Wolf’s Glory (22 page)

Glory shrugged. “Not much. They paired me up with Jane Harris, and we went north. It took us half of forever to find anyone, but we did. Shadow and his buddies were hunting. He took me back to the Clan camp, and he sent Jane back to the plane with his buddies. What happened when they got to the plane?” she asked the others.

Renee shrugged. “I was unconscious. I woke up at the camp.”

Marissa said, “It was scary. I didn"t know who these guys were. I thought they were in a movie or something. And one guy practically leaped on me, sniffing my neck and saying I was his mate. It"s still pretty scary, but he"s gone to Omaha to try to find out what happened to my parents and my little boy. I think he"s okay if he"s willing to do that.”

“Hey, where"s Sherry? Did she decide to go to Kearney?” Glory wanted to know.

Carla sighed and gave her yarn a little jerk. “She did decide to go to Kearney. I don"t know Stag, but I think his heart is breaking.”

Rose scowled at the green mess of yarn in her hands and muttered something about

egotistical jerks. Glory smirked behind her hand while she pretended to rub her nose. It was still a bit sore, but the mirror had shown her it was healing. The situation with Rose and Sky tickled her. Renee stood up, saying she would go to her room for a nap. Glory found herself yawning, and decided to go lie down too. It wasn"t because she wanted to get rested up for tonight, she told herself; she was just tired.

As she and Renee walked back through the halls Renee said abruptly, “Do you ever

dream about the crash?”

“Um, no.” Actually, she tried very hard to not think of it at all. “Do you?”

“Yes, nightmares. All the time. Which is stupid, since I don"t even remember any of it.”

“Well, that"s probably normal.” A counselor, Glory was not. She never knew what to say. But she tried. “I mean, your brain probably remembers more than you think, and then maybe it makes things up to fill in the empty spots. It"ll stop eventually.”

“I hope so.” Renee tried to smile at her. It looked painful. She stopped at her room and opened the door. “See you later.”

Glory went to her room. She lay under the heavy blankets, staring at the ceiling and trying to not remember the screams of people and metal. Dammit, she wished Renee hadn"t said anything about nightmares. But when she fell asleep, she didn"t dream. Or if she did, she didn"t remember anything. When she woke up it was already getting dark, and the room was freezing cold. Maybe Carla would knit her a pair of socks. She pulled her pants back on and went to use the bathroom, reveling in the treat of having a private room with a flushing toilet.

The water from the sink faucet was icy, but she didn"t have to use a bucket. It was too dim to really be able to see herself well in the mirror.

Probably just as well. Her nose and mouth were much better, but she still looked like a victim of domestic abuse. Which she wasn"t. That thought was vehement. Shadow hadn"t hurt her, and her black eyes were the result of falling out of bed, not his fists. If he ever hurt her she"d leave him. Not that he would ever hurt her. No, she knew he would never raise a hand to her. Where was he? Hadn"t he returned yet?

She left her room and went down the hall. The rec room was empty, but light and noise led her to the opposite side of the hallway. There were five or six long tables there, big enough to seat ten people at each, although they were mostly empty right now. The smell of pork made Glory"s stomach rumble. There was a smaller table at one end, and Carla and Jill were sitting there.

“I"m surprised by how quickly I"ve gotten used to not having electricity,” Carla was saying to Jill. She broke off when Glory sat down. “Hi, Glory. Supper will be ready in a few minutes. Taye and the others just came back from Kearney. They"re washing up now.”

“Shadow?” Glory asked.

Taye stepped out of a door at the far end of the room. “He"ll be back before supper is done. I"ve sent a couple guys to take over patrolling.” He was at the table by the time he had finished speaking, and he bent to kiss Carla"s temple. “Everything okay, here, sweetheart?”

“Yeah. How did it go in town?”

Taye shrugged. “As well as could be expected. That woman Sherry tried to tell Stag he couldn"t stay, but Ray Madison told her to be quiet, since he was putting Stag in charge of the women"s security, along with Faron Paulson. Stag will live there, in the building. Sherry wasn"t happy about it. Why is she so insistent on hating Stag?”

Something he said nagged at the back of Glory"s mind, but after a second she shrugged it off. “Because of those two neo-Nazi witches she was bunking with. Get rid of them, and she might come around.”

Taye raised a brow at the term neo-Nazi. Carla explained it to him. “Ah. They should be given to the men at Odessa,” he commented darkly.

