Reluctant Mate (Black Hills Wolves Book 11)

by Chandra Ryan

  “Please.” Her fingernails scored the back of his head as he sucked on her nipple. “I need you to touch me.”

  He could be cocky about the victory, but he wanted to caress her silken heat as much as she wanted him to. He parted her lips and stroked the length of her. Damn she was wet. Smelled so good, too. “I need to taste you.”

  Goose bumps broke out against her skin as he worked his way down her flat abdomen. He needed her essence to surround him. But until it did, he enjoyed tormenting her by telling her what he wanted. “I’m going to run my tongue over that wonderful pussy of yours.” He dropped a kiss on her hip. “And tease your clit while my fingers are deep inside your core.”

  She contracted around him as he slid two fingers into her depths.

  When he knelt between her thighs, he pulled his fingers out of her heat to spread her legs wider to accommodate him. “You’re so gorgeous. Blonde curls around soft pink flesh. And you smell like heaven.” He used his fingers to separate her lips. “I’m betting you taste even better, though.”

  Chapter Four

  Jackson wasn’t surprised to discover he’d guessed right. Her desire slid over his tongue and coated it with her essence. Her flavor beckoned him, a uniquely overwhelming and addictive taste, and he gloried in the experience.

  He slipped his fingers into her tight, hot channel again and he caressed her clit with his tongue. She pulled at his hair as she arched her back so he could slide his fingers deeper inside her and the tight muscles of her pussy wrapped around his digits.

  When he found the textured spot at the top of her channel, he rubbed the tip of his finger against the sensitive area until she called out. When he combined the caress with the steady pressure of his tongue on her clit, she screamed his name.

  Her body trembled around him as she panted in release. The timing was perfect to fuck her. When he pulled his fingers out of her, he thanked the universe for the protections being a Werewolf gave him. Since they didn’t have to worry about pregnancy or STDs, soon his bare cock would be enveloped in her heat and cocooned by her silken sex.

  After he’d made his way up her body, he positioned his erection at her opening. He wanted her so badly he hurt with the need. “Now I’m going to fuck you.” He whispered the words before easing his cock into her.

  She moaned, her body shaking with the aftershocks of her release. “Yes. Please. I need to feel you inside me.”

  With those words, he came undone. He thrust into her core, but he maintained enough control to clench his teeth to keep from biting down on her neck. She may have marked him, but he wasn’t ready to deal with the fall out of returning the gesture. From everything she’d said, he would guess commitment wasn’t high on her list. He would have to give her time and space if there were any hope on anything lasting developing between them.

  He set a hard pace. He had to. His entire body—not to mention his Wolf—demanded he possess her. More so after denying himself the joy of marking her. He wanted to make sure every other Wolf in the pack could smell him on her if they got too close. In his mind, anything within a square mile radius would be too close.

  When she screamed his name again, he let himself go. Time stopped. Hours wrapped in the cloak of mere seconds. His muscles stiffened as a warm current swept down his spine before he released inside her.

  He’d had sex with other women—as she pointed out earlier. That he had wasn’t noble or ideal, but life was seldom either. He could say without a doubt, however, sex had never been this good. Being inside of Aimee felt like being home. His Wolf calmed under her touch, and his soul was at peace in her presence. Even with his heart racing and his breath coming in frantic pants, he was serene.

  “So….” After a few minutes of silence, she fidgeted under him. “I actually didn’t track you down to Gee’s Bar to lure you back to my home.”

  He laughed at the admission. “I never would’ve guessed.” He rolled off her then put his arm under her neck to cuddle with her.

  “I needed to set up the appointment for my car.”

  “Darlin’, you could’ve called.” He leaned in to nibble on her earlobe.

  When she pushed him, he started to worry. “What I mean to say is I didn’t plan for this to happen.”

  “I didn’t either. But I’m glad it did.” When she didn’t say anything, his stomach cramped with fear. “Okay.”

  “I enjoyed….”

