Come Moonrise
ISBN 0425212114 ~ Berkley Tradesize
December 2006

Excerpt © 2006 Lucy Monroe

CHAPTER ONE

Frankie watched the sleek brown wolf run toward her across the clearing, its powerful body moving with a fluid grace that took her breath away.

She should be frightened, but she wasn't.  She'd met the wolf many times before, her mind told her, though she could not remember any single instance with clarity.

The summer sun warmed her bare skin where she reclined on the big diving rock beside the swimming hole, one foot dangling off the side, her toes trailing the water.  She'd been skinny dipping, but her nudity did not bother her.  No one was there to see it, except the wolf.

He stopped about twenty feet away and fixed his blue gaze on her, his eyes glowing with intelligence she could have sworn was human.  He didn't growl or bare his teeth.  His ears did not flatten.  He made no signs whatsoever of aggression.

He simply looked at her.

She didn't understand why, but she tingled inside, and her body warmed with a blush that made no sense in the current situation.  He was only a wolf, but the eyes that gazed at hers were those of a man, or so her foolish imagination fancied.

She didn't move...couldn't move, though she felt a brief instinct to cover herself.  The wolf came forward until he was in touching distance, a sound coming from deep in his chest, but it was not a growl.  It almost sounded like pleasure.

He butted her shoulder with his muzzle and she gasped.  His mouth opened...was he going to bite her?

He licked the droplets of water that had rolled down her neck from her still wet hair.  She shivered and gasped again.  Then, as if in a dream, she reached up and touched the wolf, running her fingers through his silky fur.  The sound coming from his chest got louder.

Feeling like it was the most natural thing in the world, she nuzzled him like she did her pet German shepherd and just like Snoopy did, the wolf returned the affectionate gesture.  Then his head came up, his ears perked, as if he could hear something she couldn't.

"What is it, boy?" she asked softly.

He shook his head and danced backwards, his movements so graceful she envied him.

She had been known to trip over her own feet.  Maybe that was why Ty never looked at her like a woman...he was as lithe as the wolf.  Perhaps her clumsiness turned him off.

A sudden gust of wind lifted her hair and its damp mass swirled around her head, blocking her vision.  When she brushed it from her eyes, the wolf was gone.

Had he ever been there?

Her hand lifted of its own volition and touched where it had licked her neck.  Yes, the wolf had been real.

Disappointed he was gone, but moved in a way she didn't understand by the encounter, she climbed to her feet and dove into the swimming hole.  The water closed over her naked flesh and caressed her like lovers hands she had never felt.

If only Ty were there...but if he were, she wouldn't be swimming naked and he wouldn't touch her the way she craved.

The thought had barely formed when something splashed to her left and then she felt a hand grab her ankle and pull.  She kicked out with her other foot, but as quickly as she'd been grabbed, she was released and she shot to the surface.

She gulped in air and twisted her head, trying to see who was in the water with her.

Ty's blond head broke from the water right in front of her as a pair of strong, masculine hands latched onto her waist.

"Don't," she panted, unable to accept that her thoughts had taken physical form.

"Don't what?" he asked, his blue eyes reminding her so much of the wolf she'd seen, that for a second, she was speechless.

"You scared me...when you grabbed my foot," she finally forced out.

He grinned, pulling her closer through the water.  "Did I?"

Their bodies brushed and she yelped.

"What's the matter, Frankie?  The water too cold?"

"I'm naked, Ty!"

"I know.  I saw you."  His hands slid down to cup her bare bottom in a move that both shocked and intrigued her.  "I can feel you too."

Oh, wow.  She'd never been touched like this before, but she liked it.  A lot.  "I can feel you too," she whispered breathlessly, unable to believe what was happening.

It felt like she'd wanted Ty to see her has a woman forever, but never in a million years would she have expected him to join her skinny dipping and touch her like this.  He usually turned and headed the other way when there was a risk of them getting too intimate physically.

His mouth hovered over hers as his powerful legs kept them both afloat.  "I want you, Frankie."

"I want you too, Ty...so much."

Her lips parted instinctively in preparation for his kiss.

His head came closer and closer while a buzzing sound went off in her brain.  He stopped, his lips right above her own, so close she could taste his breath.

"Ty?" she whispered.

Frankie woke up her mouth full of cotton pillowcase.

Aargh...not again.  How many times had she had that dream?  How many nights had she come so close to kissing the man she loved only to be woken by something?

Her hand slammed down onto the buzzing alarm clock and the offending noise abruptly ceased.

