The Bucklin Wolves Next Generation: Return (7 page)

As she sat on the couch staring at the wall, Maribel began to wonder what residents used to live in this house. What had their hopes and dreams been? Were they a mixed couple or all werewolf? Or had it been a lone wolf living on his own? There was so much history behind a place like Bucklin. She began to wonder if she could truly break a town this wondrous into simple numbers.

Sure you can,
she thought.
Everything in life can be explained by numbers.

Except for Seth’s suspected attraction to her. That one flew in the face of every study she’d ever read about dating and the wants and desires of men. Men were simple creatures, much easier to break down into numbers than a female. A guy like Seth should not have wanted a woman like Maribel. No way in hell.

Fortunately she was saved from her own fears and doubts by a powerful fist knocking on the heavy door that led to the front yard. She’d heard that same knock a week ago; it was Seth. She got up and made sure everything was in place and not hanging out before walking across the house and opening the door.

Seth was wearing a tight black polo shirt that hugged his V-taper perfectly. His jeans were light colored and also tight, like he’d had to squeeze into them. She knew darker jeans were in style right now, but Seth looked perfect in a pair of light-colored jeans straight out of the 90s.

“You look great,” he said, giving her the once-over with his eyes.

“A collared shirt?” she asked. “I thought you were more of a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy.”

“I can be full of surprises,” he said, moving past her and into the house. “How do you like your accommodations?”

“It’s very cozy,” she said. “Whoever had this house before took very good care of it.”

Seth was already heading for the cabinet, where he chose some bottles of liquor and put them out on the counter. “That would be our former beta, Rowan. My estranged half-brother. He kept up with the place, from what I understand.”

“Rowan,” Maribel said, turning the name over in her head. She’d read it in her report and had heard Jacko mention the name too. “Was he the second in command? The former mayor’s son?”

“That’s correct,” Seth said.

“And he’s your half-brother?”

“Correct again,” Seth said, smiling as he handed her a glass of whiskey on the rocks.

“This is pretty strong,” she said, eyeballing it. “I usually like a little fruit in my drink.”

“Give it a shot,” he urged. “It’s pretty good.”

“I didn’t know werewolves drank,” she said.

“We usually don’t,” he said, then took a sip. “We can’t get drunk. It’s the same metabolism that keeps us in shape.”

“Lucky,” she said.

“I suppose so. Sometimes you want to have a few drinks and forget about your troubles, right? We don’t have that luxury.”

“So why are you drinking?”

“I enjoy the burn. Most wolves drink whiskey for that reason.”

They made their way across the room and sat next to one another on the couch, sipping at their whiskey on the rocks while smiling at one another. Maribel was starting to be reminded of the first time she had kissed a boy in high school. Their nervousness and anxiety had been through the roof as they stared at one another and giggled before finally making their move.

Seventy-two percent of men believe that they’ll get into a girl’s pants if they have a drink with her alone. I hope he’s not one of those men.

The numbers were there again, dancing around in her head. She had to do something to distract herself from them. “So, Seth, you didn’t know your father? I believe I heard that somewhere.”

“You’re just full of information, aren’t you? But I guess there’s no use hiding it. Yeah, I’m Luke’s bastard son.”

“It sounds bad when you put it that way.”

“Well, it’s the truth. He never even knew about me. My mother was just a one-time thing, to have fun and relieve some stress.”

“I’m sure it’s easy for wolves to get whoever they want, especially the alpha.”

“It’s a problem unique to alphas,” he said, smiling at her over his glass. “Most wolves are very loyal to their mates. The majority mate for life, and their eyes don’t wander. It’s a pretty sweet deal for the female involved.”

“Forty-three percent of men cheat,” she blurted out.

“Men, but not wolves,” he corrected. “The cheating seems to be a problem wholly unique to alphas. It’s a holdover from our times in the forest. The alpha was king of the pack and he had to ensure his bloodline remained diverse. So most alphas caroused and cheated on their mates to make sure there would always be a strong male carrying their blood and not someone else’s.”

