Wolf Games: Granite Lake Wolves, Book 3 (8 page)
in you’re positive they’re the only one for you. Yada yada. It works, I’ve seen it with the Alphas, and with
others in the pack. I still think there’s nothing wrong with a little good old-fashioned conversation to go
along with the instant physical attraction and the lifelong chemical bond.”
Maggie stood stunned for a moment.
“What? You look like I just suggested the two of you go bite heads off live chickens or something.”
She snorted. “I’ll confess your advice is not what I expected.”
Jared adjusted the straps on his pack and pointed up the trail. He resumed talking as she walked beside
him. “Why? Because you heard I like the ladies? I do, and if you weren’t taken I’d be doing my damnedest
to romance you. But I’m not stupid, I like more than a tumble. Sex is fun, but my hand is a lot safer than a
regular routine of loving and leaving without more than a howdy-do and goodbye.”
Maggie walked in silence for a minute before facing him. “That’s good advice.”
He winked. “But if you’re not mates, then…”
She swung at him and he danced ahead of her, laughing. She took a deep breath and followed. These
wolves were different from what she remembered in her teen years. The posturing and constant one-upmanship weren’t there. It must be because they were involved in the Games. This couldn’t be how they
lived all the time.
Could it?
TJ and Erik disappeared from the top of the next rise, heading off the trail into the bush. They must
have found another clue. By the time she’d reached the heights, the guys were back, Erik sporting a rather
large grin.
“You found another one?” Without thinking, Maggie leaned against him to check out the paper in his
hand. His body was warm and solid, and she adjusted herself to nestle closer, tugging until the clue sheet
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was within her vision. He chuckled and she suddenly realized she was completely inside the circle of his
arms. When she would have retreated, he subtly closed the space and trapped her, drawing her attention to
the paper.
“Number eight. I tell you, the clues are logical but if TJ didn’t have such a good sense of smell I think
we would have missed half of them.”
TJ lay flat out on the trail, panting lightly. His ears pricked up when Erik said his name, as if delighted
by the praise.
Jared dropped his pack and passed out granola bars, unwrapping TJ’s and tossing it to him whole.
“Where was the clue this time?”
“On a tree.”
“Drawn on?”
Erik shook his head. “Carved into the bark. Looks like it was done at least six months ago.”
Jared swore. “How the hell did TJ get a scent on something that old? That’s freaky impossible.”
Maggie stared down at TJ and could have sworn he winked at her.
Erik laughed. “Yeah. The kid has always said his sniffer was good, and he wasn’t kidding. We’re at
the point I think we should set up camp. I’d like to make an early start tomorrow so we have enough time at
the end of the day to figure out the first mental challenge.”
“You want to camp here?” Jared looked around. Maggie wondered too—there wasn’t much of a
clearing.
“Sheep Camp should be within the next half hour of hiking. Let’s make that our destination. Once we
get there, TJ can shift back and we’ll get supper going.” Erik turned her and Maggie froze. He reached and
adjusted her chest harness straps then patted her cheek with his fingers before pointing for her to follow
TJ’s lead. She stared at him even as her body obeyed, and she took her first steps still watching his face.
There was a laughing look in his eyes that made her want to haul him aside and ask just what the hell was
going on.
She walked in silence for almost twenty minutes before it hit her. She’d spent the entire day with pack
members, one in wolf, and she wasn’t having a panic attack. She hadn’t passed out and she was still safe.
Maybe Missy had been right. Maybe it was time to move on.
“So what do you think this is?”
Jared hit TJ over the head with his baseball cap. “Shut. Up. That’s why it’s called a puzzle, you idiot,
because we don’t know what it means.”
“Jared.” Erik didn’t want to have to deal with a couple of young punks right now. Maggie reclined
next to him and her scent filled the air. He’d far prefer to be able to continue the little mental fantasy he’d
been enjoying than have to discipline his teammates.
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“But he’s asked the same damn question ten times already.”
Erik sighed and sat up with reluctance. “I know. I’m only four feet away and I’ve heard him every
single bloody time. As well as heard you make smart-ass responses and guesses back every single bloody
time.” He held out his hand. “Give me the puzzle page and find something else to occupy your minds. We
don’t have enough clues to be able to solve this, and you’re both getting on my nerves.”
The two young men exchanged panicked glances and then got busy. Jared grabbed a knife and
whittled at a stick, while TJ produced a mouth organ from somewhere and started playing some pretty
damn good blues. Erik always had appreciated that—even though TJ was clumsy, everywhere he went
music followed.
Erik was just about to settle back down when there was a soft touch on his arm.
“You did that well.”
Maggie sat with her arms wrapped around her legs, her face whiter than he remembered.
Shit.
“Did I
scare you? I didn’t mean to. The boys know I’m joking around.”
She shook her head and frowned. “I’m not upset.”
“You look pale.” He shut his mouth quickly. What an incredibly stupid thing to say.
She rolled her eyes at him. “Gee, thanks. You’re really batting a thousand right now aren’t you?”
Yup.
“Are you tired? Hungry?”
Can I massage your feet—or any other part of your body?
What he
wouldn’t give to be able to touch her. The whole day spent together, even hiking, had made his desire for
her rise.
“No, I had more than enough at supper. I just need to think for a bit. Thanks for asking the comedy
duo to shut up. I haven’t been around a lot of people for a while and their constant yattering was getting to
me.” She stretched lazily and he enjoyed the way her T-shirt pulled tight over her breasts, the display
making his mouth water. She might be a little thing, especially compared to him, but her breasts were full
and distracting.
