Wicked Wolf Shifters: BBW Werewolf Paranormal Romance

by Anna Craig

  For a wild split second, she wished she could turn into a wolf herself. “That would make going through this shit a little easier,” she muttered to herself and any creatures nearby listening.

  The sound of her own words, ragged and just a bit unsteady, almost made her laugh. If only her big, sexy wolf shifter would appear all of a sudden. That would be pretty sweet. It would be a fitting end to this ridiculous situation. Ignoring the sudden prickling behind her eyes, she kept plunging downhill.

  A noise in front of her made her pull up short. A wolf's howl.

  For a terrible stretch of time that was probably only a fraction of a second but felt like a century, Cassie thought Aliana and Thayne had somehow gotten around her and now launched their attack from downhill. Between her and safety. Her heart squeezed with fear when a small, goldish-tan wolf bounded into view below her, nose raised in the air to loose another howl.

  An answering howl floated up the mountain, followed by another, and another. Then one tremendous howl, cutting through the air with a force and power so obvious and strong that the little hairs all over Cassie's body stood on end in response.

  Trevor. Somehow, deep in her bones, she knew it was his voice ringing over the mountain. Trevor. Just thinking about him actually being here had her almost sagging with relief.

  Moments later, the huge black wolf burst out from the woods, leaping toward her with purpose. Mid-leap, he changed into a man striding toward her with equal intensity. A gorgeous man with dark hair, blue-green eyes, and a physique so ripped and stunning Cassie felt her own insides tremble in a purely female response.

  The fact he was also deliciously naked didn't hurt matters one bit, either. In spite of her scrapes and cuts and bruises, in spite of the lingering effects of fear hammering her all over, in spite of all the craziness happening that she could hardly process, Cassie couldn't help it as she looked at the tall, strong, determined form of her frigging mate heading toward her. She was weak in the knees for the guy. How the hell could she not be?

  Also how the hell she could feel turned on at a time like this was beyond her, but she didn't question it. Instead, she let the feelings drift through her, allowing them to mingle with the thousand other emotions racing around like lunatics in her system. Everything coalesced into a single burning desire as Trevor neared her, his eyes smoky dark and his face typically unreadable as he reached out to pull her into his arms.

  With all her might, Cassie swung out and clobbered him with her hand, landing a little blow somewhere on his shoulder. Dammit, he was tall.

  “Y-you know,” she said, looking up into his suddenly shocked face and sensing a hush from the wolves surrounding them, furious she couldn't stop the wobble in her voice, “I had it h-handled back there. I managed to stay on top of things and even g-got away. Without your big, b-bad wolf shifter help, I might add!” She shouted the last sentence with a trembling jaw, then embarrassed the shit out of herself by collapsing into his arms and sobbing.

  Her big, bad wolf shifter held her tightly against his rock-hard chest and abs, murmuring words she couldn't hear against the top of her head as all the stupid emotions of the past insane twenty-four hours spilled out of her in a helpless fall of hiccuping, snotty tears.

  Awesome. Bawling against him like an overtired baby, when just earlier today he'd sent her into more heights of pleasure she hadn't even known truly existed. He was probably wondering how he'd ended up with such a prize.

  But Trevor's strong arms didn't let go of her, his voice didn't stop murmuring to her, he didn't push her away and wipe her snotty tears off himself with a look of disgust.

  He just held her, so tightly she felt completely enveloped by his strength. Eventually, the tears slowed down to a trickle, then a stop, interrupted only by a stray hiccup here and there. Cassie relaxed against him more, feeling her legs wobble like rubbery things as she suddenly became exceptionally aware of the aching places on her body. Which seemed to be every inch of it. When Trevor moved his hand to rub her back a little, she hissed in sharp, unexpected pain as he inadvertently rubbed a tender spot on her spine. She must have whacked it when the earthquake shoved her to the ground.

  Alarmed, Trevor yanked back his hand and gently pushed her away from him, still holding her, so he could examine her with eyes suddenly both soft and grim at once. “You are bruised,” he said, his gaze traveling up and down her body. With a puzzled frown settling between his brows, he added, “And what are these clothes you wear? They smell like Thayne.” His voice ended on a cold note, although his gentle grip still did not loosen.

