In the Loup Boxed Set #2

by Mac Flynn

  There was no stopping the feelings once they began, though, and as she stood there she felt her body heat up. Like last night, the source of her awakening lay in the wound on her arm. Her eyes were already heavily lidded as she reached out and touched the scar. It felt burning hot to the touch, and the pressure of her fingers seemed to release the a host of pent-up, sexual frustration. A wave of heat flowed through her body and she lowered herself down onto the bed to avoid falling to the floor.

  The second her hands touched the sheets, however, there was an explosion of scent. His musky flavor, laid there by countless nights of his sleeping, erupted into the air. Her heart beat faster as her hands clutched at the thin, soft blankets. All she knew was his smell as she felt her muscles flex and tighten. Her breasts pulsed with a sensual need as they pushed out. The shirt grew tighter and no longer fit her as her luscious mounds lifted it up higher up her thighs.

  Stephanie couldn't help herself as she fell back onto the mattress. She was buried in a wave of his scent and her need flared up in an unimaginable mix of frustration and pleasure. Her bare legs curled up onto the bed and slid beneath the covers, rejoicing in the silky feel against her heated skin. Her shirt rode higher, revealing lack of panties. Her center was already wet and ready for her absent lover. She groaned and arched her back as she imagined him standing there, watching her wrap herself in his sheets.

  A smirk spread across her lips as she raised her arms above her head. She rubbed her thighs tightly together and reveled in the friction it caused, but it wasn't enough. One of her hands snaked its way down her side to her waist. She could just picture him at the end of the bed, his eyes wide and unblinking. Her hand reached the inside of her thigh and her tongue slipped out to lick her dry lips. She softly gasped as her fingers brushed against her warm, wet center.

  Her other hand reached down and pulled up her shirt until the bottom lay just below her heaving breasts. Now half naked on his bed, she reveled in the feeling of the sheets beneath her bare skin. Her smooth legs slid along the blankets as her fingers began to glide across her hard, sensitive nub. She couldn't help the groans which escaped her red lips. The heat between her legs, however, demanded more.

  Stephanie rolled over and the shirt went above her swollen, pert breasts. She spread herself out and rubbed her entire body across his scent. Her mind was growing hazy as her breasts bulged and rubbed against the sheets with the hot need inside her growing and gnawing away. Her hands entwined themselves through the blankets and she buried her face into her pillow. Her breaths were coming out in pants now as she leaned over onto her side and touched herself again. She imagined him again sitting beside the bed, the bulge in his pants evident and his face flush with need for her. She pushed her breasts together with her arms and they pushed out into large, luscious mounds tempting his phantom to take them, touch them.

  Her fingers dove deeper inside her and her hips moved with their rhythm. She closed her eyes and rubbed her cheek into his pillow. This was her territory. He was hers, and she would mark it to keep others from being here. She rolled onto her back and moaned to the empty room. She wanted him here so badly, wanted him to be on top of her and touching her. To feel him glide his hands all over her body and feel his manhood sliding in and out of her.

  Stephanie pumped her fingers into herself to fill his absence. She flailed and groaned as her hips tried to keep up. The feeling was there again, that delicious tightening. Her lust pushed her on, the pressure built. Her eyes widened and a smile slid onto her lips. She could imagine him grunting and groaning over her, pumping faster and faster inside her. She would be clutching onto him, begging him for more.

  "Oh Chuck!" she shrieked to the empty room. "Yes! Yes!"

  Her fingers worked their magic for a time and kept her at that peak, but it could never last as long as she wanted. Soon she was falling back to earth and she lay there in the bed panting. Her climax was reached and her mind was free of worry at the moment, but she felt empty somehow.

  "Oh Chuck..." she whispered as she fought back tears of disappointment.

  Stephanie sighed, sat up and looked around herself. A heavy blush came on her cheeks when she realized the bed was even messier than before. The young woman stood and tried to rearrange the covers as they looked before, but nothing was quite the same. With how messy it'd been before, she only hoped he wouldn't notice the change.

