As she circles her mate, a stalker is watching…and planning revenge.
Graham Pack Mates, Book 3
Human, shifter, or somewhere in between, women are beautiful creatures to Derek Taylor. Makes it nice to have a werewolf alpha as a best friend, which opens up a whole new realm of hookup possibilities. The only turnoff would be one of them claiming he’s her mate.
One look at the alpha’s cousin, though, and all he can think about is her body wrapped around him, her lips—wherever she feels like putting them. If the cues she’s throwing off are any indication, sooner or later he’ll have her. All five-foot-three of her.
Paige Treyhorn has little use for men, particularly the one who keeps leaving her gifts and anonymous notes insisting she’s his mate. Yet when the scent of the one man truly meant for her assaults her senses, she nearly climbs over everyone in her way at the restaurant to get to him.
Now begins the game: convincing a playboy human he’s a shifter’s mate. But things get complicated—and dangerous—when she realizes Derek hasn’t been the one leaving the notes.
Warning: This title contains violence, graphic language, sex with a shape-shifting female, and appropriate and inappropriate use of trees, porch swings and walls.
Ultimatum
Annmarie McKenna
Dedication
To everyone who’s ever believed in me and particularly to those who kept reading despite the length of time it took to get this book out! Thanks!
Chapter One
There were some things in life a girl should never do. Like, for example, pee standing up.
One should probably not ever throw a man against the wall of a crowded restaurant and proceed to have her way with him either, but the second his smell wafted across her nose, Paige Treyhorn was ready to do so.
The scent had hit her midsentence, entrancing her. Her womb contracted, a frisson of excitement shot to her core and her wolf clamored to be released. Beyond her senses, the world ceased to exist—because somewhere in said crowded restaurant was Paige’s mate. Even above the mishmash of so many bodies (both washed and unwashed), spicy Italian sauces, garlic, oregano and bleach, she smelled him.
Musky, woodsy, a tinge of sweat. Old Spice? No. Not Old Spice. Her dad used to wear that. Drakkar Noir. Oh God, she suddenly loved the creator of Drakkar.
“Paige?”
She ignored the curious prompt from her coworker and tried to pinpoint the exact location of her mate by sliding her eyes closed and forcing all other intrusions away.
There. To her left.
“What the hell, Paige?”
Her heart pounded in anticipation. She licked her suddenly dry lips and wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans.
Remembering her audience, she sucked in a breath and tried to calm her nerves. “I’m sorry?” She glanced around the table at her three coworkers, two of whom she considered her best friends, staring back at her with mixed looks of confusion.
“You totally went into a trance for a second there, chica.” Tracy lifted her glass of wine to her mouth, one eyebrow raised in question.
Go find him. Keeping her wolf in check was becoming an effort.
“I…thought I heard someone familiar. Someone from my past,” she lied.
“Must have been an unpleasant someone to cause such a reaction.” Ryan laid his cloth napkin across his empty plate. “You okay?”
Hell no. My mate is here and I need to find him. “Fine.” Except for the fact fangs were descending from suddenly sore gums as she spoke. Paige slid her tongue inconspicuously along the ridge of teeth, confirming sharp points.
“Can we get back to work?”
Paige turned to Craig—the coworker she considered not quite a friend—in time to catch his eye-roll. Her fingers curled into fists. No way could she sit there and discuss the project when the one man destined to be with her forever was in this very room.
Tracy grunted. “Jeez, Craig, give a girl a sec to get her bearings.”
Paige jerked her chin in Tracy’s direction as a thanks for the backup, then removed her napkin from her lap and laid it on the table. “I think I’ll just hit the restroom.” It’d give her time to search before the man slipped through her fingers. One way or another, she’d pin him down. Or up against the wall. Or at the very least identify him. And hope to hell he wasn’t some ninety-year-old ogre with no teeth.
Surely the fates wouldn’t be so cruel.
Not that her body would care. Mates were made to complement each other perfectly.
She stood, all but dismissing her friends, her mind focused only on him.
“Paige,” Craig groaned, grating on her nerves. “Go find a man some other time. Right now we have work to do.”
Paige refrained from telling Craig to go to hell. She’d gotten used to his attitude. Normally it didn’t bother her, but right now, she wanted to choke him. He didn’t understand. Couldn’t. Not the way he went through women.
So screw him for somehow reading her mind.
“Ease up, Pendelton,” Ryan snapped. He turned his attention to Paige with a strange look on his face. “Did this guy hurt you, Paige?”
She forced a laugh. “Lord. Why have y’all jumped to the conclusion that there’s any man in question? Just because I have to use the restroom?”
Ryan’s eyes narrowed. “Point taken,” he said, though she still saw the suspicion in his face.
Craig threw his hands in the air, pissed off as always because things weren’t going the way he wanted them to. “Whatever. Just don’t take all day with your girly issues. I want to get this done and get home. It’s late.” Craig grumbled something else under his breath and snatched his beer bottle up.
“Why don’t we all take a break?” Once again, Tracy had Paige’s back. “I find I need to go too.”
“Might as well.” Ryan stood also.
