What would happen to her if she was right, and blood-bonding her killed him? He suspected she blamed herself for the loss of her family and pack. She would blame herself for his death, too, even though it wouldn’t be her fault. It was not a burden she should carry.
Unfortunately, there was no one to consult, no answers to be found, simply a decision to be made based on instinct and faith. Every day his wolf grew stronger. He would need the stability of a blood-bond soon, very soon. No matter how many times he considered the dilemma, his heart always came back with the same answer. Blood-bond Tess, or not at all.
After running for an hour, Damien found his emotions spiraling further and further into a sense of hopelessness. He couldn’t get past the fact that Tess was determined to leave him, despite how easily she responded to his touches, his kisses. Maybe she didn’t care for him as much as he cared for her.
On his way back, Damien cut over to another path, one that went by the training field for the teenage shifters. He spotted Trent. It wasn’t until after she spent a day in the teacher’s presence that she made up her mind to leave. The asshole must have said something to her.
Damien waited upwind, in the shadows, where the asshole wouldn’t see or scent him. Watching the teens shift brought back too many memories from when he and Callen were teens, practicing shifting deep in the woods where no one could watch them mess up as they fumbled through the process. Teens were clumsy shifters, shifting part way or shifting and unshifting in rapid succession until they figured out how to hold a form. It was rather funny to watch, though he always kept a straight face when the teens could see him. Destroying the teens’ confidence was the last thing he wanted. Confidence… Tess. Hell, the WSSO had taken so much from her.
Damien waited for the teens to head out on their run. It would be at least half an hour before they returned. Twice, Damien circled the field to make sure the asshole teacher was alone.
Trent was resetting the obstacle course. It was a series of pulleys that flung branches, vines, nets, even boulders into the teens’ path. The shifter was large enough to be one of Callen’s men. But instead he taught kids, flung insults at sweet innocents, and had no real experience fighting as a wolf. The shifter wasn’t a mystery as much as he was a disgrace who Damien should never have allowed into his pack.
“What did you say to her?” Damien demanded as he rose to his full height behind Trent.
The teacher froze in place, not even having the courage to turn around and face Damien. “You mean Tess? I’ve said nothing out of the ordinary.”
Damien circled to Trent’s front. He would not strike down an opponent from behind. “You’re the reason she wants to leave, aren’t you?”
Trent lowered his eyes, submitting to Damien and stealing some of his ire. “I don’t know why she wants to leave.”
“She’s not human, despite what many in the pack are saying. They think I don’t know what they’re saying about her or see how they ostracize her, but I do. I see it all.” Straightening his spine to rise up taller, Damien circled Trent, hoping to intimidate the shifter into making a wrong move. “You’re the one who’s been inciting them.”
“I’ve done nothing since I spoke out at the meeting.”
The shifter remained amazingly calm, despite having an alpha circling. “Then what are you doing with her?”
“She helps me with the kids. She’s good with them. Gentle, patient, eager to help them learn. I want her to keep helping, if she wants.”
“Why? You think I’ll get comfortable with her coming and then one day let her come without a guard? And that’s when you’ll harm her or ensure another like Ian does?”
“I had nothing to do with Ian. I only met him once.”
Damien’s wolf was agitated just listening to the shifter’s voice. Trent was hiding something. Damien was sure of it. “I’ll ask one more time, and if you’re lying to me, I’ll know. Then there won’t be anything left of you to regret your words.”
Trent fell to his knees and lowered his head, offering his neck. It appeased Damien, but not his wolf. The temptation to rip Trent’s head from his shoulders only intensified at the shifter’s supplication.
“Why are you the only one in this pack who’s giving her a chance?” Damien demanded with a loud growl that echoed through the trees.
“Because she saved me from you when she didn’t have to! In my book, that means she’s worth knowing, shifter or human. No one else would have done that. No one else did!”
