Werewolf Rebel Tamed (Werewolf Romance) (4 page)

I ran and he paced me, keeping his distance but not letting up. I ran even faster and so did he. I raced through a clearing, circled it and then reversed my course, hoping to confuse him. It seemed to have worked as he kept going the wrong way. With a sigh of relief I returned to my human form and scrambled up a tree to take my scent off the ground. Eventually he would realize he’d lost me and retrace his steps, but hopefully he would pass right under me. Wolves smell the ground, which meant staying at tree level it would make it hard to find me. I wouldn’t be completely out of range, but he would have to think to look up and that was not a natural thought for a wolf.

But Hunter was an unusual werewolf. He came back like I expected, nose carefully searching the ground for any trace of me. I held my breath and froze, hoping he would keep going. But he didn’t. He stopped and sat back on his haunches, nose lifting up to test the air above. Just like that, he caught my scent and his eyes zeroed in on the branch where I was perched.

He howled, a sound full of anger. I wrapped my hands around my body and bit my lip as his voice washed over me. An involuntary growl rose from my belly to my chest. It was low, but he still heard it.

Shaking his head, a human mannerism that looked foreign on his gray wolf form, he blurred and changed. Rising to his feet, fists clenched at his sides, he said, “Come down here.” His voice was dark and ominous.

“No.” I wasn’t about to let him get his hands on me when he was in such a bad mood. He’d been happy when he tied me up, what would he be like angry? I didn’t want to know.

“I will come up there and drag you down if I have to. It’s better for you if I don’t.” This time his voice was quiet, but the grit of his jaw told me he’d fought to make it so.

In the distance, thunder sounded and a flash of lightening seared the sky. It was going to rain. I sniffed and smelled the water in the air. And soon.

He crossed his arms and stared up at me.“Why did you run?”

Leaves rustled as I shifted on the branch, preparing to climb higher or jump down, depending on what the weather and Hunter did. “Because I couldn’t do it.”

“Was your first change really that bad?”

I closed my eyes and swallowed. “Yes.”

He snorted. “You’ve been running all your life, haven’t you? And fighting when you can’t. It ends here. It has to.”

Thunder boomed and lightning cracked like a whip somewhere close as the first drops of rain hit my skin. It wasn’t safe to stay where I was, I needed to get down, but it wasn’t safe there either. More lightning snapped through the air, this time hitting a tree about twenty feet away.

Instinct drove me to the ground, a wolf reflex I couldn’t stop, and then Hunter was on me. He shoved me against the tree trunk, the rough bark scraping my skin.

“Don’t you run from me again.” His voice was fierce and his eyes intense.

“Don’t ask what I can’t give,” I said with a defiant jut of my chin.

“You will give me everything I ask for.” He looped my long hair around his hand and yanked me forward, crushing his lips into mine.

I turned my head, denying him my mouth. “Make me.”

He pulled on my hair until I moved to face him again. “Still choosing the hard way, huh? I can do that.” Around us the storm raged on, full of sonic booms and pelting rain. The cold water ran over my skin and my body responded with goose bumps and tight nipples.

Hunter shoved me to the ground, keeping a tight grip on my hair. When I was on all fours, he moved behind me, nudging my legs apart with one knee. “Let’s finish what your heat started.”

I tried to pull myself free, but he held me tight by the hair, using it to shove me back against him, his hardness grazing my thigh. The feel of his skin on mine sent a heady rush through me. In my mind, my wolf yipped with excitement. I closed my eyes and stared into hers behind my eyelids. She gave me an encouraging nod as if to say ‘let this happen.’ She wanted this with all its rough edges.

Hunter slid inside me with one smooth movement. I was already wet and there was no resistance to keep him from my tight passage. Still holding my hair, he used his other hand on the middle of my back to shove me face down into the ground. “You can change, but you can’t run now,” he growled. “I’ve got you,
Randa and I’m not letting go.”

Grass tickled my nipples and belly and the scent of damp earth filled my nose. Above us the storm had gone quiet, the thunder and lightning moving past us, but a steady rain still poured down. Between my legs was all heat while the rest of me shivered with cold from exposure to the elements.

I wanted him. I didn’t want him. I relished being pinned to the ground as he took me and I hated it. There was a war inside me, one I didn’t know how to win.

Hunter thrust into me, oblivious to my internal struggle and, gradually, with every pump of his hips stoking the furnace of my desire, the mindless heat took over. It melted my fears and concerns until all that mattered was what happened between my legs. In a way, it was liberating. I existed for one reason and one reason alone; to be fucked.

I whined and pushed back to meet him, gasping as he went even deeper. At the movement, his hand on my back moved to smack my ass, the sting leaving me breathless. With his other hand, he pulled on my hair, forcing my head to arch back. I grunted as his weight bore down on me, my hands digging into the wet earth, searching for something to hold onto.

He slapped my other ass cheek. The pain heightened the sensation of him pushing against my inner walls, filling up the emptiness until my stomach bore down trying to keep him from ever leaving. A pulsing pleasure throbbed through me, making me quiver. Hunter moved faster and faster until the building orgasm burst.

I came with a high-pitched yowl just as the rain stopped, crying out into the sudden silence. Pleasure spasmed in me, convulsing around Hunter’s hard length, squeezing him until he moaned. The release stole my strength and I slumped back to the ground, pressing my forehead into the mud, completely spent.

Hunter sped up his rhythm, chasing his own pleasure. My body rocked with the force of his thrusts. I groaned as another, smaller orgasm washed over me. My nipples tightened and the brush of the grass against their hard tips became agonizing.

