The Wolf Inside Me (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (2 page)

Zev steadily ripped his napkin into tiny pieces as he kept his focus trained on her. If he didn't keep his hands busy, he would shift right here in the booth, revealing himself as a wolf and ruining centuries of secrecy. "Let's talk about something else," Gray thought to him. "You need to steady yourself."

"I want to know our next move...." Marrok interjected then thought better of it. "Please."

Zev exhaled inwardly. As much as it pained him to drag his thoughts away from his mate, there was business to be discussed.

"The loggers are getting suspicious of us," he thought, and heard his packmates perk up attentively. "I don't know how much longer we can safely work on the inside."

"Good," thought Dolf. "I'm tired of this low-level sabotage crap. Let's just blow up all the dozers and be done with it."

"Then we'd be no better than the Sandulf pack," Zev thought darkly and he heard his packmates' minds growl. The Sandulf had lost their humanity ages ago. They viewed the encroachment of the loggers on to their territory as a declaration of war, putting at risk the secrecy the Falls Creek pack treasured. As alpha of the Falls Creek Pack, Zev had sworn to the Sandulf that they would drive the loggers off the mountain without revealing themselves. But the Sandulf were growing impatient. Radulf, the alpha of the Sandulf had made it clear that if the Falls Creek methods didn't work, then he would be ready to apply his own.

With teeth and claws and blood.

"It's difficult to bring supplies up here," Zev explained patiently. "If the operation becomes too expensive to continue, they'll abandon it and our territory will be left alone. We just have to keep at it...cautiously," he admonished them as he sensed their grumbling impatience. "It won't be long now," he encouraged them and let them feel some of his resolve to buck up their own.

He was absorbed in sending out that strength, so he didn't feel her approach. Not until she was only a few feet away from him. But then her presence hit him like a lightning bolt.

She moved with the easy, loping grace of a wolf, but her thoughts were not available to him.
She's been human too long
, he suddenly realized.
Maybe her whole life. Maybe she doesn't even know what she really is.

He needed to get her in to the forest as quickly as he could. It was only there on the side of the mountain, with the power that radiated out from the earth, that he could reawaken the wolf inside of her.

But first he needed to introduce himself.

Chapter Three

Selina

I tore my gaze from his, trying desperately to find something else to focus on. The sensations inside of me were terrifying. Was I losing my mind?

I forcibly turned my head and tried to take in the rest of the group. The three other men barely acknowledged my existence, diving for the plate of nachos like drowning men after a life preserver. I swear I heard one of them actually snarl as he fought for the greasy, congealed chips.

But the green-eyed man wouldn't allow me to turn from him. His rumbling voice called me back in spite of my struggle to free myself from his magnetic pull. "No problem about the wait," he smiled politely, flashing a row of pearly white teeth. "I see you have a rush on. You guys could really use some help." I felt his gaze travel down my body and I shivered in spite of the heat. Even in the low light of the bar his eyes still flashed like emerald beacons. "Is it really only you working?" he asked, but his tone sounded like he wanted to know something more.

I struggled to keep my voice even and professional. I could see his jaw working as he bit into the food. There was something about the way the strong muscle stretched powerfully over the sharp outline of his cheekbone that held my gaze and made the crawling sensations inside of me even worse. "Yep," I sighed, shaking my head to force myself to stop staring. "Me and my mother."

"You're the only bar in town," he said incredulously. He grabbed another chip and I saw that his hands were huge. He could have covered the entire platter with one giant paw.

"I know," I nodded, amazed at how steady my voice was. I didn't sound like I was slowly crumbling to pieces, even though it should have. "It kind of sucks."

He leaned forward and cast a conspiratorial look around him. A wicked grin spread across his face and I felt myself smile too. "Don't wanna say this too loud, but this whole town sucks. The people are horrible."

I burst out laughing. "You got that right," I agreed. "I can't wait to get out of here."

