Desired by Wolves [Call of the Wolf 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (6 page)

She ran her hand lightly over Alex’s flank. She could feel the corded scar tissue before he pulled away from her, almost cowering.

“Alex, I saw you on the camera.” She pointed to where she’d installed the camera above the door. “I know you can still shift. You shifted to unlock the dog door so Otis could join you for a romp in the field.” She paused. “I’m waiting. We have to talk, and you are not going anywhere until we do.”

She leaned back against the railing and smiled. “You’ve known me forever. Do you really think I’ll just give up?”

Alex looked up at her and seemed to sigh. In a flash, the wolf was gone and it was Alex lying on his side, panting lightly. She could see his scars more clearly now that the fur was gone. She reached out, but he turned away, his knees tucked up under his chin, his arms wrapped around his bent legs and his rounded back presented to her, his posture hunched as if he expected to be beaten. She touched his shoulder gently and was shocked as he flinched.

She kept her hand light as she ran it across his back, gentling him until she could finally feel the tension seeping out. She ran both her hands lightly over his shoulders and down his arms before pressing against his back and wrapping her arms around him. She tucked her face into the place where his neck and shoulders met and kissed him lightly and then pressed her face against his warm skin. She felt his body shift slightly so he could turn his head and press a soft kiss against her forehead. She looked up and into those intense gray eyes of his. She could still see his pain, but they were lit by something else, desire.

Lena felt an answering stirring inside. He had been the first man she’d ever made love with back when she thought they were destined to be together forever. She’d known deep in her bones from the time she reached puberty and really began to notice boys that the James boys were her destined mates and Alex, the Alpha of the family, would lead them all in a mating ceremony.

But then he didn’t. She understood why he waited until she and his brothers were eighteen and he was twenty-two to make love to her for the first time, but when she graduated university, she had expected that they would formalize their love and their relationship. Instead of the full ceremony, he’s just giving her the single mating bite that had driven her crazy with lust for her wolves but had worn off with the dawn.

She felt his lips touch hers and part of her melted. She’d dreamed of his lips more times than she could remember and now he was here, naked and kissing her so softly and tenderly, and she felt her body respond as it recognized the touch of its mate.

The spell was broken by the sound of Otis whining at the door.

Lena pulled back and stood up after removing the collar and leash. Alex stood as well, and then clutched the railing as his left leg couldn’t handle the abrupt move. Automatically, she moved forward to help him brace himself. It was only then that saw how aroused he was. His large, thick cock was hard and pointing up toward his stomach. She wanted so badly to touch it, to suck it, to feel it inside her body.

To disguise her weakness, she called on the anger she’d felt for so long. She pulled away, almost relenting when she saw the look of hurt and shame in his eyes before he turned away from her to hide his tumescence. With him standing, she could finally get a good look at his left side and the angry scar that started on his hip and worked its way down his thigh.

Hardening her heart, she turned and picked up the towel she’d brought out and put on the lounger and tossed it to him.

“Cover yourself and then come in. We have to talk.”

He clumsily reached out for it with one hand while still gripping the railing with the other. She watched him carefully unfold it with one hand and then balance awkwardly to try to wrap it around his hips while balancing against the railing. She wanted to badly to help him, but she tamped down on that urge ruthlessly. She couldn’t show him weakness. The last time she had, he had stomped all over her heart. Never again.

“I should go.” He turned.

“Don’t even think about it.” Her voice was harsh, and she saw his shoulders tense. “We are going to talk. Now. Inside.”

She opened the screen door and grabbed Otis as he rushed out. She was worried that he might cause Alex to fall, and while part of her wanted to punish him for leaving her, she didn’t want to humiliate him, at least not until they had a chance to talk. Then she’d decide just how much punishment he deserved.

She cuddled Otis and waited. Alex looked at her, his eyes almost bruised-looking. This wasn’t her Alpha. This was a hollow copy. He looked like Alex, but the fire was gone. Shoulders slumping, he moved carefully to obey her command and slowly limped toward the door while holding the blanket in place. She followed him inside, shutting the door behind her.

Alex stood in the foyer, hesitating. In the old days, he’d have strode in like he owned the place and grabbed the most comfortable chair in the place, unless of course her parents were home, in which case he’d have taken the couch.

He turned toward the living room and then paused. Maybe she wanted to talk in the kitchen. He turned again.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Just go into the kitchen and take a seat. I want to examine your hip and leg, and the light is best in there.” Alex could hear the impatience in her voice and hurried to comply, but when he got there, he realized he couldn’t decide where she’d want him to sit. Would sitting at the head of the table be appropriate? It gave her the most space to work with, but it also might send a signal that he thought he was in charge. But if he took a seat at the side, there wouldn’t be much space and she’d have to move a chair and that might make her mad.

He realized that he had another panic attack coming on and fought to push it back down. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and then another. He jumped when he felt something brush against his lower leg, but it was just Otis. Gratefully he leaned down carefully and picked the little guy up and held him to his chest.

In a few minutes he was calmer. He decided to take the chair at the head of the table because it was practical. He pulled it out and then hesitated. It wasn’t polite to sit before the head of the house. He looked up and saw Lena watching him, her expression enigmatic. She must have recognized his dilemma because she motioned for him to sit.

* * * *

Lena felt the alarm growing inside her as she watched the fear and panic rush across Alex’s features as he tried to figure out where to sit, first in the hallway and then the kitchen. She was a vet, not a people doctor, but she could recognize an incipient panic attack. And apparently so could Otis, whose appearance seemed to calm Alex down.

