Steel: Blue Collar Wolves #3 (Mating Season Collection) (2 page)

Reframe. Regroup. Don’t let him turn this on you.

Breathing deep, pushing the unease of how easily this creature set her alight, Regan looked back. “You’re alpha?”

“Are you asking me or telling me, hunter?” His stance changed, became more aggressive as he pushed away from the wall, no longer leaning against it. “I wasn’t expecting to walk out a bar and get shot at. Where are your partners?”

Now she looked away in defiance. The world outside the lacy curtains was only trees from what she could see, no other houses. More importantly, though the window was open, there was no sounds of cars or voices of people. It seemed she was isolated here.

The creak of a floorboard heralded his coming closer, and though she thought she’d prepared herself, her muscles jumped and bunched, awaiting what he was going to do next.

And then he was there, crouching above her, his nose above her ear, following her jaw down to her throat, and she held fast, forbidding herself to arch her neck and show the length to him.

His breath was hot, prickling her skin tight where it settled against her. “Tell me your name,” and the sensual command in his voice had a vision of her turning her head, pressing her mouth against those full lips, feel the dark stubble lining his chin and cheek against her own naked skin.

Everything in her was responding to him. Those glowing gold eyes were beckoning her to look into them, that dark voice had her biting back the vision of pressing those lips against her and letting the deep rumble seep into her skin.

Take you away in the night, as you scream…

This wasn’t
her
! None of this was her. She didn’t react this way to anyone,
period
. The wolf was doing something to her, something that she’d never come across in her dealing with his kind. What the…

Calm.

Whatever it was, she’d fight it, she’d end him, and she’d move on to the next werewolf on her list. It’s what she did. This new – trick, whatever – wasn’t going to change that.

But if that’s how he wanted to play…
yeah
, that she could do. Turning her head back, her gaze meeting his, their mouths inches away, she said “Why do you need a name, wolf? Want to know who’s going to have you on your knees at the end of it all?”

A low rumble sounded from his chest, the vibrations producing electric sparks within her. “Oh Red, you would
love
me on my knees, and I,” and here he tiled his head down, that golden gaze stroking her body like a physical touch, “can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.”

Resisting the urge to swallow hard, she jutted her chin out. “A wolf on his knees? Aren’t you afraid you’d be thought of as a bitch?”

If the jab hit him at all, he didn’t show it. His lip curled on one side, the indent producing the shadow of a dimple near his mouth. His voice was a lazy drawl. “More like the envy of any male with a working dick and an appreciation of the female form. Want me to demonstrate, Red? Want me to show how well I can
eat
you?”

Like hell he’d see how tempted she was to lay back and let him prove it. “Do you see a basket of goodies? Hate to break it to you, but you don’t do it for me, wolf.”

With the damn reflexes wolves were known for, he twisted away from her and landed on his feet at the side of the bed, but his eyes remained fixed on her face. “Fight it all you want, Red. But as much as you’d like to deny it, I’m one wolf you don’t mind having around.”

‡

S
teel shut the
door, leaning against it for a moment before pushing away, getting needed distance before want overrode reason and he made the mistake of going back in there.

His true mate. His fucking
true mate
was a hunter. Fuck his life.

She was…
God
, she was everything he’d hoped. Gorgeous, yeah, just his type, tall and strong and athletic, lean muscle hugging those sumptuous legs that would wrap around his waist and demand he wear her out.

His traitorous dick gave a jump with the thought of those legs, that strength, forcing him to work to keep her under him, waiting for the right moment to toss him on his back and hold him down, taking her time using him out and laughing as she made him beg.

Now in the kitchen, he leaned his head against the cool countertop, reigning in his unruly thoughts.

Fuck, Iron deserved to be
alpha
if he’d been denying himself while feeling this for twenty years. How the fuck had he’d been so strong? Less than twenty-four hours with
his
true mate, and Steel was ready to crawl out of his skin with the want of her, his fingers begging to map out every inch of her flesh, his tongue dying to know her taste – the taste of her tongue, the taste of her pussy. He wanted to glut himself on both.

Her smell was still buried within his brain, and every inhale he could still pick up the faint edges of it, spicy and strong and sweet…
fuck
, such a sexy sweetness, begging him to devour her, to drown in her, to wrap that red hair in his fist and pull her head back while he pounded into her, watching her ass bounce with every thrust against her.

In a violent motion, he pushed himself away from the counter, raking both hands through his hair. He couldn’t focus on her anymore, couldn’t keep imagining her – he’d go mad with it.

But it wasn’t only her gorgeousness that was fucking with him. Those green eyes were cunning, intelligent in a way most humans weren’t. There were plans upon plans being formed there, strategies and questions and contingencies. As a hunter, she probably thought he was too stupid to notice, nothing but an animal to her. Fuck’s sake, he he’d have to be blind not to get she was planning something.

On her, she carried the scent of gunpowder and the metallic tang of weapons, and damned if it didn’t harden his dick as much as that lush mouth or those long legs.

She was pissed enough that she’d use those weapons on him right now if she could. He could see it,
smell it
. She was blindsided by their bond, and fighting hard against the attraction for an enemy.

