Moonlight: The Big Bad Wolf (Black Swan 4) (29 page)

She could have slapped her own brain for that last unwanted thought.

The king dipped his finger in the cup of mulled wine and held it out to her. "Here. See if that is warm to taste."

She parted her lip and sucked in the tip of his finger as far as the first knuckle. His abs tensed so suddenly it made his cock twitch. She heard the little hitch of his breath and saw his eyes darken as he stared at the finger she tasted.

The longer she was held captive by the king, the more certain was she that he wouldn't hurt her, and that knowledge emboldened her. Seeing his cock twitch right in front of her face was the most erotic thing that had ever happened to her. The impulse to reach out and touch was strong. After all, a few hours ago she had been walking and talking with this man and had been interested in him sexually. That hadn't changed.

There was a part of her that was naughty enough to wish that he would just pick her up and take her to bed and there was another part that was glad he wasn't the sort of male to force her - past taking her away from everything she knew. Forcibly.

Grey handed her the cup of wine she had just approved and sat down in his chair. As he expected, when things grew quiet so that the only noise was the soothing crackle of the fire and the only light were the flames from the hearth set a foot above the floor, the excitement of the day caught up with her and the warmth of the wine lulled her to sleep.

He carried her sleeping to his bed, lay beside her, and pulled the covers over them. She made the tiniest little snoring noise that was as inexplicably appealing as everything else about her. He lay on his side watching her sleep, smiling like a fool. If there were to be consequences for taking her, he didn't care. Everything about having her here felt so completely right. He would never regret his actions. He promised himself that, if he was ever tempted, he would remember that night, the feeling of peace that he had in that moment and he concentrated on burning it into his memory.

Luna woke to light filtering through the window. Early morning sunlight was filtered through the shadows of leaves dancing in the wind. It made patterns of movement on the walls and ceiling that were delightful. She realized that she was toasty warm, cuddled in fur. Her right hand grasped a handful of the soft stuff. She turned her head to the right and found herself staring into a pair of gold yellow eyes with very large pupils.

She gave a little gasp and started to scramble backward, but Stalkson Grey shifted into human form instantly and pulled her back toward him, laughing. Up close his face was even more handsome because she could see tiny lines. Rugged. Ruggedly handsome. He was masculinity expressed at its most glorious. He also wasn't human. She found herself asking whether she cared about that and, surprisingly, the answer was no.

"Why did you take me?" she whispered.

"I saw you and I wanted you. I want you now. I always will."

She searched his eyes for a second like she was looking for something, then suddenly began looking around. "Bathroom."

He brought a finger out from under the covers and pointed.

Grey couldn't stop smiling. Even though he'd awakened every time Luna had moved during the night, he had enjoyed the best sleep of his life. He didn't like having her in his bed. He
loved
having her in his bed. He loved her smell, the sound of her breathing, the warmth her body generated under the covers.

He left the heat of the bed to pull on jeans and a long sleeve gray tee shirt. He had just pulled the shirt down to his waist when he heard a knock at the front door. His gaze automatically went to the short hall. He heard running water and knew Luna was in the bathroom.

Someone was brave enough to knock a second time. He padded toward the front of the lodge without bothering to stop for footwear. He had to step around some of the destruction his tantrum from the night before had caused.

Drift was standing on the porch. He said nothing when the king opened the door.

"Did Win send you?"

"Yes, Alpha. Your son asked me to look in on you."

"Fine. You've looked in on me. Are we done?"

"You won't ask me in for a cup of coffee by your fire?"

Stalkson stared at him for a few seconds. "You can come in for one minute.
One
. No coffee. No fire." He stepped back and let the elder inside.

Drift looked around at the vandalism. "Who did this to your home, Alpha? This ruin is a desecration. Someone must be punished."

Grey was annoyed that the elder was playing games. He knew the king had trashed his own lodge in a rage and was trying to be crafty. Grey was a little ashamed, but he wasn't about to admit to that. "Don't be so dramatic, old one. I did it. It's my home to do with as I wish."

Drift looked at him strangely. "Certainly that is true. I did not mean to question your judgment."

The alpha's stare bore down on his friend and counselor until Drift looked down. "I'm keeping her."

"That is your privilege, of course. May I ask, who is she? Windwalker said he believes she is human."

"It is not his business. Nor is it yours."

"Again, you speak the truth. Should the tribe be concerned that her people will be looking for her?"

Luna came into the room behind him. Drift looked at her and nodded. The old man noted the fact that she did not appear to be either afraid or in any kind of distress when she responded by saying hello.

"No one will be looking for her. She is from another world. We cannot go there unassisted. Neither can she. Neither can her people."

"I see. And she is to mate with you willingly?"

Drift saw surprise cross Luna's face when he used the word "mate". She came closer to the door. "What do you mean, mate?"

Grey turned toward her. "You're not a child, Luna. You may be a Cult Vergin, but you're not a virgin either. You know perfectly well what it means to mate."

A good night's sleep had renewed her capacity for lividness and she was also indignant about being spoken to like she was an idiot.

"For your information I was trying to establish whether the word was being used as a noun or a verb. Perhaps that's too fine a distinction of semantics for someone who behaves like a mindless beast." She gestured toward the room to put an exclamation point on her statement.

