Her Captive Wolf (Sawtooth Shifters Book 1)

by Kristen Strassel

  We were both panting when I pulled her back up, the sweet taste of her lips replaced by the salty tang of what she’d reduced me to.

  “Stand up.” I could barely speak.

  Trina’s body shook as she followed my command, those amazing tits trembling with her breath. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

  “Take off your jeans,” I managed. She didn’t take her eyes off me as she undid the button and fly, shimmying out of her pants. Mine were still caught around my calves, and my cock stirred again. I’d come too quickly, but I knew Trina would bring me back to the tipping point in no time.

  I was totally lost in the sight of her standing naked in front of me. Her breath was still uneven, her gaze unwavering, as she brought her hands up over her belly. I moved her hand away; she wasn’t going to hide anymore.

  “Bend over the arm of the couch,” I instructed.

  “Shadow!” Trina laughed. She did as she was told, her eyes dancing in the low light of the room when she looked over her shoulder at me. “I didn’t expect this.”

  “Good.” I came up behind her. Her round ass was high in the air, but she held herself up on her arms. Running my hand down her spine, I pushed her shoulders down into the cushion. My knee wedged between her legs, and there was no hiding how turned on she was. Her pussy was soaking wet and ready for me. I nudged against it with my thigh and she cooed. Leaning down so the weight of my body pressed her into the couch, I grabbed a handful of her hair. “I’m full of surprises.”

  A smile played on her lips.

  “Are you?” Her words came between labored breaths when my cock, now back at full attention, slid against the curve of her ass.

  I didn’t answer her. Instead I licked her shoulder. Trina moaned, and I continued licking and kissing all the way to the dimples on the small of her back. She didn’t see me drop to my knees, but when my tongue hit the sensitive folds between her legs, she stood up straight and moaned. I pulled away from her. “Get back down.”

  Trina reached around and wound her fingers in my hair, thinking she could get me to go back to work with a tug. I didn’t move. “If you want me to bury my face in your gorgeous pussy, you’re going to have to bend over and open yourself up wide for me. Do as I say, Trina. You’ll get what you want.”

  “Somebody gets bossy when they’re naked.” She looked down at me. God, she was perfection at this angle. All ass and hips and tits before I got to the face of an angel. One more tug on my hair. Still didn’t work. With a sigh, she leaned back down on the cushion. “You weren’t like this the other night.”

  “The other night I was a man who hadn’t had water in too long. You brought me back to life. I’ll never get enough of you.” I barely had a chance to finish the words before my lips were on her clit, rolling the sensitive skin around on my tongue, licking, and sucking as she writhed under me. I held her still so she couldn’t escape.

  I let her go and her hips moved in rhythm with my mouth. It was our first dance together, and I’d never forget it. She cried my name when I slipped two fingers inside of her. I pumped fast as she squeezed them, adding another. I was going to fill her with everything I had. I needed to make the emptiness go away for both of us.

  Her body pulsed double time with the movement, and her inner muscles clamped down on me as she came, hard. Trina screamed, but I didn’t stop.

  “Shadow,” she panted. “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?” My lips moved against the soft folds of her skin. I’d been totally lost, in tune with her body.

  I knew better than that. I could never let my guard down.

  Another crash brought my wolf rumbling against the surface of my skin.

  “There’s someone outside.” She sank down to her knees and wrapped her arms around me. Her heart was pounding so hard I expected it to bruise my ribs. “It sounded like they hit my truck.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Trina

  The impact shattered the night.

  At first, I thought my brain exploded. I hadn’t come like that in...I’m not sure if I’d ever come like that. Shadow brought me to the boiling point until liquid lava coursed through my veins. But as waves died from a crash to a gentle roll, a noise I was all too familiar with echoed in my ears.

  It was the same sound that haunted me in my dreams. It was possible I was dreaming. I’d totally let go, and Shadow and I were doing things to each other’s bodies that may only exist in another dimension. It certainly hadn’t been part of my life for a long time. I was glad he had me bent over the couch, so he couldn’t see that the pleasure he wrung from my body had brought me to tears.

