Werewolf on Somana Two: Michael Read online

  When Chrissie turned onto her street, she remembered how Mack had betrayed her. Now that she wasn’t wanted by the agency, she had time to kick his ass for what he had done. He would pay, that is if the agents hadn’t already turned on him. They were known for double-crossing those who thought they could make a deal with them. The thought gave her pause. Would Willie go back on her word after she gave her the money?

  Chrissie glimpsed Mack’s house next to hers. The place looked abandoned. The door and single window were boarded up. Perhaps Mack had taken his money and run, knowing she would come after him. She wouldn’t put it past him. Many had done the same thing the second they got their hands on a few curans. If he was anything like the others, he would blow through the cash and come crawling back in a few months. One didn’t often escape from this side of Somana Two.

  She headed into her house. With a frown, she turned her thoughts back to Willie. The woman could try to come after her, but no one but she knew about the arsenal she kept in her basement, including a few experimental weapons. She had been holding them until Hawk found a buyer, but if she had to, she’d make use of them. The agents would outnumber her, but she’d take a lot of them down with her, fighting with everything inside her.

  Tiredness coming over her after the ordeal earlier, even though she had slept several hours before meeting with Willie, she decided to get some more rest. She strolled into her bathroom and turned on the shower. Soon, the small space filled with steam and the scent of her favorite body wash. The stuff came at a steep price, but a girl had to have her luxuries.

  Chrissie stripped out of her clothing, her hand skimming her nipple as she lifted her blouse above her head. The tiny bud pebbled, which brought to mind the feel of Michael’s lips wrapped around it. An ache for his touch started in her core, and she groaned.

  “Might need to find that lover sooner than later.” She sighed and stepped under the warm spray. Water streamed over her heated skin, and she squeezed pink-tinted cream into her palm, lathered, and began to wash. She tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and almost jumped at the clear vision of Michael that swam before her mind’s eye. Her imagination had never been that fine-tuned.

  Without realizing it until she felt the feathery touch on her clit, she ran her hand down between her legs, biting off a cry for Michael. Once, just once, she’d bring herself to an orgasm and then along with the suds on her body, she’d wash him out of her memory.

  Her tender clit caught between a finger and a thumb, she gave a gentle pinch. “Ah! Michael, I want you.” She braced a hand on the wall behind the shower head and tried to think of an old lover who pleased her, but none came to mind. “Michael, please.”

  His shoulders so broad and strong, his chest unyielding, and the rest of that body made her mouth water recalling how it felt to skim her hands over his flesh. How amazing would it be to have him here under the water, his skin wet, his hot mouth on her nipples, his hands on her hips while he lifted her to pierce her with his cock? She trembled and stroked herself faster. Bliss coiled in her belly, growing as she stoked the flames with a touch. Allowing her fingers to spread her folds and glide into her slick entrance, she pretended it was Michael, his thick, hard cock hurting just enough to drive her to the edge of insanity, yet feeling so good at the same time that she couldn’t get enough, couldn’t get him far enough inside.

  Chrissie pumped her hips, worked her pussy with her fingers, and murmured his name until she almost believed he was there with her. “Make me come,” she begged him.

  “Always,” was his phantom response.

  She rode his cock faster and imagined the pressure of his fingers gripping her hips, driving her toward him as he pounded into her. She screamed once bordering an orgasm, but she slowed the rhythm to plead with him to make it last a little longer.

  “Anything for you, my mate.”

  Fear closed her throat, and she stopped at once, opening her eyes. Although she had stopped pleasuring herself, her body wouldn’t be denied. She came all the same, the waves spiraling out from her core, making her shake and groan. She let it take her and sank to her knees in the bottom of the tub until the sensations passed. All previous times, she would bring herself to orgasm after orgasm until her fingers cramped and her muscles ached, but she didn’t dare go for a second time tonight.

  His mate, he had said. Michael thought she was meant for him, like what? Soul mates? That was crazy, and besides that, he was part animal. What would they have if they married and had kids, little half-beasts? No thanks. She wasn’t looking for a husband—human or otherwise.

  Feeling a bit stronger after easing her tension and dismissing Michael from her mind for the millionth time, she stood up, washed in lukewarm water, and turned off the shower. No doubt, she would get a warning letter in the next few days about going over her water allotment for the third consecutive month. If she kept it up, the agency would turn her water off, and she couldn’t let that happen. They were likely to leave it off indefinitely to prove a point and punish her for breaking the law. If they knew half the things she had done to bend, stretch, and break the law, she would have already been exiled from Somana Two and sent to some Earth prison.

  After Chrissie had dried off with a towel and wrapped a robe around herself, she headed to the kitchen. Hunger called above the lure of sleep. She would make a quick sandwich with imitation meat and a cup of hot tea. As she padded on bare feet into the kitchen, that thought reminded her that she intended talk to Hawk about supplying her café with real meat. Not everyone would get it, only those who could pay.

  A few minutes later, she carried her food and tea to her bedside, ate at her leisure, and then dropped back on the bed. Her last thought before she slipped into unconsciousness was of Michael. What would he do when he found out she was gone?

