Wild Craving (9 page)

Vlad let out a
shriek that would have done any five-year-old girl proud and ran through the
woods in the direction of the cabin, bouncing off trees and tripping over
fallen branches.

Once he was gone,
Neha turned her gaze on Kiel, who was still a wolf. He padded over to her and
licked her hand. She didn’t move. It definitely was the one from the other
night. The one who she’d petted and talked to, and had even slept beside. She
didn’t have to worry about him hurting her. If he’d wanted to he would have had
plenty of opportunity during the long hours they’d spent together.

She just had a
hard time accepting the fact that everything Kiel had told her was true. Did
she want to be a mate to a wolf who was capable of turning into a man? It was
almost too much for her brain to handle.

The wolf’s body
blurred and Kiel was Kiel once more. “Neha, say something.”

“What do you
want me to say?”

“That you’ll
accept me for what I am. That you are my mate, claimed.”

“I can’t do
that. You took my choice away. This is so out of the realm of the normal world.
It’s too much.”

There was pain
in Kiel’s eyes as he looked at her. “You’re the first human a wolf shifter has claimed
as a mate. I might have gone about it the wrong way. I was afraid you would
reject me if I told you what I was before I made you mine. For a male wolf
shifter, once the mate brand appears on his skin, he only has a limited time to
find his mate. Three weeks, to be exact. If he doesn’t or she rejects him, he
loses his humanity, becomes a true wild wolf. I didn’t want that to happen to
me, especially when you came into my life.”

“What if I
reject you now?”

“I’ll let you
go, even though it’ll be the most painful thing I’ve ever had to do. Wolf
shifters mate for life. I claimed you, were mated. You can leave, but there
will never be anyone else for me but you. I will continue to love you until the
day I die.”

Neha shook her
head, feeling as if she didn’t get away from him she would hyperventilate. “I
can’t do this. I’m going to go to the hotel with the others. Then tomorrow I’ll
catch a plane to New York. I’ll try to put this all behind me.”

Kiel jerked as
if she’d physically struck him. “I won’t stop you. Just know that I’ll be here.
You can come back any time. I won’t hold this against you.”

She gave a curt
nod, then hurried away. Neha told David to wait for her before she ran into the
cabin to collect her things. Once she returned outside, the others were just
about finished packing up the van. She got into it and found Vlad already
there. He looked out the window, then shifted as far away from her as he could
get. She turned her gaze to look out as well and saw Kiel standing nearby.

Neha took one
last lingering look at him before David put the van into gear and they drove
down the dirt path that would take them to the main road. Kiel stood still as a
statue with no expression on his face.

* * * *

After Neha and
the others left, Kiel went to his parents’ cabin to tell them what had
happened. They offered to come up with ideas to help bring Neha back to him,
but he told them there was nothing they could do. He wouldn’t try to keep her
with him if that wasn’t what she truly wanted.

He returned to
his place, already missing Neha. It was as if he’d lost a part of himself and
he would never be whole again without her. It didn’t help that her scent still
lingered inside his home. Kiel ached for what he’d had for so such a short
time.

As day turned
into night, he went to bed, hoping he could escape from his loss while he
slept. Neha’s scent had permeated the sheets and was deep inside his pillows,
though. Sleep escaped him.

He finally gave
up in the early hours of the morning. He’d made a decision. He couldn’t let
Neha walk out of his life without talking to her one last time. Not sure when
her flight to New York would be, Kiel dressed and headed for the airport in
Helena.

As he made the
thirty-minute drive, he rehearsed what he wanted to say to Neha. He thought of
what he could do to convince her to stay with him. What he could do to prove to
her that he may be a wolf shifter, but he was still the same person she’d come
to love. And he knew she loved him. She’d almost admitted it to him, which told
him her feelings for him had solidified the same as his for her the night
they’d spent in each other’s arms. The link that had formed between them as
he’d claimed her as mate hadn’t been only one-sided. Just like a female wolf
shifter, Neha had felt it too. All of it.

After he arrived
at the airport, Kiel went to the big board that listed all the flights coming
and going. He found all the departures for New York. The earliest one was three
hours from then. If Neha had managed to book a seat on that one, he had an hour
before she showed up for her two-hour check in time. It was the longest hour of
his life. He’d paced, worried he wouldn’t be able to change his mate’s mind
about leaving him.

All the breath
punched out of his lungs as he saw Neha walk through the airport doors. At
first, she didn’t notice him. With his keen wolf shifter eyesight, he saw the
dark circles under her eyes. It looked as if she hadn’t slept either.

As she pulled
her rolling suitcase in his direction, her gaze landed on him. Neha’s steps
slowed. Kiel walked toward her, drinking her in as he hoped this wouldn’t be
the last time he ever saw her.

