“If you challenge Bardo, you automatically become the Redmavens’ alpha. He’ll hear you out, and we can be together.”
Micah stepped away. It felt like he’d erected an impregnable barrier between them. “It’s not that simple. You’ve never seen me shift, have you?”
“No, I haven’t.” Aimee didn’t comprehend the sudden change in demeanor. His eyes were devoid of expression, his voice cold, distant.
“But you have seen Rifkin in were form?”
She shuddered and nodded. The image wasn’t something she wanted to dwell on. “Ahh…yes.” Chilly foreboding skittered down her spine.
“I don’t shift unless it’s absolutely necessary because I am just as much a monster as Rifkin is, as a were.”
Relieved, her apprehension leached out of Aimee. “Is that all? I figured as much, since he never challenged you openly. He only preys on those who are weaker than he is.”
He let out a shaky laugh. “You’re not appalled by what I am? You can accept what they’ve made me?” He crossed the short space between them and brushed his fingers over her cheek. When she didn’t cringe, he cupped her face with a hand trembling with his emotions.
Aimee put her hand over his. “I’ve seen you step up to shield the members of your pack time and time again from Rifkin. You are not a monster.” She turned her head and pressed her lips to his callused palm.
He pulled her into his arms, buried his face into her hair, and whispered, “I have to know you’re safe to do what I must. Christ, you smell good. I want you so badly.”
“Yet you’d send me away.”
“My family is a mess, Aimee.” His voice lowered to a gruff rumble. “We have very few resources available to us. Bardo is the only one who has access to the pack’s wealth, and he’s used very little of it for our benefit. The majority of my family is barely literate. You see how downtrodden they are. They’ve had the spirit ripped out of them by a long succession of negligent alphas.” He rested his forehead on hers and sighed. He looked weary and troubled.
“Tell me what weighs you down and puts that look of despair in your eyes.
“I have nothing to offer you. I’ve given Bardo a reason to put a price on my head for taking you and removing the bulk of the family from his influence.” Micah laughed bitterly. “Rifkin must be grinning with glee. He’ll work with Bardo to skin me, and then he’ll turn on him when I’m out of the way. His goal is to claim the pack, and if he does, things will get much worse for all werekin, because he’ll have Milo in his clutches.”
She looked at him, perplexed. “I don’t understand.”
“I recently found out Bardo has Milo working to replicate a chemical compound to mask our spoor. I believe he is close to perfecting it. Now I understand why Bardo moved us, he didn’t want Rifkin or me there.”
“Then you should stop Milo.”
“I tried. I left a couple of men behind to pick up Milo. The thing is, they didn’t show up at the rendezvous point with him. Rifkin might have gotten to him first.” The plea in his eyes asked for understanding. “There is something you need to know, Bardo has someone feeding him info about the Lunedares. That’s how he knew how, when and where to take you. We can’t be together right now. There is no guarantee I will come out of this alive. Call your brother, now please. Speak directly to him, no voicemail message. I don’t know who we can trust in your clan.”
Could you really feel your heart breaking? You could, because the pain in her chest couldn’t be anything less.
Sniffling, Aimee tapped out Drew’s number. A monotone message informed her that the customer wasn’t taking calls.
“He’s not answering. Let me call Saffa Ambervane.” Her voice choked with tears, her lips trembled. She knew her nose was going to start running in a second. Not a pretty sight.
“No, we’ll keep trying until we get your brother.” He took the phone from her and tossed it on the table. “Don’t cry. Don’t squander the little time we have together shedding tears.”
Micah peppered her face with light kisses. “I want to love you, hold you.”
“You’re right, let’s make every second count.” She pushed him back until he sat down on their unmade bunk. “But I want your cub.”
“No.” He recoiled and took several steps back, but she followed.
“Yes, leave something of yourself with me.” Aimee cupped his face between her hands. “If you can’t come back to me, I’ll have our child.”
“You’re offering me a priceless gift, one I should refuse.”
