Predator's Claim Page 9

  As her breaths grew more ragged with each sharp intake, she scrambled for a response. “I have no defenses. I’m fine. I’m perfectly happy with my life and there’s nothing more I want.”

  Even as she gave voice to the thought, a nervous burn made her heart throb, as if all her words were lies. Were they? Yeah, pretty much, but she wouldn’t admit to it. She’d always been so sure what to do in order to shield herself from pain, never questioning her path, and yet with a few words and touches, Bart had exposed her. She felt raw and scored, as if he’d torn open old scabs, making them bleed again.

  “Oh, yes, you do.” He leaned in, his nose almost touching hers. “And I’ll fight tooth and nail to make sure you get exactly what you need. I will always be in your corner, Charlotte, rooting for you and fighting for you. And if anyone ever lays a malicious hand upon you, I’ll be there to tear him apart.”

  She returned his steady gaze. As much as her eyes itched, she allowed no tears to fall. He’d offered to fight on her behalf. She couldn’t remember anyone ever doing so, and was startled at the level of emotion his threat incited.

  Not that it mattered. So help her, she’d never give him satisfaction. Maybe if he’d approached her in a different way at first, maybe if he hadn’t been so cocky, but as it stood, she wouldn’t let him glimpse the truth inside her. It would break them both.

  Perhaps it was the one reason she hadn’t already slept with him. A small part of her acknowledged if they went the distance, their hearts would become involved, and she couldn’t ever permit it. Whatever friendship they had meant too much to her to destroy it. They’d lose contact once she went to Toronto, and she wanted to be able to remember their friendship in a good light.

  Unfortunately, her wolf just wanted one thing: satiation in Bart’s arms.

  She couldn’t deny it anymore. She thought she’d returned to the Ursa Lodge to take advantage of a quiet spot for research and study, but she could have easily studied in Toronto. The truth of the matter was she just wanted to see Bart again before she cut him out of her life for good.

  Only she hadn’t anticipated this…mess of passionate feeling. This overload of sensation. He affected her on a level no one ever had. He ripped all the bandages off her cuts and exposed her to the cruel wind.

  And she needed to stop it. His challenge had to be stopped before it started.

  “Your deranged challenge is off, Bart. I’m calling it off,” she murmured. Unable to meet his gaze, knowing she’d shatter under it, she pulled away when he tipped up her chin. “Leave me alone. Don’t talk to me. Don’t look at me. Just stay away.”

  She allowed herself one glance back as she fled, but quickly turned away before the heat in his eyes destroyed her.

  * * * *

  It was long past the dinner service when Charlotte heard her stomach growling. She stared at the clock inside her cabin, amazed she’d somehow managed to while away the hours without eating. Normally, her appetite operated like clockwork, thanks to her wolf. The animal usually craved food, craved lots of meat. Normally, the very thought of succulent ribs and rare steaks on a grill was enough to cause her to run, not walk, to the nearest eatery.

  However, she didn’t think she’d had much more today than a few, unsatisfying nibbles of dry cereal in her cabin. She just couldn’t bring herself to seek out anything more appetizing.

  Besides, her wolf craved something else, something she wasn’t prepared to deliver. And as a result, the vexing beast just grumbled in a quiet corner of her being. Once her gut started grumbling, she found she could no longer ignore it.

  Throwing on her coat and boots, she ventured outside, hoping upon hope she wouldn’t run into Bart. Hopefully his family was keeping him plenty busy. She sniffed at the thought. She’d tried to keep herself occupied today, formulating discussion questions on how studying religion can also help one understand the political and economic institutions in a society. Her work had amused her for about half an hour. After that, she’d found herself doodling in her notebook. Strange, curled doodles that resembled the exact curve of Bart’s scar. She’d pretty much given up after that and stared out the window at the falling snow.

  Hoping to avoid him, she took a different path to the lodge, one that didn’t pass by the security office. Already imagining what goodies she might pilfer from the employee buffet, she allowed herself to grow distracted. Her hands shoved deep in her coat pockets, looking down at the patterns her boots left in the snow, she piled right into someone.

