To Find a Mate: Somewhere, TX Saga (VonBrandt Family Book 4)

by Krystal Shannan

  Paige squealed and leaned against him.

  “I’m going to need something to do with my hands in the meantime.” Adam nuzzled her neck and kissed the soft flesh under her ear. A shock of energy shot through her whole body and settled in her nipples. He could get used to this bond thing.

  Adam moved his other hand up to one of her barely-covered breasts and found her nipple taut and begging for his touch.

  She gasped when his fingers brushed across it. “I think we can find something for you to do.” Paige swiveled in his arms and met his mouth with hers.

  Before he could think, she’d dropped her hand to his erection and stroked him. He lost his breath for a moment. She hadn’t taken much in the way of sexual initiative yet, and the forwardness of her movement ignited a passion in him he hadn’t realized was lurking.

  Her hand moved on his cock while she kissed him, applying just the lightest pressure and driving him crazy. He was about to show her how to give the lightest squeeze at the tip, when she did exactly that and he gasped aloud.

  Adam broke the kiss and panted as she stroked him. “If you’re not…careful, we’re going…to burn another…batch of…fuck.”

  She squeezed him tight at the based and dragged the little bit of precum he produced down on his sensitive skin, slicking the way for her, just enough. “I’m quite good with keeping time on bakes,” Paige said with a smile, leaning her head against his. His knees almost buckled, but he pressed his toes into the floor to keep his balance.

  “I can probably make you forget.” He pressed one of her nipples between his fingers and she panted against his cheek.

  Her hungry mouth found his and her hand dropped away from his erection. She pushed him back against the counter and divested herself of her thin shorts in almost no time. She climbed up him, hungry and wanting.

  He held her ass and slid inside her wetness with a groan. At first, her rhythm was slow, almost languid, like she was enjoying every inch of him. But as he grabbed at her breasts and the need grew inside them both, Adam looked around for more leverage. He backed her up against the wall next to the door and pushed harder and faster inside her.

  Adam needed to come inside her again. Would it ever be enough? His pace was frenzied, almost rough, and her desire pooled low inside her, driving his to match. The heady spin of his orgasm threatened to unravel him, and he found her clit with his fingers, wanting her to come with him again.

  Once hadn’t been enough. Twice hadn’t been enough.

  It would never be enough.

  Adam growled as he released and Paige screamed his name. Every inch of his skin was on fire, feeling her passion and his, and getting caught up in the tornado of emotion that swirled between them, building and back-building, and then sweeping them away.

  They sagged against the wall, breathing against each other’s shoulders. Adam finally gathered his wits, with his legs almost crumbling beneath him, and levered her down to the floor. When he slid out of her, he felt the absence of her.

  “Paige,” he whispered against the side of her head. “Oh, my Paige.”

  She warmed in his arms and he couldn’t help the smile that took him. The bond had solidified the magick that had been growing between them for years, and he wanted her never again to question whether or not his love for her was real.

  “If you’re keeping track,” she panted against his neck, kissing the flesh there between words, “We have had sex in the kitchen two thirds of the time.”

  Adam laughed and pulled back to look into her bright eyes. There was so much happiness there, and so much desire. His lips found hers and he spread them to delve into her mouth. “You taste so good,” he whispered. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s intoxicating. I can’t get enough.”

  “I’m starting to think you have a food thing.” Paige giggled and turned her head away, looking back at the oven.

  “I think I have a you thing.” He stroked the side of her face and kissed her forehead. “You have a food thing.”

  “I do.” She leaned back to get a glance at the egg timer.

  “Are you going to let me taste those cookies now?”

  She stepped to the oven, where the baked cookies rested. “They should be almost cooled. The other ones are just about done.” Paige handed him one of the bumpy cookies after examining it against the light. “I may still not have the ratios right.”

  “I’m happy to be your taste tester.” He crunched into the sweet treat and so many tastes assaulted him. It was a touch bitter, maybe from dark chocolate, but then a touch sweet, and a little bit salty, with a little tang. “Wait.” He sniffed the cookie.

  Paige’s face lit up in a smile and she took a bite from the other side of his cookie. “You taste it?”

  “It tastes just like…” He smelled it again. It was that rounded, buttery smell, but a little sweet and a little savory. “It tastes like chocolate croissant.”

  “Pain au chocolat.” She raised one eyebrow. “I swear, it’s like you do that just to rile me up…”

  She trailed off and he smiled at her, taking another bite.

  “You absolutely do it to rile me up.”

  He smiled through his mouthful of heaven. “I’m pleading the fifth.”

  “You forget, I can feel what you feel.” She smacked him on the shoulder. “Had you been secretly flirting with me over pastries for six years?”

  Adam finished his cookie with a flourish. “I can’t believe you managed to get the taste of that pastry into a cookie. You, my girl, are a freaking genius.”

  She propped one hand on her hip. “You were flirting with me.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Fate was flirting with you. I was teasing you.” He pulled her to face him, naked hips to naked hips. “Really, I only knew that the smell of your baking made me feel like I was home. It kept me coming back.”

  “You were teasing me?”

