Come Moonrise (3 page)

His father's admonitions had not been
necessary for Ty. After he had witnessed the grisly results of a
werewolf breaking the pack law about mating for life as a cub, he'd
never considered mating human anyway.

"Maybe I should have taken the job you
offered at that. Living in the city hasn’t accomplished what I
wanted it to." There was another layer to Frankie's words, his wolf
senses said so, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

"Leah moved to Billings." Ty was glad his
brother hadn’t come into the house as his mom’s words settled in
the air between them.

Frankie reached down and squeezed his mom’s
hand. "I heard she left. I’m not carrying tales if I mention
neither Uncle Ben nor Aunt Rose know what Marigold did to send her
away."

"But they know their daughter was involved,"
Ty said.

"I guess it’s kind of hard to miss how Duke
cuts her now."

"She played one of her selfish, all-about-me
games." Ty frowned. "Both Leah and Duke got hurt because of it, but
in some ways, I think it was better in the long run."

His mother glared at him. "Not all human
females are like your grandmother McCanlup."

He sensed that if she could have gotten into
his head to yell at him some more without being overheard, she
would have. He didn't understand why, but his mother and father did
not agree on this issue of out-of-kind mating.

But she couldn't yell at him that way. The
only one in the family who shared the telepathic link with him was
his brother.

Duke and their father shared a bond too. It
was even stronger than Ty’s was with Duke. He had to be close to
his brother to reach or to hear him, but Duke and their dad could
be a mile apart and hear each other.

"Let’s not get into this right now,
Carolyn." His dad had come into the room and towered over his mom
in a protective stance. "You know what they say..."

He guessed his dad finished the saying about
werewolves mating with humans in his mom’s head because she glared.
She’d liked Leah. A lot.

"They say men aren’t good for anything but
shoveling horse manure and breeding babies too, but I don’t buy
that either."

"Um...I didn’t mean to cause a family
fight." Frankie had peeled off her outer layer while they’d been
arguing and her soft brown hair crackled around her head from
static after taking off her stocking cap.

It was silky fine and she wore it longer
than you’d expect a tomboy like her to keep it. It brushed her
bottom seductively when she walked, something he’d started noticing
when she was about fifteen....and had spent the last eleven years
trying to forget or ignore.

The rest of her was something of a surprise
too. She was wearing her usual jeans, but they had little red
rhinestone roses on the pockets and down one leg. They hugged her
hips instead of her waist like her old Levi’s and a narrow band of
pale skin showed above the waistband when she reached up to finger
comb her long hair.

The soft red sweater clung to her curves so
lovingly it didn’t take his wolf eyesight to see the evidence that
she was either still cold or someone was having a profound affect
on her libido. He could smell her stirring arousal and guessed it
was the second. Since he knew she didn’t have a thing for older men
or women, he figured that someone was him.

The wolf in him sat up and howled and he had
to clamp his jaw tight to stop from snarling his need. He had to
get away from her soon, or all of his plans were going to go up in
smoke from the bonfire of his own stupidity.

"Frankie, it’s been a long time."

Ty’s head snapped around at the sound of the
other werewolf’s voice. Kurt Garrick was lounging in the doorway
like he had every right to be there, his mouth crooked in a half
smile, his eyes dark with interest as they rested on Frankie.

A low level growl rumbled in Ty’s throat.
Too quiet for her human ears to hear, it nevertheless brought a
frown of surprise over the other wolf’s features.

"Kurt! I didn’t expect to see you here."
Frankie’s obvious delight in his presence irritated Ty more than
Kurt’s intrusion.

"Same here, gorgeous."

She smiled at that, her cheeks turning a
delicate pink that made Ty want to do more than growl.

She crossed the room in less time than it
took him to figure out how to get rid of the other wolf and threw
her arms around Kurt in a hug. He hugged her back, the scent of his
instant arousal hitting Ty like a kick in the gut.

