Minutes seemed to stretch into hours as they slowly drew nearer to each other. Just when Jeremy felt certain he couldn’t take the torture a second longer, that he would close the gap between their lips and kiss her, the rustling of the vampire drawing closer to them once again broke the silence. They both froze, the spell
between them instantly broken. He felt the terrified thrum of her heartbeat against his chest. So many creatures had prowled through the forest tonight, Jeremy hoped it was enough to mask their scents.The bloodsucker lingered for a moment, then pivoted north. It must have decided to follow a different scent. After several minutes, when Jeremy felt certain the immediate threat had disappeared, he whispered, “It’s gone.”
He pushed into a plank position and lifted himself off her. Like a bat out of hell, she tore from the bushes, brushing the mixture of dirt and snow from her behind. He tried not to notice how her round, ample ass and hips swayed as she did so, but it was a lost cause.
Jeremy mimicked an owl’s hoot, ordering Silver to return. A minute later, the steed trotted through the trees toward them, having been trained to follow close by whenever Jeremy made chase. When the horse came to a halt, Jeremy opened his saddlebag, digging inside. He retrieved an extra pair of pants from his bag and slipped them on, eager to cover his massive cock-stand.
Locating an old T-shirt balled at the bottom of his saddlebag, he extended it toward her. He half expected her to refuse it, to shift again and run, but she didn’t. Instead, she accepted the shirt. Once his jeans were on and fully fastened and he’d given her sufficient time to cover herself, he turned around to find her standing, arms crossed. The shirt proved just long enough to cover her most intimate parts. Not that he wasn’t well acquainted with the feel of them by now.
“Did you just…?” She gestured to his lower half, struggling to find the words until finally she settled on glaring at him.
If Jeremy hadn’t been so apt at reading facial cues, he might have actually believed her outrage. She was obviously trying to save face and cover up her embarrassment. He’d smelled her desire clear as day, but his closeness had been a necessity to keep her safe, plain and simple. She had to know that. Engaging in a battle with the bloodsucker would have made her a target as well—and he couldn’t have that. It was his duty, his honor, to protect her and their packmates.He would have said as much, but something about those narrowed eyes pleased him, and he found he didn’t need or want to explain himself. He knew exactly what she meant, but he wasn’t going to make this easy on her. Not by a
long shot.“I’m not certain what you mean,” he said, feigning innocence.
A defiant spark lit in her eyes. When she looked at him like that, he wanted to bend her over his knee and make that gorgeous behind of hers as pink as the blush on her cheeks. She indicated the lower half of his body again, making some bizarre, ridiculous signals with her hand as she pantomimed. From the growing fire in her eyes, she had to know how amusing he found this.
“A banana? An eggplant?” he teased. “I’m not very good with charades.” Her hands clenched into fists. “You know exactly what I mean.”
A wicked grin crossed his lips. “My cock…” he finally offered, putting her out of her misery.
The blush that burned on her cheeks and spread down her neck caused the appendage in question to stiffen. She had looked downright delectable flushed pink and bare in his arms. At least this time, the evidence of his thoughts was safely tucked beneath the fly of his jeans.“Yes… Yes, that,” she finally managed. “First, you accuse me of stealing your horse and watching you strip nude, and then you mount me with something that may as well have been attached to Biscuit over there.” She cast a quick wave toward Silver.
Jeremy didn’t know where to begin. He wasn’t certain which part of that sentence he was hung up on more. The fact that she had been trying to steal his horse and watching him nude, that she thought Silver’s name was something as ridiculous as Biscuit, or the fact that she’d announced he may as well have been part horse between the legs.
At least the last point was a fair assessment.
“You were trying to steal my horse,” he said, deciding to start there.
The horse in question gave a small, enthusiastic shake as he lifted his tail and batted his large, dark eyes. He puffed up like a damn peacock, eating up all the attention as if it were sugar cubes.
She released an impatient huff. “That’s beside the point.”
