Silence of the Wolf (16 page)

He grinned at her.

She felt her whole body flush with heat. Why was it that men always thought of sex?

He still didn't make a move to leave the bed.

“You're not a late riser, are you?” she asked.

That got a chuckle from him.

She shook her head, placed her face against his chest, and let her breath out in a heavy sigh. “Your family will be worried about you. Then they'll come up here and find us in bed together and…”

“They'll know we're smart and kept each other warm during a blizzard.”

“I'll have problems going home,” she said, thinking again about her ID.

“Good,” he murmured against her hair.

“I'm serious.”

“So am I. You won't be able to tear off so easily.” He moved his hands over her hair again. “I don't want you going anywhere until we resolve this.”

“And I have no say?” She wasn't upset about it. If he was right, she wanted to learn the truth, too.

“Sure you do. You can tell me if you like tea or coffee for breakfast. We've also got cereal and powdered milk.”

“Tea, eggs, and
steak
.”

He laughed. “Demanding wolf, aren't we?”

She snuggled against him and smiled.

“So tell me about this brother of yours.” Tom stroked her hair as if trying to coax the information out of her.

She was silent, her smile gone. “Elizabeth, tell me.”

“Half brother,” she said, her voice hard. “Sefton Wildwood, a pure-blooded red wolf. After his mother died, his father mated my mother. Everyone in the pack was upset with my father. Sefton and Uncle Quinton were even more furious when my parents had me. They wouldn't accept my mother or me, so we lived away from the pack.

“Years later, Sefton fell in love with a she-wolf from another pack, but when she learned he had a half sister who was half coyote, she shunned him, called off the mating, and said he was tainted by association. Sefton tried to kill me then. My father came to my rescue and beat him off me. My uncle tried to murder me, too, and almost succeeded. Then my parents were mysteriously murdered, my mother first, then two days later, my father.”

Tom barely breathed.

“Uncle Quinton was tired of the shame my father had brought to the red pack.” She rolled off Tom and onto her back and stared up at the ceiling.

Tom moved onto his side and slipped his hand under the flannel shirt she wore and stroked her belly, reassuring her, telling her he would have been there for her. That he was not the same as the men in her family.

“What happened when Quinton almost… killed you?” he asked, his voice tight, when she didn't say anything further.

She looked at Tom. “He tried to drown me, but some random gray wolf teens came to the watering hole, scaring my uncle off, and I got away.”

Tom ran his hand over her hair, his expression concerned.

“I moved far, far away. I thought I was doing damned good, too.”

“Until?”

Elizabeth sighed. “I avoided male wolves all my life. Twice, men got interested in me, but when their friends learned I was part coyote, they gave them a hard time and both times the men shunned me—as if I'd hidden some terrible secret all along. I thought that a human boyfriend wouldn't be as violent or mean-hearted as my own people, and I got the stupid idea to turn a human into a wolf to save his life and mate with him.”

“You're mated,” Tom said, frowning.

“Not anymore. He loved being a shifter, and he loved me. Until Gunner lusted after another she-wolf and the woman let him know he was an abomination—part wolf, part coyote. Then he came after me. I got lucky that time, too. The she-wolf's brother went after Gunner for trying to take up with his sister—partly because Gunner already had a mate for life, but also because he was part coyote. Gunner wasn't any match for the much bigger, much more aggressive full-blooded alpha wolf.”

Tom ground his teeth.

She raised her brows at him. “Which means I'm free to find someone new, as if that is very likely to happen.” No one could accuse her of not trying to find a suitable mate—at least in the past. But for years, she'd left well enough alone.

Tom's mouth curved up slowly.

“
No
,” she said, elongating the word to emphasize that nothing would happen between them.

“You know how you told Silva to spread her wings.”

Elizabeth opened her mouth to refute that idea, but Tom touched his lips to hers and kissed her.

“We're not all big, bad wolves,” he said against her mouth, and kissed her some more as if he wanted to prove to her just how much this one wanted her.

She pulled away from him to catch her breath, her hands on his bare shoulders. “You say that, and then the next thing I know, I'm fighting the wolf off and running for the hills and…”

“Finding a new home. With me. With my pack. We're a diverse lot, Elizabeth. Darien mated with a red wolf. Jake mated with a human who had been turned. There's no way I'd get mixed up with a plain, old gray wolf. It just wouldn't be right.”

She laughed a little at that. “You might get tired of me and…”

“It wouldn't happen. Wolves mate for life. I'm not a human turned like the first man you took a chance on.”

“You don't even know me.”

“I know enough about you to know I want you. I haven't been able to get you out of my thoughts since the moment I picked you up at the B and B. You'll be safe with us.”

She arched one brow at him.

“
If
we keep you at Darien's house until we catch these bastards who have hurt you. I'm not changing my mind about this. If you need longer for me to change yours, so be it.”

