Sleeping With the Wolf

by Maddy Barone

  She smiled at all the men, and let her eyes linger on Taye. “Thank you. This is wonderful. Thank you all.”

  The men—there were only three of them, not the crowd she had imagined—all smiled happily back. One of them wore a carpenter’s apron around his waist that he was putting tools into. It looked ridiculous, considering he was naked. “We’ll start collecting more wood, Lupa. By the time the snow comes we’ll have enough to keep you warm all winter.”

  This was prairie land. Carla hadn’t seen very many trees when she and Lisa had walked to find help for the … Plane crash survivors! She had been so wrapped up in her own problems that she had forgotten them. “Taye!”

  He came quickly at the urgent note in her voice. “Yes, sweetheart?”

  “The plane! There were other survivors who need help. Oh, God! I forgot all about them. We have to help them!”

  “The plane?” Taye blinked. “You truly fell out of the sky? I thought Ray was only saying that.” Now he shook his head. “Where did you fall, sweetheart?”

  “It was west of here. Me and Lisa walked south for a few hours before we found a road. County Road 30. Then we walked east for almost two days until we got to the farmers.” Carla wanted to say something bitter about the farmers who had sold them to Ray, but suppressed it and went on. “We told them about the plane crash, but they pretty much ignored us. Maybe they went to the plane crash after…”

  Taye shook his head. “I doubt it. The Odessa farmers wouldn’t go so far from their homes. But we’re wolves and we go where we please.” He looked at the men. “Find Des and send him to me.”

  The door opened. “No need to send for me, I’m here, Chief,” said Des. “What’cha need?”

  “Put together a small scouting mission. Take five of the boys and send them out to find the place my mate fell. Sweetheart, can you tell us where you struck Highway 30?”

  “Well, not long after we came to the road we passed through a ghost town. It might have been called Lexington. That was what the sign said.”

  “Find the place and see if there is anyone who needs help,” Taye instructed. “Bring them here.”

  Des slanted a doubtful look at Carla. “If you say so, Chief. Sure.”

  Taye smiled a small sly smile. “Sweetheart, how many females were on the plane?”

  “Grown-ups? I don’t know. Maybe thirty-five? Forty? And a couple kids, I think, and some teenagers.”

  All the men gasped. “Can I go?” the man in the apron whined to Des. “I gotta see that many women in one place. Maybe we can find mates.”

  “But… ” Carla swallowed. “Some of them died in the crash. And some of them are hurt.”

  Des nodded briskly. “Then we need to hurry.”

  “Yeah,” said one of the other men darkly. “We have to find them before somebody else does and steals them from us.”

  “Get some supper,” Des ordered. “And meet me in the rec room in twenty minutes. You three can come, and I’ll get a couple more.”

  As they hurried out Carla called, “Wear clothes unless you want to scare them to death! Gosh,” she said to Taye. “If Lisa and me had found you first we could have gotten help a lot sooner.”

  Taye put his arm around her shoulders. “We’ll do our best to help them. Let’s eat. I’m starved.”

  Carla let him move her over to the table. “Our food must be cold by now. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s all right.” He seated her and paused before going to his chair to brush his fingertips down the arm of her blouse. “I know humans wear clothes in the winter because they’d be cold otherwise, but why do they wear clothes when it’s hot?”

  Carla paused in cutting her steak to stare at him suspiciously. “Are you teasing me?”

  “A little. Wolves prefer to be naked.”

  “I noticed,” she muttered, stuffing a piece of cold steak into her mouth.

  “Does it bother you so much?”

  “I don’t like seeing men I barely know naked. It’s gross.”

  “What about me?” he asked curiously. “You look at me when I’m wearing clothes, but you don’t when I’m not. Why?”

  “Because,” Carla began, feeling the blush roll up her face. “Good lord. How’s your steak? Not too well done, I hope?”

  “It’s perfect. Carla, why? Am I ugly?”

  She set her knife down with a thump. “You know you’re not!”