As far as Jeremy was concerned, that was entirely the point. But as amusing as this frustrated little she-wolf was, he didn’t have time for this. “Look. I don’t
know why you’re running around the woods during a vampire raid and stealing horses, but I won’t allow it. Not in my woods.”“Your woods?” She looked at him as if he were the insane one. “Last I checked, I had every right to be standing on this mountainside, no less than you do, and I didn’t steal your—”“That’s beside the point.” He turned her own words against her. Releasing a steady sigh, he raked his fingers through his hair. “Let’s start with something simple, then. What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“I’d prefer not to start there, Commander.” She uttered his title as if it were little more than a participation trophy. From the way she said it, she knew who he was. She just didn’t care.
Jeremy fought down a growl. Few would dare to defy him, but from her, there was something he almost liked about it. The woman was as frustrating as she was beautiful, and she had a saucy little tongue to match. In any case, he needed to get her to safety and fast. It was his duty to protect the pack, even viper-tongued she-wolves.
“Fine,” he said coolly. “But you’re still going to march that sweet little ass of yours over to Biscuit,” he said, highlighting the absurdity of the name, “and get on the godforsaken horse so I can take you to safety.”
At the very least, Silver had the presence of mind to look confused at the unfamiliar name. He stared at them while chewing on a blade of grass.
The she-wolf looked at Jeremy as if he’d grown two heads. “No one has ever called my ass little.”
That was what she gathered from this? He couldn’t help raking his gaze over her. She was fuller-figured than many women of their kind, but to him, she was perfect. All luscious feminine curves to his hard muscles.“No, I’m certain they haven’t,” he said.
Judging from her frown, she hadn’t caught the appreciation in that statement. She nodded toward Silver. “What if I don’t get on the horse?”
His cock gave another eager pulse. Maybe he did like the defiance—at least from her. Judging by the growing ache in his jeans, his lower head had different opinions than his ego.
Jeremy was about to tell her that if she didn’t get on the horse, he would take one of each of her ample ass cheeks in his hands, bend her over, and give her a proper spanking for disobedience as any good cowboy would—a spanking that would leave her thinking of him with every bounce of the ride back to the camp —but as he opened his mouth, a familiar scent on the edge of the breeze alerted him, and Silver let out a warning whinny.Instead, he only managed to breathe out one word to her before the vampire came crashing into the clearing.
“Run.”Three things occurred to Isabella as she watched the vampire charge the alpha wolf as if in slow motion. The first was that, based on those bloodstained fangs diving toward them, vampires were far more lethal than stories had led her to believe. As a Rogue who’d grown up in the countryside of the Sunshine State, she hadn’t had occasion to encounter many. Aside from being in New Orleans, they were more common in the northern parts of the country, and they tended to keep to big cities with high human population density—the sort of places where she’d never spent a day in her life.The second revelation she had was that not only was she without an ounce of fighting ability to fend off this creature, but she wasn’t athletic. She was soft and feminine, and running without a proper sports bra was unworkable. That was certainly an annoyance, but it had never occurred to her as a survival problem. Until now that she stood frozen in place.The t
Isabella scrambled toward him, allowing her medical training to take over. She checked his pulse, measuring the beats and feeling them quickly dropping. The rise and fall of his chest seemed weak. His lips were slightly bluish around the edges. Placing her ear to his chest cavity, she listened to the sound of his labored breathing.From the looks of it, the knife had pierced the pleural space of his chest cavity, causing a steady stream of air and blood to flood in. The gravity and pressure had created a tension pneumothorax—a collapsed lung. With only one functioning lung, the air supply in his blood was dropping, causing his pulse to slow, and he was going into shock.If the blood continued to pool in his lungs, his prognosis was grave. He could die within minutes if the condition continued to deteriorate. Faster than even the most powerful of wolves could heal. She used both hands to hoist him onto his left side.Blood drenched the snow beneath them. Sh
