“Yer determined to do this yer way, aren’t ye?”
“Yeah, I am. I think I have the right to claim my mate the way I want to do it.”
“Even if it’s stupid? Eh, yer way, not yer mate.”
“Even if it’s stupid.”
“Fine.” Badger crossed his meaty arms and stared at him. “But ye know ye can’t say anything to her about the pack until she’s been claimed, right?”
He momentarily froze as Badger’s words punched through his brain. He hadn’t really thought about it until Badger had said it, but yeah, Badger was right. Until she was claimed, that secret would have to stay secret. Which meant he couldn’t reveal a considerable amount about himself to her until he’d claimed her.
Dammit.
Beck put his dinner together and shoved it in the microwave. After setting the timer and hitting the start button, he turned. “What?” Beck finally asked when he couldn’t take any more of the older shifter staring at him.
“How many days ye plan to do this?”
“I don’t know, okay?”
“Keep in mind ye got a bigger role to play now than ye did even a couple of months ago. Yer part of the expanded pack council. There’s work to be done, and ye ain’t doin’ it. Not fair to ask Dewi to cover for ye when even she’s put pack before her own new mate, ye know.”
His piece said, Badger turned and left the kitchen. Beck heard him heavily stomp up the stairs and to his own bedroom.
While his food heated, Beck considered the man’s words. That was very true. By all rights, no one would have blamed Dewi had she taken Ken and headed off for a month or two of vacation time.
But she hadn’t.
Even when her mate had nearly been killed, she’d barely taken any time off, just a day or two until it was clear Ken would heal up and be all right.
What does it say about me that a woman nearly half my age has a better work ethic than I do?
It didn’t say very much, he thought. Especially when he’d known her from the time of her birth, and she was his boss, as well as his friend.
I’ll give it a week. If it takes any longer than that, then…
He didn’t know what he’d do. Forcing Nami was out of the question.
But he knew for the sake of his own sanity, he needed to resolve it.
And soon.
* * * *
Nami laid in bed and stared up at the dark ceiling overhead. She couldn’t go to sleep. She’d tried.
Every time she closed her eyes, Beck’s face came into perfectly clear view, complete with the sound of his sexy voice.
What the ever-lovin’ hell is wrong with me?
Fortunately, she’d managed to put her siblings off the trail of anything being wrong in her life. Sort of.
She felt like she was living a double life.
In one corner, her existence up until Beck had kissed her…and her life ever since. It felt like she had a whole new life, a crazy one she couldn’t fathom, but part of her desperately wanted. Craved.
I can’t do this.
I don’t want to do this without him.
How could that even be a rational thought in her brain? She didn’t even know the guy. But he seemed hell-bent on knowing her better.
She rolled over onto her side, hoping that might help.
It didn’t.
In the middle of the night, she got up to make herself a cup of chamomile tea. As she passed Da’von’s door, she thought she heard soft voices talking.
It took her a moment to process that. When she stopped, backed up, and listened, she realized yes, it was voices.
She knocked. “Shouldn’t you be sleepin’?” she asked.
“Sorry, Nami,” he called back. “I couldn’t sleep. I was watching something on my computer.”
“Well, put it away and try to go to sleep.” She continued on to the kitchen, then about-faced again. “I’m gonna make myself some chamomile tea. You want some, baby boy?”
“No thanks.”
“Suit yourself,” she muttered.
Back to the kitchen.
Once she had the mug of water microwaved, she added the tea bag and a couple of spoonfuls of honey. Sliding one of the chairs out from the table, she sat and blew across the top of the mug before sipping.
Beck.
It was like a heartbeat in her brain now.
Beck. Mine. Beck. Mine.
No matter how impossible it seemed, she knew she’d heard him talk to her without opening his mouth.
Maybe he’s a ventriloquist.
Still, that explanation felt…wrong.
Completely wrong.
It felt like Beck held back a secret even larger than him.
Lord, please don’t let him be a criminal.
That would break her heart, but she wouldn’t hesitate to walk away from him—
What?
She set the mug down. Was she actually considering maybe talking to him?
He’s crazy.
Maybe, but he was the hunkiest crazy man she’d ever seen in her life.
And as a bus driver, she’d seen more than her fair share of legitimate crazy over the years.
Not like he’ll show back up again.
No, scratch that. Somehow, she knew he’d do exactly that, keep showing up every day until he wore her down and she agreed to…what? Go out with him?
Mine.
No, that boy wanted waaaaay more than just a movie. He wanted her. She instinctively felt that to the depths of her soul, and it wasn’t hubris on her part, either. He looked at her with a hunger, like a starving wolf. Like she was the only thing that could fill his belly and make him feel satisfied.
Her ex had never looked at her like that, and she’d thought he’d been pretty good in bed.
Shoot, that’d been over fifty pounds ago.
After finishing her mug of tea, she tossed the used tea bag and rinsed the mug out, leaving it in the sink. She’d use it for her coffee in the morning.
And she suspected there would be a lot of coffee in her morning. Especially if she couldn’t get Beck out of her mind tonight.
