NocC 023 - The Ancients 05 - Bonnie Vanak - Incubus Wolf - Harlequin 2012-09 Page 2

  Except now. Alex touched the glass in wonder.

  “It’s really me,” she whispered.

  Time to test drive this potion. Alex resumed the glamour of a dark-haired woman with round cheeks. Seeing no runes, she patted her face in disbelief.

  “The potion will wear off in five days, but I’ll give you more. Enough to be beautiful for the rest of your life. When you bring me Dominic Farrell. Alive… or dead.”

  The pain in her ankle became a dull throb, equaled by the cold seeping into her bones. Belaramos promised her wildest dreams. “He’s promised for the bounty.”

  A slow, cold smile, icy as death. “A paltry bounty of what? Compared to having everything you ever dreamed of. You’ll never have to run and hide from the world.”

  A lash of cruelty in that whisper. “You’ll never be ugly again. Bring me Dominic Farrell. You can still collect your bounty. I’ll give you evidence you caught him, and the Society will reward you.”

  “Who the hell are you? Why do you want him?” she demanded.

  “Five days, Alexandra. You have five days.” The wizard turned for the cabin, and soon, the lights inside winked out.

  Leaving her alone in the darkness, and the rapidly dropping temperatures and a choice; to remain beautiful, or turn ugly forever.

  Chapter 3

  The woman was in trouble.

  Dominic watched the last wolves vanish into the deep forest. The cold bit into his skin like an ice pick. He turned to his pack. “I’m going back for her. Go home.”

  Michael ran a finger over the black patch covering his ruined eye. “No way, boss. Not alone. Belaramos will get you. This time it was too close.”

  “I’m not leaving her to die.”

  “She followed you,” Michael protested, as the others nodded in gruff agreement. “Her fault.”

  “And she saved that wolf. Go back to the lodge.” A low growl rumbled from his throat. He’d been gone from home ten years, leaving Michael in charge. Upon his return, the pack immediately accepted him back as leader. But being alpha meant showing no weakness. Obey me or you’ll pay. And they knew the punishment would be harsh.

  As his men started back, Dominic glanced at the full moon. The temperatures were plummeting. She wouldn’t last long. He lifted his arms, willing the Change and shifted into wolf.

  Senses exploded as everything sharpened. The woman’s scent, gardenia and ice, burned his nostrils. He could track her through an Arctic blizzard.

  Bounding over the field, he followed the trail back to the wizard’s cabin. Outside the tall chain-link fence, he paused.

  The steel trap was empty. The woman had escaped.

  Muzzle lowered, he sniffed the ground, picking up traces of blood and gardenia and sour fear. There, toward the dead tree.

  A pale of moonlight dappled the meadow beneath the tree’s spindly limbs. Dominic raced across the field. The scent grew stronger, making his blood pump strong and thick through his veins.

  At the tree, he found her, curled inside the hollow trunk. Crimson dotted the ground by her foot. Dominic shifted back, clothed himself by magick and squatted down. Admiration filled him. She was a fighter, this one. She’d dragged herself into the tree to get warm. Gently he lifted her into his arms, her silky black hair tumbling over his arms. She moaned.

  “You’re safe now,” he soothed.

  Beneath his hands, he felt delicate bones, so frail he could snap them in two. But this hunter was tough. The facade hid an inner core of steel. A worthy opponent for a powerful wolf.

  An equally worthy mate.

  A distant rumble broke the quiet night. Dominic watched the four-wheeler approach.

  “I gave you orders to stay put,” he snapped.

  “You gave orders to go home. If you wanted me to stay, be specific.” Michael left the engine rumbling as he climbed off. He removed a thick wool blanket from the attached trailer and went to cover the woman.

  Dominic growled, his possessive instincts going haywire at the thought of another man touching her. Michael backed off, holding up his hands.

  “Pax, boss. Was just trying to help, not stake a claim.”

  With extreme care Dominic laid her in the trailer, climbed in and covered her with the blanket. He examined her ankle. Not broken, but bad enough.

  As they headed for the lodge, the woman stirred a little and moaned. Dominic laid a warm hand on her icy cheek. Anger rose up in him, hot and swirling.

