“It’s not funny.”
“You don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
“We’ve been set up.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Are you out here walking for your good health?”
“No. Miss Lonnie left a gift at my…. Oh God.”
“Miss Fern left a gift there, too. She didn’t happen to make your dress, did she?”
Megan shook her head. “No, but she altered— Son of a bitch. I’m going to kill them.”
Tad cocked his head.
“What?”
“You’re fucking gorgeous when wet, pissed, and naked, very, very naked.”
She took a step back. “That’s not funny, Tad.”
“I’m not cracking a joke.” He took a step forward, his wolf ready to break free. His fangs pushed against his gums, and his blood burned.
She took several more steps back.
“Don’t run if you don’t want to get fucked within an inch of your life. On second thought, whatever you do, you’re still getting fucked.”
Megan lifted her chin. “Don’t you dare wolf out on me, Tad Dawson. I’m not dealing with an animal right now.”
“Can’t help it. My wolf wants his mate, and she’s standing in front of him, falling out of her clothes.”
Megan swallowed, and her nostrils flared. “I can’t do this.”
“You’re mine and you damn well know it. Don’t even try to tell me you don’t want this.”
“Where did you go before the ceremony started?”
“To get cherry soda and vodka. I wanted a do-over.”
She shifted from foot to foot. “You weren’t with another wolf?”
“Hell no. I haven’t been with another woman since the day we said good-bye. Besides the fact my junk won’t work, I don’t want other women. I want you.”
Her gaze drifted to his crotch, and she smiled. “Don’t seem to have a problem now.”
“No,” he all but growled. “It’s been a long five years.”
“Good. I’m glad you suffered.”
“You have no idea.”
“Are you leaving again tomorrow?”
“Do you want me to?”
Megan dropped his coat in the mud. The remnants of her dress slid down her wet curves to join it. “Well then, catch me if you can. If you can get to me before I get home, you can have me.” She spun and started running, shifting mid stride into a glorious gray wolf. His wolf.
Two and a half miles. Shit! Tad kicked his shoes off and tore his fly open, depositing the rest of his tux in a puddle. He closed his eyes and let the change take him. Before starting after her, he lifted his nose into the air and howled.
Challenge accepted.
Chapter Seven
“Did you hear something?” Miss Lonnie turned toward the other matrons standing with her and smiled. All of the ladies raised their hands into the air, smacking each other’s palms.
Gee came up behind them. “I seem to be missing a couple of bottles of mead. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
“No, haven’t seen any.” Miss Lonnie slipped a bottle behind her skirt, passing it off to Claire, who hid it in her massive handbag.
He eyed them suspiciously. “That little high-five wouldn’t have to do with that wolf howling a little bit ago?”
“Whatever are you talking about, dear? Are you jealous? Should we find you a cute little bear?” Miss Lonnie looked up, batting her eyes.
“I bet he likes big boobs,” Miss Claire said.
“No, I would say he’s an ass man. Nobody has an ass like a brown bear,” Miss Lonnie piped up.
“I thought that was just a rumor,” Miss Kathy said.
“No indeed. I’ve met a few she-bears in my life and let me tell you, they bring sexy back in the back.”
“You know, come to think of it, there’s a family of grizzlies in Sturgis.” Miss Fern drummed her fingers on her chin, giving Gee the once over.
“I don’t need…. Why do I bother to explain?” Gee growled and walked off.
Miss Kathy shook her head. “You really need to quit threatening him, dear.”
“It’s not a threat. He needs a good shagging. A couple of cubs might put a smile on his face, too.” Miss Lonnie adjusted her giant hat and grinned from ear to ear, as she eyed the approaching alpha.
Drew walked by.
“Evening, Drew. How about you? Any buns in the oven yet?”
Miss Kathy cleared her throat and delivered a soft elbow to Lonnie’s side.
He turned on his heel, heading toward the bar, where Gee searched for his missing mead. “Gee! You haven’t given the ladies any of that mead again?”
“Oh dear, I think they’re on to us. Let’s take this party to my place,” Miss Fern said.
“I second that.” Miss Claire grabbed her wrap off a chair. “We’ve completed the mission anyway.”
“So,” Miss Lonnie said as she ducked out the back door with her posse. “Who’s next?”
***
Megan’s feet pounded against the forest floor. She’d intentionally taken the long way home, hoping he would catch up to her, but as her house came into view, her heart sank. She darted between bushes and leapt over a log, landing not one hundred yards from her door. She came to a stop and glanced behind her. No way did she go fast enough to lose him, which meant one thing.
Tad wasn’t coming.
Oompf. A wolf slammed into her side, taking her off her feet, sending her sliding across the mud, coming to a stop with him looming over her. Large green eyes stared down at her, filled with desire.
She closed her eyes and forced her shift, only to open her eyes again and see he had changed to human as well. Now she lay on her back with him straddling her, his hands on either side of her head, the same moss-colored eyes watching her.
