Vivian Arend - Granite Lake Wolves 2 (4 page)

supposed to go with her but had to cancel. Shaun, my business partner, insists

she’ll be just fine but I’m still concerned. I know she’s strong but since I found

out…” Tad coughed suddenly, frantic to cover up that he had nearly told Missy

about being a wolf. He must be tired because he had
never
slipped like that

before.

It was Shaun’s fault for getting him thinking about having sex with a human

woman right before the biggest wet dream of his life walked through the door. He

glanced at where she sat in the open storage compartment of the plane, her feet

dangling in midair. Curls draped over her shoulders, the ugly coverall unable to

hide the curves of her petite frame. A shot of lust raced through him. Damn, he

couldn’t blame this on Shaun. It was his own body jerking him around. He was

horny and a total bastard all on his own.

Missy seemed deep in thought and Tad fought a case of wandering hands. The

need to touch her was so bad it made his whole body hurt. Missy gave him one of

her shy smiles. “I’m sure Robyn will be fine. She always was extremely

independent.”

He hurried to reassure her. “I know, I just like to worry. It comes with the

territory.”

They stared at each other.

Missy looked away first, biting her lower lip. Tad shut his mouth tight so the

groan that wanted to escape was locked away. Everything about Missy called for

him to step forward and—

She grabbed the front of his shirt and tugged until he stood between her legs,

their torsos nestled together. Lips, soft and warm, brushed his, that strange

electric sensation enveloping his body at the same time. Tad pulled Missy closer

and kissed back, nibbling her lips, caressing the curve of her cheek with small

touches. He snuck a hand into her curls and cupped her head to direct her mouth

to the right angle to enjoy her fully.

She opened her lips and he tasted her for the first time. Sweet and spicy,

intoxicating.

Addictive.

His tongue made a tentative dip into her mouth, a brief stroke against hers, then

retreated as they explored the newness of the kiss. What he’d imagined as a

teenager was nothing like the experience as an adult.

Heat rose between them as his body reacted to Missy’s softness. Tad fought to

keep his hands loose around her instead of trapping her against the plane like he

wanted to. He forced himself to kiss her instead of feasting on her lips, forced

himself to let the sweetness of the experience flow over them like a fine wine.

They separated at the same moment, fingers linked together even as their lips

parted. Tad stared into Missy’s eyes and saw his need reflected back.

Sweet mercy, she wanted him too.

Tad leaned forward, ready to recapture her lips when she pressed a hand against

his chest.

“We need to finish. The others could be here anytime.”

Deep breath.

Tad nodded. He dropped one final kiss on her mouth, a fleeting brush of lips, the

promise of more. Simply touching her made his body ache. There was no way he

could deny the attraction between them. It was time he made up his mind, and

right now his wolf side was losing the battle. Waiting to find forever with a wolf

mate was one choice, but perhaps he could find forever in a different direction.

***

Alone in her hotel room that night Missy paced, unable to sit still with the energy

surging through her. The day had turned out nothing like she expected. She still

felt Tad’s mouth on hers, the caress of his hands on her body. Never before had

she experienced such a strong attraction. The connection with Tad was

overpowering, a little frightening and divinely potent. Was it what she wanted?

Was it what she needed?

After fleeing Whistler she had worked days and researched at night until nearly a

month later she found a possible solution to her problem.

Wolf hormones.

The genetic differences between werewolves and humans were small but

profound. It was the presence of unique chemicals that made possible the

physical transformation between forms. Those same compounds caused the

incredible bond between wolf couples to occur. The creation of lifetime mates

was a blessing, but there was a hidden curse. Male wolves built up an excess

supply of the hormones during adolescence.

While wolves and humans could have sex, the chemicals were only released

during intimacy with a female wolf. A cousin once told Missy guys jokingly called

the situation “double virginity”. No matter how active their sex life with humans,

males still had to lose their wolf virginity with a female more powerful than them

or the huge amount of hormones released could backfire, creating a pheromone

overload.

The female would become hopelessly obsessed with her partner due to nothing

more than a chemical chain reaction. A false mate, with the lifetime connection

on only one side.

That was how her brother-in-law had hoped to gain control over her. Doug

thought compelling Missy into marriage with his inexperienced brother would

trap her.

Missy opened the window to let in the cold night air, the room suddenly close

and unbearable. She leaned her head against the windowsill, fighting down the

shudders that threatened to overtake her as she remembered her wedding night.

It wasn’t the sex that had scared her, but she hadn’t been in love and her terror of

becoming trapped had made the experience hell. Missy had always considered it

a miracle she was a stronger wolf than anyone expected.

And now she discovered an overload would not only have forced a false mate,

the destructive chemical reaction would have also eliminated her latent Omega

talents.

She resumed pacing, the small space of the hotel room like a cage around her.

The solution had been there all the time. Wolf society knew about false mates

and had guidelines in the code to help prevent it. They had even developed the

ritual of FirstMate once it was discovered that if a male’s first experience was

with a wolf who was already mated, the chemicals had no effect.

If she could provide FirstMate to a powerful wolf, it could destroy her talents and

she would be free. Doug would have no use for her without intact Omega

abilities. Giving up a part of herself to avoid being used as a tool seemed an

acceptable sacrifice. Even if it meant she would forever love someone who didn’t

love her back.

But who should she approach to offer FirstMate? Only strong wolves or mated

females with their husband’s approval could offer to act as a guide. In her case it

would be assumed as a widow she would be safe from the hormone backlash. If

the attempt failed she had decided she would shift into her wolf and disappear

from human society forever. The Yukon was a logical safe haven. Her time was

running out and if FirstMate didn’t work, going feral seemed the only choice left.

