Hungry Like a Wolf

Five

Oh, shit. Not again.

Yes, please, thank you.

Honor couldn’t seem to make up her mind. Or rather, her hormones. Was Logan Hunter the best thing she’d ever tasted and the one thing she needed more than her next breath, or did she need to kill him and leave his carcass for scavengers to denude the flesh from his bones?

While she pondered, he gave a little roll of his hips against hers and threatened to turn the tide of the whole debate. Not to mention the planet.

Hell, it threatened, promised, and carried out. One minute Honor was contemplating how his head would look posed on a spike in the flower beds next to the front door, and the next, she clung to him like a honeysuckle vine, arms and legs twined around him as she tried to get as close as she possibly could to the source of her arousal.

Damn heat. Why Lupine women couldn’t have a normal female menstrual cycle, Honor had never understood. No, she had to go through a monthly bout of nearly uncontrollable lust and a frantic desire to mate every single time she ovulated. How was that right?

Logan didn’t seem to mind. His arms closed around her and hitched her higher against him, until her legs wound around his waist and his hips could grind directly between her legs. That felt good for all of seven milliseconds before Honor wanted more. She gritted her teeth against the urge to sink them into his flesh—something a male Lupine usually took as an invitation—and concentrated on remembering to breathe. That lasted five milliseconds. At that point, she gave up on good sense and reached for his shirt collar, grabbing hold and wrenching her hands apart until his buttons popped open and scattered about the floor of the clearing.

Three milliseconds later, she felt the impact of her back hitting the rough bark of a tree trunk and a distinct draft as her T-shirt tore down the middle and fell to hang limply off her elbows. If the man kept this up, she’d have to live permanently in her wolf form for lack of clothes.

That didn’t seem so bad, though, not when he was nibbling a path from her mouth, down her throat, to her breasts. She felt the little stings of his teeth against her skin, followed by the heat of his tongue laving the wounds, and the pressure of his mouth as he sucked her skin against his teeth. She’d look like a hickey map of the Milky Way by nightfall, and she couldn’t have cared less. All she cared about was getting her hands on him and easing the burning ache between her legs.

Her hands clenched the material of his shirt, and she shoved it off his shoulders and arms, tugging furiously until it gave up and fluttered to the ground beside them. Then her hands were on him, exploring the smooth expanse of muscle and skin, the furring of hair across his chest, the tight, flat discs of his nipples. She wanted to taste him, but he was too bloody far away, so she memorized his textures as if she were blind and he was her very own form of Braille. When her hands slipped below the waistband of his jeans and her nails scraped intricate patterns in the skin at the small of his back, he roared and shifted his weight to the side, tearing open the fly of her own jeans until he could slip his hand inside and plunge two long fingers deep into her slick heat.

“Logan!”

Her cry sounded choked and harsh to her own ears, but it was the most she could manage when her world was exploding behind her eyes like summertime fireworks. She tilted her hips to take him deeper and then moaned in frustration when he pressed knuckle deep inside her. It wasn’t enough.

“More. Now.”

He didn’t answer, but the rough rumble in his chest sounded like approval to her. Shaking with need, she reached between them for the button on his jeans and popped it open, only to encounter another one. Her eyes widened incredulously.

“Button flies?”

He growled in frustration and used his free hand to yank open the next button. “I know. Never again.”

The third and fourth buttons gave easily, practically leaping out of their holes to avoid their owner’s ire. As soon as the stiff denim parted, his cock sprang free and Honor all but wept in relief. Her hand curled around it, stroking down the length and back again. He felt amazing, hot and thick and achingly hard, and she needed him inside her. Now.

Giving up the last of her restraint, she ducked her head forward and sank her teeth into Logan’s shoulder, directly over the spot where she’d bitten him last night in the kitchen. Holding on, she released her grip on his cock only long enough to unzip her own jeans all the way. The rasping sound seemed to echo around them, then her jeans fell away under his hands and her legs were winding back around his waist. She reached for him again, but he was there before her, guiding himself to her liquid entrance. He paused briefly, his hot gaze capturing hers, before he tightened his hands on her hips and plunged deep.

Her cry, all hoarse triumph and blatant challenge, rang through the clear air around them. Logan grunted and leaned into her more heavily, pinning her to the rough tree trunk as he began thrusting inside her.

Honor squirmed to get closer, ignoring the scrapes and patches of raw skin the rough tree bark left on her back. Her awareness encompassed no more than him. Logan. The man against her, around her, inside her. The man who felt like home, whose body had been made to fill hers.

