Awakened by the Wolf

by Kristal Hollis

  In bed asleep was not where Brice expected Mason’s former best friend to be on singles’ night. Tristan and Mason were notorious ladies’ men. Brice had assumed Tristan, a resolute bachelor, would be at Taylor’s, carrying on the tradition.

  “Who’s calling?” Tristan sounded more alert, suspicious.

  Brice’s tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. In the past, he wouldn’t have thought twice about asking Tristan for help. Now Brice didn’t know how well Tristan would receive him.

  Reaching Cassie’s car, Brice’s fingers swept the cool hood. Tristan’s threats about what he would do to his prank caller if he caught him assaulted Brice’s ear. He peered into the driver’s window. Empty, the front seat held no clues to Cassie’s whereabouts.

  Peeking in the rear door window, he noticed a swaddled lump in the backseat. Then he saw the ringlets of red hair fanned over the pillow. Tucked beneath a delicate chin, small hands clasped the frayed edges of the comforter. Coppery lashes fringed her porcelain skin.

  Cas! Brice snapped the phone shut. The invisible bands around his torso popped, releasing a tide of relief. Cresting on the waves came the urge to seize, to dominate, to claim.

  “No.” Brice stepped away to avoid ripping the car door off its hinges.

  Animal instinct would not rule him as a man. Massaging the bridge of his nose, he counted. He would count to the world’s population if that’s what it took to regain control.

  Careful not to break the window, Brice knocked his knuckles against the glass. Cassie snuggled deeper beneath her comforter.

  “Cas, wake up!”

  Her eyelids eased open. Slowly she sat up. Sleepy. Sexy. Safe.

  “Brice?” She yawned.

  “Unlock the door, Sunshine.” He waited for the click, yanked open the door. In one swift move, he hauled her from the backseat and pinned her against the car.

  “Stop that!” Fully awake, she shoved him.

  “I thought something happened to you.” Brice nosed her hair, her neck, gulping her scent to calm his frantic heart. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Sleeping.” She squirmed out of his clutches.

  “For God’s sake, why?”

  “You were going to evict me anyway.” She tucked her fists beneath her arms. “The hospital parking lot is safe. It’s easy to sneak through the ER to the employee showers. The cafeteria has decent food. There’s also a nice nook in the waiting area where I can study.”

  “Dammit, Cas.” The blush staining her cheeks reminded him of her fragility regardless of her grit. He softened his tone. “When I said the arrangement doesn’t work for me, I meant that I’m not an old woman who needs a caretaker.”

  “Yeah, I got that.”

  “Just because I don’t need a caretaker doesn’t mean I don’t want your company.”

  “What are you saying?” Hope flashed in her sharp, not-quite-trusting eyes.

  “I don’t want you to leave.” No way in hell was he going through this upheaval again.

  “You aren’t evicting me?” Cassie nibbled her bottom lip. Something he had a sudden hankering to do, too.

  “Hell, no.” He wanted to know where she’d be at all times.

  Instead of jumping for joy or hugging and kissing him in gratitude, as Brice expected, Cassie walked a few steps away. Nervous that she didn’t immediately agree to share the cabin with him, he shuffled the weight on his feet.

  “How much is rent and what are the rules?” she asked, her back to him.

  “No rent. No rules.” He shoved his hands into his pockets so he wouldn’t sling her over his shoulder caveman-style.

  “I don’t take freebies.” Cassie spun around, hands on her hips, shaking her head.

  The sight of those wild curls bouncing against her shoulders triggered another gush of testosterone. He hardened instantly. Primal instinct strained against his restraint to comply with the wolf’s demand to seize and claim. The animal was gaining strength, the mating urge growing stronger. If his wolfan nature took control, Brice wouldn’t be able to stop himself from taking a mate, whether or not Cassie wanted to be claimed.

  Unless you want to frighten her, hurt her, turn her against us and make her hate us...settle the fuck down!

  The restless snarling quieted to a few disgruntled growls. The overwhelming urge throbbing in the forefront of his mind to take everything he could, right here, right now, retreated into the dark recesses of his wolfan consciousness, tempered. But for how long?

