Her Lone Wolves (7 page)

She nodded. “I also found some books to read.”

“What sort of books?”

Jane shrugged. “Mostly travelogues. And a book of poetry.”

“You like poetry?”

“Not really. I mean, I like poetry that rhymes. This one was a book of cowboy poetry.”

“It was my mother's.”

“Oh, I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I didn't mean to pry or anything.”

He smiled. “You don't have to apologize. It's not like she can read it anymore.”

Jane didn't know what to say to that. Talking to people about their dead relatives always made her uncomfortable. Avery took the plate out of the microwave and set it before her. The smell of beef and potatoes wafted up to her nose. Her stomach growled. She eagerly dug into the food. As usual, it was delicious. Avery was certainly a good cook.

“Where's Everett?” She hoped the question sounded casual.

“He went out.”

Jane frowned. “Out?” She looked over at the kitchen window. The snow was falling again. Sudden hope flared within her. “Did he go into town? Has he found a way through the pass?”

“Nope. We checked it this afternoon. It's still blocked. He’s checking his traps.”

“Traps?”

“It's one of the ways we get fresh meat.”

Jane looked down at her now empty plate. She wondered if she’d been eating beef after all. “Did Caleb go with him?”

Avery firmly shook his head. “Those two need to keep their distance from each other for the time being.”

“What exactly is going on between them?”

Before Avery could answer, a voice roared from the front room. “Where the hell are you, Avery? If you don't get your ass in here and move your piece, I'm gonna move it for you!”

Avery flashed a white grin. “I’d better get back to the game. You coming?”

Jane thought for a moment. Maybe it would be best if she went back to her room, but she was tired of being alone. “Sure.”

She rose from the table and followed Avery into the front room. Fire blazed in the stone fireplace. Caleb sat in front of a chess set. He glanced up as she and Avery entered the room.

“Well, it looks like her highness has finally decided to grace us lowly peasants with her royal presence,” he said smirking.

“I wouldn't put it exactly like that.” She sat on the couch. She wasn’t going to let him get under her skin. She noted that Avery didn't return to his seat across from Caleb, but stood in the no-man's land between the couch and the chess-set.

“I was ordered to my room by your lord and master,” she went on. “Don’t you remember?”

Caleb scowled. “So why aren’t you still there?”

“I’ve been in that room all day. I’ve done nothing wrong. I want to leave this place as much as he wants me gone. It wasn't my fault I got stuck here.”

She hadn’t meant to say all of that, but her growing frustration with the situation was starting to boil over.

Caleb stared at her and his gaze was so hot that Jane felt her nipples hardening and her sex softening. She squirmed against the couch.

Caleb finally drew his gaze away from her. He looked over at Avery. “You gonna sit or just stand there?”

“You know I don't like playing chess,” Avery replied. “I told you to wait until Everett gets back.”

Caleb frowned. “I don’t want to play against him.” He looked back at Jane. “What about you? You want to play?”

“As I said before, I haven't played in years.”

Caleb gestured with his chin for her to come over. “It's like riding a bike. You don’t forget. Just might be a bit rusty, is all.”

Jane shrugged, rose from the couch and sat in the chair across from him. He reset the chessboard. She wasn't kidding. The last time she'd played chess had been in high school, and she'd only learned the game because she'd had a crush on the president of the chess club.

“I'll leave you two to it then,” Avery said. He turned and left the living room.

“Where's he going?” Jane asked.

“To play those video games of his. Everett doesn't like 'em. So he won't let Avery set them up down here. He's got a small television in his room. He'll be up there for hours.”

Caleb quickly went over the basic rules as a reminder to Jane and, as he did, she was uncomfortably conscious of his low, sexy drawl, the dark hairs on the back of his large hands and the warm fire A sudden image flashed in her mind of her and Caleb, their naked bodies passionately entwined as they fucked in front of the fire.

They began to play and Caleb was right. It was like riding a bike. Although Jane did her best to concentrate on the game, recalling some of the strategies she'd learned to impress her high-school crush, part of her mind was not on the movement of the pieces. She was too conscious of Caleb. It didn’t take long for her to see she was no match for him, and that the game was going to end in a few moves with his capture of her now defenseless queen.

“You're not even trying,” he said, scowling.

“I am trying,” Jane snapped. “I told you. I haven't played this game in years.”

“You should never give up. No matter how hopeless things get.” He waved his hand at the board. “As long as you got pieces on the board you're still in the game.”

Jane snorted. “Sounds like a lot of corporate boardroom pep talk.”

“Never been in no corporate boardroom so I wouldn't know about that.”

“I'm going to lose, Caleb. It's a given.”

He looked across the board at her with his piercing, green eyes. “You give up easily, don’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“When things don’t go the way you want them to. You just give up.”

“Not as a rule, but I don’t see any point of beating myself senseless against a brick wall. If something’s not meant to be, well, no point in fighting that, is there?”

“Suppose not.” He moved his knight.

Jane signed. He had her in checkmate. She could have moved her queen, but it wouldn’t have changed a thing. No matter what she did, his knight would take her queen.

She knocked it over.

Caleb looked over at her and slowly shook his head. She frowned. She didn’t care what he thought. She didn’t care if he thought she’d given up too easily. She’d lost. It was over.

As she picked up her toppled queen, Caleb moved his hand across the chessboard. Their fingers touched and an electric current of heat surged through Jane. She gasped.

Caleb gripped her hand and pressed her fingers into the queen she still held. He clenched her hand so hard the chess piece dug into her palm. They stared at each other across the chessboard, the only sound the shifting of the logs, the whispering crackle of the fire and the howl of the wind outside.

