“
People around here are
doing an awful lot of angry glaring today.” Lottie leaned her
elbows on the bar and smiled gently. “Melinda’s
waiting.”
He lowered the glass, untouched. “Not sure
I’m in the mood today, after all.”
“
Mmm, I’ll bet.”
Irritation gripped him. “Spit it out.”
She smiled. “Something’s been riding you
hard these last couple weeks, Oliver. When you figure out what it
is, you won’t need my pithy wisdom.”
Her quiet amusement set his teeth on edge,
and he tossed a bill on the counter. “Be seeing you, Lottie.”
He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he heard
her laugh as he stomped out. His horse shied away from him, and he
had to spend several minutes soothing the gelding before he could
ride.
Oliver carefully blanked
out his mind, focusing instead on the rolling land surrounding him
as he headed for home. At length, he spotted a lone horse in the
distance and no sign of a rider.
A
stray,
he reasoned, unwilling to let his
mind wander to grimmer conclusions.
But those conclusions were unavoidable when
he drew closer and saw that the brown Morgan wore full tack,
including an exquisitely worked saddle he recognized as the one
Lottie had commissioned for Hazel’s eighteenth birthday.
It had been at least an hour since she’d
left the bar with Noah Hampton, and the sun had begun to dip toward
the horizon. Oliver’s heart seized. She could have been thrown, or
--
Or worse.
He didn’t waste time. He clucked to his
horse and rode toward Hampton’s place, his throat dry and blood
pounding in his ears.
He made it within a mile of Hampton’s before
he came across Hazel, barefoot and disheveled with her dress
hanging off one shoulder. His horse shied again as he drew up next
to her, dancing nervously away from the anger that rolled off Hazel
in waves.
He jumped down and snatched his rifle from
his pack. “Where the hell is he, and what the fuck did he do?”
“
Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
Hazel wouldn’t meet his eyes, but her voice sounded more frustrated
than upset. “Unless you’re going to shoot my horse for throwing me,
put that damn thing away.”
“
A bad fall’s dangerous,
even for werewolves.” His hands shook, but he stowed the rifle.
“But if that’s all that happened, where are your shoes?”
Anger returned, but more dangerous was the
growing warmth around her, power rising in her tiny body and
drawing an answering surge from him. She trembled on the edge of
the mating fever, so close it should have taken her by now.
And yet she fought it. Even as she glared up
at him, she fought it so hard it had to be hurting her. “Everything
went wrong.” Her voice was clipped, edged with that same tense
heat. “But it wasn’t him. It’s me. And you.”
Oliver couldn’t deny the role he’d played in
her frustration, even if it wasn’t his fault. “You’re going to hurt
yourself,” he told her gruffly. “The fever’s nothing to play around
with.”
“
Play
?” Her voice rose. “You think I’m
playing
? I went there to fuck him and
I
wanted
to. But I
can’t give in to the mating without giving in to the wolf,
and
she
almost
ripped him apart for touching me.”
“
Calm down.” The hair on
the back of his neck rose, along with the animal inside him. The
wolf stirred, awakened as much by the power rolling off her in
waves as by the Siren call of her lust. He needed to get her to
safety before the fever took her, but he couldn’t touch her. He
knew what would happen the moment he did. “We need to get you
somewhere. To Jack’s place.”
“
No!” Hazel snatched up her
mud-stained skirts and circled around him, her entire body rigid.
“I’m not getting near Jack, and I’m not going anywhere with
you.”
He followed her. “Like it or not, I’m what
you’ve got right now. So you can act like a child, or you can let
me get you someplace safe.”
Hazel wheeled so quickly he almost ran into
her. “If you think I’m going to let you hand me over to the alpha
so he can do his duty by me and break my best friend’s heart,
you’re a bigger fool than I thought.”
“
That isn’t what I meant,”
he protested. “He and Ginny can find a way to help you. He doesn’t
have to -- it’s not --” He bit off his words with a growl. His
hands were starting to itch. “Damnation, if you hadn’t waited so
long…”
“
Yes, I’m a fool. I’m a
stupid, romantic fool.” She turned again, but her body had begun to
tremble. “Go away, Oliver. I’m fighting her as hard as I can right
now, but it hurts. And it won’t stop until you’re gone.”
