Canadian Wolf (Paranormal Nocturne Romance)

by Linda O. Johnston

  She needed no help at all unwrapping it and placing it over his swollen, sexy, captivating member. As she finished, she didn’t need to tell him he was ready. He gently laid her back, pulled her legs apart, touched and stroked her there again as if to ensure her moistness, and then he entered her in one slow, enticing motion.

  “Selena,” he said softly as he began pumping gently at first. “Are you—”

  She didn’t let him finish, covering his mouth with hers even as she again grabbed at his now-bare buttocks, as if guiding and encouraging him despite his clearly not needing any help.

  She reveled in the feel of him inside her, breathing harder with each increasing stroke.

  Hearing a loud gasp from Owen, she gave a small scream of her own and followed him over the edge.

  Chapter 13

  Owen didn’t move for a long while. He wasn’t sure he could. His energy had been expended in an amazing, earth-moving way.

  His head was on a pillow now, and Selena’s was pressed into his neck. Her entire naked body remained against his, and he timed his breathing to coincide with hers, fast at first and gradually slowing.

  Could he speak? What could he—should he—say now?

  And if he moved, would his erection stiffen once more? Even sated as he was, he still found Selena incredibly, enticingly sexy.

  She seemed all human now. Did she ever! But he knew her senses were sharper than his. Was what they shared somehow different for her? He couldn’t imagine how that might be—such amazing sex even stronger and more intense?

  What he had felt had been incredible. Something he would never, ever forget. And would always want to experience again.

  Yet would he?

  At the moment, he glanced her way and wondered whether their bareness was uncomfortable to Selena, either because she might feel chilly as her body cooled after their fantastic exercise, or because she might feel uncomfortable with his heated gaze on her lovely, curvaceous and utterly sexy body. “Do you feel okay?” he managed to ask in a raspy voice. “I mean, would you like me to put the covers over us?”

  She moved back from him just a little, making him feel a bit odd. “I’m fine, but if you’re chilly, I have an idea about how to warm you up.” Her voice was a bit hoarse, too, yet it managed to sound teasing.

  Did she mean what he thought she did?

  As her eyes moved from his, down his body, stopping at his now-relaxed erection, he began to grow stiff again. Really stiff. “I think you’re succeeding already,” he said.

  She laughed, then reached for the body part that gave his feelings away. He drew in his breath as she began stroking it again.

  “Hey, you’re giving me some good ideas,” he said, knowing his eyes were half-closed in ecstasy.

  “Then why don’t you act on them?” she said.

  And he did.

  * * *

  This time, when their lovemaking had ended, Selena found herself unable to concentrate simply on the sensations she had experienced and reveled in.

  She inhaled Owen’s tangy, salty, all-human-male scent once more. She listened to his deep breathing, thought about how delicious he had tasted as their mouths had met and as she had subsequently kissed other parts of his body.

  Clearly, now that they’d stopped for a while and Owen did in fact cover them both with the blanket, she couldn’t keep her mind from thinking, rehashing...and wondering.

  What would come next? They still had to work together. She still had to help him get his recruits ready for a very important, very covert assignment.

  He hadn’t mentioned that tonight, but it was surely on his mind—or would soon be again.

  So would her similarities to those people, her differences from him. She was a shapeshifter. He was not.

  They had made love together, a mutual decision. But now what?

  She could not think of this as a bad idea. Not now. Not ever. And yet, it had surely been a once-in-a-lifetime event.

  Things were changing tomorrow with the CAs, growing more definite, more intense. She and the other Alpha Force members wouldn’t have much longer to work with the CAs before they had to go and fulfill their assignment. And then Alpha Force’s job here was done.

  As her time with Owen would be done.

  That meant she had better make the most of this situation right now, while she could.

  Had he been sated? In case not, she shifted beneath the blanket so that she wasn’t merely against him, absorbing his body heat. No, she reached for the sexiest part of his body once more.

  “Mmm.” He clearly was still awake, too. “That feels good.”

  “Want to feel even better?” Selena asked. She drew in her breath as his hands started moving over her body again, too.

  “Sure,” he said. “Do you?”

  * * *

  This time, after yet another bout of incredible lovemaking, Selena slept. She wasn’t sure for how long, but she pulled herself awake.

  What time was it?

  She couldn’t stay here all night. Even though Rainey had promised to take care of Lupe, Selena didn’t want to face the other Alpha Force members as she walked in the house in the morning. They’d ask questions she wouldn’t want to answer—unless they made correct assumptions, which could be even worse.

  Carefully, hoping not to wake Owen, she slid away from him and out from under the covers.

  “Selena? You okay?”

  “Fine, but I didn’t mean to wake you. I need to go back to headquarters. It’d be... Well, it wouldn’t be a good thing for anyone to suspect we did what we did. Not while we need to work together.”

  He didn’t say anything at first, but in the dim light she saw him rise, too.

  Lord, but he was gorgeous, still nude, with his male member at rest.

  She couldn’t keep looking at him, though, or she would never want to leave.

  “I guess you’re right,” he said. “I’ll drive you back there.”

