Wolfen (42 page)

 
Shaking all over with his own needs, he crawled over her, aligned his body with hers and drove into the warm, wet cavity where he'd found heaven before. He'd forgotten how tight she was, he realized dizzily, sweating with the effort to hold himself in check until he could conquer her clinging flesh completely. He didn't stop until he could go no further, until he could feel her crushing hold all along the length of his cock and felt as if he was choking on the need thundering through him. “Jesus, baby!” he groaned hoarsely. “You feel so good I could die a happy man right here."

 
She stirred against him, the muscles along the walls of her sex rippling over him like massaging fingers—except a hundred times better—tearing his hard won control from his grasp. He gritted his teeth, groaned as he felt a warning tug in his groin the instant he leaned down to match his mouth to hers and claim that hot, moist cavern as he had the other. He tore his mouth from hers. “Can't hold it, baby,” he muttered apologetically and then remembered she'd come when he sucked on the tender, luscious bud between her thighs.

 
He came quickly—too fucking quickly—barely managed a dozen strokes before his climax tore through him like it was going to turn him inside out. She stiffened as he drove frantically into her, though, tipping her head back and giving voice to her rapture in fresh cries of ecstasy. The profound sense of relieve he felt when his body finally stopped convulsing was joined by an equally fierce sense of triumph. He slumped heavily against her, too weak to do anything else, trying to catch his breath and gather a little strength into his rubbery muscles at the same time.

 
He managed to roll off of her after a few minutes. He lay limply for a moment, still gasping for breath. Shivering as cool air washed over his overheated skin, he gathered her into his arms and aligned their bodies close together, coiling around her possessively. “Mine,” he muttered to himself as he nuzzled her neck, just beneath her ear and then placed his own mark next to the grouping already there.

 
Danika shuddered but made no attempt to evade him, holding perfectly still until he'd sucked away the sting. “What is this thing you wolfen have about biting?” she murmured with a mixture of amusement and irritation that set his teeth on edge.

 
He discovered he was too satisfied, and too fucking tired, to hold on to the flare of temper. “Love tokens, baby,” he muttered, giving in to the greater need to sleep after days of battling crazed
weres
and almost no sleep.

 
It boggled the mind how much more needed to be done before they could have a personal life again. They had to put fear into the hearts of the new
weres
now that they'd begun to realize what had happened to them, organize and implement wolfen rule, bring the rebellious in line—then they were going to have to get back to their old packs and take care of local pack business—then personal business. He wasn't worried too much. He had reliable lieutenants to handle most of pack business and reliable people running his own business, but there were always things that fell through the cracks and had to be cleared up.

 
* * * *

Con was gone, Danika discovered without any surprise at all when she woke. The expectation didn't prevent her from feeling abandoned, or ease the hurt much, but she wasn't surprised. Sighing, still tired, she got up and cleaned up, staring for a long time at the ‘love tokens’ the wolfen had left all over her with a mixture of amusement, irritation and the urge to cry—three on her neck, two between her breasts, and three more between her thighs, two of which she didn't even remember receiving, though she didn't doubt they were Xavier's and Jared's love tokens. Most of them were already fading. They'd be gone soon and she wouldn't even have that much to remind her of them.

 
Her memories were going to be baggage enough, she told herself sternly, leaving the bathroom finally to dress. There really wasn't any reason for her to hang around, she told herself, struggling against the reluctance to move on, fighting the urge to stay just so she could tell them goodbye in person. Her work was done—had actually been finished days ago.

 
They were probably going to be tied up with clean up—and very likely other things now that a number of wolfen women had arrived on the scene.

 
A ripple of unhappiness went through her at the thought, the image forming unbidden in her mind of Balin, Jared, and Dakota standing with the wolfen females when she'd left the compound.

 
They might at least have walked over to say bye, she thought resentfully.

 
It would probably have been uncomfortable, though, for all of them and she knew how men detested any kind of scene, especially any kind that had the potential to become emotional.

 
She would be doing them a favor to leave quietly and not make a big production out of it.

 
She'd probably be doing herself a favor if it came to that, she told herself as she moved about the cabin glumly, gathering up her belongings. Despite the weeks she'd spent there it didn't actually take long to pack everything up and pile it in the truck. There wasn't any sign of any of the guys—no bikes. She was so used to them ‘guarding’ her from the threat of the rogues if made her feel even more abandoned.

 
She checked the cabin three times to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything before she finally accepted that she wasn't checking. She was lingering in the hope that they'd come back, or at least one of them would show up.

 
Wasting daylight!

 
Sighing, she closed the cabin up and climbed into her truck. She stopped at the edge of the highway, debating whether or not it was a good idea to take a short detour into town and try to hunt them down to tell them goodbye. Swallowing the urge finally, she turned the other way and started home.

