Taming The Shifter (Nocturne Wolf Romance)

by Lisa Childs

  Hope swelled her heart. “What are you saying? You really want me as your mate?”

  “Did you think I was just offering in front of the vampires but that I wasn’t really going to change you?”

  “I thought you were just offering to change me in order to protect me,” Kate admitted. “You’re always trying to protect me.”

  “That was why I didn’t ask you sooner,” he said. “I wanted to so badly, especially that day you found me in the vault in the old bank. But I had no idea what the future held for me—or if I even had a future. I didn’t want you to wind up like Sylvia—alone even in the pack—with no mate.”

  “So Reagan is gone?”

  He nodded.

  “And you didn’t offer to take Sylvia back?” She had been so certain that he would—if his brother didn’t come forward to support his mate.

  “I offered her and their babies support and protection,” he said. “And friendship. That’s all I feel for her.”

  “Now,” she said, letting the jealousy bubble up. She had been married before, but she had never cared enough about anyone to want to kill over them…until she had fallen for Warrick.

  He shook his head. “You’re the woman I love. The only woman I have ever really loved.”

  “I was married before,” she reminded him. “But I never loved Dwight—not like I love you. I love you so much that I really can’t let you do this.”

  “What?”

  “Maybe you can choose me over Sylvia,” she said, “but you can’t choose me over your pack.”

  “I don’t have to choose one or the other.”

  “They won’t accept me as your mate.” She was certain. He was young and virile and needed to have sons to carry on the pack like he and his brother would carry on for his father. “I’m older than you are. You’d be better off with someone young like Sylvia. I may not be able to give you children.” Not after the beatings she’d taken from Dwight.

  “I don’t care about anyone or anything but you,” he said, as he began to turn back from a beast into a man. Into the man she loved—all powerful muscles under naked skin. Thick hair dusted some of the muscles, of his chest and lower. And that dark beard clung to his jaw as it shifted from canine back to man. “I don’t need to be a leader or even a member of the pack. I just need to be with you, to be your mate for the rest of our lives.”

  “Then turn me.” And as she told him, she began to undress—pulling off her sweater and pushing down her jeans along with her panties. A quick snap of the clasp of her bra and she stood before him entirely naked. Vulnerable like she had not been vulnerable in years. Because she loved him like she had never loved anyone else. Because she needed him like she had never needed anyone else.

  “It’s not going to be pretty like the bite on the neck Sebastian was going to give you,” he warned.

  She shuddered in revulsion. “Sucking my blood would not have been pretty.”

  “Biting you hard enough to brand you will not be pretty, either.” He lifted her in his arms and carried her into the bedroom.

  “I don’t care,” she said, sliding down his body—naked skin over naked skin and hair that tickled and scratched. “I just want to be with you. In every way. Forever.”

  “You really chose me over your friends, over the life you’ve known,” he murmured, as if stunned that she would. “Over immortality?”

  “I really had no choice to make. Love was the only choice I could have made,” she said. “I love you.”

  “You won’t change your mind?” he asked, worry evident in his voice and in the depths of his eerie topaz eyes. “You won’t regret turning for me?”

  “My only regret is that I didn’t meet you sooner, so that we would have more time to spend together.”

  “Wolves don’t live for eternity like vampires,” Warrick said. “But we can live a long time, much longer than humans. It can be a very long time. My mother had decided she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life with my father.”

  “Your father sounds like he wasn’t an easy man to love, though.”

  “No, he wasn’t,” Warrick admitted. “But she didn’t leave just him. She left me and Reagan, too.”

  Tears stung her eyes as she imagined the pain he must have felt over his mother’s abandonment. And she understood him so much better than she already had. “I will never leave you. I will never stop loving you. Please turn me now, so that we can be together in every way.”

  “I wish this wouldn’t hurt you.”

  “Make it hurt good,” she teased him, rubbing her naked body against his.

  He groaned and pulled her tight against him, muscles rippling in his arms and chest. “You feel so good—so perfect—in my arms.”

  “Because we’re meant for each other,” she mused in wonderment. It didn’t matter that he was younger and not even human. He was her perfect mate.

  He lowered his head and pressed his mouth to hers. She parted her lips and slipped her tongue out, teasing him with the tip, running it over his lips and then into his mouth. He nipped at it before tangling his tongue with hers.

  His hands moved over her body, skimming down her back to her hips—then lower. He cupped her buttocks and lifted her, his fingers splaying between her legs. He teased the core of her.

  She arched and whimpered and wrapped her legs tightly around his lean waist. He lowered his head to her breasts, teasing a nipple with his tongue as he slid his fingers deep inside her.

  “Warrick…” She sighed his name with pleasure.

  He chuckled deep in his throat as he continued to tease her—with his lips and his fingers. Pressure built inside her, winding tight as her body begged for release. She shifted against him, trying to lower herself onto his straining shaft. But he held her up so that only the tip of him rubbed against her, against the most sensitive part of her.