  He’d like to break Belaramos’s fingers, one by one.

  Strength radiated from the woman. He’d felt it in the bar, beneath the cover of buxom redhead glamour. But it wasn’t until he’d caught a whiff of the scent she’d failed to entirely eradicate that he could not resist. He had to kiss her.

  Dominic bent over her, inhaling her delicious scent cutting through the metallic odor of blood. Deep inside he felt kinship with this woman who’d risked her own life to save a wild wolf.

  He wanted her, badly. His wolf howled at the thought of mating with her, climbing between her legs to mark her as his own. His incubus blood surged hot and thick with the remembrance of her sweet arousal in the bar as he’d kissed her.

  “Down, boys,” he murmured, cupping the woman’s cheek with a warm palm. “Let her heal. She’s not ready to come to me. Not yet.”

  There would be plenty of time later for what both wanted.

  “Alexandra Kostra,” he murmured, enchanted by the soft skin beneath his caressing thumb. “Finally, I’ve got you.”

  *

  Alex was home, snuggled in her bed. Fragrant pine and delicious warmth surrounded her. For the first time since her stepfather threw her out, she felt peaceful.

  The scent of pine and fresh rain grew stronger. Alex struggled to keep the feeling intact, knowing it would evaporate like morning mist.

  “Wake up, little warrior.”

  The deep voice stroked over her body like a velvet lash. She remembered the events of the previous night and braced herself for the burning pain in her ankle.

  Alex opened her eyes as a light snapped on.

  She was clad in a pair of soft flannel pajamas, lying in a pine bed big enough to hold five people. Moonlight streamed past plain white curtains, spilling on the soft white carpet. The room had crammed bookshelves and an enormous pine dresser. A fire crackled in the stone hearth.

  In a handsome wood rocker, Dominic sat, regarding her intently. He looked sexy and dangerous, dressed in a thin black shirt and tight black jeans. Firelight glinted off his black hair and amusement danced in his bright blue eyes. He hooked his thumbs through the belt loops.

  “The sleeping princess awakens at last, in time for the handsome prince to give her the kiss she’s longed for,” he murmured.

  Cold, cruel and intensely sexual, his body was hard and tempting. A woman would want to run her hands through those thick locks of dark hair, clasp him close as he devoured her mouth and laid her on the bed….

  Alex shuttered the thought and made a quick assessment. No weapons. He’d stripped off her knives and gun. But she had the only weapon necessary. Her glamour. Dominic must never find out her real identity.

  “Try kissing me. I bite.”

  “Promise?”

  “I never make promises I can’t keep.”

  “Pity. I have several places on my body I’d like your mouth on.”

  “In your dreams. What am I doing here? And where is here?” Alex scanned the room, searching for a weapon.

  Dominic cocked an eyebrow. “Saving you. You would have died out there. You’re in the House of Eros, the lodge of my pack.”

  Tension knotted her stomach. The infamous playhouse, whispered to host the darkest sexual proclivities. They said he had a basement with walls lined with fur, tables where he liked to tie up willing females and tease them until they screamed with pleasure….

  Definitely not a hotel she wanted to stay at. Alex tested her ankle, rotating it around and winced. Still a little painful but healing. But that didn’t make
her helpless. Or stupid.Dominic advanced, his big body taking up all the space in the room. Alex fisted her hands, fighting the instinctual urge to turn from the sensuality flaring on his face. Remember his hands stroking slowly over her skin that first time ten years ago…

  She gestured to the pajamas with little pink bunnies on them. “Nice clothing. Is this what you make all your women wear when you strip off their clothing?”

  “They belong to Claire, a member of my pack. Freshly laundered. She and the other females undressed you and got you into bed.”

  He tossed back the covers, studied her ankle. “It will heal. I applied a poultice of herbs and special lotion. Should be fine in a day or two.” Dominic pulled the covers back.

  “You applied it?”

  “With my own two hands.” His voice dropped to a dark whisper. “I enjoyed every moment of having them on you. Although I prefer my lovers to be conscious.”

