He followed his bitch across the sunny ridge and thought how they would appear to the casual observer—two healthy wolves running free in a sanctuary dedicated to the preservation of the species. No one would realize just how far removed they were from the creatures brought here for care.
They paused near a large outcropping of granite and scanned the horizon using all their senses. Sight, sound, scent…as well as that other sense, the one they couldn’t explain, the one that warned them when danger was near. Assured of privacy, they shifted.
In less than a heartbeat, a naked man and woman stood in place of the wolves. The two of them found a flat spot of rock where they sat, leaning close together in the warm, afternoon sun. They’d run far this afternoon and it felt good to soak up the warmth of the sun and the heat from the stone, after sneaking off by themselves. The week had been filled with their three young guests from San Francisco—they’d needed this time alone.
Ulrich Mason nuzzled his mate’s blond hair. “The exuberance of youth is entertaining, my love, but it’s exhausting as hell. It’s a good thing they’re still a little too intimidated by us to expect intimacy. I’m not sure if I could handle their level of energy in the sack.”
Laughing softly, Millie wrapped her arms around Ric’s neck and leaned her head against his shoulder. “I agree, but it’s fun to think about those firm, young bodies.”
He laughed and nuzzled her shoulder. “There’s nothing wrong with this body of yours.” He nipped the nape of her neck between his teeth, and laved the bite with this tongue. He loved everything about this woman.
“I’m glad they’re here.” She tilted her head back, freeing her throat to his kisses. “They’re a lot of help with the sanctuary, but even beyond that, they bring a new sense of life to the place.”
“I think you just like looking at those beautiful young men.”
Millie laughed. “There is that.”
“You’re free to go to them, you know.” He tipped her chin up with his fingertips. “We are Chanku. There’s no fault in your finding sexual satisfaction with someone besides me. To be honest, I hate knowing you’ve never been with anyone other than me and the man who was Manda and Adam’s father.”
She turned and nibbled his fingertips. “And when do you think I would find time for this sexual exploration you keep insisting I pursue?”
He laughed softly. “You make time, my love. What better chance than now, while we’ve got two young men staying with us…not to mention a beautiful young woman? I know you’ve never been with a woman before…and I know Beth is interested.”
Millie sighed. “I know. And I am interested, too, believe me. I just don’t know how to—”
“Look. There they are.” Ric lowered his voice and pointed to the clearing beneath their perch on the sunny hillside.
Three wolves, two dark brown, the third a lighter golden shade, raced across the small meadow. They shifted as one. Two young men stood, tall and slim, one on either side of a slender young woman with dark olive skin.
She kissed them both, lingering over her embrace with Nick, her mate. Then, as if she remembered Matt, the taller of the two, was still there, she turned and linked her fingers in his.
With a smile, he slowly pulled his hand free.
Millie squeezed Ric’s arm and strained to listen.
“I’m going back,” Matt said. Laughing, he leaned over and kissed Beth and then Nick. “I won’t wait up, so come in quietly if you’re late. I’ll be in my own room.”
He turned away and shifted, but in that brief moment when his back was turned to the others, a look of infinite sadness crossed his beautiful face.
Within moments, the three of them were gone. Matt going one way, Nick and Beth another.
Millie turned to her mate and sighed. “I feel bad for him, Ric. They do their best to include him, but they’re so newly mated all they really need or want is each other. He’s so lonely, and he’s not aggressive enough to take what he wants. Not like the other young Chanku males I’ve seen.”
Ric stroked his fingers through her hair. “You could help him with that, you know.”
“Ri-ic!” She pretended to punch him.
He turned away, laughing. “You could. He needs a woman to give him confidence, someone nurturing and sexy. You’d be the perfect teacher.”
“Right. The only Chanku female who never sleeps with anyone but her mate. Like I’d know how to teach him about sex? I don’t think so.” This time she connected when she punched his shoulder.
“Okay. I give…but trust me, m’love. There’s someone out there for him, somewhere. He just needs to find her. “
“Like you found me?” Millie tilted her chin and grinned at Ric. “What took you so damned long?”
Laughing, he tumbled her off their low-lying rock and onto the ground, twisting so that she landed atop him in the pine needles. “It only took me, uhm…thirty, forty years? I needed all those years of training to be able to keep up with you, insatiable wench!”
“Insatiable? I’ll show you insatiable.”
It was such a simple thing for Millie to raise her hips and slide down on the solid length of his erection. Clasping muscles encased him and sent shivers racing along his spine. He almost climaxed from the mere joy of penetration, the slide of hot, feminine flesh along the length of his cock. Her muscles rippled around his shaft and her fingers curled against his chest.
