The Covert Wolf (27 page)

The creature shrieked again and rushed him. He stabbed, and heard the blade snap cleanly off. Damn Fae had skin tougher than Kevlar. Swearing, he lunged forward, wrestling with the creature. One silver claw slashed at him. Burning pain raced along his arm. Matt breathed through it.

Enough of this. Time to say buh-bye. He wrapped his hands around the thing’s neck and twisted hard.

A sickening crack ensued. The creature dropped to the ground.

Matt edged out of the recess and examined his arm. Blood bubbled up like acid. The silver acted like a corrosive, eating through flesh and bone. He opened his pack, applied a healing salve. Damn, this was a slash. What the hell kind of demon could do this?

A faint noise sounded behind him. He whirled, dodged as the creature stood. Hell, it straightened its neck as if adjusting a tie, then spread two sinewy wings, the skin thin and threaded with red veins.

Giving another shriek, the creature ran and dove off the cliff.

Damn it.

His heart lodged in his throat. Twenty feet down, Sienna was climbing upward. She saw the batlike creature and jumped on its back. Riding it like a damn horse.

Then she let go, spinning down to the earth.

He leaped off the cliff in a trained free fall. Matt spread his arms and legs to aerodynamically guide him. She was falling fast. He imagined her hitting the hard ground and panic lodged in his throat. He forced it down, folded his arms and legs to speed his descent.

There.

Matt grabbed her around the waist with one hand, deploying his chute with his other. The move jerked them both upward violently, yanking hard against his chest. Her panicked gaze sought his, then he yanked her tight against his chest. Adrenaline pumped through his body, making his heart race in a crazed rhythm.

He could tango with a dozen demons and never sweat, but seeing her jump on that demon had nearly given him a heart attack.

She wrapped her arms around his waist as he pulled the chute chords to guide them over the treetops. Then he heard a distinct, terrible shriek.

Bat Boy was back, riding the air currents above him. A ripping sound, and suddenly they were falling fast.

Matt withdrew his Sig. Damn if this thing was going to touch Sienna. He’d loaded the trusty weapon with an extra-special treat.

“
Sayonara,
ugly face,” he shouted, and pulled the trigger.

The armor-piercing bullet hit the creature straight in the chest. Moonlight showed Bat Boy’s nearly comical look of surprise, accompanied by a thick stream of black blood. It gave a last shriek, and spilled downward. Shocked, he watched it shift into a large bird, and fly away.

The ripped chute still kept them aloft, but they were losing altitude fast. If they hit the earth, bones would break. He spotted the thin ribbon of river through the trees, and pulled the cords to guide them to it. Farther downstream, jagged rocks poked above the water. If they hit there, they were dead.

“We’re going in the river above those boulders,” he shouted to her above the rushing wind. “Take a deep breath before we hit and let go. The current is wicked, so ride it until I get you.”

“Got it,” she yelled back.

The river rushed up at them, and he braced himself. “Now!”

He dropped Sienna and the chute before they hit, water splashing around them. Icy needles dug at his exposed skin, his cheeks. He knew the navy was gonna be pretty pissed about him losing a chute worth a few thousand. Screw it.

He struggled to the surface. The water was freezing, but he’d experienced worse. He rode the current, scanning for Sienna.

Damn it, where the hell was she?

There. Her wet hair plastered like a helmet to her head, she bobbed up and down like a cork.
Good girl,
he thought silently, and began powerful strokes.

Matt circled an arm around her waist and began towing her to shore through the vicious current. The jagged boulders came into view, and he swam harder, dragging her upward as his feet touched bottom. Lying half in the water, Sienna coughed, shivering violently.

“My muscles, they feel locked tight,” she said through chattering teeth.

As her teeth chattered, he swept her into his arms, studied the tree line, the position of the stars.

They were out of Fae turf, closer to her cabin. Somewhat safe.

Not safe enough.

Matt began the walk back, keeping a sharp watch for flying objects, just in case Bat Boy had friends.

After getting her to the cabin, he removed her clothing, bundled her in a woolen blanket and set her before a roaring fire. Matt stripped off his gear and clothing.

“What the hell were you doing back there?” Matt asked.

“Saving your ass.” Sienna huddled deeper into the blanket. “And since it’s a mighty fine ass, I thought it worth saving.”

