Fire wolf, p.2
Fire Wolf, page 2
The stranger wore a thick, hooded sweatshirt. It was one of those brands people who worked outdoors favored, and it molded to his powerful chest and arms perfectly. He had dark blue jeans on his long legs and work boots, and the prints they left on the snow-covered ground had to be at least twice the length of mine.
“You gonna come out or what?” he asked, his Jersey accent brisk and no nonsense.
Fuck. I startled hard, grabbing my chest before I remembered myself. Motioning for him to step back, I opened the car door and gasped as the freezing wind whipped against me.
“Did Davi send you?” I yelled above the noise of the traffic and bitter January weather, and the man nodded.
He hadn’t backed up a step either, which meant I had to push him a little with my hip to wiggle out of the car.
“Excuse me,” I mumbled, and the man bent down.
“What for?” he growled.
Damn, but that accent of his was so familiar. Jersey natives tended to drop r’s so what for became what faw, and so on. It took me a really long time to get rid of my accent, which was a necessity in the legal world. I bet I’d have it back in an hour, being home.
Sexy voice. Good body.
“Oh, just—hey! Did you just sniff me?” I asked, shocked at his bad manners.
I knew the Macconwood Pack had stopped its ban on Witches and magic, but that didn’t mean I liked this big, strange Wolf sniffing at me like I was a bag of Cheetos, for fuck’s sake.
“Smell good, sweetheart. Got any bags?”
“Yes. Two in the back, and I am not your sweetheart,” I growled, stomping my way to his truck.
I stopped short, certain I heard him say “not yet” but when I glared at him, he totally ignored me. I noted the stenciled logo on the truck door and frowned.
Truman Contracting LLC? It couldn’t be! Could it? The Truman boys had been in school about the same time as me and my sisters. I’d had a crush on Timothy when I was ten, but this wasn’t him. This man was too big, too dark to be the delicate blond boy I’d once known.
Didn’t Tim have a brother?
I gulped. Oh crap. Yep. He had a brother named Mitchell. And I remembered him.
Mitch Truman had been every teenage girl's dream in high school. If I remembered correctly, he’d played varsity basketball as a starter freshman year. The guys had talent. But he was one of those beautiful, popular boys. The kind who never paid attention to me.
Now, Nova, she’d had her pick of the boys at Maccon City High, but my sister was ridiculously beautiful. She never dated the Werewolves, though. None of us did. But I wasn’t a teenager, we were not in high school anymore. That meant I had options.
Wait. What?
CHAPTER TWO MITCHELL
My breath huffed out in streaming clouds, but I was far from cold in the cabin of my truck. With the beast I had inside of me, it was a wonder I didn’t fog up the windows all on my own.
“Where are you?” I mumbled to myself, checking the sides of the road as I drove carefully, looking for a broken down vehicle.
Of course, I didn’t know what I was in for when Davian Harbor called me and invited me to his little sisters’ birthday party. I vaguely remembered the girls from back in school. They’d been pretty, smart, and a few years younger than me.
It was odd to be invited to their party since we weren’t friends, but I owed the man a favor. Davian Harbor was one of those super smart computer guys, and he’d been recommended to me by a member of the Pack after our brand-new top dollar computer system ate all our files. My brother and I own and operate a construction firm, mostly renovations.
Tim studied architecture in college, as for me, I just liked to work with my hands. Anyway, our system crashed, I called Davian, and he came through for us. So, when he sent the invitation via text, I figured what the hell? I liked parties as much as the next Werewolf.
Of course, it never occurred to me when he called a second time that I’d be picking up one of the guests of honor on my way to Harbor House. Davian shared her location with me, and I frowned. The woman had gotten stuck with her car just a few miles away from the house. She could have shifted and ran home—I knew they were all Shifters, the sisters, having gone to the same school as them even if I was older.
Maybe she’d been anxious about her luggage. Or the car itself. Females always carried a ton of crap with them. But I had to admit the hoity-toity, super geek ride was not something I had expected from Martina Harbor.