“I’ll stay. Wouldn’t want anyone to clear the table while we’re all off powdering our noses.” There was derision in Craig’s tone. Hell, there was always derision in Craig’s tone. The man had a major stick up his ass. More so this week, which made working this project even more of a bitch, but he was great with computers and otherwise worked well with their team despite his attitude, so usually they let him slide.
The scent wafted past her nose again, making Paige’s knees wobble, and she nearly dropped back into her chair. Her pussy lips were slickening and she’d only smelled the man from afar. Talk about embarrassing. She’d go off like a rocket if she got within any reasonable distance of him, she was sure. Good thing her coworkers were human or they’d all know the real reason behind her actions.
Paige scanned the restaurant for the restrooms. Unfortunately, he was to her left and the restrooms were to her right. She sighed and faced his direction. What excuse could she use…
Thank you, Jesus.
She could kiss her cousins right now. Caelan, her pack leader, and his twin, Eli, were there with some other men. Mostly employees from their security company, it looked like.
And Tucker.
Fuck.
Damn it. She didn’t want to be anywhere near that asshole right now. Not when she’d discovered her mate was in the same building.
Under normal circumstances she avoided Tucker like the plague. Desperate times called for desperate measures though, right? Not even Tucker would deter her need to move in their direction.
“You coming, Paige?”
She whipped around. Dang it. She’d forgotten for a moment that she was supposed to be escaping to the restroom
. Paige cleared her throat. “Actually, I see my cousins over there. I’m just going to go say hi really quick.” And ferret out my mate.
“Ooh, I want to meet them. You talk about them all the time.” Tracy’s sudden smile said she wanted more than just to meet them.
Paige’s mouth dropped open. What could she say? No, I’m about to orgasm from the smell of my mate and I need to go alone? “Okay,” she forced herself to say and willed her heart to stop slamming against her breastbone. Damn thing would be bruised tomorrow.
“Come on, Ry,” Tracy urged. “Craig? Wanna meet the infamous twin cousins?”
Shit.
“No thanks.” Craig took a long swallow of his diminishing beer and dropped it to the table with a thunk.
“Party pooper.”
“I’m planning on partying later tonight,” Craig said, a sparkle in his eyes. Then his mood turned once again. “If we ever get this shit done.”
“Great. I think I know the topic of tomorrow morning’s discussion.” Ryan ushered Paige from the table with a hand at the small of her back.
She squirmed at the feel of his touch. It seemed to burn her through the cotton of her polo shirt. She’d never reacted like this to his gentlemanly ways before, but now she nearly turned on him and growled. Her body had already determined it belonged to someone else.
Besides, the man had a girlfriend—it wasn’t as if he were putting the moves on her.
Right now she didn’t want gentleman from any man, let alone one spoken for. She wanted hot, raunchy, sweaty sex with her mate. Her legs shook again, threatening to collapse at any moment.
The closer she got to her cousin’s table, the stronger her mate’s scent became. Her clit throbbed and her nipples puckered beneath her bra. The sweet friction making her want to rub the feeling away, despite the crowd of people.
Who was he?
She scanned everyone at the surrounding tables, dismissing them one by one. The guy with long, shaggy blond hair? The older one wearing an outfit straight out of the seventies? Good Lord, please not the Unabomber lookalike.
Then it hit her like a two-by-four between the eyes. Her mate was human.
And he was sitting at Caelan and Eli’s table.
Now she was a delicious creature indeed.
Derek Taylor sipped the beer he’d been nursing and eyed the luscious woman making her way toward the table. The man two steps behind her had a possessive hand on her back, which Derek noticed the woman didn’t much care for. Strangely, Derek didn’t care for it one damn bit either.
Her gaze flitted from one person to the next as if she were looking for someone. He cursed those long legs now encased in soft, worn jeans and imagined them naked and wrapped around his hips as he thrust into her moist heat. Her breasts—and he admitted unashamedly that he was a breast man—pressed against the pale blue polo shirt she wore. They would fit oh so sweetly in his palms, her nipples stabbing into his skin the tighter he wound them up. She got within ten feet and he could see the twin peaks standing at attention. And damn, what attention he wanted to give them.
Eight feet now. Derek worked his way up. Brilliant blue eyes fringed with long lashes skated past him, then back, then away again. She pushed a lock of straight blonde hair behind a delicate ear with a shaky hand as she sucked in a deep breath, her nostrils flaring with the effort. Almost as if she’d taken a sniff of the air…
Ah. She was a shifter then. Which meant she probably knew Caelan.
No biggie. He liked women, period. Didn’t matter to him if she could sprout fur and become a wolf at the light of the full moon.
Six feet. Her gaze slid back to him and the point of her pink tongue moistened her lips. Jesus, he’d like to taste those lips, see them wrapped around his cock.
Derek repositioned his hardened dick behind his fly. Any stiffer and buttons would pop. Talk about instantaneous attraction. He couldn’t remember a time when another woman had caused this quick a reaction in him.
He snorted and hid a smile. Maybe he was her mate. Wouldn’t that be something? Him, a human, being attracted just as much as her system forced her to be?
It could happen. Hell, his sister was getting married in three days to a shifter, his best friend, Eli.
