For Life (16 page)

Werewolves could be damned antiquated sometimes. And for the most part, she didn’t have a problem with any of it. She was proud of who and what she was. And she always would be.

Josie opened her car door and she slid onto the cold seat, wrapping her arms around herself against the frigid temperatures and watching while he took long strides around the front of the car to the driver’s side.

Josie Balzon was the sexiest damned werewolf she’d ever laid eyes on. She loved his broad, muscular shoulders and chest, his slim waistline, his dark skin and straight black hair that barely lifted off his shoulders with the crisp wind blowing around him.

Everything about him was the ideal combination to create perfection.

She might very well have found her soul mate, she thought when he slid in next to her and closed his door. Josie looked at her, his dark, almost black eyes glowing possessively and with a determined edge that tightened her gut.

I need time to think
.
She emphasized the words in her mind, wondering if maybe he didn’t hear her thoughts as well when he was outside the car and had focused only on the soul mate part when he climbed in next to her.

“I need to go to my den.” She held her hand up when his expression hardened.

“Josie. I can’t just walk away from everything I had, everything I owned.”

“There very well could be a dead
lunewulf
lying on your living room floor.” His tone was colder than ice. Determination made his scent richer.

Maura nodded, her stomach twisting over the thought of having to deal with

properly burying Pete. His den would be outraged. Not that she should care. None of them ever thought much of her.

“Ignoring him in death would only make his den right about me. Regardless of what kind of male he was, he still deserves a proper funeral.”

Josie looked away from her, his jaw a hard line of determination when he stared out the front window without starting his car. “You’ll go and gather your things.”

Her heart skipped a beat, relief washing over her when she realized she wouldn’t have to fight him just to return to her den for a bit.

“That’s fine. There isn’t anything for me in that pack anyway.”

“We just announced our mating,” he said, his teeth clamped together and his voice gravelly. “You will not walk away from me now and make me out to be a fool.”

“You would keep me around now simply to save face in this pack and your own?”

She glared at him, astonished, frustrated that the thought hadn’t hit her before. “Take me to my den, Josie. I won’t disgrace your precious reputation.”

Her tone bit with sarcasm. She knew it. Muscles pressed against his coat, making his arms look even thicker. She shivered and watched his fingers tighten and then release the steering wheel.

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For Life

Damn it. At the least she could grab her heavy down coat that Pete hadn’t allowed her time to put on before throwing her out of his den. Like she wanted to simply run back to that horrid place. But her things were there—her clothes, her personal items.

She wouldn’t have some other bitch going through and sorting out her stuff.

Josie shifted in the seat, stretching his arm, and her heart exploded. His brooding gaze told her nothing when he gave her attention. But when he slid out of his coat, she exhaled in spite of herself.

“I would never strike you, never hurt you in anger, no matter how bad you piss me off.” His baritone gave her chills when he leaned toward her and wrapped his coat around her. Josie rested his knuckles underneath her chin, rubbing her skin while he held on to the collar of the coat. “I will take you to your old den. We can get whatever things you want to have. But then we leave. That asshole’s den can plan his funeral without you. There is no one there you need to impress. They had their chance with you and fucked it up.”

His coat reeked of him and every breath she took filled her lungs with leather and Josie—a dangerous combination when he gazed at her so possessively. She lowered her gaze, trying to keep her heart from pattering a mile a minute. In spite of how cold it was outside, suddenly wrapped in his heavy coat, she swore sweat broke out over her skin.

He was so damned close, so powerful and convinced of how things would be. Would it be so terrible to risk her heart once again and lay claim on such a perfect fucking male?

But he still hadn’t shared why mating with her meant so much to him. All he’d said was that running from him now would be an embarrassment and a humiliation to both of them. Like a werewolf with Josie’s powers and good looks had a damned clue what it felt or smelled like to be embarrassed or humiliated. She doubted he’d ever experienced either degrading sensation.