  “I left my car near the Yukon Bar,” she said. “I can just walk there.”

  “Not at this hour. Like I said, I’ll drive you.”

  She didn’t argue. He had already proved he was a nice guy, a gentleman, as well as possibly the sexiest man on earth. Selena was glad she’d experienced what she had with him.

  They both got dressed nearly wordlessly. Selena looked around in the hotel’s hallway as they exited his room. No one was there to observe them.

  In his car a few minutes later, Owen said to her, “I realize that what we did might not be fully acceptable to our respective employers so we’d best not talk about it—even though I’ve got an urge to shout about it.”

  “And we both know how compelling your urges can be,” Selena said with a laugh. “No, you’re right. That’s what I’ve been thinking, too. But, Owen?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I really had a wonderful time tonight. I thank you for that experience. I’ll never forget it.”

  “That sounds like you’re saying ‘Goodbye, it’s been real, but it’ll never happen again.’”

  “I don’t know how it could, given our respective positions and how we have to work together.” Selena was saying what she had to, but it hurt. She wished she could promise, or even suggest, otherwise.

  He pulled his car to the curb right behind her rental. When she reached for the door handle, he bent toward her and grabbed her arm, holding it gently. “Never say never, Selena,” he said. “Maybe when this is all over and that kidnapping victim is rescued and the abductors incarcerated, we can get together to celebrate—without the burden of everyone and everything else getting in the way.”

  “Maybe is a good word,” she said. “Thanks again, Owen.” She opened the door and flicked the key to unlock the rental car so she could drive away at last.

  * * *

  It didn’t take Selena long to return to headquarters. Although one small outdoor lamp was lit over the doorway—Thanks, Rainey, Selena thought—she saw no lights on inside either building, which wa
s a good thing. Maybe everyone was asleep.

  She opened and closed the car door as quietly as possible, not wanting to awaken anyone.

  As she had the previous night, she inhaled to see if she could identify any local wildlife that emerged after dark. The same kind of rodent scents were around. Avian, too.

  And...was that a lingering human scent as well? Too bad she wasn’t shifted to see if she could be certain about it with her enhanced senses and identify whose it might be. She didn’t recognize it as one of the Alpha Force members, so it had to be one of the CAs. There was something else about it as well that bothered her a bit. A hint of sharpness to it?

  She was probably just tired, maybe focusing on stuff that wasn’t real, or wasn’t important if it was real. She’d mention it to Patrick in the morning, though, just in case.

  Quietly she entered the Alpha Force residence, hoping that Lupe wouldn’t start barking like a watchdog. She was well trained, as were all the unit’s cover dogs, but she was still a canine whose instincts included protecting the people around her.

  Selena detected no noise, fortunately—not until she pulled out a small flashlight from her purse for illumination, walked past the living room and kitchen and headed toward her temporary living quarters. She heard scrabbling nails on the hardwood floor of her room and grinned.

  Lupe was being a very good girl, but she had heard her human’s arrival.

  When Selena opened the door and knelt down, her arms were suddenly full of the fur of a combined wolf-husky, and her face was dampened with doggy kisses.

  “Hi, girl,” she whispered. “It’s great to see you, too. Want to go out for a minute?” She quickly located Lupe’s leash—where Rainey must have left it—looped over the doorknob to the hallway. She attached it to Lupe’s collar and they headed back in the direction from which Selena had come.

  Outside, Lupe stopped on the porch, her ears raised, her nose in the air as if she was doing what Selena had—but with a lot more skill, with her all-canine senses. She gave a small whine. Was she interested in chasing a mole or whatever other rodent happened to be around?

  Or was it something else? Did she also sense that a human had been out here? Was that person still here? If so, there was no indication—no car or light or movement except for the light breeze in the air. And Lupe didn’t seem particularly upset, even if she did smell something.

  Could Owen have followed her here to ensure she got back all right? It was something he would do, yet he wouldn’t have preceded her here—and the first time she perceived the scent was when she had first gotten out of her car. That couldn’t have been him.

  It was probably nothing. Selena was just overly emotional considering her job here—and the fact she’d just engaged in the most mind-blowing sex in her life.

  “Let’s go back inside and get to bed,” she told Lupe, who had just squatted to relieve herself, and they headed inside.

  * * *

  Owen didn’t have to show up for breakfast at the residences that would become his CAs’ local headquarters, he thought early the next morning as he exited his hotel. It was entirely his choice.

  As he got into his car he remembered that the last time he’d been inside the vehicle, he hadn’t been alone. Selena had been with him.

  As if he could have forgotten that or anything else about last night.

  He pulled out of the parking lot, heading through the now-awakening town toward the CAs HQ. He knew there would still be plenty of fixings for breakfast there, including coffee. There was no place else he would rather eat.

  He thought about the day ahead. Since their next exercise wasn’t scheduled until late afternoon, he’d allowed his recruits to sleep in. Later on, there’d be an informal Q&A and a general rap session with the CAs about how it had been growing up as shifters and more. A lot of that had come out in their vetting before they’d been invited to become CAs, but Owen hadn’t been fully involved in that process, so not everything might have been passed along.

