When he gathered her into his arms, she knew the answer, and that she should never have doubted it. Neither of them could fight what was between them.
He moved her towards the bed, laying her down and then lying next to her, his lips on hers, his hands roving over her body, touching every part of her. Any minute now, she expected him to ask her to pinch him so he could know he was awake and she was real. She hated herself for making him think he was crazy when, as his mate, she should have supported him. Right then, she made herself a promise: every day of their lives he would always be able to count on her from now on.
Slipping her hands under his sweater, she pulled it up over his head, and then worked to undo the buttons of his shirt. His mouth became fiercer on hers, questioning her, needing assurances, which she gave him, her hands caressing his skin while she slipped his shirt off his shoulders. Parting from her, he shrugged it off, giving her a chance to press her lips to his skin, tasting the salty tang of him, running her tongue over his nipples and hearing him groan with desire.
Then the quiet, calm man disappeared. Something changed in him and he removed her clothes so fast she thought he would tear them. Caught up in his heated desire, she didn't care if he ripped them to shreds; she wanted him and loved the way his eager hands caressed her body, slipping behind her back to unclasp her bra. When he captured her breasts in his hands, squeezing them together and licking her nipples, she thought she would explode for him. It was so good. His mouth was not that of an unsure artist, but of a man, a strong, capable man who was in control of her pleasure.
Sucking and licking her breasts until she writhed under him, he drove her arousal to new heights, the heat pooling between her thighs begging to be quenched by his touch. Nadine tried to concentrate, but coherent thought was difficult when sensations she had never experienced before coursed through her body. Yet somehow, she slipped her hand down between them and worked on the zipper of his pants, while her mouth let out little sighs and whimpers of ecstasy. Damn, he was good, and her breasts were soon tender from his hands, her nipples sore from the torture his mouth had unleashed.
Then she claimed her prize, her hand wrapping around his cock and squeezing it. He growled, deep and guttural, his hips shifting up to enable her to stroke his cock from root to tip, paying attention to the smooth skin over the head, his sticky pre-come a sign of how excited he was to be in bed with his mate at last. When it became too much, he stopped her, his hands grabbing hers and placing them above her head. Then he moved down her body, kissing and licking her soft, round curves, his fingers working on the button of her jeans and then dragging them down over her generous hips, stripping the last of her clothes from her body.
When he eased her thighs apart, she closed her eyes, letting her brain take in every soft touch, every butterfly kiss as he worked his way between her thighs and up towards her heated core. Then his lips touched her clit, so very gently as if it was a breath of air, his finger pushing inside her wet sex at the same moment. Opening for him, trusting him, she let him explore her with his hands and mouth. Soft sighs escaping her lips as he sucked her clit, his tongue rolling over the sensitive bud, before plunging deep inside her. He was so good, her pleasure the centre of both of their needs as he dragged her first orgasm from her willing body.
When she came, it was a sudden explosion that shook her world. How long she had put off being with him, how many countless hours of pleasure at his hands had been denied, all for the false sense of keeping him safe? Now, at last, those hours of frustration were gone, replaced by something so sublime she wanted to cry tears of joy.
Chapter Eleven – Kurt
The taste of her overpowered his senses, she was so sweet, and so his. At last, after thinking he would never see her, never hold her in his arms, he was between her thighs licking her sweet juices as she came. Wanting to prolong her pleasure, he sucked and licked her clit until she cried out. Kurt wanted her to learn she could never live without him, not now that he had found her. She would never run from him, because she was his, mind, body, and soul.
Needing to be inside her, to claim her completely, he moved to cover her body with his. Guiding himself forward, he pressed his fingers inside her and then thrust forward to breach her outer lips. She cried out, but not with pain, with encouragement, her fingers digging into his back when he thrust forward again and she whispered, "Yes, please, Kurt. Please."
The culmination of their time apart had led to this very moment. A moment of utter bliss, when he pressed himself forward, deep inside her. She cried out, her voice high, tinged with pain when he broke her. He grunted his satisfaction, overwhelmed by the fact she had saved herself for her mate. For him.
Thrusting harder, he took her, his hips moving to draw out of her before returning to impale her. Forcefully, he commanded her body, making her whimper with need, her voice growing higher as her orgasm approached. Needing to taste her skin on his tongue once more, he claimed her breasts, his tongue rolling roughly over the sensitive buds until she came. Her sex gripping his cock as it went into spasms of ecstasy. Kurt held on for as long as he could, his body craving the release, but his wolf agreed they had to make her come long and hard, so she would never forget who was the man for her. The one who was her true mate and would always strive to satisfy her every need.
Yet the sweetness of her taste, the sensation of being inside her, of knowing he had at least satisfied her at the basest of levels, was too much. He ground into her, short jerks until he came, his seed spurting deep inside her. Nadine cried out, her nails sharp in his back as she lost control. When he was completely spent, he lay by her side and drew her into his arms, feeling like a man. Once more, Nadine, his mate, had saved him from a bleak, dark future.
