Things That Go Bump In the Night 2004

by Ashleigh Raine

  Beth sighed. “Mom. He is a werewolf on the prowl for a piece of tail. And from what I’ve seen, he is doing okay without adding you to his list of conquests.”

  Sandy turned back around. Ralph wasn’t playing the field. She was sure of it. “How could you say such a thing? I know it’s always just been you and me. But you’ve got to accept the fact that it is okay for me to date.”

  Beth took her time coming around her desk. The anger no longer lingered in the air. Something akin to concern surfaced. And Beth’s concerned look worried Sandy. Her daughter didn’t know something that she didn’t, did she?

  “Just be careful, Mom. I don’t want you hurt.” She reached out, taking Sandy’s hand. Her warm touch softened Sandy’s heart. Beth was really worried about her. “Sometimes we don’t see things as they really are. Just don’t do anything you might regret later. Please.”

  “I won’t, dear. I promise.” Sandy hugged her daughter, and then turned to leave.

  Beth’s words hit her like a brick though. Maybe her daughter did see something that she didn’t. It had been so long since she’d dated. Hell. She never really had dated after her mate died. She’d been too busy raising Beth.

  But Beth had started a life of her own. And now her daughter had found a really good werewolf. Her daughter was not only the most successful lawyer in the Midwest, she was queen bitch. Her triumphs were more than commendable.

  So where did that leave her? She continued to help the pack when needed. And that was almost every day. Her life was full. Or so she’d thought.

  Ralph had woken something up in her. She hadn’t known how much she’d missed good sex. And maybe there would be no long-term relationship. She didn’t know. But she would prepare herself for the knowledge that being with Ralph might be casual. All she knew for sure was that fucking him had been damned good. Better than good. She couldn’t remember sex being so awesome.

  Beth’s secretary was on her the minute Sandy opened the office door. Calls were holding. There were messages. Her next appointment was waiting. It made it easy to slip out of her office without more drama.

  It had grown colder since she’d been inside the courthouse. She should have worn her heavier coat. Leaves blew along the ground and the skies were dark and heavy. This was Halloween weather. She loved this holiday.

  Bundling up, she hunched over, hurrying to her car. It dawned on her when she reached the parking lot that she’d been so upset by her conversation with Beth that she’d forgotten to mention the reporter confronting her.

  The wind blew in her face, wrapping Ralph’s scent around her. Looking up, she saw him coming toward her, his truck idling next to her parked car.

  “What did your daughter say to you?” Ralph wrapped his arm around her, pulling her into the warmth of his body.

  “That you are a womanizer, and I should leave you alone.” She saw him smile at her words and wondered why he found it so amusing. “What did she say to you?”

  “That I am a womanizer and I should leave you alone.” He opened her car door for her and held it while she hopped in. Immediately she missed the heat from his body.

  “Well, are you?” She looked up into his rugged face, those handsome features. Ralph had a body that was in better shape than most twenty-somethings. The fact that he was a bit older only made him more appealing. He reeked of experience and technique.

  “Am I what?” He gripped the top of her car door, his biceps bulging when he bent closer to her.

  It was suddenly hard to breathe. Just having such a wonderful eyeful of this magnificent werewolf was enough to stop her heart in mid-beat. She forced the lump of excitement back down her throat just so she could speak.

  “Are you a womanizer?”

  “Nope.” He spoke with such confidence, just like he always did. As if that one word would end the conversation, drop the subject as if it merited no further discussion.

  He straightened. “Follow me back to the diner. We’ll grab a cup of coffee.”

  Sandy opened her mouth to tell him she would check on Greta, see if she was still there, but she wasn’t sure about having coffee with him. She needed time to sort out her daughter’s concerns. Not that she would run from him because her over-dominating cub told her to. She would make her own decisions, form her own opinions of the werewolf. She just wanted time to do that.

  But Ralph didn’t give her the opportunity to say that. He closed her car door and headed back to his truck before she could speak.