  It wasn’t enough. But then it was too much. And she came, screaming his name now. His body shaking with the need for his own release, he carried her the few short feet to the bed and dropped her onto it. He followed her down and kissed her lips, then her shoulder.

  “Are you going to do it now?” she asked.

  “Not yet.”

  She reached between them, stroking her fingers over his chest then trailing them down his stomach to his shaft. Before she could close her hand around him, he pulled back. Then he turned her over, so that she lay on her stomach. He kissed his way down her spine.

  She shivered at the sensation of his lips skimming over her skin. Maybe he would do it now. But he slid his palm between her and the sheets and lifted her slightly, until she knelt on the mattress. She leaned some weight on her arms, on all fours like he had been as the wolf.

  And he joined them, sliding deep inside her. Pleasure spread through her, so that her breasts tingled and warmth and wetness pooled around his shaft. He withdrew and then thrust deep. His hands moved from her hips to her breasts, cupping the weight of them in his hands as he continued to pump in and out of her.

  Panting for breath, he warned her, “I’m going to do it now.”

  “Do it,” she urged him, her pulse pounding with excitement. As he continued to thrust deep and then even deeper, he lowered his head to her shoulder.

  She braced herself. He didn’t just nip her skin. His teeth sank deep into the flesh. She tensed at the pain tearing through her. But he kept making love with her, his body pumping into hers—his hands cupping her breasts, his thumbs stroking back and forth across her sensitive nipples. And the pain turned to intense, mind-blowing pleasure as she came, pouring over him. She arched into him and screamed his name.

  He clutched her close and gave a guttural cry as he joined her in ecstasy, his desire spilling inside her—filling her with warmth and love. He leaned over her shoulder and kissed her lips gently. “I’m sorry I had to hurt you.”

  “It’s done?” she asked, having already forgotten the pain for the pleasure.

  “You’re my mate now.”

  “
And you’re mine,” she said possessively.

  He grinned. “I’ve been yours since you shot me in that alley. It’s just official now.”

  She’d had the big wedding with Dwight and family and friends. This private ceremony meant much more. It—and Warrick—meant everything to her.

  Epilogue

  She was a magnificent beast. All lean muscles and velvety raven hair with those pale blue eyes that could cut through a man, straight to his heart. When he saw her like this, like him, Warrick loved her even more. And he wouldn’t have believed that was possible.

  “Now you can call me your bitch, huh?” Kate teased.

  “I wouldn’t dare,” he said. “You’ve already shot me a few times.”

  “But never with a silver bullet.”

  “You didn’t doubt yourself that day,” he said, still in awe of how calmly she’d pulled that trigger. “You had no doubt which wolf I was.”

  “I would know you anywhere.”

  Sylvia hadn’t. His brother had done him another favor when he’d stolen away the blonde beauty. She hadn’t been the woman for Warrick; Kate Wever was the only woman for him.

  His mate.

  Everyone was with whom and where they belonged. He smiled as he watched Sylvia and Reagan head toward their cabin, their bodies rubbing against each other. He couldn’t believe he had once been so selfish as to resent their love.

  But now that he had found love—real love—of his own, he understood. They hadn’t been able to help how they felt about each other—just as he hadn’t been able to help falling in love with Kate.

  “Sylvia will be having those babies any day now,” Kate murmured with concern. For him she had left her friends behind in Zantrax, but she and Sylvia had forged a close bond—maybe in that restaurant freezer when they’d all fought Uncle Stefan.

  Or maybe when they’d all returned to St. James together. The four of them—she and Sylvia and he and Reagan—had presented a united front. There was no one leader among them; the four of them led as a team. And because of that united front, the pack had accepted and respected them all.

  Kate should have had no doubts that she was the right mate for him. Hell, she was so beloved within the pack that she could have probably become the sole leader herself. But she had suggested instead that they become a team. Reagan had been harder to convince. He hadn’t thought the pack would ever accept him after what he’d done. But they had understood and appreciated that he had acted in the best interest of not just Warrick but all of them.

  And Warrick didn’t have to worry about being too busy to give Kate the attention she deserved because she was always at his side, sharing her intelligence and strength with him.

  And her love.

  He followed her into their own cabin that she and Sylvia had decorated together. With its wood and brightly patterned curtains and linens, it was warm and beautiful and so big that it was never as cluttered as her apartment had been.

  The last of six chimes rang out from her grandfather clock. It had the place of honor against the arched wall that led up to the high, beamed ceiling. He appreciated their home and the life they’d built together.

  He appreciated, too, that she stood before him now in all her glory—all naked skin and seductive beauty. He couldn’t wait to get her to their bed in the loft, so he swept her up in his arms and carried her up the stairs.

  She clung to him, rubbing against him—all naked skin sliding over naked skin. He laid her on their bed and followed her down, covering her body with his.

  “And I know that you are my heart, wife,” he told her as he kissed her cheek and then her lips. “Not just the love of my life but my life itself.”