  Glass shattered and my nightmares were back. Those fuckers always had to win, didn’t they?

  “Shit,” Shadow mumbled under his breath.

  Now I clung to him because I needed to feel his heart beat beneath his skin. If this was a nightmare, he’d be broken and bloody, wouldn’t he? Unless my brain had concocted a new way to fuck with me. But if I was awake, that meant that someone was outside, on my property. Both options sucked.

  Our clothes laid in a pile beside the couch. I pushed Shadow’s stuff at him and got dressed quickly. Then I went straight for the gun. Some people gave me shit for keeping a loaded gun out in the open, but none of them had come up with a better solution. Shadow was already out the door before I had a chance to pull the lever back. He’d thrown himself on top of whoever assaulted my truck. All I could hear was the two of them grunting, and the wet and unmistakable thump of bone ripping flesh open. Blood splattered on impact.

  Shadow didn’t stop until the job was done. He pushed off the ruined mass of a man, covered in his victim’s blood. He circled my truck, his eyes wild. All animal. I wasn’t sure if he was seeing anything.

  I aimed my gun at the guy on the ground. He didn’t move because he was definitely dead.

  Holy shit.

  “You killed him.” I stammered on the words. My mouth was totally dry and I couldn’t feel anything. My head was just a floating mass on top of nothing. I dropped the gun. “Shadow. Oh my God.”

  His eyes didn’t change as he put his arms around me, pulling me into him. I cringed—he was covered in the dead man’s blood. “He wanted to hurt you. Or he wanted to hurt me. Either way, there was no other option.”

  “We could’ve called the police.”

  “Says the woman with the gun.” Shadow tipped my face up to his, fingers slimy with the dead man’s blood. I pulled away from him. “Come on, Trina. How were we going to explain this to the police? He’s one of Ryker’s goons. Or was, anyway.”

  “I guess the police should’ve stopped this from happening.” I sighed. Ryker was one powerful fucker, and he’d been sending not so subtle messages that I shouldn’t have screwed with his farm or his dog fights. “When is it going to stop?”

  “When someone more powerful than Ryker puts a stop to it,” Shadow growled. “Do you have a shovel?”

  “In the shed.”

  Shadow let go of me and stalked to the backyard. I picked up the gun before I ran after him. I wasn’t foolish enough to think the dead guy had been working alone, or that no one would be coming for him.

  “You’re going to bury him? On my property?”

  “Yeah.” Shadow’s face was slicked with sweat, dirt and blood. Those same lips that had so softly driven me wild curled up in a sneer. “Got any better ideas?”

  “He’s going to attract wild animals!”

  Shadow raised his eyebrows. “Exactly.” He brought the shovel down to move the first bit of earth. “Any shifters that come here have one thing on their mind. Revenge. Or they want to take something that belongs to you. I’ll bury him just deep enough they’ll still be able to smell him. They’ll know the consequences of trying to bring you harm.”

  “You’re scaring me.”

  My Shadow wanted peace and harmony between the packs and townspeople. The person who was tearing a hole in my yard was a b
loodthirsty animal.

  The shovel stopped. I couldn’t see the head of it anymore, just the pole. The moonlight caught in Shadow’s eyes, and for a moment, I could forget what I’d just seen him do.

  “I’m the only one you shouldn’t be afraid of, Trina.” He went back to work. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, especially for helping me.”

  My blood ran cold. “We need to check the shelter.”

  Shadow could be concerned with my safety, but all I cared about was the animals.

  He nodded but didn’t look up. “This won’t take long.”

  If I’d had any questions about his otherness, they were gone watching him tonight. He’d easily dominated that man, and in no time, he’d dug a considerable sized ditch. I couldn’t believe we were burying a dead man on my property.

