The Mating Game

by Melissa Snark

  In the utility room, Theresa emptied the tub and tossed the filthy towel into the washer. She drew several deep breaths, striving for calm, and splashed her face with cold water. Once she’d regained a semblance of her composure, she returned to the front entryway where he loitered on the stairs.

  “You still have a change of clothes here,” she said. “They’re hanging in the downstairs closet.”

  “Back in a sec.” He surged to his feet and departed the room in a flash of orange.

  Theresa headed into the kitchen. When Zach returned a few minutes later, he wore appropriately masculine attire—a rugby jersey with tight-fitting blue jeans and white athletic shoes. He carried a crumpled orange ball under his arm.

  “Would you like for me to make sure that finds its way back to Widow Crawley’s laundry line?” Theresa held out her hand.

  “Yes, thank you,” Zach said with such marked relief that she snickered. He passed her the bundle and she set it aside to deal with later.

  “I’ll wash it first.” Theresa regarded Zach with fond amusement. “Hungry?”

  Zach nodded. “I’m a mite peckish.”

  “I only have bacon and eggs.” Anxiety crept into her voice. She would never begrudge Zach a meal, but a male wolf his size could easily break her food budget. She didn’t worry about herself, but she had to place the interests of her daughter first.

  Unfortunately, Zach perceived too much and understood her precarious finances too well. He cocked his head and regarded her with a long look. “Theresa, I won’t ever allow you or Isabel to go hungry.”

  “I know that.” Heat suffused her skin. She hung her head in embarrassment. Were all of her thoughts so transparent to him?

  Zach’s hand brushed her arm. “Coffee?”

  She shook her head, grateful for the diversion. “No coffee. I’m out. Is tea okay?”

  “Tea will be splendid, thank you.”

  “I’ll get some.”

  Before she reached the pantry, Zach caught the inside of her elbow. Theresa stopped in her tracks, responding to the implicit command of a dominant wolf. “Theresa, has Antonio shorted you on child support again?”

  Her neck and ears burned with shame. She despised admitting her money problems to Zach because it served to shine light on the fact that he had too much while she had too little. However, it did no good to lie to him or deny it. One way or another, he’d figure out the truth.

  “He’s a week late. He says business at the shop has been bad, but rent is due this Friday. The landlord said I can’t be late again or he’ll evict us.”

  Zach’s jaw clenched. “Let me give you the money.”

  She flushed and wanted to sink into the floor in humiliation. It was a sign of his innate generosity that he hadn’t hesitated to offer, but there was no way she could accept. She knew the money came with no strings attached, but standing on her own two feet was a point of pride. She shook her head. “No, thank you. I appreciate it but I can’t take money from you.”

  His entire demeanor conveyed his displeasure. “You and Isabel shouldn’t be made to suffer because Tony is a deadbeat dad. I’ll speak with him.”

  “No, it’s okay. I can handle him myself.” Theresa dared lift her gaze to meet his somber blue eyes.

  The tick in his jaw indicated his skepticism. “Theresa, I’ll deal with your ex-husband.”

  With any other dominant male, Theresa would have backed down for fear of physical retaliation, but Zach would never hurt her. She flushed with anger, her tone grew sharp. “You’re my best friend, but this really isn’t any of your business.”

  Her open defiance caused him to tilt his head back. The gleam in his eyes and the flash of his teeth conveyed his approval. “All right, you deal with it.”

  Theresa stared at him in disbelief. “That was too easy.”

  Zach offered a bland smile but made no reply. His silence ended the conversation and the clatter of feet descending the stairs made it impossible for her to say anything else. Her five-year-old daughter burst into the room.

  “Mama!”

  “Good morning, Isabel. How did you sleep?” Theresa opened her arms and her daughter flew into her embrace. The child had black eyes and dark, curly hair, light brown skin, and a stubborn chin.

  “Okay. I had a nightmare about a bad fairy.”

  “Why was the fairy bad?” Theresa released the girl and returned to making tea.

  “It just was.” Isabel’s gaze fell on Zach and her entire face lit up. She headed straight for him, arms flung wide open. “Zach!”

