by Celia Kyle
Carter’s eyes narrowed and whatever Hannah said wasn’t making him happy. “I respect you since you’re my mate’s sister, but if you ever think of saying that she’s anything other than perfect, I’ll hunt you. We were all prey once. None of us came out of the womb ready to kick ass and take names. Bethie has something worth protecting and cherishing.” Bethany’s breath caught. His expression was fierce and determined and if her sister was standing in front of Carter, she’d be worried for Hannah. “The goddess put a rabbit among the lions because she knew Bethie was able to survive with y’all. She’s strong as hell and I’m damned grateful I’ve got a mate who can push back every time I try to pull something.”
Did he really believe that? She stared at Carter, searching his expression. It looked like he was earnest, but she couldn’t scent him and test his emotions. Dammit. She could crack the window a little, take a quick sniff and shut it before he was any the wiser. That was an excellent plan.
Bethany reached for the lock, fingers itching to flick the little tab, nudge the window an inch or two open, and then she could—
“I’d love to hear about the time she tried to…”
She didn’t really catch the end of his sentence because she was too busy racing to the front door. Safety be damned, nothing good could ever come from Hannah telling stories. Ever, ever. The lock easily came undone and she yanked it open. She flew across the porch as if she was a bird and not a hoppity rabbit, arms outstretched and fingers itching to snatch the phone from Carter’s hands. Big hands… Did that mean he was big elsewhere? She might find out just after she yelled at her sister.
“Yes, that did work, actually.” He chuckled and she wanted to stab Hannah in the eye for making Bethany’s mate laugh.
She finally reached him and he didn’t put up a fight when she wrenched the device from his grip, freeing it with one tug before bringing it to her own ear. “Listen, fuck pussy.”
“Fuck pussy?” Carter echoed her words and she ignored him.
“You’re welcome.” Hannah sounded way too damned proud of herself. “And that’s a new one. You know you’d probably sound more threatening if you stuck with the classic curses instead of making up your own.”
Bethany sniffed. “You listen better when I make up my own.”
“Whatever. You know what I just did there?” Hannah didn’t even wait for her to respond. “I got you close to your mate without any force necessary. You’re welcome. Again. ‘K, thanks, bye!”
Hannah did what?
A thick, muscular arm slid around her waist, a large, warm palm settling on her hip. One quick tug had her sitting across Carter’s lap, ass nestled on his thighs and face now inches from his.
Being afraid and running was no longer an option so she fell back on manners. -ish. “Uh, hi?”
Carter smiled, all predatory-y with something that wavered between hunger and desire.
She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
Then his cock hardened beneath her ass, growing longer and thicker with each second that passed.
Bethany wiggled her butt, noting the size of his package and realizing he’d stretch her in the most perfect of ways. Okay, bad was nowhere in the area. This was aaaaall good.
Her bunny prayed it would be good at least twice. Or three times. It wondered if a gabillion times was out of the question.
Whore.
It agreed.
Bethany didn’t have anything else to say about that.
Chapter Four
Bethany, at some point in her life, had heard the term “vibrating with need.” Maybe it was in a romance novel or… Okay, it was probably a book. Anyway, she knew what authors were talking about now. That feeling, that subtle—and not so subtle—physical awareness that trembled through her with every breath. Her body literally thrummed with desire for him, cells reaching out for him while she fought the urge to pounce. It was a constant battle between biology and brain, her mind telling her she did not know a thing about Carter Evans while her pussy was thinking all about bow chicka bow bow.
She itched all over, fur stinging her pores, telling her the rabbit was pissed she resisted Carter’s draw. The animal made each hint of her inner beast’s appearance painful and caused every inch of her to ache. It wanted satisfaction. It wanted his touch. It wanted his scent all over them.
It flat out wanted Carter in all his buff, masculine glory.
“Hey.” That came with a slow smile, heavy-lidded eyes that made her think of a post-orgasm Carter, and a tiny hint of fang peeking out.
She licked her lips, mouth watering because fangs meant claiming and claiming meant his blood filling her mouth. And even though she was ninety-nine percent a vegetarian, there was enough carnivore in her to crave his taste.
“Bethany?”
“Huh, what?” She blinked, tearing her attention from his lips. “Did you say something?” He chuckled. He chuckled a lot, actually. The realization had her narrowing her eyes and even the rabbit was a little miffed at the constant laughs. “Are you laughing at me?”
Because that was not cool.
“No, bunny.” He shook his head. “Just enjoying being close to you. Knowing I make you as crazy.” He leaned forward and instead of searching out her lips—which she would not have given him—he nuzzled her neck and took a deep breath. “I really like that I make you as hot as you make me.”
His cock twitched as if confirming his statement, throbbing against her ass. Which had her pussy clenching and silently begging to be filled by him.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Uh-huh.” His drawl may have sounded innocuous, but she heard the underlying message. Liar!
She would not admit he was right.
Bethany struggled against his hold. Carter’s grip was firm, but not tight, just determined. He wanted her on his lap, and apparently, that’s where she’d stay. “You gonna let me up?”
“You gonna run?” His words said don’t run because you won’t get away while his eyes said run so I can chase you, but you still won’t get away.
