Chapter Three

Max didn’t want to reveal any of her secrets, but she didn’t see where she had much choice in the matter. She needed to find out what was happening to her and put an end to it.

“I’ll tell you what I know, but first you’ll have to answer a few of my questions.”

Caleb’s eyelids lowered, concealing his eyes, abut Max caught a glimpse of the predator lurking just below the good old boy demeanor. The sheriff didn’t like the idea of her questioning him not only because he was hiding something, but because he was Alpha. Alphas gave orders; they didn’t take them. Which was another reason she had to get away from him. He had plans for her, and he didn’t look the type to take no for an answer.

“Stalling for time, Max?” Caleb shook his head slowly. “Won’t do you any good, but I’ll bite. What do you want to know?”

“I’m not stalling. I’m just trying to think of the best way to put this.” She paused and took a deep breath before continuing. “You have a disturbing effect on me.” She bit her bottom lip and glanced away before forcing her gaze to meet his again. “I’m drawn to you…as if my body needs yours.”

“It does, but you’ve nothing to fear. Your reaction is normal.”

Surprise made her eyes widen. “So women in general have this kind of reaction around you?”

He arched a dark eyebrow, but amusement lit his honey-gold eyes. “Can you make that a little plainer? Just spell it out. We’re all adults here.”

“Oh, what the hell!” Max threw up her hands in defeat. “What is it about you? Why do women want to have sex with you?”

The corners of Caleb’s lips slowly tugged upward into a sinfully wicked smile that had her crossing her legs and praying he couldn’t scent the moisture that had warmed her pussy.

“Do you want to have sex with me, Max?” His wicked smile slowly turned into a very naughty grin as his heated gaze caressed her body. “Because I sure as hell want to have sex with you.”

Max shot him an ugly look, annoyed that his words caused the ache between her legs to intensify. “Talk like that doesn’t help the situation. Now I ache so much it hurts, and I’m swollen in places I refuse to discuss with you. And you still haven’t answered my question.” She looked down at her hands folded in her lap. “Do you…affect others this way?”

“Look at me, Max.”

Max slowly shifted her gaze back to him, lured by the gentleness of his voice and the knowledge that she had to deal with whatever was between them to regain control of her life.

“What you’re feeling is known as the burning to my people. And yes, human women are strongly attracted to the males of my species, but your reaction to the pheromones I exude is much greater. I know your need is becoming unbearable, and I will ease it. But first, I need to know how you learned of my people.”

Max nodded. “I understand your concern, but your people have nothing to fear from me. Mama Willie, my grandmother, told me stories about werewolves—and other things—that lived in the world between worlds. She always said she could see and hear things nobody else could because she was gifted with the shining.”

He arched a dark eyebrow. “The shinning?”

“It was her name for the people she saw, because they always had a shine or glow about them. She once told me that most of the beings she saw were friendly, but some of them—the dark ones she called them—didn’t like the fact she could see them. They frightened her, and she learned it was best to pretend not to see them. But she liked your people,” Max assured him, noting the sudden tensing of his features. “She even had a werewolf friend who visited her periodically over the years. I never met him, but he was the source of many of the things she told me about your people.”

“Is your grandmother still alive?”

“No,” Max said softly, her tone wistful. “Mama Willie was old even when I was a child. She passed away during my last year in high school, and I still miss her. She was quite a character, with her wild gray hair and her bags of smelly herbs. She was always talking about the things she saw and heard. And it didn’t bother her in the least that nobody believed her.”

“But you did. You believed her. And don’t bother denying it.”

Max pulled the blanket tighter around her and leaned back against the headboard. “I wasn’t going to. Anyway, Mama Willie always said a were could smell a lie before it was out of your mouth. Is that true?”

Caleb nodded. “We can smell the change in a person’s body chemistry when they lie, but only if we’re paying close attention.” He paused briefly, as if choosing his words carefully. “So you grew up being told stories about werewolves and beings that were pretty much invisible to most of the world.”

“I grew up in Louisiana, in a shack not three feet from the edge of the swamp. A slop jar under my bed served as a toilet, and the local raccoons and opossums were my playmates. We didn’t have much, but somehow just being with Mama Willie made everything seem…better. I’ll always be thankful to her for that. I only wish she’d spent more time in this world, with me. She did her best, but your world was so fascinating to her.”

“And you paid a price for that,” Caleb stated flatly. “Even now, I can see a haunted look in your eyes. It must have been difficult, living as you did, with a foot in both worlds.”