  Chapter Nine

  Michael opened his eyes and winced right away at the pounding in his head. He pushed himself to a sitting position while holding his head. What the hell happened to him that he hadn’t healed yet? In his darkened surroundings with a familiar scent he couldn’t quite pinpoint, he tried to recall. Then the incident came flooding back. He had gone to Willie’s house to find Chrissie, but Willie’d had her goons drug him. His kind usually healed fast, but they must have pumped tranq after tranq in him for it to leave him this weak.

  Finding that he sat on a cot, he swung his feet to the floor and stood on unsteady legs. Every muscle in his body cried out in protest against being used. Michael ignored them. He had to find Chrissie, to be sure she was safe. If Willie had killed her . . . No, he couldn’t think that way. He had to believe she was fine. He’d found his mate after being alone for so long, and he wasn’t even looking for her. This was fate, and he’d be damned if he let her slip through his fingers because of Willie’s obsession with werewolves. The agency would be looking for another leader replacement if Willie left even a bruise on Chrissie.

  He stood still, which allowed his vision to focus and his head to stop spinning. After a few minutes, the wolf’s keen sight kicked in, and he made out his surroundings with ease. Wherever this room was, it couldn’t be in Willie’s home or her office. Willie made sure her environment exceeded the rough stone walls that all other Somana Two inhabitants put up with. The walls here matched that ugly plainness, constructed as if the mason cared nothing for style, just function. The floor was dusty, smooth, and unfinished with no carpet or even tile.

  At the other end of the ten-by-ten room stood a door that appeared to be made of steel. Michael might have felt the hinges giving at Willie’s home, but something told him this place would withstand his strength. He wasn’t getting out of here until Willie was good and ready to let him out.

  How long had he been here already? A day, two? To punish him, he didn’t doubt she would extend it for days on end, and who was there to stop her? Gabriel? His brother didn’t give a crap about him, especially after he had gone after Kelly. The only thing Gabriel wanted Michael’s help with was containing
the other wolves, but if he could handle them on his own, Michael doubted he would get a rescue.

  Still, Michael had to give contacting Gabriel a chance, for Chrissie’s sake. She had to be all right. He hadn’t bitten her yet, and everything inside him craved being with her. Not just for the sex, but to have her at his side, to talk to her, to protect her. He knew that he had been made to do just that.

  He dropped back on the bed and began to suck in and blow out deep breaths. He closed his eyes in order to concentrate. Gabriel was the one with all the skill in mind-to-mind contact, but Michael should be able to reach him, that is if his brother wasn’t tossing up a barrier between them because he was pissed that Michael took off.

  He opened his mind and drew on the beast’s psychic ability, but before he got even beyond the room with his mental projection, the scrape of metal on metal reached him, and his concentration broke. As he glanced toward the door, he found a small open panel, and someone stood on the other side of the door staring at him.

  “This isn’t a show,” Michael said, a warning in his tone although he was powerless to do a thing to the man.

  “I have her on a holo-phone,” came the response.

  Michael didn’t bother asking who he had on the phone. He stood, trying not to waver and show his weakness. “So? Are you going to open the door?”

  The man shook his head. “No way. I’m not a fool. Your kind have killed many of our agents over the years. I’m not going to be the next.”

  “Yeah, that fact goes both ways,” Michael snapped, “Agents killing werewolves like we’re nothing more than animals. My brother might have been a free spirit all these years, but I got to see face-to-face what the previous agency leader did to my people. But for the fact that an alpha was my brother, and he wanted to use me to capture him, I’d have been experimented on and killed as well. All to bring about a madman’s desire for more power, to use magic to control the werewolf mind.”

  Michael had no idea why he would bring up that old grudge, but being confined to this placed had set him off, had brought back all the hatred. When Gabriel had restored Michael’s sanity, he must have suppressed the lust for killing, the lust for revenge. That bastard, Kelly’s father, had used her scent to fuel his desire to hunt and made her the target. That had been the only way he could control any werewolf because they weren’t susceptible to magic in the same way that humans were.

  He frowned. And yet, Kelly had said someone placed a spell on Chrissie, had used magic to keep her hidden from Michael. Could Willie have done it? Could she have employed a magic-user to keep Chrissie from him? No, at the time Michael was looking for Chrissie, Willie didn’t know he had set his sights on her. Then again, he couldn’t put it past Willie to have him followed in some way if the person had his scent masked too. Willie might have known just after he met Chrissie and about that first kiss.

  He shook his head and ran a hand over his face. He was complicating this. “Let me speak to her,” he told the agent.

  The man stepped back, lifted the device in his hand, and pressed a button. Michael was somewhat startled to find instead of the small projection of Willie as a holo-phone usually displayed, a life-sized hologram of her appeared. He couldn’t see more than her head and shoulders, but they were in proportion to how she appeared in person. She gave him her usual arrogant half-smile. “Hello, Michael.”

