by Celia Kyle
Max’s wolf howled and clawed at him, spurring him on, driving him to take Trina as his mate. Now.
But he wanted to hear her cry out first. His mate would come on his cock and then he would fill her with his seed—claiming her inside and out. The beast purred at the thought and quieted, anxious for his human half to get them what they desired.
Gripping her hip, he held her steady as he changed the angle of his own hips, rubbing and fucking and teasing her inner walls with his new position. A position his mate enjoyed.
“Max! Oh, God, there.”
He grinned, unable to hide the cocky smirk. The joy at giving his mate pleasure. Trina milked his cock with her inner walls, massaging him, silently begging for his cum.
He kept up his blissful assault, driving into her over and over, swallowing her rising cries as he pushed them to even greater heights of ecstasy.
“Please. Need. S’close…” she whimpered and whispered against his lips, words blending into one another as the pleasure snatched her.
Fuck, but he knew how she felt, but he couldn’t let go. Not yet.
Max kept his pace steady, his angle perfect, his body pushing in and out of her soaking pussy. His pussy.
“Come for me, Trina. Come on my cock then I’ll fucking claim you. Fill you.” He punctuated his next words with hard thrusts. “Make. You. Fucking. Mine.”
Max’s gums burned and split, his fangs driving through his flesh to slide down and fill his mouth. He salivated, beast anxious to bite and taste his mate.
“Max. Gonna…” Trina gasped, back arched and body frozen in place, a scream echoing through the cabin as her cunt squeezed him almost painfully. Her pussy fisted his length, practically sucking the cum right out of him as pure pleasure assaulted her. His mate came for him as he’d demanded.
Now it was his turn to come—paint her in his scent.
He let himself go, allowed his body to take control and pound into Trina with his last few fierce thrusts. Again. Again. Once, twice, and then he sealed their hips together. He erupted into her, balls emptying into Trina as wave after wave of pure bliss encompassed him. It was so great, so large until he could hardly breathe past the ecstasy that assaulted him, but there was still something left undone.
His inner wolf howled its approval and Max went into motion without thought. He opened his jaws wide and struck, sinking his pointed fangs into her flesh. Blood pooled within his mouth, his mate’s flavors bursting across his taste buds, and he swallowed the bright red liquid down. Their connection formed as he took her in, tying them together as mates. He felt the tie form, the unbreakable rope that now ensnared them both.
The pleasure of release and their mating overwhelmed him, stealing all thought beyond the feral craving of blood and sex. And it wasn’t enough. Not nearly. Thankfully they had the rest of their lives to share their bodies and blood.
Forever.
Eventually he withdrew his fangs and lapped at the wound he’d left behind, kissing and cleaning the injury as the flow of blood slowed. Time passed in a blur as their pleasure slowly lessened, lingering tremors shaking them from inside out. Sizzling nerves gradually calmed, the bliss that had overtaken them receding more and more with every breath. Max shifted their positions, adjusting their tangled bodies until he lay against the cushions while Trina lay draped across his body. They stared at each other, his smile mirrored by his mate.
“How do you feel?” He stroked her, unable to remain still.
“Whole. Alive. You?”
Max grinned. “You stole the words from my mouth.”
Trina opened her mouth to reply, but before she could say a word, there was a soft thunk at the door. He frowned, an expression that matched his mate’s. Trina untangled from him and snared a throw blanket, wrapping it around herself before going to the door. He didn’t hesitate to follow, not bothering to cover himself because who the fuck cared. He was pissed his afterglow had been interrupted by some ass at the door.
Trina tugged the door open, cracking it the tiniest bit, and Max spied a newspaper at her feet. She bent to snag it and Max read over her shoulder, gaze scanning the headline. His jaw dropped but his mate smiled with malice. “Awesome.”
Chapter Twenty
McNish and his hunters hadn’t been anywhere near Wolf Woods since the article had dropped a couple of days earlier, so Zeke had called for a pack celebration deep in Wolf Woods while they could. “I still think we should have cut that article out and put it on your fridge,” Max said to Trina with a grin as he leaned back on the picnic blanket next to her. “Or maybe framed it.”
“Oh, yes, what a lovely piece of art,” Trina teased, rolling her eyes and cuddling up close to him to fight off the cool morning breeze. “But on the off-chance the police come around asking the reporter’s source some questions, it would probably look strange for said source to have that hanging on the wall.”
“Would it?” he asked in a teasing tone.
The article had blown up McNish’s perfect world, thanks to small town rumor mills being what they were. For the humans of Tremble, it was the most interesting thing to happen since McNish showed up in the first place, and it was worth a lot more conversation at the local bars.
The piece had been beautifully written and well-researched, laying out a number of McNish’s outrageous business practices, ranging from unethical to downright criminal. The reporter—a woman named Constance Whitehall, who Trina still held a tiny, irrational grudge against—all but double-dog-dared the authorities to launch an investigation. Hopefully it would be the end of his harassment of their pack, and wolves in general.