  “Me fucking you?” He grimaced as he filled in the blank. Her silence proved she didn’t even want to say the words.

  She cleared her throat, a dark blush spreading across her face. “Yeah.”

  “Okay.” He couldn’t let her continue on her awkward little speech. If they were going to have this conversation, they were going to have it his way. “I can’t lay here and have you hem and haw about this. Whatever this might be. We need to figure out what’s going on between us. I can’t force myself to stay away from you for days on end only to have you stake out my spot at Gee’s Bar and throw yourself at me. Either you want me or you don’t.”

  She growled in what sounded like frustration. Good. He’d rather her be irritated than embarrassed. “I want you. But I don’t want to want you.”

  “Not one for going easy on a guy’s ego, are you?” He should’ve been more upset, but she’d admitted she wanted him. He took her concession as a victory. He’d feared she would deny the entire attraction after the rush of endorphins and hormones left her system.

  “You’re a big boy; you can handle it.”

  He couldn’t stop himself, he laughed at the unintended innuendo. “You better believe I can.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know.” He wrapped his arm tighter around her to pull her into a gentle embrace. “I understand. This hasn’t been easy on me, either.” When she snorted, he laughed again. “Believe it or not, you aren’t who I pictured as a mate.”

  “Me? I’m freaking perfect.”

  “When you aren’t snapping at me, pushing me away, or avoiding me like the plague. Yeah. You’re not too bad.”

  “I haven’t been avoiding you. I’ve been busy.”

  If she were going to blow him off, she could at least come up with a better excuse than being busy. “Uh-huh.”

  “It’s true.” She pulled from his embrace to look at him. “You’d be surprised at how much time transitioning from one life to another takes.”

  She did have a point. He had no idea how much time finding a new life took. Besides, it wasn’t like she’d been dishonest about her feelings from the get-go. He’d known this would be a challenge from the moment she ran away from him in Gee’s Bar.

  “It’s okay. I get it. And it’s not like you’ve made any secret as to how you feel about me being your mate.”

  “I don’t want a mate.” Yet she snuggled into the crook of his arm with the announcement.

  “So I’ve been told. But I’m not going to stop trying to change your mind.”

  “Really? You think you can change my mind?”

  “Maybe. I’d like to think I’m a pretty good catch. If you got to know me—”

  “You were out on a date tonight. Not a great start at getting me to change my mind.”

  “The date got us into bed together, didn’t it?”

  She gasped. “Is that why you brought her into the pack? To make me jealous enough to sleep with you?”

  This had gone far enough. She was cute when she got all defensive, but he didn’t want anyone to think he’d used one woman to make anther jealous. He wasn’t an asshole. “No. I brought her into the pack because she’s my family. I wanted her to meet my new pack.”

  “What? She’s your family?” She pulled away from him but held the sheet over her body. “Oh, dear God. Are you married?”

  He had to fight against the anger and hurt her words caused. Did she think he would be in bed with her if he had a wife at home? Or make out with her in a bar in front of his spouse? His stomach cramped and acid burned the back
of his throat at the thought. “Erica is my sister. She on vacation.” Pain made his voice thick.

  “Please! If you’re going to lie, you could at least come up with a better story.” She gave him a defiant glare. “I smelled her. She’s human.”

  “Yeah.” He took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. She didn’t know anything about him, and he couldn’t blame anybody but himself. He’d been so busy giving her space he hadn’t told her anything about his life. If she thought the worst of him, it was because he’d let her draw her own conclusions about his life. “Remember when I told you I didn’t have a pack?”

  She looked uneasy, but at least she hadn’t run from the bed—yet. “Yes.”

  Like a bandage. Rip it off. He allowed himself one deep breath before saying, “My parents died when I was a baby.”

  “I’m so sorry.” She put her hand on his leg, and it took all of his self-control not to kiss her again. He needed her to hear his story.

  “They died a long time ago. But it did make things tricky for me. Their mating hadn’t been sanctioned by either of their Alphas. They’d been kicked out of their packs.”

