The Society Series Box Set 2

by Mason Sabre

  “You’re sick.”

  She pulled her knees to herself, pulled herself into a protective ball. “Please,” she sobbed again. “You already don't want me. This’ll make it worse.”

  Her words …. They made him stop, made him freeze. They slammed hard against his chest as if she had hit him herself. His own stomach twisted, not with illness, but remorse. “Natalie.”

  She shook her head.

  Did she really think that? Feel that? If she did, he had caused that in her, and it hurt him to realise. This was nothing to do with how she looked or how she was. Nothing to do with her. She was perfect, everything a male wolf could want in his mate. But no. This was everything to do with Cade trying to shield her, trying not to hurt her. But he was doing just that.

  He went to the sink and got a glass from the cabinet and filled it with cold water. “Here,” he said, lowering his voice to a caring tone.

  He crouched close to her and handed her the glass, which she took, but then she angled herself again, so he couldn’t look at her. “Please don't see me like this.”

  He put his head down, letting himself feel the weight of his own guilt. He’d done this, done this to her, to them. He’d made it, so she felt a loss of worth, but it was him who wasn't worthy. Him who deserved nothing from her, nothing but shouts and swears and screams. “Natalie …” He reached up with tender fingers, brushing her hair back from her face, then he leant into her. She had pulled on one of his shirts before they had gone to sleep. It wasn't unusual for females to do that, especially when it was their mates. It was a way to wrap themselves in the comforting scent.

  His words had caught in his throat when she did that … when he’d seen her do exactly what Gemma used to do. She would wear his shirts too, usually the one she had just taken from his body. She would wrap herself in his scent and then curl up on his lap. Now, it was someone else … someone new, curled up on the bathroom floor, her heart broken.

  “I’m sorry.” He pressed his mouth against the back of her shoulder and took in a deep longing scent of her, pushing it down to his wolf … the wolf, where the reactions were real, wanted. Where he could comfort her as she needed him to. He rested his hand on her hip and she relaxed a little, leaning back against him. Her wolf rose to meet his.

  They stayed like that for a little while. The only sounds between them were that of his breathing and her occasional sniffling. “Drink the water,” he said. She had put the glass down, and he picked it up and offered it to her again. She didn't take it from him, but instead, she rested her hand over his and let him hold the glass to her mouth. She had to move around a little to drink. Her eyes were red, bloodshot from her tears and her sickness.

  “I’ve ruined your shirt,” she said, daring to look at him. Vomit stained the front of it, splatters, but he didn't care. Not right then. His protective instincts came to the front and all his wolf wanted to do was care for her, to make her feel better. It wanted to sooth her and take away not just the illness, but the pain that welled so deeply in her eyes.

  “It’s just a shirt. It can be cleaned.”

  She nodded, then sipped the water. She got about halfway down the glass when she spluttered, spitting water down her front as her body rejected it. Cade held her, grabbing for her as she leant over the toilet and vomited again. He took her weight, held her up. “I’ve got you,” he whispered against her. When she was done, she leant back into him, completely this time, giving over to what their wolves wanted. Her hair was sticking to her head with perspiration and he swept it back, lowering her back to him. He moved himself, so he was the one with his back against the bath and she was leaning with her back against his chest. She shivered in his hold and he tried to embrace her totally to keep the warmth in.

  “I look such a mess,” she said. Her voice trailed off with the effort of speaking. She had her eyes closed and her head back against his shoulder. He pressed his face into her. His shirt stuck to the front of her body from where she had been ill. She wiped at her mouth with the tissue bordering on useless now. It was torn and ragged and dropped bits down onto her.

  “You’re fine,” he said. He had his hand on her abdomen, gently resting there. His hand drifted, stroking her, giving her some comfort, but also, taking it for himself too … for his wolf. She had her hand on his forearm, and her fingers played with the soft hairs, swirling them under the light tips. He let his eyes close, let himself fully hold her to him. He felt as her body relaxed, as she seemed to fit exactly where he held her. Perfectly.

