by Mary Winter
The sound of sizzling bacon filled the air and the aroma hit her like a delicious punch to the gut. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she really hadn’t eaten much and with the run, suddenly she was famished. A glance to the kitchen showed that he put the entire pound of bacon in the skillet and it sizzled. Hash browns and eggs, along with a loaf of bread, sat on the counter. If nothing else, her mate proved to be a reasonably adept cook.
Conversation became sparse and once he finished cooking and filled plates before them, no one spoke while they ate. True to her word, as soon as her meal ended, Carmen left to go back to her own pack. Kacie helped clear the table and rinse the dishes. As soon as the dishwasher was started, she turned to Sloan.
“I feel like I should be angry with you, as if all of this were orchestrated. But you didn’t know my alpha was going to hit me or that I’d run. You certainly didn’t know or intend for me to run to your pack’s territory. I actually was going to go to Carmen and Lime Kiln.” She took a deep breath and stepped forward, the need to touch her mate, to resume their kiss, and even make love to him filling her veins. She licked her lips nervously. His gaze followed the movement. She swore she heard a low groan rumble from his chest. “I—” Suddenly talking seemed like the wrong thing to do. She stepped forward and kissed him.
Sloan wrapped his arms around her, pulling her flush against his chest. He slanted his lips over hers, drinking from her, kissing her as if they had all the time in the world. Warmth unfurled through her body along with a feeling of rightness. No matter the circumstances that had brought her here, being in his arms was good. It was right.
Standing on tiptoes, she threaded her fingers through his hair and pulled him even closer. He turned them so he pinned her between his body and the counter. He skimmed his hands along her sides, finding her shirt and bunching it in his fists. She opened her mouth and moaned.
Need. Want. Hunger. All of it flowed through her until her core ached with a delicious desire to finally feel her mate buried balls-deep inside her. Had they been alone earlier she might have shifted into human form and offered herself in the clearing, never mind the crisp air. The desire to be fully claimed by her mate had her tugging at his shirt until she reached beneath to touch his warm skin. She rocked her hips against him and was rewarded with his moan.
They had this moment. Who knew what would happen when his alpha showed up, when Pack’s Right would be invoked. They had this moment and she vowed to take everything it had to offer.
The need for air parted them, and he used the opportunity to push her shirt over her head. She let it fall, then keeping her gaze locked with his, reached behind her back and unfastened her bra. It, too, joined her shirt on the floor.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered, reaching up to reverently cup her breasts. He brushed his thumbs across her nipples, turning them into tight beads. Leaning forward he kissed her again, and she opened her mouth to him, inviting the sweep of his tongue while he caressed her breasts.
Kacie arched into his hands. Moisture filled her channel and she grabbed handfuls of his sweat shirt to return the favor. She removed it, and marveled at his flat pectorals, the whorls of hair between them and the line that arrowed down beneath the waistband of his jeans. He was, even only partially undressed, magnificent. She kissed him then, parting her legs so when he slid a thigh between hers, she arched against it. The friction of the seam of her jeans against her thin cotton panties and her sensitive center drew another moan from her. And when he unfastened her jeans and pulled down the zipper, pushing them and her panties over her hips, she stroked his tongue with her own and offered him her body.
He cupped her waist and broke the kiss long enough to lift her onto the kitchen counter. A moment later her boots hit the floor with a thud, and her jeans and panties joined the rest of her clothing. He stared at her for a moment. She savored the hunger in his gaze, the way he looked at her as if she were the only wolf in the world, then he lowered his mouth to one nipple.
She cried out, clutching the back of his head to hold him to her, while using her free hand to cup his shoulder. He licked and sucked her nipple, drawing it between his lips and grazing her oh so gently with his teeth. He alternated his attention between both of them, then reached between her legs to stroke her slick folds. Kacie moaned his name, “Sloan!”
