by J. L. Wilder
Emmett couldn’t help it. His heart soared. It was a tiny thing, barely worth mentioning, the issue of whether bacon was any good. But she’d taken his side instead of Matthew’s. She’d chosen him.
Oh God, he must be going crazy.
He devoted his full attention to his chorizo skillet, trying hard not to pay attention as Hazel grabbed the waitress and ordered another side of bacon, trying not to let the moment get to him.
It was just bacon, after all. Just a side dish at a diner breakfast.
It didn’t mean anything.
Chapter Nine
HAZEL
The bacon was decidedly better than the jerky had been. And having breakfast with Emmett had been downright fun. Hazel had plenty of friends among the Coywolves who she enjoyed spending time with. Some of them were even contenders to become her mate, and there were a few she definitely wouldn’t have minded being mated to. But with any of her friends back home, it would have made a difference what they were doing. Some activities would have been fun and interesting, and others would have been kind of a drag.
But she didn’t feel that way about spending time with Emmett. It was strange, but Hazel sort of thought that doing anything with Emmett would have been fun. Breakfast had been a good time, not only because of the delicious omelet (and the bacon), but because of his company.
That was what having a crush was like, she guessed. It was an intoxication brought on just by being in the presence of the other person. Everything Emmett said seemed a little funnier to her than it really was. Every moment spent around him felt like a celebration.
She was not ready to go back to the Coywolves. Not yet.
They would be missing her, she knew, and they would be worried. But maybe some member of Emmett’s pack had found a way to get in touch with them and let them know that she was with Emmett now and not with the Rangers. Maybe, if they had that information, they wouldn’t be too worried.
One thing she knew for sure: when she got back, Matthew definitely wouldn’t waste any time in assigning her a mate. He must be furious that the plan to pair her off right after her twenty-third birthday had been messed up. And Emmett was right. Once she’d been given her mate, they would want her to become pregnant as soon as possible.
That was all going to start right away as soon as she got back home.
SHE FOUND HERSELF WONDERING, as she hugged Emmett’s waist on the back of his motorcycle, what it would be like to be mated with him. The thought made her feel warm inside in a way that had nothing to do with the sun shining overhead. To share a bed with Emmett, to be naked in his strong arms, to feel his claiming bite on her neck...
To bear his litter.
She closed her eyes and smiled, pressing her forehead into his broad back as they sped down the highway, very glad that he couldn’t see what she was thinking. He would think she was crazy if he knew. Hazel knew that Emmett saw her as nothing more than a job, a ticket to the reward money he hoped to claim. If he knew she was nurturing this crush on him, he would laugh.
Then again, he’d laughed when she’d told him about her aversion to meat at breakfast. And that laughter had become a joke the two of them had shared, not a joke at her expense. Maybe he’d like knowing how she felt.
What Hazel would have liked was to know where they were going. They had been on the road for about three hours now, having hit the highway straight from the diner, and Hazel’s sense of direction was giving her no help at all. This, she thought, was most likely because she’d never really been out in the world before, and therefore, she couldn’t be blamed for it. How was she supposed to know how highway systems worked, or which of the many roadside signs she ought to be paying attention to? An experienced driver would probably have been able to suss out which direction they were going, but Hazel had no idea.
She wondered what Emmett would say if she were to tell him of her troubles. He’d make fun of her, probably. He’d make some comment about how sheltered she was, and how every shifter should know how to figure out which way they were going by sniffing the wind or looking at the bark of the trees or some fool thing like that. She found herself wishing they could have that conversation, but you couldn’t talk on a motorcycle.
Not that she minded being on the motorcycle. Being pressed up against him the way she was was incredibly intense, like nothing she’d ever felt before. She was hyper aware of every inch of her body that touched his—her fingers splayed across his taut stomach, her arms gripping his sides, her knees bracketing his hips, her face pressed into his back. Everywhere she touched him, she felt more alive. More sensitive.
And that was something she definitely didn’t want to tell him. Because if he mocked her for those feelings, it wouldn’t be much fun at all.
Please don’t let us be going home yet, she thought as they sped down the highway. Let us have one more night together before I have to go back. She wasn’t ready for the adventure to be over. She wanted to spend more time with this wild man before returning to her settled, orderly, boring life with the Coywolves.
SEVERAL HOURS LATER, Emmett pulled the bike into the parking lot of yet another motel, and Hazel knew she had gotten her wish. They would have another day together.
It had been early evening when they’d left the diner, and once again, they’d ridden through the night. As soon as they got into their new motel room, Emmett shut the blinds and bolted the door.
“How long are we staying here?” Hazel asked.
“Until dusk, hopefully,” he said. “I’ve been zigzagging around enough that I don’t think the Rangers are going to be able to pick up our trail at this point.”
“Where are we, anyway?” she asked.
“Ohio.”
“Ohio!”
He raised his eyebrows. “So?”