  With dread, she took in the sight of worn Kodiak boots, and got angry. Was this man everywhere? She whipped up her head. “Get the fuck out of my way, wolf man!”

  Bart stood still, blocking her path, grinning. “No can do. We didn’t finish our conversation.”

  She tore around him. “Not only did we finish our conversation, I’m beginning to think we finished everything. Our friendship, you name it. I’m done.”

  “Charles, you’re being very stubborn.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know. I need a big, bad Alpha to discipline me. Change the record.” She trudged down the path.

  He followed. “You accepted my challenge and then went back on your word. I thought you were more honorable.”

  She permitted herself a quick glance back at him, turning because his masculine appeal made her feel as if she were drowning in quicksand. “Do you use this challenge tactic with every woman, or just me? Because I gotta tell you, it smacks of desperation.”

  He hauled her back and into his arms. She gaped at him and saw they were both panting. His dark eyes flashed in warning. His lips parted and he wet them. She waited for another kiss and realized with horror she would giddily accept it.

  He brought her over to a tree stump, one that was conveniently hidden behind a cluster of thick shrubs. Even though the leaves had fallen off the bushes, they were planted closely enough to provide perfect cover. He deposited her on the stump. “Sit.”

  She didn’t say a word as he crouched before her. “Keep your coat on but roll down your leggings and panties.”

  “I will not!”

  His nostrils flared in true rage. “Would you like me to do it for you?”

  As she flirted with the idea of refusing him and unleashing his anger, her wolf lay down before him, completely prostrate. The stupid animal had already accepted him as its natural leader. And as much as she wanted to slap his face for his insolence, she couldn’t. Not with the danger she saw in his eyes.

  As disbelief made her body flush, she lifted her bum off the stump and pushed her leggings and thong down over her hips toward her knees. As much as she could, she made sure her shirt covered her belly, but couldn’t hide her pussy.

  “That’s fine. Sit still,” he commanded. His gaze locked on her mound, he brought his hand to her sex and she opened to accommodate his large fingers. Dammit, she should be clamping her legs together, but it only seemed right to spread them for him.

  Circling his middle finger over her sex, he easily located and began to torment her clit. “You have a beautiful pussy. So soft and wet. It feels good.”

  The rush of feeling that assaulted her seemed blasphemous. One touch, and she was already ready to fly through the air and explode like a grenade. She finally summoned the strength to close her thighs over his prodding hand, unable to accept his power. She didn’t like that he could affect her so quickly.

  “I don’t think so,” he murmured as he pulled her legs a few inches apart. “You keep them spread for me.” As if to demonstrate his ridiculous abilities to tease her, he slipped his middle finger into her pussy.

  She gobbled it up, amazed and crazed over the sensations caused by a mere finger. What would his cock do? The very thought set her on edge.

  As her nerve endings fought for dominance, losing out to him further with each slow swipe of his hand, she felt the rest of her body capitulate. Her shoulders tensed and her knees fell open. Her hips shifted and her throat formed strange noises. A great sigh built inside her, culmina
ting in a violent scream of pleasure in her head.

  But she wouldn’t let him have her heart.

  As if understanding her fear, Bart increased pressure and fucked her hard with his finger. Just like that, she came all over his hand, shocked and horrified by the amount of moisture trickling from her. But instead of an orgasmic shout, she cried, “You bastard!”

  He did not remove his hand until she’d finished, his face serious and determined. Even then, he kept his hand locked on her mound, a possessive clamp.

  How she despised herself for being weak. Even as her orgasm died away, she couldn’t stop grinding against his hand.

  You stupid weakling!

  She had no time to indulge in self-hatred. As Bart removed his hand from her sex, he scrunched up his face. He helped her to fix her clothes and then looked away, raised his nose in the air, and sniffed. “Do you smell that?”

  “What?” Smell what? She could barely think.

  He stood and his nose lifted to the west, making him resemble a pointer dog. “Can’t you smell him?”