  “I know a thing or two about pack politics.” Her expression softened.

  “And being the product of the unsanctioned mating, I wasn’t welcomed back.”

  “That’s horrible.” Her fingers caressed his cheek in a show of support.

  He couldn’t stop his body from reacting to her, though. His cock instantly became hard at the touch despite his desire to ignore the sensation. She’d wanted to show him compassion. The last thing he wanted was to try and leverage the emotion for something deeper.

  “Life wasn’t all bad for them. They’d become close friends with a human couple. So close they shared their secret with them. When they found out they were pregnant, they asked the humans to be my godparents.”

  “So when they died, you were raised by the humans.”

  “They adopted me. And then a couple years later, they became pregnant. I had a baby sister.”

  Aimee stared at him for a second, trying to reconcile the story with the man lying next to her. He looked so big and strong. Imagining him as a young, lost Wolf in the humans’ world was too foreign. “What did you do when you changed?”

  “When I hit puberty, they pulled me out of public school and homeschooled me on a ranch in the middle of nowhere for a couple of years. I have to say, though, controlling the shift was a lot easier than the emotions and drives that come with having a Wolf.” He laughed. “My poor mom, she might as well have camped out at the principal’s office when they put me back in public school. The school called her to come and talk to me at least three times a week.”

  Aimee smiled as she pictured it. She couldn’t imagine how difficult raising a Wolf had to have been for the humans. “She must be an amazing woman.”

  “She is.” He sighed. “But poor Erica had the worst of it. I don’t think she went on a date until I started college.”

  “Did you chase all the boys away?” She couldn’t help but laugh. Enough of her friends had older brothers for her to remember what a hassle brothers could be. But, her friends had the claws and teeth to hold their siblings in check.

  “You better believe it. My favorite was a guy I caught throwing rocks at her window at two o’clock in the morning.”

  “Oh no! What did you do?”

  His abs rippled as he laughed. “I kindly asked him to leave our property.” He paused, and she knew there was more to the story. “In my Wolf form. So the words came out as a series of growls and snarls and—you know—snapping teeth. But he got the gist of the message. Poor guy. Last I heard he’s still seeing a therapist.”

  “You are bad.” She pushed against his chest, but the gesture was hollow. She meant the touch to tease him. The story tugged at her heartstrings. He’d lost so much, but he’d allowed the humans to become his own clan. Having humans to take the place of a pack was a lot to ask of a Wolf. She hated to admit it, but she kind of liked the boyish man in the story.

  “Yep. I’m the big bad Wolf.” He smiled wickedly as he pushed her onto her back. The raw sexuality of the expression made her heart skip a beat and her breath catch. “I’m the one your mom warned you about.”

  Her Wolf howled with approval as he caged her body with his. But she wasn’t ready to roll over and play submissive this time. If he wanted to challenge a Wolf, he’d better be damn ready to prove his worth.

  She growled and pounced on him, rolling him so he was the one stretched out on the mattress. They hadn’t cleared anything up other than the whole date misunderstanding. But, truth be told, she didn’t want to think about her feelings, let alone define them for him. She wanted to fuck him. Sex would have to be enough.

  “Or maybe you’re the one my mother warned me about,” he said.

  “No way.” She shook her head. “Good mothers don’t know women like me exist.” They were a tangle of blankets and sheets. The infuriating obstacle needed to be dealt with before she could go any further. It took a couple of tugs, but when they were finally free of the bedding, she could admire his body.

  “And? Do you like what you see?”

  She smiled at the cocky question. Everything about this Wolf had a degree of swagger. But she could swagger, too. Years of standing in front of a judge had taught her how. “I’m not kicking you out of my bed, am I?” She straddled his legs to punctuate the statement.

  His silence spoke volumes. She’d shocked him.

