Embrace the Night

by Crystal Jordan

  “Yes, that’s fine.”

  When he didn’t push her for more answers about what could make an adult woman so scared of the dark, the tension leeched out of her muscles. She swallowed, and he could almost feel her groping for something else to talk about. “I was thinking . . . before you came into the living room . . .”

  “You know, you think too much, Doctor.” He kissed her to take any sting out of the words.

  Humming against his lips, she broke away after a long moment. “No, I mean . . . The full moon’s in a couple of days. We need to get Alex somewhere safe.”

  Somewhere safe for him to shift. Somewhere it would be unlikely that anyone would look for him at full moon, when werewolves were forced to change shape. The process was grotesque, and Merek couldn’t imagine it was anything less than torturous. He’d watched wolves shift before when they were trying to evade capture. The sound of every bone in the body breaking in rapid succession was one he’d never forget. A shudder racked him. He swallowed to rid his mouth of the faint taint of bile. These were not the kind of thoughts he wanted to be having after a mattress session with Chloe. He sighed and stroked his fingers down her hip again, but his mind refused to shut down.

  Full moon was going to be a problem, Chloe was right about that. Depending on how long this job lasted, he would have to deal with this every month.

  Shifting was what wolves did, and he wasn’t sure what exactly it was about full moon shifts that made them more dangerous, but a lot of wolves died that way. Maybe it was that they were compelled and so weren’t totally in control of the Change. Maybe it was the added stress on top of an already dangerous situation. It didn’t really matter, other than how it affected Alex.

  Merek sighed, burying his nose into the soft hair at Chloe’s temple. “There’s a couple of places up in eastern Oregon, remote campgrounds, that would be good.”

  Nodding, she turned her head for a full kiss. “Places where no one can tell the difference between the werewolves howling and the real wolves?”

  “Yeah, and run by Magickals who wouldn’t think anything of a little howling at that time of the month.” He obliged her, letting his lips play over hers.

  “Okay.” She pulled away, then came back for another round. “How long will it take us to get there?”

  “We can be there before nightfall if we hit the road first thing in the morning.”

  “Okay, sounds good.” The lines of worry eased from her face. She yawned and snuggled into him, her eyes blinking slowly. “I’ll be good to go as soon as I get coffee.”

  “Can you sleep now?”

  “Yes, thank you, Detective.” She pinched his side, but he felt the silent laugh that shook her chest. “If I’m lucky, Alex will be up first and have coffee ready. He’s a good kid like that.”

  Yeah, he was a good kid like that. The wolf had treated Merek with courteous caution from the beginning, and nothing had changed. If Alex had a problem with Merek and Chloe’s relationship, he hadn’t said anything. Then again, the teen didn’t say much anyway. He just watched and waited for Merek to fuck something up—his distrust of adult males was plain to see, and from what little Chloe had said about Ivan Nemov, the kid had a right to his misgivings. There was nothing Merek could do about that, so he just went about his business with Chloe and keeping them all safe and treated the kid with the same tolerance and cool civility that he received. Whether or not that was the best approach to take, he had no idea, but he did know he wasn’t about to give up the pleasure of being with Chloe.

  He smiled when she cuddled closer, sighing in soft contentment. Smoothing her inky hair back, he let himself relax, let his thoughts drift where they would. They’d made it out of Seattle without incident, and the few days since had been spent in placid normalcy, but his shoulder blades still twitched. They weren’t out of danger. Even as he understood that, he cursed his inability to know what danger was coming. He’d never had to fly blind during a case before—even a case that was off the record. It was disconcerting as hell, and he didn’t like it, but there was no putting the brakes on this runaway train. He’d chosen to contact Millie, and Chloe had willingly gone along with their plans without a single complaint.

  She trusted him whether she wanted to admit it or not. She would trust him enough to tell him about her fear of the night someday.

  Why that was so vital to him, he didn’t know, but it was. He wanted her trust as much as he wanted the woman herself. She’d gotten under his skin that first night, and every moment that had passed since he’d seen her again had only sharpened the addiction.

