A Handful of Wolf

by Sofia Grey

  Chapter 21

  Sasha’s rough words gave Megan the spur she needed. Dropping her shoulder, she twisted out of his arms and stepped away. “The rest of your life? Christ, Sasha. Have you listened to yourself?” He looked stricken but she raced on, the words tumbling out of her mouth unchecked. “I’ve known you two days. Two.” She held up two fingers. “Count them,” and then stashed her trembling hand back in her pocket. “I know nothing about you, other than you have a vivid imagination.” And you fuck like a God. “You know nothing about me. You don’t even know my middle name, or, or—” she groped for something sensible. “You have no idea what my job is. Do you?” She paused for breath. “Well?”

  Sasha leaned back against the counter and mirrored her pose. “You work in marketing.”

  “Yes, but you don’t know where, or what I do, or what’s important to me.”

  His expression made her think of an abandoned puppy. “I thought I was important to you.”

  “Jesus.” She had to turn around, couldn’t look at him anymore. “Two. Days. I freaked out when Phillip wanted to sleep with me and we’d been dating four weeks. Just because we’ve fucked, it doesn’t mean you own me, Sasha.”

  “Cariad, I want—”

  “Don’t call me that.” She felt his proximity without even looking. He’d snuck up behind her, like a wolf hunting a rabbit. Bad thought. I am not a rabbit and he is not a wolf. His body heat warmed her back, his scent filling her nostrils. Her stupid, deluded heart juddered. Chemistry, that’s all. We have great chemistry.

  “Turn around, Megan.” Dammit, his voice, so low and growly made her tingle in places it had no right to. None at all.

  “No.” She swallowed hard.

  “You ran away from me last night, even though you knew you wanted me. The bonding process has started, and if you look in your heart you’ll find me there. I’ve fucked up, I know that. But I won’t let you run away from me again, Megan.”

  He’s crazy. Work with it. “So what you’re saying is I don’t have a choice in this? You’ve decided you want me and that’s that?” She stared out at the gardens and fixed her gaze in the distance. Don’t turn around. Alex will be back soon, or Hugh. “I need some time to get used to the idea.”

  “Megan.” Hot breath on the back of her neck made her knees weak and when he ran soft fingers up her arms her resolve was sorely threatened, but she stayed firm.

  “Please go now, Sasha. I want to think about this.”

  *

  Frustration welled up inside Sasha. She either didn’t believe him or chose to misunderstand. He couldn’t walk away from her, let her go again, but at the same time he wouldn’t force her. He didn’t know of a single case where a Mate had refused her wolf, although on reflection, he didn’t know many wolves that had Mated with humans. Lillian had not made things easy for Jake, but he’d persisted and now they were blissfully happy.

  With his wolf howling dismally, he strode out the front door and to where he’d parked Bessie, and came face to face with the Hellspawn brothers. They scowled at him and he bit back the snarl that bubbled inside him. Alex held the door open with a mocking smile. “That’s the right direction.” These will become my brothers-in-law. Smile like you mean it. It was probably more like a grimace, but he managed to leave without drawing blood and that was a minor miracle.

  His mind spun in ever decreasing circles as he drove back to the city. He had three and a half weeks left before his visa ran out. Less than a month to win her over. At least Tammy seemed to be okay now; he’d not felt any more sympathetic pains. That was the only bright spot in an increasingly shitty day.

  Sasha hung around his house waiting for nightfall and as soon as the sun set, he shifted and ran for the hills. This was one of the reasons he’d chosen to live in Thorndon. Not only cheap, but easy access to open space—priceless for his wolf. He ran himself into exhaustion and stumbled back to the house an hour before dawn. There were no missed calls or texts from Megan, but he was too tired to be hurt.

