Grace
I woke up screaming, terrified of the images invading my dreams: shattering glass, blood flowing, wolves howling. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest, and my head was pounding.
“Gracie, it’s me. You’re safe. You’re home and nothing’s going to hurt you,” Hunter murmured from what seemed like far away.
I stopped thrashing and fell back against the pillows. When my eyes blinked open, he was kneeling on the floor next to the bed, staring at me.
“Let me see those beautiful eyes.”
“Ohmigod, Hunter. My dream. It was horrible,” I complained, snapping my eyes shut again to protect them from the bright light. I didn’t even realize I was crying until he swiped the tears off my cheek.
“You’re safe, Gracie-mine,” he repeated, his palms cupping my chin while his thumbs brushed the tears as they streamed from my eyes.
“It seemed so real,” I tried to explain.
I shifted in the bed and my head throbbed in response to the motion. Lifting a shaking hand, I touched the bandage on my brow and realized that it hadn’t been a nightmare at all. Last night had really happened. My memories were foggy because I’d been drifting in and out of consciousness. The blow to my head during the accident had scattered my wits.
“No!” I gasped. “It’s not possible. I didn’t really see what I thought I saw. Did I?”
Hunter climbed into bed next and wrapped his arms around me. “What do you remember?”
“We were driving home and you made a joke. Something you rarely do, and I couldn’t help but laugh my ass off. The next thing I knew, there we’d been hit and were careening towards a tree,” I began. “Things get a little fuzzy after that. I remember you pulling me from the truck. Placing me on the ground. I must have passed out for a little bit and imagined the rest.”
Hunter’s deep sigh warned me that I probably wasn’t going to like his next words. “I’m so sorry, Grace. I swear I was going to tell you as soon as we got home last night.”
I pushed against him so he’d release me and jumped out of bed to pace the floor. “Holy shit, Hunter! Are you telling me what I think you’re telling me?”
“That depends,” he huffed. “What do you remember?”
“One minute, you were my Hunter, and the next, I could swear you were a huge, black wolf. A wolf who attacked Sam and killed him,” I cried out disbelievingly.
“Fuck,” he hissed. “I really hoped you hadn’t seen that part.”
“Which part?” I shrieked. “When you turned into a wolf or when you killed a man?”
Hunter sat up, letting his legs fall over the side of the bed to the floor. He held his head in his hands and stared down as he answered me. “I won’t deny that a part of me wanted to kill him the moment you told me he’d hit you, and I’ll never be able to know for sure what I would have done if things had played out differently. I didn’t have a choice last night. He had a gun, Grace. The second he pointed it in your direction, he was a dead man. I won’t apologize for protecting you.”
Deep down inside, I knew he was right. I’d known for months that, if Sam caught up to me after I’d run away, after I’d made a fool of him, odds were he was going to try to kill me. It’s what kept me looking over my shoulder this whole time. If I was going to be honest with myself, I was relieved to know that he was gone. It might make me a bad person, but it was true all the same.
But I wasn’t quite ready to deal with the way he’d died. I was scared that the sight of Hunter as a wolf, snapping Sam’s neck, would never leave my brain. That it would color my feelings for him and make me afraid of the man I’d come to love. The man who could turn into a wolf.
My mind spun at the very idea.
I needed to focus on something else, and as I glanced through the bathroom door into the mirror, I realized I was filthy. I was suddenly overcome with the need to get clean.
“I need a shower.”
Hunter started to rise from the bed, presumably to help me.
I raised my hand to stop him. “No. I want to do it by myself.”
“Grace, you look ready to drop. It’s not safe. You have a concussion and could slip and fall,” he argued.
I shook my head. “I need a little time to think. Sam is dead. You’re a werewolf. I just need a little time to wrap my brain around this, and you’re damn well going to give it to me.”
I didn’t give him a chance to respond. I marched into the bathroom and slammed the door shut, locking it before he could get to me. I knew he could break it down, but I was counting on the fact that he wouldn’t want to scare me any more than I already was.
“Goddammit!” Hunter roared. Then I heard the sound of something being thrown against the wall before he stormed away.
Turning on the shower, I made it as hot as I could handle and stood under the beating spray until the steam filling the room made it almost impossible to see. By the time I was done washing up, the water started to cool. By the time I was done, I was exhausted but slightly calmer than I had been before.
The first thing I saw when I opened the bathroom door was Hunter on the bed, his arms crossed behind his head and his eyes closed. One of his clean shirts and a pair of my panties were on the foot of the bed. I dropped my towel and changed into them. After I pulled the shirt over my head, I realized his eyes had opened and he was staring at me with sadness etched on his face.
“Oh, Hunter,” I sighed before climbing into bed with him. “Why didn’t you tell me before? As crazy as it sounds, I think I’m more upset that you didn’t trust me with this than the fact that you can change into a wolf. Maybe all those paranormal romances I’ve read through the years are doing me some good now.”
“Fear,” he bit out. “I know I fucked up by not telling you sooner. I was terrified you weren’t ready and you’d run from me the way you ran from Sam without being able to prove to you I would never do anything to hurt you. Not as a man or a wolf.”
