Desert Wolf (15 page)

Had they not talked before? What part of running didn’t he understand? The longer he stared at her, however, the more her resistance wavered. What was she fighting precisely? His lack of interest in playing? His need to open up to her?

The fact that he stood there all gorgeous and virile and their clothes were miles away? He didn’t wait for her to answer, instead he strode into the woods and returned with fallen branches, and debris. It took her a moment to recognize he planned to build a fire.

Why couldn’t he leave her alone to enjoy her run? Even if she darted away, he’d be there, pursuing her and keeping her safe. A distant part of her mind acknowledged his actions, and yet she couldn’t help but resent them. All she wanted was to be…

Like a lightning bolt, it hit her. She staggered as she stared at Cassius and her heart broke in the same moment. He paused in the middle of stacking the wood and studied her. “You’re safe, Sovvan. I have a grip on what happened. Trust me.”

She did. She’d said as much earlier, but the reminder nudged at her and she released her wolf. The rush to human proved even more bracing. “Oh my God, it’s cold,” she growled and folded her arms over her breasts. Her nipples pebbled, as did the rest of her body as shivers raced over her.

Smoke rose from the fire he’d built before flames licked at the wood and he curled his hand in invitation. “Come, it’ll be warmer here.” He’d set the wood up against a broad stone, and it took her a moment to realize it formed a depression at the edge of the water. So while the breeze crossing the lake was still cool, it didn’t wash over them from behind and the stone reflected the heat of the fire.

“I stand by my earlier assessment,” she panted, her breath puffing in little white clouds in the cold air. “You’re a little bit of crazy.”

“So I’ve been told.” He took a seat on the earth, uncaring of his nudity, and she settled between him and the rock. It would make him happier to be on the outside and frankly, she didn’t think it worth the point to argue where she sat if it were warm and at least semi-comfortable. “You reflected me.”

“Yeah, I didn’t realize I was even doing it…I thought it would be far more intense.” The admission cost her nothing. “But it was only the surface. It was you, not your wolf, not the Alpha.” Seriously, she should have remembered the key difference.

“Tell me.”

“I’m freezing my ass off, and you wanted me to shift to tell you about you?” Considering she hadn’t quite sorted the whole experience out, he was asking for a lot.

“I worried, pushing it this soon and out here. But you’re adorable, wolf.”

“So it’s all my fault?”

He chuckled, the sound rusty and ill-used, like he didn’t do it near often enough. “I wouldn’t say it’s your fault, just…you are who you are.”

Two could play at that game. “So are you.”

“True.” Looking at her sideways, he seemed younger and less driven. The firelight seemed to erase some of the sternness from his features or maybe it simply blunted them. “What did you feel when you reflected me?”

“It wasn’t a true reflection, like I said. It was mostly all surface.”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about.” He held his palms toward the fire and she extended her own. The contrasts between them were so many. Physically, they were wildly different. His golden sun-bronzed skin with his tattoos, close-cropped blond hair, and rugged masculine appeal. She was dark, softer, and didn’t sport any tattoos or ruggedness, though admittedly she had a few scars.

He was battle.

She preferred peace.

Brutal and blunt seemed to be his methods.

Diplomacy and teasing solved most of her issues.

“I’m not worried.” She lied, though she wanted to believe it were truth. “You didn’t want to be Alpha, and you didn’t want to be bothered by anyone. If you could abandon them all and know they would be fine, you’d be gone tomorrow.”

His stillness at the accusation didn’t silence her.

“Or maybe you would have, once upon a time. I wanted to play, I wanted a connection, and you were refusing it…I think because you don’t know how. You don’t know how to reach beyond the barricades and the walls you’ve erected. Like in Summit, you’re a part of the town, but not. You keep your distance, even from those you’d like to call friend. In fact, I think you’re harder on them than you would be on a stranger, because you don’t want anyone to be used against you as a weapon.”

“That’s life.”