  Plus, to work together later without the kind of assistance and supervision they were being provided now by Alpha Force, they should have full awareness of each other’s backgrounds.

  This was his ostensible reason for showing up early.

  His real reason? To be in Selena’s presence again. Not that he would even hint about their delightful evening. He just wanted to see her as much as possible while he could.

  He arrived and parked and knocked on the door. Rainey answered. “Come on in. Are you here for breakfast? It’s cooking right now. Selena got it started early, even though she seemed tired. She said she didn’t sleep well last night.” The smirk she wore suggested she knew why Selena hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep. Would Selena have told her aide about where she’d been, or was Rainey only guessing? Knowing Selena’s attitude, as well as her sense of discretion, Owen figured it was the latter.

  “Thanks.” He followed Rainey down the hall toward the kitchen, but was disappointed not to see Selena there. Marshall stood at the stove, with Jonas beside him.

  “She’s talking with Patrick in the other room,” Rainey said, as if hearing the question in his mind.

  “Who? Selena?” He didn’t want to acknowledge that he was looking for her. At Rainey’s nod he asked, “Anything I can do to help in here?”

  “Yeah. Sit down and stay out of the way and stop moping. She’ll join us here in a few.” Rainey pranced toward the stove and took her place at Marshall’s side.

  If he was that obvious, Owen thought, he’d better stay far, far away from Selena—especially today.

  * * *

  “It was probably nothing, but I wanted to tell you about that scent last night.” Selena had asked Patrick to come into her bedroom to talk so their conversation could remain private. “Since I wasn’t shifted, I couldn’t tell much about it, but it did seem human.”

  They stood beside the closed door and Patrick leaned on it. Her CO, in addition to being a high-ranking member of Alpha Force, was a medical doctor, a nice guy and a happily married man. She had heard about how he had come to marry Mariah, who was a noted wildlife reporter. Mariah was off on her own research study now, so Patrick apparently didn’t mind being away from home.

  “Our circumstances will be different tonight,” Patrick said with a worried frown. “We won’t be able to repeat your late-night walk around the place. You were just walking Lupe then?”

  “More or less. I didn’t get to sleep immediately.” She left it at that. He didn’t need to know that she’d been up and about and elsewhere at the time she would otherwise have gotten to sleep. And—oh, yes—having the best sex of her life.

  “Would you recognize that scent again?”

  She shook her head slightly. “I’m not sure. It probably was nothing, but I know it’s important that who we are and what we’re doing here remains covert.”

  “Absolutely. Well, I’ll let all the other Alpha Force members know what you’ve said and make sure they remain alert. Thanks for letting me know.”

  “Of course, sir.” Even though Alpha Force was a fairly informal unit because of its special nature, she gave him a regular military salute. He laughed and saluted back. “Now, let’s go have some breakfast,” she said.

  Selena preceded Patrick back down the hall to the kitchen. She smelled the sausage and bacon that she had started cooking—good dishes for people with canine aspects to them that made them appreciate meats.

  She entered the kitchen’s doorway and stopped abruptly as she nearly walked straight into Owen.

  Oh, she wouldn’t mind feeling that hard body of his against her once more, even this soon. Especially this soon. But it couldn’t happen again—and most particularly it couldn’t happen when they weren’t alone.

  “Good morning,” she said, taking a step back. “I didn’t realize that any of the CAs would be joining us this early.” Good. She sounded cool and professional and totally disinterested. She hoped.

  “I woke up early.” He looked
down at her with only the slightest twist of his mouth that suggested a smile. “Lots on my mind. As far as the other CAs, I told them they might want to sleep in since things are going to get busy later today.”

  “Well, glad you could make it.” That was Patrick, who remained behind Selena. “Maybe we can go over how we want to handle things later. I’ve got some ideas that could work well to ensure that your guys jump right into their shifts independently—and move things along even more quickly on their mission.”

  “Great!” Owen truly was smiling now. “The sooner we get them going, the sooner we’ll catch these kidnappers and let you Alpha Force people return to your own post.”

  Selena was certain Owen’s words were intended to make the members of Alpha Force feel good—Patrick, at least. And maybe the others.

  Well, it should make her feel good, too. It would mean she had fulfilled her own duties here, in Canada. She could go back to Ft. Lukman with her mind clear, ready to take on her next assignment back in the States.

  But even so, as she moved past Owen to enter the kitchen, she wished that the mug of coffee she poured for herself had something stronger in it, despite the time of day.

  Something that could help her forget her feelings and move on.

  Chapter 14

  They sat around the nice-sized dining table—the Alpha Force team, plus Owen, with Lupe on the floor.

  Selena pretended to enjoy her well-made omelet with its meats and cheeses. It did, in fact, taste good. If she’d only been hungry, she would have liked it even more.

  She gave occasional bites to Lupe, who was clearly happy about it.

  As her team discussed the training with Owen, she just sat there at first, picking at her food and drinking her coffee, listening. And only glancing now and then toward Owen to show interest and politeness.

  She purposely kept off her face any indication of what had occurred last night—and her misgivings about what would happen now between them, even though the answer was indisputable. Nothing.