His caresses grew more insistent and her arousal built. She arched her back, and leaned into his touch until he slipped a finger, then two, into her tight channel. Oh god, it’d been so long, so damn long, since any man had touched her like this. To know that it was her mate only aroused her even more to where she swore if she didn’t come soon she was going to burst into a shower of light and sparks. “Please,” she whimpered.
He turned his hand and pressed a thumb to her clit. Ecstasy bolted through her like sharp points of lightening, giving flame and a hungry all-encompassing desire to everything it touched. Every nerve ending in her body screamed for release; the pressure building at the base of her spine. He finger-fucked her, thrusting gently with two fingers while stroking and strumming her clit. The suction of his mouth on her breasts sent a give and take pull between them and her core, a pulsing that grew more insistent, the longer she remained immobile by her mate’s attentions.
And then she came, clinging to him, crying out as her pussy flooded his fingers with her juices. He stilled, though didn’t remove his fingers, and she tightened her muscles around his thick digits.
“Please,” she whispered. “I need you inside me.”
Her words pushed him to action and he grabbed her waist and lifted her. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her to the first bedroom down the hall—the one she’d been using. His muscles flexed in his arms as he lay her down on the bed, then stripped his shoes and jeans, standing naked over her. “I don’t have any protection,” he said.
“I trust you. And for everything else I’m on the pill.” She realized how foolish her words must have sounded, that she hardly knew this man or his history and yet craved the feel of his bare cock sliding into her. Later they’d talk about a family, if they even wanted one. Right now, she reached for him and moaned as the bed dipped beneath his weight.
He kissed her. “Thank you,” he said, then skimmed his hand down her side to cup the back of her thigh and open her to him. He braced his weight on his hands and thrust so the tip of his cock brushed her slick folds.
Yes! With her mouth otherwise occupied she couldn’t speak the word aloud. She thought them, opening her thighs wide to welcome her mate and invite him to take her. He thrust forward and speared her, filling her and this time she did pull her mouth away to cry out. He was thick and long, and it’d been so long so she was tight around him.
He groaned as he thrust, stopping only when he was balls-deep inside her.
“Sloan,” she moaned, wrapping her legs around his hips, her arms around his shoulder. “Make love to me.”
He needed no other encouragement and his long thrusts quickly sent her hurtling toward the peak once more. Their cries filled the room; the scent of sex on the air, keen even to her sensitive nose. He claimed her mouth in a hungry, feral kiss, and a moment later she shattered again in his arms. Her pussy milked him, drawing moans of pleasure from him which she eagerly swallowed. And then, with a final, hard thrust, he came, filling her with his seed and marking her as his. No matter where they went, other shifters would know. She belonged to Sloan Dundrick and the Iron Horse Pack.
Chapter Five
Sloan was glad his sister had put her famous roast in the slow cooker while he’d been busy making love to Kacie. When he returned to the house, his sister had given him a look, the kind that said even though she was younger, they’d be talking soon. He nodded, acknowledging it, and went to shower. By the time he’d come back downstairs she’d had the food well underway, the mixer kneading a batch of dough for homemade rolls. He glanced at his mate as they were eating, wanting to know what she thought of the food. He’d fed her brea
kfast, then lunch when they’d finally gotten out of bed, and the fact that he’d cared for his mate filled him with pride.
Terry Korcorin and his wife Leese sat across the table from him and Kacie. His sister and niece sat next to him, though they’d excused themselves before the conversation had begun. He’d told his sister only that Hat Rock believed he’d taken Kacie, though the bruise on her face said otherwise. Her reaction when she’d seen it, as well as that of his alpha, shock followed by grim determination told him that they both had Kacie and his backs. He appreciated it.
“So tell me, Kacie, about your alpha. Can you describe the events that led up to his hitting you?” Terry asked.
Sloan paused, wondering if he should jump in and try to protect Kacie, but beneath the table she squeezed his hand.
