A Wolf's Mate (8 page)

A
cool drink is what she needed. Cool shot of something in her pussy too. She got
up and headed for the mini bar. She spotted a piece of fur sitting on the rug
in front of it. She bent over and picked it up. Dog hair from a previous
guest’s canine?

No,
the room had been cleaned many times since she’d rented it. She held it up to
the light. It was thicker and coarser than a dog’s fur. If she wasn’t mistaken
it looked like part of a wolf’s pelt.

Downward
Facing Wolf. Nick being part owner in said venture.

Wolf
hair on the floor where he’d stood when he’d returned from his run.

Maybe
there was actually something to all these weird allegations after all. And
maybe all the good
sex he’d given her
was
all part of a ploy to take her mind off her work. He knew what she was up to
and had been playing her all along.

She
sat down. A man had
tricked
her into
having sex with him once before. She was young then, a virgin and very naïve.
This was all-grown-up Ava and if he wanted to play that game, then game on.

****

“This
is all my fault and I’m so, so sorry,” said Dane standing to address the group.

Nick
had contacted Aiden Renner as soon as he’d left Ava’s motel room and they’d
called an emergency meeting for the following morning.

“Don’t
think that, don’t ever think that,” said Trent
Burgress,
pulling Dane back down and forcing him to sit on the chair. “If I hadn’t been
digging around about Melanie, things wouldn’t have come up on anyone’s radar.
The Investigative Bureau. I can’t believe they got involved in this too.”

“It
is my fault because I
wasn’t thinking
when I walked away from the camp that night. You’ve always warned us, Aiden,”
said Dane.

“You
had Melanie to think about and I would have done the same to save Charlotte,”
said Aiden.

“Speaking
of which, we didn’t have any of this sort of trouble until you guys started
getting involved with human women and marrying them of all things,” said, Liam,
one of the Kodiak bear shifters. “Group was doing just fine keeping ourselves
to ourselves.”

There
was a general mumbling among everyone and Nick overheard more than a handful of
the group were in agreement with the Kodiak.

Nick
would have said the same thing but then he’d met a human called Ava. Sure she
might be their downfall but he now knew what it was like to be attracted to
one. There
was
more mumbling and whispers
and even if this all blew over, Nick sensed change was on the horizon. They’d
been united as one since the night they’d crashed here but in the pit of his
stomach he sensed they were about to become divided.

“I
don’t want to hear any talk like this. You know my father hated discrimination
and bias of any kind. He would not tolerate hatred toward humans and I won’t
either and not just because I’m married to one,” said Aiden. “We’ve always
respected that this is their planet and that we’re the intruders.”

“But
not by choice,” said a cougar shifter. “It’s not our fault we’re here. Some of
us still don’t want to be here.”

More
mumblings and whispering.

“I
think it might be time for you to step down as leader of the group,” said Liam,
standing up and staring at Aiden.

Aiden’s
father had been president on their planet and he’d rounded everyone up during
the days following the crash. Nick saw him as a true hero the way he restored
order. He was a born leader and after he’d died Aiden had taken it upon himself
to take over. Nick supported him but maybe it was time to follow the human’s
example and take a vote on who should be
head
of the shifters

“Turning
on one another’s not going to solve this problem,” said Christopher.

“My
brother’s right,” said Aiden. “We have to deal with this. I can’t afford to
have the authorities sniffing around with Charlotte due to give birth soon.
Melanie too. If they start hauling us away
they
could take the babies too.”

Nick
took a deep breath. Who knows what they’d do to the shifters if they rounded
them
up.
Torture them, experiment on
them. Lock them up for sure, and Nick Pearson wasn’t the type of guy who’d be
caged. “You want me to try and do some digging, find out exactly what Ava
knows?” asked Nick.

“I
think that’s our best plan,” said Aiden. “At least we have someone on the
inside.”

“I
said I’d take her out again tonight,” said Nick. “Maisey might be able to do
some digging too when she’s in the yoga class.”

“Can
we contain this situation?” asked Christopher.

“If
we can’t then we might have to move on to another area,” said Aiden. “But if
they’re hell bent on finding us, they will,”

Nick
couldn’t do it. This was the only home he’d known since coming to Earth. He
loved the area. His business was here. Lots of other shifters had work and
business here, given birth to their children here. Many had died here too.

“I’ll
see what I can do and what I can find out and report back,” said Nick. He ran
his fingers through his hair. He hated the situation he found himself in. He
was pretty certain he’d found his mate. He didn’t want to lie or deceive her
and the last
thing he wanted to do
was
use her. But his and the rest of the group’s survival hinged upon her not
reporting anything strange to her agency.

Whatever
way he played this, he’d be walking a fine line.

Chapter Ten

“How
would you like to come to dinner with me and my fiancée Lucas tonight?” Maisey
asked at the end of the advanced yoga class.

“Actually
I have another date with Nick.”

“Then
we could do it tomorrow night.”

Perfect
because she could do a little more observing and digging for info. On the one
hand,
she’d hate to wrong these people, accuse
them of being freaks when in fact they were just like her. However, if she
could break open this case, get to the bottom of the truth, her position in the
Bureau could be secured for the rest of her career.

“Sure,
that sounds great.”

“Great.
I’ll tell Nick to bring some wine.”

