Wolf's Soul (5 page)

rub herself all over him. Well, she"d never seen a naked man this close. Period.

God, this guy must be the crème de la crème of male models. Model or not, why is he here sleeping? This cot was here for Dad"s afternoon naps. Now, this man here was using it. Not that she minded. Who would?

Wanting to get a better look, she took a couple steps forward. His unruly hair was the mixed of colors of moonstone and onyx. Strands of hair partly covered his face. What she could see showed his almost perfect features. Whoever his parents were, they did a great job of creating him. Man, check out his tan. He must be exposed to the sun and wind a lot. An outdoors man? She noticed a long bright red scar that ran from his shoulder and stopped just about his nipple. It looked new and freshly healed. Whatever had caused it made him look dangerous and sexy. If it weren"t for his generous mouth and shadow of beard that gave him a manly aura, she"d say he was beautiful.

What about his eyes. What color were they? Gah, beautiful or not, blue eyed, green or brown, how in holy caramel cookies did he managed to get in her dad"s clinic? She heard about an actor who had wandered inside someone"s house and slept in the bedroom. Was that what happened here? But she was here the whole time. Wait, she went to the kitchen to scrub her hands clean. But she was gone only a couple minutes. And where did the wolf go? How could he walk out of here when earlier he was practically dead? The poultice was that good?

45

Okay, let’s just say his awful wound healed within the span of few minutes, which is hard to
believe, still it hasn’t answered the question of how he escaped. Am I going batty? This doesn’t
make any sense.

Did she just imagine helping a wolf earlier?

Wake up Mari. Maybe you are dreaming.
No, she wasn"t. The blood-stained towel she used to pull the wolf was still on the floor. Ha. She didn"t just imagine what happened. Later, she would look outside for the wolf. First, this man should wake up. As much as she wanted to gawk at his great package, she couldn"t let him sleep here. It wasn"t right.
This man is a total stranger.
A total stranger that the Sheriff and his deputy saw. Crap! Smithers said something big. For sure, he was talking about Mister Delicious" manhood here. Marisol groaned. Smithers would most likely tell his wife about what he saw. Oh yeah, they"d be talking about her over their pot roast. And before the sun rises from the east, everyone on Shelli"s phonebook would have heard about this man. She wouldn"t be surprised if Shelli and her entourage knock on her door tonight.

“Ugh, I hate to think what the sheriff and his deputy are thinking about me right now.”

Using her bat, she poked the man on the thigh gently. Hitting him wouldn"t be good. It would be a shame to put a bruise on him. The mad didn"t budge. He 46

was asleep. Definitely not dead because she could see the rise and fall of his chest.

She inched closer for a better look and touched the man"s shoulder with her finger.

“Excuse me, Mister Yummy. You need to wake up.” Touching him was comparable to touching cement except he was warm and smooth. “I have no idea how you end up here, but you need to wake up now. My wolf is supposed to be here not you. Well, that"s beside the point. You have to get up and get your pretty tush out of my house. I"m a single woman with a clean reputation, which you have ruined by sneaking in here.”
Poke
.
Poke
. “I know you can hear me.” Jeysus, she"d need a tow truck to get him out of here. “You know I am not going to stop nagging until you leave this room. You"re in my dad"s clinic, but he is not here. If you are drunk, you"re not welcome in this house because I hate drunks. They hiccup, are smelly, and throw up everywhere. I know because my friend did that one time. She made it to the toilet okay, but the idea of putting her face in the toilet made her gag. So she tried to go outside and didn"t make it. She threw up all over the floor and my favorite Birkenstock.” Marisol tried pinching his arm. The man"s arm was so packed with meat she couldn"t even pull a lose skin. “Hey, stranger. You"re beyond cute, okay. But you have to get up and leave. No? I hate to do this but if you don"t get up I"ll get a bucket of rain water and—Eeekkk!”

One minute she stood on the side of the bed, a heartbeat later Marisol found herself pinned beneath the man. He was on top of her with his nose inches away 47

from hers. Wave after wave of shock on how fast he moved held her immobile and speechless. Most of all, she couldn"t believe how beautiful his eyes were. They were the sharpest, bluest and most attractive eyes she"d even seen in her life.
Nice.

