Secret Seduction: BBW Werewolf Romance (Wolf Pack Protectors Book 1) (6 page)

Ryker tipped to one side and she slid off. She staggered and sat down hard on a nearby boulder.

Ryker and the others shifted.

“Who are we missing?” He looked frantically around the group.

She counted seven other wolves. Oh God, four were missing.

One of the men spoke, “I saw Idan go down.”

“Lonan too.”

“And Jax.”

Ryker paled. “Where’s Trent?”

Diana looked around the group. He wasn’t there.

“Did anyone see him go down?” Ryker asked frantically.

Several wolves responded at once. “No.”

Ryker took two steps in the direction they’d come from then stopped.

Trent staggered out from a thick patch of trees. He bent over with his hands on his thighs. He panted as he struggled to speak. “It was him…the man who attacked us…also attacked Gwen.”

One of the older men stepped forward. “I’m going back for my son. I want to bury his body.”

Ryker held up a hand. “Wait. We should split up just in case Zane’s still out there.”

Surprised he’d remembered his name, Diana perked up. “What can I do to help?”

“Nothing,” snapped the older man. “You’ve done enough.”

Ryker addressed the grieving father. “Clyde, it wasn’t her fault. With or without her, we still would have gone into the town tonight to look for Gwen’s attacker.”

Clyde grunted.

Trent stepped forward. “He’s right. It wasn’t her fault. Let’s take a minute to get our heads together then we’ll go back. Ryker, can I speak with you privately?”

The two men walked out of earshot. Diana knew they were talking about her because they kept gesturing in her direction.

Finally Ryker stepped back into the group. “Trent’s going to take Diana back to the den.”

“What?” Clyde gave her a look filled with so much malice, she cowered against a boulder.

Ryker put a hand on Clyde’s shoulder. “I’ll make this right. I don’t care what it takes. We’ll find and kill the man who murdered your son.”

Clyde pressed his lips together until they formed a thin, pale slash across his mouth. He nodded and turned his back on the group. His shoulders shook as if he was crying, but he didn’t make a sound.

Ryker turned to Trent. “I’ll be back within the hour. Do not let her out of your sight.”

Chapter 6

More than an hour had passed since Ryker left Diana in Trent’s custody. The beta wolf took his job very seriously and paced back and forth just inside the entrance to Ryker’s room.

Diana also couldn’t sit still, so she wandered around the room. Finally she couldn’t stand the silence anymore. “He’s been gone too long. Do you think something happened?”

Trent ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know.”

“If something happens to him...”

“Nothing will happen to him. He’s twice as smart as anyone in the pack, and twice as fast.”

Ryker pushed back the curtain. “I never thought I’d hear you say that.”

“Oh thank God.” Diana flung herself into his arms.

She stepped back and scrutinized every inch of his body.

“Did you catch him?” Trent asked.

“No. He was gone by the time we got back, which might be a good thing.” Ryker opened his fist. In the center of his palm lay a large leaf. He carefully peeled it back to reveal two crushed bullets.

Trent peered down at them. “Silver?”

“Yes.”

“I haven’t seen silver bullets in years. Where did you find them?”

“Lodged in trees. We brought the wolves’ bodies back. I asked Akila to look to see if the bullets that killed them were silver too.”

Trent frowned. “We have to be extra careful now. We can’t get hit by those at all. A simple flesh wound will be fatal.”

“I know. That’s why we need to wait and regroup before attacking again. We need a plan to catch the man off guard. Lure him into the woods and get the gun away from him.”

“Do you want to call a council meeting? The other packs should at least be warned about the bullets.”

Ryker nodded. “I want to call a council meeting as soon as possible.”

Trent punched his fist against his other palm. “Then we create a plan to kill him.”

“Get some rest. We’re going to need it to fight the enemy.”

Trent exited the room leaving her alone with Ryker. She hurried to his side. “What can I do to help?”

