I licked my lips. “Yes.”
He unbuckled his pants, dropped them to the floor. I reached for him. He shook his head and stepped back suddenly. That look of lust was suddenly gone from his face. “You need to see what I am before anything else.”
And then he began to change.
He was right. It was horrific. His lips widened to his ears as his nose elongated. Arm bones cracked backwards and reformed. Hair carpeted him almost immediately. I couldn’t watch after the first five seconds.
But it didn’t change how I felt about him.
A cold nose touched me on the forehead.
A wolf, a massive beautiful gray wolf the size of a large pony, stood in front of me.
I reached to stroke his thick fur. “Xavier,” I said. “You are beautiful.”
He licked my face.
I stroked the fur on his neck. How strange. He was all wolf but didn’t smell like any dog I had ever known. He just smelled like Xavier. “I’m so sorry for all those years. I did write you. I just never sent them.”
The wolf shivered and backed away. He shifted again and I had to look away.
“You’re a werewolf. I don’t care. I do care about what happened, or what should have happened between us so many years ago.”
Xavier took my hands in his as he knelt naked before me. “I don’t blame you for anything.”
“You don’t?”
“We were young. We had to grow into ourselves, in order to know what we wanted, and appreciate it.”
The way he looked at me when he said ‘wanted’ and ‘appreciate’ made my heart stop.
His hand tightened around mine. “Don’t get me wrong. I was pissed and heartbroken when you left me behind.”
“So you signed up for off-world military duty.”
“You saw the space pirate kick my ass. I wasn’t going to let that happen ever again. Besides, you were gone. My moms were leaving too. Seemed like the logical thing to do at the time.”
“I’m…” I had to tell him the truth. It came out all at once. “A liar. A thief. A cheat. A blackmailer. Almost as bad as a space pirate. I had to do those things to get my business up and running. I’m not proud of what I had to do, but if you don’t have connections in New Tokyo…”
He shook his head. “You’re not your father, Lauryn. You build things, you don’t destroy them. Things aren’t always black and white out on the front lines either.” His eyes took on a distant look. “Most days, they’re actually pretty gray.”
“Xavier, you don’t understand. I’m too much like my father.” There, I'd said it. Even if my voice was trembling, I had to keep saying it. “I said no to you so many years ago, because I thought you would hold me back. You would make me too good of a person. And I couldn’t be that person that could protect my family otherwise.”
His voice was so extraordinarily gentle. “And now?”
“I have almost everything I wanted. But it’s empty. Because I didn’t have you.”
He kissed me on the forehead. “All I care about is that we’re together now.” He shook his head. “You’re not the only one with a damaged past. In case you’ve forgotten, I was a soldier. I’ve killed people. Not all of them bad guys. Sometimes they were just other soldiers doing their jobs.”
“That’s different. You’re too good for me, Xavier.”
“You haven’t heard my stories. As far as I’m concerned, you can confess anything you want, Lauryn. It’s not going to change anything here,” he said, placing my hand on his heart. He was so amazingly warm.
I looked away. I didn’t want him to see the tears in my eyes. “I feel the same way. But I still don’t deserve you. I just don’t want to lose you.”
He turned my face back toward him. I closed my eyes and tears ran down my cheeks. He kissed my eyes, then my tears. “Stop thinking about who deserves what. Just know that what we have is real. Everything else, we’ll figure it out.”
He tilted my chin up and kissed me. It was supposed to be gentle and reassuring. He tasted too good to not savor, all coffee and Xavier. I finally broke away from the kiss. We were both panting. Actually panting like dogs. Or wolves, I suppose.
I buried my face in his neck, his stubble rough against my face. “Is this really going to work? If it doesn’t, I don’t think I could let you go again.”
His arms came around me. “Let’s make a deal. Just let me love you and you won’t have to.”
Could it really be that simple? Was I just making things more complicated than they had to be?
I took a deep breath, and remembered the oaksandal field we spent summers running through.
Of course I was. Fuck it. I wanted him and I had him. It was the opportunity of a lifetime. I lifted my head to look at him. “You know, business deals with potential partners usually involve long rounds of background research and vetting. You have to make sure each has something the other wants.”
He gave me an amused look with those wolf-grey eyes, all the while slipping his hand underneath the sheets. “And what is it that you want?”
I knew what I wanted. But it was a fragile thing, too early to name, too early to say out loud. With my fingertips I followed the warm ridges of his abs, down between his legs. “You,” I said, his cock in my hand, “in my mouth.”
His eyes got that intense wolfish look I was beginning to recognize. “Lauryn,” he said hoarsely, and with that I realized that I could make him feel as helpless with desire as he made me feel.
He pulled me down to the bed, but I made sure that I was on top this time. “Feel free to do as much research as you need.”
I gave him my best smile as I lowered my mouth to his length. “I’ll get right on that.”
Day 410, Year 2256
Xavier
Lauryn comes to stand next to me as I check my messages on my coms. “So what are you going to do now that you’re out of the service?”
