Reclaim the Wolf: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Wolf Valley Raiders Book 3) (3 page)

As she approached him he looked up, shielding himself from her. Was she really that ugly to him? Maybe she should have second thoughts about rescuing him. Who was she kidding? Leaving him here was not going to be the answer. She had to get him to her house and patch him up before he bled to death.

“Come on, quit messing around. You are going to kill yourself if you don’t get back in the truck.” Her voice held no sympathy.

“You’re not going to shoot me?”

“Tempting. But no.”

His face was pale and he lowered his arm to look at her. “You are not old.”

Did he have a concussion too?
Damn Fara for hitting him in the head.

“No. But I
am
old enough to get mighty irritated with you. Now let’s go.” She reached out, her hand going under his elbow to help him up. There was that familiar sensation again, electricity moving from her to him and back again. His eyes widened in wonder, although this time Kira managed to get control of herself.

But this guy hadn’t. He flinched away from her, pulling his arm back. “What the hell was that?” he asked. “You didn’t feel it?’

That gave her an idea. Maybe it was better if he had to work at this mate thing. If he didn’t
know
she could feel the connection between them, it would buy her some time and also make him much less self-assured.

“Feel what? Annoyed that you ran when I’m trying to save your ass?” she asked, putting just the right annoyance in her voice to make him look at her sharply.

“You really didn’t feel that shock of electricity?”

“Nope. But if you don’t cooperate, I could always get a cattle prod. That will give you all the electricity you need and get you up off your sorry knees.”

Stunned, he let her help him to his feet. All the time he kept glancing sideways at her. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, she would have laughed at him. But it was serious. Not just because he was her mate, and she didn’t want him. There was also Fara to protect.

“Where are you taking me? We’re not heading for town.”

“No, we are not. I can patch you up just fine at my house.” She opened the back of the truck. “Get in.”

“I can ride in the front,” he said, heading towards the passenger door.

“What if I don’t want you to?” she asked, not sure she could keep up the pretence of not knowing who he was when they were in such close proximity.

“So you do want to kill me.” He turned back to her, his face accusing.

“Want to kill you? If I did, I would have left you at Fara’s place so she could use your stealing hide for target practice.”

“But you didn’t? Why not?” His eyes narrowed; he was trying to read her.

Opening her mouth to respond, she had to force herself to lie. The bond between them made it more difficult than she could have imagined. “Because I didn’t want her to get into trouble. The sheriff would never have accepted she was acting in self-defence.”

“She wasn’t.”

“You went there to steal from her again. You just never expected her to have a gun.”

“I did not go there to steal from her,” he protested.

“Then why were you there? Isn’t breaking into her barn and half destroying it twice enough for you? You had to come back a third time to check you had stolen every bit of valuable equipment from her?” She was angry now, making it easier to fight the bond.

“Once. We broke into there
once
.” He sounded convincing, and his eyes looked honest and true. But Kira had seen the damage inflicted on the second raid.

“Don’t lie. Unless you want me to leave you here in the dirt.”

“I’m not lying. Why would I?” he said, his face creased with pain, but still he insisted. “You already have me judged and sentenced.”

“
You
already admitted to stealing. So, yes. I do think you are guilty.”

“I’ve changed,” he answered simply.

That knocked her back, but she was still so maddened by him she couldn’t just let it go. “Is that what you want me to believe? That you’ve changed?”

“Yes. I want you to believe it. I want you to believe that I am not a bad person. That what I did before was in the past.” His eyes: they hammered his words into her head; he was willing her to believe him. And she wanted to. But dared she hope?

Not yet. It would take more than words for her to believe him. “Get in the truck. We’ve been here too long.” She glanced up at the hills. A prickling sensation made the hairs on her neck stand on end. This would be the perfect place for an ambush. Then she reminded herself she had one of the raiders here with her, so unless the others were coming to spring their friend from captivity, they had no reason to attack. Unless he was telling the truth and he had broken free of them.