  It also sharpened the urgency of keeping her safe. Her and Alex. Despite the constant cold shoulder, he liked the kid, thought he’d handled the upheavals to his life with a maturity people three times his age couldn’t manage.

  Merek had a feeling if anything happened to either of them, he’d never forgive himself. A huge, gaping hole would be ripped into his heart, and he doubted he’d ever really recover. They’d become that important to him, that quickly.

  He swallowed, and Chloe gave a sleepy murmur, burrowing deeper into his chest. Her lips brushed his skin when she spoke. “Sleep now, remember?”

  “Yeah. Sleep now.” He pulled in a breath, smelled the sweetness of her skin, and felt something loosen inside him, a constriction that had been there for so many years, he didn’t recall his life without it.

  Letting out the breath on a shaky sigh, he squeezed his eyes closed. He expected to stay awake, working things over, his mind obsessed with the problems presented to it, but it didn’t happen. Drowsiness swept over him, dragging him under. It wasn’t like him to ever unwind, but when had he acted like himself since Hurricane Chloe had swept back into his life? A smile touched his mouth, and he went to sleep with it still on his face.

  7

  The sun was just beginning to set when they made it to the lakeside campground. The elf who ran the place was delighted to rent them the last site he had. Chloe had handled most of that transaction because Merek had given the elf the oddest look imaginable. She had a feeling her warlock had seen something ugly in the elf’s future, and Chloe was very sure she did not want to know what it was.

  She sighed and shoved her hair out of her face. When Merek said they were headed for the ass end of nowhere, the man wasn’t kidding. They were sleeping in an honest to goodness tepee. She was clearly in an alternate reality. The real her was back in Seattle sipping a latte with Tess, lamenting a recent run-in at work with That Jackass Damien. The real her was not trying to wrestle her familiar into said tepee, while Merek and Alex did very little to smother their guffaws as they did something manly with red meat over open flames.

  “Come on, Ophelia.” The cat hissed and took a swipe at her with claws bared. Chloe managed to get out of the way. This time. She had several long scratches down both forearms. “The other option is sleeping alone in an SUV. I can’t let you run around in the wilderness. There are bears and real wolves and things. This isn’t Seattle, baby. We are not in Kansas anymore.”

  With a graceful sideways leap, Ophelia made a dive for the tepee’s exit. A quick spell blasted from Chloe’s fingers in a beam that she hoped looked like a flashlight to any Normal who might be camping along this lake. The familiar shot backward and whipped around to snarl at Chloe, her fur standing on end.

  “I know this isn’t any fun, baby,” she crooned, holding out a placating hand and praying she didn’t get it torn to shreds. If anyone understood her familiar’s hatred of the isolated wilderness, it was Chloe. She wanted civilization back as much as her cat did. “Next time, we’ll have a real house with a real kitchen, and we’ll stay in a real town with a real grocery store to buy you gourmet kitty food. I promise.”

  Ophelia growled, her tail thrashing, but her fur settled into a smooth layer again.

  “A real litter box, too. I’ll even make Merek clean it for you while you watch.” The cat had taken an instant liking to Merek, which Chloe could neither explain nor j
ustify, but she was too grateful to care. She didn’t want to think about how difficult this trip would be if Ophelia had disliked anyone in their party.

  “Gee, thanks. Throw me under the bus.” Merek’s deep voice preceded him into the tepee as he crawled through the opening. He held an unopened can of cat food in one hand. Sitting cross-legged on one of the single-sized futon mattresses ringing the inside of the tepee, he cracked the lid on the can and held it enticingly toward Ophelia. “Come here, sugar. Don’t let roughing it upset you. It’s only temporary.”

  The familiar sniffed, her tail still snapping in irritated little jerks. After a few tense moments, she relented, gliding over to Merek and climbing onto his lap where she allowed him to hold the can for her to eat out of. He rolled his eyes, but gamely kneaded his big hand down the Siamese’s narrow back until she closed her eyes in ecstasy and purred.

  Chloe’s heart squeezed at how good he’d been with her familiar. And her. And her godson. He’d been amazing about everything. She never would have suspected someone who liked to be in control as much as he did could be so . . . tolerant. Kind. Sweet.

