I squirmed and clawed at my lover, my mate, and he snarled and pinned me fast to the bed. Our sensual experience turned into an animalistic orgy as we sought release from our human bodies and our indescribable sexual thirst. I felt my stomach tighten as my orgasm washed over me, and I leaned back my head and let out a great howl. Luke soon joined me and together our cries echoed through the night. They would do that countless more times as we rutted our way until morning, and then collapsed into each others’ arms.
13
I woke up groggy, covered in dry sweat, and aching in parts of my body I didn’t know existed. There was a limp body atop me and the sheets were twisted around my ankles. My cheeks blushed when I realized the limp form was Luke, and we were both very much naked. Memories from the night before flashed through my mind and it looked like a commercial for aphrodisiacs and shavers. I lifted one of my hands and was relieved to see it wasn’t a paw. I was back to my human self.
Luke’s face was tucked into the covers beside my bed, but I was pretty sure he was asleep. I tried to squirm my way from beneath him, but I froze when his muffled voice drifted through the sheets. “Getting up so soon?” he muttered.
I rolled my eyes. “It’s probably almost noon,” I pointed out.
“Probably, but after a night like that I thought you’d want to sleep until evening,” came his muffled reply.
“That would be you, lazy bones, now let me up.” I pulled at his shoulders and managed to slide my way out of his sphere of influence. I gathered up a sheet and wrapped it around myself as he sat up and turned to me.
He had a mischievous smirk on his face, and he didn’t bother to hide his nakedness from me. “Surely you’re not shy with me. Not after last night,” he teased.
“Especially after last night. I don’t want to give you any more ideas,” I countered.
“Any idea is worth a try,” he replied. He stood and held out his arms to me. Did I mention he was naked? “But come back to bed. We have an hour or two until the train leaves and-” there came a knock on the door. I was saved.
I bolted for the dresser while Luke scowled at the door. There was another persistent knock while I scrambled to put on clothes. “They sound pretty impatient,” I remarked.
We found out how impatient when the door burst open and a large werewolf jumped into the room. It whipped its head over the room and snarled at each of us, but particularly Luke. My fully-dressed self yelped and stumbled back only to fall on my sheets on the floor. The beast sprang for the weak link, which meant me, but Luke followed the intruder’s spring with his own quick sprint across the room. The werewolf was nearly on top of me when Luke slammed his shoulder into the beast and knocked it against the wall.
A deaf man could have felt the vibrations from that collision and it alerted the whole inn to the trouble. The werewolf stood on all fours and shook itself, and Luke moved to shield me from the intruder. There was a commotion in the hallway and our new friend decided it didn’t want to stick around for the welcoming party. The werewolf turned tail and raced out of the room. It took a hard right and dove out the window. Luke chased after it and I chased after him with one of my sheets clutched in my hand.
We reached the window in time to see the werewolf race across the carriage house and over the rear side that faced the woods. The only proof it was ever there was the broken window, bits of fur, and some blood. Other guests, Alistair, and Burnbaum hurried up behind us. I turned to Luke and gestured to where our intruder had gone. “That is why you shouldn’t sleep in so late. You’ll end up on the wrong side of the coffin lid.”
Luke’s serious face didn’t crack a smile, but I noticed something that had a crack. He was still naked, so I used the sheet to hide his indecency. Alistair and Burnbaum lay at the head of the worried brigade. “What happened?” Burnbaum asked us.
Luke turned to him and plastered a fake sheepish smile on his face. “Just an accident. I tried to open this window to get some fresh air and it broke.”
Alistair raised an eyebrow, and Burnbaum glanced suspiciously between Luke and the window. “This window outside your room?” he wondered.
“Yes. The hallway felt stuffy,” Luke replied. I rolled my eyes at that lame excuse, and Luke noticed and stuffed me into our bedroom. “If you wouldn’t mind coming in here, Alistair, I need dressed. Mr. Burnbaum, you may want to send your cleanup crew to manage your grounds,” he suggested. Luke hurried inside after me with Alistair close behind. Alistair righted the door and knocked it shut.
