Love Bound in Ice: 3 (Werewolf Sentinels) by Marisa Chenery

I’ll get a cloth to clean you up.”
    “I only have the one bathroom, which is upstairs. And you can find clean cloths in the linen closet beside it.”
    “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” Ketah bent and gave her a quick kiss before heading for the stairs.
    Haven heard the water turn on in the bathroom a short while later. If Ketah kept this up, he’d soon have her wall torn down and have wormed his way into her heart. Maybe he wasn’t what she thought most gorgeous guys were like. Maybe he’d told the truth about his being nothing like her father. A tiny voice inside her pointed out Ketah could be acting this way because he knew that was what she wanted. She quickly squashed that idea, not wanting to give it life. She couldn’t think it if she wanted this to even have half a chance of working out. She’d take it one day at a time.
    * * * * *
     
    Ketah didn’t stay very late at Haven’s before he decided it would be best for him to go home. He would have wanted nothing more than to spend the night in her arms, but that would have been pushing things. Haven wasn’t ready for him to be that possessive of her. And once he spent one night with her, he’d want every one after that.
    His mating urge had increased by a small degree as well after he’d come in her hand. Until he claimed her as his own, finding release other than deep inside his mate’s body would have the same effect on it. But that wouldn’t stop him from sharing pleasure with Haven. He needed the closeness that would bring. And it would help bond his mate to him, make her learn to trust him.
    After giving Haven one last kiss that would have to last him through the rest of the night until he saw her again the next day, Ketah headed home. For his very first date, he thought it had gone well. He did have to tell his wolf brothers about the movie, and how 3D seemed all too real. It also showed he still had more to learn about this new world he’d awakened into.
    He arrived home to find Brice sitting in the living room with everyone else. The pack leader’s mate, Marta, was there as well. Ketah stepped into the room and looked around. “What’s going on?”
    Edensaw waved him over. Ketah took a seat on the floor close to the couch where his alpha sat with Cassidy, Brice and Marta. “Brice got some news in regard to Tanner,” Edensaw said.
    Ketah looked from Edensaw to Brice, then everyone else in the room. It was obvious the news hadn’t been good. “What is it?”
    Brice answered him. “I had an unexpected visit from a lone wolf earlier this evening. He wasn’t originally from my pack. It seems any lone wolf Tanner considers an acquaintance he’s getting in contact with, inviting them to Juneau. When they do meet up, Tanner asks them to join this new pack he belongs to. He also promises them immortality, that his pack leader is able to give it to them as he’d given it to Tanner. The lone wolf said Tanner’s eyes were black and that his scent had changed. He didn’t smell like a normal werewolf.”
    Ketah looked at Edensaw. “The dark wolves are really here.” He said it as a statement rather than a question. “The two who attacked Carson, Noah and Wachei weren’t the only ones then.”
    His alpha nodded. “Looks like it. It would explain why we’ve felt darkness slowly growing. Whoever is Tanner’s new pack leader, he must be the evil the shaman had seen coming. And he must be using dark magic to hide his presence in Juneau from us.”
    Ketah turned his attention back to Brice. “Does the lone wolf know where to find Tanner and his new pack?”
    “No. Tanner only gave him the barest of information. The lone wolf said he’d have to think about it, though he has no intention of taking him up on his offer. He promised to give Tanner his answer in a couple of days in a prearranged meeting place. We’re going to follow Tanner from there to his new pack.”
    That is if everything went smoothly and Tanner didn’t spot them.