“Gottcha.” He grinned, looking very school-boyish with mud smeared across his jaw and a lock of damp hair clinging to his forehead. Rain pelted his head and shoulders, the drops splattering on his flesh and racing down his torso, dripping onto her.
Her heart thumped double time. “Now, what do you plan to do about it?”
He leaned down and captured her mouth, shielding her from the rain. He broke the kiss and pressed his forehead against hers. “Shall we take this to your place?” He lifted his head and stared at her glass house.
“No.” Megan hooked an ankle around his and flipped him, reversing their positions. “Now. But….” She brought her lips to his. “I need to know you’re in this forever.”
“I am in this forever.” He bucked up and returned her to her back, pressing his body into her. “No more running.” He trailed kisses down her throat to her breasts, laving one nipple before taking it in his teeth and giving it a gentle tug. “No more nail guns or saws.”
“Party pooper.”
He bit her nipple harder.
Megan yelped, even though lightning bolts shot through her pelvis. She reached up and fisted his hair, forcing him to lift his head and look at her. “Take me now.”
“Yes ma’am.” Tad laced his fingers into her hair the way she had, holding her captive. He leaned in and kissed her, nipping her bottom lip before sucking it between his teeth. His knee slid between her legs, forcing her thighs apart. His cock, hot and hard, rested against her throbbing clit. He made it clear there’d be no backing off this time—or walking away.
Tad finally planned to claim her.
She rocked her hips back, until the head of his dick pressed at her entrance.
He let go of her hair and grabbed her wrists, pressing them over her head. “You’re mine.” He thrust into her like a battering ram, taking everything she had to give. Her breath caught and her muscles tightened. Every attack, every wolf who tried to claim her had never gotten this far, all but one, and now he knew. Megan turned her head to stare at a stand of trees near
her house, embarrassed he knew she’d had another man inside her since he’d left, especially since he professed to have no other. Guilt hit her like a sledgehammer. She should have fought harder—stopped him somehow.
“Look at me.”
“I can’t.”
“Look at me.”
She turned to face him.
“Whoever took your innocence didn’t conquer your heart. That has always belonged to me. Your spirit, your love, was only for me to claim, and you have guarded them as I knew you would. Don’t think for a moment I don’t know that.”
“He….”
Tad shook his head. “No. Just us, here and now. Whoever he was, he has no place here.” He claimed her lips again and began to move. Pleasure boiled through her body, claiming her in a way only Tad could. He glided in and out, harder and faster.
Megan locked her ankles behind him and let him take her with the fierceness his wolf and her wolf desired. With each thrust the memories vaporized. With each rock of his hips, he stamped her as his.
For the first time, explosions rocked her body, her pussy clenching around him as she came as hard as he took her. Her breath locked and energy pulsed through her from her belly to the tips of her fingers and toes. She could not, would not ever belong to another.
As her climax reached its apex, he bit the curve of her shoulder, claiming her as he’d promised, smashing any thoughts she’d reserved he would ever walk away or leave her again.
Her orgasm intensified, and she cried out, “I love you.” Megan dug her nails into his ass, needing him, wanting him deeper.
He thrust one last time, burying himself to his balls. “I’ve always loved you.” Tad came, throbbing inside her. “That will never change.”
She looked into his face and water splashed in her eyes, reminding her that, in their haste to claim each other, they’d decided to make love in a storm, instead of the safety of her house. “Shall we finish this inside?”
“We can continue, but I don’t think we’ll ever really finish.” He smiled and brushed a damp strand from her eyes. “Marry me, Meg.”
“We just mated….”
He put his finger to her lips. “I also want to celebrate this bond as a human. I want the world to know we are together, forever, that Romeo has found his Juliet. I want to put a ring on your finger, babies in your belly, and grow old and gray with you. I’ve been thinking about this since I saw you. I have an idea what I’d like to do for work, got it from a buffalo I met in Gee’s, I mean I’ve made a killing investing what I earned modeling, and I could help a few wolves around here do the same…and help you with the construction when I’m not dealing with the stock market. I can support us and not be a retriever where I would have to leave from time to time. I will never leave again. So, what do you say? Let’s take a vow in front of the pack and our friends. Marry me.”
“Yes.”
Tad rolled off and pulled her to her feet. He linked his fingers in hers and tugged her toward home.
Epilogue
Tad woke up in the middle of the night alone in bed. He glanced around, looking for his mate, before he threw the covers back and padded out to see her staring through the front door, into the forest.
“Tad?”
He wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing, for once. I’ve never slept in my bed before, too afraid at any moment a man would walk through that door and take something I didn’t want to give, and then later, after Magnum was gone, I found myself out here, hoping I’d see you walking toward the door, back to me.”
“What happened, Meg?”
“The alpha got worse after you left. He’d send wolves to me, telling them I’d be their mate if they could nail me.”
