S.C. Dane's Blog, page 8

Wolf-Love, Installment No. 27

    

Wolf-Love

Installment No. 27

     It was the nudge against the soles of her boots that woke her. Sofia drew her knees up to her chin, rubbed the back of her hand across her eyes and bolted upright. She’d been caught sleeping again, but this time when she glanced around her, she smiled at the person who was in her space.

    ”German.” Saying his name, seeing him at her feet, squeezed her heart like a lover’s hug. The feeling deepened her smile.

    ”Good morning,” he winked, still crouching naked at her feet.

    ”It’s still night, Observant One.”

    ”Yeah, but I like the idea of greeting you,” he admitted, his grin brief, uncertain, as if he awaited a negative response.

    She couldn’t give him one. Not a chance of it, because that admission hugged her heart so tight it barely functioned. She managed to pull it together by pointing to what was in his hand.

    He lifted it by its long ears. “Breakfast. Or dinner. Whichever you want to call it.”

    ”You caught that.” It was not a question.

    German nodded as another shy grin exposed some of his luminescent teeth.

    ”Amazing,” she breathed, and they held their gazes on each other. The word encompassed so much. He was amazing. The fact he was a wolf was amazing. His liking her, well, that left her downright dumbfounded.

    But he did like her. Everything about him told her he did. And she didn’t think she’d been dreaming, but she thought of how his body had felt on hers. The way his teeth had scraped her skin and his searing mouth had lit her up.

    Yeah, that.

    She felt her cheeks burn, along with a sudden rush within her muscles.

    German reached out his hand for hers, and the dark shadows of night defined the striated muscles of his shoulder. She didn’t hesitate to put her hand in his.

    ”Come on. I bet you’re starving.”

    She let him lift her to her feet and then she stepped back as he gripped the rabbit with both hands to peel its skin from its muscles. The sound of cloth tearing stirred her stomach to growling life.

    German beamed a toothy smile. “See.”

    Yeah, she was ravenous, and damned if she didn’t care if the bunny was cooked or not. She was already swallowing the saliva flooding into her mouth. Which got her wondering about the whole cooked meat thing and a hundred other questions.

    ”Will you eat this raw like a wolf?” It embarrassed her to ask, but German’s forthright answer eased her, gave her courage.

    ”It’s definitely better tasting when the blood’s not heated out of it. But when we’re eating in public, we have to eat cooked foods. We’re odd enough as it is, and ordering a raw hamburger would raise a few eyebrows”

    ”I can’t even say that’s gross.”

    ”Good, because you know…”

    ”Are you hinting that I should try this rabbit without cooking it?”

    ”Yeah, pretty much. I mean,” he held his breath like he searched for the right words, as though he was trying not to scare her with too much, too soon. “As a wolf, you’re going to want to hunt, which means…”

    Like a little kid at Christmas, she couldn’t wait for him to finish. “You really think I’m going to turn into a wolf?” Shit, but she couldn’t suppress her excitement. This was extraordinary; too good to be true, really. She knew she wriggled, but couldn’t help that either.

    German, however, got quiet as his hands lowered to his sides.

    Not a good sign.

    Her body stilled beside his. “What?”

    He shook his head then pinched a bite of rabbit flesh between his bloody fingers and offered it to her, his face neutral except for little lines of tension at his lips. Like he was offering her more than food? No, he couldn’t be. Could he?

    For the first time in Sofia’s life, someone’s uncertainty had her emotionally tripping over herself. Because her gut reaction was telling her German wasn’t just giving her something to eat. He’d have handed her more than the little bite he held at his fingertips, if that was the case. He meant to feed her. One very personal nibble at a time.

    Something uncurled within her. No more hesitation. She leaned in to take the morsel between her teeth, and he shivered expectantly, watched her descend with green eyes narrowing with yearning, as though he wanted to be that bit of rabbit meat.

    Sofia obliged him, slicking her tongue around his bloody fingertips as her teeth pressed into fresh meat. When his other hand cupped her head, the something that had awakened within her stretched, wringing things inside of her which had been lying dormant. Sofia suckled with German’s encouragement, lowering her lashes with satisfaction at the sharp rasp of his inhalation.

    ”Sofia.” Her name was a caress, and he withdrew to pull her another strip of flesh.

    She swallowed her first piece, and kept her eyes riveted on the man as he offered to feed her again. He was gorgeous in his vulnerability: all anticipating tension and shivering. The lean curve of muscles as he turned to her, the need in his expanding pupils.

    Oh, yeah. She wanted to please him. Because it pleasured her, too.

    He held up more meat for her between his fingertips, his need to nourish her shining as radiantly upon his face as the heat enveloping them. She took his gift and swallowed, even though her own arousal was thickening her throat.

    The moisture spreading between her legs was akin to the slick of blood in her mouth. She was aroused by this intimacy of his feeding her.

    German continued to ply her with the food he’d hunted, that he’d gotten for her.

She knew it was hers, because he refused to eat any of it himself. Yet he seemed to grow sated the more she took from him. And more aroused.

    He trembled, the air thickening with what she now knew as his unique scent as the heat he radiated bloomed as if the sun neared. “I cannot do much more of this.” His confession was one of pain. He squeezed his eyes shut, and clenched his whiskered jaw. Sofia watched with tingling pleasure the pull and drop of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed and breathed to calm himself.

    ”I can’t hold…” he whined and lifted his lids, beseeching her.

    She pulled his crouched body into hers, enfolded the flame he was against her, and he surrendered to her embrace, lifted his face to her windpipe and squeezed it with his sharpening teeth.

    Sofia’s hips lifted as she drew him tighter against her and laid her head back to give more of herself. Despite the hard locking of his muscles, German held her gently. She knew he struggled against himself, and yet she taunted him, fell back to the earth behind her to welcome his weight. A low hum twirled up her throat, like a soothing hymn, and she closed her eyes to the stilling of straining flesh beneath her palms.

    Sofia sing.

    Her throat obeyed the insistent plea, and she lifted her lids as searing hands cradled her face.

    “Sing.” The face above hers was rapture. “Red wolf, you are beautiful. Sing”

    And then the bliss of his mouth returned to her vibrating windpipe, and Sofia lifted her hips for him again, inviting the hardness pushing along her inner thigh. She wetted for him, her body aching to be his shelter as he sucked her breast through her shirt.

    “Sweetest Luna.” His breath as he swore was the zephyr winds upon her nipple.

    ~S.C. Dane

    ~Installment No. 28 coming Saturday, February 15, 2014.

Wolf-Love, Installment No. 26

Wolf-Love

Installment No. 26

    #wolf-shifter #romance #MFRWauthor http://paranormalromancebyscdane.wordpress.com/

    ”Holy crap, this is no joke. You’re really a wolf.” Sofia plunked down on her knees. Which was fine, since they weren’t really working for her anyway. She reached out toward the wolf like maybe he’d bite her, her bruised wrist stretching beyond the cuff of her shirt.

    The animal stepped toward her cautiously, dropping his broad head low. She didn’t notice the injuries on herself, but her eye sure caught on those furred shoulders. They were like the blades of a war axe: sharp and thick, but mostly God-awful sturdy.

    ”Jesus, German, you’re beautiful. And I can’t believe I’m talking to a wolf.” Her giggles bellied out nervously, like she was a few threads shy from being wrapped in a full straightjacket.

    Then, because really down deep she craved shock therapy, the wolf sat on his haunches, yawned, then shook himself until he fell sideways onto the ground and his entire body fluidly coalesced from one thing into another.

    German the human rolled onto his knees in front of her.

    Sofia’s heart went serious, thudding heavy like it had cement pumping through it. She was going to pass out. For the first time in her life, she was going to swoon like a sissy in a corset. Her muscles suddenly adopted the structural strength of jello, and she knew from the way her vision went wavy she was weaving. Out of the blue, she had the vague sense she’d be okay because she was on her knees and wouldn’t have far to fall, even as she tipped so her surroundings went funhouse.

    When she opened her eyes, she could’ve sworn she’d only blinked; except German was holding her in his very warm arms with a load of concern engraved on his handsome face. She’d never seen such an expression before, and now she knew how people fell in love. If someone could look at you with that much fear and relief mingled together, then you had some kind of hold on his heart.

    She smiled stupidly up into that concerned face. Couldn’t help it.

    Then the panic hit her like a train, knocking her to her senses. She struggled from German’s embrace and floundered to her feet, where she needed to be to run. Because rule number one? You never let your guard down, you didn’t leave yourself wide open for assault.

    ”Sofe?”

    With a shaking hand clapped to her forehead and her legs braced for a good sprint, Sofia looked down at the man on the ground. “German,” she panted, an embarrassed grin creeping to her lips, heat flushing up her neck.

    ”You okay?”

    Good question. Her heart was flappity-flapping all over the place. Not to mention her cheeks were burning so hot she was probably doing a great Raggedy Ann impression. “Ha, yeah. I’m just not used…I’ve never fainted like that before. How long was I out?”