“I don’t know yet.” Bethany nibbled her lower lip. Her rabbit wanted to flee and get pounced on by the tiger-wolf. She swallowed hard, not allowing her gaze to stray from his. Okay, maybe part of her human wanted to flee and get pounced on, too. Her adopted parents enjoyed the chase for each other. It was gross because… parents. But they seemed to have a good time.
“Want my vote?” He quirked a brow and didn’t wait for her to reply. “I think we’d have a helluva lot of fun if you ran.”
She swallowed hard, mouth suddenly dry. Yeah, she had to agree with him. But knowing the few details he shared with Hannah wasn’t enough for her to drop to all fours with a “yes, please.” The rabbit started to protest and Bethany tuned it out. Because, really, it was the human’s vagina at this point. A teeny, tiny beastie didn’t get a vote.
“I, uh…” Man her throat was dry. “I won’t run. We… we can go inside. Get out of the heat.” And also search out weapons in the off chance you turn psycho. She couldn’t outrun him but she didn’t have to be fast to stab him with a steak knife if it became necessary.
Bunja to the rescue! Bunja. God, she’d been all of five when she’d made that up. Bunny Ninja. So. Lame. Bunny—because it snuck forward like its ninja namesake—told her it was awesome.
“Too bad. I woulda enjoyed chasing after you.”
Yeah, she just bet.
“So, you can let me go now.” She wiggled again, swallowing her whimper of need.
He didn’t silence his groan though. Nope, he let it all out which triggered her whimper (again) and she kept it quiet (again). Carter released her, grip slackening until she was able to rise. The first thing she did was snatch her purse from the ground and clutch it to her chest. My precious… Now she sounded like that gross Lord of the Rings character.
Insane. Carter’s appearance was slowly driving her insane.
The second he gained his feet, she head
She strode into the small house, the space made smaller by her mate’s size. “Um, have a seat?”
And he didn’t… Instead, he leaned against the wall, arms folded across his chest and ankles crossed. “We gonna talk about this?”
“About what?” She could play dumb blond with the best of ’em.
“Bethie.”
“Hmm?” She spun, ignoring him, and padded to the kitchen. She passed the worn furniture, a piece she hauled from home even if it was a little ragged and a tiny bit broken by her roughhousing sisters. Lions played hard. She ran her hand over the frayed couch cushion, remembering when Hannah forced it into Katie’s mouth and then Katie…
“Bethany,” he murmured, lips brushing her ear, and she was reminded that cats were stealthy, sneaky creatures. He encircled her wrist with his hand and drew her to a gentle stop, using his hold to turn her to face him. “You don’t know me, but what you’re doing, it’s driving me crazy. I can’t imagine it’s any fun for you, either. You run, you hide, then you come out and you smell so damned good, and you’re back to running again. My animals hate the scent of your fear and are desperate to smell your desire again. So tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it and spend the next few hours on my knees.”
“On your…” she cleared her throat, ignoring the fact that it was all husky and sensual. “On your knees?”
“Yeah, I want to spend hours on your sweet pussy. I smell you and…” he moaned. “Damn. Tiger wants to settle in and lap at all that sweet cream. The wolf wants you more than a raw steak.”
“Oh,” she whispered. She wasn’t sure what to say to that.
“So tell me what’s going on in that beautiful head.”
“If I knew I’d tell you. It’s sort of…” she waved her hand at her head, “like a rabid squirrel up there right now.” Even if she was a rabbit.
“You’re a bunny.”
“Yeah, well, the description still fits,” she mumbled.
“What’s it going to take for you to slow that squirrel down?”
“Drugs?” She shook her head.
He chuckled, low and sexy, the sound sliding through her in a sensual wave. “Don’t have any of those on me.”
He pulled her even closer until their fronts collided, her breasts flush with his hard chest. Her nipples pebbled, arousal once again assaulting her and she realized this wasn’t ever going to end. Her animal would push and push until Bethany finally gave in, but her human mind wasn’t quite there yet.
Carter wrapped his arms around her, hands linking against her lower back and she laid her head on his chest, savoring the closeness. Her thrumming tension gradually ebbed as they simply stood there, body to body and silent as seconds ticked past. He didn’t talk, but neither did she, and the quiet enveloped them in a comfortable blanket. He didn’t push or prod her, keeping his mouth shut while she battled her rabbit. Because silence didn’t mean inaction. The animal urged her to take what fate gave them, but the woman who remembered living with the lions…
“Hey, Carter,” she hated that her voice was soft and unsure.
“Yeah?”
“I’m, uh, a little bit scared.” Understatement of the century.
He stiffened for a moment and she knew he forced himself to relax. “Of me?”
“Kinda? Not you specifically, but…” She sighed. “It’s hard to explain.”
Hell, half the time she didn’t understand herself. How could she tell him what went through her mind?
Bethany lifted one hand and placed it on his chest, palm resting over his heart and she focused on the slow and steady beat. “I’m a rabbit.”
“Uh-huh.” There was no implied duh, which she was thankful for. She wouldn’t know how to deal with sarcasm at the moment.
“And I was raised with the leaders of the Buchanan clan and their family.”