If they had parted on bad terms, he might be more trouble to her now. In his present state, she might be the one fighting for his life. In her head, her wolf stretched, liking the idea of a few broken bones to chew on. It was a good job she was never expected to be a lady.

Confusion. She was his mate. He was absolutely sure of it. What he didn’t know was whether she was like him. Did she have another side? Was there an animal lurking in her head just wanting to get out? He wanted to ask her, needing to know, but her reaction to him being a raider was bad enough; if he then broke the news to her that he was a beast too, well, that might make her bury him alive.

No, he had to try to win her over first, to make her see he was a reformed character and that she could trust him. He breathed in her scent as she opened the truck door and helped him in. He could probably have managed, his wound was feeling much better now, but he liked the feel of her hands on his body as she boosted him up into the passenger seat.

Although she didn’t seem to be quite so enamoured with him and she cursed under her breath at the smudge of blood he left across the seat.

“Thank you,” he said as she buckled his seatbelt for him. Her breasts brushed his thighs, making his cock harden in his pants. If she noticed, she didn’t say a word. Only a grunt as she slammed the door shut and went around to climb in beside him.

The truck lurched forward, jolting his poor, injured body, but he didn’t mind so much now. Not when she was so close. If he breathed in deeply, her scent acted like a painkiller; adrenaline pumped around his body as he imagined chasing her down and mating with her. If he wasn’t injured, that was exactly what his wolf would do. And enjoy every earth-shattering moment of it.

“Quit staring.”

He snapped his head round to look out of the window, not realising he had been leaning towards her, his tongue hanging out at the taste of her flesh on his lips. If he wanted to take things slowly, he needed to rein in his behaviour and act civilised, not like a lovesick wolf. But heck, he
was
a lovesick wolf.

She stopped the truck, getting out without a word to go around and open the gate that blocked the track. Then she climbed back in and drove forward, stopping on the other side to shut it. The whole episode gave him ample time to take in the wonderfully curvy figure of his mate. Now that he saw her properly, he couldn’t believe he had taken her for the old woman. There was nothing old about her at all.

“You’re staring again.”

“Sorry.” He cleared his throat, wanting to talk to her, but his mind went blank.

“How’s your shoulder feeling?” she asked, a sideways glance at him making his insides go all wobbly. He was a wimp in the biggest way imaginable around this woman.
His woman
. Yeah, that would explain his reactions. Soft and malleable in her hands. Unless he toughened up.

That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon when his wolf was wagging its tail like a big puppy dog.

“Better,” he replied. “I think the bleeding has stopped again.”

“She didn’t mean to kill you. I want you to know that.”

“Really? It doesn’t feel like that.” He winced as he flexed his arm. “It feels as though she was aiming for my heart and she got lucky.”

She chuckled. “If she was aiming for your heart, she would have hit it. Fara is one of the best shots around.”

“I’m glad it amuses you,” he said, but liked the sound of her laugh.

“Shame she never pulled it on you-all the first time. Might have made you think twice about hitting a poor old lady again.”

“How many times do I have to tell you? The second time, it wasn’t me.”

“And today?” She looked at him again, igniting the fire in his belly and increasing the blood flow to his cock.

He went over it again, willing her to believe him. “I went to ask her if I could help her. You know, to say sorry for what I did.”

Now she laughed hard. “That is the biggest load of horseshit I ever heard.”

“It’s the truth. I went for an early run, and I don’t know… I decided that it was time to start taking things seriously. I want to be part of the community here, and it seemed the best place to start.”

“There is no community in Wolf Valley. It all went south years ago.”

“When the old alpha died?” he asked, and noticed her stiffen.

“Not at first.” There was a hitch in her voice, things she didn’t want to tell him. Well, he could bide his time. “Then a new sheriff took over, and things went downhill very rapidly. All the good people got out while they could. Now people are afraid to leave, but don’t want to stay.”

“The sheriff?” Cole hadn’t heard about him. “Isn’t he supposed to keep law and order?”

