Right Wolf, Right Time (8 page)

He grinned. “Man. I never imagined tonight would happen like this. You are awesome, you know that?”

She smiled back, and he wanted to think he saw her heart in her eyes. That the love he felt was so full because some of it was a reflection of what she felt. He knew so much about her. Her likes and dislikes, her styles in fashion and décor, how she preferred banana to strawberry and couldn’t stand peanuts. But this intimacy between them he couldn’t have imagined.

Monty moved back and lay down. Then he motioned for her to come over him. “Turn around and put that perfect mouth around my cock. Yeah, that’s it.” He groaned when she engulfed him. “This won’t last long. Shit.” He arched his hips when she grazed her teeth along the underside of his crown. “Now put that pussy over my mouth. I need to lick that cream. Oh yeah. You are wet, aren’t you?”

He loved their combined scent, but it was her need that pulled at him. His wolf circled inside him, needing to feel it. Monty licked her and sucked her. He slid his finger inside her, then added another. And when she increased her fervor, mouthing his cock like a pro, he slicked his pinky through her juices and rimmed her asshole.

She moaned and took him to the back of her throat, gagging as she did so.

He held on hard to stop from coming. Monty pulled back from her clit. “Go easy, baby. Don’t hurt yourself.” But his frisky mate did it again. At first awkward, it didn’t take her long to master the art of deep-throating.

She pulled away to say, “I practiced on a banana. Well, a condom-covered one. I wanted to be ready for you.”

For me, or for someone else,
he wanted to ask. But she resumed her feast, and he could no longer think. He gave himself up to instinct as he layered another scent marker over her, pleased as hell when she gave her own right back. He licked and sucked and fingered her, playing with her pussy and ass until she came over his tongue.

As she shivered and released, she sucked him like a Hoover. And when she tightened her hand around his balls and hollowed her cheeks again, he jetted down her throat. The orgasm swept his emotions up as well, and he swirled about in a haze of love and contentment he’d never felt before.

Sophie finished swallowing him down and let him fall from her mouth at the same time he pushed her up from his lips. The mating scent permeated her room.

“God, you were so hard.” She turned around and accepted the tug of his hand to lie on top of him.

“So were you. A firm little clit under my tongue. Man, I love the way you taste.”

She rubbed her cheek against his chest, and he could almost see her blushing.

“So you’re okay with this? With us, Sophie?”

“Oh yeah.”

Monty felt her sigh through to his bones. “Good. Me too.”

“Me too,” she repeated, then yawned.

His mate. His future. And, God willing, his pup growing inside her even now. Monty closed his eyes and fell asleep, happiness not only in his reach, but in his arms.

Chapter Five

Ted Norris sighed as he hunkered down, studying the mess of tracks that the rain had partially wiped away. A noise nearby caught his attention, and without moving more than his hand clutching a knife, he noted the baby rabbit darting across the forest floor. Poor thing, looking lost, too young to be without its mother.

Ted flung the knife and skewered the rabbit into the ground, right again with the world. Predator hunting prey.
The strong triumphing over the weak, as it should be.

“Dad—”

The glare he sent his oldest had Brett correcting himself. “
Ted
, this isn’t getting us anywhere. You need to heal. We can only avoid the wolves so long before they find us. The mountains just aren’t that big to these fuckers.”

Brett had a point. Still. “What have I always told you? You don’t let the world know your weaknesses, boy. There’s no father and son out there. No friends. Hunters hunt, and sometimes we die,” he ended on a growl, remembering the half dozen in his last Hunting expedition that he’d lost. Damn fine men, a victim to the unnatural shapeshifters tainting the righteous man’s world.

His son didn’t flinch. A definite improvement. “Boy? I’m thirty-five years old. And I’ve killed my share of freaks, same as you.”

Ted snorted. “Your point?”