  Anger surged inside him at the sight of her. “Stop the games, Willie, and let me out of here. Your interpretation of what’s legal and what’s not legal is lacking. You can’t hold innocent people prisoner without a trial or any type of formal arrest.”

  She burst out laughing. “You must have forgotten that I am the one who decides what’s legal and what isn’t. Besides that, you aren’t an innocent person. You’re a werewolf, or don’t you remember that on Earth, your people have no rights at all.”

  He growled a warning, but didn’t rise to her bait.

  She went on. “You’re an obvious terrorist, trying to break into the agency leader’s home. To witnesses, there was no mistaking your murderous intent.”

  “Witnesses,” he shouted. “You mean your lackeys?” He slammed a fist into the door, rattling Willie, if not the solid door. “Where is Chrissie? If you hurt her, so help me, I’ll—”

  “Ugh, what do I see in you, Michael, with all the repeating of yourself. You’re a bore, but then it was never your brain that interested me.” The look of lust she tossed his way made his stomach churn. Willie took on a dazed expression as if she had become lost in memory of their many nights tangled beneath her sheets. She had better enjoy those memories, because he would never be there again.

  “I said, where the hell is she?”

  “Spending her curans, I guess.”

  Michael frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

  She paused, watching him in obvious relish of what she was about to say. “I paid her thirty thousand to stay away from you. I would have paid more to keep a prize like you to myself, unless I was willing to kill her. But since you might go all werewolf on me and cause difficulties, I decided against it. Still, she surprised me. Chrissie named the amount. Talk about a cold bitch after my own heart.”

  Michael slammed his fist into the door for the second time, and pain shot up his arm, but he ignored it. “You’re a liar! Chrissie’s not like that.”

  “How would you know? I bet you didn’t do more than fuck her. I’m surprised you know her name.”

  “God to hell, Willie. If you think I’m going to believe your lies, you’ve got another thing coming. I know the depths you’ll sink to, to get what you want, and drugging me and locking me in this room doesn’t come close to how low you will sink.”

  Willie might instigate the depraved acts she committed on a daily basis, but she took offense to those who called her on it. Her beautiful face took on a mask of hatred Michael had never seen directed at him, and he paused in his tirade against her. Her pink lips thinned to slits, and her almond-shaped blue eyes narrowed. After a few moments of staring at him like she wanted to gouge out his eyes, she turned her head to the side to look at something outside of Michael’s view through the hologram. Without another word, Willie’s form disappeared to be replaced by another, smaller scene. It took a bit for Michael to realize what he saw. The projection was a recording of Willie’s office. He had visited there several times before.

  Willie sat at her desk writing, and then she glanced up when someone must have come in. Michael couldn’t see who it was, but then the view swung a one eighty, and he was looking into the face of his mate. Just seeing Chrissie made the beast whine to be with her. Michael tamped the animal down to focus on the recording.

  None of the words interested him much except to create a sense of pride that his sexy little thief was not intimidated by Willie in the least. However, when Chrissie asked for the thirty thousand, she might as well have slugged him in the stomach. She was a thief for cripe’s sake. Her morals were already not too high to steal from others, but Michael had fooled himself into thinking she was not like Willie, never like his former lover. How could his destined mate be that kind of woman?

  Not that Michael was above bending or breaking the law, but to decide their mating had been nothing more than a means of increasing her finances was too much. Michael spun away from the door and walked back toward the bed. He rested his fists on his hips, staring into nothingness as he considered what this meant. The beast had to be wrong. A wolf and his mate were compatible, and even if she turned out to be human—an occurrence that had happened maybe a dozen times over the last few centuries—the human mates had experienced the same pull, the same need the wolf felt, even before she had been claimed with a bite.

  His wolf was wrong. He had to be. That was the single rational conclusion that Michael could come to. With Chrissie taking the money, and he knew it wasn’t from fear of what Chrissie would do, it meant she felt nothing for him, no pull. She’d been just another horny woman, no more.

  Michae
l closed his eyes. When he saw Gabriel again, no doubt his brother would say he told him so. He sighed and then spoke to Willie without facing her. “How long will I be in here, Willie?”

  “Until you decide you’re done with her.”

  “I could lie.”

  “I’ve never known you to be a liar, Michael. Of all things that you are, that’s not one of them. Besides, I am banking on the fact that now you know the truth, you’ll want nothing to do with her. I’ve always been up front about what I want from you. I don’t ask you to marry me. You come and go as you please.”

  His shoulders slumped. “Promise me that you won’t go after her. Let her enjoy the money if that’s what she wants, but you stay out of her life, you and your agents. I have no more reason to see her. Deal?”

  The delicate tinkle of her laugh irritated him. “Deal!”

  A couple hours later, Michael walked along the street headed back toward Willie’s house. Everything in him wanted to go find Chrissie. He had picked up her scent without trouble, especially given that he found the building Willie held him in was on the southside, nearer to where Chrissie lived. He guessed Willie had done it on purpose to gauge whether he would give in and track her down after Michael had given his word he wouldn’t. Leave it to Willie to be two steps ahead of everyone.