For Life (21 page)

104

For Life

“That’s only howled for when a werewolf kills another werewolf without

announcing it first.” Dimitri gave Josie a hard look, then turned his attention to Maura.

“Where is your
lunewulf
mate?” He already knew, but he wanted the whole story.

“Before you got your phone call and the three of us left for the other side of the mountain, I told you there was more to the story than you originally smelled.” Josie grabbed Dimitri’s attention.

“You said you would explain further after we finished dealing with the Miccatto den. Their car is pulled out of the snow. We’re back at your den. Time to fill me in on the details that are stinking up your den.” Dimitri glanced at Rosa, who looked like she never stunk up anything.

“Since these bitches will speculate on the truth if they don’t hear all the details, I will tell all of you what Maura rightfully didn’t elaborate on.”

The den grew incredibly quiet while all of his packmates focused on Josie. Hardly any emotions smelled up the air. Every one of them waited with bated breath, their strained expressions clue enough that they doubted the details would be pretty.

“Maura had the right to widow status after what her mate did to her, so I helped her gain that status. Earlier today we entered her pack so she could get some of her things from her den. We ran into her pack leader, who by the way gave his blessing on the mating, but also said the den of her dead mate had the right to draw first blood since I didn’t publicly challenge him before snapping his neck.” Josie shrugged as if it were no big deal. “So I agreed.”

“I don’t fucking believe it,” Dimitri hissed.

“You’re going to prance into that
lunewulf
pack and send those males flying when they try to attack you.” Rosa’s accusation flooded the air with a ripe, angry smell. “You won’t have any problem humiliating them, but they’ll hate us even more because of it.”

Dimitri held up his hand and Rosa snapped her mouth shut. He took a step closer until he stood right in front of Josie. “What exactly do you plan on doing at midnight?”

“I’ll honor the tradition. But they won’t hurt me. You have my word.”

“I’m not worried about your word.” Dimitri’s calm, quiet tone was unnerving.

Josie’s expression didn’t falter. Not one muscle twitched in his face. Somehow that made him look even more dangerous. “In no way would I ever disgrace Malta

werewolves. This challenge tonight is about honor and I will meet them and fight on their terms.”

“You are fighting for her.” Dimitri stuck his thumb in Maura’s direction.

Josie didn’t say anything, just stood staring at Dimitri. His silence made Maura’s heart pound a bit harder. No werewolf had ever accepted a challenge for her. But this was the right to draw first blood, not a challenge for a mate. If Josie planned to fight for her, he would have challenged Pete. Her heart constricted so painfully it stole her breath. She looked down, staring at her hands and trying to calm her heart so her emotions wouldn’t smell.

105

Lorie O’Clare

Apparently Josie’s silence was answer enough for Dimitri. “I’ll be here before midnight,” he announced, then turned toward the door. “Do you bitches need an escort home?”

“I think we can find the way,” Rosa told him, although her scent ripened noticeably when she moved closer to him, standing inches from his face and staring up at him before pushing past him to the door.

Josie stiffened, the muscles in his arm hardening around Maura, but he didn’t dispute Dimitri’s comment about joining them later. He held her, not saying anything as his pack members slowly piled out of his den. When the door closed behind Nicolo, who glanced over his shoulder and stared at Josie briefly before pulling the door until the lock clicked into place, Josie continued standing there, not moving.

“I don’t think Bob expects your pack to show up with you.” She tried moving out of his arms.

His grip tightened. “The evening should prove interesting.”

“So predicting the future isn’t part of your gift?”

“I can predict it as well as you can.” He dragged his fingers through her hair, turning her so her breasts pressed against his hard chest. “You flatter me being worried for my safety tonight.”

“You’re taking on three males.” In spite of the large werewolf pressing against her, she managed to focus on the determined glint in Josie’s eyes. “I know we’re a smaller breed, but don’t underestimate us too much.”

His cock throbbed to life between them and her nipples puckered painfully while her breasts swelled against his rock-hard chest.

