For Life (26 page)

130

For Life

The rumbling sound he made didn’t quite sound like a growl. At the same time his scent changed, growing muskier, more male-smelling. A funny sense told her that he liked her petting him. The water would wait a minute. Maura combed her fingers through his thick, black coat, being careful to avoid the deep gashes in his flesh that still left parts of his fur damp. She didn’t understand his refusal to change into his flesh. It would be so much easier to see how badly hurt he was without all this black fur covering up his wounds.

“That’s what it is, isn’t it?” she said softly, cocking her head and digging her fingernails deep into his coat so she could scratch the skin next to his ear. “You aren’t changing so it won’t be obvious how badly injured you are. Well, listen here, wolf man—a little blood never hurt anyone. I could take care of you better if you would change.”

Josie lifted his head, gazing at her with his almond-shaped eyes that suddenly seemed to glow like silver orbs in the darkness. He pushed his nose against her thigh and then ran his long, moist tongue up the inside of her leg.

“Shit. Oh fuck.” She collapsed onto her ass, a slapping sound cracking in the air when her bare bottom hit the floor. “Okay. We both know how well you can take care of me.”

She laughed nervously and then tried to regain a bit more of a composed sitting position. But Josie pushed his big head into her, making it damned awkward to bring her legs together. When his chest expanded she knew he inhaled her scent, filling his body with the smell of her lust.

“You’re injured,” she reminded him. “And besides, you refuse to change back into a man.”

The look he gave her showed he didn’t approve of any reprimand. His face was so large. He had the broadest cheekbones she’d ever seen on a werewolf. And his thick, long black hair—along with his raw, masculine scent—made him appear even more dangerous than he was at the moment. His eyes brimmed with determination though.

She wouldn’t bank on his inability to do anything at the moment.

“How about that water now?” Her hands shook when she lifted the big cup and

held it to his mouth.

Josie’s long tongue dipped into the cold water, splashing it over her hands and down her arms as he lapped. She shivered and her nipples got so damned hard the painful need shot like electric currents from her breasts straight to her pussy.

When he drank his fill, Josie raised his head and licked her face. It blinded her momentarily and she laughed and cried out at the same time, doing her best not to dump the remaining water over the two of them.

“At least let me put the cup down,” she managed to spit out as he continued his meticulous task of cleaning her face.

Even hurt, his strength grossly outnumbered hers. Josie stopped licking her face and she put down the cup, unable to look away from his intense stare.

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“It really would be a good idea if you tried to sleep so your injuries would heal,”

she managed to whisper, although her body zinged with so much energy she doubted she would do any more sleeping tonight. A hard run probably wouldn’t rid her of the wound-up need he’d created inside her.

Josie grunted and the sound was more human than werewolf. He stretched

forward, pressing into her with enough of his weight that she fell backward onto the blanket she’d brought out earlier. He stretched over her, pinning her with his body while each of his front legs rested on either side of her.

His long, coarse hair tortured her nipples. Pressure swelled in her womb and her lust created a ripe, rich smell that turned her on even further. It was obviously having an impact on Josie too. He lowered his head, sniffing her breasts and sending goose bumps racing over her skin.

“Josie. Shit. You’re going to make me insane and you’re hurt.”

He ignored her pleas for sane behavior. Adjusting his weight, he moved enough that his head rested on her pelvic bone. Slowly he moved, looking like he simply wished to inhale the air just above her pussy. Maura lay on the floor, running her hand gently over one shoulder and stroking his thick black fur.

“What are you doing, wolf man?” she asked.

She watched him move slightly. Unable to get a single muscle in her body to

cooperate with her at the moment, she didn’t try adjusting her body. Inhaling his musky scent made her feel drunk. The predator lying over her was created to kill, with his deadly fangs inches from her unprotected flesh. It made her heart race even harder.

“I wish you would take your human form,” she whispered, smelling her sadness in spite of her effort to hide it.

Josie’s eyes glowed in the darkness, and then slowly he closed them. His body weight was almost too much for her but she wouldn’t complain. Instead, relaxing underneath him, her body continued to tingle with need until finally she managed to drift off to sleep.

