EP1

1950

Detangling her hair, Bella's blood warmed with desire as she observed the black-haired baby girl. She looked two years older, she was eighteen. She took off one boot by the lake, then another. This wasn't the first time she'd seen him stripping off his clothes, but it would be the first time he'd joined her. If he could taste it, wouldn't he desire it? Hunger to be like him? Wild and free?

She swallowed hard, she missed Diana rather than being a human wife, but she would never be. Raising her chin, she decided to make the man herself. She untied her ankle boots, then she took them off her feet.

The human boy's pet gray wolf rested on the shore, his ears pricked as he watched. But the boy did not see him - he was careless, like most people.

But a boy who values his wolf as himself would take care of him too, right? He had studied her before, swimming naked here, splashing lazily on the surface of the water and trying to pull her towards him. He had seen her, even though he tried to hide in the forest. And as she stepped on dry oak leaves and pine needles to get closer to see him more clearly, she heard with her sensitive hearing. In the breeze, she smelled his dazzling female scent. Then she desired him, she set her belly on fire; she would desire him now.

Lifting his nose, he inhaled his masculinity. Feminine but not as wild as its own kind - lupus garou. A person who treats a woman with kindness, that's what she wanted.

She pulled her blue dress over her head, she tried to remove her clothes as quickly as she could. He wanted to put his plan in motion before he changed his mind or someone in the flock tried to change it for him.

She was adopted by the gray pack, she wasn't even a gray wolf. So why does it matter that he leaves them and chooses the human child for himself? Gray alpha pack leader Viki wanted him, that's why. His stomach twitched at the thought that if he couldn't find a way out of the nightmare, he would have it.

The man took off his pants. A boy, still not well muscled, but on the way. A survivor living alone, that's what intrigued him so much. A loner - like a rogue wolf - is determined to endure.

In his heart, he only longed for Diana, the gray that had saved his life when he was young. Even now, he had a hard time comparing his taller physique to this boy's. He had the same black hair and eyes, which might explain why the man was attracted to him. He wanted Diana with all his heart, but getting his attention would only result in Viki killing him. It's best to leave the pack and mate with a human, cut off ties to the grays, and start your own herd.

He had watched man ride, run, hunt with his rifle, but admired him most when he swam. His gaze shifted to the dark piece of hair resting on his legs, and...

He leaped into the water. With mighty strokes he glided across the calm surface of the small, summer-warmed lake. She came out of her last petticoat, then out of her drawers. Without any stitches on it, he stood on the opposite bank, waiting for her to see him. Wouldn't he miss her like his own kind did?

He had to convince her to have sex with him. Then he would turn into a wolf and bite him. And pass on the beauty of the wolf to him in the ancient way.

She ran her fingers through her cinnamon curls, fanning them over her shoulders to her hips.

They would live together in his log cabin, forever wandering in the woods in wolf forms under the bright moon. His mother, father, and younger sister had died in the winter, and none of his kind lived within a fifteen-mile radius. He wanted it - he had to. Like a pack of wolves, most people craved companionship.

He stepped into the water.

Then she saw him.

His dark eyes widened and his mouth fell open. But it didn't swim towards him as he expected. She didn't come for him, she fascinated him as she wanted. His eyes studied every bit of her, but then turned away from her, back to the shore and her clothes. What did he have?

His mind was battling between anger and surprise. Didn't she find him attractive?

She swam towards him, trying to reach the shore before she dressed and went back to her hut. But when he reached the halfway point of the lake, he shrugged off his trousers and boots, not minding his shirt or vest, and disappeared into the woods, holding the wolf in his heel.

He looked behind him in disbelief.

"Bella!" The leader of the herd cried out in a terrifying and warlike voice.

He shook his head. His heart nearly stopped when he saw the gray leader.

Viki stood like a hunter waiting for the right moment to pursue her prey. His ebony hair was tightly tied, and his black eyes were narrowed. As a werewolf, Fit was the leader thanks to her sexy build, tall, strong jaws and wicked killer canines. But she stood like a woman now, her thoughts darker than night, her face menacing as she thought of him swimming naked in the lake.

Did the boy escape in time before Viki saw him? How could he be naive enough to think that the Wiki would let him be a girly girl?

He shoveled instead, staring at her. "What do you want, Viki?" he grumbled, whenshe could not use civilized language if she stood next to him.

"Get out now!"