Hell if he could explain the strength of it. Maybe it had to do with the mating season, or the adrenaline of meeting your true mate while they were trying to kill you. Damned if he knew. Other wolves managed to hold on for months – years – after meeting their true mate, but him, fuck, he was
shaking
, his entire body vibrating with the need to be around her, to wrap around her and bury himself balls deep.

He needed the Zen Iron was always claiming he possessed to start showing up about now. His true mate was a
hunter
. How the fuck was he going to convince her werewolves weren’t animals when he was acting like this?

Shit
, the need to go back into that room and scent her was a tingle racing up his spine, and no amount of squirming could shake it off.

Maybe a run would help…

Discarding clothes, Steel shifted and ran into the woods.

‡

“H
ey! Where are
you?” Regan pulled at the cuffs again, cursing both the wolf and her bladder. If she peed the bed because that damn wolf had forgotten about her…well, she’d think of something.
“Hey!”

Where the hell was he? She’d been calling out for about five minutes now and no answer. He wouldn’t have forgotten about her, would he? Leave her here to die? If that’s what he wanted, he would have killed her straight out, right?

The door burst open, and the wolf dwarfed the doorway, filling it with his huge body…his huge,
naked
body. “What the fuck?” Regan said, averting her eyes, but the image was probably going to stay with her until her dying day. Why was it, in meeting the most attractive male she’d ever seen in her life, he was a fucking wolf? If she’d met him at a bar, he would’ve been in her bed and under her before the bartender would’ve even had a chance to pour the first drink.

“See something interesting, Red?” The shit-eating grin was strong in his voice, but since she couldn’t flip him off, she stayed still right now. “You can look as much as you like. I don’t mind.”

“I’m not interested. And if you’re keeping me here, you might want to consider my needs – food, bathroom time. Pretend to be a good host instead of harassing me.” The words flew past her lips in her usual snarky tone before a moment’s consideration if it was a good idea or not. He was a wolf, an enemy, and yet she was comfortable with him in a way she was with no one else, save Bethie. It was there, heart-deep, a small seed planted when she first heard his voice, and it grew while he was gone, though it wasn’t until seeing him again that she realized how much.

There was a pause, and when he spoke again, his voice was contrite. “I’m sorry. I was out running in the other form when I heard you yell and I needed to make sure you were okay. It’s why I’m not dressed. I should’ve left when I realized all was good.” With that, his soft, fading steps and the fact she could breathe again told her he left the room.

Dammit!
She didn’t want an apology. She wanted him to be an ass, so this weird pull didn’t dig its claws any deeper into her. Now, instead of thinking on that hard body or that thick cock dangling between his legs, now the only thing she could focus on was the panic on his face when he burst into her room.

She couldn’t start thinking of him as human, with regrets and mistakes and apologies mixed in. He was enemy. He was wolf.

And now he was back, above her, one large hand circling her wrist, and an electric current passed through her, had her fighting herself against pressing into that touch.

He seemed affected as well, the hand trembling, the fingers giving the smallest stroke over the thin skin of her pulse point, releasing a wave of heat through her, and her breath hitched at the sensation.

He paused, his fingers tightening fractionally, though he didn’t look at her. After a moment he went to release her other wrist, this time more abrupt, more business-like, and pulled back as soon as she was free.

Regan rose, stretching the stiffness out of her back, raising her arms overhead and reaching high. It was nice to move again, but she was aware of his eyes on her, and she finished as soon as possible.

She stood, and felt dwarfed by him in a way she never did before with her own five-ten height. Wolves tended to be on the bigger side in general with some exceptions, but he wasn’t the tallest she’d ever seen, or the broadest. No, it was more the intensity of those gold eyes that made his presence fill the space, making everything shrink and shy away from it. It made her want to curl up next to him and have him protect her from the world. It made her want to defy him…and see what he’d do to punish her.

She shook her head, as if that would clear the crazy tangle and swirl of emotions and thoughts that rioted about. “Bathroom?” she said, the edge in her voice more pronounced than she meant to make it.

He turned. She followed. There were old photographs on the pale blue walls, some of them going back to the ‘20’s and ‘30’s if she was any judge of fashion. The carpet was pale and soft, the wood gleamed, and overall the house had the feel of something a bit older but well maintained.

He stopped in front of a door. “Yeah, there’s a window, but I don’t recommend trying to escape. I’ll be standing right here waiting for you.”

“Girls like privacy.”

“And wolves don’t like hunters roaming free.”

Well, that was clear enough. Regan gave a small nod and walked into the bathroom. It took only a few minutes to complete her business and wash up with the washcloth and toothbrush laid out for use. A shower would be nice, but she’d have to skip for now.

What was she going to do? She needed to stop reacting all the time and make some damn plans.

The wolf seemed to like her, and more than seemed when it came to being attracted to her. Her own attraction to him was screwing with her usual thinking processes, but she needed to use this against him, get him relaxed and unguarded so she could at the very least escape, and take him out first if possible.

Her hand paused mid-brush.
Take him out.
It was so sanitized, saying it that way. Kill him, that’s what she was going to do. Put a hole in him, and watch as he bled out, as the light left his eyes and the color left his skin.