"Where do you want to go?" He was looking at me with frank interest, something I was not used to seeing in a man. He was looking at me like what I had to say was the most important thing he had ever heard. I had been flirting with guys for tips since I was old enough to have my mother shove me behind the bar, so I thought I knew everything about the game of men. I knew how to ward them off; to keep them just interested enough to tip me but off-kilter enough to leave me alone.

It never occurred to me that I could actually enjoy a man's attention. In fact, it flustered me slightly and I felt an awkward flutter in my tummy. My body was sent into hormonal overdrive like a silly virgin.

Probably because I
was
a silly virgin.

I tried to calm my fluttering hands. I leaned forward, placing a hand over my cleavage, but his eyes went there anyway. "Anywhere," I breathed, finding that I didn't mind him seeing me like that. "I've never been out of this town."

"Out of this town?" he repeated, leaning forward like I had confessed to some unthinkable crime. "Like, literally?" His green eyes were incredulous.

"Literally," I sighed, looking around to make sure my mother didn't see me. I dropped down into a crouch, holding on to the table to balance myself. His words were calming me, to the point where I couldn't believe how brazen I was being. But this man was making me feel things I had never felt before. He leaned forward and I saw a pop of muscle stretching the shoulders of his plaid shirt. Like it was barely able to contain the strength underneath. "Been here my whole life and never been past the sawmill on route 8," I sighed again. These confessions should have been embarrassing, but I just felt so comfortable.

"But I bet you've been all over the town itself, right?" he prompted. "And the mountain?"

I shook my head slowly. "Nope."

He widened his green eyes and leaned forward some more, moving so close to me that I could feel the heat rising off of his body. A lock of deep chestnut brown hair flopped forward over his eyes and I ached to comb it back into place with my fingers. When I saw my hands rising of their own accord to do just that, I had to forcibly press them to my thighs.

He was talking and I wasn't hearing a word he was saying. "...up there. You would need to have someone who knows the woods of course. But you should really get up there before the snow flies. It's breathtaking. The woods are my home."

As he spoke his eyes gleamed for a moment, just the briefest flash of eyeshine. I was reminded of the flash of an animal's eyes caught in the headlights on a dark road. Except that it wasn't the fearful look of a deer. It was something much more assured. Predatory, even.

I shivered.

"Yes, I'd love to."

When I heard the words it was like they had come from someone else's mouth. I listened to myself agree to go on a hike with this random, shaggy haired, gleaming eyed man and I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

But the man grinned ear to ear. I saw him flick his tongue over his teeth, like he was scenting the air for just a moment. And then it was gone, replaced with a wide, open, happy grin. He extended his hand. "I'm Zev."

"Selina," I blinked, not trusting my eyes with him anymore. What had I just seen?

"Selina," Zev leaned back in the booth and I was suddenly aware of his silent, hulking companions again. I stretched back up to a stand, brushing the fabric of my one pair of khakis back down over my thighs. "I'm going to take you on a hike, show you your own back yard. You need to know how beautiful it is up there."

I looked at the four huge men. They were loggers, I was sure of it. "Doesn't your job kind hurt that beauty?" I couldn't help but ask.

His eyes flashed again, and this time his companions looked up too. And I swear on my life, it was that same predatory gleam from all four of them, an emerald fire that blazed upwards brightly and then was extinguished just as quickly. "I suppose it does," Zev growled, and I heard a similar low sound from the throats of the three other men.

I backed away slowly, not really understanding what had just happened. I trod on a booted foot and nearly squeaked in fear. "Sorry," I gasped and hurried back behind the bar where it was familiar and safe.

"Where the fuck you been, girl?" My mother was so livid her normally sallow face was as purple as an eggplant. "I'm not paying you to be flaunting your tits to the customers!"

I closed my eyes and exhaled, trying to shake off the unsettled feeling that still lingered. I needed to be on my toes when it came to her. I never knew when the next blow might land. My mother's obsession with the idea that I was a slut was part of the reason I was still a virgin. "I wasn't flaunting," I muttered under my breath, feeling those tears prick my eyes again. I bent my head to the cabinets under the bar to count pint glasses and regain my composure.

