Passion

by Bonnie Vanak

  She knew everything except his body, and she yearned to explore that as well. Every firm muscle, every hollow and dip of his abdomen, the tensile strength in his long limbs…

  Pausing in drying the dishes, she fanned herself. Jake shot her a puzzled look. “You okay?”

  “Just warm.”

  Warm? More like on fire. She burned with the sensual heat all her kind possessed. Staying in his trailer demanded pure willpower. Each night she fought the urge to go into his bedroom, lift the sheets and slide into bed with him and experience passion for the first time.

  Molly wished he’d share details of what happened to his intended mate. Had he loved deeply, so deeply he didn’t want to get involved again? Each time she’d tried to bring up his past, he shut down. It hurt, because she felt closer to Jake than any other Lupine she’d known.

  When they finished the dishes, he thanked her and then went into his room. When he emerged, she sucked down a deep breath. Tight blue jeans molded to his strong limbs, and a black T-shirt showed off a powerful chest and chiseled biceps. He was pure male beauty and her female parts sat up and paid attention. Arousal bit, hard and sharp.

  Jake’s nostrils flared and she knew he’d scented her desire.

  “I’m headed out. Stay here, keep the doors locked,” he told her.

  “I want to go with you.”

  He gave her a visual caress from head to toe. She shivered with longing beneath the power of that look. Gods, she wanted him badly.

  Her gaze dropped to his groin and the telltale bulge tenting his jeans. He wanted her as well.

  “I need to be alone, Molls. Before I do something I regret.”

  “Like what?”

  With a low growl, he crossed the distance between them, pulled her into his arms. “This.”

  His mouth upon hers was warm and firm, the kiss shattering. He kissed her with purpose and primal passion. Molly opened her mouth beneath his as he lightly clamped his teeth on her lower lip. Moaning, she clung to him, enjoying the deep strokes of his tongue, wondering what it would feel like to have his shaft stroke inside her.

  When he broke the kiss, desire glittered in his gaze. Jake touched her cheek.

  “Stay here.”

  He left.

  But Molly had spent her life doing the right thing. And she wasn’t going to let him walk into a potential threat alone. What if something happened to him? Remembering Gideon’s advice about the salt, she grabbed a container from the cabinet. Jake might need this.

  Outside, she embraced the humid night air. In the yard she found an ATV, keys still in the ignition. She powered it up and drove to the hiking path Jake had mentioned. Molly knew this hiking path, had used it in her solo runs through the woods. It was a good place to shift, because it was overgrown and seldom used by Skins.

  Stepping onto the trail, she followed it, and then picked up Jake’s very strong and very male scent. Molly breathed deep, comforted by the aroma. Setting down the salt, she obeyed her wolf’s instinct and shifted.

  Joy exploded through her. She loved the thrill of the change, loved the sensations flooding her body. She smelled the night air, damp and humid, heard the scuttle of creatures among the trees and bushes. Molly lifted her head, the sensations overwhelming her, her vision sharpening in the darkness as she made out the pine trees and the forest floor in sharp relief. She felt as if someone had shot her full of a drug, making her wild and free.

  And very uninhibited. Molly pawed at the ground, eager to chase after Jake. Sand and dirt flew up beneath her claws.

  Then she took off, racing through the woods, her nose trailing Jake’s strong scent.

  Beneath the lemon wedge moon, the forest glinted like magick. She saw the pine needles waving in the breeze, heard each bend and creak of branches. Molly scented the fear of small creatures sensing the wolf on the prowl, creatures that ran and hid.

  She stopped at a pine tree, drawn to Jake’s scent. He’d marked it. Strong, powerful and commanding. Deep inside, she felt the burning drive to mate.

  Her time had come upon her and this wasn’t going to be pleasant. Molly the woman nearly groaned inside the wolf. To prevent Luke from impregnating her, she’d lied about her cycle. She came into heat tonight, not in three days. In three days she’d no longer be fertile.

