Lorie OClare - Lunewulf 4 - In Her Nature.jpg Read online

  I will say whom we shun from now on! His bark was more of a growl as he sneered at the pack members, who backed away from his bared teeth. No one would challenge Johann. None of them wanted to stand out and state their inbred distaste for anyone who didn’t look just like them.

  Johann lunged at the group, his bark a ferocious howling growl that cut through the growing twilight and echoed through the trees surrounding them. No one stopped him, and all parted quickly, then took off with the infamous speed the lunewulf were known for.

  Simone fell into line with the group, long claws ripping at the earth as they headed for the hills, the ceremonial run of death that concluded the end of every funeral. They would run to celebrate life, and allow parting for the dead.

  One of you is my tall, sexy stud. She glanced to the edge of the group, where the larger werewolves pounded the earth, keeping pace with the group, muscles rippling through their fur as their long legs stretched.

  And from across the group, one of them turned and met her gaze, silvery blue eyes laughing at her as a predator would his prey. He broke from his group of buddies, and she watched as he avoided others in the group, and moved in on her. Simone’s heartbeat raced, and she began panting as instinct consumed her, and the desire to mate fogged her senses.

  You can’t fuck the wolf during a public run, her rational thought told her.

  On the other side of her, Samantha yelped, and Simone turned to see what had happened to her friend. Before she could focus, something rammed into her, and she fell head over paws over the rough terrain.

  Chapter Two

  “I’m fine,” she said, for what seemed like the fifth time, and ground the Suburban into second gear as she slowed to the speed limit.

  They entered Prince George, having left Johann with other men from the pack to secure Grandmother Rousseau’s grave.

  “Johann didn’t have to bulldoze into you like that.” Samantha sat in the passenger seat scowling.

  “I was supposed to be watching out for you.” She couldn’t have agreed with Samantha more. And she would have told Johann a thing or two about his treatment of Samantha if the entire pack hadn’t been watching.

  But right now, all she wanted to do was calm Samantha down. She didn’t like seeing her friend so upset, and wanted Samantha reassured that she could take care of herself.

  “I don’t need a babysitter.” Samantha hit the car door with her fist.

  She slowed to the speed limit. They passed a few of her old stomping ground hangouts, which she would have pointed out to Samantha if her friend hadn’t been so upset.

  “How were you supposed to know that I got a cramp?” Samantha continued, fuming over the matter. “I shouldn’t have been running so fast, I guess.”

  “It’s okay.” Simone stared at an old warehouse that used to be a nightclub she had frequented years ago. Memories trickled through her of fucking Johann behind that building one night, but she pushed it out of her head. “I’m not hurt, and you’re not hurt. Johann is just feeling his oats about being a new pack leader. I have no doubts that you and I can file his teeth down a bit.”

  “He slammed into you because you were drooling over that oversized werewolf,” Samantha spat out. “He can’t claim both of us. I won’t have it. I don’t care if everyone around here has three mates. Johann will have one mate, and so will I!”

  She worked to remember the order of the streets, allowing the Suburban to creep down the quiet road. She turned onto the street of the babysitter who had watched all the cubs during the funeral.

  “Do you want to stay in the car?” She looked over at Samantha, who seemed focused on the people in the yard.

  “Our cub will have lots of pack mates his or her own age,” Samantha mused. She rubbed her tummy, while staring out the window at pack members and their cubs lingering in the front yard. “No. I’m queen bitch now. I can’t be hiding in a damned car.”

  Other than those mingling in front of Babette Trent’s house, the dark neighborhood was quiet. She remembered Mrs. Trent, or Babs as the other bitches called her, as being an uptight fuddy-duddy when she was a child. As an adult, Babs had always stuck her nose in the air whenever Simone saw her, and walked the other direction. Simone had always thought the old woman had a nasty smell about her, even as a werewolf. More than once she had thought the smell was due to the fact that the old woman probably hadn’t been laid in over forty years. She had been a widow as long as Simone could remember.

