Blayne Edwards (9 page)

* * * * *

Caine felt his hands tremble as he looked down to where they held her. He had hurt her. He was sure of it. He had even heard her cry out in what seemed to be pain from time to time.

He leaned toward her neck and dragged his tongue across the wound he had made when his teeth had sunk into her. It was one canine part of mounting a bitch that Caine always tried to control but had never been able to stop. And unfortunately, without the thick, furry protection a full blood wolf bitch would have on her nape, his teeth had found bare skin and Chloe had started to bleed under his passion.

Caine reached up to run his fingers over the bite and to speak to her, to find out if she was all right after what he had just done to her, but the twitching in his cock reminded him that this woman was not his wife and that she was not going to understand that the act was not altogether finished as far as Caine’s constantly hard, bone-enforced penis was concerned.

He had wanted to impregnate her. And Caine had fucked her as Luke would have in order to leave a bad taste in her mouth for his twin. But traumatizing the bitch with his bizarre dick biology wasn’t something he felt up to doing.

A quick, tight squeeze of a hug was all he could take the time for before he had to almost jerk his cock to get it out of her. Another sharp but quiet cry sounded from her at his action, no doubt because he had already started to swell and his removing himself had been painful. Chloe’s fingers came back and gripped his knee and he watched her body tighten either in response to his rude exit from her body, or from the painful sensation even he had felt when he’d pulled himself free.

As he stood up behind her, Caine reached down and rubbed against the pouting lips of her sex. She flinched at his touch this time, confirming his suspicion that he had most likely hurt both her body and her feelings when he’d pulled out. Which had been exactly part of Caine’s plan. The part he already regretted.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured to her.

At his apology, and while his prick grew more and more swollen as it protruded in front of his own tired body, Caine knelt on the floor behind her. The hybrid in him had no reservations about his next action. In fact, not only was it one of the most pleasing parts of a hybrid’s mating ritual, but it also served a purpose in their breeding habits. But he knew that it was one that some human men would see as less than appealing.

The thick, salty taste of his own come was the first flavor he found when he drew his tongue up the dripping mouth of her pussy. As he loved the raw, sensitive flesh around her sex, her own excitement and a delicious hint of blood from his brutality inside her found his palate next. Caine relished each and every taste and smell that came from her well-fucked cunt. And the man in him took great pleasure in soothing some of the damage he had caused it. But none of this was truly what the animal in him was looking for.

Although his sense of taste was acute hundreds of times beyond a mere human’s, neither it nor his sense of smell could detect what he should be able to find already within the womb of this woman. Because of his hybrid genes, had his sperm reached her, had he impregnated her, he would have been able to smell and taste his young already growing inside her. But he didn’t.

Caine’s pulling out and allowing some of his semen to drain out of the bitch had lowered his chances at conception, he suspected. His efforts to not cause her distress had most likely cost him a son. Or, more unlikely, one of the most elusive and rare of his kind, a she-wolf daughter. Whatever sex their child would have been, it would have been the next alpha.

But Chloe had not been receptive to his sperm this time. And the wolf in him knew that she most likely wouldn’t be receptive next time unless Caine allowed his cock to stay embedded inside her. Locking his shaft and his seed inside her womb until she was carrying his child.

But that meant that he either had to cause this woman serious psychological harm when he forced himself on her again or Caine had to be honest with her about what he was and run the risk of her rejecting him as most other women would. And then he would really have to force her to breed with him.

The only other option was one that Caine had promised himself and Luke that he wouldn’t even consider. It was a waste of time, especially considering what Caine was. And it would most likely end up being even more painful than if he simply fucked her again tonight and got their mating over with.

Because Caine knew there was no goddamned way he was ever going to be able to make Chloe Evans fall in love with the man he truly was.

* * * * *

One a.m.

At least.

Chloe squinted to see the clock on the nightstand and then listened for what she thought had awakened her.

The pounding on the front door sounded again.