Heart beating against her chest, Marisol stared at him. Looking at him was like looking at someone she"d met in the past. The man angled his head from side to side and kept staring at her as if seeing her for the first time.

“Good god, Marisol. I don"t drink, but you could drive any man to drink.

Including me.” His hoarse tired voice broke the stare-down.

“Why?”

“You talk too much.”

“I don"t—wait. You know me?”

“Yes, I know you. You shouldn"t be here.”

“Me? Wrong, buddy.
I
live here.
You
are in the wrong place. Wrong house, wrong room, wrong—”
Lord, is that?
She couldn"t believe it.

Mister Yummy throbbed and grew while nestled in between her legs.
Oh no,
no.
As much as she loved to keep his hard-on pressed against her pubic mound, he must get off her. Did she just thought loving his hard-on? Loving should the last emotion she should feel right now. Jiminy, her friend was right. She needed to unlock her invincible chastity belt. Otherwise, her sexual depravation would 48

result into something like this. Enjoying the pleasure of having a stranger"s erection pressed against her.

“Please get off me.”

“Shit.” He promptly rolled off to Marisol"s side with a loud groan.

As soon as she was free, Marisol scooted off the bed. She flattened her palms on her shirt and noticed they were shaking. Her legs suddenly felt like noodles.

Calm down, Marisol. Don’t be a scaredy cat. He’s a tall stranger but seems harmless.
She noticed him winced as if in pain when he moved to sit on the edge of the bed. He ran his hands though his hair before rubbing his hands on his face. He looked exhausted.

“You look tired but I"m gonna ask you to leave.”

“Give me a minute, will you.”

“You don"t need to explain how you end up here. The how and when doesn"t matter to me. Just leave before I call the cops.”

“No. Please. No cops,” he looked about the room, a swath of wavy hair fell back on his forehead. “Do you mind if I use your bed sheet?”

Lordy, no. I like the view.
“Not at all. Feel free to use my dad"s clothes. He won"t be needing them anymore. You"ll find his old shirts and pants in the closet. He"s a couple inches shorter than you though.”

49

“Thanks.” He grabbed the sheet and yanked it off the bed. With his eyes on her, he stood up in one fluid motion. He looked weak, but an aura of power and ferocity surrounded him.

Sweet sugar, who is this man?

The face of a snarling wolf tattooed on his left upper chest didn"t help ease her nervousness. But it was his nakedness, his cock thrusts up that made her mind a crazy mixture of fear and excitement. Egad! She must kick him out of here before she drool all over and embarrass herself.

She broke the eye contact to watch the tantalizing display disappear from her view as he wrapped the sheet around his waist. Geez, there must be fat somewhere in this man"s body. If she were to guess, he was a big fan of running. He had the legs for it. And just look at his abs. Perfect for Jockey briefs commercial.

The man grinned.

Marisol felt her cheeks grew warm. Damn it. She really should do something about her bad habit of staring. “By the way, I"m at a disadvantage here. You already know my name and we"re not even introduced. So what"s yours?”

“Callum. My name is Callum Dyrdek.”

“Nice meeting you, Callum. Now, have you seen my wolf?”

50

Despite the pain and embarrassing condition he was in, he found himself smiling over her claim. My wolf. Now that was shit-hot. She"d been calling him buddy for a month now and he liked it. To hear her claim him as her wolf, now, that was a direct hit on his...cock. Shit! It had been too long since he"d been with a woman that being near one was enough to make his dick throb. Marisol"s effect on him was instant. It was primal.

“When you came in, did you see a wolf laying here?”

“No. I didn"t.”

“Interesting. Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“I left him here to call the sheriff so they could come and pick him up. When they arrived, what they found was you. You didn"t use that window to crawl in here, did you?”

He looked at the window small enough to fit a child. He bet, even when he was in his puppy stage, no way in hell that he"d fit through there. “No.”

51

“Of course not. You"re way too big to fit through there. How did you get in here then?”