  They got out of the car and started toward the house, when a small blonde child bolted toward them.

  “I hate them, Mommy!” Jere Rousseau, Simone’s daughter, ran toward them, her blonde curls bouncing around her head.

  “If that old bitch laid one hand on my daughter…” she said under her breath.

  “You know she didn’t,” Samantha assured her. “Jere is Johann’s daughter. They will respect her as the pack leader’s cub.”

  She hated the fact that Jere would be known as a bastard cub. But for now, she couldn’t do anything about it.

  “Who do you hate?” Her daughter ran to her, but then Jere turned and bolted back toward the yard.

  “What the hell was that all about?” Samantha asked while the two women walked toward the group still mingling in the yard.

  “There you are,” an older, disapproving voice said.

  Simone recognized old Babs the second she saw her. The bitch hadn’t changed a bit in the past few years. The stocky woman marched toward Simone, her scent preceding her.

  “You need to get that daughter of yours in line if you expect to enroll her in school next year,” old Babs said in a form of greeting.

  “It’s good to see you again too.” Simone couldn’t help but add a sultry tone to her greeting.

  Babs ignored her comment and turned her attention to Samantha. Simone wasn’t sure she had ever seen the old bitch smile before, but Babs’ expression changed notably when she reached out to take Samantha’s arm.

  “We are all dying to meet you, hon.” Babs displayed a row of yellow teeth when she smiled, and Simone thought for sure her cheeks would crack when they wrinkled into creased lines.

  Samantha was dragged away, and Simone knew she should go with her to make sure those old bitches treated her with respect. But her daughter was into mischief somewhere, and she needed to find her. A pang of sympathy ran through her as Samantha went off to perform the duties of her title and be surrounded by the nauseating stale odor of a bunch of old women.

  Turning, she looked for Jere, and spotted her on the edge of the yard, being dragged toward the street by two oversized brutes who had to be at least seven or eight years old. Sure, her daughter would receive lots of respect as the pack leader’s daughter. She groaned, and went over to rescue her daughter.

  “Someone better teach you some manners,” she growled at the two cubs.

  To her surprise, the two boys tried to grab Jere out of her hands.

  “She needs to learn manners, too,” the older of the two said.

  Simone pulled her daughter to her side when Jere tried to lunge at the two boys, and then bent over so that she was in the boys’ faces.

  “You keep your hands off of my daughter.” She allowed the change to take over enough to make her teeth grow. “Or it will be me who teaches you two little mutts a thing or two.”

  “They are hardly mutts.” A baritone voice from behind her brought Simone to quick attention.

  She started to turn around, but stopped to secure her grasp on her daughter when Jere tried to pull one of the boys’ hair.

  “To the truck,” the man behind her said. “Both of you, move it now!”

  Simone looked up into the face of the man she had drooled over at the funeral. And she did have to look up. He was huge! She had seen tall men before, but this sex god standing before her had arms so thick she was sure she couldn’t wrap her fingers around them if she used both hands. His chest had to be thicker than a beer barrel; there would be no way she could
wrap her arms around him and clasp her hands together behind him. Muscles strained the material of his shirt, and she imagined him strong enough to lift and move a car if he wanted. She had never seen a man so well-built. Her insides lit with fire at the thought of tumbling with this wolf in the meadow. With a man this big, all she would be able to do would be to climb on and enjoy the ride.

  But her daughter’s small hand in hers forced her to curb those thoughts, and she tilted her head back to look at his face.

  Deep blue eyes glistened in the night, and made her forget what she was going to say. Never before had she seen such perfection in a man. As huge as he was, and as tall as he was, he didn’t seem intimidating—more like enticing.

  He pointed his finger at her, tapping the tip of her nose. “You must not be accustomed to the wild side of boy cubs.”

  She couldn’t help but notice how long and thick his fingers were. She almost held her hand out to compare, but she would swear his index finger was longer than her palm. How thick and long would that make his cock?