Carla snorted a laugh. “You"re right! They"d fit right in there. You should suggest it to Ray. They gave him two women; now he can return the favor.”

“We brought back a half dozen more lamps,” Taye reported, sliding an arm around

Carla"s shoulders. “We didn"t find any more stoves, but we put out word that we"re looking for some. Bill Russell the smith is making some, but he is asking too much for them. I imagine he"s still unhappy that I won the bride fight, sweetheart. But with any luck we"ll have a few more stoves before the cold hits.”

This wasn"t cold yet? Geez. Were the women who had gone to Kearney any warmer?

That something poking at Glory"s memory solidified. “Who"s Faron Paulson?” she asked.

Taye looked at her curiously. “One of the mayor"s deputies in Kearney. He runs the town"s security, mostly.”

“What"s he look like? How old is he?”

“Faron Paulson?” Taye"s brow furrowed under the strands of black hair that hung over it.

“He"s mid-height, graying light brown hair, about mid-fifties.”

Marissa came in, her face pinched with some strong emotion. “What are you talking about?” she asked sharply.

Glory smiled cockily. “There"s a man in town named Faron Paulson. He"s in his mid-fifties.”

Marissa"s hand clutched at her throat, then relaxed. “Oh. Then he"s not—” Her face froze. “Faron would be that old now. I keep forgetting.” She started to cry. “Oh, God!”

Taye looked alarmed. “Cousin?”

“Faron,” Marissa sobbed. “My little boy was named Faron Paulson. I have to see him.
I
have to see him!
”

Taye"s mouth was open as he stared at her. “In the morning, we can go and find Faron Paulson.”

“Now!” Marissa cried. “Let"s go now!”

“Cousin, it is dark already,” Taye said gently. “It is too late to go now. We"ll leave immediately after breakfast tomorrow.”

Marissa agreed, clearly reluctant, and was quiet during the meal. Glory ate the picnic leftovers with gusto. More people came in and collected plates of food to sit down at one of the long tables to eat. Renee, Rose, and Jill came in and squeezed around the table with them.

Many of the shirtless men (Glory wondered why they weren"t blocks of ice) came to greet Jill reverently.

As the meal went on, Glory looked up eagerly at every new entrance, but none of them was Shadow. Supper was over and some of the younger Pack members began collecting dishes to wash. One of them was Sky. He paused to speak to their table in general, and it seemed he was being very careful to not look at Rose, who was being just as careful to study her fingernails.

“Thank you for doing dishes after lunch,” he told them.

Marissa seemed to make an effort to pull her thoughts away from her son. “You"re

welcome. We don"t mind helping in the kitchen.”

The wolves and the women drifted into the rec room. The women took places close to the fire, and the wolves let them. One of the men hurried over to Carla"s chair to beg her to play for them. When she agreed, Glory braced herself for an onslaught of irritating country music. And where was Shadow? Shouldn"t he be back by now? One of the men brought a guitar case to Carla, and Glory gritted her teeth in preparation for twangs and whines. Where was Shadow?

Actually, although it wasn"t Linkin Park or Nine Inch Nails, Carla"s first song was pretty good, if a little sappy. Maybe it wouldn"t be too bad to live with a country music star after all.

Still, she was glad when she caught Shadow"s scent behind her. She jumped up to find him only a few feet away, moving through the other men standing behind the half circle of chairs by the fire. He had obviously paused to wash up somewhere, because his hairline was damp, and he smelled of strong soap as well as himself. He smiled at her and sat in the chair she"d just left and pulled her down into his lap.

“Shadow!” she hissed, trying to keep her voice down to not disturb the music. “I"m too heavy!”

“Shh. You"re not. Sit quietly and listen to the music.”

She was sure she was squashing him, but she let herself relax against him with her cheek pressed to his shoulder. Every time she was close to him she liked his scent and warmth more and more. What would she do without him in the winter? No wood-burning stove could compete with him. Being so close to him, with all that warm bare skin beneath her made her thoughts turn to what she wanted to do with him tonight. To control her urge to pet him she looked around at the people on either side of her. Jill looked like she was drowsing, white head tipped to the side and eyes closed. Rose was knitting in the light from the fire and a few lamps with fierce concentration, possibly because Sky stood opposite her, drinking her in with intense puppy-dog eyes. Marissa slumped in her chair, eyes on her clenched fists, probably thinking about her son. Renee and Bobby Hawk In Flight sat primly side by side, but Hawk had her hand in his, resting on his bare thigh.

