by Zoey Marcel
“Sorry about that,” Kellan apologized. “I should have told you that was his room. It never occurred to me that you’d want to cuddle and sleep next to me.”
Sawyer smirked and wiggled his eyebrows at Jade. “A cuddler. Those are always nice.”
She blushed, feeling her nipples bead beneath the T-shirt that seemed more like a very short dress on her. It just barely covered her underwear, and her bare legs were entirely exposed. The men kept stealing glances at them. Well, Sawyer was more obvious about his gawking.
The Southern gent smiled at her. “Kellan, aren’t you gonna introduce me to this ravishing vision?”
His kind appreciation of her made her stomach flip-flop and tighten. “I’m Jade.”
Kellan snickered. “You’re not Kellan, but what the heck? This is Doc McClellan. He’s a friend of ours, but he lives here. His mom abandoned him when he was fifteen.”
Doc scowled. “Since we’re on the subject of personal affairs, maybe Jade would like to hear about how you handled puberty.”
Kellan cringed. “No need. Didn’t mean to blab.”
Jade shook Doc’s hand, coming undone at the classic, charming grin he gave her when their hands touched. “It’s good to meet you, Doc. Are you a doctor, or is that your name?”
“No. My real name is Val. I used to be a dentist,” he explained. “I’m retired now.”
He only looked to be somewhere in his thirties, and he was already retired? Maybe she should go to dental school.
Sawyer butted in. “Now he owns a BDSM club in Winchester with me and Stetson, ain’t that right, Doc?”
Doc gave him a knowing look and then got a naughty little half smile on his face when he caught Jade looking at him. “We do indeed. Swifty’s Britches. You should stop by before you leave, and we can give you a tour.”
Her heart raced, and her hands began to shake. “That sounds nice, but I won’t be here long. I’m leaving in the morning.”
Kellan frowned. “Well, you don’t have to necessarily leave right away. I mean, we still haven’t given you a tour of the ranch. Besides, you’ll need some clothes. I can take you into town tomorrow to get some. Or better yet, we can drive to Tucson. That city has some great shopping.”
Doc winked at him. “Spoken like a true woman, Kell.”
Kellan rolled his eyes with an annoyed smile. “Oh, shut up. Just because I have a good sense of style and you always walk around looking like a gunfighter is no reason to try to emasculate me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a sexy lady who needs escorting to the guest room.”
“He was howling at the moon a little bit ago,” Doc informed her with a subtle smile. “You don’t want to be with a crazy man, do you?”
Jade glanced over at the flush on Kellan’s annoyed face and giggled. “I’m a little crazy myself.”
Sawyer made a low, guttural noise as he held eye contact with her. “Mm, I like the sound of that. We could use crazy around here, couldn’t we?”
Doc’s lips quirked up into a sense-muddling smile. “Any more crazy and we’d be loco. I don’t think Stetson would appreciate another troublemaker around here. We’re already a big enough handful as it is.”
“I won’t cause problems,” Jade assured them. “I’ll be a good girl while I’m here.”
She tried to hide her surprise and need when she saw the stark lust in Sawyer’s eyes and the way his boxers tented. His bare chest was ripped and inviting.
His eyes flickered over to Kellan, who stood next to her. “Like I said, little brother. You should think about keeping this one around for a while. She’s fucking perfect.”
* * * *
The dead body of Jade Flowers was missing. That was not good. Her royal divinity would not be pleased with him. He had tried calling her worshipfulness on his cell phone, but she was not answering, so he tried calling her from a pay phone instead. Finally he got through.
“Hello?”
“Your humble servant is calling you, great one.”
She let out a heavy sigh. “Where are you calling from?”
“A pay phone in Nevada. I tried your cellular device, but I could not get through. I have now succeeded, your excellency.”
“Great. What’s up?”
“The lifeless body of Jade Flowers has vanished.”
Silence on her end. “The authorities probably found her body and took it.”
“Where would they have taken the stinking, rotting corpse?”
“Ew! She just died. She’s fine. They probably took her to the morgue, but for heaven’s sake, don’t go looking for her. Just leave her alone. You’ve done enough.”
“I will find the maggot-infested piece of rot and bring it to your awesome ladyship.”
“Ew! Don’t! She’s not maggot infested, and I don’t want you breaking into the morgue and doing lord knows what to get her body out. Just leave it alone.”
“A knave in uniform tried to interfere with my highest of missions,” he informed her.
“A knave in uniform? You mean a cop?”
“Yes, a cop. I shot him.”
“You did what? You shot a cop?” She sounded almost hysterical on the other end.
“Yes, my Texas rose.”
“Don’t call me that.” Now she sounded choked up.
“Does the name offend you, highest lady?”
She let out a shaky sigh. “No, it’s just someone from my past used to call me that a long time ago. It’s just strange hearing it come from you.”
“Do you have a past lover I must kill?” he asked, hoping the answer was yes.
“No. Stop with this mad killing rampage. I just wanted you to find Jade. You weren’t supposed to kill her and a cop.”
“I killed for you, luscious lips of softness. I would kill for you again. I will.”
