Tempting a Wolf

by Tressie Lockwood

  They had all been wrong, she decided as she sprinted harder. Not yet breaking a sweat or winded, she figured she could run forever—until Renee sprung out in front of her. Tameca braked fast, pitched forward, and rolled a few times among the dead leaves. She scraped her cheek and bumped her head before coming to a stop.

  Above her, Renee’s nostrils flared. She grinned, displaying sharp teeth, the canines longer than the rest. “If you will stop running, Ms. Jump-to-Conclusions, you will find that the truth is . . . I am not your sister, but your mother. Lucas and I had only one child before he was killed. You.”

  “M-Mother?” Tameca sat up slowly. “But you said our parents were killed in an accident years ago. You said—”

  “I know what I said. What I said and did was for your protection.”

  Renee knelt down and brushed Tameca’s hair from her forehead. This time, she didn’t move out of reach, as she remembered that Lucas had the same uncontrollable hair. Her father. She had actually seen him. She wanted to go back and get a closer look at him.

  “I want to know everything,” she demanded. “This time I’ll listen. I won’t run. Are you werewolves or something?”

  Renee shook her head. “No, we’re a race of people who can shape-shift into wolves. It’s been that way as far back as we can trace our lineage, which is quite far.” She stood. “Come on. I will show you more.”

  When Tameca stood, it was instantly daylight. She jumped at the sunshine, warm on her skin, and glanced over at Renee. “That is too freaky.”

  Her sister—her mother—laughed. “We have a few gifts. This isn’t real, not now anyway. All that you see is a memory planted in your mind while we’re all still at Marcus’s mansion. This is how our home looks, or did look before it was destroyed.”

  They walked back the way they had run. “Destroyed? By whom?”

  “Those that don’t understand us, who want to study us and learn some way of becoming like us.” She shrugged. “There have been many over the years, different governments, different individuals. One of them killed your father, and I ran with you, determined to live a normal life until . . . ”

  “Until what?”

  “Until you turned twenty-five, and then you would not age like normal humans. You would live much longer. That’s why when I moved to our present location, I decided to be your sister. If I were your sister, no one would suspect me looking like I was only slightly older. I wanted so much for you to have a normal life, Tameca.”

  They cleared the trees for the second time. Now the area was a flurry of activity, people coming and going. Cute little houses dotted the lane. At the far edge of the small town, people without a stitch on transformed into wolves and disappeared into the forest.

  “Wow, this place is amazing,” Tameca commented. “It’s like a private little community.”

  “It was. Now, we live scattered over several cities and countries, keeping hidden, trying to live normal lives. The hard part is that at a certain age, a male will find his mate and claim her.”

  Tameca swallowed. “Like Marcus found me.”

  She nodded. “Yes, he found you two years ago, picked up your scent from Canada, if you can believe it. I like to think it’s a spiritual awakening, something inside that leads your intended to you. And then when he’s closer, he catches your scent.”

  Tameca’s eyes were so wide they hurt. “He approached you, asking about me?”

  Renee ran a hand over her forehead. When it dropped to her sides again, tears ran down her face. “Yes. I asked him to wait until you turned twenty-five and until I could tell you the truth. But how would I? I’ve lied about who we are all this time. I knew what it would mean for you to mate with Marcus, that you would leave me.”

  “I won’t. Um . . . Ma . . . don’t worry. I’m not going to leave you.” Tameca hugged her, and Renee cried harder hearing her for the first time call her Ma. “Besides, Marcus’s mansion wasn’t that far from us. And it looks like he has plenty of rooms. You can move in.”

  “Marcus bought that house until it was time to reveal who we are. He lives in Europe. He told you he would travel, but he meant he would go back home and take you with him. Your place will be at his side.”

  Tameca frowned. “I would love to visit Europe, but not live there. My life is here. Marcus and I can discuss it like equals and . . . ” She turned at the rustle of trees behind her. Marcus stood and waited. This whole thing was both weird and familiar at the same time. She remembered what her mother had told her. When she bonded with Marcus, she would go where he went. Deep inside, she knew, if Marcus did not consider her feelings about staying in America, she would still go with him, like it or not. She wanted to tell him where to go, but when he raised his hand, she went to him.

  “Where is the evidence that you can’t resist me like I can’t resist you?” she demanded. “Why is this all one-sided?”

  “Baby.” He kissed her lips and lingered, as if to breathe in her essence. The knowledge that he seemed to savor it gave her tingles. “I traveled across the world looking for you. I would do it again and for the rest of my life if I had to. As I said, your existence tempts me. Tami, I need you. Mate with me.”

  “Y-Yes. Yes, I will.”

