Читать книгу Wolf Tales VII - Kate Douglas - Страница 10

Northern Maine

Some of the trees were already beginning to turn, this far north in Maine. The sky was a brilliant cerulean blue and the air so crisp and clear it felt as if you could see forever. Manda Smith stood on the wide front porch, naked as the day she was born, and reveled in the perfection of the day. She spread her arms, took a deep breath and laughed out loud for the pure joy of living.

“What’s so funny?” Baylor Quinn stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around Manda’s waist. She leaned into his warmth, pressing back into the thick mat of hair on his chest until it tickled her spine. He nuzzled the sensitive skin just below her ear and made her giggle. She felt him quicken.

In mere seconds he was hard and ready, though they’d made love most of the morning. With Jake and Shannon away on business for a few days, she and Baylor had felt no need to do more than eat, sleep, and make love.

“Everything. Nothing. It’s just so beautiful here, Bay. So perfect.”

“So are you.” He turned her in his arms and rested his hands on the curve of her buttocks. Then he kissed her. His lips moved over her mouth, his tongue finding each point more sensitive than the last. He sipped at her mouth, gently drawing her lips between his, using his tongue to test the seam between them.

Manda groaned into his mouth as their tongues tangled. She pressed her hips close, catching his suddenly rigid cock between her belly and his before she finally broke away, laughing even harder. “You’re right, big guy. I am perfect, and it’s all because of you.”

The days when she’d been a deformed, misshapen creature, half wolf and half woman, were not so far behind Manda that the memory had begun to fade.

Not even close. “Are you going to stand out here and tease me, or make love to me the way you should?”

Bay brushed a strand of her long blond hair out of the way and nipped the lobe of her ear. “And how might that be?”

Manda stepped away from him and looked out at the forest. She glanced back at Bay, winked one eye and shifted. With a little yip, the gray wolf turned, waved her long plume of a tail like a challenge and jumped off the deck.

She cleared the railing and landed lightly in the thick grass below. Manda knew it wouldn’t take Bay long to catch her. She made it as far as the first line of trees where the forest met the cleared land surrounding the house before he finally got close. He caught her there, both of them running full out, and the weight of his body sent her tumbling and rolling through the bushes and beyond into a small clearing out of sight of the house.

Growling, feinting and snapping, Manda scrambled to her feet, but Bay was waiting. He crouched back with most of his weight on his hind legs, one paw raised, ears flat on his skull.

Manda shuddered. She reacted immediately to his aggressive pose, responding with an amazing rush of desire. Her body turned pliant and submissive before her brain had a chance to consider any other alternative. She growled softly, then whined and crouched low. Her ears lay flat. She curled her lip in a soundless snarl.

Bay growled and stalked closer with raised hackles. He looked huge and ferocious, almost menacing—a totally dominant male wolf. The musky scent of his arousal filled the air, and all the fight went out of Manda. She rolled over and displayed her soft belly. The wolf leaned close, sniffed her sex and licked her there, dragging his long tongue across her vulva. Once and then again.

Her body shivered in response.

He sniffed again and Manda heard him whine. The needy sound seemed to come from deep in his throat. He snorted loudly, and then he backed away, raised his nose in the air and howled.

Manda scrambled to her feet and turned as if to flee, but Bay stopped her with a single paw to her shoulder. His sharp claws raked through her thick coat and held her. Whimpering, humanity momentarily submerged in the pure sensual response of the pliant bitch, Manda turned her back to him and planted all four legs to steady herself.

Bay mounted her, his powerful forelegs grasping her shoulders, his sharp cock probing the sensitive tissues around her vulva. She adjusted her stance and he finally slipped easily into her sex.

She whimpered again, but it was a sound of pure, unequaled pleasure. This was what her body had been designed for, this ultimate connection between herself and her mate. Manda opened her thoughts, caught Bay’s pure, animalistic arousal and more, his love for her as a man for his woman, his amazing sense of pride in all that Manda was, all she had become.

Manda knew she owed him her life.

From the pathetic, feral creature held prisoner by a body neither human nor wolf, to this—a confident alpha bitch in one world, a tall, graceful woman with a perfect body and brilliant mind in another. She had grown out of despair to become a combination of beings unequaled by any other species.

