Scent of His Woman

by Rebecca Royce

  The Enforcer seemed to have less than any interest in opening that door. However, Drew was a shifter who got what he wanted. He’d keep working on it.

  “You got eight minutes.” B slid into the chair next to him, a smile on her face. Her red hair was up in a bun with curls sliding down her cheeks. His mate was, without a doubt, the loveliest female ever born. “Is that some kind of record for Ryker? Eight minutes of conversation before he abandoned his beer and ran like you’d threatened him?”

  He heard the ice in her voice, which spoke volumes beyond the words she used. His mate was always one to speak her mind. Well, at least her frankness had been the case since his return from exile. Before he left, she’d been easier, lighter. When Magnum forced him to leave, she’d been abandoned to face the years with Magnum alone.

  She’d forgiven him for the role he’d played, which didn’t reset the clock.

  And whenever she spoke of Ryker, she got a tone.

  Drew touched her arm, running gentle fingers over a heart-shaped birthmark he loved. “Something to say, B?”

  “No.” She picked up his whiskey and took a sip before she scrunched her mouth and eyes into a tight ball of unhappiness. B clinked the glass down. “Did you tell him we’re doing the Christmas thing?”

  “I did.”

  His mate needed to talk about her Ryker issues. Only, no one forced B to do anything she didn’t want to do and walked away with their balls intact. She’d tell him when she wanted, in her own good time.

  Or she wouldn’t.

  “Drew.” Gee’s voice boomed out into the room and he turned to regard the Werebear. “Ryker needs you, outside.”

  The bartender’s hearing dwarfed his own. Drew nodded and stood before making his way out the door. B stayed tight behind him. The need to keep her safe warred with the desire to let B be B. She wouldn’t want to wait in the bar. Likely, there wasn’t danger. Gee would have led with a warning, and Ryker hadn’t charged through the door to throw himself between Drew and the world.

  If Ryker and the dominant males had their way, Drew would likely never see any action again.

  His Enforcer stood in the center of the square where, the next day, the pack would put up a Christmas tree. As shifters, they didn’t celebrate the holiday, but some of their human counterparts did. And Ryker’s mate thought they should honor the changes in the pack by having everyone celebrate, followed by a pack run which would include the humans, thus fusing everyone’s customs together. From a tree to a menorah to a yuletide bonfire—if anyone wanted their own holiday stuff included, it could go in as well. A regular smorgasbord of happy.

  Snow slipped down onto the empty space, hitting Ryker as the white evidence of winter coated his dark hair. The other man held a small object in his hand.

  “Gee says you need me.”

  He held up a small wooden train as Drew. “This was sitting in the middle of the square.”

  “It’s a child’s toy. A train,” B interjected. “You’ve seen them before, haven’t you, Ryker? Or were all children born miserable and unfeeling when you were young?”

  Drew shot her a look to knock it off, although he doubted she’d heed him unless he made it an Alpha order. Their relationship was tricky. As Alpha, his way happened. As her mate, often it did not.

  Instead of answering B’s challenge, Ryker handed the wooden toy to him. If Ryker thought the train warranted a look, Drew would give it one. “You found it here? In the center of the square where the tree’s going to go?”

  His Enforcer nodded and Drew sniffed the toy. The scent of wood and the metal used to carve the piece wafted up to him, but nothing to make note about.

  “Don’t you remember?” Ryker asked the question softly before the other man looked away.

  “Should I?” Drew had been so young when most of what Ryker lived with took place. If he was missing a piece of information he should have, this time he needed it fed to him very clearly.

  “He gave you one for your tenth birthday.”

  Next to him, B gasped. “Stewart.”

  Memories flooded Drew the way they always did, all at once like a dam opening. Stewart Lester, or as Magnum had called him Simple Stu, had been a constant member of the pack Drew’s whole life until he’d disappeared one day, never to be heard from again.

