Wolf's Secret (District Shifters Book 3) Read online

  “I’ll get them,” he said.

  Brianna shook her head and got to her feet. “No, you won’t. It’s not a date, remember? It’s my round.”

  Archer gave a soft laugh, and Brianna hurried away from the table before he could change his mind and argue with her. She got their drinks and came back to the table.

  “So, do you have any leads on your hunter?” she wondered.

  “Not really,” Archer said, shaking his head. “The pack members are looking into it, trying to track his scent, and they’re questioning Caroline’s associates.”

  “Hopefully you’ll get something, then. If she knew about the hunter, surely some of her people will know, too.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping,” Archer agreed. He paused and smiled at Brianna. “So, New York to Nebraska. Really?”

  Brianna laughed. She was starting to get used to that reaction.

  “Yes. I went to New York with the dream of being a singer. It didn’t work out for me, and it reached a point where I decided to give it up and find something else to do with my life. I chose Nebraska because I wanted a change of pace, really.”

  “You’ll sure get that here,” Archer snickered. “What are you studying?”

  “Medicine,” Brianna said. “I’m thinking of specializing in surgery, but I’ve got plenty of time to decide. Today is my first day.”

  “Talk about a dramatic start.” Archer smiled.

  “I know. And people say New York is bad.” She took a sip of her wine and watched Archer for a second, drawn in by his brooding gaze. “What do you do? For a living, I mean.”

  “I’m the pack alpha, so I take care of all of the pack stuff. We pool our resources. We own the building we live in and the business attached to it. I oversee all of it,” he replied.

  “Ah.” Brianna grinned. “So you delegate for a living.”

  Archer raised an eyebrow, but then he laughed. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

  He spent some time telling Brianna more about his responsibilities and how the pack operated. She was transfixed by his stories, but more than his words, she was transfixed by his eyes; how they sparkled when he tilted his head to the right and they caught the light. She couldn’t stop looking at the way the muscles in his arms rippled slightly when he moved them while making a gesture as he talked.

  She imagined herself running her hands over his bare chest, her hands moving lower. She imagined herself pushing his jeans down, stripping him and riding him all night long.

  “Brianna?” Archer called her. “Are you okay?”

  “Huh? What? Oh. Yes, sorry. I was in a world of my own for a moment there,” Brianna said.

  Archer laughed softly. “I was just asking if you wanted another drink.”

  Brianna did. She was enjoying Archer’s company, and she didn’t want the night to end, but she also knew that nothing could ever happen between them, and the longer she hung around him like this, the harder it would be to walk away. She shook her head.

  “No, thank you. I really should get going. I’ve got class in the morning,” she said. Archer looked at his watch. Brianna raised an eyebrow. “What? Just because I’m a student, I can’t have an early night?”

  “No, it’s not that. It’s the idea of you thinking you’re having an early night when it’s already almost midnight.”

  Brianna checked her watch, shocked to see that Archer was right. She had done it again—lost track of time completely. Archer laughed at the expression on her face. He finished the last of his drink.

  “Come on, I’ll help you get a cab,” he said.

  Brianna finished her own drink and followed him out of the bar. “It’s a nightmare getting cabs here at this time. I’ll just walk home. It’s not a bad night.”

  “Okay. Let’s go,” Archer said. Brianna frowned. “I’ll walk you home,” he said. “Like I said in there, it’s dangerous being seen with me. But it’s even more dangerous wandering the streets alone at this time.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” Brianna insisted, although she was pleased that he had offered.

  “I know. But I want to,” he said.

  A shiver went through her at that. He wanted to spend more time with her.

  No, she told herself, he’s just being a gentleman, not wanting anything to happen to me. That was more likely to be the truth, but she couldn’t help wondering. She had caught Archer watching her subtly a couple of times when he thought she wasn’t looking.

  They set off walking, and Brianna realized that even though the air had grown chilly, she barely registered the cold. She barely registered anything except Archer beside her. She kept feeling little shivers running up and down her back, and she knew they were nothing at all to do with the breeze.

  “Are you cold?” Archer asked as they walked.

  Again, she felt like he was reading her innermost thoughts. It was better to think he could do that than to think he could read her body and see the shivers going through her. She shook her head and smiled.

  “No, I’m okay,” she said. “It’s not a bad night.”

  “And the wine helps,” Archer added.

  “Yeah, it definitely does,” Brianna laughed.

  They kept walking, passing by closed restaurants and shops. Soon, they were walking past houses, some still with lights on, some all in darkness, and Brianna thought about what secrets the drawn curtains were hiding. Now that she knew there was a whole other world out there, she wondered if some of the seemingly normal families were in fact immortals. She didn’t think she’d ever know for sure, and she decided against asking Archer. He had said it himself. Knowledge like that was dangerous; a danger she didn’t want or need.

  Brianna’s foot slipped off the edge of the sidewalk, and she made a little shrieking noise, throwing her arms out for balance. There was nothing she could grip, no purchase, and she felt her stomach roll as she lurched to the side, sure she was about to face plant onto the road.

