“I would have turned into a vicious Arctic wolf. I could have flown you off to the wilderness, somewhere no one would ever have found you.”
He couldn’t imagine what he would have thought if she had turned into a wolf. “Good thing you only tased me.”
“You probably never figured me tasing you could be a good thing.”
“You’re right.”
She removed her clothes again, and he did too, thinking he should start a fire. In their wolf coats, they would be fine—as long as no one came upon them and saw a couple of wolves and one Saint Bernard, with no humans in sight.
Gavin wondered what his pack would think of him now. He knew his friend David Davis would be wishing he had this job himself, although he’d probably prefer to skip the ditching-the-plane-in-the-water scenario.
Chapter 4
After shifting into her wolf, Amelia stared at Gavin’s sexy physique for a moment before he shifted too. He was beautifully muscled and truly hot, hard all over, and she couldn’t help noticing he was well-endowed. Nothing little about him. Red hair trailed down his belly to his half-aroused cock, despite the chilliness. He smiled at her perusal before he shifted into his white wolf. He was taller than her, his tail fluffy, his coat fully fluffed—impressive. Even with the shift, their muscles would heat, so by wearing their warm, dry fur coats, they stopped shivering. She was grateful to have an Arctic wolf coat and Gavin to curl up with.
Amelia reminded herself she didn’t go out with cops any longer, wolf or otherwise. Now she was sure he knew he’d seen her. He was just confused about exactly when or where. He had to have been in pain when they’d crashed, and she’d tried to keep out of his sight, though he’d had his eyes closed when she struck Clayton with the stout tree branch. She knew from the way Clayton had been giving orders that he’d been in charge of the heist. That hadn’t lasted long when he was so badly injured and couldn’t tell his cohorts what to do.
She was dying to ask Gavin if he knew the cop. Had they been friends? Had they been partners in the crime?
Amelia hadn’t thought she’d mate Clayton, but he’d been fun to date while it lasted. She’d been one growly wolf when he’d threatened her with his gun and forced her to help with their getaway.
Gavin suddenly sat up on the sleeping bags as if he’d heard something, and she sat up too, listening to the rain and wind and thunder.
He nuzzled her face, then went out into the rain, returning a few minutes later to curl up with her again. She wondered why he’d left so suddenly. Maybe to relieve himself.
Winston seemed to think the sleeping bag had been laid out to serve as the canine bed. Though Amelia couldn’t blame him since she and Gavin were both wolves and sleeping on it. And Winston’s own dog bed was still in the plane. Winston rose to his feet, stretched, then joined them and snuggled, treating them like they were his wolf pack. She’d never let any of the dogs she’d owned or fostered sleep with her. Not because she wanted to show who was alpha and king of the roost, but because she was such a light sleeper that a restless dog would wake her all night. Also because dogs got their feet dirty or wet, and she could just see them coming to bed with her and leaving paw prints all over her bedding.
It wasn’t long before Winston began kicking his legs in his dream world. Which was another reason not to take a dog to bed. Amelia had imagined he’d sleep the night and hadn’t counted on dog dreams. As exhausted as she was and Gavin had to be, she’d figured they’d sleep like the dead too. She’d camped several times, but never quite like this—with a bachelor male wolf, a huge dog, and a stormy night in a little cave-like alcove after crashing a plane.
With all the time it had taken for them to paddle to shore, it was now late evening. Though the sun was already setting this late in the summer, the sky still looked much darker than normal because of the storms in the area.
She began to think about the business of sabotage again. And Gavin’s job—he was a PI. What was the chance he was really on a mission out here? Not just here to enjoy the solitude and get in a little paddling and fishing and running as a wolf. He was part of a pack. Why wouldn’t one of his pack members come here with him? She had been the one who had said he was here to run in the wilderness as a wolf, thereby giving him an alibi, when that might not be the case at all.
Had he lied to her? He’d better not have. Though she couldn’t really blame him, since she’d lied about seeing him before.
She thought back to when he’d asked if they’d dropped off any other party earlier, saying he wanted solitude. What if he really was on a spy mission concerning the earlier group they’d ferried out here? Mindy Michaels had been with that group. What if he’d been investigating her after the earlier situation with having her arrested? What if the plane losing all its power had to do with a PI job Gavin was on?
Amelia ground her teeth.
She considered the business with the plane again and all the trouble that had befallen it. It might not have anything to do with Gavin. Her dad had fired a man recently. The same man she’d dated. The gray wolf by the name of Heaton Compton.
Still as a wolf, Gavin rose to his feet, and she wondered what he was doing now. He shifted, then grabbed a camp blanket from his bag and covered her with it. Then he shifted again and curled up against her as a wolf, maybe thinking if one of them wanted to shift later, they wouldn’t have to find a blanket. She thought about that—them lying naked together as humans. She admitted the notion had appeal. Was it because he was an Arctic wolf and the only one she’d met in this area?