They both sighed when she settled her hips into the curve of his groin. He felt the press of his glans against her womb, the tight little knot of her cervix, a place he’d always thought so mystical within a woman. The source of her being, the magical place where new life grew.
For some reason, this time he thought of the children he might have created with Millie, but that would never happen.
They’d found each other too late. Though she might look and act much younger than her years, Millie, as a Chanku bitch, dealt with an aging reproductive system just like any human female.
At least she’d discovered her own children, Manda and Adam, the twins she’d given birth to so long ago, though she hadn’t been the one to raise them. It pained him as much as it did Millie, that her babies had been taken from her before she even saw them. Adopted separately, they’d only recently found each other—and their mother.
Ric knew she would have been a wonderful mother if she’d been able to keep her babies. She had such a loving, nurturing soul. The regret would always be with her, that her life had taken such a brutal turn from what should have been. That her children’s lives were not as they should have been. Regrets…there was nothing to be done about old regrets, beyond living their lives now, in the best possible way.
This way.
He wrapped his big hands around her firm breasts and gently pinched her nipples. Then he raised his hips, sliding even deeper inside her. Laughing with the pure joy of the moment, Millie arched her back and caught the perfect rhythm that would take both of them over the top.
Matt Rodgers leaned against a fallen pine at the top of the ridge and tossed pebbles over the edge into a small pond. Despite what he’d told Nick and Beth, he really wasn’t ready to head back to the cabin. Instead, he watched the pack of wild, soon-to-be relocated wolves running in their pen in the valley below. They followed the fence line across from the pond, forever searching for escape and the freedom that was currently denied them.
After a week at the Colorado High Mountain wolf sanctuary, he knew exactly how they felt. Except the wolves would be set free once they were strong and healthy. Free to hunt and run, to find mates among their own kind, to live out their lives as the fierce, wild creatures they were meant to be.
He’d just go on as he was, forever the odd man out. Hell, Nick had Beth, Logan had Jazzy…even the old guy, Ulrich, had Millie, and she was one hot lady. There must be something to the Chanku physiology that kept them looking young, because Millie didn’t look any older than Tala, and Tala was definitely hot.
Even Ulrich looked like a young guy, or he would if not for that white hair of his. Weird, though, that when he shifted he was a dark wolf. But, whatever color, he had his mate and she loved him.
What really brought Matt down, though, was that Deacon had called just this morning to tell him all about a female he’d met named Daci. Hard to believe it, but even the Deac had found someone who loved him, and he’d barely been in Montana for a week!
Everyone here was so damned nice, Matt hated to complain, especially when he wasn’t even sure what he wanted. He’d envied Mik and AJ their amazing bond, and at the same time wondered if he’d ever find a woman like Tala. Was he gay or bi? Hell, now that he knew he was Chanku, did it matter?
Mik didn’t think so. He’d told Matt he’d always considered himself gay, at least until he met Tala. He’d laughed when he said a confused sexual identity was all part of being Chanku, mainly because sex with anyone, male or female, was good. Matt couldn’t quite find the humor in it, even when AJ had agreed. AJ hadn’t even blinked when he admitted he’d usually choose sex with another guy over a woman…unless it was Tala, of course.
Matt grinned and tossed another pebble into the pond. He aimed for a golden leaf floating near the center. The rock missed it by mere inches, but the ripples set the leaf to swaying.
Now that he knew Tala, he’d have to agree with AJ. She was one hot lady, and every bit as sweet as she was sexy. The best thing about her, though, was that she loved both her men equally, just as they loved her. As far as Matt was concerned, their threesome was a perfect relationship.
He watched the ripples spread across the surface of the pond until they lapped against the edge on one side and joggled the cattails on the other. Ripples, spreading out from the center and bouncing off the shore. Those ripples made more ripples, and more…a reminder why he didn’t want to say anything to anyone. He really hated making waves, but finding a woman who liked being with two men…wow!
That really would be the ideal situation…a guy who loved him and a woman who didn’t mind sharing. He’d hoped for a while it might be Beth and Nick, but they were so wound up in each other there really wasn’t room for him.
Besides, Beth had some weird issues. He wasn’t sure he could handle life with a control freak, and she definitely liked taking charge, whether she was in or out of bed.
Of course, it wasn’t like he was the world’s greatest lover. He knew what felt good for him, but what did a woman really want? He never had the feeling Beth was as satisfied after they’d had sex as she was when she’d been with Nick, or even Mik or AJ.
Maybe it was all about experience, of which he had very little. Hell, most of his sexual training had been giving guys head in public restrooms for cash, or dropping his pants for the ones who wanted to shove it up his ass. He’d reached a point where it didn’t matter, really. Not as long as he had enough money to keep himself alive.