  She swore his scent had claimed her clothing. All the way to the diner she could smell him. Her skin still tingled from the brief moments he had wrapped his arm around her, shielding her from the chilly breeze.

  But what had her worried was how being so close to him had made her want him again. Bad. Her pussy throbbed just thinking about how he’d fucked her the night before. Heat flushed through her with such intensity the chilly wind outside didn’t stand a chance in cooling her down.

  It wasn’t like her daughter to jump to conclusions without facts to back her statements. Beth hadn’t become the successful attorney that she was by speculating. That bothered Sandy. Beth had told her to keep her eyes open, that Ralph was a womanizer.

  And what if he was? She searched her memory for times when Ralph had been with other women. She couldn’t remember any. But then she didn’t usually pay attention to the dating scene within the pack.

  She stared at the back of Ralph’s truck, realizing she was dutifully following him to the diner just as he’d instructed. And as they neared, she noticed Ethan was still parked there. Had Ralph known the pack leader would still be there? More than likely he did.

  Ethan would tell Beth that they showed up together minutes after Beth had warned her mother about Ralph. Sandy sighed. More than anything the thought of fucking him again distracted her thoughts. Her body tingled with desire. A craving too intense for any of her toys had started, and she knew only Ralph could ease her growing ache.

  Ralph’s turn signal began blinking, indicating his intent to turn into the diner parking lot. The blinking light held her gaze. And at the same time a strange realization sunk through her straight to the pit of her stomach.

  More than anything she wanted to fuck Ralph again. But she hesitated in reappearing at the diner with him after her daughter’s warning. It bothered her how her pack leader might react to her silent statement that she paid little heed to her daughter’s words.

  If Ralph was a womanizer, what did that make her?

  She would willingly fuck him again, but worried about how they might appear being seen in public together. Hell. She was no better than the werewolf her daughter accused Ralph of being.

  Suddenly everything was way too confusing. Sandy needed time to think. On an impulse, she waited for Ralph to turn into the diner ahead of her, and then drove on down the street. She didn’t look back to see if Ralph watched her.

  Chapter Ten

  Sandy’s phone hadn’t rung once. No one had stopped by. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d spent an entire day alone in her den. And she would have enjoyed herself, except for the fact that she felt she’d been grounded.

  Her daughter had power. And she had rank in the pack. It crossed her mind more than once that Ralph might have been ordered to stay away from her. He would respect the pack’s wishes. If her daughter had convinced Ethan to tell Ralph to leave her alone, she would be left alone.

  Piddling around in her kitchen, she wished her body would quit tingling, quit craving Ralph’s touch again. But for the life of her, she couldn’t quit imagining his hard cock pounding the deepest spots in her pussy. He fed her like no toy ever could, like no werewolf had ever done before.

  “And he hasn’t bothered to come see you at all today,” she reminded herself, mumbling while she flipped the steak in the frying pan.

  The weatherman on the TV warned of possible snow over the next few days. It would be a cold Halloween. The commentators went on about appropriate ways to dress childre
n while trick-or-treating.

  Sandy drowned it all out. Maybe her daughter had been right. Maybe she was nothing more than a fool who had fallen for the oldest trick in the book. She was out of practice, knew nothing about the dating scene. And Ralph Hipp certainly had what it took to be a werewolf on the prowl.

  “So now I’m a piece of tail.” She stabbed at her steak with her fork while it sizzled in the pan.

  Something the news reporters commented on caught her attention. “It will be curious to see how the werewolves dress their children for Halloween.”

  “They call them cubs, Steve, which makes sense since they are half-wolves.” The pretty newscaster laughed at her lack of wit.

  Sandy scowled at the television, wishing people wouldn’t talk about things they knew nothing about. Half-wolf indeed. Did that make humans half-ape? Or was it jackass? Because that was exactly what the lady on the news report was making out of herself.

  “We sent Judy out to do some research on the matter. Let’s see what she has for us.” The two of them turned to a flat screen next to them and Sandy stared in horror.