  Tempting a Wolf

  Chapter Nine

  Tameca stood just outside the doors leading to the room where she and Marcus would mate. She had already seen inside earlier. The room was a virtual bordello, decked with silk and satin in shades of crimson and white. Marcus didn’t stick with the old ways of mating in the woods, somewhere in the darkness.

  That thought made moisture break out on her forehead and her hands shake. She had clenched them at her sides, had rubbed them along Marcus’s cape, and had run them through her hair. Nothing helped. Her legs threatened to give out before she stepped through the doorway.

  Marcus had said she must be a virgin for him, but Renee disputed the claim. She hadn’t been. Knowing her mate was controlling to the point of not allowing her to share another man’s bed before they came together almost made her walk away. But the torment in his eyes. The uncertainty she saw there now as he stood waiting came through to her befuddled mind.

  What would he do if she left, right now, just walked out the door and never came back? Would he come after her, force her to mate with him? Would he try to seduce her or threaten to kill any man she dated? Her mother had said Marcus picked up her scent after he had entered the States. Was there anywhere she could hide from him? She didn’t think so. This was her life, and it felt like she didn’t have a choice.

  Sensual music played, and the family all sat around on pillows, their attention trained on Tameca and Marcus. She knew the ritual was for her to go to him and wait for him to make a speech about choosing her, but fear rooted her to the spot.

  Marcus strode out of the circle to meet her at the door. He cupped her face in his palms and tilted her head to look him in the eyes. “Stay with me, Tami. Even though I don’t deserve you. Please stay. We did this all wrong . . . I . . . did this all wrong.” He slipped a hand in hers and led her out of the room amid protests and her mother’s call. They were disrupting the ritual. He ignored them all. “If you want, we can take it slower. I will wait. This ceremony will not take place until you are sure, until all of your questions are answered.”

  She breathed in his scent, taking comfort in it. “But the night. It’s perfect. Halloween, the blue moon. We’re not werewolves, but I feel something special in the moon. I feel like I want to howl at it.” A tremor threaded her laugh.

  He nodded. The gentle pressure of his hand at her lower back encouraged her to rest in his arms. “The moon is special for us. We take our mate on the night of the full moon. The blue moon, rarer still, makes our joining more powerful, but we don’t have to do it tonight, Tami.”

  “No, I want to.” She ran her hand down his taut abdomen. “This goes beyond all that I thought I wanted, to have sex with you, to lose my virginity. But I’ve never felt anything so right.
Marcus, if I wanted to live in the U.S. instead of Europe, what would you say to that?”

  “I would say you must follow me, Tami. That’s how we have lived for thousands of years.”

  She slumped, curled her shoulders toward her chest, and wrapped her arms across her belly.

  “And then, I would say, I choose to live in America.” He grinned. She thumped his chest and took his hand to lead him into the room. He hesitated. “Are you sure?”

  “Never more.”

  * * * *

  “I choose Tameca Corrigan to be my mate,” Marcus announced before them all.

  She forced down the lump in her throat when he parted her robe and let it fall to the floor. Several sharp intakes of breath made her shut her eyes so she couldn’t see the disgust they must be feeling at her plump body. But Marcus’s reaction, his touch, drove all thoughts of the watchers from her mind.

  His teeth grazed her neck while he pulled her into a tight embrace. At the moment of penetration, he would bite her to seal her to him forever. Her direction in life would take a radical turn at that moment, but she had learned in the hall and now here, so would his. Her mother had lost sight of what the coupling meant. She remembered the pain of loss, the drive to please her lover, but forgot that her lover was just as bound to her.

  Tameca ran her fingers along Marcus’s face, and she saw him shudder. She traced the lines of his back, stroked his ass, and ran her nails down the length of his thighs. Power surged through her. She sank to her knees to take hold of his shaft. Glancing up at him, she licked his tight head and took it into her mouth. He growled.

  “You’re mine,” she told him. “All mine. After we are made one, you will not have another woman. Ever!”

  Anger flared in his eyes, and he clamped his teeth together, but he didn’t deny her claim. She took him deep into her throat, pressed down, and sucked hard. His knees buckled. Tameca took his full length into her mouth and pulled back. His roar was followed by several others in the room. Still she didn’t give up her control. Squeezing and stroking the tip of his shaft, she licked his balls.

  He gasped. “Tami!”

  “Mine!” she shouted, looking around for the first time at the women in the room. Every one of them drew back. Her teeth sharpened just as she had seen in Marcus, her mother, and the others. She felt the change inside, fire consuming her body, but she resisted it. They would be lovers in the full sense of the word while she was fully human. Afterward, there would be plenty of time to give in to the beast.

  Marcus jerked when she went back to sucking him. She ran the tip of her tongue around his hood, while she watched for his reaction. His eyes were black and narrowed. A rumble started in his chest. She bared her teeth, and when he pushed her back, she chuckled.