She knew that wasn’t so. She’d dated several Arctic wolves in Alaska, and she hadn’t felt that way about any of them. She believed the attraction was due to a combination of reasons. First, he was sexy as hell. Then, he’d gone after pet traffickers, risking his own life, and he’d offered himself as a hostage in the jewelry heist. He’d even rescued her pups. He also was good with animals. The first thing he did after they crashed was free Winston from the plane. Being an animal lover was a big plus in her book. Sure, the Arctic wolves she’d known cared about other wolves. Not all the men she’d known had loved other kinds of animals. Two of them didn’t like that she was fostering dogs. Some of her foster dogs didn’t like them either. She’d hoped they’d learn to like one another, but it didn’t happen.
The part of Gavin not liking flying… Well, she could understand his reasoning on that. Especially when she probably had a hand in his phobia. But she didn’t think he’d be happy when he found out the truth.
If she hadn’t been as comfortable in her fur coat as she was right now, she would have shifted and questioned Gavin about what he was really doing here. She was warm with him like this, the wind howling, the rain slowing to a constant patter, and rumbles of thunder still grumbling away. She cuddled against him further.
She slept for a time, then at some point, she felt his arm wrapped around her. She realized her wolf’s head was resting on Gavin’s naked, muscled chest, and he had shifted. He was under the blanket with her.
As much as Amelia knew she shouldn’t do this without knowing him better, and not while she still felt so at odds over the heist situation, she shifted too, snuggling her whole body against his. She’d never imagined she’d be doing this with a hot Arctic lupus garou who had been her passenger—when she had only meant to drop him off in the bay and then get on her way. Winston was curled up on the other side of Gavin now, his head on Gavin’s legs.
She groaned to herself, remembering she’d missed the deadline to drop the dog off at the shelter. She felt bad that he didn’t have a home to go to now. Brushing her arm against Gavin’s warm abs, she reached out and petted Winston on the head, loving the big pup. Sometimes, she had a hard time remembering he was just a young’un, as big as he was. She wished she had a big enough place. If she did, she’d keep Winston in a heartbeat.
Her thoughts shifted to the plane and seeing it flounde
r until it sank.
She couldn’t help thinking of her dad and how angry he would be about the plane. Well, alarmed about her first, of course. And her passengers. Then he’d be furious regarding the cause of the wreck. As much as she hated to have to go through that, she was glad her father hadn’t had to. She was glad she was the one here with Gavin instead of her dad. Was she nuts or what?
Gavin caressed her hair, and she sighed against his chest. She breathed in his spicy, male scent and that of the stormy rain. The sound of his heartbeat against her ear and of the rain falling all around them soothed her. She shouldn’t be feeling anything for this wolf. It could only hurt her if he learned the truth about her.
He leaned down and pressed his mouth to her forehead and kissed her. She knew she shouldn’t do this. Every human part of her brain shouted: don’t feed into this intimate moment. The wolfish side craved to make the connection. To see if they were meant to have something deeper.
Amelia wrestled with her feelings. Logically, after what they’d been through, she felt closer to him than to guys she’d only dated a couple of times. Going through a life-threatening crisis with a guy, and seeing how he handled it, showed a lot about character. Certainly more than if she were just eating in a restaurant and having a conversation with a date where each of them was careful to say the right things and act the right way to help decide if they were the right ones for each other.
Emotionally, she was torn. No way should she kiss him back. But she wanted to see if his kiss matched her expectations. Logically, it made sense—as far as her wolf half was concerned. As far as her human half was concerned, it made no sense when she considered what he would think if he learned the truth about her.
So why in the hell did she tilt her head up, wanting to kiss him back? Her wolf feelings were running amok.
He angled his head down, and she moved higher on his body to reach his mouth, rubbing her scent over him as if claiming him, melting against him. She pressed her lips against his hot mouth. That quickly escalated to them parting their lips and deepening the kiss. Their tongues stroked, and their bodies writhed against each other’s, her whole body craving more, her nether region already aching with need.
Winston suddenly moved his head off Gavin’s legs and resettled to sleep some more, which immediately brought Amelia to her senses.
Breathless, she pulled her mouth from Gavin’s and sank against his body again. “My God, Gavin… You are a…wolf.” He was; there was no denying that. For being a much more newly turned wolf, he surprised her. He had all the right wolf moves where she was concerned.
He chuckled and kissed her hair, his hands stroking down her back, his touch gentle, but heating her up all over again. “So…are…you.”
She’d never felt like this with another wolf. As if she’d known him for much longer than she had. She wondered if this was like what had happened between her parents—two wolves meeting, sensing they were the ones for each other. She knew that in the wild, wolves didn’t take months to decide such a thing. That was why the shifters often mated as soon as they found a wolf who felt totally right to them. It wasn’t something they took lightly because wolves, shifters included, mated for life. Boy, would she be screwed if she told him of her connection to the dirty cop.
Winston whimpered in his sleep. Gavin reached down and petted his head. “It’s okay, boy. We’re here to protect you.”
“You’re good with Winston. Have you had a dog before?”
“We had German shepherds growing up. That was when I was a kid. They were like part of the pack. I learned a lot about canine behavior from them. It helped me when I became a part-time wolf. What about you? Have any dogs?”
“Yeah, Alaskan malamutes when we were growing up. We went sledding, took them snowshoeing with us, and ran with them as wolves sometimes.”
