But this human possessed supernatural speed. He swerved his hips to the side, avoiding her knee even as his hands caught her arms and pinned her to the tree. Then his body pressed against hers, trapping her completely, until she could feel the hardness of his erection stabbing into her thigh.
“I’ve wanted to be inside you since the moment I watched you wrap your mouth around his cock.”
He shifted, moving his dick into position to start raping her right there. She squirmed and cursed, and gritted her teeth, trying to buck him off, but knowing she could never overpower this beast. She’d go down fighting the whole way, though.
Just as he used a knee to pry her legs apart, a very human sweating and bleeding Gannon appeared behind him.
“You dare touch my woman, Haze?” he said. Betrayal and anger flashed in his gaze before he grabbed Haze by the head and snapped his neck.
As the dead beta crumpled between them, Brynn hurdled herself into Gannon’s arms. He clutched her desperately, running his hands up and down her sides as if checking for wounds. “Are you okay? Where did he get you?”
“I’m okay,” she said, only to wince when the slash in her shoulder made a liar out of her. “I’ll be fine, anyway.”
Behind him, a wolf snarled and she glanced over Gannon’s shoulder to see a wolf with deep scratch scars in his face glowering at them.
“Oh, my God. He’s still alive,” she moaned.
Gannon huffed a short laugh into her hair before he kissed her temple. “Baby, I’m working on it.” Then he let go of her and slowly turned around. “You’re pathetic, old man,” he said. “I think I’ll kill you in my human form, just to make a mockery of how truly pitiful you are.”
Garnick roared out his anger and leapt at Gannon. Standing firmly in front of Brynn, he fisted his hand and hit the wolf right in the jaw, knocking him back to the ground.
Brynn blinked, startled by his power. Even the beta wolves closing in around them paused in their tracks to watch. But the roundhouse didn’t keep Garnick down long. He roared back to all fours, no longer playing around. Murder glittered in his wolf gaze as he charged.
Thinking quick, Brynn glanced up and caught hold of the limb of the tree behind her. She snapped it off the trunk with a jagged edge.
“Gannon!” she called.
She knew the man really cared for her, when he glanced her way in the midst of his father charging to kill him. With a grin, she tossed the branch to him. He caught it with one hand and swung it around like a spear to impale the alpha wolf through the chest.
Garnick howled as he died, slumping to the ground in front of his son.
Easing up behind him, Brynn softly touched Gannon’s side. He reached back without looking and caught her hand, tugging her close as he lifted his face to glance at the other Mahlikari wolves surrounding them.
“My mate and I are leaving this place,” he said, his strong voice carrying so all the curious wolves watching from around the pack could hear him. “And you will not follow us.”
One of the betas that she’d tackled from the tree stepped forward and bowed his head meekly before flashing into his human form to say, “But you took down the alpha, my prince. You’re our leader now. You can’t go.”
Gannon just shook his head. “You’ll have to find a new leader. My mate will not stay here among you. And I suggest you come up with a new code for dealing with half-breeds as well.”
“But—”
Lifting his hand to hush the beta, Gannon roared, “That’s all. If you want to live, you won’t dare follow us.”
Turning his back on his own kind, he kept hold of Brynn’s hand and together they walked from his pack and into the forest. No one followed them.
They got a mile away before Brynn realized they were truly free. A grin spread across her face. She bumped her good shoulder into Gannon’s until he glanced at her, his expression grim. But she kept smiling.
“We did it,” she said, tightening her grip on his hand. “We’re free.”
A reluctant grin finally tugged at his mouth. “That we are.” Spotting the slice on her shoulder, he scowled and paused to lick it away. When it immediately began to knit back together, he let out a relieved sigh.
Brynn touched his face. “My daddy killed his first alpha wolf by stabbing him through the heart, you know. When my brother and sister and I would listen to his stories, I always thought that was the most gallant one ever. A human facing off with a wolf and winning had to be something else. And I was right. Watching you just now was amazing.”