She thrust back at him, frantic to take him, all of him. His cock stretched her wide, filled her to the heart, and still she wanted more. She braced her hands against his shoulders and pushed, trying to get the leverage to increase the force of his thrusts. He growled a warning and pushed her hard against the tree. She snarled in his ear, but before she could bite, he shifted. His hands snaked down between them and spread her thighs even wider. He hooked his elbows behind her knees and pressed her legs up and back, and she felt his next thrust in the back of her throat.

God, he felt incredible inside her. Hot and thick and hard and so perfect her head spun with it. She felt the truth pounding at her in time with his movements, but she shoved it back in fear. She did not need or want this right now. Sure, her life sucked these days, but it sucked on her terms. If she gave in and accepted the truth she could feel haunting her, her terms would cease to exist. She knew it as surely as she knew her own name. The only terms Logan Hunter intended to play by were his own, and Honor knew that giving in would cost her more than she was willing to pay.

She could feel his muscles tensing beneath her clutching hands. She felt the slickness of sweat and of blood where her nails had bitten deep and carved furrows in his broad back. He began to thrust harder, if that were possible, to quicken his motions until he moved with blurring speed and force and Honor had to abandon her efforts to keep up. She simply held on for dear life. Higher he drove them, and faster, until Honor could feel the tension twist between her hip bones like a tightened rubber band, ready to snap.

She forced her eyes open and met his gaze. His eyes looked hot and wild, glowing a feral gold with hunger and instinct. She knew what he was about to do, and she couldn’t let it happen. Her body tensed, the first wave of orgasm gathering inside her, preparing to break. Logan growled in response to her body’s instinctive tightening and his hands bit deeply into her hips, leaving bruises where tanned fingers gripped creamy flesh. He shifted abruptly and forced her hips to tilt upward until the base of his cock rubbed against her clit as he thrust, and Honor broke.

The climax seized her by the scruff of her neck and shook her like a disobedient cub. Her body clenched around him, milking his cock in hot, slick motions, dragging him into ecstasy behind her.

She felt the moment of his explosion and twisted her torso to the side, raising one arm to deflect his bite, catching it on the muscular flesh of her bicep, rather than on the shoulder where he’d been aiming. She heard his muffled roar, but his jaw had already clenched shut around her arm and he couldn’t pull away. He mouthed the skin as his body emptied itself inside her, a growl rumbling low in his throat. Honor hung there, pinned between the tree and his shuddering body for endless minutes until his tension eased.

He raised his head to glare at her, brown eyes still glowing an amber gold with the aftermath of his climax. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“You shouldn’t have tried to mark me.” She shivered, suddenly aware that they were all but naked outside in the stone yard in the middle of winter. Never mind that steam billowed off them in a hazy fog; she wanted her clothes.

“You are mine.” Logan shook her, staring into her eyes as if he could will her to agree with him.

“I don’t belong to anyone. Least of all you. I bear no man’s mark, and I intend to keep it that way.”

He snorted. “What are you? The Virgin Alpha? I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but your name isn’t Elizabeth.”

“It doesn’t need to be.” She shoved hard at his shoulders, and he grunted, but didn’t release her. “Let me go and get the hell off my property. We’ve said everything we need to say, and I need to go take a frickin’ shower.”

His jaw snapped shut, loud enough for Honor to hear the click. When he spoke from between clenched teeth, it sounded as if it came from a wolf’s throat, not a human larynx. “Not yet. I’m not done. You will be my mate, Honor. No matter what I have to do to convince you.”

He carried her to the floor of the clearing and went ahead with the convincing. All Honor could do was moan.

“This doesn’t change anything, you know.”

Logan sighed and stretched, shifting his weight partially off Honor’s limp body and onto the rough ground. “I never thought it had.”

He might have hoped, but he hadn’t really let himself believe any different. In the twelve hours or so that he’d known Honor Tate, he’d come to realize she could teach stubborn to Missy Winters.

Logan winced at the reminder of his own pack and why he’d come to Connecticut in the first place. It unfortunately hadn’t been to roll around the forest floor with the mouthwatering alpha of the White Paw Clan, but to decide if she had what it took to lead her pack. Something about which he hadn’t yet made up his mind.

“Just so we’re clear.” She pushed him off her, forcing him to roll onto his back so she could sit up and brush the bits of leaves and dirt from her skin. “Now when are you leaving?”

“Sometime next week. Just like I told you.”

