Alpha Wolf: Black Mesa Wolves #2 (Werewolf Shifter Paranormal Romance) (4 page)

“What? I didn't say anything about Rafe.” Babbling.
Definitely babbling, which she tended to do when nervous. “Hey, why don't we go
get a drink in town later? I'd love to get out and find a cute cowboy tonight.
Maybe I'll meet someone like Kieran and have that instant animal attraction.”

Lily laughed again. There was a rich quality to her voice,
something Sara had noticed over the past month since Lily met Kieran and time
basically stopped for her. Those two were meant for one another, true mates.
Lily never gave too many details about what sex with Kieran was like, but she
didn't have to. The man made her glow, which meant it was great. Sara was
thrilled for her friend. After what Lily had been through, she deserved the joy
and renewed interest in life she'd found.

It would be sort of nice to have that sort of connection
with someone herself. Maybe. A comfortable yet burning hot connection. The kind
she'd shared with—

Sara shook off that thought. That big golden wolf was not
going to invade her thoughts again. Never mind he was in them twenty-four/seven
already.

“Sorry, I've got a date with my mate tonight.” Lily sounded
so ridiculously giddy at the thought it made Sara smile. Lily and Kieran were
almost living together now. Apparently, though, date night could still be a lot
of fun. “But you could go out. And invite Rafe,” she ended in a teasing
singsong

“Lils! Why are you going on about Rafe, anyway?”

Sara almost held her breath waiting for the answer.

“Because,” Lily said in a drawl, “the attraction between the
two of you is so obvious it almost clubs me over the head. Don't think I
haven't noticed. I've seen it for about a month now.”

Sara's jaw dropped. If Lily could see it, other wolves
could, too. At the same time, pleasure tickled her spine. If Lily saw it, then
it also was real.

“I swear, Sara, if he hurts you at all, I'll give him a
chewing out he'll remember.”

Sara spluttered again, then laughed. The best thing about
best friends was how they watched out for one another. Sometimes it even
trumped blood ties.

“Thanks. I'll remember that. But I'm a big girl, Lils. I can
handle things.”

To her own ears, she sounded like she was defending a theory
full of holes. Restless, she picked up her pacing again. Outside the window,
pine branches danced in the light. She itched to get out there and run. Or something.

“Besides,” she said, “there's nothing there. He's just—Rafe.
I haven't been with anyone in a little while, so it's natural I'm responding to
being around him. He is a guy, after all.”

Lily's voice teased through the line again. “A guy who's
attractive to you, Sara. Why not just go for it? I've never known you to not go
after a guy who catches your interest.”

From someone else, that might have sounded catty. From Lily,
it was nothing but honest. Wolves needed to mate, regularly. Their hot body
temperatures—literally higher than those of non-shifter human beings—and wolf
shifter genes demanded plenty of sex to help contain and appropriately channel
the innate wildness. Sara had never had a problem complying with her natural
urge to mate. In the wolf world, it was not remotely judged as morally loose to
have sex. It was just what wolves had to do. Sara'd always loved it.

Now, she didn't feel the urge. Except when she looked at
Rafe. Or thought about him. Or mentioned him. Or heard his name in conversation.

With abrupt clarity, she knew how to solve her maddening
restlessness. At least for now.

“Lils, you're the best, you know?”

“Um, thanks,” Lily said, sounding a little puzzled.

“Listen, I've gotta run. Literally. I'm kind of climbing out
of my skin and I think I need a good workout. All this energy about the rogues.
Know what I mean?”

Lily's voice softened. “I do. Have a good run. Talk
tomorrow?”

“For sure. Have fun on your date.”

Lily's purely happy giggle echoed in Sara's ears as she
ended the call and gathered her clothes. She definitely would go on a run, much
later tonight. But first, the hot springs called to her with their soothing
waters. That was exactly what she needed to calm the mating urge she was
feeling. A mating urge for the one darn wolf who would not see her for who she
really could be.

