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Chapter Eighteen

"You told me about an assigned mission earlier," I said. "What missions did you run?"

El and I were walking down a narrow dirt path leaded from the back of the bed and breakfast. My pulse was racing; I had just left my son with a lady who was older than dirt. The only benefit was that it made me want to get this over with even quicker.

"You obviously know the legend," El said. "You know what the women were accused of."

I ran through the story in my mind. "Prostitution?"

El nodded. "Adele and the ten elders have long grown tired of finding just mates. They adore the taste of human flesh. Believe it or not, there's a major highway about five miles west of here. A truck stop had just been built up around the time I came. It's the easiest place to find new bodies."

"So you slept with gross, sweaty truck drivers?" I asked increduously. She stopped and turned. My shoes ground into the gravel as I stopped my body from moving forward. "Does that bother you?" she shot back.

"You just deserve better than that," I said quickly.

"What would you consider better?"

This was ridiculous. We were on the outskirts of the thick trees; the smell was overpowering. I knew they were in there.

"I'm better," I said. She laughed.

"That's what you all think," she said a little bitterly. With the fastest reflexes I had ever seen, she twisted and disappeared between two very tall, thin trunks that seemed to have grown so close together that no human person could get through. I pressed my hand into the bark and tried to squeeze. My ass was getting in the way.

Why did I have to be born with a 'Winnie the Pooh' ass?

"You could just walk around," she said quietly. She was standing only feet away in a bare circle of dirt, seemingly amused. I pulled my body back out. Sure enough, there was a clear trail to the right. I walked around and headed towards her.

"So what's the plan?" I whispered. "You sexed me up at the truck stop and now you're bringing me in as bait?"

El crossed her arms. Maybe it was my imagination, but the closer we had walked to the forest, the bolder she had become. Now, surrounded my trees, I felt a magnetic pull in my gut that was undeniable.

"You're defenses are already down," she said. "How are you going to resist Adele if you can't stop staring at my chest?"

Crap. I hadn't realized I was staring at her chest. I glanced up. The small rays of sun that were breaking through the trees were playing a shadow dance on the forest floor.

"I'm sorry, just give me a minute," I said. My mind had gone too far south, literally. I conjured up those images that would bring my wall of steel back: Lauren, the dead wolf pups, Howie...

"Okay," I said coldly. "Let's go." I don't know if you've ever seen Pirates of the Carribean 2, but if you have, I'm sure you remember the heart in the chest scene. If you do, you can understand my description of walking deeper into the forest. The closer we got to the epicenter, the more I became sensitized. Even though I had never consciously met her, I could sense Adele. She was waiting, always waiting.

For me.

I wasn't quite sure how far out we were, but El's steps seemed to get slower and slower until she was barely moving at all. The trees were rapidly thinning out.

"We're here," she whispered. Her voice sounded funny, but I assumed it was nerves. Who knew if she really would be accepted back in, even if she was bringing the male golden wolf to her leader?

It seemed like we crossed an invisible threshold when we entered the large circle of packed earth. It was obvious that it was a meeting place. Logs were placed in a semi-circle as benches. In the center was a large bon-fire structure, new wood had alreay been placed over charred cinders. A gigantic flat rock was positioned to the right side of the fire. A large throne-like structure was on the left.

"Wow," I said softly.

El walked forward slowly. I watched her eyes dart around the circle. She headed towards the throne and her palm slid along the back of it.

"Where is everyone?" I asked.

"They must be out," she said. She turned around just as I came up directly behind her. She looked up at me and once again I couldn't not notice the rise and fall of her chest. It seemed like her breath was coming more rapidly. The nerves were getting to her.

"It's going to look strange if we're just standing here waiting," she said in a rush. Color was rising to her cheeks.

"Do we go back out and hide?" I asked. She shook her head.

"No, if they think I've brought them a goodie..." she trailed off. Her eyes flickered over to the large slab of rock. "They'll expect me to be doing my job."

