I pressed his palm against my slightly rounded belly. “Maybe we should hope for another girl this time around.”
He bent low to press a kiss over the spot where our third baby was growing. “Nah, I’ll take whatever you give me and be damn happy, sweetheart.”
I ruffled my fingers through his thick hair. “Another perfect answer, just like always.”
“Only because fate did me a solid and gave me the most perfect mate in the entire world, and I’ve been thanking my lucky stars ever since.”
I couldn’t agree more since I’d ended up with an amazing husband and the family I’d always wanted. “Me too, handsome.”
Extra epilogue
I laughed as I watched the large gray wolf romp in the snow with a group of young pups before he let himself be tussled to the ground. He howled in fake protest for a minute before jumping onto all fours and letting out an overly ferocious roar. The pups yipped—a sound I’d long ago learned was laughter—and scampered away.
The wolf lifted his snout to the group before lumbering over to my side as the pups began to wrestle and play amongst themselves. He plopped down next to me and rested his head in my lap. I ran my fingers through his thick fur, and he let out a contented sigh, making me smile. His eyes drifted up, and I could see a little of Zeke staring back at me along with his wolf. The adoration in their stare made me feel warm and fuzzy, and I was sure they could see the emotions reflected in my gaze.
We watched over the children for a little while longer, then my wolf pushed off the ground and trotted over to our house, slipping inside the back door. A minute later, my sexy husband strode outside and made a beeline for me. He’d put on jeans and a sweater, and as usual, the sight of my man made my mouth water and my body grow hot.
Zeke narrowed his eyes in warning when he scented my arousal, and I couldn’t help the sly smile that spread across my face. He walked to my side and scooped me into his arms before taking my seat and settling me sideways in his lap.
“Don’t look at me like that, sweetheart,” he growled in a low tone.
I shifted, and my butt bumped a hard bulge in his pants, which only served to make me wet with need. “I can’t help it,” I muttered. Okay, so that was only partly true. I might have been teasing him with my wiggling.
Zeke grabbed my hips in an iron hold, forcing me to sit still. “Calliope and Larissa won’t be here to pick up their pups for another hour. If you don’t stop teasing me, I’m going to spank your pretty little ass once we’re alone tonight.”
I giggled and looked up at my mate through my lashes. “Promise?” My tone was breathy as I practically panted over the idea.
He closed his eyes and held his breath for a beat. Then he exhaled with a resigned sigh and buried his face in the crook of my neck. “You’d think after ten years; I wouldn’t feel like a horny teenager whenever my mate is around. But sometimes I think it’s only gotten worse.”
Laughter bubbled up, but his statement did nothing to help me tamp down the desire that was building in my body. I knew exactly what he meant. Every day, I loved Zeke more. And every day, I felt more attracted to him.
“Especially when you’re in heat,” he grunted, nipping at my nape. I mentally smacked my forehead at my stupidity for not figuring it out sooner. My lack of control made much more sense. I had gained some shifter qualities when I mated with Zeke, and one of them was the increase in desire at my most fertile times of the month. Not that my mate ever complained about my insatiable appetite. But with three kids, adult time was hard to come by. However, Zeke was definitely creative with the quickies.
My mate grabbed my chin and lifted my face so he could cover my mouth with his in a deep kiss.
“Mommy!”
Zeke groaned and tore his mouth away at the sound of our four-year-old daughter, Merren, came running out of the house, her lips turned down in an adorable pout. She was wearing her clothes, so I assumed she’d gone inside to shift while I was distracted by my mate’s kisses.
“What’s wrong, baby?” I asked as I zipped up her coat.
“Izac threw a snowball at me!”
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing, especially when I spied the boy tiptoeing out from behind a bush, also shifted and wearing clothes.
“Izac?” Zeke called. The pup froze for a second, then turned toward us, a look of trepidation on his little face. “Did you throw a snowball at Merren?” My mate stood and set me down in the empty seat.
His shoulders drooped as he nodded. Merren looked smug, and I frowned at her, causing her to blush.
“Thank you for being honest, pup. But now you’re going to have to deal with the consequences.”
Izac nodded dejectedly again.
Zeke beckoned for Merren to join him as he walked out into our yard. He crouched down and mashed some snow together, shaping it into a ball before handing it to his daughter. Then he made another ball of snow and stood.
He glanced at Merren, and she smiled widely as they both pulled back their arms and let their snowballs fly. They both hit Izac in the chest, and his head flew up in surprise. “SNOWBALL FIGHT!” Merren screamed as she took off running.
Suddenly, the backyard was a flurry of flying snow as the kids, who’d all shifted and dressed at this point, raced around throwing and ducking the icy projectiles.
Ryker, Larissa and Kace’s youngest, was “hiding” in the bushes—not all hidden—so I hurried over and knelt next to him. “Here,” I mock-whispered as I handed him a snowball. I made up another one and looked at him with as serious an expression as I could muster. “One, two, three!” We lobbed our ammunition and laughed when they missed their targets. “I’ll be your teammate,” I told him as I held out my hand. “Ready?”
Ryker squared his shoulders and smiled as he placed his palm in mine. Then we both yelled out battle cries as we darted out into the fray.