    ”Fifteen seconds, tops. Long enough for you to give me a serious scare.”

    ”Funny, but I think that’s my line.” She was tossing jokes with a werewolf? Oh, she was a freakazoid, all right. Like the guy had said, not many people took the news well. She hadn’t, and she’d been wrapped in weird her entire life. Granted, nothing quite this bizarre, but then.

    She wasn’t alone anymore thanks to the man who still knelt on the ground, looking as if he was afraid to move. Like he was afraid for her. Which melted her really, dissolving her flight or fight instincts like sugar in warm tea.

    Besides, she was shocked, not cold-hearted. Slowly, she knelt back down, her eyes flitting from German’s face, over the bare skin of his body, and back again to those intense green eyes.

    ”I know how crazy this is going to sound, but…can

I touch you?”

    His lashes lowered when he grinned, softening his gaze. “I would like that, yes.”

    Man o man, that gravelly voice of his—like he was always parched, or a three pack a day smoker. Only now she knew why, and was eager to touch, but simultaneously apprehensive. Taking a breath, Sofia caressed the tip of her finger across the soft hairs of his forearm. They were pewter gray, each short strand tipped in black just like the hair on his head. Just like the fur had been on the wolf’s body. “You’re naked.” It was her turn to rasp, her throat getting tight.

    ”Ah, yeah. You didn’t give me much time to put clothes on.”

    The scent of trees filled her head. She felt her body sway again, but German folded his arms around her, turning her so they were spooned and her head fitted close to his thumping heart.

    ”You smell good.” She succumbed to the comfort he offered. It had been a long day; she’d seen and done a shitload without so much as moving ten yards. Besides, German was so strong, warm—and he was safe. Something she felt beyond the firm, yet gentle way he held her body to his. The well-being resonated bone deep, like her spirit was breathing a sigh of relief. Her mind dribbled along, babbling quietly like a little stream until her breaths drew long and rhythmic.

    For the first time in her memory, Sophia fell asleep in someone’s arms.

∞

    The warmth of their bodies heightened their combined scent, and it snaked through him as he inhaled. German was intoxicated with it, and he closed his eyes as he rested his cheek on Sofia’s crown, savoring the blend.

    To think she trusted him enough to fall asleep as he held her! Sweetest Luna, his rogue was a wonder. Heart wrenchingly delectable. For he couldn’t deny her power over him as she lay vulnerable within his embrace.

    He belonged to her.

    The truth aroused him as nothing ever had. He wanted to claim her, mark her so any wolf who came near her would know who she belonged to. And who belonged to her. The ferocity of it hardened him, and naked as he was, the thickening of his shaft brushed like a teasing caress across her clothed bottom, so his breath hit his lungs with a hiss.

    He’d never wanted to claim another wolf before. It wasn’t in him to do it. But the urge to do so now was a living beast within him. The fact that he and Sofia hadn’t known each other long was irrelevant. Wolves were skilled in the appraisal department, and most had the brass to back it up. At least, they used to. Now they were being hemmed in by rules of proper human etiquette. They were being trained to act human. The very idea of it polluted his fur. He could spit for the foulness of it on his tongue.

    But good to think of at a time like this, really. If he mated with his stray, he could not turn her over to the Alphas. Add to his list of reasons to derail this pondering train was the fact she hadn’t even transformed yet. Although snuggled up against him as she was, he felt her innate heat building. She wasn’t far from it.

    Waiting to see her resplendent in her red fur was like sitting on his haunches when prey bolted away from him: impossible to do when instincts were in the driver’s seat.

    To curb his ass, he reminded himself she may not accept that gorgeous red pelt. Never mind she thought the idea of becoming wolf was off the charts cool, as she’d described it. If her two halves couldn’t meld to form the whole, then…well, she was toast.

    And he’d be the one to put her out of her misery. Fuck. Yeah, that peeled the rose color off his glasses. Made him think of more practical things, like how hungry she must be. She hadn’t eaten much in the past three days, even though she hadn’t complained. As if going hungry was a common occurrence. A very wolfy trait even if it angered him, made him want to hunt for her.

    No. It made him need to hunt for her, the instinct to provide for her nearly smothering his desire to comfort her, to hold his rogue safe in his arms.

    Dear Luna, this was too much. Stifling his urges fevered his blood, so that his hand crept under her shirt along her taut stomach and cupped itself to her left breast. Yet, he didn’t pull away. He let the creamy weight of it rest in the curve of his hand, felt her heart beat against the edge of his palm, strong as his own pulse at his wrists. Lowering his head, he pressed his lips to the arc of her jaw.

    Her moan ignited him. Shivering, he gently turned her back to the forest floor, and raked his lengthening teeth across her windpipe, laving the knobs with his tongue. The dueling sensations of his body bombarded him as her musk thickened and filled him so he grew hard for her once again.

    He would take her human form as wolf, so help him! And as sure as he’d rut her hard on the forest floor, she’d view their coupling as a desecration. Chagrined, he peeled himself from the heat of the woman, just as his bones loosened and reformed.

    If he couldn’t keep himself together when she aroused him, how was he going to claim her as a mate before her change?

    He wasn’t. And the pain of it cleaved his guts as with a dull blade. With a longing glance at Sofia’s sleeping form, German high-tailed it for the trees, knowing there was another way to assuage the turmoil warring within him: he could hunt to feed his stray, and pacify at least one of his cravings.

    ~S.C. Dane

    ~Installment No. 27 coming Tuesday, February 11, 2014.

Wolf-Love, Installment No. 25

Wolf-Love

Installment No. 25

    By dusk, Sofia was still sitting beside a cold campfire and an uneaten bird. German, in human form, had returned to what was by now becoming his defensive position at the base of a tree: his heels tucked to his ass and his elbows roosting on his knees. The woman, his rogue, hadn’t flipped out, but she was still digesting what she’d witnessed.

    She kept glancing his way, and the blushing of her skin was what allowed him to finally claim her as his. Even if he played it safe and kept her labeled as a stray, she was his, and that tug in his guts liked it awfully well. It made him want to smile. A lot. And he hadn’t had much to smile about in his life.

    So what if his slice of watermelon would take a permanent vacation once he turned her in. This was his freedom he was salvaging—a dumbass grin wasn’t even a fair trade for the price of his liberty. Neither was this wholesome sense of well-being. He’d recoup that once he no longer had the damned Alphas jerking his short leash. Yes. He. Would.

    German sat quiet while his thoughts circled like vultures.

    When darkness finally descended, he figured it was a good time to start talking to her, because most people tended to open up when they felt less visible. It didn’t matter she could see just fine. Just like he could.

    To crack the silence, he pointed at the dried out carcass of the bird on its stick. “Your dinner’s getting cold.”

    Sofia gave him a little grin when she looked up at him, then dropped her eyes to the ground between her feet before she answered him. “Yeah, I was waiting for my man to come home before I ate.”

    German’s chest got too tight, like it swelled with something akin to pride. And ownership. He liked how she still had her humor, too. It was a damned fine sign as to the state of things.

    ”Sofia?”

    In the darkness, he watched the shadows play on her face as she turned to him.

    ”Yeah?”

    ”You’re not scared, are you?” So sincere he was, it hurt him. She had her humor, but they had yet to discuss what he’d revealed.

    ”Nah. I figured something was up with you. I mean, you wanted to tag along with me. Usually, people recoil in the opposite direction.”

    ”You know why, right?” Dearest Luna, she was too quiet.

    ”I think so. I mean…” She picked at the stubble of a thin root between her feet. “I’m really not sure, actually. Unless it means you like being around me because I’m probably dinner, right?”

    He let her comment slide, knowing she was kidding about that last part. If she was worried about becoming wolf chow, she’d have been screaming hours ago.

    ”You’re funny, but a little off base.” He got up from his position by the tree and approached her slowly, moving in on his hands and knees with his head down and his jaw tilted to the side.

    Submission. Fuck. He was so fucked. This situation had screwed written all over it. No way in hell either of them were going to come out as winners. Still, he pushed forward, hoping she read his posturing accurately. She’d batted a thousand so far, so he kept up with the easy-does-it.

    She smelled nice, too: her sadness heightening her earthy scent. Although, he didn’t like that she was sad, couldn’t understand it, really. Anger, he expected. Horror, too, with maybe a whole lot of revulsion thrown in for good measure.

    But sorrow? Nope. If he took a gondola ride through the channels of his brain he’d never find out why she was sad. He was going to have to ask her. Peel her scabs.

    Shit.

    German lifted his hand toward her forearm, which she had stretched out in front of her with the other one. Because she was still lashed tight as a pitbull.

    Christ. He had left her tied. Could he trust her not to bolt?

    Even if she did, where would she go? They were still deep in the woods and he could catch her if she did. Besides, she was the one who’d led them this far into the forest. Where she preferred to be. So, yeah…she wasn’t going anywhere.

    She lifted her lashes when he spread his fingers around the ball of her hands. Her tears shimmered silver like the stars above them, beckoning him in to place his lips over one gray eye, to taste the salt of her tears.