Mine.
Chapter Ten
Ken cautiously opened the bedroom door, slipping in and closing it behind him. “Dewi?”
“In here.”
He walked into their bathroom. She’d already stripped, her clothes in a pile on the floor. She stood there combing out her long, brown hair.
He stepped behind her, wrapping his arms around her, and nuzzled her neck. “Easy way or hard way, baby?”
She froze. “Hard,” she whispered.
He tightly fisted her hair in one hand and pulled her head back, stretching her neck so he could graze his teeth across her flesh. He grabbed the brush from her with the other and tossed it onto the floor before marching her over to the counter and bending her over it. He used his feet to nudge hers apart, then reached between her legs and started fingering her pussy.
Still holding on to her hair, he made her look in the mirror. “Not such a fierce wolf right now, are you, mate?”
A whine escaped her as she thrust her ass out against his hand, trying to get him to go deeper.
He smacked her ass, hard, stinging, starting a low rumble inside her before he went back to fingering her. “Answer me, mate. What are you?”
“Yours.” Her gaze burned into his through the mirror.
He smacked her other ass cheek. “That’s right. Mine.” Yeah, he knew how to get Dewi’s mind off things. Hell, at this rate, he might be able to become a marathon runner with the stamina he was building up.
He wouldn’t deny despite his initial misgivings about getting rough with her in bed, knowing that she loved and craved it from him sometimes, something deep within his own soul loved it, too. It was just a matter of training years of social conditioning out of his brain and letting their bodies and their mating bond dictate what he did with her.
One-handed, he unfastened his shorts and shoved them and his briefs down. Yep, he
was hard. Nope, not a hardship to fuck Dewi. Not at all. But he expected another good night’s sleep after.
Fisting his cock, he swiped the head of it up and down her pussy. “What do you want?” he teased.
“Please, fuck me!”
He rammed home, yanking back on her hair as he did. She let out a cry of need and desire, her muscles already clenching around him as the first orgasm washed through her. Another shocker to him at first, something he was still coming to grips with, that she loved sex with him. His first three partners had been one time only each.
Dewi had relished giving him more experiences in bed than he’d ever dreamed possible.
“Ooh, such a naughty wolf,” he said as he held still, waiting for her to settle down from her first orgasm. “Someone wants a hard fucking, doesn’t she?”
“Yes!” she moaned. “Please!”
Ken took another hard, deep stroke. One thing he’d discovered, once he was in the zone, he could hold off his own orgasm for a while. He couldn’t do it all the time, and only while fucking her. But when he could, Dewi got the ride of her life.
Tonight looked to be one of those nights.
He started fucking her, slowly, one hand on her hip and holding her still as he slowly thrust. The tease, the build-up, he loved watching her lose control with him.
After a few minutes, she was begging him to make her come again. That’s when he withdrew his cock, much to her vocal dismay, kicked off his shorts and briefs, pulled her up by her hair, and marched her back into their bedroom. There, he climbed up onto the bed, only letting go of her hair once he was safely on his back and she’d mounted him, impaled on his cock.
She was sneaky. If he didn’t watch her, she’d give him a blowjob and that was something he couldn’t hold back from. She was too damn good at it.
Ken yanked his shirt off and tossed it over the edge of the bed. With his hands settling on her hips, he smiled up at her. “Okay, sweetheart. Do your best.”
He played dirty, too, reaching up to pinch her nipples, squeeze her breasts, play with her clit, each time triggering another orgasm in her.
Determined not to quit until he came, however, Ken knew Dewi would ride his cock as long as he could keep it up. Finally, after about twenty minutes, and him losing count of how many orgasms she’d had, he gave in.
Fisting her hair again, he pulled her down on top of him, kissing her, his other hand digging into her ass. “One more,” he mentally sent to her as he kissed her. “Come with me, mate.”
He felt it build, spinning up inside him, the delayed gratification making it that much better. Dewi’s moans echoed through his body, joining with his when his climax finally broke free. As pleasure raced through his body, he felt Dewi’s final orgasm coasting through her, too, until they ended up sprawled together.
After a couple of minutes, Dewi snickered.
“What?” he asked.
She lifted her head. “I think I’ve turned you into a sex monster.”
“What?”
Playfully biting her lower lip, she rolled to her side, draping an arm and leg across him. “Mister never had a blow job, now look at you.” She kissed him. “Thank you for taking control.”
“Just promise you’ll stop me if I ever cross a line.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like I’m going to turn you down for sex. Especially when you take it from me like that. I love it.”
It was getting a little easier for him not to feel guilty about that. Especially when he knew Dewi could easily stop him if he ever did anything she didn’t like. Hell, she could snap his neck without even trying.
If he could give her that mental break, it was the least he could do. “Love you, baby.”
“Love you, too.” She snuggled in. “Don’t get too comfy.”
“Why?”
“Because after we know for sure Beck’s settled in for the night, I want you to go down to the office again and run a background check on one Namiyah Drexler of Carrollwood.”
“I should have known there was a catch to you giving in without a little wrestling involved.”