* * *
“Holy cow,” I muttered as I dropped my cold, wet clothes on the bathroom floor. “So freaking cold!” I shivered as I danced from foot to foot, trying to get warm while I waited for the shower spray to heat up. Finally, it was hot enough for me to step into the glass enclosure, and I sighed as the water poured over me.
Suddenly, a blast of cold air hit my back, and I yelped before it was immediately replaced by a body that radiated extra heat. “Need some help warming up, sweetheart?” Zeke practically purred, his hands sliding up my sides and around to cup my breasts.
“Mmmhmmm,” I sighed as I leaned back against him. “Is Jake watching Elora and Merren?”
“Nope,” he mumbled, using his chin to drag my hair away from my neck so he could rest his lips over his mark.
“What?” I nearly shrieked.
“Relax, Allegra,” he soothed. “Calliope agreed to a sleepover for the girls while Larissa took the boys.”
Zeke pinched both of my nipples, sending streaks of pleasure straight to my pussy, making me moan. Then his words sunk in, and my eyes flew open. “Does that mean…?”
“We’re all alone,” Zeke answered. Then he spun us around, so we were facing the shower bench. He released my breasts to place his hands on my back and push me down, so I was bent over, ass in the air. Before I could say anything, he popped one of my buttcheeks with a loud smack. “Which means I get to hear you scream while I give you your punishment,” he growled before slapping the other cheek.
By the time he was done spanking my ass—and my pussy—I’d screamed through four mind-blowing orgasms. I was about to drift off, cuddled in his arms when a thought occurred to me. “Dang it! We didn’t use—”
“Nope,” Zeke interrupted as one arm curled around to rest the palm of his hand over my belly. The other was already firmly wedged between my thighs. “You graduated in August, and Merren will be four next month. I’m ready for another one.”
We’d talked about having a fourth child, but we’d decided to wait a little longer this time around. I’d finally gone back to college and earned my degree
. Not because it was expected of me, but because I wanted to.
“Okay,” I whispered happily as a grin split my face. His hand flexed between my legs, two long fingers sinking into my drenched channel. I moaned as he moved them in and out.
“You need to rest,” he growled even as he thrust his hips forward, rubbing his steel shaft against my bottom. “But I need to fuck you one more time first.”
“Yessss,” I agreed as he removed his fingers and replaced them with his cock, shoving it deep inside me.
Nine months later, we welcomed our second boy, Abel, into the world.
Her Alpha
When Larissa Nash went looking for her best friend, she never expected to find her in a town full of shifters. She didn’t even know they existed until Kace Lowell clued her in on the secret by shifting into his wolf.
Mating a human was complicated for the alpha of the pack, but Kace was more than ready to take on anyone who dared to challenge Larissa’s place in his life.
1
Larissa
“Did you find her yet?” one of my best friends asked as I pounded on the door in front of me.
“I’m at the house where her phone’s location shows she’s at.” I switched my cell phone to the other ear and looked over my shoulder. “There’s a big truck in the driveway, so hopefully she’s here, and someone answers the door soon. I’ll call you back when I know what the heck is going on with her and the sexy sheriff.”
“Don’t disappear on me, too,” Calliope warned before hanging up. If I hadn’t been worried sick about Allegra, our other best friend, I probably would’ve laughed because of how ridiculous the idea was. I highly doubted I’d find a guy who’d make me forget to check in with my friends like Allegra did, the day after she stumbled upon her hot cop at the scene of an accident. None of our trio had gotten into the dating scene in high school, so it would be super weird if two of us threw ourselves into the deep end at the same time.
Scared that Allegra had ended up in water too deep for her to handle, I slammed my fist against the door again. I almost took a step back when a deep male voice roared, “I’m coming!” But I held myself in place, refusing to back down when Allegra might be in trouble. Steeling my spine, I lifted my hand to knock again, but held it in the air when the door was flung open by a muscular guy with dark hair and green eyes. “Who are you, and what the hell do you want?”
Refusing to be intimidated by him, I crossed my arms over my chest and stared him down. I wanted to see my best friend with my own eyes to make sure she was okay, and I wasn’t going to leave until it happened. “Where is Allegra? She missed both of her classes today, and I haven’t heard from her since last night. I don’t care that you’re the sheriff around here. If you’ve hurt her in any way, I’m going to make you pay.”
The big lug’s lips curved up in a smirk at my threat, and I clenched my fists at my sides. But then a familiar voice called, “I’m okay!”
My gaze darted over his shoulder, and I spotted Allegra at the top of the stairs. She was practically swimming in the sweats she was wearing, but she made it look good. The surge of relief racing through my system was so strong, my knees trembled a little as I stepped around her guy to get closer to my best friend.
She rushed down the stairs and said, “I’m so sorry I disappeared all day. I don’t even know where I left my phone.”
“It’s in my office.” Allegra’s sheriff moved to stand next to her, wrapping his arm around her back and pulling her close. “I noticed your battery was low after you fell asleep last night. Since we have the same model, I plugged it in to recharge in case you needed it later.”
