Blood Lust (35 page)

A moan escaped her throat as she groaned against him, urging him to quicken his pace. He responded with a growl.

***

A wolf getting into his bed would have known the score, that she might end up marked and belonging to him. A human didn’t understand. And with Jane’s history, the last thing she needed was another situation where the choice was taken out of her hands.

All she had to do was say the word and she’d be his.

No. His mind rebelled against the future tense of that statement. She was his. She just didn’t know it yet. It wasn’t official, but she belonged to him. He felt it with more ferocity than he’d ever felt anything else in his life.

He spilled into her and felt the reverberation of her moans against his chest. His canines pressed against her throat. Just one little movement, and it would be done. The intent was sure as hell there. With great difficulty he pulled his fangs from her neck and held her, shaking from the effort it took not to mark her.

Her warm, sweet body curled into his, and he fell into a fitful sleep.

Cole was restless when he woke the next morning. Being next to his mate should soothe him, but leaving the mating uncompleted made him tense and anxious. It was the night of the full moon; he couldn’t avoid the potential consequences of that.

What if he was the wolf from the painting? What if he lost control under the influence of the moon and hurt her? His logical mind told him to just avoid churches or buildings that looked like old churches. But he knew that wasn’t how it worked. Any event could shift the future, and in all likelihood the course had already changed just from his knowledge of it.

He felt Jane stir and snuggle deeper against his chest. “Jane?”

“Mmm?”

“I have to leave for a few days.”

“What? No!” She gripped him tighter as if her frail human strength could stop his movement.

“I can respect your wish to wait to complete the mating, but tonight is the full moon. Although I believe Ed is the wolf in the painting, I can’t take the risk it’s me.”

“It’s not you.”

“I promise I’ll only be gone three nights until the full moon is over.”

He could hear her heart pounding through her chest and her breathing changing, becoming shallow pants like the first night when she’d learned she was locked underground. His chest tightened.

“Please, I can’t stay down here by myself. I can’t.”

“It would just be for a few hours after sunset each night. During the day, Mara and Blake will be here with you. We know they’re safe. They’re also the wolves who have the most control over the change. At sunset they’ll have to leave you to go hunting, but after they’ve hunted they’ll come back to guard you.”

Her nails dug into his skin. “I don’t want you to leave me. Greg left.”

He stroked his fingers through her hair, the guilt from causing her more distress tugging at him. “Shhhh, I’m not leaving you.” Then he said it, the thought that had been tempting him since the conversation began. “If the mating was complete you’d be safe with me.”

She stiffened in his arms.

Stupid, Cole. Why did you have to go there? She was starting to trust you. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up, but it would be a simple solution.”

“Cole, I can’t yet. Please understand.”

He nodded, the disappointment overwhelming his senses while the wolf banged against his cage intent on taking what was his. “I’m sorry.”

He’d said he wouldn’t leave her until sunset. He spent every second until that time, touching her, needing his skin to be pressed against hers, a shallow substitute for the completion of the mating ritual.

At five o’clock, Blake and Mara were summoned to the den.

“I’m going to give the code to your bodyguards. I’ll change it when I get back.” He scribbled something on a slip of paper and handed it to Blake.

Her voice cracked. “But not me.”

“Jane, please.” He felt like a monster not giving her permission to leave. What if something crazy happened and she needed to escape? But he knew she wouldn’t need to escape the wolves he’d chosen to stay with her. If he gave her the code she might come looking for him.

He knew the mating call stirred within her blood as it did his. Perhaps not as strongly, but it was enough. She felt it or she wouldn’t be so upset about a temporary separation. Once again he wanted to make both of their lives easier by just marking her. But he couldn’t start their relationship with a betrayal of trust, even if he knew she’d forgive him once she felt the bond between them fully flare to life.

Jane clung to him as he gave her one last kiss. She looked so lost.

“Stay. It’s not you. I know it’s not you,” she said, tears tracking down her cheeks.

He leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Even if it isn’t, the full moon is the best shot I have at catching the human-hunter and removing him from the pack. A wolf that’s been hunting people won’t be able to resist human flesh on the full moon. I’ll track him and kill him.”

“But what if he kills you?”

“He won’t. He’s older, and I’ve been alpha for two decades for a reason. It’ll be fine. I promise you.”

Cole left her in the den, resenting every step that took him farther from his mate. He was so lost inside his head with thoughts of Jane that he bumped into Rhonda.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He looked at her and almost snapped. He could see in her eyes the little light, the lack of true sympathy. She probably hoped something had happened between him and Jane and that she still had a shot.

He growled in frustration. “I have to leave for a few days.”

“What about Jane?”

That false sympathy again.

“Jane is staying behind with Blake and Mara.”

Rhonda moved to touch his shoulder. He sidestepped it. He couldn’t stand her skin on his right now. He wanted to run back into the den to tell Jane he was sorry he’d been crazy. But there was the small chance without the mating mark, in an enclosed space with her on the full moon, that he wouldn’t be able to control himself.

If he lost control and she expressed the slightest bit of fear toward him, it could end with bloodshed. He swallowed around the lump in his throat as he remembered the vision in detail far more vivid than the painting. He couldn’t be the one to do that to Jane.

If removing himself from the equation was the only way to keep her safe, he’d do it.

***

He stayed far back at first so his suspect wouldn’t see him, tracking him through the demon dimension and back out to the other side into Georgia. The same place Cain said he’d caught a wolf from his pack hunting a human. Golatha Falls was a small town with plenty of forests to hide in. Plenty of game to hunt. Cole quickly caught and fed off a few rabbits so he could more easily control his change.

