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As soon as Tanner’s hands left her breasts, Logan’s took their place, fondling and kneading them while he kissed the soft skin of her neck. Tanner watched them for a moment, enjoying the way the omega wriggled and mewled under his brother’s attentions. Then he set to work undressing her lower half.
He tugged off her boots and tossed them aside before turning his attention to her buckle. The venom was still playing tricks with his senses, and as he slipped the leather belt out of the loops of her jeans, it seemed to come alive, twisting and writhing like a serpent in his hands. He tossed it aside too and set to work on the buttons of her fly.
As he dragged her jeans down her smooth thighs, the full force of her scent hit him like a haymaker across the face, nearly bowling him over. He knew from Logan’s sudden groan of lust that he’d felt it too.
Damn.
The omega’s need was even greater than he’d realized.
Tanner sincerely didn’t know if two alphas were going to be enough for her. The woman had maybe fifteen years’ worth of pent up hunger that needed satisfying. It might take them days to relieve her agony. Maybe even an entire week of nonstop mating. It was a good thing they had water close by.
All of a sudden, the horses started to go crazy, whinnying and tugging madly at the ropes that held them. A dark shape leaped down from the low cliffs surrounding the spring and landed with a soft thud that belied its enormous size. The beast was just outside the circle of light created by the campfire, but Tanner could see its glowing eyes and he could smell its scent.
A wolf.
Thewolf.
Tanner knew it wasn’t a hallucination, because his brother saw it too. Logan let go of the omega and snatched up his rifle, which had been leaning against the side of the cliff. He took aim and was about to fire when Tanner jumped up, grabbed the barrel, and pointed the muzzle skyward.
“What are you doing?” Logan snarled. “We have to protect the omega.”
“Just hang on,” Tanner said. Then, to the wolf: “Who are you? Show us who you really are.”
At first, nothing happened. Then the eyes in the darkness started to rise until they were level with Tanner’s own. A moment later, a man stepped out of the shadows. He was naked and heavily muscled, with a golden alpha-sign coiling over his right shoulder and chest. His hair was wild and tawny, and when he spoke, his voice was deep and guttural.
“My name is Rufus,” he said, “and I’m here to protect the woman.”
CHAPTER 23
Rufus Redwolf stood and surveyed the scene before him. In his lupine form, he preferred to take in his surroundings through his nose and ears, but in his human form, his senses of smell and hearing were not as strong, so he had to rely more on his eyes. Before him, in the trembling light of a campfire, stood a pair of alphas, the same pair he’d encountered the day before. At their feet was a woman, the one he was sworn to protect.
Rufus’ instincts were telling him to kill the two alphas, and there was a good chance it still might come to that. The dark-haired one was clearly spoiling for a fight.
The blond one, however, had stopped his partner from shooting.
Then he’d spoken to Rufus like a man.
Rufus had been hesitant at first. He’d only ever shifted in front of one other human, and that had been a long, long time ago. At last, he relented. He would parley with the two alphas. He would hear what they had to say for themselves.
And if he didn’t like what he heard, he would kill them both, just as he’d originally intended.
“So, you know what I am,” Rufus said, fixing his eyes on the blond one.
“I wouldn’t go quite that far,” the alpha answered. “But I saw your tracks yesterday, and I knew you weren’t no ordinary wolf.”
Damn. Rufus had feared that might happen. Yesterday he had shifted to heal himself after getting shot. Shifting healed most wounds almost immediately. It was only afterward that he’d realized the attackers might follow his tracks and discover what he really was.
“You also saw what I do to any man who tries to harm this woman.” Rufus gestured toward Shannon Duffy, but he didn’t dare look at her. He did not wish to cause her shame by laying his eyes upon her exposed body, and he also knew once he looked he would have a hard time dragging his eyes away.
He knew this from experience.
“The man you killed yesterday was a beta!” the dark-haired alpha snarled aggressively. “I think you’ll find that we alphas are a bit harder to bring down!”
“Besides,” the blond one interjected somewhat more peaceably, “I can assure you it’s not our intention to harm this poor woman.”
“Oh really?” Rufus growled. “That’s not what it looks like…”
This time, he couldn’t resist. He let his eyes drop to the woman’s body, and his blood sped inside his veins.