    Sofia pressed her head against the touch of his lips, and the tug at his belly coiled tight. German licked his lips before turning his ministrations to her other eye.

    When he pulled away, their gazes strung out like taffy.

    ”Let me untie you,” he rasped.

    His stray sat so very still as he unwound the strips of his shirt from her wrists. The bruises and cuts on her bones turned his windpipe into a drinking straw, his lungs into wilting balloons.

    He shook his head as he kept it bowed before her. “I am so sorry.”

    He was too, which was an emotion he’d been feeling all too keenly lately. One he wasn’t all that familiar with, either.

    ”I know you are.”

    Well, wasn’t that just a kick to his nuts.

    ”Fuck, Sofia. I’m not sure what to do here, to be honest. Usually when I reveal my, ah, particular talent, those who see it don’t get sad. You know? They kind of go ballistic, actually. You’re setting a bit of precedent here.”

    With a knife-like stare, he cut through the bullshit. But the edge got dulled by his creeping grin. Which meant he was in a bit too deep with this woman and he knew it. It mattered a hell of a lot that she handled this well. For reasons he just couldn’t dissect at the moment.

    ”Figures, right?” She scoffed, plucking at the root between her feet without rubbing her injured wrists, like every human on the planet would have naturally done. When she finally did raise her face, he recognized the flicker of an angry flame, and sat back to bear the brunt of it. She was going to rev herself up, filling her lungs with a good breath before spilling. “All my life I’m some outcast. Nobody wants me around them. And I’m cool with that, you know. Because, I don’t really want to be around them either. But then, you come along…” She went back to picking at the battered root.

    All right. Here we go, finally. “And then I come along…” he coaxed, even as his pulse hammered at his skin like the bellows to a smithy’s forge, stoking his inner furnace. What she would say in the next few minutes would decide everything. Which meant he’d better start sucking up his ball sac if this didn’t go in his favor.

    ”So, you come and suddenly, aside from Sol-Dog, you’re the first person I can stand to be around. You’re the first person who actually wants to be around me, and maybe we have something in common. But then…”

    Ah, yes, here it comes. Never mind that she thought of her dog as a someone, he couldn’t get that hopeful.

    ”But then it turns out we don’t have much in common at all.”

    German backed his ass up when she got to her feet, giving her the space she needed to work her thoughts to their logical end as she paced. Just like the space he’d given the others—except their logical conclusions hadn’t coincided with his or the pack’s and he’d had to scrub them. Which had never bothered him before. He figured it was like human hunters out shooting deer. Not the same species, so no problemo.

    But this woman? Her wolf scent was so thick he was surprised she wasn’t born shifting.

    ”Ah. So that’s it, huh?” The invisible fist squeezing his throat let go. This wasn’t about being the same. Sofia’s anxiety was because she thought they were different. “Hey, remember last night?” God, was it only a night ago? “And I ticked off the things I knew about you? They’re things I know because you’re…” tread easy “…you’re wolf, too. You’re not shifting yet, but you will. It’s why I was sent here to get you. We can’t exactly have you turning into a wolf in the middle of a human crowd.”

    That was a soft step, fidiot.

    Sofia quit orbiting around her pacing feet to stare at him. Okay. Shock is normal, happened all the time. He’d probably react the same way if some stranger he barely knew was dumping this load of shit on him.

    ”Really?”

    ”Yes, really. This isn’t exactly a hobby of mine, you know, telling people they aren’t who or what they thought they were. Shit goes bad when they hear it, Sofia, I won’t lie to you.” I’m also not going to tell you how I killed them, either.

    “So people don’t like to hear it?”

    Okay. An odd question, but he could roll. “Not usually, no.“

    She nodded with an ah-hah.

    Ah-hah, what? “Ah-hah, what, Sofe?” Dear Luna he was turning into an affectionate pup.

    ”Then I am a freak. Because I’ve got to admit, this is fucking off the charts cool!”

    Jee-zus, he loved that wide smile on her face, and his body went all helium balloon, defying gravity as he got light on his feet. “Really? You’re not upset? I mean, shouldn’t you, I don’t know, be afraid you’ll miss hanging out with humans?” He knew as soon as he asked it he was just working his mouth to keep his heart from blowing out the front of his chest. She was actually excited. And of course, while he’d been yammering without his brain, he’d forgotten she didn’t exactly have humans in her life anyway.

    ”Upset? Are you kidding? You’ve just delivered me out of Hell. All my life, German, I haven’t fit in with the people I was forced to be with. Always it was like we didn’t speak the same language. You’ve just delivered the reason why.”

    Well, shit. He was a hero.

    But then she sobered, and his blood stilled, like frigid air descending on a summer picnic. “What?” Given the way her sudden dip in enthusiasm hit him, he was a little surprised his skin caught fire.

    ”This isn’t some kind of hoax is it? Because if it is…”

    German succumbed to the flaming of his body, crouched, and looked up at the woman from his four paws for the second time in less than a day.

    ~S.C. Dane

    Installment No. 26 coming Saturday, February 8, 2014.

Wolf-Love, Installment No. 24

Wolf-Love

Installment No. 24

    No effing way!

    Sofia’s brain repeated the denial several times before she realized her jaw was hanging open like a fish tossed onto the bank. She snapped it shut and let her mind skim over the details so she could concentrate on what had unfolded before her.

    Literally.

    There was something physically wrong with German, and she’d seen it with her own peepers. He was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Incredible Hulk, maybe. He was something not human. German’s body had changed somehow; Sofia just didn’t know the how. He’d scrambled out of sight before she could see much of anything to define it. But what she was certain of was the heat of his body as he’d launched himself away from her.

    The same spike in temperature she’d felt the night before. Which meant, just maybe, he hadn’t been repulsed by touching her like she’d thought. Huh.

    She sat up a little a taller. And opened her mouth to shout for him then clapped it shut. What was she doing? She’d just witnessed some man’s body writhe and buckle, probably into some kind of monster, and she was calling him back?

    Yep.

    Because in spite of her huh moment elbowing for some quality time, Sofia couldn’t ignore the absence of her fear. She wasn’t scared. Intrigued as hell, yes. But frightened? Far from it. She wanted to see more. There was something about all of this she was missing, and for the first time in her life she wanted to talk and not play the Patience game.

    ”German!”

    She cocked an ear to listen, but with her heart fluttering like Tinkerbell’s wings in her ears, she couldn’t hear much else.

    ”German, please!“

    There! Sofia spun on her knees to face the rustling behind her. German stood against the trees, as naked as she knew he’d have to be since his pants were spread across the ground not far from his boots.

    And because his shirt was still wound around her wrists.

    ”German.” It was her turn to sputter names without tagging on words.

    She took a couple of steps toward him, then stopped as his body went hair-trigger tight. Even from fifteen feet away, she could feel his heat, see the clenching of his scruffy jaw.

    ”You came back.” Ordinarily, she’d have hid her happiness as it bloomed across her face like sunshine. But this time she wouldn’t, not when German seemed so raw. And ready to bolt. Like they’d reversed roles and she was his captor. A game to catch her off guard?

    In spite of herself, Sofia’s eyes licked over every inch of the man, memorizing the contour of his muscled legs, the tuck of taut belly muscles along his hip bones. Christ, he was beautiful. But definitely not playing any kind of head game. Which aaalmost made her feel guilty for messing with his head with her silent treatment. Almost. He had trussed her up like a calf, after all.

    ”Will you untie my hands?” She held them up as if to make it easier for him to reach. Except he didn’t move. Or look at her. He kept his face averted, as if hiding his expression or something. Like she couldn’t see his jaw muscle clenched tight as a baby’s fist? As if the rest of his nude body didn’t give him away?

    German shook his head no.

    “Why not?”

    Now he looked at her. “Because you’ll run,” he growled, making her think there was something wrong with his vocal chords. But whatever. She liked the scratch of his voice and the way the scrape of it tingled her belly—exactly the way his kiss had.

    ”No. I promise I won’t.”

    His eyes narrowed to suspicious slits, weighing the integrity of her words. Finally, he stepped closer. She could smell his heat. Along with something else.

    ”You smell like trees.”

    The corner of his mouth twitched in a shy smile before he glanced away.

    ”Yeah. Trees. I like it. So, was there something you wanted to tell me? I mean, you’re putting in an awful lot of effort for a standard kidnapping here.”

    ”Yeah. But I am kidnapping you, sort of.”

    Now why didn’t that spike her heart rate into the sky? “I gathered the sort of. You’re not exactly playing it by the manual. I mean, Chapter Two clearly states that to subdue your victim you’re supposed to tie their hands and their feet. Then gag them so they can’t talk or scream.”

    Oh, yes, Sofe. Give him ideas. “You’re fudging your job,” she taunted as she sidled closer. Man, did she want closer. Was she missing a safety gene? She knew she was a freak, but did she actually have a death wish?

    ”I know. I should have killed you days ago.”

    Yep. Yes, I do. “But you didn’t.”

