Goldie [Pyrate's Treasure 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (7 page)

Taking a deep breath for added courage, Goldie stood and crossed the porch to the back door. She was not surprised to see Caleb standing on the other side watching her, his expression dark and enigmatic. He was dressed in a tan deputy sheriff uniform and had a cup of coffee in each hand.

Opening the door, she stepped back. Without a word, he handed her a cup of coffee then sat down on the top of the porch steps where she had just been sitting. She sat down next to him, and they spent a few minutes drinking coffee and watching the birds hunting for breakfast in the backyard.

Finally Goldie cleared her throat. “My family has lived on this island for more than a hundred years. We moved here to keep our secrets from the rest of the world who would have a difficult time understanding what we are.”

“And what’s that?”

“We’re shape-shifters. Wolf shape-shifters to be exact. Which is why I knew the lady who called last night was in no danger. The wolves running the beach last night were probably my cousins taking a midnight run.”

Turning her head just enough to see Caleb’s face, she found his expression still blank as he stared across the yard.

“We recognize our mates, our life partners, instantly, and as the saying goes, ‘It is love at first sight,’” she continued. “I knew yesterday before I even met you that we were fated to be together for the rest of our lives. You are my mate, and I will love you until I die.”

With that, Goldie stopped talking. What else could she say?

She watched and waited as Caleb sipped at his coffee. It was several minutes before he finally set his mug down and turned to look at her.

“I know I said I was open-minded, but I don’t believe you. There is no such thing as shape-shifters. They’re legend amongst American Indians and popular with fiction writers, but there is no such thing as shape-shifters.”

Goldie took a breath and closed her eyes. So, though he was open-minded, he was also a see-to-believe kind of guy. Okay, if he needed proof, she would give it to him.

Standing, she quickly stripped, dropping her clothes to the porch floor. Then she moved a few feet away from the steps and turned to look at Caleb.

“Please don’t scream or shoot me. I won’t hurt you,” she said just before she shifted into her wolf form.

* * * *

When the beautiful naked woman stood before him one moment and suddenly turned into a black-furred wolf the next, Caleb fought down an urge to jump up and run. Instead, he sat very still and met the wolf’s, Goldie’s, amber-colored eyes as he tried to control his breathing and racing heartbeat.

The wolf stared at him then whined as if begging him to believe, to accept, to understand.

“You’re beautiful,” he said after a moment, feeling no fear toward the animal, but instead an awe he could not begin to understand. “In both your forms you are beautiful. And I can understand why you didn’t tell me yesterday, but what does this mean?”

Goldie slowly walked forward until she could lay her head on his knee. Without hesitation, he rubbed her head and then began to scratch at the spots just behind her ears. She whined again as if trying to answer him then shifted her head as if to get him to touch just the right spot.

After another few minutes, he pulled his hand away. “Okay, that’s enough. Shift back so we can talk.”

In the next instant the woman was once again kneeling where the wolf had been. She looked up at him, her expression hesitant, nervous as if scared of his reaction. While he was overwhelmed and feeling the need for a five-mile run to clear his head, he cupped her jaw with one hand.

His cock had been hard since he had seen her sitting on his back porch. Now that she was naked and kneeling before him, it began to throb with an overwhelming need to fuck her again.

“I should be freaked out by the fact that the woman I’m falling for is a shape-shifter, but I’m not. My cock is so fucking hard it hurts. Having you on your knees like this is so damn hot,” he said, rubbing one hand across his erection.

Goldie smiled as she moved even closer. “That’s how you’re supposed to feel. We are, after all, mates. You’re supposed to be turned on by your mate.”

* * * *

Reaching into his lap, she fumbled with his belt, then the button and zipper of his uniform pants. Once she had them opened, she fished his cock out and made the examination of it that she had wanted to do the night before.

His cock was long and thick and the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She brushed her fingers down his length and traced around his balls.

“Suck me, baby girl, before I lose all control and cover your beautiful girls with man juice.”

Dropping her head, Goldie lapped at his balls before slowly working her way up his cock. When she reached the tip, she parted her lips and took the head in, swirling her tongue around it. She licked across the slit and smiled at the tangy, salty, tart juices she found there.

“Oh, God, that feels so good,” Caleb ground out as he stabbed his fingers through her hair.

She began to bob up and down his cock in earnest, giving him as much pleasure as she knew how. She knew he was close when his cock expanded even further and his hips began to shift, trying to thrust deeper.

She pulled off and looked up at him. “Come for me, mate. Give me your magic,” she demanded, feeling strong and powerful even in this submissive act of loving.

It took another few strokes before he stiffened, cried out, and came. His fingers tightened in her hair, and his hips bucked off the porch, driving his cock even deeper into her mouth.

* * * *

“Oh. My. God.”

As soon as she finished cleaning his cock, Caleb reached down and pulled her up and onto his lap. He cuddled her close to his chest and brushed one palm over her back and side as his breathing slowed and he regained his composure.

His mind was as wound up as his body had been just seconds ago. He was overwhelmed with the earth-shattering information she had shared so easily. He needed to be alone to think about how Goldie’s news would affect his life.

“You’re a wolf. And a woman. And I’m your mate for life,” he murmured.

His voice sounded surprisingly detached and bland, as if he had unplugged his emotions. The next moment he lifted her from his lap and set her on the porch. Before she could say anything, he tucked his cock away and then stood. After straightening his clothes, he started to walk away.

“Caleb?” she called softly.

“I’ll be back later. I need to meet your grandfather,” he said without looking back.

He walked through the village, his thoughts a million miles away. What shocked him most of all was that he was not as surprised as he thought he should be by the news that he had fallen for a shape-shifter. Or that shape-shifters existed outside of the fantasy book and movie realm.