  Magnum had found a reason to take offense at something the man said and kicked him off pack land. That was their former Alpha’s modus operandi. . Or at least that’s what he had done for the lucky ones. The others were dead before they ever got the chance to run.

  Stewart had seemed old when Drew was a child. Kind, good with kids, and with a wandering mind that frequently left others confused, Stewart had amused Magnum because he’d been a constant source of fodder for his malicious nature.

  “I forgot.” Shame made him stand straighter. He had to do better. “Is he here?”

  “I haven’t seen him in two decades,” Ryker responded, shaking his head. “But this was his signature item. Someone either put this here to remind us of him, or he came back and placed it himself.”

  Drew sniffed the air. “I don’t scent anyone I haven’t blood oathed.”

  Ryker shook his head. “The snow and the direction of the wind is going to make it hard. I want to know who left this train. It either indicates someone got onto pack land without my knowledge, or a message is being delivered. We need to know what that message is.”

  “It’s not someone,” B interrupted, placing her hand on his arm. “Stewart is family; he is pack. In fact, I think he might be my father’s cousin once removed.”

  “He hasn’t presented himself and taken the oath to Drew. He’s not pack. Familial relationships take second place to pack.”

  “Since when?” If B got any more hostile, she was going to shift. Drew really didn’t need a scene in the middle of his happy pack.

  “Well it’s process of elimination time, people.” Drew put his arm around B, hoping to cool her temper. “The only way to find out if Stewart left the train is to ask him. Do we know where he’s living?”

  “The last I heard anything,” Ryker replied, “was he had a cabin one hundred miles outside of pack land at the top of Mount Carter.”

  Drew nodded. He actually knew which peak Ryker referred to. Humans called things differently. Drew always had to know both.

  “Not far. I’ll go ask him.”

  Both Ryker’s and B’s reply of no happened at the same time. Drew would have laughed if he didn’t think they would both not appreciate the humor. “For once, you two agree. I’m going anyway.”

  “Once you get to the bottom of the mountain,” B continued, “there aren’t roads. You’ll have to hike and climb.”

  “And your point would be what, mate?” He waited. If she brought up his bad leg, his good mood would flee. Although her eyes spoke of untold answers, she didn’t respond.

  The enforcer shook his head. “You’re Alpha. You stay here.”

  “Ryker”—he shook head—“Stewart was an adult male who showed kindness to me when no one else did.” If he stung the Enforcer with his words, he felt bad, but truth was truth. Sometimes it rattled feelings. Ryker gave no outward response to indicate he felt the implication at all. “I want to see how he’s doing. I want to know how he snuck into town, if he did. And I want to do it all personally. So I’m going. The pack can manage with their Alpha gone overnight. You’re not going to let it fall apart without me, are you?”

  “No, of course not.”

  Then it was settled.

  ***

  Betty stewed the entire walk home. Why did her mate have to be so stubborn? Drew managed a world of responsibility and he did all of it without complaint. He shouldered burdens that would level most men. He apologized when the fault should have belonged to his father.

  Her mate also limped, slightly, on his left leg. Thanks to Magnum and a bullet he’d taken courtesy of Malcolm’s cronies. He’d not been able to shi
ft, and the wound never healed properly.

  And the blasted male would never admit he should take care of himself a little bit more than the nonpermanently injured needed to. What would they all do if he got hurt? What would she do if he didn’t come back again?

  Drew walked in front of her into their home. The two-bedroom, two-thousand-square-foot bungalow wouldn’t have satisfied the previous Alpha. But her mate was a simple man. With the pack rebuilding, he wouldn’t hear of living in splendor.

  She waited while he assured himself of the place being safe, and then followed him through the door.

  “B, you are thinking so hard it is slamming at my nerves. Say what you want to say already.”

  Her mate slipped off his coat and sank into his favorite chair. A real eyesore, the orange fabric of his seat didn’t really go with the rest of the blues and browns in her home. He’d salvaged it from his grandmother’s home, and B would never tell him he couldn’t have it front and center in their living room.