    ”I couldn’t.” He locked his gaze on her then, and Sofia read the desperation behind those green eyes. He was worried.

    About her? Impossible, right? Except she trusted her judgment when it came to body language, even though she’d always gotten in trouble for it. Yet, in this moment it was finally going to hold her in good stead, so she kept her rudder on frank.

    ”Why are you worried?”

    The naked man before her clenched his jaw and averted his gaze again. She’d struck home.

    ”German. Why are you anxious?” She kept her tone steady and her voice low as she inched closer to him. Man, but that aroma of trees wafting from his warmth ribboned all the way through her.

    He pinned his gaze on her again, hardening his stare, stopping her cold. “Because once you know the truth you’re going to freak out, and then I’ll have to kill you.”

    Damn, that wasn’t the answer she was fishing for. He was riled, and his muscles twitched and flexed as his body heat engulfed them.

    She knew that heat, and now her heart rate finally did jack up. Mr. Hyde itched to get let out. And she kind of liked that, too, felt herself bracing for it.

    ”Because you can’t,” she taunted, and sidled in so tight she had to look up at him. Christ, he was a goddamned oven, his toasty grill heaving up and down as he took gulps of air. Acting on instinct alone, riding her body and what it dictated, Sofia shut off her brain as she stretched onto her tippy-toes.

    Then wrapped her mouth around his searing throat.

    German flinched like she’d electrocuted him, then shoved himself away from her. When they locked eyes again, his tightened with sorrow. Or was it regret?

    Sofia froze as the man before her dropped to his knees, shook his entire body, and roared as the muscles and bones beneath his skin slithered like snakes.

    Jesus, Mary, Mother of God. He isn’t human.

    Sofia didn’t notice her lungs burning from lack of oxygen. She was just a little too busy staring down upon the most spectacular being she had ever laid eyes on.

    ~S.C. Dane

    ~Installment No. 25 coming Tuesday, February 4, 2014.

WOLF-LOVE, Installment No. 23

Wolf-Love

Installment No. 23

    Holy Mother of all that’s holy! Absurd epithet, he knew, but this whole mission bordered on illogical. Things were not going down the way he was used to. Granted, the way he was used to had actually just happened. He’d bound his quarry like he had a hundred times before.

    The problem this time was that he wasn’t the least bit happy about it. Not that he’d relished tying up the rogues he’d been assigned to bring in, but it made things flipping easier. Especially once they figured out things were not what they considered normal.

    Immobilizing them quickened the process. He could show them what they might have the potential to be without them going anywhere. If they didn’t come around to the wolf way of thinking? Then he already had them caught and they couldn’t go blabbing. A clean kill with no loose strings. Efficient and effective.

    Except German couldn’t muster the guts to swipe this particular redheaded rogue off the planet.

    A major problem, and it was every bit his fault, too.

    Kissing her? Since when did he ever give in to his needs like that? Never, that was when. Not caving was sound procedure. As if he’d needed to make an example of himself.

    He had a hostage and no guts to kill her.

    Effing great.

    She was also pissed, even if she was silent and eyeing him like a tasty morsel. She was hatching something that wouldn’t end pretty. He didn’t think. The trouble was, this was the first time he’d ever found himself in such a predicament with this kind of captive. Usually they mewled and cried and begged, irritating him to the point where he was glad to shut them up.

    Permanently.

    Not this time. Sofia would try her damnedest to kill him if she got herself loose.

    He recognized that shine in those gray eyes.

    And fuck him, but he was proud of her, for Luna’s sake.

    Oh, man.

    He squatted down in front of her so they were face to face. Like equals.

    Shit. She shouldn’t be his equal. She was a subordinate, a stray.

    ”Sofia.”

    Hell’s bells, what did he tell her? He’d said her name now a thousand times and then could only muster an apology. He was real eloquent, he was.

    Those gray eyes caressed him, tugging on the damned cord that tied his guts to her.

    ”I had to tie you for your own good.”

    Was that a spark of satisfaction?

    ”You’ve no idea what we are. I’m here to protect you.”

    Her silence unnerved him even though he knew what she was doing. But, he couldn’t help himself. It was like his mouth belonged to her and it wanted nothing more than to ease her.

    German got up and paced along the tree line. Shit. So far, he’d wasted two days with her because he’d made crucial mistakes. He never made vital

mistakes. Especially not since his scarring. But with Sofia?

    He turned and watched her, only to have her nail her eyes to his. His dick thickened as it gorged on the blood his brain was supposed to be using.

    All this trouble for a piece of ass? Wuh?

    Before he knew it, he was on his knees with his mouth clamped onto the rogue’s. She sucked onto him, dragging his toes up through his guts while her tongue slipped and retreated, taunting his playfully. Like a cat teasing a mouse. Like he cared who the predator was here?

    His hand fisted the back of her head to pull her deeper, his moan escaping along his throat as her silken tresses caressed his forearm. He was losing himself to the sensations of the woman in his arms. Her body was toned and strong, yet wrapping it was glossy and warm cream skin, contradictions that drove him mad, stoking his wild nature. No longer thinking, he was an animal burning on instinct. German dragged his teeth across her plump lower lip, a sensual warning of what he was about to do.

    Far from subdued, she did not retaliate, but assuaged the raw scrape with her own tongue as she lifted her chin. Oh, so subtle! A miniscule tilt of her cheek. A flicker of triumph and unease under heavy lids. Her breaths were short, hot like his. Their hearts pounding identical rhythms.

    With gentle care, German bit onto her tender windpipe, his tongue laving the pinched flesh. He heard the faint cry in the drawing of her lungs, and he pressed harder, demanding her abeyance even as she surrendered, entrusting herself to his arms while her hips rubbed along his thigh. Her scent thickened with her heat, igniting his body to a red-hot ember—the wolf prowling too close to the surface.

    He couldn’t frighten her!

    Too late he clawed himself from the woman, unable to trap his guttural growl as he shoved himself away. His spine blasted fire to his limbs, and German kicked at the restrictive cloth on his legs, scrabbled his booted feet to push himself upright, to clamor away before revealing too much, too soon. He couldn’t frighten her, and in the daylight she would see. His heart raced faster as he felt his fangs punch through, knew that his wolf eyes lost all trace of their humanity.

    Finally, he kicked his boots free and his bare feet gained purchase so he could run.

    German bolted for the protection of the thicker tree cover, swearing at himself for succumbing to her, for repeating his mistake.

    He cast one last look over his shoulder as his knees buckled him to the forest floor.

    The face looking back no longer wore a smug grin.

    It wore an expression of surprise. And it sure as hell didn’t escape him, despite his desperation, that nowhere on Sofia’s features did she show revulsion or fear.

    ~S.C. Dane

    ~Installment No. 24 coming Saturday, February 1, 2014.

Wolf-Love, Installment No. 22

Wolf-Love

Installment No. 22

    Like her dreams before, Sofia stood mesmerized, swaying as if she was the mirror image of the amber-eyed woman before her. The woman lifted her hand, the fingers seeming long because of the placement of the thumb, which was closer to the wrist than a human’s hand. As the woman did in every dream, she unfurled her fist and held her hand out toward Sofia, palm up to the night sky.

    Following the pattern of her previous dreams, Sofia’s knees buckled to the forest floor and she threw her hands out to catch herself. Now she was closer to the earth, on her hands and knees. She lifted her face to the woman at the tree, who smiled beatifically, her lids heavy with thick, long lashes.

    ”Yes, child.”

    Sofia’s heart swelled under the strange woman’s pride, filling her chest until she thought it would splinter and shift to accommodate the thumping. Her skin burned, but she kept her eyes locked on the amber ones above her, as though they held the secret of her boiling blood.

    The woman at the tree smiled, her teeth sharp, luminescent. The tips of her fangs were pressed against her bottom lip.

    Sofia trembled, her frightened body sweating.

    The woman began to sway once again, her arms rising sensuously above her head like the tree’s branches. She threw her head back, her red hair tumbling like hundreds of autumn leaves down her back. A wail rose from her, the keening winding out of her mouth like roots stretching for the sky.

    A nugget of weight, small as an acorn, burned like a brand in Sofia’s stomach. She felt its first tentative scratchings, as though a tendril searched to take hold in the fertility of her womb. Spreading her bent legs wider, she dug her fingers into the rich loam as her back arched, pressing her stomach closer the ground. Sofia threw her head back to balance her snaking body.

    The effort squeezed a moan from her throat.

    ”Beautiful, child.” The woman’s hips undulated. The leaves above shivered violently, their rubbing a million verdant voices whispering upon Sofia’s ears. “Sing.”

    As if compelled, Sofia let the pressure ease forth, her vocal chords squeezing her breath.

    The eerie sound emanating from her throat scraped resonant like the strings of a cello. Blackness descended.