When he reached the ferry landing at the center of town, he found the Town Hall and sheriff’s office. As he crossed the main road to the ocean-blue building that sat across the main street from the ferry landing, he felt overdressed for the casual atmosphere of the island. Several couples passed him on their way to the beach dressed in skimpy bathing suits.

Stepping inside, he found the Town Hall was one large open room that looked more like a high school gymnasium than the center of a village’s government. There were two desks sitting in opposite corners of the large room, each with a second chair in front of them, but no one was working at that moment.

He walked to the closest desk and read notices hanging on the two bulletin boards hanging nearby. One held state and federal notices regarding employment, safety, and other information required to be posted in public areas of all businesses. The second held notices regarding lost and found items, work schedules for several of the businesses in the village, as well as an announcement about a town meeting scheduled for the next afternoon a half hour after the ferry left for the mainland.

Looking at the desk in this corner, he saw a sticker on the side of the desk identifying it as belonging to the county sheriff’s department. So this corner would be his office for the summer. Sitting down in the comfortable executive chair, he methodically went through the drawers and organized them to his liking.

There was a drawer containing all the reports a deputy might have to fill out. Another drawer held several boxes of black pens and a tall stack of small pads that would fit his investigator’s notebook. Paper clips, old rubber bands, and other supplies were in the center drawer along with a two-page typed phone list that seemed to be the island’s phonebook. He was studying the laminated map that was taped to the top of the desk and wondered what Goldie was up to at that moment.

“Good morning, Deputy,” Edward said as he approached from the front door.

Caleb looked up and tried not to look guilty as he met the old man’s sharp gaze. After all, he had had sex with the man’s granddaughter three times since arriving on this island. How was he supposed to face the man and not be embarrassed?

“Good morning, Mayor Edward.” He dropped his gaze back to the desk.

“Ah, no embarrassment. It is a joyous occasion when a shape-shifter finds her mate. Or are you not happy with my granddaughter?”

“Goldie?” Caleb asked. “Who wouldn’t be happy with such a woman? I’m just having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that the woman I met yesterday afternoon is destined to be mine for the rest of my life. And then when she turned into a wolf this morning, well, let’s just say it blew my mind.”

He watched as Edward lowered himself into the chair across the desk. The man looked old, tired.

“Not only are you mated to a shape-shifter, but Goldie is the next Alpha of our pack. I’ve known since her birth that Goldie would be my successor as pack Alpha. Until recently I have not given much thought about turning things over to her, but now that she has found her mate…maybe it’s time.”

“Pack Alpha? What does that mean?”

“She didn’t tell you? No, of course she didn’t. She is trying not to cause you too much distress. She always was too good-hearted for her own good, always worrying about everyone else’s feelings before her own. As her mate, you will have to protect her from those who will try to use that innate compassion against her,” Edward said, looking deadly serious.

“No, she didn’t, but you will, won’t you?” Caleb said, knowing he would not, could not, let the man leave the room until he was fully briefed on what the hell was going on.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

Goldie slammed the door and took up her “don’t mess with me” stance. Feet planted apart, hands on hips, and what she knew was her fiercest look. She met and held each of the five pairs of eyes that had swung her way one after another until each looked away, deferring to her status as their Alpha.

“About what?” Emerald finally asked when it seemed no one else would. She sounded innocent and confused by Goldie’s anger.

“What the hell were you thinking running down the public beach last night? You know you have to stay on pack lands when there are guests on the island.” Goldie began to pace.

She knew she was overreacting to their misadventure, but Caleb’s walking away after she’d told him of her shape-shifting abilities hurt. Her emotions were pinging all over the map, and she did not know how to deal.

Would he deny their mating?

Would he leave the next afternoon when the next ferry took the weekend guests back to the island?

What would happen if he told anyone else?

Within days, the island would be overrun with strangers wanting to hunt them thinking they were dangerous or trap them for scientific experiments. If he did tell anyone the Pyrate family’s most closely guarded secret, she would be the one tasked with eliminating the threat he posed to their lives and safety.

“We didn’t run the public beaches last night,” Cash said, sounding bewildered. He stepped forward, putting himself between her and the rest of their cousins. “We didn’t even go near the fences. We stayed on the far side of the island.”

“Then why the hell did Caleb get a call about wolves running on the beaches?”

“Maybe because they were where they shouldn’t be,” Silver offered as he crossed to stand next to Cash.

“Oh, shit,” she said, turning her back on her cousins and staring at the wall. “Then there’s someone on this island who either can’t follow instructions or they aren’t who they say they are.”

She jumped when a gentle hand landed on her right shoulder. Turning her head, she met her sister’s compassionate eyes. Emerald was a caregiver and nurturer, a gentle counterpoint to Goldie’s rougher personality. “What happened with Caleb?”

Goldie blinked, afraid to admit to her cousins that she might be losing her mate before she even had a chance to be fully mated. Shaking her head, she shrugged before looking away. “I told him. I showed him. He walked away without a word.”

Her cousins remained silent though Emerald’s fingers did tighten on her shoulder. “Maybe he just needs a little time. You can’t give up on the mating yet. He is the other half of your soul.”

“Yeah, cuz. When faced with life-altering news, most men are going to need a few minutes to process the information. Especially when they just learned that what they had always thought was a figment of some writer’s imagination was, in actuality, real.” Silver stepped up on her other side and took her hand in both of his. “You need to find him, make him admit that he feels the pull and attraction, and then have some island-rocking sex as you claim him again. The more you claim him, the stronger the ties you bind around him.”