  She would, however, let him know when he was being a jackass.

  “Andrew.” He really needed to listen to her.

  “Elizabeth,” he answered. “Since we’re doing full names, I thought I should respond in kind.”

  She took a chair opposite him. “You aren’t going to jolly me out of this conversation.”

  “That’s really too fucking bad.”

  “I didn’t say it in front of Ryker, which doesn’t mean I won’t say it to you.” Her head hurt. The last wine at Gee’s might have been one too many. She would have stuck to water if she’d known their night would end with them facing off in the living room.

  He stretched out his legs in front of him, and she couldn’t help but glance at the place where she knew his skin was scarred, always raised, always painful. She loved him. The boy who had broken her heart and come back a grown male she was proud to follow and walk beside. With everything she was, B had loved and would love him all his days.

  She could not lose him again.

  “Funny, you felt free to say quite a lot of other things in front of Ryker.”

  “Aren’t you two best buddies? Shouldn’t we be able to say whatever we want?” She got to her feet. Movement was good. “You have an injured leg. It is the middle of winter. I don’t happen to think the train is that big of a deal, but, since we all take Ryker’s lead when it comes to pack safety, let’s assume it is something to be concerned about. Are you really the appropriate person to go traipsing up a mountain in the middle of a snowstorm?”

  “Yes.”

  The snarl escaped before she could stop it. “Andrew.”

  He rose and walked over to her. His body language was calm, but his eyes had gone all wolf. Deceptively lethal, that was her mate. Not that he’d hurt her; he never would. But Andrew Tao had ways of making her relent. Only Betty had no intention of giving in on this subject.

  She placed her hands on his broad chest. Beneath the white cotton shirt, she could feel his heart beat. “I won’t lose you. Do you understand what it would do to me if you died? I don’t want to talk about the Alpha ramifications. I want to talk about us. You see, I actually know what it is to live without you. Please don’t make me do it again.”

  “And you have so little faith in my abilities, you think walking up a mountain is going to be the end of me?” Drew ran his finger down the slope of her nose. “My mate. My life.”

  She closed her eyes at his words and let him draw her against him. Her bones were tired, and she wanted to sleep for a year. Why couldn’t things better left in the past simply stay where they belonged? Why did they have to come back and wreck her whenever she let her guard down?

  His mouth pressed to hers, and she wrapped her arms around him, heat melting the cold core of her fear. Live in the moment.

  She tried so hard to. All of the time. He was the other half of her soul and he was there. Why couldn’t she let the decade without him go?

  Drew picked her up and carried her over to the chair he’d vacated. She knew where she was even before she opened her eyes. The fabric of the orange monstrosity scratched at her hands.

  He pulled her shirt off, followed by the bra he’d asked her to quit wearing. Her mate wanted her all but naked whenever he could have her. She still wore it to irk him a bit. A girl had to have some control, even when her mate was Alpha.

  With a growl in her ear and his warm breath caressing her cheek, he undid the clasp and threw it to the side. Drew could have torn the fabric from her body. He didn’t, a slight victory to her getting to hold onto some autonomy.

  “Hold onto the chair,” he ordered, and she obeyed. She always would in bed because she needed to. As much as she wanted to come, she wanted it to be because he had told her to.

  She gripped onto the scratchy orange nightmare. “I’m not going to change my mind because you fuck me into submission.”

  “I didn’t think you were. I’m still going to, as you say, fuck you until your knees give out.”

  He tweaked her nipples, and they hardened beneath his fingers before he massaged her breasts, bringing a moan from deep in her throat. She had been made for this male, had wanted him as soon as she’d been old enough to, but then so had all the females. The Tao heir. The future Alpha. Only she had seen Drew the man and loved him for all of his flaws.

  She couldn’t see him with her back toward him. “Do you still have your clothes on?”