  But that meant tonight when she was alone with Jake…

  After following his scent for half a mile, a new, strange scent filled the air as a gust of wind blew from the north. Dark and nasty, tasting of ozone and foulness as rank as raw sewage. Molly shook her head and whined. Wolf wanted to run away from that stench, race far into the pristine woods.

  But Jake was ahead of her. He’d headed straight into the thickness of the stench. She would not abandon him.

  With every ounce of her strength, she forced herself to continue onward, toward the smell of death.

  She came into a small clearing. An abandoned campground, the sandy soil cleared out of scrub and brush to make a place to set tents. Common in Florida, piles of sand peppered the ground—fire ant mounds—indicating no one had cleared this area of pests in a long time. Fire ants. Deep inside, she shuddered. She’d suffered a few stings before, and the bites had burned her skin.

  Molly nosed the ground, sniffing out the stench. It seemed stronger by the pine tree. There was a bit of scorched earth there too, as if burned by fire.

  As she bent her head to sniff the trunk, a whistling sound came from nearby. No wind tonight. Frowning at the scorched mark, she shifted back into Skin and touched the blackness with her fingertips.

  It burned, like acid. And then she felt something move under her.

  She started to run, but a thick black netting shot from underground and covered her body, dragging her downward. A scream died in her throat as she writhed, trying to free herself. No screams. She sensed the evil wanted the screams, wanted to see her burn.

  Lungs heaving, she fought. The more she struggled, the tighter the net drew around her. Maybe if she shifted, she could tear it with her fingers.

  Molly realized the futility. She was trapped. Panting, she struggled, her lungs squeezing out air as she tried not to panic.

  Alone. Out here in the dark, and no one knew she was missing. She could die out here.

  Jake must be nearby. She cried out for him, his name pouring from her lips like a prayer.

  Undergrowth crashed and branches snapped. Jake ran into the clearing. He saw her, swore, and then raced to her side.

  “Hold on, sweetheart. I’ll free you. Stop moving.”

  The utter calmness of his voice quieted her growing panic. Molly lay still as he picked at the netting. He fished out a small pocketknife and sawed at the bonds.

  The blade broke. Jake jammed a hand through his hair.

  “I have a stronger knife in my tool box in the truck. I’ll be right back.”

  “Hurry,” she whimpered, hating her fear, but sensing, knowing something evil had grabbed her and refused to let go.

  It seemed like he took forever. After a few minutes, she heard more rustling sounds in the woods. Molly turned her head and horror squeezed her chest.

  A formless black shadow, about the size of a tall man, came out of the forest. The stench grew stronger and her sensitive nostrils twitched. The thing had an air of pure malevolence, the stench of death.

  Her ears hurt as the shadow released a banshee-like scream and stepped on the fire ant mounds.

  Oh gods. A steady stream of stinging fire ants marched toward her. Not thousands. Millions, all of them provoked and directed by dark magick.

  The black shape cackled and vanished on a gust of sudden wind.

  Fighting the web trapping her on the ground, Molly summoned all her inner magick to try to free herself. It did not work. The ants would cover and sting her. A Lupine could survive many bites, but millions?

  She felt the ants crawl over her bare feet. They began to sting hard and she screamed from the excruciating burn.

  “Hang on!” Jake
trampled over the undergrowth and raced toward her. He stomped on the fire ants, but they kept coming, covering her lower legs now.

  He took the knife and began to saw at the netting. One strand popped free. Another. Molly writhed in agony. Finally he reached in and started to pull her free.

  “Molls, come on girl, please, don’t give up. Fight this with me. You can do it. You’re needed so much.”

  She screamed as the ants covered her knees in a moving, writhing mass of red.

  Grunting, he gripped her hand and pulled, freeing her from the webbing. Soon as she was free, the net vanished, as if it were never there. The fire ants retreated, streaming back to their mounds.

  Moaning, she clutched his hand and raised her head to stare at her legs.

  Hundreds of red welts covered her skin, swelling her legs to balloon-like proportions. So many bites she could not see an inch of healthy skin, nothing but redness.

  With a low curse, he gently picked her up and began to jog through the scrub. Moonlight beamed down upon them. She curled her hands around Jake’s neck, her legs throbbing and on fire.

