“Come with me,” he panted. “I need you. Oh, God.”
He began stroking her in time to his thrusts, and that finally sent her over the edge. Her body shook and the muscles inside her spasmed, squeezing and rippling on his cock. A series of explosions rocked her, each one shooting delicious sensation through every nerve in her body, until she finally lay gasping for breath and drenched with sweat.
He slid out of her slowly, reluctantly, and she let out a tiny whimper of protest.
“I forgot how good we are together. Ready for round two?” he panted, eyes still glazed.
She was about to say hell, yes, but, as if right on cue, the doorbell rang, loud and long and insistent.
Chapter Ten
“Hold on! I’m coming!” Steele bellowed.
He quickly pulled on his clothes. Roxanne ran into the kitchen to grab her clothes and dashed back into the bedroom as he went to open the front door.
Chief Warden Loren Redthorne stood there, along with a wolf shifter that Steele didn’t recognize.
They’d told him they were coming tomorrow morning, so he was annoyed to see them there that evening.
He stood in his doorway, letting the fur ripple across his face, and his eyes went wolf. His Alpha demanded it; he couldn’t just let these men muscle their way in without making a statement.
Loren frowned at him, and his eyes briefly gleamed, changing from brown to gray and then back again.
“Hello, Steele. This is Warden Jerrico Redthorne,” Loren said. “We need to talk to you about the human.”
“Her name is Roxanne, and she’s completely blameless in all of this,” Steele said, with a hint of a growl rumbling up from inside him.
“I understand that. However, I have been dispatched here by the Elders because we have a number of concerns. We’ve never had a case before where a shaman failed with a mind wipe, and the fact that it happened sixteen months ago is a major issue. We need to know if she’s discussed this with any other humans.”
“Are you addressing the issue with the Silver Forest pack as well?” Steele stepped aside to let them in.
“Most definitely,” Loren said. “There’s an Elder and a Warden there today, talking to them. Their shaman has been removed from his position, he will never do another mind-wipe, and we’re finding them a new shaman, in case a situation like this ever comes up again.”
They followed Steele in to the kitchen, where Roxanne, now dressed, waited for them. Loren nodded politely to Roxanne.
“Ma’am,” he said to Roxanne.
She nodded back, looking at them cautiously.
Roxanne sat down on one of the stools by his kitchen counter, and Steele sat down next to her. He wanted to grab her hand, to reassure her, but he didn’t want to make his feelings for her too obvious to the Wardens.
“This man has some questions for you,” he told her. “His name is Loren Redthorne. He’s in law enforcement, but a different branch than I am. They’re like federal law enforcement, except for wolf shifters. They oversee legal issues for all the wolf packs across the country.”
She looked at Loren, her expression still hesitant. “I see. What do you want to know?”
“I’d like you to tell us everything that you remember, from the moment you first saw Steele,” Loren said.
Steele sat and listened as she told him about the accident, about how Steele had pulled her from the car and taken her back to the cabin, and how she’d seen him turn into a wolf that night.
She didn’t mention the fact that they’d had sex together, and Loren didn’t probe too deeply into it.
She did tell him about how she’d overheard him and the Silver Forest shaman talking, and how Steele had told the shaman where he was from. He’d invited the shaman to stop by if he was ever in Colorodo, and given him directions to Timber Valley.
So that was how she’d found him. Steele silently cursed his own foolishness.
“I didn’t know she was listening, but even so, I thought she’d forget,” Steele said. “I should have been more careful.”
Loren nodded. “Yes, you should have.”
He questioned Roxanne further, and she recounted how she’d gone back home, and then started having strange bouts of amnesia.
“How many humans did you tell that you’d seen Steele turn into a wolf?” Loren asked.
She looked him right in the eye. “None.”
He raised a skeptical eyebrow. “No offense, but I know that you’re lying.” Steele let out a low growl, and fur bristled up on his face and hands.
“Excuse me?” Roxanne said defensively.
“You told Steele that at some point you went to the hospital to get a CAT scan and an MRI. You must have told the doctors there.”
