by Lisa Kessler
Morning light filtered through the window, basking her tan skin in its glow. I crawled over her and slowly bent my arms, memorizing the sexy smile curving her delicious mouth. This time, when the dimple formed in her cheek, it was all for me.
“If I’m dreaming, I never want to wake up.” I brushed a kiss to that dimple and whispered, “I can’t get enough of you.”
Her fingers tangled in the back of my hair, pulling gently as I pressed kisses down the center of her chest. Her back arched, making her full breasts an offering I couldn’t refuse. I slid one arm around the small of her back as I caught her nipple in my teeth, teasing the tip with my tongue and drinking in her moan. Yeah, I wanted more of that.
I caressed her with my free hand, tracing down her side and along her hip until my fingertip teased the top of her inner thigh. Her hips writhed, aching for attention.
“Tell me what you want, kitten,” I growled as I kissed my way down to her belly button and my finger brushed her core.
She pulled my hair a little harder, making the jaguar inside me restless in the best way. “You,” she gasped.
That’s what I wanted to hear. I scooted lower on the bed, parting her thighs as I gazed up at her face. She was the sexiest woman I’d ever seen. I settled in and slowly pressed a kiss to her inner thigh. “I’m so hungry for you.”
Running my tongue along her folds, I groaned as she rocked her hips up toward me. Damn, I wanted more. I surrendered to my hunger for her, aching to hear, feel, and taste her release. As she writhed against me, I slid two fingers inside her and worked her bud with my lips and tongue.
She tugged at my hair, her breathing coming in ragged gasps as I growled into her, moving my tongue faster. Her inner muscles started to tighten, encouraging my efforts. I pumped my fingers into her, feeding on her until her entire body stiffened, trembling as she cried out my name.
And I almost came with her. She was too damned sexy. Fuck. I needed her now.
I licked, and sucked, and nibbled my way up her body until my hips sank between hers. I pulsed at her opening, yearning to join our bodies as one. This unquenchable desire was new. I had never wanted anyone this bad in my whole life. As I lifted my head and stared into her dark eyes, she trailed her fingers down my back and then gripped my ass.
“I need you,” she whispered.
And I could deny her nothing. I bent to kiss her lips as I pressed my hips forward, sliding into heat of her body. Inch by inch, she took me in until I realized the moans filling the room were mine. She and I fit together as if we’d been made for each other, a perfect match, heaven.
Her nails dug into my skin, again toying with the animal within. My teeth scraped her shoulder, and I growled her name.
“You’re mine,” she gasped against my ear.
I might have questioned her if I wasn’t so close to losing control. But I didn’t want to come alone. I needed to feel her body clenching around me.
If I could hold out long enough…
I pushed up over her, sliding my other hand down between us. My fingers searched until her breath caught. I kissed her lips, then breathing against them, whispered, “Come with me.”
My fingertips worked faster, rubbing her in time with my thrusts. She clung to me as I struggled to hold off the inevitable. I wanted this to last forever, and at the same time, I wanted to explode so hard I lost my fucking mind.
She moaned my name, and her body clenched around me, taking me with her. I pumped my hips one last time, erupting deep inside her.
I held her tight, unable to move. I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to move again. When I could lift my head, I met her eyes. I didn’t know what to say. Words seemed pitiful in comparison to the sanctuary I found in her arms.
She cupped my face, her voice barely a whisper. “Wow.”
I nodded in agreement. “Fucking miraculous.”
Reality crept into my head, trying to remind me of the secret I needed to bring to light, but I closed my eyes and told it to shut the hell up.
CHAPTER 8
Kaya
Vance rolled over, and I rested my head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. Yes, it had been over three years since I’d had sex, but even so, it had never been even close to what I’d experienced with Vance. And it went beyond just me. The wolf had come forward, claiming her mate. I didn’t have words for the sensation except primal and overwhelming, and…confident somehow.
Nothing about this connection was rational. No pros and cons, no insecurities, and no questions. My wolf’s spirit had bonded to Vance’s soul, and the human half of me warred against it. I didn’t know enough about Vance to make a lifelong decision. My wolf didn’t care. What was happening to me?
Love wasn’t really something you “fell” into, not in my opinion. It was a slow trek over time. A realization, not an instantaneous certainty. But the moment our bodies became one, words echoed through my mind: I give you my heart, my protection, and my life. My mate. Mine.
They must’ve stayed trapped in my head because if they’d crossed my lips, Vance would probably already be dressed and running out the door. I wouldn’t blame him. Who says things like that?
The wolf.
Fate had marked him as ours. I had no doubt about it now. And he had no idea…
His thumb traced a figure eight on my shoulder as he kissed the top of my head. “I’m going to fall asleep right here if I don’t leave soon.”
Shit. Maybe I had said the words out loud.
I lifted my head. He didn’t look terrified of me. “You’re welcome to stay.”
The corners of his mouth curved into an exhausted grin that made my heart flutter. “You sure?” Concern lined his eyes. “I didn’t plan for this to happen today.”
I nodded, resting on his chest again. “Me neither.” I closed my eyes, wishing this could just magically be my new normal. “But we’re both tired.”