To Damien’s surprise, he believed Trent, though Damien’s wolf didn’t back down. His wolf wanted blood, but this shifter wasn’t lying. Damien forced his wolf down and walked away from Trent. The old question haunted Damien. If Trent hadn’t said anything to drive Tess away, then why did she want to leave?
Chapter Eleven
DAMIEN
When Damien returned from his run, he was still wound tight. Nothing had been solved. He was on the verge of losing Tess. Just as Hayden had warned, Damien’s wolf was becoming more agitated over time. Physical release used to stay the worst of the symptoms, the anxiety and the aggression, but not today. His wolf needed more. What he needed was currently bent over in the kitchen, searching for something in one of the lower cabinets. She was wearing that red skirt again, the one that hugged her curves and swayed at the hem as she moved over to search another cabinet. It was a moving target that caught his eye. An invitation, one he doubted Tess was aware she was extending.
Her fine ass was sticking up in the air, the fabric draping down and over the slope of her curvy backside, providing enough detail he could imagine her bare. He wanted to sink his cock into her and make her come all over him.
“Oh, I didn’t hear you come in,” she said, a wide smile just for him. That was another part of her he wanted to see up close. Those lips… moist, wet and open for him, preferably with her on her knees sucking him off.
He took his time crossing the great room. It was no different than hunting prey in the woods. No sudden movements. Move with certainty, grace, almost as if he wasn’t interested in the prey, all the while getting closer and closer until he was too close for the prey to escape.
“What are you doing?” she asked with a tilt of her head, so trusting, so unaware of the predator stalking her.
Innocent. Inexperienced. He repeated the words over and over as he forced himself to slide by her and reach for a beer instead of taking hold of her and never letting go. Her scent nearly did him in. Not only did she smell of spices from cooking whatever was in that pot, he could smell her arousal. His thumb was practically fondling the neck of the bottle as he tore off the cap and bolted the cold beer down in three long swallows.
She bit her lip; her eyes locked on him. Biting her lip certainly wasn’t going to deflate his throbbing cock. He needed a release.
Innocent. Inexperienced.
Her eyes traveled down his torso, slowly. He hadn’t grabbed a pair of pants from the wall unit by the door. Her breath hitched as she stared at his fully erect cock.
The scent of her arousal wrapped around his brain, making coherent thought harder. He should never have returned until his wolf was calm, and he was fully in control.
“Tell me why you want to leave,” he ground out. A fight. A fight would get him some answers and remove this overwhelming need to bend her over the table and take her fast and hard.
Her eyes returned to his face, her cheeks flushed. “I’d rather not say.”
“It wasn’t a request.”
An eyebrow rose. “I don’t take orders from you.”
“You will. Soon.”
Shock was quickly morphing to anger. Good, he’d engaged her. She tossed the dishtowel on the counter and crossed her arms over very plump breasts that would feel really good in his hands, his mouth.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked.
“Nothing.” Nothing a good round of thrusting into her wouldn’t solve.
Suspicious eyes ran over him again. “I’m
going upstairs. Come get me when you figure things out and return to normal.”
Come get me. The words stuck in his head, repeating over and over as he watched her march up the stairs, her tight ass swaying in that skirt that was no barrier at all to him.
Taking the steps slowly, quietly, he followed. The idea of a chase, of catching and trapping her excited the wolf in him. The befuddled glance she threw over her shoulder didn’t slow. It should have, but it didn’t. Innocent and seductive all rolled in one very fine package.
Outside her bedroom door, he pinned her body and hands up against the wall. Her breathing intensified, and her feminine musk filled the air. She was clearly aroused, but she didn’t understand how little control he had right now, how his wolf was calling the shots. No matter how much Damien reminded himself to go slow with her, his wolf demanded, needed, more.
Damien licked the side of her neck and green eyes bore through him. Undaunted, fearless. Like she had not lost any control at all. She was challenging his wolf, and nothing excited his wolf more than a challenge. He needed to walk away, before he pushed too hard, too far. She wasn’t ready for him.
