Her Wanted Wolf (44 page)

Sabine dug her knees and nails into the bedding. An orgasm rolled over
her like a flash flood. It swept her up and carried her along the raging
rushing rivers of sheer joy.

Drew found his release one step behind her. She felt the pulsing spray of
his life-giving elixir enter her body. Gluttonous, she greedily absorbed the
sensation, his fluids sliding silkily over her heated tissues.

“I love you,” Drew growled starkly in her ear, his arms wrapped around
her.

Senses overloaded, Sabine gave herself over to ‘la petite mort.’

* *
* *

A lazy, rhythmic petting over her breasts eased Sabine from a deep sleep
to a hazy wakefulness. Her eyes fluttered open to meet Drew’s warm sleepy
regard.

“Hey there.” The look of pure male smugness on his face elicited a soft
laugh from her.

“Don’t you look self-satisfied?”

His faint smile widened into to a cocky smirk. “I’m a happy man.”

Her nipples grew hard under his caresses. “Are you now?”

“Yep. I’ve got myself a mate who fits me to a tee.” His fingers curved
over her breast. He nuzzled her neck and laved at the area he’d branded. Drew
levered himself up to stare down at her, his eyes grave. “A mate who fills the
place in my heart that was aching and hollow.”

His words cemented her sense of belonging. She now had a place in his
heart that was exclusively hers. He loved her truly for
her
, not for
what she could do for him as a Silverwolf. She’d found her mate.

She arched her back, and Sabine pressed her breasts into the pleasure-evoking
caresses showered on her receptive flesh. How could she ever have believed she
could have left him?

“As you have for me.” Sabine eased up and pressed her lips to his.

“She’d be damn near perfect, if she followed orders,” Drew said against
her mouth.

“Would it be a bad time to point out to you if I hadn’t come running, you
might not be able to play with my breasts right now?”

“That’s one way of putting it, but we’d have to have that chat about your
failure to stick to the plan. I’m still reveling in the fact that you finally
have my mark on your skin, and I have my sister back. Have you any idea what
the odds are that I got her back virtually unscathed?” Amazement tinged Drew’s
words.

“Incalculable, I imagine.”

“I have no doubt she’ll come to her senses and dump that arrogant mutt
she’s hooked up with.”

“Ahh, she has his mate’s mark on her. Do you see the way they look at
each other? I wouldn’t be so sure that’s going to happen, since they seem very
attached to each other,” she pointed out dryly. It was plain to see the mating
between Aimee and Micah would hold true.

Drew’s hand stilled. An aggrieved frown settled over his face. “He’s not
good enough for her. He’s a surly, morose S.O.B.”

Pot calling the kettle black, Sabine thought. “Quite like somebody I met
not too long ago.”

Displeasure tightened Drew’s face. “Crap, do you really think it’d be
hard to pry them apart?”

“Would you let me go now that I carry your mark? She carries his cub.”

Drew sighed and rolled up into a sitting position. “Yeah, but we mesh.”

“Now, yes, but we weren’t an easy fit in the beginning. He adores her.”
Sabine eased up on her elbow and took a good look at the room for the first
time.

Unadorned metal walls painted a putrid green coated the bulkhead. The
only furniture was the narrow bunk, a table and chair, all bolted to the floor.

The gentle rocking she woke up to earlier increased to a vertigo-inducing
undulation. Sabine imagined if she stood up, she’d need to grab on to something
to keep from tumbling to the floor.

“I bet she’s suffering from Stockholm syndrome or something like that.
Saffa is a trained physiologist. She could council Aimee and get her head
sorted out. Then we can shed Micah like last winter’s fur.”

“There are some obstacles that can’t be overcome, Drew.” She hoped at
some point it would occur to him that the were whom he despised so had kept his
sister safe.

Drew’s eyes turned serious. “Speaking of impediments, one of the reasons
why you wouldn’t take the final step to consummate our union was because you
were resolved to keep the Silverwolf name alive through our cub. Sabine, I’d do
anything in my power to make you happy, but that’s something I couldn’t do.”

She nodded. “I know. I’ve come to the realization that I couldn’t take
our cub from you.”