  Jere backed behind her legs.

  “They were dragging my daughter across the yard.” She wondered how he would look if he smiled. “That is hardly appropriate behavior.”

  She didn’t have to wait long to find out. Beautifully straight white teeth appeared when he grinned. “They must like her.”

  Simone’s heart skipped a beat. Her mouth seemed too dry to respond, while her mind conjured pictures of him dragging her across the yard. “Is that the example you give them?” she managed to ask, and was proud of herself for not blushing.

  “I only drag the ones that I want really bad.” He had lowered his voice to a husky whisper.

  The sound of it sent chills racing through her, but her skin grew hot against the cold night air. He raised his hand toward the side of her head, as if he might actually grab her hair and pull her along with him.

  “Simone! To the car now!” The order sprang through the darkness, and she looked past the giant in front of her to search for Johann, who had just yelled at her.

  “Mommy. Let’s go.” Jere tugged at her pant leg.

  She reached for Jere’s hand, and stepped around the sexy stranger when she spotted Johann with Samantha. Johann scowled at her, and Samantha didn’t look pleased. The last thing she wanted was a scene in front of old Babs’ house. She didn’t have a choice about living in this town, and she didn’t want the community given cause to badmouth her when she hadn’t done anything wrong.

  Long fingers snaked through her hair, and she froze when he palmed the side of her head. He didn’t pull on her hair, but simply held her head stationary.

  Jere’s hand slipped out of hers, and she watched her daughter run over to Johann.

  “Does he own you?” He moved close to her and had lowered his head so that he could whisper in her ear. His scent made her legs feel like vanilla pudding. He had a rich smell of pine about him, and the crisp clean aroma of freshly cut wood.

  “No,” she whispered, daring to stare into those aqua blue eyes.

  “Then why does he command you?” His hand moved through her hair, turning her face toward his.

  “I…I have his daughter.” She searched his expression for disapproval, but found none.

  Instead, he seemed to digest this information, and straightened, focusing on Johann for a minute, before looking down at her again.

  “I will have you.” He stared down at her with eyes that seemed to glaze to a dark sapphire. His expression appeared serious; he wasn’t playing with her. Was he?

  His male scent thickened the air around them, and her body reacted to it, humidity soaring in her pussy.

  No man had ever left her at a loss for words before. Could this man be more brazen than she?

  “Is there a problem here?” Johann spoke from behind her, breaking the spell the tall stranger had placed her under.

  She turned to look at Johann, and the man let his hand slide from her head.

  “I heard you. I’m coming.” And that wasn’t an understatement, she thought, as she felt the dampness in between her legs turn into a soaked pool of lust.

  The rich, sweet smell of their desire didn’t leave the air around them in a hurry, and she knew Johann inhaled it deeply. As pack leader, he could dictate on behalf of her wellbeing; but damnit all to hell, if he was going to prevent her from having a good time.

  Johann took her by the arm, and started her walking toward the car. She noticed Samantha helping Jere into the car, and then glanced at Johann in time to see him give a reprimanding glare to the man who had just shattered her insides like no other man had ever done before—not even Johann. She didn’t dare look over her shoulder to see what the huge stranger’s reaction to such a punishing look might have been.

  *

  Jere’s curls were damp as they sprayed over the little girl’s pillow. Her daughter breathed deeply and slowly, her face the calm softness of a child sleeping and content. Simone leaned over and kissed her on the forehead, the scent of strawberry bubble bath lingering on her clean skin.

  She had made many bad choices in her life. There had been some wild werewolves, and she’d blown all gossip about her behavior to the wind. Other pack members’ opinion of her never bothered her much. But this little girl, sleeping in the bed the two of them would share for a while, was not a mistake or a bad choice.

  Granted, having Johann’s daughter tied her to him. And for years she would have loved the opportunity to share his den, be with him, ached for him to come to her. But now Samantha was in the picture, and she carried his cub. They were cut from the same cloth, outcasts in a way, never the one to quite measure up in the eyes of others, and both willing to take the world on by the teeth.

