Page 73 of The Wolf Professor

She flinched as the animal lowered its head, then screwed her eyes tight shut, waiting for the worst. She felt its wet snout at her neck, sniffing her, and another horrible fear torched through her.

What if… what if Max stayed wolfen? What if he never came back to her as Max, the man she loved?

Had she been too confident with this whole stupid plan to attend the rut? Without knowing what had gone on up there in the mountains with his pack this past week, how could she trust this would be okay? How could she be so naïve?

Maybe pitying her terrified state, or maybe just because… the wolf backed off a little. Charlie scrambled away until her butt nudged a tree stump. The wolf cocked its head and advanced. It sniffed down her body, its muzzle hovering just below her waist. She clamped her legs shut and it backed off with a sharp whine.

Charlie pulled her legs up to her chest and hugged her knees.

It advanced again, and this time grabbed the hem of her skirt in its powerful jaws. Charlie bit her lip, too terrified to move. She felt its huge fangs tugging at her dress and prepared herself for something too awful to imagine. The wolf whined again. She opened her eyes and realized it was trying to pull her to her feet. Trembling, after a moment of it staring at her, she stood up. To her amazement, the wolf let go of her skirt, then started to nudge her down the path with its snout in the small of her back.

Suddenly, she remembered wolf Max in his bedroom the night he’d rescued her from the ferals. He'd done something very similar. Nudged her with his snout onto the bed.

A little burst of hope filled her chest.

“You want m-me to run?” she asked over her shoulder, her teeth still chattering. “You w-want me to keep running. I-is that it?”

Its head low to the ground as if ready to pounce, the wolf’s eyes burned into her. But in their depths, she imagined she sawthe light of something—someone—else. The guy she loved. It was a faint presence of Max, but it was just enough to ease her fear.

“I should keep running, then?” she queried again, firming her voice. She pointed along the path to where some lights twinkled in the distance. “That way?”

The wolf growled deep in its chest. She saw its tail swish behind it.

She guessed that was an affirmative.

So Charlie ran, the blood pumping through her veins. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, through the woods toward those lights. Until she saw a cottage, with a sign that read “Love Shack 3” strung up above the door. Heck, she couldn’t even remember if this was the one she’d booked, but going on instinct, she sped up the steps and pushed open the door. Inside, a fire burned in the grate, candles flickered on a table next to a huge bed, but otherwise, the place was dark.

As soon as she closed the door, her fear dissipated, replaced almost instantaneously by a powerful sensuality. She was aware of her own skin, hot and a little sweaty from running, her hair curling soft against the pulse in her neck, her breasts full, straining against the confines of her dress.

Charlie stood very still, letting the primal energy wash through her.

And suddenly, she knew why. She was being watched. She sensed it with every cell in her body.

But not by a wild animal this time.

By a man. A man who wanted her.

Her eyes sprang wide, searching the interior, In the dim light she couldn’t detect anyone. But somewhere in the shadows of this room, Max was here. She was sure of it.

Her body thrummed for him.

Well, she would just have to tempt him out of hiding, wouldn’t she?

She braced her legs and moved her hands down her body, touching her neck, her breasts, her belly until her fingers found the needy place between her legs. She lifted her skirt and clutched her hand there to ease the throbbing pulse. And then she started to move her hips in a mating dance.

After a moment, she sensed movement behind her, the creak of a floorboard.

When a hot mouth touched the back of her neck, Charlie shivered. Oh, she knew that mouth,lovedthat mouth.

“Take your dress off.” It was a deep, guttural command close to her ear.

Obediently, she wriggled out of the tattered garment, letting it pool onto the floor.

“Now your bra.”

She reached for the clasp and let that go too.

“Remove your panties.”

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