Half Wolf (Alpha Underground Book 1) (15 page)

I wanted to think the pack bond’s current absence was simply in my own mind, a reaction to having been literally slapped in the face by Ginger’s dismay. Surely this was just another example of the recoil I’d experienced earlier that afternoon when I fumbled the network of threads and dropped the cat’s cradle of connection into a tangled mass at my feet.

Yes, that former incident had been painful for both me and my wolf, but we’d been able to pick the pack bond back up after a nice long nap then. I hoped we’d be equally capable of resurrecting the clan connections this time around as well.

But I had a bad feeling that what I’d just witnessed was instead the dismantling of a troupe that had never been fully bonded to their alpha in the first place. And the vastly increased pain in my gut suggested that we’d just lost the one ace in the hole we possessed in our upcoming battle against the Shifter Sanitation Society.

“Today we plan and practice,” the uber-alpha said the next morning. “Tomorrow we rest. Then we hit the ground running thirty-six hours from now at sunset. So let’s make those minutes count.”

Every gaze in the room turned to meet mine, waiting to see how I’d react to the fact that Hunter had effectively wrested control of our current operation out of my grip. I didn’t see what the big deal was, though. It wasn’t as if I’d ever been the kind of alpha who refused to share leadership opportunities. Case in point—the fact that Ginger and Glen had been heading up our fur-form hunts for as long as we’d been together.

Still, I
did
have some agenda items to add to Hunter’s simplistic analysis of the situation. “Sounds good,” I agreed, then began tossing out orders. “Ginger, I want you to see if you can find any evidence of the SSS online. They’ve got to be communicating somehow, and the internet is the most effective way to do that. Secret Facebook groups, members-only forums, email lists. See what you can dig up.”

“No need to teach your grandmother how to suck eggs,” the trouble twin muttered. Her eyes were still flashing from her earlier annoyance, but she obediently pulled out her smartphone and got to work. As our most internet savvy pack member, I trusted that if any evidence was out there on the World Wide Web, Ginger would find it.

“Glen, we need some sort of tracking device. Small, easy to hide against the skin, and with a long range.”

“On it,” my second agreed, but his eyes were troubled. I could tell he’d already made the mental leap and knew where I was going with this request. But all he said was, “Okay if I take the car?”

“All yours,” I said, tossing over the keys from the top of the bureau beside me.

Then I turned my gaze to the Tribunal enforcer, whose eyes were narrowing with suspicion. “Hunter, do you think you can scout out the meeting grounds, see if you catch any sign of shifters without leaving your own scent trail behind? It would be nice to know if we have the right location now rather than showing up at an empty field tomorrow evening.”

I’d hoped the challenge would be enough to derail him from putting two and two together and figuring out what I intended to do the next day. Because even though Hunter hadn’t repeated his four-letter assessment of our relationship—or our kiss—I had a feeling the uber-alpha wouldn’t be thrilled by my plan B.

No such luck. “Quill can do that,” Hunter growled, his stare boring into my face so strongly that I found myself incapable of looking away.

My wolf must have been more alert than usual after nine hours prone on an actual mattress, because I felt the uber-alpha’s emotions as if they were a physical substance creeping up my legs and invading my skin. Everything around me became muffled, a ringing started up within my ears, and I couldn’t so much as swallow down the lump that had lodged within my throat.

To my surprise, support emerged from an unlikely location. My wolf—weak, lily-livered coward that she usually was—came to my aid. She rose up through our shared body, pushing my human consciousness out of the way and peering out from behind our eyes. Then, with a show of force that had nothing to back it up, she snarled and snapped at the uber-alpha. And to my surprise, the fog stifling my senses abruptly receded.

Hunter glanced aside for an instant as if chagrined by his own over-reaction. But when he turned back in my direction, he wasn’t ready to let the issue drop. “If you plan to use yourself as bait,” he said, the words an order, “then it’s high time you learned how to handle that hunk of metal you carry around. Turn it into a real weapon rather than a walking stick. Let’s go.”

***

“I’m not going to swing at you,” I said to the werewolf who currently glared at me from the other side of the clearing.