Darn it.  When was she going to stop dreaming about the guy?

And that wolf...how many times had he been in the dreams?  Even when she was dreaming in the city, the wolf was there, incongruous and yet her subconscious mind accepted his presence without question.  Maybe because that was the only part of the dream steeped in reality.

The encounter with the wolf had happened when she was fifteen.  She'd gone to the swimming by herself that day, but she hadn't gone skinny dipping.  She'd just needed some time to herself.  Ty had spent the day flirting with another girl at school and it had hurt watching them together.

In reality, it had been her tears the wolf had licked from both her cheek and her neck, not the water from the swimming hole.  She hadn't been naked, but everything else in the dream was exactly as it had happened in reality.

Until she dove into the swimming hole.  That part with Ty was pure imagination.  The funny thing was, no one would ever believe her if she told them about the encounter with the wolf.  Even Ty hadn't.  He'd said she'd probably dozed off and dreamed it.  She knew he was wrong.

The truth was it was the time in the swimming hole that was truly fanciful.  Her encounter with the wolf had been real and it had sparked a lifelong love of the animals.

She had spent years researching them, had even at one time dreamed of doing a field behavioral study on Ty's father's ranch...the part dedicated to the wolf refuge.

But that dream had died along with many others the day the man she loved made it clear he wanted nothing more than friendship from her.  That had been six years ago and Ty McCanlup was still her best friend.

He was also still the man she measured every other male in her life by and they all came up short.

Her feelings for him made it impossible for her to maintain a relationship with another man and it was time she faced up to that.  She'd moved to the city, away from him and the everyday proximity of their friendship.  The move should have helped rid her of her unrequited love and at first she'd believed it had.

She'd been dead wrong.  Lately, it was getting even worse, the pain of loving and not having him, the inability to see other men but for the superimposed image of his face in her mind.  The dreams were becoming more frequent too.

Probably because she'd been offered that job in Oregon .  She knew to accept would mean an irrevocable step in her life.

It had been summer in her dream, but it was November now and soon it would be Thanksgiving.  A time for family and friends to be together.

It was also time for her to do something about Ty. 

She’d spent four years trying to get him to notice she was female when she was younger and the last six trying to forget his gentle rejection.  She'd been unsuccessful at both.  If she was ever going to move on with her life, she should take the job in Washington state and let her friendship with Ty go.

The knowledge hurt, but it had been a long time coming. 

She was at a crossroads both job wise and personally.  She couldn't keep living the half life she'd been doing.  She hated city veterinary medicine and the job in Washington would be working in a wolf haven.   She was also tired of being lonely, of pining after a man who thought of her as a buddy without chest hair and maybe if she moved away, cut him from her life completely, she could learn to care for someone else.

But was she sure he saw her that way still? an insidious voice inside her head asked.  There were times Ty looked at her the same way he had in the dream...as if he wanted her.  He hadn’t dated anyone seriously in the past six years either.

She made a decision, sitting there in her lonely bed, still tingling from a dream that could not make up for reality.  It was time to fish or cut bait with Ty McCanlup.  She would go home for the holidays and try one more time.  If he rejected her again, she would cut him completely from her life.

She had no choice.

One way, or another, this trip back home was going to determine both her future career and the future of her relationship with Ty.

***

"What do you mean we weren’t invited?  The McCanlups have been sharing thanksgiving with our family since before I came here to live."  Frankie stared at Aunt Rose, her stomach plummeting in disappointment.

She’d bought the perfect dress to wear for the dinner.  It even made her look elegant and somewhat curvy, not like a beanpole with a couple of interesting bumps.  She’d spent hours shopping – something she hated doing – in order to stock her arsenal of weapons.

"Something happened with Duke and Marigold."

Well, crud.  Trust her cousin to mess things up.  Whatever Marigold had done to Ty's older brother had to be serious for the annual Thanksgiving dinner invitation not to be extended.  "Did they have a fight, or something?"

Aunt Rose bit her lip and looked away with a sigh as she proceeded to roll out pie crust with a practiced hand.  "She won’t say, but his fiancée left town and now he cuts your cousin dead whenever he sees her.  No one in their family has stepped foot on our land since Leah left."

"Have you been over to see Carolyn?"  Ty’s mom and Aunt Rose had always been almost as close as sisters.

"It didn’t feel right, not knowing what had gone on between Marigold and Duke."  But Frankie could see the loss of the other woman’s friendship had hurt her aunt deeply.

