Finding His Mate

by M. L. Briers

  “I’m sure I’ll be able to find what I need.” He breathed against her ear and felt the shiver run through her, before he pulled back and settled in the chair opposite her.

  The waitress walking up behind Zoe put paid to any comment she was going to make, and Zoe turned towards Nora as she drew her pad out of the pocket of her apron and the pen from behind her ear. The woman had been working there for as long as Zoe could remember and she knew Zoe’s order by heart.

  “Usual Zo?” Nora didn’t even bother to look up she’d already started scribbling the order on the pad.

  “Yes thanks Nora.”

  Nora’s head finally bobbed up and she took a long moment to take in the guy sitting opposite Zoe. New people in town were always good for the gossip mill and she wanted to remember every detail of this one.

  “And you would be?” Nora asked, the curiosity getting the better of her manners. If she could supply a name and a description, she would have solid gold to tell the others.

  “George, a very good friend of Zoe’s. In fact…” His eyes skimmed her name tag. “Nora, Zoe and I are getting…” Zoe kicked him in the shin and he caught his breath and let it out on a low rumble of displeasure mixed with pain.

  “The same order, George just loves a rare burger with everything.” Zoe announced with a smirk towards him and he managed to smile up at Nora.

  “Does he now?” Nora huffed, a little miffed that Zoe had stopped her new friend in mid flow. She was almost sure he was going to say the word married, but how could that be?

  “I have great gene’s, furred up arteries aren’t even a consideration.” He watched the woman write two on her sheet, before she turned her eyes back on him.

  “So you’ll be in town a while?”

  The woman has no shame! Zoe groaned inside her own mind and Georges eyes flicked down to hers and she narrowed her eyes at him in warning.

  “A while.” He agreed and watched the woman smirk just before she turned on her heels and walked off.

  “You were listening.” Zoe leaned over the table and accused him with her words and her eyes, and he shrugged casually.

  “It just popped in there, I wasn’t trying. Besides when we’re mated you’ll be able to…”

  “So not the point, vampire.” Zoe hissed back and George held up his palms in surrender.

  “Ok, it’s off. But if I inadvertently hurt your feelings…” He swept the rest away with the wave of his hand and Zoe sat back against the seat.

  “Vampires are so sneaky.” Zoe muttered to herself, even though she knew he could hear her well enough, and when he just grinned at her she felt the urge to do him some harm.

  By the time they had finished their meal, Nora had popped back a few more times to see how much more information she could get out of George for her gossip fest, and she thought she had enough to keep everyone’s attention for a good hour, which would make her top dog in the pecking order this week, just the way she liked it. She also liked the tip George had left for her, and he knew that tip would make him the hero of the piece and not the new town villain in Nora’s eyes, which was just how he liked it.

  Zoe liked the way George had easily wrapped Nora around his little finger, but not as much as she liked the way he took every opportunity to brush against her, his hand reaching for the sauce. His leg constantly, especially when Nora was standing at their table and he knew she couldn’t do or say anything to him. It was exciting, he was exciting, and every time that he looked at her with those dark eyes, she wanted to melt like warm chocolate into a puddle on the floor.

  Now he had his arm around her waist and his hip against hers as they walked back to the car, Zoe felt the anticipation of being with him as mates and it was driving her a little crazy, her wolf was practically pacing within her, hungry for him as she was. The sound of the locks and alarm springing to life from his car as they drew closer made her jump, her heartbeat raced and she felt him tighten his hold on her protectively.

  “A little jumpy there she-wolf.” He breathed against her neck as he turned her and reached for the car door. Zoe put her hand out to stop him from opening it and bathing the darkened lot in artificial light.

  George didn’t need her to paint him a picture. He spun her in front of him, his hips pressed her back against the car as he claimed her lips, gently teasing them apart until he could brush his tongue over hers and she was lost in the kiss. A kiss that made her want more, a kiss that started off with gentle teasing strokes and quickly turned into a mutual devouring.

  Zoe reached for his top and yanked it from the waistband of his jeans, her hands feverish against the smooth skin of his chest, her fingers tracing every muscle and sinew from his shoulders down to the ridges along his hips that disappeared into his jeans, and she moaned with the need to follow them down.

  “Not here, sweetheart.” George breathed into her hair as he snatched her wrists and kept her from revealing his erection for her touch. If she touched him there he would be lost to propriety. He was all for outdoor pursuits, but the first time with his mate he wanted to be in a damned bed.

  “George, I’m Lycan, we like the outdoors…” She chuckled as she tried to free her hands to get them to where she wanted them to be, but he pushed her hands back against the car, trapping her so she couldn’t move.

  “Good to know, but we both know this is going to be so much more than sex and we need to think of the neighbours.” He teased against her neck, not able to resist running his tongue down over her vein in anticipation of tasting her sweet blood on his tongue. Damn, that didn’t help cool his needs. He literally had to tear himself away from her body, pulling back and snatching open the car door. The interior light flooded the area and made him want her even more when he saw her slightly dishevelled hair, the little pout to her lips that were swollen from his kisses, and the way the colour had flooded her cheeks. He didn’t dare look into her eyes, because he knew they would hold the same desire that was coursing through him, and he didn’t think he had that much willpower left inside him not to take her.

