by L. P. Maxa
“For fuck’s sake, Riley,” Jace growled. “Get her out of here. And don’t let her leave your goddamn room until she knows everything.”
Riley hoisted a still-rambling Blake over his shoulder, carrying her back inside the house, careful to avoid all the broken glass on the way.
Jace was pissed. Jasper was probably feeling guilty for his inability to control his shifter, and Blake was convinced that she had slowly lost her grip on reality. This was the day from hell that refused to fucking end.
“Hey, what happened?” Axie came from her bedroom, pausing in the living room with her gaze darting from the back deck and Riley heading toward the stairs with Blake in his arms. “Did you tell her?”
“No,” Riley gritted out.
“It’s split personalities, isn’t it? I’m like Ed Norton in Fight Club.” Blake went limp over his shoulder, her hands brushing against his ass as he started up the stairs.
“You know you picked Corey’s clone, right?”
He paused at Axie’s barely contained humor. Glancing behind him, he asked, “What?”
“She relates serious situations to movies.” She was ticking points off on her black-tipped nails. “But she’s hilarious, she loves to bust people’s balls, she’s dramatic…hell, she even has a dude’s name.” Axie’s eyes danced with amusement. “You two are going to be fine, Riley. I promise.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Blake
Riley dumped Blake on the bed, standing before her with his hands on his hips. He was gorgeous, in a wholesome way she found increasingly enticing. When she woke up pressed to his side, she had a huge urge to climb on top of him and have her wicked way. Those thoughts had been creeping into her mind more and more, ever since the cabin. Ugh. The cabin. She constantly had flashbacks of her night with Jasper and Riley. She dreamt of them. The way she felt being passed back and forth, the way they played with her body. So fucking perfect.
“What are you thinking about? Stop it.” Riley was glaring down at her, his green eyes narrowed. “Your face is getting all flushed.”
She bit her lips together, trying to switch her focus onto something like baseball. It seemed to work with guys and unwanted boners, at least in movies. Baseball. Riley played baseball. She bet he looked hella handsome in his uniform, those tight pants hugging his ass.
“Blake,” Riley snapped. “You’re getting overheated.”
She met his gaze. “How can you tell?”
He swallowed thickly, his hands dropping. “I can see the blush on your face, and I can smell the change in you.” He dropped on the mattress beside her, looking utterly exhausted.
“You can smell me?” She was confused, but that wasn’t new. She’d been confused for days now. She’d hooked up with her best friend, and his best friend. She was flown to Haxton on a private plane to be locked away in a compound with people she’d never met because of some threat she didn’t quite understand. She sort of lost her shit on a mountain, Jasper sniffed and licked her, and then she was saved by a dog. As of a few minutes ago, she discovered she was developing multiple personalities.
It’d been a fucking rough winter break.
“We need to talk, doll face.” Riley reached for her hands, threading their fingers together and pulling her up until she was sitting facing him. “You’re not crazy, and you don’t have split personalities.”
“That’s a relief.” She cracked a smile when he snorted out a chuckle. He looked so serious, so down, but she was happy she could still make him laugh. Her sourpuss needed her in his life. She’d known that since the first moment she’d laid eyes on him. “The dog was real, right? I didn’t make him up?”
“It’s a wolf.” He shook his head, like he was daring her to call it a dog one more time. “And yes, it was real. You saw it, and so did Jace and Axie, right?” She nodded. “See? Real. I told you, you aren’t crazy.”
“Then what am I?” Blake sighed, letting the weight of everything she’d been ignoring come to the surface. “Because nothing is making sense.”
His gaze searched hers, his fingers tightening, intertwined with hers. Blake’s stomach twisted, almost afraid of his answer. “You’re my mate.”
“Come again?” Blake couldn’t have heard him right. There was no way mate came out of her best friend’s mouth. “Like your mate? Like the Australian word for buddy?”
