Finding His Mate

by M. L. Briers

  “Vampire.” She teased back, as her lips curled up at the corners in a wry smile.

  “You wanna get it on?” George teased, raising his eyebrows suggestively and she couldn’t help the small chuckle that rolled through her. At least he had a sense of humour. If he was going to be her mate he was going to need one.

  “Maybe later.” She offered back, giving him the best seductive pout that she could manage. In her book they might be true mates, but there was still nothing wrong in making him woo her, although how a vampire wooed their women was something she wasn’t sure of.

  “Maybe? Do you not find me irresistible?”His fingertips were circling back over her shoulder as he stepped in behind her. His body was close, but not yet touching. His breath against her cheek was the same potency as his fingertips against her skin, and she took a long moment to bask in the feelings within her that he was provoking.

  “Not yet…” She admitted.

  “But you will.” He promised on a smirk and she turned her head to look back up at him. The amusement that lingered in her eyes held him captivated as he waited for what felt like an eternity for her next move.

  “Let’s just hope you can keep up with me…” She challenged to see what he would do. A Lycan would probably have her flat on her back on the floor with his beast baying to take her already. But George just let a small smile play on his lips.

  “Vampires have more stamina than Lycans…” He offered simply, before he leaned in and whispered against her ear. “It is you who will be trying to keep up with me.” The rush of adrenaline washed through her body on a wave of arousal. The whispered words sent a shiver through her body and made her sex quiver, even her beast wanted to climb on up his body and wrap around him on the promise of what was to come.

  “We shall see…” She controlled her breathing long enough to issue those words, when all she wanted to do was melt into him.

  “So not a maybe then…” He breathed as he reached for her wrist. Wrapping his fingers gently about her so as not to damage her, he turned her in place and pulled her against the length of his body, and Zoe was left with no illusion of how much he wanted her as his hardness pressed into her stomach. Her mind whirled with excitement and lust as she braced her hand against the well defined muscles of his chest, and when his other hand fisted her hair and he eased her head back, he claimed her mouth without remorse.

  George didn’t release her lips until he thought she was well and truly kissed. When he finally let her go she was breathless and clinging to his body like a woman adrift at sea with him as her only means of survival. He gave her time to recover her senses, her body still pressed to his as if she couldn’t get close enough, and when she finally opened her eyes and eased slightly backwards, not trying to put any real distance between them, but showing him that she had some element of control, he traced a single fingertip down her cheek.

  “Come have dinner with me.” This was going to be the woman he was going to spend an eternity with, and while he wanted to bed her right here and now, he also wanted to make her his in more than just her body.

  “Who’s on the menu?” She teased and he raised one eyebrow in amusement towards her.

  “Not you, unless you want to be.” He drawled back, playing her at her own game and testing the waters of her resolve. When she didn’t tense in his arms he knew she had no objection to him sampling her blood, and the scent of her was more than tempting him, it was heightening his longing for her.

  “Nice to know I have the option…”

  “You’ll always have the option…”

  “So you’re not going to do your vampire, look into my eyes routine on me then?” Zoe retorted. His fingers gently brushed against her cheek as he captured a strand of her hair and teased it between his fingertips.

  “I won’t need too…” He offered back, so assured of himself that she had to chuckle. The sound brought his eyes to her lips and he looked at her like a man who was starving, and her heart thumped along quite nicely within her chest. “Besides, I want you to know every touch of my lips, every caress, and every stroke of my body into yours.”

  Every word conjured up images of them together in her mind and her pulse wasn’t just racing, it was galloping on and taking the rest of her body along for the ride, and what a damn ride she was sure she was going to have with him.

  Oh lord, I’m going to die and go to the spirit world. Zoe told herself, half wanting to jump on him right here and now and get on with the mating just to see if it was going to be as good as she expected it to be.

  “No you’re not, I won’t let you.” He breathed against her lips and she closed her eyes and caught her breath in anticipation of his kiss, and then her head snapped back on her neck and she narrowed her eyes at him.

  “Did you just read my thoughts?” She pinned him with her eyes and he hesitated for a long moment…

  CHAPTER NINE

  “Maybe.” He offered tentatively, unsure how much deep water he was in.

  “Well don’t do that…” She berated him on a pout of her lips and he rolled his eyes.

  “Well if I don’t do that then how will I know what you’re thinking?”He offered lightly, causing her to sigh.

  “Believe me, if it’s worth knowing, you’ll know because I will tell you.”

  “But my little gift just sidesteps the need for you to have to make that decision.” He offered and she pushed against his chest. His arms dropped away from her and he let her take a step back.

  “You’re not my alpha…” She informed him curtly, her arms folding across her chest defensively as she tipped her head up to pin him with her gaze.

  “No, we’re equals.” He offered back and found her stance easing.

  Equals. Zoe tossed that word around in her mind, it sounded good to her. No more being told what to do and when to do it, she liked that idea.

  “So about this dinner?” She dropped her arms and eyed him as he stepped back towards her, happy that she was soothed by his words.

