The Werewolf Cowboy (Moonbound Book 1) (6 page)

“
R
eyna
.” Her cousin, Aria LeBlanc, sniffed as she entered the VonBrandt library. “I would say it went well, but then I don’t see him behind you. And you’re wearing the I-want-to-torture-someone-with-a-blunt-object face.”

Her boots clicked on the hardwoods as she crossed the massive library slash lounge. “I shouldn’t have done it, Aria.” She sank into the couch next to her cousin, and laid her head on her cousin/sister’s shoulder. “I thought he cared. I thought he’d finally changed his mind and then…” A sob tore from her throat. “Will we always be alone, Aria? He was my chance to truly feel whole and he doesn’t want me.”

“We have your dad. We have the pack. We are not alone, Reyna.” Aria stroked her hair.

“I know. I miss Mom and Aunt Piper. They would know what to do. I can’t ask Dad about this.”

“I know. But we are survivors, Reyna. One step at a time. I wish I had a better answer for you. I know you felt like he was the one.”

“He
is
the one. He’s just too fucking stubborn to admit it.”

“If he can’t see past his issues, then he doesn’t deserve you, sweetie. And that’s the truth. You’re beautiful and strong and one of the best enforcers the New Orleans pack has ever had, second only to myself of course.”

Reyna couldn’t help the half-giggle-half-sob. Aria was trying to cheer her up and it was helping…a little. “I just need to run and forget about Allan VonBrandt. Fate fucked up on this one. Maybe once we get home, I can find a project to consume my time and keep my mind off the fact that I met my mate and lost him too.” Tears leaked from her eyes and she shuddered through a sob. “I hate th-that I-I still w-want him,” she growled. “He’s a dick. Tell me he’s a dick and I shouldn’t care about him.”

“He’s an absolute dick, jerk-face, coward who’s not worthy to lick the dirt from your boots. You gave him every chance to, and more than most women in your position would’ve done. He blew it.”

She sucked in a deep breath and growled. “He did.”

“I know what might cheer you up even more.”

Reyna sat up, wiped her face with her hands, and faced her friend. “What?”

“Your dad and the other alphas here decided that this Elise thing is too big to ignore, but no one has been able to find any leads on her origin so they are calling another summit.”

“What good is that going to do?” Reyna’s breathing evened out—nothing like a little pack business to give a girl perspective on life. “When are we coming back?”
Great. Like I really need to see Allan again. Maybe dad will let me sit this one out?

“We are headed to Vegas, baby! They are calling in
all
the pack alphas they know. This is huge, Reyna.”

“At least we don’t have to come back here. The last person I ever want to see again is—”

“Reyna!”

“Speak of the devil,” Aria swore.

Allan came storming into the library. “You’re not naked.”

“Why would I be naked, asshole? And why should you care?” Reyna jumped from the couch and met him in the center of the library.

“I woke up and—”

The crack of her palm against his face stopped his speech.

Shock spread through his expression, but she didn’t care. He’d broken her heart in a way that no other man on the planet was capable of doing. Reyna was strong, happy and loved life before coming to Somewhere.

Now she just felt dead inside. She’d given up so much to win him over and he’d said
“fuck you”
more ways than she could count.

Well, she was done. After the moon run, she’d refuse to waste another second pining over the life she could’ve had with him.

“Fuck you, Allan VonBrandt.”

Reyna fled the room, weaving between people who’d no doubt overheard her outburst. It didn’t matter. She was here for one more night. Then she was going home, or to Vegas or wherever her father said.

Anywhere but Somewhere, Texas.

Once in the front yard, she unzipped her boots, toed them off and kept running. She undid her corset next and threw it across the yard. The run didn’t officially start for another hour, but she had no desire to speak with anyone—especially Allan.

She could hear him calling her name from the front stoop.

Reyna shoved her jeans down her legs and kicked them off too. Kneeling down, she embraced the flow of magick around her and called to it. Her skin tingled as the magick changed her.

One moment a woman, and then the next a wolf.

T
hank
the gods she wasn’t naked, so he didn’t have to kill anyone, but damn, his face hurt. On his heels from the slap, he ignored the angry, red-faced she-wolf in the library, and ran after Reyna.

Aaron stopped him with a steady hand. “Allan. I thought I told you—”

He pushed his brother off. “No, you don’t understand.”

“Come the fuck back here,” Aaron called after him, but he ignored his alpha just for the briefest of moments. He had to find her.