All of it due to Baylor’s love, his patience, his amazing devotion to a woman who had once been so hideously formed, no one could bear to look at her.

Finally confident and whole, Manda knew she was now true to her dual nature—woman and wolf. She was Chanku, a creature both intelligent and strong, yet ruled by an unrelenting sex drive, a libido equally matched against her other strengths.

A sexual need only Baylor Quinn could ease.

Manda’s body quivered with the first stirrings of climax. She opened her thoughts even more, crawled deeper into Bay’s mind at its most basic until she became the air rushing in and out of his lungs, the strength of his cock thrusting hard and deep into his bitch. She was muscle and sinew, lust and desire, love and overwhelming need.

Manda growled, lost in sensation, caught in the mental and physical loop between herself and Baylor. She was both of them, feeling everything each of them shared and unable to contain all that she felt, all that she was.

Manda’s climax hit with amazing force at the same moment Bay’s wolven cock swelled and locked her body tightly to his. Her vaginal muscles stretched and adjusted and then clamped down on the hard masculine knot deep inside.

Clenching and rippling over his length, aware of the rhythmic pulse of his ejaculation, the sharp scrape of his claws on her shoulders, Manda rolled with the powerful sensations. She whined when his teeth caught the sensitive skin behind her ear in a painful nip.

Her nostrils flared with the musk of their mating. She drew the scent in deeply, filling her lungs full of its rich perfume. Her body trembled, shuddering over and over with the powerful jolts of orgasm. Caught up in the myriad sensations of their joining, Manda melded even more completely with Bay.

Merging totally into the synapses within his mind, sensing his thoughts on an almost cellular level, she became one with her mate. Her body’s organs matched the pulsing rythm of his. The beat of his heart and the rush of his blood were hers. She felt the hard thrust of his cock from his perspective, her own rippling muscles holding him deep inside. She moaned with the pleasurable ache in his balls as if she were the one thrusting, the one aching…and then she shifted.

Lying there in the sun-warmed grass, blond hair tangled about her shoulders and eyes half-closed, Manda hovered in that near perfect bliss after climax. Bay remained a wolf, his large body tied intimately to hers, his breath hot against her neck. Manda’s long hair tangled in his paws and his thoughts slipped easily into her mind.

Human or wolf, you are mine. Always mine. I love you.

“I know.” She turned her head and looked into his amazing amber eyes. Baylor’s eyes in the broad skull of the wolf. “As I love you.”

His long tongue caressed her cheek. He shifted then, and they lay there in the warm sunshine, their bodies lax in the aftermath of another amazing orgasm.

Manda stirred, but before she could sit up, Bay shifted once again and she lay beside the wolf. He scooted down between her legs and ran his long tongue over her sensitive tissues.

Much more effective than a bath, don’t you think?

She giggled with the sound of laughter in his silent voice, then stretched her long legs wide to give him better access. His tongue lapped at their combined fluids, and while he’d said his intention was merely to cleanse her from their lovemaking, his amazingly dexterous tongue managed to find her clit on every pass.

Manda covered her mouth with her hand and clamped her teeth down on her palm, though she wasn’t sure if she was hiding giggles or screams. Already sensitive to his touch, her sex responded to his almost painful ministrations.

Her entire being centered on the slow lick and sweep between her legs, on the wet, squishy sounds of his mobile tongue as he found every crease and licked every crevice of her wet and swollen sex.

If he intended to cleanse her, it wasn’t going to be easy. She was wet again and growing wetter.

The soft rasp of his hot tongue had her moaning and writhing with each amazing sweep. He held her down with his front paws and worked his broad, wolven shoulders closer. Feasting now, nipping lightly at her inner thighs to hold her still, his long tongue speared deep inside her sex, curled against her sensitive channel and managed to find her swollen clit with every sweep and lick.

Suddenly he was human once again. Manda hung there on the edge, aware that one more long, hot sweep of wolven tongue would take her over. Her body quivered and her vaginal muscles pulsed in time to the rapid beating of her heart.

I like this part too much because I know it makes you crazy. Bay’s warm breath tickled her throbbing sex.

Manda whimpered, hanging by a single thread, hovering over her impending climax.