Chapter Twelve – Nadine
He had awoken something inside of her. The creature, her constant if eternally hidden companion, seemed different, closer to her consciousness than ever before. It watched from the corners of her mind, just beyond her reach. Part of her wanted to try to reach inside and touch it, just as she taught her patients to reach inside and touch the other part of themselves. Then Kurt kissed her shoulder and the creature backed away.
"This is not how I expected this evening to end," he said, pulling her closer and kissing her shoulder. "I expected to be at home, with my mom making me a cup of hot cocoa."
She turned in his arms and faced him, stroking his cheek and then kissing his lips. "I'm so happy you moved out of the hospital. How is your family now? I know your mom visited you while you were in hospital, although for a while she wasn’t allowed to see you. But she told me your sister wanted nothing more to do with you."
He sighed. "I didn't blame her. I behaved like a terrible jerk. But she came round. Part of it was because she met her mate and he encouraged her to see me. He's a good man."
"So are you, Kurt. One mistake doesn’t make you bad for the rest of your life."
"You are biased in that department. But I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself." He paused and then added, "I haven't been able to summon my wolf since then. I think I'm too scared it will take control and I'll be stuck again."
"Does it matter to you?" They were the same in that respect, neither of them able to change, and she wondered how it affected him.
"No. And yes. Earlier, when that thug had his hands on you, I wanted to rip his throat out. But I couldn't let myself go. I don't trust myself."
"Will you let me help you? I'm sure between us we can tame your wolf."
"I would like that." He kissed her, awakening her arousal again. She didn't know if she would ever get enough of him. "What about you?" he murmured and she froze in his arms.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"What sort of delicious creature are you? I can sense it within you, and you feel the mating bond between us, so I would love to know what exactly you are, Nadine Dury, other than the most beautiful woman I have ever seen." His mouth stopped teasing her and he pulled back to look at her,
his forehead creased into a frown. "I'm sorry, I've upset you. It doesn’t matter, if you don’t want to tell me."
He looked hurt, but he quickly flattened his expression and smiled. She could tell him she didn't want to tell him, she could even tell him that he had it wrong, she was just a normal woman who knew about the other side but wasn't part of that world, or she could just say, "I don't know."
"You don't know about telling me?" His frown deepened and then when he saw her lips tremble he kissed them and then said, "You don’t know what you are?"
She shook her head. "That's what I meant, about being a fake. It's why I ran from you. How could you believe in a woman who couldn't control her other side? I was trying to reach you when you were trapped inside your wolf. Trying to teach you something I have no real knowledge of and no real control of."
"Never?"
She looked down at the sheets she was crumpling in her hand. "Never."
"Did something happen? When you were younger?"
"I don't know. My mom never said, and I can't remember, but when everyone else was beginning to change, it just never happened for me. It's why I pursued the career I did, and I turned the knowledge I learned about the mind onto myself, but still it didn't help. However, I found I could help others in a unique way. If one of us has a problem, you know, a mental problem with our other side, you can't simply walk into a psychiatrist’s office and tell them. So I began to specialise. You would be surprised how many times this happens. Especially with children."
"I can imagine. The first time is always the worst, you are terrified you won’t be able to come back." He kissed her lips, stroking her cheek. "Have you ever talked to anyone else about this? I mean, people come to you with their problems; have you ever sought out someone like you?"
"No. I would be too ashamed and too scared that if my secret got out, no one would hire me. You know, the blind leading the blind. I am blind to the other side of me." A stray tear ran down her face and he wiped it away. "I haven't cried about it for years. But since I found you, it’s scared me. What if I pass on whatever is wrong with me to our kids?"
"That won't happen. Because you are going to teach me how to help you."
"I don't understand."
"You said you would help me to conquer my wolf. Well, I will teach it back to you."
"That's crazy."
"We live in a crazy world. Or haven't you noticed?"
"Kurt, I don't know if that will work." Nadine couldn't allow herself to hope it would be that easy. She had tried talking herself through all of the exercises she taught her patients; she had even tried recording her voice and listening back to it. Nothing had worked.
"Will you try? For me, Nadine."
He kissed her, and the way he made her body ache for him, and her skin long for his caress, meant she had to agree to let him try to help her. "I'll try."
She lay with her head on his chest listening to the sound of his heartbeat, taking comfort from him being here with her, because she knew that soon she would have to get up and deal with what else had happened this evening. Her car was still on the road, with a flat tire. Surely, the wolves were long gone and it would be safe to go back down and retrieve it.
But those thoughts soon changed when she heard a sound outside. He froze, having heard it too. So it wasn't a figment of her imagination. What a pity. Kurt was out of bed and peering out through the window out into the night. Letting the drapes fall back into place, he turned back to her and began retrieving his clothes. "You might want to get dressed."
"Is it the wolves, have they returned?" she asked, reaching for her robe.
"Not exactly. Although there is a wolf outside." He pulled his pants on and was now doing up his shirt. "Plus a couple of bears. I guess my mom was worried, and the search party has tracked me here."
"Search party?"
"My sister, by the look of it, and Joel. I can’t tell who else. All the bears look the same to me."
"This is not exactly how I wanted to meet your sister. It's not terribly professional, is it? Sleeping with a patient."
