Primal Heat (7 page)

Bas.

He shoved Cal hard against the brick wall and held him there, suspended
a foot off the ground. Cal’s eyes went in and out of focus and a slow trickle
of drool ran from the corner of his mouth.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” His words ran together in a
high-pitched stream.

Sweat beaded at Bas’s temple. My mind raced to catch up with what my
eyes saw. Bas, standing with his legs slightly apart, holding up Cal’s entire
weight with one hand. The muscles of his back and shoulders bunched and rolled
in a rippling wave beneath the stark white cotton of his dress shirt.

He turned his head and looked at me, still holding Cal in place. Bas’s
eyes were gone. His ice blue wolf eyes glinted under the street lamp. Through
gritted teeth that seemed to lengthen as he spoke he said, “Did he hurt you?”
It came out deep as a growl.

“I’m okay.” In that split second, I realized something else. If I
didn’t do something, he was going to rip Cal’s throat out right in front of me.
I can’t deny a small part of me wanted to see it. It was as though my adrenaline
fed off whatever was happening inside of Bas. His fury was mine. His struggle
to control whatever simmered inside of him churned within me too. If one of us
didn’t get a hold of it fast, things were about to take a murderous turn.

“I’m okay!” I went to him. Some part of my brain that still held reason
told me how dangerous that was. If he lost control, he could turn on me just as
easily as Cal. Except, he wouldn’t. Reason was one thing, but I was dealing
with pure instinct. I reached out and put a hand on Bas’s forearm. His skin
twitched and flared hot beneath my fingertips, sending warmth straight through
me like a quickening.

“Bas. Let him go. He can’t hurt me.”

Then Cal started to cry. Full on, blubbering, weeping. “Please. I’m
sorry. I’m sorry. Oh, God. I’m sorry. I wouldn’t hurt her.”

Bas turned his head and looked at Cal. Though his shoulders stiffened,
he didn’t advance. He regarded Cal as if he’d sprouted a third eye. Bas gave
him a quick shove, then let him go with the same ferocious quickness as he’d
used to grab him in the first place. Cal crumpled to the ground and curled into
an honest to God fetal position.

“He’s not worth it,” I said.

Bas turned back to me. Coiled fury flashed behind his eyes; his pupils widened
but looked more human than wolf now. But, Bas’s hand on the small of my back
was at once forceful and gentle as he led me away from Cal and the alley. My
skin sizzled where he touched me; my nerve endings crackled with energy. His
nostrils flared and I knew he felt it too.

Bas towered over me like a mountain as we walked toward the open
passenger door of his truck. He must have brought the vehicle to a violent
stop. I’d never even heard him drive up. The engine ran and it was parked at a
severe angle, its front wheels up on the curb at the end of the alley.

“I’m taking you home, Abby.” It was a command, not a question. Then,
whatever self-control Bas had seemed to melt away as he slid his hands under my
knees and swung me off my feet caveman-style. My body sang to life at his touch
and the primal strength of the action. Yes. Oh, yes. I’d let him take me
anywhere.

Chapter Nine

Bas didn’t speak as he tore away from the curb outside the Stacks. His
nostrils flared as his breath came hard. I resisted the urge to reach across
the cab and touch a hand to the side of his face. I wanted to. I couldn’t
explain it, but in that moment, I wanted to feel his skin against mine. Turmoil
raged within him. If I couldn’t see it in the flash of his eyes or the tension
in his jaw, I
felt
it racing through me somehow too. Maybe I saw the
pulsing of an artery in his neck. But, I don’t think so. This was something
else. It was as if his heart pounded inside of me.

I put my hands in my lap and focused on the lines of his face in
profile. His blade-straight nose. Those full, bee-stung lips that had kissed me
so thoroughly the other day. I wanted to reach up and smooth the crease in his
ruddy brow and make him turn toward me. He gripped the steering wheel, his
chest heaving in and out. I should have asked him if he was okay to drive. I
may still have been a little buzzed, but Bas was Driving While Wolfish. I wondered
which posed a bigger road hazard.

Though he was all controlled fury, Bas maneuvered the truck with
racecar driver precision. He hugged the curves and kept his eyes straight ahead
as he made the final turn into Oakwood. My heart sank when he did it. I didn’t
want to be here. Didn’t want my reality right now. I wanted something else. I
wanted the earth beneath me, wet from the rain. A canopy of trees above my
head. Again, I wondered if what I felt was more of an echo of Bas’s emotions.
Though I’d never seen it yet, I felt the wolf between us, struggling to get
out.

Bas’s tires crunched over the gravel of my mother’s driveway. The
lights were on inside, and ringing laughter wafted out of the open windows. My
mother was home and she wasn’t alone.

The headlights flooded the trailer, and the voices went silent. We waited
a beat and the screen door opened. My mother stepped out. She held a beer
bottle in one hand and her high-heeled peep-toe pumps in the other. The red
ones with the ankle straps. Date night. She turned toward the open door and
held up a finger to whoever belonged to the shadow just inside. Chad, probably.
But he had friends with him.