  “Get in the damn car.” He was barely holding onto his desire as she arched her back, her breasts straining against her little vest top and her nipples begging him, through the thin material, to take them in his mouth. George groaned as he palmed the car either side of her body, trying to keep his urge to take her under control. “Please, Zoe, you’re killing me here.” He groaned and heard her sweet chuckle all around him.

  “Fine, but the next time…” She teased and he groaned again as she turned and wiggled her tight little backside at him. Dropping his hand to let her climb into the car, and she did it with gusto, every movement designed to tease the hell out of him.

  “The next time we can do it up a damn tree, just…” She seated herself in victory and he slammed the door closed before skidding on his backside over the bonnet of the car and landing with perfect grace on the other side. He nearly yanked his own door off in eager anticipation of being with his mate, the metal hinges creaked into the silence of the night and he gave the very expensive car a silent apology as he thrust the key into the ignition and the car roared to life beneath them.

  “Hold on, this is going to be quite a ride.” He informed her and she couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “Let’s hope so.” She shot back as he crunched through the gears with another silent apology and tooled the car out of the lot and back onto the street.

  “This is the McCartney place…” Zoe had never been inside the house before. She had never had cause too. But as the house and the land backed onto pack land she had often run the perimeter of the property and wondered what the large house looked like inside.

  The McCartney’s were nice enough people, but they weren’t getting any younger and Dex had been hopeful that he would be able to buy the place to expand the pack lands even further.

  “Used to be. Now it’s mine.” George informed her as he took her hand and led her up the front stairs towards the front door.

&nb
sp; “What do you mean yours?” Zoe balked at the idea. The McCartney’s would never sell to an outsider.

  “I made them an offer that they couldn’t refuse the first time I scented you.” George informed her, thrusting the key into the lock and kicking open the door. He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and pulled her inside the house with him, flicking on the lights as he back heeled the front door closed and whirled her around in front of him.

  “What offer?” Zoe demanded, confused and then startled. “Did you kill them?” She spat out on a gasp.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  George looked at her as if she had grown another head. “What? No! What do you take me for?”

  “ A vampire.” She retorted and he took a long step back and regarded her for a long moment.

  “They have family up north. I just used my friendly, persuasive powers to get them to consider moving closer to their family and rent the place to me while the sale went through.” George explained, and then tipped his head and narrowed his eyes at her. “Did you really think I had done away with them?”

  Zoe tried to hold onto her chuckle for as long as she could, but she caved under his close scrutiny and he groaned out his annoyance.

  “See, this is why I don’t like to turn off my little gifts.” George reached out with lightning speed, grabbing her around the waist and yanking her up against his body. “And now, you’ll have to pay for that, you little tease.”

  Zoe climb up his body and wrapped her legs around his waist as George groaned at the feel of her sex pressing against his. It was potent, even through the layers of clothing that separated them, and in a whirl of the house around her, Zoe found herself upstairs in the master bedroom and being lowered beneath him onto the mattress.

  “Let’s hope you’re not that fast at everything.” She teased, her hands already under his top, her fingernails clawing down his chest, and he snagged her wrists and dragged her arms up the bed, even though she tried to fight him, her wolf rising to the challenge of him trying to dominate them.

  “Claws aren’t optional, not yet anyway.” He smirked down at her. His hips pinned her to the bed beneath him, and she tightened her hold around him, squeezing his hips with the toned muscles of her legs, and raising her brows in a challenge back at him.

  “You’re going to have to do better than that vampire, if you want to impress my wolf.” She grinned up at him and he couldn’t help the amusement that rolled through him.

  “No problem.” He breathed against her neck a moment before his free hand broke the hold she had on him and he snagged her around the waist, flipping her over on the bed and coming down on top of her, pinning her to the bed with the length of his body. She was strong, but he was stronger. “How’s that little wolf?” He breathed against her neck, before he nipped the soft skin of her shoulder and she moaned in appreciation.

  “I think we’re both still dressed…” She chuckled and heard him groan. The thought of her naked body under his was almost too much for him to take, but he worked feverishly to discard first his clothes and then hers, and still restrain her as best he could. There were some ripped clothes, and he took a couple of elbows in his chest and face, but on the whole, he had them both stripped naked and was back on top of her in no time.

  “You really didn’t want to make that easy did you?” He growled down at her, through the pain that was radiating from his nose and heard her chuckle into the covers.

  “You have to earn my wolf’s respect.” Zoe burned with the desire to mate him that was coursing through her veins. Her damn wolf was practically hyperventilating in anticipation of their mate claiming them as his own, and when he rubbed the satin steel of his erection against her backside, Zoe almost joined her wolf in a dizzying wave of need.