  She also stared at her familiar in blatant jealousy. Who would have thought that would ever happen? But she’d love to climb in Merek’s lap and have him slide his hands all over her. If this business with being on the run was ever over, she was locking herself up with the man for a week straight until she burned him out of her system. This level of intensity and craving just couldn’t go on this way. She’d go crazy.

  Licking her lips, she looked up to find Merek’s heated gaze moving over her face. A wicked knowing reflected in his eyes. “I want you, too.”

  Her breath froze in her lungs, her heart slamming against her ribcage. Need fisted deep inside her, tightening some muscles, loosening others, and she was damp and ready for sex in seconds. Sucking in a lungful of air, she forced herself to look away from him. “There’s no walls in this thing, no doors we can close. Alex—”

  “I know.” He sighed, lifted a sleeping Ophelia off his legs, and set her on the mattress beside him. “That doesn’t mean I don’t want you. It doesn’t mean I won’t be lying in my sleeping bag, thinking about you, and wishing I had you under me.”

  She closed her eyes and willed that mental image not to form. No such luck. She could too easily imagine herself stripped and spread beneath him while his cock filled her until she screamed because it felt so fucking good. A shiver ripped through her, and her nipples tightened to the point of pain. She grabbed a jacket from her suitcase and jerked it on to cover her breasts.

  Merek chuckled as he watched her, but she refused to look at him or she knew she’d jump him. Then they’d see who was under whom. Luckily for her self-restraint, Alex called from outside the tepee. “Hey, you two. Dinner’s done. Hurry up before the bugs get it.”

  She winced. “Fighting off Godzilla-sized insects for my food. Ah, the glamorous life.”

  A snort was Merek’s only response before he crawled out of the opening, stood, then turned to help her to her feet as she crab-walked through. She looked out across the gorgeous lake, at the sheer red rock cliffs that dropped straight to the water’s edge on the far side of the lake. She drew in a deep breath of cold, clean air. The last rays of the sun shimmered across the cliffs and made the waves glitter. “Well, it’s pretty, even if we have to fight for our food.”

  He grinned, looped an arm around her neck, and reeled her in to pop a kiss on her forehead. Gods, it felt good to have a man touch her, not just for sex, but with the little affectionate gestures, the private glances and smiles that spoke of secrets only they knew. It was something she’d never let anyone close enough to enjoy before—even the years with Damien had never been more than a good professional relationship with hot sex on the side. This thing with Merek scared her, but it felt too good to stop. The sex was one thing, but this was something entirely different. Something vastly more intimate. Caring.

  Terrifying.

  Her heart rate kicked up a notch, and a twist of anxiety tightened her insides. She swallowed, and managed a weak smile for Alex. They all took seats around the picnic table, and Merek and Chloe pointedly did not mention the fact that Alex’s hamburger was rare to the point of raw. The moon flickered in the darkening sky, and a silent Alex stared at it, his eyes gleaming with untamed wildness as a shudder went through him.

  “We’ll be staying here for a few days, until full moon passes, then I think we’ll head further inland.” Merek, being Merek, didn’t skirt around the issue that was on everyone’s mind. “We’ll find some place similar to this next month. If there’s anything more than this you need, let us know, and we’ll make sure you get it.”

  “Thanks. I will.” Alex’s chin dipped in a nod, polite, but not trusting. He unbent enough to meet Merek’s gaze. “This should be fine, though. Just . . . a place to run that’s isolated enough that I won’t get into too much trouble.”

  “Yeah. Not a lot of Normals around here. I asked.” The warlock shrugged, crunching on a potato chip.

  “That’s helpful, actually. If we can stay somewhere away from Normals next time, too, that would be best.” A faint smile touched the werewolf’s lips. “I can’t stop the Change, but I can keep from rampaging and biting anyone. It’s not easy, but I can do it. Fewer Normals to tempt me is . . . better.”

  Merek gave an easy nod, totally accepting of the wolf’s nature, which made Alex relax in his seat. “I’ll make sure we have appropriate accommodations for you.” A grin crinkled the corners of his gray eyes. “Though you may have to explain the situation to Ophelia.”