  A strong arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her back. She stumbled a little and found herself pressed against Archer’s side, his arm still holding her tightly against him. She could feel the heat coming off his body and smell the musky scent of him beneath his sweet cologne. Her heart raced as she peered up at his face. He held her gaze for a long moment. Brianna felt her insides swirling. If they stood like this much longer, she wouldn’t be able to resist leaning her face up to his, and that would be a mistake, despite the tingling of her body where she was pressed against him.

  “Apparently the wine doesn’t help me with my balance,” she said with a laugh.

  Her words broke the spell, and Archer released her gently. She instantly missed his touch on her, but she knew it was the right thing to do. Nothing could ever happen between them. Archer wouldn’t want to waste his time on a mortal, and as much as she found the idea of the world of the immortals fascinating, she didn’t want to be a part of it. That was the main reason she had told Archer the abduction had happened to her roommate. She had seen the way he’d looked at her, the lust on his face, and if he thought they could be together, then he might just kiss her, and she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from returning his kiss. And knowing she didn’t want to become a shifter and letting him know she carried the Sanmere protein before letting him kiss her would feel too much like she was leading him on.

  “And you wanted to walk home alone. You could be in the gutter now with a twisted ankle,” Archer said.

  “Yeah. You’re my hero,” Brianna laughed.

  “You know it,” he said, laughing with her. “Just call me Superman.”

  Their laughter chased away the moment they had shared, and Brianna relaxed. Maybe she was imagining the way Archer had looked at her because there was a part of her that wanted him to want her. They managed to get to Brianna’s apartment building without any more mishaps. They reached her door, and she dug in her handbag for her keys. She pulled them out and held them up with a smile.

  “Got them,” she said. br />
  “You know, for such a small handbag, you had an awful lot of trouble finding them.”

  “Oh, don’t be fooled by its size. It’s like the Tardis in there,” she joked.

  “Yeah, it must be,” Archer said. He shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, goodnight, Brianna.”

  “Come in for a drink,” Brianna said, shocking herself. She hadn’t even known she was going to say the words until they were out. She knew why she wanted him to come in; if he walked away now, that would be the last time she saw him, and she wasn’t quite ready for their time together to be over.

  Archer still hadn’t responded, and she could see the indecision on his face. He was going to say no—he was just trying to find the words to say it in a way that let her down gently. She had shown herself up.

  Then he smiled. “I’d love to.”

  Brianna felt her heart skip a beat. This was a bad idea, but it was a bad idea that she felt would lead her to a good mistake, a mistake she wouldn’t regret.

  “Great.” She opened the apartment building door and stepped in, Archer following. “The elevator doesn’t work,” she said. “But I’m only on the second floor.”

  “Lead the way,” Archer said. “I don’t think a few flights of stairs will kill me.”

  Brianna started up the stairs, conscious of him behind her. She wondered if he was checking out her ass. She kind of hoped he was. She swayed her hips as she walked, a little more than she usually would, just in case he was looking.

  She led him to her front door, opened it, and stepped in, flicking on the light. Her apartment was nothing flashy, but it was no dump, and she was pleased she had had a quick tidy around before she’d gone to meet Archer earlier that night.

  “What would you like to drink?” she asked. “I have vodka, white wine, red wine, or Bacardi.”

  “I see you’re embracing the student lifestyle then.”

  “If you can’t beat them, join them, right?”

  “Exactly. I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

  Brianna made her way to the kitchen. She kicked her shoes off on the way. She poured out two large vodka and sodas and headed back to the lounge. Archer was sat at one end of her small cream-colored sofa. She handed him his drink and sat down beside him with hers. He took a drink and winced.

  “Too strong?” Brianna asked.

  He laughed and shook his head. “It’s fine. I just wasn’t expecting it to be so potent.”

  “Go big or go home.” She winked at him and took a long drink. “I’m already going to be hungover in the morning, so I might as well finish off in style,” she said.

  “Fair enough,” Archer laughed. “And you just want me to have a hangover, too?”

  “Of course. Why should I be miserable on my own?”

  He laughed and shook his head. Brianna took another long swig of her drink, and then she put it down on the glass-topped coffee table before her. She turned so she was facing Archer. She was conscious of how close they were, her leg brushing his.

  “So, how old are you?” she asked Archer.

  “Two hundred and fifty-two,” he replied.

  “Wow,” she breathed. “I think I’ve got my head around this whole immortality thing, and then I hear something like that and I’m just like, what?”

  “I get it. Even to me it sounds crazy,” he said.

  “What’s it like? Living so long. It must be hard to see loved ones dying and always being left behind,” she said.

  “It’s not like that, Brianna,” he told her. “I mean, I’m sure that would be absolute hell, but my pack are my family, and they’re all immortal. Don’t get me wrong, we have the odd fatality, like when a hunter comes along, but it’s not like all of my friends get old around me or anything like that.”

  “It must still be strange, though,” she commented, watching him as he took another drink. He didn’t wince this time.

  “It is strange. So much has changed since I was growing up. Looking back, it’s like a different world, but the changes happen gradually, and as they do, you barely even register it. When I was in my twenties and thirties, cars weren’t even dreamed of, and now we all have them, and we have airplanes and all of this crazy technology.”

