by Rae Foxx
She was my everything.
My world.
And she was walking away.
Fuck, I had to get out of here and I needed to get her.
“Wait!” I yelled after her, batting away the waitress who was trying to unbutton my jeans again.
I buttoned my shirt and my jeans, muttering half-assed apologies to the waitress still on her knees.
“Where are you going?” Vanessa moaned in what I am sure she thought was a seductive way, pawing at my crotch. This wasn’t a game of hide the sausage.
“I need to get her--” I said without thinking, trying to step around Vanessa, who was now standing and fuming.
“Get her? Why? You have me?” Vanessa wasn’t moving, and my wolf was ready to bust out of my skin and sweep Camille out of here.
God, even her name was beautiful.
“I need to leave,” I was firm, pushing Vanessa aside as gently as I could. In my eagerness to leave, however, I was nowhere as gentle as I thought.
My hand slammed against Vanessa’s collarbone, sending her stumbling backward into the wall knocking over bottles from shelves along the way.
“What the fuck?”
I mumbled an apology that was possibly more than a bark and rushed out, determined to find my mate, and begin the lifetime of apologies I was sure I owed her after getting caught trying to fuck her coworker.
All of those iron bars that pulled me toward her tightened, leading me to the main room, which was as loud and smoke-filled as I had left it.
She wasn’t ten feet from me, wiping circles into the bar hard enough to take off the decades of dirt and varnish in one-minute flat. She was a goddess in her own right. How had I missed her before? That waitress and I had passed her and yet, I didn’t notice. Being led by my dick, that’s what I was doing.
Never again. I was done looking. She was mine, and I was hers. Even if she was human, she owned me already.
Everything felt right in the world.
I wanted nothing more.
“Hi,” I said, walking right up to her and leaning over the bar as I bounced on my toes. Fuck, what was I? A twelve-year-old with a crush?
“I’m not going to suck your dick,” she said, her voice harsh, she didn’t even look up to me, even though I could tell she wanted to. “This isn’t that kind of place.”
“I know… It’s something else…” I hesitated, sniffing the air again as I tried to find some scent of a shifter. Squirrel. Racoon. Wolf. Hippopotamus. Nothing.
She was human. How the hell was I supposed to explain what I was to her, what she was to me in a bar full of humans? I couldn’t rush over to her and demand she leave with me, knock her over the head and throw her over my shoulder, caveman style, even though that’s what my wolf wanted to do. Not really.
“Fine. Can I get you something to drink, I am sure--” She looked up then, her eyes locking with mine for a second time and sending another wave of heat, desire, and ownership over me.
She was scared. God, I could see it in her eyes. I could taste it in the air, my wolf whimpered in a need to protect her, the already tight bind she had with me snapping me closer.
She took a step back, her chin high even though her wide eyes shook.
“What do you want?”
To protect you.
“A beer.” She handed it to me without question and quickly moved away to some guy in suspenders that was emitting so many pheromones toward her it was making me sick.
Leave it to me to fuck up finding my mate.
I stood there, beer in hand, wrestling with what to do for far too long before deciding to go back to the table.
“The fuck happened in there?” Grant asked the second I slid into my now cold seat and slid the beer across the table. I couldn’t even look at him, my eyes were stuck on the bar, on Camille with her button-up shirt and jeans with far too many sequins on them, her wide smile and perfectly straight teeth, and the freckles that covered her nose.
“Nothing clearly happened back there,” Trevor piped up, stealing my beer and pulling my focus back to them. “You couldn’t have been back there for more than three minutes. Wait, we’re talking about Luke here. Could’ve been nothing.”
My growl came out before I could stop it. Grant and Trevor were my friends, but they were also my betas and they needed to stay in their place, especially when I was on edge like I was now. I leaned over the table and smacked the two of them upside the head, wolf growling loudly.
They both slid back into place, even though they chuckled and clinked their glasses together.