An hour ago, Hunter had dragged me away from my pack and into the air-conditioned comfort of his SUV. He’d deftly wound up curvy, gravel roads into the national forest until we reached a secluded pull-off spot not much different from the one where we’d begun our ill-fated hunt the day before. Then, wordlessly, he led me to the location where I now stood contemplating the idea of hacking into someone who I was tentatively beginning to call a friend, cutting him apart with a katana so sharp it could slice smooth lines through thick paper. The training exercise seemed like a very bad idea.

“I’ve been watching you,” the uber-alpha said quietly, circling around me with such soft footfalls that I barely believed he still retained his human form. The wolf that was always rampant behind his eyes now seemed to be speaking through the human’s lips, and I shivered at the force of his words.

“You use that sword so you don’t have to call upon your animal half,” my companion continued. “That I understand—when she sleeps, you’re protected from alpha compulsions. It’s smart to work to your strengths.”

I wouldn’t precisely call my half-assed wolf a strength, but Hunter appeared to be trying to give me a compliment. So I nodded cagily, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It didn’t take long for him to get to the point. “But you just defend, defend, defend,” the uber-alpha continued smoothly as he stalked around in a circle, making me swivel to face him. “That’s not going to be enough to spring Lia from the SSS.”

I shook my head, not in negation of my companion’s analysis but in an effort to push aside the obvious facts. Yes, Hunter was right. If it came down to choosing Lia’s safety over that of a nameless psycho shifter, the answer was obvious. I would skewer those suckers.

Still, that didn’t mean I was willing to hack Hunter apart until he looked like Cinnamon just for the sake of practice. In fact, the thought accelerated my heart rate even more as it drew to mind the wounded trouble twin’s actions this very morning.

Cinnamon had been bound and determined to help with today’s preparations. But he’d barely managed to shift into human form and state his willingness to join our strike force before conking back out on the bed. In response, I’d met Ginger’s eyes and she’d nodded her understanding. On that one point we were in full agreement—Cinnamon would not be a part of the action tomorrow even if we had to chain him to a table leg to achieve that end.

“Focus,” the uber-alpha said softly.

Blinking my eyes to clear my mind, I realized my opponent had taken advantage of my wandering thoughts to step so close he could have reached out and pulled the sword out of my clenched fists. Which is precisely what I thought he planned to do at first, until I realized the uber-alpha was instead slipping a thin skin over the length of my blade. The motion was so reminiscent of rolling on a condom that I flushed beet red.

Nice visual
, my wolf whispered. Beside me, Hunter’s lips quirked up in response, and I almost thought he’d caught the gist of the animal’s words.

Shh
, I growled more than whispered. Then, aloud, I demanded to know: “What’s that?”

“Protection,” Hunter answered, laughter rippling beneath his simple answer. The evocative pun begged the question—could my companion really have read my mind?

I shook my head to dislodge what I knew to be an impossibility. Unless I put effort into sending communications from myself to another pack mate, I’d never heard another shifter’s words inside my head and I doubted my companions had ever heard mine. We were werewolves, not mind readers.

“You’d still end up bruised as anything even if I can’t cut into you,” I said, turning aside the dangerous direction of our nonverbal conversation by dint of focusing on our equally dangerous physical reality.

“But I won’t be bloody,” Hunter amended. “It won’t be the first or the last time I’ve been knocked around, and bruises won’t impact my ability to fight tomorrow.” Then the air shimmered ever so slightly as he twisted to one side, managing to drop his clothes emptily to the ground as he achieved sleek lupine stature more quickly than any shifter I’d ever met before.

Hunter was beautiful as a wolf. Beautiful like a shiny torpedo or an approaching tornado, that is. He growled and lunged forward as if to strike, and despite myself I flung my sword up between us in guard position.

The uber-alpha wasn’t on the defensive at all, and I could have easily thrust my weapon deep into his belly, jerked down, and ended the battle then and there. Well, I could have if my katana hadn’t sported a padded tip that would prevent it from piercing an apple, let alone a wolf’s tough hide.

