“Oh, aren’t you guys cute? Here…” Missy extended her wrist for the puppies to catch her scent. “See, I’m not scary, am I? That silly Eric has no clue.”
She settled on the ground next to the dogs and laughed when they clambered over her. One settled at her feet and immediately rolled over for pats on his stomach that Missy swiftly obliged with.
The other puppies nosed on and around her, each getting more and more curious. Suddenly they swarmed her and noses and paws went everywhere. A cold nose sniffed at her breast and another near her crotch. “Whoa there, kiddies. If there’s any slobber marks on me, it will give the game away to Eric. Cool it, all right?”
Funny, that! The puppies refused to listen, forcing her onto her back. “Hey, frisky boys. Calm. There’s lots of pats for all.”
Missy sniggered. All males were the same. Whether human or dog, they still didn’t listen. She forced herself to a sitting position when the swarm of dogs shifted and grew heavier. Either they’d suddenly put on weight—or something was going on here.
“Ah, off me now, please. Come on, I…”
She stared in shock. The wriggling pile of animals started to lengthen, grow wider, heavier. Appendages dogs shouldn’t have started to sprout and emerge. Naked arms and legs formed with a popping noise, hair raced with a whoosh. Missy stared, gob-smacked, at four naked, panting teenagers, two of which had their noses still at her crotch and breasts.
“Holy, shit. Not puppies. Not puppies. Not puppies.”
Eyes wide, she dragged in a shuddering breath, heart going pat-a-pat. “First puppies…now boys? Oh, my God, not puppies. Wolves. ’Cause they have to be—oh, my God, they— They’re werewolves. Oh, my God, Eric is going to kill me if I get bitten,” she wailed and imagined having a litter of puppies with Eric. A shiver rushed through her. Talk about a mood killer.
“Oh my God, I have to stop saying oh my God.”
She dragged in another deep breath and tried to regulate her pulse rate. An old cliché came to mind.
Look before you leap.
She should have listened to Eric. Why did she always get herself into these situations? Okay, this was one for the books, but even so…
You got yourself into this, Missy. Now it’s time to get out of it.
She shoved at the head of the drooling teenager snuggled against her breasts and tried to do the same to the one with his head buried between her legs. “Get away, you. The only one I want remotely near that area is Eric and that’s not
you
.”
The boy refused to acknowledge her, sniffing loudly at her nether region. She bit her lip and tasted blood. Damn it, Eric was right. She was not equipped to handle this.
Okay, if the boy wouldn’t budge, it was up to her to move. She scooted back nervously, managing to dislodge the teenager, but the other dogs—err, boys—at her feet decided to join their litter mate at the lower end of her body.
A deep, vicious growl echoed through the room and Missy closed her eyes.
Great, another one, this time bigger.
She quickly opened them again in case it rushed her. At least she had a chance to run if they were open.
A large black dog with a silver stripe over one ear greeted her gaze. Actually, make that wolf, not dog. None of these animals—boys—were dogs. They were all wolves. Werewolves.
All of the dogs except the one with his nose closest to her crotch moved back. Missy sat still staring at the new wolf. The animal’s growl lightened. She screeched as its body rippled then elongated. The wolf changed, morphed into a human woman fully clothed, with a hell of a lot more control than the boys had.
“Well, well. If it isn’t the curious cat. Don’t you know that sometimes the cat doesn’t come back?”
Kyla’s sardonic voice grated over her spine like a teacher’s fingernails on a blackboard. Great, of all the people it could have been, it had to be her.
“Come on, boys. Away from the nasty human. You don’t know where she’s been.” At the tone of voice, the boy jerked his nose away from Missy’s groin and skidded back to sit with his pack mates.
Kyla squatted next to Missy and grinned evilly. “Had a nice pet? Want to take any of them? Free to a good home. They’ve had all their shots.”
Missy glared right back at the smirking Kyla. “You really are a bitch, aren’t you?”
“Honey, you have no idea.”
* * * *
“What the hell did you think you were doing? Didn’t I tell you to stay away from the kennel? They could have killed you.” Eric paced in front of Missy, waving his fingers in her face every so often.
She hunched over and contemplated her chipped red toes.
Time for a touch up, maybe gold this time.
