Embracing the Wolf (6 page)

His teeth sunk deep into
his lower lip when she wrapped her warm mouth around his shaft. Her
heat was incredible. He shuddered and moaned under her
ministrations. Heaven. Absolute heaven.

He arched his back and
groaned when her hands pressed into his hips, holding him down. The
sense of restraint made him burn hotter than the sun. He changed
his mind. This was heaven. This moment of sheer dominance by
her.

She sucked him slow, still
intent on torturing him. He tried to thrust into her mouth but her
hands shoved him harder against the bed. He moaned each time that
she took him into her mouth and trembled when she sucked back up to
the sensitive tip of his shaft, swirling her tongue around
it.

He couldn’t take such
divine torment.

Tensing, he jerked off the
bed and growled as he climaxed. Kat moaned with her lips still
wrapped around him. Amon sighed and slowly sunk back into the
mattress.

In the wake of the warm
rush came pain, searing and white-hot, so strong that he lost
control.

Amon woke with it wracking
his body. He stumbled to his feet, blind with pain and trembling.
Grabbing the bars of his prison, he screwed his eyes shut and
fought the darkness rising inside of him. The blackness crowded in
at the edge of his mind and control slipped through his
fingers.

His body twisted, bones
popping out of place and clicking back into another position. Black
wiry fur erupted across his skin. His ears elongated at the same
time as his nose. Razor sharp canines replaced his
teeth.

Falling to his knees, he
pressed his hands into the dusty concrete floor between the bars
and stared wide-eyed at his claws as they extended and blackened.
He couldn’t do this. He reared up onto his back legs and ripped his
jeans apart, angered by their restrictive presence. He had to keep
control. Kat needed him. He would not let her go through this
horror too. He had to go to her. He had to protect her. He would
not turn rogue.

Snarling, he hunched down
and shook all over as his body finally shifted completely into his
werewolf guise.

Throwing his head back, he
howled out his rage.

***

Kat jumped when the phone
rang. She hopped across the room, still trying to get her left boot
on, and grabbed it. Flipping the mobile phone open, she slammed her
foot down into the boot at the same time.

“
Hello?”

“
Kat, it’s
Paul.” He sounded out of breath. She frowned at the
phone.

“
What’s up?”
Picking up her other boot, she slipped her foot into it and bent to
tie the laces, pressing the phone against her ear with her
shoulder.

“
We’ve a new
boy on the list.” He paused and there was a hint of hope in his
voice when he next spoke. “You going to come out and hunt with
me?”

Her eyebrows rose and she
straightened up, retrieving her phone from her shoulder. She knew
that Paul hated the fact that she always hunted alone. It was
understandable. It wasn’t as though she had offered him any
explanation for her distance and she was supposed to be his
partner. All the other teams in the unit hunted
together.

Of course, none of the
other teams had a werewolf in hiding as one of the partners. At
least, she didn’t know if they did.

Kat finished tying her
laces and then crossed the lounge to her coat, tugging her black
shirt back into place as she walked.

“
Maybe,” she
answered and slid her arms into the holster, switching her phone
between hands. Her guns still felt heavy tonight.

“
You might want
to come on this hunt.” His voice was ice.

A shiver ran through her.
In a quiet voice, she said, “Why?”

“
Apparently
it’s the alpha of a pack that just moved into the
neighbourhood.”

Her heart picked up pace.
A pack that had just moved in? It couldn’t be.

“
Amon,” he said
without the slightest trace of emotion. “You knew him didn’t
you?”

Her stomach roiled and
flipped. Staggering backwards, she grabbed the couch to steady
herself. It was a fight to remain standing as her knees gave. She
clung to the couch with tight trembling fingers and stared blankly
at the carpet. It couldn’t be.

Amon couldn’t have turned
rogue.

He would fight it. She
knew in her heart that he wouldn’t give up without a fight. He
wouldn’t let her slip into the darkness too. He
wouldn’t.

Kat’s heart levelled out
again but a dull ache throbbed in its depths. She breathed slow and
steady, calming herself. She had to move fast if she was going to
help Amon. Now wasn’t the time to be frightened.

It struck her that Paul
had said ‘knew him’, as though Amon was already dead.

Her eyes
widened.

“
Paul?” Her
voice shook with the cold fear stealing through her. He couldn’t
have said ‘knew him’ for a reason. Paul wouldn’t have killed Amon
and then called her. He couldn’t have. The whole world fell quiet.
She listened hard, trying to hear the background noises at his end
of the line, anything that could give her a clue. “Where are
you?”

A short laugh.

“
Wouldn’t you
like to know?” His tone held a distinct sneer and anger. “Maybe you
should have been a better partner. You could’ve been here when he
dies.”

The line went
dead.

“
Paul? Paul!”
She tore the phone from her ear and stared at it. He’d said ‘dies’
not ‘dead’. Amon wasn’t dead yet. She clung to that thought as
though it was her only hope.

Christ, she prayed Leyton
hadn’t changed his number. She punched it in and was running for
the door as it rang. She didn’t lock the door behind her. There
wasn’t time. She had to find Amon. One flight of stairs. Two. She
shoved the front doors and broke out onto the street.

The night air was cold
without her jacket. A passing man stared at her. His eyes fell to
her chest and then he backed away and crossed the road. Shit. Her
guns were on show. If the police saw her, she’d be dead.

The phone continued to
ring.

Damn Leyton.

Taking deep breaths, she
tried to calm down. If she was calm, she might be able to sense
Amon. She closed her eyes and focussed. When nothing came to her,
she realised that there was only one way of finding
Amon.

She needed to use her
beast.

