The Last Wolf: A Highplains Shifter Erotic Romance (Wolf Fire Book 1) (3 page)

Hakan did not seem surprised to see me sitting on my own, but then he looked like the kind of man who wouldn’t have been surprised if I turned into a giant purple unicorn. He sat down next to me on the log and we both stared into the flames. I don’t know if it was all the whiskey, or whether after hearing Cassie’s story I was just desperate to feel anything at all, but although nothing was said there was an definitely an energy between us. It was something that I had never felt before, something alive, something crackling like the embers in the fire. He was evidently thinking along similar lines, when he spoke his words jolted into me like lightning bolts.

“There is something caged within you Hope, I can feel it straining to get out. There is something wild and dangerous there and it is calling out to a similar part of me.” I said nothing, I’ve never been very good at the whole
my wild soul calls to yours
conversations.

“I would like to see you set yourself free Hope. I know you want to hide from it, I get the sense that you always have. I want to see you in touch with the beast that rages inside you. You don’t have to embrace it, you don’t have to keep in touch with it when you go back to the city, but while you’re here I want to see if you can make contact with it. You are not the kind of creature who should sit still and watch her life flash by. You should be fighting and clawing for every moment the universe can give you.” He said.

I looked deep into his violet eyes, they seemed even brighter than they had earlier. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” I whispered.

He didn’t say anything just turned to look at me full on. Half his face was hidden in shadow, the other flickered bright in the orange light of the fire. It seemed to accentuate the vividness of his eyes. He slowly reached up and took my chin in his hand, tilting my head back, looking down into what I guessed was my soul, where he thought I kept this dangerous snarling beast of mine.

Somewhere far across the plains an animal cried out, a nonhuman terrifying sound. My eyes flickered away for a second, searching for the source of the noise, and when I looked back his head was bending towards mine, his big soft lips descending towards my own. Now, I know I have a reputation for being a little bit prudish, but I know how the mechanics of a kiss work. You either turn your head aside and dodge it (normally my preferred approach) or you close your eyes, press your lips forward and join the kiss. I did neither and kept my head exactly where it was, wide-eyed and unmoving as our lips softly touched.

I know it’s a cliché, but that kiss really did feel electric, electric like being stuck with a cattle prod. It hit me deep inside in a way that no other kiss had. I had no time for worrying whether I was kissing right, whether he was enjoying it, whether my breath smelt okay, all my normal kissing concerns floated away in the intensity of the moment. My eyes slid closed and my tongue crept out, I realised that this was the kind of feeling that Cassie had been talking about with her surfer. The feeling that you didn’t care what happened to you or your body as long as you are with this one man. I shifted closer to him, pressing myself into his strong arms, but before I knew it he had broken the kiss and was standing up.

“I want you to stay out here for a bit Hope, I want you to look into the flames and listen to the sounds of the plains. I want you to think about who you are and the person you would like to be. I will see you in the morning.”

I would use three words to describe the next day. Hot, boring and long. I had woken up with the electricity still coursing through my abdomen. It made my body feel like it was full of potential that I had never realised it had. I wondered if this is how people like Cassie felt every day, full of sexual excitement, brimming with lusty anticipation.

Though, I have to say Cassie didn’t seem very full of sexual excitement and anticipation that day, the fact she seemed plain old pissed off. We had a strange breakfast, which I’m guessing was totally organic, of beans and a sort of mushy rice thing. Then we were sent out to where we would be working for the day, building a new corral for the beef herd. It was hard, tedious work. But Cassie mainly seemed pissed off that the hunky big-armed, strong-jawed countrymen she’d been fantasising about were nowhere to be seen. Instead our workmates were a collection of ragtag and scraggly hippies, I guess they were exactly the kind of people you would expect to spend their free time working on organic farms. They wore grey little vests that showed off twiggy upper arms, and their weak chins were mostly covered in scraggly pubic-type beards. I had to bite myself to stop myself from laughing at the thought of even one of them trying it on with Cassie, she’d eat them alive.