  Cassie shivered as she automatically turned her head to look behind her before bringing her gaze back to his. “They were following me out of the tunnel,” she said. “I think so, at least. I heard one of them growling after I got away.” Another shudder worked its way down her body.

  Trevor's hands tightened on her arms for a second. She saw something dark move behind his eyes. He opened his mouth, but she shook her head and spoke first.

  “I am your mate.” Cassie searched his eyes with her own, feeling like she needed to see deep inside him. “I do believe that. This is my life now. Okay. But—can I just have a day off so I can rest a little bit? Please?” Her voice cracked a bit, and she half laughed. “Please,” she added in a whisper, feeling sudden exhaustion seep into her every pore.

  Trevor's jaw tightened as he regarded her. The unreadable expression had settled onto his face again, although the shadows of his eyes still promised many dark emotions roiled inside. The beautiful eyes she could just swim in for the rest of her days drank her in, also studying her and seeming to wrestle with a question.

  When he finally spoke, his words were soothing. “Of course you shall rest. As long as you need. It shall be a true rest, knowing that the two wolves responsible for this will never bother you again.”

  The ominous tone to his voice sent ice blades down Cassie's back. She wasn't quite sure what he meant, but clearly it wasn't going to go very well for either Aliana or Thayne. Wherever the hell those two jerks were now.

  “Cassandra,” he continued. With one amazingly gentle finger, he lightly traced the side of her jaw. Despite everything, it still managed to send a distinct tingle racing through all her senses. “I have thought of an answer to this situation. There is one, and only one, true way for you to remain safe.”

  Behind him, still in her wolf form, Tamsin whined in sudden agitation. Cassie sensed more than saw the pack members near them tense at his words. Not understanding, she stared at him. “But I am safe when you're around me,” she said. “As long as you stay around me. Right?” A sudden grip of nervous energy made her voice crack again.

  Really, all she wanted was a little quiet so she could recuperate. That couldn't be too hard a thing to ask as the mate of the alpha, right?

  Tamsin whined again. In a heartbeat, she shifted to human. Cassie glanced at her nakedness for a moment, realized she was sort of kind of maybe a little getting used to shifters running around like that, and focused on Trevor again.

  “Alpha.” Tamsin's voice was respectful, but even Cassie could heard the urgency and what seemed like a warning that tightened her words. “Alpha. What is it you are considering?”

  Trevor never took his eyes from Cassie's face. Still gently stroking her cheek, he let his fingers trail down to her collarbone, eliciting another light shiver.

  “I am considering that my mate is human.” His voice rippled through the forest around them, seeming to bounce off tree trunks and skitter through the leaves trembled off in the quake. “I am considering that I cannot possibly be around her every single moment the rest of her life. I am considering that her life must match mine in length for this to be a true pairing of mates.”

  His voice dropped lower and lower with each word. Something big was happening. Cassie's breath began to come faster as her pulse raced. Swallowing past a knot in her throat, she stared back at Trevor, held by his blue-green gaze and the promise of whatever it was
he was thinking.

  Tamsin drew breath to speak again, but Trevor shook his head. “No,” he said, so quietly it seemed he spoke in Cassie's head instead of aloud. Which come to think of it, he probably could. “This is the only way. But it still must of your choosing, Cassandra. Even I cannot force such a thing upon you, no matter that I wish it more than anything I have craved in a long time. If ever,” he added. This time, the rough edge of pain around his voice was not her imagination.

  Heart bouncing around like a fish flopping in a net, still caught by his gaze, Cassie managed to croak out, “Um, what exactly are you talking about?”

  The entire world seemed to still as everything funneled in some sort of vortex to this moment. Cassie watched Trevor's mouth as he spoke, bizarrely fascinated by the way his lips shaped the words he was saying, even though they spouted crazier talk than anything she'd heard yet.

