STORY EXCERPT

A woman’s still body lay draped across a wolf who appeared to be trapped. The steel enveloping the slender leg glittered in the weak sunlight filtering through the tall firs. Rob stared at the scene for a moment, sensing something wrong. Something more than a wolf trapped by both a manmade metal torture instrument and the limp body of a woman. He didn’t need to sniff to smell blood, and now he saw it, seeping from the woman’s body. But it was the wolf who interested him.

Dark gray, with fine, sleek lines, his amber eyes blazed and his ears lay back and low against his head, showing both fear and rage. His scent would warn other wolves off, but this creature wasn’t pure wolf. This wolf was like him.

My God! There was another like him, part wolf, part man. He’d thought he was alone in the world, a freak of nature no one wanted or could possibly understand. For a moment he stood, unmoving but definitely not unmoved. He wasn’t a lone accident. He wasn’t the only genetic anomaly like this in the history of mankind. After spending all of his twenty-nine years accepting his loneliness, realizing at least one other person in the world shared his fate affected him in ways he could barely handle. He swallowed against a tide of emotion.

The wolf on the ground growled. A sound to force me away or one of frustration that I haven’t already freed him? Another sound reached his ears. A car engine started a couple or three miles off. The shooter had possibly left the area, and if there had been only one, they were in a pocket of relative safety.

Quickly, with little mental effort, Rob changed back into human form. “I know what you are,” he said to the wolf on the ground. “And when I get you out, I have some questions.” Once more, the downed wolf growled.

Gently, Rob grasped the woman under her arms and pulled her off the wolf. Then he rolled her over. Blood oozed from her side, staining her light blue tee shirt to dark purple. Long, slender legs extended south of shorts, and ended in running shoes. If she’d been out for a run, how had she ended up being shot deep in the Idaho woods?

From Rob’s periphery vision, he watched the wolf. Without the woman hampering him, he was able to change shape. Rob stared then, slack-jawed with wonder. His impression was of a tall man, blond and muscular, naked, just like Rob. Where the woman’s blood had covered his fur, his skin was now stained red. The man sat and worked at the trap that had his ankle incapacitated.

The woman made a low sound and Rob turned his attention back to her. Dark-brown hair lay braided down her back. Brows creased, her eyes were closed, and light brown lashes rested on cheeks white as snow. Her delicately shaped face looked vulnerable and filled with pain. He pulled her onto her left and tenderly probed her right side. She moaned at his touch, but he had enough time to determine that the bullet had not exited her body. She needed a doctor and soon. He’d have to get Lucky. He couldn’t carry her the miles back to his camper and pickup, and the guy in the trap wouldn’t be in any shape, either, by the looks of his ankle.

“God damn it, get me out of here,” the stranger said, falling back to the ground.

Rob left the woman and walked to the trap. “Ever heard the word ‘please’?”

“Get me the fuck out of this thing. Please.”

“Who are you?” Rob grasped the handles on each side and strained to widen the gap between the sharp prongs of the trap. With just enough space opened, the man lifted his foot out.

“Shit! Hell, and damn it. That hurts like shit.” He sat and gingerly touched the reddened and broken skin at his right ankle.

Rob squatted down beside him. “I heard a car drive off. Maybe the shooter. Do you know if there was one or two of them?”

The stranger scowled at Rob. “I had my mind on a few other things. Like why some fucking idiot planted a trap on my land.” Pushing back with his arms, he rose onto his left foot. Touching his right foot to the ground, he grimaced. Then he jerked his head in the woman’s direction. “How’s she?”

“She needs help. I have a horse not far off. I can get her back to my pickup and to a hospital. You can ride with her.”

“No.” Her words were barely a whisper, but Rob heard her plain as day. He walked back to her and dropped to one knee near her head. She blinked and then closed her eyes again. Shaking her head, she said again, “No hospital. Please.”

“We’ll take her to my house.”

Rob looked up. “And where is that?”

“Split Cottonwood. I own all this land, and my house sits squarely in the middle. Get her to the main road and go toward town. You’ll see the turn off to the ranch.”

“If the shooter is on the road, I’d rather not go back that way.”

“Then I’ll go home. I’ll be better off and faster on all fours. If you’re who you seem to be, you’ll be able to follow the sound of my call.”

Rob rose. “Stay with her until I get my horse. You can help me get her situated.” Rob jogged off to where he’d left Lucky.

He’d stumbled on another of his kind. The thought stunned him still. He had so many questions about his nature, about why his life had been ruined along with any chance for happiness. Now he had an opportunity for something other than questions. As he threw on his clothes, he couldn’t wait to get some answers.

ADULT EXCERPT

Larissa had never known a time when she wanted a man inside her as much as she did at that moment. Bran and Rob sucked the tiny drops of blood off her fingers and suddenly, she couldn’t wait to fuck them. She willed Bran to run up the stairs. Fire raced through her veins. Her senses were sharpened, her nerves pinged, and she felt each synapse snap and crackle as though electricity jumped from one to the next. Her pussy leaked aromatic juices—Bran’s look of hunger when he glanced back at her showed that he noticed. Behind her, Rob squeezed her ass, and she sensed her clit swelling, sensitized with the blood that filled it.

“Hurry,” she said, practically panting.

When they entered the bedroom, she ripped her sweater over her head and unzipped her jeans. Midway, Bran caught her hands and held them behind her back. “Slow down, Larissa. I want to make this moment last.”

He took her mouth in a deep kiss. When he finished, he looked into her eyes and said, “You’re the first woman I’ve ever kissed. And from now on I’m going to put my mouth all over you.”

“Good,” she gasped. “Kiss me again.”

“Gladly.” While his tongue explored her mouth with the tingle of an electrical charge, Rob stripped her jeans and underwear from her body.

She turned and kissed him. Running her fingers through his hair, every strand separated and stroked her fingers. Her senses were heightened. She scented his arousal at the same time his cock prodded her stomach. She’d never paid attention to the sexual aroma of a man, but now everything came to her notice.

She inhaled deeply. “You smell delicious.”

“So do you,” Bran said from behind her, and licked her butt cheeks. “Spread your legs.” He stroked her pussy. Instinctively, she rode his fingers. Rob reached between them and caressed her clit. Her moan of ecstasy hit her ears like a scream. She came within seconds.

Rob touched his wet fingers to her tongue and her flavor burst in her mouth. Hungrily, she watched him finish licking the remaining cream. Behind, Bran coated her ass with her juices and began the process of stretching her. With her senses exploding, she couldn’t wait much longer. She was ready for them in every way.

“I need you to be inside me.”

“Are you telling us what to do?” Bran asked.

“No.” She ached for them so much she barely could speak. Licking her lips she whispered, “I’m begging you.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” Rob murmured. “She’s overly sensitive,” he said to Bran.

“Larissa,” Bran said, “close your eyes and let your feelings take you where they will.”

Rob lifted her and she wrapped her legs around his waist. In one thrust, he entered her. Seconds later, still mostly dressed, Bran eased his way into her ass. Her breath turned fast and shallow. This was what she had nearly died without, her months in New York. Bran’s and Rob’s command of her body, their confidence in sending her into space and bringing her back to Earth, the feel of them within her body.

In unison, they pushed and pulled back. Their bodies glided over hers, their aromas blended and separated in her nostrils. The sound of their breathing rang in her ears and mingled with her own labored breaths. Their heartbeats resonated with hers. She knew a perfect union for the first time ever.

She came hard. Still they moved in and out of her, nudging her to another abyss, another climax. They controlled her body. They commanded her mind. They owned her heart.