    When Sofia woke to morning light, her oddly comforting dream was instantly crushed under the humiliation of German’s retreat. But she didn’t have time to wallow. Her gaze drifted toward the very dick who’d eviscerated her the night before. Instantly she was on her feet, all but kicking the charred bird into the smolder that had once been the campfire. She jacked her fist to the small of her back and whipped out the pistol, aiming it dead center at his forehead.

    She inhaled to lessen the startled thump of her heartbeats. She’d been sleeping like a stone again and hadn’t even heard him approach. Which didn’t settle well at all. Daylight had done nothing to absolve her fears because she was still gauging his stance, readying herself for the lies that were about to come pouring out of his mouth.

    She didn’t have the patience to wait. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing here?” Sofia kept the muzzle of the .22 on the penny-sized site between his green eyes; which he lifted when she spoke.

    ”Sofia.” Her name was a raspy whisper as he dropped his head between his broad shoulders. He remained as he had the previous two mornings: on his ass with his elbows on his knees.

    Damn his posture! Already she felt her own body soften toward him with forgiveness. She stiffened her knees and readjusted her grip on the hilt of the pistol. “I asked you a question.”

    ”Sofia, I am so sorry.” The bass of his voice rubbed across her skin, warming it.

    ”Yeah, I figured that out last night.” She’d run around that barn of shame one too many times already and didn’t need to limp out another lap. Especially when her body was doing its best to give her emotions the finger. “Get out of here and leave me alone.”

    German didn’t budge, but raised his face to the gray morning sky: exposing his throat. Sofia held her breath when his Adam’s apple slid and lifted as he swallowed. Her eyes traced the movement like they were stuck on it.

    Enough. Mentally, she gave her head a hard shake. If he wasn’t going to move, she’d make him. She strode toward him and shoved steel under the bone of his uplifted chin.

    ”Leave, asshole. You know I’ll shoot you.”

    The words dropped from her mouth like heavy stones. But then her wrist exploded in a burst of pain and the gun went sailing through the air. Before she opened her mouth, German had her left wrist clamped in his fist and her legs kicked out from underneath her. She caught a glimpse of the tops of the trees just before her face made an impression against the pungent ground.

    Vaguely she was aware that it was his knee in her back, and then her ears filled with the ripping of fabric and her arms were wrenched out straight in front of her. German bound her wrists with his flannel shirt like a cowboy roped the fetlocks of a calf. He was done in seconds, too. Bully for him: when he stepped away he didn’t throw his arms up in the air to signal the stopping of the clock.

    He stammered back and punched a tree.

    Never one to stay down long, Sofia leapt off the ground and swung her shitkicker at the back of his knee.

    ”Motherfucker,” she cursed between her clenched teeth, glorying in the buckling of his legs as she lunged for the .22.

    Like a piston he recovered, and figured out what she was doing in the scant time it took for her to grab at her gun. He swiped it out of reach, scaling it off into the bushes.

    Sofia watched its flying arc with a sinking gut.

    ”Enough,” he growled, his strong teeth exposed in a sharp grimace.

    ”Leave me!” The scream tore from her throat as she fell to her knees, her head dropping between her shoulders like the weight of her disgrace dragged it down. Her bound wrists lay between her thighs. “You’ve done enough, goddamn you.” She lifted her chin and glared with the fire churning inside her. “Goddamn you!“

    German stood before her, his bare chest heaving and his head shaking denials.

    While he stood there all apologetic for being an asshole, Sofia squirmed against the bonds holding her wrists, the flannel slicing deeper into her skin the more she rotated them. The twisting only tightening the knots, and she willed herself to stop.

    Think, think, think.

    “You did this to yourself.”

    ”Oh, yeah. I’m real good at tying my hands together.” Keep thiink-iing.

    He squatted in front of her, dropping to her level. Or not. He wasn’t humiliated. She was.

    ”You gave me no choice.”

    Was it possible someone could be that thick-headed? No choice? She had never asked him to follow her, had never begged him to stay. Oh no. The jackass kept coming back of his own free will, and she’d be damned if she was taking the blame for it.

    But that was the problem here, wasn’t it? He’d hung around long enough to build her trust and had waited for his moment to rape and kill her.

    All right. Reality check. In spite of German’s tying her up, that was so not what was really going on here. She’d given herself willingly the night before, so he hadn’t needed to rape her. Besides, he’d just proven he could take her down like she was a hissing kitten—all fluff and spit. He could have already taken her and killed her. Several times over.

The thought rose unbidden, but its truth was the stripping of her skin. She’d let her guard down around him, which was something she’d never done with a stranger in her life. Ever. And that left the blaring question: Who the hell was this guy and what did he want with her?

    Maybe if she kept her mouth shut she’d find out. Okay. She could work with that. She had a plan, and her courage returned like the relief of urinating in the morning. She lifted her head and locked her hard stare on her captor. She’d wait him out and let him fill the silence. She settled into a comfortable crouch with her elbows bent and her bound wrists pushed under her chin.

    Waiting was a trick she’d picked up years ago. Patience and sealed lips made the other person jumpy enough to chatter like a little bird just to fill the void. She’d gleaned a load of information from that tactic, had gotten the inside scoop on why she never lasted long in any of the foster homes.

    There was something about her, they’d said. She didn’t fit with the others, they’d explained. Well, no shit. She’d seen and been on the receiving end of how people treated others and she’d been happy to remove herself from them, thank you very much. She’d even felt a bit of pride blossom in her chest when they had considered her other.

    And here she was again having to use her skills. She kind of liked it, if she didn’t think about her tied wrists. She could play the Patience game with the pros, so she sat back on her heels and bided her time, waiting for German to grow impatient with her silence and start spilling his guts.

    In a situation like this, every scrap of information she could get would help her to free herself.

    Because herself was all she had.

    ~S.C. Dane

    Installment No. 23 coming soon.

Wolf-Love, Installment #21

Wolf-Love

Installment #21

    German walked back with the grouse’s neck in his warm hands and let its scaly legs dangle alongside his bare ones. He was a little relieved he’d caught something to bring back. Otherwise, he was going to come across as a little crazier than he already did.

    Whatever possessed him to reveal this particular little nugget, that he could hunt without her .22? The truth wasn’t something he wanted to speculate on. Besides, he trusted the rogue, which could be more of a hindrance than any kind of help, especially since she shouldn’t trust him.

    Shut up. He couldn’t think of his turning her over to the Alphas as a betrayal. It would be for her own good. In the end. Riiiight. And he if he kept repeating it to himself he was going to believe it as much as he wanted Sofia to.

    He could argue with himself all night, but first she had to survive her initial change. Showing her pinches of things at a time, he rationalized, would open her mind up for when the big whammy finally hit. Starting with her thinking he ran naked in the woods and killed small game. Odd, yes. But something a person could wrap her brain around. So there. He’d wanted to feed her in order to ease her transition.

    With that little lie to comfort him, he stepped into the glow of the fire and dropped the bird at the woman’s feet.

    ”I caught it, you clean it.” He grinned down at her upturned face, the blush of her cheeks hitting him low in the gut. He was naked. Something he’d completely overlooked while he’d been playing mental tennis with himself. Idiot.

    ”You actually got something?” To her credit, she ignored it. Flushed cheeks aside.

    Pride crept across his chest, swelling it a little. She was hungry and he was pleased to be feeding her. The tug in his belly yanked like a primordial bitch.

    Ignoring it, German shook out his clothes and started dressing. Except his eyes wandered to where he’d left Sofia with his gift, like his wolf needed to be there with her. Sitting back on his haunches while his mate grew strong from…

    Shut. It.

    Half dressed, he drifted over to her, like a fish on a damned hook. Sofia was already shredding the bird bald, and spitting out errant pin feathers.

    ”Ptheth. The trouble, ptheth, with birds is that once you get, ptheth, one feather in your mouth, you can’t, ptheth, keep the rest of them out.”

    His laugh exploded before he could stop it, and once it was loosed it kept gurgling forth. All he could think of was the story of the guy who couldn’t stop the leaking of the dam no matter how many fingers he used to stop up the holes. The levee was weak, cracking as fast as he tried shoring it up. German couldn’t remember when he’d laughed so abundantly, and bless the rogue, she caught it like a contagion.

    ”I hope this tastes as good as it looks.” Sofia held up the massacred carcass in the firelight, and another fissure in the dam rumbled forth.

    ”Ah, woman. You makum good food.” He bragged, caveman style.

    Sofia waved a limp arm. “You’re killing me,” she managed to gasp between giggling. “Stop it. You’re offending the bird.”

    ”The bird already looks offended. In fact, it looks rather miffed.”

    He pinched its plucked wings and waddled it back and forth for an air dance.

    Sofia snagged it from his clutches. “Give me that. I do plan to eat the thing.” She was still grinning when she skewered the spit up its ass. “There. That oughta do it.”

    German looked at the grouse on its stick. He’d have preferred it raw, and gnawed on the reality to sober him. He was animal. Wolf. And a solitary one at that. He should not be enjoying the rogue’s company this much. In fact, he didn’t enjoy anyone’s company. As if finely attuned, the rogue fell still, too. How was that for a little demo on how much wolf ran in her veins?