  “No, I don’t. I’ve never had a mate before, so I didn’t care if women thought I was handsome or ugly. But I care what you think.”

  Carla found herself looking away from him and realized she did this a lot. And she knew why. She just wasn’t sure it was a good idea to tell him that all his hard muscles covered with smooth brown skin made her want to pet him. “You are very handsome,” she said, studying her plate to keep her eyes busy with something besides him. “In my time women would have been all over you. You would have had your pick of the hundreds following you everywhere you went.”

  “Would you have followed me?”

  Carla swallowed more cold steak. “No.” She had too much pride for that, but if he were the friend of a friend or someone she met at the studio she might have tried to let him know she was interested in knowing him better. “Eat up. I slaved over that steak for you.”

  He obeyed, but Carla wondered what he would say next. “Tell me about the plane, sweetheart. What is it like to fly?”

  Carla shrugged. “I don’t know. I flew a lot the past couple years. Some people are afraid of flying. I never was, but I can understand it now.” She fixed her attention on arranging her carrots in neat piles. Even now the memory of the crash made her stomach lurch. “I’ve never been so afraid in my life,” she whispered.

  Taye reached across the table to smooth the back of his knuckles over her cheek. “I’m glad you’re all right.”

  Carla nodded and began eating her supper, hoping her stomach would settle down. Taye watched her and made sure she ate every bite. He ate everything on his plate before gathering their empty plates on to the tray and putting them out in the hall. Just like last night, he leaned on the door and looked at her. Was that only last night? Twenty-four hours ago she had been terrified he would rape her. How could she have changed her mind so fast?

  “How are you feeling?” she blurted.

  He looked down and passed a hand over his flat belly, probing cautiously at the wound there. “Still pretty sore. The sleep helped, but not enough so I can make love to you tonight.”

  “Oh, goo—I mean, we need to be careful.”

  He looked disappointed. “You know I won’t force you, right?”

  “Yes.” And she did. He wouldn’t need to anyway. This morning Pete had opened her eyes to what kind of mate she could have had. And Taye was trying to make her happy. Or at least comfortable. She could bear it. Maybe even enjoy it. Someday. “Do you mind if I pull my chair in front of the stove?”

  “I’ll do it.”

  “You’re hurt. I’ll do it.”

  “You’re awfully stubborn, mate,” he observed, pulling his own chair next to hers in front of the stove.

  She plopped down. “It came in handy while building a music career,” she huffed.

  “You sang and played music to earn money?” Taye guessed.

  “Yes, and I was getting pretty popular at it too. I was in Minneapolis for a show, and then I got on the plane to go to Denver to sing for a crowd of fifty thousand people. That’s where I was going when … I guess my career is over now.”

  *

  Career was like a foreign word to Taye. Men did what they could these days. Their wives and families helped them. Farmers grew the grain that Dane Overdahl’s mill ground into flour. Other farmers raised milk cows and made cheese and butter for trade. Ranchers raised cattle for meat and sheep for wool and horses for riding and pulling wagons. The mill west of town bought wool fleeces and spun the wool into thread to weave fabric for clothing and other needs. He and his pack hunted meat and tanned hides tha
t they traded for what they needed. A couple of times a year the traveling traders came through Kearney to sell outrageously expensive goods that couldn’t be locally produced. Boats came up the Platte River to sell things too. They also passed along news, carried mail, and sometimes allowed other travelers to join them for protection. Some of the traders also told stories and performed music, and the listeners would thank them by buying meals and providing places for them to sleep. It was hard to imagine a woman going from place to place to sing, especially one who didn’t have a husband and family to protect her. How could she keep herself safe? The Times Before were as strange to him as the world of a science fiction novel would be to her.

  She looked very sad right now, almost tearful. He couldn’t bear that, so he reached and gripped her hand. “Sweetheart, you never answered me. Do you think I’m ugly?”

  She squirmed in her chair but didn’t jerk her hand away. “No. I said you are handsome.”

  “Did I frighten you when I kissed you?”

