Her Wolf

  “But why couldn’t I pick up your scent?”

  “You’re not the only one with tricks, old man.” Rex’s tone was jovial but his eyes had gone wolf. Ashlee swallowed, remembering how he’d done that on the boat too. Rex must let his wolf loose more often than the others. Cullen made a growling noise in his throat.

  “All right.” Michael interrupted their display. “You’re both big men. For the moment, I’m in charge here and I say enough. Ashlee’s going to take Trip and run out of here faster than any of us can imagine if we don’t all start to behave like civilized people.”

  Ashlee opened her mouth to object, but then closed it as her wolf growled at her.

  Alpha.

  Ashlee wasn’t sure what that meant, but she had a feeling it was her wolf’s way of telling her not to argue with the boss.

  “Trip, you’re no good to me like this, all gooey and doe-eyed. I want my warrior back. So take your mate and get the ritual done so we can have you back. Tonight we run as a pack. I want Ashlee integrated now. Then tomorrow we meet and figure out a game plan for dealing with Dad and the witch. Cullen, I expect you to stay and run with the pack. No disappearing right now.” Michael nodded to everyone and left the room.

  “Why doesn’t he just become the full-fledged Alpha?” Ashlee whispered to Tristan.

  Tristan looked at the floor. “Because he’s afraid, as we all are, that we’re too much like Dad. That the power of the Alpha, after the ceremony, is so intense he’ll go mad with it like Dad did and betray everyone we love.”

  “Your father did that to you on purpose. He kept the six of you weak so you’d never be a real threat to him. I didn’t realize that’s what he was doing at the time—I didn’t realize a lot of things about our former leader—but that’s what he did. But your mother made you strong. Just look for her power.” Cullen’s voice from right behind her startled Ashlee so much she jumped. Tristan put his hand on her shoulder to steady her as Cullen turned on his heel and left the room.

  “He’s a bit much, isn’t he?” Ashlee watched Cullen stalk from their sight.

  “He can be, yes. He’s the bogeyman to the wolf children. Don’t misbehave at pack meetings, listen to your Alpha, don’t betray our secrets, or Cullen will come and get you. He actually came and got me once when I’d disobeyed. Needless to say I never disobeyed again.”

  “What did he do to you?” Ashlee asked, as images of dark dungeons and beatings filled her head.

  “He made me do manual labor for a month. This place shone like a new penny when

  I was done scrubbing it.”

  So Cullen was tough but not brutal. Ashlee could respect that.

  “One more thing, Tristan. What is the mating ritual we need to get done so you can stop being doe-eyed?”

  “Michael just ordered us to go have sex.”

  That’s what she’d thought. If her cheeks were as red as she thought they were, she was the color of a tomato.

  6

  “What about this one?”

  Tristan smiled. The painting Ashlee pointed to was his favorite. She’d been walking around his room asking him about every one of his creations. He couldn’t imagine being more happy than he was right at this moment.

  “That was one of the first I did in watercolor. I wasn’t even sure I could use a brush.

  All of my work before that had been in charcoal.”

  He’d sat outside for hours and watched the chickens in his mother’s yard cluck and peck their way through their food supply for the day. He captured two of them from memory during their feeding. It was a very simple picture, just two chickens being chickens, but it had proven to him that he could paint with a brush.

  Ashlee turned from examining the painting to smile at him. He reached out and touched the side of her face. Tristan watched as she closed her eyes for a second and then opened them again. Yep, this was happiness.

  “Why was all your previous work in charcoal?”

  “I trained in architecture. The Institute was my design.” She beamed at him and he felt like he grew taller by two inches. “So when I started trying to do art that wasn’t building design, I immediately went to charcoal, because I could hold the block of charcoal like I held a pencil.”

  “Do you still do architectural design?”

  Tristan shook his head. “No. The last time I designed something was eighty years ago. It’s all very different now. I can use a computer as well as anyone, but I’ve never even tried the software.” Tristan swallowed. “But if you want to leave here, to go live somewhere else, I’ll do that, go back to school. Learn the new stuff and start over with another architecture career.”