She smiled then, just a little. She really couldn't believe it.

“Okay, look,” he said very seriously, taking some of her hair and stroking it between his fingers. “After we finish with this business with the wolves I'm tracking, I had intended to find you, court you, and do whatever it took to convince you that you had lost your heart to one of the Silver brothers—me, in particular. I wouldn't give up on us. Why do you think I called you a dozen times?”

“Seventeen.”

He smiled. “See?”

She'd lost her mind. Not that she hadn't done so before.

“So the only question now is whether this will be a long, drawn-out courtship or…” He waggled his brows.

“Just kiss me,” she said, reaching up and grabbing his shoulders and pulling him down. “We can work out the details later.”

Before Elizabeth could change her mind, Tom unbuttoned the blue-plaid flannel shirt she wore. He was amazed at how many times he'd undressed and dressed her already, and every time seemed just as erotic as the first. And every time, he'd wanted to take this further. He parted the shirt and considered her breasts rising and falling, the nipples already tight with need, her long red hair curling about them.

His gaze shifted to her bandages. He peeled off each of the bandages all over her skin, ensuring she really was okay and glad to see that a light pink where her skin was nearly healed was all that was left of the abrasions she'd suffered.

“All better,” she assured him, her hands combing through his hair, her fingers stroking his scalp in such a seductive way that he groaned.

Her skin was lightly flushed, her heart rate and breathing quickened, the smell of her woman's arousal kicking in. For a wolf, her scent was an aphrodisiac, calling to him, filling him with urgency, telling him she was ready and wanted him.

His cock already strained against his flannel boxers because of the way her soft body had pressed against him. The scent of her and her quiet breath drifting over his bare chest had filled him with desire before she'd awakened. When she'd stirred awake and moved that sweet body against his arousal, he'd stifled the urge to groan.

She needed family, him. But he needed her just as much. He'd realized how much so when she'd left Darien's home without saying good-bye. The heartwarming photo she'd left of him caring for the little girl made him feel that Elizabeth would have loved to experience the compassion and caring and being part of the scene. Not an outsider looking in.

Now he had every intention of making her his. No one would ever hurt her again.

He skimmed his hands over her breasts, feeling the soft mounds, the taut buds at the tips. He leaned down, and with a flick of his tongue, he licked a rosy nipple. She groaned.

He encircled the other breast with his hand, caressing, lifting, and then he took the nipple in his mouth and sucked. She writhed underneath him. He loved the way she responded to him, wanting his caresses as much as he wanted to touch her. Being with her like this felt so right.

The room was icy cold, the comforter and blankets cast aside, but he was burning up. Her hands stroked down his back, and he ground against her mound still covered in the soft sweatpants.
His.
It brought to mind the subtle thought that by dressing her in his clothes, he'd already claimed her.

She slipped her fingers underneath his boxers and scored his buttocks lightly with her nails. God, he was ready to come.

“Hurry,” she whispered.

He was afraid she was in pain, but she smiled, her eyes dark with desire. He moved over and pulled the sweats off her gently, just in case she was still sore. She reached to tug off his boxers, watching when his cock sprang free.

He couldn't imagine wanting anything more than to love that sweet body of hers. To cherish her for who she was. To be with her forever.

He sank a finger between her feminine lips and felt her heat, wetness, and readiness. And then began to stroke her bud, his mouth on hers, his tongue penetrating, licking, teasing, playing with hers.

Her hands were all over him, touching, caressing, kicking up the heat, and he wanted more. He stroked between her legs faster.

“Harder,” she begged.

He obliged, spreading her legs farther apart with his knee. He felt her tense and nearly stopped what he was doing, concerned she was hurting.

“Don't… stop,” she implored, her voice tight with need.

Relieved that she craved completion, he stroked harder, faster, and felt her arch slightly beneath him.

“Ohh,” she said, elongating the word on one satisfied sigh.

Smiling to see her needs met, he didn't wait, couldn't wait. He pressed the tip of his cock at her entrance and then plunged inside. Deeper, until he was buried to the hilt. Then he pulled out and charged in again, mating with her, loving her, wanting her. He took her with him, making her his.

Elizabeth trembled with renewed need as she caressed Tom's skin, loving the feel of his hard muscles moving as he drove into her, so frantic to find release. Heat pooled between her legs, encircling him, welcoming him. She felt lifted again to that higher plane of existence, the exhilaration sweeping her over the edge until she couldn't hold on to the sheer joy of it and let go.

She thought she said his name as he came, filling her with a wash of warmth and wetness. Wonderful. Wicked. And she wanted to do it again.

Until the deep-seated worry that had haunted her own childhood came to bear—what about the trouble her own offspring would have when they were born part wolf, part coyote?