  “No.”

  “But you were sorry. You said so.”

  Her eyes flashed over to his face for a moment before dropping again. “I was sorry. I am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. It was an accident.”

  “Sweetheart, what are you talking about?”

  Taye held his breath when she looked at him again. Her eyes gleamed with tears. She was so beautiful. He reached his free hand to touch her cheek where the tear would fall. He waited for it, but she tilted her head up and blinked, somehow managing to force the tears back. Awfully stubborn. He found he admired stubborn women.

  “When I grabbed your shoulder. When we were kissing. I grabbed you where you were injured by Pete. I hurt you. But I didn’t mean to.”

  “That?” Taye smothered a relieved laugh. “That barely hurt at all. It’s a good thing it happened, though.”

  Now she did jerk her hand away, and he let her.

  “Sweetheart, I was ready to forget that I promised to not force you. Another minute and I would have … I would have… ” He flicked his fingers at her blouse. “Those are the only clothes you have, right? Well, another minute of kissing you, and they would have been rags because I wouldn’t have been too careful taking them off you.”

  Her mouth and eyes were wide. Her hands clenched around the edges of her blouse, holding them together as if he was about to tear it off her right now. “Taye, don’t you dare wreck my clothes!”

  Excitement was driving his blood frantically through him, and he wasn’t even touching her! She was challenging him, and his nature demanded he dominate her. In an effort to calm himself he smiled teasingly. “You humans are entirely too attached to your clothes. I’ll get you more.”

  “Good,” she said sharply. “These are getting rank. I’ve got dried blood on them. And this is the second day straight I’ve worn these pantie—these clothes. I need to wash them.”

  “Every time I tear something I’ll replace it,” he promised with a grin. “What’s a pantie?”

  Carla glared. “Very funny! As if you don’t know.”

  Taye shrugged his one uninjured shoulder. He really didn’t know. Clothes weren’t important to wolves, and women’s clothes were just plain foreign. From her reaction a pantie must be an intimate garment. He examined her with interest, wondering what she wore under the blouse and jeans. She released her grip on her blouse, and the glare softened, but only slightly.

  “Honestly, Taye, I can’t wear the same clothes every day.”

  “I have a couple T-shirts and more pants,” he offered. “But now that we have the stove, isn’t warm enough for—”

  “No!” she shouted. “Good lord, Taye, you’re making me crazy!”

  He wondered what the Pack thought of her shout. “Sweetheart, I can hear you just fine. You can wash your clothes in the bathtub tonight and wrap up in the blanket while your clothes dry.”

  “It will take longer than a couple hours for my clothes to dry. It would be better for me to have a couple changes of clothes,” she pointed out more calmly.

  “All right. I’ll send some of the boys to pick up a few things for you.”

  Her eyes were disbelieving. “If you think I’ll let some strange guys—wolves—pick out my clothes—” She snorted. “Uh-uh. No way.”

  “All right,” he said again, mildly. “In a few days when I’m feeling better we’ll go into Kearney and get you some things. For tonight, if you insist on wearing clothes to bed, you can wear one of my T-shirts and a pair of shorts. But under the covers you’ll be warm. You won’t need clothes.”

  “Taye.” Somehow she turned his name into three agonized syllables. He liked it. “I’m not ready for that yet, okay? I need to wear something to bed. So do you. Please.”

  He slanted a feral smile at her. “Not yet? But someday?”

  She sighed, looking torn between fear and embarrassment. “Do I really have a choice? I mean, I know you said you would wait ’til I’m ready—”

  “I will wait,” he cut her off, his voice emphatic. “I won’t force you.” His voice dropped into a wolf’s growl. “But I’ll do what I can to tempt you. I won’t hurt you. Ever. You’re my mate. I want you to scream my name when I’m inside you. With pleasure, not hate, not pain.”

  She stared, helplessly transfixed by the way his eyes shimmered wolf-gold as they caressed her. “Oh,” she breathed. She tingled between her legs, and she saw his nostrils flare as he inhaled. Boy, did she need a clean pair of panties. And a cold shower.