“I’ve fought under worse odds before.”

She nodded, more than aware of the growing smell of lust between them. Damn her body for aching to fuck him when her mind desperately needed answers. “Why fight these odds tonight?”

“For your honor.” He lowered his mouth to hers and tangled his fingers in her hair so that she couldn’t move her face away from his. “I pray that we seldom fight with each other, but I will always fight for you.”

When his teeth scraped over her upper lip and then bit her just enough to ignite the fire already simmering deep in her womb, she lost the battle to keep her head clear. He didn’t fight for her honor, but his own. Telling him that proved impossible when he made a feast out of her mouth, then moved to her neck, licking and nibbling at her flesh until she swore she’d explode in his arms.

“I don’t think that’s the reason.” Her mind fogged over with lust. Josie’s ability to take command of her body would make her insane. Her teeth poked against the inside of her mouth when she licked her lips. “Why fight for my honor in a pack that I might never see again?”

106

For Life

“Might?” he growled. He raised his head, leaving her neck damp where he’d just had his mouth. “My sweet little bitch, they are our neighboring pack. And I will have every
lunewulf
see that you have honor and dignity. That is your right.”

“And it would make you look good too.” Staring into his intense eyes, black with streaks of silver, gave her a drowning sensation. “I think you’re fighting tonight for your honor. This has little to do with me at this point.”

“All of this has to do with you.” He let go of her hair but then slid his hands up her sides, gripping under her arms then lifting her until they stared eye to eye. “Everything that is happening is all about you.”

“Don’t die for me.” She felt the hard wall press against her back. He wouldn’t leave her hanging like he did last time. Quickly she wrapped her legs around his waist.

“Don’t worry about that. But I would definitely kill for you.” There was a different level of heat when he kissed her mouth this time. He took his time, tasting her, nipping with the tip of his teeth and then running his tongue along the inside of her mouth when she opened for him.

Maura enjoyed the smooth, solid swell of muscles in Josie’s shoulders. He twitched under her touch. And when he moved his hands, running his fingers down her sides and then underneath her sweater, she prayed he’d undress and enjoy every inch of her.

He pulled on her sweater and she arched into him. Josie exposed her breasts, growling his approval and then burying his face between them.

She wrapped her arms around his neck while straddling his waist with her legs.

Holding on to all that corded, stretched muscle while he feasted on her breasts pulled her into him. It was a sensation she had never experienced before. As he scraped her puckered nipples with his slightly extended teeth, pins and needles stung her insides.

What he did to her physically made it damned hard to concentrate on what they were talking about.

Something told her that was exactly what he wanted to happen.

“I want you in my bed,” Josie told her, his hot breath washing over her swollen and heavy breasts.

She held on to him tightly as he moved from the living room into his bedroom. Her arms and legs were still wrapped around him when he went down on his bed, almost crushing her as her back pressed into his firm mattress.

“Get off me, wolf man.” She almost laughed when a grumbling sound vibrated

inside his body.

Josie left her on the bed, straightening and staring down at her with almost silver eyes while he tugged off his shirt. His pants went next. He never quit looking at her, as if he gave no thought to undressing because he was mesmerized by her.

Her mouth went dry as she stared at his perfectly sculpted body. It was unusual for a werewolf his age, a male full grown, to have so few scars. But his dark skin was smooth under black, tight curls of coarse hair that covered his chest, arms and legs.

107

Lorie O’Clare

Her eyes adjusted to the dark quickly as she stared up at Josie. He looked down at her, completely naked, and then slowly started stroking his cock. Her insides tightened as a quickening sensation washed over her womb while she stared, mesmerized at how his long fingers pressed and then pulled his long shaft. With each stroke his cock swelled, lengthened and thickened until it thrust out before him, hard, eager and looking very ready to fuck her.

“Your clothes need to be off you.” His voice was gravelly, sexy-sounding, which made her eager to comply.