  “Sleep well, princess,” Simone whispered.

  She stood and lowered the window, shutting out the fresh scent of pine and the cold night air.

  “Settling in for the night?” Johann sat in the kitchen, with a cordless phone, cell phone, and several papers spread out before him on the kitchen table.

  She had given thought to a late night run, maybe to see if she could find her tall, sexy hunk, but she wouldn’t say that to Johann.

  “I might take a run before I crash for the night.” That wasn’t completely a lie.

  “I won’t have you running around by yourself. It’s not proper.” Johann let his gaze amble down her, and Simone couldn’t tell whether he looked at her with disgust or interest.

  Samantha is your mate now, my dear. She had a right to find someone, too.

  “It never bothered you before that I ran by myself. Don’t turn righteous on me now,” she snapped at him.

  Johann slid the chair back and stood up. His flannel shirt was untucked, held closed by only a few buttons at the bottom , creating a long V-shape view of his dark blond curls that covered well-sculptured chest muscles.

  “I am pack leader.” He wagged his finger at her. “And I won’t have you out running with just anyone.”

  “I wasn’t planning on running with just anyone.” She walked away from him, not in the mood for his pompous attitude. “Don’t let being pack leader give you a big head. You don’t own me.” She wanted to ask him why he sent her flying during the running ceremony earlier, but knew she had already pushed his limits from the anger that clouded the room.

  Grabbing her boots, she plopped down on the couch. Samantha strolled down the hall, her hair damp and one of Johann’s Tshirts hanging to her thighs. She looked cute with her long legs and bare feet, and damp hair hanging like raw silk to her neck.

  “I have final say over you, and any other unclaimed bitch in this pack. I don’t think I need to quote pack law to you.” Johann stormed into the living room, stopping when he saw Samantha.

  She slipped her feet into her boots, trying to keep her fingers from shaking. If she showed fear, he would attack. Instincts ran strong in werewolves. “You don’t need to raise your voice. Jere is sleeping.”

  Johann lunged at her, and
she jumped over the coffee table and grabbed Samantha, using her as a human shield.

  “Don’t you play righteous mommy with me,” he growled, his teeth noticeably longer, and his blue eyes burning with a silver hue. “I know about your past. Don’t you ever forget that.”

  “I did the best I could for her.” Her heart raced, and as much as she hated to admit it to herself, she hated Johann getting mad at her. “I raised her all by myself.”

  “That wasn’t my fault.” Johann reached for Samantha, and pulled her to the side, so that she no longer blocked his path to Simone.

  “You two really shouldn’t fight about this,” Samantha said, and held on to Johann’s arm.

  “You’re right.” She smiled at Samantha, and then turned toward the door. “I’m going out.”

  “Where do you think you are going?” Johann was right behind her.

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged, and reached for the door handle. Blood pumped through her and she fought to remain calm, not wanting him to smell fear or concern on her. “Maybe I will check out our old stomping grounds.”

  “You’ll stay away from that Cariboo lunewulf.” Johann grabbed her arm, and swung her around to face him. “If I hear one word about you running with any of them…”

  Her sex god was a Cariboo lunewulf? She had never met one of the rare species of werewolf, but had heard rumors of how dangerous they could be.

  “Well now, isn’t this interesting?” She glared at him, forcing herself to ignore the hard grip he held on her arm. “At the funeral you seemed to make it quite clear that you wouldn’t have them shunned. Will you keep the nasty reputation of lunewulves being prejudiced alive in your pack, Johann?”

  “I have no prejudice toward them.” His tone softened, as did his grip, and his expression relaxed. He took on the manner of a father explaining something to his cub. She hated it when he talked to her like this. “They are hard-working werewolves, just a bit on the wild side.” He let go of her arm, and then tapped his finger under her chin. “And those are the last type of people you need to run with. I’m merely looking out for your best interests, which is something you should be concerned about, too.”