She curled up next to him, her hip touching his and he smiled. There was no way to ignore the
physical pull between them. He wasn’t even interested in trying to act as if it wasn’t there. He’d go as slow
as she needed, but he wouldn’t back down. For the next thirty minutes he pretended to stare at the puzzle
clues all the while looking over every inch of her body. She was going to be his—to care for and love and
be with for the rest of their lives. The whole idea of fated mates didn’t bother him one bit.
Jared yawned, a loud juicy sound that made Erik laugh. Time to round them up. “Hey, good job today,
everyone.”
TJ waved lazily, tucking away the mouth organ and letting out his own yawn. “It’s the altitude, I
swear it is. I’m heading to bed. Early morning I assume?”
“On the trail by seven please.”
Jared nodded. “I’ll turn in as well. I need to spend some time
talking
to my eyelids.”
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Erik wondered what the hell was up as Jared gave a direct look at Maggie as he spoke and she
laughed.
It took a long time for the boys to crawl into the tent, and organize their sleeping bags with all their
goofing off. The grumbles and laughter slowly died away, and Erik relaxed. Finally. Time alone with his
mate.
The two of them sat silently, the small noises of the forest at night continuing. Here in the
southernmost part of the Yukon, the sky insisted on staying bright, but it wasn’t midnight sun by any
means. There was a beautiful pink glow rising from behind the eastern mountain and Erik shuffled back
down to rest his head on the log they’d rolled over to sit on.
Maggie looked at him for a long moment before sighing. “It’s no use, is it?”
“What?”
She touched his arm hesitantly and a thrill shot through him.
Oh hell-o.
He kept his hands behind his
head and watched as she wiggled closer, resting her head on his chest. Her short bouncy curls tickled his
chin and her breath warmed him. “I can’t deny I’m attracted to you. My wolf likes you too.” She sat up to
look into his eyes. “I just can’t…”
“I’m not asking you to. Not yet. You told me to wait, I’m waiting.” Shit, crap and merde, he was
waiting.
“Where were you born?”
Erik wondered where the remote was. “That was a quick change of topic.”
She snuggled against him and his wolf preened at the attention. “I just thought maybe if we learned a
little more about each other, it would help.”
He nodded slowly. Made sense. Didn’t seem like they were going to be passing the time with any
other distracting activities.
“Lavrentiya. Small coastal village on the Bering Strait.”
She paused. “I guess that explains why you speak Russian. When did you come to Alaska?”
He told her about his childhood and moving around until the family finally settled in Sitka. “The rest
of my family is still there. I’d love to take you to meet them. When this is all over.”
“All over?”
“The Games.”
“Oh.” She nodded. “That would be…nice. I guess.”
“What about you? I know your family went through some tough times, so let’s not talk about that
now. Tell me your favorite colour.”
Maggie snorted. “You’re really not what I expected, you know that?”
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“Why? Because I want to be able to buy you sexy underwear in your favorite colour?” Her jaw
dropped and he grinned. “Damn, you’re fun to tease.” She wiggled her nose and he wondered what was
going on behind those beautiful eyes of hers.
He grabbed her hand. He’d done more handholding in the past few days than in his entire life before.
“I was thinking about your fainting issue while we were on the trail. You said it’s a chemical imbalance?”
She nodded. “It only got bad this past year, and obviously I can’t shift to wolf for her to be able to
heal me.”
Yeah, that part.
He wasn’t even going to try to touch that issue yet. Soon, but not tonight. “I think it
has to do with you not shifting and avoiding wolves. We give off so many pheromones, all the time, it helps
maintain a delicate balance. Now that you’re around pack, even a few of us, you should feel better.”
Maggie stared at him. “That’s why I came north to rejoin the pack. Missy insisted being around her
family would be enough to heal me.” She looked down at where their joint hands rested in his lap. “How
did you figure it out? Do you have training in chemistry or something?”
“Nope. PhD in Slavic languages.” She gasped in surprise, her eyes widening and he laughed at her
expression. “With a master’s in Classic Literature.”
“But…you work with Keil as a wilderness guide.”
He shrugged. “When he looked into starting the company, he knew his brother would be too young to
be a real help for a number of years. I offered to partner with him until TJ is able to take over.”
“But why, if you have all this education…”
Maggie wrinkled her brow and he smoothed the skin on her forehead with his thumb. “He’s my best
friend. I’m currently tutoring a half-dozen students online, so I’m still using my skills, but it would have
been very selfish to let his dream die when I could help him.”
Her bright eyes examined his face closely, as if she was trying to see if this was some kind of trick to
impress her. “You’re a very complicated man, Erik Costanov.”
He shook his head. “I’m as simple as they come. I believe in the golden rule, and I try to live by it.”
She knocked him off balance by crawling across his legs and straddling him, her butt resting on his
thighs. He lay very still, afraid to scare her, but savouring the sensation of her weight on top of him.
“What are you doing?” There, that managed to come out sounding reasonably intelligible. Damn, he
spoke seven languages and right now English didn’t seem to be one of them. His tongue was glued to the
roof of his mouth.
She wiggled a little closer and he bit back a groan. Her hot core now rested against his groin and his
cock rose like new bread in an oven. “I want to kiss you.”
Hallelujahs rang in his brain. Holy freaking exclamations of jubilation, rejoicing and unending glee
broke out in a full chorus. But when he spoke, he delivered a measured, “Okay.”
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She leaned forward and brushed her lips over his, and the electric sensation he’d felt before when they
kissed buzzed through his torso and up his spine to his brain. Before he knew it, he’d buried the fingers of
one hand in her hair, moving her the way he wanted her, while the other wrapped around her body to pull
their torsos together. Her sweetness filled his senses, tantalizing his taste buds with the desire for more.
Eager noises rose from her as their tongues brushed.
The night remained warm, and they both wore only shorts and T-shirts. Having a barrier between
