Savage Moon: Wolf Shifter Romance (Wild Lake Wolves Book 4) (11 page)

“A seer?”

Pat nodded. “She knew things. Like she knew about
you. That she had a daughter coming.”

“Oh, that could have been a lucky guess. I mean, fifty-fifty
odds and all.”

“No. Not that. I mean she knew she wasn’t going to
be around for you.”

My heart went still for a moment, then hammered in
my chest so hard I saw stars.

“I don’t want to upset you, honey. But it’s time.
Sarah wanted you to know when you got old enough. I think she knew I’d be the
one to tell you. There was a time she felt like a daughter to me. I never had
one of my own.”

“Tell me what?” I still couldn’t breathe. The words
felt like acid in my mouth.

“To follow your heart when the time came. Because
Sarah understood how hard it was going to be for Caleb. Losing her, of course.
But losing you next. Or at least, she knew that’s how he’d see it. Honey, your mother
knew you were bound to the wolves. Er . . . well . . . one wolf anyway. She
tried to make Caleb understand, but he wouldn’t hear it. She wanted him to be
prepared when the time came because she wouldn’t be here for you.”

“The time came for what?”

“Olivia, your mother knew you were going to find
your fate with a wolf. That one day you’d claim one for your own. And she sure
as hell knew how tough that would be for everyone. The daughter of Caleb Lord,
mixed in with the wolves. That’s about as complicated as it gets. He wouldn’t
listen when she told him. Tore through the woods on a rampage like I’d never
seen. And she hadn’t even gotten to the part about her own fate. She never
could bring herself to tell him that. He took the wolf thing hard enough. Said
he’d never let you so much as look as a wolf if he had anything to say about
it.”

“He said that to me so many times. God. Pat. The day
I came home with Kane, he looked like he wanted to murder me.”

“He tried, honey. Just like all fathers do. He
wanted to keep his baby girl safe. He held on so tight it’s only natural you
were ready to break free with the first taste of freedom you got. Kane took
advantage of that.”

“But, if I’d just listened to my father and stayed
away from Kane, none of us would be in this mess.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. Fate has a funny way
of tracking you down no matter what you do.”

I squeezed my eyes shut tight. It was impossible.
Everything Pat said. It couldn’t be true. And yet. I
felt
it. And
remembered the hurt in my father’s eyes when I told him I thought I might be
able to love Kane. God, it must have brought up so much pain for him. Again.

“So, don’t beat yourself up too much for everything
that happened with Kane,” Pat said, as if
she
were the one with some
special power to read my mind. “And it sure was a hell of a shitty way to get
from point A to point B, but maybe everything that’s happened with Kane is part
of your fate too. I mean, it did put you in Alec’s path.”

I felt the world closing in on me again. So much
felt out of my control. And yet, it felt true.

“God, my poor father. I have to know exactly what my
mother told him. Do you know that?”

“Does it matter?”

“It might. Oh, God. Pat. Alec’s worried my father
has made some sort of alliance with Kane against the Wild Lake wolves. He
thinks he’s doing it to save my brother and me. Maybe he thinks I
am
fated to Kane. I need to see him. I need to get through to him.”

She blew out a breath and smoothed a gray hair from
her forehead. “You know, sometimes I wonder if my
own
father should have
made a pact with were-gerbils instead. Would have been a hell of a lot less
stressful around here.”

I froze for a second, letting the image wash over
me. Then, a smile split my face and laughter, pure and genuine, bubbled up
inside of me. Pat laughed with me and for at least that moment, it took the
pain away.

Chapter
Fifteen

The moon rose high and bright, stabbing through a ribbon
of clouds. He called to me. Without sound. Without words. But with a throbbing
pulse that started low in my belly and made my limbs tingle. A cool breeze blew
through the window in my corner bedroom, making the Queen Anne’s lace patterned
curtains billow. I wore a thin cotton nightdress Pat had given me. I would have
shivered against the cold, but even hundreds of yards away, Alec kept me warm.

In my bare feet, I padded down the stairs, keeping
to the wall so the floorboards wouldn’t creak. I ran down the porch steps,
heading straight for the barn where I knew he waited. The horses whinnied and
pranced in the paddock, announcing my arrival as if he’d enlisted them as co-conspirators.
Who knows? Maybe he had.

I pulled the heavy latch back on the barn door and
stepped inside. Alec leaned against one of the stalls at the end of the barn
feeding hay to one of the gray mares. She crunched it hungrily and gave me a
wide-eyed stare. Alec ran a hand down her nose and whispered something into her
ear. Maybe my wolf spoke horse because the mare nodded her head up and down
then retreated back in the stall to give us privacy.