“
It won’t stop at all now.
That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” He had no choice, so he
reached out and grasped her arm. “Hazel, stop.”
Her skin felt hot under his hand. A noise
tore free of her, desperate yearning and need, and her arousal
filled his senses. She took a gasping breath as her entire body
went tense. “Oliver --” Her voice sounded tiny and maybe even
afraid. “I don’t know what to do.”
“
Shh.” He didn’t have a
clue himself, aside from the obvious, but he drew her back against
his chest and tried to soothe her. “Try to relax. You’ve got to --
We have to get you somewhere.” There was a fishing cabin on the
Lonely River, close to Ginny’s ranch. If he could get Hazel there,
maybe he could help her until the fever passed. If not, Ginny and
Jack wouldn’t be far away. “Just relax.”
She shivered under his hands even as she
rubbed back against him in a way that was anything but innocent.
“You don’t have to love me, Oliver, but please… please make it stop
hurting.”
His carefully suppressed desire flared, and
his cock sprang to life. He gritted his teeth against the urge to
slide his hand under her skirt. “Can you ride for a little while?”
he whispered. “I’ll do it, Hazel, but we’ve got to get someplace
first.”
“
Okay.” She turned and
reached up, curling her hands over his shoulders. “I trust
you.”
He pulled her head back and bit her neck to
ease the wolf, and she melted against him with a soft moan of
satisfaction. Then he helped her up on his horse and climbed up
behind her. His arm stayed tight around her waist as he turned his
mount and set him off at a fast trot toward the cabin.
Chapter Two
The world was too warm, but Hazel didn’t
mind anymore. The pain and misery of the past months had been swept
away with the stinging bite of Oliver’s teeth, his claim that
quieted the wolf and her angry need.
She didn’t even mind that her heart would
probably be broken by this time next week. The need to mate had
washed away petty concerns like love or relationships, replacing
them with the carnal need to fuck. Hard, fast, over and over
again…
She whimpered and fought
the urge to squirm in the strong circle of Oliver’s arm.
Soon. Soon…
He whispered to her, words she couldn’t
quite focus on but found soothing anyway. She whimpered another
protest when they stopped and he moved away, but he only climbed
off the horse and gathered her in his arms. The contact calmed her,
and she opened her eyes.
She recognized the tiny
cabin as one on the river near Ginny’s place.
Near Oliver’s place, too.
He caught
her eye and the corner of his mouth kicked up. “I don’t think
there’s time to get you anywhere else.”
Before I take you.
He didn’t speak the words, but the implication
made her dizzy. “I need you.”
“
I know.” He left the horse
unfettered and kicked open the cabin door. Inside was dark and
dusty, and Oliver set her on her feet near the door. “I’ll be right
back. Just wait for me here.”
The minute he disappeared again her nervous
tension returned. The scratch of fabric on her skin was unbearable,
but the neat buttons on the back of her dress were hard to reach
and too delicate to manage in her current state. Four of them
popped free of the dress before she managed to drag it over her
head, and she left it in a heap on the floor with her undergarments
as Oliver returned with his saddlebags.
He stared at her for a few tense seconds,
his eyes taking in the thin silk slip she wore. Then he dropped the
bags on a chair by the bed and pulled out a thin blanket. “Do you
want a light?” he asked as he spread the blanket over the ancient,
bare mattress.
Warm pleasure arched through her and she
realized she was touching herself, stroking her fingers absently
over her tight nipple. Her gaze caressed his strong shoulders and
she tried to envision what lay under his shirt…
He asked you a
question.
“Uhm, lights. I don’t
care.”
“
I should build a fire or
-- or something.” He watched her hands, and his own clenched into
shaking fists. “You’ll get sick --” He turned away abruptly and
knelt by the hearth to stack the old, dry logs beside it on the
grate. “Lie down, Hazel.”