  Stephanie then looked down at herself and realized she looked about as messy as the bed. Her shirt was wrinkled and her body was covered in dry sweat. As she ran her hand through her hair, she recalled she hadn't yet showered and washed her hair. She hurriedly left Chuck's room and got right on that, if only to distract herself from what she'd just done. As she stood in the shower with the warm water running down her body, her face blushed at the memories.

  After her shower, the young woman opted to avoid any further trouble inside. Instead she put on some of Chuck's extra clothes, which she thought odd that they didn't fit too badly, and grabbed a coat from a rack by the front door. With a hop and a skip she jumped across the porch and out onto the driveway. She heeded her host's warning about wandering far and only investigated around the cabin. Unfortunately, there wasn't much out there to see. The area about fifty yards around was completely cleared of brush and trees to avoid the danger of fire. Chuck had planted in their place a thick patch of green grass. This was watered from the rain and from the well which also fed the cabin.

  In her wanderings along the edge of the grass, though, Stephanie stumbled upon some large, fresh tracks. They came from the woods and wandered around the dirt edge of the grass. The footprints were paw prints, but elongated to the point that the pads were almost as long as a human's foot. As she bent down and studied them, her nose caught a scent of fur and something else, something very familiar. She couldn't place her finger on it, but she swore she recognized that smell on someone.

  There was no doubt in her mind, however, that she knew to what these tracks belonged. It was the footprint of one of those strange, terrifying beasts. She had no doubt the creature had followed her here to this place, and the thought scared her. She glanced up and looked into the woods. Nothing moved save for a few birds and a squirrel scampering across the trees. She stood up and wrapped her arms around herself. The woods didn't seem so friendly now, and all the fun had gone out of her adventuring.

  Stephanie was just moving toward the porch for safety when she heard a car along the driveway. She watched as Chuck's vehicle emerged from the forest and he noticed her standing beside the building. Chuck turned the car and bumped to a stop near where she stood.

  "Enjoying the sights?" he teased in an offhand manner, but Stephanie became aware of a slight pallor to his face.

  "Just looking to see where all the bodies are buried," she returned in jest. She couldn't help noticing that his grip on the steering wheel tightened and the smile slipped off his face for a moment. Then he was back to normal and was hopping out of the vehicle.

  "You've got a lot of places to look," he pointed out as he opened the back door. Inside was enough food to last two people for several weeks. "As soon as my property stops, it goes into cattle country and then the state owns a lot of stuff up here, too." He noticed her eyes wander over to where she knew the footprints lay, but he was in the dark about her worried glance. "Something wrong?"

  "I saw these weird tracks over there," she explained as she waved her hand in the general direction of the footprints. "They looked like wolf tracks."

  "What kind of tracks?" he quickly asked, but he didn't even wait for a reply before he was moving toward where she'd pointed.

  "Some sort of a large dog or something," Stephanie told him. If she would have suggested what she really suspected, he no doubt would have looked at her like she'd cracked under all the recent pressure.

  The pair quickly arrived at the spot and Chuck knelt down beside the tracks. He had a deep frown on his face as he ran his hands over the footprints. Stephanie saw his nostrils fla
re and his eyes narrow, and she'd never seen him so angry and, strangely, insulted. He appeared to be deeply lost in thought, and she wasn't sure disturbing him right then was a good idea, but she had to know if her suspicions were correct.

  "What do you think it is?" she asked in a low, hushed voice.

  "I'm not sure," he admitted with a shake of his head. He half glanced at her with one eyes remaining on the tracks. "They appear to be wolf tracks, but they're a little strange."

  "Yeah, they look too long, don't they?" Stephanie eagerly agreed. She was glad someone agreed with her.

  "Yeah, it's pretty strange," Chuck commented.

  "You think whatever it was came last night?" she asked him, and was surprised when he shook his head.

  "These are a few days old, see how the earth is all cracked and the color is the same as the rest of the dirt around here?" Chuck explained as he pointed out the lack of discoloration. "It hasn't been disturbed for a while."