  “I like teasing you.” Adam dropped his lips to the side of her neck and she gasped again. “I get good cookies out of it.”

  Paige slid her hands along the sides of his body. “You felt like you were home?”

  “I can’t explain it.” He sucked the skin on her shoulder and nipped at her. “It was like I was drawn to that bakery every Friday.”

  She sniffed and he pulled back to meet her gaze. A sheen of tears covered her eyes as she stared at him.

  “I know the feeling.” Paige pulled him into a kiss and the flood of her love washed over him, covering him.

  Drowning him. He wanted nothing more than to pull her down with him and stay there, forever.

  The loud ping of the egg timer broke his reverie and she laughed as she grabbed the oven mitt and slipped out of his embrace.

  “I really don’t know how you did this.” Adam grabbed one of the cooled cookies and took another bite. “It’s like magick.”

  “It is magick,” she said.

  He smelled the fresh scent of warm cookies and the memories of six years’ worth of Paige’s magick baking floated around him.

  “It really is.” Adam waited until she’d set the other hot tray on top of the oven and closed the door. Then he pinned her against the counter for a long kiss.

  “You don’t want to try for the bedroom this time?” She laughed into his mouth.

  “Why break a good streak?” He dropped along her body and tasted her from mouth to belly to thigh. When he put his tongue on her clit and she screamed his name, all he could do was hold on tight and let the magick take them.

  It was what he should have done years ago, but he wasn’t going to waste one more minute of their eternity.

  * * *

  We hope you loved To Find a Mate!

  Thank you for spending time in the Moonbound world. Please consider leaving a short review. Each one helps!

  - Krystal Shannan & Camryn Rhys

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Elise Blanchard. Plus, our newsletter is full of new release info, giveaways, and sales!

  For your reading pleasure, here is the first chapter of Book One in the Moonbound series, The Werewolf Cowboy!

  * * *

  Chapter One

  Somewhere, TX

  The scent of a strange wolf lingered over Everyday Joe’s bar like invisible fog. Allan VonBrandt held up one hand and halted the two deputies who had come along as backup.

  “I’ll handle this one alone, boys.” He pulled his cowboy hat down to the edge of his brow. His damn brother had promised him there wouldn’t be any trouble, but with four families of wolves in town for the weekend, he should have known.

  He pushed through the narrow door. The dance floor was empty, and the bar was dead, except for a crowd of drunk cowboys tossing punches over near the mechanical bull.

  The lights had been turned down for the night crowd and the neon signs were the only significant illumination. He nodded at the staff huddled around the bar.

  “Y’all stay out of sight, now. I’ll handle this mess.” He crunched over broken glass and hooked one thumb around his holster.

  Five big cowboys in flannel shirts and Wranglers traded punches under one of the flashing beer signs. Allan whistled, and the cowboys looked up, drunk questions on their lips.

  “What the damn hell is goin’ on here?” Allan asked, but punches kept landing from some other dark corner. He turned in a quick circle, looking for the source of the noise.

  Suddenly, a Wranglered body flew over the mechanical bull and crashed into one of the dimly lit cowboys, knocking him to the ground.

  “Stop!” Allan moved around the bull, into the half-dark just as the legs of a chair whipped into the air and another Wrangler-clad ass went sailing out the other side of the mechanical bull.

  Allan took a deep breath and growled, “I said stop.”

  Out of the shadowed corner, the figure froze, but the chair continued to move. It sailed out of her hands, out of sight, and off to his left, he heard the unmistakable crack of something giant and glass shattering into a thousand pieces.

  How had he known it was a woman? Scent?

  She’s the wolf.

  Maybe he’d known since he first smelled her, but he had also seen curves and the briefest flash of hair, moving in a way only a woman’s could.

  The inhale of her breath broke their silence. “Shit.” She dropped her hands.

  All of the cowboys clamored at once. Various rounds of “I didn’t do it” and “It was her.”

  Allan couldn’t take his eyes off the wolf. His heartbeat crept up, faster and faster, until he felt his breath coming quicker. “Everyone shut up.” He backed out of the circle, keeping his eye on the wolf. “Or you’re all going to jail.”

  She matched his slow steps, coming toward him and into the light. Her dark hair swayed behind her, side to side, almost past her waist. Her white-blue frostbite eyes pinned him and her nostrils flared.

  The strong spice of magick snaked through the air and caught him by the throat. He swallowed against his response, against the coursing blood and the heated breath, against the loss of control.

  Allan broke the stare-down and snarled at the cowboys, “Someone tell me what the hell happened here. Right now.”

  Cowboy One pointed at the wolf. “She started it.”

  “She broke a bottle on me.” Cowboy Two swiped at the glass Allan had walked through, then flashed a bloody gash on the side of his hand.

  “All he did was ask her to dance,” said Cowboy Three, nodding at the jukebox. “Skynrd was on. It’s our thing.”

  On top of the jukebox, the discarded chair rested in a pile of glass shards. Something had been hanging up there, and the chair had obviously shattered it and brought it crashing down. Allan couldn’t remember what had been there—life didn’t take him to Joe’s very often. He’d have to ask the proprietor what had been damaged in the fray.

