Healing the Wolf (BBW Paranormal Romance) (Luna Junction) (3 page)

Talon closed the door.  “I made up a pallet on the floor.” 

“Oh, well I’m rather used to sleeping in a bed.”

His voice held a note of irritation.  “If you must have a bed I’ll make you a damn bed.” 

I looked at him as he leaned back against the door frame.  There, in the cabin, he seemed much larger.  Much closer.  The full enormity of what was about to happen struck me.  Talon would open my legs and take me.  And we would be mated for life. 

The ragged thickness of my own breathing sounded thunderous. Talon casually pulled his shirt over his head. 
His muscular frame was even more defined than I had guessed.  He coolly threw the shirt on the floor and began to unzip his pants.  I turned away.  This was it. This was ‘later’.  I retreated to the bedroom and knelt on the crude pile of blankets.  I could already feel him moving closer. 

With a gentle
ness which surprised me, he hooked his thumbs under the straps of my dress and pulled them down.  My bra followed and instinctively my hands crossed my heavy breasts, a futile effort to shield them. 

Talon reached around and pulled my arms apart.  I could feel his hard extension push
ing earnestly against my back as he kneaded my breasts, at first lightly and then with more insistence. 

He pushed me onto my belly and raised my hips.  My damp underwear was all that separated us as his monstrous organ pushed against me.  He could barely speak through his panting
lust. “Which way, Sheree?  For our first time you can choose.” 

I understood what he meant.  He would mount me from the back. Or
from the front.  The choice was his gift to me.  The sensation of my body preparing to open was a strange one.  I groaned as he rubbed against me.  “I want what you want, Talon.” 

My panties were ripped away with one tug.  Talon hesitated.  “
I’m taking you as my mate, Sheree” he said and hesitated no longer.  I cried out as the sharp thrust of his penetration tore through my barrier.    He didn’t stop.  He couldn’t stop.  My breasts bounced against my belly as he pounded and with each thrust I felt the disappearance of Sheree Chevalier and the emergence of Sheree Ivanov.

Our bodies grew slick with sweat as we moved together.  Dimly, beneath, the ache, I felt the first tendrils of pleasure as Talon’s large hands reached
around and seized my breasts.  Even as the enormity of his lust threatened to break me in two I heard my own moans of ecstasy. 

Talon
was spurred on by my pleasure, his rhythm increasingly frenetic.  At the moment his hot climax spurted inside of me he opened me wider and pushed even deeper. 

We collapsed together in a tangle of limbs and sweat.  It was done.  I was no longer a Chevalier.  I nestled closer to my mate with a happy sigh and wrapped my arms around his chest. 

Talon raised himself and stared at my naked body.  He held my wide hips between his hands and grinned.  “You were made to breed,” he said with approval. 

I opened my arms to him but he rose from the pallet and walked to the front door.  I was confused when he opened
it.  And then a moment later I heard the soft beat of his running paws.  And after that the wolf’s jubilant howl at the moon. 

“Damn,” I sw
ore, staring out the uncovered window.  I rolled to my side and curled up, knowing that soon he would return, hungering to take me again.  And again. And despite my anger at being regarded more or less like a brood mare, I wanted him to. 

***

A scream of childish rage yanked me out of my memories. 

“MOMMMMM!”  

I sighed.  “I’ll be right out.  And you better all be dressed and ready when I do.  John, help Seth.” 

I heard some grumbling and the word ‘unfair’ but they quieted down.   I peered down at my body.  During
the reverie of my mating night my hand had unwittingly traveled between my legs.  I had learned these past months how to satisfy myself and I didn’t feel guilt as I finished the job there in the tub.  Yet as the spasms of pleasure cascaded and then receded I was sad. My hand was no substitute for my mate.

Talon.

In many ways the past ten years had been infuriating.  We fought often and wildly.  Rarely was there any resolution.  Talon Ivanov was a stone wall, a wolf who would yield to no female and he considered his word law. I jealously watched the soulful connections between other mates, such as Anton and Amy.  Their love was written on their faces.  Talon had never, not once, even whispered his under cover of darkness.

But still, there were moments. 

When he took our newborn first son from my breast with ecstatic wonder and leaned over, kissing me tenderly.  Or those rare occasions when he accepted my company during a full moon and we ran together with delicious abandon, finally tiring and shifting back to human form so we could couple with the same urgency which had never subsided since our first mating. 

A
tear rolled down my cheek as I tiredly wrapped myself in a towel.  I hadn’t suffered Amy’s loss.  My mate, the father of my children, lived.  But he had lost more than his hand.  Talon had always disdained human concepts, like love.  Wolf first; that was the Ivanov way. 