Bay’s fingers thrust deep inside her vagina just as his lips compressed her clitoris. He suckled her, squeezing the tiny bundle of nerves between warm, wet lips and moist, soft, tongue.

Screaming, Manda arched against his mouth. Her inner muscles grabbed his fingers, her entire body clenched in a powerful spasm and held it forever. Finally she tumbled headlong into another screaming orgasm.

Bay’s silent laughter followed her into oblivion.

She opened her eyes and watched as he licked his fingers clean of her cream. Her sex still pulsed and her nipples tingled. Her toes and fingers felt numb. When Bay finally stretched out beside her, Manda closed her eyes and wallowed in the magnificent afterglow of yet another mind-blowing orgasm.

She awoke some time later to a sense of something not right, as if things were out of sync or a little off kilter. Still wrapped in Bay’s arms, Manda nuzzled her cheek against the dark mat of hair on his chest and filled her nostrils with his familiar scent. Then she turned her head, sniffed the air, and caught the slightest whiff of something that didn’t belong.

Bay, do you smell something different? Out of place? Is there someone else here?

Bay rolled over slowly and rose up on his elbows as if to kiss her, but he took a deep breath and tested the air currents. Get up slowly, like nothing’s wrong. We’re going back to the house.

Should we shift?

No. There are intruders. In the woods near the rocks. I smell two, maybe three men.

She forced a smile when Bay stood up and grabbed her hand. She gazed up at him a moment, at the perfect body of the man who was her mate. Powerful and dark with the lean muscles of an athlete, he might have been a professional model except for the feral gleam in his eyes. Looking at him, standing so tall and powerful in front of her, so perfect, it was hard to believe anyone would be foolish enough to threaten them.

Bay pulled her to her feet. He wrapped an arm about her waist, holding her close. Then he took her hand. His long fingers tangled with hers and she squeezed him tight.

Together, they walked back to the house, two naked lovers holding hands and gazing into one another’s eyes as if nothing but the two of them existed in all the world. And while it might appear to anyone watching that nothing was wrong, Manda felt the heat of strange eyes on her and knew someone watched them walk away.

She wondered if the intruders had watched them making love. A cold chill coursed through her, thinking of their lovemaking, so personal and perfect, and the fact it might have been observed. She didn’t want to consider an even worse scenario. What if the intruders had been there long enough, hiding close enough to see everything?

Had they been there, watching, when she and Baylor shifted?

When they reached the front porch, Bay pulled Manda in through the door as if he intended to make love to her again. Damn, he couldn’t believe they’d been so careless, but the property was posted and fenced, and his senses so sharp he thought he’d have known there were intruders.

But no, it had been Manda who’d saved his sorry ass. Manda’s sharper senses and awareness.

Thank the Goddess.

He grabbed his jeans from the living room floor where they’d ended up a couple days ago. Manda had already slipped into a pair of sweats. She was using Jake’s powerful binoculars to study the area where they’d both scented the intruders.

Baylor loaded the rifle and stuck extra shells in his pants pocket. Neither of them said a word, yet they worked together as a perfect unit.

Until Manda gasped and the binoculars dropped from her hands. He heard them clatter on the wood floor.

“What the hell? Manda? Sweetie, what’s wrong?”

“I know them. Two of them, anyway.” She was shaking like a leaf. “I saw a third man, but I don’t recognize him.” She turned to Baylor, looking as if she’d seen a ghost…or worse.

“Who…?” Bay touched her shoulder and tried to touch her thoughts as well, but her mind was blocked and the walls she’d thrown up were impenetrable.

When she finally spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper. Bay grasped her hand to steady her.

“One of them is the man who raped me. The other helped tie me for him. He put the muzzle on me so I couldn’t bite.” Manda turned and stared at Bay, trembling so hard she could barely talk. “They’re from the lab. The one where I was held the longest. Where I was tested and examined and experimented on for all those years.”

Her voice was rising, her eyes blinking rapidly. Bay touched Manda’s shoulder. She had to stay in control, no matter how frightened she was. “Sweetheart, I won’t let them get—”

She interrupted him. Her voice trembled. “What are they doing here, Bay? Why are they coming after me?”