He followed her out the front door. “Reyna!”

But she was…what the fuck…taking off her boots…what the hell was she doing? Something caught him by the heart.

No. She was going to shift.

Allan took off at a dead run, passing first one high-heeled boot, then the other. She had her corset off and her breasts were unfettered. Fuck no. If he could just reach her.

“Reyna!” he called again, passing the corset laid out on the ground and then her jeans, but there was no Reyna. It was the woods and the dark, and she was gone. He slid on his knees in the rough dirt and let out a long, ragged growl.

He pushed to his feet and walked out of the trees, stopping to pick up her black jeans and throw them over his shoulder. He had the corset in his hand and was folding it into some semblance of quarters when he saw the dark-haired Louisiana wolf from the library come through the front doors. Her face was less red, but her jaw was set in a hard line and she stomped toward him.

Just what he needed, an earful.

Allan bent to retrieve Reyna’s last boot and stood to take his tongue-lashing from her friend with the matching features. Her sister? No. She didn’t have a sister, he didn’t think.

How could he not even know if his mate had a—

Smack
.

The impact of the slap sent him reeling for a moment before he caught his ground and his vision narrowed. “What the hell was that for?” he asked. “And why is everyone slapping me?”

“You’ve got one of those slappable faces, I guess.” Adam’s sarcasm rang out from the stoop.

Allan wanted to smack a face or two of his own.

“You’re an asshole,” the she-wolf said, a curl to her lip. “No one hurts my cousin and gets away with it.”

From the porch, Aaron called out lazily, his arms crossed and his body languidly resting against a column. “You can’t kill him.”

“But he does deserve an ass-kicking,” said Reyna’s cousin.

“Be my guest.” Aaron raised his eyebrows and smiled. “We’ve been waiting for this for years, now.”

“Feel free to break some bones.” Adam’s tone of mockery earned a snarl from Allan.

“Everyone needs to just calm down and stay the fuck out of my business.” He used Reyna’s boots to point at the angry cousin. “And you. You stay away from me.”

“Aria.” Francis’s voice came from behind Aaron, and the porch parted to let the old New Orleans alpha through the red sea of onlooking wolves. “You leave the poor man alone.”

Her lengthening neck told Allan, while Aria might not like her orders, but she wasn’t about to disobey her alpha. At least he was safe for the time being.

“And you, son,” Francis continued. “You’d better be about to bond with my daughter or I
will
let Aria break some of those bones of yours.”

Allan sucked in a breath and glanced at Aaron.

Apparently, everyone was immensely entertained by the prospect of seeing him get beat up by a girl. He shook his head.

“I don’t get it. I came here to bond with her. I thought we were going to run. But she just smacked me and ran off and shifted.” He waved after her. “I mean, I thought she was running around naked, but I felt it. The thing you feel. The Fate. I get it now.”

Aaron and Francis exchanged glances, but they didn’t look quite as sympathetic as he’d expected.

Instead, they both advanced, coming down the steps toward him.

“You mean, you slept with her?” Aaron’s pointed tone left no question. This was his alpha talking.

“I did. And she made some good points, about my plans—kids and things. She was right, only I didn’t see it, not really, until…” he stopped, biting his lip. It wasn’t appropriate to talk about fucking a man’s daughter in front of him. But that had been
it
. The moment he knew he couldn’t fight Fate. And then everything just made sense.

He could tell, from how carefully Aaron was watching Francis, that at least his brother understood what had changed. After being inside her, after coming in her, after feeling her that deeply, he couldn’t ignore it.

“So you’re going to mate my daughter?” Francis seemed disproportionately calm as he continued to advance on Allan.

“I, um. Yes, sir. I had planned to bond with her when I found her.”

“But she just slapped you?” Francis asked.

“Yes, sir.”

Francis was so close, Allan could smell his aftershave. The New Orleans alpha kept walking, and Allan had to fight not to back himself up all the way to the woods. He had the uncanny sensation that he’d done something wrong, but he wasn’t quite sure what it was. He stood his ground and pulled the boots and corset behind his back.

“Do you think she slapped you for no reason?” Francis still showed no emotion, just kept moving closer, inch by inch.

“No, sir.”

“That’s right.” Francis stopped his forward motion and cast a side-glance at Aria. “What would you say happened, my dear?”

Aria’s voice was sharp like a knife. “She said she thought he really cared, but it turned out he didn’t.”

