Gunnar Read online

  Baring my teeth, the danger seemed to come from all sides. There were more of them out there. There had to be.

  “Go!” Jett screamed.

  Vera and Melanie went for Caroline. She cried out in protest, but the two of them lifted her off the ground and started to run. Jett dug her fingers into my fur, holding me steady.

  Where are you now? Hold still.

  Run! I wanted to scream it. Jett wasn’t safe. If she stayed by my side she wasn’t safe. Able’s voice wavered inside my head, untethered. When the gray wolf went down, he’d lost his grip on me. But, the pull to answer him was so strong. It sucked the air from my lungs and drove me to the ground.

  “Gunnar!” Only Jett’s voice reached me as I began to float away. She was on her knees in front of me, cradling my head in her hands.

  “Stay with me,” she said. Her eyes widened in terror. I saw myself through her. My eyes were blood-red and fading as Able Valent tried to drag me under.

  Shoot me! I wanted to tell her. What if I wasn’t strong enough to fight it?

  “Gunnar?” Tears poured down Jett’s cheeks. My heartbeat slowed even as hers jackhammered. She leaned down, putting her face within inches of mine. Her hot breath stung me; her tears fell down my snout.

  Jett. Hello, Jett.

  I squeezed my eyes shut. The world became the sound of my keening wail as I felt Able closing in. He could see Jett through my eyes. Oh, God. He could see her.

  Twenty-One

  Gunnar

  “Gunnar!” Jett’s palm stung my cheek and rattled my jaw as she slapped me for all she was worth. I’d shifted. I don’t even remember doing it. Bile clogged my throat and I swayed on my hands and knees trying to clear my head.

  I came back into myself, shuddering, panting. Jett stood before me, her rifle trained on me. Good girl, I thought. Slowly, I found the strength to stand. I put a hand up. Taking one step forward, the world spun and I doubled over again.

  “Don’t you dare,” Jett said. She lowered her weapon and put a hand on my back. “Don’t you dare go away again. Look at me.”

  I couldn’t do it. He was close. So close. I was afraid to look at her again and give him another chance to see her.

  “No!” Jett said. It was as if she were in my head as much as Able was. “Gunnar, he isn’t going to win. Do you hear me? I won’t let it happen. You won’t let it happen.”

  “Run,” I said. “Jett, get away from me. Get as far away from me as you can.”

  Her breath came hot, making her breasts heave. We stood inches apart. She had every reason to be afraid. I knew my wolf eyes faded in and out. I’d seen her through a red haze and knew exactly what that meant. So did she. Still, she stood her ground.

  “You don’t belong to him. Listen to me, dammit!” She grabbed my face in her hands, forcing me to meet her gaze. Jett’s brown eyes narrowed with fierce determination. “Are you listening to me, you fucking bastard? You can’t have him!”

  A murderous growl filled my head, but it wasn’t coming from me. It was coming from Able. But, his grip was loosening. “You’re mine,” Jett whispered as her tears fell again.

  “Jett, no,” I said. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

  “I know exactly what I’m doing. And we should have done it a long time ago.”

  A beat passed. The wilderness around us went still as if it too had been waiting for this moment all along. I brought my hands up, circling them around Jett’s small waist. Her eyes darted over my face. Her lips parted.

  I kissed her. For years I’d been starving and I didn’t even know it. When Jett leaned into the kiss and pulled me down to her, everything else fell away. She fed me her strength as her tongue darted into my mouth. I devoured her. The press of her hard nipples against my chest undid me.

  Down and down we went, falling to the ground in a tangle of limbs. “Gunnar!” she gasped. Her hands were everywhere. She closed her fingers around my turgid cock and my inner wolf roared with lust.

  I’d held back for so long, now the floodgates of desire opened. There was no going back. I felt Able’s grip fall away like rotting vines as I gave in to my truest nature.

  This. Now. I was an Alpha. Jett was my mate. We had both been born for this. Our bodies, our souls knew the way. Jett scrambled back on all fours. I took one ankle and pulled her boot off, then the other. She unfastened her pants and slid them down. I held back just enough to keep from tearing the rest of her clothes away. She yanked her top off. With it, her long, sable hair fell from the tie she’d used to keep it back, tumbling over her shoulders.

