhere and at any time, he abruptly released her, leaving her lips tingling. Staring up at him, into those dark eyes, she wondered what the hell had just happened.
“Let’s talk,” was all he said, strolling past her toward the front room of her cabin, again as if he had all the right in the world to be there, and like she had outside, she followed him, trying to wrangle her lagging wits back into place.
* * * *
Chase had expected a quick conversation of the I’m a wolf, yes we exist, no you’re not crazy variety, but he should have known his mate would have questions, and lots of them. He’d never worked harder to concentrate in his life. First of all, he was sitting on her couch wearing only a towel, conscious of the fact that there wouldn’t be
much separating them the next time he took her into his arms. The clothing she wore was barely there, anyway.
Then there was the scent of her, transformed into an even more irresistible vapor by the fact that she was so attracted to him. That was obvious in everything from her scent to that little hitch he heard in her voice from time to time. For him, though, her lips accounted for much of his pain. He couldn’t help watching them when she talked, remembering the way they’d felt under his assault, wanting to launch a fresh attack just so he could taste them again.
“—why I know about your kind?”
“Sorry. What?” He dragged his eyes away from that luscious mouth and met her eyes. In a way, that was almost worse. Chase could easily get lost in them. He wanted her eyes open and looking into his the first time he fucked her.
“You’re not paying attention again.” She shook her head at him, like he’d been naughty or something. He hadn’t been. Not yet. “I asked if you have any idea why I know about your kind. Do you know anything about my past? My family?”
“Oh.” Chase hadn’t spent much time thinking about that. He’d been so resistant to Liam’s demands that he hadn’t put too much thought into it. “No. I don’t.”
Her shoulders slumped in obvious disappointment, and to his surprise, he felt guilty, as if he should somehow know the answer to her every question. “That’s what I came here to learn. I’m guessing you had contact with shifters at some point. Unless you’re psychic?”
She shook her head. “I wish. I believe, no that’s wrong, I know that we lived among shifters at some point. My family did, I mean.”
Well, that was a revelation. “Which shifters? Where?” It was a possibility, one that made a lot of sense. It was also one that worked for him, since it would mean she wasn’t some sort of government spy on a mission to draw shifters out and capture them. He hadn’t thought she was, but still.
“I don’t remember. I have little snatches of memories of shifters from when I was a child. Things I’ve always believed happened but had been told were just a fabrication of my mind. And dreams, realistic dreams about men, women, and children who transform into wolves. But I can never remember anything specific like names or places, or even where I lived before.”
Avery and Her Wolf [Shifters Revealed 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 6
