by Hazel Gower
Lisa took a calming breath out as she stepped out of the changeroom, but paused as something that Helen had said to her one time about women who showed as much skin as she was now. She’d called them harlots and that they deserved the bad treatment they got from men. Helen and Bruce had never psychically hurt her, but they had called her names, yelled, and locked her in her room without food for days as punishment. If they ever saw her wearing anything like this, they’d make sure she was out of her place and living back with them and under their control. Well, Dax had moved her in with him, but she would hate to think of what they would do if they found out she was living with him, wearing this dress would be the least of her worries.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she gathered her thoughts and reminded herself she was an adult now and could look after herself and make her own decisions. She had a man. Dax said she was his mate. Lisa had friends. Support. She didn’t need Helen and Bruce if it came down to a choice between what Lisa wanted and them.
Holding her head up high, she left the room and headed out to see Dax who stood leaning against the left changeroom wall. She felt her smile widen as Dax’s whole demeanor changed as his took her in. His gaze widened, his blue eyes flared with lust as his stoic expression changed to one of pure appreciation and possession. He prowled the distance to her. His laser focus solely on her.
“You, my stunning mate, are breathtakingly beautiful.” He swooped down and captured her mouth, urging her lips to spread and his tongue found hers and tangled. Her body came alive, heating and tingling with a need for satisfaction. She’d gone from a shy virgin to a wanton woman in days. She had strayed so far from what he’d learned from her foster parents, and as she pulled away from Dax’s lips, and stared into sky blue eyes, she found she didn’t care one tiny bit.
****
Dax
Dax had bought Lisa the dress. She’d tried to pay, but he wouldn’t let her. Lisa was his mate to look after and care for. If the humans knew how most shifters had money, they’d crack down even harder than they already did on them. His usual hate for humans came up, but it wasn’t as strong as it usually was. He had a feeling Lisa had to do with it. He and Lisa had gone home after shopping and were now snuggled on the sofa, watching some T.V show he couldn’t even remember the name of. He was enjoying just relaxing with his woman though.
He had been a happy bachelor, but now he had Lisa, it was strange, but he knew he could never go back to being alone. Sure, he had family, but that was different than someone to hold at night and snuggle on the sofa. Lisa and he hadn’t talked much, but he knew they had the rest of their lives to know all the little details. The fates were never wrong when they choose a soul mate. Maybe they should be learning more about each other.
“What’s your favorite color?” Her gaze turned from the T.V to look up at him.
“Blue,” she rasped then shook her head. “That’s new though. I love pink, or I did, before I met you.” The smile she sent him was breathtaking and Dax knew if he got to see that beautiful beam every day for the rest of his life, he would be the luckiest man in the world.
“You’re good for my ego.” Unable to stop himself he caressed her cheek. “You’re so beautiful. Your smile…” leaning down he brushed his lips over her hers “…I will do anything to see that on your face.” Her cheeks turned a bright red and Dax kissed both her cheeks.
He leaned back and she cleared her throat. “Did you always want to work at a bar? You don’t, um, dance, do you? You’re like, security?” Lisa’s voice was so sweet and had a shy lilt to it.
Turning his focus from the T.V he wasn’t even really watching, he stared into her big brown eyes, noticing they lightened as she looked at him. “No, I’m not a dancer. I’m just security and sometimes help out at the bar. I stayed in the military longer than required of shifters. I have a degree as a nurse, or I prefer medic.”
“Oh.” She cocked her head to the side as she gazed up at me. “Why aren’t you working at a hospital or in the ambulance service?”
It was a good question. Oddly none of his shifter friends or family ever asked it. They knew how he felt about humans though, was that why they hadn’t asked and had let him be? Dax hadn’t asked them why they worked at the bar either, maybe he should?
