Wolf on the Road Read online

  Petunia’s jaws were forced slightly open as Mali’s forearm inflated with muscle, and her beady little eyes shot open. “You’re crazy!” Petunia said, recoiling and trying to catch her breath. “You shoulda listened to your boyfriend!”

  Mali fell to one knee as another wave of agony crunched inside her body. She felt like she was burning from the inside out, like she was cooking. She cried out and almost fell the rest of the way, but she managed to catch herself on a trembling, outstretched arm.

  “Just get her, you idiots,” Petunia said, sounding slightly disappointed. “I was having fun there for a minute.”

  Petunia kicked Mali’s arm out from underneath her, and Mali flopped hard onto the concrete. Dust filled her nose, and another burst of white hot heat shook her. Her mouth opened, but when she screamed, no sound came out, only a thin, paper-like rasp. She lifted her head, dramatically, one more time and looked to Jake, who had managed to extend a hand toward her, but still couldn’t stand.

  “Sucks to be you,” Petunia said, poking Mali with the toe of one of her leather boots. “And sucks to be me because now I’ve gotta deal with two sacks of limp wolf meat, and nothin’ but a gang of morons to help me.” She put her foot on Mali’s back like George Washington crossing the Delaware. Or, more accurately, like Napoleon being very impressed with himself after having stepped onto a boat. “Hey, can you still talk, or are you in too much pain to manage?”

  Mali managed to squeak out a pained groan, but she looked over at Jake and gave him a little wink. For a split second, he opened his eyes wide, and then went back to limply dangling, but he had the tiniest of smiles on his face.

  “I guess that’s a no, then,” Petunia said, once again sounding disappointed in the way things had turned out. “I gotta admit, I kinda like you, kid. You got spunk. Or moxie. Or, you know, whatever other thing people with guts have. I always hated it when people say something about ‘got the balls to do it’ because you know what? Fuck that. I don’t have any balls, and here I am with two captive werewolves and a perfect plan. I think when I’m the president I’m going to change the saying to “I’ve got the uterus for it”. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?”

  Mali groaned again, although this time it was partially confusion at what Petunia was rambling on about. Mali let out another little moan, and then had to fight back a wave of nausea that hit when her next blast of pain shot through her. Petunia kicked her again, and then turned around with a heavy sigh. “Oh well, waste not, want not. Or whatever. Get ‘er, guys. Let’s get out of here. I’m starting to get depressed.”

  As soon as Petunia started toward the door, Mali shot up off the floor like a greased pig in a vat of Vaseline. Her lupine limbs gave her more reach than she knew what to do with. At first, she was slightly clumsy, almost stumbling over her own feet, but not a second later, she’d found her footing.

  The bikers were stunned for a split second, which was all the time Mali needed... and all the time she had. A wave of agony shot through her in the instant before she got to Petunia, but she forced her way through it. A half-breath later, she had Petunia by the scruff of her neck. Mali curled her claws around the bunny’s throat. “Enough,” she snarled, her lips curling back from her dagger-like teeth. “That’s... enough.”

  Petunia thrashed wildly, a ball of claws and toenails and metal teeth. Mali blinked hard, fighting back another wave of hot pain, and squeezed Petunia harder. The tiny tyrant fought back as fiercely as she could, but it wasn’t any good. Mali’s rage, her terror, and her newfound strength fueled her for long enough to get the job done.

  She wheeled back and let out another roar before hurling Petunia straight into the gape-mouthed bikers who immediately dropped Jake onto the floor in an attempt to catch their flying boss. With a shriek, she crashed into the one in the front, who fell into the three behind him when they tried to catch him.

  Mali could hardly see. Her vision was vacillating between a blackout and a red haze, but she somehow fought back the pain, made her way to Jake, and heaved him to his feet. She looped one of his arms around her neck and did her best to support his massive weight. Like the roar had before, the closeness to Jake, and the heat radiating off his body warmed Mali and gave her a shot of energy. “Can you walk?” she asked, grunting under Jake’s considerable weight. “That would really help right about now.”

  She looked up the stairwell in front of them and shrugged her shoulders to get Jake’s arm in a place she could more easily support him from.