She turned to him with narrowed eyes, an expression entirely different from the one she’d worn about ten minutes ago.

“Wrong answer. Try again.”

Logan shook his head. “Honor, I’ve been here for barely twelve hours and I’ve already seen you have to take down one male and had another all but introduce himself to me as alpha in your place. Do you honestly think—”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m just trying to point out that—”

She growled, low and vicious. “What. Member. Of this pack claimed my title to an outsider?”

Logan tightened his lips. “On my way here, a male stopped me. He didn’t tell me he was alpha, but he wanted to welcome me to the territory and clearly would have been happy for me to draw my own conclusions.”

“Who.”

She wasn’t even pretending it was a question.

“Darin Major.”

The tension popped like a balloon, huffed out on a bark of a laugh, and Honor returned her attention to searching for her clothes. “Darin. I thought I was going to have a problem for a minute.”

“You don’t think a male member of your pack assuming your position before outsiders is a problem?”

“No, I just don’t think Darin is a problem.” She met his gaze briefly. “Trust me, I know all about Darin and his delusions of grandeur. I can handle him. Even if he were to challenge me, I can take him. He’s not a threat.”

“The question isn’t just whether or not you can take him. Don’t you think your regional alpha would be a little bit concerned if the alpha of this pack couldn’t go a week without someone challenging for the position? Graham wants stability.”

“And I’ll provide it. In fact, why don’t you go tell your boss that right now? If you get on the road before noon, you can beat most of the traffic back to New York.”

Logan groaned and covered his eyes with his forearm. “Look, I think we’ve come to a Mexican standoff.” He shifted to look at her and tried desperately not to get distracted by the sight of her bare breasts and the marks he’d made on them, most of which were already fading. “You’re not going to change your mind about having me here, and I’m not going to change my mind about staying. So I have a proposal for you.”

“Does it involve you catching the next green light back to the city?”

“No. And that’s not just because I have lousy luck with traffic signals, either.” He saw her looking around for the remains of her T-shirt and felt a twinge of conscience. He handed her his mostly intact, if buttonless, shirt and watched her shrug into it. “I intend to stay until I find out what I came here to find out.”

“It doesn’t matter what you say. This pack is not going to change, and I’m not going to give it up and make a graceful exit no matter what you think your job is or what you decide is best for us.” She tied the ends of the shirt into a knot below her breasts and reached for her jeans. “You’re wasting your time.”

All of a sudden he realized she’d never been wearing a bra and his body responded in a pretty predictable fashion. He drew one knee up to his chest and rested his forearm across it. In spite of the pleasurable interlude they had just shared, he still wasn’t sure if it was safe to leave any of his body parts sticking out and vulnerable around this testy female.

“It’s my time to waste, but I don’t think that’s what I’ll be doing, anyway. But here’s what I’m thinking.” He waited until she fastened her jeans and turned to him with an impatient expression. “The full moon is in three days.” Along with the peak of her heat, but he wasn’t thinking about that, and he certainly wasn’t going to mention it. “It will be the first Howl since your father’s death. It would be a perfect opportunity for me to see the dynamics of the pack and to get the answers to the Silverback alpha’s questions. If you can put up with me for another seventy-two hours, I’ll leave after that without a fuss.”

“Why? Give me a good reason. I have every right to order a nonmember out of pack territory. I don’t have to let you stay.”

“You do if you want to avoid a clan war.”

He saw her pause, saw his words sink in and make her think. He kept his gaze level, but unthreatening. He needed her to know he meant what he said, but he didn’t want to come across as any more hard-nosed or unyielding than he had to. He walked a delicate tightrope, but his balance had always been good.

“Winters would really take it as far as a war? That’s insane. This pack isn’t big enough to make a difference to him. It shouldn’t matter to the Silverback who leads the White Paw, so long as they aren’t intending to lead it into his business. And trust me, I’m not. So why is this suddenly a life-or-death situation?”

“The White Paw pay fealty to the Silverback. It’s his job to care.”

“That’s bullshit. Even if it’s true, it’s bullshit. It’s his job to make sure my pack doesn’t pick a fight with his, reveal ourselves to the local human population, or otherwise compromise the safety of the larger Lupine community. Anything more than that is just someone with too much time on his hands and an overgrown side of busybody.” Honor’s gaze searched his expression for a minute, then rolled her eyes. “And even if you agreed with me, you’re too loyal to say so. Right. Well, I just don’t need this crap. Not now. Not here. Not a fucking chance.”

Logan shrugged. “You’ve got it anyway. Now what are you going to do about it?”