“Hi,” he said as
he closed the distance between them.

“Hi,” she
replied quietly.

“You managed to
book a seat on the early flight to New York?”

“Yeah.”

The silence
stretched between them before Kiel spoke again. “I couldn’t let you leave
without seeing you. I miss you, and to be honest, I don’t know how I’ll survive
with you gone.” He sighed. “I won’t do anything to stop you from leaving, but
I’ll tell you this. I love you. I know you don’t understand what it means to be
a mate to a wolf shifter, and that the whole idea of what I am is scary. But
don’t be afraid of me, of us. I’m no different than I was before you found out.
If you stay with me, I’ll do everything in my power to make you happy. I’ll
even live with you in New York, even though as a wolf I’ll feel closed in,
caged. And if you’re willing to live with me in the cabin, I’ll modernize it.
It might take a while, but it can be done. Just please don’t walk out of my
life.”

She looked at
him and shook her head. “I can’t stay.”

*

Tears filled
Neha’s eyes, even though she fought to keep them at bay. She said she couldn’t
stay with Kiel, but seeing him again, her resolve wavered. She hadn’t so much
as slept a wink last night. He consumed her thoughts. He missed her, well, she
missed
him too. So much so she ached to be in his arms. She loved him, goddamn it, and
no matter what she’d said to herself about him basically being an animal wouldn’t
change that.

Kiel nodded.
“Okay. Fine. I’ll let you go.” He leaned in and kissed her forehead. “Just remember
you’ll always be in my heart, my mate,” he whispered before he pulled away.

He looked at her
with such longing Neha had to bite her bottom lip to stop it from quivering.
Kiel ran his gaze over her, as if memorizing everything about her, then walked
around her.

Neha watched his
retreating back as he headed for the terminal’s entrance. He was leaving. He
was going to let her go. And he loved her. He would always love her.

It hit her like
a ton of bricks. She started to hyperventilate, but unlike the day before it
wasn’t from fear of him being a wolf shifter. It was from the thought of what
her life would be like without Kiel in it. That she would get on that plane and
never see him again. Ever. That scared her more than anything.

Neha called Kiel’s
name as she ran after him, her suitcase bumping along behind her. He came to a
stop, and once she reached him, she threw herself into him and held him tight.

“I’m sorry. I’m
sorry,” she said. “I won’t leave. I can’t do it.”

Kiel gathered
her close and kissed her as tears streamed down her cheeks. He shook just as
much as she did. Once he lifted his head, he wiped the wetness away with his
thumb. She gave him a watery smile.

“I’m sorry,” she
said again.

He smiled. “Stop
apologizing. I screwed up, but I’ll spend the rest of my days making it up to
you. I’ll make sure you never regret your decision to stay with me.”

“I do love you,”
she said as she stared at his handsome face.

“And I love
you.”

“Will you really
modernize the cabin for me? I can’t live without electricity. And maybe we can
have satellite TV too. And Internet, if you get it up there.”

Kiel chuckled. “I’ll
have to work it into the budget. I don’t have a ton of money, but we’ll work it
out.”

“I can accept
that.”

“What about your
career as a model? You said you wouldn’t give it up.”

“I’ll figure out
something. We can make it work.”

He took her
carry-on bag and suitcase from her before he tucked her under his arm and
walked them toward the entrance. “Let’s go home. I need to show my mate over and
over again how much I love her.”

Neha shivered as
Kiel’s intoxicating scent washed over her. They definitely had to talk about a
lot of things, but right now, he taking her to bed and making love to her until
she couldn’t move was top on her list. All that mattered was that they were
together. The rest would fall into place with time. She had a whole new world
to learn about with a man at her side who owned her heart, and would for life.

The End

About the Author

Marisa Chenery
was always a lover of books, but after reading her first historical romance
novel she found herself hooked. Having inherited a love for the written word,
she soon started writing her own novels.

After trying her
hand at writing historicals, she now writes paranormals.

Marisa lives in
Ontario, Canada with her husband and four children. Check out Marisa’s website.
She would love to hear from you, so drop her an email while you’re there.

www.marisachenery.com

Also by Marisa Chenery

Mika’s Black
Cougar

The Wolf in the
Woods

Beowulf and
Roxie

Taryn’s Wolf

Seducing the
Wolf

Mated to a Wolf

His She-Wolf
Warrior

Roan’s Fall

Jager’s Mate

Leif’s Surrender

Skylar’s
Devotion

Jinx and Her
Werewolf

Love’s Nest

The Blue Lotus

Mahes

Mate for a King

Forever Claimed

Reluctantly His

The Chosen One

A Tournament
Knight

Century City

Werewolf
Defender