Ryker sat on the edge of his bed and patted the empty space next to him. “Just lie here with me. The only thing I need right now is to know that you’re safe.”

***

As the night dragged on, Diana tossed and turned on the dais. Every time she closed her eyes she watched the wolves die over and over. Tears dripped down her face. She’d put the wolves in jeopardy by running back into the forest. Because of her, three wolves were dead.

Ryker shifted in the bed beside her. “Can’t sleep?”

She rolled over to face him. “No. I keep seeing their faces. This is all my fault.”

His strong arms pulled her close. “No, you couldn’t have known he was armed with silver bullets.”

“But, when he ran toward me, if I hadn’t run into the—”

“—if you hadn’t run, he would have killed you and still killed the other wolves. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost you too.”

The hollow pit in her stomach ached, but it was nothing compared to the anguish in his eyes. She’d give anything to take his pain away.

She reached out to graze his cheek with her hand.

He closed his eyes. “We should get some sleep.”

In the day she’d spent with him, something magical had happened and she wasn’t ready to let him go.

She cupped his face and pressed her lips firmly against his. He groaned and parted his lips. She took it as an invitation and deepened the kiss.

The first electric shock of his tongue against hers ratcheted up her desire. She wanted to capture his tongue, ravish him with her mouth, and send him to a place so filled with pleasure he’d never want to return.

She didn’t know what had come over her. She wasn’t ever this aggressive in or out of bed. But this felt so natural and so right, she refused to question it.

Ryker laced his hands behind her neck and drew her on top of him. Afraid she would crush him, she tried to pull away.

“Lie on me.” His voice was rough with need.

“I’ll crush you.”

He laughed. “Not a chance. You’re perfect, and I want you.”

She lowered herself until they melted together. Skin to skin, she took in a shuddering breath. She’d never felt so eager, so hungry for a man’s touch.

His hands smoothed across her back and slid lower to cup her butt. The hard length of him pressed against her belly. She smiled, knowing she’d made him as hard as stone.

As much as she wanted to take him deep inside, she didn’t want to rush. She wanted to taste every inch of him.

Starting with his neck, she nibbled along the side of his throat. He moaned and pulled her tighter against him.

As she traveled lower, she tasted the ridge of his collar bone. The salty heated skin enflamed her desire. Her hands kneaded and stroked his muscular chest. She started to slide lower but he rolled her underneath him.

His breath tickled her neck. “My turn.”

She opened her legs to let him nestle between them. His cock pressed against her, but he didn’t make a move to enter.

Instead, he nuzzled the side of her neck just below her ear. She gasped as his hands found her taut nipples. He gently ran his nails across her breasts in ever-increasing circles.

She needed him to smooth away the horrible images locked in her mind. With every kiss, with every caress of his hands, he transformed her despair into a hunger so intense it threatened to consume her.

“Please.” She whimpered.

“Not yet, not until I’ve tasted you.”

At first she didn’t understand what he meant, but as he kneeled between her legs and dipped his head toward the apex of her thighs, she knew.

His tongue brushed against her. A moan borne of pure lust escaped her lips. He swirled and dipped and took his time coaxing her to the point of climax, then stopped.

He didn’t make her wait.

He crawled up and sealed her lips with a hungry kiss. As he eased into her, she arched to take all of him. He stayed still for a moment, allowing her body to adjust to him.

She quivered against him. He took her with long strokes filled with passion. No one had ever made love to her like this. In that moment, she felt as if their souls melded together into one.

The look in his eyes told her he felt the same. He murmured something she couldn’t make out against her lips.

The sweetness of her release came perfectly timed with his. He held her close as he shuddered and spilled into her.

He rolled onto his side then pulled her into the curve of his body. With a content sigh, she fell asleep in his arms.

***

Zane parked his truck in the place where Diana ran into the woods. He grabbed the silver-bullet-loaded gun from the glove box. A pair of binoculars dangled around his neck. He zipped his coat against the chill in the air and stalked into the forest.