He followed the other wolf’s trail through the woods. When the smell of blood hit the air, he broke into a run. Ed looked up from his kill, crimson staining his muzzle. The deer lay dead at his feet. He reclaimed his human form.

“What’s wrong?”

Cole shifted as well. “Dammit!”

“What? What is it?”

“I thought you’d been hunting humans. I was trying to catch you in the act.”

Ed looked hurt. “Why me? Have I ever given you any reason to think I’d betray you? Have I ever defied an order?”

Cole quickly recounted the vision to him. “That, combined with the hostile way you’ve been around Jane . . . ”

Ed shook his head. “I’m sorry I gave you reason to doubt me. It’s not that Jane’s a human. It’s the vampire stuff. I thought you were being ruled by your dick and I just . . . It was inexcusable. I’m sorry. I’ll help you hunt.”

Cole nodded and the two black wolves returned to a shape fit for fast tracking. He felt like a clock had been attached to the night, and they were running out of time.

Jane was doubled over, gripping the counter in the den. She felt like she had food poisoning. Mara stood beside her, holding her hand for comfort.

“You’ll be fine. He’ll be back.”

What? This was Cole? Because Cole had left her? She looked up to see shock in Blake’s eyes.

“My God. She really is his mate.”

Mara’s voice went up a register in a sing-song mocking tone. “I thought you said you didn’t believe in that true mate nonsense.”

Blake stared at Jane. “I didn’t. Before.”

The two wolves guided her to the couch.

“Just breathe,” Mara said. “If you don’t panic it won’t hurt.”

Jane concentrated on breathing slowly in through her nose and out through her mouth, counting the breaths. “Why is this happening to me?”

“Your body wants to complete the mating. It’s like a kind of limbo. You slept with him didn’t you?”

She blushed and nodded. Not that they couldn’t smell it on her most likely. She probably smelled more like Cole than herself right now. “If he knew this would happen, why would he leave me like this?”

“Because you’re human,” Blake said. “No one would think something like that would happen with a human. And Cole isn’t exactly as well-versed on the intricacies of mating rituals as Mara is. She’s our resident expert.”

Mara punched him playfully in the arm.

Jane didn’t say anything about the vampire blood. It was a good thing this didn’t happen if a human slept with a werewolf. They wouldn’t survive it.

Mara was talking to her again in that quiet, soothing voice. “It’ll go away if you can stop panicking.”

“Really?” If ever there was a time to learn to calm down, it was now.

“Yes. You’re anxious, and you want your mate. But he’s not quite your mate yet. It’s throwing your body out of whack. If you relax, this will fade.”

But Jane couldn’t relax. She got up and paced the length of the den, a million thoughts swirling through her head. The primary one being: Why did I have sex with him? She’d wanted Cole. She felt safe with him, but now she was essentially married to him because clearly she couldn’t go through life like this.

She turned sharply back to the wolves on the couch. “Will it be like this until he marks me?”

Mara shrugged. “I don’t know. This almost never happens. When a wolf finds his true mate, he doesn’t wait; he doesn’t ask; he just marks and that’s that.”

Jane laughed. She had to be losing her mind to be laughing at a time like this. But Cole had, in fact, marked her. Had he not, she wouldn’t feel like a whole piece of her had been cut out and was moving farther and farther away.

“Why didn’t he mark you?” Mara asked.

“I wanted to wait.”

It had seemed like a good idea at the time, sensible. She’d only met Cole a few weeks ago. Being a wolf’s mate was a big commitment, and it seemed kind of permanent. Her entire life had been about running. Running from her fears, hiding, blending in, hoping for a protector. It had suddenly become important to her to, for once in her life, make a decision that was about what she wanted and not about side benefits like shelter and food and protection.

She hadn’t wanted it to be a transaction.

But things were different with Cole, and she’d known she would let him mark her. And if she didn’t, what was she going to do? Hang around the den and be a nun? Take up with another wolf in the pack? Cole would love that. And anyway, she didn’t want another wolf in the pack. She wanted Cole.

“Jane, it’s getting late. We have to go hunt. We’ll be back as soon as we’ve fed enough to control the change.”

Panic swept through her again, and she gripped the counter. “No! Don’t lock me in here alone like this. Please.”

Mara turned to Blake. “Give her the code. We’ll be gone for an hour, just long enough to hunt and find Cole. Everyone else is out hunting too. She’ll be fine.”

Blake appeared to be debating it, weighing the pros and cons.

“Please,” Jane begged.

He sighed and pulled the paper from his pocket. “Cole will kill me if you get hurt, so please don’t leave the den.”

Jane’s hand closed over the slip of paper, and she nodded. Mara hugged her, even as the fur cropped out over her hands and legs. Then they were gone in a blur.

She waited until she knew they were out of the hive before moving to the door. Her hands shook as she punched in the first code of two written on the paper.

When the door slid open, she walked under the bright fluorescent track lighting for what seemed like forever to the main den. Then she punched in the second code.

The hive felt weird being empty and so quiet. She was used to noise and laughter and game playing in here.

She doubted she could get all the way outside. There would be a different code, but maybe not if she went back through the tunnel to Cole’s den. He had a separate exit.

Jane knew she shouldn’t leave. It was dangerous out there, and she didn’t know how close the wolves were. She wasn’t sure if some of them might have stayed in the city to hunt, despite Cole’s orders. She also didn’t know if she’d run into a vampire.

She’d be fine here. Cole would be back soon. The thought made her heart leap. It had been ridiculous not to let him mark her. Why did she have to be so cynical, and take such a good thing and turn it into something bad? All the suffering she’d gone through for the vampire blood in her veins, and now because of it, she was Cole’s mate. She’d finally found a place where she fit, and she wouldn’t have to become a vampire to be safe from them.