by Zoe Chant
Ali found her voice somehow. “Why are you asking me this?”
He took a step forward. “Because you’re brave, and smart, and funny, and kind, and beautiful, and I would rather be with you than with any other woman I’ve ever met. Do you believe me?”
She blinked. What was going on with her? She was tearing up like a thirteen-year-old! “I….”
Grey’s face softened. “Alethia.” Slowly, he pulled her into his arms.
At first his hold was loose, like he expected her to draw back. But she buried her face in his shoulder instead, and he wrapped her up tightly and held her close while she fought back tears.
His body was solid and warm against her. His arms held her tight. But there was more than that. She felt like she could sense him, as well as feel him. As though the essence of Grey and the essence of Alethia were mingling.
Was this what being mates meant? Could it be real?
With a gasp, she tore herself away. He let go instantly, letting his arms fall away from her as she stepped back.
“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “This is too much.”
It seemed impossible, overwhelming. Grey was too good to be true. Men like him didn’t exist.
“I can give you some time, and come back to see you again later,” Grey said carefully, watching her. “Maybe you want to take a while and think.”
She thought about going home, seeing Molly and Paul, and either trying to explain what was happening, or hiding alone in her tiny room with nothing to do but think.
She didn’t want to.
Something in her face seemed to give Grey hope. His eyes widened, his lips parting, and he looked like he wanted to speak, but was keeping silent.
She stepped forward again. Put her hands on his chest, feeling the warmth from his skin seeping through his T-shirt, the strength and musculature under her fingers.
Then she stretched up on tiptoe and kissed him.
Grey caught her up with a groan, his arms lifting her straight off the ground as he kissed her fiercely, hotly. It felt like he’d been wanting to every minute since they’d last kissed. Was it really only this morning? It felt like it’d been years.
Ali wrapped her arms around Grey’s neck and kissed him back just as fiercely, tears springing to her eyes again.
This time, though, they were quickly forgotten. Grey turned around and set her on the hood of his truck, his hips coming forward to settle between her legs as he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her harder.
His calloused hands were rough against her cheeks. Ali moaned into his mouth, grasping at him with greedy hands, pulling him further in, in, in against her own body.
She wanted to wrap herself around him and absorb that lean, graceful strength to use as her own. She wanted to kiss him until she took on some of his fierce, independent spirit.
And she wanted to take his body inside of hers until she screamed in pleasure.
His hands slid from cupping her face back into her hair, his fingers carding through the strands, and then spread out over her back. They moved downward, feeling huge compared to the width of her body, to grasp her hips and pull her forward into him.
He was hard. She could feel it against her inner thighs, and she twisted against him, wanting to feel it further up. Her skirt hiked higher as she slid forward on the hood of the truck.
"I want you," he murmured into her mouth.
"Yes." She kissed him hard, spreading her legs so that her skirt inched further up her thighs.
He kissed back for a long minute, then tore away from her, panting hard. His eyes were a molten silver, and she could almost feel his hot gaze on her body as they traveled down, catching on her breasts and her hard nipples, focusing on the flash of panties that was showing between her legs.
"Not here." His voice was rough. "I'm not making love to you in a parking lot."
Ali's breath caught at making love. Had any man ever called what they did together making love? She didn't think so. "Take me back to your cabin, then," she said breathlessly. "Because I can't wait much longer."
He lifted her down from the truck, his hands lingering on her waist. "You're so soft," he whispered, leaving a kiss on her mouth when he let her go. "I can't stop touching you."
Ali knew she should say no, that's what we're trying to avoid here, but she leaned into him instead, loving the feeling of his body heat.
Abruptly, he stepped back. "Okay. Priorities. Get in the truck."
She laughed a little. "Yes, sir."
He helped her up with only a little bit of groping, and loped around the front of the truck to pull himself into the driver's seat in one graceful motion. He pulled out of the parking lot like the cops were on their tail, and soon they were on the road out of Prescott.
As they drove, she couldn't help but remember the drive up here this morning, when the atmosphere had been thick with misery and tension and everything that was remaining unsaid.
Now the atmosphere was thick, all right, but it was with arousal. She could almost taste it in the air.
She wondered what Grey could detect. "Can I ask you something?"
He looked at her. "Anything."
"Your shifter senses. Can you smell..." She wasn't sure how to put it delicately.
"Yes, I can smell you." His voice seemed an octave deeper than usual, like arousal was vibrating in his chest. "It's driving me crazy, if you want to know. All hot and sweet and musky. And I can remember tasting you last night, and it makes me want to pull this truck over and take off your panties and make you scream again."
Ali clenched her fists, fingernails digging into her palms, to keep herself from just saying, Do it. "Oh," she said instead, faintly.
He glanced over. "I won't. I have the control to wait until we get home. But I want to."
"Me too." She looked outside and pictured being taken out in the open like this, with the trees and the animals all around. Her scream would echo around the mountains.
"Drive faster," she said, instead of insisting that he stop.
