Outlaw Valley Wolf (Silver Fox Ranch Book 2) Read online

  “Beautiful.” He moved lower once more, teasing her with each of his feather-light touches. She gripped the covers as his knees forced her legs apart and he disappeared between her thighs. Charlotte inhaled sharply as she practically felt his eyes on the most intimate place on her body. “I don’t deserve you, Charlotte. But I want to show you how much I ache for you.”

  She glanced down the length of her torso and shivered.

  Though his face was as handsome as ever, his eyes were anything but human. The first slide of his tongue along her folds caused Charlotte to fight against his hold and try to close her legs, but he did not let her. His hands forced her hips to the bed, and she felt a rush of moisture trickle from her opening. Charlotte was trapped, and she wiggled around to test the strength of his hold. “Yes...please, Wesley.” Another drag of his finger followed by a flick of his tongue and Charlotte felt something building inside of her. “Please...”

  He moved so fast she barely saw it happen.

  One finger entered her slowly before working her open with a second. Wesley’s touch was gentle as he prepared her for his claim. She clenched her jaw and fought against the feelings inside of her. “You have no idea how good you feel, darling.”

  She moaned loudly, stroking him the way he taught her until a slew of foul curses escaped his sensual lips. Charlotte was lost to him as he curled his fingers up toward her pubic bone and brushed something that caused her entire body to shudder. His teeth sank into her shoulder as he teased her relentlessly. When she reached the highest peak of her pleasure, he breached her entrance in one solid thrust. A flash of pain and the uncomfortable stretch of his penetration caused her to scream. Confusion and pleasure warred with the initial shock of it all.

  Her climax erupted over and over as he moved slowly, allowing her body to adjust to his member. She did not know whether to cry or moan or both. Her mind struggled to catch up to all of the sensations, but the constant forward push into her fluttering channel kept her grounded until he distracted her with a deep kiss. It was slow and sweet but was not any less passionate than the others. Wesley kissed her until the pain lessened, and he was free to move.

  Charlotte’s nails scraped down his back.

  Her muscles flexed and twitched with each thrust that reached the depths of her femininity. Charlotte writhed beneath him, and it was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. Wesley released a tortured moan in her ear, no doubt struggling between the memory of the pain that bore the scars that marred the skin and the beauty of their coupling. There was no longer any discomfort, and Wesley moved faster, grinding into her until she could barely breathe.

  His hand disappeared between their bodies, and he stroked her in time with his thrusts, pulling the orgasm from her body that snapped and crackled like a surge of power. She clenched and shuttered as his member swelled inside of her before the spray of his seed soothed the ache that unfurled deep within her. Charlotte smiled through the twinge of discomfort.

  Wesley rolled onto his side and kissed the mark he had left on her neck. “Did I hurt you, love?” he whispered against her hair. Charlotte shook her head, but she could not find the words to express how she felt. “I’ll check you in a moment. I just want to lay with you, if that’s alright.”

  “Of course it is. Thank you, Wesley. I never imagined…”

  “What?” he asked.

  “That Iwould have enjoyed being with a man. Abigail told me it was wonderful, and Ariel explained that it was often painful, but I enjoyed it.” She felt bashful as she admitted such things out loud. “Can we do it again?”

  Wesley laughed through his nose. “We have to take our time so you don’t get hurt. It’ll take a while for your body to adjust to me, Charlotte. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  She chewed on her bottom lip. “What if I were to heal myself?”

  His laughter rang through the room until Jesse shouted for them to quiet down.

  “Hey! Some of us don’t got pretty women wrapped around us first thing in the morning and would like to get some sleep!” the cowboy’s voice boomed from down the hall.

  Even so, Wesley and Charlotte snickered beneath the covers as she began to chant a healing spell. His fingers danced along her sides as she bit down on her hand to keep from giggling. When he seized his attack, Charlotte retaliated with ticklish movements of her own. She discovered that her husband’s hips were quite sensitive and that if she bit him there, then he would make love to her with wild abandon. Charlotte supposed she would like being married.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ethan Tate was now a fugitive—or at least that was what the papers said.

