Taken by the Wolf: Collection (7 page)

Unfortunately, these things had become more and more common. The Red Moons didn’t respect anyone and the Oakdales wanted to be as close to their roots as possible. It wasn’t a good combination.

Rowan didn’t have much tolerance for this BS. He told the kids to get lost and told the rancher the first time he shot someone unlawfully, he would never see the light of day again. Both were pissed at him, but Rowan didn’t give a damn. He was the law.

As he wearily stepped out of his truck, ready for some food and maybe his recliner he heard a door slam. As he looked up he saw Rain running across the street, jetting back to her own house.

“What the hell are they up to?” he growled. He knew he should have called Eden to do this—she wouldn’t have turned this into a girlfriends trip, she would’ve taught Eva like she was supposed to. He’d already seen the credit card charge when he got back to his office in the afternoon and checked his bank statement, and he knew that decision would come back to bite him.

Rowan tried not to let his grumpy mood sour his interaction with Eva as he walked through the back door. She was angry and scared enough; she didn’t need him raging around the house like an ogre. As he started to open the back door he stopped and took a deep breath, trying to calm his fried emotions. It had been a rough two days and things were only going to get more trying.

As he entered the house he instantly became suspicious. All the lights in the house were out, except for the soft glow of candlelight coming from the kitchen. He smiled and made his way to the kitchen, his mind turning over the possibilities.

His lunchbox hitting the ground startled Eva, who spun around from her spot in the kitchen, a sheepish smile flitting across her face. He couldn’t help his reaction: all the frustration of the day instantly melted as he took in the scene before him. There were several candles on the kitchen table, illuminating a huge spread of mashed potatoes, green beans, dinner rolls and a large ham. The smell of meat drifted to his nose, making his mouth involuntarily water. Dinner wasn’t what had him the most stunned: that honor belonged to Eva. She wore a tight black pencil skirt that hugged her wide hips and perfectly round ass like a second skin. Her long, thick, smooth legs shot out from under the skirt, continuing all the way down to her bright red high heels. His eyes travelled back up, finding her wearing a button up white blouse. It was unbuttoned down to just below her breasts, exposing the full roundness of her chest. She wore bright red lipstick and dark eye shadow that made her sapphire eyes explode in the low light of the kitchen.

He could instantly feel blood rushing to his staff, bringing him almost to full attention as he studied the beauty in front of him. She looked perfect, absolutely perfect. He had told the council he had claimed her to protect her and himself, to explain the reason he had brought her back to Bucklin instead of just killing her. He didn’t want them to know he thought it was wrong to kill an innocent woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but now, now it wasn’t a lie. As his eyes travelled up and down her body, and his cock ached with desire as he felt his wolf laying claim to her. He knew at that moment he had wanted her all along, and that was why he’d gone to such great lengths to protect her. It wasn’t a ruse: he had laid claim to this stunning beauty.

“I wanted to surprise you,” she said with a nervous smile.

“This is all for me?” he asked, walking over to the table and looking down at the food.

“Yes,” she said.

“Why?” he asked. She had seemed to be mad at him earlier, and now she was cooking him dinner.

“Because you’ve put yourself at risk to protect me,” she said, taking a seat at the table. Rowan quickly followed suit. “All I’ve done is complain about this. I’ve never taken the time to understand why you’re doing this for me.”

“Why
am
I doing this for you?” he asked.

“Because you’re a great guy,” she said, reaching over and touching his hand. He could feel a chill go down his spine as her warm hand contacted his. No woman had ever done that to him before. “You don’t want to see me harmed.”

“I would never let harm befall you at this point,” he said, squeezing her hand and locking onto her eyes. “Never.”

* * *

Eva knew her wolf was serious when he promised to protect her. One look into his eyes revealed the conviction with which he spoke his words; this wasn’t a man who made that declaration lightly. If Rowan said it was going to happen, then it happened. Eva loved that.

It was obvious she wasn’t going home anytime soon, but throughout the day she had come around to the idea of being Rowan’s captive. She had begun to think of it less as captivity and more as being under his protection, which was how he had described it.