“I’d come to see him to talk to him again about the Shifters United treaty. Hat Rock is such a small pack, just me, Carter, his wife, the alpha, and a few other males who don’t come around very often. I felt the treaty would offer us protection as well as perhaps bring Dane’s ways in line with the rest of the shifters. Instead, he told me I had to marry Chance’s brother. I told him I wouldn’t, that packs don’t do arranged marriages anymore, and that’s when he backhanded me.” Kacie spoke in a no-nonsense direct voice.
Sloan admired his mate for her strength. Her voice never wavered. She didn’t look to him for reassurance. He squeezed her hand, letting her know he was right beside her.
“We never got to talk about the treaty. Dane invoked Pack’s Right. I never intended to bring anyone else into this.” She pulled her hand from his and ate a few more bites of food.
“It’s okay. We’ll figure it out. Dane doesn’t know what he’s done, and even keeping me and Iron Horse out of it, plenty of other alphas are reaching out to him right now telling him that he may wish to reconsider his words.” Terry smiled. “You have Iron Horse’s protection. Any wolf with half a scent would be able to know that you and Sloan are mates. We may fight among ourselves, but one of our most sacred laws is that we won’t separate mates.”
Kacie laughed, then quickly sobered. “I’m sorry. You don’t know Dane. He’s broken up mates before.”
“So have other alphas. That was the past, and I guarantee you that there were repercussions. Why don’t we finish this meal and then we can talk about what we’re going to do.” The alpha’s words were law, and so silence descended on the table. They finished eating and Leese went to visit with his sister, his niece having gone to bed. As soon as they were out of the room Terry turned to him. “You need to tell her.”
Kacie turned to look at him. “Tell me what?”
Terry nodded. She’d get no further answers from him, and Sloan knew it was time to reveal why he lived here with his sister.
“I used my money as a firefighter to build the safe house where you’re staying. You see, Carmen’s hot line is very important to me. Had it existed, had Shifters United existed, my sister would still be alive. The young girl you met is our niece. Her mother was killed by an abusive mate who then attacked others in the pack and was killed. We took her in and my sister vowed to care for her as if she were her own. This is our parents’ property, both of whom are in Twilight Forest. It’s a memory care unit for shifters.” Sloan spoke the words as carefully and steadily as he could, but the horror of that night. His sister calling with terror. The sound of his niece crying in the background, stuck with him. He’d never forget the snarl he heard on the other end of the phone or her panicked whisper. “I love you. I’m glad our parents don’t have to face what’s going to happen.” And then the line had gone dead and he’d known before the police had shown up, before his alpha had shown up, that his baby sister was dead.
Shock tempered with compassion filled her face, and she squeezed his hand. “I’m so sorry, Sloan. That had to be horrifying.”
He nodded, moved to emotion for the first time in a long time since it had happened. “It was. But since that happened I vowed to use our family’s resources, my resources, to help others so what happened to her wouldn’t happen to another shifter.”
“I’m glad you’re here and the safe house is here. So how are we going to fight Dane?”
In that moment, mate or not, he knew he loved her. Though it may be too early to talk about such things, he’d go to the ends of the earth for her. He’d fight whomever it took, and do whatever it took, to keep her by his side.
“Since he called Pack’s Right, I get to choose the time and place of our meeting. I’ll check with Carmen. I want as many other Shifters United alphas here because an attack on one member pack is an attack on all. I don’t think Dane realizes that, but we’ll make sure he sees what will happen. Perhaps next weekend. That’ll give us about ten days to prepare and make sure everyone’s schedules mesh.”
“That sounds fair.” He turned to Kacie. “Are you okay staying here for ten days or so?”
She nodded.
Not the resounding yes that he’d hoped for, but he’d take it. “Then let’s do that. Do you have a place in mind?”
“We’ll use the pack lands. We have plenty of space and it’s secluded enough that if there is a fight it won’t be heard.” And we can clean up any bodies left behind. He didn’t have to say that, though Sloan heard it in his words.
