by Olivia Arran
I hadn’t even met the woman. Didn’t know who she was. Only that she was a wolf.
I shook my head sharply, sucking in a breath through my mouth.
I hated wolves. Hated all shifters, even myself.
***
Macey
“He’s here,” I murmured, and Cole froze in his position by the door. We’d only gotten here five or so minutes ago, but it had quickly become clear that Jason wasn’t home.
“How do you know?” he hissed, crouching down to take another look at the lock.
He could have easily busted the door down in a split second, but humans tended to look down on little things like that. So, picking the lock it was.
Looks like we didn’t need to break in after all. Dammit, I wasn’t getting to have any fun.
“I can smell him. He’s coming up the stairs.” No sooner than the words had left my mouth, a tall man rounded the corner. Scratch that, an exceptionally tall man, and I wasn’t a shortie either.
I swallowed back a gasp as I took him in, my eyes traveling all the way from his white-blond hair to his black boots. Not only tall, the man was packed with muscle, his t-shirt hugging broad shoulders and stretching across a beautifully wide chest. The kind that made a girl want to weep in thanks. Or throw a party. Or maybe both.
His face was angular, with high cheekbones and wide lips. The kind of face that would look at home on a billboard or gracing a catwalk.
A tapered waist led to a pair of low slung jeans that snugly hugged thick, muscular thighs. My eyes wandered—I couldn’t help it. I was blaming it on the hormones that were, at this precise moment, standing up and shaking their ass. My eyes zeroed in on his crotch and what looked to be a thick, tasty looking—
“Can I help you?” a deep voice enquired, tinged with thinly veiled amusement.
Deep and rumbling, the sound flowed through me, plucking at already tightly strung nerves. What would it be like to have that voice dance over my skin, to hear it calling my name? A groan of surrender, whispering dirty secrets in my ear?
“Uh, yeah. Are you Jason?” Cole’s voice dragged me out of my fantasy and back to the present. He was eyeing me like I’d sprouted a second head, his emerald-green eyes both worried and confused.
“I might be. Who are you?” The man wasn’t talking to Cole, wasn’t even acknowledging him. All of his attention was focused on me.
I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. His scent filled my lungs again, smoky, like a candle that had just been blown out, and vanilla. And coyote. “You’re Jason, the coyote shifter,” I stated, daring him with my eyes to deny it. Pale blue eyes stared back at me.
“The coyote shifter? I’m not sure I understand what you mean. You make it sound like I am someone of importance?” His voice rose in question along with his eyebrows, his slight accent thickening.
He hadn’t denied it. That was progress. “We need to talk to you—”
“You can. He stays outside.” Jason strode to the door and, after inspecting the lock, turned the key. “I’m glad you didn’t break in. It would have been a shame to start our…relationship in such a way.”
Cole gave me a what-the-fuck look as Jason pushed the door open, motioning that I follow him.
“Wait a minute! She’s not going in there alone with you!” Cole spluttered, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at me.
Jason simply nodded and started to close the door, shutting us out.
I slammed my hand against the door, holding it open. “Wait! Cole, it’s fine. I can handle myself, and you’ll be just on the other side.” I pleaded silently with him. We needed Jason, whether we liked it or not.
And I was going to be professional and ignore the fact that my wolf wanted to claw her way out of my skin and jump him. Hell, she’d settle for me jumping him, so long as some skin on skin action happened.
Mine!
I shushed her inside my head. Now was not the time or the place, but she paced back and forth, her claws tapping inside my head.
What was up with her? We were normally in tune, wanting the same thing. The fact that she was going bat-shit-crazy over this coyote—?
Finally, Cole conceded, but he didn’t look happy about it. “If this asswipe tries anything, Macey, you holler, all right?”
Grateful that he was backing down, something that wasn’t easy for a male wolf, especially not one as dominant as Cole, I squeezed his arm. “Sure thing, butthead,” I said, following Jason through the door and letting it click shut behind me.
***
Jason
I watched as the tall blonde woman circled the room, her hands trailing over every available surface, her eyes taking in every detail.
My hands balled into fists as every surface she touched sparked a new fantasy of me bending her over and taking her, covering every square inch of my apartment. When she hovered by the windowsill, I had to stifle a groan, the image of her pressed up against the glass, naked and wet as I pounded into her from behind, riding me hard.
She’s a wolf, remember?
It worked, the lust subsiding to a more manageable level. All I needed to do now was keep her at arm’s length; then maybe I had a chance of keeping control. Of not letting the feral urges control me.
“Macey?” I even liked the sound of her name, my tongue caressing the syllables.
She turned, her blue eyes narrowing at me. A teal blue, I decided. Nothing washed out or weak about this woman.
Her lips had parted, drawing my attention to their fullness. Glossed a shimmery pink, I couldn’t help but think about how they would taste. How she would taste.
Given how she had blatantly perused my body on the landing, I felt it only fair to return the favor. After all, I was only looking. My eyes leisurely moved down her body, pausing to admire her full breasts, admirably showcased by a tight blue t-shirt, then danced over her lush, full curves and down her long, denim clad legs.