  “When you look at me, do you think of her?” Natalie asked after a moment, bringing Cade from drifting off. He could hear the tone in her words, the hurt, the fear.

  He wanted to chase that away and never hear it again, but he was also hugely aware of the way his pulse thundered in his throat, the way he stopped breathing for a second. Every tell giving him away.

  Natalie sat herself up, pulling away from him so she could turn. Her eyes … lost, hurt, so much pain in them as she waited for the answer to the question that burned inside her. Burned so much that it really didn't want an answer, but he understood. It would eat at her if she didn't ask. It would consume her.

  “No.” He met her gaze centre on and pushed every bit of truth into his answer. What he thought of when he looked at her, was how much he was lacking, how much he failed her, and how he should set her free.

  “You went to Gemma’s. You stayed there all night.” She fixed him with such a look that it tore into him, right through him and down to his wolf—his dazed and confused wolf. “Did you go because of me?”

  “No. I—” He cut his words off and sat upright so he could touch her, so he could run his hands along her bare thighs and get that skin to skin contact. He needed it, she needed it. The connection was there, the link between their wolves, and if he let it separate too long, maybe he’d just keep hurting her because the wolf needed touch. The wolf seemed to want both women. “I just needed my friend. You know? Something familiar.” She blinked at him, confused. “You have Kara, your mother … even Beth. I saw that today. The way they had stood with you? The way they looked at you? They’re your family.”

  “They’re my sisters.”

  He nodded. “But family isn't always blood, is it? Not really. You’re lucky. Yours is, but sometimes …” He gave a sigh and slipped his hand down to grab for hers. He ran his thumb across the back of her knuckles before raising his eyes to meet hers again. “I have family like you. Brothers, a mother and a father, but they are just parents and siblings. They aren't my family inside … pack.” He gave another pause, hoping to see some kind of understanding in her expression. “Gemma is my family, and Phoenix … Stephen was family too, but he’s gone. I just … It wasn’t you. I promise. I needed—”

  “You needed something?”

  “Yes.” He nodded again. “Everything is moving so quickly.”

  She shuffled closer, and Cade didn't need to ask if she understood, because her actions said she did. She lay her hand on his chest. Her fingers traced the definitions his muscles made. Her touch, much like Cade’s, was thoughtful, but also, it was possessive. Touching like there was a bond, trust, a sign of ownership because he let her touch over his heart. She paused there, frowning. “If she is family, why did her mating upset you so much?”

  The hand he had on her leg gripped tighter, his body tensed, and his muscles stiffened with the hurt in her words, the knife that lanced right through him. His mind latched onto her question and tried to throw off the very thing he didn't want to see … didn't want to know.

  “What is it?” she asked when he hadn't spoken. But his heart was in his throat, his breathing had almost stopped, and his chest hurt, bursting with it, with everything.

  Natalie’s expression darkened when he still didn't answer, didn't speak, but the words were caught inside him, stuck there, refusing to come out and make themselves real. If he spoke them, answered her question, then it would make everything true. Natalie went to pull her ha
nd away. Her mental shutters came down and her wolf was about to wander off. “No,” he said, grabbing her hand. He didn't let her go, but he could feel her hurt, feel her hope hinged on the question. “Everything is changing,” he said. “That's all.”

  “Sometimes change is good.”

  “Yes.” He took a breath and let it out again, and then, the hand he was holding, he pushed it back against her body, pushed it under the edge of the shirt so that her palm was against her skin. Then, with his other hand, he cupped her face in an almost possessive way and opened his mind to her. Opened her up too so they could both feel the pulse beating between them.

  She gasped.

  “You’re pregnant,” he whispered. He could feel it, had felt it. He felt it as a blink on his radar, a blink he’d not wanted to look at, not wanted to see. Because that blink meant the end of things, the end of many things. It meant change and fear, and to Cade, it meant betrayal. Dishonour to the child he’d never got to hold … to Connor.

