Her Wolf Protector Page 13

  “I might well have been,” The Alpha barked, barely suppressing a snarl. “What the hell are you doing out here after dark? You know it’s not safe.” He made to snatch her into his arms only to have Georgia skitter backward over the rock she perched on.

  “I’m going home,” she announced, as if there was nothing more natural in the world. “I was going back towards the jogging trail-”

  “You were headed straight into Dozier territory,” Solomon snarled, incensed. “Though how you even got this far is beyond me. I’d be surprised if you haven’t fucked your foot over completely.”

  “I’m a nurse!” Georgia retorted with surprising vigor. “I’ll fix it when I get home! Just...point me in the right direction and I’ll be out of your hair.” Those gray eyes of hers blazed defiance that was both infuriating and hot as hell.

  “The right direction is back to the settlement.” When Solomon reached for her again, Georgia actually smacked his hands away.

  “Don’t touch me!”

  Christ, were all women this stubborn? “You’re in no condition to walk. You’ve ruined your feet.”

  “That’s none of your concern!” If her tone was any indication, she was at least as furious as he was - which only made the gleam of tears in her eyes more heart-wrenching. “I can take care of myself. I can’t stay here anymore!”

  “If you don’t, you’ll be torn apart, Georgia!”

  “And if I do, I put your entire pack in danger!” Her proclamation rang through the trees and into the night, making Solomon wince with its intensity. “You said it yourself, I’m a distraction, and just getting our rocks off isn’t worth all the lives you’re responsible for!”

  Fuck. Was that how he sounded when he said it? He was an even bigger asshole than he thought. Swallowing thickly, Solomon reached for her again. When Georgia made to hit him, he caught both of her hands in one of his own, hauling her against his chest.

  “Let me go!” The moment he released her hands, she turned into a hurricane of violence. Slapping, punching hitting him - though there wasn’t much force to the blows, Solomon felt every one of them. Usually, when women were mad at him, he shrugged off their antics with little trouble.

  But he couldn’t do that to Georgia - no more than he could leave her in the woods alone. Certainly, the Doziers could hurt her, but knowing that he had driven her away with cruel words would hurt him. “Get off me!” He let her hit him until she exhausted herself - sagging into his embrace, her face wet with tears. “I don’t need him. I don’t need you. I can take care of myself.”

  Solomon bristled, cradling her even closer. “Him?” He didn’t even try to keep the jealousy from his voice. In all her time with them, Georgia had never mentioned anyone else. Was the woman he coveted even further beyond his reach than he’d imagined?

  But Georgia merely shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. He didn’t want me - he wanted to own me...and even that wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough.”

  “Who is he?” Solomon took her tear-streaked face between calloused hands, his eyes bright yellow as rage flooded him. “I’ll destroy him.” He didn’t think he’d ever spoken words with more conviction.

  Georgia, however, merely emitted a watery chuckle, doing her best to wipe the moisture from her eyes. “My ex-husband. Fuck him. He isn’t even worth my tears.”

  The relief that flooded him should have shamed him, but instead, Solomon merely nodded - just once - in complete agreement. “He isn’t.” But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t hunt the fucker down one day just to make sure. “There isn’t anything worth your tears, Georgia.” His words drew pink to her cheeks, and he himself realized just how close they were.

  His body reacted immediately. The three days since he’d last had her suddenly seemed like an eternity and finding her safe only meant that he had to reclaim her. He needed her in his arms, his scent covering her, her body writhing beneath his. “Solomon.” Georgia’s breath hitched as she felt the clear evidence of his want against her thigh. “I have to go. I can’t-”

  His mouth covered hers, muffling her protests.

  And despite her assault on him just moments earlier, Georgia melted against him with a soft moan. Solomon’s hands slid beneath the shirt she wore, over the soft skin at the small of her back and up along her spine as he pressed her against him. “Stay.” The single word, growled against her lips, was more a plea than a demand.

