Derek’s body went rigid against her back.
Slowly, carefully, he pulled out, the wet slide making her shiver.
He fixed her clothes with efficient, almost tender hands, then turned her to face him.
His eyes were still gold, but the man was fighting his way back to the surface.
“That,” he said quietly, “is what I’ve been tracking.”
Allison’s heart was still racing from the sex, from the claim in every thrust, from the sound that had just rolled through the trees.
“What is it?”
Derek’s jaw tightened.
He looked past her into the darkness between the trunks where the moonlight could not reach.
“Something that wants the pack.
Something that wants you.
And it’s going to make its move before the full moon rises.”
He cupped her face, thumb brushing her lower lip, still swollen from his mouth.
“You’re not leaving my side until this is over.
Understand?”
Allison held his gaze.
The aftershocks of pleasure still trembled through her body.
The new mystery coiled cold in her gut.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Above them, the almost-full moon watched, silver and patient.
Derek’s hand slid down to take hers.
His palm was hot, slightly rough, and he did not let go as he led her away from the oak and back toward the fainter trail.
He moved faster now, urgency in every step.
Allison kept pace, jeans still slightly askew, the evidence of what they had done cooling on her skin and between her thighs.
They had not gone more than a hundred yards when the second howl rose closer this time, and layered with something that did not belong to any natural throat.
Derek’s grip tightened.
“Stay behind me,” he ordered, voice low. Read this novel at novelping.com for the best experience.
A shape moved through the trees to their left, too tall, too thin, limbs jointed wrong.
For a fraction of a second it wore a human face, one Allison recognized from the missing-person flyers.
Then the face melted and reformed into something that had too many teeth and eyes that reflected the moonlight in flat, hungry discs.
Derek pushed Allison behind the trunk of a pine and stepped forward.
The gold in his eyes burned.
A low, continuous growl rolled out of his chest, the sound of an alpha announcing that this ground was claimed.
The creature paused.
Its head tilted at an unnatural angle.
Then it retreated, melting back into the shadows with a sound like wet cloth dragged over stone.
Silence returned, broken only by Allison’s breathing and the faint rustle of leaves settling.
Derek did not relax.
He waited a full minute before he turned back to her.
“We’re leaving.
Now.”
He kept her close all the way down the ridge.
When they reached the trailhead, his green pickup was parked beside her rental.
He opened the passenger door of his vehicle.
“You’re coming with me.
Your car stays here until daylight.”
Allison climbed in without argument.
The cab still smelled of him.
Derek started the engine and drove deeper into the mountains rather than back toward town, tires crunching over gravel that became dirt, then little more than twin ruts between the trees.
The cabin appeared almost without warning: a low, solid structure of dark wood and stone nestled in a small clearing.
No neighbors.
No lights but the ones Derek switched on as they entered.
Inside it was spare, clean, and unmistakably his: heavy furniture, a stone fireplace, a kitchen that looked used, and a single bedroom visible through an open door.
Derek locked the door behind them, checked the windows with the efficiency of long habit, then turned to face her.
The gold had receded, but the tension in his shoulders remained.
“You’ll stay here,” he said.
The pack will know you’re under my protection.
That will keep most of them from challenging it.
The rest I will handle.”
Allison set her pack down.
Her body still hummed with the memory of him inside her.
“And after?”
Derek crossed the space between them.
He lifted a hand and brushed a strand of hair from her face with surprising gentleness.
“After,” he said, “we decide what you are to me.
And what I am to you.
But not tonight.
Tonight you rest.
And you stay where I can hear you breathe.”
He leaned in and kissed her once slower than before, almost careful, as if sealing the claim he had already made against the tree.
When he drew back, his eyes were dark again, human, and tired.
“There’s clean clothes in the top drawer if you want them.
Shower’s through there.
I’ll be on the porch.
Nothing comes near this cabin without me knowing.”
Allison nodded.
She watched him step outside, the door closing softly behind him.
Through the window she could see his silhouette against the moonlight, standing watch with the stillness of a predator that had already chosen what it would die to protect.
She showered in hot water that finally stayed hot, dressed in one of his soft flannel shirts that fell to mid-thigh, and lay down on the wide bed that smelled of him.
Sleep came slowly, edged with the memory of teeth at her throat and the echo of a howl that did not belong to any wolf.
Outside, the almost-full moon continued its climb.
And deeper in the woods, something with too many teeth smiled and waited for the night when the moon would be full, and the alpha’s attention would be divided.