She wrapped her robe around her and slowly—painfully—padded to the front door of the cabin. Twenty miles from nowhere and she’d had more visitors in the past twenty-four hours that she ever did at her Knoxville apartment. And since her last visitor had basically fucked her a second time when he’d gotten up and left her there sore and confused without so much as a “can I call you?” Chloe had found sleep elusive and then restless as hell when it had found her.

She was pissed off. And she was hurt emotionally because Luke hadn’t stayed five minutes after they’d made love. Chloe had felt his fingers run down the center of her spine and she had detected a kiss on her lower back before she noticed that he had moved away from her.

She wasn’t even sure he had dressed before he had closed the front door behind him.

She had been so sure she’d felt a definite connection between them. But since he’d left so abruptly, Chloe had also had to realize that what she’d felt and what Luke had felt weren’t necessarily the same things. Perhaps she had felt a very strong bond with him and he had felt nothing.

The knot that tightened in the pit of her stomach at that thought almost made her grimace. Sure, she had wanted great sex and hell fucking yes, the man had given her well over eight inches of hard, scorching male cock.

But Chloe had a heart inside the very body that the man had made feel pleasantly violated. And feelings as well.

Luke had managed to hurt all three in one fell swoop. And yet at the same time, he had silently told her things that no other man had ever even tried to say to her.

Chloe knew the man who had made love to her. She had known him since the day she was born. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that he truly recognized himself. The man was a strange bird, she would give him that. And he was also every bit the awesome lay she had thought he’d be. But he was also capable of ripping her heart to shreds if she let herself get too close to him. Not to mention what the man could do to her body.

She grinned at the memory despite herself and even as she cursed whoever was waking her up a mere hour into her slumber. Chloe then swung the door open and flipped the porch light on at the same time.

And then stopped breathing completely.

The scar was gone. And the smirk that had seemed to be burned onto his face when she had been able to see it had been replaced by a soft, caring look.

The eyes were still the blue she had wanted to drown in. The hair was jet black and silky looking. Touchable. Pullable.

Good for leverage and holding on when nothing else would do.

He was six foot three at least, just as he had been the first time she’d seen him. And just as firm.

All over.

She opened her mouth to speak but found that an impossibility with the reaction her mind, body and heart were having to the man in front of her. Not to mention the fact that the way he was looking at her said the exact same thing about his own feelings.

A breath came to her, but she found it ragged and without voice. The man in front of her was able to recover a little more quickly and Chloe felt her skin tingle when he managed to speak to her.

“I need for you to come home with me.”

Chloe felt herself swallow at the words that had just been uttered by the man in front of her. And then she felt her heart skip a beat as she heard the next words that came from his mouth.

“Barklee’s sick.”

Chapter Seven

Caine sat rigidly in the driver’s seat of the Hummer, his hands on the wheel and his thoughts running rampant through his mind.

Her smell was driving him insane again.

“How long has he been sick?” she asked, her words only barely breaking through to his mind.

Caine didn’t look at her as he answered. “It started a couple of hours ago,” he explained absently, his concentration on the situation distracting him.

She was still fertile and he could still possibly sire young with her if he was to mount her again. But Caine had seen the way she had almost limped to the car. The woman was already battered from his first attempts at mating with her. Had he been his brother, it wouldn’t have fazed him one bit to fuck her again before the night was over. And had he been a bastard he would have grinned in pride at the sight of her limping from what he inflicted on her.

But Caine had always been able to muster a little more false modesty in human form than he could while he was a wolf.

He gritted his teeth and told himself that he could handle it. And that Luke’s needs and the needs of the pack could wait until she became fertile again the next month. The pack had other needs for the moment that had to be taken care of. Lee was ill and needed attention and so Caine had had no choice but to ask for her help.

But preventing Luke’s mounting her was going to be a real bitch.

“Dr. Evans, I really appreciate your helping me like this,” Caine offered quietly. “The nearest vet is over forty miles away and…”

“It’s alright,” she nodded. “I’m glad to help.”

She was. Caine knew that and many other things about this woman already.

Unfortunately, Luke knew Caine had already mounted her. He knew it was his turn. And although Caine was well aware of the fact that allowing Luke access to the woman was something he didn’t want to do, he also very distinctly remembered telling his twin that he could mount the bitch as soon as he had. But that had been before he’d made love to her.