    He crouched by the fire, letting his eyes narrow as he sifted her scent from the smoke. Her skin emanated the ancient earth, the rich soil he smelled only when he ventured into the deeper forests. Very nice. Like she was wild, through and through. Maybe they’d run—

    ”You said yet. When you said I could make myself hot.” Her voice was velvet. Her lashes low.

     “I’m sorry. What?” Shit. He’d lost focus while humping her scent.

    ”I asked what you meant by I’m not hot yet.”

    ”Oh. That.” She was asking specifics. Not good. But it was too late to shove the mistake back in the bag. “I think you’re hot.”

    Christ-love, but she was very pretty when she blushed. Sucked him in, really. He wanted to smell her breath, to lick the taste of her, memorize it on his tongue. He needed to know if she was every inch of that primordial earth, while his mouth watered at the sight of her skin flickering in the flames of the fire.

    ”Sofia.”

    She said nothing, but kept her gray eyes on him as her pupils stretched, the firelight a living thing in their black depths.

    Hot? He was burning up. He shouldn’t go to her. No, no. No way. But he crawled to her, touching his knuckle to her flaming cheek. He shut his eyes and sniffed.

    ”Sweet Luna,” he breathed upon her lips. Their bodies trembled, yet she did not pull from him. Her breath came in tremulous puffs; moths dancing to his flame. He shifted his weight to his arms, caging her as she submitted, exposing her slender belly as she lay her back to the ground. A possessive growl shuddered through his chest as he ran his tongue the length of her windpipe, sampling the primal earth she was. His fangs slipped down to grip her tender skin.

    German flung himself backward, retreating to the edge of the firelight before glancing back. The squeezing of his heart nearly suffocated him when he beheld the woman who’d triggered his shift. She was kneeling now, her arms hugged round her middle, looking utterly bereft.

    ”I’m sorry.” Guttural, slurred by his fangs. He couldn’t have said more—his skin was tingling with his emerging fur. He dropped away into the protection of the trees as he stripped, fumbling desperately so as not to shred his clothes. How would he explain that if he had nothing to wear when he finally calmed down enough to look human?

    And how much effing worse could he really mess this mission up? Make out with her? Change into a wolf right in front of her? What a moron he was. And what a goddamned shocker she turned out to be. The last time he’d lost control like that? He’d been given a lovely, puckered scar across his backside.

    Shifting in front of the rogue before she was ready?

    Didn’t he care about his own skin?

∞

    Sofia knelt beside the fire feeling mighty mutual with the bird with the stick jabbed through its insides. She was no tramp. Hell, she didn’t have any experience with seduction. But, she understood just fine when a man retreated like he’d just awakened from a dream and found his reality was a pit of vipers. Being on the receiving end of that kind of evacuation? Why, it just made a girl go all…ape shit on the inside. Because no way could she sort through the shit storm between her head and her heart.

    Rejected? She’d just gotten catapulted out of the freakin’ castle. The one time she finally felt comfortable around another human being and he bolted like she’d set his hands on fire.

    Great. How was that for a healthy dose of real?

    He was sorry? She bet he was sorry. He was probably trying to drown himself in the nearby pond he was so distressed. She’d seen the look on his face. Christ, how was she going to forget it? He was repentant, all right. And she was about as shamed as she’d ever been in her entire life. At least, before she’d had her guard up and struck back at the kids who’d teased her, who’d called her freak or loser.

    But this tonight? It hurt on a level she would have never believed existed. Because she’d trusted him. Laid herself wide open to a man she barely knew based on the fact that his body didn’t lie.

    Oh, yeah. She was a social divining rod, she was.

    The tears stung her burning cheeks and she swiped hard at her face to rid herself of their humiliation. She huddled up like the toad she was and stared into the fire, no longer hungry for the bird searing and spitting juices at the licking flames.

    Sofia curled onto her side and shut her eyes. Maybe, if her luck hadn’t fled out the back door without her, she’d find respite in a little sleep? She kept her eyes squeezed shut as her tears subsided then finally quieted. Her breaths were those of one who had at least found lethargy.

    ~S.C. Dane

    Installment #22 coming Saturday, January 25, 2014.

Wolf-Love, Installment #20

Wolf-Love

Installment #20

    Sofia figured she’d be followed, that German wouldn’t just let her go without tailing her. But so far, as she hiked back along their original trail, she had yet to see a single pewter strand of hair from his head.

    Perhaps he’d given up on her, after all, and hitched a ride back to the farm. If he was smart, that’s what he’d do. Leave her to the mess that was her life and not try to rescue her.

    A friend who would hire them without questions?

    Too fishy even if he wasn’t lying about it.

    Christ, she was roasting. And still hungry. As soon as her panic subsided, she realized she’d fled without eating all of her breakfast. Truly brilliant, considering she didn’t know where her next meal was coming from. She chalked up the roasting of her insides to stress, which made sense: she was still wigging out over the loss of her best friend.

    Which German’s presence eased a little.

    What wasn’t easing, despite the cool shade of the deeper woods, was the heat beneath her skin. Sofia felt feverish, consumed. Getting a little desperate, she stopped to dig a dirt shelf along the bottom edge of a boulder. It looked inviting as hell, what with the back of it draped with thick moss and damp earth. If she was lucky, the rock wouldn’t only hide her, but would help to cool her off. She squirmed into the hand-dug relief with…relief.

    She didn’t realize she’d dozed until she came to. The fever was gone, but so was the sun. She’d been asleep for the better part of the day. What was wrong with her? She’d never slept so well and couldn’t fathom why now suddenly, she could. Unless it was because she was miles from anyone who could bother her.

    Besides German.

    Who was sitting with his back to a birch tree, looking harmless enough, but looking at her. Her hand groped for the .22 at her back, and she heaved a Hollywood sigh when she found it was still tucked into her belt.

    ”I didn’t think I’d need to take it this time.” He kept his elbows on his bent knees and his ass firmly planted on the ground. “Was I right?”

    Sofia plucked a leaf out of her hair without taking her eyes off him.

    ”I’ll take that as a yes.” The chuckle rumbling out of his wide chest caressed her cooled skin. “You okay?”

    She nodded as she planted her own ass into the dirt, her muscles going soft as her back molded to the smooth contours of the boulder behind her. Her tracker said nothing else, just watched her, his expression neutral, as though they sat on a park bench, absently throwing crumbs to the pigeons. It was Sofia who broke the silence.

    ”How’d you find me again?”

    He looked from one side to other as if to make sure no one was listening. “I smelled you,” he grinned shyly, like he admitted a very absurd thing.

    She didn’t smile with him. “You mean I stink, or you followed my, ah, scent?”

    Of course, the answer he gave reeled her back to their conversation in the diner.

    ”I sniffed out your trail.”

    He wasn’t lying. So, what did she say to that?

    Oh. Right. The calm they were sharing evaporated with a poof. “Sure you did. Quit fucking teasing me.”

    ”I’m not teasing. I did.” His shy grin disappeared and he hardened his stare like she’d be able to see it in the darkening woods.

    ”You followed my trail with your nose?”

    ”Yep.”

    She latched her own hard stare onto his. The man’s grin returned, and it wasn’t shy.

    ”I knew you could see me.”

    ”Because I said I smelled a girl?” What uncanny leap of logic was it if that was the case?

    ”Yes. Among other things.”

    I’m dreaming. Yet she plowed on. “Like what?”

    ”You were hot, right? Which is why you dug yourself a hole. To cool off.”

    ”Not exactly Sherlock Holmes, are you? It’s summer.”

    ”I wasn’t referring to the heat of the sun.”

    Shit.

    “Who are you?”

    ”A friend who’s more like you than you know.”

    Christ, he was quick with his answers. Direct. Honest.

    Which aroused her. And left her uncharacteristically defenseless. She had no snappy comebacks, couldn’t even put him off with her cold stare.

    So now what? She’d never been in a situation like this before, where the person she locked horns with held just as much sway as she did. Plus, she didn’t exactly mind getting locked, which was definitely a first.

    ”A friend you say, huh?”

    ”Yes.”

    God, that growl.

    ”I’ve never had a friend, except for Sol-Dog.” Shit. That sounded more pathetic than she intended. “What I mean is, I’m not really sure what’s next here. I mean, this is…weird.”

    He chuckled again, and damn if it didn’t make its home under her skin. “Well, I’m probably not the one to ask what happens next.”

    Huh. That was the right thing to say, because it eased her in the way his body language did. He still wasn’t lying.

    ”So, then.” Sofia looked around as if searching for a distraction. Hell, maybe she was, because she hadn’t been lying when she admitted the situation was weird. The silence between them lengthened, without growing heavy. Frogs started up their mating gronk, which meant there was a pond somewhere nearby. After listening to a few amphibious weddings, she let her voice whisper in the darkness.

    ”How are you like me?” She held her breath, waiting for his reply.

    ”I can see in the dark.”

    ”We know that already. Tell me something else.”

    ”I like meat. Prefer it, actually.”