  She turned in the same direction and breathed in. Flynn. Was he for real? Did he have no clue how he angered the new Alpha? Oh well, she didn’t care. After the way Bart had tramped on her sanity, making her come with barely a touch, she was too infuriated to give a shit about his cousin. “What do you want me to do? Buy him a plane ticket out of here?”

  She watched as Bart gritted his teeth. “You will stay with me until I tell you it’s safe to leave.”

  “Safe?”

  “I’ll explain later.” He began to run down the path toward the lake’s edge, pulling her with him. “I swear to God, I will throw him in the lake.”

  “Bart, don’t. Wait!” Okay, maybe she was a bit worried about him confronting Flynn.

  They reached the lakefront, kicking up snow around them, just in time to see Lena in the distance, talking to Flynn. The banished cousin took one look at Bart’s face and sprinted into the woods. By the time they reached Lena, Flynn had disappeared.

  Bart stopped running as he approached his sister. “I will track his hairy ass and beat him to a pulp.” He turned to Lena, gripping her arms, looking her up and down. “Are you okay, Nunchuk? Did he hurt you?”

  Charlotte suppressed a smile, despite her wanting to slap Bart a few moments earlier. He called his sister “Nunchuk”? This man sure had a thing for pet names. For some reason, it made her like him a teensy bit more, even though he still bugged the hell out of her.

  Lena scowled at him. “Oh, calm down. I’m just fine. He’s our cousin. He’d never hurt me. We were just talking.”

  Bart’s ire quickly transferred from Flynn to her. His nostrils flared. “And why were you talking to someone I banished from the pack?”

  “Yeah, about that. I’ve been talking to Fletcher and Flynn. We all agree you made a bad call. What were you thinking, Bart?”

  He stared at her, eyes wide, and then walked around in a tight circle. “You’re questioning your Alpha?”

  “Someone has to! Maybe the other pack members are willing to kowtow to Daddy’s favorite, but that doesn’t mean I am.”

  “Why are you so mad about me being Alpha? Do you really think I’m such an inept choice? Have I ever steered you wrong, Nunchuk?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Oh, you mean all the times you scared my boyfriends away? Or all the times you lectured me about staying in school when I was already there? Or maybe those moments when you warned me my skirts were too short? Bart, you’re a total authoritarian, just like Dad. And with you being Alpha, I’ll always be under your thumb, just like I was with him.”

  As a tear seeped from between her lids, he took a deep breath and frowned at her, clearly trying to understand her womanly mysteries. Even as Charlotte saw him start to calm down, she felt for both of them. Having Bart as an older brother couldn’t have been easy, especially for a headstrong young woman like Lena. Even still, she wasn’t giving him a fair shake, and Charlotte felt the need to intervene. “It sounds as if Bart took care of you. You know, in his totally Cro-Magnon, do-what-I-say way.”

  He glared at her.

  “Ha!” Lena made a show of clutching her gut as she laughed. “Let me give you a better example, Charlotte. One time, Bart came upon me with a male friend. We weren’t doing anything wrong. He’d driven by the house and had popped by to chat. All we were doing was talking in the driveway. Bart came out of the garage, brandishing a kitchen knife, and threatened the guy until he ran away. My friend never spoke to me again.”

  “What?” Bart held up his hands and shrugged. “I was sharpening Dad’s knives out in the garage and came out to say hello to your friend. It’s not my fault the pansy took it the wrong way.”

  Charlotte stifled a laugh. She could just imagine Bart aiming a cleaver at someone he considered an undesirable boyfriend. She figured there was a bit of truth in both their interpretations of the story. “Okay, it sounds like ancient history, and I’m sure your thick-headed brother learned from his mistakes, so let’s move forward now—”

  “What’s really the problem here, Nunchuk?” he interrupted.

  “Rodolfo.”

  “Rodolfo?” Bart all but shouted, losing his cool again. “Who the hell is Rodolfo?”

  Lena let out a big breath and her words seemed to pour out of her. “My mate.”

  Bart’s eyes widened and the overprotective brother in him cried, “Mate? You’re not mated.”

  Lena glared from under her lashes. “Not yet.”

