Moon Dance (14 page)

But he didn’t know anymore.
He’d spent years out in the wild, and he wasn’t sure how long he’d
be able to stand being human. He liked his long stretches running
inside the skin of his wolf, just him and the moon and the sky. He
wanted Dana. He always had. But he didn’t think that he could
handle everything that went with it.

Dana had a
child
. She was a
mother.

Cole didn’t think it was a
good idea for him to be around children. Besides, it was Avery’s
kid. The whole thing was too weird.

In so many ways, Dana had
been claimed and taken by Avery. The wolf part of Cole wanted to
respect that. She belonged to another pack, and she wasn’t his to
take.

But in some ways, she seemed
so much the same. She was still Dana, and Cole couldn’t help but
think of Dana is his own.

Which was why this whole mission was
fucked.

“
I’ll be ready,” said Dana.
She turned to look at Cole again, briefly.

And he wanted to touch her
so badly that it hurt.

* * *

The rest of the day passed
in a flurry of preparation. Dana hired Melba Stein to babysit
Piper. She was an elderly lady who lived with her daughter Jenna,
who worked in the board office. She met with Melba, telling her
about Piper
’s schedule. Avery would be
there in the evenings. So she would arrive in the morning and leave
when Avery came home from work. She let Piper have some time to get
acclimated to Melba, but Piper was an outgoing child, and she
tended to love everyone.

Dana was nervous about it.
She wasn’t sure that it was going to be good for Piper, but she
assured herself that it would only be a few days. A little girl
could handle having a babysitter for a few days, couldn’t
she?

She had to go to the grocery
store and plan out meals for the time she’d be gone. She erred on
the side of caution and bought enough for a week, even though Cole
claimed they wouldn’t be gone that long. She bought things that
were easy to prepare and she posted a meal plan and directions in
the kitchen for Avery.

She did her best only to focus on what
she needed to get done, not to think about the emotional rifts in
her family, but occasionally, thoughts crept in.

Avery had slept on the couch
the night before, claiming he couldn’t be close to her anymore. He
said he had to start separating himself from her, since she was
pulling away from him.

Dana thought he was being
overly dramatic. She really believed it was possible for her to go
and do this mission with Cole and then come back in a few days,
with nothing in her relationship changed.

Of course, then she thought about the
fact that Cole had a pardon. He was free now. Really
free.

That changed things.

Not because she wanted to be
with Cole. She didn’t want to be with Cole.

Okay, maybe part of her
wanted to be with Cole.

But she couldn’t do that.
And she wouldn’t. She couldn’t hurt Avery that way, and she
couldn’t destroy the security of her family.

Of course, wasn’t she doing
that now, going on this mission?

She tried to put all the
thoughts out of her head.

But even when she succeeded, other
thoughts crept in. Thoughts about the campers in the woods and the
bright, sweet tang of their blood as she ripped their bodies
apart.

Maybe she didn’t deserve her
family anyway.

* * *

Dana stood next to a car
that the SF had provided for her and Cole. They were out in an
abandoned lot a few miles from headquarters.

Cole had the trunk of the car open, and
he was pulling out a coil of rope.

Even though they’d driven
here together, they had barely spoken to each other. They weren’t
even looking at each other much. They were alone now, with no one
to see them, and it made Dana nervous. It seemed to make him
nervous as well.

Cole hoisted the coil of
rope over his shoulder. He fingered the edge of it. He still didn’t
make eye contact with her. “So, uh, I need to tie you
up.”

Involuntarily, something
clenched between Dana’s legs. She flushed in embarrassment. This
was ridiculous. The thought of Cole tying her up turned her on?
Well, she guessed that a lot of their sexual encounters had
occurred with her body bound.

“
So that I can take a
picture,” he continued. “I figured that I’d tie you up and put you
in the back of the trunk. I’ll send a picture of that to my
contact, a guy who I know can get in touch with Enoch.”

“
Okay,” she said.

He looked up at her. “You,
uh, you don’t have to stay tied up, obviously. Once I send him the
picture, we just wait for them to contact us.”

She nodded.
“Okay.”

“
Okay.” He took a deep
breath. His voice was unsteady. “Turn around.”

Another clench between her legs, this
one stronger. She liked it when he told her what to do. She turned
around, her back to him. It might be harder than she thought to
keep from doing anything with him.

She heard Cole shuffle close to
her.

She sucked in a slow breath,
waiting…

And then he was touching her. His hand
slid down her arms, pulling her hands together at the small of her
back.

She let the breath out.

Behind her, Cole let out an audible
breath too, almost a sigh.

She wanted to lean back into
him. Wanted to rest her head on his shoulder, put her lips against
the hollow of his jaw.

She refused to let herself
move.

The rope was on her wrists.
Cole pulled it taut. “Is it too tight?” he whispered in her
ear.

“
No,” she
breathed.

“
It just has to look like
you’re tied up. It shouldn’t actually hurt you.”

“
It’s…” She flexed her
hands. Then rolled her shoulders, which made her feel like arching
her back, which pushed her ass back into his body.

He made a noise—dismay or
satisfaction, she couldn’t be sure—and then his hands were on her
hips. He dug his fingers into her soft flesh, and he pressed his
body into hers.

She gasped. Her fingers were
tied behind her, and that meant they were against his crotch. She
couldn’t help but stretch her fingers… searching… cupping him
through his jeans.

“
Dana,” he growled into her
ear.