It took him an hour to find the meadow where the wolf man had kept him from fulfilling his sacred duty of smiting the wicked. A wolf howled in the distance. His lips twitched into a smile as he turned toward the sound. He trudged through the forest. He’d never stop until he sent every last werewolf to hell.

Chapter 7

In a sleepy haze, Diana pressed her back against Ryker’s warm chest. A hint of light filtered down from the skylight in the ceiling of the room, illuminating specks of dust in the air. She couldn’t have been asleep for more than a few hours. Filled with passion, Ryker had made love to her most of the night. Like a sex-starved nymphet, she’d matched his intensity until she’d melted into a puddle of ecstasy.

She snuggled against him as he wrapped a strong arm around her. She hadn’t noticed the workout he’d given her until now. Her thighs still burned from where she’d wrapped them around his hips. Her arms hung limp at her side. She’d probably done the equivalent of a thousand pushups during the last few hours.

Ryker’s slow, easy breaths meant he was awake. She wondered if he was thinking about her, or about the attack on the other wolves. Their wounded cries still rang in her ears, but she tried to push the phantom sounds away. If she could go back, she’d have gone to town herself and not led the pack into danger.

He pulled her tightly against him. “I could stay like this forever.”

She turned to face him and searched for any hint of anger in his eyes. He’d told her the attack wasn’t her fault and intellectually she believed him, but emotionally, she still felt responsible.

She propped herself up on one arm. “What if we could stay like this? Ignore the town, never go back.”

He sighed. “You can’t stay here. The other wolves are furious that I brought you back to the den.”

“Trent didn’t seem angry.”

“Even when he doesn’t agree with me, he never defies my orders. He’d never disagree with me in public.”

She looked away. “Oh.”

His fingers clasped her chin gently as he turned her face toward him. “We both know it could never work between us. You’re human, I’m wolf. We’re not meant to live together.”

“So last night was a mistake?”

As he caressed her cheek, his eyes shimmered in the pale sunlight. “Not a mistake, but we shouldn’t pretend we could ever be more.”

She rolled toward the wall to hide her face. She couldn’t let him see the despair in her eyes. He was right; they were from different worlds and it was delusional to think she could live with the pack. But she was here with him now. She could enjoy the solace of his touch now and worry about forgetting him later.

She turned back to him and ran her fingers over the ridges and valleys of his six-pack abs. “Well then, we should enjoy what little time we do have together.”

He groaned and pulled her on top of him. She dipped her head and licked the outer edge of his earlobe. She loved the way he shivered beneath her. To think that she could reduce an alpha wolf to a quivering, needy man filled her with a potent sense of power.

She lightly raked her nails across his chest as she nibbled the side of his neck. His cock pressed against her inner thigh. Slick with desire, she rubbed against him but didn’t move to let him inside.

His deep voice rumbled in his chest. “You’re such a tease.”

“But you like it.” She nipped at his throat with her teeth.

He growled and scrambled to his knees. He maneuvered her until she was on her hands and knees, then wrapped an arm around her torso. Damp heat from his breath caressed the nape of her neck. With his knee, he parted her thighs. She leaned forward knowing exactly what he wanted.

As he entered her from behind, she rocked back to meet him. His hands slid up from her belly to clutch her breasts. He teased the plump nipples until she cried out.

Intoxicated, she ignored the soreness in her thighs. She battled with her balance as he took her with rough, deep strokes. His animalistic nature shone through in the way he clutched her hips, in the way he panted against her shoulder, in the way he buried himself deep inside her.

The spark of pleasure nestled in her moist flesh grew until she couldn’t hold back another second. Tremors racked her body as electric waves of release rippled throughout every inch of her being.

Behind her, Ryker swore as he spilled into her. His hands held her hips against his as he shuddered and moaned. Spent, he rolled onto his back and pulled her down to cover him.

