by L. P. Maxa
“I don’t know. I had this plan, you know? And last night it all got shot to shit.” He hung his head, his hands on his hips. “We’re mated and she doesn’t even know people like us exist.”
“Everything is going to work out.” Dom gestured toward the next room. “Corey is right, like always. Molly was made for you. She’ll handle it all in stride. You’ll see.”
Keller hoped like hell that Dom was right. Losing her would kill him. It’d shatter his heart. It’d tear apart his soul.
He wouldn’t survive it, not now that he’d made her his forever.
Chapter Eighteen
Molly
Keller walked back into the kitchen, wrapped his arms around her waist and placed a kiss on the column of her neck.
Molly was still confused as to why he was lit on whiskey at seven o’clock in the morning. And why Dom had stopped Riley’s question. And why Keller had followed them out onto the front porch. Everyone was acting really strange. She felt like the only person in the room who didn’t know the punchline to the joke. She wanted answers, needed them.
“Keller, seriously, what’s going on?” She turned in his arms, meeting his eyes and dropping her voice to a whisper. “Why did you leave my house to immediately come over here to get drunk with Dom? Is it the investigation? Is it something I did?” Normally, Molly would mind that Corey and Dom were listening to her and Keller, but she was too worried, too confused to care right now.
He sighed, resting his forehead against hers. “No, darlin’, it’s nothing you did. And the investigation is a pain in the ass, but it’s going fine.”
“Okay, then what?”
Keller looked over Molly’s head at Dom and Corey. Whatever he saw made him straighten his spine. He moved a few feet away from her, and she felt his absence immediately, like all the warmth in the room left with him. He stripped off his t-shirt and kicked off his tennis shoes. What the hell was going on?
“Molly, there is something I have to tell you—”
Dom took a step forward. “Keller, man, now’s not the time. Not like this.”
Not the time for what? Was she still dreaming? She felt so lost.
Keller ignored him and kept right on stripping. “The investigation? It isn’t just about Henderson’s murder. He gathered a lot of evidence about all of us that live and work here at St. Leasing.”
Molly nodded. “The shifter stuff, I know—Corey told me. What’s that have to do…” She trailed off when he took off his workout shorts, standing before her in only his briefs.
“It’s all true. Shifters are real. I’m a shifter. I come from a long line of shifters. I can change into a wolf anytime I feel like it.” And he did.
Molly stood still, not even blinking. The air had shimmered around her and then, where Keller had been moments before, now stood a large, sandy-colored wolf.
Dom raced over and put his hand over her mouth, muffling the scream she hadn’t even realized she’d let out. He kicked at the wolf when he started to growl low in his throat. “For real, Kel? She can’t scream like that, there are fucking Feds on campus all the goddamn time. What the hell is wrong with you? Did you think she would react well to you just broadsiding her like that?”
Dom carefully backed her into the living room and sat her down on the couch, still not taking his hand away from her mouth.
Molly was vaguely aware of what was going on around her. She knew now that she had started to scream, and she knew Dom’s hand was over her mouth. But she couldn’t take her eyes off the light-colored wolf standing in the dining room. Her last glimpse she had of the wolf was when Corey whacked it over the head with a rolled-up newspaper. Somewhere in the back of her mind she laughed, and she had no real clue why.
Dom took a deep breath and spoke calmly like he was talking to a crazy person. “Molly, sweetheart, I am going to take my hand away. But you CANNOT scream.” Oh, that was it; she was the crazy person. She had to be; she’d just hallucinated that her boyfriend turned into a wolf. “Do you understand?”
Molly nodded her head, even though she really didn’t understand one thing that had taken place in the last sixty or so seconds. They needed to call an ambulance; she needed a doctor. Or maybe she really was still dreaming.
Dom removed his hand and peered at her like he was waiting to see what her next reaction would be. To her own surprise, she just sat there. Still as a statue.