Sure, I knew electric cars were the future, but what could I say, I was a throwback. I loved the classics. I’d restored my 1972 Chevy C/K and made tons of modifications towards making it more environmentally responsible, as well as comfortable for me and any guests, of which she was the first.
Talk about a classic. The woman was petite and curvy, with skin that looked as smooth as silk, and a creamy tan complexion I was dying to touch. There was something unusual about this she-Wolf. Oh, I knew what she was, alright, but she didn’t feel like Pack. I’d have to call one of the Wolf Guard, maybe the Pack Beta, Seff, to ask him what he knew about little Martina Harbor.
I grabbed her bags out of the trunk of that toy car she was driving, shaking my head at her choice of vehicle. Oh well. I didn’t expect her to be perfect. What was I thinking? I didn’t expect anything from her. She was a stranger. I didn’t know her from Eve—my Wolf snarled, and I froze, listening to the beast’s long, drawn out rumble.
Mine.
Fuck.
Elation warred with caution. Mine? Could this tiny, curvy, little female really be mine? It was definitely a possibility, and I was more than open to it. In fact, I had to adjust my dick in my jeans because of how open I was to the possibility that Martina Harbor and I might mean something to each other.
Grrrr.
She smelled good. Like cinnamon apples with hot honey drizzled across the top. My favorite dessert. I knew better than to tell her that. Women today didn’t like to be compared to food, but what better compliment was there than that? The fact I was already imagining licking her from head to toe was a testament to the fact I found her absolutely fucking mouthwatering. It was a wonder I didn’t need a bib.
“Cold?” I asked, noticing her shiver.
That was odd. She was a Wolf Shifter like me. She shouldn’t be cold enough to shiver unless temps went below zero. I frowned and turned the heat on, not waiting for an answer.
“Thank you,” she replied stiffly, and I grinned.
Oh, but she was a feisty one. I recalled Davian saying something about his sisters taking over the world. One was a scientist. The smart one, Nova, I recalled her name from school. One was a social worker. And another was a lawyer.
One look at little Marti Harbor and I knew which one she was. Everything about her from her expensive clothes and the top dollar luggage she carried with her said big city rich. She was no social worker. She’d been known for her razor sharp tongue back in high school, and it seemed she put it to good use.
Good for her.
Pride filled me and I couldn’t stop the shit-eating grin from spreading across my face if I tried. Seriously, for some fucking reason, I wanted to fist pump the air and give a victory shout. This little badass was doing strange things to me, and inside me my chestnut brown Wolf was simply taking it all in.
“I live on the edge of town, down Devilwood Lane,” she said and told me the directions.
“I know where Harbor House is,” I replied easily, wanting her to be comfortable with me.
“Oh. I guess Davian told you where to bring me?” she asked.
“Your brother sent me, didn’t he?”
“Yeah. About that, um, thank you.”
“My pleasure.” It really was. She just had no idea.
Her warm cinnamon scent filled the cabin of my truck and my Wolf practically fucking purred at how delicious and tempting she smelled. Animal instincts were harder to control on full moon nights, and wouldn’t you know it? It was a full moon tonight.
The Wolf Moon, actually. Which was kind of a joke around town, seeing as how most of the Macconwood Pack, especially members my age, had grown up playing the online game of the same name created by one of our very own. WolfMoon was still going strong, had its own fandom and everything.
“By the way, happy birthday,” I said, needing to fill the silence before I did something stupid, like reach for her.
“How did you know it’s my birthday?” she asked and turned her luminous violet eyes on me.
Fuck. They were beautiful. More purple than blue. There was something different about those eyes. Special. But maybe that was her Wolf. I knew mine turned gold when my beast was near to the surface, otherwise they were just a muddy hazel color. Nothing like hers.
“One, I was invited to your party—”
“Why? We aren’t friends. You don’t even know me.”
“I would know you anywhere, Martina Harbor,” I said, and my voice was rough with my Wolf.
