by Jaci Burton
“Oh yeah,” Conner growled, moving toward her and dropping down between her legs to bury his head at her sex. The spasms of her orgasm had not yet subsided when he licked her cream in slow, soft laps of his tongue, taking in the juices that poured from her and driving her near mad in the process.
Despite her first rip-roaring orgasm, she was recharged by his devouring mouth, unable to even catch her breath between her self-induced orgasm and the next one that Conner brought her to.
She tangled her fingers in his hair and soared over the edge again, thrusting her sex against his greedy mouth. He held onto her hips and devoured her juices until she collapsed, exhausted and unable to even speak.
“Oh, we haven’t even begun, Katya,” Conner rumbled, lifting and turning her over to position her on her hands and knees.
“I love taking you like this,” he said, his voice tight with need as he probed between her legs and thrust hard and deep inside her cunt.
She whimpered, feeling that now-familiar fullness and shocked to discover that she did, indeed, still have more desire to slake. With Conner it only took seconds for her drive to begin anew, seconds for him to take her the point that she lost her sanity and wanted only to rush over that blissful edge again.
“Fuck me, Katya. Back that sweet ass against me and fuck me hard.”
Unable to help the wolf’s emergence, she embraced the wildness within her and growled at her mate, thrusting her ass back against his pelvis and squeezing his cock with the muscles of her cunt.
His claws emerged, the stinging sharp pain of them digging into the flesh of her hips. But Katya did not object. She welcomed the savage thrust against her, the beast within him roaring to life. He moved with the wildness that lived within her, his balls slapping her clit and bringing her closer and closer to orgasm.
The heat of the day bore down on their skin, sweat pouring from their bodies and mixing with the wetness of their lust.
Their coupling was primal, urgent, like the wolves that lived inside them. Her skin prickled as the hair thickened on her arms and back, her jaw feeling as if it were splitting open as her face began to change.
That was all she would allow, feeling more vulnerable in her animal state than she ever did as a human. She shouldn’t feel that way, since as a wolf she was much stronger, but maintaining her humanity, even in something as raw and primal as sex, was important.
Conner followed her lead and only partially transformed, enough so she could feel his blood boiling with the change from human to lupine. His cock grew hotter, thicker, filling her walls and scraping the sensitive tissues inside her until she cried out from the pleasure.
The fever of the moment added to Katya’s excitement, notching up her desire until she whimpered like an animal in heat.
She was like an animal in heat and reveled in her power over lesser beasts.
“Harder,” she urged, bucking against Conner’s cock, needing him deeper inside her. He obliged by pistoning so deeply she felt his thrusts in her womb.
And then she splintered apart, tilting her head up and howling as her climax tore through her.
Conner went with her, his wolf cry echoing through the empty forest, his hot cum jetting into her cunt. Their feral growls mixed in a song as sweet as any she’d ever heard. They collapsed onto the grassy bank, their bodies returning to human form while they found normal breathing again.
She lay there and stared at him, mesmerized by the beauty and rugged angles of his face. Dark stubble lined his jaw and she reached out to feel its scrape against her palm, not at all surprised to feel the tingle of excitement spark within her.
They were completely untamed together. But as wild as their lovemaking had been, it didn’t begin to solve their other problems. Problems that seemed insurmountable.
He had sought her out to talk. It was time to find out what he had come to say.
“You wanted to talk to me?”
He smiled. “I’d rather have sex again.”
“But we’re not going to. Now talk to me. That is why you came here.”
“Yeah, I did come here to talk. That is, until I found this mirage in the clearing. A wild thing with her legs spread as if she was waiting for me.”
Katya’s lips curled upward. “I was waiting for you. In a way. But I never expected you to show up just as I slid my hand between my legs.”
He inhaled deeply and caressed the tip of one nipple. “Just thinking about the way I found you spread-eagled on the grass has my cock getting hard again.”
Katya looked at it and shook her head.
“Talk first. Sex later.”
He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ve always taken charge in business. I’m a leader. An alpha. It’s my way or nothing.”
She leaned up on her elbows. “So I noticed.”
“But I’ve realized that I’m beating my head against a stone wall trying to do this myself. And I’ve got enough of my family ganging up on me to open my eyes and realize how much I need help.”
Why couldn’t he have figured that out without his brother and sister pointing it out to him? Then again, she was rather fond of this hard-headed alpha. Perhaps his stubbornness could be beneficial. He certainly would never back down under a challenge, that much was certain.
“I can help you, Conner, if you’d only let me. Keep in mind that I have run this territory since my parents died. I know what works and what doesn’t.”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “So what you’re saying is I’m probably already doing things you’ve already done.”
“I didn’t say it.”
“You don’t have to. This is never going to be easy for me, Katya. But I’m willing to give it a try. I need your help. I can’t, and frankly, I don’t want to do this alone.”
His admission was all she needed to hear. She sat up, reached for his face and kissed him tenderly, pouring her heart out to him. “You don’t have to do it alone.”