  “It sure puts a new slant on the moment when your kids ask you if you were alive when the dinosaurs were,” she giggled.

  “Hey, I’m not that old!” he laughed back. His face turned serious. “But I don’t suppose I’ll ever have any children, so I guess it won’t matter.”

  “Oh, God, I’m sorry. I should have thought before I opened my mouth,” Brianna said.

  “It’s fine. I’ve made my peace with it. I have my pack, and that’s enough for me.”

  “Aren’t they getting to the point where they’re demanding an heir?” he asked.

  Archer raised his eyebrow. “You really do know our world only too well, don’t you? But you don’t know my pack. We’re not like the huge ones that demand this, that, and the other. We’re a real family. If I did manage to find a mate, either a wolf shifter or a mortal who could and would turn safely, they’d be happy. But they’d be happy that I’d found love rather than being happy that we had an heir.”

  “That sounds like a much nicer pack than the ones in other places.”

  “It is,” Archer agreed.

  Brianna felt a surge of anger as she thought of the hunter who had taken one of the pack, a member of Archer’s family, away. It made her blood boil to think that there were people out there who had just decided that immortals were all bad and took them out without taking the time to actually see that most of them were just as human as anyone else.

  “What is it?” Archer asked, frowning at Brianna.

  God, I have got to stop being this easy to read, she thought. Then again, Archer does have an animal instinct.

  “I was just thinking about your lost pack member. It doesn’t seem right that hunters make it their life’s mission to kill immortals with no idea that they’re destroying real families.”

  “It’s always been the way,” Archer sighed.

  “Maybe. But that doesn’t make it right,” Brianna replied.

  He smiled at her. “You know, other humans have found out about us in the past, and I have never met a single one who wasn’t terrified. You’re a special girl, Brianna. A very special girl.”

  As he spoke, he put his glass down and turned to face her. He leaned forward, and their faces were mere inches apart.

  “Which is why I have to do this. Even if it’s just once.”

  He closed the gap between them, and their lips touched. Brianna felt fire surge through her body, and she found herself returning Archer’s kiss with a hunger that surprised her. She leaned closer to him, pushing her hands into his hair and moaning into his mouth as her body came to life.

  Archer ran his hands up and down her back as he kissed her hungrily, and where his hands brushed her, she felt herself lighting up. Finally, he pulled back from her. She looked at him, her breathing coming out as a slight pant, and she saw his was doing the same. She could see the moisture of their kiss shining on his lips.

  “I’m sorry,” he said breathlessly.

  “I’m not.” Brianna glanced down into her lap for a moment.

  “Brianna, we can’t—”

  “Be together. I know,” she interrupted him. She looked up at his face. “But maybe we could have tonight.”

  She stood up and pulled her dress over her head, throwing it to one side and looking down at Archer. He made a low moan in his throat and got to his feet. He pulled her into his arms, and their mouths found each other again.

  8

  Even as Archer’s lips found Brianna’s, he knew that what they were doing was a bad idea. They could have no future together. He consoled himself by thinking they were in Brianna’s apartment, away from prying eyes, so him being here now wasn’t putting her in any immediate danger. But he found it hard to justify having a one-night stand with the woman his body felt so dr
awn to. It felt like he was setting himself up for heartbreak, but at the same time, it had already gone too far for there to be a clean break. Walking away now would hurt him just as much as walking away tomorrow would.

  He forced the thoughts out of his mind, determined to focus only on the here and now. If he and Brianna could only have tonight, then he was going to make damned sure it was a night neither of them would ever forget.

  He pushed his tongue into Brianna’s mouth, wanting to taste every part of it, to explore every inch of her teeth, her tongue. She tasted like wine and sugar, a heady combination that made his body tingle. His cock was rock hard, pulsing with the need to impale Brianna, to claim her as his own.

  She moaned into his mouth as his hands roamed over her back and pushed into her hair. She pressed herself more tightly against him, and Archer felt his wolf responding to her closeness. He fought to control it; the last thing he wanted was for his wolf to burst forth now, but it was hard. The lust he felt awoke the beast inside of him, and his animal instincts told him that Brianna was more than just sex. They told him she was meant to be his.

  He moved his mouth away from Brianna’s for a second, needing to get himself under control, something he couldn’t do while her mouth was on his, while her tongue massaged his. He looked into her eyes, and he could see the lust in her dilated pupils. He didn’t speak, and then he took her by her upper arms and turned her around. He pushed her gently backwards until she was sitting back down on the couch.

  He knelt before her and reached to her hips. Knowing what was coming, she lifted her ass, allowing him to hook his thumbs into the waistband of her panties and pull them down, tossing them to the side. Archer leaned forward, moving his face closer to her center. Her breathing came in ragged gasps, anticipating his touch, and the sounds she was making made Archer’s heart race.

  He ran his finger through her lips, moaning when he felt how wet she was. Brianna made a whimpering sound that told him she was as desperate for this as he was. He leaned down and pressed his face against her mound, finding her swollen clit with his tongue. He pressed on her clit, moving his tongue from side to side, listening to Brianna moan his name. A wave of lust slammed through him as he licked her, tasting her and hearing the effect he was having on her.