“My ass can take care of itself. What I can’t handle is you following me, and then watching you fall. You would have been killed!” He struggled to leash his rising temper. “You think all of a sudden because you’re back on their turf, you’d sprout wings?”

From beneath the curtain of her wet hair, she looked up with big green eyes etched in misery. “All Fae have wings. They’re hidden in the shoulder bones. Once they were muscles and tendons, like regular appendages, but evolution changed that after hundreds of years of disuse. I had them when I was younger. I even tested them when jumping off the roof of my cabin when I was six. But now…they don’t work.”

The hurt stamped on her face and the uncertainty tugged his heart. Damn it, he’d almost lost her. The thought twisted his heart.

Naked, Matt sank onto the floor beside her, tunneling his fingers through her wet hair. “I’m sorry, pixie. That must hurt.”

“I didn’t mean to make you mad. But after you left, I remembered something. I only wanted to warn you. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you.”

She gave him a beseeching look, and he felt an odd mixture of joy at her words and dismay at what they meant. Because he wasn’t certain where this was heading. He’d known how to cut his losses.

Not with her.

Warming her cold body with his, he pulled her tight. “I’ve made seven hundred and eight jumps in my career as a SEAL. I’ve fallen out of airplanes at thirty-three thousand feet. And what I felt was nothing compared to seeing you fall a few hundred yards. After jumping on Bat Boy.”

“Bat boy? Oh, the gargoyle. That’s what I came to warn you about. I was only trying to force it to change.” She pulled away, made a stabbing gesture with one hand. “You stab it through the back with a knife and the shock makes it shift into a vulture. More harmless that way.”

He felt sick to his stomach. “You knew about that thing?”

“I saw one once, when I was very young. Aunt Chloe told me about them. The Fae took them in, as their guardians, when the gargoyles began to die out, hunted by other paranorms for sport.”

“It tried to kill me.”

“It was protecting its nest. It could have killed you if it wanted to.”

“Does its nest contain Fae bones?”

Sienna’s eyes widened. “Maybe old bones. Gargoyles feed off scraps of carcasses of other paranorms. That’s why shifting into a vulture suits it.”

“These are the things best known before setting out on a mission,” he said dryly.

She looked abashed. “I’m sorry, Matt. I only thought about it after you left. That’s why I came after you, to warn you.”

He felt restless and edgy, filled with a nervous energy. Matt took out his cell phone, glanced at it, pocketed it.

“What is it, Matt?”

“My orders were changed. I head back to base in less than twenty-four hours, so we don’t have much time.”

Shock widened her eyes. “You’re leaving me?”

Gods, he hated this. “No. I’m taking you with me and plan to leave you somewhere safe. On base, or with a friend.”

“I can’t leave my people,” she whispered. “But that doesn’t matter. What about you? Where are you going?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Another mission, right? A mission where you can get killed. I feel like I’ll never see you again after you leave.” Sienna looked frail and suddenly very small. “I won’t remember you, anyway, even if I do see you. Because you’re going to take my memories of you, right?”

Reluctantly, he nodded.

Tears bloomed, hot and bright, in her mossy green eyes. Matt gently wiped them away with the edge of his thumbs.

Matt cupped her face, the sweetest face he’d ever seen. She was so lovely, with her exotic features and a mouth that could tempt a saint. But it was her inner courage, her strength, her determination, that sealed her to him.

It was the memory he’d carry for always, of Sienna, and her shy smile, her sass, her lion’s heart and her sheer determination.

One night together would not be enough.

He bent his head to her. “Be with me tonight. I need you, pixie.”

He had never wanted to make love like this before. Never had this shaking, uncontrollable need to be with a woman. They would make love and Sienna would forget him. And if he survived his mission, some nights he’d gaze up at the stars, and think of her.

And know she would never recall his name.

But he needed tonight. He craved her in his arms, her sweet mouth on his, her soft body to hold close. Primal male instinct rose, to stamp her with his scent, send his seed deep inside her. Leave something of his behind, because in less than twenty-four hours, he wouldn’t even remain a memory.

He’d be a ghost.

“Say yes,” he whispered, drawing his arms around her. “Tell me you want me as badly as I want you.”

She looked up, and the passion darkening her gaze made him lose it.

“Take me,” she whispered. “Take me as a wolf does. As a wolf claims his mate.”

