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  She knew what he said was true, felt the beating drum of blood in her veins, the prickling of each raw nerve and the ache of rising desire. Still, she hesitated.

  “Lena, you know me. I’ll take care of you, protect you from them.”

  He left the rest unspoken. The others wanted only her body and the chance to pass on their genes. It was natural, logical, terrifying. Lena shivered at the horror.

  She did not want this, but wanted Hunter. Had wanted him then, still wanted him, would want him after her time was past and he was gone again. Her birth control would keep her from an unwelcome pregnancy. But that was just one of the dangers here.

  “Did you bring a condom?”

  He smiled. “That defeats the purpose. Doesn’t it?”

  So, she’d not mention the birth control pill she was on.

  “How do I know you aren’t carrying something?”

  “Lena, have you ever been sick?” His voice held a note of indulgence.

  She felt uncertainty inching up her neck like a wet slug. “I’m a very healthy person.”

  He shook his head. “You’re immune to the human diseases. Flu, food poisoning, polio, plagues. None of it affects us.”

  She stared up wide-eyed.

  His mouth went grim. “Will you accept me?”

  She stepped toward Hunter, drawn as much by his promise as the raw sexuality that oozed from him with the heady scent she could no longer ignore. He held himself back, still as any predator the instant before the chase.

  She held her breath and nodded. He brought her to him, pressing her to his suddenly naked body, drawing her into the warm spray of water and closing them into this private retreat from the waking nightmare that was her life.

  His voice caressed her. “I’m yours.”

  Hunter offered himself to her wholly.

  “Yours, for as long as you need me.”

  She closed her eyes. If only he had not said that last part, she might have been able to pretend he wanted more than exclusivity.

  If only he would stay. But she knew what he meant, the logical part of her brain did. He meant he’d stay with her, protect her and make love to her only for as long as she was in heat, and then he’d go.

  Lena was a child of practicality. So she’d take what she could get. A few days with Hunter might just be enough to last a lifetime. It had to be, for it was all she’d have. What would he do if, this time, she followed him?

  Why hadn’t she followed him when he’d asked her all those years ago?

  “I’m going to take you, Lena. I have to. If I don’t, the others will come back.”

  Was that true? Were they waiting outside for her even now? Her stomach lurched at the possibility as she clung to the one person who had never lied to her. Hunter. Could she still trust him?

  He turned her toward the spray and jets of hot water tingling over her sensitive skin, bringing her nipples to hard, tight knots of need as his erection pressed against her bottom. Their bodies aligned, soft curves to taut muscle. But he did not bend her over or grasp at her as she’d expected. Instead, he pressed tender kisses along her neck as he reached for a bar of soap. If she had ever been washed, she did not recall it, but what Hunter did, she would never forget. Hot water, steam, slippery bubbles of soap and his big, practiced hands caressing her in a slow dance that seemed designed to pay her homage as much as to drive her mad. He dipped his head and sucked the lobe of her ear, licked the shell and nuzzled the erogenous zone just behind. She began to rock against him, working his erection between her legs, sliding along the smooth, velvety length of his shaft, showing him wordlessly that she was wet and ready for him.

  But still, he did not enter her. When she leaned forward and thrust her bottom back, he continued the slow erotic soaping of her back, shoulders and arms, cleansing her, caressing her with slow erotic strokes. By the time he reached around her torso to her ribs, she was trembling with yearning. She arched as he lathered her breasts, his hands swirling over the heavy, aching flesh, fingers spiraling around the plump curves and then pinching her nipples until she shivered with need.

  The hot steam enveloped them as torrents of water poured over her skin. She was drowning in desire.

  She splayed her hands against the hard tile, opening her legs and pressing back. Her need shattered her reason, begged her to surrender all she had to him. She rubbed herself against him with restless, urgent thrusts, becoming the animal she now accepted she was. His hands left her breasts and slid down, sliding between her open legs, his fingers danced over her soft folds, as he pressed his chest to her back. His fingers impaled her but it wasn’t enough. She wanted him inside her, stroking the aching hunger he stirred.

  He brought her to the edge of sanity. She surrendered to the need, to the wild calling of his body to hers, accepting him.

  “Take me,” she begged.

  Chapter Four

  Lena felt the low growl rumbling from deep inside Hunter’s chest, rippling out to her as he bent his knees, aligning them and then he was there, pressing against her pliant needy flesh, the tip of him poised, ready. She rocked her hips, offering her cleft to him. He gripped her rump between his two strong hands. She locked her arms and waited.

  In that moment of anticipation, Lena recognized that she could manage without everyone else in the world if only she had Hunter.

  “Please.” She breathed the word, a gasp, a sigh. Lena wanted Hunter, had wanted him, always and only.

  He impaled her in one swift, hard stroke, locking them together, stretching her, filling her. She closed her eyes to savor the pleasure. He was huge and she was so ready.

  Hunter withdrew with deliberate slowness until she feared she would lose him, but then he drew her back and she shattered, her knees giving way. He held her, his hips locked against her as the rolling contractions corkscrewed through her quaking body.

  He paused then, as if savoring her release. The low, feral growl came again from behind her, vibrating and merging with her own. An instant later Hunter rolled into violent, sensual, delicious motion.