  “What? You don’t think I can handle the likes of you?” She leaned over and licked his torso starting at his navel and ending at his sternum. When she looked into his eyes, heat and passion simmered there. “Oh, I know what you like.” She winked then wiggled her hips. This time she did get a low growl out of him. “And your Wolf.”

  “You’re playing with fire, sweetheart.”

  She rocked forward to kiss him. “I think your bark is worse than your bite.” She shouldn’t be teasing him. He was a Wolf. But damn it all, teasing him made her happy. She didn’t know why. She enjoyed harassing him.

  When he lunged forward and turned to pin her with her back on the bed, she laughed. And it wasn’t a polite giggle. The sound burst out of her full-bodied. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed like she meant it.

  “Do you want to test your theory out?” He looked longingly at her neck as he asked.

  The conversation didn’t seem as funny as it had once been. She’d expected him to mark her earlier. When he hadn’t, she’d experienced an unexplainable ache in her chest. Why wouldn’t he want to mark me? She could only guess he didn’t want to leave any evidence of their dalliance on her. What other reason would he have for not biting her?

  Being marked wasn’t anything serious. The mark would show the pack what most of them already had to know. They’d been intimate. But the mark would fade over time. Like their attraction. Or, at least, she hoped the chemistry between them would fade.

  As soon as he’d asked, however, the action seemed a lot deeper than she’d thought—judging by the hunger in his eyes and the deep tremble in his voice, at least. A deft change of subject would be the safer option. Her Wolf didn’t like the idea of playing it safe. She wanted to bait and challenge him. “I don’t think you have the balls.”

  The words were out before she realized she meant to say them. Once they’d left her lips, she couldn’t take them back even if she wanted to. His teeth were on her neck before she took her next breath.

  Everything stopped as a current of electricity swept through her body. His teeth on her skin seemed to short-circuit her brain. She didn’t even care. She wanted to feel him everywhere. She draped her arms around his shoulders and rubbed her body against his. The coarse hairs on his chest brushed against her nipples and made them harden. But she needed more.

  She wrapped her legs around his hips and rubbed her sex against his. More than anything, she wanted him buried deep inside her again. She couldn’t find the words
to tell him, though.

  Thankfully, he seemed to need her with the same desperation. As soon as his teeth left her neck, he thrust his cock inside her. The friction of his skin sliding into her, stretching her to accommodate his girth threw her over into another orgasm.

  The man had a gift. As he continued to rock, embers of desire heated her blood, making her smolder again. She’d never wanted anyone to touch her the way she wanted him to.

  He was a drug. The realization hit her hard. Even as her pussy contracted around him in release, she knew she’d be begging for him to take her again before the night faded into day. Even knowing the truth, she realized she couldn’t do anything about it. She feared she was already addicted to him.

  Chapter Five

  Aimee woke the next morning with the sun on her cheek and a warm, muscled arm thrown over her waist. The memories of the night came rushing back and made her Wolf sigh with contentment. Of course the animal was happy. She’d been thoroughly loved. Every inch of her body had been kissed, caressed, and carried the scent of her mate. Yeah, her Wolf would be in a state of bliss for days. She, however, wasn’t as gleeful.

  What had she done? Panic caused her throat to constrict and her eyes to burn with unshed tears. The gentle caress of his hand gliding over her side made her feel worse.

  “It’s okay.” His warm breath tickled her neck and made a shiver of desire slide down her spine. “You’re a warm-blooded Wolf. You need to be touched.”

  Is he trying to comfort me? And he thought their sex had upset her? If only the issue were that simple. Sex she could handle. Raw physical attraction burned bright and fast. But everything had shifted when she’d heard about his childhood.

  No, if she were going to be honest with herself, she’d admit the shift had started when she’d seen his sculpture. He’d gone from being a stereotyped character in her head to a real person. A person who had a common interest. The story of his childhood endeared him to her heart, however. And his gentle touch and genuine concern were planting roots there. This felt like a lot more than sex. She couldn’t do more than sex. Her heart belonged to another. She refused to throw his memory to the side as so many of her pack had done.