“He does,” she said bitterly. “His own kind of law and order anyway. Bribes, that kind of thing. For anyone who isn’t in his pocket, it’s hell.”

“Then it’s about time there was a new alpha in Wolf Valley.”

She laughed again; this time there was no humour in it. “That is the mystery. Who is the next alpha? No one knows, and I think people have given up waiting for him.”

Maybe he’s closer than you think,
Cole thought as he looked at his new mate. He had beaten Riley in the race to be the new alpha. But strangely, he didn’t feel the need to rush over there and gloat. All he wanted to do was lie in the arms of his woman.

While his cock was buried deep inside her, of course.

From what he said, she had him all wrong. But dare she believe a word he said? In her eyes, he was a thief; and now he had his mate in his sights, he might be willing to lie to get what he wanted.

Mentally shaking off all the questions she had, Kira kept her eyes on the track leading to her small cabin. Forcing herself to focus, she went through all the items she would have to gather together to patch up his shoulder. In theory, his wolf blood should be helping mend it already, but when she risked a glance at his face, his pale skin told her it was going to need a helping hand to make sure it healed without any infection setting in.

Swinging the truck around a left bend, the track opened up into a wider area where she parked. Turning off the ignition, she was out of the door and round to his side, just as he slid out of the truck. She held out her arms to steady him, and he slumped forward with a groan.

“Thank you,” he ground out.

“That bad?” she asked, letting him put his arm around her and trying not to let her knees buckle. Not under his weight, but under the pressure of his touch. It made her heart zing and her breath quicken. She tried not to think of what it did to other, more intimate, parts of her body.

“A little. Not sure if it’s trying to heal from the inside out, but it burns. I think the blow to the head is the worst, though. Throbs.” He looked as if was going to pass out. Then he took a deep breath and said, “OK. Let’s go.”

One slow step at a time, she helped him to her porch, helping him transfer his weight so he could lean against the wall while she took out her keys.

“How many locks do you need?” he asked as she opened the third lock.

“Enough to keep people out.” She was going to follow it up with berating him again about the raids he had done on houses in the area, but his face told her he already got it.

“Sorry.” He grimaced as he shuffled through the doorway. “I need to explain it all to you.”

“No need.” She took his arm and led him to the sofa, where he collapsed with a sound of a wounded animal.

“Yes. There is. Something happened and although it doesn’t excuse what we did, it may go some way to helping you forgive me.”

“I don’t need to forgive you. Once you’re patched up, you can go on your way.”

“Wait. No, I can’t.”

“Why not? I only brought you here to save Fara getting into trouble. If you want my forgiveness, then you get better and let this go.” She felt wicked for leading him on. The way her body felt, right now she would drag him to bed rather than kick him out of the house. But he didn’t need to know that. Not yet, at least.

Was she bad for wanting him to suffer? When he was in such pain?
Maybe
.

“I won’t ever breathe a word of what happened. But I am not going to just walk out of here Kira. I want you to understand that.”

“No. I’ll drive you. Just as soon as you are feeling better.” She smiled sweetly and then left the room before he had a chance to speak. Keeping up this pretence was going to be harder than she thought. Her wolf wanted to rip his clothes off. With her teeth.

Going to the bathroom, she got down the first-aid kit and opened it, checking it had everything she needed. It looked good, considering she couldn’t remember the last time she had used it. Now all she needed were some towels and boiling water.

Taking the items she had collected to the sitting room, she checked on him before heading to the kitchen. There she put the kettle on, deciding that she might as well make coffee too. It would help clear her head and wake her up. She needed to get him well. Because despite her words, the pull to be with him was stronger with each passing moment.

Inside, her wolf wanted to know how long it would be before he was fit enough to mate with. She shut the little she-wolf out of her thoughts, because it made her hands tremble. Her desire for him was kicking up a notch now they were in the house. Images of him naked in her bed crept in, no matter how many barriers she put up.