  The mountain was dangerous, yes. But when it wasn’t...when it wasn’t, Georgia would leave him. Was it monstrous that he wanted to keep her for as long as he could?

  Solomon’s mouth dropped to her throat, where he inhaled her scent indulgently before biting at the sensitive skin there, so Georgia gasped. He didn’t give her a chance to deny him. Instead, his hands slid to her front, cupping her breasts through the thin material of her t-shirt. When his thumbs covered their peaked tips, the woman in his arms murmured his name, arching her hips indulgently against the prominent bulge between them.

  If Solomon had any sense at all, they wouldn’t do this here. Doziers could literally come upon them at any moment - and they weren’t the only dangers in a forest so late at night. In this particular moment, however, none of that mattered. He gripped Georgia’s hips, lifting her with him as he strode past the immense fallen tree behind them to the shelter of a few low-hanging pine branches. Beneath them, a thatch of springy, dew-laden grass remained, still clinging to life in the autumn chill.

  When Solomon set Georgia down, her gaze met his, face flaming. “You can’t mean to do this here, Solomon. We’re in the middle of nowhere!”

  He liked when she looked at him like that - both entranced and embarrassed by his nakedness. Solomon didn’t know if he’d ever tire of it. “All the better,” he asserted in a low voice. “We don’t have to worry about being quiet.”

  He tugged at her uninjured ankle, pulling her towards him until she braced the sole of her foot against his hard stomach in an attempt to dissuade him, those gorgeous eyes of her wide in disbelief. “We’re going to go at it on the ground like animals?”

  Solomon couldn’t help but grin indulgently at her affrontal. He had much to teach his little human. “But I am an animal, Sweet. Do I need to remind you?” She gasped when he tugged her ankle upward to graze his teeth over her calf, and then her knee.

  Despite the fact that she had been protesting seconds earlier, now Georgia could to little more than watching him from her position - flat on her back - on the forest floor, as he peeled her torn leggings down and from her body.

  She was ready for him. She’d grown wet the moment he’d begun to kiss her, but Solomon wanted her to beg. Needed to prove that she needed him despite vowing the exact opposite. When he lifted her hips from the ground, she started to say something - exactly what he lost in her low sound of surprise when he shredded the thin cotton panties she wore.

  The smell of her - sweet and decadent - drew a groan from him, and Solomon didn’t try to contain himself. His mouth found the slick folds between her legs within moments, and at the first touch of his tongue she cried out, hands threading through his hair for purchase.

  She was soft, silken honey against his mouth and he lost himself in her. In the way she sighed and moaned, gripped at his scalp and cried out when he sucked hard at the small, slick bud of her pleasure. Solomon ate at her like a man starved until she was tensing in his hands, all but shaking in anticipation of her orgasm.

  Then he stopped.

  He withdrew, licking her from his lips and chin, and Georgia did everything in her power to bring him back. “Solomon…” Her sweet breathy plea was music to his ears. “Solomon please...don’t-”

  “Don’t what?” He growled against her thigh, nipping sharply. “Don’t finish you? Don’t brand that sweet little cunt with my tongue?”

  His words drew a violent shudder from her. “Don’t stop.”

  That was all he needed to hear.

  The next time his mouth found her, Solomon didn’t stop until sh
e came apart, grasping and bowing against him. Her fingers curled desperately against his scalp as she rode his mouth, and he didn’t slow the slide of his tongue against her quivering muscles until she was tugging his head away, gasping for mercy.

  He might very well have stayed there all night, feeling her quiver and come against his mouth, but the throbbing between his legs had grown to insistent to ignore. “Come here, woman.” He scooped her into his arms and against his chest, maneuvering her until the wet seam of her slid agonizingly over the length of his cock.

  When she cursed delicately against his neck, he groaned his reply, thrusting instinctively against her.

  He couldn’t ever remember needing something as desperately as he needed to be inside her.

  Georgia, it turned out, was just as ravenous as him. Undulating in his lap, she lifted her head to press her mouth to his, tasting herself from his lips even as she sank down onto his erection.