My mother shielded her eyes against the glare of Bas’s headlights as
she took a few halting steps toward the passenger side window where I sat. I
rolled the window down.

She was beautiful, my mother. The headlights made her skin shine almost
translucent. Her platinum blonde hair, identical to my own, piled high on her
head except where curling tendrils broke loose to frame her face. She had Brigitte
Bardot looks right down to her lush eyelashes everyone thought were false. Her
wide blue eyes crinkled as she smiled, flashing a row of perfectly straight,
white teeth. Not a trace of the nicotine they should have shown.

“Baby, you’re early!” she sang in her Texas twang. She wasn’t born
here. My father, my real father, had been in the army when he married her,
stationed near Huston. He whisked her away and ended up in Wild Lake the year
before I was born. It didn’t work out and he went to his next duty station
without us before I was old enough to remember him. He died on some dusty battlefield
in Afghanistan a dozen years ago. She kept a framed flag in a back closet.

She leaned into the window frame, her eyes raking over Bas and
brightening even more. He dipped his chin toward her politely, but he still
wasn’t in a talking mood.

“Well, hello, handsome! You’re sure a finer sight than those lawyer
wannabe eggheads I usually see with my Abigail.”

“This is Bas,” I said. “He’s just . . . bringing me home.”

My mother’s face fell for a fraction of a second before she plastered
her smile back in place. “Well, that’s just the thing, babe. I tried to call
you. I thought you were going to be out with your friends tonight. Didn’t you
tell me that?”

I knew where this was going. The same place it had gone a thousand
times. She’d send me to the neighbors. I’d crash with a friend. And I
had
forgotten. I meant to spend the night at Kendra’s. But, Mom was far from done
partying. A sick pit formed in my stomach as Chad appeared in the doorframe.
Wasted. Leering. His temper about to flare. He had a group of friends over; it
was my mother’s job to wait on him hand and foot. And she’d do it. She’d try to
keep him happy, but in a few weeks or months, Chad would tire of her. Or she’d
finally see that all his big plans were nothing but talk. If she was lucky he
wouldn’t clean her out before he left. I’d hidden most of what she had of
value: her engagement ring, her father’s gold pocket watch, a few of my baby
pictures, in a safety deposit box years ago. I never kept cash in the house.

Panic raced through me. Shit. Bas was on edge already. If Chad came out
here and manhandled my mother or did any of his usual dipshittery, he might
trigger Bas again.

“We were just leaving,” I said. “I wanted to swing by and pick up a few
things.”

My mother slapped the side of the car, her lilting laughter raising the
hair on my arms. “Well, I’m glad you did. Why don’t you and Bas come on in and
have a drink or two? Do you play Euchre, Bas?”

God. I dug my nails into my palms to hold back the hysterical laughter
bubbling at the thought of Bas playing cards at my mother’s kitchen table.

“Lori! Who are you talking to?” I recognized the edge in Chad’s voice.
So did Mom. She winced.

“Hang on, baby, it’s just Abby.” She turned back to me, never letting
the smile drop. “Honey, you better take off. I’m sorry.”

“Right. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Bas put the car in reverse and managed a smile toward my mother. Chad
was yelling something else from the doorway.

“Is she . . . okay here with him?” Bas’s eyes flicked from me to my
mother’s and back again.

My mother threw her head back and laughed. “Aren’t you just sexy as sin?
Sugar, don’t worry about me. Chad’s all bark and no bite. You, though. Hmm.” My
mother made a growling noise and waved as she turned and sashayed back toward
Chad in the doorway.

“She should be fine.”

Bas pursed his lips together then twisted at the waist to check behind
us as he pulled out. He was stoic and silent as he left the park and hit the
highway. Warmth flooded through me at the nearness of him. I didn’t ask where
we were going. I knew I should have. I should have asked him to take me to
Kendra’s after all. But, something happened in the air between us. Chad or no
Chad, I could have stepped out of the car in the driveway. Except I didn’t. Not
because I had nowhere else to go. Not because I felt some obligation to Bas for
helping me with Cal or anything else. It was just some strengthening thread
between us that grew the moment I first laid eyes on him.

Dangerous. Impossible. Foolish, maybe. But, as Bas drove further away
from the trailer park and deeper into the woods of Wild Lake, I knew I belonged
here, with him.

He made a turn up a winding road past the Wild Lake Outfitters store.
My heart thundered inside of me as giant pines rose all around us. Just a few
miles from the highway, and it felt like I’d passed through to another world.
Something dark and wild. Lush and green. The pavement gave way to gravel, then
to dirt. Bas kept driving. We reached the top of a steep hill; the highway and
the store were far below us in the valley. Then, the trees broke and in the
clearing sat a cabin unlike any I’d ever seen.

It was huge. Like the Wild Lake store, it was made of rustic beams of
wood. High glass walls and wooden decking all around, overlooking the forest
beyond it. A log cabin, mansion style. Bas parked the truck next to one of the
tallest pines and cut the engine.