  “Anywhere you want to go, I would be honoured just to be at your side.” George gave her a drop dead sexy smile and she felt that pull on her womanhood again. They might not even get to dinner at this rate, she told herself as she beamed under his compliment.

  Riff snorted his contempt for the vampire’s words. Standing in the shadows far enough away so that the mate’s could neither hear his heartbeat nor scent him, he watched anxiously as Zoe played the mating dance with her vampire. The thought of her being mated to a blood sucker didn’t sit well in his gut, and he knew his Alpha had told him to back off and let this play out however Zoe wished it, but he still had that uneasy feeling that she was going to end up just another meal on his plate.

  A movement through the trees to his right caught Riff’s attention and he turned his senses on that area of the woods. The rush of a thumping heartbeat let him know that whatever was there was Lycan and not animal, and he watched that space with interest as he scented the air. They might have positioned themselves downwind from the vampire, but whoever that was had not given a thought to someone being in Riff’s location watching the two mates as well.

  Riff caught the scent and immediately identified it. With a roll of his eyes he silently backed away from the scene that had been playing out in front of him and started a slow, wide circle around the peeping tom and through the trees, coming up behind the hunched figure as he knelt in the underbrush, with his right side pressed to the tree trunk for stability.

  Riff saw the Lycans back tense as he caught his scent a moment before he stiffened completely and turned to meet Riff’s eyes, a sense of defiance in his gaze before he became more subdued.

  “You wanna tell me what you’re doing?” Riff’s voice was but a whisper in the night. He didn’t need to alert Zoe and the vampire to their location. But as the younger Lycan pulled himself up to his full height he made no move to answer, just motioned that they should move back away from the edge of the clearing.

  When Rif
f deemed them having moved far enough away from Zoe, he turned to his pack mate with questioning eyes. Pax was young and somewhat daft over Zoe. He’d taken to following her around for the last few years, both in wolf and human form, and it was a constant source of amusement for the older Lycan’s that Pax seemed to try to will it that Zoe and he would be mates.

  “I can’t believe that he is her true mate.” There was the general hiss of disgust in the young man’s voice that Riff himself had shown over the pairing, and it touched a nerve within Riff.

  “I know brother, but it is not our place to interfere.” Riff would have to give Pax the same line that Dex had given him, even if it did rile him to do it. He couldn’t have this young man trying to put himself between Zoe and her mate. Pax was never going to get what he wanted here, Zoe and he were not fated and in time, fate willing, Pax would find his own true mate. But for right now it must really stick in his craw.

  “A vampire, Riff…” Pax shook his head in disgust. “Zoe’s better than that. She should be with a Lycan, she should be having pups and…”

  “You mean she should be with you.” Riff put it as bluntly as he could. The verbal slap in the face should wake the man up to the fact that he was not and never would be her mate.

  “Better any Lycan than him.” Pax shot back, snorting his contempt back towards the way they had come and Riff felt the annoyance rise within him, it was mixed with sympathy for something that he obviously wanted to badly but could never have.

  “Better mated and happy than longing for the one. Even if it is a vampire.”

  “She wouldn’t be longing for him if he was dead.” Pax shot back, with wildness within his eyes that warned Riff that Pax was walking blindly down the wrong path.

  “Now hold on a minute, Pax…” Riff started, the slow roll of a low growl sounding within his chest. He’d considered it himself not more than a few hours ago, but had since dismissed the idea. But Riff knew that out of the two of them he would at least stand a chance against the vampire, this young wolf was still wet behind the ears and would become fodder in no time.

  “Look Riff…” Pax started to defend his reasoning, but Riff wasn’t about to listen to him. This had to be nipped in the bud, and now.

  “Your alpha has already told the pack to keep their distance from Zoe’s mate and you’ll damn well do as you’re told…” Riff was as forceful as he felt he needed to be. His eyes were dark, his beast’s presence was evident in his tone and if Pax didn’t immediately back down then Riff would make him.

  “But…” Pax spat out between clenched teeth, his eyes flashed with anger and Riff took two long strides towards him. The deep rolling growl made the younger Lycans beast quake within him, as Pax dropped his eyes to the floor and rolled his head to the side exposing his neck for the offering.

  Riff’s beast had risen to the challenge from the younger wolf even though Riff himself could understand and empathise with his stand. This wasn’t about the pack, or the pecking order, or even following the Alpha’s orders, in both men’s minds it was about Zoe and losing her to a damn vampire.

  “Stay away from Zoe and her mate. Do you understand me, Pax?” Riff growled out with each word and the younger man nodded his head. “Get out of here.” Riff ordered and Pax turned on his heels and disappeared into the darkness of the woods. Leaving Riff to spit out a hundred dark curses within his mind.

  “Damn mates and mating, causes nothing but trouble…” He grumbled to himself as he went to walk back towards Zoe before thinking better of it, and he turned in the other direction. Stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans, he trudged back towards his own cabin, mumbling and growling the whole way.

  When Kate stirred in his arms Dex came awake. His natural instinct had him tightening his arms around her body and drawing her backwards a few inches to close the distance between them. She fit against him perfectly and he couldn’t help nuzzling into the nape of her neck and breathing in her scent as she wiggled against him, her backside nuzzled around his hardness and he groaned in pleasure.

