Lone Wolf (8 page)

They rose at the end to give a standing ovation with everyone else in the theatre and then added their voices to the thundering calls for an encore. After everyone cheered and stomped their feet for ten minutes, Kevin came back out alone with his guitar. He sat down on the stool and played the opening chords to Delany’s favorite song. Her heart leapt in anticipation. It was a ballad about dancing under a Montana moon.

Just before he started singing, Kevin leaned into the microphone. “This song is going out to my buddy Leif, and the new woman in his life, Delany. May the two of you always dance under the stars.”

Delany turned to Leif and blinked in surprise.

“We were friends in college,” he whispered and as Kevin started to sing, Leif took her into his arms and they danced in the small box, and it was possibly the most magical moment of Delany’s life.

After the concert, they filed out into the black. The temperature had dropped, and Delany pulled her wrap tightly around her as Leif located a cab, and then they rode through the pools of streetlights.

“So what did you think of the show?” Leif asked.

“It was amazing,” she replied. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you knew him.”

“I like surprises,” Leif said.

They were quiet during the chopper ride back to Raven Ridge. The music still echoed in Delany’s ears and she wanted to hang onto the magic of dancing with Leif while Kevin sang to them. She wanted to ask Leif so many questions, about what it was like to be a shifter, why he’d slept with so many women when he got back from Afghanistan, and what that meant for his ability to have a relationship and be happy with just one woman.

She also wanted to ask him about his brothers. But her heart felt so full, and she didn’t want to spoil what had been a perfect night. She wasn’t sure if she even wanted to think about him being a shifter, what that meant. She definitely didn’t want to think about him sleeping with other women.

Next time. She would ask next time. Which meant that she’d decided that there would be a next time.

So much for getting him out of her system.

“Are we on for next Saturday, then?” Leif said, as he dropped her and Buddy off outside her apartment.

She nodded and let him kiss her. She couldn’t believe that she wasn’t demanding that he take her home to bed. But it was better this way. She still needed to know a little more about Leif Pierce before she could give him her heart.

The following Saturday they went riding and then hiked to the top of Raven Ridge to watch the sun set. Scores of ravens flew over them as they hiked, blotting out the pink sky, heading for their roost in the cliffs. Leif brought binoculars and after scanning the cliff for several minutes, managed to pick out the white raven much to Delany’s delight.

“Can you imagine being the sole white bird in that sea of black?” Leif said.

Delany shook her head. She wondered if the white raven even knew he or she was different.

She hadn’t been sure how they were going to get back down in the dark, but Leif surprised her by having the chopper and an elaborate picnic dinner already up on the ridge when they arrived.

That night as she lay in his arms on the blanket under a slate sky in a state of arousal after he’d left her breathless with his touch and kisses, she asked him what it was like to be a shifter. He told her how it felt to operate with heightened senses, what it was like to be part wild, to run through the woods and rangelands with his brothers, or alone, to know the scent of a single blade of grass.

He also told her about his instincts and desires, and how deeply shifters loved. It seemed to Delany as though a bleakness passed over him when he spoke of love, but she couldn’t be sure.

At her request, he stripped and shifted for her, becoming a stunning silvery wolf that sniffed the air and loped around her, his coat glowing in the moonlight. He approached almost warily and she buried her hands in his fur and smelled his wildness. Then suddenly he was a man again, a perfectly cut, naked man, who made her knees weak and her body tremble with desire. But true to his word, although he drove her mad with what he did with her body, he didn’t take it that one last step. Perhaps it was all part of his plan. He was going to make her want him so much that she’d beg to be his no questions asked.

And it was working. She was falling for him… hard.

On the way home from their third date, a day at the Marias River Rodeo, she asked about the women and the drinking, Leif said brusquely that there was nothing to tell. Although they’d enjoyed their time at the rodeo, Leif had seemed moodier, and more distant than he had on their previous dates. It was part of the reason she’d decided it was time to talk about his past. But now she realized that maybe it wasn’t the best timing.

She turned to make a joke of it, to try to relieve the tension that had suddenly filled the cockpit of the helicopter, but Leif’s eyes were harder than she’d ever seen them, and a muscle pulsed in his cheek.

