“Shh. It’s okay.” His big hand smoothed over her hair. “It’ll be okay.”
“It’ll never be okay.” Somehow, she found the strength to straighten and shove at his chest.
Without totally releasing her, his effortless strength apparent, he gave her a little space, staring into her eyes. His wolf simmered, but the verdant green of his iris was back. “It has to be okay. I’ve claimed you.”
“You’ve triggered my heat,” she replied, bitterness coating her tongue.
His handsome face tightened further. “Semantics. You’re mine, Desi. I’d have preferred your surrender, but you are so damn stubborn.”
“Stubborn? You mean because I’ve made it clear I’m not interested, you call me stubborn?” It took considerable effort to form coherent sentences.
Something she’d interpret as pain twisted his mouth if she cared to infer anything, and he shook his head. “I hurt you back then, and for that I’m sorry. Truly sorry. But you’ve let your pride come between us, and I won’t allow it.”
Maybe she hadn’t grown up because she balled her hand tightly and aimed it at his face. His quick reflexes wrapped up her fist and held it at bay.
“You prick. You autocratic bastard.” A wave of need belied her words, and she struggled to push it down, hanging on to her indignation by her fingernails. Tahl’s nostrils flared and she felt his wolf through his grasp. Hers responded in kind and she couldn’t fight them both. Hot tears escaped and tracked down her cheeks as she moaned in terrible, overwhelming desire, sagging against Tahl once again.
“Ah, baby. I’d have picked a better place—”
The faint squeak of brakes and the rolling crunch of tires cut him off and he whirled, tucking her behind him against her vehicle in almost the same motion. A car door creaked and then slammed and she heard the rustle of fabric and the jingle of metal.
“You and the lady having a disagreement?” An authoritative voice broke the silence.
“No, officer. We were on our way to the same place and stopped to chat.”
Desiree peered past Tahl’s big form and saw an older patrolman, standing squarely in front of them, one hand resting casually on his leather holster. Opaque shades reflected both their distorted images, but surely it was her imagination that her body shimmered in the dual lenses. Though she figured a splash of water would fizzle and evaporate if thrown her way. She bit back another moan and clenched her thighs together.
“Ma’am?”
Her voice was shaky—nothing she could do about it as she wrestled with the pheromones overtaking her system. “Just chatting.”
At least a minute ticked by as the cop studied them, and she could sense Tahl’s wolf coiling aggressively. She eased out from behind him so the officer could see her fully. It was imperative he not be exposed to shifter tradition. The other man relaxed his stance a little when she presented herself and gave her a nod.
“Well, best you get back on the road, then. Ladies first. The gentleman and I will exchange a few words. Give you a little time to cool off, if it was more than a chat.”
Tahl reached into his pocket and the patrolman stiffened. “I’m going to give her the keys to the cabin, officer.” He extricated a set on a chain and passed them over, the jingling sound dragging over her senses with excruciating shrillness.
Cabin? She took the keys with trembling fingers, doing her best not to let their flesh touch. With a nod to the policeman, she slipped into the driver’s seat, turning over the engine. Her vision felt off and her head was wooly, stuffed with cotton as she struggled with her seatbelt.
Carefully checking her mirrors, she cautiously pulled onto the highway and accelerated away, Tahl, the cop, and their vehicles, fading into tiny figures set in a frozen tableau.
Her first instinct was to head back to River and Jett’s—she couldn’t go home. Her mother was unpredictable when it came to shifter tradition, probably because she wasn’t one. And yet she’d suggested that her daughter could do far worse than Tahl. What to do?
Light perspiration broke out over her entire body. Her hands slid on the steering wheel and she dried first one, then the other on her skirt. She needed, a belly clenching, breast aching, screaming in sexual desperation, and the focus of her need was standing by the road miles back, hopefully not squaring off with a cop. This was so not the way it was supposed to go.