Alec turned toward me. He was shirtless, in jeans, and
water still dripped from the dark ends of his hair, reflecting the moonlight through
the windows like diamonds. He’d come from the lake, just like the first night I
met him. I walked cautiously toward him, my heart pounding inside me like
hammer blows.

“You were gone all day,” I said. “I missed you.”

Alec smiled and held out a hand. I took another
tentative step toward him. There was magic in the stars tonight. Touching him
would make that magic flare. I knew that in my heart. I’d known it from the
moment I woke and felt him out here. He was healed. Strong. For now, Kane was
far away and not a threat to me. That would change. It had to. We had a
reckoning to face, but for now, there was no one in the world but Alec and me,
it seemed.

I crossed my arms in front of me, stopping a few
feet from Alec. One of the other horses poked its head out of the nearest
stall. I regretted not bringing a treat for him. The horse snorted, flaring its
great nostrils, and shot a look to Alec as if to say, “Rookie mistake.” I
smiled and looked down at the hay-covered floorboards.

“Olivia.” My name on his lips felt like a promise.
My heart soared. I had so much to tell him. My head still swirled from
everything Pat told me today. But, I didn’t know where to start. As I looked at
Alec, his blue eyes shining like sapphires even though he stood in shadow with
the moonlight over his shoulder, no words would come. No words were needed.

“Alec,” I said. Then I stepped into his arms and let
the magic in.

I reached up, framing his jaw with my hands. I
tilted his head down and went up on my tiptoes. He hesitated for a fraction of
a second, then brought his lips down on mine. He kissed me slow and gentle,
tracing his tongue around mine. I sank into him, feeling carried away on a
blanket of starlight. My blood thrummed in my ears and warmth flooded me,
settling in my core then spreading out, leaving a tingling path in its wake.

Alec whispered my name over and over as he kissed
me. He wrapped his arm around my waist and slid the other behind my knees,
lifting me. I was dizzy. Drunk from his kisses. He laid me down on a bed of hay,
spreading a wool blanket beneath us. My hair fanned out around us. He nuzzled
my neck, tasting me. Worshiping me with his lips and tongue.

I wound my fingers through his hair, savoring the
thick, coarse locks. Then I ran my hands down the curve of his strong shoulders
and pulled him even closer. I wanted to feel every inch of him. His jeans and
my nightgown got in the way. Alec fumbled with the buttons of my gown. Then,
one by one, he opened them, spreading the thin cotton aside. I lay naked from
the waist up. My breath hitched as Alec shifted his weight and went up on one
elbow. From there, he raked his eyes over me, then trailed one finger from the
column of my throat, between my breasts then all the way down to my belly
button.

“You’re so beautiful. I want to look at you. All of
you.”

Heat thundered through me, settling to a throbbing
point between my legs. I grew wet for him. I nodded quickly and helped him pull
my nightgown up over my head. He tossed it aside. Alec rose slowly to his feet
and started to loosen his belt. I let out a little gasp at the sight of him.
Brazen thoughts flooded my mind. His belt. The bulge in his jeans. The lustful
flash of silver in his eyes as he peeled off his jeans.

I couldn’t help but stare, and it made me blush. Alec’s
thick cock bobbed before me. I’d seen it before. But never like this. Primed
and ready, hard and throbbing. Without even thinking, my knees fell to the
side. Oh, God, I wanted him. Would do anything for him. And why had I waited so
long?

Then Alec knelt before me. If I marveled at the
sight of him, he meant to take his time feasting his eyes on me. A hot blush
flamed my cheeks as his eyes traveled down. My nipples pebbled just from one
look. Alec leaned down and swirled his tongue around one hard bud, making me
ache for him even more. Then he gave my other breast the same treatment.

I grew bold. I reached down and closed my fingers
around his thick, firm shaft. Alec’s cock jumped in my hand and he let out a
groan that sent a shiver of heat straight through me. Then, his hands were
everywhere. Tearing through my hair, trailing down the slope of my hip,
spreading my legs even wider. He hooked a finger beneath the waistband of my
panties and started to drag them down.

I groaned and arched my back when he stopped and
covered my quivering mound with his palm. “God. Baby. You’re soaked straight
through.”

“I want you. Oh. Alec. Please. I don’t want to wait
another second.”

He tore my panties and cast them aside, leaving me
completely exposed for him.

“Are you sure?” he whispered against my ear. He slid
a hand down and worked me, his nimble fingers coaxing my swollen sex to a hard nub.

“God, yes!” I think I said it a thousand times, but
I knew what he meant. It had to be my choice. We both knew what was at stake.
No matter what happened after this moment, Kane would know I’d been with Alec.
Anger pulsed within me along with my lust. I didn’t want to think about Kane.
Not for a second. But, as Alec dipped a single finger inside me and made my
body shudder, the mark at the base of my neck flared. It was just a faint tremor.
Nothing more. But enough to make me remember Kane’s claim. As long as he had
one, I’d never be completely free. He could pull me to him. Cause me pain. Hurt
the people I loved.

