by Jade Royal
“What’s the matter?” he asked her.
“I don’t know if I can handle it,” she replied quietly. Jayce pulled her down towards the edge of the bed and curled her more into a ball. He leaned against the back of her thighs with the fat head of his erection resting at her opening.
“We were destined for each other, weren’t we?” he questioned.
“Yes.” The words tumbled out of her mouth shakily as he pressed his head into her opening. Already, she could feel the incredible stretch that he was going to subject her to.
“So, that means your body was made to handle mine, sweetie.” He pushed further. Rita moaned out in both pleasure and pain, and he continued to delve deep inside her slowly.
“Relax your hips,” he said softly stopping only for a minute. Rita closed her eyes and took a deep breath. On the exhale, she opened her eyes and relaxed her hips. The moment she did, he continued to press inside her.
“You okay?” he asked as he began stroking her. Rita answered him by letting out a deep moan. She shut her eyes as pleasure assaulted her body. She should have told him she never had a g-spot orgasm just so, he understood why she was about to lose control as if she was having an exorcism.
“Jesus, Rita.” He groaned. Her insides fisted him and coated him heavily in juices that allowed him to glide within her, even though she was tighter than a vice. By her body’s response, he could sense that she hadn’t felt this kind of pleasure before. It gave his wolf much needed comfort knowing that he was the one who could please their mate. As her body twitched over and over with orgasms, Jayce continued to push her further into a ball, increasing the pace of his thrusts.
“Don’t stop,” she begged. She was having orgasms like she was driving over a parking lot lined with speed bumps. It was continuous, and Jayce’s thrusts were evenly paced and hard enough to blow her open. Their eyes connected and zinged as they glowed together. Jayce unsheathed his claws and dragged them along her side and over her hips deeply marking her. She repeated the gesture, clawing him under his V-line and over his hips. Instead of completing the mating with a bite, the claw marks would ensure that other wolves were aware that they were indeed marked by their mates.
Feeling her claws dig into his skin broke his threshold. He shouted out and pounded into her body relentlessly, holding her tight in a ball so she couldn’t squirm away from him. Even though she was apprehensive at first, now her pussy was gushing and trembling with excitement.
“All mine.” He gritted as he erupted inside of her. She screamed out his name as she accepted the product of his gender deep within her.
“Shit.” Rita breathed. Her body was zinging and pulsing with gratification. Jayce slowly let her legs down, but he never moved from atop her. He hovered over, keeping their bodies connected. Truthfully, Jayce couldn’t pull from her body yet. She just felt too good.
“I may need a moment to heal before we go for round two,” she said softly, smiling at him. Jayce kissed her on the mouth before flipping them over. He landed on his back and kept her seated on his length on top of him. He placed his hands behind his back.
“Whenever you’re ready, baby. My dick ain’t goin’ nowhere.” Rita giggled. Even though she said she needed a moment, being on top of him sparked something in her lower belly, and she couldn’t help but start to grind her hips back and forth.
“There you go, my wolf,” he coaxed, rubbing her hips.
“It’s yours all night if you want it.” Rita took that sentiment to heart because she realized she was never going to be nowhere near done with him.
********
Rita awoke with her body swirling with pleasure. She smiled and stretched ready to reach for Jayce. Her smile slipped from her face when she realized he wasn’t next to her. After a long night of lovemaking, she expected to wake up next to her mate, but he was long gone. By sniffing the air, she smelled the residual scent of him, but nothing was new. Getting up from the soft bed, Rita stretched and went to take care of her hygiene. After brushing her teeth and getting a shower, she decided to utilize the open space behind Jayce’s cabin and let her wolf out to stretch. In her wolf form outside, she tilted her nose up to the sky and was able to smell her mate nearby. Eager to see him, Rita hurriedly shifted back and dressed in a loose sundress the alpha female had lent to her seeing that Rita wasn’t traveling with much clothes, to begin with. When she was dressed, she rushed out of the cabin to find her mate.
