by Renee Rose
I’d replayed every single word we’d said to each other. Every move he made.
Dammit.
Why’d he have to be so damn perfect for me? Why did he have to be the one guy who really got under my skin? Our sexual attraction was off the charts, but it was even more than that. It was everything about him--his dominant, protective way. How he’d lifted me off that signpost in the rain and laid out my wet clothes to dry. And everything in between. He’d been so trustworthy. Attentive. Protective.
Yet the image of him crashing out of the bedroom earlier came back and made a sick lurch in my belly.
Why did he leave? What had gone wrong?
But no, I wasn’t going there anymore. I wasn’t ever going back to my pattern of trying to figure out what I’d done wrong or could’ve done differently.
This was on him.
And yet, still, the stupid scene kept replaying in my mind. And when I stopped looking for my mistakes, it shifted.
His eyes had been glowing. He’d been more wolf-like than human. As if all the time we’d been together, he’d been holding back. That was pretty scary, but hell, Colton was an intense guy with depths I’d never imagined. In that moment, I’d been afraid and told him no.
He’d stopped. Looked at me with horror, retreated. Fled.
I sat up in bed staring at nothing in the dark.
Colton was honorable. A man I trusted enough to let tie me up and do all manner of kinky things to me, even as a near-stranger.
I’d told him no, and he’d stopped, even when he was so far from being himself.
I can’t do this with you. It’s not going to work.
He’d been agitated. No, worse than that. Riled. Enflamed. Pushed. We’d been about to have sex, and he stopped when I told him to. I wasn’t a guy, but I know it must’ve been hard to pull back like that. I’d seen his dick, and he’d been right there. Almost feral with the need to fuck me.
I had to stop blaming myself. A woman was allowed to say no at any time. For any reason. I’d just never expected to say no because a guy was part wolf.
Now, I could look more objectively at this situation. Maybe in that moment, when he’d looked down at me sprawled on his bed, Colton had decided it couldn’t work with a human. Because I didn’t understand as a human. Or because he’d be too rough. Too wolfish for me.
But Audrey and Boyd made it work. While she hadn’t told me everything about their sex life, I knew they had sex. Knew it was hot. Knew it was kinky. She’d even told me Boyd was a little rough, and she loved it. But was he human rough or wolf rough?
Ugh. I fell back on the pillows. I had to stop thinking about this. I’d left Wolf Ranch physically. I needed to block it all out of my mind now, too. Move on with figuring out my life and future. Discover what I wanted.
I wanted Colton.
Dammit--no! I slapped a hand over my face to try to block out the unwelcome thoughts.
And that was when a heavy knock sounded at the door. “Marina?”
I gasped, stared at the dark door.
Colton.
My spine stiffened, my heart instantly revving into a rapid staccato. My stomach flip-flopped. He was here.
“Marina, I know you’re in there, sweetness. Please let me in.”
I didn’t move. My whole body was a live wire, trembling with potentiality.
“Just let me try to explain about tonight,” he said through the door. “Hear me out. Then if you tell me to go, I’ll go. I promise.”
A tear escaped one of my eyes and ran down my cheek. I was already crying, and I didn’t even know what he was going to say.
“Please, Marina. I fucked up. I failed to tell you something crucial. Something you needed to know. About us. It’s important. Life or death important. I won’t hurt you.”
I silently slid my feet to the floor and stood. My knees were weak and shaky. Was I holding my breath?
“I was trying to protect you, Marina,” he continued, as he was going to tell me everything whether I opened the door or not. “I didn’t want you to get hurt. But I know you did, anyway. I was stupid. Please just open this door, sweetness. I’m having a really hard time not bashing it in to get to you.”
I sob-hiccupped and covered my mouth with my hand, fresh tears flooding my eyes. I heard his growl and knew somehow, he’d heard the sound. Knew I was crying.
He did want me.
Colton Wolf wanted me. And there was an explanation for his behavior.
I dashed across the room and threw the door open.