  * * *

  “Can we discuss this later?” Brice plowed his fingers through a tumble of hair falling across his forehead. “It’s late and I want to get you home, safe.”

  Cassie more than appreciated Brice’s concern for her welfare. He awed her, actually. Kind, protective, not to mention devilishly handsome—oh, it wouldn’t take much to fall hard for him, and if she didn’t stay on her guard, she’d tumble all the way down Heartbreak Boulevard and land in the trash compactor of the junkyard of shattered dreams.

  “What are your terms? I can cook and clean in lieu of rent. No sex, though. That’s a deal breaker.”

  “God, Cassie.” The planes of Brice’s appalled face sharpened in the glow of the parking lot lights. “How could you think I would expect that from you?”

  “Sometimes my mom slept with men so we’d have a place to live and food.” Cassie didn’t actually believe Brice the type to barter for sex, but better to know now than when he tried to collect payment. “I won’t do it, though. I’d rather sleep in my car.”

  “I’d rather you didn’t.” The deep creases between Brice’s eyebrows softened. “The cabin is your home. For as long as you want it to be.”

  “So, cooking and cleaning it is.” She extended her hand.

  “I don’t need a housekeeper.” Brice lifted her fingers to his cheek. “I don’t need rent. I need to know you’re safe.”

  “I can take care of myself.” Cassie’s typical adamancy waned under the influence of Brice’s wispy breaths against her inner wrist. Her entire body stilled, though not from tension. Her muscles remained loose and pliable as he gently angled her arm slightly upward to rest her hand on his shoulder. He edged slowly into her personal space, testing her temperament toward the invasion.

  “I’m not getting frisky,” he said cautiously. “I need to smell you.”

  Words any woman would want to hear standing next to a wolfman in a deserted parking lot in the middle of the night.

  Cassie nodded. He slowly placed his hands on her hips, lowering his face and skimming her cheek along her jaw. She concentrated on pacing her breaths to avoid sucking up the miniscule amount of air between them in one giant expectant gulp.

  He nosed her earlobe, inching up to the shell. She bit her lip to stifle a gasp at the raspy pants in her ear as he nuzzled her hair.

  His hands remained anchored on her hips. Despite her clothing, she felt every one of his long, tapered fingers burning into her skin. A cozy warmth spread through her body, softening her defenses like heated candle wax. She allowed Brice liberties she’d not given to any other man and wasn’t quite sure why her acquiescence seemed so natural and comfortable in his presence.

  A false sense of security...that’s what he gave her. She shouldn’t linger too long in the mirage. Better she should create her own stability by standing on her own two feet. Preferably when she wasn’t swaying with Brice’s every move.

  “Um, while you sniff, think of something I can barter for rent. I won’t accept something for nothing.” Cassie refused to fall into the trap of relying on other people. In the end, they always disappointed.

  Brice’s heavy sigh gusted her hair. He pulled back slightly to study her. His mouth taut, an infinitesimal twitch on his lips made her think he’d started counting again.

  He seemed to d
o that a lot.

  She watched the slow slide of his Adam’s apple. Standing on her toes, she might be tall enough to chase the lump with her tongue down to the jagged scars lining the base of his throat. Not that she would risk such a behavior. It was simply something to think while Brice decided on her rent.

  “Pies.” He flashed a sinful smile.

  “Huh?” Cassie sank back on her heels after realizing she had rocked forward on her toes.

  “Pies for rent. Sound reasonable?”

  “Seriously?”

  “I never joke about food,” he deadpanned.

  “I suppose you wouldn’t, considering you’re part wolf.” Cassie slumped against the car. On her budget, she would be stupid not to take Brice’s lopsided offer. Coming from anyone else, she would be suspicious. But everyone in town knew Brice’s family had money, so he really didn’t need hers, and she’d heard he was always a man of his word. “Deal. And you already ate my first payment.”

  Brice’s high-wattage smile made his previous one look like a night-light in comparison. “I would ask for a kiss to seal the bargain, but I don’t want to give you the wrong impression.”

