“It’s going to be all right, Kari. I know you’re scared but you’re okay now. Thank goodness I found you. Something could have happened tonight. You could have been hurt. You’re safe now.” He gestured at the stainless-steel Thermos in the center console. “There’s coffee in the Thermos. Want some?”
“Coffee? Oh that would be wonderful.”
He smiled at her and motioned to the floorboard. “There’re cups in that bag. Grab one for yourself and pour.”
Anticipating the warm-up, she quickly poured herself a cup and took a sip, happily discovering cream and sugar were already added. “Oh that hits the spot. I was so cold.”
“Good, I’m glad you’re feeling better,” he said as he turned down a gravel drive.
Shit.
“Where are you going? Oh god, Ryan, this is the lodge.” Her stomach sank and she tried the door. It was locked.
“Kari, please. No one is going to hurt you. They’ve all been worried sick. Luckily I had my cell phone on. I don’t usually out here. Andreas called to tell me that you were missing and to be on the lookout for you. I’m so glad I found you and that you were okay.”
He stopped the car in front of the lodge and people started streaming out onto the deck and lawn.
Kari stifled tears of frustration. Ryan turned to her. “Kari, please don’t.”
“Don’t what!” Rage exploded through her. “You can’t keep me here. It’s illegal! Why are you doing this to me?”
Andreas approached the passenger side door and Ryan flipped the lock. “Kari, thank god you’re all right. You scared me to death.” He reached toward her to pull her out of the car and into his arms but she screamed into his face.
“Do not touch me! Keep your hands off!” She beat at him with her fists, kicking and flailing.
He backed up, waiting for her to get out, but she just sat there. She was done making this easy on them. She was going to be such a pain in the ass they’d willingly drive her to the next town and drop her off just to be rid of her.
Ryan reached out to touch her shoulder and she slapped him off. “You either!”
“Kari, what can I do to make you feel better?” Andreas reached out to her but stopped, hand in midair.
“You can let me go. You can let Ryan here drive me into the nearest town so that I can get home and back to my life. I promise I won’t even call the cops or anything. Please, just let me go.”
He looked pained. “Anything but that, Kari. You’re one of us. I can’t let you go. You could end up hurting yourself when you transform tomorrow night. You might even hurt someone else. You don’t want that, do you? To hurt someone unintentionally?”
“I. Am. Not. A. Werewolf. You. Are. Not. A. Werewolf. There. Are. No. Such. Things. As. Werewolves!” Each word got louder and more insistent.
Skye walked up to the side of the SUV, hands open, palms out, so she could see he was unarmed and posed no threat. “Andreas, show the poor girl already. She’s scared shitless. Let one of us transform so she can see.”
Groaning at his own stupidity, Andreas wanted to smack himself. Why on earth hadn’t that occurred to him before? He’d been so dumbstruck by her physical presence and his need to touch her and be with her, his normal logical abilities had been snuffed out. He nodded to Skye and looked back to Kari. “Kari, watch.”
Kari looked at Skye as he took off his clothes, handing them to Phillip. Naked? Well, at least the delusion is an attractive one, she thought as she watched the muscles that lined his body ripple with movement.
Crouching on all fours, he stretched his body and suddenly the electricity that she’d felt at the base of her spine when she’d been attacked by the dog came back. The fine hairs on her arms stood up, and the air crackled with power. Before her eyes, Skye’s smooth skin became lined with jet-black fur. His face lengthened and became a long muzzle.
Jesus H., he was a freaking werewolf. The one from her dream, she realized as she saw what was definitely a wolfish grin on his face.
“Fuck,” she whispered. “I should have never gone into that alley.”
Skye, the wolf—whatever he was, whoever he was—shook himself out and trotted toward her. Scrambling back with a panicked cry, she bumped into Ryan, who, she realized, was also one of them. Another freaked-out cry tore from her throat and she hurled her body into the far back row of seats, as far from them as she could get.