“Thank fuck,” he muttered, already entering, like his body was drawn to mine like a magnet. He wore jeans and a black t-shirt, perfectly tame, but his eyes were wild, almost desperate. For me.
I meant to be strong and proud and not need him at all, but instead I let myself fall right into his arms, and he lifted me up, held me tight. I should have made him beg. Grovel, but I just didn’t understand. I was mad at him, but I needed to know why.
“Oh, thank fuck,” he breathed. He wrapped me up and sank to the floor, to his knees, keeping me tight against him. “Thank fuck. I was losing my mind without you, sweetness.”
“How… how did you find me?” I asked, my cheek pressed to him as I absorbed his energy, just like I had with Lucy, the horse.
“I’ll always find you,” he murmured, kissing the top of my head. “It also helps you have the smallest car in the state. Easy to spot.”
I regained my senses and tried to push away from him. He didn’t let me go, though. Instead, he began speaking in a rush. “You’re my mate,” he blurted. “Wolves don’t choose their mates, fate does. I recognized you as mine the moment I first caught your scent out in the rain.”
“Wait… what?” I pushed away from him enough to see his face. He shifted me, so I straddled his waist, and our faces were just inches apart. Was that why he’d sniffed me out in that storm? It had seemed so strange then. Now? It made sense. I’d seen Boyd do it, too, the other morning in the kitchen.
“You smell people?”
“I smell you. I’d know you as mine anywhere.”
His gaze burned with intensity, but his eyes didn’t glow amber. They were his human irises this time.
“Wolves only have one mate. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to find them. Some never do, and they go moon mad and have to be put down.”
“What?” This was a lot to absorb all at once. Moon mad?
Colton plowed on, like he had to get all the words out. “When a male shifter finds his mate, he bites her to embed his scent in her skin, so other males know she’s been claimed. I know… this is probably freaking you out,” he said quickly, probably seeing the shock on my face. “That's why I didn’t spring it on you sooner. Why I didn’t tell you what you are to me. Tonight was the full moon, and it made me crazy. My wolf wanted to mark you. Right there in my bed even when you didn’t know what it meant. I was too aggressive. Too wild. I scared you, so I had to get out of there. I had to shift and run off the urge, so I wouldn’t hurt you.”
He sighed, stroked my hair back. His gaze dropped to my lips, then to look me in the eye. “I’m sorry, sweetness. I thought finding you, my mate, would quell some of the moon madness that’s been creeping up on me, but I don’t think my wolf will be satisfied until I’ve fully claimed you.”
“B-by biting me?” I swallowed hard. Audrey had asked if I’d used protection. Well, she might have given me a little lesson in wolf mating instead of worrying about me getting pregnant. She was in big trouble not telling me about all this.
He winced. “Only to claim you.” His hand went to my neck, slid down to my shoulder, brushed his fingers delicately over the spot. “Here. Once. To know you’re mine forever.”
I shifted my shoulder away involuntarily.
“Don’t be scared of me, little girl. I would never touch you without your permission. I wouldn’t mark you without your consent. That’s why I left. You said no. You’re young. You’re human.”
He sighed, ran a hand over
my hair and down my back again as if he couldn’t stop touching me.
“This probably seems crazy. I know mating for life is too much to lay on you, and that’s why I pushed you away. You’re only twenty-one. You’ve got college. Friends. Fun. Hell, line dancing. I can wait until you’re ready to settle down.” He sighed but sounded a lot like a growl. Had that been his wolf complaining? “I’ll try, anyway. I probably can’t be near you during the full moon. But we can wait. Get to know each other better until you’re ready. If you’ll still let me try to woo you, that is.” He said the words quickly, almost frantically. He’d been holding them in, and like water behind a breaking dam, it all rushed out.
Tears fell down my cheeks. It was a lot.
But I wasn’t afraid. Not at all.
I was happy. Excited.
Colton didn’t just want me. He wanted to claim me.
As his. For life.
I cupped his jaw, looked into his eyes. “When you were at the door, you said it was life or death important.”