There wasn’t time to think, though. Battle was all about adrenaline and instinct, so I did what I’d done dozens of times before. I smacked Hunter hard on the shoulder with the flat of my blade, knocking him back a step but leaving no permanent damage in the blow’s wake.

In response, I could have sworn the words
Not good enough
floated up in my mind, their timbre flavored with Hunter’s deep rumble rather than with my own higher-pitched tones. I shook the thought away though because the uber-alpha was already lunging forward again, this time so quickly that he slipped beneath my guard and wrapped his jaws around my ankle with the strength of a steel trap.

I expected my companion to soften his bite just as I’d eased off on my own cut. But, instead, the bloodling clenched down until I could feel his sharp canines shredding my jeans and then piercing the skin underneath. I jerked back in surprise, feeling blood welling up to wet my sock.

“You bit me?” I couldn’t decide whether I was shocked or horrified. We weren’t
that
kind of werewolf. Sure, if danger faced our pack mates, then we were willing to defend our friends and ourselves. But we didn’t go around chomping down on humans or on other shifters just for the fun of it.

The image of Daisy Rambler rose up in my mind unbidden. The shifters who had turned her young body into a piece of meat more suited to a slaughterhouse than to a morgue hadn’t felt any compunction about biting into a living shifter. They wouldn’t hesitate to do the same for Savannah and Lia. And if I waffled when the time came to mow my enemies down, then a half-blood like me would likely end up in the same state in short order.

I took a deep breath and narrowed my eyes at Hunter. I’d half expected him to attack again while my mind wandered, to force my hand until instinct morphed from defense to offense. But, instead, the uber-alpha seemed willing to bide his time and let me think the situation through rationally.

“Okay, I get it,” I said quietly. The images in my mind and the turmoil in my gut were almost incomprehensible in our current location, surrounded by tall trees and gentle bird song. But I could smell a weasel that had passed through the clearing a few hours earlier, the tiny killer’s breath salty with blood from an unlucky rabbit. In nature, I knew, nobody pulled their punches. And shifters were wolves as much as they were humans.

So when Hunter rushed me a second time, I met him with the full force of the sword in my hand. My opponent dodged aside, and I knew that even without the barrier formed by the current thin sheathe, my blade wouldn’t have done more than shave a few hairs off the tip of his tail.

Faster
, my wolf whispered. She had a good point, so rather than shush her, I invited her to join me up behind our shared eyes.

And this time when the uber-alpha rushed me, I could feel my lupine half tallying up the nearly invisible tension within our opponent’s cord-like muscles. Together, we somehow knew that Hunter would dodge left, trying to draw our blade in that direction before sidestepping at the last moment and dashing between our legs.

So my wolf and I mirrored his approach. But rather than simply allowing the uber-alpha to advance unhindered, we stepped forward to meet him, feigning a block that would halt his left-handed pseudo-attack.

Then, at the last moment, we slid abruptly to the right, slamming our sword directly into the soft spot beneath our opponent’s chin. The soft spot where Hunter’s spine was least protected by fur and tough flesh.

The spot where a simple strike became a killing blow.

“Fu...” I fumbled the word the same way I now fumbled my blade, dropping both to the forest floor. For a moment, I’d forgotten myself. Forgotten that I was training against a comrade while wielding a vicious hunk of metal that could slice a shifter in half. Forgotten my vow to protect my friends with my own life. Forgotten to hold back.

I fell to my knees, frantically parting the uber-alpha’s hair to make sure he wasn’t hurt. My heart was beating so fast I found it difficult to breathe and my throat was raw from my gasping breaths.
Let him be alright
.

Hunter shivered beneath my ministrations. And then there was a kneeling man in my arms rather than a hefty wolf. A kneeling man with a distinct lack of clothing to shield his taut skin from my frenzied fingers.

I’d ended up beside naked pack mates dozens of times in the past and the encounter was usually entirely innocent. Shifters often fell into bed as wolves then woke up human, with the result that they lacked the usual civilized modesty of two-leggers.

Other times, our nakedness had been shared and purposeful. But never had it felt anything like this.

“Once isn’t enough,” the uber-alpha murmured, his voice rough. “We need to keep at it until the killing stroke comes as naturally as breathing.”