“I’m a Hunter. I know when to cut my losses, regroup and start fresh. I know how to be smart.
You
taught me that.” Brett frowned and gripped the sling of his rifle. “We need to get back so you can heal. You favor your left side, and your face looks infected. Charlie’s home manning the store, and all’s quiet there. But last I talked to him, he said a buddy of his ran into a few dickhead cats sniffing around. Could make problems for us if others find out.”

Ted nodded. Working alongside their normal prey to get a shot at finding a Shifter hot spot had been genius, but his community wasn’t known for wheeling and dealing. A big reason why so many of his friends were dying. They stuck to tradition, going for the big kill. But times had changed. Technology could be useful, and so could allies in strange places. Imagine Hunters making friends with shapeshifters. It wasn’t done.

Then again, Ted hadn’t ever intended to make good on his pledge of alliance. He’d planned to use the cats, then skin them alive, one by one.

“I had him, you know.” Ted stood and retrieved his knife. He wiped blood on a bed of moss and stuck the knife back in its sheath around his thigh. “Demon was there.”

Demon—the cold-blooded Shifter he’d never broken, not in the six blessed years he’d held on to the creature. That monster wolf had fought and killed more Shifters and Hunters than any other Ac-taw Ted had ever owned. Demon had been a favorite in the pits and Ted’s personal pride and joy. And then the fucker managed to escape, taking out two of Ted’s best friends in the process.

“It wasn’t him.” Brett shook his head. “Bill was there, and he told me what he saw. Nothing special, just more of the same animals. Demon’s dead. I killed him myself.”

“Bullshit. You barely nicked him that night he took off. And Bill doesn’t know what he saw. He was too busy trying to save his own ass.”

“And yours.”

“So what? I was this close to having Demon once again. My pet wolf. And then we were overrun.” He’d been so close to success. Working with shapeshifters from Florida had been the key. A spat with some of their own kind in Montana had resulted in an unlikely partnership with Ted. In the process, he’d actually managed to get his hands on not one, but
two
cats in the mountains of Glacier National Forest.

The male had been a problem. He was vicious, even half-dead. But the female held promise. Young, beautiful and cold. She’d tried to play him, as if Ted hadn’t known her agenda from the start. He had to appreciate her intelligence, though. She would have made him some real money in the animal trade, but then the shit hit the fan and his group had been overrun with Ac-taw. He’d lost control of the situation, only to watch Demon appear as if out of nowhere. Like a vision, the wolf had raced into the fracas and stood protectively over the half-dead cat.

“I’ll never forget his eyes,” Ted murmured. Part ice-blue, part gray, and so beautifully furious as he’d stared at Ted with festering hate.

Something in Ted responded to that level of intensity—a challenge that put his back up. No matter how many Shifters he’d killed during his fifty-nine years, he’d never met an animal he wanted to master like he did Demon. And master he had. For six fulfilling years he’d beaten and whipped his wolf. Forced fights in the pits, mental manipulations, more beatings. He’d allowed the wolf to become close to a few of his own kind, only to kill those same friends later, to prove to Demon that he owned him. They’d been the champions of every Hunter’s Folly for all six years.

No matter what Ted threw at him, the wolf never faltered. He never submitted or showed a hint of his belly.

Ted understood that kind of fortitude. It intrigued him on every level, because he lived it day in and day out. He wanted Demon back, and he’d get him. But not today, apparently.

“Your infection actually isn’t that bad,” Brett murmured. “Maybe your super immune system just needed time to kick in.”

Ted fingered his cheek, where the flap of skin torn by a pissed-off cougar had just started to heal, a little more than a week after his ordeal. “Fucking cat thought he had me ’til I turned the tables. I would have killed him if Bill hadn’t dragged me back.”

“To hear him tell it, he saved you from another attack.”

“Maybe.”

“Look. If you really saw Demon, you know where to find him. But trawling through the woods while evading patrolling wolves isn’t working. We’re outnumbered here.” Brett paused and said what Ted knew he’d bring up. The little shit mentioned her at least once a day. “Besides, maybe we’ll find new leads on Sophie. Matt said he learned a few things on his last hunt. Said he’d tell us when we all got home.”

