“Okay, baby?” Chase knew he was a big man, and though he’d made sure she was slick and ready for him, he couldn’t be sure he hadn’t hurt her.
Her answer came on a gasp. “Better than okay.”
Avery’s eyes were closed, and her fingers still dug into the muscles of his back. He could feel the scratches she’d put there in the throes of her climax. That had stung, but he’d liked it. They’d heal too quickly, so he’d have to give her a reason to make more. She was ready for him. Her pussy clenched and fluttered with the aftershocks of her orgasm.
Chase was a lot of things, but tentative wasn’t one of them. He pulled back until just the head of his cock remained inside his mate’s pussy. Then he surged forward again until he was buried inside as far as he could go. She felt so good, so right under him. He wanted to fuck her all night, every night, forever. He thrust in and out of her again and again, slowly but fully, letting her adjust to his length and girth until she began arching her back again, lifting her ass up to meet his thrusts. Keeping that pace was simultaneously torture and indescribable pleasure.
“Wrap your legs around me, baby.” He looked down at his mate. Her eyes were still shut and her mouth hung open, but she complied immediately. Reaching under her, he grabbed her ass in both hands and began to fuck in and out of her harder then, squeezing her ass, holding her steady as he moved. “Open your eyes, Avery.”
She slowly opened her eyes and then immediately looked away.
“No. Look at me.” He slowed his movements but continued to drive deep inside her.
Avery moaned as she met his gaze. Her little moans and groans drove him crazy, as did the hitch in her breathing that he’d noticed just before she came.
“You write about the mate bond. You know what it means.”
She shook her head and tried to close her eyes again.
Chase pulled out and then thrust forward, just as slowly but twice as hard. Her pussy convulsed around him. “Eyes on me, Avery.”
Again she obeyed, though her eyes were half-lidded when she looked up at him this time.
“You feel how perfect this is? How we fit together?” Yes, he was big, but her body had adjusted so that their fit felt just right. He was gratified when she nodded. “That’s because you were born for me, Avery. No other man can make you feel the way I do. This pussy is mine now.”
She bit her lip, and he moved to lick the area she tortured until she freed it from her teeth. Stroking her mouth with his, he continued to thrust into her slowly then reached between them to find her clit and caress the hardened bud until she was rolling her hips forward with each thrust and stroke of his thumb.
Her response thrilled him. She showed sensitivity to every little touch and glide of his cock. His wolf, though, that beast argued just under the surface. Take her, mark her, claim her. The beast didn’t care about promises. It said she belonged to him and he had to mark her.
Chase growled at the thought, and she moaned, “Oh God, yes,” in response, spurring him to push into her harder and faster, quickening his pace with each moan and whimper she gave. He stroked her clit until he heard her breath hitching again, then supported himself on one elbow and cupped her breast with his free hand. Lowering his head to take the nipple into his mouth, he felt her hold on him slacken and her movements beneath him grow more erratic.
“Hold on tight, baby. Don’t let go. And keep your eyes on me. I want you looking at me when you come this time.” When he felt her arms tighten around him once more, he went for broke, riding her hard, riding her fast again, then reaching between them when he felt it, when he knew she was on the edge, to press her clit with a finger wet from her own juices.
Avery’s eyes rolled back in her head as she came, screaming her release. Chase’s canines descended at the sound of her cries and his balls drew up tight as her pussy squeezed and pulsated around his dick. He had to use every ounce of the man inside to fight the wolf that wanted to plunge his teeth into his mate, regardless of what she said she wanted. His heart pounded hard in his own ears as every thread of sensation rushed between his legs. He pressed his mouth against her neck, raked his teeth as softly as he could manage across her skin, and fighting his wolf’s chants of mine, mine, mine, he followed her into release, emptying his balls into her pussy.
Chapter 7
Avery woke with no regrets, not a single one, and that was new for her. She’d had the occasional too-soon romp in bed before and regretted it as soon as she’d come, mostly because of her choice of partner. Not this time. She lay with her back to him, pressed against the huge, naked form that he’d curled protectively around her and felt nothing but an odd sense of joy. He’d fucked her well, as he’d promised, and it had been the best sex she’d ever had. So good, in fact, that when he’d pressed his teeth to her neck, she hadn’t cared. Chase could have marked her in that moment and she wouldn’t have said a word, not a single word, in protest.
He’d fucked her again in the middle of the night, and that had been just as earth-shattering, though Chase had said it was nothing compared to what she would feel when he claimed her. He seemed so confident that it would happen, that she would agree to become his mate, and when he talked about it like that, she almost wanted to say yes. Who was she kidding? She wanted a lot to say yes, and not just because of the sex.
Avery didn’t just have her published books as proof of her interest in shifters. She had journal after journal filled with brain dumps, things she’d had to put on paper just to get them out of her head, so she could sleep, eat, do all of the normal productive things people did to survive. At this point, she didn’t know what she’d gotten right and which things were purely invented from her imagination, but everything she’d written came from love. Her fascination with the whole idea of shifters wasn’t purely academic. She loved them, the fierceness of her characters, the way they could be playful in one moment and fiercely protective in the next. She loved the sense of family in the pack, their loyalty, and the way they thrived together.