  He plunged. She braced, taking all of him again and again.

  Hunter moved with barely controlled power, savoring the tightness of her sheath and the slick, wet slide of his penetration into her supple flesh. Oh, he’d had others, won by combat, but Lena, was so wild, so scorching hot. How many times had he dreamed of taking her? And yet he had still not come close to imagining the perfection of this union. Every single time his body had betrayed him, forced him to take some stranger, he had pictured Lena, the only one he ever wanted.

  She was strong. She nearly pushed him off his feet with her mad bucking. He was close, yet he wanted it to last.

  “Deeper,” she commanded

  He didn’t think it was possible, but she lifted up on her toes and rolled her lovely hips and he sunk farther into her hot, wet body. It was his undoing.

  “Sweet mother of us all,” he groaned as the orgasm fired within him like a jet engine.

  He arched at the rush of pleasure and groaned as he felt her come again, her body’s rippling contraction gripping him, milking him.

  Please, Great Spirit, let Lena accept him. Let her take this small offering into her lovely body and bring them a child.

  They were falling. He controlled their descent as they tumbled out of the shower door and onto the plush mat spread upon the floor.

  She sprawled across his chest, gasping too as he gobbled up the air into his oxygen-starved lungs.

  After a moment he lifted his head, captured her by the hair and kissed her with all the passion and tenderness in his soul. He savored the taste of her, the soft pliancy of her lips and the greedy glide of her tongue on his.

  When he released her, it was only to cradle her head against his chest and hold her in the place next to his heart that he had kept for her all this time. He rested his cheek on the top of her wet head. How he had longed for her during all the days of their separation, but his conjuring did not include this un
expected knot in his throat or the heavy ache in his chest. What had she done to him?

  Lena shivered. He released her to capture one of the fluffy towels, enfolding her in the thick terry cloth.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, suddenly unsure, worrying that he had been too rough.

  She clung to the edges of her towel. Her wet hair hung about her pretty face. Beads of moisture clung to her skin, making her look wilder and more feral than before. She lifted her gaze and showed him a new light in her eyes, a kind of dangerous glint that told him she wasn’t done with him yet. His nostrils flared, bringing him the scent of sex, laced with a female in heat. So soon. She wanted him again.

  She licked her full lower lip, sending a shot of need right to his hardening cock.

  She was on her hands and knees now, stalking forward, pushing him to the floor, her hair dripping puddles on his chest that ran in rivulets down his torso.

  Lena kissed him hard on the mouth, then left him to lick, kiss and nip her way down his neck. When her teeth scored over his nipple, Hunter dragged her away and pulled them to their feet.

  “I’ve got a perfectly good bed out there,” he said thumbing over his shoulder. “We don’t need to lie on the floor.”

  Lena quirked a brow and then dragged her gaze slowly over him. His skin caught fire beneath her perusal. He offered her another towel and she used it on her hair as he wrapped one about his middle. When she had finished, she stared at the place where the towel jutted out over his erection and then met his gaze and licked her full lips.

  Lena on the prowl. His breath caught.

  Hunter looked at the woman he had captured and feared that perhaps she had also captured him.

  He provided a comb and then wrapped his hand about his cuff bracelet, feeling the pop of energy as his coat shifted to a pair of faded jeans.

  “I need to learn to do that.” She placed a hand possessively on his hips. “Or how to undo it.”

  He grinned and then helped her, placing her fingers over the tooth necklace and pressing it down. “Just picture what you want it to do. Picture it clearly.”

  He stepped back and her eyes fluttered closed. He heard the sizzle and Lena straightened as a pale, satiny, thigh-length robe swathed her.

  She grinned up at him and he beamed his pride back to her. Then offered his hand, leading them out, their bare feet padding soundlessly on the hardwood floor to the main room where the electric lights blazed from the ceiling fixtures. His eyes adjusted instantly.

  Beside him, Lena slowed, releasing his hand and glancing toward the living room window, which led to the fire escape. He sensed the new tension in her.

  She gazed up at him. “Will the others go now?”

  He shook his head. “But they’ll know we’ve mated. That will buy us some time.”

  “Are we safe?”

  He nodded. “For now. I can protect you, Lena, and I can provide for you as well.” He motioned toward the kitchen. “Are you hungry? Would you eat first?”

  He knew a she-wolf was ravenous in all things and had prepared accordingly.

  She nodded. “I don’t get to eat regularly.”

  Knowing how she had suffered hurt him. The ache was back and the urge to keep her safe thrummed through him with each beat of his heart. Would she allow him to stay after her time had passed? It was unlikely. Females of his kind did not often choose a permanent mate, preferring to take one only when necessary.

  He led her to the kitchen table and held out a chair for her.

  She gave him a pleased smile and sat, adjusting the edges of her pink satin robe and cinching the sash. He thought the contrast of her cinnamon skin and the shiny pink robe was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen. He turned to the kitchen area.

  Lena watched him, weighing her need for food against her need for sex. She’d been with a few boys, even spent the night with one. But this was different because this was Hunter.

