Wolf Tales IV Read online

  Aha. So that’s what had him so upset. Lisa struggled to her feet, partially trapped in the shirt hanging off her shoulders and the cargo pants tangled around her legs. The boots and socks lay to one side as if her paws had slipped free during the shift.

  She didn’t remember any of it. She nipped at the shirt. Tinker grabbed it in his teeth and pulled it over her head as she stepped out of the loose pants. Then Lisa shook herself like a wet dog, sat back on her haunches, and wondered how she knew to make this new body work so well.

  Tinker growled. As single-minded as every male she’d ever known, he went back to his topic of conversation. I feel as if I’ve forced a commitment from you without your approval, without any choice on your part. I’m sorry, Lisa. That was wrong.

  I see. She tilted her head and forced Tinker to look at her. Are you sorry we bonded?

  Tinker glared at her. Then he whined, low in his throat. Of course not. Why would you even think that?

  If she’d been human, Lisa knew she’d be laughing by now. Look at you. Tinker, I’m a fucking wolf and you want to argue about bonding? I don’t get it.

  Tinker obviously didn’t see the humor in the situation. This time he snarled. Lisa, I love you. I knew the moment I saw you, when I realized who and what you were, that you were destined to be my mate.

  Okay. So what’s the problem?

  My decision shouldn’t take away your rights. You hardly know me. You don’t even know what this new body of yours can do. How can you possibly commit so quickly to spending your life as my mate?

  Tinker! She really needed to learn to shout when they communicated like this. Look at me. You’ve known me as long as I’ve known you. I didn’t fight it. So what’s the problem? She stood up and shook herself again, eager to experiment with her new form. Resentment surged through her body. She couldn’t believe they were standing here in the dark having this conversation.

  She was a wolf, a beautiful four-legged wolf, and Tinker wanted to talk relationship crap? Ludicrous. Absolutely ridiculous, the two of them, two beautiful feral creatures, standing here arguing like a couple of stupid humans.

  She wasn’t human. Not anymore. The reality took her breath away. Made her heart pound in her newly shaped chest. She snapped her teeth. It sounded so wonderful to her highly attuned ears that she did it again, and then she nipped the air in front of Tinker. He looked much too serious, considering what had just happened. Wasn’t he happy she’d managed to shift?

  I have one thing to say about that link, she said, thankful their mindtalk was so clear. If you were keeping any secrets from me before, you sure don’t have them now! She glanced at Tinker and then looked toward the narrow road leading farther into the forest.

  Enough! We can talk about it later. Right now I want to find out what I can do! Lisa spun around and nipped Tinker’s left haunch, then took off at a full run. Her legs were strong, her paws carrying her along the narrow road as if she flew. This was magic. Magnificent, amazing, unbelievable magic.

  Power coursed through her new muscles; sounds and smells assaulted her sensitive ears and nose. The darkness glowed with an amazing amount of light, and the world felt fresh and new. The world was hers. The night belonged to the wolf.

  For the first time in her entire life, Lisa Quinn knew the power of freedom, just as she knew how free the power to shift had suddenly made her. She understood answers to questions she’d never thought to ask. It was so terribly easy, after all, this shedding of her humanity. Leaving it farther behind with each lengthy stride, she ran as if the world was hers alone.

  Tinker stood for a moment and watched Lisa speed down the service road. He’d never felt so torn, so angry with himself yet so completely ecstatic. He’d bonded with Lisa. He’d crept into her thoughts without thinking of the consequences, but she’d exploded into his. Her mind open, her heart filled with love.

  He certainly hadn’t expected her response. Still, he doubted what he’d felt, what his mind knew to be true. Lisa felt love for him along with a healthy dose of lust, but right now her entire focus was as it should be—on this new body she’d suddenly discovered.

  Unbelievable. She’d shifted during the most amazing sex Tinker had ever experienced. Was her love as real as it had felt in that brief, earth-shattering moment when they bonded?