“Shit.” Bay leaned down and grabbed the binoculars off the floor, but when he straightened up, he realized he didn’t need them. The three men walked across the yard, evenly spaced and watchful, as if they had military training. They came directly toward the house, and while there were no guns visible, Bay had no doubt they were armed.

He grabbed the rifle and cradled it against his chest. At the same time, he sent out a silent call to Jake. He and Shannon were due home later today. With any luck they might be close enough to hear.

Nothing. Shit.

“Manda, you answer the door if they knock. Don’t open it for anything. Remember, even if they saw you, they can’t possibly recognize you. You don’t look anything like you used to. You’re not half wolf and they’ve never seen you as a woman. Your voice is completely different.” He touched her cheek with his fingertips and gently kissed her mouth. “You’re different. And you’re mine. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

She nodded, a sharp jerk of her head that couldn’t hide the way her body was shaking. Her thoughts were still blocked and Bay could only imagine what she was thinking.

What she remembered.

He knew exactly what had happened to her so long ago.

He’d been there, in those dark recesses of her memories when they’d finally mated as wolves for the first time, when they’d bonded as life mates. He’d seen more ugliness than any one person should have to endure. Manda had not only lived it, she’d persevered and survived it with bravery and grace—and she’d come out stronger.

There was a sharp rap on the door. Manda jumped. She glanced at Bay and took a deep breath. Then she called out, “Who’s there?”

“Name’s Ted, ma’am. Me’n my buddies need to use the phone.”

Wide-eyed, Manda glanced at Bay and shook her head. His name is Allen. I recognize his voice. “I’m sorry,” she said, glancing toward the telephone on the table. “We don’t have a phone. You’ll have to go somewhere else.”

Bay heard quiet footsteps as if someone moved carefully across the deck and along the side of the house. He aimed the gun at the back door.

“That won’t work, ma’am. Ya see, we’re looking for someone. A friend of ours. She’s lost. Name’s Manda. You know her? We heard she might be out this way.”

“There’s no one here by that name. You’re trespassing on private property. It’s posted. Now please go.”

“She’d be real easy to spot. She’s different.”

“She’s not here. I said I want you to leave. Now, please.” There was a long silence. Manda wrapped her arms around her waist. She was breathing hard, as if she’d run a mile.

“Sorry to bother ya, ma’am.”

Bay heard the sound of departing footsteps, but he shook his head, nodding toward the back door. Get down. Now!

There was a loud crash. Glass shattered and flew as the back door slammed open. Two men rushed into the kitchen, handguns ready. The third man waited on the deck.

Bay dropped the first with a single shot. The second man spun around when a slug caught his left shoulder. He dropped down behind the kitchen counter, cursing.

The third man took off running, and something primitive clicked in Manda’s brain. She stopped shaking, ripped off her sweats and shifted. Bay reached behind him and opened the front door. With a mighty leap Manda cleared the deck railing and hit the ground at full stride. Bay watched her circle the house and take off after the third intruder.

He hoped it was the one who raped her. Manda deserved her revenge.

He had to trust in Manda’s strength, no matter how much he worried. This was Manda’s battle, one she needed to fight on her own. Besides, Bay still had a wounded and very unwelcome guest bleeding all over his kitchen floor.

They had come looking for a woman who was half human, half wolf. It seemed apropos that a wolf would be the last thing this bastard saw. Slipping out of his clothes, Bay shifted and closed in on his wounded prey.

It was almost too simple to find him. Her heightened senses recognized the man’s scent the moment she entered the woods. Manda wrinkled her nose against the familiar stench. Instead of fear, she felt nothing but anger. This man had raped her. He’d thought her so ugly, he’d gotten drunk first. She’d never forgotten the pain, the humiliation she’d suffered at his hands.

She’d been a helpless creature. Still a child, half wolf, half scared kid, convinced she’d been punished by a vengeful god for committing a hideous sin. She’d accepted the horrible things the men and even some of the women had done to her because she truly believed she deserved a living hell.

What else could she believe? Before he died, her father had caught her masturbating. He’d told her then she would burn in hell, that God would punish her unless she stopped such disgusting behavior.

She hadn’t stopped. And both her parents had died.

When she awakened after the attack that killed them, she’d become a horrible freak, half wolf, half human.

