The Werewolf Cowboy (Moonbound Book 1) (5 page)

“What do you think?” Laurel leaned in just a touch, her heart-rate up in anticipation.

Allan was happy to oblige. “I’ll date them all.”

R
eyna leaned
against the outside wall of the Wild Crumb Bakery. A thousand pounds of bricks weighed on her chest. Her chest was tight. The bits and pieces of the conversation she’d overheard between Allan and the matchmaker ate a hole in her heart.

He wanted a blonde-big-haired-country-pie-cooking-wife.

Why the fuck had Fate shoved her at Allan VonBrandt? She loved being a wolf—the sensualness, the wildness, and the desire to run. All of it was the very core of her being. She wasn’t blonde and she didn’t dress western, but if that’s what it took to convince him they were meant to be…maybe she could. Fate had damn near knocked her over when Allan walked into that bar —now it threatening to steal everything away before she even had a chance.

Fucking Fate.

She should hate him. She shouldn’t want to see him again, but all she could think about was
him.

There had to be a way—some way to reach out. Make her important enough to him to see through his fantasy. But maybe, there was a way to give him both. Give him the fantasy he so desperately hunted, and give her the mate she desired.

“I’ll date them all.”

She growled, remembering his comment to the matchmaker.

The fuck you will, Allan.

Reyna hurried back to her car and headed for Allan’s house. If her Hail Mary didn’t work, she’d live the rest of her life depressed, angry, and alone. To find a mate and lose them was the worst possible outcome a wolf could imagine.

Why couldn’t he see that?

Why couldn’t he realize what he was doing would ruin them both?

Forever.

T
he VonBrandt mansion
loomed on the horizon for miles, even though Allan couldn’t see it. Aaron’s summons, even via text, had been laced with what-the-fuck. No one liked to make Aaron mad.

He had paperwork to drop off, but he needed to get back home and get cleaning before it was time to run. The day only had so many hours in it, and sunset seemed to come faster on days when he knew he’d be a wolf all night.

Aaron’s dining room was empty, and so was the kitchen. For a family hosting a bunch of werewolves for a moon-run, they seemed to be pretty reclusive. The chairs were all pulled out, away from the big table, like people had left in a hurry.

Allan set the envelope down and scratched on it with his pen.
For Aaron
. He was nearly to the front door when his brother’s voice rang out behind him.

“Trying to get away without seeing me?”

Yup. Aaron’s pissed.
Allan grabbed the back of his neck and rubbed at it. “Just have things to do before tonight.”

“Sit down.” His brother put on his alpha voice and pointed to the dining room. “We need to talk.”

Allan tried not to slink past him when he followed the order, but he almost couldn’t help a little touch of head-down-tail-between-legs. At least if Reyna had spanked him, he would’ve enjoyed it. With Aaron, it would just hurt.

He took his chair and got ready for his punishment.

Aaron’s eyebrows knit together. “I don’t get you, man. You have a beautiful, intelligent, well-connected mate who wants you. Wolf or not. It doesn’t matter.”

“How about we talk about this envelope I’m dropping off for you? As you requested.” He pushed it toward him.

His alpha put up his hand to wave the topic-change away. “Adam told me you had sex with her. This is no longer in the arena of
talk about it later
.”

“Fuck Adam’s nosy bullshit,” Allan said. “He had no right to tell you…”

“You knew he’d tell me.” Aaron’s gaze drifted up to the ceiling. “Technically, it’s his responsibility to tell me when one of my pack is being a certified jackass.”

“Like it’s your responsibility to punish a wolf who commits a crime? Where were you when she was almost revealing us to the whole world?” Allan smacked the table and the sound cracked the room.

“Her father is her alpha. He did what he felt was responsible, and there are extenuating circumstances.” Aaron went for the envelope and clicked the end on the table. “Her stunt at Joe’s isn’t the issue either. Something else is going on here.”

Allan got to his feet. “Well, it’s the issue for me.”

“That’s bullshit. I don’t know what the issue is, but I expect you to deal with it by the time the Dubois leave tomorrow.”

“I am dealing with it.”

His brother opened the envelope, a patronizing note in his voice. “Ignoring her is not
dealing
with it. And fucking her is certainly not dealing with it.”