But as she shifted to grab her sweater, which was already bundled up under her armpits, it rose up her body as if hands pulled it from her.

“What the…” She lifted her arms and the sweater momentarily covered her face.

She grabbed it, the instinct that she needed to protect herself when suddenly unable to see kicking in.

“Don’t panic.” His deep baritone sent chills rushing over her flesh.

The sweater was suddenly over her head and then flew to the side of the bed, as if it had just been tossed.

“A bit of a warning next time, if you please.”

“Okay. Your shoes.” He continued stroking his cock while the laces on her boots loosened and then she felt them being pulled from her feet. “And now your pants.”

It was like determined hands gripped her pants, undoing them and then tugging them down her hips. Startled, she hurried to her knees, only to fall forward when the material continued its journey down her legs.

“Josie!” Her hands slapped his bedspread and then her legs stretched out behind her. The jeans slipped down her legs past her ankles, twisting around her feet momentarily before falling off her completely.

Maura twisted on the bed, scrambling to her knees and facing Josie, both of them completely naked. “I thought all you could do was move things and hear other werewolves’ thoughts.”

“I simply moved your clothes off your body.” He continued rubbing his fingers up and down the length of his shaft and a low rumble rose from deep inside him. “You look much better this way.”

“And is it always about what you want?”

He continued moving his fingers rhythmically against his shaft, distracting the hell out of her. But it was a point she needed to make. Watching him stroke his cock built an intense pressure inside her pussy, but Josie would hear how it must be. Hearing her thoughts wouldn’t help him understand. She needed to voice the terms of their relationship or there wouldn’t be any relationship.

Josie stopped stroking, keeping his fingertips touching the swollen, smooth, round tip of his cock. “What I want is quite often what those around me wish for too,” he said, 108

For Life

his voice no more than a soft growl. “I know you don’t pant on your knees for any other werewolf.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“You don’t want to fuck me?”

Maura shook her head and thick strands of blonde hair fell over her face. She brushed them out of the way, not wanting anything distracting her view of him. “I don’t want you to fight tonight. I couldn’t care less if you allowed Pete’s den the right to draw first blood.”

“If I don’t fight, the
lunewulfs
will view me as a coward. Is that what you want?”

“I just don’t want you to get hurt—or worse. You know as well as I do that allowing each of those mutts to strike once won’t hurt you. But if you return the attack and the whole den fights you…” She sucked in a breath, searching for courage to put her thoughts accurately into words. “Something has started between us. We mated because it was the honorable thing to do, but this isn’t a relationship.” She waved her hand between them. “We need to let it grow and we need time to learn what each of us is about. Drawing first blood could steal that away from us.”

Josie climbed onto the bed, his look one of a deadly predator. He devoured her with his eyes that glowed dark with hints of silver. “Do you really think they can hurt me?”

he whispered.

“You’re so sure no one can hurt you,” she whispered back, knowing how

dangerous it could be to challenge the confidence of such an extreme alpha male. “It could make you too confident.”

His strong hand and long fingers wrapped around the side of her neck and pulled her to him. “I don’t think any bitch has worried about me like you do,” he growled into her neck and then scraped his teeth over her collarbone.

Maura hummed as need ignited inside her. Her nipples puckered painfully and her breasts swelled. The throbbing ache spread, growing until her pussy was drenched and her sweet, pungent smell filled the room.

There was an advantage to him knowing her mind the moment she did. Josie knew what part of her body needed him the most. He moved to her breasts, biting at each nipple then taking his time sucking on each one until she knew she’d explode.

Digging her fingernails into his shoulders, her legs trembled although she was on her knees. Letting her head fall back, she guessed a werewolf with the gift of knowing what people thought would give him an incredible sense of security. Especially over time as he mastered his abilities and grew used to hearing others and learning how to use the knowledge in their minds.

When he wrapped his arms around her and lifted her slightly, adjusting both of them so she lay underneath him, she took advantage and reached between them, wrapping her fingers around his thick, long cock.