“So you’re the last person in town with that original alpha blood?” she asked. Things were starting to make sense.

“Yes,” he said. “William used to watch after my mother when I was young. He provided us with money and took care of me.”

“Was he seeing your mother?”

“No,” Seth said, shaking his head. “He was already mated. He never strayed towards my mom.”

“Why did he take care of you? You weren’t his son.”

“His son was a treacherous snake. That’s why. He saw something in me. He saw a better leader for Bucklin than what we had. When the opportunity presented itself, he was able to put me into power.”

That’s odd,
Maribel thought.
Sounds like William was manipulating things in his favor. Does he not see this?

She wouldn’t dare bring that up. Seth seemed to speak with such reverence for the man who’d kept him and his mother off the streets.

“I never wanted to be mayor,” Seth continued. “It never really appealed to me. But I have the blood of an alpha running through me and I guess I was born for the role. Right?”

“You make it sound like you’re a king,” she said. “Only those from the bloodline can rule.”

“That’s how wolves see it.”

“But this Aster guy—he wasn’t related to you, was he?”

“No, but he was close enough. My father raised him.” Seth looked away and swallowed hard. “My father raised a wolf who wasn’t even his own while never knowing the real son he had out there. It’s something right out of a Lifetime movie, isn’t it?”

“You’ve already beaten the statistical odds,” Maribel said. “Most men in your situation are likely to become criminals or drug addicts.”

Seth laughed again. “You break everything down to numbers, don’t you? I told you before, honey: you can’t break wolves down to numbers like that. We defy logic.”

“I suppose you do. Normally you’d have an eighty-three percent chance of crashing your motorcycle after a stiff drink like this, but I guess your chance is zero, isn’t it?”

“Guilty,” he said with a smile. “I’ll be fine driving home.”

“You’re so confident and sure of yourself,” she said, feeling the alcohol beginning to talk. “I’ve never met someone so brash yet so in charge.”

“It’s the alpha in me.”

“Do you want to keep the bloodline diverse?”

He seemed to be caught off-guard by her query. “Excuse me?”

“I asked if you want to keep your bloodline diverse. You know, like your father did?”

Seth seemed a little bit embarrassed by her question, but eventually the cocky smile she’d gotten used to returned to his face. “Of course not. I’m a different kind of wolf. I don’t live by those old ways. I’m only mayor until the people are willing to accept someone else. But no, I haven’t even seen anyone naked since I’ve become mayor. Except myself, of course.”

“Are you being serious?” Maribel should not have drunk her whiskey so quickly. Her lips were getting looser.

“Unfortunately, I am,” he said.

“You must not have much alpha in you,” she said while running her hand down the collar of her shirt.

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, setting his drink aside. “Why don’t you find out?”

“How would I do that?” she asked, feeling the knot in the pit of her stomach grow. This was it; if it was going to happen, it would happen right now. She had never been more nervous in her life. She was paralyzed with fear as his beautiful azure eyes bored into her.

“Maybe you need a little alpha in you to find out how alpha I am,” he said, leaning forward, stopping just inches from her face.

“I remember you at the meeting,” she said. “It’s not a little alpha.”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” he said, then grabbed the back of her head and planted his lips firmly against hers.

Whoosh!
That was all it took for her basement to flood as his tongue searched inside of her mouth. It was just as strong and powerful as the rest of him, she realized as it explored every inch of her mouth, stopping to glide against her own tongue before continuing its mission.

This is wrong,
she thought as his hands began to explore the front of her shirt, stopping to pay special attention to the two large mounds she had hidden behind the neck of her low-cut shirt. It didn’t take long for Seth’s hands to work their way into the shirt and into her bra. She let a tiny moan escape her mouth as his fingers deftly rubbed against her ever-hardening nipples.

Before she knew what she was doing, and before her stupid sense of morality could protest anymore, she found herself climbing onto his lap. His cock was massive and she could feel it desperately trying to escape his pants as she began to grind slowly back and forth on it.

Seth smiled and continued to kiss her as she rocked back and forth. She could feel his powerful head rub through his pants and hers to bump her swollen clit, which was begging for him to massage it with his tongue.