But most of all, she loved the way they loved. If she’d gotten it right—and based on Chase’s description, she had—they found a mate and stayed with that person for a lifetime. No divorce, no wishing there was something better waiting around the corner. It was a true for-better-or-for-worse partnering. The idea of it had always touched her, and now it was within her reach.
She could have let him claim her, but she was too human to surrender to fate. It was a strength, she guessed, but also a flaw to have to examine everything. In her books, the women surrendered to the intense focus of their mates and allowed the claiming right away, but Avery had to know what she was getting into first. It sounded so rosy, the idea of a gorgeous man like Chase committing to her not only for this lifetime but also for anything that came after, but what if she was wrong? What if the shifters turned out to be mate-beating savages or he believed being mated meant fucking her and whomever he wanted? What if he could never love her, and what if she couldn’t love him?
She’d felt something for him the moment they’d met. Had that been a simple attraction or had something inside her recognized that she was his mate? She belonged to him. He’d said that several times, and though it should have pissed her off, it had thrilled her.
Avery sighed. She would drive herself crazy analyzing life. Maybe she should just relax and enjoy whatever it was while she had it. Smiling at the idea of just letting go for a change, she began to ease herself out of his arms. It was early, but she wrote some of her best stuff in the odd quiet of the early morning hours.
“Where are you going?” He reached for her just as her big toe grazed the floor, pulling her firmly against him again.
“It’s wake-up time. This is when I start my day.”
“Mmmm. Don’t go.” He buried his face in her hair. Was he smelling her? “Stay with me.”
He was actually smelling her. Why did her pussy tighten at that realization? She had to get out of there right away or it was going to be all over
.
“Are you hungry?” she asked, trying to extricate herself. “Come over to my place, and I’ll make a big breakfast. Steak and eggs?” Maybe she could distract him with talk of protein. A man that large needed his fill. “You look like a steak and eggs man to me.”
“Later,” he grumbled. “All I need right now is you.”
She opened her mouth to protest, to say what? As his hand began to caress her inner thigh, she wasn’t sure what she’d meant to say. That she had to write, that she was a bitch in the morning before her caffeine infusion? Maybe she really wanted to tell him to take her again and fuck her until she couldn’t move. Either way, in the end, she didn’t say much of anything.
As he flipped her onto her back, her legs parted of their own accord, her pussy already wet for him. She did manage to say one thing and one thing only. “Yes…please.”
Chapter 8
“Okay,” Avery said, trying not to laugh at the sight of Chase, hulking and out of place on the thick, round rug in her study. He’d surrounded himself with a bunch of her books and journals. “What about this one?” She thumbed to a page in her first wolf shifter book. “Do pups really shift for the first time on their first birthday?”
Chase had been going through her journals and notes, trying to decipher what she actually knew about shifters. As it had turned out so far, she had a pretty decent chunk of it wrong.
“Nope. Wrong again. There’s no exact date a shifter’s wolf shows for the first time. It’s usually around two or three, but we’ve had some shift as babies.” He looked down at the book he’d been perusing, then cocked an eyebrow at her. “And we don’t howl at the moon…much.”
She pouted. “Damn.”
“It’s okay. You got the part about the Ritual of the Mated right.”
“Seriously?” She was particularly excited about that one. It was sort of like a wedding.
Chase nodded. “Seriously. And you’re going to experience one firsthand.”
“When?” She’d love to watch a shifter couple pledge themselves to each other. She only had vague memories of attending the ritual as a child.
“Soon. After you let me claim you.”
She’d made that one too easy. He looked up at her with those intoxicating brown eyes, promising her a lifetime of passion and then some. She had to look away. She wanted it too badly. She wanted him too badly. Despite knowing him for such a short time, she had it on the tip of her tongue to tell him to mark her.
But she wouldn’t. Avery wanted love, and she wasn’t naïve enough to believe he would develop lasting love for her so soon. Besides, the logical part of her said she should at least learn about his people and where he came from before she tied herself to him for good. Not that she could let him go. The very thought of him walking out of her life now made her want to cry, scream, and maybe even hit something—hard.
“Hmmm…okay. You’re immortal?”
He made the sounder of a buzzer. “Wrong. We live about twice as long as the average human, but not forever.”
“Bullets kill you?”
“Only silver bullets.”
“Does it hurt when you turn?”
“Turn?” He looked genuinely confused.
“You know, transform, go all wolfy.”
“It doesn’t hurt for those born shifters. Those who are changed, though, do experience discomfort leading up to the first shift. The change from human to someone like me takes a few days. About a day after being bitten, there’s a fever and sometimes an illness similar to the human flu. Some humans have pain, too, but from what I’ve been told, it doesn’t very long. After that, no pain.”
Shit. That transformation was something she’d been cautiously looking forward to ever since he’d said she was his mate. Even if she never agreed to be his mate, she did want to be like him. She wanted that badly. Pain, she could do without.