  Monday morning was surprisingly cool and damp after several weeks of summer weather and it added to Sasha’s grey mood. He missed the mountains of home, his family and his Alpha. He missed the snow and the freedom to run miles through safe pack territory. He was fucked off with everything. Getting to the construction site and being told they had a new boss visiting the crew, provided the icing on the crap-cake of the day. As the most junior member of the team, Sasha was used to the low-end jobs and normally attacked them with the same enthusiasm he did everything. He wasn’t surprised to find himself on toilet cleaning duty, and got on with it. Shitty mood, shitty job. Karma at work in the universe.

  An hour later, he stood in line with the crew waiting for the new boss. “It’s like the second coming of Christ,” muttered Dion, next to him. “The foreman’s gonna be licking the guy’s boots at this rate.”

  It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. After all, the God of shit days had already singled him out for special attention today. The new boss was Phillip. He strutted onto the site wearing a sharp suit and clutching a rolled up set of plans, and greeted each man he was introduced to. That is, until he came to Sasha. “You,” he breathed. “What are the chances, eh?”

  The foreman looked puzzled, but Sasha just shrugged. What else could go wrong today?

  * * * *

  There were too many things for Megan to think about, too much to process, so she chose to ignore it for the moment. Work should have been a good distraction, but it failed to keep her interest and her mind kept wandering. Every time she started to think longingly about Sasha, or to wonder what he was doing, she reminded herself of one unassailable fact. He was insane. She clung to the idea that he was harmless, even though cold logic suggested otherwise. He’d punched Phillip in the face, after all. She told her brothers Sasha wouldn’t be back, but couldn’t bring herself to tell them why. They’d kill him for the bet-thing alone. If they thought he was going to be a nuisance they’d launch straight into over-protective-big-brother mode and she’d never hear the end of it.

  She’d kept herself busy after he’d left on Sunday, with the gym, and then the movies. She expected to dream of Sasha, but instead, had her recurring dream of wolves again. She ran through a section of forest with five or six dark wolves around her. Running from something, or to something, she couldn’t be sure, but she felt stressed. She wasn’t running for fun. None of the wolves looked like Sasha—like the wolf he claimed to be.

  All morning at work, her mind kept drifting and she’d find herself staring into space. She couldn’t focus. One thought repeated in her brain on an endless loop. How did he know about her dream, about the conversation they’d had? She couldn’t find a logical explanation. Even if he’d slipped something into her drink to stimulate her imagination, he couldn’t have known what they talked about. After a morning of non-productivity, with a stress headache looming, she made her apologies and went home.

  * * * *

  After a long and tiring morning of breaking concrete, mainly by hand due to the confined space, Sasha was glad for a rest. He checked his phone again, but there was still nothing from Megan. He was at a loss what to do next. He couldn’t even ask Jake or Lillian for advice, as contact with them had been sporadic and they’d be in bed by now. Dion came to eat lunch with him and they sat together, sheltered from the drizzle. Should he ask Dion for advice? No, he shied away from that. Like him, his friend had never wanted more than a fling with a girl. Sasha sat and mulled it over, looking up at the last minute to see the foreman, Brett, approaching, a worried look on his face.

  “Sasha, I need you to come with me.”

  Brett was a decent guy and Sasha had no reason to question him. He shoved the sandwich wrapper into his back pocket, scrambled to his feet, and shrugged at Dion’s unspoken question. Brett led him to the temporary office rigged up on the site and Sasha paused in the doorway. Squeezed into the tiny space was a policeman and his favorite fuckwit, Phillip. His heart contracted.
Please God, let this be nothing to do with Megan.

  The smug expression on Phillip’s face was the giveaway and Sasha had difficulty concentrating on the accusation they threw at him; he was too busy planning ways to make this man bleed. A piece of expensive equipment had gone missing. The foreman had instigated a search after an anonymous tip off, and it had turned up in Sasha’s locker. What the fuck? The police had been called in as a matter of routine.

  For once in his life, Sasha was speechless. Phillip smirked and Brett looked red faced with embarrassment, while the policeman was stoic. The ‘evidence’ was circumstantial, and rather than going to the effort of pressing charges against a temporary worker, they insisted he leave the site immediately. Without pay.