Regret washed over Colton’s face, and he dropped his forehead to mine. “Nevermind about that,” he said softly. “I don’t want to put that on you.”
My pulse picked up speed again. I lifted my head and held onto his biceps. “Put what? Is it because of the moon madness?”
His muscles flexed beneath my hands. “It’s all right, sweetness. I can hold out as long as you need me to.”
Oh wow. That was so hot. Brave. But one-sided.
Colton was willing to go mad before he pressured me to commit to him.
“I know you’re a fighter and protect people. It’s your job. But I don’t want you to sacrifice like that for me. Not without me having any say. Don’t you think I should decide what’s best for me?”
“You’re young,” he countered.
“And you’re an idiot. I want you. I don’t have a wolf in me, but I know, just as you do. Your sacrificing yourself just because you decided what’s best for me is total bull.”
His mouth opened, but I put a finger over his lips. “Don’t even think of punishing me for my sass. If we’re in this together, like you say, then we’re in this together. We discuss things. Like grownups. Supposedly you are one.”
He nipped the tip of my finger, and I yanked it away.
“You’re right,” he said. His shoulders relaxed a bit, but his hold was still fierce. “I couldn’t tell you about us being shifters if you weren’t staying.”
“All you had to do was ask me to stay,” I whispered.
He shook his head. “I couldn’t deny you a life.”
“You’re giving me one, Colton. Silly boy, it’s a life with you.”
Words weren’t enough. It didn’t seem like I was getting through his thick skull. I leaned forward and bit his neck, and he chuckled in surprise. His skin was warm, his taste like salt and pure Colton.
He growled, and I loved it. “Are you claiming me, little girl?”
“Yeah,” I said softly, leaning back and looking in his eyes. “I think I am.”
He wrapped his large palm around the back of my neck to keep me in place. “We’ll do this however you want, sweetness. You can take all the time you need. Just please don’t walk away from us.”
I growled this time although it didn’t sound very wolflike. “If I remember correctly, you walked away, not me.”
He stared, then nodded.
Tears popped into my eyes again. “I’m not walking away,” I promised. “I want you, Colton Wolf. I just don’t like feeling jerked around.”
“Fuck. I’m so sorry, Marina. I never meant to mess with you. You’re everything to me. And not just because my wolf recognized your scent. Because I fell in love with you this weekend. I met a bright young woman who loves deeply and spreads sunshine everywhere she goes. You are truly amazing. You’ve created as close a family-bond with a sister you only met a year ago as I have after a lifetime with my brothers. You’re easy-going, smart, and fun. You’re kind and so very giving--especially in bed. You make amazing cakes. I want to take the time to get to know every tiny detail about what makes you tick.”
I let out a watery laugh. “You haven’t tried my cakes, yet.”
He grinned, his eyes roving over my face with so much affection, it warmed me to my toes. “That’s right. We’ll have to rectify that. Wedding cake for breakfast tomorrow?”
“That sounds great,” I murmured. All the sadness, the heartache, the confusion were gone. In it, I felt light. Happy.
“So, you’re giving me another chance?”
I shook my head and his face went blank. “No. I’m giving us a chance.”
“I love the sound of that.” He pulled my hips over his groin, so my center rubbed over his hard length, and then groaned. “Fuck. Now we have a problem.”
“What?”
“I need to get my hands all over you, show you how satisfied I’m gonna keep you, only--” He broke off and swallowed.
I ground down on him, rubbing my breasts against his chest. “Only what?” I purred.
His breath fell hot on my neck. His fingers tightened on my hips. “Only…” He pulled my hips down hard over his erection once more. “I’m so fucked, Marina,” he admitted on an exhale.
I laughed because now I knew this wasn’t a rejection. It was Colton’s lust for me. His inability to hold back. He wanted me too much. His fear of hurting me or pushing me too far too fast.
“How so, Sergeant Major?” I flicked my tongue over his earlobe.
“I-I can’t hold back. And there’s no fucking way I can leave you again, either.”