“You don’t see it, do you, Damien? That’s why I don’t belong here. I’m easy prey, because I’m human now.”
Her words called to the man, ignored the wolf. He had to force his wolf back long enough to process what she was saying. “Human or shifter, you’re mine. You have been from that day I found you in that damned cage.”
“I escaped that cage.”
“The only reason you escaped that cage is because of me.”
“So that means you own me now? Like the WSSO bastards thought they owned me? That they could do whatever they wanted to me?”
That’s not how it worked. She and his wolf both needed to understand. “I own you, and you own me. That’s the nature of a blood-bond.”
At the mention of the blood-bond, all the color drained from her face. He’d been planning on formally asking her to blood-bond later, once he convinced her to stay and after she acclimated to the pack.
She swallowed and stood there, unable to speak. She wasn’t ready, if she even wanted him. The blood-bond was a permanent bond wherein their DNA literally rewrote itself, using some of the partner’s DNA, forever linking them. It’s what ultimately stabilized a male shifter, what would stabilize and finally calm his wolf. Was that what scared her? Or was it the idea of blood-bonding with him that had her turning pale?
“You’re mine, Tess. One day soon, you’ll realize that.”
“Is that so?” she asked, regaining her voice, though it didn’t hold its usual confidence. His Tess was a fighter, and at the moment, she was fighting the idea of being his. He could be patient. He would be patient, if that’s what she needed.
“I’m sure. Very sure,” he said. And he was. Never had he been so sure of anything in his life. “You’ll see in time, Sweetness. We’re made for one another.”
“You arrogant—”
“Not arrogant. Alpha here… We tend to know these things.” He was being a dick, and he knew it, but his wolf was pressing him to put her in her place or to fight her. The need to control and dominate had grown exponentially, since he’d entered the house. The more she fought him, the more the need to sink into her and claim her overwhelmed him.
“A blood-bond can’t and won’t happen between us.”
“Awfully confident for a lone shifter.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” she said, her chest rising and falling rapidly, as she lifted her chin with confidence.
“You should be. I’m nothing like that pretty boy Tim.” The mere thought of another male touching her had Damien’s wolf envisioning ripping out the shifter’s throat.
“His name is Trent, for God’s sake.”
“Admit you want me, Tess.”
“I don’t have to admit or do anything. You have no control over me,” she said, her eyes blazing with outright defiance.
A challenge. The hell with experience.
Damien had her in her room and bent over the bed, so fast she squealed… music to his wolf. He draped his body over hers, pressing his cock against her backside as he leaned his head next to hers. Her face was against the bedding, and she was panting rather hard.
“You throw down a challenge like that, be prepared to accept it,” he whispered in her ear. Having her beneath him, lying there prone and vulnerable made him harder than steel.
“What challenge!” she said rather throatily, but there was no fear coming off of her, only her sweet scent that said she was ready for him.
“Your eyes, your face, your smell… They tell me what you want, what you need.”
As he licked his way down her neck, his hand slid under her skirt and molded to her smooth, soft flesh.
“Oh, God,” she said as he flung the back of her skirt up all the way, fully exposing her bare ass.
He ran a hand over each globe. “Gorgeous. I can’t decide where to go first.”
“First?” Her voice shook a bit.
“I could start here,” he said as he slid a finger between her thighs and into her folds, her incredibly wet folds. With one swipe he licked his finger clean. She tasted as good as he remembered. His hand returned to her folds, stroking her slowly and teasingly. Despite how her legs parted for him, it wasn’t enough. His wolf needed total submission from her.
“Or here,” he said as he caressed her ass and then slipped the tip of his wet finger into her tight hole. She clenched around his finger as she gasped, shocked, her scent now tinged with fear. This is what his wolf wanted, to find her weakness, to prey upon it until he forced her to submit.