The music came to an end after only a few songs, and everyone got up and started saying goodnight. Marissa took the lamp that Taye urged on her and shuffled out. Rose quickly went to Jill and helped her up. Jill spoiled it by calling Sky to help her down the hall to her room.

Glory suppressed a smirk at Rose"s frown and Sky"s eagerness. Speaking of eagerness, from the look of the front of Shadow"s breechcloth, she wasn"t the only eager one.

“Show me where your room is, sunshine,” he whispered.

Oh, yeah. Glory hurried her man down the dark hall, carefully counting barely visible doors to find room 135. Maybe she should have grabbed one of the extra lamps that Taye had gotten. Tomorrow. For now she"d make do. As soon as the door closed behind him she threw herself at him in a ravenous kiss. He participated enthusiastically while trying to get her shirt off. She laughed and broke away.

“You have a bad habit, big guy: tearing my clothes trying to get them off me. You gotta be more careful. I don"t have any spares.”

“If you want that shirt in one piece you"d better take it off, sunshine.”

“Sir. Yes, sir,” she mocked, but she unbuttoned the shirt quickly, her fingers finding the buttons even in the dark. “Are you getting undressed?” She wished for the lamp now so she could see all of him.

“I was undressed before the door was closed,” he growled in her ear. His big hands were gentle when he pushed the opened shirt off her shoulders and fingered the straps of her bra.

“Why do you wear this?”

“Well, duh. If I didn"t I would bounce around and that would hurt. Same reason you wear your breechcloth.”

He corrected, “I wear my breechcloth because the Grandmother made rules about

everyone being dressed in camp. Wolves don"t like clothes. Turn around so I can take this pretty thing off you.”

She put her hands flat over his pecs and smoothed down his chest to his belly and down to his cock. He was thick and hard and big between her palms. “Here"s a better idea: I"ll bend over so you can reach.” She bent at the waist and pulled his cock forward until its tip touched her lips. His fingers fumbled on her bra hooks as he jerked in a breath. She smothered a giggle by stuffing the head of his cock into her mouth.

“Not yet,” he told her, pulling her back up.

Her bra slid down her arms, freeing her breasts. She flung it away and reached blindly in the dark for his cock. He blocked her by pulling her close.

“Let"s not hurry, sunshine,” he whispered. “Let"s make this last.”

Geez, she loved the way he kissed her. He started out slow and gentle and gradually grew greedy. Good thing her face was healing up from her accident getting out of bed. Blood was pounding through her, throbbing faintly in her bruised eyes. He was the best kisser she"d been with. His lips went all over her face before coming back to her mouth. His tongue lit a fire between her thighs that made her want to move. His growl was almost gentle when he told her to keep still. But how was she supposed to stop rocking against him? It was his fault that she needed to feel the friction of his hardness rubbing against her heat. He was naked, but she was still wearing her pants and shoes. Her fingers groped frantically at the ties at her waist, desperate to be naked too. His hand slid down her back to push beneath her pants and panties to curve over her big butt.

“So soft,” he breathed in her ear. “You are so soft.”

She managed to wedge her hand between their bodies and grip his cock. “So hard,

Shadow. You"re so hard, and I want this moving inside me.”

His breath caught. “Soon, sunshine. When you"re ready.”

“I"m ready,” she assured him.

His hand slid around to the front of her pants, and he searched through her pubic hair for her slit. “Not enough. You need to be wetter for me to be able to go inside you. Yes, much wetter. Let me take your pants off.”

“Yeah, pants off,” she agreed, wiggling to get rid of them. And maybe yeah about the wetter thing, too. He was huge, and she needed to be primed before he pushed himself inside her. That first stroke during the doggy sex had been a little uncomfortable. “So what are you going to do to make me wetter, huh? Huh?”

She felt his silent laugh against her breast as he moved to lick one tight nipple. “I have some ideas.”

He swung her up in his arms and carried her to the bed and set her down gently. Glory was amused by the idea that she was stark naked except for her socks, but she forgot about that when he knelt on the bed and held her knees up and far apart with gentle hands. The air was cold on her private flesh, but only for a moment. She gave a muted shriek when his—