  He strained, and managed to support a slight amount of his heft on shaking, trembling legs. “Stairs, huh?” he asked, looking at Mali for a second and shaking his head. “Well, like you said, this is an adventure, ain’t it?”

  From behind them, a screeching cry pierced the basement. “Don’t say ain’t!” Petunia screamed. She climbed to her feet and charged. With Jake’s arm around her, Mali had a quick choice to make. She propped him against the wall, and he grabbed the stair’s railing. Mali lifted a bare foot into Petunia’s gut, stopping her rhino charge. Another wrack of pain shot through Mali’s body and her strength, along with her lupine features, started to fade. As the strength left her, she knew she had to do something, and quick.

  Drawing on her years of intramural football experience, where she played with the men, thank you very much, Mali lifted Petunia as high as she could, dropped her from the height, and punted the runty dictator straight back into the pile of confused, abused biker werewolves. “We gotta go,” Mali said, “and fast. I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.”

  “I’m amazed you’re still standing,” Jake said. “I think I can make it. Come on.”

  The two of them, arm in arm, hobbled up the steps as fast as they could, which wasn’t too terribly fast. Then, emerging into the distressingly normal-looking house, which was still underground, Jake grabbed a chair, smashed it, and crammed the chair leg through the door handle. “That should hold them for a while,” he said, with a self-assured grin.

  “What the hell do we do now?” Mali asked. She was growing more and more loopy with every passing second. “I’m about to pass out.”

  “We find my brother,” Jake said. “And then we figure out what the hell we’re gonna do.”

  “Yeah,” Mali said, her eyelids drooping. “Yeah okay.”

  Without another word, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed. The only reason she didn’t hit the floor was because Jake caught her. He kissed her forehead with such tenderness that it would have surprised Mali quite a bit, should she have been conscious. “We make a hell of a team, don’t we?”

  9

  “Every time I turn my head like this, it hurts.” Mali twisted her head to show what she meant, and sure enough, when she got to the full extent of her leftward head-turning, it felt like she had an ear full of sand. “Ow.”

  Jake wandered back toward her from where he’d settled at the far end of the courthouse hallway. “Well, then... uh... don’t do that?”

  “Thanks, Doctor Dick,” Mali said with a grin. Jake smiled too, but he was clearly distracted. Ever since he and Erik talked on the phone, he’d gotten increasingly nervous and jumpy. When they got to the courthouse, on Erik’s very bad and very circuitous directions, he’d gotten worse by the minute. By now, he was beside himself, but Mali hadn’t been able to get through to him.

  “How long has it been since you talked to him?”

  Jake scratched at his neck, thoughtfully and slowly. “Five years? Six? I can’t really remember. He called me last month, like I told you. But that wasn’t even a conversation. He just called and told me there were these biker jerk-offs stirring the pot in Jamesburg, and asked if I’d follow them around and see what they were up to.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what?” he asked. The momentary distraction she’d caused began to fade, and he was starting to pace again. “Why wasn’t it a conversation?”

  “No, why has it been so long? I mean, if you guys had a fight or somet
hing, then why would he call in a favor?” Mali had been sitting with her legs underneath herself on a bench in the cold, marble-clad hallway. She unfolded and stretched out, letting her knees and ankles pop. She stuck out a hand, and grabbed Jake’s, which hung limply by his side. When their fingers touched, he looked up, as if in surprise.

  He curled his fingers around hers, and let out a sigh. “I don’t know, honestly,” he said flatly. “We never had a fight or anything dramatic. I just kind of went on with my nomadic life. I’ve never stopped and rested. I’ve never, you know, settled down. Erik was always a little smarter than me about real life.”

  Mali played with his hand for a moment, just sliding her fingers along the lines of his knuckles. “Are you okay? I mean, really okay. With all of this? From a nomad werewolf to a ball and chain around your ankle, huh?”

  He looked at her for a moment, then laughed. “It’s not like that,” he said, staring straight into Mali’s eyes, “I don’t think I’ve ever trusted anyone the way I trust you. It’s a new thing, you know?”

