Mark of the Wolf (9 page)

“
Werewolves,” he said the word
seriously.

She got the urge to laugh all of a sudden.
“What?” she asked instead, unable to think of anything better.
There was a long, drawn out silence.

“
Werewolves, shape-shifters, wolf men…
you know the stories, right Maddy? Haven’t you ever celebrated
Halloween?”

She didn’t know what to say, her mouth was
dry, her head throbbing and dizzy. She had to get out of there –
had to run to where it was safe, into the woods or out to the
street. Maybe he had left his keys in his car… she could take it
and drive back to town, alert the police, or maybe just find a
phone booth and call 911….

Shit, her phone!

It was only a few feet away on the kitchen
wall. She hesitated only for a moment, then lunged to the side,
grasping for the phone piece and knocking it clumsily off the
receiver. She pounded 9-1-1 into the number pad before pressing the
phone to her ear. Her heart pounded.

The phone was silent.

It took her a moment to remember that the
city had shut off her power. She remembered the message from the
night before. Wide-eyed, she looked up at Gareth, who was now
standing with his arms crossed, right where she had last seen him.
He hadn’t moved to stop her. Somehow he had known the phone wasn’t
working. Or... was he going to let her call the police?

He was watching her carefully, his expression
patient. Maddy wasn’t going to take this anymore. She dropped the
phone and made a run for the front door, knocking around the couch.
She moved as fast as she could, hoping that her sudden stunt had
taken him off-guard.

She never made it halfway there – his arms
grabbed her first, wrapping around her waist and pulling her
backwards. He was so fast! He must have jumped the couch to grab
her so quickly — how could a man of his size cross such a cluttered
room? His arms went around her and dragged her back against him,
locking her to his chest, his warmth flooding her senses. His smell
enveloped her. His chest was naked. She could feel his skin burning
against her, his muscles powerful and rock hard.

“
Let me go!” she yelled, abandoning
her previous control and struggling wildly, twisting and kicking at
the air. He only held her tighter, his one arm under her breasts
while the other was locked against her hips, and she could feel his
heartbeat. It was steady, consistent, and somehow so normal that it
caused her to calm.

Then he turned her in his arms, pressed her
back against the wall and started kissing her. She couldn’t
breathe. When his lips met hers, they were soft and demanding,
skilled, claiming her ruthlessly. She was sucked into the kiss and
tried to push away, but her body melted. A wave of heat moved
through her belly and her nipples grew sensitive, rubbing against
his chest through her clothes; he reached a hand up and started
rubbing her right nipple through her shirt. It seemed to know
naturally where to go. A streak of sensual pleasure shot from her
nipples down to her crotch. She gasped. He pressed her shoulders
back, holding her pinned as his mouth took hers. His tongue forced
its way past her lips, and she tasted him, heavy and intoxicating.
She just wanted to melt into him, surrender, let him do whatever he
wanted just as long as she didn't have to think.

Her whole world became focused in on him, his
large hands, his strong biceps and flexing muscles, the hard breath
against her neck as his lips left hers and trailed up to her ear,
swirling around the shell. Somehow he knew every spot to hit. She
whimpered, her neck sensitive to the extreme. His touch was magic,
tickling just enough to drive her crazy, making her pant and gasp
and moan – sounds that she refused to believe were coming from her
own throat.

Suddenly he pressed his hips between her
legs. The incredible hardness of his erection rested fully against
her clit. He rubbed himself against her in a slow, circular motion.
Maddy had never felt an erection so clearly. She thought she was
going to explode....

She couldn’t stop herself. She moved against
him, dripping wet, and he continued to move against her,
repetitive, consistent. His pressure was firm and she felt herself
moving higher and higher. She was reaching for something, searching
for it, arching against him, desperate to have it....

Then he broke off the kiss and pulled away,
letting her slip back to the ground. She was wobbly on her feet and
kept a firm grip on his arms. She opened her eyes and looked up at
him, his face hovering just above her own.

“
Better?” he asked.

She smiled a little awkwardly. “Yeah,” she
said stupidly. She couldn’t think straight.

“
Let’s get back to the car before
anyone else shows up, then I’ll explain everything,” he murmured.
He took her small hand in one of his large warm ones. She nodded
wordlessly, knowing that she didn’t have any other choice, and she
didn’t really care. Amazing what a kiss could do to a girl. She
wasn’t afraid anymore – just curious… and perhaps a little cautious
as well.

Still shaky on her feet, she picked up the
grocery bag full of her things and followed him to the door. He
didn’t let go of her hand.

Chapter 5

“
So you’re a... werewolf?” It still
sounded strange on her tongue. If he had told her this yesterday,
she never would have believed him – probably would have thought he
was insane. But she had seen the transformation with her own eyes
and the half-wolf corpses that littered her cabin. It was hard to
deny the truth.

“
The legends have been changed over
the years, deviating from the truth. There are many of us out
there.”

“
What about... you know, changing into
a wolf on a full moon?”

“
The full moon is important... but we
can change at will any time. But lot of our traditions revolve
around the moon.”

“
Uh-huh,” she nodded, though it still
sounded crazy, like a strange fantasy story or a roleplay game,
with laws and rules that shouldn’t exist in reality. “So like,
what, are there vampires and stuff too? Fairies? Elves?”

He grinned slightly, amused. “I’ve never met
any… but I’ve seen a lot of strange things. Anything is
possible.”

“
Well, what then, there’s just
werewolves? Nothing else?”

“
Oh, there are a few other things I
know of,” Gareth murmured. He was looking out the window now. They
were sitting together in the Camaro, a few miles away from her
cabin in a gravel turn-off at the side of the road. He was leaning
back in his chair, slouching casually, one arm propped up on the
window, the other resting in her lap. His hand was on her
knee.