“Ten years of salary with multiple daily bonuses of hazard and combat pay and no expenses means I can pretty much do anything I want.” Like give her the massive wolf sapphire ring I left in a safety deposit box in New Tokyo. I had to make sure it was a ring that someone running an organization like hers would be proud to have. But it’s too early for that, for her. She needs time to get used to me again. And more time to realize that she doesn’t need to wear her father’s ring anymore.
And besides, I haven’t told her.
Lauryn gives me a glorious smile. The smile that I spent years in dark pits dreaming about.
I have to tell her.
I pull her to my lap. She always had issues about not being as tiny as the other girls in our town, but her curves are perfect. She fits like she was made for me.
I know what I should say. Instead, I say, “Tell me. About the letters you wrote me.”
She looks away, in that way she does when she’s embarrassed. It hasn’t changed. “They’re not important.”
I reach for the zipper of her dress. “What kind of dirty secrets are you keeping from me?”
“Not the kind you think I am.”
“Hmm. You’re a liar, a cheat, a blackmailer, and a thief you said. Anything else? Murder anyone?”
She pauses.
“You didn’t kill anyone, did you?”
“There was a people smuggler. He was bringing in refugees in our buildings in the most appalling conditions. Women, children, babies. Selling them into forced labor.”
“Did you actually kill him?”
“No. I just made a few phone calls. I don’t actually know what happened to him. In exchange, I got the cargo.”
I stop. “What did you do with them?”
“I gave them money and set them free. Some of them I even hired. Wait, what do you think I did?”
I tip up her chin and kiss her. She tastes of softness and sunlight, and everything else I had craved those long years away from her. I love the way she wraps her arms around me, kissing me like I had just returned. My cock wants to be part of th
e party, but right now, I only want to kiss her. And kiss her.
Finally I break away. “You think you’re so bad. At heart you’re a softie.”
She slips her hand between her thighs, reaching to my hardening cock underneath her. “Hmm. It’s time I showed you how ruthless I can be.”
We spend another hour reveling in the feel of each other. Part of me still can’t believe I’m really here, with her, alive and making love to her after all the blood and death. There were times, like when the deranged Alpha of Stonepaw House decided that I was a Coalition spy (which I was) and ordered my execution, that I felt I was never going to make it back to her. I know I’m not done with covert werewolf ops but I’m just overjoyed to be here with her.
I can’t keep delaying the inevitable.
Much later, after we’re satiated, I pull her close.
She trails a finger down the center of my chest. “What is it? I can tell there’s something bothering you.”
She knows me too well. “When I told you I was getting out of the military, I really thought I was getting out.”
“Let me guess. They’re pulling you back in somehow.” She holds me tighter, as if that will keep me from leaving.
I stroke her curly hair. “How did you know?”
“My sister is in the military too, you know.”
“Skye’s in Space Force. That’s different than being on the ground.”
“Same war.”
That's what the government wants you to think. “Not quite.”
Her voice was too calm. “So are you going off-world?”
“No. I’m staying here. On Gaia.”
She lets out a breath. “Good. What are you going to be doing? Or wait, let me guess, you’re doing top-secret military stuff you can’t talk about.”
Somehow Lauryn knew. She always knew. “Well…”
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Stick around for the first chapter of Skye’s story in Wanted by a Werewolf Prince!
2356 C.E.
His royal wolfiness, Prince Ral of the House of Nightclaw, Duke of something or other and holder of a ludicrous number of other titles, locked his injured unconscious sister into the med stasis capsule. He turned and approached me in human form. The Prince was covered in grime and blood, his hair matted with dirt, his shirt shredded exposing glimpses of scarred hard muscle.
Filthy never looked so good.
Looking at that chiseled jaw, those too full lips, I knew he was going to be impossible.
People across the galaxy paid lifetimes for that kind of perfection, but cosmetic surgery didn’t work on werewolves. All it meant was that the Prince had had a lifetime of conditioning, a lifetime to believe he was a gift of the stars and a lifetime at exploiting others using his looks, prestige and power.
He turned and watched as the med-bots chimed, “Escort the capsule from the hanger bay.”
I didn’t know what the tiger-shifters had done to her, but I would look at the report later.
A med-bot stumbled.
“Don’t jolt her,” he snarled.
Then the prince stalked toward me.
My exo-armor, with its mirrored visor, and small dull black-scaled plates was designed to make an adversary think twice. But he was completely unfazed, or at least he had the appearance of being so. Men like him knew about facades.
He looked at me as if I were his mother’s serving android. “Be ready, soldier. After we get Princess Seria to safety, we’re coming back to Altai."
A hello, or ‘thanks for risking your lives to save us even though we’re not your subjects,’ would have been nice rather than an order. But this was to be expected. I triggered my exo-armor’s retreat. The helmet and suit opened, folding itself into my harness. The air smelled of exhaust and something burnt.
“Sorry, Your Majesty. Our orders are to one, get you off the tiger’s planet and two, escort both of you to neutral ground on Chandrayaan Station.”
Ice blue eyes focused on me. Nostrils flared taking in my scent. “You’re not one of us.”
I lifted my chin, strengthened my stance. “No. I’m an officer of the United Coalition Space Force. And unfortunately for you, sir, you are not part of my chain of command.”