“I saw and did things in the military I never wanted to. I fought and killed so many human enemies. I did what I was ordered, but it never felt right.” He blinked, just voicing his unhappiness brought forth images of things he wished he’d never seen nor done. One thing he and most shifter males vowed never to do was to kill children and women. Shifters knew how valuable women were. They were the givers of life. Without them, the next generation would never come. Oh, he and other shifters knew that not all children or women were good or needed, but from a young age, shifters were taught to respect women and that children were a blessing, so he never understood how humans could massacre the both of them without a second thought. He knew not all shifters were good and that every species had their bad apples so to say, but humans seem to be taken over with hate and vengeance so easily. They never learned from their history. Countries and religion are at war with each other for things he was sure neither really remembered the real reason why they’d started in the first place.
“Why’d you stay in the military for so long?”
He wasn’t sure of the answer himself. At first he’d stayed because he thought he was helping more people through the military than he would in a hospital or ambulance, and then he stayed because he didn’t know anything else. He’d joined the military after university and stayed until he couldn’t take the violence and carrying out orders he didn’t agree with anymore. Shifters were treated differently too. They always seemed to be given the more dangerous jobs, and usually by the time Dax got to them, even he couldn’t save them, and shifters were hard to kill.
“Routine.” He shrugged. “Habit.” Throwing up his hands he let them fall. “Truthfully, I don’t know. I know why I left, and I thought I stayed because I wanted to help more people, but I left because I wasn’t helping enough and didn’t like what they were asking my people to do.”
“Do you know I’m studying to be a nurse? I work at the nursing home. That’s where I’m going tonight for work. I love helping all the old people.” He didn’t know she was still studying to further her nursing. This was another confirmation that she was perfect for him.
Gathering her so she straddled his lap, he rose, tilted his head, and captured Lisa’s lips unable to resist showing her how happy he was that she was his mate. The kiss was passionate that had his tiger eager for more. He wanted to take the next step. That was one thing he was holy in agreeance with his tiger; he wanted to mate Lisa. He wanted to plant his seed and watch her grow with their cub. He eased his mouth from hers, his tongue licking his lips to savior her taste, resting his forehead against hers. “I want to do this with you stone cold sober. I want you to know I mean this.” Brushing his lips over hers, he let himself say what he wanted her to know. “I claim you. I give you my mark, my life, and everything I am. I will give you my seed. You will give me young. You’re my tiger’s and you’re mine. My mate. My woman. My soul. Mine.” Her smile was blinding which made his stomach flip-flop like a woman and not the alpha man he thought he was before he met his mate.
“My shoulder tingles.” She rubbed where he’d bitten her last night. “My body is burning.” She nibbled on her bottom lip and Dax zoned in on the action. “I kind of like it,” she whispered in a breathless voice.
He groaned as her voice sent his tiger wild and his body ached with need, but his need for her doused as his mother came in. “There is a Bruce and Helen Ray at the gate claiming that they’re Lisa’s parents and we kidnapped her. The police will be here soon. Come on, son. We need to show them that she’s your mate.”
Lisa’s whole demeanor changed. She seemed to shrink and almost hide herself trying to become a part of the sofa. She shook her head and stuttered, “N..n...no.” She st
ood and wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m sorry,” she rasped, before she ran toward the door, opened it, and left him staring after her.
****
Lisa.
Lisa had been enjoying her freedom. She’d had sex for the first time and her body felt deliciously sore. She never knew she could feel so good. So well loved. From the moment she’d met Dax, he’d looked after her and treated her with nothing but respect and growing affection. The more time she spent with him, the more she grew to like him.
Lisa had no idea how trapped Helen and Bruce made her feel until Dax’s mother—or the woman Lisa assumed was Dax’s mother—came in and told her that they were at the gate. Lisa knew they were asking to see her, or more like demanding. They weren’t fans of shifters. They weren’t a fan of anything different. She didn’t want any trouble to come from her thanks to her foster parents, so she did the only thing she could, she ran and went to the gate to make sure they didn’t get anyone in trouble.
