Free Wolf's Song by Taryn Kincaid

Shady Heart. He couldn’t give her to the cats. He glanced around The Den. Different from his last visit to the place. The volume in his brain now seemed perma-set to “mute.” No rival voices turned his skull into a killing field, no strident tones bombarded him. He could sort out the muffled sounds, make sense of them.
    Because of Summer.
    The clarity of her song cut through the all the static. The purity of her soul, the way she’d touched his, soothed and calmed his psyche. He’d tuned into her frequency completely.
    He glanced at Drew. No vision of death. No gore of war. Instead, he saw the alpha seated at the head of a polished table, flanked by Ryker and his seconds. Cal Seven sat at the other end of the conference table, his cats at his back, lieutenants on each side of him. And somewhere in the middle…Summer. Her fingers threaded through his. Bringing the wolves and cats together.
    “Yeah,” he said. “I’m in.”

 
     
     
Chapter Seven
     
     
    The negotiations opened with rancor and mistrust. The cats initially tried to keep Brick and Summer separated but she wouldn’t tolerate that. And neither would her wolf.
    “We’re together,” Brick growled at Cal. “Get used to it.”
    She slipped an arm around his waist, her fingers stroking up and down his back in soothing circles until the fierce rigidity left his jaw.
    “It all starts here,” she told her uncle.
    Eventually, the rival factions stopped arguing over the shape of the table and who sat where. As time went by, they deigned to share coffee and doughnuts with each other. Then pizza and Chinese take-out. Minutes lengthened to hours, hours to days. Weeks flipped by. Calendar pages turned.
    “Get me out of here,” she whispered to Brick one afternoon.
    She sensed his edginess, the increasingly agitated pacing of his beast. The cats and wolves had talked late into the evening until everyone slumped and wilted, wrung out and drained. Except Brick. Energy charged her wolf, until he practically vibrated beside her. As if he were the only one at the table who sensed the rising of the full moon. Strange. She knew that couldn’t be; that the other wolves had to be affected. But she also knew that, no matter how much he’d accepted his pack and been accepted back, she didn’t want him running with them tonight. She wanted him all to herself when he shifted.
    He stood abruptly, nearly knocking over the coffee cup in front of him as he snatched her hand.
    “If you’ll excuse us?” He shrugged. “And even if you won’t. We’re gone.”
    They fled to the cabin, the sky darkening above them.
    Brick leaped from the truck. She followed, taking her lead from him in this. The moon glowed high over their heads, full and round, silver tinged with gold. He dragged her to him, his mouth closing over hers, hot, hard and hungry. Thrilling her. Fierce zips of desire shot straight to her core. She caught his excitement.
    “Ready, sweetheart?”
    “Always.” Anticipation filled her. Would tonight be the night? Would he finally mark her? Claim her? Show the world she belonged only to him?
    She shuddered with need, fumbling to get her clothes off. He pushed her hands away, yanking her arms above her head to dispose of her shirt. He lowered his head to the curve of her breast, sucking her through the thin silk cup of her bra, tearing an impassioned moan from her.
    “So sweet,” he murmured. “Nothing like the taste of you.” He ripped the flimsy material with a sharp claw and lapped at her again, his tongue swirling over her nipple. “My one and only.”
    Her craving for him flamed out of control. She could not get close enough, no matter how much she tightened her arms around him, rubbed her body against his in feline fashion, attempted to climb him, like the cat she’d been born.
    But the compulsion of the moon gripped him totally now. He tore off his clothes and dropped to all fours. “Run with me, Aura Lee,” he growled, the last words he could