He held me a little tighter. “If one kiss screwed up our friendship,” he whispered, “what the hell did we just do?”
“I can’t think about that right now.” I opened my eyes, staring at Abby sitting in my doorway watching us. “We definitely need to talk…” My heavy eyelids lowered, and I didn’t even try to fight it. “Later…”
I woke up to a cold nose on my feet. I peered down the bed at a smiling Abigail. Her dad was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Vance?”
“Shower!” he called from the bathroom.
I hadn’t even noticed the water running. I looked at the clock. It was four o’clock in the afternoon. I had slept the day away.
Shit.
My stomach growled in confirmation. Since being bitten, my appetite had increased dramatically. Werewolf metabolism and all.
I got out of bed and grabbed my robe. Abby hopped down, too, and followed me to the kitchen. The normalcy of making a ham and cheese sandwich was like snuggling into a warm blanket after the weirdness of the past forty-eight hours. But the shadow of doubt hovered, never far from my mind. How long could I pretend this was my life? I still didn’t know why Vance had feelings for me and never told me, and he had no clue my wolf was ready to choose china patterns. What was I supposed to do now?
Instead of facing all the existential questions, I bent down and offered Abby a piece of ham. She grinned and swallowed it in one bite.
I chuckled and straightened up just as Vance came around the corner. He was dressed again, his towel-dried hair disheveled and his smile in full radiance mode.
As if nothing had changed.
“I’ve gotta run Abby home before I go to practice,” he said. Abby dropped me like a hot potato, trotting over to him.
I nodded. “Okay, so…”
Awkward silence descended.
Hello, reality.
“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll call you later?”
I wrapped my arms around my middle, wishing I had gotten dressed in something flattering. My puffy bathrobe wasn’t inspiring m
uch of an eat-your-heart-out or look-what-you’re-missing vibe. “I’ll be at the restaurant.”
“I’ll come by.” He glanced at the door. “Maybe we can talk then.”
God, this was painful. We’d gone from friends to lovers to self-conscious first daters.
“Maybe so.”
He crossed the room and took my hand, dropping the well-practiced smile. For a rare moment, I caught a glimpse of the man behind the mask.
“I want more days like today. With you.” His fingers laced with mine, sending a spark of electricity up my arm. “But I need to make things right first.”
What the hell was he talking about?
“I’d like for days like today to be real, but none of this makes sense. I don’t know where I stand with you,” I admitted.
He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “I know. We’ll talk soon.” He led Abigail out the front door, turning back for a second to raise his hand in a tentative wave. Then he was gone.
I picked up my sandwich and sat at my dining room table, numb. That barrier between us was back in place this morning, fortified by god only knew what.
Instead of dwelling on things I couldn’t control, I finished my food and got in the shower. I had a busy restaurant to manage. Plenty to distract me from thinking about Vance. I hoped. Whatever lies I had told myself about distracting my wolf or getting him out of my system had been a huge mistake. Our bodies were made for each other. How could any other man ever measure up?
My wolf growled. Apparently just thinking about being with someone else had her on edge. I was screwed…and not in a good way.
CHAPTER 9
Vance
I called Trager on my cell as I drove away from Kaya’s place. While I wanted to stay with her and tell her everything, I had woken up to a text from Cole this morning. Our pack doctor was convinced that the serum in the briefcase I took from Duane was similar to the formula that Evolution Defense had pumped into the Timberwolves.
He didn’t have access to a high-tech laboratory, but the few tests he ran seemed to suggest a hormone replacement. Was it for Kaya? My gut said yes.
Hadn’t she been fucked with enough? Did they want to see how far they could alter her DNA before she was more animal than human? Probably, the fuckers. I had to stop them.
But first, I needed to know who had seen Nero’s file on Kaya.
The only way to be certain she’d be safe was to be sure her secret died with our pack. Asher wouldn’t like it, but Kaya was more than a packmate to me. I wasn’t ready to examine what that meant beyond the fact that I’d lay down my life to save her.
I didn’t want it to come to that, but if it happened, at least I’d know she was out of danger.
“Give me a minute,” Trager whispered.
I moved the phone away from my ear as thuds and scrapes were followed by muffled voices on the other end of the line. He must’ve put the phone back into his pocket.
“I want you to make contact with Vance,” a voice on the other end of the line said. “He always liked you. Arrange a meeting. We need to get that briefcase back.”
Even through his pants, I recognized Duane’s clipped, condescending voice.
“What should I say it’s about?” Trager asked. “He’ll know something’s up.”
“Doesn’t matter. Just keep him away from his house long enough for us to find the serum. Understand?”
“Yeah.” Trager walked away, his footsteps thudded in the phone.
A door closed, then another, and finally, he was back on the line with me directly. “Could you hear that?”
“Sorry to make you a double agent, but meet me at the rock shop. I’m heading over there now.”
“You got it,” Trager said. “See you in a few minutes.”
I ended the call and glanced over at my passenger. Abigail grinned, her tongue curling up just outside her mouth.
“Change of plans, Abby.”
I pulled into the empty lot behind the rock shop and clipped the leash back onto Abigail’s collar. “Let’s get inside. Trager should be here soon.”