She heard them before she saw them, Bruce standing tall, his chest puffed out, and his fist clenched at his side. Helen stood next to him in a similar position except her hands were pointed in Dax’s father’s face. She hadn’t been introduced to Dax’s parents yet, but you couldn’t miss the resemblance. Dax looked just like the man. Lisa heard the siren coming and knew she needed to stop the drama before they arrived.
“I’m not going to repeat myself again. Get my daughter now, you animal.” Helen poked Dax’s father in his chest.
Slowing, Lisa glanced down at her clothes and sighed in relief when she saw her clothes weren’t revealing and she didn’t look like she’d been making out, or at least she hoped she didn’t.
As she came up, she hunched over making herself small, she’d forgotten how intimidating the two were. They never physically hurt her, but their verbal words hit hard every time, and their punishments still give her nightmares. When she was younger, they made her clean bathrooms with toothbrushes, and another was to confess to their priest for an hour, or the worst was to sit through a four-hour long sermon by their priest who thought Helen and Bruce were angels.
Taking a calming breath in, she mumbled, “Helen. Bruce. Stop.” Their gazes switched from Dax’s parents to glare at Lisa.
“Dad to you, girl,” Bruce snapped. “Get in the car.”
Lisa shrank back and wished that she’d hid instead of running into this situation. She’d just wanted Helen and Bruce gone and no trouble to come to the Whites.
Strong, warm, muscular arms circled her waist and she felt the heat against her, and smelt Dax’s manly scent. He gave her the strength she needed to stand up to the closest thing she had to parents.
“No. Mum. Dad.” Lisa wasn’t backing down. With Dax behind her, Lisa felt safe and confident enough to stick up for herself and say what she wanted to say. “I’m not going with you. I like it here and I like Dax and his family.” She had only known Dax for a short time, she felt something for him, but even the small amount she’d spent with him, she knew he was better than Helen and Bruce.
Two police cars pulled up and a man and a woman got out, and two women got out of the second vehicle. The oldest police woman stepped toward Bruce and Helen. “What is going on, ma’am? We had two different reports, one of a kidnapping, and the other about a couple disturbing the peace and trespassing on private property.” The police woman raised a brow.
Breathing in Dax’s scent, Lisa stepped forward toward the police. “I’m sorry you were called here. I’m Lisa Lurman. I’m not kidnapped, and Bruce and Helen are here as they’re my foster family. I’m twenty-one years old though, so old enough to be where I want to be.”
A younger female cop came forward. “This is a shifter mate thing?” She looked from Lisa to Dax. Lisa could feel the heat from his body and it comforted her.
Dax’s grumble was deep and Lisa felt it flow through her as Dax stepped closer to her, and she leaned back against his muscular body. “Yes,” he growled. “Lisa is my mate.”
“My daughter isn’t with an animal like you,” Bruce yelled and charged forward toward Dax, but the male cop stopped him.
“Honey, we don’t use our voices like that.” Helen reprimanded Bruce and moved to join him. Then her sharp gaze turned back to Lisa. “Lisa, what have we told you about these animals? What will the church think when they hear about this? Father Tomas will be disappointed in you.”
Leaning back, warmth flowed through her as Dax brought her into his embrace. “Mates are protected and shifters have rights.” His deep baritone was soothing and the anxiety Bruce and Helen brought out seemed to vanish when he was close.
“Miss Lurman, I am to understand that you are over the age of consent and wish to be here?” The older police woman who’d spoken before asked.
Lisa squinted and saw her name tag read Rose. Lisa nodded. Rose pursed her lips and gave her a look like she was waiting for more, so Lisa knew she had to say it out loud in front of the other cops. “Yes. I, Lisa Lurman, want to be here with Dax White.”
Rose gave a sharp jerk of her head at Lisa and then turned her focus on Helen and Bruce. “She is over the age of eighteen and shifter laws states that if she’s a mate, they can keep her here. It’s you two I need to ask to leave or I will have to remove you.”
Lisa tried not to shrink back and become smaller under Bruce and Helen’s scrutiny, and was proud of herself when she didn’t. She had a feeling Dax’s presence had something to do with her new found confidence.
