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  Rhetta brushed her wedding band over her own collarbone. Any marks were long faded on her light-brown skin. She turned and headed into the kitchen.

  Rhetta was right. It was good that she didn’t love Pierce Alcede. With a smile like that, and a sensual touch that awakened long dead senses, he could break her heart if he abruptly turned his attentions away.

  Her heart was a fragile organ at the moment. She’d gone to the human world, expecting to rise to the top as she’d done in her hometown full of shifters. And she had risen. She’d graduated first in her class ahead of a largely male, mostly mediocre student body.

  She’d been certain she’d gain a position on one of her professors’ research teams, or in their companies, or at least a junior professorship. But she left campus with only her degree and no offers while the line of unexceptional classmates behind her took on the coveted positions. She’d been cheated, her skills abused, and her talents neglected.

  No matter. She’d brought back a host of new and innovative ideas to make this farm the top shepherding and wool business on the West Coast, then the nation, and finally the world. She just had to face down her mother and get her to accept that change was coming.

  By the time Viviane got into the kitchen, she was met with the sight of Pierce chopping vegetables.

  “I didn’t know farm life was filled with so many rich foods,” he said. “But I’m making you a salad since you already ate on the train.”

  Viviane rolled her neck with annoyance. How quickly he’d slipped into the role of bossy male. Was he seriously trying to tell her what to eat?

  He looked at her pointedly. His eyes dipped to her belly. It was then that she realized he was covering for her. There was no way she could keep down the spicy meat dish her aunts had prepared.

  Pierce tossed the salad and placed it before her. It was a simple thing. It shouldn’t have meant so much that another person was thinking about her comfort and well being.

  He pulled a seat out for her. Then he sat down next to her. He ate his own portion of rich foods with one hand while keeping an arm wrapped over the back of her chair with the other.

  Gloria didn’t return for dinner. Pierce and the Diegos were old chums before their steaks were half eaten. By the end of the meal, Tia Stella was completely charmed by Pierce. Tia Bianca was visibly fighting a loosing battle of liking him, too. Rhetta sat silently watching, but she didn’t once roll her eyes at him.

  Pierce didn’t know it, but that was a major victory in this family. He wielded that charming grin as smoothly as he’d wielded the knife over the greens. All the while, he leaned into her, kept that arm wrapped over the back of her chair, and kept an eye on her water glass and the amount of greens on her plate.

  He played his part to perfection. By the time the dinner dishes were cleared, he had Viviane herself convinced that they were indeed newly mated and in love.

  For the first time in her life, Viviane sat by quietly and let people talk around and over her. She was weary and exhausted from the travels, from finals, from life. Her head canted to the side and landed on something that was soft and firm at the same time. Then heat landed right at the spot between her neck and shoulder where the pressure of two years had gathered. Pierce’s large hand cupped the back of her neck.

  From where her head had come to rest on Pierce’s shoulder, she tilted her face up. Her nose brushed the soft stubble just under his chin. She felt the rumble in his chest as he laughed at something DJ said. Pierce’s thumb pressed into just the right spot along her neck to offer more release and she moaned.

  He looked down and caught her gaze. His wide grin softened as his intelligent eyes peered into hers. Viviane’s heart did something funny. It didn’t stop. It didn’t pick up speed. It gave one, loud, long beat; as though his hazel gaze were heart paddles jump-starting a weak pulse. Then the organ resumed its normal pace.

  “We’re going to call it a night.” Pierce’s words were met with a chorus of disappointed groans. “Vivi’s had a long day and I want to get her to bed.”

  That was met with a chorus of chuckles and giggles. Pierce grabbed their luggage from the hall. She climbed the flights of stairs on shaking legs with him behind her. His hand remained at her back until he removed it to open the bedroom door she indicated as hers.

  Viviane stared at her twin bed in the center of the room. A green comforter covered the small frame. There was barely enough room for her to stretch out as a grown woman. It was not possible for both of them to fit.