“Are you going to?” She hoped to God he didn’t. She was in heat, she had a one hundred percent chance of conceiving, and she wasn’t going to let it pass.
He shook his head. “No, I’m not. I can’t.”
Aimee grinned, leapt into his arms, pulling his T-shirt up and off his body. She placed her mouth on the pulse point at the base of his neck. It thumped at the same tempo as hers. Two hearts beating as one, sharing common hopes and sorrow. But she wouldn’t grieve, she’d celebrate.
Aimee swiped her tongue over Micah’s straining neck and pressed her breasts into his massive chest. She wrapped her arms around his torso and held him as close as she could manage. Aimee imprinted every ridge and indentation on his body and committed it to memory. His smell she already knew.
Micah let out a low growl, lifted her, and set her across his jeans-covered groin. Oh boy. The rough denim pressed into her clit and caressed it like a callused finger.
Micah buried his face in the crook of her neck, sniffed her skin, and ran the broad surface of his tongue over the spot he would place his mate’s mark.
She shuddered in his arms, smelling the fragrance of her arousal and fertility filling the small cabin.
Aimee looked up into his face and tilted her head to bare her neck. “Mark me.”
“Are you sure? It will bind us forever.” He rubbed his face over her skin with a manic fervor.
“I want forever with you, but as you say we might not have a future together,” she whispered. The knowledge that their time might be cut short was as painful as having a knife twisted in her gut. “If you mark me, it’d make our loving better than anything we’ve ever experienced. I want that with you, for you.”
“Ahh, Aimee, your generosity humbles me.” He pressed his lips to her eyes and mouth with such a poignant gentleness it pulled out a sob from deep within her.
“I claim you as my one true mate.” She said her vows with fervent conviction.
The green in Micah’s eyes darkened. Emotions played over his face, love, need, fear, and some regret. If she wasn’t mistaken, there was inexplicable gratitude.
“Don’t, don’t you be sorry for what we have. It is more that most people will ever experience. I give myself freely to you accepting all your burdens. Take this moment for yourself, Micah, and for us.”
“Aimee.” Micah’s husky mumble was thick with his feelings. “I claim you as my one true mate, you persistent she-wolf.”
Her eyes stung with unshed tears, but she blinked them back. “And so you should, you stubborn were.”
A ring of black circled the green of his irises melding the were with the man before he moved to clamp his teeth on the spot where her neck met her shoulder. He let out a fervent sigh. His claiming was rife with a feral possessiveness.
The prick of his teeth allowed the binding properties in his saliva to seep into her blood stream evoking her base animal. Her were surfaced, and she ripped at the denim preventing her mate from sinking his cock into her.
Micah reared up onto his feet, spun Aimee around, and bent her over the bunk. He spread her legs with his knees. She braced her arms on the bed, hiking up her hips in invitation and acceptance. The scent of their combined fluids clung to the rumpled linen, evidence from their night together which wafted up to her nose.
Cool air flowed over her exposed flesh. Her clit throbbed. Aimee’s labial folds burgeoned, achy with need for him. Dewy moisture seeped from in her cleft
in preparation for his penetration.
She nestled her butt against his pelvis and he aligned his torso with her back. Micah reached down and nudged his cock’s crown into her wet slit. With erotic deliberation, he slid his rotund head over her tissues with skill and tenderness. Aimee’s humid flesh twitched with hungry anticipation. His trembling fingers on her hips, his harsh pants, and his heart beating against her back revealed he was affected as much as she was.
The scent of their need filled the small cabin.
“Now, Micah, please.” He pushed the mushroom-shaped knob of his tool into her and set his teeth on her mate’s mark.
She writhed, bombarded by a surfeit of sensations, with Micah’s mouth on her shoulder, suckling, his erection plunging and retreating from her receptive depths. Aimee’s agonized gasps slipped through her lips to mingle with his labored grunts.
