PRINCE OF WOLVES By Susan Krinard

The release came even more powerfully than before, jolting them both as Luke buried his face into the sodden tendrils of hair at the nape of her neck, licking the salty wetness away, his hand stroking her hip and buttocks while she tightened and released in concentric waves of pleasure. She was still gasping when his hand settled on her cheek, thumb brushing the tears that had escaped without her knowing.

“Joelle,” he said, caressing her name as he did her skin. “The power is yours.” She could feel him shudder, the vibrations breaking in tiny shock waves against her back. “Use it wisely.” The words were a plea phrased as warning, and though Joey did not grasp the message, she understood the underlying vulnerability. She tried to turn, but he held her gently in place, still part of her. His breath came slow and heavy and deep as it stirred her hair “Joelle, there is something I must tell you.”

Hearing the soothing richness of his voice more than the words, Joey pushed herself back as if she could melt into the solid muscled heat of his chest and belly and thighs “Hmm?” Her movements seemed to affect Luke in unexpected ways, he closed his teeth very lightly on the back of her neck where it blended into her shoulder.

Abruptly he released her “Joey, this is important I… ” There was a note of half-concealed desperation that almost brought her out of the dreamlike lassitude that had stolen the will from her sated body She half-opened her eyes and smiled at the feel of his renewed stirring within her.

“And I thought I talked too much,” she murmured. “Just hold me, Luke. I have something to tell you, too, but I think”—she yawned luxuriously—”that it’s going to have to wait.”

His hand flexed on her hip, but whatever answer he made was too soft for her to hear.

Chapter Seventeen

Luke tested the weight of the fully laden pack as he sealed the last parcel in the upper compartment. The storekeeper, shifting audibly and nervously behind him, cleared his throat.

“Will that be all, Mr Gévaudan?” Luke almost smiled, however grimly, at the unmistakable desire to see him gone revealed in the man’s voice. He half-turned his head without meeting Jackson’s eyes, he had made it a point with the storekeeper, as with the others, to avoid confrontations. Joey had had that effect on him. For the first time in memory Luke found the half-fearful, half-resentful attitude of most of the townsfolk more a source of disquiet than grim satisfaction.

“That’s all, thanks.” He hoisted the pack onto his shoulders. “I’ll be back for the things I ordered next week.” He was almost to the door before Jackson spoke again.

“What—uh, what if they haven’t arrived yet?” The ordinarily voluble and cheerful Jackson was gazing after him anxiously, wringing his hands.

Luke managed a smile—a real smile, if restrained, his teeth carefully hidden. “Then I’ll have to come back later.” Jackson’s face went slack, and Luke used the opportunity to slip out the door. It was entirely too unsettling to think that he might actually go out of his way to charm the townsfolk instead of, at best, tolerating them; he wasn’t sure he was up to it yet.

The late-autumn morning was cold, but Luke shed the cold as easily as he did his clothing when the change came. Patches of half-melted snow lay clumped under shadows and in inconvenient icy patches on the sidewalks of the main street, he avoided them neatly and glanced up at the sky. There would be more snow soon, next time he came to town, he’d likely need snowshoes. Far more convenient to run as wolf, but a wolf didn’t have hands to carry supplies.

The one disadvantage of being loup-garou was that you forgot your limitations.

Luke crossed the street to avoid the clump of young men wasting the day in drinking and idle conversation in front of the town bar. He shook his head, amazed at his own desire to steer clear of obvious conflict. Even though Joey was not truly one of them, she had friends here in town, people she cared about, that was enough to make him drift in and out of town as lightly as the first gentle snows of the season.

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