    ”You’re boring me.” She pictured her breakfast plate and smiled after lowering her face to hide it. Man, but she loved this banter.

    ”I know when people lie.”

    ”That’s good. Not in that’s helpful good, but in you just hit a homerun.”

    He grinned, his teeth catching the glint of the rising moon. Then he unfolded himself to stand on his two feet.

    ”Can I show you something?”

     Her lips parted. “Uh-huh.”

    German swallowed the distance between them so when he knelt in front of her, she could smell the birch resin from the tree he’d been leaning against. Then the air around them, no, that wasn’t right. The air around him heated up, like he was some kind of furnace.

    ”You’re hot!” Sofia reached out tentatively for his muscled shoulder, like he might actually burn her fingertips.

    ”Thanks. It’s not every day a pretty woman tells me that.”

    They mirrored broad smiles at his joke.

    ”How do you do that?”

    ”It’s in me always. I just shiver it to life, like shaking the embers in a campfire.”

    ”No way.”

    ”Yes way. You can too, except not so easily. Yet.”

    ”You’re freaking me out.”

    ”I know. I can read body language, remember?” He backed off and returned to his tree. “Listen. You’re probably hungry, right? Why don’t you get us a small fire going and I’ll round us up something to eat.”

    ”Ah, so that’s it. You’re luring me in with the prospect of food and friendship because you want my gun.” She was only half kidding.

    ”Nah. I’ll do fine without it. Just get the fire going. I won’t be too long.” He tossed a packet at her lap.

    Matches. He was serious.

    Then, starting with his boots, he shed his clothes and laid them in a neat pile beside his tree. “I’ll be back.”

    Without a sound, he disappeared as if the forest ate him in a single bite.

    Okay, then. So she’d just met someone a lot stranger than she was. Imagine that. They did exist. Which should have scared her a little. Instead, she was oddly…happy to think he trusted her enough to reveal that side of him.

    And what a side it was. Naked as he was, she could see the guy was built like an effing model for Healthy Living. He didn’t sport a Body by Jake. He’d earned his etched physique by using his muscles longer than reps in a gym would allow. His body was crafted by stamina.

    Yum.

    For a virgin, Sofia found herself having some pretty brazen thoughts about what kind of food his body was going to provide. Without a doubt, she bet she could find sustenance in it.

    Fumbling the matches, she figured she’d better hold up her end of things instead of mentally lusting, just in case he really did come back with something.

    She scraped up enough dead leaves, twigs, and branches to keep a fire going for at least a few hours, scooped out a pit for the fire, arranged the kindling then struck a match.

    Coddling the precious flame as she coaxed it to life.

    ~S.C. Dane

    ~Installment #21 coming soon.

Wolf-Love, Installment #19

Wolf-Love

Installment #19

    Sofia planted her feet at the bottom of the wooden steps leading into the diner, not knowing if she should go in or not. Seriously, did she need the face to face to remind her how inadequate her social skills were? By now, the guy was most likely thinking she was either half nuts or swimming in it. He’d stopped asking her questions—okay, he stopped talking period a couple of hours back—which meant she’d crossed some invisible line of acceptability.

    Most likely it was the tone she’d used when answering his questions. The trouble was she couldn’t not snap her answers back at him. It was like she was congenitally defective—unable to lie to people, she opted for defensive measures instead.

    Which meant if she wasn’t throwing her fists, she was hitting low and fast with her mouth. Both self-defense measures got her in trouble. Like now, for instance. Retreating to the safety of the woods climbed up her back and perched on her shoulder, whispering its seduction in her ear. She was just about to light-foot it out of there when she forced herself to look up.

    German was holding the restaurant’s door open for her like a gentleman. Oh. She blanked her surprise before he noticed, and plunked up the worn stairs leading into the coffee and pancakes atmosphere of a popular place for the locals to eat.

    The diner was packed. This time her feet planted for a different reason: she’d forgotten to pull her shirt over the gun stuffed at her lower back. German stepped up close behind her, shielding her with his body, as if he knew why she went no farther. The heat of him up against her eclipsed her dread, and she felt herself soften into the muscled contour of his chest and belly.

    Gently he wrapped his fingers around her elbows and bent his cheek to her ear. “Come.” The voice rasped over her skin. “There’s a table in the corner.” He led her from behind, ushering her into a chair at the wall. As soon as he released her, she thought she’d pool all over the floor.

    A waitress arrived with plastic menus and two cups of coffee, mooring Sofia into the here and now.

    ”Ah, thanks,” German flicked his gaze at the woman then immediately began to study the packets of creamer and his spoon, effectively dismissing the waitress with his preoccupation.

    Wow. And Sofia thought her social etiquette could use some polishing? Huh. Maybe she wasn’t as inept as she thought. Or…Big fish in a little pond, and all that. It was easy to think you weren’t so bad when you were sitting across from someone a little less inclined than you were to make nice.

    He wasn’t being rude, he was just—crap. She was the one being impolite. She still hadn’t muttered a single word since their stilted conversation in the woods. While she untucked her shirt to hide the gun, she wondered what to say. Ideas, sadly, hung like empty coat hangers in the vacant closet of her skull. She wasn’t a social butterfly, and had never mastered the skill required to crack the ice. Top that insufficiency off with her aversion to crowded places and she was a coveted prize.

    ”Look,” she started and stopped when he openly met her eyes with a candid, green-eyed gaze. Holy. Her mind romped among spring leaves, over blades of grass, blah, blah, blah, again.

    Get. A. Grip. He was waiting for her to say something. Remember?

    ”You don’t have to buy me breakfast, you know.” Right. Because getting defensive paved the way to smoother conversation. Would she never learn?

    He grinned, though, showing off a smidgen of those pearly teeth. So, he wasn’t totally put off? Sofia backpedaled, trying her level best to just be normal. To not strike first. ”I mean, I’m no charity case. I can take care of myself. So, if you want…” 

    His voice trailed across her skin in a low growl, sawing off her excuses. “I know. You’ve already shown you can take care of yourself. So maybe, just once, you’ll let someone do for you?”

    Yeah. Okay then. How freakin’ hot was that growl, huh? Partnered with the day old whisker scruff on his chin and he was…

    Someone just offering to buy you breakfast.

    Right. Kindness never came without strings. “What do you want then?” 

    He cocked his head just like he did when they were in the woods. She saved him the trouble of repeating her question and did it herself. “What are you looking to get out of this? Nobody does something nice without wanting payback.”

    He had to quit grinning like that. Like he savored her candor.

    She leveled him with her stare, and just as he was opening his mouth, presaged by that lovely growl, the waitress interrupted.

    ”What can I get you two?” She poised her pen on her pad, waiting with friendly boredom. Sofia half expected her to blow a bubble with the gum she was chawing on.

    German handed back the menus without so much as a sideways glance at the woman. “Two double orders of bacon, sausage, and eggs. Hold the toast.”

    The bored expression didn’t even flicker. The waitress spun on her heel as she ripped the slip off the pad, trucking it business-like for the kitchen.

    Sofia, on the other hand, couldn’t mask her curiosity. How did he know to hold the toast?

    ”I’ve seen you at the breakfast table with the other workers,” he replied, as if reading her thoughts.

    Warning bells should be ringing, right? Was it that obvious she preferred a protein diet? As had Sol, so they’d fit together just fine when it came to sharing meals. Except getting a regular diet of meat hadn’t been easy before she started working at the farm.

    Shit, this line of thinking saddened her. Get off the train, idiot. But…

    Sofia trundled down memory lane anyway, to when breakfasts in most foster homes consisted of cereal and a smack on the back of the head by the older kids. Whining for a little protein was not an option. Of course, with her metabolism, that left her hungry a half hour after slurping up the last of the milk in her cereal bowl. Lunch was always grueling hours away.

    It was a wonder her growth hadn’t been stunted, as hungry as she’d always been. Her body had never felt fully nourished.

    ”Hey, Sofia? You with me here?” He searched her eyes with his, the green soft and shimmering, welcoming her back.

    ”Ah, yeah. I was just remembering, that’s all.” He was making her smile, in spite of her memories. Man, she liked this guy.

    ”I was thinking, if you wouldn’t mind, of course, that you and I could travel together for a while. You just left your job…”

    ”So did you,” she pointed out, because she would never, never, never learn.

    The guy didn’t even flinch. “Exactly. So I was thinking you and I could head west. I know a place that would take us in. Give us work in the great outdoors and not ask questions.”

    All right. He knew too much. Waving red flags here. She retreated behind her stare and he sat back in his chair. Right-o. She hadn’t gotten this far in her life because she was naïve. The problem scratching at her though, was the fact she still wasn’t picking up lies from his body language.

    Okay, so the place in the west had the muscles in his shoulders tightening up, but that was all she was noticing. There was still truth in his words even if he did seem tense about them. Which meant the place he was referring to may not be such a great place at all.

    What was it people said about the frying pan and the fire?

    ”Yeah. Well. I’ll have to think about it.”

