Seal Wolf Hunting (9781402293832) (18 page)

“You and Allan are still working.”

“Our own contract work. Maybe I can find some around here.”

Lori snapped her fingers. “That police unit that does dive work.”

“Yeah. Like that. I've got lots of credentials. Plus my specialized SEAL training. If they have an opening, though it might be volunteer, I could do that until I find something else.”

“You could help me teach the kids at my martial-arts center.”

He didn't answer.

“You'd be good with kids.”

“I could do it. I might have to let you handle the older kids.”

She chuckled. “They usually have better control over their actions.”

“They can punch harder, and they might try with me, while with you, they're being careful.”

She just smiled.

“I may still have to go on a mission from time to time if something vital comes up and the team needs me, but for now, I'll stay put for a good year. How's that sound?”

“It could… Stop!” Lori said, bracing her hands against the dashboard.

Paul slammed on his brakes as they heard the ponderosa pine tree snap and fall across the gravel road right in front of the car. For a moment, they stared at the downed tree. Paul cut the engine and reached for his door handle. “We'll have to hike up the road. We're about two miles from the cabin. I can return with the chain saw, cut up the tree, and move the car after that.”

“That's going to take some work.”

They got out of the car, locked the doors, and walked up to the tree. The way the wind was gusting and the ponderosa pines were bowing over, Paul was afraid more would topple in the storm before long. He climbed to the top of the four-foot-high diameter of the trunk, reached down to pull Lori up, and then they jumped down on the other side.

“That will take you a while to get back down here and saw that up,” she said. “It's already got to be close to ten thirty. Maybe you should wait until morning. It's so dark now that even with a lantern and our wolf night vision, you'd have a time cutting the tree safely.” She sniffed the air. “Besides, it's getting ready to rain.”

“You're right. The car should be all right down there for the night.”

She took his hand, and he smiled down at her. “No mating yet?”

“It depends on how…persuasive you could be.”

“Hot damn, woman. I can be persuasive.” He knew she wouldn't want to wait. Not if she'd told Rose he was her knight in tarnished armor.

Three more trees had fallen across the road. The ponderosa pines were up to a hundred feet tall. In the dark, Paul couldn't tell if they had been uprooted or broken in half.

He and Lori jogged against the thirty-mile-per-hour winds—the gusts probably close to sixty miles an hour—barely making any headway, hoping her cabin was okay. When they finally reached it, he thought it looked fine, no trees on top of the roof, and the deck was like he'd left it after sealing it.

They both hurried inside, and she reached for the light switch and flipped it up. Nothing happened. “A tree must have hit a power line somewhere in the area.”

Just then the rain broke free from the clouds and pounded on the roof and the deck with a thunderous torrent as Paul quickly shut the door.

“You stay here,” he said and started to check the rest of the rooms. Then he heard her in the kitchen getting a couple of glasses out.

He hoped she wasn't irritated with him, but he couldn't help himself. In the business he was in, he was used to being cautious and not assuming anything. He checked the breaker boxes. Nothing had been flipped and he didn't smell anyone else's recent scent in the cabin. When he rejoined her, she'd lit a cinnamon-scented candle, and had a bottle of wine and glasses ready. With her feet bare and her dark hair tussled by the wind and falling in disarray all about her shoulders, she looked wolfishly delicious, like she'd just risen from his bed, and he sure as hell loved the idea.

It was time to seduce the she-wolf.

“By the way, thanks for sealing the deck. Especially before the rains came.”

“My pleasure.”

“Do you remember the time I got stuck up in that tree when I was nine?”

Paul opened the bottle of Chablis, poured the wine into two glasses, and then moved from the kitchen to the new sofa. “Yeah, when you weren't really stuck. You just wanted me to come rescue you.”

He sat down on the sofa and she joined him, brushing up next to him. She smelled wild—of the piney woods, the stormy wind, and she-wolf, sweet and spicy. He breathed in her scent and luxuriated in it, like a wolf would enjoy his mate.

“You knew?” she asked, sounding surprised before she sipped her wine.

“Sure I knew.” He was amused that she thought she'd pulled one over on him.

“You never let on. You acted as though you truly did have to rescue me. It was all an act?”

“I had to impress all the other kids.”

She chuckled. “I figured if it was too difficult for you to make it all that way to reach me, I'd suddenly get the courage to meet you halfway. But even then you were good at rescuing people.”