Younger than Frankie, Marigold’s crush on the older man had never been a secret.  She would sympathize with her cousin if she didn’t think that the idea of Duke’s wealth and position in the community was even more tantalizing to Marigold than the man himself.

Besides, at barely twenty, Marigold wasn’t exactly mature in her dealings with others.  A professional prima donna, Frankie’s cousin rarely thought of anyone else’s feelings when going after something, or in this case, someone, she wanted.

"You wanted to see Ty," Aunt Rose guessed.

"Of course."

Her aunt’s lips pursed in concern.  "You’re still in love with him."

"You don’t have to look like that’s the worst fate in the world.  Ty’s a good man."

"He’s not going to marry you, baby."  The sad certainty in Aunt Rose’s voice scared her, but Frankie hadn’t come this far to turn back at the first fence.

"I guess I’ve got to know that for sure."

If her aunt was right, then her cousin’s actions could turn out to be a favor instead of frustrating.  Cutting her ties with the man she loved would be a lot easier if their families weren’t so close.

"Another family moved into town.  French Canadian.  They’ve got a daughter about Ty’s age."

"Really?"

"Her name is Olivia.  She’s real pretty."

"That’s nice."

"Ty seems partial to her."

Frankie’s heart stopped in her chest with a painful thump and then started beating so fast, she could barely breathe.  After all this time he was showing interest in another woman?  Why now?  "How does she feel about him?"

"The boy seems to irritate her more than anything, but with their kind you never know."

"You think French Canadian women are more likely to hide an interest in a man behind dislike?" she asked, not really understanding where her aunt was coming from.

Aunt Rose frowned.  "I wonder..."  She shook her head.  "No.  A promise is a promise.  Just don’t get your heart set on Tyler McCanlup."

Her heart was already set on the gorgeous veterinarian.  So was her body for that matter.  No other man had ever stirred her senses like he did and he’d never even kissed her.  It had gotten so bad that she couldn’t even give herself orgasms without thinking about him.

"I think I’ll go for a ride."

Aunt Rose shook her head.  "Stubborn child.  Give the McCanlups my regards."

***

Hardened snow crunched under Flash’s feet as Frankie guided the big black gelding from the barn.  She missed him as much as she missed her family since moving to the city.  She pulled her scarf down and breathed in the cold air.

Oh, man.

Her lungs seized on the freezing offering before expelling it all in a rush.  She breathed in another big whiff of what she loved best.  Fresh, clean air that smelled like snow, wood smoke and nothing else.  No car exhaust, no nearby restaurants cooking for the lunch crowd...none of the stale city smells she'd grown used to if not fond of.

Pulling her scarf back up to muffle her nose and mouth, she kneed Flash into movement and the horse sprang forward eagerly.  Before long, they were galloping across the land between her aunt and uncle’s and the Rocking M.  Even with Flash’s speed, it was a fair ride to the McCanlup homestead.

She slowed Flash to a walk far enough away to cool the horse down.  It was then that she noticed a trio of riders coming toward her.

All three men sat tall in the saddle and wore almost identical outfits of faded jeans, flannel shirts over dark Henleys and sheepskin jackets open down the front.  She had no problem telling them apart, however.  Not one of the men wore a hat.  Their almost insane tolerance for the cold had always amazed her.

Duke rode on the left, his dark hair the same color as his dad’s.  King rode in the middle and Ty, his golden blond hair glistening in the stark sunlight, rode to his right.  None of the men were smiling, but that didn’t stop her heart from speeding up at the sight of Ty.

She reined in when she reached them.  "Mr. McCanlup."  She nodded toward the man in the center then to the others.  "Duke.  Ty."  Her voice softened just a little on his name and she smiled slightly.

His expression showed no matching welcome.

Had Marigold destroyed the relationship between their families completely?

"I'm surprised your people let you go riding alone right now," King McCanlup said with his usual emotionless stare.

He and her uncle got along well enough, but King had always been somewhat cold toward Frankie and she'd never understood why.  His apparent disapproval of her had never stopped Ty from being her friend and so she'd never let it bother her.

She wasn't about to start now.  "I always go for a ride when I first get home.  No one was available to come along."

"Maybe your family didn’t expect you to ride over this way."  Ty shot a sidelong glance at his stone faced older brother.

"I told Aunt Rose where I was going.  She sends her regards, by the way.  As for being out riding right now - I don’t see the problem.  The storm front isn’t supposed to move in until tomorrow, tonight at the soonest."  Which was why she’d traveled a couple of days earlier than she’d originally planned.