  In Wesley's mind, he was the very bane of the Earth, a snake in his Garden of Eden. He kissed the crown of Charlotte’s head and let his beloved rest for the remainder of the night. Each day was spent tending to the needs of his new wife, but when Wesley went out with his posse, they did so with the intention of making bad decisions. An unusual rhythm rapt upon the door of the bedchamber door, and he was greeted by the impassive face of his good friend Jesse.

  "You ready to head out?" Jesse asked.

  Wesley nodded his head and brushed a hand through his overgrown locks, causing a wisp of hair to fall over his brow. Their walk to stables was a quiet one, filled to the brim with tension. Together they rode along the main road before taking a sudden turn as if they were headed for the quarry. Instead, they diverted. A winding path took them to a hovel in the middle of the forest. Not unlike the ones the witches had occupied.

  Sam leaned against the open doorway with blood-spattered sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His vest looked a bit wrinkled, and his hair was disheveled. Despite his drinking habits and affinity for brawling at the saloon, Sam Cassady held himself with more dignity than most royalty could even muster. Beneath that thin façade of decorum was a wild beast, one Wesley had challenged to a battle of wits more times than he dared to count. Folks did not call Sam the red-eyed demon for no reason.

  “I’ll warn you now, my work ain’t pretty,” the youngest Cassady brother muttered.

  Sam led Wesley and Jesse into the hovel where four wendigo carcasses hung from meat hooks from the ceiling and a half-conscious outlaw dangled between them. Jesse removed his jacket and followed Sam's lead by rolling up his sleeves. The two burly skinshifters circled the whimpering outlaw as Wesley snapped his fingers, starling the man from his pain-induced state of unconsciousness. "Rise and shine, Doraty. I hear you’ve been running with Ethan Tate.”

  “I-it ain’t true! And even if it were, I would not tell you no way.”

  Wesley did not bother holding back the vicious smile that curled on his lips. "We got a group of hired guns taking out one of his outposts. I know they don’t have the weapons there to fend off shifters of any kind, so I want you to think really hard before you lie to me. Ace and his coyote are probably picking their teeth with the bones of your friends right about now."

  Sam and Jesse glared at Doraty with as much hatred as Wesley felt.

  "You’re wanted for murder in three states. Not to mention the fifty charges a judge slapped on you when you were pronounced guilty of forcing yourself on women down in Texas," Wesley sneered. “Ain’t nothing I hate more in this life than a man who would hurt a lady.”

  Sam cracked his knuckles and bared his fangs. The outlaw flinched.

  “I ain’t runnin’ with Ethan Tate, I swear! He got too many of them damn wendigos with him. Nobody around these parts trusts him.”

  “Then why did Jesse here find instructions to raid a train carrying soldiers in your pocket. You see, we found similar instructions on another outlaw that wasn’t as tight-lipped as you, Doraty. He sang like a canary and told us that Ethan Tate himself delivers these letters.”

  Jesse's fist collided with the outlaw’s jaw, causing the man's head to snap to the side. Wesley had taken a beating a time or two and knew the man's head had to be pounding something fierce. “That punch ain’t nothing compared to what will happen to y
ou if you fail to comply with our orders, got that?”

  Wesley cast a look out the corner of his eyes at his associates. Sam and Jesse weren't as unfazed by Doraty’s charges as they appeared. But the outlaw cried like a newborn babe. “We ain’t like you! Ethan Tate told us the lot of ya’ll were freaks of nature. He said you’d run through the entire town and then come after the camp. We did not know what he was, and we weren’t strong enough to fight him! We ain’t freaks!”

  "When are they hitting the train, Doraty? Tell me, or you will end up just like them wendigos that are hanging right next to you.” Itsá’s blade had come through, and Beth’s knife-throwing skills made it just a little bit easier to hunt the cannibalistic creatures so long as they were cautious. “Either you talk, or we make you. Your choice.”

  “There ain’t nothin’ you can do that he ain’t already threatened me with!”