He pressed on the gas. They were going at the very limits of safety, now, on these narrow mountain roads, but Ali couldn't bring herself to care. Could only just barely bring herself to keep her hands on her side of the truck. Her panties were damp, her pussy hot and tingling, her clit swollen and waiting for Grey's mouth. It was making her crazy.
After what seemed like an eternity, he pulled into the long, winding driveway that led up to his cabin. Ali had her door open almost before the truck actually stopped, but Grey was faster. He reached the front door of the cabin and held it open for her.
Even in the midst of the most intense arousal she'd ever felt in her life, it made her heart ache that this man would make such a nice, old-fashioned gesture, when she was more than a sure thing, when he was hurrying to get inside the house with the knowledge that in a few minutes he'd be inside her. But even then, he held the door for her.
She took his hand as she went in and pulled him in after her. He shut the door behind them and had her pressed up against it in a millisecond.
He pressed his mouth to her neck, leaving hot kisses behind, and then the scrape of his teeth. Ali moaned and clawed at his back, wanting him desperately. She opened her mouth when he kissed her again, sucking on his tongue.
He pulled her away from the door, still kissing her, and they stumbled across the floor toward the stairs. But he stopped before they got there, apparently really unable to take his hands or his mouth off of her long enough to direct their movement. He pulled her shirt over her head and licked at her cleavage, his hands pulling up her skirt.
Ali made a low, throaty sound that she hadn't even known could come out of her, and Grey lifted his head. "That's it," he said, and pulled her along as he strode the few feet to the enormous wooden dining table.
Ali completely agreed. Going up the stairs would have taken far, far too long.
He hiked her up onto the table, the position mirroring how they'd been in the parking lot. Only t
his time they weren't in public. Ali leaned back as he kissed her harder, and he cupped his hand behind her head as she lay back on the sturdy wood.
He pushed her skirt all the way up until it was pooled around her hips, and stroked her clit through the soaking wet fabric of her panties. "Yes, there," Ali moaned.
He tugged the panties down—she kicked off her shoes before he reached her feet, hearing them clatter to the floor—and tossed them aside, leaving her pussy naked for him to see.
Ali waited with her heart in her throat as he just looked at her, her blood pounding from his hot eyes on her. Then, all at once, he pounced.
He buried his face between her legs, two fingers slipping easily into her, and she moaned loudly as his tongue stroked over the full length of her pussy, from where his fingers entered her all the way to the very top of her clit. He sucked hard at the very tip, and she let out a strangled scream.
His fingers were stroking in and out of her, in and out. She arched her back up off the table, one arm flinging out to grab onto nothing. Her hips were moving without any conscious control on her part as he sucked her clit. The fabric of her skirt was damp around her thighs.
He let up on her for a second, and she gasped in a long breath. "More," she rasped.
He grinned at her, his lips shiny with her wetness, and she was breathless with how much she wanted to see that face every day of her life even before he went back down.
After that, there were only seconds left until it was over. Pleasure ripped through her as he tongued her right at the base of her clit, her hips coming off the table as she shrieked aloud in orgasm, her wrenching convulsions leaving her gasping for air.
He left his fingers in her as she recovered slowly, his other hand busy with his zipper. "Ready?" he asked.
Still catching her breath, she nodded. He pulled his fingers out and pushed his cock into her in one smooth movement.
Ali clenched around him immediately, helpless against her tightening muscles. She reached up desperately, needing him.
He leaned down to kiss her, and she held him as tightly as she could as he started to move.
She was panting with pleasure now, the aftershocks of her orgasm seeming to transition seamlessly into the beginnings of the next one. Grey’s breath was heavy in her ear.
His thrusts were quick and hard, but his hands were so gentle on her skin, stroking up one arm, cupping her other cheek. He kissed her over and over, soothing her down from the hard shocks of pleasure into a longer, slower pulse.
She turned her face to him and felt his lips stroking her, and she realized that for the first time in her life, she really was being made love to.
"Alethia," he whispered, and unbelievably, she truly loved the sound of her name.
When Grey said it, it felt like he was touching her deep inside her soul, and not just inside her body.
He pulled back, and she whimpered for him, but it was just so that he could slip a hand down between them and stroke the pad of his thumb over her clit.
The way his attention was always on her pleasure, even when he was deep inside her was nothing she’d ever experienced before.
His calloused thumb was rough on her clit, driving her even further out of her mind with pleasure. One stroke—two—three—
Ali came again, shuddering in drenching spasms as Grey groaned deep in his chest and gave up control, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her forward to the very edge of the table so that he could thrust hard and deep. Ali wrapped her legs around his hips and gave herself up to the overwhelming sensations until he came.
She lay back on the table afterward, panting for breath. Grey did up his jeans and tugged her up again, easing her to her feet. “Now I think we can go upstairs,” he murmured into her ear.
Ali was wobbly, even in bare feet, so he kept a strong arm around her as they went up to the loft, undoing her skirt and letting it fall to the ground before depositing her gently on the bed. He stripped off his jeans and joined her a moment later, wrapping his naked body around her.
“I love you, Alethia,” he whispered into her ear. “I love you so much.”