She should be so lucky to have such a strong and sexy man be so engrossed in her that he would risk his own life to protect her. Rain had explained it to her as they cooked dinner. When a male wolf felt a strong bond with a female, his inner wolf claimed her. When he claimed her there is no going back: his wolf saw her as his mate and would stop at nothing to protect and please her.

If only human men had such strong convictions when they got into a relationship, she might’ve been married a long time ago.

“Do you like it?” she asked as he took his first bite of ham.

“It’s delicious,” he said. “Did Rain help you with this?”

“Not really,” she said. “I cooked it myself.”

“I knew that girl couldn’t cook,” he said, shoveling food into his mouth. “Where did you learn to cook?”

“From
my
cook,” she said, smiling at him.

“Your cook?” he asked.

“Growing up we had a cook,” she said, looking down and playing with her food. This wasn’t really something she wanted to get into, but Rowan knew nothing about her.

“Were you rich?” he asked.

She’d known that question was coming; it always did.

Eva looked up and sighed, giving Rowan a look of displeasure so harsh he had to break eye contact.

“I’m sorry if it’s a sore subject,” he said. “We can talk about something else.”

“It’s not you,” she said, taking a deep breath and preparing herself. “I just don’t like to talk about my parents. They’re just rich assholes that I don’t think ever cared about me.”

“Why is that?” he asked, leaning forward as he ate. He seemed genuinely interested in her life, a refreshing change.

“My dad’s a bigwig at a natural gas company,” she said.

“Yes,” he muttered. “Big business in this state.”

“Exactly,” she said, pointing at him with her fork. “You’ve got it. So I grew up in a gated community in north Edmond with people to wait on me hand and foot. As long as I can remember, I’ve hated the idea of having butlers and maids and cooks. I hated the fact that a bodyguard drove me to school rather than my own parents. I rarely saw my father, and my mother was usually too busy trying to get in at every country club she could. I gravitated towards the help and I learned to take care of myself.”

“Well, they did a good job teaching you to cook,” he said, showing her his empty plate. “I want more.”

“Did you inhale that?” she asked, her eyes growing wide. They hadn’t been talking that long and already he’d cleaned his plate.

Rowan just laughed and began heaping more food onto his plate. Werewolf metabolisms had to be really fast.

“So you don’t talk to your parents anymore?” Rowan asked.

“I haven’t in close to a year,” Eva said, pushing a piece of ham around on her plate.

“Why not?” he asked.

“I guess daddy’s little girl disappointed him too much,” she said.

“Go on,” he said, a look of concern on his face.

No man had ever wanted to listen to Eva talk about herself this much, and she was shocked.

“Well, I went to college and met a guy named Jason. I thought it was love at first sight. He was from a poor family in the city, nothing like mine. My parents objected to our being together from the start, because my dad wanted to set me up with one of his business contacts’ sons. I went on one date with Stuffy McStufferson and I wouldn’t have any of it. I thought Jason was the guy for me. My dad cut me off from all of his money, even wrote me out of the will.”

“That’s awful,” Rowan said, a look of disgust on his face. “I don’t know how a parent could treat their child that way.”

“Me either,” she said, trying to fight back the rage she always felt when thinking about her parents. “I had to drop out of school because I couldn’t afford it on my own. Jason promised to marry me and put me back through school. I thought I loved him, but he was just a self-centered asshole who wanted to control me.”

“What happened to him?” he asked.

“I caught him in bed with another girl when I came home early from work,” she said. “He didn’t even act remorseful. He was mad at me for being there when I wasn’t supposed to be.”

“That’s no way for a man to act,” he said, shaking his head.

“I haven’t talked to him since,” she said. “Lord knows he hasn’t tried.”

Rowan looked over at her and smiled. “Nobody will hurt you here. I promise.”

Eva instantly felt better about being here now. Maybe this was the start of something new, something great. Her life had been a mess before; she was trying to make it completely on her own. Now she had someone, a partner who would support her. The idea of being stuck in Bucklin was instantly more appealing. Rain was right; she just had to find the way to Rowan’s heart.

“What about your parents?” she asked, trying to find out something about her mysterious host.