  Near the roadway, he’d parked his ATV. Still holding her, he climbed on and started up the vehicle.

  At his trailer, he placed her on his bed. “Molls, are you allergic to fire ant bites?”

  Tears streamed down her cheeks. She shook her head.

  He vanished and returned with two ice packs. “This will help with the swelling.”

  As he placed the ice packs on her bare skin, she flinched and then sighed.

  Then he went into the bathroom and emerged with a tube. “Tea tree oil and aloe. My homemade remedy for bites. Don’t shift to wolf. I know you want to, sweetheart, and I know how much it hurts, but this will help with the pain. Let it work on your skin and then you can shift.”

  As he rubbed the mixture over the red bumps on her legs in long, soothing strokes, Molly sighed from the relief.

  Then he wiped his hands on a paper towel, covered her with a thin sheet and stroked her hair.

  “Gods, Molly. I could have lost you.” He sounded broken. Then his gaze glittered. “I told you not to follow me. What the hell were you doing there?”

  “We’re supposed to be a team in this. Together. Strength in unity, remember? I wanted to watch your back.” She rubbed her legs, feeling them itch. He stayed her hand.

  “Let them heal. Tell me what happened?”

  Restless, she plucked at the bed sheet. “I caught wind of a scent, and followed it in wolf form to track better. This net dropped over me, nothing like I’ve ever felt. So evil it was hard to breathe.”

  Fear coursed through her, sliding down her spine and tensing her muscles. Molly squeezed his hand, more to stop her own hand from trembling. “What is this? What’s going on?”

  “Darker magick than anything I’ve ever encountered. I’ve never met anything non-Fae that can command insects like that.” He kissed her forehead. “Try to get some rest.”

  “Don’t leave me,” she told him. “Please.”

  “I’m not leaving you alone for a nanosecond. I’ll stay here, keep watch over you.”

  Jake shifted to wolf form and curled up in a ball upon the bed. Molly closed her eyes, unable to fight the compulsion to shift to wolf.

  She shapeshifted and curled up beside him and slept.

  Three hours later, she woke up. No more pain from the bites. She shifted back into Skin and rolled over. Jake was in Skin as well.

  And awake, studying her. Tenderness touched his expression. “How are you feeling?”

  Flinging back the sheet and baring them, she showed him her naked legs. “The fire ant bites are gone.”

  Then she noticed something else. So were his boxers.

  Jake smiled, and then stared at her legs. “You have gorgeous legs.”

  “So do you,” she murmured.

  Her fascinated gaze traveled over his long, strong limbs, covered with dark, silky hair, then flicked upward to his groin.

  Wow.

  His shaft was huge, thick and veined, and very erect, sprouting from a nest of black curls. Like all male Lupines, it was slightly pointed at the end, but close enough to resembling a human male penis.

  “Molly. I’ve been alone so long.” The husky timbre of his voice stroked over her overly sensitive skin, raising gooseflesh. So sexy and rumbling.

  Her gaze flicked down to his penis, and then upward, at the line of hair marching from his belly button and dipping down to his groin.

  Jake’s mouth quirked upward. “I tried to conjure clothing, but all I could think about is you. And when I think about you, I think about getting naked.”

  How could she even think about sex at a time like this? What was wrong with her?

  “You cold?”

  She bit her lower lip. “Scared. I’ll admit it, Jake. I don’t know what’s going on, and evil, it frightens me. It’s worse than when Willow tried to destroy the swamp. How can we fight this when we don’t even know what it is?”

  Jake pulled the sheet over his lower belly. “Come here. It’s going to be okay.”

  It was wrong of her, knowing her heat was upon her. Wrong of her to remain here, in his bedroom. In his home. She should have run far, far away from the temptation of his scent, his muscled body, the smoldering look in his eyes.

  Her duty was with her family and pack.

  But her heart longed for more, for closeness with Jake, for something deeper and richer, with someone who cared.

  As she joined him, he pulled her into his arms. For a moment they sat together in silence. Then she turned to him.