But was it supposed to progress so quickly? She flicked the air conditioning higher and tried to think. She could keep driving, but would eventually have to seek refuge someplace and try to ride out the waves of arousal storming her system. They’d only get worse. And worse. Females coming of age and going into heat on their own could do it, had done it, but she had no idea about those triggered. Her fingers clenched white and she barely stopped herself from wishing bad things on a certain arrogant male shifter. Her wolf whimpered a warning, more than aware that their fates were now tied together.
“Shut up!” She nearly screamed it at her animal and tried harder to focus.
A picture of the cabin floated into her head as she sought a turn off to head back toward Blue Star. If Tahl had the keys to the family retreat, then her brother had given them to him. Probably given her, with his blessing. She ground her teeth and focused on the betrayal before accepting she’d be meeting her freaking mate at the cabin of her childhood. A nice, isolated place where this insane need could be assuaged and then she’d have a clear brain to think things through. Not to mention bestow that additional talk on Tahl that he’d been craving.
She held it together for the next half hour, taking deep breaths and exerting her considerable will. She was crawling out of her skin by the time she arrived, bumping along the rutted trail that left the rarely used narrow pavement off-shooting the highway.
The keys ground in the lock and the door resisted her initial push. The interior was a little musty, suiting her frame of mind, and she tugged a dust sheet off the couch. Sinking down, she tucked her feet up beneath her and wrapped her arms around herself.
Her body was nearly too hot to bear her touch, but she held on tight and waited—thinking.
Chapter Three
After the cop offered some sage advice about the dangers of parking off a busy thoroughfare to “chat”, and then graciously waved him on his way, Tahl drove as fast as he dared to the cabin. Desiree wasn’t picking up her phone, and there was no guarantee she’d head to the woods, but other than her brother’s or her mom’s, where else would she go? Unless she ran…
He dismissed that thought outright. No matter how furious she’d be with him, Desiree knew the score and she wasn’t masochistic, he didn’t think. Her body would be on fire and every minute that passed, she’d be suffering. He cursed his impulsiveness and lack of control, but in truth he’d reacted instinctively to the chase.
Containing his chaotic emotions was difficult, and he focused hard on the blacktop scrolling out ahead of him. His future mate was struggling, and easing her immediate need was his primary goal. She might kill him afterward, and if she didn’t, then Jett would. Or River, or Marlene … he didn’t doubt there would be a lineup of shifters to contend with, once they heard the story. Losing control on the side of the freaking road!
Her sports car was parked, nose in, to the cabin, and he paused to lean his weight against the driver’s door, closing it tightly. Spying her purse on the passenger seat, he cursed, pulling on the handle. Locked. With the keys in the ignition. Could this day get any worse? His wolf pawed aggressively, no doubt pleased that its mate had been so aroused that she forgot the mundane.
Now that he was here, he was stalling, and he grimaced. Nothing much scared him, but the female presumably inside the cabin… He forced his feet to carry up the short set of stairs and opened the front door with a confidence he didn’t feel. Until he saw her.
Huddled on the couch, facing him, was his future mate, the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen—or scented. Cheeks flushed, hair now streaming in wild abandon and clothing awry, s
he glared at him, her rage muted by the trembling need radiating from her tense body.
“Baby. I got here as soon as I could. I—” His attempt at an apology was overridden as Desi lurched to her feet.
“It’s not fucking fair that I have no recourse in this. It’s a done deal because you decided. You. And now I’m stuck with you. I have to submit to your … physical attentions so I can function.” She laughed, a harsh mimicry of her usual, musical burst of sound. The one he hadn’t heard in his vicinity for a very long time but had never forgotten. The dichotomy scalded his senses.
She stood, her body shaking, the hormonal flux pouring off of her, and he balled his fists to keep his hands to himself. A vastly angry Desiree was an incredibly beautiful and appealing female and his wolf seethed with impatience against her siren call. Tahl shoved his animal back and cudgeled his brain for something that would soothe her. Some sense of self-preservation kept him from offering his heart. It was quite likely she’d carve it out of his chest and eat it with a spoon.
