NocC 023 - The Ancients 05 - Bonnie Vanak - Incubus Wolf - Harlequin 2012-09 (2 page)

Chapter 3

The woman was in trouble.

Dominic watched the last wolves vanish into the deep
forest. The cold bit into his skin like an ice pick. He turned to his pack. “I’m
going back for her. Go home.”

Michael ran a finger over the black patch covering his ruined
eye. “No way, boss. Not alone. Belaramos will get you. This time it was too
close.”

“I’m not leaving her to die.”

“She followed you,” Michael protested, as the others nodded in
gruff agreement. “Her fault.”

“And she saved that wolf. Go back to the lodge.” A low growl
rumbled from his throat. He’d been gone from home ten years, leaving Michael in
charge. Upon his return, the pack immediately accepted him back as leader. But
being alpha meant showing no weakness.
Obey me or you’ll
pay.
And they knew the punishment would be harsh.

As his men started back, Dominic glanced at the full moon. The
temperatures were plummeting. She wouldn’t last long. He lifted his arms,
willing the Change and shifted into wolf.

Senses exploded as everything sharpened. The woman’s scent,
gardenia and ice, burned his nostrils. He could track her through an Arctic
blizzard.

Bounding over the field, he followed the trail back to the
wizard’s cabin. Outside the tall chain-link fence, he paused.

The steel trap was empty. The woman had escaped.

Muzzle lowered, he sniffed the ground, picking up traces of
blood and gardenia and sour fear. There, toward the dead tree.

A pale of moonlight dappled the meadow beneath the tree’s
spindly limbs. Dominic raced across the field. The scent grew stronger, making
his blood pump strong and thick through his veins.

At the tree, he found her, curled inside the hollow trunk.
Crimson dotted the ground by her foot. Dominic shifted back, clothed himself by
magick and squatted down. Admiration filled him. She was a fighter, this one.
She’d dragged herself into the tree to get warm. Gently he lifted her into his
arms, her silky black hair tumbling over his arms. She moaned.

“You’re safe now,” he soothed.

Beneath his hands, he felt delicate bones, so frail he could
snap them in two. But this hunter was tough. The facade hid an inner core of
steel. A worthy opponent for a powerful wolf.

An equally worthy mate.

A distant rumble broke the quiet night. Dominic watched the
four-wheeler approach.

“I gave you orders to stay put,” he snapped.

“You gave orders to go home. If you wanted me to stay, be
specific.” Michael left the engine rumbling as he climbed off. He removed a
thick wool blanket from the attached trailer and went to cover the woman.

Dominic growled, his possessive instincts going haywire at the
thought of another man touching her. Michael backed off, holding up his
hands.

“Pax, boss. Was just trying to help, not stake a claim.”

With extreme care Dominic laid her in the trailer, climbed in
and covered her with the blanket. He examined her ankle. Not broken, but bad
enough.

As they headed for the lodge, the woman stirred a little and
moaned. Dominic laid a warm hand on her icy cheek. Anger rose up in him, hot and
swirling.

He’d like to break Belaramos’s fingers, one by one.

Strength radiated from the woman. He’d felt it in the bar,
beneath the cover of buxom redhead glamour. But it wasn’t until he’d caught a
whiff of the scent she’d failed to entirely eradicate that he could not resist.
He had to kiss her.

Dominic bent over her, inhaling her delicious scent cutting
through the metallic odor of blood. Deep inside he felt kinship with this woman
who’d risked her own life to save a wild wolf.

He wanted her, badly. His wolf howled at the thought of mating
with her, climbing between her legs to mark her as his own. His incubus blood
surged hot and thick with the remembrance of her sweet arousal in the bar as
he’d kissed her.

“Down, boys,” he murmured, cupping the woman’s cheek with a
warm palm. “Let her heal. She’s not ready to come to me. Not yet.”

There would be plenty of time later for what both wanted.

“Alexandra Kostra,” he murmured, enchanted by the soft skin
beneath his caressing thumb. “Finally, I’ve got you.”

*

Alex was home, snuggled in her bed. Fragrant pine and
delicious warmth surrounded her. For the first time since her stepfather threw
her out, she felt peaceful.