Corey whacked the wolf again, speaking to it like it was a person. “You are an idiot. Shift back right this fucking second and help us deal with the mess you just caused.” Molly watched as Corey took a few deep breaths and then strode into the living room and knelt down in front of her. “Molly. I know that this is a lot of information to handle first thing in the morning, when you are sober.” Corey cut her eyes at Dom. “But you are not hallucinating. You are not crazy. Keller is a shifter. He is a moron, but he is a shifter.”
Molly blinked several times at Corey before she spoke. “He turned into a wolf. A blond wolf. Like the color of his hair.”
Corey smiled kindly, like she was still afraid Molly would pass out or something. “Yes he did. How do you feel?”
Like she was fucking insane. What was happening? What was causing this? Had Keller actually shifted? Was that really a thing? Was the sky still blue? Was the grass still green?
She shook the questions from the front of her mind and tried her best to answer Corey’s question. “I think I should be scared or mad or—”
Corey shook her head, still smiling. Why was she smiling like that? What part of this was funny? “No. Molly, how do you feel? Don’t think.”
Molly glanced past Corey and saw Keller standing a few feet away. He was a human now, wearing only his shorts. His tan chest rippling with muscles, his sandy hair messed up, looking like it had first thing that morning. He was breathing hard, the pulse in his neck rapid, his eyes all but pleading with her—for what, she didn’t know.
Logically, she understood all the emotions she should be feeling, yet she answered, “Affection. Confusion. Lust? As bad as it sounds, I just want to walk over to him and rip his shorts back off.” She put her head in her hands, grabbing hold of her hair and pulling it at the roots.
Like an insane person would do.
Chapter Nineteen
Keller
Keller made his way over to Molly, wanting nothing more than to reach out and touch her. Hold her. Assure her that everything was going to be all right. But the truth was, he was terrified. Molly held his heart in her hands; his future depended on her reaction to all this. And right now, it wasn’t looking all that great. He shouldn’t have done it like that. He should have talked to her first, eased her into it. But holding her in his arms, seeing the confusion in her face, he’d just wanted to get it all out there. Lay all his cards on the table. It was as if he couldn’t stop himself.
He sat down next to her, but didn’t make a move to touch her. Coop made eye contact, gesturing with her head, silently telling him to pick up where she had left off—to talk to his mate.
He couldn’t do it. He stayed silent like the coward he was.
“Fucking hell.” Coop rolled her eyes, annoyance clear on her face. “Molly, you don’t feel any negative emotions for a reason. Shifters, well, they mate for life. They believe that there is one perfect person out there for them, and, when they find that person, that’s it for them. Game over, happily ever after. Does that make sense?”
Molly shook her head, her beautiful eyes still wide. Still shocked. “Not really.”
Coop took a quick deep breath. “Okay, let me try again. I am Dom’s mate, his soul mate. His forever. We are mated. Dom knew from the second he met me, that I was the girl for him. He tried to deny it and push me away, just like Keller did to you. Because all males are stupid, shifter or not.” Corey ignored the irritated looks from both Dom and Keller. “When Dom told me who he was, that he could shift and that soul mates existed and I was his? It was a lot to handle. But I wasn’t scared. I didn
’t want to run. And the reason I took it all in, without fear, is because I was made for him. I was made for this life. Does that make sense?”
Keller silently prayed that all this was making sense to Molly. She wrinkled her brow, still unconvinced. “You were always supposed to end up with Dom, like it was your destiny?”
“Yes, perfect. Like destiny.” Coop nodded like a teacher proud of a struggling student. “You were made for Keller, and that is why you aren’t scared right now. Why no part of you wants to run, and why you want to take him in the bathroom and nail him.”
Molly turned to face him, really looking at him for the first time in several minutes. “You knew from the first moment we met, that I was your soul mate?” She shook her head. “That sounds so insane. Why did you push me away?”
He answered her honestly. “I was scared. I was scared I could never be the man you deserved. I was scared to try. I was afraid of how my life would change. Everything I told you the other night was true. I’m done running. I know in my heart I can make you happy. I was put on this earth to do just that. And I am so sorry for all the pain I’ve caused you and all the crazy I’ve just brought into your life.” He took her hands in his, kissing them in turn.