If she’d insisted on having her way, she’d lose Drew, and the family
they’d create together for their cub. Their child’s existence would be a bone
of contention between two packs. She would never lay such a burden on a child
of hers, her much longed for cub. The ever-present ache in her pelvic girdle
expanded. She’d hoped the heaviness in her pelvis was a sign her breeding cycle
was about to begin.

“When we get back to Colorado, I’ll tell my father I can’t honor my
promise.” The strain her vow had put on her dissipated as she said the words
out loud, and Sabine felt an enormous burden fall from her shoulders.

Drew relaxed as if he’d held his breath, expecting the worst. “Thank you.
We will go see your father together. You know, something’s bugging me about
Balthazar’s request. For such a hide-bound traditionalist, his entreaty is a
huge contradiction.”

“Why? Keeping your family name alive is a matter of pride.”

“That’s my point. No were would ask another to hand over his cub, a child
of his bloodline. It goes against everything we hold dear. It doesn’t add up.”

“Well you can ask him what his reasoning behind his actions was,” Sabine
suggested glumly, not looking forward to facing her father. “How soon do you
think we get off this boat?”

“With a little luck we can head home in a day or two, at the very latest.
I have a plan.”

She lay back and closed her eyes. “Well what is it? I’d do just about
anything to set foot on dry land again.”

Drew sat up and swung his legs off the bunk. “I’m going to see if I can
find a way to contact Royal and ask him if he can put the Redmavens at the
place we stayed until we get them sorted out. You and your pack sisters can
keep them hidden while we clean up this fiasco.” He didn’t come right out and
say it, but the implication was she’d be staying behind.

Well, somebody was delusional. “Oh, really? And just where do you think
you could go where I can’t follow?”

“Sabine, you saw what those chemically altered weres turn into. Remember
what they did to you?”

She thrust out her chin. “You need me more than ever. They think they
have leveled the playing field, but they miscalculated. As you pointed out, I
have a way of nosing them out.”

Drew shook his head. “We have no room for error. If you come with us, and
I do emphasize
if
, you do as we practiced, and in the name of all things
Holy, follow the plan.”

He was right and she knew it, she made the grudging admission. “I am no
match physically for one of the modified weres. I’ll do as you ask, to the
letter this time. Tell me what you need.”

“What we need is to get to Bardo.”

“Isn’t the were who Micah thinks has Milo the bigger threat?” She really
wanted to get her hands on samples of his work to decipher the vapors in the
formulas.

“Yeah, but if Micah takes out Bardo first, he becomes the Redmaven alpha.
I’m hoping that most of the rogue weres who are still loyal to Bardo might fall
in line to keep the number of kills down. Justice is concerned this conflict is
going to play out in an urban area. We’ve garnered some attention down in
Savannah with that exchange of words between Bardo and Micah by the dock. It’s
all over the news that the police think it’s the gangs warring over drug turf.
We’d like to keep it that way.”

Sabine gaped at Drew when she realized what his plan meant. “You’re going
to relinquish your right of retribution to Micah.”

It was the right thing to do, and the enormity of his concession awed
Sabine. She reached up and brushed her lips across his mouth. He was a true son
of the werekin, more so than her father was because he put the needs of their
race before his beliefs.

Her mate, her wanted mate.

“Situation calls for it. Besides, the sooner he gets what he needs, the
quicker we rid ourselves of this blade hanging over our heads. I’m getting
pretty damned tired of living on the edge of a blade, epically since I’m not
the one holding the knife.”

Chapter Thirty-two

The tart scents of anxiety and frustration filtered into the cabin. The fact
that they came from Aimee had Drew springing off the bed and stalking across
the cabin. He ripped open the door to find her standing in the gangway with her
foot poised to kick on the door.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. What could possibly be wrong?” Aimee answered with a tight
smile before she brushed past him to enter his cabin. “Why are you men so
stubborn and uncompromising?”

Not knowing how to answer the question, Drew scratched his stubble-roughened
chin. “Ah, is this a trick question?” He looked over at Sabine who gave him a
negligible shrug. Aimee dropped the tray she carried on the table and placed a
folded pile of clothes on the bunk.

