by Maia Starr
Flint gave her a sly grin. “What? I don’t seem motherly to you? I am highly offended!”
Now, Addison laughed uncontrollably, the slight tension in the air fading. After a moment, she wiped a few happy tears from her eyes.
Seeing her cry stirred up the wolf inside Flint. Her tears, happy or not, broke his heart. How had she reacted to what she’d experienced at Wolf Den? Had she shed many more tears in the days since he’d last seen her? The thought made Flint want to rip Maric Devoy apart that much more. Addison wasn’t just a random woman anymore; she was the woman he wanted for his mate. He would make her his mate in a heartbeat if she would accept him.
Testing the waters, Flint took a step toward her. Addison wiped the remaining tears from her face, but she didn’t move away from him. He took another step forward with the same response from her. She simply watched him, her pretty face expectant. Taking a third and final step towards her, he wrapped his muscular arms around her and pulled her to his chest, where she rested her head for a few moments before looking up at him. The sweet look she gave him was so charming that Flint could barely keep his wolf restrained any longer. Trying to go slowly, he pressed his lips to hers, tasting her soft mouth and focusing his mind on her.
As she broke away, Addison’s face blushed bright red, but she didn’t look away or try to step out of his arms.
“You know,” she began. “You’re the first guy I’ve had a relationship with in a long time.”
Raising his eyebrows, Flint scoffed. “Yeah, right. Have you seen yourself? You’re hot and sexy and just plain beautiful. There’s no way you’ve had a hard time finding men who were interested in you. Give me a break!”
Addison giggled. “It’s true! I’ve just always chosen to focus on my career more than anything else… even back in college. My best friend, Lindsay, used to push me to go out more, to find a boyfriend.”
“Used to?”
“Well, I kind of told her about you the day of the Wolf Den party, and I promised to give her more details… but I haven’t felt like answering her calls for the past few days.”
Flint leaned his head closer, touching his forehead to hers. “Well, there’ll be plenty more details and stories to tell her now, right?”
She smiled. “Yeah… although I can’t tell her about who you are… or, I mean, what you are. She’d probably think I’m crazy.”
Flint bellowed in laughter. “Maybe you are crazy. Not only did you not already leave Silverwood Island after watching me turn into a giant wolf, but you actually came to talk to me again, to sort things out with a monster. I don’t know about you, but that seems crazy to me.”
Addison rolled her eyes and hit him on the shoulder. “Stop that!”
“Stop what?”
“Being all cool and suave and charming like that,” Addison said. “I didn’t come here to fall for you a second time. I came to apologize for running from you before giving you the chance to explain, but…”
Grinning, Flint took the lead. “But you’re realizing that none of that matters anymore. What matters is that right here, right now, I’m claiming you as my mate.”
Addison blinked. “Excuse me? You’re what? Claiming me? What does that mean?”
“It means exactly what it sounds like. By claiming you, I ensure no one else in my pack will try to date you or bed you. Everyone will know you’re mine. Our mates are our partners for life… and there’s no way in hell I’m letting some other bozo try to take you away from me.”
Addison looked skeptical for a moment, but then a wide smile formed on her face, and she chuckled. “So, not only do you transform into a wolf, but you also act like one in social situations, huh? I guess that makes sense… are there, um, mating seasons for your people, too? Or…”
“Ha! We’re more human than you think. Mating season is all year round, so we can enjoy each other’s company whenever we want.”
Addison flushed.
“And,” Flint continued, “it’s not my people. Now, it’s our people. Try not to forget that from now on, okay?”
Addison nodded. “You got it, boss.”
Flint pulled her in for another passionate kiss. His wolf howled for him to do more, to lay her down on the ground and to ravage her right there. Growling, he obliged, pressing open-mouthed kisses to the soft, warm skin of her neck, trailing down. She moaned and melted against him for a moment, but quickly regained her senses and stopped him, pushing his head back just enough so she could whisper in his ear.
“Let’s leave it at that, okay?”