Molly held his gaze for a moment and then looked back over at Coop. “So you guys met and mated? Just like that?” She snapped her fingers. “And what’s mated? Is that a ceremony?”
Coop laughed quietly. “Well, it wasn’t that instantaneous. But pretty close, I guess. We met, and made out, and fought, and made out, and then Dom told me the truth about what he was. We mated that same night. It’s not a ceremony really, but yes, we were rather quick about the whole thing.” Coop winked playfully at Dom.
“How?” Molly pulled her hands from Keller’s, who fought the urge to not let her go. He needed to touch her, he needed to feel her and know that she was really still here. But he also didn’t need to take any more choices away from her. “How did you get over the shock and the… How did you just accept it and agree to spend the rest of your life with him? How do you know? Everything I thought was true in this world just got shot to hell.”
Coop shrugged. “I love him. And, as crazy as it sounds, I’ve loved him from the first moment I saw him. When he is gone, I feel his absence inside of me. When he looks at me, my body catches fire.” Coop let out a resigned sigh, like what she was about to say irritated her. “It turns me on when Dom gets all possessive. I have never felt more loved and more cared for than when he is telling me I can’t do something.” She grinned when she saw Molly blush. “Sound familiar?”
Keller took Molly’s face in his hands, making her look him in the eye. “You hold my heart, darlin’. I am yours. I will spend the rest of my life making sure that you are happy and safe.” Keller quickly glanced at Dom, remembering what he had said to him a few nights ago. “Can you believe in a love like this?”
Molly held his gaze, unwavering for the first time. “Yes.”
That was all he needed. Keller kissed her, deep and wet and hard, insanely inappropriate in mixed company. He had never felt so much happiness and relief in his entire damn life. When Dom cleared his throat, Keller pulled away and smiled at his mate. “Then welcome to the pack, Miss Molly.”
She snorted. “Pack? Like a wolf pack? Really?”
“Yep. And now you’re part of it too.”
“Okay, what happens next?” Her eyes darted around the room, looking in turn at both Dom and Coop before settling back on him. “Now that I’ve accepted this and I’m ready for this, uh, life. This bonding, we have time, right? We can get to know each other and go slow with whatever mating is, right? I just found out shifters were real. I need to process. What’s the rush? I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
Keller inhaled audibly; here came the hardest part. “Uh, Coop, Dom, do you mind giving us a minute?” He could just take Molly down the street to his house where they could be alone, but he wanted to stay here in case she lost it again.
Coop scoffed. “Oh, so I can talk your mate down from a freaking cliff but I can’t stay to hear the good stuff?”
Dom grabbed Coop’s hand and helped her up. “Come on, baby, it’s time to get ready for work anyway.” He pulled a protesting Coop into their bedroom and shut the door.
Once they were by themselves, Keller took Molly’s hands again. “What I am about to say isn’t going to be easy. But there will never be another lie between us, Molly. Ever.”
“Keller, you’re scaring me.” Her eyes narrowed and her pulse sped up. He could feel it threading rapidly against his thumb. He didn’t know what her memory of last night would be, if it would still be skewed. He wanted to tell her everything so he might as well start from the beginning.
“Last night, we started making out on the couch, do you remember that?”
Molly nodded. “Yeah, of course.”
“Uh, okay, you were in a lot of pain. Do you remember that?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Not at all.”
“The pain, it was my fault. I waited too long. I refused to claim you without you knowing the truth. And not completing our bond, it caused both of us physical pain. It’s not natural for my kind to put it off, to try to slow the bonding process. It goes against our nature. You were begging me to make the pain stop.” He took a deep breath. “And I did. The only way I could, which was to replace the pain with pleasure.”
Molly chewed on her lower lip. “The endless foreplay?”