Rita smelled her mate clear as day, but the further she walked to it, the more his scent got tangled up with other scents. Female scents. Her wolf was on alert already, baring its teeth, and she was right to do so. Rita halted when she spotted Jayce standing next to three she-wolves. She fought her own wolf, so the animal didn’t come leaping out ready to show her possessiveness over her mate. They hadn’t mated officially last night, so their scents were not mixed, but with the amount of sex they had last night, the she-wolves should be able to smell her on him. Just like any male could smell Jayce had been all over her.
“Be calm, be calm,” Rita murmured to herself as she walked up to them. Sneaking up wasn’t something she could do. Jayce sensed his mate immediately and looked towards her. She was glaring at him as she walked up to him. He knew she was holding tightly to her wolf to not let the beast out.
“Hey,” she said tightly.
“Hey, Rita. You know Shelly, Dion, and Kyra?” Jayce pointed out the three wolves. Of the three, Kyra was the only one that smiled at her and waved. Rita reciprocated the gesture but scowled at the other two.
“Shelly is the one I told you about who when I tried talking to her, she kind of blew me off. I actually didn’t even get a chance to figure out her name until just now.”
“Really?” Jayce looked at Shelly.
“I’ve talked to you about your attitude.” Jayce scolded her.
“What am I supposed to do? She was an omega for a reason.”
“You can start off by not being a bitch,” Kyra said. Shelly rolled her eyes. When she looked at Rita, she took a long sniff.
“Can you excuse us? We were talking about something that doesn’t include you.” Rita crossed her arms and planted her feet not intending to leave.
“You know, just because you were fucking the Beta of the pack, doesn’t make you any more important than the rest of the she-wolves who want to fuck him,” Shelly said, so she indeed smelled Jayce on her.
“Are you challenging me?” Rita asked her lowly.
“Sounds like you are.”
“Winner gets to spend a night alone with Jayce?” Shelly asked popping out her claws. Rita’s eyes glowed, and she growled and lunged for Shelly. Jayce intervened, blocking Rita immediately. Shelly scurried off.
“Better watch your back!” she shouted at Rita.
“Let me get her!” Rita growled at Jayce trying to fight him off her.
“Let it go, Rita.” He ordered. Rita pushed at him before slapping him across the face. He let her go but shoved her back and stood in her way not giving her a clear pass to run after Shelly.
“What the fuck was that?” She snapped at him.
“What was what?”
“I’m your mate! You just let her talk any kind of way to me?”
“She’ll be dealt with. There are pack rules against starting fights and confrontations, Rita.”
“I don’t care about that! If someone disrespects me, Jayce, I expect my mate to have my back!”
“I will always have your back, Rita, but as the Beta, I need to maintain a certain level of neutrality. If I would have snapped at her for the way she talked to you, she could report that to Kameron, and then my position here would be at risk.” Rita just stared at him.
“But last night when that wolf tried to touch me, you weren’t neutral, now were you?”
“That was different. He was going to touch you, and he’s male. He’ll still get punished for it though. There’s pack rules against what he did. Shelly can say whatever she wants. She can get the puni
shment that will come to her. It’s the touching that would be different. Had she touched you, I would have slapped her hands off you.” Rita shook her head and waved him off.
“What in the hell were you talking to her about, to begin with? I can tell she’s been dying to fuck you.” Jayce was about to blurt something out, but to save his own life, he quickly shut his mouth. Too bad his mate was too observant for that.
“Say it,” she coaxed.
“Me and Shelly have a sexual history, Rita, but I’m not the least bit interested in her. Even when we fucked, I wasn’t interested. I just did it because I was lonely, and she was available.” Rita crossed her arms. “Anytime I talk to her, it’s regarding pack business, and I wouldn’t disrespect you by casually talking to a wolf I know doesn’t want to keep things platonic with me. I suppose she just wants the position.”
“What position? Your girlfriend or something?”
“No. Beta.” Rita tilted her head to the side, not understanding.
“What kind of pack did you come from, Rita?” he asked.
“An unorganized, hot mess, unruly, reckless ass pack,” she replied.