“Addison,” Flint groaned.
Addison clicked her tongue, wagging a finger in the air. “No, if I’m going to be with you, I think I’ll need to tame you. You can’t just randomly throw me to the ground to have sex with me whenever and wherever you want. I have standards, you know.”
His wolf clawed at his chest, and Flint wanted to do exactly what Addison had just told him he couldn’t do, but he reined himself in. Something about this side of Addison turned him on in a strange, unique way. He had to keep reminding himself that she wasn’t just a princess in a tower waiting for a knight in shining armor to rescue her. She was smart and strong and brave enough to face an island full of deadly wolves and angry bears. Not only did she have the courage to come to him, but she could silence him with a simple wag of her finger.
Flint grumbled but nodded. “But I guess you can move out of that damn inn now. I have this cozy little house on a lake… it’s secluded enough to where I could make you scream in pleasure all night long, and no one would hear us.”
Addison bit her lip. “That does sound amazing, but… I want to talk to you about my house first.”
Flint gave in and smiled at her. “Alright, fine. Let’s go check out this house.”
They trudged over to her future home, walking inside and out, Addison inspecting every detail as Flint tried to keep his mind out of the gutter. Once they were through going over the space and talking about the work still left to do, the pair stood together in front of the house, gazing up at it in all its glory. Well, Addison gazed at the house. Flint was too busy watching Addison.
When she glanced over at him, she frowned. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“How about we try out that date again?” Flint said. “But, this time, let’s try something tamer.”
“What do you have in mind?”
Flint shrugged. “Maybe you’ll just have to find out.”
As he extended a hand, Addison took it, her tiny hand fitting perfectly in his larger one. With one glance back at her future home, the two left the clearing, hand in hand.
Chapter Sixteen
Coffee
Addison felt like she was on top of the world.
It wasn’t normal for things to go perfectly for her. Back in Seattle, when one thing would go right, something else would go wrong. But here on Silverwood Island, for once, something had gone right, and nothing had gone wrong immediately after. If she discounted the night Maric had attacked them… and the fact that Maric was still out there planning to hunt her down, then everything had gone perfectly so far on Silverwood Island. Yeah… if she just discounted those minor details.
Addison had worked up the courage, after speaking with May, to not only speak with Flint but to allow him to claim her as his mate. In a normal situation, Addison might have objected to the possessiveness and implied ownership of that, but with an understanding of Flint’s true nature, she found it unbearably hot. Flint had chosen her. He had claimed her! Was this some fantasy? Was this really happening? Since when did super-hot guys on remote islands turn out to be seductive, shape-shifting badasses who claimed people as mates? It all felt surreal.
As Addison and Flint walked into the local coffee shop, she wondered how Lindsay or her parents would react to her story. She didn’t even need to wonder; she knew exactly how they’d react: they would say she was making it all up. No one in their right mind would believe a tale like hers, but Addison
could worry about explaining things to them later. Right now, nothing could put a damper on her mood.
Inside the coffee shop, every pair of eyes landed on Flint, and then Addison. Addison paid them no mind, and she even smiled at the people she recognized as she and Flint walked up to the counter to order. All at once, everyone looked away, and Addison glanced at Flint with a raised eyebrow, expecting to see him glaring at the assembled shifters, but he was looking at the menu board innocently. He glanced at her with a sly grin, shrugging, and Addison stifled a laugh.
After ordering their coffees—and a blueberry muffin for Addison—the pair sat down at a table near the door.
“Well, this isn’t anything close to our first date,” Addison said, breaking a tiny chunk off her picking off the muffin and popping it into her mouth. “Where are the bright lights? The loud music and the dancing couples?”
Flint grinned. “That night ended terribly, so I thought I’d test our luck with a different pace.”
Tearing off another chunk of the muffin, she offered it to Flint. He sniffed it and then took it, his lips brushing her fingertips.
“I don’t mind this. It’s peaceful in here. What else do you have planned for this retry of our first date?”