“I’m sick of this.” Said Cassie after our lunch (more beans). “This is not what it was supposed to be about, where are all the cowboys? Where are all the hunks? Where is your Mr I Bring The Fire Man or whatever is called from last night? I think I want to go home.”

“His name is Hakan, and come on it’s not that bad.” I said.

“Not that bad! For you it’s not that bad! You’ve got that great big hulking man to look forward to. And by the way I cannot believe you didn’t screw him last night AND that you’ve let him out of your sight now. God if it was me I would have been on my back next to the fire quicker than you could say organic beef herd.”

“Oh I know you would Cassie.” I said with a laugh.

“No I’m serious, I was certain you were going to get some last night.” Cassie dropped her voice to a whisper. “Can I tell you something? When I was going to bed I was thinking about the two of you out there, I was thinking about you two and touching myself.”

“Cassie!” I was shocked, “I don’t want you masturbating while thinking about me. That’s a violation, its mental rape.”

“No its not, its good fun. I think about all my friends and their boyfriends when I masturbate, well not you and James obviously ‘cos that would be gross. But you getting ploughed by that big farmer, your tits jiggling in the fire light, come on that’s hot. Anyway, I bet Hakan was thinking about you while he wanked last night.”

I felt my face turn a bright shade of red. It was kind of disgusting to think about anyone touching themselves while thinking about you, and it really did feel like an invasion of my most personal space, even though it was just Cassie’s imagination. But somehow I didn’t feel the same way about Hakan. An image of him flashed into my mind lying on his back under the open stars caressing himself to the memory of little old Hope. I gave a shudder. What was happening to me? I was even starting to grow wet between the legs, this wasn’t the kind of girl Hope Richardson was
get a grip
.

We trudged wearily back to the dormitories after a hard day’s work in the fields. Behind me I could hear Cassie half-heartedly talking about meditation and mindfulness techniques with one of the hippies. I could tell she wasn’t going to last much longer, this was certainly not her scene, however much to my surprise I was actually having a great time. My body felt tired but powerful after the day’s exertions, and I was desperately looking forward to the fire-pit and seeing Hakan again.

But he was not there, my mysterious and elusive stranger had mysteriously and elusively done a bunk. I hadn’t quite realised how much I had been looking forward to seeing him until he was no longer there. I sat and stared at the flames for what seemed like hours, long after the others had gone to bed, every time there was noise from the prairie I jerked around, hoping to see him walking towards me, but there was no sign of the man. Eventually I decided to get up and go for a walk around the plains, there was no way I would be able to sleep that night, every time I closed my eyes my vision was filled full of lascivious and unfamiliar images, disturbing vision of being pinned down, pounded and dominated. I wasn’t comfortable with these mental pictures, projections from my inner beast Hakan would probably call them. I knew I had to get away, distract myself somehow.

I climbed the narrow ridge close to the campfire. My eyes took a while to adjust to the dark after staring at the flames for so long, but when they did I saw movement on the plains below. It was a long way off, but to me it looked like a ghost flowing over the rocks and grass of the fields, a flash of gray and white. I squinted, trying to get a better look at what was moving so fast towards me, and realised it was a wolf, its fur as luminous as the moon. I’d never seen an animal move so fast, even when colleagues had taken me out for a day at the horse races. Even from a distance I could see the power in the animal as it charged towards me. I knew that I should turn and run, but the way the creature hurtled forwards made me feel completely helpless, if this animal had decided it was going to devour me then there was absolutely no way I could possibly stop it fore filling its wish.

The wolf slowed to a steady lope at the bottom of the slope and I realised that if it was going to eat me then it was probably going to do it slowly. As it padded towards me I got a sense of just how big the creature was, I had always thought that wolves were kind of like big dogs, like oversized huskies, but this thing stood as tall as I did, its long body stretching out over eight feet from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail. It came to a halt in front of me and I felt a shudder of fear and recognition flow through me, it had the most brilliant violet eyes.

