by R. A. Boyd
He sat down on a kitchen stool and stretched out his legs as he chewed on his bottom lip. “Oh, God, Audra. Is this why you’re—” Losing it, he thought. “Your beast has been fully awake, locked inside you. For how long? Please tell me.”
She wouldn’t meet his gaze. The sound of her teeth grinding together as she worked her jaw grated in his ears. “Since about a year after we had to put our brother down. I can’t say his name.”
No one said his name anymore. It hurt too much. Decades ago, their brother had gone on a killing spree. He was tired of living in limbo. Tired of being stuck between being shifter, human, and angel. He’d gone insane and gave up on living, and he’d taken quite a few people with him in his descent.
“We need to tell the others,” Teague said, reaching into the refrigerator and handing her a bottle of water. “If what happened to him happens to you, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself for not doing something. You wouldn’t be able to forgive yourself.”
She took a few long pulls from the cold water. Running her hand over her long braid she said, “I’m fighting it, and I already told you. If I feel like I can’t control it anymore I will let you know. But this here gives me purpose. Knowing that you are finding your mates, regardless of if mine is coming, gives me something to look forward to. Someone to protect. Cass is as ferocious as they come, but she’s my sister and needs me to guide her. Riley is my sister now and she needs me. She needs you too. That’s who we’re talking about. Riley is fragile. Don’t talk about me anymore right now. Oh, the shifter that Cass tossed up into the tree finally shifted back. Jax and Damon are trying to find out who he is. I bet you a ham sandwich that he’s not from around here. I think I moved that conversation away from me and my problems pretty smoothly.”
Teague stood up and put his hands on his hips, worrying his bottom lip. He didn’t want to stop talking about Audra, but he didn’t want her to shut down on him. “Fine,” he said, reaching over to grab the sugar and cream for his coffee. “We’ll talk about Riley. Aaron is bothering her?”
Teague didn’t want to shift gears but he knew he had to. If Audra shut down on him she may not open up again until it was too late. Besides, his sister meant what she said. Always had. Audra may shoot the shit and joke around but she was a brick wall when she wanted to be. No one wanted that wall to come crashing into them on her most sane days.
“Mmm-hmm,” she murmured. “He sure is. She’s trying to be nice until after the hearing. She’s worried that a judge won’t grant her joint custody unless Hippotwattamus agrees to it. And she might be right. I was looking up state custody laws. Aaron has the upper hand. I thought about sneaking out to kill him last night, but that might look bad for Riley. We’ll see what happens. You should go to her. Right now. I’m going to bed. I was up all night watching the perimeter of her house. Built a few snowmen.”
Riley sat in her living room with a cup of coffee warming her fingers. She stared out the bay window. Her house sat in the perfect spot. The living room faced the single-family houses across the street, but if she sat in her window seat at just the right angle she could gaze at the wooded area visible between the two houses across from her. The pond were Bedder’s Creek flowed in to was iced over. This afternoon after the schools let out she was sure she’d be able to see the neighborhood kids ice skating around the frozen pond. After talking to Cass last night, Riley would never look at the creek the same way again.
She finally felt like she was alone, and right now that was the last thing she wanted to be. At work she was surrounded by people who smiled at her and asked her how she was doing, but she couldn’t be honest with them. She couldn’t tell them that she was nervous as hell that she wouldn’t get custody of Liv. She couldn’t tell them that she was scared out of her mind because she was being tracked by shifters. Audra had let that little gem fly out of her mouth last night when she told her she was going to build her a few protective snowmen to keep away the shifters. They had been prowling around her property sometime that day. She couldn’t tell anyone that the love of her life would be the one to change everything for her when she let him claim her.
Who was she kidding? He’d already changed her. Claimed her. Not in the way he wanted, but in every way that counted.
“Fuck you, Riley,” she said to herself. “You are being so selfish.”
Teague, and Audra, and even Simon were trying to protect her, and what was she doing? Complaining about them constantly watching her. Well screw that. These people cared for her and she would never utter another word about being a burden to them or not having any privacy. They were keeping her safe. They were keeping her mate safe.
Riley giggled and sipped her warm coffee. “I have a mate. That sexy tall glass of sex on two legs is mine. The pity party stops now, Riley Belton. Suck that shit up and stop talking to yourself.”
She laughed again and settled into her seat. Just as she got comfortable a soft knock echoed from the back door. She sighed and pulled herself up. Her thick red robe was warm around her. It was her day off and she would enjoy the quiet.
Riley reached the door and smiled as she peeked through the curtain. She opened the door and fell into the arms of the man who had changed her.
“Hey,” she said, snuggling into Teague’s embrace. “I thought you’d be at home sleeping off your twenty-four hour shift. Come on in.”
She stepped out of Teague’s way and let him in, admiring his firm ass as he walked by. Black jeans encased his strong legs, and a loose red sweater stretched across his muscular chest and back. She appreciated every inch of him as she dragged her gaze up his body. Even though his short, sandy brown hair was longer on the top the sides were starting to grow in. He turned around as she closed the door and his clear green eyes smiled at her.