She slammed her feet into battered hiking boots with a snarled curse. “Right now, I’m going back to the house to change, and then I’m going back to work. Some of us have real jobs where we have to be constructive and accomplish things.”

He suppressed a smile at that dig. She was cute when she was mad.

And she’d probably rip his intestines out through his nostrils if he mentioned that fact.

“Gotcha. I think I’m going to go get a shirt at least, and then maybe take a look around. See if I can meet some of the pack. You know, basically stick my nose in where it doesn’t belong. See you at dinner?”

Logan watched her stalk off back toward the house and grinned a wolfish grin. He hadn’t come here expecting to find his mate, but damned if it didn’t appear that was exactly what he’d done. He wondered what she’d say when he informed her they’d be getting married and having cubs together. If he knew her at all, he guessed what she’d say didn’t bear repeating. But what the hell? Logan Hunter loved a challenge. And this one looked to be a doozy.

By the time Logan gathered and donned what was left of his clothes—namely his blue jeans, his boots, and one sock—and made his way back to the main house, Honor was long gone. He hadn’t really expected anything different, but some days, he just couldn’t quell that involuntary burst of optimism.

He jogged up to his room, which he’d learned was across the hall and down three doors from Honor’s, and grabbed a change of clothes. It took a second to brush himself free of the debris he’d picked up from the ground in the stone yard, but he figured it was better to take a moment now than spend half the day fighting with a twig in his trousers.

He was still buttoning up a new shirt as he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen. All his exercise from this morning had made him hungry, even if it was still technically an hour or so till lunch. He didn’t find Joey in the kitchen as he’d expected, but he did find a brief note on the counter explaining the timing of meals, the contents of the refrigerator, and that he was free to help himself to anything that wasn’t on the neatly printed menu beside the note. He took Honor’s cousin at her word and foraged in the fridge, emerging with half a rabbit and a full duck breast, cooked beautifully rare.

Sitting at the small kitchen table, he made short work of his snack before he wiped the grease off his hands with a dishtowel and pulled out his cell phone. He noted gratefully that he still got a pretty good signal out here in the woods and dialed Graham’s direct line at Vircolac.

“Vircolac,” a perky feminine voice announced. “We bring good things back to life.”

Logan snorted out a laugh. “What, is that a new ad slogan?”

“It’s still in testing. The first focus group yielded mixed results. How are you, Logan? Arrived safely in the wild, untamed north?”

“Missy, I’m only a hundred and fifteen miles outside of Manhattan, and the last yeti from these parts became a stockbroker back in eighty-seven. But I’m fine. Thanks.”

“Spoilsport.” She sounded remarkably unfazed by the correction. “How are things going so far? Did the new alpha make a good first impression?”

Logan’s mind instantly conjured up the sight of Honor silhouetted in the bathroom doorway the instant before she had noticed him. The light and steam behind her had outlined her in lush detail, emphasizing the soft curves of her breasts, those long legs, and the luscious flare of her hips. He felt his body stirring at the memory and cleared his throat. No need to tell the Luna just how impressed certain parts of him had really been. “I’m reserving judgment.”

Missy snorted. “Just like a man. I assume you called to talk to my mate, not to me, right?”

The question caught Logan unawares. Not because the answer wasn’t yes, but because he realized that for the first time since he’d originally met Missy Roper Winters, he really would rather talk to her husband than to her. The epiphany almost knocked him over. Missy hadn’t caused the erection he could feel straining against his jeans—zip front, this time—as they talked; Honor had. He’d been fine until his mind had conjured up that image of the lithe brunette poised in the bathroom door wearing nothing more than a towel. And when he let his mind wander along its favorite path, he imagined Honor’s pale, creamy skin and dark, curling hair, not Missy’s blond mop and curvy figure. It amazed him.

“Logan?”

The quiet question shook him out of his meditation. “Right. Sorry, Miss. Yeah, I do need to talk to Graham. Is he around?”

“Sure. He was just showing Ava the door. She stopped over to see Roarke, and Graham never rests easy until he’s seen her taxi pull away. I imagine he’ll be back any second.”

Logan could hardly blame Graham. Of all Missy’s close friends, Ava Markham inspired the greatest sense of fear and awe. An unrepentant matchmaker, she’d tried her hand at setting up just about everyone she knew at one time or another. Now, her erstwhile victims spent most of their time praying for the day when someone would turn the tables on her. “Right. Should I call back?”

“No, don’t worry about it. Here he is now.”

