Half Wolf (16 page)

Chapter 17

M
ichael stepped back as if he’d been struck by a bolt of lightning. The shock was severe, jamming his senses, firing up all of his nerves at once.

His head swung from side to side to negate the onslaught. His muscles convulsed, shaking him up, slowing his thinking. Kaitlin was doing this, and probably didn’t know how, or why.

Once he had broken contact, the surges careening through him ceased. His wolf pounded at his insides, stimulated by the sudden rush of adrenaline coursing through his body, but he reined that wolf in.

The first thing that went through his mind was that he’d lost his mind. He perceived a rift in the atmosphere. That rift hung between the trees, reaching from the lowest branches to the ground like a shimmering curtain—black as the night and moving with an action that reminded Michael of disturbed pond water.

Kaitlin saw it, as well.

“Kate,” Michael said, at a loss for words.

Her eyes came back to him, their color changed. No longer gray, those enormous eyes were now a tarnished gold.

That wasn’t all. The harder he looked, the more changes Michael found. Gray eyes that had turned golden then became green—the brilliant green of a Were’s eyes. Kaitlin’s lips parted for a growl that was low, guttural, and the sound resonated in Michael’s bones, dispersing more inner vibrations that caused his claws to pop like spring-loaded blades.

“Kate.” He hid his hands and worked to get a grip on his own physical changes. “Are you all right?”

She didn’t reply...at least in any humanistic way, with a voice, words and sentences. As a flurry of leaves fell from over their heads, she responded in an entirely different manner.

She began to undress.

Her sweater again came over her head and was tossed aside. Moonlight streaked her shoulders with a golden glow that matched the flare in her eyes.

Michael withheld a growl, needing to stop this, while at the same time his body was responding physically to the sensations flooding him.

The scene was strangely seductive, and inappropriate as hell. The situation in Clement was bad at the moment, and Kaitlin behaving as if she’d had a complete personality reboot was highly suspect.

“Kate. Let’s go,” Michael said, wishing times were different and he could take her up on whatever this offer was going to turn out to be. Any other time, and with any other woman, he wouldn’t have hesitated. But a wayward premonition pummeled him.

When she dropped her jeans to her ankles, his wolf strained at its leash. She kicked the pants off, along with her shoes, and wore nothing now except a pair of blue lace underwear.

Slender arms beckoned to him with a provocative slide down her sides. Her every move was sensual and extremely erotic. And still, that premonition floated around, as yet unformed, kicking brutally at Michael’s mind.

What are you up to, Kate?

Damn it, she really didn’t seem to know.

And then, as if his own inner light had flashed, Michael understood what was happening. This wasn’t just a striptease in his honor. It was much more than that. She was shedding her outer layer in preparation for a big reveal, whatever the hell that might be.

“No.” His whisper was soft and unheeded.

One minute Kaitlin was there, standing, flashing her tricolor eyes and moonlit skin. Then she was falling to her hands and knees, fighting for each ragged breath.

Before Michael could catch her, whatever spell she was under expanded and Kaitlin looked up at him, having morphed seamlessly into the furred-up shape of a copper-colored wolf.

He froze for what seemed like an eternity, the oaths he wanted to use lost behind his heart’s frantic beats.

“This is impossible,” he muttered. Because it was impossible. Kaitlin wasn’t full-blooded Lycan, nor was she a shape-shifter. Here she was, though, on all fours, her red-brown fur still ruffling from her transformation. A full transformation.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said, as much for himself as for the new apparition beside him. “It’s okay. We can handle whatever this is.”

In agitation, he raked his thigh with five of his razor-sharp claws. Kaitlin’s wolfish gaze went to the blood seeping from his self-inflicted wound. The fur on her back stood up.

“No. Kaitlin, don’t be afraid. Just wait for another minute and maybe the reason for this shift will come.”

Hell, what good would waiting do? Michael reasoned. Who was going to explain this? He couldn’t believe his eyes.

