His Wolf (Wolf of My Heart) (12 page)

"This Leopold dude was The Arm's top dog?"

I almost smiled at his unintentional pun.
"Yeah.
Until his wolves mutinied and murdered him about a year ago, he ran a very large organization with branches all over the world. His silent partner went down not long after he did. I never learned his name.
Ever since, the
Corteggio
has been trying to clean up the mess by freeing the
Weres
who've been kidnapped, most of them teenage boys, and offering them a cure so they can go home and get their lives back."

"Wait…there's a cure?"

"Yeah, and that's where the goddess stuff comes in. A witch in Birmingham can cure ninety-nine percent of
Weres
. As for the other one percent, well, she can't help them. I fall into that category."

"Because you really are a descendent of an Irish Goddess named Danu?"

"Yes. Apparently I'm
Tuatha
de
Dannan
, a child of Danu, which puts me in the same mystic category as Native American werewolves and a couple of other groups."

"So you'll shift forever."

"Yes."

"How do you feel about that?"

"I was dealing until just a few minutes ago. Now that my last hope of going home is in the toilet, I honestly don't know. Maybe I'll just borrow that rifle of yours and shoot myself."

"Don't even say that as a joke."

"It's not loaded, remember?"

"Actually, I lied about that. It is, but won't be for long."

I exhaled sharply in frustration. "Do you really think I'd kill myself, Erik?"

"Let's just say I'm not taking any chances. I've never seen you this blue."

"That's because you've known me what? Two days? Three?" It felt longer, but in a good way. "We all have our down times."

Erik ignored me. "You wrote that Yarbrough is in prison. How was he prosecuted without everyone learning the truth?"

"Apparently the
Corteggio
convicted him in
their own
special court. Then their representatives set us all free."

"And though they're doing this systematically all over the globe, there are still groups out there?"

"Yes.
Old
Weres
and even young ones who liked living on the edge and went into hiding.
You saw my spreadsheets. Crime pays well. I'm sure there are pockets of The Arm that even the
Corteggio
can't locate to bust up and there are probably some free agents, as well.  If these guys are clever and haven't openly broken any
preter
laws, there's really no reason to arrest them.  It's not illegal to be a
Were
any more than it's illegal to be a ghost."

"I'm thinking it's those renegade
Weres
we have to look out for. You've got a lot of incriminating information on that laptop."

So I did. Suddenly exhausted, I leaned back and closed my eyes.

"Are you okay?  It sometimes takes a while for injuries to show up after a wreck."

"I'm actually doing really well." I didn't fully confess the speed healing for some reason.

"All the same, you should probably lie down or something."

"I just woke up."

"Then go soak in the tub. I've got some bubble bath."

My eyebrows shot up.

"I bought it by mistake, okay?
Thought it was shampoo."

I laughed at him.

"I'm serious," he said, standing. "Mom always does that when she needs to relax. And you look
very…
stressed. I'll find us something to eat and have it ready by the time you get out."

As if I could ever bathe for that long. But I didn't argue. "Okay."

Once in the bathroom, I turned on the tap and got the water as hot as I could stand. By the time I turned it off, the tub was filled with fragrant bubbles, some of which drifted in the air. I stripped and got into the warmth. Scooting all the way down, I rested my head on the side behind me and closed my eyes. My muscles began to relax, starting at my toes, until I was halfway into dreamland and feeling pretty dang good.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"What the heck?" I sat up straight, sloshing water everywhere.
"Erik!"

The door immediately opened a crack. "I'm right here.
Just renovating the bedroom a little."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"I'll show you when you get out. Don't hurry."

Chapter Nine

Though tempted to get out of the tub to see what he was up to, I followed orders.
So by the time I did dry off, I felt better--a she-wolf almost ready to take on the world again.
I tossed my damp towel aside and then picked it up again since I hadn't brought clean clothes into the bathroom and didn't want to put on my discarded ones.

Wrapping the towel around me, I ventured into the hall with my hair still in the untidy knot designed to keep it off my neck and dry. Just as I got to the bedroom, I removed the rubber band. My hair tumbled down. Erik, standing in the middle of the room, made a choking sound.

"What?"

He just shook his head and sighed. "Would you please put on some
clothes.
Geez."

"Sorry," I as good as snapped. I turned on my heel and went to the living room for my backpack, which I carried back to my bed. I rummaged through it, half my attention on Erik and his hammer. "What's going on?"

"Check out the door."

I did and saw that he'd created a barricade of sorts by nailing some improvised slots onto the door facing. All anyone would have to do to secure it was drop a board into them, which would make it virtually impossible to break the door down. Tears sprung to my eyes and spilled onto my cheeks. In seconds, I was sobbing.