Watching as Helen and Bruce were escorted from the fence and to their car, Lisa thought she would feel sad, but she felt the opposite, her stomach fluttered and her heart soared, and Dax’s warmth surrounded and filled her with the love she craved. She had a moment of clarity, she put up with Helen and Bruce because she needed their love, or she thought she did. Lisa had no one and she’d always been afraid of being alone. She knew now that she could have what she craved with Dax.
The bite he’d given her tingled and simmered with a cool heat. Lisa did something that was unlike her, she pivoted to face him, rose on her tip-toes, and kissed Dax. Passion built fast in her body and her hands smoothed over his chest and up to circle his neck. Her legs rose and she tore her lips from his on a mewl of pure need as his hands came to settle on her arse and lifted her. Lisa wrapped her legs around Dax’s waist and ground herself against him. She’d never been this wanton, but she’d never had this surge of control, appetite for love, sex, power, and happiness surge through her at the same time.
Dax started walking and the movement heightened her already building passion. She wanted Dax White. She’d never been attracted to any man like she was with him. She wondered if the bite he gave her had anything to do with her behavior. Lisa could hear chuckling behind her and she didn’t care. She wanted to be alone with Dax. She wanted to show him just what he meant to her. He’d showed her nothing but respect, and she was ready to do for him what he’d done for her last night.
A haze of lust settled around her as he deepened the kiss, his prowling back to the house was rubbing her just right. Lisa didn’t even realize they’d arrived back at the cottage until his hands left her butt to open the door, he shut it with the heel of his foot, but she didn’t get off him, enjoying his muscles flexing at her weight. His hands came back to rest on her arse and rub, before he squeezed both globes.
Tearing her lips from his, she hissed, “More.”
Squeezing her thighs, her fingers roamed until they hooked the end of his shirt and lifted. She liked his bare chest. She’d fantasized about his body since seeing him strip naked and showed her his tiger, and last night had been her first but it had been amazing. He leaned down helping her take off his shirt, feasting on his thick muscular chest when it was off and on the floor. Smoothing her hands over every rise, bump and curve, her gaze greedily followed her fingers and an urge to taste started to consume her, and when she stopped fighting it, Lisa dove in kissing her way over his skin. He smelled so good, like the wild woods aft
er it had rained.
“Fuck. Kitten. You’re driving me crazy. That feels so amazing.” His husky words were drawn out in a long gravely growl. “I need to taste,” he growled before he tugged, grabbed her T-shirt and ripped it exposing her black cotton bra that her breast spilled out of. She’d been meaning to get rid of the bra as it was small, but she was frugal and hated getting rid of anything and spending money that could go on other items.
His head came down and his lips trailed kisses over her exposed heating skin. His fingers hooked around her and she heard the click of the clasp. The straps glided down her arms, goosebumps trailed in their wake. The pads of his fingers grazed over her falling straps, his touch had surging fiery heat flowing through every cell. His mouth started sucking, leaving little love hickies in its wake, driving her wild. Moaning as he left her breast and made his way up her neck nuzzling and nipping at her skin before resting his lips over hers, and taking them in a kiss that had her losing any doubt that she wasn’t where she was supposed to be and that Dax was the only man for her. No one else but him.
“I…I…I’ve never wanted anything as bad as I want you. Maybe I should have been with someon—”
“No.” Dax’s grip tightened on her until she gasped and his mouth gave her an almost punishing kiss. “You are mine. Never talk of other men. Mine. My mate. Only I will ever touch you like this beautiful little kitten.” He took her mouth again and this time it was gentle and just what her whole being wanted. His hands yanked at her skirt not bothering with the zipper as he pulled it down and off. She may be a prude, but she loved her lacy bra, and matching panties. It was one thing Bruce and Helen never saw or got a say in what she wore, so she got what she thought looked good, which was all matching sets with pretty lace, satin, and bright colors.
His words almost had her friggin’ coming just from his sexy alpha growl, and pure need that came through with his every word. “Only you,” she rasped.