  “I’ll take the floor,” Pierce said as he closed and locked the bedroom door behind them. He grabbed a pillow and a throw from her bed.

  Viviane watched as he removed his shoes and then his socks. It seemed so intimate a thing to see his bare feet and toes. He pulled up the hem of his shirt to reveal a toned, brown chest splattered with dark, curling hairs. When his head appeared through the shirt, their eyes caught.

  Her heart paused, threatening that shocking beat again. Viviane turned away to break from the connection. “I want to thank you for all you’ve done for me today, Pierce.”

  “It’s no skin off my back. Unless your mother catches me when I run.”

  “She’s a day prowler. She herds the sheep. She sleeps at sun down.”

  “Then that’s when I’ll leave.”

  She turned back. He stuffed his shirt into his sack. “Where will you go?”

  Pierce shrugged as he straightened to his full height, giving her an eyeful of his perfect physique. “I don’t know? Wherever the wolf takes me.”

  She motioned for him to turn his back while she stripped and put on a nightdress from her drawers. The garment was too small, but it would suffice for the night. When she was done, she climbed into the bed and signaled for him to turn around.

  “I thought I wanted to leave home when I went off to university,” she said. “But I can’t imagine not being able to come back.”

  She’d thought for a while that she’d try to make it in the human world. Especially after her last visit when she’d offered new aged advice to her mother about electric shears. Men had been using electric razors for hundreds of years, but the Veracruz ranchers still hand-sheared. The device would shave time off their wooling season and give them a much cleaner product. Her mother had turned from her with a scoff.

  “You don’t think you’ll ever settle?” she asked.

  Pierce settled down on the floor. “I don’t know? I don’t know how this whole lone wolf thing works. No one has ever roamed in my family. I miss my mom and dad already, but I know if I were to return home tomorrow, I’d just leave again as soon as I set foot in the house.”

  “Do you think you could run it out of yourself?”

  “That would be nice. Then I could return to my family and…” He sighed. “Actually no, that wouldn’t be nice. I love my family, and would love to be around them more, but I don’t want that life in the city. It’s stifling there.”

  There was a rattle at the door.

  “Since when do we lock doors in this house?” came the voice from the other side.

  Pierce scrambled up from the floor to toss the sheets and the pillow back on the bed. He went to the door and opened it. Gloria Veracruz stood at the threshold. Pierce blocked her passage. Viviane opened her mouth to launch into an argument, but Pierce got there first.

  “My apologies, Mrs. Veracruz, but I do require privacy with my mate. I’m sure you understand.” He offered her that charming smile that had already won over every other member of the Veracruz clan.

  Gloria growled. Pierce inclined his head in deference, but he did not back down.

  “Have you come to wish us a good night?” Pierce turned and headed back to the bed. He climbed in beside Viviane. He pulled her into him, against his strong chest, and into the cradle of his warm arms.

  Wolves ran hot. Viviane had always thought the hairy bristles of a wolf would irritate her. Pierce’s hairy legs were pillow soft and warm.

  Gloria narrowed
her eyes. “Don’t be loud.”

  “We’ll try, but I make no promises,” he said.

  Pierce nuzzled into Viviane’s neck. Her heart thudded as his lips tracked up her neck, and again when they traced down her neck. Another round and she would need a shock treatment in earnest.

  Goddess, it felt good. He was so close to his mark. She felt it pulsing with life.

  Her mother growled again and slammed the door closed. She didn’t lock it.

  Pierce took his lips away from Viviane’s neck and frowned at the unlocked door. “She might be back.”

  Viviane gulped and then her mouth opened. Words she had no intention of saying spilled out. “Maybe you should stay up here with me.”

  “There’s not much space,” he said. “I may have to hold on to you.”

  “Well, I don’t want you to fall out of the bed.”

  “No, no. The loud thump would bring your mother back.”

  “Exactly.”

  Pierce settled in behind her. He took up over half of the bed. The only space left was within the spoon of his body and Viviane filled the space perfectly. His arms wrapped around her. She settled back into his embrace. And her heart settled back into its normal rhythm.