  Lisa disappeared around a bend in the road. Tinker shook himself, realized he could no longer see her, and raced to catch up. Lisa ran like a dark ghost in an even darker night, but her scent alone would draw him, the rich combination of woman and wolf a potent aphrodisiac to his feral libido. Tinker caught up to her, nipped her flank in greeting, then raced beside her while still following her lead.

  The night was still and windless, the forest alive with scent and sound, and Tinker ran along the unfamiliar path with his mate beside him, leading him. She was beautiful, strong and agile, with taut muscles rippling beneath her sooty coat and a sense of feminine power surging like a golden aura around her body. The true incarnation of the ultimate alpha bitch.

  And she was his. Bonded to him—his mate for all time.

  Lisa was the personification of every dream he’d ever had, every wish he’d hoped to fill. Tonight couldn’t be real. It was all too perfect, and perfection made him nervous. Scanning the deep forest with his senses alert, Tinker ran beside Lisa.

  Briefly, Tia entered his thoughts. Tia, the woman he’d been so certain he loved beyond all others. That love was a pale reflection of what he felt for Lisa. Still there, still very real, but Tinker knew there was no comparison between his feelings for Tia Mason and the exhilarating miracle of racing side by side with his one true mate.

  Lisa’s senses brought the world to her in a totally different light. Color, sound, smells, all of it fresh, all amazingly powerful. Her broad paws with their sharp nails hit the packed earth with a steady rhythm, her lungs drew air, and her ears twisted and turned of their own accord, listening to the sounds of the night.

  Lisa was aware of Tinker racing beside her and slightly behind, giving her the lead yet protecting her at the same time. She sensed the wolves in the large enclosures on either side of the narrow service road she’d followed and knew they were every bit as aware of Lisa and Tinker as she and Tinker were of them.

  She felt their curiosity as much as their acceptance. The wild ones sensed wolves. Nothing more, nothing less.

  Lisa’s senses were attuned to her surroundings at an almost feverish pitch. Smells, sounds, the feel of the hard-packed earth beneath her broad paws, the rush of air through her thick, black coat, all melded to create a sense of oneness with the forest, a feeling of continuity with the wolves pacing alongside, behind their wire fences.

  She was wolf. She ran in the darkest night, yet clearly saw the trail ahead, a narrow service road laid out between the large fenced enclosures. She raised her muzzle and snapped at the air, clicking together teeth designed for killing.

  Lisa felt the rumble beneath her feet before she heard the sound of the engines. Pausing, she turned to look at Tinker and caught him watching the trail behind them. As one, they slipped into the thick brush alongside the service road.

  Three pickup trucks rolled slowly by, running on parking lights only. Lisa recognized a couple of the regular volunteers, rough men she tended to avoid. She wasn’t sure, but it looked like Hal Anderson drove the first of the trucks. She wished she could get a better look, but he was on the opposite side of the road. The trucks continued on past the pens, leaving exhaust fumes in their wake.

  Tinker growled, then took off through the woods in the opposite direction of the trucks. Lisa wanted to follow them, wanted to see where they were going, but her mate called to her. She put Hal Anderson out of her thoughts, whirled around, and followed Tinker through the forest.

  The clean tang of fir and pine was sharply cut with the damp smell of humus and rotting wood as they ran deeper into the trees. They were beyond the inhabited pens now, past the ones where no wolves lived. Finally, in an area of forest
that was open and unfenced, Tinker stopped and raised his nose in the air. Lisa followed suit. There was something tantalizing, something calling to her, and she realized she’d scented game. She slanted a quick glance at Tinker, then followed as he slipped quietly into the brush alongside the road.

  Tinker moved ahead. Images flooded her mind, and she saw the small meadow, the tiny creek flowing through it. Tinker showed her with visuals, much as the wild wolves had done when Lisa picked up their thoughts. It seemed more natural to communicate with images rather than the convoluted mental speech of humans, and it made their earlier conversation about bonding all the more ridiculous.

  Tinker showed her their prey before Lisa actually saw it. The small buck, ears twitching nervously, drank at a narrow stream just at the point where the water cascaded into a shallow pond. Along with the visual, Tinker showed Lisa the proper way to attack, offering her first chance for the kill.