“You looking at my ass, woman?” he asked, grabbing her by the straps of her robe and pulling her after him as he walked toward the living room.
“Yes sir, I am,” she said, holding her robe together before it fell open to reveal her nightgown with llamas in pajamas drinking shots of whiskey on it.
Teague sat on the arm of the couch and pulled her straps until she was settled between his legs. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around her and putting his face in to the bend of her neck. “Would have been here sooner but I stopped by your shop first.”
He inhaled deeply and it tickled her. She draped her arms around his waist and breathed him in to remember his scent. A warm, woodsy, citrus scent filled her, and it warmed her from the inside out.
“Daria is covering the shop today. I went to college with her mom. Daria’s a sweet girl. She works a few days a month to earn extra money while she’s in school.” Riley rubbed her hands up and down his back. “I’ve missed you too. You feel tense. Are you okay?”
Teague pressed his lips against hers and gave her a soft, lingering kiss. He brushed his tongue against hers and moaned when she deepened the kiss. She cupped the back of his head and was in Heaven as his hands roamed over her body.
Riley returned the favor, moving her hands along the sloping curves of his muscled arms, down to his tapered waist that she knew had that orgasm inducing Adonis belt that lead straight down to his cock. She broke their kiss to look at him and gasped as his eyes glowed bright like the moon.
Her heart drummed in her chest and her cheeks warmed. She had done this to him. Made his control slip so much that his beast was yearning to break the surface to get to her.
“Your sisters told me about your eyes glowing and your growly sounds. That means you like me, Mr. Durrell.” She nipped his chin and then kissed it. “Is that true?”
Bright and blinding eyes stared back at her, and a soft growl rumbled in his chest. “Yes, Ms. Belton. It does. And I do.” He blinked and the room went darker for just a few breaths. “I more than like you, Riley. I love you. Have for so long. Where’s your bedroom?”
She took half a step back from him. “No. Not until you tell me what’s wrong?”
>
He moved his eyes away from her and Riley placed her palms on either side of his handsome face. He hadn’t shaved. She fought the urge to rub her face along his stubble and feel the sensation pull a tremble from her body. The thought of that stubble rubbing against the insides of her thighs made wet heat pool in her core.
A sly grin blanketed his features. “Your hormones don’t want to talk.” He yanked her back to him by the folds of the robe, his grin growing even bigger as she let out a quick moan of surprise at his forcefulness.
Oh, naughty man. He was trying to use her lust for him against her.
Gently, she placed her hands on his to still him. “You’re right. My body wants you. So does every other part of me. But my mind and heart want to know what troubles you. Don’t hide from me. I’m supposed to be your peace, I think, and you’re supposed to be mine. Would you let me get away with not talking to you about something that worried me? Because I can see it in you, and I can feel it too. I’ve never felt anything like it before, but sometimes it’s like I can sense you in my bones. In my soul.”
The glow was bleeding from his eyes, and that beautiful green was taking over again. He placed his forehead against hers and let out a slow, steady breath. “I’m sorry. You have so much going on and I don’t want to bother you with this stuff.”
Riley let out a laugh and put her hands on his thighs. “Teague, I was just fussing at myself for not wanting to be a burden on you and the rest of your clan. And you know what? You and me, we don’t burden each other. That’s what we’re here for. I’m here for you to lean on and you’re here for me. You can’t scare me away. I think seeing Cass turn into a big ass saber-tooth would have done that already.”
“We’re being hunted, Riley.”
With those four words her smile was gone and all the air was knocked out of her body.
“I know,” she whispered. “The girls told me about it last night. Well, they just glanced over it. They wanted to leave the big parts to you.”
She moved away from him, taking his hand and leading him to sit down on the brown and red cushions of her couch.
He sat with his elbows on his knees and massaged above his eyes. “At first I thought the shifter was just after me. Once Jax and Damon found Cass there was an upset in the shifter community. Some are afraid that if all of us get our animals back that we’ll take over or some dumb shit like that.”
“They told me that part. Pending war with a rogue pack of shifters who want to stop you all from finding your mates. Cass told me what happened to her a Bedder’s Creek.” Riley shivered and tried to downplay it by playing with the bottom of her robe. “She said she doesn’t remember everything, but she knows someone killed her. And that an angel brought her back. And that she knows the face of the man that murdered her like she knows her own.”
He looked over at her, giving her a ghost of a smile. It didn’t reach his eyes. “She’ll torture him to death if she manages not to kill him on sight. I don’t want that for you. But now a group of cougars are in on this, too. I was fine when I thought they were just after me. But now you? Watching you. Here at home and at your shop. I’m afraid that—”
“Teague, that’s not going to happen. Your people are watching me. Our people are watching me. Can I tell you a secret?”
He sat back on the couch and grabbed her hand, holding it to his chest where his heart beat. “You can tell me anything.”
She quirked her lips into a half smile and pulled her knee up until her leg sat draped across his. “I’d let you claim me right now so that I could truly be yours. Truly be able to defend myself. But I’m afraid if you do I might savagely attack Aaron at the hearing and lose all hope of keeping my girl,” she said, breaking into a laugh.