She wouldn’t let it take
control. She would just let it out a little so she could sense
others like her.

It lunged forwards,
clearly sensing freedom and her desire to use it. Kat struggled to
keep it to heel. She growled right along with it, frustrated and
angry.

It wanted Amon too. It
wanted to mate. If it wanted him, it was going to have to help her
find him.

Nothing.

She stomped her foot and
then remembered what Amon had told her all those years ago. Many
people made the mistake of thinking their werewolf side was a
separate being locked within them. It wasn’t. It was part of them.
She realised that she had always kept it separate, seeing it as a
thing that had invaded her. It wasn’t. The animal inside her was
her true nature. It was part of her. It was her.

If she wanted to use that
side of herself to find Amon, she would have to accept it was a
part of her.

She shook her head and
pressed redial on her phone.

She couldn’t do
it.

Not even to save
Amon.

She couldn’t embrace the
werewolf.

Still no
answer.

She tried Paul again,
running at the same time, heading towards the cemetery. It was a
good starting point. Amon might have gone back there to see her. If
he had turned dangerous, then his focus now would be to feed and
perhaps mate. The only place he’d seen her in this town was the
cemetery. Surely, he would return there in the hopes of finding
her.

“
Hello Kat.”
Paul sounded calm. The kind of calm that psychopathic murderers
did.

Pressing her finger into
her other ear to block out the ambient noise, she listened hard,
trying to hear anything that would make it clear where he
was.

“
I think I’ll
hunt with you after all,” she said, out of breath as she sprinted.
“Where shall I meet you?”

There was a loud smacking
sound and then a distinct growl. Paul laughed, low and
vicious.

“
Down boy,”
Paul said slightly away from the phone and her chest tightened, her
heart clenching at the thought of him hurting Amon. “It’s too late
to make amends, Kat. I gave you a chance.”

“
A chance?” Kat
turned the corner that led onto a road running parallel to the main
street of the city, away from the evening crowds. It was hard to
talk and run, but she had to keep Paul on the phone. It was her
only hope. If she could keep him talking, perhaps she would buy
Amon some time. “A chance at what?”

Another cracking sound.
This time the growl was more of a whimper. Icy spears stabbed her
heart.

“
You know, Kat,
I always thought there was something different about you. I thought
you were special,” Paul said, anger rolling off those words. God.
All this time he’d wanted them to be more than partners. She hadn’t
looked at a man since Amon. “Shit, I should’ve realised just how
special you were.”

What kind of special was
he talking about now?

“
A freaking
werewolf. I can’t believe you kept that hidden from me.”

That kind of
special.

“
Listen, Paul,”
Kat said but he stopped her with another laugh, this one short and
empty.

“
Don’t try to
sweet talk me.” Paul growled the words into the phone. Her eyes
widened when she heard him cock his gun.

She ran harder, lungs
burning as she pushed past her limit. She had to get to them before
he killed Amon.

“
I saw you with
dog boy last night.”

That explained the flip in
Paul’s personality. They had hardly chosen a private place for
their make out session and Amon had almost gone werewolf on her.
Paul had probably stayed around after their talk to scout for the
werewolf that had attacked in the area. He must have seen
everything.

Which led her to wonder
whether Amon was really on the list, or whether Paul was doing this
out of blind jealousy.

“
You want to
say goodbye to him?”

Those words were in
strange stereo. She turned down an alley to see Paul stood with his
side to her and Amon backed into a corner. Relief, sweet and sharp,
filled her when she saw him. He stared at Paul with murder in his
eyes, but she knew that he was still in control. His long coat
obscured his body. At this distance, she couldn’t tell if he was
hurt.

“
I take it
that’s a no?” Paul said, still talking into the phone. He raised
his gun and aimed straight at Amon’s head.

Kat kept running, her
steps light on the wet asphalt.

Amon leaned into the wall.
The shift in position brought his face into the light from the
streetlamp on the wall above. He looked tired, bloodied and beaten.
His hands pressed into the wall as though he needed its support.
She ached to see him looking so weak but at least he looked human.
She willed him to run. His eyes narrowed on Paul, dark and
cold.

Paul squeezed the
trigger.

Kat launched herself at
Amon and tackled him to the ground, landing hard on her shoulder as
the crack of the gunshot echoed along the street. The impact sent
the phone flying from her hand. It skidded across the wet asphalt
and stopped in a puddle.

She ended up tangled
beneath Amon, his full weight bearing down on her aching
body.

Her eyes snapped
open.

Deadly yellow ones met
them, staring cold and intent from Amon’s face.

It wasn’t time to be
frightened. She pushed Amon off her and got to her knees. Her arms
shot out either side of her, her body shielding Amon from
Paul.

“
Back off,
Paul,” she whispered, venomous. Her shoulder was killing her. The
painful throb fuelled her anger and the desire to protect Amon was
impossible to ignore. If Paul wanted to kill Amon, he was going to
have to go through her.

Paul aimed the gun at her,
his eyes dark and focussed. “Move.”

“
No!” She
backed into Amon, hoping he would see sense and stay
down.

Amon growled. It echoed
through her, his wolf speaking to her own. Her presence was
upsetting him. He wanted to protect her. She couldn’t let him. Paul
wouldn’t shoot her but he would shoot Amon. She reached behind her
and placed her hand on Amon’s back, praying the contact would keep
him calm long enough for her to find a way out of this
situation.

She turned slightly and
looked at Amon. He stared up at her, blood streaking the side of
his face from a cut on his temple, eyes golden and speaking to her.
Her own wolf rose inside her, responding to her feelings. She
wanted to protect him too. She had to protect him. There was only
one way to do it.