“You know,” Max said, lowering his voice so no one else could hear, “this is fun and all, but that article won’t be the nail in Dick’s coffin. I’d bet good money we haven’t seen the last of him yet.”
She sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder, the little balloon of hope popping. “But in the meantime, it’s important to celebrate small victories. If only to keep up morale.”
“You’re right about that,” he said, kissing her forehead and leaving behind a heat she hoped would never fade.
Pups and their parents played together in the clearing. Some practiced the skills they’d been learning while others just wanted to run around like lunatics. Somewhere nearby, someone had fired up a barbecue. Couples snuggled on blankets, just as Trina and Max were doing. Laughter, squeals of delight, and pure joy radiated in the clearing as the pack celebrated their small win and blew off some steam.
“This is the Soren pack I wanted to show you from the second I caught your scent, Max. This is exactly what I’ve always wanted.”
“Just you, your mate, and a field full of your pack mates?”
She tipped her head up to grin at him. “Pretty much.”
His loving smile caused her heart to skip a beat. “I can get onboard with that.”
They shared a sweet kiss and then Trina lay back on the blanket to soak up the morning sun. Max joined her, tucking his hands behind his head. Silently, they watched the clouds drift lazily in the cerulean blue sky. “You have nice sky in this part of the state,” Max said a little wistfully. “It’s always a tiny bit different everywhere you go. You notice stuff like that when you’re alone. When you have nothing to distract you, little details in the world around you take on significant importance.”
“Tremble, Georgia: We’ve Got a Nice Sky,” Trina teased. “The tourism department should pay you for that one.”
“Psh!”
As they laughed, Max caught her eye and something very intriguing simmered in his gaze. He turned on his side—hopefully to pin her to the ground and kiss the living daylights out of her—but before he could carry out his plan, something jumped over them. Three somethings, actually.
Little Hux almost fumbled his landing, but before Trina could blink, he took off at full speed to stay out of Jason’s reach. Fang scrambled over her and Max in joyful pursuit of the boys, apparently no longer irked by Max’s prese
nce since he’d taken his vow and was a full-fledged member of the Soren pack.
Trina was relieved to see Little Hux had stayed true to his word to not shift until she took out his stitches. The bandage on his upper arm was only a little dirty from his play, but at least his injury wasn’t holding him back.
“No fair, you’re faster now!” Jason shouted.
“Nuh-uh!”
“Yuh huh! You don’t gotta use your arm, so your legs are better!”
As wrong as Jason’s theory was, it seemed to give Little Hux an extra spring in his step, and Trina couldn’t keep herself from giggling as the pups darted off, Fang barking for them to slow down.
“So, what do you think?” Max murmured into her ear as he pressed his body against her, setting her ablaze. “Want one?”
“A dog? I don’t think there’s room for two dogs in this pack.”
“You know what I mean, Trina,” he said, his tone serious.
She twisted around until she faced him, wanting to finally give voice to something that had been troubling her.
“Are you sure it’s not too soon for you? I mean, you’ve gone through a lot of changes over the last couple of years. After losing your family—”
“Pack,” he reminded her, his fingers light as feathers on her cheek as they stroked down her neck and to her shoulder. “I lost my pack and my father. My mom and Cole are still in the land of the living, thank you very much. But Trina, you need to know that I’m ready to let go of my past. All I want is a future. With you.”
Pulling her to him, he enveloped her and breathed her in. She returned the favor, savoring his apple cider essence. The steady rhythm of his heartbeat might have lulled her to sleep, if not for the fact every nerve in her body screamed for him to take her again.
“Personally,” Max continued, “I’ve always thought changes go best together. If you’re making one big change in your life, might as well make a lot.”
“Are you sure you’re not just eager to start practicing?”
He gave her a wolfish grin that might have scared a human, but it just made her want him even more.
“Now that you mention it…” He glanced around the clearing, as if making sure no one was listening in. As if anyone else cared. “You know, while I was hanging out in Wolf Woods, I set up a makeshift lair about a ten-minute run from here.”
Trina propped herself up on one elbow. “Really? I’ve always wondered where you slept while you were out lone-wolfing it.”
“Actually, I think I, uh, left a couple of things back there. Wanna go… check it out? Help me finish moving for good?”
What a dork! As if she needed an excuse to run off into the woods to make love with her mate. But she did her best not to laugh at his flimsy innuendo.
“That sounds amazing,” she said, jumping up and starting to unbutton her shirt.
No sense ruining good clothes, and plenty of people were running around in the buff when they weren’t chasing their pups as wolves.
“What are you waiting for?” she teased, reaching down to give him a hand up.
She felt like a teenager again, sneaking off to get some private time with her sweetheart. How was this her life? Dean would always remain in her heart and soul, but after finally claiming Max as her mate, a sense of peace had settled over her. She wasn’t getting the life she’d always wanted. She was getting something entirely new and different, and that something was shaping up to be better than she’d ever imagined.
Just as she was about to sexily slip off her shirt, she glanced up to make sure Max was watching her mini-striptease. He wasn’t. Following his gaze, her heart sank.