I deactivated the alarm system and sat down in my office while Abby pawed at her bed until it was sufficiently prepared for her next nap. Luckily, my thinking out loud didn’t seem to bother her.
“I’m going to have to get Asher involved. I can handle Duane, but I need the pack to protect Kaya from the fallout. I can’t do both.” My stomach soured as the realization set in. I rubbed my temples, struggling to tame the headache pulsing behind my eyes.
Kaya wasn’t a shrinking violet, far from it. Hell, she had saved my life a couple of nights ago. But she didn’t stand a chance against a team of trained Nero assassins.
I probably didn’t, either, but at least I knew their tricks. That made me the perfect man for this job.
Dread pooled in my chest as I pulled my phone out and pressed Asher’s name.
“Vance?” he answered.
“Hey, Asher. Don’t mean to fuck up your schedule, but we have to talk—in person. Trager’s coming by the rock shop. Can you come by, too?”
A door slammed in the background. “Sure. My first tour isn’t until this afternoon.”
Our Alpha owned Wild Sedona Tours, which specialized in off-road tours and private rock climbing outings. Asher was badass, which was why Caldwell had targeted him to be bitten. A fatal error in hindsight. Caldwell never could break Asher’s will, and in the end, Asher had helped overthrow the madman. Asher pulled this group of bitten and born wolves into a unified pack. He even added two jaguar shifters into the mix. I wouldn’t be here without him.
And now I’d have to hope he didn’t kick my ass out of Arizona altogether.
“I’ll be down there in a minute.” Asher paused. “Are you all right?”
I was fucking light years from all right. “Will be, mate.”
I ended the call and looked up as Trager came through my door. He walked right past me to peer through the closed miniblinds at the front of the store.
“Were you followed?” I got up, sliding my backup pistol from the drawer of my desk.
“I don’t think so. Still makes me nervous.” Trager turned around, shaking his head. “I parked a half mile down the road by the Red Rock Plaza. But being paranoid has kept me alive so…”
Trager was my height, maybe five years my senior. It was tough to tell with shifters. Our aging process differed from humans. Our tykes matured at a rapid rate, but it leveled off around school age and then slowed again when we hit our twenties. A fifty-year-old human could actually be a sixty-five-year-old shifter.
His green eyes narrowed. “So what’s so important that you risked a phone call?”
“Duane knows about Kaya.” My mouth dried out. “He found a backup of my file on her.”
“Fuck.” He shook his head. “He won’t quit until—”
“I know.” I lowered my voice. “I’ll take care of Duane, but it needs to end with him. Does anyone else at the satellite facility know?”
“Besides me?” He raised a brow. “Should I be watching my back?”
“Only if you start threatening her.”
He lifted his hands. “Take it down a notch. I’ve got no beef with your girl.”
“She’s not mine.” But I fucking wished she could be. “Let me know who else had access to those files. She won’t be safe as long as her secret is out.”
“I’ll ask around.” He reached for his gun as the back door opened.
Asher came through the doorway and cursed under his breath. “You better not be planning to shoot me again, Trager.”
Trager holstered his Glock. “I saved your life that day, wolf. My orders were to shoot you in the head.”
The day Naomi was kidnapped, Asher was knocked unconscious and Trager was sent to deliver a kill shot. Shooting Asher in the leg saved his life and Trager’s cover, but my Alpha didn’t care for being shot at all. Couldn’t blame him there.
I clasped Asher’s forearm and t
hen grabbed a stool. “You should probably sit.”
He raised a brow. “Thought you said you were fine.”
“I lied.”
Trager met my eyes then. “Want me to stay?”
“Wait.” Asher looked between us, a crease forming on his brow. “He already knows?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “This goes back to the days when Trager and I worked for the same guy.”
“Does this have to do with the serum you brought us yesterday?” Asher asked.
“I’m not sure yet, but I think so.” I glanced at Trager. “Text me when you know.”
“You’re gonna owe me,” Trager said as he turned for the door.
“Add it to my tab.” Once the door closed, I crossed the room to set the dead bolt.
When I turned around, Asher was no longer on the stool. He clenched his teeth, muscles working along his jaw as he stood in the center of the shop. “What the hell is going on?”
“Short answer: Kaya being bitten was never a mistake. Antonio Severino told Caldwell she was a target.” I held my breath, watching Asher piece the information together.
He frowned. “That doesn’t make sense. After Caldwell found out she was a skin walker, he thought he fucked up. That’s why he never assigned her a mate and kept her on the pill. He was afraid she was too powerful being a hybrid, and he sure as hell didn’t want her to reproduce.”
“I’m telling you, Severino wanted her bitten; he just didn’t tell Caldwell why.”
Asher stared at me for a second and slowly shook his head. “So you’re saying Severino knew she was a skin walker? But how?”
Bitterness twisted in my gut as I met his eyes. “Because I told him.”
“What?” His eyes widened, and his voice dropped to a feral growl. “Start from the beginning.”
I pushed my hair out of my face and broke eye contact. I couldn’t take the judgment in his stare. “Antonio Severino sent me on a mission to Sedona while Sebastian went to Reno tracking a Nero asset.”
