Wicked Wolf Shifters: BBW Werewolf Paranormal Romance

by Anna Craig

  Her nostrils flared with the force of her temper. Trevor felt his pulse thumping out of control, like everything in his body threatened to do within seconds.

  “And why did you call me your love, then just up and vanish like that?” Her voice trembled despite the force of her words. “Why do you keep acting like this?”

  “Because I do not want to lose you!” he roared back, unable to contain it. Pain and frustration finally spewed out of him like the volcanic mountain upon which they stood. “Because I cannot bear that thought, Cassandra. I cannot lose you! I cannot lose my mate again,” he whispered raggedly, voice cracking on his own words.

  Words that echoed like thunder in the abrupt silence. Even the crickets didn't dare to sing, cowed into silence by the turmoil sweeping the glade.

  Cassandra stared at him, mouth open, all the anger suddenly draining away into a sudden sorrow and understanding that softened her features and energy into a blanket of warmth he thought might smother him if he let it. “Oh, Trevor,” she whispered. “Oh, god. What happened?”

  Something clutched his heart so hard he gasped. Held by the strength of Cassandra's gaze, unable to staunch the tide, the words spilled from him with relentless abandon. He shook from the force of their release. “I was mated.” His voice grated as if it was being dragged over jagged rocks. “Shortly before I became alpha.”

  Cassandra simply nodded, urging him to continue.

  “We planned a life. But it was not to be.” He heard his own voice tumbling out the truth he had not allowed anyone to mention ever since it had happened.

  Cassandra's wide eyes regarded him, shiny in the moonlight with what he knew were tears. Tears for him, damn it all. Yet it was useless to try stemming either the flow of memories or his voice.

  “Even wolf shifters are not immortal.” He felt a tiny muscle below one eye twitch, but his words continued without his permission. “It was a car accident. Such an inane, stupid thing.” His voice turned suddenly savage, but she did not quail before him. She merely looked at him. Unafraid to face whatever he might say, or do.

  “I was driving.” He held Cassandra's gaze as steadily as he could. “We'd been quarreling. Rather, I quarreled with her over something so insignificant I do not recall it. I did not pay attention to the road as I should have been in wintertime.”

  Willing his voice to be blank, failing because beneath it roiled everything he recognized was desperate to get out, he said, “We hit a patch of ice and skidded off the road. She broke her neck and died instantly.”

  He saw Cassandra's breath hitch as she brought one hand to her mouth, staring at him over it.

  “We had been officially mated for less than a year. Naturally, I did not think we would be parted for hundreds of years. I did not handle the loss well.”

  Silence dropped even more heavily now. Trevor forced himself to stand still, to not speak more. He had said enough. Admitted more than an alpha ever should to any wolf.

  Yet his beautiful golden-haired mate was not just any wolf. She was the only one who could see him like this.

  Vulnerable.

  Unmoored.

  And still fighting the baseless, clawing terror within him that despite her new existence as a predator, he would be as unable to protect her, just as he had failed his first mate.

  Standing there watching him, Cassandra's face grew even softer. She reached forward to slide a gentle little hand down his chest, raising goosebumps on his skin as she did. He almost allowed himself to sway toward her, let himself just relax into the moment. Soft despite the strength he knew she possessed. Kind despite the sassy tongue. Gentle despite the fact she'd been forced to kill her unwanted enemy earlier in the day. He felt so drawn to simply let go, to let himself fall into her embrace as he trembled with the finally released sorrow of these many years.

  But years of practice, regardless of the insanity that loosed his tongue now, made him set his jaw instead, trying to step back from his sweet mate.

  The mate whose very existence was exploding every damned wall he'd raised over the years to protect not her, he realized.

  To protect instead his own reckless, foolish heart.

  Chapter 8

  Cassie felt Trevor move back from her as Mr. Granite Man took over yet again.

  No. Nopey-nope-no. Not again. Never again. Not after what he'd finally confessed, the admission tearing out her own heart. Oh, god, his face. It had cracked, showing the vulnerability she knew he'd lived with for all these years without sharing. Without allowing to come out.

