An hour or so later, sweating and grime-covered, not to mention scratched from slapping branches and brambles in her hair, she cursed aloud, “Stupid forest. Why couldn’t they have built a path through it?”
She said a few more choice items under her breath, most of them shockingly unladylike, but she shut up quickly when she heard the snapping of a branch, a noise that she extraordinarily enough hadn’t caused.
Sophia paused mid-step and listened. The annoying sounds of birds singing accompanied by the constant rustling of tree branches came to her ears. She chided herself for her fear.
Instead of taking another step, she suddenly stopped, paralyzed with fright, for behind her came a low, rumbling growl.
Sophia debated whether to run, but then she reminded herself of something.
Unlike Little Red Riding Hood, she didn’t trust the very large wolf that faced her with gleaming yellow eyes. It stood higher than a regular wolf would, its fur a mottled russet and brown with large teeth better-suited to a carnivorous dinosaur. She had a feeling the beast she faced was a shifter, but, to make sure, she tried to send a spell of paralysis. Even with the quickly chanted words and clapping hands completed correctly, the spell was to no avail. The wolf took a step forward.
Sophia swallowed and took a step back, while a drop of fear rolled down her spine to the waistband of her jeans. “Um, Aidan, is that you?” she questioned in a wavering voice. She already knew it wasn’t. Aidan’s wolf was much nicer-looking, with dark hair that glinted blue. But perhaps the mention of Aidan’s name would make the other shifter think twice about having her for lunch. Sophia took another step back, one the wolf mimicked. She held out her hands in an attempt to look benign, and she tried pleading with it. “Listen, I’m here with Aidan. He’s a wolf shifter just like you. Maybe you know him. Big, tall guy, drives a monster truck?” She ended her rushed speech on a hopeful, questioning note, but the mangy beast just growled and bared even more teeth.
Sophia would have wet her pants if her bladder hadn’t frozen tight in fear like the rest of her. Her voice worked just fine, though. When the wolf finally decided to make its move and leapt with a chilling snarl, she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Then she was too busy fighting for her life. Somehow, a necklace of puncture marks didn’t sound healthy.
Aidan, who furiously tracked the weaving and circling path of his none-too-bright-at-that-moment mate, heard her shriek of terror come from closer than he would have thought her. With no care for his clothing, he shifted, the cloth tearing in his urgency. His fur was still sprouting even as he leapt toward the terrifying sound of snarls.
He didn’t bother concealing his arrival, because speed was much more important than stealth. The scent of her fear came to him at the same moment that he caught sight of the perpetrator.
Roaring in fury, Aidan charged and distracted the russet wolf that turned its head from its attempt to rip out Sophia’s throat. Without hesitation, Randy braced to meet his charge. Aidan’s momentum barreled him right into the other beast, and they tumbled into the underbrush. In a blood-frenzy-Aidan smelled Sophia’s injury-he snapped and tore at the other shifter. Caught in the grips of a mindless rage, he wanted to kill Randy, too furious to care of his status as second-in-command. A line had been crossed when he’d dared harm Sophia.
Sophia gingerly sat up, still alive if scratched up from the mangy wolf’s claws. And speaking of wolves, Aidan had arrived in the nick of time, the darkness of his fur and evident rage easy to recognize. She watched in terror as the two large beasts wrestled viciously a few paces from her. It never even occurred to her to make her escape while Aidan and the other wolf were locked in battle. She couldn’t leave him. What if he was hurt or if the other wolf prevailed and killed him? A racking shudder went through her at the thought.
After what seemed like forever, the fight ended. Aidan’s beast held the other pinned by the throat. The wolf that’d attacked her whimpered in submission and Aidan released him with a slight shake. Trotting to her, Aidan turned his back to the cowed and defeated beast. Aidan’s wolf shape blurred. Her eyes widened in surprise and she blushed as he changed back into his man shape, naked as the day he was born. And damned if he wasn’t hot!
Unlike the first time she’d seen him nude in the woods, it was full daylight out and she got the full impact of his maleness. He definitely packed an erotic punch. From his broad chest, crisscrossed in more muscles than should be legal, down to a tapered waist and below that… Well, let’s just say he put most men to shame. Sophia couldn’t help the heat that suffused her body even amidst the turmoil. Screw logic, she wanted him like she’d never wanted a man before. And she had a feeling if she didn’t take what he offered, she’d never find that feeling with anyone else. He was her one chance at what romance books hinted at: the elusive one and only love of her life.
She must have stared at him too long, because right before her mesmerized eyes his dormant shaft lifted and grew in interesting ways. Her lips unconsciously parted, and she licked them.
Aidan growled and dropped to his knees, which hid his most interesting body part. “Show me your injuries.”
“It’s just scratches,” she said, looking into his face, which had creased with concern.
“It shouldn’t have happened at all,” he snapped.
Sophia dropped her head in chagrin, his rebuke stinging even if truthful. “I’m sorry. I should have listened and stayed in the cabin,” she mumbled.
A calloused finger tilted her chin up to meet his gaze. “While I agree you shouldn’t have left the safety of the cabin, it is also my fault for not informing the pack, and, even worse, leaving you alone at all. Although,” he said with a glare over his shoulder, “my pack brother should have known better than to attack without asking questions first. Especially considering you’re covered in my scent.” Aidan stood up and turned around.
As she looked around his legs, Sophia saw that the russet wolf had disappeared and in its place now hunched a man, also naked. He was not even close to being as interesting as Aidan.
“She’s a witch on pack land,” said the other.
“She’s my mate,” growled Aidan.
“Who doesn’t wear a mark. And if Jason has anything to say about it, she won’t. He won’t like this.” The other man seemed to gain confidence and stood, unashamed of his nakedness.
Sophia smothered a giggle. This was not a laughing matter, but the whole thing seemed incongruous.
“I was planning to speak to Jason today or tomorrow. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep this to yourself. Don’t make me regret letting you live. This is the only warning you’ll get. Come near Sophia again and I will kill you.”
With a snarl, the other man shifted back to his wolf shape and bounded off through the woods. The danger gone, Sophia stood and placed a hand on Aidan’s bare back.
He didn’t turn to face her, just muttered a terse “Follow me.”
Sophia would have argued with his command, but the view of his naked buttocks as he stalked back in the direction, she assumed, of the cabin robbed her of speech, although it did create vividly erotic scenarios in her mind. Her lust, barely in check since she met him, simmered to life, and she was done fighting it. Running away wouldn’t make her feelings for him disappear.
As if her acceptance of her fate unlocked a dam, pure arousal flooded her. Her breathing came short and not because of the exertion of the walk either. A blazing heat consumed her, and she wanted to tear off her clothes and let the fresh air of the forest cool her down. Or even better have Aidan lick…
“Would you stop that?” he said in a strained voice. He turned to face her, and she realized he found himself in