  Fuck.

  She was fucking heaven. Solomon tightened his grip on her hips to still her before he embarrassed himself. As much as his little human blushed and stammered, she had no problem wriggling on his cock like she belonged there - and slowly driving him out of his mind.

  Georgia’s fingers curled into his shoulders to steady herself as she began to rock against him - slowly at first, but then faster, each stroke sliding her already-sensitive clit against his belly. He felt it - each and every quiver and moan as he stoked inside her - so deep he could barely tell where he ended and she began.

  She rode him like a woman possessed - as fierce and frantic as any she-wolf, clinging to him as she undulated in his lap. Solomon was torn between watching her - those full lips of her parted, eyes glazed in pleasure - and feeling the way she gripped him...tighter and tighter with every pass until he was sure that he had died and this was heaven.

  She whispered his name - moaned it, pleaded and then cried out when he pulled her even more flush against him, meeting every thrust of her hips with his own. Solomon’s growl rose in his throat as he felt her tighten around him - felt her inner muscles flutter and flex until she toppled over the edge, dragging him with her.

  He filled her, spilling himself inside her as pride suffused him. He’d given her this pleasure - only him. He made her quake and burn and dear God he already wanted her again.

  But Solomon wasn’t half the animal he proclaimed himself.

  Gently, he pulled her from his softening cock and into his arms, warming her against the night chill. Georgia groaned softly, pillowing herself against him. The scent of sex and satisfaction clung to her like a second skin, and for a moment, all was right with the world.

  Even if they weren’t.

  Eventually, however, the heat cooled. Georgia’s human body felt the chill within minutes and shivered, burrowing even further against him. Solomon splayed a large, warm palm against her back. “We need to get you back. You’ll freeze.”

  He had always been a man of action more than words. And what could he say now? That she made him feel like no other female did? That she made him feel as if he were a man rather than an Alpha and the entire world didn’t hang on his shoulders.

  “It’s your fault.” When she answered him, her tone was petulant. Solomon couldn’t help but smirk.

  “It’s my fault you’re cold?”

  “It’s your fault I’m naked,” She replied swiftly, refusing to look at him. “I’ve never...I mean...I don’t have sex outside.”

  Solomon snorted. “You, Georgia, are sorely deprived.”

  She put on affronted airs as she shimmied back into her leggings and cleaned herself up as best she could. But when Solomon suggested he shift for the return trip, she didn’t protest.

  Unlike the first time she’d seen him change, this time, Georgia watched with something akin to awe as his body reshaped itself bit by bit. When he stood before her in his animal form, she reached forward to run both hands over his snout briefly in wonder.

  There was no fear in her eyes.

  The trip back to the settlement was brief - Georgia clinging to him as the wind whipped through his fur. On four legs, he could cover two miles within minutes - but halfway through the journey, the acrid smell of burning wood broke through the decadent scent of the woman clinging to him.

  The orange glow in the distance shouldn’t have been half as bright as it was - and Solomon knew immediately that something was horribly wrong.

  Chapter 13

  The Belleview settlement was in utter chaos.

  Georgia knew the moment she saw the gate destroyed that there must have been an attack.

  When she and Solomon streaked past the mangled wood, she wondered, with growing horror, whether the bodies strewn about were Belleview or Dozier. There was blood...so much blood that even she could smell it on the air. One of the cabins was on fire, sparks flying, and several shifters were attempting to put it out while others tended to the injured.

  Whatever fighting had gone on looked as if it had finished, and Georgia’s stomach knotted with dread. Were Natalia and the pups she looked after alright? What about Hunter and Lucas? Tempest...even the malicious Anne occupied her thoughts as she gazed at the destruction around her.

  Solomon skidded to a stop so forcefully that he almost threw her from his back. He emitted several high-pitched barks that signaled a few nearby Shifters to his aid. Georgia was grateful to see Hunter among them.

  Without hesitation, he lifted her from Solomon’s back, his smile wan. “Humans. Always getting into trouble.”

