Wolf Betrayed (The Dark Ridge Wolves Book 3)

by Marissa Farrar

  Not bothering to undress, Chance flung himself down on the bed, lying on his back, his arm over his eyes. He needed to sleep, but his thoughts refused to settle. Was she home now, asleep in her own bed? Was she thinking of him?

  A sudden spurt of anxiety shot through him, sending his heart racing. He bolted upright in bed, his breath quickening. The certain knowledge something was wrong filled him.

  Maya.

  Something had happened. He knew it as surely as he knew his own name. Even though she’d walked away from him, he had no choice now but to go to her. She needed him. Every cell in his body insisted upon it—like his skin itched all over and he simply had to scratch.

  The fastest way of reaching her was by wolf.

  Chance peeled off his clothes, leaving them as a scattered trail across the floor as he ran from his home. Most shifters left the compound before getting ready to shift, but he didn’t have time. The moment he crossed the threshold and was out in open air, he willed his wolf to rise. They were still in the three days of the full moon cycle, so the animal was close to the surface and quick to respond. The shift to wolf was fast and painless, the change happening as naturally and profoundly as water changing to ice. One moment, he was on two feet, the next he’d fallen forward onto all fours, and his jaw had elongated and filled with teeth, his ears pricked from the top of his skull, bringing all the sounds of the compound and the surrounding forest to life. A long, bushy tail elongated his spine, giving him extra balance.

  He sprang forward, already moving at a gallop. He ignored anyone he passed, surprised exclamations following him. He didn’t care. They were all going to be talking about him anyway. This would give them something else to gossip about.

  Chance ran back through the forest at full pelt. His powerful legs propelled him forward, his tongue lolling from his mouth, his hot breath panting into the night air. His only focus was reaching the outskirts of the town and the diner when he’d mated Maya on the booth bench.

  Though he felt like he’d been running forever, he eventually burst out of the forest and onto the road. The diner was positioned in front of him, but he couldn’t see any sign of life through the bank of windows which stretched across the front.

  Dammit. He should have thought to bring clothes. He wouldn’t be able to find out anything in wolf form, and he’d learn even less as a naked man. Humans didn’t approve of people wandering around with no clothes on.

  Chance shifted to human form and sneaked around the back of the restaurant where the house was. A washing line pegged with clothes stretched along the side of the house. He located a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that was far too small, but would do for the moment, and pulled them off, the pegs pinging to the ground. Dressed, he hammered on the front door of the property then tried the back, but there didn’t seem to be anyone there either. Chance went back to the diner to discover a harried looking, middle-aged woman in a waitress outfit letting herself into the building.

  “Hi, there,” he called out.

  She turned to him, a frown deepening the lines in her forehead when she saw him. With his too-small clothes and scarred face, he guessed he didn’t look like he was up to much good.

  “Do you know where Maya is?” he asked.

  The woman blinked. “Yes, she’s at the hospital.”

  Thoughts of her being in an accident filled his mind, and his fears must have showed on his face.

  “Oh, no, not for her,” the woman continued. “It’s her father. They think he’s had a stroke.”

  Something in his chest tightened. “Ah, shit. Poor Maya.”

  “Yeah. They had to revive him here before taking him in. It’s not looking good.”

  Pain on Maya’s behalf filled him.

  “Look,” the woman said, “I’m going to the hospital now. Do you want a ride?”

  Chance nodded. “Yes, that would be good. Thank you.”

  They made their way to her car—an old Lincoln that looked like it was held together by more rust than metal. He spotted a couple of children’s car seats in the back.

  “I don’t know your name,” she said as they climbed in.

  “It’s Chance,” he told her. “I don’t know yours either.”

  “Steph,” she supplied. “I worked with Maya—or work for Maya, I guess, since she’s been taking over the place for her folks. How do you know her? She hasn’t mentioned a Chance before.”

  “We haven’t known each other long, but she’s important to me.”

  Steph seemed to accept that.

  Within twenty minutes, they were pulling up outside the small hospital on the other side of town.

  As Chance opened the car door, the niggling certainty something was wrong suddenly changed. Anguish hit him like a physical blow, stealing his breath and causing him to rear back at the shock. “We have to hurry.”

  He ran toward the building, Steph trotting along behind him, clutching her purse to her side.

  He found Maya standing in the corridor, in her mother’s arms, crying great heaving sobs that made a lump catch in his throat and his own eyes prickle with unshed tears. He stopped short, not wanting to intrude on such an intense, intimate scene, suddenly wondering if he should have come.

  But then, as though she’d sensed him standing there, in the same way he’d been sensing her emotions all this time, she looked up and directly at him.

  “Oh, Chance,” she cried. “My father… he died.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Maya found herself in Chance’s arms almost before she had time to register he was there. He held her up as she cried against his chest, her whole body weak with grief.

  Steph had her arms around Maya’s mom, Barbara, and they were both crying as well. Steph had waitressed at the diner for years and was close to the whole family.