  I had enough self-control to go back on my heels and look at her, truly look at her. Jett. My Jett. Every inch of her was beautiful perfection. Her heavy breasts quivered as she panted with lust. Her wine-colored nipples pebbled as the cool breeze hit them. As I crawled forward, Jett went to her back, her knees falling to the side.

  A rumble of raw lust came out of me. Jett’s eyes widened and her cheeks colored. I reached for her. With two fingers, I spread her soft petals and found her slick and swollen for me. Her juices flowed and she threw her head back. If she had wolf in her, she would have howled. I worked the hard little bud of her sex and she rolled her hips, beginning the ancient undulation that would bring me to her.

  “Baby,” I whispered, stunned I could even form words. She reached for me, closing her fingers around my cock again and drawing me close. She spread her legs wide, hooking them around my hips.

  “Gunnar,” she gasped. “Oh, God. You’re mine!”

  I was. I couldn’t hold back a second longer. Jett arched her back and I plunged inside of her. I was huge and hard. Her breath caught as her walls stretched to accommodate me. I slid my hands beneath her buttocks, angling her even higher so she took me deep.

  Jett slid her hands up my arms then wrapped them around my neck. I was in her all the way. Her sweet warmth enveloped me. She was home. She was safe. She was mine. Jett threw her head back and bit her lip. Her sex jumped and she thrust her hips wildly, unable to control her growing need.

  I wanted more time. I wanted to draw her out, make her beg, send her to heights of pleasure she’d never known. I prayed we’d have time for it. For now, this was something different and primal.

  I fucked her. Pumping my hips, I drove into her as far as she could take me. With each pounding thrust, Jett grew even wetter. She clawed my back, bringing out her own wild side. I roared with lust, my inner wolf driving me.

  Yes. This. Mine.

  Jett was everything. On and on I fucked her. She rose and matched me thrust for thrust, her juices coating us both. I was so full, so hard. She came suddenly, jerking around me as she sank her teeth into my shoulder, drawing blood. The pleasure and pain of it set off a chain reaction inside of me. My need thundered in my pulse and through her.

  She screamed her pleasure to the trees. Every wild thing had to have heard her. It didn’t matter. It was as if the world narrowed to just the two of us. As she shuddered through her climax, her limbs went slack. But I wasn’t done. Oh, I was far from done.

  I slid out of her. Jett’s arms dropped to her sides. She caught my eyes and knew on instinct what I needed. What we both needed.

  Quickly, she scrambled to her hands and knees and spread her legs wide. Oh, God. The sight of her. Gaping, wet, inviting. Light and heat seemed to pour out of me as I put a hand on her buttocks and guided her into position.

  “Yes!” she cried as I entered her again. Deeper this time. Oh, so deep.

  Jett’s hair fell to the side, exposing the nape of her neck. As I arched my back and drove into her, my feral nature took over.

  “Gunnar, please!” she begged. There was no going back. Not now. Not ever. The time for reason had passed. She seemed to understand I couldn’t stop unless she asked me too. She didn’t. Instead, Jett reached back and gathered her hair in one hand. She arched her back and presented her neck to me.

  “Please,” she gasped one last time.

  As my seed poure
d into her, I leaned far forward. Jett dropped her hair and gripped the ground, bracing herself. My fangs dropped just enough and I sank them into the soft spot at the nape of her neck.

  The world opened up. Colors became brighter. Electricity sparked between us, kindling my nerve endings. I felt Jett’s do the same. I felt everything about her as I made my mark and bound her to me forever.

  Twenty-Two

  Jett

  Gunnar was everything. He spread me open and filled me with heat, light, energy. As his teeth sank into the soft flesh at the nape of my neck, a burst of pain blazed a path down my spine. Just as quickly, it gave way to the deepest pleasure I’d ever known.

  I saw myself through Gunnar’s eyes. He’d made me a wanton, wild thing. Oh, it felt so good. Colors became more vibrant. My sense of smell, keener. Even the earth beneath my fingertips felt different. Then there was Gunnar himself. Before, I’d felt his pulse along with my own. Now, there was no distinguishing them. We were one. His heart beat for mine and mine for him.