“Not at first. As a child, I accepted both worlds without question. But later, when I started school, I realized what I accepted as normal was anything but. I tried to fit in, to act like everybody else, but no matter what I did, I never really belonged.”

“You were different, Max. But in a good way.”

Max smiled sadly. “I was weird. I wore mish-matched clothes from the local garbage dump, and I smelled like the charcoal my Gran used to heat the house. My afro puff hair and facial features that said ethnically I belonged to no group, or to all groups, didn’t help much, either.” She took a deep breath and sighed heavily. “But none of that matters now. What matters is that I know what you are and why you have to keep it secret. I grew up in a world filled with secrets. And really, even if I did tell anyone about you or your people, who would believe me?”

“Probably no one. And those who did would find themselves locked up right along with you. I never doubted you would keep my secret. But I needed to know how and what you knew, for the protection of both our worlds.”

Max stood and, keeping a secure grip on the blanket wrapped around her, moved to stand directly in front of him. “Then I can leave after you tell me what I need to do to rid myself of this attraction to you?”

“I’m sorry, Max. I can’t let you leave this cabin.”

“Why?” She frowned. “Your secret is safe with me. I’ll continue to Salinas, begin my new life there, and both of us can forget this whole incident ever happened.”

Caleb slowly shook his head. “Your grandmother told you stories that, as you grew older, you should have dismissed as fairy tales or the ramblings of a senile old woman, but you didn’t do that. You continued to believe her. You still believe her to this day. Why is that, baby? Is it because you have gifts of your own?”

Max stared at him, her pique draining away to be replaced by mounting fear. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, I think you do. And I’d bet you were probably born with a veil over your face?

“A veil?”

“That’s what the seers call it, but it’s actually a thin membrane, usually white in color, that completely covers a child’s face at birth. No one really knows what causes it, but my people believe a child born with a veil is blessed with the ability to see between worlds and is a source of great power.”

“Blessed?” Max snorted. “More like cursed.” She was silent for a moment, but his words intrigued her. “What do you mean, a child born with a veil is a source of great power?”

Caleb rose from his chair and held out a hand. “Come here.”

Max saw the look in his eyes and shook her head. If she walked into his embrace, the game was over, because she didn’t have the strength to fight him and herself.

She took a step back, angling for the door. “I’ll be leaving now.

He looked down at her, tilting his head in that peculiar way of his, as if he found her fascinating. “I don’t think so. It’s far too late for that.”

He walked toward her, his big body moving with the fluid grace of the born predator he was, and Max shook her head in refusal. But she didn’t back away.

“You are a veiled one.” With one hand, he drew her into a loose embrace. With the other, he gently tilted her chin upward until she met his gaze. “Denying it will change nothing. The veiled ones are revered by my people, the Lycanthropes, and that is quite an honor since we hold few in high regard. My people have walked the earth with man for thousands of years, always present but rarely seen. We are physically powerful, fierce in battle, and like our brother the wolf, when we mate, we mate for life. I know you will deny me, Maxine Ray Juneau, but I claim you as my mate.”

His words sounded like a declaration, or an oath of some kind, and Max opened her mouth to protest, but his lips fastened onto hers.

All reasonable thought fled. Had he been demanding, she would have found the strength to resist him, but his lips were light as a feather against hers, giving instead of taking, and his touch was filled with tenderness, as if he cherished her. It was an assault on the heart as well as the body. When he tenderly ended the kiss, she didn’t know how she would ever find the strength to leave him.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he soothed, resting his cheek atop her head and pulling her tighter into his embrace. “I know this thing between us frightens you, but I can’t let you leave. Your life is in danger.” When she remained silent, he swung her up into his arms and sat on the edge of the bed, cradling her as if she were an infant.

“There’s a man searching for us. His name is Michael Tremont, and he’s one of the most powerful mages ever born. He is a master of the elements, a powerful weaver of spells. Unfortunately, he is also morally corrupt, and he plans to use his gifts to reshape the world to his liking. To him, mankind is little better than apes, and mages are the rightful rulers of Earth. I work for the Alliance of Others, which serves as a kind of policing agency among my people. It’s my job to stop Michael, and I’ve hunted him for months, never more than a step behind. But today he changed tactics. He attacked, hoping to kill my mate.”

Max lifted her head to look at him. “I’m not your mate.”

“Yes, you are,” Caleb said gently, brushing his lips against hers. “From the moment we met, you felt the connection, the desire to be with me. It’s called a mate bond, and the longer we’re together, the stronger the link will become. In time, we will be able to use it to communicate without words and, if we wish, share each other’s thoughts. We will always be able to sense the whereabouts of the other, and…we will always burn for each other.”

