Claiming Ana (6 page)

“We’ve got to start meeting like this more often, sans the bullet wound.”

“And the tornado. Do you remember what happened?” Ana leaned against the table, sipping a mug of coffee. She didn’t make a move to steer away from his touch.

“Unfortunately, yeah. What time is it?” He crossed his arm over his eyes and blinked against the bright light.

“10:30 AM. How about that, Taffy? Our patient made it through the night.” She set the cup on the table, crouched down beside him, patted her dog on the head and shoved her gently aside. “I know you love him, but let me have a look, ’kay?”

The dog—Ana had called her Taffy—plopped her doggy butt on the floor at his feet and looked up at him in clear adoration. Ana produced a pen light from the pocket of her lab coat. Howl stared in fascination as a mask of concentration shadowed her face. Her strong bones, olive skin and blood might not have revealed her Romany heritage. She could have easily been of Greek or Hispanic descent, but he just knew she wasn’t. His mate’s unusual green eyes told another story. They belied Irish or maybe Scot in her bloodline. Her blood magic, however, was definitely Gypsy.

“Pupils look good.” She said this to her dog in complete seriousness and he stifled a chuckle.

“How about a headache?” she asked him while she felt his forehead for heat.

“No thanks, I got enough aches,” he growled, and grasped her hand to pull her into his lap for a quick kiss. “Some are more pleasant than others.”

Ana gave a light nervous laugh. The sound wrapped around Howl and made him ache.

“Let me help you sit up. I’ll get you some aspirin and see how you feel.”

“I’d kill for a cup of that coffee.”

“Sure.”

That’s not what I’d kill for
.

Clear as a bell, her voice rang in Howl’s head. For a moment, he was taken aback, then he grinned. Hmm, this new development was one he hadn’t heard of before. His grin turned wolfish.
Well, well, that’s one talent I wouldn’t mind taking advantage of.
No time like the present to test it. Not waiting for her answer, he grabbed the table for leverage and stood up. The quilt pooled on the floor, leaving him in all his morning glory.

Her gaze swept over him, lingering for a moment on his groin. A dark blush appeared on her cheeks before she remembered herself and turned her back.

Oh, my. It was different when he lay dying on my kitchen floor
.

The thought flitted through his mind as if it were his own.

“Hmm. Not so different.” He answered her unspoken thought before leaning down, snagging the quilt, and wrapping it around his waist. “You can look now.”

Ana turned, but wouldn’t meet his eyes. Howl was fascinated by the way her cheeks turned rose under the gold. He heard her inner battle between blatantly staring at him, possibly throwing herself at him, or politely turning away. Neither was what she really wanted. Interesting. Maybe taking things further between wasn’t out of the question after all.

“Right, about that coffee. How do you like it?” Ana hurried to the counter and grabbed a sturdy mug. Her fingers were trembling as she poured the hot liquid.

“Thanks. I like it black.” He tightened the quilt around his waist, pulled out a ladder-back chair, and sat facing the counter.

She stopped pouring, turned and narrowed her eyes. “Wait just a minute. You heard that?”

“Every word.”

Mmm. Something is seriously wrong with me. He’s been hurt and I still want to jump him. What kind of person am I?

“Heard that too and I’m more than happy to oblige.”

“Other than the fact this is a serious invasion of privacy. How can you hear me?” Her eyes dropped below eye level and just as quickly shot elsewhere as she handed him two aspirin and a steaming mug.

Stop thinking about sex, Ana. Control yourself.

Howl swallowed the pills with the hot coffee burning a path down his raw throat and hoped it hid his grin.

Arrgh. Damn. He probably heard that too.

“We’ll get to that, hopefully sooner rather than later.”

“You’re evading the question. I’ll need to look at your arm and check the bandage.”

“Sure.” He smiled. She’d already mentioned checking the wound. So he made her nervous.

“So, how did you come to be bleeding in my woods not twenty feet from my doorstep?”

“My woods. I’m renting the Parker place, remember? Technically, that makes Parker’s woods, my woods,” he corrected.

She turned her back on him to retrieve something from the cabinet. Had it only been yesterday they had shared lunch in this room? She had been molten in his arms, melting into his kiss. If not for the damn phone call from Jace, they would have ended up in bed. Maybe on the couch. Against the wall. Now who couldn’t control their thoughts? Where had this distance come from?

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“I know.” He slipped in behind her at the counter. He had questions. She had answers. Howl intended to have them and her. “Thank you for taking care of me. Why didn’t you call for help?” Howl laughed when he felt her jump mentally. Mind reading was such a trip. He effectively caged her between the counter and his arms. He wanted to kiss her, just there where her neck curved into her shoulder.
He nuzzled the spot and traced the tip of his tongue along the exposed skin of her throat.

She tilted her head to give him better access. “The storm knocked down lines everywhere. We’re running off generator power, no phone, and no cell.”

He felt her shiver as her situation started to dawn on her. They were completely alone. Nothing to stop them from acting on this all-consuming lust. No calls from Jace. No neighborly driveby visits from Cade. No work. Just walls, rooms, and plenty of doors with locks.

“I would have driven you to the hospital once the storm let up and you were stable, but you asked me not to. That, and my Jeep was totaled by a tree. Then I found this.” Ana held up the small jar containing the bullet she had removed. “And I knew I couldn’t go to Cade. He wouldn’t understand.”