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For Life

Josie stepped out of the shower, feeling stiffer than when he’d gotten in. Damn. Hot showers were supposed to make him feel better. All he felt was clean.

Which was probably a good thing in itself.

Rubbing a circle into the fogged-over mirror with the side of his fist, he surveyed the damage as he began finger combing his hair. The worst of it wouldn’t be seen on his flesh. His pride and ego took a bruising worse than anything he ever experienced before last night.

“More than likely no one else gave it a thought,” he grumbled, telling himself for the hundredth time that his pack members didn’t think about how often he fought and used the gift.

And it had been three against one. But they were three
lunewulf
males and he should have kicked their asses within seconds—any other time, he would have.

Turning in front of the mirror, he towel dried while stretching to see the nasty gash between his shoulder blades. It looked about as bad as the cut starting at the base of his neck and moving past his collarbone. Both would heal and probably not scar too terribly bad if he took the time to have them treated. Something he wouldn’t do except for the little bitch who slept beautifully on his living room floor right now.

God, he couldn’t wait to fuck her. And he would soon. But right now he needed to get out of his den and tend to some business before she woke up and wanted to run with him—or worse yet, play nursemaid and make him stay in his den all day.

Taking care to move quietly, Josie dressed and slipped out of his den, leaving Maura asleep and wrapped up in his quilt in front of the fire. The cold air attacked immediately and the dark gray sky looming overhead advertised the storm he could smell when he filled his lungs with the midday mountain air. He would have to get his errands done quickly before it cut loose. Without having heard a weather forecast, he guessed by the smell of things and how quiet it was outside that they were in for some serious snow—and soon.

His first stop wouldn’t take too long. He would know the truth the second he got there. The tires crunched and slid slightly over the packed snow as he drove along the narrow road they’d cleared after first settling the pack here. It was rough and uneven but better than trying to maneuver some of their cars over a rocky mountainside. It wasn’t always convenient for a werewolf to run in his fur, especially when Malta territory wasn’t one hundred percent secure from curious and destructive humans.

Josie pulled in front of the small, clean-looking den, surprised to see Nicolo’s truck already there.

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“I figured you would show up soon.” Rosa answered the door to her den, refusing to make eye contact but instead looking somewhere around his chest.

Just because you promised not to use the gift during the challenge didn
’
t mean that I made
that promise
.
So yes
,
to answer your question
,
I did what I could to keep them from attacking
you without making it obvious the gift was at play
. Rosa offered the information he sought willingly, sharing her thoughts with him before backing out of the doorway and allowing him entrance into her den.

“Oh good.” Maria, her mother, clapped her hands and jumped out of her seat. She moved pretty damned quickly for a bitch of her age—proof of her excitement to get her claws on him and start inflicting pain on his healing incisions with her salves and medicines. “Nicolo. Move that chair over here. Rosa, you aren’t mated, dear. Give us a few minutes while Josie removes his shirt so that I can see those wounds.”

“He’s not here to have you look at him, Mother.” Rosa crossed her arms over her chest, squishing her breasts together and offering a nice view of her cleavage. She was built almost as well as Maura, but her caramel-colored skin gave her a mysterious allure where Maura was creamy white and much more stunning. Rosa glared at him when she heard his thoughts. “But since he’s here, I’ll get the cream that you keep in the bathroom. It only burns a bit, Josie.” She smiled cruelly as she left the rest of them in the living room.

Nicolo didn’t look too pleased to be given the task of rearranging furniture so Josie could be poked and prodded by the old bitch. Heidi stood in the doorway leading to the back part of the den, watching curiously when Maria grabbed Josie’s arm and pulled him to the chair.

She wouldn’t have budged him an inch if he didn’t consent to being moved. The small Malta female was half his size, with her gray hair sticking out of a messy braid that she’d wrapped in a circle around the back of her head. Her bony fingers barely reached around his wrist, but she didn’t seem to notice or care about the size difference as she pointed authoritatively to the chair Nicolo had set out for him.