  “Sweetheart,” he groaned. His hands clenched the arms of his chair, knuckles showing white. ”I love the way you smell. I’m not well enough to do much, but I want to taste you. Slip off your pants. Let me touch you.”

  Carla tried to control her breathing. He was tempting, and she was aroused by just his words. He hadn’t even touched her and she was wet. “No, Taye. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “I’m hurting now.”

  “I don’t think touching me will make you hurt less. Maybe a cold shower will help.”

  He leaned his head back with his eyes clenched shut. “Please, sweetheart. Please. Let me touch you. I’ll stop when you want.”

  The Alpha who killed men and commanded a pack of werewolves sounded just like a high school boy trying to sweet talk his date into the back of his pickup. She hesitantly undid her belt buckle. She was stuck here in this future world, and she belonged to Taye. So far he had treated her as well as he could. It was inevitable that they would have sex someday. Wasn’t it better to ease into it? A little kissing here, a little petting there, before having full-out sex?

  She undid the button of her jeans and slid a look at Taye. His head still leaned back against his chair, but his eyes watched her fingers hungrily.

  “Don’t look!” she said involuntarily.

  He closed his eyes. “Come here, then, so I can feel you.”

  When Carla stood up and turned so she was facing him, his arm snaked out and looped around her waist. He kept his eyes closed when he dragged her closer. She had to stand so his knee was between her legs. Her breasts were just at the level of his face. His free hand came up to caress them through her shirt. With his arm around her waist he made her sit on his knee. He inhaled gently against her throat and groaned.

  “Don’t hurt yourself,” she said sharply.

  His eyes burned into hers. “I feel no pain. Take off your shirt.”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t want you to look at me.”

  “Only the Lupa can deny the Alpha and get away with it.” Taye made a production of closing his eyes. “I’ll let you get away with it if you will let me touch you where ever I want.”

  Carla thought about it. “Okay.”

  “Stand up,” he ordered huskily. When she had obeyed his hands stroked over her breasts and down to her thighs, then searched for her zipper. He pulled it down and his fingers wandered over the elastic of her panties’ waistband. The muscles in her lower belly cle
nched in anticipation, but he moved back up, sliding his hands under her blouse to cup her breasts through her bra.

  “Kiss me, mate,” he murmured.

  She did, leaning over and putting her hands on the arms of his chair to brace herself away from his wounds. Somewhere in the middle of his hot, drugging kisses his hands left her breasts and slid inside her jeans. He petted the silk of her panties and learned the shape of her hips and mound. She felt like a new frontier that he was exploring in excruciating detail. She shoved her jeans down her hips to give his large hands more room. His hand moved purposefully into her panties, navigating through soft pubic hair to her slit. He stroked and petted while she bit her lip to control her breathing.

  “You’re wet.” His growl sounded delighted. “You want me.”

  For answer she pushed her jeans further down and raised one knee to prop her foot on the edge of his chair. “Keep your eyes closed,” she commanded.

  “They’re closed, sweetheart, but I don’t like orders. Remember that.”

  “Whatever,” she said impatiently, wiggling her hips so one of his fingers slipped a fraction of an inch inside her. “Oh!”

  Taye sniffed audibly. “You like that. You want more?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  He pushed one finger deep inside her, then took his fingers away to slide one in his mouth. “I like the way you taste.”

  “Are you going to just tease me?”

  “No, sweetheart, I’m going to give you everything you want. Hold onto my shoulder and let me know what you like.”

  She liked everything he did to her. Each time his finger went deep the heel of his hand brushed over her clitoris. She gripped his uninjured shoulder hard and urged him on with little gasps until her orgasm flooded her. Her legs turned to rubber and she collapsed on to his knee with her forehead pressed to his chest. As her pleasure waned, her embarrassment grew. Taye removed his hand from between her legs and licked his finger clean.

  “Sweetheart, are you all right?”