Ali blinked, and then blinked again, but the tears didn’t go away. It was like the feeling inside her chest was swelling up so far that it was spilling out of her eyes. “I—” she choked, and stopped.
He kissed the corner of her eye where wetness was trickling down. “Hey, shhhh,” he said. “You don’t have to say anything back. I just wanted you to know. I love you more than anything.”
Ali hid her face in his neck and let herself cry.
Grey stroked her hair and held her close while she shook and sobbed. She hadn’t cried, really let go and cried, in so long.
It felt like a river sweeping away all the dammed-up bad feelings that had accumulated inside her, all the harsh words and turned-away faces, all the times someone hadn’t cared how she felt or hadn’t thought she had a right to feel at all.
It felt cleansing.
When she’d cried herself out, Grey gave her tissues to wipe her eyes and blow her nose with, and took them from her to throw them away when she was done. Then he wrapped her up in his arms again.
“Do you want to talk about it?” She could feel his voice rumbling in his chest.
Ali took a deep breath. “I think I have to.” If nothing else, she had to explain to Grey why it had been so hard for her to believe that they were mated.
Even now, it seemed impossible, like some fairy tale dream that would shatter if she touched it.
He stroked her hair. “I’m listening.”
“When I was nineteen, I had a boyfriend,” she started.
Grey nodded. She could feel his stubble rasp against her cheek.
“He was a shifter. A black bear.”
“A lot of those around here.”
She nodded. “He was a local boy.” She was being deliberately vague for now. She wanted to tell the story before any names were named. “When we got together, he paid so much attention to me. He bought me presents. He told me he loved me almost right away.”
She took a deep breath. “I was a virgin, and I wasn’t sure how long I wanted to wait. I wasn’t set on waiting for marriage or anything, but I was nervous.”
“Being with someone like that makes you vulnerable,” Grey murmured.
She nodded. “I wanted to feel ready. And I didn’t. Even though I thought I was in love with him too, I still felt like something was holding me back. So he told me—” She stopped.
“That why he told you that you were his mate?” Grey asked incredulously, pulling back to look at her. “He lied about that to get you into bed?”
Ali nodded. “And then when he got tired of me, he said I’d fallen for the oldest trick in the book.”
It had been the worst thing that had ever happened to her. She’d never forgotten the expression on his face, casual and careless, as he said, Oh, come on. What was I supposed to say? You weren’t giving it up.
She choked on tears again. Normally, she kept that memory locked up tight, where she couldn’t see it and nothing could remind her of it.
Grey’s eyes had changed color again, flaring from grey to silver. “Is he still around town?” he asked softly.
Dangerously.
She nodded.
“What’s his name?”
Ali hesitated. “Not yet,” she said finally. “Soon. I’ll tell you soon.”
Grey nodded. “All right,” he said, but she could feel his muscles coiled for action, ready to chase down the man who’d hurt her and make him pay for what he’d done.
No one had ever tried to make him pay.
She wanted to finish first, though. She forced herself to swallow her tears down and keep going. “I was such an idiot. I believed everything he said. It never even occurred to me that it could have been a line. But then he told me he hadn’t meant it.”
“What happened?” Grey asked. He cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking under her eye, wiping away the wetness tha
t had accumulated there.
“I went home, I was crying. I told my family what happened. Paul was there, and he…” She swallowed. “He told me that M— My boyfriend was right. That mates were just a made-up fantasy shifter boys used to get girls into bed.”
Grey pulled her in close again, his hand cupping the back of her head. “That’s a lie,” he said. “No shifter should say that. We believe that our love is strong enough to last forever.”
Our love is strong enough to last forever. Ali felt tears brimming again. “I don't think my ex understands what it is to love someone,” she said, her voice muffled by his shoulder. “I’ve never once seen him do something because he cared about somebody else. Only about himself.”
“Then it makes sense that he wouldn’t understand. Having a mate is about caring for someone more than you care for yourself. Wanting to protect them, keep them safe and happy.”
Ali felt a warm thrill run through her at his words, chasing away some of the coldness that the memories had brought.
Because when Grey said that, he meant he wanted to protect her, and keep her safe and happy.
“I used to think about my mate,” Grey continued. His voice was low, almost hypnotic, and Ali pressed her face into his neck and listened. “Where she lived, what she was like. If she was all right without me.”
His arms tightened around her. “I used to wish I could find her as soon as possible so that I could be there for her. I used to worry that she might not be okay.”
He kissed her softly behind her ear. “I guess I was right to worry.”
Ali’s breath was caught in her chest. She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to speak again.
“I’m so sorry that I wasn’t here for you earlier, Alethia.”
He kissed her hair, her forehead, and she tilted her head back so he could brush butterfly kisses over her eyelids and lay a soft kiss directly on her mouth.
Finally, she found her words. “My mother used to say something to me.”
“Tell me.” He kissed her again, so gently.
“She liked to read.” Ali’s chest tightened again at the thought of her mother, and her soft voice and hands. She’d died almost ten years ago. “She was always reading, every chance she got. Old books, sometimes. So she would tell me about my name.”