“Sophie.” His sweet little niece. So pretty and innocent. She’d been his pride and joy until she’d turned on him. But then, he’d known it was coming. He’d done all he could, but the girl’s wolf wouldn’t stay down. She didn’t have the power in her to keep it buried. Keep it tight.

His belly coiled in familiar anticipation, and he tamped down the wild energy. Controlled it.

“Ted?”

Ted sighed. “We go home. For now. Spray some more of that mist on me. I can smell myself coming back.” He and Brett covered themselves once more in Hunter’s mist, a spray that camouflaged their scents and made it possible to walk undetected through Ac-taw lands.

He might be leaving, but he wasn’t finished. As he moved, he thought about Demon and Sophie, and what their lives might be like without him. Sophie had been gone for more than two years, and Demon close to six. He wondered if they knew of each other. Wouldn’t that be a kick? He almost smiled, but the hollow in his chest wouldn’t let him. It made him sad, that he couldn’t share in their experiences. But perhaps this had all been a test, to see if he had the discipline and tenacity to persevere. He’d done what he’d needed with his sister. Could he do the same for his niece?

A thought came to mind, one that involved Demon, and he knew how to handle Sophie. He’d find her again, because he could sense her near. She was out here, a prize to be won after he triumphed over the wolf. It was a test, and he planned to succeed. He couldn’t—
wouldn’t
—fail. With a new spring in his step, he hurried through the woods, suddenly eager to get home and hear what Matt had to say.

Sophie smiled at the last customer and closed the grocery for the night. The others had already finished up and gone home. With Lucy available to work overtime for the next few days, Sophie would have all her free time to deal with the randy wolf waiting for her right outside the front doors.

He waved and motioned to the back of the store.

She nodded and walked through to the back to meet him.

Monty GrayClaw. My lover. And just maybe, my mate.

She couldn’t stop blushing. The whole day had felt unreal. Customers commented on how pretty she looked. Their knowing glances made it more than evident they knew she wore Monty’s scent.

The few wolves who’d visited had glared like thunderclouds, but not one of them had said an unkind word. Rafe’s interference, no doubt. She didn’t think Monty’s warnings would do anything to deter the rough-and-tumble gray wolves from pestering her.

She met Monty at the back, past the storage area and offices, and waited for him to join her before closing and locking the door behind him. Strong arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her back into a warm embrace.

“I missed you today.” He nuzzled her neck and sighed. Then he nipped her and she yelped in surprise. “Sorry. I don’t like the fact there’s nothing here. Your neck is as smooth as glass.”

“I heal fast.” Stupid. Of course he knew that. They all healed fast.

“I know, but fact is, I didn’t mark you hard enough because I didn’t want to hurt you. But I want everyone to know where you belong. With me.”

She chuckled. “You sound way too satisfied about that.”

“Hell, yeah.” He moved behind her, and she felt his arousal against the small of her back.

“Wow. You really did miss me.” Was it stupid of her to be flattered and excited about his hard-on?

Instead of answering her, Monty shoved her up against the door.

“Monty?”

His hands went to the front of her jeans. “Don’t move.” His raspy breath and the roughness with which he handled her immediately made her wet. “Oh yeah.” He groaned as he unfastened her jeans and shoved them and her underwear down.

Manhandling her into position, Monty had her bent over, her hips back and her feet as wide apart as the bunched jeans around her knees would let her.

“M-Monty?”

“Yeah. That’s nice.”

Before she could ask what that meant, something thick pushed between her legs. He thrust hard into her, shoving through her slick heat in one smooth rush.

“
Oh God.
Monty. I missed you today too.” She jerked and nearly lost her balance when he started fucking her with brutal strokes, shoving so deep inside her she swore she felt him touch her womb.