When closing time finally, blessedly, rolled around, my mother shouted for last call, the veins sticking out of her neck as she screeched above the din. I busied myself at the taps, gratefully pouring out the last pints of the night. My feet were aching, every step felt like I was stepping into fire.

I was concentrating on the pain in my feet and not on the counter, so when the giant form appeared in front of me, I startled so much that I sloshed the pint I was pouring. "Oh!" I squeaked. "You scared me!"

Zev grinned that wide-open grin again, but this time I felt I had to strain to see it. He was so much taller than I had realized! Why did he look so much taller? He absolutely towered above me, and with his absurdly broad shoulders squared, he stood as if he was planted there like a giant tree. For the first time in my life, I felt petite.

"Didn't mean to," he smiled. "Just wanted to nail you down."

"What?" I gasped.

"For our hike?"

"Oh!" I was stuttering, so I felt it best to stick to only one syllable at a time.

He looked off in the distance, musing. "I was thinking of taking tomorrow off anyway. How does that sound? Can you make it?"

I shot a look over my shoulder to where my mother was wiping glasses. No, no I couldn't. She would have a fit. "Sure," I heard myself say.

"Great!" Zev smiled that smile again and once more I had to prevent myself from reaching out to touch him. "I'll pick you up. Where should I come?"

"Here," I said hastily. I didn't want him seeing my mother's and my squalid trailer. "I'll meet you here in the morning."

"Bright and early," he said. "We'll want to make the most of the day."

I nodded dumbly. "Okay," I agreed.

He grabbed my hand in his, completely enveloping it. Brushing it idly past his lips, he set it back down on the bar, then turned and nodded to his three companions. They all strode out together, all immensely tall, all with similarly shaggy brown hair. I realized my heart was thumping loudly, along with an insistent pulse that sounded through my body like the beating of a drum. I turned away quickly before my blush could consume me.

Chapter Four

Zev

He was running, covering the distance from the logging site easily on four legs. His paws crunched heavily through the leaves as he heard his three companions huffing behind him.

They had almost been caught. Shifting into human form at night, in the woods, made Zev nervous even when they weren't in danger of being shot at. His human form was so vulnerable to the silliest things. With no fur to protect him from the cold, no tough footpads to protect his feet and no sharp claws to protect his packmates, he felt like a prey animal instead of the predator he was.

But they needed their human hands to be able to open the hoods of the bulldozers. And they needed their human thumbs to be able to remove the spark plugs.

So he stood naked in the forest, ignoring the buzz of mosquitos in his ears, cursing his weak human eyesight as he sabotaged the loggers' machines by the light of the moon.

"Guard's coming!" Gray shouted in his mind.

Zev let the hood slam shut and shoved the sparkplug into his mouth. Then he dropped to all fours.

He let his wolf explode outward, feeling his muscles stretch and grow, feeling the power surge through him shooting out from his core to elongate his teeth and sharpen his claws. The fur covered his back first and he was grateful for the warmth. Instantly he could see better, and he could hear the thoughts of his packmates as crystal clear as his own. And the thoughts were telling him to run.

He barreled through the woods with the sparkplug still held in his teeth. He wasn't sure why he was still holding it, other than the vague notion to get it as far away from where it would be found as possible. He felt Gray, Marrok and Dolf shift and follow behind him, and then he heard the shots ring out in the dark.

He could taste Dolf's pain before he heard the whine. "What happened?" he thought to him.

"I'm okay." Dolf's thoughts were rueful. "Bastard nicked my ass."

Gray laughed in their minds. "Lucky shot."

"It hurts, you dick."

Marrok interrupted. "Head to the lake."

Zev agreed and the four wolves covered the distance quickly, putting miles between them and the logging site in mere minutes. When they reached the lake, Dolf dove in panting and Zev felt his relief as the cool water bathed his wound.

Zev sat back on his hind legs. With a flick of his head, he tossed the spark plug into the black depths.

"There," he thought to the group. "Nice work up there."

"Hope it's enough," Gray thought sourly.