She shifted, wanting him to remove it, though
they both knew she really didn’t. “Like what?”

“
Most of the old Native American
legends, you could say… shape-shifters, people who turn into
animals. I met a man once — only once — somewhere in these
mountains. He could turn into a bear. Other than that, werewolves
are the most common.”

Maddy nodded again wordlessly. Part of her
still couldn’t believe that she was having a serious conversation
about this. “Okay, so you’re a werewolf,” she said slowly. “So...
was it you who saved me last night from those men?”

He nodded. His sunglasses were on again. It
unnerved her – made it hard to see where he was looking and what he
felt.

“
And you… killed them?”

He nodded again. She supposed the idea of it
should have bothered her, and it was a little disturbing, but then
again those men had been about to rape and kidnap her, so she
couldn’t feel too bad. She remembered the state of the corpses,
however, and couldn't help but gag a little.

Time to change the topic. “Okay, so what
about wolf packs and stuff like that? I mean you’re pretty much
part man, part wolf right? So you should have a pack.”

He shrugged, and she saw his shoulders become
tense. He turned his head farther to look out his window, the light
from outside reflecting off of his dark shades. His lips were firm
and hard.

“
Had one,” he said briefly. “Don’t
anymore.”

She frowned, sensing his discomfort. “What
happened?”

He was silent, as though considering what to
tell her, or maybe considering no answer at all, but she waited.
Finally he let out a breath. “How much do you know about wolves’
natural behavior?”

“
Hardly anything.”

“
Well then, let’s just say I picked a
fight with the wrong wolf, and when I lost, they ran me
off.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Ran you off?” she
asked slowly. “What do you mean, wrong wolf?”

He shifted, definitely uncomfortable. “When a
werewolf makes a play for power inside the pack, usually he
challenges the pack leader, the Alpha. Our situation was different
– our Alpha was killed in a car crash, so there was a face off, me
and another wolf called Kane. We fought, he won, so I had to
leave.”

Maddy frowned. “That’s it? You lose one fight
and so you lose your entire pack?”

Gareth turned to look at her, though she
couldn’t see his eyes through his sunglasses. “That’s how it works,
babe,” he said. “I let my guard down. He didn’t fight fair.”

“
How do you mean?”

A sigh of resignation ripped from his throat.
“There is a drug called wolfsbane that gives a werewolf heightened
strength and for a period of time. Wolfbane it outlawed in Alpha
fights because it gives an unfair advantage… but Kane used it
anyway. I realized too late. So he won, and I left.”

Maddy was frowning and trying to figure
everything out. Her eyebrows drew down and she sat for a long
moment, thinking, digesting everything she had been told. It was
fantastical, but she had seen the werewolves in front of her own
eyes, seen the man next to her turn into a giant black wolf. Seen
him rip apart flesh with his teeth. She took a deep breath and let
it out slowly.

“
So what now?” she asked.

He sat back, slouching deeper into his chair.
“Nothing,” he said. “Go back to work. Live out my life.”

“
That’s it?” she demanded, now fully
turning to him. For some reason she didn’t like hearing this
attitude, especially from a man like Gareth. It seemed
uncharacteristic. “You’re just going to give up after that jerk
cheated you?”

Gareth looked at her. He seemed surprised. It
made her feel good, like she had finally broken through some
barrier and was delving into the man beneath. She was a little
surprised at herself too – it really wasn't her business, and she
didn't know anything about werewolf customs. But it wasn't right
that he should live out the rest of his life with no purpose, no
past. She knew what it was like to lose things. “Look, if all this
stuff is true – and after what I saw today, I think I’d believe
anything right now – then you just can’t give up! Kane cheated.
Can’t you just… rechallenge him, or something like that?”

Gareth’s mouth turned down into a bitter
frown. “Maybe,” he growled low. “But there are preparations I’d
have to make… and in order to challenge an Alpha, I’d have to get
at least some sort of backing by the pack, otherwise they won’t
follow me anyway.”

“
Well I’m sure we can figure something
out,” she said thoughtfully. It occurred to her that she had said
“we” — as in, herself included. She kind of liked the idea of it.
Helping this man was natural after everything he had done for her.
It was obviously important to him.

His hand squeezed her leg and she met his
gaze. “You’re not afraid,” he murmured. It was more of a statement
than a question, and she wondered if he could sense fear on her,
which would explain how he could read her so easily. It made her
blush – she wondered if he had other heightened senses. Smell,
perhaps? Hearing? Sight?

She shook her head. No, she was scared of many things, but
the idea of this didn’t make her afraid at all. Strange, but true.
She
wanted
to help him.

Then another thought occurred to her. “So...
if those other werewolves weren’t the same scumbags from last
night, why did they attack me?”

Gareth looked out the front window at the
surrounding forest. “They were from Kane’s pack,” he said
quietly.

“
But why would your pack go after me?
It’s not like I’m a werewolf or anything….” She wondered if she
could become a werewolf by kissing one. Probably he would have told
her that by now.

“
I don’t know,” he murmured. A shiver
ran across her skin, and she got the distinct feeling that he
wasn’t telling her something, maybe something that he didn't know
how to explain.

“
If I'm in danger, I need to know,”
she said bluntly.

He raised an eyebrow. “Everything is
dangerous in the feral world. Our laws are brutal, maybe even
barbaric.” He glanced at her. “Are you sure you want to run with a
wolf?”

Maddy nodded. She didn't know what she was
agreeing to — only that she trusted him. She couldn't imagine
'running' with anyone else. And it seemed like he wanted her
around. She looked outside, thoughtful, her eyes searching the
trees blindly.

“
It's getting dark,” she finally said,
after a few more minutes passed. The sun was finally sinking behind
the mountains. Dusk was well underway, slowly slipping into a
shadowy twilight.