“You can’t have it both ways, Lia. The cub means….”
“I don’t know if I can get used to calling him a cub like you do,” she butted in.
“Nobody’s going to shoot you for calling it a baby. And we don’t know if it’s a him or a her yet. Jeez, talk about being premature,” he teased.
Her lips twitched at that, then she sucked in a breath and said, “Okay. Enough conversation and procrastination. Shift.”
“Bossy boots,” he retorted with a wink, and began to shrug out of his clothes. Shirt, first, then pants. He couldn’t help the erection that popped out from between his fly. Not only was his pregnant mate there, smelling like sex on a plate, Lia was also waiting for him to shift. She was about to see the other side of him. Maybe he should have been terrified that she’d reject his other half, but he felt confident she wouldn’t. The connection they shared was too powerful for her to be repulsed by this part of him.
At least, he hoped he was right.
When she whistled at him, he winked, and in that second, started the shift.
While his body was altering, his senses really weren’t. They stayed cognizant at all times, so he could see, almost in slow motion, her reaction to the changes happening to his body. Her mouth dropped open, eyes widening to the point they must have been sore. She stopped hugging herself, and leaned forward, closer to him, hands slowly stretching toward him. She looked shocked, as his bones twisted and stretched, elongated and curled in. As fur popped through pores, tearing away the gentle flesh of his human side. Cartilage moved into position as teeth tore through his gums. His hair grew out, turning coarse and a few shades darker, like the color of sand.
In two seconds, where an aroused man had stood, now there was a Lion.
And his mate, the beast’s mate, was finally seeing him for who and what he was.
It was the Lion who had scented her, and recognized her for what she was to him. It was the beast who had urged him to mark her for his own, and who had brought them together, forever binding them. And it was the Lion who was actually more nervous than the man. He stood there, head bowed, wondering what his mate would do, how she would react.
He heard her feet move, the shoes rustling in the leaves, breaking the tiny fronds of grass beneath her feet and causing the scent to flower in his nose. As she stepped closer, her own essence filled his senses, and as this was the first time the Lion had scented her in his skin, it was hard for him not to move closer, to remain where he was, and appear as docile as could be.
When her hands touched his mane, a rumble vibrated through his chest. Pleasure, beyond all measure, rattled along his nerve endings. Her fingers were cautious as they traced his features, moving down along the long snout, arching over his eyes. He felt her trace the snub nose before they gripped his mane once again. She bent down, then knelt, placing her just lower than eye level with him.
When she whispered, “Wow,” he nudged her hand with his head, urging her to keep on stroking his mane. “Oh, my God! This is too fucking weird,” she mumbled to herself, laughing as a rumble of pleasure escaped him once more.
“Do you want to run?”
He swayed his head from side to side. The last thing he wanted to do was run from his mate. A mate who smelled of him, of woman, his woman, of his cub. She was a walking aphrodisiac in this form. He let his snout trail along her arm. She jumped at that, but he ignored her, and carried on. Moving upward to her shoulder and butting her throat. She’d stilled, and her tension had returned, but he was intent on scenting her pulse points. After he smelled her throat, he nudged his snout between her breasts, absorbing the pure essence of her. With his face buried there, he shifted. Where Lion had been seconds before, the male had returned.
She shrieked with laughter as he pushed her forward, maneuvering her so she was flat on her back on the grass. A chill was starting to seep through the ground but darkness and the cold was still a good forty minutes away. And he’d keep her warm, as was a mate’s solemn duty.
“You smell so fucking good,” he grunted against her tits, nudging aside the V-neck of her shirt to nuzzle against the soft flesh that someday soon would nurture his cub.
“I always wondered why you used to say that to me. About how good I smelled. Now I know.”
He grinned as he mock-bit her breast. “You smell like mine, Lia. Of course you smell good.”
She whacked him on the back. “You’d better smell like ‘mine’ when I get my superpowers.”
