Tuesday Teaser 3/26/19 Gina’s Wolf Part 40

We are getting close to the end of this story. AT LAST!! I am not sure that this scene will make it into the book. This will be the last book in this world (at least for the foreseeable future) and I thought it might be nice to tie it up with a scene featuring the couple that started the series off in Sleeping With the Wolf. But this little scene doesn’t really add anything to the actual story, so maybe it doesn’t really belong. What do you think? Do you think readers would like this little bit or do you think I should delete it and just have it here on my website? Let me know what you think.

It was nearly midnight when Taye Wolfe climbed the stairs to his room at The Limit. Since coming to Omaha, he’d spent most of his time with Mayor McGrath or at the headquarters building. He missed his mate. He missed holding her warm body, even more beautiful to him now with the extra softness that came from bearing his children. The silver threads in her hair and fine lines around her eyes marked the joys and sorrows they had shared over their years together. He missed talking with her and laughing with her. The sooner this ugly business with Todd was over the sooner he could take her home where she belonged.

He had an hour free now. A forward scout, his cousin Wolf’s Shadow’s oldest son, Eagle, had arrived at the headquarters building to inform him that the reinforcements from the Pack and Clan would arrive an hour after midnight.

“Go back,” he told Eagle. “Tell them stay outside the city and to get ready to attack. Cole’s been taken prisoner. The rest of us will meet you west of the city so we can plan the attack on the Kansas-Missouri camp.”

Eagle gave him a fierce grin. “We’ll slaughter them.”

Yes, they would. That fool would pay for trying to take his Cole’s mate away from him. Before dawn Taye would lead his warriors in battle, but he had an hour free now and he wanted to spend that hour with his mate. They could take comfort in each other’s arms.

He was still yards away from his bedroom door when he heard the muffled sounds of his mate crying. He rushed down the hall and threw open the door. He didn’t need the dim glow of the lap to see his mate on the edge of the bed. She facied away from the door, but she leaped to her feet and twisted to face him. At the sight of him she scrambled over the bed and threw herself at him.

“Taye!”

He held her close. Each of her sobs cut him like a knife. “Sweetheart? What is it?”

She clung to him, her fingers gripping his shoulders while she pressed her cheek into his shoulder. “I’ve done something awful. Oh. Taye, I’m so sorry.”

“Sweetheart, what is it?”

“I was so worried about Colby.” She pulled back a few inches and wiped her wet cheeks. “And Gina …”

He could almost smell her remorse and guilt. He smoothed a tender hand over her hair. “What?”

Carla swallowed. “I let her get away. She went to rescue Colby.”

“What?” he said again, in a very different tone. He took his arms away and put his hands on her shoulders to lean back and look at her more closely. “Carla, what are you saying?”

Carla wiped her other cheek. “Well, you said you wouldn’t trade Colby, that he was just a casualty of war. I wanted to get him back.”

“Carla.” He dropped his hands and stepped completely out of her reach. “You thought I’d just let our son be tortured and murdered? Don’t you know better? We’ve been mated for more than twenty-five years!”

Her tears came again, gleaming in the dark hazel eyes he loved to gaze into. “I know! I was stupid. I was so worried, and you said …” She swallowed. “I heard you say it, on the wall this morning. And Gina̶ -“ She broke off to gulp back more tears. “But after I got home tonight, I started to think. You wouldn’t sacrifice Colby.” She crumpled, hands over her face, and wailed. “I should have known! But why did you say that?”

“Because I couldn’t know if there was a spy or traitor listening who could report back to Todd.” Her anguish broke him. He put his arms around her again. “Don’t cry, sweetheart. The Clan and Pack are close by. We’re going to attack the enemy before dawn. We’ll get Cole back. And Gina too.”

He drew her back to the bed. She shuddered in his arms, weeping as if her heart would break. Or perhaps had already broken. He rocked her like a baby.

“Don’t cry,” he whispered. They wouldn’t indulge in the lovemaking he’d anticipated. His mate was too upset for that, but they could hold each other for an hour. There was comfort and strength to be had in that. He laid his mate between the sheets and curled around her. Tiny sobs still shook her.

“I’m such an idiot,” she confessed. “I’m sure Gina is in trouble and it’s all my fault!”

A wise mate wouldn’t agree with that, and he wasn’t stupid. “It will be okay. Maybe she and Cole are on their way back here already. If not, we’ll get them back.”

Slowly, her shuddering sobs faded. “You’ll be leaving soon to attack.”

It wasn’t quite a question. “Yeah. In thirty minutes or so.”

She was quiet for a long while. “You could be killed.”

He never lied to her. “Not likely, but possible.”

She twisted away suddenly and reached for a handkerchief on the bedside table. After wiping her face and blowing her nose, she tossed the handkerchief to the floor and turned to face him again. There was no hesitation in her when she pulled her nightgown off and dropped it beside the bed.  “Make love to me.”

That was easy. After spending half his life loving this woman he knew exactly how and where to touch to arouse her passion. He lingered over her mouth, caressed her small breasts, stroked the waist that was not as slim as it had been when they first mated. All of her was infinitely precious to him. When he slid into the welcome of her body, the sweetness of it nearly brought tears to his eyes.

Afterward he reluctantly rose from the bed and dressed. Carla watched him with a trembling smile. He leaned down to give her one last kiss. “I’ll bring them back,” he promised.

She nodded bravely. “I’ll be waiting.”