“Everything I’m about to tell you, um, uh, it’s going to be hard to understand. I need you to listen, okay? I need you to keep an open mind, and I need you to not freak out and leave this room. It’s not safe for you downstairs, not right now.” He shook her hands lightly. “Promise me you won’t leave this room.”
None of this was helping her believe she wasn’t actually losing her mind. Blake looked past Riley to the closed bedroom door. Bolting never crossed her mind. As weird as all this was, she knew that leaving him wasn’t something she’d want to do. Crazy or not, he was her ride or die. “I promise.”
“Okay. Uh.” Riley got to his feet, pacing at the foot of the bed and shaking out his hands. She looked down at her own, and felt the loss of his touch, something she’d never noticed before. “I’m a shifter. I, well, we are a pack of shifters. Which are real, by the way, wolf shifters at least. And we mate for life. Axie isn’t Jace’s fiancée, she’s his mate. The universe, it creates a perfect match for each of us, and when we find that match, we’re compelled to complete the bond. To claim them. To mate. That’s what’s happening with you,” he motioned between them, “with us. You’re mine and since we haven’t finished the bond, your body is sort of spazzing out. The hot flashes, that’s your body seeking mine out. The wolf who saved you, that was me.”
“You’re the dog?” After all the things that spilled from her best friend’s mouth over the last few minutes, she wasn’t sure why that one was what stuck out the most.
“I’m the wolf.” Riley all but growled at her misuse of the term dog, which made more sense now.
“You’re the wolf.” She snorted out a laugh, although nothing was particularly funny. “I wanted to keep you. I wanted to get you a collar and take you back to Greenly. I wanted to sneak you into the house and let you sleep on my bed.”
“Yeah.”
“Jace said you couldn’t come inside because you had fleas.” Her giggles took over, making her fall back on the bed. “He said you were small, and you pissed on his boots.”
“Blake, doll, come on.” He grabbed her hands and pulled back to sitting. “The manic giggles are starting to freak me out.”
“Manic.” She nodded, covering her mouth to try to regain control. “My best friend is a wolf, and he belongs to a pack.”
“All the males you met shift. Females don’t shift, they don’t carry the gene. But all the males, they shift. We’re all wolves.”
“Jasper?”
Riley joined her on the bed again. “Jasper is a shifter, yes. The reason he sniffed and licked you, the reason he’s been acting so strange, is because he isn’t bonded. He doesn’t have a mate. His wolf can sense the change in your body when you get overheated, when you’re seeking out the bond. It’s enticing, and it’s hard for him to stay away.”
“You have mates, real mates, for life.” She seemed to be having a mild case of out-of-body experience. It was as if she was watching the conversation unfold from a distance. She knew she was the one asking these questions, that this was real and this was happening to her. She felt removed though. She wasn’t scared, she wasn’t thinking about running out the door. She should be, but she wasn’t, and that made everything even more surreal.
“Corey, Molly, Madden, Pen, and Axie. They’re all mated to their partners. It’s like being married, but at a molecular level. They were made for each other, destined from the start.”
“I’m your mate?” She swallowed past the lump in her throat. Why wasn’t she freaking out? She lived for overly dramatic reactions, and yet she was taking all this craziness in stride. “Are you compelling me right now? Is that
what this is? Some Vampire Diaries situation where you’ve compelled me to stay calm? Oh my god. Are vampires real too?”
Riley smiled, his grin taking over his face. “There’s my girl.” He chuckled, reaching for her hand again. “You had me worried there for a minute.” He kissed her palms, something he’d done a couple times since the cabin, something that made her insides ignite. “Vampires aren’t real, that I know of anyway. I’m not compelling you. We don’t possess that ability. You were created for me, made to be mine. You aren’t freaking out because this is the way it was always meant to be.”
She thought back to the first moment she’d seen Riley. It wasn’t when she busted into his dorm room as she’d let him believe. It was an hour before when she’d watch him walk the hall, his head down and a frown on his handsome face. Her heart ached for him, and she’d instantly wanted to make him smile. So she’d taken note of which room he’d entered, and she’d made a point to meet him. She’d been drawn to him before she even met him. She’d wanted to know him.