Later that afternoon, the banging outside of the cabin began again, and Tom groaned. “It's the damn outside shutters. The latch securing them is bent from the storm. I'll see if I can fix it and get some more wood for the fire.” He climbed out of bed and hurried to dress. “You stay here.”

Elizabeth felt chilled and anxious as soon as he left the bed. “Maybe you should shift.”

“I'll take my rifle. In wolf form, I can't gather wood or do anything with the latch.”

As nonsensical as the notion was, she couldn't help but worry that the men who had taken her hostage were outside waiting to pounce. Tom had accounted for all of them, but without seeing the dead men herself, she felt they were alive and still looked like they had before the crash.

She quickly got out of bed, searched through one of the drawers, and happily found some women's clothing mixed in with the men's—a sweatshirt and pants with Lelandi's scent. Because they would be a better fit for her, Elizabeth pulled them on, feeling as good as new.

She hadn't heard Tom leave the bedroom and turned to see him watching her, looking concerned.

“What?” she asked.

“Are you okay? You're really not hurting any longer?”

She smiled. “After what happened early this morning and again a couple hours after that, you have to ask?”

He chuckled. “Sorry about that. After you scaring me half to death that I might lose you, our coming together in a mating was long overdue.” He sighed. “Sometimes you try to hide how you're feeling, trying to be all alpha. I just wanted to make sure you really are all right.”

“Don't apologize. I wanted everything you gave me and more. I feel great this morning.”

“Good.” He crossed the floor and gathered her in his arms, ignoring the banging outside the cabin. He kissed her mouth, promising lots more where that came from. “Won't be too long.”

She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him just as soundly back. “I'll count the seconds,” she said cheerfully, but she worried about him being out there alone.

He smiled and kissed her nose, then strode out of the bedroom and grabbed his parka, hat, and gloves from the living room.

Still feeling insecure about him leaving, she pulled on some fluffy pink socks and followed after him.

He peered out the security peephole on the door, then walked over to the window where they'd heard the banging. He opened the inside shutters. The outside shutters were open and swinging in the wind. “Yeah, just like before. The latch has come undone. I'll see if I can fix it.” He dug around in a kitchen drawer and pulled out a small hammer.

The floorboards creaked in a couple of places as Elizabeth crossed into the living room. She pulled the borrowed sweatshirt tighter. “Can I help you with anything?”

“No, I've got it. You don't need to be out in the cold.” He unlocked the door and pulled it open, letting in a blast of Arctic air. She shivered. Tom shoved aside some of the snow piled up on the porch and closed the door.

She watched as he banged at the latch, then secured the outside shutters. She crossed the living room, closed the shutters on the inside, and started a new fire at the hearth.

By the time the flames took hold, she glanced at the door, wondering how long it would take him to gather some wood. The wind howled and the cabin creaked a little, but otherwise the place remained eerily quiet.

A scary movie theme played in her mind, warning that she should not go outside. That she should wait for Tom to return. She thought of the woman in a movie who sees movement in her house and shouldn't go inside, but creeps into the house to check it out. Or walks down the stairs into the scary, dark basement when she hears an unfamiliar sound down there. Or thinks someone might be hiding in the closet and yanks open the door. Or jerks the shower curtains aside to see if someone is there. Or… goes outside into the dark night because… she hears a noise.

The problem with being an alpha wolf, even if she was part-coyote—and truthfully that made her even more curious and bold—was that she felt driven to investigate.

Her boots were ruined. Except for a pair of Lelandi's warm socks, Elizabeth didn't have anything else to wear on her feet. Was there a spare coat, gloves? Hat? Nope. Even better than human clothes? Her wolf coat.

Elizabeth unlocked the wolf door and hurried to strip and shift. She didn't hesitate to push through the wolf door into the blustery cold. Her double coat of fur proved the best protection she had against the elements. The soft downy fur closest to her skin kept her warm and dry, while the outer coat caught the snowflakes. Her wolf pads protected her feet as she jumped through the drifts of powdered snow. She was in her element.

Tom was nowhere in sight. She circled the cabin, found his trail, and followed it.

A flash of something moved among the trees, catching her eye.

She hesitated. What if it was one of the rogue wolves who had been prowling the territory and now he was going after Tom?

Heart racing, she leaped through the snow and found that something had traveled in the snowdrifts like she had. The snow was too soft and deep, so she couldn't make out any tracks. But she could tell that whatever had made the imprints in the snow had headed away from the cabin.

Something moved to the right of her. Her ears twitched back and forth, trying to determine what she'd heard. The wind blew through the trees, ruffling the branches, whistling and howling like a banshee, the snow falling in soft plunks all around her.

The crunching of boots in snow? The breaking of twigs? Tom?

She loped through the snow toward the sound and stopped dead in her tracks. Tom had his rifle slung over his shoulder as he broke twigs off a dead tree, gathering them for more kindling.