“I figured we could just talk,” Flint said. “You know, relax. I’m supposed to be tame now, right?” He winked at her.
Addison couldn’t help but smile at the comment, biting her lip. “Almost tame. It’s not like I’m going to put a leash on you. I just want to make sure we do more than screw each other. May kind of implied you had trouble controlling yourself sometimes.”
Flint rolled his eyes. “Of course she did. Is there anything she didn’t tell you?”
Addison didn’t answer because the barista arrived at their table and placed their steaming cups of coffee before them. She grabbed the cup marked with her name and took a long swig, letting the hot drink invigorate her.
“Doesn’t matter anyway,” Flint said, taking his coffee. “I don’t want to know about what May told you. I want to know more about you.”
She set her cup down on the table, peering out the window at the random pedestrians walking by the coffee shop. “What about me?”
“Like about your connection to Maric Devoy? It’s not every day you get involved with a man like that, is it? What’s the real reason you left Seattle? May’s told you all about me, but I’ve yet to hear the full tale behind your coming to Silverwood. How about you start at the beginning?”
Chuckling, Addison looked back at him. “You really want to know?”
Flint nodded and let the steam from his cup drift up in front of his face, his nose scrunching.
Some of Flint’s mannerisms were incredibly adorable, Addison thought. Sighing, she sat back, readying herself to spill her past to Flint. “Alright, I guess it’s only fair. There’s no reason to hide anything from you anymore.”
She looked him dead in the eye. “So, you know how I was an investigative journalist? Well, I was interviewing families whose loved ones had been kidnapped. They all pointed me to this one neighborhood in Seattle where the victims had disappeared, so I did some digging. At the least, I thought I’d interview the shop owners in the area for my story, get their take on it, but there was one fairly new shop, a bookshop, that had opened only a few months before the disappearances had started. I was eager to get in and get some big scoop.”
Flint held up his hands, stopping her. “Wait, let me guess: Maric Devoy owned the bookstore?”
Nodding, Addison continued. “You guessed it. When I went in, I met this big, burly guy with a beard. He introduced himself as Maric Devoy, the owner. At first, he was friendly, much more so than I expected, but the more questions I asked—especially when I asked for his take on the kidnappings—the more serious and annoyed he became. He stomped off into the back room, and I was about to leave, but I noticed a locket that belonged to one of the victims, and I picked it up to get a better look at it, maybe take a picture. He came back, saw me holding it, lost his mind, and tried to strangle me to death.”
Addison hugged herself, shivering at the memory of Maric’s hands on her throat. It still felt so fresh in her mind, like it had only just happened yesterday, and not almost two weeks ago.
“Luckily for me, I had called the police, and the cops showed up just before I lost consciousness and saved my life. Maric ran, but not before promising to get revenge on me. The police gave chase, but they lost him. They also found a couple of victims in the back room of the bookstore after I went to the hospital to get checked out.”
Flint’s mouth hung open, and Addison giggled at him. “Are you kidding me?” he asked. “I just figured he’d be a crazy ex-boyfriend or something.”
Chuckling, Addison shook her head. She searched in her pockets, finding the golden locket and bringing it out for Flint to see. “I still have the locket. I didn’t get the chance to return it to the victim’s family since I came home from the hospital to find my apartment trashed and a letter from Maric saying he would hunt me down.”
Frowning and taking the locket from Addison’s hand, he turned it over and over. “So… he’s been hunting you down because of this locket, huh?” He growled, a low rumble in his throat. “When we catch him, he’s in for a world of pain.”
Addison smiled weakly, imagining Maric somewhere out there on Silverwood Island, searching for her. “Well, now you know. I fled Seattle after that without saying a word to my best friend or my family. Fortunately, I had spare money from my parents for emergencies just like this… not that they—or I—ever expected I’d anger a murderous bear shifter who would then hunt me down.”
As he handed the locket back to her, Addison peered deep into Flint’s emerald eyes. “Please tell me you already have a plan to deal with Maric? As long as he’s still hunting me, then neither of us is safe.”