Gannon groaned and hauled her into his arms. The kiss he delivered would’ve melted the panties right off her...if she’d been wearing any. As it was, things got hot and heavy in those woods real freaking quick. He backed her against a tree and thrust inside her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and squeezed him tight.
His tongue spiked into her mouth along with the rhythm of his cock tunneling through her sensitive folds. Relishing her jaguar side, she let her spine grow furry to help cushion the friction of their fucking against the harsh bark and she let her claws grow just enough to scratch into his back.
He roared out his pleasure and plunged deeper, coming the moment her inner muscles clamped around him. Brynn cried out from her own bliss, and dug the heels of her feet into the small of his back.
In the aftermath of their love making, he lowered his cheek to rest on the pillow of her breast. She wrapped her arms around his head, gathering him close. Kissing his temple which was splattered with blood from their battle, she closed her eyes tightly. “I can’t believe you just killed your own father to be with me.”
Gannon lifted his face. “To be with you, I’d do anything.”
Smiling through tears of love and joy, she brushed his dark wild hair out of his eyes. “But are you sure you’re going to be okay. You just went through—”
He kissed her quiet. Then he nuzzled his nose with hers. “I’m going to be better than okay. I have you.”
Chapter Twelve
It took them a couple days to make it back to Brynn’s home. Gannon had been inside human homes before. To raid and kill. But he’d never left the occupants inside alive long enough to ask what every unique little artifact was.
When Brynn led him through the back door of her house, it was late. Dark.
Lights suddenly flashed on around them seconds after they entered. Gannon blinked and ducked, growling and ready to fight whatever foe was attacking.
But his mate laughed and touched his arm with her soft fingers, reassuring him. “I just turned the light on,” she explained, and led him to a small lever embedded in the wall. “Here. This is a light switch. You flip it up and down to turn the lights on and off.”
Blinking at the tiny device, Gannon couldn’t believe that tiny of a thing could bring such brightness. Hesitantly, he reached out and tried it for himself. When he pushed the little nob down and plunged them back into darkness, he let out a surprised breath. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
His mate giggled beside him. “Oh, do I have things to teach you.”
Gannon flipped the light back on and caught her around the waist. “I have much to teach you too, my little half-breed.”
She wiggled her eyebrows. “In bed?”
He kissed her cheek. “I’ve never been on a bed before. But I hear they’re soft.”
Her grin was pure naughty. “Let me show you.”
Five minutes later, Gannon decided he liked beds very much. He especially liked headboards. The sound of hers slapping against the wall in tune to her moans he created with each thrust of his hips was like music to his ears.
“Harder,” she demanded under him, using her she-cat nails to grip his ass.
He nearly broke the damn headboard as he complied, pumping his mate into a satisfied oblivion.
Her kitty scream of pleasure made him come inside her. He almost wished she was in heat so he could be filling her with a litter right now. He wanted proof of their union, a good doz
en little half-breeds running around that were half-him and half-her. He wanted to start a legacy of how amazing they were going to be together.
“God damn,” Brynn panted under him. “I didn’t think it was possible, but you work even better on a bed.”
He leaned down to kiss her. “Then I will be sure to take you on one as often as possible.”
Her smile was tired but still full of adoration. “You better.” She stroked him once before letting her hand fall limp at her side. When she yawned, he knew he’d worn her out.
“Rest,” he murmured, curling around her.
She closed her eyes and burrowed her backside against his chest. After another yawn, she slurred, “I’ve liked sleeping next to you in your wolf form these past few nights in the woods. Your fur was warm and soft, like a cuddly pillow.”
To make her happy, he flashed into his wolf now. His body would transform into it the moment he fell asleep, anyway, but if she liked to cuddle with his pup, he’d become his freaking pup. She sighed, and he let out a wolfy purr.
Her body relaxed against his, her human form nestled into the nest his body provided her, showing him just how different they were. She had to sleep in her skin, he had to sleep in his fur. But together, they fit perfectly.
