Loving Lucius (Werescape) (39 page)

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, my inner Wolf snapped where he lurked deep inside my chest in the chasm where Shifters keep their inner beast.

No sneaking up on her today, Wolf
.

Shadows shifted among the tree trunks.

Movement.

Wolf leapt into a whimpering series of pounces.

Not good. I sucked down a deep breath, shoving him down again.

Sunlight bore through the blanketing canopy, catching something white.

Her straight long loose hair. Purest white, the color of feathery cirrus clouds high in the stratosphere. But that silk wasn't ice. Quite the opposite. Soft and almost nonexistent in the way the strands had whispered across my fingers in early spring when she'd finally allowed me to touch it. After the snow melted. As if something else sprouted between us to blossom into more than friendship--the only thing I'd craved since I'd seen her wandering through our forested valley without a care in the world.

Carefree. That's Willow. Wild and free. A part of nature. And I'd thought of nothing since but the buttery whisper of her hair against my flesh.

Wolf scraped his claws along the underside of my ribcage.

Antsy. Determined. Okay. Wolf hadn't allowed me to think of anything other than marking her.

Calm down if you want your mate. Prove you're more than an animal. Because Willow doesn't need another crazy Shifter in her life. I'd spent too many years working to convince her we were destined to be together without actually saying so. I'd make that declaration today. It's time. She has to think me more than a mere friend after she'd ridden through the snow twice during the brutal winter, to spend time telling stories and laughing around a warm campfire with me.

Mine
, Wolf whined.

Foolish beast. If I let him loose, let him have his way, I'd be no better than the fools we have for sires. Well, mine is just a victim of her sire's anger. Still, she could crave nothing from our meetings other than quiet moments where the blood feud faded into the surrounding peaks and hushing wind. Nature. Calming peaceful nature. Why else would she remain at a safe distance all these years? Because she's wiser than the lot of our fractured clan. So young and wise. Seven years younger than Wolf and I. But so damned aloof. Never sparing Wolf the agony of whining and begging for a chase. To play. Or to sleep contentedly curled around those sweet curves she uses to taunt us.

She knows I love her. Has to. Must laugh at the fact that she's driven me mad with need.

Her gray stallion suddenly snorted breaking the serene ambiance of the forest's silence, tossing his darker gray mane, reporting he'd detected my scent where they worked their way through the tree trunks my direction on the other side of a small sunlit stretch of grassy meadow.

She pulled back on black reins in a shaft of downward-cutting sunlight and scanned my general area. "Boa?"

Can't see me, eh? Good to know my pathetic adoration for her hadn't affected my ability to hide. But teasing her with my woodsman skills would only irritate her. I stepped over a fallen cottonwood's crumbled bark to reveal my location.

Her gaze snapped to mine. "Father was hustling when I left. He received a secret telegraph message on The Wire. And wouldn't share a word." Her sweet lips curved down in an unforgiving scowl. She kicked her horse into a walk and continued toward me.

Elders, clan leaders, and sires. Nothing about the three could help me with my proposal today. "Do elders ever share what they learn?" I casually stepped off through remnant Ice-Age debris of cobbles and boulders littering the tufts of wild grasses in the meadow, and offered a smile.

She chuckled, yanked her horse to a stop in grass just at the edge of the meadow.

Probably to avoid Bolt's tripping on cobbles littering the grassy expanse.

"No," she called. "But when we're talking about our sires, nothing need be factored into the mix to explain the insanity haunting every day of my life. Besides, lead Shifters and their little secrets have always been annoying."

Well, that could have been a cheap shot at me since I'm assuming leadership of Father's clan when he steps down from his alpha position.

She threw a leg toward the ground and slid from Bolt's saddle, turning to face me in a tan shirt buttoned up until forming an open "v" beneath her chin.

Still wearing the same blue jeans with one patched knee I'd seen her wear for two years. Sensible. Thoughtful. Not the type to fritter away money on extra clothes. Something I could remedy once we'd mated because I'd give her everything. "Well?" I casually claimed a spot near a weathered beige boulder two long strides from her brown hiking boots and couldn't help but grin.

I'm too Gods-be-damned anxious to just stake my claim. Foolish at thirty. There's definitely a foolish gene in our clan's gene pool. And I'm most unfortunate to not have had a merciful bullet placed between my eyes with Wolf and my thoughts of mating the alpha's daughter of a feuding Shifter clan hounding me for years.

Stupid. Yes. I'm chasing freaking tail--a hobby usually abandoned during youth. But the trader and his topaz pendant are burning away the buffering years of logic and reason that kept a future Shifter clan leader composed. Mature.

Casting me a sideways glance, her brow furrowed. "You're acting strangely." Her gaze quickly rolled in one assessing movement from my combat boots to my grin. "Maybe I should go?"

Hell no. "Happy birthday." I thrust out my palm holding the dangling gold chain and pendant.

Like a silly boy who hadn't a clue in the world how to deal with girls. Well, it's not like there are plenty around to practice on. I'd just have to try to look serious.

Her gaze snapped to the glinting offering.

One that I'd polished clean of decades' worth of oxidation to produce a brilliant golden sheen.

Her pale-blue gaze flicked to mine. But she only stared.

