Dire Needs: A Novel of the Eternal Wolf Clan (37 page)

He held her hand the rest of the way until the two of them approached what looked like a blank wall, until Rifter used his palm against just the right spot. He stood back as a door opened in front of them, and then he ushered her inside. He waited to turn around until it closed and sealed behind them.

The compound was large—all one floor with surveillance monitors and weapons and food. Enough to survive several apocalypses, which was ironic considering they could all just sit outside in lawn chairs and not worry about death.

Gwen was looking around as he checked the monitors, especially the ones leading to the house. He saw his brothers watching the police comb the property, and his gut lurched.

This was all too fucking public. Staying here would bring trouble beyond their wildest dreams.

But for now, he had to calm Gwen down—that was a kind of trouble they couldn’t afford.

“Why are there chains here?” she called from one of the bedrooms. He walked to the door to see her staring down at the heavy silver cuffs attached to cement walls—they were double hinged and reinforced to the wall.

“If we’ve got a moon-crazed young Were, we can’t always control his shift. But we can control where he goes once he’s shifted. This way, he stays here and doesn’t hurt anyone,” he explained.

She picked it up even as he tried to stop her. Was by her side in seconds, watching her hold the chain in her palm, waiting for her to yell and drop it, or at least see some smoke rising from her palm.

“It’s still not burning you?” he asked incredulously.

“Not at all.” She touched it with both hands. “What does this mean?”

“Maybe it’ll only affect you in wolf form.”
Or maybe you’re not out of danger with your shifts yet. Maybe you’re not really a shifted wolf until silver burns you.

Fuck.

They were cut off here, which was the point. But the proximity. The need… her scent…

“Your eyes,” she whispered.

“Yours too.”
He took several steps back as the walls closed in. “Let me get us some food and we can… talk.”

“I don’t want to talk.”

“Me neither. But you need to know about the mating… what can happen.”

She nodded, placed the heavy chains on the floor and followed him out toward the kitchen.

Rifter was romancing her.

They were in the middle of a crazy battle and he was taking the time to cook for her. He poured her wine and made her spaghetti, and she ate because her body gave her no choice. Sister Wolf demanded fuel.

“Will my appetite calm down?” she asked.

“It gets worse—but you’ll get used to it. You’ll know how to manage it.” He sat next to her at the big table.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this for me. It’s like… a date.”

“I’ve lived around cursed humans long enough to know their customs.”

“But not understand them?”

He smiled. “I’ve begun to. Our mating practices are… different.”

“Starting with the fact that we never use the term mating.”

“Right, but it’s just semantics. The point of dating is to mate, but humans are reluctant to admit that. Like sex is something to be ashamed of.”

“That’s true.”

“But it’s all around you—you use it on TV and in books, but you can’t walk up to a woman and tell her you want to mate.”

“That depends on the time of night and how much she’s had to drink, but yes, I get your point.” She took a sip of the red wine—it bloomed on her tongue much the way Rifter
had—spicy, rich and almost as intoxicating.

Rifter had most definitely become like a drug to her. She wondered if that was all part of the mating ritual. “Back when you had a pack, what was the ritual?”

He finished his wine and poured her more. “Drink.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Not bad—just different.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t have to sleep with the other Dires, do I?”

His growl reverberated across the room. “Sorry. Brother Wolf doesn’t like that question.”

“Guessing that’s a no.”

“The wolf can be more protective of his mate than the human. Dires and Weres know not to touch mated females. Mated males are even more dangerous than the young moon-crazed ones.”

“Protective.”

“A nice way of saying jealous as shit.” He smiled. “Mating was never arranged. The moon celebration is a time of mating and fertility. That’s where you sought your mate. And then some of the Dires started taking more than one mate, which wasn’t allowed under the old ways, and it got wild. Some wanted to get back to a more”—his mouth quirked to the side—“civilized way of life.”

“But the others refused.”

“Yes. They continued their pillaging. That’s when the humans began to hunt us and the Elders sent down their first warning.”

“But you can’t be killed.”