Hunter yanked me half upright by the hair, pulling my body up against his. Still pumping into me, he reached around and cupped my breasts in his free hand, thumb flicking across the nipples. My breathing stuttered at the contact and I pressed into him, hips undulating around his hardness. He grew impossibly large within me and then he shuddered as his orgasm claimed him. With a moan he squeezed my breasts and leaned down to bite my shoulder. His body clenched around me like a vise and his teeth pricked my skin.

He let me go after a moment and, spineless, I collapsed on the ground, rolling over to stare up at the sky. It had been early dusk when I’d changed and ran, and now it was full night. The storm system had left a trail of smoky clouds behind that obscured the full moon.

Hunter came to lie beside me. “You okay?”

I nodded. I was myself then. Not overridden by my heat or my wolf. My head was clear. “You were right.”

“About what?”

“Me running and fighting when I can’t run.” I rolled onto my side, propping myself up on an elbow and looked down at him. His expression was carefully neutral as if he didn’t want to spook me. “My first change was horrible, Hunter. You have no idea.”

“Then tell me so I know.”

I sighed and lay back down, watching the clouds drift over us. “I was sixteen. My mom had just died and we were living on the streets.”

“You didn’t even know you were a wolf, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I had no idea. Mom never told us. So this guy tries to take Ronnie.” I closed my eyes and the images rushed to play out on the backs of my eyelids. “I was dumpster diving for food behind a restaurant. She was waiting for me at the alley entrance. Some places called the cops if they caught you and I didn’t want her to go to jail.”

He nodded in approval. “You kept her away from you so it didn’t look like you were together. That makes sense.”

“Right. Then this guy came and slammed her back against the wall. Hard. Then he picked her up and walked toward me.” I fell silent, my throat choking on the rest of the story. “He was
talking to Ronnie. Telling her all these sick things he wanted to do to her. I jumped him, but he was bigger, stronger.” I had to stop again and sniff back tears.

Hunter moved to a sitting position and scooped me up in his arms. I rested my head on his shoulder, feeling oddly comforted by his closeness. “So you changed and defended your family.”

“It was more than that.” I took a deep breath. “I ripped his throat out, Hunter. And I started to eat him.” I rubbed my forehead trying to ease the pain of the memory. “Ronnie saw everything and she ran away from him...from
me.
”

“What happened after that?” His voice was so deep, it vibrated in his chest, tickling my cheek.

“I tracked her. All of a sudden,” I paused and motioned to my nose. “I could smell
everything
all at once.”

“And you found her, naturally.”

“Yeah but she was scared of me and so was I. Neither of us knew what I was.”

“When did Tony enter the picture?”

I gave a rueful sigh at the memory. “A few weeks later. I picked his pocket and he sniffed me out. I guess he felt sorry for us because he brought us home with him.”

“Pack law is you don’t leave young wolves to run wild. That’s how you end up with...” He trailed off as if he didn’t want to offend me by saying the words.

“Wolves who eat people,” I finished for him. I swallowed against the queasiness in my stomach. The guy had not tasted good, but there had been a compulsion to rip him apart so he would never move again.

He nodded. “I know it’s been hard for you, but joining the pack is a good thing.”

“I guess. I’m glad we’re off the streets and that I know what we are, but I’m not used to a family.”

He rubbed my back. “I know, but here’s the thing. You just told me the most awful, deepest darkest secret of your life and I didn’t run away did I?”

I shook my head. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he rejected me. Even among wolves, what I had done was taboo. The fact that Hunter didn’t judge me, that he could understand I was more than my past and see beyond it was a gift I didn’t quite know how to accept.

He leaned in close, nuzzling the nape of my neck. “That’s pack,
Randa. We don’t run, we stand with you, but you have to remember everything you do affects every member of the pack. That’s the responsibility of having a family, do you understand?”

It still felt alien to think of the pack that way, but for the first time it didn’t chafe. “Yeah, I understand.”

He smiled at me and squeezed me in a warm hug. “So the bull becomes a wolf.”

That made me laugh. “I guess so.”

His expression grew somber. “Since you told me your deep, dark secret, I’ll tell you mine.”

My ears perked up and I looked at him.

“My first change wasn’t as happy as I made it sound. My brother, “ he went silent for a moment and then finished, “He was a null.”

I furrowed my brow at the unfamiliar term.“A null?”

“He couldn’t change.”

I nodded in understanding. “Oh.”

“He killed himself because of it. He thought he was worthless.” His voice deepened with raw emotion as he spoke and it tugged at my heart.

It was my turn to give him a reassuring squeeze. “I’m sorry, Hunter.”

He gave a curt nod acknowledging my apology. “I couldn’t let you lose your sister and your one chance at a family, not when I knew how much it hurt.”

I rubbed his back. “Was losing your brother the reason you left your pack?”

Hunter nodded. “Yes. Not just because my brother was gone, but also because nulls are a sign of inbreeding. Our pack was too small for what biologists call genetic diversity. After what happened, I wanted to spare my future kids a similar fate.”

“Wow.” I didn’t know what else to say. Being a werewolf was much more complicated than I had ever imagined. My scent alone could drive human men to blows. I had to be careful who I had kids with. Plus remember the pack and obey my alpha. At least Hunter and Ronnie made it worth trying to get it right.

Hunter sighed and gave me a little squeeze to be sure he had my attention. “So your heat isn’t over. Any objection to finishing it out with me?”

I snorted. “Now you ask?” Confusion flashed across his face and I hastened to add, “Sorry, just teasing. Yes, Hunter, I will spend my heat with you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That means submission. No more running.”

I bowed my head. “As long as you’re patient with me. I was a bull much longer than I’ve been a wolf, you know.”

“I know.” He cupped my cheek in his hand and lifted my head to meet his gaze. “Everything changes from here, Randa. For the better.”

“For the better,” I affirmed.

“Good. Now, how about a little race to the cabin?” He began to blur, changing into his wolf. With powerful flex of his legs, he bounded off into the forest.