“What is he doing?”

Caine heard her words through a fog of canine testosterone and human male desire. Neither seemed very easily placated with any thought or rationale he could come up with for the moment. Caine breathed hard and felt his head spin at her scent. He shook it off and tried to concentrate on the dark road in front of him.

“He can’t sleep,” he started. “He’s whining and doesn’t seem to be coherent when we talk to him.”

And he can’t seem to transform back into a human for some reason.

Not being able to fully explain the entire situation to the female next to him was getting to be a habit, Caine noticed.

“Sometimes dogs choose to ignore their masters,” she offered quietly. Caine quickly shook his head.

“I’m not his master, Doctor…”

“My name is Chloe.”

Caine felt his pulse skip at the way she had said her own name. And at the way she seemed to be inviting him to say it. The very thought of growling her name and then having her say his when he pushed himself inside her again made his dick even harder than it had been when he’d fucked her.

She was quiet after she corrected him. Caine could hear her breathing in the passenger seat. And his nose found another, more subtle scent wafting from her that hadn’t been there when he had lain with her.

Baby powder.

She’d showered. After they’d made love. Caine simultaneously smiled and felt anger at the realization. He’d pulled off acting exactly like his brother when he’d left so abruptly and she was no doubt upset at the very least by his unfeeling exit from her company. This made Caine’s task of keeping Chloe and Luke apart much easier, even though he knew that Luke would just as soon fuck her while she was kicking and screaming than he would with her willing.

But it also meant that she’d tried to wash away the evidence of what she and Caine had shared together. She’d disliked his scent on her, even though she hadn’t known it was him. He’d marked her tonight and although he could still very clearly smell it, she could not.

In a sense, she’d already rejected a part of him.

“I gather you’re Luke’s brother.”

Caine glanced sideways at her and nodded. He caught the glimpse of a dimple in her left cheek when he did.

“So is that what I should call you?”

Caine took his eyes off of the road long enough to study her face in the darkness. Even with just the dashboard lights illuminating the cab of the vehicle, Caine could see those big, brown doe eyes looking back at him.

“So I’ll just call you Luke’s brother. How’s that?”

He hadn’t realized how silly he must have looked until she poked fun at him for his wordless stare.

“Caine.”

She shook her head. “I know that…”

“That’s what I go by.”

She didn’t nod or acknowledge that she understood. But Caine suspected she did. She just didn’t like his answer and her silence was her loudly voicing her irritation with him.

“Do you have a first name?” she asked with just a hint of ballsy, sexy, female attitude in her tone. Caine couldn’t keep the grin from his lips at how correct he’d been in his assumptions about her temper.

Meagan’s temper.

Caine tried to shove that thought from his mind. This wasn’t Meagan sitting beside him. And this woman would never be his wife. He knew that. And his mind argued back and forth with what he should do when he got her back to his den. Caine knew what he really wanted to accomplish was crazy at best. There was no way Chloe was going to fall in love with him within the next month, especially when she found out what he was.

And besides, Luke was right. The pack had to have more members. And the female on her way back to his den was merely the first of the bitches Caine and his twin would have to mount until their pack was reestablished. Luke could sire the alpha just as easily as Caine could. It made no biological difference to Caine, as genetically, he and his twin were identical. And as for the wolf in Caine, that part of him knew to act in the best interest of the pack. The beta mating with the alpha’s female was acceptable in every wolf pack that had survived and a beta wolf often sired an alpha.

It shouldn’t have even mattered to the human in Caine. He’d known the woman for less than a day, so her feelings shouldn’t matter. They truly shouldn’t.

They did.

“Listen, Caine.” The way she stressed his name caused him to look in amusement at her before turning back to the road. “I just climbed into the car with you. A total stranger. Which is something I would never do in the city, but out here I like to think I can trust my neighbors. Even the ones I don’t know. And I agreed to come with you to take care of your wolf at three o’clock in the morning.” Her voice was eerily steady and smooth, but Caine could smell her fear of him growing. “I think the least you could do would be to tell me your name so that I don’t feel like…”

“Damon.”

