Sleeping With the Wolf (11 page)

“He said I was vermin.”

“What?” said Carla, outraged.

“Because I’m a wolf. Some humans feel that way about us. I’m glad you don’t.”

Carla didn’t know exactly how she felt about it. The whole wolf thing seemed unbelievable, but every time she saw him change she was reminded that it was real. “Tell me about the Clan.”

“When the world ended, some of the ancestors who lived on the reservation decided to leave and live on the prairie in the old way. They were members of the Wolf Clan and their friends. My grandfather and his brothers were among them. Our Pack is actually part of the Clan, but we live separate from them. I’ll take you to the Clan soon, and you can hear my uncle tell our history.”

“Should you do that? I’m not a wolf.”

“You’re a member of the Pack. And you didn’t reject me or my wolf. I worried about it the whole time we were walking home from the Bride Fight,” Taye confessed. “I didn’t know if you would scream when you saw my wolf or try to run away … I didn’t expect you to pet me. But I’m glad you did. Feel free to pet me anytime.”

So Carla did, stroking his hair and letting her hand sweep lightly over his arm.

“Just don’t bite me,” she warned.

“Maybe just a little nip?” he teased.

“Hmmm,” she said dubiously.

Taye kissed the back of her hand. “I knew I had a girl cousin but I never saw her.

When my mother and I went to Odessa all the settlement’s women were hidden away. I have about twenty cousins in the Clan, but they are all boys. Girls are rare, and I always wanted to have a sister to protect and spoil, but I thought Ellie felt the same way as her father.”

“Well, she doesn’t. And you’ll get to meet her in a few days. It’ll be nice for you. Do you know Neal? The guy she might be marrying?”

“I’ve met him, but I don’t know him.” He frowned. “I should get to know him. Just to be sure he treats her right. If he hurts her in any way I’ll kill him.”

Carla believed him. Another man might say that and he’d be blowing off steam or exaggerating. Taye was calmly serious. She poked him in the shoulder with a disapproving finger. “Taye, we have to work on your aggression. You can’t go around killing people. Or growling at them, either.”

“I can if they threaten me or someone I care about.”

“Mr. Gray? How was he threatening you?”

“You were going to touch him.”

“That’s what people do when they meet. They shake hands.”

“Never touch any man who’s not Pack or Clan. My wolf won’t allow it.”

Carla rolled her eyes. “Paranoid, much?”

Taye lifted his head off her lap and half sat up. “Carla, this is important. You get too friendly with a strange man, and I’ll likely kill him. My wolf is very possessive of you.”

“Honestly! Could you be a little more bossy? Don’t you think killing someone for shaking hands is a teeny little bit much? It’s called overkill, Taye.”

“I’m an Alpha. Mostly, I can control myself, but you bring my wolf out. In this one thing you have to follow the rules.”

“Taye, I don’t understand about you and your wolf. You talk like … Are you separate from your wolf? Or are you one person? When you turn into the wolf are you still Taye? And when you’re human—” She broke off when her stomach growled and Taye leapt to his feet.

“We’re missing lunch! You missed lunch yesterday, too, and you’re already too skinny. Come on. I’ll tell you all about wolves while we eat.”

The dining room was almost empty when they got there. Lunch was steak with fried potatoes. Carla took her steak into the kitchen and put it back on the grill to finish cooking. She decided she would have to do something about the menu around here. It would be something to do. Although, now that she had a guitar, maybe she could do concerts. She carried her steak back to the table and waited for Taye to illuminate her about the secret lives of werewolves.

The first thing she learned was that they weren’t born as puppies, so she would have regular human babies. Carla hadn’t even thought that she would give birth at all, much less to a wolf pup. Even if she and Taye had sex—and looking across the table at him, she had no doubt that they would—it would be a year before she could become pregnant thanks to her contraceptive shot. The children of the Pack were born human and sometime soon after puberty the wolf would force a change. If a boy got to be fifteen without making the change, then he was a full member of the Pack, but not wolf-born. He was still faster and stronger than a human, and healed more quickly, and could have sons who would be wolves. Carla asked about girls, and Taye told her that no girl was ever a wolf.

“That sucks!” Carla protested. “Why not?”