I leaned back and caught his eye. “So don’t.”
He blinked, and his eyes were yellow.
“Don’t hold back,” I said. “I’m ready to be claimed.”
He slid his hands under my pajama shorts, cupping my bare ass. “You-you can’t be sure. You’re too young to decide.”
“Shut up.” I pulled my tank top up to show him my breasts. “You don’t get to tell me I’m too young. And you don’t get to decide for me. I want my wolf-bite. And I want it now.”
“But school.”
“I have two semesters left. I can do them anywhere. My dad’s not involved anymore--long story--so I don’t have to be in LA.”
“Oh fates. Oh Christ. Are you saying you want to live at Wolf Ranch?”
“Are you saying you’re getting out of the military?” I countered.
“I decided that earlier. With Rob. I’m getting my papers and getting out. Going home. For good.” A vulnerability crossed his features. “With you?”
I beamed. “See, all you had to do was ask.”
Colton had me up on the bed in seconds, my pajamas stripped from my body with a few quick tugs. “I’m gonna fuck you so hard, little girl,” he growled, parting my legs.
He settled his mouth between them, licking into me like a demon.
No, like a wolf.
A crazed, moon-mad wolf about to mark his mate.
As I writhed and dug my fingers into his hair, I couldn’t freaking wait.
21
COLTON
* * *
There was no stopping now. Even though my mind screamed at me to pull back, to make sure she meant it, my wolf was too hungry for her. I had to pleasure her. To hear her scream my name. To claim her as mine, forever.
It was finally fucking happening.
Holding off had been the longest 48 hours of my life.
I feasted on her like a starved man. Her little sighs, moans and cries only fueled my desire to satisfy my mate before I took my own satisfaction.
“Marina,” I growled her name every time I came up for breath, to make sure her lashes still fluttered in ecstasy. Every time, she lifted her head and met my wild gaze and moaned, “Yes.”
I used my tongue in every way I knew how, flicking, fluttering, penetrating. I could stay here for hours between her thighs. Her taste, her scent, were all over my face. And while she was the one to be marked tonight, I w
anted to be drenched in her, so everyone would know I was claimed, too.
Yet I needed to have her come. Needed to give her the pleasure I’d denied her since yesterday and myself. It was crucial I could please her, that my naughty girl was all. Fucking. Mine.
I rimmed her anus and made her squeal. I screwed two fingers inside her, carefully at first and then when she practically ripped the sheets to shreds in her tight grip, I didn’t hold back. I methodically stroked her inner wall, seeking her G-spot as I swirled my tongue around her clit.
Her cries grew more frantic, her head arched back in pleasure, mouth open. “Yes, Colton, please. Please don’t stop! Please, ohmygod!”
I pumped my fingers inside her and affixed my lips over her little nubbin, suctioning onto it and pulling. She would come. Now. And again. And again.
“Oh my God,” she squealed again, hips lifting off the bed and bouncing. Her tight pussy contracted around my fingers, her arousal practically dripping onto my palm. I waited until she’d finished, laying replete and panting, then crawled over the top of her and unbuttoned my jeans.
“This is crazy,” she murmured in awe when she looked up at me again. “Are your wolf’s eyes amber?”
I drew in measured breaths, trying to keep control and nodded. If she could see them, then my wolf was right at the surface. Ready. Waiting. I couldn’t bite too deep. Couldn’t hit an artery. She was human and wouldn’t heal instantly like a she-wolf would.
Fuck, I’d never gotten to ask Boyd how he’d done it, but I remembered seeing where Audrey’s mark was when she’d had on her wedding dress earlier.
That wasn’t the only thing I had to think of to protect her. Condom.
I still needed to use a condom, no matter how badly I wanted to mark her with my seed at the same time. She was in college. Not ready for pups. She’d said as much, and I’d respect that.
I fumbled with the wrapper, my dexterity dulled with the roaring in my veins, the sweet taste of the serum coming down my fangs, meant for her skin.