  That didn't make any sense to Stephanie. If she'd only arrived last night, she couldn't think why would the creature be wandering around Chuck's house. Perhaps one of the creatures had gone passed on the way to the town, but if this was a werewolf than they could have driven into town in a car.

  "So you didn't see anything around here that could've made these tracks?" she asked him. The young woman was hoping perhaps someone else had seen these creatures and she could have some verification of her sanity. Unfortunately he shook his head.

  "I haven't really been around here the last few days. Working late at the office, you know," he told her, and she felt a little guilty. She had hardly stepped foot in there this last week and here he was working long into the night away from a comfortable home. "That's probably why I missed him," he mumbled to himself.

  "Him? You think it was a guy wolf or something?" she wondered. She had no idea he was such an expert on reading tracks, but then he did have a large, eclectic collection of books.

  "I'm just throwing it out there," Chuck replied with a shrug. "I don't really know what gender it is."

  "Oh..." Stephanie answered with disappointment in her tone. She had more than a hunch he wasn't far off, though. She had a feeling both those creatures which had grappled in her house were males, at least going by how aggressive and territorial they were toward her.

  "But anyway, we'd better get some of that food inside before it goes bad," her partner pointed out as he stood.

  They got all the food inside, and stuffed into every conceivable spot they could find. He'd definitely overdid himself in the buying. With the last of the edibles put into the cupboard, Stephanie now had a chance to ask about Chuck's pale face.

  "So did you see a ghost or something?" she wondered as she looked over his worried expression.

  "I went to your house and talked to Bob about getting some things for you," he replied as his face darkened.

  "And how'd that go?" she asked, but she figured she already knew the answer. She hadn't seen any of her stuff when they'd unpacked the food.

  "He pretty much told me he wasn't going to give me any of his stuff and accused me of getting between you two," Chuck mused with a hint of a grin on his face.

  "Did you show him the note?" Stephanie questioned him.

  "Yeah, but he just tore it up. I couldn't even get inside," Chuck recalled the bitter confrontation. "It looked like a lot of the place had been cleaned up already, though, so I'm guessing the police are done looking around."

  "I guess I should have gone with you to get my stuff," she admitted with a sigh. She sat down at the small dining table and shook her head. "But did he really say you were getting between us?"

  "Well, it words a little louder and not as polite," her partner answered as he joined her at the table. "The neighbors were giving him some odd looks with some of the words he was throwing out."

  "Maybe...maybe I'd better go talk with him," Stephanie regretfully informed her partner. Having him go on her behalf had just made things worse, and she needed to stand up for herself against her increasingly tyrannical spouse.

  "You sure you're up for that?" Chuck asked her in evident unease.

  "I'm feeling just fine," she replied as she waved her hand in the air to brush aside his concerns. She'd been feeling great since after her exercise on his bed. "I need to stop letting you do all the work and get a hold of myself."

  "I don't know, Boss," her partner hesitated to agree. He looked her up and down with a careful glance, and still wasn't satisfied with her health. "Everything's been going bad for you lately."

  "I know that, and the next thing you're going to tell me is I'm going to have a heart attack in a few days," Stephanie spoke up. She stood from her chair with a resolute expression on her face. "But I'm being serious here when I say I want to handle this problem with Bob today and get back to work," she insisted. "If you won't take me to town, then I'll just walk and hitch a ride at the main road."

  "I'll take you to have a talk with Bob, but what are you going to do after that?" Chuck pointed out. Stephanie frowned for a moment and then shrugged her shoulders.

  "I guess I'll have to get some money together and find a hotel room or something until I can get him out." She really couldn't let Chuck support her any longer, and doing so would probably end up proving Bob right regarding her partner getting in the way of her marriage.

  "You're forgetting one very important thing," he commented as he folded his arms across his chest.

  "What's that?" she asked with a brow raised in question. He nodded toward the kitchen.

  "I just stocked my kitchen for two that'll last quite a few weeks," he reminded his boss. "Are you really going to leave now and let all that food spoil?"