  She stretched her arms above her head, then relaxed on the silk sheets and spread her legs. He lowered himself to aim his rod at her wet treasure. The frenzied cries around them escalated. Marcus eased inside her. He was too big. He’d never fit. She cried out, and he stroked her cheek while uttering soothing words.

  Slowly, his engorged member filled her to capacity. At once, she wanted more and wanted him to stop. His slow strokes built the fire inside her, made her passage clench tight around him. She climbed to an orgasm greater than her fingers had ever taken her toward. Marcus glided in and out, and she bucked beneath him.

  “Marcus!” She turned her face into his palm still on her cheek.

  “It’s okay, baby,” he soothed her. As he leaned down, she realized he had delayed his bite to give her time. Now that the pain had let up and the pleasure had threatened to consume her, he felt she was ready.

  His teeth sank into her neck an instant before the orgasm rocked her body. Her nails grew out, and she clawed his back and arched to push her hips hard against him. He ground deep and fast. She howled her release, and he met it with his gushing, hot seed.

  Epilogue

  Tameca woke to sunlight beaming in the window and Marcus sleeping at her side. She grinned down at him like a lovesick idiot and then scrambled from the bed to brush, use mouthwash, and floss before he woke up.

  As she teased the hairs on his chest, she marveled over how perfect his body was, so hard and well toned. How could a man like this be satisfied with just her? Yet, as she thought of that, she felt the never-ending stir of desire in her belly. Since their coupling—or was it since a sense of awakening had happened to her?—she had lusted for sex way too often. She only hoped it would settle down soon.

  “Are you going to stare at me all morning, Tami?” he asked with his eyes still closed.

  She jumped. “No, just for another half hour.”

  He rolled over and pulled her close. “Mmm, you smell minty.”

  “I wanted fresh breath for when you woke up, but your breath could give me tighter curls.” She laughed, threw her arms around his neck, and rested her head on his chest.

  He grumbled but didn’t seem to care too much about her comment.

  “I have a problem, Marcus.”

  “Already?”

  “It’s sex.”

  He leaned back to see her face. “You’re not happy with the sex?” She almost laughed at the way his nostrils flared like he had been highly insulted. She imagined women all over the world would have pleaded with him to take them to bed again if he had treated them as he had her for much of last night. And therein lay the problem.

  “I love the sex. That’s not the problem.” She wiggled out of his hold and stood by the window looking out. Endless trees surrounded Marcus’s property so she figured no one could see in, but one of the men from the party last night happened to be strolling by. In the light of day, exposing herself didn’t seem as easy. Maybe the moon had more of an influence than she had thought.

  Marcus appeared to agree. He blocked the man’s view of her when he spotted his brother outside. “Talk to me, Tami.” He lifted her chin.

  “Last night, I was bold. I threatened the women, letting it be known that you belonged only to me. But I remember you saying that until we mated, I couldn’t be with another man. Does that mean you and I can now that we have? Because—”

  “You will not have another man!” he snapped. “If I am not good enough, then I will try harder to please you.”

  Her pulse raced. “So, the same goes for you, right? I mean, you won’t lie with another woman? I know you slept with quite a few over the years. I hesitated about mating with you for that reason. I don’t want to be hurt, Marcus. Y-You have the ability to destroy me, I think.”

  “I have no need of anyone other than you.” He gestured to her body. “Why would I? As my mate, you will have a sexual appetite that matches mine.

  The silly grin she’d sported while watching him sleep spread over her face.

  “Speaking of which,” he continued. “I’m feeling a bit peckish.”

  She burst out laughing and took hold of his growing erection. “I see.” She gave his hard-on a good stroking and soon felt the return of her power over him. Someone had certainly lied. All she needed to do was drive Marcus out of his mind with desire, and he would give her whatever she wanted. “Marcus?”

  “Hmm?” He grunted with his eyes closed. A frown turned his lips when she paused in her caress. “Don’t stop, Tami.”

  “Are you listening, Marcus?”

  He grunted again.

  “I want you to hear this, because it’s important. You should note, baby, if you dare stray, I will cut this off and toss it in the lake. The stupid woman who is foolish enough to touch you will be worse off. Got it?”

  His eyes glowed with anger, no doubt knowing she had discovered his weakness, and it was her. “Yes, I got it. Now, please your lover.”

  The End

  About the Author

  Tressie Lockwood has always loved books, and she enjoys writing about heroines who are overcoming the trials of life. She writes straight from her heart, reaching out to those who find it hard to be completely themselves no matter what anyone
else thinks. She hopes her readers will enjoy her short stories. Visit Tressie on the web at www.freewebs.com/tresslock.