She hadn’t wanted to be snow bound in Billings on Thanksgiving.  She'd felt an urgency about her trip home, a certainty that if she didn't secure her relationship with Ty now, it would never happen.

"The full moon is in thirty-two hours," King said like that should explain his concern.

She rolled her eyes thinking he probably assumed it did.  He had the timing down to the hours no less.

"I know you all think the full moon has some kind of weird effect on the wolves in the Rocking M's refuge—"

"It does," Ty cut in, his voice brusque, his blue eyes cold.  "You don’t have to believe it for it to be the truth.  You had no business riding out here so close to one."

She blinked in pained surprise at the rebuke.  Ty might have held back from deepening their friendship to something more, but he’d always treated her like a person he was glad to see.

Right now, she felt about as welcome as a skunk at a picnic.  She lifted the reins, prepared to turn Flash around.  "I’ll just go back then."

"You’re closer to the homestead," King said, staying her.  "Ty can give you a lift back to your aunt and uncle’s.  One of the hands will ride Flash back."

"That’s ridiculous.  I can ride back now."

"You’re on our land.  You’ll do as we say."  Duke’s voice lacked even an edge of warmth.

She opened her mouth, but Ty forestalled her.  "Don’t talk to her like that, Duke."

"You got a problem with it?  Why?  I thought you were interested that little French Canadian bitch."

Frankie’s jaw dropped.  She’d never heard Duke refer to a woman with anything but unfailing respect.  "Don’t you like her?" she blurted.

"Ignore him, he’s just feeling his age right now."

She would have laughed if she wasn’t battling pain at their obvious rejection.  "You’re only gong to be thirty.  That’s hardly ancient."

Duke said nothing, but wheeled his horse around.  "Let her do what she wants," he called back over his shoulder.  "But don’t blame me if a wolf decides she looks damn tasty right now."

CHAPTER TWO

Ty wanted to smack his brother upside the head.

He knew Duke wasn’t alluding to one of the pack eating Frankie, but to something that could be equally as devastating.

Beyond being a woman alone in the wild, she was single and she was ovulating.  In heat.

Her scent would drive any unmated werewolf crazy...or to do something both the wolf and Frankie would end up regretting.

Hell, her scent was calling to the beast in him and it was taking all he had to keep his wolf under control.  He could see that his attitude had hurt her feelings, but why did she have to show up today?  It was the last damn thing he needed when he was mentally preparing himself to mate with another female.

On top of that, Duke was right.  She was definitely at risk out here on the range.

Many members of the pack gathered on the Rocking M before the change so they were someplace safe to run when it happened.  If another male found her alone out here this close to the full moon, there was every chance she could wake up tomorrow morning mated.

And that would be less than ideal for both her and the wolf.  She’d have the trauma of an unwanted werewolf mating to overcome and if it turned out to be a sacred bond, some poor bastard would be rendered effectively neutered when she refused to stay with him.

"Ride back to the homestead with us, Frankie," he said, forcing his voice into a friendlier tone even though all he wanted to do was growl and rip her clothes off.  "Mom’ll have a fit if she finds out you were close enough to say hi and didn’t."

Frankie was still watching Duke’s disappearing figure, but she turned to face Ty at his words, her soft brown eyes still filled with the wounding of their initial reaction to her.  "Are you sure?  Things are more strained between our families than I expected."

"It's not your fault," his dad said shortly.  "Come on to the house."

For King, who hated the thought of either of his sons mating a non-wolf, it was practically an engraved invitation.  He turned his horse and followed after Duke, his assumption Frankie would follow obvious in the set of the pack leader’s shoulders.

Frankie looked at Ty, her expression troubled.

He smiled, letting the warm feelings he'd always had for her show in his expression.  "You don't want to disappoint my mom, do you?"

"No."

"Then come on."  He spurred his horse and went after his dad.  With a muttered imprecation about arrogant men that he was sure he wasn’t supposed to hear, Frankie followed them.

They reached the yard a few minutes later and Frankie let Jed take Flash into the barn.

They walked into the house together.  He picked up the scent of his mother’s cinnamon snaps and her concern over having a human visitor this close to the full moon at the same time.  She was smiling when she came into the living room though.

It was something he hadn’t managed when he’d first seen Frankie, but then he’d been too busy trying to fight his reaction to her scent in heat.  He still was and he wasn’t winning.