“In standard packs, most positions come in twos. You know, like the Alpha pair? Kameron is the Alpha, and his mate naturally would be the female alpha. In our case, I’m the Beta, so when we mate, you will also be the Beta.”
“Wait, me? The Beta? I don’t want to be the beta. I’m not into the politics. You know, like going around and talking to pack members and shadowing the alpha.”
“Well, you better get into it, Rita, because when you carry my bite, the job is yours. That’s the way it works.”
“No, I don’t think so, and what are you going to do when we have pups? Leave early in the morning and do pack business until all hours of the night and not spend time with me or the babies?” Jayce’s eyes bulged from his head.
“PUPS?!” he exclaimed. “Whoa, cool it.”
“What for? Kellan is the son of the Alpha’s, which means everyone else can have pups now. Why can’t we?”
“Because we only found each other a month ago. I want pups, Rita, just not now. I want to enjoy being with my mate before we have any pups, and I can’t give up my position as the Beta right now either.”
“But I thought…we’d start a family,” she whispered. Before he could answer, she continued.
“When I go into heat, what are you going to do?” she asked.
“Just watch me in pain because you don’t want to make pups with me?”
“I’d never just watch you in pain,” he said.
“So, what would you do when I go into heat, huh?” She snapped.
“Going into heat doesn’t guarantee pups, Rita,” he said. “And I can satisfy your heating without making pups with you. Do you want to be a nursing mother while you’re learning the roles of the Beta in the first place?”
“I told you I didn’t want to be a Beta, Jayce!”
“You don’t have a choice, Rita. Unless you’re not trying to mate with me. Marking each other and solidifying the mating bond will transfer my role and power to you. I took a vow and shared blood with the Alpha and pack members. You’ll be bound to the duties of a Beta the moment we mate. That’s just the way it is, so saying you don’t want to be a Beta is you saying you don’t want to be my mate.”
“You can relinquish your role, you know? You can give up the position. I thought that’s what you’d do.”
“I thought you’d want to be the Beta alongside with me.” He countered. Rita shook her head and began to back up.
“Guess we were both wrong.” She breathed. After gazing at him for a moment, she turned away and walked off. Jayce didn’t stop her because he needed time to think about everything, but in hindsight, he should have stopped her. None of them thought that tragedy would strike only a few days later, leaving him and his mate unsure of their future.
Chapter One
Jayce rose from his bed like a vampire awakening for the night. It was dark in his room in the cave that his new pack now occupied. The memory of how he’d met his mate and where they left off before things went to hell haunted him. The sound of her howling out to him for him to save her from her captors scarred him and fueled his anger. Sliding out of bed, Jayce went to empty his body of fluids. In the large bathroom, he looked in the mirror. Bags hung under his eyes. He couldn’t even remember when he’d gotten any kind of sleep. How long had it been since his mate was gone? To Jayce, it seemed like an eternity, but truthfully, only a week had gone by, but it was the worst week of his life. He touched the claw marks Rita had marked him with. He was thankful they would never disappear even though she was gone.
Not knowing what else to do, Jayce got dressed in cargo’s and a t-shirt and strapped on his boots. Being a shifter meant that he didn’t need weapons. Even if he wanted weapons, where the hell would he carry them? His teeth and claws were weapon enough, and even if he didn’t know where to look, he couldn’t just sit around. He had to do something that would give him insight to where the hell his mate was. He was quiet as he left his room and headed towards the exit of the cave, and though he made no sound, the moment he reached the entrance, he smelled the uniquely mixed scent of his Alpha female.
“Going somewhere this late?” she asked, stepping into the foyer of the cave. Jayce stopped walking but kept his back to her.
“You know where,” Jayce replied.
“Actually, I don’t,” Bliss said. “Unless you figured out something, and I don’t think the Beta would do something sneaky as hide or withhold information from the Alphas.”
“I can’t just sit around, Bliss, waiting for something to happen. I need to find her.”
“We know you do, Jayce, but just going out there halfcocked not knowing where you’re looking can be dangerous, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to lose you either.” Jayce crossed his arms and still kept his back turned towards her.