It was a command, strong and confident, and
the strength in it sent a rush of heat through her, followed by the
instinctive desire to obey. She slid onto the bed and curled on her
side, inching the slip up her leg. “Hurry.”
It took a few minutes, but Oliver managed to
get the fire going. He rose up in its light and drew his shirt over
his head. The flickering fire cast shadows over the hard length of
his torso, and he turned and kicked off his boots.
She forgot how to breathe. Nights spent
dreaming hadn’t come close to the reality of watching the firelight
dance over his skin as he walked toward the bed.
Her fingers fisted in her slip and she
whimpered. “Too slow.”
“
Shh.” He didn’t bother to
remove his pants before climbing on the bed behind her, his chest
warm against her back. He scraped his teeth over her bare shoulder
and laid his hand on her leg. “It’ll be all right. You’ll
see.”
She moaned when she felt the hard ridge of
his cock against her ass. “Take your pants off. I want to feel
you.”
“
In a bit.” He thrust
against her as his hand edged under her slip and up to the top of
her thigh. “What makes you feel good?”
“
I don’t know… the usual
things?” She reached back and tried to find his belt with her
fingers. “Everyone keeps telling me human men don’t count, so maybe
I don’t know anything at all.”
Oliver caught her hand and drew it up over
her head. He did the same with her other arm and pinned her wrists
to the bed. “No such thing as ‘the usual,’ darling. Tell me how you
want me to touch you before I fuck you.”
She couldn’t deny him, not when his voice
took on the gruff tone of an order. A slight shift of her body put
her on her back with her wrists still pinned above her head, but at
least now she could see Oliver’s face.
He looked tense, uneasy. Hazel closed her
eyes and moved her legs apart. “I -- touch me. With -- with your
fingers.”
He moved slowly, taking what felt like
forever to stroke his fingertips into the wet cleft between her
thighs. “Like this?” He barely brushed her clit.
She whimpered and rocked
her hips up into his touch. “More. God, what do you
want
? What do I need to
do so you’ll fuck me?”
His hand stilled, and he made another
soothing noise. “Stop being scared that I’ll stop. Trust me.”
It wasn’t until he spoke
the words that she realized she
was
scared. The need that consumed her was
unforgiving. If he turned away from her the lust would drive her
mad.
She was at his mercy.
Hazel forced her eyes open and sought his
gaze. “I’ve never had sex with another werewolf before.” Instinct
prompted the confession, the instinct to remind him that she was
unclaimed, and he rewarded her with a low growl as something
intense and barely restrained burned in his eyes.
He thrust against her, the hard length of
his cock nudging her thigh, and groaned. Before she could take
another breath, his mouth landed on hers, rough and needy, and
there was nothing to do but part her lips and give in to the erotic
power of his kiss.
Oliver let go of her wrists and wove his
hand into her hair. The touches that had been so easy and careful
before returned and, this time, he pressed his thumb firmly against
her clit for several heartbeats. Pleasure radiated out from the
touch, driving her breath from her in a helpless cry.
Then he groaned again and thrust one finger
inside her, and the world disappeared in a rush of heat. It was
hardly the first time a man had touched her so intimately, but they
had been men. Human men, trying so hard to get her off in hopes
that she’d fuck them. And none had dragged her this close to
oblivion with so little effort.
His mouth trailed down to her ear, and he
drew the sensitive lobe between his teeth. “You’ll have to trust
me, Hazel. Can you do that?”
She was so drunk on pleasure and
anticipation that the truth slipped out before she could stop it.
“I always have.”
He leaned up and tugged the strap of her
slip off her shoulder, baring her breast. She held her breath as he
bent his head and touched her nipple with his tongue. At the same
time, he eased a second finger into her pussy.
The coiled heat inside her released so fast
she couldn’t even scream. Her back bowed and her toes curled as
climax crashed into her. She’d never come so fast before, never
come so hard she couldn’t draw breath. Everything felt hot and
tingly and she finally got enough air to whimper as her body shook
with the force of her orgasm.