“No, actually, I didn’t. I told them that I kept having blank patches in my memory, but I didn’t tell them that I’d seen a man pull a car door off with his bare hands, or that I’d seen a man turn into a wolf. I was afraid that they’d think I was crazy, which is also the reason I didn’t tell anybody else about it.”
Steele had the uneasy feeling that Loren was right, and she was lying, but he didn’t want to call her out about it in the Wardens.
Who could she have told? And what would that person have done with the knowledge? He’d question her once they left. He suspected that at least she would have told her best friend Katherine.
“Are you sure?” Loren asked.
“Asking me again isn’t going to get me to change my answer.” Roxanne met his gaze challengingly. “I have no reason to want your people to come to harm. I told Steele, and I meant it, that if I’d known what he was, I would never have told anyone.”
“It’s too great a risk for us to take.” Loren gave her an appreciative glance. “Although you’re certainly an attractive woman. If you were here, I’d want to ask you out.”
A growl of rage ripped from Steele’s throat, and before he could stop himself, he’d leaped through the air in wolf form and knocked Loren off his chair. Loren shifted too, as did Jerrico, and for a minute, all three wolves were snarling and snapping at each other.
Then Loren rolled over and exposed his belly, signaling submission. All three wolves turned human again. Loren climbed to his feet.
Roxanne was standing halfway across the kitchen now, staring at them wide-eyed.
“What the heck was all that for?” she cried out.
“So it’s true,” Loren said to Steele. “You were involved with the human.”
Steele bristled with rage. Loren had deliberately provoked him to get a reaction, and Steele had fallen for it.
“That’s a dangerous game you’re playing,” Steele growled.
“We need to talk.” Loren’s eyes were snapping with fury. “Outside.”
All three men were now naked. They pulled the tattered remains of their clothes back on, while Roxanne stood with her arms folded, watching them warily.
Steele glanced at Roxanne. “Do not say a single word to him,” he said to her, nodding his head at Jerrico.
He followed Loren out of the room, into his living room. Loren pulled the kitchen door shut behind him, and then spun around to glare at Steele.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Loren demanded. “Why would you get involved with a human?”
“Because I really, genuinely fell for her, from the moment I laid eyes on her.” Steele met his glare with one of his own.
“I can see that, but have you taken leave of your senses? You know that it’s hopeless.”
“You don’t have to tell me that. I’ve spent sixteen months living that reality every day.”
“It’s affecting your behavior. You’re more concerned about her wellbeing than you are about ours,” Loren accused.
“No, I’m not.” Steele bristled at that. “I brought her here, and will be holding her here, until Cody arrives to wipe her memory properly. She wanted to leave. I told her that she couldn’t. I am doing what needs to be done to protect our people.”
“I don’t know, Steele. I see how protective you are of her.” Loren shook his head disapprovingly.
There was no point in denying it. “Those are my instincts, and I can’t help my instincts.”
Suddenly, coming from the kitchen, he heard the sound of crashing furniture, and then Roxanne’s voice coming from the kitchen, distressed and fearful.
“I can’t remember. I don’t remember. Who are you? Where am I?”
Steele rushed towards the kitchen. Loren tried to block him, but he shoved him out of the way and burst through the kitchen door.
Roxanne was standing, staring around her, wide eyed with panic. “Who are you? I know you,” she said to Steele. “I’ve seen you before. Who are you?”
Steele whirled on Jerrico, fur rippling on his face and hands. Roxanne let out a scream of terror and huddled in the corner.
“What did you do?” he bellowed. “You’re a shaman! You should have told me! Were you messing with her head?”
“I was attempting to find out what she knows, because she is clearly lying to us,” Jerrico snarled, snout thrusting forward.
Rage boiled through Steele, both at Jerrico and Loren, and himself. Loren had deliberately led him out of the room so Jerrico could try to get into Roxanne’s head, and Steele should have known better than to leave her. Whatever Jerrico had done had just screwed things up for her all over again.