Blackwing Wolf (Kane's Mountains Book 2)(13)

"But not you."

"No, not me."

"Because you're different."

He bore his teeth in a flash. She could feel his snarl all the way  through his fingertips when he dragged his touch across her hip. "Being  different isn't good for a wolf, Emma. Being different will get me  killed someday. Early. There's nothing I can do but draw my life out as  long as I can. For a wolf like me, a broken one, my life invited pain  from my first shift to now, any time I encountered one of my kind. It's  not like with Logan or Beast, or even Kane. Werewolves don't have an  instinct to protect me. There is instinct to remind me of my place at  the bottom of the pack. And the way to remind me … is to bleed me."

"But you aren't in the pack anymore."

Dustin frowned and didn't answer. Instead, he sat up, cradled her in his  arms, and pushed up. He strode with her toward the water.

"Hell no, it's cold!"

Dustin stopped in a flash. "Shit. I forgot you're human. You have chilly bumps."

She snickered and wrapped her arms around her middle to try and keep some warmth there. "Chilly bumps?"

"That's what my mom called them." Dustin walked her back to the blanket  and dressed her like she was an incapable toddler, all the while wearing  such a serious expression.

"I'm not going to die because of a little cold weather you know," she said, amused.

"You could catch a cold."

"And take some cold medicine."

"Or pneumonia. I heard that's a serious thing." He shoved the bags of  cold food off the blanket and wrapped it around her until only her  eyeballs showed.

"Oh my gosh, you are ridiculous."

Dustin stood there, hands on his hips, surveying his work. With a  satisfied nod, he grabbed his clothes and the food and said  magnanimously, "You may eat in my car, with the heat on full-blast. I'm  probably going to melt, but fuck it. You let me put my dick in your-"

"Okay, that's good. Let's not suck out all the romance from our night, shall we?"

"Right." He led her in the direction of the parking lot. "You hump very  nicely and diligently. Compliment jar, you owe me a blow job."

"That's not how it is supposed to work, and furthermore, that's one of the pros of being a future vampire. No blow jobs."                       
       
           



       

"Oh, because of your future fangs?" Dustin scrunched up his face. "Okay  point for that one. Con, no reflection in the mirror, so how are you  supposed to put on make-up or trim your pubes?"

Emma laughed so loud her abs hurt. "Why are you using a mirror for that?  Just look down, dumbass. And they have vampire mirrors now. You just  flip a little switch, and it casts this special light so vampires can  see themselves. They even invented some vampire app for phones so we can  take selfies. Hiss, hiss."

"Also con, you won't have a soul anymore."

"Says who?"

"Says everyone."

Emma rolled her eyes. Her parents were the nicest people she knew. They  definitely had souls. "Pro, I'll be able to fly, shift into this crazy  powerful ball of bats, and get really strong. Also pro, my boobs will  stay perky for thousands of years."

But Dustin had stopped and was looking behind them now with narrowed eyes, so she halted her penguin waddle. "What's wrong?"

Dustin's nostril's flared slightly as he inhaled, and now his eyes were  glowing so brightly they were hard to look at. He stood frozen like a  stone, his attention on the woods behind them, but when Emma looked, she  didn't see or sense anything.

Dustin said something too low for her to understand, so she frowned at  his lips and waited. He didn't repeat it, though. Instead, he pressed  his hand on her lower back and guided her in front of him, hurrying her  toward the parking lot, his attention never wavering from something  behind them.

Now she had real chilly bumps. If his wolf senses were all riled up,  then something was wrong. She opened the front of the blanket so she  could walk faster, but her high heels still kept her from sprinting. And  anyway, when she tried, Dustin pulled her back and told her, "Slow.  Don't run."

"Are we being hunted?" That was the only thing that made sense right  now. Why else wasn't she allowed to give into her instincts to flee and  bolt from this place?

"I don't know." His voice sounded odd. A lie?

"By an animal or shifter."

He didn't answer.

"Dustin!"

"I don't know!" but his voice still sounded weird. Off, just a little.

By the time they reached the car, she was panting in fear. As he helped  her inside, there was this awful feeling that something bad would happen  to Dustin while he was running around the back of the car to get in.  She shoved his door open to save him a precious millisecond.

Dustin jammed the key into the ignition and turned over the engine,  shifted into reverse, and peeled out of the spot. And before he was even  stopped, he had it shifted into first and was gunning it out of the  dark and empty parking lot. The clouds had covered the moon and all the  stars so it was dark outside the window.

"Everything is fine," Dustin said loudly over the roar of the engine as he switched to second gear. "I was just being careful."

"Bullshit," she called him out.

His teeth were clenched tightly, and he kept checking the rearview  mirror. Another secret Dustin wanted to keep. Add it to the pile.

She huffed a breath and ripped her gaze away from him to stare out the window.

But as she watched the dark woods blurring by, she could've sworn she  saw something massive running parallel to the road, way off in the  trees. Something monstrous.

And then she heard it-the long call of a wolf.

Only there were no wild wolves here.

Dustin was panting hard, exposing his neck. To her? She was human and no threat to him. Another long wolf howl filled the air.

"Fuck," Dustin gritted out as though in pain.

And because she was desperate to end whatever was happening to him, she  leaned over and pressed a kiss against his bicep. "It's okay. I'm here.  Everything is fine. We just need to get out of hearing range. Foot on  the gas, one mile at a time. It's me and you."

Dustin's abs flexed like he wanted to retch, but he was nodding now.  Emma turned up the volume of the radio until he hunched against the  sound. Stroking his hair back so she could see more of his face, she  leaned forward and pressed her lips against his neck, right over his  tripping pulse. She sucked gently, then grazed his skin with her teeth.  His body began to relax, and his breath came easier.

And as the howls faded behind them, she rested her cheek against his shoulder and asked, "Is that your old pack?"

Dustin shook his head and ran a hand down his facial scruff. "No, Emma. That's my current pack."





Chapter Seven




His current pack? That was a weird way of putting it, but when she'd  asked him, Dustin had shut down on her. He'd stared out the front window  the entire way to the bar, never once casting a single glance her way  on the twenty-minute drive.                       
       
           



       

Clearly, Dustin was freaking out by whatever dynamics were in his pack,  so as he coasted along the winding road, Emma pulled a cold burger out  of the bag and began eating it. She fed him a bite every time she took  one, and little by little, he softened his grip on the steering wheel.

"This car looks hella expensive," she said around a bite.

"It was."

"Are you a millionaire?"

"Ha!" He still looked white as a sheet, but at least he was smiling again. "Typical. Interested in my money."

"Please, I don't need your money. I have money invested and in savings."

"Then why were you going on about how you need to get a job so you can afford your motel room, hmmm?"

"Because I'm not touching my investments or savings! I want to be a rich  vampire. I invest almost all of my song-writing money and pay for my  living with regular jobs. Was that your brother back there?"

"Yes."

"Why was he calling you?"

"I don't know. Do you want to go back and ask him?"

"Hell no, that was scary. There's Logan's truck," she said, pointing to  the parking lot in front of Drat's Boozehouse. "French fry?" She flopped  a soft one beside his cheek and waited for him to turn and bite it out  of her hand. "So, what do we tell the D-Team?"

"About what?"

"About us."

"Nothing, it's none of their damn business."

"Fine, but you have to be nice to me in there."

"I'm always nice." He said that with a wicked smile. "If you want me to eat you out in the bathroom, give me a signal."