Dark Wolf (Spirit Wild) - By Kate Douglas Page 0,24
against emptiness, flooding the car with the ripe scent of her need. She wondered if Sebastian was sensitive enough to pick up a scent that was embarrassingly strong to her, one she knew a human man wouldn’t even notice.
She clenched her fists and let out a deep breath. Damn it! She had no reason to feel embarrassed. She could no more deny her needs than she could refuse her wolf. She was Lily Milina Cheval, an alpha Chanku bitch, and her libido was part and parcel of the whole package.
If she were mated, if sexual release wasn’t something she only prayed for, it would be different, but she hadn’t had sex in much too long. The last time had been with Alex, and it had been wonderful as always, but it would never be enough because Alex wasn’t enough. She loved Alex Aragat, but he was little more than a precocious child when compared to Sebastian Xenakis.
Lily had always been a stronger wolf than her lifelong buddy and best friend since birth, and both of them knew it.
She needed a man. One who challenged her.
A man like Sebastian, with all his quirks and his strange aura of darkness, with the mysteries she itched to unravel. She wanted his arousal, his sharp edge of danger, and his powerful hunger.
Hunger focused solely on her.
She studied his strong profile, and a shiver ran along her spine. There was something about him that might have frightened her had she been a little less sure of herself, but Lily knew and trusted her strengths. Where her magic might not be enough against a wizard as powerful as Sebastian, her wolf would always protect her.
She turned away and stared out the window as the massive struts of the Golden Gate Bridge flashed by, thinking of Alex, the one constant lover in her life. Where Alex was home and safety, unconditional love and acceptance along with a certain amount of hero worship, Sebastian was dark shadows and danger. Mystery clung to him, a subtle sense of peril that Lily found as arousing as the man’s body.
No, there was nothing safe about Sebastian Xenakis. He’d tried to mount her tonight, but then he’d turned and fought wolves much larger than himself to protect her. He had her so twisted up inside she wasn’t sure what she wanted or what she really believed about him, but one thing was certain.
She wanted him in her bed. Not as a wolf, at least not until she trusted him, but as a man. And she wanted him tonight. Her gaze was drawn once again to his strong profile just as he shifted his eyes in her direction. Even in the reflected lights from the dash, she could tell they were an inhuman shade of teal blue. Nothing of the wolf about them at all, but the slight crinkle at the corners as he smiled at her dissolved the danger, chased the mystery aside.
Was the mystery all in her mind? Was he merely a very sexy, very nice man who just happened to use magic to become a wolf? But, what if . . . ?
“Have you ever been tested?” she asked.
He frowned, but his concentration was on the bridge and the traffic slowing for the automatic tollbooth. “Tested? For what?”
“To see if you’re Chanku.”
He shook his head. “No. No reason. How’s that work?”
Lily shrugged. “You take a capsule that’s filled with specific nutrients for a couple of weeks. Either you shift or you don’t. If you have the right DNA, you can become another creature. The first shift is generally a wolf, but some people do other predators.”
He laughed. “I can already shift, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
She punched his arm. “I noticed. Trust me on that, but I also think you could shift without the magic. Just a feeling. If I give you the capsules, would you take them?”
“I guess. No reason not to.”
He took the exit that led to her home before Lily even thought to give him directions. “You know where I live.”
“Busted,” he said. He glanced her way. “I’ve wanted to meet you. I’ve heard of you. We’re neighbors in Montana, but you’re never there.”
“Rarely. The job keeps me tied here more than I like. I prefer Montana.” She stared out the window as he followed the road to her house. Her mom’s uncle Ulrich had owned the place for many years, but all the family had settled on the compound in Montana years ago, when the world