“I thought you might be considering that. It wouldn't have been half the challenge for me—as far as the other kids would have thought. So I was glad you stayed put. But what if I hadn't come for you? Because I knew you were just trying to get my attention and—”

“You had to impress the other kids.”

He laughed.

“Besides, you wanted to impress me even more than you wanted to impress the others.” She raised a brow in challenge.

“You're right, you know.” He took her hand in his and squeezed, looking into her warm brown eyes, flecked with green. “I
wasn't
going to let you avoid me this time. After Allan and I got settled, I was going to see you. Although I hadn't envisioned you smacking me in the head with the broom.”

She laughed.

He drank the rest of his glass of wine and put it on the coffee table, then pulled her into his arms.

She finished off her wine and set the glass beside his. “I wasn't planning to leave this time,” she said, cuddling against him.

She felt right in his arms. “You shouldn't have left the other times.”

“You wouldn't have been ready for—”

“This?” He kissed her mouth, one of his hands cupping the back of her head, the other combing through her silky hair as he soaked up the scent and feel of her.

She cradled his face with her hands and kissed him right back with such feeling that he knew, despite loving his work with the SEAL team, that he regretted not having gone after Lori. Yet he understood why she had left the way she did. She hadn't wanted him to have to choose between her and his jobs. But he'd already made the decision that if she was agreeable, they'd be mated wolves before long.

Which was why he hadn't taken the job Hunter had called him about. It was time to change the rules at home.

Paul kissed Lori's forehead and hugged her tight as the wind continued to blow around the cabin, the rain still pouring down. “You know, when the lights go out, there's nothing better to do than—”

“Go to bed?” Lori asked.

“I thought you'd never ask.” He'd scooped her up into his arms before she realized what he was going to do, and she gave a little cry of surprise. He walked over to the kitchen counter, blew out the candles, and carried her back to her bedroom.

She smiled up at him, thinking he was finally going to take charge and get the job done. That's what she loved about him. She was the same way, except when it came to this.

“Someone wise told me I was going to be old and gray before I ever figured out what I was missing in my life,” he said very seriously.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. She was right. I've had a crush on you ever since we were young, you know.” He set Lori on the bed. “You were the only wolf that chased my tail around, trying to grab hold. No other cub would dare.”

She chuckled, remembering how he'd whirl around and tackle her. But he never hurt her.

“Yeah. You couldn't keep looking at me with those big, dark brown eyes and with such a wolfish grin, your tail wagging with enthusiasm every time you saw me, and hide the attraction,” she teased as he began to slide his shirt up his abs.

Tan, sexy, hot, sculpted SEAL abs. She tried hard not to drool.

“I was trying to be subtle about it. Was I
that
obvious?” he asked.

“Your tail gave you away. Well, and all those beautiful wolfish teeth. You always were the top wolf, setting the others in their place among the juveniles, but when it came to me…”

“You had my respect because you were my alpha match. I never could think of you in any other way.”

He yanked off his shirt and then shucked his boots, socks, and jeans. She waited for him to join her in bed. He pulled off his briefs, baring his glorious naked self, and she sighed.

He joined her in bed and then began caressing her breasts lightly through her cotton blouse and bra. Her nipples were already aroused and eager for his touch.

The storm still raged on, the wind howling, the lightning lighting up the bedroom window, the clap of thunder booming shortly after each lightning flash, setting the stage for what was to come.

She was wrapped up in the glorious moment with Paul—something she'd dreamed of forever. He kissed her mouth thoroughly, his hand still sweeping over her breasts and arousing the rest of her. He didn't seem to mind that she was in no hurry to remove her clothes either. She didn't want to rush through this in a desperate way—as if she wanted to claim him before he changed his mind.

The wine flavored their tongues and lips, and she enjoyed tasting him as she ran her hands down his muscled back, loving the feel of his naked body pressed against her.

Then he moved his head down, kissing her jaw, nuzzling her neck, and sweeping his warm mouth over her throat and lower. She was in heaven as her skin tingled with his touch. She raked her nails gently through his hair, loving every bit of this, just like she'd known she would. Only it was more real, more tactile. His tangled hair was soft, his mouth warm and well-versed in the art of seduction, and the heat of his body was making hers hot. He brushed his cheek against a breast, then turned his face to cover it with his mouth, licking through the fabric and getting her shirt and bra wet.