He pulled Jane up from her chair. He kept his hand wrapped around the fist that held the queen. He pulled her hard against him. Then he kissed her, his long, wet tongue forcing its way between her trembling lips.

Jane’s senses were swept away by the hunger of that kiss. The wild fierceness of it. Caleb kissed her like a man possessed. Like a man who’d been starving for something for so long it had nearly driven him insane. He released her hand and Jane dropped the queen. He tore off his shirt and jeans, tossing his clothes to the floor. His erection tented the front of his underwear. He quickly took those off and Jane could only stare at his huge, thick cock as it jutted fiercely from his groin.

He undid the buttons on her shirt, almost ripping them in his haste, his breath coming hard and fast. At the sight of her breasts swelling up out of her lacy pink bra, he groaned. Gripping both of them in his big hands, he rubbed his thick thumbs over her nipples. They quickly hardened beneath the fabric. Jane moaned. At the sound, Caleb lowered his head and avidly licked the top of her breasts. She ran her hands over his broad, muscular back then sighed softly when she felt his tongue dipping between the curves of her breasts.

What was she doing? Nothing good would come of this. She knew that. But she couldn't stop herself. And she wanted him. God help her, she wanted him.

“Everett….what about Everett?” she gasped.

“What about him?” Caleb growled against her breasts, his breath hot and moist.

“What if he—”

“He's checking his damned traps.” Caleb jerked her bra down from around her breasts. “And so what if he finds us?” He drew her nipple deep into his mouth and began to hungrily suck it.

Jane threw her head back in ecstasy. Caleb lowered her to the floor. He undid her jeans and jerked them off her legs. Then he pulled down her panties and nudged his cock between her thighs.

“Umm, yes, honey, yes. Gonna fuck you good!”

Jane's pussy was soaking wet so when Caleb shoved his fingers up inside her mound she cried out.

“Damn,” Caleb groaned. “You want this, don’t you?”

She nodded. Even as a part of her sensed it was wrong being with Caleb like this, she wanted it.

He began thrusting his fingers inside her. “Gonna make you come. Gonna make you cream all over my hand.”

A quiver of unrestrained lust surged through Jane. She quickly reached down and took hold of his cock. As Caleb fucked her with his fingers, she steadily stroked his cock.

He closed his eyes. “Oh, yeah, that feels good. Don’t stop, baby. Don’t stop.”

Jane stroked faster. Caleb grunted, his body going rigid. Thick cum jetted from his cock, some of it dribbling down her hand and onto her stomach.

“Oh, fuck yeah,” he gasped. “That felt good.”

Jane smiled and continue to rub his cock, but as she did thick dark hair suddenly sprouted from his chest. And there was hair on his back where there’d been none before.

Except it wasn't hair. It was too bushy and coarse to be hair.

It was fur!

And it was growing thicker and longer.

Jane’s eyes widened, her heart thudding in her chest.
What was happening?
Then she remembered her dream. About the Wolf-God. But that had only been a dream. This was reality.

She tried to push herself away from him, but his fingers were still moving inside her and she couldn’t help climaxing even as he continued to change. His face stretched out, the nose and mouth turning wolf-like, his eyes glowing like green fire. Then he arched his spine, threw back his head and let loose a long, piercing howl.

“What the hell is going on?”

Jane turned her head. Everett stood in the doorway, dark blue eyes blazing. Cold and snow swirled in behind him from the open front door.

Caleb pulled his hand out of her sex, even as her body continued to pulse from the orgasm he’d given her. He swung his wolfish-head towards Everett and growled, deep and low in his throat. He crouched over Jane as if he meant to keep Everett away from her. He still had the shape and stance of a man, but thick, brown fur covered his entire body. He bared his teeth and they were long and white and sharp.

“You goddamned fools,” Everett swore.

Jane hastily pushed herself away from Caleb. Everett glared at her, but she also saw the unmistakable lust in his eyes as he took in her naked body. Avery rushed into the room. He stopped when he saw the three of them. Then his wide-eyed gaze flew to his brother.

“Oh, man, Caleb, What have you done?”

Caleb growled in answer and then, as Jane watched, horrified he turned completely into a wolf. The only thing about him that still resembled a human were his green eyes.

He darted between Everett and Avery then ran out the front door and into the night, his howl echoing through the snowy darkness.

“Damn it all to hell!” Everett turned and pointed an angry finger at Jane. “I'll deal with you later. Avery, keep an eye on her.” He ran outside, slamming the door behind him.

Chapter Eight

Avery released a deep breath and sat heavily on the couch. Jane watched him cautiously. Since he and Caleb were twins, whatever Caleb was more than likely he was too.

A werewolf.

She shuddered. It was one thing to have dreams about men who were wolves or wolves who were men, but this was reality. Werewolves and vampires didn't exist in real life. But she also couldn’t deny what she'd seen with her own eyes. However, as much as she was shocked by what had just happened with Caleb, she also wasn’t overly surprised. And she wasn’t as frightened as she suspected she should be.

Avery, who was staring morosely at the floor, raised his head and looked at her. His hazel eyes glowed in the fire's light and, for a moment, they didn't look entirely human.

“Aren't you cold?” he asked.

Jane blinked. She’d been so shocked by Caleb’s transformation, she’d forgotten she was nude. She was hesitant, however, to make any sudden moves around Avery.

“I promise. I won't bite.” Then he smiled as if he’d made some kind of joke. “If you want, I'll turn around.”

He rose from the couch and turned his back. Jane quickly put back on her clothes. Avery sat down when she was done. She joined him on the couch, but she sat at the far end. If he noticed the distance she was keeping between them, his expression didn’t reveal anything of what he thought about it.