Dark Wolf: 1 (Spirit Wild) (5 page)

He hoped like hell Lily wouldn’t turn and look, wouldn’t see how painfully aroused he was, because then she’d know.
How very much he wanted her. And how fragile was his control, hanging by little more than a tiny thread of humanity.
4
L
ily stepped out of her thong panties and shoes and put them next to her wrap on the front seat of Sebastian’s car. Then she slipped her dress over her head and tossed the small handful of silk on top of her shoes and panties. Cool air swept over her bare back, lifted the tendrils of her long hair, and gave her a perfect excuse for her taut nipples and aching breasts.
She leaned over the hood of the car, watching with unabashed desire while Sebastian removed his clothing. Need that had simmered slow and steady deep inside throughout the evening blossomed into an all-consuming ache. She wanted him, and she’d not even shifted. Generally this level of arousal came after a run, not before, but she’d gone without for much too long.
Even that wasn’t the whole truth. It wasn’t merely the fact she’d had no opportunity for sex. No, Sebastian was beautiful beyond belief. His body was strong and hard, his mind sharp, his sense of humor unabashedly fun. Everything about him attracted her. For the first time, she looked at a man and wanted the whole package.
She found it hard to believe he wasn’t Chanku. He had the tall, lean build she associated with their kind, the broad shoulders, strong thighs, and, now that he’d slipped his pants off, the most perfect ass she’d ever seen on any man.
He turned to throw his clothes in the car, and she caught her breath. He was fully erect, his long, thick penis rising high against his perfectly muscled belly. Again, graphic proof of his similarities to the Chanku males she’d known.
Lily realized she was licking her lips, but damn. This was even better than that perfect butt.
He caught her staring. Again, that smile—that absolutely devastating smile—and it was all for her.
“Oh.” He honestly sounded surprised. “I thought maybe you’d already shifted.”
Lily straightened, aware she was giving him a visual feast with her bare breasts showing above the roof of the low-slung car. “I was waiting for you.”
She walked around the front of the vehicle and stood close. Most of the Chanku women she knew were dominant alphas. She felt no shame in wanting this man, and even less in showing him how she felt. He didn’t seem to mind her attention a bit. Heat radiated off his perfect body, and he made no attempt to hide his interest. The visual of him, hard and ready for her, had her licking her lips, fighting an urge to touch.
She imagined him taking her here, now, over the hood of his car or against the wind-worn boulders at the side of the lot. Erotic visuals cascaded through her mind, a slide show of images, each one hotter than the last, until she consciously shut them down. What if he saw them? It could be embarrassing, showing him so graphically how she lusted. Later. She would know him better after the run, after she got to know his feral side.
He held her gaze for a long, breathless moment. Then he took a deep breath that expanded his chest in a most enticing manner. She wondered if he might kiss her, touch her somehow to let her know he was interested. Then she felt like an idiot. Evidence of his interest couldn’t be more blatant.
He grabbed the keys he’d left on the hood of the car, clicked to lock the doors, and then walked to the edge of the parking lot. She watched as he stuck the keys in the crotch of a small tree to hide them. Then, standing in the cold moonlight, he raised his arms and faced the looming mountain and the moon hanging overhead.
Lily felt the rush of energy as he called the power to him. Whatever spell he invoked was silent, but energy was growing, gathering around him. She felt the power rising from the ground beneath her feet, from the mountain before them, from the air itself. Tiny hairs stood up on her arms and along her spine.
She tried to read the energy, to figure out what sort of spell he used, what entity aided him, but there was a sudden shimmer of light, a soft glow that seemed to come from within the man. Fascinated, Lily watched as the light grew until it covered him with a golden aura so bright it cast a shadow. The light swelled and then burst.
She blinked, and blinked again. In the place of the man stood a beautiful black wolf. It turned and gazed pointedly at Lily. Smiling, she called on her wolf, felt the frisson of her own power, and shifted.
Not nearly as dramatic, though definitely effective. Trotting across the asphalt, she met Sebastian nose to nose. Sniffing, growling softly, the two of them went through the typical routine of two feral creatures meeting for the first time. His scent was rich with the power of magic and something else. Something familiar.