  “Chiquita! Look at you! You’ve gotten ten times prettier since the last time I saw you!” Zach caught Isabel, lifted her, and spun her so she laughed. He deposited her on one of the four oak chairs around the small kitchen table and took the seat beside her.

  “What would you like for breakfast?” Theresa asked.

  “Scrambled eggs!” Isabel said, and turned to Zach to regale him with tales of kindergarten and garden fairies. He paid more attention to the child than she ever received from her father.

  The second the thought crossed her mind, Theresa strove to suppress it. She prepared breakfast and allowed their voices to blur together into a background din. She longed for a happy family, but it was a dangerous fantasy. Zach far outranked her within the pack hierarchy; she might as well reach for the stars. Besides, he thought of her as a friend. If she wasn’t careful, her schoolgirl crush would lead to a broken heart.

  Theresa placed a plate of food before Isabel, and another containing ten times as much food in front of Zach. He inhaled with an appreciative gleam in his eyes.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” Theresa blushed with pleasure. Nothing pleased her more than earning his admiration, and she had so few opportunities.

  She prepared a plate for herself and sat across from Isabel. Her daughter dominated the conversation until Zach cleared his throat and pinned Theresa with his gaze. “I’ve been talking with Adam…”

  She tensed at the mention of the pack leader’s name and strove to sound unconcerned. “What about?”

  “It hasn’t been officially announced yet, but Adam is talking about resigning as pack leader. He and Becky want to retire and do some traveling.”

  “Adam is going to leave us?” Dismay and worry suffused Theresa at the prospect of a change in the pack’s leadership. The Alpha before Adam had been an abusive tyrant.

  As the Alpha male and most dominant wolf, Adam Teller acted as protector and leader of local werewolf pack. His reign was absolute—he gave orders and expected to be obeyed without question. But he also ensured that lower ranked wolves, such as Theresa, weren’t abused or exploited. He was stern but fair.

  Ranks within the pack ranged from Alpha to Omega. Robert Blane held the title of Beta, making him the second highest ranked wolf; Zach’s title as Gamma meant he held the third position within the hierarchy.

  “Adam was never meant to be a long-term solution, Theresa. He’s sixty-six. When he stepped in to assume leadership five years ago, it was only until a younger male took his place.” Zach’s power spilled over her, exerting a cooling influence, and the panic crushing her chest lightened.

  Isabel’s gaze shifted from one adult to the other. Her eyes were wide. “What’s wrong, Mama?”

  “Nothing, sweetie.” Theresa settled a reassuring hand on her daughter’s arm, but her nervous gaze remained on Zach. Yes, she’d known all along that Adam would eventually leave, but the knowing and the realization were two different things.

  She assessed Zach, regarding him in a whole new light. Did Zach aspire to be the pack leader? The prospect of radical change made Theresa uneasy. She enjoyed a close friendship with Zach and had ready access to him despite the differences in their ranks. If he became Alpha, that would change. His new duties and responsibilities would take up all of his time. And of course, he would have to take a mate. There were so many more appropriate females than her, and when he chose one, she would los
e him. The prospect terrified her, causing her heart to ache within her breast.

  “Who would take over? You? Robert?” she asked nervously.

  Zach set down his fork. “Most likely one of us, though I’m willing to bet that Charlaine could hold her own if she set her mind to it.”

  Theresa burned with envy to hear him speak with such open admiration of Charlaine Gale, the pack’s highest ranked female wolf. Her shoulders tensed and her face tightened into an unhappy mask. “I thought you were content as Gamma.”

  Zach gazed at her but did not rush to answer. He stabbed a bite of food, chewed, and swallowed before answering. “I have aspirations.”

  “But you’re not really well suited to—” She cut herself short, aware that she sounded surly. The last thing she wanted to do was to give Isabel the wrong idea. Her daughter had big ears and a bigger imagination.

  His brow rose. “I’m not?”

  Theresa stuttered. “I mean, what about deadlines and book signings?”

  Zach’s eyes narrowed. “What about them?”