As thoughtful as it was that he’d thought to take care of Allegra’s phone for her, I wasn’t ready to cut him any slack yet. “If you were trying to be helpful, you should’ve set an alarm so she wouldn’t have skipped the entire day and worried her friends.” Shifting my focus to my best friend, I added, “It was a good thing your location is shared with me on our phones, or else I wouldn’t have had any idea how to find you.”
“I didn’t mean to scare you.” She gestured toward the guy at her side with an awkward wave and explained, “I just lost track of time.”
“Yeah, I can tell,” I snorted, pointing at her bed head. “But you’re going to need to figure out how to juggle having a guy and going to school, or else your grades will plummet and then your mom will be all up in your business even more than usual.”
“You know getting a degree has never been important to me. I enrolled in college more because of you and Calliope than anything else,” she reminded me.
“Yeah, but you can’t just drop out before the end of the semester.” Her point was fair, but I wasn’t going to back down just because she’d never been interested in getting a degree. I needed some answers before I’d accept that she’d change her whole life for a guy she met last night. I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for her to give me something that would help me understand what the heck was going through her head.
“There are only three weeks to go, so of course I’m not going to drop out,” she assured me with a smile.
“The campus is only a ten-minute drive, and my job is flexible. I’ll make sure she doesn’t miss any more classes.”
The sheriff’s announcement shocked the heck out of me. “Hold up! Are you trying to say Allegra is moving in with you? After only one night?”
“Good question.” She tilted her head back to stare up at him. “Are you?”
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
She beamed a smile at him before looking back at me, her brown eyes full of happiness. “Yup, that’s what we’re saying.”
“I don’t even know what to say to all of this.” My brain felt as though it was about to explode. I shook my head and pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger.
Allegra’s grin widened. “Is it really that much of a shock? You know that all I’ve ever wanted is a family of my own. I finally found a guy I could picture myself growing old with, so why should I go slow?”
Her guy stunned me by offering, “I’ll be more than happy to give you as many babies as you want.”
“You’re already talking about babies?” I sputtered. “Do I need to remind you again that you only met this guy last night? You haven’t even had time to introduce him to your best friends.”
“I can fix that with half of my best friend duo right now.” She patted his chest. “This is Zeke. I get that it’s super crazy, but I’m already falling in love with him.” Then she pointed at me. “Zeke, this is Larissa, one of my best friends in the whole wide world.”
“Nice to meet you.” Zeke jerked his chin in my direction. “Allegra has told me a lot about you.”
All I’d gotten from her about him on the phone last night was what he did for a living. “I wish I could say the same. If my mind is blown by all of this, I can just imagine how your parents are going to react.”
Her eyes went wide at the reminder of how badly they would take the news of her having a boyfriend. “I think I’ll wait until Christmas break to tell them about Zeke, and then I’ll have a whole month to decide if I want to take any classes next semester.”
Allegra was kidding herself if she thought the holiday was going to help her family accept Zeke more easily. I snorted, “Good luck with her mom.”
A wide grin split Zeke’s face as he looked over my shoulder. “Good luck with my alpha.”
His alpha? What the heck did he mean by that?
“Huh?” My brow wrinkled in confusion, but I didn’t get the chance to ask what Zeke was talking about before strong arms grabbed me from behind. I was tossed over a broad shoulder, and some random guy carried me away while I pounded on his back with my fists. Allegra just whispered, “Oh, boy.”
Being kidnapped while my best friend did nothing to help me was beyond wrong. Especially when she was the reason I was there in the first place. If love at first sight made her look at everything with rose-colored
glasses, I wanted nothing to do with it.
2
Kace
Tossing my human mate—who didn’t know shifters existed—over my shoulder and carrying her away might not have been my smartest decision ever, but I didn’t regret it. Not when she was exactly where I wanted her to be—under my roof where nobody else could see her. The mystery of my wolf’s reaction to Allegra’s scent had been solved the moment I stepped out of my house and the sweet aroma with a hint of chocolate hit my nostrils. When my wolf had caught the faint trace of it on Zeke’s mate earlier, he’d wanted to hunt the source down.
I’d had to force him to stay inside my human skin when I’d left without the information I needed. Nothing but a mating would’ve made me walk out before I got the answers I wanted. Zeke and Allegra were in the early stages of theirs, and privacy was a necessity. The last thing I wanted was for my beta to challenge me because the mating urge whipped him into a jealous rage. Now that I had found the woman who was born to be mine, I wished I had those lost hours back. She, on the other hand, did not seem to be thrilled with me as I set her on her feet after slamming my door shut and flipping the lock.
Her blond hair was disheveled, with one long lock curled around a plump breast. Twin spots of color filled her cheeks, standing out against her fair skin. If she had the power to kill me with the glare from her pretty blue eyes, I would’ve died on the spot. She was a fierce little thing, and both sides of my being heartily approved. Being mated to the alpha was a challenge for shifter females and even more so for a human. Her intensity would serve her well as she took her rightful place at my side. But first, I had to convince her that was where she belonged...before my wolf broke free and clamped his teeth into her shoulder when she didn’t even know what the hell was going on.
Shifted Love: Volume 1 Page 7