  She looked at him, her right eyebrow raised, and Tristan wished he could read her mind. That might have been a useful trick to give mates, the power of mind reading.

  “What makes you think I want to leave here?”

  He didn’t mind the question. At least she wasn’t denying they’d be together.

  “I’m just letting you know I’ll go wherever you want.” He gulped. He had meant that when he said it earlier but now something seemed to be changing inside of him. He would do whatever Ashlee wanted but he couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that they needed him here. What had Michael meant when he’d said they’d been lost without him?

  Do you really not know?

  Was that annoyance he heard in his wolf’s voice? What do you mean?

  He thought he heard the creature sigh. Never mind it now.

  “I wanted to go into interior design. I paint too.” Ashlee grinned at him.

  Tristan’s heart jumped. “Wow. That’s incredible.” Inside, his wolf leapt with delight, their strange conversation from moments earlier forgotten instantly. He wanted to shift to four feet and leap in the air. He settled for just inhaling Ashlee’s unique scent. Cinnamon and vanilla. He’d noticed it when he’d been stuck in the wolf enclosure and he drowned in the glory of it now.

  “I don’t know if I want to live in your bedroom for the rest of my days. There’s no where to put my stuff.”

  Inside, his wolf dropped down on all fours in disgust. Idiot.

  He’d had ample time to clear out some drawers for her, why didn’t he? He didn’t use the smallest bit of the manners his mother had taught him. His mate was currently living out of a suitcase.

  She grabbed his hands and pulled them out of his hair. “I’m not saying I’m unhappy. I think we can make room for me in here. But… well, I thought that I saw some old, decrepit-looking cottages on the south side of the island when I walked with the Aunts today…” she trailed off, seeming unsure.

  He knew the ones. They’d all gone to ruin thirty years ago when the insanity had descended on the island. The remaining unmated males had all moved into the Institute and let their childhood homes fall apart. It had seemed appropriate, as their lives before the spell had been destroyed too.

  “I want you to build me a cottage. I don’t want to live here, in your dorm-like bedroom, forever. I want a home. A real home.”

  Tristan wanted to leap again. “Yes, I can do that, little Ashlee. I’ll build it myself, with my own two hands. Our home, yes.”

  “Sometimes, when you get really excited, the way you say things becomes old fashioned. It’s adorable.” Her eyes were playful, her grin a sexual taunt if he’d ever seen one. His groin grew hard.

  “We can’t have babies. But maybe we can bring this place back to life.” The playfulness left her eyes as she spoke.

  “I really don’t care about that. I don’t need children. I’m not even sure I like them. Besides, I’d rather not have to share your attention.” He wasn’t lying; he wouldn’t have minded having kids someday, but it wasn’t a must-have. He felt so blessed with Ashlee in his life he wouldn’t trade her for a million children.

  Her eyes were so serious it almost stopped his heart. “I believe you, but you have to understand…when my fiancé found out I couldn’t have babies, he got so upset he ran out and had sex with the
counter chick from the local Dairy Queen. Ironically, that little indiscretion got her pregnant and I became so distraught over it I had a nervous breakdown, dropped out of college, and terrified my parents.” Tristan watched as Ashlee suddenly became interested in her shoes. She had been worried about telling him of her past. “I can’t help but have this belief that men want women who can have their offspring. You and I are part animal, and animals want to procreate.”

  He walked the few steps to her and pressed his body up against hers. She moved backwards until she was halted by the wall behind her. “You and I are sentient beings, humans, who have this special gift inside of us, an ability most do not have. It makes us loyal, attentive, and family-oriented but we’re still human beings. You are mine. Period. I wouldn’t care if you were missing a limb, I’d still want you like I do now, and I’d like to think if there was an equivalent problem with me, you’d feel the same way.” He leaned down until his mouth was just above hers. “Little Ashlee, you are my mate—after tonight you will always be with me. I’ve never been mated, obviously, but I’m told it’s very intense.”

