He sat up, the need to be near her and the baby growing in her womb exploding inside his gut and propelling him toward the door to go after her, even though he had no idea where she was.
Yet when he ripped open the front door, he found her right there, on the cabin’s wrap-around porch staring out into the forest. She was dressed in a long, black skirt and a long-sleeved ballet top—also black. But her hair, it was still down, its stretched out curls catching the rays of the rising sun so light haloed around it. She looked like an angel.
Tu turned to him with a smile and he could see she held a cup of tea in her hands. “Good morning,” she said inside his head.
Grady covered his heart with his hand. God, would he ever get used to the sound of her voice in his head, sexy and melodic with a quality to it that made him think of smoke? He didn’t think so and he didn’t see himself ever taking for granted the gift she’d given him when she’d forced him to claim her against his better intentions.
“Good morning,” he pushed back into her head. Casual, like he hadn’t just run out of the house in a panic.
“I was thinking we should probably get on the road. I’m starving and we’ve pretty much gone through all our provisions.”
Grady’s stomach grumbled, having been reminded of how poorly he’d eaten over the last few days. The four sandwiches she’d made him were long gone, and he knew he could do something to a whole stack of pancakes.
“All right,” he said. “But… where are we getting on the road to?”
Tu took another sip of her tea. “You’re the King of Oklahoma, so I guess we should go back to your place.”
And just like that, the good cheer that had come with the thought of eating breakfast went and died.
“My place… it’s not what you’re used to. I mean, my old sheriff’s house is nicer than the Oklahoma kingdom house. Not sure if you remember it, since you were....” He trailed off, trusting she’d know he was referring to the fact that she’d stumbled into the house with Luke, already drunk and reeking of marijuana, on Thanksgiving morning and had been more or less drunk, high, or drunk and high the rest of her time there.
Her eyes darkened. “I remember it.” She looked off into the brand new day. “Maybe if we go now, we can make it there before sunset.”
“Sure, sure,” he said, happy to get off the subject of the last time she’d been to Oklahoma. “Let’s go.”
She smiled. “Might want to put some clothes on first, Wolf, and maybe get rid of that shackle.”
He looked down at himself. Sure enough he was still naked. Also still connected to part of the stone he’d pulled out of the wall. Weird. Apparently being in Tu’s presence made him forget all about the cold or anything else that might be weighing him down. She still had that effect on him.
And then something even more embarrassing happened. After crying like a baby when he heard her voice inside his head for the first time, after going beast on her the night before, after tearing out of the house buck naked into the freezing cold because he’d been so sure she’d run away again—after all of that, his manhood had the nerve to swell between his legs. And not just a little bit, but to its full, rigid length, so she’d have no possible doubt what he was thinking about right now as he stood before her.
Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open with surprise.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“It’s okay.”
“No, I know I’ve got no right after last night.”
“No, it’s not that, it’s just that I’m surprised. Surprised you would still want me like that after my heat has passed, considering I’m…”
She stopped, trailing off.
But Grady pressed her to finish, sensing the rest was something he should hear. “Considering you’re what?”
“You know.”
“No, I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you, because I want to know why you’d think I wouldn’t want you after your heat passed.”
Tu looked away.
“Remember what we said last night?” he asked her. “About talking to each other?”
Her answer finally came, soft as a whisper. “Because I’m ruined.”
Her words hit him like a snowball to the chest, cold and shocking.
“Who called you that?”
Tu shook her head.
“No, Tu, tell me. I want to know.”
“Why? It doesn’t matter.”
“You’re my mate now and somebody’s been saying cruel shit to you. I say it sure as hell matters. Tell me who said that to you so I can go find him and punch him in the nuts.”
He could feel the cold now, unforgiving and biting, but he’d be damned if he moved from that porch before he got his answer. And maybe Tu understood that, because she finally said, “Wolf down, dude. My mom doesn’t have nuts.”
This time the snowball hit him in the gut and as it turned out, it wasn’t really a snowball, but a rock disguised to look like one. No, Tu was right, he couldn’t punch her mother in the nuts, but damn if he didn’t wish she had a pair so he could.
“You’re mother is wrong,” he said. “You’re not ruined.”
A pained expression came over her face, like she knew the truth and he was just too naïve to accept it.
“You’re not ruined,” he said again. “Ruined is when you’re so far gone, nothing and nobody is going to be able to bring you back.” He thought of Luke’s mother during the last months. Stumbling around in a permanent mumble, track marks all up and down her pencil thin arms, no trace of the beauty she’d been when his father had first mated her.
“I’ve seen ruined and you’re not even near there. Your mom’s a fool for saying that to you. You’re not ruined.”
Her hand was clasped around her left forearm now, in the same spot her kidnappers had shot her up with meth, and he could tell what she was thinking. That he was naïve, that he didn’t know royal society like her mother did, and he wished he could make her believe what he knew to be true. However, he also knew matings were instantaneous, often happening in a flash and without warning. Relationships were not. Those took work and time.
Work and time he was more than willing to put in, starting now. He took her tea cup and set it aside on the deck’s flat rail.