“Are we mated? The universe wills it, so it is?”
Riley shook his head. “No, we haven’t finished the bonding process. We started it, accidentally, which is why your body is spazzing out on us. It wants us to finish it.”
“When did we start it?” Blake couldn’t remember anything out of the ordinary happening, some accidental voodoo-like ceremony, which got interrupted by their Postmates order.
“The cabin.”
She couldn’t help her gasp. “Oh my god. Am I mated to Jasper too? I’m going to have two mates?”
“No.” His voice had dropped several octaves. He was growling more than talking. “You are not mated to Jasper, you aren’t his. Ever.” He took a deep breath, like he was trying to calm himself down. “I didn’t know then that you were meant for me. Obviously. If I had, then I would have never—”
“Shared me with your best friend.”
“Please, don’t talk about that right now.” He was speaking through clenched teeth, his grip on her hands tightening. “It’s really hard for me to swallow the fact that my best friend has been with my mate.”
“That’s why you and Jasper seem so weird, so tense?” She waited for him to nod before continuing. “Is sex the process? The way to complete the bond between us?” He nodded again. “We already did that though.” She did that with him and Jasper, but apparently that topic made him want to rail on his “packmate.”
“We used condoms.” Riley nodded at her shocked expression. “There has to be nothing between us, no barriers.”
“Good thing I’m on the pill.” Blake twisted her lips to one side, images running rampant in her mind. “I don’t know about you, but I am not ready to have a litter of wolf pups running around my dorm room.”
“We’ll have human babies.” Riley rolled his eyes, which made her happy. They were still them. Still friends. Still able to joke and make each other laugh. “Are you saying you’re okay with all this? You’re not going to sneak out in the middle of the night and disappear into the mountains?”
None of the last few weeks had been normal, but learning magical creatures existed somehow made it all seem a little less crazy. Which was pure insanity in and of itself. She was only nineteen. She had her whole adult life ahead of her. She’d never planned to settle down with one person until she’d seen the world, experienced everything imaginable. She wanted a career and independence before she picked one dick to grow old and wrinkly with. She knew she should be freaking out, should be firing off questions and looking for a loophole. Searching desperately for more time, a way out.
She wasn’t. She felt calm. She felt at peace, safe. She’d been drawn to Riley instantly, and always. He made her happy. He made her laugh. He accepted her, every part of her. She’d never felt as cherished as she did with him, as special. He was the best friend she’d ever had, and she couldn’t imagine her life without him in it.
Since the cabin, she’d been drawn to him in a way she hadn’t been before. She craved his touch, and she wanted to be surrounded by his scent all the time. The memory of them together, the way he felt inside her, the way he kissed, the way his teeth felt against her flesh…
“You better be thinking of only me only right now. I swear I’ll rip out his throat.”
“How can you always tell?” She should be embarrassed he kept catching her thinking about him naked, but there never really was much shame in her game.
“Your body heats up, and your smell changes. It gets sweeter.” Riley leaned forward, running his nose up the column of her throat and sending chills racing down her back. “You’re mine. I’ll always be able to tell, doll face.”
She hummed, wanting to pull him closer. “The feminist in me should really hate you saying I’m yours.”
“I’m yours too.” He kissed her collarbone, steadily erasing the line defining their friendship. Since they’d had kinky threesome sex, the line was really more like a rubber band at this point. “I belong to you as much as you belong to me. I’ll spend the rest of my life living only for you.”
Chapter Thirty
Riley
Riley kissed her again, his tongue darting out to taste the flush on her flesh. She was turned on, she wanted more. Her body had been fluctuating back and forth all day. He wondered what would’ve happened if they hadn’t had this talk. Would she have come to him, asked him to touch her? Or would she have pushed those feelings away, afraid of the consequences?
“Jasper keeps getting hurt because of me.” She pulled back slightly, looking into his eyes.