“Are you listening to me?”
Missy shot her chin up and speared him with a withering glance. “Yes, I’m listening. How could I not listen when you’re screaming at me? It was an honest mistake. How was I supposed to know the puppies were actually oversexed werewolf boys?”
Eric stared with his mouth open and a wild look to his face. She leaned back on the bed and smiled at him with a wicked gleam in her eyes. “I’m sorry for snooping, but you weren’t here and I was bored. If you were around more, it wouldn’t have happened.” She sat back up and walked her fingers up his arm until she held his biceps and squeezed it gently.
“You have to listen to me, otherwise you’ll get hurt.”
Giving him a dimpled blast of white teeth, she angled back onto the bed and patted a space next to her. “Why don’t you relax? You’re tired and I’m sorry about what I did. I promise to listen to you next time.”
Missy crossed her fingers behind her back.
Fat chance
. She didn’t listen to anyone who gave her orders. She’d distract him from the lecture with hot, torrid non-werewolf sex. He might spout the ‘this-is-just-business’ to her face, but deep down she knew this meant more to him than that. Eric liked her. He just wasn’t ready to admit it yet. Besides, she’d missed him. This Demi-God had gone from being Mr. Muse to one Missy could spend the rest of her life with. But did he feel the same?
Eric groaned and gave into Missy’s temptation. This woman would be the death of him, but what a way to go. He’d been terrified when Kyla had told him what she’d done. Werewolves didn’t change until puberty hit, then they’d go through a second childhood. In wolf form, they had no conscious thought of right and wrong behavior until taught. It was up to the pack adults to train them. And hormone-ridden boys were even worse. When they changed back to human males, the euphoria of the change clouded their minds and their judgments. Clarity of behavior was a long way off yet for those pups.
He leaned over and took Missy’s lips in a ferociously deep kiss. His tongue speared inside her mouth in one hot, frantic motion. She moaned when he grazed his teeth across her lip. His mouth covered hers in a deep, hungry kiss. All he could think of was the taste of her. Slaking his thirst for her. Sinking inside her, her muscles gripping him, milking him….
Eric shuddered and drew his mouth away from her delectable lips. She mewled a protest and reached for him. His own hands busy, tension riding him, he jerked her shirt up and undid the front clasp of her bra, pushing it aside to expose her breasts.
Hands shaking, the breath panting from his mouth, he angled his way down her throat, leaving a string of soft love bites in his wake. When he reached her chest, he latched onto a pouting pink nipple, drawing it deep into his mouth.
Eric alternately scraped with his teeth and soothed with his tongue, then sucked hard enough to draw a startled gasp from Missy. He reached up with his other hand and rolled and pinched the nipple of her other breast.
Missy writhed beneath him. Her back arched, pushing her nipple deeper into his mouth. Her hands tangled in his hair and held him close, as if she didn’t want to let him go. Every whimper she uttered, every gasped moan, spurred him on to greater depths. He settled in to feast in an effort to take the edge off the sexual hunger that held him in thrall.
A useless endeavor. Tension rolled through his body, building layer upon layer. Only the ultimate in surrender would appease the raging hormonal upheaval inside him. The tang of arousal permeated the air. He dragged in a sharp breath, shuddering as the scent invaded his senses.
Unable to wait any longer, he released her breast and trailed his hand down her torso to her waist. When he encountered the band of her trousers, he slid under the elastic and continued down to her panties, silky-soft against his fingers. A sensual texture that enticed. Drove him to deeper exploration.
He couldn’t believe how much his hand trembled. Emotions bombarded him, filling him with a need to please this enticing woman in his arms. He fought for control, burying his own desires while he set out to tantalize Missy.
He palmed her mound, fingers pressing in between her thighs. Missy bucked her hip, the breath sobbing from her throat.
“Oh God, Eric. Don’t stop, don’t stop. I want…”
Her voice trailed off but it didn’t matter. Her words created a blaze of heat inside him, centered over his crotch. His cock hardened even more, his balls tightening. He dropped his head a moment, struggling to harness the hunger inside him. Right now, he was more focused on giving Missy pleasure than his own needs.