  He pressed his mouth to hers and lost all coherent thought.

  Ashlee ran her hands up Tristan’s sculpted arms as his tongue conquered her mouth.

  Their lips met again and again and their tongues invented games to play. She wanted to be closer to him so she didn’t stop her hips when they ground hard into his. He pulled his mouth from hers and then crushed it down to hers with a passion that she loved.

  Mine. Her wolf smiled, a big canine grin.

  Ours. Ashlee corrected her.

  But then, all of her focus was on Tristan. The feelings that just kissing Tristan aroused in her body were unlike anything she had ever felt before. Her nipples hardened under her shirt, and she wanted the offensive material off, now. Tristan seemed to understand her desires. He picked her up and carried her to the bed. He kissed her one more time, hard, then pulled the shirt from her body. Buttons flew and fabric ripped as he threw the shirt into the corner. Tristan ran his hands up from her stomach to her breasts. She shuddered under his touch and he grinned at her. She was going to have a lifetime to see that smile, but she knew she’d never forget how it looked right this moment. Tristan’s appreciative grin was sincere, focused, and adoring.

  She reached up to pull his shirt from his body, but ultimately he had to help her. Her hands shook and she couldn’t make them work. Shirtless, he reached down and took one of her fingers in his mouth. He sucked, hard, and she thought she might die from the pleasure. Her panties, that had already been wet, were suddenly soaked. He inhaled sharply and she blushed. He seemed to want to be even closer; he pressed his nose over the apex of her thighs and took a long deep breath before he brushed his nose over the top of her pants.

  They were wolves, and they could smell each other’s arousal. The more turned on Tristan got, the more he smelled of musk and heat, the kind of hotness she’d only known from a sauna. It was a total turn-on.

  She was embarrassed. She’d just drenched her underwear, and he knew it. From the grin on his face, he loved it, so she decided not to worry about it and to lose herself in the moment. It wasn’t a hard task as he pulled her bra off and took one of her nipples in his mouth. She made a sound that must have been a whimper; he grunted in response.

  Why was she so fortunate? What had she ever done to deserve to be touched in such an intense manner by such an extraordinary man?

  Still on top of her, he pulled her pants from her body, followed immediately by his own. Ashlee took a moment to admire Tristan’s nearly naked physique. He could have been sculpted from stone; his muscles were chiseled and she could see his hard shaft pushing through his tight blue briefs. She reached out to grab the tip of it through the cotton and he hissed. Ashlee pulled his briefs off and he followed suit by removing hers. They were both in a complete state of undress and she was so hot she was afraid she might set off the smoke alarms if he didn’t touch her immediately.

  She pressed her mouth back to his. She missed his taste on her tongue. Tristan growled, a sound that was all wolf, and her animal responded. If she’d been part cat, she would have purred, but being a wolf, she started rubbing his body instead. Up and down around his neck, his stomach, his abdomen—anywhere she could reach, she stroked him with her tongue. Tristan closed his eyes and threw his head backwards for a second before he growled again and pushed her down on the bed, his body pressed on top of hers.

  Ashlee gripped Tristan’s shoulders tight and squirmed with pleasure at the feel of his body heat melting over hers. Her body throbbed everywhere now. Tristan reached down and touched her wet core with his hand.

  “Oh god, Ashlee, you are so wet, I love it.”

  He took his finger coated with her pleasure and sucked it in his mouth.

  “Hmm.” He closed his eyes.

  “Tristan?” Ashlee wasn’t sure what she asked for. She’d never been this turned on before; she’d thought she’d had orgasms, felt real pleasure. She’d been wrong. Inside of Ashlee, her wolf squirmed and begged for more—more scents, more tastes, more…Tristan—and he obliged, leaning back down and stroking her hard, throbbing clit with his hands. Her hips rose off of the bed in answer. His fingers slid inside her, and their sexual play drove her crazy. A pressure built inside of her. Never, never had she felt anything so intense. She thought she might explode from it.

  Ashlee’s head thrashed back and forth on the bed. She sucked in her breath. “Tristan, please, I can’t.”