He frowned at her softly spoken words. She’d been made to feel uncomfortable. She’d been put in a bad position by his packmate, and yet she felt bad for Jasper, not herself. “Jasper keeps getting hurt because his wolf is a horny dipshit.”
“You hit him. You guys are fighting. He was bleeding, pinned down by Jace on the deck.” She shook her head, biting at her pink bottom lip. “I don’t want to be the reason things are tense here, or strained between you two. I don’t want to be the reason Jasper is upset.”
“That’s not a reason to complete the bond, doll face.” Riley tucked a wayward hair behind her ear. “When you make that choice, it needs to be because you want it. You want me, you want to be tied to me for the rest of forever.”
“My body—”
“Can be controlled.” He shook his head, cutting off her argument. “We can manipulate things, keep the hot flashes at bay for a while. As long as you don’t start experiencing any pain, we have time.”
He’d been terrified to tell her what he was, what he’d dragged her into. Everyone else had been right though. There was nothing to fear with his girl. She was made for him, made for this life, and she’d taken everything he’d told her better than he’d ever expected. She was selfless, hilarious, kind, strong. She was perfect.
“How do we manipulate it? I need to walk around with snow in my pants?” She wrinkled her nose at her own suggestion. “Maybe an ice pack. The snow would start to melt and make a mess. I could drink cold beer all day, that sounds like a fun way to finish out this lockdown.”
“I need to make you come.”
Her eyebrows shot to her hairline. “Are you being serious?”
He shrugged, chuckling at her expression. “I guess you could make yourself come. The guys always made it sound like it needed to be them, but maybe that was their dicks talking. I could call Pen and ask if it’s mate specific, or if—”
“You can do it.” She cut him off, a wicked smile on her face. “I mean, why do it myself when I have a hot mate on standby to make me scream? You said it yourself, I’m not crazy.”
“You’re sure?” He wanted to touch her. He wanted his mouth on her. He wanted her taste on his tongue, the sound of her whimpers filling his ears. It was as if finding out that she was meant for him had given his body permission to want her. To desire her. He’d always thought she was beautiful, but now he found her utterly irresistible.
She nodded,
her bottom lip between her straight white teeth. “Yes.”
“Come here.” He gestured her closer, his hands going to her hips as she climbed into his lap. His palm rested against her neck, her pulse rapid against his fingers. He pulled her closer, kissing her lips, humming in appreciation.
He threaded his hand in her blonde hair, dragging her head back and giving him better access to her slender throat. He nipped, sucked, and licked his way down to her breast.
Taking off her shirt to give him full access to her sweet flesh. She whimpered when he took her nipples into his mouth, tugging on them the way he remembered she liked.
He moved over her, pushing her back onto the mattress before dragging her pants down her toned legs. She was gorgeous, lying under him in nothing but a pair of hot pink panties. He put his palm on her chest, dancing his fingertips down her body until they reached the edge of the lace. He moved forward and used his teeth to drag the fabric away from her.
She was writhing on the bed, her hand in his hair, urging him to go where she wanted him.
He closed his mouth over her clit, flicking at her with his tongue. He pushed her thighs down to the bed, baring her to him completely. She whispered his name as he slid two fingers inside her heat.
She was so close already, so close to the edge. Her body was craving his, craving the unfinished bond between them. She came apart moments later, her moans growing louder, more frantic. He refused to let up, and sucked on her through it, building a new orgasm almost instantly.
He planned to make her come again and again.
All night, in fact, having her the only way he’d let himself.
Chapter Thirty-One
Blake
The sun woke her. It always seemed to shine so much brighter after a good snowfall. Like the universe wanted to show off its beauty with a spotlight. Speaking of the universe: Riley shifted into a wolf, and she was made to be his mate for the rest of her life. She rolled over, facing the ceiling, her head resting on his shoulder. Their conversation last night was a lot to take in, and completely normal at the same time. It was as if they were discussing the weather when in reality they were speaking about a tornado about to touch down and change their landscape forever.