  Tamsin was right. Trevor had to let it out, let it go, or it really would destroy him.

  Drawing on the strength and focus of the wolf within her, she shook her head and caught his arms in her hands.

  “No,” she said. The little tremble that had almost turned into tears stiffened into strength and determination instead. “No. Not again. I deserve more,” she whispered in a fierce growl. “And so do you. You are not leaving me again, dammit!”

  Without warning, she lunged at his chest and pushed him backward onto the grassy floor of the clearing. Caught off-guard, Trevor stumbled backward and went down, with Cassie on top of him.

  A startled “Oof!” yanked its way out of him, but before he could say more, Cassie began her relentless attack. Her lips nibbled at his, then kissed him. Her hands explored his long, hard body, loving the feel of it as always. She slipped one hand along his hip, curled the fingers of her other hand into his hair. His cock rushed to almost full hardness when she reached between them to grasp it. First lightly, then with a little more force. Almost angrily.

  She needed to claim him for herself.

  Trevor did not resist. His breath quickened as his eyes darkened. She could still see whatever shadows were in there, but she was going to force them out. Force them into the daylight—okay, moonlight—where they would be exposed. Then eventually vanish. For good.

  And this time, if he tried to run away again, she'd shift into her wolf, grab him by the scruff of his neck, and pounce on him to keep him still.

  There had to be some advantages to being a wolf, after all.

  Cassie slid her hand along the velvety skin of his shaft, marveling at the contrast between the softness of skin and the steel-hard feel of his sexy length. She would never get tired of it. Twirling her finger over the head, she felt the small bead of liquid pooled at the tip.

  Trevor groaned at her touch. The tension in his body was still there, but she could tell it was becoming sexual tension. The slow, wonderful kind that demanded luxurious release.

  Grabbing her hips in his hands, her mate pushed her into him, his eyes locked on hers. His expression was still guarded, but the cracks were showing. That looseness, that loss of control when he was with her. The wild, unleashed abandon she absolutely adored to see in him. She wanted to know it was real, and that he would allow it to be a part of his life. A part of their life, together.

  “Cassandra.” His voice graveled out over the clearing, rumbling up through his chest and sending answering quakes through her own body. Just the way he said her name was more than enough to set off a tide of wet, slick warmth between her legs. The one spot she wanted him to fill, to reclaim as his.

  This time, though, she planned to lead the dance.

  “I—I want—” He broke off his words, panting as she ground herself onto him. Catching his lower lip between his teeth, he rocked his hips beneath hers, still pressing his hands down on her. Trying to position her perfectly above his fully erect cock so she could slide onto him.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes. Let me.”

  Cassie nestled herself above him, teasing him by placing the wetness of herself right over him, just barely touching the huge head of his shaft. Trevor actually gasped, his breath whistling raggedly through his throat. His eyes didn't leave hers, although his gaze was half-lidded. The defined planes of his face were illuminated by the moonlight. His hard mouth was soft, relaxed. Cassie felt another, even stronger bolt
of arousal at the sight of her masterful mate letting her lead.

  This, she decided, was really nice.

  Knees pressed into the earth on either side of him, his intoxicating musky aroma mingling with the scents of the wild forest around them, Cassie pulled his hands off her hips and gently lifted them above his head. She crossed his wrists and pressed down on them with one hand.