“No, we can’t
now
. But our kind used to die. Silver poisoning’s a horrible death. They would kill us—stuff and mount us.”

“You became immortal after the Extinction, then?”

“Yes. We went on our Running. The Dires, led by Jameson, defied the Elders’
instructions purposely. The current king didn’t want to give up his throne to Harm or to me. The packs went crazy and massacred villages of humans. Stole their money and possessions… I don’t know what they were thinking.” He shook his head. “Like we told you, we’re the only Dires left.”

“And then the Elders created the Weres?”

“Yes. In our language,
wehr
means
man
—to the weretrappers, we were man-wolves. Dire or Were, as we know them, didn’t matter. We were monsters to be destroyed. And later, we were monsters who could help them to rule the world. The Elders’ warning never sank in, and we pay the price as best we can. But we’ve never thought the Elders would allow us to mate. We’ve never been able to before, and sex reminds us of that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sex is great while we’re having it, but we pay afterward, with pain.”

“So every time after sex, it hurts?”

“It’s not pleasant, no.” He paused. “It’s tied to the mating. We’re supposed to mate, not screw around randomly. After the third time with the same person, well, let’s just say we’re not supposed to be with them unless mating’s our intention.”

“Is that why you held off—in the woods?” she asked.

“Yes. Barely.”

“Mating is something you want, then.”

“With you, yes.”

She bit into a strawberry, swore she could smell the dirt from the garden where it had grown. It tasted like earth, delicious and fresh. “Do you only have one mate?”

“Yes. But our mates are not… predetermined. It’s like when humans say,
you just know it’s right.
”

“Humans get it wrong—a lot.”

“Humans don’t have our sense of smell.”

That was true—Rifter’s
scent was so distracting to her—and none of the other brothers’ scents came close. Although they did smell good. “So we’re fated.”

“You’re mine. I know that as surely as I know I’m going to live forever. I know it and I like it—I want it. Since that first night in the bar I was drawn to you. The night I found you, I’d been riding around searching. You pulled me to you as surely as if you’d called out my name.”

She had been looking that night, restless, unable to stand it any longer. “Is it because of what I am that you found me? Did you sense the Dire in me subconsciously?”

“Maybe. Think of it this way: Jinx could’ve found you that night—or Vice or Stray. They were all out on moon call. But they didn’t. I went out to find you because I knew you were out there. Well, technically, I knew there was danger. And I guess I was right.”

She clinked her wineglass to his and took a big gulp.

“It can’t all be hard,” he told her. “Our wolves won’t let us shoulder burdens without equal parts pleasure.”

“You have to know the happiness to know sadness.”

He nodded, looked pleased at her understanding.

“What happens now?”

“We wait until the danger’s over.”

“I mean, between us,” she clarified. “And sealing our mating.”

“You need to shift right after our third time together. And it’s not an easy shift—you’re still having trouble, and the third shift is always the toughest on a new Dire. The mating shift is hard enough on its own even for an experienced Dire. It’s not usually combined like this.”

“It’s going to have to be,” she said firmly. “If we’re fated…”

“In the old language of the Dires,
fated
is our word for your human word
love
,” he said, and her heart began to beat faster. “That’s why you can’t mate on the first try. It
would be a goddamned disaster. There’s no such thing as a soul mate—it’s about lust and love and attraction—all the things that happen between humans. Wolves just happen to make better choices.”

“And so by the third time together, you know?”

“Yes. It’s always worked for us in the past. If the mating takes, you shift right after.”

“And you?”

“I’m chained so I can’t shift and hurt you—that’s tradition.”

“But can’t I hurt you?”

“Yes. “You have a choice not to be mated to me. Or to anyone,” he said. “You could wait. Shift. See—”

“There is no one else for me. You know that.”

His nostrils flared as her scent did. “You could leave. Find that out.”

“Where else would I go?” she asked, incredulous that he would bring this up now.

“You could live in the world alone,” he said. “Stray did.”

“And was that easy? Was he happy?”

“No to both.”