She laid her head on his chest and listened to the pounding of his heart. The drumbeat reminded her to be careful; she couldn’t risk falling for the werewolf.

***

Ryker cradled Diana in his arms and cursed his lack of control. He knew better than to lead her on, but when she’d come at him with those bright brown eyes and delicious lips, he couldn’t resist.

The heady scent of her slick heat made him want to devour every inch of her with his ravenous sexual appetite. It had been too long. That’s why he was out of control. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d given in to the dark pull of his feral desires.

In the five years since Trista’s death, he’d been with other wolves, but never another human. What the hell was he thinking? He’d failed to protect Trista and he’d fail Diana too. He needed to get his head together before his failures destroyed another innocent woman.

He slid out of Diana’s tangled embrace. “I should get going. We can’t wait until dark to warn the other packs. I should have sent Trent last night, but he was too shaken up. I should be back by sundown if everything goes well.”

Diana sat up and leaned against the wall. “Do you think the others will help us?”

He wanted to remind her that there was no “us” but let it go. “It would be in the best interest of the other packs if their alphas agree to send additional wolves to help fight Zane.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No. Just stay here and don’t leave the room. I’ll have Akila bring you some food.”

As he turned to leave, he heard her jump off the bed. He stopped at the curtain that closed off the entrance to the room.

“Wait,” she called.

He turned to watch her slink across the room. With each step, her full hips swung from side to side. His mouth went dry as her full breasts swayed. He’d never seen anyone so sexy, so beautiful. His heart pounded as she stood on tiptoes and pressed a warm, wet kiss to his lips.

“For luck,” she whispered.

He tasted the sweetness of her lips. He inhaled the raw scent of his seed mingling with her sweat. As much as he wanted to carry her back to bed, his duty was to his pack. They had to come first.

Reluctantly, he ended the kiss. “I’ll be back by sundown.”

Before he could change his mind, he spun and hurried out of the room. The dark corridor gradually grew lighter as he approached the center of the den. He didn’t want to take a huge team into the other pack’s territory, so he carefully stepped over the sleeping wolves as he made his way toward Trent.

As if sensing his presence, Trent’s eyes opened. He was in wolf form so he couldn’t talk, but Ryker knew he could understand him when he said, “Let’s go. If we leave now, we can reach both packs by sundown.”

Trent bobbed his head in acknowledgement, then stood and gingerly walked between the others. While Ryker waited, he shifted into wolf form. The cracking, expanding pressure in his bones sent searing pain down his back. He shook his body vigorously to get the knots out of his muscles. An image flashed through his mind of Diana rubbing and kneading his body, coaxing all the soreness away.

He panted for a second and then slapped his jaw closed. He couldn’t let the other wolves know how she’d affected him. Her scent already radiated from his body, but in the pack sex could mean anything from a deep, loving relationship to a meaningless romp. He cast a sideways glance at Trent and swore he saw the wolf smirk. Whatever. The other wolf probably thought he’d taken Diana in a fit of lust. Let him think what he will. Only Ryker knew the true depth of longing in his heart.

Outside the den, sunlight blazed against the dirt-covered trail. Ryker bounded through the forest toward Phantom Lake where the Phantom Lake Pack lived. At the edge of the pack’s territory, he stopped and sniffed the ground. The wolves had marked the boundary well. Ryker hesitated for a second. The protocol dictated that he stay at the marked boundary until a wolf from the Phantom Lake Pack gave him permission to enter.

To hell with it; he could ask forgiveness later. He leapt over an ancient oak which had been split by lightning. Trent whined but followed close behind. Another rule broken. How many would he break before he returned Diana to Full Moon Bay?

As they rounded a huge gnarled oak, five wolves burst out of the surrounding bushes. Ryker skidded to a halt and Trent collided with him.