  Sasha may have been silent, but his wolf roared its fury. He’d bet the police were there to make sure he didn’t attack Phillip, or to arrest him if he did. He managed an angry nod and turned to leave, grabbing the few personal possessions they’d stripped from his locker. Baseball cap. Spare sunglasses. Change of clothes. Megan’s ex was so clearly behind this, he was outraged that Brett didn’t see it. For fucks sake, he’d worked there for three months. Maybe this was normal behavior for dealing with temporary workers, but it wasn’t right. The unfair accusation burned at him. He wanted to hit something. Hard.

  Dion caught up with him as he stomped up the street. “Sasha, dude, where are you going?”

  “They’ve fucking fired me. Said I nicked the electronic theodolite. It conveniently turned up in my locker when they did a search. Fucking stinks, man. They screwed me over.”

  “They can’t do that!”

  “They can and they have.” Tension bubbled in Sasha’s veins. He needed to go and shift, let his wolf out and roar his anger in the most primal way.

  Dion squared his shoulders. “I’m going to talk to Brett. They can’t get away with this. Everyone on the crew knows you’re solid. We’ll stand behind you, bro.”

  His friend’s honesty pierced Sasha’s rage and he sucked in a calming breath. “No. Don’t risk your own job for me, mate. This is personal, between me and the new boss.” He’d make Phillip pay for this in his own sweet time, and he didn’t want his friend involved.

  Sasha knocked knuckles with Dion, promised to come and listen to the band practicing that evening and then headed back to his house. He was fucked. No job, no money and only three weeks left in the country. He needed to get access to his savings account rapidly. His credit card was maxed out, but at least his flight home was already booked and paid for. And really, money was the least of his issues right now. There was only three weeks left to convince Megan to come home with him.

  The drizzle intensified as he walked, his mood deteriorating further with each step. The jangle of his phone caught his attention. Could it be Megan? Her name on the display made his heart quicken and he paused and turned away from the traffic to hear her better.

  “Cariad. How are you today, gorgeous?”

  There was a noise like someone clearing their throat and then a voice that shouldn’t have been speaking to him on Megan’s phone. “I warned you to stay away from Connor, but you didn’t listen, did you?”

  Chapter 22

  Megan sought solace in her tree house. Stupid really. She didn’t need any more reminders of Sasha. All the same, she could find the peace and quiet she needed here, and she could wonder again about the weirdness of her dreams. The house was too noisy today. Alex was home with her father, and there was a team of contractors busy in the garden with some landscaping project. Dad had told her about it, but she couldn’t remember the details. When she’d parked her car, one of the workers had come across and asked if she’d leave her keys with him as they’d need to move it later. He had the same blue eyes as Sasha and she’d gazed up at him for a moment. He was as polite too. He’d seen a cicada land on her back and had swept it away with his hand before she went into the house. A gentleman.

  Now, as she sat on one of the saggy reclining chairs, Megan tried to untangle her complicated thoughts about Sasha. The crazy story about being a wolf. The way he knew exactly what they’d talked about in her dream. His plan to spend the rest of his life with her. The way he made her feel. How he looked after her. How right it felt when they were together. He turned her on like no boy ever had before.

  If she could get him to admit the whole wolf thing was just a story he’d made up, reassure her he wasn’t actually delusional, maybe she could see him again? Share some time during his last few weeks in the country? The dream connection was freaky, but her recurring dream and the flashes of déjà vu were enough to make that subject fuzzy. Perhaps she was a little psychic after all?

  Her nervous inner self piped up. He’d scared her. But had he? Really? Was she more scared of her own feelings? Megan knew she was going round in circles and a headache still loomed. She curled up in the chair and hugged her knees.

  One way or another she’d make up her mind about Sasha today, and she’d start by talking to him. He’d be at work, but she could text him, ask him to call back. Decision made, she thought for a moment about where she’d left her phone. It would still be in her bag. When she’d arrived home she’d slipped to her bedroom, dumped her bag on the bed, got changed and left again for the tree house.