  “As you are mine,” she said, her fingers sliding along his jaw.

  Their hands moved greedily over each other, stroking flesh. And his mouth moved over hers before moving lower to her breasts and then the very core of her. When she was wet and ready, he slid inside her—thrusting deep—thrusting home. Her muscles clutched around him, holding him inside her—where he belonged.

  They were meant to be mates—fitting each other perfectly. She arched up, meeting his thrusts, and her body clenched him even more tightly as she came. His control snapped and he filled her with his passion. With a growl of satisfaction, he rolled onto his back and held her closely against his chest.

  She uttered a contented sigh and murmured, “We will have to make sure to always make time for each other.”

  “We always do,” he reminded her, her comments puzzling him.

  “But the pack will be getting bigger.”

  He nodded in understanding. “I know Sylvia’s babies will be coming soon.” He and Reagan had already called Ben. The special surgeon and his wife would be coming up soon for a visit and a house call.

  Kate hadn’t had to leave her friends completely behind; they came up to visit often and he and Kate returned to Zantrax often, too. She had even gone recently by herself. It might have concerned him—if he’d been his old insecure, jealous self. But her love had given him a security and confidence he’d never known. He knew that she wouldn’t leave him like his mother had left his father. He knew that she truly loved him.

  Kate moved his hand from her side over the faint swell of her belly. “Our babies aren’t due for a while yet,” she said. “But they will be adding to the pack, too.”

  Love and happiness swelled within him, filling the heart that had been full of rage and bitterness until he met Kate. “You are expecting our babies?”

  “Ben thinks at least two,” she said, which explained that recent solo visit home to Zantrax to visit her friends. She had wanted to confirm her condition before sharing her news with him.

  She hadn’t even been gone the entire day, but he had missed her. He couldn’t imagine his life without her in it and knew that he would never have to. She’d already given him so much. And now she was giving him more.

  Babies. They were going to have children of their own; they were adding to the pack. Just when he thought he couldn’t be happier…

  She made him happier.

  “You are…” His voice cracked with the emotions overwhelming him. “You are…everything to me.”

  Tears glistened in her eyes along with the love that brimmed in them. “And you have given me everything I’ve ever wanted. Love. Babies. A purpose and a future I had never realized were possible.”

  She hadn’t known all the secrets then—about the pack or the Secret Vampire Society. She hadn’t believed that the impossible was possible.

  And even though Warrick had known all the secrets, he hadn’t known her. He hadn’t known love.

  “Together—everything’s possible,” he said. “Everything…”

  *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from BILLIONAIRE WOLF by Karen Whiddon.

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  Billionaire Wolf

  by Karen Whiddon

  Chapter 1

  Maria Miranda had always liked her name—almost as much as she loved the sea. The melodic sound of the six syllables always made her smile. Even now, trying to fulfill the destiny she’d been given, a walk along the waves did much to soothe her frustration at her repeated failure.

  All her life, she’d taken great pains to hide her beauty. Until now. She’d just turned thirty, and her father and the Drakkor Council had grown impatient. The time had come to accomplish what she
’d been born to do. Somehow. So far, nothing had been as easy as it should be.

  Another Friday night. She’d decided to give this place one more shot—how could she resist a bar called Sea Dragon? She took the same seat at the bar as she had the previous two Fridays and swiveled to face the crowded nightclub. Women shot her envious and sometimes downright hostile glares, while the men couldn’t seem to tear their eyes from her. Not for the first time, she found herself aching to scoop her hair back into an unflattering bun and slip her oversize, tortoiseshell glass onto her nose.

  Lookin’ for love in all the wrong places…

  Despite the hip-hop music blasting on the nightclub’s speakers, the old eighties song kept running through her head. As she got up and gyrated on the dance floor with yet another handsy, overly self-confident man, she wondered why on earth she’d ever thought coming here would be a good idea.

  Because desperation fueled her, that’s why. Some women talked of their biological clock ticking. Well, hers had gone into overdrive. Not just because she yearned for a baby, but because her entire race’s survival depended on it. Unfortunately, for her, getting pregnant was a bit complicated.

  Breathing a sigh of relief as the song ended, she gazed into her escort’s eyes and tried to imagine letting his lips touch her. Nope. Not feeling it. So she thanked him and turned to go. When he grabbed her arm, she pulled free, gave him a don’t-you-dare-try-that-again glare and headed back toward the bar.

  Immediately, several other men jostled each other, clamoring for her attention. Ignoring them all, she raised her hand to signal the bartender, but someone stepped in front of her and ordered a drink for her, his treat.

  “No thank you,” she said, her voice clear and cool. And discouraging. Who knew men would think that if a reasonably attractive woman came to a bar alone, it was a signal to a bunch of hungry sharks to begin a feeding frenzy?

  At the lame analogy, her inner Drakkor licked its chops. Of course, the fact that she actually had come here for that reason made the irony even more delicious. And painful.