Micah grasped one of Aimee’s breasts, tweaked her nipple, and rolled it out to a rigid nub. He curved his arm around her hip and found her clit at the apex of her pussy, coated it with her fluids, and played her with feather-light touches.
She was very aware of him. The scent he exuded, the pounding of his heart, his taut muscles…and, most erotically, his stiffened shaft plunging into her, as his heavy man sac slapped on her clit. Micah’s husky moans filled the cabin, his thighs tensed on the back of hers, their bodies rocked in a sweet synchronized dance. Her responses and receptiveness seem to inflame him.
Tremors shook his body each time Aimee hiked her hips higher up for him. She clenched her muscles around him, and his hand tightened on her butt with each moan she let out.
Caught in a prolonged spasm, her channel milked his driving hardness.
Micah spewed life-creating semen at the mouth of her womb. Aimee moaned.
The kernel of their cub was planted.
Flushed by sheer happiness, Aimee abandoned herself to the blinding sensations, which overwhelmed her senses and accepted all he gave.
They slumped on the bed, still connected. His pants played with the hair on the nape of her neck.
“You are mine,” Micah rumbled, the satisfaction in his voice putting a grin on her face.
“Yes, I am.” And that’s all that mattered to her in this singular moment she’d treasure for the rest of her life.
Chapter Seventeen
A pervading sense of not being where she should be jerked Sabine out of a light doze. Wary by nature, she eased open her eyes to narrow slits to orient herself to her surroundings.
A soft sigh slipped from her lips when she recognized the room Drew carried her to the night before. Pale light filtered through the layers of sheer drapery covering the floor to ceiling windows on the far wall. It was a new day and Sabine was still tired. What little sleep she’d got had been more restless than restful.
She sniffed the air to find Drew. A whiff of something acrid clouded his beguiling fragrance. The amount of his spoor in the air multiplied which meant he drew closer. Sabine’s senses came alive. The nerve endings in the tips of her breasts tingled with anticipation, her sheath moistened and tightened involuntarily.
The fragrance that was uniquely him haunted her, even in the depths of slumber. Surreal dreams of their bodies entwined had her twisting restlessly throughout the short night.
Drew entered the room dressed in a pair of loose pants, which hung low on his hips. His damp hair was combed back from his face and stray tendrils curled over his shoulders.
Sabine’s attention was drawn to the muscles working fluidly in his torso as he walked toward her. She visually mapped the hard ridges downward until her gaze settled on his groin, concealed by his clothing. Realizing he’d stopped moving, her head jerked up to meet his amused stare.
A hot flush heated her skin.
“Good morning.” He lowered his gaze to the taut peaks of her breasts and the flare in his eyes translated into a warm caress over her skin.
Sabine clamped her thighs together. It did little to stifle the fragrance of her desire for him.
He held out the cup to her. “Coffee?”
For want of something better to do, she accepted the cup and took a sip. The bitter brew coated her tongue. Sabine gagged and shoved the cup back into his hand. “What are you trying to do to, poison me?”
“What are you talking about? This is Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. It’s the best, not like espresso.” He set the mug on the night table, sat down on the edge of the bed, and turned to her. “You were restless last night, and why’d you pretend you were sleeping when I pulled you into my arms?”
He didn’t miss a thing. To avoid his probing scrutiny, Sabine got up on her knees and moved across the wide expanse of the bed.
Drew’s grip on her ankle pulled her to a stop.
She jerked her leg for him to release her, but he took hold of her other ankle and flipped her over onto her back. Her eyes widened when Drew held her by the thighs, pulled her forward and lowered his body until their groins connected. The thin barrier of his pants did little to disguise the hardness of his male member. She’d seen him nude more often than dressed, yet she found the sight of his attributes concealed by the thin layer of cloth arousing.
Sabine gulped and looked up. There was no possible way to misunderstand what he had on his mind.
Face to face, he’d see the pleasure she took in his touch, how much she wanted him, how easily he made her vulnerable.