Now I desperately wanted her to turn around, just so I could convince myself that the perfectly round derriere that I had glimpsed earlier was a figment of my imagination. That no woman could be this perfect. As a large man, I needed a partner who didn’t disappear under my hands, who I wasn’t scared of breaking. This was a woman who fulfilled my fantasy. Every inch of her.
My cock reared to attention again, thickening and straining inside my jeans.
She dug a slender hand into the front pocket of her jeans, pulling out what looked to be a packet of gum. Popping a pink square into her mouth, she chewed thoughtfully, her eyes never leaving me.
“What is it you want from me?” I asked slowly, monitoring her reaction carefully.
Heat flared in her eyes, just a flicker before she got it under control, but I had seen it. Whatever the hell this lust was that was happening to me, it was happening to her, too.
“We need your help,” she said, then paused, suddenly looking uncomfortable.
“Do you need a drink?” I asked.
She shook her head, her blonde ponytail bouncing.
Visions of wrapping it around my hand while I sank into her body crowded my mind. Her pink lips parted in a perfect ‘o’ as I started to thrust, her back arched, ass thrust high, accepting all of me.
Now I was the one who needed a drink. I busied myself grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, setting one on the counter for her. Twisting the lid off, I took a long swallow.
Her eyes followed the movement of my throat, her tongue darting out, wetting her lip.
It took every ounce of willpower I had not to stride over to her, not to pull her against me and steal a kiss.
Despite myself, I took a step forward, lurching to a stop when I locked my knees in place.
Wolf, dammit!
“Can you please tell me what you want from me?” My voice was a husky growl, reminding me of the animal inside, the animal I didn’t let out to play. The one I ignored, wishing that he’d just disappear and cease to exist.
This wasn’t good. Not good at all
.
“We need your help—”
“You said that. What with?”
“Your old pack.”
I flinched. I couldn’t help it. I had put the past behind me and moved on, but it looked like it was trying to claw me back one last time.
“I don’t have anything to do with them. Or any shifters. I live as a human now.” I didn’t bother to soften the words or the message they delivered. I wasn’t going back there.
Her lips formed that perfect ‘o’, the one straight out of my fantasy.
She pursed her lips. “We need to find Bert; he’s a wolf shifter and we’re pretty sure he’s running the Sunclaw Pack. Problem is, we don’t know where the Sunclaw Pack is—but you do.”
I turned my back to avoid her pleading eyes. “I can’t help you. Sorry,” I added as an afterthought.
“He’s a really bad man and has hurt some of my friends. Even worse, he terrorized a whole pack, and you can bet that’s what he’s doing to Sunclaw, too!”
I spun around, not bothering to hide my anger. “Sunclaw isn’t being terrorized. They are a part of the problem. Don’t you see? They don’t want to be saved!”
She took a step toward me. “Bert hurt my pack. He hurt my friends. He needs to be stopped.”
“You okay in there?” a deep voice filtered through the door.
I shuddered, the feral urge to assert a claim over Macey surging through me. “Don’t let him come in here, not unless you want a fight on your hands,” I murmured, my voice strained, my hands gripping the slick countertop.
She tilted her head, eyeing me carefully, like you would a scared or wounded animal. “Everything is fine, Cole,” she called out, her eyes never leaving mine, before continuing in a lower voice. “Will you help me, please? If you can’t, or just plain won’t, tell me now so I can stop wasting my time. Hell, I don’t even know if you have a clue where they are!” She threw her hands in the air, her whole demeanor sparking with frustration. “You’ve been living as a human for how long?”
“Over twenty years.”
“Fuck!” she hissed, her eyes growing round in shock. She took another step closer, and it was as if the air had been sucked out of the room, her scent surrounding me, clawing at me, pulling me in.
“Don’t—”
“You must shift. I mean, why wouldn’t you? That would be just—”
“I don’t shift. Not anymore.”
Another step closer, then another.
My legs strained with the need to move, my whole body demanding to touch, to feel. A whisper in my mind, so long silent I didn’t recognize it at first.
Mine!
The animal. The coyote, awake again.
CHAPTER THREE
Macey
He was eyeing me like a dog might eye a juicy fillet steak. A dog that had been starved for years, or maybe living on dry kibble.
His eyes that had previously been a pale, icy blue had darkened to a deep violet, flickering and streaking with different hues of purple. I had never seen anything like it; they were mesmerizing in their intensity.
Heat radiated between us, pooling and circling, the current tugging me forward.
“Don’t—” he repeated, his voice hoarse, but it had no strength. It was a lie.
My hand rose, acting as though it had a mind of its own, hovering above his arm in indecision. What was I doing? I needed this man’s help, not his body. I pulled my hand back abruptly, telling myself that I was thankful that I had not made contact, not touched his skin, not felt the strength of his body.
In a whirl of motion, he grabbed me, dragging me against an incredibly hard chest, his lips mashing down on mine, swallowing my gasp of surprise. Towering over me, he tilted me back, strong arms supporting me easily as he moaned into my mouth, his tongue darting out and licking at my lips.
“Yes,” he hissed, deepening the kiss a little further, exploring my mouth with what felt like reverence.