A red haze washed across his vision, and Tad jerked back, turning Megan around to face him. He slid his fingers under her chin and lifted her gaze to his. “He sent men to rape you?”
“Only one succeeded in doing that. The first I was forced to mate with. I put him in a coma after. Magnum finished him off a couple weeks later so he could send more. It became a game to him.”
“Shit. I should have been here to protect you.”
“It’s not your fault. You didn’t know, and, in a way, you did protect me. Because of what you’d taught me, I avoided much I wouldn’t have otherwise.”
“I thought you would be safe, your family would be safe if I stayed away. If I’d come back, maybe things would be different.”
“You would be dead. Magnum killed anyone who returned after abandoning the pack. I always thought you could come here, and he’d throw you at me and everything would be fine, but I know better now.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“No. This is a new day, a new start—your redo. I need it as much as you. Today, we start over and forget what’s behind us.” She grabbed his hand and held it to her cheek. “We have been given a second chance, and I don’t want the past to dictate our future.”
Tad smiled. “You sound like the bear.”
“Because the bear told me that.” She laughed softly. “And he was right.”
“Don’t admit that to him. We’ll never hear the end of it.”
“So…a wedding?”
“Yeah, what do you know about getting married, because I’m clueless here.”
“After the last few months, I’m an expert. We’ll start with a guest list, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll slip it to some well-meaning ladies so they can help a few fated mates find their way back to each other.”
Yeah, he could think of a few wolves he’d like to put in their crosshairs. Tad laughed and swept her into his arms. “I love you.”
“Love you, too, Romeo.” She brought a bottle of cherry vodka from behind her back. “Found this in the freezer. Let’s toast to our do-over.”
“I forgot I put it there.” Tad carried her to their room. “And that’s a great idea, but only if we do it in bed. I’ve got five years’ worth of do-over to catch up on.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
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Wedding Moon by D.L. Jackson
Chapter One
Tierney stared into the mirror. The cover-up did a great job hiding the bruise under her eye, but it didn’t take the hurt from her heart. She chewed on her lip. Can I do it?
He’d sworn it would never happen again. No, it would, unless....
She lifted her pearl and diamond-encrusted skirt, studying it. So that’s what a hundred thousand dollars looks like. She’d left her clothes back at the hotel and would be unable to change out of the monstrosity at the church. A pity. She was pretty certain taking off with it could get her charged with grand larceny. Lucky for her, the dressing room sat near a fire escape leading into an alley, not far from a ramp to the interstate, where, hopefully, she could make a getaway before the authorities caught her.
Maxwell had flown the designer from Paris to create this gown exclusively for her. Her fiancé’s choice of fabric, his choice of style. Even the fortune in jewels sewn onto the fabric, his. Nothing about the god-awful gown spoke to her. Actually, she looked like a very expensive harlot in it. She’d tried to argue she’d pick her own dress, opting for something simple and elegant, but what Max wanted, Max got. So here she stood, looking like a stripper, exactly as he wanted.
What about this wedding wasn’t?
The guests were his, even the cake a flavor he’d chosen—rum raisin. Who the hell chose rum raisin for a wedding cake? He’d all but to
ld her he owned her—bought and paid for—and demonstrated his control by tugging her strings and watching her dance to his music. But he’d made one mistake. He’d failed to squash her rebellious streak, the same streak which had her standing here, asking what the heck she thought marrying him would accomplish.
No, he didn’t own her. Not yet. She hadn’t said I do. So, when she got somewhere safe and away from him, she’d ship the dress back. No harm—no foul. Except. Well, the wedding was bought and paid for to the tune of sixty grand. Lord, what had she gotten herself into?
Plus, if he caught her, he wasn’t the forgiving type. Since she didn’t have a family nearby, and the only friends she had were the ones he picked for her, nobody would miss her if she disappeared. At least, not right away. Long enough he could dispose of any evidence of her demise.
She should just marry him. But her granny, God rest her soul, would roll over in her grave if she did. She’d always told Tierney someday she’d find a man who would love her the way her father had loved her mother. A forever guy. She’d told her to hold out for him because out there somewhere, under that big sky, a man existed who would love her to his dying breath.
Yeah, and that man isn’t Max. She slipped her engagement ring off her finger and set it on the stand beside the mirror. For all the excess Max went to, the ring was the one thing he’d kept simple. If he’d spent one hundred dollars on it, she’d be surprised. Another way he’d shown her the only value she had was what he assigned to her.
Knock, knock, knock. “Five minutes,” Celia called from the other side and walked away, her heels clicking on the imported Spanish tile. Celia, Max’s assistant and the one he fucked in his office at night, when he said he had to work late, the very woman he swore he’d never touched. Tierney’s inquiry of said whore’s lipstick on his collar had been the reason for the black eye she’d had to cover up. No way would she marry a man who hit her or smashed away at her self-confidence.
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