That was all that had counted, after all. Back then, before he knew he was Chanku.
“I’ll be fine, Ric. Hurry now. You need to go. It’ll be a good experience for the kids, especially if they end up working for Pack Dynamics. Someone’s got to find that little girl.” Millie touched his cheek and forced him to look into her beautiful amber eyes.
He blocked his thoughts, hiding the elation that filled him. He’d been trying to figure out how to get her to spend some time with other men, but the last thing he wanted was to make it obvious. Now, with the perfect young man available…
“I don’t want to leave you here alone,” he said, mentally crossing his fingers and shoring up his mental walls. “I wish you could come.”
“You know I can’t leave the sanctuary. We’re shorthanded as it is.” Her eyes sparkled with tears. “You’re wasting time. That little girl has been missing for almost twenty-four hours. It’s cold at night and she’s got to be terrified.”
“I know, but I really don’t want you alone. There’ve been too many attacks against our kind.” He sighed, as if the idea had just come to him. “Matt will stay here. I’ll take Nick and Beth.” He kissed her and nibbled at her lush mouth. “I’ll feel better if Matt’s with you in case you need anything.”
Slowly, Millie turned her head and stared at Ric. Before she could say anything, he leaned over again and kissed her hard. “I need to go. Now. The helicopter will be here in just a few minutes.” He picked up the phone and called Nick.
“Right,” he said, when Nick answered. “Mik, Tala, and AJ are already in the Black Hills—Tala’s the handler so she’ll stay in human form. Mik and AJ will be wolves for the duration. Same with you and Beth, so you don’t need to pack anything beyond a set of clothes in case we end up driving home. You can shift to human once we’re well away from the site. We’ll be searching for a six-year-old girl who wandered away from the family campground. Tell Matt I want him to stay here and keep an eye on Millie.”
Ric disconnected the phone and checked his travel bag. The helicopter was due any time and the flight shouldn’t take more than a couple hours. Already his heart was pounding from the rush of adrenaline slamming into his system. He’d founded Pack Dynamics with just this sort of job in mind all those years ago. Lucien Stone might be its new leader, but it was still Ric’s baby and he couldn’t wait to get going on the assignment.
Working in teams with highly trained wolves had been a cover that paid off handsomely over the years. They’d had a string of successful rescues and covert assignments from a government unaware of the true identities—or species—represented by the Pack Dynamics teams.
Of course, the fact their wolves had human intelligence was a big factor in their success, something the government didn’t need to know.
Stuffing a few extra items into the bag he kept prepared for emergencies, Ulrich managed a quick glance at Millie. She looked as if she were a million miles away, but she had a pensive smile on her face.
He slipped quietly into her thoughts and quickly backed out. She was thinking of Matt and the lost, lonely look on the young man’s face. Good.
The heavy thump, thump, thump of a helicopter flying in to the sanctuary’s landing area echoed through the cabin. “We need to go. I love you, Millie. I’ve got my cell phone if you need to reach me and I promise I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
“Be careful. Find that little girl.” She cupped the side of his face with her palm, kissed him hard and fast and stepped away. “I love you, too.” Then she grinned at him. “And don’t you think for a second I don’t know why you left Matt here for me. I promise to do my best.”
Laughing, he swatted her on her perfectly shaped ass. “No doubts at all, m’love.” He kissed her again, grabbed his bag and headed out the door. Immediately, he picked up Nick and Beth’s thoughts. They were waiting at the landing pad, already in wolf form. He sensed their excitement about the upcoming trip, even from this distance.
Jogging over the short trail through the forest, Ulrich sensed Matt’s thoughts as well. As expected, Matt accepted the fact he’d not been chosen, accepted being left behind. Dealing with a true beta Chanku was unusual to say the least, especially in their unusual society of mostly alpha males.
Ulrich reached out, connected. Watch over my mate, Matthew. There is nothing more important to me than Millie’s safety and happiness. She’s your responsibility while I’m gone. You will care for her, in all ways. Promise me you’ll do whatever she asks of you.
I promise.
Go to her now. I don’t want her left alone at any time. With all that’s happened in Montana, I can’t assume we’re entirely safe here.
Yes, sir. I’ll take care of her.
Good. He severed the link as he approached the waiting helicopter, but an image of Millie and Matt filled his mind. He glanced back toward the house and whispered, “You’ve got no idea what you’re in for, m’boy.”
Two wolves waited patiently beside the landing pad. Ulrich snapped leashes and collars on both Nick and Beth under the watchful eye of the pilot and led them onto the helicopter. As they lifted off, he took one last glance in the direction of Millie’s cabin, and grinned. No, Matt…you’ve got no idea at all.