When Alex sat, he carefully placed Otis on the floor beside him and then adjusted the towel to try to hide his erection. He looked down at the table so she couldn’t see his eyes, but Lena could feel the tension gradually seeping back into his body in the set of his shoulders and his constantly drumming fingers. She saw him follow her glance to his hands, and then he clasped them tight, dropped them into his lap, covering his erection, and waited.

“Open the towel on the left. You can keep it covering your lap, and you can continue to hold Otis if you like. I’m going to get my bag.”

She strode out of the kitchen, not waiting to see if he complied with her instructions and not wanting to see him struggle with repositioning the towel. She discovered that, as mad as she was, she didn’t want to see him humiliated. She still wanted revenge for running out not just on his future with her, but his brothers’ future as well, but that would have to wait. First and foremost, she was a healer, and he was in serious pain.

She took her time returning. She had a small medical bag not unlike that which “human” doctors carried. As many of her patients were shape-shifters, she had taken a number of human-oriented biology and medical courses. Shape-shifters, when shifted, healed much more quickly and thoroughly than humans. The problem was, often they were in human form when they were treated. This was fine when they were dealing with illness, but when it came to an injury, she had to understand both human and wolf-dog physiology. Setting a bone when they were in human form, for example, was fine. However, if the damage was extensive, any repairs one made with pins or screws had to be done very carefully so they wouldn’t cause pain or damage when the patient shifted.

She was in touch with a very small network of doctors and vets around the country, and they exchanged information online regularly about how to treat problems with shifters.

The current generally accepted practice for broken bones was to try to set them in shifted form and give them a chance to heal. With the shifter’s superior healing ability, sometimes they could avoid pins and plates altogether. If they couldn’t, then there was a single orthopaedic specialist based in Texas who could be called in to figure out the best arrangement so that both man and shifter could heal correctly.

There was no way that the US government or army had any such expert on their staff, and she was almost more afraid to see what damage they’d done as she was to survey the original injury.

“What happened?”

“IED.”

“Afghanistan?”

“Rather not say.”

She looked at his averted gaze. He hadn’t turned his head since she walked back into the room. He just clutched Otis to him and stroked the little dog’s back. She decided not to push for an answer. Location wasn’t really important.

“But this happened while you were overseas.”

“Yes.”

“And you were a Ranger?”

“For a while.”

Damn, it was like pulling teeth, but she didn’t have the heart to push right now. He was trembling. She walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He flinched but didn’t say anything. She found herself stroking his shoulder much the way she used to stroke Otis when he was in pain and afraid. Eventually, she felt some of the tension seep out of Alex.

She looked at his shoulders and back as she soothed him. She could see some fine white lines marking much of his back. She had to stop herself from tracing the scars. These weren’t from some IED. He’d been whipped. That was the only explanation she could come up with.

Oh my poor Alex, what happened to you over there?

“I’m going to kneel down and look at your hip now,” she stated softly. She waited until he nodded, and then she got down in her knees. She could see the angry scars from the IED quite clearly. There was a big one across his side, but it didn’t seem very deep. Then she moved down his side and could see where they’d some major repair work on his hip and upper thigh. It was clear that some major damage had been done, but it didn’t explain the limp.

And then she saw the surgical scar. It was about six inches long, and she almost didn’t see it because it was beside the bomb scar. The surgeon had done a great job with the stitching. But she needed a better look.

“I need you to go lie on the couch on your right side so I can examine you better.”

“It’s not necessary.” She could hear the impatience in his voice. For a second, he sounded like the old Alex, decisive and annoyed by her demands, and then he flinched as if he expected to get hit, that brief moment of defiance gone.

“Go. Now,” she ordered, and immediately regretted her harsh tone as she watched how his shoulders slumped again as he levered himself up from the chair, Otis in one hand and the other bracing himself. Naturally, the towel fell, and she was treated to another look at his now-deflated cock. It was still magnificent. And it still worked. As if aware of her gaze, it started to harden again, and Alex made an inarticulate noise and turned away from her, trying to balance himself and Otis and pick up the towel at the same time. He almost fell, but she knew better than to help him.

“Forget the towel. I’ve seen you naked before. Just go into the living room and lie on your side. I have to go upstairs and get something. I’ll be back in ten minutes, and I’ll expect to find you ready for my exam.”

She hurried out of the room and upstairs before she burst into tears. Her beautiful Alpha. She didn’t care about his scars. Those were superficial. But somehow those bastards had broken his spirit. He was just a shell of the old Alex except for that one brief comment. She sobbed. All of her anger seemed so irrelevant now. He could have died.

She gave herself five minutes of loss of control and then pulled herself together. She went into the bathroom and washed her face and fixed her hair and headed down the stairs.

Alex felt his face grow hot from the humiliation of the dropped towel. He couldn’t even stand up without embarrassing himself these days. And his brothers wondered why he didn’t want to see anyone. Alex James had had a golden childhood. He was a star athlete and an honor student and voted most likely to succeed. He was valedictorian and class president and captain of the fucking football team. He was it.

Then he went away to university and got a degree in business and graduated Summa Cum Laude. Then he went to war and had a chest full of medals and a bum leg to show for it. Now he couldn’t stand without aid, he jumped at loud noises, and he found himself unable to deal with harsh voices without having immediately going into submissive mode so he wouldn’t be beaten.

He was okay at home and mostly could hide these things from his brothers because he did feel safe in their home, but even there he tended to keep to himself. It was far worse when he went out when he could feel the panic inside him rising at the slightest sound.