For a moment, I didn’t know what he was referring to. But then I remembered our fight, my wolf’s assistance, our lucky strike. Yes, Hunter was right—I needed to continue practicing with my sword if I wanted to be sure I could save Lia’s life the next day.

But not right this instant.
Not when my mate and I were alone with no possibility of interruption for the first time in the recent past and for the last time in the foreseeable future.

I took a deep breath of the pine-scented air and relaxed into the tranquil ambiance. Warm sunlight percolated gently through leaves above our heads, giving the impression of a frozen moment stolen from time. The glowing orb’s gentle caresses loosened tense muscles and made me bold.

“Okay,” I agreed. But I didn’t release Hunter
’
s nape from my grasp. Instead, I nudged his bent legs further apart and eased myself closer until we were almost chest-to-chest, he on his bare bum and I on my denim-coated knees. Using the hand that had been searching for injury along the base of his skull, I drew my companion in until I could whisper into his ear: “But first, I expect a reward for good behavior.”

This was the second time I’d acted like a brazen hussy around Hunter and it wasn’t lost upon me that the uber-alpha had never been the one to initiate physical contact between us in the past. But we were going into battle tomorrow, which made the concept of flirting coyly while hoping for reciprocation seem unbearably slow. What if one of us didn’t make it out alive and I went to my grave never having shared more than a single kiss with this magnetic uber-alpha who had once called me his mate?

To the brave go the spoils
, I thought, nibbling a line of seduction down Hunter’s earlobe. My skin quivered with anticipation as I waited to see how the uber-alpha would respond.

Before, Hunter had acted hesitant every time I flung myself into his embrace. But not this time. Now, rock-hard arms glistening with sweat rose up to surround me and Hunter’s scent enveloped my body like a heady cloud of warm perfume. I relaxed into the sassafras aroma as if resting by a warm fire on a cold winter night.

Irresistible.

The spicy scent cradled my chin and cheeks and, to my delight, Hunter’s fingers soon followed suit. “Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked, rough callouses tickling across my skin as his fingers touched me lightly as butterfly wings.

In response, I reached up and stroked a lone finger across my companion’s chiseled jaw. He hadn’t taken the time to shave this morning, and the scratchy stubble of an incipient beard attempted to grab hold of my skin. I didn’t mind—I felt exactly the same way. Putting so much as an inch between myself and my companion’s magnetic pull was impossible.

“I don’t want to lose you tomorrow,” I whispered by way of reply, my voice husky with desire but my stomach hollowing out with fear. Unlike my wolf, I had a hard time believing we’d both make it out of tomorrow’s battle unscathed.

“You won’t lose me. If you let me in, I’ll stay there.” Hunter’s words were a firm promise and he lifted me into his lap as easily as if I were a pine cone. I didn’t miss the way my partner was shielding my skin from the rough debris on the forest floor even though I was the one who wore clothes while he didn’t.

Yes, his chivalry was alluring. But it didn’t quite knock me off the mental trail I’d been following even as I lowered my arm to trace a forefinger across the rope-like muscles that spanned his arm from shoulder to fingertip.

“But I have a pack to take care of,” I elaborated. “And you said yourself that you don’t understand packs.”

There it was—the real roadblock that had been standing in our way this entire time. Even as the words left my mouth, I felt abruptly chilled, sweat evaporating from damp fabric clinging to my skin as an errant breeze drifted down through the canopy to ruffle my hair. I leaned far enough back in Hunter’s arms so I could make out his eyes and I held my breath as I waited for his reply.

“I’ll learn packs,” Hunter rumbled easily. “They’re important to you, so they’re important to me.”

His firm hands cupped my butt, rocking me gently forward until his hard length of manhood rubbed against my cleft. The seam of my pants pressed inward to chafe with exquisite agony against my most sensitive spot and I gasped out an “Oh!” of surprise.

For some unknown amount of time, I lost my train of thought as Hunter led us in an excruciating dance, all slow movement and sparks of tangled nerves and bodies. But he wasn’t quite done with his promises yet.