Max shook her head. “It’s just pheromones. I’m not a part of your world, and I can never be.”

“You will be. Both of us will have to make some adjustments, but I don’t doubt for a minute things will work out between us. I know you want to believe your attraction to me is a result of were pheromones, but what you’re experiencing, the intense sexual need, only happens when a strong match is made. There are things we can do to ease the burn, but we can’t join our bodies until the next full moon. It is a sacrament all weres fortunate enough to find their mates adhere to. It not only demonstrates to a mate his control over his wolf, but her acceptance of him in his moon-bound form is necessary to complete the mate bond. Once the sacrament is completed, my people believe the two are joined, in this life and the next.”

Max pushed his hands away and stood up. “I don’t want to know any more. I waited tables and cleaned toilets to pay for college because I wanted a normal life with none of this.” She waved a hand in his direction. “But it’s happening anyway.”

Filled with uncertainty, Max took a turn around the room, then walked over to the cabin’s only window and looked out. She needed to think clearly, to assess the situation rationally, but that seemed impossible when every moment was spent wrestling with the demands of her body. And now things had worsened.

The thing buried inside her was no longer dormant. It was awake and totally focused on Caleb. It watched his every move, as if he was something it had always hoped for but never thought it would find. And that just couldn’t be right, because the one thing she knew for certain was that the thing inside her didn’t have wants or needs, it simply reflected whatever she was feeling.

Caleb watched her closely, knowing she was in turmoil. The last couple of hours had been rough on her, and the next few days wouldn’t be much better. Theirs would be no gentle mating, and though he would never intentionally harm her, she was such a tiny thing. He only hoped when the time came, he would be more man than beast.

He crossed the room to her, gently laid his hands on her shoulders, and massaged the knotted muscles of her neck. “It will be all right. I’ll make sure of that.”

“Just stay away from me.” She shook off his hands and turned to face him. “Where are we anyway?”

“In the mountains above the town of Haven. Few people know of this cabin, and those who do would never tell a soul.”

“You sound so certain of that.”

“I am. I built this cabin with my own hands. It’s safe and protected in ways you can’t imagine. You’ll just have to trust me.”

A pointed look from her told him exactly what she thought of trusting him, and Caleb stifled a smile. His little spitfire was down but she wasn’t out. “How bad are you hurting, baby?”

“I can handle it. You must have taken the brunt of the blast.”

“But you’re achy, uncomfortable in your woman’s core?”

Max held up a hand. “Drop it. I’m not going there.”

“I can ease your need, Max, if you’ll let me.”

“I’ll just bet you can, Sheriff McCain, but if you really want to help me, you’ll stay away from me.”

“Caleb. I want you to use my Christian name.”

“Fine, but listen up, Caleb. I’m not staying, and I’m not mating with you. Are we straight on that?”

“You called to me.”

“I never—”

“You called to me. That’s why I was on that road.” At her disbelieving look, his eyes narrowed. “You did. You called to me. Do you think I usually give out traffic tickets? I went out on that highway because something deep inside of me told me I had to be there. That something or someone was waiting for me.” He moved closer to her. “Your need called to me.” He reached out and curved his hand around the nape of her neck, his head tilting toward her. “And no matter where I am, I will always come when you call.”

He saw the fear and uncertainty in her eyes, and it tugged at his heart, but there was little he could do about it. In time, she would learn her fears were unfounded. Until then, he would cherish her and pray the solace of his body would be enough to keep her at his side.

But to ease the demands of his wolf, he had to taste her again. Then he’d tell her all of it. How he believed she was the mage slayer foretold of in a six hundred-year-old prophesy. And that the strong sexual need she felt for him was only the beginning of a hunger that would bind them together in this life and the next. He’d tell her all of it, in just a little while, but first he’d ease her need…and his.

He brushed his lips against hers, his tongue gently seeking entry, and she opened for him with a hot little moan. He deepened the kiss, drawing her tongue into his mouth, and the taste of her nearly drove him to his knees.

Her legs began to tremble, and he lifted her into his arms, all the while tangling his tongue with hers in a dance of erotic delight. The kiss seemed to go on forever, and when he finally lifted his head to nibble along her throat, he knew it wouldn’t be enough.

“Bathe with me,” he rasped, placing little kisses against the side of her neck. “I’m too close to the edge to give you the pleasure you deserve. A shower will slow things down a bit.

She nodded, looking up at him with passion-glazed eyes, and Caleb growled his approval. He was were. And his woman was about to find out exactly what kind of wolf she’d mated.