I studied the man in bed next to me. He was so much bigger and stronger than Sam had ever been. When I met him, I knew he had the power to crush me if he ever decided to do so, and that was before I knew he could shift into a dangerous wolf. I’d come to love him with all my heart, but I knew he was right. If he’d told me too soon, I would have run. And if I had, I would have missed out on a future with him.
“I need you to do something for me,” I told him.
Hope lit his eyes as he stared down at me. “Anything.”
“This wolf. It’s a part of you, right?” I asked.
“Yes. I would have said he’s the other half of me, but that’s what you are. He’s always been there inside me, making me stronger.”
“Then if you want to be with me, you need to share your wolf with me too. Maybe when I’m a little less freaked out,” I said shakily.
“There is no if, Grace. You’re my mate. For me, that means I’m yours for the rest of my life. There will be no other women for me—ever. I’ve mated with you already. Our bond is cemented for me, but you still have a choice.”
“What kind of choice?” I asked.
“When shifters find their mates, the male accepts his woman by mating with her. I should have told you all of this before taking you last night, but after everything that happened, my wolf was unwilling to wait any longer. When I spoke the ancient mating words while buried deep inside you, I mated you,” he explained.
I thought back to when he’d made love to me last night and that moment right when he’d entered me. The room had seemed electrified as he’d spoken in a language I didn’t understand. His eyes had glowed fiercely when he’d looked down at me afterwards, but I’d been too exhausted to ask any questions then.
“You mated me without my even knowing? How is that even possible? I’m human!”
“The mating tied me to you, but until the marking, you are free to choose if you want to be tied to me as well,” he continued.
My mind was spinning at his explanation. “But why would yo
u choose to mate me—a human who doesn’t even understand your rituals—without knowing if I would be willing to accept you in my life??”
“This must sound scary to you, but you need to understand that I’ve known you were my mate since the day you walked into my bar. Even if you choose not to move forward with the marking and the claiming, it doesn’t matter to me. From day one, I’ve been yours, and if I never had the chance to mate you, I still would be yours until my dying breath,” he revealed.
Any resistance I still felt melted with his words. I had felt the pull between us from that first day as well. It might not have been as strong as what Hunter had felt and I might have fought it tooth and nail out of fear, but there was no denying that this thing between us was beyond anything I had ever expected to feel for any man. My mind was still reeling from what I'd seen and Hunter was sharing with me, but my fear was smaller than what I felt for him.
“Then I guess you’d better tell me about your wolf and this marking and claiming stuff,” I relented.
Hunter briefly closed his eyes as he exhaled before leaning in to kiss my forehead. “Can I hold you while I do it?” he asked with a hitch in his voice.
“Please,” I agreed.
Once we got settled with his arms wrapped around me, Hunter began to tell me about the world of shifters. Wolves were just the tip of the iceberg, it turned out.
“There’s a reason myths and folklore about werewolves have persisted through the years. Shifters live longer than humans, and we’ve been around a very long time.”
“How much longer?” I asked, curious and a little bit scared to think he would live a whole new life without me once I died.
“One hundred years is old for people, but to shifters, it isn’t rare for one of us to live past two hundred. We tend to settle in towns which are small enough where we can build solid ties, become accepted so we have some protection from outsiders. The ability to shift into a wolf has been in my family for generations and they found it much easier here in America than back in Germany, although it’s been several hundred years since they left. Unfortunately, trouble can still find you anywhere, as we discovered when a rival pack tried to take this town from my father and killed my parents.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, knowing how devastating the loss of parents could be.
“Things are better now, so I don’t want you to be worried. We’ve managed a truce between the packs, so you aren’t in danger from being with me,” he assured me. “Should anything happen to me, Spencer and Parker would still be here to protect you. I’m the alpha of my pack—the top dog so to speak. Spencer is my beta, my second-in-command. Parker is strong in his own right as most of the wolves in our family grow to be. And if you decide to accept my mark and let me claim you, then you’d become stronger and heal more quickly if something ever were to happen again.”
“Mark? Claim?” I asked, not understanding what he meant. Is Hunter trying to tell me that I’d turn into a werewolf too?
“Shifters bond with their mates in stages. Males accept their females by mating with them as I did last night. But females must be willing to be marked to show that they want the bond. I’d bite you here,” he said as he traced a fingertip on my shoulder near my neck.
“Does it hurt?” I asked.
“From what I’ve been told, it will for a moment, and then the pleasure is so overwhelming that you don’t even remember the pain. If it’s anything like I felt last night, then you’ll think it was more than worth a little discomfort.”
“Bu what does the marking do exactly?”
“Even though you’re human, it would tie you to me the same way the mating did for me to you. The same kind of connection would be formed on your side too,” he explained.
I liked the sound of that—forming an unbreakable bond with Hunter for the rest of my life.
“Do it,” I urged him. “I want you to mark me.”