  “Pregnant?” Her wolf blue eyes shone as her own word sank in. He nodded, and the corners of her mouth twitched, stretching out into a smile. “I’m pregnant.”

  Chapter 28

  Gemma

  Gemma sucked in a long breath and slowly opened her eyes. The sun hadn’t come up yet. It was somewhere, just on the horizon. She could feel the softness of the moon leaving her body for another cycle. The kiss it had given to them replenished the pool of shifting abilities. It always left her with a fresh and invigorated sense of power, but today, there was something else, something stronger … a feral need that hooked into her tiger—the need she had forced. It was almost like pushing at something until gravity took over and then there was no going back … no stopping it.

  She pressed back into the warm body that was curled nicely around hers, comforting her, soothing her tiger into a blissful rest. She let out a soft, contented growl and her eyes closed again as the scent of earth and forest wrapped around her with tenderness. A lazy hand slipped in between her legs, and warm silky muscles leant into her. She gave a moan low in her throat when those fingers separated skin and delved into the soft velvet at her very centre. His other hand slipped around her and lay loosely against her thigh. It was a possessive touch. But she didn’t fight it. He had that right now. She had given it to him, and as strange as it felt to her, she would get used to it.

  When she turned her head to look at him, he kissed her neck, the line of her shoulder and the dip of her throat. She lifted her eyes just a fraction.

  “Good morning,” Karl breathed with a slow smile when his eyes met hers.

  She rolled onto her back and his eyes watched her with intense concentration as his hungry gaze slid down her body.

  She pushed a smile onto her lips. “Morning.”

  With another dip of his head he nuzzled at the side of her neck and kissed along the soft flesh. His tiger rumbled inside him and reached for hers in a contented embrace she could so easily slip into. His knuckles nudged at the inside of her thighs. “Open your legs.”

  She tightened them, doing the opposite. “If I don’t?”

  That made him pause, his male ego stalling when she reminded him that she still had power. He hadn’t expected that answer. An easy wicked glint sparked behind those beautiful eyes of his. “Then I do this.” He moved his head so fast, she didn’t have time to turn away. He brought his mouth down to her nipple. For the first second he sucked it into his mouth, then he bit. Not hard enough to cause any pain, but sharp enough so she jolted and instinctively opened her legs for him.

  A second later, her stomach clenched at his touch, and she reached for him. “You shit."

  A laugh against her skin. It was strong, controlled. Some part of her wanted to fight against this, but her tiger opened for him and exposed that secret part of herself, the one she’d only ever reserved for Cade.

  “Oh, God,” she hardly breathed when he pushed his fingers in. She dug her nails into his thigh, but not hard enough to hurt him, just hard enough to bring a growl from his throat. With each movement of his hand, she floated away a little more, her tiger taking over. She knew the way.

  “You’re purring.”

  Moaning, she tilted her head. “Maybe.” It was easy if she let her tiger take over, almost like betrayal, though, and a fight in her head she didn’t know how to pick apart, so she could understand it. If she let her tiger take control, she could sink into herself … lose herself without too much thought of what she was missing. But if she did that …

  Another brush of his lips against her sensitive skin and it didn’t matter. Her body was on fire. Hot need spilled through her veins and melted away any resolve she was trying to hold onto.

  He chuckled, a sound laced with male arrogance, but he took his mouth down to hers before she could protest and kissed her again. “I love the way you feel against me.” He moved, so he was leaning over her, and she couldn’t stop her body from turning to jelly in his hands. Her tiger was doing this … she was accepting him. She pushed through the thoughts of Cade, through the protests in Gemma’s head, and reached for her mate with sheer passion and acceptance. She was greedy, hungry … starving for what she wanted from Cade’s wolf, so she took it from Karl and sated herself on him.

  Without even thinking about it, Gemma lifted a hand and thrust it into Karl’s long hair and made him put his head back. It was her turn to bite. She pushed herself up, so she could reach the part of his neck just at the dip of his shoulder. He shuddered. She did it again, and it brought a desperate, hot moan cascading from his mouth. “If you do that again, there’s no telling what will happen.”