“Would you like to talk now or after I get dressed.”

“Oh yeah. After would be great.” Marisol"s brows creased. “So you didn"t see a wolf crawl out of here. He"s wounded, you see, and near death. With the wound he"d suffered from, it"s quite impossible for him to leave the floor.”

Callum was sure she wasn"t talking to him anymore, but to herself. “Marisol, I need to get dressed.”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Rambling is my forte. I bet I could win a rambling contest if there is one. I think it"s the result of spending too much time in the drying room.

Lack of fresh air is bad. Okay. I think I should leave you alone to change. I can think better if I"m not staring at naked man. I mean, half-naked. Not that I didn"t get to look…okay, I"ll leave.”

“You can stay if you want.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I better not.”

Marisol picked up the bat she dropped on the floor then left the clinic in a hurry.

Callum plopped back down on the bed and squeezed his eyes shut. Fuck!

That was close.

52

The officers" voices barely registered in his mind when he realized what was happening. He had only split seconds to shift into his human form when one of the officers kicked the door open. His decision to shift was his best way to avoid ending up as the officers target practice.

Damn, he was lucky. He had a feeling if the officers found him as a wolf they would start shooting whether he was standing or not.

Callum touched the long think pinkish skin that was his wound. Thanks to Marisol and her father"s poultice, his wound closed up. For sure, the flesh beneath it was still as raw as the meat Marisol always offered him. He could feel it, but at least he"d stopped bleeding. Callum couldn"t believe it. He didn"t die after all. If Marisol had used the poultice a second too late, he"d be one of the fucking Cancer right now drinking and eating Marisol"s flesh and blood.

Callum gripped his hair as reality started sinking in. Coming here was one fucking gutsy and stupid move. His promise to Mark had given him strength to run here. But what if he hadn"t made it and he turned? He could have killed Marisol. What in the hell was he thinking? Staring at the wall, he knew the answer to his own question. It was simple. He hadn"t wanted to die. At the brink of dying, he became weak and selfish. But damn it, he couldn"t imagine turning into a Cancer. He"d rather stay dead than turn into one.

53

Callum let out a long sigh. Right when his vision changed from normal to black, white, and blood red, he felt Marisol apply the poultice on his wound. And then a sudden explosion of pain worse than his wound enveloped his body. It felt like his innards were being pulled out of him slowly. At one point, he didn"t even recognize Marisol. Miraculously, somewhere deep inside him, he"d heard her voice and saw her beautiful face again. That must have been when the poultice did its job of healing him.

What happened to him must have been the beginning of turning into a Cancer. Everyone knew the first sign when one was becoming a Cancer. His eyes would turn grey like marbles. No pupils, no cornea. Now he knew what the ghosts eyes saw. Ugly red.

Shape-shifters knew, at least the smart ones, not to be near Cancers unless they were armed and ready. Their saliva was contagious like a Komodo dragon.

Once bitten, a Shape-shifter could turn into them whether living in his first, second, or fifth life.

Cancer. What a fucking punishment.

Callum tried rotating his shoulder. He didn"t even get to lift his arm. Fuck, it hurts.

54

He"d seen Doctor Saint James use the poultice before. The patients always screamed when it touched their wounds. And because it burned like a son of a bitch. Amazingly, no matter how deep or small the wound was, it always healed.

What the heck kind of ingredients was in that poultice? Didn"t Marisol say she mixed the potion and added something weird in it? Whatever it was it surely made the poultice work like magic. Callum tried rotating his shoulder again. He winced at the shooting pain, but forced himself to move it carefully. If he didn"t move, his muscles would stiffen. Not good.

It was great to be a Shape-shifter living with five lives. Unfortunately, the war gods thought to add a condition of turning into a Cancer when they die for the fifth time. A fucking curse all Shape-shifter"s had to deal with. Cancer"s were fucked up wolves. They were soulless. Walking on earth forever hungry for blood, angry, and with no purpose but to kill. They were evil in the dark waiting for a chance to kill anything that breathed. And minutes ago, he was close to turning into one. Thanks to Marisol. He"d still walk the earth as a shifter with soul.