His breath stuttered as with awkward, jerky movements, she yanked at the front of her silky shirt, the fine fabric rending beneath her impatient hands. She threw the remnants in the general direction of the couch before working at the zipper on her little skirt. The garment slid over her thighs to pool around her ankles, his avid stare tracking it as the black lace of her matching panties was revealed as well as the long length of her legs. She stepped out, nearly losing her balance, and kicked the material away.
This was so not how he imagined it. Throat dry, he closed the distance. “Desiree. Easy, baby. Let me—”
“You’ve done enough, Tahl,” she coughed out between shuddering breaths. “Now do what nature intended.” Her pretty bra popped open and her breasts were displayed. Sitting high on her narrow torso, they were in perfect proportion to the rest of her, though visibly swollen with need, the dark nipples beaded tightly.
Everything in him screamed to take her right fucking now, his cock so hard it hurt, his wolf groveling. Groveling. With inner strength he somehow drew from somewhere, perhaps his conscience, maybe his aching heart, he wrestled his libido into submission and hugged her instead. Trying to offer her comfort. His eyes closed against the intense draw of her soft, silky skin, the heat of her radiating intensely to the very marrow of his bones.
Desiree wrestled free, wild-eyed and flushed. Surely no other male would have been so fucking stupid as to trigger his future mate’s heat on the side of a goddamn highway and then leave her unfulfilled? He cursed himself again.
She scrabbled at the fine stuff of her underwear and it met the same fate as her shirt. Tahl drank in his first sight of the female who was his, all creamy skin and smooth curves, the soft dark hair at her apex neatly trimmed. But she was shaking harder, out of control, the scent of her arousal overwhelming him, and instinct took over.
With economic movements, he stripped off his own clothing. Desiree swayed, her eyes tightly shut as she panted through the tiny whimpers falling from her lips. He spoke her name even as he gathered her up and bore her down on the wide, soft couch, but she wouldn’t—or couldn’t—open her eyes.
There was no time, or need, or foreplay. He’d left her too long. Testing her preparedness with one finger, he grunted his satisfaction. Soaked. Her thighs opened wide for him as he maneuvered between them, her arms splayed and her head thrown back. She writhed, her wolf clearly right at the surface, and her whimpers escalated both in volume and quantity.
Recognizing the time for fucking couldn’t be put off by conversation, however necessary, he fit the weeping crown of his cock against her opening. Wet, sultry heat engulfed him as he surged inside on a desperate thrust. And froze at her muffled yelp.
“Fuck me, baby. Fuck. Me.” He wrapped her up, working his arms beneath her shoulders to tuck her as tightly against him as he could manage while holding his cock steady, giving her time to adjust. It was his turn to screw his own eyes shut in order to concentrate on not moving one fucking iota. He’d just taken her virginity, and even his wolf paused in its desperation to claim her.
Slowly, her tense body began to relax and her breathing regulated, as much as the breathing of a frantic female in heat could calm. In contrast, her sweet pussy clenched around his anxious cock and he ground his teeth not to disgrace himself before he made it good for her.
Cautiously, he withdrew a little then eased back in. Her heat had prepared her body, even if he hadn’t, and his movements strengthened into a measured rhythm within the silky wet walls of her sheath. He murmured to her, filthy, sweet snippets he wouldn’t have believed himself capable of.
“My darling Desi. Your pussy is so fucking tight, baby. You’re squeezing me, stroking me. Hot as the sun. It’s like coming home.”
When her hips synchronized with his, rocking in an instinctive rhythm, he breathed easier. He’d hurt her, but she was experiencing pleasure now, and he redoubled his efforts to please her. Grinding against the apex of her pussy, he was rewarded with quiet moans and increasing efforts to take him deeper. He nuzzled her throat but warned his wolf away—he wasn’t going to compound his impatience with a bite. He owed her that, to wait until she was in a better space to accept his claim.