She narrowed her eyes, arms crossed across her chest, and damn, but she was cute when she got fired up. My Wolf studied her while I concentrated on driving. Sure, my reflexes were supernaturally enhanced, but January meant ice-slick roads and there were plenty of humans driving two-ton death machines who didn’t have my senses.
Steady does it.
“I’m sure Davian put you up to this, but I am not in the market for some pity date, got it?” she growled and this time, she’d shocked me.
“Pity date? I’ll have you know I am a very well sought after bachelor in Maccon City,” I told her.
“Oh, I bet, Mr. Truman.”
“First of all, gross. Mr. Truman is my dad. I’m only like three years older than you. My name is Mitch—”
“I know,” she said softly, turning her head towards the window.
But it was too late. I already saw it. A grin was peeking out at the corner of her mouth, and she’d averted her face to hide it. The woman was teasing me. And there went my interest, skyrocketing up a few more notches, as if it needed it. She was intriguing.
Fiery little badass.
“We went to school together, didn’t we?”
“You remember that?”
“Yes, I remember that. Damn, woman. I wasn’t just a dumb jock back then. Besides, the Harbor sisters were the prettiest girls in town when we were in high school. Not that you grew up too bad,” I added.
“Well, gee, thanks. I’m speechless,” she replied, and rolled her eyes.
But her scent told another story. She was nervous, And maybe a little interested. I took the exit and drove slowly, trying to drag out this bit of time we had together. I was becoming more enamored with the woman with every second that passed. It wasn’t unnatural for me to want to prolong this first reunion.
Score one point for Mitch Truman.
“Seriously though, weren’t you a senior when we were freshman?”
“Junior, actually, and your sister was in my AP Calculus class that year. She got top marks, if I recall correctly. Made me feel a little dumb to be honest,” I told her.
“Hmm. Yeah, Nova makes everyone feel a little dumb. But that’s usually because she looks like a supermodel and has a brain like Einstein,” Martina replied easily.
I detected no jealousy, or snark like I did whenever my siblings got to chatting about each other. I came from a large family. Four sisters and a brother. In fact, I was pretty sure the Harbor girls were in Tim’s class in grade school.
“She was definitely smart,” I said, wanting to keep the conversation going.
“And pretty. I mean, her eyes alone have been known to stop traffic,” Martina said.
Was she fishing? I inhaled and tried to determine what she was angling for, but she was concealing something from me, and it made my nose less reliable than usual. Hmm. That was odd.
“Blue eyes, right? Yeah, I remember. I’m partial to purple, myself,” I said in a low voice.
Take that, I thought with a tiny grin. I didn’t want her getting too comfortable now. Best to keep her on her toes. Her breath caught in her throat, and I pulled to a stop at a red light. Two more minutes till we’d pull up at her door. I turned my head towards her.
“Shouldn’t you be looking at the road?”
“Hard to look at anything else with you sitting here.”
“Yeah, right,” she said and snorted.
Oh, my God. She actually snorted. Fuck. She was cute.
“I’m serious. Look at you, Martina Harbor, sitting in my truck all grown up.”
“What are you talking about? Like you ever wanted me in your truck.”
“I did. But I was shy—”
“Okay, I call bullshit.”
“Yeah, you do that for a living, right?”
“Excuse me?”
“Isn’t that what it means to be a lawyer? Calling bullshit,” I asked, enjoying the fact I surprised her.
“Okay. You know who I am and what I do. What else do you think you know about me, Mitch?” she asked, and I could see her moving back, calculations forming in her brain.
She was an overthinker. Probably had something to do with trust issues. I understood that, not from personal experience, but because I was a thirty-three-year-old man and I didn’t live under a fucking rock. Besides, like my mom always said, anything worth having was worth waiting for and I could be patient.
I was a Wolf, after all. An apex predator. A natural born hunter, and hunters needed to have an unlimited supply of patience to catch their prey. Not that I thought of Marti as prey—okay, yeah, maybe some small part of me did. But only in a I wanna get to know you better kind of way not the hey, bunny get in my belly way.