Finally, Teague smiled and it made her smile even bigger. “Yeah,” he said, clearing his throat. “I thought about that too. You talk to her about it yet?”
Riley took a huge gulp of air and held it, her chest puffing out and making her robe fall open even more. “No. Last night was the first time I really had the chance, but I want to do it alone. Cass and Audra were here. Liv might need some time to take to it. Part of me wants to tell her about it after the hearing, but that seems like a betrayal. What if she decides she doesn’t want to be with me anymore? I don’t know what I’d do.”
The thought of Liv rejecting her because she was going to let Teague change her broke her up on the inside. Everything in Riley’s being longed to be claimed by Teague. It was as if the beast was calling to her every time it sounded off in his chest or watched her adoringly when it managed to take over Teague’s eyes. Riley needed to be his. She needed him to be hers. She needed to free his beast and have one to call her own.
She didn’t know why. Maybe she was designed this way. They had been made for each other.
“Is there part of you inside me that’s waiting to be free? Waiting to return to you?” she asked.
He blinked a few times, slow and deliberate, as if measuring his words to make her understand. “When we were cursed we were told that one day our grace would be returned to us by the one who was to be our mate. We’d never be true angels again in this life or the next, but that our mate would make us whole. Bring back our beast. I think, and a few of the others disagree with me, but I think that somehow my grace is inside you. And claiming you brings it back to me.”
“Is that why—”
Teague pressed one finger against Riley’s lips, quieting her insecure thoughts. It was as if he already knew what she would say. “Don’t even finish that sentence. I’ve loved you since before I knew you were my mate, and the only thing that kept me from you was Aaron. You bringing back my beast has nothing to do with the love I feel for you. Even if you weren’t my mate, Riley, you are my salvation. I’ve been dreaming of you since before I knew who you were and I prayed to the Creator that it would be you. It’s always been you.”
She smiled and heat erupted in her body as the love, the grace, she housed for him spread along her limbs. “I’ve been dreaming of you, too.
Teague didn’t know how he’d managed to bring her upstairs to the bedroom without tasting every inch of her beautiful skin. She was flawless. He carried her in his arms and told her to shush when she said she would break his back. If he had his way he would maim the people who made her think that her size made her anything but fucking irresistible.
She was full figured. Her thick thighs were soft and plump. Her tender stomach was synched at the waist, but still full. Riley was shaped like a woman. Women of every shape were beautiful, but he liked his women thick. The round globes of her ample ass made his teeth long to bite them. He wanted to hear her scream out his name as he grabbed handfuls of her wild hair and round belly as he rammed his cock into her over and over again.
He kicked off his shoes and dropped her onto the bed, and loved the sound of her laugh as it danced through the room. Her eyes were glued to his body as he undressed before her. Teague unbuttoned his pants, and as he pulled the material down his thighs he asked, “You like looking at me?”
She swallowed thickly, eyes locked on his cock as it stood at attention just for her. For his mate. “I really do,” she said.
“Come here.”
Riley crawled over the bed and was on her knees in front of him. He reached down and slid her robe from her shoulders. Her skin rippled with goosebumps along his touch, and she let out a slow shuddering breath. He pulled the nightgown over her head. He made sure to skim his nails along the planes of her soft skin, and smiled as a soft hiss blew through her lips.
He bent down and kissed her supple, warm mouth and nipped the tip of her tongue. She went to pull off her panties, but he stopped her. He wanted to play with her first, tease her until she begged him to take her.
When he tried to push her backward on the bed, she reached forward and cupped his balls with one hand and massaged his shaft with the other. She leaned forward and sucked his cock into her mouth, and dear God, he was going to explode.
She used her tongue to tickle the underside of the head of his cock as she worked him with her hands. Gently, Teague rubbed her cheeks and traced her lips with his fingers, reveling in her attention on him. If he sighed and groaned her name she would magnify what she was doing to bring him closer to the brink. If he was quiet for too long she would switch her rhythm and move her hands or mouth or tongue to make him beg her for release.
When he thought he couldn’t take any more she sucked him back into her mouth and made the suction so hard he called out her name and shoved his hand into her wild mane.
“Fuck, Riley. That feels so fucking good,” he said, hips moving in shallow thrusts. He knew he was a large man and didn’t want to choke her.
He was panting now, trying hard to make it last. Her mouth was fire and pressure and pleasure. She was divine, and he would worship her for all eternity.
She grabbed him by the ass with one hand and pulled him deeper into her mouth, deeper into her throat. She gagged but when he tried to move away from her she pulled him in further, taking in more of his cock. A groan vibrated in her throat and the sensation caused a tremble from his cock, straight to the base of his spine. She still rubbed his balls and the dual sensation was too much this time.
A snarl made its way up Teague’s throat as he fought the oncoming orgasm his mate was drawing from him. He shoved her away from him and she fell back on the bed. Lust filled every thread of his body as he saw a cocky smile play across her lips.
She made a surprised sound as he grabbed her by the back of her knees and pulled her ass to the edge of the bed. “I’m going to fall,” she yelled, trying to steady herself as only the top half of her body rested on the bed.
“You think I’d let you fall?” he asked, getting closer and closer to the apex of her thighs.