Caden chuckled even as he took her mouth with his own. He was gentle at first, needing her to know that he might be half-Lion, but he was still a man. And hers, at that.
She moaned against his mouth, and the instant her lips parted, he slipped his tongue between them to graze against hers. Her hands ran down his back, caressing the bare muscles he’d exposed to the elements earlier. Her nails sank into his skin, scraping down over the length of his spine when he began to thrust his tongue against hers, and when he slid a hand between them to cup her breast before continuing down to grab her thigh, he wanted to purr as her talons dug deep into the muscles cording his shoulders.
He caressed her leg as he lifted it against his hip, taking a moment to trace the strong length of her supple limbs against his fingers. When he reached her shoe, he shucked it off and trailed a digit down the center of her sole. She shuddered against him, a gurgle of laughter exploding from her mouth. He grinned against her lips, enjoying her as he always did.
“Stop!” she gasped. “You know I’m ticklish.” Lia mock-glared at him, then scraped her nails harder into his back, making him hiss.
He shuddered. “You know that turns me on, right?”
“Maybe,” she retorted, and with a bit of fidgeting, rucked her skirt higher over her legs, and slipped her other thigh up and against his hip.
The movement enabled him to rest his weight against her. The instant his cock brushed against her panty-clad pussy, he growled, and buried his face in her throat. Nibbling on the tendons there, he sought and found a fleshy part, and bit down harder. Her groan brushed against his ear, and he slid his hands between them to unfasten her shirt. He tore off her bra, thanking Lea for the invention of front clasps, and cupped her breasts between his eager hands.
Slipping his mouth down, he bit at one nipple, taunting it with his teeth, raking it a little, before sucking down. When she cried out, he sucked harder and with his free hand, nipped at the bud with his fingers, pinching and squeezing. He moved downward, pressing open-mouthed kisses to her belly, sliding his tongue along the gentle curves that would soon expand with his cub.
The thought made him groan, and he heard her breath hitch when he continued downward. Tugging her panties to the side, he pressed his nose into her groin, another pulse point loaded with her orgasmic scent. He nuzzled his nose there, reveling in her essence, but he was urged on when eager hands grabbed his head, and tugged at his hair.
He smiled against her skin, then slid his mouth over the tender lips of her sex to suck down on her clit. He was a patient man, but where his mate’s pleasure was concerned, he was impatient. He wanted her release, and he wanted it now.
He lashed the nub with his tongue as he plunged two fingers deep inside her cunt, grunting as her juices eased his path. His cock twitched against his leg, hungry for the same welcome, but he forced himself to stay on this path, his need to satisfy his mate more imperative an urge than his own desire.
Carefully, with his teeth, he nibbled down, enjoying her shrieks and the sudden pain as she dug her heels into his shoulders. “Oh God, Caden, Caden!” she cried out, repeating his name over and over again in a way that truly gratified his Lion.
He flicked his tongue over her clit, lashing it in a way that had her mewling, before sliding down and pulling at her labia with his lips. As he licked the silky channel that led to her slit, her legs clamped down about his head, making him smile.
Her cries of pleasure echoed around the clearing, identifying to anyone with ears that
someone was there, fucking. Did he care? Did he, hell.
The instant her climax had her cunt tightening about his fingers, he pulled them out, making her moan harder. But not for long. He pressed his cock against the weeping entrance to her body and pushed home.
The instant his shaft was welcomed into her hot depths, both man and beast were at peace. With slumberous, heavy-lidded eyes, he looked at the wanton position of his mate. Her breasts were bare to his gaze, the nipples taut and moist from his caresses. Her hair had spilled free from its clasp, pouring the locks around her flushed face. She looked up at him with eyes as heavy as his own, her lips parted with pleasure as he slid as deep as his cock could go without hurting her.
The muscles of her belly rippled as he settled there, pelvis to pelvis. Her tits quivered with her panting breaths, and he bent down to grasp one of those tempting nipples between his teeth. She shrieked when he bit down, but when he tried to release the nub, she gripped his head in a silent demand.