Three feet.
Caelan turned his head and noticed her then. He smiled and stood with his arms out, ready to receive a hug, and Derek felt a wash of jealousy go through him. Until he realized Caelan’s hug made the man who’d escorted her relinquish his hold. He’d have to remember to thank his friend later.
She was petite compared to Caelan and Eli, who joined his brother in hugging the woman. Enough was enough. Derek unfolded his leg from where he’d had his ankle propped on the opposite knee and got ready to stand. Tucker beat him.
What the fuck? Seemed he wasn’t the only one who wanted to get closer to her. The other unattached men at the table were practically salivating in their attempts. Derek admitted, not embarrassed in the least, he was one of them.
Who are you, sweetheart?
“Paige, Paige, Paige.” Tucker’s sneer made Derek want to punch the ass in the nose.
Paige. At least now he had a name to go with the face. If she let him touch her…
Tucker stepped around Caelan’s chair with a cocky swagger, setting Derek’s teeth on edge. Please God, don’t be one of his women.
“Not now, Tucker,” she spat.
Good girl. He barely refrained from throwing a fist pump in the air. Tucker was a sleaze and Derek didn’t trust him for one minute.
A low growl emanated from Tucker’s throat. Derek took it as a warning and planted his hands on the table to rise. He wasn’t about to let Tucker intimidate the woman.
“Back off, Tucker.” Caelan’s eyes took on a glow Derek was familiar with. The one that said he was boss, Prime of their pack, and Tucker would do well to remember his place.
“Is he the one you heard?” the man who’d escorted the woman over asked. Standing behind Caelan, the guy obviously hadn’t been able to see the subtle shift in Caelan’s eyes.
Tucker had, though, and stepped back like a good little pup, despite the snarl on his face broadcasting he wasn’t happy.
The woman’s…no, Paige’s—he really loved that name—relieved gaze made contact with Derek once more. She swallowed before looking over her shoulder to answer her…friend.
“What? Ew. No. Definitely not.” She shook her head furiously and Derek chuckled.
He wondered what the man had been referring to. Who had she heard? Not that it was any of his business, no matter how much he wanted to make it so.
She laid a small hand on Caelan’s arm. “We need to talk.”
Caelan raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong?”
She glanced fleetingly at Derek again. “Maybe later.”
What the hell?
She semi-smiled and continued, “I just saw you guys and thought I’d come say hi.”
“And introduce us,” the woman with her said. Derek hadn’t even noticed her before. Of course, he hadn’t noticed much beyond Paige herself. And the male hand at her back. This woman had a sly smile that said she’d gladly take Caelan to bed if he let her. Good thing his wife, Tieran, hadn’t joined them tonight. She was human also but definitely had her own set of claws.
“Right.” Paige nodded, causing the hair to escape its confinement behind her ear. Her cheeks were tinged a slight shade of pink, and she stuck her hands in her back pockets, which made her breasts strain her shirt.
Derek didn’t even try to stop his words. “Maybe we should do introductions all around.”
She sucked in a breath and her wide eyes met his. There was the flare of nostrils again and Derek’s cock jerked. Sooner or later he would have her. All five feet six or so inches of her.
“You sure it can wait, Paige?” Caelan asked softly, ignoring
the rest of them.
She nodded again and reached for the woman who stood next to her, pulling the slightly bigger woman forward by an arm. “This is Tracy and Ryan. We work together.” She rushed through her introduction, and Derek noticed she held on to Tracy like a lifeline.
“Hi.” Caelan shook hands with both. “Caelan Graham. This is my brother Eli, and you’ve already witnessed Tucker.”
There was a round of hellos made by all the standing people, followed by silence, until Derek cleared his throat.
“Since Cael doesn’t seem to care about the rest of us, I’m Derek,” he said, finally standing himself.
“Oh yeah, Derek. I don’t think you’ve met him yet, Paige. And this is Mike, Casey and Dennis.” He motioned to the men still seated around the table.
“Derek,” she murmured as if trying the name on her tongue. She’d ignored the other introductions, an indication she knew them all, and moved around the table, then stopped in front of him.
This time it was his turn to inhale her scent. Something fruity. He’d never been good at deciphering exactly what smelly things women wore, but damned if she wasn’t putting out a shitload of pheromones or something, because Derek was close to laying her down on the table and having his way with her.
“Hello,” she whispered and shyly offered her hand.
He took it, engulfing it in his own, and congratulated himself for not pulling it to his crotch the way he wanted to. Her eyes closed for a few seconds and her head cocked to one side.
“Would you guys come on already?” a gruff voice snapped.
The not quite angry, more agitated voice broke their connection, and Paige pulled free of his grasp, but not before her lip curled in distaste. He could only hope it was because of the interruption and not because of him.
“This is the fourth member of our team, Craig,” Paige offered with a stab of irritation.
“Hi.” Craig lifted a hand, but Derek could see it took a concentrated effort for him to do so. “I’m gonna book if you don’t get your asses back over there.” He looked at his watch pointedly and tapped a finger on it.
Ultimatum: Graham Pack Mates, Book 3 Page 1