  Chapter Eleven

  Pierce felt the wind in his face and the spongy earth under his paws. His heart was light as he looked here and there over the vastness of the meadow that stretched out as far as his wolf could see. Nothing held him back. Nothing called him to return.

  He ran until exhaustion, collapsing into a happy heap in the tall blades of grass. Resting his nose on the warm, supple earth gave him a second wind. The heady scent filled his nostrils. It kicked his heart into a double-time pound. It stirred his loins.

  He straightened his paws to take off. The ground beneath his feet was compact but unsteady. There was give to it. Something was not right. But somehow, it felt right.

  He sank his paws into the flesh.

  Wait?

  Flesh?

  Pierce’s eyes flashed open. His hand cupped one of Viviane’s full breasts. He inhaled on a surprised gasp and the scent of her flooded his nose, tunneling down his entire body, and waking up every part of him down to his pinky toes.

  Viviane smelled of outdoors; of spring grass shards kicked up under his paws; of rich earth baked in the sun; of thick wool wrapped around his body on a cold night. Pierce buried his nose in her hair, inhaling down along the curve of her neck. Beneath the covers his feet pedaled as though they were running over the earth.

  Her nightgown slipped off her shoulder. The material slid down her chest as she shifted in his embrace. He caught sight of one of her nipples. He stared transfixed at her cocoa creamy skin and the dark morsel of a bud.

  Pierce shut his eyes and slammed his chin to his chest. He yanked his hand away. But the sight and the feel of her were branded forever in his mind.

  Beneath the thin sheet, Viviane moved her hips backwards. Her supple ass landed on his erection. It took everything in Pierce not to thrust forward into the soft heat of her.

  The wolf had a mind of its own. It moved its paw over the landscape of her back. Its fingers clawed higher until they reached the summit of the peak of her waist. At the curved slope of her hip, the claw began its descent. The claw came in contact with a belly that had the faintest hint of a firm bump. The cub.

  Pierce retracted his claws and sprang out of the bed. His bare feet hit the cold floor, shocking sense back into his overheated body. From the bed, he heard Viviane stir. He kept his back to her as he stepped into his pants.

  “Daniel?”

  The cub, the cold, and now the sound of her voice calling another man’s name deflated his raging erection in three seconds flat. Pierce shoved his arms and head into a shirt and turned to face her.

  Viviane rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Even without make up, with her hair mussed, and a red mark on her cheek from the pillow, she was breathtaking. She sat up and the nightdress shifted, burying her exposed nipple from his sight. A good thing since his erection was fighting its way back.

  Her light eyes came into focus. Pierce noted how lost and alone she looked. He planted his feet on the cold wood. He yanked at the weak leash he had on his wolf and willed it not to go to her.

  “It’s all right,” he soothed. “You’re home.”

  Viviane fumbled with the sheet. “Pierce?”

  His wolf hadn’t liked when she called out the name that wasn’t his. But it didn’t matter if he liked it or not. It was daybreak. He was leaving.

  “Yeah, it’s me.” Pierce cleared his throat. “I’m gonna sneak out while the sun is still rising.”

  The disorientation cleared instantly. Her bright, blue eyes came into sharp focus and she took in his clothed state. Her lips parted. Pressed together. Then spread apart in a serene smile that cracked at the edges.

  “Mother is asleep by noon,” she said. “But she doesn’t sleep long. We split the days here on the farm, rising in the late afternoon.”

  Viviane scooted her back flush to the headboard. The movement caused the nightdress’ straps to slip off her shoulder again. Pierce’s eyes slipped along with the strap.

  “I want to thank you again for this,” she said.

  His eyes jerked up to her face. He plastered on a smile of his own, but the corners of his mouth shook as his lips stretched beyond their capacity. “For being the bad guy? The guy who disappoints a family? I’m used to it.”

