Free Doctor Wolf (The Collegium Book 4) by Jenny Schwartz Page A

to because I’d hide your body so it was never found.” Somehow, the salsa club owner didn’t sound like he was exaggerating. It also sounded as if he knew his partner’s true nature.
    Carson concentrated. Beneath the swirling scents of perfume and food, he caught a hint of the other couple’s mate-bond. Yes, although mundane himself, Santos knew and had accepted Evan’s true nature. He’d also, evidently, adopted Evan’s family as his own. Liz was getting the full, protective, big brother treatment.
    Omega wolf-weres did tend to elicit that concern for them, and Carson could respect it. “I won’t hurt Liz. Her grandfather, John, will tell you.”
    “The earl?” Santos sat back. “Family approved?” He laughed. “Liz!” His call for attention attracted it from tables around.
    She broke off her conversation with Evan. “You bellowed?”
    “You know what playing games with a family-approved date leads to?”
    “Oh no. Don’t say it.” She stood in a rush and grabbed Carson’s hand.
    He let himself be pulled to the floor.
    Santos’s voice followed them. “Puppies!”
    “Puppies?” Carson murmured as Liz picked up the rhythm and ignored Santos’s laughter.
    “Santos knows weres don’t shift to their animal form until puberty. Evan has told him. We’ve all told him. But he also knows Grandfather would love for me to find a mate, have some kids.”
    “Puppies.”
    She grimaced comically. “He likes the in-joke of knowing I’m a wolf.”
    “And Evan must have told him I’m one, too.”
    “Probably.”
    Santos waved at them, one hand on his partner’s shoulder, before dashing off on some business. He was an active club owner and manager.
    Evan stayed at their table, watching them.
    Carson had a feeling Santos underestimated his partner’s lethalness. The watchful way Evan observed them had a haunted, cutting edge.
    “Evan’s a marshal.” Liz slow danced against him. “He brings in the weres suspected of awful things for judgement by…well, by Steve, these days since he’s the new Suzerain. Santos’s determined frivolity is a good balance for Evan.” She moved easily with Carson, their thighs sliding against one another’s. “Mates should balance.”
    Her arms were around his neck, her perfume subtle, enhancing her natural scent rather than masking it—at least, for a were’s acute senses. She filled Carson’s world.
    “We should go home,” she said.

Chapter 6
     
    Liz swayed against Carson. They were linked by her arms around his neck, and his arms low at her waist, hands barely brushing her butt, teasing; and by their bodies shifting and aligning from chest to thigh. She followed his lead so easily on the dance floor that she couldn’t help imagining how good sex would be. She wasn’t a passive sexual partner, but she wasn’t dominant. A man who could read her body, incite it and wring more pleasure from her worked for her.
    Carson owned her body and they were simply dancing.
    Her back arched, just a fraction, pushing her hips tighter against his.
    He was so flexible, so incredibly powerful in his response to the music—and to her—that she craved more.
    “I’m working tomorrow night,” she said. “I shouldn’t have a late night, tonight. Santos has told the world we’re together and that’s what we wanted this date to announce.” It was a lie that could be true.
    She and Carson stared at one another.
    The slow, sultry song ended and a fast tempo pounded. Neither moved.
    “If I kiss you, now, will Santos shout ‘puppies’, again?”
    She’d have laughed if sheer arousal hadn’t locked her muscles, melted them. She was fused to Carson. It wasn’t the music but the pulse of his blood that she moved to. Infinitesimal movements that no one would see, but he’d feel.
    His hands slid to her butt, tilting her pelvis that fraction forward.
    He kissed her.
    Mercy . No, she didn’t want mercy! She wanted more of the torture-heaven. He flicked his tongue against hers,