“That’s
sad
.” She refused to believe he accepted the fate. “If you thought that, if you really thought that was your life, you wouldn’t be trying to change it.”

“So, caring is my weakness? That’s my flaw?” She couldn’t tell whether the information troubled him or not.

“No, and that’s not how it works. I told you it was a surface reflection. I wanted you to play with me, but I didn’t want your scent all over me.” The images flickered through her mind, a catalogue of the experience. “It felt like you wanted to control me, and I didn’t want to be controlled. I didn’t want any influence over me, but you wouldn’t do things that I wanted to do. So I went my own way…your weakness isn’t your ability to care, Cassius.” No one should ever think that about themselves. “Caring is vital to every existence—human, wolf, animal—if we didn’t care, imagine the harm we could do.” Considering the harm they as a species managed to wreak when they did care, she couldn’t or better, wouldn’t, court the alternative.

Confusion stamped his features, and he seemed so utterly human in that moment. Beautiful, open and receptive. “Then what is it?”

He didn’t shy away from the question or refuse to face what terrified so many. Omegas faced a lot of blowback—not for seeing into the soul of those around them, but for showing them their soul. “You tell me. What did you see?”

Scratching his jaw, he added another bit of wood to the fire. The combination of the water lapping against the shore, the crackle of the flames licking over the wood lulled her even with the cold air. Hugging her knees to her chest, she studied her companion.

“You took off,” he said finally. “You didn’t like what I was doing, so you raced down the hill then through the woods. Again when I caught up to you, you raced away. Does that make me a coward?” The level of disgust in his tone and the troubled gleam in his eyes moved her.

Changing positions, she rolled to sit on her knees then cupped his face in her palms. He didn’t jerk away, but his gaze focused on hers and trapped her. The golden wolf’s eyes flared, and she experienced the weight of man and beast regarding her. “Not a coward, never that. I don’t need to be who and what I am to answer that question, Cassius. When you don’t get what you want, you look for another way to find it or you shift direction entirely. The flaw in that is you don’t wait, you don’t use patience to your advantage. So if anything…impatience is your flaw.”

His stubble prickled her palms, but he didn’t pull away from her touch and she didn’t want to release him. The nearness inflamed her senses, but her wolf quieted and she remained herself. Maybe she hadn’t recognized the flash of reflection earlier, it wasn’t the same as she cradled his face. When his gaze dipped to her mouth, she smiled.

No, she didn’t need her gift to understand where his thoughts went either. Hers had already traveled there.

“Impatience, you say,” he murmured, then his broad hand cupped her chin and her heart hammered at the contact. The callouses on his fingers were rough against her flesh, yet welcome in the same moment. “I’m very much willing to fight for what I want.”

“I believe you.” She moistened her lips. “Are you ever willing to wait for it?”

His eyebrows raised. He narrowed the distance between them and whispered, “Not really.” Then his mouth closed over hers.

S
eduction wasn’t
the goal of the ride. Helping the Omega escape and stretch her legs had been his primary mission. If he were lucky, maybe he could spend a little time getting to know her away from the wolves arriving in Summit. Across his territory, the wolves were on the move. The countdown to the Reaping thumped with every beat of their hearts. Juan Garcia had vanished. Johnny Blaze had been tasked with finding him, and Cassius gave him enough rope to hang himself by choosing his own assist—he’d taken Laurel with him.

Laurel Jacobs’ loyalty wasn’t in question, yet all Cassius could provide her with was a tacit warning to watch her back, a fact she had to know. Trask, himself, left earlier in the day to head to Horseshoe. Claire was on her way and would be in Summit by the end of the weekend.

Her arrival meant the next stage of his plan could kick into gear. He’d share blood with Sovvan and, if they didn’t kill each other, he’d use her to track the worst parts of his pack—find them and eliminate them. Then she’d held onto him and laughed while they rode the bike, her simple joy a balm to his parched soul. More, she had tried to play with him, but he’d scented the difference in her from the moment he’d begun petting her.