  My Alpha. My mate.

  A fresh orgasm ripped through me. It was quicker than the first, but even more intense. I sensed he could bring me to it over and over if we had the time. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for more time.

  Gunnar emptied himself in me. At the same time, I felt myself filling him too. True mates. Fated. How could I have waited so long for this? We both tumbled to the ground, exhausted. Gunnar slid his arms around me, cradling my body with his. I felt safe, warm, protected. If only we could have stayed like this forever.

  But, we were not that lucky. We both knew it. Able was gone. Gunnar didn’t have to tell me. I could feel his thoughts even if I couldn’t hear them. He was grounded now, centered. He was with me.

  “Are you okay?” he finally said, his eyes shining silver. I felt his need to shift ripple through me. It was like a second hunger. He kept it at bay.

  I sat up, feeling suddenly shy. He reached for me, gently grasping my nipple. A moan of pleasure escaped from me, unbidden. Oh, I wanted him again already.

  “I’m okay,” I said. Reality started to close around us. What we’d shared had shifted my world on its axis. And yet, the danger hadn’t passed.

  Gunnar sensed my mood. He sat up and we scrambled for our clothes. “We have to find the others,” he said.

  “The Pack?” I asked, my voice cracking.

  “No,” he said. “Listen. It’s quiet now.”

  I closed my eyes and did as he bid me. At first, I heard the normal sounds of nature. The leaves skittered in the wind; a mourning dove warbled in the distance. Then, slowly, it was as if a second layer of hearing opened up for me. Everything became sharper. It was Gunnar. When he marked me, somehow I could hear through him.

  My hand went to the mark he’d made at the base of my neck. Already, it had begun to heal. I wished I could see it. On instinct, I knew it was nothing like the one Melanie had. Hers stayed angry. Mine was faint, almost as if it had always been there. It was a part of me. It wasn’t something that had been done to me.

  Gunnar was already up and dressed. My limbs felt heavy as I pulled my shirt over my head. Our mating had been a serious workout. Heat flared between my legs at just the thought of it. Oh, I wanted so much more.

  He went to the two dead wolves, checking for signs of life. I knew he’d find none. I hit the red one straight through the heart. Vera’s shot had hit the other in his frontal lobe. No shifter I knew could survive a direct hit with our poison-laced bullets. And that was the last secret I’d kept from Gunnar.

  “How?” he asked, turning to me. My old defenses fell away. I was more a part of Gunnar than the Twelve. I knew that with each new beat of my heart. His heart.

  “Those weren’t regular bullets. They’re laced with a neurotoxin that’s deadly to shifters if we hit the target.”

  “Brain and heart,” he answered. He reached down and felt inside the red wolf’s wound. With a grisly pop, Gunnar pulled the bullet out. It was flat and misshapen, but even now my heart flared with alarm. I had no idea if the toxin would affect Gunnar just by touching it.

  He held it up, examining it. Then, he slid it into his back pocket. He went to the gray wolf and retrieved the other bullet. “There’s no point letting the Pack get their hands on it. They took Lowell, but let’s not give them any more help.”

  “We should get moving,” I said, slinging my rifle back over my shoulder. “Vera and the others can’t have gone far. You sure those were the only two?”

  Gunnar nodded. “Yeah. Able’s gone too. Without them and without...me...I think he’s blind where we’re concerned. We just bought some time. That’s all. You know he’s going to come back harder next time. As far as he’s concerned, we can’t win.”

  I swallowed hard and went to him. “I know,” I said. I saw doubt and fear cloud his eyes. I wouldn’t let it. “Gunnar, I know. And I wouldn’t change a damn thing. I will not lose you to him. Do you hear me?”

  He cupped my jaw in his palm, running his thumb along my cheekbone. “I won’t lose you either. I’m going to figure out a way to get you over the border where you’ll be safe.”

  I noted that he didn’t say “we.” My heart dropped, but there was no time to argue. Vera and Melanie wouldn’t make it far trying to carry Caroline. Whether Vera liked it or not, she needed Gunnar and she needed me.

  “Can you sense which direction they went?” I asked. Gunnar lifted his chin and sniffed the wind.