  “Hunter, what happened?” She struggled in his arms. “Put me down, I can walk - you’re hurt!” She felt warm blood seeping through her t-shirt and Hunter winced, shifting her slightly.

  “I’m fine. It’s not bad.”

  “Is everyone safe?” She looked over Hunter’s shoulder to see that Solomon shifted back to his human form and in full Alpha mode. He addressed Lucas, who looked exhausted, a healing bite wound on his shoulder and claw marks down his jaw. “Did we have any casualties?”

  “Ethan and Marian.” Solomon flinched as if he’d been physically struck as Lucas explained. “Some of Ethan’s front guard went for Natalia and the pups and they protected her but...the Doziers were merciless. Their bodies are hardly recognizable.”

  Georgia thought she might be sick. Two more of Solomon’s pack dead...when the hell was this going to stop? “Jennifer and Tempest are a little roughed up but nothing too badly. Tempest was hell-bent on keeping them away from the water tanks. She’s pretty sure they meant to tamper with them.”

  Solomon lay a hand heavily on his shoulder, his expression unreadable. “How many are hurt? Is Anne dealing alright? Do we have enough well to help her?”

  Lucas fell silent long enough that Georgia’s insides writhed in discomfort. She lifted her gaze ton Hunter’s face and saw his lips tighten, the scar on his face thrown into sharp relief. “Anne was taken, Solomon. Her and about five others.”

  Georgia clung to Hunter so hard she knew she must be hurting him, but he didn’t utter a single word. His gaze was fixed on Solomon, who was staring at him as if he’d grown another head. For a brief, nasty moment, she was certain he would lose it - streak off into the night, overwhelmed with the losses he faced.

  She should have known better.

  Solomon’s hands fisted at his side and he swallowed thickly, taking a moment to process both what he’d learned and the chaos before him. He took long enough for guilt to work its way through Georgia. If she hadn’t run off...if she hadn’t been so bull-headed, Solomon would have been here for his pack. Maybe he could have kept the Doziers from getting in... maybe two of his pack wouldn’t have died.

  “Solomon, let me help.” She forced those thoughts to the back of her mind. She could spiral into a guilty hole later - right now, there was far too much work to be done. “I’m not Anne, but I know anatomy, and I helped her for a while. I know what she uses the most. If I could just get someone with me that knows a bit about how fast you heal an
d which wounds get priority.”

  Both Lucas and Hunter looked to her, their expressions surprised. “You would have been here if I didn’t leave. Let me help your people.”

  For a long moment, she thought he might deny her. Solomon’s gaze was hard on hers and she could scarcely believe they’d been intimate less than half an hour before. The experience seemed worlds away. “Hunter, help her.” He finally looked to his brother. “Make sure that she has everything that she needs. Lucas, I need an account of all the wounded - and we need to make sure no one else was taken.”

  “Yes, Alpha.” Lucas inclined his head in respect before following Solomon off towards the burning cabin. Georgia watched him go, her heart in her throat. He blamed her - he had to. He himself had said that she was a distraction - that his head was clearer when she wasn’t around.

  But just now, he needed her.

  “Don’t do that.” She jerked to attention when Lucas spoke, his low baritone humming through her.

  “Do what?” She met his single green eye, her own expression wary.

  “I can smell guilt a mile away. This wasn’t your fault.” His expression was more somber than she’d ever seen it. “If Solomon was here, they’d have gone for him first. We might have lost him.”

  “Or he might have saved lives.” She couldn’t help the weight in her gut.

  “No time for guilt-trips, little human.” Hunter growled, hitching her higher against him as he strode towards Anne’s cabin. “We have work to do.”

  Georgia watched Solomon’s back recede over Hunter’s shoulder, wondering how he could possibly deal with all the insanity around him. The Elders had to help him, didn’t they? Or would they punish him? She really had no idea how shifter politics worked. It was a reminder of how much of an outsider she was here.

  But Georgia couldn’t dwell on that particular thought for very long.