  “Tiggles.” She giggled as he ran his tongue in circles over her skin.

  “That’s not what I’m feeling.” He gave a gentle growl as he pushed his arousal against her backside and she rocked her body up and down against his hardness causing a more defined growl to leave his lips and rumble across her neck.

  “Lord, woman. What you do to me.”He nipped at the soft skin of her neck and she moaned as the sensation jolted through her. Bringing her knee up towards her stomach, she opened herself for him and when she felt the press of him into her already needy core, she pushed backwards to take him inside. Her name was a whisper on his breath against her ear as he eased in to the hilt, nudging her womb and causing her inner muscles to tighten around him.

  One hand went to her breast and found the hard bud of her nipple, as the other ran down over the curls of her mound to find her sensitive nub and she curled her fingers into the pillow beside her head as he took her deeply on a slow slide.

  “Faster, Dex. Harder.” She moaned into the pillow.

  “I need to keep my wolf at bay, it wants to bond with you…” He’d already felt his beast’s interest at her words.

  “Please… I need…”His mates plea sent his wolf crazy within him. He lifted himself against her and rolled her onto her stomach, pushing his knees against hers to open her wide for him, he covered her body with his and held himself up on his elbows, his reached for her hands and laced his fingers with hers, holding her hands down against the mattress as he started a long deep stroke into her, his hips rolling against her backside until he was thrusting with as much power as he thought she could take.

  Dex drove hard into her with each thrust and could hear her moans of pleasure on a constant loop within her. He was mindful that his wolf was baying for him to bond, but when his mate cried out for more from him, he was already so lost in her that he allowed himself the moment of abandon.

  Bond.

  When his fangs pushed down he tightened his hold on her hands…

  Mate.

  Pounding into her body with his own he could feel her breath hitching, her body tensing beneath him. He knew how close she was to release and his own body was racing to get there, to join her…

  Bond.

  His whole body was pushing hers down onto the bed, trapped and submissive beneath him as he took her over the edge and she cried out with the release that washed through her, her hips tried to buck but he was still pounding inside her, searching for his own release.

  Bond. Mate.

  Dex sunk his fangs into her soft skin at the juncture between her neck and her shoulder. The cry from her lips echoed through his mind as he bit down deep, marking her for all time as his. Reaching for her with his mind and forming the bonds between them as she whimpered beneath him. Her emotions rolling through him like a wave as he continued to pound inside her, as the sweet taste of her blood rolled over his tongue and down his throat.

  Dex withdrew his fangs a moment before his body convulsed into an orgasm that tore through him like no other. Buried deep against her womb he exploded his seed within her body, but it wasn’t enough, the urge to keep pumping hard inside her was still there and his hips pounded against her backside as he felt her inner walls grip him hard and then release as another wave crashed through her. The feeling rebounded against him and he found himself climaxing again and again until his beast roared within him and he collapsed over her spent.

  It took him longer to regain himself than he had ever needed before. His elbows were wedged beneath him, keeping the majority of his weight from crushing her, and he managed to push himself up on shaking arms to give her some space. Still buried deep inside her, he could feel the aftershocks of her orgasm still rippling through her body. Her muscles quivered and she was struggling to breathe, but the scent of her blood drew his attention to the bonding mark on her body.

  Dex cursed and damned himself with equal enthusiasm. His own wolf disgusted h
im at that moment in time, and he tended her wound with his tongue with care and shame, tenderness and guilt. He had been so careful not to allow his wolf to take control each and every time they had been together last night, how the hell had he lost control of the beast?

  “Dex…” Kate gasped out as he shifted his weight from her. Withdrawing and moving her into his arms so he could properly take care of the wound near her collar bone. She felt like a rag doll against him, her body was languid as he cradled her to his chest.

  “I’m sorry, Kate.” He breathed against her neck. Humbled before his mate by what he had done. He could argue within his own mind that she would eventually have agreed to bonding with him. He could reason that not giving your mate a choice to bond was common practice among some packs, but neither of those things brought him any comfort against the cold hard fact that he had taken away her choice.

  Riff scented the air and came up with the smell of vampire. His natural reaction was to shift and be prepared for the possible fight, but the scent was George’s, mixed with the remnants of Zoe’s time with her mate, and he didn’t foresee a problem, but he was still ready for the shift if it was needed.

  “Still lurking around?” Riff muttered, knowing that George was close by and could hear him.

  When George stepped out from under the shadow of the large oak near to the cabin making his location known, Riff stiffened. He just didn’t find it natural to have a blood sucker on pack land, even a seemingly benign one like George.

  “Just protecting what is mine.” George assured him with a small smirk that riled Riff, but he pushed back against the urge to plant his fist in the vampires face.

  “Not yet she’s not.” Riff mumbled as he carried on towards the back door. The sound of George’s snort caught his attention a moment before the door was flung open. The edge of the wooden frame catching Riff’s nose and he yelped as he felt the impact.