The Legend of the Werewolf (34 page)

"What's wrong?" Anne asked, eager,
impatient, and out of breathe.

He pointed at the gown she wore. "I have
no idea how to take this off of you."

She wanted to laugh and cry at the same
time. "That's okay. I'll just do this."

She curled her fingers into the fabric,
grabbing at the thin metal poles for extra purchase, then pulled
with all her strength.

Mike's mouth dropped as the bodice
ripped in half, revealing bare breasts and tight pink nipples for
him to see.

Anne flung the offending thing across the
room and laid back again for his inspection. "You should have no
trouble getting the gown off, right?"

He didn't seem to hear her. "It doesn’t
matter that I was supposed to be the one to do that. Watching you
rip off your own bodice is the sexiest thing ever."

"I'll remember that. Now, show me what you
planned on doing to me that night we met."

Mike lowered himself down her body and
helped her shimmy out of her gown and the remains of her chemise.
He grinned wickedly from his position between her legs. "This isn't
the whole of what I pictured doing with you, but the rest will have
to wait until we can find some condoms."

Anne opened her mouth to tell him she, and
the pulsing between her thighs, could care less about that, but
Mike lowered his head and kissed the demanding space that throbbed
before she could speak.

Her would-be words turned into small
incoherent squeaks and she decided that this would definitely serve
until they bothered to search around for protection.

Her head fell back into the sheets as her
breasts arched up with her back. Puffy breaths took the place of
her calm breathing as his mouth licked and sucked while his hands
massaged her legs.

Her body quaked as the bubble inside
her grew and grew. Anne curled her legs around his back, reached
her hands out, grabbed a pillow, and smothered herself with it to
contain her scream as the bubble burst and showered her with the
glow of her orgasm.

Too fast. Way too fast. She wanted this
to last a little longer.

Her hands fell limply at her sides as her
ears picked up on the faraway sound of Mike's laughter. He pulled
the pillow from her face to admire his work. "I take it back. That
was the sexiest thing ever."

The urge to snuggle up with him and
fall asleep almost took precedence over the other pressing matter
at hand.

Anne shook herself and sat up, forcefully
knocking him on his back before straddling his legs and working on
the buckle of his belt. "Think I can outdo myself again?" sShe
asked, ripping his jeans down with fiery impatience.

She shimmied down his legs until her face
was at level with his erection. She was going to outdo herself. If
he thought for one second he was getting an easy ‘O’ like what he
just gave her, he was out of his mind.

She was going to torture him until the
sun went down.

His back arched when she took him
inside her mouth, though not as violently as when he did this to
her. "Oh, well, if you want to try I won't stop you."

***

A rough shake yanked her from her dream
world. Anne raised her hand and swatted whoever it was who tried to
lift her from her comfortable place, but her hand was gripped and
shoulders shaken again.

"Anne, get up. He's gone,
Anne."

Anne forced her eyes open. Mike stood
over her, completely dressed all the way up to the cowboy hat on
top of his dark head of hair.

She rubbed her eyes. "What? Who's
gone?"

"Hadrian. He's not here anymore and Bud
unconscious."

Her brain finally woke up. Anne sat up
straight and flung herself out of her nest of blankets.

"Bill?"

He's the one who came and got me. He's
with Westley."

"What about your backup?" He'd told her
that he made a call to his cop friends back in Griffon City after
they finished crumpling the sheets and making noise.

"Not here yet, a few minutes at most. I
want to get you out of here and in a more crowded place before
anything happens." Mike went to a dresser and pulled out any
clothes he could find, tossing them over his shoulder and at her,
regardless of their sizes or color.

"He wouldn't sneak up on me again," she
assured him, wrinkling her nose at the giant grey sweater before
pulling it over her head. A pair of men's blue swim trunks
followed. She put them on but the sweater was so long and heavy
that, when she stood up, it looked like she wore nothing
else.

Mike gave her no opportunity to
scrutinize how bad she must look. "Let's go." He grabbed her hand
and rushed out of the room and out of the cottage with
her.

"Watch your feet." Mike lifted her into
the air and carried her across the field of grass, dirt, and rocks
to Gordon's house.

His feet brought him to their destination
so swiftly, she didn't have time to remind him that the gravel
wouldn't hurt her bare soles.

He opened the door and let them in before
setting her down on a polished floor, keeping one arm possessively
around her waist.

"Bill? Westley?" Anne
called.

Scurrying feet brought the two people
she needed to see most within her line of sight. Bill's wooden
stick was replaced with a real cane, but that didn't slow him as he
pushed the younger werewolf out of the way and embraced her with
more strength than Anne ever thought he had.

"I've been worried sick!"

Anne pulled away from him
"Hadrian—?"

"Is gone," Westley cut in. "We think Bud
fell asleep. The second the poor kid was out, Hadrian knocked him
on the side of the head."

Anne swallowed. "Is he—?"

"He's fine," Mike answered her unasked
question.

Anne wished people would let her finish
her sentences.

"He's in this house right now but, when I
was told about it, I had to run back and make sure Hadrian didn't
try to take you back to the Shadow world."

She cocked her head.

"He still thinks you're Luna," Mike said,
probably reading her mind and hearing her confusion.

Anne groaned. "He's out of his mind if
he still thinks I'm her."

"Either way," Bill said, lifting the still
glowing moonstone for them to see, "hopefully we'll find him before
the real Luna gets here."