“Dang it, no! I don’t want you to kill for me. Just please stop.” She was getting far too wound up over his kindness.
“Would you like me to bring you back some tea?”
“No, thanks. I’m fine. Just come back.”
He felt pleased by this. “You yearn for my services again?”
“Yeah, sure. Hurry back.”
“I will, lustrous woman of subtle curves. I will quell your loneliness with powerful thrusts of my stiff penis.”
“Holy cow! Why did I ever let you kiss me? I was depressed about Jade, and you offered me a comforting kiss. That was really sweet, but you’re reading too deeply into it.”
“You need a phallus inside of you,” he told her.
“Yeah, well, you know what you need up your butt?”
“Tell me, sweet intoxication.”
She sighed. “Forget it. Just come back to me.”
“Always, fair mistress.”
He hung up the phone and looked off into the darkness. He would return to the spark of fire herself, but first he must prove himself to her. He would find the body of Jade Flowers and bring it back to her, even if he had to search every morgue in the world to accomplish his goal. He would not fail his mission. Her unlimited cuteness was counting on him, and soon she would writhe in orgasm for him while he drove his oversized penis into her.
Chapter Six
Kellan took Jade shopping for clothes and toiletries the following day. His brothers weren’t really into shopping much, but he always liked it. Now with this little punker girl by his side, the experience was that much better.
They made a day of it, and he showed her the city of Tucson. They had a blast, and he talked her into spending one more night at their ranch and said he would drive her home to Riverside in the morning.
He lay in bed that night thinking about her. He didn’t want her to leave. One-night stands and flings were second nature to him, but he wanted her for much longer than a single night. Just how long Kellan didn’t know, but he felt such strange and wonderful things that he had never experienced with any of the other women before her. Lust was certainly familiar to him, but his constant, raging desire for her was almost ou
t of control.
Emotionally they seemed wired together in a way he’d never been connected to her predecessors. He wanted more than a “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am” kind of thing from her. He wanted her to be his girlfriend. Hell, he even liked her enough to want to keep her from Sawyer. Well, part of him did anyway. The other part of him really wanted to share Jade with his older brother like he had some other women in the past.
Kellan got up and crept down the hall to Jade’s room. It was the guest bedroom, but already in the two days she’d been there he thought of it as her room.
His skin had been itching and tingling all night, but he didn’t know why. He scratched his arm, feeling something thick hinder his finger. His eyes bugged out when he glanced down and noticed fur on his arm. Holy fuck!
Some weird-ass shit was definitely happening to his body and quite possibly his soul. Jade Flowers had infected him. Possibly his heart, and without question his body. What the hell was she? Some kind of shape-shifter?
People in town sometimes claimed to have seen people shift during a full moon, but they were either liars or lunatics as far as he was concerned. Now he was starting to wonder if there was some truth behind the rumors.
Kellan knocked lightly on her door, and a moment later she opened it. Her slight surprise melted into an enchanting smile that put his mind at ease.
“What’s up?” she asked in a low, cheerful voice.
“Look at my fucking arm.” He showed her the dark patch of fur that was like an eyesore on the top of his forearm.
“Oh my God.”
Her light, warm touch on his skin made him lose concentration for the entire duration of their contact with one another. “I look like a fucking Sasquatch. What the fuck did you do to me? Are you the bride of bigfoot or something?”
She laughed and put her hand over her mouth to silence herself when he put his finger to his lips and chortled.
“Not so loud. They’ll hear you. Stetson gets crabby when he’s woken up before he’s ready to get up.”
“Some weird things have been happening to me, too. I healed from my injuries so fast and my eyes changed color for a second when I looked in the mirror earlier.” Her expression became troubled. “I’m really freaked out, Kellan. Do you think I might be possessed?”
“No, but I think there’s definitely something up with you.”
“Yeah, no kidding.”
Kellan held out his hand to her. “Do you want to go for a walk? I’ve got some questions I want to ask you, and since it’s your last night with us, I don’t really want to sleep. I just want to spend every moment I have with you.”
She closed her bedroom door and took his hand in hers with an enamored smile. “I feel the same way. I’d like that a lot.”
They went outside together and walked in the chilly darkness. Jade only wore flip-flops and a skimpy little shorts-and-tank-top pajama set. She didn’t seem cold, though, and he wasn’t either, though he only wore a T-shirt and jeans with his cowboy boots.
“Jade, are you some kind of shape-shifter?” he asked, hoping she didn’t laugh her ass off at him and call him insane.
Fortunately she didn’t do either, though she seemed disturbed by the question. “I don’t know. I’ve wondered that, too. I’m really sorry I infected you by biting you the other day.”
“Don’t be.” He gave her small, feminine hand a gentle squeeze. “I was howling the other night like a fucking coyote or some kind of wolf. Do you think you could be one of those, and then you passed it on to me?”
Jade shook her head with a skeptical smile, but he could sense she pondered his suggestion quite a bit. “Maybe. I don’t know. This is crazy. Shape-shifters don’t exist. How could I be one?”
“Maybe they do exist, and we just didn’t know about them before now. Some of the people in Winchester have claimed they saw shape-shifting happen during a full moon. I always thought it was ludicrous, but now…well, now I don’t know what to think.”