Whoa, boy. Words that sent the beast inside him loose. But the fierce desire glittering in her own eyes assured him she was ready.

Ready to acknowledge her wilder side.

They stripped and rolled on the bed together, kissing. They tangled together in a frenzy of passion. Dimly he thought of protection, but she pushed aside his hand, her eyes flashing with erotic abandonment.

“I want to feel you inside me, like before. Skin to skin,” she breathed.

Then he rolled over, coaxing her to lie on her stomach. Sensing she was a little afraid, he ran a hand over the curve of her back, murmuring praises. Her ass was sweetly rounded, and he caressed her, drawing a finger over her soaked cleft.

Matt drew her back on her knees and positioned himself, shaking with excitement. This was it. He pushed his cock slightly inside, moaning with pleasure. She resisted slightly, then her tiny muscles relaxed, allowing him to slide fully to the hilt. Damn, it felt so good, wet silk encasing his cock. His beast growled to the surface, the wolf clawing eagerly for more. He gripped her hips, thrusting hard and fast, the bed banging against the wall.

She pushed up against him. Startled, he realized she growled, a low, deep sound of excitement. Matt’s excitement intensified and he licked and bit her neck. Sienna bucked beneath him and he sensed her approaching climax. A flurry of thoughts and images flickered in his mind, colors and sparks, and he was dimly aware they were not his own.

Emotions crowded him, the feelings overwhelming in a cresting flood. He felt her emotions, her wonder.

Her love.

“Come with me, darling,” he rasped. “Now!”

Shrieking, she tightened around him, her orgasm making him buck and shudder, Matt felt his seed shoot into her, hot and demanding.

Then he felt himself thicken inside Sienna, growing harder. Stunned, he tried to pull out. Could not. Sienna fell to the bed, gasping.

She lay splayed beneath his sweating body, sweat dampening her dark hair. He raised up on his elbows to avoid crushing her as she turned her head in an awed expression.

“Matt, what is this? I feel everything inside you, all your emotions, not just mine.”

He marveled as the iridescent sparks danced around them. Joy surged through him. “It’s the mating lock, sweetheart. What happens when two Draicon bond sexually and emotionally.”

At the confused expression on her face, he added quietly, “Two Draicon who are meant for each other. Destined mates.”

Fear erased the sweet, dazed passion on her face. “No, it can’t be. It can’t.”

“Don’t fight it, sweetheart. Shhh,” he crooned, trying to soothe her, but her emotions boiled into a frenzy. He felt the wondrous rapture of becoming one, of fully bonding with her, fade like a waking dream. The sparks vanished and he felt suddenly cold and empty inside.

Slowly he withdrew, confusion replacing elation.

Rolling over, Sienna stared at the ceiling, her gaze clouded. Matt collapsed beside her, thumbing a tear from her chilled cheek.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Among my people, this is a celebration. Finding one’s mate is cause for joy. You’re very special, Sienna.”

“But what am I?” she whispered. “You won’t accept me for who I am, Matt.”

He went still, his blood running cold at her words. Gods, she was right.

Was his prejudice of the Fae coloring everything he’d felt? Forcing her into a role she wasn’t ready to take? Making her into a wolf because of his needs, not hers?

“Give it a chance, Sienna. I’m willing to try, learn from my mistakes.”

Never had he felt this humble, this bared, not before a woman. Or anyone.

Pulling the sheet up to her breasts, she faced him, a shaft of moonlight spilling over one shoulder. She looked like an ancient Greek goddess, regal and lovely.

He slid a warm palm over the curve of her hip. “We’re no longer wolf and Fae. We’re just a man and a woman, you and me, connecting together.”

Hope flared in her eyes. She touched his cheek, and his heart pounded hard. “You mean it? We can have a home together?”

“I want to try.” He thought of his lifestyle and sighed. “Of course, it means I’ll have to leave you a lot. I’m a SEAL.”

Light faded from her eager expression. Sienna blinked fast as if to check tears rising to her eyes. “It won’t stop, will it? I’d be willing to try accepting my wolf, but how can we make it together when everything seems against it? You belong more to the teams than your pack, or me. Can’t you see? You thrive on adventure, danger. You’re strong and courageous, but being a SEAL means more than being a Draicon. You’d leave, and leave me with your family, when I know nothing about being a wolf. And you wouldn’t be there to help teach me.”