Her heart jumped as she saw a big gray wolf watching Tom. If it attacked him, Tom couldn't get to his rifle quickly enough and wouldn't stand a chance.

She ran to intercept the wolf, growling fiercely, warning Tom to ready his rifle. The wolf turned, surprise lighting his amber eyes. He ran off.

She raced after him, instinctively pursuing him. This was now her territory, she realized. She was part of a pack, protecting their land. And damned proud of it!

“Elizabeth!” Tom shouted, his tone a definite “Come back here!” as he chased after her and the wolf.

With his longer legs, the male wolf soon outdistanced her. She did worry about him leading her into a trap, except that he had been watching Tom, not her. Still, he could be steering her straight to the other wolves, and they could rip her apart.

She lost sight of him, so she followed the path he'd made. Tom ran as fast as he could manage in the deep snow as a human, but he was still a long way back.

Then the wolf let out a pained yelp. He'd been hurt. But by what? Would she fall into the same predicament?

She loped off in the direction from which she'd heard his cry. The closer she got to where she thought he was, the slower she went. Humans could feign a cry of distress, but werewolves in wolf form couldn't fake such a pained sound.

Tom drew closer. He hadn't spoken her name again, just followed her trail.

The wolf panted hard out of her line of sight, just around another tree. Her heart in her throat, she edged around the snow-covered Colorado blue spruce, half expecting to see three gray wolves ready to make short work of her.

Instead, a
lupus
garou
's worst nightmare came into view. A steel leg-hold trap had snapped over the wolf's right leg. He struggled to get loose, his leg bleeding, his bone at an odd angle. Tom would have to spring him. The trap had broken the wolf's leg.

The wolf snarled at her. She barked for Tom to come this way, as if he wasn't already headed in her direction. She also alerted him that she'd found her prey.

It didn't take too much longer for Tom to reach them. He cursed under his breath as he considered the wolf. She hated to see the pain reflected in the wolf's eyes.

“What the hell are you doing out here, CJ?” Tom asked, sounding suspicious.

Was he one of Tom's pack members?

“I'm going to free you, but if you even think of biting me…” Tom let his words trail off threateningly. He stalked forward, set his rifle next to a tree, and leaned down to untie his bootlaces.

What was he doing?

The wolf, CJ, was growling low, but not at Tom, she didn't think. At the trap, his circumstances, maybe even at Elizabeth because he'd been running from her when he ran into the half-buried menace.

Tom dug the snow away from the trap, then slipped a bootlace out of the boot and tied one end of the lace to the top of the spring where it ran along the jaws. Then he ran the string through the bottom spring loop and up through the top again.

Tom stood on the chain that held the trap in the ground. He pulled up on the string, compressing it, and tied it off. Then he put the safety catch on. In a hurry, he did the same procedure with the other spring. Once he had finished, the wolf leaped back, freeing his leg. He snarled at the trap.

She was glad Tom had known what to do because she would have just tried pulling the trap apart. Probably unsuccessfully, and maybe to the wolf's further detriment.

“Okay, I've got to splint your leg now,” Tom said.

While he searched for a tree branch he could use, she watched CJ, but she was sure he wouldn't run off.

Tom returned with a branch and dropped it on the snow. He untied his bootlaces and triggered the trap to snap shut so that it wouldn't catch any other animals. Then he made a makeshift splint the best he could for CJ. Elizabeth was glad Tom was trained on ski patrol to handle emergencies like this.

“Can you make it to the cabin on your own?” Tom grabbed his rifle.

The wolf stared at Tom, glanced at Elizabeth, then limped on three legs toward the cabin.

Tom tilted his chin down at Elizabeth and shook his head. “You were supposed to stay in the cabin.”

She half expected him to tell her to run back to the cabin, but he didn't. She wouldn't have, either. Whether he liked it or not, she would watch his back in case others were with the injured wolf.

CJ used the same trail that he and Elizabeth had made, but because of his injury and the deep snow, he kept falling, yelping, and suffering considerable pain, and he had a devil of a time traveling.

Tom finally gave in. “I'll carry you. But if your brothers attack… I'll dump you and shoot the lot of them.”

Brothers. Tom sounded serious, but Elizabeth thought he also was upset that some of his pack mates could be the ones causing trouble for the rest of the pack.

He gathered the wolf in his arms. CJ growled softly, but he didn't snap or bite. Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief.

“If you weren't my cousin…” Tom said under his breath.

Elizabeth stared at the wolf. Cousin?

When they reached the cabin, she dove through the wolf door, sniffed the air, ensuring no one had entered the house while they were gone, and waited for Tom to enter the cabin.

Tom shoved the door open, then kicked it closed and said to her, “Stay here. Don't shift back.”