  Ryker’s guy had bashed the hell out of my truck. It was in rough shape to begin with, but he’d shattered the windshield. We couldn’t drive to the shelter. “I’m going to have to call Kiera.” Shit. “You don’t think Ryker would do anything to them, do you?”

  Shadow looked up and sighed. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”

  My heart pounded as I waited for someone to pick up the phone. I imagined them bound and in the same shape as my truck.

  “Trina.” Kiera sounded half asleep. “ Y’okay?”

  “Are you?”

  “Yeah. What’s going on? It’s almost one in the morning.”

  “You need to come get us.” I heard Lyssie in the background and Kiera gasped. It was pretty hard not to freak out over a middle of the night phone call. “Someone wrecked my truck, and I’m panicking that they got to the shelter.”

  “Did you call the police?” Kiera asked.

  “Shadow took care of it.” There wasn’t any other way to describe watching him drag a dead man’s body across my yard and throwing it into a hole. The first layer of dirt already covered him.

  “Oh.” Kiera knew exactly what I meant. “We’ll be right there.”

  I THOUGHT I WAS GOING to pass out as Kiera drove us to the shelter. I’d made those animals a promise. Whatever shit had happened to them in the past, whoever didn’t want them, that was behind them now. They were safe with me and they were loved. If anything (else) happened to the place that had become a sanctuary for all of us, I would lose my mind. I couldn’t let everyone that trusted me get hurt. The first attack was just a warning. I had no doubt any subsequent attacks would deliver the intended message loud and clear.

  And I needed the shelter. Before Shadow arrived, it was the only part of my life that gave me purpose. Without it, I’d spiral back into a drunken blackness.

  “It’s the same kind of attack that happened at the shelter,” Kiera said after I recounted tonight’s story, smoothing over the way Shadow beat the perpetrator to a bloody pulp. Just days before the full moon, the front windows of Forever Home had been smashed, the lobby trashed. They didn’t take anything, the animals were spooked, but no one was hurt. But the other night, they’d had the wolves to protect them. Tonight they were on their own.

  “It’s got Ryker’s mark all over it. The scent was the same both times.” Shadow’s jaw set in a hard line. I’d made him clean up before the girls came, but he didn’t get all the blood out of the silver streaks in his hair, or the God only knows what out from under his fingernails. He’d looked like something straight out of a horror movie. He pulled me in closer, I hadn’t been able to let go of him since I’d climbed into the backseat of Kiera’s car. “They won’t bother any of you again.”

  Kiera and Lyssie exchanged concerned looks in the front seat but didn’t ask questions.

  I didn’t even wait for the car to come to a full stop before I got out and ran to the door. The plywood was still over the windows from the last attack. The dogs barked as I fumbled with the lock, my hands shaking so hard I dropped the key in the dirt. Shadow and the girls had joined me, and he guided me through the door. My legs wouldn’t work.

  Lyssie turned on the lights and the girls checked the crates. “Everything seems okay.”

  “Thank God.” I practically collapsed with relief. Two of my cockatiels were having a fit. I went over to give them belly rubs to calm them down. It calmed me down, too. I loved the birds. They were smart and funny and they’d been totally underestimated by their last owners. No one realized how long those little guys stuck around. “Nothing was weird around your apartment, was it?” I asked. Ryker’s people had already got me and the shelter, if they’d been paying attention, they’d go for them next.

  “We didn’t notice anything.” Kiera had a kitten burrowed in her hoodie. All the animals knew something was up. “But it’s not like we did a full sweep of the house, either. We were freaking out about you.”

  Shadow and I looked at each other. Already we didn’t need words to communicate. The girls couldn’t be alone. Yeah, they were strong, capable women who’d dealt with a lot of shit in their lives. But we were dealing with lunatics who’d captured and tortured two werewolf packs. Possibly more than that. Our backup needed backup.