  She nipped at his chin. “Maybe I want things to happen.”

  Karl … it was Karl leaning over her, Karl pushing her boundaries and pulling up that warm, languorous heat inside that built layer upon layer. It was Karl … not Cade. Her brain rocked on the rails, but her tiger leapt and slammed any thoughts from Gemma’s brain before she carried out a protest. To her tiger, Karl was enough. Karl was what she wanted, and she arched her back, so he could stroke her.

  “Shit,” she moaned as her skin tingled along every inch. Every nerve ending flashed with the pulse of arousal and electrified heat where Karl circled his thumb over the hard nub between her legs. She curled against him, an open feline, fully ready to take him.

  His taut body felt so deliciously good against hers. When she turned into him, the soft silky hairs on his chest teased the ends of her already sensitive nipples and she went to move, but he caught her and let out his own growl in response to hers. It sent vibrations coursing along her skin in delicious temptation. It reached every pore, every part of her. Her tiger was his now; she recognised him, went to him, curled up inside him and took him into her embrace. And as he kissed her from her mouth down to her chin, she angled her head back, so he could nip her neck.

  He bit her.

  Her entire body shivered from the grip on his teeth where he held her at the sensitive spot. She snaked a hand up and rubbed her fingers along the nape of his neck before pulling his head down and pushing his mouth along her chest until he captured one of her breasts. He flicked his tongue out along the sensitive tip and the cool morning air danced across it, heightening the sensation. She was so lost to him. So lost to it all now. Her mind tried to lock onto his as he trailed his tongue down across the valley between her breasts to the other side, so he could lick across that nipple too, but she couldn’t manage it. Her breathing came ragged from his touches, from the way his hand and mouth worked along her body. They were both connected in such a way it sent electricity pulsing through her veins. She wanted more, needed more. “Don’t stop.”

  Reaching out, she went to hold him, to feel him in her hand, thick and hard, but Karl had other ideas. He slipped from her grasp and angled himself, so she couldn’t quite reach him. When he went with a trail of kisses down from her breasts to the flat planes of her abdomen, she sucked in another breath. Her skin was alive with his touch, his scent …
his tiger. He nipped along as he went.

  She arched into his hold and her hand found his forearm. He didn’t need to speak, or ask her to open her legs when he got low enough. He gripped each thigh with his hands and pulled them apart with ease … with no protest from her.

  His mouth was hot against her. His tongue was strong heat that flicked over her already tingling and sensitive nub. “Shit,” she said when he opened her up for himself and feasted on her.

  She let out a startled cry when he pushed his fingers inside her again. Her body went taut and the scent of her arousal filled the air with sharp wildness. He sucked her into his mouth and the rumble that came from him sent her to that edge. He held her there as her body shuddered several times and only stopped when her body became limp and sated.

  She sank back against the blanket. Her body was heavy and satisfied. A warm soft buzz roamed under her skin in echoes. And when she opened her eyes fully, the world was tinted in shades of perfect colour … her tiger was there, fully in the control and ready to take her mate.

  When Karl crawled up her body and braced himself with hands at either side of her head, she almost hooked her legs around his waist to pull him down into her, but he paused as if waiting for permission. Maybe he was. Maybe he sensed more than she ever realised. She reached to him and slipped her hand to the back of his head and thrust her hands into his hair.

  His eyes were bright green pools like emeralds filled with the night. The tip of him pushed at her entrance, and when Gemma went to push her hips up, Karl grinned, his eyes lighting as he moved just enough away from her. “Is this really what you want?”

  She stared up at him for what felt like a long time, and then with the hand that was in his hair and holding him at the back of his head, she tightened her grip in a possessive grasp and pulled him down. “It is. Now, if you don’t—”

  Before she could finish what she was saying, he pushed himself inside her in one fluid movement and filled her so wholly that it stole another gasp from her lips. She arched up to meet him, and even he couldn’t hold back his pleasure filled groan.