Elaine slowly approached the car and got into the passenger seat. Kneeling, facing Kari, she lowered her voice. “Kari, I know this is a lot to take in. As we’ve said—normally, we don’t do things this way. Andreas would have come to you in human form. Gotten to know you and eased you into our world. Michael made a mistake. He’s young. He let emotions get the best of him.
“Your teeth are chattering, Kari. I’m worried about you. Please, come inside. Eat something. Warm up. Let us talk to you about our history, our culture. Your history and culture.”
Kari blinked rapidly. This couldn’t be happening, but it was. If they were werewolves, then they were probably telling her the truth about her being one now too. At that admission, her fear melted back into rage.
“How could you do this to me? You didn’t even ask me!” She tried to open the back door to get out but it was locked. “Unlock this door!” she bellowed at Ryan, who threw the lock instantly.
Hopping out, she stomped over to Andreas. “Well?” she demanded, hands on her hips.
“Please, come inside. It’s cold out here. You’re shivering.”
She ground her teeth and stalked toward the front door, everyone giving her a wide berth. Thankfully, she sighted a roaring fire in the great room and headed over to it to warm up. The shock and the adrenaline were wearing off. She knew a system crash was imminent.
“Henry, can you please bring some coffee and pastries?” Andreas asked as he walked toward her. Grabbing a throw from the back of a couch, he reached out to hand it to her, staying back.
Wrapping the blanket around herself, she nodded her thanks and sat on the raised hearth.
Laurent gave her an admiring look. “Nice job with the lock.”
“My brother and I used to have to steal food from locked cabinets when we lived with my aunt and uncle after my parents died. We learned to pick locks then,” she said, chin up.
Laurent nodded. “Perhaps you’ll teach me sometime. It’s not a skill I’ve learned.”
She just looked at him, exasperated. “Look, I’m not trying to be hateful or anything but I’m so not down with this. While I’m willing to admit I believe you’re all werewolves and maybe even that I am now too, it doesn’t mean I’m moving in like happy freaking families or anything.”
Andreas sat down on the couch, very near her. So near his scent—that damnable cologne of his—enveloped her senses and she had to resist the urge to lean back and sigh happily.
Turning her body toward him, she took the mug of coffee that Anna held out to her and wrapped her fingers around it. “I’ve come inside. Tell me.”
“Kari, belle loup, I can’t apologize for making you into one of us. I can apologize for how it was done. It’s not our way. At least not in this country, in this century. We didn’t mean to have to kidnap you and hold you against your will. We didn’t want to scare you.”
“Belle loup?”
“Beautiful wolf. You will be, you know. Your fur will be golden. I can tell that now.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay, smooth talker. You’re still in deep shit. Keep talking.”
Skye laughed as he approached the fireplace, clothed and human again. Grabbing a cup of coffee from the tray, he sat on the floor as near to her as he could without scaring her.
“We need females—loup de mère.”
“What is it with all of the French? English please.”
“He means we need females who can carry on the lines. Mother wolves,” Phillip explained from the chair across from her.
“I speak French because I am French. My family is. This Clan is. Werewolves o
riginated in France and China at around the same time.” Andreas’s deeply sensuous baritone stroked over her like a caress.
She exhaled sharply. The panic was back but what the hell? In for a penny, in for a pound. “Okaay. So why me?”
“Your ancestors have bred before. Have been changed and borne offspring. You have an Alpha in your family tree.”
“What?”
“Not every female can bear children successfully. We don’t know why that is. Our Clan is led by natural werewolves—those of us who were born as werewolves. This Clan could be thrown into upheaval if I don’t have sons. I’ve been looking for a Mate for twenty years, failing to find her. That is, until I was in Seattle at a conference and I saw you. Or rather, smelled you. We investigated you, and after looking into your background, I’m convinced you’re made to be my Mate. La reine de loup, the wolf queen to my wolf king.”
She stood up. “Wait a minute there, buster! Of all the arrogant... You stalked me and had me investigated? You made me into a werewolf so I could breed for you? Are you kidding me? All of this without even asking me! You have some nerve, king or not.” Now fully enraged, she folded her arms just under her breasts.