She kissed Kurt’s cheek and the damn
werewolf kissed her back, his lips coming perilously close to hers.
Ty growled again, this time loud enough to get his best friend’s
attention as well as the wolf sniffing her.

She stepped back from Kurt, a look of
concern on her face. "Something wrong, Ty?"

"Just wondering when I’d get my hug."

He could forgive her the look of surprise
that crossed her features because the last time he’d accepted one
of her hugs gracefully, she’d been fifteen years old. He’d
withdrawn from her physically from the time he got his first
hard-on at her touch. So as not to hurt her feelings, he made it
clear he didn’t like hugging anyone.

However, he’d be damned if she was going to
touch the other wolf and leave him standing around like some
sixteenth century wallflower in the King’s Court. The knowledge
that his wolf was more in control right now than his human only
registered vaguely as he reached out and pulled her into full body
contact.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and
pressed her breasts against him like they belonged nowhere else.
She sighed against his neck, the fluttery sound an obvious one of
pleasure.

She hadn’t done that with Kurt and he would
have smiled if he wasn’t having such a hard time not stripping her
clothes off to mate with her. He’d wanted her for years, but she
was in heat and this close the change that was like kerosene on the
fire of his libido.

She went to kiss his cheek,
but he turned his head and their lips met for the first time. Hers
were soft and opened around a surprised
oh
. He tasted cinnamon, sweetness and
a special flavor he could easily get addicted to.
Frankie
.

Oh, hell. He was losing it. No wonder humans
kissed on the lips. It was the sweetest sensation he’d ever known.
Werewolves avoided physical intimacies until they were ready to
mate. It prevented them from taking an irrevocable step based on
pure physical need...usually.

Unlike humans...who experimented in ways
he’d never comprehended. But then, they could move on when and if
they wanted to.

That cold reminder brought his lips tearing
from hers and he thrust her from him a lot less gently than he
wanted to.

Her eyes snapped open, mirroring more hurt
at this rejection and he wanted to fix it, but he couldn’t. So he
turned away.

His mom looked too damn smug and his dad
looked angry and worried. Kurt...hell, he looked like a wolf on the
verge of issuing a challenge.

"I thought you were sniffing around Olivia."
Kurt’s voice came out a rumble just a hare shy of a growl.

A soft sound from behind him said that
Frankie had heard every word. Ty couldn’t fix that either. It was
truth. Damn it hell, how had things gotten so complicated so
fast?

"I thought you were down in the barn with
Duke," he said to Kurt with pointed emphasis.

"I saw Flash and knew Frankie was up at the
house." He smiled at her, his teeth showing like the predator he
was. "I wanted to say hi."

More like he’d scented Frankie’s pheromones
on her horse’s saddle and had followed the scent like the wolf
close to the change that he was.

"I’m glad." She was probably giving Kurt
that sweet smile that always pricked Ty’s heart.

He gritted his teeth.

Kurt smiled back, confirming his guess. "Me
too."

"Well, you need to get back to the barn," Ty
said, sounding meaner than he had in a long time.

Kurt’s eyes narrowed, his body shifting
subtly into a stance that said he was ready to meet Ty’s
aggression. "Is that right?"

Ty glared, straightening to his full
six-feet-three-inches and flexing his hands with intent.

Kurt’s eyes flared and then narrowed as if
he was deciding whether or not Frankie was worth the challenge.

"That’s right." This time it was his dad
speaking and his voice brooked no opposition.

Kurt stiffened, but then he nodded, his
expression one of grudging acceptance. "I take it the word is to
stay in the barn for the time being?"

"Right." King McCanlup had been pack leader
since his father’s death and kept the role with a strength of will
that even his sons rarely challenged in any serious way.

The last time had been when Duke had
insisted on taking a human mate. King had been furious, but Duke
had refused to back down and look what had happened.

Leah had walked away like any human
could.

Kurt left and Ty realized he’d better make
tracks too, or he was going to end up just as bad off as his
brother.

He turned back to face Frankie and just
seeing her was enough to erode one more level of his
self-control.