At five years old, Jeremy learned that lies shaped reality. It was the first night his father, or the man he would one day call his father, had brought him to Wolf Pack Run, the main Grey Wolf ranch, days after his mother’s death. That evening, around a campfire with the whole of the pack in attendance, James Lennon, then high commander of the Grey Wolf armies, had stood in the flickering orange glow of the flames and announced he had a son that he hadn’t known existed.That son was Jeremy.As Jeremy had stood with James by his side, the massive man’s hand wrapped around his tiny shoulders as if James were his father, as if he were proud of him, Jeremy had looked out at the faces of the Grey Wolf pack. Their expressions had been filled with affection, as if they’d found a long-lost family member in him. Every one of the pack members believed in him, wanted him, loved him. And in that moment, Jeremy had wanted James’s words to be true so ba
As Isabella monitored Jeremy’s pulse, she spent the next several hours alternating between watching the snow-capped mountains and memorizing the relaxed lines of his handsome face. There wasn’t much else to do inside the cabin, and she tried to reassure herself that was the sole source of her intrigue with him—but she was failing miserably.Every time she looked at him, especially in this relaxed state of sleep, the vulnerability and emotion she’d seen from him in the woods haunted her, softening her opinion of him. He’d been so stoic throughout her wound care, the perfect image of the hardened soldier, yet when she’d turned away, she’d heard him wince in pain.He was strong, fierce, brave, hardened by war. All the things he showed the world, yet…There was softness underneath it all. She’d seen it. And now that she had, she couldn’t bring herself to forget it.She shook her head. She should know
Jeremy had been about to ask where he’d heard her name before, but as he’d watched her pretty features become stricken with terror, he’d recognized her in an instant. He’d seen her once before in a photograph. A photograph inside a file at Grey Wolf command control back at Wolf Pack Run.A file labeled Wanted Wild Eight.“Isabella Beaumont,” he said, recognition flooding over him.The Wild Eight’s only physician.Which meant this woman who’d saved his life, who he’d held naked beneath him until he was aching with anticipation and pleasure…was his enemy.She dropped the empty basin in her hands as the fear in her eyes deepened.And then she ran.Shit.Jeremy raced after her. He couldn’t let this woman go. She bolted into the trees as he chased her, rounding pine trunks and leaping over mounds of snow. She was fast, but even with her head start, he gained on her q
Isabella was certain no other person—wolf, human, or otherwise—had ever infuriated her more than Jeremy Lennon. She’d always considered herself a mild-mannered person. Having grown up on a ranch in the Deep South, she’d been taught to be polite, accommodating, and generally pleasant. Sugar wouldn’t melt in her mouth, her mother used to say of her. Some would have called her bookish, shy even—when she wasn’t donning her lab coat overtop her cowgirl boots, that is.Yet, at the moment, as she looked into this cowboy’s ruggedly handsome face, all Southern hospitality flew out the window. Everything about him turned her tosalt instead of sugar. Who did he think he was, bossing her around and acting as if he gave a crap about her safety?The high commander of the Grey Wolves, that’s who.And now he was baiting her. Playing on her sense of curiosity with that dark, playful grin on his face. And she was falling
Jeremy had almost let her walk away.That thought haunted him as they rode down the mountainside atop Silver. The snow-covered pine trees and surrounding scenery passed in a steady blur. Or maybe he was too distracted by the enticing scent of a certain beauty’s dark hair inches from his face. She smelled of spring, of lemon verbena and sweet wildflowers, despite the cold winter air surrounding them. It was a warm, intoxicating mixture that made his cock ache.What had he been thinking? If he’d let her go, Maverick would have been beyond pissed, but that paled in comparison to what really vexed him. It was the thought that if he’d let her walk away, that would have meant he couldn’t guarantee her safety. This woman was an enemy to him, but all things considered, the thought of leaving her open to potential attack was torturous. He never showed an enemy mercy, yet he wanted to help her.And he hated it. He fucking hated it.The last
“Excuse me?”He’d surprised her when he’d let slip that he wanted to protect her. Help her. But…Isabella couldn’t have heard him correctly, could she?“I want to make it clear that our prior agreements still stand, and they have no relation to your decision. Regardless of my position, you have a choice, of course.”Maybe she had heard him correctly. He couldn’t possibly be serious. She gaped at him. Yes, there was heat between them. Tension. She sensed it, too. But she wasn’t about to admit that. Definitely not to him. She couldn’t risk another relationship with an alpha wolf—no matter how attractive and brave he might be, or how tempting the offer. No matter how much she wanted to see that softer side of him again.No. She needed to nip this in the bud before it got out of hand.She settled on being saucy. It worked with him, and that seemed to be the only way they could conver