Morgan took a step back against the truck.
“Don’t frighten the lady, Hunter.” Another cowboy stepped out from the opposite side. There were two of them. They were approaching her.
“I’m waiting for my boyfriend, guys,” Morgan informed them.
This didn’t deter either one of them. The one named Hunter stepped up to her and took a strand of her hair between his fingers. He sniffed it and gave her a crooked smile.
“You smell nice, baby.”
“Listen, guys, don’t start any trouble,” Morgan told them and tried to calm her racing heart. “My boyfriend will be back any minute.”
“Hey, Drake, I think I frightened her,” the big cowboy named Hunter called over his shoulder to his friend.
“Your boyfriend shouldn’t have left you alone out here,” the one named Drake cautioned her. “It isn’t safe around these here parts for a pretty lady to be left unattended by her man. Anything could happen.”
“That’s right,” Hunter agreed with him. “Kind of gives cowboys like us ideas.”
Morgan remembered the warnings Nathan had given her about Wolf Creek when they had first moved out here. The shifter population of females was very small in comparison to the males. The men protected their womenfolk, because if they didn’t, there was always a shifter cowboy around to claim a woman on her own.
“Are you guys shifters?” Morgan asked them. She wanted to keep them talking until Nathan got back.
Her question seemed to give them pause for a second. “You know what we are?” the one named Drake asked her.
“My boyfriend is a shifter,” Morgan explained. Hunter was still handling her hair. It made her feel damned uncomfortable. The look of unrestrained lust in his eyes made her feel like she was about to explode inside.
“Your boyfriend’s a lucky man,” Drake told her. She watched as his eyes roamed her body.
Hunter rested a hand on her shoulder. “Does your boyfriend ever share?” he asked her. He was up so close she could feel the warmth of his breath against her skin.
Morgan didn’t know how to respond. They were young, overly sexed shifter cowboys. Wolf Creek had a lot of them, and she didn’t think they meant any real harm. They were just playing a little too rough.
Suddenly Hunter was pulled off her. A punch to his face sent him sprawling down to the gravel of the parking lot. Nathan stood over him, his fists balled and a look of pure anger on his face.
Drake made a move to try and protect his friend. Nathan was too fast for him. A punch to his gut sent Drake down to the ground next to Hunter.
Nathan was at her side, his arm around her protectively. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. I’m fine.” Morgan put a restraining hand on his shoulder. “Take it easy, Nathan. There was no harm done.”
“You two goddamn assholes get out of here unless you want some more from me!” Nathan shouted at them. Morgan knew he was seeing red now and in no mood to be reasonable. Over the years she had come to realize he could be quite a jealous, even overprotective boyfriend.
Hunter got up and came forward. Morgan thought he was going to try and keep things going. But Drake put a restraining hand on him, and cooler heads prevailed before a full-fledged fight erupted in the parking lot.
“I apologize,” Drake told Nathan. “We didn’t mean to pick on your woman.”
“Get out of here!” Nathan ordered them.
Again Drake had to hold back the hotheaded Hunter. “Come on, man,” he told him. “Let’s get out of here.”
“But she’s worth it,” Hunter said to his friend.
“I know, but she’s already taken.” Drake pulled the younger cowboy away with him, and the two disappeared into the night.
“You sure they didn’t hurt you?” Nathan asked Morgan, bending to check her over for possible injury.
Morgan put her arms around him. It felt good to have him back with her.
“You always told me Wolf Creek could be dangerous for women.”
“It is,” Nathan assured her. “Come on. Let’s get you back home, baby.”
He took the keys he had gone to retrieve out of his pocket and got the door to the truck open for her.
Morgan was glad to climb inside with him. She was happy for the warmth of the truck and grateful for the protection of her man.
That night set off a chain of events for Nathan, although the sickness had been growing in his body for some time. Up to the fight with the two shifters in the parking lot, he had tried to ignore his condition. Foolishly, he had thought it would go away on its own.
He never wanted Morgan to find out. For months he had thought he could beat this thing. Now he suddenly wasn’t so sure.
He fucked Morgan hard and long into the night, his cock deep inside her pussy until the wet fold of her pussy squeezed his dick and they both came. When it was over, she pushed away from him under the covers of their bed.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he lied. They were both out of breath and sweaty from the hard sex, his heavy weight still on top of her, his body held up over her by his arms. She crawled out from under him and to her side of the bed.
“You’ve never been like that before.”
“But you got off, didn’t you?”
“I did, but that’s not the point.” She ran a hand over her face and curled up into a little ball, her back to him. “You were so rough with me tonight you scared me.”
He flipped over onto his back and looked up at the ceiling. “I’m sorry.”
“Is it what happened tonight with those two men?” she asked him.
“I didn’t like them touching you,” Nathan admitted. “I could have killed them.”
They lay in silence for a few minutes. This was the middle of the night and the quietest time. It should have been the most peaceful.
Nathan knew he didn’t have any more to say because he didn’t trust himself. He was too angry, and he didn’t want to let lose any of that anger on her.
Finally he felt her body relax under the covers next to him. She relented from her upset mood, turned over, and moved closer to him. Nathan still didn’t look at her. He only watched the ceiling overhead. He felt embarrassed. He had showed too much emotion.
“At least you could hold me after fucking me like that, you bastard,” Morgan told him, cuddling up next to him beneath the blanket and nudging his arm.
He reached out for her, and she went into his arms. He loved this woman so much.