  “You are the alpha's mate. You have been claimed by the pack.” His voice rang through her head as well as the hushed woods around them. “But the only way to keep you truly safe from those who will wish you harm—and there will be more of those,” he added in bleak, resigned tones. “The only way to keep you truly safe from harm, able to defend yourself against all who ever question the validity of your existence as my mate, is for you to truly become one of us. Cassandra Wakefield,” Trevor said, his voice seeming to boom out over all of Wicked Mountain. “You must submit to my bite and become a wolf shifter yourself.”

  Cassie stared back at him. A slightly hysterical little laugh spurted out of her, followed by another one.

  Then she felt herself slipping into a very welcome blackness as her suddenly boneless legs and exhausted mind finally gave out, and she submitted instead to a dead faint.

  Chapter 5

  Cassandra turned restlessly in her sleep, her forehead lining as one hand jerked in a “go away” motion. She moaned, her eyes moving rapidly beneath her closed lids.

  Something in the vicinity of Trevor's chest squeezed again. He frowned. It had been doing that off and on recently, despite his efforts to shut the damn thing up. Sliding one hand up to Cassandra's face, he softly stroked her forehead until she calmed. The sweet red lips that always drew him and the soft skin that demanded his touch softened beneath his ministrations. At the same time, his cock hardened.

  His lovely Cassandra simply had that effect upon him. He certainly wasn't going to fight it. In fact, he hadn't much fought the urge during the past two weeks since she'd been taken by the since-banished shifters.

  Scowling for a moment as he considered his brother, who hadn't been seen since that day but had been officially banished anyway after Cassandra had confirmed his part in her kidnapping, Trevor gritted his teeth before banishing the thoughts as well. He had more pressing concerns on his mind at the moment. Such as pleasuring his beautiful mate, who every day was turning out to be stronger than he'd ever have thought.

  Strong enough that she'd thus far firmly resisted his desire to turn her into a wolf shifter as well.

  Trevor had been utterly alarmed when she fainted in his arms, although Tamsin naturally had immediately rushed over and helped him, shouting for the other wolves to stop standing around with their jaws hanging open and try instead to be useful. She'd only slid a single pointed glance at her brother before overseeing the bustle in attending to his mate.

  Days later, after Cassandra acquiesced to much rest and one very memorable, oddly tender night, she finally had been full of questions, which assured him she was back to herself. “But wolf shifters are born that way, aren't they?” Her crystal blue eyes had looked at him carefully when she'd asked that. “You can't make a human being into one. In fact, I've never heard of that being possible.”

  He'd smiled inside at her rather impertinent tone, though outwardly he'd made a show of looking stern. “We have many topics of which humans do not need to be apprised. I assure you, although quite uncommon, such a thing is indeed possible.”

  “But how do you know it will work?” This became her constant refrain to his every argument for turning her.

  “It has been done before,” he had replied each time.

  “Hmm.” She'd given him an arch look from where she rested on the huge pile of pillows on his bed, the promise in her expression which had abruptly turned his cock so hard he'd decided answering her without words was the better course of action at the moment. Semantics wouldn't win the battle.

  Now, he gazed down at his sleeping mate, still gently stroking her face even as his baser urges ordered him to wake her. But the pure trust in her pose as she lay slumbering, relaxed and safe beside him, held him for a long moment as he considered her very existence.

  With a murmur, Cassandra fluttered her eyelids, then slowly opened them. Golden hair clung to the side of her mouth and over the startlingly clear blue eyes that managed to capture him with solid longing nearly every time he saw them.

  “Hi,” she whispered.

  Trevor felt his mouth smile back at her. Oddly, that kept happening more often lately as well. Something about his delicious, sassy, amazing mate relaxed and soothed him like he hadn't been since—since his last mate.

  At that thought, Trevor felt the shadows gather again. Cassandra sensed them as well. Blinking away the sleep, she pushed herself up on one elbow to gaze at him.

  “What are you thinking right now?”

  Trevor made a “mphm” noise in the back of his throat and reached his hand down to brush it over her breasts with focused intention. But his lovely mate, despite the spike in arousal he sensed, reached down and caught his hand with hers. Small but determined, she held him still while shaking her head.