Allan felt that blow deep. He deserved it. All he had done up until that point was try to get rid of Reyna. But if he’d just let her fuck him that first night they met, they could have avoided all this bullshit and just mated. “I…” He let out a breath. “I care.”

“Did you tell her that?” Aaron asked from somewhere behind Francis.

“I told her she was right. Isn’t that the same thing?” He shrugged.

As though on cue, everyone groaned at once. Adam, Aaron, Francis, Aria, and the peanut gallery of Oklahoma and East Texas wolves who all crowded out the door to watch the drama unfold.

Allan narrowed his gaze. “What? I told her she was right.”

Francis’s face softened and the old alpha patted his shoulder. “You meant well, m’boy. Aria, maybe you should set him straight.”

The other wolves streamed around him, all making their way toward the woods so they could all have their spot to undress in peace when the shift took them. Some clapped Allan’s back, and some just offered him looks of condolence. Only Aria remained.

He laid Reyna’s clothing on the stoop and stood her boots beside the pile of black.

Aria clucked at him. “You really don’t deserve her, you know.”

Allan ran his tongue around his mouth. He never liked to admit he’d been wrong, but he felt this so deeply, he couldn’t stop the words from coming, “I know I don’t deserve her.”

Aria studied him with her deep, intense stare, and then rolled her eyes. “She loves you, still, somehow. You lucked out there, buddy.”

“She does?” He was the hot, still-stinging skin of his cheek. “It doesn’t feel like she loves me.”

“Well, I know Reyna, and she loves you. It pisses her off that she does, but she does.” Aria’s brows knitted together. “I guess you can’t help but love your mate.”

Two days ago, he would have argued with that statement, but not this day. This day, he could do nothing but agree.

They both looked out into the looming woods, and Allan sighed. “I guess there’s nothing I can do until tomorrow morning. I just don’t like the thought of her out there alone, without me.”

Aria lifted a brow, and Allan chuckled when he heard the irony in his own words. He’d had his chance. He only hoped she was into seventh chances.

“Well, she’ll be back here in the morning, anyway. Whether you find her or not, which you shouldn’t even try, because you probably won’t. She likes to sulk when she’s angry.”

“She wouldn’t leave without letting me try again, would she?” He chewed the side of his cheek. He was supposed to work on Monday, which meant he wouldn’t just be able to follow her to New Orleans without a major bump in his schedule, and some kind of explanation to the guys at the station.

Her cousin shrugged. “She’s pretty stubborn.”

Allan worked his jaw and pursed his lips. “That makes two of us.”

A
llan secured
the rope around Reyna’s wrists while her limbs were still heavy with sleep. Instead of Adam’s tractor, he’d had to makeshift a rig around the old water pump out by the horse barn, because that had been where he’d found her, asleep, after she shifted back.

He’d run the hills in Manzano Park all night, trying to catch her scent, but wherever she’d gone, she hadn’t left one for him to follow. He had stayed a wolf just a bit longer than he needed, because the wolf allowed him to smell her human form, and he needed to find her.

Her body was all long lines and curves, and with her arms tied over her head, her breasts stood almost at attention, her nipples pointing up at him.
Damn
, he wanted to put his mouth on those breasts…his hands, his dick…everything.

But he’d decided. She needed to wake up with his mouth on her clit. So Allan knelt beside her, running his hands down her thighs and coaxing her legs apart. With a breathy sigh, her legs opened and the scent of her arousal filled him with desire.

He lowered himself between her legs and spread her pussy open with his fingers. She was already pink and budding, as Allan latched his tongue onto her clit and sucked. Her aroma was all he could think about, as her arousal grew.

Her thighs tightened and closed around his head, but he hooked his hands around them and forced her to open for him. She groaned and whispered something he couldn’t quite hear.

He groaned into her, the vibrations of her body echoing all the way to him. She tried to clench her thighs again, but he was ready for the response.

Reyna was waking.

Allan slipped his hand up, over the plane of her stomach, and to the curve of her breast. The point of a nipple, his fingers found and squeezed. She gasped and he saw her eyes flutter.

His hands returned to open her, and he licked up her slit and continued to suck at her clit, moving his tongue around until she moaned again.

Her hips bucked at him and he saw her stomach muscles tighten. Her eyes fluttered once more, and this time, her mouth came open as well.

“What the—” She blinked and looked down.

Allan met her gaze with earnest appreciation and smiled around her pussy.

Her hands clenched against the ropes and her gaze flicked up to the restraints. “What the fuck?” she managed, but then a sigh took her.