“I’ve never even been out of Rhode Island before. I didn’t realize we were leaving the state.” She felt a strange pit in her stomach at the realization that she was so much farther away from home than she’d known.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said quietly, taking a seat on her bed. “I guess so. I just didn’t know we’d come this far.”
“You didn’t think we were still in Rhode Island?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it,” she admitted, “but if I had thought about it, yeah, I guess I would have thought that.”
“That little state isn’t big enough to run from anybody in,” Emmett said, sitting down next to her. “We needed them to leave the state, to try to come after us. With any luck, they’ll keep moving west and chase us all the way to California, never realizing that we’ve turned around.”
“We turned around?” she asked.
“Not yet,” he said. “When we leave here tonight, we’ll be going back the other way.”
Back home, in other words. Which meant the adventure was ending.
“What’s wrong?” Emmett asked. “You don’t look happy.”
“No, I’m fine.”
“You’re not worried about the Rangers, are you?” he asked. “Because I really don’t think they’re on us anymore. I think they lost the trail.”
“I’m not worried about them,” she said.
“Then what?” he asked. “You do want to go home, don’t you?”
“Well, yes,” she said, and then hesitated. “Kind of.”
“Kind of?”
“I know I belong with my family,” she said. “I know I belong with my alpha. And I do want to do what’s expected of me. They gave me such a good childhood. Such a good life so far. I’ve always had everything I needed. And now, I know, it’s my turn to give back to them. My role is to carry a litter and help the pack continue. That’s what I’m for. I understand that. I want to do that.”
“Then what’s the problem?” he asked.
She couldn’t help noticing how close he was sitting to her. She could hardly think straight. “I’ve never been away from my family before,” she said. “Did you know that?”
“I could have guessed.”
She looked up at him. He wasn’t making fun of her. He was watching her with soft brown eyes. Her heart fluttered.
“It’s just been exciting,” she said quietly. “Seeing how other people live.”
“People like me, you mean.”
“Yes.”
“And what do you think of it?” he asked. “The way I live.”
“You have a lot of fun,” she said. “You have a lot of...well, a lot of freedom. My life with my pack is very safe, and I have all the creature comforts a person could want, but you have freedom.”
He nodded. “I do have that.”
“You must like it.”
“It’s why my pack and I don’t keep a permanent home,” he said. “We like to be able to pick up all our things and go somewhere new at a moment’s notice. We don’t want to be tied down, or to have any obligations.”
“But doesn’t it scare you sometimes?” she asked. “You don’t have a home. You don’t really have anything that’s yours.”
“I have my bike,” he said. “I have my brothers. We get jobs as we go that keep food on the table and a roof over our heads, and if worse comes to worst, we know how to hunt.”
“You know how to hunt?”
“We hunt as wolves!”
“Wow,” she breathed. “I wish I could go on a hunt with you.”
For a moment, she thought he might actually offer to take her, but he looked away instead.
“Emmett?” she said quietly.
“Yeah?”
“Can I ask you a silly question?”
“You can ask me anything you want.”
She summoned her courage. “Will you miss me at all?” she asked. “After you take me home and get the reward? Will you ever think of me?”
He turned to face her. His eyes had changed. Where before they had been soft, gentle and reassuring, now they were blazing. “Yes,” he said, and placed his hand over hers.
She felt as if her heart had grown wings. “Really?”
“I’ll think about you all the time,” he said quietly.
“I thought I was just a job to you.”
“You were supposed to be.”
Had he been this close to her when he first sat down? She wasn’t sure. She felt as if she was being pulled toward him by some invisible and irresistible force, and she was powerless to resist.
Emmett placed two fingers gently beneath her chin and tipped it up. “I want to kiss you,” he said, his voice hoarse.
She couldn’t breathe.
“I’ve been wanting to kiss you all day. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
She couldn’t speak.
“But you’re an omega. And you’re not mine. I can’t—”
She flung herself at him and pressed her lips to his.
He sat frozen for just a minute, unresponsive, and Hazel just had time to be afraid that she’d been too forward and that he would push her away and hate her now and the rest of their time together would be not intoxicating but agonizing—and then his arms were around her and he was returning her kiss forcefully, passionately, wonderfully.
Hazel had never been kissed before. Of course, she hadn’t. The Coywolves had been waiting, allowing her to ripen in their midst before touching her. But she had thought about being kissed plenty of times. She had imagined what it would be like to be that close to another person, to be that swept away in feelings of passion.
The real thing put her imagination to shame.
Emmett’s hands slipped beneath the hem of her t-shirt and stripped it off over her head, then fumbled for her bra strap. It was all happening so fast, but Hazel found she wasn’t afraid at all. She wanted him. Sensations she had never experienced before flooded her, but her body seemed to know what to do. She crawled into Emmett’s lap and straddled him, grinding against him in slow circles that made him moan and close his eyes.
“What are you doing to me...?” he whispered.
“I want this,” she said quietly. “Don’t you want this?”
“God. More than you know, Hazel. I’ve been wanting you all day. It’s all I can think about. But we can’t.”
“We can,” she said.