Their coupling, driven by the basic drive to mate, would be full of emotional pitfalls. Each time he touched her, she gave him a part of herself and her resolve to leave weakened. She was afraid of the passion he evoked in her.
Drew bent down and pressed a kiss between her breasts. “Now, how about we pick up from where we left off last night.”
The pressure of his lips made a shambles of her rationale. “It’s daytime. We can’t do this now. The timing is off.” Sabine pushed at his shoulders, not with a lot of force.
“Anytime is the right time, honey,” Drew’s reply came out muffled from where his face rested between her breasts. Sabine felt his lips curve into a smile on her skin.
A shudder rippled down her body as Drew lapped his way up to cover the peak of her breast with his warm mouth. Wet heat and sharp suctioning pressure sent undulating waves of ecstasy downward to settle at her crotch. Drew literally wrapped his tongue around her nipple and suckled on the bud. The tugging was both painful and gratifying.
“Can we check on my family first?” Sabine stuttered, grasping for a lifeline before she succumbed to the pleasure induced by his lingual dexterity.
“They’re fine. I called down to check on them. Balthazar slept well last night and the women of my pack are getting your family sorted out. Some are on their way to get fitted for clothes. Food, shelter, already arranged. Did I miss anything?” He slid down, nipped the skin over her navel, and suckled on the bunched nerves below it, which she never realized she had there.
“Well I supposed it can wait then.” A breathless reply was all she could manage.
Drew alternated soft kisses on her belly with tugging nips. “Oh, it definitely can.”
His warm hands cupped her breasts, her eyes fluttered shut, and tactile fingers sought and found her nipples. Drew caught them between his thumbs and forefingers. She stiffened when he applied pressure.
“Are you still nervous after what we shared last night?” He studied her from beneath his lowered lids. It made it hard to read his expression. “I thought we’d taken care of that.”
Sabine licked her lips to moisten them. Oh, she still remembered last night, she couldn’t believe her wanton behavior. “Why don’t we shift? We won’t need to go through all this touching and stuff. We’ll be done in no time.”
“But I like all this touching and stuff.” He showed her how much by skimming his hand over her breasts, down her torso and legs.
His lips twisted in a grimace of distaste. “Besides, I rarely make love in were form.”
“Why not? It’s the core of wh
at we are.”
“Hell, honey, it’s a matter of personal preference. Besides, you’re a virgin. Were or no were, you deserve to be taken with care and tenderness.” He caressed the delicate skin on her inner thighs. “I can promise you it’s more pleasurable this way. That is not to say the beast in me won’t be a part of our mating. It’s always with us, isn’t it?”
Drew reared up above her. He settled his crotch into the apex of her thighs. “Sabine, do you know how many nerves are in a human body?”
She shook her head.
“Why don’t you lay there and let me make each and every one sing.”
“You can’t possibly…” The breath in her throat hiccupped when he pressed the steely length of his penis against her slit, brushing it over her clit through the thin layer of his pants.
Drew grinned down at her. “Oh, but I can, really.” His smile vanished when moisture seeped from her and dampened the material separating their genitals.
She flushed and his face tightened into a mask of pure carnality. Eyes hot with desire, jaw clenched, he stared down at her as if she were his prey.
Sabine gaped at him. “You are so full of yourself.”
“Actually, you’ll be full of me quite soon.” He lowered his head and nipped her full lower lip. “I’m trying to make this as easy for you as I can. Would you work with me a little here? The were in you will rush toward completion, but hold on to the woman for a while and revel in every new experience to extend our loving.” Drew kissed her neck and slid his tongue’s raspy surface over her heated skin. The caress plunged her into a maelstrom of sensations. Everywhere he caressed became sensitized to his merest touch, sharp luscious pleasure rippled through Sabine, turning her into a weak needy mass.
Sabine flung her head back and clutched at the only solid thing in her spinning world, his body. She offered the entire length of her neck to his mouth, craving his mouth on her skin. He licked and lapped at her flesh, sending wave after wave of flickering bliss up her neck to her brain and down her body.
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