“I hope I’m not crushing you,” she gasped. As soon as she said it she regretted it. It was a stupid thing to say, and in normal cases a mood killer.
Hey, buddy, I’m enjoying dry humping the fuck out of you, but I hope my fat ass isn’t crushing you.

Instead Seth laughed and bit her bottom lip so hard she felt her pussy quiver with excitement. His hands found their way up her skirt and he firmly grabbed her ass, squeezing with all his might. She moaned as his hands massaged her cheeks, threatening ever so slightly to move between them and explore her most sacred place. But Seth never moved them there; instead, he left the erotic threat there to make her entire body shiver as his mouth explored her chest.

She was in heaven, and she could only imagine what it would feel like once he’d slid his monster cock into her tight pussy. She shuddered more than she had the previous times when she felt Seth’s sharp incisor run down her neck, lightly scraping her skin as it went. She wanted him to bite her, mark her, claim her as his own. She’d read about claiming more than once in articles about werewolves and she wanted to bear Seth’s mark.

The worlds were ready to escape Maribel’s lips when the sharp sound of a human fist banging against solid wood rang through the house.

“No, no, no!” Seth yelled.

“Who could be knocking at this hour?” Maribel asked, turning back towards the door.

“They’d better have a damn good reason,” Seth growled, moving her off of him and standing up. He took only a moment to compose himself before he stomped off across the house, ready to bite the head off the poor soul who stood on the other side of the door.

That got out of hand,
Maribel realized.
I almost gave myself to him completely. I almost let him mark me. What the fuck, Maribel? You have a life, a career.

Whoever was knocking, she might have to thank them—they’d prevented her from making a huge mistake.

Chapter 8

Motherfucker,
Seth thought. His brain was littered with curse words that wanted to escape his lips when he opened the door. He’d been so close to having Maribel, so close to
claiming
her. It had almost happened; he’d almost had her as his mate now and forever. Instead, someone had chosen this very moment to knock on her door.

As mean and nasty as the thoughts running through his head were, they were nothing compared to the rage his wolf was feeling. The animal had been in pure heaven as it urged Seth to mark Maribel, but now it was so furious it wanted to force him to shift. It wanted him to shift and rip the intruder to shreds with its large claws and knife-like teeth.

His shirt was tangled and his erection was beginning to fade as he yanked the door open and screamed at the person on the other side, “What the fuck do you want?”

Standing on the front door step was Ms. Wilson, clad in a pair of tight running shorts and a tank top. As she stood there, her mouth hanging open as she stared at Seth’s crotch, he began to grow angrier. What did this uncouth, sadistic harpy want, anyway?

“Well?” he demanded.

“I….I….” Ms. Wilson stammered. It was probably the first time in her life she had ever been speechless.

“She’s probably looking for me,” Maribel said as she reached Seth’s side. As Ms. Wilson caught a look at Maribel, a smile began to creep across her face. Seth’s brain was still addled by the anger of his wolf and he wasn’t one hundred percent there just yet. He turned and looked at Maribel, who was shyly trying to cover her half-torn shirt. Had he done that? Oh, well, he could buy her a new one.

“Well, I see your business meetings generally go well,” Ms. Wilson said, nodding her head at Maribel.

“What?” Seth asked.

“I have to hand it to you, girl. I never knew you had what it took to seduce the mayor. You did it kind of backwards, though. The deal is already closed.”

“What is this foolishness?” Seth asked. “I came on to her.”

“Sure you did,” Ms. Wilson said, winking. “And her low-cut blouse and short skirt had nothing to do with it? That was all innocent?”

“I asked her to have drinks with me,” Seth reiterated.

“Shut up,” Maribel said.

Seth turned back to her, his eyes growing wide with shock. He knew her words were not directed at him, but nonetheless he was shocked by what had come out of her mouth. In the week that he had known her, he had figured out her personality pretty well—it was a gift most wolves had. Humans were easy to peg. Females were a little more difficult than human males, who were basically an open book to a shifter.