Levi bolted into the clearing, his eyes wild. The crowd parted as he charged through, waving his arms over his head to draw everyone’s attention. When he reached Zeke and Val in the middle of the clearing, he stopped and tried to speak, but all that came out were grunts and wheezes as he tried to catch his breath.
“Spit it out, Levi,” Zeke snarled, slapping the disgraced sentry on the back.
Levi ran a hand through his jet-black hair as he huffed and puffed, and then he looked around the clearing, catching the gaze of as many people as he could. At last, he settled his panicked eyes on Zeke, pointed in the direction of the main entrance to the woods and finally managed to release a single word on a loud burst of air.
“Bulldozers!”
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“How can you do this to me, Moonshadow?” the skinny guy whimpered, still kneeling on the orange shag carpet inside the van. He was probably wearing yet another hole in his canvas pants.
Persia Moonshadow’s soon-to-be-very-ex-boyfriend gazed up at her with a plea in his brown eyes, his spindly fingers laced as he begged her not to kick him out. His funky-smelling blond dreadlocks cascaded over his tie-dye-clad shoulders, reaching down his back nearly to his flat ass. Persia wrinkled her nose. How had she ever found the mewling, whiny excuse of a man attractive? One good thing about living in a van with someone—it was a surefire way to fast-track a doomed relationship to the bitter end.
“How many times do I have to tell you, Moonshadow’s my last name,” she replied curtly. She dragged open the door to her ancient Volkswagen Westfalia with a grunt and then slumped onto the back seat.
When they’d first met at a protest a million full moons ago—okay, in reality it was only three—Leaf had decided he liked her last name and was going to call her Moonshadow instead of Persia. Sort of like a nickname, he’d insisted, despite her asking him not to several times. Leaf fancied himself a real hippie, but he’d revealed his true colors over the last three months, and Persia was done.
Leaf blinked slowly in confusion and disbelief, as though he couldn’t wrap his mind around how she could possibly want him out. Because he had so much to offer her, of course.
As if.
The warm afternoon breeze had cooled slightly since dusk was falling quickly. Persia took a nice, deep breath to ease her irritation and took a moment to enjoy the way the wind whispered through her soft, red curls. Once her anger was under control, she sighed and gave Leaf a look that broached no argument.
“Time to go.”
Or so she thought.
“But, Moonshadow…”
“Persia,” she snapped, no longer willing to tolerate his disrespect.
“Persia,” he repeated, his face contorting slightly as though her real name was too distasteful for his tongue. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“Not everything is about you, Leaf. That’s kind of the problem.”
He shot a sideways glance out of the van’s open side door at the orange-hued horizon. “But…it’s almost nightfall. Where will I go?”
What kind of guy used the word nightfall in conversation? Him, apparently.
“I’m sure one of the others has a sleeping bag you can borrow, and I’ll loan you a tarp.”
Persia had been in charge of setting up the temporary campsite about a week earlier. Right off the main entrance to a greenspace called Wolf Woods, it was just outside the small Georgia town of Tremble. Most of the protestors she’d recruited had set up tents inside the tree line in an effort to stay off the local cops’ radar, but still near the big McNish Development Corporation billboard—the one announcing a new housing development that would decimate the pristine woods. Of course, those with vans had to park in the gravel turnout that
acted as a parking lot. That gave Persia a perfect view of the hidden campsite and the road, allowing her to be a lookout.
Leaf shimmied a few inches closer, worry she was serious finally settling into his eyes. “But… it gets so cold at night. It’s so much warmer here in our van.”
“My van,” she reminded the loser. “You mean my van.”
“Whatever,” he brushed off the concept of ownership. “We all share this big, blue planet, bae. You of all people should know that true enlightenment only comes to those who share.”
“Uh huh, and which internet guru fed you that line?”
Persia reached behind the back seat and grabbed a grimy old sweatshirt decorated with an ironic yellow smiley face. She tossed it in Leaf’s face. He caught it awkwardly—and ironically, considering his frown—and slung it over his shoulder.
“Come on, Moon—” he quickly caught himself “—Persia. Seriously, I hear there are wolves in these woods.” He reached for her hand, but she snatched it away. “Just one more night, baby. One more night and I’ll get out in the morning. I swear.”
“You are aware the more you beg, the less likely I am to say yes, right?”
Leaf adopted a pained look, as if she’d just shot him in the heart. “What happened to you? What happened to us?”
Once upon a time, that soft, sensitive expression had made her weak in the knees. Now it annoyed her. Crossing her arms, she decided it was time to call his bluff.
“I have just one question for you, Leaf. Do you even like me?”
Persia knew Leaf didn’t love her, just as she didn’t love him. One benefit of living to the ripe old age of twenty-eight meant she recognized when a relationship was a short-term thing. And Leaf had been short-term from the very beginning. He only dragged it out now because he didn’t want to sleep on the ground.
Wimp!
His hesitation was all the answer she needed.
“Actually, you know what? You can find someone else to borrow a tarp from. I think I’ll keep mine.”