She watched him feast on her breast, still combing her fingers through his hair and taking in deep breaths of him. He smelled of the earth and pine and wolf, of delicious sexually aroused male.

He moved his hand up her shirt and unhooked her bra—she realized how convenient a front fastener could be—and he cupped her breast with his hand. That didn't last long before he pulled her shirt over her head and removed her bra.

So much for taking it nice and slow. He unzipped her jeans, but then concentrated on her breasts again, kissing and suckling now that they were bare. She smelled his excitement; it matched hers. The anticipation of this first time was overwhelming, combined with the joy of knowing it would be forever.

He slid his hand down her belly, his tongue artfully licking and encircling a rigid nipple. But his hand stole her attention as he slipped it under her panties and began to stroke her. She was already wet and aroused. His fingers stroking her made her want to yank off her jeans and her panties and slide against him, skin to skin.

She arched against his fingers, and then he paused, glancing at her as if looking for her approval. She started to jerk down her jeans impatiently, and he chuckled and began to help her. Her jeans tossed to the floor with the rest of their clothes, he slid his hand over her mound, still covered by the silky, black bikini panties.

He kissed her belly and then paused again, this time to look at her, his dark eyes filled with craving. “You're beautiful. I love you. And I want no other she-wolf to be my mate.”

“I will always love you, Paul, and”—she smiled—“I have always wanted you to be my mate.”

Then he slid her panties off and began to rub himself between her legs, hard and erect and very near to entering her.

She couldn't believe how hot he was, how sexy, how his touches could turn her on so fast. Yet she was almost there. Just a little bit further. She spread her legs farther apart, heady with the feel of his rigid cock stroking her until she felt the shattering high of the climax hit. She moaned her pleasure right before he captured her mouth with his.

He stroked her tongue with his, then pulled away and asked, “Are you ready?”

She treasured him for caring so much about her feelings that he wouldn't take it all the way until he was sure she was agreeable. His voice was drenched with lust, his body tense and eager for the mating, and she loved him for it.

“I've been ready forever.”

“That's all I wanted to hear,” he said wolfishly.

He didn't take it slowly then. He had held back as long as he could. He pushed into her tight sheath and then began to thrust, breathing in her aroused scent and loving the way she responded so eagerly to his touch. The way she fit around him like a snug wet suit, the way she kissed him and made him hard and aching for her.

All he could think about was how happy she had made him, how he was now regretting he hadn't done this sooner, and how much he wanted to do this over and over with her until they were tired, old wolves.

She was perfect for him. She completed him. And he hoped he'd always be that for her.

She was stroking his back and his sides, his buttocks, and he couldn't hold on any longer. She was just too arousing.

He spilled his seed deep inside her, thinking of how their pack would finally grow. It would be awesome to have little ones running around again, and he knew then just how right this was.

He collapsed on top of her, hugging her to the bed, still buried inside her, claiming her. She had her arms wrapped around him, holding him tight to her as if saying she wanted him just where he was.

“So beautiful,” he said, then rolled off her anyway, not wanting to crush her, and pulled her into his arms. “And all mine.”

She snuggled against him. “Ditto, mate of mine. Who's going to tell the rest of the pack?”

“Your grandma already knows,” Paul said and closed his eyes.

“What?” Lori stiffened a little in his arms, but he held on tight before she moved away from him.

“I'm certain she's already told Catherine.”

“Wait, when—”

“She assumed it when I was going to tell her I took over the pack. She cut me off before I could tell her we weren't there yet.”

Lori relaxed against him, and he sighed with relief, loving the way she felt against him—soft, sexy, hot. He knew they were going to be like this from now on. Or…at least he'd sure planned it that way. He knew what he wanted when he wanted it, and he would have moved the proverbial mountains to come to this point in their relationship.

Lori didn't say anything for several minutes, then finally commented, “My grandma planned it this way all along.”

He quirked his lips. “That makes her one of our most valuable pack members. Don't you agree?”

Lori chuckled. “She said she wasn't paying for you to take me on a date. That we'd have to figure it out for ourselves.”

“She must have gotten tired of waiting.”

“I would have waited forever,” Lori said softly, stroking his chest.

“Not any longer.” And then he kissed her, promising this was only the beginning.

* * *

The storm continued to rage, the wind and rain pounding the cabin. Lori's phone rang and she quickly climbed over Paul to get to her pants lying on the floor before he could wake enough to figure out what was going on.