It wasn’t until Baylor showed up on her doorstep and convinced her she was not some deviant, cursed creature, but instead a woman of value, that Manda finally realized none of what happened had been her fault.

She hadn’t deserved their cruelty. Not then, not now. She was Chanku. Trapped in the process of shifting she’d lived as a feral outcast instead of what she really was—a woman deserving of love and compassion, an alpha bitch ripe with power.

Now she herded the man who had once tormented her. Herded him like a stupid sheep, forcing him from trail to trail until he finally entered a blind canyon. She knew the moment he realized he was trapped. Heard him curse and beg as he tried to scramble up the sheer rock face.

She growled and ducked low behind a boulder. He fired his handgun, shooting wildly. Bullets ricocheted off the rock walls of the canyon on both sides of her.

Manda moved closer. The stench of fear and unwashed male assaulted her nostrils. A rabbit jumped from behind a nearby bush and scampered back down the trail. Gunfire followed its path but the bullets pinged harmlessly off rocks and buried themselves in tree trunks.

Finally Manda heard the sound she’d been waiting for—the sharp click as the hammer came down on an empty chamber.

Before he had time to reload, Manda cleared the low barrier of rocks separating them. She caught the man in the middle of his chest and drove him back against the stone wall. Her snapping jaws missed his throat, but the handgun flew from his grasp.

With a panicked scream, he grabbed for Manda’s throat. She twisted free. Snarling, she faced him. Paced back and forth directly in front of him, remembering.

He’d been one of the worst. Quick to cause pain, to embarrass and humiliate her. He’d known she had the mind of an intelligent young woman, but he’d treated her like an animal.

Worse than an animal.

The question was, could she kill in cold blood? His pistol lay on the ground. He was terrified, but unarmed.

She thought.

Suddenly he reached into his boot and pulled out a knife. The six-inch blade gleamed in the sunlight. He rushed forward, swinging wildly.

She went for his wrist first. Her teeth closed around his forearm and she clamped her jaws shut. The satisfying crunch of breaking bone was followed by a harsh scream of pain. The knife clattered to the ground. Manda twisted in midair, hit the ground and jumped again.

This time, she aimed for his throat.

She didn’t miss. He went down without a sound. She ripped into the soft flesh beneath his jaw and then backed away from the spurting blood. His eyes were open, his mouth gasping like a fish out of water.

Manda shifted. Standing tall and proud, naked and perfect, she stared down at the dying man and felt nothing but disgust. “Sorry, Allen. I bet that hurts. Remember me? The little freak you loved to torture?”

He blinked and stared at her, dying but still aware.

“That’s right. I’m Manda. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Not a helpless, deformed little creature now, am I?” She squatted down and looked directly into his eyes. “I want to be the last thing you see before you reach hell, Allen.”

He blinked and Manda rose to her full height. She waited and watched while he bled out, until his chest no longer heaved in search of breath, until the shimmer in his dead eyes turned dull.

It took much longer than she’d expected.

It took hardly any time at all.

Bay’s voice in her mind brought her back. His concern. His love. His need for her. Sighing, Manda turned away from the body lying in a pool of warm blood at the base of the cliff. Feeling somewhat dazed, she shifted once more and headed back to the house at a slow trot.

She needed a shower, badly. Needed to wash away the stench of death, the ugly feeling in her soul. She’d long dreamed of vengeance. Wanted the visceral satisfaction of seeing her tormentors dead.

Unfortunately, she’d never realized how empty it would make her feel. How sad. She had the crazy thought that she was thankful wolves couldn’t cry.

Baylor met her at the back door. He’d slipped on a clean pair of faded blue jeans. His feet were bare, his chest covered only in the thick mat of dark hair. Manda shifted and flowed into his embrace. She burst into tears, sobbing, unable to catch her breath or form any coherent thought.

Blood covered the kitchen floor. There was more on the back deck, spatters on the walls, but the bodies were nowhere to be seen. Bay walked Manda through the house to the front deck where everything seemed perfectly all right. Where the only things she could smell were the rich, clean scents of forest and fresh air.

Bay sat on the old porch swing and pulled Manda into his lap, holding her, soothing her. Long minutes later, she managed to catch both her breath and her composure.

