Wolver's Reward (38 page)

These things he put in his pocket. The
trinkets from the other four went back in the box. He closed the
lid, made sure it was sealed tight, and ran his hand over the
picture on top.

Children dressed in old fashioned clothes
danced around a Christmas tree brightly lit with candles. Two were
girls, one the oldest, the other youngest by their size. The two
little boys fell somewhere in the middle. Four children, laughing
and happy in the loving home that had taken them in, a home where
he was loved, but had never felt like his.

River packed the box away, and loaded the
duffle in the back of the truck. He spent five minutes locating
Toby and Quentin. It was another five before he got them to shut up
long enough to tell them what he wanted.

"Ten bucks apiece to load my bike."

"Where you going?"

"You're not leaving, are you?"

"I'm taking it down the mountain. Trading it
in." It wasn't a lie, though it wasn't an answer.

More time was wasted while they offered their
unasked for advice.

"Forget it," he finally told them. "I'm
buying a snowmobile. Come winter, it'll be a lot more useful than a
motorcycle."

While the two compared what little they knew
about the winter vehicles, River walked away.

He was moving fast, looking neither right nor
left, trying his best not to catch anyone else's eye as he made his
way back to Reb, but Darla didn't get the message. She stepped in
front of him and held up her hand.

"Alpha wants to see you first thing
tomorrow."

"What for?" he asked because she would expect
it.

She shrugged as if she didn't know and then
relented. Of course she knew. Darla knew everything. "Some big wig
Alpha's coming for a visit. He'll be here in a few days." She
laughed at River's expression. "Don't worry. He's not looking for a
Mate. Says he wants to come look around, visit. Says he's bringing
someone the Alpha wants to meet. I think Roland's hoping he'll
invest. I didn't hear it all. I only know that the Alpha is excited
and wants the place in ship shape."

"This Alpha got a name?"

"Everybody's got a name." Darla hadn't
changed. She still gave him a hard time. River liked her in spite
of it, or maybe because of it.

"I don't," he started to say, but stopped
himself. He did have a name, and it was a good one. "So? You gonna
tell me, or keep we waiting while I got better things to do?"

Another shrug and a lopsided smile. "I don't
know. I was outside while they were talking and there was a lot of
noise. That battle tonight set everybody off. Wild, huh?"

"Darla," he warned. He thought he knew who
the visitor was. He just had to hear her say it.

"Okay. It's Bags, or Bigley I think."

"Begley. Eugene Begley."

"Yeah, that's it. You know him?"

"I don't know him, but I've met him." River
blew out his breath. "Tell the Alpha message delivered. Now I've
gotta go. Like I said, more important things to do."

"Reb's waiting, huh?"

"Yeah, Reb's waiting." And time was flying
by.

River hurried off, breathing deeply and
loosening the tense muscles in his shoulders in an attempt to hide
his mood.

Fate had finally shined her favor on him.
She'd given him everything he wanted. The Alpha was alive and
getting better every day. The pack was settling in and forming
bonds. The monster no longer posed a danger to Reb. Eugene Begley
had found her an Alpha, one, no doubt, who would love and care for
her as she deserved. Everything was fucking fine.

So why did he still feel like he'd been
kicked in the teeth?

~*~

Reb ran to River as soon as he opened the
door. She threw herself at him with enough force to push him back
against the closing door. It slammed with a bang.

"Hey, careful, you'll bring the house
down."

She didn't care if she brought the house
down. She didn't care if the whole world fell down around their
ears. River was here, with her, and that was all that mattered.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed him. Everything she
felt went into that kiss.

He kissed her back, wet and warm and
intoxicating, but it was more than a kiss. She felt that, too. It
was deeper and more meaningful than just a prelude to sex. It was
as if he was pouring everything he couldn't say into that kiss.

Unlike their other kisses, this one didn't
become more strident. It didn't escalate as the heat grew with
their bodies' needs. Tongues lingered in leisurely exploration.
Lips took their time discovering places on face and neck that had
been neglected before. They took their time, savoring each moment
and taste.