  “A hug?” For crying out loud, what the heck was wrong with her? She needed to keep things strictly business with him. Wherever that irrational suggestion had come from, it was too late to retract.

  Brice banded her in his warm, steely arms. Cassie intended to return the hug with a perfunctory pat on his back. Her body had other ideas, finagling as close as possible, welcoming his heat despite the moderate temperature cloying the late-night breeze.

  “Let’s go home, Sunshine.” He stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head.

  An unexpected vibration rippled down her spine, spread into nerves and dropped an electrified jumble at the apex between her thighs, a spot all too eager for the sudden stimulation.

  Yes, yes. Let’s go home. A nice, comfortable bed awaits. And Brice will be in it.

  If Cassie kept thinking those errant thoughts, she’d be better off sleeping in her car.

  So close to outrunning her mother’s bad luck, come hell or high water, or the devil himself, Cassie wouldn’t trip up now.

  Slightly weak-kneed, Cassie keyed the old clunker’s ignition and pulled out of the parking lot. Brice’s truck lights reflected in her rearview mirror.

  Yeah. Come hell or high water or the devil himself.

  Cassie cranked up the radio to drown out the huge raspberry the evil one blew in her ear.

  Chapter 16

  Pillow and comforter packed in her arms, Cassie hesitated at the threshold of Margaret Walker’s bedroom. “Maybe I should stay in the other room. You take this one.”

  Brice’s large frame filled the doorway. “I can’t. It’s wolfan taboo.”

  “I don’t mind taking the couch.” It didn’t feel right to move into Margaret’s room right after her passing.

  “This is your home now. I won’t have you sleeping on the couch. If you don’t want to sleep in this bed, come back to mine.”

  Cassie wouldn’t tempt fate. She inched to the king-size platform bed, studying the intricate forest scenes of wolves carved into the head and footboards. Elaborate designs of ferns and leaves decorated the sides, and the legs anchoring the frame boasted snarling wolf heads, reminiscent of ancient grotesques.

  Such a shame Brice had an aversion toward the exquisite family heirloom. The only legacy Cassie had was bad luck. She prayed not to pass that on to her children.

  “Do you like it?” The rawness in Brice’s voice resonated in her body.

  “It’s—” she searched for the right term “—breathtaking.” Now Cassie understood what art lovers meant when they talked of paintings moving them beyond words. She sensed the echoes of love from those who had rested here.

  “Don’t sell it.” She spun around to find Brice a hairbreadth away.

  His gaze touched her hair long before his fingers did. “I won’t.”

  “What will you do with it?” Cassie asked, though it wasn’t any of her business.

  “The taboo applies to the bedding, not the frame. If I take a mate, I’ll order a new mattress set before I claim her in this bed.”

  From the molten look in Brice’s eyes, Cassie didn’t need to ask what claiming meant.

  “Oh!” Heat swept up her neck into her face and fanned out to the tips of her ears. “Maybe I should make a pallet at the foot of the bed.”

  His deep chuckle made her feel fuzzy and warm.

  “Granny wouldn’t want you to sleep on the floor. Neither do I.” He yanked the bedding off the mattress.

  Cassie’s sheets didn’t fit the oversized mattress, so they used clean linens from the closet to remake the bed. She flapped her worn comforter over the crisp sheet. Brice’s face scrunched in disapproval.

  “What?” She smoothed out the wrinkles, not caring the old comforter didn’t quite stretch to the corners of the bed.

  “Why haven’t you scrapped that raggedy thing?”

  An acidic prickle scalded Cassie’s throat. The faded bedspread had once been an obnoxious patchwork of purple flowers, lime-green swirls, cotton-candy-pink stars, yellow hearts and orange diamonds. While she couldn’t say that she loved the pattern, she adored the comforter. “It’s the only Christmas present my mother ever gave me.”

  She shuffled past Brice. He wouldn’t understand. No one did. People might say she was better off now that Imogene was gone. But the woman was her mother, and Cassie missed her very much.