“I just need to know. You say that isn’t who you are. And I believe you. But I need to understand why you did it,” she said. “It’s important, for us, if there’s going to be an us.”

Leif was deathly quiet. “I can’t talk about it, Delany. Not now. Maybe not ever. Please don’t ask again,” he replied, his voice terse. Then he went silent for the remainder of the short flight while Delany sucked back tears.

He dropped her at her car without ceremony, although he did place an absent kiss on her forehead. But then, instead of taking off in the helicopter as she drove away, she saw him shed his clothes, shift, and run off into the black night.

On Wednesday, a beautiful bouquet of roses arrived at the veterinary clinic addressed to Delany.

“Ooh, someone has an admirer,” Celeste cooed.

Delany flushed and her heart fluttered as she opened the card. Was Leif trying to apologize for his behavior the other night? He hadn’t called just to say hi yet this week, like he had the previous weeks, and she’d started to feel a small seed of worry.

But instead of being from Leif, the roses were from Wyatt, Silas, James, and Brett Pierce. She clutched the card to her chest and looked at Celeste in alarm. What would the woman think if she knew Delany was getting roses from Leif’s brothers? All four of them…

She moved the roses into her office in the clinic and stared at them. She checked her cell phone again, hoping to see a missed call or text from Leif.

Celeste poked her head into Delany’s office. “There’s someone here to see you,” she said. She gave Delany the wide-eyed look that Delany knew meant Celeste was trying to pass her some unspoken message. Delany hoped that it didn’t mean that Mrs. Biddle was back with her twelve-year-old canary.

A broad-shouldered man stood looking out the window when she entered the foyer. Her heart leapt. It was Leif, here to explain. But when the man turned, she saw it was Wyatt. He was, she realized, as extraordinarily hot as his brother, and the way he was looking at her sent a slight tremor down the back of her thighs. She would be lying if she claimed that she hadn’t imagined sleeping with him.

As always, Wyatt was direct. “I know what I said when we saw each other last was probably a bit shocking. I’m sorry. I want to invite you out to our ranch to meet my brothers. Just have dinner with us and get to know us. No pressure.”

After the last time she saw Wyatt, she’d thought that she would think him dangerous—after all, he seemed to think that Delany should be sleeping with him and his brothers—but she didn’t. Wyatt radiated kindness and almost paternal concern.

Delany shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve been seeing Leif.” Was she still seeing Leif? She didn’t know. Maybe she’d ruined things with Leif.

Wyatt’s face shifted and grew drawn. “I love my brother,” he said. “But you should know that he still hasn’t recovered from…” He paused. “Being in Afghanistan. He needs help and we want to help him, but he keeps pushing us away. We’re naturally pack animals. We think he’d be way better off living with us. We want him to come home.”

Delany pressed her lips together. She couldn’t speak to what was best for Leif.

“But even if he doesn’t,” Wyatt continued. “That doesn’t change the fact that we think you’re the woman for us, and we want you to see what we have to offer.”

“You barely know me,” she said.

“We’re shifters. We know what we want,” Wyatt replied. “Look I’m guessing you’re set to work in Barry’s satellite clinic tomorrow. It’s right near our ranch. Just drop by for a bite to eat after you quit.”

Delany found herself agreeing despite her misgivings. Maybe Leif was never coming back. Wyatt gave her the address and directions to Seven Winds Ranch.

He caught her hand as she went to turn away, and squeezed it. Sparks flew up her arm. She was attracted to him.

“We’re really excited to potentially have you as part of our lives, Delany.”

Thunderclouds hovered on the horizon as Leif sniffed the grass on Raven Ridge where he and Delany had lain a few days ago. Her scent was still so strong and it filled him with longing. He needed to call her, to tell her that he loved her. But memories of Jackson kept worming their way into his brain. The rodeo had been a bad choice. Memories of he and Jackson winning the team roping event fifteen years ago had swamped his mind and made him more volatile than he should have been. Jackson would have loved Delany, her curves, her warmth, her brilliance.

