as if each penetrating slide inside Mei stretched her own channel around the warm bulk of the vibrating phallus.
She moved it faster and found a rhythm to match the tight clenching pulse of Mei’s orgasm. Images of Adam and Oliver faded away. Now Eve’s mind raced with the sense of Mei’s arousal, Mei’s past, Mei’s needs.
And over it all was a knowledge of something other. Something beyond Chanku. Something feral and cruel, powerful and alone.
Always alone.
Shaken by alien images and feelings, by unfamiliar sensations, and missing Adam and Oliver more than she ever would have imagined, Eve slowly pulled the vibrator out of Mei’s channel. Mei whimpered, her clenching muscles grasping the phallus even as Eve pulled it free.
Breathing hard, Eve planted one more kiss on Mei’s smooth mound, just above her clit, and then she backed away.
She wasn’t sure. Couldn’t tell why or what was different about this woman. Eve had very little experience of her own as Chanku, though she’d learned much from her links with both Keisha and Xandi. Still, what she felt now was totally alien, this feeling she had with the woman who sprawled boneless and sated in her bed. The woman who sighed with repletion, who gazed at her out of half-lidded eyes.
Mei was different. Chanku, yet not. Feral, intelligent, wild and free, yet trapped in her own world of images and half-memories.
Memories that confused and bedeviled Eve. Running her hand softly along Mei’s trembling flank, she buried her worries behind a smile and thought longingly of Adam. He would know what was wrong. Adam always had answers. He fixed things, didn’t he?
She lay down beside Mei and closed her eyes. She thought again of Adam and Oliver. They had belonged in her fantasy, but now she was surprised that for once their images came into her mind first, before the other members of the Montana pack. Still, the others were there as well. Stefan, so tall and handsome and full of fun, his mate Xandi, always practical but with a twinkle in her eye, her perfect baby boy snuggled in her arms.
Keisha, regal and beautiful, an African princess in bearing and action with her dark hair pulled back in braids and beads, her amber eyes aware of so much more than Eve had wanted to share. And then there was Keisha’s mate, Anton. Just thinking of Anton sent a shiver along Eve’s spine. He was all gorgeous male and pure mystery combined, powerful and aloof, yet an absolute pussycat where Keisha and their little girl, Lily Milina were involved. A Chanku shapeshifter, a wizard, a father, and a friend. He’d frightened her at first, but Eve knew Anton was someone she could always count on.
Just as she could count on Adam Wolf. And Oliver.
Why, when she thought of Oliver, did she always smile? Eve wasn’t quite sure, but Anton’s manservant-slash-friend was definitely special. Thinking of all the new men in her life, Eve rolled to her back and listened to Mei’s breathing as it slowed, steadied, and took on the cadence of sleep.
Mei was a mystery. Obviously not purely human, yet not entirely Chanku, either. Adam would know what to do. Like Anton Cheval, Adam always seemed to have answers.
Eve really hoped he could fix the truck. She wasn’t necessarily worried about Mei. Just curious, more than anything. Whatever mystery surrounded the young woman would eventually come to light, but damn, the truck was something else. She’d ripped a lot of stuff loose under the hood. Stuff that might be really important. She hoped Adam saw the humor in what she’d done. It wouldn’t be nearly as great a plan if her actions made him angry.
She really shouldn’t doubt his ability to repair her unskilled attempts at vandalism. Adam could do it. He could do anything. Hopefully, if he still wanted her, he’d recognize the reason for her actions.
Hopefully.
Feeling only moderately guilty for damaging Stefan’s birthday gift, Eve closed her eyes and drifted into sleep.
Chapter 3
The sun hadn’t yet crested the horizon and the day hung quietly in that strangely silent spot between the full darkness of night and the pale oyster-shell glow of coming dawn. Adam raised his muzzle from the warm cushion of Oliver’s back.
Oliver sighed, but slept on, his wolven body curled tightly in the thick ferns where they’d spent the night. Adam blinked, gazing into the dark, seeing so much more through wolven eyes. He decided he really loved to travel this way, shifting and spending the night as a wolf, sleeping in the thick stands of forest they’d managed to find along the way. No need for camping gear or motel rooms—just a quiet, protected spot in the woods.
With luck they’d reach Tampa later today. Tampa, and Eve. A frisson of awareness, a sense of destiny raced across his spine when he thought of her. Damn, but he’d missed her, even though they’d hardly spent time together at all.
Eve. Her name filled his soul like a benediction. She’d sent for him, as surely as if she’d sent an engraved invitation. Keisha might think Eve only needed him to repair the truck, but Adam knew better. She’d merely needed an excuse, a ploy to salve her pride.
His body quickened with the image of the beautiful blond. Some day, soon, he hoped, she would be his. When she’d left Montana, Adam hadn’t even tried to stop her, even when everything inside him begged her to stay. He’d known she had to leave. He’d expected it, though not quite so soon.
It was all about timing.
All about Eve.
Oliver stirred and stretched. Adam stood up and shook. His rumpled coat settled smoothly across his back. Oliver joined him, touching nose to nose in greeting.
They’d touched a lot more than merely noses last night, but before Adam had a chance to relive some of the details, he scented fresh game.
Rabbit. Brush near water. Circle.
Oliver nodded and immediately slunk off to the left under cover of a stand of thick willows. Adam moved quietly to the right, keeping the tall grass between himself and his prey. Three fat cottontails munched their way through a narrow band of grass growing alongside a small creek.
Adam’s muscles bunched as he crouched within a few feet of the rabbits. His muscles quivered, but he held still to give Oliver time to get into position. He caught Oliver’s mental signal. Heart racing, blood thundering in his veins and the power of the hunt lending him speed, Adam leapt just as Oliver burst through the bushes on the far side of the clearing.
Adam’s jaws closed on the rabbit closest to him. Oliver snapped up another. The third rabbit bounded into the brush to safety as the first two died soundlessly, quickly in the viselike jaws of their captors. Within minutes, the only sign the rabbits ever existed were the small wisps of pale fur scattered over the closely cropped grass where they’d been feeding.
Oliver shifted first, knelt by the creek and washed his hands and face. Adam did the same, bathing away the last vestiges of sleep and rabbit before he stood up and stuck a hand out for Oliver.
“Ready?”
Oliver nodded. “Thank you,” he said. He wiped his hands against his bare thighs and laughed out loud. “Wow. This trip has been quite an adventure.”
“You’ve had fresh rabbit before.”
“I’ve never slept in the forest as a