“I didn’t…”

One of Aaron’s fingers went up and Allan bit his tongue. The barn was obviously public knowledge, or at least pack knowledge.

Aaron shook his head and pulled the documents out of the envelope, looking them over and thankfully moving on from the naked-dick-direction the conversation had been headed. “This is the report from the church that Elise said she’d read?”

“Yes. One of my deputies tracked it down and got a copy. Plus, that second page, that’s the listings from the church registry, and from the parish priest’s house that Elise thinks is where she was left.” He pointed to the last page. “The priest died years ago, and apparently, the nuns didn’t remember her.”

“What did you tell them this was regarding?” Aaron’s dark eyes turned suspicious. “You know I don’t like it when people know too much.”

“I told them I was running background on my cousin’s new wife. See if she had a criminal past she was hiding.” Allan put his hands on his hips. “No one knows anything. She was living as a human.”

“You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” His alpha raised one eyebrow. “You know, you can’t get rid of your wolf.”

Something snapped inside, and Allan punched the table. “Will you all stop saying that. Fuck. I don’t want that. My wolf is what makes me who I am. It’s what makes me the best person to do the job I do. And protecting the humans is what we were made to do.” He retreated, feeling like he’d taken one too many steps toward a cliff.

Aaron continued to read the papers, and Allan seethed, wishing he could take back everything he’d said.

His family didn’t understand him, and he was fine with it. He just wanted to be free to help the human world. That was why the wolves had been created. They were protectors. He was fulfilling his destiny.

His brother put the papers down and met his eyes with a heavy sigh. “You know I support what you’re doing in town. But shit, Allan. Adam thinks she really loves you. You have to tread lightly. You can
not
have sex with her like she’s some stranger you’ll never see again.”

“I told you, I didn’t have sex with her.”

“So she tied you to a tractor and left your pants open and… just walked away?”

Allan’s whole face heated. “Technically, yes.”

“That’s unlikely.”

“Then ask her.”

Aaron threw the papers onto the table and sighed. “We’ve got to deal with this Elise thing, and having her in our pack has inextricably bonded the Dubois family with ours, even if she didn’t belong to them. They feel like she’s their responsibility. Everything we do from here on out is going to affect them in some way. You can
not
fuck around with this relationship.”

The alpha-ness of Aaron’s last comment struck him hard in the chest. His first instinct was to fight. He didn’t care about relationships between the werewolf families. He only really cared about being able to serve the people of Somewhere. “I promise, I won’t have sex with her.”

“You’d better not.” Aaron pointed at him. “Don’t make me order you. Don’t make me go alpha. You know I don’t like doing that with you and Adam. You’re my brothers. I want what’s best for you.”

“Well, Reyna is not what’s best for me.”

“That’s not what Fate says.” His alpha tapped his finger on the table. “And if Fate talks, you listen.”

Allan pushed off and backed away, always facing Aaron, showing as much respect as he could. But he knew better than his brother did, and he sure as hell knew better than fucking Fate.

Aaron nodded at the door and Allan was out and in his truck before the alpha changed his mind. The last thing he wanted was to have to explain being tied to a tractor.

Of course, the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about it said something, too. It said he needed to get laid.

Or it might’ve been that the full moon was so close.

He pulled up to his house, making lists in his head about all the things he needed to do. All the showering and dressing that morning had meant he hadn’t cleaned the house. Everything was a mess. He never liked to leave his house a mess before he went on a run, just in case one of the guys stopped by and wondered what had happened, then couldn’t find him. Being the sheriff now, it was more important than ever that his life looked like everyone else’s.

The scent of Reyna was still all over him. He was surprised Aaron hadn’t smelled it. But it was everywhere—like it was in his pores. Maybe he’d have to take another shower.

He wiped his nose as he keyed open his house. The first thing he noticed was, it wasn’t how he’d left it. His wolf went on the defensive, but the smell of Pine Sol made it back down.

Criminals tended not to clean.

The house was freaking spotless. Everything had been picked up and put away. He could hear strange noises coming from his kitchen, and carefully approached from around the corner, trying to keep himself from being seen.