He knew she was nearly unconscious when she reached out and patted his leg. “I love you, Gannon.”
It was her first declaration of love, and he cherished the words. Letting out a soft whine, he nudged his nose into her back before licking her shoulder. But she was already fast asleep.
He lay with her a while, too keyed up over her words of love to fall asleep. They’d traveled straight here from the Mahlikari pack in Wyoming to get her home.
Brynn had wanted to contact her family and let them know she was okay and on her way back, but they had been forced to avoid human communities because neither of them had clothing to wear. She hadn’t been able to get to something she’d called a phone.
Since it was late by the time they’d reached her house, she’d decided to call her parents in the morning. Gannon had to admit, he didn’t mind the small delay. Life here was already a culture shock. Not necessarily a bad thing, but he did have a sinking feeling he was going to have to start wearing clothes now, like, every day. For her he would, but it would only be for her.
When his stomach growled, he remembered how long it had been since they’d last eaten some berries they’d found in the woods. Brynn needed sustenance too, but he didn’t want to wake her. Right now, she needed rest more.
Assured that she was sleeping peacefully, he eased his body out from around hers and padded toward her kitchen on all fours. Using his nose, he flipped on the light switch and prided himself on his small civilized accomplishment.
His nose led him to her cabinets where he caught a whiff of those Twinkie things. He knew it’d probably be easier to flash human and open the cabinet with his hand, but he was still so used to doing everything in his wolf form that he hopped onto the counter and managed to pull on the nob with his teeth to get the door open. Spotting the box holding his favorite human treat, he reached his muzzle in to drag it out when the ching of a shotgun pumping a shell into the chamber resounded around the room.
Gannon spun around, nearly falling off the counter as he faced the human standing in the doorway of the kitchen, aiming a nasty-looking barrel at him. Fuck. How had he not heard the man coming?
When he spotted a familiar tattoo on the male’s forearm, he flashed his teeth into a snarl. This human held the mark of a hunter. Immediately worried about how this guy stood in his path to reach Brynn, Gannon began to leap at him, when the man said, “I wouldn’t if I were you. This gun’s loaded with silver.”
Gannon paused, showing his teeth. Damn it.
The human gave him a hard smile. “It’s not just one silver bullet either, but shells, all full of silver shot, so each little pellet will hit you in a different spot and spread through your blood more rapidly. Kill you more quickly.”
Okay, that was a bit intimidating. Gannon’s eyes flamed with anger as he stared the hunter down. But this just wasn’t fair. He and Brynn had come all this way, defeated his father, intimidated his entire pack into leaving them alone, and traveled half way across the country to finally be together, only for a fucking hunter to find them?
No. Just...no.
He jumped off the counter and slowly advanced on the human. The man didn’t flinch away or cower, but he didn’t shoot either. Gannon had to play this right. If he got himself killed, Brynn would surely die too. But he refused to back down from this douche.
“You’re a pure blood,” the hunter said, his blue eyes hard and unrelenting. “I can tell by your size. But if you’re from the Mahlikari pack, you better tell me where my daughter is, right fucking now.”
His surprise was so complete that Gannon flashed to his human form before he could think through how dangerous that was. “Daughter?” he echoed the word aloud. Narrowing his gaze on the man, he realized, shit, this guy had the same color of eyes as Brynn. “You’re Brynn’s father? But you’re a hunter.”
The man lifted his shotgun so that it was now aimed at Gannon’s chest instead of his crotch, the level where his heart had been before when he’d been in his wolf. “Ex hunter,” he said. “Now where is she?”
“She’s asleep, safe and unharmed in her bed.” Tipping his head to the side, Gannon studied the human with a new curiosity. The way Brynn had spoken of her father, she loved him very much. He could sense a certain power under the man’s exterior. He might be a mere human, but he had alpha in him. “How is it that a human hunter became mated to a jaguar shifter?”
That had to be even more messed up than a pure blood mating with a half-breed.