  “It’s just…” Theresa stumbled to a verbal halt. Just what? She felt like a hypocrite, hiding her selfish desires behind concerns for his career when she really wanted to keep him all to herself. Mentally, she braced for the possibility of losing Zach, but the prospect set her teeth on edge.

  Zach’s brow rose. “Just what?”

  “Nothing.” Theresa hung her head.

  “I think Zach would make a good pack leader,” Isabel said.

  Zach smiled at the girl. “Thank you for the show of support, chiquita.”

  Theresa caught the implicit accusation. She called herself his best friend, but she hadn’t acted like one. She opened her mouth to say something when Zach stood. He gathered up all of the dirty dishes and headed for the sink.

  “You don’t have to,” she said, also standing.

  His blue eyes mocked her. “Of course I do. You cooked, I’ll do the dishes. Fair’s fair.”

  Theresa picked up on the hurt in his voice. She winced. “Zach, I didn’t mean…”

  His eyes narrowed. “We’re friends here, Theresa. I can handle you being honest with me.”

  “Mommy?” Isabel grabbed her hand.

  “What is it, Isabel?” Theresa glanced at her daughter and then cast a final look at Zach but found that he had turned away to do dishes. A thin sigh of regret escaped her lips.

  “Is Daddy coming to see me today? I want to tell him about the new fairy in the garden.”

  “Your father’s picking you up in an hour. Let’s go pick out your outfit and do your hair, sweetie,” she said. “We need to pack your overnight bag.”

  “Want to catch a movie this afternoon?” Zach asked over his shoulder. Their gazes met and caught.

  “I have to work today,” she said, trying and failing to conceal the wistful note in her voice. She’d have liked nothing better than to have an afternoon off to spend alone with him, but weekends were always the busiest time at the diner.

  “Tomorrow?” he asked.

  “I’m working tomorrow too,” she said softly.

  Zach’s eyes were unreadable, his face expressionless. “I’ll finish cleaning up and put everything away.”

  “Thank you, Zach.”

  She cast a final glance over her shoulder, committing the vision of him to her heart and mind. Granted, he belonged to her only as a friend, but now she stood to lose even that. In the years ahead, memories might be all she had left.

  Chapter Two

  The pristine white page of Zach’s word processor formed a literary desert across the computer screen. He started a sentence, reworded it, and reworked it again. He composed a second sentence, left it incomplete, and began the third. In the end, he deleted the entire paragraph and returned to staring at the blank page.

  The harder he tried to focus, the more uncomfortable he grew. Instead of concentrating on the plot, his vivid imagination supplied images of Theresa’s bewitching dark eyes and her sensuous full mouth. He envisioned the graceful column of her throat, and the gorgeous swell of her breasts and her round arse. His cock throbbed with anticipation for her lips, her tongue, and her teeth on his shaft. He’d give his right hand to have her on her knees before him.

  The day before, Theresa became aroused while touching him. She denied it—pretending otherwise—but the scent of her excitement had been unmistakable. Her sexual overture took him totally off guard, and yet he had thought about nothing else since then.

  “Bloody hell!” Slamming his laptop closed, Zach surged to his feet, almost knocking over the computer chair, which shot away on rolling wheels. He felt hot, way too fucking hot, especially since he kept the air conditioning set to a cool sixty degrees.

  An angry snarl rose from his throat and the unrest of his wolf drove him to pace. His skin itched thanks to the unaccountable heat. His restless pacing drove him from the office and through his immaculate modern kitchen where a glance at the clock revealed it to be two o’clock.

  He knew Theresa’s Sunday shift ran until five, so he could not seek her out for several hours. Instead, he entered his bedroom, shedding his clothing and heading into the bathroom. He turned the shower on full blast and did not allow the water time to warm up. Instead, he stepped directly into the icy spray, hoping to take the edge off his overheated libido. And it worked—for all of a minute until the water temperature improved.