The scent of pine and fresh rain grew stronger. Alex struggled
to keep the feeling intact, knowing it would evaporate like morning mist.

“Wake up, little warrior.”

The deep voice stroked over her body like a velvet lash. She
remembered the events of the previous night and braced herself for the burning
pain in her ankle.

Alex opened her eyes as a light snapped on.

She was clad in a pair of soft flannel pajamas, lying in a pine
bed big enough to hold five people. Moonlight streamed past plain white
curtains, spilling on the soft white carpet. The room had crammed bookshelves
and an enormous pine dresser. A fire crackled in the stone hearth.

In a handsome wood rocker, Dominic sat, regarding her intently.
He looked sexy and dangerous, dressed in a thin black shirt and tight black
jeans. Firelight glinted off his black hair and amusement danced in his bright
blue eyes. He hooked his thumbs through the belt loops.

“The sleeping princess awakens at last, in time for the
handsome prince to give her the kiss she’s longed for,” he murmured.

Cold, cruel and intensely sexual, his body was hard and
tempting. A woman would want to run her hands through those thick locks of dark
hair, clasp him close as he devoured her mouth and laid her on the bed….

Alex shuttered the thought and made a quick assessment. No
weapons. He’d stripped off her knives and gun. But she had the only weapon
necessary. Her glamour. Dominic must never find out her real identity.

“Try kissing me. I bite.”

“Promise?”

“I never make promises I can’t keep.”

“Pity. I have several places on my body I’d like your mouth
on.”

“In your dreams. What am I doing here? And where is here?” Alex
scanned the room, searching for a weapon.

Dominic cocked an eyebrow. “Saving you. You would have died out
there. You’re in the House of Eros, the lodge of my pack.”

Tension knotted her stomach. The infamous playhouse, whispered
to host the darkest sexual proclivities. They said he had a basement with walls
lined with fur, tables where he liked to tie up willing females and tease them
until they screamed with pleasure….

Definitely not a hotel she wanted to stay at. Alex tested her
ankle, rotating it around and winced. Still a little painful but healing. But
that didn’t make her helpless. Or stupid.Dominic advanced, his big body taking
up all the space in the room. Alex fisted her hands, fighting the instinctual
urge to turn from the sensuality flaring on his face. Remember his hands
stroking slowly over her skin that first time ten years ago…

She gestured to the pajamas with little pink bunnies on them.
“Nice clothing. Is this what you make all your women wear when you strip off
their clothing?”

“They belong to Claire, a member of my pack. Freshly laundered.
She and the other females undressed you and got you into bed.”

He tossed back the covers, studied her ankle. “It will heal. I
applied a poultice of herbs and special lotion. Should be fine in a day or two.”
Dominic pulled the covers back.

“You applied it?”

“With my own two hands.” His voice dropped to a dark whisper.
“I enjoyed every moment of having them on you. Although I prefer my lovers to be
conscious.”

Her lower belly tightened as she thought of Dominic smoothing
the lotion over her ankle, lingering and slow, a sensual caress as he rubbed and
stroked….

Not. Going. There. “I’m not your lover.”

“You will be.”

The arrogant certainty inflamed her. “You underestimate me,
wolf.”

“And you underestimate me, bounty hunter. Did you think you
could hide your identity from me?”

Her mouth went dry. “How did you…”

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the ugliest of all? Where the
hell was the mirror? Alex threw back the covers, craned her neck to see her
reflection in the dresser’s glass.

Still the same glamour. Relief filled her as she sagged back
onto the bed.

“Alexandra Kostra. The most successful and ruthless bounty
hunter for the Society for the Prevention of Malevolent Magick. Sent here to
capture me and bring me back to demon prison. A very clever Fae whose glamour
can fool even the most experienced targets. It’s thought she is totally asexual
and immune to my charms.”

“How did you know?”

He tapped his nose. “When I heard the rumors you were after me,
I had my pack retrieve an item with your scent on it. I recognized you in the
bar.”

Alex resisted the temptation to check the mirror to make sure
the wizard’s potion still worked. Dominic couldn’t know her true identity or her
real face. Her file had been kept secret in a locked, magick-free vault.