  Her shoulders curled away from the headboard. If he stood on his tippy toes, he would get another look at the delectable morsels beneath the thin fabric. Pierce balled his fists, digging into his palms until he felt his nails prick the thick skin there. He gritted his teeth, planted his heels, and looked out the window.

  “They’ll probably expect I give the baby your name,” she said.

  Her voice was so faint, so frail, and so faraway that he had to turn back to her to be sure he heard her correctly.

  When his gaze caught hers, her eyes widened. She crossed her arms over her shoulders and squeezed tight. “But I mean -I can tell them ‘no.’ You’re supposed to be the asshole in this story and-”

  “It’s fine, Viviane.”

  She twisted her lip and looked up at him from under the hood of her lashes. She reminded him of a newborn doe on shaking legs. Again, he dug his claws into his palms and ground his heels into the floor. He couldn’t bother with the smile this time. It was hard enough pushing the words past his lips.

  “I probably won’t ever have a cub of my own,” he said. He was surprised to learn that the truth hurt. He cleared the rawness from his throat before he continued. “You would do me a great honor.”

  She let go of her lip and stared at him with those large, doe-eyes. “I have no idea how I’m supposed to make you a villain in this story. You’ve gone above and beyond for me and have been nothing but a gentleman.”

  Pierce turned away from her and gathered his things. “Tell them the truth. Tell them I’m a loner and couldn’t resist the urge to roam.”

  “Assholes leave. Lone wolves… sometimes come back.”

  Pierce’s hackles rose at the tremor of hope in her voice. He always returned home. He had ties there; deep roots that spanned the duration of his life. The two of them had barely known each other a whole day.

  “I might.” Pierce scratched at his chest as he turned to look at her.

  His gaze slipped to her covered belly. He was curious to see what the cub would look like. He wondered if it was a girl or a boy? Would it have its mother’s wavy hair and fiery spirit? But if he came back to a cub that believed he was its father, he would feel even worse for abandoning the child a few moons later.

  “You’ll have moved on by then,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t a dozen wolves fighting for your hand.” He reached behind his neck and pinched the nerve that twitched there.

  Viviane looked doubtful. Her shoulders hunched back away from the headboard. Her forearms rested in fro
nt of her belly as she cradled her elbows in each hand.

  “Like Jesus, for example.”

  Viviane gagged at the alpha’s name. Pierce laughed at her reaction. He rolled his head with the sound, noting that the twitch was gone. Viviane’s reaction was the one he’d hoped for. He didn’t like the idea of the Neanderthal with his paws on Viviane’s skin.

  “You’re beautiful, smart, and loving.” He came over and sat down on the bed beside her. “Whoever got you into this situation was not the one you were meant to mate. Which means your fated mate is still out there. That cub will have a wolf eager to take him or her in and take care of you.”

  She looked as though she wanted to argue, but instead she lifted her chin and plastered on that serene smile. It wobbled only slightly this time. “Be safe, Pierce Alcede.”

  She swung her legs out of the bed, preparing to stand. Pierce caught sight of her shapely thighs. He stood too, aiming to turn away from any more temptation. But she came to him and rested her hand on his cheek. Her wrist turned into his nose and he got another whiff of her. Inside, his wolf rolled over and showed its belly.

  “I was glad to have known you,” she said.

  Without thinking, he pulled her to him and buried his nose in her hair. She stiffened in surprise, but then she relaxed in his hold. He felt her heart pound against his chest. With another inhale, the beats of his heart fell in step with hers.

  It was a struggle to keep his paws at the small of her back. The wolf wanted to mold her sloping curves to his hard planes, but the man dared not tread. He had to release her soon. He was leaving. Today. This morning. At any moment now.

  “Keep to the meadow,” she said with her nose still buried against his chest. “Along the river, that’s all Veracruz land.”

  “Hmm,” he inhaled. He allowed the pinky finger of the hand that rested at her low back to stretch lower until he felt the band of the top of her underwear. But that was enough. He would go no further.

  “I don’t want you running into anymore Guerreros,” she said. “No need to start my return home with a homicide. Theirs, not yours.”