So close to him, it was impossible not to respond to the scent of his skin. He smelled of male and mate. Aided by that scent, she let herself sink into her wolf’s certainty of him, welcoming the beast’s contentment.He didn’t make a sound the whole way to his bed, though she could feel the extent of his pain in the tension in his muscles. He felt hot and feverish, and that worried her. She’d never seen a werewolf feverish before.He sat down on the mattress with a hiss. The blood left on the waistband of his boxers was going to stain the sheets, but she didn’t feel comfortable pointing it out. He looked ready to collapse he’d been in a lot better shape before he decided to change to human. As old as he was, he should have known better.“Why didn’t you just stay wolf?” she scolded.Cool eyes met hers with more wolf than man in their yellow depths. “You were going to leave. The wolf had no way to talk you out of it.”He’d gone through that because he was worried she’d leave him? Romanti
He looked at her searchingly, then nodded and released her. “There’s a TV in the dining room. Or you can play on the Internet on my computer in the study. There are”“I’m tired, too.” She might have been conditioned to walk around with her tail between her legs, but she wasn’t stupid. Sleep was just what her exhausted mind needed to try to cope with the abrupt changes in her life. Exchanging Chicago for the wilds of Montana was the least of it: Omega and valued, not submissive and worthless; a mate and whatever that meant. Better than she’d had, that wasfor darn sure, but it was stil a bit traumatic.“Do you mind if I sleep here?” She kept her tone diffident, not wanting to intrude where she wasn’t wanted. This was his territory but her wolf was reluctant to leave him alone and wounded. It felt awkward, this needing. Awkward and dangerous, as if what he was might reach out and swallow her whole or change her beyond recognition. But she was too tired to fight it or even figure out if
Just as a werewolf decided to kill this kid? An old man wouldn’t even slow a werewolf down.”“I never claimed the story made sense.” His father’s voice was dry. “And we’re not certain that the monster was a werewolf. I hadn’t paid any attention to it until the hunter was killed in the same area only a month later.”“What about that one? Are you sure the hunter was a werewolf victim?”“My informant was Heather Morrel . She knows a grizzly kill from a werewolf.”Heather was human, but she’d been raised in Aspen Creek.“Alright,” agreed Toby. “You need me to go check it out? It’l be a few days before I’m up to it.” And he didn’t want to leave Lauren. “Can you send someone else?” It would need to be someone dominant enough to control a rogue.“I don’t want to send anyone in to get killed.”“Just me.” Toby could use a dry tone, too.“Just you,” agreed Brian blandly. “But I’m not sending you out hurt. Samuel’s here for the funeral. He can go check this out.”“You can’t send Samuel.” His res
THERE was actually a town. Not much of a town, but it had a gas station, a hotel, and a two-story brick-and-stone building with a sign in front that proclaimed it the Aspen Creek School. Beyond the school, tucked back in thetrees and barely visible from anywhere but the parking lot, was an old stone church. If not for Toby’s directions, she might have missed it. Lauren eased his big green truck through the church parking lot into a spot designed for a much smaller rig. It was the only place left. She hadn’t seen any houses, but there were a lot of trucks and other fourwheel-drive vehicles in the lot.Toby’s truck was older than she was, but looked as if it were brand-new. It had been driven less than fifty thousand miles, if she wanted to believe the odometer about two thousand miles a year. Toby had told her he didn’t like driving.She turned off the engine and watched anxiously as Toby opened his door and slid to the ground. The drop didn’t seem to bother him. The stain on his pink
O grave, where is thy victory?’ ”He paused, letting his eyes trail over the room, much as Toby had, then said simply, “Shortly after we moved back here, Carter Wallace came to my house at two in the morning to hold my wife’s hand when our retriever had her first litter of puppies. He wouldn’t charge me because he said if he charged for cuddlingpretty women, he’d be a gigolo and not a vet.”He stepped away from the pulpit and sat on the thronelike wooden chair on the right-hand side. There was the sound of shuffling and the creaking of wood, then an old woman stood up. A man with bright chestnut hair escorted her down the aisle, a hand under her elbow. As they walked by her pew, Lauren could smell thewolf in him.It took the old woman a few minutes to make it all the way to the top of the stairs to the pulpit. She was so small that she had to stand on a footstool, the werewolf behind her with his hands on her waist to steady her.“Carter came to our store when he was eight years old
He took a deep breath and looked at Carter’s granddaughter. “He almost killed your mother, Shawna. I took care of her afterward, and I’l attest that it was luck, not any impulse on Carter’s part, that spared her life you can ask her yourself.How would a man whose life had always been devoted to the service of others have borne it if he had killed his own daughter? She asked the Marrok, in my hearing, if he would take care of the duty that her brother would not.By that time, the wolf in Carter was far enough gone he couldn’t ask for it. So no, my dad did not try to persuade Carter to Change he was just the one who stepped up to the plate to handle the resultant mess.”When Samuel finished speaking, he let his eyes drift slowly over the room as heads bowed in submission. He nodded once, then took his seat next to Toby again.The next few people kept their eyes off the Marrok and his sons, but Lauren thought it was embarrassment rather than the sullen anger that had been so prominent a
the scent of wildness, of sickness, faded. Hestared at her, the whites of his eyes showing brightly while his irises narrowed to small bands around his black pupil.“Omega,” he whispered, his breath coming harshly. Behind her, Toby stepped closer, but he didn’t touch her as the cool flesh under her fingertips warmed. They all stood frozen in place. Lauren knew that all she had to do to end this was to remove her hand, but she was strangely reluctantb to do so.The shock on Asil’s face faded, and skin around his eyes and mouth softened into sorrow that grew and deepened before tucking itself away, where all private thoughts hid from too-keen observers. He reached out and touched her face lightly, ignoring Toby’s warning growl.“More gifts here than I’d believed.” He smiled tightly at Lauren, eyes and mouth in concert. “It’s too late for me, mì querida. You waste your gifts on my old self.But for the respite, I thank you.” He looked at Brian. “Today and tomorrow, and maybe the next da
Northwestern Montana,Cabinet WildernessDennis didn’t know why he’d survived the beast’s attack, any more than he understood how he’d survived three tours of ’Nam when so many of his friends, his comrades, had not. Maybe his survival both times was just luck or maybe fate had other things in store for him. Like another thirty years wandering alonein the woods.If his survival after the beast’s attack had been unlikely, the rest of it was just plain weird. The first thing he’d noticed was that the aching arthritis that hadbhaunted his shoulders and knees, the throb of an old wound in his hip, had all disappeared. The cold no longer bothered him. It took him a lot longer to realize that his hair and beard had regained the color of his youth he didn’t carry around a mirror. That’s when he began paying attention to the oddities.He was faster and stronger than he’d ever been. The only wounds that hadn’t healed with the same remarkable speed as his belly were the ones on his battered sou