Luke strode to the center of the room and paced the floor at the foot of the bed. His sheet billowed behind him like a strange bathrobe. I plopped myself down on the end of the bed and watched him work away at the wood floor with his feet. “What was with that cleanup crew business?” I asked him.
“Our friend Burnbaum has his own private policing force. It’s a precaution against unruly guests,” Luke explained to me. “He’ll send them to track down our furry friend.”
“Isn’t this something the were-police should take care of, or is this a human town?” I wondered.
He stopped his pacing and smirked at me. “This has always been a bi-species town. As for the police, I have more faith in Burnbaum’s guards than any uniformed officer. If anyone can find the intruder it will be them.”
“So why do you really think that wolf tried to make sushi out of us?” I wondered.
“For the same reason the train was derailed,” he answered.
“That they love you so much here that they want you to be buried in the local cemetery?” I quipped.
“It does appear to be a smothering love, doesn’t it?” he mused in answer to my playfulness.
“Would you care for breakfast or lunch, sir?” Alistair spoke up.
“Clothes first, and then lunch,” Luke replied.
Luke dressed, Alistair packed our luggage, and Burnbaum himself brought us our food. He was his normal jolly self until the door was secured behind him, and then his face blackened. “The cursed traitors mean to drive business from me!” he exclaimed as Alistair set the table in the room.
Luke stood close by the bed and raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“My guests do not want to stay here with such noise! They flee to Simpling’s monster. That tall, new building near the station.” That was the gaudy building I’d seen from the train car as we pulled in.
“Why that one in particular?” Luke asked him.
“They smell war and trouble, and think he is good force to stop. They support him through his business-”
“-and Simpling earns his ill-gotten gold from scaring them himself,” Luke finished.
“Yes. It is maddening. Can you not do anything about this?”
Luke pursed his lips together and glanced over at me. “I can’t make any guarantees, but I’ll pull what strings I can with some acquaintances at the meeting. With other matters dealt with I won’t be distracted at the meeting and taken unawares a second time.”
“Third time,” I corrected him.
“The train hardly counts,” he protested.
“Yes, it does.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Alistair coughed and gestured to the table. “Lunch is served,” he announced.
“Shouldn’t we test the food to make sure it isn’t poisoned?” I suggested.
Burnbaum chuckled. “I beat you to it and watched the food cooked myself. It is okay and delicious.”
“Speaking of danger, have you had your guards trail the intruder?” Luke wondered.
“Yes, but the trail was very hard to follow. Many scents in town with all the people going to meeting,” Burnbaum replied. A dark shadow fell across Burnbaum’s usually happy face. “They follow his scent to the police station and-” The conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door that caused it to collapse into the room.
A tall man in a policeman’s blue uniform stood in the doorway. He wore a white cowboy hat and dark sunglasses, and walked into the room with a confident, insolent gait. “Good afternoon, folks,” he greeted us.
Burnbaum stepped between us and the cowboy stranger. The inn owner glared at the man. “What are you doing here?” he gruffly asked the man.
The stranger smirked and took off his glasses to show off a pair of golden eyes. I figured that made him a werewolf, and when his furry scent hit my nostrils that confirmed my suspicions. “Don’t be like that, Burnbaum. I just heard about a bit of trouble some of your guests had here and wanted to see if there was anything I can do to help.”
“No, now you leave,” Burnbaum demanded.
The man didn’t listen, but instead strode about the room and stopped at our table. “Nice setup you got here. Mind if I join you?”
“Actually, we’d prefer-” Luke began, but the man took the fourth chair and invited himself to our meal.
The man rocked his chair back and forth, and picked at the soles his heavy black boots. “Mind telling me what happened to that window?” He nodded his head to the broken window through the open door.
“I broke it,” Luke repeated his lie.
“Ya broke it?” the man repeated. Luke didn’t deign to reply a second time, and the stranger raised an eyebrow and looked Luke over. “You’re that one lord, aren’t ya?”