He slid his hand under the lace edge at the top of her panties. Her heat met his palm, making him shudder. The musky scent of sex rose to surround him. He breathed deep, taking her in, knowing this was something he’d searched for his whole life. Impatient to experience all Missy offered him, he parted her and trailed the tip of his finger along her length. Moisture bathed his finger and urged him on.
Eyes closed, breathing her arousal deep, he eased one finger into her waiting wetness with ease. He paused, intent on her reaction. Her internal muscles tightened, gripped his finger tightly, making his cock jump to attention. Holy hell, that appendage now had a mind of its own and Eric had to fight to keep control of it. This was about Missy. Pleasing her. And he suddenly realized how important that was.
“God, Eric. That’s…”
Missy’s attempt at conversation ground to a halt when he added a second finger. Eric smiled at her long, drawn-out moan and flexed his fingers, moving them around in a circular motion. Missy’s hips shot up off the bed, pushing him deeper.
“Gods, you feel good.” Eric slowly pumped his fingers again before dragging them out and reaching for his zipper.
“Put that thing away before I go blind.”
It took a moment before the comment registered in Eric’s brain. Missy had stiffened already, frantically trying to push him away with one hand while trying to pull the sides of her shirt together with the other. With a smothered oath, Eric leaned over and rested his head on her stomach.
Time he locked doors or he’d never get a moment’s peace with this woman in the future.
The future? Where did that come from?
Eric took a deep breath to clear the last of the fog from his brain and focused on his cousin.
“Haven’t you learned to knock yet?
“Excuse me. This is my house. Besides, I thought you’d want to know.”
Eric shifted off Missy and faced Kyla, trying to shield Missy with his body. All thoughts of loving vanished while he concentrated on her words. “Know what?”
“We found the ex-hubby hiding out at another casino. You want to talk to him?”
Missy found her voice. “I told you he has nothing to do with this. It’s all a mix-up.”
Eric barely glanced at her. He knew in his bones it was her ex, but he was damned if he’d let him get to Missy. No one would hurt her ever.
Chapter Eight
“Both of you. Listen to me. My ex is spineless, but he isn’t a killer. He couldn’t have done this. You have to believe me.”
Missy paced the floor of the living room as Eric prepared to leave to interrogate her ex-husband. Maybe the reason she was so adamant about his innocence was that deep down she still cared about the creep. Eric shook his head. Wouldn’t that be a kicker
?
Finally feel something about a woman and she’s hung up on her ex.
“What, old Eric not doing it for you now and you want the other one back?” Kyla arched her back and stepped closer to Eric.
He winced and waited for the explosion. He might have thought it, but at least he knew better than to speak it aloud.
“
What?
Have you overdosed on worming tablets? I’m not interested in Andrew. I just know he’s not the one.”
Sighing heavily, Eric stepped between the warring combatants. He should get danger pay for this. “Hey, both of you calm down. I’m not saying he’s one hundred percent the doer, but he’s in our top two and he needs to be checked out. If Andrew has nothing to hide then he won’t mind a few questions, will he?”
Missy shrugged, not meeting Eric’s gaze. “Fine, but don’t you dare bully him, Eric.”
He could hear Kyla’s giggles in the background. Regardless of what Kyla thought, it was best to pick and choose your battles and win on the arguments that mattered, like the one he was about to hit her with. “I will, baby, I promise. I want answers and I’m not going to browbeat him for them. Okay?”
Missy finally met his eyes.
“But for safety reasons, I want you with one of our best warriors.” He saw Kyla staring at him in horror and he bit back his grin.
“Fine, just hurry back.”
“Kyla will protect you and no one will be able to get to you.”
“What?”
Both Kyla and Missy shouted the word together as they watched him back out the door.
“Eric, you can’t leave me with this bitch.”
“Excuse me?” Kyla snapped. “I don’t exactly want to be left with you either. What am I supposed to do with her?”
Both stared daggers at him. Eric rubbed his chest to get rid of the bright red target he was sure was painted onto his shirt. “Missy, deal with it. She’s our top warrior. Kyla, you deal with it, too. She needs our help so take her with you to the casino and glue her to your side. No one will hurt her if you’re standing next to her. You’re our best soldier. Human or wolf. Both of you be good and try not to kill each other.”