  “Jake, why are you such a lone wolf? What drove you away from your pack?” She nuzzled his neck and heard him inhale sharply. “Was it losing your intended mate?”

  Jake’s arm tightened around her waist. “Yes. There’s something I need to tell you, sweetheart. It’s about my past and the woman I was engaged to. And how I let her die, and in doing so, nearly caused a war within my pack.”

  Chapter 9

  She’d know the truth, how he’d failed to protect his intended. But deep inside, he longed for connection. Too long he’d lived without pack and walked in loneliness. Molly deserved the truth.

  “I was engaged more than a year ago. Her name was Karlene. She was amazing. I fell hard, fast and deep. Every male in the Mitchell pack who lacked a mate longed to be with her. Except Aiden, that sly bastard. Leader of our pack.” Jake’s mouth twitched in smiling remembrance. “Aiden always harbored feelings for Nikita Blakemore, alpha female of a rival pack. He tried to keep it a secret, but we knew from the way he acted around her.”

  Removing his arm, Jake moved away from Molly, but she laced her fingers through his, refusing to let go. He stared down at their joined hands. Connection. Bonding. Molly was his friend.

  He wanted more than friendship.

  “When Karlene chose me to be her mate, I was ecstatic. And then…” He struggled to form the words, feeling them claw his throat. “I should have been with her every moment, knowing my friend Garth wanted her and wouldn’t let anyone else have her. I left her alone and she went to the cabin. It’s my fault I wasn’t watching over her.”

  He drew in a deep breath. “Garth killed her. I’m certain of it. He’d left a note, warning if he couldn’t have her, no one could. I reached the cabin and it was too late. It’s my fault she died in the flames. After, the entire pack started drawing sides, some with him, some believing me that Garth killed Karlene. That’s why I left. I was the one who was dividing my people in half and I nearly caused a pack war.”

  Molly said nothing. She listened.

  When he finished, he hung his head, relief and deep shame crawling over him. Then she flung her arms around him.

  “It’s easier being alone, isn’t it? Alone, you don’t have to worry about getting hurt again. About wanting someone so badly and then they’re gone in a split second, and you’re left wondering if you could have done something different.”

  Jake
’s chest tightened as she hugged him close, not judging him. The horrid guilt filling him since that awful day lifted a little. Just a little.

  “Karlene was very special to you,” she said quietly. “You loved her.”

  He had lusted after her, had been obsessed. But was that love? He didn’t harbor the feelings for Karlene he had for Molly. Losing Karlene had left him riddled with guilt. The thought of losing Molly left him utterly crushed.

  “I don’t think I loved her,” he finally admitted. “But she was so damn alluring. I wanted her, like a kid wants a new toy in the store window. I couldn’t think of anything else. It felt like she possessed me. And the other males…”

  His voice drifted off as he reflected on the sexual effect Karlene had on the pack.

  “Did she tease them?”

  Anger surfaced and he removed his arm from her waist. “Karlene would never do that.”

  Molly’s mouth twitched in a humorless smile. “I’ve been pack my whole life, Jake. I know how females flaunt their sexuality to get the males stirred up.”

  Jake stared. “Molls, you’re a virgin.”

  As she bit her lower lip, he added, “I can tell. Your scent.”

  “I may be a virgin, but I’m no innocent when it comes to sex, Jake. I’m Lupine. I’ve seen couples in the woods,” a becoming flush tinted her pale cheeks, “and I’ve seen how females attract the males. Some get off on teasing the males until they’re so wild to have them, they’d fight each other to the death. It’s a power trip, a nasty one some females use. I’ve never understood it, but I’ve seen it before.”

  He examined his emotions. Could Karlene have played him? Had Karlene teased other males and then in his anger, Garth snapped? It had been so crazy that day, all the males seeming restless and itching for a fight.

  The tightness in his chest eased as she stroked his hands. He didn’t have feelings for Karlene like he had for Molly. Molly possessed courage, strength and gentle heart. She rescued the raccoon, and Karlene would have laughed and called it a fool’s mission. Or worse, eaten Nessie and her kits.