“For you, I’ll be nice to Ginger,” Hunter murmured, his voice becoming huskier by the moment. “I’ll bond with Cinnamon and Glen. And I’ll free Lia if it’s the last thing I do.” His lips drifted down to taste and suck at my salty neck, the prickle of his beard sending me into a frenzy.

“Hunter...” I gasped, demanded. I was abruptly
done
with words and ready for his lips to become otherwise engaged. My exploring fingers turned into claws drawing him closer and I attempted to merge my mate’s body with my own.

“You’re right,” Hunter concluded. “Now’s not the time to talk about our pack.”

Then I was abruptly shirtless, a breeze replacing my companion’s questing fingers as the forest air encircled my exposed skin. I barely had time to shiver, though, before Hunter had pulled me back closer to his body, his hands sending frissons of pleasure across my sensitive belly as they hunted for the snap of my jeans.

I wanted to go there. But I pushed his fingers aside while murmuring a gentle rejection. “Not so fast, big guy.”

Hunter had put me in the driver’s seat here atop his body, and I wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity. Placing hands on his rock-hard shoulders to steady myself, I rotated my clad hips in slow circles atop his erection. Then I hummed with pleasure as the friction kindled swirling eddies of pleasure deep within my core.

I half expected my partner to flip me over onto my back and take the lead there and then. But, instead, he merely tilted up my chin so our gazes united once more. The uber-alpha’s pupils were now so dilated with desire that his pale retinas were nearly non-existent, and I could have sworn I saw his wolf reflected in the dark depths within.

He swallowed me into a deep, bruising kiss. And only after we were both thoroughly breathless did he release my mouth long enough to whisper: “You’re the boss. Do your worst.”

Still, the bloodling
’
s fingers continued to trail feather-light pathways across the exposed skin of my arms, my collarbone, my neck as if he couldn’t quite bear to relinquish control. Goose bumps rose on my forearms as I struggled to focus on anything other than the needy ache that rose in my center in response to Hunter’s caress.

But then my mate suited actions to words, leaning back on his elbows so I was given free rein to explore his body just as I’d requested. He was marvelous. All hard ridges and craggy folds, the power of his wolf nearly seeping out the seams to mesh with his human form.

I ran a tentative hand across my partner’s muscular chest, abruptly unsure about what to do with this wolf who I’d apparently tamed. What to do with this power that Hunter had so easily granted me.

And then my own inner beast was there beside me.
We fit
, she whispered, pressing our splayed hands onto Hunter’s chest to brace ourselves as we twisted and twined against him. Slowly, gently, my animal half guided me into a soft bump and grind until my passion was stoked back up to the boiling point and I was once again inflamed with desire. Soon, I was mewling needy little whimpers that had nothing to do with my inner wolf and had everything to do with the basest extreme of my own human nature.

It was only when jeans slid down off my body, one leg releasing then the other, that I realized my wolf was long gone and it was only Hunter and me dancing once more. My mate’s fingers left trails of fire shimmering down my thighs, across my hips, eddying in circles around my breasts. And in response I reached forward with hungry hands, guiding Hunter’s cock toward my slick opening.

“Shh, not quite yet.” The uber-alpha had been willing to let me do as I pleased before. But now that the moment of truth was nigh, he didn’t quite trust that I was adequately aroused. Instead, clever fingers slipped into my soft slit, gently teasing velvety skin as fingertips tested, tweaked, turned.

I writhed beneath his hand, quivering with need. Then foil tore and a condom encircled his throbbing shaft. Hunter had come prepared for more than simple sword fighting this morning.

I thought my partner, my mate, was less moved than I by this moment of exquisite joining. But then I heard his gasp turn into a moan as I slid down over his hard length, my center achingly sensitive and at the same time yearning to be filled. His mouth plundered mine and I gasped against his lips as our bodies and souls united.

“You...are...my...pack,” he ground out as firm fingers bit into my buttocks. Then, he was pounding, pushing, feasting, sucking.

Our legs wound together as we rolled, and I hardly noticed the sharp leaf tips biting into my bare skin. It was impossible to tell who was leading and who was following now as each body engulfed the other.

Sassafras and sweat. Wolf and human.

We met. We merged.

We exploded.