He figured he needed to get off the ranch
completely. It also wouldn’t hurt to see Olivia right now.
According to his calculations, she should be in heat too. Exposing
his wolf to her should counteract the effects of Frankie’s
pheromones on him.

"I uh...I’ll just leave you here visiting
with Mom while I go check on the Delacroix’s mare. She’s ready to
foal, but it’s her first time and they’re worried."

Frankie’s eyes lit up and he could have
kicked himself.

"I’d love to come with you. It’s been so
long since I tended a pregnant horse."

"That’s not a good idea."

"Sure it is. Frankie will enjoy meeting
Olivia and her parents. They moved to town since your last visit,"
his mom said, smiling at Frankie just as if she hadn’t screwed him
over with an electric Phillips.

"The French Canadian family?"

"You’ve heard about them?"

Frankie’s face closed up, the joy that had
been there seconds before now absent. "Yes. I’d like to go with
you." She didn’t sound anticipatory anymore so much as stubbornly
resigned.

"Ty can drop you by home afterward."

He groaned inwardly at his dad’s subtle
reminder. They had to get her off the Rocking M and the sooner the
better.

***

Frankie sat beside Ty in the pick-up cab and
wondered how wise it had been to insist on coming with him to visit
the horse.

She’d meet the competition and that should
be a good thing, but her heart shied away from being forced to
witness his attraction to another woman. Then again, that was
probably exactly what she needed. Time had done nothing to blunt
her love for the man; maybe watching him fawn over some other woman
would destroy it.

Or at least convince her finally of the
hopelessness of the feeling and she could move on.

But why the heck had he acted all
territorial about her when Kurt came up to the house? And that
kiss...it had been so good, but then he’d shoved her away like he’d
gotten a whiff of three day old garbage. What was that all
about?

Tyler McCanlup had been confusing her for
more years than she wanted to deal with. It was time to excise him
from her heart and move to Washington state or seduce him until she
was as deeply embedded in his as he was in hers.

One way or another, she was going forward
with her life.

The Delacroix’s ranch was a lot like Uncle
Ben’s. Not tiny, but certainly not on the same scale as the Rocking
M either.

"So, this is a working ranch?" she asked as
they walked toward the barn.

"They run a few cattle, but Olivia and her
dad train horses mostly."

"What about her mom?"

"She’s a teacher in town."

"What grade does she teach?"

"I don’t know."

"Is Olivia the only child?"

If he noticed the conversation had turned
into more of an inquisition, he didn’t let on.

"She is now."

"What does that mean?"

"She had a little brother. He’s gone."

"That’s hard." She knew first hand how much
it hurt to lose a close family member.

"Yes it is. They moved here to get away from
the memories."

"I hope it works for them." Moving had done
nothing to ease her memories - not in helping her forget her
parents and not in helping her forget Ty.

"Me too." The way he said it made it sound
like he was emotionally invested, or was that her reading stuff
into his voice?

Life had been so much easier when she was
busy sublimating her love for Ty.

As they reached the barn, a beautiful woman
walked out. With long, curling dark hair, almond shaped eyes the
deep color of a purple pansy and a figure that could have rivaled
Marilyn Monroe. Even with her wearing jeans and ropers, Frankie had
no problem seeing why Ty was interested.

"
Allo
, Tyler. Who is this?" She spoke
with a slight French accent and smiled pleasantly at
Frankie.

"My best friend, Frankie Random. We grew up
roping cows and researching animal diseases together." He couldn’t
have made her role in his life clearer.

She was just another guy as far as he was
concerned. Which is what he had said the one time she’d tried to
take their friendship into the realm of male-female relationships.
That he saw her as one of the guys.

It had devastated her enough to keep her
libido in check around him after that, but she’d enjoyed his
friendship too much to give it up. Now...well, now - she had no
choice. Not if she wanted a full life.

"Frankie, meet Olivia. Horses find her every
bit as irresistible as the men around here."