River's lips left the underside of her chin
to move down the side of her neck and across her shoulder. He made
a sound of frustration when he reached the strap of her sundress
which was very thin and not really a hindrance. He pushed it over
her shoulder and out of the way.

"I'm filthy," she murmured.

"You're beautiful." He used his finger to
raise her chin to give him access to the base of her throat. "Every
inch of you."

"We need a bath," she said and rolled her
head to the side so his lips could reach the other side of her
neck. She sighed happily when he reached the sweet spot behind her
ear.

"We'll get to it," he said before worrying
the lobe with his teeth.

She let him search for the zipper that wasn't
there. She said nothing, because his fingers felt so good running
down her back especially when they passed her waist to investigate
the line between her cheeks. He made a humming sound of pleasure
and the sound alone had her pressing closer to him. Not finding a
zipper at her back, his hands moved to her sides, fingers dancing.
It tickled and she pulled away.

His head dipped and his teeth caught the bow
at the center of her chest, right above her breasts. One tug and
the bow was undone. His finger worked the gathering free.

"Clever wolver," she murmured, as he lowered
the dress to below her breasts and trapped her arms with the
straps. When she tried to extricate herself from the minimal
restraint, his hands stopped her. "But I want to feel you,
too."

"You'll feel," he told her in between sucking
her breasts and pulling at the nipples with his teeth. "You'll feel
me over every inch of your body. I want you to remember."

"Remember what?" she asked torn between the
pleasure of his mouth at her breasts and the niggling sensation
that something wasn't right.

"The first time we went over the moon."

Mouth busy at her breasts, his fingers
loosened the bow gathering the dress beneath them. The straps slid
from her arms and fell with the dress. River's hands slid over her
bare bottom and he chuckled.

"Father didn't warn us." Her undies were
nylon. She lost them in the shift.

"Clever Alpha."

River left her breasts to trail his lips down
her body, tickling her ribs with his tongue and spending too much
time kissing the concave of her belly between her hips. He was on
his knees and her fingers were in his hair. He ignored the pressure
of her hands to drive him lower and the torment continued.

The heat had risen in her body and she was
burning with need.

"Touch me," she whispered. She tried to hide
the whine and failed.

"Why?"

"Because I want you."

One hand slid up the center of her back,
fingers spread wide. The other arm went behind her knees, their
gentle force a silent command to bend. He held her firmly as he
lowered her to the fluffy turquoise rug Arnold had placed on the
floor at the foot of the bed.

Her legs went over his shoulders and his
mouth descended to her center. His tongue played over the sensitive
nub and within seconds, she was gone, carried away by the shivery
tingle that coursed through her body. When her eyes opened, River's
face was above her, watching.

"Remember," he said softly before he kissed
her, but she knew he wasn't saying it to her.

Again, she felt that niggling sensation but
she drove it away when he helped her to her feet and led her to the
bed.

Later, while submerged to their chests in the
wide comfort of the deep, clawfooted tub, they enjoyed their long
delayed bath, he played with her. He laughed and splashed water
back and forth in a mock battle as they sat facing each other. He
taught her how to squirt water by clenching her hands together and
made fun of her failures. He laughed even harder when she finally
succeeded and squirted him in the eye. This was the River she
wanted to keep, the one other people so seldom saw unless he was
playing with pups.

She ran her toes up the inside of his leg
until she reached the semi-erectness at the apex. Toes wiggling,
she laughed when it bobbed and came fully awake.

He laughed, too. "You're looking for trouble,
Babe."

"You should laugh more often. Don't just save
it for the pups." She had to move her foot to rearrange her body to
lean forward. Her knee slipped on the slick bottom of the tub and
she fell into his chest. "Have I told you my middle name is
Grace?"

River chuckled, and kissed her, and shared.
"It's easy with them. They remind me of the cubs."