"Doing your..." I trailed off as I got a better look at the rock. It was the length of a bed.

"We just have to look like we're about to," she added.

"I can look like we're about to," I agreed.

I didn't want to admit it to her, but it was getting harder to keep the thought of dead bodies in my mind when she was standing there and I could feel the warmth radiating from her body. "Okay," she said after a beat, as if reconfirming to herself the plan of action. She took my wrist and led me over to the rock. She grabbed the bottom of my shirt and I raised my arms. She pulled it off and paused. I watched as she ran a finger down the center of my chest. I sucked in a breath as she went to work on my belt.

She moved quickly. Jeans were discarded, boxers were next.

"There seems to be an uneven distribution of clothing," I said quietly, clad only in my socks.

"Does this make it better?" she asked. She wiggled out of the jeans she was wearing. She had great legs. A gust of warm air hit my back, making me even warmer than I was already getting.

"Better," I said.

"Take off your socks," she said. "Having socks on is just weird."

I sat down on the rock, grateful that it wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be on bare skin and pulled off my socks while she pulled off hers. She studied me for a second before pulling off her top. There was no bra underneath.

"Oh!" I interjected. She pressed her palm on my chest and down I went as she straddled me.

"So we're just pretending," I repeated. My hands wrapped around her hips. She nodded.

"Just pretending," she said.

"How can we pretend when you're still wearing panties?" I asked. I looped my thumbs around the narrow waistband.

"In media res," she said. I stared up at her in confusion. "What?"

"It means in the middle of things," she said.

"I could be in the middle of things better without you wearing this," I said. Her lips curved into a smile. "If you say so."

She backed away from me and I watched the last article of clothing disappear.

Now, I'm sure I know what you're thinking. A rational person wouldn't want to encounter his enemy at his most vulnerable, right?

Right. Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking that at the moment. As she slid back over me, her nails digging into my shoulders, I was thinking in basic animalistic mating terms. She leaned down, her hair tickling my neck and drew her lips to mine.

I should have known then that something was wrong when our kiss deepened. Instead of the sweetness that I was expecting to inhale, I seemed to extract from her the taste of blood and dirt. My mind didn't process these things as wrong right away. After all, I had dabbled in my fair amount of blood. Instead, my body reacted in the only way it knew how.

Her legs tightened against my sides and she reached down and grabbed me. I gasped right into her mouth; she seemed to suck it greedily in.

My eyes had closed upon lip impact, but as I opened them once more I saw again the faint glow around her. My hands grabbed her breasts and her eyes darkened.

"Say you want me," she said.

I should have realized that the crunching noise that was trying to invade my senses over the pounding of my own blood meant trouble, but I didn't. She had already taken me in just barely and I was suddenly like a man starving for her.

"Say it," she repeated.

"I want you," I moaned. My head fell back and tilted slightly in the dip of the rock. As she brought herself down for me to fill her, my eyes caught sight of what had been going on around us during our primal exchange. I cried out.

At least seventy people had come out of nowhere. They were shoulder to shoulder, creating a human circle, leaving no way of escape. Each and every one was looking at El. I suddenly felt her fingers around my throat as her lower muscles tightened around my member. My whole body jerked up towards her uncontrollably, unable to stop the throws of sex.

"SONS AND DAUGHTERS!" she yelled in a raspy voice. "BOW BEFORE ME - AT LONG LAST YOUR LEADER HAS FOUND HER MATE! ALL HAIL THE GOLDEN WOLVES!"

My eyes were watering as I came to quick release; I saw every single one of the men and women kneel down, their fingers outstretched towards the center of the circle. El removed her fingers from my throat but she didn't get off of me.

El. AdELe.

"No!" I cried. She spread out over me; every inch of my body felt like it was on an invisible leash. I couldn't move. Her lips grazed my ear.

"Welcome home, darling."