He could feel himself lengthening, hardening, with each noise and movement from her. “Shhhhh,” he quieted, drawing his lips up from her clit. “Don’t want to wake the sleeping house.”

“Allan…” She sucked air between her lips and sighed. “Ah, fuck.” Reyna rolled her tongue and looked like she was fighting something hard. “Will you…will you…get your head…fuck.”

Her body tightened again, and her legs clamped down on his hands. When he released her to add his fingers in to the orgasm mix, her legs flailed around his head, but he did his best to ignore her. He could feel her response as she sighed and flexed her legs, arching up to meet him.

Her hips bucked against him. “Harder,” she demanded. “I’m… I’m almost…”

A shudder overtook her and all her muscles tensed, then relaxed. Her strained cry made him hard as fucking granite. He wanted to be inside her.

When she relaxed, he kissed up one hip and across her stomach, and latched on to one breast. Her gasp urged him forward and he sucked until the pain of his erection being pressed into the ground made him surge up and take possession of her mouth.

With nimble fingers, he untied the ropes and was just about to reach down to guide himself inside her when she pushed him onto his back and straddled him. Her pussy was a wet trail against his stomach and his cock ached for her.

He gazed up at her with a smile, lust and desire hazing over everything but the urge to push her down on to his cock and fuck her until they couldn’t walk any more.

She put one hand on his chest and leveraged herself, leaning back, until her momentum brought her forward and she punched him hard in the face.

“
Y
ou fucking asshole
!” Her body shook from the amazing orgasm she’d just had, but mostly anger seethed inside her. How dare he think he could come after her when she’d made it perfectly clear she was done with him? She shoved against his chest and tried to stand, but he was too quick.

His big paws wrapped around her wrists and she found her back against the ground once again. Her legs were pinned by his and the hard line of his erection ground against her pubic bone, sending messages to her brain that she had to fight to dismiss.

Instinctually, she wanted nothing more than to fuck until they were so tired they couldn’t move…but he didn’t want more than that. He didn’t want her to be a wolf, and she couldn’t live with herself if she let him trap her into a life where she never got to enjoy being the creature she was.

“I was trying to apologize.”

“For what! Fucking me and pretending I was your perfect Suzie Homemaker fantasy? Well guess what. I thought I could be that for you. I thought I could forgo being a wolf. Being an enforcer. I was wrong, and you were a fucking dog for even letting me consider it.” She growled from deep in her chest. Her wolf was with her on this. “Get the fuck off of me. I’m going home today and I never want to see you again!”

His eyes widened and released her hands immediately. “I’m not perfect.” He pushed from the ground on either side of her and stood, staring down.

Every gorgeous beautiful inch of him was right there, but she just wanted to hurt him as much as he’d hurt her.

She never let anyone get close to her before. Somehow, this clod of a cowboy sheriff had crawled under her skin and taken up residence. Fate had given her a glimmer of a promise and then ripped the rug out from under her.

Reyna scrambled to her feet and took a step backward, just in case he felt like securing her to anything else.
Smartass. Figures he’d use my own trick against me.

“Please don’t leave, Reyna.”

“I’m not human. I’m a wolf. I needed you, but you don’t want me —not the way I am.” Tears welled and she sucked in a quick breath, trying to will them away. She turned and started walking toward the main house. He didn’t have anything to say that would change her mind.

He hadn’t changed.

Allan followed, but didn’t try to stop her.

A smile curved her lips for a millisecond. It must be so hard for him to walk across his brother’s front lawn naked as the day he was born. Heaven forbid if someone actually saw him behaving like a wolf after a moon run.

“Leave me alone.” She stopped on the front steps of the house and whirled to face him. “I gave you every chance, and you stomped on me each and every time. You can go back to your matchmaker and pick out a blonde bimbo to cook and clean and suck your dick.” The words sliced her heart as she said them. Just imagining another woman with Allan tore her apart inside. Even after everything that happened.

She loved him. She would always love him.

“Reyna…” His voice was barely a whisper.

“No!” she screamed. “I won’t let myself believe in Fate again. I’m done.” The tears she’d fought to banish rolled down her cheeks, burning trails of regret as they fell. She wasn’t weak. Crying made her look weak, but she couldn’t make them stop. They kept flowing, turning from a trickle to a flood. He’d ruined the best thing that would ever happen to either of them. “Just let me go.” She opened the front door and stepped inside, but he followed her again.