  “Yeah,” she said with a chuckle. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m still not quite sure what I’m doing. I’m not the sort to just take up with someone in the heat of the moment. And here I am.”

  Jake sat down next to Mali, close enough that his shoulders touched hers. “I’m glad we had this chance,” he finally said. “This whole thing, I mean. The days on the road with you were the most fun I’ve had... maybe ever. It’s weird, you know? I started this job I had no idea any of this would happen, but damn it, I don’t regret any of it. Even if I end up in prison for a decade, I had... something I never thought I would.”

  Mali opened her mouth, but couldn’t think of anything to say that would in any way rival the gravitas of what Jake just laid out. She curled up again, nuzzling against his side. “You know,” she said a moment later, “somehow I think it’s going to work out just fine. I think we’re going to be okay. You know why I think that?”

  Jake detached his hand from Mali’s, and then slid his arm around her shoulders, hugging her tightly against himself. He turned his head, inhaled the scent of her hair and kissed her gently where her hair parted in the middle. “Because... we’re here together?”

  She pushed back and turned to look at him. “I was going to say that we had each other, but I guess that’s one of those six of one, half dozen of another things, huh?”

  Instead of answering, Jake kissed her so hard, so hungrily and so desperately, that he forced her head backward against the wall. She clutched his face, slid her tongue around his lips, and then between his teeth. Jake pushed back, swirling his tongue against hers, and inhaling Mali’s essence.

  For a moment, for a perfect, singular instant, the two of them were one. She ran her hands through his hair and Jake slid his up her back to the nape of her neck. He sucked another desperate kiss, pulling her bottom lip between his teeth. Then, he traced the line of her jaw with soft brushes of his lips.

  She gasped, pulling him closer as a wave of goosebumps covered her chest. Her nipples stiffened into sweetly aching peaks inside her bra, scratching softly against the fabric. Mali craned her neck to give Jake room to suck first behind her ear, and then on her earlobe.

  “I’m about to jump on you,” she whispered, laughing softly. “You’re gonna make me take off these panties and climb Jake Mountain, aren’t you? Right in the middle of this courthouse. We’re gonna get arrested, aren’t we?”

  Jake grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her head back, devouring her with kisses that ran from her chin to the hollow of her throat. Mali quailed, and she clutched Jake first against her neck and then her chest where he slid tongue in a circle over the top of her nipple. Even through the fabric, the heat emanating from Jake pulsed through Mali, forcing her to sigh as she held him there. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, pulling Jake’s scent into her lungs.

  She ran a hand down his chest, and to the crotch of his jeans where rubbed her palm against his cock. He moaned as he stiffened. “Getting kinda tight in there?” Mali asked.

  “Just a little,” he whispered as he helped her hand grip his zipper. “Help me out?”

  She blushed a deep crimson, and hesitated. “Are you sure?” Mali asked. “I’ll promise you this, if we go here, I’m not coming out of it without a real prize. Get me?”

  Jake was staring straight into her eyes. “Oh, I get it. Lucky thing about werewolves is that we tend to understand that you can’t always contain the animal.” As he spoke, Mali noticed that Jake’s eyes were starting to grow more intense in their violet coloring, and the tiny flecks of gold that danced like tiny sparks flying off a flame were entrancing. She couldn’t look away, but she didn’t much need to see what she was doing to take down a zipper.

  The smell of pine from outside the windows that opened into the Jamesburg town square, and the smooth wood underneath her, along with the chill of marble tile under her toes gave Mali a full-body sensation. Tingles ran from the fingertips she had just used to pull down Jake’s zipper, all the way to her toes. Electricity squiggled up and down her back, and once again the red flush crept up her neck and the goosebumps prickled her belly and her arms. “No matter what happens, we’ve got each other, right?”

  Before Jake could answer, Mali slid off the bench and pulled Jake down on top of her. The heat of his body between her thighs felt more than good; it felt right.

  He kissed her again, down one side of her face, and that time when he sucked her ear, she pushed her hips upward, grinding Jake’s cock against her sex. A trill of excitement shot through her, and then when Jake moved his hand between them, cupping his hand gently around her pussy and gently rubbing her with his thumb, she let her head fall back against the floor, and let out a long, gasping sigh. A deep thrum of pleasure coursed through her body, and she opened her mouth to let out another moan, only this time, Jake’s name came out of her in a sweet whisper.

