Her Wicked Wolf (6 page)

Then Brie cried out for an entirely different reason. To be
against him, skin to skin, had every nerve ending alight with pleasure at once.
And he was filling her, the hot length of him stretching her so that she fit him
like a glove. She was already slick with need, and Alistair gave a guttural
groan as he began to thrust into her, the bed rocking from the force. Brie clung
to him, pulsing around him more tightly with every stroke. She reached around to
grip his ass, to feel the rhythmic flex of his muscles. At the apex of each
thrust was a frisson of sensation that had her tightening, arching into him,
wanting more.

Alistair pulled out without warning, flipping her onto her
belly. Brie clenched her fists in the comforter as he trailed his tongue down
her spine, then back up.

“Like this,” he growled, pulling her hips so that her knees
were tucked beneath her. She rose up on her hands, struggling to make her limbs
move the way they were supposed to, and found herself pulled back against him.
He was also on his knees, and he spread her legs so that she straddled him, just
facing away. She could feel his cock against her lower back, and she pressed
back against it as Alistair began kissing her neck, running his hands up her
waist to cup and knead her breasts.

“Please,” she managed to say as he rolled the hard buds of her
nipples between his fingers. She arched into his touch, letting him fill his
hands with her. One hand dropped between her legs and began to play with her,
circling and stroking, while the other hand drew her hair away from her neck. He
began to torment her, nipping and sucking at the sensitive skin where her neck
and shoulder met, all while teasing the sensitive nub that pulsed with every
flick of his clever fingers.

Brie whimpered, straining back against him as everything inside
her began to tighten at once, quivering.

“Please what?” he whispered in her ear, then dragged the lobe
through his teeth. The words began to fall from her lips, all the things she
wanted him to do to her, soft, gasping words as her hips rocked against his
hand. Every dark fantasy she’d had about him, the things she’d wanted him to do
with his mouth, his cock, while she’d been in bed alone at night, was revealed
in the heated darkness of his bedroom. As she told him, his hands moved back to
her hips, his own beginning to pulse against her again. The sexy little noises
he was making in the back of his throat at the apex of every pulse nearly undid
her—as it was, Brie was teetering on the edge of a shattering climax. She would
need so little to push her over the edge...but she wanted him to come with
her.

It was the last thing she said before he pushed her back down
before him, grabbed her hips, and thrust into her from behind. The different
position, coupled with the deeper penetration, had Brie clenching around him
immediately. She came hard, in an explosion of pleasure that blinded her with
its intensity. And still he rode her, pushing her higher even as the first waves
of her climax subsided. Brie realized she could feel the prick of his claws
against the bare flesh of her hips, could hear the wolf’s growl in every shallow
exhalation.

She felt herself pressing back into him, wordlessly asking for
more. She didn’t know what the
more
was, only that
it hovered there, teasing, just out of reach. Brie could feel Alistair tensing
as his thrusts grew wild, more rapid as he neared his own release. When she
acted, it was on instinct she hadn’t known she possessed. Just when he began to
gasp and shudder, she reared back, jerking her hair aside and baring her neck to
Alistair.

He reacted like a wild thing, giving a snarl before sinking his
teeth deep into the tender flesh. The bright burst of pain was almost
immediately followed by a wave of pleasure so intense that Brie screamed with
it, a climax that took everything she had left to ride out. Alistair slammed
into her twice more, holding her tight as he came, pouring himself into her with
his teeth still in her neck.

Light flashed in front of her eyes, and for a single, perfect
moment, Brie felt the connection she had with Alistair strengthen, pulling
tight, until she wasn’t sure where she ended and he began. They fused, sparked.
Combusted.

Then he pulled his mouth away, gasping for air as the tremors
began to subside for both of them. The light vanished, but the feeling of
intense connection lingered like the echo of a blissful dream. Brie collapsed to
the bed, feeling boneless, weightless. Thoughts tried to gel, but broke apart.
She could barely move, so sated that her entire body felt as though it was
buzzing.

Brie made a soft sound, the only one she could muster, as
Alistair fell to the bed beside her and dragged her back against him. He pulled
the covers over both of them and then buried his face in her hair. Within
seconds his breathing had gone deep and even. Brie’s eyes drifted shut, and she
wondered, just for a passing moment, what on earth she had just done, what it
had changed.

Everything. The word was there and then gone, fluttering away
from her in the face of the onrushing dark.

Then, exhausted, Brie joined Alistair in sleep.

SEVEN

Brie knew something was wrong when she woke up
alone.

She blinked slowly, surfacing in the cold dark. Her body felt
strangely heavy, every movement taking longer than it ought to. The tender flesh
between her shoulder and her neck ached miserably. It wasn’t until she’d pushed
herself to a sitting position that she remembered why.