One of the other wolves shifted into human form. Ryker recognized Hakan’s perfectly smooth ebony skin and shoulder-length black hair. As he drew closer, Ryker spotted subtle streaks of silver in the man’s hair. The beta of the Phantom Lake pack was aging well for a man in his late forties.

“You better have a very good reason for crossing into our territory without pack permission,” Hakan snapped.

Ryker quickly shifted. “I do. I need to see Kyran. I have news that puts us all in danger.”

“What news?”

“There’s a hunter in Full Moon Bay. He attacked a human woman and one of the women in our pack. When we tried to return the human to her home, Zane, the hunter, shot and killed three of the wolves in my pack.”

Hakan massaged his beard. “We’ve dealt with hunters before, just stay clear of them and eventually they go away.”

“He shot at us with silver bullets.”

Hakan froze. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I had Akila examine the bodies. All three were killed by silver bullets.”

“We haven’t seen that kind of weapon used in this area in over a hundred years.”

“I know. We have a serious problem. As long as Zane is alive, none of the wolves are safe.”

The other wolves howled and paced closer to their beta.

“Silence.” Hakan snapped his fingers and the wolves immediately complied. “I’ll bring you to Kyran.”

Hakan stalked into the woods. Ryker and Trent followed him as the other wolves brought up the rear.

They traveled about twenty minutes before a break in the trees revealed the pack’s namesake, Phantom Lake. With over fifty miles of shoreline, the huge lake dominated the landscape. A swift breeze curled tiny waves into whitecaps. The rolling water glistened with a thousand starbursts of light.

Ryker envied the pack’s resources. Granted, his pack controlled the river, but he wished he’d secured part of the lake when they’d defined pack territories.

They skirted the edge of the lake for about a mile, and then Hakan turned inland. A huge rock formation rose up from the forest floor. Even though the formation looked natural, Ryker could tell it was created by the pack. The boulders fit together a little too well and the entrance was small enough that only one wolf needed to stand guard.

Hakan yelled to the guard. “Stand down.”

The guard sat on his hind legs and watched the group enter the den. The narrow entrance opened to the central room. Ryker had been to the den a few times for council meetings, but he still marveled at the immensity of the space.

Dozens of wolves in all shapes, sizes, and colors slept on the dirt floor. Some wolves curled around their mates while others rested alone.

In the center of the room, a huge raised dais overlooked the pack. Kyran rose to his full human form height of six foot three.

Kyran’s voice boomed in the cavern. “Ryker, to what do we owe the honor?”

“We have a problem.”

“Clearly, otherwise you would have sent Trent instead of coming here yourself.”

Hakan spoke up. “He violated the southern boundary.”

Kyran raised a brow. “Really? This must be important if he’s disregarding the rules he helped create.”

Ryker glanced around the room. Several wolves were awake and staring at him. “I meant no disrespect, but I have an urgent issue. I think its best that we speak privately.”

“Whatever news you have can be shared with my den. There are no secrets here.”

“I really think we should speak privately.”

Kyran tapped his fingers on his leg. The tone in his voice held an angry undertone. “Speak up or get out.”

Ryker didn’t want to start a riot, but Kyran left him no choice. “There’s a hunter from Full Moon Bay who’s killing wolves with silver bullets.”

Pandemonium broke out. All the wolves in human form started shouting questions.

“How did he get the bullets?”

“How many hunters are there?”

“Are we under attack?”

“Silence.” Kyran’s voice boomed over the others.

The crowd’s cries dropped to whispered speculation.

A nerve twitched in Kyran’s cheek. “My room, now.”

Ryker wanted to say, “I told you so,” but kept his mouth shut. He wouldn’t disrespect another alpha, especially in front of the wolf’s pack.

When they were safely inside Kyran’s room, Ryker continued. “We don’t know much about the man other than his name: Zane. We also have a little bit of information from the human he tried to kill, but we don’t know where he lives, or if and when he’ll strike again. Last night he killed three of the strongest wolves in my pack.”