  “He-he-hello there! Howdly doodly, brother!” A cheerful voice came from a door that opened at the end of the hallway. “Oh wow, don’t mind me. I’ve certainly done my share of that sort of thing in here.”

  Jake’s eyes got just about as wide as the Grand Canyon. Mali kicked Jake off and scooted backwards until she clunked her head against the bench they’d been sitting on moments before. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and rubbed hard where she’d hit. “I, uh,” she stammered, but couldn’t find enough control of her tongue to do more than that.

  Erik strolled over to where she was sitting and extended a hand. “Erik Danniken, nice to meet you. I already know my brother, but you’re more interesting anyway.”

  “Interesting?” Mali asked, dumbly, as she took his hand and shook. To her surprise, he hauled her to her feet and embraced her in a giant, almost smothering hug. “Welcome to the family,” Erik said. “Unless I’m misreading you two about to go at it on the floor when I walked in, you’re about to find out what makes Dannikens who we are.”

  Erik smiled broadly as his brother blushed. “It isn’t like that,” Jake said. “Well, I mean, not that I don’t want it to be like that, we just haven’t gotten to that point in our relationship yet. Don’t get me wrong, I do want that, but, you know how it goes.”

  “He doesn’t,” another voice, this one female, joined in. A moment later, Izzy, Erik’s long-suffering human mate, walked into the hallway. “But I do.” The woman, who stood about two heads shorter than Erik, shoved him out of the way and grabbed Mali’s shoulders. “It’s good to meet you,” she said. “I’ve heard a lot about you and how you’re... well... you know, changed? Is that the right word?”

  Erik, at the mention of her transformation, became visibly uncomfortable. “Uh, yeah, about that,” he began before trailing off. He was trying to find the words, which Mali found sort of funny, because she’d never seen someone visibly looking around to try and find words before. Erik scratched his chin, and then looked around as though the words were flying around his head and he had to catch the r
ight ones.

  “Wait,” Jake finally said, breaking the silence that had descended on the merry foursome. “Why aren’t you surprised at all to see us? Why weren’t you surprised that I called you? That we escaped?”

  Erik recoiled. “Are you kidding me? You’re a Danniken, and she’s an illegal commodity. We don’t tend to let things like that pass us up.”

  Mali bristled. “A commodity? Are you for real?” She found herself getting in Erik’s face without really even knowing she was doing it. Heat prickled under her skin. Mali’s nerves felt like they were all taking offense at the same time. Jake stuck an arm between them to keep his brother and his mate from killing each other. Erik was smiling in a way that made Jake think he knew more than he was letting on.

  “Good,” Erik said. “That’s very, very good. I was worried you wouldn’t be all wolf, you know? I don’t actually know if I’ve ever met a changed human. What’s it like? I wonder if it’s different for you and for us. I mean, I don’t know what it’s like to be a dull, non-sensing human.”

  Izzy whapped Erik in the back of the head with a well-aimed slap. “That’s enough of that,” she said. “You’re more senseless than I could ever be, and I’m pretty sure you know that.”

  Erik looked wounded as he rubbed the back of his head and frowned. “That hurt,” he said softly. “Why’d you hit me?” Mali could almost see him pouting and couldn’t help but laugh to herself.

  “Why’d you call me a commodity? And then insult Izzy?” Mali asked. She had no idea why, but she had been immediately comfortable with these two strangers. It was almost like she’d known them far longer than she had. Then again, she had gotten to be the same way with Jake, after getting used to him. Maybe it was a kindred spirits, wolfy sort of thing? Mali shook her head. “You’re lucky she just slapped you in the back of the head if you ask me.”

  Izzy walked over to where Mali stood, and slapped her an enthusiastic high five. “I don’t know you, and I don’t know his brother, but I already know I like you. I’m guessing Jake is like Erik, which means he’s really a sweetheart underneath about three hundred pounds of muscular bullshit.”