Page 13 of Tempting a Wolf

A footstep behind her caught her attention. She turned to find Marcus standing there. Her teeth chattered although she hadn’t been cold a minute before. He held out his hands, and she drifted toward him. When his fingertips brushed her sides, a flurry of sound filled the night, as if choreographed. Wolves howled at the moon in the distance. She shivered.

“What’s happening?” she whispered.

“A wedding.”

With eyes wide, she stared up at him. “Not ours?”

He laughed. “No, not ours. This”—he gestured to their surroundings—“isn’t real. Not anymore. This night is from many years ago. Come on. Let me show you.”

They worked their way through the woods. Marcus was no longer frenzied with getting between her legs. He was a gentleman, holding branches away from her face as they passed. Soon, the trees gave way to a clearance where wolves were arranged in a circle. Two wolves occupied the middle.

While she watched in fascination, the bigger animal transformed into a man. He held out his hand much like Marcus had done, down by the lake. The other animal she assumed was a female began to change, and Tameca bit down on her tongue as she discovered who it was. Renee!

“But I don’t understand.” She glanced up at Marcus.

He placed a finger over her lips. “Shh, just watch, baby.”

The man, with brownish black hair that was unruly and frizzy, grinned down at Renee. “Tonight, I vow to take my mate as my own and seal our union in front of you all, our family.” Only when he kissed Renee and lowered her to the ground did Tameca realize they were buck naked.

She squeaked and turned her back. “Marcus, I am not watching my sister get it on with that guy. Suffice it to say, they became mates. Get me out of here. And where did he go? Did he run off with someone else? Because I noticed you all like to sleep around.” She tried for flippant, but it fell flat.

Marcus kissed her neck, then nibbled her earlobe. She would have pulled away, but with his arms he wrapped her close to him, not letting go. “Tameca, that man is not some random lover. He is your father.”

“What?” She jerked free. “Oh, hell, no! I’m not having anything to do with people who think incest is all fine and good! Get your hands off me!” She jabbed him in the stomach and ran back the way they had come, only to crash headlong into someone else. The impact landed her on her ass.

She looked up. Renee stood fully dressed, and she stared in the direction of the couple, who were still in the throes of sex. Tameca pressed her hand to her mouth. She would never forgive an

y of them for exposing her to this horror.

Renee finally dragged her gaze from the couple and crouched down in front of Tameca. She reached out to touch her head, but Tameca smacked her hand aside. “Don’t touch me. Take me out of this dream. I just want to go home.”

“Tameca—”

“I don’t want to hear it! I’m not going to mate with Marcus. He can go straight to hell, and you can join him.” She was up and running then. She rushed through the woods as fast as she could. The odd thing about it was that she ran faster than she had in the past. Fallen logs were nothing to spring over, and darting left and right around trees posed no challenge.

She sniffed the air and picked up several wolves close by. Sniffed? What the hell? This dream was getting out of hand if she was exhibiting the wolves’ characteristics. She had never been able to run fast. According to a succession of phys ed teachers during her school years, she wasn’t built for it.

They had all been wrong, she decided as she sprinted harder. Not yet breaking a sweat or winded, she figured she could run forever—until Renee sprung out in front of her. Tameca braked fast, pitched forward, and rolled a few times among the dead leaves. She scraped her cheek and bumped her head before coming to a stop.

Above her, Renee’s nostrils flared. She grinned, displaying sharp teeth, the canines longer than the rest. “If you will stop running, Ms. Jump-to-Conclusions, you will find that the truth is . . . I am not your sister, but your mother. Lucas and I had only one child before he was killed. You.”

“M-Mother?” Tameca sat up slowly. “But you said our parents were killed in an accident years ago. You said—”

“I know what I said. What I said and did was for your protection.”

Renee knelt down and brushed Tameca’s hair from her forehead. This time, she didn’t move out of reach, as she remembered that Lucas had the same uncontrollable hair. Her father. She had actually seen him. She wanted to go back and get a closer look at him.

“I want to know everything,” she demanded. “This time I’ll listen. I won’t run. Are you werewolves or something?”

Renee shook her head. “No, we’re a race of people who can shape-shift into wolves. It’s been that way as far back as we can trace our lineage, which is quite far.” She stood. “Come on. I will show you more.”

When Tameca stood, it was instantly daylight. She jumped at the sunshine, warm on her skin, and glanced over at Renee. “That is too freaky.”

Her sister—her mother—laughed. “We have a few gifts. This isn’t real, not now anyway. All that you see is a memory planted in your mind while we’re all still at Marcus’s mansion. This is how our home looks, or did look before it was destroyed.”

They walked back the way they had run. “Destroyed? By whom?”

“Those that don’t understand us, who want to study us and learn some way of becoming like us.” She shrugged. “There have been many over the years, different governments, different individuals. One of them killed your father, and I ran with you, determined to live a normal life until . . . ”

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