“You may not feel I need to impress anyone.” Focusing on what she needed to do helped calm her frazzled nerves. No way would she fill the car with the smell of her lust. “But it will always matter to me that my pack knows I do what is right. Pete was a prick. He made me despise him with his foul stench and indifference toward me. But I will never be like that—never. It’s the right thing to do to return to my den and handle my affairs before leaving.”

Josie rubbed the bottom of her chin until she looked up at him. When she did, he pressed his lips to hers. The heat from his mouth scalded her insides, sending all hopes of keeping the smell of her lust hidden right out the window. He tightened his grip on the coat collar, dragging her closer to him while devouring her mouth.

Maura cried out, which sounded more like a whimper in his mouth when he

impaled her with his tongue. The muscles in his arms twitched under her fingers. She ran her palms up his shoulders and then tangled her fingers in his straight, smooth hair.

It was so thick, like coarse silk, and she grabbed on, tugging him closer until he let out a low, dangerous-sounding growl.

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Lorie O’Clare

Her insides exploded. Heat washed over her, making her flesh tingle. Her pussy swelled and throbbed painfully while a pressure built inside her that made it impossible to think straight.

When he let go of the coat, breaking the kiss and leaving her panting, Josie reached inside and practically pulled her onto his lap in spite of the limited space. His large body left little room between him and the steering wheel, yet he wrapped her into him.

“Your desire to do what is right in spite of the wrongs done to you makes you even more beautiful.” He brushed her hair from her face with one hand while holding her tightly, his arm bulging with muscle that was hard as rock. “I will take you to your old den. And I’ll be there with you every minute that you’re there, until you are satisfied that we can leave.”

“It might be better if you just dropped me off.” She tried for an understanding smile, praying he saw into her thoughts and knew she was sincere. “I’m not going to embarrass you or humiliate you. You have my word. But I’m very safe in my own pack.

You and I both know Malta werewolves aren’t very welcome among the
lunewulfs
.”

“I am not leaving you in a pack who turned their backs on you when you howled for help,” he growled.

His intense smell was enough to show her she wouldn’t argue her way out of this one. Josie had his mind made up. Apparently convinced she saw his side of things, Josie placed her back on her side of the front seat and started the car. They weren’t even out of Valle when his cell phone rang. She glanced over to see him stare at the phone and then send the call to voicemail.

His expression remained etched in stone when he tossed the phone on the seat between them. “Dimitri called me already,” he mumbled. “He can wait until I speak to him in person.”

“You can’t hear a person’s thoughts when you talk to them on the phone,” she guessed.

“I hate cell phones.”

That confirmed her guess. “I’ll remember that about you.”

Maura’s stomach twisted in knots and there was no hiding the smell of her

nervousness as they drove down the quiet streets of her pack. In spite of the freezing temperatures, the sun shone brightly, its rays glaring off the surrounding snow-covered mountains. All the streets were well-shoveled though, with hard-packed piles of snow lining the roads. Josie took his time driving through town, never once asking for directions and moving so slowly it was like he wanted them to be noticed. All it would take was one pup spotting the dark-skinned werewolf behind the driver’s wheel next to her to send the pack into a frenzy.

Maura just knew the inevitable would happen.

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For Life

“I don’t have a key,” she announced, the realization dawning on her when Josie pulled into her cleared driveway. He parked next to Pete’s car, the one he’d used to haul her out into the mountains. “We’ll draw even more attention to ourselves if we break into my den.”

“The front door is unlocked.” Josie sounded so confident that she gave him an odd look.

He barely glanced her way before climbing out on his side and heading around the front of the car. Faded blue jeans hugged his long, thick, muscular legs. He wore the flannel shirt tucked in, showing off his powerful-looking chest and broad shoulders.

The view distracted her for a moment before she hurried out on her side, knowing they’d do better if they got inside quickly. Josie’s unfamiliar car driving down the road and then parking in her driveway would have half the neighborhood sniffing at their windows before long.

She knew their time was limited before someone notified Bob that they were here.