She shrugged, still seeming bothered “It could be, but I don’t really want to talk about that right now. It’s our last night together, and that makes me really sad for some reason.”
She felt it, too. Good. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I’ve been feeling kind of down tonight, too.”
They walked hand in hand through the cold stillness as the silver-white light of the full moon guided their otherwise blind steps.
“So what would you like to do on our last night together?” he queried, hoping sex was one of the suggestions.
She thought for a moment and shook her head, looking embarrassed.
“What?”
“No, it’s stupid.”
“It’s not stupid.” He stopped Jade and made her face him as he smiled down at her. “Tell me.”
“I really want to run…naked through the desert with you.”
He raised his eyebrows and let out a surprised laugh.
“What? You asked.”
“Well, we could do that if you want to. It sounds kind of fun, especially the naked part.”
She simpered and took both of his hands in hers, and her beautiful face seemed to glow like a heaven-sent angel lighting up the darkness as she told him her heart’s desire. “I want to run naked through the desert with you, laughing and howling at the moon like a couple of freaks.”
He chuckled. “As weird as that is, it sounds like a fucking blast. Now, do I get to undress you, or are you putting on a little show for me?”
Jade got a great big grin on her face and took off running. Kellan felt an excited wave of enjoyment come over him as he bolted after her. They hooted and hollered, laughing and stripping in between mad sprints across the dark, moonlit desert.
Something primal in him took over. It was as though the sight of this woman—this prey of his body and soul—had triggered something savage and instinctual inside of him. His body started to change, and he saw that hers was, too. Oddly, he wasn’t alarmed like he thought he’d be. Deep down he had suspected something like this might happen the more and more strange shit he’d seen developing with his body and hers.
Once Jade was completely naked, he saw her shift into a wolf. A light gray one from what the moonbeams betrayed. She was a striking piece of nature, and Kellan felt himself slowly losing his humanity, though his thoughts and reasoning were still vividly present. When she turned and looked at him, calling to him in a low howl, he gave himself over to the beast within.
The two wolves came together, licking and playing as they romped through the desert. Casual frolicking and wrestling became the inescapable need to mate.
Kellan mounted his female and entered her, pleased by her soft, tortured whimpers of bliss. As he moved inside the receptive she-wolf, he had an epiphany that the human side of him had been too blind, or perhaps too stubborn, to admit to. They were mates. Wolf or human, Jade Flowers was the woman God or fate intended him to be with forever, and there was just no way in hell that Kellan was going to let her get away from him now.
Chapter Seven
Jade awoke nude in Kellan’s arms just before dawn. He wasn’t dressed either, and they were lying all cuddled together on the dusty earth.
“Good morning,” he said groggily just before he planted a sweet kiss on the top of her head. “You’re a werewolf, it seems.”
She sat up, trying to get her bearings. “So are you, apparently.”
“I guess I changed when you bit me,” he mused.
She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, trying to grasp the concept of having an animal counterpart to her nature. “You’re handling it rather well.”
“It’s an act. Inside I’m a screaming mess. I just didn’t want you to see me freaking out again like a little girl,” he teased. “I banged you in wolf form. Whoa. Never thought I’d say that.”
She nodded, trying not to smile or blush at the racy memory. Kellan’s suggestive grin sent her weak attempt packing.
“Do you remember it?” he asked.
“Yeah,
really well.”
“Me, too. That was hot.” His playful wink stole a giggle from her, and she slapped his arm.
“Weirdo.” Jade began to wonder who bit her and made her this way, but she figured she had a pretty good idea.
“What is it?” Kellan asked.
She wanted to tell him that she suspected Bane Kennedy had something to do with this, but then she remembered that he was dead and she’d likely been the one to kill him. There was no way she would tell Kellan that.
“I was just wondering who made me this way.”
“Yeah, I know. It would be nice if you remembered all that stuff about your past.”
“I can’t be a werewolf, Kellan.” She buried her face in her hands. “How am I supposed to function in society with no memory of my identity and an animal nature?”
“I’m sure you’ll manage.” He looked worried all of a sudden. “Oh shit, what the hell am I supposed to tell my brothers if they ever see me shift?”
“How should I know? I can’t control it. I bit you and then shifted and mated with you. What’s to stop be from attacking or humping other men?”
His eyes narrowed. “How about my hand beating your ass?”
Jade giggled. “You make a convincing argument there. I’m so sorry about all this. We should keep in touch and let each other know if we ever learn of a cure to this madness.”
“Agreed.”
“I guess I should go get ready to leave.” She picked up her scattered pajamas and re-dressed.
“Yeah, I guess.” He sounded disappointed, or perhaps she merely wanted him to be and imagined it.
They got dressed and headed back through the maze of sagebrush on their way to the large house. They split up to brush their teeth and change into clothes.
Kellan entered the room she’d stayed in.
“Before you go, there’s something I really want to give you to remember me by. I know you’ll probably sleep with other guys after we part ways.” He paused, seeming jealous and possibly sad. “I don’t want to be just another guy to you or another notch on your bedpost. I want you to remember me long after I’m gone.”