She didn’t stop. She had him
in her hand now, and she could feel him hardening, lengthening
under her touch. She squeezed him—

And sharp, dark pain shot
through her. She cringed, letting out a strangled breath, and
released him.

The alpha bond to Avery had
just kicked in. She couldn’t touch Cole, or it would hurt her. She
stumbled forward, out of his grasp. Collapsing against the car, she
turned to face him.

His jaw twitched. He looked
her over, and there was hunger in his eyes.

“
Sorry,” she muttered. “But
I can’t. It… hurts.”

He looked down at the rope,
which trailed from her hands to the coil over his shoulder. “Why’d
you agree to this?”

She swallowed. “There are
people in danger. I have to stop anyone else from getting
killed.”

“
And that’s all it’s about.”
There was a touch of sarcasm in his tone.

She didn’t say
anything.

Cole lifted his hand, still
not looking at her, and made a “come here” gesture with his
fingers. “Let me cut the rope.”

She lurched away from the car and back
over to him.

He turned her around roughly, and she
felt a tug on the rope as he sawed it off.

She flexed her hands again.
Now that her hands were tied, warmth was pooling between her legs.
Even after the shock of pain she’d received, she still felt…
aroused.

Cole took her by the shoulder and led
her over to the open trunk. He helped her sit down, and then he
knelt to tie her feet together.

She watched him do it, her
body feeling tighter and warmer with every second. God, she was
just tight all over. She couldn’t help imagining that Cole would
stand up and unzip his pants. She wanted him in her mouth. She
wanted to suck—

“
You think a blindfold and a
gag is overselling it?”

She was startled out of her
fantasy. “What?”

He looked her over. “If I
really captured you, would I blindfold
and
gag you?”

“
Y-you would.” Jesus Christ,
the thought of that was turning her on too. It was more than warmth
between her legs now, it was a frantic tingling. She wished that
Cole was touching her there. She wanted his fingers, his tongue,
his cock. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this
worked up.

“
Yeah,” he said. “I probably
would.” He leaned around her, rummaging through the
trunk.

Their bodies were touching. Dana
gulped.

Cole came back up with two strips of
cloth. He moved slowly, looking at her face.

She looked at him. She
licked her lips.

He tucked one of the strips into his
pocket, and he lifted the other one.

She shut her eyes.

The fabric went over her
face—against her eyebrows, her cheekbones. She felt Cole tying it
behind her head.

Her heart was thudding in
her rib cage. She felt like she was a smoldering fire, ready to
catch flame.

His fingers trailed over her
face. He traced the outline of her jaw with one hand, her lips with
the other. The sensation of his fingers was intense, maybe because
she couldn’t see him.

She sighed.

He groaned.

She felt his forehead rest
on hers. “Dana,” he murmured. “This was a stupid plan.”

“
No, it wasn’t,” she
managed.

“
You couldn’t fight me now,
could you?” he mused darkly. “I could do what I wanted whether it
hurt you or not.”

Anticipation thrummed within
her, tinged with awful fear. She wanted him to touch her. She
didn’t want him to touch her. She was confused and excited and hot
as all hell for him.

He dragged his fingers over
her chin and neck and then lower. His fingers circled her breasts,
closing in on her nipples.

And when he touched them, there was a
bursting release of pleasure.

She gasped.

But hot on its heels was the inky black
pain of her alpha bond. She writhed under it.

Cole’s mouth claimed hers,
his tongue sweeping into her mouth.

The pleasure and pain warred with each
other, both happening at the same time, crippling her.

She shrieked. Tears came to her
eyes.

Cole broke away from her. He
was panting. “Did that hurt?”

“
Yes,” she gasped. She was
still reeling from the pain. And her clit was pulsing between her
legs. Shit, shit, shit. Would the pain stop her or not? Because as
awful as it felt, she wanted his hands back on her
again.

His lips whispered over her
skin. “Are you glad I stopped?”

“
I…” She couldn’t finish the
sentence. She was afraid she might start sobbing.

“
God damn it,
Dana.”

She felt cloth suddenly being shoved
into her mouth. Then Cole was taping it in place.

“
Let’s take this stupid
fucking picture already.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Dana was untied now. She and
Cole were sitting in a diner. He
’d
suggested that maybe it was better if they waited for a response
someplace public. He’d sent off the picture of her tied up about an
hour ago. So far, they hadn’t heard anything.

Her coffee cup was almost
empty. She hadn’t been very hungry, and so she hadn’t ordered food.
But Cole had eaten a slice of pie. She stared at his plate, at the
crumbs he’d left behind.

They were back to not speaking very
much.

She didn’t think it was a
good idea for them to be talking, anyway, but she didn’t like being
alone with her own thoughts. Because all she kept feeling was
guilt. She wasn’t being faithful to Avery, and she knew it. She and
Cole hadn’t technically done anything. Not really. Well, there had
been a couple of kisses. And some… fondling. So, it wasn’t like
they’d—

Who was she kidding? If she
found out that Avery was doing this with another woman, she’d be
livid.

There was something wrong with
her.

There had to be. Because if
there wasn’t something wrong with her, she wouldn’t get worked up
when Cole tied her up. There had been nothing sexual about that
situation, but to her twisted mind, having her hands tied behind
her back was foreplay. She was screwed up. And… and it was Cole’s
fault. Because she’d never been turned on by being tied up until
he’d chained her up in his basement and kept her wrapped in a thin
blanket. A blanket that would fall off and expose her, and then
he’d—