  * * *

  “Get some rest, Sunshine.” Brice wanted to kiss away the pain distorting Cassie’s pretty face. His inner wolf howled in protest as he backed out of the room. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Every instinct demanded that he hold her, touch her. Soothe her troubles.

  None of which he could do right now and keep a reasonable thought in his head. His cock hurt so badly, any minute the damn thing would explode.

  In the bathroom, he stripped and stood in the shower’s icy water spray. Teeth chattering, he lathered a body wash that hinted of cherry blossoms on his skin. Thanks to Cassie, he was more cognizant of a variety of smells, and the bouts of nausea were lessening.

  She affected him in ways he couldn’t understand. The more he tried to deny the howl of his wolf declaring his mate, the more he became hopelessly entangled.

  Passingly pretty, Cassie’s understated beauty would never drop a man’s jaw like a gussied up she-wolf on the prowl. Her sexiness sprang from steeled inner strength and infuriating stubbornness. And of course her wild splay of red curls that made him instantly hard.

  He shouldn’t imagine those silky ribbons tickling the places he washed, or dwell on how right her softness felt pressed against his body, but the erotic torments wouldn’t cease. Massaging his sack with one hand, he glided his other hand up and down his shaft.

  God, he couldn’t remember a time when he’d desired a woman as fiercely as he craved Cassie. Generally, he was a man of reasonable mind and fortitude, but something about her sucker punched his ability to think clearly. Whenever they were together more than five minutes—no, make that two seconds—he had a hard time focusing on anything other than bedding her.

  It wasn’t a matter of being sex-starved in Atlanta. He’d had his pick of partners, though over the past year, he frequented them less and less until dwindling to one. Victoria.

  He didn’t harbor any special feelings toward her. They were coworkers, putting in long hours at the firm. Sometimes they both needed to blow off steam. And then there were the moon-fucks, driven by the instinct to couple during the full moon, primal and self-preserving.

  Sex. They’d shared nothing more than sex.

  Actually, there wasn’t any sharing involved. He took, she took. They both came away unscath
ed. Until the last full moon.

  He slammed the door on the abhorrent memory, tuning his mind to how good it felt pumping his cock through his fisted hand and how incredible it would feel sliding into a woman’s tight, slick softness. Knowing the woman he wanted was only a dozen steps down the hallway supersensitized him to every thrust.

  He bet she looked tiny and lost tucked in the vastness of such a big, comfortable bed.

  A bed he’d claim his mate in—if he claimed one. An impossible if once he accepted the apprenticeship to the Woelfesenat, since council members were forbidden to claim mates.

  Unbearable need tightened his muscles. Harder and faster, his smooth, steady rhythm spiraled into jerky pumps. Sharp points of electricity pricked every nerve. The vibration awoke and charged every cell. Head to toe, his entire body teetered on the edge of ecstasy and oblivion. The balance tipped. A longing for the woman he couldn’t have threaded through his being, drowning him in hollow release. A milky stream spewed from his tip in short bursts.

  Spent, Brice leaned against the cool tile, trying to block out the urgency in his wolf’s pitiful whine.

  For his and Cassie’s sake, he had to resist the mating urge. Unfortunately, his wolf wouldn’t let him keep his eyes, his hands or his nose away from the trigger.

  He was so screwed.

  Chapter 17

  Brice snagged enough food for two from the resort kitchen. He would have lunch with Cassie whether or not she protested.

  They had a few things to settle.

  Mainly, the sleeping arrangements. Despite what they’d agreed to last night, Cassie had crashed on the couch.

  Well, if she didn’t want to sleep in Granny’s bed, he’d make damn sure Cassie returned to his. He’d endured a fitful night without her, anyway. After only two days of waking next to her, he hated not smelling her first thing in the morning.

  He’d had only one sniff session with her today, after she’d burnt her toast and smoked up the cabin. The acrid odor triggered merciless vomiting. Guilelessly, she’d offered her scent as a remedy, and an unexpected rush of tenderness had driven him to slip behind her and brush aside her curls. Starting at the dimple behind her ear, he nudged along her neck to her shoulder. The perfect place for a mate claim bite.