Surprise cracked his facade. My ship had no markings, and my exo-armor had no insignias. Technically the Coalition and his kidnappers, the Tigrantine Protectorate, were at peace, but if the tigers caught us helping a wolf escape, things probably wouldn’t stay that way.
I threw him a rescue pack. It thumped as it hit the floor between us.
He folded his arms, leaned against a pillar. “The Coalition finally decided to honor their agreements?”
If that was how he wanted to play, so be it. “I have to obey orders. But not from you.”
He stalked forward, trying to intimidate me. “Take me to the captain of this ship. He will see reason.”
The ship jerked to the side. The alarms screamed. I pitched into him and we fell to the floor, me on top of him. My cheek pressed up against the ridges of his naked abdomen. A mud-covered crotch was microns away from my nose. He smelled of dirt and greenery, things I hadn’t smelled in years.
My co-pilot’s voice blared over the com. “Captain, we’ve got cats up our ass. Lots of them.”
I got up and ran, my boots thumping up the metal grated stairs to the cockpit. I slid into the pilot’s seat, taking control of the yoke. Safety harnesses clicked while floating screens surrounded me immediately. Across the wall of images, a shower of red dots spread. Each one signaled an individual fighter. In the next forty seconds, the fastest starfighters would be in range.
Red’s voice trembled. “Did they send their entire fleet?” She swore in another language under her breath. Red dots swirled on screen, forming into an enveloping claw-like cloud. Panic sharpened Red’s voice. “Quasar range weapons went live!”
“Holedark!” I cursed.
The Prince’s voice snapped. “They won’t shoot to kill.”
I hadn’t realized he had followed and taken the jump seat in my cockpit. “Sit down and shut up. Your Majesty.” I tapped glowing dots, redirecting the plasma thrusters. “Lasers set to cripple aren’t going to aid in our escape, Prince.” I dodged an initial warning shot. “Red, check the Princess!”
Red sucked in a deep breath and blew it out abruptly. She tapped another screen. “Holding steady. Her stasis capsule should minimize the stress.”
“Dropping the gravity will help, too.” With a swipe at a screen, we were all suddenly weightless.
I glanced at another screen. The hyper jump engines were still charging and there was no way I’d get to the nearest wyrmhole. I’d have to turn and fight the old-fashioned way.
Blood pumped in my veins, a drum of hot anticipation. All my senses shot to hypermode. In the reflection of the window, beyond the floating screens, I saw Red’s fear in her widened pupils.
On another screen, the volley of lasers looked like a veil of shimmering light, homing in on us.
This was what I lived for.
I located the drone-mines Red had dropped and triggered them. Joyful explosions knocked out the forefront of the pursuing squadron. Two fighters streaked towards me. I laughed at their scissor formation, so clearly telegraphing their intentions.
“Fuck you gori-fucking father fuckers!”
The stars spun around us as I shoved my ship to its limits. On screen, we shot for the other fighters, my heart beeping in time with the alerts of an increasing irrevocability of a multi-ship collision course. In the distant background, a beast-like snarl rumbled like thunder. Too much was on the line. I was going to win.
Red’s voice cut into my focus. “CAPTAIN!”
Crashing was inevitable. “Watch and learn, Red!”
The other fighter was a ship’s length away from us when I spun the sh
ip into a corkscrew and dumped the drone mines out our back end.
“Eat shit and DIE!”
Lights flashed, a soundless staccato of rainbow lights. I was immersed immediately in a sea of red light from the screens, signaling more incoming. Above, below, in front, behind. I laughed.
“Again? You want to play? Let’s see if you measure up.”
I glanced at the jump engine screen. Charge was almost there. My stomach flipped. What the fuck was that line of code doing there?
“Red, the jump!”
“Flare, Captain, there’s—”
“Fix it, Red!”
Acceleration smashed me into my seat, sat on my chest, making each breath an act of willpower. Fear splashed my senses. Sweat and ozone tinged the humid air, while the beeps and chimes on the screens resounded in my head. Salt covered my dry lips as sweat streamed down my face. The tigers were crawling all over us, like scapesects on a corpse.
I thought of the people counting on me.
Red, junior pilot, fresh out of flight school.
A Prince and possibly the galactic peace of three empires.
Fuck fear! I would fucking do this.
I deployed decoy drones, each emitting the same frequency and signature as my ship. Unless they had a close visual, the pilots would have to make a choice.
And like felines to rodents, my decoy drones lured some dots away. Which left 54 dance partners remaining. “Aw, so sweet of them to wait,” I said out loud.
“What?” snarled the Prince behind me.
“How’s that jump engine, Red?”
“Almost working! I need about twenty seconds.”
I picked the quadrant closest to the nearest wyrmhole. “It’s yours.” I had the advantage in that I shot to kill while they shot to capture, but they had the numbers. More flashes of light, explosions, shrapnel streaming through space, spinning around, dodging—ha, martial dancers had nothing on me because you can’t keep up with me, you see me but you can’t catch me, nope not yours, or yours I’m fucking free in your face.
“Baby,” I roared, “who’s ready to PLAY?”
The Boy Who Came Back a Wolf Page 4