  "Oh, I kinda forgot about all that stuff," Stephanie replied with a sheepish grin on her face.

  "Good thing your head's attached to your shoulders," Chuck teased, and she stuck her tongue out in return. "But in all seriousness, I can't eat all this by myself." She sighed, and looked to her friend and partner.

  "I suppose I could stick around for a little while," she agreed, but there would be conditions. "But I don't want you pampering me to death." She held up her hand to stop him arguing, and continued. "And I'm going to be going to work every day, no matter how bad I'm feeling."

  "That's going a little too far," he countered with a deep frown on his face. "What if you end up making yourself sick?"

  "That's where my Great Plan comes into play," Stephanie announced. She had a wide grin on her lips that made Chuck nervous, and she liked having him wrapped around her pinky finger. "After the next conference I'm going to be taking a long vacation. I've got enough money in the bank and it's been a while, so I think I'm entitled to one."

  Chuck, so relieved she didn't have some crazy idea up her sleeve, laughed out loud. Stephanie frowned, but the sound of his mirth was so innocent and full of relief she couldn't help but smile.

  "What's so funny?" she asked him when he'd finally finished.

  "Just you, Boss," Chuck replied. He brushed aside the tears of joy and stood from his chair. "So you'll stay here for three weeks until our next conference and then take your vacation?"

  "Is it that far off?" Stephanie wondered in surprise. She was terrible with dates.

  "Yep, that far," he answered with a nod. "But I promise I'll keep us both in line, even if it kills you." Stephanie huffed and folded her arms across her chest.

  "Hey, why over my dead body?"

  "I'm pretty valuable to myself."

  "Un-hunh," she grumbled, but the young woman was pretty happy with this long arrangement. She worried that the werewolves would come back and tear her to pieces or do whatever it was they wanted to do to her. With the way her husband was acting since her eyes were opened, she bet Bob would have shoved her at the beasts and ran away. Now with Chuck around she at least had a chance to defend herself, or better yet escape from them.

  "But anyway, when were you wanting to go deal with your husband?" Chuck asked as he looked at the
time. The day was half over.

  "May as well get this over with," Stephanie sighed, and then her stomach growled. "Well, after we get something to eat."

  Food was quickly and easily prepared and eaten. Within an hour the two were on the road toward the town. Stephanie fidgeted in her seat as she thought about the coming confrontation. She hadn't seen him since their fight, and she worried he'd try to hurt her like he'd done last time. Chuck glanced over to her with a worried eye.

  "You want me to go into the house with you?"

  "I'm not really sure," she admitted with a sigh. "It'd make me feel better, but I don't think it'd help with Bob."

  "I'll just stay in the doorway and you can get your stuff while I wait there."

  "To be honest, I was going to try talking to Bob, so it might take a while," Stephanie informed her partner. "It's not that I think he's going to change or anything, I just...I just figure I need to tell him how I feel and what he's been doing to me."

  "Good, because I don't think he's going to listen, but I bet he's going to try one of his old tricks of acting nice," Chuck reminder her. He didn't want her falling into that guy's trap again and getting herself hurt. Next time her husband might try something physical.

  "He hasn't been using that trick very well lately," she pointed out as she leaned back in her seat. "Maybe he never was very good, and I was just too blinded by my stupidity to see it."

  "Well, you're not blind now," he pointed out. "So you may as well tell him off when he starts to be a jerk."

  "I can do that, but you'd better be there to break up the fight. He's not going to be very happy when I tell him I'm leaving him for good."

  "For good?" Chuck repeated. He wasn't sure he'd heard that right.

  "For good," Stephanie confirmed with a heavy sigh. "I'll look into a lawyer after the vacation and get the messy divorce started after that. I'm sure he's going to try to take as much as he can."

  They drove down the hill into the small town. Soon the car was parked on the road in front of Stephanie's home, and she frowned when she noticed the strange car she had seen before parked in the driveway. She turned to Chuck and nodded to the other vehicle.

  "Was that there when you came before?"