She hunted a few rabbits, squirrels, and raccoons that came out of their dens, more for the fun of the chase than for any desire to eat. Later, she lay on a fallen log near a small, icy stream and basked in the sun. As the sun sank in the west, she slowly made her way back to where she‟d stashed her clothing, shifted, and dressed.
Shivering a bit in the dropping temperatures, she picked up the pace to get her blood pumping since she wasn‟t dressed for the weather. As a shifter, she could tolerate the cold better than humans, but without her fur, even she could feel the cold if not properly attired.
Upon arriving home, she found Mark planted on the stoop of her doorway like he‟d been there for hours and was prepared to linger for several more. She opened the car door, and he was there.
“You didn‟t call,” he growled.
Everything in her came to a boiling point. The feelings she‟d spent the day attempting to outrun erupted in a conflagration of desire based in desperation, and she launched herself at him. Mark caught her midair. Carol fused her mouth to his as she wrapped her arms and legs around him like an anaconda.
Carol didn‟t know how they made it into the house. When she came back to herself, they were on the wooden floor of the foyer. What clothing hadn‟t been ripped to pieces was shoved out of the way.
Mark sprawled on top of her, panting. “Damn, baby, if being around your people makes you respond like this, they need to come more often.” Carol closed her eyes and gently ran her hands over his scalp in a tender caress. “I missed you last night.” Inside, her conscience was screaming, Tell him!
She swallowed hard.
He ran his hand down her side from breast to hip, displacing the few scraps of clothing that remained. “I stayed up late, waiting for your call.”
“I…we sat up late talking.”
He raised his head and looked at her. “Everything all right? You seem disturbed.”
She forced her eyes to open and gave him a smile that was strained around the edges. “A bit. The news they came to give me was…surprising.” Mind-blowing was more like it. “I‟m still trying to process.”
“Bad news?” She could feel waves of concern emanating from him. “No one‟s sick, are they?”
She shook her head. “Nothing like that.” She racked her brain for something she could tell him that was close to the truth without revealing everything. “They announced they‟re retiring, well, stepping down from the organization they run. I wasn‟t expecting it. Not this soon.”
“Oh.”
She could see he was wondering why that particular news would be so upsetting to her. Before he could ask more questions, she told him, “Why are we laying on the floor when we could be upstairs in bed?” Diverted, a sexy grin crossed his face, and he rose to his feet, pulling her up with him. “Now you‟re talking. Go on up. I‟ll get my stuff and lock up. It‟s late. Have you eaten?”
She gave him a smoldering look. “The only thing I want to eat is you.” He groaned, and for a second, she could have sworn his eyes glowed gold. The sight of it made her blood run cold. Mark tugged his jeans up on his hips and cupped his crotch. “I‟ll give you all of this you can handle, as soon as I get into the room.”
She smiled, but her heart clutched in fear. She was remembering the alphas‟
words. “With each exchange of body fluid, your DNA is changing him into a wolf-shifter like us… He has a right to know…before it’s too late.” As she jogged up the stairs, love and her innate sense of fair play and honesty compelled her to tell him the truth, now, before this thing between them went any further. Fear held her back. One more night, she bargained. Let me have one more night with him, and then I‟ll tell him. One night to hold me for the rest of my life.
But one night became two, and two rolled into three. Before she knew it, a week had passed…
Chapter Six
Carol startled when her arm was jostled. Sometime during the last few minutes, her chair had been joined by others, and now she sat in the middle of a rather rowdy cheering section. She looked to the right to see Lulu, one of the pack‟s elders, settling into a seat.
“Lulu, glad you could make it.”
“And miss a chance to say howdy to the alphas? Now you know better than that.”
Carol allowed a rueful smile to cross her face. Indeed she did know better.
Lulu, Tom, and Mona were great friends. Of course she wouldn‟t let this opportunity to see them pass when they‟d been gone for almost two years now.
“How you feeling?” Lulu asked. “It‟s not like you to sit.”
“Wonderful, but my mate doesn‟t want me overdoing,” she stated with a roll of the eyes.
“I hear you, child,” Lulu said on a chuckle. “A little setting never hurt anyone.
You listen to that man of yours. He has your best interest at heart.”
“I know. That‟s why I‟m here and not out there.” She indicated the game in progress; then she glanced around. “Ms. Emma didn‟t come?” Lulu and Ms. Emma were thick as thieves, and since being widowed, you rarely saw one without the other.
Lulu frowned and shook her head sorrowfully. “I tried, but since Ned died…
I‟m scared for her,” she admitted.
Ms. Emma‟s arrival had proved that Carol and Mark‟s mating wasn‟t a fluke.
She and Mr. Ned had met on an Alaskan cruise, and he‟d known instantly that she was his true mate, despite her being human. By the end of the fourteen-day trip, the two were married. Like she‟d told Carol, at her advanced age she‟d known a good thing when she saw it and was too old to play games. Ms. Emma went home to pack up her house and, with her mate by her side, moved to Refuge. They‟d been together ever since, right up until the moment Ned was killed by some hunters that had mistaken him for a wolf.
“It still burns me that we never caught his killer,” Carol stated. “I wish he‟d come to us when he noticed signs of someone being on his land instead of trying to handle it himself.”
“Dang fool poachers. Must have come up from Colby way. Everyone knows these here are protected lands. No hunting allowed, with signs posted everywhere.
There was no way Ned could have known things would turn violent.” Carol let out a low, sorrowful moan. “And now Ms. Emma‟s grieving herself to death. Is there anything we can do?”
Lulu shook her head. “Maybe if her girls came to visit, she might perk up, but that would only be a temporary fix. Without her mate, she‟s lost the will to live.”
“You know, that‟s the only downside to this true mate business,” Carol griped, unable to imagine her life without Mark in it.
“It doesn‟t have to be. A body can survive the loss of a mate, if the will is strong enough. It helps when there are young to see to,” Lulu stated, and Carol knew she was speaking from experience. Lulu had lost her mate while her pups were still fairly young. With the support of the pack and the knowledge that her children were depending on her, she‟d managed to survive. “It‟s not easy, and you never forget, but it can be done,” she added.
Action on the street caught Carol‟s attention. Trey, Ms. Lulu‟s grandson, made a play that had Carol up on her feet, clapping and cheering and chanting his name, much to her mate‟s disgust.
“Where‟s the love?” Mark shouted. “What happened to standing by your man?” She laughed and called back, “You know I love you, baby, and I‟ll still love you after my team finishes stomping yours into the ground.” Everyone burst into laughter. She turned to Lulu and said, “I‟d better make sure we have enough food and drinks set out. The guys are working up quite an appetite.”