With her head in the oven and her ass in the air, Reyna was humming to herself. Now he knew why he’d smelled her. She was here.

And fuck. She looked like a rodeo queen.

She’d put on an 80s-puffy jean skirt with high brown cowboy boots and a tight jean shirt. When she turned around, her eyes went wide and she squealed. She closed the oven door with one booted foot and peeled off two big, red oven mitts.

Her shirt wasn’t her typical corset, but it still hung open just enough for him to get a good eyeful of cleavage.

“Hi, honey.” Her singsongy voice enticed him to take another step forward. “You’re home.”

“
W
ha
—”

She held up one finger to silence him, surprised when his mouth
actually
snapped shut. “Hang on, before you go get all bent out of shape.” Reyna waltzed over to the fridge and pulled out a beer for Allan. “I got everything put away. Your laundry is done. The house is clean enough to eat from any surface. And,” she said, throwing out another Oscar winning southern belle squeal. “I’ve got lunch warm on the stove and an apple pie in the oven.”

He popped the cap on the beer bottle she’d handed him and sniffed the air.

She smiled. Nana’s famous gumbo was simmering on the stove. The sausage and shrimp filled the kitchen with a tantalizing aroma of home. Hopefully Texan men liked gumbo, she’d only ever learned how to cook from her Mama and Nana’s recipes and they were as Cajun as they came. “Hungry?”

He nodded, didn’t speak.

“Let me grab you a bowl. I’ve got a pan of fresh cornbread too.”

Reyna turned toward the stove and tugged another button open on the ridiculous denim shirt she had on and tied around her waist. She looked like a cowgirl-hooker-barbie in her opinion, but if this is what he wanted, she had nothing to lose at this point, except her pride. Hopefully he wouldn’t want her to dress like this all the time, but keeping the mate Fate had shown her was more important than clothes or how she acted around the house.

After hearing him meet with that matchmaker earlier this morning, she’d jumped into this circus with both feet.

After grocery shopping, flea-market hopping for the outfit, and scrubbing his not-so-dirty house, she’d gotten everything ready for him to walk through his front door into the fantasy he’d asked Laurel to find him. There wasn’t a damn thing on his list—except the human bit—that she couldn’t fulfill. She might not be little Suzy Homemaker with blonde poofy hair, but she could cook and clean and stay home and raise the kids if that’s what he really needed.

Not participating in pack politics or acting as an enforcer any longer might sting a bit, but she’d just have to get used to it. She’d never wanted a man as much as she hungered for Allan VonBrandt. She’d lost too much in her short life. She would find a way to complete the mate bond with Allan. Losing him was as much an option as losing her sanity. His scent literally made her drool and her female bits quiver.

No man had ever affected her that way. Ever.

He came up behind her, pinning her between his hard body and the edge of the counter. “Why are you doing this?” The gravelly coarseness of his voice tickled her ears and made her knees weak.

“You want a wife. A homemaker. You don’t need a human for that. Plus you don’t have to have the awkward conversation with me to explain why our kids shift into a wolves on the full moon when they hit puberty.”

“Hmmm.” He groaned as she rubbed her ass against his erection.

“I can cook, clean, do PTA, book club. Whatever it is that normal people do. I can be the person you want better than any human female.”

She arched her chest, and took his hand, sliding her breast into his palm.

Twisting in his grasp, she peered up into his lust-glazed-eyes. His warm brown irises glowed bright with his wolf’s hunger. At least she had his beast on her side. Perhaps that would be enough to sway the man as well.

“The food is all on warm. It will wait.” She rubbed the pad of her thumb across his lips. Grabbing his shoulders, she pulled until he bent close enough to kiss him.

She pressed gently, caressing his lips with the tip of her tongue until they parted. Thrusting her tongue deep between his lips, she moaned as the taste of him filled her mouth.

A second later his arms had encircled her body and he kissed her back. His mouth slanted over hers, crushing their lips together until no air remained inside her lungs.

He growled into her mouth and lifted her completely from the floor. The rooms and hallway passed in a blur. They entered his bedroom and she gasped for breath as his mouth moved from hers to her neck and then further south, removing clothing as he encountered it. The shirt ripped into two pieces shortly before he tossed it across the room.