Andreas put his head in his hands, but not before getting a look at the breasts straining against her sweatshirt. “Why can’t you just accept this?”
“Andreas, if I may?” Elaine asked, seeing her Alpha’s frustration.
He groaned and nodded.
“Put at its most basic? Yes. Part of what you’ll do as a Mate—as our queen—will be to have children. But we didn’t make you just to breed for us. You’ll be our leader as Andreas is. You’ll rule the Pack and work in a national governing body for other Packs. It’s difficult to understand because things in the human world are different. The world of wolves isn’t so simple.”
“I am not a broodmare!”
“No, you aren’t.” Elaine grabbed her hand. “I was brought over six years ago. Bert, my Mate, and I have two children together. No one forced me. That’s not how we are. You are attracted to Andreas, aren’t you? Don’t lie. Not to me or yourself.”
Kari looked at Andreas as he gazed up at her. “Well for goodness’ sake, of course! He’s a freaking studmuffin. He could be a model. So?”
Skye was laughing again and Andreas sent him an annoyed look, though the cant of his mouth made Kari figure he was secretly pleased.
Elaine smiled. “Well, it’s more than that, isn’t it? Will you try something? It won’t hurt you.”
Kari sighed resignedly. “Okay.”
Elaine held out her hand to Andreas, who stood and approached Kari. “I want you to lean into Andreas’s neck. Put your face against his skin there and take a deep breath. Inhale his scent. Trust me, please.”
He was so big there as he stood before her. Imposing and so male. Taking a steadying breath, Kari leaned in. Andreas pulled back the collar of the flannel shirt he was wearing and the heat of his skin blanketed her face. She touched the flesh of his neck with her lips and breathed him in.
The reaction rolled through her with shocking force. A soft cry broke from her lips. Her body tightened, his smell imprinted on her system. It was as if his very cellular makeup was twining around her own. He smelled right. Like he was hers. It was like nothing she’d ever smelled before—like the yummiest dessert, the spiciest food. It was sex and comfort rolled into one.
The pull of it made her want to put her teeth in the flesh of his neck and bite down and she knew that he wanted that too. A low growl came from her throat and an answering tremor ran through his body. His hands came up and slid over the skin of her ribs. At that touch, the scalding heat of his hands against the sensitive flesh of her sides, her body tightened. Nipples hardened, pussy softened, clenched to be filled by him. Her spine arched as she pressed her body into his, wished she could crawl into him forever. If at that moment he’d pushed her back onto the couch and pulled her jeans down to fuck her, she’d have held on and enjoyed the ride. Hell, she’d have begged for more.
Instead, Elaine pulled her back. Dazed with desire, Kari looked up and saw that Andreas’s eyes were glazed over, breath shallow and lips parted. She had to blink a few times to come back to herself. “Wow,” she murmured.
Elaine beamed. “Wow, indeed. What you just felt was your biology calling out to Andreas’s, as your Mate. The two of you are meant to be together. You could feel that, couldn’t you?”
“I don’t know what I felt. Lust, sure, but other than that I don’t know. I know I didn’t get all, hey, turn me into a werewolf so I can have your freaking babies.”
Andreas caught her hand in his, kissing her knuckles. The heat of his mouth sent gooseflesh racing up her arms. “Kari, love, you felt it, though. Even if you can’t describe or define it just yet, you admit that you felt it? The depth of connection between us?”
Reluctantly she nodded. She had no freaking idea what the hell she was doing and it scared her. Worse, it felt so right that she knew she couldn’t just walk away from it either. Didn’t want to walk away.
His eyes glittered with emotion. “Thank you.”
She allowed herself a small smile, unable not to be flattered by the intensity of his attention.
“More females will arrive later today. There’re eight in our pack, Elaine being one. They generally stay with their Mates. You can count on all of them to help you through this. My mother, Jade, is the second oldest among us. She can’t wait to meet you and I know she’ll be thrilled to help you in any way she can.”
