Her Wanted Wolf (18 page)

The rhythmic thud of paws and feet hitting the ground alerted her to the
approach of his pack running towards them. Most came as weres, but others came
in human form. They milled around Drew. The wolves rubbed their sleek pelts on
his legs. Other pack members slapped his back or drew him into hugs. Then the
gathered Lunedares faced the sky and bayed to welcome their alpha home.

Sabine blinked back the tears burning her eyes. There was nothing more
evocative or revealing as a were family’s song. Entwined in the melody was
their reaffirmation of their allegiance to Drew. The cadence of their voices
rose and fell, telling of what had transpired in Drew’s absence, the births,
deaths, personal triumphs and failures.

Sabine listened and learned. The last soaring note of the Lunedares’
refrain revealed their personal creeds and the strength of the Lunedare clan.

Sabine gulped. What had her father gotten her into? Taking care of her
pack was easy, but by becoming Drew’s helpmate, the wellbeing of these weres
was now her responsibility as well.

In all her life, Sabine hadn’t known a mere fraction of this many people.
The thought of meeting them all and leading by Drew’s side, if only until they
retrieved his sister, scared her spitless. Something akin to panic welled up
inside her. Sweat dampened her skin. The embarrassing stench of her own
insecurities reached her sensitive nose.

Drew’s head turned in her direction. A slight frown creased his brow as
he stared at her. He extricated himself from his clan mates, leaned into the
aircraft, and slid his hands under Balthazar’s body. “Here, let me take him.”

Sabine reluctantly relinquished her hold on her father. Drew gently
lifted Balthazar from her lap and deposited him in a pole stretcher supported
by two men. He did the same to the unconscious human. “Rafe, go on ahead with
them. Tell Greta we’ll be up in a minute.”

Drew helped Ishbel and Ala to the ground.

Finally, he lifted Sabine out and set her down to face the intense,
unwavering scrutiny of his family. They stared at her with avid curiosity.
Sabine wanted to squirm. She held herself in physical and emotional check,
willing her body not to react, dampening the anxiety-filled scent she exuded.
It wouldn’t do for her to cower in fear the first time Drew’s pack set eyes on
her. She pulled herself upright and met the gazes fixed on her. All they saw
was what she wanted them to see, a façade of cool confidence, though she
quivered internally.

Drew pulled her body back against his torso and rested his hands
possessively on her shoulders. “My mate, Sabine.”

“It took you long enough, boy.” An older were stepped out from the crowd,
his approval obvious in his wide grin.

The grizzled giant lumbered over to Sabine, plucked her off the ground,
and pulled her into a suffocating hug. “Welcome, niece. I’m Gustav, uncle to
this reprobate you’ve tied yourself to.” He dipped his head and bared his neck,
acknowledging her as his alpha’s mate.

Sabine sniffed his skin, memorizing his scent, and bared her own neck to
Drew’s uncle as a sign of her respect.

“She’s not one of us.” The statement rang out, silencing the low murmurs
of welcome. The milling crowd parted and a beautiful woman stalked forward.

All Sabine could think was, this were was everything she was not. Sleek,
smooth, and polished like a gem, she carried herself with the self-assurance of
a woman well aware of her of sensual appeal.

She shot Sabine a scathing glare before she fixed her eyes on Drew. “She
is not fit to be your mate.”

A throaty rumble preceded Drew’s harsh reprimand. “You’re out of line,
Jules. Acknowledge my mate.”

“This backward savage you’ve thrust upon us?” the angry woman scoffed, as
she turned to face the Lunedares, her hand swept out drawing all eyes to
Sabine. “We’re straddling a fine line here, living as weres, but embracing
enough of the modern world to blend in. She is a danger to us. The woman we’re
expected to obey as Drew’s helpmate is an ignorant child.”

Jules turned to face Sabine, eyes glittering triumphantly. “It’s not too
late. He can set her aside. She doesn’t carry Drew’s scent on her or his mate’s
mark.” She preened, thrusting out her breasts. She slid her hand down the lush
curve of her hip. “Our alpha would be better off with someone who understands
the ways and needs of our pack.”

“What made you think this is a democracy?” Drew growled. The rest of
crowd shifted back to form a circle around them, leaving Jules to face their
alpha’s displeasure on her own.

Uncertainty flickered across Jules’ face. Her gaze shifted to a were
standing apart from the throng. The malice in his expression took Sabine by
surprise. He’d be one to watch in the future.