  “Hold on a minute, Mr. Sex Fiend.”

  “Sex fiend?” Trevor raised his eyebrows, but he felt a corner of his mouth tugging up again. “I do believe you have been receptive to my advances. Should I call you my sex fiendess?”

  Cassandra laughed. He watched in fascination as that relaxed her entire face and caused soft ripples to move up and down her entire body. He made to free his hand from hers, but she tightened her grip. He let her hold on, even though they both knew he could easily break away.

  The point was, he didn't want to.

  “You know,” she started slowly, “I get the practical reasons for wanting me to be like you.” Her brilliant eyes were earnest, yet touched with puzzlement as well. “Although I still can hardly wrap my mind around doing that. I mean—you don't have any other humans who turned into shifters living here. Are they just like born shifters, afterward?”

  Trevor brought her hand up to his mouth and lightly nibbled on her knuckles. Although she inhaled and her eyes darkened just a bit, she held firm.

  He relented. “As I told you, there is precedence for this. Only an alpha can turn humans, and it I

  s not something we prefer to do as a usual course.”

  The lovely blue eyes were rolled at him. Trevor felt something inside relax even more. Secretly, he enjoyed that she played with him like that. That she did not fear him. That she could question him without the political pussyfooting that usually accompanied the way pack members talked to him. It demonstrated without a shred of doubt that she was indeed a fine mate.

  It also demonstrated she would be a fine wolf.

  “But what if—” she began, only to be cut off as leaned forward to brush his lips against hers.

  Cassandra made an approving noise into his mouth. For a talkative thing like she was, she certainly could become quiet in a hurry. Her lips pressed against his, soft, sweet and promising treats so delectable he hardened even more.

  Moving his head slightly, he whispered, “Shh. I wish to do something to you that shall require your attention and focus.”

  She giggled. He raised an eyebrow at her. Saluting him, she giggle-whispered back, “Okay, sir. Show me what you've got.”

  Something already smoky dark in Trevor's eyes deepened to near black. Cassie's giggle faded in her throat as her pulse sped up. His dark hair
framed features so stunning and focused entirely on her that suddenly she could hardly breathe. As he gently nipped at her cheek, then lightly nibbled on her ear, Cassie trembled and writhed—yes, she actually writhed, good god this man drove her wild—on the bed. Just the touch of his lips on her ear made her forget everything else.

  Well, almost everything else. The shadows that haunted her mate's eyes ever since she'd freed herself from the two crazy wolves and made her way back to him had left a relentless imprint on her. Sure, she knew they were just fated mates or whatever it was, and yes, he drove her body into insane desire with barely a flick of his finger, so of course she should care about him. Right?

  But every time she saw the set look to his jaw or the very faint but definite ripple of some old pain in his face, all she wanted to do was soothe it away. Her heart actually constricted at the thought that he was hurting. Worst of all, he wouldn't even tell her why, and he'd forbidden Tamsin to tell her, either.

  It seemed like she was really, truly falling for the super hot, super alpha wolf shifter who was her mate. And she had no real idea what to do about it.

  Except let him kiss the hell out of her right now. That was easy enough.

  “Open for me,” he breathed, his hand questing down her belly and nestling into her thighs.

  “Okay,” she said back, her voice high-pitched and breathless.

  He had that effect on her. Every. Single. Time.

  Trevor slipped his fingers between her legs, dipping them into the wetness there. Cassie gasped and cried out, her legs naturally just falling apart. Why, yes, sir, come right on in, sir.

  Oh, god, yes, please.

  Trevor's pleased laugh rumbled in her ear, which he licked and bit until she was a shivering, quivering mess of sensation. Who knew her ear was so sensitive? Who cared? She just wanted him to never stop.

  Especially his fingers.

  “How does this feel to you?”

  Normally she would giggle at his funny way of saying things, like everything was a pronouncement. Now, all she could do was make a sort of babbling noise in the back of her throat as he swirled his fingers inside her, rolling them around like he was whipping up cake batter. Cassie moaned when he crooked one finger and began stroking her inside.