The little wolf was fast and sly. She’d narrowly avoided his pursuit through the woods a half-dozen times, yet he didn’t think she realized he was pursuing her. What had begun as an academic exercise so he could understand her better, turned into something far more visceral. She’d run.

He’d chased.

Kissing her, he violated every ideal and plan he had. The smoothness of her lips beneath his beckoned him for more and, when he teased his tongue along the seam of her lips, she opened to him beautifully. Sovvan didn’t kiss passively. No, she gripped him and met him stroke for stroke.

His awareness of her had been a slow burn against his senses, a chemical chain reaction he’d been trying to ignore for the last four days. Kissing her, he had no idea why he fought against the very natural reaction. Her nipples brushed his chest and he slid an arm around her and pulled her to him. Skin on skin, electricity sizzled over his flesh and the wolf inside him clawed hard as he bit down her lower lip.

Blood welled scarlet against her soft brown skin and he lapped at it. The heat imploded and the world went white, then dark and a cascade of stars burst. Oxygen whooshed out of him and his grip on her tightened as she arched her head. The bare column of her throat offered a violent invitation. His wolf rubbed against the inside of his skin, desperate to mark her.

She was in their territory, vulnerable, and theirs for the taking. Leashing the beast, he fought to keep from going for her throat. In years past, he would have gladly taken what he wanted from a willing woman. Yet no matter how willing, warm, and fucking sensual she was in his arms…

“Sovvan,” he growled her name, forcing command into his voice. He needed her attention. Goddammit, he’d blooded her. Dizzy from the single taste he’d taken, he starved for more. Spreading his hand against the silky softness of her back, he tried to keep his wolf in check.

“What?” Her answering growl stoked his wolf and, if were totally honest, the man. She was so unlike all the other women he knew—most were mothers or sisters torn between fearing him and wanting to chastise him while others wanted to seduce him to their way of thinking or to earn some semblance of social rank. Everyone wanted something from him, demanded, begged, or tried to steal.

Not Sovvan. She came to him because he asked, she offered him everything and he had no right to take more. “I should apologize,” he whispered against her cheek, aware of the heat of her sex hovering so close to his cock. He’d pulled her into his lap and she straddled him, yet maintained her distance.

“For kissing me?” Suddenly her hand was in his hair and she had a fistful of it. The jerk caught him by surprise. She pulled his head back and rose on her knees, the angle giving her the advantage of height. “Let me be perfectly blunt with you, Cassius. If you apologize to me for kissing me or for putting your hands on this body when I’m the one climbing you like a pole, I’ll take it as insult and claw your face. Clear?”

Amusement curled through him. She was nowhere near as violent as she pretended, yet he believed her conviction. “My intention wasn’t to bring you here and fuck you, Sovvan.”

“Good, it wasn’t my intention either…not that you haven’t been parading around in front of me and showing off your virility.” For a split-second he wasn’t sure whether she was serious or teasing him. Her golden eyes were those of her wolf. While she might be a delicate creature, she possessed a ferocity to match his own.

Gliding his hand down her spine, he followed the curve of her ass. He wanted to memorize every glorious inch of her. His wolf refused to retreat or back away from the growing hunger they shared for the beautiful wolf in their arms. If only she weren’t the Omega…or belonged to Delta Crescent…if only he didn’t have to think of
if onlys.

His wolf never paid attention to his lovers. They scratched an itch, filled a need and then he and his beast moved on. Sovvan wouldn’t be so easy, yet when he cupped her ass, she eased down until she sat against his thighs. The blood pounded into his cock at her nearness. All he had to do was slide her forward and arch upward.

Easing her grip on his hair, she stroked her nails against his scalp. “What was your intention?”