There was a new heaviness in the air, and movement that hadn’t come from anything containing blood in its veins. This heaviness was created by the wavelike undulation of the nebulous black curtain, the rift in the atmosphere strung between the trees.

What the hell was that? Where had it come from?

Beneath a shiny muzzle, Kaitlin’s mouth opened for a speech she couldn’t make. What emerged from her throat was a harrowing howl that touched Michael’s soul.

There was no time to worry about the strange rift beside them. Kaitlin’s wolfish vocalization drew him into yet another shape-shift. With a power reminiscent of the moon, and overriding his own desire to keep the wolf at bay, Kaitlin pulled his wolf into shape.

The going was slow and like wading through mud. He tore off his clothes as his body eventually shivered into its alternate form. Kaitlin’s wind whipped his fur and the fires raging inside him until, as a wolf, Michael stared back.

Their muzzles touched. Lightning-like nerve fire struck Michael. Then the damn curtain moved again. When he looked around, Kaitlin had left him. She was sprinting toward that rift in the night as if she had to find out what lay beyond the eerie onyx shimmer.

Michael loped after her. He caught her by the back of her neck and clamped down with his teeth before she reached the strange, rippling veil. Planting his paws, he dragged her to a stop. Though Kaitlin struggled and roared, he held fast, wary of that wavering incongruity, not liking how frightened he was.

Whatever lay beyond this thing had to be calling to Kaitlin, the way the moon called to him.

With a growl of his own, Michael tugged Kaitlin with him to what he hoped was a safer distance. Eventually, her struggles ceased and she collapsed in the grass with one last gut-wrenching whine.

Yes, Kate. It has been one hell of a night
, Michael agreed.

She was instantly a woman again, and his transformation matched hers. With human lips, he found the nape of her neck, the little hollow that was damp from the heat of her transitions and smelled like heaven.

She turned, pressed herself closer to him, nipped his chin with her small human teeth. Her hands slipped around to his back and slid over his bare buttocks. She was riled up, fiery and in need of something only he had to offer, no matter where they were.

The eroticism of the danger of this moment was unnaturally exquisite. He knew better than to keep this going, but ignored the warnings. Kaitlin’s breasts, against his chest, were hard and straining. She moved with animal instincts, finding the places on his body that responded the most to her touch. In this moment, they were animals in human form, caught up in a desire running rampantly out of control.

Kaitlin wouldn’t understand the urgency of the need to mate that all wolves experienced after a shift. He had mastered those desires in the past only with practice and concerted effort. He had only dated human women to avoid this very thing, and having to settle down.

But as she continued to press against him suggestively, his mind lagged behind the impulses of his body. He, too, had shifted too many times tonight. His body needed release.

Resisting Kaitlin, who held so many fascinating feminine secrets, was not possible. A man, Were or not, had only so much control. And damn it, his was gone.

He took her mouth savagely beside that damn alien curtain. To anyone who might have been watching, and if he had been able to speak, his message would have been...
I hope you enjoy the show.

He wasn’t the only savage here. The animals beneath the surface of their skin were letting their wishes be known by demanding satisfaction the hard way, with teeth and nails. Kaitlin’s wolf was as tempestuous as his was.

He had Kaitlin in his arms before she could utter a protest. Feeling strong now, he strode through the park, reaching his house long before their passion had waned.

He laid her on his bed and listened to her growl of pleasure. His kissed her again, then slid a hand between her silky feverish thighs. What he found between those thighs was petal-soft and worth the howl he choked back.

“Kate...” He spoke her name with his lips on hers, punctuating the word with a meeting of their tongues.

Her response was to kiss him back with her moist, plush mouth, and with enough fervor to melt away what remained of his forced resistance. With her arms wrapped around his shoulders and her nails digging into his tense, corded muscle, she was daring him to stop this, while letting him know that wouldn’t be allowed.

With shaky fingers, he opened her. The shaking was strange. His mind had never interfered with his sexual conquests, the way it was nagging at him now. He hadn’t cared for those other women the way he cared for Kaitlin. None of the others had been potential mates.

