Half Wolf (13 page)

Hell. He was damned if he did, and damned if he didn’t do what any normal male would have done to the female pressed tightly to him. Kaitlin being part wolf just made the decision easier. Wolves were all about action and satisfaction. Animals didn’t consider consequences.

He was hard, and aching. His wolf was cheering him on, pushing him, roaring internally with a desire for him to consummate this union and get it over with. Kaitlin eased back far enough to look him in the eyes. Maybe she saw his misgivings in the dim light.

“Now who is afraid?” she asked huskily.

Damn it, she was right. He was afraid...of himself and the magnitude of his needs. He was afraid of the female in his arms that he craved desperately in the middle of a crisis. Nothing else seemed to matter, except her, and this.

“Do it,” she whispered between deep, fevered kisses. “Let me see where this leads. I can’t stand not knowing what it’s going to be like. Hurry, Michael. The others will come for you, and I will have this before they do.”

His mind blurred as his hands moved over her firm backside, tugging her free of her attachment to him. Before her feet hit the ground, he had torn her sweater over her head.

She wore thin, see-through lace over her small rounded breasts. The lace was a very pale, very feminine shade of blue.

He heard the fragile thing tear in his hands; heard it float to the grass as softly as if it were a leaf falling from a branch over their heads. The softness of Kaitlin’s skin made him feel clumsy by comparison. The fragility of her bone structure was a turn-on. The big bad wolf had become mesmerized by Little Red Riding Hood. So, how would this new take on the story end?

Her body was just as he had imagined it would be—tight, compact and beautiful, with balanced shoulders, a narrow waist and slim, sensuous hips. Her clothes hid strings of lean muscle that he hadn’t allowed himself to look at the night she’d been mauled by the bloodsucker. On that night, he had covered her with a blanket and warmed up her struggle back to life. There had only been an inkling of this attachment to her. He recalled questioning his objectives even then.

Now, Kaitlin, his half wolf protégée, was offering herself to him, not out of duty to an Alpha, but because she needed to either put her lust out of its misery or pile on the flames. The next few moments were going to decide that for her.

“All right, Kate,” he growled, reaching for her zipper.

Chapter 14

T
he sexy sound of her zipper sliding down overpowered the erratic, audible pounding of Kaitlin’s pulse.

She caught a breath as Michael’s fiery fingers slid into her panties, heading for the moist spot between her thighs that awaited him. This was no-man’s land. But Michael wasn’t really a man, as far as definitions went, and he had already captured her mouth again with a muted growl of ecstasy.

Her shoes were off. She had dropped them when he carried her. Michael’s free hand rested on the sensitive skin of her lower back. When his fingers reached that special spot she wanted desperately for him to find, Kaitlin gasped. The moment was hedonistic, and magical.

She stood within the circle of Michael’s strong arms, completely naked from the waist up, and Kaitlin didn’t give a damn. Michael’s wolf voodoo was heady enough for her to see this through. His inner fires were all-consuming.

She was ravenous for him. Wild inside.

He didn’t undress. There was hardly time to breathe, let alone master more details like that. When he lifted her again, it was to place her over the hardness tucked inside his jeans. This hardness was for her, and Michael’s erection had to be as glorious as the rest of him. The questions left unanswered, as well as the holes in her life story, were about to be filled by someone with secrets of his own. They were two of a kind, really. They had secrets in common.

Michael...

His kisses never stopped, and his lips had a direct link to her soul. Kaitlin wanted inside his jeans, remembering clearly how buff and beautiful his body was. She might even tear his jeans apart with her teeth. Another minute without having him inside her would be an unacceptable eternity.

This wildness was new, and so strange, she didn’t recognize herself. When Michael’s mouth finally left hers, Kaitlin growled menacingly and leaned closer, already mourning the loss. The bruised ache of her quivering lips was nothing when the look in Michael’s eyes promised there was more pleasure to come.

With a graceful move and very little effort, Michael took her to the ground. Stretched out beneath him on the grass, Kaitlin’s body buzzed with anticipation. The electrical connection they had threatened to bring up a shout.

Her arms were pinned over her head. Michael’s mouth hovered above hers as he searched her face.

What are you looking for, king of the pack?

His mouth was millimeters away from hers. His wolf-green eyes blinked, and the memory of when she had first seen them returned, along with a swell of internal heat.