  While Bart paced in the background, grumbling nonsense about his little sister being too young to mate, Charlotte took charge. She spoke calmly to Lena. “Sweetie pie, you don’t want to mate. Trust me. Why hang your hat on this Rodolfo when the world is full of men. Lots of gorgeous, interesting, accommodating men…”

  “You’re not helping,” Bart warned, under his breath.

  “But I love Rodolfo.”

  Charlotte considered and decided she’d have to win Lena over to her side another day. “Okay, let’s say for argument’s sake, you found your mate. It appears most shifters want one. So why is this an issue?”

  “Because Dad hates Rodolfo, and so will Bart.” Lena blinked and tears coursed over her bright pink cheeks. She put a hand to her face and swiped them away. “Flynn told me if he was Alpha, he’d allow Rodolfo into the pack. That’s why I let him stay with me last night. He understands.”

  Bart snarled. “He hid in your cabin last night? Flynn’s going to understand the steel toe of my boot in a minute.”

  “Calm down,” Charlotte warned him. She turned back to Lena. “Why would your dad hate Rodolfo?”

  “He’s the guitarist in a metal band back home. And he’s a wolf shifter too, before you ask,” she said, directing her annoyed tone at her brother. She smiled at Charlotte. “He’s hot and sweet and so sexy. He’s got, like, eighteen piercings—”

  “Holy Mother of…” Bart interjected.

  “See?” Lena cried. “You’re doing it too! You’re judging him the same way Dad did, just because he looks different. When I told him I’d found my mate, and who he was, he exploded on me. Said I was giving it away to someone who didn’t deserve me. He hates him just because he doesn’t have a 9-to-5 job…and because he lives in his parents’ basement. He’s only staying there until he makes some money, and then we’re going to move in together.” Her tirade ended on a whisper, and she looked at the ground, as if doubting her own boyfriend’s appeal all of a sudden.

  Charlotte held her tongue. Rodolfo had sounded okay up until the basement thing. In her book, parental basements were a deal-breaker. “Has he marked you yet?”

  “No, but I want him to.”

  “Are you sure he’s the one, Lena? I’m not judging him because he’s a musician, but you seem a little torn up about it. Is he really your mate?”

  “I think so.”

  “You’re supposed to know so,” Charlotte replied gently. “That may have been why your dad got upset. He might ha
ve been worried you were about to tie yourself to a man without understanding your true feelings.”

  Lena stared, her big eyes overflowing with tears. “That’s what he said, but I didn’t believe it. I don’t know what to believe.”

  “Look, when did you meet this…person?” a now-calm Bart asked, running a hand over his sister’s hair.

  “A couple of months ago.”

  “Come here, Nunchuk.” Bart gathered her in his arms and stared at Charlotte over Lena’s head. He mouthed his thanks to her, obviously relieved to have had a woman around to help decipher his sister’s mad ramblings.

  She offered him an expression somewhere between a grin and a frown. As much as her chest swelled with pride at being able to help in some way, as insignificant as it seemed in the grand scheme, she wasn’t quite ready to play nice with him.

  He held Lena at arm’s length and smiled at her. “Listen, kiddo. If this dude really loves you and treats you like a princess, as you deserve to be treated, I will welcome him into the pack with open arms. Him and his excessive piercings. Especially if you know without a doubt he’s your mate. But it doesn’t sound like you’re sure. Let’s keep talking about it and we can see how you feel when you go home. I just need you to promise me one thing.”

  She sniffled. “Okay.”

  “Please do not let Rodolfo mark you. At least, not yet. Think about it some more. If he were really your mate, wouldn’t he be here at your family reunion?”

  She sucked air in through her teeth. “Right. He said he had to practice his chords.”

  Charlotte stepped closer to their huddle. “Pardon me for saying so, Lena, but Rodolfo officially sounds like a dick now.”

  They all laughed, but Charlotte could still feel the undercurrent of tension scoring their conversation. After all, Lena sheltered Flynn in her room, and had basically pledged her allegiance to the other wolf man. For Bart, it had to sting. If truth be told, Charlotte felt the same sting. It bothered her to see not everyone accepted him as their leader, when he was obviously a strong one. Despite his wandering hands.