He heard a shuffling sound as the receiver was passed from one hand to the other, then a rough growl replaced Missy’s light, feminine voice in his ear. “What’s up?”

Logan felt his eyebrow arching. “Nice to talk to you, too. I’m fine, thanks. Didn’t sleep that well last night, but somehow I’m not feeling all that many ill effects. Must be the water up here.”

“Can it, Hunter. It’s been a lousy day.”

“I heard. Ava paid a visit, huh? Having the place fumigated?”

“Not yet. Maybe when Missy takes Roarke to the park later. So what’s the news?”

“I’m here.”

Pause.

“That’s it? That’s the news?”

“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“Yeah, but they could at least say, ‘We’re here and we put down some rocks,’ right?”

“Okay. I’m here, and I’ve met Tate’s daughter.”

Another pause.

“And?”

“There’s not much else to tell. I’ve only been here”—he glanced at his watch—“fifteen hours, and most people around here were asleep for a good eight or nine of those.”

He and Honor hadn’t been asleep, but he saw no need to bog the conversation down with details.

“Yeah, but you’ve had time to form a first impression, haven’t you?”

Logan paused, reluctant to say anything. On the one hand, he didn’t want to hurt Honor’s chance to prove herself, but on the other, he couldn’t lie to his alpha. “Yeah. She’s pretty together, considering what she’s just been through. I think she has potential.”

“Potential or ability?”

“It’s really too soon to make that kind of call.”

“What about the pack? Have they settled in to the idea of having a female alpha, especially such a young one?”

“I’m going to start talking to them once I’m off with you. So far I’ve only met a couple of them, and I doubt that’s much to go by.”

“It’s a start. What did they have to say?”

Logan gritted his teeth for a second before answering. “There have been three challenges since she took the title Alpha.”

“Really? Well, she’s alive, so I guess that means she can handle herself in a fight. How is she taking the deaths?”

“I don’t think her father’s death has had a chance to sink in yet. She’s been too busy keeping things running to shed any tears over him.”

“Understandable. But what about the challenge deaths? Is she holding up after those?”

Shit. He knew this answer was not one his friend was going to like, so he hesitated for a second.

“There haven’t been any deaths,” he finally admitted.

Again, Graham paused. “What does that mean? If there were challenges…”

“She chose to end them without slaying her opponents. The first showed her his throat, and the other two she crippled. But she hasn’t killed anyone.”

There was a moment of silence.

Not the reverent kind, but the are-you-fucking-kidding-me kind.

“And you still think she has the potential to lead that pack?” Graham asked carefully.

“I think it’s possible. She’s strong enough. Two of those challenges came from grown men, and she defeated both of them, death or no. She’s also damned smart from what I can tell. True, she’s got a bit of a feminine notion of mercy, but I believe she would do what needed to be done if it came to that kind of situation.”

“She doesn’t believe an alpha challenge is that kind of situation?”

Logan felt the need to defend her, which was weird enough in itself, but coupled with the fact that his hackles were going up in response to his alpha, it crossed the line into surreal. “She did what she had to do, and she walked away from the challenges a clear winner. The last one was her closest childhood friend. Imagine how you would feel if you were faced with a choice to let me live or die. How easy would that death stroke be for you?”

“Whoa. We’re not talking about you and me, brother. We’re talking about Ethan Tate’s daughter. Aren’t we?”

Logan forced down his growl. “Yes. We are. And I think we need to give her the benefit of the doubt. The first Howl since Ethan’s death will be this weekend. Three days from now. The whole pack will be gathered, and according to Pack Law, any outstanding challenges will have to be answered then or held till the next Clans Moot.”

“Which is still three more years away. And it’s scheduled to be hosted in Silverback territory this time. So she and her clan will have to come here.” He was silent for a moment, and Logan could almost hear him thinking. “I won’t say I’m not concerned over what you’ve told me, but I trust your judgment. Stay through the Howl. If you think she’s capable of leading the pack after what you see then, I’ll accept your word and leave her in power until the next Clans Moot. Then I’ll take a look for myself and make a final decision.”

Oh, right. Honor would just love that little plan. That just meant that his own carefully thought-out plan would be to not tell Honor a word about it.

“Agreed.”

“Good. Now get back to work. I’m thinking about trying to give Missy a new baby for her birthday.”

Logan rolled his eyes at the shriek he heard just before the phone disconnected. He flipped the cell phone closed and shoved it into his pocket. Let Graham have fun with his little blond mate. Logan had a darker fish to fry.