Sabine slid off the bed with greedy eagerness to check out the food. Her
face fell with disappointment when she saw whatever rested on the platter.

“What’s this?” She spooned up a runny white mound and allowed it to drop
back into the bowl. It landed with a wet plop.

“Oatmeal. It’s good for you.”

Sabine’s pursed her lips with distaste. “Can’t be. It looks like mucus.”

Aimee’s face flushed with embarrassment before a cunning look crept into
her eyes. She turned to face Sabine. “Micah said that he’d paddle my backside
if I told Drew we were running out of food and diesel for this tub. But…he
never said I shouldn’t mention it to my new sister-in-law.”

Sabine nodded in affirmation. “No he didn’t. I do believe you followed
his edict of your alpha to the letter.” The last words accompanied by a snort.

The two women smiled at each other in perfect understanding. Drew could
almost see a bond forming between his mate and his sister. It was a good thing,
he thought. Until they turned and looked at him expectantly.

Now, why the hell did he feel like he had two loaded shotguns pointed at
him? It was enough to make a sensible man turn tail and head for the hills.

“See, Drew? I’m not the only one who skirts around her mate’s
unreasonable requests. Do you think it will spread amongst the she-wolves and
become the norm?” Sabine lifted a saucy brow in inquiry.

“Yeah, Drew, and the fact that I found a way to inform my brother we need
a small loan to save us from starvation should be considered ingenious. Nothing
to cause a knock-down, drag-out fight with my mate.” Aimee added her snarky two
cents.

One he could handle, but two she-wolves taking aim at his hide with their
female logic was a clear signal to retreat.

Drew snatched up the jeans and Henley from the pile of clothes and
dragged them on. “You need to ease back, sis. It’s not my ass you want to chew
on. I have enough trouble handling my own mate. Let Redmaven manage his.”

“Handle? Manage!” The two words were screeched simultaneously by the
women. The outrage on their faces made him wince.

He pulled open the door and muttered as he stepped through it, “I’m going
topside to have a smoke.”

“You don’t smoke,” Aimee called after him.

“No, but I’m sure as hell thinking of taking it up.” He slammed the door
behind him and followed the briny scent of the sea out into the sunlight.

The anger and bristling pride coming off the were staring at the murky
grey waves was the first impression he got as he stepped out on the slippery
deck. The second was that a human was amongst them.

Micah Redmaven stood by the rails, studying the ocean, which exhibited an
irritability similar to what his spoor emitted. Bad-tempered grey clouds hung
low in the sky, and the swells rolled ashore to crash into the wharf. Drew
walked gingerly over the heaving deck.

“You may be distracted by your other troubles, but I don’t believe you’ve
missed the fact that there’s a human on board this ship.”

“No shit.”

Somebody was having a tantrum.

“What, for a couple of kicks, you’ve taking up revealing our existence to
every dipshit?”

Micah’s hot
go to hell and stay there
glare didn’t faze Drew.
Nobody singed your hide with a glance like Sabine.

“Fuck off, Lunedare. I’m not in the mood.”

Christ on a stick, the asshole had a chip on his shoulder almost as big
as the one Drew’d had on his a couple of weeks ago. Problem was, Drew itched to
knock it off. Since he couldn’t, he’d get his jollies by pissing him off more.

“Word is you’re running low on food.”

Micah spun around to face him, disbelief carved into the lines of his
face. “I told Aimee not to…”

Drew looked at him pityingly, which only seemed to infuriate Micah more.
Drew could see the inability to vent his anger strangling him. Having a mate
tended to do that you.

“She didn’t tell me, she told Sabine,” Drew informed Micah, studying his
fingernails.

“What’s the freaking difference?” Micah demanded as though he didn’t
expect an answer.

“None. Son, I’ve concluded that our females think in a convoluted way. It
produces a logic that boggles the mind and sets your teeth on edge. I tell
Sabine what I need her to do. She does it, but in her own way. I can’t fault
her for following her instincts since she’s saved my hide a time or two. But
I’d be damned before I admit it. I’m not giving her any more leverage.”

“I’m sure as hell not taking your money.” Scathing rejection laced every
word.