  Her lower belly tightened as she thought of Dominic smoothing the lotion over her ankle, lingering and slow, a sensual caress as he rubbed and stroked….

  Not. Going. There. “I’m not your lover.”

  “You will be.”

  The arrogant certainty inflamed her. “You underestimate me, wolf.”

  “And you underestimate me, bounty hunter. Did you think you could hide your identity from me?”

  Her mouth went dry. “How did you…”

  Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the ugliest of all? Where the hell was the mirror? Alex threw back the covers, craned her neck to see her reflection in the dresser’s glass.

  Still the same glamour. Relief filled her as she sagged back onto the bed.

  “Alexandra Kostra. The most successful and ruthless bounty hunter for the Society for the Prevention of Malevolent Magick. Sent here to capture me and bring me back to demon prison. A very clever Fae whose glamour can fool even the most experienced targets. It’s thought she is totally asexual and immune to my charms.”

  “How did you know?”

  He tapped his nose. “When I heard the rumors you were after me, I had my pack retrieve an item with your scent on it. I recognized you in the bar.”

  Alex resisted the temptation to check the mirror to make sure the wizard’s potion still worked. Dominic couldn’t know her true identity or her real face. Her file had been kept secret in a locked, magick-free vault.

  “What did the Society promise for capturing me?” The deep timbre of his husky voice licked at her senses, while his hard gaze burned like blue lasers.

  “All the hamburgers I can eat and a year’s supply of diet cola.”

  His voice dropped an octave. “Tell me.”

  Alex could not resist the compulsion in his sensual, commanding tone. “After this last assignment, my freedom. And fifteen prime acres in Colorado and my own little cabin.”

  A real home of her own, instead of wandering the earth to bring scum back to prison. A haven where she could hide from a cruel world that stared and mocked at the runes on her face.

  The tribal tattoos were a magick warning. The intricate whorls and swirls stated “Keep away” and “Beware” in Old Sidhe. After she’d lost her virginity to avoid marriage to a rival Fae king who’d promised land to her stepfather, Stepdaddy Dearest had punished her. He’d inked her face and body. The tats came with a special added bonus, too.

  But with the wizard’s potion, she could truly be free. And live just like everyone else.

  “An indentured hunter. What caused your indenture?”

  For too many years she’d steeled herself against telling the sordid truth. Not even the coaxing note in his voice could make her tell.

  “None of your business.”

  Dominic leaned against the wall, folding his arms, the movement making his biceps ripple. Gods, he was handsome, with eyes of ruthless blue. A subtle power glowed within him, a force that could slay a woman with pleasure.

  “A cabin in the woods sounds lonely. A woman by herself in the wilderness.”

  She shrugged. “I’m used to being alone.”

  “Being used to something is one thing, liking it is another. You shouldn’t be alone. Everyone needs someone, needs a pack.”

  “I don’t.” The words were a well-practiced lie.

  Dominic sat on the bed, so close he threatened to drown her in his rich, sensual scent. His big body was aggressive and filled with purpose. But the hand he placed on her chilled cheek was gentle. He stroked a thumb across her skin, evoking a shiver.

  The Society’s director had assigned her this mission because she was asexual. Immune to the wolf’s charms and seductive moves.

  Another lie. Because right now, with his thumb gently stroking over her cheek, with his delicious scent wrapping around her like a blanket, and his big, muscled body primed for sex, she was losing the battle.

  She drew away. “Don’t touch me.”

  “Afraid?” he asked in a soft voice.

  “Hardly.”

  “But you’ll have to touch me if you want to bring me back to prison like the good bounty hunter you are.”

  The lopsided, charming smile made her insides clench. He was so handsome, with his dark good looks, lean and muscled body, the rough bristle on his sculpted cheeks. But it was the erotic promise in those cool blue eyes that roped her in, as if invisible tendrils snaked around her quivering body and tied her to the bed as his hands stroked her naked skin….

  Alex tried to shake free the sensual haze. She turned her head to the window, staring at the starlight in the velvet night. Velvet like the smooth stroke of his tongue against her cool flesh…

  We will be lovers, spoke the voice inside her head. You cannot fight me.