  “Due north,” he finally said. “They’ve taken to the water. Smart.”

  He held a hand out to me. Smiling, I took it. There was one more secret he hadn’t asked me to tell. Magic bullets were one thing. Getting a shot off quicker than a shifter could move was something else.

  * * *

  Something was happening to me. With each step we took, my connection to Gunnar solidified. I couldn’t sense what he sensed, but I understood every move he made. We traveled along the water’s edge. The pungent scent of brine and seaweed would better mask our own. He kept tilting his head toward the southwest, pausing for no more than a second or two. Each time, my breath caught waiting for some telltale sign from Gunnar that he sensed something. But, his heartbeat stayed steady and so did mine.

  My growing need for him didn’t change. It gripped me like a second hunger, but the timing couldn’t be worse. Vera and the others had too much of a head start. Alone, Gunnar could have caught up to them in no more than an hour. I slowed him down. He never said anything, but it was obvious. I had just two human legs to travel with.

  “Come here,” he said after we’d crossed the narrowest part of the rushing stream. Gunnar hadn’t yet asked me where we were going. Sure, he could easily pick up Caroline, Melanie, or Vera’s scent but he let me lead the way. Reaching for me, he hoisted me up to a rock ledge overlooking the Golden Rock Dam. The water slammed into the rocks below us. It was a twenty-foot drop. Far enough to kill me if I lost my footing. Gunnar held me steady.

  I lost my balance and crashed into him chest to chest. Laughing, my arms went up, gripping his strong shoulders. Gunnar’s smile melted the growing chill I felt as the sun began to set. Leaning down, he kissed me.

  “You sure you’re okay?” he asked. Heat rushed through me. Oh, I wanted him again, badly. We’d stopped once since he’d marked me in the big woods for a quick coupling. It helped clear my head. I’d need it again soon.

  “I have no idea,” I answered. “This is new for me.”

  “It’s new for me too,” he smiled. “And it’s the lousiest timing ever. Jett, do you realize what could happen if the Pack ever gets close enough?”

  “They won’t,” I said. “I told you. Where we’re going? It’s safe. And in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not defenseless.”

  “I did notice that. That’s a different conversation we’re going to need to have. Soon.”

  A flare of alarm went through me, an old instinct. I’d viewed men like Gunnar as the enemy for so long, it was hard to switch my mental gears someti
mes.

  “It’s just up ahead,” I said, pointing beyond the ridge. Our summer encampment allowed us to hide in plain sight.

  Gunnar jutted his chin and letting his gaze follow my finger. “I know,” he said. “Vera’s hiding on the other side of the bluff. She’s upwind thinking I can’t scent her.”

  Alarm fluttered through me. “Gunnar, let me go on ahead. All she’s going to need to do is take one look at us to know…”

  “To know what?” he said, running a hand down my arm. The last rays of sunlight danced in Gunnar’s blue eyes. “That I’d die before I let anything happen to you? That somebody’s going to have to get help for Caroline, and soon? I’m stronger. I move faster. If I can get to them, I know people who can help. It might not be too late to save her without bringing the whole Pack down on our heads.”

  “How exactly do you plan on doing that?” Vera came out from behind a thick oak tree, training her rifle straight at Gunnar. Gunnar didn’t so much as flinch or turn his back. Of course he knew she’d been standing there the entire time.

  I couldn’t be mad at her. Instead, my heart flooded with relief. She was safe. That meant Melanie was too. Since we hadn’t found Caroline abandoned on the side of the trail, that could only mean they’d managed to get her into the hideout safely too.

  Smiling, Gunnar put a possessive hand on my back and turned to her. “The same way I’ve been surviving all along. I’m fast. I’m quiet. And I know who I can trust.”

  Vera snorted. She still hadn’t lowered her weapon. I made a move to try and put myself in front of Gunnar. He held me back.

  “She won’t hurt me,” I said, trying to push forward. Again, Gunnar stopped me. He emitted a low growl I knew only I could hear. It did something to me, making every muscle in my body go rigid. It wasn’t permanent, but it was a clear, preternatural command for me to stay still. I recognized it instantly for what it was: my Alpha trying to protect me. Only, I was more worried about Vera trying to hurt him.