“Suck!” she ordered, seconds later, and he obeyed, grunting as he did.
He moved his hips, gently at first, knowing she’d still be sensitive from her first orgasm, but as she began to writhe underneath him, he moved faster, enjoying the slick sensation of his shaft being greeted and cosseted by her cunt.
When ecstasy rocketed through his body, he let go of her nipple, flinging his head back with a roar as he began to pummel her with his dick. Making sure she took his every inch, he fucked her hard and fast. Taking her higher as he forced himself to hold back. His Lion demanding that she come with him, that only then would he be satisfied.
Sliding a hand down between her legs, he played with her clit. Flicking it hard with his index finger, punishing it, and demanding it give her release. When she squealed and her pussy clamped down on his shaft, he was a goner. And so was she.
Their mutual cries of climax ricocheted about the clearing. Loading the air around them with the sounds of their deep joy in one another.
Sex with a mate was incomparable. But knowing that mate accepted him, one-hundred percent, made that incomparable sex so much fucking better.
Screw everything else, screw the future and the problems heading their way with Lia’s relatives, this moment, here with his mate, was the goddamn life.
Chapter Twelve
Bleary-eyed, Lia rolled onto her back and stretched. When she nudged into Caden’s side, she frowned. “What are you doing here?” she asked around a yawn. “Why aren’t you out running?”
His lack of answer had her blinking back the blur of sleep and turning to look at him properly. His face was a mixture of concern, dismay, and, if she wasn’t mistaken, fear.
Okay, that freaked her out.
In the years they’d been together, she’d seen him scared twice. Now, and the other day, when he’d broken down outside the truck stop. Scared was not Caden. And considering the man could turn into a man-eating Lion if he was cornered, she couldn’t imagine what the hell it was that had frightened him so badly. She’d accepted his whole “I’m gonna be a daddy” freak-out, but that hadn’t been the reason behind his panic. She wasn’t stupid, but she’d let him believe he’d pulled the wool over her eyes. Men’s egos were, after all, such fragile things.
“What’s wrong, Caden?”
Seeing she was awake, the tension on his face had lessened somewhat, and she knew he was trying to hide his fear from her. Some lessons were too ingrained to change in a few years of marriage. She realized now he’d trained himself, over the years, to hold everything in, knowing his mother wouldn’t listen anyway. Lia could yell at him for keeping stuff from her, but what would be the point?
Make-up sex, she guessed, but she didn’t need to cause an argument for a night of killer passion between the sheets!
She pinned a false grin on her chops, hoping to reassure him. “Let me guess, the partners won’t let you take a sabbatical?”
He shook his head. “I dealt with that yesterday. They’ve split my caseload between Andrews and Wyndham until I can get back into town.”
Lia frowned. “If it’s not that, then, what’s the matter?”
“Nothing. Just taking a moment to chill out.”
She scowled at him. “Do I look like I can’t translate bullshit?”
“What the hell do you mean by that?” he demanded, launching off the bed to start stomping back and forth across the room. Like that was normal. Outside of when she lost her temper, Caden was like her. Cool and calm in most situations. Even the stressful ones.
She shook her head. “What do you think I mean? If you think it’s normal for me to wake up and find you watching me sleep, then we’re on different pages, babe.”
He grunted. “I might do it every morning.”
Lia froze at that. “If you do, that’s really creepy.”
A smile broke through the gloom of his grim mood. “You’ll probably be relieved to know I’m not a creep, then.”
“Yeah, I didn’t really think you were.”
He sighed. “We have guests.”
“What do you mean we? I don’t know anyone here in Anchor.”
“They’re from the National Pride.”
“Like your Senate, right?”
He nodded.
“Does your mom often play hostess to the werelion version of the Senate?”
He shook his head.
Eyes widening, she sat up and pointed a finger at herself. “They’re here for...?”
Another nod.