  When Maya had gotten back to the diner and discovered the ambulance and paramedics there, they’d only just managed to revive her father. They thought he’d suffered both a stroke and a heart attack, but had managed to get his heart going again. It hadn’t been enough, however. He’d crashed twice in the ambulance, and though they’d managed to resuscitate him both times, when they’d tried to transfer him from the ambulance, he’d crashed again and this time they hadn’t been able to get his heart beating again. She’d been caught in a whirlwind of panic and fear, but now he was gone and there was nothing more she could do. It occurred to her that she would have been in the house with her father when he’d first had the stroke if she’d not been at the compound. If she hadn’t been in the forest that night and hadn’t met Chance, she would have been there when he’d first suffered symptoms. She might have seen it coming.

  Maya pushed at Chance’s chest, tears streaming down her face. “No, leave me alone. I would have been here if I hadn’t met you. I could have done something to help. I could have saved him!”

  He refused to let go, no matter how much she struggled. “No, you couldn’t. You can’t blame yourself for this, Maya. You said yourself how sick your father was.”

  “Not with this, though,” she sobbed. “He wasn’t sick with this.”

  He held her, letting her grief wrack through her body.

  “I should have been there,” she said in little hitching breaths. “I could have done something, and I wasn’t there.”

  “Hush,” he said, holding her tighter. “I’m sure there was nothing you could have done. It was a stroke, wasn’t it? You couldn’t have seen that coming.”

  “You don’t know that. No one knows that.”

  Her mother didn’t even question the arrival of the strange man holding her daughter in the hospital corridor. They were all too stunned—numb and disbelieving.

  In silence, they went back to the house, all four of them. Steph set about making them all tea, while they sat across the table from one another, Maya holding her mother’s hand with one hand, and Chance’s with the other. She knew she was red-faced, and puffy-eyed, with tear streaked skin, but she didn’t care.

 
“It feels so strange knowing he’s not in the house,” she said, finally. “It’s like there’s a big hole in the universe and it’s right in the middle of our house.” They fell into silence once more, and then Maya started to cry again. “I just don’t know how this could have happened. I mean, he was okay, wasn’t he? The medication was helping him.”

  Her mom released her hand to rub her back. “Oh, sweetheart,” she said, her eyes brimming with tears. “Your father hasn’t been okay for a very long time. You know that.”

  “It’s just such a shock. I’m struggling to believe it.”

  “We all are, darling.”

  They fell quiet again, each sipping at the hot tea Steph had made.

  “I’m sorry,” Barbara said, focusing on Chance. “You’re clearly a friend of my daughter’s, but I didn’t catch your name.”

  “Chance,” he told her. “I’m sorry we had to meet this way. And of course I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  Maya looked at him gratefully. Some people might have looked out of place in this setting, but Chance looked like there was nowhere else he should be.

  What had been revealed back at the shifter compound suddenly hit her. The alpha had told her that one of her parents wasn’t who she’d been told they were. Maya squeezed her eyes shut, pushing away the thought. No, she couldn’t deal with this now. Couldn’t handle it. She’d just lost her dad, and now she was supposed to entertain the possibility that he hadn’t been her real father after all.

  “I have to get back to the kids,” said Steph eventually. “Is there anything else I can do to help?”

  Maya shook her head. “No, you go, Steph. We’ll be okay.”

  “I need to go and lie down,” said her mother. “Are you going to be all right?” She directed the question at Maya.

  Maya nodded. “I have Chance with me. I’ll be all right. But after you get some rest, we need to talk, Mom.”

  “Yes, there’ll be a lot to sort out over the next few days.”

  Maya nodded, leaving it at that. This wasn’t the time to push the subject; she could barely comprehend it herself. She heard her mother disappear into the back bedroom—the room that had been her father’s since he’d been no longer able to use the stairs. She waited until she heard the door shut, and everything went silent, and then took Chance’s hand and pulled him to his feet. “I need to lie down, too. Come with me.”

  He nodded, and allowed himself to be taken upstairs to her bedroom. So much had happened since she’d left it the previous morning. She felt like a different Maya entered it now—one who had changed irrevocably inside. She had gained a mate and lost a father. She’d also been delivered news that she’d never even suspected—that she might be half-shifter.

  Exhausted, both from being up all night, and from emotional exhaustion, she dropped onto her bed. Like she was a child, Chance kneeled at her feet and worked off her sneakers and socks. Then he moved to her dress, pulling it over her head, and dropped it to the floor. In just her underwear, she curled up on her side.

  He leaned in and kissed her forehead. “I’ll leave you to get some sleep.”

  She reached out and caught his wrist. “No, don’t. Stay with me.”

  She’d walked away from Chance at the compound, but the moment she’d seen the ambulance outside the diner, she’d known leaving him had been a mistake. She’d needed him with her, needed his strength. She didn’t regret leaving the shifter compound because if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have known about her father. She’d have left her mother frantically trying to find her, and worrying about her, while also having to deal with the devastation of their loss, but she wished when she’d left, she’d taken Chance with her.

  Despite her sorrow, having his body curled around hers still woke that need inside her. Was it an affirmation of life, this ability to still feel such carnal desire? Or was she using sex as a way to block out the grief clutching at her soul?