Nine
Hunter
Her words of acceptance overwhelmed me, and for the first time since my parents died, I felt tears welling in my eyes. Last night, when I’d spoken the mating words, I’d done so knowing I was risking everything. I could have found myself bonded to a woman who would choose to reject me. God knows I’d given her enough reason to, and I wouldn’t have been able to blame her if that had been her decision. Instead, fate had smiled down on me when Grace was matched to me as my mate, because here she was telling me that she wanted to be mine. But I needed to tell her more first.
“Before you agree, I need to tell you about the claiming. It’s the part most human mates have the hardest time understanding,” I began. “The bond that forms with the mating and marking is strong, but it’s not enough to share my strength with you. If I don’t claim you at the next full moon after I’ve marked you, then you’d still be my mate but my fully human one. You’d age normally and could be injured like any other person. It would make your life for me much more difficult, especially since I’m the alpha of my pack.”
“And why do they not understand the claiming?”
“The mating and marking are very private—we’re the only two involved. You’d be tied to me but not to my pack, but with the claiming, you become part of them as well. In order for that to happen, there would be a ceremony,” I tried to explain.
“Like a wedding?” she asked, which made me realize I wasn’t doing a very good job of it and needed to just spit it out.
“No, not like a wedding. The claiming is connected to our shifter side. You’d run, I’d chase, and the pack would bear witness.”
“Witness to what? You catching me? That doesn’t sound too bad.”
“Grace, I’d be chasing my mate through the woods with my wolf riding close to the surface. When I catch you, then I would claim you the way a wolf would claim his mate—only in my human form since you’re not wolf too,” I clarified.
Her eyes widened and a blush swept across her cheeks. “You mean you’d fuck me there? With other people watching?” she gasped. Although she was the picture of mortification, her scent changed slightly—a hint of arousal tingeing the sweet smell she always carried.
“Wolves are very sexual by nature, so there are a lot of things that would be taboo in your world that aren’t in mine. Since you’re human, they wouldn’t be watching the whole time, but they’d stay close enough to hear us. Every single wolf in my pack would know I was fucking you. They would know I own you as you they hear you scream. There would be no doubt in anyone’s mind that you belong to me.”
“But you’d belong to me too, right?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“Yes, Gracie-mine. I already do. No matter what you decide. And I’m okay with whatever you think is best for you. Your happiness is what’s important here. You’re all there is for me. You and my pack.”
I waited with bated breath for her to make up her mind. The path my life would take from this point forward was literally in her hands. Either she would accept me, my mark, and the claiming or there was a lot of sadness for me in the future—even if she only wanted the mark and not the claiming because I would outlive her by a century or more.
It felt like an eternity had passed before she spoke.
“I was broken when we met, Hunter. I didn’t feel whole until you. It was like pieces of me scattered with the wind when my parents died. And then I ran smack-dab into you and you hold all the bits of me together. Without you, I’d fall apart, and I never want to lose you. So, yes, please mark me.”
“Are you sure you’re ready to go through with this?” I asked, giving her one last chance to reconsider as my heart pounded with anticipation for what would come next.
“Yes. I have no doubts about you or your place in my future,” she agreed.
I’d given her a chance to think about it, but now that I knew she wanted this as much as I did, there was no going back for either of us.
“Strip,” I ordered as I ripped my clothes off my body. I couldn’t get naked fast enough and needed
to feel her bare skin against my own. The need to take her and mark her as mine was riding me hard.
After she pulled my shirt off her body and while she was sliding her panties down her legs, I rolled her onto her stomach and lifted her ass in the air. Wanting her to be comfortable, I slid a pillow under her hips before hooking my arms around her knees as they rested on the bed. Stiffening my tongue, I dove right into her pussy and fucked it while I roughly held her in place.
I wasn’t gentle as I devoured her cunt, eating it like I would never be able to taste it again. Like I owned it—which I would as soon as I marked her. I wanted my teeth in her flesh, branding her as mine for anyone to see. The red smudges my scruffy chin was leaving on her sensitive skin wasn’t enough. I need something permanent, and I was going to get exactly what I wanted as soon as I made her come.
I wanted to drink in her climax, but I knew that, if I added my fingers, I could push her over the edge faster. After giving her one last jab with my tongue, I hummed in pleasure at her taste. She wiggled her ass when I licked from her pussy hole to her clit and remained there to flick it with my tongue as I drove two fingers into her wetness.
“You want to be mine?” I groaned against her damp flesh.
“Yes!” she cried out.
“Then come for me now,” I commanded just as her pussy walls clenched against my fingers.
“No!” she screamed when I quickly removed my fingers, her pussy trying to suck them back in. “Don’t stop.”
The moment was perfect. She was in a frenzy of need as I slowly slid my cock into her pussy inch by inch. I’d stopped finger-fucking her mid-climax and her body was taut with need. Kneeling behind her, I pulled her back against my chest. The change in position forced my cock deeper inside. She was surrounded by me. Filled by me. And almost ready to be marked by me.
I needed total control over her body first. “Give me your hands, Gracie-mine.”
“Hmmmm?” she murmured, a dazed look on her face as she turned her head to look at me.
[Black River Pack 01.0 - 03.0] Crying Wolf, Shoot for the Moon, Thrown to the Wolves Page 7