The air hung thick between us for a moment. I held my breath, afraid my
stuttering heart might betray me. I was here. Alone. With Bas.

“Let’s get you inside,” he said, clearing his throat. He moved swift
and smooth. Before I could even blink, he was at my side opening the car door.
I took his hand, and that electric fire sparked between us when his skin
touched mine. He held my hand in his, both gentle and strong as he led me up
the stone steps to the main house.

Movement caught my eye in the tree line. I startled as two pairs of
glowing yellow orbs hovered in the darkness. Air went out of my lungs as those
eyes bobbed, the trees rustled, and two huge gray wolves stepped out of the
clearing heading straight for us.

Bas turned and put up a hand. The wolves froze and immediately sat.
Gooseflesh rippled across my flesh as I recognized the gesture. Their Alpha had
just given them a stand down order and they had instantly complied. I couldn’t
help staring slack-jawed at the magnificent creatures. Each one perfectly
formed with domed heads and ears held high at attention. Their muscles rippled
as they sat back on powerful haunches, ready to leap and strike at their
master’s command. I’d seen wolves before, but none like these. For one thing,
they were huge, at least half a foot taller at the shoulder than those I’d seen
at the zoo when I was little. And they looked at me with questioning, keen
intelligence.

“Connor and Eli, meet Abby,” Bas said, barely stopping as he led me up
the stairs.

I gave them a light smile and a wave. “Hello. Oh, do they understand
me?”

Bas laughed. “Of course. They’d shift and give you a proper greeting if
I let them.”

“If you let them? They can’t, I mean, unless you tell them?”

“Oh, they can. I just figured you’d rather give them a chance to put
some pants on before they walked over here bare ass naked to shake your hand.”

He reached over and hooked a finger beneath my chin to close my gaping
mouth. A twinkle lit his eyes, sending a fresh wave of heat spearing through
me. He led me into the house and the grand foyer with wide open spaces and
floor to ceiling windows just like his office. A warm fire burned in a great
stone fireplace on the far side of the room. On one side, he had a giant
kitchen with a long table island in the center and more than a dozen chairs
around it. The other side of the room had the fireplace and deep, comfortable
chairs and couches. A double, curving staircase framed the room leading to the
loft. This was a wolf’s lodge. A man’s place. I wondered how many outsiders had
seen this place. I guessed not many.

“Are you hungry?”

I cast my eyes downward. I was, but not for food. I couldn’t help it.
Being this close to Bas affected me in ways I couldn’t understand. My body tuned
to his. Heat flowed from him to me, and I craved his touch. Subtle changes in
his posture set my blood humming. We were alone. I meant to be cautious,
conservative, sensible. But, as we stood together face to face and inches
apart, I felt something new. Belonging. Craving. Hunger.

“Abby,” he said, his voice no more than a choked whisper. “Did he hurt
you? That asshole at the bar?”

I shook my head. Cal seemed like a million years ago. “I’m fine.
Really. I’m glad you came when you did, but I can take care of myself.”

He crossed the distance between us in a blur of motion, gripping my
upper arms with his strong hands. Not hurting me. But the heat of his touch
sent a shudder through me as I slowly lifted my head to meet his eyes.

“I can’t stop it now. I can try to keep my distance. But, I will
not
let anyone or anything hurt you. Not ever. Do you understand?”

A beat. Two. The air shifted and Bas’s face came sharply into focus.

“Were you following me? Tonight? The other day?”

A muscle twitched in his jaw, but he held my gaze. “Not the way you
think.”

What did I think? Twice in the last week, he was there as if
materializing out of thin air the instant I was in even the slightest hint of
danger or distress. “You can, um,
feel
me. Can’t you?” God, I made no
sense. And yet, things seemed to shift into place and align as I spoke it.

He took a breath and lowered his chin in a slow, solemn nod. “Yes.”

“What is it? What am I?”

He lifted his index finger and traced a line just above my brow and
trailed it down over my jaw, across my collarbone then rested it just above my
heart. “Don’t you know? Don’t you feel it too?”

I tried to swallow, but my throat ran dry. I felt a tiny pulse beat in
my neck. Bas’s eyes flashed as he saw it too. “Tell me what I am.” I managed to
whisper.

Bas cocked his head and his lips parted in a smile. “Mine.”

My heartbeat skipped when he said it.
Mine
. Simple. Primal. It
should have scared me, perhaps. Offended me, even. Except, it didn’t. That one
simple word seemed obvious and right.

Then, he leaned down and pressed his lips against mine, feathering them
gently, his tongue darting in and out as his hands slid around me, pulling me
close. He came to me strong and solid just when my knees went weak. Sensing it,
Bas hooked his arm beneath me and lifted me off the ground. The room spun for
an instant. I went rigid, afraid to touch him, afraid what it would mean if I
admitted the truth of what he told me. But oh, I felt the truth of it in my
cells, my nerves, the way my body called out for his.
Mine. Mine. Mine.