She nodded. “Yes.”
Gods, yes. Please.

The clasp of her bra popped between his deft fingers and she sighed when the girls burst free, teasing the tongue she wanted desperately to feel on her hard nipples.

“Come and get me cowboy,” she murmured, letting her head drop backward as he caressed her breasts and closed his lips around one nipple and then the other.

He made short work of the ruffled denim skirt and lacy panties, sending them sailing across the semi-dark room to join the pieces of her shirt. She’d pulled all the curtains earlier while she’d been cleaning, just on the off chance the afternoon progressed to this point.

She yanked his uniform shirt loose from the khaki pants. A white undershirt still blocked her hands from the warmth of his skin. “You need to be naked, too.”

Allan growled, but yanked both shirts over his head and shucked out of his pants in what had to be record time. His erection jutted out from a next of dark curled hair, hungry and hard.

Her clit throbbed, excitement building and coiling inside. Her eyes widened when she looked up and met his gaze again. He wanted her. She sucked in a quick breath, trying to ward off the tears welling in her eyes. Sex was her goal, not turning into a mushy ball of female hormones. Still, Reyna wished he’d say something. All she’d heard since they left the kitchen were growls and groans. It wouldn’t kill him to speak a little.

He stepped closer, pressing his erection against her stomach and sending a shiver of anticipation through her body. Allan lifted and laid her out on the bed beneath him.

She wanted this so much it felt instinctual. The prospect of returning to New Orleans the next day and possibly never seeing him again had been eating her from the inside out—thus the Stepford display in the kitchen.

Her core tingled, praying to the gods he would be merciful soon and let her come. She arched against him, seeking the pressure she needed to release the coiled tension writhing within her.

Allan moved above her, pressing the thick ridge of his cock against her slick pussy. He pushed forward, seating himself completely with one stroke. Her orgasm-tender muscles clenched around his wide girth.

Reyna clung to his back as he worked himself in and out, thrusting harder with each stroke. She met his dark gaze for a second before he closed his eyes.

Why wouldn’t he want to look at her?

She was his fantasy. She’d given him everything and more.

Her mind wasn’t allowed to wander for long.

He closed his mouth around her nipples again, scraping his teeth against the tender flesh all the while pumping in and out of her until their bodies were slicked with sweat. They writhed and rocked together until he found that perfect spot. Her pussy clenched and milked him until he joined with her, climaxing and filling her with his semen.

He shouted, thrusting once more. Hard. Deep.

When both their bodies began to relax, he sank down, lowering his body against her. He slanted his mouth over hers again. Reyna melted into his gentleness, thanking the gods she’d given him this one last chance. He’d finally realized what he would be missing. What they both would miss if he shunned Fate.

“You’re right,” Allan said, then rolled to his side, bringing her with him. “You’d be better than a human wife.”

Air whooshed from her lungs and pain wrenched her heart.

He tucked her tightly against his hard body, but the comfort of his touch had turned to pain.

Moments later his breathing evened out as his body settled toward sleep.

A wife…not a mate.
He didn’t want to bond. A wife wasn’t good enough for Reyna. She needed more than that. Sharing the essense of their souls was what wolves were supposed to do. It made them stronger. It healed them and she needed to be healed from the pain she carried around with her every day. Only a mate could make her whole again.

A tear rolled down her cheek and she moved slowly, working her loose from his arms. Reyna would never regret sharing her body with the man Fate had chosen for her, but she couldn’t give up everything that made her who she was. She was a wolf. An enforcer. She lived to protect the pack and those she loved. She’d been a fool to think she’d ever be anything but miserable baking pies and participating in local book clubs.

She lived and breathed magick and her pack. It was in her blood and if Allan couldn’t accept that. Love that. Want that. He didn’t deserve her.

She slunk through his house, silent and broken-hearted. This was supposed to have fixed everything, instead it’d shown her no matter what she did, he would still wish she wasn’t the woman she was.

He would wish she was human. He would wish she didn’t care about being a wolf or being part of a pack. He wouldn’t care that she looked forward to raising children with him, and teaching them about the wonder and amazing gifts that came with being Moonbound.

He would only ever wonder if his life would’ve been easier with a human. With someone who wouldn’t make him feel guilty for pulling her away from being a part of a pack.