  His biceps flexed and his back corded as he opened the refrigerator. She gobbled up the sight of him. She smelled food, lots of food. Lena’s mouth watered.

  A sound from the alley reached her, a shuffling and scratching. She swallowed back her dread. They were out there in the darkness. Lena shifted her gaze back to Hunter.

  As long as she held him, as long as he loved her, they’d be safe. Her instincts told her this was true. The knowledge seemed as deep and ancient as her survival instinct, only stronger, far stronger even than her need to protect herself from danger.

  Another thought struck her. He would protect her with his life. She knew it, but she also discovered that she wanted to protect him. He wouldn’t leave her while she burned. So for the time she was in heat, he was in danger. She realized that winning her was no prize. It was a huge frickin’ target on his back.

  How long would he want her? How long would he let her stay?

  She never stayed anywhere very long any more. Most of the places she slept this summer had been horrible. She glanced at Hunter. Lena trusted him and that made her feel safe.

  Lena glanced about at the apartment. If she let her mind wander she could imagine that this was their place, that he was really hers, not just for tonight, but for a lifetime. She could love him and he would feed her and keep her from the streets. Safe from the others who prowled the night.

  Wasn’t that a pretty picture? So pretty, in fact, that she cast the fantasy immediately aside. It would be hard enough when he put her back out there. And he would, she sensed that, too. He’d left her before and he’d do it again. She didn’t need to make it worse by pretending this was more than the coupling of near strangers.

  He was not the boy she remembered. He was here to satisfy her need and his. Once done, he’d go. She needed her wits more than she needed pretty pictures of things that would never be.

  Would it make any difference to him if she told him that she didn’t want him to leave?

  Lena was no child. She’d been through enough to understand that she rarely got what she wanted and when she did, she couldn’t keep it. Then why not just enjoy their time while it lasted?

  Because, after this, it would make being alone and unprotected even more miserable.

  Chapter Five

  Hunter set a huge platter of bread, cheese and fruit before her, like an offering. A grape rolled from the bunch and onto the table. He lifted it to her lips. She bit it in half. He popped the other half into his mouth, then returned to the refrigerator.

  Wine, sparkling water, a spiral-cut ham, thinly sliced roast beef and an entire cheesecake covered with gooey red strawberries appeared from the enormous refrigerator. She ate more than she should have, wishing she could stuff some of the bounty into her backpack, but then recalled that she had left that in the dorm room. She’d lost all she’d packed and everything else she owned was locked up tight in the dorm until Sunday night.

  He held tempting morsels to her lips and she licked the juices from his fingers. She’d never thought of eating as a sensual experience until she did it with Hunter.

  “Is everything about sex with you?” she asked.

  “Can’t really think about anything else when I’m around you, Lena.”

  Her smile dimmed when she recognized that he was not really attracted to her. It was her heat. Not her, but his body’s response to a female who was ready to mate. She could be any female in this condition and he would have fought—no, killed—to have her.

  “How long does it last?”

  “Hmm?” He lowered the morsel of ham from her lips, the smile receding by slow degrees as he met her gaze with troubled eyes. “Three days, four maybe.”

  So little time. Her stomach ached in anticipation of their parting. She fidgeted with the collar of her robe.

  Hunter drew his chair closer, lifting a hand to stroke her cheek.

  “I’m glad I won. Honored to be your first.”

  She blinked in confusion. “You aren’t my first.”

  “Humans don’t count with us. Their just entertain
ment.”

  She refused to acknowledge the increase in her heart rate. Did she count? She just wanted to be normal, but that would never happen now. Perhaps she could, at least, be a part of his kind. Lena held her breath as the possibility of being one of a family of Skinwalkers flickered inside her, fragile as a candle flame. She pressed her hand over her mouth as she clutched her hopes.

  “What happens afterwards?” she asked.

  She saw the answer before he spoke. His eyes narrowed and his lips grew thin and bloodless. He would not be taking her with him.

  “I’m a lone wolf.”

  “Don’t wolves run in packs?”

  His laugh grated, harsh, mirthless. “Some. And others of our kind create a pair bond. The alphas. They have exclusivity to each other, some raise young.”

  He raked his hands through the thick hair at his temples. She watched his shoulders bunch, trying not to be distracted by his physicality. Right now she longed to know more of him than that, to reacquaint herself with him, to share their secrets as they had once done.

  Lena inched closer, drawn by forces she could only just control.

  “Have you ever been a member of such a pack?”

  After a long silence, he slouched, dropping his elbows to his thighs.

  His eyes met hers and she recognized the haunted expression. “After I left the group home, it was hard. I knew something was happening to me, something dangerous. It’s why I left. Then my mentor came for me.”

  He hadn’t told her about his mentor. There was so much about him she didn’t know. “When I finished my training, he took me to my sires. My parents were an alpha pair.”

  He’d found his family. She tried not to let the envy poison her. His luck was not the reason for her misfortune. But, according to what Hunter had just said, her human mother had been no more than entertainment to her Skinwalker father and he had quickly moved on. What did that make her, just another mistake?

  “I hunted with them for a time. But when I grew strong and fast, my father turned on me. Nearly killed me. And my mother did nothing to stop him.”