“I-I’ve never… Damien…” she said, her voice very shaky now as the rancid scent of fear filled his nostrils. Her fear shook Damien, pulling him from the fog that clouded his ability to think straight. Rage followed as he realized his wolf had caught him off-guard and pushed her, scared her.
Damien thrust his wolf aside so hard he heard the yelp. His wolf, which had gained in strength so quickly over the past few weeks, rebounded and slammed into Damien… and kept pounding him, trying to make him submit. Inside, Damien felt bruised and battered, but his wolf had only just begun.
“Damien?” Tess looked over her shoulder. Her voice was like a safety line, pulling him through the darkness. He found himself perched over her on his hands, and she was laying there, beneath him, half naked, concern in her eyes.
He didn’t remember climbing over her, trapping her. He leaned his forehead against the middle of her back, searching for the energy and words to explain.
“My wolf…”
His wolf continued pushing him, digging his claws in, slashing at him in a rage that seemed random, but Damien knew it wasn’t. His wolf was becoming more volatile, and in time Damien would no longer be able to control him.
“It’s okay, Damien. I understand.” She smiled for him as she lowered her head and raised her ass higher, offering herself to him.
He was frozen there, trapped by his wolf who kept biting and ripping into his soul, demanding he take her while his sweet Tess was offering to give him what he needed, what his wolf needed, despite the cost to her. Her submission was what his wolf wanted, not him.
She turned over onto her back. Green eyes waited for him, full of acceptance and forgiveness. “It’s okay, Damien. I won’t fight you.”
He shook his head. “Not… like… this!”
His wolf dug sharp teeth into him. As the pain radiated through him, Damien pushed himself off the bed and charged to the door.
Before he could open the door, her arms circled his waist from behind, stopping him from leaving. He spun around, planning to push Tess away, but she pressed her lips against his.
She was soft and smelled like honey and flowers. She couldn’t know what she was risking. He wasn’t sure he could control his wolf any longer. He needed to leave, before he hurt her.
Insistent and bold, her tongue pressed against the seam of his lips until
he opened for her. An explosion of sensations overwhelmed him, but she held him locked in the kiss until all he could focus on was her lips, her tongue, and the feel of her hands grabbing his hair as if she’d never let go.
When she finally released his lips, warm green eyes held him, searching, waiting for his response.
“If I lose control to my wolf…”
“You won’t,” she said as she pushed him onto the bed, planting dainty kisses down his neck, his chest.
She shouldn’t trust him; he didn’t trust himself. “Tess.”
“Your wolf won’t hurt me. You won’t let him,” she said as her small hands roamed freely over his chest muscles, working their way lower. She had all the control in the world over him right now, and that angered his wolf. Before Damien realized it, he flipped Tess under him and onto her stomach and pulled her skirt off entirely.
“Ass up,” he ordered not sure who was in charge now, him or his wolf.
She lifted her ass for him. With barely a nudge of his hands, her thighs parted for him, showing off her lovely pussy. Her scent had him licking his lips and his cock pulsing. His wolf, the selfish bastard, pranced inside of him, thinking he had control over her.
Screw the wolf and his influence. Damien wouldn’t claim her. Instead, he’d pleasure his mate, his Tess, who’d been willing to sacrifice for him.
Damien parted her lower lips with his fingers as he flattened his tongue on her and lapped up her juices, drawing a breathy moan from her. Her flavor, sweet and rich, coated his tongue as he began to suck on her sensitive nub. He eased one finger into her channel, then another as he licked her, making her squirm against him. A deep, satisfied moan escaped her, and she began rocking against his hand.
“That’s it, Sweetness. Take your pleasure,” he said as she slipped a second finger in.
“Why?” she asked as she rocked harder into him.
Why indeed. Because she was his. She needed to know that she was more important to him than his wolf, but mostly, she needed to know she was too important for him to let her go.
Damien’s Dilemma Page 15