  “I think I have you, Zoe. You can’t get away.” He ran his tongue down her neck, savouring the feel of her life blood running through her veins, before he continued on down her shoulder. The scent of her arousal and the Lycan blood had already drawn his fangs down, and when she went to speak, he pressed his fangs into the soft skin of her shoulder and marked her as his, and all of the fight went out of her body and mind.

  When he released his fangs from her skin he licked his lips in anticipation of how she would taste, taking a long moment as she lay quietly subdued beneath him to savour the moment before he would taste her blood. His eyes fixed on the small pools of blood against her skin, and then he ran his tongue over her life essence and the taste of her as it washed over his tongue and into his throat made him groan in pure pleasure. He wanted more, so much more, but he pushed his needs back and sealed the wounds with care.

  “How do I taste?”

  “Like you were made for me, the sweetest nectar I’ve ever sampled.” He lifted his weight from her body and pulled her up onto her knees with one hand around her waist. Careful not to let her wrists go as he brought her arms down and pinned them beneath her, he pushed her shoulders down to the bed. Her hands were trapped and he held her easily in place with one hand as he ran his other hand down her spine, over her backside and into the wet warmth of her folds, teasing and bringing her responsive body to life with just the touch of his fingers.

  With her knees tucked up under her she really had nowhere to go. When he lowered his mouth to her sex and ran his tongue from the already swollen nub to the little pink tight hole of her backside, he could have sworn that her moan was more of a purr. When he did it again she tried to move, her body swayed slightly, but he was certain that she couldn’t get away from his hold as he started to devour her with his tongue. Teasing the moans from her lips until he heard her breath hitch and felt her muscles start to tense, and then he backed off, waiting while her body climbed down only to start all over again, and again, and again until he heard her curse out into the covers in frustration.

  “I told you that you would have to pay for teasing me little wolf.” It might have been killing him to do it, but he wanted her body so wound up with need that when she finally released it would be so much more powerful, and it was. When he finally took her over the edge the force of her response had her bucking against his hold and she managed to physically move him, until he climbed up over her body and held her in place with his own.

  George could feel the throbbing of her inner muscles against the very tip of his arousal as he held just inside her core, waiting for her to come back to him. He’d told her that he would never use mind control on her to make love to her because he wanted her to feel every touch he gave her, and this was no different. He was almost fevered with the need to push inside her, but he waited until she was back with him, her breathing somewhere close to normal before he pushed inside her. Taking her slowly, but deeply in one long stroke, until he was buried to the hilt and nudging her womb as he ground his hips against her backside, stretching her silken walls and letting the still pulsing muscles massage his shaft.

  He started off excruciatingly slowly. Pulling back right to the very tip before making a long slow slide back into her, filling her, stretching her around him, and making her catch her breath as he ground against her womb. And when she begged for more he gave it to her. Long deep strokes that had her moaning into the covers as he moved faster within her, and when neither of them could take it any longer he pulled out and flipped her over onto her back, coming down over her, and she wrapped her legs around his hips as he thrust inside her.

  George kissed her with a passion that she didn’t know was possible as they climbed together. His thrust were slightly shorter as he pumped his hips against hers, and when he traced his tongue down the vein within her neck, his fangs pushed down and he resisted the urge to bite into her flesh, to taste her again.

  Zoe felt the ache within her jaws as she climbed back towards her release. Her wolf was baying for his blood, desperate to complete the bond between mates, but they hadn’t spoken of it. She needed to mark him as hers, the way he had marked her, and she gave up fighting her wolf and let her fangs push through on a growl of need
.

  Bond. Mate.

  Zoe palmed his back and pulled him down towards her. Her nails pressed into his skin until the flesh gave way and she could scent his blood in the air, and the need for more burned within her. Her wolf fevered within for the bonding.

  “Bond, Zoe.” George growled out against her neck. His tongue teasing her vein against the skin, and when he felt her fangs enter his flesh, bite hard and deep into his skin, and she reached for him with her mind, he sunk his fangs deep into her vein and gloried in the taste of her blood as it rolled over his tongue and down his throat as he sucked gently from her.

  Zoe felt her orgasm threaten and released her fangs just as the first wave crashed through her body. Her mind locked with his and she felt the pure pleasure as his orgasm rolled through him. Buried deep inside her body, he felt the hard tense and release of her muscles as he drew deeply against her vein. The sensual pull of her blood caused her to cry out as another wave tore through her. Bonded together they shared the experience as he continued to take her blood and cause her to orgasm over and over, as her experience brought him another wave of ecstasy and he released inside her again.

  George eased his fangs from her skin and rode the waves that were ripping through him. He’d never come anywhere close to this in the centuries that he had been alive and he revelled in the feel of their bond, their joint release, becoming one with each other, until they slowly climbed back down.

  When he was able to move again, he took care to clean and seal the puncture wounds on her neck, knowing that she would heal and his mark would be invisible to human’s within an hour. The bite that she had given him had all but healed on his shoulder, only the smears of blood remained, and she savoured the last of his blood as he rolled onto his back, taking her with him and keeping her against his chest as he stroked his hand down her spine.