And Tad was in the north. Missy had always remembered him and his face was

the first to rush to her mind, perhaps for a good reason. They had only kept their

hands off each other during the afternoon’s work because the crew from LRG

joined them. Was it possible that she was already reacting to a false mating? Just

from a kiss?

Did Tad know he had wolf genes? She couldn’t let him make love to her and then

leave him to face a world for which he wasn’t prepared. Because he was a half-blood, having sex with her would trigger his wolf, and by the next full moon he

would be able to shift. He needed to be warned, trained, and she wouldn’t be

here after their rendezvous. She would either return to Whistler to prove her

skills were gone or she would disappear into the wilderness.

Missy forced herself to stop daydreaming about Tad. There were other goals yet

to accomplish. Opening her laptop she logged into the first stage of the Whistler-wolf-pack website. Maggie was still online. Her sister’s habitual evening online

chat was their prearranged set-up. It gave Missy information she would never be

able to access otherwise. When Maggie signed out at nine p.m., Missy entered

her sister’s pass code with a false ISP number and snuck into the system while the

time clock stayed motionless. Missy took a big breath and blew it out in a slow

stream. The records would continue to show her sister’s presence until the

mandatory one-hour system shutdown occurred. Missy checked her watch and

set to work.

Accessing Doug’s daily email records and his private message box was a piece of

cake with her computer skills. She was relieved to see that while her brother-in-

law continued to track her, he hadn’t put out a call to make her return before her

time was up and there were no plans in place to harass her sister.

Missy snooped around to gather more information on the pack’s illegal activities

to use as ammunition to challenge Doug. Perhaps she could leak the information

to the authorities and get him arrested by the human system if the wolf council

was unable to help. She did a little archive research on Omega wolf characteristics

and one hour later, Missy logged out. She was still safe.

For now.

Tad completed a few more official flight papers. He pulled a beer from the fridge

and turned the TV on low in the background as he sat and flipped through a

couple of the magazines on the table.

He was wasting time until he could go and pick up Missy for the evening and he

knew it. She said she’d be ready by eight and he was fretting and worrying like he

was back in high school. Three days he’d been waiting since Saturday, three

nights of his mind producing the most erotic of dreams to haunt him. He had a

permanent hard-on and every little glimpse of Missy at the work site simply drove

his need higher.

A date with Missy, a real actual grown-up date. It was enough to make his

worries about getting triggered fade into the background, at least temporarily.

The phone rang and his heart leapt. Then he realized it wasn’t his house phone or

his cell phone.

Crap.
He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten about his sister. It was Tuesday and

Robyn was supposed to check in tonight. Good thing he’d still been home or she

would have flipped. He opened the satellite phone to check for a text message. A

voice rose from the speaker instead.

Weird. Robyn never spoke out loud. She was deaf. She signed or she wrote notes

or she stomped and threw things.

“Hello?” Tad said hesitantly.

“Hi, Tad, this is Keil Lynus. How are you, man?”

“Hey. I’m doing great.” He glanced down at the phone trying to figure out what

was strange about this call. Keil was a regular client, a wilderness guide and a

great guy who just happened to be a wolf. He was also the one who’d explained

about werewolves in the first place when his little brother had screwed up and

accidentally shifted in front of Tad. “What’s up? Troubles with TJ? Need help

rescuing him?”

“No, TJ doesn’t need any rescuing, we already dug him out.”

“No way, I was joking. Your brother is such an ass.” Something was up. Keil never

called him—he emailed his flight requests. Tad killed the sound on the TV and

tried to focus.

“I know, he’s a total pain in the butt.” There was a pause for a second before Keil

continued, “I do need something.”

Then it sunk in. No one should be using this number except Robyn. Tad’s stomach

tightened with anxiety. Damn it, something
had
happened. “Keil? Why are you

calling me on my sister’s sat phone? Is everything all right? Is she there with you

or what?”

“She’s fine. In fact Robyn and I are mates, and I was—”

His stomach relaxed but all the blood in his body rushed to his head and made

the room spin.
OMG
. “No bloody way! That’s fantastic. I never dreamed you’d be

the one for her.” There were rustling sounds in the background and a couple of

claps and slaps. “Is she good with it? How did she find out?”

“Hang on, Tad, she’s getting a little frisky right now. I think she’s worried you’re

having a fit or something over there. Want to talk to her?”

“Of course! Just give me a second…”

Talk about astonishing news. This was better than anything he’d ever imagined.

His sister had found her mate. Too cool. He typed a message on the keypad.

Congratz sis, Keil is awesome. I’m so happy for u

U know Keil? U know what he is?

Oh yeah, he knew.
Ya. Wolf. U work fast sis

The next message took a few seconds to arrive but he already guessed what she

was going to say. It was her favourite threat.
U are sooooo dead next time I c u

Tad

luv U 2 Robyn

Jerk

Well, that seemed to be it for intelligent conversation from Robyn if she’d

digressed into single-word insults. The faint sound of a voice reached Tad’s ears

and he lifted the receiver back up to respond.

“Keil? You guys as mates? That is so cool. I mean, really.” Tad was slightly

shocked. Robyn had been dropped off only four days ago and they were already

mates? Hell, that meant she obviously didn’t have his troubles with—he shook his

head. There was no way he was going to even
think
about his sister having sex.