While they started up a conversation about whether or not to play pool, I focused on my mate. My wolf stirred as I took her in. She served each drink with a smile and while I knew that was her job, I couldn’t help the pinch of jealousy every time I saw it.
She should be smiling at me. Laughing with me. Looking at only me.
“You know that girl?” Grant asked, following my line of vision to the bar.
“Camille. Yeah, you could say I know her.” Know her in the way that she was born to be my mate. Know her in the way that she should be underneath me instead of serving drinks in a one-horse town.
I needed to get her away from here, tell her what she was to me, tell her that I’d been searching for her forever and a day.
“You trying to fuck two humans in this town?” Trevor laughed, he and Grant butting fists. “She looks slutty enough to me.”
My wolf reacted before I could stop it, the feral snarl breaking past my human lips as I lunged at Trevor from across the table, fingers wrapping around his shirt as I lifted him off the ground.
“You wanna say that again,” I snarled, and Trevor whimpered ‘no’, eyes wide as he bared his neck submissively.
“No, Alpha,” both Grant and Trevor mumbled the apology, settling back into their chairs as they kept their necks bared.
I gave them a grunt and they relaxed, but not without giving each other a warning look. It wasn’t often I lost my temper, but they knew not to cross me.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Grant said after a moment, his voice wavering as he watched me. “It’s been too many moons since I was home. Forget the human, we can always find you another.” Grant never liked being away from the pack for long, but his whining was crawling all over my last nerve.
“We can’t leave yet,” I said, Camille’s eyes lifting to mine and freezing for a half-second before she continued. “She’s not just some girl. That female is my mate. We’re staying in town tonight.”
3
Cami
Worst first day of work ever.
After I walked in on Vanessa going down on that guy the entire day had been one cluster fuck after another.
I didn’t know what it was about that guy, but he set something off in me. First, I got all territorial seeing Vanessa with him, then I wanted to jump into his arms, go home with him and spend the rest of my life in his presence.
No.
I was a nomad, I belonged to no one, let alone some biker that looked like he belonged on the cover of ‘Hot Bikers Daily’. Thank God he had finally left; it had been after an hour of staring at me, but still.
In my stupor over him, I’d lost tips, and (gag) been told I should smile more. One man suggested that I was drinking my way through the night even though I hadn’t taken one shot.
That guy had fucked me up hard. Thing was, I had no clue as to why. Yeah, he was drop-dead gorgeous, but he was everything I’d sworn to myself that I wasn’t in the market for. Bad boy biker that was sure to have more than one vendetta or warrant. Or maybe he was fucking crazy.
I could have sworn I saw his brown eyes flash to gold underneath the yellowish glow coming from the lightbulb in the storeroom. I could have sworn I heard a growl when he asked for a beer.
I knew what I saw, but damn it all if I was starting to think this place was doing something to me. People’s eyes didn’t turn colors.
“You’re going to rub the finish o
ff those tables. Though I have to say, they might look better if you do.” Vanessa came up behind me, and I jumped. She wasn’t wrong, I had been obsessively scrubbing this one spot since I had laid eyes on… on…
Damn it! I didn’t even know his name.
“Yeah, sorry. I’ve got shit on my mind.” Or crazy yellow eyes that pulled me into them like some kind of lure...
“Come on, girl, be real. You’ve been jumping like a feral cat in heat since you walked in on me.” Vanessa leaned over the bar to stare at me. “I mean, you’ve seen ass and titties before, right?”
“I have tits. So, yes, I have seen them.” I threw the cloth down and folded my arms. Refusing to clean.
“Cocks.” I gave her a look. “Okay, okay. From your expression you’d think I was gutting him alive in there or something.”
I flinched, my stomach knotting together as anger flared through me. The idea of her gutting him… I wanted to rip her eyes out.
Okay, I was starting to question what this place was doing to me.
Day one, and I was thinking about ripping out eyeballs. Nice.