  Zach’s cock sprang to full attention, jutting from his body at a right angle, leaving him in a painful state of arousal. Another pithy curse crossed his lips. He grabbed for the bar of soap and lathered his hands, and then adopted a wide stance, legs spread for better balance. He wrapped one slick hand about his shaft and stroked the length from base to head.

  His imagination put Theresa right back on her knees…

  Naked, Theresa knelt before him on the tiled shower floor with her head tilted back to expose her lovely throat. Coffee-colored eyes gleamed up at him from beneath long lashes. Her full breasts were swollen and heavy, nipples pert and erect, chest heaving with lusty breathing. Her lips parted in a teasing smile, revealing a glint of shining white teeth. Her posture conveyed submission, coyness, suggestive of maidenly modesty. He knew her to be experienced, but the evocative imagery got to him anyway. She licked her lips, and he just about lost it.

  “What do you think, pet? Do you like what you see?” His hand slid to cup his erect cock, jerking his length so blood surged and vessels swelled. His balls pulsated with incessant throbbing, heavy between his thighs.

  From beneath fluttering eyelashes, her gaze dropped to his shaft. With a chuckle, she said, “Oh, yes. Your cock is very impressive.”

  She rubbed her hands together, fingers wrapped about a white bar of soap. Lather leaked between her fingers to the shower floor, turning the water sudsy. She reached behind him and ran soapy hands over his buttocks to the tops of his athletic thighs. Her fingernails dug into his skin, sharp points pressing into rock solid muscle, urging him closer.

  Zach spread his legs, adopting a slightly squatting position. A rumble trembled in his throat, audible over the shower spray, almost a full growl. He released his hold on her hair and spread his arms, hands flat against the tile, braced for support. Piping hot water sprayed across his skin, running in swift rivulets along his sculpted physique.

  Her hands skimmed upward over his arse, massaging and spreading his cheeks. Her face drew close to his crotch, inspiring his cock to stir and harden, so his erection stood out strong and proud. She cupped his balls, cradling the sac in both hands, and his eyes drifted shut in anticipation. The full weight of her breasts, round and voluptuous, brushed against his thighs. Blood surged to his penis, causing him to stiffen further until he felt ready to burst.

  Her tongue flicked the inside of his thigh and a violent tremor traveled the length of his body. She peppered kisses upon the sensitive skin about his groin, adding an occasional nip. A moan tore him in half. Her sweet, hot mouth enveloped one of his balls.
She suckled the heavy sac, ratcheting his need to even greater heights. His head fell forward and the tremor in his throat deepened and intensified into a full growl.

  With a final lick on his scrotum, she drew her head back a little and her hand closed about his dick, applying light pressure. “Do you like it rough, Zach? I want to give it to you rough.”

  A moan tore from his throat, and he reached for her head, capturing a fistful of black hair. “Hell, yes. I love it rough.”

  She snickered. “Should I make you beg?”

  “Enough,” he rasped, tugging her face toward his groin, thrusting with his hips. “No more teasing, love. I’m going to fuck your mouth. Open.”

  Her husky laugh sent a bolt of lightning through his dick, but she tipped her head back and parted her lips, extending the length of her slick red tongue. The first heated flicker of it against the head of his cock created a divine sensation somewhere between pleasure and pain.

  Theresa opened her mouth wide as if to swallow him whole, but he tightened his hold on her hair, using it to ease her back. “I want to savor this,” he said. “I’ve been fantasizing about your delicious mouth for years.”

  He tilted forward, easing his burgeoning cock past her lips, experiencing the slide of smooth teeth on his overly sensitive skin, the firm caress of her strong tongue. She moaned and opened wider, begging for more, so he filled her mouth with his member.

  “Fuck, oh fuck,” Zach swore, hotter and closer to the edge than ever. Scorching spray sluiced across his skin, and the thick steam made it hard to breath. It’d been too damn long. Far too long.

  He lurched into motion, rocking his hips, easy at first but with escalating urgency. The thick head of his cock pressed into the fleshy inside of her cheek. Theresa teased the mushroom-shaped head with the tip of her tongue and then lapped a long stroke along the vein running the underside of his shaft. The erotic sensation ripped a lusty moan from his throat.