“That’s another story for a time when I know my daughter is okay and I’ve seen her with my own eyes,” the man said. Then his gaze narrowed. “Are you the one who took her?”
Gannon nodded. “She was wounded. One of my pack mates almost killed her. I had to get her out of the fighting and take her to safety.”
“Why didn’t you finish her off, like the rest of your kind would have?”
“Probably because of the same reason you didn’t kill your jaguar when you first met her. She was your mate.”
Outrage, fear, and rage lit up Brynn’s father’s face as he let out a flurry of curses. “Boy, you better not be telling me what I think you just told me.”
Gannon opened his mouth to inform the human that he was indeed bonded to Brynn, when the sleepy-eyed woman herself appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, rubbing her face and yawning.
“Daddy?”
The man spun around, completely dismissing Gannon. “Brynn! Christ, sweetheart, we’ve been so worried.”
Dropping the shotgun at his side, he swooped in and scooped her up for a large hug. The wolf inside Gannon bristled, not liking to watch another male touching her, but she seemed happy to see her father, so he allowed it.
“I know. I’m so sorry. I would’ve called but we were never anywhere close to a phone.”
The human kept hugging her before he kissed her cheek. “You can’t imagine how I felt when the alarm I set on your house tripped, telling me someone had come in your back door. I prayed it was you, but didn’t want to get my hopes up. I couldn’t even tell your mother about it, I was so worried it would be someone else breaking in.”
“It was me.” Brynn laughed out her joy and hugged him again. “We made it in so late, we decided to call first thing in the morning to let you know we were home.”
“We?” Her father arched a brow before glancing at Gannon and cringing. “Please, God. Don’t tell me you actually bonded with this thing. He’s a wolf, Brynn.”
“Daddy,” she gasped in appalled shock as she slugged his arm and wrenched away from him. “How can you say that? Dane mated with a wolf.”
Her father did not look amused. “Ari is a far cry from being a Mahlikari pure blood. That pack would just as soon kill a half-br
eed as look at one.”
“Kind of like what a hunter would do to any shape-shifter?” Gannon couldn’t help but taunt.
Brynn’s father spun on him, lifting his shotgun to press the barrel up under Gannon’s chin. “Listen here, you little shithead.”
“Dad!” Brynn snatched the gun from his hand. “Gannon is my mate now. And I’m very pleased with him. I love him.”
Pleasure bloomed in Gannon’s chest. He yanked her against his chest and hugged her close as he bent his face to nuzzle his nose into her neck. “And I love you, my little half-breed,” he murmured into her ear.
She sighed and pressed her lips to his. An old pro at this kissing stuff, Gannon swept his tongue into her mouth and had her arching up and moaning instantly.
Then her father cleared his throat. Loudly.
Brynn broke off to blush at him even as she kept her arms plastered around Gannon. “Please try to accept him. For me.”
After muttering another stream of obscenities, the human grumbled, “You don’t understand, Brynn. The Mahlikari wolves run a strict pack. They won’t just let him break code and get away with it. They’ll follow him until they find him. Then they’ll put him—and you—in the ground. You two will have to spend the rest of your lives running—”
“We won’t have to worry about that,” Gannon said. “I killed their alpha, took over his reign, and then left them leaderless with the threat of death to anyone who even thought about coming after me. They’ll be too busy trying to figure out who’ll take over next to worry about us, and by then, there will be so many other problems within the pack, we’ll become a non-issue.”
The man blinked at him a moment before giving a slow nod. “Well...I guess that’s one way to take care of the problem then.”
Brynn laughed and hugged Gannon hard. He could tell she was proud of him and liked showing him off to her father. “Do you think you could wait until morning before telling the rest of the family I’m okay?” she asked. “I’d kind of like one more night with him all to myself.”
The indulgent smile her father sent her went a long way in gaining Gannon’s respect. But then he said, “Just make sure the bastard is wearing clothes by the time he meets your mother.”
Body to Barter (Half-breed Shifter Series) Page 7