She turned toward Drift. "As to whether or not I'm here willingly..." She cocked her hip, put her hand there, and used a bored monotone to say, "Help. I've been kidnapped by a werewolf and there's no escape."

Drift looked away as he tried to stifle a chuckle. "Forgive me for disturbing your morning, Alpha. I can see you have your hands full." He backed out of the door and closed it behind him, laughing softly which infuriated the king.

Once they were alone again, he wheeled on Luna with anger in his eyes. "You embarrassed me in front of one of my subjects!"

"One of your subjects. What is that supposed to mean?"

"I'm king!" he shouted.

"Okay, well, first you never mentioned that, not that it's either there or here."

"And?"

"And what?"

"You said first. I assume that means there's a second."

"Not necessarily."

She might have had a second thing in mind when she began speaking, but the soft gray knit shirt that pulled across the king's chest reminded her how well-defined his abs were and the color brought out the steely blue in his eyes. Really, anyone would forget what they were saying.

He hesitated, not really knowing where to go from there. "Are you hungry?"

She gave him a tentative, tiny smile. "Maybe."

He blinked and cocked his head slightly. "That's definitely a yes or no question."

"What do you have?"

He looked at the path of destruction between where they stood at the front door and the kitchen, then picked her up to carry her there. She squealed and it made him smile because it was clearly more from surprise than protest. He walked slowly so he could savor having her in his arms for the first time. Willingly that is. Her arms had gone around his neck out of reflex and he knew she had surreptitiously tried to inhale his aroma.

When he set her down in the kitchen and backed away, she immediately regretted the loss of contact. She came up behind him when he opened the refrigerator and nudged him out of the way.

"What is this? Where is your food!?!"

Grey looked at her like she was insane. "This
is
my food. Meat, eggs, cheese, fish. And there might be a little spinach to boil."

She gaped at him. "I see that. But where is your food?"

"What do you eat, Luna?"

"Fruit, vegetables, nuts, bread. Sometimes I might eat a little cheese or eggs, but not every day."

"You don't eat meat?"

"No."

"How can a person survive without meat?"

She shrugged. He blinked and stared. At length he sighed.

"Perhaps you could eat cheese and eggs this morning? Then we can go get you clothes and... fruits, nuts, etc."

She brightened a little. "So you're not going to hold me prisoner in this house?"

He scowled. "Of course not." It occurred to him that she was taking all of this better than might be expected and that could be because she had always lived under conditions of repression and confinement. To her it was just a change of scenery.

That's when he made a bargain with himself. It took the young bloods less than twenty-eight days to win their mates. If he couldn't win Luna's heart in that amount of time, he probably never would. So he promised himself that he would get Deliverance to return her if he failed.

Twenty-eight days. One moon cycle.

"I'll have eggs and cheese, please."

Luna was hungrier than she thought. She ate the three egg omelet with Colby and was tempted to lick her plate. Watching Grey devour huge quantities of rare meat would take some getting used to.

"So what are you king of?"

"We're on a large piece of land reserved for the wolf people in my tribe. No one can come here unless invited. The land and the resources we need to live independently were given to us over two hundred years ago by an organization that promotes peace between humans and other species. We were given this in exchange for agreeing that we would live and hunt our own territory and leave the humans alone."

"So that man who came to the door is a..."

"...werewolf. Yes."

"How many of you are there?"

"Just in my tribe there were twelve hundred until a few weeks ago. Now there are half that many." He told her how they were threatened with extinction because of the lack of female births and how they had addressed the problem.

She listened intently and heard the passion he felt for taking care of his people and their problems. There was even more to Stalkson Grey than she had thought before. When he finished the story, she didn't respond right away.

When she spoke, she said, "Tuesdays and Saturdays." She nodded to herself like she had just put it together. "You were on Del's schedule. You came when he came."

"Yes." As he rose to take the dishes away, he realized for the first time that Luna had chosen him. Every time. She could have had her turn at being serviced by the demon and she chose the innocence of being with him instead. With his back to her, he rinsed the breakfast plates and smiled a wolfish smile. He would win her.

He opened the front door and called one of the pups who was playing nearby to come over. He instructed the young one to go to his daughter-in-law's house and borrow a pair of her pants and a hat and bring them back right away.

Fifteen minutes later the boy was back with a pair of faded jeans, soft from lots of wear. Luna had never in her life, since she was five, worn anything except a silk robe. White when she was a child. Yellow when she was an adolescent. Red while she was an acting Vergin. Everything about these clothes was foreign to her, but Grey convinced her that she would be cold and uncomfortable without them.

The jeans were a little bit loose in the thighs and derriere and a little bit short, but they would work as a stop gap measure. He gave her a knit cap and put her in one of his own jackets. It swallowed her.

"What is this?" she asked, running her hand over the jacket.

"Sheepskin."

She looked at him with genuine amusement. "So when you wear this, you're literally a wolf in sheep's clothing."

He grinned. "I want to show you around the reservation, but we need to go to town and get you clothes and food first. One thing about that, the townspeople are human and don't know that we're not. Will you promise not to say anything about werewolves? Although, truthfully, if you did, they'd probably either laugh at you or call for a pickup by the sanatorium.

"Likewise, if you try to accuse me of anything untoward publicly, I will just laugh and say you also believe in werewolves."