  Then she reached her other hand back to guide herself onto her mate, the air sighing with their rapid breaths as she eased down onto him.

  ~~~

  Trevor let his mate hold his hands above his head, even though they both knew he could break her light grasp. It reminded him of the first time he had touched her. From the look in her eyes right now, she was also remembering that time.

  Watching her do this, feeling her taking control of the moment just as she had when he had given her the bite to change her, aroused him in a way he wouldn't be able to articulate if he tried. Her hair fell about her face and caressed his chest, awakening every last nerve ending he had. Everything inside him bubbled into some enormous sensation he couldn't describe, either. It was a mixture of longing, lust, regret, fear, anxiety, deliberation—and the word that had slipped out of him when he had held her earlier. The one that burned on his tongue even now.

  With precision, holding his gaze as fiercely as he held hers, Cassandra slid down onto him. Trevor pulled in a sharp breath as her sweet heat surrounded his cock, enveloping it as she settled herself onto him all the way down to the root.

  His mate.

  “I'm here, Trevor,” she whispered. “Stay with me.”

  They both sighed, eyes locked together just as their bodies were. She began to gently rock on him, lazily twisting her hips in a circular motion that made his vision seem to shoot stars. Her hand pressed down harder on his wrist as she balanced herself, while the other one rested on his chest.

  “Look at me.” Her voice was commanding, although the small thrill running through it told Trevor she was also somewhat awed by her own daring.

  “I cannot stop looking at you,” he said in simple answer. “Never.”

  Cassandra threw back her head, revealing her smooth throat. Trevor longed to lean forward and nip at it, but he let her hold him down. Not only did she want to, it excited him as well.

  The feeling of being held. Of allowing his own relentless control to relax, even if just for a moment.

  Cassie began to move faster, her slickness gripping him with delicious friction as she slid her sweet center up and down his shaft. Every now and then she squeezed him with her inner muscles, nearly causing his eyes to roll back in his head.

  “Cassandra,” he whispered in a jagged groan.

  Her body shone in the moonlight like supple alabaster as she worked her body on his, drawing out something huge and explosive within him. Something that was building more strongly than mere physical release.

  “Yes,” she murmured, the clear blue of her eyes visible to him even in the moonlight. “Stay with me,” she said again, her voice a mix of longing and hope, touched by the rising arousal he sensed galloping through her as well.

  Trevor moved beneath her, slanting his hips into hers. Her lips came down to kiss his, wet and hot and rough with her need despite the exquisite softness of her mouth. He kissed her back with all the passion built within him over the many weeks since the sweet little vixen had come into his life.

  Abruptly tightening on him, her pebbled nipples pressed hard into his chest, Cassie made the little noise into his mouth he knew meant she was about to come.

  Everything in him heated to an almost unbearable level. Every single thing from this moment, this day, from his entire damned life until right now, boiled over into a head-banging rush as he shuddered into his mate. He grabbed hard onto the small yet strong hand still holding his arms above his head.

  She cried out, panting above him, her sweet presence close and loving and there with him.

  Unable to hold himself back, Trevor let his own climax barrel through him, uncontrolled and wild, jetting hard and hot into Cassandra's sweet, receptive body as he cried out with her, calling her name in an urgent, blinding call.

  “Cassandra!” he shouted, his entire body shaking with the force of his climax spurting hard into her.

  ~~~

  Entire body aflame and on the very edge of hurtling into that sweet, shattering place where she would explode, Cassie could barely focus even as Trevor released into her, shaking from the force of it.

  “Ah, yes,” was all she could manage in response, her voice a half moan, half strangled gasp.

  He rocked beneath her, arching up into her, his eyes still fixed on hers in an intensity that made her positive he could see right into his soul. She'd never seen his eyes were so soft, so open.

  “With me,” she gasped, holding him tightly with every muscle she had as she trembled and shook with him.

  “I love you, Cassandra!” Trevor half howled, the rough deepness of his wolf's possessive growl lending undeniable truth to the words. He kept his eyes locked on hers as he plunged back into her. Saying the words without fear. Claiming her with his intense need.

  Truly claiming her with his love.

  Cassie couldn't stop her scream of joy as an orgasm burst through her. “I love you, too,” she cried, her voice steady and sure even through the rip of passion stunning her into exquisite bliss.

  Mate, mate, mate, her wolf chanted within her, adding a howl that rang through Cassie's voice.