It took him a moment to register her question then he frowned. Oh, she wanted to know what he’d brought her there for. “I don’t know. I wanted…to get to know you better. To understand you. I appreciate what an Omega can do, but I don’t understand it fully.” He offered her a vulnerability. “This place…this place is special to me. It’s the first place I ever felt free. Where I thought the future held possibilities rather than bloodshed. It’s kind of a Pandora’s Box.” Showing it to her, it revealed a piece of the puzzle he’d been unwilling to show any others. No one in his pack knew.

“So, this is a secret you’re sharing with me? A personal one?” Gentleness eased her growl, and tingles spread over him when she traced her fingers along the lines of his tattoo.

“Yes.” It was already shared, so no sense in shying away from it.

She looped her arms around his neck. Having her so close to his throat should have bothered him, but it didn’t. The fire crackled merrily next to him, and he was barely aware of the cold. Heat suffused him from head to toe, and where she touched him, his skin seemed scorched. “Then I should give you a secret in return.”

“It’s not a barter.”

“No,” she said, a slow smile curving her beautiful mouth. His gaze fixed on the tiny mark on her lower lip where his teeth pierced her. “But you shared something meaningful with me, so I want to do the same. An Omega can be a partner, a strong one…and the thing I had been afraid of before, what worried me, was whether I could help you and still stay distant from your pack. I don’t think that’s possible.”

If he took her from Delta Crescent, Serafina would come for his head. So why the hell did he tighten his grip on Sovvan. Tugging her forward, he endured the exquisite tease of her arousal against his thigh and the nearness of her sex to his stone, hard cock. “How is that a personal secret?”

“Because I’m loyal to Serafina. She is more than my Alpha. She is my friend, but you are a temptation I want to enjoy and explore…more than I can express, and it has nothing to do with her, Sutter Butte or your request.”

“Really?” A smugness unfolded within him. The richness of her arousal perfumed the night air around them. “Are you asking me to be your lover, Sovvan?”

“No.” She tilted her head, and the silky fall of her dark hair stroked over her breasts. He wanted to mirror the action. Giving into the temptation, he cupped one and she caught her breath. The hitch encouraged him, so he stroked one thumb over her peaked nipple. “I want a time out.”

He paused, and glanced from her beautiful deep, dusky nipples to the golden eyes gazing at him expectantly. “A what?”

“A time out. We’re in your Pandora’s Box, aren’t we?”

Cassius turned her question over, looking for the trap. When he didn’t find one immediately, he nodded. “Yes, my land. My hopes and dreams.”

“Then here, in your box…you are not Cassius, Alpha of Sutter Butte, and I am not Sovvan, Omega of Delta Crescent.”

Impossible.
“No?”

“No.” Leaning into him, she nuzzled his chin. The warmth of her breath had his eyes closing as she traced the line of his jaw. With the lightest graze of her teeth against his ear, she went toward his throat, and his hand locked on the back of her neck. “Cassius,” she whispered against his skin. “I trust you. I am in your arms and willing to be your lover here. I want you to be mine. Now trust me.”

At his throat? His fingers stiffened, but he didn’t increase the pressure of his grip. If he did, he’d risk breaking her neck, and he didn’t want to hurt her. “You’re asking me for a lot.” His wolf surprised him, because the beast didn’t reject her offer or her. It went quiet, and let him sort it out.

Easing back, she pressed against his hand and he let her retreat, but he kept her flush to his body. His craving throbbed with every pump of his heart. Pleasuring her could be a worthy goal. Sleepy eyes regarded him, her lids half-lowered, but she didn’t retreat behind an emotionless mask, and she didn’t wring out a few tears for his sympathy. “Here, the only thing we have to offer each other is ourselves. What happens between us will not change anything, I will still do everything I can to help your pack and help you achieve your goals. So if you don’t want to be my lover, it is all right to say no.”

The twist and turn of putting her in the seat of offering the proposition and he in the place of accepting or rejecting confused him. “I’ve never met a woman like you.” In his world, if he wanted it, he took it. If he wanted to keep it, he’d fight for it.