“What makes you think I’m just going to stay here? And if I do, you think I’m just going to stay at home barefoot and pregnant? That I’m just going to quit my job and drop a litter for you?”
Skye snorted a laugh.
She watched Andreas’s jaw clench and then unclench with some effort. “Running a Pack is a big job. I want and need your advice. Generally the Alpha pair run the Pack together. It’d be hard to live in Seattle and keep your old job. Our home is here. But if you wanted to, we could find a way to make it work. And I’d never force you to bear our children. I hope you want to.”
“You say you don’t force anything but you did. You made me into one of you without my permission, that’s force. You drugged me and brought me here, against my will. You kept me a prisoner. That’s force. You’re asking for my trust but you haven’t done much to deserve it.”
Andreas hung his head but not before slanting a furious glare at Michael, who kept his gaze averted. “You’re right and I’m sorry. As I’ve said, it wasn’t supposed to be that way. I wanted to woo you as a human and then bring you over myself after we’d gotten to know each other. As for keeping you here, we had no choice. The first transformation is difficult. You’ll need us all to help you. It’s not only confusing but dangerous. You’ll find the presence of the Pack to be comforting as well as joyous. If we’d left you to change alone, imagine how frightened you’d have been. We’re doing the best we can with the choices that have been made and I’m sorry.” He looked so sincere that she found her heart softening. He added with a small smile, “I’m not sorry I found you, though.”
The force of his energy, his charisma, his being, sucked her under. She fought it. If she was going to change her entire life, she wanted to do it without these damn hormones clouding her mind. Hell, simply the fact that she was standing there considering it was astounding.
“Food’s on,” a voice called out from the dining room.
“How about we have some breakfast now? We can talk more later. I promise to answer whatever questions you have. We can go for a walk, just you and I. Get to know each other?” Andreas’s face was hopeful but he kept a respectful distance from her.
Exhaling slowly, she gathered her thoughts. “Here’s the deal. I don’t know why, but I’m willing to listen. I won’t try to escape. For now. But if I want to leave after this transformation, you have to promise to let me go.”
“How about we start the negotiations after we’ve eaten?” h
e countered.
“Other things are negotiable. My being free to leave is not. I won’t be a prisoner.”
He inclined his head to her. “As you wish. Now, shall we have breakfast so that you can start getting to know me?”
“Fine.” She allowed him to guide her into the dining room, where a long buffet table positively groaned under piles of food. The hand he had at the small of her back burned into her. “Why is everyone standing around waiting?” she asked Andreas, only barely suppressing the desire to lean back into him. His touch drove her insane. She wanted more, wanted him to stroke those large hands over her bare skin, wanted the brush of lips, the flick of tongues and the gnash of teeth. The mere thought of it made her feel dizzy.
He paused, pupils widening, nostrils flaring. A faint smile possessed his lips. “They’re waiting for us to eat first. Pack order. You and I always get first bite.”
“There is no you and I, Andreas.”
He chuckled and raised an eyebrow at her. “Ah, but there is, ma belle jeune mariée. You just won’t admit it to yourself.” He lowered his voice and put his lips to her ear. As he spoke, the luscious flesh of his lips stroked over her earlobe. “But I can smell how much you want me. Honey, sticky-sweet between your thighs.”
Her eyes slid closed for a moment and she gulped like a cartoon character. Shivers of desire broke over her. “You wish,” she whispered. Then louder, “Translation please,” she said as she picked up a plate and Andreas began to fill it for her, filling one for himself too.
“My beautiful bride.” The amusement in his eyes remained and she couldn’t help but smile back at him. She’d been busted.
Still, as he filled her plate, she rolled her eyes. The whole big-guy-helping-the-small-woman thing wore on her nerves. She was used to doing things for herself. Liked doing things for herself. “I don’t even know you. I’m not married to you—nor, I might add, have you even bothered to ask. By the way, I’m perfectly capable of filling my own plate.”
“Of course you are. I just want to help you. Is that an evil thing?”