“I’ve missed you,” he mumbled against her mouth, licking her bottom lip and tugging at it with his teeth.
She laughed at the same time her body flamed to life once again. “I’ve missed you, too.”
He drew circles around her nipples, plucking the buds when they drew into hardened points and making her forget what they were talking about.
“We should get started on business,” he suggested, but one look told her that business as the last thing on his mind.
“Later. I need your cock in me again. We’ll talk business when we get back to the castle.”
* * * * *
True to his word, Conner had asked for her help. And she’d given it, realizing that the two of them together were a powerful force. They’d stormed into the ministry and bullied them into placing a temporary halt to all hunting of wolves until the Devlins could set up the foundation.
“We need to get married, and fast,” Conner said, glancing over at her while they sat at the huge dining table with Noah, Chantal, Elena and a handful of the Carpathian shifters.
“I know. The ministry will never recognize you until we are married. You and I must be married for three years before you can attain Romanian citizenship.”
“But once we’re married they will at least recognize me as having a stake in what happens here.”
Katya nodded. “True. You can placate them with money and promises of tourism and good public relations for a short period of time, but eventually the hunter coalitions and the farmers will have their way again, and wolves will be hunted as they always have. Besides, even if our country’s ministry defends the rights of the wolves, as soon as the lupines cross the borders into Slovakia or Ukraine they are no longer protected by Romanian law.”
“Open hunting season,” Elena said, wrinkling her nose. “And we’re nearing that time of year. Those of us who are shifters can watch where we roam, but we cannot keep the pure wolves from crossing borders. Even when we change, we operate on primal instinct rather than human sense. If we roam over th
e borders, we will be subject to being shot by hunters, too.”
Conner nodded. “That’s what we have to change. The refuge will help. Crews should be arriving any day to erect the walls keeping the wolves within the Romanian borders.”
“But that will only do so much good,” Katya said. “A wolf that does not want to be contained will not be. And the wild ones, even the ancient shifters, believe that all the land of the Carpathian mountain range is theirs to wander. They don’t recognize the borders of countries.”
“Then we have to work harder to convince the bordering nations to limit their hunting and protect the wolves.”
Conner knew this wasn’t going to happen overnight. Change of this magnitude could take years, especially when dealing with something as delicate as foreign policy.
But marrying Katya and merging the Devlins with the Braslieus would bring about more power. And frankly, no matter what the nation’s politics, money talked.
But would they be able to offer enough to thwart the hunting lobbies?
“We have a lot to do. Let’s get married tomorrow.”
Katya’s eyes widened, then she nodded. “Okay. I will make arrangements for the mayor to come to the castle and say the vows.”
His mother was going to kill him for getting married without her being present, but Conner figured after they had things under control he’d drag Katya to Boston and do the big family wedding his mother had always wanted.
“I am sorry we have to rush through this and your parents cannot be here with us,” she said after most of the people had left.
“Me, too. Mom’s going to kick my ass for doing this without her. You wouldn’t want to call her and break the news to her for me, would you?” he asked, looking to Chantal.
Chantal shook her head. “Are you insane? I don’t want to be the one to face Mom’s wrath. You know how mothers get about their children getting married. As it is you’ll probably be disowned and stricken from the will.”
Noah snorted. Conner glared. Katya looked to all of them with a worried expression. “We could always wait and invite your parents out for the wedding. What can a few weeks matter?”
Conner kissed the top of her head and wrapped his arm around her. “Mom’s going to love you, Little Miss Proper. But no. I want to be married as soon as possible.”
“Because of the work we have to do with the ministry?”
He knew what she was asking, but he’d be damned if he was ready to admit it out loud. He was still trying to get used to the idea himself. “I want you pregnant.”
“That may have already happened, as you well know,” she said, her cheeks turning a sexy pink.
He grinned. “Sooner rather than later suits me just fine.” The thought of her carrying his child filled him with awe, and he realized he really did want Katya pregnant. Very soon.
Christ, how his life had changed.
Chantal coughed, but he ignored her. If he was going to give Katya a goddamn declaration of love, he sure as hell wasn’t going to do it in front of witnesses.
Love. Did he really love her? Did he even know what it meant to love someone? Then again, he’d changed in the short time he’d been here. Whereas before he’d never consulted anyone outside the family, now he’d become dependent on Katya’s counsel. The past few days they’d spent every moment together, from plotting out their next move over coffee and breakfast each morning to breathing fire in the ministry’s office, playing off each other’s strengths as if they’d been partnered for years instead of only a week.
Katya was fierce, tenacious, refusing to back down and never afraid to voice her opinion, especially to him.
They argued with each other well into the night, where their passion for the wolves turned to passion for each other.
Could he have found a better mate than Katya? He doubted it. She really was his destiny. She was everything he’d ever wanted in a lover, a mate, even a business partner.