13
Grady didn’t know what he was talking about, Tu thought to herself. He was a hick wolf from a mange state and unlike her mange-state born mother who had always aspired to something higher, he didn’t get how wolf society worked. He didn’t understand how her stupid decision to have one last weekend of fun before giving into her parents’ marriage arrangements had killed any chance of her ever finding a mate her parents would deem suitable.
The humans might not care so much about a girl’s sexual status. Hell, most human women got married in white wedding dresses, virgins and non-virgins alike. But the wolves were not so blasé about a she-wolf’s sexuality. Even the least religious males considered it their right to have first claim. But Grady was an unintentional king, so he didn’t understand what he’d been saddled with, how kings from richer states would look down on him for agreeing to mate her in a heat frenzy.
At least that had been Tu’s initial thought when the large, naked wolf standing in front of her had insisted she wasn’t ruined. But then he’d taken the cup out of her hand, his eyes filled with deliberate purpose.
“Touch me.” The two words appeared in her head, the projected voice deep with a southern twang.
His hand found hers and placed it over his straining erection, which pulsed when her fingers made contact. She’d not gotten a good look at it during her heat frenzy, when she’d been more concerned with getting it inside of her than anything else. But up close like this, it was something to behold. A veined behemoth, which looked more like it belonged inside a box to be sold to whatever lucky customer wanted it rather than attached to an actual person.
It made her nervous now. And she wondered if she could truly fit such a monster inside of her or if
their perfect joining had been a fluke of how in heat she’d been.
As if reading her mind, he shifted their bodies so her back was against the house, and even though she still held his manhood in her hand, she could feel its press through the barrier of her clothes, his shaft rubbing up and down on her slit in a way that would have been weird if it weren’t so insanely titillating. Her arousal scent soon released as her legs fell apart, opening herself up to his proposed invasion with a mind of their own. He covered her mouth with his, and soon their dry hump became not so dry, as the front of her skirt got damp with a combination of her own heady need and his pre-cum.
Then he was hunching over her, his large hands pushing her skirt and panties down, just enough to…
She heard his sharp intake of breath when he entered her, pressing himself to the halfway point before coming to an abrupt stop. She thought maybe he was giving her time to adjust to his size until he said inside her head, “See what you do to me? I can’t even get half inside of you without stopping because I’m scared my beast will become unchained before I’m all the way in. I’ve never had to worry about him getting out with other girls. Only you.”
He took a few deep breaths, his forehead pressed against hers. Tu could sense him clamping down, trying to get his wolf under control. Then her whole body jerked upwards when he pushed all the way in, his balls settling against the wall of her vagina. He picked her up and the skirt and panties came all the way off as he wrapped both her legs around his waist, opening her wider and settling her against him, so her clit scraped against his heavily defined abs as gravity pulled her down even further onto his shaft.
“You’re not even in heat anymore, and look what you bring out in me. The former sheriff of Wolf Springs, fucking his mate out in the open, in the freezing cold, because he can’t wait long enough to get her back inside the house. That’s how bad I want you, in or out of heat. You are not ruined,” he said again, fusing his lips to hers. Then he started pumping into her, his strokes hard and punishing, like he was disciplining her for daring to talk about his mate the way she had.
Tu had spent the last five years, certain that what she’d let happen during her first heat had rendered her repulsive, not worthy of a mate or even the life she’d been trying to live out to the best of her ability. And when Grady had rejected her the night of the storm, despite her hot widow status, she’d been even more certain that was the case. But in those moments when she was clinging on to him, her back against the wall, her legs tight around his waist as she took each of his “punishments” with muffled moans of grade-A pleasure while his mouth continued to plunder hers, she believed him. Believed she was beautiful, believed she was worthy—
She came hard, crying out against his mouth as her feet flexed down onto his butt, her nails running down his back so deep and hard, they would surely leave marks. She loved the sounds coming out of him as he continued to pound into her afterglow, urgent animal grunts he probably didn’t even realize he was making, until he released inside her, not because of a primal decree, but because he’d wanted to fuck his mate against a wall. Because he didn’t think she was ruined at all.
It was freezing outside, but at that moment she couldn’t have felt warmer.
THAT WARM FEELING stayed with her all through their breakfast at a little mom-and-pop diner at the bottom of the hill. They talked about everything under the sun, including which television shows they liked to watch. They both loved reality shows, but were perhaps victims of their backgrounds when it came to viewing preferences. While he liked shows with redneck stars, she loved the neck rolling divas of Rap Star Wives. There also came an explanation for Grady’s better-than-expected grammar and speaking voice. After he’d lost his hearing and ability to speak, he’d read. A lot. And not just Louis L’Amour novels—though he was quick to add he ate up those pulp westerns when he was a kid—but also that year’s Pulitzer winners, along with whatever else Amazon thought he might enjoy.
A happy coincidence, because though Tu had only read if compelled to do so by teachers during her first twenty-one years on the planet, ever since the tragedy that had turned her world upside down, she’d found herself turning to books at the end of the day. Though she preferred mysteries, more specifically action-packed whodunits where no one of any importance to the main character ever died and everything was set to right at the end.