But now, unable to run, he was something less.  And since he would never accept livi
ng as a mere human, Talon was trapped somewhere in between.   These days when I tried to reach his haunted eyes, he barely saw me. 

I missed him. 

Chapter Three

The crispness of the air was invigorating.  Since we were going to Flagstaff, I flung a light coat over my shoulders and buttoned up the boys.  The air had warmed enough for it to be comfortable on hardy blood wolf skin but people wouldn’t understand that.  To them it was still the season to bundle their tender bodies in warm layers.  If we showed up at the Flagstaff Mall in February wearing only t-shirts they would stare.   And it was always better to avoid attracting attention. 

John frowned when we bypassed the road which led to town and beyond.  “Where are we going?” 

“Kate’s.” 

One of the boys issued a soft groan and then yelped when his older brother poked him in the ribs. 

“We won’t be at your grandmother’s house long,” I promised.  “I thought I’d see if Aunt Amelia wanted to come with us.” 

The boys brightened at that.  They lov
ed their pretty young aunts.  Tess had been rather preoccupied ever since finding her mate and getting quickly with child.  But Amelia was yet unmated and was pleased to fuss over her small nephews. 

When I pulled up to the Ivanov cabin, I felt a peculiar prickle at my neck.  Although I knew already what caused it, it didn’t stop the instinctual mother wolf’s growl from rising in my throat. 

Javier Ramirez watched us from about twenty yards away.  He carried a large coil of rope but carefully placed it on the ground and smiled.  I waved.  Although I had become used to the idea of a bitten wolf in the family, others were not as forgiving.  Though Javier was mated to his sister and had been instrumental in saving his life during the Luna Junction pack battle, Talon still regarded him warily. 

Bitten wolves were once human.  It was forbidden for a blood wolf
, a natural wolf, to bite a human under a full moon, yet reports first came sifting in a year ago that bitten wolves were rising in the east.  Our lore had always told us they were abnormal creatures; volatile and ferocious.  And unable to control their shifting. 

My father
, however, had always dismissed such notions as a load of bunk.  Bitten wolves, he always said, were as wolves what they had been as men.  If they were cruel humans they would make violent werewolves.  Still, he never supported their creation and I’d known from his letters that that Chevaliers were as alarmed as any other blood wolves when the attacks had begun. 

Bitten wolves, created by unknown blood wolves for an unknown reason, had been scouting
werewolf communities, violently attacking at will.  The hunters, that peculiar race which had watched werewolves since history began, suggested an alliance to combat the threat to wolves, to hunters, and to humanity. 

It had been a grim summer, culminating in the deaths of the Bellini alpha, Carmine
, as well as the Luna Junction sheriff.  And also Anton Ivanov.  As winter descended all had been quiet.  Ominously so. 

But my heart
knew Javier was no threat, even as my blood wolf instincts were raised by his presence.  I smiled at him as he approached, brushing the snow from his dark hair. 

“Where’s Tess?” 

He jerked his head.  “Inside with Kate.”  

Tess Ivanov was as headstrong as any Ivanov, perhaps more so.  When she
had decided to mate with the rogue bitten wolf there had been no stopping her. 

I turned the ignition off just as the door to the cabin opened.  Tess was radiant as she bounded out the door and landed lightly at her mate’s side.  I had worried for the youngest Ivanov girls; they were strange and naïve as a result of being kept so closely to Kate’s side. But Tess had adjusted nicely to her new role as mate. 
Her usually taut belly was beginning to show the effects of impending motherhood. 

The boys poured out of the truck and mobbed her.  While they fought for her attention Javier watched me soberly. 

“How is he?”

I bit my lip.  “The same.”

He sighed.  “Is there anything we can do?”

I shook my head.  “This battle belongs to Talon alone.” 

He raised his eyebrows.  “Does it?”

“What do you mean?”

Javier glanced over to where Tess was being shepherded back to the cabin by my raucous sons.  His face softened.  “She wouldn’t let me fight alone.”  His gaze returned to me and he spoke quickly.  “You know of the, ah, challenges we faced.”

“Yes,” I agreed.  “I mean, I can imagine.” 

As a new bitten werewolf Javier had to learn how to control the animal within.  How to shift back and forth and be ruled by the mind rather than the wolf.  It was a tall chore. One that blood wolves, wolves who were born to shift when they came of age, couldn’t quite relate to. 