“Why? Because I’m a half-breed? I thought you said the Pride accepted people like me.”
He sat on the edge of the bed, close enough to rest a hand on her leg. “They do. There’s no problem with what you are, it’s who you are that’s causing the ruckus.”
“What do you mean who? I’m nobody. In human society and this one. Well, I’m your wife, but that’s it.”
“Your dad, Lia, was a part of the Pride. When they ran your blood tests, they checked your DNA with our database, trying to see who your parents are. Your dad’s name came up. Archie McKinnon.”
She frowned. “Okay, so what’s the problem?”
“Archie McKinnon was big news about thirty-five years ago. He went off the radar. Completely absconded from the Pride. No one knew if he’d died or been kidnapped.”
“You mean, he was important enough to have been kidnapped?”
Caden sighed. “Yeah. He was the Mater Leona’s favored son.”
She blinked, then shook her head. Scurrying back into the covers, she wrapped herself up tight. “No way. He was a deadbeat, for fuck’s sake! He left Mom and us to fend for ourselves. Plus, we lived in a dump. I mean, you said the Mater Leona’s like our President, right?”
She tried to go through the random facts she’d learned these last two days about Pride culture. Caden hadn’t overdosed her with information, just fed her little bits that he’d considered relevant about a society of which she was now a member.
“I’m going to assume she lives in a place like the White House? If he was so fucking rich, why did we live in the Bronx?”
“I don’t have the answers, Lia. I’m just telling you the facts. Your father was...is, if he’s alive, related to the Mater Leona. And she’s sent representatives to meet you.”
If she’d turned to ice before, she was now as frozen as the frickin’ Arctic. “You can’t be serious,” she bit out hoarsely. “You can not be telling me that the guests are here to vet me?”
“Not vet you,” Caden explained. “There’s no need to vet you. Your DNA says it all. They’re here to meet you, before we have to go up to Oregon.”
“Go to Oregon?” she squeaked. “I don’t want to go anywhere apart from home!”
He sighed and reached for her hand. When she pulled back, smacking his hand away, he gritted his teeth, kept his arm outstretched and waited for her to relent. With a sulky pout, thirty seconds later, she slipped her fingers through his. Before he could open his mouth to speak, she flung herself from the co
coon of covers she’d made and onto his lap.
Curling into him, she mumbled, “I don’t want to go to Oregon.”
“Babe, I wish we didn’t have to go, but we don’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice!”
“Not in this,” he stated grimly, sounding as miserable as she felt. “The Mater Leona has more power than the President, Lia. She has absolute control. She can do whatever the hell she wants with no repercussions. We’re just fortunate she’s benevolent. If she wants to meet you, then she’ll meet you.”
“Maybe that’s why my father ran off,” Lia snapped.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Talk about being smothered by her power.”
He rolled his eyes. “You’ve never even met the woman. She’s the most powerful female in the US, so yeah, you don’t piss her off lightly, but I’m sure she’s different with family.”
“Yeah, well, I’m family and I don’t want to meet her.”
Caden frowned. “I get why I don’t want you to meet her, but I’m not sure why you don’t. I know you hate not having more family, not knowing more about your dad.”
She pursed her lips in a way that told him she wasn’t about to answer his query, and pulled out of his embrace. “Why don’t you want me to go?”
“You don’t understand Pride culture. Not yet, anyway. You’re the female in this relationship, therefore the one with the power. Your father’s line wouldn’t ordinarily hold power, it’s your mother that counts, but he’s Pride and she isn’t. Plus he is who he is. That means,” he hesitated before blowing out a breath, “we’re going to become a part of her family whether we like it or not.”
Lia huffed. “Nobody is going to tell me what to do.”
“You sound like a thirteen-year-old.”
“Maybe I’m feeling like a thirteen-year-old. If this woman is so goddamn important, why did she lose track of her son?”
He snorted. “What kind of question is that? Males, we might be, but we don’t have to wear tracking devices.”
Claimed by Caden Page 17
