Fire Wolf: CINAED (New Scotia Pack Book 3) (5 page)

“We in a hurry?”

“You know what they say. Burnin’ moonlight. I like it when ye wear skirts.”

She let out a raspy laugh. “I know you do, lover.”

He let her push his pants down to his knees before he pulled her skirt up around her waist and took her against the wall without foreplay. Foreplay was wasted on females like Scarlet. They wanted to go straight to the show.

Ken’s pelvis needed no direction. It went to work as if it had a mind of its own, thrusting in and out. When he closed his eyes, he imagined it was Starfire and damn if he didn’t come right away.

“Sorry,” he said as he pulled away and fastened his pants.

“S’okay.” She shrugged. “It happens.”

When he turned around, Starfire was standing about eight feet away just staring. He could tell by the look on her face that she’d been there the whole time.

Scarlet looked around him to see what had frozen him in place.

“Oh. Hey sweetie. Did you want some of this?” she asked, meaning Cinaed. “Don’t worry. Give him a few minutes and he’ll be up for it. I just got him warmed up for you.” She looked up at Ken as she straightened her skirt. “Later, lover.”

Scarlet left Ken and Starfire standing there staring at each other.

“Is that what you want?” she asked so quietly he almost didn’t hear.

“If so, ‘tis none of yer concern.”

“What is my concern is what happened between us.”

“Nothin’ happened between us. There is no us.”

“There could have been. Maybe. When I first saw you… I know you saw something you liked. Don’t try to deny it because I wouldn’t believe you.”

Ken shoved his hands in his pants pockets and sighed deeply. “’Tis nothin’ to do with you in particular. I simply will no’ start somethin’ with family even if ‘tis family by marriage.”

“I see,” she said slowly. “That’s the whole of it?”

“Aye. ‘Tis the whole of it.”

“Do you have a reason for this policy or is it simply some dunderhead notion?”

Ken screwed his mouth up. “There’s no call to be insultin’.”

“Right.”

“’
Tis no’ a dunderhead notion.”

“Seems so from my point of view.”

“Your point of view is no’ the one that counts, is it?”

“Apparently not.”

“Look here, lass. If I were to begin courtin’ you proper and it did no’ work out, things would always be awkward. Our families get together from time to time. ‘Twould no’ be good to introduce bad feelin’.”

“At least you’ve thought it through.”

“Aye. I have.”

“Would you like to come watch me rutting about with some of the lacrosse players? They have fine muscular glutes that could probably piston for hours.”

Ken had to admit that he didn’t like the image that conjured. The idea of lacrosse players, or any players, mounting Starfire made his fists tighten and his jaw clench. He didn’t know why. He certainly was not the jealous type.

“Do what you want.”

He walked past her and kept going without looking back, but he caught a whiff of her scent as he went by and wondered if her nearness was what made him come so fast with Scarlet.

He wanted to turn around and ask if she’d like to go for a walk by the river. He wanted to tell her not to let any of the moon-crazed wolves touch her. But he didn’t. He kept walking.

CHAPTER FOUR

Cloud was concerned about Starfire. Ever since returning from the Gathering she’d been uncharacteristically despondent and three months was a long time to have the blues. Star had declined to attend any Gatherings after the first and that too was troubling because people her age typically couldn’t wait for the next festival.

When her chores were finished for the day, Cloud noticed Star sitting alone on the porch and thought it might be a good time for a talk. She took her sheepskin coat from the hook and pulled it on because it was the coldest part of winter.

Star looked up when Cloud pulled the door closed behind her and asked, “Whatcha doin’?”

Star responded with a ghost of a smile. “Nothing. Sitting.”

“Come go for a walk with me.”

Star didn’t respond with enthusiasm, but Cloud hadn’t expected that. She didn’t reply verbally, but joined Cloud as she stepped off the porch and began walking.

“You know,” Cloud began, “I’ll always be a sympathetic ear for you. I’ve noticed you don’t seem happy. Are you missing home?”

Star looked surprised. “Home?” She shook her head. “No. Not at all.” She waved her hand to indicate her surroundings. “This is so much better. For one thing there are no mountain lions to worry about.”

Cloud’s brow came together at the mention of big cats. Starfire’s parents had been killed by one. They’d been off together on a second honeymoon holiday in a remote location in northern Arizona. A hunter had been amazed to see two wolves locked in battle with a cougar through a long range rifle scope, though he never told that story to anyone. When he fired he’d wounded the cat and sent it running away.

By the time he reached the scene, there were two bodies. Only they weren’t wolves. They were human. A man and a woman with no clothes, a fact that was beyond bizarre in and of itself, if for no other reason than that the rugged terrain would tear up tender human feet. He concluded that his mind had played a hallucinatory trick on him and wondered if it had anything to do with his brief experimentation with mind-bending drugs in college.

The couple had been identified as guests at a nearby cabin where their phones and ID were found.

Starfire was their only child. Even though she was in her early twenties, she still lived at home. Shifters often lived with families or packs until mated, having too great a need for social interaction to be completely alone.

NightCloud had insisted that Star come to live with them at Elk Mountain. Having lost her parents, she wasn’t eager to also leave her home and tribe in British Colombia. But Cloud was both persistent and persuasive. For the most part it had worked out for the best. At least it seemed so until recently.