She pulled the phone out of her pants pocket and checked her caller ID. Her grandma. “Are you okay, Grandma?”

“A tree crashed through the roof over the living room and took out the picture window.” Emma sounded shaken up.

“We're coming. Are you all right?”

“Yes, dear. No rush.”

“Several trees fell across the road down below the cabin, so it'll take us a little while to get back to the car.”

“Okay, I'll see you when you get here. I've moved as many pieces of furniture away from the window and the rain as I can.”

“Just
wait
for us. You don't need to be doing any heavy lifting. If you've got any plastic—a tarp, shower curtain, just anything—and can cover things to protect them from the rain, that would be the best thing to do for now. Did you need to talk to Paul?”

“No, dear. See you in a bit.”

Paul was already dressed, looking worried as he shoved his phone in his pocket. “Is she okay?”

“Tree went through the roof over the living room and crashed through the big window. But, yeah, she's okay.”

“I'll get the chain saw and call…well, hell, Allan doesn't have his car. We'll have to run by the cabin and pick him up first.”

“All right.” Lori hurried to get dressed while Paul headed out into the rain to grab the stuff they needed from the shed.

Dressed in jeans, T-shirts, hiking boots, and rain jackets, they jogged down the gravel road in the rain and blowing wind to where the trees blocked their path. Paul climbed onto the tree trunk and gave her a hand up each time, then jumped down on the other side. They ran to get to the SUV and climbed inside.

“She's really okay, isn't she?” Paul asked as they buckled their seats, and he began to back down the road until he could find a place where he could turn around.

“She's fine as long as she doesn't lift a bunch of furniture. I tried to call Allan while you were gathering the equipment in case you didn't have a chance to, but I couldn't get hold of him. I hope he's okay.”

“Uh, yeah, I tried too. Maybe he's occupied,” Paul said.

“So do we bother him?” she asked as Paul found a side road to back into, then turned to drive the rest of the way to the main road.

“Yeah, we'll probably need him too, if the tree's very big. No matter what, it'll go quicker if there are more of us. We'll have to get a work crew out as soon as we can to repair the damage.”

“I'll call Catherine to let them know what's going on.” That was the thing with a pack. Everybody helped everyone. Plus, Lori wanted to make sure they were all right. Though she was certain Catherine would have called and let them know if she and Rose were having trouble.

“Good idea.”

When Lori couldn't get hold of Catherine, she tried Rose. No one answering there either. “Okay, batting zero.”

She didn't want to worry unnecessarily about them, but she didn't think either Catherine or Rose would have their phones turned off. Then again, if their phones hadn't been charged sufficiently and the electricity had been out all night, their batteries might have died. But both of them at the same time? And they couldn't get hold of Allan? That bothered her.

Because she was anxious, the drive to the Rappaports' cabin seemed to take forever. Dark still claimed the area, though the rain was letting up.

“Why don't you stay here and I'll roust Allan out of bed. No sense in both of us getting wetter,” Paul said as he parked next to the steps.

“Okay. I'll keep trying to get hold of the others.”

“All right. We make a good team.”

She smiled at him. “We do.”

Lori watched as he shut the door and ran up the steps to the house, pausing to listen at the door. She wondered if he was listening to make sure he didn't intrude on something intimate. But there were no other vehicles at the place, and Allan's car was in the shop.

Paul knocked, then unlocked the door and went inside.

Lori felt the skin prickle at the back of her neck. She really didn't believe that Allan would be so sound asleep that he wouldn't hear the phone, or that he'd gone out in this weather without a car or in his wolf coat. She called Catherine and then Rose again, but still only got voice mail.

Paul hurried back out of the house, shaking his head.

“I'm calling Grandma to tell her that we're unable to get hold of anyone. Maybe she's talked to someone. I don't want to worry her, but she'd be upset with us if we didn't let her know what was going on,” Lori said.

“I agree.”

While Paul left the mountain and they headed out toward the ranches, Lori called her grandma and was relieved to hear her answer. “It's just me. We tried to pick up Allan, but he wasn't at the cabin. His car is in the shop. We can't get hold of Catherine, Rose, or Allan.”

“Why don't you run by their house before you come to mine,” Emma said.

“Okay. Will you be all right?”

“Yes, of course. If you don't check on them, I'll have to run over there myself and get all wet.”