“Look, I said you were right, and I meant it. I’m a good sheriff
because
I’m a wolf, and trying to be human denies half of who I am.”

He reached for her and she recoiled. They were words, just words. But they were the ones she’d been waiting to hear.

A couple of people walked into the foyer and made a one-eighty the second they saw them. At least she didn’t have to worry about stupid human stuff, like her naked ass showing up on Facebook or her conversation with Allan being tweeted to the world. Wolves were loyal and private. The pack might gossip between themselves, but that’s as far as it would ever go.

“I want you, Reyna. I came last night to run with you. To ask you to stay with me. I want to be your mate. I want you to be mine.”

A sob tore through her chest and she lunged for him, wrapping her arms around his neck. She wanted to scream and cry at the same time.

He enveloped her with his arms and lifted her from the floor. Then slanted his mouth over hers and took her breath away.

She pulled away and growled deep in her chest. “What took you so fucking long, Allan VonBrandt?”

“Stupidity? Stubbornness?”

“Hmmmm, both good answers.” She pressed her lips to his again. “Is there a bedroom around here somewhere?” she mumbled against his mouth.

He grunted, slid his hands to cup her ass, and walked forward toward a door in the foyer she hadn’t noticed previously.

She wrapped her legs around his waist, reveling in the feel of his hard cock against her pussy. Squeezing her thighs, she tried to relieve the building need throbbing inside her.

A door opened and he carried her into a dark room that smelled of leather, wool, and cedar—coats. Wasn’t a bedroom, but it would do.

When the door closed behind him, they were in complete darkness, except for the thin strip of light that glowed from beneath the door. He fumbled around the closet, reaching for something above the racks of coats.

“What are you doing?” she asked, nibbling along his earlobe.

“Getting a blanket. I intend to have a picnic.”

“I like picnics,” she purred.

“Good cause, I’m going to eat every fucking sweet inch of you.”

He flapped the blanket a couple of times with one arm and then laid her down on top of it.

She pulled his head closer for a kiss. He obliged, taking her mouth long and hard. Their tongues twisted together and her core throbbed. Reyna rocked her hips against his, but he wasn’t going to be prodded into moving any faster. Even his tongue was slow and methodical, like he planned to take his sweet time savoring her. Just like he’d said.

“Please, Allan,” she whimpered.

“Tell me you want my mouth on you,” he growled, trailing kisses along her neck down to her collarbone.

“Yes.” She squirmed, but his massive form kept her from obtaining the friction she needed against her clit to climax.

“Tell me where.”

“My pussy. Please, by all the gods, please make me come.”

Reyna couldn’t see him smile, but she could feel the curve of his mouth as he kissed his way down to her tender breasts. Her nipples could cut diamonds right now and he was licking them like they were candy lollipops.

“Oh, fuck…” Her breathing turned to pants and her chest heaved as her waiting orgasm swirled inside her, tightening and coiling. Her body pulsed in time with her heartbeat. Desire ran through her blood, heating her from the inside out. She couldn’t decide if she just wanted him to skip licking her clit all together and just fill her. Her pussy ached so badly.

She rubbed her hands over his chest. He was hard and male and his heart raced, synced with hers.

He sucked a nipple into his mouth and she saw stars.

“More,” Reyna groaned, arching her back to press the breast deeper into his mouth.

Licking. Sucking. Teeth scraping.

Nothing mattered anymore but his mouth. The sensations fluttering through her blocked out any other thoughts.

Each tug and bite at her nipples sent new sparks of hunger straight to her core.

“Fuck me.”

“What about my picnic?” Allan chuckled, nibbling his way up to her neck from her breasts.

“Fuck me now, please.” She gasped through a shudder of need.

He must’ve felt her tense, because he froze above her, leaving the tip of his cock poised at her entrance, teasing her pussy. “Reyna?”

A tear rolled from the corner of her eye.

“Do you love me?” A sigh slipped from his chest and he nibbled along her earlobe, biting just hard enough to make it hurt so good. “When I couldn’t find you yesterday, I went nuts, thinking about someone else seeing you or…touching you.” He feathered kisses along her shoulder. “I don’t want anyone else but you. I hope…I want you to…I need to know if you can love me.”

Reyna smiled and slid her hands up his arms, along his broad shoulders, and cupped his face, centering it in front of hers. Even though it was dark, she could see hints of light reflected in his irises.

The glow of his wolf.

“I’ve loved you, cowboy since the first time you told me
‘no’
. And I’ll always love you. Forever.”