"Shit!" Erik whirled around and got right in my face. "What's wrong?"

"I-I can't b-believe you d-did that for m-me."

Rolling his eyes, he pulled me into a hug. Naturally I hugged him back, which meant I lost my grip on my towel. We didn't know it until he released me and the thing pooled at my feet.

"Damn, Bronte!" Erik tried to scoop it up. I kicked it aside and hugged him again, so craving the intimacy I believed would chase away my ghosts. What guy could resist so blatant an invitation? Not this one, which is why we wound up on his bed. Though he could've taken advantage of my neediness, he actually kept his hands to himself, which
couldn't have been easy. I sure didn't, instead yanking his T-shirt over his head and going for the snap on his jeans. He caught my hands in his. "You're very needy right now."

"So?"

"So if we do this, I won't be any better than that Yarbrough dude--just another guy using you."

"But I
want
you.
Big difference."

He shook his head. "You just think you do. What you want is comfort, and I can give you that without the unnecessary complication of sex."

Unnecessary complication of sex?
His message couldn't have been clearer, and it set me off.

"So we're back to rain checks, huh?" With an angry huff, I got up and put on the sleep clothes I'd found earlier. I felt Erik's gaze burning into my bare body, but never looked his way as I pulled on bikinis and my usual sweat pants and shirt.

He waited until I was dressed before he rolled off his bed and put his shirt back on. Then he left me without a word. I heard him banging around in the kitchen almost immediately and felt bad for my sarcasm. While I should've been thrilled I'd finally met a male with scruples, I was nothing but frustrated, and it wasn't because I was a sex maniac. I was actually pretty inexperienced in that department. But I was also feeling reckless, something I blamed on the past few months.

I'd always been a girl who obeyed the rules. No crossing the street on a green for me. I also didn't park in
No Parking
zones, drive over the posted speed limit, or open doors with
Do Not Enter
on them. I'd never given my dad any grief, either, and had actually been a hopeless homebody with an occasional boyfriend. He'd moved me into a dorm so I'd get some life experiences.

Yet bad things had happened to me anyway.

So playing it safe didn't always work, and now that I knew that, I was ready to live a little. I wanted Erik to be my first experiment. Unfortunately, he wasn't into me…at least enough to make him stray off the straight and narrow way that used to be mine, too.

Knowing I owed him an apology, I finally headed to the kitchen where he stood putting breaded
somethings
in a skillet of hot oil. Chicken strips, I realized, nudging him aside with my hip so I could take over. At the grocery store, he'd told me he didn't like
cooking much, yet here he was doing it again. He gave me a sidelong glance. I gave him a smile. "Sorry."

"For?"

"Attacking you.
Won't happen again."

That got him. "You think I don't want to have sex with you?"

"What else?"

"You're amazing, Bronte, and I want you. The only-a-cold-shower-will-help-this kind of want you. I just--"

"Don't intend to take advantage of me since you think I'll probably have second thoughts once I feel better."

I'd never seen a guy look so relieved.
"Exactly."

"First, that isn't going to happen. I know who I want, and it's you." I held up my hand to stop the protest I glimpsed on the tip of his tongue. "Second, I'm feeling fine now.
Relaxed.
Happy.
Safe and secure.
Plus I smell like strawberries. I'm sure I've never been more irresistible."

He grinned.

"Third, we're definitely going to have this discussion again, but not until you're as comfortable with the idea of us hooking up as I am. So don't think it's going away. It isn't. I'm just biding my time for now." I forked a sizzling chicken strip and turned it in the oil. "And just so you know, I'm not always like this. You're the very first guy who's made me want to go for it." When I stole a peek at Erik, I saw that his eyes were brimming. I looked away to keep from getting emotional, myself. "So why don't you go get that cold shower? I'll finish up here."

Erik kissed me on the lips before he left without saying a word. Seeing that the chicken had a ways to go yet, I went to his computer to see the photos he'd been working on when he wasn't hacking into my laptop. I found them easily enough since he had them organized by date. I picked the
slideshow
option and sat back to enjoy the scenery. One-by-one, exquisite shots of woodlands in winter flipped past me on the screen. I recognized most of the locations and relived the fun of tramping through the snow with Erik.

But suddenly I saw a person in the shots. Me. Photo after photo flashed by--some of them close-ups I had no idea he'd taken. My jaw dropped. I'd never looked so sexy. My eyes sparkled; my skin glowed; my hair was a tangled mess begging to be touched.

Yikes.

Was that how he saw me? And he'd still resisted sex? The guy had to be a saint.

"Something smells good."

I jumped.
"Oh, um, yeah.
Did we buy frozen fries? I thought we could have those with the chicken since we're already... What?"