“And it’s not like there’s a cure for what I have.”

He actually looked offended. “You’d want a cure?”

“I don’t want to die.”

He blanched. “That’s not what I meant—I want you to live. But I don’t understand why you’d want to renounce your wolf. It’s an honor.”

“You all want to die, but you don’t want to be… human?”

“Never.”

“How are you going to deal with me, then? Because part of me still is.”

“How well will you deal with the world of wolves?” he shot back.

“I’ve
felt the violence. Meted it out. You’re fighting for your family. So am I,” she told him. “I’m not here because I’ve been lonely, although I have been for a very long time.”

She’d refused to admit that to herself before this. Pride or denial, she wasn’t sure which, but now that she’d found someone who understood her, she wasn’t letting go.

“You are magic to my logic,” she told him. It was as simple as that. In many ways, they were opposites, but they completed each other.

“I love you, Gwen. Make no mistake about that.”

She loved him too. He’d taken her into his world, walked her through it, and it was marvelous here. A dual nature was freeing. Whether her body would handle the demands well was a whole other story. But even if she didn’t have immortality, neither would walk away.

T
he third mating would bind them as mates forever, force her shift… and possibly kill her. But Gwen felt stronger than she ever had. She could do this. She would.

“I don’t think we should put off the inevitable,” she told him now.

He stared at her like she was nuts, said bluntly, “You’ve had too much wine.”

“I’ve had just enough,” she countered. “You need me—as your mate—to fight. Maybe my ability will be what you need to keep the Dire army away or to wake Rogue up.”

Or maybe I won’t make it through at all.

The unspoken words hung heavily between them, but she knew there was no time to waste. “We’re here because of me. Because of my possible human frailties. Instead of babysitting, you could be back at the main house, helping your brothers.”

“I’m right where I need to be. Where I want to be,” he clarified, and his scent flared around her. Arousal filled the air like a mysterious dark spice, chocolate and cinnamon and other earthy flavors combined. She could almost taste it on her tongue.

She stood and started to strip her clothing; he gave a low warning growl she didn’t heed. She stood naked before him, running her hands over her already hardening nipples, letting one slide down her belly and linger between her legs.

He can’t deny you—that’s part of the third mating. Ask—and he has to follow,
Sister Wolf whispered.

Something mysterious and wonderful was taking her over—and yet she was still somehow in total control. “Come on, Rifter. Now.”

He swallowed hard. By this point, he was a partial slave to his mate—until the mating was fulfilled, he would need to do her bidding. She could see he was trying to deny her request but couldn’t. Slowly, he stood, his biceps bulging, his jaw taut, his cock pressing his jeans to the point of bursting.

She was wet, hot, between her legs already. She trembled a little at what she was about to do to him. But every nerve in her body ached for him, her muscles taut with a need so great, she wasn’t sure it could ever be filled. But she damn well wanted Rifter to try.

She went to the first bedroom, with the chains, and noticed another set of restraints on the floor by the far side of the bed.

“Are these more wolf restraints?” she asked, fingering the leather straps.

“No, those are Vice’s personal ones,” he said, and she nodded, fingered the fine black grain and pictured them around Rifter’s wrists.

She pointed to the bed. “Down, boy.”

“I haven’t been a boy in a very long time,” he told her in a voice that was dangerous.

She didn’t heed the warning because she could be as much so, if not more. And her body reveled in it now, as if she’d been waiting her whole life to come into her own. “
Take your clothes off, Rifter… and tell me how to tie you down.”

He cursed roughly as he tore his shirt and jeans off. “Those will be purely decorative,” he told her. “It’s that ring that’ll keep me from shifting and hurting you.”

She turned and saw the collar on the floor—leather lined with pure silver. “This goes around your neck?”

“And the chains go around the bed.” He pointed to the headboard, which was iron and bolted to the floor. “You need to lock the door and give me the key so you can’t leave this room when you shift.”

She paused, her resolve waning for a few seconds, until he said, “Do it, Gwen. Don’t back down now.”