I went back to my compulsive bar scrubbing.
“Who was he, anyway? I mean, what was his name?” I asked, moving onto the next table trying like hell not to sound too eager to get the scoop on him.
“No clue what his name was, but he had a big dick. That’s all I know. Said he was passing through town on a road trip with his friends or some shit. I wasn’t paying attention if you know what I mean.” She moved her hips in a back and forth motion as though I were too stupid to get the idea.
I almost dry-heaved on her idea, all of that white-hot rage boiling up again.
I needed to change the subject, but I couldn’t stop myself, questions kept pouring out of me.
“What about his eyes? Did you see how they turned golden?” My voice came out too high, so damned hungry for any details about the man who had my entire body coiled up like a snake ready to bite.
“Fuck if I know. Did you get this one? I can’t tell clean from dirty in this place anymore.” She motioned to the wobbly circular table in front of her, and I shook my head. I’d been too busy confusion-cleaning the hell out of that one to get to the others before she came in.
“I think he growled at me,” I muttered mostly to myself, but she picked up on it. The place was empty and had been for a half-hour, but this was the first chance we’d had to talk after the rush.
“He made all kinds of noises, grunting, thrusting, moaning noises.” I slammed the towel down on the table I had been cleaning, all of that eye-poking defensiveness coming back. Vanessa rolled her eyes so hard I was pretty sure I heard it in her sigh.
“Look, Cami, I don’t know what that guy did to you, but you need to go home, have a bath, and get yourself off or something. Come back fresh tomorrow after you’re rested.”
I couldn’t even look her in the eye. Every time I tried, jealousy ripped through me at the thought that she’d touched him, had her hands on him, that he’d had his hands on her in the same way. Hands that should’ve been on me.
“Okay, I’ll go after I help you.” I ground the words out through a clenched jaw.
“No, go, I’ll finish up. Done it a thousand times. Get out of here. But let’s make up for those lost tips tomorrow, got it?”
I nodded and took her advice. That’s all I needed. Get home. Shower. Get some fucking rest. Yeah, that would clear my head for sure. Grabbing my purse, I bee-lined to the back door and then outside to my busted ass Corolla. Seeing my car there made me relax. This beat-up junk pile was practically my home. I needed that after tonight.
That and my dildo.
I put the key into the driver’s side door when I heard footsteps behind me.
“This is not the night, jerk,” I called over my shoulder hoping to deter whoever thought they were brave enough to try something on me.
“It’s a nice night… I mean, you’re a nice night. I mean... Hi, Camille…”
I whirled around at the sound of his voice, knowing it was him by some raw instinct alone, those weird tethering fishing lines that I had felt when he looked at me last time snapped back into place as though they had always been there. I waved my hand through the air, as though I could bat them away. He was disheveled, more than when I’d barged in on him with Vanessa. But not hot and bothered ‘I’m gonna get some’ disheveled. More, ‘I’m in turmoil and circling the eighth ring of hell’ disheveled. Damn. Why was that even a good look for him?
I had a feeling that all of his six foot one, muscles wider than my neck glory would look good with anything… even with the way his eyes glowed like the sun was rising in his irises.
Okay, so I hadn’t imagined it.
“What are you doing here? And my name is Cami, I mean, people call me Cami.” Oh, good job, dumbass. Why don’t you give this stranger your address and hand over your keys while you’re at it?
“Cami. That’s a beautiful name, female.” The gold flashed in his eyes, and I fought the need to recoil. Female? “I’ve been looking for you for a while…” he stopped, running his hands through his hair like a bashful underwear model. “I mean… how do I say this…”
“Are you always this bad at picking people up?” I turned the key, ready to drive away from him. No matter how cute he was while fumbling.
“My wolf and I have been searching.”
I froze, hand shaking on my key as I turned it.
“Your wolf?” I scanned the parking lot, but didn’t see any animal with him. It was him in all his tattooed glory. He stepped closer and placed his hands on my upper arms.