With her movements becoming choppy and her cries intensifying, he worked harder to increase pressure on her engorged clit. Deftly circling his hips, he coaxed an orgasm from her. Her response milked his straining cock mid thrust and his drawn-out groan drowned her gasping shriek as she went over. Her pussy clamped around him, repeatedly, as his seed spewed forth. He settled his weight on her, wishing he had claimed her so that their first pup might even now be forming in the depths of her womb.
Withdrawing from her limp body, he got his breathing under control before hustling to the bathroom. He cleaned up quickly before finding a couple of the softest towels. One he soaked in warm water, squeezing it out, carrying it and the other back to her. Gently cleansing between her thighs, he marked the bloody show, and despite his regret for his impulsive actions, couldn’t tamp down the bone-deep satisfaction that he would be the only male to ever have carnal knowledge of his mate’s beautiful body. He didn’t care to consider the implications behind Desiree’s purity, the reason why she’d saved herself.
Drying her swollen folds, and then passing the towel over the rest of her to mop up the dew of perspiration coating her skin, he watched her sleep for a moment, keeping his gaze trained on her face. He was ready to take her again, as was the practice with shifters when they claimed their mate, but he was going to deviate from that tradition. He might end up with blue balls, but before he indulged either of them, they were going to have a conversation. Unless Desiree’s need circumvented it.
He made his way to the larger of the three bedrooms and quickly made up the bed, taking enough time to ensure the linens were tightly tucked in—he might be trying to do the honorable thing, but he was fully aware the mattress would be seeing some action. He then returned to scoop up his slumbering mate. She’d been released from the initial onslaught of her heat, but it was only a matter of time before she craved satisfaction again. And would have to accept it from a male she detests—at the moment.
The enormity of what he’d set in motion made his arms weak as he set her down in a boneless sprawl on the ivory sheets. Had Jett questioned himself when he’d claimed River without so much as a by your leave? That kind of thing had been common in the past when there wasn’t time for ceremony or no one paid it any mind. Or at least the males paid it no mind. Tahl drew up the comforter and lowered it over Desiree, fighting with his more evolved self while hearing his wolf growl with contentment. At least one of them was totally pleased, though he supposed Desi’s animal was as well. It was far simpler for their wolf counterparts.
He’d had a taste of being powerless, without choices, and he dreaded the morning after when Desiree would likely vent. But what was done was done. He smoothed the long, black hair spilling over the pillow, straightening out the tangles as best
he could with his fingers. Tendrils ran through his fingers like silk and soothed his jagged worry.
With a sigh and one last lingering glance at his female, he went to locate his clothing and pulled it back on. The larder was empty so he’d head to the nearest town for supplies. Pick up something for Desiree to wear, as well, seeing as the remains of her clothes wouldn’t cut it.
Pausing, he gathered up the fabric remnants to dispose of them—no point in reminding her of how powerless she’d actually been against her need, and would be again. And again. His wolf reminded him that they’d take care of that need as was their duty—and their pleasure—and he slapped the animal down. He could do without simplistic.
He scribbled her a note, though doubted she’d wake for some time. Physically exhausted, for certain, and emotionally drained, Desi would need to recharge.
****
The town was one he wasn’t familiar with, the main street relatively free of traffic as he cruised along, looked for somewhere that sold what he needed.
He loaded up his vehicle with all the necessary supplies, shopping mechanically at the small store that was stocked with a surprising array of groceries and dry goods, before asking for directions to a woman’s boutique. He always carried a go-bag in the trunk, because as the Alpha’s lieutenant he never knew when he’d be required, but he doubted Desi had anything other than the clothes she’d torn off her back. His wolf, acquiescent after the last set down, flexed at the memory, wishing it had had the privilege to disrobe her.
The lady behind the counter gave him a pitying look. “Boutique? You might try the Consignment Trends on the corner.”
Blue Star wasn’t a big place by any stretch of the imagination, but this small country town was minuscule in comparison and he supposed people shopped in the larger centers if they wanted a boutique. Thanking her, he found the place almost immediately.
Undone By Destiny Page 3