I rejected it. Took control.

Alec meant to take his time, but I didn’t. I wanted
no more questions. No hesitation. This was me. Alec was mine.

I shifted my weight and Alec rolled with me. I rose
up and straddled him, holding myself poised above him, my thighs shaking.
Alec’s wolf eyes flashed and he let out a guttural noise that made my juices
flow.

“Yes!” I gasped. I gritted my teeth and gently
gripped him, angling him just right. Then, I seated myself, sliding Alec’s full
length inside of me all the way to the root.

I cried out, shocked by the size of him. It’s one
thing to see it. It’s another thing to feel it widening and filling you from
the inside out. He remade me as my walls stretched to accommodate him. I held
perfectly still, sinking down to take all of him in as deep as he would go.
Alec reached up and took my hands, threading his fingers through mine he held
me up. God, he was so thick, so hard. He spread me so wide, inch by inch.

We stayed like that for a moment. I wanted it to be
forever. I threw my head back, my hair forming a dark arch. Then, I couldn’t
stay still a second longer.

Alec let me set the pace. He dropped one of my hands
and steadied me with his hand on my hip. I fucked him rough and hard. Bucking
with abandon like some wild, wanton thing. My breasts bounced as my hips
swayed. Down and down. Thrust for thrust. Alec threw his head back and let out
a growl that shook through me and startled the horses. I didn’t realize until
later the level of control it took for Alec to stay mostly still and let me
ride him. Every instinct inside of him must have called for him to flip me,
claim me, make me submit. And I would have. Oh, I wanted to. But, I needed this
more. I needed to set the pace that first time.

And that pace was wild and free. Something broke
inside of me. All the months of staying silent. Pretending. Waiting. It all
came out in a flood of lust and fury as I fucked Alec and took something of
myself back, piece by piece.

I came in thundering waves, crying out from the joy
of it. Alec kept his hands on my hips so I stayed seated. I reached back,
resting my weight on my palms, I took him that way, letting him fill spaces
inside of me I didn’t know I had.

Then, I brought myself up and rested my hands on
either side of his head, my hair falling in cascading waves around us. I kissed
him. He kissed me back. Soft and gentle at first, then the raw heat took over.
I bit his lip. He bit back. Not hard. No pain, but another claiming to
punctuate the larger one inside of me.

Finally, Alec couldn’t contain the animal lust
inside of him, and I no longer wanted him to. He flipped me gently, bringing me
to all fours. He stroked himself behind me as my legs quivered. I wasn’t sure
if I even had the strength to take him like this. But, a gentle swat on my ass
sent a fresh wave of heat flooding through me. Oh yes, I could take him like
this. I wanted it more than anything I could name.

Alec put a gentle hand on my back and nudged me down
so I rested my chin on my hands. He slid his knee between my thighs, splaying
them even wider. From this angle, with my ass high in the air and my legs
spread wide, I felt so exposed, so wanton, so right.

Then Alec speared himself into me. I gasped as I
felt him stretch me wide all over again. Heat and pleasure flooded through me
then, centered on that single point between my legs. He worked me there with
his fingers as he fucked me from behind. I didn’t think I had an ounce left to
give, but Alec found it, coaxing orgasm after orgasm out of me as he poured
himself inside me deep and strong.

I whispered his name over and over. My hair fell to
the side, exposing my neck. I hadn’t meant it. But instinct took over and I
reared my head back. I wanted it. The mark flared and Alec’s low growl juddered
through me.
He
wanted it. I felt his lips press against the nape of my
neck and everything in me cried out
yes!
This. Yes. Now.

But, Alec froze. He’d made me a promise. One he
meant to keep.

I felt the last, stuttering jump of his cock inside
me and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against him, spooning me. He
kissed my neck, teasing the edges of my scar. He wanted to remake me there too.
And I wanted to let him.

But not yet. Not now. As much as I wanted to give in
to this primal passion all the way, Kane had still taken that from me. I wasn’t
ready. Alec had helped me take back some of what Kane had stolen, but I wasn’t
there yet. Not all the way. I squeezed back the tears and turned to face him.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, feathering soft kisses
along his jaw until I found his lips. “I want to. But I’m still not sure. Thank
you for being patient with me.”

Alec traced his thumb along my jaw and looked at me with
such tenderness, I felt my heart might burst.

“I love you,” he said simply.

Of all the things he could have said, he picked the
perfect thing.

“I love you, too.”

The mark didn’t matter. Not now. Alec had claimed my
heart, and I had his.