  “I’ll call my brothers,” Shadow said. “We need to be on our toes until we beat this bastard.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Shadow

  “If we don’t have a presence in the forest, Major’s going to run roughshod over everything you try to fix.” Baron ran his hand over his hair. I’d made him and Dallas come down to the shelter in the early hours of the morning. “I’ve been watching his place. He’s got people coming and going at all hours. The other packs. They’ve always liked what you have to say, Shadow. You’re going to have to cover a lot of ground if you don’t get back there and make yourself known. You’re still dead to them.”

  “I’ll deal with him. He’s either working with me or against me. That goes for all of you.” If my brother wasn’t willing to take on Ryker with me, then I had my answer. “You two need to take turns staying with Kiera and Lyssie. One of you with them and the other in Sawtooth until we get our point across.”

  “Convenient you get to stay with Trina every night,” Dallas muttered. I raised an eyebrow; I wasn’t used to either of my brothers questioning me.

  “She’s in the most danger.” I could still smell that fucker’s blood on my skin. “They’ve come for her and her shelter. Do you have a better idea?”

  “He’s just fucking grumpy you disturbed his beauty sleep.” Baron pushed Dallas’ arm, who glared at him. I didn’t like this. I had a lot more people to rein in than Major and Ryker. I needed my brothers to fall back into line before I did anything.

  “I want you to stop at nothing to make sure those girls are safe.” My jaw set in a hard line, arms folded across my chest as my glare slid between my brothers. “Whatever it takes until we get things in line.”

  Baron narrowed his eyebrows in confusion, and then his mouth dropped open.

  “You want us to cozy up to them so they’ll work with us.” He chuckled. “Clever way to get them to do whatever you want. They’re not stupid, Shadow.”

  “Whatever it takes.” I didn’t waver. I wasn’t underestimating Kiera or Lyssie, but I did have an ulterior motive. They were both great woman that would make strong mates for my brothers. I knew what I wanted my pack to look like, and they’d play an important role. But we couldn’t lose them to an omnipresent threat of attack.

  “Major said—"

  I cut Dallas off. “I don’t give a fuck what Major said.” I couldn’t believe he’d even pull that shit with me. Major had walked away from Trina and the shelter the second he had the chance. He didn’t have anyone’s best interest in mind but his own.

  “You should probably know what he’s doing since you’re never in the forest.” Baron sighed. “He’s proposing that we take mates. Whether they’re promised to someone else or not. Strong wolves take what they want, according to him. It starts at home.”

  It starts at home. Mine was burned down. “Decide who’s staying here and who’s going back tonight. I’ll de
al with this in the morning.”

  Trina and I fell into a fitful sleep on the couch, but at least she didn’t cry tonight. My eyes opened with every whine of the animals, which with the full house at Forever Home was more often than not. Soon the girls were back, Dallas trailing behind him. I went with him back to the forest.

  “What are you doing, Shadow?” he asked as he drove. “Why are you getting these women involved in pack politics? You’re putting them in danger by keeping them involved.”

  “How old are you, Dal?” He’d never questioned me like this before.

  He curled his lip in confusion. “Thirty. What does that matter?”

  “It would be nice to settle down, somewhere other than Mom’s house, or with your brothers like a never-ending frat party, wouldn’t it? To know you’re going to crawl into a warm bed and have a mate waiting there to make love to you before you fall asleep? Did you like seeing Lyssie this morning with her hair a mess as she made her coffee?”

  “They’re human.” Dallas shook his head. “They’re not strong enough for us. Protecting someone means to keep them out of danger, not putting them in line for a direct hit.”

  Trina might’ve struggled to keep her head above water sometimes, but if I had to choose a woman to take into battle, I’d take her any day over a bought and paid for wolf woman. “Give them a chance. They might impress you.”

  Major wasn’t surprised to see us pull into his driveway. He smirked as I approached him. “For someone who wants to be alpha, you come looking for me a lot, Shadow.”

  His brothers came out of the house behind him.

  “Do you need me to take care of a problem, Major?” Shea circled me, shirtless. His human skin was an encyclopedia of bad decisions, marred by battle scars, dark tattoos, and healing wounds.