  She hesitated. Her human side appreciated the beauty of the deer, the wary manner in which it raised its head to scan the small meadow for danger. Tinker had brought them in downwind of the buck, silently and with a deadly stealth Lisa had never imagined; yet she was transfixed by the entire scene, by the fact that she hid now, within striking distance, able to appreciate the beauty of the creature she planned to kill.

  There was no doubt in her mind that she was entirely capable of taking a life. The feral part of her was already calculating the distance and height of her target.

  Her animal instincts burst into life. She bared her teeth. Saliva dripped from her jaws, and her heart raced. Adrenaline filled her bloodstream, and power surged through her limbs. With Tinker coming in from the opposite flank, Lisa broke through the wall of brush and attacked.

  She went directly for the animal’s throat just as the deer reared back on its haunches and turned to escape. Lisa’s charge missed. Teeth snapping, she latched onto the thick muscle rippling across the buck’s shoulder. Her weight and forward momentum brought the animal to his knees. Tinker moved quickly and with obvious skill, ripping the deer’s throat in one brutal slash of his teeth. He clamped down on the animal’s windpipe to ensure a quick death.

  Tinker looked at Lisa over the body of the dying deer, his amber eyes glittering brightly, meeting her gaze and obviously finding what he’d hoped. She felt him in her mind, a being of pure sensation, a wild creature bringing down food for his mate.

  Lisa stood across the buck’s body, head lowered, breathing hard from the rush of adrenaline and the exertion of her attack. Bridging the warm body, rear legs on one side, forepaws on the other, she experienced a moment where her humanity slid away altogether.

  Like Tinker, she was wolf. Her heart thundered in her chest, her muscles quivered as the adrenaline ebbed, and her nostrils flared at the rich smell of fresh blood.

  She growled, low in her throat. The sound tapered off to a small whine as her human nature reasserted itself. Still in the form of a wolf, Lisa existed as well.

  She shook herself and whined again, then leaned close and lapped at the blood pooling beneath the animal’s torn throat. She’d never tasted anything so amazing as the hot blood now staining her muzzle.

  On one level, her human self recognized the power of this moment, the first kill, the taste of blood, the nearness of her mate and his obvious pride in her, but the animal was more powerful. The wolf wanted nothing more than to feed, to tear at the tough hide and find the choice tastes.

  She clamped her jaws down on the skin covering the deer’s soft underbelly, ripping and tearing like the wild beast she was. A carnivore. One of nature’s most powerful predators. Tinker watched while she tore the thick hide away to expose the warm flesh.

  They fed together. Lisa realized if she had made the kill cleanly and on her own, she would have forced Tinker to wait, would have established her position as alpha bitch, but in this, her human side overruled her animal instincts.

  Considering what little useful information her mother had actually taught her, beyond the fact that men were worthless sons of bitches, Lisa realized she’d somehow learned good manners. Which, of course, went totally counter to the natural instincts of the wolf.

  Tinker showed no signs of possessiveness at all. The kill was theirs, a thing to be shared equally. The thick blood in Lisa’s mouth was an aphrodisiac, arousing and exciting, filling her with strength, bringing with it an even deeper understanding of her new reality.

  She was still Lisa Quinn, human, naturalist, a flawed but good woman. She was also Chanku. She had become one of the very creatures she’d loved for so long. Lisa glanced to her left, at the huge wolf licking fresh blood from his paw, and felt a surge of desire so strong, so consuming, it stole her breath.

  He was her mate. Her bonded mate. The lifetime of memories Tinker had shared, the loves he’d known, the life he’d hoped for, all came flooding back. She felt her body grow tense with arousal, then languid and open. Lisa fought an unexpected compulsion to mate, to release that all-important egg and make a baby with this man.

  She fought the surge of desire to reproduce, fought what was surely a most basic instinct of any creature, tamped it down and put it back where it belonged, into that part of her mind where dreams were stored. It was too soon for babies, but not too soon to once again experience that amazing bond with an even more amazing partner.