She opened the hall closet where she’d hidden her
real
clothes—painted on jeans, a leather corset that made her breasts look amazing, and a pair of boots that were sexy and functional. After getting dressed, minus her underwear and bra—she wasn’t even about to go digging around in his bedroom for those—Reyna turned off the stove and oven and slipped out the back door of Allan’s house. Her car was parked around the block and she needed to get back to the ranch.

A good run with the pack would help her clear her mind. Help her forget what she’d be leaving behind when she went home tomorrow. Not that she would ever
really
forget.

S
ex hangover
. That’s what he had. Heavy limbs, heavy eyelids, heavy stomach. Allan waited for the proverbial shame to set in, as well, but it never came.

Reyna
. His wolf had known her, with his body buried inside hers, he had felt his wolf recognize hers. It hadn’t made any sense, until he’d been hilt-deep inside her, pounding into her and coming in her.

This was why Aaron hadn’t wanted him to have sex with her. He knew this would happen, as Fated mates. He had to have known that Allan would feel the shift, when they were finally together, and that it would hurt Reyna to go this deep and not have her mate want her.

Allan had felt it, all right. When he was inside her, the whole world relocated. He was almost afraid to open his eyes, in case his house had changed, or in case he didn’t want his job or his life anymore.

But as long as Reyna was beside him, the re-orbit of his planet would be fine with him. He could smell her, everywhere. The spicy, deep, almost woody scent of their mixed arousal, still in his sheets and on their bodies.

He breathed it in like the oxygen of his newly aligned life.

This life could be even better with Reyna by his side. Instead of being the lone wolf trying to fulfill the legend he’d been told as a boy—the protector wolves, helping humans—he would have a partner. Another wolf by his side. Together, they could have so much impact.

Thank the gods that Reyna had been so persistently in tune with her magick, otherwise, he might never have felt this change. He might have ignored the pull forever. He might have hurt her.

He never wanted to hurt her again.

Allan reached his arm around where Reyna should’ve been, but he didn’t feel her skin underneath his. He rooted around in the bed until he found his tighty whiteys and slipped them on. For a long moment, he lay in the silk of his cool sheets and stared at the ceiling.

His
. He knew it now. She was his.

She’d been right, they were mates.

The accouterments had been great, although he could have done without the 80s cowgirl look. But the cleaning before a moon run, cooking for him—fuck, bringing him a cold beer—it was like having a real partner. Someone who knew he’d had a hard couple of days and who was willing to take time out of her day to make his a little better.

He’d have to return the favor.

Just the thought of how he planned to spread Reyna’s legs and suck on her until she shuddered underneath him…it made him hard again.

She had made dinner. The least he could do was give her an orgasm. Or two. Or forty.

Allan jumped out of the bed and walked out to the kitchen. She’d put in a pie or something, and she’d had all the food warming…but forget dinner. He wanted to taste
her
.

“Reyna,” he called through the quiet house. The food smell began to die off, the closer he got to the kitchen, which was strange. He came around the corner and found it empty. He touched the side of the pot and it was cold.

He opened the oven, but it was cool, with just the hint of heat. The pie was a little too blonde to be done baking.

Had she shut everything off before they went in the bedroom?

“Reyna,” he said again. Allan walked through the other rooms calling to her, but she didn’t answer. He didn’t hear any water running and her clothes were still all over the floor in the bedroom.

The jean shirt was crumpled beside the bed and the skirt was hanging over the edge of his dresser. Her panties were still in the bed, so she couldn’t have gone far.

“Reyna.” His voice was a little louder, a little more insistent. The scent of her on the bed was still so strong, he couldn’t clear his head. He pulled on a green pair of McAdams University sweatpants that he usually jogged in, and padded out to the back yard.

No Reyna.

He ran back to the bedroom and dug out a McA t-shirt and his running shoes and went to the living room to put himself together. Out in the front of the house, he was far enough away from their sex bed that he could get a little more control of his senses.

If all her clothes were here, but she wasn’t in the house or the backyard, his mind could only process one thought clearly.

Where the fucking hell had she gone naked and how in the hell was he going to keep from killing every man who saw her on her way?