Chapter Ten
Discovery
Laurel’s kitchen
Lucas ran the knuckles of his hand gently across the plains of Laurel’s cheek then opened his hand, forking his fingers into her hair, and when he gripped her head firmly, looking squarely into her eyes, she waited, not knowing what to expect next
“Every minute that passes makes controlling myself in your presence impossible. My need for you becomes intolerable. Until we know what this is between us, you aren’t safe, especially with me.”
She looked down, took his hand, and stroked his pulse point. “My grandmother said I would find you one day. I just never expected it to feel like this. I never expected the one my wolf imprinted on to be a forbidden temptation.”
“Not simply forbidden. A deadly temptation,” he reminded her.
Before the fear and disappointment settled in, his touch filled her with a smoldering heat, a desire so desperate it reached her very core, eradicating any uncertainty about being with Lucas.
“I don’t believe it. Fate wouldn’t do that.” She aligned her shoulders and straightened her spine. “We are much the same, you and I. The elements are within Grace, and I suspected Ty had an elemental side. She had to have known. But you…the elements respond to you as they do to me. My force recognizes yours.”
“Perhaps you’re right. I hope you are. But until we know for certain, I won’t risk your life on a premise. We need a plan to keep you safe from me during the waxing and waning of the moon. Once I find Grace, we can explore your theory.”
Laurel bit her lower lip, trying to find the right words to explain Julie.
“Then I should warn you. I don’t share. And I don’t play well with others. Tonight at the meeting, at least one of the females will find a way to meet you. Julie is looking to move up the social ladder, and you are the perfect venue. Her scent was in Grace’s apartment.”
“Then I will recognize it. Perhaps I should pay attention to this Julie and ascertain her motives.”
“As long as her motives are all you ascertain.”
Lucas laughed and playfully pulled Laurel back into his arms then kissed her again.
“Wow!” Laurel exhaled and tried to compose herself. The man certainly knew how to kiss a woman. It must have taken lots of practice. The wolf inside her growled, and her mind shouted, “Mine.”
“Forget the food,” he growled. “You are what I want.”
“Me?”
Laurel melted against him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Unsure she could be enough female for him, she decided to try. She took the initiative to make him forget the idea of interrogating Julie.
He wouldn’t come out of that confrontation without fucking her, and Laurel winced at the idea.
While his hands traced every one of her curves, caressing her sensitive breasts and testing her response, she snaked her hands under his shirt and up to his tight male nipples. God, his chest was magnificent. She lowered her hands to his waist, tempted to explore the hard bulge between his thighs. But just as her fingers wiggled inside his waistband, his hand caught hers and stopped her.
“I can be here for you, Lucas. Beware of Julie.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” His voice sounded rough. He gripped her by her arms and moved her body away from his. His eyes flashed silver, his jaw clenched, and then he smiled.
Laurel had come close to successfully seducing this experienced, controlled male. Her self-esteem soared when she sensed the struggle within him almost fail as he tried to release her, step back, and walk away.
According to his aura, he was highly aroused and frustrated…and, suddenly, very worried. Why worry? And the smile. The leftover smile never left his face. His aura and his comment confused her.
“I don’t get it.”
“I’m a dire wolf. We’re highly promiscuous during the moon phases until we mate and bond.”
Laurel’s heart sank. If his offhand comments were true, what did she mean to him? Did the kiss and his flattering comments mean nothing to him? She stiffened and gently pushed him farther away.
She used more than his aura to determine he was still aroused. But to her disappointment there was a hint of deceit in his colors. Purple, the color she liked least and saw most often.
Well, she’d experienced this before. When horny men couldn’t wait to charm their way into her pants, they believed lying would work. They were mistaken.
But Lucas had a very convincing line, and, in the end, at least he admitted his nature. So why did swirling shades of deep purple in his aura scream “lie”?
With his hands in his pockets and a smug look on his face, his stomach growled. “Weren’t you going to feed me? I could use a beer, too.”
She swallowed a few times, unable to overcome the disappointment, but she managed to clear the lump in her throat.
“The beer’s in the fridge. Go outside and relax.” Laurel pasted a false smile on her face and pointed to the back door. “I’ll make a few sandwiches.”
He helped himself to the beer and, without another word, stalked from the room, quietly closing the door behind him.
Laurel took a deep breath, washed her hands and face in the kitchen sink and dried off with a clean dish towel. Before making the sandwiches, she gazed out the window while Lucas sat in a deck chair and, tilting the bottle up, emptied it in one long pull.
Good to know he is as affected as I am.
Time enough to deal with all the ramifications, later. For now, she’d clean up, make the sandwiches, and find another cold beer for him before she had to deal with Julie and the pack.
She’d put aside her feelings for Lucas for today. They had too much to consider to add their attraction to the mix.
“Easy enough to think when there’s a door between me and his scent.”
***
After a cold beer and a sandwich, Lucas was ready to discuss what happened between them and his loss of control. He put the empty beer bottle on the table and sat back in the chair as Laurel finished her sandwich while he watched.
“I don’t know what got into me before. I should apologize, but I’m really not sorry for kissing you. I am sorry I almost lost control. It’s not like me, and it wasn’t fair to you.”