She was silent.

“Damon Alexander Caine.” He smiled at her and took a hand off the wheel and extended it across the cab. She looked down at it without reaching for it.

“It’s a hand,” he teased.

“I know that,” she quipped, causing Caine to chuckle at her flustered state. He was used to the reaction at the sight of his massive paws, especially from women. Any time he extended a hand to help a woman out of a car or to shake her own much smaller, dainty hand in greeting, Caine saw the same look of astonishment and fear.

As he waited for her to find the nerve to take his hand, Caine felt an even bigger urge to tease rise up in him that could only have been coming from the human side of him that had made love to her just a couple of hours earlier.

“Chloe?”

She looked up suddenly from his hand and raised her eyebrows adorably at him as her silent answer.

“Are you afraid I’ll bite?”

The smell of her fear dissipated as quickly as the sound of his words. And another more invasive, sanity threatening aroma filled the space between them.

She had become wickedly aroused by his words.

“No,” she balked quickly. And honestly, it would seem.

Caine shifted in his seat and looked back at the road in front of him before laying his hand down between them. Never had he met a woman who could evoke his senses and urges as this one could. Even Meagan’s scents and physical reactions hadn’t been this easy for him to read or this detrimental to his sexual balance. Chloe emitted messages to parts of Caine’s mind and instincts that no other woman ever had.

“Is there a reason I should be afraid of you, Mr. Caine?”

Caine grinned without meaning to at her question and the way she’d said his name. And then let his silence be his reply.

She had stood up to him the first time he had come to her in wolf form. And although she had been afraid, Chloe had backed that fear down with healthy curiosity and nerve. Caine had smelled her fear weave its way around an excitement that was both mental and physical when he’d gotten closer to her than he ever had to any other human who didn’t know that he wasn’t merely a beast intent on destruction. Now, as she sat beside him and became both afraid and excited again at what he had just said to her, it reiterated Caine’s beliefs that she might possibly be that rare kind of human who could appreciate what he was. Finally, Caine shrugged. “These mountains alone would scare most women,” he teased.

She chuckled and then shook her head. “I’m not most women,” she purred.

Caine’s cock twitched at her words and her lack of fear of the situation. And a chuckle escaped him before he could catch it.

“You mean nothing about this situation scares you?” He glanced over at her. “It’s so desolate out here. Secluded.”

Just like one of my novels…

“No one would hear a thing were something to happen to you this far out in the woods.”

He smelled her arousal grow even more at his words and Caine had to fight the grin that wanted to curl his lips.

“You have to realize that. And you had to have considered all the awful things that could possibly happen to you when you got into the car with me,” Caine offered. “You’re an intelligent, educated woman, Dr. Evans,” he rumbled teasingly. “And I have a feeling that you sport more than your fair share of common sense.”

Not to mention the fact that you think my brother just fucked you and ran out on you…

She did realize this. The man in him knew it.

But the beast in him could detect that smell a mile away.

“So, Dr. Evans,” Caine started, “how is it that you’re so full of courage in a situation that should be frightening?” he asked.

Caine continued to study the road in front of him, momentarily forgetting about his hand on the seat between them. Until he felt the smooth warm glide of her fingers underneath his own.

“You’re Damon Caine, right?” she nodded.

Caine nodded carefully at her stating the obvious. And felt the fingers of her other hand envelope the other side of his hand.
His
hand this time. Caine’s hand.

Not his twin’s.

“
The
Damon Caine?”

He nodded again and then fidgeted in his seat. He’d had so little contact with the outside world that the thought of her recognizing his name hadn’t even crossed his mind. Caine sent his manuscripts to his agent through the mail and had never given a single book signing or interview. And he had never considered the fact that this woman would have been interested in his work.

His hand was still pressed between hers and Caine felt her pat it affectionately as she softly spoke again.

“I suppose one builds up a tolerance for such things,” Chloe said playfully. “After all, Damon Caine…” she grinned, “you’ve been frightening me for years.”