  There she was. The newslady who had stopped her yesterday in the parking lot spoke with one of the younger mothers in the pack.

  “We don’t have a problem trick-or-treating around humans.” The mother adjusted her cub in her arms. “And I think both of my little ones will be ghosts this year.”

  The scene changed. Sandy recognized the van behind the reporter when the woman spoke into the camera.

  “This new pack that has made our town their home seems ready to hit the streets in droves Halloween night.” Her expression was grim.

  The scene changed again. Sandy watched herself smile at the reporter.

  “Where will you take your cubs trick-or-treating this year?” the reporter asked.

  “Since I just moved here, I don’t know the safest places.”

  The scene flashed. Once again the reporter faced the camera. “And as you can see, without knowing our town that well, these werewolves could be just about anywhere.”

  The newscasters thanked the reporter and then began a discussion about how the town planned on zoning areas where the werewolves would be allowed to trick-or-treat.

  Sandy’s phone rang and she stared at it a minute, her stomach tying in knots. Was she in trouble with the pack now?

  She turned the flame off underneath her steak. It looked like she’d cooked it too long, but she wasn’t sure she could eat anything now anyway.

  “Hello.” Her palm grew sweaty holding the receiver.

  “Hi, Mom.” Beth sounded cheerful. “I just saw the news. Why didn’t you tell me a reporter stopped you?”

  “I was going to but you distracted me a bit yesterday with your accusations about Ralph.” She didn’t mind scolding her daughter for the intrusion into her life. It wasn’t like she was some old ninny who needed taken care of.

  Beth sighed, taking her time before commenting. “I’m worried that you might be harassed further. The humans are just dying to find any werewolf they can get to comment.”

  And she apparently had gullible written across her forehead.

  “Would you mind coming over to our house for a while? I’ll be home this evening. We could make Ethan barbecue.”

  Her daughter had never been the best at apologies, but if this was an attempt, Sandy figured she might as well grab it. The last thing she wanted was friction between her and Beth. Besides, it didn’t appear that she had anything better to do.

  After a shower, and changing clothes three times, Sandy headed over to her daughter’s. She glanced in the mirror before she walked out of her home, running her fingers through her hair. Wrapping a fluffy white twist tie around her hair at the base of her neck, the streaks of gray running through her brown made her cringe.

  “You should focus on becoming a grandmother, and not on chasing hot sexy werewolves,” she scolded herself, all too aware of the lines that appeared around her eyes when she frowned.

  And having grandchildren would be wonderful. She couldn’t wait. But she didn’t feel old. Her gray hairs hadn’t stopped Ralph from seeking her out.

  “And that is because you aren’t old.” She squared her shoulders, knowing damned good and well she told herself the truth.

  And after that hot sex she’d had the other night with Ralph, she sure didn’t feel old. Other than a sore muscle here and there, she couldn’t wait to ride that cock of his again.

  “So I’m not old, I’m a nymphomaniac.” Somehow that cheered her up. Grabbing her coat, she headed out the door.

  The night air was too cold for her human skin. So instead of standing outside, breathing in the wonderful smells from the grill in the backyard at her daughter’s house, she sat in the kitchen, enduring the mundane chatter of Patrick Oberhaus, the sixth grade social studies teacher.

  “With this new funding, we should be able to buy enough computers so that there will be several at least in each classroom.” Patrick rambled on, for the most part about things Sandy already knew.

  She nodded and dug into the chips bag for another chip. She dunked it into the dip Beth had set on the table, and glanced toward the back door. Maybe enduring the cold in her human form would be better than listening to this old fart brief her on the financial standing at the pack school.

  “You should be careful what you eat.” He wagged a finger at her while smiling.

  Sandy turned and looked at him, her mouth full of dip.

  “We need to keep an eye on our diet, you know.” He patted his tummy, which didn’t bulge, but certainly didn’t have that hard look that Ralph’s had. “The days of our youth when we could eat whatever we want are long gone.”