“They’re girls,” Taye said dismissively, as if that explained it.

Taye and his wolf were two beings who shared his body. When he was a man the wolf was pushed into a quiet cage in his mind unless he was agitated for some reason.

But Taye the man was dominant over the wolf, so the wolf couldn’t break out of the cage without severe provocation. Some wolves, especially when the human was very young, or less dominant, could take control. It took time to learn to manage the wolf. When Taye was a wolf he was the one who was pushed aside. The wolf’s wants and desires were simple: food to eat, the joy of hunting, a Pack to be part of, a mate to cherish and protect.

Carla shifted uneasily, horrified by her thoughts. “Taye,” she whispered. “When we

… you know. You’re not going to be a wolf, right? Ever. Because, that is
not
going to happen.”

“You mean sex?” Taye said calmly. “My wolf doesn’t want you sexually. He leaves that part to me.”

“Oh, good. I was scared there for a minute. But I thought he was the one who picked me?”

“He did. To be his special companion. He wants you to be the person who belongs to him, kind of like … a horse belongs to a human.”

Carla stared at him blankly. “A horse?”

Taye frown and shook his head. “That’s not a good description. It’s like…”

As Taye trailed off, obviously frustrated to not be able to explain better, another man stepped up to the table. He had light brown hair in a tangled mess hanging in his face and past his shoulders and vivid green eyes peering through it. “I heard my father explain it once to my mother. He said that to his wolf, she was like the only warm house in the middle of a deadly blizzard. She gave him a safe place to shelter in, one that was just for him, and he would take care of that safe place and defend it from intruders.”

Carla’s mouth formed an “Oh,” without sound. Then, “Is that why the wolf doesn’t want me to shake hands with other men? He thinks that might let them into his safe shelter?”

“Exactly,” said Taye with relief. He rested a hand on the other man’s arm. “Thanks, Quill.”

Quill had a shy smile of surpassing sweetness, and Carla reduced her estimate of his age from early twenties to late teens. As he walked away, Carla realized she had looked at him without embarrassment because she hadn’t even noticed he wasn’t wearing clothes. Maybe she was getting used to it.

Taye took her hand and pressed it against his cheek. “So you see why you need to stay away from strange men? Will you do that for me?”

“I guess.”

Taye got up and kissed her gently on the lips. “I’m going out to train again this afternoon. You can play with your gift. I’ll see you at supper.”

The scratches across his chest were faint, almost completely healed. Carla touched them lightly. “I haven’t really thanked you yet for the guitar. It’s the best present I’ve ever gotten.”

Taye’s smile was wicked. “You can thank me tonight. After supper. When we’ve retired to our room.”

Carla’s blush was hot. “O-o-okay,” she stuttered, remembering the way his fingers worked her last night.

After he stripped off his sweatpants and handed them to her to put away, she took one long deliberate look at him. And she liked what she saw. He didn’t seem to notice, only smiling at her and leaving the dining room. Carla fanned her face for a minute, then gathered their dishes to take into the kitchen.

The kitchen was in the process of lunch clean up. Three teenagers were there washing dishes, cleaning the grill, and wiping the counters. Sky was one. He nodded to her and took her tray. He sniffed delicately at her.

“So, you and the Chief finally gonna do it tonight?”

Carla opened her mouth to snap that it was none of his business. But Taye had explained that the Pack was family, and they all cared deeply for each other. The human concept of privacy didn’t exist in Pack life. As Lupa she was like their mother.

“We’ll see,” she finally muttered.

“I bet you will,” he predicted cheerfully. “You smell like you really like him.”

Carla escaped from the kitchen and headed to her guitar in the rec room. There were a few men lounging there, and when they saw she was opening the guitar case they begged her to play for them. So she did. It wasn’t long before she had a dozen listeners.