“It’s not, but the novelty of this feral girl has apparently skewed your
judgment,” Jules spat rashly.

Behind her, Drew tensed to spring. Sabine clamped her hand over his taut
thigh to stop him asserting his dominance. She had to show her detractors she
was fit to stand beside their alpha. The barely perceptible relaxing of his
muscles gave her leave to handle Jules as she chose.

The sharp insults found their mark at the heart of her doubts about
living among the Lunedares. Worse yet, it hit a sore point between her and
Drew. She couldn’t bring herself to accept Drew’s mark. Pride before a fall,
she supposed.

Yet to have such an intimate matter brought up by a virtual stranger
irked her to no end.

Sabine stiffened her spine. She’d be damned if she’d allow a few barbs
from this haughty bitch shatter her self-worth. Despite the slur against her
and her family, Sabine maintained her serene expression. She stepped away from
Drew and took stock of her adversary.

The challenge couldn’t go unanswered. Pack politics demanded it, and her
pride wouldn’t allow her not to take up the gauntlet Jules had tossed down
publicly. Drew could sanction Jules later, after she took a tuft or two out of
her hide.

“If I’m not a suitable mate for your alpha, then just who did you have in
mind? Yourself…perhaps?” Sabine took her time to do a slow perusal of the
woman. “Maybe he considered you and found you wanting. Your charms are umm…a
bit overblown.”

Temper flashed in Jules’s eyes. “He’s enjoyed my lush curves more than
once. And he kept coming back for more.” Jules ran her hand over her breast,
down the slim length of her torso to splay her fingers over her hip. “Maybe
that’s why he hasn’t taken a bite out of you yet? His tastes run to the
sophisticated. A country bumpkin like you couldn’t possibly cater to his
needs.”

The pain Sabine felt imagining Drew and Jules locked in an intimate
embrace surprised her. “Yes he’s taken what you’ve offered, as any red-blooded
were would. You were one of many, as he was to you. Even now, you carry the
musk of other men on you. That would make you a little shopworn, in my
unsophisticated opinion.”

Snickers, shocked gasps, and soft grumbles at the insult to their pack
sister reverberated from the crowd.

Jules screeched, her hands morphing into paws which she aimed at Sabine’s
carotid.

Sabine waited until the extended claws were a mere inch from her skin.
With fluidity born from instinct and practice, Sabine twisted to avoid the
lethal swipe. She hooked her forearm around her attacker’s neck and used
Jules’s forward momentum to send her off kilter and push her onto her back.

Shock spread over her opponent’s face.

Sabine crouched over Jules, placing her in a subordinate position.
Wasting no time, she pressed her palm over Jules’s throat, suppressing her air
intake. Ignoring the clawing at her flesh, Sabine smiled icily into the woman’s
purpling face and increased the pressure until she stopped fighting.

With nonchalance she didn’t feel, Sabine murmured softly to Jules. “Don’t
you ever challenge me again. I am your alpha’s mate. He knows my worth and it’s
not for you to question.”

Anger-driven, Sabine shed her human shell snarling, baring her incisors
at Jules, and clamped them into her throat.

Shocked murmurs from the crowd jerked her head up.

Sabine bunched the muscles in the upper part of her body, ready to lunge
forward to meet any attack. When she realized one wasn’t imminent, she backed
up, looked around and down at herself to see what caught the Lunedares’
attention. Her fur had picked up the clear beams of the unnatural light from
the lamps high above them. Her pelt shimmered with a silvery incandescence.

“She’s a worthy mate for our alpha. She is a Silverwolf. What cubs she’ll
make for our pack.” Gustav’s gruff approval soothed her wounded ego somewhat.

Drew dropped down on his haunches and buried his hand into her ruff at
the back of her neck. He bent and placed his mouth over the side of her neck
and nipped her.

“I allowed Sabine to address Jules’s insults, this time. The next person
who questions any decision I’ve made will answer to me. I won’t be as generous
as my mate.” He slanted Jules a cold look. “You’ll shift and stay in wolf form,
confined to the Lunedare central den until I say otherwise.”

The chastised she-wolf shifted and trotted away, tail hanging low with
humiliation.

Rising to his feet, Drew faced his clan. “Call in the rest of the pack.
Tomorrow night we’ll formally welcome Sabine.” He turned to her sisters. “Go on
ahead with my uncle. We’ll be right behind you.”