“What else do I know about you? Well, I know I like what I see so far. And I know I want to get to know more about you,” I said.
“Is that so?” she asked, one eyebrow quirked up.
She was shivering again, and I wanted to warm her up. In fact, I was desperate to. My growl started slowly, building up inside my chest, and filling the whole damn cab of my truck. Desire and need raced through my veins, and I was hypnotized by her, drowning in the crystalline violet pools of her eyes.
“Oh, yeah,” I replied.
A horn honked behind us, breaking the mood. It was all I could do not to leap out of the car and beat that fucker with his steering wheel. I should have kissed her already, but she was skittish, and I wanted more than a stolen moment.
“So, you still playing basketball?”
“Ha! So, you do remember me? Okay,” I replied, grinning in earnest now.
There was simply no stopping it. I liked this woman. I was interested. And I was not afraid to let it show.
“Hardly,” she muttered, but it was too late for take backs.
I pulled up outside the long line of cars filing up the driveway of her childhood home, noting with surprise the big party tent set up outside and the loud thrumming of a guitar.
“Holy shit. What did they do?” she muttered, eyes wide as she leaned forward to get a better look.
I barked a laugh and shook my head. Looked like the whole Pack was there, and from the sounds of it, everyone was having a good time. The tent was fashioned for outdoors. Heaters were placed strategically throughout, the music was live, and I smelled the mouthwatering scents of food and drink dancing on the air.
Yep. This was some party, all right. I got out of the truck and went to the passenger side, opening the door for her. She was still stunned and seemed unsure of her next move. So, I stole it from her. I was a Wolf, not a saint.
I took her elbow and helped her out of the truck and cupped my hand around the back of her neck and crashed my mouth to hers in a hot, rough kiss that left my dick hard and her heart thundering inside her chest. My eyes were glowing gold with my Wolf, their reflection shining in the window of my truck behind her.
Martina held on to my shoulders, dazed from our kiss, and damn, but that made me feel ten feet tall. I growled and dipped my head again, sniffing her neck before stepping back. Fuck, she smelled good. I needed to distance myself before I pushed too fast, and it was torture, but I managed it, turning around one last time to flash her a Wolfish grin before I vanished inside the tent.
“Welcome home, Martina Harbor.”
CHAPTER THREE MARTINA
“You’re here!”
Sybil tackle hugged me before I got my bearings. I fell backwards, hopefully denting that asshole’s truck. How dare he? Imagine kissing the hell out of a woman then running off to party. Oh, I saw the fucker. He was dancing with some tall blonde she-Wolf. Not that I should care, but for some reason I did. Even more shocking, I wanted to rip her damn head off.
“Of course, I’m here,” I growled, hugging Sybil back.
“Let’s get Nova,” she squealed, grabbing my arm and pulling me forward with more strength than necessary.
My sister was a badass River Dragon, the only one of her kind as far as I knew. She was super fucking strong, making her petite pixie-like appearance the perfect camouflage. Within seconds, we found Nova in the throng of people, and I was just flabbergasted.
First, I missed my sisters. We hugged and screamed and kissed and jumped up and down, which was what sisters did. We’d always been connected, if not through our shared birthday, then through our bond as former foster kids who’d grown to depend on each other for anything.
They had my back, and I had theirs. And dammit, I missed this. Living in New York City was not what I’d hoped. I’d been lonely and cut off from them for too long. My Wolf was sick. I hadn’t told them, but she was. Something was wrong. But being with them, even for just a few minutes was, well, it was magic. I felt better already.
Tell them, my Wolf urged, but I zipped my lips.
Now was the time for reunion, not secret telling. Besides, I wanted to feel them out before I mentioned what I was really doing home. There were a lot of moving parts and I wanted to make sure I dotted my i’s and crossed my t’s first.
“I am so glad to see you,” Nova said, and hugged me tighter.