He could not stop this. The momentum of these kisses were sweeping him away from rationality. Doing what they were about to do would cement their pairing and complicate their lives. What male wanted his preferences to be dictated by a force beyond his control? By a she-wolf giving him the come-hither?

His hips were pressed tightly to hers, pinning the hand that still covered her most private of places. He had to have her, and that was that. Denial and regret would have to wait their turn.

He slid the tip of one finger inside her, finding more heat and a waiting, willing dampness. Kaitlin was not only allowing this, she was actively encouraging him. She had become a seductress, with a lure that rivaled the moon’s.

Her body was hot, but Kaitlin, inside, was volcanic. A storm had been unleashed and she was riding the crest of the wave that would carry them both away.

His cock was hard, throbbing. The effort to hold back was making him sweat.

She moved against him, thrusting her hips upward in a way that left him no other option but to take possession. After one more sharp breath, he eased into her with his eyes shut, soaking up the incredible molten lushness that paved the way to Kaitlin’s core, resisting the urge to strike fast and true.

Restraint was not an option. He wanted to move, dive, take, possess and mark Kaitlin as his so that every other wolf on the planet would keep their distance. Wolves sensed possession. Good ones accepted it.

He pressed his hard length into her slick waiting womb, thinking he might go mad if they were interrupted. Man to woman and wolf to wolf was the way this was going down. There was no room for anyone or anything else. All problems seemed distant.

Drawing back slightly, feeling her nails rake his lower back in protest of his withdrawal, and scenting the iron-like odor of the blood she’d drawn across his skin, Michael pressed more of himself inside her, shuddering, struggling with himself to give Kaitlin a few more seconds of breathing room before fully filling her depths.

When she gasped with pleasure—this time a soft, sighing sound—he began to stroke her, moving slowly in and out, fearing that time was almost up on the limit of his patience.

He stroked Kaitlin smoothly again and again, moving his hips to meet each answering thrust of her hips. Chanting warnings that made no sense and didn’t suit him, Michael built up a rhythm and held steady to it with his pulse pounding in his ears.

Each thrust he made now deepened their connection and led them closer to the apex of sexual gratification. Kaitlin’s insides tightened around him, massaged him, held him captive with a sweet, creamy allure. She was willing to take all of what he had to give. She was gloriously tight. Instinctively, she did all the right things.

Christ, Kaitlin...

They were going to reach that climax together, and Michael didn’t want this to end. He didn’t want to see the look in Kaitlin’s eyes when she opened them. That look would either be accepting, or one of horror and regret.

Her next move refocused his attention. He hadn’t realized he had slowed down until her long, sleek legs locked him in place to ensure that he took her up on the release of the last bit of barrier left between them. Her heat was the equivalent of lightning.

Michael suppressed a roar.

All right.

Okay.

Gripping her hips with his hands, he drove himself into her with a force that left them both breathless. The world around him began to beat in sync with his heart. His pulse rocketed, echoed by Kaitlin’s.

Thunder rolled inside her. Kaitlin’s body quaked beneath his. He reached her core, filled her completely and held himself there. Her climax burst, carrying him along with it. That blast of pleasure was like swallowing a shooting star.

The world exploded into prisms of color. And as that moment engulfed them, Kaitlin spoke, whispering a series of syllables that he couldn’t understand. And then she went limp in his arms.

Chapter 18

M
ichael looked at Kaitlin lying on his bed. Her hair fanned out across his pillow in an auburn tangle. He wanted to touch her, yet didn’t, afraid of his need for a rematch. If he had his way he wanted to always watch her like this.

Hoping Kaitlin could hear the senseless things he muttered to her that were meant to put her mind at ease, his mind churned out wishful scenarios where Clement was at peace and there was time to indulge in his fantasies. That was what imprinting did. It made slaves of the Weres snared by the ancient spell and to the physicality of love.