  She felt Trevor's seed pumping into her with a heat and fullness as he cried out her name, again and again, their hips matched into the same rhythm, their voices mingling in ecstasy, their hearts beating as one. Her head about exploded along with her body. She could tell Trevor felt the same as his long, hard body slammed into hers, with hers.

  Together. Oh, god, finally. Together with her mate.

  It felt like hours later that she finally spiraled back down to earth. Her limbs were so heavy, so full. She let herself drape across him completely, already so drowsy from the most earth-shattering climax she'd ever had, along with the most wild emotions of the past, oh, freaking twenty-four hours or so, that she was on the verge of falling asleep.

  His heart pounded beneath hers. The cadence of it was strong, and sure, and true. Her own heart had about bled for him, but she knew she'd cracked it finally. His own big, dumb, alpha heart was a bit more open.

  “One heartbeat at a time,” she mumbled, trying to smother a yawn and totally failing.

  He chuckled, and she felt a smile spread over her face at the sound. He sounded relaxed, and real.

  “I have exhausted you, it seems.” He lightly nipped at her ear, one hand rubbing slow, soft circles on the small of her back. “And what do you mean by that? One heartbeat at a time?”

  His big chest rumbled under hers as he spoke, the sweat slicking between them. She nestled deeper onto his huge, delightfully relaxed body as she said back, another yawn threatening to punch through, “I don't know what that means. I think it means something like one day at a time. I've got your back, you big, badass alpha, you. And I know you've got mine. No matter what,” she said, voice seeping into a murmur. Her eyes were shut, her body was so relaxed she thought she might just dissolve into him, and she was with her mate. It was all she wanted right now.

  “Ah, my Cassandra.” He nuzzled her hair. “I do believe that makes you my badass alpha wolf mate, then.”

  “Mm-hmmm,” she murmured.

  That was all she wanted. Everything else could wait.

  Cassie didn't protest as Trevor rolled her over onto her side, spooning himself against her. He draped an arm and one leg over her, tucking him as close in to himself as he could. She pushed back into him, feeling so protected and still strangely protective that it almost hurt from how exactly, perfectly right it felt.

  The crickets were singing again, a soft chorus at the edge of her consciousness. The slightest rustle of a breeze whispered over her skin, carrying the
deep, comforting scents of the forest with it. Curled up with her shifter mate in the woods, like the feral animal she was. Oh, hell yeah.

  She tried to snort at her own silly thoughts, but sleep tugged more firmly. Trevor, holding her tightly, murmured, “One heartbeat a time, love. That seems to be an appropriate way to handle this. Yes. That shall be how we do this.”

  Cassie fell asleep in his arms, smiling at his funny way of talking, but mostly at the note of wonder and what sounded like the beginnings of peace in his voice, her own heart beating solidly next to his.

  One Month Later

  Cassie stood near the riverbank, her white dress draping against her in graceful lines. A freaking gorgeous crown of flowers circled her head, matching the stunning little bouquet she held in her hands. The flowers were beautiful deep reds and yellows, dotted with small splashes of white here and there. Tamsin had seemed shy when she presented both garland and bouquet to Cassie that morning.

  “It's not really traditional for a mating ceremony,” she'd said, biting her lip. “But I thought you might like it because it's what humans sometimes do when they get married.”

  Cassie's heart once again just about overflowed with all the love she felt for this incredible pack that was now hers. And for this woman who was like a sister.

  “It's perfect, Tam.” Her voice had kind of wobbled, and she couldn't help but let a tear or two leak out. “Thank you.”

  Tamsin stood beside her now as the maid of honor, another concession to the mating-marriage blend of a ceremony. Looking at the huge audience grouped nearby, watching, Cassie caught her mother wiping away a few tears herself. Her parents had been totally shocked about everything, of course. Not to mention somewhat freaked out about their daughter now being a wolf. But all her mother had whispered to her when Cassie filled her in on all the details—well, okay, not the sex, no way was she sharing that with her mom—was a sort of confused but kindly, “I'm really glad they didn't eat you, dear. Maybe some things will be changing here on Wicked Mountain.”