He came to her and pulled her close. "I am no longer your patient, Nadine. I am your mate and to me that overrides everything else. You are mine and nothing will change that."
"I hope not." She gathered up her clothes and headed for the bathroom to freshen up and change. Right now she guessed she probably looked as though he had dragged her through half the forest, and that wasn’t the look she wanted when she met his sister for the first time.
It took her five minutes, by which time there was a banging on her front door and they went down quickly before her door was split in two. Opening it, Kurt was confronted by his angry sister. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Mom is worried sick." Then her eyes slid past him and settled on Nadine. "Wow, you certainly captured her likeness."
"Hello. I'm Nadine, you must be Mia," Nadine held out her hand in greeting to the she-wolf who would one day be her sister-in-law.
"Hi, Nadine. Yes, that's me, Kurt's sister.” Mia still stared at her. “I must admit, I thought you were a figment of his imagination. That’s not quite true. Mom said you were real, but we weren’t so sure about you being Kurt’s mate."
"Sorry about that," she said shyly.
"I suppose you had your reasons." She looked from Nadine to Kurt and then back again. "I suppose I'll go and tell Mom you are safe and will be home sometime in the morning, Kurt."
"Do you mind?" he asked, looking back to Nadine. "That is, if you don’t mind me staying."
"No. Not at all. But while you're here,” she said to Mia. “Can we walk down and collect my car? That way I can give you a lift back in the morning, Kurt. I think it would be safer if there were more of us. Just in case."
"In case of what?" Mia asked.
"Wolves," Kurt said ironically.
Chapter Thirteen – Kurt
"So let me get this right?" Mia asked again as they walked down the road towards where Nadine had abandoned her car. "They made you stop, and then let the air out of your tire?"
"Yes. When I realised it was flat, I thought I had better get out and run home. I knew it wasn't a coincidence."
"And then they chased you. But in the end there was just one of them. And you fought with him?" she asked Kurt.
"Yes."
"And then another wolf came and called him off."
"Yes."
"None of it makes sense," Mia said. “If they wanted to hurt you, why run off?"
"Maybe they didn’t want to hurt me," she said, stopping in her tracks.
"So, why?"
"They stole my car." She folded her arms, and he could feel her anger growing. "Son of a bitch."
"Well at least it makes bit more sense now," Kurt said.
"You mean the whole chasing me through the woods was not to scare me, just to keep me away from my car."
"Or calling the police. They kept you busy while they changed your wheel and then drove off in your car." If he could have got his hands on them, he would have throttled them for taking advantage of his mate this way. "It's not the fact they took your car that bothers me. It's the animal that came after you. The others had left by then, but he came back."
Nadine hugged herself, staring at the place where she had last seen her car. "How am I supposed to get to work tomorrow?"
"Maybe after the shock of today, you might do better to call in sick," he suggested.
"I can't do that. I'm treating a little kid. I can’t let him down."
"Then I guess my reclusive brother is going to have to borrow my car and take you," Mia said.
Kurt couldn't refuse. At least if he was with Nadine, she would be safe. Or semi-safe: he might not be able to summon his wolf, but he would try to defend her with his bare hands if he had to. "If you're sure, Mia."
"I am. I'll drive it over here now. Then Joel can come and pick me up." She moved away from them. "Do you want us to accompany you back to the house?"
"No. I think we're
OK now."
"Great. I'll tell Mom you won't need your cocoa to warm you up before bed tonight, Kurt." With a wink, she had transformed into her wolf, and with a bear on either side of her, she disappeared into the trees.
"She loves you a great deal," Nadine told him, taking hold of his hand as they walked back up towards her house.
"I know. I'm not sure I deserve it." He squeezed her hand. "Or you."
"She thinks so, and I would have to agree."
They had just reached the house when the sound of a car, followed by the roar of a motorbike, came up the road towards them. Mia handed Kurt the keys. "Look after it. I'm going to let the sheriff in Bear Creek know about this, Nadine. There’s no point telling the piece of garbage who is the law in Wolf Valley; he’s probably in cahoots with them."
"Wasn't anyone I recognised, Mia. I think they were the raiders from out of town," Kurt said.
"Could be. If it was, it means they are getting closer to town. Might be time something was done about them," said Joel, still astride his motorbike, but with his helmet in his hands.
"You might be right," Kurt said, but he knew he had other things to deal with first. Personal things.
"Nice to meet you again, Nadine," Joel said with a wink.
Mia climbed on the back and they drove off into the night. By the time the sound had disappeared into the distance, Kurt and Nadine were caught up in each other's arms and heading for the bedroom.
"I'm never going to get enough of you," Kurt said, thrusting into her wet sex in one fluid movement.
"I hope not," she said, dragging his head down and kissing him as he speared her again with his hard cock.
Kurt rode her hard, making her cry out his name as she came. He was going to make sure every shifter in the neighbourhood knew she was his and they had better not lay a finger on her again. That wolf raider was going to get a taste of revenge if Kurt ever set eyes on him again.
Redeem the Wolf: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Wolf Valley Raiders Book 1) Page 4