  Alex barked out a laugh. His gaze slid to Chloe. “Did she scratch you up too badly?”

  She held up her arms to show the long scratches. “Not too badly considering how pissed she was, but she did get me a couple of times.”

  Merek frowned, grabbed her wrists, and bent his head to inspect the damage. He glanced at the lantern burning on the edge of the table, and it glowed brighter. Far brighter than a lantern could actually glow. The flames dancing in the fire pit roared higher, casting their light across the table and Chloe’s arms. Alex made a small, impressed noise in the back of his throat, but he, too, leaned forward to get a good look at the scratches.

  Warmth spread from Merek’s callused fingertips in waves as he stroked over the scraped flesh. His touch was barely there, the delicate brush of a butterfly’s wings, but the heat of his skin, the power of his magic, burrowed deep inside her. Goose bumps spread up her arms and down her body until she shivered. She closed her eyes and swallowed, trying to keep the incessant longing at bay.

  “Am I hurting you?” His voice was low, but the anxious edge to the words made her eyes fly open.

  “No, you’re not hurting me,” she whispered. In fact, the ache in her arms had faded to nothing. When she glanced down the scratches were gone, healed by his spell.

  That was sweet. Alex’s voice echoed in her mind, and he leaned further over the table to get a better look. He narrowed his gaze, and she could almost feel the sweep of his lupine senses moving over her, checking her injuries. Gone. I didn’t know anyone who wasn’t a Magickal doctor could heal like that.

  “I can’t do anything fancy, but cops have to have first aid training.” Merek’s gaze sharpened on Alex’s face. “Your fangs are showing.”

  He winced, pushing to his feet. “I’m going to go Change in the tepee. It . . . makes it easier to stay in control at full moon if you make a regular habit of shifting a couple of days before.”

  Putting action into words, he strode away, and a few moments later, Chloe tensed at the distinct and horrifying sound of every bone in the human body snapping and reforming into a new shape. Her stomach heaved a bit, and she clamped a hand over her mouth. Merek rubbed a hand up and down her arm. “I hate that noise, too.”

  “You never really get used to it, do you?” She pitched her voice low, hoping Alex was too involved in his shift to eavesdrop.

  Merek shrugged, again wit
h that quiet acceptance. “If you’re a wolf, I imagine you do. Or if you spend enough time around wolves, but I haven’t, so no.”

  Alex, now in full wolf form, shot from the tepee, shaking from head to tail. He froze when he came into the moonlight, his gaze lifting to the heavy orb. His chest expanded in a deep breath, and then he threw his head back, and let loose a long, keening howl. It was answered from several different directions. Chloe’s eyebrows arched. Real wolves or other werewolves? She couldn’t tell, but she’d bet a werewolf could.

  Alex loped over, his long body lithe, his fur as dark as his human hair, but shaded with lighter brown and tawny. Chloe reached out to scratch behind his ears. He closed his pale eyes and leaned trustingly into her touch. She stroked the rough silk of his coat and bent forward to drop a kiss on his muzzle.

  “Did you freak out Ophelia?”

  His tongue lolled out in a wolfish grin. No, she’s asleep. The fur would have flown otherwise.

  “Your fur, not hers, I bet.” Chloe looked down her nose at him. “My familiar is feisty.”

  He snorted, then froze, every muscle in the wolf’s body going on alert as he stared at a copse of trees beyond their campsite. Chloe and Merek turned in unison to follow his line of sight.

  A slim young wolf slipped from the underbrush, staring at Alex, eyes gleaming in the moonlight. He glanced back at them, instinct warring with caution as his body shuddered. I know it isn’t smart, but I sense no deception from her. She’s just another werewolf here for full moon.

  Merek closed his eyes and swore softly. “Be careful. Don’t run too far.”

  I’ll be back in a few hours. With that final thought, Alex spun on his haunches and launched himself into the trees. The bushes rustled slightly as he passed, but soon there was nothing to indicate the wolves had ever been there.

  Chloe bit her lower lip, the darkness closing in around her as her godson disappeared. Too many worries warred for dominance inside her, and she swallowed.