  Tinker studied Lisa for what seemed a very long time. His thoughts were blocked to her, but she was aware of his desire, of the same need coursing through his veins as the almost painful longing surging through her own. He stood up and trotted away from the body of the deer to a small pond at the end of the meadow, near where the deer had been drinking.

  He shifted there, standing tall and dark and magnificently aroused. Lisa didn’t hesitate. She shifted as well, experiencing the change from animal to human with an increased awareness. Her first shift had been so unexpected and had happened so quickly, she’d not even realized what she’d done. This time, she was ready for the change of perception as her body shifted, the alteration of scents and sounds and even the way things looked through her human eyes.

  The way thoughts filtered through the human brain. Lisa flashed back to the small convoy of trucks, and a shiver raced along her spine. She raised her head to question Tinker about her worries and caught herself in his molten gaze. Surrendered entirely to the love in his eyes, the sense of this moment, this place, this time.

  She smiled when Tinker held his hand out to her and led her to the pool. No words were said. There was too much to say, too many questions to ask, so she said nothing. Merely followed Tinker’s lead when he took her into the water, stepping carefully through tangles of cattails at the edge, finding the deepest point where the creek dropped over a low wall of rocks.

  It was cold, but the water was clear and invigorating against her hot skin. Shivering, Lisa dipped down into the water and tilted her head back. Her hair streamed out behind her. Long strands floated with the current, and when she turned, they wrapped themselves around her breasts, then flowed beyond to touch Tinker’s broad chest.

  He reached for her, his big hands cupping her shoulders, drawing her back to her feet so that she stood in waist-deep water. Her wet hair plastered to her breasts and back. She shivered in the cold night air.

  Lisa’s nipples jutted out like pencil erasers, hard and cold. Tinker leaned close, put his mouth on her breast, and sucked. His lips and tongue scalded her. Lisa arched her back and cried out. She clutched at the back of his head and his neck, holding him against her breast while he sucked and bit and lapped at her flesh. She felt every caress as if his mouth were between her legs, felt the pull of an orgasm building deep inside from nothing more than the moist heat of his mouth on her breast.

  He didn’t touch her anywhere else. His hands still clutched her shoulders, his mouth surrounding her nipple, and her sex clenched in response. She tilted her head back and moaned, offering herself to the magic of his mouth. His lips tightened around her nipple, his tongue
flicked across the tip, and his cheeks hollowed with each pull as he suckled her breast.

  Cold water lapped at Lisa’s hips and waist, but she was on fire between her legs, and there was fire in the pit of her belly, flames reaching from breast to sex, building, a conflagration burning out of control, all from the pressure of his mouth, the suction of his lips, the sharp, insistent scraping from his teeth.

  Lisa’s climax ripped through her body, totally unexpected, unprecedented, even more so in she who had always loved women. She arched her back and cried out, the harsh scream centered deep in her chest, forcing air out of oxygen-starved lungs.

  Her body sagged in Tinker’s embrace. He lifted her up against his chest and strode from the small pool. When he lay her down in the soft bracken fern, Lisa was still trembling from the strength of her climax and her skin burned and shivered in reaction. When he nudged her knees apart and knelt between them, she felt the hot moisture between her legs and wondered why there wasn’t steam rising from her body.

  He thrust once, hard and deep, and she cried out again. He was a dark god, a powerful creature of the night, as much wolf as man, and he was hers. All hers. Lisa raised her knees and tilted her hips, taking him deep inside.

  She put aside any lingering concerns about the trucks rumbling through her forest, saved her worries for another time. Now, she opened her mind once more, opened to the history of the man she’d already fallen hopelessly in love with, and lost herself in his past.

  The link was stronger this time. Tinker hadn’t thought it possible, to meld so completely with another soul. He’d shared thoughts with Tia during lovemaking, but it was nothing like this. The fact that Lisa was capable of love at all was a mystery to him. Her childhood had been a nightmare of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; her mother, an undiscovered Chanku who had never found her true self, had been a hateful and unhappy woman.

  She’d taken her frustrations out on her children and her husband and thought nothing of taking lovers throughout her marriage. Her death had been violent and unfortunate, but it was the only end possible to a miserable existence.