  She twisted in his arms to bury her face against him. She realized something strange and lifted her face to look at him, frowning slightly.

  “You’re wearing my father’s clothes.”

  “I know, I’m sorry. It was all I could find. Is it weird?”

  “Yeah, it is, a bit. But also kind of comforting. How did you know to come?”

  “I’m not sure. I just sensed something wasn’t right. I knew it had to do with you, and that I needed to be with you.”

  “Is that because we’re mated now?”

  “I think so. Joined—physically and mentally.”

  She let out a sad sigh and pressed herself closer. “Thank you for being here for me, Chance. I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t.”

  “I couldn’t be anywhere else.”

  She lifted her chin to kiss him. He was sweet and gentle, even though she knew she must have looked like a wreck. The kiss quickly grew heated, but she broke it.

  Maya hooked her fingers under the t-shirt he wore. “You need to take this off.”

  He nodded, sitting up quickly to pull it over his head, then he unbuckled the jeans, and threw them both to the floor.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, his eyes searching hers.

  Her hand slipped around the back of his neck, pulling his mouth to hers. “Make me forget,” she said against his lips.

  His hands caressed down the length of her back, and together they dipped down into the bed again, lying face to face. Maya hooked her leg over the top of Chance’s thigh, pushing herself against him. His erection was a hard length and she ground herself against him, concentrating on the pleasure the contact gave her. She didn’t want to think.

  Chance’s hand pushed between them and his fingers slipped into her panties. Maya let out a moan as he paused to rub circles over her clit. She bucked her hips into his hand, wanting more. Reading her body language, he moved lower, dividing the lips of her pussy and then pushing up inside her.

  “Oh, God, Chance.”

  She clung to him tightly, eyes squeezed shut, fighting off the invading thoughts that threatened to overtake her. She needed oblivion, then sleep. She needed him. Reaching for his cock, she positioned him then arched her hips forward. He penetrated her, and she took hold of his hands and pushed him back on the bed, straddling him. Not sure what came over her, she held him down, the back of his hands pinned to the bed. Her breasts swung in his face, bouncing with every lift of her hips as she slid her pussy up and down his dick. He caught her nipple in his mouth and nipped hard enough to make her cry out. She knew he could easily push her away, but he was letting her drive this. She angled her body so her clit dragged over the length of his cock with every movement. A wildness had taken over her, and she fucked him harder, slamming up and down, feeling the flesh of her ass shake with each move.

  He shoved his hands up, but she pushed back down with sudden ferocity. She edged her body back down his slightly, moving her nipples out of reach of his mouth, and then kissed him again, nipping at his lower lip, biting hard enough to hurt.

  Chance gave a gasp, somewhere between pleasure and pain.

  He wrenched his hands free and grabbed her hips, helping her movements grow faster. His fingers dug into her flesh and she pushed herself faster. Their cries and gasps for breath tangled together as she came. She fell forward, holding herself down hard on his cock as her orgasm spilled over.

  She felt him swell inside her, and then his hips bucked, lifting her higher, and he let out a groan, his face contorted in pleasure. He thrust once, and then again, and she clamped her pussy around him, wanting to give him more.

  They fell together in the bed, tangled limbs, and hot, sweaty, sated bodies.

  And Maya found the oblivion she’d been seeking.

  ***

  The next few days passed in a numb blur.

  Maya helped her mother make funeral arrangements. Her father’s funeral would be held at the small church located on the north side of town, and they’d have the wake back at the diner. Though the place had remained close
d since his death, it seemed like the most sensible location. Her father had loved the place, and he would have wanted to see all his favorite people gathered there. The kitchen staff were happy to come in and cater, so at least that was one less thing to organize. Maya had put an obituary in the local newspaper, mainly to let people know the date and time. She expected most people had already heard of his death.

  The house felt strangely quiet without him there. Having Chance around helped. He was dividing his time between being with her at the house, and going back to the shifter compound to complete his duties there as well. It felt crazy that she’d only known him for less than a week now. Yes, their relationship had started based on sex and primal desire, but he’d proven to her he would be there for her emotionally as well. When she’d cried into the night, he’d held her until she’d fallen asleep, and when she was freaking out about everything that needed to be done, he was the calming force she needed.

  The day of the funeral arrived—a day she’d been dreading. Chance was by her side every step of the way, his arm around her shoulder, shaking hands with mourners as though he’d been there her whole life. Everyone just seemed to accept his presence. Perhaps they were able to see how badly she needed him right now.

  The wake back at the diner went smoothly, too. Both Maya and Steph had been too upset to do any of the waitressing duties, so Maya hired in a couple of temporary staff to serve drinks and refresh the buffet when needed. Her mom was holding up well, her eyes red-rimmed, but mostly dry—she’d done a lot of her crying over the past few days. Maya was so proud of how well her mother had handled everything. She’d always known Barbara was strong, having to deal with her husband’s illness and manage the business for so long, but the last few days had really brought home how incredible she was.

  As the last of the mourners left the diner, her mother touched her on the arm. Her mom looked exhausted. Dark shadows created hollows beneath her eyes and the lines in her skin appeared deeper.