Anne's insides froze. That was right.
Now that her grandfather finally had the orb back in his hands,
Luna would be able to find him.

She would come to Earth, see that Bill was
not turning into some crazy monster, and then take him away with
her. If he and Luna left before Hadrian was apprehended then there
would be no way to prove to that crazed warlock that she wasn't the
Moon Goddess.

Bill's hand reached out to touch her
shoulder, jerking her from her thoughts. His blue eyes were warm as
they stared at her. "I will not leave before I know that you are
perfectly safe."

Behind her, she could feel Mike's
emotions. With their new telepathic link, she knew that he agreed
with Bill's decision.

His arms squeezed around her. "It's the
right thing to do," he said gently.

She ignored him and tried to make Bill
see reason. "I don't want you putting yourself in danger over me.
If she comes to get you then you need to go. You've been waiting a
thousand years."

"And, there is the very real possibility
that she has given up on me and won't come. For all she knows, I'm
still a mindless beast who will attempt to dismember her the moment
her feet touch the Earth."

"She's a
Goddess
," Anne reasoned. "She has to know
that werewolves are capable of control by now."

"Regardless," Bill said, "I won't leave
you in danger like that."

Anne opened her mouth to protest
further, but Bill's hand caressing her cheek stopped her. "You are
right, I have waited a thousand years. A little while longer will
not hurt."

The statement was so true and so powerful
that Anne forgot what she wanted to say. Bill went on, "I don't
have any children. You're the closest I've ever come to being a
parent. I will not allow him to hurt you."

Anne sniffed. Her eyes didn’t burn,
they downright flooded.

"Neither will I," Mike murmured in her
ear.

And the waterfall fell
harder.

"Me either," Westley said. "And, I'm still
pack master, whether Fanny likes it or not. Everyone on this ranch
will defend you if I tell them to."

Anne sniffed and wiped her soaked
cheeks. "You're getting used to being in charge, aren't
you?"

Westley grinned at her.

"We should probably take the rest of this
conversation in the sitting room," Bill said.

"No." Anne couldn't help the small rise
of panic. She didn't want to sit down on an oversized couch and get
comfortable while there was a murderer out there who wanted to kill
the people she loved and steal her away.

She wanted to come up with a solution
right now. A plan to draw him out from wherever he was, then act on
it. Despite what Bill said, she didn't want him to have to wait
until the next full moon for his chance.

Again, Mike read her thoughts. "We've
already thought of where he might go. According to you, and Bill,
Hadrian himself said that he used the last of his powers on his
last attack."

"Which means he went to the Shadow
World," she said, feeling no better now that she knew where the
snake was hiding.

"Exactly. And, because it's dark out
now..."

"He could just attack with his shadow
soldiers!" Her eyes widened. "They could be outside right
now!"

“
Or he could be alone,” Mike
reasoned. “Remember, Bud brought down his castle. We don’t know if
any of them stayed with him.”

"Which is why everyone's staying inside
with as many lights on as possible. I've told everyone here that if
they’re in a room that's casting shadows, then there aren't enough
lamps turned on," Westley said.

"It doesn't matter. He's
immortal. He can wait us out."
Or wait until Luna drops in and takes her
away.

Everyone in the room seemed to hear her
thoughts even though she thought she kept them to
herself.

"It won't come to that," Bill replied, his
voice faltering, as though the one he meant to convince was
himself.

Right at that moment, Anne knew he was
right. The idea that came to her would make sure of it.

Mike's arms around her tightened as
their bond allowed him a front seat view of what she intended.
"Don't even think about it."

Anne tensed. "That is getting really
annoying."

"Well, until you learn how to block me out
you’re going to have to deal with it. You're not doing
it!"

"Doing what? What was she going to do?"
Westley demanded. Anne hated how he stared as though expecting
whatever idea she had to be crazy and outrageous.

He was right.

"She's planning on using herself as
bait to draw Hadrian out." Mike's arms remained tight as he
explained her idea.

Westley pinched the bridge between his
eyes. "Oh my God."

Mike continued to hold her close, as
though he were reluctant to ever release her. "We're going to find
another way. That's not the way we should do this—"

"Wait," Bill said. "It might be our
only option."

No one said a word.

NINETEEN

Mike shook his head and grit his teeth
until he heard a crack.

Anne sat on a log under the overhead
lights that lit up the front lawn of the ranch. The glowing
moonstone lay hidden under her thick borrowed sweater, further
protected from giving off light by a dish towel that had been
wrapped around it.

"Are we sure no one else had any
ideas?" Mike asked. He wanted to come out from his ridiculous
hiding spot underneath Gordon's porch and go out there to be with
her.

He fought with his brain for ideas too,
but nothing came of that either.

Westley elbowed him and hissed. "No,
stop asking."

Mike clenched his hands into fists in
the cool dirt and grass, hardly able to believe that he was
allowing himself to sit down and watch as this joke of a plan was
carried out. The only comfort he had was the way Bill held onto
Anne's hand as he sat next to her.

Unable to let his granddaughter take
all the risk, he sat with her, waiting, for his lost lover who
might not show up, and for a crazed madman who likely
would.

"Are we ready?" Westley
asked.

"No," Mike muttered, but everyone in his
pack who were laying under that porch with them nodded in silent
agreement.