    The waitress swooped in with life-saving sustenance and the snarling of her stomach dominated her thinking. Eat first, figure this mess out later. She had one strip of bacon in her belly and another in her mouth before she realized German wasn’t eating. Her jaw chewed to a halt with her molars squishing the meat against the insides of her cheeks.

    ”You’re not eating.” Grind.

    ”I was enjoying the view.” Grin.

    Swallow. Gulp. He wasn’t lying about that, either.

    ”Quit staring and eat. You were famished, remember?”

    Yeah, she liked his grin lined in the scruff of his day-old beard. Now that they were sitting across a tiny table from one another, she noticed it was pewter gray like the hair on his head. Plus, every strand and whisker had a black tip, like some beautician painstakingly dabbed dye on each one.

    Ster-range.

    But beautiful. The pewter color fit him, even if he was a bit young for the gray. He started eating, and she had to pry her eyes off his jaw line as the muscles bunched and relaxed, bunched and relaxed. “So, are you with me?” 

    What? Yikes, she’d been staring. “Ah, sure. Why not.”

    Why not? How about: I like to roll alone, I prefer to sleep alone, I exist better alone. Her list of anxieties heaped on top of each other like a freeway pile-up. Heat began to shimmer off her skin, like she was a stove and all the burners had suddenly been cranked on high.

    ”Good. We’ll head back to the farm for my rental and you can get your stuff.”

    So casual. Easy. Like he didn’t notice or care she was a social misfit, and a heat-wafting mutant, to boot.

    ”No.” Effing way. But she elaborated in kinder terms for his sake. Which was not her norm, if she knew what normal was. “I can’t go back there. If I so much as smell that girl…” Sure, Sofe. Go ahead and blow everything. Smell her? Good Lord, he’d think she was a freak then, for sure. “I mean, if I see her.”

    He kept grinning.

    ”I don’t exactly trust myself, you know.”

    He seemed to. She saw it in those green eyes because he was holding her with them, not looking askance like he was pretending to understand what she meant. “Yeah, I get it. But you know, at the risk of sounding like a suck-up here, that girl deserved what she got and your dog didn’t.”

    Plop. Who ordered tears?

    ”Shit, I’m sorry.” He sat back in his chair, stuck his hands to his scalp and exhaled grandly, then leaned back in. “Look. I’m an idiot, you know? Not very good at the social thing.”

    Sofia nodded at her unfinished plate as the walls closed in around her.

    Then she bolted for the door and left what was left of her breakfast to the chiming of the bell over the exit.

    ~S.C. Dane

    Installment #20 coming Saturday January 18, 2014.

Wolf-Love, Installment #18

    Wolf-Love

Installment # 18

    It took him by complete surprise Sofia opted to follow him, especially since taking her gun had unraveled the thread of trust she had started to weave. German had smelled no fear coming from her when she’d first opened her eyes, and his stomach had twitched with that damned tug he got whenever he looked at her.

    Except he’d already been looking at her when she woke, so her eyes on him should not have been pulling on any part of him. He should’ve expected her eyes to go to him, not have to force himself to play it casual. Christ, she read his body language. One wrong muscle moved and she’d bolt on instinct.

    Good she was wired that way; bad she didn’t know why. And every neuron in his brain told him she wasn’t going to take the info he had to give like a corsage from a prom date. She was going to bolt then, too, unless he could prepare her, ease her into the idea. Or better yet, let her figure out what she was on her own. Based on hints he dropped, of course.

    To do that, though, meant she had to stick around long enough for him to pass along the clues. And he’d have to be on his best behavior. Not exactly his strong suit. Several dead rogues on his career list, plus the other “assaults” didn’t bode well for his chances.

    Not that any of the charges were his fault alone. He couldn’t help it if the two-legs, whether they sported touches of wolf in their blood or not, acted like ignorant dicks. Besides, if the Alphas wanted him assimilated into the human world, then confrontations were bound to happen. A wolf does not like to get pissed on, and no self-respecting wolf would back down from a challenge, either. At least, not without a fight.

    German sniffed the breeze pressing upon his back. Sofia’s scent filled his head, swirling around inside of him. It wasn’t just her gaze he was having a hard time shaking off, and he figured talking would be quite a sight better than his thoughts. He just hoped his voice didn’t betray him. “I’m thinking if we stick to the woods, we should come out to Route One in Wesley by ten or so. There’s a diner there, right?”

    ”Yeah, The Blueberry.”

    His lids dropped when she answered him, like shutting his eyes heightened his hearing and let the music of her tone splash around a little louder in his head. He wanted to take her to a restaurant about as much as he wanted to clean the chicken coop again.

    Besides, he wasn’t hungry. He’d had a successful hunt and had eaten every scrap, knowing full well if he offered the woman a dead animal for breakfast it would send her running for the safety of the farm. Which didn’t exactly fit in with his plan. So, there would be no killing their meals, unless it was with the pistol and they made a fire to cook with.

    The first part? Easy. Shoot, skin. The second part? Not so easy without matches. Which meant a trip into civilization, and he might as well feed her while they were there. Put off the inevitable until he was certain she wouldn’t hightail it. A sensible plan if he’d ever had one.

    ”So, where are you from, Sofia? Around here?”

    ”No.”

    She was a wee-bit sticky on the dialogue. He was going to have to prime her like a frigging pump if he planned to make any headway.

    ”Not from around here, huh? Are you from Maine, at least?”

    ”Yes.”

    She couldn’t even give him a bone? Thank Luna she couldn’t see the frustration on his face. As it was, he picked up his pace to mask his body language. “Ah, you’re a Mainiac.”

    ”Come again?”

    ”A Mainiac. You know, like a Mass-hole, or a Kentuckian.”

    ”Oh. Right.”

    Well, she just spewed information, didn’t she? Kidding aside, at least now he knew not to make any more references to mental stability. Which meant, of course, personal experience on her part. But it gnawed his ass that he didn’t dare ask how personal. If the rogue’s cheese had slipped off her cracker, he wanted to know. He needed to know what tripped her fuse, and just how long her fuse really was.

    He halted and turned to face the woman following him. She stopped fast enough to make the average person think she hadn’t been moving at all.

    Very nice. He also liked the fact he could no longer sense her fear. Sofia might be tight-lipped, but she had joined him in his game. And dang if it didn’t make him feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

    Upping the ante, German tugged the pistol from the waist of his jeans and handed it to her, butt end first. “Here. I don’t think you’re going to shoot me now.” Dearest Luna, he hoped his gamble paid off, because if it didn’t…well, he’d probably survive the shot but it was going to hurt like a bitch. And he’d lose the woman in the process.

    Risky.

    She looked at it like he was handing her a little kid’s plastic shovel. “You’re giving me my gun back?”

    ”Yeah. I just took it so you wouldn’t shoot me when you saw me first thing. You know, while you were still sleepy.”

    ”Thanks.” They were connected for a brief second while the .22 passed between them. He didn’t miss the grief stealing across her beautiful features, and the little tug in his guts looped a serpentine around his innards, like he was a fish caught on the rogue’s line.

    Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it, or you’ll give yourself away.

    He turned his cheek as he lowered his eyes. “Thank you, Sofia. I’m glad you don’t mind my tagging along.” He glanced up quick to catch her reaction.

    A risk worth taking. She was stunning.

    Wait. Not stunning, moron. Stunned. But he loved the way the expression lit her face. It made her lips pout and her brow furrow in a delicate pinch. When she tucked an errant tress behind her ear after she’d stuck the pistol into the small of her back, German’s guts tugged again.

    He really liked that she had red hair. Because it meant she was going to have red fur. A beautiful, but rare, occurrence.

    ”What?” She shot him with her voice instead of the pistol, and that stung, too. But was sorely needed. He’d tripped out during his assessment of her. Christ, she could’ve bored a bullet between his eyes and he’d have probably just blinked at the barrel.

    ”Ah, nothing. I was just thinking it’s not that much farther. See,” he jacked his thumb over his left shoulder, “the sun is quite a bit higher in the sky.”

    Sweet mercy, she looked, taking the bait of distraction. He took the growling of her stomach as a gift from the gods. “Come on. The sooner we eat…” The sentence fizzled out under her defensive glare. Without a ready excuse, and unable to lie, German figured it was best his words failed him anyway. He turned back toward the rising sun without meeting the challenge of her steady, gray eyed gaze.

    Risky. Because if she didn’t follow him now that she had her gun? The hair on his nape stiffened as he thought about having to scratch this plan for another one. Something he’d probably be doing a lot of until he handed her over to the Alphas.

    When he heard the crackling of the dried leaves in the path behind him, he refused to think of the real reason he was relieved. It was enough she followed, and he’d leave it at that. He had to leave it at that. Anything more and he’d stop making plans and act on instinct. Which wouldn’t turn out good for either one of them.

    German kept his mouth shut until their feet hit pavement, and followed the scent of hot grease toward the Blueberry Diner.

    ~S.C. Dane

    ~Installment #19 coming soon.