“No. We don’t have that to worry about. But something is bothering you. Are you missing your parents?”

Star’s reference to feline predators made her aunt think perhaps she was feeling despondent over being orphaned.

“Always,” was all she said in reply.

They walked in silence for a while. Cloud decided not to press, but to allow Star control over what might be shared.

“Were you in love with Windwalker when you mated?”

That was the last thing Cloud had expected to be asked and the surprise of it made her laugh out loud.

“Oh, yes. Helplessly. Hopelessly. Head over heels.”

Star smiled. “Really?”

“Oh, yes.” She looked over at Starfire and grinned. “Still am. In love that is.”

“That’s nice.” Starfire wasn’t being insincere, but she sounded as if her thoughts were miles away.

They walked on and came to the place where the river widened and was as calm as a lake. Cloud stopped, picked up a pebble and threw it underhanded with such skill that it skipped three times before sinking.

Star laughed. “Where did you learn to do that?”

“Older brothers.”

“Can you teach me?”

“Sure. Anybody can do it.”

Cloud looked around for another pebble of a certain size, shape and weight, demonstrated the art of stone skipping and encouraged Star to try. After half an hour, Star was getting frustrated.

“Takes practice,” said Cloud, shrugging. “Like most things worth doing.” She glanced at Star. “But not love. Love doesn’t take practice. Relationships take work. And practice. But not love. You either love somebody or you don’t.”

Star nodded.

“Was there something more you wanted to say about that?”

Star shook her head. “No, but thank you for listening. And for the stone skipping lesson.”

“Anytime. We should get back. Gets dark early this time of year and I’m making your favorite for dinner.”

Star brightened. “Bread pudding?”

Cloud’s face fell. “No. Venison and dumplings.”

Star laughed. “Gotcha. I was just kidding. I don’t even like bread pudding. But I love venison and dumplings.”

Cloud put her arm around Star’s shoulders for a brief squeeze as they started back.

Halfway to the settlement, Star said, “When did you know you loved Win? I mean, how long after you met him?”

Cloud sighed and looked off to the horizon on her left. “He came to Clapton Quick with his father to talk to my uncle, who was king. My family also lived in the king’s house. I was running from the kitchen past the front door when I saw Win standing there waiting. I had a tart in my hand that I’d stolen from one of my brothers and he was chasing me.”

“I locked eyes with Win and was stopped in my tracks. My brother took the tart out of my hand and shoved the whole thing in his mouth grinning.” Starfire chuckled. “You’re not going to believe what Win said to me.”

“What?” Star was clearly into the story, which delighted Cloud a little.

“He said, ‘Come home with me and I’ll make sure that no one ever steals from you again.’

“I just stared at him, thinking he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, trying to sort through what he’d said. Meanwhile, my brother was laughing with a mouthful of tart. He said, ‘She’s the one who stole it from
me
!’

“Win didn’t look at my brother, but smiled at me in a way that made my knees weak. Then he said, ‘Come home with me and I’ll make sure you get to keep whatever you steal.’

“My mind probably wasn’t working correctly, being flooded with mating chemicals and all. But I said, ‘Okay.’

“When Stalkson Grey and my uncle ended their meeting an hour later, Win said, ‘Dad. Meet NightCloud. She’s coming home with us. Going to be your daughter-in-law.’

“My uncle looked at me sharply. ‘This what you want, Cloud?’ he said.

“All I could do was nod.”

Star laughed. “That’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. Who would have guessed that my aunt and uncle were hiding such a totally hot story?”

“Well, I don’t know about ‘hot’. That’s not part of the story so far as you’re concerned, but it did work out. I think, where shifters are concerned, mating isn’t so much an intellectual process. Our bodies get things rolling by knowing who’s right for us. Then our minds urge us to follow our hearts.”

“That’s complicated.”

Cloud shook her head. “Not really. When you meet the right person, you’ll know.”

“What if the right person isn’t interested?”

“You know, honestly, I’ve never heard of that happening to shifters. That’s something I don’t think you’ll ever have to worry about.”

“Oh.”

“If that’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever heard, then clearly you haven’t asked Luna about how she got together with Grey.”

Ken’s brothers had noticed a change in him. He seemed both restless and melancholy, even with his preoccupation with implementing principles outlined in his new books. That, combined with his recent tendency to seek solitude, was troublesome. He’d been spending more and more time on his own in wolf form, which was never a good sign. Wolves craved togetherness like air and water. As their father had said, “A lone wolf is a wolf no’ right in the head.”

Liulf and Conn had suggested that perhaps he should think about taking a mate. He’d laughed at them and said that taking a mate wasn’t something you “think” about and that if anyone should know that, it would be the two of them. Both agreed that he had a point. Certainly neither of his brothers had been looking when the urge to mate suddenly became their reason for being.

The harder Ken tried to forget about Starfire, the more she dominated his thoughts, waking and sleeping. He’d kept an eye out for her at every Gathering since she’d silently watched him rut with Scarlet. She’d said something about finding her own hookups. The fact that he didn’t know whether she had or not tormented him. He also knew that the fact that she hadn’t been back to a Gathering since said something. He just wasn’t exactly sure what it said. It bothered him. Everything about Starfire was bothersome.