  “I’m not getting naked. Not until I’m ready. Even then, it might only be my pants.”

  “You’re going to strip me bare and leave yourself dressed? Doesn’t sound fair?”

  He kissed the back of her shoulder blade. “It’s not. I never promised you fair. I will make you come. Hard.”

  As he’d taken off her shirt, he stripped away her skirt. Soon she was as naked as he’d told her she would be. The simple act of being undressed made her quiver. When he finally touched her, pressing his fingers first inside her pussy before he found her clit, she panted.

  “Drew.” She knew he’d understand. He always did and he’d never made her feel weird or ashamed of asking for her desires.

  “Topping me from below. That’s my B.” The laughter in his voice soothed her before his hand smacking her ass causing her to cry out with desire. The second whack made her pussy weep. “You want me inside of you, then you are going to ask me for it.

  She shook her head. “No.” Part of their game. He had to make her, and she wasn’t there yet.

  Another smack on her rear end, this time harder. “Ask me.”

  Betty gritted her teeth with need. If she relented, he’d soothe her after he fucked her into oblivion. But the longer she delayed, the sweeter it would be when she finally gave in. “Not yet, Andrew.”

  Whack. Whack. Whack. She could tell by the way his hand shook with the final spank he wanted her as much, too. As much as she craved the spanking, her mate loved to give it to her.

  “Please come inside of me. Please, baby. Please.”

  She heard him unzip his pants and his shift to get them off jarred her slightly.

  With a strong push that made her knees bend, Drew pushed his cock inside her. After a moment, he was balls-deep, and she was panting. With a yank, he tugged her back against his still-clothed chest. “You good?”

  Her mouth went dry. He always checked. When it got rough, Drew made sure she was on board. “Fuck, yes.”

  “Your dirty mouth.” Laughter then pressure as he pressed in and out. In and out. His hands were everywhere, on her breasts, her clit, her stomach. Pumping and surging and finally, when she thought she saw the world shift from the pleasure and pain rocking together inside of her, she came hard around his cock.

  His mouth gripped down on her neck, marking her, claiming his mate as he sometimes did. She didn’t know why he marked on some occasions and then on others didn’t. If the need moved him, he staked his claim, and she was more than good with his choice.

  Drew spent
inside her then rested his head on her back.

  “B.” He sighed and, on his lips, the one initial, the beloved nickname he’d given her in childhood, sound like a prayer.

  “You’re still going.” She nodded, pressing her forehead to the orange chair.

  “I need to, my mate. Like I need to breathe. Like I need you. I need to see to Stewart myself. Even if he didn’t leave the train. I want to look him in the eyes.”

  She closed her lids. He was still inside her, and she didn’t want to fight. “And apologize to him, as you do, for atrocities you had nothing to do with causing.”

  “So protective of me.”

  That was when the thought dawned on her. The answer was simple. Why hadn’t she realized earlier? “Fine. You go. I go. If you’re going to see Stewart and hike up a mountain, then, so help me, so am I.”

  There.

  He didn’t answer for a moment and then pulled himself out of her before turning her over to stare her in the eyes. “You think you’re going to protect me on the mountain? I killed my father. I can manage myself.”

  “I spent ten years without you.” Her voice hitched, and she hated it. “I don’t want to sleep another night without you there.” And, yes, if it came to it, she’d protect her perfectly strong mate from whoever or whatever came at him.

  “Don’t you need to get things ready here for Christmas and the hunt?”

  “Saja can manage the Christmas frivolity.” Betty belonged with Drew. She always had.

  He pushed her hair off her forehead. “I thought you liked the idea.”

  “You liked it. I like that you do. I don’t care one way or another about it.”

  Hugging her, he continued stroking her skin. “It’s bonding for the pack.”

  “Says my mate who lived with the humans for ten years. Wolves don’t need to bond. We oath and we mate. We’re good. But we’ll bond. For our humans. For you. Because they all love you, Drew.”