But Jackson was dead. Images of Jackson, his limbs destroyed by a landmine, the life force draining out of him, flooded Leif’s thoughts and he lifted his muzzle and howled his despair at the night.

He’d been keeping his grief in check, stomped down inside of him. He’d been handling it with women and booze. Until he met Delany and he’d let himself start to feel again.

Delany. His mate.

This was something that he and Jackson should be doing together.

Delany was probably wondering why he hadn’t called. Why he’d been so short with her. He needed to call her. But he also needed run for a few more days. Run away from the sorrow and guilt that dogged him. Running was better than the women and the drinking. If he ran fast enough until his paws ached and his fur was soaked with dew and rain, perhaps he could outrun the memories. Then maybe he could go back to Delany a healed man.

But today it seemed like Jackson waited around every corner, his silver fur lifting in the wind, and his amber eyes glowing.

Leif picked up speed again and began his descent from the ridge. He would run for another day, then he would call Delany.

The four Pierce brothers, so alike, so devastatingly handsome, greeted her on the porch as if they’d been waiting a lifetime to meet her, as if she were a precious object to covet.

Silas looked much like Wyatt, while Brett and James were slightly shorter and fairer, but they all had bodies to die for, and Delany’s thoughts couldn’t help but drift to thoughts of them all taking her, holding her at the peak of ecstasy. Her palms were damp as she accepted the mint julep that Silas proffered.

Seven Winds Ranch was a sprawling, gargantuan affair with a collection of modern farm buildings and a large old ranch house built into a hillside overlooking the valley. The view was beautiful and Delany pictured herself rising each morning to take in the green pastures below. But no. This wasn’t where she belonged. Was it?

Leif still hadn’t called or texted, and she’d checked her phone with increasing desperation between appointments at the satellite clinic. She tried calling him several times, but got no answer.

Buddy skittered around the farmyard with Tipsy and a pack of other Australian cattle dogs, clearly quite at home.

She, Wyatt, Silas, James, and Brett made small talk on the porch about her day, the size of their ranch, the number of cattle they ran, and the other farm products they produced. They were funny, and flirtatious, and Delany could tell they were kind and good-hearted. After several minutes, Silas excused himself to check on dinner and they all headed inside. Amazing smells came from the kitchen, and Wyatt offered to give her a tour of the farmhouse while James and Brett, clearly intent on giving her space, opted to help Silas in the kitchen.

“It was built in 1902 and has been in the family all that time,” Wyatt said. He’d placed his hand comfortably in the small of her back while he steered her around from a sunlit study that could be her office, according to Wyatt, to a large functional laundry room, and then up the opulent wooden stairs to where bedrooms lined the hall.

“We each sleep in one of these,” Wyatt said as they passed large, well-appointed bedrooms. “And this,” he said, opening a door at the very end of the hall, “is the master bedroom.”

Delany entered the room and stared at the massive bed in the middle of it. It was a custom-made bed, bigger than a king-sized bed. The room was a gorgeous one with heavy cherry furniture, sumptuous white carpet, a fireplace, and a massive ensuite bathroom. She felt a slight shiver through her legs. If she were to accept Wyatt’s proposition, this was where she would sleep with four men. That’s if they were even all still interested in her after meeting her. She rubbed her wet palms on her jeans.

She went across the room to look out the window at the rounded hills in the distance. When she turned back, Wyatt was right behind her, watching her in a heavy-lidded hungry sort of way. Delany’s heart leapt. One step and she’d be in his arms. She felt a warmth gathering in her core. Wyatt lifted his hands slightly as if to invite her in.

She’d dressed carefully and styled her hair, just in case. In case she decided she liked them, in case she felt something.

She forced a brilliant smile. “I guess we should get back down and check on dinner,” she said. “I’m starving.”

Wyatt’s expression didn’t falter. He smiled and nodded.

He led her through the living room on the way back to the kitchen, and Delany paused in front of a picture of Wyatt, Silas, Brett, and James as very young men. They were wearing suits as if they were at their college graduation or some other important family event. Where was Leif? Surely he hadn’t already left for the military.