 
It was a long, miserable drive to Georgia. When she stopped for the night, she called Bill Fellows to let him know she'd checked out of the cabin, just to be sure the owner didn't try to charge them for another day, and gave him her report. She'd spent the driving time going over it in her head, recalling the details of her previous report to make sure she didn't change anything critical to her story. He was so pleased to find out she'd ‘handled’ the wolf situation with some of the ‘locals’ that he didn't probe too much—thankfully.

 
She didn't mention the ‘bio-hazard'. She wasn't touching that. The wolfen could take care of any of the fallout from it.

 
The trip was exhausting and miserable, made more rotten by the lack of side window in the damned truck, but she had no desire to stop along the way to get the windows replaced. She headed for home like a homing pigeon.

 
The place was stale from being closed up so long and, of course, the cupboards bare, but she'd had food left over from her stint in the cabin. She figured she could get by a few days before trotting to town to replenish her supplies. She'd diverted around Atlanta on her way south, but it had reminded her of her unfinished business at the zoo and she gave the manger a call.

 
They'd called in someone else while she was gone. Not a big surprise! Ordinarily, it would've irritated her, but she found she was glad.

 
Wolves weren't really her specialty.

 
It was so nice and quiet and peaceful around her place that she was climbing the walls within a few days, unable to focus on the notes she'd collected to even
try
to write a paper. The need to be around
some
body kept eating at her and it wasn't appeased by a jaunt into town for groceries or a trip to the mall and the movies.

 
She decided to pay a visit to her grandmother in the nursing home. She hated going and was ashamed because she did. She never knew, though, if her grandmother would know her and welcome her and they would have a nice visit, or if her grandmother
wouldn't
know her and she'd end up struggling to chat with her like a complete stranger.

 
She was going to turn around and leave if her grandmother wasn't lucid, she decided when she parked in front of the nursing home and got out. She just couldn't handle
that
kind of visit right now.

 
A relief so profound she felt tearful filled her when her grandmother looked up and smiled at her when she tapped nervously at the door and poked her head in.

 
"Dani!"

 
She smiled tremulously. “Grandma! How are you today?"

 
"Fine! Fine! How are you doing, honey? You look a little peaked. You haven't been taking care of yourself, I see."

 
Danika felt her lower lip tremble. She tamped the urge resolutely. “I'm good. Really!"

 
Her grandmother gave her a look. “What's wrong, honey?"

 
Danika sniffed, feeling the threat of tears gaining ground. “Nothing, really. I just haven't been to see you in a while, and ... and I missed you."

 
Her grandmother made a tsking noise and held up her arms. Danika surged toward the frail little woman, hugging her carefully. The tears she'd been fighting flowed down her cheeks as she held her grandmother. “You might as well tell me,” her grandmother said when she pulled away and brushed the tears from her cheeks with her hand. “You know I have a nose for things. Always have. It wouldn't have anything to do with those wolfen you've been diddling around with, would it?"

 
Danika gaped at her grandmother in speechless shock, her tears drying up instantly. “Grandmother!” she gasped, but she was too stunned by the woman's unerring accuracy to fully grasp it. It was true everyone had always said her grandmother had a ‘nose’ for things. Everybody accepted that it was a gift even though nobody talked about it. People had a tendency to think you were a nut case if you talked about a person being psychic.

 
She didn't know what was more startling, though, the fact that her grandmother had spoken about wolfen like she
knew
all about them or the fact her grandmother knew she'd been ‘diddling’ with them.

 
Her grandmother snorted and then chuckled at the look on her face, obviously pleased with herself. Glancing around for her chair, she settled in it stiffly. Danika dropped weakly into the chair beside her. “You know about ... wolfen?” she asked finally, beginning to wonder if her grandmother was as lucid as she seemed. Of course, she knew, now, that there was such a thing, but her grandmother?

 
She had
no
desire at all to discuss what she'd been doing with the wolfen!

 
Her grandmother stared at her hard for a moment. “Are you going to act like I've lost my marbles if I tell you?"

 
"Grandmother!"

 
"Don't grandmother me! I may be old and I may not remember things like I used to, but I'm not a nut!"

 
Danika bit her lip. “It just surprised me,” she said meekly.

 
Grandma shrugged. “I imagine. Just between you and me, though, I'm not physic. I know everybody always thought I was and I let them think it. It's wolfen."

 
Danika blinked. “I'm not following you."

 
Grandma huffed irritably. “I know you've heard the whispers about an ‘undesirable’ in the woodpile, honey.” She grimaced. “It wasn't an Indian. He was wolfen."

 
Danika felt her jaw slide to half mast. “You're sure?"

 
Grandma snorted. “Of course I'm sure! Where do you think I got the nose from? I told you I wasn't psychic. I've just got better senses. I
know
things because of that.

 
I ain't blind, neither, although I'm damned close to it. You've got the marks. Looks like you got stampeded by a whole pack."

 
Danika reddened, surreptitiously twitching the neck of her shirt up a little higher.