“Hey, don’t make me give you a blow job to keep you awake. You know I will.”
He laughed. It felt good to laugh, something he hadn’t done enough of before Dewi came into his life, turned it upside down, dropped it into a giant blender, and hit frappe.
“Ooh, threaten me some more, why don’cha?”
“Seriously, though. Please?”
“Okay.” He’d hoped to catch up on his sleep. “Do I have time for a nap first?”
She reached over to the bedside table and found the TV remote. “Yep. I’ll wake you up.” She turned it on and started channel surfing.
“Great. Because I need a nap.”
“I won’t sleep until I know who we’re dealing with.”
Something nagged at him. “Why is this bugging you? What if he’d already claimed her?”
“Wouldn’t be an issue then. He’d be her mate and in control. If she’s still a free agent, so to speak, I want to know the 411 on that woman in case there’s any trouble on the horizon I need to know about.”
“Oh, no,” Ken drawled. “Trouble? With this group? Naw.”
She gently poked him in the shoulder. “I thought someone wanted a nap?”
“I do.” He closed his eyes. “But if you’re worried about trouble, it means it probably should worry me, too.”
* * * *
Beck laid in bed and stared at his phone. The noises from Dewi and Ken’s bedroom had subsided a while before. Even with his own TV on, he could still make out a couple of muffled moans here and there while they were doing it.
Not that he cared. He hadn’t paid attention to it, just random background sounds that hardly registered.
Before now, he would always try to ignore those noises with a wistful pang settling in his soul as he did. No, Dewi had never been his mate to have, even though he loved her.
Would always love her.
But now…
Nami.
Nami’s face was etched in his brain, yet he couldn’t draw his gaze from her picture. He’d plugged his phone into the charger because the battery was almost dead. His love for Dewi remained, but different, transformed. No longer romantic, no more melancholy left in his soul following Dewi’s meeting and claiming Ken.
I should have taken more pictures of Nami.
He’d been careful when taking the one he had so that she didn’t see him do it, didn’t want to freak her out any more than she obviously was.
He also couldn’t conceive of a future where she wasn’t part of it.
Now all he had to do was convince her of that.
* * * *
Ken returned to bed a little after two that morning. “I got it. It’s scary what you can find on the Internet when you have the right connections.” He handed her the printouts. “There’s a lot there.”
She glanced through them. “Give me the short version.”
“Thirty-eight, born and raised in Tampa. Mother died when she was twenty-one. Her father’s a felon. She, however, doesn’t even have a parking ticket. From what I found, when her mother died, Nami got custody of her three younger siblings, two sisters and a brother. No police records there, either. Unless they were arrested while they were juveniles, and those records are sealed.”
“That’s good, right? Well, not the father’s a felon part.”
“Looks like he got out on parole a few months back. Prison overcrowding. He was in on a non-violent drug offense.”
“Yikes.”
“Funny thing, his address listed with the department of corrections is a place over in South Tampa, nowhere close to Nami’s listed address. So I don’t think he’s staying with her.”
“Back to good?”
“She doesn’t have any outstanding tax liens, and I don’t see anything massively wrong on her credit reports. Looks like she’s been working for HART for over fifteen years, and she reports income from a dress shop.
She was married once and divorced several years ago. No children of her own, that I found. And she’s a Leo, for what it’s worth.”
Dewi let out an amused snort. “Poor Beck. He’s screwed.”
“I’m assuming the reason you wanted all that info tonight was for background to hand to Beck in the morning?”
This time, she outright laughed. “Nooo.”
“Then why did you have me run background checks on her tonight?”
The pack had subscriptions with all the major services out there, including ones that swept the DMV and Social Security records. It wasn’t any magic hacking mojo on Ken’s part. Just greenbacks buying information based on providing a little bit of data to go by. They routinely used them to run checks on packmates causing trouble, or to check on humans having run-ins with packmates.
Only Peyton, Trent, Dewi, Beck, Badger, and now, of course, Ken and Martin, knew about it.
It was more impressive if it seemed they could almost magically conjure the information out of thin air.
“Because,” Dewi said, setting the papers aside on the bedside table, “I said I wanted to know what we were dealing with. If Beck is determined to do things the hard way, then he can do them the hard way now that I know she seems to be a good person.” She snapped her light off and turned to him, snuggling into his arms. “Good job on the ragey sex distraction earlier, tiger.” She leaned in and kissed him.
“How’d you know about that?”
“It’s a TMI.”
He seemed to consider it. “Might as well tell me. I don’t feel jealous of Beck.” He wrapped his arms around her.
“There have been plenty of times over the past couple of years when I’d get pissed off, Beck would distract me with training, or sex.”
“You know, I don’t consider that a TMI. I thought you were going to get graphic. I know about you and him, and it doesn’t bother me.”
“Okay.”
“You’re going to torture him, aren’t you?”
“Oooohhh, you’d better believe it.”
“Remind me to never piss you off, sweetheart.”
“You could never piss me off.”
Geek Chic (Bleacke Shifters Book 2) Page 8