Rafe stretched, a bone-cracking, utterly luxurious stretch.
He arched his back as he reached his arms behind him and held the position for a
long moment. His entire afternoon had been spent at the computer, writing and
filing a special report the Alpha had requested. Now he deserved to relax this
evening. With a sigh of pleasure, he contemplated the hot springs just over the
front gate.

The local hot springs just north of town were close to the
Black Mesa den. Unbeknownst to the managers, wolves frequented the spring late
at night, after hours. Nothing could keep out the leap of a wolf over a fence.
Then it was an easy shift back into an already naked human body, which led to a
relaxing slide into the natural hot waters.

Right now, the springs were still open for business for
about another ten minutes. Rafe leaned back against his truck. Then he had a
better idea. Lowering the tail gate, he jumped in. Lying on his back, feet
hanging over the end, he rested his head on his arms and regarded the moonless
sky above. The stars clustered together between the black lumps of the
surrounding mountain peaks and the dark, feathery shapes of pine trees.

Looking at the night sky made Rafe think of his childhood.
He used to lope around the pack's territory with his siblings, exploring the
nuances of being a wolf, learning the land, and guiding himself by two things:
his nose, and the stars. The Alpha required all pack members to be able to
navigate by the stars in human form. Wolf form allowed them to learn the land
through the incredibly sensitive properties of their keen noses, but sometimes
wolf form wasn't available to them. If ever unable to shift into wolf for any
reason, they had to know how to read the stars in order to find their way
safely back to the den.

Ursa Major shivered above. Rafe knew the night air still
held spring chill, but his shifter metabolism operated well at greater
temperature variations than that of a human's. His skin felt warm to the touch
despite the coolness of the air. A few dimmer stars tantalizingly appeared and
disappeared if he stared right at them. A quiet snort of laughter puffed out as
he thought of how many hours he and his siblings had spent doing that very
thing when they were young.

Car doors slammed in the parking lot. People were leaving as
the place closed for the night.

He pulled in a quick breath through his nose. A strong
advantage any shifter had over a human was that wolf senses were still fairly
keen even when in human form. Right now he couldn't smell things nearly as well
as he when he padded about on four legs. But he could scent a person or a
vehicle over a mile away, which was well beyond the ability of any human on
earth.

His head swiveled sharply and he sat upright. One scent
carried to him on the cool air.

Sara's car. On the highway. Slowing down. She was about to
turn into the hot springs.

A subtle grin eased its way across Rafe's face. Well, wasn't
this an intriguing turn of events.

Sara let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been
holding as she swung her little car—all hers! She'd saved forever to buy the
cute little thing—into the parking lot of the hot springs. A lot of people
preferred going all the way to Pagosa Springs for what they called a real hot
spring experience. Sara preferred the local one here, just a few minutes down
the highway from the den. It was close, unpretentious, and had some of the most
healing waters she'd ever been in.

Sara loved hot springs. She'd been to every natural hot
springs—and some pretty unnatural ones, too, overly developed with all the
heart stripped away from them—within a two hundred mile radius. Some were
awfully nice, but the local one remained her favorite. Sentiment drove most of
that. This was her home springs.

Even though she always snuck in, like many of the other
Black Mesa wolves. Well, everyone who liked to go bought an annual pass, as
strongly suggested by the Alpha. Even so, all the younger pack members still
cherished sneaking in at night as an honorable way to experience the hot
springs the way they truly should be: natural, unfettered, and unregulated.

Sara shrugged her little bag over her shoulder before she
even turned off the engine, and had her legs out the door while she still
pulled the key out of the ignition. The scent of pine trees, hot water, human
sweat from inside the building, motor oil, and wolf swept over her.

An almost electric shock went over her.
Wolf.
One
particular wolf.

Rafe was here. At the hot springs. Where she was now, too.
About to get naked and dunk into the water. Where he would be naked, too. Also
dunking into the water. The same water she would be getting into, also naked.
Naked like Rafe. At the same time.

She audibly gulped. Her wolf rose, curious. Why shouldn't
Rafe be naked? Wearing clothes into water was silly. Wearing clothes at all was
silly.