Damn, he was one lucky man.
“Before you devour the woman on the dining room table, I’m getting out of here,” Chantal said.
“Right behind you,” Noah added, winking at Conner and following his sister.
“I thought they’d never leave.” He picked up her hand, brushing his lips over each knuckle, then turning her hand over to lick her palm.
Katya shivered, her dark eyes glazing over with a passion that he would never tire of seeing.
“Are you quite sure about marrying me?” she asked.
He read the uncertainty in her voice. “I don’t say what I don’t mean. I knew someday I’d be required to seek out a mate, to find a pack’s alpha female and create a dynasty. How damn lucky I am to find out it was you.”
“There are things you need to know about the ceremony. Rituals that are required.”
Oh, God. Now that kind of stuff he didn’t want to hear about. Clothes and flowers and stand here and do this and that. “Baby, if it’s tradition, we’ll do it. You take care of that part, okay?”
“But I think you need to know that after the wedding ceremony…”
Once again he cut her off. “The only thing I’m interested in after the ceremony is having you alone.”
“That’s what I’m talking about. It’s customary for—”
This time he silenced her with a kiss. When he pulled back her cheeks were flushed. “Go make your arrangements. I don’t need to approve every detail of the wedding. I’ll be there, we’ll get married. The rest will happen according to your customs and we’ll take it one step at a time.”
She blushed and stood. “All right. I have a lot to do to prepare for the wedding.”
“Will I see you in bed tonight?”
She leaned up on her toes and kissed him softly, sliding her tongue inside his mouth and tantalizing him with a heated promise. “Of course you will. And tonight, I get to be alpha and ravage you from on top.”
He couldn’t think of a better way to submit to his woman.
And tomorrow, she’d be his wife.
He shook his head and pondered his own happiness. Life was sure strange. In the blink of an eye, everything changed.
Chapter Twelve
Katya undressed and ran out into the forest, letting the wolf take over. Her body burned with the adjustment in anatomy, but she welcomed the pain, hoping it would clear her head.
So many times the past few days she wanted to tell Conner how she felt about him, but something stopped her.
She raced to the top of the tallest hill on Braslieu land, knowing her boundaries, retaining just enough of her humanity to keep her senses.
The moon was nearly full as it rose over the tallest mountain peak. She closed her eyes and breathed in its power, hoping for the strength to see her through the next step of her life journey.
Conner.
She loved him.
She hadn’t loved anyone since her parents died, fearing if she lost another that she loved, she’d never survive it. Instead, she had kept her heart encased in a wall of stone, impervious to feeling.
Until Conner, who’d stormed in and broken down that wall as if were nothing but the weakest wall of sand.
Hearing from Chantal that Conner was in love with her gave her conflicting feelings of euphoria and fear. Who wouldn’t want a man to love her? But love meant the possibility of loss, and she didn’t think she could take it if something happened to him. Could she live with him, sleep with him every night, share her body with him but still keep her heart removed?
She wasn’t certain she was capable of that. And what of children? More people to love, more potential for loss?
The moon provided no answers to the pain in her heart.
As always, she would do what she had to do and hope she never had to face that kind of loss again.
* * * * *
“For Christ’s sake, Con, breathe.”
Conner swallowed and inhaled deeply, glaring at Noah. “I am breathing, dammit!”
He was getting married in an
hour. An hour. Married. He still had a hard time wrapping his head around this whirlwind that had been his life lately.
And now he was dressed in Romanian garb, following their custom. Tight black pants and a crisp white shirt. He felt like a pirate, but what the hell.
“All you need is a broadsword, an eye patch and maybe an earring and you’ll be all set to rape and pillage.”
“Fuck off, Noah.”
Noah just laughed and led the way to the small chapel contained within the castle. An arched doorway was decorated with white flowers. He didn’t even know what they were or how they got there, but he assumed the people of Braslieu had spent the evening setting up decorations in the chapel.
A white linen carpet lined the short walkway from the entryway to the altar, where he and Noah waited. The top of each row of benches was adorned with white ribbons, and some other good-smelling white flowers sat in huge vases on either side of the altar stairs.
He found himself unable to stand still, fidgeting and rocking back on his heels.
He’d never been so nervous in his life. At least Chantal sat in the front row, a familiar face to stare at. His mother had been disappointed that the wedding was taking place too quickly for her to attend, but said she understood. She made him promise to have Chantal take pictures, and sure enough, his sister had her camera in her lap, periodically blinding him with the flash.
His mother had then left explicit instructions that he was to bring Katya to Boston as soon as possible so they could have a reception there. That conversation had gone much easier than he’d thought.
One battle down, one to go. Only this one wasn’t a battle. It was a forever-life-changing event, and he didn’t feel the slightest bit prepared to take on a wife and all the responsibilities associated with caring for another person.
Yet it was his duty, and as his brother and sister reminded him, his destiny. He’d do what he had to do. All the Devlins would.