He’d said he wasn’t Chanku, but his wolf told her otherwise. Yet he’d called magic to change.
So many questions when her wolf wanted to run. Questions could wait, and the night was waning. She yipped and spun about, nipped his flank, and took off.
Sebastian was right behind her. Jaws gaping, ears forward, and her tale waving like a flag behind her, Lily led him up the rugged slope of the mountain. Her senses hadn’t felt this alive in ages. All of her senses—both wolf and woman.
Alert to the world around her, she raced the night and the alpha male that ran close behind.
 
Her scent drew him on, the rich, musky scent of female arousal, of wolf, of woman. He’d always run alone. Not once had he run with another wolf, never with a female, and the intensity, the pure exhilaration of the chase thrilled him.
He’d never acknowledged this side of his beast, this sensual, sexual creature that wanted the female. Blood pounded in his veins, and arousal powered the wolven creature he’d become. Running behind Lily enthralled him. His focus narrowed until all he saw was the plume of her tail and the welcoming gash of her sex. His nostrils filled with her scent and his arousal deepened.
Lily spun to the left. Alert to the night, Sebastian scented the jackrabbit before he saw it. Lily took off after their prey, body low and sleek, her ears laid back, all four feet kicking up dust and pebbles as she ran.
The rabbit slipped into a thick tangle of old blackberry vines. Lily skidded to a stop before tumbling into the briars, turned and looked at Sebastian with absolute disgust, and then yipped her challenge.
He had no time to think, to consider the fact he was running as a wolf, thinking like a wolf before they were off again, racing through thick grasses and over rocky trails. Lily Cheval was beautiful. So sensual, so alluring that his body thrummed with need. He ran faster, closing the gap between them.
Something buzzed in his mind. He sensed a presence, a familiar
other,
but he brushed it aside. Nothing would come between him and the glorious bitch he followed.
She was his. Not prey. No, she was so much more. She was destined to be his mate, and he would have her. His gaze narrowed until all he saw was Lily, all he wanted was Lily. His sensitive nostrils filled with her scent, and he drew closer, crowding her now along the narrow trail.
His wolf was larger than hers. More powerful. More commanding. His focus narrowed further until the world around him disappeared. She ran in moonlight, this female he hunted, but the light couldn’t penetrate his darkness.
The female glanced over her shoulder without breaking step, but there was no fear in her eyes.
She should fear him.
He sensed her confusion. She wondered why he pursued her in deadly earnest. Wondered what he wanted.
It was so simple really. He wanted Lily Cheval.
They ran through the night, and he harried her. Nipped at her flanks, bumped his shoulder against hers, forced her to race toward a narrow canyon that had trapped him once. She thought she’d escape him, but he knew this place.
He knew better.
She was his, and he would have her.
If he’d been human he would have laughed when she raced through the opening to the canyon, heading in exactly the direction he wanted her to go. He knew there were tumbled rocks and a sheer wall at the end.
Knew she wouldn’t be able to escape him now.
He cornered her against a fallen tree, brushed her shoulder with his front paw, and pressed close with jaws open wide, going for the thick skin at the back of her neck.
If he could hold her, restrain her, he could have her. He growled deep in his chest as he closed in, as his strong jaws clamped down on the loose folds of skin around her neck. Blood coursed through his veins, hot and powerful. Arousal grew until the need was a thick, all-consuming shroud covering him, filling him with strength. Images and sensations battered his feral mind—the soft welcome of her body, the slick slide of his wolven cock, the clasp of her warm sheath. Wanting, needing, he tightened his hold.
Growling, she twisted her entire body and snapped at his face. One sharp fang slashed his sensitive nose. Surprised by her strength, he yipped and released his hold on her neck. She twisted away, snarling as she broke free.
She slipped into the shadows, and her dark coat helped her disappear as she scrambled through a narrow crevice between two large boulders. It didn’t matter. Her scent told him exactly where she hid.