Rowan’s face instantly went dark; this was obviously a sore subject with him, too. He put his fork down and took a deep breath before looking at her with pain in his big brown eyes. “My mother and father both died trying to protect us from Satan’s Angels.”

“Oh my god,” Eva said, instantly regretting her question. “I’m so sorry.”

“My father was alpha of the Dawnguard pack,” he said, his hands balling into fists. “Aster’s parents ran out on him, nobody knows why. My father raised him like my brother. When he died we were devastated, but we managed to negotiate peace with the gang, not wanting any more bloodshed here in Bucklin. That’s how Aster became alpha.”

“Rain said you could’ve had it if you wanted it,” she said.

“She’s right,” Rowan said. “I just wasn’t ready at that time. I was too devastated by the loss of my parents and sister.”

“Sister?” Eva asked.

“I’m sorry,” Rowan said, looking back up at her. “I need a minute.”

“Rowan, wait,” Eva said as he got up and began to stomp out of the room. “I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

“How could you have known?” Rowan said, looking down the hallway, not turning his gaze back to Eva. “Dinner was amazing. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Eva watched him disappear from sight and then heard his door shut. How could someone so strong have a wound so deep?

Chapter 10

Rowan sat on the edge of his bed, not sure why he had reacted the way he had. His sensitive ears caught Eva walking to his door, stopping just outside. He could hear her breathing ever so slightly as she waited outside his door. Perhaps she was trying to find the right words? He never found out because she walked away just as quickly as she’d come.

It still hurt to think about the sacrifice he’d made to save Bucklin. The image of her eyes, her beautiful blue eyes as she climbed on the back of that motorcycle, tore him apart at night. He didn’t dream as much in wolf form: it was one of the reasons he always shifted before bed.

“I forgive you, Rowan,” she said, as the motorcycle pulled away.

Sometimes he fell asleep at his desk during slow days. He always woke up in a cold sweat with those words playing through his head. Eva couldn’t understand: she was an only child as far as he knew. She hated her family, but she didn’t know the pain of losing them all, the pain of sacrifice.

As he lay in bed staring at the ceiling he heard Eva putting the food away and cleaning the dishes. It had been a lovely meal, one he would never forget. She’d been good to him already, and he had to be the same to her. After several more minutes he heard Eva go to her bedroom and shut the door, retiring for the night.

She was his now, and he had to be good to her. Eventually she would learn the truth, learn what only Aster knew. Hopefully she would still love him: hopefully she wouldn’t recoil in fear and disgust like he imagined anyone else would. If he was good to her, she would accept him and his past.

With a heavy sigh Rowan stood up and stripped all of his clothes off, opening his door a crack to let a little air into the room before he shifted
.
It always felt great as the hair sprouted over his body and his snout elongated. It was like he was removing a suit of armor at the end of the day, finally able to stretch out and let his body breathe.

It didn’t take long for sleep to grab at him, pulling him down into the abyss. As a wolf he didn’t dream like a human. His dreams didn’t form a coherent narrative like a human’s would. Fast-paced images, strong smells and vivid sounds filled his dreams, assaulting every sense his wolf held dear. If a human could experience a wolf’s dreams, they might go insane, for he was taken to the mouth of madness every night that he slept.

Yet there was something calming about it, something that brought peace to Rowan’s heart. Every day he moved farther and farther away from his animalistic nature. Every day that he wrote somebody a ticket, pulled a speeder over or mediated a land dispute he became more and more human. But his dreams were primal, instinctive, natural. And tonight they were interrupted against his will.

His eyes popped open and he let out a low growl, not sure what was in his house. He heard the creak of his door opening as a figure stood in his doorway. He stood up on the bed, the springs groaning in protest at the weight of the giant wolf standing on them. His lips curled back, revealing a row of white, razor sharp teeth. A low growl escaped his throat as he stared at the doorway, expecting a enemy to walk through. Slowly, his senses adjusted to being awake. His nose picked up the familiar scent of arousal, the scent of beauty. His eyes focused, finding a blonde goddess standing in his doorway, wearing nothing but a white t-shirt and a pair of black cotton panties.