Ghost Stalker by Jenna Kernan Page B

followed by a pitiful groan.

 

    Chapter 11
     
    N ick started after her and then stopped. His confusion made him hesitate, preventing him from pursuit. He’d made love to many women, but this experience was unique. The magnitude of his response gave him pause. He had never cared about anything this much. That meant he needed to be cautious. For despite his hard words, something about Jessie was different than all the others and that made her dangerous.
    She had shown him a completely different side.
    In his dream she was sensual and arousing. She took what she wanted and spoke her mind. He liked that and found himself drawn to her with a fearsome force.
    What would it take to bring that woman into this world?
    Don’t be stupid. She despises you.
    But her reaction to him in his dream said otherwise.A hypocrite, then, saying one thing while doing another. Which was the truth?
    Most women were attracted to his human face and form. Perhaps in this Jessie was no different, drawn in when she had seen him uninjured and whole. But he could not account for his racing thoughts. She actually made him consider possibilities that were not open to one as solitary as a wolf. Things like a future and a home.
    He thought he’d forsaken that fantasy long ago and was surprised to find it clinging to him still—tenacious as a badger. Only a fool would pursue that illusion. And Nick was no fool. He was a realist who understood exactly the kind of havoc love wrought.
    His mother had shown him the folly of loving humans. They were weak, fickle and short-lived. So Nick had never seen them as other than a momentary hiatus from his chosen path. Although he sometimes ran with wolves, they knew him for what he was and that kept him from truly entering a pack. That left the Inanoka, many of whom saw him as the reason their greatest leader had fallen, and the Niyanoka, who hated all of his kind. Besides, it was love that brought his father to his death. Not the love for a woman, but the love for his child, the need to protect—even at the cost of his life. He knew his friend Sebastian faced this same curse even now, trying to protect his offspring from a true Spirit. He pitied him, but did not ever plan to place himself in such a vulnerable position—not for a woman.
    He’d rather face his own death than give a woman hisheart. At least there was a limit to how much suffering one could experience while dying. Not so with the pain of love.
    He groaned again and closed his eyes, knowing it was not over.
    There in the night, he trembled with need for her, straining his control to stay in his narrow single bed. How had she stirred this reaction? He had never ached for a woman as he ached for this one. He’d always chosen when and who, keeping the power for himself and making the engagements brief. He had never faced anything like this gnawing hunger.
    Was it because she was not a woman, or at least, not only a woman? She was a Spirit Child and that was something with which he had no experience.
    Perhaps she had this effect on all men. It would explain why she wore such armor against invasion. But, oh, once he found the chink and crawled inside, she was all fire and heat.
    He had three broken bones and the Great Mystery only knew how many stitches, and yet the throbbing that caused the most discomfort was well south of his ribs. He wanted her again—and not just in a dream. What would he do if she didn’t accept him again?
    He groaned.
    Nick reached for the pills she had left, seeking a few hours respite from his healing body and spinning mind. They were bitter, but it was not very long before his skin began to tingle and his eyelids sagged. The pain was still there, but disconnected somehow, as if it belonged to someone else.
    “If I’m lucky, she’ll come visiting again.”
    He slipped into a heavy sleep and did not rouse when a large black raven landed upon his windowsill. In a moment it had torn the screen away and slipped into his room.
    It