“It wasn’t all you.” She lowered her lashes then put her sandwich down and picked at her napkin.
Lucas leaned forward and took her hand in his. “I can usually maintain my control.” He didn’t want her to take this wrong. Touching her sent that strange sizzle through him again, but he’d risk it because she needed to understand why being together would be impossible. “We should talk about this.”
“With you being from one of the most powerful ancient were families and a member of one of the original packs established during Celtic times, I understand mating with me would be highly undesirable—” She tried to pull her hand away, but he held on to her tightly.
“It’s not undesirable. I just can’t. It could be deadly for you unless you have dire blood.” Laurel relaxed within his grasp as he ran his thumb over her wrist, testing her pulse.
“Do you think Ty will survive mating with your sister?”
“Grace may know something about Ty we don’t. You said you sensed something in him. Perhaps she did, too.”
“In your calmer moments, I see the earth’s elements in your aura.”
“I don’t know about that or what it means. We barely know each other. At least Grace and Ty had time together before she took this step.”
“I understand.”
This time Lucas released her when she tried to pull her hand from his.
“Despite the attraction I feel for you,” he said, “I won’t risk bonding with you or any female as long as my family heritage in Scotland requires I mate only with a were with dire blood…not that I care about maintaining the family line myself. It’s not about becoming the pack alpha, either. My brother Jarod will be the one to take on my father’s leadership role. He’ll do it gladly, responsibilities and all, especially since the intended female alpha has been one of his favorites over the years.”
“Look, Lucas, I understand. You and I just met.”
“Even if it weren’t for the family issues, I’d want to spend additional time with you—time to discover if we’re truly compatible on other levels besides sex.”
“We got carried away. It’s nothing.”
“We can’t afford that again, not until we confirm it’s safe for you to be with me. I can control myself, but not this close to an approaching full moon. We should keep our distance until it wanes.”
“Lucas, there will still be the issue with Julie that I warned you about. The moon will only make her worse.”
“Trust me, until you, I’ve never had a problem controlling myself.”
“If you say so.” She acted casual, but color heightened her cheeks. “All I know is she’s pretty insistent. I’ve seen her seduction routine before.”
Lucas wondered if Julie was the wolf his mother meant when she’d mentioned there might be someone in Moonlight with dire blood. Despite Laurel’s claims, he didn’t think he’d have the same response to Julie as he’d had to her. Maybe Laurel was the one with dire blood.
“If I take a run with Julie, you can be sure my purpose is to work my wiles on her. If she knows anything about Grace’s disappearance I’ll coax it from her.”
Laurel’s phone chirped. She looked at the screen and stiffened, but ignored the message and got up to clear the table.
Lucas noticed she hadn’t even finished her sandwich. He went to the fridge, took out two bottles of water, and handed one to her. “Here, let’s go over what we have so far.”
“Come into the living room and finish telling me about your family. We have time.”
She seemed preoccupied as they sat in separate chairs. Distracted. Lucas decided to fill her in on his family’s quirky dynamics, but by the time he wrapped things up, he did a quick summation.
“All right. In any case, I’ve always been the lone wolf in the family. Jarod was better suited to the pack leader role. If anything, I was perfectly suited to be the enforcer. Rather than being a calm, calculating leader like Jarod, I am the most aggressive among my littermates. My inclinations can be fierce and intimidating.”
“Perhaps that’s why your father sent you after Grace with no hesitation. He knew you’d bring her home.”
“Perhaps.” His mind wandered. Perhaps his mother had other motives. Had she suspected all along what he would encounter? Before he’d left, she did mention something about the possibility of females with dire blood in the area.
“I should tell you something else.” Laurel interrupted his thoughts. “When I discovered texts between Slater and someone in our pack, I wasn’t sure who it was. His interest in using DNA to enhance his pack makes me believe Julie is more involved with Slater than we thought. She’s devious enough to be the one who took part in Grace’s abduction.”
“Why didn’t you say something to Derek?”
“I hadn’t seen the texts. And I-I wanted to tell him at the airport, but he’d already noticed the attraction between us. Derek would have repeated the warning he gave me this morning.”
“And that was?”
“To be careful around you. He explained you couldn’t mate outside your species.”
“That is a fact. As I told Ty, a mating with a dire can be deadly.”
“After Derek found out what happened between Ty and Grace, he forbade the females to go near you.”
“And you…?”
“I’ve never been influenced by any of the males or the full moon.”
The lure of the forbidden fruit called to him, and now he knew she experienced it, too. He had to be the one in control…he’d had enough time and more experience. He practiced a lifetime of control over his desires.
Every full moon created a challenge, but he’d conquered his urges. The fact his family and extended family lived on an isolated island off the Scottish coast helped. How would he adapt in Palmetto?
She claimed she wasn’t concerned…but he stared into her warm-brown eyes and saw the worry in them. It was her. Only she rattled his self-control.
“To be careful, we should do as Derek suggests and stay away from each other during the waxing and waning of the full moon. That should be enough time for me,” he said.
Laurel and their strange connection intrigued him. but not enough to risk her life. By now everyone in the pack knew his family was pure dire. Even if he wanted her, mingling with her may not even be possible.