“I don’t have to change you, you know.” He got up and walked over to her desk, pulling her into his arms. “If you’d prefer to stay human, you can.”
“I have a choice in that?” Because, yeah, he’d insisted the whole mate business was a given rather than a choice.
“Of course. I would never force you. I can mark you to show other males that you’re taken without biting you, if that’s what you want.”
Avery had the feeling he was trying to hide his disappointment at the idea. After she’d let him take her the first time, he’d been insatiable. They both had. They’d spent days largely in bed, getting up only to walk Roscoe, shower, and eat. They’d also spent a lot of time talking, and he’d always looked so happy when he described the things she’d experience as a wolf. It was hard to believe he’d happily give up all the things they’d be able to share if she could shift with him. Fortunately, for him, he didn’t have to worry. There was zero chance Avery would spend her life in an ordinary human body when she could be a shifter. No way. She’d kick pain’s ass first.
Chase cupped her chin with his hand, giving her one of his penetrating looks. “I just want you to be happy and with me, no matter what that looks like.”
Avery leaned into his kiss, soft, gentle but with the promise of the fierce passion he could display. She wasn’t about to tell him what she wanted just yet, though.
“I’m happy now,” she said simply, once she could speak again. She tapped in on his chest with a flat palm. “Let’s get back to work. We have a lot of ground to cover before bed.”
It was only noon, but they couldn’t seem to keep their hands off each other for very long, so they’d made a pact. They’d spend a few hours poring over her stash of paranormal writings and then reward themselves for a job well done with at least another hour in bed.
Though Chase grinned at the mention of bed, he didn’t release her just yet. “We’re going to have to talk about it, you know.”
She feigned ignorance. “Talk about what?”
“You’re a better writer than you are an actress. You know exactly what I mean—the claiming.”
She liked the way that sounded, in spite of herself. “So you want to be my wolf forever?”
“I’m already yours forever. I just want to make it official.”
“I like being with you, a lot, but from everything you’ve said, letting you complete this mate bond is big—huge, and I can’t just dive in headfirst. You grew up expecting something like this to happen. I grew up expecting to fall in love with some commitment-phobe who’d string me along until I no longer wanted him. I’m not saying no forever, just that I need time.”
He couldn’t hide his disappointment that time, but for the time being, he’d have to understand.
“I can’t say I like it, but I’m trying to be patient.”
“I know you are.” She could see the struggle in his eyes. “You know what? Screw it. Why don’t we go back to bed for a while and pick this up later?”
Chase kissed her lightly on her forehead then stepped back, releasing her. “I know what you’re doing. You don’t have to placate me with the offer of sex.”
“I wasn’t—” But she was. She totally was.
“I’m going for a run. I’ll take Roscoe with me to stretch his legs.”
“Angry?”
“No, I just need some air.”
“Try to understand. What you’re asking is huge.”
“I get it. You’re human. But that doesn’t make this any easier for me. When a shifter meets his mate, the urge to claim her is intense. It’s almost all I can think about. So while I get it, I’m constantly battling my need to claim you. I just need to get my head together.”
“Okay.” What else could she say to that? At least he wasn’t angry. She felt like she should apologize, which was silly since she’d done nothing wrong. Well, that wasn’t exactly true.
Avery had done something far worse than say she wasn’t ready to be his mate. Chase had been willing to shift for her pretty much whenever she asked. He seemed to take pleasure in her fascination with his wolf form. On their sec
ond day together, she’d hidden her camera on one of her shelves, then set the timer. When he’d returned from a run, she’d asked him to shift for her and had gotten some amazing footage of him changing from wolf to man and then back again.
Whenever she had time alone, she watched the video over and over again. She’d even gone as far as uploading it to her computer. Then, one day, she’d started typing up an email to send to her aunt and uncle. She finally had proof that they’d withheld their love from her for no good reason, and she couldn’t help wanting to put them in their place.
Sadly, for Avery, she had a conscience, and she’d been only halfway through the letter before she got slapped in the face by guilt. Chase had told her how important it was to his pack to keep their existence a secret. And he’d specifically said no photos or videos. She owed him nothing, yet she felt like a bottom feeder for taping him without his knowledge.
Sighing, Avery sat at her desk and grabbed her mouse to navigate to the file that held the video. She’d named it Roscoe’s Adoption as a cover, though Chase seemed to have zero interest in her computer.
As it began to play, she was once again torn between guilt and awe. Despite her dreams, her memories, watching him shift was amazing every time. How could she not use this opportunity to prove that she wasn’t and had never been a nutcase? But how could she betray Chase? She already was well and truly infatuated with him, and he’d been nothing but loving to her so far.
She should just destroy the damned thing. Who cared what her aunt and uncle thought of her after so much time had passed? Who cared about the people who’d laughed at her and called her those horrible names? She was over all of that now, right? She’d moved on.
Avery knew she shouldn’t give a damn what any of them thought, but as she clicked play yet again, she had to admit it. She still did.
Avery and Her Wolf [Shifters Revealed 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 8