Yet another pack leader she’d be dealing with today.

Josie growled at her the moment she got out of the car. “I’ll check the place out first.”

“This is my den,” she protested instantly.

“Was your den.” His growl turned fiercer.

Maura glanced up and down her street, sniffing the air of the neighborhood she called home for the past six months. Everything looked the way it always did. Josie moved ahead of her to the front door. Just as he reached it, the door swung open.

Maura swore it opened of its own accord. But she couldn’t be sure.

At the same instant, Leona Torngreen, her neighbor to the south, walked around the side of her den. She shielded her eyes against the sun and sniffed the air.

“Maura, I haven’t seen you in a few days.” Leona hesitated, but her expression and scent didn’t show any surprise or fear.

Josie disappeared inside the den. Maura glanced his way, but lost him in the darkness of her living room. She turned her attention to Leona, who trudged over unshoveled snow between their dens toward her.

“I haven’t seen you either.” She hated the sensation of feeling trapped. If she ran into her den, Leona would follow and see Josie. But if she stood where she was, the bitch would smell his scent on her.

There weren’t really any options other than face the inevitable. The sinking, twisting pain in her gut didn’t help matters much.

“I’ve been away for a day or so.” She wished she’d made time to plot out a

believable story to explain her being gone. The truth wasn’t so ugly, except for Pete.

And that wasn’t her fault. If he hadn’t dumped her outside
lunewulf
territory, he would still be alive. “I just got home.”

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“What in the world are you wearing?” Leona wrinkled her nose and twisted a

blonde curl around her finger as she studied Maura.

Maura glanced down at the oversized leather coat that Josie had wrapped around her. Admittedly, she drowned in it, but cuddled up inside almost made it feel like she had a shield surrounding her. A black leather, thick, heavy shield that smelled strongly of one powerful, dominating Malta werewolf.

Leona’s pup crashed in the snow and started wailing at the same moment that Paul Wagner pulled up in front of their den. A strong breeze carried a foul stench on it and Maura’s gut turned so quickly from the nauseating smell that she wanted to puke.

She turned and looked at Paul and swore his mouth dropped open. Quickly he

picked up his cell phone, and instead of getting out of his truck, he made a phone call.

When his attention moved to the strange car in her driveway, he put his truck in gear and moved forward, his expression turning menacing as he blocked the drive.

The stench in the air increased, and as she watched Paul, it dawned on her that she smelled Pete, Paul’s littermate, her mate…deceased mate. His dead body probably had her den smelling like a burial service after a massacre of werewolves.

For a moment she worried she might throw up. Death was part of life. And for werewolves, it was something seen more often than not. She witnessed her fair share of killing and burial ceremonies when she ran from pack to pack in her earlier years. But witnessing it before didn’t make it any easier to handle now. And she had yet to see Pete’s dead body.

Something told her that possibly Paul already knew Pete was dead. Either that or he knew Pete had dumped Maura up in the mountains. It wasn’t like him to sit in his truck and make phone calls instead of getting out and talking to her. Or hitting on her.

Paul wasn’t a hell of a lot better male than Pete had been.

“I thought I heard something about you,” Leona called out, now standing between their dens as she saved her pup from wiping out in the snow again. “What’s that?”

Maura stood in snow up to her shins. She moved closer to her front door, then kicked her boots against the shoveled walk. Maybe she wouldn’t ever return to this den, but good breeding prevented her from entering with snow caked on her shoes and the bottom of her jeans.

“My mate told me last night that you were gone. Something he heard from your mate.” Her quizzical expression showed she had already received part of a juicy story and now ached to get her pup under control so she could get the rest of the details.

“I can only imagine what Pete might have told him.” She started toward her front door, praying she wouldn’t throw up when she entered her den. The smell was

nauseating.

“Do you smell something?” Leona cocked her head and sniffed the air. She pushed her curly hair away from her face and frowned at Maura. “You have to be able to smell that. It smells like death.”