“It makes sense. Keep me posted.”
At that moment Terry’s wife came back to the room. “Everything worked out?”
“I think so.” He hoped he was right.
~* * *~
She loved him. How it could happen so soon or why, Kacie had no idea, but lying in bed staring at the ceiling after her dinner with the pack alpha, who was surprisingly kind for one in that position, she knew the truth. She loved Sloan. Probably had been falling in love with him before he’d told her about his sister, drawn by the growing bonds between them as mates. His story hadn’t changed anything, except possibly to make her fall in love with him even more. Such a good, kind man. He gave so much to his family, to helping others and righting wrongs. Exactly the type of mate she wanted. And now she’d brought her problems to their doorstep.
She thought of running. Except, if she did, then she’d be leaving Sloan and the rest of the Iron Horse pack. His alpha, so unlike her own, and even his sister welcomed her with open arms. His adorable little niece. She’d miss all of them, and she swallowed hard at the thought of leaving. So she wouldn’t. She’d stay, though she needed to let her employer know, and maybe see if someone could get some things from her apartment. The idea of just letting all that she’d worked so hard for be taken by someone else, especially Dane, bothered her.
She turned on her laptop and sent a message to the vet clinic apologizing for the lack of notice. She stared at the email, wondering what else to say. Revealing Dane’s abuse, or the fact that she had to leave the area, only opened up more questions. She settled on “unavoidable personal circumstances” and left it at that. She also emailed her landlord and give thirty days’ notice. She’d need to pay the rent in a few weeks and that’d probably wipe out the partial paycheck she’d get from work combined with some of her savings. She sighed. The last thing she wanted was to be a burden to her mate.
Kacie went outside, feeling as if she were too confined being within four walls. The building, even though she was the only occupant and it had multiple rooms, was too small. She needed fresh air, a blue sky above her, and most of all room to run. She stepped into the shelter, stripped and put her clothes on a shelf, then shifted.
The instant she took on her wolf form, she shook all over, relishing the feel of the fur around her and the breeze ruffling her tail. Wagging her tail, she thumped it on the ground a few times, then jumped around a bit, as if she wanted to play. Then, with another shake, took off for the woods. As her paws hit the soft grass and leaves underfoot, a plume of spicy, woodsy aromas filled her nostrils. The scent of loam, rich and good for rolling in, hit her with a joyful reminder that she was here, safe, able to run without fear of getting bothe
red by anyone.
Taking a zigzagging path through the woods, she let her nose be her guide. She’d return to the safe house. No doubt she could scent her clothes and the buildings. For now, the occasional branch brushing her back, the sounds of birds going silent as she passed, even the startled scamper of a squirrel, reminded her that she was safe. She paused in the clearing and flopped down, panting. She rolled onto her back and itched it, wiggling, before sprawling onto her side.
She sensed him the moment he entered the clearing. His scent, a masculine version of these woods he called home, filled her nostrils and her wolf rejoiced in the appearance of her mate. His big steel gray form walked through the clearing made her yearn for him. Heat built in her body, the woman becoming aroused at the knowledge of the man inside the wolf. When he came close enough, she touched his muzzle with her own, and in an instant they shifted.
Wrapping her arms around him, she pulled him down to the grass on top of her. Their lips met, hungry for each other, and she opened her mouth to invite him inside. Her body ached for him. A wet heat settled between her legs, a need that only he could fill. Her breasts tingled where the hard nipples brushed against his chest, chilled by the air. She needn’t worry about being cold, for he was there and his warmth protected her.
He skimmed his hands down her sides, cupping her hips to draw her close and then sliding a hand beneath her rear to lift her so her heat brushed against his leg. She explored his back with her hands, following the curve of his spine down to where she grabbed his ass, then up to tangle her fingers in the nape of his neck. Shifting beneath him, she invited him into the cradle of her thighs. His erection brushed against the inside of her leg and she moaned.