“He’s dead, Bay. I killed him.”

“I know. I sensed his death through you. I know it wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the right one.” He sighed and pressed his forehead against hers. “There’s something you need to know.”

Manda raised her head. “What’s wrong?”

Baylor sighed, as if he’d rather not say anything. He brushed her hair back from her face and kissed her very gently on the mouth. “Anton called a few minutes before you got back. Someone tried to kidnap Xandi and Keisha’s babies last night. The intruders are dead and the babies are perfectly safe, but it was a close call. This morning, five men went after the women from the San Francisco pack while they were in Golden Gate Park. They wounded Tinker in the attack but everyone else is okay. Unfortunately, so are the bad guys. They all escaped.”

Manda pushed herself away so she could focus on Bay’s eyes. “What else?”

He gazed out across the meadow in front of the house. “The ones up in Montana? The guys that went after the babies and their mothers? They’re all from the South Bay. They worked for a bio-engineering lab. Not the same name as the one where you were held, but the way these places change names and ownership…”

“They know about us. They know about the Chanku.” Manda covered her mouth with her fingertips.

“It appears that way. I checked the IDs from the two I killed here. Nothing to tell you where they worked, but one was from Belmont, the other from Oakland, both cities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s too great a coincidence, especially since you ID’d two of the three.”

“Have you told Anton?” Manda felt a chill run up her spine when he nodded, and along with that, a huge dose of guilt. They were all in danger because of her.

“When Jake and Shannon get back, we need to find the men’s car. I’ve stashed the bodies of the two guys I killed here, but I want to run the car into one of the old quarry ponds. They won’t be found in our lifetime. We need to see if there’s any evidence in their car, any hint of why they’re after us.”

Manda nodded. She looked absolutely numb. “Bay, we need to do something about Allen’s body. I just left him there in the woods.”

“Don’t worry. He’ll go in the car with the others. We’ve got time. We’ll take care of things once Jake and Shannon are here. I don’t want to leave you alone. Are you okay?” He touched her chin with his fingertips and turned her to face him.

She loved him so much. He’d sacrificed for her. Killed for her. She’d never before realized how difficult that was…killing. But in so doing, Bay had saved her from the worst kind of hell. She felt like such a failure. Manda bowed her head, unwilling to make eye contact. “I didn’t think it would feel this bad.”

“What, sweetheart?” Bay wrapped his fingers lightly around her upper arms and softly rubbed her skin.

“Killing. I feel terrible for killing Allen. Even though he…”

“I’m glad. Killing should make you feel horrible.”

“What?” His grasp on her arms tightened. She raised her head and frowned. “I don’t understand.”

He slid his hands down her arms and wrapped his long fingers around hers. “I don’t kill easily. When I worked for the government, that was pretty much my job, but it’s not something I ever did lightly. There are times…to save my life, to save the life of someone I love or have sworn to protect, that I’ve had to.” His voice dropped even lower. He shook his head slowly, but he smiled at her. “Never for pleasure. Not for sport. Wolves kill to eat or to protect the pack. If you had not killed him, he would have found a way to capture you. You had no choice, but you should feel badly for taking a life, even one as foul as his.”

Manda leaned back against Baylor’s chest and thought about what he’d said. She wondered if Allen had a family, if he had children he’d loved. She finally decided she couldn’t go there and survive intact. He was dead. That ugly part of her childhood was over. It was time to consign him to the past.

Bay’s arms tightened around her waist and she snuggled against his chest while he held her in his lap like a child. They were still sitting there when Jake and Shannon arrived with some very unsettling news. Still there when the phone rang.

It was Anton Cheval. He wanted all of them to come to Montana. Another attempt had been made, this time against Keisha and Xandi when they’d gone to town for groceries. It looked like an all-out attack. Someone wanted the Chanku badly enough to kill for the chance to make a capture.

Wanted them badly enough to die. The question was, who? And why?

It wasn’t until Baylor and Jake retrieved the body of Manda’s rapist that they got their first bit of solid evidence. Allen carried a mobile phone in a small leather holster fastened to his belt.

One loaded with names, phone numbers, and dates. Baylor slipped the phone into his pocket and helped Jake carry the body back to the car.