“You may feel that way, but I gotta do what I gotta do, and that’s just the way it is. You won’t stop me from doing what I have to do.”
“Well, since you put it that way, Jayce, I can stop you. I don’t want to pull the rank card, but I’m not allowing you to go out there like that. You’re not going out there tonight.” Bliss pulsed her Alpha vibes at him, and his wolf bowed down to her. In any other case, his wolf would have recognized her dominant nature, but he wouldn’t feel the need to obey any order she gave. Since she mated Kellan, his powers transferred to her through their bond, which meant the blood vows he took with the rest of the pack was shared with Bliss. If Kellan gave him an order, he would be inclined to obey it, and now the same went for Bliss. It was a good thing he liked her, or else he would be pissed he had to listen to her. Now he was just upset.
“Fucking hell.” He grunted. Instead of turning to look at her, he went straight to one of the openings of the tunnels to go around back to his room, but before he could get far, Bliss called out to him.
“Take your anger out on me,” she said. “Let’s go do some training. No doubt I need a challenge like you.”
Finally, Jayce turned and looked at her. She gave him a small smile, and Jayce took comfort in it. He realized she wasn’t just being a bitch and using her powers because she had them. She did care, and knowing how upset he was to even train with him could be dangerous, but she was willing to do it because she knew he needed a way to let his frustration out.
“Make sure you tell Kellan this was all your idea.” Jayce snorted. He turned back around and continued down the tunnel. Bliss followed him until they went around the tunnel. It took a couple of days to see how extensive the place was, and in that time, they’d found extra rooms and a set of stone stairs that led further down into the cave, but unlike the rest of the place, the lower floor wasn’t furnished at all. It was simply a large space with bare rock walls. They’d been using the space for miscellaneous reasons, but since Rita was missing, Jayce had set up a punching bag that hung from the ceiling, and every n
ight he was beating the crap out of that thing.
Bliss thought she was ready for the training session, but when Jayce turned to look at her, his wolf eyes were lighting up the cavern. Kellan’s eyes were a stark blue, but Jayce’s wolf eyes were an intense shade of amber. She realized then that he wasn’t here to take it easy on her. All she could do was prepare herself for a good fight. She unsheathed her claws then let her canines drop from her gums. Before she could even gain a proper stance, Jayce was lunging at her. She sidestepped him like Jaxson taught her to do plenty of times and used his weight against him. Bliss was always successful when she did the same thing with Gemma or Kyra, but doing it with Jayce, he quickly reversed the move, and next thing she knew, she was on her ass with a loud thud. Thankful for her fast healing, she was up in a matter of seconds. She swung widely, but he ducked and dodged. She wasn’t so lucky on dodging his hits. He caught her in the stomach with his fists and on the arms with his claws. Bliss gritted her teeth and began to fight harder swinging her claws viciously. She caught him across the face, and when he faltered, she kept attacking him.
He doubled over when she dug her claws into his chest. She noticed then that his breathing was hoarse. She backed up and watched as he took his time to straighten up. When he did, she saw that his face had changed. His brows were thick and stitched together, his nose was changed, and he had whiskers. He looked more like a werewolf than a shifter, like his wolf, was trying to break loose and the human part of Jayce wasn’t letting the wolf take over, but if Jayce was still in there, Bliss couldn’t see him. He glared at her, growling as he breathed heavily.
“Jayce…” Bliss breathed nervously, but he didn’t answer her. He let out a deafening roar before he was charging at her. Bliss screamed and cowered ready for his attack. The intense pain she thought she was going to feel never came. Kellan burst into the cavern roaring himself. He lunged at Jayce, diverting him away from Bliss and crashing him to the stone wall. Jayce fell to the ground where Kellan hovered over him and let out a thunderous roar. Even though she was part of the Alpha, his roar was enough to wake up her wolf. She fought against shifting to howl with her Alpha. Jayce howled back before his body was contorting and changing. The features of his werewolf blended back into his face, and his wolf eyes tinkered out slowly, returning back to his human eyes. He jumped up quickly like he was snapped from a trance. He looked between Kellan and Bliss, shock on his face.