Grady was, perhaps not surprisingly, eager to talk and be talked to. He didn’t monopolize the conversation, but he certainly kept it going, asking her question after question (what part of Alaska do you like best? what do you think of Colorado winters after growing up there? what do you use in your hair?) even as they paid their check and made their way out to the car. She could only imagine how they’d looked to the waiter and the other humans at the nearby booths… sitting and eating in total silence, but smiling and nodding and sometimes laughing like they were have a great conversation.
As they pulled onto the highway for the long trip to Oklahoma, Tu thought about the way she had made him feel back at the cabin and turned the radio on.
Grady tensed and abruptly went silent, trailing off in the middle of an explanation about how being in charge of the few animals left on his family’s farm growing up had given him an unexpected advantage when it came to policing a kingdom town full of wolves, the majority of which didn’t know ASL. The unspoken question of why she would turn on the almost never-used radio when she knew he couldn’t hear it lingered heavy in the cab as she pushed buttons, looking for...
“Found it,” she said inside his head, hoping her plan would work. “Try not to swerve off the road, okay?”
Going on pure instinct, she opened her mind as wide as she could, like she was pushing a button on a walkie-talkie, allowing the person on the other end to hear not just what she was saying, but everything in the background. She knew for a fact this was what her father did with her mother whenever he wanted her to weigh in on a meeting or conversation he was having behind closed doors in his office, but Tu wasn’t sure it would work with Grady.
However, she tried anyway, wanting to give him a gift on par with the one he’d given her that morning against the cabin’s front wall. She listened to the opening lines of the song with her mind opened wide.
And Grady nearly did swerve out of his lane before locking his arms on the steering wheel, his mouth falling open in soundless surprise. The absolute best expression of happiness overtook his face and he began nodding his head to the song’s iconic bass line. His joy infected her like an airborne contagion and Tu soon had to look away in order to keep from laughing with mutual glee when she needed to be concentrating on keeping her mind open so he could listen to the first song he’d heard since going deaf: Michael Jackson’s “Bad.”
Despite the fact that it was in the low forties outside, the sun shined bright overhead and its rays soon warmed up the car. The day seemed to be giving them their blessing as they zipped along the highway, with Tu transmitting song after song to Grady’s great amusement. Perhaps not surprisingly, after hearing the relay of Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” he made her stay on the Jack FM station.
“I love this station,” he said after the relay of a Red Hot Chili Peppers song. “I want to stay with this one for the rest of the drive.”
She was just trying to figure out how to gently tell him that Jack FM, though a nationwide outfit, didn’t have a station in Oklahoma, when she saw the signs for downtown Denver.
Her forehead scrunched up. “Why are we going through Denver to get to Oklahoma? Isn’t it a straight shot?”
Grady’s eyes stayed on the road as he answered. “I thought maybe we’d stop at a store and get you some more clothes… and a dress. Nothing too fancy. But nothing black either. Or grey. Maybe you could get a yellow one. You used to wear a lot of yellow, right?”
“Right,” she said. “But why do you think I need a yellow, not-too-fancy dress?”
“Mag said Janelle and him got married the day aft
er her heat ended. He said that’s how they do it in Alaska, even though Rafe and Alisha waited and planned a big wedding. You’re from Alaska right? And there’s a courthouse in Denver.” He finally looked over at her and asked, “Want to get married?”
14
Mr. and Mrs. Grady Wulfkonig finally arrived in Oklahoma late Sunday night. Grady plucked up his new wife—who he still couldn’t believe was his wife even though she’d accepted his proposal with an “alright, let’s do it” hours ago—and carried her across the threshold, despite her squeals that she was half-Eskimo and they didn’t do that where she came from.
He didn’t care. He carried her over the threshold anyway. He was just so… the word that came immediately to mind shocked him. Happy. Grady was just so happy. Tu was his wife on wolf terms and on legal ones. She’d spent nearly the whole trip “listening” to the radio with him, the sun bouncing off her hair in such a way that it was hard for him, even knowing her background first hand, not to believe she was an angel.
But then the reality of his farm house hit him as soon as he set her down and turned on the lights. That was when he remembered that though he’d been unexpectedly gifted with a wife over Thanksgiving weekend, nothing else had changed. Including who he really was deep down inside.
However, as he watched his new bride take in the two-bedroom kingdom house, he remembered all too well why he’d thought he’d die without ever finding a she-wolf who would agree to let him claim her. The facts of his life were reflected in the room that lay before them: no carpet, nothing hanging on the walls, an empty fireplace without any wood, no furniture, and windows made of smoky plexiglass. The ugly windows were the most expensive things in the house, followed by the front door, a steel one Grady had put in himself shortly after moving in for good. The third most expensive thing in the room was the set of wolf shackles, one silver, one steel, attached to a carbon chain hanging off a steel mount. Tu’s eyes went straight to them of course, since there was nothing else in the living room to draw her attention.
Wolf and Soul (The Alaska Princesses Trilogy, Book 3) Page 9