He turned his head towards the forest.

Did it smell human? His heartbeat quickened. She returned to her clothes, determined to distract her attention from the boy.

Then he spied on Diana, half-hidden in the shadows of the forest, watching as if she and the pack were maneuvering to kill the leader. She felt regretful that she might have seen Diana staring at a human with lust. Despite being three years older than him, he still struggles for his place in the pack. A leather strap tied her shoulder-length brown hair, and she fought the urge to let her hair loose to soften her stern look. His equally dark brown eyes glared at her as his solid jaw contracted.

She approached, not menacingly, as if she was chasing a deer and afraid to scare away her prey. She raised one eyebrow. This time she looked like she got permission from Wiki to get closer.

"Stay away," she growled.

Coming out of the water, Viki distracted her attention from thinking about the forests or who might have been lost in them. Diana also looked at him with a lot of interest.

Disturbed by having the wrong audience, she hurried to put on her clothes. Still, the approach of Diana, standing only a few feet away from her until she dressed, while Viki remained a hundred yards away, struck a drop of fear into her.

Viki would never let girls approach her while she was naked, and normally she wouldn't allow it either. So what were they doing? She let go of her wet hair, then Viki nodded.

As soon as she signaled Diana, her heart began to beat, but she didn't react fast enough. Diana stepped forward and grabbed her wrist. At the same time, Viki charged towards the forest where the young woman had disappeared.

"Wiki!" she screamed.

He intended to kill the boy. He had just really killed her, as if he had slit his throat himself. She struggled to free herself from Diana, while trying to save her. "Let me go!"

She gripped his wrist tighter and hurriedly dragged him towards their village.

"He did nothing!"

Diana looked at him, her eyes unforgiving, blacker than she had ever seen before. Anger was burning deep inside, she. A rage She couldn't understand.

"Please," she begged, trying to soften her heart.

She tried to get away, and she pulled him to her side. "You're an idiot Bella."

"I'm not going to be Viki's wife!"

For a moment, Diana's grip on her arm waned. Then he tightened his grip again. "You have no choice. And after what he's done here, he won't wait any longer."

Was there regret in his voice? God, how she wanted him to save her from Wiki... to be his wife.

There was a howl in the distance and she fell to her knees. Viki killed the young woman and cried out to the world with great pleasure what she had done.

Diana picked him up from the ground and hurried off.

"You will never leave the pack, Duana. You will always be nothing but a follower!" She didn't want to say the hurtful words, but the anger she contained burned like molten lava beneath the surface, she. "Why can't you run with me? Why don't you take me far from here?"

She looked at him. "They're my family. They'll always be my family. It's something you don't seem to understand."

"I - I thought you had feelings for me."

Diana stopped him and grabbed him by the shoulders. "She can never be between us! Viki would have chased us both. What kind of life would that be? It would kill our generation too. Is that what you want? Maybe if I were older, stronger, but now she can't wait to have you." She shook her head. "Damn Bella, she wouldn't want you when it comes to humans! Can't you see that? If she saw you change, she'd be thrown back. If she could find a way, she'd kill you." He hugged her tightly and looked into her eyes with a mixture of anger and hunger. "You know what I want from you."

She was tough and smelled sexy.

She felt her hormones skyrocket, forcing him to ride her. Her breath came quickly when she wanted to get his attention, but she was afraid of them too. They feared what Viki would do to Diana if Viki caught her in lust with lust. She had never seen Diana so outwardly angry she, so venomous—so sexually alive she.

"You could smell his rotten fear, woman!" He pulled her against her body and kissed her hard on the mouth, without mocking or waiting for her approval - just pure lust, conquering and determined. And she loved him, every ounce of the dangerous and wild lupus garou he was.

His body melted at his touch, but the victor's musky, bloody scent drifted toward him in the breeze. Panic ripped through her. Viki would claim it now. But if Diana catches him touching her.

Viki appeared in her ebony-skinned wolf form in a few moves, her eyes narrowed in hatred. He grumbled and immediately Diana released him. He stepped back, thinking that Viki was going to kill Diana because of her actions, the thought turned her stomach.

Diana held her ground. "I tried to convince him how stupid he was for having feelings for people."

vikingI turned to Bella. He was going to show him how a female wolf gets a wife. The moisture in his throat evaporated. The sight of him trying to take her when he was much younger still fed his nightmares. A wave of tremors enveloped his body.