A shaky laugh slipped past her lips. If only the rest of the
pack could see her now. This was so unlike the playful, heel-nipping,
flirtatious, seemingly confident Sara she seemed to be to all of them. This
Sara was getting unnerved by a guy. It was almost as if she didn't know what to
do with one. Now,
that
was a silly thought.

Her wolf gave the equivalent of a quiet laugh.

“Sara?”

At least she didn't jump. Instead, she turned around as if
half surprised.

“Rafe! Hi! What are you doing here?”

Smooth.

His slow smile told her he knew she was pretending to be
surprised. He knew perfectly well she'd scented him just before he spoke.
Completely unprepared for his presence here, she hadn't heard him come up
behind her—even in human form, shifters could move startlingly fast and silent.
But her nose could catch things before her brain had time to figure out what
they were.

“I thought it was a nice night for a soak. Had to work on a
report all day. My muscles are screaming at me.”

“Me, too.” Her voice came out kind of breathy. She pitched
it lower and went on. “I actually wanted to go for a run. But I thought a
little dip first would be nice.”

She looked around the parking lot. Theirs were the last
cars. Rafe's big silver truck was a dark shadow several spaces away.

“What do you say?”

 She looked back at him. Even without a moon and no artificial
lights in the lot, she could see Rafe's face and his eyes. The intensity that
usually underlined his manner, the strong work ethic, the loyalty to pack, was
there. Yet his particular expression hinted at something deeper.

Whatever it was, it sent a shiver down her spine. When she
answered, though, she tried to keep her tone playful.

“What do I say to what, wolf?”

He didn't crack even a grin. The moonlight silvered the
chiseling of his features, shadowed his cheeks and forehead, made his blond hair
shine where it snared the light. He looked like a stern pack leader, with an
edge of contained wildness underneath. Sara shivered again. Caught in his gaze,
she felt her wolf rise close to the surface. Pacing the corners of Sara's mind,
her wolf whined softly. She, for one, was very clear on Rafe's half-hidden
promise.

Silly human thinking,
her wolf whispered.

Sara knew her wolf looked out of her eyes. She spoke quickly
to stave off the invitation most likely beckoning there.

“Okay. Let's go. I came here for a dip, and I'm going in.”

Without blinking, her nose telling her no humans were
nearby, Sara shed her clothes and let them drop to an untidy pile at her feet.
Rafe's lake-blue eyes grew darker as he watched her.

“Race ya,” she said. She whirled, dropped to the ground, and
shifted in the space between one heartbeat and the next.

“Sara,” she heard him say behind her. But the light breeze
felt so good in her dark silvery-gray pelt, tickling its way through the
individual furs, that she ignored his voice and flew over the ground, paws
hitting then instantly leaping away again. She headed for the back of the main
building, toward the hottest spring located at the rear of the property.

Sara's breath came easily as she loped along. With each
inhale she took in the scents of the pine trees, the junipers farther west in
the desert, the hot waters bubbling from the earth just in front of her. She
flicked back an ear and heard Rafe's steps padding swiftly behind her, his wolf
running light and sure over the ground. He ran close enough to encourage her to
go faster.

The thrill of the chase,
Sara's human whispered. Sara
grinned and did a half-spin to the side so Rafe could see her tongue hanging
out. She didn't slow down. He smiled back at her before leaping ahead, his
larger frame overcoming her speed. Sara's night vision still allowed her to see
him as he wove in and out of the pines.

“Hey!” she called out. “Not fair.”

“Catch me if you can!”

At his provocative tone, Sara put on the speed as well. As
usual, she couldn't keep up with him merely by speed, fast as she was. Her bag
of tricks included thinking fast and plotting a new course as needed, even in a
split second. Quicker than thought, her paws veered to the right. She cut
straight across a patch of ground just sprouting new grass. The delicate scent
rose up as she crushed some blades in two bounding steps before landing back on
pine needle carpeting.

Running felt good. The earlier restlessness urged a spurt of
energy that took her racing away from the hot springs, over the back fence, and
into the darkening woods behind.