Lyric nodded but didn’t say a word. I could smell her fear and anxiety mixed with the arousal and her own unique scent. I wasn’t sure if I’d been hit too hard on the head and all of this was one big hallucination, or if I was dreaming. One thing was for certain, and that was I needed to get away from the woman in my kitchen before I did something I’d probably regret. Like rip our clothes from our bodies and fuck her senseless. I wasn’t sure I could actually follow through, not with the amount of pain I was in before I fell to my knees in agony.
Chapter Four
Istared after Rowan as he left the kitchen. Good lawd, he was something. I knew the war he was waging within himself. I just didn’t know how to help him if he didn’t let me. Being a born shifter, I was strong, but he clearly was going to be an alpha. Already, I saw the way his black eyes flashed to blue and couldn’t wait to see him shift. My ears picked up the sound of running water. I’d never actually helped a human through the change, but from what I’d been told, it usually took a couple of days for the full turn to take effect. Obviously, they’d never dealt with the likes of Rowan. Damn, I didn’t even know his last name.
I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and cursed at the cracked screen and the lack of power. “Shit. What am I going to do? Syn is probably going apeshit right about now.”
Grabbing the phone off the wall, I quickly dialed my best friend’s number. When voicemail picked up on the first ring, I left a brief message outlining what had happened and told Syn I’d call back in the morning. I hoped the other girls were okay and hadn’t already called in some reinforcements, and I really wished my phone wasn’t fucked up. Another deed to lay at the feet of the rogue wolves. I then dialed my phone number to see if Syn had called and left me a message. As my voicemail came on, I dialed in the code and listened to several frantic calls from Syn and Nene. I blew out a relieved breath that turned to panic when Syn told me she’d called Kellen. I wasn’t scared of my alpha, much. More like freaked he’d put me and the others onlockdown until they found the ones responsible for the attack on me.
“Just what the doctor ordered, not. Stuck at the Club with a bunch of overbearing big brothers.”
Without pausing to stop, I walked into the living area, lights coming on like they’d done in the kitchen when I stepped into the open space. Modern tech meets country living. The floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace held no family pictures, nothing to show who or where Rowan had come from. When I left the room, the lights went out, leaving the room in darkness.
Following the hall leading to where I presumed his bedroom was, I could hear the shower running. The thought of him naked and slick with water made me break out in goosebumps. Never had the image of a wet and naked man brought on such arousing thoughts that I had to force myself away from going to him.
An open door caught my attention before I could act on my impulse to check on Rowan. He had several computer monitors set up on an L-shaped desk. Either the man ran his business from home, or he was a computer geek. Even the image of him wearing a suit and tie didn’t lessen my need for him, nor my wolf’s.
When I moved farther into the room, the lights came on revealing, unlike in the family room, he had pictures lining the walls. The first one I came to was of a group of soldiers standing next to a military vehicle. I fingered the frame, easily picking out which one of the young men was Rowan. Out of all the smiling faces, his stood out to me like a beacon. Several more framed pictures featured the same group of men, until the last two. My breath caught in my throat at the images of the men who were no longer smiling, holding a flag for their friend who was no longer with them.
“I see you’ve made yourself at home.” Rowan’s voice broke into the quiet room.
I spun on my heel. “For crying out loud, you move quieter than a ghost.”
Rowan’s smile flashed. “That’s what we were. A ghost team.” He prowled into the room, sucking the air out of the space with his presence.
I stared at the healing wound on his side, transfixed by the already-knitting skin and the amount of bare flesh he was showing in the low-riding jeans. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on, but I didn’t think Rowan was normal. Or maybe not completely human. “Rowan, is there something more to you than just…you know, human DNA?”
“To my knowledge, up until about two hours ago, I was all human. Now, I don’t know what the fuck I am, except ready to claw my way outta this skin.” He held his arms out at his sides.
Not a single tattoo or piercing marked his smooth flesh. I circled him, looking for old injuries from his time in the military. Surely, he would’ve gotten a cut or something that left a scar. “Have you ever broken a bone or needed stitches?” I asked.
“I’m pretty tough, I guess. My mama always said I was too ornery to get sick or hurt. She obviously didn’t expect me to get bitten by a werewolf. That’s what you are, right?”
Sweat popped out on his forehead. He was fighting the pain and stress of shifting. I wanted to call an elder or a council member. Heck, I was willing to call Kellen and ask him for help if it would save Rowan more pain. However, the only thing that would help him now was shifting.
“Rowan, I’m going to need you to trust me. Do you think you can do that?”
He shrugged his massive shoulders. In his shifted form, he would be at least twice my size and could easily dominate me. “Usually, this is done with the pack surrounding the new member. The alpha is the one who helps all shifters through their first transition because it’s difficult for one to control theirbeast. I should’ve taken you to Kellen, but I was stupid and thought we’d have a day or so before I had to admit my mistake to my brother and the alpha. Now, I don’t think we have time to do anything except get you through the shift.”
He braced his feet apart. “What aren’t you telling me, Lyric? Don’t mince words or pussyfoot around. Tell me what I need to know so I can be prepared.”
Taking a deep breath, I laid it out for him. “Once you shift, you will want to hunt. You will want to fuck, and you will most likely want to kill. I don’t know in what order you will want these things, but there you have it.”
His eyes widened. “What the fuck will I want to hunt and kill? Am I going to go out and take down Bambi, fuck it, then kill it and follow up that grand adventure by eating it?”
I laughed. I seriously couldn’t believe the things that were coming out of his mouth. “Oh my gawd. You are hilarious.” I wiped the tears streaming from my eyes, not realizing he’d begun stalking me across the room. My back hit the wall next to the pictures I’d been admiring.
“Are you laughing at me, darlin’?” Rowan nudged my legs apart, putting one of his between mine.
Looking up into the black eyes of Rowan, I licked my suddenly dry lips. “No, not laughing at you, laughing at what you came up with. I mean, you would probably want to hunt down a deer or two and kill it, but even in your wolf form, you’d never want to have sex with a deer. I don’t think even mated pairs have sex in their wolven forms.” If they did, I’d not heard them talk about it. I’d never gotten turned on by seeing any of the men in their shifted forms. Beautiful? Yes. Sexy as in I wanted to hump them? No.
“So, you are in danger of me wanting to fuck you after I shift?” He lifted his leg into the V of my thighs.
“Not me, per se. Just that most who are turned tend to get a little out of control.” I shivered as he rubbed me in the exact spot that was begging for attention.
“Let me ask you another question.” He leaned in and nuzzled close to my ear. “As a shifter, is my sense of smell heightened?”
I tried to keep from rubbing on his steel-hard thigh and to concentrate on what he’d asked. “Everything is heightened. Sight, smell, and hearing. Why?”