But most of the songs she was singing had lyrics that talked about things they couldn’t comprehend, like divorce and cheating, or phones and trucks, so she switched to other, lighter songs. The dozen men swelled to an audience of about twenty-five. She sang a song she had written a few months ago but never recorded about a young girl who loved rainstorms and then one about a mother’s love for her soldier son. The audience was responsive. Who would have thought that a song about a man who loved a girl who married someone else would bring werewolves to tears? They leaned against one another, a pile of naked muscular men weeping for a made-up lover in a song. She lightened the mood by singing a silly children’s song. Carla loved the sound of this guitar and felt a wave of gratitude for Taye’s generosity. And a wave of sadness for old Mr. Gray’s loss of his wife. She should write a song for him about this old guitar and the journey it had taken, carried by a man who loved the woman who had played it. She launched into the upbeat chorus of “Sleeping With the Wolf,” but without the words. She needed to finish that song, but she was waiting for current events to unfold to know how the song would end.

When she finished she looked up and saw that the rec room was filled with silent wolves, including Taye. She laid the guitar carefully aside and went to him, and kissed his lips softly.

“I love my guitar, Taye. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

He returned the kiss just as gently. “You’re welcome, mate. I love you and I want you to be happy.”

How was a woman to keep from falling in love with a man like this?

Taye saw his pants folded on the table and went to put them on. Carla watched, enjoying the way the muscles in his back, butt, and thighs stretched and bunched as he moved. He didn’t have the bulky physique of a body builder, with muscles bulging and veins popping, but the leaner build of a swimmer. Each muscle was hard and defined, and he moved with the smooth feral grace that all the wolves had. What would he be like in bed? He saw her staring and lifted an inquiring eyebrow. Carla pretended she had been examining him for injuries.

“You didn’t get hurt again, did you?”

He smiled and held his arms out, inviting her to see for herself. “Not even a scratch. I am perfectly well.”

She stepped closer, looking critically at the red mark below his belly button which was all that was left from his fight with Pete. Her finger barely grazed the top edge, and his belly muscles jumped. “How about this?”

“That is healed,” he said huskily. “I am completely whole, sweetheart. May I seduce you tonight?”

Carla’s tummy fluttered with nerves and maybe anticipation. “Does a man have to seduce his own wife?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never had one before.” His mouth smiled, but his eyes were serious. “I’d say that is up to you.”

The nerves grew, but after a moment, anticipation covered it. “I’d say I might like being seduced tonight.”

Now his eyes smiled too, and he looked like a kid who had just unwrapped the one Christmas present he had most hoped for. “Then I will seduce you. I have it all planned out, step-by-step.”

“You’ve planned it? How many steps did you plan?”

He winked at her. “You’ll find out.”

He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her along with him toward the hallway. She dug her heels in. “Not right this second!”

His surprise melted into a chuckle. “No, I’m going to take a shower before supper.”

“Oh.” Relief made her heart pound. “Okay.”

He sniffed at her. “Are you scared?”

“No.” When the worry on his face didn’t go away, she added, “Just a little nervous.”

“Oh. I guess it’s up to me to calm your nerves. It’s in the plan.”

“Well, then. I’ll just leave that all up to you. Go ahead and take your shower. I’ll hang out here with my guitar.”

She went back to her guitar and held it like a baby for comfort. Not that she was really frightened. She was actually looking forward to being with Taye. This was just wedding night jitters. Some of the wolves saw her with her guitar and clustered around her.

“No, I’m not going to play right now,” she told them.

“Maybe after supper?” the one who looked fourteen said hopefully.

Sky answered for her. “Can’t you smell her? She’s gonna be busy tonight.”

Carla blushed, and the kid looked mystified.

“She’ll be busy with the Chief,” Sky clarified impatiently.

“Oh,” said the kid, with an adult’s comprehension. “That’ll make the Chief happy.”

Carla put her forehead in her palm and shook her head. Everybody knew what she and Taye were going to do, even the kids. This was so embarrassing.

“What’s wrong, Lupa?” the kid asked. He petted her arm anxiously. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” Carla mumbled. “I’ll play a few songs tonight after supper, okay? Just leave me alone for now.”

She was getting used to Taye’s smell. It was hot and masculine. She knew he was standing beside her and looked up at him awkwardly. His hair was still damp from his shower, finger combed, from the spiky look of it. Carla thought he had never looked better. “That was a quick shower.”

He smiled, and it made him look boyish. “It doesn’t take me long. I don’t have hair down to my waist, like some wolves do. So you’re going to sing for us tonight?”