Ava
headed for the locker room. Most people were leaving for the night. In fact, it
looked like she was the last one in there.

She
jumped when she saw Nick leaning against the doorjamb. Was he getting more
handsome each time she saw him? Her knees wobbled. They hadn’t done that
since…well she didn’t want to think about that right now.

“Don’t
bother getting dressed because you’re getting a massage,” he said. “My treat.”

“You’re
going to spoil me.”

“I
have my reasons for doing just that,” he said, walking over to her.

He
got hold of both sides of the towel that she’d secured around her chest, and
pulled her toward his lips.

She
closed her eyes, taking in his scent and thinking back to her finding the tuft
of what she knew was wolf fur. He smelled so good, and she had to admit there
was a hint of a musky odor about him. Maybe that’s what drove her crazy when he
was around. Bears, wolves…she wasn’t going to say oh my.

He
pulled away.

“Okay,
go to the massage room, get naked, and lie on the table. Hope you’ve realized
that I’m the masseur tonight.” He winked at her.

Maybe
he wanted her to be relaxed for their date. In fact, he hadn’t said where they
were going out tonight. Maybe he was going to bite her, turn her into a wolf?
How ridiculous did that sound? His hands would be on her body and if she was
going to die tonight, then what a way to go. She headed toward the room, took
off her clothes, and then hung them on the peg by the door. Ava got on the
table and pulled the blanket over herself.

Ava
jumped when it went dark suddenly. Her previous
massage
had been during the day and the sun had shone through the window. This evening
the blinds were closed and stars twinkled on the ceiling of the room.

They
were so pretty, mesmerizing almost.

“You
feeling relaxed?” It was Nick’s voice. He walked over to her. He was just as
naked as she was and he had the mother of all
erections
.

“You
always give clients a massage while you’re in your birthday suit?”

“Nope,
it’s a treat just for you and don’t go telling anyone or everyone will want one
from me. You good at keeping secrets, Ava?”

Oh
he didn’t know just what an expert she was on the topic. She had been keeping
the mother
lode
from her son for twenty
years.

He
leaned over and kissed her. She ran her hand down the side of his face.

“Um,
you taste good. You smell good too,” she said, detecting the musky odor again.

“You
want to listen to some music while I pamper you?”

“That
would be perfect.”

Soon
relaxing, new
agey
music was playing
softly through the two speakers on the wall.

“Are
you certified?” she asked him as he squeezed some oil into his hands.

“No,
but don’t tell anyone, okay? You didn’t answer me before so I’m assuming you
are great at keeping secrets.

“Absolutely.”
She winked at him. She guessed he knew something and maybe he was hoping
tonight he’d get her relaxed, sexually excited, which wasn’t going to be too
hard, and make her spills the beans. She wouldn’t. She was
a professional.

He
pulled back the blanket and began making circles on her shoulders. He might not
be
certified,
but he was nevertheless an
expert. The circles grew wider and soon his hands were passing over her
breasts, his palms rubbing against her nipples making them hard and in fact,
achy for even more stimulation.

He
rolled them between his thumb and index finger which made her want to touch
herself. She’d never wanted to do that sort of thing before when a man had
caressed her breasts like this. Her hand hovered near her
crotch,
but she resisted the temptation. She
was sure he’d get to that area soon.

Nick
squirted more oil into his palms rubbed them together sliding them down over
her navel.

Heaven.
She’d gone to Heaven.

“Sometimes
when people get really relaxed they reveal things they wouldn’t normally,” said
Nick. His voice sounded deeper, raspy almost.

“And
what do you think I have to reveal about myself?”

“I
don’t know but I’d like us to get to know one another more.” His hands dipped
lower, moving over her crotch.

“I’m
petrified of spiders,” she’d barely got out before he separated her legs and
moved his hands up and down, making her wetter with each pass.

“Nothing
to be scared about. In fact, they’re more frightened of you.”

That’s
what her father used to tell her when she’d find one in the bathroom and scream
at the top of her lungs for him to come kill it for her.

You want it done,
you do it yourself. It’s a big mean world out there Ava and you’ve got to be
tough.

It
certainly was and she’d found that out several years after he’d shared that
piece of advice with her. He’d underestimated just how mean
a world
it was.

Nick
oiled his hands again before touching her thighs and sliding them up toward her
folds and down into her pussy. He inserted one very oily and hot finger inside
her. She bucked against the massage table. He began to
finger fuck
her.

She
brought her hand up to her mouth and began to suck her own fingers. Nick made
her feel things in her body, things about her body that she’d never experienced
before. Good things, like her
body
was
special. He made her feel like she was the sexiest woman in the world. Wasn’t
that the sort of thing that Mr. Right was supposed to make you feel? She bit
down on her finger, masking a groan, but knew there were no neighbors around
tonight to bang on the wall and order her to keep it down.

Mr.
Right. What if this was him and he was a wolf? Could she still love him?

Love
him. Shit, she was falling for
him,
that’s what she was doing. He wasn’t the person she’d been sent to
investigate,
but they knew one another. Was
falling for a friend of a suspect against Bureau policies?

Her
pussy burned, hummed, beat its own pulse. She bucked again when her climax
washed over her.

You give in to
physical urges too often my girl. Look what happened last time you let a man
get into your panties.

She
bit her finger again, willing her father’s voice to leave her head.