Michael felt some discomfort over what had happened between Kaitlin and himself. He had taken advantage of her moment of weakness. Consummating this relationship with her meant that they now actually had a deeper bond. Their connection had been completed, instead of being severed, as he had originally planned. Now that Kaitlin had shifted and they had shared an incredible intimacy, their future was set in stone.

They had no say about this. But honestly, he wouldn’t have complained, even though he heard the binding chains rattling. The change taking place inside him would ensure a future of cravings. A few minutes inside her had to have been worth the lifetime of rule-breaking credits that stretched ahead of them, but Michael wasn’t sure he could stand wanting Kaitlin any more than he already did.

Right now, while she was out cold, her body beckoned to him. And that wasn’t the biggest part of his current dilemma. The thing that puzzled him most was how she had shape-shifted on her own, when that was unfeasible.

“Will you do it again?” he asked her sleeping form.

After bringing her home, he hadn’t left her side. Couldn’t have left her. An hour had gone by and he had not rejoined the pack. Feeling guilty about this, Michael sent a message to his pack-mates that something had needed his immediate attention and was the reason for his delay. Rena sent back that they hadn’t found Chavez, and the hunt was almost over for tonight.

The pack was safe. Kaitlin was safe.

He stretched out a hand to touch her, then let that hand fall to the bed. The time had come for him to leave Kaitlin and he dreaded the fact that duty eventually demanded a separation. No matter how much he wanted to stay with Kaitlin, as the Alpha here, he had to show his face, help with his pack’s search for intruders in the last couple of hours before the sun came up. Leaving them on their own had been a massive breach of his power.

Common courtesy demanded that he make sure their out-of-town guests had a place to stay and were comfortable while they hunted in Clement, and his own digs couldn’t be ruled out because of the delicate bundle breathing softly on his bed.

He lamented this disturbance, wanting to possess Kaitlin in every room of this house, and on every surface.

“I have to leave you.”

Would she be here when he returned? Cuffing her to the bedpost would have been cruel and unusual punishment, even to address her unpredictable behavior...though the Were cop, Adam Scott, had probably brought along a pair.

He smiled wickedly at the thought. Some Alpha he was. He should turn in his claws.

Kaitlin didn’t move, and didn’t seem to be breathing. Michael leaned over her with his own breath held, and found his hand on her shoulder without being conscious of putting it there.

The room was saturated with her sweet, addictive fragrance. There hadn’t been any further sign of her wolf.

He had to speak again, afraid he’d kiss the shoulder that lay beneath his hand. “What was behind that curtain in the park? Do you have any idea? Did that dark spot in the park have anything to do with your shape-shift?”

She didn’t stir.

He hadn’t expected her to.

“How did you do that, Kaitlin Davies?” He had sent her so many silent directives to sleep, there was no chance she would have been able to answer him. Stiff from sitting, Michael reluctantly drew back his hand, stood and stretched. He needed a shower and couldn’t afford the time. He had to show his face to the others, who, despite his message, would want the truth of what had happened tonight.

That truth was that Kaitlin had blown all Were rules apart by shifting before her first full moon. Without a full moon. Into a four-legged wolf. Oh, yes...and he hadn’t kept his pants zipped.

Dressed in fresh clothes, he leaned over Kaitlin’s sleeping form one more time. “In a life filled with surprises, you take the cake, Kate.”

She hadn’t opened her eyes once. Not even a flutter of her long lashes.

“Will your eyes be gray when you open them?”

I’d like them to be gray
, he said silently.

“We have a phrase for all of this,” Michael said with his mouth close to her ear. “Learn and burn. It’s not very pretty, is it?”

As long as she couldn’t hear him, Michael offered her a confession that he hadn’t dared to acknowledge until this second. “I am used to fighting for justice, but I’m a newcomer in the fight for love. All I have to offer you at the moment is the use of my home and my protection. Will that be enough?”

His lips rested on her earlobe. “A second touch, just this once.”

He kissed her cheek, without lingering. Kaitlin’s skin retained its warmth, though her inner fires had faded. He covered her with a sheet and whispered, “I wonder what other surprises the future might bring.”