“You know sex isn’t a good substitute for talking,” she told him after another moment of strained silence.
“I was just thinking—” He broke off. She would not like the direction his mind had taken.
“What were you thinking about?”
“I want to shift tonight.”
She held him down, her hands coming up to push against his chest and hold him back. “No, Nathan,” she said. “For one thing, it’s too late, and for another, you’ve been shifting way too much lately. I feel like you’d rather be out there in the forest than at home with me.”
“No. That isn’t true,” he reassured her. “I just need to do it sometimes, that’s all. It has nothing to do with you.”
“Because it has nothing to do with me is why I don’t like it,” she said, not understanding, and he knew she was not happy with him. “Sometimes I feel when you go out at night that it’s the same as cheating on me.”
“Oh, God no! I would never take another woman,” Nathan told her and turned her around in his arms to make sure she believed him. “You satisfy me completely.”
“I don’t mean that you’re literally cheating on me with a woman. I just feel like your shifting takes you away from me and away from us.” Morgan sighed and patted his chest with the palm of her hand. “You built this big expensive house out here just for the two of us to live in, and now you never live in it with me.”
“I’m a shifter, Morgan.” He tried to explain himself to her but knew it was a lost cause because he could never tell her the truth. “Shifting is what I do. It’s in my blood. The mountains and the forest call to me. My wolf calls to me. I feel that I have a wonderful gift, and I feel like I have to use it or risk losing my life.”
Nathan knew he caused her pain with his words. That was the last thing he wanted to do. But he had to weigh his need to be honest with his need to protect her.
“I’d like to think that what the two of us have is a wonderful gift, too,” she told him.
“I’m sorry you can’t understand me.” He looked down into her eyes and could read the hurt in them.
“I wish I
could
understand you.” Morgan held on to him, keeping him in bed with her. “It isn’t that I’m against you shifting, Nathan,” she explained. “I love you for who you are. But I don’t want you out there tonight. Those cowboys in town got you too upset. I’m worried about what might happen if you go out there feeling like this. Don’t you understand I care about you?”
Nathan decided he would not leave the bed with her that night, but it was not an easy decision, because every muscle in his body seemed to be urging him outside into the forest.
But the rational part of him had to agree with Morgan. Something bad might happen to him if he went out into the dark. He was sick and feared he might never make it back to her if he left, and he worried what would happen if she was alone.
* * * *
Morgan woke up late the next morning. She had not slept well the night before because she had been worried about Nathan.
Those two cowboys had been completely out of line, but she had never seen Nathan respond so wildly to a provocation before. It was like the wild animal trapped inside him was finally let free.
Morgan showered and then dressed in an old torn pair of jeans. Today she didn’t feel like wearing anything nicer. When she was in a down mood, her selection of wardrobe always suffered.
She went out to the kitchen to make breakfast. Nathan was nowhere to be found, but she started breakfast for them anyway. She knew that if she didn’t make his meals, Nathan would probably forget to eat. But she didn’t mind. She loved Nathan and loved cooking for him.
She knew exactly where she would find him, and she loaded up a tray of ham and eggs with coffee and orange juice and took it in to him.
They lived in a large and modern single-floor ranch house Nathan had built for them. It was split in two wings, with their room down one hall and the guest rooms and Nathan’s office down the other.
Nathan was in his office with the door shut, working diligently on a new software package one of his clients had paid him an obscene amount of money to debug.
He didn’t glance up at her right away when she entered.
“You’ve got to take time out to eat,” she told him as she sat the tray down on his desk.
“I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t even know you were awake yet. What time is it?”
“Half the morning’s gone.”
He gathered her in his arms and sat her down on his lap behind the desk. At first she didn’t really feel like going to him. She had made him a nice breakfast. What more did he want from her?
“Still mad at me?” he asked.
Morgan hesitated but shook her head. “No.” She sighed. “But I’m worried about you.”
“I’ve already forgotten about last night.” A crooked grin spread his lips. “Except for the part where I brought you back here to bed.”
“It’s not just last night. You’ve been acting strange now for a while. I want to help, but I don’t know what I can do.”
“You’re doing everything for me.” He glanced over at the breakfast she had made him. “This looks great. Will you help me eat some of it?”
Morgan nodded. “There’s enough there for two, considering your appetite hasn’t been any good lately, either. Maybe you’re getting tired of my cooking.”
“Never,” he assured her, and Morgan knew it wasn’t her cooking. She didn’t really think it was anything to do with her. But she couldn’t understand why there was this growing distance between them.
He began to spread jam on a piece of toast. When he was finished, he gently placed it against her lips. She opened her mouth and took a bite. He gave her a hug and kissed her cheek.
“Do you think I take good care of you?” he asked her out of the blue.
Morgan didn’t have to think twice. “You’re making a fortune with your own business. You built us this beautiful house. You’ve even given me time to start painting again since I don’t have to work now. You are taking the very best care of me—”
“That’s not what I meant,” he interrupted her, but insisted on feeding her another bite of toast. “I’ve been selfish with you. I’ve locked you away out here in the middle of the mountains.”
Morgan couldn’t understand what he was driving at. She didn’t like this conversation. She almost felt like Nathan was a stranger.
“Why don’t we fly back to Chicago next weekend and visit some of our friends back there,” she suggested. She really wanted to stay here and finish setting up her studio in one of the spare rooms and continue with some of the landscapes she was painting. They were her passion. But at this point, anything that would get Nathan back to himself she would gladly do.