Her pulse drummed, kicked. She ached in places so deep, her entire body throbbed.

Bite. Kick. Scratch. Take him. Have him.

Those weren’t proper things for a nice girl to think. With his weight holding her down she couldn’t move her legs or make room for him to slide between them. Michael’s longings echoed hers. His body quaked with need and his arms were corded with tension. If he’d freed her hands, she would have ripped into him, raking his back with her nails, pulling his hair.

When she arched her back and raised her hips, he let a hot breath escape that was the equivalent of a whispered curse. He ground himself against her as if he was ready to get to the good part of this union.

The wildness inside Kaitlin was growing to alarming proportions. Each nip of his teeth drew whatever the thing was that she possessed closer to the surface. That thing swam upward through her bloodstream, through her muscles, pushing against her organs and expanding outward.

Michael let go of one of her hands to run his fingers over her face, her throat, her neck, with a touch like velvet. The musky scent of his arousal was like perfume and told her that Michael was ready to consummate.

Her eyes closed as she waited for what was to come next. It was all she could do to count the seconds until then.

His mouth slid downward over her neck and chest. A damp lap of his tongue over her right breast made her insides spasm. He circled her raised bud slowly, taking time they didn’t have.

She bucked beneath him, wanting more, wanting everything. But his mouth returned to hers with another mind-numbing kiss that threatened to rob her of all remaining breath. And then his kiss became softer, lighter, until Michael’s wonderful manipulations ceased so abruptly, her eyes flew open.

He blinked slowly with his gaze riveted to hers as if he wasn’t sure what had happened, or what had interrupted the act they both wanted so desperately. But something had.

He released her, backed up and got to his knees so quickly, the motion left her winded. He stood up, reached down to grab her by the waist and pulled her up beside him, silently warning her not to speak, protest or argue by giving her a worried look.

Freed from his spell, breathing hard and fast, Kaitlin easily discovered what had separated them. There wasn’t just a new scent in the air. What rode the wind was a malignant stench that could mean only one thing.

Company.

Michael sent her a glance that could have been perceived as an apology, and didn’t waste any more time. Swooping down to gather her sweater, he said, “Change of plans.” He helped her to dress, and led her away from that spot, adding, “Christ, I should have known.”

With a cautious glance over her shoulder, Kaitlin saw shadows gathering on that street that must not have belonged to the good guys—which meant that hiding out in her apartment was no longer an option. Like it or not, she had to go along for the pack’s next shadow-busting session and hope she had the nerve to see it through. She and Michael had to place their needs on hold in order to set wrongs to rights.

Maybe the interruption had been a good thing, she now thought, because as she tried to probe Michael for information on what they were running from this time, she felt him raise a mental wall that couldn’t be broken down, even when she tried really hard.

* * *

“Where are the others?” Michael asked as Rena and Devlin approached at a jog. He scanned the area with his senses wide-open, noting two other Weres in the distance, within a tight radius of where the rest of them were standing.

“The Miami crew are nearby,” Rena replied. “Those Weres are serious hunters and kind of spooky.”

“They have good reason to be good at what they do,” Michael said. “Imagine how many bad guys migrate to Miami for the weather alone, not to mention the fact that a city that size makes it a hell of a lot easier for Others to find hiding places.”

“As well as victims,” Devlin said.

Rena turned to Kaitlin. “Bad night for anyone’s initiation. Tough luck, Kate.”

Michael sent Kaitlin a warning not to pursue that thought. Rena was riled up, and the kind of wolf who thrived on danger. She would have been a good addition to a pack like Dylan’s, where the concepts of daring and danger were interchangeable. His fear had always been that Rena might desire wider pastures someday.

Everyone present felt the evil vibes of the bearers of the unique scent Michael had pinpointed by the street. Rena and Devlin faced the trees, on edge and on guard. Devlin’s expression had morphed into a rare seriousness.

Michael pointed toward the building in the distance that housed English lit classes, its upper floors rising over the treetops. “Is Cade there?”

“He’s with Dylan,” Devlin replied. “They started toward the old library, tracking the wolf that got away.”

“Then they’re looking in the wrong direction.” Michael glanced east. “Because whatever they’re looking for might have found us first.”

Kaitlin was the first to spin around, following the odor that had gotten stronger in the past few seconds. Michael supposed her racing pulse was an indicator of Kaitlin realizing she hadn’t yet passed the strength, speed and agility tests necessary for getting a Were through trying times like these. Anxiety was visible on her pretty face.