He stopped at the entrance to her refuge. Blood dripped from his slashed nose, but it was nothing. A small price to pay to be this close. She was trapped here, surrounded by blocks of stone on both sides, the mountain at her back.
He heard her low growl, edging into a vicious snarl. Felt her thoughts pounding at his mind, but he refused to lower his shields. There was no need to listen. No, the darkness was all about, and he had her now. His cock swelled beyond the tight lupine sheath; his muscles tensed.
He saw her eyes shining amber-bright in the darkness. She faced him without fear and snarled again. Deeper, angrier. This was no longer a game, now that she realized the serious nature of his chase. Good. She should know. Know, acknowledge, and accept his superior strength.
The deep timbre of her growl raised his hackles. He lowered his head, faced her in the shadows, and waited. Her angry voice pounded against his brain, but words meant nothing.
Humanity meant nothing. He was bigger, stronger, faster.
He would wait.
And then he would have her.
 
Sebastian! Listen to me. What in the fuck do you think you’re doing?
She wasn’t sure when she’d first noticed the change in him, but something was radically wrong. This wolf was not the same as the man, unless Sebastian Xenakis had a seriously split personality.
She thought of Alex’s warning, the fact that the vicious murders had occurred in both Montana and San Francisco on the days when Sebastian had been in those places.
This was not looking good, except that none of the victims were Chanku. And she’d been certain that more than one wolf had been at the site of the last killing.
None of them had smelled like this wolf, but she sensed a similar darkness.
She thought of calling out for her father, but there wasn’t a damned thing Anton Cheval could do for her now. She’d gotten herself into this mess, and it was up to her to figure a way out.
She stared at the wolf crouched just outside her refuge. He growled deep in his chest. There was no sense of humanity in him. Was it the magic? The fact his change was forced through a spell and not by his own inherent genetic ability to shift?
He was bigger than her. Stronger, but she was faster. Much faster, and she knew her wolf. Knew this body as her own, while she had the feeling Sebastian was still learning how his worked.
How the wolf thought.
Not very well, as far as Lily could tell.
Sebastian? Listen to me. Drop your shields, damn it, and listen.
He didn’t respond. Not even a glimmer of response. She crouched, ready to spring, to defend herself. Did he think to force a mating on her? A true mating only occurred when Chanku mated as wolves, but the female had to be receptive. It couldn’t be forced, though she’d heard the older generation talk about that, how in the beginning they didn’t know it was all up to the female.
She’d heard the story of how her uncle Jake had tried to force a mating on her aunt Tia, and just about ended up getting his throat torn out by Uncle Luc.
He hadn’t realized it didn’t work that way, but they’d known so little about their birthright in those early days. Maybe this guy believed the old stories. Maybe he just didn’t know.
He said he wasn’t Chanku, though she was almost positive he either lied or didn’t know what he was talking about. Whatever. This was wrong. Entirely wrong.
Sebastian growled, snapping her back to the present. Damn him. She’d so hoped he was someone special. Someone she might actually have a relationship with, maybe learn to love.
That lost potential was absolutely infuriating!
Sebastian! Listen to me, you bastard!
Obviously, things were not working out the way she’d hoped.
A new scent tickled her nostrils. Lily sniffed, opened her senses. A shiver raced along her spine and raised her hackles. Wolves. Unfamiliar wolves, and definitely more than one.
Unfamiliar to her, though she recognized their scent.
It was the same stench she’d smelled near the garden in Golden Gate Park. The same sense of something terribly wrong.
And it was coming closer.
She pushed, mentally. Could she at least force Sebastian to acknowledge the newcomers? Something moved in the shadows, behind him and to his right, slipped closer, and disappeared once again.
She heard gravel shift. On the left, this time, but it was so damned dark here in the narrow canyon, and Sebastian’s crouching form blocked much of her view through the narrow crevice between the rocks.
The scent was stronger; the wolves obviously closer. She was certain there were two, but could there be more?
Sebastian! Pay attention. They’re going to attack, damn it!
This time he blinked. Shook his head and gazed at her as if he were just waking up.

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