So what did it mean that he was almost afraid to take what she offered, yet ready to kill anyone who tried to take her away?

“Fair.” She pressed her breast into his hand and he cupped the weight, massaging her until she let out a low groan. The sound seemed a sweet music. She trailed her nails down his chest and when she wrapped a warm hand around his cock, he hissed out a breath. “So you will trust my hand here, but not my mouth at your throat?”

Challenge dripped off every word. He answered her with a wordless kiss, nuzzling her beautiful lips until she gasped, and he could thrust his tongue in even as he thrust his cock against her hand. The combination of caresses ignited his need, and he slid his hand beneath her until his finger parted the seam of her labia.

Her soaked sex welcomed him, and his desire flooded him. “I want you,” he said against her mouth. “Now.”
To hell with consequences.
For decades, he’d focused on his pack and fought for their souls, even as he carved away his own.

“Then have me,” she whispered and, with her permission, he slipped his leash.

Bracing his weight on his legs, he dragged her to him and licked his way across her lips. When her tongue thrust against his mouth, he sucked on it and eased a finger inside of her. Hot, slick, and tight, she squeezed against his invasion. Awareness of her, from her scent to her respiration to the low sounds rumbling in her throat, fueled his beast and he nuzzled a path to her ear. “I plan to have you many ways tonight, pretty little wolf. Until the sun rises, you’re mine.”

“Yes,” she exhaled the word, and he rolled forward to his knees. The area he’d made for their campfire was soft earth with hints of grass but no stones. If only he had a blanket or some semblance of civilization to offer her, but all he had was himself. Laying her against the pale land, he admired her exquisite beauty. The firelight gleamed against her skin, a sinful caress meant only for him and he closed a hand over her throat before he bit her and nuzzled a path to her breasts instead.

Her sharp intake as his lips on her nipple inspired him. He sucked the turgid flesh then laved it with his tongue. Her nails bit into his back and he growled at the sting. Kissing a path to her neglected breast, he teased the nipple until she writhed. Pinching it tight, he lifted his head so he could watch the blood drain away then he released it and her sharp cry fed his hungry, parched soul.

“Do you like a little pain with your pleasure?” He wanted to know. He’d never be a submissive in bed. When he took a woman, she was his to play with and his to enjoy, but he loved to pleasure them and, with Sovvan, he wanted to give her everything she’d never experienced.

“Apparently,” she said, her voice dropping a half-octave to a huskier note. Nipping her tortured breast, he let her feel his teeth, and she raised her hips. Easing his hand between her thighs, he spread her labia apart. She had such a soft pussy, the fine pelt of pubic fur an invitation for him to stroke and pet. He teased the curls, then traced a path around her clit.

Lightly squeezing her throat, he raised himself and said, “Stay where I put you. Do you understand?”

Her eyes were hooded, but her sensual smile tormented him. “I understand, and I yield to you Cassius. I will be a good little wolf if you promise to fuck me.”

A chuckle worked its way loose, and he released her throat to trace his finger over her full lips. “You surrender your power to get what you want and only take it if I give it to you?”

“Hmmm.” She stretched, extending her arms and letting her breasts rise as she lifted her hips in invitation. Her knees stayed angled wide, denying him nothing. The unobstructed view of her pussy spread before him beneath his hand, a delicious treat he planned to plunder and enjoy. “Here,” she whispered, reminding him. “I’m yours, remember?”

The implicit surrender in the statement was all he needed. Cupping her ass, he lifted her as he bent forward and then locked his mouth over her clit. Brutal, and unrelenting he teased the swollen bud. She pounded her hands against the earth, her shocked pants coming in explosive gasps. Her thighs tensed as he hooked her knees over his shoulders, then he glided his tongue from apex to clit and back again. With every stroke, he thrust into her and lapped at her cream.