He hadn’t touched me before, but one caress of his wide, hot hands, and I never wanted to be touched by anyone again. It was as though I’d been in a winter storm all my life and someone brought me in from the cold and laid a thick warm blanket over me. He groaned and the sound wrenched me out of the fantasy and back into reality.
“What the...?” I tried to pull away, even as my heart was pulling me into him.
Maybe he was drunk. That was it. I was tired and he was drunk, and this needed to end. Now.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked as I jerked my body away from him, away from those brown eyes, that hair that my fingers twitched at, wanting to comb through. That mouth that beckoned me. I swayed toward him involuntarily, but stopped short of falling.
“What the hell did you do to me? I don’t…” I looked down expecting smoke and mirrors or some other evidence of a spell or magic--something to explain my unparalleled attraction to the man who hours ago was fucking my co-worker. “How are you making me feel this way?”
“I did nothing, at least not on purpose. This is how it feels. The bond. It’s natural. Don’t fight it. We can’t fight this, Cami.”
I staggered back though everything in me told me to plow forward, into his arms. “The bond...look, you pervert, I’m not sure what game you are playing but I’m out. I can fight this to hell and back, buddy.”
His brow dipped, and his face fell as I spoke. He staggered back until he leaned against my car, the look on his face pure disappointment. “No, you have to know. It’s the wolf. There must be something in you. Somewhere in your genes. I mean, your scent says human but there must be…”
“What is this wolf?” I hesitated, my heart thundering in my chest as I once again found myself wanting to dive-bomb into his arms and rip all my clothes off. “You know what? I don’t want to know.”
This fucker had slipped something in my drink… not that I had a drink, but he had clearly slipped me something and was trying to get me to go with him or he was going to kidnap me. Not this girl and not tonight. I pulled my pepper spray from my purse and shot it right at his eyes, even though I hated the thought of injuring him or those eyes. He screamed out while his ass hit the ground in pain.
My heart screamed at me, wrenching in an emotional pain that I had never experienced, but I took my chance, got into my car, and sped out of there.
<
br /> This girl wasn’t going to be a victim. No way in hell. Gorgeous man or not.
And as much as I hated myself for it, before pulling out, I looked in my rearview mirror to check on him.
He was already gone.
4
Luke
“I’ve had it with this place. Can we get out of here?” Grant grumbled, same as he had been doing for the last four hours and continued mashing buttons on the TV remote with so much force that I was amazed the things were still in one piece.
Poor Grant never really fit in the human world. He always hit things too hard and spoke a little too loud. My wolf was a snarling stubborn bastard in my chest; every minute I was away from Cami was agony to him.
“Stop being a pouty pup,” I snapped, throwing the towel I had been twisting at his head. He would have to hold out a little longer.
As a valued member of my pack, The Silver Moon Wolves, and my protector, he needed to be here with me.
“Only you would get in trouble like this, Luke. Only you.” It was then that the remote cracked in two, although that might have been from the snapping snarl that my wolf blasted from my chest.
“What do you mean only me?” My voice was more snapping wolf, my protective alpha gnashing teeth to escape. “No one’s mating is a piece of cake.”
I gave him a look, and Trevor burst out laughing from the hotel desk he had been doodling on. Everyone would remember that. His head was under his mate, Gwen’s, dress, eating her out when the door to reveal the happy couple to the pack swung open.
Even Grant was blushing and grinning like a mad man.
“Any mating is a piece of cake compared to this. A human in the middle of nowhere who decided you were a stalker, or a serial killer, and pepper-sprayed your ass. Now that’s a fucking complication if I ever heard one.” Grant was victorious and Trevor was laughing at me now. I gnashed my teeth once and the guy zipped it.
“Plus, there’s the other shit to deal with,” Grant reminded me as I threw my arms behind my head, leaning back on the rock-hard upholstered chair and wishing this tiny town had at least a two-star hotel.