  Jesse and Sam lifted Doraty from the hook and hogtied his arms behind his back. The outlaw squirmed as Wesley grabbed a handful of his hair and shoved him through the door. A gust of wind blew the snow all around them as the man tumbled to the ground. Doraty let out a pained yelp when he hit the ice hard. Wesley, Sam, and Jesse forced Doraty back to his feet and walked over to where a cliff overlooked the valley below. A rushing river cut through the landscape.

  The outlaw looked down and screamed towards the night sky.

  Sam punched Doraty just to shut him up, nearly causing the outlaw to topple over the edge. “Stop all that screaming lest you want my hand through your chest next time!”

  Wesley unfolded the letter from Ethan Tate and held it up in front of the outlaw’s face. “What time does the train arrive in Denver?” he asked calmly. “Answer me, Doraty, or they won’t hesitate to make your end as painful as possible.”

  "H-he said it would happen at noon. Noon on the tenth of February."

  Wesley saw the truth as well as the fear in Doraty’s eyes. He gestured to the others, and Sam filled the outlaw's pockets with stones. Jesse took the honors of slowly pushing the man over the edge of the cliff. “He might survive the fall,” he said with a shrug. “But if the water don’t kill him, the cold will. Men like that don’t deserve to live when they’ve caused so much pain.”

  ~*~

  Silver Fox Ranch

  Charlotte awakened to an empty bed once again. She rolled over with an irritable grunt and climbed out from beneath the covers. Wesley continued to keep secrets from her, and she was foolish enough to have let him. Charlotte decided that enough was enough and it was time for her to take action. She opened the trunk at the foot of the bed and found the pair of tailored trousers she had donned once before and slid them over her legs.

  Her hands worked diligently as she buttoned herself into a white muslin shirt and vest. She pinned her hair up and hit it beneath one of Wesley’s old hats. The bulky jacket Charlotte slid over her shoulders helped conceal her more feminine curves. All that remained was gathering her weapons. Charlotte sheathed two blades and searched the ranch for a bow.

  To her surprise, an unlikely ally appeared. Itsá. The native man held a bow and quiver out to her, and Charlotte accepted with a smile. “I believe you will need a horse as well,” he said before whistling. A beautiful white stallion appeared from the trees. “His name is Wind Bearer. I am happy to see that you and the other females are not so quick to deny your destiny.”

  “I’ve come to understand that nothing is certain. A young girl who lost her father to greed can grow to be a skilled doctor, an orphan working in a steel mill can hunt wendigos, and a broken woman can be a powerful witch. Anything is possible, but nothing is certain.”

  “What about Mary Ann?”

  “She puts up with Sam, and that’s enough for me.” Charlotte mounted her horse with the bow strapped to her back and rode into town with a final wave to Itsá. She arrived in Wolf Valley just before sunlight crested over the horizon. Charlotte knew better than to leave a horse like Wind Bearer out in the open. Instead, she tied him off behind the saloon near a water trough, but hidden behind a broken wagon.

  Charlotte walked with a confident stride as she made her way into the saloon. She kept her head low and her eyes trained straight ahead. Charlotte knocked on the top of the bar and lowered her voice as deep as she could without causing pain. “Tate,” she muttered. “Ethan Tate.”

  The server eyed her warily, but she was certain that the dirt that had gotten smeared across her face on the ride into town helped conceal the fact that she was a woman. Charlotte even clenched her jaw a few times for good measure, something she had seen Wesley do from time to time. “You lookin’ for Tate or you lookin’ for trouble in general?” the man asked.

  “Tate. We’re old friends.”

  The server chortled obnoxiously. “Now I know you’re lyin’. Tate ain’t got no friends.”

  “I’m an exception to the rule,” she said with a bit more drawl in her voice.

  “Then you ain’t got no business in this establishment.”

  Oh, dear…

  Tables were flipped over, and Charlotte found herself staring down an angry mob.

  No. No. No. No. She dodged the first swing, but Charlotte wasn’t quick enough to use her bow in such tight quarters, so she grabbed her blades. The first blow that landed against her cheek caused her hat to go flying. It triggered something in Charlotte, something dangerous, and she ran out of the saloon as quickly as she could. But the men gave chase.