“You mean he’ll keep coming until we’re both dead, right?”
Addison nodded.
Flint leaned forward. “Then listen to me right now. Nothing of that sort will happen to us. I’ll protect you no matter what. As long as you’re by my side, Maric won’t lay a hand on you.” He reached out and took her hand in his. “The eastern half of Silverwood Island is pack territory. My territory. No one here does anything without my express permission, and that includes dying.” He winked. “You’re my mate now, part of my pack. If Maric wants to get to you, he’ll have to go through every shifter on this side of the island, and we’re more than a match for him. I will never let him—or anyone else—hurt you.”
Addison’s heart warmed at his words, and desire for the man before her sung in her veins. Maybe this situation with Maric was all a blessing in disguise, a way for fate to bring her to Silverwood Island, to Flint.
As if reading her mind, Flint squeezed her hand, then leaned back in his seat, stretching. “Coming to Silverwood might have been the best decision you ever made! Now that you’ve charmed me beyond reason, you’ll always have me to protect you. Nothing else will go wrong now that everything is out in the open. I promise.”
Addison felt a rush of gratitude at his words, but she couldn’t help but doubt Flint’s last statement. It just didn’t seem possible that nothing else would go wrong, not when Maric was still out there.
But then he leaned forward again to close the distance between them, and Addison met him halfway. Their lips brushed together in a soft kiss to seal the promise. Addison’s heart pounded, butterflies fluttering in her stomach. Serendipity turned out to be a beautiful thing, and she knew, more than ever, that Flint was right: coming to Silverwood Island really might be the best choice she’d ever made.
Addison just hoped his promise would hold.
Ending their kiss and leaning back in their seats, they smiled like teenagers finding love for the first time. The rest of the patrons of the coffee shop snuck glances at them, grinning and whispering to each other. Addison didn’t have to guess what they were talking about this time. Flint had a finally found
his mate. He had finally found her.
“So, how are you going to find Maric?”
Grunting, Flint locked his hands behind his head. “I have a bunch of packs out searching the island for him. Tracking him from camp to camp, sniffing out his scent. It won’t be long now until he’s found. Ash is leading them. That’s what he’s been doing while you moped around in your room.”
“And while you moped around at work.” Addison retorted, sticking her tongue out at him.
Flint chuckled. “God, I love you.” He held out his hand for her to hold.
Her breath catching in her throat, Addison smiled and grabbed his hand, intertwining her fingers with his. “I think I love you, too.”
Suddenly, Flint rose from the table, pulling her to her feet.
“Wait, Flint, where are we going? I still have half a cup of coffee left!”
Already turning toward the door, Flint glanced back at her, his eyes sparkling. “Let’s give you another chance at Wolf Den. Come on, let’s go.”
Laughing and grabbing her cup from the table, Addison allowed Flint to drag her from the coffee shop.
Ash padded through the quiet forest.
Nose high, he breathed in, his nostril filling with the smells of autumn and scurrying squirrels. But no sign of Maric Devoy.
Frustrated, Ash pawed at the ground and yapped to himself, letting out a howl to inform the rest of his group he hadn’t found anything on his end. Shaking off a few leaves stuck in his fur, Ash turned, bounding away into the forest, dodging low branches and hopping over overgrown roots sticking up from the earth.
Usually, runs in the forest were peaceful and allowed him to relax, but for the last half-week, nothing about the forest had been peaceful. What Ash would otherwise consider a serene quiet now felt more like an eerie stillness that permeated the woodland. Where there used to be many deer blending into the dense foliage and owls flying and hooting through the treetops, now there was nothing.
Growing tired of looking for Maric Devoy, Ash slowed and stopped to lap at a pond. Even for the ever-energetic Ash, running around the forest day in and out took its toll, and as he tilted his head to look at his wolfish reflection in the rippling water, he panted, trying to suck in enough air for a second wind.