Again, his heart went out to her.

Like a wave siphoned from a dark ocean, the stench of malicious malignancy rolled toward where they stood, getting stronger with each beat of Michael’s heart. Any Were worth his salt could have perceived that it wasn’t vampires causing this particular wave, but entities whose blood ran as hot as his pack’s did.

This trouble came from werewolves like the one he had encountered in the old library, whose disappearing humanity had been replaced with insanity. These Weres were unwashed, unkempt followers of the master criminal that had made them into what they now were. Beasts.

The air was charged. The situation was deadly. For whatever reason, Chavez had chosen to infiltrate a college town and had brought along friends crazier than he was, who had no doubt been created by a few savage bites. Chavez chose men who were bad to begin with and made them worse with an infusion of a tainted wolf virus that had been diluted over and over again until hardly resembling the original thing.

Hopefully, Chavez hadn’t brought along too many.

If Dylan, Tory and Adam Scott hadn’t arrived tonight, Michael dreaded the thought of what might have happened when Chavez loosed his henchmen. Michael went so far as to consider Dylan’s showing up nothing less than divine intervention.

Time was up for thanking his lucky stars, however.

“Ready?” he asked his two pack-mates. He had to protect all of his pack, to the best of his ability, and leaving Kaitlin somewhere on her own was not going to happen. She’d have to come along.

He heard the sound of someone running. Dylan appeared wearing a grim expression. “That big wolf of yours.”

Michael stared, trying to make sense of what Dylan was saying.

Rena stepped forward. “Cade?”

“I think they have him,” Dylan said, relaying a message that struck terror in them all.

* * *

Shivering, Kaitlin took an involuntary step back, rocked by Dylan’s dreadful announcement. Cade had protected her. He was a good guy, strong and intuitive. How was it possible he’d been captured?

“Are you sure?” Michael demanded.

“He went into the old library and didn’t come out. I tracked him there and lost his scent. I came to tell you.” Dylan paused, then turned on his heels as if he’d seen something beyond the trees. “Damn it, it’s impossible for this town to be infested so quickly, and a damn good thing there’s no full moon tonight.”

Michael’s pack-mates were already running toward the old library, driven by their love for Cade. Michael, with his hand on hers, followed. Dylan sprinted ahead.

Kaitlin knew enough about rescues to understand that there had to be a plan, and that there wasn’t one in this instance. This didn’t look good or feel good, but she was now invested in the welfare of this pack enough to take Cade’s abduction as personally as the rest of them did.

Anger made a comeback. As they ran, her lungs felt near to bursting. She heard every footfall, experienced each movement of her muscles as if her body worked independently from her mind. Running felt good to her, even though it had been stimulated by the wrong reasons. Somehow they would find Cade and set him free. She’d never had real friends in Clement, or anyone concerned about her well-being until lately. Cade was part of that new existence.

Michael was silent beside her, his face a mask of anger and resentment over what was happening in his town.

“If you let go of me, you can get there faster,” she shouted.

If he transformed now, Michael would become an even bigger force to be reckoned with. She pulled her hand from his and said, “Go!”

He didn’t look at her.

“Go, Michael,” she repeated. “I’ll be all right. I swear I won’t take any chances.”

No one else was paying attention to their struggle to remain connected physically, and the extent of needs that required them to touch. But she saw that Michael realized the truth of the freedom she had just offered him. Since the rogue werewolves couldn’t morph without the help of a full moon, Michael might hold the advantage when dealing with them.

“Your connection to Cade is older and takes precedence,” she said.

With a long look at her and a silent message that said
Stay close, stay safe, or nothing will be worth this
, Michael began to tear off his clothes.

It was when he had shifted that Kaitlin’s steps faltered. The ground that had moved and rocked earlier that night was tripping her up. She stumbled, cussed and grabbed for the gnarly bark of a tree, which didn’t save her from a fall because her fingers seemed to go right through the trunk, as if she had imagined it.

The darkness surrounding her lightened to a dull gray. She caught the wink of stars overhead as Michael’s moon broke free of the clouds, not quite full. Not yet.

It was in that instant, between one breath and the next, and as her heart continued to pound, that she felt Kaitlin Davies’s outer semblance begin to dissolve.