He hadn’t just let go. He’d bitten her. She’d wanted it, Brie
thought. Wanted all of him. The connection between the two of them had been too
strong to resist taking that final leap.

And now here she was. And Alistair was...wait...

Brie shivered when she threw the covers off, getting to her
feet in her own cold, dark apartment. The night could almost have been a dream,
apart from her throbbing shoulder and the fact that she wasn’t wearing anything
in a house that still had no power. Her clothes would still be on the floor
downstairs, she guessed, before seeing them stacked in a neatly folded pile on a
chair in the corner of her bedroom.

She could see them, Brie realized, eyes taking in the confines
of her familiar room. She looked quickly to the window, where the cold gray
light of early morning was filtering in. the wind still moaned, but not as
fiercely. Her stomach sank..

Somehow, she knew he was gone.

Brie hurried to her dresser, digging out a pair of old flannel
pants and a sweatshirt, a thick pair of socks, and dragging them on as quickly
as she could. She didn’t bother with her hair, instead rushing past her dresser
and out into the darkened chill of her apartment. Brie didn’t shut the door,
leaving it open as she hurried silently down the stairs, hoping to catch
Alistair unaware before he vanished.

It wouldn’t be for good, she told herself. He said—

Well, he hadn’t exactly said he would be back. He’d just said
he had no choice. What if he put off facing Owain again? What if she never saw
him again? What if he
died
? What if...

A litany of questions played over and over in her head as the
knob of his apartment turned easily in her hand. Brie rushed in, knowing what
she would fine, knowing she had let herself in for this. Still, it felt like a
punch to the gut to see the cold, dark fireplace. She walked in slowly. The
furniture was still here.

Alistair was gone.

She didn’t know how she knew, only that she felt his absence.
Was that what Alistair

had meant about being able to sense Owain? She’d thrived on
Alistair’s presence for a long time now, Brie realized, even though they hadn’t
been speaking. The house was empty without him.

You
wanted
this
, she told herself. Yes, she had. She seemed to
have found the pinnacle of bad relationship decisions—sleeping with a
five-hundred-year-old werewolf with issues.
Mating
with him, she reminded herself. Now all she could do was deal with the
fallout.

She just wished it didn’t hurt so much. He could have left a
note. He could have left
something
.

Numb, Brie wandered through his apartment, wondering if she’d
missed something. She paused by the bed, which was neatly made, and wondered
what had been going through his head

As he’d straightened up, packed his things. He couldn’t have
packed much.

“Damn it,” she muttered, angrier at herself than anything.
Alistair had been honest about his situation. And she knew she would only be a
target. Still, being left so abruptly wasn’t what she’d expected.

She trudged back out to the living area and stood in front of
the fireplace, staring into it as though she might find some sort of answer in
the ashes. All at once there was a prickling warmth behind her, coursing up her
back and making the hairs at her neck prickle. Brie turned, her heart leaping at
the thought that he’d come back for her. And for a brief instant, she thought
the burning blue eyes watching her from the doorway belonged to Alistair. But
almost as quickly, she realized her mistake.

“
Well
,” said a raspy voice that
held an eerie echo of Alistair’s velvet tones just the same. “So this is why he
went running off into the snow so quickly. I wondered what he was hiding. I
could feel his happiness...and my brother is
never
happy. He’s too busy with honor and duty for things like feelings.”

Owain stepped into the light filtering in through the window,
and Brie stayed frozen in place, unable to do anything but watch him move
towards her. There was no question that he was Alistair’s brother. They had the
same coloring, similar features. But there was a cruelty in the set of Owain’s
mouth that she had never seen in Alistair, and his eyes, a blue so deep it was
almost black, were flat and without pity. A jagged scar slashed across his
mouth, even whiter than his pale skin. There was no honor in this wolf, Brie
thought. This one was a killer. And though Alistair wasn’t here, he seemed to
have found just what he was looking for.

This was what Alistair had feared, Brie knew. And suddenly, his
rapid departure made sense. He’d been trying to save her. But this time, no
diversion was going to keep Owain from getting his hands on something that could
hurt his brother without laying a finger on him.

Desperate, and wondering whether Alistair had realized that
Owain had come here instead of following, she tried to stammer out some sort of
believable lie.

“I’m sorry...I don’t know who you are, but I just live
upstairs. I...I heard a sound, and wanted to check on—”

Owain snorted and waved his hand as though he were batting her
words away. “Please. Don’t bother. I can smell him all over you.” He breathed in
deeply, eyes flickering like candles. “This is an unexpected surprise. I’d
started to think my brother was simply incapable of making love to a woman.
Turns out he just hadn’t found the right one. So particular.” He grinned, and it
was terrible. “Should I bother checking for his bite? I can smell your blood,
pretty little bitch. Oh, I
am
glad I decided not to
follow him. He’ll be so sad when he realizes he can’t always keep me away from
what he loves.” He stepped closer, and Brie finally found it in her to take a
step back. But the fireplace was right there, and after watching Alistair fight
the scout last night, she knew there would be no outrunning Owain
regardless.