That assessing gaze could have said something. Anything. Like call me the idiot I am. "It's yours." I pinched the pendant and hefted the fluid links high. "I bought it last fall."

Still she watched me.

Digesting the fact I'd planned to give the necklace to her since last fall. What did she think about a stupid warrior's big plan? She definitely reassessed what she wanted from me. Nothing. I certainly wouldn't want me.

She continued to study my expression.

So petite and perfect. A waif like the legendary European gods of the forest that tended to plants. The fairies. If only she'd wear the gift. Something of mine I actually traded two mares for three years ago for credit to purchase the gold. But she didn't need to know that it took everything I had to keep from begging her to defy our feuding sires and mate with me all these years. Until the time was right. "It reminded me of you."

She barely wagged her head. "If they see it, Boa--" her warning died as if outright mentioning it might end our meetings.

That her sire would interfere. That she wanted to meet up with me. Is her father what holds her back? If she won't take my token, I'd be Gods-be-damned rejected though. Wolf too. Humiliated if she decides to tell everyone about my infatuation with her. "Keep it in your pocket then." Anything to change the subject and find something less humiliating to do. I extended the pendant and chain a bit farther.

She eyed the dangling metal.

So fucking long as if it would strike like a rattlesnake. Take it, Willow.

Her gaze slid to meet mine. "Boa," she whispered her chastisement.

She knows. Knows what accepting it entails. Knows her sire would tie her up and drag her tail across country to separate us before my fangs broke her pale flesh.

But, still, she stared. Too long for a man who'd waited and strategized for years to win her for his own. What thoughts whirled behind those confused blue eyes?

She just stood there.

Trying to read my eyes. I think.

"Say it," she whispered.

Those two ephemeral words howled like a whirlwind in my mind.

I would have rather heard three. What do the two mean? Are they a demand to hear me beg for the bite?

Her slim legs knifed, snapping up the distance between us to claim a spot mere inches from my boots where she anchored a serious gaze on mine. "If I'm being asked to defy my sire and accept your clan for life, Boa, say it." Her steady gaze softened to project a plea.

Just a fraction. Enough to take the edge off her demand. To ease any fear I had of being refused. Hell, she'd met with me, sat in caves with me, on cliffs, spoke of the way the world worked. Gave every signal she favored me that a woman could without actually touching me or speaking the words. She wants a declaration of love.

Better want one.

Gods, to grab her. But I have to do this right. Would she run if I touched her? Yes. Touch her then I'd know what her actions mean. I carefully reached, gently slid some fingers beneath the velvet skin of her chin, and tilted those heart-shaped pink lips toward me.

Warm velvet skin. So damn soft.

Wolf leapt and clawed at my ribcage.

Her lips parted just enough to breath an audible sigh. But she stood motionless. "What do you want from me, Boa?" she whispered.

Like my throbbing soul couldn't communicate my motive. Couldn't she feel it pounding in my fingertips? "I want to love you and protect you."

She blinked slowly.

Ever so slowly closing her eyes. As if the words seeping beneath her skin were medicinal. Therapeutic. Not Gods-be-damned painful. Not terrifying.

Her eyes slowly opened, her pale-blue gaze anchoring back on mine. "Why didn't you ask four years ago when Father thought I needed to mate? That I'd never mate beyond my nineteenth year. Back when I feared he'd mate me with Wolverine whether I wanted to or not?"

Because she wasn't ready to mate me. And her sire would never force her to take a man she didn't want. We all knew that she's the light in his world even though he's an ass twenty-five hours a day. I gave her time to come around and tormented myself in waiting until the time felt right. I didn't torture her. But what does she want to hear? She knows me for my intelligence. I'd use that to my advantage. "You can't hold the wind, Willow." I stood there holding her curved chin and rubbed the pad of my thumb across the softest skin near the corner of her mouth.

Skin I wanted to devour. To ingest the flavor of her. To give Wolf what he wanted. To grab her in my arms and hold her where she'd never feel like she has to run for safety again…"But I'd wait forever to stand in the gale."

Her brow pinched just a smidge between her squaring eyes.

Eyes tearing with a shimmer. As if I broke through the barrier between us. Unleashed the wind of that carefree spirit. That was Willow. Some sprite of the forest. Wandering. Melding with Earth and sky. At one with nature. Everything so many Shifters would fight over to possess. But no one can possess the wind. You have to wait for it to come for you. Like a hunter watching, waiting, laying a trap for its prey.

Her silence began to eat away at the significance of the words we should have been sharing.

Maybe that's fear in her troubled mask. Maybe she's just trying not to wince at my implication. At how she could never mate with me. That our clans warred.

"That's why I love you," she whispered.

What?

My heart froze.

Love. The only word I needed to hear.

Bite
, Wolf insisted and tore frantically at my ribs.

Down
.
Sleep
.
Let her absorb the news as much as I need to.

We stared at each other for so long that only the piercing cry of a hawk broke us from our trance.

She reached up to curl her warm palm around my wrist.

Bite
!

To tempt fate with carrying my Wolf's scent back to her sire's village. I pulled my arm from her draping grasp. "Not yet. I don't want you risking your safety when you return home."