“Yes, the endless foreplay.” He smiled despite the seriousness of their conversation; he was a man after all. “Eventually, you passed out. I knew I should’ve headed home, but I just couldn’t. I didn’t want to leave in case you needed me again. And I was so damn tired. I hadn’t slept in days. So I stayed, and I fell asleep. I had this horrible nightmare. I dreamed that my body was being ripped in half. But then, in my dream, you came and saved me. Made all the pain go away. When I woke up, I realized it wasn’t a dream. You were on top of me…and we were having sex.”
Her eyes went wide. “I raped you?”
Keller chuckled. “No, of course not. My guess is you heard me crying out and you did the only thing you could think of to help us both. You were trying to save us, and I love you for it. But, in saving us…we mated.”
“What?” Her jaw dropped open and she jerked her hands from his. Her face paled and she started to sweat. He knew that it would come as a shock, and he was prepared for it. But still, her reaction stung a bit.
“In order to complete the mating bond—um, full-on sex bonds us. When you make love with your soul mate, with nothing between you, you finish the claiming process.” He calmly waited for what he said to sink all the way in.
“Nothing between us?”
“Condom.”
Molly laughed like what he’d said was ludicrous. “Of course I used a condom.”
Keller shook his head. “No you didn’t, but it’s not your fault. You weren’t thinking about anything other than making the pain go away. If anything, it’s my fault. I tried to hold on, I tried so hard to hold on until you got what you needed. Then the second you finished I opened my eyes and looked into yours. There was so much love and trust, I, uh…I came, instantly. I couldn’t help it. I’m so sorry, Molly.”
“I’m an irresponsible rapist.”
“No.” He reached for her hands, his heart melting when she let him hold them. “You are my mate, and I love you.”
“Oh my god. I’m your mate. I’m married to a werewolf.”
Keller rolled his eyes when he heard Coop cracking up from behind the bedroom door. “Shifter, darlin’, you are mated to a shifter.”
She gasped. “Holy shit, am I pregnant?”
He cocked his head to the side, his brow furrowed. “Are you on the pill?”
“Yes.”
“Then no, I’m sure we are fine.”
She wrinkled her cute little nose. “Does your werewolf sperm eclipse my pills?”
Keller huffed. “Shifter
sperm, and no.”
“Wow. How come I don’t remember the pain?” Molly sat back against the couch cushions, pulling him up off the floor to sit beside her.
“I don’t know. But I’m glad you don’t.” And he was. She had been in excruciating pain. He never wanted her to experience anything like that ever again. The fact that his indecisiveness and stubbornness had caused it would haunt him for the rest of his life.
“I have so many questions.” She tucked a leg under her, turning to face him more completely. “I’m guessing Baze and Linc are shifters too?”
“Yes. You know, Coop and Dom do this thing where she gets to ask three shifter questions a night. Do you want to do that?”
“Can I ask my first one?” She waited until he nodded. “What now?”
Chapter Twenty
Keller
Keller was sitting at his computer still contemplating Molly’s question. What now? He had no freaking clue. He was in love with Molly, and he was happy they were mated. But he had no idea what the next step should be. He wanted Molly with him all the time; he hated being away from her. Even now his fingers were itching to text her, to see how her day was going. Would she balk at the idea of moving in together? He didn’t see why—she had handled the mating like a champ. Mostly.
Keller’s ruminations were interrupted by Riley, the narc. “Coach Byrne?”
“Well, if it isn’t Coop’s little pet, Riley.” If the kid thought Keller was just going to let the bro code violation go, he had another thing coming. He’d had too much on his mind to give Riley hell the last time he’d seen him.
“I’m sorry, Coach. Really I am. You did me a solid and then I went and got you in trouble with Corey.” Riley plopped down in the chair opposite Keller’s desk, slouching and letting his head rest against its back.
“Don’t forget about Molly.” Keller folded his hands on his desk. “Although, to be honest she seemed to be more impressed than upset. What the hell are you doing to those waitresses?”
“I—”
Keller held up his hand when Riley opened his mouth to answer. “Nope. You know what? I don’t actually want to know. Thank you, though.” He cracked his neck, side to side. “What do you need? You didn’t come here just to apologize.”