“Sit and get out of that shirt.” She barked her orders, filling the room with a minty smell of contentment, her frazzled thought pattern giving a vague clue as to how thrilled she was to suddenly have a purpose.

“Where’s Maura?” Heidi asked. She still stood in the doorway and when he

glanced toward the bitch, Rosa stood behind her, eyeballing him as he removed his shirt.

How do I compare to Dimitri
,
bitch
? He teased Rosa with his thoughts, fighting a smile when her dark cheeks turned crimson. She looked down, letting her long black hair fall partially over her face.

“She’s asleep at the den,” Josie told her.

“We should go get her.” Heidi turned to Rosa.

“You’re not leaving the pack. Not with a blizzard coming in,” Nicolo decided, but then moved to the couch, sitting and facing Josie so he could get a good view of the 134

For Life

damage on his body before Maria went to work. “You put up a good fight last night.

Impressive as hell.”

“Two of them still live.” Not that he cared if all of them lived through the challenge.

But a good werewolf would kill his opponent. Heat from the shame that he wasn’t a good fighter without the gift burned painfully inside him.

“You honor Malta werewolves by showing the
lunewulfs
that we aren’t out to destroy them.”

“Good story, my friend,” Josie said, not believing a word of it even though he didn’t hear that it was a lie when he probed Nicolo’s mind. “Where is your littermate today?”

“I haven’t heard from him yet today. Heidi wanted to come spend time with Rosa so I brought her here. As soon as you’re done getting played with there,” Nicolo winked at Maria when she curled her lip and growled at him, “we should head up the mountain and get him, then make sure we’re ready for a good storm.”

“If you three are going to run and play all day then we’re going to go get Maura,”

Heidi decided. “
Lunewulf
bitches don’t take nicely to being caged up in a den all day.”

“Oh, you have it so rough.” Nicolo leapt off the couch and grabbed his mate.

Heidi squealed, delighted with her mate’s attention. And truth have it, the little bitch did have it pretty good considering most of his pack still growled at her. Heidi had befriended Rosa and Josie knew the gift ran strong in the bitch. No one would fuck with his mate while she ran with Rosa.

“I’m sure she’d love to spend time with you.” Josie turned in spite of Maria slapping at him to be still. “And while you three bitches howl about how rough you have it, we’ll be out sweating in a snowstorm to make sure you continue having it good.”

“You do that,” Heidi said, her head barely visible with Nicolo’s large arms

wrapped around her. She laughed and then twisted against her mate. “Are you happy to be so close to me or is your cell phone vibrating?”

“Little bitch,” he growled, but then secured her in his arms while digging his phone out of his pocket. When he glanced at Josie, his thoughts made it clear who was calling.

“Speak of the devil,” he said, then answered the phone. “What’s up?”

Dimitri’s low voice coming through the phone tickled Josie’s ears. Nicolo always was an open mind to read, but he didn’t focus on his friend’s thoughts as much as he did on what Maria was doing to him. He glanced down at the sticky, cold medicine she carefully rubbed into the wounds on his torso. The rancid smell of the shit would annoy him long before the pain from the cuts would.

“You’re hurt worse than you let on.” Maria stared at him with pale, glassy eyes, her expression warm and concerned as she wiped her hands on her apron wrapped around her thin waist.

“I’m fine.” He looked away toward Nicolo when the male’s thoughts grew upset.

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Heidi stilled in his arms and Rosa watched him with alert brown eyes. Her scent changed as the room got quiet. More than likely she grabbed Nicolo’s thoughts as quickly as Josie did.

“I wouldn’t look at it as a problem.” Even as Nicolo worked to soothe Dimitri’s temper, his mind justified his littermate’s actions. No matter how often Dimitri proved to be an ass, Nicolo never saw him that way. “We’re all over here at Maria and Rosa Anthony’s den. Just head this way. Yeah, he is here getting tortured as we speak.”

Josie growled, anxious to get his shirt back on when he realized what had