  She sat up, rolled her shoulders and stretched. Now she’d figured out what to do, her headache had lifted and suddenly the day felt better. Smiling to herself, Megan stepped toward the ladder and stopped, transfixed. A wolf sat at the bottom.

  Was it Sasha? Was she crazy for even thinking that? This wasn’t a dream and there were no wild wolves in New Zealand, but by some bizarre freak, her recurring dream was finally coming true. She sat on the platform, legs swinging, and called to the animal. It turned a dark, unfamiliar head and she caught a glimpse of brilliant blue eyes.

  “Here, boy.” It never occurred to her it might not be friendly.

  * * * *

  It was only when he heard his phone cracking that Sasha realized how tight he gripped it. His heart stopped and for a second he couldn’t breathe. With his wolf hunting-still and watchful, he forced himself to match the cold tone with icy purpose of his own. “What have you done with Megan?”

  “Was that her name?” The rogue wolf sounded amused.

  “If you’ve hurt a hair on her head, I swear there is nowhere on this earth you can hide from me. I will tear you limb from limb.”

  “I warned you about talking to Connor and I warned you about the folly of taking a human Mate. She had your scent all over her.”

  Funny how all the shit from the day paled into insignificance. Sasha had never been so focused in his life. Keep him talking. Find him. Find Megan. “What do you want from me?”

  “I want you to take a message back to your Alpha. Get rid of the human Mate.”

  As if he would ever do that. He tried to keep a handle on his wolf, to stop the animal from taking over and howling a threat down the line. “And if I do that? You’ll return Megan to me?”

  A cold laugh made his skin crawl. “When we’ve finished with her. Does she have a pet name for you? It wasn’t your name she cried out.”

  He’s just jerking my chain. Don’t rise to the bait. “Let me speak to her.”

  “So you can say goodbye? How touching. You should have done that earlier. Now fuck off back to your Alpha and be sure to pass on my message.”

  “You could be lying. Let me speak to her.” Sasha’s demand was met with silence and he realized the call had been terminated. His knees sagged and bile rose in his throat. What had he done? He barely held on to the contents of his stomach as a fresh wave of fear blasted him. The bastard had Megan’s phone. She could be anywhere and he had no way to find her. He spun around and leaned against the nearest wall for support. Think, Sasha. Who can help? Jake was thousands of miles away and probably asleep. Connor…he might know how to track the rogue wolf.

  There was not a second to lose. He punched in Connor’s phone number, and clenched his fist a
s the call dropped, as usual, to voicemail. “This is Sasha,” he snarled. “The same rogue wolf that threatened me has taken my Mate. I need your help. Whatever you need from me you can have, just help me find her before it’s too late.”

  * * * *

  Megan had only just stepped onto the ladder when the wolf moved. It loped toward her, mouth open in a menacing growl, lips pulled back and sharp teeth exposed. Holy shit. Far from running with her, this one looked more inclined to rip off her legs and snack on them. It was huge. She shimmied back on the wooden platform and pulled her feet away from the edge. What the fuck did she do now?

  On the off chance it was getting aggressive at someone else, she peered around carefully, but nobody was visible. The wolf approached another step and snarled up the ladder. Nope, it didn’t like her. The feeling was mutual.

  She ticked off the options in her head: no phone; no point in shouting for help; no other tree she could climb into, Tarzan-style. Either she scared the wolf away, waited for it to get bored, or waited for someone to find her. Since she hadn’t told anyone where she was going, being found was unlikely. It was early afternoon so they wouldn’t even notice her missing until dinnertime and that was hours away.

  There was little else Megan could do. For now, she’d have to wait it out.

  * * * *

  Sasha gazed blindly into the distance, his mind in turmoil. He’d no idea where Megan worked. He didn’t even know her surname and how lame was that. You know nothing about me. Dear God, please let him find her. He’d happily spend the rest of his days learning every single facet of her life, if he was given the chance.