For the first time in my life, I felt small and delicate. My body that I had desperately tried to hone through hours of physical torture, that I had secretly hated for retaining all the soft curves, fit perfectly against his. Molded perfectly. Ached, tingled, burned for him.
I could feel the thick length of him against my stomach, hard and ready for action. Heady lust ricocheted through me, leaving me wet and panting, squirming in his arms, practically begging for him to take me.
“Uh, you still all right in there, Mace?”
I stiffened at the sound of Cole’s voice, the barely contained sarcasm coating his words. Of course, with his shifter hearing, it wasn’t like he couldn’t hear what was going on.
The moans, the gasps. The groan that Jason made when I pulled away.
“You’re my mate!” he muttered, half to himself, his eyes closing in what looked like shock.
Shit! That explained a few things. Like why I felt like I was permanently in heat since laying eyes on him. Why I wanted to wrap my legs around him and ride him until we were both spent. My true mate—a coyote. Well, that was a kicker.
“Probably,” I agreed, taking a step back, putting some distance between us, even though it felt like pure torture.
His hands reached out for me, and I scooted back another step. “Whoa there! Whether we are or not—”
“We are.” His mouth was set in a thin line, his eyes daring me to deny it.
“It doesn’t matter at the moment. I have to finish what I was tasked to do—find the Sunclaw Pack and report back to my Alpha.”
“Let me guess, a local wolf pack, the Alpha of the Colstone Pack?” His words were a sneer.
“Yeah. James Colstone. Do you know him?”
“No. I met his father, though. Briefly.” His face had shut down, his expression impassive.
From steamy hot to ice cold in seconds. Steamy hot Jason had wanted to tear my clothes off. Ice cold Jason showed no emotion, except maybe disgust. The man was messed up! “I heard about that. He gave you a second chance, told you to go back to your pack and carry his warning?”
“And I did. But when I got back, carrying my dead Alpha’s body, I was punished and beaten. You see, I should have died for my Alpha. I shouldn’t have been allowed to live.”
“But…who? Your Alpha—Marcus—was dead!”
“Marcus wasn’t the brains behind the operation. There had always been someone else working in the shadows. I met him that day. The day he killed my family for my disloyalty. Demonstrated to everyone in the pack what was expected of them.”
“Who was it?”
“I don’t know. But I do know he was a wolf. One wolf killed my family, the other killed my Alpha. Both sentenced my family to death.”
“It must have been Bert, even back then.”
“Maybe. It doesn’t matter. Not now.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t matter? You just told me he killed your family!” The man was infuriating! Not thinking straight, I shoved him in the shoulder, just like I would do with any of the packmembers that were pissing me off.
“Don’t push me, little wolf,” he growled, his eyes flashing back to violet, his accent deepening.
I squared up to him, or tried to, given that he was a fucking giant. “Or what? You’ve admitted you don’t shift anymore. That you’ve turned your back on all shifters, on our way of life. Just what are you going to do to me?”
“I could do lots of things to you. Things you would plead me for, beg me not to stop—”
“You are so full of—”
“Do you want me to show you? Right here and now? Because I can. You just need to ask…”
I let out a squeal of frustration, spinning on my heel and stalking away. I was shaking, every inch of me trembling. The problem was, he was right; I was seconds away from begging him to take me back in his arms, to show me exactly what he could do with that huge body of his. To turn me into a puddle of lust, wiping away all duties and responsibilities.
I had thought the day I found my true mate I would be
ecstatic. Not bouncing back and forth between frustration and quick-how-fast-can-I-get-my-clothes-off lust. I also hadn’t counted on him being a coyote, or a loner.
I needed to clear my head. Maybe getting away from him for an hour or so and getting his scent out of my nose would help. I started toward the door, not looking back.
In mere seconds he was in front of me, blocking my path. “Where are you going?”
“Move out of the way,” I growled, flexing my fingers in frustration. He was just too damn close. Too tasty looking.
“I said, where are you going?”
“Out. Away from you.”
“Why?”
“What’s with the twenty questions? You said you didn’t want to help, so now I need to come up with another plan.”
He frowned, and unfortunately for me, it didn’t make him look pig ugly—just the opposite.
“How do you deal with it?” I wondered without thinking, the words flying from my lips.
“With what?” His brow scrunched even further, and I had to mentally strap my hands to my sides to keep from tracing the furrows with my fingers.
“The attention you must get, you know, looking like you do.”
“By ignoring them. That’s the only way. I didn’t ask to look like this, so…unusual. Or so tall.”
“Or big,” I added, just in case he hadn’t looked in the mirror recently. “You could shave your head,” I suggested, hating the idea already. My fingers already itched to stroke through the icy white strands.
“Tried it. Didn’t work. In fact, it made me even more unusual looking.” He sneered the word, as though it was a curse.
“Why do you keep using that word? Unusual.”
“Because that’s what I am. A freak of nature.”
“You’re fucking gorgeous! That’s why people stare!”
Blue eyes blinked at me, no hint of deception or self-deprecation in sight. He really didn’t know.
I poked him in the chest. “Do you own a mirror?”
He nodded, pointing at his chin, then moved his hand in a sweeping motion, mimicking shaving.