His grin widened, and he laughed, a sound like nails on a
chalkboard. “Yes, run. Please. I could use a little sport before I make you
smell like
me
.”

Brie stumbled back and off to the side, unable to catch her
breath, or to really make a sound. She was on her own, she realized. Desperate,
she tried to do what Alistair had described when he’d talked about knowing when
his brother was near. She tried to catch some sense of another wolf, her wolf,
out in the snow. But she felt nothing, and Owain laughed again. Mocking her.

“No, we’re alone, pretty. And by the time he gets back, you’re
going to know exactly why they used to write stories about the big bad
wolf.”

That was when she felt him, all the heat and joy and passion
and need singing through her blood, rushing towards her out of nowhere. A
furious howl echoed through the house so loudlyit hurt Brie’s ears, but it was
still the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard.

“No!” Owain screamed, and as he lunged at her, she saw his eyes
blaze like twin suns, his human form bunching and shifting into that of an
enormous black wolf with a slashing scar across its muzzle.

Brie screamed just as another huge wolf—Alistair—slammed into
Owain, knocking him into the fireplace with a grunt that was half roar.

The two wolves tangled together before Owain kicked Alistair
off. Brie darted across the room toward the door as Owain turned his attention
on her, tongue lolling out of a wolfish grin. He jumped at her, and she dove out
of the way just as Alistair leaped, sinking his fangs into Owain’s hide to take
him down again. They rolled in a snarling, biting mass across the floor,
smashing into furniture as each tried to get the upper hand. Her passage to the
door was effectively blocked by the fighting werewolves. She looked around
desperately for an escape route.

Owain lunged at her again, far more nimble and graceful than
the scout he’d sent last night. This time Alistair barely managed to drag him
back, and Owain’s jaws snapped shut mere inches from her face.

He would kill her. And from the look in Alistair’s eyes when
they caught hers, if Owain managed to do that, he would have killed them both.
Alistair hadn’t left her. He’d only been trying to get Owain away from here.
From his mate.

If they managed to get out of this alive, Brie thought, she
would love him until there was no breath left in her body. He already mattered
to her. He was meant to matter to her. She had no doubt it would be no time at
all before she gave him her heart. That was, if she had the chance.

She hit the floor behind a chair and tried to clear her head,
to force herself to think of a way she could help Alistair gain the upper hand.
She was no wolf, or she’d have been at Owain’s throat already. Maybe that part
of the legend was true and it would come in time, but not yet. She was still
available help, though, despite being only human.

A glint caught her eye then, coming from beneath the couch. She
frowned at first, then blew out a shaky breath as she realized what it was: her
kitchen knife. This was where it had landed when she’d walked in and Alistair
had tossed her out of the other wolf’s path. She started to inch forward, hoping
Owain would be too busy to notice what she was doing.

A high-pitched howl of pain made her wince, and she looked to
see Alistair staggering around the side of Owain, who was bleeding from a huge
gash in his side. Alistair didn’t look much better, though...blood dripped
steadily from his underbelly onto the floor, and she didn’t like the way he was
struggling to keep his feet beneath him. As she watched, Owain knocked him
off-balance, then began trying to fasten his jaws on Alistair’s throat.

Brie nearly sobbed with relief when her fingers closed around
the hilt of the knife. She drew it out quickly and tucked it behind her, then
turned her head just in time to see Owain looming over a panting Alistair, ready
to go in for the kill.

I can do this, she thought. Alistair had gotten some of those
wounds protecting her. She had no problem repaying it.They were in this together
now. And they deserved to be able to make a fresh start.

“Owain!” she shouted.

He looked up, and there was a terrible joy in his eyes the
instant before he jumped. Everything seemed to slow down in that instant, and
Brie saw Alistair’s mad scramble to regain his footing. She lifted the knife
just before Owain made impact, and saw the instant he realized what she had. His
roar was deafening, full of pain and fury, and she felt the first press of his
flesh and fur just before he was yanked roughly back again, crashing to the
ground where Alistair finished the chase that had begun so long ago. Blood hung
in the air like crimson rain as Owain thrashed, then was still..

When Alistair finally staggered over to her, still a wounded
wolf, Brie had no misgivings. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried
her face in thick fur. She felt the burst of heat when Owain’s body
self-immolated, but she didn’t bother to look. It was over. She and Alistair
would get their chance.

They’d earned it together.