  And at the center of that fray was this raven-haired beauty with the icy gaze, crossing her arms under her breasts and holding his eyes in a fearless dare.

  “So it took seven of you to teach her a lesson?” Allan raised an eyebrow.

  “We’re not with them.” Cowboy Four pointed to Five, Six, and Seven. “When I heard the bottle break, I stepped in and they jumped us.”

  “It sort of escalated from there,” Five said.

  Allan pursed his lips and glanced at the wolf. She still hadn’t spoken in her own defense, but the magick pull grew stronger by the second. From a far corner, in the booths, someone spoke up to validate Cowboy Four’s story.

  Allan depressed the button on his walkie. “Backup, come on in.” Within a few short moments, his two deputies were crunching through the glass. He pointed to the first group. “You take those three, Brice. And Young, you’ve got these four.” He zeroed in on the wolf. “You. Come with me.”

  “What should we do, boss?” Eli Brice’s voice caught Allan as he retreated to the stage, where the light was lower. The wolf followed, her steps slow and sultry. She was going to make this about the magick, he could tell. She was one of those Louisiana wolves. No boundaries, no propriety.

  “Get their statements.” Allan turned his back on his deputies and tried to ignore the thrumming pulse of her scent, the closer she came to him. When they were a good ten feet from the humans, he rounded on her. “What in the hell are you doing out here on your own?”

  She turned her tongue inside her mouth and a smile crept across her round, full lips. “Blowing off some steam.”

  “Aaron promised me. He promised that no one would come into town.”

  She shrugged, and her breasts bounced inside her sleeveless top. She wasn’t even wearing a fucking bra. These assholes had zeroed in on her because she looked like sex on a lollipop stick, ready to lick. Tight jeans accentuated the curve of her ass and the black corset-y thing appeared to be one whisper from slipping down over the rounded tops of her breasts.

  No wonder they tried to fight with her. They were hoping she would flash them and were willing to take a punch for it.

  Holy hell, Allan. Get a grip.

  He shook his head. “I should arrest you.”

  She put her hands together in front of her, pushing her cleavage up over the edge of her top. “Cuff me, officer.”

  “Don’t play games with me. I’m not my brother. I don’t give wolves special treatment.”

  Her eyes dropped to his fisted hands. “And yet, you came in here by yourself and left your deputies outside. You isolated me, near the rear exit, I might add, and I can see in your eyes that you feel the magick. You want me as much as I want you.”

  “I do not.” Allan cleared his throat. “What I want is for you to go the hell back out to the ranch and stay there.” He turned back to his deputies, who had their notebooks out and were scribbling statements while the cowboys shot angry looks in her direction.

  “You want me. You want to fuck me.” The word slipped from her like a wet strand of hair sliding off a naked shoulder…and then he could see…her naked shoulder, her dark hair, her wet skin...

  She was right. He needed sex, but not with her. He’d been waiting too long, celibate too long. This girl smelled like arousal and he was getting caught up in her seduction. If he didn’t do something, he was going to end up with a full-on erection in front of his deputies. The thought of sex was already starting to pump his blood.

  “Take their statements and let them go,” Allan called to his deputies.

  “What about the damage to the bar?” Eli’s pen froze in midair and his open-mouthed question was echoed in the faces of all the cowboys.

  “I’ll take care of it.” He grabbed her by the arm. “She’s family. I’ll see that she gets out to the ranch. You two go back to the station and file a report.”

  “Are we gonna arrest anybody?” Jeff yelled after him, but Allan had already hustled the she-wolf out the back door.

  “No,” was all he said.

  O
nce he had her out into the crisp November evening, he released her arm and pointed to the parking lot and his big, white Trailblazer that said Sheriff on the side in blocky, green letters. He still hadn’t gotten used to driving the thing—it had only been a week.

  But instead of following his direction, she pushed on his chest, knocking him back against the brick façade of Joe’s bar. She pressed her body against his and slid her hands up his sides.

  Allan dodged away from the kiss she tried to plant on him and she grabbed his shirt, wrestling him back against he building. Her smile was secret, sexy.

  “Stop.” He grabbed her arms and walked her backwards toward his vehicle. “You are coming with me.”

  With hooded eyes, she glanced down at the front of his pants. “You bet I am, cowboy.”

  * * *

  Click here to buy Book One, The Werewolf Cowboy!

  Other Moonbound Books

  THE MOONBOUND SERIES

  Book 1: The Werewolf Cowboy (Allan VonBrandt’s Book)

  Book 2: The Werewolf Bodyguard

  Book 3: The Werewolf Ranger

  Book 4: Chasing a Wolf

  Book 5: Seducing a Wolf

  Book 6: Saving a Wolf

  Book 7: Broken Wolf

  Book 8: Hunted Wolf

  THE VONBRANDT FAMILY SERIES

  Book 1: To Save a Mate

  Book 2: To Love a Mate

  Book 3: To Win a Mate

  Book 4: To Find a Mate

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  Who’s Your Alpha?

  The Moonbound books introduce the alpha council, as they search for the origins of the mysterious un-bonded wolf now mated to Jared VonBrandt of Somewhere, TX.