Slowly, he backed away from the bed, fighting with himself all the way. “Wait for me,” he said to her from the doorway, praying that he spoke the truth when he promised, “I won’t be long.”

But Michael had to wonder what he’d find on that bed when he returned, and if it would in any way resemble the woman he had fallen so hard for, in so short a time. The woman who had chained herself to an Alpha, through no choice of her own, and who, while lingering in the throes of passion, and after shifting back and forth into the shape of a wolf, had spoken in a language that Michael feared didn’t have anything to do with the terms
wolf
or
human.

* * *

“The warrior returns.” Rena strode forward to greet Michael across the street from his home. Cade, Devlin and Dylan were with her. Though Cade looked slightly worse for wear, he wore his bruises well.

None of these Weres looked as tired as Michael felt. They had been up all night without wasting energy on shifting back and forth so many times that Michael lost count. Their minds weren’t ablaze with questions. They didn’t have to calculate possible personal future outcomes.

Finding them near his house meant that the pack still hadn’t found Chavez or stumbled upon more of Chavez’s savages. He felt some relief over that, still overly conscious of having been elsewhere when he could have been needed.

“No sign of them at all?” he asked Dylan.

“Found more vampires,” Dylan said.

“They’re dust,” Rena explained.

“You were right,” Dylan continued. “These vamps were new to the bloodsucker game. And since Chavez could not have created monsters with fangs, it’s a cinch that Clement has another kind of master on the loose.”

Michael winced. “I should have been with you.”

“Don’t worry. You weren’t missed much,” Devlin teased. “All in all, the night was fairly quiet after that first round of bloodsuckers showed their pretty faces early on, and Cade kicked some beastly ass.”

Rena cuffed Devlin on the shoulder.

Dylan said, “We believe Chavez has holed up on the south end of town. We need to check that out tomorrow. Right now, I think you know that everyone here needs rest.”

After a careful scan of Michael’s tired face, Dylan added, “You included.”

“We need dinner. Or is it time for breakfast? I can’t remember the last time I ate,” Cade said. His wounds were superficial, and had already started to fade.

Michael spoke to Dylan. “You’re welcome at my house. Adam and Tory, as well.”

“Won’t it be a bit crowded?” Rena quipped with a lilt of well-aimed sarcasm in her tone.

Michael tossed a mental coin about whether to tell these Weres what had happened to Kaitlin tonight now, or just show them that eerie dark spot that had appeared in the park from out of nowhere, and leave Kaitlin’s unbelievable wolf morph out of it. The coin came up tails.

“Before we disperse, I’d like to show you what I found out here, and why I didn’t join you,” he said.

“Lead the way,” Dylan said with a wave of his hand. “I have another half hour of energy left before I start eating this grass. Adam and Tory will find us soon with a final report on what else they’ve learned. Our trail will be easy for them to follow.”

“Do you Miami Weres have some Sherlock Holmes capabilities?” Rena asked Dylan.

“Just a damn good sense of smell,” Dylan replied. “They stayed behind because they’re hungry for a Chavez sighting, and anxious to get this over with.”

“Is it payback?” Michael asked.

“Let’s just say that Adam thinks so, since he knows firsthand what Chavez’s fight clubs can do.”

Michael recalled the scar on Adam Scott’s face, deducing that the cop must have gotten that scar by being up close and personal with Chavez. A testament to Adam’s toughness would be that he had survived such a meeting. The scar remained visible because Adam hadn’t been Were when he received the injury.

The Chavez mess in Miami again made Michael think that dealing with a fledgling vamp or two seemed lightweight, when in actuality vampires were no joke and a threat to everyone.

Add to that problem the sudden appearance of a black wavering mass of unknown origin and a female who had shape-shifted without a full moon or Lycan lineage...and maybe Clement’s problems were catching up with those burdening the larger cities.

“What I want to show you isn’t far,” Michael said as they all walked across the still-dark, empty campus grounds. He was confident that though these Weres had had their share of trouble in the past, none of them had encountered the likes of that unusual glimmering curtain.