  Every single face of the people that caused her pain flashed behind her eyes, and she saw red. She stopped running just a small distance from town and turned on the men who had chosen to follow her. “Run!” she screamed. “Don’t come any closer.”

  They laughed and mocked her, but a haze of anger fell over Charlotte.

  “I’m warning you.” Her words only seemed to spur them on. She sheathed her blades, hoping to reach them one last time, but it failed. Finally, Charlotte reached for her bow and shot the first man in the leg that took a step towards her. The others drew their weapons, and gunshots echoed through the town. The bullet stopped just inches from her face. Blood rushed through her veins, and a symphony of horrified screams filled the air.

  This was what he wanted…

  Charlotte broke through a barrier in her mind as a blood-chilling emptiness flashed in her eyes. She fired arrows until there were no more and then charged the men with her knives. Her hands moved quickly as she slit the throat of the man who tried to throw her to the ground. A vision came forth...Carve out his insides, a voice whispered in her mind.

  She fought against it. She fought against herself.

  In the darkness of night, a new warrior had been born. Charlotte moved so quickly that her movements had only been revealed in the flash of light that came when the men fired their rifles. She used her magic to stop the bullets and sent them flying back towards the others. The rage in her heart frightened Charlotte. She did not want to kill...something was wrong...so wrong...she felt sick to her stomach, but she could not stop.

  A blur moved in front of her face, and Charlotte glanced over her shoulder.

  The Wendigo Spirit. He stood with a twisted little grin and black eyes as he watched her, playing her like a puppet on a string. All of that anger inside burst free, and Charlotte gained control once more. The smile on Ethan’s face disintegrated. She fell to her knees with exhaustion but cast a spell that held him momentarily. Charlotte was weak, however, and he disappeared into the trees.

  When she looked around her, the realization of what she had caused made her vomit into the snow. The ice-cold wind whipped her hair around, and Charlotte wept as she crawled towards the body on the ground. He gasped for air as the slice across his throat bubbled. She placed her hand upon his neck and used what was left of her strength to heal him. Once he drew breath, the man shoved her aside and ran towards town.

  Charlotte hurried to her horse and raced back to the ranch with blood covering her from head to toe. The nightmarish images of her actions pla
yed in her mind over and over again.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Silver Fox Ranch

  The door to the bedchamber burst open while Charlotte scrubbed the blood from her clothes. She knelt on the floor naked with tears streaming down her face. Wesley grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the bed, forcing her to sit as he closed the door. “What happened, Charlotte? I get back into town and I hear that a madwoman, a witch, nearly killed a man.”

  “I can handle myself.”

  “Clearly,” Wesley snapped. “Itsá is already singing your praises. He wishes to train you on how to control your abilities! Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?”

  “It is not any different than you turning into a wolf, Wesley! We were both born this way, but whatever I am was buried deep inside of me for a long time. Kaia and the others changed me. I cannot help what I’ve become any more than you can.”

  He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed in exasperation as if she were the most annoying creature he had ever faced. “It is not safe for you to be alone anymore. I want eyes on you at all times. I mean it, Charlotte. What would happen if the town demanded your head? Boone is already trying to put out the flames.”

  “Is that for my protection or for everyone else?”

  “Don’t make me answer that right now, Charlotte. Not with the way I’m feeling.”

  “Where were you?” she asked daringly. “You awaken every day before sunrise and return in the evening smelling of blood. How can we trust one another if there are so many secrets?”

  “You left the safety of the ranch to spite me,” he said accusingly. “Maybe I’ve been leaving too often, but I’m out there fighting to keep everyone safe. Do you understand that?”

  “Are any of us safe?” Charlotte stood up and pulled her robe on. “Be honest with me, Wesley. For once. Are any of us safe with evil spirits and witches out there? The wendigos have doubled their numbers, and we are far from prepared. You are going out and hunting down the Wendigo Spirit, and yet none of you are taking defensive measures. The ranch was already attacked once, and next time it happens, you won’t be here to stop it.”