Howl took the jar. Even through the glass, the metal burned his skin. He tossed it aside and it rolled across the floor into the corner, smacking into the baseboard, but didn’t break.

“Thank you for that, for protecting me. You know what I am, then.” This time he did kiss her just behind her right ear.

“Yes.”

“And are you afraid of me?” Need beat a rhythm through his blood.
Please say no.
The hard planes of his body pressed against the silk of her back.

“Should I be?”

“I won’t hurt you.”

“How do you do this to me?”

Howl felt her frustration as she instinctively arched into him, offering her breasts for his touch.

“What do I do to you?” He flipped open the buttons of her blouse.

“Make me ache for you.”

A feral urge consumed him with her whispered words, something animal, something that couldn’t be controlled. He kissed the nape of her neck, and felt her skin vibrate beneath his lips. He heard her shudder inwardly and beg her body to behave. “Oh, no you don’t. I want you out of control. You should have told me about your magic.” He breathed the word in her ear. Her nipples tightened underneath his massaging fingers. He twisted her around in his arms until she faced him.

“And you could have mentioned you howl at the moon, before I had to use that magic to save your life.”

Werewolf.
The word hung unspoken between them.

“I don’t have a habit of telling my lovers I grow fangs and fur. It tends to dampen the mood.”

“We’re not lovers yet.”

“I want to change that. I think you do too. Now, the way I see it we both have something to hide. We can’t have everyone knowing our little secrets, but we can share them between us.” He held her green gaze with his gold one. If he could hear her thoughts, then there was every chance she could hear his.

Who else knows about my condition, pretty Ana? Cade? Jace?

He smirked when she frowned and shook her head, those wicked green eyes widening.

What the hell? Hearing my thoughts is one thing, but stay out of my head, Howl.

Both the man and wolf liked this sign of fire.
What’s the matter? A little too close for comfort?
Leaning down, he ran his nose along the long, elegant line of her throat. Exotic scents lingered where her pulse beat.

Close is good. You want me. I want you. I can show you what real magic is.
He inhaled deeply, taking the scent of woman and warm arousal into his lungs. His wolf perked up. His body tightened.

There’s a line if I ever heard one. Don’t try that alpha crap on me, wolf boy. I don’t cower to anyone.
Her eyes closed and she sighed.
I thought they might hurt you if they knew what you were.

I’m only teasing you.

I like touching your mind, my sweet, sexy Ana. I wonder how you’ll react when my hands slide across your skin. How will your sigh sound when I sink deep into your body? I’ll take you, turn you, until I’m the sun that warms you, the moon that calls to you at night. I need you. You need me, Ana. Your body is crying out for mine.

Oh my God.

He felt the liquid heat pool in her belly through the link she had opened after using her magic on him.

God, you’re so arrogant. I must be crazy to find that attractive.
Without warning, she shoved, hard, pushing him out of her mind.

Howl staggered back a step, but the challenge she presented only made him want her more. He scraped his teeth along the length of her neck. Not enough to break the skin, just the hint of danger. “Okay, let’s forget about fur and magic for the moment.”

“I can help you break your curse, if you’ll let me. Sooner or later, whoever attacked you will try again. Next time they might succeed.”

She did have a point there, Howl admitted. Without her help, he’d already be dead. “Okay.”

“You can be fully human again. There are ways.”

“What could you possibly know about it?” He made his living gathering information, tracking scum that had jumped bail, and all the other things private investigators did on a daily basis. He was licensed to carry a weapon, but needed none. And he’d made it his business to discover all he could about werewolves with the hopes he could end the curse.

“You can’t be harmed except with silver. That’s fact, not legend. As soon as I saw the bullet, I knew what you were.” Had she felt excitement, or wariness that at any moment he might wake and rip her to pieces?

“You took care of me anyway.” He lifted Ana onto the counter. Tugging her blouse open, he took her lace-covered breast into his mouth. She shivered and leaned into him.

Oh, as pretty as it is, that has definitely gotta go.
Needing to taste her, he began to fumble with the buttons at the cuffs of her sleeves.

“Don’t flatter yourself. I’ve got a thing for strays. Ask Circe.” Ana gestured toward the fluffy black cat by the fireplace.

Circe meowed sagely, hissed, and then curled around her babies.

“Is that what I am?”

Yes.

He grimaced at the intrusion.

Not as fun on the receiving end, is it? Next time ask permission first.

“This mental connection is something rare, and as you just saw, a two-way road. Normally, only found in family, or…”

Mates?
He took it as a point for him when Ana didn’t answer, or push him away. He slid his arms around her waist, pressing her against his chest. She removed the bandage and traced the smooth skin on his bicep where there should have been a healing gunshot wound, but there was nothing, not even the slightest scar.

“If you are hurt,” she whispered, “you heal quickly, and without a trace. Let me go, Howl.”

He moved lower, sliding her blouse up a few inches to kiss her navel. “Why? I like holding you.” More than that, she felt right in his arms. “If you objected, you’d use some Gypsy ware to fend me off,” he whispered in her ear before taking the lobe between his teeth and nipping teasingly.

“Keep that up and we’ll never make it to the bed.”