He nodded again, choosing his words carefully.  “I don’t know what would become of me, had it not been for her.” 

I stared at him squarely.  “You mean, Tess didn’t let you fight alone.  And somehow you believe I’m not doing right by Talon.”

Javier winced.  “I didn’t mean for it to sound that way,
Sheree.  I know how you’ve tried to bring him out and I know what a tough bastard he can be.”  He put a warm hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes earnestly.  “All I’m saying is, it matters.  Having someone beside you.”  He removed his hand and started to walk back to where he had left his rope, glancing back once with a wry grin. “Don’t stop trying.”

With a heavy sigh I followed Tess and the boys into the cabin.  Seth was climbing all over Amelia and she laughed, picking him up and twirling him around.  She was the only one of Kate Ivanov
’s seven children who had not mated and remained at home.  She was a year older than Tess and though she had always seemed to cower under her mother’s thumb, she had proven her mettle when it counted.  Amelia had bravely defended her sister, standing between Tess and the threatening Casteel cousins who were bloodthirsty enough to deliver vengeance upon any bitten wolf and his mate. 

Amelia tickled Seth and he rolled ont
o the floor, his face flushed.  Amelia smiled at me shyly.  We had never been close, but I felt for the girl.  She had a lonely life here in the woods with her mother, especially now that her younger sister had mated.

Kate Ivanov herself stood coolly in a corner and watched her children and grandchildren.  She had taken it as a personal affront when Amy chose to return nor
th with the Chevaliers, taking Anton’s children with her.  Though she was a slight woman, Kate had always loomed larger than life.  A rare female alpha of a fabled werewolf family, with her powerful sons at her side she was a force to be reckoned with. 

But one son was gone.  And the other, the one who was meant to take the reins of the Ivanov family,
was adrift in his own personal hell.  I knew the extended clan whispered about what would happen now that Talon was seemingly unable to accept his destined alpha role. 

Kate tiredly rubbed her eyes.  “And where is my son?” 

“Working,” I said evenly. 

She stared at me, as if trying to mentally extract more information.  I stared back at her.  If she wanted to know anything about Talon she could ask him herself.  I knew how devas
tated she was by his retreat.  Her cheeks were hollow and weight loss had made her features even more sharp.  But my first loyalty was to Talon. I had never quite trusted Kate. 

Tess looked worriedly from one of us to the ot
her.  There had been a terrible fight.  When Talon was first injured Kate had ordered the whole lot of us decamp to her cabin.  Her argument was for our personal safety.  No one knew when or if the bitten wolves would attack again.  And furthermore, she coldly informed me she was better able to see to the needs of her son. 

I had crossed my arms, stared the Ivanov alpha right in the eye and told her she was full of shit.  After ten years I had
finally stopped holding my tongue when it came to Kate Ivanov.  I would not be ruled by her eccentricities, arguing over the right to send my children to school or participate in the human world. I knew she hadn’t forgiven me for the things I had said.  Amy’s departure had only heightened her bitterness. 

Tess cleared her throat.  “I’m going to go see what
Javi is up to.”  She squeezed my arm on the way out. 

As Andrew and Jacob took turns showing off in front of their Aunt Amelia, Kate turned her attention to John.  “Come here, boy,” she beckoned. 

John flashed me a look but obeyed his grandmother.  He approached her warily.  Kate was always a harsh critic.  But surprisingly she looked on him with tenderness and brushed a lock of brown hair from his eyes.  “You’ll be as strong a wolf as your Daddy,” she said softly. 

My son flashed a smile of pride and didn’t object when Kate folded him into a rare embrace.  When John pulled away I realized how much the last five months had aged her and I felt an odd affection.  For all her faults, Kate had a fierce love for her children and grandchildren. 

She gave me a sad smile.  “They grow up too fast. “ 

As she bent her head in thought I knew she wasn’t talking about my children.  Three of the Ivanov daughters had been mated off to far away alphas.  They rarely visited.  Once Kate had held my mate, Talon, her firstborn son, in her arms and felt the ferocious love of a mother for her tiny child.  And, as I watched my own sons growing taller each day, I realized motherhood was a compound joy and terror which never disappeared. 

Kate was seldom affectionate
but I leaned over and hugged her anyway.  She stiffened, startled, and then her arms went around me too.  I glanced up and saw Amelia and the boys staring in fascination. 

“Bring h
im back, Sheree,” she whispered so quietly I barely heard. 

I squeezed her gently but couldn’t promise anything.  There was nothing I wanted more than to heal my mate.  I just didn’t know how.