I don’t know how long we stood there looking at each other, it felt like hours but could well have been minutes. Eventually a cry broke the night, like the one I’d heard the evening before around the fire, but closer, more insistent. The wolf’s ears stood on end and it turned and sloped off into the night, leaving me with my heart pounding like I’d just sprinted the marathon.

I went back to the dormitory and tried to sleep, but found I could not. There were too many forces rushing about inside me. I felt I was on the edge of something deep, something dangerous, something that I might not be able to escape from, and for some reason I seemed to be welcoming it. I tossed and turned the whole night through, and eventually saw the first rays of dawn start to creep through the windows of the cabin. I slipped out of bed and to the door of the dormitory.

Outside in the gray light of the morning Hakan was looming over the fire pit. He stood with his back three quarters to me so that I could not see his face but I could tell that he stared down into the embers. He was topless and his skin seemed to shine with a faint layer of sweat despite the cold of the dawn. I had never seen a body like his. The skin was stretched so taught over his layers of muscle that he could have been constructed by a drum maker. Although he was completely still it was obvious that there was a huge latent power within his body, wasting to be unleashed, waiting to burst free. I looked at him for five minutes but he did not move an inch. I wondered what he was thinking about so intensely, but I got the feeling he would not like to be disturbed so I silently closed the door and went to lie in my bunk until breakfast was served.

“Oh no, that’s it. I’m done, I’m going home.” Said Cassie putting down the tray of breakfast beans. “Come on Hope lets pack our stuff and clear out, I’ve had enough of this place. I don’t care about organic beef, I don’t care about saving the planet, I just want to go back to the city and eat MacDonald’s in my underpants.”

“I’m not going Cassie.” I said. I like it here.

“I know what you like.” Said Cassie. “You’re just staying here so that you can see Mr Big Dick again aren’t you? Well I can’t say I blame you, but this really is not for me. God I never thought I’d be the one left frustrated and bored while YOU ran after men. Is this what your life is like normally Hope? Because I tell you what it majorly sucks.” She said.

“Yup, welcome to my world.” I said with a laugh.

“Then I guess I’ll see you back in the city.”

“Yes, I guess you will.”

I started to walk towards the half built corral, following the line of undernourished bean-fed hippies. As I passed the ranch house the door flew open and I heard Hakan’s rich, liquid gold voice.

“Hope, could you come here a moment.”

“Sure” I said, sauntering over to the door, trying to look calm although my heart was beating 10 to the dozen and a flock of butterflies seemed to be flapping about in my stomach.

“Do you mind if I pull you off building the corral?” He said. “They’ve got enough workers and I’ve got another job that I need some help with, fixing the fence on the other side of the farm. I wonder if you if you could come help me with that instead?”

Yes, yes, oh God yes!
Sorry to take your name in vain Lord, but I’m sure you understand that sometimes something is so exciting that a little bit of blasphemy is warranted. Hakan handed me a motorbike helmet and gestured to a shiny black and chrome Harley that sat in the shade of the garage.

“Best way to get around these little country trails.” He said. I gave a nod that I hoped said:
very sensible idea, just the thing for narrow tracks
and not:
Oh gosh, oh my, oh golly! I’ve never been on a motorbike before
. I pulled my long skirt up high and climbed onto the saddle behind him.

“Just hold on tight to me and you’ll be fine.” Said Hakan reassuringly.

The ride was intense, incredible really, pressed against Hakan’s back I felt like some bad-ass biker chick from
Easy Rider
, a million miles away from the timid Hope Richardson who couldn’t even muster up the courage to introduce herself to her new neighbours. Just being in the presence of this powerful man seemed to do something new to me, though of course the throbbing engine between my legs probably had something to do with that as well. I spent the whole ride in a state of semi-rapturous ecstasy, not wanting it to end, but at the same time hoping that I would find myself face-to-face with Hakan again so that we could repeat the magical kiss from two nights before. We travelled for hours, I finally realised just how big farms were in this part of the world, when someone says they’re heading out to the other side of the ranch they really are not messing about.