He always referred to Forest, Dakota, Ranger,
and Meadow collectively as the cubs.

"They taught me how to laugh, which is pretty
remarkable considering we lived in shit. Forest didn't laugh much.
She was older, more like me. She'd forgotten how. But the younger
ones still remembered. It didn't take much to make them laugh. I
didn't want them to forget. I didn't want them to be like me, so at
first I faked it." He kissed her again. "No pup should forget how
to laugh."

They made love again, right there in the tub,
laughing the whole time. But even then, she knew. River laughed and
smiled. He enjoyed the silliness of sliding around the tub, but he
was too intent on watching every move she made, every look that
crossed her face.

Remember. The word kept getting in the way
and Reb kept pushing it back. She didn't want to remember. She
wanted River in the here and now.

She tried to keep it light. She fed him fudge
from the little pink box by the bed. It was Arnold's gift. He meant
it as a humorous play on the word Reb used to correct River's
language. He had no idea the chocolate treat had come to mean
something more between lovers.

Later, much later, as the grayness of dawn
began to lighten the room, Reb lay next to him in the bed, hearing
nothing of the awakening outside world, only her own panting
breaths in counterpoint to his deep ones after another round of
lovemaking. She closed her eyes and must have drifted off because
she didn't feel the bed sag when he turned.

She awakened to his touch, though he didn't
mean her to. He was on his side, head propped on one elbow, so
absorbed in what he was doing that he missed the flutter of her
lids. She relaxed them again, too worn out from their night of
lovemaking to make the effort to fully open them. She savored
instead, the feel of him.

Light as a feather, his finger traced the
line of her hair around her face. One knuckle ran the length of her
nose as gentle as a butterfly's kiss. The backs of his fingers
moved across her cheek and down along her jaw, cool against her
warm skin. The rough pad of his thumb ran across her lower lip,
again and again, testing its softness.

Remember. The word pierced her heart.

When he leaned in to kiss her, it was so
lightly placed she might not have felt it had she been truly
asleep.

River was saying goodbye.

~*~

Easing from the bed as gently as he could,
River picked up his dirty clothes from the night before and emptied
the pockets. He traded his three gifts of love for the last piece
of fudge which he wrapped tightly in its waxed paper holder. He
left the pink box on the dresser where Reb would be sure to find
it.

Someone had left clean clothes neatly piled
on the chair. He smiled ruefully at the white pair of boxers lying
on top. They were folded to expose one of the buxom and
lip-puckering wolves. Another of Arnold's jokes, he supposed. He
would remember that, too.

He dressed quietly in the darkest corner of
the room, keeping his eyes on the sleeping beauty. No longer a
babe-in-the-woods, she was now strong and capable and wise to the
evil that existed out there in the world. Most importantly, she was
safe. She would find her Alpha and spread the clean, clear beauty
of her soul to her pack as their Mate. She would be what she was
meant to be with a combination of beauty, grace, and orange
sneakers.

River was rolling the last of his things in
his jacket when he saw her eye open. He winced, wondering what he'd
done to awaken her.

"River?"

"Everything's okay, Babe. Go back to sleep,"
he told her quietly.

Both eyes were open.

"You're leaving, aren't you?" It wasn't
really a question.

This was what he'd hoped to avoid, so he told
a half-truth as he moved around the foot of the bed to the door. "I
have some things to take care of."

"But you'll be back, right? You promise?"

He couldn't. "Go back to sleep, Babe."

Reb curled her body in half and crawled the
rest of the way to the foot of the bed. "Tell me you're coming
back."

River wanted to look away, wanted to run for
the door, but he was afraid she would follow. He needed to keep
calm. And he couldn't keep his eyes from the long, lithe, and naked
body kneeling before him at the foot of the bed. Damn, but she was
the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen or ever would see.

He should have lied, but his years of
practice in the art deserted him. He couldn't speak, so he waited,
not knowing which would be worse, her begging him to stay, or
saying nothing and letting him go. She did neither.