Ishbel and Ala looked to Sabine for guidance. At her nod, they left with
the Lunedares, leaving her alone with the wolf she’d publicly acknowledged as
her mate. Her declaration before his family bound her to him more.

Drew held out his palms to her. Sabine shifted and placed her cold hands in
his. In reaction to the heat in his eyes, she tried to pull them back. To her
surprise, he tightened his hold and pulled her closer.

“The fact that you don’t carry my mark is going to be factor on a couple
of levels. Won’t you reconsider?”

Sabine stared down at their joined hands to avoid looking up at him.
Finally, unable to help herself, she dragged her eyes up to meet his.

“I can’t see why it should.”

Drew’s impatient hiss broke the silence hanging between them. He swiped
his thumb over the pulse throbbing in her wrist, evoking a spray of pheromones
from her. His nostrils flared in response. For a moment, the amber rings
flashed around the warm brown irises and the rise in his musk filtered through
the air.

His were surfaced. A husky mewl slipped through Sabine’s lips. Drew’s
proprietary gaze cut off her ability to breathe. He wanted her and she wanted
him.

Drew shook his head as a shudder racked his long muscular frame. “You
said the words which will bind the man and woman, but the werekin in us will
clamor for the placement of the mate’s mark. I won’t hold it against you if you
say yes.” He smiled, trying for nonchalance, but it didn’t quite diffuse the
hunger in his eyes. “When you subjugated Jules, and claimed me as your mate
before my pack, you cemented your position.”

“What was I supposed to do? She did more than ignore the pecking order.
She challenged my worthiness and authority as your mate! Is all your pack so ill-mannered?”
Sabine tugged at her hands, and to her relief, he released her.

Drew let out a scornful laugh. “She is a mere tool for someone who
doesn’t have the balls to challenge me. She was testing the veracity of our
bond.”

“Well, we’ll have to make sure your scent is all over me before the next
nightfall. No one will question it then, it should be enough.” It was one thing
for her to set boundaries on their relationship, but she wasn’t having anyone
else sticking their nose in where it didn’t belong.

“To do that, you’d have to come to my bed.” Drew raised his hand and
trailed his fingertips down the side of her neck.

Sabine released a shuddery sigh. “I already said I would.”

Drew’s dark brows lowered into a scowl. “Because you want me or because
of your wounded pride, Sabine?”

“My pride is all I have left. I’ve lost everything else, my home, and my
place in my family,” she stated bitterly. Her pack meekly followed Drew’s
edicts willingly now. She felt anchorless.

Drew slid his hands up to cradle her neck. His thumbs tilted her face up
to his. He stared at her mouth for interminable seconds before he leaned in and
took her lower lip between his teeth. He nibbled on it briefly before releasing
it.

“Ahh…but, Sabine, you’ve gained so much more. You’ve acquired a mate who
will treasure you, and a large pack that will keep you safe. And we’ll create a
family of our own when our cubs arrive.”

Sabine pushed at his chest. “They won’t be Silverwolves, and besides, our
arrangement is temporary. Remember?”

“No, they won’t. They’ll be Lunedares, but you’ll, no,
we’ll
make
sure they don’t forget their proud Silverwolf heritage.” The timbre of his
voice dropped to a low drawl. “You’ve done right by your pack, Sabine, but let
me make something perfectly clear. When you come to my bed, it won’t be because
of the bargain you made to save your family, or to soothe the primitive
instinct to secure your place as my mate. It will be because you want me as
much as I want you. Nothing less will suffice.” He pressed his lips to hers.

Her lips parted and his tongue entered her mouth, accepting his ravenous
kiss. He tasted, teased, and aroused her, employing his agile tongue until she
grew lightheaded and sagged against him.

Drew eased back, a satisfied gleam in his eyes at her reaction. “I’ll be
bathing you in my spoor. Any thought of leaving will lessen each time I take
you. As a man, I want you so much I ache. All I can think of is you. The were
in me wants to mark you as a sign of my possession. Plant my seed in you, fill
you with my cub.”

Sabine didn’t want to be affected by his words, but her vagina clenched
at the promise of carrying a child. He wanted her. Those simple words coming
from a werekin male were more evocative that the words of love humans used so
casually. Sabine found herself offering her mouth to him again, her lips softly
parted in invitation. Drew accepted.