  Slow, seductive images, hands stroking over her shuddering, wet flesh, filled with erotic promise…

  Get out!

  He wove his incubus magick around her. Alex glared at him. “Let’s get this straight right now. Do not touch me. Get it? I’m not your toy, captive for your sexual amusement. Hands off.”

  Dominic held up his palms. “Show me what parts of your body to avoid and I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

  Silently she pointed to her groin and breasts and belly. Then she shook her head. He was an incubus.

  “Nothing below the neck,” she told him.

  “Not without permission. I agree.”

  Exhausted, she lay back, closing her eyes. Dominic couldn’t see her real face. The glamour hid her from scorn and ridicule.

  *

  A jingle sounded and she glanced up. Dominic stood by her bed, a lazy smile playing on his full mouth. Silver handcuffs dangled from one hand.

  “You’ll need these to take me into custody, Alexandra. Care to tie me up now? Perhaps to the bed, where I’ll be totally helpless.”

  “You said…”

  “I agreed not to touch you. But you can touch me. All you want.”

  The thought of him helpless and splayed before her, those smooth muscles gleaming and inviting, intrigued her. To look all she pleased, stroke his body as he lay helpless and stretched out. Arousal tightened her body. His nostrils inhaled. He’d scented it, wolf that he was, and his eyes glowed hot.

  Dominic sat on the bed, the handcuffs slowly swaying on one finger. “You like that. I’m tied up, and I can’t do anything, except submit to whatever you want. You can bring me back to prison, collect the bounty and your reward… or… you can surrender to temptation. Do whatever you want with me as I lie helpless before you. Touch me. Taste me. Would you like to know what I taste like, Alexandra?”

  Mesmerized, she nodded, spellbound as she stared into his hypnotic gaze.

  Leaning forward, he brushed her hair back from her ear, blew a warm breath. She was hot now, so hot. Her nipples hardened to pebbles.

  “I taste like chocolate and wine. Like a man’s tongue between your legs, slowly stroking and licking you whole. I am the caress of a hand against your bare bottom just before I mount you and push deep into your most intimate place… filling you, dee
p and slow.”

  Her skin tingled and her belly clenched again. Moisture gushed from between her legs. She felt the gathering storm with each hot breath against her skin, the brush of his whiskered cheek against the curve of her shoulder.

  Dominic nuzzled her neck, drawing in a deep breath.

  “I taste like… this….”

  Very gently, he bit down. She cried out in shocked pleasure. Lost in sensation as his mouth nuzzled her, she clung to his shoulders, her fingers curling around the hard muscles. Just like another time and place as he’d pushed open her thighs and…

  You have a job to do.

  The thought was a cold slap. Alex pushed him away, controlling her erratic breathing, fighting the sensual net he’d used to ensnare her.

  He’d controlled her, breaking down inhibitions with his masterful touch. Nearly making her climax without touching any of the areas she’d kept off limits. It took every ounce of strength and determination to fight him.

  Dominic stared down at her, but instead of amused triumph in his eyes, she saw tenderness. Then the look vanished, replaced with his usual sensual intent.

  “You can try to handcuff me, Alexandra. Oh, I might even let you. But I’m not leaving here so easily. I’ll leave with you if you’ll do something for me first.” Leaning close, he spoke into her ear, his warm breath feathering over her cheek.

  “I think you’ll find it most pleasant.”

  He stroked a finger over her cheek, and her overly sensitive nerves leaped at his touch. Alex struggled to retain her sense of self.

  “If it involves my handcuffing you and bringing you back where you belong, then it’s a deal.”

  Dominic gave an amused smile. “Perhaps. But first, you must make love with me. And then I will go with you.”

  Chapter 4

  Alex had expected him to come to her in the night, but she had awakened alone, the fire long dead. Last night’s bitter cold surrendered to a bright and sunny morning. She showered and dressed, searching the spacious bathroom for possible weapons and went downstairs.

  Alex sat in an overstuffed armchair in the living area, staring out at the meadow. Floor-to-ceiling windows gave a magnificent view of the meadow and the lake below.