  “You can.” His intense voice had lowered an octave, and it sent shivers throughout her body. Fingers slid in and out, over and over. She exploded. Ashlee saw stars before her eyes. Inside and out, Ashlee came around his fingers.

  Tristan moaned while on top of her. His kiss swallowed every cry that fell from her lips. While she still shivered, he entered her. One fluid, strong movement and he filled her. Ashlee’s sheath had to stretch to accommodate the size of him. It was a glorious pull; her body soon made space for him and every inch of Tristan brought tingles of pleasure throughout her body.

  “Tristan…you’re so huge.” Ashlee couldn’t believe the sexy purr that was her own voice.

  “You were made for me. As you can see, we were made for each other.” Tristan’s long stroke inside of her brought on a groan. “Oh god, Ash, I can hardly breathe for wanting you so badly.”

  Tristan picked up the pace of his thrusts and Ashlee moaned with excitement.

  Feeling wanton, she slid her hands down his back to grasp his hard, toned ass.

  “You’re bad, Ashlee. I’m going to love doing this with you forever.”

  Forever. Just yesterday that would have terrified her. But since she’d woken up this morning and met her wolf, Tristan’s promise of forever felt exactly right. He would never leave her. Tristan kissed her cheeks and she realized tears rolled down them.

  She started to come again and right at that moment they were both bathed in a warm, white light. She felt her body’s release and Tristan’s followed moments after. She felt like she was floating in pure light, she and Tristan together. A soothing calmness overcame her. Her thoughts seemed to flow out of her and into Tristan’s mind even as his entered hers. Is this what they meant by mating ritual, why it was more than just lovemaking?

  She could hear Tristan in her mind. Pieces of his soul entered her body and took root there. For the first time in her life she felt complete. There was no gaping wound of insecurity, no feelings of being less than what she should be. Tristan filled her. At the same time she could tell the same thing happened to Tristan. He closed his eyes, his mouth forming a smile. Whatever pieces of her he had received, he liked them. She closed her eyes and tried to determine what parts of Tristan’s soul would now reside with her.

  Deep within her she could feel Tristan’s soul show itself. Loyalty—it was coded in

  her psyche now, a deep blue line she could find if she searched for it. His intensity—no surprise, it was a cardinal
red, his belief system, his unerring optimism. His love of her— this last one was the thickest cord; it was black and if the others resembled silk, this one was steel rope. They attached her to Tristan and they flowed from his soul into hers.

  “You didn’t tell me this was going to happen.” She teased him because she knew she could. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt now Tristan would always love her, never leave, and be forever loyal to her.

  “I didn’t know. No one ever talks about the mating ritual. It’s considered to be very private, and I can see why. My Ashlee, you have the most beautiful soul.”

  She closed her eyes, content to just float with him in the white light and the colored cords they’d made together until it passed. And if it never did, that was fine by her too.

  Tristan’s eyes flew open. When had they fallen asleep? It didn’t matter, the white light was gone and in its place was pain. Unbelievable, unbearable pain. It filled his every pore, dripped from his eyelids, made his belly turn.

  Something needed to relieve this pain. Something, anything, someone tell him how he could make it stop.

  Kill her.

  Who had said that? Not his wolf. No, his wolf howled inside of him, it needed relief too.

  Very simple. The pain will stop when you kill her. Kill her, Tristan.

  He knew that voice. It was his father, his Alpha. His father was still his Alpha, right? Something was wrong—but the pain, it stopped him from thinking clearly. He couldn’t focus on any one thing, couldn’t make sense out of senselessness.

  But his Alpha spoke to him and told him what to do, ordered him to take action.

  Kill her, Tristan. Obey me.

  Ashlee’s eyes fluttered open to stare at him. Her beautiful green eyes smiled at him in his frenzy.

  Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.

  He gripped his head and rolled onto the floor. He shut his eyes. No, he didn’t want to. There had to be another way to stop the pain. He screamed, but he didn’t know if it was just in his head. Ashlee’s arms came around him.