“What did the Society promise for capturing me?” The deep
timbre of his husky voice licked at her senses, while his hard gaze burned like
blue lasers.

“All the hamburgers I can eat and a year’s supply of diet
cola.”

His voice dropped an octave. “Tell me.”

Alex could not resist the compulsion in his sensual, commanding
tone. “After this last assignment, my freedom. And fifteen prime acres in
Colorado and my own little cabin.”

A real home of her own, instead of wandering the earth to bring
scum back to prison. A haven where she could hide from a cruel world that stared
and mocked at the runes on her face.

The tribal tattoos were a magick warning. The intricate whorls
and swirls stated “Keep away” and “Beware” in Old Sidhe. After she’d lost her
virginity to avoid marriage to a rival Fae king who’d promised land to her
stepfather, Stepdaddy Dearest had punished her. He’d inked her face and body.
The tats came with a special added bonus, too.

But with the wizard’s potion, she could truly be free. And live
just like everyone else.

“An indentured hunter. What caused your indenture?”

For too many years she’d steeled herself against telling the
sordid truth. Not even the coaxing note in his voice could make her tell.

“None of your business.”

Dominic leaned against the wall, folding his arms, the movement
making his biceps ripple. Gods, he was handsome, with eyes of ruthless blue. A
subtle power glowed within him, a force that could slay a woman with
pleasure.

“A cabin in the woods sounds lonely. A woman by herself in the
wilderness.”

She shrugged. “I’m used to being alone.”

“Being used to something is one thing, liking it is another.
You shouldn’t be alone. Everyone needs someone, needs a pack.”

“I don’t.” The words were a well-practiced lie.

Dominic sat on the bed, so close he threatened to drown her in
his rich, sensual scent. His big body was aggressive and filled with purpose.
But the hand he placed on her chilled cheek was gentle. He stroked a thumb
across her skin, evoking a shiver.

The Society’s director had assigned her this mission because
she was asexual. Immune to the wolf’s charms and seductive moves.

Another lie. Because right now, with his thumb gently stroking
over her cheek, with his delicious scent wrapping around her like a blanket, and
his big, muscled body primed for sex, she was losing the battle.

She drew away. “Don’t touch me.”

“Afraid?” he asked in a soft voice.

“Hardly.”

“But you’ll have to touch me if you want to bring me back to
prison like the good bounty hunter you are.”

The lopsided, charming smile made her insides clench. He was so
handsome, with his dark good looks, lean and muscled body, the rough bristle on
his sculpted cheeks. But it was the erotic promise in those cool blue eyes that
roped her in, as if invisible tendrils snaked around her quivering body and tied
her to the bed as his hands stroked her naked skin….

Alex tried to shake free the sensual haze. She turned her head
to the window, staring at the starlight in the velvet night. Velvet like the
smooth stroke of his tongue against her cool flesh…

We will be lovers,
spoke the voice
inside her head
. You cannot fight me.

Slow, seductive images, hands stroking
over her shuddering, wet flesh, filled with erotic promise…

Get out!

He wove his incubus magick around her. Alex glared at him.
“Let’s get this straight right now. Do not touch me. Get it? I’m not your toy,
captive for your sexual amusement. Hands off.”

Dominic held up his palms. “Show me what parts of your body to
avoid and I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

Silently she pointed to her groin and breasts and belly. Then
she shook her head. He was an incubus.

“Nothing below the neck,” she told him.

“Not without permission. I agree.”

Exhausted, she lay back, closing her eyes. Dominic couldn’t see
her real face. The glamour hid her from scorn and ridicule.

*

A jingle sounded and she glanced up. Dominic stood by
her bed, a lazy smile playing on his full mouth. Silver handcuffs dangled from
one hand.

“You’ll need these to take me into custody, Alexandra. Care to
tie me up now? Perhaps to the bed, where I’ll be totally helpless.”

“You said…”

“I agreed not to touch you. But you can touch me. All you
want.”

The thought of him helpless and splayed before her, those
smooth muscles gleaming and inviting, intrigued her. To look all she pleased,
stroke his body as he lay helpless and stretched out. Arousal tightened her
body. His nostrils inhaled. He’d scented it, wolf that he was, and his eyes
glowed hot.