He was right, and thanked his lucky stars that the strange thing hadn’t disappeared by the time the pack got there to see it. They all stared at the peculiar spot as if not quite believing what they were seeing.

Rena rubbed her eyes and asked, “What the hell is that?”

Dylan’s expression was reflective, though he didn’t venture an opinion. It was Dev who seemed to have one.

“It’s a portal. That’s what you would call it. We’d know it as a veil.”

“Who is
we
?” Rena asked.

“Those of us who grew up with stories about this kind of thing,” Devlin replied.

“You mean Irish people,” Rena said.

Devlin stepped closer to the dark spot and lifted one hand.

“Don’t!” Rena insisted. “Don’t touch it. We like you in spite of your faults.”

“What kind of a veil?” Michael queried.

“A veil between worlds. A doorway that leads to somewhere else.”

“Where does it lead?”

Devlin chewed on his lip, possibly, Michael thought, in an attempt to keep from answering that question.

Michael tried again. “Dev? That thing leads where?”

“Fairyland,” Devlin said. “Though it’s actually the land of the Fey, where no one can trespass without being invited, and safety is an issue even then.”

Rena let out a bark of laughter. Cade smiled. Dylan passed a look to Michael that made Michael uncomfortable.

“It’s magical?” Michael asked.

“Not to those who live behind it,” Dev said.

“Why would such a thing appear in the States, and Florida in particular?” Dylan asked.

“And tonight,” Michael added.

Devlin shrugged his big shoulders. “Likely because she’s here, and they know it.”

“Kaitlin, you mean.” Dylan glanced again at Michael.

“That’s the only explanation I can come up with,” Devlin said. “These things don’t appear without a reason. It’s not an invitation to test the validity of those old stories.”

Michael blinked slowly to ease the ache behind his eyes. Staring at the wavering curtain had a dizzying effect.

“You’ve seen one of these before, Dev?” he asked.

Devlin shook his head. “I’ve only heard the tales.”

“Yet you believe this might be connected to Kaitlin in some way?”

Michael hated that he tended to believe Devlin’s explanation when he didn’t want to. He sensed rightness in it because of what he had seen. There was a chance that Tory, having witnessed Kaitlin shining like a lighted crystal near here, might have believed it also, if she had been present.

Michael heard himself ask, “If it followed Kaitlin here, what does that make her?”

He really did not want to hear Devlin’s take on the answer, though that answer was crucial. The nonsensical syllables Kaitlin had spoken rang in his ears as if she had just uttered them. Were those the syllables of another species?

“It makes her one of them, or did until we wolfed her up,” Devlin answered. “I suppose the appearance of this portal, so close to where she is, would suggest that Kaitlin either is, or has something to do with the Fey.”

It was clear that no one besides Devlin had any idea what that might mean. Their worried gazes moved back and forth between Dev and the ominous onyx sheet in front of them.

“A fairy?” Rena said, clearly having none of this. “You’re saying that Kaitlin is a fairy?”

“Fey,” Devlin corrected. “Believe me, Rena, that’s a whole different thing from the image in your mind.”

“How so?” That was Dylan.

“The Fey are nothing like the little twinkly things with wings in children’s books. In fact, they are life-size, and can be quite aggressive and dangerous when crossed.”

“And you know this from rumors?” Rena pressed.

Devlin took offense at Rena’s skepticism, though he said calmly enough, “Stories handed down through the years are different than rumors. Most of them have real starting points, like the old tales about werewolf sightings that no one here would laugh at.”

“So,” Cade said. “If Kaitlin is Fey and that thing in front of us is of Fey origin, does it mean Kaitlin can use this fluttering doorway to leave us? Where would she end up if she did?”

Devlin turned to Cade. “She’d end up someplace else. I suppose the Fey exist in a place that’s like another layer of the world that no one, other than them, can access. How else could these doorways just show up? Why wouldn’t we be able to see what lies beyond them?”