It was still raining and dark out, not time to get up. And then, enjoying the feel of his hard body beneath hers and the sexy smell of him, Amelia listened to his heartbeat drumming against her ear and the rain falling in a steady stream outside their protected alcove and fell back to sleep.
Although it rained off and on all night, the rock overhang and tarp protected them, and they stayed dry. Thunder boomed right overhead and everyone jumped a little bit, their sleep disturbed. Amelia swore she saw the shadow of a man silhouetted against the tarp, illuminated in a second flash of lightning. She barely breathed, watching, waiting, not about to wake Gavin when it was most likely nothing. Another flash of lightning lit the sky, and there was no shadow. It had to have been her imagination. She’d watched way too many scary thrillers.
Yet, she couldn’t sleep. Trying not to disturb Gavin, she left the sleeping bag and shifted into her wolf, then went out into the storm, breathing in the smells. Luckily, scents lasted longer in cool, damp forested areas. In fact, scents needed moisture to survive, so rain wouldn’t destroy them. Wind and rain could disburse them. The wind was blowing, and she did smell the scent of a man and bears. Four wild black bears. A sow and her cubs?
Might be. The sleuth of bears could be unrelated males. Though bears didn’t live in family packs like wolves, sometimes males of varying ages would live in close proximity. Not hunt or live together, but they still could be in the same area with the older males serving at the top of the hierarchy. She still suspected the group was a mother and cubs.
Amelia relieved herself in the woods, listening for any sign of the bears or a man. Had they been there earlier? She wasn’t certain. Cold and wet and concerned about the lightning all around them, she had been too busy trying to get Winston into the alcove and set up their shelter, then sleep. She hadn’t been trying to catalog scents. Maybe Gavin had noticed.
She returned to the alcove, and standing just outside it, she shook off the excess raindrops collected on her outer fur before she stepped inside and shifted.
Gavin, the fierce-looking Arctic wolf, nearly ran into her, looking like he was ready to find and protect her. She hadn’t expected that. She licked his face in greeting and thanks, and entered the alcove. He turned to watch while she shifted and climbed into the sleeping bag. “I smelled bears and a man out there. The scents could be from several days ago. I have no way of knowing,” she said.
He shifted and joined her. “I thought I heard a bear, which is why I left earlier.”
“Then that’s what I saw. A bear silhouetted against the tarp when lightning lit up the whole sky. She probably smelled the food you have.”
“She?”
“She or he was standing up. Since I smelled four bears, I was thinking the one was a sow and the other three might be her cubs.”
“Okay. We’ll have to safeguard our food when we get up in the morning. All we’d need is to have bears steal it.”
“They’d better not even think about messing with our food,” Amelia said, sounding all growly.
Gavin pulled her into his arms. “I’ll protect you, Winston, and the food.”
But she had every intention of making such a racket if the bears came back. They would need protection from her, not the other way around.
Chapter 5
A glimmer of light finally woke Amelia early the next morning, and she ran her hand over Gavin’s chest, loving that she’d had his warm body to sleep against, but knowing she shouldn’t. “Are you awake?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He rubbed her arm with a light caress, then took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling. “It’s times like these I’m glad I’m a lupus garou. Especially when I was lucky enough to share my sleeping bag with you.” Then he frowned. “How old are you, really?”
She snorted. Of all the things to ask her! “You know a man is never supposed to ask a woman her age.” But she knew what he was getting at. She was a royal, her wolf lineage not diluted by a lot of strictly human genes for generations. When she turned twenty, she began aging one year for every five, so she was
n’t really old, like some who had aged even more slowly before the great Time Collapse, as wolves were now calling it. She didn’t have the life experiences of wolves who might be decades older in human years, having lived through all kinds of wars and technological changes in the time before the change. But they were much younger in every physical aspect.
“I’m twenty-eight based on a human’s actual life span, but because of the extended wolf genetics, I’m physically twenty-one. And you?” she said.
“I was twenty-five when I first met you in Alaska, then I was turned the next year. That means I’m twenty-six in wolf-aged years, thirty-two in real human years.”
“Okay, so we’re four years apart in human years, and—”
“A year apart in wolf years. What do you think about that?” Gavin twisted a curl of her hair between his fingers.
“I’m glad I’m not robbing the cradle. Are you glad you’re not hooking up with an ancient wolf?” Not that she was really “hooking up” with him.
He laughed. “It’s one of those things I forget about, usually because we aren’t around wolves that have lived for so many years. The ones we’ve met don’t talk about their historical pasts, but even if they did, it would sound like they were just talking about historical facts, not about their own pasts. I was just curious.”
“I don’t blame you. If you hadn’t told me you’d been turned a few years ago, I would have wondered the same thing about you. The historical past is still just the historical past to me.”
Winston lifted his head as if he thought maybe it was time to get up, but when he saw that Gavin and Amelia weren’t moving, he laid his head down and fell back to sleep.
“If it wasn’t still raining, I’d start a fire.” Gavin let out his breath. “I’ve been thinking about the situation with the plane. If it was sabotaged to the extent that the electrical system was shorted out and the emergency battery didn’t work, then the ELT was probably disabled. When will anyone miss you?”