  “A good run every night and hot sex keep me trim.” Sandy enjoyed the wide-eyed look Patrick gave her, his mouth opening and then shutting like a fish trying to breathe out of water.

  “Mom!” Beth came in from outside, the chilly night air quickly filling the room.

  Sandy turned in time to see her daughter’s scolding look. “Mom is such a tease. You’ll have to forgive her,” she said apologetically to Patrick.

  “Oh. I don’t mind.” Patrick smiled at her, although his tone was much more hushed and he blushed just like the schoolchildren he taught every day. “I like feisty women.”

  Sandy stood, having about all she could take of the now drooling schoolteacher. She followed her daughter into the other room, hoping Patrick wouldn’t tag along.

  “You invited him over here to try and set me up with him,” she hissed, and then grew silent when she saw Jan Price, the young bitch who helped out with her daughter’s busy schedule, walking into the dining room from the living area.

  “All I could find was this white linen.” She held up the folded material in her hands. “I hope it’s okay.”

  “That’s just fine.” Beth moved to the opposite side of the dining room table. “Here. I’ll help you.”

  Jan opened the tablecloth and the two of them spread it over the table.

  “There is nothing wrong with Patrick Oberhaus.” Obviously Beth didn’t mind discussing the matter in front of Jan. “He is a very nice werewolf.”

  “Yes. He is.” Sandy also believed him to be an outstanding teacher for the cubs. But that wasn’t the point. “But I don’t need you trying to set me up with him. Or anyone else for that matter.”

  Jan finished straightening the cloth at her end of the table, looked at the two of them, and then hurried out of the room, an amused smile on her face. But Sandy wasn’t amused.

  “I just think that if you want to date,” Beth paused for a moment, searching her mom’s face. Sandy saw her worry and concern but feared her daughter was more upset about sharing her mom. Beth reached out, taking her hand. “You should find a werewolf who is a bit more…well…tame.”

  Sandy had to hide a smile, deciding commenting on the wild sex she and Ralph had alongside her car in an open field the other night probably wouldn’t help matters at the moment
.

  “Whether I decide to date or not, and who I date, is up to me.” Sandy tried to keep her tone gentle.

  Beth chewed her lower lip, the worry still obvious on her pretty face. “You know he told Ethan that he plans on mating with you.”

  Now that took Sandy by surprise. She stared at her daughter, the impact of her words taking a minute to sink in. “He did?”

  Beth nodded. “Now do you see why I’m worried?”

  “It doesn’t sound like he’s after a piece of tail if he wants me for a mate.” Sandy’s palms grew damp while her heart began racing.

  She couldn’t believe she was discussing the possibilities of being Ralph’s mate so casually.

  Beth threw her hands up in the air, her frustration filling the room instantly. “He’s not right for you,” she snapped.

  Sandy turned at the sound of the back door opening. But her heart stopped in mid-beat when she heard Ralph talking to Ethan. The two of them appeared through the doorway in the next moment.

  “Come with me.” Ralph reached for her, and she found herself taking his hand before she realized her actions.

  Chapter Eleven

  The atmosphere in the room changed in the next breath. Ralph’s strong grip squeezed her fingers together, the heat from his touch sizzling through her skin, sending prickles of anticipation racing through her. Her mouth went dry while her heart began pounding an erratic beat.

  She’d never seen him look at her the way he did now. Ralph’s features were hard, intense. His presence filled the dining room. And he was angry. She sensed that right away. But the tightness of his body, the rigid outline of his muscles bulging through his shirt, made him appear ready to spring.

  He looked from her to Beth and then back at her again. The smoothness of his head, the dark brooding stare that burrowed through her, the firm set of his jawline, all of it showed he wouldn’t be crossed right now.

  He turned to leave the dining room, her hand clasped in his. Ethan stood behind him in the doorway. Sandy saw the two werewolves stare each other down. Both of them were so large, so powerful-looking. Their gazes locked. Silent communication of two creatures driven by emotions raw and unleashed.