“You were adopted by them. I heard nothing but love in Hannah’s voice.”
Bethany hated that he’d heard Hannah speak at all. She was a jealous bitch and she admitted it. “And then there’s the other thing.”
The thing that either scared other shifters or made her a challenge for them. “You’re a white rabbit.”
“I’m a white rabbit. But unlike the white cougars who are sleek and fierce, I’m… me. Fluffy, clumsy, sometimes absentminded.”
“I like you as you are.”
“Some of the lions liked me too much.”
Carter stiffened, a low, rumbling growl filling his chest and then the air. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, there were three groups in the clan. Family—who protected me, and I think they might actually love me. Then there’s the others. The set that thought it was fun to catch me during a shift, to corner me and see if wererabbits are like true rabbits.” She shuddered, mind going back to her first clan run when she was sixteen, back to racing through the forest shrubs and hunting for a place to hide from the other males her age.
Here, bunny, bunny, bunny… Come out to play… A round of loud laughs filled the air, then the unshifted males digging through the brush and hunting her. If it hadn’t been for Katie and Hannah.
“They wanted to see if they could scare you to death?”
She answered his question with a nod, keeping her mouth shut. “The third group…” She closed her eyes and let her mind drift back to the last full moon, to her fenced yard and her rabbit’s excitement. Excitement that’d lasted until Peter… “They thought of me as prey of a different kind. Not as a meal or to scare to death, but for…”
She couldn’t even say it, couldn’t even finish the sentence because then the reality of that day, the details, would become real. And she wasn’t ready for them to be real.
“They tried to…” The words came out as a low rasp.
“Yeah.”
“Fucking animals.”
She nodded again. There was no denying the truth.
“So you can see why I have a hard time with a predator, even if my rabbit knows you’re my mate. There are two parts of me and they’re fighting and it’s… complicated.”
Carter nuzzled the top of her head, rough cheek scraping along her face until he bent down and buried his face in her hair. He breathed deeply, sucking in her scent and she did the same to him, learning the intricacies of his flavors and cataloging the different layers of his smell. Sweet and smoky, a hint of fresh grass, a dash of crisp water, and those dandelions. She couldn’t get past the dandelion part.
“I understand,” he murmured. “I’ll show you what it means to be mine and if that means I don’t throw you over my shoulder and haul you to my den right this second, then that’s what it means.” He drew in another deep breath and pulled back. A single finger beneath her chin raised her gaze to his and the depth of emotion in his eyes shocked her. There was so much there, so much more than sexual heat. She wasn’t deluded enough to call it love, but there was some heavy duty caring in his expression. “This isn’t a one-night stand, Bethie. This is forever. Nothing says we gotta mate within minutes of meeting.”
“But the males in my clan…”
“Are assholes and pricks. I’m not anyone but me. I’ll flirt and tease, tell you how much I want you riding my cock and that my cat and wolf want to fill you over and over again, but I won’t push. The cat wants you pregnant as soon as he can make that happen and while tigers are solitary, my wolf wants to keep you and never let you go. So you’re stuck with a highly sexual, possessive as hell mate. When you’re ready, I hope you can deal with that.”
Bethany hoped she could, too.
Chapter Five
So… Carter came on strong and then chilled out. Huh. Bethany split her attention between him and preparing their lunch. She chopped carrots, sliced cucumbers, and rinsed cherry tomatoes. (She hated cutting up tomatoes. They felt weird and slimy.) The lettuce took no time to tear apart and wash. She whipped her knives around like a pro, the sharpened metal like an extension of her hand. While her family was busy cutting into their raw meat with fangs and claws, Bethany spent her time slicing and dicing veggies.
“And a little bit of spinach,” she murmured to herself. “Add a few white beans, then some chickpeas and a dash of quinoa.” With one last flourish and a shake of her bottle of homemade salad dressing, she placed the overflowing bowl in front of Carter. “Tada!”
As she watched him stare at the bowl as if it’d grown into a two hundred foot high, eight-headed, sixteen-fanged dragon, she realized veggie protein might not have been the right choice to feed her carnivore mate.
“What the hell is this?” There was no missing the pure disgust in his expression and voice.
“Lunch. A high protein salad.”
“You want me to eat—” He gagged. Actually gagged. As if the salad poisoned him by simply sitting in a bowl in front of him. “—a salad.”
Bethany snatched it away with a glare. “It’s still protein.”
Carter frowned. No, he pouted with his lower lip pushed out and everything and his pathetic expression was made worse when his black hair flopped forward to cover one eye. Then there was the slow blink. “You don’t have a steak? Or even ground beef?”
“No,” she said flatly. “I hadn’t exactly expected to meet my mate. My mate who’d think I was a nice appetizer in the wild.”
The pout vanished and was replaced by a softened, sweet expression. “Bethie. I would never—”
“I know, I know,” she waved him away as she snatched the salad and tugged it across the counter, “I’m mostly kidding.” She grabbed his fork and the bottle, too. “I told you I have issues.”
“The only issue you have is a mate who’s hungry for red meat and his woman. Not necessarily in that order.” The grin told her he was joking -ish.
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