“Your pack—”
“They’re not here. We’re here. They don’t have to know.”
He arched his back, lifting his hips, and she could feel his hardness straining against her. “I want to.”
“They’ll never know,” she said. “Please, Emmett. I want to feel this before I go back to that life. I want to know what it’s like with someone like you.”
The next thing she knew, she was flat on her back on the bed and he was pulling away her new jeans and kicking his own across the floor. He covered her body with his own, kissing her jaw, her neck, the swell of her breast, and she felt a sense of utter surrender. She could feel his alpha power in a new way, a way she never had with Matthew, even though he wasn’t her alpha. He could do whatever he wanted with her right now, she thought, and she wouldn’t fight him. She wouldn’t want to. She would gladly give him anything he wanted.
God, please just don’t let him change his mind about this. Don’t let him stop.
But then, he was pulling away, pulling back, standing up. She let out a little moan of loss and tried to catch his hand and pull him back to her, but she was too late. He was already across the room, digging in his bag. “What are you doing?” she asked, feeling oddly heartbroken.
“Condom.” He held it up.
“Oh!” She wouldn’t have even thought of that. Of course not. She had been intended to lose her virginity after being mated for the first time. Her first sexual experience was supposed to be about getting her pregnant. No one had ever talked about condoms.
Now prepared, he returned to her, grabbed her hips, and pulled her to the edge of the bed. “This is your first time, isn’t it?” he said.
She nodded, breathless.
“It might hurt,” he said. “I’ll go slow.”
“Okay.”
But it didn’t hurt. There was an unfamiliar sort of pressure and then a sense of fullness, and then he was kissing her again and his hands were sliding up and down the sides of her body. She could feel his heart beating against hers.
“Are you okay?” he whispered.
She nodded.
He began to move, and Hazel felt pleasure like nothing she had ever experienced before. She gasped and wrapped her arms around his neck, already wanting more, lifting her hips to meet his every thrust.
“Fuck, you love this, don’t you?” Emmett said, moving more quickly, his hands sliding down to her hips, his fingers digging in. “Course you do. You were made for this. You’re built for it.”
She lost herself in the rhythm of their movement, her legs wrapping around his hips to pull him deeper, lifting her hips to meet his. He was right, she thought. She’d been made for this. This was what her body was for, and she knew instinctively what she was doing. The realization drove her pleasure to new heights.
Emmett wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off the bed, never separating from her. Holding her now in his impossibly strong arms, he began to fuck her in earnest, and she felt as if all the blood in her body was rushing to the place where they were joined.
“Emmett,” she gasped.
She didn’t have time to say anything else. Suddenly, waves of pleasure were crashing over her. Her vision whited out, and she was aware of nothing but his body in and around hers, holding her so still, but still moving himself.
He let out a strangled cry, gave two more deep thrusts, and fell back onto the bed, taking her down with him.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Emmett, oh my God.”
He seemed to be struggling to recover his breath. “I know.”
“Is it always like that?”
“Never. Never in my life. This was...something else. I don’t know.” He cupped her cheek, ran his thumb along her jawbone, then craned his neck to kiss her. “Y
ou’re something special, Hazel Lang.”
She rolled off him and onto her back, resting a hand low on her stomach and reveling in the feeling of soreness there. She hoped that would stay with her for a few days, a reminder of what she’d just experienced. “That was amazing,” she said.
Emmett didn’t answer.
She turned her head to look at him. “Emmett?”
He was propped up on his elbows, staring down. “We’ve got a problem,” he said.
“What? What kind of problem?”
“A condom problem.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” She was frightened. A minute ago, he’d sounded as perfectly satisfied as she had felt, but now, his voice was terse and upset. “What’s wrong?”
“It broke,” he said. “The condom.”
“Which means I could get pregnant?” She felt oddly detached.
“I mean, you probably won’t,” he said, sitting up all the way. “Theoretically, yes, you could, but you’d need to be at a certain point in your cycle, and... oh, there’s a lot of biology about it. Anyway, we’ll go and get you a Plan B pill on our way back tomorrow. Just to be on the safe side.”
“Okay,” she agreed.
He laid back and kissed her. “Try to get some sleep, all right?”
She nodded.
But she couldn’t sleep. A million thoughts chased each other around in her brain. Every ache of her body was a reminder that she’d just had sex, amazing sex, with Emmett Burke. Not one of her pack, not someone chosen for her, but a wild wolf.
Already, she wanted him again.
Chapter Ten
EMMETT
He woke to the sound of motorcycles.
For a moment, he panicked, thinking that the Savage Rangers had somehow arrived on their doorstep and would be bursting through the door to their room at any moment. He had fallen asleep beside Hazel, leaving the second bed untouched, and now, he rolled toward her and pulled her into his arms, slipping a hand over her mouth as he had done the day they had been attacked in the corn by the Rangers.
Now, as then, he felt her come awake in his arms. This time, though, she didn’t struggle against his hold. His hand rested on her chest, and he could feel her heart beating like a hummingbird.
